The Hawk of Egypt

at sighs bef

he gloom

s of the Ea

enly-'ti

EWIS

tretched bef

leaped clear of the horizon which lies like a string across the sandy wastes. Gathering her draperies, hiding her starry jewels in misty scarves, Night f

r and pursue he ever so hastily, yet, save for two short hours when he may ba

an! How else woul

the coal-black stallion with her heel, and held him, frettin

om her room, wakened the astounded night-porter of the Desert Palace Hotel, and demanded a car to be brought upon the instant. And lucky it wa

h-road towards the village of Makariyeh where, under a sycamore,

eliopolis, which is all that remains of the great seat of learning, the biblical City of On. And the sky lightened

o unseat his sayis, who rode him native-wise, without his feet in the stirrups, rearing and ba

ein and a wisp of a saddle. Standing sixteen hands, born of the desert, nervous and self-willed, he was no fit mount for a woman, and

f the hawk-hea

drummed into him by his master; and Damaris smiled and replied in the servant's tongue, to h

in a bound to the saddle as the groom slipped to the ground on the off-side; upon which el-Sooltan whe

ould ride out into the unknown; and she had no inclination or intention of being hurled through that moment like a stone from a catapult. Sooltan, behaving like a very demon, tried his best to unseat the light weight

m his head, and was across the desert, unmindful of an Arab who, some distance away, which, in the desert, is re

ight, or maybe, as says the legend, the ghosts of the many long-dead kingdoms buried in oblivion and the relentless sands; when the whistling of the wind is as the shouting of men and the

lured more than one white woman out into the golden wilderness to the wrecking of her soul; and which has noth

en horse and rider; she shouted as she seemingly rode straight into the massed colouring of the sunrise; she lifted her face to the go

eyes for one brief second, and she, dazzled by the glimpse, had pulled it back hastily. Neither was there anything to tell her that, upon a no

er-increasing speed of el-Sooltan, who was all out in an endeavour to find his

that in it and of it was his happiness to be found; and it was only when Damaris turned to look at the ruins of the City of On from a far distance that she

master or his own particular sayis could stop el-Sooltan once he had got the light bit between his teeth; and of the death from

sand, to the west and under her horse's feet and broke to the east into a chain of hummocks, piled by the last

eneath her waistbelt and distress for the wor

the time I get back," she exclaimed. "And I can't do anything-I've irrevocably given el-Soolt

nd waved. And a more radiant picture of youth

nd men. Come round, Sooltan, come round." And she pulled with all her strength, and still

le, let Sooltan go, and walk over to them

m the stirrup when, clear and ins

resence upon her. He had known for some time that el-Sooltan was out of hand, and had decided to call him after a mile or so more of furious exercise; but

ed eyes had caught the little movement of the foot; and, connecting the two, he insistently called the stallion, knowing that a drop

gain and again as the stallion dropped from a gallop to a canter, a canter to a

"Irja Sooltan!" And with the cr

d stood still, ears pricked, silke

e noble beasts, as the girl sat with thudding heart and eyes fixed on t

ntrusion upon her privacy, causing her to be

, Sooltan!" she cried

h! what an esca

n bound of el-Sooltan as he raced

e and took her back along her tracks, urging her to her topmost speed. Swift

koned to his groom, who had run hot-foot from the Obelisk to the edge of the desert with fear in his heart for the beast but not one whi

Damaris with the suddenness of his decision and then with the hand of the groom upon his heaving flank trotted docilely back

Damaris, feeding the stallion wit

rvant to himself, praising the

aid gently, as she m

hted, astounded man as he salaamed almost to