The Flying Legion Part 70

He thrust a hand into his breast-pocket and brought out a small leather sack. Startled, she looked at it as he drew open the cord. He took from the sack a wondrous thing, luminous with nacreous hues.

"The Great Pearl Star," she cried. "Kaukab el Durri!"

"Yes, the Great Pearl Star, itself!"

She looked in silence. Then she reached out a hand and touched it, as if unbelieving.

"Why, you never told me!"

"I had a reason."

"And--through all that inferno, when every ounce had to be considered--"

"I was keeping this for--you."

There were tears in her eyes as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"For you," he repeated. "It was mine, but it is mine no longer. This crown-jewel of Islam is yours, now--if you will have it."

"If I will have it!" she whispered. "There's only one thing in this whole world I more dearly long for!"

"I am offering you that, too," said the man, in a trembling voice. "I knew nothing of it, nothing whatever, until I came to understand what a woman really could be. I fought against it--and lost.

"It came to me not sought after and welcomed, but storming over the ramparts of my soul. Yes, I fought love--and lost."

"I understand that, too," she said.

"I put the Great Pearl Star in my breast, sacred to you. I said to myself: 'If we ever live through this, and I feel worthy to give this gem to her, I'll ask her to complete it.'"

"To complete it?"

"Yes. You see, one pearl was missing. The most wonderful of all. Now, as I clasp this necklace round your throat, the Great Pearl Star is completed."

"I--don't understand--"

"Ah, but _I_ do! The missing pearl of great price-you are that pearl.

In giving the Great Pearl Star to you, I make it whole."

"And I give it back to you, completed!"

Her head lay on his heart. His lips were on her hair.

"Completion," he whispered. "Peace, to the troubled heart. Peace, after the night that life has been to me. Peace, till the dawn!"

"'Peace,'" she said, in the line of the ancient Arabic poem. "'Peace, until the coming of the stars.'"

"'Peace,'" he breathed. "'It is peace until the rising of the day!'"

THE END