Bennie's life is saved by the Red Shadow's intervention and the men decide that, in return, he must agree to act as a spy at the French headquarters. The Riffs and their leader gallop off to pursue a dangerously approaching division of Fontaine's troops but, no sooner have they departed, than Fontaine leads his men into the encampment. The hideout of the Riffs is discovered. He sets up guards with machine guns to kill all who should return, and triumphantly envisages his victorious return to his 'Margot'. Amongst the rocks, however, hides, one to whom that name is anathema: the Arab dancing girl, Azuri, with whom Fontaine had been involved in his earlier days in Morocco. Not without great anguish will she allow her rival to wed the man she loves. Back at Government House, Bennie Kidd's secretary, Susan, is worrying and sighing over her adorable little boss, and she is relieved when he turns up not too much the worse for wear with horse-weary buttocks and a pretty tall line in newspaper copy. The other soldiers' ladies are more bored than worried: their lives in this colony, with their husbands and lovers out chasing Arabs all the time, are dreary, and they are delighted when Margot livens things up a bit by purloining some military uniforms for a little charade (French Military Marching Song) to keep them amused. Margot hasn't found life in Morocco at all to her taste. She imagined it to be a deliciously romantic place where all sorts of splendidly Elinor Glyn adventures would happen, but she just sits at home and watches her fiancé going through the daily grind of military business and longs for a little ‘Romance' in her life, At least, today, there is a bit of drama, for the returning Paul announces that he has discovered the Red Shadow's lair and laid an ambush for him. Silly Pierre, who has brought Margot some flowers, cannot resist putting in a question as to what will happen if the Arabs should never return to that camp. Alone with Margot, Pierre tentatively tries to emerge from his image as a harmless friend with an offer of a gentle kind of love, but Margot is set on a very different course. She gets Fontaine to show Pierre how a man should woo and leaves him, maddened at being unable to step from behind his disguise, to dance off with her fiancé. Bennie, in spite of his sworn oath, doesn't want to be an Arab spy. He doesn't want to be anything that involves knives and guns and things, and he's determined to catch the very next train back to France. He also doesn't want to have anything to do with the clinging Susan. She's not his type at all—she doesn't have 'It'. Azuri comes to Government House in secret to try to win back the love of Paul Fontaine. She promises that she will reveal to him the identity of the Red Shadow if he will forget Margot and leave with her, but she is rejected by the disbelieving Fontaine and thrown out by General Birabeau, and she departs threatening a real vengeance. Worried at her words, Birabeau thinks it might be best for Fontaine to lie low a little while. He should wed Margot immediately and leave on a French ship due to berth that very night. Margot, overhearing the conversation, is furious. She does not wish to wed anyone yet. She has not lived. The distressed girl is left alone with her longings for adventure until adventure comes surely to her in the shape of the Red Shadow. He appears from nowhere to stand passionately beside her, offering her romance amid desert sands and under moonlit skies and she replies by striking him across the face with her whip in a manner doubtless culled from a romantic novel. By the time she has recovered sufficiently to cry for help, he has vanished. When Fontaine hears that his prey is so close he determines to set out in pursuit immediately, but Margot stops him. If he does so, they will miss their ship. He must choose: either take the Red Shadow or marry her. It seems that Fontaine must relinquish his quarry but, as the wedding preparations begin, the Riff fires are seen on the nearby hills and he cannot resist giving, chase. He vows that he will return with the Red Shadow's turban to celebrate their wedding. No sooner has he left, however than the Riffs invade the house. There is none to resist them, and the Red Shadow takes the fainting Margot off in his arms to the desert Act 2
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