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Updated: May 11, 2025
At the same moment I heard a burst of laughter. It was little Tanit-Zerga. She was crouching on a cushion near the divan where I was stretched out, curiously watching my close interview with the leopard. "King Hiram was bored," she felt obliged to explain to me. "I brought him." "How nice," I growled. "Only tell me, could he not have gone somewhere else to be amused?"
With fixed eyes, I guided the beast toward the gour which the Targa had pointed out, its ridge becoming higher and higher against the paling sky. The speed caused a little breeze to whistle in our ears. Great tufts of retem, like fleshless skeletons, were tossed to right and left. I heard the voice of Tanit-Zerga whispering: "Stop the camel." At first I did not understand.
They are used to that. You will see how you will be received." "I will go, Tanit-Zerga, I promise you. But you also, you must promise me...." "What? Oh, I guess. You must take me for a little fool if you believe me capable of speaking of things which might make trouble for my friend." She looked at me as she spoke.
Bareheaded, indifferent to the frightful sunlight, she kept repeating: "We must go on." A little sense came back to me. "Cover your head, Tanit-Zerga, cover your head." "Come," she repeated. "Let's go. Gâo is over there, not far away. I can feel it. I want to see Gâo again." I made her sit down beside me in the shadow of a rock. I realized that all strength had left her.
Tanit-Zerga did not say so, but her joy at knowing that I was thinking no more of the woman in the gold diadem and the emeralds was apparent. And really, during those days, I hardly thought of her.
I have said that her room was above mine. Its bay window was some thirty feet above that before which I lay. She took Galé in her arms. But King Hiram would have none of it. Digging his four paws into the matting, he whined in anger and uneasiness. "Leave him," I finally said to Tanit-Zerga. "For once he may sleep here."
He listened with a smile of astonishment; then, at the last, he said gravely: "'It is agreed, little Tanit-Zerga. We will leave this evening if you wish it. "And he kissed me. "The darkness had already fallen when the gunboat, now repaired, left the harbor. My friend stood in the midst of the group of Frenchmen who waved their caps as long as we could see them.
"Mademoiselle Tanit-Zerga, of Gâo, on the Niger. Her family is almost as ancient as mine." As she spoke, she looked at me. Her green eyes seemed to be appraising me. "And your comrade, the Captain?" she asked in a dreamy tone. "I have not yet seen him. What is he like? Does he resemble you?" For the first time since I had entered, I thought of Morhange. I did not answer. Antinea smiled.
In a low, firm voice, Tanit-Zerga began to speak: "Everything is ready. I have twisted the rope about the pillar. Here is the slip-knot. Put it under your arms. Take this cushion. Keep it pressed against your hurt shoulder.... A leather cushion.... It is tightly stuffed. Keep face to the wall. It will protect you against the bumping and scraping." I was now master of myself, very calm.
The well toward which we were dragging ourselves was indicated on Ceghéir-ben-Cheikh's paper by the one word Tissaririn. Tissaririn is the plural of Tissarirt and means "two isolated trees." Day was dawning when finally I saw the two trees, two gum trees. Hardly a league separated us from them. I gave a cry of joy. "Courage, Tanit-Zerga, there is the well."
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