OCR Text |
Show , ~z-.7*~ . pretty nearly a~~where -\~ithout b:ing I;_ afraid of their being insulted. Now 1"'5-:;..,_ ~- ,;:---;;1 you tell me! Sit down, madame !" : > ;!:!!:-~~~ The landlady sat down opposite to l · , ~ .:?-""'·-!him. The flickering light from the -- · ~,lamp fell across her wrinkled, in-telligent face, and brightened the eyes which were fixed intently upon her guest. " And you tell me! I've got a wife, madame, a little thing, young, a girl almost she is, and about the prettiest woman in England. I've got her out here in Africa." "Where is she, monsieur?" "At the inn at El-Akbara. This chap, this Benchaalal, is there. I've seen him. I saw the damned fellow the first night we got there. Now, what should he be staying on day after day for, instead of going to his home, to his damned mud hut in the desert? And whv should Achmed deny to you that he was there, and >04 I pretend to me that he had never heard of him, till I showed that I knew? And why should Achmed get me away from the inn every day, and persuade me to- night to be here, leaving my wife alone among a lot of scoundrels? Don't you think there's something up, madame? Don't you think, if you were me, you'd get back to your wife-yes, get back to her even if the mules hadn't six legs to go upon between them?" He struck his big hand upon the table and made the bottle jump and the lamp sway and shiver. The land- \ lady pursed her lips, put up the middle finger of her right hand to her chin and took it away again. "So," she said, after a pause. "So __ Bencha§.lal is at El- Akbara! I -~--thought as much." "Why?" said Sir Claude, sharply. Everything made him uneasy and --~suspicious to-night. --~~ -~-~ |