human
All mine has come from Sir Knight: stories he's told me and books he's given me. Long ago he talked about the Lost Oasis. I thought of it as a thrilling fairy story. But he believes it may exist, somewhere far, far east, beyond walls of mountains and shifting sand-dunes, between the Sahara and the Libyan deserts.
gpt
Wouldn't other explorers have found it, if it were there?
human
Lots have tried, and been lost themselves: or else they've given up hope, after terrible privations, and have struggled back to their starting-place. But Richard says he has pledged himself to succeed where the rest have failed, or else to die. It was awful to hear him say that--and to see the look in his eyes.
gpt
He's done some wonderful things,
human
Yes; but this seems different, and more terrifying than any of his other adventures, because in them he had men for his worst enemies. This time his enemy will be nature. And its venturing into the unknown--almost like trying to find the way to another world. Everybody knew there was a Thibet and a Central Africa, and what the dangers would be like there; but no one knows anything of this place--if it is a place.
gpt
What's the story that makes Mr. Stanton feel the thing is worth risking?
human
The story is, that there's a blank in Egyptian history which could be filled up and accounted for, if a great mass of people had moved away and begun a new civilization somewhere, safe from all the enemies who had disturbed them and stolen their treasure.
gpt
Splendid story! But it sounds as much of a fable as any other myth, doesn't it?
human
It might, if there hadn't been other stories of lost oases which have proved to be true.
gpt
I never heard of them,
human
Nor I, except from Sir Knight. He says that only lately people have found several oases south of Tripoli, which were talked about before in the same legendary way as this one he's going to search for. Only a few people know about them now: but they _are_ known. And they're inhabited by Jews who fled by tribes from the Romans when Solomon's Temple was destroyed, in the reign of the Emperor Titus. They never trade, except with each other, but have everything they need in their hidden dwelling-places. They speak the ancient language that was spoken in Palestine all those centuries ago, and wear the same costume, and keep to the same laws. That's why Sir Knight thinks the greater Lost Oasis may exist, having been even better hidden than those. There was a famous explorer named Rholf who believed that he'd found traces of a way to it, but he lost them again. And there were Caillaud and Cat, and other names he spoke of to-day, that I've forgotten. I wish, though, that he were not going--or else that I could go with him, in the way I used to plan when I was small.
gpt
What way?
human
Oh, it was only nonsense--silly, romantic nonsense, that I'd got out of books. I used to make up stories about myself joining Sir Knight on some expedition, dressed as a boy, and he not recognizing me. She laughed a little.
gpt
I constantly saved his life, of course! But now we won't talk of him any more. You and I will make up a story about _ourselves_. We're alone on a desert island, and we have to find food and shelter, and be as comfortable and as happy as we can. In the story, you have cause to hate me, but you don't, because you're generous. So you forage for game and fruit, and help me to escape. Which means, if you've really forgiven my horridness, that you'll take pity on me and ask me to dine with you before you put me into my train as you promised.
human
I will do all that, said Max, almost eagerly.
gpt
And if you'll let me I'll go with you in the train to Sidi-bel-Abbés.
human
Oh, no! she exclaimed.
gpt
I couldn't consent to such a sacrifice.
human
I must go either by your train or another.
gpt
Why--why?
human
I've found out that the woman I came to search for is not only alive, but living at Sidi-bel-Abbés.
gpt
It's Fate! the girl half whispered.
human
But _what_ Fate? What does it all mean?
gpt
I've been asking myself that question, Max said,