Desert Air | Page 2

my sort in the Sahara Desert. But I did not want to be rude to Marnier, who was friendly and agreeable, and obviously anxious to increase his already considerable store of knowledge. So I put my inclinations in my pocket, and, with inward reluctance, I agreed.
"We set off with Safti, my faithful one-eyed Arab guide, and after three long days of riding and talking--as I had feared--Maeterlink and Tolstoy, Henley and Verlaine (this last being utterly condemned by Marnier as a man of weak character and degraded life) we saw the towers of Beni-Kouidar aspiring above the shifting sands, the tufted summits of the thousands of palm-trees, and heard the dull beating of drums and the cries of people borne to us over the spaces of which silence is the steady guardian.
"We were all pretty tired, but Marnier was, especially done up. He had recently been working very hard for the 'first' with which he had left Oxford, and was not in good condition. We were, therefore, glad enough when we rode through the wide street thronged with natives, turned the corner into the great camel market, and finally dismounted before the door of the one inn, the 'Rendezvous des Amis,' a mean, dusty, one-storey building, on whose dirty white wall was a crude painting of a preposterous harridan in a purple empire gown, pouring wine for a Zouave who was evidently afflicted with elephantiasis. Yet, tired as I was, I stepped out into the camel market for a moment before going into the house, emptied my lungs, and slowly filled them.
"'What air!' I said to Marnier, who had followed me.
"'It is extraordinary,' he answered in his rather dry tenor voice. 'I should say like the best champagne, if I did not happen to be a teetotaller.'
"(The market, I must explain, was not at that moment in active operation.)
"After a bain de siege--we both longed for total immersion--and some weak tea, in which I mingled a spoonful of rum, we felt better, but we reposed till dinner, and once again Marnier, in his habitually restrained and critical manner, discussed contemporary literature, and what Plato and Aristotle, judging by; their writings, would have been likely to think of it. And once again I felt as if I were in the 'High' at Oxford, and was almost inclined to wish that Marnier was the rowdy type of undergrad, who ducks people in water troughs and makes bonfires in quads."
"H'm!" said the doctor gravely. "Better, perhaps, if he had been."
"Much better," I answered. "At seven o'clock we ate a rather tough dinner in the small, bare salle-à-manger, on the red brick floor of which sand grains were lying. Our only companion was a bearded priest in a dirty soutane, the aum?nier of Beni-Kouidar, who sat at a little table apart, and greeted our entrance with a polite bow, but did not then speak to us.
"When the meal was ended, however, he joined us as we stood at the inn door looking out into the night. A moon was rising above the palms, and gilding the cupolas of the Bureau Arabe on the far side of the Market Square. A distant noise of tomtoms and African pipes was audible. And all down the hill to our left--for the land rose to where the inn stood--fires gleamed, and we could see half-naked figures passing and repassing them, and others squatting beside, looking like monks in their hooped burnouses.
"'You are going out, messieurs?' said the aum?nier politely.
"I looked at Marnier.
"'You're too done up, I expect?' I said to him.
"His face was pale, and he certainly had the demeanour of a tired man.
"'No,' he answered. 'I should like to stroll in this wonderful air.'
"I turned to the priest.
"'Yes, monsieur,' I said.
"'I come here to take my meals, but I live at the edge of the town. Perhaps you will permit me to accompany you for a little way.'
"'We shall be delighted, and we know nothing of Beni-Kouidar.'
"As we stepped out into the market Marnier paused to light his pipe. But suddenly he threw away the match he had struck.
"'No, it's a sin to smoke in this air,' he said.
"And he drew a deep breath, looking at the round moon.
"The priest smiled.
"'I have lived here for four years,' he said, 'and cannot resist my cigar. But you are right. The air of Beni-Kouidar is extraordinary. When first I came here it used to mount to my head like wine.'
"'Bad for you, Marnier!' I said, laughing.
"Then I added, to the aum?nier:
"'My friend never drinks wine, and so ought to be peculiarly susceptible to such an influence.'"

II
"Opposite to the aumonier's dwelling was the great dancing-house of the town, and when we had bade him good-night, and turned to go back to the inn, I rather tentatively suggested to Marnier that,