Zarah laughed also, suddenly, shrilly.
The way showed clear. The end was in sight! Upon the return journey she had but to push Helen gently and all the difficulties arising out of the accursed lie would be over.
She made a step and put her sandalled foot upon the path, then turned her head and stood quite still, her face convulsed with fury.
Like some great guardian spirit Blind Yussuf stood just behind Helen.
“It is not wise, O mistress,” he said gently, “to venture upon the perilous path this night of strong wind. It bloweth from the west unto the east, so that the wayfarer is like to be blown into the sands of death. It is not wise, O mistress, and thanks be to Allah that I heard voices as I passed and followed with great swiftness. Nay, verily it is not wise.”
He spoke gently, his great cloak hanging motionless in the still night, and salaamed to the ground when the Arabian, without a word, beckoned to the bewildered Helen and swiftly retraced her steps.
Back in her prison, Helen walked out to the space behind the dwelling to think over matters as the moon rose over the edge of the mountains. She looked up when a stone rattled down the side to her feet.
Upon a ledge to which a goat would have hardly dared to climb sat Yussuf. He put his fingers to his lips as he looked down at the girl he could not see but whom he had recognized by her footstep. “A ti balak,” he whispered, then rose and swung himself from rock to rock by the way he had come, whilst Helen stood looking up until he disappeared, frozen with fear for his safety; then, more determined than ever, through his warning, to try and find a means of escape, turned and entered her dwelling, just as Zarah entered hers and summoned Al-Asad.