“Yes,” she said, bowing her head. “I knew of its existence, but dared not break my oath. Forgive me—forgive me!—I am not worthy to be thy wife.”
“Why?”
“Because—because I allowed thee to risk thy life when I might have obviated thy danger by confessing all to thee,” she answered, her trembling hand grasping my wrist.
“Wilt thou explain everything to me now?” I asked.
“Yes, everything,” she said. “I have left my people. The bond between the Senousya and myself is broken, for I go now with thee to the country of the Roumis, and nothing have I to conceal. Ah! thou knowest not the grim tragedy of my life.”
“But thou hast given me wealth, and with thee I shall obtain perfect happiness.”
“I trust in thee,” she said. “I go to thine unknown world with thee, for I know thou lovest me. Now that thou hast given me freedom and a new life, I will relate unto thee the story of my bitter past.”
Together we leaned upon the rail, and with the cool sea-breeze fanning our temples, we watched the ever-lengthening line of foam left by the propeller, as the distant, twinkling lights of the city faded in the gloom. The other passengers were below in their berths, and as we stood together unobserved, she explained to me things that I had through so many months regarded as impenetrable mysteries.
“My traducers and my persecutors have always spoken of me as a daughter of the Ennitra,” she commenced. “They were mistaken. I was in no way related to any of that fiendish band. My father was Sheikh of the Beni M’zab, and at his death he entrusted to me, his only child, an ancient tablet of wood, together with the Crescent of Glorious Wonders, telling me that for generations these had been in the possession of our family, and that they would lead to an extraordinary discovery; at the same time, causing me to take solemn oath to divulge nothing that he told me. I was held to secrecy by a bond of blood. About one moon after my father’s death, our caravan encamped at the palms of El Maessifer, on the border of the Touat Oasis, and at night we were attacked by the Ennitra. The massacre was awful. The majority of our men were slaughtered, our caravan looted, and the women and children, myself included, carried off to Hadj Absalam’s palace in the mountains. Already I had learned many feats of magic of the sorcerer of our tribe, and my father had initiated me as a priestess of the Senousya; so with the Crescent and the strangely-carved wooden tablet in my possession, I resolved to try, if possible, to preserve mine honour by declaring myself possessed of miraculous powers. Already had I heard that our enemies the Ennitra were highly superstitious, therefore I strove to impress my captors by performing some simple but astonishing feats of legerdemain. This so impressed the men who held me in bondage, that when we arrived at the palace, they brought me before Hadj Absalam, who himself witnessed some of my feats. He acknowledged himself astounded, and ordered me to be sent to his harem as a portion of the spoils of war.”
“To his harem?” I cried, interrupting.