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The Sheik

Page 75

She shook off the feeling of apprehension that had taken hold of her

and her nervous fears died away. A reckless feeling, like the

excitement of the morning, came over her, and she urged the grey on

with coaxing words, and responding to her voice, and hardly feeling her

light weight, he raced on untiringly. All around was silence and a

solitude that was stupendous. The vast emptiness was awe-inspiring. The

afternoon was wearing away; already it was growing cooler. Diana had

seen no sign of human life since she had left Gaston hours before and a

little feeling of anxiety stirred faintly deep down in her heart.

Traces of caravans she passed several times, and from the whitening

bones of dead camels she turned her head in aversion--they were too

intimately suggestive. She had seen a few jackals, and once a hyena

lumbered away clumsily among some rocks as she passed. She had got away

from the level desert, and was threading her way in and out of some low

hills, which she felt were taking her out of her right course. She was

steering by the setting sun, which had turned the sky into a glory of

golden crimson, but the intricate turnings amongst the rocky hills were

bewildering.

The low, narrow defile seemed hemming her in, menacing her

on all sides, and she was beginning to despair of finding her way out

of the labyrinth, when, on rounding a particularly sharp turn, the

rocks fell away suddenly and she rode out into open country. She

breathed a sigh of relief and called out cheerily to the grey, but, as

she looked ahead, her voice died away, and she reined him in sharply

with a quickening heart-beat. Across the desert about a mile away she

saw a party of Arabs coming towards her. There were about fifty of

them, the leader riding a big, black horse some little distance in

front of his followers. In the clear atmosphere they seemed nearer than

they were. It was not what she wished. She had hoped for an encampment,

where there would be women or a caravan of traders whose constant

communication with the towns would make them realise the importance of

guiding her to civilisation unharmed. This band of fighting men, for

she could see their rifles clearly, and their close and orderly

formation was anything but peaceful, filled her with the greatest

misgivings.

Only the worst might be expected from the wild, lawless

tribesmen towards a woman alone amongst them. She had fled from one

hideousness to another which would be ten times more horrible. Her face

blanched and she set her teeth in desperation. The human beings she had

prayed for were now a deadly menace, and she prayed as fervently that

they might pass on and not notice her. Perhaps it was not too late,

perhaps they had not yet seen her and she might still slip away and

hide in the twisting turnings of the defile. She backed Silver Star

further into the shadow of the rock, but as she did so she saw that she

had been seen. The leader turned in his saddle and raised his hand high

above his head, and with a wild shout and a great cloud of dust and

sand his men checked their horses, dragging them back on to their

haunches, while he galloped towards her alone. And at the same moment

an icy hand clutched at Diana's heart and a moan burst from her lips.

There was no mistaking him or the big black horse he rode. For a moment

she reeled with a sudden faintness, and then with a tremendous effort

she pulled herself together, dragging her horse's head round and urged

him back along the track which she had just left, and behind her raced

Ahmed Ben Hassan, spurring the great, black stallion as he had never

done before. With ashy face and wild, hunted eyes Diana crouched

forward on the grey's neck, saving him all she could and riding as she

had never ridden in her life. Utterly reckless, she urged the horse to

his utmost pace, regardless of the rough, dangerous track. Perhaps she

could still shake off her pursuer among the tortuous paths of the

hills. Nothing mattered but that. Better even an ugly toss and a broken

neck than that he should take her again. Panic-stricken she wanted to

shriek and clenched her teeth on her lips to keep back the scream that

rose in her throat.

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