“Madame should dismount,” said Batouch. “Ali will take the horses, and I will escort Madame and Monsieur up the hill to the place of the fountain. Shabah will be there to greet Madame.”
“What an uproar!” Domini exclaimed, half laughing, half confused. “Who on earth is Shabah?”
“Shabah is the Caid of Amara,” replied Batouch with dignity. “The greatest man of the city. He awaits Madame by the fountain.” Domini cast a glance at Androvsky.
“Well?” she said.
He shrugged his shoulders like a man who thinks strife useless and the moment come for giving in to Fate.
“The monster has opened his jaws for us,” he said, forcing a laugh. “We had better walk in, I suppose. But—O Domini!—the silence of the wastes!”
“We shall know it again. This is only for the moment. We shall have all its joy again.”
“Who knows?” he said, as he had said when they were riding up the sand slope. “Who knows?”
Then they got off their horses and were taken by the crowd.