ENCHANTED SHEIK

Evening Star, Issue 19787, 10 February 1928, Page 6

ENCHANTED SHEIK

ENGLISHWOMAN’S SONGS. A sheik who was delighted with the popular English airs which the wife of a Darlington vicar sang to him was the central figure in the extraordinary adventure of two Englishwomen in Algeria. Mrs Warth, _ wife of Rev. S. E. Warth, of Darlington, decided one day that she would like to see life as it is lived by the sailors of the merchant service. Accordingly she and a woman friend, whom she had lired with a like ambition, made their way to a Tyne port and persuaded the skipper of an outgoing ship to take them on as stewardesses.

The ship, as it happened, was hound for Algiers with a cargo of coal, but the prospect of arriving in a semi-civil-ised country in no way diminished the enthusiasm of Mrs Warth and her companion. They were, if anything, all the more pleased, for there was a possibility of meeting one of those inscrutable, hoarded men of the desert who have ligured in so many films. They might meet a sheik Throughout the voyage to Algiers the two Englishwomen were kept busy providing the crew with clean linen and helping to swab the deck and paint the woodwork. They were the only women on board, the crew being composed of white sailors, a black cook, and a Eurasian steward

When tho ship reached Algiers, it was to lind that a dockers’ strike had broken out. For some time it was impossible to get any of tho cargo unloaded, and the ship and its crew remained in idleness. Mrs Warth and her friend were determined not to lose the golden opportunity of exploring the strange land in which they had arrived. One day they set off unknown to the officers of the ship on a visit to the desert. It was a dangerous undertaking for two lonely white women, and their first encounter with Arabs was not such ns to weaken this impression. The adventurers were stopped by a patrol of Arab horsemen, who held them up on the suspicion of being secret service agents in the pay of a European Power. They took tho two women under escort to their encampment, where their sheik was sitting under an awning. The sheik listened to 'Mrs Warth’s explanation, and quickly decided that she was telling the truth. Ho smiled to her, and soon the throe—the sheik and tho two white women—were chattering gaily in a strange mixture of French and English Gifts were exchanged, and finally, after some of the tribesmen had sung wild chants of the desert, Mrs Warth, who had a charming voice, replied with some popular English airs. The sheik was enchanted. He clapped his hands in delight and besought the two ladies to stay, promising them his protection. Mrs Warth, however, thought that the adventure had gone far enough, and the two returned to Algiers, where they rejoined the ship. The ship proceeded to Huelva, Spain, and the return trip was made via Antwerp. Mrs Warth. on her return, said that everybody on board was pleased to have their _ company. “Wo hope to make a similar trip to the Baltic next year,” she added.