Then of a sudden he was gone.
"Who is that man, O Captain, at whose bidding the wilderness swarms with tribesmen and kings are brought to doom ?" asked Asti when she had watched him disappear.
"Lady," he answered, "I cannot tell you, but from the beginning he has been Master of the Desert, and those who dwell therein.

At his word the sandwind blows as it blew yesterday to cover our advance, at his word the fountains spring and tribes grow great or sink to nothingness.

We think that he is a spirit who moves where he lists, and executes the decrees of heaven.

At the least, though they but see him from time to time, all the dwellers in the wilderness obey him, as we do, and ill does it go, as you have learned, with those dwellers in cities who know not the power which breathes beneath that tattered robe." "I thank you," answered Asti.

"I think with you that this Wanderer is a spirit, and a great one, so great that I will not name his name.
Captains, my Lady is ready to march towards the City of Gold, whither you will lead us." For day after day, for week after week, for month after month, they marched southward and westward across the Desert, and in the centre of their host, mounted upon camels, rode Tua and Asti veiled.