Not seeing her, I went back to my hard couch.
There were, then, two evil creatures prowling about the city, one with, and one without spots! I was not inclined to risk much for man or woman in Bulika, but the life of a child might well be worth such a poor one as mine, and I resolved to keep watch at that door the rest of the night.
Presently I heard the latch move, slow, slow: I looked up, and seeing the door half-open, rose and slid softly in.

Behind it stood, not the woman I had befriended, but the muffled woman of the desert.

Without a word she led me a few steps to an empty stone-paved chamber, and pointed to a rug on the floor.

I wrapped myself in it, and once more lay down.
She shut the door of the room, and I heard the outer door open and close again.

There was no light save what came from the moonlit air.
As I lay sleepless, I began to hear a stifled moaning.