Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece:  Trembling from head to foot the girl stood before the tent which no foot but his had trod.]

[Transcriber’s note:  the frontispiece page was too badly damaged to produce a usable image.]

THE HAWK OF EGYPT

By

JOAN CONQUEST

Author of “Desert Love”, “Leonie of the Jungle.”

FRONTISPIECE BY

G. W. GAGE

NEW YORK

THE MACAULAY COMPANY

Copyright, 1922,

By The Macaulay Company

Printed in the United States of America

  “In love and gratitude
  to
  the dearest of women
  ‘MIVES’
  my mother”

THE HAWK OF EGYPT

Author’s Note:  All names in this book are fictitious.

[Transcriber’s note:  A number of words in this book are Arabic, using characters that require Unicode to render properly.  Refer to the transcriber’s note at the end of this book for more information.]

THE HAWK OF EGYPT

CHAPTER I

“For in the days we know not of Did fate begin Weaving the web of days that wove Your doom.”

          Swinburne.

“. . . allahu akbar—­la ilaha—­illa ’llah!”

Across the golden glory of the sky floated the insistent call of the muezzin just as Damaris, followed closely by Wellington, her bulldog, turned out of the narrow street into the Khan el-Khalili.  Shrill and sweet, from far and near it came, calling the faithful to prayer, impelling merchants to leave their wares, buyers their purchases, gossips their chatter, and to turn in the direction of Mecca and offer their praise to Allah, who is God.

As the entire male population of the native quarter knelt, the girl drew back beneath an awning of many colours which shaded silken goods from the rays of the sun, whilst curious eyes peeped down upon her from behind the shelter of the masharabeyeh, the harem lattice of finely-carved wood.  Yards of silk of every hue lay tumbled inside and outside the dukkan or shop in the silk-market; silken scarves, plain and embroidered, hung from strings; silk shawls were spread upon Persian carpets; a veritable riot of colour against the yellow-white plaster of the shop walls, above which flamed the sky, a cloak of blue, embroidered in rose and gold and amethyst.

The native women behind the shelter of the wood lattice or the yashmak or the all-enveloping barku, talked softly together as they watched the beautiful girl who serenely and quite unveiled walked amongst men with an animal of surpassing hideousness at her heels.