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But let us speak of other things, O Master!" The Master kept a moment's silence. He peered contemplatively at the dark silhouette of the Arab, motionless, impassive in the dusk. Then he frowned a very little, which was as near to anger as he ever verged. Thoughtfully he ate a couple of the little temmin wafers and a few dates. Rrisa waited in silent patience. All at once the Master spoke.
And the Frenchman half eased himself up on hands and knees, peering forward into the night. "After what these Beni Harb or their close kin have done to me and to poor Lebon listen! What was that?" "What do you mean?" "That far, roaring noise?" "It is nothing! A little wind, maybe; but it is nothing, nothing! Come, I am ready for the work!" The Master stood up. Rrisa followed suit.
The light in his gaze became one the Master had never yet seen there, not even in the sternest fighting at Gallipoli. "Mecca lieth behind us, Rrisa," the Master began. "Thou hast seen nothing of it, or of what happened there?" "Nothing, M'almé. I was bidden remain in my cabin, and the Master's word is always my law. It is true that I heard sounds of a great fighting, but I obeyed the Master.
Verily there is no power or might but Allah. Shall I scout ahead, Master, and spy out the camp?" "No, Rrisa. I send no man where I will not gladly go myself. All three of us, forward!" Again they advanced, watchful, revolvers in hands, ready for any sudden ambush.
Clouds must mean moisture; some inner, watered plain wholly foreign to the general character of the Arabian Peninsula. And the peaks must be the Iron Mountains that Rrisa had told him about. They seemed to rebuff him, to be pointing fingers of accusation at him. Had it not been for his insistence
Your flying ship is very great," the Arab admitted. "But Allah and his Prophet are greater! Allahu akbar!" "Of course. But tell thou me, Rrisa, if I were to appear at Mecca in my Nissr Arrib ela Sema my Eagle of the Sky would not thy people give me great honors?"
A trembling had possessed his whole body. "Master, I obey!" he made submission, then stood waiting with downcast eyes of suffering. "It is well," said the chief, rising. He stood for a moment peering at Rrisa, while the hum and roar of the great air-liner's mechanism, the dip and sway of its vast body through the upper air, seemed to add a kind of oppressive solemnity to the tense situation.
Then he nodded, and smiled the ghost of a smile. "Lord!" exclaimed Bohannan, half awed by the weirdness of the apparition. "Staring at us, that way and all! Is he asleep?" "Try him in any way your ingenuity may suggest," answered the Master, while Alden blinked strangely through his eyeholes, and Rrisa in Arabic affirmed that there is no God but Allah.
From empty spaces, a soughing tumult leaped forth; and on the instant a furious gust of fine, cutting particles whirled all about, thicker than driven snow in a northern blizzard. "Iron, O thou ill-omened one!" cried Rrisa, with the ancient invocation against the sand-storm. He stretched out his forefinger, making the sign of protection.
My people discovered the sacrilege, and" he added with intent "gave that Greek the bowstring, then quartered the body and threw it to the vultures." "That is of no importance whatever, Rrisa," answered the Master with an odd smile. "What thy people do to the unbeliever, if they capture him, is nothing to me. For dost thou see? they must first make the capture.
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