He might as well have sought inspiration
from the starry vault overhead. But he was not long kept in suspense.
After the exchange of a few sentences with the man who had returned his
salutation, Abdullah vouchsafed a brief translation.
"Not many minutes ago a carriage passed this way. It took the road to
the left, where it forks, not a hundred meters distant. We must ride
hard, monsieur, for the driver was flogging his beasts. Perhaps we may
have good fortune."
They were up, and away, thrusting into the darkness in a fast gallop.
At the parting of the roads they took the southern track, and the land
almost immediately became hilly. They eased the horses somewhat during
a long upward climb, but a plateau, followed by a gentle descent
towards the shore, gave them a chance of mending the pace, and the wiry
Arabs beneath them seemed to know that the more quickly the miles were
covered the less distance would they be called on to travel.
On the level again, where the occulting beam of the Massowah lighthouse
was hidden by the buildings on the island, they unexpectedly came upon
a disabled vehicle.
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