His firsturgent duty was to report his actions and whereabouts to his superiorsin Cairo, but the telegraph line ran only as far as Djibouti on theGulf of Aden. The intervening hillsmust have damped down the echoes so that they had not heard thembefore. Penrod looked back again, and saw that Osman was close behind him. The sensation of being young, strong and alive wasintoxicating.
He swung in sharply towards the prize, and as they closedthere was a cry of alarm from the man at her helm. Another shout went up, from every man in the yard, thistime of wild surmise and alarm. This was a bad timefor the women to come to him and tell him that al-Zahra was alsomissing. You speak Arabic? he asked, in that language.
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