r, and then she wheeled, and flung up her heels;
then stopped and looked at him along her satin flank and piqued with
his indifference suddenly sped out into the desert.

Then, softly, melodiously, the man's voice called her, ringing like a
bell under the lightening sky, and behold, love awoke in the mare's
heart and she turned and raced back towards him, longing for his hand
and the grip of his knees upon her. But with her feet upon the tan,
she turned her back upon him and danced across towards the coal-black
stallions, causing their grooms to hold on to them with both hands;
then she came back to circle round about this man, who seemingly took
no notice of her vagaries, not even when she reared just behind him,
pawing the air, nor when she lashed out at a humble _sayis_, missing
him by a hair; until, at last, overpowered by curiosity and love,
curveting, rearing, throwing her feet and making a frightful to-do over
nothing at all, she came close up--oh! very close--and whinnied gently.

With one hand clutching the silvery mane and in one bound he was across
the bare back and away with her into the desert, gripping her with his
knees, calling to her by every love-name he could think of.

And out there alone in the desert at the hour of prayer, he slipped
from her and, turning towards Mecca, raised his hands to heaven.

"O God of the West! O Allah of the East! Give me one single hour of
love!"

And the mare, Pi-Kay, wonderful in her beauty, raced from him far out
into the desert, leaving him alone with his God; then stood quite
still, with fine small ears pricked, waiting for the call she knew
would come. And when it came ringing clear over the golden sand, she
raced back to him and pushed against him, until he sprang upon her and
turned her towards the East.

"_By the war-horses_," he cried, quoting from Al-Koran, "_which run
swiftly to battle, with a panting noise; and by those who strike fire
by dashing their hoofs against the stones; and by those who make a
sudden invasion on the enemy early in the morning and therein raise the
dust, and therein pass through the midst of the adverse troops_ . . . .
by the Message of the Great Book and by my love will I wrest one hour
from life."

And urging the mare with the whip of love to the uttermost of her
wonderful speed, he thundered back across the path of sand, which was
to be trodden by his feet alone, in spite of the plots which Zulannah
the courtesan was even