In this direction, behind the far horizon, lay the unexplored Sahara, extending in awful solitude across the whole African continent to its western shores, three thousand miles away. For a thousand miles and more this vast and almost uninhabited land of silence is known as the Libyan Desert. Behind this is the great Tuareg country, extending for another fifteen hundred miles; and beyond this lies the ancient land of Mauretania, where at last, in the region of Rio de Oro, there is again a populated country.
In no other part of the world can a man stand facing so huge a tract of uncharted country, and nowhere does the call of the unknown come with such insistence to the ears of the imagination. In this untenanted area there is room for many an undiscovered kingdom, and hidden somewhere amidst its barren hills and plains there may be cities and peoples cut off from the outer world these many thousands of years.
It is the largest of the world’s remaining areas of mystery; it is the greatest of all the regions still to be explored; for the sterile and waterless desert holds its secrets secure by the fear of hunger and the terror of thirst. The inhabitants of the Nile Valley declare to a man that somewhere in this wilderness there stands a city of gold, whose shining cupolas and domes are as dazzling as the sun itself, and whose streets are paved with precious stones.
Jim had often talked to the natives in regard to this lost city, and all had assured him that it truly existed, though no living eyes had seen it.
On this particular occasion, as he watched the sun go down amidst the distant hills which were the first outworks in the defences of these impregnable secrets, he was overwhelmed with the desire to penetrate, if only for a few hundred miles, into this mysterious territory, and eagerly he spoke to Monimé in regard to the possibilities of such an expedition.
She sighed. “I shouldn’t be able to come with you, Jim,” she said, “however much I should long to do so. I have to consider Ian first.”
“Yes,” he answered at once. “I was not really speaking seriously. The thought of what may lie hidden over there sets one dreaming; but actually I wouldn’t feel it right now to go hunting for fabulous cities.”
He spoke with sincerity, and it was only after the words were uttered that he realized the change which had taken place in his outlook. No longer was he free to act as he chose: he had to consider the interests of another, and, strange to relate, he was quite willing to do so.