“’Nobody here knows Cegheir-ben-Cheikh very well, because he is continually traveling.  It is true that he is entirely devoted to Antinea.  Cegheir-ben-Cheikh is a Senoussi, and Antinea is the cousin of the chief of the Senoussi.  Besides, he owes his life to her.  He is one of the men who assassinated the great Kebir Flatters.  On account of that, Ikenoukhen, amenokol of the Adzjer Tuareg, fearing French reprisals, wanted to deliver Cegheir-ben-Cheikh to them.  When the whole Sahara turned against him, he found asylum with Antinea.  Cegheir-ben-Cheikh will never forget it, for he is brave and observes the law of the Prophet.  To thank her, he led to Antinea, who was then twenty years old, three French officers of the first troops of occupation in Tunis.  They are the ones who are numbered, in the red marble hall, 1, 2, and 3.’

“’And Cegheir-ben-Cheikh has always fulfilled his duties successfully?’

“’Cegheir-ben-Cheikh is well trained, and he knows the vast Sahara as I know my little room at the top of the mountain.  At first, he made mistakes.  That is how, on his first trips, he brought back old Le Mesge and marabout Spardek.’

“‘What did Antinea say when she saw them?’

“’Antinea?  She laughed so hard that she spared them.  Cegheir-ben-Cheikh was vexed to see her laugh so.  Since then, he has never made a mistake.’

“‘He has never made a mistake?’

“’No.  I have cared for the hands and feet of all that he has brought here.  All were young and handsome.  But I think that your comrade, whom they brought to me the other day, after you were here, is the handsomest of all.’

“‘Why,’ I asked, turning the conversation, ’why, since she spared them their lives, did she not free the pastor and M. Le Mesge?’

“‘She has found them useful, it seems,’ said the old woman.  ’And then, whoever once enters here, can never leave.  Otherwise, the French would soon be here and, when they saw the hall of red marble, they would massacre everybody.  Besides, of all those whom Cegheir-ben-Cheikh has brought here, no one, save one, has wished to escape after seeing Antinea.’

“‘She keeps them a long time?’

“’That depends upon them and the pleasure that she takes in them.  Two months, three months, on the average.  It depends.  A big Belgian officer, formed like a colossus, didn’t last a week.  On the other hand, everyone here remembers little Douglas Kaine, an English officer:  she kept him almost a year.’

“‘And then?’

“‘And then, he died,’ said the old woman as if astonished at my question.

“‘Of what did he die?’

“She used the same phrase as M. Le Mesge: 

“’Like all the others:  of love.