ky, behind the gold of the dunes, slowly moved along separate
spears of flame-bright rose, like the fingers of a gigantic Hand of
Fatma spread across the sapphire heaven to bless her father's people.
From this flaming sign in the west poured a pink radiance as of falling
rubies. The wonderful light rained over the marble whiteness of the
distant mosque--the great mosque of Djazerta--and fired the whole mass
of the piled oasis-town behind its dark line of palms. The light
showered roses over the girls' heads and dresses, stained the snow of
the roof, with its low, bubbling domes, and streaming eastward turned
flat plain and far billowing dune into a sea of flame.

Sanda's spirit worshipped the incredible beauty of the scene, and then
flew northward to the two men whom she loved. She thought of her father,
and wondered where Richard Stanton was at that moment. Then Max Doran's
face came between her and the man she had named "Sir Knight." She
remembered her dream of herself and Max in the desert, and was vexed
because she had not dreamed the same dream about Stanton instead.

"How wonderful it is here!" she half whispered, and Ourieda answered
impatiently:

"Yes, it is wonderful; but don't let us talk of it, or even think of it
any more, because I have so much to say to you, and Aunt Mabrouka will
send to call us if my father comes. Besides, we can see this on any
night when the wind does not blow."

She had in her hand a large silk handkerchief tied in the form of a bag;
and sitting down on the low, queerly battlemented wall which protected
the flat roof, she untied and opened the bundle on her lap. It was full
of yellow grain, and she gave Sanda a handful. "That's for the doves,"
she said. "They will know somehow that we are here, and presently they
will come. If Aunt Mabrouka sends her own woman, Taous, up to listen and
spy on us she will find us feeding the doves."

"But why should Lella Mabrouka do such a thing?" Sanda ventured to ask,
taking the grain, and seating herself beside Ourieda.

"You will understand that, and a great many other things, when I have
told you what I am going to tell," answered the "Little Rose." "From
books my father has let me read, and from things you have said, I have
seen that Roumia girls are not like us, even in their thoughts. Perhaps
you are thinking now that I am very sly; and so I am, but not because I
love slyness. It is only because I have to be subtle in self-defence
against