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Page 5
Damaris should not have been strolling by herself in the native quarter.
If you are drab or flat of chest or soul or face, you can saunter your
fill in any bazaar without adventure befalling you; if, however, nature
should have endowed you with the colouring of a desert sunset, if, in
short, you _can_ add a splash of colour to anything so colourful as a
native bazaar, then 'twere wise to do your sauntering under the wing of
a vigilant chaperon, so that the curiosity and interest resultant on
your splash may reach you obliquely and "as through a glass, darkly."
But there was no one to worry the girl at this hour before sunset, so
that little by little and quite unconsciously she moved forward until
she stood outside the doorway.
She stood, outlined against a background of blazing colours, which
served in no way to dim her beauty. Through the yellow-white arch of
the doorway showed a stretch of turquoise-blue sky across which, upon a
string, swung golden onions and scarlet peppercorns, whilst underneath
ruminated a fine, superbly indifferent dromedary.
For a moment Hugh Carden Ali, jogged by Fate, looked straight across at
the beautiful picture, staying his talk with Abdul, who, with the
courtesy of the East, did not turn his head as he stroked the breast
and head of the _shahin_ on his fist.
But Damaris, with envy rampant in her heart, had no eyes for mere man;
she wanted to walk across and get near the coal-black stallion from
Unayza, a district famous for its breed of large, heavy-built horses.
He stood impatiently, with an occasional plunk of a hoof on the sandy
stones, or nuzzled his master's sleeve, or pulled at it with his teeth,
whilst two shaggy dogs of Billi lay stretched out awaiting the signal
to be up and going, perhaps, in a sprint across the desert after the
_hosseny_ or red rascal of a fox which had been trapped and caged for
the sole purpose of hunting.
Ride out with the caged _hosseny_ on a thoroughbred camel or
thoroughbred horse, take with you a couple of greyhounds and a dog or
so from Billi, get right off the tourist track and let the red rascal
out, and see if you don't have some fun before breakfast.
Only get off the tourist track, else you will have all the bazaar
camels and ponies loping along behind you.
The only wild beast this afternoon for sale was a jaguar, black as ink,
smooth as satin, short, heavy, with half-closed green eyes fixed
steadfastly upon a plump white pigeon foolishly strutting just out of
reach of the steel-pointed claws.
"Take her upon thy fist, O Master," said Abdul of Shammar, as he
lengthened the jesses, the short, narrow straps of leather or woven
silk or cotton with which to hold the hawk. "See, she is well
reclaimed, being tame and gentle and altogether amiable. When thrown,
she is as a bullet from a rifle, binding her quarry in high air even as
a man holds his woman to his heart upon the roof-top under the stars.
She is full summed"--and he ran his slender fingers through the new
feathers, full and soft after moulting; "she is keen as the winter
wind--behold the worn and blunted nails; she will not give up, my
master, yet will she come to the lure as quickly, as joyfully as a maid
to her lover."
Hugh Carden Ali, the greatest authority after Abdul on the _shahin_,
took the bird upon his fist, looked at the sunken, piercing eyes which
were partially seeled; ran his hand over the narrow body, short tail
and black back, and a finger over the large beak and deep mouth; held
up the ugly face to the light, examined the flight-feathers and, moving
his hand quickly up and down, caused the bird to flutter its wings--and
so give him a chance of measuring the distance of the wings from the
body. Finding her altogether lovely, he nodded and handed her back to
the delighted falconer of Shammar, just as with a decisive pat the
jaguar landed, its huge paw upon the strutting pigeon, which had
forgotten to keep its distance.
For a moment the attention of the spectators, who were mostly squatting
on their heels, was diverted from the master and the falconer. They
laughed, they moved, whilst some in the back row stood up to see the
fun, leaving for one second an open space through which Damaris could
see the fluttering white bird.
"Ah!" she cried, heartbroken at the sight; then, "Fetch!" she commanded
the dog, pointing across the square.
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