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I command thee, in the name of Allah and His Prophet, that thou obey me." The pounding stopped. There was a rushing, sliding sound on the roof. Then all was quiet above and in the courtyard. Saidee broke into hysterical sobbing, crying that they were rescued, that Honoré Sabine was on his way to save them. And Victoria thought that Stephen would come to her, but he did not.
She could not see his face, but he seemed to be tall and slim; and his clothes were European. "Thank God!" she said to herself. For she did not doubt that it was Stephen Knight. Soon she would call Saidee; but she must have a little time to herself, for silent rejoicing, before she tried to explain. There was no great hurry. He was far off, still.
And I won't faint. But I want to think. Can I go out into the air not where the orange blossoms are?" "I'll take you on to the roof," Saidee said. "It's my favourite place looking over the desert." She put her arm round Victoria, leading her to the stairway, and so to the roof. "Are you better?" she asked, miserably. "What can I do for you?" "Let's not speak for a little while, please.
He wouldn't have come down alive unless he'd got an answer." Saidee said no more, and they sat together in silence, Victoria holding her sister's icy hand in hers, which was scarcely warmer, though it tingled with the throbbing of many tiny pulses. So they listened to the firing outside, until suddenly it sounded different to Victoria's ears.
"She looks like an angel," Saidee thought, and with a curious mingling of reluctance and eagerness, moved softly toward the bed, her little velvet slippers from Tunis making no sound on the thick rugs. Very well the older woman remembered an engaging trick of the child's, a way of sleeping with her cheek in her hand, and her hair spread out like a golden coverlet for the pillow.
There were things it were better not to say, even in the presence of one who would never be able to tell of an indiscretion. "It is a truce between us?" he asked. "Yes." "Forget, then, that I frightened thee." "Thou didst not frighten me. I did not know what to do, and I thought I might have to die without seeing Saidee. Yet I was not afraid, I think I hope I was not afraid."
Then, if I met any, I would at once speak of my sister, and give them my address, to let me know if they should discover anything. They always seemed interested, and said they would really do their best, but they must have failed, or else they forgot. No news ever came back. It will be different with me now, though. I shall find Saidee, and if she isn't happy, I shall bring her away with me.
It came by telegraph to the operator, just before the party was ready to start on; yet Saidee was sure that Sabine had caused it to be sent just at that time. He had been obliged to march back with his men the penalty of commanding the force for which he had asked; but a letter would surely come to Touggourt, and Saidee could imagine all that it would say.
They were to live, not to die, and the barrier that had been broken down was raised again. "What if it's only a trap?" Saidee asked, as Stephen opened the door. "What if they're behind the barricade, watching?" "Listen! Don't you hear shots?" Victoria cried. "Yes. There are shots far away," Stephen answered. "That settles it. There's no ambush.
She feared that, if she had not come to Oued Tolga, by this time Saidee would have gone away, or tried to go away, with Captain Sabine; and though, since the night of her arrival, when Saidee had opened her heart, they had been on terms of closest affection, there was a dreadful doubt in Victoria's mind that the confidences were half repented.
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