Ibrahim remained by the door.  Nigel never moved.  Meyer Isaacson came quickly forward into the room as if he were going to Nigel.  But when he was in the middle of the room, something seemed to startle him.  He stopped abruptly, looked questioningly towards the window, then came out to the terrace.  On the threshold he stopped again.  He had seen the woman.  He looked for a moment at her, and she at him.  Then he came forward, put out his hands quickly, unlatched the wooden shutters, which were set back against the house wall, and pulled them inward towards him.  They met with a clang, blotting out the room from the woman’s eyes.

Then she waited no longer.  She made her way to the gate of the garden, passed out to the deserted track beyond, and disappeared into the darkness, going blindly towards the distant hills that keep the Arabian desert.

THE END