ail me, I quit the desert, and turn householder, with a
wife or two, and children, if Allah wills it. I myself am
six-and-twenty. I have earned a rest. _Slama_." And he turned on his
heel to go, but he turned again.

"Ali," he said, "who lives in the first house beyond the mosque, on the
left--the house with the green lattices?"

"I do not know, my master," replied Ali, "but I shall tell you in the
morning."

"Good," said Abdullah; "and there is a damsel who sits behind the
lattice, and always wears a flower in her hair, a red flower, a flower
like this," and he put his hand into the folds of his burnoose and
brought out a faded, crumpled, red oleander. "Who is she?"

"Tomorrow," said Ali.

"Good," said Abdullah, and he went away.

"_Slama_" said Ali, and then he added, to himself, "There goes a
masterful man, and a just one, but love has caught him."

And he hurriedly eased the red camel of her load.

II

The next morning the departing caravan had many visitors. The merchants
from the arcades came to see that their ventures were properly loaded.
They passed comments upon the camels as Englishmen and Americans do
upon horses in the paddock or the show-ring. Some they criticised, some
they praised, but they were of one mind as to their condition.

"Their humps are fat," they all agreed; and, as a camel draws upon his
hump for food as he draws upon the sacs surrounding his stomach for
water, the condition of the caravan was declared to be _mleh_, which is
the Arabic equivalent for "fit."

Abdullah was a busy man. He signed manifests, received money, receipted
for it, felt of surcingles, tightened them, swore at the boys who were
teasing the camels, kicked Ali whenever he came within reach, and in
every way played the _role_ of the business man of the desert.

Suddenly, from the minaret of the mosque came the cry of the mueddin.
The clamor of the market ceased and the Mussulmans fell upon their
knees, facing the east and Mecca. The camels were already kneeling, but
they were facing the north and Biskra.

While the faithful were praying, the unbelievers from the Soudan fell
back and stood silent. A cry to God, no matter what god, silences the
patter of the market-place. Abdullah prayed as a child beseeches his
father.

"Give me, Allah, a safe and quick journey. Unchoke the wells at Okba.
Strengthen the yellow camel. Make high the price of dates and low the
price of hides; 'tis thus I have ventured. B