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Show VII THE place with the devil's own name alluded to by Sir Claude was El-Alia in the plain at the foot of the salt mountain, which travellers see from the train as they journey to Beni-Mora. That evening, as darkwas closing in, Sir Claude, weary a long day's hunting, but triumphant in the knowledge of slaughtered Barbary sheep and gazelle, was seated under a vine before the door of an auberge kept by an elderly Frenchwoman, discussing with a voracious appetite an excellent meal of gazelle, with vegetables, a chicken, a cousand a salad, washed down by bottle of thin red wine, which he would have despised in London, but which now seemed to him more delicious than a vintage claret drunk under ordinary town circumstances. The two days of out- door life in wild surroundings and glorious air, the contact with Africans, who were mighty hunters, his prowess in killing things-as Lady Wyverne described sport-had given an edge to his spirit as well as to his appetite. He felt in glorious condition, at peace with himself and all the world. The only cloud to dim his immense satisfaction was the thought of his promise to Kitty to go away on the morrow. BeniMora was far less good as a sporting centre than El-Akbara. He would have liked to spend another week, or, better, another month, at the cosey little hotel in the gorge. Only Kitty was bored. She had showed it. She had asked him to take her away. Vaguely he remembered their inter· 75 |
