There was no ring of
footsteps. The crowd walked on sand and for the most part with naked
feet, so that if for a rare moment the sharp high cries and the
perpetual voices ceased, the figures of men and women flitted by
noiseless as ghosts. And even at night, when the streets were most
crowded and the uproar loudest, it seemed that underneath the noise, and
almost appreciable to the ear, there lay a deep and brooding silence,
the silence of deserts and the East.
"Durrance went down to Tewfikieh at ten o'clock that night," said
Calder. "I went to his quarters at eleven. He had not returned. He was
starting eastward at four in the morning, and there was some detail of
business on which I wished to speak to him before he went. So I waited
for his return. He came in about a quarter of an hour afterwards and
told me at once that I must be quick, since he was expecting a visitor.
He spoke quickly and rather restlessly. He seemed to be labouring under
some excitement. He barely listened to what I had to say, and he
answered me at random. It was quite evident that he was moved, and
rather deeply moved, by some unusual feeling, though at the nature of
the feeling I could not guess.
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