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NEW
OPTIMIZATION
ALGORITHMS
AND THEIR
APPLICATIONS
This page intentionally left blank
NEW
OPTIMIZATION
ALGORITHMS
AND THEIR
APPLICATIONS
Atom-Based,
Ecosystem-Based and
Economics-Based
WEIGUO ZHAO
Professor, School of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric
Power, Hebei University of Engineering, China

LIYING WANG
Professor, School of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric
Power, Hebei university of Engineering, China

ZHENXING ZHANG
Hydrologist, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, USA
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Copyright © 2021 China Science Publishing & Media Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
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This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the
Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical
treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating
and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such
information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including
parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume
any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability,
negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas
contained in the material herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-323-90941-9
This book was originally published in China with the ISBN 978-7-03-064198-4

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Typeset by SPi Global, India

Contents

Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix

1. Introduction 1
1.1 Optimization algorithms 1
1.2 A short outline of optimization algorithms 2
1.3 Organization of this book 6
References 7

2. Atom search optimization algorithm 13

2.1 Introduction 13
2.2 Basic molecular dynamics 15
2.3 Atom search optimization 18
2.4 Experimental results 26
2.5 Conclusions 43
References 44

3. Engineering applications of atom search optimization

algorithm 47
3.1 Introduction 47
3.2 Parameter estimation for chaotic system 47
3.3 Circular antenna array design problem 51
3.4 Spread spectrum radar polyphase code design 52
3.5 Conclusions 56
References 57

4. Artificial ecosystem-based optimization algorithm 59

4.1 Introduction 59
4.2 Artificial ecosystem-based optimization 61
4.3 Results and discussion 68
4.4 Conclusions 88
References 88

v
vi Contents

5. Engineering applications of artificial ecosystem-based

optimization 93
5.1 Engineering optimization using the AEO algorithm 93
5.2 Static economic load dispatch problem 103
5.3 Hydrothermal scheduling problem 111
5.4 Conclusions 119
References 120

6. Supply-demand-based optimization 123

6.1 Introduction 123
6.2 Supply-demand-based optimization 124
6.3 Experimental results and discussion 134
6.4 Conclusions 141
References 141

7. Engineering applications of supply-demand-based

optimization 143
7.1 Introduction 143
7.2 Three-bar truss design 143
7.3 Cantilever beam design 146
7.4 Rolling element bearing design 147
7.5 Gear train design 150
7.6 Conclusions 151
References 152

Appendix 153
Index 163
Preface

Optimization means to search for optimal solutions effectively and effi-

ciently from a given solution space under the given constraints, by either
maximizing or minimizing the objective function. Metaheuristic optimiza-
tion algorithms, which are powerful tools for addressing these challenging
optimization problems, are becoming increasingly popular. For this book,
three novel intelligent optimization techniques, based on atomic dynamics,
artificial ecosystems, and economics were developed, tested, and applied to
practical engineering issues. The book is organized as follows:
Chapter 1 introduces the development of intelligent optimization algo-
rithms and their advantages and disadvantages.
Chapter 2 introduces the process and basic principles of the atom search
optimization algorithm and tests the algorithm.
Chapter 3 applies the atom search optimization algorithm in engineering
issues.
Chapter 4 introduces the proposed process and basic principle of the arti-
ficial ecosystem-based optimization algorithm and tests the algorithm.
Chapter 5 employs the artificial ecosystem-based optimization algorithm
in engineering applications.
Chapter 6 presents the inspiration and description of the supply-
demand-based optimization.
Chapter 7 demonstrates the applications of the supply-demand-based
optimization in different engineering cases.
Appendix A lists mathematical benchmark functions used to test the per-
formance of various algorithms.
Appendix B lists optimization formulations of various engineering
problems.
Appendix C provides the MATLAB codes of three algorithms.
We have been working on intelligent optimization algorithms for many
years and have made some achievements. The book is compiled on the basis
of the results of these achievements.
We appreciate the support of the administration and colleagues of the
School of Water Resources and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engi-
neering, China, as well as professors from other universities. We would like
to express our respect and gratitude for the references in the book. We also

vii
viii Preface

acknowledge the publishers who permitted our papers to be adopted and

utilized in the preparation of this book.
This book can be used by technicians who are engaged in computing and
intelligent algorithms and various engineering practices that use optimiza-
tion. It is also a good reference for postgraduates and teachers of relevant
specialties in colleges and universities.
Our warmest gratitude is due to our families for their continued support
in the course of preparing this book. Dr. Zhao worked on the ideas and
papers, which motivated the preparation of this book, in Illinois State Water
Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Preparing the
book brought back all the beautiful memories in Champaign, IL. Owing
to the limitation of our knowledge, we are not able to eradicate incomplete-
ness or errors in the book. Your suggestions would be much appreciated.
Please contact us with your suggestions via the publisher.

Weiguo Zhao
Liying Wang
Zhenxing Zhang
Acknowledgments

Acknowledgment is given to Springer for permission to reprint material

from the following paper:
Zhao W, Wang L, Zhang Z. 2020. Artificial ecosystem-based optimiza-
tion: A novel nature-inspired meta-heuristic algorithm, Neural Com-
puting and Applications 32:9383–9425.
Acknowledgment is given to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engi-
neers (IEEE) for permission to reprint a portion of the material from the fol-
lowing paper:
Zhao W, Wang L, Zhang Z. 2019. Supply-demand-based optimization:
A novel economics-inspired algorithm for global optimization, IEEE
Access 7:73182–73206. © [2019] IEEE.
Acknowledgment is also given to Elsevier for permission to reprint material
from the following papers:
Zhao W, Wang L. 2016. An effective bacterial foraging optimizer for
global optimization, Information Sciences 329:719–735.
Zhao W, Wang L, Zhang Z. 2019. Atom search optimization and its
application to solve a hydrogeologic parameter estimation problem,
Knowledge-Based Systems 163:283–304.
The authors are grateful that the copyright permission was granted from the
above publishers.

ix
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This page intentionally left blank
CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Contents
1.1 Optimization algorithms 1
1.2 A short outline of optimization algorithms 2
1.3 Organization of this book 6
References 7

1.1 Optimization algorithms

Optimization algorithms are increasingly popular in intelligent computing
and are widely applied to a large number of real-world engineering prob-
lems. Their popularity derives from the following aspects. First, all of these
optimization techniques have some fundamental theories and mathematical
models that have been proved to be reasonable, which come from the real
world and are inspired by all types of physical phenomena or biological
behaviors (Kirkpatrick et al., 1983; Kennedy and Eberhart, 1995). The the-
ories about these optimization algorithms are simple and easy to understand.
Second, these optimization algorithms can be thought of as a black box. This
means that given a set of inputs, these algorithms can easily provide a set of
outputs for any optimization problem. They are very flexible and versatile
because one can change the structures and parameters of the algorithms to
obtain better solutions. Third, metaheuristic algorithms can effectively avoid
local optima, which is very valuable for addressing engineering problems
which are typically considered as multimodal functions. In addition, one
can develop their variants by absorbing the merits of other algorithms to
improve the accuracy of solutions within a reasonable time. Fourth, the
metaheuristic optimization algorithms can tackle different types of problems
including, but not limited to, single-objective and multiobjective problems,
low-dimensional and high-dimensional problems, unimodal and multi-
modal problems, and discrete and continuous problems (Liu et al., 2017;
Li et al., 2018; Duan et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2019).

New Optimization Algorithms and their Applications Copyright © 2021 China Science Publishing & Media Ltd.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-90941-9.00001-6 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1
2 New optimization algorithms and their applications

1.2 A short outline of optimization algorithms

Since the 1970s, many optimization algorithms have been developed and
applied to different optimization problems. These algorithms, which mimic
natural or physical phenomena, have provided effective and robust tech-
niques for solving complex optimization problems in a wide spectrum of
disciplines. Many metaheuristic algorithms with different inspirations have
been proposed and successfully used in a variety of fields, which are roughly
classified into four categories (Hare et al., 2013): evolution-inspired,
(M€ uhlenbein et al., 1988; Gong et al., 2013, 2014), physics-inspired
(Geem et al., 2001), swarm-inspired (Krause et al., 2013), and human-
inspired (Montiel et al., 2007).
Evolution-inspired algorithms are a stochastic, population-based
approach. Protecting a population’s diversity is very important for the sus-
tainable development of the algorithms iteratively. Many evolution-inspired
algorithms maintain a population’s diversity by mimicking basic genetic
rules, including reproduction, mutation, selection, chemotaxis, elimination,
and migration (Passino, 2002; Falco et al., 2012). These algorithms ran-
domly initialize a population evolved from subsequent iterations and eval-
uate the individual quality using a fitness function. Genetic algorithm (GA),
originally presented by Holland (1975), is a well-known classic evolutionary
algorithm (EA). As GA can generally obtain high-quality solutions using
mutation, crossover, and selection steps, the original version and its variants
are widely applied to many real-world problems (Gong et al., 2018). Since
its emergence, a series of schemes aiming to enhance GA have been devel-
oped. With increasing popularity of GA, a number of other evolution-based
algorithms in the literature, including evolutionary strategies (ES) (Beyer
and Schwefel, 2002), differential evolution (DE) (Rocca et al., 2011), evo-
lutionary programming (EP) ( Juste et al., 1999), and memetic algorithms
(MA) (Moscato et al., 2007), have been proposed. Additionally, many types
of new EAs have been proposed recently, such as bacterial foraging optimi-
zation (BFO) (Passino, 2002), bat algorithm (BA) (Yang and Hossein, 2012),
fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) (Pan, 2012), monkey king evolu-
tionary (MKE) (Meng and Pan, 2016), artificial algae algorithm (AAA)
(Uymaz et al., 2015), biogeography-based optimization (BBO) (Simon,
2009), yin-yang-pair optimization (YYPO) (Punnathanam and Kotecha,
2016), invasive weed optimization (IWO) (Mehrabian and Lucas, 2006),
and dynamic virtual bats algorithm (DVBA) (Topal and Altun, 2016).
 Introduction 3

Physics-inspired algorithms simulate physical laws in the universe,

among which, simulated annealing (SA) (Kirkpatrick et al., 1983) is one
of the most well-known algorithms. SA is inspired from the annealing pro-
cess used in physical material in which a heated metal cools and freezes into a
crystal texture with a minimum amount of energy. Recently, many novel
physics-inspired algorithms have been proposed, such as gravitational search
algorithm (GSA) (Rashedi et al., 2009), electromagnetism-like mechanism
(EM) algorithm (Birbil and Fang, 2003), particle collision algorithm (PCA)
(Sacco and De Oliveira, 2015), vortex search algorithm (VSA) (Dogan and
€
Olmez, 2015), water evaporation optimization (WEO) (Kaveh and Bakhsh-
poori, 2016), space gravitational algorithm (SGA) (Hsiao et al., 2005), big
bang-big crunch algorithm (BB-BC) (Genç et al., 2010), galaxy based algo-
rithm (GBA) (Shah-Hosseini, 2009), big crunch algorithm (BCA) (Kripka
and Kripka, 2008), integrated radiation algorithm (IRA) (Chuang and Jiang,
2007), water drops algorithm (WDA) (Shah-Hosseini, 2009), charged sys-
tem search (CSS) (Kaveh and Talatahari, 2010), magnetic optimization algo-
rithm (MOA) (Mirjalili and Hashim, 2012), gravitation field algorithm
(GFA) (Zheng et al., 2010), ions motion algorithm (IMA) ( Javidy et al.,
2015), water wave optimization (WWO) (Zheng, 2015), gravitational inter-
actions optimization (GIO) (Flores et al., 2011), teaching-learning-based
optimization (TLBO) (Rao et al., 2012), hysteretic optimization (HO)
(Zarand et al., 2002), thermal exchange optimization (TEO) (Kaveh and
Dadras, 2017), light ray optimization (LRO) (Shen and Li, 2009), heat trans-
fer search (HTS) (Patel and Savsani, 2015), spiral optimization algorithm
(SOA) (Tamura and Yasuda, 2011), water cycle algorithm (WCA)
(Eskandar et al., 2012), and curved space optimization (CSO)
(Moghaddam et al., 2012).
Swarm-inspired algorithms mimic the collective behaviors of self-
organization and shape-formation, be it natural or artificial (Beni and Wang,
1993). There are two classic swarm-inspired algorithms. One is particle
swarm optimization (PSO) (Kennedy and Eberhart, 1995), which mimics
bird-flocking behaviors. In PSO, every agent moves around the search space
to improve its solution, and their personal best positions and the globally best
position found so far are reserved, by which their positions are updated
locally and socially. The other is ant colony optimization (ACO) (Dorigo
et al., 1996), which follows the foraging process of an ant colony. Essentially,
ants communicate with each other by pheromone trails through path forma-
tions, which assist them in finding the shortest path between the nest and
4 New optimization algorithms and their applications

food source. There are many newly developed swarm-inspired algorithms,

such as artificial bee colony (ABC) (Akay and Karaboga, 2012), salp swarm
algorithm (SSA) (Mirjalili et al., 2017), krill herd algorithm (KH) (Gandomi
and Alavi, 2012), tree-seed algorithm (TSA) (Kiran, 2015), social spider
optimization (SSO) (Cuevas et al., 2013), bird mating optimizer (BMO)
(Askarzadeh, 2014), cuckoo search (CS) (Yang and Deb, 2019), grasshopper
optimization algorithm (GOA) (Saremi et al., 2017), sine-cosine algorithm
(SCA) (Mirjalili, 2016), moth swarm algorithm (MSA) (Mohamed et al.,
2017), dolphin echolocation (DE) algorithm (Kaveh and Farhoudi, 2013),
hunting search (HS) algorithm (Oftadeh et al., 2010), migrating birds opti-
mization (MBO) (Duman et al., 2012), firefly algorithm (FA) (Yang, 2010),
monkey search (MS) algorithm (Mucherino and Seref, 2007), and squirrel
search algorithm (SSA) ( Jain et al., 2018).
Human-inspired algorithms are a recently developed category in intelli-
gence computing. They mathematically stimulate social activities and ideol-
ogy in humans to find near-optimal solutions. The society and civilization
algorithm (SCA) (Ray and Liew, 2003) is a typical representative of
human-inspired algorithms. SCA imitates the intra and social interactions
within a formal society and the civilization model. A society corresponds
to a set of mutually interacting individuals and a civilization is a set of all such
societies. All individuals in each society interact with each other and make
improvements under the guidance of a leader belonging to the same society.
Meanwhile, each leader interacts with leaders of other societies to migrate to a
developed society. This leader migration mechanism helps SCA globally
search promising regions in the variable space. Additionally, SCA is advanta-
geous in dealing with constrained optimization problems owing to the leader
identification mechanism. Some of other human-inspired algorithms include
league championship algorithm (LCA) (Kashan, 2009), social group optimi-
zation (SGO) (Satapathy and Naik, 2016), social emotional optimization algo-
rithm (SOA) (Xu et al., 2010), socio evolution and learning optimization
algorithm (SELO) (Kumar et al., 2018), ideology algorithm (IA) (Huan
et al., 2017), and cultural evolution algorithm (CEA) (Kuo and Lin, 2013).
Compared with evolution-inspired or physics-inspired algorithms,
swarm-inspired algorithms have some distinctive characteristics. On the
one hand, part or all of the historical information about the population needs
to be preserved, because every agent depends on the information to determine
a new position in the search space over subsequent iterations. However,
evolution-inspired algorithms require more operators. Swarm-inspired algo-
rithms generally update positions of the population by interaction rules as
 Introduction 5

standard formulas. On the other hand, swarm-inspired algorithms generally

have two behaviors: exploration and exploitation (Alba and Dorronsoro,
2005; Lynn and Suganthan, 2015). Exploration means the ability of the algo-
rithms to search for new solutions far from the current solution in the entire
search space. Exploitation means the ability of the algorithms to search for the
best solution near a new solution that has already been found. In such algo-
rithms, the range of every agent in the search space is scaled to a consensus in
its neighborhood, and agents randomly explore the whole search space. If an
agent or its neighbors find a good region, this region will be intensively
exploited. Otherwise, they still extensively explore other regions, thus indi-
cating their better self-adaptation in searching the global optima. From these
perspectives, swarm-inspired algorithms have many advantages over other
algorithms. Many evolution-inspired or physics-inspired algorithms have
swarm-inspired characteristics, such as PSO, ACO, CS, BFO, GSA, and so
on. These algorithms not only reflect the nature of biological phenomena
or physical laws, but also share a common characteristic of exploration and
exploitation. Thus, they are more competitive than those without swarm-
inspired characteristics. However, providing a proper balance between explo-
ration and exploitation will lead to an optimal performance of the algorithms,
so it is one of the most important tasks in the development of any stochastic
optimization algorithm.
With the development of economy, society, and technology, a great
number of complex and challenging optimization problems have accord-
ingly arisen in different fields. As an illustration, the emergence of ride-
sharing companies that offer transportation on demand on a large scale,
together with the increasing availability of corresponding demand data sets,
develops a new complex optimization problem of effective handling of the
routing network (Bertsimas et al., 2018). At present, tracking the growing
interest in a closed-loop supply chain by both practitioners and academia is
easily possible. Many factors, including environmental legislation, customer
awareness, and the economical motivations of the organizations, can trans-
form closed-loop supply chain issues into a unique and vital subject in supply
chain management. Designing and planning a closed-loop supply chain is
performed by an effective optimizer in a reasonable time (Soleimani and
Kannan, 2015). Solving the large-scale, highly nonlinear, nonconvex, non-
smooth, nondifferential, noncontinuous, and complex combined heat and
power economic dispatch (CHPED) problems urgently requires optimiza-
tion algorithms (Beigvand et al., 2017). Another challenging optimization
problem is the identification of pollutant sources for river pollution
6 New optimization algorithms and their applications

incidents, which are caused by accident or illegal emissions (Zhang and

Xin, 2017).
Although a number of optimization algorithms have been introduced so
far, new optimization algorithms are still being developed to tackle emerging
complex optimization problems to obtain a better outcome. Furthermore,
according to the No Free Lunch Theorem of Optimization (Wolpert and
Macready, 1997), there is no one optimization algorithm performing the
best for all types of problems. This theorem keeps this research field active
and encourages relevant scholars to develop new algorithms for better opti-
mization. Based on the above, three metaheuristic algorithms with swarm
characteristics including atom search optimization, artificial ecosystem-
based optimization, and supply-demand-based optimization, have been
developed and examined using various types of benchmark functions, and
then engineering applications have demonstrated their feasibility and effec-
tiveness in tackling real-world problems (Zhao et al., 2019).

1.3 Organization of this book

This book is organized in the following manner:
This chapter introduces the definition of optimization, the development
process and the detailed processes to solve the problem.
Chapter 2 is organized as follows. Section 2.2 presents the inspiration of
an atom search optimization algorithm; Section 2.3 describes the novel
atom search optimization algorithm; Section 2.4 gives a comparative
study and discussion on the benchmark functions; and finally,
Section 2.5 presents some conclusions and suggests some future research
directions.
Chapter 3 is organized as follows. Sections 3.2 and 3.3 describe the appli-
cation of atom search optimization algorithm for parameter estimation
for a chaotic system and the circular antenna array design problems,
which demonstrates its availability and effectiveness in solving real-world
problems. Section 3.4 presents the spread spectrum radar polyphase code
design problem which is compared with its counterparts. The experi-
mental results suggest that atom search optimization is effective and that
it is a promising alternative to PSO, GA, and BFO extensively used in
many real-world problems.
Chapter 4 introduces a novel nature-inspired metaheuristic optimization
algorithm, named artificial ecosystem-based optimization. Section 4.2
 Introduction 7

describes the algorithm and the concepts behind it in detail. Some math-
ematical optimization problems are utilized to test the validity of the pro-
posed optimizer form different perspectives in Section 4.3. Section 4.4
gives a conclusion.
Chapter 5 investigates the applications of artificial ecosystem-based opti-
mization to some engineering design cases and the static economic load
dispatch problem and hydrothermal scheduling problem.
Chapter 6 presents the inspiration and supply-demand-based optimiza-
tion in detail, and then the experimental results on a set of mathematical
benchmark functions are analyzed.
Chapter 7 demonstrates the effectiveness of supply-demand-based opti-
mization in solving four engineering problems. Finally we conclude the
work and suggest several directions for future research.

References
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optimization. Inf. Sci. 192, 120–142.
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genetic algorithms. IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput. 9 (2), 126–142.
Askarzadeh, A., 2014. Bird mating optimizer: an optimization algorithm inspired by bird
mating strategies. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 19 (4), 1213–1228.
Beigvand, S.D., Abdi, H., La Scala, M., 2017. Hybrid gravitational search algorithm-particle
swarm optimization with time varying acceleration coefficients for large scale CHPED
problem. Energy 126, 841–853.
Beni, G., Wang, J., 1993. Swarm intelligence in cellular robotic systems. In: Robots and Bio-
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Bertsimas, D., Jaillet, P., Martin, S., et al., 2018. Online vehicle routing: the edge of opti-
mization in large-scale applications. Oper. Res., 1–20.
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Birbil, Ş.I_ ., Fang, S.C., 2003. An electromagnetism-like mechanism for global optimization.
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CHAPTER 2

Atom search optimization

algorithm

Contents
2.1 Introduction 13
2.2 Basic molecular dynamics 15
2.3 Atom search optimization 18
2.3.1 Mathematical representation of interaction force 19
2.3.2 Mathematical representation of geometric constraint 22
2.3.3 Mathematical representation of atomic motion 23
2.3.4 Framework of the ASO algorithm 25
2.4 Experimental results 26
2.4.1 Benchmark functions 26
2.4.2 Experimental setup 27
2.4.3 Results and discussion 28
2.5 Conclusions 43
References 44

2.1 Introduction
Nature contains boundless secrets that are rich and fantastic. It brings a great
deal of inspiration to people who can greatly contribute to social develop-
ment. Intelligent algorithms (IA), dealing with difficult problems in science
and engineering, is an important branch inspired from nature. Since the
1970s, a variety of nature-inspired optimization algorithms have been put
forward and applied to many real-world problems (Zhang et al., 2008; Poli
et al., 2010; Ayman, 2011; Kourakos and Mantoglou, 2013; Zhao and
Wang, 2016), all of which consist of two basic characteristics.
First, the algorithms mimic evolving properties and the living habit of
biological systems. There are three common algorithms. The genetic algo-
rithm (GA) (Holland, 1975) is a well-known classic optimization algorithm
which can generally obtain high-quality solutions using mutation, crossover,

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14 New optimization algorithms and their applications

and selection steps, and it is a good global optimization approach. Particle

swarm optimization (PSO) (Kennedy and Eberhart, 1995) mimics the social
behaviors of a flock of birds. In PSO, every agent moves around the search
space to improve its solution, and their personal best positions and the glob-
ally best position found so far are reserved by which their positions are
updated locally and socially. Ant colony optimization (ACO) (Dorigo
et al., 1996), another well-known optimization method, simulates the for-
aging behaviors of real ant colonies. Essentially, ants communicate with each
other by pheromone trails through path formation, which assists them to
find the shortest path, signifying a near-optimum solution. With their
increasing popularity (Lai et al., 2016; Shahabinejad and Sohrabpour,
2017; Thilak and Amuthan, 2018), quite a number of other similar algo-
rithms have been developed, including evolutionary strategies (ES) (Beyer
and Schwefel, 2002), differential evolution (DE) (Rocca et al., 2011), evo-
lutionary programming (EP) ( Juste et al., 1999), memetic algorithm (MA)
(Moscato et al., 2007), bacterial foraging optimization (BFO) (Passino,
2002), biogeography-based optimization (BBO) (Simon, 2009), cuckoo
search (CS) algorithm (Yang and Deb, 2009), artificial bee colony (ABC)
(Karaboga and Akay, 2007), and fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA)
(Pan, 2012). It is worth mentioning here that other heuristic approaches
inspired from socio-behaviors also have this characteristic, they include
the society and civilization algorithm (SCA) (Ray and Liew, 2003), league
championship algorithm (LCA) (Kashan, 2009), social-emotional optimiza-
tion algorithm (SOA) (Xu et al., 2010), teaching-learning-based optimiza-
tion (TLBO) (Rao et al., 2012), cultural evolution algorithm (CEA) (Kuo
and Lin, 2013), soccer league competition algorithm (SLCA) (Moosavian
and Roodsari, 2014), social group optimization (SGO) (Satapathy and Naik,
2016), ideology algorithm (IA) (Huan et al., 2017), and socio-evolution and
learning optimization (SELO) algorithm (Kumar et al., 2018).
The second basic characteristic of nature-inspired algorithms is that some
of them are enlightened from physical laws of different substances, among
which, simulated annealing (SA) (Kirkpatrick et al., 1983) is one of the most
well-known algorithms. This was inspired by the annealing process used in
physical materials in which a heated metal cools and freezes into a crystal
texture with a minimum of energy. Along with DE, there are many other
similar algorithms developed and successfully performed including
electromagnetism-like mechanism (EM) (Birbil and Fang, 2003) based on
the attraction-repulsion mechanism of electromagnetism, central force opti-
mization (CFO) (Formato, 2007) and gravitational search algorithm (GSA)
Other documents randomly have
different content
 “Nay, brother, it cannot be; she was a child bordering upon
womanhood. This is a woman grown, who is as the gazelle in her
walk and as the jasmine in her perfume. Maybe ’tis the spirit of her
mother, who has come to meet her lord, or perchance——”
They stopped speaking, and took a step nearer the centre of the
dais as Zarah played her trump card.
She dropped the veils from her head, the yashmak from before
her face, and the cloak from her shoulders, standing revealed in the
garments she had donned at Hutah in the oasis of Hareek.
She was ravenous from hunger and almost dead with fatigue, but
she stood without a tremor, glittering from head to foot in the jewels
which embroidered the voluminous orange-satin trousers, the
golden, travel-stained sandals, and the bolero, which allowed the
satin skin to show at the waist. Her face was white, her crimson
mouth parted in a slight smile; her yellow eyes passed slowly from
one face to the other and on to the next of those fierce,
unscrupulous men, who watched her for a while and then, with all
the inconstancy of the Arab, reverted, with the exception of Al-Asad,
to their former allegiance as they succumbed to the call of her
beauty.
A sudden, tremendous shout of reception and of welcome went
up:
“Ahlan wasahlan! Ahlan wasahlan!”
They shouted the words over and over again, until the women and
children wakened on the far side of the mountains and the birds,
which inhabited the secluded spot, rose twittering and screaming in
clouds, to be whirled this way and that way by the wind from the
south, which seemed, in its suffocating heat, to have swept across
the open mouth of hell.
Slowly Zarah the beautiful, the relentless, raised her right hand,
upon which shone her father’s ring, above her head to quell the
tumult, and, as a great silence fell, stretched it out to the men, who,
with the exception of Al-Asad, rushed forward and, kneeling,
touched her sandalled foot, acknowledging her as chief.
She had won.
There was no tenderness, no love, in her eyes as she looked down
upon them, neither was there softness in her heart as she looked
into the future. She would rule the men with an iron hand and drive
them with a whip of steel, favouring those who did her bidding,
treading beneath her heel those who rebelled until she ground them
in the dust. She would be their hadeeyah, the woman to lead them
into battle, even as had led Ayesha, the wife of Mohammed, the
Prophet of Allah, the one and only God; she would make the
mountain home a corner of paradise and her dwelling a place of gold
and precious stones, as a frame to her beauty.
“I stand in my father’s place, O men!” she cried. “I have taken the
reigns of government from the Sheikh’s fingers, which are locked in
those of death. Obey me and I will raise you to heights you—nay,
not one of you—have dreamed of; rebel, and I will set your bodies
upon the highest peak as food for vultures. I will go forth with you,
lead you—nay, give ear until I have come to the end of my words,
for I will not speak again. Yea! I will lead you forth and bring you
back with gold and cattle and fair women, until the fame of these
rocks is spread from the north to the south and from the east to the
west. I will have none but the beautiful, none but the brave, about
me to do my bidding. I——”
She stopped short at a sound from the far end of the hall and
raised her head. Yussuf, blind, scarred, terrible to behold, stared
back at her from the shadows of the door, challenging her proud
statement with his empty orbits, repudiating her words without a
sound or movement.
“ ... save for Yussuf the Blind,” she concluded slowly, as she raged
inwardly at the man’s temerity, “whom I must needs take to my
heart in obedience to my father’s dying wish.”
 She gave no outward sign of the rage which swept her as she
finished speaking, but she looked round for someone upon whom to
vent her wrath and found him in Al-Asad, who leant against the wall,
watching her from out the corner of his eyes.
“Thou!” she said, her voice cutting across the silence like a whip.
“Whyfore standest thou when others kneel?”
“The lion does not flee before the gazelle!” replied Al-Asad, who
had loved her from the first moment he had seen her.
Zarah made a little motion of her hand which brought the men to
their feet, then beckoned Al-Asad, who walked slowly towards her
and into the trap she had set for him. She had more than one
weapon in her armoury and more than one form of punishment in
her mind.
That the man loved her, in his savage way, she had always known;
that he had worked to succeed the dead Sheikh and thereby to force
her into becoming his own woman if she wished to rule, she had
guessed intuitively, and in a second of time had thought out a plan
in which, through his humiliation, she could revenge herself for the
insult.
She was well above medium height, but seemed small beside Al-
Asad as he towered above her, mighty arms folded across his breast,
looking down upon her beauty.
He was a magnificent animal, with all an animal’s instincts and a
dog’s fidelity, but she feared him not a bit. She looked up at the
handsome face with the almost negroid lips and into the flashing
eyes and down into the heart, as childish as it was vain, and smiled
and raised her hand when he made a quick step forward.
“I am footsore,” she said softly. “I have cut my sandals upon the
rocky path.”
She may have heard the sharp intake of breath, but she took no
notice when the men turned, the one to the other, as Al-Asad knelt.
His fingers trembled in the tumult of his love for the beautiful
woman as he unfastened the knotted ribbons of her sandals, his
heart leapt as he bent and kissed the little foot, leaving his manhood
in the dust beneath it. He sprang to his feet, holding the golden
sandal against his breast, shrinking back against the wall at the
men’s laughter, in which the woman he loved joined.
“Neither does the gazelle fear the dead lion,” she mocked as he
fled from the hall out into the night and up to his dwelling upon the
mountainside, where he flung himself full length upon the ground
with the golden sandal against his lips.
“I love thee, love thee, love thee!” he whispered, “and will serve
thee to my last hour and with all my strength. If I cannot be thy
king, thy master, I will be thy slave. One day perchance, thou too
wilt waken to love and learn what suffering means.”
If he had but known, love had come to her, love for the white
man, causing her to suffer through the chafe of the chains which
bound her.
Zarah watched the great figure as he fled past blind Yussuf and
through the doorway out into the night, then smiled, and stooping,
lifted her cloak and spread it across the dead Sheikh.
“I will sleep in the bed of my fathers,” she said curtly. “Bring me
meat and wine to my bedchamber. To-morrow I will commit my dead
father to the sands and will then make choice, amongst the slaves,
for those who will attend me both night and day. Obey me, and it
will be well with all of you; resist me, and your lives will be even
darker than this night of storm.”
The men, so long held upon the leash by the dead Sheikh, so long
baffled in their fierce desires, shouted their praises as they made a
way for her. She passed them without looking at them, glittering
with jewels, superb in her strength.
She climbed the steps leading to the dwelling wherein her father
had slept, and up to the roof, and, leaning on the balustrade, raised
her face to the sky which showed sullen and starless.
 Great sandstorms do not sweep the deserts of Arabia bringing
devastation in their path, but the hot wind from the south will lift the
topmost layer of sand hundreds of feet into the air, where it hangs
like a pall across the heavens, causing men to hide their faces and
cattle to flee for shelter from the terrific heat which descends from
it, scorching the earth.
She walked to the corner of the roof from which, through the cleft
in the rocks, the red sands of the desert could be seen stretching in
great waves away to the south. She stared down and drew her
hands across her eyes, and stared again; drew back with a half-
uttered cry of fear, then moved forward, leaning far over the coping,
looking down.
At the very edge of the quicksands and as far out across the great
waste as eye could see, white shapes danced, and whirled, and
bowed, retreating, advancing, whirling hand in hand, flinging their
white raiment up to the sky, which hung, like a dun-coloured ceiling,
low down above their caperings.
The scorching, sand-laden wind blew against her lips and through
her hair and seemed to press like a great bar of red-hot iron against
the satin skin which showed beneath her bodice, and yet she stood
looking down, watching the light flicker this way and that way over
the quicksands, and the ghostly forms running up in pairs, in ones,
in twos, in files up and down and over the sand-waves until they
melted into the far distance.
She had heard the tale of the half-starved, half-witted, degenerate
races which are supposed to inhabit the mysterious, unexplored
depths of the great desert; living like lizards, worshipping the
elements, inter-marrying until brain and body are sapped of
strength, and for the first time she felt grateful for the ring of
quaking sand which kept her safe from robbers, beasts, and such
foul creatures as those which danced so merrily under the lowering
sky.
 She loved beauty, she loved strength, and watched with a shudder
until the last white figure, leaping and bounding, had followed its
fellows back to the unexplored regions of the desert, then knelt and
bowed her beautiful head almost to the ground.
But she knelt before the scorching flames of the love which had
sprung up in her heart for Ralph Trenchard as she had lain in his
arms. Not for a day, nor for an hour of a day, had he been out of her
thoughts since the morning of the accident. She lay awake at night
thinking of the handsome face bent down to hers; she thrilled at the
thought of his arms about her; she had thought of him unceasingly
as she raced death to reach her father; she had sworn by the beard
of the Prophet, which being a soulless woman she had no right to
do, to bring him some day to her mountain home and for ever to her
feet.
She stretched out her arms and called him by name, scorched by
the hot wind which had twisted the sand into dancing shapes,
sending them capering and leaping this way and that way, in the
cross-eddies from the east, a ghostly phenomenon seen once in a
lifetime, if that.
She ran to the side and looked out across the desert, which lay
silent, foreboding, empty, and shivered under a sudden premonition
of evil.
“Where are you?” she cried, beating her hands upon the burning
stones. “Where are you? I love you, love you, love you, and I am
calling you.”
There was no answer.

At that very moment Ralph Trenchard rode into the holiday camp
pitched by Helen Raynor and her grandfather—Egypt’s Water Finder.
They had pitched it some fifty miles west of Ismailiah whilst they
waited to start upon an expedition into Arabia, which had for its
object the discovery of water hidden in the heart of a range of
mountains, as described upon vellum inscribed by the Holy Palladius.
 CHAPTER V
“A rose issues from thorns.”—Arabic Proverb.

The desert looked like an immense mosque with vast purple dome
inlaid with silvery stars, spread with a carpet of many colours—grey,
amethyst, saffron, fawn—stretching to Eternity for the feet of
worshippers to tread. It held the peace of great spaces and the
prayer of the everlasting, and changed, in the twinkling of the stars,
to the likeness of a fairy meadow, in which flowers of every shape
nodded and curtsied and bowed to each other, as far as eye could
see; flowers formed by the light breeze which twisted and turned
the sand into little spirals, until the desert seemed covered with
dancing, silvery poppies across which love came as silently, as
unexpectedly as it comes in country lanes or the city’s crowded
thoroughfares.
Helen Raynor looked over her shoulder towards the camp, pitched
under the isolated palms which formed the so-called oasis, and
smiled at the sound of her “boy’s” voice raised in what he termed a
love song, but which had all the monotonous ring of a long-drawn-
out litany of personal woes.
She sat on a hummock of sand, dazzlingly fair in the starlight, with
a smile of content on her broad, humorous mouth, and the
expectancy of youth in her great, blue eyes, whilst the golden sand
trickled between her fingers as she counted the seconds of the hour
in which love and adventure were to come to her.
She thought lazily of the hot-weather months just passed, spent
quite happily in the big, old palace in Ismailiah bought by her
grandfather who, in his wanderings in the desert, had acquired some
of the attributes of the salamander and an unconscious
thoughtlessness towards the well-being of his neighbour.
 Unattracted by the little she knew of the world, she had been
intensely grateful at the unconventional turn life had taken three
years ago, inaugurating a new mode of existence with vista of
unknown lands and good promise of great adventure. She had
proved herself of the greatest assistance to her irascible grandfather.
There was no doubt about it, that, although he seldom bit, he
certainly barked furiously, or rather, yapped without ceasing, driving
others almost frantic through the methodical working of a mind
which teased the most infinitesimal detail to shreds, wore him to
fiddle-strings, led him from success to success and caused his
secretaries one after the other to fold their tents and to steal away
to less nerve-wracking fields of labour.
Since leaving school, Helen had firmly established herself as his
secretary and had accompanied him wherever he had been sent by
the Irrigation Department. She had made herself responsible for his
creature comforts, which almost amounted to nil, and the good
conduct of the staff which learned to adore her, with the exception
of Pierre Lefort.
Half French, half native, he was of the worst type of Oriental.
Eaten up with the vanity of the superficially educated, but with a
genuine, great knowledge of the Arabian horse and the obstreperous
camel, the young man had managed to make himself seemingly
indispensable to Sir Richard on his expeditions. Helen became
accustomed to great distances and solitude, and her eyes gained the
steadfast look of those who look upon the sky as the roof of their
dwelling, whilst her unfailing sense of humour invariably brought her
safely through the most trying ordeals.
Diplomatically feeling her way through the barbed wire
entanglement of her grandfather’s testiness, she gained a great
influence over the brilliant man and, knowing how he chafed against
the authoritative methods and manner of the government official,
had dropped the suggestion in his all-willing ear of taking a
busman’s holiday—a holiday expedition with the object of trying to
find out the whereabouts of the legendary water in the great Red
Desert, the discovery of which had become almost an obsession with
him, since the day he had read the vellum inscribed by the Holy
Palladius.
They had spent the hot-weather months in getting ready for the
expedition, helped enthusiastically by every member of the staff
excepting Pierre Lefort who, loving the dregs of the European
society he frequented in the cities and the corners of the Bazaar to
which he rightly belonged, had made use of every means in his
power to frustrate their endeavours.
He had sworn to an epidemic amongst the camels and
dromedaries in Arabia proper, which was causing them to die by
hundreds; to an absolute dearth of camel drivers, owing to the
terror the men had of the animals’ disease; to the truth of the
terrible tales that had lately come to hand of the activities of a
notorious robber gang, led by a woman, which swooped down from
nowhere upon unwary travellers; that, in consequence of this band
of brigands, neither guide nor servant could be procured for love or
money on the other side, and that last, but not least, no man had
ever been known to penetrate, even a little way, into the empty
desert and to return alive.
Each of his objections had been met; the expedition, down to the
smallest detail, carefully mapped out; the date for the start fixed and
the camp pitched some fifty miles out of Ismailiah. Pierre Lefort
would doubtlessly, if sullenly, have accompanied the party for the
sake of the monetary gain, if he had not fallen a victim to the wiles
of a dancer in the Bazaar.
Had ensued a heated scene between him and Sir Richard which
had ended by the latter taking him by the collar of the coat and
impelling him, none too gently, back upon the road towards
Ismailiah.
Since then a week had passed, which Sir Richard had spent in
racing, as fast as swiftest camel could take him, into Ismailiah, there
to interview men with a knowledge of camels and horses, and racing
back to tell his granddaughter of the blanks he had drawn.
There remained another fortnight in which to find someone
endowed with camel and horse sense, and Helen had just fled the
camp after a trying scene with her distracted and pessimistic
relative.
“Grandads,” she had said, after the recital of the latest failure, “I
have an idea, although it’s only a faint-hope kind of idea.”
“Well!” had snapped Grandads, who was ready to take his ships of
the desert into almost any kind of a port to protect himself from the
storm of failure which threatened to burst.
“I think you are making a great mountain out of your mole-hill.”
“Meaning?”
“Lefort. There are others who understand as much about horses
as he does. I do—for one—almost—and so does Abdul, who did all
the spadework under him. Let me be vet, with Abdul for head groom
and——”
“Wh-a-a-t?” Sir Richard had sprung from his canvas chair with a
bound which would have done credit to a jerboa, or kangaroo rat.
“You! In charge of the horses—you—and what do you know of
camels, may I ask?”
“As much, dearest, as anybody, which amounts to nothing. If it’s
sick, it usually makes up its obstinate mind to die, so there’s no use
worrying about that; if you want to get an extra hour of work out of
it, you give it a most noisome lump of barley-meal and water, and
add a cupful of whisky if you want to make it waltz; if you want it to
go to the right, touch it on the left, and vice versa, and if it’s out on
a non-stop run, hang your coat over its head to pull it up. It will go
for six days in the summer and, I believe, ten in the winter without a
drink, and is warranted to eat everything it comes across; in fact, I
saw Mahli making breakfast off your oldest pair of night slippers this
very morning.”
 All that she had said was true. She was a magnificent
horsewoman, and there was mighty little she did not know about
horses; in fact, up to her fifteenth birthday she had unequally
divided her time between her lessons and her horses, to the decided
detriment of the former; then, upon the death of her mother, had
entreated to be allowed to accompany her grandfather to Egypt. He,
unpractical in everything that did not concern the finding of water in
desert places, had consented, and, acting upon some motherly soul’s
advice, offered directly they had arrived in Cairo, had pushed her
promptly under the sheltering wings of the Misses Cruikshanks.
But she might as well have pleaded with the Great Pyramid this
night of stars as she had sat, just outside the tent, with her beautiful
head against the canvas whilst her distracted kinsman had
figuratively rent his raiment in wrath.
“You!” he had cried. “What authority would you have over the
pack of rapscallions who look after the shameless beasts called
camels, any one of which, in the eyes of the average Mohammedan,
is of a hundred times more value than a woman? I know all about
woman’s rights in England, but let me tell you that that means
nothing, absolutely less than nothing out here, where she is not
even allowed to possess a soul of her own, much less a vote. No! if I
can’t find a man to fill the post, I will resign myself to having failed,
throw up my position in the Irrigation Department, and take to bee-
keeping in England.”
And Helen Raynor, who firmly believed that if a thing is to happen
it happens, and that nothing can prevent it from happening, also
vice versa, had ridden some miles out into the silence, where she
had hobbled her mare and sat down upon the hummock to think
things over. She sat facing the direction in which Ismailiah lay, sat
quite still, until the peacefulness of the desert seemed to enfold her
and to wipe out the memory of the past weeks, which had gone far
to disturb the tranquillity she so loved to bring into the daily life of
the camp. She looked all round in utter content and lifted her face to
the stars and listened to the great silence, unbroken now, even by
the love song, then sat forward and stared in the direction of
Ismailiah.
Great is the solitude of the desert, with no sign of life in it at all;
haunting is its solitude when, in the far distance, a solitary figure
moves slowly across the limitless sands.
It is the most perfect illustration of the little span of life granted
each of us upon this earth.
Out of seeming nothing, remote, alone, the figure approaches,
growing clearer and clearer to the watching eye; maybe for a space
he stops and raises his head to the star-strewn sky, or maybe he
passes on, heedless of God’s thoughts about him; even if he stays it
will be but for a brief second before he continues his journey,
growing dimmer and dimmer until he passes out of sight, alone, into
apparent nothingness.
Helen Raynor sat watching a solitary figure as it came slowly
towards her from a far distance, and pressed her hand upon her
heart, troubled by the biblical picture, the silence, the unknown.
So might Abraham have looked in his youth, or Job before
affliction fell upon him, or Boaz, or David, for the desert has not
changed since their days, nor has the camel learned to hasten its
pace or to alter the insolence of its gait. The night breeze died away
suddenly and the flowers born of it faded, leaving a path, marked in
grey and silver as though the tide had but just receded from it, for
the passage of the camel’s feet, which were suddenly urged to a
swift trot by its rider, who rode bare-headed and wrapped in a
burnous.
When about a mile off Ralph Trenchard raised his hand above his
head in salutation to the figure he could see sitting on the hummock,
and urged his camel quicker still, then pulled it to a halt and sat and
stared at the girl, who looked like some silver statue under the light
of the stars; then slipped to the ground instead of bringing the beast
to its knees, hobbled it, dropped the white cloak, and followed the
beckoning finger of Love, whom he could not see for the beauty of
the girl, along the path which had been marked for him to tread
even before the days of Abraham.
And Helen Raynor rose and walked towards him, holding out her
hand, so that they neared each other and met yet again, as those
who truly love do meet down the ages, and will meet, until in perfect
understanding they become one perfect spirit which will not be
divided even by the short-lived dream of death.
“I seem to know you so well,” said Ralph Trenchard quietly.
“And I you. I have seen you—I recognize the scar across your
temple.” Helen Raynor pressed her hand against her forehead in an
effort to capture the elusive memory which had suddenly flitted
through her mind. “I cannot remember. I——”
“My name is Ralph Trenchard, and my business in Egypt one of
pleasure. I was riding out into the desert to be alone at sunrise.”
She shook her head and looked about her and up to the stars and
into the eyes of the man who had come to her out of the night, and
yet not as a stranger; and she looked frankly at the lean, handsome
face with the powerful jaw and humorous mouth, and smiled into
the quiet grey eyes, and made a movement with her hand towards
the oasis.
“I cannot remember where I have seen you, but will you not come
to our camp and have some coffee? I would not keep you from your
ride, but my grandfather will, I am sure, be delighted to meet you. I
am——”
“Of course!” broke in Ralph Trenchard, as he stooped to remove
the hobble from the mare, who danced sideways at the smell of
camel which permeated the new-comer. “You must be Miss Raynor.
Everybody is talking about the danger of the expedition you are
starting out on; they don’t seem to see the other side, the privilege
of searching for something which has been lost for centuries, the joy
of adventuring into a new country.”
 They walked across to the camel, which stretched its neck and
made a vicious snap at the mare, who immediately retaliated by
lashing out at the contemptuous face.
“Quiet, you brute!” said Ralph Trenchard, as he removed the
hobble, whereupon the said brute turned its hideous head and
winked at him in hearty friendliness. “There is one thing I really do
pride myself upon, Miss Raynor, though perhaps I ought not to, as it
may only be the result of a certain brotherhood in sheer mule-
headed obstinacy which I share with the quadruped.”
“And what is it?”
“The way I can manage camels. They seem absolutely to love me
before my face, whatever they feel behind my back. I can do almost
anything I like with them.”
Helen Raynor walked close up to him and laid her hand upon his
sleeve.
“Tell me,” she said eagerly, “where are you going to after you
leave Egypt?”
“Well, I have been trying to make up my mind. I’m just down from
Oxford, and am having a look round the old places before settling
down to manage the estate which came to me when the dear old
governor died a few months ago. I was born out here, lived here
until I was ten. My people were stationed out here all over the place.
Mother is buried in Khartoum. I love the country, and speak the
language like a native. I don’t mind much where I go, but I do wish
I could have one jolly good adventure when I get there.”
“Come,” said Helen, her beautiful teeth flashing in a delighted
smile, “I’m more convinced than ever that my grandfather will be
delighted to meet you.”
CHAPTER VI
 “Neither with thine eyes hast thou seen, nor with
thine heart hast thou loved.”—Arabic Proverb.

Zarah the Cruel leaned back in her ivory chair, staring unseeingly
at the men she ruled. She frowned and stretched her arms and
played with the crystal knobs until her jewelled fingers looked like
the claws of some great cat, whilst the men glanced at each other as
they watched the movement which, they knew, heralded the
conception of some new idea or plan in the girl’s masterly,
unscrupulous brain.
She had reigned for a year in her father’s stead, and the tales of
her cruelty, her infamy and treachery had spread from Damascus to
Hadramut, from Oman to the Red Sea. In the days of her father the
wealthy only had been in danger of the gang’s predatory attacks;
the humbler caravan had been certain of a safe journey and a sure
arrival at its destination; the needy, just as sure of help in money or
in kind from the man who quietened his conscience by robbing the
one to assist the other, whilst keeping the best part of the spoil for
himself and his men.
His daughter attacked all and sundry, and as much for the love of
the fight as in the hope of gain, meting out dire punishment to those
who fought to the last, and, if taken prisoner, lacked deep enough
purse or strong enough sinew to pay or work their way back to
freedom.
With the exception of Yussuf the men obeyed her and literally
fought for the place of honour at her right hand when she led them
to the attack.
The whole Peninsula rang with the tales of the mysterious,
beautiful woman of the desert. Women used her name as a bogy
with which to frighten their children, men looked at each other
before they spoke of their affairs and then said but little. Her spies
were everywhere, from Damascus to Cairo, from Jiddah to Bagdad,
watching the movements and learning the whereabouts of wealthy
people. The cities made great effort to discover the channels
through which the almost legendary woman gained her information,
sending out spy to counter spy, with the result that some were
found in the holes and corners of the Bazaars at dawn, knifed
through the back, and others, who had been sent to find out the lay
of the land round and about the Sanctuary, buried up to their necks
in the sands, dead, with the letter Z cut upon their foreheads.
With a view to spreading reports of her beauty, her riches, and her
power, she allowed some of the prisoners to return to their homes
without payment of ransom; others disappeared leaving no trace,
whilst many, wholeheartedly, threw in their lot with the band,
working as grooms to the horses and dogs, as tenders to the cattle,
as servants or labourers, marrying the women who looked after the
comforts of the strange community; all of them happy in a freedom
they could not have realized elsewhere, yet terror-stricken by their
mistress, who ordered the severest punishments for the most trifling
mistake.
Built in terraces as had been the ancient monastery, the servants’
quarters stretched up the eastern side of the mountains, hidden by
the jutting wall of rock from the western side where Zarah lived,
alone. The walls of the monastery remained, but the interior of the
buildings had been changed out of all recognition. Where once her
father had lived, with his friend Yussuf, in all the simplicity of those
who belong to the desert, the girl lived in barbaric luxury, the
presence of Yussuf the only cloud upon what seemed otherwise to
be a clear horizon.
Of love she would have none.
Those who had succumbed to the tales of her beauty, her wealth
and her power, and who were willing to risk much through greed,
sent emissaries, laden with many gifts, to negotiate for her hand in
marriage. They would be met far out in the desert, and, blindfolded,
led across the quicksands and into the presence of the mysterious
woman. She received them right royally, fêted them, laughed at
them in secret, and sent them back to their masters, with her own
gifts added to those she had rejected.
She did not attempt to conquer her love for Ralph Trenchard; she
did not want to; she hugged close the pain it caused her pride, and
had sent spies to Egypt in an endeavour to trace him. A report came
that he had landed at Port Said. After that, silence.
She was thinking of him as she lay back in the chair watching the
men, gathered at her command, in the Hall of Judgment. Upon the
first of every three months she called a council, with the object of
making plans for the months succeeding. Those of the men who
could, hurried from every part of the Peninsula to the gathering. A
week of festival invariably followed the great day, during which
sports were held and much wine drunk, in direct disobedience to the
law laid down by Mohammed, the Prophet of Allah the one and only
God. Those of the men who could not attend, and who were mostly
those who had failed in the task set them, sent in reports of their
work by safe messenger.
The spy who had reported the arrival of Ralph Trenchard at Port
Said had not appeared in person, nor sent in further report, so that
Zarah sat a prey to a great anger, which increased every moment
under the goad of suspense and uncertainty, and craved for a victim
upon which to vent herself.
The business of the hour, with its reports and reprimands,
suggestions, punishments and rewards, had been concluded, and
the men waited, eager to draw out a programme for the week of
festival; they looked at their despotic ruler, raised above them on a
dais, as she lay back in her chair sullenly regarding them out of half-
closed eyes; they murmured amongst themselves but, under the
spell of her beauty, murmured only.
She made an arresting Eastern picture outlined against an
enormous fan of peacocks’ feathers, which spread on each side and
above her. It glowed vividly against the south wall of the hall, which
had been covered in Byzantine gold leaf, outlined by an arabesque
design carved out in rough lumps of turquoise matrix, agate, jasper,
onyx, and different coloured marble.
Seven jewelled lamps, hanging above her head by golden chains,
were reflected in the polished surface of the huge dais hewn out of
one great block of black granite, up which she ascended by seven
steps carved to represent seven crouching lions.
Skins of wild beasts were thrown upon a mosaic floor which
replaced the rough stones laid down by the Holy Fathers. It had
been set by skilled Italian workmen, taken prisoners as they
returned from Bagdad, where they had been sent to set the famous
mosaic floor in the house of the Eastern potentate, who is almost as
famous as his flooring.
The Italians had won back their freedom by promising to outrival
the beauty of this floor in Bagdad, and, having fulfilled the promise,
had returned, laden with gifts and well content, to their own country.
The pillars of palm trees had been removed and replaced by others
of stone, inlaid roughly with uncut turquoise matrix, jasper and
agate, which reflected the light of the jewelled lamps hanging from
the roof. The flat roof, which the dead Sheikh had considered good
enough as a covering, had been removed and replaced by another,
vaulted, painted the colour of the night sky and powdered with
silvery stars. It showed misty, this night, above the smoke of torches
held above their heads by thirty prisoners who stood upon the stools
once used as seats by the Holy Fathers, pushed back against the
walls hung with curtains of purple velvet.
Informed that one movement meant instant death, prisoners
awaiting sentence would be ordered to hold lighted torches above
their heads whilst the Arabian girl sat discussing the events of the
day or merely idling away time watching the men wrestling or
gambling, in which last pastime she frequently joined.
Men meant nothing to her, but her overwhelming vanity caused
her to change her raiment many times a day and to smother herself
in jewels.
 This night her slender limbs showed through voluminous trousers
made of some semi-transparent material, woven by her women
slaves, and caught at the ankles by bands of gold inlaid with
precious stones; her body, save for breast-plates blazing in jewels,
was bare, and showed like white satin in the light of the torches and
the lamps above her head; her hands glittered with precious stones,
her arms were bare, and a broad gold band set in diamonds bound
her head, confining the thick, red curls.
She sat alone, furious, tortured, her sandalled feet upon an ivory
footstool, her strange eyes flashing from one side of the hall to the
other in an endeavour to find an outlet for her wrath.
She scrutinized the twenty men and ten women of Damascus who
had been captured on their way to Bagdad with a precious load of
steel weapons, and smiled as she glanced from their leader, a fine
old man with white hair and beard and flowing robes, to the girl, his
granddaughter, at his side, and on to the young men and women
who had gained a world-wide reputation through their work of
inlaying steel with gold.
With the fear of death, the one for the other, they had stood
throughout the whole evening, motionless, save when slaves
replaced the burnt-out torches; but a shiver swept them, and a smile
of satisfaction lit the faces of the men in the body of the hall when
the old man swayed, then crashed to the ground with a cry.
Zarah sat upright, her eyes gleaming, her jewels flashing, whilst
the men looked from her to the prostrate man and back.
“Get up!” she cried, too intent upon her enjoyment of the moment
to notice that her enemy Yussuf had entered the hall, standing, a
menacing figure, against the wall. “Get up!” she repeated, “lest I
give orders to have thee thrown from the rocks so that thou
standest for eternity upon thy head in the quicksands.”
A shout of laughter rang out at the words, and ceased as Zarah
sprang up, white with rage.
 The old man’s granddaughter, flinging her torch to the far end of
the hall, where it fell at Yussuf’s feet, sprang to the floor and,
kneeling, gathered the old man into her arms.
“He shall not be touched! He shall not be touched!” she cried,
looking fearlessly up at Zarah, who stood at the edge of the dais,
looking down. “Shameless art thou, woman, in thy cruelty!
Shameless in thy nakedness! Shameless in all thy ways! If this old
man, my father’s father, be thrown from the rocks, then thou must
throw me also, for naught but death shall unclasp my arms from
about him. Nay! thou shalt not touch him, thou shalt not, I say.”
She bent down over the old man as Zarah ran down the steps and
caught her by the shoulder. The men gathered in a circle round the
two women, watching the one who shook with rage and the other
who looked up fearlessly, strong in her protecting love.
“Seize them, all of them!” commanded Zarah, “and——” She
stopped dead and looked towards the door, through which a man
came, running at full speed. Zarah turned and, mounting the steps,
sat down in the ivory chair, holding up her hand until silence reigned.
“Hither,” she said curtly, and watched the spy, who had reported
upon Ralph Trenchard’s doings, with no gentle look in her eyes as he
hastened across the floor.
“’Tis well indeed, O my brother, that thou hasteneth thy feet at
last. Perchance the delights of the great city prevented thee from
keeping the hour of council to which thou wast summoned.”
The man flung himself upon his knees before the dais, then
sprang to his feet.
“Thy servant tarried so as to bring good news.”
“Good news! ’Tis indeed well for thee that the news is good.
Speak!”
“The white man with a scar upon his forehead is even now upon
his way—here!”
 “Here!”
“Yea! Here! He crosses the water in the company of another man,
white, but of great age. They travel, O my mistress, they travel, O
my brethren, in search of the miraculous water which, so ’tis said, is
hidden in the heart of certain mountains in the Red Desert.”
Laughter rang out, in which Zarah joined, the sweet sound
mingling with the men’s deep voices as they shouted grim
suggestions and coarse pleasantries the one to the other.
Zarah leant forward, her eyes gleaming.
“They come alone, the two white men, in search of this miraculous
water?”
“Nay, O mistress! They travel in a good company of men and
camels, led by a woman——”
“Led by a woman! O my brethren, is there one of thee in need of
a wife or yet another wife?”
Ribald laughter and obscene jest followed close upon her
question.
“What is she like? this woman who dares lead men and camels
across the empty desert.”
“She is as the heavens at sunrise when the light wraps the world
in softest colouring. Her eyes are the blue of the night in which
shines the morning star, her mouth as the sun-kissed pomegranate,
her teeth as shimmering pearls. Her hair! The houris which wait in
paradise to reward the faithful have not such hair as she. It is as the
web of the spider gilded by the sunlight, as the corn glowing in the
noonday sun, and, in its waywardness, twineth about the heart of
men as a child’s fingers about the mother’s breast.”
The men secretly touched each other as they watched the effect
of the man’s words upon the woman who ruled them with no gentle
hand. Thrones built upon a foundation of consideration towards
others are rocky enough at any time, but there is absolutely no
security for the monarch who uses his sceptre as a stick with which
to drive his subjects.
Zarah sat back in her chair, too primitive in her love to try to hide
the jealousy which consumed her.
“Who is she and what position does she hold in the expedition?”
“She rules men, O mistress, and is the granddaughter of the aged
one.”
“His name?”
“It taketh a twisted tongue, O mistress, to pronounce it. I have
essayed and failed. He is a great Sheikh from Inglistan, the land
where, ’tis said, the heavens drop water without ceasing. His men
are well armed; his camels, over which devil-possessed animal the
white man with a scar has a strange control, are of the best; his
men content, and averse to speech with strangers. They have
started; a great caravan awaits them at the port of Jiddah; I
hastened by swiftest camel to bring thee the news.”
Zarah sat silent for a moment, then called the names of six of her
most trusted and unscrupulous followers, and sharply ordered the
hall to be cleared for the space of one hour.
“And the Damascenes, mistress?” asked Al-Asad, who had
mounted the dais at his mistress’s call and stood, gigantic, powerful,
behind her, ready to do her bidding.
Zarah frowned.
Jealousy might torture, but hope and an abnormal vanity lay as
balm upon the wounds. She had no time for the trivial occupation of
finding a punishment befitting the crime of the prisoners. She had
called her six most trusted servants with a view to making plans for
the capture of the entire party, headed by the beautiful woman with
the unpronounceable name.
Time pressed.
 Let her but make a prisoner of the white man who had held her in
his arms, subject him to her wiles, her beauty, and surround him
with all the evidence of her great wealth, then what would she have
to fear of any woman where love was concerned!
“Al-Asad!”
He knelt and touched her foot.
“They beg their freedom, those thirty fools. Their freedom they
shall have! Lead them safely over the path, then whip them out into
the desert to find their way back across the road by which they
came. The desert is free to all—to man as well as to beasts of prey
and carrion birds. They have asked for liberty and naught else; bid
them begone with empty hands.”
But there was no fear in the heart of the girl who had leapt to aid
the old man when he fell; she ran forward to the very foot of the
dais and called down curses upon the woman above her, cursed her
until the hall rang with the terrible words and the superstitious men
drew back in fear.
“ ... and thou shalt be driven into the desert, O woman without
heart,” she ended, “and death shall find thee bereft of power and
love. Thou shalt leave thy beauty to the jackals and the scorpions
shall nest in thine eyes and thy hair.” A speck of foam appeared at
the corners of her mouth as she prophesied with the vision of the
East. “I see thee pursuing, I see thee pursued, I see dogs upon thy
track, and one, whose light cometh from within to lighten his
darkness, hard upon thy heels, hunting thee. I——”
She laughed shrilly, pointing at Zarah, who made a quick
movement of the hand. Al-Asad sprang down and, seizing the girl by
the throat, hurled her backwards, whilst the rest of the prisoners,
with hope eternal to spur them, ran from one to the other, until at
last, with the girl and the old man in the centre, they marched boldly
from the hall, with the gigantic half-caste harrying them in the rear.
Whispered words fell upon the ears of Almana, the gentle
Damascene, as she paused to allow those in front to pass through
the door out into the night. She turned for a moment and looked up
into Yussuf’s blinded face as he stood near her in the shadows.
“Put thy trust in Allah and hasten not. Journey westward and stop
and wait. He will save thee and thine.”
He had caught the sound of the girl’s voice as she passed,
encouraging the old man, and risked his life to tell her of the help
that awaits those who put their trust in a higher power.
She whispered her thanks as she passed on, and in such wise did
love come to Yussuf, the blind, and Almana, the Damascene.

Zarah sat in council with all her men; the women and children and
servants slept, so that there were no eyes to watch, nor ears to hear
Yussuf as he passed silently amongst the rocks to the paddock
where the camels were herded at night, hobbled or tied to posts to
prevent them from fighting, as is the custom of the brutes when
together in great numbers.
He passed his hands over the animals, choosing three, then
crossed to a shed in which were piled the “ghakeet” and “shedad”
the saddles used for riding or baggage camels, with water skins and
sacks of dates, the emergency rations required by an Arab for a
sudden journey.
Surely Allah, the one and only God, watched over him and listened
to his prayers when, later, he walked unhesitatingly across the
narrow path of rock, leading the first of three beasts, which
followed, grumbling and snarling, but obediently, from fear, and
guided them by the sound of voices to the Damascenes.
Almana ran to meet him when he rode towards them out of the
night, and led him to her grandfather, who rose and blessed him.
“Come with us, my son, for surely yon place in the mountains is
the dwelling-place of devils. Come with us to Damascus.”
 “I will come one day when my task is accomplished, and that will
be in the time appointed, O father,” replied Yussuf, raising his head
and turning towards the East as the wind of dawn swept his face.
The Damascenes lifted their voices in prayer, calling down
blessings upon him as he mounted his camel and rode away into the
glory of the sunrise.
“How sad,” Almana whispered to her grandfather as they watched
him moving swiftly towards the mountains, and “His Eyes” who rode
to meet him. “How sad that he should be blind.”
“He is not blind, my daughter,” replied the old man, as he laid his
hand upon her head. “There are those who see by the light of the
soul, and, verily, our protector is numbered among them.”
 CHAPTER VII
“If the moon be with thee thou need’st not mind
about the stars.”—Arabic Proverb.

The desert is the cradle of love!

The love of God or the love of solitude, or the love which seeks its
soul-mate and finds it, in the immensity of the sands. There is no
room for doubt in the minds of those who love and who pass their
days together in the desert’s great spaces. If the love is that which
endureth, which floods cannot drown nor many waters quench,
which looks ever towards the horizon where the light is born
heralding the day, then will the desert be as a book filled with much
wisdom; a book in which the handwriting is visible only to those who
radiate the love which sees the mountain peak above the swirl of
mist; the truth of the dream in which, blindly, we stumble and fall,
until enlightenment comes to us so that we rise once more and
reach the end of the road at last.
The desert is a background against which love blazes as a torch or
shines with the glimmer of the rushlight; a journey into it either fills
the mind with the wonder of God or overwhelms the traveller, when
the novelty has passed, with a crushing sense of boredom; the
sunset, the sunrise, and the stars are either the thoughts of the
Creator, or merely a means by which to mark the passing of the
endless hours; whilst the stillness, silence, and far horizon teach
life’s wayfarers the stupendous lesson of Eternity or fill the
gregarious globe-trotter with a deep longing for the noise and bustle
of great cities.
For the westerner there are no half-way measures in the desert.
 He may have been born in the glamour of the East and have lived
the best part of his life with the vast stretches of sand around him,
and yet have heard no voice calling in the noonday, nor seen the
slender hand beckoning in the shadows of dawn and dusk. He may
come from the counting-house upon holiday bent, with guide book
in hand and passage booked for the return journey to the city, yet
see the spirit of the desert, remote, mysterious, beckoning him out
of all the merry, personally conducted crowd.
He will either follow the beckoning figure with hungry heart until
he falls, to die, clutching at its robes which slip ever from between
his fingers, or he will return to the counting-house to pass his life in
a great longing which will never be appeased.
In either case, he will have answered the call of the desert to his
own undoing.[1]

[1] Instances have been known where Europeans have ridden

out into the desert upon seeing it for the first time, and have not
been seen or heard of since.

Helen Raynor and Ralph Trenchard sat looking out across the
Robaa-el-Khali, or Empty Desert, or the Red Desert, as it is called by
the Arabs on account of the colour of its sands.
She sat with her hand in his, watching the strange effect the wind
from the north has upon this desert, which rolls away to the horizon
in great, sandy ridges, and of which no one has explored the heart.
When this wind blows gently, it skims the surface of the great ridges
and lifts the topmost layer of the sand, carrying it down into the
hollows and up on to the crests for mile after mile, until the desert
looks like an ocean of great, glittering billows surging towards the
distant horizon.
“The sky seems to be covered with a transparent, diamond-
encrusted veil,” whispered Helen, as she lifted her face to the moon,
and smiled when the man she loved drew her to him and kissed her.
 “It is the effect of the sand in the air, beloved,” he whispered,
“under the moon which shines for all lovers.”
“Look at that wave out there”—she pointed to the east as she
spoke—“breaking into spray. How wonderful—how wonderful it all is,
Ra!”
“I expect a big rock lies just there, beloved, if we could only see it,
so that the sand is blown against it and higher into the air. How I
love the name you have given me, dearest; it seems to belong to the
country where I found you waiting for me, all those months ago,
alone, in the desert, under a moon like this.”
“I really expect it was the same moon, Ra; it is only we who have
moved,” laughed Helen softly. “Yes, I think your nickname suits you;
it’s strong, with the strength of dead Egypt, like you, with your
tremendous will power which can even dominate the camel.”
They laughed as they talked of the long journey with its scenes
and contretemps, during which Ralph Trenchard had had to exercise
every bit of will power and every scrap of patience he possessed, so
as to triumph over the splendid camels which composed the
caravan, and which had aroused admiration and no little jealousy in
the hearts of the inhabitants of the different villages they had
passed through, from the Port of Jiddah to Hutah in the Oasis of
Hareek.
“Do you remember when Mahli ate Grandad’s best tussore coat
and pretended to die, and then, suddenly, got to her feet and rushed
at you, because you offered Duria a whole lump of dates and took
no notice of her in her tantrums?”
“Sheer jealousy and greed, sweetheart. I believe no woman who
loved could be as jealous, or as vindictive, as a female camel in a
rage. Look straight ahead, beloved; can you see something moving
through the waves?”
Helen sat forward and stared due south.