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Show But she left her hand in his, and added, on the landing: "As if you could lose me out here! Crumpet, you're more foolish th~n I a m , and I'm one mass of superstitiO, n, even about going under ladders. "Then do you believe that pinkeyed astrologer chap?" " Of course not. Bed, bed, beautiful bed!" In the evening of the next day they arrived at El-Akbara, but not witha little adventure on the way. Near a station called Kreir the train off the line, and Lady Wyverne, not hurt, was a good deal and very much frightened. , after a long delay, they started again, both she and her husband sat opposite to each other in a moody silence. Sir Claude seemed specially oppressed, and smoked cigar after cigar with almost feverish rapidity. Only when they had left the train and were being driven to the little inn, where they were to spend the night, did they both brighten and begin to return to their normal spirits. " What an extraordinary little place, Crumpet!" said Lady Wyverne, peering through her veil at the towering rocks which formed a terrific wall, dividing the desert from the Tell. "But where's the Sahara?" "I dunno, Kitty," returned Sir Claude. "Wonder if there's any shootin' in those mountains." ""Why, it's getting quite cold!" cried Lady Wyverne, as the carriage rattled into a narrow gorge of the rocks full of shadows and of the sound of rushing waters. "One would never suppose that the desert- Here's the hotel!" The carriage had stopped before a solitary house which stood in the heart of the gorge on the edge of a turmoil of absinthe- colored water. |