CHAPTER XXXIII.

"We waited one hour more for Miss Beatrice Poles, and then we gave the order to start.

"Had she not told us over and over again never to be anxious on her account, that she was not the sort of woman to lose herself, and that, if she did, she would very easily find herself again? However, it was by no means probable that she had retraced her steps. It was far more likely that, under the influences of one of those impulses to which she is subject, or of a locomotive fit which she could not repress, she had set off in the middle of the night, and was now ahead of the caravan. We had, therefore, a much better chance of finding her by continuing our journey than if we remained stationary.

"Nevertheless, we could not shake off our feelings of anxiety, for Miss Poles, despite her eccentricities and her ridiculousness, is such a thoroughly good creature, and so courageous a woman, that she has quite won us over. So, when Périères proposed to me that we should gallop on in search of our companion, I jumped at the idea, and we left the caravan for several hours under the command of Madame de Guéran and the Doctor.

"We did not run any risk of losing our way. The Wady Kokreb, which we had just left, is at the entrance of a narrow valley, very easy to follow. Two lofty mountains, Badab on the right, and Wowinte on the left, imprisoned us after a fashion and showed us the way.

"We galloped along, for two hours at least, on an extensive plain, and, as we could not see a single break in the horizon, we were beginning to be seriously alarmed, when Périères rode up along side me and said—

"'Don't you see something down there at the bottom of the valley? Is it a tree, a rock, or a human being?'

"'It moves, whatever it is,' I replied, after a moment's examination.

"'Yes,' replied Périères, 'I think it does. Let us ride down this side. We shall, no doubt, find ourselves in the presence of some Bedouin, but we are already capable of saying a word or two of Arabic, and by supplementing them with a few expressive gestures, we shall obtain some information about the fugitive.'

"Without waiting for my reply, our friend made for the spot which he had been the first to discover, and I followed him.

"We were not mistaken. It was a human being, but of which sex? That we could not divine, as at a distance the bûrnus of an Arab might easily be mistaken for a woman's skirt. Anxious to settle this point without delay, we pushed on at an increased rate, but very soon we were obliged to confess, to our great astonishment, that we gained but little on the pursued. That the being was on foot was evident, but its pace was surprising.

"At length our suspense was at an end. It was Miss Poles, marching on in a quick time peculiar to herself and unknown to our finest troops, with an enormous stride, springy, rapid, but at the same time wonderfully regular.

"The whole of her body seemed to merge into her feet, and they never appeared to touch the ground, or to be together, but flew and whirled about to such an extent that it made one giddy to look at them. It was not a woman, it was the wandering Jew, traversing the earth, overleaping space, escalading mountains, striding over river and sea, passing from one pole to the other.

"And the nearer we approached, the faster went Miss Poles. Did she wish to flee from us? Was she pitting her speed against that of our horses, and did she think she could beat them? She could not hope to beat them for a short distance on the flat, but, perhaps, she thought her staying power was greater than theirs, and that over a long course she would wear them down.

"'Miss Poles! Miss Poles!' exclaimed Périères, 'for heaven's sake stop! Our horses will break down, and we shall never get to the end of our journey!'

"She did not even condescend to turn her head, but went on just the same, straight ahead, mechanically, for all the world like an automaton.

"'She is wound up for twenty-four hours,' said Périères, 'and if the main-spring does not smash, there will be no stopping her. We must smash her main-spring.'

"'So let us do,' said I.

"We set spurs to our horses, dashed on about thirty yards past Miss Poles, and then, suddenly wheeling round, we bore down upon her.

"Impassible as ever, her long body, like a paper spill, glided between our horses, and on she went without the slightest deviation or alteration of her course.

"We had to begin again.

"After giving our steeds a little breathing time we set off once more in pursuit.

"This time, when we got up to her, Périères attacked on her right, and I on her left, each of us simultaneously seizing an arm.

"The main-spring gave way, it was true, but it went on from force of habit, and made one revolution more. She dragged us onward for about half-a-score yards, and our horses, in spite of our efforts to stop them, could not resist the impetus.

"At last she stopped. With a sudden wrench she disengaged her two arms from our grasp, and crossing them on her breast, she said in an angry tone—

"'What do you want?'

"We were non-plussed. What was the matter with her? Why did she speak to us in that way? Why cast on us such furious glances from behind her blue spectacles?

"I replied timidly—

"'Miss Poles, we were anxious about you, and did not know what had become of you.'

"'Ah!' said she, bitterly, 'you are anxious about me now that those Abyssinians no longer form part of the caravan.'

"This was a revelation for Périères.

"The Abyssinians had, in fact, asked, when we left Singate, permission to proceed with us as far as Kokreb. We willingly gave our consent, and they availed themselves of it in the most considerate manner possible, keeping themselves to themselves throughout the journey. But, very probably, during the evening we passed near the Wady Kokreb, Delange, ever eager in the pursuit of knowledge, paid the Abyssinians a visit for the purpose of obtaining from them some information about their country. Miss Poles, whose heart, after having for a long time wavered between Delange, Périères, and myself, had appeared of late to be fixed on the Doctor, had naturally suffered cruelly at finding herself neglected for these strangers, and in her spite, anger, and despair, she had hurled herself into space to get out of the way of the faithless one.

"Her first answer to our further questions was enough to convince us that we were not, mistaken.

"'But, Miss Poles,' we asked, 'why go so fast, and fatigue yourself to such an extent?'

"'To tire out my body,' she replied, casting down her eyes; 'bodily suffering sometimes has the effect of relieving the soul's agony.'

"'You suffer then?' asked Périères, trying to keep his countenance.

"'Suffer!' she exclaimed.

"At the same time, as if to call heaven to witness, she turned her eyes upward, and we saw the eye-lashes of her upper lids standing straight out above her spectacles.

"'Miss Poles,' I resumed in a mild tone, 'it is not right to flee from your friends because you are suffering. Périères and I have not done anything, and yet, ever since this morning you have put us in a terrible state of anxiety about you.'

"'It is true,' said she, touched by my eloquence. 'I have been unjust. Forgive me.'

"She put out her hand, and we shook it heartily.

"'Suppose,' suggested Périères, 'that whilst we are waiting for the caravan we take a short rest below there, under that magnificent sammor, which reminds me of the one in the garden of the Governor of Singate? We know that you are not tired. Miss Poles, but our horses are blown, and I am sure you will have mercy on them.'

"'Be it so!' she replied, 'especially as I am rather hungry!'

"'Our ride has given us an appetite, too, but all the provisions are with the camels.'

"'Oh! she replied, with a still broken voice, 'I always carry my lunch with me.'

"She produced a sort of cartridge-box, which she carried on her belt, wherein was a supply of excellent viands, and we soon came to the conclusion that if her heart was affected, her digestion was unimpaired.

"When our caravan appeared in sight, Périères mounted his steed and trotted off to tell Madame de Guéran that her travelling companion had been recovered.

"As soon as I was alone with Miss Poles, I made a trial of moral homoeopathy; I put in force the system of like to like, _similia similibus_. I tried to cure her one love by another, and to substitute our friend Périères for the too volatile Delange. It was doing poor Périères a shabby turn, but it was absolutely necessary to console our companion and to replace one weakness by another. I sang the praises of Périères to such an extent; I depicted him in such tender, sentimental, plaintive colours; I so delicately hinted at a supposititious weakness on his part for Miss Poles, that at the end of an hour's conversation, a smile once more spread itself over our Englishwoman's lips, and her heart caught glimpses of a new horizon.

"'All right, my friend,' said Périères, when he heard how I had disposed of him, 'I owe you one for that.'