He must have read on my face the signs of too apparently expressed
surprise, for he said in a tone in which I divined a tinge of
defiance: "The choice of these books surprises you a bit?"
"I can't say it surprises me," I replied, "since I don't know the
nature of the work for which you have collected them. In any case I
dare say, without fear of being contradicted, that never before has
officer of the Arabian Office possessed a library in which the
humanities were so, well represented."
He smiled evasively, and that day we pursued the subject no further.
Among Saint-Avit's books I had noticed a voluminous notebook secured
by a strong lock. Several times I surprised him in the act of making
notations in it. When for any reason he was called out of the room he
placed his album carefully in a small cabinet of white wood, provided
by the munificence of the Administration. When he was not writing and
the office did not require his presence, he had the mehari which he
had brought with him saddled, and a few minutes later, from the
terrace of the fortifications, I could see the double silhouette
disappearing with great strides behind a hummock of red earth on the
horizon.
Each time these trips lasted longer. From each he returned in a kind
of exaltation which made me watch him with daily increasing
disquietude during meal hours, the only time we passed quite alone
together.
"Well," I said to myself one day when his remarks had been more
lacking in sequence than usual, "it's no fun being aboard a submarine
when the captain takes opium. What drug can this fellow be taking,
anyway?"
Next day I looked hurriedly through my comrade's drawers. This
inspection, which I believed to be my duty, reassured me momentarily.
"All very good," I thought, "provided he does not carry with him his
capsules and his Pravaz syringe."
I was still in that stage where I could suppose that André's
imagination needed artificial stimulants.
Meticulous observation undeceived me. There was nothing suspicious in
this respect. Moreover, he rarely drank and almost never smoked.
And nevertheless, there was no means of denying the increase of his
disquieting feverishness. He returned from his expeditions each time
with his eyes more brilliant. He was paler, more animated, more
irritable.
One evening he left the post about six o'clock, at the end of the
greatest heat of the day. We waited for him all night. My anxiety was
all the stronger because quite recently caravans had brought tidings
of bands of robbers in the neighborhood of the post.