"It is the hour the Muezzin calls," said David gently.

"It is almost sunset.

Shall I open the windows that the call may come to us ?" he added.
While Kaid stared at him, his breast heaving with passion, David went to a window and opened the shutters wide.
The Palace faced the Nile, which showed like a tortuous band of blue and silver a mile or so away.

Nothing lay between but the brown sand, and here and there a handful of dark figures gliding towards the river, or a little train of camels making for the bare grey hills from the ghiassas which had given them their desert loads.

The course of the Nile was marked by a wide fringe of palms showing blue and purple, friendly and ancient and solitary.