[The Lion of Petra by Talbot Mundy]@TWC D-Link bookThe Lion of Petra CHAPTER VIII 1/20
"He Cools His Wrath in the Moonlight, Communing with Allah!" Now the desert at full moon is as light as Broadway, and the only shadows are those the camels cast, than which there is nothing more weird in the whole range of phantasmagoria.
We looked like a string of glistening ghosts accompanied by goblins of a fourth dimension mocking us, and though you couldn't see the details of men's faces, looking back along the line you could see every movement and distinguish man from man. About midnight Ayisha made up her mind to enjoy the _shibriyah,_ more, I suspect, for the sake of annoying the Sikh than because she really wanted it.
So she ranged alongside, and chiefly because I was curious and chose to be amused, but partly because of my league with Narayan Singh to keep watch on her, I checked my protesting camel and let him drop back into place behind them. I knew Narayan Singh was awake, for I had seen the glow of his cigarette through the curtains ten minutes before; but he pretended to be asleep, so that she had to get the camels flank to flank and put her hand inside the curtains to awake him.
Then he did the obvious thing and seized her hand, and I heard his bass voice answering her shrill protests.
I don't know why, but the moonlight that made all things clear seemed also to make words more than usually distinct. "Ah!" he boomed.
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