THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
in that tent? How does it happen that it is you who have saved me?"
She smiled. "I have come a long way tonight," she said, "and we have a long way to go before we shall be out of danger. Come; I shall tell you all about as we go."
Together they rose and set off across the desert in the direction of the mountains.
"I was not quite sure that I should ever reach you," she said at last. "El adrea is abroad tonight, and after I left the horses I think he winded me and was following—I was terribly frightened."
"What a brave girl," he said. "And you ran all that risk for a stranger—an alien—an unbeliever?"
She drew herself up very proudly.
"I am the daughter of the Sheik Kabour ben Saden," she answered. "I should be no fit daughter of his if I would not risk my life to save that of the man who saved mine while he yet thought that I was but a common Ouled-Nail."
"Nevertheless," he insisted, "you are a very brave girl. But how did you know that I was a prisoner back there?"
"Achmet-din-Taieb, who is my cousin on my father's side, was visiting some friends who belong to the tribe that captured you. He was at the douar when you were brought in. When he reached home he was telling us about the big Frenchman who had been captured by Ali-ben-Ahmed for another Frenchman who wished to kill him. From the description I knew
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