there before sunset
and wait till the moon concealed all glimmer in the western sky,
and--that the woman, who had been engaged for days in secret preparation
of soul and body for the awful rite, would not be visible again until he
saw her in the depths of the black valley far below, busy with this man
upon audacious, ancient purposes.

IX

An hour before sunset Henriot put his rugs and food upon a donkey, and
gave the boy directions where to meet him--a considerable distance from
the appointed spot. He went himself on foot. He slipped in the heat
along the sandy street, where strings of camels still go slouching,
shuffling with their loads from the quarries that built the pyramids,
and he felt that little friendly Helouan tried to keep him back. But
desire now was far too strong for caution. The desert tide was rising.
It easily swept him down the long white street towards the enormous
deeps beyond. He felt the pull of a thousand miles before him; and twice
a thousand years drove at his back.

Everything still basked in the sunshine. He passed Al Hayat, the stately
hotel that dominates the village like a palace built against the sky;
and in its pillared colonnades and terraces he saw the throngs of people
having late afternoon tea and listening to the music of a regimental
band. Men in flannels were playing tennis, parties were climbing off
donkeys after long excursions; there was laughter, talking, a babel of
many voices. The gaiety called to him; the everyday spirit whispered to
stay and join the crowd of lively human beings. Soon there would be
merry dinner-parties, dancing, voices of pretty women, sweet white
dresses, singing, and the rest. Soft eyes would question and turn dark.
He picked out several girls he knew among the palms. But it was all
many, oh so many leagues away; centuries lay between him and this modern
world. An indescriable loneliness was in his heart. He went searching
through the sands of forgotten ages, and wandering among the ruins of a
vanished time. He hurried. Already the deeper water caught his breath.

He climbed the steep rise towards the plateau where the Observatory
stands, and saw two of the officials whom he knew taking a siesta after
their long day's work. He felt that his mind, too, had dived and
searched among the heavenly bodies that live in silent, changeless peace
remote from the world of men. They recognised him, these two whose eyes
also knew tremendous distance clo