Now Maieddine had
made the way easy--almost too easy, for the road to the golden silence
had become so wonderful that she was tempted to forget her haste to
reach the end.
XXVII
"There is my father's douar," said Si Maieddine; and Victoria's eyes
followed his pointing finger.
Into a stony and desolate waste had billowed one golden wave of sand,
and on the fringe of this wave, the girl saw a village of tents, black
and brown, lying closely together, as a fleet of dark fishing-boats lie
in the water. There were many little tents, very flat and low, crouched
around one which even at a distance was conspicuous for its enormous
size. It looked like a squatting giant among an army of pigmies; and the
level light of late afternoon gave extraordinary value to its colours,
which were brighter and newer than those of the lesser tents. As their
swaying carriage brought the travellers nearer, Victoria could see deep
red and brown stripes, separated by narrow bands of white. For
background, there was a knot of trees; for they had come south of El
Aghouat to the strange region of dayas, where the stony desolation is
broken by little emerald hollows, running with water, like big round
bowls stuck full of delicate greenery and blossoms.
Suddenly, as Victoria looked, figures began running about, and almost
before she had time to speak, ten or a dozen men in white, mounted on
horses, came speeding across the desert.
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