“Yes,” he said, “it is you, but where was it taken? How does it happen that The Sheik’s daughter is clothed in the garments of the unbeliever?”
“I do not know,” replied Meriem. “I never saw the picture until a couple of days ago, when I found it in the tent of the Swede, Malbihn.”
Abdul Kamak raised his eyebrows. He turned the picture over and as his eyes fell upon the old newspaper cutting they went wide. He could read French, with difficulty, it is true; but he could read it. He had been to Paris. He had spent six months there with a troupe of his desert fellows, upon exhibition, and he had improved his time, learning many of the customs, some of the language, and most of the vices of his conquerors. Now he put his learning to use. Slowly, laboriously he read the yellowed cutting. His eyes were no longer wide. Instead they narrowed to two slits of cunning. When he had done he looked at the girl.
“You have read this?” he asked.
“It is French,” she replied, “and I do not read French.”
Abdul Kamak stood long in silence looking at the girl. She was very beautiful. He desired her, as had many other men who had seen her. At last he dropped to one knee beside her.
A wonderful idea had sprung to Abdul Kamak’s mind. It was an idea that might be furthered if the girl were kept in ignorance of the contents of that newspaper cutting. It would certainly be doomed should she learn its contents.
“Meriem,” he whispered, “never until today have my eyes beheld you, yet at once they told my heart that it must ever be your servant. You do not know me, but I ask that you trust me. I can help you. You hate The Sheik—so do I. Let me take you away from him. Come with me, and we will go back to the great desert where my father is a sheik mightier than is yours. Will you come?”
Meriem sat in silence. She hated to wound the only one who had offered her protection and friendship; but she did not want Abdul Kamak’s love. Deceived by her silence the man seized her and strained her to him; but Meriem struggled to free herself.
“I do not love you,” she cried. “Oh, please do not make me hate you. You are the only one who has shown kindness toward me, and I want to like you, but I cannot love you.”