Category: Romance
A blazing noontide in the month of Moharram. Away across the barren desert to the distant horizon nothing met the aching eye but a dreary waste of burning red-brown sand under a cloudless sky shining like burnished copper. Not an object relieved the wearying monotony of the wa...
The attack delivered during the moonlit hours was sharp, decisive, and, being unexpected, was at first little short of a massacre. Yelling with wild, fiendish delight, my compan...
46. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.Along the broad Boulevard de la Republique the straight double row of gas-lamps that face the sea were already shedding their bright light, as Octave and I drove rapidly, having...
38. CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.I had become an outlaw, a member of one of the most daring bands of freebooters that ever robbed a caravan or tortured a wanderer of the plains. To the civilising influence of F...
37. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.Sleep was impossible. Thoughts of Zoraida absorbed me. Her position was an extraordinary, yet perilous one, and she herself was still enveloped in a mystery that seemed utterly...
36. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.That night, as I lay without undressing in the little tent the outlaws of the Desert had assigned to me, I was kept awake for a long time by the sound of voices and the clang of...
42. CHAPTER FORTY ONE.Mounted on a _meheri_, and alone, I toiled with all speed onward over the glaring, sun-baked Desert, towards the spot indicated by the man from whom I had, at the eleventh hour,...
32. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.The pain was excruciating. In my agony every nerve seemed lacerated, every muscle paralysed, every joint dislocated. My brain was on fire. My lips dry and cracking, my throat pa...
45. CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.Briefly resting during the blazing noon, we resumed our way speedily across the treacherous sand dunes and rough stones, through the nameless ruined city, until, at dawn of the...
40. CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.That night, while the ferocious horde, half demented by delight, still continued their fell work of massacre and pillage, I slipped through the small arched gate into the courty...
35. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.Through a vast, barren wilderness, peopled only by echoes, we journeyed over drifted sand-heaps, upon which every breath of the hot poison-wind left its trace in solid waves. It...
41. CHAPTER FORTY.Onward we went across the camel market, where a body of the Ennitra were carousing, and, having managed to escape their notice in the deep shadow, we hurriedly traversed several...
43. CHAPTER FORTY TWO.Over the rising ground we eagerly sped, halting not till we dismounted beneath the palms. The spot bore no trace of having been visited by travellers; indeed, for the past two d...
47. CHAPTER FORTY SIX.With eyes eagerly strained in the direction of the harbour, where hundreds of lights shimmered upon the dark, restless waters, I leaned over the taffrail of the steam yacht in a...
34. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.The glimmer of sunset struggling through the chink above faded quickly. Upon my strained ears the sound of hurrying footsteps fell, but again died away. My pursuers were returni...
44. CHAPTER FORTY THREE.Impatiently we at last crawled forward again, eager to ascertain what our attempt at blasting had effected. Our first impression was that we were worse off than before, as the e...
33. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.Grasping the Crescent with both hands, I examined it minutely, convincing myself that it actually was the strange object that Zoraida had given me. I recognised its curious engr...
22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.Though I sought the advice of the cadi of the strange old Arab town of El Biodh, and also explained my desire to several of the Sheikhs whom I met, I could hear of no one going...
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.So earnestly she spoke that I felt convinced there was in her life some hideous mystery, and that those who held power over her she regarded with abject terror. Besides, her fre...
28. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.The gulf of accident lies between what is and what might have been. Strangely enough, the very tragedy which I had endeavoured to avert saved me from the torture and imprisonmen...
25. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.What dire events had led to the summary execution of the beauty who had just been carried out a corpse? Probably she had held brief sway over His Majesty, ruling the land from h...
29. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.It was a mad dash for liberty. Ignorant of where my footsteps would lead me, I sped swiftly onward across a great open space, which I afterwards learnt was called the Katshiu, p...
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.There was a movement on the other side of the dimly-lit, luxurious chamber, and from her silken divan Zoraida half rose to greet me. Reclining with languorous grace upon a pile...
30. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.Misgivings were aroused within me by the discovery, but, concealing them, I gave him "peace," as in flowery language and with many references to Allah's might, he bade me welcom...
4. CHAPTER FOUR.Like a flash the head of the gliding serpent shot out. The thong withstood its spring. It fell two inches short of my face. A tiny drop of liquid spurted upon my temple and ran...
23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.Brief were the moments allowed me for lamentation over my irreparable loss. Amid the wild scenes of carnage the thief had disappeared, and though I just caught a glimpse of his...
3. CHAPTER THREE.The curiously prophetic utterances of Ali Ben Hafiz caused me to reflect. I knew much of Moslem superstition,--in fact, I had collected many of the strange beliefs of the Arabs,...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.Under the singular magnetism of her lustrous eyes, I stood dazed, speechless, fascinated. My head throbbed with the burning of fever, my throat contracted, my limbs trembled as...
31. CHAPTER THIRTY.Labakan's appearance was just as unkempt, his burnouse just as ragged, as on the day he snatched from me the box containing the horrible souvenir. As we rode side by side into t...
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.On the black silk the shrivelling, bloodless fingers lay half curved like talons. At first I could not bring myself to gaze upon the mutilated hand I had so recently grasped; bu...
21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.Day after day for a whole fortnight Gajere and I rode onward together, passing through Temacin, El Hadjira, and the arid Chambaas region. Now and then we halted at Arab villages...
24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.To describe our dreary journey through the barren unknown desert at greater detail would serve no purpose. The way lay mainly over a gigantic plain interspersed by small sand-hi...
20. CHAPTER TWENTY.Twenty-eight hours over one of the most execrable railways in the world had taken me back to Biskra, where I remained a day, writing letters home to England, and otherwise makin...
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.After a few days in Tuggurt, and a lengthened stay in the date-groves of Biskra with my genial friend the General of Division, I found myself once again in old El Djezair, that...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.Having placed the quaintly-shaped lamp on the pearl and silver stool in the centre of the harem, the negro went out, returning immediately with a small bronze urn marvellously c...
6. CHAPTER SIX.At sundown, three days after my escape from the Ennitra, my eyes distinguished the palms of the Meskam Oasis standing at the foot of a large sand-hill. Zoraida had correctly inf...
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.Gradually the golden censer ceased swinging; the fire in the brazier slowly died out, and the only light in the mysterious chamber was shed by the blue flame of the lamp that ha...
27. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.Shaking the great door in frantic desperation, and turning to see whether I had been detected, I suddenly noticed that on each side of this gate hung heavy curtains of bright ye...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT.For a few seconds, as the sounds of the first volley died away, there was a dead silence. So sudden had been the attack, that my comrades the Spahis stood dumbfounded, but ere t...
10. CHAPTER TEN.Twelve weary days after leaving the Meskam, journeying due north over the hot loose sands of the Great Erg, the hill crowned by the imposing white cupolas and towers of the dese...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE.The sun had disappeared into the broad Mediterranean, flooding the sea with its lurid blaze of gold; the light had faded, the _muddenin_ had, from the minarets of the mosques, c...
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.He glided mechanically, rigidly; his limbs did not bend, neither did his eyes move. In his grave-clothes he looked hideous, for so thin was his face that the bones could be seen...
1. CHAPTER ONE.A blazing noontide in the month of Moharram. Away across the barren desert to the distant horizon nothing met the aching eye but a dreary waste of burning red-brown sand under a...
7. CHAPTER SEVEN."My career has not been brilliant," he said slowly, and with bitterness. "It is only remarkable by reason of its direful tragedy. All of us keep a debtor and creditor account wi...
5. CHAPTER FIVE.Glancing back now and then, I strained my eyes in the direction of the oasis, half expecting to see a party of Arabs with their long guns held aloft bearing down upon me; but no...
2. CHAPTER TWO.On over the barren sand-hills, always in the track of the setting sun, each day passed much as its predecessor. I was no stranger to Northern Africa, for the wild, free life, un...
9. CHAPTER NINE.Already my comrades were preparing to move south, for immediately upon the conclusion of the fight, messengers had been hastily despatched to overtake the commandant, and the de...
48. CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.On arrival in London, I saw by the newspapers that a most profound sensation had been caused throughout Algeria by Zoraida's escape. In explaining the flight of the beautiful le...
26. lid. Thus the bomb was quickly constructed, and, placing it under theHurriedly ascertaining that the match was fairly alight, I left the place, and, with my copper pitcher, lounged leisurely across to the well close to the gate of the harem, as i...