“I’m afraid the journey’s off,” he said.
Muriel was angry, and she tapped her foot sharply on the floor. “Oh, you’re impossible!” she exclaimed. “I’m all ready to start, and now you say you’re not going.”
He looked at her gravely and steadily for a moment, and then very calmly he told her what had occurred. While Ibrahîm and those of his adherents who had not gone to El Khargeh were attending the funeral, the rival faction had seized every camel and donkey in the Oasis, for of the former more than half the number owned by the inhabitants had gone with the caravan. They had disarmed the village ghaffirs, or guards, they had proclaimed their own chief as Sheikh of the Oasis, and they had picketed every track leading out into the desert and to the lands beyond.
Daniel had found his and Muriel’s camel gone from the stable, and he had encountered a group of “enemy” leaders who had informed him that he would not be permitted to communicate with the outside world for several days.
“Their idea,” he explained, lighting his pipe, “is to get their man firmly established in power before the police hear of it, and then it will be a fait accompli. It is to be a peaceful revolution, without bloodshed if possible; but I don’t suppose they will hesitate to shoot anybody who tries to get away. So, you see, we’re caught.”
Muriel received the news calmly. According to the time-table the Bindanes would return to El Homra tomorrow or the next day, and then, if she had not made her reappearance, they would probably send her dragoman and a trooper or two to fetch her. But Daniel pointed out that three days might elapse before these men arrived, and two weeks before the authorities in Egypt could give instructions. Moreover, their coming might lead to an awkward situation for himself and her.
“You see, they know that I will support Ibrahîm’s claim,” he said, puffing quietly at his pipe, “for I promised his father I would do so; and if an unfortunate accident could account for you and me, it would be all the better for them. Supposing, for example, you and I were found to have gone out hunting, and to have lost our way, and to have fallen over a cliff or something of that kind, there would be nobody much to uphold Ibrahîm against a rival already established in office.”
Daniel did not take his eyes from hers as he put this aspect of the matter before her. It was as though he were testing her nerve; or perhaps it was that he thought candour best in regard to a contingency the possibility of which would doubtless occur to her.
“It seems to me,” she said presently, “that human nature is much the same all the world over. You were rather intolerant of the intrigues of Cairo; but rivalries and disputes evidently go on in the desert too. I’m very disappointed.”
“So am I,” he replied, with disarming candour. “The only thing to be said for it is that it has been done pretty openly and boldly.”