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Then Mahommed Selim fell upon the breast of Yusef and embraced him. Doing so he whispered in his ear: "In the name of Allah, tell Soada I died fighting the Dervishes!" "So be it, in God's name!" said Yusef. "A safe journey to you, brother of giants."
Soada's mother had had red-brown hair, and not black as becomes a fellah woman; but Wassef was proud of this ancient heritage of red hair, which belonged to a field-marshal of Great Britain so he swore by the beard of the Prophet. That is why he had not beaten Soada these months past when she refused to answer him, when with cold stubbornness she gave him his meals or withheld them at her will.
"When the day was done, and sleep was upon the barrack-house, my heart waked up and I knew that I loved Soada as I had never loved her. I ran into the desert, and the jackals flew before me outcasts of the desert, they and I. Coming to the tomb of Amshar the sheikh, by which was a well, there I found a train of camels.
With a gasping sound Soada gathered the child quickly to her breast, and shrank back to the wall. This surely was the ghost of Mahommed Selim this gaunt, stooping figure covered with dust. "Soada, in the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful, Soada, beautiful one!"
"Soada," he said eagerly, prayerfully, and his voice, though hoarse, was softer than she had ever heard it. "Soada, I have come through death to thee Listen, Soada! At night, when sleep was upon the barrack-house, I stole out to come to thee. My heart had been hard. I had not known how much I loved thee " Soada interrupted him. "What dost thou know of love, Mahommed Selim?
Nor did his anger cease thereafter, for this meal of meat had cost him five piastres the second meal of meat in a week. As Wassef sat on the mastaba of the cafe sullen and angry, the village barber whispered in his ear that Mahommed Selim and Soada had been hunting jackals in the desert all afternoon.
But no one told Soada this, and she did not think; she was content to rest in the fleeting dream. "Give them twenty-four hours," said the black-visaged fat sergeant of cavalry come to arrest Mahommed Selim for desertion. The father of Mahommed Selim again offered the Mamour a feddan of land if the young man might go free, and to the sergeant he offered a she-camel and a buffalo. To no purpose.
Then Mahommed Selim fell upon the breast of Yusef and embraced him. Doing so he whispered in his ear: "In the name of Allah, tell Soada I died fighting the Dervishes!" "So be it, in God's name!" said Yusef. "A safe journey to you, brother of giants."
Afterwards, he had gone home and smiled at Soada his daughter when she lied to him about the sunset breakfast.
Wassef was in an ill-humour: first, because the day had been so hot; secondly, because he had sold his ten-months' camel at a price almost within the bounds of honesty; and thirdly, because a score of railway contractors and subs. were camped outside the town. Also, Soada had scarcely spoken to him for three days past.
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