Free Sands of Destiny by E.C. Tubb

says? Tall and handsome and proud?”
    “The last time I saw him,” said Corville deliberately, “he had just knifed a man. He then showed his pride by ordering the deaths of some twenty helpless men. If such actions make him a gentleman, then I do not wish to be classed with him. Therefore, like Captain Gerald, I am no gentleman.”
    He blinked at the colonel, half aware that the closeness of the room and the richness of the unaccustomed wine was going to his head. “Do I walk out or are you going to throw me out?”
    “Silence!” Marignay was white with anger. “I’m surprised at you de Corville. To act and speak so in front of my guests!”
    “Yes,” said Corville. “I’m sorry. I should have known better than to speak the truth. They may want to cling to their illusions a little longer.” Suddenly he laughed. “Sorry. I must really apologise, The Colonel is right.”
    “He was found wandering in the desert suffering from thirst and heat,” explained the colonel rapidly. “I had hoped that he had made a full recovery but apparently I was wrong, You must excuse his conduct.”
    “But did he see this Sheik, what’s his name kill those men?” Dick narrowed his eyes as he stared at the young officer. “He doesn’t look sick to me, a little drunk perhaps, but not sick.”
    “Of course he did not,” said Marignay, “The whole thing was but a figment of his imagination. El Morini is a gentleman and would never do such a thing.” The Colonel touched his temple. “The sun, you know, it can do strange things to a man dying of thirst.”
    “And wounded too.” Clarice gently touched the strip of plaster across the young man’s forehead. “How did that happen?”
    “It is nothing,” said Corville, already ashamed of his outburst. “The Colonel is right. I did suffer from too much sun and it may have left me a little light-headed.” He reached for his glass, then added:
    “When did you say you were returning to Sidi bel Abbes?”
    “We’re not,” said Dick. “From here we’re going by camel caravan to Marojia. From there we hope to pick up transport to Toulon, then up through France, to London where we leave Miss Carson, and so back home to the States.” He stretched. “Personally, nice as it has been to come here and see all these things, I shan’t be sorry to get back home again.”
    “And you?” Corville smiled into the eyes of the young woman. “Will you be glad to leave?”
    “I don’t know,” she said softly. “I’d like to stay but a woman can hardly stay in a fort on her own, can she?”
    “No.”
    “Tell me,” she said absently. “What happens when you people marry? You do marry I suppose?”
    “Sometimes. Then, if the man is an officer and wise, he resigns his commission. If he is a man, he doesn’t get married, he can’t; or if he does, then it is his own fault. The desert is no place for women, white women that is, not when every moment is filled with danger.”
    “I’d wondered about that.” she said. “The danger I mean. Tell me, is it really as dangerous as some people make out? We’ve not seen any trouble and we’ve travelled hundreds of miles across the desert. Is it all rumour or do you actually fight real battles?”
    Corville thought of Le Farge and his ever present fears. He thought of blood-stained sand and the bodies of twenty legionnaires lying in their shallow graves less than half a day’s march away. He thought of Sheik El Morini and the man’s cold, calculated cruelty. He thought of Fort Hollendoft and what had been found there. He remembered that she was young and a guest and not really interested in the answer at all. Looking into her eyes he smiled and lied with easy skill.
    “No.”
    “I thought not. That Captain, Captain Gerald I think his name is, he kept trying to get us to leave sooner than we had planned.” She laughed. “The caravan is due in five days time and there isn’t any way we could leave until then so I don’t know what