Ahead lay--what?
"It may be glory and power, wealth past reckoning, incredible splendor," thought the Master, "and it may be ignominy, torture, death.

'Allah knows best and time will show.' But whatever it may be--is it completion?
The human heart, alone--can that ever be complete in this world ?" He bent at the rail, gazing far out into the vague emptiness through which the air-liner was pushing.
"Come what may," he murmured, "for tonight, at any rate, it is peace.
'It is peace, till the rising of the dawn!'" In a strange mood, still holding no converse with any man, he returned to the main corridor and went toward his cabin.

His way led past the door of "Captain Alden." There he paused a moment, all alone in the corridor.

The lights in the ceiling showed a strange look in his eyes.
His face softened, as he laid a hand on the metal panels of the door, silently almost caressingly.
To himself he whispered: "I wonder who she really is?
What can her name be--who can she be, and--and--" He checked himself, impatiently: "What thoughts are these?
What nonsense?
Such things are not for me!" Silently he returned to his cabin, undressed, switched off the light and turned into his berth, under which lay the incalculable treasures of Islam.

For a long time he lay there, thinking, wondering, angry with himself for having seemed to give way for a single moment to softer thoughts than those of conquest and adventure.
Gradually the cradling swing, the quivering power of the airship, lulled his fevered spirit.