uld only be a half-caste
lying on your white breast, if you were my wife."

The moonbeams lengthened as the man talked on, whilst Damaris learned
of one of love's bitterest mistakes.

"Oh, forgive me!" he ended. "Why did I bring you here to hurt you, to
make you cry for a pain which is not yours? Why are you left alone?
It is so dangerous in this land of my fathers. Your godmother deserts
you whilst she goes to my mother, who is afraid for me--ah! did you not
know? The man who loves you has left you to the wind of chance: my
friend, Big Ben Kelham--O gods of ancient Egypt, how you must
laugh!--my _friend_! Shall we meet again, I wonder?----"

Surely Anubis the god of death, Anubis the jackal-headed--who leads the
soul of the departed through the underworld into the presence of the
great Osiris--surely he moved upon the wall and turned to look after
those two as they passed out of the inner chamber to stand beneath the
Hawk upon the wall.

Or was it the shifting of the moon amongst the shadows?

"Will you"--there was no trace of the man's anguish in his voice: the
Mohammedan's resignation to the inevitable may seem a weak way out to
one who will kick and worry until he drops from exhaustion, but it
saves a great deal of pain to others--"will you--you must surely marry
some day, so beautiful, so sweet you are--will you let me give you this
as a wedding-present, and will you think of me, a prisoner, when you
fasten it in your wedding-gown?" He held out a jewel in the shape of
the Hawk which spread its wings upon the wall above them. "It was
found here, in this sanctuary--a priestly ornament? a pilgrim's
offering? Who knows? Will you?--_I_ have no right to it, for beneath
my wings is the plumage of another race. I am not a pure-bred son of
Northern Egypt."

"Will you pin it in?"

The girl's voice shook as she tilted back her chin so that her mouth
was on a level with the man's as he bent to fasten the jewel in the
silk.

"Will you promise me one thing? Yes!--you are good to the prisoner.
Allah! how I love you, and surely, if I may not be your master I may
serve you. If you should be in trouble--ever--in this land of Egypt,
the very soil of which is drenched with the blood of those who have
fought, and loved, and won, and lost thousands of years before the
coming of the gentle prophet who said that in the sight of the great
God, anyway, we are brethren--yes, if trouble should come to you, will
you send