He made, however, one omission. He said nothing of the hours which
he had spent crouching upon the hot sand, with his coat drawn over his
head, while he drew a woman's face toward him across the continents and
seas and nerved himself to endure by the look of sorrow which it wore.
"He went down into Berber at the setting of the sun," said Captain
Willoughby, and it was all that he had to say. It was enough, however,
for Ethne Eustace. She drew a deep breath of relief, her face softened,
there came a light into her grey eyes, and a smile upon her lips.
"He went down into Berber," she repeated softly.
"And found that the old town had been destroyed by the orders of the
Emir, and that a new one was building upon its southern confines,"
continued Willoughby. "All the landmarks by which Feversham was to know
the house in which the letters were hidden had gone. The roofs had been
torn off, the houses dismantled, the front walls carried away. Narrow
alleys of crumbling fives-courts--that was how Feversham described the
place--crossing this way and that and gaping to the stars. Here and
there perhaps a broken tower rose up, the remnant of a rich man's house.
But of any sign which could tell a man where the hut of Yusef, who had
once sold rock-salt in the market-place, had stood, there was no hope in
those acres of crumbling mud.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214