soon as you can, or you'll never get out at all."

"Never till I take you with me."

"Don't say that! I must send you away. I _must_--no matter how hard it
may be to part from you," Saidee insisted. "You don't know what you're
talking about. How should you? I suppose you must have heard
_something_. You must anyhow suspect there's a secret?"

"Yes, Si Maieddine told me that. He said, when I talked of my sister,
and how I was trying to find her, that he'd once known Cassim. I had to
agree not to ask questions,--and he would never say for certain whether
Cassim was dead or not, but he promised sacredly to bring me to the
place where my sister lived. His cousin Lella M'Barka Bent Djellab was
with us,--very ill and suffering, but brave. We started from Algiers,
and he made a mystery even of the way we came, though I found out the
names of some places we passed, like El Aghouat and Ghardaia----"

Saidee's eyes widened with a sudden flash. "What, you came here by El
Aghouat and Ghardaia?"

"Yes. Isn't that the best way?"

"The best, if the longest is the best. I don't know much about North
Africa geographically. They've taken care I shouldn't know! But I--I've
lately found out from--a person who's made the journey, that one can get
here from Algiers in a week or eight days. Seventeen hours by train to
Biskra: Biskra to Touggourt two long days in a diligence, or carriage
with plenty of horses; Touggourt to Oued Tolga on camel or horse, or
mule, in three or four days going up and down among the great dunes. You
must have been weeks travelling."

"We have. I----"

"How very queer! What could Si Maieddine's reason have been? Rich Arabs
love going by train whenever they can. Men who come from far off to see
the marabout always do as much of the journey as possible by rail. I
hear things about all important pilgrims. Then why did Si Maieddine
bring you by El Aghouat and Ghardaia--especially when his cousin's an
invalid? It couldn't have been just because he didn't want you to be
seen, because, as you're dressed like an Arab girl no one could guess he
was travelling with a European."

"His father lives near El Aghouat," Victoria reminded her sister. And
Maieddine had used this fact as one excuse, when he admitted that they
might have taken a shorter road. But in her heart the girl had guessed
why the longest way had been chosen. She did not wish to hide from
Saidee things which concerned herself, yet Maieddine's love was