all thetreasure and brought it hither to this spot, which bore his name, inthat day a gigantic walled city larger by far than Agadez."
I glanced around upon the few miserable ruins of mud-built houses, andsaw beyond them large mounds which, in themselves, indicated that thefoundations of an important centre of a forgotten civilisation layburied beneath where we stood.
"Lebo had one son," continued Zohra, "and he had revolted against hisfather; therefore the latter, feeling that his strength was failing, andhaving been told by the sorcerers that on his death his great kingdomwould dwindle until his name became forgotten, resolved to build thesethree pyramids, that they should remain throughout all ages as monumentsof his greatness."
"And the treasure?" I asked. "Is it stated what became of it?"
"Most precisely. It is recorded here," she answered, pointing to ahalf-defaced line in the mysterious screed. "The king feared lest hisrefractory son, who had endeavoured to usurp his power in the countrymany marches farther south, would obtain possession of the spoils ofwar, therefore he concealed them in one of yonder monuments."
"In there!" I cried eagerly. "Is the treasure actually still there?"
"It cannot have been removed. The secret lies in the apex of the thirdand lastly constructed monument," she explained.
"But the summit cannot be reached," I observed, glancing up at the highpoint. "It would require a ladder as long as that of Jacob's dream."
"There is a secret way," she answered quite calmly. "If thou artprepared for the risk, I am quite ready to accompany thee. Let us atonce explore."
Together we approached the base of the third pyramid, and Zohra, aftercareful calculation and examination, led me to a spot where there was ahole in the stone just of sufficient size to admit a human foot. Onemight have passed it by unnoticed, for so cunningly was it devised thatit looked like a natural defect in the block of granite.
"Behold!" she cried. "Climb, and I will follow."
The day was hot, and the sun had only just passed the noon, neverthelessI placed my foot in the burning stone, and scrambling forward found thatshe had made no mistake. At intervals there were similar footholds,winding, intricate, and in many instances filled with the nests ofvultures, but always ascending. For fully half an hour we toiled upwardto the apex, until we at length reached it, perspiring and panting, andminutely examined the single enormous block of stone that capped thesummit. By its size I saw that no human hands could move it. If thetreasure lay beneath, then it must remain for ever concealed.
"That parchment giveth no instructions how the spoils of war may bereached. We must discover that for ourselves," she observed, clamberingon, still in her ragged male attire with which I had furnished herbefore leaving the stronghold of the Black Sultan.
I was clinging with one arm around the apex itself, and with the othergrasping her soft white hand. She had looked down from the dizzy heightand shuddered, therefore I feared lest she might be seized with a suddengiddiness. But quickly she released herself, and proceeded to scramblealong on hands and knees, making a minute investigation of the wall.
Her sudden cry brought me quickly to her side, and my heart leapt wildlywhen I discerned before me, in the wall of the pyramid, immediately atthe base of the gigantic block forming the apex, an aperture closed by asheet of heavy iron, coloured exactly the same as the stone and quiteindistinguishable from it. Some minutes we spent in its examination,beating upon it with our fists. But the secret how to open it was anenigma as great as that of the closed cavern in our book of the"Thousand Nights and a Night," until suddenly, by merest chance, we bothplaced our hands upon it, and it moved slightly beneath our touch. Nextmoment, with a cry, we both pushed our hardest, and slowly, ever soslowly, it slid along, grating in the groove, which was doubtless filledby the dust of centuries, disclosing a small, dark, low chamber roofedby the apex-stone.
Stepping inside, our gaze eagerly wandered around the mysterious place,and we at once saw that we had indeed discovered the treasure-house ofLebo the Great, for around us were piled a wondrous store of gold andgems, personal ornaments and great golden goblets and salvers. Theaggregate value of the treasure was enormous.
"Of a verity," I cried, "this is amazing!"
"Yea," she answered, turning her fine eyes upon me. "I give this secretentirely and unreservedly unto thee, as reward for thine aid. At thegoing down of the sun I shall part from thee, and leave this home of myrace for ever. In six hours' march, by the secret gorges, I can reachour encampment, therefore trouble no further after me. Close thistreasure-house, return to thine own people, and let them profit by thydiscovery."
"But thou, Zohra, boldest me in fascination," I cried passionately."Thou hast entranced me. I love thee!"
"Love can never enter mine heart," she answered with a calm smile, butsighing nevertheless. "I am already the wife of thine enemy, Melaki,ruler of the Kel-Oui."
"Wife of Melaki!" I exclaimed amazed. "And thou hast done this?"
"Yes," she answered in a lower voice. "I have given thee thy promisedreward, so that thou and thy people may become rich, and some day makebrotherhood with us, and unite against the Black Sultan."
"If such is in my power it shall be done," I said, stooping andimprinting a passionate kiss upon her soft white hand. Then soonafterwards we closed the mouth of the chamber and descended, finding thetask no easy one. At the base of the "Dwarf" we parted, and never sincehave mine eyes beheld her beautiful countenance.
Ere a moon had passed away, I had conducted a party of my clansmen untothe Three Dwarfs, and we had removed the treasure of the great founderof the Kel-Oui. Of such quantity was it that seven camels were requiredto convey it to Mourzouk, where it was sold to the Jews in the market,and fetched a sum which greatly swelled our finances.
True to my promise, when I assumed the chieftainship of the Azjar, Ieffected a friendly alliance with the Kel-Oui, and endeavoured to seekout Zohra.
But with poignant grief I learnt that soon after her return to herpeople she had been seized by a mysterious illness which proved fatal.Undoubtedly she was poisoned, for it was her evil-faced husband, Melaki,who told me how he had found in her possession a mysterious screedrelating to the treasure of Lebo, and how, when questioned, she hadadmitted revealing its secret to the man who had rescued her from theharem of the Black Sultan.
Melaki never knew that the man with whom she fled from Agadez, and wholoved her more devotedly than any other man had ever done, was myself.
CHAPTER FIVE.
THE COMING OF ALLAH.
One breathless evening, when the golden sun had deepened to crimson, andthe shadows of the rocks were lengthening upon the white furnace of thesands, an alarm spread through our camp that strange horsemen wereriding hard down the valley in our direction. Marauders that we were,fierce reprisals were of no infrequent occurrence, therefore the womenand children were quickly hurried out of the way, the camels tethered,and each man gripped his spear, prepared to resist whatever onslaughtmight be made.
Along the Wady Ereren, six days' march south of the town of Ghat, wherewe were at that time encamped, we had taken the precaution to post threemen in order to give us warning in case of any projected attack by theKel-Alkoum, the powerful people with whom we were at feud on account ofthe murder of six of our clansmen up in the north of Fezzan. Ouroutposts, however, had sent us no word, therefore the only conclusionwas that they had been surprised and killed ere they could reach us.
Hearing the news, I clambered up the bank of the ancient dried-upwatercourse, in the bed of which we had pitched our tents, and, lookingacross the bend, we saw four dark specks approaching. The eye of theTouareg is as keen as that of the eagle, for, living as we do uponplunder, our intelligence becomes so sharpened that we somehowinstinctively scent the approach of the stranger long before we see orhear him. In a few moments the men crowded about me for my opinion.Tamahu was dead, and this occurred in the first year of my chieftainshipof the Azjar.
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p; "Let all four be captured and brought to me," I said, my eyes stillfixed upon the approaching figures. "If they resist, kill them."
In an instant twenty men, dark and forbidding in their black veils,sprang into their high-backed brass-mounted saddles, and with theirgleaming spears held high, ready to strike, swept away down the valleyto meet the new-comers.
Half an hour passed anxiously. The women in the rear chatteredexcitedly, and the children, held back by them, rent the air by theircries. From where I stood I was unable to witness the meeting of ourmen with the strangers, but suddenly the sound of firearms reached ourears. Then I felt assured that the mysterious horsemen must either bethe advance-guard of some valuable caravan from Algeria, or of an armyfrom the north. Yet again and again the