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diff --git a/old/7hpeg10.txt b/old/7hpeg10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b209d86 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7hpeg10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14819 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of It Happened in Egypt +by C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: It Happened in Egypt + +Author: C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9799] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IT HAPPENED + +IN + +EGYPT + +by + +C.N. & A.M. Williamson + + + +_Authors of_ + + +"The Port of Adventure" + +"The Heathen Moon", Etc. + + + +1914 + + + + +TO + +D.D. AND F.C.J. + +WHO WERE THERE WHEN + +IT HAPPENED + + + +[Illustration: "A man with a green turban?" I repeated. "Well, I'll +take him."] + + + + +WE DEDICATE THIS STORY OF ADVENTURES GRAVE AND GAY IN EGYPT + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + + I. The Secret and the Girl + + II. Cleopatra and the Ship's Mystery + + III. A Disappointment and a Dragoman + + IV. A Man in a Green Turban + + V. The Cafe of Abdullahi + + VI. The Great Sir Marcus + + VII. The Revelations of a Retired Colonel + + VIII. Foxy Duffing + + IX. What Happened When My Back Was Turned + + X. The Secret Monny Kept + + XI. The House of the Crocodile + + XII. The Night of the Full Moon + + XIII. An Underground Proposal + + XIV. The Desert Diary Begun + + XV. The Desert Diary to Its Bitter End + + XVI. An Oiled Hand + + XVII. The Ship's Mystery Again + +XVIII. The Asiut Affair + + XIX. "If at First You Don't Succeed" + + XX. The Zone of Fire + + XXI. The Opening Door + + XXII. The Driver of an Arabeah + +XXIII. Bengal Fire + + XXIV. Playing Heavy Father to Rachel + + XXV. Marooned + + XXVI. What We Said: What We Heard + +XXVII. The Inner Sanctuary + +XXVIII. Worth Paying For + + XXIX. Exit Antoun + + XXX. The Sirdar's Ball + + XXXI. The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid + +XXXII. The Secret + + + + + +IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SECRET AND THE GIRL + + +The exciting part began in Cairo; but perhaps I ought to go back to +what happened on the _Laconia_, between Naples and Alexandria. Luckily +no one can expect a man who actually rejoices in his nickname of +"Duffer" to know how or where a true story should begin. + +The huge ship was passing swiftly out of the Bay of Naples, and already +we were in the strait between Capri and the mainland. I had come on +deck from the smoking-room for a last look at poor Vesuvius, who lost +her lovely head in the last eruption. I paced up and down, acutely +conscious of my great secret, the secret inspiring my voyage to Egypt. +For months it had been the hidden romance of life; now it began to seem +real. This is not the moment to tell how I got the papers that revealed +the secret, before I passed them on to Anthony Fenton at Khartum, for +him to say whether or not the notes were of real importance. But the +papers had been left in Rome by Ferlini, the Italian Egyptologist, +seventy years ago, when he gave to the museum at Berlin the treasures +he had unearthed. It was Ferlini who ransacked the pyramids all about +Meroe, that so-called island in the desert, where in its days of +splendour reigned the queens Candace. Fenton, stationed at Khartum, an +eager dabbler in the old lore of Egypt, sent me an enthusiastic +telegram the moment he read the documents. They confirmed legends of +the Sudan in which he had been interested. Putting two and two +together--the legends and Ferlini's notes--Anthony was convinced that +we had the clue to fortune. At once he applied for permission to +excavate under the little outlying mountain named by the desert folk +"the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." At first the spot was thought to +fall within the province given up to Garstang, digging for Liverpool +University. Later, however, the _Service des Antiquites_ pronounced the +place to be outside Garstang's borders, and it seemed that luck was +coming our way. No one but we two--Fenton and I--had any inkling of +what might lie hidden in the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. That was +the great secret! Then Fenton had gone to the Balkans, on a flying trip +in every sense of the word. It was only a fortnight ago--I being then +in Rome--that I had had a wire from him in Salonica saying, "Friends at +work to promote our scheme. Meet me on my return to Egypt." After that, +several telegrams had been exchanged; and here I was on the _Laconia_ +bound for the land of my birth, full of hope and dreams. + +For some moments distant Vesuvius had beguiled my thoughts from the +still more distant mountain of the secret, when suddenly a white girl +in a white hood and a long white cloak passed me on the white deck: +whereupon I forgot mountains of reality and dreams. She was one of +those tall, slim, long-limbed, dryad-sort of girls they are running up +nowadays in England and America with much success; and besides all +that, she was an amazing symphony in white and gold against an azure +Italian sea and sky, the two last being breezily jumbled together at +the moment for us on shipboard. She walked well in spite of the blue +turmoil; and if a fair girl with golden-brown hair gets herself up in +satiny white fur from head to foot she is evidently meant to be looked +at. Others were looking: also they were whispering after she went by: +and her serene air of being alone in a world made entirely for her +caused me to wonder if she were not Some One in Particular. + +Just then a sweet, soft voice said, close to my ear: + +"Why, Duffer, dear, it can't possibly be you!" + +I gave a jump, for I hadn't heard that voice for many a year, and +between the ages of four and fourteen I had been in love with it. + +"Brigit O'Brien!" said I. Then I grabbed her two hands and shook them +as if her arms had been branches of a young cherry tree, dropping +fruit. + +"Why not Biddy?" she asked. "Or are ye wanting me to call ye Lord +Ernest?" + +"Good heavens, no! Once a Duffer, always a Duffer," I assured her. "And +I've been thinking of you as Biddy from then till now. Only--" + +"'Twas as clever a thing as a boy ever did," she broke in, with one of +her smiles that no man ever forgets, "to begin duffing at an early age, +in order to escape all the professions and businesses your pastors and +masters proposed, and go your own way. Are ye at it still?" + +"Rather! But you? I want to talk to you." + +"Then don't do it in a loud voice, if you please, because, as you must +have realized, if you've taken time to think, I'm Mrs. Jones at +present." + +"Why Jones?" + +"Because Smith is engaged beforehand by too many people. Honestly, +without joking, I'm in danger here and everywhere, and it's a wicked, +selfish thing for me to come the way I have; but Rosamond Gilder is the +hardest girl to resist you ever saw, so I'm with her; and it's a long +history." + +"Rosamond Gilder? What--the Cannon Princess, the Bertha Krupp of +America?" + +"Yes, the 'Gilded Babe' that used to be wheeled about in a caged +perambulator guarded by detectives: the 'Gilded Bud' whose coming out +in society was called the Million Dollar Debut: now she's just had her +twenty-first birthday, and the Sunday Supplements have promoted her to +be the Golden Girl, alternating with the Gilded Rose, although she's +the simplest creature, really, with a tremendous sense of the +responsibility of her riches. Poor child! There she is, walking toward +us now, with those two young men. Of course, young men! Droves of young +men! She can't get away from them any more than she can from her money. +No, she's stopped to talk to Cleopatra." + +"That tall, white girl Rosamond Gilder! Just before you came, I was +wondering who she was; and when you smiled at each other across the +deck it sprang into my mind that--that--" + +"That what?" + +"Oh, it seems stupid now." + +"Give me a chance to judge, dear Duffer." + +"Well, seeing you, and knowing--that is, it occurred to me you might be +travelling with--the daughter of--your late--" + +"Good heavens, don't say any more! I've been frightened to death +somebody would get that brilliant notion in his head, especially as +Monny and her aunt came on board the _Laconia_ only at Monaco. Esme +O'Brien is in a convent school not thirty miles from there. But that's +the _deepest_ secret. Poor Peter Gilder's fears for his millionaire +girl would be child's play to what might happen, before such a mistake +was found out if once it was made. That's just one of the hundred +reasons why it would be as safe for Monny Gilder to travel with a bomb +in her dressing-bag as to have me in her train of dependants. She +telegraphed to New York for me, because of a stupid thing I said in a +letter, about being lonely: though she pretends it would be too dull +journeying to such a romantic country alone with a mere aunt. And she +thinks I 'attract adventures.' It's only too true. But I couldn't +resist her. Nobody can. Why, the first time I ever saw Monny she'd cast +herself down in a mud-puddle, and was screaming and kicking because she +wanted to walk while one adoring father, one sycophantic governess and +two trained nurses wanted her to get into an automobile. That was on my +honeymoon--heaven save the mark--! and Monny was nine. She has other +ways now of getting what she wants, but they're even more effective. I +laughed at her that first time, and she was so surprised at my +impudence she took a violent fancy to me. But I don't always laugh at +her now. Oh, she's a perfect terror, I assure you--and a still more +perfect darling! Such an angel of charity to the poor, such a demon of +obstinacy with the rich! I worship her. So does Cleopatra. So does +everybody who doesn't hate her. So will you the minute you've been +introduced. And by the way, why not? Why shouldn't I make myself useful +for once by arranging a match between Rosamond Gilder, the prettiest +heiress in America, and Lord Ernest Borrow, of the oldest family in +Ireland?" + +"And the poorest." + +"All the more reason why. Don't you _see?_" + +"She mightn't." + +"Well, what's the good of her having all that money if she doesn't get +hold of a really grand title to hang it on? I shall tell her that +Borrow comes down from Boru, Brian Boru the rightful King of Ireland: +and when your brother dies you'll be Marquis of Killeena." + +"He'll not die for thirty or forty years, let's hope." + +"Why hope it, when he likes nobody and nobody likes him, and everybody +likes you? He can't be happy. And anyhow, isn't it worth a few millions +to be Lady Ernest Borrow, and have the privilege of restoring the most +beautiful old castle in Ireland? I'm sure Killeena would let her." + +"He would, out of sheer, weak kindness of heart! But she's far too +thickly gilded an heiress for me to aspire to. A few thousands a year +is my most ambitious figure for a wife. Look at the men collecting +around her and the wonderful lady you call Cleopatra. Why Cleopatra? +Did sponsors in baptism--" + +"No, they didn't. _Why_ she's Cleopatra is as weird a history as why +I'm Mrs. Jones. But she's Monny's aunt--at least, she's a half-sister +of Peter Gilder, and as his only living relative his will makes her +Monny's guardian till the girl marries or reaches twenty-five. A +strange guardian! But he didn't know she was going to turn into +Cleopatra. She wisely waited to do that until he was dead; so it came +on only a year ago. It was a Bond Street crystal-gazer transplanted to +Fifth Avenue told her who she really was: you know Sayda Sabri, the +woman who has the illuminated mummy? It's Cleopatra's idea that Monny's +second mourning for Peter should be white, nothing but white." + +"Her idea! But I thought Miss Monny, as you call her, adopted only her +own ideas. How can a mere half-aunt, labouring under the name of +Cleopatra, force her--" + +"Well, you see, white's very becoming; and as for the Cleopatra part, +it pleases our princess to tolerate that. It's part of the queer +history that's mixing me up with the family. We've come to spend the +season in Egypt because Cleopatra thinks she's Cleopatra; also because +Monny (that's what she's chosen to call herself since she tried to lisp +'Resamond' and couldn't) because Monny has read 'The Garden of Allah,' +and wants the 'desert to take her.' That book had nothing to do with +Egyptian deserts; but any desert will do for Monny. What she expects it +to do with her exactly when it has taken her, on the strength of a Cook +ticket, I don't quite know; but I may later, because she vows she'll +keep me at her side with hooks of steel all through the tour--unless +something worse happens to me, or to some of us _because_ of me." +"Biddy, dear, don't be morbid. Nothing bad will happen," I tried to +reassure her. + +"Thank you for saying so. It cheers me up. We women folk are so in the +habit of believing anything you men folk tell us. It's really quaint!" + +"Stop rotting, and tell me about yourself; and a truce to heiresses and +Cleopatras. You know I'm dying to hear." + +"Not a syllable, until you've told me about _your_self. Where you're +going, and what the dickens for!" + +We laughed into each other's eyes. To do so, I had to look a long way +down, and she a long way up. This in itself is a pleasantly Victorian +thing for a man to do in these days of Jerrybuilt girls, on the same +level or a story or two higher than himself. I'm not a tall man: just +the dull average five foot ten or eleven that appears taller, while it +keeps lean--so naturally I have a hopeless yearning for nymph-like +creatures who pretend to be engaged when I ask them to dance. Still, +there's consolation and homely comfort in talking with a little woman +who makes you feel the next best thing to a giant. Biddy is an +old-fashioned five foot four in her highest heels; and as she smiled up at +me I saw that she hadn't changed a jot in the last ten years, despite +the tragedy that had involved her. Not a silver thread in the black +hair, not a line on the creamy round face. + +"You're just yourself," I said. + +"I oughtn't to be. I know that very well. I ought to be a Dido and +Niobe and Cassandra rolled into one. I'm a brute not to be dead or look +a hag. I've gone through horrors, and the secrets I know could put +dozens of people in prison, if not electrocute them. But you see I'm +not the right type of person for the kind of life I've had, as I should +be if I were in a story book, and the author had created me to suit my +background. I can't help flapping up out of my own ashes before they're +cold. I can't help laughing in the face of fate." + +"And looking a girl of twenty-three, at most, while you do it!" + +"If I look a girl, I must be a phenomenon as well as a phoenix, for +nobody knows better than you that my Bible age is thirty-one if it's a +day. And I think Burke and Debrett have got the same tale to tell about +you, eh?" + +"They have. I was always delighted to share something with you." + +"You can have the whole share of my age over twenty-six. There's one +advantage 'Mrs. Jones' has. She can, if her looking-glass doesn't +forbid, go back to that classic age dear to all sensible adventuresses. +I'm afraid I come under the head of adventuress, with my alias, and +travelling as companion to the rich Miss Gilder." + +"You're the last person on earth for the part! Your fate was thrust on +you. You've thrust yourself on no one. Miss Gilder 'achieved' you." + +"Collected me, rather, as one of her 'specimens.' She has a noble +weakness for lame ducks, and though she fails sometimes in trying to +strengthen their game legs, she tries gloriously. She and her aunt have +been travelling in France and Italy, guided by instinct and French +maids, and already Monny has picked up two weird _protegees_, sure to +bring her to grief. The most exciting and deadly specimen is a +perfectly beautiful American girl just married to a Turkish Bey who met +her in Paris, and is taking her home to Egypt. I haven't even seen the +unfortunate houri, because the Turk has shut her up in their cabin and +pretends she's seasick. Monny doesn't believe in the seasickness, and +sends secret notes in presents of flowers and boxes of chocolate. But I +have seen the Turk. He's pink and white and looks angelic, except for a +gleam deep down in his eyes, if Monny inquires after his wife when any +of her best young men are hanging about. Especially when there's Neill +Sheridan, a young Egyptologist from Harvard, Monny met in Paris, or +Willis Bailey, a fascinating sculptor who wants to study the crystal +eyes of wooden statues in the Museum at Cairo. He is going to make them +the fashion in America, next year. Yes, Madame Rechid Bey is a most +explosive _protegee_ for a girl to have, on her way to Egypt. I'm not +sure even I am not innocuous by comparison; though I do wish you hadn't +reminded me of my poor little step-daughter Esme, in her convent-school. +If any one should get the idea that Monny--but I won't put it +in words! Besides me, and the brand-new bride of Rechid Bey ('Wretched +Bey' is our name for him), there's one more _protegee_, a Miss Rachel +Guest from Salem, Massachusetts, a school-teacher taking her first +holiday. That _sounds_ harmless, and it looks harmless to an amateur; +but wait till _you_ meet her and see what instinct tells you about her +eyes. Oh, we shall have ructions! But that reminds me. You haven't told +me where you're bound--or anything." + +"Thanks for putting me among the 'specimens.' But this sample hasn't +yet been collected by Miss Gilder." + +"You might be her salvation, and keep her out of mischief. She's quite +wild now with sheer joy because she's going to Egypt. But do be +serious, and tell me all I pine to know, if you want me to do the same +by you." + +"Well--though it's unimportant compared to what you have to tell! I'm +an insignificant second secretary to Sir Raymond Ronalds, the British +Ambassador at Rome. I've got four months' leave----" + +"Ah, _that's_ what comes of duffing so skilfully, and avoiding all the +things you didn't want to do, till you got exactly what you did want! I +remember when we were small boy and girl, and you used to walk down to +the vicarage every day, to talk Greek or Latin or something with +father----" + +"No, to see you!" + +"Well, you used to tell me, if you couldn't be the greatest +prize-fighter or the greatest opera-singer in the world, you thought +you'd like to be a diplomat. + +"I haven't become a diplomat yet, in spite of Foreign Office grubbing. +But I've been enjoying life pretty well, fagging up Arabic and modern +Greek, and playing about with pleasant people, while pretending to do +my duty. Now I've got leave on account of a mild fever which turned out +a blessing in disguise. I could have found no other excuse for Egypt +this winter." + +"You speak as if you had some special reason for going to Egypt." + +"I've been wishing to go, more or less, for years, because you know--if +you haven't forgotten--I was accidentally born in Cairo while my father +was fighting in Alexandria. My earliest recollections are of Egypt, for +we lived there till I was four--about the time I met and fell in love +with you. I've always thought I'd like to polish up old memories. But +my special hurry is because I'm anxious to meet a friend, a chap I +admire and love beyond all others. I want to see him for his own sake, +and for the sake of a plan we have, which may make a lot of difference +for our future." + +"How exciting! Did I ever know him?" + +"I think not." + +"Well? Don't you mean to tell me who he is?" + +I hesitated, sorry I had let myself go: because Anthony had written +that he didn't want his movements discussed at present. + +"I'll tell you another time," I said. "I want to talk about you. +Anybody else is irrelevant." + +"Clever Duffer! Your friend is a _secret_." + +"Not he! But if there's a secret anywhere, it's only a dull, dusty sort +of secret. You wouldn't be interested." + +"Women never are, in secrets. Well, I'm glad somebody else besides +myself has a mystery to hide." + +"You're very quick." + +"I'm Irish! But I'm merciful. No more questions--till you're off your +guard. You're free to ask me all you like, if there's anything you care +to know which horrid newspapers haven't told you these last few years." + +"There are a thousand things. You didn't answer anybody's letters, +after--after----" + +"After Richard died. Oh, I can talk about it, now. It was the best +thing that could happen for him, poor fellow. Life in hiding was +purgatory. No, I couldn't answer letters, though my old friends (you +among them) wanted to be kind. There wasn't anything I could let +anybody do for me. Monny Gilder's different. You'll soon see why." + +I smiled indulgently. But, though I was to be introduced to Miss Gilder +for the purpose of being eventually gilded by her, at the instant my +thoughts were for my childhood's sweetheart. + +Brigit Burne made a terrible mess of things in marrying, when she was +eighteen or so, Richard O'Brien, in the height of his celebrity as a +socialist leader. People still believed in him then, at the time of his +famous lecturing tour and visit to his birthplace on our green island; +and though he was more than twice her age, the fascination he had for +Biddy surprised few who knew him. + +He was eloquent, in a fiery way. He had extraordinary eyes, and it was +his pride to resemble portraits of Lord Byron. After an acquaintance of +a month, Biddy married O'Brien (I had just gone up to Oxford at the +time, or I should have tried not to let it happen), went to America +with him, and voluntarily ceased to exist for her friends. + +Poor girl, she must have had an awakening! He had posed as a bachelor; +but after her marriage she found out (and the world with her) that he +was a widower with one child, a little girl he had practically +abandoned. Biddy adopted her, though the mother had been a rather +undesirable Frenchwoman; and now when I saw her smiling at the tall +white girl on the _Laconia_, I had thought for an instant that Biddy +and her stepdaughter might be in flight together. O'Brien was a +drunkard, as well as a demagogue; and not long after Brigit's flitting +with him there was a scandal about the accepting of bribes from +politicians on the opposing side, apparently his greatest enemies; but +a minor scandal compared to what came some years afterward. O'Brien's +name was implicated in the blowing up of the _World-Republican_ +Building in Washington, and the wrecking of Senator Marlowe's special +train after his speech against socialist interests, but the coward +turned informer against his friends and associates in the secret +society of which he had been a leader, and saved himself by sending +them to prison. From that day until his death he lived the life of a +hunted animal flying from the hounds of vengeance. Brigit stood by him +in spite of threats against her life as well as his, and the life of +the child. Since then, though she answered none of our letters, we had +heard rumours. The girl Esme, whom the avengers had threatened to +kidnap, was supposed to be hidden in some convent-school in Europe. As +for Brigit, she was said to be training for a hospital nurse: reported +to have become a missionary in India, China, and one or two other +countries; seen on the music-hall stage, and traced to Johannesburg, +where she had married a diamond-merchant; yet here she was on board the +_Laconia_, unchanged in looks, or nature, and the guest of a much +paragraphed, much proposed to American heiress _en route_ to Egypt. + +While Brigit was telling me the real story of her last two years, as +governess, companion, teacher of music, and journalist, Miss Gilder +regarded us sidewise from amid her bodyguard of young men. Evidently +she was dying to know who was the acquaintance her darling Biddy had +picked up in mid-Mediterranean the moment her back was turned; and at +last, unable to restrain herself longer, she made use of some magic +trick to attach the band of youths to her aunt. Then, separating +herself with almost indecent haste from the group, she marched up to +us, gazing--I might say, staring--with large unfriendly eyes at the +intruder. + +Brigit promptly accounted for me, however, rolling her "r's" +patriotically because I reminded her of Ireland. "Do let me introduce +Lord Ernest Borrow," she said. "I must have told you about him in my +stories, when you were a child, for he was me first love." + +"It was the other way round," I objected. "She wouldn't look at me. I +adored her." + +Biddy glared a warning. Her eyes said, "Silly fellow, don't you know +every girl wants to be the one and only love of a man's life?" + +I had supposed that this old craze had gone out of fashion. But perhaps +there are a few primitive things which will never go out of fashion +with women. + +Now that I had Miss Gilder's proud young face opposite mine, I saw that +it wasn't quite so perfect as I'd fancied when she flashed by in her +tall whiteness. Her nose, pure Greek in profile, seen in full was +--well, just neat American: a straight, determined little +twentieth-century nose. The full red mouth, not small, struck me as being +determined also, rather than classic, despite the daintily drawn +cupid's bow of the short upper lip. I realized too that the +long-lashed, wide-open, and wide-apart eyes were of the usual bluish-gray +possessed by half the girls one knows. And as for the thick wavy hair +pushed crisply forward by the white hood, now it was out of the sun's +glamour, there was more brown than gold in it. I said to myself, that +the face with the firm cleft chin was only just pretty enough to give a +great heiress or a youthful princess the reputation of a beauty; a +combination desired and generally produced by journalists. Then, as I +was thinking this, while Brigit explained me, Miss Gilder suddenly +smiled. I was dazzled. No wonder Biddy loved her. It would be a wonder +if I didn't love her myself before I knew what was happening. + +And so I should instantly have done, perhaps, if it hadn't been for +Biddy's eyes seeming to come between mine and Miss Gilder's: and the +fact that at the moment I was in quest of another treasure than a +woman's heart. My thoughts were running ahead of the ship to +Alexandria, to find out from Anthony Fenton ("Antoun Effendi" the +biggest boys used to nickname him at school) more about the true +history of that treasure than he dared trust to paper and ink and the +post office. + +So I put off falling in love with Rosamond Gilder till I should have +seen Anthony, and tidied up my distracted mind. A little later would +do, I told myself, because (owing to the fact that my ancestral castle +had figured in Biddy's tales of long ago) I was annexed as one of the +_proteges_; allowed to make a fifth at the small, flowery table under a +desirable porthole in the green and white restaurant; also I was +invited to go about with the ladies and show them Cairo. Just how much +"going about," and falling in love, I should be able to do there, +depended on "Antoun Effendi." But when Biddy congratulated me on my +luck, and chance of success in the "scheme," I said nothing of Anthony. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CLEOPATRA AND THE SHIP'S MYSTERY + + +Now, at last, I can skip over the three days at sea, and get to our +arrival at Alexandria, because, as I've said, the exciting part began +soon after, at Cairo. + +They were delightful days, for the _Laconia_ is a Paris hotel disguised +as a liner. And no man with blood in his veins could help enjoying the +society of Brigit O'Brien and Rosamond Gilder. Cleopatra, too, was not +to be despised as a charmer; and then there was the human interest of +the _protegees_, the one with the eyes and the one who had reluctantly +developed into the Ship's Mystery. + +Still, in spite of Biddy and Monny and the others, and not for them, my +heart beat fast when, on the afternoon of the third day out from +Naples, the ship brought us suddenly in sight of something strange. We +were moving through a calm sea, more like liquefied marble than water, +for it was creamy white rather than blue, veined with azure, and +streaked, as marble is, with pink and gold. Far away across this +gleaming floor blossomed a long line of high-growing lotus flowers, +white and yellow against a silver sky. The effect was magical, and the +wonder grew when the big flower-bed turned into domes and cupolas and +spires rising out of the sea. Unimaginative people remarked that the +coast looked so flat and uninteresting they didn't see why Alexander +had wanted to bother with it; but they were the sort of people who +ought to stop at home in London or Birmingham or Chicago and not make +innocent fellow-passengers burn with unchristian feelings. + +Soon I should see Anthony and hear his news. I felt sure he would be at +Alexandria to meet the ship. When "Antoun Effendi" makes up his mind to +do a thing, he will crawl from under a falling sky to do it. As the +_Laconia_ swept on, I hardly saw the glittering city on its vast +prayer-rug of green and gold, guarded by sea forts like sleepy +crocodiles. My mind's eyes were picturing Anthony as he would look +after his wild Balkan experiences: brown and lean, even haggard and +bearded, perhaps, a different man from the smart young officer of +everyday life, unless he'd contrived to refit in the short time since +his return to Egypt--a day or two at most, according to my calculation. +But all my imaginings fell short of the truth. + +As I thought of Anthony, Mrs. East came and stood beside me. I knew she +was there before I turned to look, because of the delicate tinkling of +little Egyptian amulets, which is her accompaniment, her _leit motif_, +and because of the scent of sandalwood with which, in obedience to the +ancient custom of Egyptian queens, she perfumes her hair. + +I don't think I have described Monny Gilder's aunt, according to my +conception of her, though I may have hinted at Biddy's. Biddy having a +habit of focussing her sense of humour on any female she doesn't wholly +love, may not do Mrs. East justice. The fact is, Monny's aunt is a +handsome creature, distinctly a charmer who may at most have reached +the age when Cleopatra--Antony's and Caesar's Cleopatra--died in the +prime of her beauty. If Mrs. East chooses to date herself at thirty-three, +any man not a confirmed misanthrope must believe her. Biddy says +that until Peter Gilder was safely dead, Clara East was just an +ordinary, well-dressed, pleasure-loving, novel-reading, +chocolate-eating, respectable widow of a New York stockbroker: +superstitious perhaps; fond of consulting palmists, and possessing +Billikens or other mascots: (how many women are free from +superstition?) slightly oriental in her love of sumptuous colours +and jewellery; but then her mother (Peter Gilder's step-mother) +was a beautiful Jewish opera singer. After Peter's death, his +half-sister gave up novels for Egyptian and Roman history, +took to studying hieroglyphics, and learning translations of +Greek poetry. She invited a clairvoyant and crystal-gazer, claiming +Egyptian origin, to visit at her Madison Square flat. Sayda Sabri, +banished from Bond Street years ago, took up her residence in New York, +accompanied by her tame mummy. Of course, it is the mummy of a +princess, and she keeps it illuminated with blue lights, in an inner +sanctum, where the bored-looking thing stands upright in its +brilliantly painted mummy case, facing the door. About the time of +Sayda's visit, it was noticed by Mrs. East's friends (this, according +to Biddy) that the colour of the lady's hair was slowly but surely +changing from black to chestnut, then to auburn; she was heard to +remark casually that Queen Cleopatra's hair had been red. She took to +rich Eastern scents, to whitening her face as Eastern women of rank +have whitened theirs since time immemorial. The shadows round her +almond-shaped eyes were intensified: her full lips turned from +healthful pink to carmine. The ends of her tapering fingers blushed +rosily as sticks of coral. The style of her dress changed, at the +moment of going into purple as "second mourning" for Peter, and became +oriental, even to the turban-like shape of her hats, and the design of +her jewellery. She did away with crests and monograms on handkerchiefs, +stationery, luggage and so on, substituting a curious little oval +containing strange devices, which Monny discovered to be the +"cartouche" of Cleopatra. Then the whole truth burst forth. Sayda +Sabri's crystal had shown that Clara East, nee Gilder, was the +reincarnation of Cleopatra the Great of Egypt. There had been another +incarnation in between, but it was of no account, and, like a poor +relation who has disgraced a family, the less said about it the better. + +The lady did not proclaim her identity from the housetops. Rare souls +possessing knowledge of Egyptian lore might draw their own conclusions +from the cartouche on her note-paper and other things. Only Monny and a +few intimates were told the truth at first; but afterward it leaked +out, as secrets do; and Mrs. East seemed shyly pleased if discreet +questions were asked concerning her amulets and the cartouche. + +Now, I never feel inclined to laugh at a pretty woman. It is more +agreeable, as well as gallant, to laugh with her; but the trouble is, +Cleopatra doesn't go in for laughter. She takes life seriously. Not +only has she no sense of humour, but she does not know the difference +between it and a sense of fun, which she can understand if a joke +(about somebody else) is explained. She is grateful to me because I +look her straight in the eyes when the subject of Egypt is mentioned. +Sheridan from Harvard has been in her bad books since he put Ptolemaic +rulers outside of the pale of Egyptian history, called their art ornate +and bad, mentioned that each of their queens was named Cleopatra and +classified the lot as modern, almost suburban. + +Mrs. East, leaning beside me on the rail, was burning with thoughts +inspired by Alexandria. She had "Plutarch's Lives" under her arm, and +"Hypatia" in her hand. Of course, she dropped them both, one after the +other, and I picked them up. + +"Do you know, Lord Ernest," she said, in the low, rich voice she is +cultivating, "I don't mind telling you that I felt as if I were coming +home, after a long absence. Monny wanted to see Egypt; I was dying to. +That's the difference between us." + +"It's natural," I answered, sympathetically. + +"Yes--considering everything. Yet we're both afraid. She in one way, I +in another. I haven't told her. She hasn't told me. But I know. She has +the same impression I have, that something's going to _happen_ +--something very great, to change the whole of life--in Egypt: 'Khem,' it +seems to me I can remember calling it. You know it was Khem, until the +Arabs came and named it Misr. Do you believe in impressions like that?" + +"I don't disbelieve," I said. "Some people are more sensitive than +others." + +"Yes. Or else they're older souls. But it may be the same thing. I +can't fancy Monny an old soul, can you?--yet she may be, for she's very +intelligent, although so self-willed. I think what she's afraid of is +getting interested in some wonderful man with Turkish or Egyptian +blood, a magnificent creature like you read of in books, you know; then +you have to give them up in the last chapter, and send them away +broken-hearted. I suppose there _are_ such men in real life?" + +"I doubt if there are such romantic figures as the books make out," I +tried to reassure her. "There might be a prince or two, handsome and +cultivated, educated in England, perhaps, for some of the 'swells' are +sent from Egypt to Oxford and Cambridge, just as they are in India. But +even if Miss Gilder should meet a man of that sort, I should say she +was too sensible and clear-headed--" + +"Oh, she is, almost too much so for a young girl, and she has a +detestation for any one with a drop of dark blood, in America. She +doesn't even like Jews; and that makes friction between us, if we ever +happen to argue, for--maybe you don't know?--my mother was a Jewess. +I'm proud of her memory. But that's just _why_, if you can understand, +Monny's _afraid_ in Egypt. Some girls would like to have a tiny +flirtation with a gorgeous Eastern creature (of course, he must be a +bey, or prince or something, otherwise it would be _infra dig_), but +Monny would hate herself for being attracted. Yet I know she dreads it +happening, because of the way I've heard her rave against the heroines +of novels, saying she has no patience with them; they ought to have +more strength of mind, even if it broke their hearts." + +I wondered if Biddy, too, suspected some such fear in the mind of her +adored girl, and if that were one reason why she had turned matchmaker +for my benefit. Since the first day out she had used strategems to +throw us together: and it seemed that, years ago, when she used to +teach the little girl French, Monny's favourite stories had been of +Castle Killeena, and my boyish exploits birds'-nesting on the crags. +(Biddy said that this was a splendid beginning, if I had the sense to +follow it up.) + +"And you?" I went on to Mrs. East. "What do you feel is going to happen +to you in the land of Khem?" + +"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "I wish I did! And 'afraid' isn't +exactly the word. I just know that something will happen. I wonder if +history does repeat itself? I should hate to be bitten by an asp----" + +"Asps are out of fashion," I comforted her. "I doubt if you could find +one in all of Egypt, though I remember my Egyptian nurse used to say +there were cobras in the desert in summer. Anyhow, we'll be away before +summer." + +"I suppose so," she agreed. "Yet--who knows what will become of any of +us? Madame Rechid Bey will be staying, of course. I don't know whether +to be sorry for her or not. The Bey's good-looking. He has brown eyes, +and is as white as you or I. Probably it's true that she's been too +seasick to leave her room for the last ten days, though Monny and Mrs. +O'Bri--I mean, Mrs. Jones--think she's shut up because men stared, and +because Mr. Sheridan talked to her. As for me, there's always that +question asking itself in my mind: _'What_ is going to happen?' And I +hear it twice as loud as before, in sight of Alexandria. Rakoti, we +Lagidae used to call the city." As she spoke, the long, oriental eyes +glanced at me sidewise, but my trustworthy Celtic features showed a +grave, intelligent interest in her statements. + +"It must be," she went on, encouraged, "that I'm the reincarnation of +Cleopatra, otherwise how _could_ I have the sensation of remembering +everything? There's no other way to account for it! And you know my +modern name, Clara, does begin with 'C.' Sayda must be right. She's +told lots of women the most extraordinary things. You really ought to +consult her, Lord Ernest, if you ever go to New York." + +I did not say, as Neill Sheridan might, that a frothy course of +Egyptian historical novels would account for anything. I simply looked +as diplomatic training can teach any one to look. + +Evidently it was the right look in the right place, for Cleopatra +continued more courageously, recalling the great Pharos of white marble +which used to be one of the world's wonders in her day; the Museum, and +the marvellous Library which took fire while Julius Caesar burned the +fleet, nearby in the harbour. + +"Think of the philosophers who deserted the College of Heliopolis for +Alexandria!" she said. "Antony was more of a soldier than a student, +but even he grieved for the Library. You know he tried to console +Cleopatra by making her a present of two hundred thousand MSS. from the +library of the King of Pergamus. It was a generous thought--like +Antony!" + +"Does the harbour looked changed?" I hastened to inquire. + +"Not from a distance, though landing may be a shock: they tell me it's +all so Italian now. It was Greek in old days. I've read that there +isn't a stone left of my--of the lovely place on Lochias Point, except +the foundations they found in the seventies. But I must go to see +what's left of the Baths, even though there's only a bit of mosaic and +the remains of a room. Monny's anxious to get on to Cairo, but we shall +come back to Alexandria later. Lord Ernest, when I shut my eyes, I +really do seem to picture the Mareotic Lake, and the buildings that +made Alexandria the glory of the world. Do you remember what Strabo +said about Deinchares, the architect who laid out the plan of the city +in the shape of a Macedonian mantle, to please Alexander?" + +"I'm not as well up in history as you are," I said, "though I've +studied a bit, because I was born in Egypt. Poor Alexander didn't live +long in his fine city, did he? I wonder what he'd think of it now? And +I wonder if his palace was handsomer than the Khedive's? That huge +white building with the pillars and domes. I seem to remember----" + +"What, you remember, too? You _ought_ to consult Sayda!" + +"I didn't mean exactly what you mean," I explained, humbly. "Still, why +shouldn't I have lived in Egypt long ago? The learned ones say you're +always drawn back where you've been in other states of existence----" + +"That's true, I'm sure!" + +"Well, then, why shouldn't I have the same sort of right to Egypt you +have, if you were Cleopatra?--I believe you must have been, because you +look as she ought to have looked, you know. Why shouldn't I have been a +friend of Marc Antony, coming from Rome to give him good advice and +trying to persuade----" + +"Oh, _not_ that he ought to give me up!" + +"No, indeed: to urge him to leave the island where he hid even from you +(didn't they call it Timoneum?). Why couldn't Antony play his cards so +as to keep Cleopatra and the world, too? She'd have liked him better, +wouldn't she? My friend Antoun Effendi--I mean Anthony Fenton,"--I +stopped short: for the less said about Fenton the better, at present. +But Cleopatra caught me up. + +"What--have you really a friend Antony? Where does he live? and what's +he like?" + +I hesitated; and glancing round for inspiration (in other words for +some harmless, necessary fib) I saw that Brigit and Monny had arrived +on the scene. They had been pacing the deck, arm in arm; and now, +arrested by Mrs. East's question, they hovered near, awaiting my answer +with vague curiosity. A twinkle in Biddy's eyes, which I caught, +rattled me completely. I missed all the easiest fibs and could catch +hold of nothing but the bare truth. There are moments like that, when, +do what you will, you must be truthful or silent; and silence fires +suspicion. + +"What is he?" I echoed feebly. "Oh, Captain Fenton. He's in the Gyppy +Army stationed up at Khartum, hundreds of miles beyond where Cook's +boats go. You wouldn't be interested in Anthony, because he spells his +name with an 'H', and he's dark and thin, not a bit like _your_ Antony, +who was a big, stout fellow, I've always heard, and fair." "Big, but +_not_ stout," Cleopatra corrected me. "And--and if he's incarnated +again, he may be dark for a change. As for the 'H', that's not +important. I wonder if we shall meet your Anthony? We think of going to +Khartum, don't we, Monny?" + +"Yes," said the girl, shortly. She was always rather short in her +manner at that time when in her opinion her aunt was being "silly." + +I gathered from a vexed flash in the gray eyes that there had never +been any hint of an impending Antony. + +"Is your friend in Khartum now?" Biddy ventured, in her creamiest +voice. The twinkle was carefully turned off like the light of a dark +lantern, but I knew well that "Mrs. Jones" was recalling a certain +conversation, in which I had refused to satisfy her curiosity. Brigit's +quick, Irish mind has a way of matching mental jigsaw puzzles, even +when vital bits appear to be missing; and if she could make a cat's paw +of Cleopatra, the witch would not be above doing it. I bore her no +grudge--who could bear soft-eyed, laughing, yet tragic Biddy a grudge? +--but I wished that she and Monny were at the other end of the deck. + +"I--er--really, I don't know where my friend is just now," I answered, +with more or less foundation of truth. + +"I wonder if I didn't read in the papers about a Captain Fenton who +took advantage of leave he'd got, to make a rush for the Balkans, and +see the fighting from the lines of the Allies?" Biddy murmured with +dreadful intelligence. "Can he be your Captain Fenton? I fancy he'd +been stationed in the Sudan; and he was officially supposed to have +gone home to spend his leave in England. Anyhow, there was a row of +some sort after he and another man dropped down on to the Turks out of +a Greek aeroplane. Or was it a Servian one? Anyhow, I know he oughtn't +to have been in it; and 'Paterfamilias' and 'Patriot' wrote letters to +the _Times_ about British officers who didn't mind their own business. +Why, I saw the papers on board this ship! They were old ones. Papers on +ships always are. But I think they came on at Algiers or somewhere." + +"Probably 'somewhere,'" I witheringly replied. "_I_ didn't come on at +Algiers, so I don't know anything about it." + +"Diplomatists never do know anything official, do they, Duffer dear?" +smiled Biddy. "I'll wager your friend is interesting, even if he does +spell himself with an 'H', and weighs two stone less than his namesake +from Rome. Mrs. East believes in reincarnation, and I'm not sure I +don't, though Monny's so young she doesn't believe in anything. Just +suppose your friend is a reincarnation of Antony without an 'H'? And +suppose, too, by some strange trick of fate he should meet you in +Alexandria or Cairo? You'd introduce him to us, wouldn't you?" + +"It's the most unlikely thing in the world. And he'd be no good to you. +He's a man's man. He thinks he doesn't like women." + +"Doesn't like women!" echoed Monny Gilder. "He must be a curmudgeon. Or +has he been jilted?" + +"Rather not!" Too impulsively I defended the absent. "Girls go mad +about him. He has to keep them off with a stick. He's got other things +to think of than girls, things he believes are more important--though, +of course, he's mistaken. He'll find that out some day, when he has +more time. So far, he's been hunting other game, often in wild places. +A book might be written on his adventures." + +"What kind of adventures? Tell us about them," said Biddy, "up to the +Balkan one, which you deny having heard of." + +"You wouldn't care about his sort of adventures. There aren't any women +in them," said I. "Women want love stories. It's only the heroines they +care for, not the heroes, and I don't somehow see the right heroine for +Fenton's story." + +I noticed an expression dawning on Cleopatra's face, as I thus bereft +her of a possible Antony (with an "H"). There was a softening of the +long eyes, and the glimmer of a smile which said "Am I Cleopatra for +nothing?" + +Never had she looked handsomer. Never before had I thought of her as +really dangerous. I'd been inclined to poke fun at the lady for her +superstition and her cartouche, and Cleopatra-hood in general. But +suddenly I realized that her make-up was no more exaggerated than that +of many a beauty of the stage and of society: and that nowadays, women +who are--well, forty-ish--can be formidable rivals for younger and +simpler sisters. Not that I feared much for Anthony from Cleopatra or +any other female thing, for I'd come to consider him practically +woman-proof; still, I saw danger that the lady might make a dead set at +him, if she got the chance, and all through my stupidity in giving away +his name. "Antony" was a thrilling password to that mysterious "something" +which she expected to happen in Egypt: and already she regarded my +friend as a ram caught in the bushes, for a sacrifice on her altar. +Instead of screening him I had dragged him in front of the footlights. +But fortunately there was still time to jerk down the curtain. + +I threw a glance at Brigit and Monny, and was relieved to find that +their attention was distracted by a new arrival: Miss Rachel Guest from +Salem, Massachusetts: a pale, thin, lanky copy of our Rose, with the +beauty and bloom left out; but a pair of eyes to redeem the colourless +face--oh, yes, a pair of eyes! Strange, hungry, waiting eyes. + +When I am alone, I fear Monny's favourite _protegee_, who started out +to "see the world" on a legacy of two thousand dollars, and won Miss +Gilder's admiration (and hospitality) through her unassuming pluck. To +my mind she is the ideal adventuress of a new, unknown, and therefore +deadly type; but for once I rejoiced at sight of the pallid, fragile +woman, so cheerful in spite of frail health, so frank about her +twenty-eight years. She had news to tell of a nature so exciting that, +after a whisper or two, Cleopatra forgot Anthony in her desire to know the +latest development in the Ship's Mystery. + +"My stewardess says he won't let his wife land till we're all off," +murmured the ex-schoolmistress, in her colourless voice. "She heard the +end of a conversation, when she carried the poor girl's lunch to the +door--just a word or two. So we shan't see her again, I suppose." + +"Oh, yes, we shall," said Monny. "If Wretched Bey can get a private +boat, so can I. I'll not desert her, if I have to stay on board the +_Laconia_ the whole night." + +All four began talking together eagerly, and blessing Miss Guest I +sneaked away. Presently I saw that clever Neill Sheridan and handsome, +actor-like Willis Bailey, the two _betes noires_ of Wretched Bey, had +joined the group. + +By this time the roofs and domes and minarets of Alexandria sparkled in +clearly sketched outlines between sunset-sky and sea; sunset of Egypt, +which divided ruby-flame of cloud, emerald dhurra, gold of desert, and +sapphire waters into separate bands of colour, vivid as the stripes of +a rainbow. + +There was a new buzz of excitement on the decks and in the ivy draped +veranda cafe. Those who had been studying Baedeker gabbled history, +ancient and modern, until the conquest of Alexander and the bombardment +of '82 became a hopeless jumble in the ears of the ignorant. Bores who +had travelled inflicted advice on victims who had not. People told each +other pointless anecdotes of "the last time I was in Egypt," while +those forced to listen did so with the air of panthers waiting to +pounce. A pause for breath on the part of the enemy gave the wished-for +opportunity to spring into the breach with an adventure of their own. + +We took an Arab pilot on board--the first Arab ever seen by the ladies +of my party--and before the red torch of sunset had burned down to +dusky purple, tenders like big, black turtles were swimming out to the +_Laconia_. We slaves of the Rose, however, had surrendered all personal +interest in these objects. The word of Miss Gilder had gone forth, and, +unless Rechid Bey changed his mind at the last minute, we were all to +lurk in ambush until he appeared with his wife. Then, somehow, Monny +was to snatch her chance for a word with the Ship's Mystery; and +whatever happened, none of us were to stir until it had been snatched. + +Arguments, even from Biddy, were of no avail, and mine were silenced by +cold permission to go away by myself if I chose. It was terrible, it +was wicked to talk of people making their own beds and then lying in +them. It was nonsense to say that, even if the wife of Rechid Bey asked +for help, we could do nothing. Of course, we would do something! If the +girl wanted to be saved, she should be saved, if Monny had to act +alone. Whatever happened, Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Bailey must remain in +the background, as the very sight of them would drive "Wretched Bey" +_wild!_ + +I was thinking of Anthony's surprise when one after the other, two +tenders should reach the quay without me; and if the Gilded Rose had +not been so sweet, her youthful cocksureness would have made me yearn +to slap her. In spite of all, however, the girl's excitement became +contagious as passengers crowded down the gangway and Rechid Bey did +not appear. + +"Allah--Allah!" cried the boatman and the Arab porters as they hauled +huge trunks off the ship onto a float. Then one after the other the two +tenders puffed away, packed from stem to stern. A few people for whom +there was no room embarked in small boats manned by jabbering Arabs. +Two of these cockle-shells still moved up and down under the black, +mountainous side of the ship, and the officer whose duty it was to see +the passengers off was visibly restless. He wanted to know if my +lordship was ready; and my lordship's brain was straining after an +excuse for further delay, when a man and woman arrived opportunely; +Rechid Bey and a veiled, muffled form hooked to his arm; a slender, +appealing little figure: and through the veil I fancied that I caught a +gleam of large, wistful, anxious eyes. + +The ladies were lying in wait out of sight, and I dodged behind the +sturdy blue shoulders guarding the gangway. This was my first glimpse +of the Ship's Mystery; and though I did not like my job (I had to +surprise Rechid Bey and take his mind off his wife) my curiosity was +pricked. The figure in sealskin looked very girlish; the veiled head +was bowed. The mystery took on human personality for me, and Monny +Gilder was no longer obstinate; she was a loyal friend. I did not see +that we could be of use to the poor little fool who had married a Turk, +yet I was suddenly ready to do what I could. As Rechid Bey brought his +wife to the top of the gangway, I lounged out, and spoke. Disconcerted, +the stout, good-looking man of thirty let drop the arm of the girl, +putting her behind him. And this was what Monny wanted. They would have +an instant for a few disjointed words: Monny might perhaps have time to +promise help which the girl dared not ask, even behind her husband's +back. + +"Good evening," I said in French, taking advantage of a smoke-room +acquaintance. "Is that smart boat down there for you? I was trying to +secure it, in my best Arabic, but the fellow said it was engaged." + +"Yes, it is mine," Rechid answered, civilly, trying to hide his +annoyance. "I telegraphed from Naples to a friend in Alexandria to send +me a private boat. I do not like crowds." + +"Neither do I, so I waited, too," I explained. "They told me there were +always boats, and my big luggage has gone. I suppose yours has, too?" + +"No doubt," said Rechid Bey. "Good night, Milord Borrow." + +He turned quickly to his wife, as if to catch her at something, but the +slim veiled mystery stood meekly awaiting his will. To my intense +relief Monny and her friends were invisible. I could hardly wait until +the two figures had passed out of sight down the gangway, to know +whether my skirmishing attack had been successful. + +"Well?" I asked, as Miss Gilder, "Mrs. Jones," Cleopatra, Rachel Guest, +and two maids filed out from concealment. "Did I give you time enough? +Did you get the chance you wanted?" + +"Yes, thank you ever so much," said Monny, with one of those dazzling +smiles that would make her a beauty even if she were not the favourite +Sunday supplement heiress. "I counted on you--and _she_ had counted on +me. She must have known I wouldn't fail her, for she had this bit of +paper ready. When I jumped out she slipped it into my hand. We didn't +need to say a word, and Wretched Bey has no idea I came near her." + +"A bit of paper?" I echoed, with interest. For it sounded the obvious +secret thing; a bit of paper stealthily slid from hand to hand. + +"Yes, with her address on it--nothing more in writing: but two other +words, pricked with a pin. '_Save me._' Don't you see, if her husband +had pounced on it, no harm would have been done. He wouldn't have +noticed the pin-pricks, as a woman would. I thought she was going to +live in Cairo, and I believe she thought so too, at first. But she's +written down the name of a house in a place called Asiut. Did you ever +hear of such a town, Lord Ernest?" + +"Oh, yes," said I. "The Nile boats stop there and people see tombs and +mummied cats and buy silver shawls." + +"Good!" said Monny. "_My_ boat shall stop there, but not only for tombs +or cats or silver shawls. I have an idea that the poor girl is +frightened, and wants me to help her escape." + +"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You mustn't on any account get mixed up +in an adventure of that sort! Remember, this is Egypt----" + +"I don't care," said Monny, "if it's the moon." + +She believed that this settled the matter. I believed the exact +opposite. But I left it at that, for the moment, as the boat was +waiting, and Asiut seemed a long way off. + +This was my first lesson in what Brigit called "Monny's little ways"; +but the second lesson was on the heels of the first. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A DISAPPOINTMENT AND A DRAGOMAN + + +It was a blow not to see Anthony on the quay. And other blows rained +thick and fast. My two consolations were that I was actually in Egypt; +and that in the confusion Rechid Bey with the veiled figure of his +silent bride had slipped away without further incidents. Their +disappearance was regretted by no one save Monny, unless it was Neill +Sheridan, and he was discreet enough to keep his feelings to himself. +The girl was not. She protested on principle, although she had the +Asiut address. But where all men, black and brown and white, were +yelling with the whole force of their lungs, and pitching and tossing +luggage (mostly the wrong luggage) with all the force of their arms, +nobody heard or cared what she said. For once Monny Gilder was +disregarded by a crowd of men. This could happen only at the departure +of a boat train! But if I was not thinking about her, I was thinking +about her fifteen trunks, and Cleopatra's sixteen and Biddy's and Miss +Guest's two. The maids were worse than useless, and I had no valet. I +have never had a valet. I clawed, I fought, I wrestled in an arena +where it was impossible to tell the wild beasts from the martyrs. I +rescued small bags from under big boxes, and dashed off with a few +samples to the train, in order to secure places. All other able-bodied +men, including Sheridan and the artist sculptor Bailey, were engaged in +the same pursuit, and our plan was to "bag" a whole compartment between +us in the boat-special for Cairo. But we never met again till we +reached our destination. One expects Egypt to warm the heart with its +weather, but the cold was bitter; so was the disappointment about +Anthony. Both cut through me like knives. Darkness had fallen before I +was ready to join the ladies--if I could. In passing earlier, I had +shouted to the maids where to find the places, grabbed with difficulty, +for their mistresses. Whether they had found them, or whether any of +the party still existed, was the next question; and it was settled only +as the train began to move. The compartment I had selected was boiling +over with a South American president and his effects; but as I stood +transfixed by this transformation scene, Cleopatra's maid hailed me +from the end of the corridor. _Les quatres dames_ were in the +restaurant car. Why? Ah, it was the Arab they had engaged as dragoman, +who had advised the change in milord's absence. He said it would be +better, as of course they would want dinner. He himself was looking +after the small _baggages_, except the little sacks of the hand which +the maids kept. + +What, the ladies had engaged a dragoman! And they had trusted him--a +stranger--with luggage? Then it was as good as gone! But no, mildly +ventured Cleopatra's handmaiden. The dragoman came recommended. He had +a letter from a friend of milord. + +My thoughts jumped, of course, to Anthony. Yet how could he have known +that I was travelling with ladies? And if by some Marconian miracle he +had heard, why should he, who prided himself on "not bothering" with +women, trouble to provide a dragoman at Alexandria? + +I hurried to the dining car, and found Monny with her satellites seated +at a table, three of them looking as calmly innocent as if they had not +upset my well-laid scheme for their comfort. Biddy alone had a guilty +air, because, perhaps, I was more important in her eyes than in the +eyes of the others. "Oh, dear Duffer," she began to wheedle me: "We +hope you don't mind our coming here? We thought it a good idea, for +we're starving, although we're perfectly happy because we're in Egypt, +and because it's such a _quaint_ train, so different and Eastern. The +dragoman who----" + +"I think he came from your friend Anthony with an 'H,'" Cleopatra broke +in. "He seemed providential. And he speaks English. The only objection +is, he's not as good-looking as Monny and I wanted our dragoman to be. +We did hope to get one who would be _becoming_ to us, you see, and give +the right sort of Eastern background. But I suppose one can't have +_everything!_ And it was I who said your friend Anthony's messenger +must be engaged even if his face is--is--rather like an _accident!_" + +"It's like a catastrophe," remarked Monny, looking as if she blamed me. + +"Where _is_ it?" I wanted to know. + +"It's waiting in a vestibule outside where the cook's cooking," Biddy +explained ungrammatically. "I told it you'd want to see it. And it's +got a letter for you from some one." "Did the fellow say the letter was +from Fenton?" I inquired. + +"No. He only said, from a friend who'd expected to meet you; and Mrs. +East was sure it must be from the one you were talking about." + +Wasting no more words, I marched off to the fountainhead for +information. Near the open door of the infinitesimal kitchen stood a +fat little dark man with a broken nose, and one white eye. The other +eye, as if to make up, was singularly, repellently intelligent. It +fixed itself upon me, as I approached, with eager questioning which +melted into ingratiating politeness. Instinct warned the fellow that I +was the person he awaited. At the same moment, instinct was busily +whispering to me that there was something fishy about him, despite the +alleged letter. He did not look the type of man Fenton would recommend. +And though his face was of an unwholesome olive tint, and he wore a +tarbush, and a galabeah as long as a dressing-gown, under his short +European coat, I was sure he was not of Arab or Egyptian blood. + +"Milord Borrow?" he began, displaying large white teeth, of which he +was evidently proud. + +I assented. + +"My name is Bedr el Gemaly," he introduced himself. "I have a letter +for milord." + +"Who gave it to you?" I challenged him. + +The ingratiating smile seemed to flicker like a candle flame in a +sudden puff of wind. "A friend of my, a dragoman. He could not come to +bring it. So he give it to me. The gentleman's name was Fenton. My +friend, he was sent from him at Cairo." As the fellow spoke, in fairly +good English, he took from a pocket of the short coat which spoiled his +costume, a colourful silk handkerchief. Unwrapping this, he produced an +envelope. It was addressed to me in the handwriting of Fenton, but +before opening it I went on with my catechism. + +"Then the letter doesn't introduce you, but your friend?" + +The smile was practically dead now. "I think it do not introduce any +ones. It is only a letter. My friend Abdullah engaged to carry it. But +he got sick too soon to come to the ship." + +"I see," said I. "You seem to have used the letter, however, to get +yourself taken on as dragoman by the ladies of my party. How the devil +did you find out that they were travelling with me, eh?" I shot the +question at him and tried to imitate gimlets with my eyes. But he was +ready with his answer. No doubt he had prepared it. + +"I see you all together, from a distant place, before I come there. A +gentleman off the ship, he pointed you out when I ask where I find +Milord Borrow. I see you, and those ladies. When I come, you was away +already, so I speak to them, and say if I could help, I be very +pleased. When I tell one of the ladies I was from a friend of milord's +with a letter, she say, is the friend's name Captain Fenton, and I say +'yes, madame, Captain Fenton, that is the name; and I am a dragoman to +show Egypt to the strangers. I know it all very well, from Alexandria +way up Nile.' Then the lady say very quick she will take me for her +dragoman. I am pleased, for I was not engaged for season, and she say +if I satisfy her she keep me in Cairo and on from there." "H'm," I +grunted, still screwing in the gimlets. "I see you're not an Egyptian. +You have selected the name of an Armenian famous in history. Are you +Armenian?" + +"I am the same thing as Egyptian, I bin here for dragoman so many +years. I am Mussulman in faith. But I was born Armenian," he admitted. + +"You speak English with an American accent," I went on. "Have you lived +in America?" + +"One time a family take me to New York and I stay a year or two. Then I +get homesick and come to Egypt again. But I learn to talk maybe some +like American peoples while I am over there." + +It sounded plausible enough, the whole story. And if Mrs. East had +snapped the dragoman up under the impression that he came from a man +she had determined to meet, the fellow might be no more to blame than +any other boaster, touting in his own interest. Still, I had an uneasy +feeling that something lay hidden under Armenian plausibility. Bedr el +Gemaly was perhaps a thief who had courted a chance for a big haul of +jewellery. Yet if that were all, why hadn't he hopped off the tram, as +it began to move, with the ladies' hand luggage? He might easily have +got away, and disappeared into space, before we could wire the police +of Alexandria to look out for him. He had not done that, but had +waited, and risked facing my suspicions. And he must have realized, +while in charge of Monny's and Cleopatra's attractive dressing bags, +that he was missing an opportunity such as might never come to him +again. This conduct suggested an honest desire to be a good dragoman. +Yet--well, I resolved not to let the gimlets rust until Bedr el Gemaly +had been got rid of. If Mrs. East had really promised him a permanent +engagement, she could salve his disappointment by giving him a day's +pay. I would take the responsibility of sending him about his business. + +Without further parley I opened the letter. It was short, evidently +written in a hurry. Anthony had scribbled: + +Horribly sorry, dear old Duffer, but I'm wanted by the Powers that Be +in Cairo. No other reason could have kept me from Alexandria. I was +afraid a wire wouldn't reach you, so I sent a decent old chap by the +train I meant to take. He's pledged to find you on the quay, and he +will--unless some one makes him drunk. This seems unlikely to happen, +as he won't be paid till he gets back, and having no friends on earth, +nobody will stand him drinks. Beastly luck, but I shan't be able to see +you to-night even in Cairo. Tell you all to-morrow--and there's a lot +to tell, about many things. + +Yours ever, + +A.F. + +The messenger had "no friend on earth," according to Fenton. Then the +friendship stated to exist between him and Bedr el Gemaly must have +come readymade from heaven, or--its opposite. I guessed the nature of +the "decent old chap's" illness. But I should have been glad to know +whether it had been produced by design or accident. + +When I went back to the ladies, Bedr went with me, at my firm +suggestion, and gave them their handbags to use as footstools. Dinner +was ready, and a seat had been kept for me at a table just across the +aisle, but before beginning, I explained the real circumstances +governing the dragoman's arrival. "Whatever else he may be, he's a +shark," I said, "or he wouldn't have traded on a misunderstanding to +grab an engagement. You owe him nothing really, but if you choose, give +him a sovereign when we get to Cairo, and I'll tell him that I have a +dragoman in view for the party. He'll then have two days' pay, +according to the guide-books." + +With this, I slipped into my seat, thinking the matter settled. But +between courses, Monny leaned across from her table (she and I had end +seats) and said that she and her aunt had been talking about that poor +dragoman. "Aunt Clara raised his hopes," the girl went on, "and now +Rachel Guest and I think it would be mean to send him away, just +because he's hideous." + +"That won't be the reason!" said I. "It will be because we don't know +anything about him, and because in his sharpness he's over-reached +himself." + +"But we do know things about him. He showed Aunt Clara letters from +people who'd employed him, lots of Americans whose names we've heard, +and some we're acquainted with. The tragic thing is, that he finds +difficulty in getting engaged because of his face. I've felt guilty +ever since I called it a catastrophe. Of course it _is_; but I said it +to be funny, which was cruel. And we deserve to punish ourselves by +keeping the poor wretch a few days, or more, if he's good." + +"I thought you wanted a becoming dragoman?" I reminded her. + +"Oh, that was just our silliness. I _do_ like good-looking people, I +must say. But what _does_ it matter whether a brown person is handsome +or homely, when you come to think of it? Besides, we can have another +dragoman, too, for ornament, if we run across a very picturesque one." + +I laughed. "But you can't go up the Nile on a boat with a drove of +private dragomans, you know!" + +"I _don't_ know, Lord Ernest. And why don't you call them dragomen? You +make them sound as if they were some kind of animal." + +"Dragomans is the plural," I persisted. + +"Well, I shall call them dragomen. And if this poor thing can't get any +one else to drag, he _shall_ drag us up the Nile, if he's as +intelligent in his ways as he is in that one eye, which is so like a +hard-boiled egg. You see, Lord Ernest, we're going to have a boat of +our own. A steam dahabeah is what we want, so we won't be at the mercy +of the wind. And we can have all the dragomen we choose, can't we?" + +"I suppose you can fill up your cabins with them," I agreed, because I +felt that the Gilded Rose wished me to argue the point, and that if I +did I should be worsted. As I should not be on board the dahabeah in +question, it would not matter to me personally if the boat were +entirely manned by dragomans. Except that there would in that case +probably be a collision, and I should not be near to save Biddy--and +incidentally the girl Biddy wished me to marry. + +After that, we went on eating our dinner and talking of Egypt, Miss +Guest doing all the listening, as usual. When we had finished, we kept +our places because we had no others. Cleopatra was curious about my +friend's failure to arrive, but I put her off with vaguenesses; and +said to myself that, for Anthony's sake, it was well that mysterious +business had kept him in Cairo. Still, I wondered what the business +was: why he would be unable to see me that night: and what were the +"many things" he had to tell. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A MAN IN A GREEN TURBAN + + +I shall never know for certain whether or not our future was entirely +shaped by Monny's resolve to breakfast on the terrace of Shepheard's +Hotel next morning. + +A great many remarkable things have happened on that historic site. +Napoleon made the place his headquarters. General Kleber was murdered +in the garden. Half the most important people in the world have had tea +on the terrace: but, according to a German waiter, there was one deed +yet undone. Nobody had ever ordered breakfast out of doors. + +Of course, Monny got what she wanted. Not by storming, not by putting +on power-of-wealth airs, but simply by turning bright pink and looking +large-eyed. At once that waiter rushed off, and fetched other waiters; +and almost before the invited guests knew what to expect, two tables +had been fitted together, covered with white, adorned with fresh roses, +and set forth with cups and saucers. I was the one man invited, and I +felt like an actor called to play a new part in an old scene, a scene +vaguely, excitingly familiar. Could I possibly be remembering it, I +asked myself, or was my impression but the result of a life-long +debauch of Egyptian photographs? Anyhow, there was the impression, with +a thrill in it; and I felt that I ought to be handsomer, more romantic, +altogether more vivid, if I were to live up to the moving picture. It +seemed as if nothing would be too extraordinary to do, if I wanted to +match my surroundings. I thought, even if I burst into a passionate +Arab love-song and proposed to Monny across the table, it would be +quite the right note. But somehow I didn't feel inclined to propose. It +was enough to admire her over the rim of a coffee cup. In her white +tussore (I heard Biddy call it tussore) and drooping, garden-type of +hat, she was a different girl from the girl of the ship. She had been a +winter girl in white fur, then. Now she was a summer girl, and a +radiant vision, twice as pretty as before, especially in this Oriental +frame; still I was waiting to see myself fall in love with her, much in +the same way that Biddy was waiting. And there was that Oriental frame! +It belonged to my past, and perhaps Monny Gilder didn't belong even to +my future, so it was excusable if I thought of it more than of her. + +It was hardly nine o'clock, but already the wonderful coloured cinema +show of Cairo daily life had begun to flash and flicker past the +terrace of Shepheard's, where East and West meet and mingle more +sensationally than anywhere in Egypt. Nobody save ourselves had dared +suggest breakfast; but travellers were pouring into the hotel, and +pouring out. Pretty women and plain women were sitting at the little +wicker tables to read letters, or discuss plans for the day with each +other or their dragomans. Officers in khaki came and talked to them +about golf and gymkhanas. Down on the pavement, close under the +balustrade, crowded young and old Egyptian men with dark faces and +wonderful eyes or no eyes at all, struggling to sell painted +post-cards, strings of blue-gray mummy beads; necklaces of cornelian and +great lumps of amber; fans, perfumes, sample sticks of smoking incense, +toy camels cleverly made of jute; fly whisks from the Sudan with +handles of beads and dangling shells; scarab rings and brooches; cheap, +gay jewellery, scarfs from Asiut, white, black, pale green and purple, +glittering like miniature cataracts of silver, as brown arms held them +up. Darting Arab urchins hawked tame ichneumons, or shouted newspapers +for sale--English, American, Greek, French, German, Italian, and +Turkish. Copper-tinted, classic-featured youths in white had golden +crowns of bananas round their turbans; withered patriarchs in blue +galabeahs offered oranges, or immense bunches of mixed flowers, fresh +and fragrant as the morning; or baskets of strawberries red and bright +as rubies. Dignified Arabs stalked by, bearing on nobly poised heads +pots of growing rose-bushes or arum lilies, or azaleas. Jet-black +giants, wound in rainbow-striped cottons, clanked brass saucers like +cymbals, advertising the sweet drinks in their glass jars, while memory +whispered in my ears the Arab name "sherbetly." Across the street, +clear silver-gold sunshine of winter in Egypt shone on precious stones, +on carved ivories, silver anklets, Persian rugs, and embroideries, +brilliant as hummingbirds' wings, all displayed in the windows of shops +where dark eyes looked out eagerly for buyers. Everything was for sale, +for sale to the strangers! The whole clamouring city seemed to consist +of one vast, concentrated desire on the part of brown people to sell +things to fair people. They shouted and wheedled and besought on the +sidewalks; and the roadway between was a wide river of colour and life. +Motor cars with Arab chauffeurs carried rich Turks to business, or to +an audience of State. Now and then a face of ivory glimmered through a +gauzy veil and eyes of ink and diamonds shot starry glances from +passing carriage windows. Erect English women drove high dog-carts. +Gordon Highlanders swung along in the kilt, more at home in Cairo then +in Edinburgh, the droning of their pipes as Oriental as the drone of a +raeita, or the beat of tom-toms. A wedding party with a hidden bride in +a yellow chariot, met a funeral, and yashmaked faces peeped from +curtained windows, in one procession, to stare at the wailing, marching +men of the other, and to shrink back hastily from the sight of the +coffin. Tangled it would seem inextricably with streams of traffic, +surging both ways, moved the "ships of the desert," loaded with +emerald-green bersim; long, lilting necks, and calm, mysterious eyes of +camels high above the cloaked heads of striding Bedouins, heads of +defiant Arab prisoners, chained and handcuffed to each other; heads of +blue-eyed water buffaloes, and heads of trim white, tasselled donkeys. + +None of us talked very much, as we sat at the breakfast table: the +novelty and wonder of the scene made the actors forget their words: and +if we had been able to talk, we could not have appreciated each other's +rhapsodies, over the shoutings of men who wanted us to buy their wares, +and harangues of dragomans who wished, as Monny said, to "drag" us. +These latter, especially, were persistent, and Bedr the One Eyed, +having been forbidden to come till ten o'clock, was not on the spot to +give protection. Our method at first was to appear oblivious, but +presently in my wickedest Arabic, I would have ordered the troop away +if Monny had not interfered. + +"Don't!" she said, "they're part of the picture. Besides, they've more +right here than we have. It's their country, not ours. And they're so +interesting--most of them. That tall man over there, for instance, with +the green turban. He's the only one who hasn't opened his mouth. Just +to show him that virtue's its own reward, I'm going to engage him. Will +you call him to us, please, Lord Ernest?" + +Sitting as I sat, I could not see the person indicated. "What do you +want him for, Miss Gilder?" I obeyed temptation, and asked. + +"Why, to be a dragoman, of course," she explained. "That's what he's +for. I told you, I'd have a picturesque one for ornament. This +creature's a perfect specimen." + +I stood up reluctantly, and looked down over the balustrade. "A man +with a green turban?" I repeated. "But that means he's a Hadji, who's +been to Mecca and back. I never heard of a dragoman--" + +I stopped short in my argument. My eyes had found the man with the +green turban. + +He stood at some distance behind the pavement-merchants and +self-advertising dragomans who pressed against the railing. In his long +galabeah of Sudan silk, ashes of roses in colour, he was tall and +straight as a palm, gravely dignified with his folded arms and the +haughty remoteness of his expression. Dark and silent, half-disdainful, +half-amused, he was like a prince compared with his humbler brethren; +but there was another resemblance more relevant and intimate which cut +my sentence short. + +"By Jove," I thought, "how like he is to Anthony Fenton!" + +He was looking, not at me, but at Miss Gilder, quite respectfully yet +hypnotically, as if by way of an experiment he had been willing her to +find and single out the one motionless figure, the one person whose +tongue had not called attention to himself. + +Yes, I thought again, he was an Arab copy of Anthony, but more as +Anthony had been years ago before his moustache grew, than as Anthony +had become in late years. Still, there were the aquiline features, the +long, rather sad eyes shaded with thick, straight lashes, the eyebrows +raised at the bridge of the thin nose, then sloping steeply down toward +the temples; the slight working of muscles in the cheeks; the +peculiarly charming mouth which could be irresistible in a smile, the +stern, contradictory chin marring by its prominence the otherwise +perfect oval of the face. I wondered if Anthony had as noble a throat +as this collarless galabeah left uncovered, reminding myself that I +could not at all recall Anthony's throat. Then, as the sombre eyes +turned to me, drawn perhaps by my stare, I was stunned, flabbergasted, +what you will, by realizing that Anthony himself was looking at me from +under the green turban. + +The dark face was blankly expressionless. He might have been gazing +through my head. His eyes neither twinkled with fun nor sent a message +of warning; but somehow I knew that he saw me, that he had been +watching me for a long time. "You see the one I mean, don't you?" asked +Monny. "Well, that's the one I want. I'll take _him_." + +She spoke as if she were selecting a horse at a horse show. + +Anthony had brought this on himself, but I was not angry with Anthony. +I was angry with the girl for putting her finger into our pie. + +"That's not a dragoman," I assured her. "If he were, he'd come and bawl +out his accomplishments, as the others do. He's a very different sort +of chap." + +"That's why I want him," said Monny. "And if he isn't a dragoman, he'll +jump at being one if I offer to pay him enough. He's an Egyptian, +anyhow, by his clothes, or a Bedouin or something--although he isn't as +dark as the rest of these men. I suppose he must know a little about +his own city and country." + +"It doesn't follow he'd tell travellers about them for money," said I. +"He looks to me a man of good birth and distinction in old fashioned +dress. Why he's lingering on the pavement in front of this hotel I +can't explain, but I'm certain he isn't touting. Probably he's waiting +for a friend." + +"He's the best looking Arab we've seen yet," remarked Mrs. East. "Like +my idea of an Egyptian gentleman." + +"Pooh!" said Monny. "Just test him, Lord Ernest." + +"Sorry, but I can't do it," I answered, with a firmness which ought to +have been tried on her long ago. "And I wouldn't discuss him in such a +loud tone of voice. He may understand English." + +"We have to yell to hear ourselves speak over all this row," Biddy +apologized for her darling; but she need not have troubled herself. +Miss Gilder had been deaf to my implied reproach. + +"I'm glad I'm an American girl," she said. "When I want things I want +them so dreadfully I just go for them, and surprise them so much that I +get them before they know where they are. Now I'm going for this +dragoman." + +"He's not a drag--" I persisted, but she cut me short. + +"I bet you my hat he will be one! What will you bet that he won't, Lord +Ernest?" + +"I'll bet you his green turban," said I. + +"How can you get it?" + +"As easily as you can get him," I retorted. "It's a safe bet." + +Monny looked excited, but firm. Luckily, as she does it so often, it's +becoming to her to look firm. (I have noticed that it's not becoming to +most girls. It squares their jaws and makes their eyes snap.) But the +spoiled daughter of the dead Cannon King at her worst, merely looks +pathetically earnest and Minerva-like. This, I suppose, is one of the +"little ways" she has acquired, since she gave up kicking and screaming +people into submission. As Biddy says, the girl can be charming not +only when she wants to be, but quite often when she doesn't. + +The man with the green turban was no longer engaged in hypnotizing. He +had retired within himself, and appeared oblivious to the outer world. +Yet nobody jostled the tall, straight figure which stood with folded +arms, lightly leaning against a tree. The colour of his turban was +sacred in the eyes of the crowd; and when Miss Gilder, leaning over the +terrace railing beckoned him, surprise rather than jealousy showed on +the faces of the unwanted dragomans. As for the wearer of the turban, +he did what I expected and wished him to do: paid not the slightest +attention to the gesture. Whatever the motive for his masquerade, it +was not to attract anything feminine. + +I smiled sardonically. "That's a nice hat you've got on, Miss Gilder," +I remarked. + +"Do you collect girls' hats?" she asked sweetly. "But mine isn't +eligible yet for your collection. Let me see, what did you say he was? +Oh, a Hadji!" And she shrilled forth sweetly, her voice sounding young +and clear, "Hadji! Hadji! Effendi! Venez ici, s'il vous plait. Please +come here." + +I could have been knocked flat by a blow of the smallest, cheapest +ostrich feather in the hands of any street-merchant. For he came. +Anthony came! Not to look meekly up from the pavement below the +railing, but to ascend the steps of the terrace, and advance with grave +dignity toward our table. Within a yard of us he stopped, giving to me, +not to Miss Gilder, the beautiful Arab salute, a touch on forehead and +heart. + +"You devil!" I was saying to myself. "So you walk into this trap, do +you, and calmly trust me to get you out. Serve you right if I don't +move hand or foot." And I almost made up my mind that I wouldn't. But I +was interested. I wanted intensely to know what the dickens Anthony was +up to, and whether he would have been up to it if he'd known the sort +of young woman he had to deal with. + +"It was I who called to you, not this gentleman," said Monny, when she +found that Green Turban did not look at her. "Do you speak French or +English a little?" + +"A little of both. But I choose French when talking to Americans," +replied Anthony Fenton, with astounding impertinence, in the preferred +language. "I do not know you, Madame. But I do know this gentleman." + +Good heavens! What next? He acknowledged me! What was I to do now? What +did the impudent fellow want me to do? Evidently he was trying an +experiment. Anthony is great on experiments, and always has been. But +this was a bomb. I thought he wanted to see if I could catch it on the +fly, and drop it into water before it had time to explode. + +"Why didn't you tell us, Lord Ernest?" asked Monny, with a flash in her +gray eyes. "I thought you hadn't been in Egypt since you were a child." + +"I haven't, and I didn't recognize him at first," I answered, trying +for the coolness which Anthony dared to count upon. + +"You remember me now?" he inquired politely. + +"I--er--yes," I replied, also in French. "Your face is familiar, though +you've changed, I think, since--er--since you were in England. It must +have been there--yes, of course. You were on a diplomatic mission. But +your name--" + +"You may have known me as Ahmed Antoun," said the wretch, not dreaming +of that slip he had made. + +Cleopatra, who has little French, nevertheless started, and fixed upon +the face under the turban a stare of feverish interest. Brigit and the +unobtrusive lady with the slanting eyes both showed such symptoms of +surprise as must too late have warned Fenton that he had missed his +footing, skating on thin ice. + +"Antoun!" exclaimed Mrs. East. "Why, that's what you said you called +your friend Captain Fenton." + +I glanced at Anthony. His profile had no more expression than that of +an Indian on an American penny, and, indeed, rather resembled it. If he +were blaming me for letting anything out, I had a right to blame him +for letting himself in. He was silent as well as expressionless. He +left it all to me--diplomat or duffer. + +"'Antoun Effendi' was the nickname my friend Fenton got at school," I +explained to Cleopatra, "because it sounded a bit like his own name, +and because he had--er--because he had associations with Egypt. He was +proud of them and is still. But Antoun is a name often heard here. And +every man who isn't a Bey or a Prince, or a Sheikh, is an Effendi. I +quite remember you now," I hurried on, turning to Anthony once more. +"You are Hadji as well as Effendi." + +"I have the right to call myself so, if I choose," he admitted. "I am +pleased to meet you again. I was waiting for a friend when you +beckoned. If you did not recognize my face at first, may I ask what it +was you wanted of me?" + +There was no limit, then, to his audacity. He had not learned his +lesson yet, after all, it would seem. + +Monny could not bear tamely to lose her hat, though she must have felt +her hatpins trembling in the balance. "I told you before," she +repeated, "that it was I who beckoned you." He looked at her, without +speaking; and somehow the green turban and the long straight gown, by +adding to his dignity, added also to his remote air of cold politeness. +How could she go on? Had she the cheek to go on? She had; but the cheek +was flushed with embarrassment. + +"I--er--I am anxious for a guide, some one who knows Egypt well, and +several languages," she desperately blurted out, looking like a +half-frightened, half-defiant child. "I thought----" + +"There are plenty of dragomans, Madame," Green Turban reminded her. "I +can recommend you several." + +"I don't want a regular dragoman," she said. "And I'm not 'Madame.' I +am Miss Gilder." + +"Indeed?" Chilling indifference in the tone. (Monny's hat was +practically mine. I thought I should rather value it.) + +"Yes. But of course that can't matter to you." + +"No. It cannot, Mademoiselle." + +"What I want to say, is this. You're a Hadji, which means you've been +to Mecca; Lord Ernest Borrow's just told us. So you must be very +intelligent. Are you in business?" + +"I am interested in excavations." + +"Oh! And are you allowed to make them yourself?" + +"Not always." + +I glanced at him quickly, wondering if he meant that answer more for me +than for the girl. But his face told nothing. + +"Would you be able to, if you were rich enough?" + +"It is possible." "Well, I'd be willing to give you a big salary for +showing us about Cairo, and perhaps going up the Nile." + +"You do not know who I am, Mademoiselle. Ask your friend Lord Ernest +Borrow. Perhaps he may remember something about my circumstances now he +has recalled my face." + +I was honestly not sure whether this were further deviltry, or an +appeal for help. In any case, I thought it time for the scene to end. +"I told you," I said to Monny in English, "that he was a man of +importance, not at all the sort of person you could expect to engage +for a guide. You must see now that he's a gentleman. And a--a--an +Egyptian gentleman is just the same as any other." + +"Surely not quite!" she answered in the same language, and I realized +my foolish mistake in using it, as if I meant her to understand that +Antoun Effendi knew it too little to catch our secrets. + +"An Egyptian man can't have the same feelings as a European? Why, for +hundreds and hundreds of years they've been an enslaved race, like our +black people at home. We'd never think of calling even the fairest +quadroon man a gentleman, though he might be wonderfully good looking +and nice mannered." + +Literally, I was frightened. Anthony Fenton is fiercely devoted to the +memory of the beautiful princess-mother, for love of whom his father's +career was ruined. _Her_ mother was a Sicilian woman, and her father +was half Greek, so there is little enough Egyptian blood, after all, in +the veins of General Fenton's son. He is proud of what there is--proud, +because of his mother's fatal charm, and the romance of her story (it +was on the eve of her wedding with a cousin of the Sultan that the +famous soldier Charles Fenton ran away with Princess Lalla and married +her in Sicily): but he is sensitive, too, because, great name as +Charles Fenton had made in Egypt, he was asked to resign his commission +on account of the escapade. Anthony, sent to England to a public +school, had fought bigger boys than himself, who, in a certain tone, +had sneeringly called him "Egyptian." I imagined now that through the +dark stain on his face I could see him turn pale with rage. He thought, +perhaps, that the American beauty was revenging herself for his +impertinence, and maybe he was right, but that did not excuse her. + +"Be careful, Miss Gilder!" I warned the girl. "This man understands +English better than you think. He comes of a princely family and he's +got only to put out his hand to claim a fortune--" + +"You seem to remember all about me now, Lord Ernest," broke in Fenton, +looking dangerous. + +"Yes," I said. "It comes back to me. You must forgive Miss Gilder." + +"There is nothing to forgive," he caught me up. "I am not a dragoman, +to be sure, but I'm enough of an Egyptian to have a price for anything +I do. I may put myself at this lady's service if she will pay my price, +though I'm not a servant and can't accept wages, even for the sake of +pursuing my excavations!" + +He continued to speak in French, lest my companions' suspicions should +be further roused by the English of an Englishman; and Monny, pale +after her blush, answered in neat, schoolgirl French, with a pretty +American, accent. "What's the price you wish to name?" she inquired, +looking a little afraid of him and ashamed of herself, now that talk of +princes and fortunes was bandied about. "Of course," she went on, when +he did not answer at once, "if I'd known--all this, I shouldn't have +asked you to be a dragoman. At least, perhaps I shouldn't. Anyhow, I +shouldn't have made a bet--" + +"A bet that I would have a 'price,' Mademoiselle? Then you may win your +bet, for I've just told you; I have a price. But I think it unlikely +you would be willing to pay it." + +"Good heavens, is he going to try and marry the girl?" I asked myself. +It would be the last thing to expect of Anthony Fenton. However, he had +already done the last but one; the thing I had bet his green turban he +would not do. After all, he was a man, and a reckless man, as he had +proved on more than one wild occasion. He was in a strange mood, +capable of anything; and the Gilded Rose could never have been prettier +in her life than at this minute. She had made him furious, and I had +imagined that his acceptance of her overtures was the beginning of some +scheme of punishment. Now I was almost sure I had been right, yet I +could not guess what he would be at. Neither could Monny. But here was +the dangerously picturesque Arab who "must be a prince or something," +as Cleopatra had expressed it. And he was even more dangerous than +picturesque. + +"You--you said you wouldn't take wages," she stammered (I enjoyed +hearing the self-willed young person stammer): "so I can't understand +what you mean. But even though you are all those things Lord Ernest +says you are, your price can't be so terribly high as to be beyond my +power to pay--if I choose to pay." + +"First, Mademoiselle, I must decide whether I choose to be paid." + +"Oh!" Monny exclaimed, taken aback. "I thought it was a question of +price." + +"Not only that. 'I _may_ put myself at the lady's service--for a +price,' was what I said. I didn't say, 'I will.' I shall not be able to +tell you until to-night." The patronizing tone in which Anthony spoke +this sentence was worth to me everything I had gone through in the last +half hour. + +"But--I want to settle things this morning or--not at all," said Monny, +reverting to type: that of the spoiled child. + +"I am sorry," replied the man of the green turban. "In that case, it +must be not at all." And he made as if to go. + +The Gilded Girl could not bear this. I and the others would see that +she was fallible; that there were things she wanted which she could not +get. "Why can't you tell me now what your price is?" she persisted. + +"Because, Mademoiselle, I may not need to tell you ever. It depends +partly on another than myself." He threw a quick glance at me. "I +expect to meet that other at Abdullahi's Cafe in an hour from now at +latest. Everything will depend on the interview. In any case, I will +let you know to-night what I can do." + +"I may not be in," said Monny. "But if I'm out, you can leave a note." + +"If I must refuse to serve you, yes, I can leave a note. If I am to +accept, I must see you in person. Should you be out, I'll take it for +granted that you have changed your mind and do not want"--he smiled +faintly for the first time--"so expensive a guide." + +Monny hesitated. "I am not stingy. I'll stay at home this evening," she +volunteered at last. + +"Bravo Petruchio!" I said under my breath. But if Biddy's plot were to +succeed, it was _my_ business to play the part of Petruchio to this +Katherine. Let the masquerading prince find a Desdemona who would suit +his Othello! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CAFE OF ABDULLAH + + +"Well--you got away from them all right?" began the man with the green +turban when, according to his roundabout instructions, I met him an +hour later at the cafe he had named, one of the principal resorts of +Cairo, where Europeans can consort with natives without attracting +remark. + +"The real dragoman came and took them off my hands--at least the realer +one than you--a dreadful creature with a game eye, who murdered your +messenger last night, and gave me your letter and induced the ladies to +engage him on the strength of it. No wonder they want a 'looker' to +take the taste of him out of their mouths. And you certainly are a +'looker' in that get-up. Now kindly tell me all about it, and +everything else." + +"That's what I'm here for," said Anthony, running a match-box to earth +in some mysterious Arab pocket. "But hold on, Duffer. Something you +said just then may be important. Is it true that my messenger didn't +give you the letter?" + +"If you'd hung about Shepheard's Hotel ten minutes longer, you'd have +seen the fellow who did give it. Bedr el Gemaly he calls himself +--Armenian Mussulman, a sickening combination, and an awful brute to look +at--said your messenger was taken suddenly ill; pretends to be a +dragoman." + +"What is he like?" + +"Rather like a partially decayed but decently dressed goat." + +"Don't rot. This may be serious." + +I described Bedr el Gemaly as best I could, feature by feature. When I +had polished them off, Anthony shook his green-turbaned head. "No +portrait of him in my rogues' gallery. Just now, I'm sensitive about +spies--over-sensitive rather. Of course, you've spotted my game?" + +"I confess I was conceited enough to think you'd given yourself all +this trouble with the costumier in order to take a rise out of me. But +when you speak of spies, I begin to put two and two together--your +business in Cairo--the powers that be, keeping you from me last night, +etc. I suppose it's an official job, this fancy dress affair?" + +"Yes. In my own capacity, I'm not in Cairo. I turned up day before +yesterday, jolly glad to get back from Adrianople--though it was good +fun there, I can tell you, for a while; and I looked forward to +wallowing no end in the alleged delights of civilization. I reported +myself, and all seemed well. I took a room at Shepheard's where you and +I had arranged to meet, and when I'd scrubbed, I strolled over to the +Turf Club to see what the gay world would have to say to a fellow in +disgrace." + +"Only silly asses swallowed that newspaper spoof! Every one in London +who knows anything about you was betting his boots that the story had +been spread on purpose to save our face with Turkey." I couldn't resist +interrupting his narrative to this extent. But Anthony merely smiled, +and watched a long-lived smokering settle like a halo over the head of +an Arab at the nearest table. He was not giving away official secrets, +but I was sure and always had been sure that he was a martyr, not a +rebel, in the matter of the Balkan incident, just closed. What the +public were led to suppose was this: that Captain Fenton had asked for +two months' leave from regimental duty at Khartum, in order to spend +the time with a relative who was seriously ill in Constantinople. That +instead of remaining at his relative's bedside, he had used his leave +for a dash to the Balkans. That this indiscretion might have been kept +a secret had he not capped it with another: a flight with a Greek +officer in an army aeroplane which had ended by crashing down in the +midst of a Turkish encampment. + +What I and friends who knew him best supposed, was that the "leave" had +been a pretext--that Fenton had been sent on a secret mission of some +sort--and that he was bound to take the blame if anything went wrong. +Aeroplanes have the habits of other fierce, untamed animals: they won't +always obey their trainers. Thus Anthony and his plan had both been +upset. (Or had it really been premeditated that he should fall into +that camp?) The remainder of his "leave" was cancelled, in punishment, +and he had been "recalled" to Egypt, to be scolded in Cairo before +proceeding to Khartum. + +"Queer how many silly asses one knows!" Anthony said. "Still, +considering what a mess I seem to have made of things, fellows were +jolly kind, at the Turf Club. Nobody cut me, and only a few let me +alone. Maybe there'd have been still fewer if there hadn't been a hero +present who claimed attention: an American chap, Jack Dennis, who knows +Miss Gilder and was telling the good news that she was on her way to +Egypt. He called her the Gilded Rose and said it was going to be a good +flower season in Cairo and up the Nile. All the men with one exception +seemed to have heard a lot about her and to find her an interesting +subject, and to want Dennis to introduce them." + +"I can guess the 'one exception'!" said I. + +"Can you? Well, I don't read newspaper gossip about heiresses. Thank +heaven, I've something better to do with my time. But the others wanted +to meet her, or pretended to, perhaps to chaff Dennis, rather a cocky +youth, though I oughtn't to say so, as he was nice to me, according to +his lights. He got Sam Blake to introduce us, when he happened to hear +my name, and went out of his way to pay me compliments, which I daresay +he thought I'd like. When there was a lull in the discussion of what +could be done to make Miss Gilder enjoy herself in Egypt--chaps +suggesting trips in their motor cars or on their camels and a lot of +rot, Dennis remarked that I was the only man who hadn't chipped into +the conversation. And hadn't I any ideas for entertaining the Golden +Girl? Naturally I said that I didn't know who she was and had never +heard of her, and even if I had, entertaining girls wasn't in my line. +They all roared, and Dennis wouldn't believe at first that I didn't +know of such an important person's existence; but the other men rotted +a bit, and described me to him according to their notions of me. So he +let me alone on the subject; and having plenty of other things to think +of, I forgot all about it till the lady in question introduced herself +this morning. Then--well, it struck me as rather amusing at first that +I, the only one in the crowd who hadn't made plans to get at her, +should have her trying to get at me. That was partly why I came up on +the terrace when she beckoned." + +"Partly? For purely intellectual reasons I'm curious to know the rest. +I suppose it had nothing to do with her looks?" + +"As it happened, my cynical friend, it hadn't. I've got eyes in my head +and I could see she was pretty, very pretty, though not my ideal type +at all. That little sprite of a woman in fawn colour, the one with +green eyes and a lot of black lashes, is more what I'd fall in love +with if I were frivolous. But apart from the funny side of my meeting +with Miss Golder, or Gilder, it popped into my head that I might make +her a victim in a certain cause. Don't ask me to explain yet, because +there are a lot of things that have got to be explained first, or you +couldn't understand. You were right, of course, when you thought I'd +stationed myself in front of Shepheard's to take a rise out of you. I +gave up my room there yesterday, for reasons I'll tell you. But I knew +you'd be in the hotel, and that you'd be bound to show yourself on the +terrace, in order to go out. I wanted to see if you'd recognize me, and +to have a little fun with you if you didn't. By the way, I'm not +pleased that you did. It's a poor compliment to my make-up, which I may +tell you has been warmly praised in high quarters!" "Well, you see," I +apologized, "I knew you were a nailer at that sort of thing, or you +would never have got to Mecca, and earned your green turban. I knew +you'd been pretty often called upon to disguise yourself and go about +among the natives for one thing or another. And besides, we were chums +before you had the shadow of a moustache, so I have an advantage over +the other Sherlock Holmeses! But even as it was, I couldn't be sure at +first. You must have got some fun out of my expression." + +"I did. I took revenge on you for recognizing me by tormenting you as +far as I dared. Dear old boy, I knew you'd see me through to the end, +bitter or sweet!" + +"Which was it?" I inquired. + +"Mixed. The girl riled me, rather, so much so that I definitely decided +it would be fair play to make use of her as a cat's-paw. But it depends +on you, whether she's to lose or win her bet." + +"If she loses, I get her hat. If she wins, I've engaged myself to +procure for her--your green turban." + +"Did you think you could, without my consent?" + +"No. I distinctly thought I couldn't. But I would have been willing to +bet the head in the turban, served up on a charger, so sure I was that +you'd refuse to come near her. I thought I knew you _au fond_, you +see." + +"You do. I haven't changed. But--circumstances have changed. And that +brings me near to the stage of this business which concerns you and me. +First, before I go further though, I'll tell you a part of the reason +why I'm sporting the green turban. There's been the dickens to pay +here, about a new street that had to be made; an immensely important +and necessary street. Well, they couldn't make it, because the tomb of +a popular saint or sheikh was in the way. To move the body or even +disturb a saint's tomb would mean no end of a row. You remember or have +read enough about Mohammedans to know that. What to do, was the +question. Nobody'd been able to answer it till yesterday, when the +sight of me reminded them of a trick or two I'd brought off some time +ago, by disguising myself and hanging about the cafes. They wanted me +to try it again. Consequently Captain A. Fenton received a telegram and +had to leave Cairo at once on business. He gave up his room at +Shepheard's, and the only regrettable thing to the official mind is, +that the fellow'd been seen about town even for an hour. However, it +couldn't be helped. Luckily Ahmed Antoun is not unknown in Cairo cafes. +He's made quite an impression upon the public on several occasions +since his pilgrimage to Mecca, two years ago. And since yesterday +afternoon, he's been drinking enough coffee to give him jaundice, while +casually spreading the story of a dream he had. Our friend the Hadji +related how he had slept in the mosque of Ibn Tulun after the noon +hour, and dreamed of the sheikh whose tomb is so inconveniently placed. +In the dream, the saint clamoured to have his tomb moved on account of +a bad smell of drainage which he considers an insult to his own memory. +Also dogs have taken to howling round his resting-place at night, and +you know that to the true believer a dog is an unclean animal. Except +for hunting purposes, or watch-dogging in various branches, good +Mohammedans class dogs and Christians together in their mind. Well, +already the Hadji's dream is working like yeast. The news of it is +being carried from one cafe to another; and I hope that a few more +nights' work will do the trick. The votaries of the saint will get up a +petition to have his body moved. When it has found another abode, the +making of the new thoroughfare will be suggested." + +"Very neat! I see it all, except the connection with Miss Gilder. What +has your saint got to do with her?" + +"Very little, I should say, by the look in her eyes. But though a green +turban's as good as an heirloom, and extorts respect wherever it goes, +even a Hadji may have jealous detractors. I have mine. Another green +turban in this town, whose genuineness is doubted for some obscure +reason or other, has sneered at my dream." + +"I say! That sounds as if you might be in danger. If one man suspects +you to-day, to-morrow------" + +"Oh, it's only the dream he suspects--at present. I know all the little +prayer tricks so well, and I've invented my own history so ingeniously, +with a _patois_ to match my province, that I shall get through this +incident as I have through others of the sort. There's only one hole in +my jebbah. Last night, when my rival sprang a sudden question as to +what I was doing in Cairo (I'm supposed to be a Luxor man), on the spur +of the moment I replied that I was acting as dragoman to a rich family +of tourists. On that, the brute inquired with honeyed accents where +they were staying. I said Shepheard's, because I expected you to be +there, and thought if I were followed, you might be useful as a dummy." + +"Ah, that's where Miss Gilder comes in? A gilded gingerbread lamb, +ready for the sacrifice. Why didn't you accept her offer at once, as +she seemed so providential?" "I'm coming to that. It sounds +complicated, but it isn't. For one thing, though, it may be well to +wait and find out a little more about that goat-eyed Armenian of +yours." + +"He isn't mine. He's--". + +"I want to know for certain whose he is. If he has anything to do with +my rival Hadji, there's more venom and wit inside that green turban +than I've given it credit for. Is there a reason, by the way, except +their riches, why one should want to 'get at' a member of the American +party?" + +"By Jove!" said I, as if I had been pinched--for there was a sharp nip +in the thought Anthony's question jabbed into my mind. I had disliked +and distrusted Bedr el Gemaly, but I had associated my distaste for him +with Fenton's affairs. It had not occurred to me that Biddy's fears +meant more than a nervous woman's vague forebodings. During the few +hideous years of hide-and-seek she had passed in trying to protect the +traitor, Richard O'Brien, she had no doubt had real enough reason to +dread a spy in every stranger; but I had cheerfully advised her "not to +be morbid" when she spoke of herself as a dangerous companion, or +stopped me with a gasp in the midst of what seemed an innocent question +about her stepdaughter. Could it be possible that her alarms might +after all be justified, and that the powerful association betrayed by +O'Brien would visit his sins on his widow and daughter? That American +accent of Gemaly's! He admitted having been in New York. Of course, he +had made acquaintances there. My thoughts flashed back to the meeting +at the railway train. Could the fellow have found out in advance that I +was with Mrs. O'Brien, [alias Jones] and her friends? It seemed as if +such knowledge could have reached land ahead of us only by miracle. But +there was always Marconi. Perhaps news of Miss Gilder had been sent by +wireless to Alexandria, with our humbler names starred as satellites of +that bright planet. If this were so, Bedr, instructed from afar to +watch Richard O'Brien's widow, might easily have been clever enough to +suborn a messenger waiting for one Ernest Borrow. + +"What are you mumbling about?" Anthony wanted to know, when I forgot to +answer. "Have I put some idea that you don't like into your head?" + +"I was turning your question over in it," I explained, "and wondering +what to answer. Of course, Miss Gilder's rather important, and I +believe her father's obsession used to be when she was a child, that +she'd be kidnapped for ransom. The 'little sprite of a woman' you +admire so much, knew the Gilders in those days. She says that the +unfortunate baby used to be dragged about in a kind of caged +perambulator, and that some of her nurses were female detectives in +disguise, with revolvers under their white aprons. No wonder the girl +revels in emancipation and travel! I should think, now she's grown up +to twenty-one years and five foot eight or nine of height, without +being kidnapped, there's not much danger so long as she keeps in the +boundaries of civilization. Still, one never knows, in such a queer +world as ours, where newspapers live on happenings we'd laugh to scorn +if they came out of novel writers' brains." + +"That's the only incentive you can suggest for spying, unconnected with +my affairs?" + +I hesitated, for Biddy's secret was not my secret, and it seemed that I +had no right to pass it on, even to my best friend. I must ask Biddy's +permission before telling Fenton that Mrs. Jones was the widow of the +informer Richard O'Brien; that she feared over-subtlety on the part of +the enemy might confuse her girl travelling companion with Esme +O'Brien, hidden in a convent school near Monaco. "It's just credible +that there may be other incentives," I said. "But I must confess, I'd +rather believe that Armenian spies were on the track of Ahmed Antoun, +who can take care of himself, than after poor Miss Gilder or--any of +her party." + +"What's the name of the laughing sprite?" suddenly asked Fenton. + +"Mrs.--er--Jones. Brigit Jones." + +"Where's her husband?" + +"In his grave." + +"Oh! Well, his widow looks ready to bubble over with the joy of life, +so I suppose we can't associate spies or anything shady with her? +That's too much to hope for?" + +"Why to 'hope' for?" + +"It would make her too interesting." + +"Look here, my dear fellow, you can't have them both!" + +The dark eyes of Antoun lit with a spark of surprise and laughter. "I +don't want either, thanks. I admire flowers, but I never gather them. I +leave them growing. However, you might tell me which one you want for +your own buttonhole?" "Really, I don't know," I mumbled, taken aback. +"All I do know is, it's not likely I can get either." + +Anthony stared at me with a curious expression, then abruptly changed +the subject. "You've heard of Sir Marcus Lark?" he asked. + +"Of course," said I, surprised at this question sandwiched into our +affairs. Sir Marcus Lark is a man who has had his finger in many pies, +but I didn't see how he could poke one into ours. Everybody knows Sir +M. A. Lark, given a baronetcy by the Radicals some years ago in return +for services to the party--starting and running a newspaper which must +have cost him fifty thousand pounds before it began to pay. He has +financed theatres, and vegetarian restaurants; he owns cocoa +plantations and factories, and a garden city; he has a racing yacht +which once beat the German Emperor's; he owns two hotels; he has +written a book of travel; his name as a director is sought by financial +companies; he has lent money to a distressed South American government +in the making; and though the success of his enterprises has sometimes +hung in the balance for months or years, his wonderful luck seems +invariably to triumph in the end; so much so, that "Lark's Luck" has +become a well-known heading for newspaper columns, in the middle of +which his photograph is inset. At the mention of his name, the oft-seen +picture rose before my eyes--a big man, anywhere between thirty-six and +fifty--good head, large forehead, curly hair, kind eyes, pugnacious +nose, conceited smile under waxed moustache, heavy jaw, unconquerable +chin, and prize-fighter's neck and shoulders. "What has Sir Marcus Lark +to do with us?" "He's in Egypt--in Cairo just now; and--he's got our +mountain." + +"Good heavens!" I stared blankly at Anthony, seeing not his dark face +under the green turban, but that everlasting, ever-smiling newspaper +block portrait. Down toppled our castle in the air, Anthony's and +mine--the shining castle which had been the lodestone of my journey to +Egypt, the secret hope and romance of our two lives, for all those +months since Anthony first read the Ferlini papers and began +negotiations with the Egyptian Government. + +"It's all up then," I said, when I felt that I could speak without +betraying palsy of the jaw. "We're done!" + +"I'm not sure of that," Fenton answered. "If I had been, I shouldn't +have broken the news so brutally. It's on the cards that we may be able +to bring the thing off yet." + +"But how, if that bounder has got the place for himself? He must have +found out the truth about it somehow, or he wouldn't have bothered. And +if he knows what we know--or think we know--he certainly won't give up +to us what he's grabbed for himself. A beastly shame we should have +been let in like this, after being given to understand that it would be +all right." + +"Lark must have had a pull of some sort, I haven't learned what; but I +will. The one hope is, that he hasn't stumbled onto the secret." + +"What! You think he hit on our pitch by a mere coincidence--an +accident?" + +"No. There's not a shadow of doubt that he had a special motive for +wanting _our_ mountain and no other." "Have you formed an idea what the +motive is, if not the same as ours?" + +"I've heard his version from his own lips. It's rather astounding. And +I want you to hear it from him, too." + +"You've met him!" + +"Yesterday at Shepheard's, before I went in for this dressing-up +business. Lark heard I had wired for a room at the hotel, and was lying +in wait for me on the terrace when I got back from the Agency. We had a +talk. I'd heard just before, the news about the mountain. But he +explained. Now he wants to see you. He's got something special to say, +and I've made an appointment for you with him at two o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GREAT SIR MARCUS + + +The appointment was at the Semiramis Hotel, where Sir Marcus Lark was +staying. I went with my mind an aching void, and my heart a cold boiled +potato. I can think of nothing more disagreeable! For not a word more +would Fenton let drop as to the great man's business with us or the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. + +I sent up my card, and a few minutes later was shown into a private +salon more appropriate to a beautiful young duchess than to a middle-aged, +bumptious financier. It was pale green and white, full of lilies +and fragrance, and an immense French window opened out upon a roofed +loggia overlooking the Nile. This would have been the ideal environment +for our Gilded Rose; and I felt more venomous than before, if possible, +toward the rich bounder who posed against such an unsuitable +background. I thought, as the door of the salon was opened for me by +the smart Arab servant, that the room was untenanted, and that Sir +Marcus Lark meant to keep me waiting; but there he was, on the balcony, +gazing in rapture at the shining river. As if he were capable of +raptures, he, an earth-bound worm! But there was no mistaking that +back, those shoulders, or the face, as the big body turned. He advanced +through the open window, holding out a hand as big as a steak. He was +exactly like his photograph, except that there was even more of him +than I had been led to expect. The pretty room was net small, but +entering, he seemed to turn it into a doll's house parlour. "Six foot +two, if he's an inch!" I said to myself, longing to play David to his +Goliath. "Big, rich, common brute!" I thought. "You snatch our mountain +out of our mouths, and then you send for us as if we were servants--men +whose boots you ought to be blacking!" I was vindictive. I stared him +straight between the eyes--where a stone from David's sling would have +fitted in neatly. + +The eyes were wide apart, and kinder than in the photographs. They were +even curiously innocent, and boyish. His grin of greeting made the +large, waxed black moustache point joyously up. He showed teeth white +as a child's, and had dimples--actually dimples--in his big cheeks, to +say nothing of the one in his chin, with which snapshots had +familiarized me. He looked like a huge, overgrown schoolboy with a +corked moustache. My glare faded in the light of his smile. No man with +a gleam of humour could have kept a mask of grimness. I found my hand +enveloped in the pound of steak, and warmly shaken up and down inside +it. + +"Lord Ernest Borrow, I'm delighted to see you. Very good of you to +come, I'm sure!" to David quoth Goliath, in a big voice, mellow despite +a slight Cockney accent. "Nice view I've treated myself to here, what? +I'm in Egypt on business, but I like to have pretty things around me +--pleasant colours and flowers and a view. That's a specialty of mine. +I'm great on specializing. And that brings me to what we have in +common; a scheme of yours; a scheme of mine." + +I wanted to detest the man, but somehow couldn't. To hate him would be +hating an overpowering force, like heat, or electricity. + +With an old-fashioned politeness he made me sit down, picking out my +chair, the most comfortable in the room, then taking the next best for +himself. He fitted into it as tightly as a ripe plum into its skin, and +talked with one leg crossed over the other and swinging, the points of +his brown fingers joined. I was glad they were brown. + +"I'm afraid you're sore with me," he began, having ordered coffee and +liqueurs, and forced upon his guest a cigar as big as a sausage. "I've +got what you and your friend wanted; and I'm going to be frank with you +as I've been with him, and admit that I got it because you did want it. +Simply and solely for that reason and nothing else. He told you this?" + +"He left the telling to you," I said, wondering why I wasn't more +furious than curious. But it was the other way round. + +"Good egg! He promised he would, and he looks the sort of chap to keep +his promise. Well, I see you want me to get down to business, and I +will. I'm going to lay all my cards on the table. I came here to Egypt +for the first time in my life, to see a scheme through, and I landed on +the scene in time to find that I was likely to fail. I haven't told any +one else that, but your friend Fenton; for I never have made a business +failure yet, and I don't mean to now if I can help it. The scheme had +to be saved in a hurry if it could be saved at all; and when I set my +wits to work I saw that I must get hold of some such young men as you +and Captain Fenton to help me. I don't know how the thought of you two +popped into my head, but I suppose it was seeing a lot of stuff about +Fenton in the papers, his Balkan adventure, and the announcement that +he'd been recalled to his regiment. There were paragraphs about him as +a linguist, and an Egyptologist, and anecdotes of him as a smart +soldier. You know the sort of thing. And the stories about his +parentage caught my fancy a bit. They're romantic. I've got enough +romance in me to see that side of life, and to know how it goes down +with the women. This scheme of mine depends on women. Most schemes do. +At the same time the Egyptian papers were printing paragraphs about +Lord Ernest Borrow. I don't know whether you're aware of that or not? +No? Would you like to see 'em? I've had my secretary cut 'em out--and +the Fenton stuff, too. The minute this idea began to wiggle in my mind +like a tadpole in water, I kept everything." + +"Don't trouble about the paragraphs, thanks," I said. + +"All right. It will save our time not to. But your wish to go in with +your friend, for the rights of excavating in the Sudan, was mentioned, +and the delay on account of alleged interference with Garstang's +pitch." + +"By Jove, I wonder how the reporters got onto that?" I couldn't help +exclaiming. + +"It's their livelihood to get onto everything. 'Well then,' I said to +myself, 'Here's my chance, my only one. I want those two young men. +They're the right combination nation for me, to give real distinction +to my undertaking. I have money, but they ain't the sort you can buy +with money. There must be an incentive. If I get what they want, +perhaps I can get _them_.' So I went into the job tooth and nail. +Neither you nor Fenton was on the spot. I was--very much on it. Nothing +was definitely fixed up between the Government and Fenton for the right +to excavate at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, as they call the +little old molehill, and I scored. Now, if you two will do what I want, +you can have your mountain, and whatever you find you can keep. You're +worth more to me than any beads and broken-nosed statues under the sand +of Egypt. I think I've made some impression on your friend. He may be +inclined to go in with me, if you will. He's explained that in any case +he can't use his own name, on account of his position in the army and +so on. That's a disappointment to me, but I'll put up with it for the +sake of his accomplishments and his looks. Your name alone will carry +the necessary weight as a leader." + +"You're very flattering," said I. "But I'm in the dark." + +"I'm going to put you wise, as Americans say. My scheme was--and is--to +be a rival _de luxe_ of Cook on the Nile. Not only that, but all over +the near East. You've heard, of course, about my buying the Marquis of +Redruth's yacht _Candace,_ on his bankruptcy--the second biggest, and +the most up-to-date yacht in the world--and turning her into a pleasure +cruiser for the Mediterranean?" + +"If I've heard, I'm afraid my memory's treacherous," said I, glad to +show how unimportant to me were the schemes of financiers, but +interested in the yacht's name, which carried my thoughts away to +Meroee. + +"Great Scout! And I've spent two thousand in advertising! I've taken +whole pages of London and Continental papers!" + +"I never read advertisements if I can help it, except of new patents in +razors. They're a fad of mine." + +"Thank goodness you've got fads. Then we've something in common. I make +money out of my fads. I call 'em inspirations. I thought the _Candace_ +business was one of my inspirations, and that I'd have some fun out of +it. I advertised her to start on her first pleasure cruise from +Marseilles to Gib, Algiers, Tangier, Tunis, Greece, Alexandria, and +Jaffa. 'That'll be a smack in the eye for the big liners,' I said to +myself. 'I'll skim the top layer of clotted cream off their passenger +lists!' I was going to do the thing _de luxe_ straight through--bid for +the swell set, exclusiveness my motto. Of course I didn't expect to hit +the dukes and dollar kings first shot, but I thought if everything went +right the passengers would tell their friends at home how much better +we did them on board than any one else had ever done, and we'd get a +'snowball' ad, that nothing could stop. All would have worked out first +rate, if I hadn't made one mistake. I engaged a retired army colonel +for a conductor on board my yacht. I got the man cheap. But I was a +fool to economize on him. I ought to have launched out on a belted +earl. Folks, especially Americans, don't like retired colonels. The +woods are full of 'em over there, crawling with 'em. Most Americans are +colonels and not retired. Besides, this chap of mine's no good anyhow +--fancies himself as a politician, and is a first-class snob; has no +tact; rubs up the passengers the wrong way, and outrages their +feelings. We got a lot of people from the north of England, rich and a +bit crude, like me. Will you believe it, Colonel Corkran began his job +by sneering audibly at 'provincials' to some beastly friend of his, +come to see him off at Marseilles? Instead of making his dinner-table +lectures a kind of travellogue as he was hired to do, he turns 'em into +political tirades, and calls the Liberals scoundrels, half of our folks +being red-hot Rads. Not only that, if the girls and boys talk while the +band's playin' any of his favourite airs, he hisses out 'Silence,' +through a hole in his mouth where one tooth's missin'. That tooth bein' +gone, has got on the girls' nerves worse than anything else, it would +seem, except his being down on Suffragettes. And the crisis was reached +when he insulted Miss Hassett Bean, the richest and most important +woman in the bunch, when she expressed her political opinions. Said to +her, 'My dear lady, why do you bother to have opinions? They give you a +lot of trouble to collect, and nobody else will trouble to listen. Why +not collect insects or stamps instead?' Of course she did think Germany +had already invaded England with a large army of soldiers disguised as +hotel waiters, which was calculated to rile an old officer; but that's +no excuse for a man who's paid to please. And now the fellow's +wondering why he's not popular with the passengers!" + +I laughed, but Sir Walter had worked himself into a state past smiling +point. "It's no laughing matter," he said, "This snob Corkran's killing +my scheme. There's a plot on foot for the party to walk off the yacht +at Alexandria, and demand half their passage money. Some old grampus on +board has started the story that the _Candace_ has been down three +times------" + +"A lie, of course," I soothed him. + +"A dastardly lie. She's been down only twice. The first time was a +collision, the second a coincidence." + +"But I thought she was the most up-to-date yacht in the world!" + +"So she is, as the _Candace._ That was the Marquis's name for her: gave +it after a trip to Egypt. He bought her second hand, and rechristened +her while she was being redecorated. He spared no expense, which he +could well afford, seeing that he never paid a penny. I got her at cost +price, as you may say. But these plotters are going to claim that they +were inveigled on board under false pretences, by my advertising the +_Candace_ as the newest thing in yachts. I've had a letter and several +cypher telegrams from the assistant conductor, a useful chap, telling +me the whole story of the plot, which he's nosed out; and I'm faced +with humiliating failure unless I can save the situation by a grand +coup at the eleventh hour. Now, you can guess why on the spur of the +moment I bought up your rights to dig in the Sudan, can't you?" + +"I confess I can't," I said. + +"Why, I want you to take Colonel Corkran's place on the _Candace_ as +conductor. And I want you and your friend Fenton to go up Nile in +charge of the splendid steam dahabeah I've bought to supplement the +Mediterranean trip. There you have my motives in a nutshell!" + +I burst out laughing. "A cracked nutshell," I remarked. Sir Marcus' +rosy face turned royal purple. "What--you won't undertake it?" + +"I couldn't," I assured him. "For one thing, I'd be a fish out of +water. My dear sir, perhaps you don't know that my nickname since the +age of five has been 'Duffer?' I'm proud of it. I take pains to live up +to it----" + +"I bet you do. I bet it opens doors and lays down velvet carpets for +you. Why, a duffer with a title is exactly what I want! Duffers are the +rage nowadays. You and your friend will make a brilliant pair, a fine +contrast, especially with your friend's present get up. If you'd both +been born for me you couldn't suit me better." + +I laughed again. "You said you ought to have launched out on belted +earls. We're humble----" + +"There's no earls handy, and if there were any, they wouldn't be what +you two are in looks and talents, to say nothing of your brother being +a marquis. I'm offering you both the softest kind of job. All you have +to do is to be agreeable young gentlemen, with a knowledge of society, +and history; that means, you can be yourselves. You get a fine trip on +high salaries if you don't scorn to accept my money; and as a reward +for a good holiday you receive the right to explore your golden +mountain. I suppose you must think it _is_ a golden mountain, or you +wouldn't be such nuts on it. You'd better consult your friend before +you refuse my offer, anyhow." + +"Haven't you heard that Fenton's left Cairo?" I took the precaution to +ask. "That doesn't look as if he were entertaining the idea of going up +the Nile on your steam dahabeah." "I have heard that he's left. But I +happen to know--it isn't so. I saw him standing in front of Shepheard's +Hotel this morning, waiting for you. I got on to what was in that green +turban before the pretty girl in white--Miss Gilder, I've found out +since--called him on to the terrace. Don't look as if you wanted to eat +me, Lord Ernest. I've won my way up from the bottom rung of the ladder +by keeping my eyes open, and by putting two and two together. I +specialize on that. I don't suppose there's another man in Cairo except +me and you, would have recognized Fenton, so you needn't worry. I +twigged that he'd dressed up for serious business, not for fun, because +I read about some smart coups he'd brought off by going among the +natives like one of themselves. I'm not a sneak, and I shan't revenge +myself by giving him away, even if you two do show me the frozen face. +Captain Fenton encouraged me to think he might consider my proposition +if you would, though he refused to influence your decision one way or +the other. Naturally I conclude that he could be on my Nile boat if he +wanted to, even if not in his own capacity as an officer. I'll take him +in his green turban. He makes the best looking Egyptian I ever saw, and +he'd go down with the ladies like hot cakes." + +"Sir Marcus," I smiled, "you're one of the most amusing as well as the +sharpest men, if you'll allow me to say so, that I ever met. Whatever +happens I shall not forget this conversation." + +"I don't want you to forget it," he grinned, beginning to hope. "Think +it over. We're the chance of a lifetime for each other. And remember +the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." I rose, and he got up heavily. +"When will you let me know?" he asked. + +I was tempted to reply that he must have taken Fenton's seeming +encouragement too seriously, that, mountain or no mountain, it was +practically impossible for us to accept his amazing proposition. But +suddenly I seemed to hear "Antoun Effendi" telling Miss Gilder that she +must wait for his decision until evening. He had said afterward, also, +that it depended on me. It was evident that he had a scheme of his own, +worked by wheels within wheels. He had consoled me after the first blow +by saying that all was not lost. And I had four months' leave from +duty. A lot could be done in four months. "I will let you know before +night," I said to Sir Marcus Lark. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REVELATIONS OF A RETIRED COLONEL + + +Fenton's orders were, when the Cairo business should be finished, to go +slowly up the Nile in native dress, and get at the truth of certain +rumours which had disturbed officialdom at Cairo. At Denderah, Luxor, +and two or three other places there had been "incidents," small but +troublesome. English sightseers had complained of being hustled, and +even insulted by the inhabitants of several river towns, and it was +important to find out whether the Egyptians or the foreigners had been +more to blame; whether there were real symptoms of sedition, as +reported, or whether the young men of the suspected places had merely +resented with roughness some discourtesy of tactless tourists. Fenton +had seized upon the idea that, as Egyptian lecturer and conductor--a +sort of super-dragoman--on board Lark's Nile boat, he might find a +plausible pretext for his secret errand. "Why do you travel?" would be +the question he must expect from suspicious leaders of any plot that +might be hatching, if he journeyed from one Nile village to another +without the excuse of business. As a glorified conductor of a pleasure-trip +for a party of tourists his excuse would be readymade for him; but +he had been far from sure that I would fall in with Sir Marcus Lark's +plan, despite the bribe. He had wanted me to hear the whole story, the +whole project, from Sir Marcus' own lips; and in his uncertainty of the +result, he had thought of Miss Gilder as an attractive "victim." There +she was, as he had said, presented to him by Providence. If I should +pour scorn upon the Lark suggestion, he might find it worth while to +guide the Gilded Girl and her friends on their Nile pilgrimage. He left +the question for me, and I decided to kill as many birds as possible +with one stone. The name of the yacht was in itself an incentive: +_Candace_--Queen of Meroee--our Meroee. She seemed to call, and to +promise good luck. We would accept Lark's terms, and enter his service +in return for a written agreement to hand over his ill-got digging +rights to us, whether or no we turned out to be satisfactory as guides. +We could but do our best, and at all events we should earn the reward +which we had looked upon as ours already. Anthony would play his double +part, serving the interests of government and those of Sir Marcus Lark. +As for Monny Gilder, why shouldn't she and her party become Lark's +passengers? The only reason against this "inspiration" (as Sir Marcus +would have called it), lay in the fact that Monny wished to engage a +private dahabeah. When she wished for a thing, it appeared that only a +miracle or a cataclysm could induce her to give it up for something +else suggested by an outsider. But when I mentioned this peculiarity to +Fenton, he was fired to punish the girl by forcing her compliance with +our will. She had treated him like a servant. She looked upon a man +supposedly of Egyptian blood, even though of princely birth, somewhat +as she looked upon an American "nigger." True, Anthony Fenton had in +his veins but very few such drops. On his father's side he was all +English, and his mother had been more than two thirds Greek and +Italian. Nevertheless this spoilt girl had struck a blow at the pride +which went ever walking about the world with a chip lightly poised on +its shoulder. Anthony had no desire to poach on my preserves. At the +same time he yearned to show Miss Gilder that he could be her master, +not her servant. + +Once Anthony and I had made up our minds, everything else arranged +itself with lightning speed. Sir Marcus, rejoicing in his ill-got +conquest of us, broke to me the news that I must go by the first ship +to the Piraeus, to meet the _Candace,_ and head off the recalcitrant +band of passengers. He flattered me by thinking that, if I took the +place of Colonel Corkran as conductor, they would abandon their plot to +desert the yacht at Alexandria. It was, according to Lark's secret +information, only the "smart and would-be smart set" who had combined +to spring this mine upon the management. The rest grumbled no more than +it was normal for all pleasure-pilgrims to grumble; and as, roughly +speaking, the contented travellers were all going on to Palestine after +a week's wild sightseeing in Cairo, the colonel might be allowed to +continue his voyage without the interruption of a "row." + +"I should have had enough common sense at the start," growled Sir +Marcus with crude candour, "to engage a lord for the Smart Set, and a +parson for the Ernest Inquirers. There's a world of difference catering +for a Set, and a Flock. The art is, to know it, and how to do it. Now +I've secured you, I'm all right with the S. S. and thanks be, I've a +young reformed missionary on board to shepherd the Flock. Now the +Reverend Watts will come in handy, herding his sheep through Palestine, +while the colonel swaggers and fancies he's bossing the show. It's the +Egypt lot I worry about: girls out for dukes, and dukes out for +dollars. Not that there's a darned duke on board, but there are some +who think they out-duke the dukes, and it's our business to humour 'em. +You just duff all you want to, Lord Ernest, they'll swallow anything +you do, like honey. Don't bother about a line of conduct: only be +genial. Murmur soft nothings to the women; flirt but don't have +favourites. Don't be too political with the men: work in plenty of +anecdotes about your swell relations." + +I replied that I could confidently promise geniality, except if +seasick: but Sir Marcus implored me at all costs not to be seasick. +That was the one thing I must not be. My whole time between the Piraeus +and Alexandria, on board the _Candace,_ must be spent ingratiating +myself with the sulky passengers, and obliterating from their memories +the crimes of Colonel Corkran. In Sir Marcus' opinion my future charges +had taken passage on the _Candace,_ and would go up the Nile, not to +see sights, but to be seen doing the right things. According to him not +two out of twenty cared tuppence for Egypt, but wished to talk about it +in sparkling style at home. My friend Captain Fenton and I must make it +sparkle. Sir Marcus had resigned himself to the fact that one of his +trump cards--Anthony--could not be produced until the arrival in Cairo +of the troupe, and that even then, the name of Fenton must not be used +as an attraction. Lark felt confident that I was a good enough card to +make his hand worth playing, and in spite of the half contemptuous +amusement with which I regarded the whole scheme, I couldn't help being +"on my mettle." I found myself wanting to succeed, wanting to please +the big, common man whom a few hours ago I had been cursing. + +I had to start for Greece the night after our decision. Meanwhile, I +was anxious to explain the unexplainable to Brigit and Monny, and +secure the party for Sir Marcus Lark's alleged dahabeah, which turned +out to be one of Cook's old boats bought and newly decorated. Both my +tasks would be difficult. I had to hide the secret reason for selling +myself to the financier, and at the same time keep the respect of the +ladies. As for inducing Miss Gilder to give up her dream of a private +dahabeah, I foresaw that it would be like persuading the youngest +lioness in the Cairo Zoo to surrender her cherished wooden ball. But I +began by giving Monny a present; a fine old turban-box of rare, red +tortoise shell inlaid with mother of pearl, which I found at an +antiquary's. In the silklined box reposed a green turban; and that +green turban told its own story. Miss Gilder flushed with pleasure at +sight of it. "I've won my bet!" she exclaimed. + +"Yes," said I. "To my astonishment! The man consents. He's a great +prize, knows Cairo and upper Egypt like a book. But you'll have to +surrender him when you go on the Nile." + +In her haste to know why, Monny forgot to ask how I had obtained the +green turban; and for this I was glad, because it was only the second +best headgear of my smart friend the Hadji. In explaining that the +distinguished Egyptian had been engaged by Sir Marcus Lark, I slipped +in a word about my own part in the trip, describing it as an ideal +rest-cure for a budding diplomat on sick leave. I praised the boat and +spoke of the fun on board. I regretted Miss Gilder's preference for a +private dahabeah, so obvious, so millionairy! Still, I added, every one +to his taste! And anyhow, no doubt all the best cabins on the +_Enchantress Isis_ were taken. + +That was the entering wedge--the mention of an obstacle to overcome. +Miss Gilder looked thoughtful, though she kept silence: and next day, +when making my adieux before starting for Alexandria, she flung out a +careless question. When would the _Enchantress Isis_ leave Cairo? How +many passengers would she carry? Would there be a rush at the Temples, +or would there be plenty of time for proper sightseeing? And was I sure +that all the nicest cabins were engaged? No, I was not sure. I could +inquire. I tried not to look triumphant, but I must have darted out a +ray, because Monny withdrew into her shell. She had inquired out of +curiosity, she explained. I had told such stories about the +_Enchantress Isis_ that she would like to see her. Perhaps Antoun +Effendi could get permission for a visit to the boat. + +In this state I had to leave affairs, and start for the Piraeus, where +I must await the return of the tourists from Athens. I had two days at +sea in which to work up an agony of apprehension, and I could have +thanked heaven when, arriving on board the big white yacht, I found +that I was ahead of the passengers. I was expected, however, and a deck +cabin was ready for my occupation. I hoped that I had not turned out my +rival from the room, but dared not question the steward. He seemed to +know all about me, nevertheless, and said that my name had been "posted +up" as conductor of the Nile party. "If I may take the liberty of +mentioning it, my lord," he added, "it has made a very good +impression." We were to steam for Alexandria the moment the passengers +arrived in the special train--having had three days of sightseeing in +Athens--and I had just got my possessions stowed away when a wave of +chattering voices broke over the ship. My heart gave a jump, as a +soldier's must when called to fight on an empty stomach at dawn on a +winter's morning. What ought I to do? How was I to make the +acquaintance of my future charges? Must it be en masse, or could it be +done singly? I had neglected to ask Sir Marcus what would be expected +of me, and I was in a worse funk than a new boy on his first day at +school. Soon it would be dinner time. I wished that I were ill, but I +remembered that the one thing I must not do was to be seasick. Already +the ship was beginning to move out of the Greek harbour, or I should +have been tempted to get a telegram calling me home. Even the Mountain +of the Golden Pyramid seemed not too great a sacrifice to make--but it +was too late to make it--and some one was knocking at my door. + +I opened it with such courage as I had; and the instant I set eyes on +the man I knew that he was Colonel Corkran. He was born to be a retired +colonel. What came before the retiring could have been but a prelude. A +stout figure of middle height; red face, veined on cheeks and nose; +pale blue eyes which looked as if they had faded in the wash; purple +moustache and eyebrows; close-cropped gray hair; a double chin +clamouring for extra collar space; and a bridge-player's expression. +This was the rival whose place I had virtually, though not officially, +usurped. + +I was prepared to hear him hiss "Viper!" between his teeth, as +characters in melodramatic serials do to perfection, their front teeth +having doubtless been designed for such purposes. But his look seemed +to denote pity rather than hatred. So might a prison-warder regard a +condemned man, in coming to announce the hour of execution. + +"Lord Ernest Borrow?" said he, in a slightly hoarse voice. "I'm Colonel +Corkran. Delighted to meet you. I've met your brother, Lord Killeena. +Daresay he wouldn't remember me. I don't think I can begin better than +by thanking you for coming to take over my job." + +"Oh, I haven't done that!" I hastened to protest, as he sat fatly down +in a chair I pushed forward. "As I understand, I'm to take a few people +off your hands, and the hands of your assistant, Mr. Kruger, so that +you can go to Palestine instead of leaving that important excursion +entirely to the chaplain, Mr. Watts." + +Colonel Corkran laughed. "Thank you for trying to save my feelings," +said he. "But I assure you they're not hurt. I'm sincerely delighted to +see you--for my own sake. For yours--well, that's another pair of +shoes! My dear fellow, I wonder if you've the smallest idea what you're +in for?" + +"In for?" I echoed. + +"Yes. I'm saying this as a friend. Don't think I'm jealous. Lord, no! I +look on you as a deliverer. And don't think I want to frighten you. It +isn't that. But I feel it's my duty to prepare you. I might have got on +better if there'd been some one to do the same by me. There wasn't. +Kruger, my so-called assistant, is a spy. At best, he's a mere +accountant, not supposed to look after the passengers socially. I +gather that he was some secretary of Lark's. Beware of him. He writes +to Lark from every port. As for the passengers, the saintly lot are bad +enough. Yet it's only the food and the cabins and the attendance _they_ +grumble about. I'm shunted off the worldly lot onto them in future. But +at their worst, they'll be a rest-cure! and Lark has the decency not to +reduce my screw. It's the worldly lot that's going to make you curse +the day you were born." + +He wanted me to speak, or groan; but I maintained a stricken silence, +to which I gave some illusion of dignity. After a disappointed pause he +went on: "You'd better know something about these people. Beasts, every +one of 'em, young or old, some beastly common beasts, but all beastly +rich, except those that are beastly poor, and on the make--to marry +their daughters, or cadge for smart friends. Lark was bidding for +swells, and got snobs. Thinks his silly title will carry weight in +society as it does in the city. 'Lark Pie,' we're called, I hear. I +call us a 'Pretty Kettle of Fish!' The girls are the worst of the +caboodle, though some of 'em aren't bad looking. You won't believe the +trouble I've had with the creatures till you begin to get the same +yourself." + +"What kind of trouble?" I inquired gingerly. + +"Every kind a woman can make. Apart from food troubles, they think +they're not being entertained enough on board; think I ought to get up +more dances; tango teas I suppose! Don't like the way I organize games; +are mad because they can't have music at meals--which they can't +because the band's all stewards; blame me because the men don't make +love to them, or because they do. And at the hotels where we go on +shore, it's Hades. Naturally the people staying in the hotels resent +us. They look on us as a menagerie--a rabble. So we are. At least, they +are. I don't count myself in with them. What can I do? I'm not +omnipotent. Perhaps you are. Anyhow, they're prepared to believe it, +for you're a new broom--a broom with a fine handle. I'm only a poor +colonel with a few medals given by my country for services that were +appreciated. You're brother to a marquis." + +"You paint a lurid picture" I said, when he stopped for breath. + +"I couldn't paint it lurider than it is. But you'll have to find out +for yourself. It won't be so bad while you're a novelty. Don't say I +haven't warned you. And oh, by the way, I've announced that you're to +be presented to the passengers at dinner to-night, on coming in, before +the soup is served." + +"As a sort of _hors d'oeuvre,_ I suppose," I murmured weakly. + +Colonel Corkran stared, without a smile. "As the titled conductor of +the Egypt tour," he explained to my dull intelligence, with a slight +sneer. "So will you please be in the dining saloon just before the +bugle blows the beasts in? I have to introduce you, in a short speech. +It's all I can do, except say, God help you! But I don't see how He +can. I suppose your friend Sir Marcus told you that you would be +expected to deliver a lecture on Egypt, to-night at the dinner table? +After you've finished your dinner, of course. I hope the cracking and +crunching of nuts doesn't disturb you much? I confess I've found it +getting on my nerves." + +I was aghast. My mind jumped to the wild thought of eating soap, in +order to froth at the mouth and simulate a fit. It seemed my only way +of escape, and after that, the Deluge. But my rival was so revelling in +the mental havoc he had wrought that I rallied, replying that, as Sir +Marcus had not broken the news to me, I didn't see how it would be +possible to deliver a lecture. + +"Aren't you up on Egypt?" the colonel asked, pityingly. "Neither am I, +though I've sweated over Baedeker with my head in wet towels, when I +wanted to be at bridge. But I thought that was the excuse for engaging +you? That, and your title, of course, which is going to make you +popular. As fast as I fag up the names of those beastly Egyptian gods +or kings and queens, they run out of my brains like water out of a +sieve. Or if I do contrive to remember any, by chance, together with +their dates, which is almost more than can be expected of the human +intellect, why, I find that I pronounce 'em wrong; or they're spelled +another way in the next book. But I suppose as you know Egypt, its d--d +history comes natural as breathing." + +How I wished it did! And how different was this new programme from the +one outlined by Sir Marcus. Just to be genial, and flirt with the +girls. "My recollections of Egypt are from some time ago," I admitted. +"To give a lecture at half an hour's notice.----" + +"In justice to yourself I'm afraid you'll have to," the colonel +persisted. "It's been announced that you will give the lecture, and the +Egypt lot are looking forward to it as the animals in a zoo look +forward to their food. If they're defrauded, they'll think you a +slacker, and that you're presuming on your title." + +"I shouldn't like that!" my anguish racked out of me. + +"I fancied you wouldn't. But what's to be done? Am I to announce, when +I introduce you, that your knowledge of Egypt isn't equal to the +strain?" + +I took an instant for reflection. I knew that he was hoping I might +throw myself on his mercy, or else that I would speak and fail; but I +determined to do neither. "On second thoughts, I may be able to give +some kind of a pow-wow," I replied. + +Colonel Corkran's face fell. "That's all right, then!" he exclaimed, +getting to his feet. "Well, I must be off. Will you have a cocktail?" + +"No, thanks," said I. "I think I can get on without it." + +He was at the door. "Kind of hash of gods and goddesses with a +peppering of kings and queens, and mixed sauce of history and legend, +is what's needed," were his farewell words. Then he shut the door; and +I tore my watch from the pocket of my waistcoat. I had twenty-eight +minutes in which to prepare the said hash with its seasoning and sauce; +and the bugle was inviting my judges to dress for the inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FOXY DUFFING + + +"I'll show you your place," Corkran volunteered, lying in wait for me +inside the saloon door, with a cocktail in his hand. "Sorry you +wouldn't have one. You'll need it. But no time to change your mind. +I've put you at the head of the table that would be the captain's, if +he ate with us, which he doesn't--happy man! Place of honour. 'Twas +mine, 'tis yours. But I can't go on with the quotation unless I turn it +into 'You're slave to thousands.' Sixty odd can be as formidable as +thousands." + +"Are there sixty odd?" I asked. + +"Yes, very 'odd.' The Egypt lot will be about twenty-five. But the +whole gang's yours for the present. I give them to you, with the seat +of honour." + +"Please don't put me in your place," I protested. "I prefer------" + +"My poor boy, it isn't a question of what you prefer, as you'll learn +if you stick this out. Of course if you funk it--but that's a joke! +This table's the only one where you can be heard. Do you see?" + +I did see; and accepted the situation, because the dinner bugle began +to sound, and I could not be scampering round the saloon like a +frightened rabbit as the Set and the Flock began dropping in to dinner. +As it happened, they did not drop--they poured into the room in a +steady stream, which phenomenon, whispered Corkran, was caused by +curiosity for a first sight of me. My heart counted each new arrival, +with a bump. + +If Corkran had not represented "Lark's Party" as being a menagerie for +which I had inadvertently engaged as tamer, I should have thought they +looked a harmless crowd. But then, of course, I was not obliged to tame +anybody on the _Laconia,_ which makes a difference in one's point of +view. Miss Gilder needed taming, no doubt, but I hadn't tackled the +task. My thoughts flew to Cairo, as I stood struggling to look +pleasant; and I wished myself back where Anthony Fenton was now in the +taming business. I envied him, for there was only one Monny, whereas in +this terrible, bright dining saloon, the air was pink and white with +girls, dozens of girls, with eyes fixed on me, glittering eyes, which +appeared like the headlights of motor cars. I didn't suppose there +could be so many eyes in the world as these people of all ages and +every possible sex seemed to own. Sixty odd they were, according to +Corkran, but they looked like six hundred; a human miracle of loaves +and fishes. + +Yes, the creatures might have appeared harmless enough had there been +no retired colonel. But there was a retired colonel, and so deftly had +he undermined my courage that almost any shock might cause it to +explode in a blue flame of funk. His speech of introduction was now to +come, and if I survived that, I might hope to live through my own +fireworks. + +"They've put on their best bibs and tuckers," Corkran mumbled in a +stage whisper, as the eight dwellers at our table began to sort +themselves for places. Then, in portentous silence he paused till +everybody everywhere was seated. Waiting still, until satisfied that +eyes and ears were focussed upon us, he rapped on the table with the +handle of a knife. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he roared, "I have the pleasure of introducing +to you Sir Marcus Lark's Great Surprise, entitled Lord Ernest Borrow, +younger brother of the Marquis of Killeena, a peer, as Sir Marcus has +reminded us, of the oldest lineage in Ireland. Let me reassure you all +by saying that Lord Ernest's last name is as unsuited to his nature as +the first is true to it. If you'll pardon the pun it is Sir Marcus who +'Borrows' for your benefit, and he hasn't Borrowed Trouble, but a +Blessing--in disguise. I am now left free, as suits my superior age and +experience, to devote my attention to the serious minded ones among +you, who are to proceed with the Reverend Mr. Watts and myself to +Palestine. This young and gallant neophyte will 'lord' it over the +fleshpots of Egypt and those about to seek them. I hope you'll help him +as loyally as you have helped _me:_ and later we'll drink to his health +and success, in any beverage we happen to have signed for!" + +To have killed Corkran might have been butchery; no jury could have +brought in a verdict of murder or even manslaughter, had I stabbed him +with the knife he used to pound upon the table. I smiled the smile of a +skull in a doctor's waiting-room, and in a sickly voice bleated my +pleasure in meeting these new acquaintances. I hoped we might be--er +--friends as well as shipmates. Then like a mass of jelly out of its +mould I plopped onto my chair. The colonel had sneaked off to his own +table and I was left to recover myself as best I might among eight of +his enemies. They proved (in whispers) to be the most active of these, +and tacitly offered me allegiance which I accepted in the same manner. +There was a Sir John Biddell, who informed me in the first five minutes +that he had been Lord Mayor of London. He promised to show me a speech +he had made in the presence of King Edward which, in the form of a +newspaper cutting, he never travelled without. This, however, was his +first trip farther than Paris, and he had brought with him, not only +the speech, but his wife and twin daughters. The distinguished family +occupied one side of my table: the other was given up to a General +Harlow, his wife (both with high profiles and opinions of themselves), +a youngish newspaper proprietor from Manchester, evidently rich and a +"catch," and a maiden lady doubtless of importance equal to her +proportions, as she was allowed to bring to the table a melancholy +marmoset. These people did their best to raise my spirits. The girls, +who copied royalties in their hair-dressing, looked alike, dressed +alike, talked and laughed alike, and entertained me with chat about +high society in London. They had red cheeks, black eyes, white teeth, +and an almost indecent familiarity with the private lives of the +aristocracy. The Misses Biddell and fat Miss Hassett-Bean (the lady of +the marmoset) hinted that the cream of the yacht's social life had +risen to our table, and told me, not only what to lecture about, but +how to treat the rival cliques. My brain felt more and more like a +blotting-pad. I answered at random and longed for the meal to end +--until I remembered my lecture. Then I wished that dinner might go on +indefinitely like the tea party of the Mad Hatter. All too soon the +glory of a French menu flickered down to a dying spark of nuts and +raisins, and hardly had I cracked my first almond (was it an ill omen +that there should be a worm in it?) when a steward handed me a twisted +note from the executioner. "The rule for conductor's dinner speech is, +rise with the raisins! Hope you won't find your lecture too hard a nut +to crack. Yours sympathetically, Corkran. Bang on the table to make +them stop gabbling. Or shall I do it for you? If you haven't by the +time I count ten, I will." + +He did. I trust it wasn't my courage that failed. But having a raisin +in my mouth I could not on the instant respond to the lash. And as +Corkran would have said, it takes more than one swallow to make a +speech. Ruthlessly he rapped, seizing what I wished might be his dying +chance to indulge a mania for puns and thumping wood. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he bawled from his comparatively obscure +corner. "Lord Ernest Borrow will render your last moments the most +enjoyable of the meal, by washing down your nuts and raisins with the +wine of his eloquence. Take your desserts now. We conscientious +conductors hope for ours in heaven." + +How ardently I desired that these might indeed be the "last moments" +not only of my audience but of Colonel Corkran. If the next second had +brought a tidal wave or a collision I should have blessed Providence. +But I got to my feet--and nothing happened. I seemed to be in a dream, +of having shot up to a gigantic height, and having put on the wrong +clothes, or none. My hands weighed two pounds each, and ought to have +been at the butcher's. My mouth was the size of a negro minstrel's, and +so full of large bones which once had been teeth that I could not utter +a syllable. I clacked my jaws, and emitted a hacking cough which +fortunately so much resembled that of a professional lecturer that I +kept my senses. Not only did I keep them, but they seemed suddenly to +become my servants. The thought of a certain fable jumped into my head, +and I began thereupon to speak; although I had forgotten everything I +had ever read of Egyptian history. + +"It happens," said I, in a phonographic voice, "that I was born in +Egypt. I played with clay gods and goddesses instead of tin soldiers. I +preferred stories of Egypt's past and present to tales of adventure. I +confess to you what I fear I didn't confess to Sir Marcus Lark. The +trouble is, I'm stuffed too full of facts about Egypt. I want you to +help me get them out, and not duplicate yours. No doubt all of you, in +travelling to the East, have packed your brains with knowledge as well +as your boxes with guide books. Why should I bore you by telling you +things that you were born knowing? A plan has occurred to me by which +your knowledge can be turned into account. As I said, I beg your help. +And permission to drink a cup of coffee would be first aid." + +People laughed, whether at me, or with me, I was not sure; yet I felt +that I had tickled their curiosity. Coffee was going round. Corkran was +unctuously sipping his, and had not expected me to receive mine till +after the battle. But I got it in spite of him, and mapped out a +programme as I drank. Then I ceased to tremble before the confused +assemblage or bird-headed gods, cat-faced goddesses, and sacred +vultures that danced or flapped in my brain. + +I no longer felt inclined to commit suicide because I could remember +nothing about Egypt except that the Delta was shaped like a lily, with +the Fayum for a bud, and the Nile for its stem: that Alexander the +Macedonian defeated Darius the Persian B. C. three hundred and +something; that ancient Egyptians loved beer, but were forbidden to eat +beans. + +"My proposal is," I went on, "that before I unload any of my knowledge +upon you, I gleam some idea of what you know already. Thus I can spare +you repetitions. Any one who has anything particularly interesting to +say about Egypt, let him--or her--hold up a hand." + +Now was the crucial moment. If no hand went up, I was lost. But hardly +were the words out of my mouth when there was a waving as if in a +wind-swept wheatfield _Place aux dames!_ I called upon Miss Hassett-Bean +to begin. She rustled silkily up, bowing to me, then directing an +acetylene glare upon Colonel Corkran's end of the room. She was, I +foresaw, about to kill two birds with one stone, to say nothing of the +marmoset, who fell off her arm into General Harlow's coffee and created +a brief diversion. As soon, however, as the monkey was rescued and +before General Harlow's shirt front was dried, the lady began to speak. + +"We all thank Lord Ernest," she said, looking from the colonel to the +Reverend Wyman Watts, and back again, "for sparing us one of those +commonplace inflictions from which we've nightly suffered on board this +yacht. If we didn't know already, such school-book facts as +Christianity being introduced to Egypt by St. Mark in Nero's time, and +Moses and Plato both studying philosophy at Heliopolis, and things like +that, we wouldn't be spending our money with Sir Marcus A. Lark to see +Egypt. Never before have we been encouraged to air our views. Those of +us with political opinions have been snubbed; and we who are interested +in Woman Suffrage have been assured that we'll find nothing to please +us in the land of Veiled Women. At last I am given a chance to state +without being interrupted that Egypt was once the most enlightened +country in her treatment of women. Long before the time of the Greeks, +and even before the Shepherd Kings Mr. Watts has told us so much about, +using his Old Testament as if it were a Baedeker, the women of Ancient +Egypt had rights according to their class. Queens and princesses were +considered equal with their husbands. Women were great musicians, +playing on many instruments, especially the sistrum, sacred to the +goddess Hathor. And weren't all the best gods goddesses, when you come +to think of it? Women used to drive their own chariots, as we do our +motors, and hold salons, like the French ladies. There was Rhodopis, +for instance, who married the brother of Sappho. I wonder if Colonel +Corkran could have told you that the story of Cinderella comes from an +anecdote of Rhodopis? I hardly think that he's been able to spare +enough time from bridge to study Strabo, who was the Baedeker of Egypt +for tourists six hundred years before Christ. An eagle saw Rhodopis +bathing, and stealing one of her sandals flew with it to Memphis, where +he dropped it into the king's lap. It was so small and dainty that King +Hophra scoured Egypt for the owner, and when he found her at last, +according to Strabo, made her his queen." + +"If Strabo was right, she lived long before Sappho's day!" interpolated +the colonel's voice. + +"Of course, Strabo was right. There were two of Rhodopis. Everybody +knows that. The Third Pyramid was built for the tomb of the first one, +_not_ for King Mycineris, _I_ believe. Why shouldn't a woman have a +Pyramid to herself? The Sphinx is a woman, as I will insist to my dying +day, if it were my last word! I hope Lord Ernest won't ram down our +throats any nonsense about that noble and graceful tribute to the +Mystery of Womanhood being a stupid King Harmachis, or Horemkhu. I +wouldn't believe it if I found a hundred nasty stone beards lying +buried in the sand under her chin, instead of one, which could easily +have been put there to deceive people. Probably King Harmachis had the +Sphinx altered to look like him. No wonder she shuddered at such +profanation, and shed her false beard. There you have my theory. And as +for Egypt being now the land of Veiled Women, where Suffragettes find +no sympathy, I've heard that the prophet's order for veiling has been +purposely misconstrued by tyrannical men, with their usual jealousy. +Even Mohammed himself was jealous." + +With this Miss Hassett-Bean sat down, amid fitful applause; and at my +earnest request, Miss Enid Biddell, the prettier twin, stood bravely +up. She wished, before the subject was changed, to tell some little +things she had read about the girls of Ancient Egypt, how like they +were to girls of to-day, in all their ways, especially in--in things +concerning love. It was they who first questioned the petals of flowers +for their lovers' loyalty. How much they thought about their clothes, +too, getting their best things from foreign countries, as women did +now, from Paris! It was so funny to read how the girls of Old Egypt had +consulted palmists and fortune tellers and astrologers just as girls +did in Bond Street now; and that what 'Billikens' and 'Swasticas' and +birth-stones were to us, images of gods were to the girls of Egypt who +lived before the days of Moses! They had scarab rings with magic +inscriptions, and sacred apes for the symbol of Intelligence, and lucky +eyes of Horus, wounded by the wicked god Set, and cured by the love of +Isis. On their bracelets and necklaces they hung charms, and their +dressing-tables were covered with images of favourite gods and +goddesses. Hathor, the goddess of Love and Joy, was supposed to give +her choicest gifts to girls who wore her special colour (that green-blue +in the Temple of Edfu which Robert Hichens calls "the colour of +love") and to those who had her pet stones, emeralds, or turquoises. +Nowadays, in Egypt, the jewels of the women Were only lent to them by +their men, and could be taken away as a punishment, or be pawned or +sold in case of need; but in old days Egyptian women had all their most +beautiful possessions buried with them. + +When her sister had finished I urged the other twin to speak, and +timidly Miss Elaine repeated to us what a friend of hers, a clergyman +(here a blush) had told her. That the Red Sea was not red but a +brighter blue than any sea in the world, and called red only because it +washed the Red Lands. Her friend had written down for her in verse +_such_ a sweet legend about the Nile rising every spring from a single +tear shed by Isis, a _much_ more powerful goddess than Hathor, because +she was the goddess of goodness as well as love. And the Nile used to +be named Sihor by the Egyptians; and the year separated into three +seasons, Flood time, Seed time, and Harvest. Miss Biddell's friend was +writing a book about Egypt and was going to divide it in three parts +like that. It was to be dedicated to _her_. + +Bless the dear creatures, how they kept the ball rolling to please +themselves, and--indirectly--to sort out my stock of ideas! + +Harry Snell, the newspaper man, was not hard to persuade to his feet. +He was studying the resemblance between Arabic and English words. He +had found out, among other things, that Tallyho was "Tallyhoon," +brought home by the Crusaders. He even had a theory that some of our +words came from the early Egyptian. "Amen," for instance, he believed +to be derived from "Amon," the name of the great god, father of all the +other gods of Egypt, which was cried aloud, he understood, in the +temples, during religious services. The parson jumped eagerly up to +dispute this theory, and happily forgetful of me, seized the +opportunity to spring upon us a few facts from his own store. When, +however, Mr. Watts' discourse got him as far as Joseph's Well in the +Citadel, General Harlow could bear no more, but sprang up to inform us +that the Joseph of the Well in the Citadel was quite another Joseph, +some Yusef of the Arab conquerors. The general knew all about that, +because his son was stationed in the Citadel. And he proceeded to +meander on historically, over a period between the first Arab conqueror +Amru, to Haroun-al-Raschid, assuring us that old Cairo was the city of +the Arabian Nights. He would, to my joy, have gone on indefinitely from +Saladin to Napoleon if Sir John Biddell, as the only baronet on board, +had not cut the only general short. He is a square man whose portrait +could be properly done only by a Cubist. "Too much history, my friend!" +he shouted, getting up with the manner of one accustomed to making +dinner-table speeches. "What most of us are coming to Egypt for is +_mummies_. Egyptian history is too troublesome, anyhow, for a normal +man to grasp. Give me mummies! There's something _in_ them. Why, even +if you get a king or queen fixed in your head, somebody who's paid to +make you know things you don't know" (an eye-shot for Corkran) "comes +along and swears they didn't exist. Now, there's Mena. I'd pinned him +like a stuck butterfly. I could remember that he was the first known +king, and founded Memphis and lived six thousand years before Christ, +all because we're going to stay at Mena House, which is named after +him. I don't know why I remembered him that way, but I did. Just as I +could recall the queen with a name like a sneeze by thinking of her as +Queen Hat-and-Shoes. Now Colonel Corkran informs us that we must +pronounce her, in a different way. And what's the consequence to me? +I've ceased to try and keep track of her. King Mena, too, is lost to me +forever, through the over-conscientiousness of our late conductor, who +says there never was a Mena, only several kings they've mixed into one. +I seem to be the one who's most mixed up! To whet my appetite for Egypt +now, I have to have something tasty. Where's the good of stuffing my +mind with a string of names which I couldn't mention to any one at +home, because I can't pronounce them? The word Dynasty (he pronounced +it Die-nasty) makes me sick! Luckily I feel that nobody else will know +any more than I do. I'm coming to Egypt for a rest-cure, because I +don't have to learn its history. But some lecturers won't let me have a +minute's peace. A king named Sneferu couldn't expect to appeal to a man +like me, even if he did build the oldest Pyramid, and even if you could +show me his mummy, which you can't. But I draw the line at kings +without mummies. I don't want to know them. Now, my wife is against +mummies on show. She's heard that the malignance of mummies, especially +in museums, is incredible. And she thinks it a judgment that some of +the most distinguished ones are going bad. She says it's spite. I say +its management. But I'm not ready to sit down yet! My wife means to +start a society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Mummies, with the +object of sending them back to their tombs where they can rest in that +state of death it pleased their gods to call them to. Their object was +eternal privacy, and they spent more on their tombs than their houses, +because they expected to be dead a long tune, and wanted all the +comforts of home. But I judge mummies by myself. It wouldn't have taken +me these thousands of years to realize how narrow and un-christian my +notions had been. I should see that I owed some duty to the world; and +as so much posterity had rolled by since my day, I'd feel that lying in +a museum at some large place like Cairo, was, after all, the only way +to keep my name before the public. Now, that brings me to my tip for +Lord Ernest. He asks what there is we don't know, and want to know. +I'll answer for us all, being used to feel the pulse of crowds. We want +to know what the deuce Ancient Egyptians really believed about death +and religion. Had they any sense, or were they just plain fools?" + +On the tide of applause which congratulated the boat's only baronet, I +rose. I felt that I was on the crest of the wave; for the ancient +religion of Egypt appeals to me; and as I now had reason to hope that +others were comfortably ignorant of my subject I could spread myself as +much as I pleased. + +"The Ancient Egyptians were far from being fools," I answered Sir John +with the air of being in their confidence. "We who are tempted to think +so, don't take the trouble to try the key of their Faith in its door. I +might say that its door was the door of the Tomb. If we go through that +door into the Kingdom of Osiris, Amenti, which the Greeks renamed +Hades, the mysteries which appear tangled sort themselves graciously +out. The story of Isis the Great Enchantress, and her search for the +body of her husband Osiris, murdered by Set, his wicked and jealous +brother, Spirit of Evil, is perhaps the most lovable legend of the +world. But in hearing that Horus, the son of Isis, was really the same +god as Osiris, modern ideas begin to get mixed, and confuse themselves +over Isis, goddess of love and goodness, cow-headed Hathor, mistress of +love and joy, cat-headed Pasht and lioness-headed Sekhet, goddesses of +love and passion. There's hawk-headed Horus, the youth, too; and Horus +the child, represented in statues with his thumb in his mouth. How is +one to make sense of them all? But once you have the key, it is easy +and even beautiful. The esoteric or secret religion known to the high +priests and the instructed ones was different from the animal-worship +and adoration of bird-headed deities, which gave the common people such +interest in daily life. They would have been lost without their +monsters; and the priests would have been lost without the temples +necessary for the worship of such a menagerie. For Egypt was a +priest-ridden country in old days. The explanation of the many gods and +goddesses was this: each was a different phase of the one God, Ra, the +Sun, by whom and through whom only the world could exist. Animals and +birds were chosen to express the different phases, because animals were +considered to be nearer nature, therefore nearer God than human beings; +besides, to give a god the head of a man would not set him apart from +humanity, as it would to make him appear with the body of a man and the +head of some bird or beast. Horus, finished off with the head of a hawk +(that sacred bird who could look the sun in the face), became to the +uneducated eye a supernatural being, which he would not have been with +the face of a smiling youth. The child Horus, or Harpocrates, was not +respected as was Horus of the Hawk Head. He was merely petted and +loved. Even Set, god of evil, wasn't all bad. He was the Spirit of +Storm and Strife in Nature, and had to be propitiated by the ignorant. +Typhon, or Typhoon, and he were one. Red was his colour, and red-haired +people were his children. There were a hundred phases of the one god, +each made incarnate, given his own mission, and worshipped in a +different place. It's an ill wind (of Set) that blows nobody good, and +animals had a gorgeous time in those days. Very few weren't sacred for +some reason or other. It was death and destruction to kill a cat. And I +don't think that cats have forgotten to this day the importance they +had in Egypt. It's made them the most supercilious of animals. + +"If Amon-Ra were angry he could become Menthu, the war god. If he were +inclined to be gentle, he could shrink to the dimensions of Horus, +child-god of the Rising Sun. If he were weary, he could rest as the old +god Tum, of the Setting Sun. Probably gods and goddesses never enjoyed +themselves so much as in Ancient Egypt; and though it does seem a +drawback from our artistic point of view for Hathor to have the head or +ears of a cow, for wise Thoth to have the long beak of an ibis, and so +on, it was for them only an amusing kind of masquerade or 'tete' party, +on the walls of the temples and tombs. At home, they could be what they +liked. Think how interesting for the Egyptians to have all these queer +gods, and what variety it gave to their lives. Perhaps the priests +really meant well in keeping the secret of the One God for themselves +and the kings, as the people weren't fitted to bear its solemnity. +Fancy how amusing it was for the children to be told, on silver-bright +nights, about Khonsu, god of the moon, always young, wearing the curled +lock of youth on his brow--who staked five nights of his light playing +draughts with Thoth, father of Magic. But he had a more serious phase, +for when he was not a gambler he was an Expeller of Demons, a most +popular accomplishment. Indeed, almost every god had several thriving +businesses, conducted under different aliases. Khnum the Creator, +dweller at the Cataracts, is my favourite, and is still busy, as he +looks after the rise and fall of the river. Hekt, goddess of birth, was +a pal of his, in spite of her appalling ugliness; and she used to kneel +by his potter's wheel. While he fashioned the clay she would hold the +Sign of Life, so that spirit might enter into the formed body when +Khnum got it to the right state. For very important babies, royal ones +or geniuses, she held a Sign of Life in each hand, which made them +extraordinarily vital. When you arrive in Egypt, the first thing you'll +be asked to buy will be the Sign, or Key of Life, in the shape of paper +knives or brooches or what not, and it will be pointed out to you in +tombs till you're tired and sick of it. You can buy Hekt, too, and +funny old Bes, nurse-goddess of children, quite the golliwog of her +day; and all the other gods and goddesses will be offered to you, to +say nothing of the kings who were entitled to worship themselves as +gods if they wanted to. + +"It's easy, you see, to make fun of the ancient religion, and other +nations did make fun of it. But to be serious, the priests were nearer +right than it would seem; for they believed that God was All: that +there was nothing in this or any Universe which was not part of God." + +That note was my highest, and I stopped on it. Besides, I could think +of nothing more to say. I ventured to sit down; and because the people +were glad to hear the last of me, or because I had helped them finish +their almonds and raisins, they applauded. Secretly I shook hands with +myself, as the monkey must have done, when, with the catspaw, he had +pulled the hot chestnuts out of the fire. I had carefully selected my +chestnuts--and waited till they were cool. Also, I had disappointed +Colonel Corkran. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BACK WAS TURNED + + +Three letters for me, brought out by the pilot! One I had expected from +Anthony; but my heart gave a bound as I recognized Brigit's +handwriting, not seen for years; and instinct told me that the third +was from Monny Gilder. + +My one thought for the last two days, steaming back from the Piraeus to +Alexandria, had been that I was drawing nearer to Cairo, and to those +whose doings in my absence pulled at my curiosity and keyed my interest +to breaking point. But if you think that I tore open those envelopes +and greedily absorbed their contents the moment they were put into my +hands, you have never been a conductor or even an observant passenger +on a "pleasure yacht." When the letters arrived I was engaged in +persuading breakfast-lingerers (they of the eggs-and-bacon habit, who +ought never to leave their peaceful English homes) that it would give +them more real pleasure to be first in the shore boats than last at the +table. Then to get them into the boats; then to hypnotize Lady Biddell +and Mrs. Harlow into the belief that they would not, could not, be +seasick on the dancing waves which bobbed us up and down. No time to +think of the letters; much less to feel the strangeness of fate which +brought me back in such queer circumstances to the port I had entered +on the _Laconia_ eight days ago. + +"As soon as we get on shore," I soothed my gnawing impatience, "I'll +steal a minute somehow." But each moment was so conspicuously labelled +that I could not be a thief of time--my time, which was my charges' +time, bought and paid for by Sir Marcus Lark. + +This was not the first occasion on which I'd heard the clanking of my +chains, for, although I flattered myself that I was a popular success, +popularity had penalties. On the night of the lecture I had used the +passengers. Since then they had used me. Old ladies appealed to me on +questions of etiquette, health or religion, and retailed my answers, +not always correctly. Girls asked my advice about keeping up +flirtations, and men wanted my help in getting out of them. I was +expected to spout pages of Strabo or Pliny at an instant's notice; I +must know why Plato went to Egypt, or how long he stayed; and be umpire +between American and British bridge-players. I must be able to explain +the true meaning and age of the Sphinx; invent new deck games; and show +those who hadn't learned, how to dance the Tango. But with those three +letters burning over my heart the duties of conductor became +infuriating. + +It was an awful day; for what was Pompey's Pillar to me while I +remained ignorant of my friends' adventures? As I discoursed (more or +less) learnedly about Diocletian, and Ptolemy's plot to drown Pompey in +the Nile, something inside was asking, "Has Anthony fallen in love with +Monny Gilder?" "What scrapes has that blessed girl got into?" "Has +anything happened to worry Biddy?" Even that nameless but incomparable +tomb on the hill of Kom esh-Shukafa could not distract my thoughts from +the sealed envelopes; and three very modern handwritings came +obstinately between my eyes and the matchless wall-paintings--paintings +as fresh in their underground hiding-place as if finished yesterday +instead of in days when it was dowdy to be pagan, fashionable to be +Christian. + +Corkran, as a soldier, had to guide a band to Aboukir, and chat about +Nelson; point out the medieval fort of Kait Bey, and dash with hired +motors to Adjemi, where Napoleon landed. Kruger took a few studious +pilgrims to that unspoiled Oriental Nile town where the Rosetta Stone +gave the secrets of Ancient Egypt to the world. It was mine to pilot +the "frivolous lot"; to escort them in carriages round the +Italian-looking city when they had absorbed its two chief sights; to give +them a glimpse of the Museum, and to let them see the beauty and fashion +of Alexandria driving out to San Stefano in the late afternoon. Still I +had no chance to read my letters; but, thought I at the hotel, "Now at +last, it has come!" Not at all! People's trunks were missing, or in the +wrong rooms. It was I who had to sooth alarms, and calm rising storms. +It was I who must assure Mrs. Harlow that her room was really +preferable to that of Lady Biddell; and Lady Biddell that she, and not +Miss Hassett-Bean, had the best in the hotel. Still, I had ten minutes +to dress for dinner. Like Mr. Gladstone, I could do it in five, and +have five left for my letters. But hardly had I slipped a paper knife +under the flap of Monny's envelope (I should have felt a vandal to tear +it) when one of the hotel managers knocked at my door. A gentleman was +being very angry in the dining-room. He insisted on seeing me. He said +he had been Lord Mayor of London, and ought to have a window-table. All +these were previously engaged. What was to be done? Would I kindly come +at once? + +I persuaded Sir John that window-tables were the least desirable, owing +to draughts, and returning to my room, had four minutes to dress or +risk further rows. After dinner Miss Hassett-Bean burst into tears +because she was alone in the world owing to the marmoset's death from +seasickness; and now that she was growing old nobody cared to talk to +her. I argued that people were shy because she was more important than +they, and had a reputation for satire. It took half an hour for the +lady's nose to go from red to pink (I think she had papier poudre in +her handkerchief); and then I was obliged to walk on the beach with +Miss Enid Biddell to keep Mr. Watts from proposing. As Snell relieved +me from sentry duty, I was called by Kruger to discuss certain details +of next morning's start for Cairo; and at midnight, when I crawled to +my room a shattered wreck, the letters were still unread. + +"I'm incapable of caring now," I groaned, "what has happened to any of +them. If an earthquake has swallowed up our mountain, and Anthony's +married Monny, and Brigit's been abducted, or vice versa, and Miss +Guest has gone off with the jewels, it will leave me calm." + +That was the spirit in which I tossed up a coin to see which letter to +read first. Heads, Monny's; tails, Anthony's; but the penny rolled +away, far under the bed where collar-buttons go, and so--I opened +Biddy's. She began: + +MY DEAR GOOD DUFFER! + +For any sake hurry back. Make an excuse to leave your pilgrims the +minute you get this, and take the first train to Cairo. Surely the late +conductor can be your understudy, and trot the people round Alexandria +for a day? We need you more than they do. I picture you reading this +early in the morning, with Alexandria still in the distance; for you +said you'd arrange to have letters come out to the yacht by the pilot. +I shall expect a telegram saying by what train you'll arrive here in +the afternoon. You'll understand when I've told you everything, why +it's _necessary_ for you to hurry. + +We have done and seen so many things, it seems years instead of days +since you left us in care of that handsome Hadji of yours. I wonder if +really you didn't suspect that I guessed who he was; or _did_ you +suspect; and didn't care? I caught the look in your eyes, when you +first saw him standing under the terrace at Shepheard's, and then, when +the name "Antoun Effendi" came up in the conversation, I put two and +two together. Mrs. East guesses, also. I don't know if she did from the +first, but she does now. It isn't a question of "guessing" with either +of us, really. It's a certainty. Not that she's said anything to me or +I to her. That is the malady of us all since you went. We are boiling +with secret thoughts, and keeping them to ourselves, which is bad for +us and for each other in the long run. I haven't told Monny that the +"Egyptian Prince," as Rachel Guest has nicknamed him, is your friend +Captain Anthony Fenton playing some deep game, partly connected with +us, partly connected with a secret of his and yours; the secret you +said was a "dusty" one in which women would not be interested. I +haven't told her, because I don't want her to know. She is always +talking and thinking about him, and is vexed with herself for doing so. +She tries to stop, but can't. If she knew who he was, she wouldn't try +to stop. She'd let herself go, and feel she was living in a beautiful +romance. So she is living in a romance, but I want you to be the hero +of it, not your Anthony Fenton. That's why I don't open her eyes to the +game that's going on. The man is a perfect devil. Not a bad devil, but +a wild devil. + +Mrs. East doesn't tell Monny that Antoun is "Anthony with an h" because +she is enjoying the thought that she alone knows the wonderful truth. +She imagines that she is in love with him. She believes Fate has +brought them together--that he is a "reincarnation," as she is, and +that they ought to belong to each other. Well, let them! She isn't more +than six or seven years older than he, and she's rich (though poor +compared to Monny, of course), and every day she grows handsomer. So +does Monny. As for Rachel Guest--but she is in another part of my +story. Yet no, come to think of it, I'll bring her in now, because if +it weren't for developments concerning that young woman, I might be +able to wait one more day without begging you to come to us. She is +taking Monny away from me; and something odd is going on, I can't make +out what. Anyhow, that horrid Bedr el Gemaly is in it. And there's to +be a climax, I'm sure, to-morrow night. You'll get this letter +to-morrow morning, for I'm writing it early, with my hair down my back, +and my coffee not ordered, though I'm starving. We've left Shepheard's +because Monny wanted to live for a few days in a hotel close to the +Nile; and we were all pleased with the plan, for this was once a palace +of Khedive Ismael, and his furniture's still in it, the wildest mixture +of Orientalized French taste. There's a garden, with paths of vermilion +sand brought from somewhere in the desert. But the most convulsive +things live along the Nile Valley and spend their nights braying, +hooting, cooing, whining, bellowing, and barking. If only the donkeys +and dogs and birds and a few other sacred animals of Egypt would be a +little more reticent, especially after dark, the country would be +faultless. But what with worrying myself, and listening to furred and +feathered creatures worrying themselves, I couldn't sleep last night, +and I want you to help me! You'll be here to-morrow afternoon, and I +shall stay in to receive you instead of going to the bazaars with the +others, chaperoned by that dark-eyed devil of yours, "Antoun." I was +there all yesterday, watching crowds of tourists buy beautiful +expensive things for themselves, and horrid inexpensive things to take +to their friends. Cleopatra purchased some disgracefully cheap pearls +no self-respecting _mummy_ would be seen in; and my prophetic soul +tells me that she's going to try and dissolve them in wine. + +There's to be a fancy dress ball at this hotel to-morrow night--or +rather in the adjacent Casino, which is one reason we migrated here; +and praise the saints you'll be in time for it because if anything's +going to happen, you'll be able to stop whatever it is. If I were +supposed to know that Antoun was Anthony Fenton, I might take him into +my counsels. As it is, I can't. And anyhow, it wouldn't do much good, +at present, because a silent duel is going on between him and Monny. He +is bent on compelling her to acknowledge his authority. She is bent on +resisting it--which is a great compliment to his power--but he doesn't +know that, for he doesn't know Monny yet. It would be fun to watch them +together, if I hadn't your interests to think of. + +He hasn't got rid of Bedr el Gemaly; but he would have done so, I'm +sure, if it hadn't been for an unexpected turn of the wheel, by the +hand of Fate in the person of Rachel Guest. Her hand is never _off_ the +wheel just now! The few days since you have been away have brought out +the true inwardness of her. _Felis Domestica_ with very little +_Domestica!_ Perhaps it's the air of Egypt which is having a really +extraordinary effect on all of us; perhaps it's the fact that Monny has +given Rachel a lot of lovely clothes which have rejuvenated and +apparently revitalized her. But you will see for yourself, and talk +things over with Your old friend, Biddy. + +This was a nice letter to read, heaven knew how many hours too late! + +My fatigue had slipped off like the skin off a grape. I felt energetic +enough to start out and walk to Cairo. What could be in Biddy's mind? +And what must she have thought when afternoon and evening passed +without even a telegram? The evening paper, if she had happened to +look, would have told her that the _Candace_ had reached Alexandria in +the morning, as she expected; and she could neither have guessed nor +believed that the whole day would pass without my having a chance to +read her letter. I ransacked the writing-table drawers for a telegraph +form; and finding one had begun to address it, when I stopped. The +message could not go out until morning. Meanwhile there were Monny's +and Anthony's letters to read. One or both might give me some clue to +the "climax" Biddy feared for to-night at the ball. I cut open Monny's +envelope, which had on it an alluring sunset picture of the Pyramids +and the name of the hotel. Hastily I ran through the pages. Not a hint +of anything disquieting! If I had read her letter instead of Brigit's I +might have gone to my well-earned rest without a qualm. + +"Dear Lord Ernest," Miss Gilder addressed me, in a handwriting which to +any "expert" would reveal some originality, more pride, still more +conscientiousness, any amount of self-will, and singularly little +conceit. An odd combination! But the Gilded Rose is that. She went on: + +You asked me to write to you while you were away, and tell you the +news, and what I thought about things. But I'm thinking so much and so +fast that I can't sort out my thoughts. I suppose it must be so with +every one who comes to Egypt for the first time. Everything fascinates +and absorbs me, even more than I had hoped it would--almost too much, I +feel sometimes. Your Antoun Effendi is a very good guide, and I am not +sorry that we have him--except once in a while. And now and then I'm +glad. We're proud of his looks when we go about, for every one stares +at him and envies us for having him to take us about, instead of being +condemned to a mere dragoman. Oh, talking of dragomen (you see I _will_ +call them that!), we still have Bedr, though I know you thought we +ought to give him up, and I don't see how we are ever to discharge him +now, for he has attached himself to Rachel G. in the most wonderful +way. It is _pathetic_. It began with a talk they had the day you left, +about his having been in America, and about _religion_. She found him +half inclined to be converted, and of course, her goodness and +unselfishness made her long to snatch him like a brand from the +burning. He thinks no one ever talked so wonderfully about religion as +she does, which she, dear thing, attributes to the fact that she taught +Sunday-school in Salem. She says, if she can have him to work upon even +for a few weeks, she is sure to make him a convert. + +We haven't wasted a minute since you went away, but have seen sights +from morning till night, so as not to have missed anything when we +leave Cairo on the _Enchantress Isis_. I hope you'll be pleased that +I've given up my dream of having a private dahabeah, and that we shall +be with you on Sir Marcus Lark's boat. She is really a beauty. Antoun +took us over her, and on board we met Sir Marcus, who was showing some +friends round. Antoun introduced him to us. I think Sir M. asked him to +do it. We had great fun, for Sir Marcus seemed to take the most violent +fancy to Aunt Clara, who didn't like him at all. She says now that she +believes when she was Cleopatra he was Caesar, and that it's a pity he +can't wear a wreath to hide his baldness, as she remembers his doing +then. It's only a _very_ little bald spot, really, and Rachel Guest +says it reminds her of a tonsure on the head of a fine-looking monk. +Aunt C. quite resents Sir Marcus being able to engage the services of +you and Antoun. She wants you both to be there, but she doesn't like +Sir M. to have a superior position to Antoun's. That day on the +_Enchantress Isis_ Sir M. invited us to have tea on the deck, and it +really was enchanting; a deck like a huge open-air drawingroom, or one +of our biggest verandas at Newport, or somewhere, with jolly green +wicker chairs and tables and sofas with heaps of cushions. But I +forgot--you've seen the boat. The best rooms _were_ engaged, but when +we talked to Sir Marcus, he called a man who can speak many languages +in bits--broken English, cracked German, fractured French, and goodness +knows what all. Between them, they arranged it somehow that we should +have our choice, and the other people were to take what was left. I +would have refused, because it didn't seem fair, but it was for Aunt +Clara's sake, evidently, that Sir M. wanted to make the exchange, and +_she_ accepted. She was as haughty as a queen, but in rather a +fascinating, soft way that I think men like. And she was looking +beautiful. So is Rachel, as even Biddy admits. I do believe Rachel +looks younger than I do, in some new dresses and hats she has. I never +noticed before, but I fancy now that we're rather alike. I'm so +delighted to see her enjoying herself so much, for you know, she's +_wonderful_. Think what courage it must have taken to break with her +tiresome old life, because she felt she must see the glory of the +world, when a tiny legacy gave her the chance she'd longed for. She +wouldn't have had a penny left, after she'd finished her trip, if Aunt +C. and I hadn't been able to help her out. It's a privilege to do +anything for such a brave creature. And I can't bear to think of her +having to go back when this is over, to the dull round. Perhaps some +way out will be found for her. + +I've fallen in love with Cairo, although--or perhaps because--I still +feel as if I were moving in a marvellous picture. Antoun does make it +live for us! I will say that for him, though he can be so annoying that +at times he spoils everything, and makes me wish you'd won my hat +instead of my winning his green turban. I'm dying to find out how you +got it. But, of course, I can't ask him: it would be _infra dig_. You +_must_ tell me when you come. I think the one he wears now is handsomer +though. I wish I could change it for mine. + +We have been to heaps of mosques, and I can't help wishing we were the +only tourists in Cairo. Of course, this is a selfish wish; and as dear +Biddy says, it's quite funny to think how each tourist feels that _he_ +is the only spiritual-minded, imaginative person travelling--that he +alone has the right to be in Egypt--that all the others are offensive, +vulgar creatures, who desecrate the beautiful places with their +presence. But really, you know, it gets on one's nerves, meeting droves +of silly men in pith helmets with little white lambrequins looped up, +when it would be so much more appropriate to wear the kind of hats they +have at home. And some of the women are _weird!_ They have the queerest +ideas of what is suitable for Egypt. One friend of Bedr's refused to go +about and be seen with the ladies who'd engaged him, as he was the +smartest dragoman in Cairo and had his reputation to keep up. Don't you +_like_ that? Even Antoun laughed--which he hardly ever does. He's so +dignified I wish his turban would blow off or something. I _wonder_ how +he'd look without it, and if most of the charm would be gone? Almost, I +hope so. One doesn't like to catch one's self feeling toward an +Egyptian, even for a minute, as one does toward men of one's own blood +--I mean, on the same level, or even as if a person like that were +_above_ one. It's just the picturesque dignity of the _costume_, and +the _pose,_ perhaps. And then, this strange glamour of the East is over +everybody and everything, here. I used to wonder why people wrote and +spoke of the East as _mysterious._ Why should it be more mysterious +than the West? I would ask. Nobody could explain exactly. They said +only, "It is." Now I know why--at least I _feel_ why. Without his green +turban, or in European coat instead of his graceful silk robe, and away +from these luminous sunsets of pale rose and gold and emerald, Antoun +would be nothing extraordinary, would he? He says he is considered old +fashioned in his way of dress. Most of his friends wear European +clothes, and the tarboosh which Egyptians love because it never blows +away or falls off when they pray. He _does_ make me angry, because he +wants to banish the beggars and poor men who sell things in the street, +instead of letting me give and buy. What am I _for_, with all my money, +except to do things for people? And it's such fun making them happy by +saying "I _want_ a cat-necklace--" or a scarab, or whatever they have, +instead of pushing past with a stony glare as if they were dust under +our feet. Of course we're attended by great crowds whereever we go, +because it's got round that we don't refuse any one, consequently it +takes a _little_ long to arrive anywhere. But what does that matter in +Egypt? Already I'm losing my American hustle. I want to eat lotuses, +which seem out of season in Egypt now! I've asked for them everywhere +but can't get them. I want to feel back in the Middle Ages, in Cairo, +which, as Antoun says, is an Oriental and Medieval Gateway to the Egypt +older than history. And how I am looking forward to the _Desert!_ Sir +Marcus tells us that _you_ are to take the people of the _Candace_ for +a desert trip before they go up the Nile; so of course you must count +us among your "trippers," and Mr. Willis and Mr. Sheridan, who have +settled to go on the _Isis_. You didn't mention the desert plan before +you went away! + + +No news of that poor, beautiful child, Wretched Bey's wife though I've +written twice. I'm worried about her. Mabel she used to be. Now she's +Mabella Hanem! Biddy says you'll arrive for the ball to-morrow night. +But somehow I don't _feel_ you will. I don't know why you should. Men +don't care for such things much. And of course I shall not dance, as +I'm still in half mourning. I shall only look on, and then--Rachel and +I have an amusing plan for the end of the evening. But even if you +came, we couldn't let you into the secret, as you would think it silly. + +Yours sincerely, + +ROSAMOND GILDER. + +Mine "sincerely, Rosamond Gilder!" So she ended her letter, with +youthful and characteristic dignity, childishly unaware, apparently, +that there was more to read between the lines than in the lines +themselves. + +Had I read this Rosamond letter first, the last four or five sentences +would have meant little for me. As it was, I would have given a month +out of my future for the gift of an astral body which could go this +minute to the ball at the Ghezireh Palace. I was lost in the mystery of +that "amusing plan." + +In Anthony's letter lay my last hope of a clue. But in it there was +none. He did not even mention Monny's name. It was all about that +"desert trip" which, from her, I hadn't taken seriously. Sir Marcus was +actually planning it. Kruger had written that some of the passengers +were clamouring for a few days' camping, and the idea was to send them +off in my care, after three days in Cairo, while the others remained in +charge of Antoun, who wasn't yet ready to leave. Fenton said: + +Somebody's trying to defeat my scheme for getting the sheikh's tomb +moved. I don't know who it is yet. Meanwhile my time and my head are so +full, that in the few hours of the night I put aside for sleep, I dream +queerer dreams than the visits of ghostly sheikhs. Apropos of dreams, +do you know by chance a man who answers this description: elderly, +stoutish, red face, gray hair, black moustache, pale eyes with sharp +look in them. Sounds commonplace, doesn't it? + +But I have a recurring dream of such a man, whose face I never saw +elsewhere. For the last three nights, as soon as I shut my eyes, he +comes. He seems to interrupt some scene between you and Lark, and +myself, and I see him looking over Lark's shoulder. Then he turns +quickly away, and tiptoes off to a very low, closed door in a deep +recess. There he disappears into shadow--and I wake up with a jump, or +slide off into another dream--but generally this rouses me, for there's +an impression of something stealthy in the shadow round the door. That +so ordinary a type of person should be in a dream. You'll laugh at my +asking if you've ever known such a man, and say that I'm back at my old +tricks again, as a dreamer of dreams. Never mind, I scored, dreaming of +our Mountain of the Golden Pyramid the night before I got your letter +with Ferlini's papers. I can't help feeling that there may be something +in dreams--in mine, anyhow, though I never have any except in Egypt. +This one about the red-faced man and the closed door in the deep recess +is getting a bit on my nerves. + +Excited as I was over the patchwork of news, I laughed scornfully at +Anthony's dream. For the man he described might be Colonel Corkran. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SECRET MONNY KEPT + + +Cairo at last! My watch said that the journey took only three hours; +but my nerves said six. + +I had telegraphed Biddy first thing in the morning the hour of my +arrival with the "_Candace crowd_," and I half expected to see her at +the big white and red station, but there was no familiar form in the +throng, the gay throng which excited my charges. Everything interested +them; the black face of the Sudanese engine driver who looked down from +his huge British locomotive, the display of English, French and German +literature mingled with Greek, Italian, Arab, or Turkish papers on the +bookstall; the ebony and copper-coloured luggage carriers who seemed +eager to take one another's lives, but in reality desired no more than +to snatch each other's jobs, under the eyes of the uniformed +hotel-porters. To me, the busy place was a desert, lacking one face. + +Even outside the station-yard, and in the streets and squares where +silent camels looked their contempt of electric trams, soldiers in +khaki uniforms jostled Bedouins in khaki robes, and drivers of arabeahs +made the way one long procession of shrieks, I still glanced at passing +carriages in hopes of a belated Biddy. All in vain! And destitute of +news I resigned myself to the task of piloting the Set out to Mena +House. The moon would be full that night--and it's "the thing" to be a +neighbour of the Sphinx while the moon feeds her with honey. + +The Flock, under the guidance of Mr. Watts, had now definitely parted +from the Set, chieftained by me. They went meekly off to the cheaper +hotels, where they would live before boarding the _Candace_ again for +Palestine, and Colonel Corkran, who was supposed to have joined that +party, had announced that he was "bound for a long talk with Mark the +Lark." Mr. Watts, refused by Enid Biddell and separated from her, had +relapsed into melancholia. He had ceased to brilliantine his once sleek +hair, and dust and crumbs were allowed to collect in each fold of his +clerical waistcoat. As we of the Set buzzed richly away in taxicabs, I +saw him in a shabby arabeah between two old ladies, gazing wistfully +after us. He was envying me Enid! + +It is a wonderful drive through Cairo to the Pyramids, whether you spin +out there in a motor, or trot on a donkey, or lilt on a camel, +squatting cross-legged on a load of green bersim. Past the great +swinging bridge, and the Island of Ghezireh (the word that in itself +means "island") begins the six-mile dyke, which is the road made by +Ismail to please the Empress Eugenie. Since her visit, in the days when +the Suez Canal was opened, it has pleased two empresses, and more +queens than I have time to count. Under the deep shade of lebbek trees +it goes on and on, toward the Pyramids, a dark cool avenue, high above +cultivated fields flooded by the Nile when the river is "up." The +emerald waves of grain flow like green water to the foot of the broad +dyke-road, and canals like long, tight-drawn blue ribbons are threaded +through it, their ends lost to sight at the shimmering horizon. + +Even at this noon hour when the world should have been eating lotuses +or luncheon, the interminable arbour was crowded with strings of +camels, forever going both ways, into Cairo and out, one wondered why +--and there were flocks of woolly brown sheep, and donkeys drawing +sideless carts in which whole families of veiled women and half-naked +children were seated tailor fashion. On we spun, past the Zoo, past +scattered villas of Frenchified, Oriental fashion which might have been +designed by a confectioner: past azure lakes left by the ebbing Nile, +and so into sudden dazzling sight of three geometric mountains in a +tawny desert--two, monsters in size, and one a baby trying to catch up +with them. + +"Oh!" everybody breathed. For these things were beyond words. + +Then in a moment more the Great Pyramid had grown so big that it loomed +over us, and ate up half the sky--a pyre of yellow flame against a +flame of blue. + +We were at the end of the shadowy road that leads like a causeway to +the desert, and on the verge of the golden, billowing sea which flows +round the Pyramids and engulfs the distant Sphinx. Oriental life +encircled us, in the foreground of the picture--a long row of waiting +camels gaily saddled and tasselled, delicately nibbling bersim green as +heaped emeralds--donkeys white and gray, beribboned and beaded--small +yellow sandcarts; little white, desert horses and tall brown, desert +men; camels snarling, donkeys braying, horses whinnying, and men +touting. "Very nice sandcarts--very nice camels! Take ladies and +gentlemen quick to Pyramids and Sphinx or Petrified Forest!" Farther +on, the big, modern hotel, rather like an overgrown Swiss chalet built +by Arabs--a vast, confused building the colour of sand or brown heather +honey, with carved mushrbiyeh work lending an Eastern charm to windows, +balconies, and loggias, and enough green, flowery garden to give a +sensational effect of contrast with the tidal wave of desert poised +ready, it would seem, to overwhelm palms and roses. Clustered near, the +tiny mushroom village which huddles under the shelter of Cheops' +Pyramid. Beyond, the immense upward sweep of golden dunes, culminating +in the Great Pyramid itself. + +I stayed in the picture only long enough to settle my big children into +their quarters, and to see most of them making for the dining-room, +agreeably Oriental with its white and red walls, its dome and windows +of mushrbiyeh work. Then I darted back to Cairo, in a taxi driven by a +Nubian youth, so black that he was almost blue, like a whortleberry. He +wore a scarlet tarboosh, a livery of violet, and the holes for silver +rings in the tops of his ears were so large that the light shining +through gave the effect of inserted diamonds. Unconsciously he made a +nice contrast with his modern motor. + +He drove with such reckless speed that camels "rubber-necked" to look +at us--and whirled me past the fat black gate-keeper into the Ghezireh +Palace garden of scarlet paths, moonlike lamps, Khedivial statues, and +spreading banyans where each tree continued itself in its own "next +number," like an endless serial romance. + +I nearly asked for Mrs. O'Brien, but turned her into Jones at the +danger point. The face of the concierge, as he said that she was at +home, conveyed nothing, yet I could not resist adding, "Are the ladies +well?" + +"Mrs. East is not very well to-day," he replied. "We have had the +doctor; but the young ladies have been out spending the night with +friends, I believe. They have not yet returned." + +It was a long five minutes before Biddy and I were wildly shaking hands +in a huge private sitting-room all red-and-gold brocade and crystal +chandeliers, as it had been in the days of Ismail. I knew I should be +delighted to see her, but I didn't realize that it was going to be +quite as good as it was. + +"Anyhow, _you're_ all right and safe," I heard myself blurt out. + +"I'm safe, but not all right!" she reproached me. "My messenger who +went to the train didn't find you from my description, I know, because +he came back with my note----" + +"Too flattering, was your description, or the other way?" I asked, +trying to buoy her up with frivolity. + +"You wouldn't joke if you'd read the note. Oh, Ernest, Monny and Rachel +have disappeared!" + +"Good gracious! But Anthony----" + +"He went to look for them, of course; and he's disappeared, too." + +"By Jove!" The exclamation sounded inadequate, but I was so taken aback +that I had nothing else to say. It seemed impossible that Anthony, +instead of averting danger, could be involved in it himself. It was +unlike his resourcefulness. I could not believe it of him, and so, +when I had time to control mind and tongue, I said as much to Biddy. + +"Yes, I felt like that, too, at first," she admitted. "He gives one the +impression of being so infallible in any emergency, somehow, as if he'd +be above it, and look down on it from his height. But it's more than +twelve hours since he went, and he promised to send me word how things +were going on if he couldn't get to me himself. No word has come." + +"What have you done?" I asked. "Have you communicated with the police?" + +"Sir Marcus Lark has. He was at the ball, and has been very good. But +it's for Mrs. East's sake, mostly. One feels he's glad it happened, to +give him the chance to win her gratitude--or something. He's been back +and forth all day; and I'm expecting him any minute. Mrs. East has been +fainting and hysterical, and everything early Edwardian, so I sent for +a doctor. But she's better on the strength of _sal volatile_ and +eggnog, and she's promised to see Sir Marcus." + +"Now tell me what happened, from the beginning," I said, when I had +made Biddy sit down by me on the sofa, and was trying to warm a cold +little hand in mine. + +What it all amounted to, told disjointedly, was this: Since Monny had +had an inspiration the day after our arrival in Cairo, to give Rachel +Guest a lot of her new unworn clothes, Rachel had become quite girlish +and "flighty." She had lost her puritan primness, and behaved more in +accordance with her slanting eyes than with her bringing up. She +giggled like a schoolgirl rather than a schoolmistress, tried to make +herself look young, and copied Monny in the way she tilted her hat and +dressed her hair. No harm in this; but it had seemed to Biddy that +Rachel deliberately incited the girl to do things which "Antoun" +disapproved. Brigit fancied that Bedr's influence had been at work, for +knowing as he did that "Antoun" would gladly have given him marching +orders, he took pleasure in thwarting his superior when he could do so +with safety. Bedr had been clever in enlisting the girls' sympathy for +his soul. As for Biddy, she had disliked him from the first, and +imagined that he had tacked himself onto our party as a spy, upon the +receipt of orders from America, he having learned most of his English +there. The idea appeared so far-fetched that she had abandoned it. Now, +however, it was again hovering at the back of her mind. + +Bedr had told Rachel stories of the fascination of hasheesh smoking, +and had said that no stranger knew Cairo who did not visit one of the +"best houses" where hasheesh, though forbidden, was still secretly +smoked. He had assured her that there were several which were +"perfectly respectable," even for the "nicest ladies and gentlemen;" +and Rachel, probably at his suggestion, had tried to persuade Monny to +make the expedition. Monny had mentioned it to "Antoun," in the +presence of everybody; and as Rachel and Bedr had looked guilty, Biddy +guessed that they had wished to keep the plan a secret. + +"Antoun" had perhaps too brusquely vetoed the idea. He said that there +were no such houses, which could be visited by ladies, and that it was +absurd to think of going. That word "absurd" stung Monny. She began to +protest that Bedr knew Cairo as well as Antoun did, and was as likely +to be right. "I don't see why we shouldn't go, if others do," she +persisted, "and I've always longed to know what a hasheesh dream was +like, ever since I read De Quincey. A little, just once, could do us no +harm, and Rachel says----" + +But what Rachel had said was evidently not for publication. Miss Guest +stopped her with a hand on hers, and a "_Dear_ Monny, please don't let +us think of it any more, if Antoun Effendi disapproves. Maybe it was a +silly idea, and we've plenty of amusing things to do every minute." + +Monny was apparently contented to let the idea slip, and Brigit had +thought that, in the excitement of getting ready for the ball, she and +Rachel had really forgotten it. Then, before writing me, she had +overheard Rachel say to her friend, "It's for twelve o'clock sharp." +And Monny had answered, "Won't it be _great!_ Does Bedr think----" But +she had stopped short at sight of Brigit. + +Even this did not suggest to Biddy a visit to a "hasheesh den," for +various other plans had been broached and discouraged by "Antoun." She +did not feel that, as she was not supposed to know his real status, she +could go "blabbing" to him; and fearing that mischief was on foot, she +had wished for me. When I didn't arrive, she soothed herself by +reflecting that, after all, she need only keep a sharp watch over Monny +when midnight drew near. None of the party intended to dance, and so it +would be easy, Brigit thought, to "have an eye upon the girls." + +Monny had bought Oriental costumes for herself and Rachel. They were +rather conspicuous, luckily for Biddy's plan, for among the many +gorgeous dresses in the Casino she had no difficulty in tracking those +two. Until half past eleven, she told herself, she need not be on the +alert every instant; but therein had lain her mistake. Sir Marcus Lark +had appeared, dressed (more or less) as a Roman officer of the +Occupation days, he having heard Mrs. East remark that, "whatever +_anybody_ said, it was her favourite period." The lady, of course, had +not missed such an opportunity to appear as Cleopatra. She had brought +a costume with her from New York; and while Biddy "lost herself" in +watching the effect of this magnificence on Sir Marcus, the girls +vanished. + +Without alarming Mrs. East, Brigit had begun to search. She asked +everybody she knew in the ballroom if the girls had gone out, and +inquired in the cloakroom; but the two had been seen by nobody. It was +as if they had melted into air; and Brigit began to suspect that they +must have covered up their brilliant dresses with dominoes smuggled +into the Casino. Willis Bailey was at the ball, but he had developed a +flirtation with Miss Guest, and Biddy felt that he was not to be +trusted as a confidant. Perhaps, too, he had helped the girls to +disappear. It seemed cruel to frighten Mrs. East, when the scheme, +whatever it was, might be no more than an innocent freak; so Biddy said +nothing to Queen Cleopatra or her Roman attendant. She slipped across +the garden to the hotel, and sent an Arab messenger off in a taxi with +a note to the address "Antoun" had told her would find him. In less +than an hour he arrived, and when he had listened to her account of +what had happened, he said after a minute's reflection that the ladies +had almost surely gone with Bedr to some hasheesh den, or a place +masquerading as such. "Antoun" consoled Biddy as well as he could, by +saying that no harm would come to Miss Gilder or Miss Guest. Bedr would +know too well on which side his bread was buttered to take his clients +where insult or danger could reach them. Off "Antoun" went to look for +the missing ones though, and assured Biddy that she should have news as +soon as possible. + +It was not till three o'clock that she had begun to be very anxious, +and had disturbed the harmony of Sir Marcus Lark's duet with Mrs. East. +Even then she would not have spoken had she not feared that the ball +would break up, and there would be no man to appeal to! + +Sir Marcus had been inclined to smile at the notion of danger; but he, +like Anthony Fenton, was ignorant of any private qualms which troubled +Brigit O'Brien. She could not tell him who she was, and that she +considered herself far from being a "mascot" to her fellow-travellers. +If she had told, and added that she feared enemies who might for +certain reasons make a mistake in Monny's identity, he would have +laughed his hearty laugh, and said that such melodramatic things didn't +happen, even in Egypt. + +"But _you_ know," Biddy appealed to me, "that melodramatic things +_have_ happened to me and those near me. I'm not even _sure_ that poor +Richard's death was natural, though I watched over him like a hawk in +those dreadful days when he was fearing every shadow, and we were +flitting from pillar to post, with Esme. Through Richard two men were +electrocuted. He used to get threatening letters forwarded from place +to place, always signed with the same initials, and he wouldn't tell me +what they meant. It was because of them that he hid Esme in a +convent-school before he died; for she was threatened as well as he. I, +too, for the matter of that! Not that the child or I had done the +organization any harm; but Esme is of his blood, and they may have +thought I had more of their secrets than I really have. I've not used +the name of O'Brien for years now, and I've moved about so much that +sometimes I have felt I must be safe. Still, I ought perhaps not to +have gone to visit Esme, though she wrote and begged me to, for special +reasons I needn't bother you with: a curious little love romance which +I fear must end badly. I didn't think of danger to Monny; but you see, +as I've told you, the convent isn't far from Monaco. I got off the +_Laconia_ there, to visit Esme, and when I came on board again, Monny +and Mrs. East and Rachel came with me. They'd been in Italy and France, +and had picked up Miss Guest, who was only too enchanted to batten on +Monny's kindness and dollars. It was I who had engaged their +staterooms, on a cable from Monny, long before. And if there were a spy +anywhere, he might have the idea that I wanted to smuggle Esme out of +her convent by a trick, and--" + +"But almost every one must know Miss Gilder's face from her photographs +in newspapers," I broke in, on a stifled sob of Biddy's. "She couldn't +be mistaken for another girl, as an unimportant young person might." + +"I'm not sure. Those photographs were snapshots, and very bad, as you +must know if you've ever seen any. Monny never gave a portrait of +herself to a newspaper, and it's years since they got hold of a good +one. Besides, if she weren't mistaken for Esme O'Brien, that wretched +Bedr might have made up a plot to have her kidnapped for ransom. It was +the thing Monny's father was always afraid of--absurdly afraid of, I +_used_ to think." + +"I think so still," I said. "Such things don't happen--anywhere, to a +grown-up girl." + +"What about Raisuli in Tangier?" Biddy challenged me. "He used to +kidnap people whenever he liked. And so do lots of brigands." + +"We haven't to do with brigands." + +"Oh, what's in a name? And I wouldn't put _anything_ past that horrid +Bedr." + +"As Anthony said to you, he knows which side his bread's buttered." + +"But if he hopes some one will give him more butter for being wicked +than he can get from us for being good?" + +"Let's not think of far-fetched contingencies, dear," said I. "Now +you've told me all, I will try to do something--" + +"May I come in?" boomed a big voice at the door. "I knocked and nobody +answered, so I thought the room would be empty--" + +Biddy dropped my hand like a hot potato. She had jumped up so quickly +from our sofa that Sir Marcus Lark's observant eyes could hardly have +seen us sitting there together. + +"Of course, come in," she said. "Have you anything to tell? But I'll +call Mrs. East. She won't like you to begin without her." + +Biddy darted off to an adjoining room, leaving me alone with my +employer. + +"What do you think of this affair?" I wanted to know. "Well," said he, +"I can only judge other men by myself. If I had such a chance to appear +a hero in the eyes of a pretty woman as Fenton has, I'm afraid I'd be +tempted to take advantage of it, even if I had to play some trick to +make myself indispensable. Now you see in a nutshell what I think. +Captain Fenton will certainly rescue those young ladies from a trap if +he has to make the trap himself." + +I was disgusted, and shrugged my shoulders. "You have a poor opinion of +Fenton," I said. + +"On the contrary, I think very highly of his intelligence. I'm not +worrying about any one of the three, though don't mention it to Mrs. +East or Mrs. Jones that I said so. I've come to tell them that my men +have searched Cairo and found nothing. Not the police, you know; I +haven't applied to the police after all. I thought Fenton would be +furious. And anyhow it might make talk. But I've paid the best +dragomans in town to look sharp; and they know as much about this old +place as the police do, if not more. By the way, Lord Ernest, did +Corkran say anything to you about an intention to throw over his job on +the _Candace_?" + +"No. He said he was going to call on you, that's all." + +"He did call. I was out--on this business, as it happens. He waited, +and I found him, making himself at home in my sitting-room--which I use +as a kind of office. I wish I knew how many of my letters and papers +he'd had time to read." + +"Surely he wouldn't--" + +"I shouldn't say 'surely' was the word. I'd gone out in a hurry and +left things scattered about--which isn't my habit. When I came back, it +struck me that my desk looked a bit tempting for a man with a retired +conscience. I was going to keep him on the _Candace_, rather than fuss, +because it wasn't so much his fault as mine that he was the wrong man +in the place. He couldn't do any harm in Jerusalem, it seemed. Let him +wail in the Jews' Wailing Place, if he'd any complaints, said I to +myself. I thought he was too keen on money to resign because his silly +pride was hurt. But to my surprise, he informed me that he'd come to +'hand in his papers,' as he called it. So much the worse for his pocket +and the better for mine! Only it struck me as d--d queer, considering +Corkran's character. I wanted to ask if he'd spit out any venom to +you." + +"Not a drop," said I. But I, too, thought it queer, considering +Corkran's character, and the fact that having resigned of his own free +will, he could hardly expect Lark to pay his way home. It even occurred +to me to wonder if the resignation were not a sudden thought of the +Colonel's. He had spoken several times of going on to Palestine, and +had mentioned the trip that morning. Had Sir Marcus said something +inadvertently, which had so piqued Corkran that he threw over his +appointment on the impulse? Or had he perhaps been dishonourable enough +to glance at a letter, in which Lark referred to him in terms +uncomplimentary? + +As I asked myself these questions, Mrs. East came in with Brigit, and +Sir Marcus forgot me. His face said "What a woman!" And anxiety was +becoming to Cleopatra. It gave to her that thrilling look which only +beautiful Jewesses or women of Latin race ever wear: a look of all the +tragedy and mystery of womanhood since Eve. "What news of _them_?" she +asked Sir Marcus, when she had given a ringed hand and an almond-eyed +glance to me. + +"No news exactly," said the big man, "but I feel sure your niece and +her friend are safe--" + +"My niece and her friend!" exclaimed Cleopatra, ungratefully frowning. +"Why do you say nothing of 'Antoun?' Does nobody care what becomes of +him?" + +As she spoke, there was a knock at the door. One of the Arab servants +of the hotel announced that a man had a letter for Mrs. Jones. + +"Mrs. Jones?" cried Biddy. "I am Mrs. Jones. Where's the letter?" + +"That man not give it to us. He say he see you or not give it at all." + +"Well, why didn't you send him up?" + +"Arab mans not let in hotel, if peoples don't ask for them." + +"An Arab! Not--not--is he a stranger?" + +"Yes, Missis. Very low man. Never comed before." + +"Bring him here--quick!" + +Five minutes passed. We tried to talk, but could think of nothing to +say. Then the servant returned, ushering in a dwarfish Arab in a dirty +white turban, and the shabby black galabeah worn only by the poor who +cannot afford good materials and the bright colours loved by Egyptians. + +"From Antoun Effendi?" asked Biddy, in excitement, as he held out a +piece of folded paper, not in an envelope. + +The man shook his head. "He spik no English," explained the servant who +waited. + +"_You_ talk to him," Biddy appealed to me, while Cleopatra told the +hotel footman that he might go. But I had no time to question the +messenger. Biddy cried out as she unfolded the paper. "Why, Duffer, +inside it's addressed to you! It says: + +"'For Lord Ernest Borrow. To be opened by Mrs. Jones in his absence.'" + +Within the outer wrapping was a second folded paper, of the same kind. +They looked like sheets torn from a notebook. And I saw that the +address, scrawled in pencil, was in Anthony's handwriting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOUSE OF THE CROCODILE + + +The letter had evidently been dashed off in a great hurry. It was short +and written in French, the language in which "Antoun" chose to talk +with foreigners. + +Give the bearer two hundred piastres and let him go. Don't try to make +him speak. I have promised this. Then quick to Jarvis Pasha and get him +to raid the House of the Crocodile. Question of hasheesh. We must be +smuggled out when arrests are made--also Bedr, to save scandal. + +Not a word as to whether all were safe, or in danger! But I realized +that, for some reason, each instant had been of value. And each instant +was of value now. + +Anthony was one who knew precisely what he wanted and why he wanted it. +I obeyed his instructions implicitly. Two hundred piastres went from my +pocket into the hand of the withered Arab, and he was allowed to take +his departure despite a burst of protest from my companions, who +naturally wished the man to be catechised. Once the door had shut +behind the bent blue back, I handed round the letter, which had to be +translated for Sir Marcus, who professed contempt for "foreign +gibberish." + +Jarvis Pasha is at the head of the police, has been for many years, and +is the most interesting man in Egypt after the well-beloved "K." +Leaving Sir Marcus to go on with his task of consoling Mrs. East, I +dashed off in my waiting taxi with the Nubian of the silver earrings. +We drove to the Governorat, a big house in a square near what was once +known as the Guarded City, the very heart and birthspot of Cairo: +Masrel Kahira, the Martial, founded under the planet Mars. + +I scribbled a line to Jarvis Pasha, and sent it to him in an envelope +with my card. This combination opened doors for me; and three minutes +later I was shaking hands with a tall, thin, white moustached, +hawk-featured Englishman who looked all muscle and bones and brain. Jarvis +Pasha being in the secret of "Antoun's" identity and business in Cairo, +simplified the explanation, and did away with the necessity for a +preface. All I had to tell was the brief story of the girls' +disappearance with Bedr el Gemaly, and Fenton's following them into +space; then, how word had come after fourteen hours. + +"The House of the Crocodile," Jarvis Pasha said, when he had taken and +read the letter. "H'm! Do you know anything about that house?" + +"I know the old stories connected with it," I answered. "If it's +reputation to-day is as sinister as ever----." + +"Not at all. Figuratively speaking it has been whitewashed. It's become +a show place--_a monument historique_. This is interesting information +which Fenton sends, but if it came from any one else, I should say he +had dreamed it. He may be giving us the chance of an important _coup_. +Wait a few minutes, and I'll have this thing attended to, Lord Ernest. +But you look upset. Is it that you haven't had lunch, or are you +worrying about the ladies?" "Both," I answered with a sickly grin. "Not +that I mind about lunch. I couldn't have eaten if I'd had the time." + +"You haven't as much belief as I have, in your friend," remarked Jarvis +Pasha, "if you think he'd let them come to harm." "They're all in the +same box, apparently," I excused my lack of faith. + +"Trust Fenton!" said the Head of the Police. "He was sharp enough to +find the needles in the haystack, and he's smart enough and strong +enough to take care of them when they're found." + +On this, Jarvis Pasha went out and left me to my reflections, which +rushed to the House of the Crocodile. Every one who has read or heard +stories of native Cairo, knows the House of the Crocodile, in the +Street of the Sisters, and how, in the later days of Mohammed Ali, +people scarcely dared to name it aloud. The "Tiger" Defterdar Ahmed +built it, for that beautiful Tigress, Princess Zohra, favourite +daughter of Mohammed Ali, who married her off to the fierce soldier +when she became too troublesome at home. Zohra had loved a young Irish +officer who was murdered for her sake, and had no true affection to +give Ahmed or any other. She hated all men because of the murderer, her +own nephew, and vowed that since her love had cost the life of the one +who had her heart, others who dared to love her must pay the same +price. When Ahmed died suddenly, soon after the wedding, those who had +heard of Zohra's vow (and there were many in the harems) whispered +"poison." Never again did the Princess drive out to see the women she +knew; and those who had been her friends were sent away from the door +of the dead Ahmed's palace, over which he had suspended for "luck," a +huge crocodile killed in the far south. But Zohra was beautiful, with +strange eyes which drew love whether she asked for it or not; and +sometimes a small lattice would open in a bay of one of those windows +of wooden lace whose carving was known as mushrbiyeh work because +shirib, or sherbet, used to be placed there to cool. Out of the lattice +would look a wonderful face, as thinly veiled as the moon by a mist, +and then it would vanish so quickly that a man who saw, half believed +that he had dreamed. But the eyes of the dream seemed to call, and +could not be forgotten, any more than the song of a siren can cease to +echo in ears which once have heard. + +After the beginning of Zohra's widowhood, the noblest and handsomest +youths of Cairo began mysteriously to disappear. They would be well and +happy one day, and the next they would be gone from the places that +knew them. By and by their bodies would be found in a canal; always the +same canal, near the water gate of the House of the Crocodile. Then the +vow of the Princess was remembered: but there was no English rule in +those days, and the police shut their ears and eyes where a daughter of +Mohammed Ali was concerned. Mothers and sisters of handsome young men +shuddered and begged those they loved never to pass through the dark +Street of the Sisters (Sharia el Benat) where the crocodile grinned +over the door, and the vision of a face looked down from a latticed +window. The women thought of the water gate at the back of the house; +the little children, who had heard secret words spoken, thought of the +crocodile, and ran crying past the house; but the handsome young men +thought only of the face, and each one said to himself, "She will not +make _me_ pay the price." Still, as years went on, bodies were seen in +the water from time to time, with a tiny purple spot over the heart to +show the curious that death had not come from drowning. And some, who +looked for lost ones, could not reclaim them from the canal, for bodies +were not always found. As time passed, it seemed to people who hurried +by the house in the narrow street, that the crocodile grew larger and +larger. It was said that it had been fed on the children of men Tiger +Ahmed had murdered in Sennaar. + +None dared to say what they believed of Princess Zohra, but when, after +a long imprisonment by her nephew Abbas, in the House of the Crocodile, +she escaped to Constantinople, nobody would live where she had lived, +and the palace fell almost into ruin. + +This was the story of the house where Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest and +Anthony Fenton were now. I had heard it talked about by our Arab +servants when I was a child, and had never forgotten, though scarcely +since then had I thought of the tale, until the remembered name and the +horrors attached to it jumped into my mind on reading Anthony's letter. +What had happened in the House of the Crocodile since Zohra's day, I +did not know; but because of the old story it seemed more sinister that +my friends should appeal for help from that place than from any other +in Cairo. + +I was not left long alone. Five minutes after Jarvis Pasha went out of +the room to "arrange things" according to Fenton's request, he sent me +a man with whiskey and soda, and biscuits. I drank gladly, and ate +rather than seem ungrateful. But there was a lump in my throat which +would stick there, I knew, until those three were away from the House +of the Crocodile. I was still crumbling biscuits when Jarvis Pasha came +briskly back. + +"Well," he asked, "are you braced up now? If you'd like to be in this +business, you can. I'm sending a white superintendent with my police to +raid the house, on the strength of Fenton's letter to you, though until +now the place hasn't been suspected. As I said, it's been a 'show' +house, for some years--ground floor and first story in repair, just as +in Zohra's day--upper floors ruinous, and the public not admitted +there. If anything queer's going on, it must be in the forbidden part: +and the caretaker is mixed up in the show. A pity you felt bound to let +Fenton's messenger off! You can go with my superintendent, Allen, and +reach your friends as soon as my men do. Allen has instructions to let +Fenton and the ladies, if they're found there, slip away, and it's best +for you to be on the spot to save mistakes in identification. Also I've +ordered a closed arabeah to wait for you, as near as possible--my men +will show you where. You'll know it for certain by a red camellia on +the Arab driver's European coat. And by the way, take this Browning, in +case of an attack; which I don't anticipate." + +As Jarvis Pasha spoke, he opened the door, and summoned in a brown +young Britisher wearing the tarboosh which denotes "Gyppy" officialdom. +Evidently Allen was prepared for me as I for him, and we started off +together on foot, for it seemed that our destination was not far away. +We walked swiftly through the crowded Mousky (once the fashionable part +of Cairo, before the tide flowed to the modern Isma'iliya quarter), and +after a few intricate turnings plunged into a still, twilight region. +The streets through which we passed were so narrow, and the old houses +so far overhung the path that the strip of sky at the top of the dark +canyon was a mere line of inlaid blue enamel flecked with gold. The +splendid mushrbiyeh windows thrust out toward each other big and little +bays, across the ten or twelve feet of distance which parted them, as +if to whisper secrets; yet the delicate wooden carvings skilfully hid +all that they wished to hide, and only suggested their secrets. + +"Now we'll soon be coming to the House of the Crocodile," said Allen. +"By Jove, it's a joke on us, and a smart one, if it's been turned into +a hasheesh den, under our noses. But it must be something new, or we +should have got onto it. The Chief thinks already he can guess who's at +the bottom of the business and who has put the money up: a certain Bey, +in whose service the caretaker was--a rich old Johnny, very old +fashioned, who lives not far off in a beautiful house of the best +Cairene period. He's keen on antiquities, and has been of service to +the government in several ways, though he's a reformed smuggler; and +his only son, dead now, was a hopeless hashash; that's what they call +slaves of the hasheesh habit. I suppose you've read all about the +'Hashashseyn' of the Crusaders' days, whom we speak of as Assassins? +Well, ever since then the Hashasheyn have had a bad reputation; but +this old man I speak of has been pitied for his son's failings, which +he pretends to think a 'judgment for his own past, repented sins.' Now, +Lord Ernest, saunter, please, as if you were a tourist in my charge, +admiring the old doorways." + +Two native workmen appeared in front of us, with pickaxes on their +shoulders. Stopping, they threw down their tools. One produced a cord +which he stretched across the street from house to house; and in the +middle he hung a small red flag. Then the pair began to pick in a +leisurely way at the surface of the road, and before we reached the +barrier, an Arab policeman stationed himself by the cord. Glancing +ahead, I saw that the farther end of the narrow lane was blocked in the +same manner. + +"This is one trick we have of doing our work quietly," said Allen. "It +always answers pretty well." + +I said nothing, but used my eyes. Coming from nowhere apparently, there +were twenty men in the street. A few had crowbars in their hands. +Others, native policemen, carried the canes with which they control the +movements of the people. From the shaded doorway of a large house a +native sergeant of police stepped out as we approached, and saluted +Allen. Over the closed door, a large, dryly smiling, ancient crocodile +hung. + +"Have our men come and taken their places?" asked my companion in +Arabic. + +"Yes, Effendi," the sergeant answered. "All has been done according to +order. The back entrance which was the water gate before the old canal +was filled up, is surrounded, and the adjoining houses with which some +communication may have been established are watched. Not a rat could +have crawled out since we came, nor could one have gone in. To-day is +the feast of a saint, and these people have their excuse not to open +the house to visitors, for so it is with other show places. Look, it is +written up, that until to-morrow there is no admission." As the man +pointed to a card hanging from a hook, he and Allen smiled at the +cleverness of this pretext for closing the door. In English, French, +and Arabic, the reason was announced in neat print. Probably this was +not the first time the same excuse had been used in the same way. + +"They must have taken alarm at something, and thought they were being +watched," Allen said to me. "That's why they've sported their oak. I +expect we shall make a haul, as--for everybody's sake concerned--they +wouldn't dare let their clients out, to fall into a trap. Yes, that's +why! Or else--" + +He stopped, and I did not ask him to go on, for I knew that to ask +would be useless. Yet I guessed what he had meant to say, and why he +had stopped. He didn't wish to alarm me, but it was in his mind that +the house had teen closed because of something planned to happen +inside. And that something might be connected with my friends. We +should soon know! + +My first thought was that we were to get through the door, by breaking +it in, or by forcing those on the other side to open for us. In an +instant, however, I realized that my idea was absurd. It would take an +hour to batter down that thick slab of old cedarwood, and Allen had +said that he wanted to do things quietly. No, the brown sergeant was +not here to open the door, but to see that it did not open unless for +our benefit. + +Two of Allen's men were unfolding a curious ladder like a lattice, +which they made secure with screws when they had stretched it to full +length. Then, up it went to one of the beautiful mushrbiyeh windows +which, on the level of the story above the ground floor, bayed +graciously, overhanging the street. One man standing below held the +ladder firmly in place, while another, small and lithe as a monkey and +enjoying the task as a monkey might, ran up to the top that leaned +against the window. Evidently he was a skilled worker, for before I +knew what he would be at, he had with some small, sharp instrument, +prized out without breaking it, one of the sections of carved lattice. +This he tossed lightly down to a man who caught it, and as he and four +others after him slipped through the opening, the sergeant knocked on +the closed door, under the swinging form of the crocodile. Nobody +answered. But three minutes passed, and then suddenly there was the +sound of a falling bar, and a very old, very dark man, with a white +turban and a white beard, peeped out. + +"Thieves!" he cried in Arabic. "Thieves break in at the windows!" + +He was making the best of a bad business, I guessed, and hoped somehow +to justify himself to the police. But though he was gray with fright, +he forgot to look surprised. + +My Arabic was not equal to the strain of catching all the gabble that +followed: the old man protesting that it was right to close the house +to-day; that if it were the police and not thieves who broke in, it was +unjust, it was cruel, and his son Mansoor, the caretaker, would appeal +to all the Powers. Before he had come to the end of his first breath, +he was hushed and handcuffed, and hustled away; and another man sprang +forward from behind the angle of a screen-wall inside the entrance. He +was young, and looked strong and fierce as an angry giant, but at sight +of Allen and the rest of us, he stopped as if we had shot him. Perhaps +he had not expected so many. In any case, he saw that there was nothing +he could hope to gain by violence or bluster. All he could do was to +protest as his father had done, that this visit was a violation of his +right to close the house on a holiday. + +"Don't be a fool, Mansoor," said Allen, who evidently knew him. "You +understand very well that isn't why we are here. You've jot a hasheesh +den upstairs, above the public show rooms. A nice trick you thought +you'd played us, but you see you didn't bring it off." + +By this time we were inside the house, having thrust the caretaker in +again, and passing the three tortuous screen walls of the entrance, +into a courtyard. Several young Arabs dressed as servants stood there, +large-eyed, and stricken at sight of their giant master held by four +policemen. But there was not a sign of our men who had crawled through +the window, and I was impatient to go where they had gone. + +There was no sound of scuffling, no sound at all, except the crying of +some startled doves, and Mansoor's voice, swearing by the Prophet's +sacred beard that if anything were wrong he was not the one to blame. +There were those above him who must be obeyed or he and all that were +his would be put out of life; but I cared too little for him, or what +might become of him and his, to listen much. I looked up and saw at the +left of the courtyard, with its several closed doors, a short flight of +steps with a mounting-block, and a doorway leading to a winding +staircase. Round the court went a gallery, supported with old marble +pillars, and underneath on one side was a large recess, the takhtabosh, +raised slightly above the level of the courtyard, and having a row of +wooden benches round its three walls. Here the caretaker and his male +relatives and friends had evidently been smoking their nargilehs and +drinking coffee; our arrival had disturbed them in the midst. + +Suddenly, into the frightened mourning of the doves, broke a sharp +sound of cracking wood. "Come along!" cried Allen. "They'll be past the +barrier in a minute!" And leaving Mansoor and the others to be dealt +with by subordinates, he led the way up the steep stairs, at a run. + +We did not stop at the first story, the "show" part of the House of the +Crocodile; but catching a glimpse of a latticed balcony off the +landing, all lovely mushrbiyeh work, and a great room of Persian tiled +walls and coloured marble floor, beyond, we dashed up another flight of +stairs to the story above. These stairs were of common wood, and +somewhat out of repair. At the top was a door of carved cedarwood like +those below, but rough in execution, faded, and with here and there a +starpoint or triangle of the pattern missing, leaving a hole in the +thick wood. On this door was nailed a large card with the notice in +English, French, and Arabic, "Forbidden to the Public." + +"What a grand idea to install a hasheesh den here!" I could not help +thinking as I followed at Allen's heels to the head of the stairs, +where two of his men worked with crowbars to prize open that +theatrically dilapidated door. Behind the pair who worked were the +others who had entered by the window below; and hardly had we taken our +places in the strange _queue_, when with a loud groan the door gave +way. The couple in front almost fell into a dark passage on the other +side, and my heart leaped, for I half expected to see them driven back +upon us by an attack with knives or pistols. But the dim vista seemed +to hold only silence and emptiness as I peered over men's shoulders; +and as we crowded in, Allen pushing ahead to take the lead, nothing +stirred. + +The passage was but a gallery, like that below, but instead of being +open, it was closed in with lattice of mushrbiyeh work, so that, though +those within could look through, it was as secret for those outside as +if it had been enclosed by a solid wall. + +The darkness was patterned with light, like ebony thinly inlaid with +gold, for the afternoon sunlight trickled into the delicate loopholes +of the carvings, and we began to see what Enterprise had made of this +ruinous upper story. The floor had been dilapidated and unsafe; but new +boards had been placed over it, covered with Egyptian-made matting and +rugs to deaden sound and give an appearance of comfort. We walked +quickly along to the end where this closed gallery turned at right +angles, and there found another door, new and rough, evidently but +lately put up. It was not so strong as the old one; and it yielded in a +few minutes to the furious industry of our men with their crowbars. +They lifted the door from its broken hinges, leaning it against a wall; +and as we passed through, an Arab pulled aside a thick curtain which +filled in a doorway. He was evidently a servant, and seeing the police, +showed no sign of surprise, but only of a most humble resignation which +disclaimed responsibility and begged for mercy. + +In silence the man was taken into custody; and Allen and I, with three +of the four policemen, passed into the region behind the portiere. +There, all was dusk, save for the faint light sifting down from a +carved wooden dome in the ceiling, partly curtained; and a dark lantern +flashed out a long revealing ray. The men ran to pull back heavy cloth +hangings which entirely covered the latticed windows, and would allow +lamps to be lit at night without being seen from street or courtyard. +Instantly sunshine pierced the carved interstices, and let us see what +Enterprise had done for his clients. We were in the antechamber of a +long, beautiful room. The old, coloured marble of the durkaah--the +lower level of floor nearest the entrance--had been repaired with new; +the dilapidations of a fountain were almost hidden by pink azaleas in +pots; the liwan, on the next level, had a good rug or two; and the +diwaan, at the farthest and highest end, was furnished with red-covered +mattresses and pillows. The low wall-benches of marble were set here +and there with glass bowls of roses and syringa; and tiny cedarwood +cupboards high in the tiled walls were open to show coffee cups, +tobacco jars, and pipes made of cocoanut shells with long stems of +cane. + +Four men, who had apparently been lying on the mattresses, stood up and +faced us, not fiercely, but with something of the attendant's +resignation. Two were in European clothes, with the inevitable +tarboosh; and two, equally well dressed, were old fashioned and +picturesque in the long, silk gown and turban style which "Antoun" and +other lovers of the ancient ways affected. They were of the "Effendi +class," and might be merchants or professional persons. A turbaned man +with a black beard Allen knew, and greeted in Arabic, "Hussein Effendi! +Who would have thought to see you here!" + +"Why not?" answered the other, with a melancholy smile and shrug of the +shoulders. "There is no harm, really, but only in the eyes of the +English. We are caught, and we cannot complain, for we have had true +delight: and we have known, since the alarm came last night, that we +might have to pay for our pleasure." + +"So you had the alarm last night?" said Allen, looking as if there were +nothing surprising or puzzling in that. + +"Yes, why should we not admit it now? Word came that a watch had been +set outside, both back and front, and none of us dared leave the house. +We consented to be locked in, though there is one in another room who +wished to get out and run the risk. That was not permitted, for the +sake of others; and to prevent him from taking his own way in spite of +prudence, we let ourselves be shut in, with only one attendant who took +through the holes in the door such little food as we needed. We had +begun to hope that it had been a false alarm, or, since no inquiries +seemed to have been made below, that the watchers had gone and would +not come again. We planned as soon as night fell to go to our homes; +but it was not to be. And if any are to blame, it is not those who come +to take pleasures provided for them, but rather they who cheat the +coastguard of the swift-running camels, and bring what is forbidden +into Egypt." + +"The blame will be rightfully apportioned," said Allen. "Meanwhile, I +am sorry to say, Hussein Effendi, that you and those in your company +are subject to the law. I must now leave you, and go farther to see +what others we have to deal with." + + +The four Effendis were politely left in charge of two policemen who +would have been equal to twice their number, and our one remaining man +went on with Allen and me. + +"Your friends, and perhaps two or three who can afford to pay big +prices, will have had their smoke in private rooms," Allen explained. +"We can guess _who_ it was, who wanted to break out! There are probably +no more doors, only curtains, so we shall have no trouble. But don't +forget that, if anything unexpected should happen, you have a pistol. +Of course, you understand that it could be used only in an extreme +case." + +A curtained doorway led out from the diwaan into a small anteroom, and +there, on the floor, sat Bedr el Gemaly, the picture of dejection. Had +I raised my voice in the next room, he would perhaps have ventured in +to see what I could do to help him; for now, at sight of me, he +scrambled up in shamefaced eagerness. + +"Oh, my lordship!" he began to cackle. "Praise be to Allah you are +come! I was persuaded to bring the young ladies here. They would make +me do it. Yes, sir. It is not my fault. They pay me. I have to obey. +Then we get caught, like we was some rats. No fair to punish me. The +ladies all right. No harm come, except a little sick." + +"If no harm has come, that's not due to you, but to a very different +man, as you well know," I said. And as I spoke, the man I had in my +mind appeared before my eyes. "Hullo!" I exclaimed, joyously. + +Anthony's eyes and Allen's met; but I could not tell if they knew each +other, nor could I ask then. It was enough for Allen in any case, +however, that this magnificent Hadji was one of the friends for whom I +searched. He turned to Bedr. "You brought two ladies here, I +understand," he said quickly and sharply. "Then you must have +acquaintance with the place. For good reasons which have nothing to do +with you, I shall not arrest you, but you will have to report at the +Governorat inside the hour, or you will regret it. Do you know the way +out at the back of the house?" + +"I do, gracious one," Bedr responded with businesslike promptness. + +"Then take these gentlemen, and the ladies, whom I do not need to see, +out by that door, and you will all be allowed to go, because my men who +are there have seen Lord Ernest Borrow, and they have my instructions." + +We waited for no more, but followed Anthony, who made a dash through +the further room, and into another. There, on a mattress, crouched two +forlorn figures, veiled as if in haste, and muffled in black satin +_habberahs_ such as Turkish ladies wear in the street. + +"Lord Ernest! Oh, how glad I am!" cried one of these creatures, while +the other, less vital or more miserable, whimpered and gurgled a little +behind her veil. + +"Come along, quick!" I said; and they came. Bedr led the way, thankful +to show himself of use. Anthony followed as if to protect or screen the +girls from sight. I brought up the rear, and so, scuttling through a +rabbit warren of little unfurnished, dilapidated rooms, we found a +narrow side staircase, and tumbled down it, anyhow, in dust and +dimness. Then two more staircases, and we were in a cellar which looked +as if it might once have been used as a prison. Up again, and rattling +at a chained door. Then out, into light and air, into the midst of a +group, which for an instant, closed threateningly round us. But the +sergeant I had seen was among the alert brown men. A glance, a gesture, +and we were allowed to pass, a youth running with us, to show the +promised carriage and the Arab driver with the red camellia. So it was +over, this adventure! + +Yet was it over? + +That remained to be seen. And remained also, to see what it meant, if +indeed there were a meaning underneath the surface. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON + + +"It seems too good to be true that it should end like this," said +Monny. + +She said it on the roof of Mena House, in the kiosk-room made of +mushrbiyeh work, which I had engaged for a little private dinner-party +that night. You see, it was the night of the full moon, the magic night +of the Sphinx-spell, which must not be wasted, no matter how tired you +may be or how many excitements you may have lived through. + +Anthony and I had had our explanations. He had told me that one night +in a cafe, where he was spreading the news of his dream, he had heard +two men talking in low voices about the House of the Crocodile. The +word "hasheesh" had not been mentioned, but Anthony had imbibed a vague +impression of something secret, and had wondered, and been interested. +Then the matter had slipped his mind; but, summoned in the night from +the writing of letters, to advise Mrs. Jones, he had recalled Monny's +wish to visit a hasheesh den. He knew of none, but suspected the +existence of one or two. How to find out in a hurry? he had asked +himself. And with that, the remembrance of those few whispered words in +the cafe had come echoing back to his brain. He acted upon the +suggestion; went to the door of the swinging crocodile, knocked, and +knocked again; had the door opened to him as if in surprise by an +apparently sleepy man. Announced the motive of his coming as if it were +a foregone conclusion that hasheesh could be smoked in that house by +the initiated. His disguise was not suspected. It never was, when he +played the Egyptian; and when asked who had sent him, he had the +inspiration to utter the name of that Bey who had been Mansoor's +master. This gave him entrance. He was taken upstairs, passed through +the door "Forbidden to the Public"; and the first person he saw in the +long room as he entered, was Bedr smoking a gozeh, one of those +cocoanut, cane-stemmed pipes in which hasheesh is mingled with the +Persian tobacco called tumbak. + +Bedr was accused of treachery, and defended himself. The ladies had +insisted. It was his place to obey. He had done no wrong in engaging a +carriage to wait outside the Ghezireh Palace gardens, and bringing his +employers to the best place in Cairo for the hasheesh smoking. The +ladies were safe and happy, in a private room where they had tried +their little experiment, and now they were sleeping. As soon as they +waked and felt like going home, he was ready to take them. It was for +Miss Gilder, not for Bedr, to beg pardon of her friends if they were +frightened. And all the time, it had seemed to Anthony, that the man +was expecting some one to arrive. He watched the doorway half eagerly, +half anxiously; when a servant came or went, he started, and betrayed +emotion which might have been disappointment or relief. But when +Anthony questioned him, he said, "I expect no one, Effendi. It is only +that I shall not be easy till we get the ladies home, now you tell me +their people are alarmed." + +Just then, and before Anthony saw the girls, a servant had come running +in to say that there was an alarm. Something had happened in the +street, and the police were there. Mansoor feared that it was a ruse, +and that the house was being watched, back and front. Where the +forbidden thing is, no precaution can be too great. For their own +sakes, and Mansoor's sake, no one must go out, perhaps not till the +next night; but luckily a saint's day would give peace for the morrow, +and all doors could be shut without causing remark. The news that there +was no escape for many hours to come distressed no one apparently, +except "Antoun." He had gone to the door, and tried to open it, but +found that already it was locked on the other side. Then he knew that +it was useless to struggle, for he was unarmed, the door was thick, and +no one outside could hear if he shouted. He must use his wits; but +first he must make sure that the two girls were safe. He forced, rather +than induced Bedr to show him the room they had engaged--a small one, +closed only with a portiere, and looking over the court, down into the +open-fronted recess where Mansoor's family-life went on, like a watch +dog's in his kennel. + +It was true, as Bedr had said; the girls slept on a cushioned mattress, +wrapped in black habberahs, their faces turned to the wall. As they +could not be taken out, Anthony did not wake them, but let them get, in +peace, their money's worth of dreaming. His next thought was to try and +bribe the Arab attendant to smuggle out a letter; but acceptable as a +bribe would have been, the man explained his helplessness to earn it, +at least for the time being. He could do nothing till one of his +fellow-servants came up from below, to pass the food for the imprisoned +smokers through a hole in the door, made purposely in case of just such +an emergency. Probably no one would appear till morning, for who would +be hungry before then? Even with the morning, it might be Mansoor +himself who would bring the food, and inquire again at the door if all +were well within. But if the noble Hadji wrote the letter, it should be +sent when opportunity arose. One of the servants below stairs, said the +man, was his father, who might during the next day be able to slip out +as if on some errand. Then he would perhaps take a letter, if he could +be sure of good pay, and that he would not be delivered up to the +police. So Anthony had written on a sheet torn from his notebook, and +made an envelope of another sheet. The address of the Ghezireh Palace +had helped the man to believe that no evil would reach his father; and +a "sweetener" in the shape of all Anthony's ready money had done the +rest. But evidently the old man had not succeeded in finding an excuse +for an errand until after the noon hour, and meanwhile time had seemed +long in the House of the Crocodile. When the girls waked, wanting to go +home, they were ill. They found the game not worth the candle--but +Anthony's presence had given them comfort. They were humble, and +remorseful; and Bedr was so conspicuously a worm that Monny consented +to his discharge. "It would take more time than we've got to make him +worth converting," she said to Rachel when the Armenian had carefully +laid all the blame of the expedition upon her shoulders. + +Never were two runaway children more glad to be found and restored to +their anxious relatives than Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest. As for +Bedr, he took his dismissal, with a week's wages, submissively; but the +gravest question concerning him still lacked an answer. Had he merely +been officious and indiscreet in guiding the girls secretly to the +House of the Crocodile, and there procuring hasheesh to buy them +dreams, or had he wanted something to happen, in that house, which had +not happened? A certain amount of browbeating from "Antoun," and +bullying from me, dragged nothing out of him. And perhaps there was +nothing to be dragged. Perhaps it was through oversensitiveness that +Brigit and I dwelt suspiciously upon Bedr's motives, and asked each +other who it was he had expected at the House of the Crocodile. Even +Anthony did not accuse the Armenian of anything worse than slyness and +cowardice, according to him the two worst vices of a man; but he +volunteered to find out what mysterious night-disturbance in the street +had caused the sudden closing of the doors. It was Biddy's thought that +the person Bedr wished to meet might fortunately have been prevented by +this very disturbance from keeping his appointment, and Monny saved a +serious ending to her adventure. It began to seem rather a worry, +travelling with so important a young woman as Miss Gilder: and a vague +dread of the future hung over me, as it hung over Brigit, who loved the +girl. We felt, dimly, as if we had had a "warning," and did not yet +know how to profit by it. The atmosphere was charged with electricity, +as before an earthquake; and we felt that the affair of the hasheesh +den might be but a preface to some chapter yet unwritten. Still, it was +impossible not to forgive Monny her indiscretion. Indeed, she became so +honey-sweet and childlike in her desire to "make up" for what we had +suffered, that the difficulty was not to like her better. + +She besought us to forget the episode. If we only _knew_ how sick she +and Rachel had been, we'd see why they never wanted to think of those +hours again! And when I chanced to mention that to-night would be full +moon--the night of nights when the Sphinx and the Ghizeh Pyramids held +their court--Monny begged to have the bad taste of her naughtiness +taken out of her mouth by a dinner at Mena House. We might dine early, +and plunge into the desert later, when the moon was high. Of course, I +proposed that all should be my guests--all except "Antoun" who, though +recognized as a gentleman of Egypt, was considered by Miss Gilder an +alien, not exactly on "dining terms." He was supposed to go home, "to +his own address." At eight-thirty he was to take a taxi to Mena House, +where he would arrive before nine, in time to help me organize my +expedition. + +I explained to Monny that, though we should dine privately, it would be +my duty to see that the _Candace_ people paid their respects to the +Sphinx, and gazed upon her as she ate moon-honey. If they missed this +sight, or if anything went wrong with their way of seeing it, I should +never be forgiven. But the much chastened Monny graciously "did not +mind." She thought it would be fun to watch the sheep-dog rounding up +his flock. Useless to explain to her the subtle social distinction +between a "Flock" and a "Set" (both with capitals)! To her, the blaze +of the Set's smartness was but the flicker of a penny dip. We could +drive the crowd on ahead, and look at _our_ moon when they were out of +its light. + +So there's the explanation of Monny's presence in the mushrbiyeh kiosk +on the roof of Mena House, on the night following the great adventure, +which would have put most girls to bed with nervous prostration! + +Part of our programme, to be sure, had failed; but it was not a part +which could interfere with my selfish enjoyment. Mrs. East had changed +her mind at the last moment, and had decided not to dine, although I +had invited Sir Marcus on purpose for her. According to Biddy, +Cleopatra had "something up her sleeve," something her excuse of +"seediness" was meant to cover. Maybe it was only a flirtatious wish to +disappoint Sir Marcus--maybe it was something more subtle. But it did +not matter much to anybody except Lark, who was obliged to put up with +Mrs. Jones in place of Mrs. East; for Rachel Guest and the sculptor, +whom we nicknamed "Bill Bailey" were to be paired off: and, urged by +Biddy, I intended to monopolize Monny. + +I suppose there could scarcely be a more ideal room for an intimate +dinner-party on a moonlight night than that kiosk on the flat roof of +Mena House. Through the wide open doors, and the openwork walls like a +canopy of black lace lined with silver, the moonlight filtered, +sketching exquisite designs upon the white floor and bringing out +jewelled flecks of colour on the covering and cushions of the divans. +There was no electricity in this kiosk, and we aided the moonlight only +with red-shaded candles, and ruby domed "fairy lamps," the exact shade +of the crimson ramblers which decorated the table. For the corners by +the open doors, I had ordered pots of Madonna lilies, which gave up +their perfume to the moon, and looked, in the mingling radiance of rose +and silver, like hovering doves. + +"Oh, I could hug and _kiss_ that moon!" sighed Monny, tall and fair in +her white dress as the lilies I had chosen for her. + +I was relieved that the Man in the Moon has now been superseded by a +Gibson Girl; for Monny was beautiful at that moment as a vision met in +the secret garden which lies on the other side of sleep. + +"And the stars," Monny said, as I watched her uplifted face, wondering +just how much I was in love with it, "the little stars high up at the +zenith twinkle like silver bees. Those that sit on the edge of the +horizon are huge and golden, like desert watch-fires. Oh, do you know, +Lord Ernest, if quite a dull, uninteresting man, or--or one that it +would be madness even to _think_ of--proposed to me on such a night, I +should _have_ to say yes. It would seem so prosaic and such a waste, of +moonlight, not to. Wouldn't you feel like that if you were a girl?" + +"I'm sure I should," I replied with extraordinary sympathy. "I _do_ +feel like it, even as a man. I warn you not to propose, or I shall snap +at you." + +She laughed; but I was wondering if I were dull and uninteresting +enough to stand a chance. It seemed as if Providence were actually +_handing_ it to me. But just then Biddy and Sir Marcus came to the +doorway which so becomingly framed Monny's form and mine. Naturally +that put the idea out of my head; and two such opportunities don't come +to a man in a single night. + +Dinner was not ready yet, and we sauntered about on the flat roof, +white as marble in the moonlight. The sky was milk--the desert, honey +--far off Cairo with its crowned citadel, pale opal veined with light, +and faintly streaked with misty greens and purples; the cultivated land +a deep indigo sea. The fantastically built hotel (in its ancient +beginnings the palace of a Pasha) was like a closely huddled group of +chalets, looked down on from its central roof. On the fringe of the +oasis-garden the cafes and curiosity-shops buzzed with life, and +glittered like lighted beehives. Outside the gateway, donkey-boys and +camel-men and drivers of sandcarts chattered. To-night, and on a few +moonlight nights to come they would reap their monthly harvest. They +were all ready to start off anywhere at a moment's notice; but apart +from them and their clamour, reposed a row of camels previously +engaged, free, therefore, to enjoy themselves until after dinner. As we +gazed down as if from a captive balloon, at the line of sitting forms, +they looked immense, like giant, newborn birds, with their huge +egg-shaped bodies and thin necks. Along the arboured road from Cairo, +flashed motor-car after motor-car, their lights winking in and out +between the dark trees, now blazing, now invisible, their occupants all +intent on doing the right thing: dining at Mena House, and seeing the +full moon feed honey to the Sphinx. Some, wishing to save time, or to +dine later in town, or to take a train, for somewhere, later, did not +turn in at the hotel gate, but swept past with siren shrieks, and tore +on, hoping to "rush" the steep hill to the Pyramid platform at top +speed. Only a few of the strongest succeeded, and, with a dash instead +of an ignominious crawl, triumphantly fanned their lights along the +base of that vast monument in which King Cheops vainly sought eternal +privacy. What would he say, we wondered, could he see the crowds of +tourists tearing out to pay him a call, on their way to the Sphinx? +Would he blight them with a curse, or would he remember pearly nights +of old, when his subjects assembled in multitudes for the feast of the +Goddess Neith when the moon was full, and all the white, brightly +painted houses along the Nile reflected their flowerlike illuminations +in the water? Anyhow (as Sir John Biddell would have said), this was +helping to keep his name before the public; and nothing could succeed +in vulgarizing his mountain of gold in its gleaming waves of desert, +under pulsing stars and creamy floods of moonlight. + +Anthony had told me that the great "tip" was to go out while the less +instructed sightseers ate their dinner. Then, the desert was +comparatively empty; and, more important still, instead of having the +moon on her head, and her face in shadow, the Sphinx received its full +blaze in her farseeing eyes. Of this advice I meant to avail myself, +feeling vaguely guilty as I thought of the giver, who was absent from +the feast: Anthony Fenton, one of the finest young soldiers in Egypt, +who could be lionized in drawing-rooms at home if he would "stand for +it"! Anthony who, would he but accept the repentant overtures of that +tyrannical old prince, his maternal grandfather, might inherit a +fortune and a palace at Constantinople! Yet as Ahmed Antoun in his +green turban, he was "taboo" at our little party. + +He was due later, however, and I rather expected to find him waiting +below, when I excused myself to descend to the Set. But I had not left +the roof when a note for Monny was brought up by an ebony person in +livery. I watched her as she read, one side of her face turned to +marble by the moon, the other stained rose by the red-shaded candles. I +thought that the rosy side grew more rosy as she finished the letter. + +"There's a--message for you, Lord Ernest," she said. "Aunt Clara wants +me to tell you that 'Antoun' can't meet you at the hotel, because she +--changed her mind about not coming out, and sent for him. She felt +better, it seems, and got thinking what a pity it would be to miss the +full moon, so she suddenly remembered that 'Antoun' wasn't with us, and +decided to invite him. She writes in a hurry and didn't know where they +would dine, but says anyhow they'll meet us by the Sphinx between nine +and ten." + +"Where '_they'd_' dine!" echoed Sir Marcus, pricked to interest. "Was +she going to let Fe--I mean 'Antoun,' take her out to dinner?" + +"Apparently she was," replied Monny, rather dryly. + +"Why not?" asked Brigit. "He's perfectly splendid. And Mrs. East--not +that she isn't a young woman, of course--is old enough to go about +without a chaperon." + +"If we're to meet them between nine and ten at the Sphinx," said Monny +briskly, "don't you think, Lord Ernest, you'd better hurry and get your +people off, so we can set out ourselves?" + +"I'm going," I assured her. "But I thought we planned to give them a +long start, in hopes that they might be ready to come back by the time +we arrived?" + +"Oh, well," she said, "that will make it very late, won't it, and we +may miss Aunt Clara? Anyhow, lots of other creatures just as bad as +yours will be there, for we can't engage the desert like a private +sitting-room." + +That settled it. I dashed downstairs and sorted out my charges. They +had got themselves up in all kinds of costumes, for this "act." One man +had on a folding opera-hat, which he had thought just the right thing +for Egypt, as it was so easy to pack! Girls in evening dress; men young +and old in helmets and straw hats, ancient maidens, and fat married +ladies, in dust cloaks or ball gowns, climbed or leaped or scrambled +onto camels, with shrieks of joy or moans of horror: or else they +tumbled onto donkeys which bounded away before the riders were well on +their backs. And men, women, and animals were shouting, giggling, +groaning, gabbling, snarling, and squeaking; an extraordinary +procession to pay honour to the Pyramids and the lonely Sphinx. + +We of the roof-party considered ourselves, figuratively speaking, above +camels, far above donkeys, and scornful of motor-cars, in which it was +irreverent to charge up to the Great Pyramid as if to the door of a +cafe. We walked, and Monny still lent herself to me; but she no longer +bubbled over with delight at everything. A subdued mood was upon her, +and her eyes looked sad, even anxious, in the translucent light which +was not so much like earthly moonlight as the beginning of sunrise in +some far, magic dreamland. She had the pathetic air of a spoiled child +who begins suddenly, if only vaguely, to realize that it cannot have +everything it wants in the world. And she merely smiled when I told her +how, to insure the peace of the desert, I had offered a prize of a +large blue scarab as big as a paperweight, for that member of the Set +who did not even say "Oh!" to the Sphinx. "Antoun" had "vetted" the +alleged scarab and pronounced it a modern forgery; but nobody else knew +that, and as a prize it was popular. + +The sky had that clear pale blue of dawn, when day first realizes that, +though born of night, it is no longer night. Casseopeia's Chair and +Orion were being tossed about the burning heavens like golden furniture +out of a house on fire; and one great star-jewel had fallen on the apex +of cruel Khufu's Pyramid. I should have liked to believe it was Sirius, +the "lucky" star sacred to Isis and Hathor; but Monny's schoolgirl +knowledge of astronomy bereft me of that innocent pleasure. No wonder +that the ancient Egyptians, with such jewels in their blue treasure-house, +were famous astrologers and astronomers before the days when +Rameses' daughter found Moses in the bulrushes of Roda Island! + +The stars spoke to us as we walked, soft-footed, through the sand; and +the pure wind of the desert spoke other words of the same language, the +language of the Universe and of Nature. Here and there yellow lights in +a distant camp flashed out like fireflies; far away across the +billowing sands, rocks bleached like bone gave an effect of surf on an +unseen shore; now and then a silent, swift-moving Arab stealing out of +shadow, might have been the White Woman who haunts the Sphinx, hurrying +to a fatal tryst: and the Great Pyramid seemed to float between desert +sand and cloudless sky like the golden palace of Aladdin being +transported through air by the Geni of the Lamp. There never was such +gold as this gold of sand and pyramids, under the moon! We said that it +was like condensed sun rays, so vivid, so bright, that the moon could +not steal its colour. Cloudlike white figures were running up Khufu's +geometric mountain; Arabs expecting money when they should come leaping +down, whole or in pieces. And the khaki uniforms of British soldiers +mounting or descending for their own stolid amusement, made the Pyramid +itself seem to be writhing, so like was the colour of the cloth to that +of the stone. No use being angry because the monument was crawling with +Tommies! The Pyramids were as much theirs as ours. And probably +Napoleon's soldiers spent their moonlit evenings in the same way; a +thought which somehow made the thing seem less intolerable. + +We climbed to the vast platform of the Ghizeh Pyramids, and then +plunged into the billows of the desert, in quest of the Sphinx. Sir +Marcus was entitled to call himself the pioneer, but we needed no one +to show us the way. It was but too clearly indicated by the bands of +pilgrims, going or returning. And among the latter were those whom +Monny callously referred to as "poor Lord Ernest's crowd." Miss +Hassett-Bean and the Biddell girls made us linger, with sand trickling +over the tops of our shoes, while they poured into our ears their +impressions of the Sphinx. Miss H. B. thought that She (with a capital +S) was a combination of Goddess, Prophetess, and Mystery. Enid thought +she was like an Irish washerwoman making a face; and Elaine said she +was the image of their bulldog at home. Monny (after a sandy +introduction) listened to these verbal vandalisms in horrified silence. +I could see that she was exerting herself, for my sake, to be civil to +my charges (who were more interested in her than they had been in the +Sphinx), and that, if she could have done so without hurting their +feelings, she would have struck them dead. But my fears that their +mental suggestions might obsess her were baseless. She did not speak +when the golden billows parted to give us a first vision of the great +Mystery of the Desert. I had led Monny by a roundabout way, and instead +of seeing the Sphinx from the back, we came upon her face to face, as +she gazed with her wonderful, all-knowing eyes, straight into that +world beyond knowledge which lies somewhere east of the moon. Veiled by +the night in silver and blue, with a proud lift of the head, she faced +past and future, which were one for her, and the present, nothing. The +moon gave back for a few hours all her lost loveliness, of which men +had robbed her, seeming miraculously to restore the broken features, +whole and beautiful as they had been in her youth before history began. +It was as if in the moon's rays were silver hands, mending the marred +majesty, giving life to the eyes and to the haunting, secret smile. I +thought of the story of King Harmachis: how he dreamed that the Sphinx +came to him, saying that the sand pressed upon her, and she could not +breathe. Nobody since his day had for long left her buried! + +"What does it mean to you?" I broke the silence to ask. + +"I don't know," Monny said. "All I know is that she's more wonderful +than I expected, and as beautiful as the loveliest marble Venus of +Italy, though a thousand times greater--if one perfect thing can be +greater than another. She's so great that I don't think she can be +meant to be a woman--or even a man. She is like a _soul_ carved in +stone." + +"All in a moment you have guessed the riddle!" I exclaimed, liking and +understanding the girl better than I had liked or understood her yet. +"I believe that's the secret of the Sphinx. The king who had this +stupendous idea, and caused it to be carried out, said to some inspired +sculptor, 'Make for me from the rock of the desert, a portrait, not of +me as I am seen by men, in my mortal part or Khat, for that can be +placed elsewhere; but an image of my real self, my soul or Ka, looking +past the small things of this world into eternity, which lies beyond +this desert and all deserts.' Then the sculptor made the Sphinx, and +gave it such grandeur, such mystery of countenance that instinctively +the souls of people recognized the _soul look_. You have a soul, and it +told you the secret. Only those who have no souls find the Sphinx heavy +or hideous, or utterly beyond their comprehension." + +"Have I a soul?" Monny asked, dreamily. "Men I've known have told me I +haven't. Yet sometimes I've thought I felt it fluttering. And if I have +a soul, I shall find it in Egypt. Oh, I shall! Something--yes, the +Sphinx herself!--tells me that." + +I was tempted to ask "What about a heart?" And then--in a violent +hurry, before anybody came--to mention my own, into which the moon +seemed pouring a little of the honey it had brought for the Sphinx. I +did feel that some one owed a moonlight proposal under the Sphinx's +nose (or the place where its nose had been) to such a girl as Monny. +Her Egyptian experience could never be perfect and complete unless she +were proposed to on the night of the full moon, with the Sphinx's +blessing; and as no better man was here to do it, I could not be +thought conceited if I took the duty upon myself. Besides, Brigit would +so thoroughly approve! + +"Look here, Biddy, I mean Monny," I began hastily, "there's something I +want to tell you, something very important you ought to know, because +matters can't go on much longer as they are--" + +"Is it something about 'Antoun'?" she broke in, with a little gasp, as +I paused for breath and courage. "If it is, maybe I know it already!" + +Extraordinary, the relief I felt! I ought to have suffered a shock of +disappointment, because I couldn't possibly finish a proposal after +such an interruption. But instead, my spirits went up with a bound. +Probably, however, that was because her hint was a whip to my +curiosity. "_What_ do you know about 'Antoun'?" I asked. + +Perhaps I forgot to lower my voice; or perhaps voices carry far across +desert-spaces, as across water. Anyhow the clear tones of Cleopatra +answered like an echo. "Antoun--Antoun! I hear Lord Ernest calling." + +Biddy--dear little matchmaking Biddy--had managed Sir Marcus, Bill +Bailey and Rachel, as a circus rider manages three spirited white +horses at one time. The desert was her ring, and she had reined her +steeds to her will, keeping them out of my way and Monny's at all +costs, no matter whether they saw the Sphinx in back view or noseless +profile. But Mrs. East's principal occupation in life was not to get me +engaged to the Gilded Rose. And either she lost her presence of mind, +or else she was not so much enjoying her moonlight tete-a-tete with +Fenton, that it was worth while to hide from us behind a sand dune. + +The two emerged from a gulf of shadow, Anthony very splendid under the +moon, a true man of the desert. I thought I heard Monny draw in a +little sharp breath as she saw that noble incarnation of Egypt (so he +must have seemed, unless she knew the British reality of him) walking +beside Cleopatra. + +Then up came the others, Sir Marcus impossible to restrain; and we all +talked together as people are expected to talk when they have come +thousands of miles to see these monuments of Egypt. Yes, yes! +Wonderful--incredible! Which do you find more impressive, the Sphinx or +the Pyramids? Isn't it a pity they let the temple between the paws +remain buried? And aren't the Pyramids just like Titanic, golden +beehives? And can't you simply _see_ the swarming builders, like bees +themselves, working for twenty years? + +Thus we jabbered; and others, many others, appeared to dispute the +scene with us, to break the magic of the moonlight, and to puncture the +vast silence of the desert with their cooings and gurglings and +chatterings in German, English, Arabic, and every other language known +since the Tower of Babel. Arab guides lit up the Sphinx with flaring +magnesium, an impertinence that should have made hideous with hate the +insulted features, but instead turned them for a thrilling instant of +suspense into marble. Indeed, none of our petty vulgarities could jar +or even fret the majestic calm of the desert and the stone Mystery +among its billows. The Sphinx gazed above and past us all. She was like +some royal captive surrounded by a rabble mob, yet as undisturbed in +soul as though her puny, hooting tormentors had no existence. It was +not so much that she scorned us, as that she did not know we were +there. + +When we sorted ourselves out, to escape Sir Marcus, Cleopatra deigned +to make use of me, having first observed (with burning interest) that +Monny and Rachel were with Bailey, and that "Antoun" was pointing +things out to Brigit O'Brien, as it is Man's metier (in pictures and +advertisements) to point things out to Woman. + +"It's been a wonderful evening," Mrs. East said. "It has made up for +everything I suffered last night. We brought dinner out into the +desert, in that smallest tea-basket, you know, and ate it together, he +and I--Antony and I. There! I may as well confess that's what I call +him to myself, for I've guessed your secret--and his. But don't be +afraid. I won't tell a soul. It's too romantic and fascinating for +words--or to put into words. He let me have my fortune told by an Arab +sand diviner, who came while we were at dinner. I can't repeat to you +what the fortune-teller said. But I feel as if I were living in a book. +Oh, if only I were writing it myself and could make everything happen +just as I want it to happen! Do you know one thing I would put into the +story?" + +"No, I can't think," I said, rather anxiously. + +"I would have _you_ propose to Monny." + +"Oh--by Jove, Mrs. East!" + +"Why--don't you admire her?" + +"But of course. She's irresistible. Only she's so horribly rich. And +besides, she doesn't think of me in that way." + +"You can't be sure. Now, Lord Ernest, I'm going to whisper you a +secret. I believe--I really do--that Monny would be _glad_ if you'd +propose. If I were in your place, if I _liked_ her, I would do so as +soon as possible. It might save her from humiliation--from a great +trouble." + +Being a duffer, I could only say once again, "By Jove!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AN UNDERGROUND PROPOSAL + + +I didn't sleep much that night, for thinking of Monny; and when I did +sleep, I dreamed of her; tangled dreams, in which she was Monny Gilder +with Brigit O'Brien's eyes. Could it be possible that she liked me? +Mrs. East ought to know. I made up my mind that to-morrow I would begin +by feeling my way, but when to-morrow came I had no time to feel +anything which concerned my private affairs. + +It seemed, or so I was told "for my own good" by Miss Hassett-Bean, +that the Candace people thought it "snobby" for me to have indulged in +a private dinner-party, and to have hustled them off in a drove to the +Sphinx while I went leisurely with my smart friends. They knew all +about the feast on the roof, and were of opinion that they ought to +have been there. Did I consider my American heiress better than they, +better even than the family of an ex-Lord Mayor? If I wished to make up +lost ground, I must devote myself to duty, and be nicer than ever to +everybody. + +This was one of the moments when I was tempted to throw over my job; +but I remembered the reward, and set myself once more to the earning of +it. For the next few days I scarcely saw Monny or Brigit, or even heard +what was happening to them--for they had "done" the principal sights of +Cairo, and I (at the head of the _Candace_ crowd) was "doing" them. As +if in a game of "Follow my Leader," I led the band from mosque to +mosque; not indeed visiting the whole two hundred and sixty-four, but +calling on the best ones. To begin with, I collected the Set on the +height of the Citadel, which commands all Cairo, the platform of the +Pyramids (not only the Ghizeh Pyramids but the sixty odd others, which +newcomers don't talk about): the tawny Mokattam Hills, and the silver-blue +serpent of the Nile. From this vantage place I pointed out the +things we had to see in the city spread out below us, so that on the +vaguest minds the picture might be painted in its entirety, before they +began to absorb details on that mosaic map which was Cairo. The tombs +of the Mamelukes, strangely shaped monuments, vague and white as +squatting ghosts; the graves of the Caliphs; the historic gates of +el-Kahira; and the many ancient mosques, whose minarets soared against the +blue like tall-stemmed flowers in a palace garden. + +Mentally fortified by this bird's-eye view from the Citadel (of course, +I had to trot them up again for the sunset), my charges let themselves +be led from mosque to mosque, from tomb to tomb. Some, possessed with a +demoniac desire to get their money's worth of Egypt, were unable to +enjoy any sight, in their nervous dread of missing some other +spectacle, which people at home might ask them about. These strained +their wearied intelligences to see more than they possibly could at any +one moment, unless they had eyes all round their heads; and others, of +an even more irritating type, never lifted the few eyes they had from +the pages of guide-books. I liked better those who, like Monny, frankly +said that they didn't wish to have their minds tidied up, and be told a +string of things about Egypt. They just wanted to _feel_ the things, +and let them slowly soak in. And the nice, lazy, Southern Americans, +who said they were "tomb shy," and loitered about, betting from one to +six scarabs on the speed of fleas, or donkeys, while I whipped forth +for their tired companions a dull drove of facts fattened for their +benefit. + +Mosques and churches and tombs had to be visited, but did not appeal to +all tastes. The Bazaars did. So did the Zoo, more fascinating than any +other zoo, because each animal has its trick, or pet, or plaything. + +As an excuse to see Monny and the rest of my friends, I got up a +moonlight digging expedition at Fustat, those great mounds of rubbish +and buried treasure near Egyptian Babylon where a city was burnt lest +it should fall into the hands of the Crusaders. Monny and her party +were invited to join us, and accepted the invitation, piloted by +"Antoun." And concerning this entertainment, I had an idea. Those who +choose to dig among these desert-like sandhills, between the Coptic +churches of Babylon and the tombs of the Mamelukes, may chance on +something of value, especially after a windstorm or a landslip: bits of +Persian pottery, fragments of iridescent glass, broken bracelets of +enamel, opaline beads, or tiny gods and goddesses. Why should I not +(thought I) apportion off to each member of the band his or her own +digging patch? This would save squabbling, and would provide an +opportunity for me to propose in a unique way to Monny. + +Regarding the idea as an inspiration, I carried it out scientifically. +Helped by Anthony, after the sun had set and the mounds were deserted, +I staked out the most promising "claims," and marked each space with +the name of the "miner" for whom I intended it. In Monny's patch, near +the surface where she could not possibly miss it, I buried a letter +wrapped round a cow-eared head of Hathor which I had bought at the +Egyptian Museum-shop. Now, in justice to myself, I must tell you that +this letter was no common letter, such as any Tom, Dick, or Harry may +write to the Mary Jane Smith of the moment. It was a missive which cost +me midnight electricity and brain-strain; for not only must I appeal to +my lady, I must also suit an environment. + +Monny had taken up the study of hieroglyphics, in order to appreciate +intelligently the tombs and temples of the Nile. She had bought books, +and was learning with the energy of a stenographer, to write and read. +She wrote out exercises, and submitted them for correction to "Antoun" +who, as an Egyptian, was to be considered an authority. "Of course," +she explained to me, "one comes here thinking that all Egyptians +nowadays, even Copts, are Arabs. But _he_ says that Egyptians are as +Egyptian as they ever were, because Arab invasion has left little more +trace in their blood than the Romans left in the blood of the English. +It interests me _much_ more to feel when I'm in Egypt that I'm among +real Egyptians." + +With this in my mind, I was convinced that a love letter in +hieroglyphics, unearthed by moonlight in the mounds of Fustat, would +please Monny. + +The difficulty was that, though I could speak Arabic fairly well, I +hardly knew the difference between hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic +forms; but the limited symbols I was able to employ were so strong in +themselves that a few would go a long way: and if they were not as +correct as the sentiments they expressed, Monny was not herself a +mistress of hieroglyphic style. I could find no hieroglyphic suit in +which to clothe the name Ernest; but since I had become keeper of men, +mice, and morals in Sir Marcus Lark's floating zoo, Monny's craze for +Egyptianizing everything had suggested the nickname of Men-Kheper-Ra. +She sometimes called me Ra for short, therefore I now ventured to +divert to my own uses a sign and cartouche once the property of a "son +of the Sun," and King of Egypt: + +[Illustration: "The Love Letter"] + +Translation: Beautiful Queen, Star (of) My Heart (and) Soul. Give Me +(your) Love. Become My Wife (and) Goddess (for) Eternity. + +Men-Kheper-(Ka) Ra. + +I patted myself on the back, put the letter in the ground; and the +digging party was a wild success; but time passed on, and I had no +answer. What I expected was a reply in kind, an hieratic acceptance or +a demotic refusal; either one would be good practice for Monny. But not +a hieroglyph of any description came. I had to go on as if nothing had +happened. To be ignored was less tolerable than being refused. Monny's +silence began to get upon my nerves; and to make matters worse, there +was that desert trip hanging over my head. I knew even less about +organizing a desert trip than I knew about hieroglyphics; yet it had to +be done. As Sir Marcus said it was "up to me" to do it so well that +Cook would look sick. Anthony was absorbed in secret official duties +and open, unofficial duties. His was a great "thinking" part, and our +occupations kept us apart rather than brought us together. On the one +occasion when we were alone, he devoted four out of five minutes to +telling me what he had learned of the night disturbance in front of the +House of the Crocodile. "A Britisher of sorts" had come into the +street, guided by an Arab. There had been some dispute about payment, +and the Britisher had slapped the dragoman's face. This had been +followed, as he might have known it would, with a stab; a crowd had +assembled, and scattered before the police; the stabbed one had gone to +hospital, the stabber to prison. Altogether it was not surprising that +Mansoor, the suspicious caretaker, had feared a trap, and closed his +doors. Bedr el Gemaly, now one of the great unemployed, had been seen +near the hospital where the injured man lay; but he had taken the alarm +and departed without inquiring for the invalid's health; or else his +being in that neighbourhood was a coincidence. The name of the man +knifed was Burke, and London was given as his address. He was between +thirty-five and forty, and according to the arrested dragoman was "not +a gentleman, but a tourist." His hurt was not severe: and as the Arab +had been exasperated by a blow, the punishment would not be excessive. + +When at length I had seized the last remaining minute to put the +question, "Do you think Miss Gilder has found out who you really are?" +Fenton seemed astonished. + +"I hadn't thought of it at all," he answered simply. "She's giving me +too many other things to think of." + +"What kind of things?" I stealthily inquired. + +"Oh,"--with an evasive air--"I don't know what to make of her yet. But +I haven't given up my silly scheme." + +"What silly scheme?" + +"Antoun" looked almost sulky. "Well, if you've forgotten, I won't +remind you. It's absurd; it's even brutal; and I'm ashamed of it. But I +stick to it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DESERT DIARY BEGUN + + +I found out why Monny paid no attention to my buried letter. But the +way in which I found it out (and several other things at the same time) +is part of the desert trip. + +I am not a man whose soul turns to diaries for consolation; but I did +keep up a bowing acquaintance with a notebook in Egypt--it helped me +with my lectures--and in the desert it relieved my feelings. Looking +over the desert pages, I'm tempted to give them as they stand: + +_Black Friday_: Morning. The start's for Monday, and nothing done! +Could I develop symptoms of creeping paralysis, and throw the +responsibility on Anthony? But too late for that now; and he may have +to stay on in Cairo for a day or two. Why did I leave my peaceful home? +It's the lure of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Last night before +I went to bed, read over my copy of Ferlini's letters, to gain courage. +Gained it for a little; but when I think of that desert I'm supposed to +turn into a happy playground for trippers, and not a tent hired or a +prune bought, or an egg laid, for all I know, I wish Anthony and I had +let Lark stick to our mountain. + +This is Lark's fault anyhow. He sprang the thing on me. Said it would +be easy as falling off a log. Said Cairo was full of Arabs whose +mission in life was supplying tents and utensils for desert tours. +People would be charmed with simple life, and me as universal provider. +All I had to do was to supply cheap editions of "The Garden of Allah," +and plenty of dates; and hint that it was considered vulgar in the Best +Circles to put on Peche Melba airs in the desert. With a few +quotations, I should make them content with a loaf of bread, a cup of +wine, and Thing-um-Bob. Why, they'd be falling in love with each other +under the desert stars, and my principal occupation would be saying, +"Bless you, my children!" + +Sounded neat; and I remembered that, according to Brigit, Monny wanted +the "desert to take her." Thought it might be useful if I were on in +that act. Abyssmal beast of a dragoman who lurks round Mena House +buoyed me up with false hopes. Said he had a fine outfit which he let, +and threw himself in as guide. Plenty of everything (including cheek) +for fifteen people, the exact number who have put down their names to +go. (Some girls and parents are staying for a ball at the Semiramis, +where I've tearfully persuaded the only soft-hearted officers I know to +dance with them--otherwise the lot would have been on my hands in the +desert.) Had so much to do yesterday taking the crowd to Matariyeh, +where the Holy Family hid in a hollow tree, that I had no time to look +at the Arab's outfit. Was inclined to save trouble and trust him, but +saw Anthony a minute last night; he urged me to inspect everything. Did +so early this morning. Rotten outfit: tents like old patchwork quilts, +pots and pans, etc., probably bought job lot from Noah when the Ark was +docked. Those keenest on desert "taking" them, will be mad as hatters +if it takes them in. Suppose I'll have to interview half the Arabs in +Cairo to-day. Wish I had a Ka or Ba or whatever you get for an astral +body in Egypt, and I could say to it, "Here, my dear chap, I trust you +to do this job while I stay in Cairo and rest my features." Then he'd +get the blame, and I'd disappear, never to be seen again. Or if he were +a Ka with Cook accomplishments, maybe he'd bring the thing off all +right, in which case I could turn up and take the credit and marry +Monny. Happy thought! Cook! Why shouldn't I sneak to Cook, and inquire +in a careless way if they publish any pamphlet on "How to Do a Desert +Tour." + +_Later_: Have been to Cook. No pamphlet, but a friend in need. Talk of +casting bread on the waters! In Rome I cast a crust which I didn't +want, and it's come back in Cairo with butter and sugar on it. + +Must have been two years ago in Rome when a young chap wrote to me to +the Embassy. Said he'd been disappointed in getting work he'd come +abroad for, had seen my name, recognized it, was from my county; and +could I use him as a stenographer or anything? I couldn't; but I found +him some one who could; and forgot him till I saw him this morning a +fully fledged clerk at Cook's. Checking the impulse to fall on his +neatly striped blue and white bosom, I invited him to lunch; and as a +reward for what he calls "past and present favours," he had given me +new life. What I mean to say is, he's promised to provide me not only +with tents, but camels and camel-boys and a camp chef, and waiters and +washbowls and a desert dragoman, and thousands of things I'd never +thought of. It seems practically certain that since Napoleon no such +genius has been born as Slaney. Cleopatra would say that S. is the +reincarnation of Napoleon; but neither Cleopatra nor any one else +--above all, Sir Marcus Lark--is to know of his existence. Such is the +disinterested self-sacrifice of this buttered-and-sugared Crust, that +it will do everything for me, while keeping itself and the Organization +which controls it, completely in the background. The Organization is +too great to mind; and the Crust, alias T. Slaney, thinks itself too +small. + +Lark, Ltd., considers himself a budding rival of the firm of Cook; but +a deadly bud. If, however, Sir M. should come to hear that I had flown +for succour to the enemy's camp, I fear it would be all over with the +bargain for which Anthony and I are selling our souls. T. Slaney says +he never shall know. He guarantees that Cook labels and other telltale +marks shall be removed from everything, though time is short and there +is much to do. He will be the power behind the tents, and I will be in +them, absorbing all the credit. + +_Saturday_: All _couleur de Rose_, thanks to Slaney. Should like to get +him canonized. Many less worthy men, now deceased, have been given the +right to put Saint before their names. He has handed me a list, +something less than a mile long, of articles which Biddy and I, as +children, used to call eaties and drinkies. He has told me where the +things can be bought, and has written a letter of introduction which +secures me "highest consideration and lowest prices." Also he has +suggested a medicine-chest, packs of cards, the newest games, +cigarettes suited to European and Arab tastes, picture post-cards of +desert scenes; ink, pens, and writing paper. "People forget everything +they want on these trips, but you mustn't," said he. I have acted on +all his suggestions, and feel as proud as if I had originated them +myself. + +_Sunday:_ My precious friend Slaney has made a large collection of +Arabs, camels, tents, etc., and ordered everything, animate and +inanimate, to assemble in the neighbourhood of Mena House this +afternoon, in order to be inspected by me, and to be ready for a start +early to-morrow morning. We are to have a sandcart with a desert horse +for Cleopatra, who has tried a camel and found it wanting. I fancy she +thinks a sandcart the best modern substitute for a chariot; and at +worst, it ought to be as comfortable. Slaney has promised a yellow one +--cart, not horse. The horse, by request, is to be white. The other +ladies are having camels. I daren't think of Miss Hassett-Bean at the +end of the week. The men, also, will camel. There is, indeed, no +alternative between camelling and sandcarting--sandcarting not +recommended by the faculty but insisted upon by Cleopatra. Hope it will +work out all right; and am inclined to be optimistic. A week in the +desert and the flowery oasis of the Fayum, with the two most charming +women in Egypt! There will be others, but there's a man each, and more. +I shall have to look after Monny and Brigit, as Anthony is having his +hands full with Cleopatra lately, and, besides, he can't start with us. +Something keeps him in Cairo for two days more, and he will have to +join us near Tomieh. + +_Sunday Evening:_ Back from Great Pyramid, where I went to inspect the +assembling army. Magnificent is the only word! The camels fine animals, +but Anthony has provided the three best, borrowing these aristocrats of +the camel world from Major Gunter of the Coast Guard. They have chased +hasheesh smugglers, and have seen desert fighting. Were snarling +horribly when I was introduced, but a snarl as superior to the common +snarls of baggage-camels as their legs are superior in shape. Biddy, +Monny, Mrs. East, and Rachel Guest were there with Sir M. and "Antoun," +having been inside the pyramid and up to the top. Monny on her high +horse because "Antoun" says it will be better for the ladies to ride +the baggage-camels. The others take his word, meekly, but she persists, +and Anthony agrees to give her the camel he had meant to ride, the one +supposed to be the most spirited. When he joins us, he will have the +animal intended for her. When this bargain was struck between them I +thought his eyes looked dangerous, but she didn't notice or didn't +care. Fenton tells me he has dreamed again of the red-faced man with +the purple moustache. I laughed at his bugbear and flung Colonel +Corkran in his teeth. By the way, nothing has been heard of C. by any +of us since the day he handed in his resignation. Suppose he has gone +back to England in the sulks. + +_Monday Night:_ I am writing in my tent, which is to be shared with +Anthony when he arrives. I feel years older than when we started this +morning. Middle age seems to have overtaken me. If I keep on at this +rate, shall be a centenarian by the time we get back to Cairo. + +We made a splendid caravan at the start. Besides the train of camels +ridden by my party from the _Candace_ and Monny Gilder with her +satellites (it goes against the grain, though, to call a bright +particular star like Biddy a satellite), there were over thirty +gigantic beasts laden with our numerous bedroom, kitchen, luncheon, and +dinner-tents, tent-pegs, cooking-stove, food for humans, fodder for +animals, casks of water, mattresses, folding-beds, other tent +furniture, tourists' luggage, and so on. I was happy till after the +baggage-train had got away, each camel with its head roped to the tail +of the one ahead, all trailing off toward the distant Pyramids of +Sakkhara well in advance of us. Each camel looked like a house-moving. +On top of the kitchen-camel's load was perched the chef, a singularly +withered old gentleman with black and blue complexion, clad in a vague, +flying blanket. (Has been Turkish-coffee man in Paris hotels.) Many +other negroid persons in white with large turbans; a few cafe au lait +Arabs; these all counted beforehand by Slaney, for me, and identified +as assistant-cooks, waiters, bed-makers, and camel-men, enough +apparently to stock a village. But we had one surprise at the moment of +starting in the form of a bright black child, clad in white, with a +white skull cap and a flat profile evidently copied from the Sphinx. I +don't know yet why this Baby Sphinx has come or who he is; but he rode +on the kitchen-camel's tail, hanging on by the bread (our bread!) which +was in a bag. + +When this cavalcade had wound away, the camels making blue heart-shaped +tracks in the yellow sand, it was our turn to start. Not one of us +would have changed places with any old Egyptian king or queen, and we +did not feel vulgar for doing this trip in luxury, because ancient +royalties had done the same, and so do the great sheikhs of the desert +even now. As I put Cleopatra into the sandcart with its broad, +iron-rimmed wheels, she was recalling the days when she travelled with a +train of asses in order to have milk for her bath. I suggested a modern +condensed substitute, but the offer was not received in the spirit with +which it was made. Now to get the ladies on their camels, after which +we men would vault upon our animals, and wind away among billowing +dunes full of shadowy ripples and high lights, like cream-coloured +velvet! + +But just here arose the first small cloud in the blue. It was bigger +than a man's hand, for it was the exact size and shape of Miss +Hassett-Bean's hat. It was a largish hat of imitation Panama trimmed with +green veiling, just the hat for a post-card desert all pink sunset and no +wind. As she was about to mount the squatting camel, a breeze blew the +flap over her eyes. This prevented Miss H.B. from seeing that the camel +had turned its neck to look at her; and so, as she reached the saddle +and the hat blew up, lady and camel met face to face. It was a moment +of suspense, for neither liked the other at first sight. The camel +began to gurgle its throat in a threatening manner, and at the same +time to rise. Miss Hassett-Bean, staring into two quivering nostrils +shaped like badly made purses, shrieked, forgot whether she must first +bend forward or bend back, bent in the way she ought not to have bent, +and fell upon the sand. I don't quite see why I was to blame for this +result, but she _saw_, and said I ought to have warned her what a vile +creature a camel was. Nothing would induce her to try again. She would +go to any extreme rather than ride a beast with a snake for a neck, and +a nasty unsympathetic face full of green juice which it spit out at +you. She was used to being liked. She simply couldn't go about on a +thing which would never love her, and she wouldn't want it to if it +did. She would go home or else she would have a sandcart. All the +neighbouring sandcarts were engaged; but fortunately "Antoun Effendi" +appeared at that instant (he'd taxied out to see us off), and he +persuaded Cleopatra to let Miss Hassett-Bean drive with her. The desert +horse, feeling this extra weight, looked round almost as +unsympathetically as the camel had; but nobody paid the slightest +attention except his attendant, who was to lead him: a type of negro +"Nut," who had a snobbish habit of reddening his nails with henna. + +By this time a crowd had assembled, kept in check by the tall, +blue-robed sheikh of the Pyramids. It consisted mostly of Arabs determined +to take our photographs or sell us scarabs--which Miss Hassett-Bean +refused on the ground that she disliked things off dead people. But on +the fringe lurked a few Europeans, amused to see so large a caravan +setting forth; and the men of our party, hitherto proud of their +curtained helmets and desert get-up, became self-conscious under a fire +of snapshots. + +"Hello, my Boy Scout!" I was hailed by Sir Marcus, arriving three +minutes behind Anthony, and on the same errand. This blow to my +self-esteem fell as I was leading Monny to the white camel which was hers +and should have been Anthony's. She laughed--I suppose she couldn't +help it. I couldn't myself, if it had been Harry Snell or Bill Bailey; +but as it was, my pride of khaki helmet, knickers, and puttees +collapsed like a burst balloon. I seemed to feel the calves of my legs +wither. It was in this mood that I had to put Monny on that coastguard +camel, while "Antoun" stood looking on. He did not offer to help the +girl, as their talk yesterday on the subject of baggage-camels versus +running camels had not conduced to officiousness. + +Monny was in white: broad white helmet such as women wear, white suede +shoes, white silk stockings, and a lot of lacy, garden-party things +that showed frills when she flew, birdlike, onto the cushioned saddle. +"_That's_ the way to do it!" I heard her cry, exultantly--and what +happened next I can't say, for the white camel knocked me over as it +bounded up, jerking its nose rope from the leader's hand, and the next +thing I knew it was making for the horizon. I hadn't been on a camel +since I was four, if then, so it was useless to follow. But while I +stood spitting out sand, Anthony flung himself onto one of the swift +coastguard beasts, and was after her like a streak of four-legged +lightning. None of us had the nerve to continue our operations until, a +quarter of an hour later, they appeared from behind the Great Pyramid, +coming at a walk, "Antoun" holding the bridle of Monny's camel. + +I saw by Fenton's face that he intended to make no suggestions, and I +guessed that he was practising his chosen method. If Miss Gilder wished +for anything she must ask for it, and ask for it humbly if she expected +to get it. + +Her face, too, was a study. She was pale and even piteous. I thought +there were tears in the blue-gray eyes; and if I had been Anthony I +could not have hardened my heart. Pride or no pride, I should have +begged her to abandon this praiseworthy adventure, and deign to mount +the baggage brute. Not so Anthony. He led back the camel, with Monny +limply sitting on it, and when it had calmed down at sight of its +friends he retired into the background. + +"How wonderful that you kept on, darling!" exclaimed Biddy. + +"I didn't," said Monny. Then she turned to "Antoun," who remained on +his beast, in case of another emergency, or because he did not wish to +be looked down upon by her. He was rather glorious enthroned on his +camel, the only one of our party who was truly "in" the desert picture. +I didn't blame him for stopping up there on his sheepskin, eye to eye +with the girl. + +For a moment Monny did not speak. She was evidently hesitating what to +do, but common sense and natural sweetness got the better of false +pride. "Antoun, you were right, and I was wrong," she admitted. "I said +yesterday that you were selfish, keeping the coastguard camels for +yourself and Lord Ernest and General Harlow, and giving us women the +baggage ones. Now I'm sorry. I was silly and hateful. I wouldn't ride +another fifty yards on this demon for fifty thousand dollars. He's +nearly broken my back, and if it hadn't been for you, he would quite +have done it. Please help me off, and put me on any old baggage thing +that nobody else wants." + +Anthony's eyes lit for an instant, from satisfaction as a man, or from +Christian joy in her moral improvement. He sprang off his sky-scraping +camel, brought Monny's animal to its knees, helped her off, and +motioned to the Arab attendant of the Ugly Duckling of all the other +creatures. It gave the effect of being a cross between a camel and an +ostrich, and had been chosen by "Antoun" as his own mount, when he +surrendered the aristocrat to Monny. + +"Oh, dearest, I can't have you ride that grasshopper!" cried Biddy. +"'Antoun' took it for himself very kindly because it's the worst. And I +don't care any more than he did. Give the thing to me, and take _my_ +one, that dear creature with the blue bead necklace." + +But Anthony answered for Monny. "Mademoiselle Gilder made a bargain +with me yesterday," he said. "If she failed in what _she_ wanted to do, +she was to do what _I_ wanted her to do. I think she will wish to keep +her bargain." + +"I'm _sure_ I wish to," added Monny. + +With a chastened, not to say shattered air, she curled herself up on +the sheepskin-covered cushion which was the ugly Duckling's saddle. +This time it was "Antoun" who settled her into place, with her feet +meekly crossed; and the caricature of a camel rose like a sofa at a +spiritualistic seance. Strange to say, however, when all were ready to +start, Monny appeared more comfortably lodged than any of the +camel-riding ladies; and the thought entered my mind that perhaps Anthony +had, with extreme subtlety, taken this roundabout way of benefitting +Miss Gilder. + +After this we got off with only a few minor mishaps. The one remaining +incident of note was the arrival on the scene, as we left it, of +another caravan--a small caravan consisting of two Europeans--a few +laden camels, and camel-boys marshalled by one dragoman. The dragoman +was Bedr el Gemaly, and he smiled at us as affectionately as though we +had not driven him from us in disgrace. + +"How forgiving Arabs are, even when they're not converted!" remarked +Rachel Guest, by whose side I happened to be riding. + +"He isn't an Arab," said I. "He's an Armenian. And both are supposed to +be the reverse of forgiving. But he's found another job quickly, so he +can afford to let bygones be bygones." + +"Oh, he would _anyway_!" Miss Guest exclaimed, warmly. "Poor fellow, +you've all done him a great injustice, but I'm thankful he's not going +to suffer for it. I wonder if he and his people are bound the same way +we are?" + +I feared that this was likely to be the case, as we were going the +conventional round, sticking--as one might say--to suburban desert, on +our way to the Fayum. But, as Monny observed the other night, we +couldn't engage the desert like a private sitting-room. I would, +however, have preferred sharing it with most people rather than Bedr +and his clients, though the two latter looked singularly harmless, +almost Germanic. + +We went on more or less happily, though I noticed that whenever a camel +changed its walk for a trot, each one of the ladies reached back a +desperate hand to clutch the saddle and save her spine from the +bruising bump! bump! which smote the bone with every step. As for me, +that feeling of middle age began to creep on while my coast-guard camel +and I were getting acquainted. I tried to distract my thoughts from the +end of my spine, by concentrating them in admiration upon the scene. +There was the Sphinx welcoming us with an immense smile of benevolence, +as suitable to the sunshine as had been her mysterious solemnity to the +moonlight. There, far away to the left, the spire-crowned Citadel +floated in translucent azure. Its domes and minarets, and the long +serrated line of the Mokattam Hills were carved against the sky in the +yellow-rose of pink topaz. Shafts of light gave to jagged shapes and +terraces of rock on the low mountains an appearance of temples and +palaces, very noble and splendid, as must have been the first glimpse +of Ancient Egypt to desert-worn fugitives from famine in Palestine. +Between us and the Nile, hiding the sparkling water as we rode, went a +dark line of palms, purple, with glints of peacock-feather green, in +the distance. Hundreds of tiny birds flew up into the burning blue like +a black spray, and the sand was patterned by their feet, in designs +intricate as lace. Wherever lay a patch of white and yellow flowers or +of rough grass no bigger than a prayer rug, a lark soared from its nest +singing its jewel-song; and here and there a gentle hoopoo reared the +crown which rewarded it for guiding lost King Solomon and his starving +army to safety. + +All this was beautiful; but I wondered painfully if Monny could be +happy in spite of the bumps, now that the desert was taking her. +Strange, how a disagreeable sensation constantly repeated at the end of +a mere bone can change a man's outlook on life! If Monny had come to my +camel-side and whispered, "I found your buried letter, oh, Men-Kheper-Ra. +Behold that bird now flying toward you. It is my Ba--my Heart or +Soul-bird carrying the gift of my love:" I should with difficulty have +prevented myself from snapping out, "Thanks very much; but, my good +girl, I'm in no mood to talk tommy-rot." + +It was sympathy, kind, friendly sympathy I yearned for, not spoken in +words, but given from soft, sweet eyes, as little Biddy had given it +when I tore my hands and barked my shins birds'-nesting on the rocks a +hundred years ago. + +I think we should have liked the excuse to stop and gaze at the ruinous +Pyramids of Abusir; but the dragoman-guide supplied by Slaney urged us +on to the great plateau of the Pyramids and Necropolis of Sakkara. +There, on the terrace of Marriette's House, we saw a crowd of Cook's +tourists from Bedrachen, and I had some moments of guilty fear lest my +Secret should leak out, as their dragoman rushed down and warmly +greeted ours. But in the throes of rolling off their camels for the +first time, the ever-wakeful suspicions of the Set were submerged under +physical emotions. It's an ill camel that bumps no one any good! + +I was only too glad to lure my charges away from danger-zone; and +luckily it was so early that the influential ones who never lunched +until two "at home," gave the word, "Tombs before food." Girding up its +aching loins, the procession allowed itself to be led by me and my +dragoman down inclined planes into dark, mysteriously warm passages +where our lights were wandering red stars. Now and then a face would +start suddenly out of the gloom, haloed with candle-light: and in this +way, Biddy's flashed upon me, starry-eyed. "Oh, I'm glad to see you!" +she whispered. Bedr and his two tourists are here. I'm afraid!" + +"My dear child," I said soothingly, but not as soothingly as if I +hadn't had toothache in the spine, "you may be afraid of Bedr, but +hardly of two stout Germans in check suits." + +"Not if they _are_ Germans. But are they? Just now one of their candles +almost collided with mine, and his eyes stared so! Then they looked +over my head at Monny, who was behind me. And where she is now, heaven +knows!" + +"Nothing can happen to either of you here," I assured her. "And +probably our fuss about Bedr is much ado about nothing. We have no +evidence--" + +"The man who stared at me over his candle has a scar on his forehead," +said Biddy. "Maybe he got it in that row in front of the House of the +Crocodile. Maybe he is Burke, and has just come out of the hospital." + +"Most likely he is Schmidt, and adorned himself with the wound in a +student duel," said I. + +"It's too fresh-looking. He must be over thirty," she objected, but at +that moment Miss Hassett-Bean loomed into sight; and in the stuffy +atmosphere of the tomb felt the need of my arm to keep her from +fainting. + +We "did" the Pyramid of Unas, dilapidated without, secretively +beautiful within. We went from tomb to tomb, lingering long in the +labyrinthine Mansion of Mereruka who, ruddy and large as life, stepped +hospitably down in statue-form from his stela recess, to welcome us in +the name of himself and wife. Almost he seemed to wave his hands and +say, "Look at these nice pictures of me and my family and our ways of +life, painted on the walls--our servants, our dwarfs, our mountebanks +and acrobats, our flocks and herds. Sorry there's no refreshment at +present on my alabaster mastaba, or table of offerings, but you see I +didn't prepare for visitors outside my own immediate circle of Ka's and +Ba's. Still, as you _have_ come, make yourselves at home, and take pot +luck. I think when you've examined everything, you'll admit that you +haven't a Soul-House in Europe to touch mine which, if I do say it, is +the best thing this side of Thebes." + +Next came the Tomb of Thi; but by this time, mural representations of +fish, flesh, and fruit began to be aggravating. It would be past two +before we could reach our luncheon-tent; and somehow it seemed less +desirable to feed after than before that sacred hour, though the custom +be sanctioned by royalty. "Another tomb to see before lunch?" groaned +Sir John Biddell, when the dragoman firmly insisted on the Apis +Mausoleum. "Oh, darn! _Need_ we? What? Where they buried _Bulls_? I'd +as soon see a slaughter house, on an empty stomach. Lady Biddell and I +will go sit in the shadow of our camels." + +And they did; nor would they believe the twins' assertions that the +dark Mausoleum, with its cavernous rock chambers and granite vaults, +was the most impressive thing they had seen in Egypt. "You say that to +be aggravating, because we weren't there," I heard Lady Biddell snap, +over the grumbling of the camels. + +The sky blazed down and the sand blazed up. The desert was white-hot, +with a silver whiteness hotter than gold, and the foreshortened shadows +were turquoise blue. It was heaven to arrive at a miniature oasis, and +see the open-fronted, awninged luncheon-tent reflected with its green +frame of palms, in a clear lagoon, thoughtfully left by the receding +Nile. At sight of this picture, my popularity went up with a bound. It +really was a lovely vision: the big tent lined with Egyptian applique +work in many colors, the porchlike roof extension supported by poles, +and in its shadow a white table loaded with good things and guarded by +Arab waiters waving beaded fly-whisks. As we lingered over our +chicken-salad, fruit, and cool drinks, and lazily watched our camels +munching bersim, all our first enthusiasm for these interesting beasts +streamed back. The ladies called them poor dears, and sweet things; and +the men marvelled at their calm endurance, or the number of their +leg-joints. + +Monny was gay and charming, and looked at me so kindly that I thought +she must mean to give a favorable answer to the buried letter. I +blessed Cleopatra for the "tip" she had given, though I wondered what +was the "humiliation" from which I could save her niece. "After all," +said I, "the desert trip's going to pan out a success." But it must +have been about this time that the wind rose. It blew Miss Hassett-Bean's +hat up instead of down, and other hats off, when we had started +again--and it blew into our eyes grains of sand as large as able bodied +paving-stones. Also, as we passed through a picturesque mud-village +which ought to have pleased everybody, it blew into our noses smells +which Lady Biddell knew would give us plague. As if this were not +enough, the sandcart nearly turned over in a rut, and Miss Hassett-Bean +said that she must go home or be left to die in the desert. I had to +lead the little stallion before she would consent to go on, and +realized when I had ploughed through fifty yards of sand, that the +manicured snob of a leader was a thin brown hero. By the time I had had +a mile or two of this, the dark Pyramids of Dahshur were visible, and I +knew that our camp was to be pitched not far beyond. My first emotion +was pleasure; my second, panic. + +What if Slaney had forgotten his promise to remove the Cook labels? + +Since remounting Farag (only the coastguard camels had names; the +baggage-beasts smelt as sweet without) Monny and I had been bumping +along side by side, and she had just said, "If I tell you something, +you'll never breathe it to a soul, will you?" when I saw those +Pyramids, and was smitten with the fear of Cook. + +"Never!" I vowed, torn between the desire to hear her secret, and to +dash ahead of the caravan into camp. + +"It's about 'Antoun,'" Monny went on. "You know I said to you the other +night, that perhaps I knew something about him?" + +"Yes--er--oh, yes!" + +We were within a few hundred yards of the Pyramids now. At any instant +the camp might burst into sight. + +"You don't look interested!" + +"But I am, awfully!" + +"You're _sure_ you won't tell?" + +"_Dead_ sure." + +(Was that a flag fluttering on the horizon?) + +"Well, then--it isn't _my_ business, of course. But one can't help +being interested in him, he's such a--such a romantic sort of figure, +as you said yourself. And there's something so high and noble about +him--I mean, about his looks and manners--that one hates to be +disappointed." + +"You _would_ have him with us, you know!" + +"I know. And--and I'm glad I--we--_have_ got him. It's a--it's an +experience. I suppose he's rather wonderful. But don't you think he +ought to remember that he isn't _exactly_ a prince? He isn't even +called Bey. And if he were, its not the same as being a prince of +Ancient Egypt." + +"In what way has he presumed on his--er--near--princehood?" + +"I believe he has--fallen in love with Biddy!" + +"By Jove! _Let_ the flag flutter!" + +"What flag?" + +"Oh--er--that was only an expression. They use it where I live. Why +shouldn't he fall in love with Biddy, when you come to think of it?" + +"He's of a darker race. Though--he does seem so like _us_. Of course +she couldn't marry him. It wouldn't do. _Would_ it?" + +"I don't know. I must think it over. Is that all you were going to tell +me?" + +"No. I suppose it's natural he should fall in love with Biddy. She's +_so_ attractive! But the worst part about it is that he has _proposed_ +to Aunt Clara." + +"Not possible!" + +"Yes. He has. I saw part of the letter--the first part. She's the only +one of us who thinks it would be right to marry a man of Egyptian +blood, because you know she believes she's Egyptian herself--and she's +always talking about reincarnations. _I_ don't see that It's such a +wonderful coincidence his name being 'Antoun.' It wouldn't be so bad if +he were in love with her; but it's Biddy who is always right in +everything she says and does, according to him--just as I am always +wrong. Aunt Clara is richer than Biddy. I can't bear to fancy that's +why he has proposed; it would take away all the romance" + +"Don't strip him of his romance yet," said I, again torn between +interest in Monny's incredible statement, and excitement which grew +with the growing in size of those flags on the horizon. "You may wrong +him. If you saw only the _first_ part of the letter--" + +"There could be no mistake. It was in hieroglyphics, and who but +'Antoun' would have written such a letter to Aunt Clara? She asked me +to translate it, the night she dug it up at Fustat--" + +"Dug--" + +"And when I'd read as far as, 'Beautiful Queen, Star of my Heart, be my +wife,' she snatched the paper away, and put it inside her dress, saying +she'd look up the rest in one of my books." + +"Good heavens! You must have changed places at Fustat. That letter +couldn't have been for her!" + +"It couldn't have been for any one else. 'Beautiful Queen' meant Queen +Cleopatra. She said so herself. I don't know what she's going to do +about it." + +"Do about it?" I echoed desperately. "Why--" and just then my straining +eyes saw that on the middle flag in the fluttering row were four large +red letters on a white ground. Slaney had betrayed me! Everything +depended on getting that flag down before those letters declared +themselves to other eyes. "Excuse me," I finished my sentence with a +gasp. + +Monny must have gasped also, as she saw me suddenly dash away from her +at full speed of one-camel power. But I had no time to think about what +she might think. I suppose I must have done something to the steering-gear +of that camel, which coastguard camels do not permit. Whatever it +was, it got me into the midst of camp before I could draw breath; but I +have a dim recollection of being caught by Arab arms, and seeing +suppressed Arab grins, as mechanically I felt to see how far the end of +my spine stuck out at the top of my head. + +"That flag! Pull it down!" was my first gasp, pointing convulsively to +the banner which shrieked, "Cook!" "Quick--before they come!" + +Dazed by my vehemence, several Arabs scuttled to obey the order, but +there were too many of them. Each hindered his neighbour, and as I +danced about, making matters worse, out pounced our withered chef from +the kitchen-tent. + +"It was _he_ brought that flag, wrapped round something," explained one +of the men, in Arabic. "When he saw we had other flags, but none of +Cook, he gave it to us to put over the biggest tent, because he thought +it shameful to have no flag of the master's." + +"Cook isn't the master. I'm it," I burbled, with a leap to catch the +tell-tale square of white as it reluctantly came down. But I was too +late. Sir John Biddell and Harry Snell, the newspaper man, came +gallumping up on their camels before I could stuff the flag into my +pocket. + +"What's the matter?" they asked, as their animals squatted to let them +down. "Were you run away with? What are you so mad about? Hullo! What +flag's that--C-O-O-K!" + +"It should be over the kitchen-tent," I heard myself explaining. "Don't +you see? C-O-O-K! It's the cook's special flag. He brought it himself, +but these chaps went and flew it over the dining-tent in place of the +Union Jack. That's why he and I are mad." + +And I thanked all the stars on Monny's tent flag that none of the Set +understood Arabic. + +After this, how could I hope to explain to Monny that the hieroglyphic +proposal was mine, and that she, not Cleopatra, ought to have dug it +up? She isn't a girl used to having men run away from her, on camelback +or anything else--so naturally she thought me a rude beast, and showed +it. Besides, even if I'd dared, I should have had no chance to +straighten matters out; for though the flag-episode was after all no +fault of Slaney's, there were a few little things which had escaped +even his Napoleonic memory; and it was only by combining the feats of +an acrobat with those of a juggler that I saved my reputation during +the next half hour. + +No sight could have been more beautiful in our eyes than that village +of white tents in the waste of yellow sand. Our wildest imaginings +could have pictured nothing more perfect, more peaceful. + +Tea was ready, in the huge dining-tent, where folding chairs were +grouped round a white-covered table. The floor of sand was hidden with +thick, bright-coloured rugs, and it was finding "T. C. and Son" on the +wrong side of one which Miss Hassett-Bean's foot turned up, that filled +me with renewed alarms. Hastily I laid the rug straight, placed a chair +upon it, and persuaded everybody to have tea before inspecting their +bedroom tents. While they drank draughts and dabbed jam on an Egyptian +conception of scones, I hurried like a haggard ghost from tent to tent, +seeking the forbidden thing. Cook on the backs of the little mirrors +hanging from the pole hooks!... Will it wash off?... No! Cut it out +with a penknife! Down on your knees and tear off the label from the +wrong side of another carpet! (Memo: Must do the one in the dining-tent +when the people are asleep for the night.) Cram three Cook towels into +my pockets. Hastily pin a handkerchief over the name on a white bit of +a tent wall. Must have it cut out, and patched with something, later. +Shall have to pay damages when I settle up with Slaney. Lady Macbeth +wasn't in it with me! All she needed was a little water. I have to have +pins and penknives and pockets all over the place. + +I didn't get any tea. But that was a detail. And everybody was so +delighted with everything that my spirits rose, despite a snub or two +from Monny--for which Biddy tried to make up. People took desert +strolls, or sat on dunes, and gazed into the sunset which couldn't have +been better if I had turned it on myself. Along the western horizon ran +a pale flame of green blending with rose, rose blending with amethyst, +and in the distance the Pyramids of Dahshur burned with the red of +pigeon-blood rubies. + +The wind had died among the desert dunes, and it was not till after +dinner that any one realized the arctic fall of temperature. It was too +cold to enjoy playing bridge or any of the games I had brought; and the +only hope of comfort was in bed. People said good night to each other +in the comparatively warm dining-tent, and then gave surprised shrieks +or grunts (according to sex) at the piercing cold. Several of the elder +ladies fell over ten-tropes, despite the large lanterns illuminating +the desert, and had to be escorted to their bedroom tents, and soothed. +After this, silence reigned for a few minutes, and I had stealthily +begun to work on the biggest rug-label, when arose a clamour of voices +and presently appeared the dragoman lent by Slaney. + +"Eight ladies wishing hot-water bottles," he explained. + +But there were no hot-water bottles. We had thought of everything, it +seemed, except hot-water bottles. + +"I tell them very sorry but can't have?" Yusef suggested, looking +pleased. + +"Let me think!" I groaned. "What about the mineral water bottles we +emptied at lunch and dinner? Let the cook boil water, and we'll supply +the bottles." + +This was done; and I was proud of the inspiration, with the pride that +comes before a fall. When I began to write, in my bedroom tent, wrapped +in all the blankets of the bed that should be Anthony's, I had the +place to myself. But about midnight a head was unexpectedly thrust +through the door-flap. It looked ghostly in the haze of colour made by +the gorgeous applique work of high roof and octagon walls, which gave +an effect of sitting at the bottom of a giant kaleidoscope. + +"Who's that?" I hissed, in a whisper meant to be discreet, but which +roused a camel or two in the ring outside the tents. + +"Biddell--Sir John Biddell," replied the head. "I saw your light, and +remembered you had your tent to yourself to-night. Those hot-water +bottles have been leaking. There's one at least gone wrong in most of +the ladies' tents. The married men have given their beds to girls who +are drowned out. 'Twas _your_ idea about those bottles, wasn't it? I +expect you'll hear from it in the morning! Three of us want to come and +camp in here with you." + +"All right," I sighed, with a sinking heart. "I _like_ sitting up, and +you can toss for the cots." + + * * * * * + +At this moment Sir John Biddell reposes in one of them, General Harlow +in the other. These gentlemen were so affected with the cold that they +went to bed in their clothes, then got up to put on their overcoats, +then got up again and put on their hats. On the floor lies a certain +Mills of Manchester, rolled in all the rugs, except one which I have +on, after surrendering my blankets. He has his head in a basket, to +keep off the icy draught; and in the ruggy region of his spine, as he +rests on his side, are the letters C-O-O-K. I wonder if I could rip +them off without waking him up? + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DESERT DIARY TO ITS BITTER END + + +_Tuesday_: The principal water-cask has leaked; consequently not enough +water to go round. Chef said it was a question of baths, or soup. +Considering the cold, most of the people voted for soup. Some washed in +Apollinaris. Others douched with soda siphons. We can get more water +to-night. Can't think why the north wind doesn't stop and warm itself +while traversing the Mediterranean or the hot sands! It seems to be in +too fierce a hurry and consequently cuts across the desert, like a +frozen scythe, the moment its rival the sun has gone to sleep. I hear +that Miss Hassett-Bean cried with cold as she dressed, and put on two +of everything; but she is luckier than the younger women. Monny and +Mrs. East, though warned that nights would be chill, have come clothed +in silk and gossamer, and have brought low-necked nightgowns of +nainsook trimmed with lace. This was confided to me soon after sunrise +by a blue-nosed Biddy, hovering over the kitchen fire and +--incidentally--ingratiating herself with the cook. It wouldn't be Biddy +if she weren't ingratiating herself with some one! + +Nobody yearned to get up early (I speak for others, as _I_ passed my +night in the attitude of a suspension bridge between two folding +chairs); but in camp where sleep is concerned, men may propose, camels +dispose. + +Their nights they spend in a ring of camelhood, huddled together for +warmth; and if they do not have nightmare or bite each other in their +sleep, mere humans in neighbouring tents may hope for comparative +silence in the desert, if not near a village full of pi-dogs. At +sunrise, however, a change comes o'er their spirit. They are given +food, and made as happy and contented as it is their nature to be, +which apparently is not saying much. Judging by the strange, +inarticulate oaths they constantly mutter, they are equally accursed in +their sitting down and their getting up. It is only when they are +actually "on the move," floating and swaying through the air--legs, +tail, neck, jaws--that they have nothing disagreeable to say. +Immediately after dawn this morning, our camels began to imitate every +animal they could have met since the days of the Ark, when one had to +know everybody. They mewed like cats, hissed like snakes, bleated like +sheep, roared like toy lions, grunted like pigs, barked like dogs, +squawked like geese, and bellowed like baby bulls. Also they gargled +their throats like elderly invalids. It was useless trying to sleep; +and when I had accomplished such bathing as the chef permitted, I went +out to see what was the matter. Nothing was the matter, except that the +creatures had the sunrise in their eyes, and could see the camel-boys +preparing their loads; but I was glad I had come out, because Biddy was +there and the scene was beautiful. Shivering, we chuckled over the +morning toilet of the camels, who turned their faces disconcertingly +upon us, sneering with long yellow teeth, and bubbling as if their +mouths were full of pink soapsuds, when they realized that we were +laughing at them. + +Incidentally we learned why the Baby Sphinx accompanied our caravan +uninvited. His name is Salih; and he came because there's a very +important camel (the property of his father) who refuses to eat or stir +without him. It is a most original and elaborate camel. It has a neat +way of turning its ears with their backs to the wind, in order to make +them sand-proof. If any person other than Salih touches it, an +incredible quantity of green cud is instantly let loose over their +turbans; but at the approach of Salih it emits a purring noise, preens +its head for the nose-strap ornamented with a bunch of palmlike plumes, +and playfully pretends not to want the bersim which the little black +Sphinx thrusts down its throat in handfuls. This, it seems, is good +camel table-manners. And it is to the tail of this animal that Salih +clings on the march. If he is not there, the animal looks round, stops, +or turns to charge at any Arab who jestingly misuses its idol. + +Yesterday the miniature Sphinx was in a white robe. To-day he is in +black. All the Arabs have changed their clothes, although they have +brought no visible luggage except vague pieces of sacking. The dragoman +is exquisitely arrayed, galabeah and kaftan gray-blue, with a pink +petticoat, and a white one under that. I suspect that he sleeps beneath +the dining-table--and the other Arabs among the kitchen pots--yet they +are smarter than any of us Europeans, all of whom have a frayed air. +This, I suppose, would not be so in desert-fiction. Nothing would be +said about hot-water bottles leaking, or beetles beetling (one doesn't +come to Egypt to see live scarabs), or draughts raging, or camels +gobbling, or flags flapping all night. (Memo: Abolish flags, even at +expense of patriotism.) + +Despite every desert drawback, however, Biddy and I agreed that the +sunrise alone was worth the journey, and the pure air of dawn which, +though cold, seemed perfumed by mysterious rose-fields. Just at sun-up +the desert was lily pale--then, as the horizon flamed, a dazzling flood +of gold poured over the dunes. The sun was a fantastic brooch of beaten +copper, caught in a veil of ruby gauze, while here and there a belated +star was a dull, flawed emerald sewn into the veil's fringe. Shadows +swept westward across the desert like blue water, showing a glitter of +drowned jewels underneath; and though last night it had seemed that we +were alone in a vast wilderness, now there were signs that a village +lay not far off. A group of children in red and blue, staring avidly at +the camp, were like a bunch of ragged poppies in the sand. Their mangy +pi-dogs had ventured nearer, to smell sadly at the meat-safes hanging +outside our kitchen-tent. A gypsy-woman with splendid eyes and a blue +tattooed chin, breakfasted on an adjacent dune with her husband. Men +like living hencoops passed in the distance. Patriarchal persons blew +by, in that graceful way in which people do blow in Egypt, driving a +flock of sheep, with a black lamb "for luck." These men were dressed as +their ancestors had dressed in the time of Abraham, and Biddy and I +envied them. How nice, said she, to wear the same clothes for a hundred +years if you happened to live, and never be out of fashion. If a few of +your things dropped off by degrees, you were still all right, and +nobody would be rude enough to notice! + +Our faded family revived after breakfast, and even those who vowed they +hadn't closed an eye all night enjoyed the scene of striking camp. The +big white tents fell to the ground like pricked soap-bubbles; whereupon +their remains were deftly rolled up and tied on to the backs of +bitterly protesting camels. Beds, mattresses, tables, chairs ceased to +be what they had been and became something else. Camels made faces and +noises. Arabs tore this way and that, doing as little work as possible. +The cook fluttered about in his blanket, brandishing a saucepan. Yusef +the dragoman made noble gestures of command, and our little desert city +ceased to exist except on camels' backs. It was shaved off the surface +of the earth, and went churning and swaying along toward the next +stand; the procession rising and falling among swelling dunes, under a +sky which seemed to trail like a heavy blue curtain, where at the +horizon it met the gold. + +We travelled over pebbly plateaus, scattered with jewel-like stones. +Sand-pyramids rose out of the glistening plain. Here and there were +rocks like partly hewn sphinxes pushing out of the sand to breathe; +other rocks like monstrous toads; and still others dark and dreadful in +the distance as ogres' houses. Altogether the desert gave us a truly +Libyan effect, which made the Set feel that after all they were getting +what they had paid for, with an introduction to a beauty and heiress +thrown in. But apropos of this latter boon, it is dawning upon me that +Rachel Guest is receiving more attention than Monny. This strikes me as +inexplicable. There are more men than women in our party, all young +except Sir John Biddell, General Harlow, and Mills of Manchester, a +soft, fat sort of fellow whose first name you can never remember. It +occurred to me on starting, that the desire of so many unattached young +men to spend a week in the desert and the Fayoum, might not be +unconnected with Miss Gilder's intention to join the party. Not being +jealous, I expected to see a little fun, and laugh over it with Biddy, +who is a heavenly person with whom to share a joke. But if there is a +joke, I haven't seen the point yet, nor has she. There's no disputing +the fact that Miss Guest, the poor, brave school teacher on holiday, is +the belle of the desert. + +Of course, if Monny had stopped in Cairo, Rachel's success with our men +wouldn't be astonishing. As Brigit and Monny warned me in their letters +to the _Candace_, she grows better looking every day; but though she is +distinctly of Monny's type, despite those slanting eyes, she will never +be a real beauty, or a Complete Fascinator, like our Gilded Girl. +Besides, Monny has millions, and Rachel hasn't a cent. Yet there it is! +Miss Guest is having the "time of her life" in spite of leaky water +bottles and bumping camels, while Miss Gilder might be an old married +woman, for all the attention she gets from any man on this trip except +me. What can be the explanation? Even those two exaggerately +German-looking men with Bedr stared at Rachel from their respectful +distance. It turns out that they camped not far from us last night. +Yusef heard this from one of our camel-boys. But they kept to themselves, +and didn't come within a mile of us, so there's nothing to complain of. +Every one except Sir John delighted with to-day's desert. He can't see +anything beautiful in yellow lumps that keep you sawing up and down, +though he has no doubt the desert is full of other fools doing what +we're doing; and we could all see each other doing it if it weren't for +those darn dunes. + +_Later_: Adventure for sandcart on one of the biggest plateaus. Looked +all right from the top; but a shriek from Mrs. East put me to the dire +necessity of sliding off Farag and running to the rescue. The plateau +was broken off in front and became a precipice which, Cleopatra seemed +to think, would not have existed had "Antoun" arrived in tune to +arrange it. + +Great wind came roaring up again about noon. Feared to learn that it +had been impossible to get luncheon-tent in position. But when the time +came to find it, there it was with its back to the blast, and its shady +open front, of tile-patterned applique, offering the hoped-for picture +of white table and smiling brown waiters. + +While we lunched, the fierce gusts striking the back canvas wall were +like the frightened flappings of giant wings, and the beating of a +great bird's heart. Otherwise we might have forgotten the elements as +we ate, save for a slight powdering of sand on our food. But even that +wasn't bad, if we selected only the port side of our bread and chicken, +leaving windward bits to the Arabs. + +Our night camp was in shelter of the two vast dunes which hide the +ancient city of Bacchias, now called Um-el-Atl, where we found "Antoun" +awaiting us. He had started from Cairo in the morning on a coastguard +camel, coming quickly along the camel route between Bedrashen and +Tomieh, and the extra few miles to our encampment. Before we arrived he +had sent the camel back with the mounted Arab who accompanied him; and +somehow the camp seemed all the smarter and more ship-shape for the +presence of the handsome Hadji, in his green turban. The Set are all +extremely interested in him; and on hearing my version of his history, +sketchily told, have taken to calling him "the prince." Enid and Elaine +almost fawn upon him, in their admiration of so romantic and splendid +an addition to our party: a real, live Egyptian gentleman, with enough +European blood in his veins to justify nice-minded maidens in +cherishing a hopeless love for him, when he has safely vanished out of +their lives. + +Mrs. East made Anthony pick up pre-historic oyster shells in the +desert, between flaming sunset and twilight, when the sky became a vast +blue tent hung with a million lamps. And at dinner she was not nice to +Enid and Elaine who admired her hero too frankly. She has developed an +embarrassing clearness of vision as to other people's former +incarnations, especially their disagreeable or shocking ones. "Ah, it +has _just_ come to me!" she exclaimed, her elbows on the table, looking +dreamily into Elaine Biddell's face. "You were _Xantippe_. I knew I'd +seen you somewhere." + +As for Enid, it seems that she was Charmian or Iris, Cleopatra can't be +sure which; but the girl has come to me saying that, if Mrs. East +doesn't stop calling her "My dear handmaiden," one or the other of them +will have to give up starting on the Nile trip next week. + +_Wednesday_: We had lobster a la Newburgh for dinner, in mid-Libyan +desert, and drank the chef's health in champagne. I don't know which +was to blame, or whether it was the combination; but in the windy +middle of the night when tent flaps stirred like a nestful of young +birds, there were demands for ginger and for peppermint. Now, ginger +and peppermint happened to be the only two medicaments in the whole +pharmacopoeia left out of the medicine chest. But nothing else would +do. The more the things weren't there, the more they were wanted; and +all the people who had made notes to remember me in their wills, +scratched me out again. Then, to pile Ossa on Pelion, the dogs of +Tomieh arrived to pay a visit. They barked, of course; but they barked +so much that the noise was like a silence, and nobody minded after the +first half hour. The worst was, that they did not confine their +demonstrations to barking. In order to signify their disapproval of our +stingy ways, they took the boots we had confided to the sand in front +of our tents to be cleaned, and worried them at a considerable +distance. Some of the boots were past wearing when found, and some were +not found. Judging from cold glances directed at me by those obliged to +resort to pumps or bedroom slippers, one would imagine me the trainer +of this canine menagerie. It has been hinted, too, that a conductor +worth his salt would have filled up interstices of the medicine chest +with toothbrushes. Several members of the party forgot to pack theirs +in moving camp and they are now the property of jackals. A stock of +toothbrushes is the one other thing besides peppermint and ginger and +hot-water bottles that Slaney and I left out of our calculations; +still, I do think bygones ought to be bygones. Anthony is the hero now, +because it occurred to him to buy in Cairo flannelette nightwear, male +and female, of the thickest and most hideously pink description. Had +these horrors been suggested at the start, they would have been +rejected with fury, in favour of lace and nainsook; but the +contribution has made a _success fou_, at a crisis when vanity has been +forgotten, and the girls are employing their prettiest frocks as bed +covering. + +_Another Day:_ Have now forgotten which, or how many we've had. This is +Anthony's hour--but he may take such advantage of it as he chooses--I'm +indifferent. On top of my troubles I've contracted Desert Snivels. +Whether the habit of using sand for snuff has produced the malady, or +whether I've caught something (despite the tonic air) from nomads or +oasis-dwellers, all of whom emit a storm of coughs and sneezes, I do +not know. All desire to use this grand opportunity of taking +Cleopatra's advice and winning Monny's love while for once she's +neglected by others, has died within me. My one wish is to keep away +from her and the rest, except perhaps Biddy, and suffer alone, like a +cat. Biddy has got Desert Snivels, too. It makes another link between +us, like the memories of our childhood. We swop stories of symptoms. +Both feel that sense of terrible resignation which desert babies have +when their eyes are full of flies and no one takes them out. + +The sky lowers. Big black birds flap over our heads like pirate flags +that have blown away. They are the vultures which used to be sacred to +Egyptians, and seem to labour under the delusion that they are sacred +still. The sand blows into our back hair, and the Arabs make scarves +and veils of their turbans. Apparently these Moslems never say any +prayers, and the _Candace_ people feel they've been cheated of a +promised sensation of desert life. The only religious thing the men do +is to bawl "Allah!" when they lift the heavy, rolled up tents onto the +camels. + +People are beginning to grumble about their meals, which at first +seemed to them miracles of culinary art. "Same old desert things we've +been eating ever since Moses," I heard Harry Snell mutter. And Sir John +Biddell is sick of h. b. eggs. I suppose he means hard-boiled. I should +like to feed him on soft-shell scarabs! + +Tea is the only incident in the desert which has palled on no one yet. +Very jolly, having finished the day's exertion, and sitting on folding +chairs inside tent door, teacup in hand, watching the winged shadows +sweep across the dunes! One feels like Jacob or Rebecca or some one. +There may be a fine saint's tomb standing up, marble-white, against the +rose-garden of a sunset sky, but one doesn't bother to walk out and +examine it at close quarters. There's nothing like sitting still after +a windy day on camel back. + +We lack interest in history ancient and modern, although Egypt is the +country which ought to make one want to know all other history. There +may be a European war or an earthquake. We don't care what happens to +any one but ourselves. It is all we can do to keep track of our own +affairs. As for ancient history, we content ourselves with wondering if +Anthony and Cleopatra, when picnicking in the desert, dropped orange +peel and cake to feed the living scarabs of their day. + +We seem to be lost to the world, yet now and then we're reminded that +we have neighbours in the desert. We've had glimpses of a distant +caravan which must be Bedr's; and when we came in sight of our own camp +last evening, we were just in time to catch a party of Germans being +photographed in front of it, with our things for an unpaid background. +Ever beauteous picture, by the by, your own encampment! White tents +blossoming like snowy flowers in a wilderness; a dense black cloud, +massed near by on the golden sand, which might in the distance be a +plantation of young palms, but is in reality a congested mass of +camels. You sing at the top of your voice "From the desert I come to +thee, on a stallion shod with fire!" hoping to thrill the girls. But +they are thinking about their tea. Girls in the desert, I find, are +always thinking about their tea, or their dinner, or their beds. You +would like (when your Desert Snivels improve) to walk with a maiden +under the stars; but no, she is sleepy! She wants to get to bed early. +Even the camels are most particular about their bed hours. It would be +irritating, if you didn't secretly feel the same yourself. But what a +waste of stars! + +_Some old Day or Other:_ Interesting but dusty dyke road into the +Fayoum oasis. Every one enraged with Robert Hichens because "Bella +Donna's" Nigel recommended The Fayoum. "No wonder she poisoned him!" +snarled Mrs. Harlow. Our Arabs riding ahead look magnificent, seeming +to wade through a flood of gold, the feet and legs of their camels +floating in a rose-pink mist. But alas, the flood of gold and the +rose-pink mist are composed of dust--that reddish dust in which presumably +the boasted Fayoum roses grow; and it blows into our noses. This upsets +our tempers, and prevents our enjoying the pictures we see in the +sudden transition from desert to oasis. Biblical patriarchs on white +asses, disputing the high, narrow "gisr" or dyke road; women with huge +gold nose rings; running processions of girls, in blowing coral and +copper robes, large ornamental jars on their veiled heads, thin +trailing black scarves and slim figures dark against a sky of gold. +Blue-eyed water-buffaloes--gamoushas--and exaggerated brown-gray +calves, with wide-open, boxlike ears in which you feel you ought to +post something. Canals stretching away through emerald fields to +distant palm groves; here and there a miniature cataract; children +playing in the water, imps whose red and amber rags ring out high notes +of colour like the clash of cymbals; now and then a jerboa or a +mongoose waddling across the path; travelling families on trotting +donkeys or swinging camels who pass us with difficulty. Camels +everywhere, indeed, on dyke or in meadow; even the clouds are shaped +like camels who have gone to heaven and turned to mother o' pearl. +There are horses, too; not little sand stallions like ours, but +ordinary, plodding animals whose hoofs know only Fayoum dust or mud. +Our desert creature, however, does not spurn them. On the contrary, +though he pretends not to notice camels, cows, or buffaloes, he +whinnies and prances with delight when he meets anything of his own +shape, and assumes hobby-horse attitudes, much to the alarm of +Cleopatra and Miss Hassett-Bean. Also, just to remind everybody that +sand is his element, he shies at water, and almost swoons at sight of +the Fayoum light railway. + +Much wind again. But thank goodness out of Fayoum dust, and in desert +sand for lunch! Prop up tent with our backs, leaning against the blast. +However, we have now a special clothes-brush for the bread, and a +moderately clean bandanna for the fruit. Plates, we blow upon without a +qualm. Scarabei gambolling in the sand around our feet we pass +unnoticed. This is the simple desert life! + +But ah, what an encampment for the night! It makes up for everything, +and a sudden realization of abounding health is tingling in our veins. +We adore the desert. We want to spend our lives in it. Thank goodness +we have two nights here, on the golden shore of the blue Birket Karun, +all that's left of Lake Moeris of which Strabo and Herodotus raved. +From the dune-sheltered plateau where our white tents cluster, the +glitter of water in the desert is like a mirage: a mysterious, +melancholy sheet of steel and silver turning to ruby in the sunset, +with dark birds skimming over the clear surface. + +Suddenly the Bible seems as exciting as some wonderful novel. Not far +from here ran Joseph's river, making the desert to blossom like the +rose. In tents like ours, perhaps, Abraham rested with Sarah, planning +how to save himself by giving her to the Egyptian king. To see this +lake is like seeing a bright, living eye suddenly open in the face of a +mummy, dead for six thousand years! + +Our best sunset; romance but slightly damaged by an Arab waiter +wrapping up his head in a towel with which he had just dried our +teacups and no doubt will again. + +_Another Day:_ (Merely slavish to look it out in the calendar, and +besides there is none.) All I know is, we've had two on the shore of +Birket Kurun (I spell it a different way now, because no books ever +spell anything in Egypt twice alike), "The Lake of the Horns"; and +we've been on the water in some very old boats, in order to see things +which may have existed once, but don't now; and at present we're +encamped near Medinet-el-Fayoum, a kind of lesser Cairo: originally +named Medinet-el Faris, City of the Horseman, because of a Roman +equestrian statue found in the neighbouring mounds of "Crocodilopolis." +We have just arrived, hot and dusty, with more dust of more Fayoum than +we had before Lake Moeris. "Fayoum" means Country of the Lake it seems; +and it really is a great emerald cup sunk below the level of the Nile +--as if to dip up water for its roses. + +However, the Set is happy despite the state of its clothes and its +hair. None of us quite realized what the Fallahcen were really like +before, or that the word Fellal meant "ploughman." This has been +market-day, and we met an endless stream of riding men, and walking +women with black trailing garments. They had bought sheep, and goats, +and rabbits, and quantities of rustling, pale green sugar cane, which +they carried on their shoulders. + +There were wild adventures for the sandcart, and watery spaces across +which Cleopatra was carried (at her own urgent request) by Anthony; +Miss Hassett-Bean by me and the strongest Arab. There were the +wonderfully picturesque squalid mud towns of Senoures and two or three +others, honey-yellow in a green mist of palms, against an indigo sky +with streaks of sunshine like bright bayonets of Djinns. And then +Medinet, through which our caravan had to pass _en route_ to camp, much +to the ribald joy of smart, silk-robed Egyptian "undergrads" who +strolled hand in hand along the broad streets near the University. They +were big, fantastic houses to suit modern Oriental taste, painted pink +and green, and set in shady gardens. And between high brick embankments +we saw the river Joseph made--swiftly running, deep golden yellow like +the Nile, with ancient water-wheels pouring crystal jets into enormous +troughs. + +This was our most fatiguing day, and we wanted our last encampment to +be the best. We found the worst: a suburban meadow inhabited by goats +and buffaloes. "Can't we move somewhere else?" Cleopatra besought +Anthony, to whom she appeals when he's within appealing distance. +"Isn't this tour for our _pleasure_, and can't we do what we _like_?" + +Anthony absolved the camp-makers, explaining that we must be near the +town in order to get carriages and see the sights we had come to see. +Also our water supply had given out, and we must beg some from the +"government people." He hinted that it would be well to make the best +of things; but Cleopatra, with her royal memories, is not good at +making the best of what she doesn't like. She wants what she wants, +especially in her own Egypt, where things ought to know that they once +belonged to her. Miss Hassett-Bean is quite as _exigeante_, in a +different way, more Biblical, less pagan. Her criticism on the +encampment was that it, and all her oasis experiences, are destroying +her faith in hymns. "By cool Siloam's Shady Rill," for instance, used +to be her favourite, but she doesn't believe now that Siloam ever had a +rill. + +_Later: 11 p. m_. Fallahcen and Fellahah (doesn't sound female, but is) +pretended to have things to do on the frontier of their field and ours, +as we were settling in, and stared unblinkingly at us, whenever we +stuck a nose outside a tent. Also they laughed. Also they brought their +dogs. But they couldn't spoil the sunset, and Medinet was a colourful +picture of the Orient, towering against the crimson west. I took Monny +and Biddy into the town to see the bridge and dilapidated Mosque of +Kait Bey, with its pillars stolen from Arsinoe. Anthony took Cleopatra, +and most of the other unmarried men took Rachel Guest. When Brigit +remarked rather sharply upon the ex-school teacher's popularity, Monny +laughed an odd, understanding little laugh. "I believe you think you +know _why_ they're all so mad about that girl!" exclaimed Biddy. + +"Perhaps I do," smiled Miss Gilder. + +"_What_ is her fascination?" + +"Bedr could have told you," Monny cryptically replied. "He told several +people." + +"What do you mean, child? I'm eating my heart out to know!" + +"Don't eat it, dearest. You can't eat your heart and have it, too. And +it's your most important possession." + +"I wish you wouldn't tease me when I'm tired. Is it part of the secret +you and Rachel were always giggling over, when we first got to Cairo?" + +"Yes, dear, it is, if you must know. But I don't want to tell even you +what the secret is, please! You might think it your duty to spoil +Rachel's fun, and she and I are both enjoying it _so_ much." + +"Can you guess what she means, Duffer?" Biddy appealed to me. "You know +I wrote you that Monny and Miss Guest had a secret. I thought afterward +it might have been only their plan to see the hasheesh den; but since +then I've realized it was something else." + +"Even if I could guess, ought I to give Miss Gilder away, when she has +just told you she doesn't want you to know?" I asked innocently. + +They both turned on me in a flash. (I expected that.) "_Do_ you guess?" + +"I don't see, if I do, why I shouldn't have _my_ little secret," I +mildly replied. I knew that, after this, Monny would give me a good +deal of her society, even though she might not have forgiven me for +bolting to haul down the Cook ensign, in the midst of her confidences. +But in truth I have not guessed the secret! My wits go wheeling round +it, like screaming swallows who see a crumb. I get a glimpse of the +crumb, and lose it again. In my present mood I almost regret that Bedr +and his supposed Germans have not dumped themselves down in our field. +It would have been like them to do so, judging by the aggressive checks +on those mustard tweeds; but as a matter of fact the party has +disappeared from view since just before Birket Karun. They may have +turned back to Cairo; they may have been swallowed up by a palsied sand +dune; they may have been eaten by jackals (we saw a dead one), or they +may have taken to the fleshpots of a Greek hotel in Medinet; but the +fact remains that, just when he might be useful, Bedr is not to be had. + +In our tent to-night, I took advantage of our friendship to try and +draw Fenton out a little on the subject of his feelings. It seemed the +right hour to open the door of the soul. The Fallaheen having taken +their families home, our tent-flaps were up, and only the stars looked +in--stars swarming like fireflies in the blue cup of a hanging flower; +but Anthony would speak of nothing more intimate than the Mountain of +the Golden Pyramid, or his tiresome sheikh's tomb. I yearned to tell +him of the _contretemps_ about the hieroglyphic letter, but something +stopped the confession on the end of my tongue, though perhaps in the +circumstances, I owed it to Mrs. East. If he had mentioned her name the +story might have come out; but the one drop of Eastern blood which +mingles with a hundred of the West in Anthony's veins makes him +singularly reserved, aggravatingly reticent where women are concerned. +I used to think that this was because he was not interested in them. +But something--I can't explain what, unless it's instinct--tells me +that this is no longer the case. Another interest has come into his +life, rivalling his soldier interest, and the secret hope buried deep +in our Mountain. I see it in his eyes. I hear it in the _timbre_ of his +voice. It means Woman. But what woman? Is Monny right? Is he falling +seriously in love for the first time in his strenuous life with Biddy, +whom he picked out for admiration the moment he set eyes on her? Or is +it Monny herself? I must be a dog in the manger, because I don't like +the idea of its being either. + +He is asleep on the other side of the tent as I write. Desert dogs do +not disturb him. He's great on concentrating his mind, and when he goes +to sleep he concentrates on that. + +I wish he'd talk in his sleep! But even in unconsciousness, he is +discreet as a statue. + +_The Last Day. Evening:_ I am in disgrace, and am left alone to bear +it, so I may as well finish my Desert Diary. It's all an account of a +lamb, just an ordinary, modern lamb you might meet anywhere. But I +mustn't begin with that, though it haunts me. In spirit it's here in +the tent, sitting at my feet, staring up into my face. Avaunt, lamb! +Thy blood is not on _my_ head. Go to those who deserve thee. I wish to +write of Crocodilopolis. Shetet, the city was called in the beginning +of things; Shetet, or the "Reclaimed," for the Egyptians stole land +from the water, and made it the capital of their great Lake Province, +which Ptolemy Philadelphus renamed to please his adored wife. Queen +Arsinoe was charming, no doubt; and the Greek ruins and papyri of her +day are interesting, but it is the city sacred to the crocodile god +Sebek which can alone distract my thoughts now from the tragedy of the +black lamb. If his Ka refuses to go I shall set crocodiles at it +--ghosts of crocodiles mummied somewhere under the desert hills which +separate the Fayoum from the Nile Valley. + +We drove out to the ruins in a string of hired carriages, at an +incredibly early hour this morning. As the night was one long dog-howl, +and the dawn one overwhelming cockcrow, people were thankful to get up. +But what a waste of hardly obtained baths before the start! Between +Medinet and Crocodilopolis rose a solid wall of red dust. We had to +break through it, as firemen dash through the smoke of a burning house; +and when our arabeahs stopped at the foot of a mountainous mound, about +a mile out of Medinet, the dust had come too. Scrambling up, with the +wind on our backs, we began to breathe; but it was not until we had +ascended to the old guard house on top of the pottery strewn height, +that we could draw a clean breath. Then the reward was worth the pains. + +Down below us, seen as from a bird's-eye view, lay a vast, unroofed +honeycomb. It's size was incredible. The thing could not really be +there. It was a startling dream, that endless gold-brown city of +regular streets, and mud brick buildings, big and small, shops and +houses, theatres and libraries, lacking only their roofs, deserted save +by ghosts for thousands of years, yet looking as though it had been +destroyed by a cyclone yesterday. Down there in the devastated beehive +myriads of bees still worked frantically, human bees, which Cleopatra +said were reincarnations of those who had owned slaves and killed them +with forced labour, when Shetet was among the richest cities of the +"Two Lands." These bees of to-day worked to destroy, not to recreate, +for the crumbling brick is the best of fertilizers--and fertilizing +their land is the one great interest in life for the Fellaheen of the +Fayoum. Furiously they tore at the remaining walls; furiously they +packed away their treasure of dried mud in sacks; furiously they piled +it on backs of donkeys and rushed away to make room for others. Each +instant hundreds of wild figures in dusty black or blue scampered off, +beating loaded donkeys, only to be replaced by hundreds more doing the +same thing in the same manner. Yet always a few forms remained +stationary. They were police guardians of the ruins, men armed with +staves, whose business was to oversee each worker's sack, lest some +rare roll of papyri, some rich jewel which once adorned a pampered +crocodile of the lake, should be found and stolen. Glimpsed through the +red flame of blowing, ruby dust, the scene was a vision of Inferno; we +on our mount looking down on it were in company of Dante and Virgil. + +The rest of the day we gave to a light-railway excursion to Illahun and +the brick Pyramid of Hawara. There was much laughing and shrieking +among the girls of the Set (I don't count Monny, who shrieks for +nothing less terrible than the largest spiders) as Arabs pushed our +trolley cars along the line; and we were frivolous even on the site of +the labyrinth which was, perhaps, copied from the Labyrinth of Crete. + +The Set were frankly disappointed in the few remains of granite columns +and carvings; but vague memories of jewels seen at the Egyptian Museum +waked an interest in the brick pyramid tomb at Hawara where King +Amenemhat and his daughter Ptah-nefru lay for a few thousand years. All +of us were eager for the "last camp tea," when we got "home" from our +expedition, and it was then that the tragedy happened: the tragedy of +the black lamb. + +How could I guess, when Yusef said the camel-boys wanted money to buy +meat as a feast for the last day, that they meant to buy it alive? + +When we arrived in camp, an idyllic scene was being enacted. A woolly +black lamb with a particularly engaging facial expression was being +hospitably entertained by all our men with the exception of the chef. +They formed an admiring ring round it, taking turns in feeding it with +bersim, and patting its delightfully innocent head. It was difficult to +say which was happier, the charming guest or its kind hosts. + +"How _sweet_ of them!" said Miss Hassett-Bean. "I must write a few +verses about this, for our home paper!" + +Everybody joined with her in thinking the Arabs sweet, and Enid Biddell +went round and took up a collection. The men arranged a football match +for our benefit, to show their gratitude, and played so well and were +so picturesque that Sir John and other ardent sportsmen pressed more +money upon them. It was altogether a red-letter day for the camel-boys, +quite apart from the fact that they would get rid of their noble +benefactors to-morrow; and by way of a climax they had what we supposed +to be a bonfire at dark. + +"Aren't all those white figures wonderful, grouped round the blaze?" +asked Monny, who appeared on the whole satisfied with the way in which +the desert had taken her. "And look, the flames are reflected on the +clouds. I do believe it's going to _rain_, if such a thing can happen +here! I hope it won't spoil the poor darlings' celebration. Why, they +seem to have something big and black hanging over the fire. What _can_ +it be? Oh, it looks awful!" + +"It is not awful, mees," Yusef, standing near, good naturedly reassured +her. "It very naice. It is the lamb, they cook for their supper. The +genelman, milord, he give them money to buy it." + +"Lamb?" shrieked Monny, in a wild voice which brought a crowd round us. +"_Lamb_! Not--oh, not--" + +"Yes, mees, you all see it feeded when you come home, when you say it +so sweet. Camel-boys find sweeter now!" + +"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "Fiends! They invited that lamb here, and +brought it in their arms and played with it and did everything they +could to make it think it was having a pleasant afternoon, and then +--they _killed_ it!" + +"Of course, yes, mees," said Yusef, puzzled. "Why else for milord tell +they can buy it? They kill and pound it up to make it good, and soon +they eat in honour of the genelmen and ladies who have been so kind +this naice trip." + +"I should like to kill _them_!" gasped Monny, preparing to cry, and +flinging herself into Biddy's arms. "Oh--_somebody_ give me a hanky +--quick!" + +We all felt mechanically in our pockets; but I, being nearest, was +first in the field. It was a shock to see Monny wave my handkerchief +away with a gesture of horror, and bury her face in a far inferior one +tendered by Anthony. + +"No _wonder_!" exclaimed Miss Hassett-Bean, who is not, as a rule, a +Monny-ite. "You're _quite_ right, Miss Gilder. Lord Ernest Borrow, I +don't see _much_ difference between you and a murderer!" + +For a minute, I did not know what she meant. Then it broke upon me that +the Arabs' monstrous breach of hospitality to the lamb was laid at my +door. I jabbered explanations, but no one listened; and just then the +rain, which nobody had believed in, seized the opportunity of coming +down in floods. The camels roared with rage and surprise; the camel-boys +swore Arab oaths; the fire sputtered, and what became of the half-cooked +lamb I shall never know. We rushed for the dining-tent, all +soaked in an instant, with the exception of Brigit and Monny, whom +"Antoun" protected with a long cloak. + +Dinner was a gloomy feast, which might have been composed of funeral +baked meats, though the chef himself came to the door and vowed by all +his saints that the lamb cutlets were not from _that_ lamb. So well did +he exonerate himself, so eloquently did he protest that he had nothing +to do with the camel-boys' orgy, that another special collection was +taken up for him. + +"Poor, dear old gentleman!" sighed Miss Hassett-Bean. "I shall never be +able to forget him. When I'm out of this awful country of _cannibals_, +and safe in my own home, he will simply haunt me, passing his +respectable old age, black though he is, chasing across deserts on +camels, wrapped in a blanket and covered with chicken coops, at the +mercy of any queer Christian who can afford to pay for him. It's a +_tragedy_!" + +Perhaps she wrote her poem about the cook instead of the camel-boys. +Luckily, however, at the last moment I remembered a superstition of the +Ancient Egyptians. They were in the habit of sacrificing a black lamb +to propitiate Set, the sender of storms. Our lamb _was_ black: and at +the hour of his untimely death a storm was coming up. The dreadful +deed, therefore, was turned into a Rite. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN OILED HAND + + +That is where my diary of the desert stopped; for the adventure that +ended our trip was not of the sort that mixes well with tragedies of +lambs. + +Before dinner Monny had apologized for refusing my handkerchief, I +really believe because she was sorry she had misunderstood, _not_ +because the rain had leaked through her tent, and she wanted me to give +her mine. In fact, she and Biddy refused pointblank at first when +Anthony and I suggested the change. They would not have told us that +the water had come in on their beds if they had thought we would +suggest such a thing. All they wished for was to have the tent-roof +somehow mended before matters got worse. But we insisted, especially +Fenton; and he is difficult to disobey. A look from him, and a drawing +together of the black eyebrows has the same effect on the mind of a +rebellious woman as an "Off with her head!" from an Arabian Nights +Sultan, while I might vainly exert my ingenuity to achieve the result +he gets by sheer mysterious magnetism. + +It was bedtime when the leak showed itself, but the change of quarters +was accomplished with military quickness and precision, as Fenton's +undertakings generally are; and almost before they knew what had +happened, Monny and Brigit, who had been tent-mates during the tour, +found themselves transferred bag and baggage to our tent, with the last +clean sheets in the bedroom-Arab's possession. + +Transferred, we set ourselves to making repairs, and soon patched up +the leaks. Rain at this season comes so rarely, it was not surprising +that a stitch or two had been neglected. + +Only the pillows and upper blankets had had time to get wet, and we had +but to remove the coverings and turn the pillows. We both did this +simultaneously, and simultaneously exclaimed "Hullo!" + +"They've left their treasures" said Anthony, not with quite the +masculine scorn of feminine weaknesses I was used to noticing in him. +Indeed, he spoke almost tenderly, as a father might speak at finding +the forgotten doll of an absent child. + +Each of us stood with a wet pillow in his hand, gazing at his borrowed +bunk. In the one I had selected, lay a small chamois-skin bag, attached +to a narrow pink ribbon. In the bed chosen by Fenton, was a tiny white +enamelled watch, on a platinum chain. Both these things had been +covered by their respective owners' pillows, and forgotten in the hasty +change of quarters. The watch was Monny's. She wore it round her neck +every day--therefore the chamois-skin bag on the other bed must be +Brigit's. I told myself that in it she probably kept her pathetic store +of money, hidden under her bodice by day, her pillow by night; and +beholding this intimate souvenir of my childhood's friend, my heart +yearned over her. + +"Too late to rouse them up now," said Anthony. + +"Yes," said I. "We must have been twenty minutes or half an hour +getting the roof to rights. They may be asleep, and if not, they won't +worry anyhow. They'll know that their things are safe till to-morrow +morning." + +Fenton agreed with this verdict, and each keeping charge of his own +treasure trove, we went to bed and to sleep. + +I am a champion dreamer. So much so, that I often find the life of +dreamland rivalling in interest the life this side of sleep. I look +forward to my dreams, as some people look forward to an interesting +dinner-party; but that night I was too tired to inspect the dream-menu, +before lying down to it. The first thing I knew, a handsome Egyptian +god with crystal eyes, like those which Bill Bailey means to make the +fashion, stood by my bedside. I asked him politely whether he were Ra +or Osiris, deliberately picking the two best gods of the bunch in order +to flatter him; but without answering, he pointed a bronze hand to the +mat on which he stood. It was a white mat, and on it I read a word +which evidently he meant me to take as his name: TAM HTAB. For an +instant it seemed to me a fine name for an Egyptian god, though I +hadn't met it before. Then I burst out laughing disrespectfully. "Why, +you're only a Bath Mat wrong side out!" I heard myself sneering; and +the god disappeared as a flash of lightning comes and is gone. In +going, however, he stumbled slightly against the bed. It was a mere +touch; but that, or my own voice, half waked me up. + +"TAM HTAB," I mumbled dreamily; and was just reminding myself before +dropping off to sleep again that I must tell Biddy about the new bath +god, when I realized that he had not quite gone. No, not quite gone! It +must be he who still lingered by the bed, for it could be nobody else. +Anthony would not come and hover silently at my bedside in the middle +of the night. Besides, I was almost awake now, and I could hear the +gentle, regular breathing of a man asleep: Anthony's breathing. + +"Go away, TAM HTAB," I tried to say, but I was not awake enough to +speak. He was bending over the bed. His face was near to mine. I felt +rather than saw it. "How could I see in the dark?" sleepily, even +fretfully, I asked myself. And yet, _was_ the tent dark?...It had been, +I remembered that. I remembered that Anthony had got to bed first, and +I had extinguished the two candles on the washhand-stand. Afterward, I +had had to grope my way to the bed. Now, however, there was a light...a +very faint, rather curious light. There seemed to be only a square of +it, a square sloped off at the top. It was opposite my eyes, which +really were open now, I felt sure. I couldn't be dreaming this. It was +like a queer-shaped window in the blackness, a window full of +starlight, but close to the floor. Then the rain must have stopped. The +stars must be out. Yes, but how could I see that? There was no window +in the tent. + +This thought dragged the last film of sleep off my tired brain, like a +veil snatched away by impatient fingers on an unseen hand. + +Odd! Those very words said over themselves in my head: "Fingers on an +unseen hand." And that was because a hand was being slipped cautiously, +inch by inch, under my pillow. It was the Egyptian god's hand. But I +knew suddenly that the dream-god had turned into a thief: that the +silver-glimmering square of light was one of the tent flaps unbuttoned +and turned back. That the man must stealthily have pulled up a peg or +two while we slept our heavy sleep, must have crept into the tent, +soft-footed over the thick rugs, and now here he was, trying to steal. + +After that, I did not go on with the thought. My dull reasoning snapped +off as short as a dry stick. I made a grab for the hand under my +pillow, seized a wrist, held it for an instant in a grip which must +have hurt, then had the shame and disappointment of feeling it slip out +of my grasp, like a greased snake. There was a stifled exclamation of +pain or surprise, scarcely louder than a sigh, and I was out of bed and +after a shadow that ran for the low square of starlight. Something +caught and tripped me as I reached the opening. What it was I did not +know then and don't know now, but I had a vague impression that it was +warm. If I had stumbled against a bare leg thrust out to stop me, it +would have felt like that. Yet it could not have been the leg of the +man running away. He was using both his, and must have used them well, +for I was up and out from under the lifted tent flap which had fallen +on top of me as I tumbled, before I could have counted five. Very wide +awake now, I stood in the rough, sandy grass, under a sky encrusted +with stars, and could see no one. Barefooted, I pattered this way and +that, searching every shadow, but the whole camp seemed an abode of +peace. There was not a sound or movement even in the black ring of +sleeping camels. Rain had driven to shelter the roving dogs which had +troubled us last night. The camp lanterns burned clear and strong, +yellow and crude in the silver flood of starlight which dulled their +radiance. The smell of earth and grass after the heavy shower was like +the fragrance of tea roses. Could it be that an evil, stealthy presence +had but just broken this sweet serenity with its vile intention, or had +the whole incident been after all a singularly vivid dream? I should +have believed so, if my hand which had clutched that other hand, had +not been slippery with oil. + +No, I had not dreamed. And suddenly a troubling thought leaped into my +mind. "Biddy!" The name sprang to my lips and spoke itself aloud. + +If this were for her! I had laughed at her forebodings. Sensational +revenges such as she feared seemed so incongruous, so utterly unsuited +to those laughing, long-lashed eyes of hers! Yet she had in her past +life lived side by side with fear and tragedy for more years than I +liked to count. And as she said, men such as those whom Richard O'Brien +had betrayed had been known to reach out very far to take revenge. +Biddy had done nothing. Surely they owed her no grudge. But she had +known things. Perhaps they thought that she knew even more than she did +know. Their organization was rich as well as powerful. It had many +branches. Yet why should men use its power to hurt the widow of a dead +enemy, now that they--or fate--had put him underground? + +In a flash I remembered the chamois-skin bag, which she had forgotten +under the pillow: and lifting the loosened canvas flap with its +dangling pegs, I stooped to go back into the tent. Inside, I expected +to find darkness, but instead I found light; Anthony up, setting a +match to a candle wick, and looking a tall, dark silhouette in his +pyjamas. + +"What's the row?" he calmly wanted to know--too calmly to suit my +ruffled mood. + +"A thief, that's all," I answered, hastily searching under the pillow +where the unseen hand had been. Sheet and pillow-case were slimy with +oil, yet the chamois-skin bag was safe. "But he didn't get what he +wanted!" I finished. + +"Good," said Anthony, who had lighted both candles. "Let's go look for +him." + +"I've been, and couldn't see anything." + +"I know. I heard a sound. I sang out, and you didn't answer, so I +thought something must be up. Let's have another try. I've got Miss +Gilder's watch." + +I slipped Biddy's bag into the pocket of my pyjamas, and pulling on our +boots we went out into the night. + +"It's _their_ tent I'm thinking of," I said, though I'd never talked of +Brigit O'Brien's affairs to Fenton. "If some one had planned to rob +them, not knowing of the change we made at the last minute--" + +"All our Arabs did know--" + +"I'm not talking of them. We've been here two days. Any one could have +spied on us enough to find out which tent was Mrs. Jones' and Miss +Gilder's." + +"You're thinking of Bedr?" + +"Well, yes, I suppose I am. Biddy never believed they were Germans." + +"Who, those chaps in checked clothes he had in tow? By Jove! yes--I +heard her speak of a scar on the forehead of one." + +"She thought he might have been Burke, the fellow in the street row, +that night at the House of the Crocodile." + +"These things happen to heiresses in old-fashioned story books," said +Anthony. "But there's nothing that happens in a story which can't +happen in real life, I suppose--especially to _such_ a girl. She--" + +"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of her!" I began, then stopped, shocked +because it was true, and also because I was unwilling to tell why my +thoughts had turned to "Mrs. Jones." + +"We must find out if they're safe," I went on. "The thieves seem to +have got clear away and we're not likely to find them, unless they've +gone to our old tent--" + +"Come along," said Anthony. "We'll slip on something, and call the +ladies as softly as we can, not to disturb the others and have the +whole camp buzzing like a beehive. When we're sure _they're_ all right, +we can attend to such details as searching for tracks." + +He seemed as eager as I was, to know that the two women were safe; but +there was no sign to tell me about which one he chiefly concerned +himself. + +A minute transformed him from a pyjamaed Englishman into a robed +Egyptian of that old-fashioned order which despises things European. +Only, he forgot to put on his turban. I didn't think of the omission +myself at the time, but I recalled it later. + +Going to the tent which had been ours, I scratched on the tight drawn +canvas near the spot where I knew one of the folding iron bedsteads was +placed. "Biddy--Biddy!" I called gently, and after a few repetitions I +heard her voice, rather sleepy, a little anxious, cry, "Is that you, +Duffer?" + +"Yes," I whispered, seeing the tent quiver in the region of some big +cushiony buttons. "'Antoun' and I are both here. But don't be scared. +Could you come and peep out from under the door flap a minute?" + +"Yes," said she. "Go round there, and I'll come." + +There was not much delay, for Biddy's crinkled black hair needs no +night disfigurements by way of patent curlers. In a few seconds the +door flap waved, and Biddy looked out into the starlight, the yellow +glimmer of a candle flame within the tent silhouetting the Japanesey +little figure wrapped in a kimono. Behind her dark head and above it, +floated a mist of bronzy gold, which I took to be Miss Gilder's hair. +There seemed to be quantities of it, and I should have been feverishly +interested in wondering how long it was, if I had had time to think of +anything but my thankfulness that Biddy and Monny were both safe. + +"Are either of you ill?" asked the creamy Irish voice which had never +sounded half so sweet as now, in the starlight and fragrance of this +strange night. "Because if you are, I've some lovely medicine--" + +"I wouldn't frighten them any more than I could help, if I were you," I +heard Fenton mumbling advice in muffled tones at my back. + +For obvious reasons I made no audible answer; but I had just been +resolving not to tell Biddy my suspicions unless it were necessary to +do so. + +"No, we're not ill," I assured her. "But there's been a silly sort of +scare about a sneak thief: may have been a false alarm, and we won't +say anything about it to-morrow, if others don't. We're horribly sorry +to disturb you and Miss Gilder, but we couldn't rest without making +sure you hadn't been worried." + +"_You_ heard nothing, did you, Monny?" Brigit threw a question over her +shoulder to the floating mist of gold. + +"No, and I wasn't asleep either," Miss Gilder's voice answered. "I was +lying awake thinking about its being our last night--and lots of +things." + +"I was lying half awake, too, thinking of 'lots of things,'" Biddy +mimicked her friend, "or I shouldn't have heard you so easily when you +scratched on the canvas. Oh, by the way, Duffer, did you or Antoun +Effendi find a little chamois-skin bag under the pillow?" + +"I found it," said I, and this gave me a chance I had been wanting but +hadn't quite known how to snatch. "I was rather worried over the +responsibility. Of course you knew that we'd take care of your +treasures." + +"It's all my money, and--and just _one_ other thing!" Biddy answered, +with an odd little hesitation in her manner and a catch in her voice. +"I should hate to have anybody open that bag. I'm thankful it's safe. +With you, I know it's _sacred_. All the same, I'd like to have it, if +you don't mind the bother." + +"You oughtn't to carry the thing about with you, if it's so important," +I scolded her. "Why not leave your secret treasure, whatever it is, and +most of your money, in Cairo, when you come off on an expedition like +this?" + +"I don't know," she mumbled evasively. "I'm used to having this thing +with me. I can't think how I forgot it under my pillow. I never have +before. It isn't the sort of--of valuable one keeps in a bank. Monny +embroidered the bag when she was a little girl. It was her first work. +I taught her how to do it, and she gave it to me for a birthday +present. I wouldn't lose it for the world." + +"You shan't," I said soothingly. I had heard what I had been afraid to +hear; but why should Biddy's trip be spoiled by another worry if I +could shield her? We could not _know_ that the oiled hand had been +groping for that bag; and I resolved not to distress Brigit by putting +the idea into her head at present. "Go to sleep again in peace, both of +you," I went on. "All's well, since _you_ are well. Probably some +prowler has been sneaking round the kitchen-tent." + +"Yes. The news of the lamb has gone forth!" said Biddy. "Good night!" + +"Good night!" I answered. + +Down went the tent flap, and hid the sparkle of eyes in starsheen, and +mist of gold in wavering candle-light. We trusted that the two had +crept back into their beds; but we did not return to ours. We took one +of the camp lanterns and searched for footprints--those which were +freshest after the rain. The rough grass growing sparsely out of the +sandy earth was not favourable to such attempts, however; and even at +dawn, when we looked again before the camp was stirring, we made no +notable discoveries such as amateur detectives make, in books. + +Our next expedition, as soon as light came, was to the town, where we +inquired at the few hotels, and put questions to the police. Nobody +answering the description of Bedr and his two companions had been seen +in Medinet, and we had to go back to camp baffled. + +There was our adventure; and when we reached Cairo by train, the +mystery of the oiled hand was still unsolved. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE SHIP'S MYSTERY AGAIN + + +I expected a black mark for the lamb and every little desert +difficulty, but, to my surprise, only our joys were remembered. Those +who had stayed in Cairo exchanged tales with the desert travellers, and +it was astonishing to hear what a marvellous week we had had. Each day +had been better than its brother. In fact, our trip had been one long, +glorious dream of golden sands and amethyst sunsets; the camels were as +easy to ride as sofas, and combined the intelligence of human beings +with the disposition of angels; the camp was as luxurious as the Savoy +or the Plaza; and to me and that wonderful Antoun Effendi all credit +was suddenly due. Not to be outdone, the stayers in Cairo had had the +"time of their lives." They had not been herded together like animals +in a menagerie, as in Colonel Corkran's day. The girls had not only +been to dances, but had danced with darling pets of officers, friends +of Ernest Borrow; while their mothers had been asked to those +fascinating picnics they get up in Egypt, don't you know, where you dig +in ancient burial grounds and find mummy beads and amulets. Somehow or +other, all these people attributed their pleasures to me, as they had +blamed me for their mishaps; and my spirits were at the top of the +thermometer three days later when, after some hard work, the +_Enchantress Isis_ was ready to start "up Nile." + +Sir Marcus wanted "his tours to be different from every other Nile +tour, and a little better." He wanted to "show what he could do," and +he was beginning well. Though the _Enchantress Isis_ had had a past +under other owners, she looked as if this were her maiden trip, and she +was as beautifully decorated as a debutante for her first ball. Her +paint was new and gleaming white; her brass and nickel glittered like +jewellery; and even those who thought nothing quite good enough for +them, uttered admiring "Ohs!" as they trooped on board. + +"The Highway of Egypt" was a silver-paved road, leading to adventure. +The masts of native boats lying along the river bank were etched in +black lines crowding one over another, on the lightly washed-in +background of blue. Near by, the great Kasr-el-Nil bridge gleamed with +colour and life like a rainbow "come alive"; and the _Enchantress Isis_ +looked as gay and inviting as a houseboat _en fete_ for Henley regatta. +She was smaller than the most modern of the Nile boats, for she had +been sold cheap to Sir Marcus by another firm: but she was big enough +for his experiment, though he had turned some of her cabins into +private baths and sitting-rooms. Her three decks towered out of the +water with a superior air of stateliness, such as small women put on +beside tall sisters; and her upper deck was a big open-air sitting-room. +There were Turkish rugs on the white floor, and basket chairs and +sofas with silk cushions. On the tables and on the piano top there were +picture-books of Egypt, and magazines, and bowls of flowers. From the +roof, sprouted electric lamps with brass leaves and glass lotuses; and +smiling Arabs in white from turban to slippers had blue larks flying +wide-winged on their breasts. Oh, yes, Sir Marcus was "doing" his +clients well, that was patent at first glance, and became even more +conspicuous to the eyes of the Set as they wandered into the dining +saloon, drawing-room and library, or peeped into each other's cabins. +Sir Marcus himself had come on board ostensibly to see us off, really +to watch the effect of his boat upon Cleopatra. He lay in wait for her +outside the door of her suite (the best on board), pretending to engage +me in conversation, but forgot my existence as she appeared. The +ecstasy on his big face was pathetic, as his brown eyes fixed +themselves on a quantity of artificial blue lotuses she held in her +hands. + +"Do you like 'em, Mrs. East?" he ventured. + +"Do I like what?" she inquired, that quiver of impatience in her tone +which she kept for her unfortunate adorer. + +"The--those flowers," he stammered. "I--" + +"They're _awful_!" she exclaimed. "The rooms are lovely, but these +dreadful artificial things some _silly_ person has stuck all over the +place spoil the whole effect. I want to find an Arab to take them away. +Or do you think I might throw them overboard? No one _could_ like them, +I'm sure." + +"Of course, chuck 'em overboard--or hand 'em to me, and I'll do it," +said Sir Marcus, looking ready to cry. "But--they're _lotuses_, I +suppose you know? I heard you say you'd give anything to have some." + +"Not artificial ones," explained Cleopatra, _belle dame sans merci_. "I +can't stand artificial flowers even on hats, much less in rooms. Who +could have put such horrors all over my _salon_?" + +"I don't know," Sir Marcus lied stoutly; "but it shan't happen again. +There ain't any real lotuses to be got, so maybe the--er--the +decorator--" his meanderings died into silence, as he took the bunch of +flowers from Mrs. East, and viciously flung them as tribute to the +Nile. + +"After all, we oughtn't to do that," said Cleopatra. "In the beautiful +old days real lotuses were given to the Nile. These are an insult." + +"They aren't meant as such," the big man apologized, all joy in his +fine boat and the compliments he had received crushed out of him. I +knew now that he had hovered at Cleopatra's door hoping for a cry of +pleasure. Probably he had ransacked Cairo for the lotuses, or +telegraphed to Paris, before his cruel lady went from him into the +desert. I was sorry for the "boss," though a snub or two would be good +for him, no doubt, and perhaps were being specially provided by a wise +Providence. But I had other things to think of than Sir Marcus Lark's +love-troubles: Monny, for instance, who at last had found a letter from +"Madame Wretched" in Cairo, and had wonderful schemes in her head. On +board the _Laconia_ I should have thought such schemes obstinate and +headstrong, the wish of a spoiled child to do something dangerous, to +meddle in matters which did not concern her, and to have "an +adventure." But I understood the Gilded Rose a little better now. I +began to see the real Monny as Biddy saw her, bright with the flame of +courage and enthusiasm and passionate generosity, behind the passing +cloud of superficial faults. She wanted everybody to be as fortunate +and happy as she, and was prepared to be exceedingly trying and +disagreeable in the effort to make them so. + +We had not been on board ten minutes when Biddy told me about the +exciting letter, and escorted me to find it and Monny. Miss Gilder was +in the act of insisting that General and Mrs. Harlow should accept her +suite, and that she should take their cabin. The matter had to be +argued out before she could spare attention for anything else; but as +she made it clear that the Harlows were not to pay extra, their +scruples were soon conquered. "The baggage hasn't been put into the +cabins yet," she explained breathlessly to me, "so that's all right!" + +In my astonishment, I forgot Madame Wretched. "But why," I adjured +Monny in my professional tone, as conductor, "why on earth should you +sacrifice yourself to these people? What have they done for you? I +thought you didn't like them?" + +"I don't," she replied, calmly, while Biddy listened, smiling. "That's +why I gave them my suite--at least, it's partly why." + +"I should think the other part of the 'partly' is more convincing," I +remarked; and Monny blushed. + +"Perhaps you know that your friend Antoun Effendi thinks me the most +selfish as well as the most obstinate girl he ever saw," she said. "And +I don't intend to have foreigners like him go on doing American girls +an injustice. Besides, maybe he's right about me--and I want him to be +wrong. I hate having all the best things there are everywhere, just +because I'm rich. The Harlows wanted a suite, and they couldn't afford +to take one. They were looking sadly through the door at my rooms and +envying me, so I thought I would change. I was _determined_ to change, +whether they would let me or not. They are old; I'm young, and I shall +enjoy thinking I've done something nice for people I thoroughly +dislike, as much as _they_ will enjoy having their own bathroom." + +"If Mrs. Harlow could hear you calling her old!" gurgled Biddy. + +"Well, she _is_ old. And she's perfectly horrid, much more horrid even +than Miss Hassett-Bean; so I'd rather give my suite to her and her +husband than any one else. Biddy and Rachel are together, and Aunt +Clara is alone. I'm robbing no one but myself." + +"How do you know Antoun Effendi thinks you selfish and obstinate?" I +inquired. "Surely he wasn't rude enough to say so?" + +"He was indeed, the day I _would_ have the coastguard camel, and he +came after me when it ran away," she confessed. "And you're not to tell +him about the suite. I didn't give it up to please him." + +"I thought you did," I ventured, "in order that Egyptian princes +shouldn't do injustice to American girls?" + +"I meant," she explained hastily, "that I like to know they're _wrong_ +about us. And now what was it that Biddy and you wanted to say? Oh, +poor Mabel's letter! How thankful I am to get it! I've been wondering +if I dared write, and thinking of all sorts of desperate plans. But, +Biddy thought we must wait till Wretched was off his guard. You see, we +shall have to rescue her when we get to Asiut." + +I would have answered, but a look from Biddy enjoined silence. And so +we were in touch with the "Ship's Mystery" again! I took the envelope, +which was addressed to Miss Gilder in a distinctively American +handwriting, strange to see coming from an Egyptian harem. + +The letter began abruptly, and showed signs of haste: + +"You were so good, I know I can appeal to you, but I'm not sure if +there's any way to help me. I began to be frightened on the ship, when +_he_ behaved so queerly, just because I talked about the most ordinary +things to one or two men. He made me stay in my cabin--but you'll +remember that. Already it's like ages ago! I tell myself now that I was +almost happy then. At least, I believed I was his _wife_, and that it +was better than being poor, and a governess to hateful French children +in Paris. He was kind, too--he seemed to love me; and I thought it was +like living in a romance to marry a Turk. He swore he'd never loved any +one except me, that he'd never been married, and that he wouldn't try +to convert me or shut me up like Turkish women. But everything was +untrue and different from what he said. I hardly know how to tell you, +for you will think it horrible, yet I must tell. When I came here, I +found he _had a wife already_, and a perfectly fiendish little girl. It +is legal in this dreadful country to have four wives, but I don't care +about the law. I want to get away. I've been cheated. This isn't +marriage! I don't know what will become of me, for I haven't any money, +but I'd rather starve than stay. I heard Mr. Sheridan say on board ship +that it was easy to get a divorce in Egypt or Turkey. Maybe he meant me +to hear, thinking some day I might be glad to know. But I can't get a +divorce while I'm shut up in this house and watched. Now, _he_ suspects +I want to leave him (since a scene we had about the wife), and he won't +let me go out, even into the garden. You are my only hope. You'll +wonder why I don't try appealing to the American Consul here, instead +of to you. I suppose there must be a consul--Asiut seems a big, +important town. I'll tell you why I don't. For one thing, there mayn't +be a consul. For another thing, the woman who has promised to post this +wouldn't do so if she guessed I was writing against my husband, who is +her brother-in-law, and she would guess if she saw an envelope +addressed to a consul, although she knows scarcely any English. I have +to talk to her in French. He thinks she is devoted to him, and that +she's explaining the Mussulman religion and ideas of a woman's life to +me, or he wouldn't let her come. It's true, she is loyal to him, in a +way. She wouldn't help me to escape. But I think women in the harems +like to have secrets with each other, which they hide from their men. +I've told her about you, how pretty you are, and a great heiress and +she's so interested, she's dying to see you. She hopes, if she posts +this letter, that you will call on me on your way up the Nile. She can +perhaps find out what day your boat is to arrive, through her husband, +and then she'll try to come to our house on the chance of meeting you. +I'm almost sure she'll keep her promise and post this letter. If not +--if he sees it, maybe he will kill me. I believe now he would do +anything. But I must run the risk. Do come. Do think of some way to +help. + +"MABEL. + +"I don't feel I have the right to any other name, for surely as he has +a wife I'm not truly married." + + +"Well?" asked Monny, as she saw me finish and fold up the letter. "You +were horrid about her at first, but just at the last minute on the +ship, you were good, and kept Wretched Bey talking, so I might have my +chance with Mabel. If you hadn't, I shouldn't like you as much as I do. +And I'm sure even you'll be anxious to do something now." + +"Yet we don't wish Ernest or Antoun Effendi to run into danger, do we, +dear?" Biddy suggested, coaxingly. "When you wanted to show the letter, +I said yes, but--" + +Monny listened no longer. Her eyes were sparkling, as they looked +straight into mine. "Antoun Effendi!" she repeated. "Tell me first +--because, you know, you are his friend--what would he think about a case +like this? Whatever he is, he's not a Mussulman, I'm sure. Still, he's +not one of us--" + +"You're sure he's not a Mussulman?" I echoed. "What makes you sure, +when you know he's been to Mecca, unless somebody has put the idea into +your head?" "His own head put it there," she answered. "I saw it +without his turban, the night of the alarm in camp. It wasn't shaved, +as I've read the heads of Moslem men are. It was a head like--like the +head of every Christian man I know, except that it was a better shape +than most! So, as he isn't Mussulman, he might not mind our trying to +help this poor deceived girl?" + +"Shall I ask his advice?" I inquired, rather drily perhaps. + +She hesitated for an instant, then said "Yes!" + +"You seem certain that whatever he thinks, he won't betray your plan." + +"I am certain," she replied, looking rapt. "He's not the kind of man +who betrays." + +"You're right," I said. "He's not the kind of man who betrays. He's the +kind that helps. Though in such a case as this--you know, the very +meaning of the word "harem" is "sacred" or "forbidden." Still--we shall +see!" + +We could not "see" at once, however, because Anthony had not come on +board. Even when the hour for starting arrived, there was no Anthony, +no message from Anthony. "Your friend isn't going to leave us in the +lurch, is he?" asked Sir Marcus, watch in hand. He had meant to travel +with us as far as Beni Hasan, our first stop, and return to Cairo by +donkey and train, but had changed his intention and was going off at +once--I thought I could guess why. "The _Enchantress Isis_ ought to be +under way this minute, but Antoun and you are our chief attractions. We +can't leave him behind." + +I agreed. We could not leave Anthony behind, but I was not worrying. If +he had to drop down out of an aeroplane, I felt sure that having said +he would come, he would keep his word. So, while Sir Marcus stared at +his watch and fumed, I rushed usefully about among the ladies who +clamoured for their luggage, or complained that their cabins were too +small for innovation trunks. I showed them how these travelling +wardrobes could be opened wide and flattened against the walls, taking +up next to no room; I assured each woman in confidence that she had +been given the best cabin on the boat; I dealt out little illustrated +books about the trip; I advised people which tables to choose in the +dining-saloon, and consoled them when the places they wanted were gone. +Still, the _Enchantress Isis_ had not stirred, and a rumour was +beginning to go round that something had happened, when suddenly I saw +Antoun Effendi's green turban. + +"Thank goodness!" muttered Sir Marcus, putting his watch into his +pocket. And then Mrs. East came swiftly across the deck from the door +of her own suite, where she must have stood watching, hidden behind the +portiere. "Oh, Antoun Effendi!" she cried, and though her face was +turned toward us, she did not seem to know that we existed. How Anthony +looked at her we could not judge, for we saw only his back; but her +eyes must have told Sir Marcus a piece of news. He glanced from her to +Fenton, and from Fenton to her, with the expression of a school-boy who +has been punished for something he hasn't done. Then he turned to me as +though to ask a question; but shut his mouth tightly, as if gulping +down a large pill, wheeled, and left me without a good-bye. I wondered, +Cleopatra-fashion, what he had done in his last incarnation to deserve +these heavy blows in the hour which should have seen his triumph. "What +if he changes his mind and doesn't want Fenton and me after all?" I +asked myself. To my surprise, I realized that it would be a genuine +disappointment not to be wanted by Sir Marcus Lark. The Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid had nothing to do with this. It was borne in upon me +that I had begun to enjoy the role of conductor; and certainly I was +learning lessons in high diplomacy which might be useful in my career. + +Anthony, who was free as an eagle from questions of innovation trunks +and how to give everybody the best cabins, and places at table, looked +as if he were bound for the Island of Hesperides, on a voyage of pure +romance. The air of gravity and responsibility he had worn in Cairo and +in the desert was gone with the starting of the boat. I knew suddenly, +without asking him, that his mission had been of a far more serious +nature than the transplanting of a sheikh's tomb; that there had been +something else, and that it had finished at the last moment in success. + +"Sir Marcus was worrying about you," I said, when the importance of +unpacking left the deck empty save for Anthony and me. + +"You weren't, were you?" He was smiling at me in a friendly, +confidential way that showed a happy mood. + +"Not I! I knew you'd turn up, as you'd said you would." + +"Thanks, my good Duffer. But now it's over, I don't mind telling you +that it was a toss up." + +"You mean there was a chance of your failing us--in spite of the +Mountain?" + +"Well, I meant to bring this off somehow. But my first duty was to +finish up the Cairo business. I simply had to finish it, and I did. It +was a--rather bigger job than the sheikh's tomb racket, though of +course that was on the cards, too. Everything's all right now; but I +spent last night in getting the full details of an Arab plot to blow up +the house of a rich Copt, who's been of great service to the +Government. Some of the young Nationalists think that the Christian +Copts are put ahead of Moslems by the British, and there are +jealousies. The whole set of men concerned in this affair were arrested +an hour ago, so all's well with the world! I'm free to turn my face +toward the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid--free to enjoy myself, +although I must stick to my turban still." + +"Are you getting tired of it?" I asked. + +"I've been tired of it since the first day I put it on. I don't like +play-acting for long. But it was necessary. And it has had its +advantages as well as disadvantages for me." + +I should have liked to ask another question then, but dared not, so +instead I told him about the letter from Bechid Bey's beautiful +American bride, Mabella Hanem, the "Ship's Mystery" of the _Laconia_. +Anthony listened, as the _Enchantress Isis_ slipped past the Island of +Roda, past Ghizeh, past old Cairo and still older Babylon, then out on +to the broad bosom of the river where the Nile Valley lay bathed in +sunshine from Gebel Mokattam in the east, to the Libyan hills--haunt of +departed spirits--in the west. + +"Miss Gilder wants me to help, does she?" he asked at last. "She told +you to tell me about this?" + +"I warned her that you mightn't approve," I explained. "I said you had +more knowledge of Egypt in your little finger than I had in all my gray +matter, and you might think that nothing could be done--" + +"Tell her I think something may be done," he interrupted me. "And +before we reach Asiut we'll plan out how best to do it." + +"You and I?" + +"You and _she_ and I. She has brains as well as courage." + +"She?" + +"Of course I mean Miss Gilder." + +"Oh! Is it 'of course'? There are others who answer that description." + +Fenton smiled. "But it's going to be her show." + +"She is under the impression," I reminded him, laughing, "that all +Egypt, including the Nile, and you and your green turban, are her +'show'." + +Anthony did not answer. Perhaps already he was thinking of something +else. I should have liked to be sure exactly what his smile meant. Was +it for Monny? Was it for Biddy? Or only for an adventure which he saw +in the distance? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ASIUT AFFAIR + + +Nothing could be less appropriate to the Spirit of the Nile than our +spirit in setting out. We had turned our backs upon medieval Cairo, and +our faces toward Ethiopia. Our minds should have teemed with thoughts +of early gods, and the mysteries of their great temples. But not at +all. Medieval or prehistoric, it was all one to us in our secret +hearts, which throbbed with passionate excitement over our own small +affairs of to-day, and to-morrow. Little cared we, as our white boat +bore us southward, on the bosom of the sacred river--little cared we +for the love-story of the Great Enchantress--pupil of Magician Thoth, +--fair Isis, in whose honour that boat was named. Her tragic journey +along this river, whose stream she could augment by one sacred tear, +should have been followed by our fancy. We should have seen with our +minds' eyes the lovely lady asking news of the painted boat which +carried the dead body of her murdered husband Osiris, asking always +vainly, until she thought of questioning the little children. But +instead we thought of our own love-stories and amusements. We played +bridge, and danced the Tango on deck; we drummed on the piano, or +warbled the latest musical comedy airs. Above all, we flirted, or +gossiped about those who flirted, if for any reason we were off the +active list of flirters ourselves. + +To be sure, we had brought learned books, and took pains to leave them +in our chairs, open at marked passages of deep interest to students. We +even scribbled heterogeneous notes, if for a moment there were nothing +more amusing to do; and bits of paper scampered wildly about the deck +informing those who retrieved them that "Nub" was ancient Egyptian for +"gold," that Osiris created men and women from the tears he wept over +his own body, cut in pieces by Set; that the ivy was his favourite +plant; or that "scarabeus" was the Greek word for a blue-green beetle, +which created itself from itself, becoming the symbol of eternal life. +All this, however, was affectation. Each hoped others might think that +he or she was not an ordinary tourist: each wished to pose as a devotee +of some phase of history concerning gods, temples, or portrait statues, +anything not difficult to "study up." But life was too strong for us. +The colour and glamour of the Nile got into our blood. Hathor, goddess +of Love, bewitched us into doing queer things which we should not have +dreamed of doing if we hadn't drunk "Nile champagne." Yet after all, +what did it matter? We were absorbing what our hearts, if not our +minds, called out for: the enchantment of Egypt. + +More or less conscientiously I performed the duties Sir Marcus Lark had +bribed me to perform. I gave neat little lectures, and tried to remind +people, whether they liked it or not, that almost every moment the boat +was taking us past places of astonishing interest. + +The so-called tombs of "Beni Hasan," the _Enchantress Isis_ stopped for +us to see, in order that we might admire wall-paintings in rock +chambers, and gabble about Queen Hatasu or King Seti and his mother +Pakhet, the "Beautiful Lady of the Speos." But it was difficult to +rouse emotion concerning things which we glided by without visiting. + +Ruined temples were everywhere, "thick as flies," as I heard Harry +Snell say to Enid Biddell; but why bother about them, when finer ones +were waiting further down on the menu-card of the Nile-feast? +Especially when there was a pretty girl to walk the deck with, +meanwhile? As for Tell el-Marna, the Heretic King's great city, the +general vote went against a visit to the ruins. Antoun Effendi praised +it as one of the most interesting places near the Nile, because with +the exception of Queen Hatasu and Rameses the Great, Amen-hetep IV was +the most human personality in Egyptian history. But only Monny, who was +making a hero of Aknator, really wished to delay at the Disc +Worshipper's Utopia. It must have seemed strange to the Gilded Rose not +to have her will prevail; but there was a "clique" on board who +appeared to find pleasure in thwarting Monny. Her sacrifice to the +Harlows was misunderstood. She had made it, said those who did not like +her, in order to gain credit for unselfishness, or to have an excuse +for displaying herself _en route_ to the public bath, in a dream of a +dressing-gown, and a vision of a cap, carrying a poem of a sponge bag. +Rachel Guest was still mysteriously more popular than Monny, and was +said to have had two proposals on the first day. She didn't want to get +off the boat to see irrelevant painted pavements, in the harem of +Aknaton's royal palace, and her laziness won, when the vote was taken. +But what did anything matter, if the glamour of the Nile was in our +blood? + +Not one of us but thrilled to the droning cry of the shadoof men on the +brown banks, as the dripping water jars went up and up, tier after tier +above the river level. Not one but felt a strange allurement in the +passing scene; the dark mystery of palm groves, whose slender stems +were prison bars against the shining sky; the copper glow of the +mud-bricks in piled-up villages; the colour of the flowing water, where +secret gleams as from flooded gold mines seemed to glint through masses +of dead violets, that floated with the tide. No eye so dull that it +could not see how the shadows on land and water were painted at evening +with a blue glaze, like the bloom on old scarabs and mummy beads, and +broken bits of pottery that art cannot copy now. + +In her way, even Miss Hassett-Bean felt the charm of the Nile, and its +shores of brown and emerald and peacock-purple. "I don't call it +_scenery_," she explained. "Except when the light is different, or +there's some green stuff for cattle growing on the banks, everything's +the same yellow-brown; and nothing happens but palms and mud villages, +and shadoofs, and a few Arabs, or camels, or those ugly water buffaloes +they say the devil made, to show what he could do. But the funny thing +is, you can't bear to shut your eyes for a single minute for fear of +missing a tree, or a mound, or one of those tall-masted gyassas loaded +with white and pink pottery: they all seem so ridiculously _important_, +somehow! Then, there's that bothersome north wind following you, and +trying to freeze your spine, unless you pounce on the best seat where +it can't reach. If you put on your fur coat you're too hot; if you +don't you're too cold. At night your bed creaks, and so does everybody +else's. You hear a creaking all down the line when people turn over, +which gets on your nerves: but you soon forget; and the whole +experience is so perfectly wonderful that I'd like to spend the rest of +my natural life going up and down on a Nile boat!" + +Through the opalescent dream of these first days and nights, shot the +fiery thought of our mission in Asiut. I had been surprised at first +that Anthony, who knew so well the dangers and mysteries of the East, +encouraged Miss Gilder to meddle in so delicate an affair; and there +had never been any explanations between us. But I told myself that his +motive was sympathy with Monny's desire to help: or else he had been +tempted to associate himself with her in an adventure where again, as +once or twice before, he had been able to win her gratitude. Perhaps +both motives combined. + +As for Mrs. East, she frankly sulked. Intuition told me that she had +never dared speak to "Antoun Effendi" about the proposal in +hieroglyphics (so difficult for me to explain) which she attributed to +him. Never had she dared say: "You have written me a love letter. Why +don't you follow it up, and give me a chance to answer it, one way or +the other?" But it was puzzling her, disappointing her, if not breaking +her heart, that he avoided rather than sought her, on this glorified +houseboat where "the Egyptian Prince" was more or less a hero with +romantic women. While we four planned, in thrilling whispers, how to +rescue the "Ship's Mystery," and Rachel Guest walked the deck with Bill +Bailey or Harry Snell, Cleopatra was reduced to writing picture +post-cards. I thought, if Sir Marcus had but the inspiration to reappear +at some stopping place farther on, she might be ready to forgive him the +false lotus flowers: and perhaps he would come, for the Lark type is as +difficult to snub as Cleopatra's Needle. I was half inclined to send +him a telegram, on some excuse or other. + + * * * * * + +We came to Asiut in the morning, and it was to be a long stop, for +there was much to see, and every one was excited at the thought of our +first Nile town, a town already of Upper Egypt, which made it seem that +we had come a tremendous way from Cairo. For us, Egypt existed no +longer as a country, but as a golden brown, purple-green river-bed and +a flowing stream of history on which we floated; so it was fun for +those having no special mission, to feel that once again bazaars and +more or less sophisticated "Sights" awaited their pleasure. I had given +my after-dinner lecture the night before, trying to behave as if I were +not boiling with emotion, and had told those who deigned to listen that +Asiut, "City of the Wolves," was the capital of a province. I had +babbled, too, about the tombs which self-respecting tourists must see, +even if they hurry over the inspection of carvings, cartouches, and +representations of very small queens smelling very large lotuses (most +Egyptian queens apparently spent much of their time, lightly clothed, +and smelling lotuses, a ladylike pursuit for those about to have their +portraits taken); in order to find time for the mummied cats, the +bazaars, the silver scarves, the red and black pottery, and the images +of wolves, crocodiles, and camels cheap enough to be freely bought for +poor relations at home. "Antoun" and I hinted at business which must +prevent our joining the sightseers, who would be chaperoned by the +dragoman. Luckily, they got the idea into their heads that our affairs +were connected with Sir Marcus, and the "trip." We were pitied, rather +than blamed, but our real difficulty was with Mrs. East, as Monny did +not wish Cleopatra to be let into the secret. If she knew, she would +want to be in the adventure, and in Monny's opinion, Aunt Clara was a +dear, but unfitted for adventures. + +We planned that Brigit and Monny should call upon the wife of Rechid +Bey, whose house would be easy to find. If they were admitted, they +would try to bring her out, as if for a drive, for it seemed a case of +now or never if she were to escape. In case she were able to come, they +would take her straight to the American Consulate, which I was to visit +meanwhile, in order to explain matters. But if the rescuers were +refused admission, the Consul must be entreated to give active help. I, +as a "diplomat," was considered a suitable person to deal with this +side of the affair; and Antoun Effendi was to keep unobtrusive guard +within sight of Rechid's house until Brigit and Monny, with or without +a companion, should come forth safely. As I said, however, the +difficulty was Mrs. East. She would expect her niece if not Brigit to +go about with her, and would not be easily persuaded to join any other +party. As for Rachel, we need not think of her, as she had been annexed +by the Biddells, who would otherwise have lost Harry Snell. But +Cleopatra! What to do with Cleopatra? It was Anthony who had an +inspiration. + +There lived near Asiut, it seemed, an Italian who bred Sicilian lap-dogs, +said to be like those which had been favourite pets in the day of +Cleopatra the Great. Indeed, Antony was supposed to have given one to +the Queen. Now, Fenton asked permission to present a Sicilian lap-dog +to Mrs. East, a dog so small, so polite, that he could be taken +anywhere. Anthony could not go himself to select the gift, but would +find an interpreter as a guide to the kennel and bring her back to the +exploring party. Cleopatra, delighted with her hero's thoughtfulness, +caught at the idea: and when the Set went tearing furiously away in +arabeahs or on donkeys, Mrs. East followed sedately in a carriage with +the elderly Greek interpreter, and Miss Hassett-Bean, who also fancied +the idea of a Sicilian lap-dog, to replace the lamented Marmoset. + +Everything glittered at Asiut. The sun glittered on the water; palm +trees in gardens glittered as the wind waved their big green fans; the +white or pink facades of large, square houses glittered, those fine +houses along the Nile, in one of which Rechid Bey was known to live. +But brighter than all glittered the silver scarfs which Arabs begged us +to buy. Hanging over arms raised to show them off, the shining folds +glittered like cascades of running water in moonlight. "Very cheap! +very beautiful!" cried the merchants. "Ladies, see here! Your +gen'lemen, they buy for you!" + +In spite of "Antoun's" dignified refusals, putting the men off till our +return, they ran after us, waving scarfs and shawls and robes, white as +scintillating hoarfrost, pink as palest roses, purple as sunset clouds, +green and golden as Nile water, or sequined black as a night of stars. +Their vendors feared that if we did not buy of them, others might +beguile us, and saw danger ahead in a distant group of rivals crowding +round some tourists from another boat. This group we had to pass, and +as we did so, who should break out from the glittering ring but Bedr. + +He came toward us, humble and cringing, giving the beautiful Arab +salute. "Dear gen'lemen and ladies!" he exclaimed. "I am very happy to +see you again. Won't you shake hands, to forgive, because I meaned no +harm, and did no wrong thing but obey the sweet ladies' wish when they +would go to that House of the Crocodile. I too much punished when I +been sent away." + +"That's past now, and forgotten," said Monny, shrinking slightly from +the outstretched hand. "Perhaps it wasn't your fault, that trouble we +got into, but we didn't need you afterward, anyhow, and probably the +people you are with now are nicer to you than we were." + +"Oh, no peoples could be nicer, though they are very nice, my two +gen'lemens you seed with me in the desert. They travel with me yet. We +go everywhere by trains, because it takes not so much time as the +boats. And Miss Guest, that nice good young lady, is she well?" + +"Yes, she is very well," replied Miss Gilder, beginning to be restless, +her beauty-loving eyes avoiding Bedr's face, as had been her habit when +the man was in our employ. She did not like to hurt his feelings (Monny +can't bear to hurt the feelings of any one below herself in wealth or +station, though apparently she doesn't consider that one is bound to be +kind-hearted with the rich); but I could see that she wanted to escape. +Never had she liked Bedr. He had been Rachel's man from the first. +"Miss Guest has gone to see the tombs," Monny explained. + +"You not go there, and to the bazaars? I take my gen'lemen in a few +minutes." + +"We shall go by and by; just now we've other things to do," said the +girl evasively, rather too evasively, perhaps. But in the hope of +killing two birds with one stone (luring the man to betray his secret +if he had one, and then shunting him), I broke in. + +"How have you been getting on," I inquired, looking into the squint +eyes, "since that night I saw you at Medinet-el-Fayoum?" + +But the eyes opened wide, with a stare of innocence. + +"You see _me_ there, milord? I thought your party had not come when we +went away. My gen'lemen not like that camping place, and we stay there +not even one night. You must make mistake, and think some other man me. +Sure!" + +We could not help laughing at the "Sure!" It was spoken in so truly an +American way that it was funny on those lips. Afterward, however, it +struck me in remembering the scene, that the man's accent in speaking +English was even more distinctly American than it had been. This was +odd, if he had been associating with Germans; but natural if his new +clients were Americans. + +Another question was on my tongue, but before I had time to speak, +Monny cried out: "Oh, there's Wretched Bey, in a carriage, all alone +with some luggage! I hope he's going away!" + +Naturally we turned, but I saw Biddy raise her eyebrows warningly. The +girl looked puzzled, as if, for an instant, she did not see what she +had done that was wrong. But I guess that Biddy's distrust of Bedr as a +possible spy was still alive in her breast. She did not know of my +suspicions concerning the "camp thief," for the affair at Medinet, +thanks to a white fib or two, had never assumed serious proportions in +her mind. It did not need that, however, to make her feel that Bedr's +ears were not fit receptacles for secrets. + +Monny had not been mistaken. It was Rechid Bey, leaning comfortably +back in an old-fashioned but not badly appointed open carriage, drawn +by two very decent horses, and driven by a smart, red-sashed, white-robed +negro. We saw him in profile as he passed along the road at some +distance, but he was reading a paper with an expression so placid that +I felt sure he had not seen us. On the seat beside him was a suitcase +with the air of having been made in France; and circumstantial evidence +said that Monny's wish was to be granted. + +I glanced hastily at Bedr, to observe, if I could, whether the girl's +impulsive exclamation had aroused undue interest; for it was not +unlikely that he had seen Rechid Bey and Mabel landing at Alexandria +the night of his first meeting with us. But the ugly face showed +nothing. + +"If you have things you want to do, my ladies," he said, "please excuse +that I have keeped you. I go to my gen'lemen or they give the men with +the silver shawls too much money." + +The "gen'lemen" in question were more interested in observing our +movements than in completing any bargain with the street vendors; +nevertheless Bedr hastened back as if in great fear that they might be +cheated. An arabeah waited for them; and having bought a scarf or two, +they drove off before we had parted to go our several ways. An arabeah +was in attendance upon us, also, and we put Brigit and Monny into it +alone, for Rechid Bey's house, the driver informed us, was not far off. + +"Good luck!" I said encouragingly, and Brigit smiled gayly at me; but +Monny was looking at Fenton. She was telling him something with her +eyes; and, with a significant little gesture, she touched the small +leather handbag she carried. + +"One would think she was a suffragette with a bomb," I remarked to +Anthony, trying to speak easily, as though I were not at all anxious, +when the carriage had turned its back on us. + +"Instead of which," said Anthony, gazing at the dark head and the fair +head, as earnestly as if he never expected to see them again, "instead +of which, she's merely a brave girl with a pistol that she knows how to +use. Or, anyhow, she says she does." + +"Great heavens! Has she got one in that bag?" I gasped. + +"She has. My Browning." + +"Jove! You gave it to her?" + +"I did. Last night." + +My heart began suddenly to feel like a cannon ball, in my breast. I +felt that I had not understood the situation, and that now I did not +understand Anthony--though that was far from being a new sensation. + +"I thought that _you_ thought there was no danger?" I bleated. "You +know Egypt and I don't. I didn't want them to go in for this thing, but +when you said it would be all right, I yielded. I wish to heaven I +hadn't!" + +"Do you think if you hadn't given in, Miss Gilder would have given up?" + +"You and I together could have kept them both out of the business." + +"Only by sheer force. You see, Miss Gilder was interested in this girl +and fond of her before she met you. So was Mrs. East. As Rechid tricked +the pretty little governess by making her believe she would be his +first and only wife, they don't look upon her as married to him: And I +think they're right. Don't you glory in them both for knowing there's a +risk, yet taking it so gayly for that foolish child's sake?" + +"I glory in them, but I wouldn't have let them go if--" + +"You've changed your mind, just because I gave Miss Gilder my Browning? +Honestly, Duffer, I don't think there's actual danger. But, anyhow, +don't you see, they _had_ to go, and they had to go alone. They would +have hated us and themselves and each other if they hadn't answered the +girl's appeal. And _we_ couldn't do the thing, unfortunately, as it +deals with the harem. If it can be done at all, it's woman's business. +These two are the right ones, as they felt bound to do it, and you and +I can but see them through, from the outside." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED" + + +Now that we were thoroughly launched on this somewhat quixotic +adventure, I envied Anthony because his part in the drama kept him "in +the wings," within sight of the stage. He was to watch the house of +Rechid Bey, and if the rescue party of two did not appear after an +hour's absence, the true story of the affair and Mabel's appeal was to +be laid before the Inspector General of Upper Egypt--laid before him +not by "Ahmed Antoun Effendi," but by Captain Anthony Fenton, +officially on leave, secretly on a special mission for the British +government. + +My role, less exciting but perhaps no less important, was to play the +diplomat in beguiling the American Consul to stand by the wife of +Rechid Bey, if the attempt at rescue succeeded, or--if possible--even +if it failed. + +"Antoun" accounted for his presence in front of Rechid Bey's high +garden wall, by attracting a crowd, and lecturing them in his character +of Hadji, while I dashed off in a jingling arabeah, to the American +Consulate. As in Cairo, my progress was one long adjuration of the +crowd by the driver, who would have revelled in conducting the car of +Juggernaut. + +"Shemalak, ya welad!" ("To the left, oh, boy!"), or "Yeminick!" ("To +the right!"), he roared, while men dived and dipped under his horse's +prancing feet. A hawk flew by on my right side, and my right eyelid +twitched, as we neared the Consulate. In Egypt these were good omens. +Besides, there had been a red sunrise, which in the Nile country had +meant, since Egyptians superseded the prehistoric "new race," that Ra +had conquered his enemies, and stained the sky with their blood. +Therefore all should be well with me and the world; and it did seem as +if my hopes bade fair to be fulfilled, when in the Consul I recognized +a man I had been able to advise in a small official difficulty in my +early days at the Embassy in Rome. This was even more fortunate than +the case of Slaney. We shook hands warmly, and as soon as was decent, I +interrupted a flow of reminiscent gratitude by flooding Mr. James +Bronson with the story of Rechid Bey's unhappy American bride, Mabella +Hanem, ill treated as well as cruelly deceived, if her story were true. +He knew Rechid slightly, but the marriage was news to him. With +interest he listened to my account of the lonely little governess in +Paris, bewitched by the love-making of a handsome Turk as white as +herself. But when I asked for help, the Consul shook his head. + +"Lord Ernest," he said, "there's nothing I'd like better than to pay my +debt by doing you some favour. But you're asking me the one thing +that's hardest, as you probably know. You understand as well as I do +that when a girl marries a man, she ceases to be a subject of her +native land. And to interfere with the inmate of a harem is just about +impossible. But I'll tell you what I will do for your sake. If you can +get the girl out of Rechid Bey's house--which, mind you, I doubt--you +may bring her to my wife, and we'll cook up some story about her being +a relative of mine. So she is, I guess, through Adam and Eve! If you +think she's been badly treated, we'll stand by her, once she's under +this roof (which means she'll be on American soil), through thick and +thin, whatever the consequences. I can't go farther, and I don't +believe you expected that I would." + +I admitted that I had not, and thanked him for his promise. + +By this time, I thought that Brigit and Monny might be on their way to +meet me at the Consulate, as arranged, escorted by "Antoun," and +perhaps bringing Mabel. Even the route they were to take was planned, +so that I could not miss them if I started. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Bronson was to interest his wife in our protegee. Back I +flew, my ears deafened by more "Ya Welads," but though I met many +things and many creatures on the congested road, there was no arabeah +containing the desired ones. I made my driver slacken pace as we neared +the big, square pink house of Rechid Bey, set far back in its garden of +palms and impossible statues, on the bank of the Nile. No green turban +was in sight, and I wondered what could have happened, as we drove +slowly past the ponderous black gate-keeper, apparently half asleep on +his bench. There was nothing to do but crawl along at a snail's pace, +lest that droop of the crocodile-lids should be assumed for effect. I +went on, meaning to turn presently; but when the arabeah had taken me +beyond eyeshot of Rechid's gate-keeper, an Arab sacca, or water seller, +ran forward, striking his musical gong. From his brass jar, protected +by crimson-dyed horse hair to keep out dust, he offered a draught; and +his look said that he had something more for me than a drink of water. +I beckoned him close, stopping the arabeah; and under the tumbler he +handed up was a folded bit of paper. None save the water seller had +attention to spare for me just then, as a wedding procession was +approaching, with a crude but gorgeous curtained litter drawn by +camels, and a number of musicians with raeitas, darabukas, the "key and +bottle," and other Eastern instruments which may have been ancestors of +the Highlanders' bagpipes. The street crowd followed, enchanted by the +plaintive, monotonous notes, grotesque to newcomers from the west, but +enthralling to those who have fallen under the spell of their +melancholy magic. + +"Failure for the present, but Miss G. and Mrs. J. safe," Anthony had +scrawled in pencil. "Couldn't wait in front of R.'s house, but you'll +find us at an Arab restaurant to which the messenger will guide you. +All you have to do is to discharge your arabeah, and walk in the +direction the man takes, keeping your distance in case you're watched." + +I obeyed instructions, and in the town of Asiut, far from the gardens +along the Nile front, I came to a house between the mosque of the +tallest minaret, and the great market whither Arabia as well as Egypt +sends her wares. It was a house of some pretension, though in a narrow +unpaved street, lined with humble native dwellings. I guessed that it +must have been built for a rich man who had died or failed in business, +but now a sign in Arabic announced that it was a restaurant. A nod from +the water seller told that I had reached the end of the journey. Nubian +servants salaamed in the big room where once the master of the house +had held receptions, and in a smaller room beyond I saw Antoun, Brigit, +and Monny. They were seated at a low table where no forks or knives or +even plates were laid. In the centre of the white cloth stood a large +dish of something sweet and rich-looking, from which everybody +pretended to eat; but at sight of me, Brigit and Monny began talking +together. They told me breathlessly how they had been informed by the +gatekeeper that "Mabella Hanem" was not well. Having insisted that they +were intimate friends whom she would desire to see, they had been +bidden to return in an hour. Reluctantly coming away, they had as soon +as was prudent been joined by Antoun. He had then taken them to the +bazaars, hoping to give them a glimpse of the shops before the Set +returned from the Tombs; but they had met Neill Sheridan, who had +something to tell. He had caught sight of Bedr running after the +carriage of a Turk strongly resembling Rechid Bey. The carriage had +stopped near the railway station; and after an instant's conversation +the horses had been turned to gallop off in the direction whence they +had come. + +"Of course we were sure the Turk _was_ Rechid," said Monny, "so Antoun +Effendi thought we'd better go back to watch his house. When we got +there, it was too late, for already some time had passed since Mr. +Sheridan saw Bedr. Rechid's gate-man said that Mabella Hanem was +suddenly better, and had gone away with her husband. He could talk a +little French, so we understood perfectly--and, anyhow, you know I'm +studying Arabic. It's _so_ discouraging when Arabs answer me in Cockney +English, or say "Sure" in American! We believed the fellow, because it +seemed exactly what Wretched _would_ do--come back and grab Mabel away +at a minute's notice. So unfortunate about Neill Sheridan! Wretched was +idiotically jealous of him on the _Laconia_; and if he caught a glimpse +of him to-day he's certain to think Mr. Sheridan's here to try and see +Mabel. We tore to the railroad depot, but the train was just going out. +No doubt Rechid and his wife were both on it. Isn't it heartbreaking?" + +I sat mute, thinking things over, but Anthony tried to give consolation +by saying that he still had some hope. He had found out that Rechid Bey +owned a sugar plantation, with a house on it, near Luxor. The train +which had left Asiut was bound for Luxor. In a very few days our boat +would land us there, and we would try our luck again. + +"Not much doubt," Fenton added, speaking as always in French, "that +this is Bedr's revenge on us. He must have told Rechid that Miss Gilder +had mentioned his name saying she hoped he was leaving home. That hint +of danger would be enough for any Turk." + +"It will be my fault, then," moaned Monny, "if he kills Mabel. He's +deceived and shut her up and tried to convert her. Worse than all, he +has another wife. The next step will be murder. Oh, how can we bear the +delay of going on to Luxor by boat! Hadn't we better take a train? +Better miss all the things we've come to Egypt to see, rather than +leave Mabel to her fate." + +"Rechid isn't the sort to have her put out of the way,"! said Anthony. +"He's not a bad fellow, as such men go, and he's hardly had time to +tire of his conquest yet. According to his lights, he's right not to +allow any interference with his harem from Europeans. He was jealous on +board ship, of one or two men of your acquaintance, you've told me. +This attempted visit of yours will revive his interest in his wife, +inconveniently for us; but if I know his type it will die down again, +the minute he thinks he has covered his tracks. For a day or two he +will be a dragon. Then he'll begin to think we're discouraged, or that +we haven't found out about his sugar plantation, or that nothing more +than a visit to his wife was intended, and he'll turn his attention to +other things than watch-dogging. It's far better to go on by boat, and +make a dash when he's off guard again." + +After a few arguments, we agreed with "Antoun," as we usually ended by +doing, and soothed our restlessness by visiting Mr. Bronson to tell him +of our disappointment. If it hadn't been for Monny, I think the Consul +would have taken the point of view that he was now "out" of the affair, +but Monny, sapphire-eyed with generous zeal, is rather irresistible. +Fired by her enthusiasm, as he had not been by my beguiling, he +volunteered to go to Luxor on two or three days' leave, with his wife, +to visit a Syrian friend who had often vainly invited them to his +villa, and arriving if possible about the time our boat was due. If we +succeeded in our quest, we might bring Mabel to them, and they would +smuggle her back to the American Consulate at Asiut. + +Our great adventure thus postponed, we let the Nile-dream take us once +more; and though we had moments of impatience, the dream was too fair +to be resisted. Besides, we were all four dreaming it together. Poor +Cleopatra was the only one outside, for Rachel Guest was dreaming her +own dream, with an extremely practical side to it, unless Biddy and I +were mistaken. She wore Monny's clothes, and used her special perfume, +and took advantage of the same initials, to accept gifts of filmy +handkerchiefs and monogrammed bags and brushes. Also she had firmly +annexed most of the men on board who would, in normal states of mind, +have belonged to the Gilded Rose. But they all seemed to have gone mad +on the subject of Miss Guest. Even Harry Snell, who had been the +property of Enid Biddell on board the _Candace_, on the _Enchantress +Isis_ was gravitating Guest-ward, lured by that meek, mysterious +witchery which I was trying hard to understand. + +We got past Sohag, and the famous White and Red Coptic Monasteries +built by Saint Helena, without jarring notes of any sort in the +Nile-dream (save for the failure of our rescue plot): past Akhmin, which +Herodotus wrote of as Chemmis: past Girgah, where once stood ancient +This, that gave the first dynasty of kings to Egypt: but when we +arrived at Baliana to visit Abydos, between Enid Biddell and Harry +Snell I had an interlude of nightmare. It was Rachel's fault, but it +was I who had to suffer for her sins. I, who had engaged as Conductor +of the Set and found myself their Arbiter as well. + +Other tourists on other boats do not see Abydos until the return trip; +but the aim of Sir Marcus was originality as well as "exclusiveness." +This was a special tour, and everything we were to do must be special. +Some passengers might wish to stay longer than others at Khartum, or +from there go up the White or Blue Nile after Big Game. Or they might +tire of the Nile, and wish to tear back to Cairo by train. Sir Marcus +was boldly outdoing his rivals by allowing clients to engage cabins for +"up Nile" only, instead of paying the return also: and they were not to +miss any temple because of this concession. "I consider it an +advertisement, and a cheap one," he had explained to me, in saying that +we were to visit at Abydos on our way south. + +Beautiful smiling donkeys, adorned with beads and amulets, met us at +the boat-landing. We ought to have called it Al-Balyana, but we didn't. +We called it Baliana, and we pronounced Abydos according to our +education. We had a ride of an hour and a half from the boat to the +temple; and having sent off Cleopatra and Lady Biddell in a carriage, +my conscience was free, my heart light. The sun shone on tawny desert +hills, like lions creeping stealthily out from the horizon toward the +Nile to drink. There were sweet smells of unseen flowers, and herbs +such as ancient Egyptian doctors used, and I looked forward to keeping +my donkey near Biddy's. Of course I ought to have preferred Monny's, +but then, I could talk of Monny to Biddy, and we had had so many +subjects in common since childhood that it was restful to ride even the +most energetic donkey at the side of "Mrs. Jones." No sooner, however, +had I begun to urge my gray animal after her white one, than I was +called by Enid Biddell. "Oh, Lord Ernest! I _must_ speak to you!" she +pleaded so piteously that I couldn't pretend not to hear. + +When we were ambling side by side, separated from the rest of the party +by a gleaming cloud of copper dust, a few long-haired, brown sheep, +some blue-eyed water buffalo, and a plague of little birds, Enid turned +upon me a pair of tear-wet eyes. + +"Why, Miss Biddell, what is the matter--or is it a cold in your head?" +I asked anxiously. + +"It's not a cold in my head," she confessed. "It's a dreadful, dreadful +pain in my heart. And you're the only one who can cure it." + +For a fearful moment I thought that she was going to propose. One hears +of these awful visitations. But I need not have trembled. + +"I feel as if I could say anything to you," she murmured. "You are so +understanding, and so sympathetic." + +It was on the tip of my tongue to reply that it was my duty as +Conductor to be so, and that, if I succeeded, a mountain full of hidden +treasure might perhaps reward me. But just in time I realized that this +speech would not be tactful. Instead of speaking, I looked at her and +let her go on. + +"It's Harry Snell," she said. "You have influence with him. He thinks +you such a great swell, he'd hate to do anything you would call +unworthy of a gentleman. He--he's making me so unhappy. He's done +--everything--to win my love and now--now he's gone over to that Miss +Guest." The donkey having begun inopportunely to trot, the words were +jolted out, one after another, like a shower of pebbles. And they fell +on my feelings like paving stones. She expected _me_ to do something +about it! Horrible! I should almost have preferred the proposal. + +"My dear Miss Biddell," I soothed her in my best salad-oil voice, +cultivated at the Embassy, "you are much prettier than Miss Guest, and +you can win Snell back easily if you want him. Probably he's only +flirting, to make you jealous." + +"It's me he was flirting with," she moaned. "But I _don't_ believe he +cares for Miss Guest. It's only a case of 'follow my leader,' because +other men like her so much. Nothing succeeds like success, you know. +And other men's admiration is the most becoming background a girl can +have. He told Mrs. Harlow it was haunting him, that Elaine and I would +get fat like our mother, and the men who married us would have to spend +dull years seeing us slowly grow into mother's likeness. Wasn't it +cruel? And we eat scarcely _anything_ except pickles on purpose to keep +thin. But that's only his excuse. It's the romance of the situation, +and the _secret_ that appeals to him." + +"What secret?" I felt entitled to inquire. + +"Why, the secret between those two girls, Miss Gilder and Miss Guest. +You _know_ what all the men believe about them, don't you? But of +course you do." + +"But of course I don't." + +"Why, that they've changed places, to deceive people, just as heiresses +and poor girls do in old-fashioned plays or books. They think Miss +Gilder (I mean the girl we _call_ Miss Gilder) is really the +school-teacher, and the one we call Miss Guest, and that all the men are +after, is Rosamond Gilder the cannon heiress." + +"Whew!" I whistled, bumpily, as my donkey kept up with Enid's. "For +goodness' sake, what makes them think that?" + +"I don't know exactly how the story started, but it seems _authentic_. +Have you known them long?" + +"Only since Naples. But--" + +"Then you can't be certain whether it's true or not?" + +I paused, swallowing an answer. So _this_ was the explanation of the +Monny puzzle! Yet it was but the first word of another enigma. _Who_ +was responsible for the wild story? There was more than met the eye--or +ear--in this. I could hardly believe that Monny would have chosen, or +Rachel dared, to start this rumour, though it might have amused the +real heiress, and suited the false one, to watch it run. I dared not +contradict it flatly, without consulting Brigit or the Gilded Rose +herself. It was not my business to be a spoil-sport, if there were +sport to spoil, no matter how sternly I might disapprove. + +"In the matter of actual knowledge, I have very little about Miss +Gilder," I decided to reply, "except that she's charming enough and +pretty enough for any man to fall in love with, if she hadn't a penny. +As for Miss Guest" + +"Miss Guest is a cat! And if _only_ you'll tell Harry Snell so, I'll +bless you all my life." + +"Good gracious! I couldn't do that." + +"I mean, tell him you think she isn't the heiress, that she's only what +she seems to be, and nothing mysterious or interesting. He'll believe +_you_! Why, she _can't_ have any money, or even a nice mind. She always +writes 'No,' with her finger on top of her cold cream at hotels, she +told me so herself. Not that it's any good with Arabs, they don't want +to steal cold cream. But such a trick would never occur to a rich girl, +would it? She grows vainer every day, too, till one can just see vanity +spouting from the top of her head. She intends to use this mistake +people are making about her, to bag a rich man like Harry Snell, or a +successful one with a big, growing reputation like Mr. Bailey the +American sculptor. You _will_ help me save Harry from her, and bring +him back to me, won't you? You're the only one he'll listen to. If you +don't speak, I shall simply jump overboard into the Nile, and Sir +Marcus Lark would _hate_ that." + +"So should I, dear Miss Biddell," I assured her. "But what can I +possibly do in--in such a very intimate matter?" + +"Why, you're a diplomat, aren't you? I thought they always knew what to +do. You make us all dance to your tune like puppets, and imagine we're +prancing about to please ourselves. Tell him he's breaking my heart." + +"By Jove! You're not in earnest?" + +"I am. Oh, he must come back! I thought on board the _Candace_ we were +as good as engaged. I--I submitted to his kisses, and now--" + +"'Submitted' is a good word," I sneered to my inner self, but outwardly +I submitted a handkerchief to the lady, as she had lost hers in one of +the last donkey jolts, and ventured to insert sympathetically into a +pause a small suggestion. It was usual, I reminded Miss Biddell, if a +gentleman's intentions had to be asked, that the father did the asking. +This hint, however, fell flatter than a flounder; and all the way to +Abydos, most sacred temple of ancient Egypt, I was persecuted with Enid +Biddell's woes, when I should have been free to meditate upon the +tragic history of Isis and Osiris. It was here that the head of the +murdered god was buried, and perhaps his whole body, when the magic +secret of Thoth had enabled Isis to collect the fourteen separate +pieces Set had hidden. Many temples claimed the sacred body of Osiris, +ruler over departed spirits and Amenti, their dim dwelling place beyond +the western desert; Philae and Memphis among others; but it was Abydos +to which the Egyptians give their most reverent faith, as the true +burial place of the Beloved One. It was there they wished to lie when +they died and were mummied, in order to rest through eternity near the +relic of their most precious god. Thus a necropolis grew like a +poppy-garden of sleep, round the temple; and a city rose also. But even in +the long-ago time of Strabo, the city was reduced to a village, and all +traces of the shrine had vanished. The great white jewel of the +temples--temple of Seti I, and the temple of his son Rameses II--remain +to this day, however, with the Tablet of Ancestors which has helped in +the tracing of Egyptian history. Therefore is it that this treasure of +the Nile-desert is still a shrine for travellers from the four corners +of the earth. + +After the long, straight road, and a high, sudden hill, we came face to +face with the marble-white columns of the outer court. If I had been +with Brigit or Monny, I could have run back into the past, hand in hand +with either, to see with my mind's eyes the white limestone palace of +Memnon, copied from the Labyrinth, standing above the city between the +canal and the desert. I should have peered into the depths of its +fountain; and with a hand shading my eyeballs from the sun I should +have gazed at the grove of Horus' sacred acanthus trees, dark against +the burning blue. I should have found the Royal tombs which Rameses +restored, grouped near the buried body of Osiris. But bad luck gave me +Enid Biddell for my companion. She would not let any one else come near +me, even had the Right Somebody wished to dispute my battered remains +with her. "Antoun Effendi" had the others hypnotized, and I wondered if +they noticed how like his boldly cut profile was to certain portraits +of the youthful Rameses carved on the glittering white walls. So +splendid were they that had I been a woman my spirit would have rushed +back along the sand-obliterated, devious paths of Egypt's history, to +find and fall at the feet of their original. But--there was Antoun, +much easier to get at, and perhaps better worth the gift of a woman's +heart than Rameses the Great with all his faults and cruelties! + +Crowds of birds lived in interstices of the broken columns, and their +tiny faces peeped out like flowers growing among rocks, their eyes +bright and arresting as personal anecdotes in long, dull chapters of +history. They seemed to look at me, and sympathize, cocking their heads +on one side as if to say, "Poor, foolish, modern man, why don't you +make a virtue of necessity and get rid of this still more foolish +modern maid, by promising her anything she asks? Then you can go listen +to that princely looking person in the green turban, who might be +descended from the kings our ancestors used to behold. He does seem to +know something about the history of this place, on which _we_ are +authorities! The dragomans who bring crowds of tourists to our temple +and gabble nonsense, put us really off our feed. Peep, peep! Just hear +him tell about the staircase we're so proud of. Did _you_ know there +was a picture of it in the Book of The Dead, with Osiris standing at +the top, like a good host waiting to receive his guests? Well, then, if +you didn't, do anything you must to escape from that lovesick girl, +while there's time to hear a real scholar talk of 'Him who is at the +Head of the Staircase!' Peep, peep! Hurry up, or you'll lose it all, +you Silly. Of course, the real staircase is in Amenti, which your Roman +Catholics call Purgatory; and no doubt Osiris is standing on it to this +day." + +So I took the birds' advice, and promised Enid to have a "heart to +heart" talk with Harry Snell. Satisfied that she had got all that was +to be got out of me, she powdered her nose (in the same spirit that +David anointed his head) and attached herself to Rachel, in whose train +was the Desired One. Thus basely did I free myself to enjoy the society +of Biddy and Osiris, with lovely carved glimpses of Isis thrown in, to +say nothing of Seti I and Rameses II. Trying to push into the +background of my mind the nauseating thought of my vow and its +fulfillment, I helped Brigit and Monny take snapshots of King Seti +showing his son Rameses how to lasso, and also to catch by its tail the +most fascinating of bulls. They were on the wall, of course (Rameses +and Seti, I mean, not Brigit and Monny), but seemed so real they might +leap off at any instant; and so charmed was Monny with Rameses' braided +"lock of youth" that she resolved to try one over her left temple in +connection with an Egyptian Princess costume she was having made for +some future fancy-dress ball. "I can't take a grain of interest in any +one but Egyptian Princes and Princesses and their profiles," she +exclaimed; then blushed faintly and added, "I mean Princes and +Princesses of the _past_." + +We got some good pictures of the temple of Seti, for Monny had an +apparatus for natural colour photography which gave sensational results +in ancient wall-paintings--when any one except Monny herself did the +taking. It was better still in the Seven Chapels, the holy of holies at +Abydos, and in the joy of my first colour photography I forgot the doom +ahead. Appropriately, the sword I had hung up over my own cranium +descended in the Necropolis, at that place of tombs called Umm +el-Ka'ab, "Mother of Pots." Nobody wanted to see the fragments of this +mother's pots, but I insisted on a brief visit, as important +discoveries have been made there, among the most important in Egypt. It +was a dreary place where Harry Snell strolled up and caught me alone, +gazing at a desolation of sandy hillocks, full of undiscovered +treasure. + +"Look here," said he. "You're supposed to know everything. Tell me why +they call seats outside shops in bazaars, and tombs of the Ancient +Empire by the same name: mastaba?" + +I explained that mastaba was an Arab word meaning bench. Then, +realizing that it would be flying in the face of Providence not to get +the ordeal over while my blood was up, I spoke of Enid. Among the +shattered pots and yawning sepulchres, I racked up her broken heart and +blighted affections. I talked to Snell like a brother, and when he had +heard me through in silence, to the place where words and breath +failed, I thought that I had moved him. His eyes were downcast. I +fancied that I saw a mist as of tears, a man's slow tears. Then +suddenly he opened his eyelids wide, and glared--a glare stony as the +pots, and as the desert hills. "Borrow," he said, "I thought you were a +good fellow and a man of the world. I see now that you're a damned +sentimental ass." + +With this he stalked off, and I could not run after him to bash his +head, because what he said was perfectly true. I was almost sorry that +evening, on board the boat, when he apologized and the Nile-dream went +on as if I hadn't broken it by being the sort of fool Snell had said +that I was. + +In the dream were Nile cities, with crowding houses whose walls were +heightened by tier upon tier of rose-and-white pots, moulded in with +honey-coloured mud. There were stretches of sandy shore, and green +gloom of palm groves. There were domed tombs of saints, glittering like +snow-palaces in the sun. There were great golden mounds inlaid with +strips of paler gold picked out with ebony. There were sinister +hillsides cut into squarely by door-holes, leading to cave-dwellings. +There were always shadoofs, where giant soup-ladles everlastingly +dipped water and threw it out again, mounting up from level to level of +the brown, dyke-like shore. The wistful, musical wail of the men at the +wells was as near to the voice of Nature as the sighing of wind, or the +breaking of waves which has never ceased since the world began. +Sometimes the horizon was opal, sometimes it throbbed with azure fire, +or blazed ruby red, as the torch of sunset swept west and east before +the emerald darkness fell. When our _Enchantress_ landed, great flocks +of kites, like in form and wing to the sacred vulture of Egypt, flew to +welcome us with swoopings of wide purple wings. Their shadows on the +water were like passing spirits; and at night when the Nubian boatmen +danced, their feet thudding on the lower deck to the cry of the +darabukah, the Nile whispered of the past, with a tinkling whisper, +like the music of Hathor's sacred sistrum. Gyassas glided by, loaded +with pots like magic melons, long masts pointing as though they had +been wands in the hands of astrologers: and the reflection of the piled +pots as they moved gave vague glimpses as of sunken treasure. + +Denderah meant work for Fenton. There had been trouble there, and +tourists had complained of insults. It was the Hadji's business to find +out whether natives or Europeans had been more to blame, and whether +there were wrongs to right, misunderstandings to adjust. But to the +rest of us, Denderah meant the sacred temple of Hathor, Goddess of +Love, in some ways one of the most beautiful of all the Nile temples; +though, being not much over two thousand years old (it was built upon +ruins more ancient than King Menes) archeologists like Neill Sheridan +class it as "late Ptolemaic," uninterestingly modern. + +Mrs. East had been looking forward to the temple of Denderah more +eagerly than to any other, because she had read that on an outer wall +was carved the portrait of Cleopatra the Great. That of Caesarion was +there also, as she must have known; but Cleopatra's son was never +referred to by her reincarnation, who chose to ignore the Caesar +incident. Mrs. East had not yet deigned to mount a donkey, but to reach +the temple she must do so or walk, or sway in a dangerous looking +_chaise a porteur_. Rather than miss the joy of seeing herself on a +stone wall as others had had the privilege of seeing her for two +thousand years, she consented to accept as a seat a large gray animal, +tasselled with red to keep off flies and evil eyes. "Won't you ride +with me, Antoun Effendi?" she asked. "I'm afraid. This creature looks +as large as an elephant and as wild as a zebra. I feel _you_ could calm +him." But Antoun Effendi was not going to ride. He had other fish to +fry; and poor Cleopatra's luminous dark eyes were like overflowing +lakes, when he had politely excused himself on the plea of a pressing +engagement. I felt sure that she would have been kind to Sir Marcus if +at that moment he could have appeared from behind the picturesque group +of bead-necklace sellers, or emerged from one of the huge +bright-coloured baskets exposed for sale on a hill of brown-gold sand. + +I don't know whether it made things better or worse that the gray +donkey should be named "Cleopatra," but it was evidently a blow when +the animal's white-robed attendant announced himself as Anthony. + +"I can't and won't have the creature with me!" she murmured, as I +helped her to mount when she had pushed the boy aside. "Thank you, Lord +Ernest. You're very kind. But Antoun ought to have been here. Fancy +seeing _this_ temple, of all others, without an Anthony of any sort on +the horizon! A pity it isn't _your_ middle name! If you could spare +time to ride with me, that would be better than nothing!" + +"I'll be delighted," I said hypocritically, for I had been dying to +talk with Brigit about the Monny and Rachel imbroglio which, as a +hard-worked Conductor, I had not since Abydos found a chance to discuss. +Besides, Biddy had whispered in passing that a letter just delivered at +Denderah, had brought exciting news of Esme O'Brien: But I was sorry +for Cleopatra, and wondered whether I could manage after all to hint an +explanation of the hieroglyphic love-letter--that fatal letter of mine +which had stealthily made mischief between Mrs. East and Anthony. I +didn't quite see how the subject was to be broached: still, some way +might open. "I'm sorry about the middle name," I said. "But if I +assumed it--like a virtue which I have not--I should be the third +person connected with this trip, labelled the same fashion." + +"Who is the second person?" she asked abruptly, as all the animals of +the party started to trot vivaciously through the blowing yellow sand. + +"Sir Marcus. Surely you've heard that his 'A' stands for Antonius?" + +"Good heavens!" she gasped: and I hardly knew whether it was the shock +of my news, or a jolt of the donkey which forced the exclamation. +Whatever it was, the emotion she felt bound her to silence after that +one outburst. She said not a word, and did not even groan or threaten +to fall off when both our beasts broke into a thumping gallop. In +silence we swept round that great bulk of rubbish heap, Roman and early +Christian, under which lies An, the town of the Column. Cleopatra did +not cry out when suddenly we came in sight of Hathor's temple, honey-gold +against the turquoise sky, and vast as some Wagnerian palace of +the gods. The tasselled donkey (or I) had given her cause to think. Or +perhaps she did not consider me worth talking to, as we approached the +temple toward which all her previous travelling had been a mere +pilgrimage. Still silently, when we had left our donkeys and were +following the crowd up the dromos (Harry Snell actually with Enid, +thanks to me and the wisdom of second thoughts), Cleopatra's eyes +wandered over the Hathor-headed columns with their clinging colour; and +over the portal with its brilliant mass of yellow, of dark Pompeian +red, and the green-blue sacred to Hathor, whom Horus loved +--Venus-Hathor, whose priestesses danced within these walls in Cleopatra's +day. "Oh, this red and this green-blue were my colours, I remember," she +murmured, and then hardly spoke when I walked with her in the gloom of +the temple itself--the rich gloom under heavily ornamented ceilings. +She wanted to save the portrait till the last, she announced, until +after she had seen everything else: and she didn't care _what_ Mr. +Sheridan said about her temple; it was wonderful. I tried to interest +her in the crocodiles, which had been detested and persecuted at +Denderah in the late Cleopatra's time as ardently as they were +worshipped at Crocodilopolis and other places. I joked about Old Egypt +having consisted of "crocs and non crocs," just as the inhabitants of +Florence had to be Guelphs or Ghibellines. I explained carefully the +geography of the place, or rather, "reminded" Cleopatra of it, adding +details of the canal which once led to Koptos, where the magic book of +the Wisdom of Thoth lay hidden under the Nile. I could not waken Mrs. +East from reverie to interest, as Antoun would have had the power to +do; but my vanity was not hurt. It was only my curiosity which +suffered, for I wanted desperately to know whether the donkey had +seriously jolted the lady's spine, or whether the news that Sir M. A. +Lark was Marcus Antonius, not a more obvious Marcus Aurelius, had fired +her imagination. + +In any case I devoted myself to her while Monny and Brigit frolicked +with others; and I had a reward of a kind. When we had seen all the +halls and chambers, and the crypt with its carvings all fresh as if +made yesterday; when we had been on the roof where chanting priests had +once awaited the rising of Sirius; when I had taken her outside the +temple, where blowing columns of dusty sand rose like incense from +hidden altars of Hathor, we stood at last alone together, gazing up at +the figures of Cleopatra and her son. The wall on which they were +carved rose behind the Holy of Holies, where the golden statue of the +Goddess had been kept; but alas, the figures themselves! Alas! I knew +how Cleopatra must be feeling; and I dared not speak. Perhaps she was +even blushing: but I did not look. Instead, I gazed helplessly up at +that exposed, misshapen form, that flaccid chin. + +"Thank heaven it's only _you_ who are with me!" breathed Mrs. East. + +That was my reward. Or should I call it a punishment? Anyhow, it made +it easier for the insignificant person in question to unburden his +conscience about the hieroglyphic letter. I stammered it all out, on +the way back, apropos of the rubbish-heap which had been Tentyra. I let +it remind me of Fustat and our digging expedition. I had meant to +follow Mrs. East's advice and propose to Miss Gilder, I explained, but +Monny had not found my buried love-letter. What had become of it I--er +--had never been told. All I knew was that it hadn't come into Miss +Gilder's hands; and I should never have as much courage again. + +"Oh!" Cleopatra exclaimed, with a curious light in her eyes, more like +relief than disappointment. "You really do want to marry my niece? You +delayed so, that I wondered. I wasn't sure, sometimes, if it were Monny +or--but I am on your side, Lord Ernest. It isn't too late yet _for any +of us_, perhaps. Trust in me. I'm going to help you." + +I could have bitten my tongue out, though I had blundered with the best +intentions. "Mrs. East," I protested almost ferociously, "you mustn't +do anything. I said before I began, that I was going to tell you a +_secret_." + +"I won't betray your confidence. But I _will_ help. I want to. It would +be a good thing for Monny to accept you, Lord Ernest, a very good thing +in more ways than one. Mrs. Jones wants it too, or did. I promise you, +I'll be discreet." + +With that, we arrived in sight of the boat. Once more, necklaces and +scarabs and baskets were thrust under our noses. Anthony had returned +from his mysterious whisperings in cafes or mosques in the new town, +and was waiting for us. Cleopatra called him, with a note of gayety in +her voice, to help her off "the elephant." He came. I felt she was +going to hint to him that I was in love with Monny--hint to Brigit +also. + +Virtue may be its own reward, but it makes you very lonely! + +I hadn't another easy moment for dreaming the Nile-dream. And we all +woke out of it when, with the pink dawn of a certain morning, we saw a +vast temple, repeated column for column, in the clear river, as in a +mirror of glass. + +We were at Luxor; and somewhere not far off, Mabella Hanem was praying +for release. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ZONE OF FIRE + + +Just at the first moment of waking, when I was moved by my subconscious +self to roll out of my berth and bound to the cabin window, I forgot +that we had anything more active to do at Luxor than worship the glory +of sky and river and temples. I had room in my mind only for the +dream-beauty of that astounding picture, into the foreground of which I +seemed to have been thrust, so close upon my eyes loomed the line of +lotus columns. It was as if the ancient gods had poured a libation of +ruby wine from their zenith-dwelling into the translucent depths of the +Nile. Even the long colonnade of broken pillars was deep rose-red +against a pale rose sky, repeated again in deeper rose down in a magic +world beneath the pink crystal roof of shining water. Then, suddenly, +bright windows of sky behind the dark rose-columns flamed to the colour +of primroses, were shot with pansy purple, and cleared to the +transparent green of unflawed emerald. The thought came as I gazed at +the carved wonder (reflected flower for flower and line for line in the +still river) that here was illustrated in unearthly beauty the chief +religious legend of ancient Egypt. As each human soul was believed to +be a part of the World-Soul, Osiris, reunited with him beyond the +western desert, after death, so did these columns made by human hands +unite themselves at sunrise with the soul of the Nile, the life of +Egypt. I caught a glimpse as if in an illuminated parable, of the +Egyptian Cosmos, the Heavens, the Earth, the Depths, three separate +entities, yet forever one as is the Christian's Trinity. Almost I +expected to see the sun-boat of the gods steered slowly across the +river from the city of Kings, westward to the tombs of Kings; and the +little white-breasted birds, which promenaded the deck of our boat as +though it belonged to them, might have been Heart-birds from the world +of mummies across the Nile, escaped for a glimpse of Rameses' gayly +painted, mosaiced white palace with its carved brass balconies, its +climbing roses, its lake of lotuses and its river gardens. I was sure +that, if I told these tiny creatures that the Pharaohs and all their +glories had vanished off the earth except for a few bits in museums, +they would not believe the tale. I wasn't even sure I believed it +myself; and deliberately blotting out of sight the big modern hotels +and the low white line of shops away to the right of the temple, I +tried to see with the Ba-birds, eastern Thebes as it must have been in +the days of Rameses II. I pictured the temple before Cambyses the +Persian, and the great earthquake felled arches and pillars, obelisks +and kingly statues. I built up again the five-story houses of the +priests and nobles, glistening white, and fantastically painted in many +colours: I laid out lawns and flower beds, and set fountains playing. +Then, with a rumbling shock, a chasm many thousand years deep yawned +between me and ancient No, the City of Palaces: + +It was the voice of Sir John Biddell which opened the ravine of time, +and let the Nile pour through it. He was on deck, in pyjamas and +overcoat, with General Harlow, holding forth on his favourite topic of +mummies--an appropriate subject for this neighbourhood of all others; +yet, I should have preferred silence. + +Poor Sir John! He had been disappointed in Cairo because a villain had +not lurked behind each of the trees in the Esbekiya Gardens, and notes +tied with silken black hairs had not tumbled on his respectable bald +head from the mystery of latticed windows; but he was thoroughly +enjoying his Nile trip, and learning something every day to tell at +home. Lady Biddell had humiliated him twice, once by asking me if +"those old hieroglyphics were written in Arabic?" again by inquiring +whether the stone-barred temple windows had been "filled in once with +pretty stained glass?" But he had forgiven her because yesterday had +been their silver-wedding day, and he meant to buy her a present at +some curiosity-shop at Luxor. "A pity it isn't the wooden wedding," I +heard him say to General Harlow, "for I might give a handsome mummy-case. +I suppose silver will have to be Persian or Indian, unless I can +get hold of one of those old bracelets or discs the Egyptians used for +money: but that's too good to hope for." + +It certainly was: though no doubt some industrious manufacturer of +antiques would cheerfully have made and dug up any amount on the site +of Rameses' palace, could he have known in time. + +We were to have three days at Luxor--three days, when three months +would have been too little!--and the second attempt at abducting an +ill-used lady from the harem of her treacherous lord would take place +as soon as we could learn that our auxiliaries, the Bronsons, had +arrived. Until they were on the spot, even a success might prove an +anti-climax. Meanwhile I had plenty to do in playing my more obvious +part of Conductor, and arranging the last details of our excursion +programme. Every one had bundled out early to see the sunrise. +Consequently most members of the Set were cross or hungry, or both. +Nothing could be less suitable than to clamour for porridge on the +Nile, but they did it, and called for bacon, too, in a land where the +pig is an unclean animal. They were the same people who played "coon +can" and bridge on the deck at twilight, when moving figures on shore +were etched in black on silver, or against flaming wings of sunset, and +in gathering darkness the blue-robed shadoof-men who bent and rose +against gold-brown dykes, were like Persian enamels done on copper. + +"Hundred gated" Thebes, the dwelling of Amen-Ra whom Greece adopted as +Jupiter-Amon, used to lie on both banks of the Nile; the east for the +living, the west for the dead and those who lived by catering for +mummyhood. + +I had arranged to take our people first round Luxor, making them +acquainted with the temple which had already introduced its reflection +to us. As for the town, they were capable of making themselves +acquainted with that, its hotels and curiosity-shops, when there was +nothing more important on hand. Next was to come Karnak, the "father of +temples," once connected with the younger temple at Luxor as if by a +long jewelled necklace of ram-headed sphinxes. And for those whose +brains and legs were intact, by evening I thought of a visit to the +thrilling temple of Mut. This last would be an adventure; for Mut, +goddess of matter, the Mother goddess, has apparently not taken kindly +to Moslem rule. Any disagreeable trick she, and her attendant black +statues of passion, fierce Sekhet, can play on a devout Mohammedan, are +meat and drink to her: but she can work her spells only after dusk, +therefore none save the bravest Arab will venture his head inside her +domain, past sunset. I was sure we could get no dragoman to go with us, +and equally sure that the adventure would be more popular for its spice +of horror. + +The second and third days I allotted to western Thebes, the city of the +dead: the tombs of the Kings, the tombs of the Queens and the Nobles; +then the Ramesseum, the "Musical Memnon" with his companion Colossus, +and the great temples wrapped in the ruddy fire of the western desert, +where Hathor receives the setting sun in outstretched arms. + +As I was about to unfold these projects at breakfast, a telegram was +handed to me. I read it; and while bacon plates were being exchanged +for dishes of marmalade, I cudgelled my brain like a slave to make it +rearrange the whole programme without a hitch. + +The American Consul wired from Asiut that he was detained by an +Important Personage, who wanted to know things about Egyptian Cotton +and its enemy the boll worm. But Mr. and Mrs. Bronson would arrive at +the Villa Sirius, Luxor, day after to-morrow, "ready for emergencies." + +Of course, being Conductor of a tour, and next a man, I ought to have +put the interests of Sir Marcus and his "Lark Pie" (as we were called +by rival firms) ahead of personal concerns. I ought to have immolated +myself in the western Mummyland with the consciousness of duty done, +while on the eastern side of the Nile, Anthony Fenton and Monny Gilder +and Biddy played the live, modern game of kidnapping a lady. But I +determined to do nothing of the sort. I gazed at the telegram with the +air of committing to heart instructions from my superior officer; and +without sign of inward tremour, announced that we would explore the +wonders of the west before visiting those nearer at hand. The weather +being cool and the wind not too high (I said), it would be well to +seize this opportunity for the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, an +expedition trying in heat or sand storms. To-morrow also would be +devoted to the west, and our third day would belong to Luxor and +Karnak. As a _bonne bouche_, I dangled the adventure of the Temple of +Mut, to sweeten the temper of grumblers: but there were no grumblers. +The Set listened calmly to my honeyed plausibilities; and the alarmed +stewards dared not betray their consternation at the lightning change. + +No doubt they thought me mad, or worse, because a day in western Thebes +meant a picnic: magical apparition at the right moment, in a convenient +tomb, of smiling Arabs and Nubian men with baskets of food and iced +drinks. + +Somehow the trick had to be managed, however; for I must be in eastern +Thebes, alias Luxor, on the day when the Bronsons' presence would +render our second attempt at rescue feasible. I had to interview the +chef--a formidable person--hypnotizing him and the stewards to work my +will, and above all, I had to make sure of boats and donkeys for the +party at short notice. Only by a miracle could all go well; but I set +my heart upon that miracle. "Antoun," hurriedly taken into my +confidence, volunteered to arrange about the boats, and the donkeys for +the other side. Fortunately there was no rival ahead of us; and with +juggling of plans and jingle of silver, Anthony's part was done. Just +at the moment when, by dint of bribes and adjurations I had induced +chef and stewards to smile, Fenton dashed on board to cry "Victory!" +Somehow, less than an hour later than we should have started, we got +off in two big boats with white sails and brown rowers. The canvas did +its work in silent, bulging dignity; but the rowers exhausted +themselves by breathlessly imploring Allah to grant them strength, and +shouting extra prayers to some sailor-saint whose name was calculated +to pump dry the strongest lungs. + +On the mystic western side, where once landed with pomp and pageant the +sun-boat of the gods, and the mourning boats of the dead, we scrambled +on shore with that ribald mirth which always made the Set feel it was +getting its money's worth of enjoyment. Many donkeys and a few +carriages awaited us: the whole equipment previously engaged for +to-morrow! and in opaline sunshine which stained with pale rose the Theban +hills and piled the shadows full of dark, dulled rubies, we started +across an emerald plain, kept ever verdant by Nile water. The touch of +comedy in the dream of beauty was the queer, mud-brick village of +Kurna, with its tomb dwellings of the poor, and immense mud vases +shaped like mushrooms, standing straight up on thick brown stems before +the crowded hovels. In each vase reposed sleeping babies, brooding +hens, dogs, rabbits, or any other live stock, mixed with such rubbish +as the family possessed: and the most ambitious mushrooms were +decorated with barbaric crenellations. + +Almost as far as the Temple of Seti I flowed the green wave like a lake +in the desert, but beyond, to join the Sahara, rolled and billowed a +waste of rose-pink sand, shot with topaz light, and walled with +fantastic rocks, yellow and crimson, streaked with purple. In the heart +of each shadow, fire burned like dying coals in a mass of rosy ashes: +and the light over all was luminous as light on southern seas at +moonrise and sunset. Before our eyes seemed to float a diaphanous veil +of gilded gauze; and white robes and red sashes of donkey-boys, +animals' bead necklaces, and blue or green scarfs on girls' hats, were +like magical flowers blowing over the gold of the desert. + +Everything blew: above all, sand blew. We found that out to our sorrow, +after we had seen the Temple of Kurna, with its noble columns, and its +fine fragment of roof, where squares of sky were let in like blocks of +lapis lazuli. I rushed here and there on donkey-back assuring people +that this was not _wind_ we felt: it was only a breeze. We could not +have a more favourable day for our excursion into this world of the +dead. Why, if we'd waited till to-morrow we might have met a _real_ +wind, perhaps even Khamsin, alias Simoom, the terror of the desert. To +make Miss Hassett-Bean and Cleopatra forget the smarting of their eyes, +I told them what a true-sand-storm was like, and how its names in +Arabic, Turkish, and Persian all came from the fiend "Samiel," who +destroyed caravans, just as "devil" came from the Persian "div." _Our_ +little breeze was from the east, which at Thebes in old days was +considered lucky. The west wind used to bear across the river evil +spirits disguised as sand-clouds. And these wicked ones had not far to +travel, because the Tuat, or Underworld, was a long narrow valley +parallel to Egypt, beginning on the west bank of the Nile. Red-haired +Set was ruler there, the god who had to be propitiated by having kings +named after him. But Rae, greater than he, could safely pass down the +dim river running through that world: could pass in his golden +sun-boat, guided by magic words of Thoth instead of oars or sails; and the +guardian hippopotamus (whom Greeks turned into the dog Cerberus) dared +not put out a paw. + +Mrs. East remembered that Thebes was Tape in "her day," at which Miss +Hassett-Bean snorted: and when out came that familiar story about +Cleopatra making red hair fashionable, Miss Hassett-Bean stared coldly +at the lady's auburn waves. "I wonder if the queen got the colour at +her hairdresser's, as people do now?" she murmured. "I've read that +they had beauty-doctors in those days, and used arsenic for their +complexion, and all sorts of mixtures. Besides, I can't imagine +anything natural about Cleopatra, except the asp wanting to bite her!" +Upon this, Mrs. East retaliated by calling her companion Miss Bean +without the Hassett. + +I shall always think of the Valley of the Tombs as a place of terror +and splendour, meant to be hidden from mortals by the spells of Thoth, +who circled the rock-houses of the dead with a zone of fire, as Wotan +hid Brunhilda, and decreed that they should be lost forever in the +blazing desert. Despite Thoth and his magic, men have burst through the +blazing belt and found in the gold-rose heart of the rocks, sacred +shrines the wise old god would have protected. They have found many but +not all: for in the breast of some one among Thoth's sleeping lions +which masquerade as rocks, may yet be discovered a tomb, better than +all those we know with their buried store of jewels, and their painted +walls like drapings of strange tapestry. + +We broke through the zone of fire, and it pursued us with burning smoke +of sand, pink as powdered rubies. Always it was beautiful and terrible +as we rode in the blowing pink mist: and still it was beautiful and +terrible, when half dazed we slipped off donkeys or slid out of +carriages, to enter the tombs which the desert had vainly striven to +hide. It was hot and breathless in those underground chambers, scooped +out of solid rock thousands of years ago, that great kings and their +queens and families and friends might rest with their kas in eternal +privacy. Enid Biddell waited until Harry Snell happened to be exactly +behind her, and then fainted, with dexterity beyond praise. Cleopatra, +however, was in her element. She felt at home, and did not turn one of +those auburn hairs scorned by "Miss Bean," at sight of the royal +mummies lit up by electricity in their coffins. These gave the rest of +us a shock, our nerves being already in the condition of Aladdin's on +his way down to the Cave of Jewels. When the guardian of the Tomb of +Amenhetep (the king had several other names, which annoyed Sir John +Biddell) darkened the painted, royal chamber of death, and suddenly lit +up several white, sleeping faces, the ghostly dusk was alive with +little gasps. There lay Amenhetep himself, in a disproportionately +large sarcophagus of rose-red granite from Suan; and in companion +coffins were a woman and a girl, all three brilliantly illuminated. +They had the look of the light hurting their poor eyes, and being +outraged because, against their will, they were treated as if they had +been paintings by old masters. + +The dreadful rumour ran that the woman was none other than the great +Queen Hatasu (never mind her more scientific names), her mummy never +having been found, or, at any rate, identified: and it was pitiful +seeing her so small and female, when in life she had wished to be +represented with a beard and the clothing of a man. Our dragoman, who +read English newspapers and whose idea of entertaining his crowd was to +make cheap jokes (just as his family doubtless manufactured cheap +scarabs), announced that Hatasu was the "first suffragette." But even +those who thought her downtrodden nephew, Thothmes III, justified in +erasing every trace of her existence wherever possible, did not smile +at this jest. In fact, having Antoun and me to refer to, the Set as a +whole sat upon the unfortunate dragoman, trying to talk him down in +tombs and temples, or ostentatiously reading Weigall, Maspero, Petrie, +Sladen, and Lorimer when he attempted to give them information. A few +with kinder intentions, however, interrupted his flow of historical +narrative by exclaiming, "Why, yes, of _course_!" "I thought so!" and +"Now I remember!" He revenged himself by advising everybody to buy +antiques from an extraordinary old gentleman, extremely like a +galvanized mummy. The antiques were extraordinary, too, so everybody +took the dragoman's advice, neglecting the other curiosity merchants of +the squatting row near the luncheon-tomb and the glorious three-tier +temple, in that vast copper cup of desert and cliff which is called Der +el-Bahari. The sale in mummied hawks, gilded rams' horns, broken tiles +with beetles flying out of the sun, boats of the gods, and gods +themselves, was brisk round this ancient gentleman, who advertised a +blue mummy-cap by wearing it on his bald pate, and seemed to possess as +many royal scarabs as a dressmaker has pins. Afterward I learned that +he was our dragoman's father; but I was loyal and did not tell. + +It was a wonderful day, all the more wonderful perhaps because it left +in the mind a colourful confusion; pictures of painted tombs hidden +deep under red rock and drifted sand, tombs which we should perhaps +never reach again through their guarding zone of fire--tombs of kings +and queens and nobles forgotten through thousands of centuries save by +their kas and has, their friends and servants, painted or sculptured on +the walls with the sole purpose of caring for or entertaining them +eternally. + +Already we had ceased to remember which was which. And back on the +boat, in the hour of sunset, when dazzling tinsel and pale pink +cloud-flowers sailed over a lake of clear green sky, the Set argued +whether the King with the Horses, or the Queen with the Retrousse Nose +was in this or that tomb. Sir John Biddell recalled the fact that Egyptian +horses had been celebrated, and that it was "as swell a thing to be a +charioteer then as it was now to be a Vanderbilt with a coach and +four." As for a retrousse nose, it didn't matter _where_ it was, on a +tomb-wall or on a girl's face. + +Monny thought differently. She and Biddy were glad that the sand and +rocks would still hide many secret treasures, while the world lasted. +It would be dreadful to think that everything was dug up, for tourists +to pry into, or to cart away to museums, and no mysteries left. As for +Mrs. East, she was doubtful whether to rejoice or grieve that +Cleopatra's mummy had not been found. If, however, it were like the +incised wall portrait at Denderah, it would be well that it should +share the fate of Alexander's body and remain lost forever. + +The next day gave us another trip to the west of the Nile: not again in +the burning desert, but only as far as the Ramesseum, and then to see +the Colossi, seated side by side on their green carpet of meadow, +looking out past the centuries toward eternity. + +We had a dance on board that night; and next morning it came out that +Rachel Guest, who had disappeared during a "turkey trot" and a "castle +walk," had got herself engaged to Bailey. I was not as pleased about +this event as was Enid Biddell, who now saw her "title clear" to Harry +Snell; for I had "bagged" Willis Bailey and Neill Sheridan for Sir +Marcus in order to gain Kudos for myself: but Biddy, appealed to, +consoled me by saying it served Bailey right if he were mercenary: and +that both men would have come in any case. + +The third day was to be the Great Day for us, the day big with fate for +Mabella Hanem; and the first thing that happened was a letter sent by +hand from the Bronsons at the Villa Sirius. They had arrived. The +fireworks could begin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE OPENING DOOR + + +Not half an hour after the first word from Bronson, came another +hurried note. An unexpected obstacle had cropped up. So confident had +he and Mrs. Bronson been of their friends' cooperation, that rather +than put such important matters on paper, they had waited to explain by +word of mouth. The owner of the villa was a rich Syrian with a +French-American wife. He was a Copt in religion, hating Mohammedanism in +general and the father of Rechid Bey in particular. This had seemed to +the American Consul a providential combination: but to his disgust he +found that there had been a reconciliation between the families. +Dimitrius Nekean would not betray the Bransons' confidence, but he +could not allow his roof to be used as a shelter for Rechid's runaway +wife--no, not even if Rechid had three other wives in his harem. + +Here was a situation! And as Monny remarked, in neat American slang, we +were "right up against it." She thought that, if Antoun and I "put our +heads together," maybe we could think of "some way out." So we did, +almost literally put our heads together across a table no bigger than a +handkerchief, in my cabin: and decided that the visit to Rechid Bey's +harem must be made by Brigit and Monny in the late afternoon. They must +time their departure from the house at about the hour when the Set +would arrive at the Temple of Mut. "Antoun" would be waiting for them, +and they would drive in a closed arabeah to the temple, where Mr. and +Mrs. Bronson would happen to be "sightseeing." If Mabella Hanem had +been rescued, she would then be put in charge of the American Consul, +whose very footprints created American soil around him as far as his +shoes could reach. Rechid would be unlikely to search at the Temple of +Mut, nor could he induce any Arab servant to accompany him there after +sundown. We would escort Mabel and her two protectors to the town, and +to the train for Cairo, Mr. Bronson promising to take the girl to +Alexandria, whence she could sail for "home." + +It was the best plan we could think of in the circumstances, and Monny +approved it, though her patience was tried by having to wait through +nearly all of another day. Mabel must have begun to believe that we had +ignored her prayer and meant to do nothing. I argued that the girl +would believe we were working for her in our own way. I said, too, that +if Rechid were spying, his suspicions would be disarmed by seeing us go +the ordinary round of tourists. Every one came to Luxor. We had come, +leisurely, by river, and were sightseeing every moment. Even Bedr, if +he were on the spot, intending to finish his revenge as neatly as it +had been begun, could have noticed nothing suspicious in our actions. +The mention of Bedr in this connection seemed to startle Biddy, and I +was sorry I had let his name slip. But, as I had said, every one came +to Luxor. Bedr had with apparent frankness explained that he was +travelling up the Nile by rail with his two clients: and if that were +true, he would arrive at all our destinations in advance of us. +Probably it would depend on "the clients" whether they lingered at +Luxor long enough for us to run across them again. + +"What are you afraid of," I asked Biddy when I had a chance with her +alone, "even if Bedr is a spy? Surely you kept your promise and left +that chamois-skin bag in a Cairo bank?" + +"It wasn't a promise," she reminded me. "I only said I'd think about +it. Well, I did think about it, and I couldn't put it in a bank. I told +you it was the sort of thing one _doesn't_ put in banks." + +"You didn't tell me what it was--I mean, what was in it besides money." + +"No, I couldn't." + +"Will you now?" + +"Oh, no!" + +"Well, then, will you give it to me to keep till we get back to Cairo?" + +"No, _indeed_! But Duffer dear, honestly and truly it isn't for myself +I'm afraid. You _know_ that, don't you?" + +"Of course. Yet if people are believing that Monny Gilder is Rachel +Guest, a poor little school teacher, then no one who heard the gossip +would bother to risk kidnapping her for ransom. And, also, there'll be +no further danger of those you fear mistaking her for--" + +"Oh, don't speak the name!" + +"I wasn't going to. I was merely about to use the word 'another.'" + +"Good Duffer! Yours is a consoling argument. Still, I never liked Bedr +or wanted him with us. And even now, there seems something mysterious +about Rachel thinking so much of him. As if there were a secret +arrangement between them, you know! I've never got over that, or +understood it a bit." + +"He flattered Miss Guest, perhaps. She loves flattery. But she's made +her market now, and all through Monny's charity. She couldn't want to +do her benefactress harm." + +"No-o, I suppose not. Unless it were to do herself good. Don't those +eyes of hers say to you that she'd sacrifice any one for herself?" + +"I've been thinking more about a different pair of eyes. And there were +such a lot of men crowding round Rachel's--for some reason or other." + +"_Now_ we know what the reason was--as she and Monny must have known +all along, since their joke together began. Oughtn't _you_ to tell Bill +Bailey the truth?" + +"No, my dear girl, I must draw the line somewhere! I've gone about at +people's beck and call, telling other people disagreeable truths, till +I'm a physical and mental wreck. Bill Bailey knows all about statues, +with and without glass eyes. Let him find out for himself about a mere +girl--" + +"With cat's eyes." Biddy snapped. + +If one triumph leads to another, Anthony could afford to be hopeful for +the ending of our stay at Luxor. He had not done as much sightseeing as +the rest of us, but when we had been asleep in our beds or berths, +dreaming of temples--or of each other--he had been out whispering and +listening, in places where his green turban opened doors and hearts. He +had traced the mysterious "trouble" to its source, and learned the +inner history of that regrettable incident which, like a dropped match, +had lit a fire hard to extinguish. A party of young men travelling with +a "bear leader" had laughed at some Arabs prostrating themselves to +pray, at that sacred moment, just after sunset, ordained by Mohammed +lest his people should appear to worship the orb itself. One of these +youths, fancying himself a mimic, had imitated the Moslems. They were +old men, unable to resent with violence what they thought an insult to +their religion; but they had told their sons, and the story had spread. +Later that night the joyous tourists with their near-sighted "bear +leader," had been attacked apparently without reason, on coming out of +a native cafe. Having forgotten the sunset prayer, they honestly +believed that they had been set upon by men to whom they had given no +provocation. They had uttered statements and complaints; and disgusted +with the "beastly natives" had pursued their journey up Nile, visiting +their grievances on the innocent, and making more mischief at each +stopping place. Murmured threats, with dark looks, insulting words and +jostlings of strangers by the inhabitants of Upper Nile villages, had +occasioned anxiety at the British Agency. It had proved impossible to +get at the truth, and the influence of the Young Nationalists had been +suggested. Our Hadji had now turned the green light of his sacred +turban upon obscurity, and those in power at Cairo would know how to +set about repairing damages. In spite of private anxieties, those which +I shared and others which I didn't share but suspected, I think Anthony +was happy on that third morning at Luxor. He must have been tired, for +much of his work had been night work, but he showed no fatigue. The +true soldier-look was in his eyes, the look I knew far better than the +new and strange expression which had said to me lately, "A woman has +come to be of importance in Anthony Fenton's life." + +We spent our morning and a good part of the afternoon at Karnak, +lunching irreverently but agreeably in the shade of fallen pillars +Cambyses or the great earthquake had thrown down. Neill Sheridan, who +had been to California, likened the ruddy columns of the Great Hall to +the giant redwoods. He was enjoying Karnak because there was +practically nothing "modern and Ptolemaic about it," but I thought how +quickly he would lose this calmness of the student if some one blurted +out a word about our plan for that evening. According to Monny, he had +been "taken" with poor Mabella Hanem on board the Laconia--admiring her +so frankly that Rechid had banished his bride to her cabin. If Sheridan +regretted her, as a man regrets a woman vainly loved, he had confided +in no one, not even Monny, who had risked seeming to seek his society +in order to reach the secret of his heart. He had, however, been graver +in manner than at first, so said the girl, who had been much with him +before my appearance on the scene. Whether it was intuition, or sheer +love of romance which inclined her to the opinion, she believed that +Sheridan was unhappy. It would make things worse for Mabel (if our +scheme failed) were Neill Sheridan mixed up in the plot; therefore, +even impulsive Monny admitted the wisdom of keeping him out of it. But +I could see by the way she looked at him--almost pityingly--when he +discoursed of lotus and papyrus columns, how she was saying to herself: +"You poor fellow, if only you _knew_!" + +The "thing" being to see the Temple of Luxor at sunset, we gave it the +afternoon, as if condescending to do it a favour. When I remembered how +I had meant to linger here week after week, I felt that I was paying a +big price for my share of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, making a +knock-about comedian of myself, rushing through halls of history +followed by a procession of tourists, as a comet tears past the best +worth seeing stars, obediently followed by its tail. Still, I had +Brigit and Monny as bright spots in the tail; and my old dreams of +Luxor had been empty of them. + +These ideas were in my mind, while on donkeys and in arabeahs we dashed +as if our lives depended on speed, from the Temple of Karnak to the +Temple of Luxor, along the dusty white road trimmed with sphinxes. This +description was Enid Biddell's, she being happy and therefore +frivolous. She rode with Harry Snell, as queens may have ridden along +that way, guarding a captive prince who had been subdued forever. + +Sunset illumined the world, as for a New Year's festival of Amen-Ra in +his ruby-studded boat of gold, when we were ready to leave the glorious +temple, and turn to the region of little bazaars and big hotels, fair +gardens, and girls with tennis rackets whose shape reminded our +Egypt-steeped minds of the key of life. Monny and Brigit had slipped away. +Their _real_ day was just beginning. + +My heart was with them; Anthony's, too, and his work permitted him to +conduct _his_ heart along the way that they must take, while I had to +conduct the Set to the Winter Palace Hotel, and give them tea on the +terrace. + +When everybody was rested and had had enough strawberry tarts, view and +flirtation, we were to make for the Temple of Mut: and, having returned +at last to the _Enchantress Isis_, were to steam away just as tourist +boats and dahabeahs were lighting up along the shore. We were to dine +late, after starting, and anchor in some dark solitude, so as to enjoy +a peaceful, dogless night on the Nile. But--what would have happened to +Brigit and Monny before the sounding of that dinner gong? + +What did happen at the beginning I must tell as best I can, because I +was not there, and can speak for myself only from the Temple of Mut. + +When they stole almost secretly away from Karnak, they took an arabeah +which was waiting and drove to the sugar-plantation of Rechid Bey. This +place of his is not prepared for a lengthy or luxurious residence; but +as I have said, there is a house. There is also a small gatehouse, in a +somewhat neglected condition; but a gatekeeper was there: the usual +stout negro. Monny and Biddy were quivering with fear lest they should +be refused admission, as at Asiut: but this time their coachman was +Ahmed Antoun, carefully disguised as a common driver of an arabeah, a +rather exaggeratedly common driver perhaps, for his face and turban +were not as clean as the face and turban of a self-respecting Moslem +ought to be. He had been helped to play this trick by one of the secret +friends he had made in some cafe or other, the cousin of an uncle of a +brother of him who should have sat on the box seat. But the motive he +had alleged was not the real one. The two beating hearts in the arabeah +had confidence in him. If the gatekeeper tried to send them away, +Antoun would bribe him, or threaten him with black magic, or say some +strange word which would be for them as an "Open Sesame." + +The fat creature at the gate had no French, but the driver of the +arabeah addressed him in Arabic, and translated his answers. Yes, the +great lady had come hither with her husband the Bey. Word should go to +her. It should be ascertained whether it was her pleasure to receive +these friends who had journeyed from a far country to pay her a visit. + +Monny and Brigit sat in the arabeah to wait, but they dared not talk to +the dirty-faced driver, lest some spy should be on the watch, where +every group of flowering plants might have ears and eyes. Even if the +big gatekeeper came back with an excuse, as seemed too probable, there +was hope from Antoun's diplomacy; but the chances were two to one +against success. Rechid Bey had almost certainly been put upon his +guard by the revengeful Bedr who had shown himself all grinning +friendliness to us. Rechid might have tired of playing dragon, as +Antoun prophesied; yet it would be strange if he had not given +instructions that no European ladies were to visit his wife. Mabella +Hanem had been snatched in haste from Asiut, but if she were still in +Luxor with her husband, she and her women in the harem would be guarded +by eunuchs, as in the more ambitious villa which Rechid called his +home. + +I suppose Anthony, slouching on the box seat in his unattractive +disguise, must have been as much astonished as Monny and Brigit when +the gatekeeper returned with another big negro to say that the ladies +would be welcomed by Mabella Hanem. The two girls were wildly +delighted. Fenton's emotions were mixed. He wanted to save the American +bride from the consequences of her tragic mistake, but he cared more +for his friends' safety than for hers. + +He knew that Monny and Brigit were brave, and that Monny had his +Browning, but the thought that she might need to use it could not have +made him comfortable on the box seat of his borrowed arabeah, outside +Rechid's gate. It was arranged that he should give Mabel's visitors one +hour, thus allowing for delays and emergencies; but if they did not +appear at the end of that time, he would dash off to tell the Luxor +police that two ladies were detained against their will in the house of +Rechid Bey. + +Once in charge of the chief eunuch, who had come to take them to the +harem, Brigit and Monny might almost as well have been deaf and dumb. +Brigit knew practically nothing of Arabic; and Monny, though she had +been vaguely studying since her arrival, had been too passionately +occupied with other things to give much time or attention to the +language of Egypt's invaders. Her blood was beating in her veins now, +and she could think of no words except "Imshi!" "Malish!" and +"Ma'salama!" These buzzed in her head, like persistent flies, as she +and Biddy followed their silent, white-robed and turbaned conductor +along a narrow pink path, toward a modern villa almost shrouded with +bougainvillia. And they were the last words she needed. She didn't want +to tell the ponderous negro to "get out." On the contrary, she wished +to be polite. So far from saying "no matter," everything mattered +intensely. And, unfortunately, it was not time yet to bid the creature +"farewell." + +Behind the white house with its crimson embroidery of flowers, rose a +thick growth of tall sugar-cane, the shimmering green pale as beryl, in +the dreaming light which precedes sunset. The dark red of the +bougainvillia looked like streaming blood against such a background. + +Though the villa appeared to be comparatively new, it was built +according to Turkish, not European ideas, as it might have been were +the owner a Copt instead of a Mohammedan. The building was in two +parts, entirely separating the _selamlik_ from the _haremlik_. The +latter was small and insignificant compared with the former, for this +was not a place prepared for family life: it was but a temporary +dwelling, where the master would more often come alone than with the +ladies of his harem. + +The eunuch opened a door leading into the women's building, and Brigit +and Monny entered the same secretive sort of vestibule they must have +remembered in the House of the Crocodile. A screen-wall prevented them +from seeing what was beyond; and the dead silence frightened them a +little, so easy was it to make of this place a trap. + +In the vestibule was a long, cheaply cushioned bench, the resting-place +of the women's custodian; and upon it lay spread open the eunuch's +well-used koran, which he had deserted to meet the visitors. Who had +given him the order to go, and why it had been given, the guests began +to ask themselves. + +Beyond the screen-wall they entered an anteroom. Through a big window-door +they could look into a small, grassy court that served as a +garden: and opening from the anteroom was a second room much larger, +which also gave upon the garden court. At the door of this, the eunuch +bowed himself away; but an involuntary glance which Monny threw at him +over her shoulder showed that he was grinning. The grin died quickly as +a white flash of heat-lightning fades from a black night-sky: but +though the heavy face composed itself respectfully, there remained a +disquieting twinkle in the full-lidded eyes. It struck Monny that the +negro was amusing himself at the expense of the visitors, because of +something he knew which they did not know. + +"We're not going to be allowed to see Mabel!" she thought, with a jump +of her pulses; and even when a negress, smiling invitingly, beckoned +her and Biddy into the large room whose three windows looked on the +garden, she still believed that they had been deceived. She did not, +however, speak out her conviction to Brigit. Nothing could be done yet. +They must wait and see what would happen. + +The room was furnished in abominable taste, with cheap Trench +furniture, upholstered with blue brocade that clashed hideously with +the scarlet carpet. There were several sofas and chairs stiffly +arranged round the walls; but no tables, save low maidahs of carved +wood inlaid with pearl, such as they had seen in Cairo bazaars and +hotels. The windows were closed, and the air heavy, as in a room seldom +used. The two seated themselves close together, on one of the ugly +sofas facing a door through which the beckoning negress had gone out. +There was no sound except the harsh ticking of a huge, bulbous clock, +all gilding and flowers, which stood in a corner. Monny's and Brigit's +eyes met, with a question. + +Who would open the door just closed? Would it be Mabel, or would Rechid +Bey stride in, to reproach or insult them? + +"_Are you sure it's loaded_?" Biddy whispered. + +No need for Monny to ask what she meant. + +"Sure," she answered. + +The handle of the door turned. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE DRIVER OF AN ARABEAH + + +"Thank God!" cried Biddy, as a slim figure in a loose white robe framed +itself in the doorway. + +With a sob, Mabel ran toward them, both hands held out, and in an +instant she was being hugged and kissed and cooed over. + +"You've found me--you've come!" she cried. "I never dared think you +would, when _he_ rushed me away from Asiut. He said he would keep me +here all the rest of my life, to punish me for complaining to you." + +"But how did he know?" Monny asked. "Did your sister-in-law tell him +about the letter?" + +"I don't think so, unless he has made her confess. It was like this: He +was coming to his place here on business. I felt so thankful. It seemed +providential he should be away then, just when you were starting up +Nile. I was almost happy that morning, when suddenly he appeared again +and I was ordered to put on a habberah and yashmak, and travel with +him. Yeena, the woman who acts as my maid, had to get ready in a hurry, +too. The chief eunuch, a hateful hypocritical wretch, followed. Some +clothes have been sent to me since, but not many. At first I couldn't +guess what had happened, and _he_ was in such a fiendish temper I +daren't ask questions. It wasn't till after we arrived that he +explained. I'm sure he took pleasure in hurting me. He said that he +left home early the morning he was going to Luxor, because he meant to +stop and make a business call on the way to the depot, otherwise he +wouldn't have been able to rush home and fetch me as he did, and still +be in time to catch his train after the warning. It was some dragoman +you employed in Cairo, he told me, who had seen us getting off the +_Laconia_, and who ran after his carriage in the street, in Asiut. The +wicked creature warned him that you were all there, and that he'd heard +you say something which sounded as if there were a plot to get at me. +Just at that minute, by the worst of luck, Mr. Sheridan passed. You +know how foolish and cruel _he_ was about Mr. Sheridan on the ship. +Well, he hadn't forgotten. So he turned round and almost snatched me +out of the house, rather than I should be left in Asiut with him away." + +"This is exactly what we thought must have happened!" exclaimed Monny. +"That beast, Bedr! And to think that Rachel and I wasted our time +trying to convert him! How I wish I hadn't let Aunt Clara engage him at +Alexandria! She thought he'd come from a man with her favourite name, +Antony: but she wouldn't have insisted if I hadn't encouraged her. I +feel as if this trouble were partly my fault. And if I hadn't been +thoughtless enough at Asiut to blurt out your husband's name--." + +"You're not to blame for anything, dearest," Biddy tried to comfort +her. "It was your unfailing resolve to help, which has brought us +here." + +"You're both my good angels," said Mabel, "Oh, it's heavenly to see +you. But I can't understand why I'm allowed to, after all the threats +and punishments. I'm afraid I shall be made to pay somehow. He loves to +torture me--and he knows how. I believe he hates me, now he's begun to +realize that I'd give anything to leave him, that I don't consider +myself his wife." + +"If he hates you, why isn't he willing to let you go?" Monny questioned +her. + +"Partly because he's very vain, and it would humiliate him. Partly +because he has no son yet, only that horrid little brown girl; and he's +set his heart on a boy who's to possess all the qualities and strength +of the West. No, he won't let me go!" + +"Well, you'll do it in spite of him then," said Monny eagerly. "That's +what we're here for. We shall take you with us. You must say to your +servants that we've invited you to drive, and you've accepted. There's +nothing in that to make them suspect. Lots of Turkish ladies go driving +and motoring with European women, in Cairo. And you can have that fat +black man sit on the box seat, with--with our coachman, if it would +make things easier, taking him to guard you. He can be hustled or +bribed or something, when the right time comes to get rid of him, never +fear. Oh, it's going to be a glorious adventure, and at the end of it +you'll be free! Nobody could blame you, as the man has another wife." + +Mabella Hanem shook her head. "You're splendid to plan this. But it's +too late. It was too late from the moment that dragoman warned--my +husband. Why you've been allowed to come into the house and talk with +me, I can't think, unless _he_ is watching and listening through a +hidden spyhole. There's sure to be _some_ secret reason in his head, +anyhow--a reason that's for _his_ good and not mine. And I shall not be +able to get out, if you do." + +"_If_ we do!" echoed Biddy, a catch in her voice. + +She glanced furtively at Monny. What had we all been dreaming of when +we let this beautiful girl run into danger? I know Biddy well enough to +be sure that her thought at that instant was for Monny Gilder, not +Brigit O'Brien. But the fear in her heart was vague, until the next +answer Mabel made--an answer that came almost with calmness; for +Mabella Hanem's whole being was concentrated upon herself, and her own +imbroglio. Everything else, everybody else--even these friends who were +risking much to help her--were secondary considerations. + +"I don't suppose real harm will come to you. I don't see how he'd +_dare_. And yet--there may be something on foot. Three men had come +to-day, one who might be a dragoman, and two Europeans. They came +together. I saw them. And I haven't seen them go away. They're in the +men's part of the house--the _selamlik_. They must be with my husband. +Perhaps there's only some business about the sugarcane. But--" + +"Did you see the men distinctly?" Biddy asked, in a changed tone. + +"Yes, quite distinctly, for they glanced up at the window where I was +peeping out. Of course they couldn't see me, through the wooden lattice +and the bougainvillia, but I had a good look at them. The dragoman +seemed to have one blind eye. Oh! I hadn't thought of _that_ before! +Can it be the man who gave the warning?" + +"What were the Europeans like?" Biddy questioned, without answering. +"Were they wearing light tweed knickerbockers with big checks?" + +"No, they were in dark clothes, not very noticeable." + +"Had one a scar on his forehead?" + +"Why, yes, I believe he had!" + +The eyes of Brigit and Monny met: but there was none of that deadly +fear in the girl's, which Biddy was trying to keep out of hers. Even +now, it was hardly fear for herself. It was nearly all for Monny; but +Monny must not know, lest she should lose her nerve when it was needed +most. That idea of Brigit's, about Monny being mistaken for Esme +O'Brien by members of the Organization O'Brien betrayed, had seemed +foolish and far fetched, although Esme was hidden from her father's +enemies near Monaco, and it was at Monaco that Miss Gilder and Rachel +Guest and Mrs. East had joined Brigit on the _Laconia_. I had laughed +at the suggestion, and Biddy had been half-ashamed to make it. But now, +in this lonely house where she and the girl had been unexpectedly +welcomed, in this house where the master watched, entertaining three +strange men, the thought did not appear quite so foolish, quite so far +fetched. Indeed, Biddy marvelled why it had occurred to none of us that +one of the dangers to be run in rescuing Mabel might come through Bedr, +the same danger which had perhaps threatened in the House of the +Crocodile. + +Too late to think of this now! The fact remained that we had not +thought of it when there was time. Not even Biddy had felt certain that +there was a secret motive for taking the girls to the hasheesh den, or +that Bedr had been guilty of anything worse than indiscretion. His +warning to Rechid Bey we had put down to a petty desire for revenge, to +"pay us out" for his discharge. Though Biddy had never felt sure of his +new employers' German origin, and though she had had qualms at sight of +the party, following or arriving before us on our pilgrimage through +the desert and up the Nile, she had never associated their possible +designs with Rechid Bey's grudge against us. Yet how obvious that Bedr +should take advantage of it for his clients' sake, if those two men +were what she sometimes feared! Brigit had never spoken out to Monny +what was in her mind about Esme O'Brien. She had known that Monny would +laugh, and perhaps say "What fun!" For the girl had invited Biddy to +Egypt "because she attracted adventures," and because Monny badly +needed a few, her life having been, up to the date of starting, a "kind +of fruit and flower piece in a neat frame." Now, perhaps Monny wouldn't +laugh; but it was not the time to speak of new dangers. + +"Well, if your husband thinks that creatures like Bedr and his Germans +are going to help him stop us from getting out, or taking you out, he's +wrong," said Monny, stoutly. "Bedr's the most sickening coward, as +Rachel Guest and I have reason to remember. But I'm glad we know what +we have to expect, aren't you, Biddy?" + +It was hard to answer, because the girl was in reality so far from +knowing what she might have to expect. Brigit tried to smile her reply, +as Monny began to tell Mabel something of their plan: about the friends +ready to rally round them, once they were in the carriage waiting +outside the gate; and about the motor coat and veiled hood which had +been brought for Mabel to put on, at a safe distance from the house. +"You'll have to start in your own things," the girl was saying, +"otherwise your servants would think it odd. Ring now, dear, for your +woman, and have her give you your habberah and yashmak." + +"There are no bells," said Mabella Hanem, with her soft air of +obstinate hopelessness. "When I want Yeena, if she isn't in the room, I +clap my hands as hard as I can. But I tell you, it is no use. It is too +late." As she spoke, throwing up her arms and letting them fall with a +gesture of helpless despair, both Brigit and Monny felt that Islam had +already raised a barrier between them and this delicate creature it had +taken into its keeping. In the white wool robe she wore--the kind of +loose dressing gown affected by Turkish women--she looked more like a +Circassian than an American girl. Always she had seemed to her would-be +rescuers a charming doll, a feminine thing of exactly the type which +would appeal to a Turk, weary of dark beauties: her hair was so very +golden, her eyes so very big and blue, her lashes so very black, her +mouth so very red and small: but now she had become an odalisque. +Mabel's friends realized that she would do nothing to save herself. +They must do all. + +Hesitating no longer, Monny struck her hands loudly together. Yeena did +not come. The girl clapped again, and yet again, till her palms +smarted, but nothing happened. + +"Yeena is in it--whatever they mean to do," said Mabel. "She's had her +orders." + +"Very well, then," Monny persisted, her eyes shining and her cheeks +carnation, "you must go without your wraps. Come along. Don't be +frightened. Isn't it better to risk something to get away than to stay +here alone when we're gone?" + +The pretty doll, with a little moan, gave herself up to her friends. +Brigit as well as Monny realized that the moment had come. They must +take her while she was in this mood. + +"Let me go ahead," said Monny, in a low, firm voice. "You know why." + +Brigit did know why. Monny had Anthony's Browning, and she alone +understood the use of it. Yes, she must lead the way; yet Brigit longed +to fling herself in front, to make of her body a shield for the tall +white girl she had never so loved and admired. Biddy put Mabel in front +of her, and behind Monny, keeping her between them with two cold but +determined little hands on the shrinking shoulders, and so pushing her +along, protected front and rear, in the piteous procession. + +Of course, if the door leading toward the house entrance had been +locked on the outside, there would have been the end of the endeavour, +for the moment: but it opened to Monny's hand, and all three went on +unchecked, until they came to the vestibule, where on the wall bench +they had seen the koran of the fat negro, awaiting his return. + +They had come tiptoeing, and had made no more sound than prowling +kittens, yet he sat there facing the door, no longer heavy lidded, a +black mountain of lazy flesh, but alert, beady eyed, as if he had been +counting the minutes. + +As they swept through the doorway, hoping to surprise him, the eunuch +jumped to his feet as lightly as a man of half his weight, and smiling +with pleasure in the excitement of an event to break monotony, he +blocked with his great bulk the aperture between wall and projecting +screen. + +No wonder they had not needed to lock doors, with this giant for a +jailer, and a big Sudanese knife conspicuously showing in a belt under +his open galabeah! Rechid had perhaps wanted the white mouse in his +trap to feel the thrill of hope, and then the shock of disappointment. +He had counted completely on the guardian of his harem, but--though he +had chosen an American wife, he had not counted on the courage of +another type of American girl. The knife looked terrible; but it was +sheathed and tucked into a belt. Anthony's Browning was in Monny's +hand, and hidden only under her serge coat. Out it came, with a warning +click of the trigger. And with an astonished, frightened gurgle in his +throat the negro involuntarily fell back. + +"Run!" Monny breathed, prisoning him where he stood, with the little +bright eye of the Browning cocked up at his face. She had to be obeyed +then, and they ran, the two of them, flashing past the black man, +touching his clothes as they squeezed by, yet he dared not put out a +detaining hand. When they were away--safe or not, she could not tell +--Monny still kept the pistol in position, but began slowly to turn, that +she too might pass the dragon, holding him at her mercy till the end. +Not a word of Arabic could she recall, but the Browning spoke for her, +a language understood without the trouble of learning, by all the sons +of Adam. + +When she had backed through the doorway, the girl still faced toward +the inner vestibule, and it was well she did so, for scarcely was she +out of his sight before the black giant was after her, taking the +chance that she would have turned to run. But there was the resolute +young face, with eyes defying his; and there was the weapon ready to +blow out such brains as he had, if the hand on the knife moved. Again +he fell back, and then Monny did run, making the best use she had ever +made of those long limbs which gave her the air of a young Diana. She +ran until she had caught up with the other two, flying toward the +distant gate; for something told her that the negro would have hurried +to tell his master of the trick the women had played--preferring the +lash on his back perhaps, to a bullet through his head. + +She was right, no doubt, to trust her instinct, for the eunuch did not +pursue, though his tale of failure was not needed. Rechid Bey had been +watching from a window of the selamlik, as Mabel his wife had watched +when he received visitors. He did not wait for the negro's warning, but +dashed out of the house, followed and then passed by several long-robed +men in Arab dress. The faces of these were almost hidden by the loose +hoods which desert men pull over their heads in a high wind, but had +they been uncovered the women would not have seen them. The thing was +to escape, not to take note of the pursuers; and it was only Biddy, +looking over her shoulder for Monny, who even saw that they were +followed. She cried out to her friend to hurry, that some one was +coming, that they must get to the gate or all would be ended; then +feeling Mabel falter, she held her more tightly and ran the faster. + +Rechid and his companions were shouting, not to the women, but to the +gatekeeper; and as the master's furious voice rang out, just in front +of the fugitive (all three together now), appeared the big form of the +man at the gate. + +Monny did not know what to do; for in whichever direction she faced +with the Browning, she could be captured from the other. She might kill +the negro, and then turn to keep the pursuers back: but the thought of +killing a man sickened her. She had meant only to threaten, not to take +life. Suddenly she felt afraid of the Browning. She hesitated, in a +wild second of confusion, hating herself for failing her friends, yet +unable to decide or act: but hardly had the gatekeeper sprung in sight +than he went down, flat on his face, struck in the back of the neck by +the shabby fellow who had driven their carriage. "Go on!" the dirty-faced +Arab said in French. "There's some one else to drive you. I'll +follow. I'm armed." + +The three sped by him, as he stood aside to let them pass, showing to +Monny a pistol which matched the one he had lent her. This consoled the +girl in obeying; for as "Antoun" had trusted her courage in this +adventure, so did she trust his, and his strength and wit against four +men or four dozen men, if need were. + +There was the waiting arabeah, and there on the box was a much cleaner, +more self-respecting Arab to drive it than the soiled figure which had +left the horses and strayed into the garden. Afterwards they learned +that the new man was the "sister's cousin's uncle" of the Hadji's cafe +acquaintance. He had been engaged to stroll past in the road, stop, +speak, offer the gatekeeper a cigarette, drift into conversation, and +be ready to jump onto the box seat the instant Antoun left it. His +instructions included furious driving with the three ladies (once they +had bundled into the arabeah), to the Temple of Mut. + +Rechid Bey had every right, according to his own point of view, to +resent the kidnapping of his wife, and to get her back in any way he +could, even if blood had to be spilt. But his companions--they who were +muffled in the cloaks and hoods to save their faces from the sharp +wind--had perhaps not the same right or interest. In any case, when +they saw that the women had a man, or men, to help them, and that so +helped they had passed from the privacy of the garden to the publicity +of the road, the three fell back. Publicity, it may be, did not please +them: or else, thinking to have only women to deal with, they were not +armed and did not like the look of the pistol. Rechid, evidently no +coward, or past feeling fear in rage at the failure of his counterplot, +ran on, wheezing slightly--he was fat for his age--toward the erect +Arab and the prostrate negro. + +"Beast! devil!" he panted breathlessly, and cried out other words of +evil import in both Turkish and Arabic; threatening the silent man of +the pistol with death and things even worse. But before he had gone +far, the hooded men caught up with him, and surrounding, urged him +back. What they said, Anthony could not hear, or what he said in +return; but he thought they were proposing some plan which appealed to +Rechid's reason, for he showed signs of yielding. There was now no +longer anything to detain the protector of the ladies, for by this +time, he hoped and believed that their arabeah must be far on its way +toward the Temple of Mut, the meeting-place agreed upon. Accordingly, +he stepped over the unconscious gatekeeper, who lay with his nose in +the grass, and backed calmly out of the garden. Not far off, an arabeah +was crawling along the road, so slowly that one might have thought the +driver half asleep. But this supposition would have done him an +injustice. Dusk had fallen now, the purple dusk which drops like a +curtain just after the pageant of sunset is finished, yet the driver +was wide enough awake to pierce the purple with a pair of sharp eyes, +and recognize a figure expected. He whipped up his horse, and the dirty +Arab running to meet it, in a few seconds the latter was on the box +beside the coachman. Then the arabeah turned, and dashed wildly off +according to the custom of arabeahs, back in the direction whence it +had been crawling. + +The two dark-faced men in the vehicle talked rapidly in low voices, +speaking the language not only of the country but the _patois_ of Luxor +itself. "Your brother passed you in his arabeah?" + +"Yes, Hadji, he passed with the three European ladies you told me had +been in secret to visit their friend." + +Then Anthony knew that Brigit and Monny had been able already to carry +out their plan of wrapping Mabella Hanem in one of their own cloaks. +This was well, and would save gossip, if the occupants of the arabeah +were stared at by passers by. And at the temple also it would be well, +for if possible the Set were to know nothing, now or later, of the +adventure. But though Anthony was glad of the news he had got from this +Arab ordered to meet him at the gate, he did not settle down +comfortably and say to himself: "Thank goodness, the thing is over." +Those men back there in the garden would not so easily have persuaded +Rechid Bey to let his wife go unpursued, if they had not offered some +alternative plan that could be carried out quickly. + +Still, so far so good. Brigit and Monny had "won out," and secured the +prize, as Anthony had prophesied that they would do. They were on their +way to the temple, where I would be with the comfortable, commonplace +crowd from the _Enchantress Isis_, and where the American Consul and +his wife would just "happen" also to be wandering. Instead of driving +straight there himself, Anthony went with a friend to an obscure, +mud-built house in the village. When he came out of that house, his +brown-stained face was no longer disfigured with dirt. It was as +immaculate, as noble as the proudest Hadji's face should be, and above +it was wound the green turban. Ahmed Antoun Effendi's own dignified, +old-fashioned robes of the Egyptian gentleman flowed round his tall +figure, when once more he took his place in the waiting arabeah--this +time not on the box seat--and drove off at more furious speed than ever, +toward the Temple of Mut. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BENGAL FIRE + + +The Temple of Mut I think must always be mysterious even by day. That +night it was more than mysterious. It was sinister. + +Darkness shut us in among the pillars and the black, lion-faced +statues. The least imaginative of my charges seemed to feel the +influence of the place. Not an Arab, not even the superior boat +dragoman, would come inside with us: because after the sun has set, +dethroned Sekhet comes into her own again. Strange stories are +whispered by Arabs, of the Temple of Mut, and of the ghostly, golden +dahabeah that, once a year, sails slowly by to a faint sound of music, +on the Sacred Lake. We had brought candles with us, protected by smoky +glass from the wind that swept down the avenue of broken Sphinxes +outside, and hissed like angry cats through the dark courts lined with +granite statues of the Cat-goddess. Yet despite the mystery, or because +of it, people seemed curiously happy. The spirit of the past, of Old +Egypt, touched them in the shadowy spaces of this ruined temple, +brushed them with its wings, and whispered half-heard words into their +ears. They talked to each other in low tones, as if not to miss the +whispers or the soft footfalls of unseen things; and they did not laugh +and make jokes, or ask silly questions, according to their irritating +custom. + +I blessed this mood, for my nerves were jangled (more than ever after +the Bronsons unobtrusively appeared) waiting for Brigit and Monny to +come, wondering if they would come, or what we should do if they +didn't; because suddenly in this place of gloom and eloquent silence +all the clever little plans Anthony and I had made, in case of +accident, seemed futile. How could we have let those two walk alone +into a trap? I blamed myself, I blamed Anthony; and sometimes I gave +the wrong answers to Mrs. East, who walked with me, trying to keep out +of the way of the crowd. + +She was anxious to talk of her niece, and to relate how she had been +singing my praises to Monny. "You mustn't be discouraged," she said. +"Never mind about the hieroglyphic letter. Oh, no, you needn't worry! I +haven't told her it was yours. Better let her think what she thought at +first. Did she _tell_ you what she thought? _Please_ answer me, Lord +Ernest! I don't mind your knowing--_now_--that I believed it was from +Antoun to me. Believing so, did no harm. Why should it, to me, or to +him? I soon guessed that there was a mistake somewhere--when he didn't +--didn't follow the letter up. I was not offended by the proposal as +Monny would have been--oh, not if she'd known it was _yours_, but if +she'd supposed Antoun was making love to her. Don't you see--you must +have seen, you're so quick and observant--that she's been caught by the +romance of him, just as she was afraid she might be by some thrilling +prince, when she came to Egypt. She's miserable. She's hating herself. +And you _won't_ save her though I've prepared her mind!" + +"So _that's_ what you meant when you hinted that I could spare her +humiliation!" I said, half in laughter, half in bitterness, suddenly +able to concentrate my mind upon the talk. "Do you think a man would +want a girl to take him for such a reason, when she's caring for some +one else?" + +"But, if it would be impossible for her to marry the some one else?" + +"Why should it be impossible?" + +"She would think it impossible." + +"Would she, if--" I checked myself, but Mrs. East understood instantly. +"If he has a secret," she said, "then none of us has a right to suggest +it to her. Every man for himself, Lord Ernest, in _love_! Antoun +Effendi has no reason too feel too kindly to Monny. You'll be robbing +your friend of _nothing_, if you speak to her. If he's in _love_ with +any one, it isn't my niece." + +"At least it's not _you_. Perhaps it's Biddy after all!" my thoughts +interpolated. + +"To care for Monny would be beneath his dignity, considering all that's +passed. And you can make _her_ happy, as well as yourself, by taking my +advice," Mrs. East went on. "Aren't you going to be sensible?" + +Just then came a murmur expressing surprise or some other new emotion, +from one of the outer courts where the crowd wandered, Cleopatra having +lured me--yes, "lured" _is_ the word--into the sanctuary itself. + +"Something has happened!" I said. "Let's go back, and see what it is." + +"Perhaps Antoun has come!" Mrs. East caught me up eagerly. "He was +coming, wasn't he, when he'd finished his business? Or maybe it's only +Monny and Brigit." + +"_Only_ Monny and Brigit!" + +In the hope of seeing Antoun, Cleopatra turned her back upon the dreary +sanctuary not unwillingly, even though the burning question was left +unanswered. I hurried her through the dark passages which lay between +us and the courts, lighting our way with a glassed-in candle; and it +was all I could do not to cry out aloud "Thank heaven!" or "Hurrah!" or +something else that would have opened people's eyes, when I saw that +indeed, Brigit and Monny had arrived. It was Rachel Guest and Willis +Bailey who had hailed them from afar, as candlelights flashed across +their faces; and suddenly to my eyes the gloomy temple seemed to be +brilliantly illuminated. I don't know exactly how I contrived to leave +Cleopatra, and get to the newcomers; but I did get to them in less than +a minute. Perhaps I was a little rude to Mrs. East. I wasn't thinking +of that at the time, however, nor of her. + +I separated the two I wanted from the others. Their faces radiated +excitement, but I was not sure if it meant success. I was sure only +that they had been through an ordeal and were feeling the reaction. + +"You're safe!" I said, and shook hands with them feverishly. Then I +shook hands all over again. + +"Safe, yes," Monny answered. "And Mabel--why don't you ask about her? +Oh, Lord Ernest, we've done it--we've done it--thanks to Antoun +Effendi! We should have failed at the last if it hadn't been for him. +Just look over there, at the Bronsons, and see if you can guess who it +is they're talking to?" + +I looked and saw tall, thin Mr. Bronson, and short, plump Mrs. Bronson +trying to form a hollow square around a little figure in a long gray +coat of Biddy's, and a hood with a veil I remembered her wearing the +day we motored to Heliopolis. It seemed about a hundred years ago. I +had conducted so much and so violently since; but I was not too old to +remember Biddy's hood. What if Neill Sheridan, poking about alone with +a candle, could see through that veil? + +"Triumph!" I exclaimed. "You're heroines!" (I didn't know then how true +were my own words.) "Was it a great adventure?" + +"_Was it_, Biddy?" the girl asked, half shyly of her friend. + +"So great that I can't talk about it," Brigit answered, and her eyes +implored mine not to ask questions. Also they said that she had things +to tell me--not now but by and by. Things for me alone. Biddy's eyes +could be wonderful. + +"Where's Antoun Effendi?" Monny broke in, when I had taken Brigit's +hint, and was beginning to say that we must go and speak to the +Bronsons. + +"He hasn't come yet," I answered; and then her eyes, too, began to +implore. + +"Not come yet? But--it's a long time. We found Mr. and Mrs. Bronson +outside, hoping for us to arrive, and we talked to them and introduced +Mabel, and explained things. They would have liked to go and take her +away quickly, but Biddy and I begged them not to. We said it would be +better to wait for the rest, and all the crowd to be together in case +of--trouble. Oh, we discussed everything, for ages--minutes and +minutes. I do think Antoun Effendi ought to be here, unless--" + +I caught her up quickly. "Unless?" + +"Well, you see, we left him inside Rechid's gate, where he'd just +knocked down a big negro, and was keeping back Rechid and _lots_ of +other men--anyhow three--with a pistol--not the one he lent me. He told +us to go, so we went." + +He told them to go--so they went! A change, this, for the Gilded Rose. +She spoke at the moment like an obedient little girl. + +"If he told you to go--it was all right, you may be sure," I said +encouragingly. But despite my faith in Anthony as a fighting man, I +felt--well, somewhat dismayed at the picture called up. "Rechid and +anyhow three men!" It was rather a large order. If with a wish I could +have sent every member of the Set back to their peaceful homes in +England and America, and thus rid myself of them in a second, they +would all have found themselves walking in at their respective front +doors. + +I wished this wish, but having a mere smoking candle in my hand, and +not Aladdin's lamp, it didn't work. There they inconveniently remained +in the Temple of Mut, looking twice as large as life. + +"What if I tell them they've seen everything?" I muttered. "They +haven't, but that's a detail. If I could rush 'em all back to the boat +--and you with them, of course, and get Mabella Hanem and the Bronsons +off safely, I could go look for Anth--for Antoun. Of course we were to +wait for him, but I don't like the picture you've painted--" + +"Oh, _do_ look for him!" broke in Monny. "Leave us to take care of +ourselves. I'm sure we can. There are enough of us. And Mr. Bronson is +a _Consul_. Go and get the police." + +"I can't leave you," I said. "Antoun would be the last one to forgive +me if I did that. But I'll start off the party, now. The arabeahs and +donkeys are waiting. Listen to the stentorian voice of the Conductor, +announcing--" + +I tried to speak gayly; but the announcement, which I opened my mouth +to roar through the temple, was never made. There came instead, at that +instant, a rival roar from outside. Mine would have been the roar of a +sucking dove. This other was a wild bull roar of rage. What it was for, +who was making it, and whether it concerned us, we did not know; but it +was the sound of many voices, and flowing to us on the wind, driving +nearer out of distance, it was startling and caused the heart to miss a +beat. + +Suddenly the thought sprang into my mind that this was like something +in a theatre. We were on the stage, in a play of Ancient Egypt, and a +mob of supers was yelling for our lives in the wings. They would pour +out upon the stage and attack us. Only the hero and heroine would be +saved. All the villains and other unnecessary people would be polished +off. + +Everybody had stopped talking. Involuntarily groups drew together. We +looked over our smoking candles, past the standing statues and the +fallen statues, away toward the columns of the temple entrance. + +Mr. and Mrs. Bronson, and the girl in Biddy's veiled hood and cloak, +walked across the court and joined our party of three. Neill Sheridan +was at a distance. His prophetic soul told him nothing. "I hope that +fellow Rechid Bey hasn't worked up any trouble against us," the +American Consul from Asiut said in a low, somewhat worried tone. + +Instantly I was certain that what he hoped had not happened, was indeed +the thing that had happened. I seemed to see Rechid stirring up a crowd +of his fellow Mussulmans, telling them that dogs of Christians had +robbed him of his foreign wife, who was on the point of accepting +Islam. Nothing easier than for Rechid to find us. All Luxor knew we +were in the Temple of Mut. These men of Luxor and other Nile towns of +Upper Egypt, had not yet settled down after the outburst against +Christian insults which had alarmed the authorities in Cairo. In three +days Anthony Fenton had discovered the dregs at the bottom of the +teapot and had doubtless done something toward calming the tempest in +it, but the troubled water had not time to cool. It could easily be +brought to the boil again; and the despoiling of a harem by Europeans +--the harem of an important man--would be oil thrown onto the dying fire +under the tempestuous teapot. + +The furious voices grew louder. From the wave of sound words spattered +out and up like spray. Perhaps in all that astonished crowd gathered in +the Temple of Mut, Bronson and I were the only ones who knew enough +Arabic to catch their meaning. His question was answered. And this was +not a stage. Those shouting men were not supers in the wings. They were +in earnest. Foolish and dreamlike and utterly unreal as it seemed, +their hearts were hot with savage anger against men and women of an +alien race: and though what they might do to us would be visited on +their own heads to-morrow, they were not thinking of to-morrow now. As +for us--it was just possible that owing to this silly dream we were +having about a mob of common, uneducated Arabs, for some of us there +might not be any to-morrow. + +"Is there a back door where we can dash out and give them the slip?" +asked Bronson. + +I was thinking hard. Mine was the responsibility for my charges, these +rich, comfortable tourists from London and New York, Birmingham and +Manchester, Chicago and St Louis. None of them knew yet that they were +in danger. They were thinking about their dinner, and their pleasant, +lighted cabins on board the _Enchantress Isis_, waiting for them not +far away. They realized that something was the matter out there, that a +lot of Arabs were making a row; but it interested and amused them +impersonally. If somebody had robbed or murdered somebody else, morally +it was a pity, of course: but it added to the picturesqueness of the +scene, and would be nice to tell about at home. I felt myself +overflowing with a sudden, new tenderness for the Set, so often +troublesome. This that was going to happen--unless we could stop it +--was in truth the affair of Monny and Brigit, Mabella Hanem and the +Bronsons, Anthony Fenton and me; but all would be involved, the +innocent with the guilty, unless very quickly the duffer of the company +could think of some way out. + +"No," I heard myself say with decision, "we mustn't leave the temple. +They're superstitious about it. Few, if any, will venture in. What they +want is to lure us into the open. And there must be no panic. Certainly +my friend, unless he's been hurt, is working for us--somewhere. It's +only a question of minutes. He borrowed my Browning to-day. I wish--" I +glanced toward Brigit and Monny. They stood at a little distance, with +Mrs. Bronson and Mabel, but the faces of both were turned toward us. I +saw that they guessed the meaning of the uproar outside. Biddy's great +soft eyes spoke to mine, spoke, and told me all the truth about myself. +How I loved her, Biddy O'Brien, and no one else on earth! How I would +die for her, and let all the rest die, if need be, yes, even Monny +Gilder, to whom I had been idiot enough to write that letter! If I +could save Biddy, what did anything beside matter? But--yes, it did +matter. I must save them all. And the light that had lit up my dim soul +gave me inspiration. Because I loved Biddy, I knew what to do. + +"I've got a little surprise for every one!" I yelled, to be heard over +the noise outside, where Rechid Bey's mob was now probably trying to +make our donkey-boys and arabeah-men join in the fight or the siege. +"Mr. Neill Sheridan will kindly lead the whole party to the sanctuary, +which his knowledge of architecture will enable him to find, on the +axis of the temple. Down that passage, please! In fifteen minutes the +surprise will be ready, and you will receive the signal to return, from +Mr. Bronson, American Consul at Asiut--no time for introductions now." + +Sheridan, amazed, but perhaps not displeased, emerged from the dark +corner where, until the row began, he had been examining a half-erased +wall-carving. "Come along, then, everybody!" he shouted good-naturedly; +and as the procession formed--discussing the "surprise" and the noise, +now mysteriously linked together in the minds of my charges--I saw the +veiled and hooded Mabel shyly try to pull Mrs. Bronson into place with +her, as near as possible to Sheridan. She must have suspected that +there was trouble brewing, and guessed the cause. Her timid, +self-centred little soul instinctively sought shelter in the neighbourhood +of a friend, who would perhaps have been more than a friend, if he +could. So she followed him, he not knowing what eyes the gray veil hid: +but Mrs. Bronson broke away from the small hand and hurried back to her +husband. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +"Go with the others," he said, quietly. "Take care of the girl. Lord +Ernest has some plan." + +She went reluctantly; but Brigit and Monny and Mrs. East lingered at +the tail of the procession, returning to us as the others vanished down +the passage that led toward the sanctuary. I motioned them away, but +Monny ran forward, while Biddy kept Cleopatra from following. They +talked together and argued, Biddy's arm round the taller woman's waist, +as Monny came straight to me, and put into my hand Anthony Fenton's +pistol. + +"I didn't have to use it," she said. "It's all loaded and ready. And +I'm going to stay here with you and Mr. Bronson, to help. What are you +planning to do?" + +"Please run away," I said, "and take Biddy and your aunt. You must. +That's the only help we want--" + +"Not till you tell me what you mean to do." + +"Oh, only to try a trick to frighten those Arab sheep out there. They +funk this temple at night anyhow. And I've just remembered that I +brought some Bengal fire to light the place up and amuse the crowd. I +thought if a red blaze suddenly burst out it would give those fellows a +scare--and the police are on the way--" + +"But the Arabs will see that you're only two!" + +"They shan't see us at all. We'll hide behind those statues and pot at +them if they do come in, which I doubt. Now, off with the three of +you!" And I was getting my illumination ready. + +To my surprise and relief, Monny obeyed without further argument. Dimly +it passed through my mind that she had been profiting by her lessons +lately. I threw one glance over my shoulder, more, I'm afraid, to see +whether my dear Brigit were on her way to safety than through anxiety +for Miss Gilder. The three figures had already disappeared in the +darkness, and Bronson and I gave ourselves to the work of lighting up. + +An ocean-roar of voices surged round the temple entrance now; but the +red light flamed like the fires of hell, and I, peeping from behind a +statue, revolver in hand, saw that the temple itself had not been +invaded. The flare lit the foreground of the darkness outside, and the +columns of the front court. I could see a moving throng of white and +black clad figures, gesticulating, running to and fro, seeming to urge +each other to some action, yet none coming forward. I sprinkled on more +powder, and up blazed the Bengal fire again. Now somebody was taking +the lead. A tall man was pushing through the crowd. Would they follow +this brave one? My fingers closed round the Browning. He was between +the columns at last, but the light was dying down. I threw on all I had +of the powder, and stared through the red dazzle to make certain what +was happening--since this might decide our fate. The tall man's back +was turned to us. He seemed to be motioning the crowd away instead of +urging them on. How to make sure, in the blood-coloured glare, whether +a man's turban was white or green or crimson? But that gesture--that +lift of the head! No mistaking that. The man was Antoun--Ahmed Antoun, +the worshipful Hadji, haranguing the mob. + +Hardly would they let him speak at first. Those on the outskirts tried +to yell him down. I heard the word "traitor!" and before the light +ebbed I thought I caught sight of Rechid's pale face under the red +tarboosh, Rechid's broad shoulders in European coat, edging past +jebbahs and galabeahs, toward the columns. Then, just as the light +died, from behind us in the temple came a cry. Above the shouting of +the Hadji, who was beginning to make himself heard by the crowd, it +rang out shrill and clear--a woman's voice: Monny Gilder's. She called +on the name of Antoun, and then was silent. + +I lifted my candle-lantern--all that was left to illumine the darkness, +and saw at the far end of the court shadowy figures struggling +together. It seemed to me that there were not two, but four or five. I +ran toward them, and Bronson ran, but some one bounded past us both--a +tall man in a green turban. A shot was fired after him, and hit a +statue. I heard subconsciously a miniature crash of chipped granite, +but I don't think Anthony heard, or had heard anything since that call +for "Antoun!" + +He had dashed ahead, though we had had the start and were running fast. +Rounding a group of statues, erect and fallen, I saw a candle-lantern +on the floor, and knew that Monny--and perhaps Biddy--had not +obediently followed the procession to the sanctuary, after all. They +had waited to watch and listen, hiding behind the black statues of +Sekhet, and men who had crept in by another way--doubtless by the small +Ptolemaic gate opening on the lake--had taken them by surprise. + +Anthony had got to the shadowy mass, which, moved like black, wind-blown +clouds, vague and shapeless, before Bronson and I were near +enough to distinguish one form from another. As for our eyes, his tall +figure blended with the waving shadows; two revolver shots exploded +with thunderous reverberations. We did not know if he, or another, had +fired; but almost simultaneously with the second shot two black shapes +separated themselves from the rest, fleeing into darkness. They took +the way by which they must have come, the way leading toward the gate +on the lake. + +Three seconds later we were on the spot; and the only shadows left +resolved themselves under my candle light into the forms of Brigit +O'Neill, Monny Gilder, Anthony Fenton, and Mrs. East somewhat in the +background. + +Monny's hat was off, and Biddy's was apparently hanging by a hatpin. +Their hair was in disorder, a rope of Biddy's falling over one +shoulder, a shining braid of Monny's hanging down her back. Monny +seemed to be more or less in the arms of Antoun, but only vaguely and +by accident. Dimly I gathered that she had stumbled, and he had saved +her from falling. Biddy was fastening up the front of her gray chiffon +blouse, which was open, and torn. Her hands trembled and I could see +that her breast rose and fell convulsively; for, though the light was +dim, I was looking at her, while I merely glanced at the others. Mrs. +East was crying. But Brigit and Monny had smiles for Bronson and me as +we came blundering along, stumbling over unseen obstacles. + +"Some one stole up behind with an electric torch, and tried to drag me +away," said Monny, in a weak little voice, scarcely at all like her +own. It sounded as if a ventriloquist were imitating her. "Some one +called me Esme O'Brien--whispered right in my ear. And I screamed, and +fought, and Antoun came. I think then the man pushed me down as he ran +away. Anyhow I fell, and Antoun picked me up. Oh, Biddy, are you safe? +Why, your dress is torn!" + +"Yes, but I'm safe," answered another small, weak voice. "I fought, +too. I--I think they wanted to rob me. Thank goodness, I didn't have it +on." + +"The bag, dearest?" + +"Yes, darling, the bag. I thought I wouldn't wear it to-day." + +Out in the night the yells had subsided since the Hadji's harangue, if +not wholly because of it. + +"The police have come," said Anthony. "It occurred to me that Rechid +and some friends of his were cooking up a plan, and while I was getting +into my clothes in the village it jumped into my head what it might be. +So on my way out to the temple I stopped and left a warning. We're all +right now. And I don't think the Arab lot would have dared venture in +anyhow. These chaps who sneaked in at the back and attacked the ladies +were dressed like the rest, but I doubt they were Arabs." + +He would have doubted still more, if he had known all that I knew. But +the one secret I'd kept from him was Biddy's secret. The words "Esme +O'Brien" whispered to Monny, as yet meant nothing save bewilderment to +Fenton. + +"The fifteen minutes are up, and no signal yet for your famous +surprise," called out Sir John Biddell's complaining voice, from the +end of a dark passage. "Has anything gone wrong?" + +"Oh, I was going to give you a Bengal fire illumination of the temple, +for a climax," I explained, coming suavely forward to meet him with my +candle. "But the beastly stuff--er--sort of went off by itself, and +it's all used up. I was--er--just going to call you." + +"Well, not much harm done," said Sir John. "We've seen the sanctuary, +such as it is. A little disappointing, perhaps, especially as Mr. +Sheridan found a friend with Mrs. Bronson, the Consul's wife, and +preferred talking with her to giving out information to us, from his +stores of knowledge. But luckily not more than twenty minutes wasted. +By the way, what's become of the row outside? Seems to have fizzled +down while we were away, like your red fire." + +"Yes, a great man of some sort was addressing the crowd. But the police +came along and made it move on. There's been a bit of native grumbling +in these Nile towns lately--you may have read some paragraph about it +in the Cairo papers? So the police are rather quick to break up +meetings." + +"Why should men meet near the Temple of Mut?" inquired Sir John. "_I_ +shouldn't think of doing it." + +"Perhaps in the beginning they hoped to get something out of the +Europeans," said I lightly. "But they've given that up, evidently." + +"I hope they haven't seduced our donkey-boys and arabeah drivers!" +exclaimed Sir John. "I'm hungry. And I'm in a hurry to get home." + +"Not they. Donkey-boys and arabeah-men aren't easily seduced when +there's a question of baksheesh. _They're_ all right! I'm only sorry +about the Bengal fire." + +"Well, it was a good idea, anyhow," Sir John patronized me. + +"_C'est vrai_," I heard murmur in his chosen language, the Hadji, who +had saved the situation. "_C'etait une idee tres bien pour +un_--duffer." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +PLAYING HEAVY FATHER TO RACHEL + + +Never had the _Enchantress Isis_ looked so enchanting to my eyes as she +looked that night. I felt, as the Set trooped on board, like an anxious +hen-mother who, contrary to her fears, has safely returned a brood of +ducklings to the home chicken-coop after a swim out to sea. I valued +each duckling, even the least downy, far more than I had dreamed it +would be possible. But there was one duckling valued so much more than +all the rest (how much more I had realized only when, cackling on the +bank, I saw it on the wave)--that knowing it was safe made me +hysterical with joy. I could have kissed its napkin when it slid off +its lap and I picked it up--the napkin, not the duck--at dinner. The +drawback was that I had not saved it, as Anthony had saved Monny. It +had no reason to be grateful to me, or care more than it had always +cared, for a friend. And still another drawback presented itself when +the confusion of dressing in haste and dining, as the _Enchantress +Isis_ steamed out of Luxor, gave me time to think. The duckling was not +my duckling: and considering that it had calmly laid plans for me to +capture an heiress, considering also that it had not yet abandoned +these plans, I saw little reason to hope that, now I had come to a few +--just a few--of my senses--it would ever take the idea seriously, of +becoming mine. + +To abandon once and forever the duckling simile, the first thing I did +on board the boat, after recovering from the excitement of seeing Mabel +off by train with the Bronsons, was to wonder how I could make up for +all this hideous waste of time when I might have been making love to +Biddy. But there was no chance to say anything personal to her that +night. I had to hear--and wanted to hear--the story of all that had +happened from the moment she and Monny entered Rechid Bey's gate, to +the moment they came out. Then there was Antoun's story to follow; and +after that we had to compare notes: how everybody had felt, what +everybody had thought, what everybody had done. This subject was +inexhaustible, and kept cropping up in the midst of others; but that of +Mabella Hanem, her escape from bondage and from "conversion" to Islam, +and what revenge Rechid was likely to take, was almost as engrossing. + +When at last, late that evening, I managed to get Biddy alone for a +moment, she could no more be induced to talk of herself than if she had +been a ghost without visible existence, a mere voice, to speak of +others, Monny by preference. What a heroine Monny had been from first +to last! And what did I think _now_ about the foolishness of that +theory--the theory that Bedr was a spy, and had led his employers to +believe that "Mrs. Jones" was travelling with her stepdaughter +concealed under an impeccably important _nom de guerre_? + +What I thought was, that we must get hold of Miss Rachel Guest, and +question her as to her whole acquaintance with the Armenian learning +how, by all that was incredible, the double mystery of mixed names had +originated. "Monny knows only that Rachel was supposed to be the +heiress, testing her personal attractions by pretending to be the poor +school teacher," said Brigit. "The child's been wildly enjoying the +situation, for she was tired of young men. Rachel wasn't! And Rachel's +been profiting by it--far more wickedly. As for Esme, I'm sure no +thought of her name coming into this business, ever entered Monny's +head. We must try to find out what Bedr said to Rachel at the +beginning, as you advise, Duffer--and all about it. After what I told +you that I heard from Esme about an exciting love romance, any mistake +of _this_ sort might be particularly dangerous. The Organization might +think it had more right than ever to be bitter against us. And now, I +don't mind your confiding in your friend Captain Fenton. I think I'd +like him to know my story." + +What Biddy had told me about Esme was, that the girl had confessed, in +a letter, having been made love to (during a summer holiday in the +mountains with friends) by the son of a man her father had deeply +injured. The accidental meeting had been a real romance: the girl and +the young man thought that no one, save themselves, shared their +secret. But who could tell, when Fate itself stood between them with a +drawn sword? The love of Romeo for Juliet was a safe and simple affair +compared with the merest flirtation between the daughter of Richard +O'Brien and the son of John Halloran, whom O'Brien's testimony had sent +to prison for life. + +Sometimes I thought, as the days went on, that Biddy guessed--not my +change of heart, but my new understanding of it: and that she wanted +quietly and gently to show me, according to Bill Bailey's pet +expression, there was "nothing doing." Her expressed wish that Fenton +should hear her story, looked to my suddenly suspicious mind as if his +strong personality and his extremely picturesque position had made an +appeal to the romance in her, as it had in the case of Mrs. East and +perhaps Monny Gilder. Always interested in "Mrs. Jones," from first +sight, when he had laughingly said that the "little sprite of a woman" +would be almost too alluring if surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery +and intrigue, Anthony was now frankly preoccupied with her affairs. He +was not even annoyed that, unaided by me, her quick mind had grasped +the secret of his identity. "It was like her to spring on to it by +instinct," he said, smiling that thoughtful smile of his, which was +more than ever effective in his Arab get up. "And like her not to give +anybody else a hint, except you, of course--though she must have been +tempted sometimes. I suppose"--and he looked up quickly--"she _hasn't_ +given any one else a hint?" + +"I'd swear she hasn't." + +"Miss Gilder--you're sure she hasn't the slightest suspicion?" + +"As sure as a man can be of anything about a woman." + +"You aren't trying to evade the question, Duffer?" + +"On my word, I'm not. I feel morally certain Miss Gilder labours under +the impression that you're as brown as you're painted. That somehow or +other you can't be Moslem because she's seen you without a turban, and +you've got the hair of a Christian. Maybe she thinks you're a Copt. I +heard her learnedly arguing the other day that the Copts are the only +_real_ Egyptians. She has the air of studying you, sometimes: but with +all her study, she sees you only as an Egyptian of high birth and +attainments, with a few drops of European blood in your veins, perhaps +just enough to make things aggravating, and a vague right to a princely +position if you chose to overlook something or other, and claim it. +There you have her conception of you, in a nutshell." + +There would still have been room in that nutshell for Cleopatra's ideas +concerning her niece's feelings. But if she were right, it was +Anthony's business to discover those feelings for himself, provided he +cared to do so. And of this I was not sure. There was the doubt that it +might be Biddy, even though he appeared to attach some unexplained +importance to Miss Gilder's continued ignorance about himself. + +The day after leaving Luxor, there was no time for the heart to heart +talk I planned with Rachel Guest. Each hour, each minute almost, was +taken up with my duties as Conductor, which I was obliged to regard +seriously, whether I liked them or not. If I did not, the Set growled, +snapped or clamoured; which gave me even more trouble than doing my +duty. + +For some reason best known to herself (but suspected by me) Mrs. East +kept to her suite, nursing a grievance and the Siberian lap-dog from +Asiut. This saved me a certain amount of brain strain, for among other +places of interest we had to pass near was ancient Hermonthis, where in +her Cleopatra incarnation she had built a temple with a portrait of +herself adoring the patron Bull of the city. If she had known how easy +it would be to visit the ruins, she would have been capable of desiring +the boat to stop, or telegraphing complaints to Sir Marcus if it +hadn't. + +The two excitements of the day were passing through a huge lock (with +sides like those of a canyon, and scarlet doors such as might adorn the +house of an ogre) in which we nearly stuck, and were saved by Antoun +seizing the pole from the inferior hands of a Nubian boatman; also a +visit to Esneh, a very Coptic town, starred with convents built by the +ever-present Saint Helena, sacred once to the Latos fish, now sacred to +gorgeous baskets of every size and colour, also somewhat over-beaded, +and over-scarabed. A ruined quay jutted into the wine-brown water, +where Roman inscriptions could have been spied out, if any one had had +eyes to spare from the basket sellers, the sellers of grape-fruit, and +all the other shouting merchants who flocked to head us off on our way +to the temple, despite a flurry of rain that freckled the deep sand of +the landing hill. But nobody did have eyes for anything Roman, now that +Cleopatra sulked in her throne-room, and our only archeologist was as +absent-minded as if he had been his own astral body. He had seen the +wisdom of "sticking to the trip," and not turning back by train with +the Bronsons and Somebody Else, as he may have yearned to do (if Monny +were right): but History had suddenly become as dry husks to Sheridan. +His soul was no longer with us, journeying up the Nile; and I suspected +his body of packing to join it, as soon as things had been arranged to +un-Hanem Mabel, and send her, freed from a marriage which was not +marriage, freed from this fear or forcible conversion, home to the +United States. + +It was just on the cards, Anthony and I thought, that there might be +another "demonstration" at Esneh, that unruly town where Mohammed Ali +banished the superfluous dancing girls of Cairo in the eighteen +forties. If Rechid Bey had not discovered the truth about that hurried +departure from Luxor for Asiut (as a matter of fact, Mabel and her +guardians were almost thrown on board as the train began to move) he +might have sent emissaries, or come himself to Esneh, where he must +have known the _Enchantress Isis_ would land. As for Bedr and his +employers, Anthony (who now knew Biddy's suspicions) was inclined to +think that, even if she were right, we had seen the last of them. After +such a setback as that in the Temple of Mut, he thought they would not +only be discouraged but frightened. They had run away from us, in the +temple; and despite the proverb concerning those who fight and run, to +fight another day, it was probable that men of their calibre would see +the wisdom of abandoning the chase. They had shown themselves cowards, +Anthony thought, whatever their object had been in attacking Miss +O'Brien and Miss Gilder: and though we must be on the watch during the +rest of the trip, his idea was that the men had retreated in fear of +arrest. + +In any case, we had no trouble at Esneh, and saw no sinister faces +peering out of low doorways in the bazaars, or over the heads of the +pretty (sometimes fair and blue-eyed) dancing girls' descendants. + +Buried in the heart of the village we came upon the temple. Only the +portico was visible under piled houses and a triumphant mosque; but +once we were down in the entombed temple itself, it gave a sense of +secrecy, and mystic rites, to look up from under the dark roof of heavy +stone with its painted zodiac, out from hidden halls of carving and +colour, to the clustered houses of dried brick built before the temple +was uncovered. There was a sense of tragedy and failure, too, toiling +up the steep slope to the town level, and passing, on the half-buried +walls, gigantic carved figures making thwarted gestures, in +commemoration of kingly triumphs forgotten hundreds upon hundreds of +years ago. + +At night there was _fantasia_ on board, with our boatmen dancing each +other down, like Highlanders, and the next day brought us to Edfu, +which all the women were wild to see because Robert Hichens had called +its green-blue the "true colour of love": an adorable temple sacred to +Horus, as there he conquered and killed Set. + +It was only after we had passed Sir Ernest Cassell's red house, with +the smoky irrigation works where fourteen hundred Arabs have chased the +desert into the background, and after we had visited the splendid twin +temples of Light and Darkness at Kom Ombo, towering majestically above +the Nile bank, that I found time to catechize and lecture Miss Guest. I +contrived to separate her from her sculptor, and lure her to a part of +the deck unfrequented because it was windy. Rachel was looking happy, +young and prosperous, in one of Monny's most becoming (and expensive) +dresses. + +At first, I think she felt inclined to be flattered by my desire for +her society, for I had never yet wished her joy, or formally +congratulated Bailey. One look into my eyes, with those clever, +slanting green orbs of hers, however, and instinct must have told her +that my intention was different. She glanced round for an excuse to +escape, but found none, for I hedged her in from all her friends. Then +she quickly decided to shunt me off on an emergency track laid by +herself. + +"What a wonderful day it's been!" she remarked. And Kom Ombo is one of +the best temples. The only thing I didn't like was those mummied +crocodiles. Their smiles look so hypocritical, and to think they've +been smiling them for thousands of years--" + +"It must be unpleasant to smile the smile of a hypocrite, even for a +few weeks," I seized the chance to work up to business. + +"Yes, indeed," agreed Miss Guest a slight colour staining her cheeks. +"And didn't you notice several new sorts of wall-inscriptions?" + +"Yes," I admitted. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to skip sixteen or +seventeen centuries and come down to you. I've been wanting a chat--" + +"Why, I'm delighted!" she exclaimed, frightened, but all the more +ingratiating. "Oh, isn't the Nile beautiful as we come toward Nubia? +And aren't the sakkiyehs more interesting than the shadoofs, which they +use mostly when the river is low? Willis said quite a lovely thing, +about the sakkiyehs: that their chains of great water cups, going up +and down, look like enormous strings of red and green prayer-beads, +being 'told' by unseen hands. He ought to be a poet, he's so romantic." + +"No doubt everything about you, Miss Guest, must make an appeal to his +romantic side," I cut in, while she was forced to pause for breath. + +"I hope I do appeal to him," she said, meekly, "I never thought to be +so happy." This was a direct appeal to _me_; and it hit the mark. I +didn't care a rap about Willis Bailey, or his sketches or the wooden +statues with crystal eyes which he was going to make the fashion. If +Miss Guest chose to hook her shining fish with a false fly it wasn't my +business. It was hers and his, and perhaps Monny's, for Monny had +backed Rachel up in creating a wrong impression, as if they two had +been playing together, like children, to trick the grown-ups. But I had +to find out what had started the ball rolling, because it looked as if +that ball had come out of the pocket of Bedr. + +"I'm glad you're happy," I said, "and my hope is that you'll remain so. +I wish you so well, that perhaps you'll give me the right to ask a few +questions. You see, I'm one of your oldest friends in Egypt, after Miss +Gilder and her aunt--and Mrs. Jones. You met Miss Gilder and Mrs. East +travelling in France, they've told me--" + +"Yes, in a dining-car. We were put at the same table, and got talking. +I just loved Monny at first sight, and she's been heavenly to me. What +fun we've had! I never had _any_ fun before. I hardly knew the meaning +of the word." + +"I suppose it must have amused you and Miss Gilder," I planted my arrow +at last, though not remorselessly, "this quaint idea that's got round, +about your having changed places." + +Rachel's face crimsoned. "Oh, Lord Ernest!" she sighed in an explosive +whisper, with a glance round to see if any one were near. But we were +alone with the beginnings of a sunset, that flushed the dun hills as +unripe peaches are flushed on a garden wall. "I've promised Monny not +to say a word and spoil her fun, as long as the trip lasts. She's +finding out, you see, which people are really attracted to her, for +herself. She says it's a wonderful experience--and it's given her such +a rest from men: the silly ones, you know. It isn't _my_ fault. I'd +tell in a _minute_ if she'd let me." + +"Was it she who began the game?" I dared to inquire. "Or was it Bedr? +Now, this is a question I really _have_ a right to ask. I'll tell you +why afterward, if you don't know already from Monny." + +"No, I don't think Monny's said anything to make me understand that," +Rachel answered, stammering a little, and trying pathetically not to +look anxious. "But I'll answer you, of course. There's nothing to hide +from _you_--now--that I can see. It _was_ Bedr who began. He was the +most intelligent, extraordinary person! I don't believe any one fully +realized it, except me. But from that first night at Alexandria, he +seemed to feel that I saw something of value behind his poor face. He +was _very_ sensitive. And he attached himself to me in the most +beautiful, faithful way. Really and truly, if there hadn't come that +trouble about the hasheesh place (which _wasn't_ his fault, because +Monny wanted to go, and when she wants things she wants them very much) +I believe I could have made a Christian of him. He would have been a +wonderful convert! We talked more about religion than anything else, +but he used to like to chat about America, because he'd been there, and +hoped to go again. _That_ was the way the joke about Monny and me +started. He _did_ ask me not to speak of it, but it can't matter now. +He told me when he was in New York, with a family who took him from +Egypt, one day the great Mr. Gilder's daughter was pointed out to him +in the street. She was with her father, in an automobile, but there was +a block in the traffic: a policeman was keeping it back, so he saw her +distinctly for several minutes, and he was interested, because his +employers told him how important the Gilders were, and how Mr. Gilder +used to have his daughter guarded every minute for fear she might be +kidnapped for ransom, as several rich people's children had been. Monny +couldn't have been more than fourteen then, as it's seven years ago; +and Bedr said that the little girl he saw in the automobile was exactly +like _me_--hardly at all like what Monny is now. He wanted me to tell +him, for a reason which he vowed and swore was _very_ important, +whether I wasn't really Miss Gilder, and _she_ Miss Guest." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I thought the idea so funny, so thoroughly _quaint_, you know, +and like something in a book, that just for fun I answered that I +couldn't tell him anything until I'd consulted my friend. Monny nearly +went wild about it. She said she'd come to Egypt to have adventures and +she was going to _have_ them, no matter whether 'school kept or not'. +That's just a little slang expression, people use at home, sometimes. I +daresay you've heard her say much the same thing. She said this idea of +Bedr's was too good to miss, and we'd get bushels of fun out of it. So +we have--in different ways. And she's been lovely, about giving me +dresses and things. When she and I talked the matter over, she +understood why Bedr should have thought she was more like me, at the +age of fourteen, than like her present self. She'd had typhoid fever +just before the time she must have been pointed out to him, and it had +left her thin as a rail, and as pale as a ghost. Her hair was short, +too, and some of the colour had been burnt out of it by the fever. Now, +you know, she has a brilliant complexion, and her face is much rounder +than mine, as well as more pink and white. Compared to her, I am +_sallow_, I'm afraid, and lanky: and when she and I stand together, her +hair looks bright gold, and mine light brown in comparison. + +"Monny wouldn't let me tell Bedr right out that he was mistaken about +us. She said we wouldn't fib, but we'd act self-conscious, as if we had +a secret, and he'd stumbled on it. He must have started the story--oh, +if you could call it a story! I don't believe anything has ever been +put into words. It was in the air. People got the idea. But Bedr must +have put it into their heads. Neither Monny nor I did more than smile +and look away, and change the subject if any one hinted. We said, 'You +mustn't breathe such things to Mrs. East or Mrs. Jones, or they'll be +angry.' Apparently nobody ever did dare to breathe it to them. And I +think Monny mentioned you, too, Lord Ernest. She didn't want you to +know. She was afraid you'd say that the whole thing was nonsense. I +suppose it was Enid Biddell who came to you? She was afraid Mr. Snell +--but it isn't worth talking about, now. Only she is a cat." + +Miss Biddell had said exactly the same of Miss Guest. Naturally, +however, I did not mention the coincidence. + +"Now I've told you everything you wanted to know, haven't I?" Rachel +went on. "Or were there any more questions you'd like to ask--I mean, +about Bedr?" + +"Only one more, I think. Did it ever strike you that he was curious +about you--or rather, about Miss Gilder who, you both let him suppose, +was really Miss Guest? Anything about your name?" + +"Why, yes, he was curious. They say Arabs always are, if you let them +be. Not that he is exactly an Arab. But I suppose Armenians are the +same. He seemed to want to know things about me--what I'd done, where +I'd lived, and--oh, lots of little questions he would ask. Monny and I +made up our minds from the first, as I told you, that there mustn't be +any fibs. I simply put him off. He never got anything out of me at +all." + +"I see," I said; and let myself drift away from her into +thoughtfulness. + +"Is that all, then?" + +"Yes, that is all, thank you." + +Her tone sounded as if she were relieved of a mental weight, and would +like to go. I expected her to make some excuse: it would soon be time +to dress for dinner: or she had a letter to write. But no, she +lingered. She was trying to bring herself to say something. I waited, +in silence, my eyes on the shining river, looking back at the golden +trail of the sun that was like a rich mantle draping a gondola on a +fete day in Venice. + +"I suppose you think," she forced the words out at last, "that Willis +Bailey wouldn't have--fallen in love--or proposed--if he hadn't thought +like the rest, that I--I--" "I don't see why he shouldn't, Miss +Guest." + +"He--really does seem to care for me--as I _am_, you know. And I've +never told him a single untruth. I've _nothing_ to blame myself for." + +"I'm sure of that." + +"Yet you don't approve of me--one bit. You think I'm a--kind of +adventuress. So does Mrs. Jones. _Me_! Why, what would the people at +home in Salem say if any one suggested such a thing? You don't know the +life I've led, Lord Ernest." + +"I can imagine. You don't want to go back to it again, do you?" + +"It does seem as if I _couldn't_, now. It's seemed so, even before +Willis--oh, I'm sure you think I _never_ meant to go back, once I'd +broken free from the dull grind." + +"No harm in that!" + +"I'm glad you say so. I took all my legacy to see the world a little +--well, nearly all, not quite, perhaps, to tell the truth. And being +brave has brought me this reward: the love of a man who can give me +everything worth having. I shan't be _outside_ life any more. And +Willis won't have any reason to blame me when he--when he--" + +"No reason, of course," I fitted into her long pause. "But men as well +as women are unreasonable, sometimes, you know. And if he should be so +--er--wrong-headed as to think you'd deceived him about yourself--" + +"Then he ought to blame Monny, not me!" + +"He ought, perhaps. But the question is, what he will do. And you can't +like having a sword hanging over your head? Supposing he should be +unjust, and refuse to carry out--" + +"Oh, Lord Ernest, you don't think he will, after he's sworn that I'm +the only woman in the world he could ever have loved? He thinks me +_much_ better looking than Monny. He says she hasn't got a _soul_, yet. +He doubts if she ever will have one." + +I didn't doubt it. I thought I had heard it stirring in the throes of +birth, a soul such as would blind the eyes of a Rachel Guest, with its +white shining. Monny had said that she would "find her soul in Egypt." +But the mention of this was not indicated just then. + +"I haven't the courage to tell him, even if there were really anything +definite enough to tell," Rachel went on. "It would be insulting a man +like Willis to suggest that he'd been influenced--you know what I mean. +But--now we're talking of it--oh, do advise me! We're planning to be +married in Egypt, at the end of this trip, and then settle down in +Cairo, for Mr. Bailey's studies at the museum. He came up the Nile only +for me, you see! And he says I shall be his first model for the new +style--my eyes are _just_ right, as if they'd been made on purpose to +help him. I lie awake nights wondering what if, before the wedding, +when he finds out for certain that my name is really only Rachel Guest, +and that I'm I--oh, I daren't _think_ of it!" + +"Then, if you want me to advise, why don't you in some tactful, perhaps +joking way, speak of the story Bedr started, and--" + +"I can't--I simply can't." + +"Yet you feel it would be better?" + +"Yes--sometimes I feel it. _You_ help me, Lord Ernest. _You_ tell him. +And then, if you see any signs--you'll make him understand how dreadful +it would be to throw me over because I'm poor and have been a nobody +till now?" + +"I'll do my best," I heard myself weakly promising. + +No wonder I have earned the nickname of Duffer! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +MAROONED + + +Had any human fly ever buzzed himself so fatally into the spider-webs +of other people's love affairs? I asked myself sternly. As soon as +Providence plucked me out of one web, back I would bumble into another, +though I had no time for a love affair of my own. + +When the _Enchantress Isis_ had slipped past many miles of desert +shore, black-striped and tawny as a leopard's skin, and other desert +shores so fiercely yellow as to create an effect of sunshine under gray +skies, we arrived at Assuan. I had not yet kept my promise to Rachel, +though whether from lack of opportunity or courage I was not sure. + +Here we were at historic Assuan; and nothing had happened, nothing +which could be written down in black and white, since the excitements +at Luxor. Nevertheless, some of us were different within, and the +differences were due, directly or indirectly, to those excitements. + +Now we were nearing Ethiopia, alias the Land of Cush, though Monny said +she could not bear to have it called by that name, except, of course, +in the Bible, where it couldn't be helped. How would any of us like to +"register" at an hotel as Mr. or Miss So-and-So, of Cush? Oshkosh +sounded more romantic. + +No land, however, could look more romantic than Assuan, City of the +Cataracts, Greek Syene, that granite quarry whose red syenite made +obelisks and sarcophagi for kings of countless dynasties. "Suan," as +the Copts renamed it (a frontier town of Egypt since the days of +Ezekiel the prophet), now appeared a gay place, made for +pleasure-pilgrims. + +Sky and river were dazzling blue, and the sea of sand was a sea of +gold, the dark rocks lying like tamed monsters at the feet of Khnum, +god of the Cataract, glittered bright as jet, over which a libation of +red wine had gushed. The river-front of the town, with its hotels and +shops, was brightly coloured as a row of shining shells from a southern +sea; tints of pink and blue and amber, translucently clear in contrast +with the dark green of lebbek trees and palms, in whose shadow flowers +burned, like rainbow-tinted flames of driftwood. Between our eyes and +the brilliant picture, a network of thin dark lines was tangled, as if +an artist had defaced his canvas with scratches of a drying brush. +These scratches were in reality the masts of moored feluccas, bristling +close to the shore like a high hedge of flower stems, stripped of +blossoms and bent by driving wind. + +On the opposite side of the river, the desert crouched like a lion who +flings back his head with a shake of yellow mane, before he stoops to +drink. And in the midst of the stream rose Elephantine Island, with its +crown of feathery palms, its breastwork of Roman ruins (a medal of fame +for the kings it gave to Egypt) and its undying lullaby sung by the +cataract, among surrounding rocks. + +Very strange rocks they were, black as wet onyx, though for thousands +of years they had been painted rose by sunrise and sunset; shapes of +animal gods, shapes of negro slaves, shapes of broken obelisks and +fallen temples; shapes of elephants like those seen first by Egyptians +on this island; shapes which one felt could never have taken form +except in Egypt. + +Over our heads armies of migrating birds made a network like a great +floating scarf of beads, each bead a bird: and the blue water round the +slow-gliding _Enchantress_ was crowded with boats of so many hitherto +unknown sorts, that they might have been visiting craft from another +world: feluccas with sails red or white, or painted in strange +patterns, or awninged; some with rails like open trellis work of many +colours, over which dark faces shone like copper in the sunshine; +rowing boats, "galleys" with fluttering flags, and old soap-boxes +roughly lined with tin, in which naked imps of boys perilously paddled. +Out from the boats rushed music in clouds like incense; wild, African +music of chanting voices, beating tom-toms, or clapping hands that +clacked together like castanets. Very old men and very young youths +thumped furiously on earthen drums shaped like the jars of Elephantine, +once so famous that they travelled the length of Egypt filled with +wine. The breeze that fanned to us from beyond the palms and lebbeks, +the roses and azaleas, was soft and flower-laden. There was a scent in +it, too, as of ripe grapes, as if a fragrance lingered from vanished +days when wine for the gods was made from Elephantine vineyards, and +fig-trees never lost their leaves. We ourselves, and our big three-decked +boat were alone in our modernity, if one forgot the line of gay +buildings on the shore. Everything else might have been of the time +when the world supposed Elephantine to be placed directly on the Tropic +of Cancer, and believed in the magic lamp which lit the unfathomable +well; the time when quarries of red and yellow clay gave riches to the +island, and all Egypt thanked its gods when Elephantine's Nilemeter +showed that the Two Lands would be plentifully watered. + +Most of us were going to live on board the _Enchantress_ for our three +days at Assuan; but, hearing that lords and ladies of high degrees +swarmed at the Cataract Hotel with its wild, watery view of tumbled +rocks, and at the Savoy in its flowery gardens, some went where they +might hope to cross the path of dukes and duchesses. + +The Monny-ites were not "wild" about the aristocracy, nor would royalty +(of later date than the Ptolemies) have lured Cleopatra from her suite +on the boat. But the whole party was eager for shore, and no sooner had +the _Enchantress_ put her foot on the yellow sands than she was +deserted by her passengers. The bazaars were the first attractions, for +"everybody said" that they were as fine in their way as the bazaars of +Cairo; so very soon we were all buying silver, ivory, stuffed +crocodiles and ostrich feathers from the Sudan, which now opened its +gates not far ahead: the Sudan, mysterious, unknown, and vast. + +Cleopatra clung to me, with a certain wistfulness, as if in this +incarnation she were not so intimately at home in Upper Egypt as she +had hoped to be. Perhaps this loneliness of her soul was due to the +fact that instead of seeking her society, "Anthony with an H" seldom +came near her now. Something had warned him off. He would never tell me +or any one on earth: but, unused to the ways of women as he was, I felt +sure that he had been uncomfortably enlightened as to Cleopatra's +feelings. The cure, according to his prescription, was evidently to be +"absent treatment." But there was another which I fancied might be +efficacious; the sudden arrival on the scene of Marcus Antonius Lark. + +I happened to know that he proposed a dash from Cairo to Assuan by +train, for I had received two telegrams at the moment of walking off +the boat. The first message announced his almost immediate advent; the +second regretted unavoidable delay, but expressed an intention not to +let us steam away for Wady Halfa without seeing him. The excuse alleged +was business, but I thought I saw through it, and sympathized; for he +whom I had once cursed as a brutal tyrant of money-bags now loomed +large as a pathetic figure. + +Despite the lesson of the lotuses, I believed that his motive was to +try his chance with Mrs. East; that life had become intolerable, unless +"Lark's Luck" might hold again; and that he could not wait till the +cruel lady returned to Cairo. It was a toss-up, as we walked side by +side to the incense-laden bazaar, whether I told her the news or left +her to be surprised by the unexpected visitor. Eventually I decided +that silence would help the cause; and in thus making up my mind I was +far from guessing that my own fate and Monny's and Anthony's and +Brigit's hung also on that insignificant decision. I was thankful that +Mrs. East said no more of bringing her niece and me together, and that, +on the contrary, she dropped dark hints about "everything in life which +she had wanted" being now "too late, and useless to hope for" in this +incarnation. Why she had changed her plans for Monny I could not be +sure; enough for me that she apparently had changed them. + +Sir Marcus did not appear the next day or the next, and I heard no +more. Indeed, between dread of breaking the truth to Bill Bailey, and +self-reproach at letting time pass without breaking it, I almost forgot +Lark's love affair. I salved my conscience by working unnecessarily +hard, and even helping Kruger with his accounts, when Anthony too +generously relieved me of other duties. + +How I envied Fenton at this time, because no girls asked him what men +they ought to marry; or implored him to prevent men from jilting them; +or urged him to enlighten handsome sculptors with wavy, soft hair, and +hard eyes resembling the crystal orbs which were to become fashionable +in Society! Anthony loved Assuan, and apparently enjoyed displaying its +beauties. Not knowing that I hid a fox under my mantle, he meant to be +kind in "taking people off my hands," giving them tea on the Cataract +Hotel veranda; escorting them to the ruined Saracen Castle which, with +Elephantine opposite, barred the river and made a noble gateway; +leading them at sunset to the Arab cemetery in the desert, and to the +Bisharin village where wild, dark creatures (whose hair was pinned with +arrows and whose ancestors were mentioned in the Bible) sold baskets +and bracelets and what not. There were really, as Sir John Biddell +remarked, a "plethora of sights," not counting the magnificent Rock +Tombs, since the Set had definitely "struck" against tombs of all +descriptions. But even with an excursion to the ancient quarries, for a +look at half-finished obelisks, for once I had not enough to do. And +Fenton had snatched Biddy from me as well as Monny. Mercilessly he had +them sightseeing every moment. And I could no longer scold Rachel for +"letting things slide." To blame her would be for the pot to call the +kettle black. + +It was on the day of the Great Dam that I screwed my courage to the +sticking-place, and made Bailey understand that his fiancee was nobody +but Rachel Guest; that she would be Rachel Guest all her life until she +became Mrs. Some One-or-Other: preferably Mrs. Willis Bailey. Somehow +it seemed appropriate to do the deed at the Dam. And always in future, +when people ask what impression the eighth wonder of the world made +upon me, I shall doubt for an instant whether they refer to the +American sculptor, or to the Barrage. + +The way in which we went was so impressive that it was comparatively +easy to be keyed up to anything. + +Most travellers make the trip on donkey back; or else, as far as +Shellal, in a white, blue-eyed desert train, where violet window-glass +soothes their eyes and prepares their minds for a future journey to +Khartum. After Shellal they go on in small boats to the wide, still +lake which the Great Dam has stored up for the supply of Egypt. But we +of the _Enchantress Isis_ were super-travellers. Our boat being of less +bulk than her new rivals, she was able to reach the Barrage by passing +up through its many locks and proceed calmly along the Upper Nile, +between the golden shores of Nubia, to Wady Haifa. We remained on board +for the experience; and though I had the task of telling Bailey, still +before me, I would not have changed places with a king, as standing on +deck, with Biddy by my side, I felt myself ascending the once +impassable Cataracts of the god Khnum. + +If Biddy had been the only person by my side, I should have risked +telling her the secret she ought always to have known. But there were +as many others as could crowd along the rail. For once they were +reflective, not inclined to chatter. Perhaps the same thought took +different forms, according as it fitted itself into different heads; +the thought of that marvellous campaign of the boats which fought their +way past these cataracts to relieve Gordon. The ascent was a pageant +for us. For them it had meant strife and disaster and death. We admired +the glimpses of yellow desert: we exclaimed joyously at the mad turmoil +of green water, the blood-red and jet-black rocks, below the Dam. For +us it was a scene of unforgettable majesty. For those others, the waste +of stone-choked river must have yawned like a wicked mouth, full of +water and jagged black teeth, which opened to gulp down boats and men. + +It was on the brink of the Barrage itself that I spoke to Bailey. And +there, looking down over the immense granite parapet, upon line after +line of tamed cataracts breathing rainbows, we were so small, so +insignificant, that surely it could not matter to a man whether the +girl of his heart were an heiress or a beggar maid! There was room in +the world only for the mighty organ-music of these waters, and the ever +underlying song of love. + +I saw by the look in Bailey's eyes, however, as he gazed away from me +to the long-necked dragon form of a huge derrick, that it _did_ matter. +I had been tactful. I had mentioned the mistake in identity as if it +were a silly game played by children, a game which neither he nor I nor +any one could ever have regarded seriously. He controlled himself, and +took it well, so far as outward appearance went: but soon he made an +excuse to escape: and presently I saw him strolling off alone, head +down, hands in pockets. Luncheon was being prepared on the veranda of a +house belonging to the chief engineer of the Dam. Its owner was a +friend of Sir Marcus Lark, and, being away, had agreed to lend his +place to our party, Kruger having done no end of writing and +telegraphing to secure it. Many of our people had got off the +_Enchantress Isis_ in one of the locks, and had walked up the steps to +the summit-level of the Barrage, Brigit and I among others. And as we +assembled for lunch it was an odd sight to see our white, floating home +rising higher and higher, until at last she rode out on the surface of +the broad sea of Nile which is held up by the granite wall of the +Barrage. She was to be moored by the Dam, and to wait for us there +until evening, when we should have exhausted the Barrage and ourselves; +and have visited Philae. + +By and by luncheon was ready, served by our white-robed, red-sashed +waiters from the _Isis_, but Bailey did not return. Rachel begged that +our table might wait for a few minutes. Perhaps he had gone the length +of the Dam in one of those handcars, on which some of our people had +dashed up and down the famous granite mile, their little vehicles +pushed by Arabs. He might be back in a few minutes. But the minutes +passed and he did not come. The dragon-derrick stretched its neck from +far away, as if to peer curiously at Rachel. The black and red and +purple monsters disguised as rocks for this wild, masquerade ball of +the Nile, foamed at the mouth with watery mirth at the trouble these +silly things called girls had always been bringing on themselves, since +Earth and Egypt were young together. The look of the forsaken, the +jilted, was already stamped upon Rachel's face. She tried to eat: when +the picnic meal could be put off no longer, but could scarcely swallow. +Monny glanced at her anxiously from time to time, perhaps suspecting +something of the truth. And the eyes of both, girls turned to me now +and then with an appeal which made unpalatable my well-earned +hard-boiled eggs, and drumsticks. Bother the whole blamed business! +thought I. Hadn't I done all I could? Wasn't I practically running the +lives of these tiresome tourists, as well as their tour? What did that +adventuress out of a New England schoolroom want of me now, when I'd +washed my hands of her and her affairs? + +But all through, there was no real use in asking myself these +questions. I knew what Rachel wanted, and that I should have to do it, +if only to please Biddy, who would be broken-hearted if Monny's +indiscretions should wreck the happiness of even the most undeserving +young female. Darling Monny must be saved from remorse at all costs! + +One of the costs to me was luncheon as well as peace of mind. I excused +myself from the table. I pretended to have forgotten some business of +importance. I whispered to the _Enchantress_ dining-room steward, who +had come to look after the waiters, that the meal must be served as +slowly as possible. "Drag out the courses," said I. "Make 'em eat salad +by itself, and everything separate, except bread and butter." Having +given these last instructions, I was off like an arrow shot from the +bow, a reluctant arrow sulking at its own impetus. Instinct was the +hand that aimed me; the _Enchantress Isis_ was the target; and deck +cabin No. 36 was the bull's-eye. As I expected, Bailey was in his +stateroom. I had not far to go; only to hurry from the engineer's +house, along the riverbank to the landing place, where a number of +native boats were lying; jump into one, and row out a few yards. But +the heat of noon, after the cool shade of the veranda, was terrific. I +arrived out of breath, my brow richly embroidered with crystal beads, +just in time to find Bailey squeezing his bath sponge preparatory to +packing it, in a yawning kitbag already full. At such a moment he could +squeeze a sponge! I hated him for this, as though the sponge had been +Rachel's heart. + +On his berth lay a letter addressed to her, and another to me. No doubt +he told us both that he had received an urgent telegram. He was so +taken aback at sight of the task master that he let me withdraw the +sponge from his pulseless fingers. I laid it reverently on the +washhand-stand, as a heart should be laid on an altar. + +"My dear fellow," I began. (Yes, to my credit be it spoken, I said +"dear fellow!") "You don't know what you are doing. I speak for your +own sake. Think what people will say! Everyone will see why you left +her. And you don't _want_ to leave her, you know! Of course you don't! +You love Miss Guest. She loves you. Not all the crystal eyes in the +world can make you the fashion, if the eyes of your fiancee are red +with tears because you jilted her, when you found out she was--only +herself! People don't like such things. They won't have their artists +cold and calculating. It isn't done. You can't afford to squeeze a +sp--I mean, break a heart in this fashion. It will ruin your reputation." + +So I argued with a certain eloquence, forcing conviction until with a +fierce gesture Bailey snatched six collars from his bag and flung them +on the bed. Seeing thus clearly what I thought showed him what others +were sure to think: and the world's opinion was life itself to Bailey. +He was cowed, then conquered. At last I dared to say: "May I?" + +He nodded. + +Instantly I tore the letters into as many pieces as there were collars. +Afterward, when we walked off the boat, arm in arm, I dropped them into +the water. + +We got back to the engineer's before the picnickers had finished their +belated Turkish coffee. Bailey took the vacant chair between Rachel +Guest and Monny Gilder. Biddy said that she had asked to have some +coffee kept hot for me. I needed it! + + * * * * * + +That is what delayed our start for Philae and is, I suppose, why +everything that took place there afterward happened exactly as it did. +If we had left the Dam an hour earlier, there would have been no excuse +to stop for sunset at the temple which those who love it call the +"Pearl of Egypt." As it was--but that comes afterward. + +When Strabo went from Syene to Philae, he drove in a chariot with the +prefect of that place, "through a very flat plain," and on both sides +of their road (I fear, for their bones, it was a rough one!) rose +"blocks of dark, hard rock resembling Hermes-towers." Nearly two +thousand years later we were rowed to the same temple, across an +immensely deep, vast sheet of shining crystal. We lolled (I am fond of +that word, though aware that it's reserved for villainesses) in +"galleys" painted in colours so violent that they looked like tropical +birds. They were awninged, and convulsively propelled by Nubians whose +veins swelled in their full black throats, and whose ebony faces were +plastered with a grayish froth of sweat. Each pressed a great toe, like +a dark-skinned potato, on the seat in front of him for support in the +fierce effort of rowing. Turbans were torn off shaved, perspiring +heads, and even skull-caps went in the last extreme. Wild appeals were +chanted to all the handiest saints to grant aid in the terrible +undertaking. An eagle-eyed child at the steering wheel gazed pityingly +at his agonized elders. And then, just as you expected the whole crew +to fall dead from heart failure, they chuckled with glee at some joke +of their own. There was always breath and energy enough to spare when +they wanted it. But what would you? The labourer must be worthy of his +hire, and a little something over. When Strabo saw Philae, she was a +distant neighbour of the mighty Cataracts. Now, the waters which once +rushed down are prisoned by the Great Dam, and stand enslaved, to wall +the temple round like a great pearl in a crystal case. She is the true +Bride of the Nile; for, as long ago the fairest of maidens gave herself +to the water as a sacrifice, so Philae gives herself for the life of +the people. She drowns, but in death she is more beautiful than when +the eyes of the old historian beheld her, glowing with the colours of +her youth, yet already old, deserted by gods and priests and +worshippers. Now she has worshippers from the four ends of the earth, +and the greatest singers of the world chant her funeral hymn. For in +all Egypt, with its many temples of supreme magnificence, there is +nothing like Philae. None can forget her. None can confuse her identity +for a moment with that of any other monument of a dead religion. And if +she were the only temple in Egypt, Egypt would be worth crossing the +ocean to see, because of this dying pearl in its crystal case. + +Venus rose from the sea. Philae, the Marriage Temple of Osiris and +Isis--Venus of Egypt--sinks into the sea of waters poured over her by +Khnum, god of the Cataracts. Thus the great enchantress sings her +swan-song to touch the heart of the world, her fair head afloat like a +sacred lotus on the gleaming water. I think there were few among us who +did not fancy they heard that song, as our Nubian men rowed across the +sea stored up by the great Barrage. From far away we saw a strange +apparition, as of a temple rising from the waters. It seemed unreal at +first, a mere mirage of a temple. Then it took solid outline; darkly +cut in silver; a low, column-supported roof; a pylon towering high; and +to the south, separated from both these, a thing that might have been a +huge wreath of purple flowers. We knew, however, from too many +photographs and postcards, that this was "Pharaoh's Bed," the +unfinished temple of Augustus and Trajan, standing on a flooded island. + +Our boat glided close to the flower-like stems of the columns +supporting the low roof. Far down in the clear depths we could see the +roots of the pillars, or their phantom reflections. And in the light of +afternoon, the water was so vivid a green that the colour of it seemed +to have washed off from the painted stones. Onto this roof we +scrambled, up a flight of steps, and found that we were not to have +Philae to ourselves. There were other boats, other tourists; but we +pretended that they were invisible, and they played the same game with +us. Ignoring one another, the rival bands wandered about, wondered what +the place would be like with the water "down," quoted poetry and +guide-books, and climbed the pylon. From that height the kiosk called +"Pharaoh's Bed" showed a mirrored double, like an old ivory casket with +jewelled sides, piled full of a queen's emeralds. We loitered; we +explored; and having descended sat down to rest, dangling irreverent +feet over beryl depths, splashed with gold. Thus we whiled away an +hour, perhaps. Then the Set, impressed at first, had had enough of the +mermaid temple's tragic beauty. Sir John Biddell reminded me that it +had been a long day for the ladies, and very hot. Hadn't we better get +back to the _Enchantress_ before sunset? But that was exactly what some +of us did not want to do. + +The matter was finally settled by retaining our one small boat, with +two rowers, and sending off the two larger "galleys" with their full +complement of passengers, excepting only "Mrs. Jones," Miss Gilder, +Antoun Effendi, the melancholy Cleopatra, and the guilty shepherd of +the flock, who knew he had no business to desert his sheep. He did +nevertheless feel, poor brute, that after such a day he had earned a +little pleasure, and, accordingly proceeded to snatch it from Fate, +despite disapproving glances. Punishment, however, fell as soon as it +was due. I had stayed behind with the intention of amusing Brigit. But +Monny took her from me, as if she had bought the right to use my +childhood's friend whenever it suddenly occurred to her to want a +chaperon. Instead of Biddy, I got Cleopatra. And by this time, so far +as we knew, all tourists save ourselves had gone. + +I knew in my heart that, in accusing Monny Gilder of claiming Brigit +O'Neill because she was paying her expenses, I did the girl an +injustice. Monny was afraid of herself with Anthony. I saw that +plainly, since the fact had been laid under my nose by Mrs. East. She +feared the glamour of this magical place, perhaps, and felt the need of +Biddy's companionship to keep her strong, not realizing that any one +else was yearning for the lady. This was the whole front of her +offending; yet I was so disappointed that I wanted to be brutal. +Without Biddy, I should wish but to howl at the sunset, as a dog bays +the moon. And feeling thus I may not have made myself too agreeable to +Cleopatra. In any case, after we had sat in silence for a while, +waiting for a sunset not yet ready to arrive, she turned reproachful +eyes upon me. "Lord Ernest," she said, "I think you had better go and +join Monny." + +"Why?" I surlily inquired. "I thought _you_ thought that idea of yours +was too late to be of any use now?" + +"I do think so," she replied. "_Everything_ interesting is too late +now. Still, you'd better go." + +"Are you tired of me?" I stupidly catechised her. + +"Well, I feel as if I should like to be alone in this wonderful place. +_I want to think back._" + +"I see," said I, scrambling up from my seat on the edge of the temple +roof, and trying not to show by my expression that I was pleased, or +that both my feet had gone to sleep. "In that case, I'll leave you to +the spooks. May none but the right ones come!" + +"Thank you," she returned dryly; and I limped off, walking on air, +tempered with pins and needles. Joy! my luck had turned! At the top of +the worn stone stairway, cut in the pylon, I met Biddy. She was dim as +one of Cleopatra's Ptolemaic ghosts, in the darkness of the passage; +but to me that darkness was brighter than the best thing in sunsets. + +"Salutation to Caesar from one about to die!" I ejaculated. + +"What _do_ you mean?" she asked. + +"I mean that both my feet are fast asleep, and I shall certainly fall +and kill myself if I try to go one step further, up or down." + +"You, the climber of impossible cliffs after sea-birds' nests!" she +laughed. But she stood still. + +"I'm after something better than sea-birds' nests now," said I. "The +question is, whether it's not still more inaccessible?" + +"Are you talking about--Monny?" she wanted to know, in a whisper. + +"Sit down and I'll tell you," was my answer. + +"Oh, not here at the top of the steps, if it's anything as private as +_that_," Biddy objected, all excitement in an instant. "Let's come into +a tiny room off the stairway, which the guardian showed me a few +minutes ago. There's a bench in it. You see, he's up there on the pylon +roof now with Monny and Captain Fenton (I _can't_ call him Antoun when +I talk to you; its _too_ silly!) and he'll probably be coming down in a +minute. Then, if we stop where we are, we'll have to jump up and get +out of the way, to let him pass. And he's sure to linger and work off +his English on us. I don't think we'll want to be interrupted that way, +do you?" + +"No, nor any other way," I agreed. + +"Oh, but what about the sunset? We may miss it." + +"Hang the sunset! Let it slide--down behind the Dam if it likes!" + +"I don't wonder you feel so, you poor dear," Biddy sympathized, "when +it's a question of Monny, and all our hopes going to pieces the way +they are doing, every minute. There isn't a second to lose." + +So we went into the little room in the tower, which was lit only by a +small square opening over our heads. We sat down on the bench. It was +beautifully dark. I began to talk to Biddy. We had forgotten my feet; +and I forgot Mrs. East. But I must tell what was happening to her at +the time (as I learned afterward, through the confession of an +impenitent), before I begin to tell what happened to us. Otherwise the +situation which developed can't be made clear. + +I left Cleopatra calling spirits from the vasty deep, or rather one +spirit; the spirit of Antony. I am morally sure that any other would +have been _de trop_. And sailing to her across the wide water from +Shellal came Marcus Antonius Lark. + +I can't say whether she considered him an answer to her prayer, or a +denial of it. Anyhow, there he was; better, perhaps, than nobody, until +she learned from his own lips--tactless though ardent lips--that he had +come from Cairo to Assuan, from Assuan to Philae, to see her. Then she +took alarm, and remarked in the old, conventional way of women, that +they'd "better go look for the others." But Sir Marcus hadn't spent his +money, time, and gray matter in hurrying to Philae from Shellal, for +nothing. Finding himself too late to catch us at Assuan, he had paid +for a special train in order to follow his "Enchantress" (the lady and +the boat). + +Taking a felucca with a fine spread of canvas and many rowers, which +(characteristically) he bargained for at the Shellal landing-place, he +sailed across to the moored steamer, only to learn from Kruger that we +had gone on our expedition to Philae. That meant a long sail and row +for the impatient lover. For us, the longer it was, the better: one of +the chief charms of our best day. But for him it must have been +tedious, despite a good breeze that filled the sails and helped the +rowers. + +On his way to the temple, he met the galleys going "home" to the +_Enchantress Isis_. An instant's shock of disappointment, and then the +glad relief of realizing that the one he sought was still at the place +where he wished to find her. There were only four Obstacles which might +prevent an ideal meeting. The names of these Obstacles, in his mind +were: Jones, Gilder, Fenton, and Borrow; and being an expert in +abolishing Obstacles, the great Sir Marcus began to map out a plan of +action. + +Luckily for him, our small boat had moved out of Cleopatra's sight, as +she sat and dreamed on the low temple-roof, while we four Obstacles +disported ourselves on different parts of the high pylon. The two +Nubians wished to play a betting game with a kind of Egyptian +Jack-stones, and it was not desirable that the pensive lady should behold +them doing it. Observing the graceful figure of Mrs. East silhouetted +against the sky's eternal flame of blue, and at the same time noticing +that she could not see the waiting boat, Sir Marcus got his +inspiration. He knew that the four Obstacles were somewhere about the +temple. Now was his great chance, while they were out of the way! And +if he resolved to play them a trick, perhaps he salved his conscience +by telling it that the Obstacles, male and female, ought to thank him. + +Cleopatra probably thought, if she glanced up to see his boat: "Oh +dear, another load of tourists!" and promptly looked down to avoid the +horrid vision. By the time Sir Marcus came within "How do you do?" +distance, he had bribed our waiting boatmen to row away. This in order +not to be caught in a lie. + +With our Nubians and their craft out of his watery way, he was free to +fib when the time came. "Go look for the others?" he echoed Mrs. East's +proposal. "Why, they've gone. I met them." + +"Gone! And left me behind when they knew I was here?" she exclaimed. +"They can't have done such a thing." + +"I'm afraid there's been a mistake," replied Sir Marcus presently. +"They certainly _have_ gone. I met the boat. Borrow was expecting me +to-day, you know--or maybe you don't know. And when he saw me in my +felucca, he stopped his to explain that evidently there'd been a +_contretemps_." (I'm sure Lark mispronounced that word!) "The temple +guardian said a gentleman had arrived and taken the lady who was +waiting, off in a boat. Of course Borrow thought I had come along, and +persuaded you to go with me, after telling the guardian to let him +know. I expect the guardian's got mighty little English: and they say +white ladies all look alike to blacks. He must have mixed you up with +some other lady. I suppose my folks haven't been the only people at +Philae since you came?" + +Mrs. East admitted that a number of "creatures" had come and gone. But +she thought all had vanished before the departure of the galleys. + +"You see you thought wrong. That's all there is to it," Sir Marcus +assured her. And having taken these elaborate measures to secure the +lady's society for himself alone (Nubian rowers don't count) he +proceeded to lure her hastily into his own boat, lest any or all of the +Obstacles should arrive to spoil his _coup_. + +That was the manner of our marooning. + +At the time, we were ignorant of what was happening behind our backs; +the sunset for instance, and the only available boat calmly rowing away +from the drowned Temple of Philae. + +We were thinking of something else; and so was Sir Marcus, or he would +not have forgotten the repentant promise he made himself, soon to send +back a boat and take us off. We were, therefore, in the position of +unrehearsed actors in a play who don't know what awaits them in the +next act: while those who may read this can see the whole situation +from above, below, and on both sides. Four of us, marooned at Philae, +not knowing it, and night coming on. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +WHAT WE SAID: WHAT WE HEARD + + +"Biddy, you were never wiser in your life," I exploded as I got her on +the bench. "You warned me there wasn't a second to lose. I've lost +years already, and I can't stand it the sixtieth part of a minute +longer, without telling you how I love you!" + +"My goodness!" gasped Biddy. "Do be serious for once, Duffer. This is +no time for jokes. Don't you know you've delayed and delayed in spite +of my advice, till you've practically lost that girl? And if there's +any chance left--" + +"The only chance I want is with you," I said. "Darling, I want you with +my heart and soul, and all there is of me. _Have_ I any chance?" + +"And how long since were you taken this way?" demanded Biddy, at her +most Irish, staring at me through the darkness of the little dim room +in the pylon. + +"Ever since you were an adorable darling of four years," I assured her. +"Only I was interrupted by going to Eton and Oxford, and your being +married. But the love has always been there, in a deep undertone. The +music's never stopped once. It never could. And when I saw you on the +_Laconia_--" + +"You fell in love with Monny!" breathlessly she cut me short. + +"Nothing of the kind," I contradicted her fiercely. "You _ordered_ me +to fall in love with Miss Gilder. I objected politely. You overruled my +objections, or tried to. I let you think you had. And for a while after +that, you know perfectly well, Biddy, the Set gave me no time to think +any thoughts _at all_, connected with myself." + +"You poor fellow, you have been a slave!" The soft-hearted angel was +caught in the trap set for her pity. + +"And a martyr. A double-dyed martyr. I deserve a reward. Give it to me, +Biddy. Promise, here in this beautiful Marriage Temple, to marry me. +Let me take care of you all the rest of your life." + +"My patience, a nice reward for you!" she snapped. "Let you be hoist by +the same petard that's always lying around to hoist me! What do you +_think_ of me, Duffer--and after all the proofs we've just had of the +dangerous creature I am? Why, the whole trouble at Luxor was on my +account. Even you must see that. Monny and I wouldn't have been let +into Rechid's house if those secret men hadn't persuaded him to play +into their hands, and revenge himself on you men as well as on us, for +interfering with Mabel. It was _their_ plot, not Rechid's, we escaped +from! And it was theirs at the Temple of Mut, too. Rechid was only +their cat's-paw, thinking he played his own hand. _Just_ what they +wanted to do I can't tell, but I can tell from what one of them said to +Monny in the temple, that they took her for Richard O'Brien's daughter. +Poor child, her love for me and all her affectionate treatment of me, +must have made it seem likely enough to them that she was Esme, safely +disguised as an important young personage, to travel with her +stepmother. Bedr must have assured his employers that he was certain +the pale girl was really Miss Gilder; so they thought the other one +with me must be Esme. You can't laugh at my fears any more! And I ask +you again, what _do_ you think of me, to believe I'd mix you up in my +future scrapes?" + +"I think you're the darling of the world," said I. "And my one talent, +as you must have noticed, is getting people out of scrapes. It'll be +wasted if I can't have you. Besides, under the wing of an Embassy no +one will dare to try and steal you, or blow you up. We'll be diplomats +together, Biddy. Come! You say I've 'duffed' all my life, to get what I +wanted. Certainly I've done a lot of genuine duffing in love; but do +bear out your own expressed opinion of the work by saving it from +failure. Couldn't you try and like me a little, if only for that? You +were always so unselfish." + +"Hush!" said Biddy, suddenly, "Hush!" + +"Do you hate me, then? Is it by any chance, Anthony, you love?" + +"No--no! Hold your tongue, Duffer." + +"'No' to _both_ questions? I shan't stop till you answer." + +"No, to both, then! _Now_ will you be silent?" + +"Not unless you say you do care for me." + +"Yes--yes, I do care. But, Sh! Don't you hear, they're talking just +outside that window in the wall? If you can't keep a still tongue in +your head, then for all the saints whisper!" + +Her brogue was exquisite, and so was she. I worshipped her. When I +slipped my arm round her waist, she dared not cry out. The same when I +clasped her hand. Things were coming my way at last. And if I put my +lips close against her ear I could whisper as low as she liked. I liked +it too. And I _loved_ the ear. + +She was right. They were indeed talking just outside the window, Monny +Gilder and Anthony Fenton. The prologue was evidently over, and the +first act was on. It began well, with a touch of human interest certain +to please an audience. But unfortunately for every one concerned, this +was a private rehearsal for actors only, not a public performance. +Biddy and I had no business in the dark auditorium. We were deadheads. +We had sneaked in without paying. The situation was one for a +nightmare. + +"For heaven's sake, let me cough, or knock something over!" I implored +Biddy's ear, which (it struck me at the moment) was more like a flower +than an unsympathetic shell, best similes to the contrary. Who could +have imagined that it would be so heavenly a sensation to have your +nose tickled by a woman's hair? + +"There's nothing you can knock over, but me," Biddy retorted, as +fiercely as she could in a voice no louder than a mosquito's. "And if +you cough, I'll know you're a dog-in-the-manger." + +"Why?" curiosity forced me to pursue. + +"Because, you donkey, ye say ye don't want her yourself, yet ye won't +give yer best friend a chance!" + +"Can't be a dog and a donkey at the same time," I murmured. "Choose +which, and stick to it, if ye want me to know what ye mean." + +"Why, you--you Man, don't ye see, if we interrupt at such a minute, and +such a conversation, they can _never_ begin again where they left off? +If _you'd_ wanted her, I'd have tried to save her for ye, at any cost. +But as ye don't, for goodness' sake give the two their chance to come +to an understanding. Now be still, I tell ye, or they may hear us." + +"We can't just sit and eavesdrop." + +"Stop yer ears then. It'll take both hands." + +It would; which is the reason I didn't do it. That would have been +asking too much, of the most honourable man, in the circumstances. + +Meanwhile, the two outside went on talking. Believing themselves to be +alone with the sunset, there was no reason to lower their voices. They +spoke in ordinary tones, though what they said was not ordinary; and we +on the other side of the little unglazed window could not help hearing +every word. + +"I've been wanting to say it for a long time," in a voice like that of +a penitent child Monny was following up something we had (fortunately) +lost. "Only how could I begin it? I don't see even now how I did begin, +exactly. It's almost easy though, since I have begun. I was horrid +--horrid. I can't forgive myself, yet I want you to forgive me for doing +your whole race a shameful injustice, for not understanding it, or you, +or--or anything. You've shown me what a modern Egyptian man can be, in +spite of things I've read and heard, and been silly enough to believe. +Oh, it isn't just that you come from some great family, and that you +could call yourself a prince if you liked, as Lord Ernest says. He's +told me how you could have a fortune, and a great place in your country +if you'd reconcile yourself with your grandfather in Constantinople; +but that you won't, because it would mean going against England. It +isn't your position, but what you _are_, that has made me see how small +and ridiculous I've been, Antoun Effendi. Can you possibly forgive me +for the way I treated you at first, now I've confessed and told you I'm +very, very sorry and ashamed?" + +"I would forgive you, if there were anything to forgive," Anthony +answered. And it must have taken pretty well all his immense +self-control to go on speaking to the girl in French--an alien language +--just then. + +"Perhaps there would be something to forgive, if I weren't on my side a +great deal more to blame than you. Will you let _me_ confess?" + +"If you wish. Otherwise, you needn't. For I've deserved--" + +"I do wish. But first, will you answer me a question?" + +"I'm sure you wouldn't ask me a question I oughtn't to answer." + +"It's only this: Did Ernest Borrow tell you anything else about me?" + +"Nothing, except his opinion of you. And you must know that, by this +time." + +"I think I do. Or Mrs. Jones--or Mrs. East? Neither have--for any +reason--_advised_ you to apologize to me for what you very nobly felt +was wrong in your conduct?" + +"No. Not a soul has advised me. If they _had_--" + +She didn't finish, but Biddy and I both knew the Monny-habit of +conscientiously going against advice. + +"Thank you. You've changed your opinion of me, then, without urging +from outside." + +"It has all come from _inside_. From recognition of--of what you are, +and what you've done for--for us all. You've been a hero. And you've +been kind as well as brave. Antoun Effendi, I think you are a very +great gentleman, and I respect Egyptians for your sake." + +"Wait!" said Anthony. "You haven't heard my confession. When I first +saw you on the terrace at Shepheard's, I willed you to look at me, and +you did look." + +"How strange! Yes, I felt it. Something made me look. Why did you will +me, Antoun Effendi?" Monny's voice was soft. But it was not like a +child's now. It was a woman's voice. + +Listening with tingling ears, I knew what she wanted him to answer. +Perhaps he also knew, but he boldly told the truth. "It was a kind of +wager I made with myself. There was some troublesome business I had to +carry out in Cairo. A good deal hung upon it. I saw your profile. You +didn't turn my way, and I said to myself: 'If by willing I can make +that girl look at me, I'll take it for a sign that I shall succeed in +my work.'" + +"Oh! It was nothing to do with _me_?" + +"Not then. Afterward I knew that, while I thought my own free will +suggested my influencing you, it was destiny that influenced me. +Kismet! It had to happen so. But you punished me for my presumption. +You treated me as if I were a slave, a Thing that hardly had a place in +your world." + +"I know! That's what I've asked you to forgive me for." + +"And because you've asked me to forgive, I'm telling you this. I was +furious; and I said, 'She shall be sorry. I will make her sorry.' My +whole wish was to humble you. I wanted to conquer, and though you +classed me with servants, to be your master." + +"I don't blame you, Antoun Effendi! And you _have_ conquered, in a +better way than you meant when you were angry and hating me. You've +conquered by showing your true self. You are my friend. That's what you +want, isn't it?--Not to be my master, when you don't hate me any +longer." + +"No, that is not what I want. I still want to be your master." + +"Then you _do_ hate me, even now?" + +"No, I don't hate you, Mademoiselle Gilder, although you've punished me +over and over again for being the brute I was at first. You have +conquered me, not I you. But I don't want to be your friend. If you +didn't look at me as being a man beyond the pale, you would understand +very well what I want." + +"Don't say that!" cried Monny, quickly. "Don't say that you're a man +beyond the pale. I can't stand it. Oh! I _do_ know what you want. I do +understand. I think I should have died if you hadn't wanted it. And +yet--I could almost die because you do." + +"You could die because I love you?" + +"Yes, of joy--and--" + +"You _care_ for me?" + +"Wait! I could die of joy, and sorrow too. Joy, because I do care, and +my heart longs for you to care. Sorrow, because--oh, it's the saddest +thing in the world, but we can never be any more to each other than we +are now." "You say that so firmly, because you think of me in your +heart as a man of Egypt. Dearest and most beautiful, you are great +enough if you choose, to mount to your happiness over your prejudice. +If you can love me in spite of what I am--" + +"I love you in spite of it, and because of it, too; and for every +reason, and for no reason." + +"Thank God for that! You've said this to me against your convictions. I +have won." + +"No, for it's all I can ever say. There can be no more between us." + +"You couldn't love me enough to be my wife, though I tell you now that +you're the star of my soul? Never till I saw you, have I loved a woman +or spoken a word of love to one, except my beautiful mother. I've kept +all for you, more than I dreamed I had to give. And it's yours for ever +and ever. But just because you've said to yourself that we're of +stranger races, who mustn't meet in love, you raise a barrier between +us. Are our souls of stranger races?" + +"No. Sometimes it almost seems as if our souls were one. You have waked +mine with a spark from your own. I think I was fast asleep. I didn't +know I had a soul--scarcely even a heart. But now I know! Learning to +know you has taught me to know myself. And if I'm kinder to everybody, +all the rest of my life--even silly rich people I used to think didn't +need kindness--it will be through loving you. I'm not afraid to tell +you that, and though I _used_ to be afraid I might love you, I'm glad I +do, now--glad! I shall never regret anything, even when I suffer. And I +shall suffer, when we're parted." + +"You're sure we must part?" + +"Sure, because there's no other way, being what we are, and life being +what it is. Always I've thought since my father died, that he was near +me, watching to see what I did with my life. For he loved me dearly, +and I loved him. We were everything to each other. Even if that were +the only reason, I couldn't do a thing that would have broken his +heart. It would be treacherous, now that he's helpless to forbid me. +Don't you see?" + +"I see. And if it were not for that reason?" + +"If it were not for that--oh, I don't know, I don't know! But yes, I do +know. The truth comes to me. It speaks out of my heart. If it were only +for myself if I felt free from a vow, nothing could make me say to you, +'Go out of my life!'" + +"That's what I wanted to be sure of. I could thank you on my knees for +those words. For I, too, have made a vow which I won't break. And if I +were free of it, I might tell you a thing now which would beat down the +barrier. Well! We will keep our vows, both of us, my Queen." + +"Yes, we must keep them. But oh, how are we to bear it? Fate has +brought us together, and it's going to part us. We love each other, and +we must go out of one another's lives. What shall we do when we can't +see each other any more--ever any more?" + +"That time shall not come." + +"But it must--soon." + +"Will you trust me, till Khartum?" + +"I'll trust you always." + +"I mean for a special thing--just till Khartum. In the foolish days +when I wished to conquer you, and make you humble yourself to me, I +vowed by my mother's love that I'd not tell you, or let Borrow tell, a +fact about myself which might win your favour. It was a bad vow to +make: a stupid vow. But a vow by my mother's love I could not break, +any more than you can break one to your father's memory. I'll abide by +it: but trust me till Khartum, and there you shall know what I can't +tell you now. I always hoped you would find out there--if we went as +far as Khartum together. Then I hoped, because I was a conceited fool. +Now I hope this thing--and all it means--because I am your lover." + +"Ah, dear Antoun, don't hope. Because it seems to me that nothing +nearer than Heaven can bring us the kind of happiness you want." + +"If you hadn't told me you cared, nothing that may come at Khartum +could have brought any happiness to me at all. For it would have been +too late after that, for you to say you cared--and for the word to have +the value it has now. You've said it--in spite of yourself. Trust me +for the rest. Will you?" + +"If you ask me like that--yes. I trust you. Though I don't understand." + +"That's what I want. Say this. 'I believe that we shall be happy; and I +trust without understanding, that it will be proved at Khartum.'" + +Monny repeated the words after him. And although I was that vile worm, +an eavesdropper, I was so happy that I could have picked Biddy up in my +arms, and waved her like a flag. Anthony was going to be happy, and +that ought to be a good omen that I should be happy too. + +"I am almost happy now," Monny went on. "Happier than I thought I could +be, with things as they are. I used to be miserable, partly about +myself, partly because I thought you were in love with Biddy (you were +so much nicer to her than me!), and partly because I believed, till I +knew you well, that you wanted to marry Aunt Clara for money, though +you cared for someone else. I even told Lord Ernest that about you. I +had to tell somebody! And besides, I felt it would be good for him to +think you cared for Biddy. Being jealous might wake him up to see that +he was in love with her himself. He really is rather a duffer, at +times! And oh, talking of him and Biddy reminds me of them! Where can +they be, all this time?" + +"Heaven alone knows--or cares," replied Anthony. And I realized the +truth of the proverb about listeners, even where their best friends are +concerned. I was obliged to kiss Biddy to keep from laughing out loud. +And she couldn't scream or box my ears, or all our dreadful precautions +would have been vain. + +"We must find them," said Monny. + +"Why?" + +"Oh, if we don't, they might find us." + +Anthony laughed--a give-away, English-sounding laugh. But Monny did not +recognize its birthplace. Her own laugh interrupted it too soon, +ringing out so happily, it probably surprised herself. + +"_If_ they find us here!" quavered Biddy, clinging to me. + +"They can't, if only you'll let me hold you tight enough," I whispered. +"If they look in, they'll just take us for a black spot in the dark!" + +But they didn't look in. They went downstairs. And then was the time to +get in the rest of my deadly work with Biddy. We _must_ wait a few +minutes, or they couldn't help knowing we'd been near them: and I made +the best use of those few minutes. Biddy wouldn't promise anything, but +said that she would think it over, and let me know the result of her +thinking in a day or two. + +To our great surprise, on arriving in open air at the level of the roof +below, we saw that the sun was gone, and a slim young moon was sliding +down the rose-red trail. It is indeed wonderful, say prophets of the +obvious, how quickly time passes when your attention is engaged! And +one comfort of being obvious is, that you are generally right. + +We tried to flit forth from the dark recess of the pylon stairway +without being seen or heard; but as luck would have it, Monny and +Fenton had had just time to discover that our boat was gone. The girl +was hunting for us, to see if we were "anywhere," or if in some mad +freak we could have gone off and left them to their fate. As we sneaked +guiltily out, she caught us. + +"Biddy! Lord Ernest!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you have been +_upstairs_!" + +A good rule for diplomats, duffers, and others, is never to tell a +falsehood when there is no hope that any one will believe it. + +"We--er--yes," we both mumbled. + +"But--there isn't any upstairs except--where we were." + +"Yes there is," Biddy assured her hastily--too hastily. "You were on +the roof. We were in the little room of the guardian." + +"He showed it to us. There's a window. Oh, we were _under_ it! You must +both have heard." + +"Murder will out," I said, with the calmness of despair. But then it +occurred to me that there was a way of using the weapon which +threatened, as a boomerang. + +"Dearest," Biddy adjured her beloved, humbly, "you wouldn't have had us +spoil everything by moving, would you? I said to the Duffer when he +wanted to do something desperate, 'If we interrupt them, nothing will +ever come right--'" + +"Besides, we were too busy getting engaged ourselves," said I, "to +bother for long about what anybody else was saying or doing." + +"You _were_! Oh, Biddy, that's what I've prayed for." + +"Nothing of the sort!" began Mrs. O'Brien, ferociously. But the +boomerang had come to my hand, and I'd caught it on the fly. Before she +could go on contradicting me, Anthony, followed by the guardian of the +temple, had mounted the steps from the lower ledge of the roof, where +we had landed in the afternoon. + +"It wasn't you who took the boat, then, for a joke!" said Fenton, at +sight of us. And the mystery of our felucca's disappearance had to be +discussed. Biddy saw to it that Monny couldn't edge in a word on the +forbidden subject. How those two would talk later, in Miss Gilder's +stateroom! + +Nobody could explain what had happened, not even the guardian. He, it +seemed, spent his night at the siren temple in the water, sleeping in +the cell where I had blackmailed Biddy, and not even appearing to know +that the custom scintillated with romance. By and by his companion who +joined him for night work, would arrive in a small boat, bringing food; +but this man rowed himself, and neither could leave the temple again +that night. + +"You will lend the boat to us," said Anthony. "We'll row, and send it +back to you here by some one who is trustworthy." + +"We have no right to lend the boat," returned the Nubian. + +"Then I will steal it," replied the Hadji. + +But none of us cared how long a time might pass before deliverance +came. The _Enchantress Isis_ couldn't steam away and leave her +Conductor behind. As Mrs. East had disappeared, I vaguely associated +the puzzle of our missing craft with Sir Marcus; and anyhow, curiosity +wasn't the strongest emotion in my being just then. I thought that +perhaps never in my life again would love and romance and beauty all +blend together in one, as here at Philae in the moonlight. The sharp +sickle of the young moon cut a silver edge on each tiny wave, that +murmured against the submerged pillars like a chanting of priests under +the sea. The temple commemorating love triumphant was carved in silver, +and drowned in a silver flood. The flowering capitals of the columns as +they showed above the water, blossomed white as lilies bound together +in sheaves with silver cords, and placed before an altar. + +Yes, Egypt was giving us what we asked. But would she give us all we +asked? Just as there might have been a renewed chance of getting an +answer to this question, black men in a black boat hailed us. Sir +Marcus had deigned at last to remember our plight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE INNER SANCTUARY + + +We made a sensation when we returned to the fold. Everybody wondered so +much that they gave us no time to answer their questions, even if we +would. But somehow it seemed to be taken for granted that the whole +thing was my fault. Perhaps Mrs. East or Sir Marcus had spread the +report. I let it pass. + +As for Sir Marcus, he stayed only long enough for a talk with me. It +began with trumped-up business, and ended in a confession. She had +snubbed him, it seemed. Snubs being new to Sir Marcus, he had been +dazed, and had forgotten for a while to send us a boat. I assured him +that we bore no grudge, really none whatever. It had been quite an +adventure. And I tried to cheer him up. Better luck next time! Why +wouldn't he go on with us? Fenton and I could chum together, to give +him cabin-room. And Neill Sheridan, the American Egyptologist, had let +me know that he was obliged to leave us at Wady Haifa. There would be +an empty cabin, going down again. But no, the "Boss" refused his +Conductor's hospitality. "I think the less she sees of me, the better +she likes me," he said dismally. "She was civil enough until I--but no +matter. I suppose a man can't expect his luck to always hold." + +"Don't split your infinitives till things get desperate," I begged. "It +hasn't come to that yet. If you must go back, I'll take it on my +shoulders to watch your private interests a bit, as well as the rest. +Look out for a telegram one of these fine days, saying 'Come at once.' +You'll know what it means." + +"I will, bless you, my boy," he said heartily. "Though I am hanged if I +know what you mean by a split infinitive. I hope if its improper, I've +never inadvertently done it before a lady." + +There seemed to be an atmosphere of suspense for everybody who +mattered, as we steamed on between strange black mountainettes, and +tiger-golden sands toward Wady Halfa. Anthony was in suspense about the +way his fate might arrange itself at Khartum. I was in suspense as to +Biddy's decision, which nothing I was able to say could wheedle or +browbeat out of her. He and I were both in suspense together, about the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. It would be ours now, we knew that. But +what would be in it? Would it be full of treasure, or full of nothing +but mountain, just as a crusty baked pudding is full of pudding? The +doubt was harder to bear, now that Anthony was in love with a very rich +girl, and desired something from the mountain more substantial than the +adventure which would once have contented him. Harder to bear for me, +too, wanting Biddy and wanting to give her luxury as well as peace, +such as she had never known in her life of tragedy and brave laughter. + +Monny was in suspense quite equal to Anthony's about Khartum, and what +could possibly happen there to give her happiness. Brigit was in +suspense about the two men who had so strangely and secretly worked +with their spy, Bedr, and whom she expected to meet again later. Rachel +was in suspense about Bailey, although I had told her it was "going to +be all right," and he had said not a word of the business to her. What +she wanted, was to make sure of him, and there was the difficulty at +present, since we had failed to arrange for a registry-office or a +clergyman on board. Other hearts were no doubt throbbing with the same +emotions, but they were of comparatively small importance to me. + +Our feelings were all so different and so much more intense than they +had been, that the extraordinary difference in the scenery gave us a +vague sense of satisfaction. We were in another world, now that we had +heard the first cataract's roar, and left it behind; a world utterly +unlike any conceptions we had formed of Egypt. But we did not for a +long time leave the influence of the Barrage. Black rocks ringed in a +blue basin so lake-like that it was hard to realize it as the Nile. Now +and then a yellow river of sand poured down to the sapphire sea, and +where its bright waves were reflected, the water became liquid gold +under a surface of blue glass. The sky was overcast, and through a +thick silver veil, the sun shone with a mystic light as of a lamp +burning in an alabaster globe; yet the flaming gold of the sand created +an illusion as of sunshine. It was as if the treasure of all the lost +mines of Nub had been flung out on the black rocks, and lay in a +glittering carpet there. + +We passed small, submerged temples, with their foreheads just above +water; drowning palm groves whose plumes trailed sadly on the blue +expanse, and deserted mud-villages where the high Nile looked in at +open doors to say, "This is for Egypt's good!" + +Then there was the little Temple of Dendur, whose patron goddess was +prayed to spit if rain were needed; and so many other ruined temples +that we lost count (though one was the largest in Nubia) until we came +to Wadi-es-Sabua, "the Valley of the Lions." This we remembered, not +because it was imposing, or because it had a dromos of noble-faced +sphinxes--the only hawk-faced ones in Egypt--or because of its +prehistoric writings, on dark boulders; or because it had been used as +a Christian Church: but owing to the fact that the ladies bought rag +dolls from little Nubian girls, who wore their hair in a million +greased braids. Here the influence of the Dam faded out of sight. +Forlorn trees and houses no longer crawled half out of water. Mountains +crowded down to the shore, wild and dark and stately as Nubian warriors +of ancient days. Then came Korosko, point of departure for the old +caravan route, where kings of forgotten Egyptian dynasties sent for +acacia wood, and Englishmen in the Campaign of the Cataracts fought and +died; deserted now, with houses dead and decayed, their windows staring +like the eye-sockets of skulls; and the black, tortured mountain-shapes +behind, lurking in the background as hyenas lurk to prey. More temples, +and many sakkeyehs (no shadoofs here, on the Upper Nile) but few boats. +The spacious times were past, when loads of pink granite, +honey-coloured sandstone, fragrant woods, and spices from the Land of +Punt, went floating down the stream! + +There were tombs as well as temples which we might have seen, savage +gorges and mild green hills. There was the great grim fort of Kasr +Ibrim; and at last--there was Abu Simbel. + +Somehow I knew that things were bound to happen at Abu Simbel. I didn't +know what they would be, but they hovered invisible at my berth-side in +the night, and whispered to warn me that I might expect them. + +A few people rose stealthily before dawn to prepare for Abu Simbel, +because it had been hammered into their intellects by me that this +Rock-Temple was the Great Thing of the Upper Nile. Also that every he, +she, or it, who did not behold the place at sunrise would be as mean a +worm as one who had not read the "Arabian Nights." + +Not everybody heeded the advice, though at bedtime most had resolved to +do so. We had anchored for the night not far off, in order to have the +mysterious light before sun-up, to go on again, and see the grand +approach to the grandest temple of the Old World. But after all, most +of the cabin eyelids were still down when we arrived before dawn at our +journey's end, and only a few intrepid ghosts flitted out on deck; +elderly male ghosts in thick dressing-gowns: youthful ghosts of the +same sex, fully clothed and decently groomed because of cloaked +girl-ghosts, with floating hair (if there were enough to float +effectively: others made a virtue of having it put up): and middle-aged +female ghosts, with transformations apparently hind-side in front. + +No ghost's looks mattered much, however, for good or ill, once the +slowly moving _Enchantress_ had swept aside a purple curtain of +distance and shown us such a stagesetting as only Nature's stupendous +theatre can give. + +It was a stage still dimly, but most effectively revealed: lights down: +pale blue, lilac and cold green; a thrilling, almost sinister +combination: no gold or rose switched on yet. Turned obliquely toward +the river, facing slightly northward, four figures sat on thrones, +super-giants, immobile, incredible, against a background of rock whence +they had been released by forgotten sculptors--released to live while +the world lasted. These seated kings gave the first shock of awed +admiration; then lesser marvels detached themselves in detail from the +shadows of the vast facade; the frieze, the cornice, the sun-god in his +niche over the door of the Great Temple: the smaller Temple of Hathor, +divided from her huge brother by a cataract of sand, whose piled gold-dust +already called the sun, as a magnet calls iron. + +The stage-lights were still down when the _Enchantress_ moored by the +river bank, within a comparatively short walk of the mountain which +Rameses II had turned into a temple, as usual glorifying himself. But +though the walk was comparatively short, on second thoughts elderly +ghosts already chilled to the bone, funked it on empty stomachs. They +made various excuses for putting off the excursion (the boat was to +remain till late afternoon), until finally the sun-worshippers were +reduced to a party of ten. + +Since Philae, Biddy had kept out of my way when she could do so without +being actually rude; but as our small, shivering procession formed, she +suddenly appeared at my side. Thus we two headed the band, save for a +sleepy dragoman who knew the rather intricate paths through scaly dried +mud, sand, and vegetation. + +"I want to say something to you, Duffer," she murmured; and the +roughness of the way excused me for slipping her arm through mine. + +"Not as much as I want to say something to you," I retorted fervently. + +"But this is _serious_," she reproached me. + +"So is--" + +"Please listen. There isn't much time. I heard this only last night, or +I'd have spoken before, and asked you what you thought. Do you happen +to know whether Captain Fenton wrote a note to Monny, asking her to +wait for him in the inner sanctuary of the temple till after the people +had gone, as he wanted to see her alone about something of great +importance?" + +"I don't know," I said. "Anthony hasn't mentioned Miss Gilder's name to +me since Philae. As a matter of fact he's been particularly taciturn." + +"You haven't quarrelled, surely?" + +"Anthony and I! Thank goodness, no. But I'm afraid he misunderstands, +and is a bit annoyed. Miss Gilder of course told him we'd overheard a +certain conversation, and he's never given me a chance to explain. +After Khartum it will be all right, if not before, but meanwhile--" + +"I see. Then let me tell you quickly what's happened. When we came back +on board the boat, after climbing about the fort of Kasr Ibrim, Monny +found on the table in her cabin a note in French, typewritten on +_Enchantress Isis_ paper. It had no beginning or signature, only an +urgent request to grant the writer five minutes just after sunrise, in +the sanctuary at Abu Simbel, _as soon as every one was out of the way_. +There's only one typewriter on board, isn't there?" + +"Yes, Kruger's." + +"And nobody but you and he and Captain Fenton ever use it, I suppose?" + +"Nobody else, so far as I know." + +"Captain Fenton didn't land with us to see the fort, but came up later, +just as we were ready to go down. Well, for all these reasons and the +note being in French Monny thinks it was written by Antoun Effendi. It +was only in chatting last night about the sunrise expedition that she +mentioned finding the letter. I begged her to make certain it _was_ +from him, before doing what it asked; because, you see, I'm still +afraid of anything that seems queer or mysterious. But she laughed and +said, 'What nonsense! Who else could have written it except Lord +Ernest, unless you think Mr. Kruger's in a plot.' And she refused to +question Antoun, because if he'd wanted the thing to be talked over, +he'd have spoken instead of writing. As for doing what he asked, she +pretended not to have made up her mind. She said she'd 'see what mood +she was in,' after the others had finished with the sanctuary. Well, +what I want, is for you and me to stay in the place ourselves when the +others have gone." + +"With the greatest of pleasure on earth!" said I. + +"Don't be foolish. You aren't to torment me there." + +"That depends on what you call 'tormenting.' If I'm to be made a +spoil-sport for Fenton and Miss Gilder, a kind of live scarecrow, I mean +to get something out of it for myself." + +There was no time for more. We had arrived at the foot of the long +flight of stone steps which lead up to the rocky plateau of the Great +Temple. In the east, a golden fire below the horizon was sending up +premonitory flames, and the procession must bestir itself, or be too +late. The whole object of arriving at this unearthly hour would be +defeated, if, before the sun's forefinger touched the faces of the +altar statues, we were not in the sanctuary. No time to study the +features of the Colossi, or to search for the grave of Major Tidwell. +These things must wait. The dark-faced guardian examined our tickets, +and let us file through the rock-hewn doorway, whose iron _grille_ he +had just opened. As we passed into the cavernous hall of roughly carved +Osiride columns, the huge figures attached to them loomed vaguely out +of purple gloom. There was an impression of sculptured rock walls, with +splashes of colour here and there; of columns in a chamber beyond, and +still a third chamber, whence three rooms opened off, the side doorways +mere blocks of ebony in the dimness. But already the sun's first ray +groped for its goal, like the wandering finger of a blind man. We had +only time to hurry through the faintly lit middle doorway, and plaster +ourselves round the rock walls of the sanctuary, when the golden digit +touched the altar and found the four sculptured forms above: Harmachis, +Rameses, Amen and Ptah. Night lingered in the temple, a black, brooding +vulture. But suddenly the bird's dark breast was struck by a golden +bullet and from the wound a magic radiance grew. The effect, carefully +calculated by priests and builders thousands of years ago, was as +thrilling to-day as on the morning when the sun first poured gold upon +the altar. The sightless faces of the statues were given eyes of an +unearthly brilliance to stare into ours, and search our souls. But with +most of the party, to be thrilled for a minute was enough. As the sun's +finger began to move, they found it time to move also. There was the +whole temple to be seen, and then the walk back to the boat before +dressing for breakfast. + +Soon Biddy and I had--or seemed to have--the sanctuary to ourselves. +Even the sun's ray had left us, mounting higher and passing above the +doorway of the inner shrine. The momentarily disturbed shadows folded +round us again, with only a faint glimmer on the wall over the altar to +show that day was born. + +"Did you notice that Monny wasn't with the others?" asked Brigit, in a +low voice. "She lingered behind, I think, and never came near us. I +wasn't sure till I watched the rest filing out of this room. Then I saw +she wasn't among them. Neither was Captain Fenton." + +"If they're together, it's all right," I assured her. + +"Yes, but are they? That affair of the typewritten note has worried +me." + +"You're very nervous, darling. But no wonder!" + +"You mustn't call me 'darling.'" + +"Why not? It's no worse than Duffer. I like your calling me that." + +"I wonder if we ought to go, as she never came--or stay and wait?" + +"If we go, we shall be playing into Miss Gilder's hands. If we stay, we +shall be playing into mine. Which do you prefer?" + +"Oh, I suppose we'd better stay--for fear of something. But you must be +good." + +Then abruptly I attacked her with a change of weapons. I had fenced +lightly, knowing that Biddy liked a man who could laugh. But now I +threw away my rapier and snatched a club. I told her I would stand no +more of this. Did she want to spoil my life and break my heart? She was +the one thing I needed. Now she would have to say whether she'd put me +off because she didn't love me and never could, or because of that +trash about not wanting to involve me in her troubles. No use +prevaricating! I should know whether she lied or told the truth by the +sound of her voice. But I might as well confess before she began, that +I'd rather be loved by her and refused, than _not_ loved and refused. +Women seemed to think the unselfish thing was to pretend not to care, +if a man had to be sent away; because in the end that made it easier +for him. But in real life, with a real man, it was the other way round. + +"I think you're right, Duffer," Biddy said softly. "That's why I +wouldn't answer you for good and all, that night at Philae. I felt then +it might be kinder to tell you I could never care. But I've thought of +nothing else since--except a little about Monny--and I decided that if +it were _me_, I'd rather be loved, whatever happened. Men can't be so +very different where their hearts are concerned. So I'm going to tell +you I _do_ love you. It was hard to give you to Monny. But I thought it +would be for your happiness. I nearly died of love for you when I was a +little girl. I kept every tiniest thing you ever gave me. I was in love +with your memory when you went up to Oxford. And it was then Richard +O'Brien came. He swept me off my feet, and made me think my heart was +caught in the rebound. When it was too late, I realised that it hadn't +been caught at all. Only hypnotized for a while. I've loved you always, +Duffer dear. The thought of you was my one comfort, often, although I +hardly expected to see you again: or maybe, for that very reason. No, +don't touch me! please let me go on now, or I'll not tell you any more. +I wonder if you never guessed what I had in that chamois-skin bag +you're so worried about?" + +"Why, yes, I did guess, Biddy, right or wrong." + +"And I'll _bet_ you it was wrong! What did you think, when I wouldn't +understand any of your hints to tell what I wore over my heart?" + +"I thought then," I answered after a moment's deliberation, "that you +kept--compromising documents which might be of interest to the +organization you and I have talked about. Now I think differently. I +think you kept a lock of my childish hair, or my first tooth." + +"You conceited Duffer!--not so bad as that, because I had never a +chance of getting either. Once I _did_ keep in that bag just what you +said: compromising documents, that the organization would have given +thousands of dollars to get. And my life wouldn't have stood in their +way for a minute, I'm sure. But that was before Richard died. He was +afraid--I mean, I thought it would be better and less suspicious if _I_ +had charge of the papers. And if the Society had ever got hold of him, +he believed the letters and lists of names I had, might have bought +back his safety, if I played my hand well. He'd told me just what to +do. But when he was ill, he had a nurse whom I began to suspect as a +spy. Once when I was called into Richard's room suddenly, half dressed, +the chamois-skin bag showed, as my wrapper fell open at the breast. I +caught her looking at it with an eager look; and that very night I had +it locked up in a bank. It was only a few days later that Richard died; +and with him gone, I felt there was no more need to keep papers which +might cost the lives or liberty of men. Richard had wronged his +friends, and I wanted none of them to come to harm through me, though +they'd made me suffer with him. I burned every scrap of paper I had, +every single one! And it wasn't till there was an attempt to kidnap +Esme that I asked myself if I'd been right. Still, even now, I am not +sorry. I wouldn't hurt a hair of their heads. For a while the bag was +empty; but coming away from America and feeling a bit lonesome, I +thought it would do me good to look now and then at the only love-letter +you ever wrote me. It was on my ninth birthday--but I don't +believe you could write a better one now. There was a photograph, too, +of my lord when he was seventeen. I stole that, but it was all the +dearer. At this very minute, the letter and the picture are lying on my +heart. So now you know whether I care for you or not; and you can +understand why I wouldn't put the bag into a bank." + +"Oh, Biddy darling," I said, "you've made me the happiest man in the +world." + +"Well, I'm glad," she snapped, twisting away from me, "that it takes so +little to make you happy." + +"So little, when I'm going to have you for my wife?" + +"But you're not. You said you'd rather be loved and refused--" + +"I would, if I had to choose between the two. That's not the case with +me, for I shall marry you, now I know the truth, in spite of fifty, or +fifty thousand, refusals, or any other little obstacles like that." + +"Never, Duffer! Not for all the world would I be your wife, loving you +as I do, unless the organization would forget or forgive Esme and me. +And that I can't fancy they'll ever do, till the millenium. I shall be +past the marrying age then! Oh, Duffer, I _almost_ wish you had fallen +in love with Monny as I wanted you to do--' + +"Honest Injun, you really wanted that to happen?" + +"Well, I tried to want it, for your sake; and in a way for my own, too. +If I'd seen you caring for Monny, I should have found some medicine to +cure my heartache. Oh, it would have been a very good thing all around, +except for your friend, Anthony Fenton." + +"And I was half afraid he was in love with you! I can tell you I've had +my trials, Biddy. It's my turn to be happy now, and yours, too. Just +think, nearly everybody in the world is engaged, but us--or next door +to being engaged. Miss Gilder and Anthony--who's the only man on earth +to keep her in order: and Rachel Guest and Bailey; and Enid Biddell and +Harry Snell; and even your stepdaughter, Esme O'Brien--" + +"Duffer, she's _married_!" + +"What, to young Halloran? How did they manage it?" + +"I don't know yet. I've had only a telegram. It came to Assuan too +late, and Sir Marcus Lark brought it to the boat. I found it that night +when we got back from Philae. But I haven't told, because I dared not +be with you alone long enough to speak of private affairs, till I could +decide whether to let you know I loved you, or make believe I didn't +care a scrap." + +"As if I could have believed your tongue, unless you had shut your +eyes! So Esme is married, and off your hands?" + +"Not off my hands, I'm afraid. This may be visited on me. They must +have known of her meeting Tom Halloran at St. Martin Vesubie, last +summer. They find out everything, sooner or later. Probably they +thought I'd whisked her off to Egypt with me (helped by my rich friend +Miss Gilder, for whom they took Rachel Guest) in order to let her meet +Tom Halloran again, and marry him secretly. Well, she has _married_ him +secretly. When they discover what's happened, they're sure to put the +blame on poor me. And indeed, it is a shocking thing for the son of +that man in prison, and the daughter of the man who sent him there, to +be husband and wife." + +"I don't see that at all," I argued. "Why shouldn't their love end the +feud?" + +"It can't, for strong as it may be, it won't release prisoners, or +bring back to life those who are dead." + +"Anyhow, don't borrow trouble," said I. "If Esme's married the more +reason for us to follow her example. After Khartum, when Miss Gilder--" + +"Who's taking my name in vain?" inquired the owner of it, at the +sanctuary door. + +"Oh, then you _have_ come, Monny!" Brigit exclaimed. "I--I'd given you +up." + +"I haven't come for the reason you thought," returned the girl +promptly. "I was sure you meant to head me off. And I've learned +without asking, that Antoun Effendi didn't write that note." + +"I told you so! Who did?" + +"He's trying to find out. Probably it was a silly practical joke some +one wanted to play on me. There are _lots_ quite capable of it, on +board! Antoun Effendi said the sunrise was much finer really, from on +top of the great sandhill, so we climbed up. And it came out that he +hadn't asked me to meet him here. If any one not on the boat wrote the +letter, some steward must have been bribed to sell a bit of writing-paper, +and allow a stranger to come on board, while we were away at +Kasr Ibrim. There was a steam dahabeah moored not far off, if you +remember, with Oriental decorations; so we fancied it must belong to an +Egyptian or a Turk." + +"It could easily have been hired at Assuan," Biddy exclaimed. "And it +could have beaten us. We've stopped at such heaps of temples where +other boats only touch coming back." + +"If there were a plot, as you are always imagining, the dahabeah would +have to be near here, too," Monny laughed incredulously. + +"And so it may be. We haven't seen round the corner of the Great Temple +yet." + +"One would think to hear you talk, that you'd expected this poor little +sanctuary to be stuffed with murderers, or at the least, kidnappers." + +"Ugh, don't speak of it!" Biddy shuddered, "Let's go out into the +sunlight again, as quick as ever we can!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WORTH PAYING FOR + + +When Anthony says that he will find out things he seldom fails. Perhaps +nobody but a green-turbaned Hadji could so speedily have screwed +information out of secretive Arabs, paid to be silent. And he had to +fit deductions into spaces of the puzzle left empty by fibs and glib +self-excusings. What he did learn was this: a dragoman had come, in a +small boat, from a steam dahabeah to the _Enchantress Isis_ while we +were away at Kasr Ibrim. He presented credentials written out for him +in Cairo by Miss Rachel Guest, and dated a few weeks ago. Inquiring for +her, he seemed sorry to hear that she had gone on the excursion. The +dragoman refused to disturb Antoun Effendi, on hearing that the Hadji +was writing in his cabin. His errand was not of enough importance to +trouble so illustrious a man. All he wanted was permission to type one +or two letters for his employers on the neighbouring dahabeah, which +possessed no machine. In the absence of Mr. Kruger, who had gone on +shore for exercise, the dragoman was given this privilege. Possibly he +had taken some of the boat's letter-paper. Who could be certain of +these trifles? Possibly, also, he had walked about with one of the +cabin stewards, to see the luxurious appointments of the _Enchantress +Isis_. As for paying money for these small favours, who could tell? And +nobody knew if the steam dahabeah had hurried on before us, to anchor +out of sight round the oblique facade of Abu Simbel. In any case, when +we went to look for the suspicious craft seen near Kasr Ibrim, she was +not among the two or three small private dahabeahs of artists and +others, moored within a mile of the Great Temple. Notwithstanding her +absence, however, Anthony and I (suddenly confidential friends again) +thought it likely that the shadows in the Sanctuary had not been its +only tenants when we entered there. The invaluable Bedr knew enough of +the Nile Temples to know that the sun's first light strikes only the +altar and the statues over it, in Abu Simbel's inner shrine: that the +four corners of the small cavern-room remain pitch black, unless the +place is artificially illuminated: and that this is never done at +sunrise. The dragoman and one or both of his employers would have had +no difficulty in getting into the temple before the first streak of +dawn, if they had warned its guardian the night before. So far, our +deductions were simple, after learning how the trick of the typewritten +note had been managed: but it was not so easy to guess the object of +the plot. Was Monny Gilder to have been murdered in the dark Sanctuary, +or was she to have been kidnapped? Either seemed an impossible +undertaking, unless the plotters were willing to face certain detection +and arrest. + +As it was, we had no more tangible proof against the man than we had +before, at the House of the Crocodile, in the desert near Medinet, at +Asiut, and at Luxor. With a sly cleverness which did Bedr, or those +employing him, much credit, they had screened themselves behind others. +Even if we had the names of the "tourists" Bedr had served as dragoman, +and if we could lay our hands on their shoulders, we had not enough +evidence of what they had done to obtain a warrant of arrest: and this +of course they knew. Our best chance, Anthony thought, lay in springing +a surprise on them, as they had vainly (so far) tried to do with us; +and when we got them somehow at our mercy, force out the truth. + +It was almost certain that a steam dahabeah could not unseen have +passed the _Enchantress Isis_ at Abu Simbel in broad daylight, going +back toward Assuan. Therefore, since it was not moored near the temple, +if it had been in the neighbourhood at all it must have dashed on ahead +of us in the direction of Wady Haifa. With pleasure would we have given +immediate chase, had not the _Enchantress_ been pledged to remain at +Abu Simbel till afternoon. Even as it was, I expected to catch up with +a boat so much smaller than our own; but Anthony damped my hopes, +explaining the difficulties of navigation between Abu Simbel and Wady +Haifa. There were, he said, great shifting sandbanks in the water which +looked so transparently green, so treacherously clear. Without the most +prudent piloting the river was actually dangerous, as new sandbanks had +a habit of forming the minute you shut your eyes or turned your back. +The _Enchantress_ would have to pick her way slowly through the silver +sands of the Nile, which mingled with the spilt gold-dust of the desert +shore. All the same, these impudent rascals would find it hard to hide +from us at Wady Haifa, especially if we stopped the boat and wired from +the next telegraph station to have them watched on the arrival of their +dahabeah. + +"Perhaps, as they're so clever they'll be clever enough not to arrive +at all," was my suggestion. And Anthony could only shrug his shoulders. +"Wait and see" had to be our policy. + +Happily the Set wandered in and out of the two temples, big and little, +all the morning, ignorant of our worries which, even to us, seemed +small under the benign gaze of the great Colossi. The three stone +Rameses who had faces, wore expressions no one could ever forget; and +there was a sense of loss in turning away from them. + +A crocodile swam past the _Enchantress_ as she steamed up river; a +long, dark, prehistoric shape. He seemed an anachronism, but so did +Bedr, with his plottings; yet both were real, real as this Nile-dream +of dark rocks, of conical black mountains shaped like ruined pyramids, +and yellow sandhills whose dazzling reflections turned the blue-green +river to gold. + +The next day at noon, we came to Wady Halfa; and the _Enchantress Isis_ +who had brought us eight hundred miles from Cairo, was now to be +deserted by those with Khartum in view. All save three of the party +were going on through this gate of the Sudan, where the river way ended +and the desert-way began. Neill Sheridan was turning back immediately, +in a government steamer; and a bride and groom who cared not where they +were, if with each other, would wait on board the _Enchantress_ until +the band of passengers should return from Khartum. + +These things had to be thought of. But I meant to let Kruger do most of +the thinking, when we landed at the neat, colourful town of Halfa, +which lies (as Assuan lies) all pink and blue and green along the river +bank, sentinelled with trees. From a distance Anthony and I caught +sight of the steam dahabeah seen near Kasr Ibrim, and we could hardly +wait to get on shore. The camp was but a mile and a half away, and I +had wired in Lark's name, to an officer whom he was sure to know, +asking as a great favour to have the passengers on board a boat of that +description watched; and requesting him if possible to meet the +_Enchantress_ on her arrival. "There he is!" said Fenton, standing at +the rail. "I mustn't seem to recognise him, of course. Can't give +myself away! But you--" "Good Lord, there's Bedr!" I broke in, hardly +believing my eyes. And there Bedr was, looking as if butter would by no +means melt in his mouth: Bedr, smiling from the pier, evidently there +for the special purpose of meeting us. His ugly squat figure, and the +tall, khaki-clad form of the officer, were conspicuous among squatting +blacks, male and female, in gay turbans, veils, and mantles, muffled +babies in arms, and children dressed in exceedingly brief fringes. + +"I'll attend to him, while you powwow with Ireton," said Anthony, ready +for the unexpected situation. And while the indispensable if humble +Kruger showed the passengers how to get to the desert train, +superintended the landing of the luggage, and made himself perspiringly +useful, I thanked Major Ireton in Sir Marcus Lark's and my own name. + +His news was astonishing. There were no passengers on board the steam +dahabeah _Mamoudieh_. She had arrived with none save her crew, and the +dragoman now talking with that good-looking Hadji there. As I murmured +"Yes," and "No," and "Indeed--Really!" to the officer, who had kindly +worked on our behalf, I was saying to myself, "My _dear_ Duffer, what +an ass you were not to think of that!" For of course the men had +remained at Abu Simbel, hiding till we should be out of the way, and +sending their boat on to put us off the track. A Cook steamer and a +Hamburgh-American boat were due to stop at the temple. We had passed +both on the river. By this time the two men were doubtless on their way +north, making for Cairo and safety. + +Still, here was Bedr, looking like a fat fly who had deliberately come +to pay a call on the lean and hungry spider. I was impatient for the +moment when the need for genuine gratitude and "faked" explanations was +over, and Major Ireton had gone about other business. + +Then I could follow the Hadji and the Armenian, who had mounted the +steps leading up from river-level to the town. Not far off I could see +the blue-windowed, white-painted desert train, round which, on the +station platform, buzzed and scolded the Set, demanding their +hand-luggage and their compartments. But Anthony and his victim (or was it +by chance vice versa?) were keeping out of eyeshot and earshot of the +late passengers of the _Enchantress_. Brigit and Monny, who must have +seen Bedr, were too tactful to hover near: also they knew "Antoun +Effendi" too well to think it necessary. + +Bedr gave me no time to speak. He rushed forward to greet me with +effusion, as if I were a long-lost and well-loved patron. "I bin so +glad see you again after these days, milord. Sure!" he began. "Antoun +Effendi, he tell you I come here on purpose to do you good. I find out +those genlemens very wicked men, so I leave them quick. They want to +pay me for go back with them, but no money big enough now I know they +try to do harm to my nice young lady. She wasn't so good to me as the +other nice young lady, but that makes no matter. I not stand for any +hurt to her, sure I will not, milord." + +"The meaning of this rigmarole," Anthony cut him short, speaking in +German (which he knew I understood and trusted Bedr didn't) "is, that +the fellow wants us to buy information from him. He pretends to have +broken with his employers on our account (though his explanation of +getting here to Halfa on their dahabeah is ridiculous) and that, having +come for our benefit against their wishes, he's without pay, penniless, +and stranded." + +"A lie of course," I took for granted, also in German. + +"The part about being broke--certainly. But it's certain, too, that he +must know some things we'd like to know." + +"Could we trust a word he says?" + +"No, as far as his moral sense is concerned. But my idea is to bargain +with him. We to pay according to value received. That might be bait for +a fish worth hooking." + +"Yes, that's our line. We haven't much time to hear and digest his +story, though. The train will start in less than an hour." + +"We shan't waste a minute. Without waiting for you, I began to bargain +on the line I've just suggested." + +"How far did you get?" + +"A good way, for I was able to scare him a bit. You see, he earns his +living in Cairo, and I've persuaded him that I have some influence +there, in quarters that can make or break him. He hasn't much more time +to spare than we have, if it's true that he wants to start back on the +government boat. You know they take natives, third class. My +suggestion, subject to your approval, is this: in any case we give a +thousand piasters, ten pounds. But if what he can tell us is of real +use or even interest, we rise to the extent of ten times that sum." + +"It's a good deal for a beastly baboon like him." + +"Remember, he has been doing services lately for which he probably got +high pay." + +"All right, whatever you say, goes," I agreed. + +"I trust to your honours, my genlemens," remarked the beastly baboon in +question, in a manner so apropos that I guessed him not entirely +ignorant of German, after all. + +"Thanks for the compliment," I responded gratefully. + +"We shall have to talk here. There's no time to find a more convenient +place," said Fenton, returning to Arabic as a medium of communication. +"Fire away, Bedr. But don't start your story in the middle. Begin where +you took service with these Irish-American gentlemen." + +"Was the genlemens Irish? I never know that," purred the guileless +Bedr; but Fenton brought him to his bearings. All questions were to be +from us to him. So Bedr "fired away": and there, within a stone's throw +of the train getting up steam for Khartum, we listened to a strange +tale--as strange, and as great an anachronism as that dark crocodile-shape +we had seen--except in the Nile country, where live crocodiles +and many other dark things can easily happen any day. + +Blount's name, according to Bedr, was not Blount, but something else, +well-known in America. It was a name already associated with that of +O'Brien, which inclined us to hope for some grains of truth in the +chaff of lies we expected. Bedr said that in New York, years ago, he +had known the man "Blount." He was related to the American family who +took Bedr from Cairo. Later, when the Armenians had returned to Egypt, +"Blount" had come with him, for a "rest cure." He had engaged Bedr as +dragoman, and on leaving had asked for Bedr's card. That was years ago, +and nothing had been heard from him since: but before the _Laconia_ was +due to arrive, Bedr had received a telegram from Blount instructing him +to meet the ship, and wire to Paris whether Miss Gilder of New York and +a "Mrs. Jones" were on board, with a party. "Blount" knew that Bedr had +seen Miss Gilder as a child, and might now be able to recognize her. On +the day in New York when a block in traffic had given a glimpse of the +little girl in a motor-car with her father, Bedr and "Blount" had been +together. + +As soon as possible after Bedr's reply, "Blount" and another man, who +called himself Hanna, had arrived in Cairo. Bedr knew that they had a +fixed theory in regard to the young lady who passed as Miss Gilder. Who +they supposed her to be, he could not tell; but once he had "happened" +to be near, when they were not aware of his presence, and had heard one +of them mention a woman's name, which sounded like "Esny." They +accepted his word that he had been able to identify the so-called Miss +Guest as Rosamond Gilder, and in her they appeared to take no further +interest. Their attention was concentrated on Mrs. Jones and on the +lady who, according to their belief, was but posing as Miss Gilder. +Apparently they imagined her to be quite another person, one whom they +had taken a great deal of trouble to reach. Also they had an idea that +Mrs. Jones possessed something of which they were anxious to get hold. +It was a thing which ought to be theirs, and they had been after it for +years; but she had contrived to hide herself and it, until lately. + +Why he had been told to guide the two younger ladies to the House of +the Crocodile, Bedr pretended not to know. Perhaps--only perhaps +--Blount and his companion, Hanna, wished to kidnap the one we called +Miss Gilder, and they called "Esney." But good, kind Bedr had never +dreamed that they meant any real harm. There had been a plan of some +sort for that night. Blount and Hanna were to arrive at the House of +the Crocodile for a close look at the young ladies, when the latter had +gone to sleep under the influence of the hasheesh they intended to +smoke. But the two gentlemen had not kept the appointment. At first, +Bedr had not understood why, and had not known what to do. Afterward, +of course, when he had heard of the row in the street, which had caused +the closing of the house for many tedious hours, he had guessed. And +later when he learned that poor Mr. Blount lay wounded in a hospital, +it had all become clear. Mr. Hanna, who seemed to work under Mr. +Blount's orders, had not been able to act alone. + +Then, as to all the travelling up the Nile, Bedr had never been told +why "his genlemen" made the journey. Every one who came to Egypt went +up the Nile. Only, he had been instructed to find out, always, where we +were, and told to arrange their arrival at about the same time. At +Medinet they had not camped, or gone to an hotel, but had stayed in the +house of a friend of Bedr's. It was convenient, though not as +comfortable as he could wish for his clients. The advantage was, that +from the roof it was possible to see into our camp. Bedr had made +friends with one of the camel-boys who went to market to buy the black +lamb: and while we were away, had found out which was the tent where +Mrs. Jones and Miss Gilder (or "Esney") slept. What happened in the +night he could not say. He had stayed at his friend's house, while the +two gentlemen went out. He had done nothing at all for them in Medinet, +except to discover the ladies' tent, and also to buy a bottle of olive +oil. When the gentlemen came home in the middle of the night, they were +angry with him because they said he had shown them the wrong tent. But +that was unjust. It was the only time they had been unkind. Except for +that, they had been good, and had given him plenty of money for a +while. At Asiut and Luxor they had been pleased with him. All they +wanted at Rechid Bey's house, was to get the thing Mrs. Jones had, +which ought to be theirs. They had not told him this, but he heard them +talk sometimes. He knew more languages than they thought. If they +wanted to steal the young lady, they had never said so. When the plan +failed, they did not blame Bedr. It was not his fault. They saw that. + +The _Mamoudieh_ had been engaged as long ago as just after Medinet, +when the thing the gentlemen wanted to do there could not be done. But +Bedr thought that, if the Luxor plan had been a success, the steam +dahabeah would have gone north from there instead of south. It was +because of that failure the boat had followed us up the Nile. At Abu +Simbel Bedr had quarrelled with the gentlemen, because he began to +suspect they meant harm to the ladies, or to one of them. He had been +clever, and got on board the _Enchantress_ as they told him to do. He +had obtained writing-paper, and typed a copy of a letter. In America, +he had learned to do typing. Often he could make better money in an +engagement now, because he knew how to use a machine. And when the +steward showed him over the boat, he left the letter in the stateroom +which the Arab boy said was Miss Gilder's. In spite of all these good +services, which no other dragoman in Egypt could have given, those +gentlemen would not listen to a word of advice. Bedr heard them speak +with the guardian of the temple, about going in before any one else +came to see the sunrise: and afterward they talked of hiding in the +Sanctuary. First, they had asked him if it were always dark there, as +the guide-books said. After hearing this he had put two and two +together: and when he remembered what was in the note he typed for Miss +Gilder, Bedr feared for her and Mrs. Jones. He begged the gentlemen not +to do anything rash, and they were so angry at his interference that +they sent him off with no more pay--nothing at all since Luxor. + +Oh, no, they were not afraid of him, and what he could tell, because +they said nobody would believe a dragoman's word, against rich white +gentlemen. People would say he lied, for spite. But Bedr thought maybe +we should believe, because we knew already that something strange had +been going on. The gentlemen paid off the men on the _Mamoudieh_ and +ordered her to go on to Wady Halfa. They did not know that Bedr had +slipped on board, and hidden there, on purpose to find us, and tell his +story. + +A part of this tale carried truth on its face. But Anthony and I agreed +that there was a queer discrepancy at the end. If Bedr spoke the truth, +Blount and his comrade must have had a reason for wishing to get rid of +the fellow, or for not caring what became of him, a reason unconnected +with a quarrel. And it was certain that, if there had been a quarrel, +it was not because of virtuous plain-speaking from Bedr. It seemed +impossible that he could have got on board their hired boat to follow +us, without his employers' knowledge. Was his appearance at Wady Halfa, +and his apparent betrayal of his clients, all a part of their plan? + +We could not decide this question in our minds, or by cross-questioning +Bedr, while the train waited, for only time could prove. But what we +had heard was interesting enough to be worth the promised thousand +piasters, and the fare north on the government boat just starting. To +make sure that Bedr did start, we called Kruger, put the whole sum into +his hands, asking him to help the dragoman by buying his ticket and +getting the notes changed into gold and silver. This little manoeuvre +left the Armenian so calm, however, that we fancied his wish must +really be to depart on the government boat. Such inquiries as we had +time to make concerning the _Mamoudieh_ seemed to show that she must +remain at Halfa for slight repairs to her engine, and instructions from +her owner, who was staying at Assuan. It was just at the last minute of +grace, with the station-master adjuring, and the Set reproaching us, +that Anthony and I jumped on board the train. + + * * * * * + +Strange that two rows of blue glass windows should have power to turn +the whole world topsy-turvy, or to create a new one, of an entirely +original colour-scheme! But so it was. Those people seated in their +grand, travelling "bed-sitting rooms," had only a superficial +resemblance to the passengers of the _Enchantress Isis_. Monny, for +instance, had pale green hair, with immense purple eyes; and showed +every sign of rapid transformation into a mermaid. Cleopatra's auburn +waves had turned to a vivid magenta: Biddy's black tresses had a blue, +grapey bloom on them: and Anthony's dark eyes were a sinister green, +with red lights. Ghostly, mother o' pearl faces with opal shadows, +peered through the violet glass at an unreal landscape, which would +instantly cease to exist if the windows were opened. But the windows +could not be opened, or a rain of sand would pour in; so we gazed out +on an impossible fairy land consisting of golden sea, with mountainous +shores carved from amethyst, through which shone the glow of pulsing +fires. Always we carried with us an immense shadow, like a trailing +purple banner, unfurling as we moved. Men and women and animals seen at +the numbered white stations in the sand, were but fantastic figures in +a camera obscura. The shadow of the train was torn with fiery streaks: +and when the sun had burned to death on a red funeral-pyre, the moon +stole out to mourn for him. Her coming was sudden. She seemed abruptly +to draw aside a hyacinth curtain, and hold up a lamp over the desert, +when the sun's fire had died. And the lamp gave forth an unearthly +light, which poured over the endless sands a sheet of primrose-yellow +flame. The warm sun-shadow was chilled from purple to gray, and flowed +over the magic primrose fields like a river of molten silver. + +At Number Six Station, where we stopped for water after dinner, a hyena +came galumping over the sand like a humpbacked dog, to stare at us, as +we strolled in couples away from the train into the desert. Next +morning, every one was up early to see the gray hornets' nest huts +which were Sudanese villages, and the villagers themselves, who urged +us to buy straw rugs, baskets, fans, oranges, dried beans, live birds, +and milk in wooden bowls, whenever the train stopped: respectable old +ladies, dressed in short fringes, and small, full-stomached boys +dressed in nothing at all. + +I had not told Biddy about our bargain with Sir Marcus: Anthony's and +my services in exchange for the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Why +should she be forced to share our suspense? For she would share it, if +she knew, even though she didn't yet yield to me, in the matter of a +united future. I wanted to wait before telling her the story, until +Fenton and I had made sure if there were anything golden about the +mountain, except its name. If we were doomed to disappointment I could +then give the tale a humorous turn, easier to do in retrospect than +anticipation. Now, when in blinding light of noon we pointed out, in an +impersonal manner, to all who cared to see, the pyramid-field of Meroee, +it seemed strange to think that no heart but Anthony's and mine beat +the faster. The sun was so hot that most people, blinking dazedly, +retired behind their screens of blue glass almost as soon as the train +stopped, close to Garstang's camp. I had informed the Set, casually, +that wonderful things were being found here in the rocky desert: that +the few neat white tents sheltered men who were going to make of Meroee +a world's wonder: that not only had the army of stunted black pyramids +visible from the train, yielded up treasures, but three tiers of +palaces were being unearthed, or rather, unsanded. I said nothing, +however, of the more distant dark shapes, like the pyramids yet unlike +them. Among those low, conical mountains which perhaps gave inspiration +to the pyramid builders, was our mountain. And I was not sorry when the +burning sun smote curiosity from eyes and brains, and sent nearly all +my flock back to their places, while the train had still some minutes +at the station. + +Cleopatra had not come out. She had frankly lost interest in scenic +history, and did not want to be intelligent: but as Anthony and I +stepped off the train, we saw that Brigit and Monny stood arm in arm in +the doorway. + +"Would you like to jump down?" I asked, reluctantly. For the first time +I did not wish Biddy O'Brien to give me her society. I hoped she would +say "No, thank you," for I wanted Fenton to point out our mountain +(which he had told me could be seen): and it would be inconvenient to +answer questions. + +"Yes, we should like it," they both replied together: so Anthony and I +had to look delighted. It really was a pleasure to help them down: but +even that we could have waited for till our arrival at Khartum. And the +first remark that Biddy made was too intelligent. "What are those weird +things off there in the distance, that look exactly like ruined +pyramids--sort of mudpie pyramids?" + +"Mountains," said Fenton. + +"What, didn't anybody _make_ them?" + +"The legend is, that Djinns, or evil spirits, created them to use as +tombs for themselves." + +"But they're almost precisely like the made pyramids, only a little +more tumbledown. Have they names?" + +"Some have, I believe," Anthony returned, with his well-put-on air of +indifference. "That blackest and most ruined looking one of all, for +instance, between two which are taller--there, away to the left, I +mean--that is called the 'Mountain of the Golden Pyramid.'" + +Our eyes met over the girls' veiled hats. After all, he had found an +opportunity of telling me what I wanted to know. + +"What a fascinating name!" said Monny. "It sounds as if there were some +special story connected with it. Is there?" + +"Ye--es," Anthony was obliged to admit. "There is a legend that it was +used as a tomb by the first Queen Candace, who lived about two hundred +years B.C. after Ptolemy Philadelphus. She used to reign over what they +called the "Island of Meroee." It was this once fertile kingdom, between +the Atbara River over there, and the Blue Nile. They say she wished to +be buried with all her jewels and treasure, and was afraid of her tomb +being robbed, so she wouldn't trust to a man-made pyramid. She ordered +a secret place to be hollowed out in the heart of a mountain; and +that's the one they pretend it is." + +"What a lovely legend! But I suppose there's nothing in it, really, or +clever people like those who're digging here now would have found the +tomb and the treasure long ago," said Monny. + +"I don't know," I left Anthony to answer; wondering what he would say. +"Only a very few have ever put enough faith in the story to search, and +they have never been able to discover traces of an entrance into that +mountain or any other. Of course, in trying to enter the great pyramid +of Ghizeh, they looked a long time before they succeeded. But that was +different. There was never any doubt of there being something worth +seeing, inside, whereas this black lump may be solid rock, and nothing +more. It's many years since anybody has tried to get at the secret." + +"I beg your pardon," politely said (in French) an elderly man, in a +pith helmet, blue spectacles, and khaki clothes, who stood near. "I +couldn't help hearing your conversation; and it may interest you and +these ladies to learn that at this very moment work is going on at the +so-called Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." + +I envied Anthony the brown stain on his face, for I felt the blood +rushing to mine. + +"Indeed!" I ejaculated in English. "We are very much interested. Work +--actually going on!" + +"Yes, it was begun about four or five weeks ago, by an agent of Sir +Marcus Lark, the well-known financier, who got the concession which +some other party was said to be trying for. I am here," went on the +helmeted man, gazing benevolently through his blue spectacles at the +two pretty women, "I am here with my son, who is one of Garstang's men. +We have nothing to do with the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Luckily +for Sir Marcus, it was adjudged to be off our 'pitch.' Still, we are +interested. They are keeping their work very secret, but--these things +are in the air. The talk here is that they're on the point of making, +if they haven't made already, some very startling discovery." + +"All aboard, _if_ you please!" shouted the Greek guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EXIT ANTOUN + + +If there had been no Brigit and no Monny in the world we should have +let that train go on without us, and--hang the Set and its feelings! +But there was a Brigit; there was a Monny; and they were more to us +than all the treasure Sir Marcus was apparently stealing while we +slaved. + +What fools we had been to trust in such a man! And I had actually +wasted pity on the fellow. Now, as we were borne away from Meroee, we +saw our hopes, which had begun to seem certainties, dissolving into +air. They were like the mirage of the desert which lured us with siren +enchantment and mystery in this Never-Never-land which thousands of +brave men had died to win: shimmering blue lakes, that mirrored green +trees and low purple mountains, and the gold of sand-dunes, so real, so +near, it seemed we might walk to them in a few moments: only mocking +dreams, like our belief in a famous financier's loyalty; like our hopes +of fortune. For if Sir Marcus Lark had secretly begun work at the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, it meant that he intended to steal +everything best worth having, for himself. + +It was maddening to realize that we might be too late to thwart him, +but we had to risk this, or risk losing something dearer than the +jewels of a Queen Candace. Anthony was staking the happiness of his +future on the events of the following night. Now that the small cloud +of misunderstanding had passed from the clear sky of our friendship, we +were one again in confidence, as we had been before the Philae +eavesdropping: and I knew the plan he meant to carry out at the +Sirdar's ball. It was rather a melodramatic plan, perhaps, but somehow +it fitted into the circumstances of his queer courtship, and I could +see why Anthony preferred it to any other more conventional. As for me, +I too counted on Khartum to give me a present of happiness. Bedr's +story, largely false as it might be, must have a basis of truth. I'd +ceased to argue with Biddy. "We'll leave the subject of the future +alone till we get to Khartum," I had said. She thought, maybe, that she +had half convinced me of her worldly wisdom. But this was far from +being the case. I was only waiting to see whether my theory were right +or wrong. I couldn't know until Khartum: and nothing on earth, or +hidden under earth, would have induced me to put off the moment of +finding out. + +North Khartum was standing in a mirage as we approached. And Fenton and +I were superstitious enough to wonder if it were a bad omen, that +lovely lake which was not there, reflecting clearly each white and +ochre-coloured house of the city in the sand. Only the blue glitter of +the Nile was real, as the train crossed the river on a high bridge, and +landed us in the surprising garden of beauty which is Khartum itself. +Wide streets, bordered with flowering trees, rose-pink acacias and +coral pendants of pepper-berries; lawns green as velvet; big, verandaed +houses of silver-gray or ruddy stone; roses climbing over hedge and +wall; scent of lilies and magnolias floating in an air clear as +crystal; droning sakkeyehs spraying pearls over the warm bodies of +slow-moving oxen; white sails like butterflies' wings dotting the Blue +Nile: this was the new city created as if by magic, in sixteen years, +upon the sad ruins of Gordon's stronghold. + +On the wide veranda of the Grand Hotel, where pretty girls were giving +tea to young officers in khaki, Fenton came up to Brigit and Monny, who +were questioning me about letters. The look on his face struck the girl +into silence. + +"What is it?" she asked, almost sharply. + +"Don't let me interrupt you," he said. "I can wait a few minutes." + +"No," Monny insisted. "Please speak. I know it's something important." + +"Important only to myself, perhaps," he answered, with a smile that was +rather wistful. "I have to say good-bye now." + +"Good-bye?" echoed Monny, surprised and even frightened, more by his +look and tone than the words themselves. + +"My engagement with Sir Marcus Lark ended when our train stopped at +Khartum. I have other business to attend to here. I've just made my +adieux with everybody else. I saved you till the last." + +Monny was pale. Even the fresh young rose that was her mouth had +blanched. Otherwise she controlled herself perfectly. Was this part of +Anthony's plan? I wondered. He had told me what he intended to do at +the Palace ball to-morrow night; but he had said nothing about this +preliminary scene. I understood, however, why he had not manoeuvred to +get Monny to himself, in a deserted corner of this big ground-floor +balcony of the hotel. Even when with the Set it was a question of +getting their tea, or looking at their rooms, eyes were always ready to +observe Miss Gilder, especially since it was "in the air" that she +really _was_ Miss Gilder--"_the_ Miss Gilder." He did not want Miss +Hassett-Bean and Mrs. Harlow to be saying: "Look, my dear, at the +tragic, private farewell Antoun Effendi and our American Beauty are +having!" Since Philae, there would have been no use in trying to +conceal his feelings for Monny from Brigit or me. Therefore we made +useful chaperons, and could be regarded as dummies. + +"You never told me you were leaving us at Khartum," the girl stammered. +"I thought--" But, though we knew what she thought, she could go no +further before an audience. + +"My business prevents me from staying at the hotel," Anthony explained. +"And--though I shall see you, never again will you see poor Ahmed +Antoun." + +"I don't understand," Monny said. + +"I know. But that was what we agreed upon. You promised to trust me +without understanding. To-morrow night, at the Sirdar's ball, you will +understand. I've arranged with Lord Ernest that you and Mrs. Jones and +Mrs. East and he shall write your names in the book at the Palace. Then +you will all receive invitations for the ball; you four only, of the +party." + +"And you will be there?" + +"I've just told you," Anthony repeated, "that Antoun is saying good-bye +to you forever." + +"Yet you told me, too, that after Khartum I should be hap--" She cut +herself short, and shut her lips closely. I was angry with Fenton for +what seemed cruelty to one who had very nobly confessed her love for +him. Biddy's eyes protested, too; but the man and the girl cared no +more for us or our criticism, at that moment, than if we had been +harmless, necessary chairs for them to sit upon. + +"There are many paths to happiness," Fenton answered. "I shall see you +to-morrow night, and I shall know whether you are happy. Meanwhile I +say again--trust me. And good-bye." + +He held out his strong, nervous hand, so browned by the sun that it +needed little staining for the part he had played--and was to play no +more. As if mechanically, Monny Gilder laid her hand in it. They looked +into each other's eyes, which were almost on a level, so tall was she. +Then Antoun Effendi turned abruptly away, forgetting apparently that he +had not taken leave of Brigit or me. + +"Let's go upstairs at once, dear, and see our rooms," Biddy said +quickly. + +An instant later, I stood alone on the veranda. But I knew well enough +where to find Captain Anthony Fenton when I wanted him, although the +death knell of Antoun was sounding. I was not in the least melancholy, +and despite the tense emotion of that short scene, I had never felt +less sentimental in my life. My whole being concentrated itself in a +desire to visit the post-office, and to bash Sir Marcus Lark's head. + +When Anthony came up for his farewell I had been asking Brigit and +Monny if they expected letters at the Poste Restante. Both said no, but +advised by me, they gave me their cards, armed with which I could ask +for letters and obtain them if there were any. "It's very unlikely any +one will address me there," Biddy had assured me. "The only letter I'm +hoping for will come to the hotel." + +I was not jealous: because I was sure the said letter was from Esme +O'Brien, now for weal or woe Mrs. Halloran. The letter I hoped for +would be from a very different person, though if it materialized it +would certainly mention the runaway bride. And if such a letter came to +Khartum, the place to look for it, I thought, would be the Poste +Restante. The writer not being a personal friend of Mrs. O'Brien, and +presumably not knowing Khartum, could not be certain at which hotel she +would stop. + +I was hurrying away, a few minutes later, to prove once and for all +whether I were a budding Sherlock Holmes or merely an imaginative fool, +when a servant came out from the hotel and handed me a telegram. + +"_Lark!_" I read the signature at the end with a snort of rage. "I +wonder he has the cheek to--" But by that time I was getting at the +meat of the message. "What the dev--by Jove! Here's a complication!" I +heard myself mutter a running accompaniment to Marcus Lark's words-- + +This is what he had to say on two sheets of paper: + + +LORD ERNEST BORROW, Grand Hotel, Khartum: + +In train leaving Assuan met man from Meroee told me work begun at our +place strange news don't understand but sure you two haven't gone +ahead of bargain must be foul play or else mistake but thought +matter too serious go on north left train returned Assuan caught +government steamer for Halfa just arrived too late for train de luxe +but will proceed by ordinary train to camp better meet me there soon +as possible leaving boat people take care of themselves. Wire +Kabushia Lark. + +His loyalty to us shamed me. We had not given him the benefit of the +doubt, but had at once believed the worst. He, though "not a gentleman" +in the opinion of Colonel Corkran and some others, was chivalrously +sure that we had "not gone ahead of the bargain!" A revulsion of +feeling gave me a spasm of something like affection for the big fellow +whom his adored Cleopatra sneered at as "common." + +I longed to show the telegram to Anthony; but he would now be at the +Palace, reporting to the Sirdar. Later he would be at his own quarters, +transforming himself from a pale brown Hadji in a green turban into a +sunburned young British officer in uniform. Meantime I would go to the +Poste Restante, and then (whatever the result of the visit) I would +return, collect Brigit and Monny, and take them to the Palace to write +their names in the book. + +I dare not think what my blood pressure must have been as I waited for +a post-office official to look through a bundle of letters. + +"Mrs. B. Jones," he murmured. "No, nothing for B. Jones--unless it's +O'Brien Jones. Here's a letter addressed to Mrs. O'Brien Jones." + +"That's it," said I, swallowing heavily, "Mrs. O'Brien Jones. I think +the letter must be postmarked Assuan." + +Without further hesitation the post-office man handed me the envelope, +on the strength of Mrs. B. Jones' visiting card. + +Going out of the office, I walked on air. "Sherlock Holmes it is!" I +congratulated myself. And I ventured to be wildly happy, because it +seemed to me that a letter sent to Mrs. O'Brien Jones, from Assuan, +could mean only one thing; a justification of my theory. + +I went straight to Biddy's door and knocked. There was no answer, and I +stood fuming with impatience on the upstairs balcony, upon which each +bedroom opens. It seemed impossible to live another minute without +putting that letter into Biddy's hand. And not for the world would I +have let it come to her from any one else. I was tempted to tear open +the envelope, but before I had time to test my character, Biddy +appeared on the balcony, coming round the corner from Monny's room. + +"Why, Duffer! You look as if the sky had fallen!" she exclaimed. + +"It has," I returned. "It's lying all over the place. There's a bit of +it in this letter. A bit of heaven, maybe." + +"A letter for me?" + +"Yes. And if you aren't quick about opening it I'll commit hari kari." + +She was quick about opening it. + +As she read, almost literally my eyes were glued to her face. It went +white, then pink. "Thank heaven!" I said within myself. If she had been +pink first and white afterward, I should have been alarmed. For a +woman's colour to blossom warmly from a snowfield, means good news. + +"Duffer!" she breathed. "Do you--know--what's in this?" + +"I--thought it would come." My voice sounded rather queer. I'd fancied +I had more self-control. "That's why I--wanted your card--for the Poste +Restante." + +"Read this," she said, and gave me the open letter. + +It was written on paper of a hotel at Assuan, near the railway station, +and was as follows: + + +MADAM: Let me explain frankly before I go further, that my name is +Thomas Macmahan. You may remember it. If you do, you will not think +it strange that I--as a private person, as well as a member of a +Society--whose name it is not necessary to mention--wanted certain +papers you were supposed to possess. For a long time I, and others +almost equally interested, tried to trace you, after learning that +you had the documents, or in any case knew where they were. +Naturally we were prepared to go far in order to make you give them +up. We believed that your step-daughter was with you. As the need +was pressing, and we had failed more than once, we would, if +necessary, have worked upon your feelings through her. Had we +questioned you, and you had replied that we were mistaken concerning +the young lady and the papers, we should have been incredulous. But +accident enabled us to hear from your own lips, details which we +could not disbelieve. As a woman we wish you no harm, therefore we +rejoice in this turn of events, for your sake. Your step-daughter +must now be _one of us_, through her husband. She has nothing +further to fear, much as we regret her marriage into a family so +deeply injured by her father. As for you, Madam, you may be at rest +where we are concerned. You said to Lord Ernest Borrow in the Temple +of Abu Simbel, that you could never be happy, until the Organization +Richard O'Brien betrayed, "forgot and forgave his daughter and +yourself." Through me, the Organisation now formally both forgets +and forgives. + +Wishing you well in future, Yours truly, + +T. MACMAHAN (alias Blount). + +P. S. Kindly acknowledge receipt of this letter in care of Bedr el +Gemaly whose address you have at Cairo. Not hearing from you, we +shall try to communicate this news in some other way. The present +method has occurred to us, as you may find it useful to know the +state of affairs without delay. + +"Oh, Biddy, _do_ you find it useful?" I asked. + +She held out her hands to me. There was no one on the veranda just then +and I kissed her. + +"Mine!" I said. "What a gorgeous place Khartum would be, to be married +in!" + + * * * * * + +Monny was very brave next day. She went to Omdurman with the rest of +us. And it was the chance of a lifetime, because (through Anthony) +Slatin Pasha himself took us to the place of his captivity: Slatin +Pasha, slim, soldierly, young, vital and brilliant. It was scarcely +possible to believe that this man, who looked no more than thirty-five, +and radiated energy, could have passed eleven years in slavery terrible +beyond description. He spoke of those experiences almost lightly, as if +telling the story of some one else, and it was "all in the day's work" +that he should have triumphed over his persecutors in a way more +complete, more dramatic than any author of romance would dare invent +for his hero. + +He took us, from the river-steps in front of his own big, verandaed +house, down the Blue Nile in a fast steam launch. It was a Nile as blue +as turquoise; and after the low island of Tuli had been left behind it +was strange to see the junction of the Blue and the White Niles, in a +quarrelsome swirl of sharply divided colours. Landing on the shore at +Omdurman, we met carts loaded with elephant-tusks, and wagons piled +with hides. Giant men, like ebony statues, walked beside pacing camels +white as milk. The vegetable market was a town of little booths: the +grain markets had gathered riches of green and orange-gold. Farther on, +in the brown shadows of the roughly roofed labyrinth of bazaars, were +stores of sandalwood, and spices smelling like Araby the blest; +open-fronted shops showing splendid leopard skins, crocodile heads +bristling with knives, carved tusks of elephants, shields, armour said to +have been captured from crusaders; Abyssinian spears, swords and strange +headgear used by the Mahdi's and Khalifa's men. The bazaars of Cairo +and even Assuan seemed tame and sophisticated compared to this wild +market of the Sudan, where half the men, and all the bread-selling +women who were old enough, had been the Khalifa's slaves. + +With Slatin Pasha we went to the Khalifa's "palace" to gaze at the +"saint's" carriage, the skeleton of Gordon's piano, and scores of +ancient guns which had cut short the lives of Christian men. Slatin's +house we saw, too, and the gate whence he had escaped: the Mahdi's +shattered tomb, and the famous open-air Mosque. + +Then we had a run up the Blue Nile, as far as "Gordon's Tree," and +lunched on board the launch. In the afternoon, back at Khartum again, +there was still time to group round the statue of Gordon on his camel, +holding the short stick that was his only weapon, and gazing over the +desert. The Set were allowed to walk through the Palace gardens, to +behold the spot at the head of the grand staircase, where Gordon fell, +and to have a glimpse, in the Sirdar's library, of the Khalifa's +photograph, taken after death. This was a special favour, and as they +knew nothing about the four invitations to the ball, they were +satisfied with their day. + +Dinner was in the illuminated garden of the hotel: and when it was +over, I smuggled Brigit and Monny and Cleopatra inconspicuously away. +No one suspected; and if the lovely dresses worn by Mrs. East and Miss +Gilder were commented upon, doubtless aunt and niece were merely +supposed to be "showing off." + +Never, I think, had Monny come so near to being a great beauty. In her +dress of softly folding silver cloth she was a tall white lily. She +wore no jewels except a string of pearls, and there was no colour about +her anywhere, except the deep violet her hazel eyes took on at night, +and the brown-gold of her hair. Even her lips were pale as they had +been when Antoun bade her good-bye. Hers was no gay, dancing mood. She +was going to the ball because Antoun Effendi had ordered, rather than +asked, her to go. But she was like some fair, tragic creature on trial +for her life, waiting to hear what the verdict of the jury might be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE SIRDAR'S BALL + + +Biddy, radiating joy, walked beside me with wide-open, eager eyes, +taking in every detail of the historic house. She admired the immense +hall, whose archways opened into dim, fragrant gardens. She was +entranced with the Sudanese band, ink-black giants uniformed in white, +playing wild native music in the moonlight. She wanted to stop and make +friends with the Shoebill, a super-stork, apparently carved in shining +metal, with a bill like an enormous slipper, eyes like the hundredth- +part-of-a-second stop in a Kodak, and feet that tested each new tuft of +grass on the lawn, as if it were a specimen of some hitherto +undiscovered thing. + +No question but she was happy! I was proud of her, and proud of myself +because my love had power to give her happiness. What matter now if I +were being robbed at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, by some +unknown thief? Neither he nor any one could steal Biddy. + +Even Cleopatra seemed pleased to be coming to the Sirdar's ball, though +gloom lay heavy upon her. She wanted to look her best. She wanted to be +admired by the officers she was to meet, and to have as many partners +as she could split dances for. To be admired by some one was essential +to her just now, a soothing medicine to heal the smart of hurt vanity. +Monny, I felt, had made herself look beautiful only because she thought +that Antoun, unseen, would see her. As we entered the ballroom, her +eyes were wistful, searching, yet not expecting to find. He had said +that she would never see Antoun again. + +I found friends in the ballroom: men I knew at home, and a few pretty +women I had met in England or abroad: but there was no more than time +to be received by the Aide-de-Camp, and to introduce a few officers to +my three ladies, when the moment came for the formal entry of our host +and hostess, the soldier-Sirdar and his graceful wife, the Royalties of +the Sudan. We were presented: and I guessed at once that the Sirdar had +been prepared in advance to take a special interest in Rosamond Gilder. + +"Anthony has told him the whole thing, and asked his help," was my +thought. From the instant of his kindly greeting for the girl, I found +myself suddenly, excitedly assuming the attitude of a spectator in a +theatre, on the night of a new play. I knew the plot of the play, but +not how it would be presented, nor how it would work out. I saw that +the Sirdar had made up his mind to a certain line of action where Monny +was concerned. And by and by, when he had time to spare from his +general duties as host, I heard him ask if she would like to go on the +roof, where Gordon used to stand watching for the English soldiers to +come. + +"I will take you," he said. "And if you like to stay longer than I can +stop away from our guests, I'll give you another guide." + +He turned to Biddy and me. (Cleopatra was dancing with Baron Rudolph +von Slatin Pasha, gorgeous in medals and stars: Brigit and I had just +stopped.) + +"Would you like to come, too?" the Sirdar asked. + +I answered for Biddy, knowing what she would want me to say. And still +the sense of being a spectator in a wonderful theatre was dreamily upon +me. Stronger and stronger the impression grew, as the Sirdar led us out +onto a wide loggia white with moonlight, and up a flight of stairs to a +flat roof. Overhead a sky of milk was spangled with flashing stars. +Beneath our eyes lay the palace gardens, where the torches of the +Sudanese band glowed like transfixed fireflies, in the pale moon-rays. +Palms and acacias and jewelled flower-beds, were cut out sharply in +vivid colour by the lights which streamed from open windows. Beyond +--past the zone of violet shadow so like a stage background--was the +sheen of the river, bright as spilt mercury under the moon. And beyond +again, on the other side of the Nile, the tawny flame of that desert +across which came the Khalifa's fierce army. "This is where Gordon +used to stand," the Sirdar stopped us near the parapet. "Only the roof +was one story lower then. He climbed up here every day, till the last, +to look out across the desert, saying: 'The English _will_ come!' +There's a black gardener I have, who thinks he meets him now, on +moonlight nights like this, walking in the garden. It wasn't much of a +garden in his day; only palms and orange trees: but a rose-bush he +planted and loved is alive still. I've just asked one of my officers +--one whom I particularly want you to meet, Miss Gilder--to pluck a rose +from Gordon's bush and bring it to you here. He knows where to find us; +and when he comes, I must go back to the ballroom and leave you--all +three--to his guidance. Lord Ernest and he used to be friends as boys, +I believe. Perhaps you've heard him speak of Captain Anthony Fenton?" + +"Perhaps. I don't remember," Monny answered, apologetically. She, so +self-confident and self-possessed, was charmingly shy with this great +soldier who had made history in the Sudan. + +"If you don't remember, Lord Ernest can't have done justice to the +subject. Fenton's one of the finest young officers in Egypt, or indeed, +in the service. We're rather proud of him. Lately he's been employed on +a special mission, which he has carried out extremely well. Few others +could have done it, for a man of great audacity and self-restraint was +needed: a combination hard to find. He has been in the Balkans. And +since, has had a particularly delicate task intrusted to him, to be +conducted with absolute secrecy. No 'kudos' to be got out of it in case +of success. And failure would almost certainly have cost his life. It +was a question of disguise, and getting at the native heart." + +"It sounds like something in a story book," said Monny, while Brigit +and I kept mum, drinking in gulps of moonlight. + +"Yes," the Sirdar agreed, "or the autobiography of Sir Richard Burton. +Fenton has the same extraordinary gift of language and dialect that +Burton had: the art of 'make-up,' too; and he's been to Mecca; a great +adventure I believe he had. Perhaps you can get him to talk of it: +though he's not fond of talking about himself. Altogether he's what I +sometimes hear the ladies call 'a romantic figure.' His father was a +famous soldier. If you were English you would have heard of him. He +broke off a brilliant career in Egypt by running away with a beautiful +princess. She was practically all Greek and Italian, though her father +called himself a Turk: no Egyptian blood whatever. But there was a +great row, of course, and Charles Fenton left the Army. Now Anthony +Fenton's grandfather, who lives in Constantinople, would like to adopt +his grandson: but the young man is in every sense of the word an +Englishman, devoted to his career, and doesn't want a fortune or a +Turkish title." + +"Why, that sounds--" Monny faltered. + +"Like a man of character, and a born soldier, doesn't it? Here he comes +now." + +There was a sound of quick, light footsteps on the stairs. In silence +we turned to see a tall young officer in uniform walk out upon the flat +roof. The moon shone straight into a face grave, yet eager, so deeply +sunburned as to be brown even in that pale light: long eyebrows +sketched sharply as if in ink--the black lines running down toward the +temples; large, sad eyes; a slight upward hitch of the mouth on one +side; clear cut Roman nose; aggressive chin. + +"Miss Gilder, let me introduce Captain Anthony Fenton," the Sirdar +said. + +"I've brought you a rose," said Anthony. + +They stood looking at one another for a long moment, the sun-browned +British officer, and the pale girl. We, Biddy and I, stared at them +both from our distance; and when the spell of the instant had broken, +we saw that the Sirdar had gone. + +We, too, would have gone, though the man and the girl were between us +and the stairway, and we should have had to push past them. But +Anthony, seeing our hesitation, spoke quietly. "Don't go," he said. "I +may want you." + +Never until to-night had Monny Gilder heard him speak English. + +"You see," he said to her, "why I told you yesterday you would never +see Antoun again. I had to tell you that, to make sure you would trust +me--fully, through everything. You _have_ trusted me, and so you've +made it possible for me to keep my vow--a wrong and stupid vow, but it +had to be kept. When I was angry because you treated me like a servant, +I swore that never, no matter how I might be tempted, would I tell you +with my own lips who I was--or let Borrow tell. I was going to make +myself of importance in your life as Ahmed Antoun, if I could, not as +Anthony Fenton. But long before that night at Philae I was ashamed. I +--but you said then, you would forgive me. Now, when you understand what +you didn't understand then, can you still say the same?" + +"I--hardly know what to say," she answered. "I don't know how I feel +--about anything." + +"Well, I know, you goose!" exclaimed Biddy, rushing to the rescue, +where angels who haven't learned to think with their hearts might have +feared to tread. "You feel so happy you're afraid you're going to howl. +Why, it's all perfectly wonderful! And only the silliest, earliest +Victorian girls would sulk because they'd been 'deceived.' If anybody +deceived you, you deceived _yourself_. _I_ knew who he was from the +first! So did your Aunt Clara. We'd kept our ears open, and heard the +Duffer talk about his friend Anthony Fenton who was coming to meet us. +_You_ were mooning I suppose, and didn't listen. We didn't give him +away partly because it wasn't our business, and partly because each of +us was up to another game, never mind what. Captain Fenton never tried +to play you a trick. You threw yourself at his head, you know you did, +from Shepheard's terrace. He had his _mission_ to think of, and you'd +be _very_ conceited if you thought he ought to have let you interfere +with it. As it happened, you worked in quite well with the mission at +first. Then Fate stepped in, and made the band play a different dance +tune; no military march, but a love-waltz. That wasn't his fault. And I +have to remind you of all this, because you're glaring at Captain +Fenton now as if he'd done something wrong instead of fine, and he +can't praise himself." + +As she finished, out of breath, having dashed on without a single +comma, the giant black musicians in the garden began to sing a strange +African love song, in deep rich voices, their instruments, which had +played with precision European airs, suddenly pouring out their +primitive, passionate souls. + +"Biddy dear," said the girl in a small, meek voice, "thank you very +much, and you're just sweet. But I _didn't_ need even you to defend him +to me. I was only just stopping to breathe, for fear my heart would +burst, because I was _dizzy_ with too much joy. I _worship_ him! And +--and you can both go away now, please. We don't want you." + +We went. Biddy would have fallen downstairs, if I hadn't caught her +round the waist. Needless to say, I didn't look back; but Biddy did, +and should by rights have been turned into a pillar of salt. + +"My gracious, but they're beautiful!" she gasped. "For goodness' sake, +let's dash as fast as we can, down into the garden, and do the same +thing!" + +"What?" I floundered. + +"Why, you _duffer_, kiss each other like mad!" + + * * * * * + +Boiling with excitement, when I met Cleopatra later in the ballroom, I +told her what was going on above, in the moonlight, on the roof. + +"At last your niece knows what I think you have guessed all along, but +so wisely kept to yourself," I said. "About Fenton, I mean. It's all +right between those two now. They will come downstairs engaged." + +"Everybody is engaged!" Cleopatra stormily retorted. + +"That's exactly what I remarked to Brigit, before I could persuade her +to follow the general example. 'Everybody in the world is engaged +except ourselves,' are the words I used." + +"And except me," added Mrs. East. "You forgot me, didn't you?" + +"Never!" I insisted. "You could be engaged to a dozen men any moment, +if you wanted to." + +"I think you're exaggerating a little, Lord Ernest," Cleopatra replied +modestly and unsmilingly. But her countenance brightened faintly. "Of +course there are a few men--there were some in New York--" + +"You don't need to tell me that," I assured her. + +"I feel as if I'd like to tell you something else," she went on, "if +you can spare a few minutes." + +"Will you sit out the next dance?" I asked. "It isn't a Bunny Hug or +Tango, or anything distracting for lookers-on." + +"Aren't you dancing with Brigit?" + +"No such luck--I mean, fortunately not. She has grabbed Slatin Pasha, +and forgotten that I exist. By jove, there come Miss Gilder and Fenton. +What a couple! They're rather gorgeous, waltzing together--what?" + +"Very nice," said Cleopatra, trying with all her over-amuleted heart, +not to be acid. "But oh, Lord Ernest, that _settles_ it! I _must_ be +engaged myself, _before_ Monny brings him to show me, like a cat with a +mouse it's caught. Otherwise I couldn't _stand_ it; and afterward would +be too late." + +Hastily I rushed her out into the garden, where the Shoebill regarded +her with one eye of prehistoric wisdom. If she really were a +reincarnation, I'm sure he knew it: and had probably belonged to her in +Alexandria, when she was Queen. + +"There's a Mr. Talmadge in New York," she went on, wildly. "He said he +would come to me from across the world, at a moment's notice, if I +wired. Only it would be awkward if I announced our engagement to-night, +and then found he'd changed his mind. Besides, he'd be a _last_ resort: +and Sayda Sabri said I ought--" + +"Why not wire _Sir Marcus_?" I ventured. (If his telegram had not come +yesterday, I would as soon have advised Cleopatra to adopt an asp.) + +"Oh! well--I _was_ thinking of it. That's one thing I wanted to ask +your advice about. I believe he does love me." + +"Idolizes is the word." + +"And now and then in the night I've had a feeling, it was almost like +wasting something _Providential_, to refuse a Marcus Antonius. Sayda +Sabri warned me to wait for a man named Antony, whom I should meet in +Egypt. That's why I--but no matter now. The 'Lark' is a dreadful +obstacle, though. How could I live with a lark?" + +"Lady Lark has quite a musical lilt." + +"Do you think so? There's one thing, even if you're the wife of a +marquis or an earl, you can only be called 'Lady' This or That. You +might be _anything_. He's taller than Antoun--I mean, Captain Fenton. +And his eyes are just as nice--in their way. They quite haunt me, since +Philae. But Lord Ernest, he has some horrid, common little tricks! He +scratches his hair when he's worried. If you look up his coat sleeves +you catch glimpses of gray Jaeger, a thing I always felt I could +_never_ marry. And worst of all, when he finishes a meal and goes away +from the table, he walks off _eating!_" + +"I don't suppose," said I, "that your first Marcus Antonius ever went +away from a table at all--on his feet; anyhow, while you were doing him +so well in Egypt. He had to be carried. _I_ call Sir Marcus (and I +stole the Sirdar's epithet for the other Anthony) a Romantic Figure! +His adoration for you is a--a sonnet. There's no 'h' in his name to +bother you. And he fell in love at first sight, like a real sport--I +mean, like the hero of a book. If he has ways you don't approve, you +can cure them; redecorate and remodel him with the latest American +improvements. Why, I believe he'd go so far as to give his Lark a tail +if you asked him to spell it with an 'e'." + +"Well--I suppose you're right about what I'd better do," she sighed. "A +bird in the hand--oh, I'm not making a silly pun about a lark--is worth +two in New York! Please tell _every one_ you see I'm engaged to Sir +Marcus, for he is my bird in the hand: and I'll send off a telegram the +first thing to-morrow morning, for fear he hears the news that he's +engaged to me, prematurely. Where is he--do you know?" + +"By to-morrow he'll be at Meroee Camp," I said: But I did not add: "So +shall we!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GOLDEN PYRAMID + + +There was not much room in our hearts for mountains or gold just then: +yet somehow, before we left the Palace, Anthony and I had told Brigit +and Monny the secret which had been the romance of our lives, until +they came into it to paint dead gold with the living rose of love. + +Victorian women would have been grieved or angry with men who could +leave them at such a time; but these two, instead of reproaching us, +urged us on. Naturally, they wanted to go with us. They said, if there +were danger, they wished to share it. And if there were to be a "find," +they wished to be among the first to see what no eyes had seen for two +thousand years. But when Anthony explained that there wasn't time to +get tents together and make a decent camp for ladies, even if we were +sure not to tumble into trouble, they said no more. This was surprising +in Monny, if not in Brigit. I supposed, however, that she was being on +her best behaviour, as a kind of thank-offering to Providence for its +unexpected gift of legitimate happiness. + +Our secret was to be kept. Only the Sirdar knew--and gave Fenton leave +of absence for a few days. The Set did not suspect the existence of a +mountain at Meroee more important than its neighbours. They did not even +know what had become of Antoun Effendi after he bade them farewell, and +"good luck." From the first, he had given it out that he must leave the +party at Khartum. The object of returning to Meroee was to "meet Sir +Marcus;" and I promised to be back in plenty of time to organize the +return trip to Cairo. My departure, therefore, was all in the day's +work: and the great sensation was Mrs. East's engagement. Even though, +for obvious reasons, Monny's love affair was kept dark, Cleopatra could +not resist parading hers, the minute her wire to Sir Marcus had been +safely sent. I got an invitation for all the members of the Set to a +tennis party in the Palace gardens, at which the Sultan of Dafur and a +bodyguard armed with battle axes would be the chief attraction. Also I +induced the landlord of our hotel to promise special illuminations, +music, and an impromptu dance for the evening. This was to make sure +that none of our friends should find time to see me off at the train. +Anthony was to join me there, in mufti, and might be recognised by +sharp eyes on the lookout for mysteries. Once we got away, that danger +would be past: unless Cleopatra told. But I was certain that she would +not to any one ever again mention the name of Antoun. + +It was a full train that night, but no one in it who knew Antoun. Many +people who had been visiting friends or staying at an hotel for weeks, +were saying good-bye. The narrow corridors of the sleeping-cars had +African spears piled up on the floor against the wall, very long and +inconvenient. Ladies struggled in, with rainbow-coloured baskets almost +too big for their compartments. Seats were littered with snake-skins +like immense, decayed apple parings; fearsome, crescent-shaped knives; +leopard rugs in embryo; and strange headgear in many varieties. Stuffed +crocodiles fell down from racks and got underfoot: men walked about +with elephant tusks under their arms; dragomans solicited a last tip; a +six-foot seven Dinka, black as ink and splendid as a Greek statue, +brought flowers from the Palace for some departing acquaintance of the +Sirdar and his wife. Officers in evening dress dashed up through the +sand, on donkey-back, to see the last of friends, their mess jackets +making vivid spots of colour in the electric light. All the fragrant +blossoms of Khartum seemed to be sending farewell messages of perfume +on the cool evening air. No more fantastic scene at a railway-station +could be imagined. If the world and its doings is but a moving picture +for the gods on Olympus they must enjoy the film of "a train departing +from Khartum." + +Anthony did not join me until just as the train was crawling out of the +station, for we had asked Brigit and Monny not to see us off, and they +had been startlingly acquiescent. We had a two-berthed compartment +together, and talked most of the night, in low voices; of the mountain; +of the legends concerning it, and the papers of the dead Egyptologist +Ferlini, which indirectly had brought Fenton into Monny Gilder's life, +and given Brigit back to me. There was the out-of-doors breakfast +party, too, on the terrace at Shepheard's. Had it not been for this +incident Antoun, the green-turbaned Hadji, would never have been +selected by Miss Gilder, in words she might now like to forget. "I'll +have _that_!" But, had not a distressed artist called on me one morning +in Rome, months ago, with an old notebook to sell, I should not have +come to Egypt for my sick-leave; and none of us would have met. I had +visited the artist's studio to please a friend, and bought a picture to +please him (not myself); therefore he regarded me as a charitable +dilettante, likely to buy anything if properly approached. Bad luck had +come to him; he wanted to try pastures new, and needed money at short +notice: therefore he wished to dispose of a secret which might be the +key to fortune. Why didn't he use the key himself? was the obvious +question; which he answered by saying that a poor man would not be able +to find the lock to fit it. + +The notebook he had to sell had been the property of a distinguished +distant relative, long since dead; the Italian, Ferlini, who about 1834 +ransacked the ruins of Meroee in the kingdom of Candace. Ferlini had +given treasure in gold, scarabs, and jewels to Berlin, all of which he +had discovered in a secret _cache_ in the masonry of a pyramid, in the +so-called "pyramid field" of Meroee. But he had been blamed for +unscientific work, and in some quarters it was not believed that he had +found the hoard at Meroee. This jealousy and injustice had prevented +Ferlini's obtaining a grant for further explorations he wished to make. +He claimed to have proof that in a certain mountain not far from the +Meroee pyramids, and much resembling them in shape, was hidden the tomb +of a Candace who lived two hundred years earlier than the queen of that +name mentioned in the New Testament, mistress of the eunuch baptized by +St. Philip. In the notebook which had come down with other belongings +of Ferlini the Egyptologist, to Ferlini the artist, was a copy of +certain Demotic writing, of a peculiar and little known form. The +original had existed, according to the dead Ferlini's notes, on the +wall of an antechapel in one of the most ruinous pyramids at Meroee, +decorated in a peculiarly barbaric Ethiopian style. The wall-writing +described the making of the mountain tomb, ordered by Candace in fear +that her body might be disturbed, according to a prophecy which +predicted the destruction of the kingdom if the jewels of the dead were +found. + +Ferlini, a student of the Demotic writings which had superseded +hieroglyphics, doubted not that he had translated the revelation +aright, though he admitted supplying many missing words in accordance +with his own deductions. He was in disfavour at the time he tried to +organize an expedition in search of the queen's hoard, and though +legends of the mountain confirmed the writings which Ferlini was the +first to translate, the Italian could induce no one to finance his +scheme. The one person he succeeded in interesting had a relative, +already excavating in Egypt: but eventually addressed on the subject, +this young man replied that the antechapel in question had fallen +completely into ruin. It would be impossible, therefore, to find the +wall-writing, "if indeed it ever existed." + +This verdict had put an end to Ferlini's hopes, and nothing remained of +them save the translated copy of the writing in his notebook (the +missing words inserted) and the legends of the negroes who, generation +after generation since forgotten times, had told the story of the +"Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." Nobody, within the memory of man, had +ever searched for the problematical tomb: and as tales of more or less +the same character are common in Egypt, I did not place much faith in +the enthusiastic jottings of Ferlini. However, my love of the unknown, +the mysterious and romantic, made me feel that the possession of the +notebook was worth the price asked: two thousand lire. When I had +brooded over it myself, I posted it to Fenton at Khartum; and his +opinion had brought me to Egypt. Thinking of the matter in this way, it +seemed that we owed our love stories to the impecunious artist, who had +probably spent his eighty pounds and forgotten me by this time. In a +few hours, or a few days, we might owe him even more. + +Anthony, acquainted with Meroee, its pyramids and pyramidal mountains, +since his first coming to the Sudan, had been able to plan out our +campaign almost at an hour's notice. He knew where to wire for camels +[to take us to our destination, eighteen miles from Kabushia], also for +trained excavators. And he knew one who, if the white men were in +ignorance, could tell us all the most hidden happenings of the desert +for fifty miles around. This was the great character of the +neighbourhood, among the blacks, the Wise Man of the Meroeitic desert, +who claimed to be over a hundred years old, had a tribe of sons and +grandsons, and practically ruled the village of Bakarawiya. For +countless generations his forbears had lived under the shadow of the +ruined pyramids. Family tradition made them the descendants of those +Egyptian warriors who revolted in the time of King Psammetichus, +migrating from Elephantine Island to Ethiopia. There they were well +received by the sovereign, given lands in Upper Nubia, and the title of +Autolomi, or Asmack, meaning "Those who stand on the left side of the +King." Anthony's friend and instructor in the lore of legends rejoiced +in the name of "Asmack," which, he proudly said, had been bestowed on +the eldest son in his family, since time immemorial. + +Asmack the old and wise was to meet us at Kabushia Station, with +camels, one for each, and one for Sir Marcus, in case he had arrived +and wished to ride to the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. + +It was orange-red afternoon when our white train slowed down, to pause +for a moment at Kabushia Station, and the first face we saw was that of +Sir Marcus Antonius--a radiant face whose beaming smile was, I knew, +not so much a welcome for us as a sign that he had received the +telegram from Cleopatra. He hurried along the platform to the steps of +our sleeping car; and Anthony, ready to swing himself down before the +train stopped, pointed out Asmack not far off,--a thin old black man +who must once have been a stately giant, but bent forward now as if +searching the earth for his own grave. He had got to his feet, from a +squatting position in the coal-stained, alluvial clay of this strange +desert, and was gazing toward us, his few rags fluttering in the warm +wind. Beside him stood a mere youth of fifty or so, and two or three +young men, with several sulky camels. + +Sir Marcus began to shake hands almost before we were on the platform; +and so did he engross himself in us and absorb our attention that none +of us quite knew when the train went out. + +"My dear boys!" he addressed us, nearly breaking our finger bones. +"Lord, Fenton, you're even better looking as a true Britisher than a +false Arab! But never mind that now. Borrow, you're a trump. I believe +I owe everything to you. I mean, in the matter of Mrs. East--_Clara_. +It always was my favourite name. Fenton knows? Thanks for the +congratulations. Thanks to you both. You must be my best men. What? +Can't have but one? Well, it must be Borrow, then, I suppose. Oh, about +the mountain? Why, of course you're anxious. Don't think I have not +been busy. I have. Got here by special train. Cost me a lot of money. +But who cares? It's worth it. I want to hurry things up, and get to +Khartum. What your blessed mountain is to you, that is a certain lady +to me." + +"What have you found out?" I managed at last to cut short his +rhapsodies. + +"Why, not much, I'm bound to confess. But I've had only a few hours. +Some one--heaven knows who--came here, it seems, with Arabs he'd +engaged heaven knows where, and pretended to be my agent, empowered by +me to work at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, where it was well +known I'd got the right to excavate. Well, the chap was armed with +credentials, and had a contract signed by me, so the authorities +thought he was all right of course, and let him go on. This was more +than a month ago. He pitched his camp out by the mountain, and nobody +disturbed him. Fact is, from what I hear, I don't believe the +excavating men from the Liverpool School of Archeology or whatever you +call it, thought much of his chances of success. A case of looking for +Captain Kidd's treasure! He and his men were excavating round the +mountain, and he'd engaged some more fellows from the neighbourhood to +make the work go faster. But a few days ago--not yet a week--he +discharged the lot, paid them up and sent them off saying he'd +abandoned hope of finding any entrance to an alleged tomb. The Arabs +departed by train; but the fellows from hereabouts gossiped a bit, it +seemed, and the story was started that they'd been got rid of because +the Boss had hit on something, and wanted to be left to himself. + +"You haven't told us yet the name of the man," Anthony reminded him. + +"By Jove, no more I haven't! I'm so excited about everything. You won't +know it, but Borrow will. Colonel Corkran." + +Anthony gave me a look. "I do know the name," he said. "It's the man of +my dream." + +"The man of your dream? Corkran a _dream_?" + +"A dream which has kept repeating itself until I grew superstitious +about it. A red-faced man with a purplish sort of moustache, I saw +coming between you and us, or looking at me out of a dark recess, +something like a deep doorway. Borrow said when I told him, I was +describing your man, Corkran, whose place he took on your yacht +_Candace_." + +"Well, I'm hanged! If that's not the rummiest go! I only hope he's not +in that recess or deep doorway now, if it leads into your mountain. You +remember, Borrow, my telling you he'd been alone for a while in the +sitting-room I use as an office at the Semiramis Hotel, and had had a +good chance if he wanted to browse among my papers? Well, I didn't +mention this to you at the time, but an unsigned contract with you for +your services, in return for all my rights in the Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid, was lying on the desk. (As for the contract he's been +showing here, it could only have been for the trip; but it showed him +to be my agent right enough.) And there were two confidential letters +on my desk: one from a man I'd written to, an Egyptologist chap, saying +in his opinion there _might_ be a tomb in the mountain; the other, an +answer, not finished, telling him I meant to run the risk, and had +secured the rights. You know how queer I thought it, Corkran should +throw up his job, which was paying him pretty well? But it wasn't my +business, and I was jolly glad to be rid of him as it happened. Well, +here we have the mystery explained." + +"Not quite yet! I wish we had," I said, thinking of the sly old poacher +on our preserves, who had perhaps by this time skimmed the cream off +the secret. It was easy to guess why he had sent away his workers if, +indeed, he had imagined himself on the eve of a discovery. Rights to +dig are given on the understanding that the Egyptian government shall +have half of anything found, worth the taking. Corkran's scheming to be +alone must mean that he intended annexing what treasure he could carry +off, and then getting out of the bad business. Already six days had +passed since the Arabs and Nubians had left him alone in his camp; and +though it was lucky that we had learned what was going on, it might be +too late to profit by the information. Even if we caught Corkran +red-handed, he might have hidden his spoil where none but he, or some +messenger, could ever find it. + +"You'll go out with us to the mountain, Sir Marcus?" I went on. "We'll +be ready to start--" + +But Sir Marcus had suddenly become deaf. He had turned as if to gaze +after the long ago departed train. Instead of answering me, he was +stalking off toward a group of people at the far end of the platform: +three ladies and two men in khaki. For a second I felt an impulse of +indignation. Cheek of him to march away like that, not caring much that +we had been robbed, largely through his carelessness, and by one of his +own men! + +But the indignation turned to surprise, sheer incredulous amazement. I +glanced at Anthony to learn whether he had seen; but he was beckoning +the old wise man of the desert. "Fenton," said I, "it seems we weren't +the only passengers to get off here. There are three people we know, +talking to two we don't." + +Anthony looked. "Great Scott!" said he. And in another instant we were +following Sir Marcus hastily along the platform to greet--or scold (we +weren't sure which it ought to be) the big hatted, green-veiled, +khaki-dressed but easily recognised figures of Brigit O'Brien, Monny +Gilder, and Mrs. East. + +"We couldn't help it," Monny cried in self-defence to Anthony, before +he had time to reach the group. "We knew you wouldn't let us come, so +we came--because we _had_ to be in this with you. Even Biddy wanted to +--and she's so _wise_. As, for Aunt Clara, I believe she'd have started +without us, if we hadn't been wild for the journey. So you _see_ how it +was!" + +We did see. And we couldn't help rejoicing in their pluck, as well as +in the sight of them, though it was all against our common sense. + +"We've ordered our own camels, and a tent, and things to eat and drink, +so we shan't be any bother to you," Monny went on, as Anthony rather +gravely shook hands, his eager brows lifted, his eyes smiling in spite +of himself. "We couldn't have done it, if it hadn't been for Slatin +Pasha. We first went and confided _everything_ to him, because we knew +he loved adventures and would be sure to sympathize. These gentlemen +from the camp are his friends, and they've organized our little +expedition at his request. More than one person can use the telegraph, +you know! And oh, won't it be lovely going with you out into the +desert!" + + * * * * * +It was not yet evening when we set forth; but it was the birth of +another day when we arrived within sight of Corkran's camp. The tents +glimmered pale in the light which comes up out of the desert before +dawn, as light rises from the sea; and so deep was the stillness that +it might have been a ghost camp. There was not even the howling of a +dog; and this silence was more eerie than the silence of sleep in a +lonely place; because of the tale a grandson of Asmack's had brought to +the village. He was one of the Nubian men Corkran had engaged to help +his Arab workmen from the north; and when the whole gang had been +discharged he, suspecting that some secret thing was on foot, hid in +the desert-scrub that he might return by night to spy. He had wished +his brothers to stay with him, but they, fearing the djinns who haunt +the mountain and have power at night, refused, and begged him to come +away lest he be struck by a terrible death. The legend was that Queen +Candace, the queen who ordered the making of the tomb--had been a +witch. When she died, by her magic arts learned from the lost Book of +Thoth, she had turned all those aware of the tomb's existence, into +djinns, to guard the secret dwelling of her soul. Even the great men of +the court who by her wish hid in the mountain her body and jewels and +treasure, became djinns the moment they had closed and concealed the +entrance to the tomb. They could never impart the secret to mortals; +and because of the knowledge which burned within their hearts, and the +anguish of being parted forever from those they loved, the tortured +spirits in prison grew malevolent. While the sun (still worshipped by +them as Ra) was above the horizon they had no power over men, but the +moment that Ra? "died his red death" the djinns could destroy those who +ventured within such distance of the mountain as its shadow might +reach: and if any man ventured nearer in the darkness of night, he +heard the wailing of the spirits. Camp had been pitched beyond the +shadow's furthest reach; but the night after the workmen were +discharged, Asmack's one brave grandson had been led by curiosity to +approach the haunted mountain. When he had crept within the trench most +lately dug, he had heard the wicked voice of the djinns raging and +quarrelling together. There had been a threatening cry when they knew +how a man had defied their power, and the Nubian had escaped a fate too +horrible to put in words, only by running, running, until his breath +gave out, and the sun rose. + +This story gave the silent desert power even over European minds, as we +came where the small camp glimmered, just outside the Shadow's wicked +circle. + +Not one of Asmack's men would go with us to the tent, which was +evidently that of the leader. He might be lying there dead, struck by +the djinns, they said, and all those who looked upon the body would be +accursed. The three women would not have gone to Corkran's tent, even +had we allowed them to do so; and Sir Marcus, already a slave, though a +willing one, stayed with his adored lady and her friends, inside the +ring which the Nubians proceeded to make with the camels. Carrying a +lighted lantern Anthony and I walked alone to the tent. + +The flap was down, but not fastened, and the canvas moved slightly as +if trembling fingers tried to hold it taut. + +"Colonel Corkran!" I called out, sharply. But there was no answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE SECRET + + +Anthony lifted the flap, holding up the lantern, and we both looked in. + +No one was there--but the tent had the look of recent occupation. It +was neatly arranged, as the tent of an old soldier should be: but on +the table stood a half-used candle stuck in a bottle; and beside it a +book lay open, face downward. Entering the tent the first thing I did +was to glance at the title of this book. It was a learned archeological +treatise. Here and there a paragraph was marked, and leaves +dog's-eared. Three other volumes of the same sort were piled one upon the +other. Anthony and I had read all four during the last few months, +since our minds had concentrated on the subject of pyramids and rock +tombs. + +"What do you think has become of Corkran?" I said to Anthony. + +"I think the djinns have got him," he answered, gravely. + +"You mean--" + +"I don't quite know what I mean. But--he must have hit upon something, +and then--have been prevented from coming back." + +"Why should he have had such luck, after a few weeks' work, an +unscientific fellow like him, if the secret of the mountain has been +inviolate for over two thousand years?" + +"Wait and see what's happened to him before you call it 'luck,' Duffer. +But you must remember that nobody except Ferlini and a few +superstitious blacks ever believed that the mountain had a secret. +Incredulity has protected it. And Corkran had to work like a thousand +devils if he hoped to get hold of anything before he was found out. I +believe he has got hold of something, and--that it then got hold of +him. But we shall see." + +"Yes, we shall see," I repeated. "And before long if we too have luck." + +"I hope it won't be the same kind as his. But come along out of this. +We must get to work before sunrise, and try for a result of some sort +before the worst of the heat. If _he's_ found anything, we ought pretty +quickly to profit by his weeks of frantic labour. That, maybe, will be +our revenge." + +We had to tell the party what we had found in the tent, and what we +meant to do next. Sir Marcus was now excused by Mrs. East; but until +summoned by us the ladies were to remain where they were, under shelter +of the tent which the camel-boys were getting into shape. When exhorted +to be patient, they received the advice in sweet silence; but we did +not until later attach much importance to this unusual mood. Perhaps at +the moment we were too preoccupied to notice expressions, even in the +eyes we loved best. + +We took with us two men whom Asmack had provided as diggers, and in +five minutes we were at the base of the little dark, conical mountain +which for weeks had been the object of our dreams. Now, standing face +to face with it, the glamour faded. The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid +was exactly like a dozen other tumbled shapes of black rock, grouped or +scattered over the dull clay desert which many centuries ago had been +the fertile realm of Candace. Why should a queen have selected it from +among its lumpish fellows, to do it secret honour? But Corkran had had +faith. Here were traces of what Fenton called his "frantic labours." + +A parallel trench had been dug with the evident object of unearthing a +buried entrance into the mountain. Down it went through hardened sand +and clay, to a depth of eight or ten feet; and descending, we found as +we expected to do, several low tunnels driven at right angles toward +the mountain itself. One after another we entered, crawling on hands +and knees, only to come up against a solid wall of rock at the end. +Each of these burrows represented just so much toil and disappointment. +But Corkran, whose undertaking could be justified even to his own mind +only by success, had not been discouraged. The trench went round three +sides of the mountain, as we soon discovered; and the corner of the +fourth facade not having yet been turned, it seemed a sign that Corkran +had, as Anthony said, "hit upon something," or thought that he had done +so. Otherwise he would not have discharged his men before the fourth +gallery was begun. We had started from the south because our camp faced +the long trench on that side, and it was quicker to jump into it than +to walk round and examine the excavations from ground-level. On the +east, the plan of the work was the same as on the south, except that +the tunnels leading mountainward were driven at different distances, +relatively to each other; and each of these also ended in a _cul de +sac_. Now remained the trench on the north side of the mountain, which +was the most promising direction for a "find": and as we turned the +corner which brought us into this third trench the sun rose, making the +sky blossom like the primrose fields of heaven. + +On this side, sand driven by the northerly wind which never rests had +banked itself high against the mountain, and the excavation had been a +more serious task. There were only two tunnels, and into both sand had +fallen. One was nearly blocked up, and impossible to enter without +reopening; but we took it for granted hopefully that the second had +been made later. This ran toward the mountain with a northeasterly +slant; and though it was partly choked by sand, it was possible to +crawl in. Anthony insisted on going first. I followed, at the pace of +my early ancestor the worm, and Sir Marcus comfortably waited outside. +He wanted to be a pioneer only in financial paths; and after all, this +was _our_ mountain now. It wasn't worth his while to be killed in it. +Besides, as he pointed out, if anything happened to us there must be +some one to organize a rescue, and break the news to the ladies. + +Anthony had a small electric torch, and I a lantern, but going on hands +and knees, we could use the lights only now and then. When we had crept +ahead (descending always) for twelve or fifteen feet, Anthony stopped. +"Hullo!" I heard him call, in a muffled, reverberating voice. "Here's +the reason why Corkran sent his Arabs away!" + +"What is it?" I yelled, my heart jumping. + +"The rock's been cut back, by the hands of men." + +"His men, perhaps." + +"No, it isn't done like that nowadays. The tunnel turns here, dips +down, and goes on along this flat wall. I bet Corkran always kept ahead +of the men. When he saw this, he discharged his workers--And yet, it +may be nothing of importance after all. Only a flat surface for some +old wall-inscription such as Romans and even Egyptian soldiers made +constantly, on the march." + +The rumbling voice ceased, as Anthony crawled round the turn of the +passage. I followed, literally close on his heels, the burrow +descending like a rabbit-hole. Suddenly Anthony stopped again. "I've +come into a sort of chamber Corkran's scooped out," I heard him say. +"It's high enough to sit up in--no, to stand up in. This is the end of +the passage, I think. By Jove, look out!" He had disappeared in the +darkness behind a higher arch in the roof of the gallery. As he cried +out, I slipped through after him, slid down a steep, abrupt slope, and +by the light of my agitated lantern saw Anthony standing waist-deep in +a well-like hole, into which he had evidently stumbled. + +"Let me give you a hand up," I said. + +"No thank you," he answered, in a tense, excited voice. "This is where +I want to be. Look!" + +I looked and saw, at the bottom of the scooped-out hole, a crevice in +the flat wall of rock which we had been following down the passage, +after its turn from the right angle way to creep along the +mountainside. Out of this crevice protruded a large iron crowbar, +apparently jammed into place, the first tool we had seen anywhere. + +The chamber in which I stood, was littered and piled up with hard +masses of earth which had been thrown out of the hole; and on the rough +floor of the latter I stepped on the spade which had done the work. It +nearly turned my ankle as I jumped on to it, but I hardly felt the +pain. Torch and lantern showed clearly that the crevice in the wall was +not a natural crack, but a man-made opening. It was as if a slab of +rock fitted roughly into grooves had first been lifted, and had then +fallen heavily on to the crowbar. + +I set the lantern on the earthy floor and its yellow light streamed +through the crack, whence the crowbar protruded like a black pipe in a +negro's mouth. It was all darkness on the other side; from behind the +screen of rock, set in its deep grooves, came the strangest sound I +ever heard, or shall ever hear. It was a voice, groaning, yet it was +not like a human voice. The horrid idea jumped into my head that it was +the howl of an evil spirit sitting in a dead man's skull. + +"He's alive then," exclaimed Anthony, pale in the sickly light. "Is +that you, Corkran?" he called. The only answer was another groan. + +"I see the whole business now, don't you?" Fenton said. "This passage +is very steep. Already it was far under ground-level, before we got to +the cutting on the mountain wall, and it must have been under ground-level +for many centuries. They dug deep down, to make the tomb, and +then covered up the entrance with earth. When Corkran got to his +portcullis, he thought he'd reached the reward of his labours. Well--so +he had--the punishment. Here's the heap of stone he used as a fulcrum +for his lever. The heap tumbled when he was on the other side, and the +slab of rock came down to trap him. We'll have to build up his fulcrum +again, before we can do anything ourselves." + +Together we forced the flat end of the crowbar into the crevice, +pressed a piece of rock under it, and exerted all our strength. The +slab moved upward an inch or two, grating in its rough grooves. The +crack, no higher than the diameter of the crowbar plus a stone or two, +when we saw it first, was now twice its original height. In went +another stone, and so on. We worked like demons in hell, and in an +atmosphere almost as hot and breathless. Yet we could breathe. Whether +all the air we got came through the long twisting passage Corkran had +made, or whether there were ventilation from the other side of the +rock-curtain--some opening in an unseen cave--we could not tell. All we +knew was that the mountain had a secret, and that the man who had tried +to rob us of our rights to it, was caught in the trap of the djinns. + +Our "rights!" How fragile as spider-webs, how almost laughable they +seemed down here! Rights we had bargained for with men, which they, not +owning them, had gravely given! I suddenly realized, and I think +Anthony realized, as sweating and silent we piled up the fulcrum of +stones thrown down by the djinns, that they alone, or the sleeping +queen they guarded, had "rights" in this hidden place. + +When we had raised the slab to a height of about two feet in its +grooves, and had made sure that the stones held it firmly in place, we +told each other that it was time to cross the threshold. The rock-door +was scarcely more than a yard in width, and we crawled through in +single file, Anthony going ahead as before, with his torch. I passed my +lantern in after him, and then followed. As I crept through the narrow +aperture I was conscious, among other emotions, of vague +disappointment. "If this is the way to a tomb, and the only way, there +can't be anything very fine to discover," I said to myself. "Why, the +entrance isn't big enough to let in a decent-sized sarcophagus." + +"It's the man of my dreams all right, and he's lying close to a deep-set +doorway, like the one where I've seen him often. I told you so!" +Anthony was saying in quite a commonplace voice, as I picked myself up, +on the other side of the rock-screen. + +We were in a small chamber more roughly hewn, and not so large as the +inner sanctuary of Abu Simbel, which I had such good cause to remember. +Exactly opposite the entrance by which we had come in was--as Anthony +had said--a door, deeply set in the rock--a door of the same type as +that through which we had passed; and in the shadow of the overhanging +arch lay the heavy figure of Colonel Corkran, dressed in khaki. + +His eyes were open, but he did not stir as we bent over him. Only his +lips moved slightly, as if he were making a grimace. + +"He's trying to ask for something to eat or drink," said Fenton. "What +a confounded fool I am!--I've nothing, not even a flask. Have you?" + +"No. I'll go back at once and get something," I answered. Strange, but +I was not in the least angry with Corkran, whom I had been execrating. +Perhaps this was partly because the impression that the djinns had sole +rights here was growing stronger every moment. We were all interlopers, +usurpers. + +Without stopping for more words, I turned my back to the secret still +unsolved. To my surprise, however, I saw a light stronger than our own +shining outside the partly raised screen of rock. Getting on my knees +to crawl out, my face almost met the face of Monny Gilder, about to +crawl in. Involuntarily I gave way, and in she crept like a big baby, +Biddy coming after. Then we laughed, though I had seldom felt less like +laughing. And the echo of our laughter was as if the spirits laughed, +behind our backs. + +"We never _promised_ we wouldn't come," Monny hastily began, before +Anthony could speak. "We just kept still. And Sir Marcus thought you +wouldn't much mind, because the two nicest Nubians brought us quite +safely. Oh, isn't it wonderful? And to be here when you open that door! +But--why, it _isn't_ one of our men with you. It's--it's the _thief_!" + +"Don't call him names now, dearest," Brigit begged. "Poor wretch! He +looks nearly dead. What a good thing we brought the biscuits and +brandy." + +"I was going for some," I said. Not only had I got to my feet again, +but had helped Biddy to hers, and Anthony had snatched his tall Monny +up, as if she had been a bundle of thistle-down. The Angels! It would +never have done to tell them how glad we were that they had disobeyed +us. It was Providence, apparently, not Marcus Lark, who had sent them +to the rescue. + +"We thought perhaps if you found anything interesting you'd want to +stay with it a long time," explained Monny. "That's why we brought you +food and drink. It is a good thing we came, isn't it?" + +Fenton and I did not answer. Instead, we occupied ourselves with +ministering to the enemy: a few bits of crumbled biscuit, a few drops +of brandy to moisten them. He mumbled and swallowed and choked; and +slowly the veinous red came back to the flabby gray cheeks, with their +prickles of sprouting beard. + +"It's fresh air he needs now," said Anthony. "He won't die from two or +three days' fasting, not he! And it can't be more, for it would have +taken him days and nights of hard work to get here, after his men were +sent off. Jove, I believe it's more funk than anything else, that's +laid him low. Thought he was done for, and all that. Look, there's his +candle-lantern upset on the floor. It couldn't have been very gay for +him when the light went out. Lend a hand, Duffer, and we'll give him to +the Nubians the girls have brought. They'll carry him to his own tent. +He never got as far in as the second door here, so we needn't search +him. Otherwise I would, like a shot." + +Yes, it was Something higher than a mere financier who sent the girls +to us in the antechamber of the secret. We could not, for their own +sakes, have risked bringing them. But here they were, and we should +always have this memory together, we told ourselves, though we did not +tell the disobedient ones. That would have been a bad precedent. What +there was to see, they would see with us. And even the djinns could not +work harm to Angels. + +We went out and collected more stones with which to prop up the second +screen of rock, which was not so thick as the first, and used Corkran's +spade to hold it up at last. Beyond, was another roughly hewn chamber, +and at the far end, set in a curiously fitted frame of wood, a wooden +door, looking almost as new as though it had been made yesterday. +Anthony flashed his electric torch over it, and we saw the grain of +deal. There was a bronze lock, and a latch of strange, crude +workmanship which Monny touched deprecatingly. "May I?" she half +whispered. For to her also the place was haunted. She seemed to ask +permission of spirits rather than of her lover. But the latch did not +move. + +"It would be sacrilege to break the lock," she said. "What shall you +do?" + +"Take the door off its supports: they're not hinges," Fenton answered, +in the queer low tone which somehow we all instinctively adopted. +"We've got one or two implements may help to do the trick." + +He worked cautiously, even tenderly: for this queen's secret was our +secret in the finding, even if the right to it was in the keeping of +the djinns. Monny held my lantern, and it was a good half hour before +Anthony and I together could carefully lift the deal door, unbroken, +from its place. + +Still Monny held the lantern, and at the threshold of a dimly seen room +beyond, we all drew back: for on the sanded floor were footprints. To +them the girl pointed, her eyes turning to Anthony's face, as if to +ask; "How can it be that any one came in, when the door was locked, and +there was that screen of rock to raise?" + +But as we looked, over one another's shoulders, we realised that the +prints were not made by modern boots. They were the marks of sandals; +and they went across the floor to a thing that glittered in the middle +of the room--a vague shape like a draped coffin, with something high +and pointed on top: crossed to a glittering table on which a ray from +the lantern revealed offerings to the dead: a loaf; a roasted duck, its +wings neatly tied with string: cakes and fruit, all dried and +blackened, but perfect in form: and a saucer of incense, from which a +little ash had fallen from a ghostly pastille onto the table. There the +sandalled feet had paused, while the incense caught a spark, and moving +on, had walked straight to the door. + +A faint fragrance from perfume jars came to our nostrils: a strange, +subtle fragrance still, though most of its sweetness had gone, leaving +more marked the smell of fat which had held the perfume all these +years, while civilizations grew up and perished. The man who had lit +the incense and locked the door seemed to have hurried back from--who +knew where?--to stand behind us, saying "I forbid you entrance, in the +name of the ancient gods!" We could not see him, nor hear his voice; +but we could feel that he was there, and something in us revolted +against the ruthlessness of disobeying, of forcing our way into the +room in spite of him, to crush his footprints with ours. + +"Why does the sand glitter so?" Monny asked. "Everything glitters! +Everything looks as if it were made of gold." + +"The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid," Biddy murmured. + +"Go in first, you two, and bless the place," I said, my heart wildly +beating. + +They obeyed for once, moving delicately as if to music which ears of +men were not fine enough to hear. They went hand in hand: and as Monny +in her straight, pale-tinted dress, held up the lantern, I thought of +the Wise Virgin. When this room had last been lighted, the parable of +the Virgins of the Lamps was yet unspoken. + +"It is not sand," said Monny, gasping a little in the heavy air. "It is +sprinkled gold dust. Now it is on the soles of our feet. It shines--it +shines!" + +Anthony and I followed, still with that curious sense of hesitation, as +if we ought to apologize to some one. The room of the dead was very +close, and we drew our breath with difficulty for a moment. But the +discomfort passed. Mechanically we avoided the footmarks printed in +gold--avoided them as if they had been covered by invisible feet. + +Monny was right. Everything was gold--and it shone--it shone. Dust from +the terrible mines of Nub, whence the convict-miners never returned, +lay thickly scattered over the rock-floor. The walls of rock were +plastered with gold leaf, as high as the low ceiling: and upon the +ceiling itself, on a background of deep blue colour, was traced in gold +the form of Nut, goddess of Night, her long arms outspread across an +azure sky of golden stars. + +The table of offerings was decorated with gold in barbaric patterns, +and the saucer which held the burnt pastille of incense was of gold, +crudely designed, but beautiful. Cloth of gold, soft as old linen, +draped a coffin in the centre of the room, and hid the conical object +on the coffin's lid. On a sudden half savage impulse I lifted the +covering, with a pang of fear lest the fabric should drop to pieces. +But it did not. Its limp, yet heavy folds fell across my feet, as I +stood looking at the wonderful thing it had concealed. + +There was no sarcophagus of stone. The doors leading to the rock-tomb +were not large enough to have admitted one. Instead, there was an +extraordinarily high, narrow coffin or mummy-case, richly gilded, and +decorated with intricate designs different from any I had seen in the +museum at Cairo. The top of the case represented the figure of a woman, +with a smiling golden face, painted lips and hair. But the strangeness +and wonder were under the long eyelids, and in the woman's hands. The +slanting eyes had each an immense cabuchon emerald for its iris, set +round with brilliant stones like diamonds, curiously cut. And the +carved, gilded hands of wood, with realistic fingers wearing rings, +were clasped round a pyramid of gold. This it was which had betrayed +its conical shape through the drapery of gold cloth. + +The opening in the miniature pyramid was not concealed. There was a +little door, guarded by a tiny golden sphinx; and on the neck of the +sphinx, suspended by a delicate chain, was a bell. + +"It is to call the spirit of the queen, if a profane touch should +violate her tomb," Fenton said, dreamily. He was beginning to look like +a man hypnotized. Perhaps it was the close air, with its lingering +perfume of two thousand years ago. Perhaps it was something else, more +subtile; something else that we could all feel, as one feels the touch +of a living hand that moves under a cloak. + +No one spoke for an instant. I think we half expected the bell to ring. +Then Fenton said: "Monny, you and Mrs. O'Brien must choose which is to +have the privilege of finding out the secret of the golden pyramid. The +Duffer and I want it to be one of you." + +"Oh no, not I!" cried Monny, almost angrily. + +"Nor I," Biddy firmly echoed. + +"Duffer, the papers were yours. Will you--" Anthony began. + +"No--I--It was _your_ faith in the mountain that brought us to it," I +reminded him. "It ought to be you--" + +"If--if it ought to be _any one of us_," Monny broke in, with a little +breathless catch in her voice. + +"If--But what do you mean?" Anthony turned an odd, startled look upon +the girl. + +"I--hardly know what I mean. Only--I couldn't touch anything here. They +are--_hers_. They've been hers for two thousand and two hundred years. +I never thought I should feel like this. I'd rather drop dead, this +minute, than try to take that little pyramid out of those golden hands. +They've clasped it so long! She wanted so much to keep the secret. +Anthony--this is the strongest feeling that ever came into my heart +--except love for you, this feeling that--we have no right--that it would +be monstrous to rob--this queen." + +"It wouldn't be robbing," Anthony said, heavily, "we have the right--" + +"Oh, I _wonder_?" Biddy whispered. + +"What would become of museums if everybody felt as you suddenly feel +--or think you feel?" Fenton went on. "If it were wrong to open tombs, +the best men in Egypt--" + +"Not wrong, perhaps," Monny explained, "but--oh, I'm sure you +understand. I'm sure in your hearts you both--you men--feel just as we +do now we're in this wonderful secret place. That something forbids--I +don't know whether it's something in ourselves or outside, but it's +_here_. It says "No; whatever others do, _you_ cannot do this thing." +If you didn't feel it, you would have taken the pyramid out of those +poor hands, and tried to tear off the rings, and open the coffin +itself, to get at the mummy. But you haven't--either of you. You don't +want to do it. You can't! I dare one of you to tell me it's only for +Biddy and me that you've kept your hands off." + +"We've come a long way, and have done a good deal to find this secret +that we expected Egypt to give us," I said, dully, instead of answering +her challenge. + +Monny had no argument for me. She turned to Anthony. + +"The secret you expected Egypt to give!" she echoed. "And hasn't Egypt +given you a secret?" + +"Yes," said Anthony, "Egypt has given us a secret: the greatest secret +of all. But--" + +"Is there a 'but'? I wonder if that isn't the only secret which one +_can_ open and learn by heart, without breaking the charm?" Biddy +seemed to be speaking to herself, but we heard. "The secret of love +goes on forever being a secret, doesn't it, the more you find out about +it, just as the world and its beauty grows greater and more wonderful +the higher you climb up a mountain? But other secrets!--You find them +out, and they're gone, like a bright soap bubble. Nothing can mend +broken romance!" + +"If we didn't touch anything here, what a memory this would be to carry +away!" Monny said. "Don't you remember, Anthony, my saying once how I +loved to dream of all the beautiful lost things, hidden beneath the sea +and earth, never to be found while the world lasts, and stuck miserably +under glass cases? You said you felt the same, in some moods. I love +those moods!" + +"I felt--I feel--so about things in general," Anthony admitted. "It was +my romantic side you appealed to--" + +"Have you a better side?" + +"No better, but more practical. _This_ isn't 'things in general.' It's +a thing particular, personal, and definite. If we should be quixotic +enough not to take what we've earned the right to take, we should be +called fools. Instead of claiming our half, the Egyptian government +would get all--" + +"Let it!" Monny cried. "A government is a big, cold, soulless +--impersonality! It never could know the thrill that's in our blood this +wonderful minute--or miss the thrill if it were destroyed. Do you mind +being called a fool, Anthony--and you, Lord Ernest?" + +Anthony was silent; but something made me speak. "I don't mind. You +know, I've always been a Duffer." + +"Our future largely depends on this," Fenton persisted, with a +conscientious wish to persuade us--and himself. + +"I believe it does!" Monny strangely agreed with him. + +"What do you mean?" Anthony's voice was suddenly sharp with some +emotion; which sounded more like anxiety than anger. "Do you mean, that +if Ernest Borrow and I insist on our rights to whatever treasure is +hidden here, you and Mrs. O'Brien will think less of us?" + +"Not less. Nothing you could do would make us think less, after all +that has happened to us, together. But--could it ever be as it has +been--as beautiful, as sweet, with all the dearest kind of romance in +our thoughts of you? You see, you _have_ the glory of finding the +secret. Queen Candace saved it for you. She wouldn't give it to such a +man as Colonel Corkran. She knew he wouldn't respect her. Maybe she +hoped _you_ would. I seem to hear her saying so. All this gold, and the +treasure we haven't seen, is hers. It's been hers for more than two +thousand years. Why should we steal it? _We_ aren't a horrid, cold +Government. It won't be our fault, whatever a Government may choose to +do. She'll know that, and so shall we. Besides, we can beg to have the +tomb kept like this for the great shrine of Meroee. Our memory of this +place can't have the glamour torn away whatever happens. Nothing sordid +will come between it and us, as it would if--why, after all, where's +the great difference between opening the coffin of a woman dead +thousands of years ago, or a few months? Supposing people wanted to dig +up Queen Elizabeth, to see what had been buried with her? Or Napoleon? +What an outcry there'd be all over the world. This poor queen is +defenceless, because her civilization is dead, too. Could _you_ force +open the lid of her coffin, Lord Ernest, and take the jewels off her +neck?" + +"Just now, I feel as if I couldn't," I confessed humbly. + +"And you, Anthony? What if _I_ died, and asked to have the jewels I +loved because you'd given them, put on my body to lie there till +eternity, and--" + +"Don't," Anthony cut her short. "There are some things I can't listen +to from you." + +"And some things you can't _do_. You may think you could, but--Go and +take the golden pyramid out of those golden hands if you can!" + +"I shall not take it," said Anthony, "I shall never take it now. You +must know that." + +"I'm not saying I shan't go on loving you if you go against me. I shall +love you always. I can't help that. But--" + +"That's it: the 'but'. Let it all go! At least, we've had the +adventure. And we've got Love. I don't want the treasure, now. Or the +secret. I give up my part in them forever." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, for you. But there's something more." + +"Another reason?" + +"I think so. Frankly, it isn't all for you. Only, you've made me feel +it. Without you, I might have felt it--but too late. If there's a drop +of Egyptian blood in my veins--why, yes, it must be that, telling me +the same thing that you have told. This Egyptian queen may lose her +treasure, and must lose her secret; but it won't be through me." + +"And because you wouldn't steal them, she has given you the secret and +the treasure, the best of both, with her royal blessing," Biddy said. +"_This_ is what Ferlini's papers, and the legends, really meant for you +and Ernest. Everything that's happened, not only in Egypt, but in our +whole lives, has been leading up to the discovery of the Treasure and +the Secret that we can take without stealing. Do you know what I'm +talking about? And if you do, was it worth coming so far to find--this +treasure that I mean, and this secret?" + +"We know very well," Anthony said, "and _you_ know that we realize it +was worth journeying to the end of the world for--or into the next." + +"Or into the next!" Monny echoed. "Here we're on the threshold of the +next. That's why the Queen's blessing feels so near." + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of It Happened in Egypt +by C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + +This file should be named 7hpeg10.txt or 7hpeg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7hpeg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7hpeg10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: It Happened in Egypt + +Author: C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9799] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +IT HAPPENED + +IN + +EGYPT + +by + +C.N. & A.M. Williamson + + + +_Authors of_ + + +"The Port of Adventure" + +"The Heathen Moon", Etc. + + + +1914 + + + + +TO + +D.D. AND F.C.J. + +WHO WERE THERE WHEN + +IT HAPPENED + + + +[Illustration: "A man with a green turban?" I repeated. "Well, I'll +take him."] + + + + +WE DEDICATE THIS STORY OF ADVENTURES GRAVE AND GAY IN EGYPT + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + + I. The Secret and the Girl + + II. Cleopatra and the Ship's Mystery + + III. A Disappointment and a Dragoman + + IV. A Man in a Green Turban + + V. The Café of Abdullahi + + VI. The Great Sir Marcus + + VII. The Revelations of a Retired Colonel + + VIII. Foxy Duffing + + IX. What Happened When My Back Was Turned + + X. The Secret Monny Kept + + XI. The House of the Crocodile + + XII. The Night of the Full Moon + + XIII. An Underground Proposal + + XIV. The Desert Diary Begun + + XV. The Desert Diary to Its Bitter End + + XVI. An Oiled Hand + + XVII. The Ship's Mystery Again + +XVIII. The Asiut Affair + + XIX. "If at First You Don't Succeed" + + XX. The Zone of Fire + + XXI. The Opening Door + + XXII. The Driver of an Arabeah + +XXIII. Bengal Fire + + XXIV. Playing Heavy Father to Rachel + + XXV. Marooned + + XXVI. What We Said: What We Heard + +XXVII. The Inner Sanctuary + +XXVIII. Worth Paying For + + XXIX. Exit Antoun + + XXX. The Sirdar's Ball + + XXXI. The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid + +XXXII. The Secret + + + + + +IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SECRET AND THE GIRL + + +The exciting part began in Cairo; but perhaps I ought to go back to +what happened on the _Laconia_, between Naples and Alexandria. Luckily +no one can expect a man who actually rejoices in his nickname of +"Duffer" to know how or where a true story should begin. + +The huge ship was passing swiftly out of the Bay of Naples, and already +we were in the strait between Capri and the mainland. I had come on +deck from the smoking-room for a last look at poor Vesuvius, who lost +her lovely head in the last eruption. I paced up and down, acutely +conscious of my great secret, the secret inspiring my voyage to Egypt. +For months it had been the hidden romance of life; now it began to seem +real. This is not the moment to tell how I got the papers that revealed +the secret, before I passed them on to Anthony Fenton at Khartum, for +him to say whether or not the notes were of real importance. But the +papers had been left in Rome by Ferlini, the Italian Egyptologist, +seventy years ago, when he gave to the museum at Berlin the treasures +he had unearthed. It was Ferlini who ransacked the pyramids all about +Meroë, that so-called island in the desert, where in its days of +splendour reigned the queens Candace. Fenton, stationed at Khartum, an +eager dabbler in the old lore of Egypt, sent me an enthusiastic +telegram the moment he read the documents. They confirmed legends of +the Sudan in which he had been interested. Putting two and two +together--the legends and Ferlini's notes--Anthony was convinced that +we had the clue to fortune. At once he applied for permission to +excavate under the little outlying mountain named by the desert folk +"the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." At first the spot was thought to +fall within the province given up to Garstang, digging for Liverpool +University. Later, however, the _Service des Antiquités_ pronounced the +place to be outside Garstang's borders, and it seemed that luck was +coming our way. No one but we two--Fenton and I--had any inkling of +what might lie hidden in the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. That was +the great secret! Then Fenton had gone to the Balkans, on a flying trip +in every sense of the word. It was only a fortnight ago--I being then +in Rome--that I had had a wire from him in Salonica saying, "Friends at +work to promote our scheme. Meet me on my return to Egypt." After that, +several telegrams had been exchanged; and here I was on the _Laconia_ +bound for the land of my birth, full of hope and dreams. + +For some moments distant Vesuvius had beguiled my thoughts from the +still more distant mountain of the secret, when suddenly a white girl +in a white hood and a long white cloak passed me on the white deck: +whereupon I forgot mountains of reality and dreams. She was one of +those tall, slim, long-limbed, dryad-sort of girls they are running up +nowadays in England and America with much success; and besides all +that, she was an amazing symphony in white and gold against an azure +Italian sea and sky, the two last being breezily jumbled together at +the moment for us on shipboard. She walked well in spite of the blue +turmoil; and if a fair girl with golden-brown hair gets herself up in +satiny white fur from head to foot she is evidently meant to be looked +at. Others were looking: also they were whispering after she went by: +and her serene air of being alone in a world made entirely for her +caused me to wonder if she were not Some One in Particular. + +Just then a sweet, soft voice said, close to my ear: + +"Why, Duffer, dear, it can't possibly be you!" + +I gave a jump, for I hadn't heard that voice for many a year, and +between the ages of four and fourteen I had been in love with it. + +"Brigit O'Brien!" said I. Then I grabbed her two hands and shook them +as if her arms had been branches of a young cherry tree, dropping +fruit. + +"Why not Biddy?" she asked. "Or are ye wanting me to call ye Lord +Ernest?" + +"Good heavens, no! Once a Duffer, always a Duffer," I assured her. "And +I've been thinking of you as Biddy from then till now. Only--" + +"'Twas as clever a thing as a boy ever did," she broke in, with one of +her smiles that no man ever forgets, "to begin duffing at an early age, +in order to escape all the professions and businesses your pastors and +masters proposed, and go your own way. Are ye at it still?" + +"Rather! But you? I want to talk to you." + +"Then don't do it in a loud voice, if you please, because, as you must +have realized, if you've taken time to think, I'm Mrs. Jones at +present." + +"Why Jones?" + +"Because Smith is engaged beforehand by too many people. Honestly, +without joking, I'm in danger here and everywhere, and it's a wicked, +selfish thing for me to come the way I have; but Rosamond Gilder is the +hardest girl to resist you ever saw, so I'm with her; and it's a long +history." + +"Rosamond Gilder? What--the Cannon Princess, the Bertha Krupp of +America?" + +"Yes, the 'Gilded Babe' that used to be wheeled about in a caged +perambulator guarded by detectives: the 'Gilded Bud' whose coming out +in society was called the Million Dollar Début: now she's just had her +twenty-first birthday, and the Sunday Supplements have promoted her to +be the Golden Girl, alternating with the Gilded Rose, although she's +the simplest creature, really, with a tremendous sense of the +responsibility of her riches. Poor child! There she is, walking toward +us now, with those two young men. Of course, young men! Droves of young +men! She can't get away from them any more than she can from her money. +No, she's stopped to talk to Cleopatra." + +"That tall, white girl Rosamond Gilder! Just before you came, I was +wondering who she was; and when you smiled at each other across the +deck it sprang into my mind that--that--" + +"That what?" + +"Oh, it seems stupid now." + +"Give me a chance to judge, dear Duffer." + +"Well, seeing you, and knowing--that is, it occurred to me you might be +travelling with--the daughter of--your late--" + +"Good heavens, don't say any more! I've been frightened to death +somebody would get that brilliant notion in his head, especially as +Monny and her aunt came on board the _Laconia_ only at Monaco. Esmé +O'Brien is in a convent school not thirty miles from there. But that's +the _deepest_ secret. Poor Peter Gilder's fears for his millionaire +girl would be child's play to what might happen, before such a mistake +was found out if once it was made. That's just one of the hundred +reasons why it would be as safe for Monny Gilder to travel with a bomb +in her dressing-bag as to have me in her train of dependants. She +telegraphed to New York for me, because of a stupid thing I said in a +letter, about being lonely: though she pretends it would be too dull +journeying to such a romantic country alone with a mere aunt. And she +thinks I 'attract adventures.' It's only too true. But I couldn't +resist her. Nobody can. Why, the first time I ever saw Monny she'd cast +herself down in a mud-puddle, and was screaming and kicking because she +wanted to walk while one adoring father, one sycophantic governess and +two trained nurses wanted her to get into an automobile. That was on my +honeymoon--heaven save the mark--! and Monny was nine. She has other +ways now of getting what she wants, but they're even more effective. I +laughed at her that first time, and she was so surprised at my +impudence she took a violent fancy to me. But I don't always laugh at +her now. Oh, she's a perfect terror, I assure you--and a still more +perfect darling! Such an angel of charity to the poor, such a demon of +obstinacy with the rich! I worship her. So does Cleopatra. So does +everybody who doesn't hate her. So will you the minute you've been +introduced. And by the way, why not? Why shouldn't I make myself useful +for once by arranging a match between Rosamond Gilder, the prettiest +heiress in America, and Lord Ernest Borrow, of the oldest family in +Ireland?" + +"And the poorest." + +"All the more reason why. Don't you _see?_" + +"She mightn't." + +"Well, what's the good of her having all that money if she doesn't get +hold of a really grand title to hang it on? I shall tell her that +Borrow comes down from Boru, Brian Boru the rightful King of Ireland: +and when your brother dies you'll be Marquis of Killeena." + +"He'll not die for thirty or forty years, let's hope." + +"Why hope it, when he likes nobody and nobody likes him, and everybody +likes you? He can't be happy. And anyhow, isn't it worth a few millions +to be Lady Ernest Borrow, and have the privilege of restoring the most +beautiful old castle in Ireland? I'm sure Killeena would let her." + +"He would, out of sheer, weak kindness of heart! But she's far too +thickly gilded an heiress for me to aspire to. A few thousands a year +is my most ambitious figure for a wife. Look at the men collecting +around her and the wonderful lady you call Cleopatra. Why Cleopatra? +Did sponsors in baptism--" + +"No, they didn't. _Why_ she's Cleopatra is as weird a history as why +I'm Mrs. Jones. But she's Monny's aunt--at least, she's a half-sister +of Peter Gilder, and as his only living relative his will makes her +Monny's guardian till the girl marries or reaches twenty-five. A +strange guardian! But he didn't know she was going to turn into +Cleopatra. She wisely waited to do that until he was dead; so it came +on only a year ago. It was a Bond Street crystal-gazer transplanted to +Fifth Avenue told her who she really was: you know Sayda Sabri, the +woman who has the illuminated mummy? It's Cleopatra's idea that Monny's +second mourning for Peter should be white, nothing but white." + +"Her idea! But I thought Miss Monny, as you call her, adopted only her +own ideas. How can a mere half-aunt, labouring under the name of +Cleopatra, force her--" + +"Well, you see, white's very becoming; and as for the Cleopatra part, +it pleases our princess to tolerate that. It's part of the queer +history that's mixing me up with the family. We've come to spend the +season in Egypt because Cleopatra thinks she's Cleopatra; also because +Monny (that's what she's chosen to call herself since she tried to lisp +'Resamond' and couldn't) because Monny has read 'The Garden of Allah,' +and wants the 'desert to take her.' That book had nothing to do with +Egyptian deserts; but any desert will do for Monny. What she expects it +to do with her exactly when it has taken her, on the strength of a Cook +ticket, I don't quite know; but I may later, because she vows she'll +keep me at her side with hooks of steel all through the tour--unless +something worse happens to me, or to some of us _because_ of me." +"Biddy, dear, don't be morbid. Nothing bad will happen," I tried to +reassure her. + +"Thank you for saying so. It cheers me up. We women folk are so in the +habit of believing anything you men folk tell us. It's really quaint!" + +"Stop rotting, and tell me about yourself; and a truce to heiresses and +Cleopatras. You know I'm dying to hear." + +"Not a syllable, until you've told me about _your_self. Where you're +going, and what the dickens for!" + +We laughed into each other's eyes. To do so, I had to look a long way +down, and she a long way up. This in itself is a pleasantly Victorian +thing for a man to do in these days of Jerrybuilt girls, on the same +level or a story or two higher than himself. I'm not a tall man: just +the dull average five foot ten or eleven that appears taller, while it +keeps lean--so naturally I have a hopeless yearning for nymph-like +creatures who pretend to be engaged when I ask them to dance. Still, +there's consolation and homely comfort in talking with a little woman +who makes you feel the next best thing to a giant. Biddy is an +old-fashioned five foot four in her highest heels; and as she smiled up at +me I saw that she hadn't changed a jot in the last ten years, despite +the tragedy that had involved her. Not a silver thread in the black +hair, not a line on the creamy round face. + +"You're just yourself," I said. + +"I oughtn't to be. I know that very well. I ought to be a Dido and +Niobe and Cassandra rolled into one. I'm a brute not to be dead or look +a hag. I've gone through horrors, and the secrets I know could put +dozens of people in prison, if not electrocute them. But you see I'm +not the right type of person for the kind of life I've had, as I should +be if I were in a story book, and the author had created me to suit my +background. I can't help flapping up out of my own ashes before they're +cold. I can't help laughing in the face of fate." + +"And looking a girl of twenty-three, at most, while you do it!" + +"If I look a girl, I must be a phenomenon as well as a phoenix, for +nobody knows better than you that my Bible age is thirty-one if it's a +day. And I think Burke and Debrett have got the same tale to tell about +you, eh?" + +"They have. I was always delighted to share something with you." + +"You can have the whole share of my age over twenty-six. There's one +advantage 'Mrs. Jones' has. She can, if her looking-glass doesn't +forbid, go back to that classic age dear to all sensible adventuresses. +I'm afraid I come under the head of adventuress, with my alias, and +travelling as companion to the rich Miss Gilder." + +"You're the last person on earth for the part! Your fate was thrust on +you. You've thrust yourself on no one. Miss Gilder 'achieved' you." + +"Collected me, rather, as one of her 'specimens.' She has a noble +weakness for lame ducks, and though she fails sometimes in trying to +strengthen their game legs, she tries gloriously. She and her aunt have +been travelling in France and Italy, guided by instinct and French +maids, and already Monny has picked up two weird _protégées_, sure to +bring her to grief. The most exciting and deadly specimen is a +perfectly beautiful American girl just married to a Turkish Bey who met +her in Paris, and is taking her home to Egypt. I haven't even seen the +unfortunate houri, because the Turk has shut her up in their cabin and +pretends she's seasick. Monny doesn't believe in the seasickness, and +sends secret notes in presents of flowers and boxes of chocolate. But I +have seen the Turk. He's pink and white and looks angelic, except for a +gleam deep down in his eyes, if Monny inquires after his wife when any +of her best young men are hanging about. Especially when there's Neill +Sheridan, a young Egyptologist from Harvard, Monny met in Paris, or +Willis Bailey, a fascinating sculptor who wants to study the crystal +eyes of wooden statues in the Museum at Cairo. He is going to make them +the fashion in America, next year. Yes, Madame Rechid Bey is a most +explosive _protégée_ for a girl to have, on her way to Egypt. I'm not +sure even I am not innocuous by comparison; though I do wish you hadn't +reminded me of my poor little step-daughter Esmé, in her convent-school. +If any one should get the idea that Monny--but I won't put it +in words! Besides me, and the brand-new bride of Rechid Bey ('Wretched +Bey' is our name for him), there's one more _protégée_, a Miss Rachel +Guest from Salem, Massachusetts, a school-teacher taking her first +holiday. That _sounds_ harmless, and it looks harmless to an amateur; +but wait till _you_ meet her and see what instinct tells you about her +eyes. Oh, we shall have ructions! But that reminds me. You haven't told +me where you're bound--or anything." + +"Thanks for putting me among the 'specimens.' But this sample hasn't +yet been collected by Miss Gilder." + +"You might be her salvation, and keep her out of mischief. She's quite +wild now with sheer joy because she's going to Egypt. But do be +serious, and tell me all I pine to know, if you want me to do the same +by you." + +"Well--though it's unimportant compared to what you have to tell! I'm +an insignificant second secretary to Sir Raymond Ronalds, the British +Ambassador at Rome. I've got four months' leave----" + +"Ah, _that's_ what comes of duffing so skilfully, and avoiding all the +things you didn't want to do, till you got exactly what you did want! I +remember when we were small boy and girl, and you used to walk down to +the vicarage every day, to talk Greek or Latin or something with +father----" + +"No, to see you!" + +"Well, you used to tell me, if you couldn't be the greatest +prize-fighter or the greatest opera-singer in the world, you thought +you'd like to be a diplomat. + +"I haven't become a diplomat yet, in spite of Foreign Office grubbing. +But I've been enjoying life pretty well, fagging up Arabic and modern +Greek, and playing about with pleasant people, while pretending to do +my duty. Now I've got leave on account of a mild fever which turned out +a blessing in disguise. I could have found no other excuse for Egypt +this winter." + +"You speak as if you had some special reason for going to Egypt." + +"I've been wishing to go, more or less, for years, because you know--if +you haven't forgotten--I was accidentally born in Cairo while my father +was fighting in Alexandria. My earliest recollections are of Egypt, for +we lived there till I was four--about the time I met and fell in love +with you. I've always thought I'd like to polish up old memories. But +my special hurry is because I'm anxious to meet a friend, a chap I +admire and love beyond all others. I want to see him for his own sake, +and for the sake of a plan we have, which may make a lot of difference +for our future." + +"How exciting! Did I ever know him?" + +"I think not." + +"Well? Don't you mean to tell me who he is?" + +I hesitated, sorry I had let myself go: because Anthony had written +that he didn't want his movements discussed at present. + +"I'll tell you another time," I said. "I want to talk about you. +Anybody else is irrelevant." + +"Clever Duffer! Your friend is a _secret_." + +"Not he! But if there's a secret anywhere, it's only a dull, dusty sort +of secret. You wouldn't be interested." + +"Women never are, in secrets. Well, I'm glad somebody else besides +myself has a mystery to hide." + +"You're very quick." + +"I'm Irish! But I'm merciful. No more questions--till you're off your +guard. You're free to ask me all you like, if there's anything you care +to know which horrid newspapers haven't told you these last few years." + +"There are a thousand things. You didn't answer anybody's letters, +after--after----" + +"After Richard died. Oh, I can talk about it, now. It was the best +thing that could happen for him, poor fellow. Life in hiding was +purgatory. No, I couldn't answer letters, though my old friends (you +among them) wanted to be kind. There wasn't anything I could let +anybody do for me. Monny Gilder's different. You'll soon see why." + +I smiled indulgently. But, though I was to be introduced to Miss Gilder +for the purpose of being eventually gilded by her, at the instant my +thoughts were for my childhood's sweetheart. + +Brigit Burne made a terrible mess of things in marrying, when she was +eighteen or so, Richard O'Brien, in the height of his celebrity as a +socialist leader. People still believed in him then, at the time of his +famous lecturing tour and visit to his birthplace on our green island; +and though he was more than twice her age, the fascination he had for +Biddy surprised few who knew him. + +He was eloquent, in a fiery way. He had extraordinary eyes, and it was +his pride to resemble portraits of Lord Byron. After an acquaintance of +a month, Biddy married O'Brien (I had just gone up to Oxford at the +time, or I should have tried not to let it happen), went to America +with him, and voluntarily ceased to exist for her friends. + +Poor girl, she must have had an awakening! He had posed as a bachelor; +but after her marriage she found out (and the world with her) that he +was a widower with one child, a little girl he had practically +abandoned. Biddy adopted her, though the mother had been a rather +undesirable Frenchwoman; and now when I saw her smiling at the tall +white girl on the _Laconia_, I had thought for an instant that Biddy +and her stepdaughter might be in flight together. O'Brien was a +drunkard, as well as a demagogue; and not long after Brigit's flitting +with him there was a scandal about the accepting of bribes from +politicians on the opposing side, apparently his greatest enemies; but +a minor scandal compared to what came some years afterward. O'Brien's +name was implicated in the blowing up of the _World-Republican_ +Building in Washington, and the wrecking of Senator Marlowe's special +train after his speech against socialist interests, but the coward +turned informer against his friends and associates in the secret +society of which he had been a leader, and saved himself by sending +them to prison. From that day until his death he lived the life of a +hunted animal flying from the hounds of vengeance. Brigit stood by him +in spite of threats against her life as well as his, and the life of +the child. Since then, though she answered none of our letters, we had +heard rumours. The girl Esmé, whom the avengers had threatened to +kidnap, was supposed to be hidden in some convent-school in Europe. As +for Brigit, she was said to be training for a hospital nurse: reported +to have become a missionary in India, China, and one or two other +countries; seen on the music-hall stage, and traced to Johannesburg, +where she had married a diamond-merchant; yet here she was on board the +_Laconia_, unchanged in looks, or nature, and the guest of a much +paragraphed, much proposed to American heiress _en route_ to Egypt. + +While Brigit was telling me the real story of her last two years, as +governess, companion, teacher of music, and journalist, Miss Gilder +regarded us sidewise from amid her bodyguard of young men. Evidently +she was dying to know who was the acquaintance her darling Biddy had +picked up in mid-Mediterranean the moment her back was turned; and at +last, unable to restrain herself longer, she made use of some magic +trick to attach the band of youths to her aunt. Then, separating +herself with almost indecent haste from the group, she marched up to +us, gazing--I might say, staring--with large unfriendly eyes at the +intruder. + +Brigit promptly accounted for me, however, rolling her "r's" +patriotically because I reminded her of Ireland. "Do let me introduce +Lord Ernest Borrow," she said. "I must have told you about him in my +stories, when you were a child, for he was me first love." + +"It was the other way round," I objected. "She wouldn't look at me. I +adored her." + +Biddy glared a warning. Her eyes said, "Silly fellow, don't you know +every girl wants to be the one and only love of a man's life?" + +I had supposed that this old craze had gone out of fashion. But perhaps +there are a few primitive things which will never go out of fashion +with women. + +Now that I had Miss Gilder's proud young face opposite mine, I saw that +it wasn't quite so perfect as I'd fancied when she flashed by in her +tall whiteness. Her nose, pure Greek in profile, seen in full was +--well, just neat American: a straight, determined little +twentieth-century nose. The full red mouth, not small, struck me as being +determined also, rather than classic, despite the daintily drawn +cupid's bow of the short upper lip. I realized too that the +long-lashed, wide-open, and wide-apart eyes were of the usual bluish-gray +possessed by half the girls one knows. And as for the thick wavy hair +pushed crisply forward by the white hood, now it was out of the sun's +glamour, there was more brown than gold in it. I said to myself, that +the face with the firm cleft chin was only just pretty enough to give a +great heiress or a youthful princess the reputation of a beauty; a +combination desired and generally produced by journalists. Then, as I +was thinking this, while Brigit explained me, Miss Gilder suddenly +smiled. I was dazzled. No wonder Biddy loved her. It would be a wonder +if I didn't love her myself before I knew what was happening. + +And so I should instantly have done, perhaps, if it hadn't been for +Biddy's eyes seeming to come between mine and Miss Gilder's: and the +fact that at the moment I was in quest of another treasure than a +woman's heart. My thoughts were running ahead of the ship to +Alexandria, to find out from Anthony Fenton ("Antoun Effendi" the +biggest boys used to nickname him at school) more about the true +history of that treasure than he dared trust to paper and ink and the +post office. + +So I put off falling in love with Rosamond Gilder till I should have +seen Anthony, and tidied up my distracted mind. A little later would +do, I told myself, because (owing to the fact that my ancestral castle +had figured in Biddy's tales of long ago) I was annexed as one of the +_protégés_; allowed to make a fifth at the small, flowery table under a +desirable porthole in the green and white restaurant; also I was +invited to go about with the ladies and show them Cairo. Just how much +"going about," and falling in love, I should be able to do there, +depended on "Antoun Effendi." But when Biddy congratulated me on my +luck, and chance of success in the "scheme," I said nothing of Anthony. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CLEOPATRA AND THE SHIP'S MYSTERY + + +Now, at last, I can skip over the three days at sea, and get to our +arrival at Alexandria, because, as I've said, the exciting part began +soon after, at Cairo. + +They were delightful days, for the _Laconia_ is a Paris hotel disguised +as a liner. And no man with blood in his veins could help enjoying the +society of Brigit O'Brien and Rosamond Gilder. Cleopatra, too, was not +to be despised as a charmer; and then there was the human interest of +the _protégées_, the one with the eyes and the one who had reluctantly +developed into the Ship's Mystery. + +Still, in spite of Biddy and Monny and the others, and not for them, my +heart beat fast when, on the afternoon of the third day out from +Naples, the ship brought us suddenly in sight of something strange. We +were moving through a calm sea, more like liquefied marble than water, +for it was creamy white rather than blue, veined with azure, and +streaked, as marble is, with pink and gold. Far away across this +gleaming floor blossomed a long line of high-growing lotus flowers, +white and yellow against a silver sky. The effect was magical, and the +wonder grew when the big flower-bed turned into domes and cupolas and +spires rising out of the sea. Unimaginative people remarked that the +coast looked so flat and uninteresting they didn't see why Alexander +had wanted to bother with it; but they were the sort of people who +ought to stop at home in London or Birmingham or Chicago and not make +innocent fellow-passengers burn with unchristian feelings. + +Soon I should see Anthony and hear his news. I felt sure he would be at +Alexandria to meet the ship. When "Antoun Effendi" makes up his mind to +do a thing, he will crawl from under a falling sky to do it. As the +_Laconia_ swept on, I hardly saw the glittering city on its vast +prayer-rug of green and gold, guarded by sea forts like sleepy +crocodiles. My mind's eyes were picturing Anthony as he would look +after his wild Balkan experiences: brown and lean, even haggard and +bearded, perhaps, a different man from the smart young officer of +everyday life, unless he'd contrived to refit in the short time since +his return to Egypt--a day or two at most, according to my calculation. +But all my imaginings fell short of the truth. + +As I thought of Anthony, Mrs. East came and stood beside me. I knew she +was there before I turned to look, because of the delicate tinkling of +little Egyptian amulets, which is her accompaniment, her _leit motif_, +and because of the scent of sandalwood with which, in obedience to the +ancient custom of Egyptian queens, she perfumes her hair. + +I don't think I have described Monny Gilder's aunt, according to my +conception of her, though I may have hinted at Biddy's. Biddy having a +habit of focussing her sense of humour on any female she doesn't wholly +love, may not do Mrs. East justice. The fact is, Monny's aunt is a +handsome creature, distinctly a charmer who may at most have reached +the age when Cleopatra--Antony's and Caesar's Cleopatra--died in the +prime of her beauty. If Mrs. East chooses to date herself at thirty-three, +any man not a confirmed misanthrope must believe her. Biddy says +that until Peter Gilder was safely dead, Clara East was just an +ordinary, well-dressed, pleasure-loving, novel-reading, +chocolate-eating, respectable widow of a New York stockbroker: +superstitious perhaps; fond of consulting palmists, and possessing +Billikens or other mascots: (how many women are free from +superstition?) slightly oriental in her love of sumptuous colours +and jewellery; but then her mother (Peter Gilder's step-mother) +was a beautiful Jewish opera singer. After Peter's death, his +half-sister gave up novels for Egyptian and Roman history, +took to studying hieroglyphics, and learning translations of +Greek poetry. She invited a clairvoyant and crystal-gazer, claiming +Egyptian origin, to visit at her Madison Square flat. Sayda Sabri, +banished from Bond Street years ago, took up her residence in New York, +accompanied by her tame mummy. Of course, it is the mummy of a +princess, and she keeps it illuminated with blue lights, in an inner +sanctum, where the bored-looking thing stands upright in its +brilliantly painted mummy case, facing the door. About the time of +Sayda's visit, it was noticed by Mrs. East's friends (this, according +to Biddy) that the colour of the lady's hair was slowly but surely +changing from black to chestnut, then to auburn; she was heard to +remark casually that Queen Cleopatra's hair had been red. She took to +rich Eastern scents, to whitening her face as Eastern women of rank +have whitened theirs since time immemorial. The shadows round her +almond-shaped eyes were intensified: her full lips turned from +healthful pink to carmine. The ends of her tapering fingers blushed +rosily as sticks of coral. The style of her dress changed, at the +moment of going into purple as "second mourning" for Peter, and became +oriental, even to the turban-like shape of her hats, and the design of +her jewellery. She did away with crests and monograms on handkerchiefs, +stationery, luggage and so on, substituting a curious little oval +containing strange devices, which Monny discovered to be the +"cartouche" of Cleopatra. Then the whole truth burst forth. Sayda +Sabri's crystal had shown that Clara East, née Gilder, was the +reincarnation of Cleopatra the Great of Egypt. There had been another +incarnation in between, but it was of no account, and, like a poor +relation who has disgraced a family, the less said about it the better. + +The lady did not proclaim her identity from the housetops. Rare souls +possessing knowledge of Egyptian lore might draw their own conclusions +from the cartouche on her note-paper and other things. Only Monny and a +few intimates were told the truth at first; but afterward it leaked +out, as secrets do; and Mrs. East seemed shyly pleased if discreet +questions were asked concerning her amulets and the cartouche. + +Now, I never feel inclined to laugh at a pretty woman. It is more +agreeable, as well as gallant, to laugh with her; but the trouble is, +Cleopatra doesn't go in for laughter. She takes life seriously. Not +only has she no sense of humour, but she does not know the difference +between it and a sense of fun, which she can understand if a joke +(about somebody else) is explained. She is grateful to me because I +look her straight in the eyes when the subject of Egypt is mentioned. +Sheridan from Harvard has been in her bad books since he put Ptolemaic +rulers outside of the pale of Egyptian history, called their art ornate +and bad, mentioned that each of their queens was named Cleopatra and +classified the lot as modern, almost suburban. + +Mrs. East, leaning beside me on the rail, was burning with thoughts +inspired by Alexandria. She had "Plutarch's Lives" under her arm, and +"Hypatia" in her hand. Of course, she dropped them both, one after the +other, and I picked them up. + +"Do you know, Lord Ernest," she said, in the low, rich voice she is +cultivating, "I don't mind telling you that I felt as if I were coming +home, after a long absence. Monny wanted to see Egypt; I was dying to. +That's the difference between us." + +"It's natural," I answered, sympathetically. + +"Yes--considering everything. Yet we're both afraid. She in one way, I +in another. I haven't told her. She hasn't told me. But I know. She has +the same impression I have, that something's going to _happen_ +--something very great, to change the whole of life--in Egypt: 'Khem,' it +seems to me I can remember calling it. You know it was Khem, until the +Arabs came and named it Misr. Do you believe in impressions like that?" + +"I don't disbelieve," I said. "Some people are more sensitive than +others." + +"Yes. Or else they're older souls. But it may be the same thing. I +can't fancy Monny an old soul, can you?--yet she may be, for she's very +intelligent, although so self-willed. I think what she's afraid of is +getting interested in some wonderful man with Turkish or Egyptian +blood, a magnificent creature like you read of in books, you know; then +you have to give them up in the last chapter, and send them away +broken-hearted. I suppose there _are_ such men in real life?" + +"I doubt if there are such romantic figures as the books make out," I +tried to reassure her. "There might be a prince or two, handsome and +cultivated, educated in England, perhaps, for some of the 'swells' are +sent from Egypt to Oxford and Cambridge, just as they are in India. But +even if Miss Gilder should meet a man of that sort, I should say she +was too sensible and clear-headed--" + +"Oh, she is, almost too much so for a young girl, and she has a +detestation for any one with a drop of dark blood, in America. She +doesn't even like Jews; and that makes friction between us, if we ever +happen to argue, for--maybe you don't know?--my mother was a Jewess. +I'm proud of her memory. But that's just _why_, if you can understand, +Monny's _afraid_ in Egypt. Some girls would like to have a tiny +flirtation with a gorgeous Eastern creature (of course, he must be a +bey, or prince or something, otherwise it would be _infra dig_), but +Monny would hate herself for being attracted. Yet I know she dreads it +happening, because of the way I've heard her rave against the heroines +of novels, saying she has no patience with them; they ought to have +more strength of mind, even if it broke their hearts." + +I wondered if Biddy, too, suspected some such fear in the mind of her +adored girl, and if that were one reason why she had turned matchmaker +for my benefit. Since the first day out she had used strategems to +throw us together: and it seemed that, years ago, when she used to +teach the little girl French, Monny's favourite stories had been of +Castle Killeena, and my boyish exploits birds'-nesting on the crags. +(Biddy said that this was a splendid beginning, if I had the sense to +follow it up.) + +"And you?" I went on to Mrs. East. "What do you feel is going to happen +to you in the land of Khem?" + +"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "I wish I did! And 'afraid' isn't +exactly the word. I just know that something will happen. I wonder if +history does repeat itself? I should hate to be bitten by an asp----" + +"Asps are out of fashion," I comforted her. "I doubt if you could find +one in all of Egypt, though I remember my Egyptian nurse used to say +there were cobras in the desert in summer. Anyhow, we'll be away before +summer." + +"I suppose so," she agreed. "Yet--who knows what will become of any of +us? Madame Rechid Bey will be staying, of course. I don't know whether +to be sorry for her or not. The Bey's good-looking. He has brown eyes, +and is as white as you or I. Probably it's true that she's been too +seasick to leave her room for the last ten days, though Monny and Mrs. +O'Bri--I mean, Mrs. Jones--think she's shut up because men stared, and +because Mr. Sheridan talked to her. As for me, there's always that +question asking itself in my mind: _'What_ is going to happen?' And I +hear it twice as loud as before, in sight of Alexandria. Rakoti, we +Lagidae used to call the city." As she spoke, the long, oriental eyes +glanced at me sidewise, but my trustworthy Celtic features showed a +grave, intelligent interest in her statements. + +"It must be," she went on, encouraged, "that I'm the reincarnation of +Cleopatra, otherwise how _could_ I have the sensation of remembering +everything? There's no other way to account for it! And you know my +modern name, Clara, does begin with 'C.' Sayda must be right. She's +told lots of women the most extraordinary things. You really ought to +consult her, Lord Ernest, if you ever go to New York." + +I did not say, as Neill Sheridan might, that a frothy course of +Egyptian historical novels would account for anything. I simply looked +as diplomatic training can teach any one to look. + +Evidently it was the right look in the right place, for Cleopatra +continued more courageously, recalling the great Pharos of white marble +which used to be one of the world's wonders in her day; the Museum, and +the marvellous Library which took fire while Julius Caesar burned the +fleet, nearby in the harbour. + +"Think of the philosophers who deserted the College of Heliopolis for +Alexandria!" she said. "Antony was more of a soldier than a student, +but even he grieved for the Library. You know he tried to console +Cleopatra by making her a present of two hundred thousand MSS. from the +library of the King of Pergamus. It was a generous thought--like +Antony!" + +"Does the harbour looked changed?" I hastened to inquire. + +"Not from a distance, though landing may be a shock: they tell me it's +all so Italian now. It was Greek in old days. I've read that there +isn't a stone left of my--of the lovely place on Lochias Point, except +the foundations they found in the seventies. But I must go to see +what's left of the Baths, even though there's only a bit of mosaic and +the remains of a room. Monny's anxious to get on to Cairo, but we shall +come back to Alexandria later. Lord Ernest, when I shut my eyes, I +really do seem to picture the Mareotic Lake, and the buildings that +made Alexandria the glory of the world. Do you remember what Strabo +said about Deinchares, the architect who laid out the plan of the city +in the shape of a Macedonian mantle, to please Alexander?" + +"I'm not as well up in history as you are," I said, "though I've +studied a bit, because I was born in Egypt. Poor Alexander didn't live +long in his fine city, did he? I wonder what he'd think of it now? And +I wonder if his palace was handsomer than the Khedive's? That huge +white building with the pillars and domes. I seem to remember----" + +"What, you remember, too? You _ought_ to consult Sayda!" + +"I didn't mean exactly what you mean," I explained, humbly. "Still, why +shouldn't I have lived in Egypt long ago? The learned ones say you're +always drawn back where you've been in other states of existence----" + +"That's true, I'm sure!" + +"Well, then, why shouldn't I have the same sort of right to Egypt you +have, if you were Cleopatra?--I believe you must have been, because you +look as she ought to have looked, you know. Why shouldn't I have been a +friend of Marc Antony, coming from Rome to give him good advice and +trying to persuade----" + +"Oh, _not_ that he ought to give me up!" + +"No, indeed: to urge him to leave the island where he hid even from you +(didn't they call it Timoneum?). Why couldn't Antony play his cards so +as to keep Cleopatra and the world, too? She'd have liked him better, +wouldn't she? My friend Antoun Effendi--I mean Anthony Fenton,"--I +stopped short: for the less said about Fenton the better, at present. +But Cleopatra caught me up. + +"What--have you really a friend Antony? Where does he live? and what's +he like?" + +I hesitated; and glancing round for inspiration (in other words for +some harmless, necessary fib) I saw that Brigit and Monny had arrived +on the scene. They had been pacing the deck, arm in arm; and now, +arrested by Mrs. East's question, they hovered near, awaiting my answer +with vague curiosity. A twinkle in Biddy's eyes, which I caught, +rattled me completely. I missed all the easiest fibs and could catch +hold of nothing but the bare truth. There are moments like that, when, +do what you will, you must be truthful or silent; and silence fires +suspicion. + +"What is he?" I echoed feebly. "Oh, Captain Fenton. He's in the Gyppy +Army stationed up at Khartum, hundreds of miles beyond where Cook's +boats go. You wouldn't be interested in Anthony, because he spells his +name with an 'H', and he's dark and thin, not a bit like _your_ Antony, +who was a big, stout fellow, I've always heard, and fair." "Big, but +_not_ stout," Cleopatra corrected me. "And--and if he's incarnated +again, he may be dark for a change. As for the 'H', that's not +important. I wonder if we shall meet your Anthony? We think of going to +Khartum, don't we, Monny?" + +"Yes," said the girl, shortly. She was always rather short in her +manner at that time when in her opinion her aunt was being "silly." + +I gathered from a vexed flash in the gray eyes that there had never +been any hint of an impending Antony. + +"Is your friend in Khartum now?" Biddy ventured, in her creamiest +voice. The twinkle was carefully turned off like the light of a dark +lantern, but I knew well that "Mrs. Jones" was recalling a certain +conversation, in which I had refused to satisfy her curiosity. Brigit's +quick, Irish mind has a way of matching mental jigsaw puzzles, even +when vital bits appear to be missing; and if she could make a cat's paw +of Cleopatra, the witch would not be above doing it. I bore her no +grudge--who could bear soft-eyed, laughing, yet tragic Biddy a grudge? +--but I wished that she and Monny were at the other end of the deck. + +"I--er--really, I don't know where my friend is just now," I answered, +with more or less foundation of truth. + +"I wonder if I didn't read in the papers about a Captain Fenton who +took advantage of leave he'd got, to make a rush for the Balkans, and +see the fighting from the lines of the Allies?" Biddy murmured with +dreadful intelligence. "Can he be your Captain Fenton? I fancy he'd +been stationed in the Sudan; and he was officially supposed to have +gone home to spend his leave in England. Anyhow, there was a row of +some sort after he and another man dropped down on to the Turks out of +a Greek aeroplane. Or was it a Servian one? Anyhow, I know he oughtn't +to have been in it; and 'Paterfamilias' and 'Patriot' wrote letters to +the _Times_ about British officers who didn't mind their own business. +Why, I saw the papers on board this ship! They were old ones. Papers on +ships always are. But I think they came on at Algiers or somewhere." + +"Probably 'somewhere,'" I witheringly replied. "_I_ didn't come on at +Algiers, so I don't know anything about it." + +"Diplomatists never do know anything official, do they, Duffer dear?" +smiled Biddy. "I'll wager your friend is interesting, even if he does +spell himself with an 'H', and weighs two stone less than his namesake +from Rome. Mrs. East believes in reincarnation, and I'm not sure I +don't, though Monny's so young she doesn't believe in anything. Just +suppose your friend is a reincarnation of Antony without an 'H'? And +suppose, too, by some strange trick of fate he should meet you in +Alexandria or Cairo? You'd introduce him to us, wouldn't you?" + +"It's the most unlikely thing in the world. And he'd be no good to you. +He's a man's man. He thinks he doesn't like women." + +"Doesn't like women!" echoed Monny Gilder. "He must be a curmudgeon. Or +has he been jilted?" + +"Rather not!" Too impulsively I defended the absent. "Girls go mad +about him. He has to keep them off with a stick. He's got other things +to think of than girls, things he believes are more important--though, +of course, he's mistaken. He'll find that out some day, when he has +more time. So far, he's been hunting other game, often in wild places. +A book might be written on his adventures." + +"What kind of adventures? Tell us about them," said Biddy, "up to the +Balkan one, which you deny having heard of." + +"You wouldn't care about his sort of adventures. There aren't any women +in them," said I. "Women want love stories. It's only the heroines they +care for, not the heroes, and I don't somehow see the right heroine for +Fenton's story." + +I noticed an expression dawning on Cleopatra's face, as I thus bereft +her of a possible Antony (with an "H"). There was a softening of the +long eyes, and the glimmer of a smile which said "Am I Cleopatra for +nothing?" + +Never had she looked handsomer. Never before had I thought of her as +really dangerous. I'd been inclined to poke fun at the lady for her +superstition and her cartouche, and Cleopatra-hood in general. But +suddenly I realized that her make-up was no more exaggerated than that +of many a beauty of the stage and of society: and that nowadays, women +who are--well, forty-ish--can be formidable rivals for younger and +simpler sisters. Not that I feared much for Anthony from Cleopatra or +any other female thing, for I'd come to consider him practically +woman-proof; still, I saw danger that the lady might make a dead set at +him, if she got the chance, and all through my stupidity in giving away +his name. "Antony" was a thrilling password to that mysterious "something" +which she expected to happen in Egypt: and already she regarded my +friend as a ram caught in the bushes, for a sacrifice on her altar. +Instead of screening him I had dragged him in front of the footlights. +But fortunately there was still time to jerk down the curtain. + +I threw a glance at Brigit and Monny, and was relieved to find that +their attention was distracted by a new arrival: Miss Rachel Guest from +Salem, Massachusetts: a pale, thin, lanky copy of our Rose, with the +beauty and bloom left out; but a pair of eyes to redeem the colourless +face--oh, yes, a pair of eyes! Strange, hungry, waiting eyes. + +When I am alone, I fear Monny's favourite _protégée_, who started out +to "see the world" on a legacy of two thousand dollars, and won Miss +Gilder's admiration (and hospitality) through her unassuming pluck. To +my mind she is the ideal adventuress of a new, unknown, and therefore +deadly type; but for once I rejoiced at sight of the pallid, fragile +woman, so cheerful in spite of frail health, so frank about her +twenty-eight years. She had news to tell of a nature so exciting that, +after a whisper or two, Cleopatra forgot Anthony in her desire to know the +latest development in the Ship's Mystery. + +"My stewardess says he won't let his wife land till we're all off," +murmured the ex-schoolmistress, in her colourless voice. "She heard the +end of a conversation, when she carried the poor girl's lunch to the +door--just a word or two. So we shan't see her again, I suppose." + +"Oh, yes, we shall," said Monny. "If Wretched Bey can get a private +boat, so can I. I'll not desert her, if I have to stay on board the +_Laconia_ the whole night." + +All four began talking together eagerly, and blessing Miss Guest I +sneaked away. Presently I saw that clever Neill Sheridan and handsome, +actor-like Willis Bailey, the two _bêtes noires_ of Wretched Bey, had +joined the group. + +By this time the roofs and domes and minarets of Alexandria sparkled in +clearly sketched outlines between sunset-sky and sea; sunset of Egypt, +which divided ruby-flame of cloud, emerald dhurra, gold of desert, and +sapphire waters into separate bands of colour, vivid as the stripes of +a rainbow. + +There was a new buzz of excitement on the decks and in the ivy draped +veranda café. Those who had been studying Baedeker gabbled history, +ancient and modern, until the conquest of Alexander and the bombardment +of '82 became a hopeless jumble in the ears of the ignorant. Bores who +had travelled inflicted advice on victims who had not. People told each +other pointless anecdotes of "the last time I was in Egypt," while +those forced to listen did so with the air of panthers waiting to +pounce. A pause for breath on the part of the enemy gave the wished-for +opportunity to spring into the breach with an adventure of their own. + +We took an Arab pilot on board--the first Arab ever seen by the ladies +of my party--and before the red torch of sunset had burned down to +dusky purple, tenders like big, black turtles were swimming out to the +_Laconia_. We slaves of the Rose, however, had surrendered all personal +interest in these objects. The word of Miss Gilder had gone forth, and, +unless Rechid Bey changed his mind at the last minute, we were all to +lurk in ambush until he appeared with his wife. Then, somehow, Monny +was to snatch her chance for a word with the Ship's Mystery; and +whatever happened, none of us were to stir until it had been snatched. + +Arguments, even from Biddy, were of no avail, and mine were silenced by +cold permission to go away by myself if I chose. It was terrible, it +was wicked to talk of people making their own beds and then lying in +them. It was nonsense to say that, even if the wife of Rechid Bey asked +for help, we could do nothing. Of course, we would do something! If the +girl wanted to be saved, she should be saved, if Monny had to act +alone. Whatever happened, Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Bailey must remain in +the background, as the very sight of them would drive "Wretched Bey" +_wild!_ + +I was thinking of Anthony's surprise when one after the other, two +tenders should reach the quay without me; and if the Gilded Rose had +not been so sweet, her youthful cocksureness would have made me yearn +to slap her. In spite of all, however, the girl's excitement became +contagious as passengers crowded down the gangway and Rechid Bey did +not appear. + +"Allah--Allah!" cried the boatman and the Arab porters as they hauled +huge trunks off the ship onto a float. Then one after the other the two +tenders puffed away, packed from stem to stern. A few people for whom +there was no room embarked in small boats manned by jabbering Arabs. +Two of these cockle-shells still moved up and down under the black, +mountainous side of the ship, and the officer whose duty it was to see +the passengers off was visibly restless. He wanted to know if my +lordship was ready; and my lordship's brain was straining after an +excuse for further delay, when a man and woman arrived opportunely; +Rechid Bey and a veiled, muffled form hooked to his arm; a slender, +appealing little figure: and through the veil I fancied that I caught a +gleam of large, wistful, anxious eyes. + +The ladies were lying in wait out of sight, and I dodged behind the +sturdy blue shoulders guarding the gangway. This was my first glimpse +of the Ship's Mystery; and though I did not like my job (I had to +surprise Rechid Bey and take his mind off his wife) my curiosity was +pricked. The figure in sealskin looked very girlish; the veiled head +was bowed. The mystery took on human personality for me, and Monny +Gilder was no longer obstinate; she was a loyal friend. I did not see +that we could be of use to the poor little fool who had married a Turk, +yet I was suddenly ready to do what I could. As Rechid Bey brought his +wife to the top of the gangway, I lounged out, and spoke. Disconcerted, +the stout, good-looking man of thirty let drop the arm of the girl, +putting her behind him. And this was what Monny wanted. They would have +an instant for a few disjointed words: Monny might perhaps have time to +promise help which the girl dared not ask, even behind her husband's +back. + +"Good evening," I said in French, taking advantage of a smoke-room +acquaintance. "Is that smart boat down there for you? I was trying to +secure it, in my best Arabic, but the fellow said it was engaged." + +"Yes, it is mine," Rechid answered, civilly, trying to hide his +annoyance. "I telegraphed from Naples to a friend in Alexandria to send +me a private boat. I do not like crowds." + +"Neither do I, so I waited, too," I explained. "They told me there were +always boats, and my big luggage has gone. I suppose yours has, too?" + +"No doubt," said Rechid Bey. "Good night, Milord Borrow." + +He turned quickly to his wife, as if to catch her at something, but the +slim veiled mystery stood meekly awaiting his will. To my intense +relief Monny and her friends were invisible. I could hardly wait until +the two figures had passed out of sight down the gangway, to know +whether my skirmishing attack had been successful. + +"Well?" I asked, as Miss Gilder, "Mrs. Jones," Cleopatra, Rachel Guest, +and two maids filed out from concealment. "Did I give you time enough? +Did you get the chance you wanted?" + +"Yes, thank you ever so much," said Monny, with one of those dazzling +smiles that would make her a beauty even if she were not the favourite +Sunday supplement heiress. "I counted on you--and _she_ had counted on +me. She must have known I wouldn't fail her, for she had this bit of +paper ready. When I jumped out she slipped it into my hand. We didn't +need to say a word, and Wretched Bey has no idea I came near her." + +"A bit of paper?" I echoed, with interest. For it sounded the obvious +secret thing; a bit of paper stealthily slid from hand to hand. + +"Yes, with her address on it--nothing more in writing: but two other +words, pricked with a pin. '_Save me._' Don't you see, if her husband +had pounced on it, no harm would have been done. He wouldn't have +noticed the pin-pricks, as a woman would. I thought she was going to +live in Cairo, and I believe she thought so too, at first. But she's +written down the name of a house in a place called Asiut. Did you ever +hear of such a town, Lord Ernest?" + +"Oh, yes," said I. "The Nile boats stop there and people see tombs and +mummied cats and buy silver shawls." + +"Good!" said Monny. "_My_ boat shall stop there, but not only for tombs +or cats or silver shawls. I have an idea that the poor girl is +frightened, and wants me to help her escape." + +"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You mustn't on any account get mixed up +in an adventure of that sort! Remember, this is Egypt----" + +"I don't care," said Monny, "if it's the moon." + +She believed that this settled the matter. I believed the exact +opposite. But I left it at that, for the moment, as the boat was +waiting, and Asiut seemed a long way off. + +This was my first lesson in what Brigit called "Monny's little ways"; +but the second lesson was on the heels of the first. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A DISAPPOINTMENT AND A DRAGOMAN + + +It was a blow not to see Anthony on the quay. And other blows rained +thick and fast. My two consolations were that I was actually in Egypt; +and that in the confusion Rechid Bey with the veiled figure of his +silent bride had slipped away without further incidents. Their +disappearance was regretted by no one save Monny, unless it was Neill +Sheridan, and he was discreet enough to keep his feelings to himself. +The girl was not. She protested on principle, although she had the +Asiut address. But where all men, black and brown and white, were +yelling with the whole force of their lungs, and pitching and tossing +luggage (mostly the wrong luggage) with all the force of their arms, +nobody heard or cared what she said. For once Monny Gilder was +disregarded by a crowd of men. This could happen only at the departure +of a boat train! But if I was not thinking about her, I was thinking +about her fifteen trunks, and Cleopatra's sixteen and Biddy's and Miss +Guest's two. The maids were worse than useless, and I had no valet. I +have never had a valet. I clawed, I fought, I wrestled in an arena +where it was impossible to tell the wild beasts from the martyrs. I +rescued small bags from under big boxes, and dashed off with a few +samples to the train, in order to secure places. All other able-bodied +men, including Sheridan and the artist sculptor Bailey, were engaged in +the same pursuit, and our plan was to "bag" a whole compartment between +us in the boat-special for Cairo. But we never met again till we +reached our destination. One expects Egypt to warm the heart with its +weather, but the cold was bitter; so was the disappointment about +Anthony. Both cut through me like knives. Darkness had fallen before I +was ready to join the ladies--if I could. In passing earlier, I had +shouted to the maids where to find the places, grabbed with difficulty, +for their mistresses. Whether they had found them, or whether any of +the party still existed, was the next question; and it was settled only +as the train began to move. The compartment I had selected was boiling +over with a South American president and his effects; but as I stood +transfixed by this transformation scene, Cleopatra's maid hailed me +from the end of the corridor. _Les quatres dames_ were in the +restaurant car. Why? Ah, it was the Arab they had engaged as dragoman, +who had advised the change in milord's absence. He said it would be +better, as of course they would want dinner. He himself was looking +after the small _baggages_, except the little sacks of the hand which +the maids kept. + +What, the ladies had engaged a dragoman! And they had trusted him--a +stranger--with luggage? Then it was as good as gone! But no, mildly +ventured Cleopatra's handmaiden. The dragoman came recommended. He had +a letter from a friend of milord. + +My thoughts jumped, of course, to Anthony. Yet how could he have known +that I was travelling with ladies? And if by some Marconian miracle he +had heard, why should he, who prided himself on "not bothering" with +women, trouble to provide a dragoman at Alexandria? + +I hurried to the dining car, and found Monny with her satellites seated +at a table, three of them looking as calmly innocent as if they had not +upset my well-laid scheme for their comfort. Biddy alone had a guilty +air, because, perhaps, I was more important in her eyes than in the +eyes of the others. "Oh, dear Duffer," she began to wheedle me: "We +hope you don't mind our coming here? We thought it a good idea, for +we're starving, although we're perfectly happy because we're in Egypt, +and because it's such a _quaint_ train, so different and Eastern. The +dragoman who----" + +"I think he came from your friend Anthony with an 'H,'" Cleopatra broke +in. "He seemed providential. And he speaks English. The only objection +is, he's not as good-looking as Monny and I wanted our dragoman to be. +We did hope to get one who would be _becoming_ to us, you see, and give +the right sort of Eastern background. But I suppose one can't have +_everything!_ And it was I who said your friend Anthony's messenger +must be engaged even if his face is--is--rather like an _accident!_" + +"It's like a catastrophe," remarked Monny, looking as if she blamed me. + +"Where _is_ it?" I wanted to know. + +"It's waiting in a vestibule outside where the cook's cooking," Biddy +explained ungrammatically. "I told it you'd want to see it. And it's +got a letter for you from some one." "Did the fellow say the letter was +from Fenton?" I inquired. + +"No. He only said, from a friend who'd expected to meet you; and Mrs. +East was sure it must be from the one you were talking about." + +Wasting no more words, I marched off to the fountainhead for +information. Near the open door of the infinitesimal kitchen stood a +fat little dark man with a broken nose, and one white eye. The other +eye, as if to make up, was singularly, repellently intelligent. It +fixed itself upon me, as I approached, with eager questioning which +melted into ingratiating politeness. Instinct warned the fellow that I +was the person he awaited. At the same moment, instinct was busily +whispering to me that there was something fishy about him, despite the +alleged letter. He did not look the type of man Fenton would recommend. +And though his face was of an unwholesome olive tint, and he wore a +tarbush, and a galabeah as long as a dressing-gown, under his short +European coat, I was sure he was not of Arab or Egyptian blood. + +"Milord Borrow?" he began, displaying large white teeth, of which he +was evidently proud. + +I assented. + +"My name is Bedr el Gemály," he introduced himself. "I have a letter +for milord." + +"Who gave it to you?" I challenged him. + +The ingratiating smile seemed to flicker like a candle flame in a +sudden puff of wind. "A friend of my, a dragoman. He could not come to +bring it. So he give it to me. The gentleman's name was Fenton. My +friend, he was sent from him at Cairo." As the fellow spoke, in fairly +good English, he took from a pocket of the short coat which spoiled his +costume, a colourful silk handkerchief. Unwrapping this, he produced an +envelope. It was addressed to me in the handwriting of Fenton, but +before opening it I went on with my catechism. + +"Then the letter doesn't introduce you, but your friend?" + +The smile was practically dead now. "I think it do not introduce any +ones. It is only a letter. My friend Abdullah engaged to carry it. But +he got sick too soon to come to the ship." + +"I see," said I. "You seem to have used the letter, however, to get +yourself taken on as dragoman by the ladies of my party. How the devil +did you find out that they were travelling with me, eh?" I shot the +question at him and tried to imitate gimlets with my eyes. But he was +ready with his answer. No doubt he had prepared it. + +"I see you all together, from a distant place, before I come there. A +gentleman off the ship, he pointed you out when I ask where I find +Milord Borrow. I see you, and those ladies. When I come, you was away +already, so I speak to them, and say if I could help, I be very +pleased. When I tell one of the ladies I was from a friend of milord's +with a letter, she say, is the friend's name Captain Fenton, and I say +'yes, madame, Captain Fenton, that is the name; and I am a dragoman to +show Egypt to the strangers. I know it all very well, from Alexandria +way up Nile.' Then the lady say very quick she will take me for her +dragoman. I am pleased, for I was not engaged for season, and she say +if I satisfy her she keep me in Cairo and on from there." "H'm," I +grunted, still screwing in the gimlets. "I see you're not an Egyptian. +You have selected the name of an Armenian famous in history. Are you +Armenian?" + +"I am the same thing as Egyptian, I bin here for dragoman so many +years. I am Mussulman in faith. But I was born Armenian," he admitted. + +"You speak English with an American accent," I went on. "Have you lived +in America?" + +"One time a family take me to New York and I stay a year or two. Then I +get homesick and come to Egypt again. But I learn to talk maybe some +like American peoples while I am over there." + +It sounded plausible enough, the whole story. And if Mrs. East had +snapped the dragoman up under the impression that he came from a man +she had determined to meet, the fellow might be no more to blame than +any other boaster, touting in his own interest. Still, I had an uneasy +feeling that something lay hidden under Armenian plausibility. Bedr el +Gemály was perhaps a thief who had courted a chance for a big haul of +jewellery. Yet if that were all, why hadn't he hopped off the tram, as +it began to move, with the ladies' hand luggage? He might easily have +got away, and disappeared into space, before we could wire the police +of Alexandria to look out for him. He had not done that, but had +waited, and risked facing my suspicions. And he must have realized, +while in charge of Monny's and Cleopatra's attractive dressing bags, +that he was missing an opportunity such as might never come to him +again. This conduct suggested an honest desire to be a good dragoman. +Yet--well, I resolved not to let the gimlets rust until Bedr el Gemály +had been got rid of. If Mrs. East had really promised him a permanent +engagement, she could salve his disappointment by giving him a day's +pay. I would take the responsibility of sending him about his business. + +Without further parley I opened the letter. It was short, evidently +written in a hurry. Anthony had scribbled: + +Horribly sorry, dear old Duffer, but I'm wanted by the Powers that Be +in Cairo. No other reason could have kept me from Alexandria. I was +afraid a wire wouldn't reach you, so I sent a decent old chap by the +train I meant to take. He's pledged to find you on the quay, and he +will--unless some one makes him drunk. This seems unlikely to happen, +as he won't be paid till he gets back, and having no friends on earth, +nobody will stand him drinks. Beastly luck, but I shan't be able to see +you to-night even in Cairo. Tell you all to-morrow--and there's a lot +to tell, about many things. + +Yours ever, + +A.F. + +The messenger had "no friend on earth," according to Fenton. Then the +friendship stated to exist between him and Bedr el Gemály must have +come readymade from heaven, or--its opposite. I guessed the nature of +the "decent old chap's" illness. But I should have been glad to know +whether it had been produced by design or accident. + +When I went back to the ladies, Bedr went with me, at my firm +suggestion, and gave them their handbags to use as footstools. Dinner +was ready, and a seat had been kept for me at a table just across the +aisle, but before beginning, I explained the real circumstances +governing the dragoman's arrival. "Whatever else he may be, he's a +shark," I said, "or he wouldn't have traded on a misunderstanding to +grab an engagement. You owe him nothing really, but if you choose, give +him a sovereign when we get to Cairo, and I'll tell him that I have a +dragoman in view for the party. He'll then have two days' pay, +according to the guide-books." + +With this, I slipped into my seat, thinking the matter settled. But +between courses, Monny leaned across from her table (she and I had end +seats) and said that she and her aunt had been talking about that poor +dragoman. "Aunt Clara raised his hopes," the girl went on, "and now +Rachel Guest and I think it would be mean to send him away, just +because he's hideous." + +"That won't be the reason!" said I. "It will be because we don't know +anything about him, and because in his sharpness he's over-reached +himself." + +"But we do know things about him. He showed Aunt Clara letters from +people who'd employed him, lots of Americans whose names we've heard, +and some we're acquainted with. The tragic thing is, that he finds +difficulty in getting engaged because of his face. I've felt guilty +ever since I called it a catastrophe. Of course it _is_; but I said it +to be funny, which was cruel. And we deserve to punish ourselves by +keeping the poor wretch a few days, or more, if he's good." + +"I thought you wanted a becoming dragoman?" I reminded her. + +"Oh, that was just our silliness. I _do_ like good-looking people, I +must say. But what _does_ it matter whether a brown person is handsome +or homely, when you come to think of it? Besides, we can have another +dragoman, too, for ornament, if we run across a very picturesque one." + +I laughed. "But you can't go up the Nile on a boat with a drove of +private dragomans, you know!" + +"I _don't_ know, Lord Ernest. And why don't you call them dragomen? You +make them sound as if they were some kind of animal." + +"Dragomans is the plural," I persisted. + +"Well, I shall call them dragomen. And if this poor thing can't get any +one else to drag, he _shall_ drag us up the Nile, if he's as +intelligent in his ways as he is in that one eye, which is so like a +hard-boiled egg. You see, Lord Ernest, we're going to have a boat of +our own. A steam dahabeah is what we want, so we won't be at the mercy +of the wind. And we can have all the dragomen we choose, can't we?" + +"I suppose you can fill up your cabins with them," I agreed, because I +felt that the Gilded Rose wished me to argue the point, and that if I +did I should be worsted. As I should not be on board the dahabeah in +question, it would not matter to me personally if the boat were +entirely manned by dragomans. Except that there would in that case +probably be a collision, and I should not be near to save Biddy--and +incidentally the girl Biddy wished me to marry. + +After that, we went on eating our dinner and talking of Egypt, Miss +Guest doing all the listening, as usual. When we had finished, we kept +our places because we had no others. Cleopatra was curious about my +friend's failure to arrive, but I put her off with vaguenesses; and +said to myself that, for Anthony's sake, it was well that mysterious +business had kept him in Cairo. Still, I wondered what the business +was: why he would be unable to see me that night: and what were the +"many things" he had to tell. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A MAN IN A GREEN TURBAN + + +I shall never know for certain whether or not our future was entirely +shaped by Monny's resolve to breakfast on the terrace of Shepheard's +Hotel next morning. + +A great many remarkable things have happened on that historic site. +Napoleon made the place his headquarters. General Klèber was murdered +in the garden. Half the most important people in the world have had tea +on the terrace: but, according to a German waiter, there was one deed +yet undone. Nobody had ever ordered breakfast out of doors. + +Of course, Monny got what she wanted. Not by storming, not by putting +on power-of-wealth airs, but simply by turning bright pink and looking +large-eyed. At once that waiter rushed off, and fetched other waiters; +and almost before the invited guests knew what to expect, two tables +had been fitted together, covered with white, adorned with fresh roses, +and set forth with cups and saucers. I was the one man invited, and I +felt like an actor called to play a new part in an old scene, a scene +vaguely, excitingly familiar. Could I possibly be remembering it, I +asked myself, or was my impression but the result of a life-long +debauch of Egyptian photographs? Anyhow, there was the impression, with +a thrill in it; and I felt that I ought to be handsomer, more romantic, +altogether more vivid, if I were to live up to the moving picture. It +seemed as if nothing would be too extraordinary to do, if I wanted to +match my surroundings. I thought, even if I burst into a passionate +Arab love-song and proposed to Monny across the table, it would be +quite the right note. But somehow I didn't feel inclined to propose. It +was enough to admire her over the rim of a coffee cup. In her white +tussore (I heard Biddy call it tussore) and drooping, garden-type of +hat, she was a different girl from the girl of the ship. She had been a +winter girl in white fur, then. Now she was a summer girl, and a +radiant vision, twice as pretty as before, especially in this Oriental +frame; still I was waiting to see myself fall in love with her, much in +the same way that Biddy was waiting. And there was that Oriental frame! +It belonged to my past, and perhaps Monny Gilder didn't belong even to +my future, so it was excusable if I thought of it more than of her. + +It was hardly nine o'clock, but already the wonderful coloured cinema +show of Cairo daily life had begun to flash and flicker past the +terrace of Shepheard's, where East and West meet and mingle more +sensationally than anywhere in Egypt. Nobody save ourselves had dared +suggest breakfast; but travellers were pouring into the hotel, and +pouring out. Pretty women and plain women were sitting at the little +wicker tables to read letters, or discuss plans for the day with each +other or their dragomans. Officers in khaki came and talked to them +about golf and gymkhanas. Down on the pavement, close under the +balustrade, crowded young and old Egyptian men with dark faces and +wonderful eyes or no eyes at all, struggling to sell painted +post-cards, strings of blue-gray mummy beads; necklaces of cornelian and +great lumps of amber; fans, perfumes, sample sticks of smoking incense, +toy camels cleverly made of jute; fly whisks from the Sudan with +handles of beads and dangling shells; scarab rings and brooches; cheap, +gay jewellery, scarfs from Asiut, white, black, pale green and purple, +glittering like miniature cataracts of silver, as brown arms held them +up. Darting Arab urchins hawked tame ichneumons, or shouted newspapers +for sale--English, American, Greek, French, German, Italian, and +Turkish. Copper-tinted, classic-featured youths in white had golden +crowns of bananas round their turbans; withered patriarchs in blue +galabeahs offered oranges, or immense bunches of mixed flowers, fresh +and fragrant as the morning; or baskets of strawberries red and bright +as rubies. Dignified Arabs stalked by, bearing on nobly poised heads +pots of growing rose-bushes or arum lilies, or azaleas. Jet-black +giants, wound in rainbow-striped cottons, clanked brass saucers like +cymbals, advertising the sweet drinks in their glass jars, while memory +whispered in my ears the Arab name "sherbétly." Across the street, +clear silver-gold sunshine of winter in Egypt shone on precious stones, +on carved ivories, silver anklets, Persian rugs, and embroideries, +brilliant as hummingbirds' wings, all displayed in the windows of shops +where dark eyes looked out eagerly for buyers. Everything was for sale, +for sale to the strangers! The whole clamouring city seemed to consist +of one vast, concentrated desire on the part of brown people to sell +things to fair people. They shouted and wheedled and besought on the +sidewalks; and the roadway between was a wide river of colour and life. +Motor cars with Arab chauffeurs carried rich Turks to business, or to +an audience of State. Now and then a face of ivory glimmered through a +gauzy veil and eyes of ink and diamonds shot starry glances from +passing carriage windows. Erect English women drove high dog-carts. +Gordon Highlanders swung along in the kilt, more at home in Cairo then +in Edinburgh, the droning of their pipes as Oriental as the drone of a +räita, or the beat of tom-toms. A wedding party with a hidden bride in +a yellow chariot, met a funeral, and yashmaked faces peeped from +curtained windows, in one procession, to stare at the wailing, marching +men of the other, and to shrink back hastily from the sight of the +coffin. Tangled it would seem inextricably with streams of traffic, +surging both ways, moved the "ships of the desert," loaded with +emerald-green bersím; long, lilting necks, and calm, mysterious eyes of +camels high above the cloaked heads of striding Bedouins, heads of +defiant Arab prisoners, chained and handcuffed to each other; heads of +blue-eyed water buffaloes, and heads of trim white, tasselled donkeys. + +None of us talked very much, as we sat at the breakfast table: the +novelty and wonder of the scene made the actors forget their words: and +if we had been able to talk, we could not have appreciated each other's +rhapsodies, over the shoutings of men who wanted us to buy their wares, +and harangues of dragomans who wished, as Monny said, to "drag" us. +These latter, especially, were persistent, and Bedr the One Eyed, +having been forbidden to come till ten o'clock, was not on the spot to +give protection. Our method at first was to appear oblivious, but +presently in my wickedest Arabic, I would have ordered the troop away +if Monny had not interfered. + +"Don't!" she said, "they're part of the picture. Besides, they've more +right here than we have. It's their country, not ours. And they're so +interesting--most of them. That tall man over there, for instance, with +the green turban. He's the only one who hasn't opened his mouth. Just +to show him that virtue's its own reward, I'm going to engage him. Will +you call him to us, please, Lord Ernest?" + +Sitting as I sat, I could not see the person indicated. "What do you +want him for, Miss Gilder?" I obeyed temptation, and asked. + +"Why, to be a dragoman, of course," she explained. "That's what he's +for. I told you, I'd have a picturesque one for ornament. This +creature's a perfect specimen." + +I stood up reluctantly, and looked down over the balustrade. "A man +with a green turban?" I repeated. "But that means he's a Hadji, who's +been to Mecca and back. I never heard of a dragoman--" + +I stopped short in my argument. My eyes had found the man with the +green turban. + +He stood at some distance behind the pavement-merchants and +self-advertising dragomans who pressed against the railing. In his long +galabeah of Sudan silk, ashes of roses in colour, he was tall and +straight as a palm, gravely dignified with his folded arms and the +haughty remoteness of his expression. Dark and silent, half-disdainful, +half-amused, he was like a prince compared with his humbler brethren; +but there was another resemblance more relevant and intimate which cut +my sentence short. + +"By Jove," I thought, "how like he is to Anthony Fenton!" + +He was looking, not at me, but at Miss Gilder, quite respectfully yet +hypnotically, as if by way of an experiment he had been willing her to +find and single out the one motionless figure, the one person whose +tongue had not called attention to himself. + +Yes, I thought again, he was an Arab copy of Anthony, but more as +Anthony had been years ago before his moustache grew, than as Anthony +had become in late years. Still, there were the aquiline features, the +long, rather sad eyes shaded with thick, straight lashes, the eyebrows +raised at the bridge of the thin nose, then sloping steeply down toward +the temples; the slight working of muscles in the cheeks; the +peculiarly charming mouth which could be irresistible in a smile, the +stern, contradictory chin marring by its prominence the otherwise +perfect oval of the face. I wondered if Anthony had as noble a throat +as this collarless galabeah left uncovered, reminding myself that I +could not at all recall Anthony's throat. Then, as the sombre eyes +turned to me, drawn perhaps by my stare, I was stunned, flabbergasted, +what you will, by realizing that Anthony himself was looking at me from +under the green turban. + +The dark face was blankly expressionless. He might have been gazing +through my head. His eyes neither twinkled with fun nor sent a message +of warning; but somehow I knew that he saw me, that he had been +watching me for a long time. "You see the one I mean, don't you?" asked +Monny. "Well, that's the one I want. I'll take _him_." + +She spoke as if she were selecting a horse at a horse show. + +Anthony had brought this on himself, but I was not angry with Anthony. +I was angry with the girl for putting her finger into our pie. + +"That's not a dragoman," I assured her. "If he were, he'd come and bawl +out his accomplishments, as the others do. He's a very different sort +of chap." + +"That's why I want him," said Monny. "And if he isn't a dragoman, he'll +jump at being one if I offer to pay him enough. He's an Egyptian, +anyhow, by his clothes, or a Bedouin or something--although he isn't as +dark as the rest of these men. I suppose he must know a little about +his own city and country." + +"It doesn't follow he'd tell travellers about them for money," said I. +"He looks to me a man of good birth and distinction in old fashioned +dress. Why he's lingering on the pavement in front of this hotel I +can't explain, but I'm certain he isn't touting. Probably he's waiting +for a friend." + +"He's the best looking Arab we've seen yet," remarked Mrs. East. "Like +my idea of an Egyptian gentleman." + +"Pooh!" said Monny. "Just test him, Lord Ernest." + +"Sorry, but I can't do it," I answered, with a firmness which ought to +have been tried on her long ago. "And I wouldn't discuss him in such a +loud tone of voice. He may understand English." + +"We have to yell to hear ourselves speak over all this row," Biddy +apologized for her darling; but she need not have troubled herself. +Miss Gilder had been deaf to my implied reproach. + +"I'm glad I'm an American girl," she said. "When I want things I want +them so dreadfully I just go for them, and surprise them so much that I +get them before they know where they are. Now I'm going for this +dragoman." + +"He's not a drag--" I persisted, but she cut me short. + +"I bet you my hat he will be one! What will you bet that he won't, Lord +Ernest?" + +"I'll bet you his green turban," said I. + +"How can you get it?" + +"As easily as you can get him," I retorted. "It's a safe bet." + +Monny looked excited, but firm. Luckily, as she does it so often, it's +becoming to her to look firm. (I have noticed that it's not becoming to +most girls. It squares their jaws and makes their eyes snap.) But the +spoiled daughter of the dead Cannon King at her worst, merely looks +pathetically earnest and Minerva-like. This, I suppose, is one of the +"little ways" she has acquired, since she gave up kicking and screaming +people into submission. As Biddy says, the girl can be charming not +only when she wants to be, but quite often when she doesn't. + +The man with the green turban was no longer engaged in hypnotizing. He +had retired within himself, and appeared oblivious to the outer world. +Yet nobody jostled the tall, straight figure which stood with folded +arms, lightly leaning against a tree. The colour of his turban was +sacred in the eyes of the crowd; and when Miss Gilder, leaning over the +terrace railing beckoned him, surprise rather than jealousy showed on +the faces of the unwanted dragomans. As for the wearer of the turban, +he did what I expected and wished him to do: paid not the slightest +attention to the gesture. Whatever the motive for his masquerade, it +was not to attract anything feminine. + +I smiled sardonically. "That's a nice hat you've got on, Miss Gilder," +I remarked. + +"Do you collect girls' hats?" she asked sweetly. "But mine isn't +eligible yet for your collection. Let me see, what did you say he was? +Oh, a Hadji!" And she shrilled forth sweetly, her voice sounding young +and clear, "Hadji! Hadji! Effendi! Venez ici, s'il vous plait. Please +come here." + +I could have been knocked flat by a blow of the smallest, cheapest +ostrich feather in the hands of any street-merchant. For he came. +Anthony came! Not to look meekly up from the pavement below the +railing, but to ascend the steps of the terrace, and advance with grave +dignity toward our table. Within a yard of us he stopped, giving to me, +not to Miss Gilder, the beautiful Arab salute, a touch on forehead and +heart. + +"You devil!" I was saying to myself. "So you walk into this trap, do +you, and calmly trust me to get you out. Serve you right if I don't +move hand or foot." And I almost made up my mind that I wouldn't. But I +was interested. I wanted intensely to know what the dickens Anthony was +up to, and whether he would have been up to it if he'd known the sort +of young woman he had to deal with. + +"It was I who called to you, not this gentleman," said Monny, when she +found that Green Turban did not look at her. "Do you speak French or +English a little?" + +"A little of both. But I choose French when talking to Americans," +replied Anthony Fenton, with astounding impertinence, in the preferred +language. "I do not know you, Madame. But I do know this gentleman." + +Good heavens! What next? He acknowledged me! What was I to do now? What +did the impudent fellow want me to do? Evidently he was trying an +experiment. Anthony is great on experiments, and always has been. But +this was a bomb. I thought he wanted to see if I could catch it on the +fly, and drop it into water before it had time to explode. + +"Why didn't you tell us, Lord Ernest?" asked Monny, with a flash in her +gray eyes. "I thought you hadn't been in Egypt since you were a child." + +"I haven't, and I didn't recognize him at first," I answered, trying +for the coolness which Anthony dared to count upon. + +"You remember me now?" he inquired politely. + +"I--er--yes," I replied, also in French. "Your face is familiar, though +you've changed, I think, since--er--since you were in England. It must +have been there--yes, of course. You were on a diplomatic mission. But +your name--" + +"You may have known me as Ahmed Antoun," said the wretch, not dreaming +of that slip he had made. + +Cleopatra, who has little French, nevertheless started, and fixed upon +the face under the turban a stare of feverish interest. Brigit and the +unobtrusive lady with the slanting eyes both showed such symptoms of +surprise as must too late have warned Fenton that he had missed his +footing, skating on thin ice. + +"Antoun!" exclaimed Mrs. East. "Why, that's what you said you called +your friend Captain Fenton." + +I glanced at Anthony. His profile had no more expression than that of +an Indian on an American penny, and, indeed, rather resembled it. If he +were blaming me for letting anything out, I had a right to blame him +for letting himself in. He was silent as well as expressionless. He +left it all to me--diplomat or duffer. + +"'Antoun Effendi' was the nickname my friend Fenton got at school," I +explained to Cleopatra, "because it sounded a bit like his own name, +and because he had--er--because he had associations with Egypt. He was +proud of them and is still. But Antoun is a name often heard here. And +every man who isn't a Bey or a Prince, or a Sheikh, is an Effendi. I +quite remember you now," I hurried on, turning to Anthony once more. +"You are Hadji as well as Effendi." + +"I have the right to call myself so, if I choose," he admitted. "I am +pleased to meet you again. I was waiting for a friend when you +beckoned. If you did not recognize my face at first, may I ask what it +was you wanted of me?" + +There was no limit, then, to his audacity. He had not learned his +lesson yet, after all, it would seem. + +Monny could not bear tamely to lose her hat, though she must have felt +her hatpins trembling in the balance. "I told you before," she +repeated, "that it was I who beckoned you." He looked at her, without +speaking; and somehow the green turban and the long straight gown, by +adding to his dignity, added also to his remote air of cold politeness. +How could she go on? Had she the cheek to go on? She had; but the cheek +was flushed with embarrassment. + +"I--er--I am anxious for a guide, some one who knows Egypt well, and +several languages," she desperately blurted out, looking like a +half-frightened, half-defiant child. "I thought----" + +"There are plenty of dragomans, Madame," Green Turban reminded her. "I +can recommend you several." + +"I don't want a regular dragoman," she said. "And I'm not 'Madame.' I +am Miss Gilder." + +"Indeed?" Chilling indifference in the tone. (Monny's hat was +practically mine. I thought I should rather value it.) + +"Yes. But of course that can't matter to you." + +"No. It cannot, Mademoiselle." + +"What I want to say, is this. You're a Hadji, which means you've been +to Mecca; Lord Ernest Borrow's just told us. So you must be very +intelligent. Are you in business?" + +"I am interested in excavations." + +"Oh! And are you allowed to make them yourself?" + +"Not always." + +I glanced at him quickly, wondering if he meant that answer more for me +than for the girl. But his face told nothing. + +"Would you be able to, if you were rich enough?" + +"It is possible." "Well, I'd be willing to give you a big salary for +showing us about Cairo, and perhaps going up the Nile." + +"You do not know who I am, Mademoiselle. Ask your friend Lord Ernest +Borrow. Perhaps he may remember something about my circumstances now he +has recalled my face." + +I was honestly not sure whether this were further deviltry, or an +appeal for help. In any case, I thought it time for the scene to end. +"I told you," I said to Monny in English, "that he was a man of +importance, not at all the sort of person you could expect to engage +for a guide. You must see now that he's a gentleman. And a--a--an +Egyptian gentleman is just the same as any other." + +"Surely not quite!" she answered in the same language, and I realized +my foolish mistake in using it, as if I meant her to understand that +Antoun Effendi knew it too little to catch our secrets. + +"An Egyptian man can't have the same feelings as a European? Why, for +hundreds and hundreds of years they've been an enslaved race, like our +black people at home. We'd never think of calling even the fairest +quadroon man a gentleman, though he might be wonderfully good looking +and nice mannered." + +Literally, I was frightened. Anthony Fenton is fiercely devoted to the +memory of the beautiful princess-mother, for love of whom his father's +career was ruined. _Her_ mother was a Sicilian woman, and her father +was half Greek, so there is little enough Egyptian blood, after all, in +the veins of General Fenton's son. He is proud of what there is--proud, +because of his mother's fatal charm, and the romance of her story (it +was on the eve of her wedding with a cousin of the Sultan that the +famous soldier Charles Fenton ran away with Princess Lalla and married +her in Sicily): but he is sensitive, too, because, great name as +Charles Fenton had made in Egypt, he was asked to resign his commission +on account of the escapade. Anthony, sent to England to a public +school, had fought bigger boys than himself, who, in a certain tone, +had sneeringly called him "Egyptian." I imagined now that through the +dark stain on his face I could see him turn pale with rage. He thought, +perhaps, that the American beauty was revenging herself for his +impertinence, and maybe he was right, but that did not excuse her. + +"Be careful, Miss Gilder!" I warned the girl. "This man understands +English better than you think. He comes of a princely family and he's +got only to put out his hand to claim a fortune--" + +"You seem to remember all about me now, Lord Ernest," broke in Fenton, +looking dangerous. + +"Yes," I said. "It comes back to me. You must forgive Miss Gilder." + +"There is nothing to forgive," he caught me up. "I am not a dragoman, +to be sure, but I'm enough of an Egyptian to have a price for anything +I do. I may put myself at this lady's service if she will pay my price, +though I'm not a servant and can't accept wages, even for the sake of +pursuing my excavations!" + +He continued to speak in French, lest my companions' suspicions should +be further roused by the English of an Englishman; and Monny, pale +after her blush, answered in neat, schoolgirl French, with a pretty +American, accent. "What's the price you wish to name?" she inquired, +looking a little afraid of him and ashamed of herself, now that talk of +princes and fortunes was bandied about. "Of course," she went on, when +he did not answer at once, "if I'd known--all this, I shouldn't have +asked you to be a dragoman. At least, perhaps I shouldn't. Anyhow, I +shouldn't have made a bet--" + +"A bet that I would have a 'price,' Mademoiselle? Then you may win your +bet, for I've just told you; I have a price. But I think it unlikely +you would be willing to pay it." + +"Good heavens, is he going to try and marry the girl?" I asked myself. +It would be the last thing to expect of Anthony Fenton. However, he had +already done the last but one; the thing I had bet his green turban he +would not do. After all, he was a man, and a reckless man, as he had +proved on more than one wild occasion. He was in a strange mood, +capable of anything; and the Gilded Rose could never have been prettier +in her life than at this minute. She had made him furious, and I had +imagined that his acceptance of her overtures was the beginning of some +scheme of punishment. Now I was almost sure I had been right, yet I +could not guess what he would be at. Neither could Monny. But here was +the dangerously picturesque Arab who "must be a prince or something," +as Cleopatra had expressed it. And he was even more dangerous than +picturesque. + +"You--you said you wouldn't take wages," she stammered (I enjoyed +hearing the self-willed young person stammer): "so I can't understand +what you mean. But even though you are all those things Lord Ernest +says you are, your price can't be so terribly high as to be beyond my +power to pay--if I choose to pay." + +"First, Mademoiselle, I must decide whether I choose to be paid." + +"Oh!" Monny exclaimed, taken aback. "I thought it was a question of +price." + +"Not only that. 'I _may_ put myself at the lady's service--for a +price,' was what I said. I didn't say, 'I will.' I shall not be able to +tell you until to-night." The patronizing tone in which Anthony spoke +this sentence was worth to me everything I had gone through in the last +half hour. + +"But--I want to settle things this morning or--not at all," said Monny, +reverting to type: that of the spoiled child. + +"I am sorry," replied the man of the green turban. "In that case, it +must be not at all." And he made as if to go. + +The Gilded Girl could not bear this. I and the others would see that +she was fallible; that there were things she wanted which she could not +get. "Why can't you tell me now what your price is?" she persisted. + +"Because, Mademoiselle, I may not need to tell you ever. It depends +partly on another than myself." He threw a quick glance at me. "I +expect to meet that other at Abdullahi's Café in an hour from now at +latest. Everything will depend on the interview. In any case, I will +let you know to-night what I can do." + +"I may not be in," said Monny. "But if I'm out, you can leave a note." + +"If I must refuse to serve you, yes, I can leave a note. If I am to +accept, I must see you in person. Should you be out, I'll take it for +granted that you have changed your mind and do not want"--he smiled +faintly for the first time--"so expensive a guide." + +Monny hesitated. "I am not stingy. I'll stay at home this evening," she +volunteered at last. + +"Bravo Petruchio!" I said under my breath. But if Biddy's plot were to +succeed, it was _my_ business to play the part of Petruchio to this +Katherine. Let the masquerading prince find a Desdemona who would suit +his Othello! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CAFÉ OF ABDULLAH + + +"Well--you got away from them all right?" began the man with the green +turban when, according to his roundabout instructions, I met him an +hour later at the café he had named, one of the principal resorts of +Cairo, where Europeans can consort with natives without attracting +remark. + +"The real dragoman came and took them off my hands--at least the realer +one than you--a dreadful creature with a game eye, who murdered your +messenger last night, and gave me your letter and induced the ladies to +engage him on the strength of it. No wonder they want a 'looker' to +take the taste of him out of their mouths. And you certainly are a +'looker' in that get-up. Now kindly tell me all about it, and +everything else." + +"That's what I'm here for," said Anthony, running a match-box to earth +in some mysterious Arab pocket. "But hold on, Duffer. Something you +said just then may be important. Is it true that my messenger didn't +give you the letter?" + +"If you'd hung about Shepheard's Hotel ten minutes longer, you'd have +seen the fellow who did give it. Bedr el Gemály he calls himself +--Armenian Mussulman, a sickening combination, and an awful brute to look +at--said your messenger was taken suddenly ill; pretends to be a +dragoman." + +"What is he like?" + +"Rather like a partially decayed but decently dressed goat." + +"Don't rot. This may be serious." + +I described Bedr el Gemály as best I could, feature by feature. When I +had polished them off, Anthony shook his green-turbaned head. "No +portrait of him in my rogues' gallery. Just now, I'm sensitive about +spies--over-sensitive rather. Of course, you've spotted my game?" + +"I confess I was conceited enough to think you'd given yourself all +this trouble with the costumier in order to take a rise out of me. But +when you speak of spies, I begin to put two and two together--your +business in Cairo--the powers that be, keeping you from me last night, +etc. I suppose it's an official job, this fancy dress affair?" + +"Yes. In my own capacity, I'm not in Cairo. I turned up day before +yesterday, jolly glad to get back from Adrianople--though it was good +fun there, I can tell you, for a while; and I looked forward to +wallowing no end in the alleged delights of civilization. I reported +myself, and all seemed well. I took a room at Shepheard's where you and +I had arranged to meet, and when I'd scrubbed, I strolled over to the +Turf Club to see what the gay world would have to say to a fellow in +disgrace." + +"Only silly asses swallowed that newspaper spoof! Every one in London +who knows anything about you was betting his boots that the story had +been spread on purpose to save our face with Turkey." I couldn't resist +interrupting his narrative to this extent. But Anthony merely smiled, +and watched a long-lived smokering settle like a halo over the head of +an Arab at the nearest table. He was not giving away official secrets, +but I was sure and always had been sure that he was a martyr, not a +rebel, in the matter of the Balkan incident, just closed. What the +public were led to suppose was this: that Captain Fenton had asked for +two months' leave from regimental duty at Khartum, in order to spend +the time with a relative who was seriously ill in Constantinople. That +instead of remaining at his relative's bedside, he had used his leave +for a dash to the Balkans. That this indiscretion might have been kept +a secret had he not capped it with another: a flight with a Greek +officer in an army aeroplane which had ended by crashing down in the +midst of a Turkish encampment. + +What I and friends who knew him best supposed, was that the "leave" had +been a pretext--that Fenton had been sent on a secret mission of some +sort--and that he was bound to take the blame if anything went wrong. +Aeroplanes have the habits of other fierce, untamed animals: they won't +always obey their trainers. Thus Anthony and his plan had both been +upset. (Or had it really been premeditated that he should fall into +that camp?) The remainder of his "leave" was cancelled, in punishment, +and he had been "recalled" to Egypt, to be scolded in Cairo before +proceeding to Khartum. + +"Queer how many silly asses one knows!" Anthony said. "Still, +considering what a mess I seem to have made of things, fellows were +jolly kind, at the Turf Club. Nobody cut me, and only a few let me +alone. Maybe there'd have been still fewer if there hadn't been a hero +present who claimed attention: an American chap, Jack Dennis, who knows +Miss Gilder and was telling the good news that she was on her way to +Egypt. He called her the Gilded Rose and said it was going to be a good +flower season in Cairo and up the Nile. All the men with one exception +seemed to have heard a lot about her and to find her an interesting +subject, and to want Dennis to introduce them." + +"I can guess the 'one exception'!" said I. + +"Can you? Well, I don't read newspaper gossip about heiresses. Thank +heaven, I've something better to do with my time. But the others wanted +to meet her, or pretended to, perhaps to chaff Dennis, rather a cocky +youth, though I oughtn't to say so, as he was nice to me, according to +his lights. He got Sam Blake to introduce us, when he happened to hear +my name, and went out of his way to pay me compliments, which I daresay +he thought I'd like. When there was a lull in the discussion of what +could be done to make Miss Gilder enjoy herself in Egypt--chaps +suggesting trips in their motor cars or on their camels and a lot of +rot, Dennis remarked that I was the only man who hadn't chipped into +the conversation. And hadn't I any ideas for entertaining the Golden +Girl? Naturally I said that I didn't know who she was and had never +heard of her, and even if I had, entertaining girls wasn't in my line. +They all roared, and Dennis wouldn't believe at first that I didn't +know of such an important person's existence; but the other men rotted +a bit, and described me to him according to their notions of me. So he +let me alone on the subject; and having plenty of other things to think +of, I forgot all about it till the lady in question introduced herself +this morning. Then--well, it struck me as rather amusing at first that +I, the only one in the crowd who hadn't made plans to get at her, +should have her trying to get at me. That was partly why I came up on +the terrace when she beckoned." + +"Partly? For purely intellectual reasons I'm curious to know the rest. +I suppose it had nothing to do with her looks?" + +"As it happened, my cynical friend, it hadn't. I've got eyes in my head +and I could see she was pretty, very pretty, though not my ideal type +at all. That little sprite of a woman in fawn colour, the one with +green eyes and a lot of black lashes, is more what I'd fall in love +with if I were frivolous. But apart from the funny side of my meeting +with Miss Golder, or Gilder, it popped into my head that I might make +her a victim in a certain cause. Don't ask me to explain yet, because +there are a lot of things that have got to be explained first, or you +couldn't understand. You were right, of course, when you thought I'd +stationed myself in front of Shepheard's to take a rise out of you. I +gave up my room there yesterday, for reasons I'll tell you. But I knew +you'd be in the hotel, and that you'd be bound to show yourself on the +terrace, in order to go out. I wanted to see if you'd recognize me, and +to have a little fun with you if you didn't. By the way, I'm not +pleased that you did. It's a poor compliment to my make-up, which I may +tell you has been warmly praised in high quarters!" "Well, you see," I +apologized, "I knew you were a nailer at that sort of thing, or you +would never have got to Mecca, and earned your green turban. I knew +you'd been pretty often called upon to disguise yourself and go about +among the natives for one thing or another. And besides, we were chums +before you had the shadow of a moustache, so I have an advantage over +the other Sherlock Holmeses! But even as it was, I couldn't be sure at +first. You must have got some fun out of my expression." + +"I did. I took revenge on you for recognizing me by tormenting you as +far as I dared. Dear old boy, I knew you'd see me through to the end, +bitter or sweet!" + +"Which was it?" I inquired. + +"Mixed. The girl riled me, rather, so much so that I definitely decided +it would be fair play to make use of her as a cat's-paw. But it depends +on you, whether she's to lose or win her bet." + +"If she loses, I get her hat. If she wins, I've engaged myself to +procure for her--your green turban." + +"Did you think you could, without my consent?" + +"No. I distinctly thought I couldn't. But I would have been willing to +bet the head in the turban, served up on a charger, so sure I was that +you'd refuse to come near her. I thought I knew you _au fond_, you +see." + +"You do. I haven't changed. But--circumstances have changed. And that +brings me near to the stage of this business which concerns you and me. +First, before I go further though, I'll tell you a part of the reason +why I'm sporting the green turban. There's been the dickens to pay +here, about a new street that had to be made; an immensely important +and necessary street. Well, they couldn't make it, because the tomb of +a popular saint or sheikh was in the way. To move the body or even +disturb a saint's tomb would mean no end of a row. You remember or have +read enough about Mohammedans to know that. What to do, was the +question. Nobody'd been able to answer it till yesterday, when the +sight of me reminded them of a trick or two I'd brought off some time +ago, by disguising myself and hanging about the cafés. They wanted me +to try it again. Consequently Captain A. Fenton received a telegram and +had to leave Cairo at once on business. He gave up his room at +Shepheard's, and the only regrettable thing to the official mind is, +that the fellow'd been seen about town even for an hour. However, it +couldn't be helped. Luckily Ahmed Antoun is not unknown in Cairo cafés. +He's made quite an impression upon the public on several occasions +since his pilgrimage to Mecca, two years ago. And since yesterday +afternoon, he's been drinking enough coffee to give him jaundice, while +casually spreading the story of a dream he had. Our friend the Hadji +related how he had slept in the mosque of Ibn Tulun after the noon +hour, and dreamed of the sheikh whose tomb is so inconveniently placed. +In the dream, the saint clamoured to have his tomb moved on account of +a bad smell of drainage which he considers an insult to his own memory. +Also dogs have taken to howling round his resting-place at night, and +you know that to the true believer a dog is an unclean animal. Except +for hunting purposes, or watch-dogging in various branches, good +Mohammedans class dogs and Christians together in their mind. Well, +already the Hadji's dream is working like yeast. The news of it is +being carried from one café to another; and I hope that a few more +nights' work will do the trick. The votaries of the saint will get up a +petition to have his body moved. When it has found another abode, the +making of the new thoroughfare will be suggested." + +"Very neat! I see it all, except the connection with Miss Gilder. What +has your saint got to do with her?" + +"Very little, I should say, by the look in her eyes. But though a green +turban's as good as an heirloom, and extorts respect wherever it goes, +even a Hadji may have jealous detractors. I have mine. Another green +turban in this town, whose genuineness is doubted for some obscure +reason or other, has sneered at my dream." + +"I say! That sounds as if you might be in danger. If one man suspects +you to-day, to-morrow------" + +"Oh, it's only the dream he suspects--at present. I know all the little +prayer tricks so well, and I've invented my own history so ingeniously, +with a _patois_ to match my province, that I shall get through this +incident as I have through others of the sort. There's only one hole in +my jebbah. Last night, when my rival sprang a sudden question as to +what I was doing in Cairo (I'm supposed to be a Luxor man), on the spur +of the moment I replied that I was acting as dragoman to a rich family +of tourists. On that, the brute inquired with honeyed accents where +they were staying. I said Shepheard's, because I expected you to be +there, and thought if I were followed, you might be useful as a dummy." + +"Ah, that's where Miss Gilder comes in? A gilded gingerbread lamb, +ready for the sacrifice. Why didn't you accept her offer at once, as +she seemed so providential?" "I'm coming to that. It sounds +complicated, but it isn't. For one thing, though, it may be well to +wait and find out a little more about that goat-eyed Armenian of +yours." + +"He isn't mine. He's--". + +"I want to know for certain whose he is. If he has anything to do with +my rival Hadji, there's more venom and wit inside that green turban +than I've given it credit for. Is there a reason, by the way, except +their riches, why one should want to 'get at' a member of the American +party?" + +"By Jove!" said I, as if I had been pinched--for there was a sharp nip +in the thought Anthony's question jabbed into my mind. I had disliked +and distrusted Bedr el Gemály, but I had associated my distaste for him +with Fenton's affairs. It had not occurred to me that Biddy's fears +meant more than a nervous woman's vague forebodings. During the few +hideous years of hide-and-seek she had passed in trying to protect the +traitor, Richard O'Brien, she had no doubt had real enough reason to +dread a spy in every stranger; but I had cheerfully advised her "not to +be morbid" when she spoke of herself as a dangerous companion, or +stopped me with a gasp in the midst of what seemed an innocent question +about her stepdaughter. Could it be possible that her alarms might +after all be justified, and that the powerful association betrayed by +O'Brien would visit his sins on his widow and daughter? That American +accent of Gemály's! He admitted having been in New York. Of course, he +had made acquaintances there. My thoughts flashed back to the meeting +at the railway train. Could the fellow have found out in advance that I +was with Mrs. O'Brien, [alias Jones] and her friends? It seemed as if +such knowledge could have reached land ahead of us only by miracle. But +there was always Marconi. Perhaps news of Miss Gilder had been sent by +wireless to Alexandria, with our humbler names starred as satellites of +that bright planet. If this were so, Bedr, instructed from afar to +watch Richard O'Brien's widow, might easily have been clever enough to +suborn a messenger waiting for one Ernest Borrow. + +"What are you mumbling about?" Anthony wanted to know, when I forgot to +answer. "Have I put some idea that you don't like into your head?" + +"I was turning your question over in it," I explained, "and wondering +what to answer. Of course, Miss Gilder's rather important, and I +believe her father's obsession used to be when she was a child, that +she'd be kidnapped for ransom. The 'little sprite of a woman' you +admire so much, knew the Gilders in those days. She says that the +unfortunate baby used to be dragged about in a kind of caged +perambulator, and that some of her nurses were female detectives in +disguise, with revolvers under their white aprons. No wonder the girl +revels in emancipation and travel! I should think, now she's grown up +to twenty-one years and five foot eight or nine of height, without +being kidnapped, there's not much danger so long as she keeps in the +boundaries of civilization. Still, one never knows, in such a queer +world as ours, where newspapers live on happenings we'd laugh to scorn +if they came out of novel writers' brains." + +"That's the only incentive you can suggest for spying, unconnected with +my affairs?" + +I hesitated, for Biddy's secret was not my secret, and it seemed that I +had no right to pass it on, even to my best friend. I must ask Biddy's +permission before telling Fenton that Mrs. Jones was the widow of the +informer Richard O'Brien; that she feared over-subtlety on the part of +the enemy might confuse her girl travelling companion with Esmé +O'Brien, hidden in a convent school near Monaco. "It's just credible +that there may be other incentives," I said. "But I must confess, I'd +rather believe that Armenian spies were on the track of Ahmed Antoun, +who can take care of himself, than after poor Miss Gilder or--any of +her party." + +"What's the name of the laughing sprite?" suddenly asked Fenton. + +"Mrs.--er--Jones. Brigit Jones." + +"Where's her husband?" + +"In his grave." + +"Oh! Well, his widow looks ready to bubble over with the joy of life, +so I suppose we can't associate spies or anything shady with her? +That's too much to hope for?" + +"Why to 'hope' for?" + +"It would make her too interesting." + +"Look here, my dear fellow, you can't have them both!" + +The dark eyes of Antoun lit with a spark of surprise and laughter. "I +don't want either, thanks. I admire flowers, but I never gather them. I +leave them growing. However, you might tell me which one you want for +your own buttonhole?" "Really, I don't know," I mumbled, taken aback. +"All I do know is, it's not likely I can get either." + +Anthony stared at me with a curious expression, then abruptly changed +the subject. "You've heard of Sir Marcus Lark?" he asked. + +"Of course," said I, surprised at this question sandwiched into our +affairs. Sir Marcus Lark is a man who has had his finger in many pies, +but I didn't see how he could poke one into ours. Everybody knows Sir +M. A. Lark, given a baronetcy by the Radicals some years ago in return +for services to the party--starting and running a newspaper which must +have cost him fifty thousand pounds before it began to pay. He has +financed theatres, and vegetarian restaurants; he owns cocoa +plantations and factories, and a garden city; he has a racing yacht +which once beat the German Emperor's; he owns two hotels; he has +written a book of travel; his name as a director is sought by financial +companies; he has lent money to a distressed South American government +in the making; and though the success of his enterprises has sometimes +hung in the balance for months or years, his wonderful luck seems +invariably to triumph in the end; so much so, that "Lark's Luck" has +become a well-known heading for newspaper columns, in the middle of +which his photograph is inset. At the mention of his name, the oft-seen +picture rose before my eyes--a big man, anywhere between thirty-six and +fifty--good head, large forehead, curly hair, kind eyes, pugnacious +nose, conceited smile under waxed moustache, heavy jaw, unconquerable +chin, and prize-fighter's neck and shoulders. "What has Sir Marcus Lark +to do with us?" "He's in Egypt--in Cairo just now; and--he's got our +mountain." + +"Good heavens!" I stared blankly at Anthony, seeing not his dark face +under the green turban, but that everlasting, ever-smiling newspaper +block portrait. Down toppled our castle in the air, Anthony's and +mine--the shining castle which had been the lodestone of my journey to +Egypt, the secret hope and romance of our two lives, for all those +months since Anthony first read the Ferlini papers and began +negotiations with the Egyptian Government. + +"It's all up then," I said, when I felt that I could speak without +betraying palsy of the jaw. "We're done!" + +"I'm not sure of that," Fenton answered. "If I had been, I shouldn't +have broken the news so brutally. It's on the cards that we may be able +to bring the thing off yet." + +"But how, if that bounder has got the place for himself? He must have +found out the truth about it somehow, or he wouldn't have bothered. And +if he knows what we know--or think we know--he certainly won't give up +to us what he's grabbed for himself. A beastly shame we should have +been let in like this, after being given to understand that it would be +all right." + +"Lark must have had a pull of some sort, I haven't learned what; but I +will. The one hope is, that he hasn't stumbled onto the secret." + +"What! You think he hit on our pitch by a mere coincidence--an +accident?" + +"No. There's not a shadow of doubt that he had a special motive for +wanting _our_ mountain and no other." "Have you formed an idea what the +motive is, if not the same as ours?" + +"I've heard his version from his own lips. It's rather astounding. And +I want you to hear it from him, too." + +"You've met him!" + +"Yesterday at Shepheard's, before I went in for this dressing-up +business. Lark heard I had wired for a room at the hotel, and was lying +in wait for me on the terrace when I got back from the Agency. We had a +talk. I'd heard just before, the news about the mountain. But he +explained. Now he wants to see you. He's got something special to say, +and I've made an appointment for you with him at two o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GREAT SIR MARCUS + + +The appointment was at the Semiramis Hotel, where Sir Marcus Lark was +staying. I went with my mind an aching void, and my heart a cold boiled +potato. I can think of nothing more disagreeable! For not a word more +would Fenton let drop as to the great man's business with us or the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. + +I sent up my card, and a few minutes later was shown into a private +salon more appropriate to a beautiful young duchess than to a middle-aged, +bumptious financier. It was pale green and white, full of lilies +and fragrance, and an immense French window opened out upon a roofed +loggia overlooking the Nile. This would have been the ideal environment +for our Gilded Rose; and I felt more venomous than before, if possible, +toward the rich bounder who posed against such an unsuitable +background. I thought, as the door of the salon was opened for me by +the smart Arab servant, that the room was untenanted, and that Sir +Marcus Lark meant to keep me waiting; but there he was, on the balcony, +gazing in rapture at the shining river. As if he were capable of +raptures, he, an earth-bound worm! But there was no mistaking that +back, those shoulders, or the face, as the big body turned. He advanced +through the open window, holding out a hand as big as a steak. He was +exactly like his photograph, except that there was even more of him +than I had been led to expect. The pretty room was net small, but +entering, he seemed to turn it into a doll's house parlour. "Six foot +two, if he's an inch!" I said to myself, longing to play David to his +Goliath. "Big, rich, common brute!" I thought. "You snatch our mountain +out of our mouths, and then you send for us as if we were servants--men +whose boots you ought to be blacking!" I was vindictive. I stared him +straight between the eyes--where a stone from David's sling would have +fitted in neatly. + +The eyes were wide apart, and kinder than in the photographs. They were +even curiously innocent, and boyish. His grin of greeting made the +large, waxed black moustache point joyously up. He showed teeth white +as a child's, and had dimples--actually dimples--in his big cheeks, to +say nothing of the one in his chin, with which snapshots had +familiarized me. He looked like a huge, overgrown schoolboy with a +corked moustache. My glare faded in the light of his smile. No man with +a gleam of humour could have kept a mask of grimness. I found my hand +enveloped in the pound of steak, and warmly shaken up and down inside +it. + +"Lord Ernest Borrow, I'm delighted to see you. Very good of you to +come, I'm sure!" to David quoth Goliath, in a big voice, mellow despite +a slight Cockney accent. "Nice view I've treated myself to here, what? +I'm in Egypt on business, but I like to have pretty things around me +--pleasant colours and flowers and a view. That's a specialty of mine. +I'm great on specializing. And that brings me to what we have in +common; a scheme of yours; a scheme of mine." + +I wanted to detest the man, but somehow couldn't. To hate him would be +hating an overpowering force, like heat, or electricity. + +With an old-fashioned politeness he made me sit down, picking out my +chair, the most comfortable in the room, then taking the next best for +himself. He fitted into it as tightly as a ripe plum into its skin, and +talked with one leg crossed over the other and swinging, the points of +his brown fingers joined. I was glad they were brown. + +"I'm afraid you're sore with me," he began, having ordered coffee and +liqueurs, and forced upon his guest a cigar as big as a sausage. "I've +got what you and your friend wanted; and I'm going to be frank with you +as I've been with him, and admit that I got it because you did want it. +Simply and solely for that reason and nothing else. He told you this?" + +"He left the telling to you," I said, wondering why I wasn't more +furious than curious. But it was the other way round. + +"Good egg! He promised he would, and he looks the sort of chap to keep +his promise. Well, I see you want me to get down to business, and I +will. I'm going to lay all my cards on the table. I came here to Egypt +for the first time in my life, to see a scheme through, and I landed on +the scene in time to find that I was likely to fail. I haven't told any +one else that, but your friend Fenton; for I never have made a business +failure yet, and I don't mean to now if I can help it. The scheme had +to be saved in a hurry if it could be saved at all; and when I set my +wits to work I saw that I must get hold of some such young men as you +and Captain Fenton to help me. I don't know how the thought of you two +popped into my head, but I suppose it was seeing a lot of stuff about +Fenton in the papers, his Balkan adventure, and the announcement that +he'd been recalled to his regiment. There were paragraphs about him as +a linguist, and an Egyptologist, and anecdotes of him as a smart +soldier. You know the sort of thing. And the stories about his +parentage caught my fancy a bit. They're romantic. I've got enough +romance in me to see that side of life, and to know how it goes down +with the women. This scheme of mine depends on women. Most schemes do. +At the same time the Egyptian papers were printing paragraphs about +Lord Ernest Borrow. I don't know whether you're aware of that or not? +No? Would you like to see 'em? I've had my secretary cut 'em out--and +the Fenton stuff, too. The minute this idea began to wiggle in my mind +like a tadpole in water, I kept everything." + +"Don't trouble about the paragraphs, thanks," I said. + +"All right. It will save our time not to. But your wish to go in with +your friend, for the rights of excavating in the Sudan, was mentioned, +and the delay on account of alleged interference with Garstang's +pitch." + +"By Jove, I wonder how the reporters got onto that?" I couldn't help +exclaiming. + +"It's their livelihood to get onto everything. 'Well then,' I said to +myself, 'Here's my chance, my only one. I want those two young men. +They're the right combination nation for me, to give real distinction +to my undertaking. I have money, but they ain't the sort you can buy +with money. There must be an incentive. If I get what they want, +perhaps I can get _them_.' So I went into the job tooth and nail. +Neither you nor Fenton was on the spot. I was--very much on it. Nothing +was definitely fixed up between the Government and Fenton for the right +to excavate at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, as they call the +little old molehill, and I scored. Now, if you two will do what I want, +you can have your mountain, and whatever you find you can keep. You're +worth more to me than any beads and broken-nosed statues under the sand +of Egypt. I think I've made some impression on your friend. He may be +inclined to go in with me, if you will. He's explained that in any case +he can't use his own name, on account of his position in the army and +so on. That's a disappointment to me, but I'll put up with it for the +sake of his accomplishments and his looks. Your name alone will carry +the necessary weight as a leader." + +"You're very flattering," said I. "But I'm in the dark." + +"I'm going to put you wise, as Americans say. My scheme was--and is--to +be a rival _de luxe_ of Cook on the Nile. Not only that, but all over +the near East. You've heard, of course, about my buying the Marquis of +Redruth's yacht _Candace,_ on his bankruptcy--the second biggest, and +the most up-to-date yacht in the world--and turning her into a pleasure +cruiser for the Mediterranean?" + +"If I've heard, I'm afraid my memory's treacherous," said I, glad to +show how unimportant to me were the schemes of financiers, but +interested in the yacht's name, which carried my thoughts away to +Meröe. + +"Great Scout! And I've spent two thousand in advertising! I've taken +whole pages of London and Continental papers!" + +"I never read advertisements if I can help it, except of new patents in +razors. They're a fad of mine." + +"Thank goodness you've got fads. Then we've something in common. I make +money out of my fads. I call 'em inspirations. I thought the _Candace_ +business was one of my inspirations, and that I'd have some fun out of +it. I advertised her to start on her first pleasure cruise from +Marseilles to Gib, Algiers, Tangier, Tunis, Greece, Alexandria, and +Jaffa. 'That'll be a smack in the eye for the big liners,' I said to +myself. 'I'll skim the top layer of clotted cream off their passenger +lists!' I was going to do the thing _de luxe_ straight through--bid for +the swell set, exclusiveness my motto. Of course I didn't expect to hit +the dukes and dollar kings first shot, but I thought if everything went +right the passengers would tell their friends at home how much better +we did them on board than any one else had ever done, and we'd get a +'snowball' ad, that nothing could stop. All would have worked out first +rate, if I hadn't made one mistake. I engaged a retired army colonel +for a conductor on board my yacht. I got the man cheap. But I was a +fool to economize on him. I ought to have launched out on a belted +earl. Folks, especially Americans, don't like retired colonels. The +woods are full of 'em over there, crawling with 'em. Most Americans are +colonels and not retired. Besides, this chap of mine's no good anyhow +--fancies himself as a politician, and is a first-class snob; has no +tact; rubs up the passengers the wrong way, and outrages their +feelings. We got a lot of people from the north of England, rich and a +bit crude, like me. Will you believe it, Colonel Corkran began his job +by sneering audibly at 'provincials' to some beastly friend of his, +come to see him off at Marseilles? Instead of making his dinner-table +lectures a kind of travellogue as he was hired to do, he turns 'em into +political tirades, and calls the Liberals scoundrels, half of our folks +being red-hot Rads. Not only that, if the girls and boys talk while the +band's playin' any of his favourite airs, he hisses out 'Silence,' +through a hole in his mouth where one tooth's missin'. That tooth bein' +gone, has got on the girls' nerves worse than anything else, it would +seem, except his being down on Suffragettes. And the crisis was reached +when he insulted Miss Hassett Bean, the richest and most important +woman in the bunch, when she expressed her political opinions. Said to +her, 'My dear lady, why do you bother to have opinions? They give you a +lot of trouble to collect, and nobody else will trouble to listen. Why +not collect insects or stamps instead?' Of course she did think Germany +had already invaded England with a large army of soldiers disguised as +hotel waiters, which was calculated to rile an old officer; but that's +no excuse for a man who's paid to please. And now the fellow's +wondering why he's not popular with the passengers!" + +I laughed, but Sir Walter had worked himself into a state past smiling +point. "It's no laughing matter," he said, "This snob Corkran's killing +my scheme. There's a plot on foot for the party to walk off the yacht +at Alexandria, and demand half their passage money. Some old grampus on +board has started the story that the _Candace_ has been down three +times------" + +"A lie, of course," I soothed him. + +"A dastardly lie. She's been down only twice. The first time was a +collision, the second a coincidence." + +"But I thought she was the most up-to-date yacht in the world!" + +"So she is, as the _Candace._ That was the Marquis's name for her: gave +it after a trip to Egypt. He bought her second hand, and rechristened +her while she was being redecorated. He spared no expense, which he +could well afford, seeing that he never paid a penny. I got her at cost +price, as you may say. But these plotters are going to claim that they +were inveigled on board under false pretences, by my advertising the +_Candace_ as the newest thing in yachts. I've had a letter and several +cypher telegrams from the assistant conductor, a useful chap, telling +me the whole story of the plot, which he's nosed out; and I'm faced +with humiliating failure unless I can save the situation by a grand +coup at the eleventh hour. Now, you can guess why on the spur of the +moment I bought up your rights to dig in the Sudan, can't you?" + +"I confess I can't," I said. + +"Why, I want you to take Colonel Corkran's place on the _Candace_ as +conductor. And I want you and your friend Fenton to go up Nile in +charge of the splendid steam dahabeah I've bought to supplement the +Mediterranean trip. There you have my motives in a nutshell!" + +I burst out laughing. "A cracked nutshell," I remarked. Sir Marcus' +rosy face turned royal purple. "What--you won't undertake it?" + +"I couldn't," I assured him. "For one thing, I'd be a fish out of +water. My dear sir, perhaps you don't know that my nickname since the +age of five has been 'Duffer?' I'm proud of it. I take pains to live up +to it----" + +"I bet you do. I bet it opens doors and lays down velvet carpets for +you. Why, a duffer with a title is exactly what I want! Duffers are the +rage nowadays. You and your friend will make a brilliant pair, a fine +contrast, especially with your friend's present get up. If you'd both +been born for me you couldn't suit me better." + +I laughed again. "You said you ought to have launched out on belted +earls. We're humble----" + +"There's no earls handy, and if there were any, they wouldn't be what +you two are in looks and talents, to say nothing of your brother being +a marquis. I'm offering you both the softest kind of job. All you have +to do is to be agreeable young gentlemen, with a knowledge of society, +and history; that means, you can be yourselves. You get a fine trip on +high salaries if you don't scorn to accept my money; and as a reward +for a good holiday you receive the right to explore your golden +mountain. I suppose you must think it _is_ a golden mountain, or you +wouldn't be such nuts on it. You'd better consult your friend before +you refuse my offer, anyhow." + +"Haven't you heard that Fenton's left Cairo?" I took the precaution to +ask. "That doesn't look as if he were entertaining the idea of going up +the Nile on your steam dahabeah." "I have heard that he's left. But I +happen to know--it isn't so. I saw him standing in front of Shepheard's +Hotel this morning, waiting for you. I got on to what was in that green +turban before the pretty girl in white--Miss Gilder, I've found out +since--called him on to the terrace. Don't look as if you wanted to eat +me, Lord Ernest. I've won my way up from the bottom rung of the ladder +by keeping my eyes open, and by putting two and two together. I +specialize on that. I don't suppose there's another man in Cairo except +me and you, would have recognized Fenton, so you needn't worry. I +twigged that he'd dressed up for serious business, not for fun, because +I read about some smart coups he'd brought off by going among the +natives like one of themselves. I'm not a sneak, and I shan't revenge +myself by giving him away, even if you two do show me the frozen face. +Captain Fenton encouraged me to think he might consider my proposition +if you would, though he refused to influence your decision one way or +the other. Naturally I conclude that he could be on my Nile boat if he +wanted to, even if not in his own capacity as an officer. I'll take him +in his green turban. He makes the best looking Egyptian I ever saw, and +he'd go down with the ladies like hot cakes." + +"Sir Marcus," I smiled, "you're one of the most amusing as well as the +sharpest men, if you'll allow me to say so, that I ever met. Whatever +happens I shall not forget this conversation." + +"I don't want you to forget it," he grinned, beginning to hope. "Think +it over. We're the chance of a lifetime for each other. And remember +the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." I rose, and he got up heavily. +"When will you let me know?" he asked. + +I was tempted to reply that he must have taken Fenton's seeming +encouragement too seriously, that, mountain or no mountain, it was +practically impossible for us to accept his amazing proposition. But +suddenly I seemed to hear "Antoun Effendi" telling Miss Gilder that she +must wait for his decision until evening. He had said afterward, also, +that it depended on me. It was evident that he had a scheme of his own, +worked by wheels within wheels. He had consoled me after the first blow +by saying that all was not lost. And I had four months' leave from +duty. A lot could be done in four months. "I will let you know before +night," I said to Sir Marcus Lark. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REVELATIONS OF A RETIRED COLONEL + + +Fenton's orders were, when the Cairo business should be finished, to go +slowly up the Nile in native dress, and get at the truth of certain +rumours which had disturbed officialdom at Cairo. At Denderah, Luxor, +and two or three other places there had been "incidents," small but +troublesome. English sightseers had complained of being hustled, and +even insulted by the inhabitants of several river towns, and it was +important to find out whether the Egyptians or the foreigners had been +more to blame; whether there were real symptoms of sedition, as +reported, or whether the young men of the suspected places had merely +resented with roughness some discourtesy of tactless tourists. Fenton +had seized upon the idea that, as Egyptian lecturer and conductor--a +sort of super-dragoman--on board Lark's Nile boat, he might find a +plausible pretext for his secret errand. "Why do you travel?" would be +the question he must expect from suspicious leaders of any plot that +might be hatching, if he journeyed from one Nile village to another +without the excuse of business. As a glorified conductor of a pleasure-trip +for a party of tourists his excuse would be readymade for him; but +he had been far from sure that I would fall in with Sir Marcus Lark's +plan, despite the bribe. He had wanted me to hear the whole story, the +whole project, from Sir Marcus' own lips; and in his uncertainty of the +result, he had thought of Miss Gilder as an attractive "victim." There +she was, as he had said, presented to him by Providence. If I should +pour scorn upon the Lark suggestion, he might find it worth while to +guide the Gilded Girl and her friends on their Nile pilgrimage. He left +the question for me, and I decided to kill as many birds as possible +with one stone. The name of the yacht was in itself an incentive: +_Candace_--Queen of Meröe--our Meröe. She seemed to call, and to +promise good luck. We would accept Lark's terms, and enter his service +in return for a written agreement to hand over his ill-got digging +rights to us, whether or no we turned out to be satisfactory as guides. +We could but do our best, and at all events we should earn the reward +which we had looked upon as ours already. Anthony would play his double +part, serving the interests of government and those of Sir Marcus Lark. +As for Monny Gilder, why shouldn't she and her party become Lark's +passengers? The only reason against this "inspiration" (as Sir Marcus +would have called it), lay in the fact that Monny wished to engage a +private dahabeah. When she wished for a thing, it appeared that only a +miracle or a cataclysm could induce her to give it up for something +else suggested by an outsider. But when I mentioned this peculiarity to +Fenton, he was fired to punish the girl by forcing her compliance with +our will. She had treated him like a servant. She looked upon a man +supposedly of Egyptian blood, even though of princely birth, somewhat +as she looked upon an American "nigger." True, Anthony Fenton had in +his veins but very few such drops. On his father's side he was all +English, and his mother had been more than two thirds Greek and +Italian. Nevertheless this spoilt girl had struck a blow at the pride +which went ever walking about the world with a chip lightly poised on +its shoulder. Anthony had no desire to poach on my preserves. At the +same time he yearned to show Miss Gilder that he could be her master, +not her servant. + +Once Anthony and I had made up our minds, everything else arranged +itself with lightning speed. Sir Marcus, rejoicing in his ill-got +conquest of us, broke to me the news that I must go by the first ship +to the Piraeus, to meet the _Candace,_ and head off the recalcitrant +band of passengers. He flattered me by thinking that, if I took the +place of Colonel Corkran as conductor, they would abandon their plot to +desert the yacht at Alexandria. It was, according to Lark's secret +information, only the "smart and would-be smart set" who had combined +to spring this mine upon the management. The rest grumbled no more than +it was normal for all pleasure-pilgrims to grumble; and as, roughly +speaking, the contented travellers were all going on to Palestine after +a week's wild sightseeing in Cairo, the colonel might be allowed to +continue his voyage without the interruption of a "row." + +"I should have had enough common sense at the start," growled Sir +Marcus with crude candour, "to engage a lord for the Smart Set, and a +parson for the Ernest Inquirers. There's a world of difference catering +for a Set, and a Flock. The art is, to know it, and how to do it. Now +I've secured you, I'm all right with the S. S. and thanks be, I've a +young reformed missionary on board to shepherd the Flock. Now the +Reverend Watts will come in handy, herding his sheep through Palestine, +while the colonel swaggers and fancies he's bossing the show. It's the +Egypt lot I worry about: girls out for dukes, and dukes out for +dollars. Not that there's a darned duke on board, but there are some +who think they out-duke the dukes, and it's our business to humour 'em. +You just duff all you want to, Lord Ernest, they'll swallow anything +you do, like honey. Don't bother about a line of conduct: only be +genial. Murmur soft nothings to the women; flirt but don't have +favourites. Don't be too political with the men: work in plenty of +anecdotes about your swell relations." + +I replied that I could confidently promise geniality, except if +seasick: but Sir Marcus implored me at all costs not to be seasick. +That was the one thing I must not be. My whole time between the Piraeus +and Alexandria, on board the _Candace,_ must be spent ingratiating +myself with the sulky passengers, and obliterating from their memories +the crimes of Colonel Corkran. In Sir Marcus' opinion my future charges +had taken passage on the _Candace,_ and would go up the Nile, not to +see sights, but to be seen doing the right things. According to him not +two out of twenty cared tuppence for Egypt, but wished to talk about it +in sparkling style at home. My friend Captain Fenton and I must make it +sparkle. Sir Marcus had resigned himself to the fact that one of his +trump cards--Anthony--could not be produced until the arrival in Cairo +of the troupe, and that even then, the name of Fenton must not be used +as an attraction. Lark felt confident that I was a good enough card to +make his hand worth playing, and in spite of the half contemptuous +amusement with which I regarded the whole scheme, I couldn't help being +"on my mettle." I found myself wanting to succeed, wanting to please +the big, common man whom a few hours ago I had been cursing. + +I had to start for Greece the night after our decision. Meanwhile, I +was anxious to explain the unexplainable to Brigit and Monny, and +secure the party for Sir Marcus Lark's alleged dahabeah, which turned +out to be one of Cook's old boats bought and newly decorated. Both my +tasks would be difficult. I had to hide the secret reason for selling +myself to the financier, and at the same time keep the respect of the +ladies. As for inducing Miss Gilder to give up her dream of a private +dahabeah, I foresaw that it would be like persuading the youngest +lioness in the Cairo Zoo to surrender her cherished wooden ball. But I +began by giving Monny a present; a fine old turban-box of rare, red +tortoise shell inlaid with mother of pearl, which I found at an +antiquary's. In the silklined box reposed a green turban; and that +green turban told its own story. Miss Gilder flushed with pleasure at +sight of it. "I've won my bet!" she exclaimed. + +"Yes," said I. "To my astonishment! The man consents. He's a great +prize, knows Cairo and upper Egypt like a book. But you'll have to +surrender him when you go on the Nile." + +In her haste to know why, Monny forgot to ask how I had obtained the +green turban; and for this I was glad, because it was only the second +best headgear of my smart friend the Hadji. In explaining that the +distinguished Egyptian had been engaged by Sir Marcus Lark, I slipped +in a word about my own part in the trip, describing it as an ideal +rest-cure for a budding diplomat on sick leave. I praised the boat and +spoke of the fun on board. I regretted Miss Gilder's preference for a +private dahabeah, so obvious, so millionairy! Still, I added, every one +to his taste! And anyhow, no doubt all the best cabins on the +_Enchantress Isis_ were taken. + +That was the entering wedge--the mention of an obstacle to overcome. +Miss Gilder looked thoughtful, though she kept silence: and next day, +when making my adieux before starting for Alexandria, she flung out a +careless question. When would the _Enchantress Isis_ leave Cairo? How +many passengers would she carry? Would there be a rush at the Temples, +or would there be plenty of time for proper sightseeing? And was I sure +that all the nicest cabins were engaged? No, I was not sure. I could +inquire. I tried not to look triumphant, but I must have darted out a +ray, because Monny withdrew into her shell. She had inquired out of +curiosity, she explained. I had told such stories about the +_Enchantress Isis_ that she would like to see her. Perhaps Antoun +Effendi could get permission for a visit to the boat. + +In this state I had to leave affairs, and start for the Piraeus, where +I must await the return of the tourists from Athens. I had two days at +sea in which to work up an agony of apprehension, and I could have +thanked heaven when, arriving on board the big white yacht, I found +that I was ahead of the passengers. I was expected, however, and a deck +cabin was ready for my occupation. I hoped that I had not turned out my +rival from the room, but dared not question the steward. He seemed to +know all about me, nevertheless, and said that my name had been "posted +up" as conductor of the Nile party. "If I may take the liberty of +mentioning it, my lord," he added, "it has made a very good +impression." We were to steam for Alexandria the moment the passengers +arrived in the special train--having had three days of sightseeing in +Athens--and I had just got my possessions stowed away when a wave of +chattering voices broke over the ship. My heart gave a jump, as a +soldier's must when called to fight on an empty stomach at dawn on a +winter's morning. What ought I to do? How was I to make the +acquaintance of my future charges? Must it be en masse, or could it be +done singly? I had neglected to ask Sir Marcus what would be expected +of me, and I was in a worse funk than a new boy on his first day at +school. Soon it would be dinner time. I wished that I were ill, but I +remembered that the one thing I must not do was to be seasick. Already +the ship was beginning to move out of the Greek harbour, or I should +have been tempted to get a telegram calling me home. Even the Mountain +of the Golden Pyramid seemed not too great a sacrifice to make--but it +was too late to make it--and some one was knocking at my door. + +I opened it with such courage as I had; and the instant I set eyes on +the man I knew that he was Colonel Corkran. He was born to be a retired +colonel. What came before the retiring could have been but a prelude. A +stout figure of middle height; red face, veined on cheeks and nose; +pale blue eyes which looked as if they had faded in the wash; purple +moustache and eyebrows; close-cropped gray hair; a double chin +clamouring for extra collar space; and a bridge-player's expression. +This was the rival whose place I had virtually, though not officially, +usurped. + +I was prepared to hear him hiss "Viper!" between his teeth, as +characters in melodramatic serials do to perfection, their front teeth +having doubtless been designed for such purposes. But his look seemed +to denote pity rather than hatred. So might a prison-warder regard a +condemned man, in coming to announce the hour of execution. + +"Lord Ernest Borrow?" said he, in a slightly hoarse voice. "I'm Colonel +Corkran. Delighted to meet you. I've met your brother, Lord Killeena. +Daresay he wouldn't remember me. I don't think I can begin better than +by thanking you for coming to take over my job." + +"Oh, I haven't done that!" I hastened to protest, as he sat fatly down +in a chair I pushed forward. "As I understand, I'm to take a few people +off your hands, and the hands of your assistant, Mr. Kruger, so that +you can go to Palestine instead of leaving that important excursion +entirely to the chaplain, Mr. Watts." + +Colonel Corkran laughed. "Thank you for trying to save my feelings," +said he. "But I assure you they're not hurt. I'm sincerely delighted to +see you--for my own sake. For yours--well, that's another pair of +shoes! My dear fellow, I wonder if you've the smallest idea what you're +in for?" + +"In for?" I echoed. + +"Yes. I'm saying this as a friend. Don't think I'm jealous. Lord, no! I +look on you as a deliverer. And don't think I want to frighten you. It +isn't that. But I feel it's my duty to prepare you. I might have got on +better if there'd been some one to do the same by me. There wasn't. +Kruger, my so-called assistant, is a spy. At best, he's a mere +accountant, not supposed to look after the passengers socially. I +gather that he was some secretary of Lark's. Beware of him. He writes +to Lark from every port. As for the passengers, the saintly lot are bad +enough. Yet it's only the food and the cabins and the attendance _they_ +grumble about. I'm shunted off the worldly lot onto them in future. But +at their worst, they'll be a rest-cure! and Lark has the decency not to +reduce my screw. It's the worldly lot that's going to make you curse +the day you were born." + +He wanted me to speak, or groan; but I maintained a stricken silence, +to which I gave some illusion of dignity. After a disappointed pause he +went on: "You'd better know something about these people. Beasts, every +one of 'em, young or old, some beastly common beasts, but all beastly +rich, except those that are beastly poor, and on the make--to marry +their daughters, or cadge for smart friends. Lark was bidding for +swells, and got snobs. Thinks his silly title will carry weight in +society as it does in the city. 'Lark Pie,' we're called, I hear. I +call us a 'Pretty Kettle of Fish!' The girls are the worst of the +caboodle, though some of 'em aren't bad looking. You won't believe the +trouble I've had with the creatures till you begin to get the same +yourself." + +"What kind of trouble?" I inquired gingerly. + +"Every kind a woman can make. Apart from food troubles, they think +they're not being entertained enough on board; think I ought to get up +more dances; tango teas I suppose! Don't like the way I organize games; +are mad because they can't have music at meals--which they can't +because the band's all stewards; blame me because the men don't make +love to them, or because they do. And at the hotels where we go on +shore, it's Hades. Naturally the people staying in the hotels resent +us. They look on us as a menagerie--a rabble. So we are. At least, they +are. I don't count myself in with them. What can I do? I'm not +omnipotent. Perhaps you are. Anyhow, they're prepared to believe it, +for you're a new broom--a broom with a fine handle. I'm only a poor +colonel with a few medals given by my country for services that were +appreciated. You're brother to a marquis." + +"You paint a lurid picture" I said, when he stopped for breath. + +"I couldn't paint it lurider than it is. But you'll have to find out +for yourself. It won't be so bad while you're a novelty. Don't say I +haven't warned you. And oh, by the way, I've announced that you're to +be presented to the passengers at dinner to-night, on coming in, before +the soup is served." + +"As a sort of _hors d'oeuvre,_ I suppose," I murmured weakly. + +Colonel Corkran stared, without a smile. "As the titled conductor of +the Egypt tour," he explained to my dull intelligence, with a slight +sneer. "So will you please be in the dining saloon just before the +bugle blows the beasts in? I have to introduce you, in a short speech. +It's all I can do, except say, God help you! But I don't see how He +can. I suppose your friend Sir Marcus told you that you would be +expected to deliver a lecture on Egypt, to-night at the dinner table? +After you've finished your dinner, of course. I hope the cracking and +crunching of nuts doesn't disturb you much? I confess I've found it +getting on my nerves." + +I was aghast. My mind jumped to the wild thought of eating soap, in +order to froth at the mouth and simulate a fit. It seemed my only way +of escape, and after that, the Deluge. But my rival was so revelling in +the mental havoc he had wrought that I rallied, replying that, as Sir +Marcus had not broken the news to me, I didn't see how it would be +possible to deliver a lecture. + +"Aren't you up on Egypt?" the colonel asked, pityingly. "Neither am I, +though I've sweated over Baedeker with my head in wet towels, when I +wanted to be at bridge. But I thought that was the excuse for engaging +you? That, and your title, of course, which is going to make you +popular. As fast as I fag up the names of those beastly Egyptian gods +or kings and queens, they run out of my brains like water out of a +sieve. Or if I do contrive to remember any, by chance, together with +their dates, which is almost more than can be expected of the human +intellect, why, I find that I pronounce 'em wrong; or they're spelled +another way in the next book. But I suppose as you know Egypt, its d--d +history comes natural as breathing." + +How I wished it did! And how different was this new programme from the +one outlined by Sir Marcus. Just to be genial, and flirt with the +girls. "My recollections of Egypt are from some time ago," I admitted. +"To give a lecture at half an hour's notice.----" + +"In justice to yourself I'm afraid you'll have to," the colonel +persisted. "It's been announced that you will give the lecture, and the +Egypt lot are looking forward to it as the animals in a zoo look +forward to their food. If they're defrauded, they'll think you a +slacker, and that you're presuming on your title." + +"I shouldn't like that!" my anguish racked out of me. + +"I fancied you wouldn't. But what's to be done? Am I to announce, when +I introduce you, that your knowledge of Egypt isn't equal to the +strain?" + +I took an instant for reflection. I knew that he was hoping I might +throw myself on his mercy, or else that I would speak and fail; but I +determined to do neither. "On second thoughts, I may be able to give +some kind of a pow-wow," I replied. + +Colonel Corkran's face fell. "That's all right, then!" he exclaimed, +getting to his feet. "Well, I must be off. Will you have a cocktail?" + +"No, thanks," said I. "I think I can get on without it." + +He was at the door. "Kind of hash of gods and goddesses with a +peppering of kings and queens, and mixed sauce of history and legend, +is what's needed," were his farewell words. Then he shut the door; and +I tore my watch from the pocket of my waistcoat. I had twenty-eight +minutes in which to prepare the said hash with its seasoning and sauce; +and the bugle was inviting my judges to dress for the inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FOXY DUFFING + + +"I'll show you your place," Corkran volunteered, lying in wait for me +inside the saloon door, with a cocktail in his hand. "Sorry you +wouldn't have one. You'll need it. But no time to change your mind. +I've put you at the head of the table that would be the captain's, if +he ate with us, which he doesn't--happy man! Place of honour. 'Twas +mine, 'tis yours. But I can't go on with the quotation unless I turn it +into 'You're slave to thousands.' Sixty odd can be as formidable as +thousands." + +"Are there sixty odd?" I asked. + +"Yes, very 'odd.' The Egypt lot will be about twenty-five. But the +whole gang's yours for the present. I give them to you, with the seat +of honour." + +"Please don't put me in your place," I protested. "I prefer------" + +"My poor boy, it isn't a question of what you prefer, as you'll learn +if you stick this out. Of course if you funk it--but that's a joke! +This table's the only one where you can be heard. Do you see?" + +I did see; and accepted the situation, because the dinner bugle began +to sound, and I could not be scampering round the saloon like a +frightened rabbit as the Set and the Flock began dropping in to dinner. +As it happened, they did not drop--they poured into the room in a +steady stream, which phenomenon, whispered Corkran, was caused by +curiosity for a first sight of me. My heart counted each new arrival, +with a bump. + +If Corkran had not represented "Lark's Party" as being a menagerie for +which I had inadvertently engaged as tamer, I should have thought they +looked a harmless crowd. But then, of course, I was not obliged to tame +anybody on the _Laconia,_ which makes a difference in one's point of +view. Miss Gilder needed taming, no doubt, but I hadn't tackled the +task. My thoughts flew to Cairo, as I stood struggling to look +pleasant; and I wished myself back where Anthony Fenton was now in the +taming business. I envied him, for there was only one Monny, whereas in +this terrible, bright dining saloon, the air was pink and white with +girls, dozens of girls, with eyes fixed on me, glittering eyes, which +appeared like the headlights of motor cars. I didn't suppose there +could be so many eyes in the world as these people of all ages and +every possible sex seemed to own. Sixty odd they were, according to +Corkran, but they looked like six hundred; a human miracle of loaves +and fishes. + +Yes, the creatures might have appeared harmless enough had there been +no retired colonel. But there was a retired colonel, and so deftly had +he undermined my courage that almost any shock might cause it to +explode in a blue flame of funk. His speech of introduction was now to +come, and if I survived that, I might hope to live through my own +fireworks. + +"They've put on their best bibs and tuckers," Corkran mumbled in a +stage whisper, as the eight dwellers at our table began to sort +themselves for places. Then, in portentous silence he paused till +everybody everywhere was seated. Waiting still, until satisfied that +eyes and ears were focussed upon us, he rapped on the table with the +handle of a knife. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he roared, "I have the pleasure of introducing +to you Sir Marcus Lark's Great Surprise, entitled Lord Ernest Borrow, +younger brother of the Marquis of Killeena, a peer, as Sir Marcus has +reminded us, of the oldest lineage in Ireland. Let me reassure you all +by saying that Lord Ernest's last name is as unsuited to his nature as +the first is true to it. If you'll pardon the pun it is Sir Marcus who +'Borrows' for your benefit, and he hasn't Borrowed Trouble, but a +Blessing--in disguise. I am now left free, as suits my superior age and +experience, to devote my attention to the serious minded ones among +you, who are to proceed with the Reverend Mr. Watts and myself to +Palestine. This young and gallant neophyte will 'lord' it over the +fleshpots of Egypt and those about to seek them. I hope you'll help him +as loyally as you have helped _me:_ and later we'll drink to his health +and success, in any beverage we happen to have signed for!" + +To have killed Corkran might have been butchery; no jury could have +brought in a verdict of murder or even manslaughter, had I stabbed him +with the knife he used to pound upon the table. I smiled the smile of a +skull in a doctor's waiting-room, and in a sickly voice bleated my +pleasure in meeting these new acquaintances. I hoped we might be--er +--friends as well as shipmates. Then like a mass of jelly out of its +mould I plopped onto my chair. The colonel had sneaked off to his own +table and I was left to recover myself as best I might among eight of +his enemies. They proved (in whispers) to be the most active of these, +and tacitly offered me allegiance which I accepted in the same manner. +There was a Sir John Biddell, who informed me in the first five minutes +that he had been Lord Mayor of London. He promised to show me a speech +he had made in the presence of King Edward which, in the form of a +newspaper cutting, he never travelled without. This, however, was his +first trip farther than Paris, and he had brought with him, not only +the speech, but his wife and twin daughters. The distinguished family +occupied one side of my table: the other was given up to a General +Harlow, his wife (both with high profiles and opinions of themselves), +a youngish newspaper proprietor from Manchester, evidently rich and a +"catch," and a maiden lady doubtless of importance equal to her +proportions, as she was allowed to bring to the table a melancholy +marmoset. These people did their best to raise my spirits. The girls, +who copied royalties in their hair-dressing, looked alike, dressed +alike, talked and laughed alike, and entertained me with chat about +high society in London. They had red cheeks, black eyes, white teeth, +and an almost indecent familiarity with the private lives of the +aristocracy. The Misses Biddell and fat Miss Hassett-Bean (the lady of +the marmoset) hinted that the cream of the yacht's social life had +risen to our table, and told me, not only what to lecture about, but +how to treat the rival cliques. My brain felt more and more like a +blotting-pad. I answered at random and longed for the meal to end +--until I remembered my lecture. Then I wished that dinner might go on +indefinitely like the tea party of the Mad Hatter. All too soon the +glory of a French menu flickered down to a dying spark of nuts and +raisins, and hardly had I cracked my first almond (was it an ill omen +that there should be a worm in it?) when a steward handed me a twisted +note from the executioner. "The rule for conductor's dinner speech is, +rise with the raisins! Hope you won't find your lecture too hard a nut +to crack. Yours sympathetically, Corkran. Bang on the table to make +them stop gabbling. Or shall I do it for you? If you haven't by the +time I count ten, I will." + +He did. I trust it wasn't my courage that failed. But having a raisin +in my mouth I could not on the instant respond to the lash. And as +Corkran would have said, it takes more than one swallow to make a +speech. Ruthlessly he rapped, seizing what I wished might be his dying +chance to indulge a mania for puns and thumping wood. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he bawled from his comparatively obscure +corner. "Lord Ernest Borrow will render your last moments the most +enjoyable of the meal, by washing down your nuts and raisins with the +wine of his eloquence. Take your desserts now. We conscientious +conductors hope for ours in heaven." + +How ardently I desired that these might indeed be the "last moments" +not only of my audience but of Colonel Corkran. If the next second had +brought a tidal wave or a collision I should have blessed Providence. +But I got to my feet--and nothing happened. I seemed to be in a dream, +of having shot up to a gigantic height, and having put on the wrong +clothes, or none. My hands weighed two pounds each, and ought to have +been at the butcher's. My mouth was the size of a negro minstrel's, and +so full of large bones which once had been teeth that I could not utter +a syllable. I clacked my jaws, and emitted a hacking cough which +fortunately so much resembled that of a professional lecturer that I +kept my senses. Not only did I keep them, but they seemed suddenly to +become my servants. The thought of a certain fable jumped into my head, +and I began thereupon to speak; although I had forgotten everything I +had ever read of Egyptian history. + +"It happens," said I, in a phonographic voice, "that I was born in +Egypt. I played with clay gods and goddesses instead of tin soldiers. I +preferred stories of Egypt's past and present to tales of adventure. I +confess to you what I fear I didn't confess to Sir Marcus Lark. The +trouble is, I'm stuffed too full of facts about Egypt. I want you to +help me get them out, and not duplicate yours. No doubt all of you, in +travelling to the East, have packed your brains with knowledge as well +as your boxes with guide books. Why should I bore you by telling you +things that you were born knowing? A plan has occurred to me by which +your knowledge can be turned into account. As I said, I beg your help. +And permission to drink a cup of coffee would be first aid." + +People laughed, whether at me, or with me, I was not sure; yet I felt +that I had tickled their curiosity. Coffee was going round. Corkran was +unctuously sipping his, and had not expected me to receive mine till +after the battle. But I got it in spite of him, and mapped out a +programme as I drank. Then I ceased to tremble before the confused +assemblage or bird-headed gods, cat-faced goddesses, and sacred +vultures that danced or flapped in my brain. + +I no longer felt inclined to commit suicide because I could remember +nothing about Egypt except that the Delta was shaped like a lily, with +the Fayum for a bud, and the Nile for its stem: that Alexander the +Macedonian defeated Darius the Persian B. C. three hundred and +something; that ancient Egyptians loved beer, but were forbidden to eat +beans. + +"My proposal is," I went on, "that before I unload any of my knowledge +upon you, I gleam some idea of what you know already. Thus I can spare +you repetitions. Any one who has anything particularly interesting to +say about Egypt, let him--or her--hold up a hand." + +Now was the crucial moment. If no hand went up, I was lost. But hardly +were the words out of my mouth when there was a waving as if in a +wind-swept wheatfield _Place aux dames!_ I called upon Miss Hassett-Bean +to begin. She rustled silkily up, bowing to me, then directing an +acetylene glare upon Colonel Corkran's end of the room. She was, I +foresaw, about to kill two birds with one stone, to say nothing of the +marmoset, who fell off her arm into General Harlow's coffee and created +a brief diversion. As soon, however, as the monkey was rescued and +before General Harlow's shirt front was dried, the lady began to speak. + +"We all thank Lord Ernest," she said, looking from the colonel to the +Reverend Wyman Watts, and back again, "for sparing us one of those +commonplace inflictions from which we've nightly suffered on board this +yacht. If we didn't know already, such school-book facts as +Christianity being introduced to Egypt by St. Mark in Nero's time, and +Moses and Plato both studying philosophy at Heliopolis, and things like +that, we wouldn't be spending our money with Sir Marcus A. Lark to see +Egypt. Never before have we been encouraged to air our views. Those of +us with political opinions have been snubbed; and we who are interested +in Woman Suffrage have been assured that we'll find nothing to please +us in the land of Veiled Women. At last I am given a chance to state +without being interrupted that Egypt was once the most enlightened +country in her treatment of women. Long before the time of the Greeks, +and even before the Shepherd Kings Mr. Watts has told us so much about, +using his Old Testament as if it were a Baedeker, the women of Ancient +Egypt had rights according to their class. Queens and princesses were +considered equal with their husbands. Women were great musicians, +playing on many instruments, especially the sistrum, sacred to the +goddess Hathor. And weren't all the best gods goddesses, when you come +to think of it? Women used to drive their own chariots, as we do our +motors, and hold salons, like the French ladies. There was Rhodopis, +for instance, who married the brother of Sappho. I wonder if Colonel +Corkran could have told you that the story of Cinderella comes from an +anecdote of Rhodopis? I hardly think that he's been able to spare +enough time from bridge to study Strabo, who was the Baedeker of Egypt +for tourists six hundred years before Christ. An eagle saw Rhodopis +bathing, and stealing one of her sandals flew with it to Memphis, where +he dropped it into the king's lap. It was so small and dainty that King +Hophra scoured Egypt for the owner, and when he found her at last, +according to Strabo, made her his queen." + +"If Strabo was right, she lived long before Sappho's day!" interpolated +the colonel's voice. + +"Of course, Strabo was right. There were two of Rhodopis. Everybody +knows that. The Third Pyramid was built for the tomb of the first one, +_not_ for King Mycineris, _I_ believe. Why shouldn't a woman have a +Pyramid to herself? The Sphinx is a woman, as I will insist to my dying +day, if it were my last word! I hope Lord Ernest won't ram down our +throats any nonsense about that noble and graceful tribute to the +Mystery of Womanhood being a stupid King Harmachis, or Horemkhu. I +wouldn't believe it if I found a hundred nasty stone beards lying +buried in the sand under her chin, instead of one, which could easily +have been put there to deceive people. Probably King Harmachis had the +Sphinx altered to look like him. No wonder she shuddered at such +profanation, and shed her false beard. There you have my theory. And as +for Egypt being now the land of Veiled Women, where Suffragettes find +no sympathy, I've heard that the prophet's order for veiling has been +purposely misconstrued by tyrannical men, with their usual jealousy. +Even Mohammed himself was jealous." + +With this Miss Hassett-Bean sat down, amid fitful applause; and at my +earnest request, Miss Enid Biddell, the prettier twin, stood bravely +up. She wished, before the subject was changed, to tell some little +things she had read about the girls of Ancient Egypt, how like they +were to girls of to-day, in all their ways, especially in--in things +concerning love. It was they who first questioned the petals of flowers +for their lovers' loyalty. How much they thought about their clothes, +too, getting their best things from foreign countries, as women did +now, from Paris! It was so funny to read how the girls of Old Egypt had +consulted palmists and fortune tellers and astrologers just as girls +did in Bond Street now; and that what 'Billikens' and 'Swasticas' and +birth-stones were to us, images of gods were to the girls of Egypt who +lived before the days of Moses! They had scarab rings with magic +inscriptions, and sacred apes for the symbol of Intelligence, and lucky +eyes of Horus, wounded by the wicked god Set, and cured by the love of +Isis. On their bracelets and necklaces they hung charms, and their +dressing-tables were covered with images of favourite gods and +goddesses. Hathor, the goddess of Love and Joy, was supposed to give +her choicest gifts to girls who wore her special colour (that green-blue +in the Temple of Edfu which Robert Hichens calls "the colour of +love") and to those who had her pet stones, emeralds, or turquoises. +Nowadays, in Egypt, the jewels of the women Were only lent to them by +their men, and could be taken away as a punishment, or be pawned or +sold in case of need; but in old days Egyptian women had all their most +beautiful possessions buried with them. + +When her sister had finished I urged the other twin to speak, and +timidly Miss Elaine repeated to us what a friend of hers, a clergyman +(here a blush) had told her. That the Red Sea was not red but a +brighter blue than any sea in the world, and called red only because it +washed the Red Lands. Her friend had written down for her in verse +_such_ a sweet legend about the Nile rising every spring from a single +tear shed by Isis, a _much_ more powerful goddess than Hathor, because +she was the goddess of goodness as well as love. And the Nile used to +be named Sihor by the Egyptians; and the year separated into three +seasons, Flood time, Seed time, and Harvest. Miss Biddell's friend was +writing a book about Egypt and was going to divide it in three parts +like that. It was to be dedicated to _her_. + +Bless the dear creatures, how they kept the ball rolling to please +themselves, and--indirectly--to sort out my stock of ideas! + +Harry Snell, the newspaper man, was not hard to persuade to his feet. +He was studying the resemblance between Arabic and English words. He +had found out, among other things, that Tallyho was "Tallyhoon," +brought home by the Crusaders. He even had a theory that some of our +words came from the early Egyptian. "Amen," for instance, he believed +to be derived from "Amon," the name of the great god, father of all the +other gods of Egypt, which was cried aloud, he understood, in the +temples, during religious services. The parson jumped eagerly up to +dispute this theory, and happily forgetful of me, seized the +opportunity to spring upon us a few facts from his own store. When, +however, Mr. Watts' discourse got him as far as Joseph's Well in the +Citadel, General Harlow could bear no more, but sprang up to inform us +that the Joseph of the Well in the Citadel was quite another Joseph, +some Yusef of the Arab conquerors. The general knew all about that, +because his son was stationed in the Citadel. And he proceeded to +meander on historically, over a period between the first Arab conqueror +Amru, to Haroun-al-Raschid, assuring us that old Cairo was the city of +the Arabian Nights. He would, to my joy, have gone on indefinitely from +Saladin to Napoleon if Sir John Biddell, as the only baronet on board, +had not cut the only general short. He is a square man whose portrait +could be properly done only by a Cubist. "Too much history, my friend!" +he shouted, getting up with the manner of one accustomed to making +dinner-table speeches. "What most of us are coming to Egypt for is +_mummies_. Egyptian history is too troublesome, anyhow, for a normal +man to grasp. Give me mummies! There's something _in_ them. Why, even +if you get a king or queen fixed in your head, somebody who's paid to +make you know things you don't know" (an eye-shot for Corkran) "comes +along and swears they didn't exist. Now, there's Mena. I'd pinned him +like a stuck butterfly. I could remember that he was the first known +king, and founded Memphis and lived six thousand years before Christ, +all because we're going to stay at Mena House, which is named after +him. I don't know why I remembered him that way, but I did. Just as I +could recall the queen with a name like a sneeze by thinking of her as +Queen Hat-and-Shoes. Now Colonel Corkran informs us that we must +pronounce her, in a different way. And what's the consequence to me? +I've ceased to try and keep track of her. King Mena, too, is lost to me +forever, through the over-conscientiousness of our late conductor, who +says there never was a Mena, only several kings they've mixed into one. +I seem to be the one who's most mixed up! To whet my appetite for Egypt +now, I have to have something tasty. Where's the good of stuffing my +mind with a string of names which I couldn't mention to any one at +home, because I can't pronounce them? The word Dynasty (he pronounced +it Die-nasty) makes me sick! Luckily I feel that nobody else will know +any more than I do. I'm coming to Egypt for a rest-cure, because I +don't have to learn its history. But some lecturers won't let me have a +minute's peace. A king named Sneferu couldn't expect to appeal to a man +like me, even if he did build the oldest Pyramid, and even if you could +show me his mummy, which you can't. But I draw the line at kings +without mummies. I don't want to know them. Now, my wife is against +mummies on show. She's heard that the malignance of mummies, especially +in museums, is incredible. And she thinks it a judgment that some of +the most distinguished ones are going bad. She says it's spite. I say +its management. But I'm not ready to sit down yet! My wife means to +start a society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Mummies, with the +object of sending them back to their tombs where they can rest in that +state of death it pleased their gods to call them to. Their object was +eternal privacy, and they spent more on their tombs than their houses, +because they expected to be dead a long tune, and wanted all the +comforts of home. But I judge mummies by myself. It wouldn't have taken +me these thousands of years to realize how narrow and un-christian my +notions had been. I should see that I owed some duty to the world; and +as so much posterity had rolled by since my day, I'd feel that lying in +a museum at some large place like Cairo, was, after all, the only way +to keep my name before the public. Now, that brings me to my tip for +Lord Ernest. He asks what there is we don't know, and want to know. +I'll answer for us all, being used to feel the pulse of crowds. We want +to know what the deuce Ancient Egyptians really believed about death +and religion. Had they any sense, or were they just plain fools?" + +On the tide of applause which congratulated the boat's only baronet, I +rose. I felt that I was on the crest of the wave; for the ancient +religion of Egypt appeals to me; and as I now had reason to hope that +others were comfortably ignorant of my subject I could spread myself as +much as I pleased. + +"The Ancient Egyptians were far from being fools," I answered Sir John +with the air of being in their confidence. "We who are tempted to think +so, don't take the trouble to try the key of their Faith in its door. I +might say that its door was the door of the Tomb. If we go through that +door into the Kingdom of Osiris, Amenti, which the Greeks renamed +Hades, the mysteries which appear tangled sort themselves graciously +out. The story of Isis the Great Enchantress, and her search for the +body of her husband Osiris, murdered by Set, his wicked and jealous +brother, Spirit of Evil, is perhaps the most lovable legend of the +world. But in hearing that Horus, the son of Isis, was really the same +god as Osiris, modern ideas begin to get mixed, and confuse themselves +over Isis, goddess of love and goodness, cow-headed Hathor, mistress of +love and joy, cat-headed Pasht and lioness-headed Sekhet, goddesses of +love and passion. There's hawk-headed Horus, the youth, too; and Horus +the child, represented in statues with his thumb in his mouth. How is +one to make sense of them all? But once you have the key, it is easy +and even beautiful. The esoteric or secret religion known to the high +priests and the instructed ones was different from the animal-worship +and adoration of bird-headed deities, which gave the common people such +interest in daily life. They would have been lost without their +monsters; and the priests would have been lost without the temples +necessary for the worship of such a menagerie. For Egypt was a +priest-ridden country in old days. The explanation of the many gods and +goddesses was this: each was a different phase of the one God, Rã, the +Sun, by whom and through whom only the world could exist. Animals and +birds were chosen to express the different phases, because animals were +considered to be nearer nature, therefore nearer God than human beings; +besides, to give a god the head of a man would not set him apart from +humanity, as it would to make him appear with the body of a man and the +head of some bird or beast. Horus, finished off with the head of a hawk +(that sacred bird who could look the sun in the face), became to the +uneducated eye a supernatural being, which he would not have been with +the face of a smiling youth. The child Horus, or Harpocrates, was not +respected as was Horus of the Hawk Head. He was merely petted and +loved. Even Set, god of evil, wasn't all bad. He was the Spirit of +Storm and Strife in Nature, and had to be propitiated by the ignorant. +Typhon, or Typhoon, and he were one. Red was his colour, and red-haired +people were his children. There were a hundred phases of the one god, +each made incarnate, given his own mission, and worshipped in a +different place. It's an ill wind (of Set) that blows nobody good, and +animals had a gorgeous time in those days. Very few weren't sacred for +some reason or other. It was death and destruction to kill a cat. And I +don't think that cats have forgotten to this day the importance they +had in Egypt. It's made them the most supercilious of animals. + +"If Amon-Rã were angry he could become Menthu, the war god. If he were +inclined to be gentle, he could shrink to the dimensions of Horus, +child-god of the Rising Sun. If he were weary, he could rest as the old +god Tum, of the Setting Sun. Probably gods and goddesses never enjoyed +themselves so much as in Ancient Egypt; and though it does seem a +drawback from our artistic point of view for Hathor to have the head or +ears of a cow, for wise Thoth to have the long beak of an ibis, and so +on, it was for them only an amusing kind of masquerade or 'tête' party, +on the walls of the temples and tombs. At home, they could be what they +liked. Think how interesting for the Egyptians to have all these queer +gods, and what variety it gave to their lives. Perhaps the priests +really meant well in keeping the secret of the One God for themselves +and the kings, as the people weren't fitted to bear its solemnity. +Fancy how amusing it was for the children to be told, on silver-bright +nights, about Khonsu, god of the moon, always young, wearing the curled +lock of youth on his brow--who staked five nights of his light playing +draughts with Thoth, father of Magic. But he had a more serious phase, +for when he was not a gambler he was an Expeller of Demons, a most +popular accomplishment. Indeed, almost every god had several thriving +businesses, conducted under different aliases. Khnum the Creator, +dweller at the Cataracts, is my favourite, and is still busy, as he +looks after the rise and fall of the river. Hekt, goddess of birth, was +a pal of his, in spite of her appalling ugliness; and she used to kneel +by his potter's wheel. While he fashioned the clay she would hold the +Sign of Life, so that spirit might enter into the formed body when +Khnum got it to the right state. For very important babies, royal ones +or geniuses, she held a Sign of Life in each hand, which made them +extraordinarily vital. When you arrive in Egypt, the first thing you'll +be asked to buy will be the Sign, or Key of Life, in the shape of paper +knives or brooches or what not, and it will be pointed out to you in +tombs till you're tired and sick of it. You can buy Hekt, too, and +funny old Bes, nurse-goddess of children, quite the golliwog of her +day; and all the other gods and goddesses will be offered to you, to +say nothing of the kings who were entitled to worship themselves as +gods if they wanted to. + +"It's easy, you see, to make fun of the ancient religion, and other +nations did make fun of it. But to be serious, the priests were nearer +right than it would seem; for they believed that God was All: that +there was nothing in this or any Universe which was not part of God." + +That note was my highest, and I stopped on it. Besides, I could think +of nothing more to say. I ventured to sit down; and because the people +were glad to hear the last of me, or because I had helped them finish +their almonds and raisins, they applauded. Secretly I shook hands with +myself, as the monkey must have done, when, with the catspaw, he had +pulled the hot chestnuts out of the fire. I had carefully selected my +chestnuts--and waited till they were cool. Also, I had disappointed +Colonel Corkran. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BACK WAS TURNED + + +Three letters for me, brought out by the pilot! One I had expected from +Anthony; but my heart gave a bound as I recognized Brigit's +handwriting, not seen for years; and instinct told me that the third +was from Monny Gilder. + +My one thought for the last two days, steaming back from the Piraeus to +Alexandria, had been that I was drawing nearer to Cairo, and to those +whose doings in my absence pulled at my curiosity and keyed my interest +to breaking point. But if you think that I tore open those envelopes +and greedily absorbed their contents the moment they were put into my +hands, you have never been a conductor or even an observant passenger +on a "pleasure yacht." When the letters arrived I was engaged in +persuading breakfast-lingerers (they of the eggs-and-bacon habit, who +ought never to leave their peaceful English homes) that it would give +them more real pleasure to be first in the shore boats than last at the +table. Then to get them into the boats; then to hypnotize Lady Biddell +and Mrs. Harlow into the belief that they would not, could not, be +seasick on the dancing waves which bobbed us up and down. No time to +think of the letters; much less to feel the strangeness of fate which +brought me back in such queer circumstances to the port I had entered +on the _Laconia_ eight days ago. + +"As soon as we get on shore," I soothed my gnawing impatience, "I'll +steal a minute somehow." But each moment was so conspicuously labelled +that I could not be a thief of time--my time, which was my charges' +time, bought and paid for by Sir Marcus Lark. + +This was not the first occasion on which I'd heard the clanking of my +chains, for, although I flattered myself that I was a popular success, +popularity had penalties. On the night of the lecture I had used the +passengers. Since then they had used me. Old ladies appealed to me on +questions of etiquette, health or religion, and retailed my answers, +not always correctly. Girls asked my advice about keeping up +flirtations, and men wanted my help in getting out of them. I was +expected to spout pages of Strabo or Pliny at an instant's notice; I +must know why Plato went to Egypt, or how long he stayed; and be umpire +between American and British bridge-players. I must be able to explain +the true meaning and age of the Sphinx; invent new deck games; and show +those who hadn't learned, how to dance the Tango. But with those three +letters burning over my heart the duties of conductor became +infuriating. + +It was an awful day; for what was Pompey's Pillar to me while I +remained ignorant of my friends' adventures? As I discoursed (more or +less) learnedly about Diocletian, and Ptolemy's plot to drown Pompey in +the Nile, something inside was asking, "Has Anthony fallen in love with +Monny Gilder?" "What scrapes has that blessed girl got into?" "Has +anything happened to worry Biddy?" Even that nameless but incomparable +tomb on the hill of Kom esh-Shukafa could not distract my thoughts from +the sealed envelopes; and three very modern handwritings came +obstinately between my eyes and the matchless wall-paintings--paintings +as fresh in their underground hiding-place as if finished yesterday +instead of in days when it was dowdy to be pagan, fashionable to be +Christian. + +Corkran, as a soldier, had to guide a band to Aboukir, and chat about +Nelson; point out the medieval fort of Kait Bey, and dash with hired +motors to Adjemi, where Napoleon landed. Kruger took a few studious +pilgrims to that unspoiled Oriental Nile town where the Rosetta Stone +gave the secrets of Ancient Egypt to the world. It was mine to pilot +the "frivolous lot"; to escort them in carriages round the +Italian-looking city when they had absorbed its two chief sights; to give +them a glimpse of the Museum, and to let them see the beauty and fashion +of Alexandria driving out to San Stefano in the late afternoon. Still I +had no chance to read my letters; but, thought I at the hotel, "Now at +last, it has come!" Not at all! People's trunks were missing, or in the +wrong rooms. It was I who had to sooth alarms, and calm rising storms. +It was I who must assure Mrs. Harlow that her room was really +preferable to that of Lady Biddell; and Lady Biddell that she, and not +Miss Hassett-Bean, had the best in the hotel. Still, I had ten minutes +to dress for dinner. Like Mr. Gladstone, I could do it in five, and +have five left for my letters. But hardly had I slipped a paper knife +under the flap of Monny's envelope (I should have felt a vandal to tear +it) when one of the hotel managers knocked at my door. A gentleman was +being very angry in the dining-room. He insisted on seeing me. He said +he had been Lord Mayor of London, and ought to have a window-table. All +these were previously engaged. What was to be done? Would I kindly come +at once? + +I persuaded Sir John that window-tables were the least desirable, owing +to draughts, and returning to my room, had four minutes to dress or +risk further rows. After dinner Miss Hassett-Bean burst into tears +because she was alone in the world owing to the marmoset's death from +seasickness; and now that she was growing old nobody cared to talk to +her. I argued that people were shy because she was more important than +they, and had a reputation for satire. It took half an hour for the +lady's nose to go from red to pink (I think she had papier poudré in +her handkerchief); and then I was obliged to walk on the beach with +Miss Enid Biddell to keep Mr. Watts from proposing. As Snell relieved +me from sentry duty, I was called by Kruger to discuss certain details +of next morning's start for Cairo; and at midnight, when I crawled to +my room a shattered wreck, the letters were still unread. + +"I'm incapable of caring now," I groaned, "what has happened to any of +them. If an earthquake has swallowed up our mountain, and Anthony's +married Monny, and Brigit's been abducted, or vice versa, and Miss +Guest has gone off with the jewels, it will leave me calm." + +That was the spirit in which I tossed up a coin to see which letter to +read first. Heads, Monny's; tails, Anthony's; but the penny rolled +away, far under the bed where collar-buttons go, and so--I opened +Biddy's. She began: + +MY DEAR GOOD DUFFER! + +For any sake hurry back. Make an excuse to leave your pilgrims the +minute you get this, and take the first train to Cairo. Surely the late +conductor can be your understudy, and trot the people round Alexandria +for a day? We need you more than they do. I picture you reading this +early in the morning, with Alexandria still in the distance; for you +said you'd arrange to have letters come out to the yacht by the pilot. +I shall expect a telegram saying by what train you'll arrive here in +the afternoon. You'll understand when I've told you everything, why +it's _necessary_ for you to hurry. + +We have done and seen so many things, it seems years instead of days +since you left us in care of that handsome Hadji of yours. I wonder if +really you didn't suspect that I guessed who he was; or _did_ you +suspect; and didn't care? I caught the look in your eyes, when you +first saw him standing under the terrace at Shepheard's, and then, when +the name "Antoun Effendi" came up in the conversation, I put two and +two together. Mrs. East guesses, also. I don't know if she did from the +first, but she does now. It isn't a question of "guessing" with either +of us, really. It's a certainty. Not that she's said anything to me or +I to her. That is the malady of us all since you went. We are boiling +with secret thoughts, and keeping them to ourselves, which is bad for +us and for each other in the long run. I haven't told Monny that the +"Egyptian Prince," as Rachel Guest has nicknamed him, is your friend +Captain Anthony Fenton playing some deep game, partly connected with +us, partly connected with a secret of his and yours; the secret you +said was a "dusty" one in which women would not be interested. I +haven't told her, because I don't want her to know. She is always +talking and thinking about him, and is vexed with herself for doing so. +She tries to stop, but can't. If she knew who he was, she wouldn't try +to stop. She'd let herself go, and feel she was living in a beautiful +romance. So she is living in a romance, but I want you to be the hero +of it, not your Anthony Fenton. That's why I don't open her eyes to the +game that's going on. The man is a perfect devil. Not a bad devil, but +a wild devil. + +Mrs. East doesn't tell Monny that Antoun is "Anthony with an h" because +she is enjoying the thought that she alone knows the wonderful truth. +She imagines that she is in love with him. She believes Fate has +brought them together--that he is a "reincarnation," as she is, and +that they ought to belong to each other. Well, let them! She isn't more +than six or seven years older than he, and she's rich (though poor +compared to Monny, of course), and every day she grows handsomer. So +does Monny. As for Rachel Guest--but she is in another part of my +story. Yet no, come to think of it, I'll bring her in now, because if +it weren't for developments concerning that young woman, I might be +able to wait one more day without begging you to come to us. She is +taking Monny away from me; and something odd is going on, I can't make +out what. Anyhow, that horrid Bedr el Gemály is in it. And there's to +be a climax, I'm sure, to-morrow night. You'll get this letter +to-morrow morning, for I'm writing it early, with my hair down my back, +and my coffee not ordered, though I'm starving. We've left Shepheard's +because Monny wanted to live for a few days in a hotel close to the +Nile; and we were all pleased with the plan, for this was once a palace +of Khedive Ismael, and his furniture's still in it, the wildest mixture +of Orientalized French taste. There's a garden, with paths of vermilion +sand brought from somewhere in the desert. But the most convulsive +things live along the Nile Valley and spend their nights braying, +hooting, cooing, whining, bellowing, and barking. If only the donkeys +and dogs and birds and a few other sacred animals of Egypt would be a +little more reticent, especially after dark, the country would be +faultless. But what with worrying myself, and listening to furred and +feathered creatures worrying themselves, I couldn't sleep last night, +and I want you to help me! You'll be here to-morrow afternoon, and I +shall stay in to receive you instead of going to the bazaars with the +others, chaperoned by that dark-eyed devil of yours, "Antoun." I was +there all yesterday, watching crowds of tourists buy beautiful +expensive things for themselves, and horrid inexpensive things to take +to their friends. Cleopatra purchased some disgracefully cheap pearls +no self-respecting _mummy_ would be seen in; and my prophetic soul +tells me that she's going to try and dissolve them in wine. + +There's to be a fancy dress ball at this hotel to-morrow night--or +rather in the adjacent Casino, which is one reason we migrated here; +and praise the saints you'll be in time for it because if anything's +going to happen, you'll be able to stop whatever it is. If I were +supposed to know that Antoun was Anthony Fenton, I might take him into +my counsels. As it is, I can't. And anyhow, it wouldn't do much good, +at present, because a silent duel is going on between him and Monny. He +is bent on compelling her to acknowledge his authority. She is bent on +resisting it--which is a great compliment to his power--but he doesn't +know that, for he doesn't know Monny yet. It would be fun to watch them +together, if I hadn't your interests to think of. + +He hasn't got rid of Bedr el Gemály; but he would have done so, I'm +sure, if it hadn't been for an unexpected turn of the wheel, by the +hand of Fate in the person of Rachel Guest. Her hand is never _off_ the +wheel just now! The few days since you have been away have brought out +the true inwardness of her. _Felis Domestica_ with very little +_Domestica!_ Perhaps it's the air of Egypt which is having a really +extraordinary effect on all of us; perhaps it's the fact that Monny has +given Rachel a lot of lovely clothes which have rejuvenated and +apparently revitalized her. But you will see for yourself, and talk +things over with Your old friend, Biddy. + +This was a nice letter to read, heaven knew how many hours too late! + +My fatigue had slipped off like the skin off a grape. I felt energetic +enough to start out and walk to Cairo. What could be in Biddy's mind? +And what must she have thought when afternoon and evening passed +without even a telegram? The evening paper, if she had happened to +look, would have told her that the _Candace_ had reached Alexandria in +the morning, as she expected; and she could neither have guessed nor +believed that the whole day would pass without my having a chance to +read her letter. I ransacked the writing-table drawers for a telegraph +form; and finding one had begun to address it, when I stopped. The +message could not go out until morning. Meanwhile there were Monny's +and Anthony's letters to read. One or both might give me some clue to +the "climax" Biddy feared for to-night at the ball. I cut open Monny's +envelope, which had on it an alluring sunset picture of the Pyramids +and the name of the hotel. Hastily I ran through the pages. Not a hint +of anything disquieting! If I had read her letter instead of Brigit's I +might have gone to my well-earned rest without a qualm. + +"Dear Lord Ernest," Miss Gilder addressed me, in a handwriting which to +any "expert" would reveal some originality, more pride, still more +conscientiousness, any amount of self-will, and singularly little +conceit. An odd combination! But the Gilded Rose is that. She went on: + +You asked me to write to you while you were away, and tell you the +news, and what I thought about things. But I'm thinking so much and so +fast that I can't sort out my thoughts. I suppose it must be so with +every one who comes to Egypt for the first time. Everything fascinates +and absorbs me, even more than I had hoped it would--almost too much, I +feel sometimes. Your Antoun Effendi is a very good guide, and I am not +sorry that we have him--except once in a while. And now and then I'm +glad. We're proud of his looks when we go about, for every one stares +at him and envies us for having him to take us about, instead of being +condemned to a mere dragoman. Oh, talking of dragomen (you see I _will_ +call them that!), we still have Bedr, though I know you thought we +ought to give him up, and I don't see how we are ever to discharge him +now, for he has attached himself to Rachel G. in the most wonderful +way. It is _pathetic_. It began with a talk they had the day you left, +about his having been in America, and about _religion_. She found him +half inclined to be converted, and of course, her goodness and +unselfishness made her long to snatch him like a brand from the +burning. He thinks no one ever talked so wonderfully about religion as +she does, which she, dear thing, attributes to the fact that she taught +Sunday-school in Salem. She says, if she can have him to work upon even +for a few weeks, she is sure to make him a convert. + +We haven't wasted a minute since you went away, but have seen sights +from morning till night, so as not to have missed anything when we +leave Cairo on the _Enchantress Isis_. I hope you'll be pleased that +I've given up my dream of having a private dahabeah, and that we shall +be with you on Sir Marcus Lark's boat. She is really a beauty. Antoun +took us over her, and on board we met Sir Marcus, who was showing some +friends round. Antoun introduced him to us. I think Sir M. asked him to +do it. We had great fun, for Sir Marcus seemed to take the most violent +fancy to Aunt Clara, who didn't like him at all. She says now that she +believes when she was Cleopatra he was Caesar, and that it's a pity he +can't wear a wreath to hide his baldness, as she remembers his doing +then. It's only a _very_ little bald spot, really, and Rachel Guest +says it reminds her of a tonsure on the head of a fine-looking monk. +Aunt C. quite resents Sir Marcus being able to engage the services of +you and Antoun. She wants you both to be there, but she doesn't like +Sir M. to have a superior position to Antoun's. That day on the +_Enchantress Isis_ Sir M. invited us to have tea on the deck, and it +really was enchanting; a deck like a huge open-air drawingroom, or one +of our biggest verandas at Newport, or somewhere, with jolly green +wicker chairs and tables and sofas with heaps of cushions. But I +forgot--you've seen the boat. The best rooms _were_ engaged, but when +we talked to Sir Marcus, he called a man who can speak many languages +in bits--broken English, cracked German, fractured French, and goodness +knows what all. Between them, they arranged it somehow that we should +have our choice, and the other people were to take what was left. I +would have refused, because it didn't seem fair, but it was for Aunt +Clara's sake, evidently, that Sir M. wanted to make the exchange, and +_she_ accepted. She was as haughty as a queen, but in rather a +fascinating, soft way that I think men like. And she was looking +beautiful. So is Rachel, as even Biddy admits. I do believe Rachel +looks younger than I do, in some new dresses and hats she has. I never +noticed before, but I fancy now that we're rather alike. I'm so +delighted to see her enjoying herself so much, for you know, she's +_wonderful_. Think what courage it must have taken to break with her +tiresome old life, because she felt she must see the glory of the +world, when a tiny legacy gave her the chance she'd longed for. She +wouldn't have had a penny left, after she'd finished her trip, if Aunt +C. and I hadn't been able to help her out. It's a privilege to do +anything for such a brave creature. And I can't bear to think of her +having to go back when this is over, to the dull round. Perhaps some +way out will be found for her. + +I've fallen in love with Cairo, although--or perhaps because--I still +feel as if I were moving in a marvellous picture. Antoun does make it +live for us! I will say that for him, though he can be so annoying that +at times he spoils everything, and makes me wish you'd won my hat +instead of my winning his green turban. I'm dying to find out how you +got it. But, of course, I can't ask him: it would be _infra dig_. You +_must_ tell me when you come. I think the one he wears now is handsomer +though. I wish I could change it for mine. + +We have been to heaps of mosques, and I can't help wishing we were the +only tourists in Cairo. Of course, this is a selfish wish; and as dear +Biddy says, it's quite funny to think how each tourist feels that _he_ +is the only spiritual-minded, imaginative person travelling--that he +alone has the right to be in Egypt--that all the others are offensive, +vulgar creatures, who desecrate the beautiful places with their +presence. But really, you know, it gets on one's nerves, meeting droves +of silly men in pith helmets with little white lambrequins looped up, +when it would be so much more appropriate to wear the kind of hats they +have at home. And some of the women are _weird!_ They have the queerest +ideas of what is suitable for Egypt. One friend of Bedr's refused to go +about and be seen with the ladies who'd engaged him, as he was the +smartest dragoman in Cairo and had his reputation to keep up. Don't you +_like_ that? Even Antoun laughed--which he hardly ever does. He's so +dignified I wish his turban would blow off or something. I _wonder_ how +he'd look without it, and if most of the charm would be gone? Almost, I +hope so. One doesn't like to catch one's self feeling toward an +Egyptian, even for a minute, as one does toward men of one's own blood +--I mean, on the same level, or even as if a person like that were +_above_ one. It's just the picturesque dignity of the _costume_, and +the _pose,_ perhaps. And then, this strange glamour of the East is over +everybody and everything, here. I used to wonder why people wrote and +spoke of the East as _mysterious._ Why should it be more mysterious +than the West? I would ask. Nobody could explain exactly. They said +only, "It is." Now I know why--at least I _feel_ why. Without his green +turban, or in European coat instead of his graceful silk robe, and away +from these luminous sunsets of pale rose and gold and emerald, Antoun +would be nothing extraordinary, would he? He says he is considered old +fashioned in his way of dress. Most of his friends wear European +clothes, and the tarboosh which Egyptians love because it never blows +away or falls off when they pray. He _does_ make me angry, because he +wants to banish the beggars and poor men who sell things in the street, +instead of letting me give and buy. What am I _for_, with all my money, +except to do things for people? And it's such fun making them happy by +saying "I _want_ a cat-necklace--" or a scarab, or whatever they have, +instead of pushing past with a stony glare as if they were dust under +our feet. Of course we're attended by great crowds whereever we go, +because it's got round that we don't refuse any one, consequently it +takes a _little_ long to arrive anywhere. But what does that matter in +Egypt? Already I'm losing my American hustle. I want to eat lotuses, +which seem out of season in Egypt now! I've asked for them everywhere +but can't get them. I want to feel back in the Middle Ages, in Cairo, +which, as Antoun says, is an Oriental and Medieval Gateway to the Egypt +older than history. And how I am looking forward to the _Desert!_ Sir +Marcus tells us that _you_ are to take the people of the _Candace_ for +a desert trip before they go up the Nile; so of course you must count +us among your "trippers," and Mr. Willis and Mr. Sheridan, who have +settled to go on the _Isis_. You didn't mention the desert plan before +you went away! + + +No news of that poor, beautiful child, Wretched Bey's wife though I've +written twice. I'm worried about her. Mabel she used to be. Now she's +Mabella Hânem! Biddy says you'll arrive for the ball to-morrow night. +But somehow I don't _feel_ you will. I don't know why you should. Men +don't care for such things much. And of course I shall not dance, as +I'm still in half mourning. I shall only look on, and then--Rachel and +I have an amusing plan for the end of the evening. But even if you +came, we couldn't let you into the secret, as you would think it silly. + +Yours sincerely, + +ROSAMOND GILDER. + +Mine "sincerely, Rosamond Gilder!" So she ended her letter, with +youthful and characteristic dignity, childishly unaware, apparently, +that there was more to read between the lines than in the lines +themselves. + +Had I read this Rosamond letter first, the last four or five sentences +would have meant little for me. As it was, I would have given a month +out of my future for the gift of an astral body which could go this +minute to the ball at the Ghezireh Palace. I was lost in the mystery of +that "amusing plan." + +In Anthony's letter lay my last hope of a clue. But in it there was +none. He did not even mention Monny's name. It was all about that +"desert trip" which, from her, I hadn't taken seriously. Sir Marcus was +actually planning it. Kruger had written that some of the passengers +were clamouring for a few days' camping, and the idea was to send them +off in my care, after three days in Cairo, while the others remained in +charge of Antoun, who wasn't yet ready to leave. Fenton said: + +Somebody's trying to defeat my scheme for getting the sheikh's tomb +moved. I don't know who it is yet. Meanwhile my time and my head are so +full, that in the few hours of the night I put aside for sleep, I dream +queerer dreams than the visits of ghostly sheikhs. Apropos of dreams, +do you know by chance a man who answers this description: elderly, +stoutish, red face, gray hair, black moustache, pale eyes with sharp +look in them. Sounds commonplace, doesn't it? + +But I have a recurring dream of such a man, whose face I never saw +elsewhere. For the last three nights, as soon as I shut my eyes, he +comes. He seems to interrupt some scene between you and Lark, and +myself, and I see him looking over Lark's shoulder. Then he turns +quickly away, and tiptoes off to a very low, closed door in a deep +recess. There he disappears into shadow--and I wake up with a jump, or +slide off into another dream--but generally this rouses me, for there's +an impression of something stealthy in the shadow round the door. That +so ordinary a type of person should be in a dream. You'll laugh at my +asking if you've ever known such a man, and say that I'm back at my old +tricks again, as a dreamer of dreams. Never mind, I scored, dreaming of +our Mountain of the Golden Pyramid the night before I got your letter +with Ferlini's papers. I can't help feeling that there may be something +in dreams--in mine, anyhow, though I never have any except in Egypt. +This one about the red-faced man and the closed door in the deep recess +is getting a bit on my nerves. + +Excited as I was over the patchwork of news, I laughed scornfully at +Anthony's dream. For the man he described might be Colonel Corkran. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SECRET MONNY KEPT + + +Cairo at last! My watch said that the journey took only three hours; +but my nerves said six. + +I had telegraphed Biddy first thing in the morning the hour of my +arrival with the "_Candace crowd_," and I half expected to see her at +the big white and red station, but there was no familiar form in the +throng, the gay throng which excited my charges. Everything interested +them; the black face of the Sudanese engine driver who looked down from +his huge British locomotive, the display of English, French and German +literature mingled with Greek, Italian, Arab, or Turkish papers on the +bookstall; the ebony and copper-coloured luggage carriers who seemed +eager to take one another's lives, but in reality desired no more than +to snatch each other's jobs, under the eyes of the uniformed +hotel-porters. To me, the busy place was a desert, lacking one face. + +Even outside the station-yard, and in the streets and squares where +silent camels looked their contempt of electric trams, soldiers in +khaki uniforms jostled Bedouins in khaki robes, and drivers of arabeahs +made the way one long procession of shrieks, I still glanced at passing +carriages in hopes of a belated Biddy. All in vain! And destitute of +news I resigned myself to the task of piloting the Set out to Mena +House. The moon would be full that night--and it's "the thing" to be a +neighbour of the Sphinx while the moon feeds her with honey. + +The Flock, under the guidance of Mr. Watts, had now definitely parted +from the Set, chieftained by me. They went meekly off to the cheaper +hotels, where they would live before boarding the _Candace_ again for +Palestine, and Colonel Corkran, who was supposed to have joined that +party, had announced that he was "bound for a long talk with Mark the +Lark." Mr. Watts, refused by Enid Biddell and separated from her, had +relapsed into melancholia. He had ceased to brilliantine his once sleek +hair, and dust and crumbs were allowed to collect in each fold of his +clerical waistcoat. As we of the Set buzzed richly away in taxicabs, I +saw him in a shabby arabeah between two old ladies, gazing wistfully +after us. He was envying me Enid! + +It is a wonderful drive through Cairo to the Pyramids, whether you spin +out there in a motor, or trot on a donkey, or lilt on a camel, +squatting cross-legged on a load of green bersím. Past the great +swinging bridge, and the Island of Ghezireh (the word that in itself +means "island") begins the six-mile dyke, which is the road made by +Ismaïl to please the Empress Eugénie. Since her visit, in the days when +the Suez Canal was opened, it has pleased two empresses, and more +queens than I have time to count. Under the deep shade of lebbek trees +it goes on and on, toward the Pyramids, a dark cool avenue, high above +cultivated fields flooded by the Nile when the river is "up." The +emerald waves of grain flow like green water to the foot of the broad +dyke-road, and canals like long, tight-drawn blue ribbons are threaded +through it, their ends lost to sight at the shimmering horizon. + +Even at this noon hour when the world should have been eating lotuses +or luncheon, the interminable arbour was crowded with strings of +camels, forever going both ways, into Cairo and out, one wondered why +--and there were flocks of woolly brown sheep, and donkeys drawing +sideless carts in which whole families of veiled women and half-naked +children were seated tailor fashion. On we spun, past the Zoo, past +scattered villas of Frenchified, Oriental fashion which might have been +designed by a confectioner: past azure lakes left by the ebbing Nile, +and so into sudden dazzling sight of three geometric mountains in a +tawny desert--two, monsters in size, and one a baby trying to catch up +with them. + +"Oh!" everybody breathed. For these things were beyond words. + +Then in a moment more the Great Pyramid had grown so big that it loomed +over us, and ate up half the sky--a pyre of yellow flame against a +flame of blue. + +We were at the end of the shadowy road that leads like a causeway to +the desert, and on the verge of the golden, billowing sea which flows +round the Pyramids and engulfs the distant Sphinx. Oriental life +encircled us, in the foreground of the picture--a long row of waiting +camels gaily saddled and tasselled, delicately nibbling bersím green as +heaped emeralds--donkeys white and gray, beribboned and beaded--small +yellow sandcarts; little white, desert horses and tall brown, desert +men; camels snarling, donkeys braying, horses whinnying, and men +touting. "Very nice sandcarts--very nice camels! Take ladies and +gentlemen quick to Pyramids and Sphinx or Petrified Forest!" Farther +on, the big, modern hotel, rather like an overgrown Swiss chalet built +by Arabs--a vast, confused building the colour of sand or brown heather +honey, with carved mushrbiyeh work lending an Eastern charm to windows, +balconies, and loggias, and enough green, flowery garden to give a +sensational effect of contrast with the tidal wave of desert poised +ready, it would seem, to overwhelm palms and roses. Clustered near, the +tiny mushroom village which huddles under the shelter of Cheops' +Pyramid. Beyond, the immense upward sweep of golden dunes, culminating +in the Great Pyramid itself. + +I stayed in the picture only long enough to settle my big children into +their quarters, and to see most of them making for the dining-room, +agreeably Oriental with its white and red walls, its dome and windows +of mushrbiyeh work. Then I darted back to Cairo, in a taxi driven by a +Nubian youth, so black that he was almost blue, like a whortleberry. He +wore a scarlet tarboosh, a livery of violet, and the holes for silver +rings in the tops of his ears were so large that the light shining +through gave the effect of inserted diamonds. Unconsciously he made a +nice contrast with his modern motor. + +He drove with such reckless speed that camels "rubber-necked" to look +at us--and whirled me past the fat black gate-keeper into the Ghezireh +Palace garden of scarlet paths, moonlike lamps, Khedivial statues, and +spreading banyans where each tree continued itself in its own "next +number," like an endless serial romance. + +I nearly asked for Mrs. O'Brien, but turned her into Jones at the +danger point. The face of the concierge, as he said that she was at +home, conveyed nothing, yet I could not resist adding, "Are the ladies +well?" + +"Mrs. East is not very well to-day," he replied. "We have had the +doctor; but the young ladies have been out spending the night with +friends, I believe. They have not yet returned." + +It was a long five minutes before Biddy and I were wildly shaking hands +in a huge private sitting-room all red-and-gold brocade and crystal +chandeliers, as it had been in the days of Ismaïl. I knew I should be +delighted to see her, but I didn't realize that it was going to be +quite as good as it was. + +"Anyhow, _you're_ all right and safe," I heard myself blurt out. + +"I'm safe, but not all right!" she reproached me. "My messenger who +went to the train didn't find you from my description, I know, because +he came back with my note----" + +"Too flattering, was your description, or the other way?" I asked, +trying to buoy her up with frivolity. + +"You wouldn't joke if you'd read the note. Oh, Ernest, Monny and Rachel +have disappeared!" + +"Good gracious! But Anthony----" + +"He went to look for them, of course; and he's disappeared, too." + +"By Jove!" The exclamation sounded inadequate, but I was so taken aback +that I had nothing else to say. It seemed impossible that Anthony, +instead of averting danger, could be involved in it himself. It was +unlike his resourcefulness. I could not believe it of him, and so, +when I had time to control mind and tongue, I said as much to Biddy. + +"Yes, I felt like that, too, at first," she admitted. "He gives one the +impression of being so infallible in any emergency, somehow, as if he'd +be above it, and look down on it from his height. But it's more than +twelve hours since he went, and he promised to send me word how things +were going on if he couldn't get to me himself. No word has come." + +"What have you done?" I asked. "Have you communicated with the police?" + +"Sir Marcus Lark has. He was at the ball, and has been very good. But +it's for Mrs. East's sake, mostly. One feels he's glad it happened, to +give him the chance to win her gratitude--or something. He's been back +and forth all day; and I'm expecting him any minute. Mrs. East has been +fainting and hysterical, and everything early Edwardian, so I sent for +a doctor. But she's better on the strength of _sal volatile_ and +eggnog, and she's promised to see Sir Marcus." + +"Now tell me what happened, from the beginning," I said, when I had +made Biddy sit down by me on the sofa, and was trying to warm a cold +little hand in mine. + +What it all amounted to, told disjointedly, was this: Since Monny had +had an inspiration the day after our arrival in Cairo, to give Rachel +Guest a lot of her new unworn clothes, Rachel had become quite girlish +and "flighty." She had lost her puritan primness, and behaved more in +accordance with her slanting eyes than with her bringing up. She +giggled like a schoolgirl rather than a schoolmistress, tried to make +herself look young, and copied Monny in the way she tilted her hat and +dressed her hair. No harm in this; but it had seemed to Biddy that +Rachel deliberately incited the girl to do things which "Antoun" +disapproved. Brigit fancied that Bedr's influence had been at work, for +knowing as he did that "Antoun" would gladly have given him marching +orders, he took pleasure in thwarting his superior when he could do so +with safety. Bedr had been clever in enlisting the girls' sympathy for +his soul. As for Biddy, she had disliked him from the first, and +imagined that he had tacked himself onto our party as a spy, upon the +receipt of orders from America, he having learned most of his English +there. The idea appeared so far-fetched that she had abandoned it. Now, +however, it was again hovering at the back of her mind. + +Bedr had told Rachel stories of the fascination of hasheesh smoking, +and had said that no stranger knew Cairo who did not visit one of the +"best houses" where hasheesh, though forbidden, was still secretly +smoked. He had assured her that there were several which were +"perfectly respectable," even for the "nicest ladies and gentlemen;" +and Rachel, probably at his suggestion, had tried to persuade Monny to +make the expedition. Monny had mentioned it to "Antoun," in the +presence of everybody; and as Rachel and Bedr had looked guilty, Biddy +guessed that they had wished to keep the plan a secret. + +"Antoun" had perhaps too brusquely vetoed the idea. He said that there +were no such houses, which could be visited by ladies, and that it was +absurd to think of going. That word "absurd" stung Monny. She began to +protest that Bedr knew Cairo as well as Antoun did, and was as likely +to be right. "I don't see why we shouldn't go, if others do," she +persisted, "and I've always longed to know what a hasheesh dream was +like, ever since I read De Quincey. A little, just once, could do us no +harm, and Rachel says----" + +But what Rachel had said was evidently not for publication. Miss Guest +stopped her with a hand on hers, and a "_Dear_ Monny, please don't let +us think of it any more, if Antoun Effendi disapproves. Maybe it was a +silly idea, and we've plenty of amusing things to do every minute." + +Monny was apparently contented to let the idea slip, and Brigit had +thought that, in the excitement of getting ready for the ball, she and +Rachel had really forgotten it. Then, before writing me, she had +overheard Rachel say to her friend, "It's for twelve o'clock sharp." +And Monny had answered, "Won't it be _great!_ Does Bedr think----" But +she had stopped short at sight of Brigit. + +Even this did not suggest to Biddy a visit to a "hasheesh den," for +various other plans had been broached and discouraged by "Antoun." She +did not feel that, as she was not supposed to know his real status, she +could go "blabbing" to him; and fearing that mischief was on foot, she +had wished for me. When I didn't arrive, she soothed herself by +reflecting that, after all, she need only keep a sharp watch over Monny +when midnight drew near. None of the party intended to dance, and so it +would be easy, Brigit thought, to "have an eye upon the girls." + +Monny had bought Oriental costumes for herself and Rachel. They were +rather conspicuous, luckily for Biddy's plan, for among the many +gorgeous dresses in the Casino she had no difficulty in tracking those +two. Until half past eleven, she told herself, she need not be on the +alert every instant; but therein had lain her mistake. Sir Marcus Lark +had appeared, dressed (more or less) as a Roman officer of the +Occupation days, he having heard Mrs. East remark that, "whatever +_anybody_ said, it was her favourite period." The lady, of course, had +not missed such an opportunity to appear as Cleopatra. She had brought +a costume with her from New York; and while Biddy "lost herself" in +watching the effect of this magnificence on Sir Marcus, the girls +vanished. + +Without alarming Mrs. East, Brigit had begun to search. She asked +everybody she knew in the ballroom if the girls had gone out, and +inquired in the cloakroom; but the two had been seen by nobody. It was +as if they had melted into air; and Brigit began to suspect that they +must have covered up their brilliant dresses with dominoes smuggled +into the Casino. Willis Bailey was at the ball, but he had developed a +flirtation with Miss Guest, and Biddy felt that he was not to be +trusted as a confidant. Perhaps, too, he had helped the girls to +disappear. It seemed cruel to frighten Mrs. East, when the scheme, +whatever it was, might be no more than an innocent freak; so Biddy said +nothing to Queen Cleopatra or her Roman attendant. She slipped across +the garden to the hotel, and sent an Arab messenger off in a taxi with +a note to the address "Antoun" had told her would find him. In less +than an hour he arrived, and when he had listened to her account of +what had happened, he said after a minute's reflection that the ladies +had almost surely gone with Bedr to some hasheesh den, or a place +masquerading as such. "Antoun" consoled Biddy as well as he could, by +saying that no harm would come to Miss Gilder or Miss Guest. Bedr would +know too well on which side his bread was buttered to take his clients +where insult or danger could reach them. Off "Antoun" went to look for +the missing ones though, and assured Biddy that she should have news as +soon as possible. + +It was not till three o'clock that she had begun to be very anxious, +and had disturbed the harmony of Sir Marcus Lark's duet with Mrs. East. +Even then she would not have spoken had she not feared that the ball +would break up, and there would be no man to appeal to! + +Sir Marcus had been inclined to smile at the notion of danger; but he, +like Anthony Fenton, was ignorant of any private qualms which troubled +Brigit O'Brien. She could not tell him who she was, and that she +considered herself far from being a "mascot" to her fellow-travellers. +If she had told, and added that she feared enemies who might for +certain reasons make a mistake in Monny's identity, he would have +laughed his hearty laugh, and said that such melodramatic things didn't +happen, even in Egypt. + +"But _you_ know," Biddy appealed to me, "that melodramatic things +_have_ happened to me and those near me. I'm not even _sure_ that poor +Richard's death was natural, though I watched over him like a hawk in +those dreadful days when he was fearing every shadow, and we were +flitting from pillar to post, with Esmé. Through Richard two men were +electrocuted. He used to get threatening letters forwarded from place +to place, always signed with the same initials, and he wouldn't tell me +what they meant. It was because of them that he hid Esmé in a +convent-school before he died; for she was threatened as well as he. I, +too, for the matter of that! Not that the child or I had done the +organization any harm; but Esmé is of his blood, and they may have +thought I had more of their secrets than I really have. I've not used +the name of O'Brien for years now, and I've moved about so much that +sometimes I have felt I must be safe. Still, I ought perhaps not to +have gone to visit Esmé, though she wrote and begged me to, for special +reasons I needn't bother you with: a curious little love romance which +I fear must end badly. I didn't think of danger to Monny; but you see, +as I've told you, the convent isn't far from Monaco. I got off the +_Laconia_ there, to visit Esmé, and when I came on board again, Monny +and Mrs. East and Rachel came with me. They'd been in Italy and France, +and had picked up Miss Guest, who was only too enchanted to batten on +Monny's kindness and dollars. It was I who had engaged their +staterooms, on a cable from Monny, long before. And if there were a spy +anywhere, he might have the idea that I wanted to smuggle Esmé out of +her convent by a trick, and--" + +"But almost every one must know Miss Gilder's face from her photographs +in newspapers," I broke in, on a stifled sob of Biddy's. "She couldn't +be mistaken for another girl, as an unimportant young person might." + +"I'm not sure. Those photographs were snapshots, and very bad, as you +must know if you've ever seen any. Monny never gave a portrait of +herself to a newspaper, and it's years since they got hold of a good +one. Besides, if she weren't mistaken for Esmé O'Brien, that wretched +Bedr might have made up a plot to have her kidnapped for ransom. It was +the thing Monny's father was always afraid of--absurdly afraid of, I +_used_ to think." + +"I think so still," I said. "Such things don't happen--anywhere, to a +grown-up girl." + +"What about Raisuli in Tangier?" Biddy challenged me. "He used to +kidnap people whenever he liked. And so do lots of brigands." + +"We haven't to do with brigands." + +"Oh, what's in a name? And I wouldn't put _anything_ past that horrid +Bedr." + +"As Anthony said to you, he knows which side his bread's buttered." + +"But if he hopes some one will give him more butter for being wicked +than he can get from us for being good?" + +"Let's not think of far-fetched contingencies, dear," said I. "Now +you've told me all, I will try to do something--" + +"May I come in?" boomed a big voice at the door. "I knocked and nobody +answered, so I thought the room would be empty--" + +Biddy dropped my hand like a hot potato. She had jumped up so quickly +from our sofa that Sir Marcus Lark's observant eyes could hardly have +seen us sitting there together. + +"Of course, come in," she said. "Have you anything to tell? But I'll +call Mrs. East. She won't like you to begin without her." + +Biddy darted off to an adjoining room, leaving me alone with my +employer. + +"What do you think of this affair?" I wanted to know. "Well," said he, +"I can only judge other men by myself. If I had such a chance to appear +a hero in the eyes of a pretty woman as Fenton has, I'm afraid I'd be +tempted to take advantage of it, even if I had to play some trick to +make myself indispensable. Now you see in a nutshell what I think. +Captain Fenton will certainly rescue those young ladies from a trap if +he has to make the trap himself." + +I was disgusted, and shrugged my shoulders. "You have a poor opinion of +Fenton," I said. + +"On the contrary, I think very highly of his intelligence. I'm not +worrying about any one of the three, though don't mention it to Mrs. +East or Mrs. Jones that I said so. I've come to tell them that my men +have searched Cairo and found nothing. Not the police, you know; I +haven't applied to the police after all. I thought Fenton would be +furious. And anyhow it might make talk. But I've paid the best +dragomans in town to look sharp; and they know as much about this old +place as the police do, if not more. By the way, Lord Ernest, did +Corkran say anything to you about an intention to throw over his job on +the _Candace_?" + +"No. He said he was going to call on you, that's all." + +"He did call. I was out--on this business, as it happens. He waited, +and I found him, making himself at home in my sitting-room--which I use +as a kind of office. I wish I knew how many of my letters and papers +he'd had time to read." + +"Surely he wouldn't--" + +"I shouldn't say 'surely' was the word. I'd gone out in a hurry and +left things scattered about--which isn't my habit. When I came back, it +struck me that my desk looked a bit tempting for a man with a retired +conscience. I was going to keep him on the _Candace_, rather than fuss, +because it wasn't so much his fault as mine that he was the wrong man +in the place. He couldn't do any harm in Jerusalem, it seemed. Let him +wail in the Jews' Wailing Place, if he'd any complaints, said I to +myself. I thought he was too keen on money to resign because his silly +pride was hurt. But to my surprise, he informed me that he'd come to +'hand in his papers,' as he called it. So much the worse for his pocket +and the better for mine! Only it struck me as d--d queer, considering +Corkran's character. I wanted to ask if he'd spit out any venom to +you." + +"Not a drop," said I. But I, too, thought it queer, considering +Corkran's character, and the fact that having resigned of his own free +will, he could hardly expect Lark to pay his way home. It even occurred +to me to wonder if the resignation were not a sudden thought of the +Colonel's. He had spoken several times of going on to Palestine, and +had mentioned the trip that morning. Had Sir Marcus said something +inadvertently, which had so piqued Corkran that he threw over his +appointment on the impulse? Or had he perhaps been dishonourable enough +to glance at a letter, in which Lark referred to him in terms +uncomplimentary? + +As I asked myself these questions, Mrs. East came in with Brigit, and +Sir Marcus forgot me. His face said "What a woman!" And anxiety was +becoming to Cleopatra. It gave to her that thrilling look which only +beautiful Jewesses or women of Latin race ever wear: a look of all the +tragedy and mystery of womanhood since Eve. "What news of _them_?" she +asked Sir Marcus, when she had given a ringed hand and an almond-eyed +glance to me. + +"No news exactly," said the big man, "but I feel sure your niece and +her friend are safe--" + +"My niece and her friend!" exclaimed Cleopatra, ungratefully frowning. +"Why do you say nothing of 'Antoun?' Does nobody care what becomes of +him?" + +As she spoke, there was a knock at the door. One of the Arab servants +of the hotel announced that a man had a letter for Mrs. Jones. + +"Mrs. Jones?" cried Biddy. "I am Mrs. Jones. Where's the letter?" + +"That man not give it to us. He say he see you or not give it at all." + +"Well, why didn't you send him up?" + +"Arab mans not let in hotel, if peoples don't ask for them." + +"An Arab! Not--not--is he a stranger?" + +"Yes, Missis. Very low man. Never comed before." + +"Bring him here--quick!" + +Five minutes passed. We tried to talk, but could think of nothing to +say. Then the servant returned, ushering in a dwarfish Arab in a dirty +white turban, and the shabby black galabeah worn only by the poor who +cannot afford good materials and the bright colours loved by Egyptians. + +"From Antoun Effendi?" asked Biddy, in excitement, as he held out a +piece of folded paper, not in an envelope. + +The man shook his head. "He spik no English," explained the servant who +waited. + +"_You_ talk to him," Biddy appealed to me, while Cleopatra told the +hotel footman that he might go. But I had no time to question the +messenger. Biddy cried out as she unfolded the paper. "Why, Duffer, +inside it's addressed to you! It says: + +"'For Lord Ernest Borrow. To be opened by Mrs. Jones in his absence.'" + +Within the outer wrapping was a second folded paper, of the same kind. +They looked like sheets torn from a notebook. And I saw that the +address, scrawled in pencil, was in Anthony's handwriting. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOUSE OF THE CROCODILE + + +The letter had evidently been dashed off in a great hurry. It was short +and written in French, the language in which "Antoun" chose to talk +with foreigners. + +Give the bearer two hundred piastres and let him go. Don't try to make +him speak. I have promised this. Then quick to Jarvis Pasha and get him +to raid the House of the Crocodile. Question of hasheesh. We must be +smuggled out when arrests are made--also Bedr, to save scandal. + +Not a word as to whether all were safe, or in danger! But I realized +that, for some reason, each instant had been of value. And each instant +was of value now. + +Anthony was one who knew precisely what he wanted and why he wanted it. +I obeyed his instructions implicitly. Two hundred piastres went from my +pocket into the hand of the withered Arab, and he was allowed to take +his departure despite a burst of protest from my companions, who +naturally wished the man to be catechised. Once the door had shut +behind the bent blue back, I handed round the letter, which had to be +translated for Sir Marcus, who professed contempt for "foreign +gibberish." + +Jarvis Pasha is at the head of the police, has been for many years, and +is the most interesting man in Egypt after the well-beloved "K." +Leaving Sir Marcus to go on with his task of consoling Mrs. East, I +dashed off in my waiting taxi with the Nubian of the silver earrings. +We drove to the Governorat, a big house in a square near what was once +known as the Guarded City, the very heart and birthspot of Cairo: +Masrel Kahira, the Martial, founded under the planet Mars. + +I scribbled a line to Jarvis Pasha, and sent it to him in an envelope +with my card. This combination opened doors for me; and three minutes +later I was shaking hands with a tall, thin, white moustached, +hawk-featured Englishman who looked all muscle and bones and brain. Jarvis +Pasha being in the secret of "Antoun's" identity and business in Cairo, +simplified the explanation, and did away with the necessity for a +preface. All I had to tell was the brief story of the girls' +disappearance with Bedr el Gemály, and Fenton's following them into +space; then, how word had come after fourteen hours. + +"The House of the Crocodile," Jarvis Pasha said, when he had taken and +read the letter. "H'm! Do you know anything about that house?" + +"I know the old stories connected with it," I answered. "If it's +reputation to-day is as sinister as ever----." + +"Not at all. Figuratively speaking it has been whitewashed. It's become +a show place--_a monument historique_. This is interesting information +which Fenton sends, but if it came from any one else, I should say he +had dreamed it. He may be giving us the chance of an important _coup_. +Wait a few minutes, and I'll have this thing attended to, Lord Ernest. +But you look upset. Is it that you haven't had lunch, or are you +worrying about the ladies?" "Both," I answered with a sickly grin. "Not +that I mind about lunch. I couldn't have eaten if I'd had the time." + +"You haven't as much belief as I have, in your friend," remarked Jarvis +Pasha, "if you think he'd let them come to harm." "They're all in the +same box, apparently," I excused my lack of faith. + +"Trust Fenton!" said the Head of the Police. "He was sharp enough to +find the needles in the haystack, and he's smart enough and strong +enough to take care of them when they're found." + +On this, Jarvis Pasha went out and left me to my reflections, which +rushed to the House of the Crocodile. Every one who has read or heard +stories of native Cairo, knows the House of the Crocodile, in the +Street of the Sisters, and how, in the later days of Mohammed Ali, +people scarcely dared to name it aloud. The "Tiger" Defterdar Ahmed +built it, for that beautiful Tigress, Princess Zohra, favourite +daughter of Mohammed Ali, who married her off to the fierce soldier +when she became too troublesome at home. Zohra had loved a young Irish +officer who was murdered for her sake, and had no true affection to +give Ahmed or any other. She hated all men because of the murderer, her +own nephew, and vowed that since her love had cost the life of the one +who had her heart, others who dared to love her must pay the same +price. When Ahmed died suddenly, soon after the wedding, those who had +heard of Zohra's vow (and there were many in the harems) whispered +"poison." Never again did the Princess drive out to see the women she +knew; and those who had been her friends were sent away from the door +of the dead Ahmed's palace, over which he had suspended for "luck," a +huge crocodile killed in the far south. But Zohra was beautiful, with +strange eyes which drew love whether she asked for it or not; and +sometimes a small lattice would open in a bay of one of those windows +of wooden lace whose carving was known as mushrbiyeh work because +shirib, or sherbet, used to be placed there to cool. Out of the lattice +would look a wonderful face, as thinly veiled as the moon by a mist, +and then it would vanish so quickly that a man who saw, half believed +that he had dreamed. But the eyes of the dream seemed to call, and +could not be forgotten, any more than the song of a siren can cease to +echo in ears which once have heard. + +After the beginning of Zohra's widowhood, the noblest and handsomest +youths of Cairo began mysteriously to disappear. They would be well and +happy one day, and the next they would be gone from the places that +knew them. By and by their bodies would be found in a canal; always the +same canal, near the water gate of the House of the Crocodile. Then the +vow of the Princess was remembered: but there was no English rule in +those days, and the police shut their ears and eyes where a daughter of +Mohammed Ali was concerned. Mothers and sisters of handsome young men +shuddered and begged those they loved never to pass through the dark +Street of the Sisters (Sharia el Benât) where the crocodile grinned +over the door, and the vision of a face looked down from a latticed +window. The women thought of the water gate at the back of the house; +the little children, who had heard secret words spoken, thought of the +crocodile, and ran crying past the house; but the handsome young men +thought only of the face, and each one said to himself, "She will not +make _me_ pay the price." Still, as years went on, bodies were seen in +the water from time to time, with a tiny purple spot over the heart to +show the curious that death had not come from drowning. And some, who +looked for lost ones, could not reclaim them from the canal, for bodies +were not always found. As time passed, it seemed to people who hurried +by the house in the narrow street, that the crocodile grew larger and +larger. It was said that it had been fed on the children of men Tiger +Ahmed had murdered in Sennaar. + +None dared to say what they believed of Princess Zohra, but when, after +a long imprisonment by her nephew Abbas, in the House of the Crocodile, +she escaped to Constantinople, nobody would live where she had lived, +and the palace fell almost into ruin. + +This was the story of the house where Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest and +Anthony Fenton were now. I had heard it talked about by our Arab +servants when I was a child, and had never forgotten, though scarcely +since then had I thought of the tale, until the remembered name and the +horrors attached to it jumped into my mind on reading Anthony's letter. +What had happened in the House of the Crocodile since Zohra's day, I +did not know; but because of the old story it seemed more sinister that +my friends should appeal for help from that place than from any other +in Cairo. + +I was not left long alone. Five minutes after Jarvis Pasha went out of +the room to "arrange things" according to Fenton's request, he sent me +a man with whiskey and soda, and biscuits. I drank gladly, and ate +rather than seem ungrateful. But there was a lump in my throat which +would stick there, I knew, until those three were away from the House +of the Crocodile. I was still crumbling biscuits when Jarvis Pasha came +briskly back. + +"Well," he asked, "are you braced up now? If you'd like to be in this +business, you can. I'm sending a white superintendent with my police to +raid the house, on the strength of Fenton's letter to you, though until +now the place hasn't been suspected. As I said, it's been a 'show' +house, for some years--ground floor and first story in repair, just as +in Zohra's day--upper floors ruinous, and the public not admitted +there. If anything queer's going on, it must be in the forbidden part: +and the caretaker is mixed up in the show. A pity you felt bound to let +Fenton's messenger off! You can go with my superintendent, Allen, and +reach your friends as soon as my men do. Allen has instructions to let +Fenton and the ladies, if they're found there, slip away, and it's best +for you to be on the spot to save mistakes in identification. Also I've +ordered a closed arabeah to wait for you, as near as possible--my men +will show you where. You'll know it for certain by a red camellia on +the Arab driver's European coat. And by the way, take this Browning, in +case of an attack; which I don't anticipate." + +As Jarvis Pasha spoke, he opened the door, and summoned in a brown +young Britisher wearing the tarboosh which denotes "Gyppy" officialdom. +Evidently Allen was prepared for me as I for him, and we started off +together on foot, for it seemed that our destination was not far away. +We walked swiftly through the crowded Mousky (once the fashionable part +of Cairo, before the tide flowed to the modern Isma'iliya quarter), and +after a few intricate turnings plunged into a still, twilight region. +The streets through which we passed were so narrow, and the old houses +so far overhung the path that the strip of sky at the top of the dark +canyon was a mere line of inlaid blue enamel flecked with gold. The +splendid mushrbiyeh windows thrust out toward each other big and little +bays, across the ten or twelve feet of distance which parted them, as +if to whisper secrets; yet the delicate wooden carvings skilfully hid +all that they wished to hide, and only suggested their secrets. + +"Now we'll soon be coming to the House of the Crocodile," said Allen. +"By Jove, it's a joke on us, and a smart one, if it's been turned into +a hasheesh den, under our noses. But it must be something new, or we +should have got onto it. The Chief thinks already he can guess who's at +the bottom of the business and who has put the money up: a certain Bey, +in whose service the caretaker was--a rich old Johnny, very old +fashioned, who lives not far off in a beautiful house of the best +Cairene period. He's keen on antiquities, and has been of service to +the government in several ways, though he's a reformed smuggler; and +his only son, dead now, was a hopeless hashash; that's what they call +slaves of the hasheesh habit. I suppose you've read all about the +'Hashashseyn' of the Crusaders' days, whom we speak of as Assassins? +Well, ever since then the Hashasheyn have had a bad reputation; but +this old man I speak of has been pitied for his son's failings, which +he pretends to think a 'judgment for his own past, repented sins.' Now, +Lord Ernest, saunter, please, as if you were a tourist in my charge, +admiring the old doorways." + +Two native workmen appeared in front of us, with pickaxes on their +shoulders. Stopping, they threw down their tools. One produced a cord +which he stretched across the street from house to house; and in the +middle he hung a small red flag. Then the pair began to pick in a +leisurely way at the surface of the road, and before we reached the +barrier, an Arab policeman stationed himself by the cord. Glancing +ahead, I saw that the farther end of the narrow lane was blocked in the +same manner. + +"This is one trick we have of doing our work quietly," said Allen. "It +always answers pretty well." + +I said nothing, but used my eyes. Coming from nowhere apparently, there +were twenty men in the street. A few had crowbars in their hands. +Others, native policemen, carried the canes with which they control the +movements of the people. From the shaded doorway of a large house a +native sergeant of police stepped out as we approached, and saluted +Allen. Over the closed door, a large, dryly smiling, ancient crocodile +hung. + +"Have our men come and taken their places?" asked my companion in +Arabic. + +"Yes, Effendi," the sergeant answered. "All has been done according to +order. The back entrance which was the water gate before the old canal +was filled up, is surrounded, and the adjoining houses with which some +communication may have been established are watched. Not a rat could +have crawled out since we came, nor could one have gone in. To-day is +the feast of a saint, and these people have their excuse not to open +the house to visitors, for so it is with other show places. Look, it is +written up, that until to-morrow there is no admission." As the man +pointed to a card hanging from a hook, he and Allen smiled at the +cleverness of this pretext for closing the door. In English, French, +and Arabic, the reason was announced in neat print. Probably this was +not the first time the same excuse had been used in the same way. + +"They must have taken alarm at something, and thought they were being +watched," Allen said to me. "That's why they've sported their oak. I +expect we shall make a haul, as--for everybody's sake concerned--they +wouldn't dare let their clients out, to fall into a trap. Yes, that's +why! Or else--" + +He stopped, and I did not ask him to go on, for I knew that to ask +would be useless. Yet I guessed what he had meant to say, and why he +had stopped. He didn't wish to alarm me, but it was in his mind that +the house had teen closed because of something planned to happen +inside. And that something might be connected with my friends. We +should soon know! + +My first thought was that we were to get through the door, by breaking +it in, or by forcing those on the other side to open for us. In an +instant, however, I realized that my idea was absurd. It would take an +hour to batter down that thick slab of old cedarwood, and Allen had +said that he wanted to do things quietly. No, the brown sergeant was +not here to open the door, but to see that it did not open unless for +our benefit. + +Two of Allen's men were unfolding a curious ladder like a lattice, +which they made secure with screws when they had stretched it to full +length. Then, up it went to one of the beautiful mushrbiyeh windows +which, on the level of the story above the ground floor, bayed +graciously, overhanging the street. One man standing below held the +ladder firmly in place, while another, small and lithe as a monkey and +enjoying the task as a monkey might, ran up to the top that leaned +against the window. Evidently he was a skilled worker, for before I +knew what he would be at, he had with some small, sharp instrument, +prized out without breaking it, one of the sections of carved lattice. +This he tossed lightly down to a man who caught it, and as he and four +others after him slipped through the opening, the sergeant knocked on +the closed door, under the swinging form of the crocodile. Nobody +answered. But three minutes passed, and then suddenly there was the +sound of a falling bar, and a very old, very dark man, with a white +turban and a white beard, peeped out. + +"Thieves!" he cried in Arabic. "Thieves break in at the windows!" + +He was making the best of a bad business, I guessed, and hoped somehow +to justify himself to the police. But though he was gray with fright, +he forgot to look surprised. + +My Arabic was not equal to the strain of catching all the gabble that +followed: the old man protesting that it was right to close the house +to-day; that if it were the police and not thieves who broke in, it was +unjust, it was cruel, and his son Mansoor, the caretaker, would appeal +to all the Powers. Before he had come to the end of his first breath, +he was hushed and handcuffed, and hustled away; and another man sprang +forward from behind the angle of a screen-wall inside the entrance. He +was young, and looked strong and fierce as an angry giant, but at sight +of Allen and the rest of us, he stopped as if we had shot him. Perhaps +he had not expected so many. In any case, he saw that there was nothing +he could hope to gain by violence or bluster. All he could do was to +protest as his father had done, that this visit was a violation of his +right to close the house on a holiday. + +"Don't be a fool, Mansoor," said Allen, who evidently knew him. "You +understand very well that isn't why we are here. You've jot a hasheesh +den upstairs, above the public show rooms. A nice trick you thought +you'd played us, but you see you didn't bring it off." + +By this time we were inside the house, having thrust the caretaker in +again, and passing the three tortuous screen walls of the entrance, +into a courtyard. Several young Arabs dressed as servants stood there, +large-eyed, and stricken at sight of their giant master held by four +policemen. But there was not a sign of our men who had crawled through +the window, and I was impatient to go where they had gone. + +There was no sound of scuffling, no sound at all, except the crying of +some startled doves, and Mansoor's voice, swearing by the Prophet's +sacred beard that if anything were wrong he was not the one to blame. +There were those above him who must be obeyed or he and all that were +his would be put out of life; but I cared too little for him, or what +might become of him and his, to listen much. I looked up and saw at the +left of the courtyard, with its several closed doors, a short flight of +steps with a mounting-block, and a doorway leading to a winding +staircase. Round the court went a gallery, supported with old marble +pillars, and underneath on one side was a large recess, the takhtabosh, +raised slightly above the level of the courtyard, and having a row of +wooden benches round its three walls. Here the caretaker and his male +relatives and friends had evidently been smoking their nargilehs and +drinking coffee; our arrival had disturbed them in the midst. + +Suddenly, into the frightened mourning of the doves, broke a sharp +sound of cracking wood. "Come along!" cried Allen. "They'll be past the +barrier in a minute!" And leaving Mansoor and the others to be dealt +with by subordinates, he led the way up the steep stairs, at a run. + +We did not stop at the first story, the "show" part of the House of the +Crocodile; but catching a glimpse of a latticed balcony off the +landing, all lovely mushrbiyeh work, and a great room of Persian tiled +walls and coloured marble floor, beyond, we dashed up another flight of +stairs to the story above. These stairs were of common wood, and +somewhat out of repair. At the top was a door of carved cedarwood like +those below, but rough in execution, faded, and with here and there a +starpoint or triangle of the pattern missing, leaving a hole in the +thick wood. On this door was nailed a large card with the notice in +English, French, and Arabic, "Forbidden to the Public." + +"What a grand idea to install a hasheesh den here!" I could not help +thinking as I followed at Allen's heels to the head of the stairs, +where two of his men worked with crowbars to prize open that +theatrically dilapidated door. Behind the pair who worked were the +others who had entered by the window below; and hardly had we taken our +places in the strange _queue_, when with a loud groan the door gave +way. The couple in front almost fell into a dark passage on the other +side, and my heart leaped, for I half expected to see them driven back +upon us by an attack with knives or pistols. But the dim vista seemed +to hold only silence and emptiness as I peered over men's shoulders; +and as we crowded in, Allen pushing ahead to take the lead, nothing +stirred. + +The passage was but a gallery, like that below, but instead of being +open, it was closed in with lattice of mushrbiyeh work, so that, though +those within could look through, it was as secret for those outside as +if it had been enclosed by a solid wall. + +The darkness was patterned with light, like ebony thinly inlaid with +gold, for the afternoon sunlight trickled into the delicate loopholes +of the carvings, and we began to see what Enterprise had made of this +ruinous upper story. The floor had been dilapidated and unsafe; but new +boards had been placed over it, covered with Egyptian-made matting and +rugs to deaden sound and give an appearance of comfort. We walked +quickly along to the end where this closed gallery turned at right +angles, and there found another door, new and rough, evidently but +lately put up. It was not so strong as the old one; and it yielded in a +few minutes to the furious industry of our men with their crowbars. +They lifted the door from its broken hinges, leaning it against a wall; +and as we passed through, an Arab pulled aside a thick curtain which +filled in a doorway. He was evidently a servant, and seeing the police, +showed no sign of surprise, but only of a most humble resignation which +disclaimed responsibility and begged for mercy. + +In silence the man was taken into custody; and Allen and I, with three +of the four policemen, passed into the region behind the portière. +There, all was dusk, save for the faint light sifting down from a +carved wooden dome in the ceiling, partly curtained; and a dark lantern +flashed out a long revealing ray. The men ran to pull back heavy cloth +hangings which entirely covered the latticed windows, and would allow +lamps to be lit at night without being seen from street or courtyard. +Instantly sunshine pierced the carved interstices, and let us see what +Enterprise had done for his clients. We were in the antechamber of a +long, beautiful room. The old, coloured marble of the durkááh--the +lower level of floor nearest the entrance--had been repaired with new; +the dilapidations of a fountain were almost hidden by pink azaleas in +pots; the liwán, on the next level, had a good rug or two; and the +diwáán, at the farthest and highest end, was furnished with red-covered +mattresses and pillows. The low wall-benches of marble were set here +and there with glass bowls of roses and syringa; and tiny cedarwood +cupboards high in the tiled walls were open to show coffee cups, +tobacco jars, and pipes made of cocoanut shells with long stems of +cane. + +Four men, who had apparently been lying on the mattresses, stood up and +faced us, not fiercely, but with something of the attendant's +resignation. Two were in European clothes, with the inevitable +tarboosh; and two, equally well dressed, were old fashioned and +picturesque in the long, silk gown and turban style which "Antoun" and +other lovers of the ancient ways affected. They were of the "Effendi +class," and might be merchants or professional persons. A turbaned man +with a black beard Allen knew, and greeted in Arabic, "Hussein Effendi! +Who would have thought to see you here!" + +"Why not?" answered the other, with a melancholy smile and shrug of the +shoulders. "There is no harm, really, but only in the eyes of the +English. We are caught, and we cannot complain, for we have had true +delight: and we have known, since the alarm came last night, that we +might have to pay for our pleasure." + +"So you had the alarm last night?" said Allen, looking as if there were +nothing surprising or puzzling in that. + +"Yes, why should we not admit it now? Word came that a watch had been +set outside, both back and front, and none of us dared leave the house. +We consented to be locked in, though there is one in another room who +wished to get out and run the risk. That was not permitted, for the +sake of others; and to prevent him from taking his own way in spite of +prudence, we let ourselves be shut in, with only one attendant who took +through the holes in the door such little food as we needed. We had +begun to hope that it had been a false alarm, or, since no inquiries +seemed to have been made below, that the watchers had gone and would +not come again. We planned as soon as night fell to go to our homes; +but it was not to be. And if any are to blame, it is not those who come +to take pleasures provided for them, but rather they who cheat the +coastguard of the swift-running camels, and bring what is forbidden +into Egypt." + +"The blame will be rightfully apportioned," said Allen. "Meanwhile, I +am sorry to say, Hussein Effendi, that you and those in your company +are subject to the law. I must now leave you, and go farther to see +what others we have to deal with." + + +The four Effendis were politely left in charge of two policemen who +would have been equal to twice their number, and our one remaining man +went on with Allen and me. + +"Your friends, and perhaps two or three who can afford to pay big +prices, will have had their smoke in private rooms," Allen explained. +"We can guess _who_ it was, who wanted to break out! There are probably +no more doors, only curtains, so we shall have no trouble. But don't +forget that, if anything unexpected should happen, you have a pistol. +Of course, you understand that it could be used only in an extreme +case." + +A curtained doorway led out from the diwáán into a small anteroom, and +there, on the floor, sat Bedr el Gemály, the picture of dejection. Had +I raised my voice in the next room, he would perhaps have ventured in +to see what I could do to help him; for now, at sight of me, he +scrambled up in shamefaced eagerness. + +"Oh, my lordship!" he began to cackle. "Praise be to Allah you are +come! I was persuaded to bring the young ladies here. They would make +me do it. Yes, sir. It is not my fault. They pay me. I have to obey. +Then we get caught, like we was some rats. No fair to punish me. The +ladies all right. No harm come, except a little sick." + +"If no harm has come, that's not due to you, but to a very different +man, as you well know," I said. And as I spoke, the man I had in my +mind appeared before my eyes. "Hullo!" I exclaimed, joyously. + +Anthony's eyes and Allen's met; but I could not tell if they knew each +other, nor could I ask then. It was enough for Allen in any case, +however, that this magnificent Hadji was one of the friends for whom I +searched. He turned to Bedr. "You brought two ladies here, I +understand," he said quickly and sharply. "Then you must have +acquaintance with the place. For good reasons which have nothing to do +with you, I shall not arrest you, but you will have to report at the +Governorat inside the hour, or you will regret it. Do you know the way +out at the back of the house?" + +"I do, gracious one," Bedr responded with businesslike promptness. + +"Then take these gentlemen, and the ladies, whom I do not need to see, +out by that door, and you will all be allowed to go, because my men who +are there have seen Lord Ernest Borrow, and they have my instructions." + +We waited for no more, but followed Anthony, who made a dash through +the further room, and into another. There, on a mattress, crouched two +forlorn figures, veiled as if in haste, and muffled in black satin +_habberahs_ such as Turkish ladies wear in the street. + +"Lord Ernest! Oh, how glad I am!" cried one of these creatures, while +the other, less vital or more miserable, whimpered and gurgled a little +behind her veil. + +"Come along, quick!" I said; and they came. Bedr led the way, thankful +to show himself of use. Anthony followed as if to protect or screen the +girls from sight. I brought up the rear, and so, scuttling through a +rabbit warren of little unfurnished, dilapidated rooms, we found a +narrow side staircase, and tumbled down it, anyhow, in dust and +dimness. Then two more staircases, and we were in a cellar which looked +as if it might once have been used as a prison. Up again, and rattling +at a chained door. Then out, into light and air, into the midst of a +group, which for an instant, closed threateningly round us. But the +sergeant I had seen was among the alert brown men. A glance, a gesture, +and we were allowed to pass, a youth running with us, to show the +promised carriage and the Arab driver with the red camellia. So it was +over, this adventure! + +Yet was it over? + +That remained to be seen. And remained also, to see what it meant, if +indeed there were a meaning underneath the surface. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON + + +"It seems too good to be true that it should end like this," said +Monny. + +She said it on the roof of Mena House, in the kiosk-room made of +mushrbiyeh work, which I had engaged for a little private dinner-party +that night. You see, it was the night of the full moon, the magic night +of the Sphinx-spell, which must not be wasted, no matter how tired you +may be or how many excitements you may have lived through. + +Anthony and I had had our explanations. He had told me that one night +in a café, where he was spreading the news of his dream, he had heard +two men talking in low voices about the House of the Crocodile. The +word "hasheesh" had not been mentioned, but Anthony had imbibed a vague +impression of something secret, and had wondered, and been interested. +Then the matter had slipped his mind; but, summoned in the night from +the writing of letters, to advise Mrs. Jones, he had recalled Monny's +wish to visit a hasheesh den. He knew of none, but suspected the +existence of one or two. How to find out in a hurry? he had asked +himself. And with that, the remembrance of those few whispered words in +the café had come echoing back to his brain. He acted upon the +suggestion; went to the door of the swinging crocodile, knocked, and +knocked again; had the door opened to him as if in surprise by an +apparently sleepy man. Announced the motive of his coming as if it were +a foregone conclusion that hasheesh could be smoked in that house by +the initiated. His disguise was not suspected. It never was, when he +played the Egyptian; and when asked who had sent him, he had the +inspiration to utter the name of that Bey who had been Mansoor's +master. This gave him entrance. He was taken upstairs, passed through +the door "Forbidden to the Public"; and the first person he saw in the +long room as he entered, was Bedr smoking a gozeh, one of those +cocoanut, cane-stemmed pipes in which hasheesh is mingled with the +Persian tobacco called tumbák. + +Bedr was accused of treachery, and defended himself. The ladies had +insisted. It was his place to obey. He had done no wrong in engaging a +carriage to wait outside the Ghezireh Palace gardens, and bringing his +employers to the best place in Cairo for the hasheesh smoking. The +ladies were safe and happy, in a private room where they had tried +their little experiment, and now they were sleeping. As soon as they +waked and felt like going home, he was ready to take them. It was for +Miss Gilder, not for Bedr, to beg pardon of her friends if they were +frightened. And all the time, it had seemed to Anthony, that the man +was expecting some one to arrive. He watched the doorway half eagerly, +half anxiously; when a servant came or went, he started, and betrayed +emotion which might have been disappointment or relief. But when +Anthony questioned him, he said, "I expect no one, Effendi. It is only +that I shall not be easy till we get the ladies home, now you tell me +their people are alarmed." + +Just then, and before Anthony saw the girls, a servant had come running +in to say that there was an alarm. Something had happened in the +street, and the police were there. Mansoor feared that it was a ruse, +and that the house was being watched, back and front. Where the +forbidden thing is, no precaution can be too great. For their own +sakes, and Mansoor's sake, no one must go out, perhaps not till the +next night; but luckily a saint's day would give peace for the morrow, +and all doors could be shut without causing remark. The news that there +was no escape for many hours to come distressed no one apparently, +except "Antoun." He had gone to the door, and tried to open it, but +found that already it was locked on the other side. Then he knew that +it was useless to struggle, for he was unarmed, the door was thick, and +no one outside could hear if he shouted. He must use his wits; but +first he must make sure that the two girls were safe. He forced, rather +than induced Bedr to show him the room they had engaged--a small one, +closed only with a portière, and looking over the court, down into the +open-fronted recess where Mansoor's family-life went on, like a watch +dog's in his kennel. + +It was true, as Bedr had said; the girls slept on a cushioned mattress, +wrapped in black habberahs, their faces turned to the wall. As they +could not be taken out, Anthony did not wake them, but let them get, in +peace, their money's worth of dreaming. His next thought was to try and +bribe the Arab attendant to smuggle out a letter; but acceptable as a +bribe would have been, the man explained his helplessness to earn it, +at least for the time being. He could do nothing till one of his +fellow-servants came up from below, to pass the food for the imprisoned +smokers through a hole in the door, made purposely in case of just such +an emergency. Probably no one would appear till morning, for who would +be hungry before then? Even with the morning, it might be Mansoor +himself who would bring the food, and inquire again at the door if all +were well within. But if the noble Hadji wrote the letter, it should be +sent when opportunity arose. One of the servants below stairs, said the +man, was his father, who might during the next day be able to slip out +as if on some errand. Then he would perhaps take a letter, if he could +be sure of good pay, and that he would not be delivered up to the +police. So Anthony had written on a sheet torn from his notebook, and +made an envelope of another sheet. The address of the Ghezireh Palace +had helped the man to believe that no evil would reach his father; and +a "sweetener" in the shape of all Anthony's ready money had done the +rest. But evidently the old man had not succeeded in finding an excuse +for an errand until after the noon hour, and meanwhile time had seemed +long in the House of the Crocodile. When the girls waked, wanting to go +home, they were ill. They found the game not worth the candle--but +Anthony's presence had given them comfort. They were humble, and +remorseful; and Bedr was so conspicuously a worm that Monny consented +to his discharge. "It would take more time than we've got to make him +worth converting," she said to Rachel when the Armenian had carefully +laid all the blame of the expedition upon her shoulders. + +Never were two runaway children more glad to be found and restored to +their anxious relatives than Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest. As for +Bedr, he took his dismissal, with a week's wages, submissively; but the +gravest question concerning him still lacked an answer. Had he merely +been officious and indiscreet in guiding the girls secretly to the +House of the Crocodile, and there procuring hasheesh to buy them +dreams, or had he wanted something to happen, in that house, which had +not happened? A certain amount of browbeating from "Antoun," and +bullying from me, dragged nothing out of him. And perhaps there was +nothing to be dragged. Perhaps it was through oversensitiveness that +Brigit and I dwelt suspiciously upon Bedr's motives, and asked each +other who it was he had expected at the House of the Crocodile. Even +Anthony did not accuse the Armenian of anything worse than slyness and +cowardice, according to him the two worst vices of a man; but he +volunteered to find out what mysterious night-disturbance in the street +had caused the sudden closing of the doors. It was Biddy's thought that +the person Bedr wished to meet might fortunately have been prevented by +this very disturbance from keeping his appointment, and Monny saved a +serious ending to her adventure. It began to seem rather a worry, +travelling with so important a young woman as Miss Gilder: and a vague +dread of the future hung over me, as it hung over Brigit, who loved the +girl. We felt, dimly, as if we had had a "warning," and did not yet +know how to profit by it. The atmosphere was charged with electricity, +as before an earthquake; and we felt that the affair of the hasheesh +den might be but a preface to some chapter yet unwritten. Still, it was +impossible not to forgive Monny her indiscretion. Indeed, she became so +honey-sweet and childlike in her desire to "make up" for what we had +suffered, that the difficulty was not to like her better. + +She besought us to forget the episode. If we only _knew_ how sick she +and Rachel had been, we'd see why they never wanted to think of those +hours again! And when I chanced to mention that to-night would be full +moon--the night of nights when the Sphinx and the Ghizeh Pyramids held +their court--Monny begged to have the bad taste of her naughtiness +taken out of her mouth by a dinner at Mena House. We might dine early, +and plunge into the desert later, when the moon was high. Of course, I +proposed that all should be my guests--all except "Antoun" who, though +recognized as a gentleman of Egypt, was considered by Miss Gilder an +alien, not exactly on "dining terms." He was supposed to go home, "to +his own address." At eight-thirty he was to take a taxi to Mena House, +where he would arrive before nine, in time to help me organize my +expedition. + +I explained to Monny that, though we should dine privately, it would be +my duty to see that the _Candace_ people paid their respects to the +Sphinx, and gazed upon her as she ate moon-honey. If they missed this +sight, or if anything went wrong with their way of seeing it, I should +never be forgiven. But the much chastened Monny graciously "did not +mind." She thought it would be fun to watch the sheep-dog rounding up +his flock. Useless to explain to her the subtle social distinction +between a "Flock" and a "Set" (both with capitals)! To her, the blaze +of the Set's smartness was but the flicker of a penny dip. We could +drive the crowd on ahead, and look at _our_ moon when they were out of +its light. + +So there's the explanation of Monny's presence in the mushrbiyeh kiosk +on the roof of Mena House, on the night following the great adventure, +which would have put most girls to bed with nervous prostration! + +Part of our programme, to be sure, had failed; but it was not a part +which could interfere with my selfish enjoyment. Mrs. East had changed +her mind at the last moment, and had decided not to dine, although I +had invited Sir Marcus on purpose for her. According to Biddy, +Cleopatra had "something up her sleeve," something her excuse of +"seediness" was meant to cover. Maybe it was only a flirtatious wish to +disappoint Sir Marcus--maybe it was something more subtle. But it did +not matter much to anybody except Lark, who was obliged to put up with +Mrs. Jones in place of Mrs. East; for Rachel Guest and the sculptor, +whom we nicknamed "Bill Bailey" were to be paired off: and, urged by +Biddy, I intended to monopolize Monny. + +I suppose there could scarcely be a more ideal room for an intimate +dinner-party on a moonlight night than that kiosk on the flat roof of +Mena House. Through the wide open doors, and the openwork walls like a +canopy of black lace lined with silver, the moonlight filtered, +sketching exquisite designs upon the white floor and bringing out +jewelled flecks of colour on the covering and cushions of the divans. +There was no electricity in this kiosk, and we aided the moonlight only +with red-shaded candles, and ruby domed "fairy lamps," the exact shade +of the crimson ramblers which decorated the table. For the corners by +the open doors, I had ordered pots of Madonna lilies, which gave up +their perfume to the moon, and looked, in the mingling radiance of rose +and silver, like hovering doves. + +"Oh, I could hug and _kiss_ that moon!" sighed Monny, tall and fair in +her white dress as the lilies I had chosen for her. + +I was relieved that the Man in the Moon has now been superseded by a +Gibson Girl; for Monny was beautiful at that moment as a vision met in +the secret garden which lies on the other side of sleep. + +"And the stars," Monny said, as I watched her uplifted face, wondering +just how much I was in love with it, "the little stars high up at the +zenith twinkle like silver bees. Those that sit on the edge of the +horizon are huge and golden, like desert watch-fires. Oh, do you know, +Lord Ernest, if quite a dull, uninteresting man, or--or one that it +would be madness even to _think_ of--proposed to me on such a night, I +should _have_ to say yes. It would seem so prosaic and such a waste, of +moonlight, not to. Wouldn't you feel like that if you were a girl?" + +"I'm sure I should," I replied with extraordinary sympathy. "I _do_ +feel like it, even as a man. I warn you not to propose, or I shall snap +at you." + +She laughed; but I was wondering if I were dull and uninteresting +enough to stand a chance. It seemed as if Providence were actually +_handing_ it to me. But just then Biddy and Sir Marcus came to the +doorway which so becomingly framed Monny's form and mine. Naturally +that put the idea out of my head; and two such opportunities don't come +to a man in a single night. + +Dinner was not ready yet, and we sauntered about on the flat roof, +white as marble in the moonlight. The sky was milk--the desert, honey +--far off Cairo with its crowned citadel, pale opal veined with light, +and faintly streaked with misty greens and purples; the cultivated land +a deep indigo sea. The fantastically built hotel (in its ancient +beginnings the palace of a Pasha) was like a closely huddled group of +châlets, looked down on from its central roof. On the fringe of the +oasis-garden the cafés and curiosity-shops buzzed with life, and +glittered like lighted beehives. Outside the gateway, donkey-boys and +camel-men and drivers of sandcarts chattered. To-night, and on a few +moonlight nights to come they would reap their monthly harvest. They +were all ready to start off anywhere at a moment's notice; but apart +from them and their clamour, reposed a row of camels previously +engaged, free, therefore, to enjoy themselves until after dinner. As we +gazed down as if from a captive balloon, at the line of sitting forms, +they looked immense, like giant, newborn birds, with their huge +egg-shaped bodies and thin necks. Along the arboured road from Cairo, +flashed motor-car after motor-car, their lights winking in and out +between the dark trees, now blazing, now invisible, their occupants all +intent on doing the right thing: dining at Mena House, and seeing the +full moon feed honey to the Sphinx. Some, wishing to save time, or to +dine later in town, or to take a train, for somewhere, later, did not +turn in at the hotel gate, but swept past with siren shrieks, and tore +on, hoping to "rush" the steep hill to the Pyramid platform at top +speed. Only a few of the strongest succeeded, and, with a dash instead +of an ignominious crawl, triumphantly fanned their lights along the +base of that vast monument in which King Cheops vainly sought eternal +privacy. What would he say, we wondered, could he see the crowds of +tourists tearing out to pay him a call, on their way to the Sphinx? +Would he blight them with a curse, or would he remember pearly nights +of old, when his subjects assembled in multitudes for the feast of the +Goddess Neith when the moon was full, and all the white, brightly +painted houses along the Nile reflected their flowerlike illuminations +in the water? Anyhow (as Sir John Biddell would have said), this was +helping to keep his name before the public; and nothing could succeed +in vulgarizing his mountain of gold in its gleaming waves of desert, +under pulsing stars and creamy floods of moonlight. + +Anthony had told me that the great "tip" was to go out while the less +instructed sightseers ate their dinner. Then, the desert was +comparatively empty; and, more important still, instead of having the +moon on her head, and her face in shadow, the Sphinx received its full +blaze in her farseeing eyes. Of this advice I meant to avail myself, +feeling vaguely guilty as I thought of the giver, who was absent from +the feast: Anthony Fenton, one of the finest young soldiers in Egypt, +who could be lionized in drawing-rooms at home if he would "stand for +it"! Anthony who, would he but accept the repentant overtures of that +tyrannical old prince, his maternal grandfather, might inherit a +fortune and a palace at Constantinople! Yet as Ahmed Antoun in his +green turban, he was "taboo" at our little party. + +He was due later, however, and I rather expected to find him waiting +below, when I excused myself to descend to the Set. But I had not left +the roof when a note for Monny was brought up by an ebony person in +livery. I watched her as she read, one side of her face turned to +marble by the moon, the other stained rose by the red-shaded candles. I +thought that the rosy side grew more rosy as she finished the letter. + +"There's a--message for you, Lord Ernest," she said. "Aunt Clara wants +me to tell you that 'Antoun' can't meet you at the hotel, because she +--changed her mind about not coming out, and sent for him. She felt +better, it seems, and got thinking what a pity it would be to miss the +full moon, so she suddenly remembered that 'Antoun' wasn't with us, and +decided to invite him. She writes in a hurry and didn't know where they +would dine, but says anyhow they'll meet us by the Sphinx between nine +and ten." + +"Where '_they'd_' dine!" echoed Sir Marcus, pricked to interest. "Was +she going to let Fe--I mean 'Antoun,' take her out to dinner?" + +"Apparently she was," replied Monny, rather dryly. + +"Why not?" asked Brigit. "He's perfectly splendid. And Mrs. East--not +that she isn't a young woman, of course--is old enough to go about +without a chaperon." + +"If we're to meet them between nine and ten at the Sphinx," said Monny +briskly, "don't you think, Lord Ernest, you'd better hurry and get your +people off, so we can set out ourselves?" + +"I'm going," I assured her. "But I thought we planned to give them a +long start, in hopes that they might be ready to come back by the time +we arrived?" + +"Oh, well," she said, "that will make it very late, won't it, and we +may miss Aunt Clara? Anyhow, lots of other creatures just as bad as +yours will be there, for we can't engage the desert like a private +sitting-room." + +That settled it. I dashed downstairs and sorted out my charges. They +had got themselves up in all kinds of costumes, for this "act." One man +had on a folding opera-hat, which he had thought just the right thing +for Egypt, as it was so easy to pack! Girls in evening dress; men young +and old in helmets and straw hats, ancient maidens, and fat married +ladies, in dust cloaks or ball gowns, climbed or leaped or scrambled +onto camels, with shrieks of joy or moans of horror: or else they +tumbled onto donkeys which bounded away before the riders were well on +their backs. And men, women, and animals were shouting, giggling, +groaning, gabbling, snarling, and squeaking; an extraordinary +procession to pay honour to the Pyramids and the lonely Sphinx. + +We of the roof-party considered ourselves, figuratively speaking, above +camels, far above donkeys, and scornful of motor-cars, in which it was +irreverent to charge up to the Great Pyramid as if to the door of a +café. We walked, and Monny still lent herself to me; but she no longer +bubbled over with delight at everything. A subdued mood was upon her, +and her eyes looked sad, even anxious, in the translucent light which +was not so much like earthly moonlight as the beginning of sunrise in +some far, magic dreamland. She had the pathetic air of a spoiled child +who begins suddenly, if only vaguely, to realize that it cannot have +everything it wants in the world. And she merely smiled when I told her +how, to insure the peace of the desert, I had offered a prize of a +large blue scarab as big as a paperweight, for that member of the Set +who did not even say "Oh!" to the Sphinx. "Antoun" had "vetted" the +alleged scarab and pronounced it a modern forgery; but nobody else knew +that, and as a prize it was popular. + +The sky had that clear pale blue of dawn, when day first realizes that, +though born of night, it is no longer night. Casseopeia's Chair and +Orion were being tossed about the burning heavens like golden furniture +out of a house on fire; and one great star-jewel had fallen on the apex +of cruel Khufu's Pyramid. I should have liked to believe it was Sirius, +the "lucky" star sacred to Isis and Hathor; but Monny's schoolgirl +knowledge of astronomy bereft me of that innocent pleasure. No wonder +that the ancient Egyptians, with such jewels in their blue treasure-house, +were famous astrologers and astronomers before the days when +Rameses' daughter found Moses in the bulrushes of Roda Island! + +The stars spoke to us as we walked, soft-footed, through the sand; and +the pure wind of the desert spoke other words of the same language, the +language of the Universe and of Nature. Here and there yellow lights in +a distant camp flashed out like fireflies; far away across the +billowing sands, rocks bleached like bone gave an effect of surf on an +unseen shore; now and then a silent, swift-moving Arab stealing out of +shadow, might have been the White Woman who haunts the Sphinx, hurrying +to a fatal tryst: and the Great Pyramid seemed to float between desert +sand and cloudless sky like the golden palace of Aladdin being +transported through air by the Geni of the Lamp. There never was such +gold as this gold of sand and pyramids, under the moon! We said that it +was like condensed sun rays, so vivid, so bright, that the moon could +not steal its colour. Cloudlike white figures were running up Khufu's +geometric mountain; Arabs expecting money when they should come leaping +down, whole or in pieces. And the khaki uniforms of British soldiers +mounting or descending for their own stolid amusement, made the Pyramid +itself seem to be writhing, so like was the colour of the cloth to that +of the stone. No use being angry because the monument was crawling with +Tommies! The Pyramids were as much theirs as ours. And probably +Napoleon's soldiers spent their moonlit evenings in the same way; a +thought which somehow made the thing seem less intolerable. + +We climbed to the vast platform of the Ghizeh Pyramids, and then +plunged into the billows of the desert, in quest of the Sphinx. Sir +Marcus was entitled to call himself the pioneer, but we needed no one +to show us the way. It was but too clearly indicated by the bands of +pilgrims, going or returning. And among the latter were those whom +Monny callously referred to as "poor Lord Ernest's crowd." Miss +Hassett-Bean and the Biddell girls made us linger, with sand trickling +over the tops of our shoes, while they poured into our ears their +impressions of the Sphinx. Miss H. B. thought that She (with a capital +S) was a combination of Goddess, Prophetess, and Mystery. Enid thought +she was like an Irish washerwoman making a face; and Elaine said she +was the image of their bulldog at home. Monny (after a sandy +introduction) listened to these verbal vandalisms in horrified silence. +I could see that she was exerting herself, for my sake, to be civil to +my charges (who were more interested in her than they had been in the +Sphinx), and that, if she could have done so without hurting their +feelings, she would have struck them dead. But my fears that their +mental suggestions might obsess her were baseless. She did not speak +when the golden billows parted to give us a first vision of the great +Mystery of the Desert. I had led Monny by a roundabout way, and instead +of seeing the Sphinx from the back, we came upon her face to face, as +she gazed with her wonderful, all-knowing eyes, straight into that +world beyond knowledge which lies somewhere east of the moon. Veiled by +the night in silver and blue, with a proud lift of the head, she faced +past and future, which were one for her, and the present, nothing. The +moon gave back for a few hours all her lost loveliness, of which men +had robbed her, seeming miraculously to restore the broken features, +whole and beautiful as they had been in her youth before history began. +It was as if in the moon's rays were silver hands, mending the marred +majesty, giving life to the eyes and to the haunting, secret smile. I +thought of the story of King Harmachis: how he dreamed that the Sphinx +came to him, saying that the sand pressed upon her, and she could not +breathe. Nobody since his day had for long left her buried! + +"What does it mean to you?" I broke the silence to ask. + +"I don't know," Monny said. "All I know is that she's more wonderful +than I expected, and as beautiful as the loveliest marble Venus of +Italy, though a thousand times greater--if one perfect thing can be +greater than another. She's so great that I don't think she can be +meant to be a woman--or even a man. She is like a _soul_ carved in +stone." + +"All in a moment you have guessed the riddle!" I exclaimed, liking and +understanding the girl better than I had liked or understood her yet. +"I believe that's the secret of the Sphinx. The king who had this +stupendous idea, and caused it to be carried out, said to some inspired +sculptor, 'Make for me from the rock of the desert, a portrait, not of +me as I am seen by men, in my mortal part or Khat, for that can be +placed elsewhere; but an image of my real self, my soul or Ka, looking +past the small things of this world into eternity, which lies beyond +this desert and all deserts.' Then the sculptor made the Sphinx, and +gave it such grandeur, such mystery of countenance that instinctively +the souls of people recognized the _soul look_. You have a soul, and it +told you the secret. Only those who have no souls find the Sphinx heavy +or hideous, or utterly beyond their comprehension." + +"Have I a soul?" Monny asked, dreamily. "Men I've known have told me I +haven't. Yet sometimes I've thought I felt it fluttering. And if I have +a soul, I shall find it in Egypt. Oh, I shall! Something--yes, the +Sphinx herself!--tells me that." + +I was tempted to ask "What about a heart?" And then--in a violent +hurry, before anybody came--to mention my own, into which the moon +seemed pouring a little of the honey it had brought for the Sphinx. I +did feel that some one owed a moonlight proposal under the Sphinx's +nose (or the place where its nose had been) to such a girl as Monny. +Her Egyptian experience could never be perfect and complete unless she +were proposed to on the night of the full moon, with the Sphinx's +blessing; and as no better man was here to do it, I could not be +thought conceited if I took the duty upon myself. Besides, Brigit would +so thoroughly approve! + +"Look here, Biddy, I mean Monny," I began hastily, "there's something I +want to tell you, something very important you ought to know, because +matters can't go on much longer as they are--" + +"Is it something about 'Antoun'?" she broke in, with a little gasp, as +I paused for breath and courage. "If it is, maybe I know it already!" + +Extraordinary, the relief I felt! I ought to have suffered a shock of +disappointment, because I couldn't possibly finish a proposal after +such an interruption. But instead, my spirits went up with a bound. +Probably, however, that was because her hint was a whip to my +curiosity. "_What_ do you know about 'Antoun'?" I asked. + +Perhaps I forgot to lower my voice; or perhaps voices carry far across +desert-spaces, as across water. Anyhow the clear tones of Cleopatra +answered like an echo. "Antoun--Antoun! I hear Lord Ernest calling." + +Biddy--dear little matchmaking Biddy--had managed Sir Marcus, Bill +Bailey and Rachel, as a circus rider manages three spirited white +horses at one time. The desert was her ring, and she had reined her +steeds to her will, keeping them out of my way and Monny's at all +costs, no matter whether they saw the Sphinx in back view or noseless +profile. But Mrs. East's principal occupation in life was not to get me +engaged to the Gilded Rose. And either she lost her presence of mind, +or else she was not so much enjoying her moonlight tête-à-tête with +Fenton, that it was worth while to hide from us behind a sand dune. + +The two emerged from a gulf of shadow, Anthony very splendid under the +moon, a true man of the desert. I thought I heard Monny draw in a +little sharp breath as she saw that noble incarnation of Egypt (so he +must have seemed, unless she knew the British reality of him) walking +beside Cleopatra. + +Then up came the others, Sir Marcus impossible to restrain; and we all +talked together as people are expected to talk when they have come +thousands of miles to see these monuments of Egypt. Yes, yes! +Wonderful--incredible! Which do you find more impressive, the Sphinx or +the Pyramids? Isn't it a pity they let the temple between the paws +remain buried? And aren't the Pyramids just like Titanic, golden +beehives? And can't you simply _see_ the swarming builders, like bees +themselves, working for twenty years? + +Thus we jabbered; and others, many others, appeared to dispute the +scene with us, to break the magic of the moonlight, and to puncture the +vast silence of the desert with their cooings and gurglings and +chatterings in German, English, Arabic, and every other language known +since the Tower of Babel. Arab guides lit up the Sphinx with flaring +magnesium, an impertinence that should have made hideous with hate the +insulted features, but instead turned them for a thrilling instant of +suspense into marble. Indeed, none of our petty vulgarities could jar +or even fret the majestic calm of the desert and the stone Mystery +among its billows. The Sphinx gazed above and past us all. She was like +some royal captive surrounded by a rabble mob, yet as undisturbed in +soul as though her puny, hooting tormentors had no existence. It was +not so much that she scorned us, as that she did not know we were +there. + +When we sorted ourselves out, to escape Sir Marcus, Cleopatra deigned +to make use of me, having first observed (with burning interest) that +Monny and Rachel were with Bailey, and that "Antoun" was pointing +things out to Brigit O'Brien, as it is Man's métier (in pictures and +advertisements) to point things out to Woman. + +"It's been a wonderful evening," Mrs. East said. "It has made up for +everything I suffered last night. We brought dinner out into the +desert, in that smallest tea-basket, you know, and ate it together, he +and I--Antony and I. There! I may as well confess that's what I call +him to myself, for I've guessed your secret--and his. But don't be +afraid. I won't tell a soul. It's too romantic and fascinating for +words--or to put into words. He let me have my fortune told by an Arab +sand diviner, who came while we were at dinner. I can't repeat to you +what the fortune-teller said. But I feel as if I were living in a book. +Oh, if only I were writing it myself and could make everything happen +just as I want it to happen! Do you know one thing I would put into the +story?" + +"No, I can't think," I said, rather anxiously. + +"I would have _you_ propose to Monny." + +"Oh--by Jove, Mrs. East!" + +"Why--don't you admire her?" + +"But of course. She's irresistible. Only she's so horribly rich. And +besides, she doesn't think of me in that way." + +"You can't be sure. Now, Lord Ernest, I'm going to whisper you a +secret. I believe--I really do--that Monny would be _glad_ if you'd +propose. If I were in your place, if I _liked_ her, I would do so as +soon as possible. It might save her from humiliation--from a great +trouble." + +Being a duffer, I could only say once again, "By Jove!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +AN UNDERGROUND PROPOSAL + + +I didn't sleep much that night, for thinking of Monny; and when I did +sleep, I dreamed of her; tangled dreams, in which she was Monny Gilder +with Brigit O'Brien's eyes. Could it be possible that she liked me? +Mrs. East ought to know. I made up my mind that to-morrow I would begin +by feeling my way, but when to-morrow came I had no time to feel +anything which concerned my private affairs. + +It seemed, or so I was told "for my own good" by Miss Hassett-Bean, +that the Candace people thought it "snobby" for me to have indulged in +a private dinner-party, and to have hustled them off in a drove to the +Sphinx while I went leisurely with my smart friends. They knew all +about the feast on the roof, and were of opinion that they ought to +have been there. Did I consider my American heiress better than they, +better even than the family of an ex-Lord Mayor? If I wished to make up +lost ground, I must devote myself to duty, and be nicer than ever to +everybody. + +This was one of the moments when I was tempted to throw over my job; +but I remembered the reward, and set myself once more to the earning of +it. For the next few days I scarcely saw Monny or Brigit, or even heard +what was happening to them--for they had "done" the principal sights of +Cairo, and I (at the head of the _Candace_ crowd) was "doing" them. As +if in a game of "Follow my Leader," I led the band from mosque to +mosque; not indeed visiting the whole two hundred and sixty-four, but +calling on the best ones. To begin with, I collected the Set on the +height of the Citadel, which commands all Cairo, the platform of the +Pyramids (not only the Ghizeh Pyramids but the sixty odd others, which +newcomers don't talk about): the tawny Mokattam Hills, and the silver-blue +serpent of the Nile. From this vantage place I pointed out the +things we had to see in the city spread out below us, so that on the +vaguest minds the picture might be painted in its entirety, before they +began to absorb details on that mosaic map which was Cairo. The tombs +of the Mamelukes, strangely shaped monuments, vague and white as +squatting ghosts; the graves of the Caliphs; the historic gates of +el-Kahira; and the many ancient mosques, whose minarets soared against the +blue like tall-stemmed flowers in a palace garden. + +Mentally fortified by this bird's-eye view from the Citadel (of course, +I had to trot them up again for the sunset), my charges let themselves +be led from mosque to mosque, from tomb to tomb. Some, possessed with a +demoniac desire to get their money's worth of Egypt, were unable to +enjoy any sight, in their nervous dread of missing some other +spectacle, which people at home might ask them about. These strained +their wearied intelligences to see more than they possibly could at any +one moment, unless they had eyes all round their heads; and others, of +an even more irritating type, never lifted the few eyes they had from +the pages of guide-books. I liked better those who, like Monny, frankly +said that they didn't wish to have their minds tidied up, and be told a +string of things about Egypt. They just wanted to _feel_ the things, +and let them slowly soak in. And the nice, lazy, Southern Americans, +who said they were "tomb shy," and loitered about, betting from one to +six scarabs on the speed of fleas, or donkeys, while I whipped forth +for their tired companions a dull drove of facts fattened for their +benefit. + +Mosques and churches and tombs had to be visited, but did not appeal to +all tastes. The Bazaars did. So did the Zoo, more fascinating than any +other zoo, because each animal has its trick, or pet, or plaything. + +As an excuse to see Monny and the rest of my friends, I got up a +moonlight digging expedition at Fustat, those great mounds of rubbish +and buried treasure near Egyptian Babylon where a city was burnt lest +it should fall into the hands of the Crusaders. Monny and her party +were invited to join us, and accepted the invitation, piloted by +"Antoun." And concerning this entertainment, I had an idea. Those who +choose to dig among these desert-like sandhills, between the Coptic +churches of Babylon and the tombs of the Mamelukes, may chance on +something of value, especially after a windstorm or a landslip: bits of +Persian pottery, fragments of iridescent glass, broken bracelets of +enamel, opaline beads, or tiny gods and goddesses. Why should I not +(thought I) apportion off to each member of the band his or her own +digging patch? This would save squabbling, and would provide an +opportunity for me to propose in a unique way to Monny. + +Regarding the idea as an inspiration, I carried it out scientifically. +Helped by Anthony, after the sun had set and the mounds were deserted, +I staked out the most promising "claims," and marked each space with +the name of the "miner" for whom I intended it. In Monny's patch, near +the surface where she could not possibly miss it, I buried a letter +wrapped round a cow-eared head of Hathor which I had bought at the +Egyptian Museum-shop. Now, in justice to myself, I must tell you that +this letter was no common letter, such as any Tom, Dick, or Harry may +write to the Mary Jane Smith of the moment. It was a missive which cost +me midnight electricity and brain-strain; for not only must I appeal to +my lady, I must also suit an environment. + +Monny had taken up the study of hieroglyphics, in order to appreciate +intelligently the tombs and temples of the Nile. She had bought books, +and was learning with the energy of a stenographer, to write and read. +She wrote out exercises, and submitted them for correction to "Antoun" +who, as an Egyptian, was to be considered an authority. "Of course," +she explained to me, "one comes here thinking that all Egyptians +nowadays, even Copts, are Arabs. But _he_ says that Egyptians are as +Egyptian as they ever were, because Arab invasion has left little more +trace in their blood than the Romans left in the blood of the English. +It interests me _much_ more to feel when I'm in Egypt that I'm among +real Egyptians." + +With this in my mind, I was convinced that a love letter in +hieroglyphics, unearthed by moonlight in the mounds of Fustat, would +please Monny. + +The difficulty was that, though I could speak Arabic fairly well, I +hardly knew the difference between hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic +forms; but the limited symbols I was able to employ were so strong in +themselves that a few would go a long way: and if they were not as +correct as the sentiments they expressed, Monny was not herself a +mistress of hieroglyphic style. I could find no hieroglyphic suit in +which to clothe the name Ernest; but since I had become keeper of men, +mice, and morals in Sir Marcus Lark's floating zoo, Monny's craze for +Egyptianizing everything had suggested the nickname of Men-Kheper-Rã. +She sometimes called me Rã for short, therefore I now ventured to +divert to my own uses a sign and cartouche once the property of a "son +of the Sun," and King of Egypt: + +[Illustration: "The Love Letter"] + +Translation: Beautiful Queen, Star (of) My Heart (and) Soul. Give Me +(your) Love. Become My Wife (and) Goddess (for) Eternity. + +Men-Kheper-(Ka) Rã. + +I patted myself on the back, put the letter in the ground; and the +digging party was a wild success; but time passed on, and I had no +answer. What I expected was a reply in kind, an hieratic acceptance or +a demotic refusal; either one would be good practice for Monny. But not +a hieroglyph of any description came. I had to go on as if nothing had +happened. To be ignored was less tolerable than being refused. Monny's +silence began to get upon my nerves; and to make matters worse, there +was that desert trip hanging over my head. I knew even less about +organizing a desert trip than I knew about hieroglyphics; yet it had to +be done. As Sir Marcus said it was "up to me" to do it so well that +Cook would look sick. Anthony was absorbed in secret official duties +and open, unofficial duties. His was a great "thinking" part, and our +occupations kept us apart rather than brought us together. On the one +occasion when we were alone, he devoted four out of five minutes to +telling me what he had learned of the night disturbance in front of the +House of the Crocodile. "A Britisher of sorts" had come into the +street, guided by an Arab. There had been some dispute about payment, +and the Britisher had slapped the dragoman's face. This had been +followed, as he might have known it would, with a stab; a crowd had +assembled, and scattered before the police; the stabbed one had gone to +hospital, the stabber to prison. Altogether it was not surprising that +Mansoor, the suspicious caretaker, had feared a trap, and closed his +doors. Bedr el Gemály, now one of the great unemployed, had been seen +near the hospital where the injured man lay; but he had taken the alarm +and departed without inquiring for the invalid's health; or else his +being in that neighbourhood was a coincidence. The name of the man +knifed was Burke, and London was given as his address. He was between +thirty-five and forty, and according to the arrested dragoman was "not +a gentleman, but a tourist." His hurt was not severe: and as the Arab +had been exasperated by a blow, the punishment would not be excessive. + +When at length I had seized the last remaining minute to put the +question, "Do you think Miss Gilder has found out who you really are?" +Fenton seemed astonished. + +"I hadn't thought of it at all," he answered simply. "She's giving me +too many other things to think of." + +"What kind of things?" I stealthily inquired. + +"Oh,"--with an evasive air--"I don't know what to make of her yet. But +I haven't given up my silly scheme." + +"What silly scheme?" + +"Antoun" looked almost sulky. "Well, if you've forgotten, I won't +remind you. It's absurd; it's even brutal; and I'm ashamed of it. But I +stick to it." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DESERT DIARY BEGUN + + +I found out why Monny paid no attention to my buried letter. But the +way in which I found it out (and several other things at the same time) +is part of the desert trip. + +I am not a man whose soul turns to diaries for consolation; but I did +keep up a bowing acquaintance with a notebook in Egypt--it helped me +with my lectures--and in the desert it relieved my feelings. Looking +over the desert pages, I'm tempted to give them as they stand: + +_Black Friday_: Morning. The start's for Monday, and nothing done! +Could I develop symptoms of creeping paralysis, and throw the +responsibility on Anthony? But too late for that now; and he may have +to stay on in Cairo for a day or two. Why did I leave my peaceful home? +It's the lure of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Last night before +I went to bed, read over my copy of Ferlini's letters, to gain courage. +Gained it for a little; but when I think of that desert I'm supposed to +turn into a happy playground for trippers, and not a tent hired or a +prune bought, or an egg laid, for all I know, I wish Anthony and I had +let Lark stick to our mountain. + +This is Lark's fault anyhow. He sprang the thing on me. Said it would +be easy as falling off a log. Said Cairo was full of Arabs whose +mission in life was supplying tents and utensils for desert tours. +People would be charmed with simple life, and me as universal provider. +All I had to do was to supply cheap editions of "The Garden of Allah," +and plenty of dates; and hint that it was considered vulgar in the Best +Circles to put on Pêche Melba airs in the desert. With a few +quotations, I should make them content with a loaf of bread, a cup of +wine, and Thing-um-Bob. Why, they'd be falling in love with each other +under the desert stars, and my principal occupation would be saying, +"Bless you, my children!" + +Sounded neat; and I remembered that, according to Brigit, Monny wanted +the "desert to take her." Thought it might be useful if I were on in +that act. Abyssmal beast of a dragoman who lurks round Mena House +buoyed me up with false hopes. Said he had a fine outfit which he let, +and threw himself in as guide. Plenty of everything (including cheek) +for fifteen people, the exact number who have put down their names to +go. (Some girls and parents are staying for a ball at the Semiramis, +where I've tearfully persuaded the only soft-hearted officers I know to +dance with them--otherwise the lot would have been on my hands in the +desert.) Had so much to do yesterday taking the crowd to Matariyeh, +where the Holy Family hid in a hollow tree, that I had no time to look +at the Arab's outfit. Was inclined to save trouble and trust him, but +saw Anthony a minute last night; he urged me to inspect everything. Did +so early this morning. Rotten outfit: tents like old patchwork quilts, +pots and pans, etc., probably bought job lot from Noah when the Ark was +docked. Those keenest on desert "taking" them, will be mad as hatters +if it takes them in. Suppose I'll have to interview half the Arabs in +Cairo to-day. Wish I had a Ka or Ba or whatever you get for an astral +body in Egypt, and I could say to it, "Here, my dear chap, I trust you +to do this job while I stay in Cairo and rest my features." Then he'd +get the blame, and I'd disappear, never to be seen again. Or if he were +a Ka with Cook accomplishments, maybe he'd bring the thing off all +right, in which case I could turn up and take the credit and marry +Monny. Happy thought! Cook! Why shouldn't I sneak to Cook, and inquire +in a careless way if they publish any pamphlet on "How to Do a Desert +Tour." + +_Later_: Have been to Cook. No pamphlet, but a friend in need. Talk of +casting bread on the waters! In Rome I cast a crust which I didn't +want, and it's come back in Cairo with butter and sugar on it. + +Must have been two years ago in Rome when a young chap wrote to me to +the Embassy. Said he'd been disappointed in getting work he'd come +abroad for, had seen my name, recognized it, was from my county; and +could I use him as a stenographer or anything? I couldn't; but I found +him some one who could; and forgot him till I saw him this morning a +fully fledged clerk at Cook's. Checking the impulse to fall on his +neatly striped blue and white bosom, I invited him to lunch; and as a +reward for what he calls "past and present favours," he had given me +new life. What I mean to say is, he's promised to provide me not only +with tents, but camels and camel-boys and a camp chef, and waiters and +washbowls and a desert dragoman, and thousands of things I'd never +thought of. It seems practically certain that since Napoleon no such +genius has been born as Slaney. Cleopatra would say that S. is the +reincarnation of Napoleon; but neither Cleopatra nor any one else +--above all, Sir Marcus Lark--is to know of his existence. Such is the +disinterested self-sacrifice of this buttered-and-sugared Crust, that +it will do everything for me, while keeping itself and the Organization +which controls it, completely in the background. The Organization is +too great to mind; and the Crust, alias T. Slaney, thinks itself too +small. + +Lark, Ltd., considers himself a budding rival of the firm of Cook; but +a deadly bud. If, however, Sir M. should come to hear that I had flown +for succour to the enemy's camp, I fear it would be all over with the +bargain for which Anthony and I are selling our souls. T. Slaney says +he never shall know. He guarantees that Cook labels and other telltale +marks shall be removed from everything, though time is short and there +is much to do. He will be the power behind the tents, and I will be in +them, absorbing all the credit. + +_Saturday_: All _couleur de Rose_, thanks to Slaney. Should like to get +him canonized. Many less worthy men, now deceased, have been given the +right to put Saint before their names. He has handed me a list, +something less than a mile long, of articles which Biddy and I, as +children, used to call eaties and drinkies. He has told me where the +things can be bought, and has written a letter of introduction which +secures me "highest consideration and lowest prices." Also he has +suggested a medicine-chest, packs of cards, the newest games, +cigarettes suited to European and Arab tastes, picture post-cards of +desert scenes; ink, pens, and writing paper. "People forget everything +they want on these trips, but you mustn't," said he. I have acted on +all his suggestions, and feel as proud as if I had originated them +myself. + +_Sunday:_ My precious friend Slaney has made a large collection of +Arabs, camels, tents, etc., and ordered everything, animate and +inanimate, to assemble in the neighbourhood of Mena House this +afternoon, in order to be inspected by me, and to be ready for a start +early to-morrow morning. We are to have a sandcart with a desert horse +for Cleopatra, who has tried a camel and found it wanting. I fancy she +thinks a sandcart the best modern substitute for a chariot; and at +worst, it ought to be as comfortable. Slaney has promised a yellow one +--cart, not horse. The horse, by request, is to be white. The other +ladies are having camels. I daren't think of Miss Hassett-Bean at the +end of the week. The men, also, will camel. There is, indeed, no +alternative between camelling and sandcarting--sandcarting not +recommended by the faculty but insisted upon by Cleopatra. Hope it will +work out all right; and am inclined to be optimistic. A week in the +desert and the flowery oasis of the Fayum, with the two most charming +women in Egypt! There will be others, but there's a man each, and more. +I shall have to look after Monny and Brigit, as Anthony is having his +hands full with Cleopatra lately, and, besides, he can't start with us. +Something keeps him in Cairo for two days more, and he will have to +join us near Tomieh. + +_Sunday Evening:_ Back from Great Pyramid, where I went to inspect the +assembling army. Magnificent is the only word! The camels fine animals, +but Anthony has provided the three best, borrowing these aristocrats of +the camel world from Major Gunter of the Coast Guard. They have chased +hasheesh smugglers, and have seen desert fighting. Were snarling +horribly when I was introduced, but a snarl as superior to the common +snarls of baggage-camels as their legs are superior in shape. Biddy, +Monny, Mrs. East, and Rachel Guest were there with Sir M. and "Antoun," +having been inside the pyramid and up to the top. Monny on her high +horse because "Antoun" says it will be better for the ladies to ride +the baggage-camels. The others take his word, meekly, but she persists, +and Anthony agrees to give her the camel he had meant to ride, the one +supposed to be the most spirited. When he joins us, he will have the +animal intended for her. When this bargain was struck between them I +thought his eyes looked dangerous, but she didn't notice or didn't +care. Fenton tells me he has dreamed again of the red-faced man with +the purple moustache. I laughed at his bugbear and flung Colonel +Corkran in his teeth. By the way, nothing has been heard of C. by any +of us since the day he handed in his resignation. Suppose he has gone +back to England in the sulks. + +_Monday Night:_ I am writing in my tent, which is to be shared with +Anthony when he arrives. I feel years older than when we started this +morning. Middle age seems to have overtaken me. If I keep on at this +rate, shall be a centenarian by the time we get back to Cairo. + +We made a splendid caravan at the start. Besides the train of camels +ridden by my party from the _Candace_ and Monny Gilder with her +satellites (it goes against the grain, though, to call a bright +particular star like Biddy a satellite), there were over thirty +gigantic beasts laden with our numerous bedroom, kitchen, luncheon, and +dinner-tents, tent-pegs, cooking-stove, food for humans, fodder for +animals, casks of water, mattresses, folding-beds, other tent +furniture, tourists' luggage, and so on. I was happy till after the +baggage-train had got away, each camel with its head roped to the tail +of the one ahead, all trailing off toward the distant Pyramids of +Sakkhara well in advance of us. Each camel looked like a house-moving. +On top of the kitchen-camel's load was perched the chêf, a singularly +withered old gentleman with black and blue complexion, clad in a vague, +flying blanket. (Has been Turkish-coffee man in Paris hotels.) Many +other negroid persons in white with large turbans; a few café au lait +Arabs; these all counted beforehand by Slaney, for me, and identified +as assistant-cooks, waiters, bed-makers, and camel-men, enough +apparently to stock a village. But we had one surprise at the moment of +starting in the form of a bright black child, clad in white, with a +white skull cap and a flat profile evidently copied from the Sphinx. I +don't know yet why this Baby Sphinx has come or who he is; but he rode +on the kitchen-camel's tail, hanging on by the bread (our bread!) which +was in a bag. + +When this cavalcade had wound away, the camels making blue heart-shaped +tracks in the yellow sand, it was our turn to start. Not one of us +would have changed places with any old Egyptian king or queen, and we +did not feel vulgar for doing this trip in luxury, because ancient +royalties had done the same, and so do the great sheikhs of the desert +even now. As I put Cleopatra into the sandcart with its broad, +iron-rimmed wheels, she was recalling the days when she travelled with a +train of asses in order to have milk for her bath. I suggested a modern +condensed substitute, but the offer was not received in the spirit with +which it was made. Now to get the ladies on their camels, after which +we men would vault upon our animals, and wind away among billowing +dunes full of shadowy ripples and high lights, like cream-coloured +velvet! + +But just here arose the first small cloud in the blue. It was bigger +than a man's hand, for it was the exact size and shape of Miss +Hassett-Bean's hat. It was a largish hat of imitation Panama trimmed with +green veiling, just the hat for a post-card desert all pink sunset and no +wind. As she was about to mount the squatting camel, a breeze blew the +flap over her eyes. This prevented Miss H.B. from seeing that the camel +had turned its neck to look at her; and so, as she reached the saddle +and the hat blew up, lady and camel met face to face. It was a moment +of suspense, for neither liked the other at first sight. The camel +began to gurgle its throat in a threatening manner, and at the same +time to rise. Miss Hassett-Bean, staring into two quivering nostrils +shaped like badly made purses, shrieked, forgot whether she must first +bend forward or bend back, bent in the way she ought not to have bent, +and fell upon the sand. I don't quite see why I was to blame for this +result, but she _saw_, and said I ought to have warned her what a vile +creature a camel was. Nothing would induce her to try again. She would +go to any extreme rather than ride a beast with a snake for a neck, and +a nasty unsympathetic face full of green juice which it spit out at +you. She was used to being liked. She simply couldn't go about on a +thing which would never love her, and she wouldn't want it to if it +did. She would go home or else she would have a sandcart. All the +neighbouring sandcarts were engaged; but fortunately "Antoun Effendi" +appeared at that instant (he'd taxied out to see us off), and he +persuaded Cleopatra to let Miss Hassett-Bean drive with her. The desert +horse, feeling this extra weight, looked round almost as +unsympathetically as the camel had; but nobody paid the slightest +attention except his attendant, who was to lead him: a type of negro +"Nut," who had a snobbish habit of reddening his nails with henna. + +By this time a crowd had assembled, kept in check by the tall, +blue-robed sheikh of the Pyramids. It consisted mostly of Arabs determined +to take our photographs or sell us scarabs--which Miss Hassett-Bean +refused on the ground that she disliked things off dead people. But on +the fringe lurked a few Europeans, amused to see so large a caravan +setting forth; and the men of our party, hitherto proud of their +curtained helmets and desert get-up, became self-conscious under a fire +of snapshots. + +"Hello, my Boy Scout!" I was hailed by Sir Marcus, arriving three +minutes behind Anthony, and on the same errand. This blow to my +self-esteem fell as I was leading Monny to the white camel which was hers +and should have been Anthony's. She laughed--I suppose she couldn't +help it. I couldn't myself, if it had been Harry Snell or Bill Bailey; +but as it was, my pride of khaki helmet, knickers, and puttees +collapsed like a burst balloon. I seemed to feel the calves of my legs +wither. It was in this mood that I had to put Monny on that coastguard +camel, while "Antoun" stood looking on. He did not offer to help the +girl, as their talk yesterday on the subject of baggage-camels versus +running camels had not conduced to officiousness. + +Monny was in white: broad white helmet such as women wear, white suede +shoes, white silk stockings, and a lot of lacy, garden-party things +that showed frills when she flew, birdlike, onto the cushioned saddle. +"_That's_ the way to do it!" I heard her cry, exultantly--and what +happened next I can't say, for the white camel knocked me over as it +bounded up, jerking its nose rope from the leader's hand, and the next +thing I knew it was making for the horizon. I hadn't been on a camel +since I was four, if then, so it was useless to follow. But while I +stood spitting out sand, Anthony flung himself onto one of the swift +coastguard beasts, and was after her like a streak of four-legged +lightning. None of us had the nerve to continue our operations until, a +quarter of an hour later, they appeared from behind the Great Pyramid, +coming at a walk, "Antoun" holding the bridle of Monny's camel. + +I saw by Fenton's face that he intended to make no suggestions, and I +guessed that he was practising his chosen method. If Miss Gilder wished +for anything she must ask for it, and ask for it humbly if she expected +to get it. + +Her face, too, was a study. She was pale and even piteous. I thought +there were tears in the blue-gray eyes; and if I had been Anthony I +could not have hardened my heart. Pride or no pride, I should have +begged her to abandon this praiseworthy adventure, and deign to mount +the baggage brute. Not so Anthony. He led back the camel, with Monny +limply sitting on it, and when it had calmed down at sight of its +friends he retired into the background. + +"How wonderful that you kept on, darling!" exclaimed Biddy. + +"I didn't," said Monny. Then she turned to "Antoun," who remained on +his beast, in case of another emergency, or because he did not wish to +be looked down upon by her. He was rather glorious enthroned on his +camel, the only one of our party who was truly "in" the desert picture. +I didn't blame him for stopping up there on his sheepskin, eye to eye +with the girl. + +For a moment Monny did not speak. She was evidently hesitating what to +do, but common sense and natural sweetness got the better of false +pride. "Antoun, you were right, and I was wrong," she admitted. "I said +yesterday that you were selfish, keeping the coastguard camels for +yourself and Lord Ernest and General Harlow, and giving us women the +baggage ones. Now I'm sorry. I was silly and hateful. I wouldn't ride +another fifty yards on this demon for fifty thousand dollars. He's +nearly broken my back, and if it hadn't been for you, he would quite +have done it. Please help me off, and put me on any old baggage thing +that nobody else wants." + +Anthony's eyes lit for an instant, from satisfaction as a man, or from +Christian joy in her moral improvement. He sprang off his sky-scraping +camel, brought Monny's animal to its knees, helped her off, and +motioned to the Arab attendant of the Ugly Duckling of all the other +creatures. It gave the effect of being a cross between a camel and an +ostrich, and had been chosen by "Antoun" as his own mount, when he +surrendered the aristocrat to Monny. + +"Oh, dearest, I can't have you ride that grasshopper!" cried Biddy. +"'Antoun' took it for himself very kindly because it's the worst. And I +don't care any more than he did. Give the thing to me, and take _my_ +one, that dear creature with the blue bead necklace." + +But Anthony answered for Monny. "Mademoiselle Gilder made a bargain +with me yesterday," he said. "If she failed in what _she_ wanted to do, +she was to do what _I_ wanted her to do. I think she will wish to keep +her bargain." + +"I'm _sure_ I wish to," added Monny. + +With a chastened, not to say shattered air, she curled herself up on +the sheepskin-covered cushion which was the ugly Duckling's saddle. +This time it was "Antoun" who settled her into place, with her feet +meekly crossed; and the caricature of a camel rose like a sofa at a +spiritualistic séance. Strange to say, however, when all were ready to +start, Monny appeared more comfortably lodged than any of the +camel-riding ladies; and the thought entered my mind that perhaps Anthony +had, with extreme subtlety, taken this roundabout way of benefitting +Miss Gilder. + +After this we got off with only a few minor mishaps. The one remaining +incident of note was the arrival on the scene, as we left it, of +another caravan--a small caravan consisting of two Europeans--a few +laden camels, and camel-boys marshalled by one dragoman. The dragoman +was Bedr el Gemály, and he smiled at us as affectionately as though we +had not driven him from us in disgrace. + +"How forgiving Arabs are, even when they're not converted!" remarked +Rachel Guest, by whose side I happened to be riding. + +"He isn't an Arab," said I. "He's an Armenian. And both are supposed to +be the reverse of forgiving. But he's found another job quickly, so he +can afford to let bygones be bygones." + +"Oh, he would _anyway_!" Miss Guest exclaimed, warmly. "Poor fellow, +you've all done him a great injustice, but I'm thankful he's not going +to suffer for it. I wonder if he and his people are bound the same way +we are?" + +I feared that this was likely to be the case, as we were going the +conventional round, sticking--as one might say--to suburban desert, on +our way to the Fayum. But, as Monny observed the other night, we +couldn't engage the desert like a private sitting-room. I would, +however, have preferred sharing it with most people rather than Bedr +and his clients, though the two latter looked singularly harmless, +almost Germanic. + +We went on more or less happily, though I noticed that whenever a camel +changed its walk for a trot, each one of the ladies reached back a +desperate hand to clutch the saddle and save her spine from the +bruising bump! bump! which smote the bone with every step. As for me, +that feeling of middle age began to creep on while my coast-guard camel +and I were getting acquainted. I tried to distract my thoughts from the +end of my spine, by concentrating them in admiration upon the scene. +There was the Sphinx welcoming us with an immense smile of benevolence, +as suitable to the sunshine as had been her mysterious solemnity to the +moonlight. There, far away to the left, the spire-crowned Citadel +floated in translucent azure. Its domes and minarets, and the long +serrated line of the Mokattam Hills were carved against the sky in the +yellow-rose of pink topaz. Shafts of light gave to jagged shapes and +terraces of rock on the low mountains an appearance of temples and +palaces, very noble and splendid, as must have been the first glimpse +of Ancient Egypt to desert-worn fugitives from famine in Palestine. +Between us and the Nile, hiding the sparkling water as we rode, went a +dark line of palms, purple, with glints of peacock-feather green, in +the distance. Hundreds of tiny birds flew up into the burning blue like +a black spray, and the sand was patterned by their feet, in designs +intricate as lace. Wherever lay a patch of white and yellow flowers or +of rough grass no bigger than a prayer rug, a lark soared from its nest +singing its jewel-song; and here and there a gentle hoopoo reared the +crown which rewarded it for guiding lost King Solomon and his starving +army to safety. + +All this was beautiful; but I wondered painfully if Monny could be +happy in spite of the bumps, now that the desert was taking her. +Strange, how a disagreeable sensation constantly repeated at the end of +a mere bone can change a man's outlook on life! If Monny had come to my +camel-side and whispered, "I found your buried letter, oh, Men-Kheper-Rã. +Behold that bird now flying toward you. It is my Ba--my Heart or +Soul-bird carrying the gift of my love:" I should with difficulty have +prevented myself from snapping out, "Thanks very much; but, my good +girl, I'm in no mood to talk tommy-rot." + +It was sympathy, kind, friendly sympathy I yearned for, not spoken in +words, but given from soft, sweet eyes, as little Biddy had given it +when I tore my hands and barked my shins birds'-nesting on the rocks a +hundred years ago. + +I think we should have liked the excuse to stop and gaze at the ruinous +Pyramids of Abusir; but the dragoman-guide supplied by Slaney urged us +on to the great plateau of the Pyramids and Necropolis of Sakkara. +There, on the terrace of Marriette's House, we saw a crowd of Cook's +tourists from Bedrachen, and I had some moments of guilty fear lest my +Secret should leak out, as their dragoman rushed down and warmly +greeted ours. But in the throes of rolling off their camels for the +first time, the ever-wakeful suspicions of the Set were submerged under +physical emotions. It's an ill camel that bumps no one any good! + +I was only too glad to lure my charges away from danger-zone; and +luckily it was so early that the influential ones who never lunched +until two "at home," gave the word, "Tombs before food." Girding up its +aching loins, the procession allowed itself to be led by me and my +dragoman down inclined planes into dark, mysteriously warm passages +where our lights were wandering red stars. Now and then a face would +start suddenly out of the gloom, haloed with candle-light: and in this +way, Biddy's flashed upon me, starry-eyed. "Oh, I'm glad to see you!" +she whispered. Bedr and his two tourists are here. I'm afraid!" + +"My dear child," I said soothingly, but not as soothingly as if I +hadn't had toothache in the spine, "you may be afraid of Bedr, but +hardly of two stout Germans in check suits." + +"Not if they _are_ Germans. But are they? Just now one of their candles +almost collided with mine, and his eyes stared so! Then they looked +over my head at Monny, who was behind me. And where she is now, heaven +knows!" + +"Nothing can happen to either of you here," I assured her. "And +probably our fuss about Bedr is much ado about nothing. We have no +evidence--" + +"The man who stared at me over his candle has a scar on his forehead," +said Biddy. "Maybe he got it in that row in front of the House of the +Crocodile. Maybe he is Burke, and has just come out of the hospital." + +"Most likely he is Schmidt, and adorned himself with the wound in a +student duel," said I. + +"It's too fresh-looking. He must be over thirty," she objected, but at +that moment Miss Hassett-Bean loomed into sight; and in the stuffy +atmosphere of the tomb felt the need of my arm to keep her from +fainting. + +We "did" the Pyramid of Unas, dilapidated without, secretively +beautiful within. We went from tomb to tomb, lingering long in the +labyrinthine Mansion of Mereruka who, ruddy and large as life, stepped +hospitably down in statue-form from his stela recess, to welcome us in +the name of himself and wife. Almost he seemed to wave his hands and +say, "Look at these nice pictures of me and my family and our ways of +life, painted on the walls--our servants, our dwarfs, our mountebanks +and acrobats, our flocks and herds. Sorry there's no refreshment at +present on my alabaster mastaba, or table of offerings, but you see I +didn't prepare for visitors outside my own immediate circle of Ka's and +Ba's. Still, as you _have_ come, make yourselves at home, and take pot +luck. I think when you've examined everything, you'll admit that you +haven't a Soul-House in Europe to touch mine which, if I do say it, is +the best thing this side of Thebes." + +Next came the Tomb of Thi; but by this time, mural representations of +fish, flesh, and fruit began to be aggravating. It would be past two +before we could reach our luncheon-tent; and somehow it seemed less +desirable to feed after than before that sacred hour, though the custom +be sanctioned by royalty. "Another tomb to see before lunch?" groaned +Sir John Biddell, when the dragoman firmly insisted on the Apis +Mausoleum. "Oh, darn! _Need_ we? What? Where they buried _Bulls_? I'd +as soon see a slaughter house, on an empty stomach. Lady Biddell and I +will go sit in the shadow of our camels." + +And they did; nor would they believe the twins' assertions that the +dark Mausoleum, with its cavernous rock chambers and granite vaults, +was the most impressive thing they had seen in Egypt. "You say that to +be aggravating, because we weren't there," I heard Lady Biddell snap, +over the grumbling of the camels. + +The sky blazed down and the sand blazed up. The desert was white-hot, +with a silver whiteness hotter than gold, and the foreshortened shadows +were turquoise blue. It was heaven to arrive at a miniature oasis, and +see the open-fronted, awninged luncheon-tent reflected with its green +frame of palms, in a clear lagoon, thoughtfully left by the receding +Nile. At sight of this picture, my popularity went up with a bound. It +really was a lovely vision: the big tent lined with Egyptian appliqué +work in many colors, the porchlike roof extension supported by poles, +and in its shadow a white table loaded with good things and guarded by +Arab waiters waving beaded fly-whisks. As we lingered over our +chicken-salad, fruit, and cool drinks, and lazily watched our camels +munching bersím, all our first enthusiasm for these interesting beasts +streamed back. The ladies called them poor dears, and sweet things; and +the men marvelled at their calm endurance, or the number of their +leg-joints. + +Monny was gay and charming, and looked at me so kindly that I thought +she must mean to give a favorable answer to the buried letter. I +blessed Cleopatra for the "tip" she had given, though I wondered what +was the "humiliation" from which I could save her niece. "After all," +said I, "the desert trip's going to pan out a success." But it must +have been about this time that the wind rose. It blew Miss Hassett-Bean's +hat up instead of down, and other hats off, when we had started +again--and it blew into our eyes grains of sand as large as able bodied +paving-stones. Also, as we passed through a picturesque mud-village +which ought to have pleased everybody, it blew into our noses smells +which Lady Biddell knew would give us plague. As if this were not +enough, the sandcart nearly turned over in a rut, and Miss Hassett-Bean +said that she must go home or be left to die in the desert. I had to +lead the little stallion before she would consent to go on, and +realized when I had ploughed through fifty yards of sand, that the +manicured snob of a leader was a thin brown hero. By the time I had had +a mile or two of this, the dark Pyramids of Dahshur were visible, and I +knew that our camp was to be pitched not far beyond. My first emotion +was pleasure; my second, panic. + +What if Slaney had forgotten his promise to remove the Cook labels? + +Since remounting Farag (only the coastguard camels had names; the +baggage-beasts smelt as sweet without) Monny and I had been bumping +along side by side, and she had just said, "If I tell you something, +you'll never breathe it to a soul, will you?" when I saw those +Pyramids, and was smitten with the fear of Cook. + +"Never!" I vowed, torn between the desire to hear her secret, and to +dash ahead of the caravan into camp. + +"It's about 'Antoun,'" Monny went on. "You know I said to you the other +night, that perhaps I knew something about him?" + +"Yes--er--oh, yes!" + +We were within a few hundred yards of the Pyramids now. At any instant +the camp might burst into sight. + +"You don't look interested!" + +"But I am, awfully!" + +"You're _sure_ you won't tell?" + +"_Dead_ sure." + +(Was that a flag fluttering on the horizon?) + +"Well, then--it isn't _my_ business, of course. But one can't help +being interested in him, he's such a--such a romantic sort of figure, +as you said yourself. And there's something so high and noble about +him--I mean, about his looks and manners--that one hates to be +disappointed." + +"You _would_ have him with us, you know!" + +"I know. And--and I'm glad I--we--_have_ got him. It's a--it's an +experience. I suppose he's rather wonderful. But don't you think he +ought to remember that he isn't _exactly_ a prince? He isn't even +called Bey. And if he were, its not the same as being a prince of +Ancient Egypt." + +"In what way has he presumed on his--er--near--princehood?" + +"I believe he has--fallen in love with Biddy!" + +"By Jove! _Let_ the flag flutter!" + +"What flag?" + +"Oh--er--that was only an expression. They use it where I live. Why +shouldn't he fall in love with Biddy, when you come to think of it?" + +"He's of a darker race. Though--he does seem so like _us_. Of course +she couldn't marry him. It wouldn't do. _Would_ it?" + +"I don't know. I must think it over. Is that all you were going to tell +me?" + +"No. I suppose it's natural he should fall in love with Biddy. She's +_so_ attractive! But the worst part about it is that he has _proposed_ +to Aunt Clara." + +"Not possible!" + +"Yes. He has. I saw part of the letter--the first part. She's the only +one of us who thinks it would be right to marry a man of Egyptian +blood, because you know she believes she's Egyptian herself--and she's +always talking about reincarnations. _I_ don't see that It's such a +wonderful coincidence his name being 'Antoun.' It wouldn't be so bad if +he were in love with her; but it's Biddy who is always right in +everything she says and does, according to him--just as I am always +wrong. Aunt Clara is richer than Biddy. I can't bear to fancy that's +why he has proposed; it would take away all the romance" + +"Don't strip him of his romance yet," said I, again torn between +interest in Monny's incredible statement, and excitement which grew +with the growing in size of those flags on the horizon. "You may wrong +him. If you saw only the _first_ part of the letter--" + +"There could be no mistake. It was in hieroglyphics, and who but +'Antoun' would have written such a letter to Aunt Clara? She asked me +to translate it, the night she dug it up at Fustât--" + +"Dug--" + +"And when I'd read as far as, 'Beautiful Queen, Star of my Heart, be my +wife,' she snatched the paper away, and put it inside her dress, saying +she'd look up the rest in one of my books." + +"Good heavens! You must have changed places at Fustât. That letter +couldn't have been for her!" + +"It couldn't have been for any one else. 'Beautiful Queen' meant Queen +Cleopatra. She said so herself. I don't know what she's going to do +about it." + +"Do about it?" I echoed desperately. "Why--" and just then my straining +eyes saw that on the middle flag in the fluttering row were four large +red letters on a white ground. Slaney had betrayed me! Everything +depended on getting that flag down before those letters declared +themselves to other eyes. "Excuse me," I finished my sentence with a +gasp. + +Monny must have gasped also, as she saw me suddenly dash away from her +at full speed of one-camel power. But I had no time to think about what +she might think. I suppose I must have done something to the steering-gear +of that camel, which coastguard camels do not permit. Whatever it +was, it got me into the midst of camp before I could draw breath; but I +have a dim recollection of being caught by Arab arms, and seeing +suppressed Arab grins, as mechanically I felt to see how far the end of +my spine stuck out at the top of my head. + +"That flag! Pull it down!" was my first gasp, pointing convulsively to +the banner which shrieked, "Cook!" "Quick--before they come!" + +Dazed by my vehemence, several Arabs scuttled to obey the order, but +there were too many of them. Each hindered his neighbour, and as I +danced about, making matters worse, out pounced our withered chêf from +the kitchen-tent. + +"It was _he_ brought that flag, wrapped round something," explained one +of the men, in Arabic. "When he saw we had other flags, but none of +Cook, he gave it to us to put over the biggest tent, because he thought +it shameful to have no flag of the master's." + +"Cook isn't the master. I'm it," I burbled, with a leap to catch the +tell-tale square of white as it reluctantly came down. But I was too +late. Sir John Biddell and Harry Snell, the newspaper man, came +gallumping up on their camels before I could stuff the flag into my +pocket. + +"What's the matter?" they asked, as their animals squatted to let them +down. "Were you run away with? What are you so mad about? Hullo! What +flag's that--C-O-O-K!" + +"It should be over the kitchen-tent," I heard myself explaining. "Don't +you see? C-O-O-K! It's the cook's special flag. He brought it himself, +but these chaps went and flew it over the dining-tent in place of the +Union Jack. That's why he and I are mad." + +And I thanked all the stars on Monny's tent flag that none of the Set +understood Arabic. + +After this, how could I hope to explain to Monny that the hieroglyphic +proposal was mine, and that she, not Cleopatra, ought to have dug it +up? She isn't a girl used to having men run away from her, on camelback +or anything else--so naturally she thought me a rude beast, and showed +it. Besides, even if I'd dared, I should have had no chance to +straighten matters out; for though the flag-episode was after all no +fault of Slaney's, there were a few little things which had escaped +even his Napoleonic memory; and it was only by combining the feats of +an acrobat with those of a juggler that I saved my reputation during +the next half hour. + +No sight could have been more beautiful in our eyes than that village +of white tents in the waste of yellow sand. Our wildest imaginings +could have pictured nothing more perfect, more peaceful. + +Tea was ready, in the huge dining-tent, where folding chairs were +grouped round a white-covered table. The floor of sand was hidden with +thick, bright-coloured rugs, and it was finding "T. C. and Son" on the +wrong side of one which Miss Hassett-Bean's foot turned up, that filled +me with renewed alarms. Hastily I laid the rug straight, placed a chair +upon it, and persuaded everybody to have tea before inspecting their +bedroom tents. While they drank draughts and dabbed jam on an Egyptian +conception of scones, I hurried like a haggard ghost from tent to tent, +seeking the forbidden thing. Cook on the backs of the little mirrors +hanging from the pole hooks!... Will it wash off?... No! Cut it out +with a penknife! Down on your knees and tear off the label from the +wrong side of another carpet! (Memo: Must do the one in the dining-tent +when the people are asleep for the night.) Cram three Cook towels into +my pockets. Hastily pin a handkerchief over the name on a white bit of +a tent wall. Must have it cut out, and patched with something, later. +Shall have to pay damages when I settle up with Slaney. Lady Macbeth +wasn't in it with me! All she needed was a little water. I have to have +pins and penknives and pockets all over the place. + +I didn't get any tea. But that was a detail. And everybody was so +delighted with everything that my spirits rose, despite a snub or two +from Monny--for which Biddy tried to make up. People took desert +strolls, or sat on dunes, and gazed into the sunset which couldn't have +been better if I had turned it on myself. Along the western horizon ran +a pale flame of green blending with rose, rose blending with amethyst, +and in the distance the Pyramids of Dahshur burned with the red of +pigeon-blood rubies. + +The wind had died among the desert dunes, and it was not till after +dinner that any one realized the arctic fall of temperature. It was too +cold to enjoy playing bridge or any of the games I had brought; and the +only hope of comfort was in bed. People said good night to each other +in the comparatively warm dining-tent, and then gave surprised shrieks +or grunts (according to sex) at the piercing cold. Several of the elder +ladies fell over ten-tropes, despite the large lanterns illuminating +the desert, and had to be escorted to their bedroom tents, and soothed. +After this, silence reigned for a few minutes, and I had stealthily +begun to work on the biggest rug-label, when arose a clamour of voices +and presently appeared the dragoman lent by Slaney. + +"Eight ladies wishing hot-water bottles," he explained. + +But there were no hot-water bottles. We had thought of everything, it +seemed, except hot-water bottles. + +"I tell them very sorry but can't have?" Yusef suggested, looking +pleased. + +"Let me think!" I groaned. "What about the mineral water bottles we +emptied at lunch and dinner? Let the cook boil water, and we'll supply +the bottles." + +This was done; and I was proud of the inspiration, with the pride that +comes before a fall. When I began to write, in my bedroom tent, wrapped +in all the blankets of the bed that should be Anthony's, I had the +place to myself. But about midnight a head was unexpectedly thrust +through the door-flap. It looked ghostly in the haze of colour made by +the gorgeous appliqué work of high roof and octagon walls, which gave +an effect of sitting at the bottom of a giant kaleidoscope. + +"Who's that?" I hissed, in a whisper meant to be discreet, but which +roused a camel or two in the ring outside the tents. + +"Biddell--Sir John Biddell," replied the head. "I saw your light, and +remembered you had your tent to yourself to-night. Those hot-water +bottles have been leaking. There's one at least gone wrong in most of +the ladies' tents. The married men have given their beds to girls who +are drowned out. 'Twas _your_ idea about those bottles, wasn't it? I +expect you'll hear from it in the morning! Three of us want to come and +camp in here with you." + +"All right," I sighed, with a sinking heart. "I _like_ sitting up, and +you can toss for the cots." + + * * * * * + +At this moment Sir John Biddell reposes in one of them, General Harlow +in the other. These gentlemen were so affected with the cold that they +went to bed in their clothes, then got up to put on their overcoats, +then got up again and put on their hats. On the floor lies a certain +Mills of Manchester, rolled in all the rugs, except one which I have +on, after surrendering my blankets. He has his head in a basket, to +keep off the icy draught; and in the ruggy region of his spine, as he +rests on his side, are the letters C-O-O-K. I wonder if I could rip +them off without waking him up? + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DESERT DIARY TO ITS BITTER END + + +_Tuesday_: The principal water-cask has leaked; consequently not enough +water to go round. Chêf said it was a question of baths, or soup. +Considering the cold, most of the people voted for soup. Some washed in +Apollinaris. Others douched with soda siphons. We can get more water +to-night. Can't think why the north wind doesn't stop and warm itself +while traversing the Mediterranean or the hot sands! It seems to be in +too fierce a hurry and consequently cuts across the desert, like a +frozen scythe, the moment its rival the sun has gone to sleep. I hear +that Miss Hassett-Bean cried with cold as she dressed, and put on two +of everything; but she is luckier than the younger women. Monny and +Mrs. East, though warned that nights would be chill, have come clothed +in silk and gossamer, and have brought low-necked nightgowns of +nainsook trimmed with lace. This was confided to me soon after sunrise +by a blue-nosed Biddy, hovering over the kitchen fire and +--incidentally--ingratiating herself with the cook. It wouldn't be Biddy +if she weren't ingratiating herself with some one! + +Nobody yearned to get up early (I speak for others, as _I_ passed my +night in the attitude of a suspension bridge between two folding +chairs); but in camp where sleep is concerned, men may propose, camels +dispose. + +Their nights they spend in a ring of camelhood, huddled together for +warmth; and if they do not have nightmare or bite each other in their +sleep, mere humans in neighbouring tents may hope for comparative +silence in the desert, if not near a village full of pi-dogs. At +sunrise, however, a change comes o'er their spirit. They are given +food, and made as happy and contented as it is their nature to be, +which apparently is not saying much. Judging by the strange, +inarticulate oaths they constantly mutter, they are equally accursed in +their sitting down and their getting up. It is only when they are +actually "on the move," floating and swaying through the air--legs, +tail, neck, jaws--that they have nothing disagreeable to say. +Immediately after dawn this morning, our camels began to imitate every +animal they could have met since the days of the Ark, when one had to +know everybody. They mewed like cats, hissed like snakes, bleated like +sheep, roared like toy lions, grunted like pigs, barked like dogs, +squawked like geese, and bellowed like baby bulls. Also they gargled +their throats like elderly invalids. It was useless trying to sleep; +and when I had accomplished such bathing as the chêf permitted, I went +out to see what was the matter. Nothing was the matter, except that the +creatures had the sunrise in their eyes, and could see the camel-boys +preparing their loads; but I was glad I had come out, because Biddy was +there and the scene was beautiful. Shivering, we chuckled over the +morning toilet of the camels, who turned their faces disconcertingly +upon us, sneering with long yellow teeth, and bubbling as if their +mouths were full of pink soapsuds, when they realized that we were +laughing at them. + +Incidentally we learned why the Baby Sphinx accompanied our caravan +uninvited. His name is Salih; and he came because there's a very +important camel (the property of his father) who refuses to eat or stir +without him. It is a most original and elaborate camel. It has a neat +way of turning its ears with their backs to the wind, in order to make +them sand-proof. If any person other than Salih touches it, an +incredible quantity of green cud is instantly let loose over their +turbans; but at the approach of Salih it emits a purring noise, preens +its head for the nose-strap ornamented with a bunch of palmlike plumes, +and playfully pretends not to want the bersím which the little black +Sphinx thrusts down its throat in handfuls. This, it seems, is good +camel table-manners. And it is to the tail of this animal that Salih +clings on the march. If he is not there, the animal looks round, stops, +or turns to charge at any Arab who jestingly misuses its idol. + +Yesterday the miniature Sphinx was in a white robe. To-day he is in +black. All the Arabs have changed their clothes, although they have +brought no visible luggage except vague pieces of sacking. The dragoman +is exquisitely arrayed, galabeah and kaftan gray-blue, with a pink +petticoat, and a white one under that. I suspect that he sleeps beneath +the dining-table--and the other Arabs among the kitchen pots--yet they +are smarter than any of us Europeans, all of whom have a frayed air. +This, I suppose, would not be so in desert-fiction. Nothing would be +said about hot-water bottles leaking, or beetles beetling (one doesn't +come to Egypt to see live scarabs), or draughts raging, or camels +gobbling, or flags flapping all night. (Memo: Abolish flags, even at +expense of patriotism.) + +Despite every desert drawback, however, Biddy and I agreed that the +sunrise alone was worth the journey, and the pure air of dawn which, +though cold, seemed perfumed by mysterious rose-fields. Just at sun-up +the desert was lily pale--then, as the horizon flamed, a dazzling flood +of gold poured over the dunes. The sun was a fantastic brooch of beaten +copper, caught in a veil of ruby gauze, while here and there a belated +star was a dull, flawed emerald sewn into the veil's fringe. Shadows +swept westward across the desert like blue water, showing a glitter of +drowned jewels underneath; and though last night it had seemed that we +were alone in a vast wilderness, now there were signs that a village +lay not far off. A group of children in red and blue, staring avidly at +the camp, were like a bunch of ragged poppies in the sand. Their mangy +pi-dogs had ventured nearer, to smell sadly at the meat-safes hanging +outside our kitchen-tent. A gypsy-woman with splendid eyes and a blue +tattooed chin, breakfasted on an adjacent dune with her husband. Men +like living hencoops passed in the distance. Patriarchal persons blew +by, in that graceful way in which people do blow in Egypt, driving a +flock of sheep, with a black lamb "for luck." These men were dressed as +their ancestors had dressed in the time of Abraham, and Biddy and I +envied them. How nice, said she, to wear the same clothes for a hundred +years if you happened to live, and never be out of fashion. If a few of +your things dropped off by degrees, you were still all right, and +nobody would be rude enough to notice! + +Our faded family revived after breakfast, and even those who vowed they +hadn't closed an eye all night enjoyed the scene of striking camp. The +big white tents fell to the ground like pricked soap-bubbles; whereupon +their remains were deftly rolled up and tied on to the backs of +bitterly protesting camels. Beds, mattresses, tables, chairs ceased to +be what they had been and became something else. Camels made faces and +noises. Arabs tore this way and that, doing as little work as possible. +The cook fluttered about in his blanket, brandishing a saucepan. Yusef +the dragoman made noble gestures of command, and our little desert city +ceased to exist except on camels' backs. It was shaved off the surface +of the earth, and went churning and swaying along toward the next +stand; the procession rising and falling among swelling dunes, under a +sky which seemed to trail like a heavy blue curtain, where at the +horizon it met the gold. + +We travelled over pebbly plateaus, scattered with jewel-like stones. +Sand-pyramids rose out of the glistening plain. Here and there were +rocks like partly hewn sphinxes pushing out of the sand to breathe; +other rocks like monstrous toads; and still others dark and dreadful in +the distance as ogres' houses. Altogether the desert gave us a truly +Libyan effect, which made the Set feel that after all they were getting +what they had paid for, with an introduction to a beauty and heiress +thrown in. But apropos of this latter boon, it is dawning upon me that +Rachel Guest is receiving more attention than Monny. This strikes me as +inexplicable. There are more men than women in our party, all young +except Sir John Biddell, General Harlow, and Mills of Manchester, a +soft, fat sort of fellow whose first name you can never remember. It +occurred to me on starting, that the desire of so many unattached young +men to spend a week in the desert and the Fayoum, might not be +unconnected with Miss Gilder's intention to join the party. Not being +jealous, I expected to see a little fun, and laugh over it with Biddy, +who is a heavenly person with whom to share a joke. But if there is a +joke, I haven't seen the point yet, nor has she. There's no disputing +the fact that Miss Guest, the poor, brave school teacher on holiday, is +the belle of the desert. + +Of course, if Monny had stopped in Cairo, Rachel's success with our men +wouldn't be astonishing. As Brigit and Monny warned me in their letters +to the _Candace_, she grows better looking every day; but though she is +distinctly of Monny's type, despite those slanting eyes, she will never +be a real beauty, or a Complete Fascinator, like our Gilded Girl. +Besides, Monny has millions, and Rachel hasn't a cent. Yet there it is! +Miss Guest is having the "time of her life" in spite of leaky water +bottles and bumping camels, while Miss Gilder might be an old married +woman, for all the attention she gets from any man on this trip except +me. What can be the explanation? Even those two exaggerately +German-looking men with Bedr stared at Rachel from their respectful +distance. It turns out that they camped not far from us last night. +Yusef heard this from one of our camel-boys. But they kept to themselves, +and didn't come within a mile of us, so there's nothing to complain of. +Every one except Sir John delighted with to-day's desert. He can't see +anything beautiful in yellow lumps that keep you sawing up and down, +though he has no doubt the desert is full of other fools doing what +we're doing; and we could all see each other doing it if it weren't for +those darn dunes. + +_Later_: Adventure for sandcart on one of the biggest plateaus. Looked +all right from the top; but a shriek from Mrs. East put me to the dire +necessity of sliding off Farag and running to the rescue. The plateau +was broken off in front and became a precipice which, Cleopatra seemed +to think, would not have existed had "Antoun" arrived in tune to +arrange it. + +Great wind came roaring up again about noon. Feared to learn that it +had been impossible to get luncheon-tent in position. But when the time +came to find it, there it was with its back to the blast, and its shady +open front, of tile-patterned appliqué, offering the hoped-for picture +of white table and smiling brown waiters. + +While we lunched, the fierce gusts striking the back canvas wall were +like the frightened flappings of giant wings, and the beating of a +great bird's heart. Otherwise we might have forgotten the elements as +we ate, save for a slight powdering of sand on our food. But even that +wasn't bad, if we selected only the port side of our bread and chicken, +leaving windward bits to the Arabs. + +Our night camp was in shelter of the two vast dunes which hide the +ancient city of Bacchias, now called Um-el-Atl, where we found "Antoun" +awaiting us. He had started from Cairo in the morning on a coastguard +camel, coming quickly along the camel route between Bedrashen and +Tomieh, and the extra few miles to our encampment. Before we arrived he +had sent the camel back with the mounted Arab who accompanied him; and +somehow the camp seemed all the smarter and more ship-shape for the +presence of the handsome Hadji, in his green turban. The Set are all +extremely interested in him; and on hearing my version of his history, +sketchily told, have taken to calling him "the prince." Enid and Elaine +almost fawn upon him, in their admiration of so romantic and splendid +an addition to our party: a real, live Egyptian gentleman, with enough +European blood in his veins to justify nice-minded maidens in +cherishing a hopeless love for him, when he has safely vanished out of +their lives. + +Mrs. East made Anthony pick up pre-historic oyster shells in the +desert, between flaming sunset and twilight, when the sky became a vast +blue tent hung with a million lamps. And at dinner she was not nice to +Enid and Elaine who admired her hero too frankly. She has developed an +embarrassing clearness of vision as to other people's former +incarnations, especially their disagreeable or shocking ones. "Ah, it +has _just_ come to me!" she exclaimed, her elbows on the table, looking +dreamily into Elaine Biddell's face. "You were _Xantippe_. I knew I'd +seen you somewhere." + +As for Enid, it seems that she was Charmian or Iris, Cleopatra can't be +sure which; but the girl has come to me saying that, if Mrs. East +doesn't stop calling her "My dear handmaiden," one or the other of them +will have to give up starting on the Nile trip next week. + +_Wednesday_: We had lobster á la Newburgh for dinner, in mid-Libyan +desert, and drank the chêf's health in champagne. I don't know which +was to blame, or whether it was the combination; but in the windy +middle of the night when tent flaps stirred like a nestful of young +birds, there were demands for ginger and for peppermint. Now, ginger +and peppermint happened to be the only two medicaments in the whole +pharmacopoeia left out of the medicine chest. But nothing else would +do. The more the things weren't there, the more they were wanted; and +all the people who had made notes to remember me in their wills, +scratched me out again. Then, to pile Ossa on Pelion, the dogs of +Tomieh arrived to pay a visit. They barked, of course; but they barked +so much that the noise was like a silence, and nobody minded after the +first half hour. The worst was, that they did not confine their +demonstrations to barking. In order to signify their disapproval of our +stingy ways, they took the boots we had confided to the sand in front +of our tents to be cleaned, and worried them at a considerable +distance. Some of the boots were past wearing when found, and some were +not found. Judging from cold glances directed at me by those obliged to +resort to pumps or bedroom slippers, one would imagine me the trainer +of this canine menagerie. It has been hinted, too, that a conductor +worth his salt would have filled up interstices of the medicine chest +with toothbrushes. Several members of the party forgot to pack theirs +in moving camp and they are now the property of jackals. A stock of +toothbrushes is the one other thing besides peppermint and ginger and +hot-water bottles that Slaney and I left out of our calculations; +still, I do think bygones ought to be bygones. Anthony is the hero now, +because it occurred to him to buy in Cairo flannelette nightwear, male +and female, of the thickest and most hideously pink description. Had +these horrors been suggested at the start, they would have been +rejected with fury, in favour of lace and nainsook; but the +contribution has made a _success fou_, at a crisis when vanity has been +forgotten, and the girls are employing their prettiest frocks as bed +covering. + +_Another Day:_ Have now forgotten which, or how many we've had. This is +Anthony's hour--but he may take such advantage of it as he chooses--I'm +indifferent. On top of my troubles I've contracted Desert Snivels. +Whether the habit of using sand for snuff has produced the malady, or +whether I've caught something (despite the tonic air) from nomads or +oasis-dwellers, all of whom emit a storm of coughs and sneezes, I do +not know. All desire to use this grand opportunity of taking +Cleopatra's advice and winning Monny's love while for once she's +neglected by others, has died within me. My one wish is to keep away +from her and the rest, except perhaps Biddy, and suffer alone, like a +cat. Biddy has got Desert Snivels, too. It makes another link between +us, like the memories of our childhood. We swop stories of symptoms. +Both feel that sense of terrible resignation which desert babies have +when their eyes are full of flies and no one takes them out. + +The sky lowers. Big black birds flap over our heads like pirate flags +that have blown away. They are the vultures which used to be sacred to +Egyptians, and seem to labour under the delusion that they are sacred +still. The sand blows into our back hair, and the Arabs make scarves +and veils of their turbans. Apparently these Moslems never say any +prayers, and the _Candace_ people feel they've been cheated of a +promised sensation of desert life. The only religious thing the men do +is to bawl "Allah!" when they lift the heavy, rolled up tents onto the +camels. + +People are beginning to grumble about their meals, which at first +seemed to them miracles of culinary art. "Same old desert things we've +been eating ever since Moses," I heard Harry Snell mutter. And Sir John +Biddell is sick of h. b. eggs. I suppose he means hard-boiled. I should +like to feed him on soft-shell scarabs! + +Tea is the only incident in the desert which has palled on no one yet. +Very jolly, having finished the day's exertion, and sitting on folding +chairs inside tent door, teacup in hand, watching the winged shadows +sweep across the dunes! One feels like Jacob or Rebecca or some one. +There may be a fine saint's tomb standing up, marble-white, against the +rose-garden of a sunset sky, but one doesn't bother to walk out and +examine it at close quarters. There's nothing like sitting still after +a windy day on camel back. + +We lack interest in history ancient and modern, although Egypt is the +country which ought to make one want to know all other history. There +may be a European war or an earthquake. We don't care what happens to +any one but ourselves. It is all we can do to keep track of our own +affairs. As for ancient history, we content ourselves with wondering if +Anthony and Cleopatra, when picnicking in the desert, dropped orange +peel and cake to feed the living scarabs of their day. + +We seem to be lost to the world, yet now and then we're reminded that +we have neighbours in the desert. We've had glimpses of a distant +caravan which must be Bedr's; and when we came in sight of our own camp +last evening, we were just in time to catch a party of Germans being +photographed in front of it, with our things for an unpaid background. +Ever beauteous picture, by the by, your own encampment! White tents +blossoming like snowy flowers in a wilderness; a dense black cloud, +massed near by on the golden sand, which might in the distance be a +plantation of young palms, but is in reality a congested mass of +camels. You sing at the top of your voice "From the desert I come to +thee, on a stallion shod with fire!" hoping to thrill the girls. But +they are thinking about their tea. Girls in the desert, I find, are +always thinking about their tea, or their dinner, or their beds. You +would like (when your Desert Snivels improve) to walk with a maiden +under the stars; but no, she is sleepy! She wants to get to bed early. +Even the camels are most particular about their bed hours. It would be +irritating, if you didn't secretly feel the same yourself. But what a +waste of stars! + +_Some old Day or Other:_ Interesting but dusty dyke road into the +Fayoum oasis. Every one enraged with Robert Hichens because "Bella +Donna's" Nigel recommended The Fayoum. "No wonder she poisoned him!" +snarled Mrs. Harlow. Our Arabs riding ahead look magnificent, seeming +to wade through a flood of gold, the feet and legs of their camels +floating in a rose-pink mist. But alas, the flood of gold and the +rose-pink mist are composed of dust--that reddish dust in which presumably +the boasted Fayoum roses grow; and it blows into our noses. This upsets +our tempers, and prevents our enjoying the pictures we see in the +sudden transition from desert to oasis. Biblical patriarchs on white +asses, disputing the high, narrow "gisr" or dyke road; women with huge +gold nose rings; running processions of girls, in blowing coral and +copper robes, large ornamental jars on their veiled heads, thin +trailing black scarves and slim figures dark against a sky of gold. +Blue-eyed water-buffaloes--gamoushas--and exaggerated brown-gray +calves, with wide-open, boxlike ears in which you feel you ought to +post something. Canals stretching away through emerald fields to +distant palm groves; here and there a miniature cataract; children +playing in the water, imps whose red and amber rags ring out high notes +of colour like the clash of cymbals; now and then a jerboa or a +mongoose waddling across the path; travelling families on trotting +donkeys or swinging camels who pass us with difficulty. Camels +everywhere, indeed, on dyke or in meadow; even the clouds are shaped +like camels who have gone to heaven and turned to mother o' pearl. +There are horses, too; not little sand stallions like ours, but +ordinary, plodding animals whose hoofs know only Fayoum dust or mud. +Our desert creature, however, does not spurn them. On the contrary, +though he pretends not to notice camels, cows, or buffaloes, he +whinnies and prances with delight when he meets anything of his own +shape, and assumes hobby-horse attitudes, much to the alarm of +Cleopatra and Miss Hassett-Bean. Also, just to remind everybody that +sand is his element, he shies at water, and almost swoons at sight of +the Fayoum light railway. + +Much wind again. But thank goodness out of Fayoum dust, and in desert +sand for lunch! Prop up tent with our backs, leaning against the blast. +However, we have now a special clothes-brush for the bread, and a +moderately clean bandanna for the fruit. Plates, we blow upon without a +qualm. Scarabei gambolling in the sand around our feet we pass +unnoticed. This is the simple desert life! + +But ah, what an encampment for the night! It makes up for everything, +and a sudden realization of abounding health is tingling in our veins. +We adore the desert. We want to spend our lives in it. Thank goodness +we have two nights here, on the golden shore of the blue Birket Karun, +all that's left of Lake Moeris of which Strabo and Herodotus raved. +From the dune-sheltered plateau where our white tents cluster, the +glitter of water in the desert is like a mirage: a mysterious, +melancholy sheet of steel and silver turning to ruby in the sunset, +with dark birds skimming over the clear surface. + +Suddenly the Bible seems as exciting as some wonderful novel. Not far +from here ran Joseph's river, making the desert to blossom like the +rose. In tents like ours, perhaps, Abraham rested with Sarah, planning +how to save himself by giving her to the Egyptian king. To see this +lake is like seeing a bright, living eye suddenly open in the face of a +mummy, dead for six thousand years! + +Our best sunset; romance but slightly damaged by an Arab waiter +wrapping up his head in a towel with which he had just dried our +teacups and no doubt will again. + +_Another Day:_ (Merely slavish to look it out in the calendar, and +besides there is none.) All I know is, we've had two on the shore of +Birket Kurun (I spell it a different way now, because no books ever +spell anything in Egypt twice alike), "The Lake of the Horns"; and +we've been on the water in some very old boats, in order to see things +which may have existed once, but don't now; and at present we're +encamped near Medinet-el-Fayoum, a kind of lesser Cairo: originally +named Medinet-el Fâris, City of the Horseman, because of a Roman +equestrian statue found in the neighbouring mounds of "Crocodilopolis." +We have just arrived, hot and dusty, with more dust of more Fayoum than +we had before Lake Moeris. "Fayoum" means Country of the Lake it seems; +and it really is a great emerald cup sunk below the level of the Nile +--as if to dip up water for its roses. + +However, the Set is happy despite the state of its clothes and its +hair. None of us quite realized what the Fallahcen were really like +before, or that the word Fellal meant "ploughman." This has been +market-day, and we met an endless stream of riding men, and walking +women with black trailing garments. They had bought sheep, and goats, +and rabbits, and quantities of rustling, pale green sugar cane, which +they carried on their shoulders. + +There were wild adventures for the sandcart, and watery spaces across +which Cleopatra was carried (at her own urgent request) by Anthony; +Miss Hassett-Bean by me and the strongest Arab. There were the +wonderfully picturesque squalid mud towns of Senoures and two or three +others, honey-yellow in a green mist of palms, against an indigo sky +with streaks of sunshine like bright bayonets of Djinns. And then +Medinet, through which our caravan had to pass _en route_ to camp, much +to the ribald joy of smart, silk-robed Egyptian "undergrads" who +strolled hand in hand along the broad streets near the University. They +were big, fantastic houses to suit modern Oriental taste, painted pink +and green, and set in shady gardens. And between high brick embankments +we saw the river Joseph made--swiftly running, deep golden yellow like +the Nile, with ancient water-wheels pouring crystal jets into enormous +troughs. + +This was our most fatiguing day, and we wanted our last encampment to +be the best. We found the worst: a suburban meadow inhabited by goats +and buffaloes. "Can't we move somewhere else?" Cleopatra besought +Anthony, to whom she appeals when he's within appealing distance. +"Isn't this tour for our _pleasure_, and can't we do what we _like_?" + +Anthony absolved the camp-makers, explaining that we must be near the +town in order to get carriages and see the sights we had come to see. +Also our water supply had given out, and we must beg some from the +"government people." He hinted that it would be well to make the best +of things; but Cleopatra, with her royal memories, is not good at +making the best of what she doesn't like. She wants what she wants, +especially in her own Egypt, where things ought to know that they once +belonged to her. Miss Hassett-Bean is quite as _exigeante_, in a +different way, more Biblical, less pagan. Her criticism on the +encampment was that it, and all her oasis experiences, are destroying +her faith in hymns. "By cool Siloam's Shady Rill," for instance, used +to be her favourite, but she doesn't believe now that Siloam ever had a +rill. + +_Later: 11 p. m_. Fallahcen and Fellahah (doesn't sound female, but is) +pretended to have things to do on the frontier of their field and ours, +as we were settling in, and stared unblinkingly at us, whenever we +stuck a nose outside a tent. Also they laughed. Also they brought their +dogs. But they couldn't spoil the sunset, and Medinet was a colourful +picture of the Orient, towering against the crimson west. I took Monny +and Biddy into the town to see the bridge and dilapidated Mosque of +Kait Bey, with its pillars stolen from Arsinoë. Anthony took Cleopatra, +and most of the other unmarried men took Rachel Guest. When Brigit +remarked rather sharply upon the ex-school teacher's popularity, Monny +laughed an odd, understanding little laugh. "I believe you think you +know _why_ they're all so mad about that girl!" exclaimed Biddy. + +"Perhaps I do," smiled Miss Gilder. + +"_What_ is her fascination?" + +"Bedr could have told you," Monny cryptically replied. "He told several +people." + +"What do you mean, child? I'm eating my heart out to know!" + +"Don't eat it, dearest. You can't eat your heart and have it, too. And +it's your most important possession." + +"I wish you wouldn't tease me when I'm tired. Is it part of the secret +you and Rachel were always giggling over, when we first got to Cairo?" + +"Yes, dear, it is, if you must know. But I don't want to tell even you +what the secret is, please! You might think it your duty to spoil +Rachel's fun, and she and I are both enjoying it _so_ much." + +"Can you guess what she means, Duffer?" Biddy appealed to me. "You know +I wrote you that Monny and Miss Guest had a secret. I thought afterward +it might have been only their plan to see the hasheesh den; but since +then I've realized it was something else." + +"Even if I could guess, ought I to give Miss Gilder away, when she has +just told you she doesn't want you to know?" I asked innocently. + +They both turned on me in a flash. (I expected that.) "_Do_ you guess?" + +"I don't see, if I do, why I shouldn't have _my_ little secret," I +mildly replied. I knew that, after this, Monny would give me a good +deal of her society, even though she might not have forgiven me for +bolting to haul down the Cook ensign, in the midst of her confidences. +But in truth I have not guessed the secret! My wits go wheeling round +it, like screaming swallows who see a crumb. I get a glimpse of the +crumb, and lose it again. In my present mood I almost regret that Bedr +and his supposed Germans have not dumped themselves down in our field. +It would have been like them to do so, judging by the aggressive checks +on those mustard tweeds; but as a matter of fact the party has +disappeared from view since just before Birket Karun. They may have +turned back to Cairo; they may have been swallowed up by a palsied sand +dune; they may have been eaten by jackals (we saw a dead one), or they +may have taken to the fleshpots of a Greek hotel in Medinet; but the +fact remains that, just when he might be useful, Bedr is not to be had. + +In our tent to-night, I took advantage of our friendship to try and +draw Fenton out a little on the subject of his feelings. It seemed the +right hour to open the door of the soul. The Fallaheen having taken +their families home, our tent-flaps were up, and only the stars looked +in--stars swarming like fireflies in the blue cup of a hanging flower; +but Anthony would speak of nothing more intimate than the Mountain of +the Golden Pyramid, or his tiresome sheikh's tomb. I yearned to tell +him of the _contretemps_ about the hieroglyphic letter, but something +stopped the confession on the end of my tongue, though perhaps in the +circumstances, I owed it to Mrs. East. If he had mentioned her name the +story might have come out; but the one drop of Eastern blood which +mingles with a hundred of the West in Anthony's veins makes him +singularly reserved, aggravatingly reticent where women are concerned. +I used to think that this was because he was not interested in them. +But something--I can't explain what, unless it's instinct--tells me +that this is no longer the case. Another interest has come into his +life, rivalling his soldier interest, and the secret hope buried deep +in our Mountain. I see it in his eyes. I hear it in the _timbre_ of his +voice. It means Woman. But what woman? Is Monny right? Is he falling +seriously in love for the first time in his strenuous life with Biddy, +whom he picked out for admiration the moment he set eyes on her? Or is +it Monny herself? I must be a dog in the manger, because I don't like +the idea of its being either. + +He is asleep on the other side of the tent as I write. Desert dogs do +not disturb him. He's great on concentrating his mind, and when he goes +to sleep he concentrates on that. + +I wish he'd talk in his sleep! But even in unconsciousness, he is +discreet as a statue. + +_The Last Day. Evening:_ I am in disgrace, and am left alone to bear +it, so I may as well finish my Desert Diary. It's all an account of a +lamb, just an ordinary, modern lamb you might meet anywhere. But I +mustn't begin with that, though it haunts me. In spirit it's here in +the tent, sitting at my feet, staring up into my face. Avaunt, lamb! +Thy blood is not on _my_ head. Go to those who deserve thee. I wish to +write of Crocodilopolis. Shetet, the city was called in the beginning +of things; Shetet, or the "Reclaimed," for the Egyptians stole land +from the water, and made it the capital of their great Lake Province, +which Ptolemy Philadelphus renamed to please his adored wife. Queen +Arsinoë was charming, no doubt; and the Greek ruins and papyri of her +day are interesting, but it is the city sacred to the crocodile god +Sebek which can alone distract my thoughts now from the tragedy of the +black lamb. If his Ka refuses to go I shall set crocodiles at it +--ghosts of crocodiles mummied somewhere under the desert hills which +separate the Fayoum from the Nile Valley. + +We drove out to the ruins in a string of hired carriages, at an +incredibly early hour this morning. As the night was one long dog-howl, +and the dawn one overwhelming cockcrow, people were thankful to get up. +But what a waste of hardly obtained baths before the start! Between +Medinet and Crocodilopolis rose a solid wall of red dust. We had to +break through it, as firemen dash through the smoke of a burning house; +and when our arabeahs stopped at the foot of a mountainous mound, about +a mile out of Medinet, the dust had come too. Scrambling up, with the +wind on our backs, we began to breathe; but it was not until we had +ascended to the old guard house on top of the pottery strewn height, +that we could draw a clean breath. Then the reward was worth the pains. + +Down below us, seen as from a bird's-eye view, lay a vast, unroofed +honeycomb. It's size was incredible. The thing could not really be +there. It was a startling dream, that endless gold-brown city of +regular streets, and mud brick buildings, big and small, shops and +houses, theatres and libraries, lacking only their roofs, deserted save +by ghosts for thousands of years, yet looking as though it had been +destroyed by a cyclone yesterday. Down there in the devastated beehive +myriads of bees still worked frantically, human bees, which Cleopatra +said were reincarnations of those who had owned slaves and killed them +with forced labour, when Shetet was among the richest cities of the +"Two Lands." These bees of to-day worked to destroy, not to recreate, +for the crumbling brick is the best of fertilizers--and fertilizing +their land is the one great interest in life for the Fellaheen of the +Fayoum. Furiously they tore at the remaining walls; furiously they +packed away their treasure of dried mud in sacks; furiously they piled +it on backs of donkeys and rushed away to make room for others. Each +instant hundreds of wild figures in dusty black or blue scampered off, +beating loaded donkeys, only to be replaced by hundreds more doing the +same thing in the same manner. Yet always a few forms remained +stationary. They were police guardians of the ruins, men armed with +staves, whose business was to oversee each worker's sack, lest some +rare roll of papyri, some rich jewel which once adorned a pampered +crocodile of the lake, should be found and stolen. Glimpsed through the +red flame of blowing, ruby dust, the scene was a vision of Inferno; we +on our mount looking down on it were in company of Dante and Virgil. + +The rest of the day we gave to a light-railway excursion to Illahun and +the brick Pyramid of Hawara. There was much laughing and shrieking +among the girls of the Set (I don't count Monny, who shrieks for +nothing less terrible than the largest spiders) as Arabs pushed our +trolley cars along the line; and we were frivolous even on the site of +the labyrinth which was, perhaps, copied from the Labyrinth of Crete. + +The Set were frankly disappointed in the few remains of granite columns +and carvings; but vague memories of jewels seen at the Egyptian Museum +waked an interest in the brick pyramid tomb at Hawara where King +Amenemhat and his daughter Ptah-nefru lay for a few thousand years. All +of us were eager for the "last camp tea," when we got "home" from our +expedition, and it was then that the tragedy happened: the tragedy of +the black lamb. + +How could I guess, when Yusef said the camel-boys wanted money to buy +meat as a feast for the last day, that they meant to buy it alive? + +When we arrived in camp, an idyllic scene was being enacted. A woolly +black lamb with a particularly engaging facial expression was being +hospitably entertained by all our men with the exception of the chêf. +They formed an admiring ring round it, taking turns in feeding it with +bersim, and patting its delightfully innocent head. It was difficult to +say which was happier, the charming guest or its kind hosts. + +"How _sweet_ of them!" said Miss Hassett-Bean. "I must write a few +verses about this, for our home paper!" + +Everybody joined with her in thinking the Arabs sweet, and Enid Biddell +went round and took up a collection. The men arranged a football match +for our benefit, to show their gratitude, and played so well and were +so picturesque that Sir John and other ardent sportsmen pressed more +money upon them. It was altogether a red-letter day for the camel-boys, +quite apart from the fact that they would get rid of their noble +benefactors to-morrow; and by way of a climax they had what we supposed +to be a bonfire at dark. + +"Aren't all those white figures wonderful, grouped round the blaze?" +asked Monny, who appeared on the whole satisfied with the way in which +the desert had taken her. "And look, the flames are reflected on the +clouds. I do believe it's going to _rain_, if such a thing can happen +here! I hope it won't spoil the poor darlings' celebration. Why, they +seem to have something big and black hanging over the fire. What _can_ +it be? Oh, it looks awful!" + +"It is not awful, mees," Yusef, standing near, good naturedly reassured +her. "It very naice. It is the lamb, they cook for their supper. The +genelman, milord, he give them money to buy it." + +"Lamb?" shrieked Monny, in a wild voice which brought a crowd round us. +"_Lamb_! Not--oh, not--" + +"Yes, mees, you all see it feeded when you come home, when you say it +so sweet. Camel-boys find sweeter now!" + +"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "Fiends! They invited that lamb here, and +brought it in their arms and played with it and did everything they +could to make it think it was having a pleasant afternoon, and then +--they _killed_ it!" + +"Of course, yes, mees," said Yusef, puzzled. "Why else for milord tell +they can buy it? They kill and pound it up to make it good, and soon +they eat in honour of the genelmen and ladies who have been so kind +this naice trip." + +"I should like to kill _them_!" gasped Monny, preparing to cry, and +flinging herself into Biddy's arms. "Oh--_somebody_ give me a hanky +--quick!" + +We all felt mechanically in our pockets; but I, being nearest, was +first in the field. It was a shock to see Monny wave my handkerchief +away with a gesture of horror, and bury her face in a far inferior one +tendered by Anthony. + +"No _wonder_!" exclaimed Miss Hassett-Bean, who is not, as a rule, a +Monny-ite. "You're _quite_ right, Miss Gilder. Lord Ernest Borrow, I +don't see _much_ difference between you and a murderer!" + +For a minute, I did not know what she meant. Then it broke upon me that +the Arabs' monstrous breach of hospitality to the lamb was laid at my +door. I jabbered explanations, but no one listened; and just then the +rain, which nobody had believed in, seized the opportunity of coming +down in floods. The camels roared with rage and surprise; the camel-boys +swore Arab oaths; the fire sputtered, and what became of the half-cooked +lamb I shall never know. We rushed for the dining-tent, all +soaked in an instant, with the exception of Brigit and Monny, whom +"Antoun" protected with a long cloak. + +Dinner was a gloomy feast, which might have been composed of funeral +baked meats, though the chêf himself came to the door and vowed by all +his saints that the lamb cutlets were not from _that_ lamb. So well did +he exonerate himself, so eloquently did he protest that he had nothing +to do with the camel-boys' orgy, that another special collection was +taken up for him. + +"Poor, dear old gentleman!" sighed Miss Hassett-Bean. "I shall never be +able to forget him. When I'm out of this awful country of _cannibals_, +and safe in my own home, he will simply haunt me, passing his +respectable old age, black though he is, chasing across deserts on +camels, wrapped in a blanket and covered with chicken coops, at the +mercy of any queer Christian who can afford to pay for him. It's a +_tragedy_!" + +Perhaps she wrote her poem about the cook instead of the camel-boys. +Luckily, however, at the last moment I remembered a superstition of the +Ancient Egyptians. They were in the habit of sacrificing a black lamb +to propitiate Set, the sender of storms. Our lamb _was_ black: and at +the hour of his untimely death a storm was coming up. The dreadful +deed, therefore, was turned into a Rite. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN OILED HAND + + +That is where my diary of the desert stopped; for the adventure that +ended our trip was not of the sort that mixes well with tragedies of +lambs. + +Before dinner Monny had apologized for refusing my handkerchief, I +really believe because she was sorry she had misunderstood, _not_ +because the rain had leaked through her tent, and she wanted me to give +her mine. In fact, she and Biddy refused pointblank at first when +Anthony and I suggested the change. They would not have told us that +the water had come in on their beds if they had thought we would +suggest such a thing. All they wished for was to have the tent-roof +somehow mended before matters got worse. But we insisted, especially +Fenton; and he is difficult to disobey. A look from him, and a drawing +together of the black eyebrows has the same effect on the mind of a +rebellious woman as an "Off with her head!" from an Arabian Nights +Sultan, while I might vainly exert my ingenuity to achieve the result +he gets by sheer mysterious magnetism. + +It was bedtime when the leak showed itself, but the change of quarters +was accomplished with military quickness and precision, as Fenton's +undertakings generally are; and almost before they knew what had +happened, Monny and Brigit, who had been tent-mates during the tour, +found themselves transferred bag and baggage to our tent, with the last +clean sheets in the bedroom-Arab's possession. + +Transferred, we set ourselves to making repairs, and soon patched up +the leaks. Rain at this season comes so rarely, it was not surprising +that a stitch or two had been neglected. + +Only the pillows and upper blankets had had time to get wet, and we had +but to remove the coverings and turn the pillows. We both did this +simultaneously, and simultaneously exclaimed "Hullo!" + +"They've left their treasures" said Anthony, not with quite the +masculine scorn of feminine weaknesses I was used to noticing in him. +Indeed, he spoke almost tenderly, as a father might speak at finding +the forgotten doll of an absent child. + +Each of us stood with a wet pillow in his hand, gazing at his borrowed +bunk. In the one I had selected, lay a small chamois-skin bag, attached +to a narrow pink ribbon. In the bed chosen by Fenton, was a tiny white +enamelled watch, on a platinum chain. Both these things had been +covered by their respective owners' pillows, and forgotten in the hasty +change of quarters. The watch was Monny's. She wore it round her neck +every day--therefore the chamois-skin bag on the other bed must be +Brigit's. I told myself that in it she probably kept her pathetic store +of money, hidden under her bodice by day, her pillow by night; and +beholding this intimate souvenir of my childhood's friend, my heart +yearned over her. + +"Too late to rouse them up now," said Anthony. + +"Yes," said I. "We must have been twenty minutes or half an hour +getting the roof to rights. They may be asleep, and if not, they won't +worry anyhow. They'll know that their things are safe till to-morrow +morning." + +Fenton agreed with this verdict, and each keeping charge of his own +treasure trove, we went to bed and to sleep. + +I am a champion dreamer. So much so, that I often find the life of +dreamland rivalling in interest the life this side of sleep. I look +forward to my dreams, as some people look forward to an interesting +dinner-party; but that night I was too tired to inspect the dream-menu, +before lying down to it. The first thing I knew, a handsome Egyptian +god with crystal eyes, like those which Bill Bailey means to make the +fashion, stood by my bedside. I asked him politely whether he were Rã +or Osiris, deliberately picking the two best gods of the bunch in order +to flatter him; but without answering, he pointed a bronze hand to the +mat on which he stood. It was a white mat, and on it I read a word +which evidently he meant me to take as his name: TAM HTAB. For an +instant it seemed to me a fine name for an Egyptian god, though I +hadn't met it before. Then I burst out laughing disrespectfully. "Why, +you're only a Bath Mat wrong side out!" I heard myself sneering; and +the god disappeared as a flash of lightning comes and is gone. In +going, however, he stumbled slightly against the bed. It was a mere +touch; but that, or my own voice, half waked me up. + +"TAM HTAB," I mumbled dreamily; and was just reminding myself before +dropping off to sleep again that I must tell Biddy about the new bath +god, when I realized that he had not quite gone. No, not quite gone! It +must be he who still lingered by the bed, for it could be nobody else. +Anthony would not come and hover silently at my bedside in the middle +of the night. Besides, I was almost awake now, and I could hear the +gentle, regular breathing of a man asleep: Anthony's breathing. + +"Go away, TAM HTAB," I tried to say, but I was not awake enough to +speak. He was bending over the bed. His face was near to mine. I felt +rather than saw it. "How could I see in the dark?" sleepily, even +fretfully, I asked myself. And yet, _was_ the tent dark?...It had been, +I remembered that. I remembered that Anthony had got to bed first, and +I had extinguished the two candles on the washhand-stand. Afterward, I +had had to grope my way to the bed. Now, however, there was a light...a +very faint, rather curious light. There seemed to be only a square of +it, a square sloped off at the top. It was opposite my eyes, which +really were open now, I felt sure. I couldn't be dreaming this. It was +like a queer-shaped window in the blackness, a window full of +starlight, but close to the floor. Then the rain must have stopped. The +stars must be out. Yes, but how could I see that? There was no window +in the tent. + +This thought dragged the last film of sleep off my tired brain, like a +veil snatched away by impatient fingers on an unseen hand. + +Odd! Those very words said over themselves in my head: "Fingers on an +unseen hand." And that was because a hand was being slipped cautiously, +inch by inch, under my pillow. It was the Egyptian god's hand. But I +knew suddenly that the dream-god had turned into a thief: that the +silver-glimmering square of light was one of the tent flaps unbuttoned +and turned back. That the man must stealthily have pulled up a peg or +two while we slept our heavy sleep, must have crept into the tent, +soft-footed over the thick rugs, and now here he was, trying to steal. + +After that, I did not go on with the thought. My dull reasoning snapped +off as short as a dry stick. I made a grab for the hand under my +pillow, seized a wrist, held it for an instant in a grip which must +have hurt, then had the shame and disappointment of feeling it slip out +of my grasp, like a greased snake. There was a stifled exclamation of +pain or surprise, scarcely louder than a sigh, and I was out of bed and +after a shadow that ran for the low square of starlight. Something +caught and tripped me as I reached the opening. What it was I did not +know then and don't know now, but I had a vague impression that it was +warm. If I had stumbled against a bare leg thrust out to stop me, it +would have felt like that. Yet it could not have been the leg of the +man running away. He was using both his, and must have used them well, +for I was up and out from under the lifted tent flap which had fallen +on top of me as I tumbled, before I could have counted five. Very wide +awake now, I stood in the rough, sandy grass, under a sky encrusted +with stars, and could see no one. Barefooted, I pattered this way and +that, searching every shadow, but the whole camp seemed an abode of +peace. There was not a sound or movement even in the black ring of +sleeping camels. Rain had driven to shelter the roving dogs which had +troubled us last night. The camp lanterns burned clear and strong, +yellow and crude in the silver flood of starlight which dulled their +radiance. The smell of earth and grass after the heavy shower was like +the fragrance of tea roses. Could it be that an evil, stealthy presence +had but just broken this sweet serenity with its vile intention, or had +the whole incident been after all a singularly vivid dream? I should +have believed so, if my hand which had clutched that other hand, had +not been slippery with oil. + +No, I had not dreamed. And suddenly a troubling thought leaped into my +mind. "Biddy!" The name sprang to my lips and spoke itself aloud. + +If this were for her! I had laughed at her forebodings. Sensational +revenges such as she feared seemed so incongruous, so utterly unsuited +to those laughing, long-lashed eyes of hers! Yet she had in her past +life lived side by side with fear and tragedy for more years than I +liked to count. And as she said, men such as those whom Richard O'Brien +had betrayed had been known to reach out very far to take revenge. +Biddy had done nothing. Surely they owed her no grudge. But she had +known things. Perhaps they thought that she knew even more than she did +know. Their organization was rich as well as powerful. It had many +branches. Yet why should men use its power to hurt the widow of a dead +enemy, now that they--or fate--had put him underground? + +In a flash I remembered the chamois-skin bag, which she had forgotten +under the pillow: and lifting the loosened canvas flap with its +dangling pegs, I stooped to go back into the tent. Inside, I expected +to find darkness, but instead I found light; Anthony up, setting a +match to a candle wick, and looking a tall, dark silhouette in his +pyjamas. + +"What's the row?" he calmly wanted to know--too calmly to suit my +ruffled mood. + +"A thief, that's all," I answered, hastily searching under the pillow +where the unseen hand had been. Sheet and pillow-case were slimy with +oil, yet the chamois-skin bag was safe. "But he didn't get what he +wanted!" I finished. + +"Good," said Anthony, who had lighted both candles. "Let's go look for +him." + +"I've been, and couldn't see anything." + +"I know. I heard a sound. I sang out, and you didn't answer, so I +thought something must be up. Let's have another try. I've got Miss +Gilder's watch." + +I slipped Biddy's bag into the pocket of my pyjamas, and pulling on our +boots we went out into the night. + +"It's _their_ tent I'm thinking of," I said, though I'd never talked of +Brigit O'Brien's affairs to Fenton. "If some one had planned to rob +them, not knowing of the change we made at the last minute--" + +"All our Arabs did know--" + +"I'm not talking of them. We've been here two days. Any one could have +spied on us enough to find out which tent was Mrs. Jones' and Miss +Gilder's." + +"You're thinking of Bedr?" + +"Well, yes, I suppose I am. Biddy never believed they were Germans." + +"Who, those chaps in checked clothes he had in tow? By Jove! yes--I +heard her speak of a scar on the forehead of one." + +"She thought he might have been Burke, the fellow in the street row, +that night at the House of the Crocodile." + +"These things happen to heiresses in old-fashioned story books," said +Anthony. "But there's nothing that happens in a story which can't +happen in real life, I suppose--especially to _such_ a girl. She--" + +"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of her!" I began, then stopped, shocked +because it was true, and also because I was unwilling to tell why my +thoughts had turned to "Mrs. Jones." + +"We must find out if they're safe," I went on. "The thieves seem to +have got clear away and we're not likely to find them, unless they've +gone to our old tent--" + +"Come along," said Anthony. "We'll slip on something, and call the +ladies as softly as we can, not to disturb the others and have the +whole camp buzzing like a beehive. When we're sure _they're_ all right, +we can attend to such details as searching for tracks." + +He seemed as eager as I was, to know that the two women were safe; but +there was no sign to tell me about which one he chiefly concerned +himself. + +A minute transformed him from a pyjamaed Englishman into a robed +Egyptian of that old-fashioned order which despises things European. +Only, he forgot to put on his turban. I didn't think of the omission +myself at the time, but I recalled it later. + +Going to the tent which had been ours, I scratched on the tight drawn +canvas near the spot where I knew one of the folding iron bedsteads was +placed. "Biddy--Biddy!" I called gently, and after a few repetitions I +heard her voice, rather sleepy, a little anxious, cry, "Is that you, +Duffer?" + +"Yes," I whispered, seeing the tent quiver in the region of some big +cushiony buttons. "'Antoun' and I are both here. But don't be scared. +Could you come and peep out from under the door flap a minute?" + +"Yes," said she. "Go round there, and I'll come." + +There was not much delay, for Biddy's crinkled black hair needs no +night disfigurements by way of patent curlers. In a few seconds the +door flap waved, and Biddy looked out into the starlight, the yellow +glimmer of a candle flame within the tent silhouetting the Japanesey +little figure wrapped in a kimono. Behind her dark head and above it, +floated a mist of bronzy gold, which I took to be Miss Gilder's hair. +There seemed to be quantities of it, and I should have been feverishly +interested in wondering how long it was, if I had had time to think of +anything but my thankfulness that Biddy and Monny were both safe. + +"Are either of you ill?" asked the creamy Irish voice which had never +sounded half so sweet as now, in the starlight and fragrance of this +strange night. "Because if you are, I've some lovely medicine--" + +"I wouldn't frighten them any more than I could help, if I were you," I +heard Fenton mumbling advice in muffled tones at my back. + +For obvious reasons I made no audible answer; but I had just been +resolving not to tell Biddy my suspicions unless it were necessary to +do so. + +"No, we're not ill," I assured her. "But there's been a silly sort of +scare about a sneak thief: may have been a false alarm, and we won't +say anything about it to-morrow, if others don't. We're horribly sorry +to disturb you and Miss Gilder, but we couldn't rest without making +sure you hadn't been worried." + +"_You_ heard nothing, did you, Monny?" Brigit threw a question over her +shoulder to the floating mist of gold. + +"No, and I wasn't asleep either," Miss Gilder's voice answered. "I was +lying awake thinking about its being our last night--and lots of +things." + +"I was lying half awake, too, thinking of 'lots of things,'" Biddy +mimicked her friend, "or I shouldn't have heard you so easily when you +scratched on the canvas. Oh, by the way, Duffer, did you or Antoun +Effendi find a little chamois-skin bag under the pillow?" + +"I found it," said I, and this gave me a chance I had been wanting but +hadn't quite known how to snatch. "I was rather worried over the +responsibility. Of course you knew that we'd take care of your +treasures." + +"It's all my money, and--and just _one_ other thing!" Biddy answered, +with an odd little hesitation in her manner and a catch in her voice. +"I should hate to have anybody open that bag. I'm thankful it's safe. +With you, I know it's _sacred_. All the same, I'd like to have it, if +you don't mind the bother." + +"You oughtn't to carry the thing about with you, if it's so important," +I scolded her. "Why not leave your secret treasure, whatever it is, and +most of your money, in Cairo, when you come off on an expedition like +this?" + +"I don't know," she mumbled evasively. "I'm used to having this thing +with me. I can't think how I forgot it under my pillow. I never have +before. It isn't the sort of--of valuable one keeps in a bank. Monny +embroidered the bag when she was a little girl. It was her first work. +I taught her how to do it, and she gave it to me for a birthday +present. I wouldn't lose it for the world." + +"You shan't," I said soothingly. I had heard what I had been afraid to +hear; but why should Biddy's trip be spoiled by another worry if I +could shield her? We could not _know_ that the oiled hand had been +groping for that bag; and I resolved not to distress Brigit by putting +the idea into her head at present. "Go to sleep again in peace, both of +you," I went on. "All's well, since _you_ are well. Probably some +prowler has been sneaking round the kitchen-tent." + +"Yes. The news of the lamb has gone forth!" said Biddy. "Good night!" + +"Good night!" I answered. + +Down went the tent flap, and hid the sparkle of eyes in starsheen, and +mist of gold in wavering candle-light. We trusted that the two had +crept back into their beds; but we did not return to ours. We took one +of the camp lanterns and searched for footprints--those which were +freshest after the rain. The rough grass growing sparsely out of the +sandy earth was not favourable to such attempts, however; and even at +dawn, when we looked again before the camp was stirring, we made no +notable discoveries such as amateur detectives make, in books. + +Our next expedition, as soon as light came, was to the town, where we +inquired at the few hotels, and put questions to the police. Nobody +answering the description of Bedr and his two companions had been seen +in Medinet, and we had to go back to camp baffled. + +There was our adventure; and when we reached Cairo by train, the +mystery of the oiled hand was still unsolved. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE SHIP'S MYSTERY AGAIN + + +I expected a black mark for the lamb and every little desert +difficulty, but, to my surprise, only our joys were remembered. Those +who had stayed in Cairo exchanged tales with the desert travellers, and +it was astonishing to hear what a marvellous week we had had. Each day +had been better than its brother. In fact, our trip had been one long, +glorious dream of golden sands and amethyst sunsets; the camels were as +easy to ride as sofas, and combined the intelligence of human beings +with the disposition of angels; the camp was as luxurious as the Savoy +or the Plaza; and to me and that wonderful Antoun Effendi all credit +was suddenly due. Not to be outdone, the stayers in Cairo had had the +"time of their lives." They had not been herded together like animals +in a menagerie, as in Colonel Corkran's day. The girls had not only +been to dances, but had danced with darling pets of officers, friends +of Ernest Borrow; while their mothers had been asked to those +fascinating picnics they get up in Egypt, don't you know, where you dig +in ancient burial grounds and find mummy beads and amulets. Somehow or +other, all these people attributed their pleasures to me, as they had +blamed me for their mishaps; and my spirits were at the top of the +thermometer three days later when, after some hard work, the +_Enchantress Isis_ was ready to start "up Nile." + +Sir Marcus wanted "his tours to be different from every other Nile +tour, and a little better." He wanted to "show what he could do," and +he was beginning well. Though the _Enchantress Isis_ had had a past +under other owners, she looked as if this were her maiden trip, and she +was as beautifully decorated as a débutante for her first ball. Her +paint was new and gleaming white; her brass and nickel glittered like +jewellery; and even those who thought nothing quite good enough for +them, uttered admiring "Ohs!" as they trooped on board. + +"The Highway of Egypt" was a silver-paved road, leading to adventure. +The masts of native boats lying along the river bank were etched in +black lines crowding one over another, on the lightly washed-in +background of blue. Near by, the great Kasr-el-Nil bridge gleamed with +colour and life like a rainbow "come alive"; and the _Enchantress Isis_ +looked as gay and inviting as a houseboat _en fête_ for Henley regatta. +She was smaller than the most modern of the Nile boats, for she had +been sold cheap to Sir Marcus by another firm: but she was big enough +for his experiment, though he had turned some of her cabins into +private baths and sitting-rooms. Her three decks towered out of the +water with a superior air of stateliness, such as small women put on +beside tall sisters; and her upper deck was a big open-air sitting-room. +There were Turkish rugs on the white floor, and basket chairs and +sofas with silk cushions. On the tables and on the piano top there were +picture-books of Egypt, and magazines, and bowls of flowers. From the +roof, sprouted electric lamps with brass leaves and glass lotuses; and +smiling Arabs in white from turban to slippers had blue larks flying +wide-winged on their breasts. Oh, yes, Sir Marcus was "doing" his +clients well, that was patent at first glance, and became even more +conspicuous to the eyes of the Set as they wandered into the dining +saloon, drawing-room and library, or peeped into each other's cabins. +Sir Marcus himself had come on board ostensibly to see us off, really +to watch the effect of his boat upon Cleopatra. He lay in wait for her +outside the door of her suite (the best on board), pretending to engage +me in conversation, but forgot my existence as she appeared. The +ecstasy on his big face was pathetic, as his brown eyes fixed +themselves on a quantity of artificial blue lotuses she held in her +hands. + +"Do you like 'em, Mrs. East?" he ventured. + +"Do I like what?" she inquired, that quiver of impatience in her tone +which she kept for her unfortunate adorer. + +"The--those flowers," he stammered. "I--" + +"They're _awful_!" she exclaimed. "The rooms are lovely, but these +dreadful artificial things some _silly_ person has stuck all over the +place spoil the whole effect. I want to find an Arab to take them away. +Or do you think I might throw them overboard? No one _could_ like them, +I'm sure." + +"Of course, chuck 'em overboard--or hand 'em to me, and I'll do it," +said Sir Marcus, looking ready to cry. "But--they're _lotuses_, I +suppose you know? I heard you say you'd give anything to have some." + +"Not artificial ones," explained Cleopatra, _belle dame sans merci_. "I +can't stand artificial flowers even on hats, much less in rooms. Who +could have put such horrors all over my _salon_?" + +"I don't know," Sir Marcus lied stoutly; "but it shan't happen again. +There ain't any real lotuses to be got, so maybe the--er--the +decorator--" his meanderings died into silence, as he took the bunch of +flowers from Mrs. East, and viciously flung them as tribute to the +Nile. + +"After all, we oughtn't to do that," said Cleopatra. "In the beautiful +old days real lotuses were given to the Nile. These are an insult." + +"They aren't meant as such," the big man apologized, all joy in his +fine boat and the compliments he had received crushed out of him. I +knew now that he had hovered at Cleopatra's door hoping for a cry of +pleasure. Probably he had ransacked Cairo for the lotuses, or +telegraphed to Paris, before his cruel lady went from him into the +desert. I was sorry for the "boss," though a snub or two would be good +for him, no doubt, and perhaps were being specially provided by a wise +Providence. But I had other things to think of than Sir Marcus Lark's +love-troubles: Monny, for instance, who at last had found a letter from +"Madame Wretched" in Cairo, and had wonderful schemes in her head. On +board the _Laconia_ I should have thought such schemes obstinate and +headstrong, the wish of a spoiled child to do something dangerous, to +meddle in matters which did not concern her, and to have "an +adventure." But I understood the Gilded Rose a little better now. I +began to see the real Monny as Biddy saw her, bright with the flame of +courage and enthusiasm and passionate generosity, behind the passing +cloud of superficial faults. She wanted everybody to be as fortunate +and happy as she, and was prepared to be exceedingly trying and +disagreeable in the effort to make them so. + +We had not been on board ten minutes when Biddy told me about the +exciting letter, and escorted me to find it and Monny. Miss Gilder was +in the act of insisting that General and Mrs. Harlow should accept her +suite, and that she should take their cabin. The matter had to be +argued out before she could spare attention for anything else; but as +she made it clear that the Harlows were not to pay extra, their +scruples were soon conquered. "The baggage hasn't been put into the +cabins yet," she explained breathlessly to me, "so that's all right!" + +In my astonishment, I forgot Madame Wretched. "But why," I adjured +Monny in my professional tone, as conductor, "why on earth should you +sacrifice yourself to these people? What have they done for you? I +thought you didn't like them?" + +"I don't," she replied, calmly, while Biddy listened, smiling. "That's +why I gave them my suite--at least, it's partly why." + +"I should think the other part of the 'partly' is more convincing," I +remarked; and Monny blushed. + +"Perhaps you know that your friend Antoun Effendi thinks me the most +selfish as well as the most obstinate girl he ever saw," she said. "And +I don't intend to have foreigners like him go on doing American girls +an injustice. Besides, maybe he's right about me--and I want him to be +wrong. I hate having all the best things there are everywhere, just +because I'm rich. The Harlows wanted a suite, and they couldn't afford +to take one. They were looking sadly through the door at my rooms and +envying me, so I thought I would change. I was _determined_ to change, +whether they would let me or not. They are old; I'm young, and I shall +enjoy thinking I've done something nice for people I thoroughly +dislike, as much as _they_ will enjoy having their own bathroom." + +"If Mrs. Harlow could hear you calling her old!" gurgled Biddy. + +"Well, she _is_ old. And she's perfectly horrid, much more horrid even +than Miss Hassett-Bean; so I'd rather give my suite to her and her +husband than any one else. Biddy and Rachel are together, and Aunt +Clara is alone. I'm robbing no one but myself." + +"How do you know Antoun Effendi thinks you selfish and obstinate?" I +inquired. "Surely he wasn't rude enough to say so?" + +"He was indeed, the day I _would_ have the coastguard camel, and he +came after me when it ran away," she confessed. "And you're not to tell +him about the suite. I didn't give it up to please him." + +"I thought you did," I ventured, "in order that Egyptian princes +shouldn't do injustice to American girls?" + +"I meant," she explained hastily, "that I like to know they're _wrong_ +about us. And now what was it that Biddy and you wanted to say? Oh, +poor Mabel's letter! How thankful I am to get it! I've been wondering +if I dared write, and thinking of all sorts of desperate plans. But, +Biddy thought we must wait till Wretched was off his guard. You see, we +shall have to rescue her when we get to Asiut." + +I would have answered, but a look from Biddy enjoined silence. And so +we were in touch with the "Ship's Mystery" again! I took the envelope, +which was addressed to Miss Gilder in a distinctively American +handwriting, strange to see coming from an Egyptian harem. + +The letter began abruptly, and showed signs of haste: + +"You were so good, I know I can appeal to you, but I'm not sure if +there's any way to help me. I began to be frightened on the ship, when +_he_ behaved so queerly, just because I talked about the most ordinary +things to one or two men. He made me stay in my cabin--but you'll +remember that. Already it's like ages ago! I tell myself now that I was +almost happy then. At least, I believed I was his _wife_, and that it +was better than being poor, and a governess to hateful French children +in Paris. He was kind, too--he seemed to love me; and I thought it was +like living in a romance to marry a Turk. He swore he'd never loved any +one except me, that he'd never been married, and that he wouldn't try +to convert me or shut me up like Turkish women. But everything was +untrue and different from what he said. I hardly know how to tell you, +for you will think it horrible, yet I must tell. When I came here, I +found he _had a wife already_, and a perfectly fiendish little girl. It +is legal in this dreadful country to have four wives, but I don't care +about the law. I want to get away. I've been cheated. This isn't +marriage! I don't know what will become of me, for I haven't any money, +but I'd rather starve than stay. I heard Mr. Sheridan say on board ship +that it was easy to get a divorce in Egypt or Turkey. Maybe he meant me +to hear, thinking some day I might be glad to know. But I can't get a +divorce while I'm shut up in this house and watched. Now, _he_ suspects +I want to leave him (since a scene we had about the wife), and he won't +let me go out, even into the garden. You are my only hope. You'll +wonder why I don't try appealing to the American Consul here, instead +of to you. I suppose there must be a consul--Asiut seems a big, +important town. I'll tell you why I don't. For one thing, there mayn't +be a consul. For another thing, the woman who has promised to post this +wouldn't do so if she guessed I was writing against my husband, who is +her brother-in-law, and she would guess if she saw an envelope +addressed to a consul, although she knows scarcely any English. I have +to talk to her in French. He thinks she is devoted to him, and that +she's explaining the Mussulman religion and ideas of a woman's life to +me, or he wouldn't let her come. It's true, she is loyal to him, in a +way. She wouldn't help me to escape. But I think women in the harems +like to have secrets with each other, which they hide from their men. +I've told her about you, how pretty you are, and a great heiress and +she's so interested, she's dying to see you. She hopes, if she posts +this letter, that you will call on me on your way up the Nile. She can +perhaps find out what day your boat is to arrive, through her husband, +and then she'll try to come to our house on the chance of meeting you. +I'm almost sure she'll keep her promise and post this letter. If not +--if he sees it, maybe he will kill me. I believe now he would do +anything. But I must run the risk. Do come. Do think of some way to +help. + +"MABEL. + +"I don't feel I have the right to any other name, for surely as he has +a wife I'm not truly married." + + +"Well?" asked Monny, as she saw me finish and fold up the letter. "You +were horrid about her at first, but just at the last minute on the +ship, you were good, and kept Wretched Bey talking, so I might have my +chance with Mabel. If you hadn't, I shouldn't like you as much as I do. +And I'm sure even you'll be anxious to do something now." + +"Yet we don't wish Ernest or Antoun Effendi to run into danger, do we, +dear?" Biddy suggested, coaxingly. "When you wanted to show the letter, +I said yes, but--" + +Monny listened no longer. Her eyes were sparkling, as they looked +straight into mine. "Antoun Effendi!" she repeated. "Tell me first +--because, you know, you are his friend--what would he think about a case +like this? Whatever he is, he's not a Mussulman, I'm sure. Still, he's +not one of us--" + +"You're sure he's not a Mussulman?" I echoed. "What makes you sure, +when you know he's been to Mecca, unless somebody has put the idea into +your head?" "His own head put it there," she answered. "I saw it +without his turban, the night of the alarm in camp. It wasn't shaved, +as I've read the heads of Moslem men are. It was a head like--like the +head of every Christian man I know, except that it was a better shape +than most! So, as he isn't Mussulman, he might not mind our trying to +help this poor deceived girl?" + +"Shall I ask his advice?" I inquired, rather drily perhaps. + +She hesitated for an instant, then said "Yes!" + +"You seem certain that whatever he thinks, he won't betray your plan." + +"I am certain," she replied, looking rapt. "He's not the kind of man +who betrays." + +"You're right," I said. "He's not the kind of man who betrays. He's the +kind that helps. Though in such a case as this--you know, the very +meaning of the word "harem" is "sacred" or "forbidden." Still--we shall +see!" + +We could not "see" at once, however, because Anthony had not come on +board. Even when the hour for starting arrived, there was no Anthony, +no message from Anthony. "Your friend isn't going to leave us in the +lurch, is he?" asked Sir Marcus, watch in hand. He had meant to travel +with us as far as Beni Hasan, our first stop, and return to Cairo by +donkey and train, but had changed his intention and was going off at +once--I thought I could guess why. "The _Enchantress Isis_ ought to be +under way this minute, but Antoun and you are our chief attractions. We +can't leave him behind." + +I agreed. We could not leave Anthony behind, but I was not worrying. If +he had to drop down out of an aeroplane, I felt sure that having said +he would come, he would keep his word. So, while Sir Marcus stared at +his watch and fumed, I rushed usefully about among the ladies who +clamoured for their luggage, or complained that their cabins were too +small for innovation trunks. I showed them how these travelling +wardrobes could be opened wide and flattened against the walls, taking +up next to no room; I assured each woman in confidence that she had +been given the best cabin on the boat; I dealt out little illustrated +books about the trip; I advised people which tables to choose in the +dining-saloon, and consoled them when the places they wanted were gone. +Still, the _Enchantress Isis_ had not stirred, and a rumour was +beginning to go round that something had happened, when suddenly I saw +Antoun Effendi's green turban. + +"Thank goodness!" muttered Sir Marcus, putting his watch into his +pocket. And then Mrs. East came swiftly across the deck from the door +of her own suite, where she must have stood watching, hidden behind the +portière. "Oh, Antoun Effendi!" she cried, and though her face was +turned toward us, she did not seem to know that we existed. How Anthony +looked at her we could not judge, for we saw only his back; but her +eyes must have told Sir Marcus a piece of news. He glanced from her to +Fenton, and from Fenton to her, with the expression of a school-boy who +has been punished for something he hasn't done. Then he turned to me as +though to ask a question; but shut his mouth tightly, as if gulping +down a large pill, wheeled, and left me without a good-bye. I wondered, +Cleopatra-fashion, what he had done in his last incarnation to deserve +these heavy blows in the hour which should have seen his triumph. "What +if he changes his mind and doesn't want Fenton and me after all?" I +asked myself. To my surprise, I realized that it would be a genuine +disappointment not to be wanted by Sir Marcus Lark. The Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid had nothing to do with this. It was borne in upon me +that I had begun to enjoy the rôle of conductor; and certainly I was +learning lessons in high diplomacy which might be useful in my career. + +Anthony, who was free as an eagle from questions of innovation trunks +and how to give everybody the best cabins, and places at table, looked +as if he were bound for the Island of Hesperides, on a voyage of pure +romance. The air of gravity and responsibility he had worn in Cairo and +in the desert was gone with the starting of the boat. I knew suddenly, +without asking him, that his mission had been of a far more serious +nature than the transplanting of a sheikh's tomb; that there had been +something else, and that it had finished at the last moment in success. + +"Sir Marcus was worrying about you," I said, when the importance of +unpacking left the deck empty save for Anthony and me. + +"You weren't, were you?" He was smiling at me in a friendly, +confidential way that showed a happy mood. + +"Not I! I knew you'd turn up, as you'd said you would." + +"Thanks, my good Duffer. But now it's over, I don't mind telling you +that it was a toss up." + +"You mean there was a chance of your failing us--in spite of the +Mountain?" + +"Well, I meant to bring this off somehow. But my first duty was to +finish up the Cairo business. I simply had to finish it, and I did. It +was a--rather bigger job than the sheikh's tomb racket, though of +course that was on the cards, too. Everything's all right now; but I +spent last night in getting the full details of an Arab plot to blow up +the house of a rich Copt, who's been of great service to the +Government. Some of the young Nationalists think that the Christian +Copts are put ahead of Moslems by the British, and there are +jealousies. The whole set of men concerned in this affair were arrested +an hour ago, so all's well with the world! I'm free to turn my face +toward the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid--free to enjoy myself, +although I must stick to my turban still." + +"Are you getting tired of it?" I asked. + +"I've been tired of it since the first day I put it on. I don't like +play-acting for long. But it was necessary. And it has had its +advantages as well as disadvantages for me." + +I should have liked to ask another question then, but dared not, so +instead I told him about the letter from Bechid Bey's beautiful +American bride, Mabella Hânem, the "Ship's Mystery" of the _Laconia_. +Anthony listened, as the _Enchantress Isis_ slipped past the Island of +Roda, past Ghizeh, past old Cairo and still older Babylon, then out on +to the broad bosom of the river where the Nile Valley lay bathed in +sunshine from Gebel Mokattam in the east, to the Libyan hills--haunt of +departed spirits--in the west. + +"Miss Gilder wants me to help, does she?" he asked at last. "She told +you to tell me about this?" + +"I warned her that you mightn't approve," I explained. "I said you had +more knowledge of Egypt in your little finger than I had in all my gray +matter, and you might think that nothing could be done--" + +"Tell her I think something may be done," he interrupted me. "And +before we reach Asiut we'll plan out how best to do it." + +"You and I?" + +"You and _she_ and I. She has brains as well as courage." + +"She?" + +"Of course I mean Miss Gilder." + +"Oh! Is it 'of course'? There are others who answer that description." + +Fenton smiled. "But it's going to be her show." + +"She is under the impression," I reminded him, laughing, "that all +Egypt, including the Nile, and you and your green turban, are her +'show'." + +Anthony did not answer. Perhaps already he was thinking of something +else. I should have liked to be sure exactly what his smile meant. Was +it for Monny? Was it for Biddy? Or only for an adventure which he saw +in the distance? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ASIUT AFFAIR + + +Nothing could be less appropriate to the Spirit of the Nile than our +spirit in setting out. We had turned our backs upon medieval Cairo, and +our faces toward Ethiopia. Our minds should have teemed with thoughts +of early gods, and the mysteries of their great temples. But not at +all. Medieval or prehistoric, it was all one to us in our secret +hearts, which throbbed with passionate excitement over our own small +affairs of to-day, and to-morrow. Little cared we, as our white boat +bore us southward, on the bosom of the sacred river--little cared we +for the love-story of the Great Enchantress--pupil of Magician Thoth, +--fair Isis, in whose honour that boat was named. Her tragic journey +along this river, whose stream she could augment by one sacred tear, +should have been followed by our fancy. We should have seen with our +minds' eyes the lovely lady asking news of the painted boat which +carried the dead body of her murdered husband Osiris, asking always +vainly, until she thought of questioning the little children. But +instead we thought of our own love-stories and amusements. We played +bridge, and danced the Tango on deck; we drummed on the piano, or +warbled the latest musical comedy airs. Above all, we flirted, or +gossiped about those who flirted, if for any reason we were off the +active list of flirters ourselves. + +To be sure, we had brought learned books, and took pains to leave them +in our chairs, open at marked passages of deep interest to students. We +even scribbled heterogeneous notes, if for a moment there were nothing +more amusing to do; and bits of paper scampered wildly about the deck +informing those who retrieved them that "Nub" was ancient Egyptian for +"gold," that Osiris created men and women from the tears he wept over +his own body, cut in pieces by Set; that the ivy was his favourite +plant; or that "scarabeus" was the Greek word for a blue-green beetle, +which created itself from itself, becoming the symbol of eternal life. +All this, however, was affectation. Each hoped others might think that +he or she was not an ordinary tourist: each wished to pose as a devotee +of some phase of history concerning gods, temples, or portrait statues, +anything not difficult to "study up." But life was too strong for us. +The colour and glamour of the Nile got into our blood. Hathor, goddess +of Love, bewitched us into doing queer things which we should not have +dreamed of doing if we hadn't drunk "Nile champagne." Yet after all, +what did it matter? We were absorbing what our hearts, if not our +minds, called out for: the enchantment of Egypt. + +More or less conscientiously I performed the duties Sir Marcus Lark had +bribed me to perform. I gave neat little lectures, and tried to remind +people, whether they liked it or not, that almost every moment the boat +was taking us past places of astonishing interest. + +The so-called tombs of "Beni Hasan," the _Enchantress Isis_ stopped for +us to see, in order that we might admire wall-paintings in rock +chambers, and gabble about Queen Hatasu or King Seti and his mother +Pakhet, the "Beautiful Lady of the Speos." But it was difficult to +rouse emotion concerning things which we glided by without visiting. + +Ruined temples were everywhere, "thick as flies," as I heard Harry +Snell say to Enid Biddell; but why bother about them, when finer ones +were waiting further down on the menu-card of the Nile-feast? +Especially when there was a pretty girl to walk the deck with, +meanwhile? As for Tell el-Marna, the Heretic King's great city, the +general vote went against a visit to the ruins. Antoun Effendi praised +it as one of the most interesting places near the Nile, because with +the exception of Queen Hatasu and Rameses the Great, Amen-hetep IV was +the most human personality in Egyptian history. But only Monny, who was +making a hero of Aknator, really wished to delay at the Disc +Worshipper's Utopia. It must have seemed strange to the Gilded Rose not +to have her will prevail; but there was a "clique" on board who +appeared to find pleasure in thwarting Monny. Her sacrifice to the +Harlows was misunderstood. She had made it, said those who did not like +her, in order to gain credit for unselfishness, or to have an excuse +for displaying herself _en route_ to the public bath, in a dream of a +dressing-gown, and a vision of a cap, carrying a poem of a sponge bag. +Rachel Guest was still mysteriously more popular than Monny, and was +said to have had two proposals on the first day. She didn't want to get +off the boat to see irrelevant painted pavements, in the harem of +Aknaton's royal palace, and her laziness won, when the vote was taken. +But what did anything matter, if the glamour of the Nile was in our +blood? + +Not one of us but thrilled to the droning cry of the shadoof men on the +brown banks, as the dripping water jars went up and up, tier after tier +above the river level. Not one but felt a strange allurement in the +passing scene; the dark mystery of palm groves, whose slender stems +were prison bars against the shining sky; the copper glow of the +mud-bricks in piled-up villages; the colour of the flowing water, where +secret gleams as from flooded gold mines seemed to glint through masses +of dead violets, that floated with the tide. No eye so dull that it +could not see how the shadows on land and water were painted at evening +with a blue glaze, like the bloom on old scarabs and mummy beads, and +broken bits of pottery that art cannot copy now. + +In her way, even Miss Hassett-Bean felt the charm of the Nile, and its +shores of brown and emerald and peacock-purple. "I don't call it +_scenery_," she explained. "Except when the light is different, or +there's some green stuff for cattle growing on the banks, everything's +the same yellow-brown; and nothing happens but palms and mud villages, +and shadoofs, and a few Arabs, or camels, or those ugly water buffaloes +they say the devil made, to show what he could do. But the funny thing +is, you can't bear to shut your eyes for a single minute for fear of +missing a tree, or a mound, or one of those tall-masted gyassas loaded +with white and pink pottery: they all seem so ridiculously _important_, +somehow! Then, there's that bothersome north wind following you, and +trying to freeze your spine, unless you pounce on the best seat where +it can't reach. If you put on your fur coat you're too hot; if you +don't you're too cold. At night your bed creaks, and so does everybody +else's. You hear a creaking all down the line when people turn over, +which gets on your nerves: but you soon forget; and the whole +experience is so perfectly wonderful that I'd like to spend the rest of +my natural life going up and down on a Nile boat!" + +Through the opalescent dream of these first days and nights, shot the +fiery thought of our mission in Asiut. I had been surprised at first +that Anthony, who knew so well the dangers and mysteries of the East, +encouraged Miss Gilder to meddle in so delicate an affair; and there +had never been any explanations between us. But I told myself that his +motive was sympathy with Monny's desire to help: or else he had been +tempted to associate himself with her in an adventure where again, as +once or twice before, he had been able to win her gratitude. Perhaps +both motives combined. + +As for Mrs. East, she frankly sulked. Intuition told me that she had +never dared speak to "Antoun Effendi" about the proposal in +hieroglyphics (so difficult for me to explain) which she attributed to +him. Never had she dared say: "You have written me a love letter. Why +don't you follow it up, and give me a chance to answer it, one way or +the other?" But it was puzzling her, disappointing her, if not breaking +her heart, that he avoided rather than sought her, on this glorified +houseboat where "the Egyptian Prince" was more or less a hero with +romantic women. While we four planned, in thrilling whispers, how to +rescue the "Ship's Mystery," and Rachel Guest walked the deck with Bill +Bailey or Harry Snell, Cleopatra was reduced to writing picture +post-cards. I thought, if Sir Marcus had but the inspiration to reappear +at some stopping place farther on, she might be ready to forgive him the +false lotus flowers: and perhaps he would come, for the Lark type is as +difficult to snub as Cleopatra's Needle. I was half inclined to send +him a telegram, on some excuse or other. + + * * * * * + +We came to Asiut in the morning, and it was to be a long stop, for +there was much to see, and every one was excited at the thought of our +first Nile town, a town already of Upper Egypt, which made it seem that +we had come a tremendous way from Cairo. For us, Egypt existed no +longer as a country, but as a golden brown, purple-green river-bed and +a flowing stream of history on which we floated; so it was fun for +those having no special mission, to feel that once again bazaars and +more or less sophisticated "Sights" awaited their pleasure. I had given +my after-dinner lecture the night before, trying to behave as if I were +not boiling with emotion, and had told those who deigned to listen that +Asiut, "City of the Wolves," was the capital of a province. I had +babbled, too, about the tombs which self-respecting tourists must see, +even if they hurry over the inspection of carvings, cartouches, and +representations of very small queens smelling very large lotuses (most +Egyptian queens apparently spent much of their time, lightly clothed, +and smelling lotuses, a ladylike pursuit for those about to have their +portraits taken); in order to find time for the mummied cats, the +bazaars, the silver scarves, the red and black pottery, and the images +of wolves, crocodiles, and camels cheap enough to be freely bought for +poor relations at home. "Antoun" and I hinted at business which must +prevent our joining the sightseers, who would be chaperoned by the +dragoman. Luckily, they got the idea into their heads that our affairs +were connected with Sir Marcus, and the "trip." We were pitied, rather +than blamed, but our real difficulty was with Mrs. East, as Monny did +not wish Cleopatra to be let into the secret. If she knew, she would +want to be in the adventure, and in Monny's opinion, Aunt Clara was a +dear, but unfitted for adventures. + +We planned that Brigit and Monny should call upon the wife of Rechid +Bey, whose house would be easy to find. If they were admitted, they +would try to bring her out, as if for a drive, for it seemed a case of +now or never if she were to escape. In case she were able to come, they +would take her straight to the American Consulate, which I was to visit +meanwhile, in order to explain matters. But if the rescuers were +refused admission, the Consul must be entreated to give active help. I, +as a "diplomat," was considered a suitable person to deal with this +side of the affair; and Antoun Effendi was to keep unobtrusive guard +within sight of Rechid's house until Brigit and Monny, with or without +a companion, should come forth safely. As I said, however, the +difficulty was Mrs. East. She would expect her niece if not Brigit to +go about with her, and would not be easily persuaded to join any other +party. As for Rachel, we need not think of her, as she had been annexed +by the Biddells, who would otherwise have lost Harry Snell. But +Cleopatra! What to do with Cleopatra? It was Anthony who had an +inspiration. + +There lived near Asiut, it seemed, an Italian who bred Sicilian lap-dogs, +said to be like those which had been favourite pets in the day of +Cleopatra the Great. Indeed, Antony was supposed to have given one to +the Queen. Now, Fenton asked permission to present a Sicilian lap-dog +to Mrs. East, a dog so small, so polite, that he could be taken +anywhere. Anthony could not go himself to select the gift, but would +find an interpreter as a guide to the kennel and bring her back to the +exploring party. Cleopatra, delighted with her hero's thoughtfulness, +caught at the idea: and when the Set went tearing furiously away in +arabeahs or on donkeys, Mrs. East followed sedately in a carriage with +the elderly Greek interpreter, and Miss Hassett-Bean, who also fancied +the idea of a Sicilian lap-dog, to replace the lamented Marmoset. + +Everything glittered at Asiut. The sun glittered on the water; palm +trees in gardens glittered as the wind waved their big green fans; the +white or pink facades of large, square houses glittered, those fine +houses along the Nile, in one of which Rechid Bey was known to live. +But brighter than all glittered the silver scarfs which Arabs begged us +to buy. Hanging over arms raised to show them off, the shining folds +glittered like cascades of running water in moonlight. "Very cheap! +very beautiful!" cried the merchants. "Ladies, see here! Your +gen'lemen, they buy for you!" + +In spite of "Antoun's" dignified refusals, putting the men off till our +return, they ran after us, waving scarfs and shawls and robes, white as +scintillating hoarfrost, pink as palest roses, purple as sunset clouds, +green and golden as Nile water, or sequined black as a night of stars. +Their vendors feared that if we did not buy of them, others might +beguile us, and saw danger ahead in a distant group of rivals crowding +round some tourists from another boat. This group we had to pass, and +as we did so, who should break out from the glittering ring but Bedr. + +He came toward us, humble and cringing, giving the beautiful Arab +salute. "Dear gen'lemen and ladies!" he exclaimed. "I am very happy to +see you again. Won't you shake hands, to forgive, because I meaned no +harm, and did no wrong thing but obey the sweet ladies' wish when they +would go to that House of the Crocodile. I too much punished when I +been sent away." + +"That's past now, and forgotten," said Monny, shrinking slightly from +the outstretched hand. "Perhaps it wasn't your fault, that trouble we +got into, but we didn't need you afterward, anyhow, and probably the +people you are with now are nicer to you than we were." + +"Oh, no peoples could be nicer, though they are very nice, my two +gen'lemens you seed with me in the desert. They travel with me yet. We +go everywhere by trains, because it takes not so much time as the +boats. And Miss Guest, that nice good young lady, is she well?" + +"Yes, she is very well," replied Miss Gilder, beginning to be restless, +her beauty-loving eyes avoiding Bedr's face, as had been her habit when +the man was in our employ. She did not like to hurt his feelings (Monny +can't bear to hurt the feelings of any one below herself in wealth or +station, though apparently she doesn't consider that one is bound to be +kind-hearted with the rich); but I could see that she wanted to escape. +Never had she liked Bedr. He had been Rachel's man from the first. +"Miss Guest has gone to see the tombs," Monny explained. + +"You not go there, and to the bazaars? I take my gen'lemen in a few +minutes." + +"We shall go by and by; just now we've other things to do," said the +girl evasively, rather too evasively, perhaps. But in the hope of +killing two birds with one stone (luring the man to betray his secret +if he had one, and then shunting him), I broke in. + +"How have you been getting on," I inquired, looking into the squint +eyes, "since that night I saw you at Medinet-el-Fayoum?" + +But the eyes opened wide, with a stare of innocence. + +"You see _me_ there, milord? I thought your party had not come when we +went away. My gen'lemen not like that camping place, and we stay there +not even one night. You must make mistake, and think some other man me. +Sure!" + +We could not help laughing at the "Sure!" It was spoken in so truly an +American way that it was funny on those lips. Afterward, however, it +struck me in remembering the scene, that the man's accent in speaking +English was even more distinctly American than it had been. This was +odd, if he had been associating with Germans; but natural if his new +clients were Americans. + +Another question was on my tongue, but before I had time to speak, +Monny cried out: "Oh, there's Wretched Bey, in a carriage, all alone +with some luggage! I hope he's going away!" + +Naturally we turned, but I saw Biddy raise her eyebrows warningly. The +girl looked puzzled, as if, for an instant, she did not see what she +had done that was wrong. But I guess that Biddy's distrust of Bedr as a +possible spy was still alive in her breast. She did not know of my +suspicions concerning the "camp thief," for the affair at Medinet, +thanks to a white fib or two, had never assumed serious proportions in +her mind. It did not need that, however, to make her feel that Bedr's +ears were not fit receptacles for secrets. + +Monny had not been mistaken. It was Rechid Bey, leaning comfortably +back in an old-fashioned but not badly appointed open carriage, drawn +by two very decent horses, and driven by a smart, red-sashed, white-robed +negro. We saw him in profile as he passed along the road at some +distance, but he was reading a paper with an expression so placid that +I felt sure he had not seen us. On the seat beside him was a suitcase +with the air of having been made in France; and circumstantial evidence +said that Monny's wish was to be granted. + +I glanced hastily at Bedr, to observe, if I could, whether the girl's +impulsive exclamation had aroused undue interest; for it was not +unlikely that he had seen Rechid Bey and Mabel landing at Alexandria +the night of his first meeting with us. But the ugly face showed +nothing. + +"If you have things you want to do, my ladies," he said, "please excuse +that I have keeped you. I go to my gen'lemen or they give the men with +the silver shawls too much money." + +The "gen'lemen" in question were more interested in observing our +movements than in completing any bargain with the street vendors; +nevertheless Bedr hastened back as if in great fear that they might be +cheated. An arabeah waited for them; and having bought a scarf or two, +they drove off before we had parted to go our several ways. An arabeah +was in attendance upon us, also, and we put Brigit and Monny into it +alone, for Rechid Bey's house, the driver informed us, was not far off. + +"Good luck!" I said encouragingly, and Brigit smiled gayly at me; but +Monny was looking at Fenton. She was telling him something with her +eyes; and, with a significant little gesture, she touched the small +leather handbag she carried. + +"One would think she was a suffragette with a bomb," I remarked to +Anthony, trying to speak easily, as though I were not at all anxious, +when the carriage had turned its back on us. + +"Instead of which," said Anthony, gazing at the dark head and the fair +head, as earnestly as if he never expected to see them again, "instead +of which, she's merely a brave girl with a pistol that she knows how to +use. Or, anyhow, she says she does." + +"Great heavens! Has she got one in that bag?" I gasped. + +"She has. My Browning." + +"Jove! You gave it to her?" + +"I did. Last night." + +My heart began suddenly to feel like a cannon ball, in my breast. I +felt that I had not understood the situation, and that now I did not +understand Anthony--though that was far from being a new sensation. + +"I thought that _you_ thought there was no danger?" I bleated. "You +know Egypt and I don't. I didn't want them to go in for this thing, but +when you said it would be all right, I yielded. I wish to heaven I +hadn't!" + +"Do you think if you hadn't given in, Miss Gilder would have given up?" + +"You and I together could have kept them both out of the business." + +"Only by sheer force. You see, Miss Gilder was interested in this girl +and fond of her before she met you. So was Mrs. East. As Rechid tricked +the pretty little governess by making her believe she would be his +first and only wife, they don't look upon her as married to him: And I +think they're right. Don't you glory in them both for knowing there's a +risk, yet taking it so gayly for that foolish child's sake?" + +"I glory in them, but I wouldn't have let them go if--" + +"You've changed your mind, just because I gave Miss Gilder my Browning? +Honestly, Duffer, I don't think there's actual danger. But, anyhow, +don't you see, they _had_ to go, and they had to go alone. They would +have hated us and themselves and each other if they hadn't answered the +girl's appeal. And _we_ couldn't do the thing, unfortunately, as it +deals with the harem. If it can be done at all, it's woman's business. +These two are the right ones, as they felt bound to do it, and you and +I can but see them through, from the outside." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED" + + +Now that we were thoroughly launched on this somewhat quixotic +adventure, I envied Anthony because his part in the drama kept him "in +the wings," within sight of the stage. He was to watch the house of +Rechid Bey, and if the rescue party of two did not appear after an +hour's absence, the true story of the affair and Mabel's appeal was to +be laid before the Inspector General of Upper Egypt--laid before him +not by "Ahmed Antoun Effendi," but by Captain Anthony Fenton, +officially on leave, secretly on a special mission for the British +government. + +My rôle, less exciting but perhaps no less important, was to play the +diplomat in beguiling the American Consul to stand by the wife of +Rechid Bey, if the attempt at rescue succeeded, or--if possible--even +if it failed. + +"Antoun" accounted for his presence in front of Rechid Bey's high +garden wall, by attracting a crowd, and lecturing them in his character +of Hadji, while I dashed off in a jingling arabeah, to the American +Consulate. As in Cairo, my progress was one long adjuration of the +crowd by the driver, who would have revelled in conducting the car of +Juggernaut. + +"Shemalak, ya welad!" ("To the left, oh, boy!"), or "Yeminick!" ("To +the right!"), he roared, while men dived and dipped under his horse's +prancing feet. A hawk flew by on my right side, and my right eyelid +twitched, as we neared the Consulate. In Egypt these were good omens. +Besides, there had been a red sunrise, which in the Nile country had +meant, since Egyptians superseded the prehistoric "new race," that Rã +had conquered his enemies, and stained the sky with their blood. +Therefore all should be well with me and the world; and it did seem as +if my hopes bade fair to be fulfilled, when in the Consul I recognized +a man I had been able to advise in a small official difficulty in my +early days at the Embassy in Rome. This was even more fortunate than +the case of Slaney. We shook hands warmly, and as soon as was decent, I +interrupted a flow of reminiscent gratitude by flooding Mr. James +Bronson with the story of Rechid Bey's unhappy American bride, Mabella +Hânem, ill treated as well as cruelly deceived, if her story were true. +He knew Rechid slightly, but the marriage was news to him. With +interest he listened to my account of the lonely little governess in +Paris, bewitched by the love-making of a handsome Turk as white as +herself. But when I asked for help, the Consul shook his head. + +"Lord Ernest," he said, "there's nothing I'd like better than to pay my +debt by doing you some favour. But you're asking me the one thing +that's hardest, as you probably know. You understand as well as I do +that when a girl marries a man, she ceases to be a subject of her +native land. And to interfere with the inmate of a harem is just about +impossible. But I'll tell you what I will do for your sake. If you can +get the girl out of Rechid Bey's house--which, mind you, I doubt--you +may bring her to my wife, and we'll cook up some story about her being +a relative of mine. So she is, I guess, through Adam and Eve! If you +think she's been badly treated, we'll stand by her, once she's under +this roof (which means she'll be on American soil), through thick and +thin, whatever the consequences. I can't go farther, and I don't +believe you expected that I would." + +I admitted that I had not, and thanked him for his promise. + +By this time, I thought that Brigit and Monny might be on their way to +meet me at the Consulate, as arranged, escorted by "Antoun," and +perhaps bringing Mabel. Even the route they were to take was planned, +so that I could not miss them if I started. + +Meanwhile, Mr. Bronson was to interest his wife in our protégée. Back I +flew, my ears deafened by more "Ya Welads," but though I met many +things and many creatures on the congested road, there was no arabeah +containing the desired ones. I made my driver slacken pace as we neared +the big, square pink house of Rechid Bey, set far back in its garden of +palms and impossible statues, on the bank of the Nile. No green turban +was in sight, and I wondered what could have happened, as we drove +slowly past the ponderous black gate-keeper, apparently half asleep on +his bench. There was nothing to do but crawl along at a snail's pace, +lest that droop of the crocodile-lids should be assumed for effect. I +went on, meaning to turn presently; but when the arabeah had taken me +beyond eyeshot of Rechid's gate-keeper, an Arab sacca, or water seller, +ran forward, striking his musical gong. From his brass jar, protected +by crimson-dyed horse hair to keep out dust, he offered a draught; and +his look said that he had something more for me than a drink of water. +I beckoned him close, stopping the arabeah; and under the tumbler he +handed up was a folded bit of paper. None save the water seller had +attention to spare for me just then, as a wedding procession was +approaching, with a crude but gorgeous curtained litter drawn by +camels, and a number of musicians with räitas, darabukas, the "key and +bottle," and other Eastern instruments which may have been ancestors of +the Highlanders' bagpipes. The street crowd followed, enchanted by the +plaintive, monotonous notes, grotesque to newcomers from the west, but +enthralling to those who have fallen under the spell of their +melancholy magic. + +"Failure for the present, but Miss G. and Mrs. J. safe," Anthony had +scrawled in pencil. "Couldn't wait in front of R.'s house, but you'll +find us at an Arab restaurant to which the messenger will guide you. +All you have to do is to discharge your arabeah, and walk in the +direction the man takes, keeping your distance in case you're watched." + +I obeyed instructions, and in the town of Asiut, far from the gardens +along the Nile front, I came to a house between the mosque of the +tallest minaret, and the great market whither Arabia as well as Egypt +sends her wares. It was a house of some pretension, though in a narrow +unpaved street, lined with humble native dwellings. I guessed that it +must have been built for a rich man who had died or failed in business, +but now a sign in Arabic announced that it was a restaurant. A nod from +the water seller told that I had reached the end of the journey. Nubian +servants salaamed in the big room where once the master of the house +had held receptions, and in a smaller room beyond I saw Antoun, Brigit, +and Monny. They were seated at a low table where no forks or knives or +even plates were laid. In the centre of the white cloth stood a large +dish of something sweet and rich-looking, from which everybody +pretended to eat; but at sight of me, Brigit and Monny began talking +together. They told me breathlessly how they had been informed by the +gatekeeper that "Mabella Hânem" was not well. Having insisted that they +were intimate friends whom she would desire to see, they had been +bidden to return in an hour. Reluctantly coming away, they had as soon +as was prudent been joined by Antoun. He had then taken them to the +bazaars, hoping to give them a glimpse of the shops before the Set +returned from the Tombs; but they had met Neill Sheridan, who had +something to tell. He had caught sight of Bedr running after the +carriage of a Turk strongly resembling Rechid Bey. The carriage had +stopped near the railway station; and after an instant's conversation +the horses had been turned to gallop off in the direction whence they +had come. + +"Of course we were sure the Turk _was_ Rechid," said Monny, "so Antoun +Effendi thought we'd better go back to watch his house. When we got +there, it was too late, for already some time had passed since Mr. +Sheridan saw Bedr. Rechid's gate-man said that Mabella Hânem was +suddenly better, and had gone away with her husband. He could talk a +little French, so we understood perfectly--and, anyhow, you know I'm +studying Arabic. It's _so_ discouraging when Arabs answer me in Cockney +English, or say "Sure" in American! We believed the fellow, because it +seemed exactly what Wretched _would_ do--come back and grab Mabel away +at a minute's notice. So unfortunate about Neill Sheridan! Wretched was +idiotically jealous of him on the _Laconia_; and if he caught a glimpse +of him to-day he's certain to think Mr. Sheridan's here to try and see +Mabel. We tore to the railroad depot, but the train was just going out. +No doubt Rechid and his wife were both on it. Isn't it heartbreaking?" + +I sat mute, thinking things over, but Anthony tried to give consolation +by saying that he still had some hope. He had found out that Rechid Bey +owned a sugar plantation, with a house on it, near Luxor. The train +which had left Asiut was bound for Luxor. In a very few days our boat +would land us there, and we would try our luck again. + +"Not much doubt," Fenton added, speaking as always in French, "that +this is Bedr's revenge on us. He must have told Rechid that Miss Gilder +had mentioned his name saying she hoped he was leaving home. That hint +of danger would be enough for any Turk." + +"It will be my fault, then," moaned Monny, "if he kills Mabel. He's +deceived and shut her up and tried to convert her. Worse than all, he +has another wife. The next step will be murder. Oh, how can we bear the +delay of going on to Luxor by boat! Hadn't we better take a train? +Better miss all the things we've come to Egypt to see, rather than +leave Mabel to her fate." + +"Rechid isn't the sort to have her put out of the way,"! said Anthony. +"He's not a bad fellow, as such men go, and he's hardly had time to +tire of his conquest yet. According to his lights, he's right not to +allow any interference with his harem from Europeans. He was jealous on +board ship, of one or two men of your acquaintance, you've told me. +This attempted visit of yours will revive his interest in his wife, +inconveniently for us; but if I know his type it will die down again, +the minute he thinks he has covered his tracks. For a day or two he +will be a dragon. Then he'll begin to think we're discouraged, or that +we haven't found out about his sugar plantation, or that nothing more +than a visit to his wife was intended, and he'll turn his attention to +other things than watch-dogging. It's far better to go on by boat, and +make a dash when he's off guard again." + +After a few arguments, we agreed with "Antoun," as we usually ended by +doing, and soothed our restlessness by visiting Mr. Bronson to tell him +of our disappointment. If it hadn't been for Monny, I think the Consul +would have taken the point of view that he was now "out" of the affair, +but Monny, sapphire-eyed with generous zeal, is rather irresistible. +Fired by her enthusiasm, as he had not been by my beguiling, he +volunteered to go to Luxor on two or three days' leave, with his wife, +to visit a Syrian friend who had often vainly invited them to his +villa, and arriving if possible about the time our boat was due. If we +succeeded in our quest, we might bring Mabel to them, and they would +smuggle her back to the American Consulate at Asiut. + +Our great adventure thus postponed, we let the Nile-dream take us once +more; and though we had moments of impatience, the dream was too fair +to be resisted. Besides, we were all four dreaming it together. Poor +Cleopatra was the only one outside, for Rachel Guest was dreaming her +own dream, with an extremely practical side to it, unless Biddy and I +were mistaken. She wore Monny's clothes, and used her special perfume, +and took advantage of the same initials, to accept gifts of filmy +handkerchiefs and monogrammed bags and brushes. Also she had firmly +annexed most of the men on board who would, in normal states of mind, +have belonged to the Gilded Rose. But they all seemed to have gone mad +on the subject of Miss Guest. Even Harry Snell, who had been the +property of Enid Biddell on board the _Candace_, on the _Enchantress +Isis_ was gravitating Guest-ward, lured by that meek, mysterious +witchery which I was trying hard to understand. + +We got past Sohâg, and the famous White and Red Coptic Monasteries +built by Saint Helena, without jarring notes of any sort in the +Nile-dream (save for the failure of our rescue plot): past Akhmin, which +Herodotus wrote of as Chemmis: past Girgah, where once stood ancient +This, that gave the first dynasty of kings to Egypt: but when we +arrived at Baliana to visit Abydos, between Enid Biddell and Harry +Snell I had an interlude of nightmare. It was Rachel's fault, but it +was I who had to suffer for her sins. I, who had engaged as Conductor +of the Set and found myself their Arbiter as well. + +Other tourists on other boats do not see Abydos until the return trip; +but the aim of Sir Marcus was originality as well as "exclusiveness." +This was a special tour, and everything we were to do must be special. +Some passengers might wish to stay longer than others at Khartum, or +from there go up the White or Blue Nile after Big Game. Or they might +tire of the Nile, and wish to tear back to Cairo by train. Sir Marcus +was boldly outdoing his rivals by allowing clients to engage cabins for +"up Nile" only, instead of paying the return also: and they were not to +miss any temple because of this concession. "I consider it an +advertisement, and a cheap one," he had explained to me, in saying that +we were to visit at Abydos on our way south. + +Beautiful smiling donkeys, adorned with beads and amulets, met us at +the boat-landing. We ought to have called it Al-Balyana, but we didn't. +We called it Baliana, and we pronounced Abydos according to our +education. We had a ride of an hour and a half from the boat to the +temple; and having sent off Cleopatra and Lady Biddell in a carriage, +my conscience was free, my heart light. The sun shone on tawny desert +hills, like lions creeping stealthily out from the horizon toward the +Nile to drink. There were sweet smells of unseen flowers, and herbs +such as ancient Egyptian doctors used, and I looked forward to keeping +my donkey near Biddy's. Of course I ought to have preferred Monny's, +but then, I could talk of Monny to Biddy, and we had had so many +subjects in common since childhood that it was restful to ride even the +most energetic donkey at the side of "Mrs. Jones." No sooner, however, +had I begun to urge my gray animal after her white one, than I was +called by Enid Biddell. "Oh, Lord Ernest! I _must_ speak to you!" she +pleaded so piteously that I couldn't pretend not to hear. + +When we were ambling side by side, separated from the rest of the party +by a gleaming cloud of copper dust, a few long-haired, brown sheep, +some blue-eyed water buffalo, and a plague of little birds, Enid turned +upon me a pair of tear-wet eyes. + +"Why, Miss Biddell, what is the matter--or is it a cold in your head?" +I asked anxiously. + +"It's not a cold in my head," she confessed. "It's a dreadful, dreadful +pain in my heart. And you're the only one who can cure it." + +For a fearful moment I thought that she was going to propose. One hears +of these awful visitations. But I need not have trembled. + +"I feel as if I could say anything to you," she murmured. "You are so +understanding, and so sympathetic." + +It was on the tip of my tongue to reply that it was my duty as +Conductor to be so, and that, if I succeeded, a mountain full of hidden +treasure might perhaps reward me. But just in time I realized that this +speech would not be tactful. Instead of speaking, I looked at her and +let her go on. + +"It's Harry Snell," she said. "You have influence with him. He thinks +you such a great swell, he'd hate to do anything you would call +unworthy of a gentleman. He--he's making me so unhappy. He's done +--everything--to win my love and now--now he's gone over to that Miss +Guest." The donkey having begun inopportunely to trot, the words were +jolted out, one after another, like a shower of pebbles. And they fell +on my feelings like paving stones. She expected _me_ to do something +about it! Horrible! I should almost have preferred the proposal. + +"My dear Miss Biddell," I soothed her in my best salad-oil voice, +cultivated at the Embassy, "you are much prettier than Miss Guest, and +you can win Snell back easily if you want him. Probably he's only +flirting, to make you jealous." + +"It's me he was flirting with," she moaned. "But I _don't_ believe he +cares for Miss Guest. It's only a case of 'follow my leader,' because +other men like her so much. Nothing succeeds like success, you know. +And other men's admiration is the most becoming background a girl can +have. He told Mrs. Harlow it was haunting him, that Elaine and I would +get fat like our mother, and the men who married us would have to spend +dull years seeing us slowly grow into mother's likeness. Wasn't it +cruel? And we eat scarcely _anything_ except pickles on purpose to keep +thin. But that's only his excuse. It's the romance of the situation, +and the _secret_ that appeals to him." + +"What secret?" I felt entitled to inquire. + +"Why, the secret between those two girls, Miss Gilder and Miss Guest. +You _know_ what all the men believe about them, don't you? But of +course you do." + +"But of course I don't." + +"Why, that they've changed places, to deceive people, just as heiresses +and poor girls do in old-fashioned plays or books. They think Miss +Gilder (I mean the girl we _call_ Miss Gilder) is really the +school-teacher, and the one we call Miss Guest, and that all the men are +after, is Rosamond Gilder the cannon heiress." + +"Whew!" I whistled, bumpily, as my donkey kept up with Enid's. "For +goodness' sake, what makes them think that?" + +"I don't know exactly how the story started, but it seems _authentic_. +Have you known them long?" + +"Only since Naples. But--" + +"Then you can't be certain whether it's true or not?" + +I paused, swallowing an answer. So _this_ was the explanation of the +Monny puzzle! Yet it was but the first word of another enigma. _Who_ +was responsible for the wild story? There was more than met the eye--or +ear--in this. I could hardly believe that Monny would have chosen, or +Rachel dared, to start this rumour, though it might have amused the +real heiress, and suited the false one, to watch it run. I dared not +contradict it flatly, without consulting Brigit or the Gilded Rose +herself. It was not my business to be a spoil-sport, if there were +sport to spoil, no matter how sternly I might disapprove. + +"In the matter of actual knowledge, I have very little about Miss +Gilder," I decided to reply, "except that she's charming enough and +pretty enough for any man to fall in love with, if she hadn't a penny. +As for Miss Guest" + +"Miss Guest is a cat! And if _only_ you'll tell Harry Snell so, I'll +bless you all my life." + +"Good gracious! I couldn't do that." + +"I mean, tell him you think she isn't the heiress, that she's only what +she seems to be, and nothing mysterious or interesting. He'll believe +_you_! Why, she _can't_ have any money, or even a nice mind. She always +writes 'No,' with her finger on top of her cold cream at hotels, she +told me so herself. Not that it's any good with Arabs, they don't want +to steal cold cream. But such a trick would never occur to a rich girl, +would it? She grows vainer every day, too, till one can just see vanity +spouting from the top of her head. She intends to use this mistake +people are making about her, to bag a rich man like Harry Snell, or a +successful one with a big, growing reputation like Mr. Bailey the +American sculptor. You _will_ help me save Harry from her, and bring +him back to me, won't you? You're the only one he'll listen to. If you +don't speak, I shall simply jump overboard into the Nile, and Sir +Marcus Lark would _hate_ that." + +"So should I, dear Miss Biddell," I assured her. "But what can I +possibly do in--in such a very intimate matter?" + +"Why, you're a diplomat, aren't you? I thought they always knew what to +do. You make us all dance to your tune like puppets, and imagine we're +prancing about to please ourselves. Tell him he's breaking my heart." + +"By Jove! You're not in earnest?" + +"I am. Oh, he must come back! I thought on board the _Candace_ we were +as good as engaged. I--I submitted to his kisses, and now--" + +"'Submitted' is a good word," I sneered to my inner self, but outwardly +I submitted a handkerchief to the lady, as she had lost hers in one of +the last donkey jolts, and ventured to insert sympathetically into a +pause a small suggestion. It was usual, I reminded Miss Biddell, if a +gentleman's intentions had to be asked, that the father did the asking. +This hint, however, fell flatter than a flounder; and all the way to +Abydos, most sacred temple of ancient Egypt, I was persecuted with Enid +Biddell's woes, when I should have been free to meditate upon the +tragic history of Isis and Osiris. It was here that the head of the +murdered god was buried, and perhaps his whole body, when the magic +secret of Thoth had enabled Isis to collect the fourteen separate +pieces Set had hidden. Many temples claimed the sacred body of Osiris, +ruler over departed spirits and Amenti, their dim dwelling place beyond +the western desert; Philae and Memphis among others; but it was Abydos +to which the Egyptians give their most reverent faith, as the true +burial place of the Beloved One. It was there they wished to lie when +they died and were mummied, in order to rest through eternity near the +relic of their most precious god. Thus a necropolis grew like a +poppy-garden of sleep, round the temple; and a city rose also. But even in +the long-ago time of Strabo, the city was reduced to a village, and all +traces of the shrine had vanished. The great white jewel of the +temples--temple of Seti I, and the temple of his son Rameses II--remain +to this day, however, with the Tablet of Ancestors which has helped in +the tracing of Egyptian history. Therefore is it that this treasure of +the Nile-desert is still a shrine for travellers from the four corners +of the earth. + +After the long, straight road, and a high, sudden hill, we came face to +face with the marble-white columns of the outer court. If I had been +with Brigit or Monny, I could have run back into the past, hand in hand +with either, to see with my mind's eyes the white limestone palace of +Memnon, copied from the Labyrinth, standing above the city between the +canal and the desert. I should have peered into the depths of its +fountain; and with a hand shading my eyeballs from the sun I should +have gazed at the grove of Horus' sacred acanthus trees, dark against +the burning blue. I should have found the Royal tombs which Rameses +restored, grouped near the buried body of Osiris. But bad luck gave me +Enid Biddell for my companion. She would not let any one else come near +me, even had the Right Somebody wished to dispute my battered remains +with her. "Antoun Effendi" had the others hypnotized, and I wondered if +they noticed how like his boldly cut profile was to certain portraits +of the youthful Rameses carved on the glittering white walls. So +splendid were they that had I been a woman my spirit would have rushed +back along the sand-obliterated, devious paths of Egypt's history, to +find and fall at the feet of their original. But--there was Antoun, +much easier to get at, and perhaps better worth the gift of a woman's +heart than Rameses the Great with all his faults and cruelties! + +Crowds of birds lived in interstices of the broken columns, and their +tiny faces peeped out like flowers growing among rocks, their eyes +bright and arresting as personal anecdotes in long, dull chapters of +history. They seemed to look at me, and sympathize, cocking their heads +on one side as if to say, "Poor, foolish, modern man, why don't you +make a virtue of necessity and get rid of this still more foolish +modern maid, by promising her anything she asks? Then you can go listen +to that princely looking person in the green turban, who might be +descended from the kings our ancestors used to behold. He does seem to +know something about the history of this place, on which _we_ are +authorities! The dragomans who bring crowds of tourists to our temple +and gabble nonsense, put us really off our feed. Peep, peep! Just hear +him tell about the staircase we're so proud of. Did _you_ know there +was a picture of it in the Book of The Dead, with Osiris standing at +the top, like a good host waiting to receive his guests? Well, then, if +you didn't, do anything you must to escape from that lovesick girl, +while there's time to hear a real scholar talk of 'Him who is at the +Head of the Staircase!' Peep, peep! Hurry up, or you'll lose it all, +you Silly. Of course, the real staircase is in Amenti, which your Roman +Catholics call Purgatory; and no doubt Osiris is standing on it to this +day." + +So I took the birds' advice, and promised Enid to have a "heart to +heart" talk with Harry Snell. Satisfied that she had got all that was +to be got out of me, she powdered her nose (in the same spirit that +David anointed his head) and attached herself to Rachel, in whose train +was the Desired One. Thus basely did I free myself to enjoy the society +of Biddy and Osiris, with lovely carved glimpses of Isis thrown in, to +say nothing of Seti I and Rameses II. Trying to push into the +background of my mind the nauseating thought of my vow and its +fulfillment, I helped Brigit and Monny take snapshots of King Seti +showing his son Rameses how to lasso, and also to catch by its tail the +most fascinating of bulls. They were on the wall, of course (Rameses +and Seti, I mean, not Brigit and Monny), but seemed so real they might +leap off at any instant; and so charmed was Monny with Rameses' braided +"lock of youth" that she resolved to try one over her left temple in +connection with an Egyptian Princess costume she was having made for +some future fancy-dress ball. "I can't take a grain of interest in any +one but Egyptian Princes and Princesses and their profiles," she +exclaimed; then blushed faintly and added, "I mean Princes and +Princesses of the _past_." + +We got some good pictures of the temple of Seti, for Monny had an +apparatus for natural colour photography which gave sensational results +in ancient wall-paintings--when any one except Monny herself did the +taking. It was better still in the Seven Chapels, the holy of holies at +Abydos, and in the joy of my first colour photography I forgot the doom +ahead. Appropriately, the sword I had hung up over my own cranium +descended in the Necropolis, at that place of tombs called Umm +el-Ka'ab, "Mother of Pots." Nobody wanted to see the fragments of this +mother's pots, but I insisted on a brief visit, as important +discoveries have been made there, among the most important in Egypt. It +was a dreary place where Harry Snell strolled up and caught me alone, +gazing at a desolation of sandy hillocks, full of undiscovered +treasure. + +"Look here," said he. "You're supposed to know everything. Tell me why +they call seats outside shops in bazaars, and tombs of the Ancient +Empire by the same name: mastaba?" + +I explained that mastaba was an Arab word meaning bench. Then, +realizing that it would be flying in the face of Providence not to get +the ordeal over while my blood was up, I spoke of Enid. Among the +shattered pots and yawning sepulchres, I racked up her broken heart and +blighted affections. I talked to Snell like a brother, and when he had +heard me through in silence, to the place where words and breath +failed, I thought that I had moved him. His eyes were downcast. I +fancied that I saw a mist as of tears, a man's slow tears. Then +suddenly he opened his eyelids wide, and glared--a glare stony as the +pots, and as the desert hills. "Borrow," he said, "I thought you were a +good fellow and a man of the world. I see now that you're a damned +sentimental ass." + +With this he stalked off, and I could not run after him to bash his +head, because what he said was perfectly true. I was almost sorry that +evening, on board the boat, when he apologized and the Nile-dream went +on as if I hadn't broken it by being the sort of fool Snell had said +that I was. + +In the dream were Nile cities, with crowding houses whose walls were +heightened by tier upon tier of rose-and-white pots, moulded in with +honey-coloured mud. There were stretches of sandy shore, and green +gloom of palm groves. There were domed tombs of saints, glittering like +snow-palaces in the sun. There were great golden mounds inlaid with +strips of paler gold picked out with ebony. There were sinister +hillsides cut into squarely by door-holes, leading to cave-dwellings. +There were always shadoofs, where giant soup-ladles everlastingly +dipped water and threw it out again, mounting up from level to level of +the brown, dyke-like shore. The wistful, musical wail of the men at the +wells was as near to the voice of Nature as the sighing of wind, or the +breaking of waves which has never ceased since the world began. +Sometimes the horizon was opal, sometimes it throbbed with azure fire, +or blazed ruby red, as the torch of sunset swept west and east before +the emerald darkness fell. When our _Enchantress_ landed, great flocks +of kites, like in form and wing to the sacred vulture of Egypt, flew to +welcome us with swoopings of wide purple wings. Their shadows on the +water were like passing spirits; and at night when the Nubian boatmen +danced, their feet thudding on the lower deck to the cry of the +darabukah, the Nile whispered of the past, with a tinkling whisper, +like the music of Hathor's sacred sistrum. Gyassas glided by, loaded +with pots like magic melons, long masts pointing as though they had +been wands in the hands of astrologers: and the reflection of the piled +pots as they moved gave vague glimpses as of sunken treasure. + +Denderah meant work for Fenton. There had been trouble there, and +tourists had complained of insults. It was the Hadji's business to find +out whether natives or Europeans had been more to blame, and whether +there were wrongs to right, misunderstandings to adjust. But to the +rest of us, Denderah meant the sacred temple of Hathor, Goddess of +Love, in some ways one of the most beautiful of all the Nile temples; +though, being not much over two thousand years old (it was built upon +ruins more ancient than King Menes) archeologists like Neill Sheridan +class it as "late Ptolemaic," uninterestingly modern. + +Mrs. East had been looking forward to the temple of Denderah more +eagerly than to any other, because she had read that on an outer wall +was carved the portrait of Cleopatra the Great. That of Cæsarion was +there also, as she must have known; but Cleopatra's son was never +referred to by her reincarnation, who chose to ignore the Cæsar +incident. Mrs. East had not yet deigned to mount a donkey, but to reach +the temple she must do so or walk, or sway in a dangerous looking +_chaise à porteur_. Rather than miss the joy of seeing herself on a +stone wall as others had had the privilege of seeing her for two +thousand years, she consented to accept as a seat a large gray animal, +tasselled with red to keep off flies and evil eyes. "Won't you ride +with me, Antoun Effendi?" she asked. "I'm afraid. This creature looks +as large as an elephant and as wild as a zebra. I feel _you_ could calm +him." But Antoun Effendi was not going to ride. He had other fish to +fry; and poor Cleopatra's luminous dark eyes were like overflowing +lakes, when he had politely excused himself on the plea of a pressing +engagement. I felt sure that she would have been kind to Sir Marcus if +at that moment he could have appeared from behind the picturesque group +of bead-necklace sellers, or emerged from one of the huge +bright-coloured baskets exposed for sale on a hill of brown-gold sand. + +I don't know whether it made things better or worse that the gray +donkey should be named "Cleopatra," but it was evidently a blow when +the animal's white-robed attendant announced himself as Anthony. + +"I can't and won't have the creature with me!" she murmured, as I +helped her to mount when she had pushed the boy aside. "Thank you, Lord +Ernest. You're very kind. But Antoun ought to have been here. Fancy +seeing _this_ temple, of all others, without an Anthony of any sort on +the horizon! A pity it isn't _your_ middle name! If you could spare +time to ride with me, that would be better than nothing!" + +"I'll be delighted," I said hypocritically, for I had been dying to +talk with Brigit about the Monny and Rachel imbroglio which, as a +hard-worked Conductor, I had not since Abydos found a chance to discuss. +Besides, Biddy had whispered in passing that a letter just delivered at +Denderah, had brought exciting news of Esmé O'Brien: But I was sorry +for Cleopatra, and wondered whether I could manage after all to hint an +explanation of the hieroglyphic love-letter--that fatal letter of mine +which had stealthily made mischief between Mrs. East and Anthony. I +didn't quite see how the subject was to be broached: still, some way +might open. "I'm sorry about the middle name," I said. "But if I +assumed it--like a virtue which I have not--I should be the third +person connected with this trip, labelled the same fashion." + +"Who is the second person?" she asked abruptly, as all the animals of +the party started to trot vivaciously through the blowing yellow sand. + +"Sir Marcus. Surely you've heard that his 'A' stands for Antonius?" + +"Good heavens!" she gasped: and I hardly knew whether it was the shock +of my news, or a jolt of the donkey which forced the exclamation. +Whatever it was, the emotion she felt bound her to silence after that +one outburst. She said not a word, and did not even groan or threaten +to fall off when both our beasts broke into a thumping gallop. In +silence we swept round that great bulk of rubbish heap, Roman and early +Christian, under which lies An, the town of the Column. Cleopatra did +not cry out when suddenly we came in sight of Hathor's temple, honey-gold +against the turquoise sky, and vast as some Wagnerian palace of +the gods. The tasselled donkey (or I) had given her cause to think. Or +perhaps she did not consider me worth talking to, as we approached the +temple toward which all her previous travelling had been a mere +pilgrimage. Still silently, when we had left our donkeys and were +following the crowd up the dromos (Harry Snell actually with Enid, +thanks to me and the wisdom of second thoughts), Cleopatra's eyes +wandered over the Hathor-headed columns with their clinging colour; and +over the portal with its brilliant mass of yellow, of dark Pompeian +red, and the green-blue sacred to Hathor, whom Horus loved +--Venus-Hathor, whose priestesses danced within these walls in Cleopatra's +day. "Oh, this red and this green-blue were my colours, I remember," she +murmured, and then hardly spoke when I walked with her in the gloom of +the temple itself--the rich gloom under heavily ornamented ceilings. +She wanted to save the portrait till the last, she announced, until +after she had seen everything else: and she didn't care _what_ Mr. +Sheridan said about her temple; it was wonderful. I tried to interest +her in the crocodiles, which had been detested and persecuted at +Denderah in the late Cleopatra's time as ardently as they were +worshipped at Crocodilopolis and other places. I joked about Old Egypt +having consisted of "crocs and non crocs," just as the inhabitants of +Florence had to be Guelphs or Ghibellines. I explained carefully the +geography of the place, or rather, "reminded" Cleopatra of it, adding +details of the canal which once led to Koptos, where the magic book of +the Wisdom of Thoth lay hidden under the Nile. I could not waken Mrs. +East from reverie to interest, as Antoun would have had the power to +do; but my vanity was not hurt. It was only my curiosity which +suffered, for I wanted desperately to know whether the donkey had +seriously jolted the lady's spine, or whether the news that Sir M. A. +Lark was Marcus Antonius, not a more obvious Marcus Aurelius, had fired +her imagination. + +In any case I devoted myself to her while Monny and Brigit frolicked +with others; and I had a reward of a kind. When we had seen all the +halls and chambers, and the crypt with its carvings all fresh as if +made yesterday; when we had been on the roof where chanting priests had +once awaited the rising of Sirius; when I had taken her outside the +temple, where blowing columns of dusty sand rose like incense from +hidden altars of Hathor, we stood at last alone together, gazing up at +the figures of Cleopatra and her son. The wall on which they were +carved rose behind the Holy of Holies, where the golden statue of the +Goddess had been kept; but alas, the figures themselves! Alas! I knew +how Cleopatra must be feeling; and I dared not speak. Perhaps she was +even blushing: but I did not look. Instead, I gazed helplessly up at +that exposed, misshapen form, that flaccid chin. + +"Thank heaven it's only _you_ who are with me!" breathed Mrs. East. + +That was my reward. Or should I call it a punishment? Anyhow, it made +it easier for the insignificant person in question to unburden his +conscience about the hieroglyphic letter. I stammered it all out, on +the way back, apropos of the rubbish-heap which had been Tentyra. I let +it remind me of Fustât and our digging expedition. I had meant to +follow Mrs. East's advice and propose to Miss Gilder, I explained, but +Monny had not found my buried love-letter. What had become of it I--er +--had never been told. All I knew was that it hadn't come into Miss +Gilder's hands; and I should never have as much courage again. + +"Oh!" Cleopatra exclaimed, with a curious light in her eyes, more like +relief than disappointment. "You really do want to marry my niece? You +delayed so, that I wondered. I wasn't sure, sometimes, if it were Monny +or--but I am on your side, Lord Ernest. It isn't too late yet _for any +of us_, perhaps. Trust in me. I'm going to help you." + +I could have bitten my tongue out, though I had blundered with the best +intentions. "Mrs. East," I protested almost ferociously, "you mustn't +do anything. I said before I began, that I was going to tell you a +_secret_." + +"I won't betray your confidence. But I _will_ help. I want to. It would +be a good thing for Monny to accept you, Lord Ernest, a very good thing +in more ways than one. Mrs. Jones wants it too, or did. I promise you, +I'll be discreet." + +With that, we arrived in sight of the boat. Once more, necklaces and +scarabs and baskets were thrust under our noses. Anthony had returned +from his mysterious whisperings in cafés or mosques in the new town, +and was waiting for us. Cleopatra called him, with a note of gayety in +her voice, to help her off "the elephant." He came. I felt she was +going to hint to him that I was in love with Monny--hint to Brigit +also. + +Virtue may be its own reward, but it makes you very lonely! + +I hadn't another easy moment for dreaming the Nile-dream. And we all +woke out of it when, with the pink dawn of a certain morning, we saw a +vast temple, repeated column for column, in the clear river, as in a +mirror of glass. + +We were at Luxor; and somewhere not far off, Mabella Hânem was praying +for release. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ZONE OF FIRE + + +Just at the first moment of waking, when I was moved by my subconscious +self to roll out of my berth and bound to the cabin window, I forgot +that we had anything more active to do at Luxor than worship the glory +of sky and river and temples. I had room in my mind only for the +dream-beauty of that astounding picture, into the foreground of which I +seemed to have been thrust, so close upon my eyes loomed the line of +lotus columns. It was as if the ancient gods had poured a libation of +ruby wine from their zenith-dwelling into the translucent depths of the +Nile. Even the long colonnade of broken pillars was deep rose-red +against a pale rose sky, repeated again in deeper rose down in a magic +world beneath the pink crystal roof of shining water. Then, suddenly, +bright windows of sky behind the dark rose-columns flamed to the colour +of primroses, were shot with pansy purple, and cleared to the +transparent green of unflawed emerald. The thought came as I gazed at +the carved wonder (reflected flower for flower and line for line in the +still river) that here was illustrated in unearthly beauty the chief +religious legend of ancient Egypt. As each human soul was believed to +be a part of the World-Soul, Osiris, reunited with him beyond the +western desert, after death, so did these columns made by human hands +unite themselves at sunrise with the soul of the Nile, the life of +Egypt. I caught a glimpse as if in an illuminated parable, of the +Egyptian Cosmos, the Heavens, the Earth, the Depths, three separate +entities, yet forever one as is the Christian's Trinity. Almost I +expected to see the sun-boat of the gods steered slowly across the +river from the city of Kings, westward to the tombs of Kings; and the +little white-breasted birds, which promenaded the deck of our boat as +though it belonged to them, might have been Heart-birds from the world +of mummies across the Nile, escaped for a glimpse of Rameses' gayly +painted, mosaiced white palace with its carved brass balconies, its +climbing roses, its lake of lotuses and its river gardens. I was sure +that, if I told these tiny creatures that the Pharaohs and all their +glories had vanished off the earth except for a few bits in museums, +they would not believe the tale. I wasn't even sure I believed it +myself; and deliberately blotting out of sight the big modern hotels +and the low white line of shops away to the right of the temple, I +tried to see with the Ba-birds, eastern Thebes as it must have been in +the days of Rameses II. I pictured the temple before Cambyses the +Persian, and the great earthquake felled arches and pillars, obelisks +and kingly statues. I built up again the five-story houses of the +priests and nobles, glistening white, and fantastically painted in many +colours: I laid out lawns and flower beds, and set fountains playing. +Then, with a rumbling shock, a chasm many thousand years deep yawned +between me and ancient No, the City of Palaces: + +It was the voice of Sir John Biddell which opened the ravine of time, +and let the Nile pour through it. He was on deck, in pyjamas and +overcoat, with General Harlow, holding forth on his favourite topic of +mummies--an appropriate subject for this neighbourhood of all others; +yet, I should have preferred silence. + +Poor Sir John! He had been disappointed in Cairo because a villain had +not lurked behind each of the trees in the Esbekîya Gardens, and notes +tied with silken black hairs had not tumbled on his respectable bald +head from the mystery of latticed windows; but he was thoroughly +enjoying his Nile trip, and learning something every day to tell at +home. Lady Biddell had humiliated him twice, once by asking me if +"those old hieroglyphics were written in Arabic?" again by inquiring +whether the stone-barred temple windows had been "filled in once with +pretty stained glass?" But he had forgiven her because yesterday had +been their silver-wedding day, and he meant to buy her a present at +some curiosity-shop at Luxor. "A pity it isn't the wooden wedding," I +heard him say to General Harlow, "for I might give a handsome mummy-case. +I suppose silver will have to be Persian or Indian, unless I can +get hold of one of those old bracelets or discs the Egyptians used for +money: but that's too good to hope for." + +It certainly was: though no doubt some industrious manufacturer of +antiques would cheerfully have made and dug up any amount on the site +of Rameses' palace, could he have known in time. + +We were to have three days at Luxor--three days, when three months +would have been too little!--and the second attempt at abducting an +ill-used lady from the harem of her treacherous lord would take place +as soon as we could learn that our auxiliaries, the Bronsons, had +arrived. Until they were on the spot, even a success might prove an +anti-climax. Meanwhile I had plenty to do in playing my more obvious +part of Conductor, and arranging the last details of our excursion +programme. Every one had bundled out early to see the sunrise. +Consequently most members of the Set were cross or hungry, or both. +Nothing could be less suitable than to clamour for porridge on the +Nile, but they did it, and called for bacon, too, in a land where the +pig is an unclean animal. They were the same people who played "coon +can" and bridge on the deck at twilight, when moving figures on shore +were etched in black on silver, or against flaming wings of sunset, and +in gathering darkness the blue-robed shadoof-men who bent and rose +against gold-brown dykes, were like Persian enamels done on copper. + +"Hundred gated" Thebes, the dwelling of Amen-Rã whom Greece adopted as +Jupiter-Amon, used to lie on both banks of the Nile; the east for the +living, the west for the dead and those who lived by catering for +mummyhood. + +I had arranged to take our people first round Luxor, making them +acquainted with the temple which had already introduced its reflection +to us. As for the town, they were capable of making themselves +acquainted with that, its hotels and curiosity-shops, when there was +nothing more important on hand. Next was to come Karnak, the "father of +temples," once connected with the younger temple at Luxor as if by a +long jewelled necklace of ram-headed sphinxes. And for those whose +brains and legs were intact, by evening I thought of a visit to the +thrilling temple of Mût. This last would be an adventure; for Mût, +goddess of matter, the Mother goddess, has apparently not taken kindly +to Moslem rule. Any disagreeable trick she, and her attendant black +statues of passion, fierce Sekhet, can play on a devout Mohammedan, are +meat and drink to her: but she can work her spells only after dusk, +therefore none save the bravest Arab will venture his head inside her +domain, past sunset. I was sure we could get no dragoman to go with us, +and equally sure that the adventure would be more popular for its spice +of horror. + +The second and third days I allotted to western Thebes, the city of the +dead: the tombs of the Kings, the tombs of the Queens and the Nobles; +then the Ramesseum, the "Musical Memnon" with his companion Colossus, +and the great temples wrapped in the ruddy fire of the western desert, +where Hathor receives the setting sun in outstretched arms. + +As I was about to unfold these projects at breakfast, a telegram was +handed to me. I read it; and while bacon plates were being exchanged +for dishes of marmalade, I cudgelled my brain like a slave to make it +rearrange the whole programme without a hitch. + +The American Consul wired from Asiut that he was detained by an +Important Personage, who wanted to know things about Egyptian Cotton +and its enemy the boll worm. But Mr. and Mrs. Bronson would arrive at +the Villa Sirius, Luxor, day after to-morrow, "ready for emergencies." + +Of course, being Conductor of a tour, and next a man, I ought to have +put the interests of Sir Marcus and his "Lark Pie" (as we were called +by rival firms) ahead of personal concerns. I ought to have immolated +myself in the western Mummyland with the consciousness of duty done, +while on the eastern side of the Nile, Anthony Fenton and Monny Gilder +and Biddy played the live, modern game of kidnapping a lady. But I +determined to do nothing of the sort. I gazed at the telegram with the +air of committing to heart instructions from my superior officer; and +without sign of inward tremour, announced that we would explore the +wonders of the west before visiting those nearer at hand. The weather +being cool and the wind not too high (I said), it would be well to +seize this opportunity for the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, an +expedition trying in heat or sand storms. To-morrow also would be +devoted to the west, and our third day would belong to Luxor and +Karnak. As a _bonne bouche_, I dangled the adventure of the Temple of +Mût, to sweeten the temper of grumblers: but there were no grumblers. +The Set listened calmly to my honeyed plausibilities; and the alarmed +stewards dared not betray their consternation at the lightning change. + +No doubt they thought me mad, or worse, because a day in western Thebes +meant a picnic: magical apparition at the right moment, in a convenient +tomb, of smiling Arabs and Nubian men with baskets of food and iced +drinks. + +Somehow the trick had to be managed, however; for I must be in eastern +Thebes, alias Luxor, on the day when the Bronsons' presence would +render our second attempt at rescue feasible. I had to interview the +chêf--a formidable person--hypnotizing him and the stewards to work my +will, and above all, I had to make sure of boats and donkeys for the +party at short notice. Only by a miracle could all go well; but I set +my heart upon that miracle. "Antoun," hurriedly taken into my +confidence, volunteered to arrange about the boats, and the donkeys for +the other side. Fortunately there was no rival ahead of us; and with +juggling of plans and jingle of silver, Anthony's part was done. Just +at the moment when, by dint of bribes and adjurations I had induced +chêf and stewards to smile, Fenton dashed on board to cry "Victory!" +Somehow, less than an hour later than we should have started, we got +off in two big boats with white sails and brown rowers. The canvas did +its work in silent, bulging dignity; but the rowers exhausted +themselves by breathlessly imploring Allah to grant them strength, and +shouting extra prayers to some sailor-saint whose name was calculated +to pump dry the strongest lungs. + +On the mystic western side, where once landed with pomp and pageant the +sun-boat of the gods, and the mourning boats of the dead, we scrambled +on shore with that ribald mirth which always made the Set feel it was +getting its money's worth of enjoyment. Many donkeys and a few +carriages awaited us: the whole equipment previously engaged for +to-morrow! and in opaline sunshine which stained with pale rose the Theban +hills and piled the shadows full of dark, dulled rubies, we started +across an emerald plain, kept ever verdant by Nile water. The touch of +comedy in the dream of beauty was the queer, mud-brick village of +Kurna, with its tomb dwellings of the poor, and immense mud vases +shaped like mushrooms, standing straight up on thick brown stems before +the crowded hovels. In each vase reposed sleeping babies, brooding +hens, dogs, rabbits, or any other live stock, mixed with such rubbish +as the family possessed: and the most ambitious mushrooms were +decorated with barbaric crenellations. + +Almost as far as the Temple of Seti I flowed the green wave like a lake +in the desert, but beyond, to join the Sahara, rolled and billowed a +waste of rose-pink sand, shot with topaz light, and walled with +fantastic rocks, yellow and crimson, streaked with purple. In the heart +of each shadow, fire burned like dying coals in a mass of rosy ashes: +and the light over all was luminous as light on southern seas at +moonrise and sunset. Before our eyes seemed to float a diaphanous veil +of gilded gauze; and white robes and red sashes of donkey-boys, +animals' bead necklaces, and blue or green scarfs on girls' hats, were +like magical flowers blowing over the gold of the desert. + +Everything blew: above all, sand blew. We found that out to our sorrow, +after we had seen the Temple of Kurna, with its noble columns, and its +fine fragment of roof, where squares of sky were let in like blocks of +lapis lazuli. I rushed here and there on donkey-back assuring people +that this was not _wind_ we felt: it was only a breeze. We could not +have a more favourable day for our excursion into this world of the +dead. Why, if we'd waited till to-morrow we might have met a _real_ +wind, perhaps even Khamsin, alias Simoom, the terror of the desert. To +make Miss Hassett-Bean and Cleopatra forget the smarting of their eyes, +I told them what a true-sand-storm was like, and how its names in +Arabic, Turkish, and Persian all came from the fiend "Samiel," who +destroyed caravans, just as "devil" came from the Persian "div." _Our_ +little breeze was from the east, which at Thebes in old days was +considered lucky. The west wind used to bear across the river evil +spirits disguised as sand-clouds. And these wicked ones had not far to +travel, because the Tuat, or Underworld, was a long narrow valley +parallel to Egypt, beginning on the west bank of the Nile. Red-haired +Set was ruler there, the god who had to be propitiated by having kings +named after him. But Rä, greater than he, could safely pass down the +dim river running through that world: could pass in his golden +sun-boat, guided by magic words of Thoth instead of oars or sails; and the +guardian hippopotamus (whom Greeks turned into the dog Cerberus) dared +not put out a paw. + +Mrs. East remembered that Thebes was Tape in "her day," at which Miss +Hassett-Bean snorted: and when out came that familiar story about +Cleopatra making red hair fashionable, Miss Hassett-Bean stared coldly +at the lady's auburn waves. "I wonder if the queen got the colour at +her hairdresser's, as people do now?" she murmured. "I've read that +they had beauty-doctors in those days, and used arsenic for their +complexion, and all sorts of mixtures. Besides, I can't imagine +anything natural about Cleopatra, except the asp wanting to bite her!" +Upon this, Mrs. East retaliated by calling her companion Miss Bean +without the Hassett. + +I shall always think of the Valley of the Tombs as a place of terror +and splendour, meant to be hidden from mortals by the spells of Thoth, +who circled the rock-houses of the dead with a zone of fire, as Wotan +hid Brunhilda, and decreed that they should be lost forever in the +blazing desert. Despite Thoth and his magic, men have burst through the +blazing belt and found in the gold-rose heart of the rocks, sacred +shrines the wise old god would have protected. They have found many but +not all: for in the breast of some one among Thoth's sleeping lions +which masquerade as rocks, may yet be discovered a tomb, better than +all those we know with their buried store of jewels, and their painted +walls like drapings of strange tapestry. + +We broke through the zone of fire, and it pursued us with burning smoke +of sand, pink as powdered rubies. Always it was beautiful and terrible +as we rode in the blowing pink mist: and still it was beautiful and +terrible, when half dazed we slipped off donkeys or slid out of +carriages, to enter the tombs which the desert had vainly striven to +hide. It was hot and breathless in those underground chambers, scooped +out of solid rock thousands of years ago, that great kings and their +queens and families and friends might rest with their kas in eternal +privacy. Enid Biddell waited until Harry Snell happened to be exactly +behind her, and then fainted, with dexterity beyond praise. Cleopatra, +however, was in her element. She felt at home, and did not turn one of +those auburn hairs scorned by "Miss Bean," at sight of the royal +mummies lit up by electricity in their coffins. These gave the rest of +us a shock, our nerves being already in the condition of Aladdin's on +his way down to the Cave of Jewels. When the guardian of the Tomb of +Amenhetep (the king had several other names, which annoyed Sir John +Biddell) darkened the painted, royal chamber of death, and suddenly lit +up several white, sleeping faces, the ghostly dusk was alive with +little gasps. There lay Amenhetep himself, in a disproportionately +large sarcophagus of rose-red granite from Suan; and in companion +coffins were a woman and a girl, all three brilliantly illuminated. +They had the look of the light hurting their poor eyes, and being +outraged because, against their will, they were treated as if they had +been paintings by old masters. + +The dreadful rumour ran that the woman was none other than the great +Queen Hatasu (never mind her more scientific names), her mummy never +having been found, or, at any rate, identified: and it was pitiful +seeing her so small and female, when in life she had wished to be +represented with a beard and the clothing of a man. Our dragoman, who +read English newspapers and whose idea of entertaining his crowd was to +make cheap jokes (just as his family doubtless manufactured cheap +scarabs), announced that Hatasu was the "first suffragette." But even +those who thought her downtrodden nephew, Thothmes III, justified in +erasing every trace of her existence wherever possible, did not smile +at this jest. In fact, having Antoun and me to refer to, the Set as a +whole sat upon the unfortunate dragoman, trying to talk him down in +tombs and temples, or ostentatiously reading Weigall, Maspero, Petrie, +Sladen, and Lorimer when he attempted to give them information. A few +with kinder intentions, however, interrupted his flow of historical +narrative by exclaiming, "Why, yes, of _course_!" "I thought so!" and +"Now I remember!" He revenged himself by advising everybody to buy +antiques from an extraordinary old gentleman, extremely like a +galvanized mummy. The antiques were extraordinary, too, so everybody +took the dragoman's advice, neglecting the other curiosity merchants of +the squatting row near the luncheon-tomb and the glorious three-tier +temple, in that vast copper cup of desert and cliff which is called Der +el-Bahari. The sale in mummied hawks, gilded rams' horns, broken tiles +with beetles flying out of the sun, boats of the gods, and gods +themselves, was brisk round this ancient gentleman, who advertised a +blue mummy-cap by wearing it on his bald pate, and seemed to possess as +many royal scarabs as a dressmaker has pins. Afterward I learned that +he was our dragoman's father; but I was loyal and did not tell. + +It was a wonderful day, all the more wonderful perhaps because it left +in the mind a colourful confusion; pictures of painted tombs hidden +deep under red rock and drifted sand, tombs which we should perhaps +never reach again through their guarding zone of fire--tombs of kings +and queens and nobles forgotten through thousands of centuries save by +their kas and has, their friends and servants, painted or sculptured on +the walls with the sole purpose of caring for or entertaining them +eternally. + +Already we had ceased to remember which was which. And back on the +boat, in the hour of sunset, when dazzling tinsel and pale pink +cloud-flowers sailed over a lake of clear green sky, the Set argued +whether the King with the Horses, or the Queen with the Retroussé Nose +was in this or that tomb. Sir John Biddell recalled the fact that Egyptian +horses had been celebrated, and that it was "as swell a thing to be a +charioteer then as it was now to be a Vanderbilt with a coach and +four." As for a retroussé nose, it didn't matter _where_ it was, on a +tomb-wall or on a girl's face. + +Monny thought differently. She and Biddy were glad that the sand and +rocks would still hide many secret treasures, while the world lasted. +It would be dreadful to think that everything was dug up, for tourists +to pry into, or to cart away to museums, and no mysteries left. As for +Mrs. East, she was doubtful whether to rejoice or grieve that +Cleopatra's mummy had not been found. If, however, it were like the +incised wall portrait at Denderah, it would be well that it should +share the fate of Alexander's body and remain lost forever. + +The next day gave us another trip to the west of the Nile: not again in +the burning desert, but only as far as the Ramesseum, and then to see +the Colossi, seated side by side on their green carpet of meadow, +looking out past the centuries toward eternity. + +We had a dance on board that night; and next morning it came out that +Rachel Guest, who had disappeared during a "turkey trot" and a "castle +walk," had got herself engaged to Bailey. I was not as pleased about +this event as was Enid Biddell, who now saw her "title clear" to Harry +Snell; for I had "bagged" Willis Bailey and Neill Sheridan for Sir +Marcus in order to gain Kudos for myself: but Biddy, appealed to, +consoled me by saying it served Bailey right if he were mercenary: and +that both men would have come in any case. + +The third day was to be the Great Day for us, the day big with fate for +Mabella Hânem; and the first thing that happened was a letter sent by +hand from the Bronsons at the Villa Sirius. They had arrived. The +fireworks could begin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE OPENING DOOR + + +Not half an hour after the first word from Bronson, came another +hurried note. An unexpected obstacle had cropped up. So confident had +he and Mrs. Bronson been of their friends' cooperation, that rather +than put such important matters on paper, they had waited to explain by +word of mouth. The owner of the villa was a rich Syrian with a +French-American wife. He was a Copt in religion, hating Mohammedanism in +general and the father of Rechid Bey in particular. This had seemed to +the American Consul a providential combination: but to his disgust he +found that there had been a reconciliation between the families. +Dimitrius Nekean would not betray the Bransons' confidence, but he +could not allow his roof to be used as a shelter for Rechid's runaway +wife--no, not even if Rechid had three other wives in his harem. + +Here was a situation! And as Monny remarked, in neat American slang, we +were "right up against it." She thought that, if Antoun and I "put our +heads together," maybe we could think of "some way out." So we did, +almost literally put our heads together across a table no bigger than a +handkerchief, in my cabin: and decided that the visit to Rechid Bey's +harem must be made by Brigit and Monny in the late afternoon. They must +time their departure from the house at about the hour when the Set +would arrive at the Temple of Mût. "Antoun" would be waiting for them, +and they would drive in a closed arabeah to the temple, where Mr. and +Mrs. Bronson would happen to be "sightseeing." If Mabella Hânem had +been rescued, she would then be put in charge of the American Consul, +whose very footprints created American soil around him as far as his +shoes could reach. Rechid would be unlikely to search at the Temple of +Mût, nor could he induce any Arab servant to accompany him there after +sundown. We would escort Mabel and her two protectors to the town, and +to the train for Cairo, Mr. Bronson promising to take the girl to +Alexandria, whence she could sail for "home." + +It was the best plan we could think of in the circumstances, and Monny +approved it, though her patience was tried by having to wait through +nearly all of another day. Mabel must have begun to believe that we had +ignored her prayer and meant to do nothing. I argued that the girl +would believe we were working for her in our own way. I said, too, that +if Rechid were spying, his suspicions would be disarmed by seeing us go +the ordinary round of tourists. Every one came to Luxor. We had come, +leisurely, by river, and were sightseeing every moment. Even Bedr, if +he were on the spot, intending to finish his revenge as neatly as it +had been begun, could have noticed nothing suspicious in our actions. +The mention of Bedr in this connection seemed to startle Biddy, and I +was sorry I had let his name slip. But, as I had said, every one came +to Luxor. Bedr had with apparent frankness explained that he was +travelling up the Nile by rail with his two clients: and if that were +true, he would arrive at all our destinations in advance of us. +Probably it would depend on "the clients" whether they lingered at +Luxor long enough for us to run across them again. + +"What are you afraid of," I asked Biddy when I had a chance with her +alone, "even if Bedr is a spy? Surely you kept your promise and left +that chamois-skin bag in a Cairo bank?" + +"It wasn't a promise," she reminded me. "I only said I'd think about +it. Well, I did think about it, and I couldn't put it in a bank. I told +you it was the sort of thing one _doesn't_ put in banks." + +"You didn't tell me what it was--I mean, what was in it besides money." + +"No, I couldn't." + +"Will you now?" + +"Oh, no!" + +"Well, then, will you give it to me to keep till we get back to Cairo?" + +"No, _indeed_! But Duffer dear, honestly and truly it isn't for myself +I'm afraid. You _know_ that, don't you?" + +"Of course. Yet if people are believing that Monny Gilder is Rachel +Guest, a poor little school teacher, then no one who heard the gossip +would bother to risk kidnapping her for ransom. And, also, there'll be +no further danger of those you fear mistaking her for--" + +"Oh, don't speak the name!" + +"I wasn't going to. I was merely about to use the word 'another.'" + +"Good Duffer! Yours is a consoling argument. Still, I never liked Bedr +or wanted him with us. And even now, there seems something mysterious +about Rachel thinking so much of him. As if there were a secret +arrangement between them, you know! I've never got over that, or +understood it a bit." + +"He flattered Miss Guest, perhaps. She loves flattery. But she's made +her market now, and all through Monny's charity. She couldn't want to +do her benefactress harm." + +"No-o, I suppose not. Unless it were to do herself good. Don't those +eyes of hers say to you that she'd sacrifice any one for herself?" + +"I've been thinking more about a different pair of eyes. And there were +such a lot of men crowding round Rachel's--for some reason or other." + +"_Now_ we know what the reason was--as she and Monny must have known +all along, since their joke together began. Oughtn't _you_ to tell Bill +Bailey the truth?" + +"No, my dear girl, I must draw the line somewhere! I've gone about at +people's beck and call, telling other people disagreeable truths, till +I'm a physical and mental wreck. Bill Bailey knows all about statues, +with and without glass eyes. Let him find out for himself about a mere +girl--" + +"With cat's eyes." Biddy snapped. + +If one triumph leads to another, Anthony could afford to be hopeful for +the ending of our stay at Luxor. He had not done as much sightseeing as +the rest of us, but when we had been asleep in our beds or berths, +dreaming of temples--or of each other--he had been out whispering and +listening, in places where his green turban opened doors and hearts. He +had traced the mysterious "trouble" to its source, and learned the +inner history of that regrettable incident which, like a dropped match, +had lit a fire hard to extinguish. A party of young men travelling with +a "bear leader" had laughed at some Arabs prostrating themselves to +pray, at that sacred moment, just after sunset, ordained by Mohammed +lest his people should appear to worship the orb itself. One of these +youths, fancying himself a mimic, had imitated the Moslems. They were +old men, unable to resent with violence what they thought an insult to +their religion; but they had told their sons, and the story had spread. +Later that night the joyous tourists with their near-sighted "bear +leader," had been attacked apparently without reason, on coming out of +a native café. Having forgotten the sunset prayer, they honestly +believed that they had been set upon by men to whom they had given no +provocation. They had uttered statements and complaints; and disgusted +with the "beastly natives" had pursued their journey up Nile, visiting +their grievances on the innocent, and making more mischief at each +stopping place. Murmured threats, with dark looks, insulting words and +jostlings of strangers by the inhabitants of Upper Nile villages, had +occasioned anxiety at the British Agency. It had proved impossible to +get at the truth, and the influence of the Young Nationalists had been +suggested. Our Hadji had now turned the green light of his sacred +turban upon obscurity, and those in power at Cairo would know how to +set about repairing damages. In spite of private anxieties, those which +I shared and others which I didn't share but suspected, I think Anthony +was happy on that third morning at Luxor. He must have been tired, for +much of his work had been night work, but he showed no fatigue. The +true soldier-look was in his eyes, the look I knew far better than the +new and strange expression which had said to me lately, "A woman has +come to be of importance in Anthony Fenton's life." + +We spent our morning and a good part of the afternoon at Karnak, +lunching irreverently but agreeably in the shade of fallen pillars +Cambyses or the great earthquake had thrown down. Neill Sheridan, who +had been to California, likened the ruddy columns of the Great Hall to +the giant redwoods. He was enjoying Karnak because there was +practically nothing "modern and Ptolemaic about it," but I thought how +quickly he would lose this calmness of the student if some one blurted +out a word about our plan for that evening. According to Monny, he had +been "taken" with poor Mabella Hânem on board the Laconia--admiring her +so frankly that Rechid had banished his bride to her cabin. If Sheridan +regretted her, as a man regrets a woman vainly loved, he had confided +in no one, not even Monny, who had risked seeming to seek his society +in order to reach the secret of his heart. He had, however, been graver +in manner than at first, so said the girl, who had been much with him +before my appearance on the scene. Whether it was intuition, or sheer +love of romance which inclined her to the opinion, she believed that +Sheridan was unhappy. It would make things worse for Mabel (if our +scheme failed) were Neill Sheridan mixed up in the plot; therefore, +even impulsive Monny admitted the wisdom of keeping him out of it. But +I could see by the way she looked at him--almost pityingly--when he +discoursed of lotus and papyrus columns, how she was saying to herself: +"You poor fellow, if only you _knew_!" + +The "thing" being to see the Temple of Luxor at sunset, we gave it the +afternoon, as if condescending to do it a favour. When I remembered how +I had meant to linger here week after week, I felt that I was paying a +big price for my share of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, making a +knock-about comedian of myself, rushing through halls of history +followed by a procession of tourists, as a comet tears past the best +worth seeing stars, obediently followed by its tail. Still, I had +Brigit and Monny as bright spots in the tail; and my old dreams of +Luxor had been empty of them. + +These ideas were in my mind, while on donkeys and in arabeahs we dashed +as if our lives depended on speed, from the Temple of Karnak to the +Temple of Luxor, along the dusty white road trimmed with sphinxes. This +description was Enid Biddell's, she being happy and therefore +frivolous. She rode with Harry Snell, as queens may have ridden along +that way, guarding a captive prince who had been subdued forever. + +Sunset illumined the world, as for a New Year's festival of Amen-Rã in +his ruby-studded boat of gold, when we were ready to leave the glorious +temple, and turn to the region of little bazaars and big hotels, fair +gardens, and girls with tennis rackets whose shape reminded our +Egypt-steeped minds of the key of life. Monny and Brigit had slipped away. +Their _real_ day was just beginning. + +My heart was with them; Anthony's, too, and his work permitted him to +conduct _his_ heart along the way that they must take, while I had to +conduct the Set to the Winter Palace Hotel, and give them tea on the +terrace. + +When everybody was rested and had had enough strawberry tarts, view and +flirtation, we were to make for the Temple of Mût: and, having returned +at last to the _Enchantress Isis_, were to steam away just as tourist +boats and dahabeahs were lighting up along the shore. We were to dine +late, after starting, and anchor in some dark solitude, so as to enjoy +a peaceful, dogless night on the Nile. But--what would have happened to +Brigit and Monny before the sounding of that dinner gong? + +What did happen at the beginning I must tell as best I can, because I +was not there, and can speak for myself only from the Temple of Mût. + +When they stole almost secretly away from Karnak, they took an arabeah +which was waiting and drove to the sugar-plantation of Rechid Bey. This +place of his is not prepared for a lengthy or luxurious residence; but +as I have said, there is a house. There is also a small gatehouse, in a +somewhat neglected condition; but a gatekeeper was there: the usual +stout negro. Monny and Biddy were quivering with fear lest they should +be refused admission, as at Asiut: but this time their coachman was +Ahmed Antoun, carefully disguised as a common driver of an arabeah, a +rather exaggeratedly common driver perhaps, for his face and turban +were not as clean as the face and turban of a self-respecting Moslem +ought to be. He had been helped to play this trick by one of the secret +friends he had made in some café or other, the cousin of an uncle of a +brother of him who should have sat on the box seat. But the motive he +had alleged was not the real one. The two beating hearts in the arabeah +had confidence in him. If the gatekeeper tried to send them away, +Antoun would bribe him, or threaten him with black magic, or say some +strange word which would be for them as an "Open Sesame." + +The fat creature at the gate had no French, but the driver of the +arabeah addressed him in Arabic, and translated his answers. Yes, the +great lady had come hither with her husband the Bey. Word should go to +her. It should be ascertained whether it was her pleasure to receive +these friends who had journeyed from a far country to pay her a visit. + +Monny and Brigit sat in the arabeah to wait, but they dared not talk to +the dirty-faced driver, lest some spy should be on the watch, where +every group of flowering plants might have ears and eyes. Even if the +big gatekeeper came back with an excuse, as seemed too probable, there +was hope from Antoun's diplomacy; but the chances were two to one +against success. Rechid Bey had almost certainly been put upon his +guard by the revengeful Bedr who had shown himself all grinning +friendliness to us. Rechid might have tired of playing dragon, as +Antoun prophesied; yet it would be strange if he had not given +instructions that no European ladies were to visit his wife. Mabella +Hânem had been snatched in haste from Asiut, but if she were still in +Luxor with her husband, she and her women in the harem would be guarded +by eunuchs, as in the more ambitious villa which Rechid called his +home. + +I suppose Anthony, slouching on the box seat in his unattractive +disguise, must have been as much astonished as Monny and Brigit when +the gatekeeper returned with another big negro to say that the ladies +would be welcomed by Mabella Hânem. The two girls were wildly +delighted. Fenton's emotions were mixed. He wanted to save the American +bride from the consequences of her tragic mistake, but he cared more +for his friends' safety than for hers. + +He knew that Monny and Brigit were brave, and that Monny had his +Browning, but the thought that she might need to use it could not have +made him comfortable on the box seat of his borrowed arabeah, outside +Rechid's gate. It was arranged that he should give Mabel's visitors one +hour, thus allowing for delays and emergencies; but if they did not +appear at the end of that time, he would dash off to tell the Luxor +police that two ladies were detained against their will in the house of +Rechid Bey. + +Once in charge of the chief eunuch, who had come to take them to the +harem, Brigit and Monny might almost as well have been deaf and dumb. +Brigit knew practically nothing of Arabic; and Monny, though she had +been vaguely studying since her arrival, had been too passionately +occupied with other things to give much time or attention to the +language of Egypt's invaders. Her blood was beating in her veins now, +and she could think of no words except "Imshi!" "Malish!" and +"Ma'salama!" These buzzed in her head, like persistent flies, as she +and Biddy followed their silent, white-robed and turbaned conductor +along a narrow pink path, toward a modern villa almost shrouded with +bougainvillia. And they were the last words she needed. She didn't want +to tell the ponderous negro to "get out." On the contrary, she wished +to be polite. So far from saying "no matter," everything mattered +intensely. And, unfortunately, it was not time yet to bid the creature +"farewell." + +Behind the white house with its crimson embroidery of flowers, rose a +thick growth of tall sugar-cane, the shimmering green pale as beryl, in +the dreaming light which precedes sunset. The dark red of the +bougainvillia looked like streaming blood against such a background. + +Though the villa appeared to be comparatively new, it was built +according to Turkish, not European ideas, as it might have been were +the owner a Copt instead of a Mohammedan. The building was in two +parts, entirely separating the _selamlik_ from the _haremlik_. The +latter was small and insignificant compared with the former, for this +was not a place prepared for family life: it was but a temporary +dwelling, where the master would more often come alone than with the +ladies of his harem. + +The eunuch opened a door leading into the women's building, and Brigit +and Monny entered the same secretive sort of vestibule they must have +remembered in the House of the Crocodile. A screen-wall prevented them +from seeing what was beyond; and the dead silence frightened them a +little, so easy was it to make of this place a trap. + +In the vestibule was a long, cheaply cushioned bench, the resting-place +of the women's custodian; and upon it lay spread open the eunuch's +well-used koran, which he had deserted to meet the visitors. Who had +given him the order to go, and why it had been given, the guests began +to ask themselves. + +Beyond the screen-wall they entered an anteroom. Through a big window-door +they could look into a small, grassy court that served as a +garden: and opening from the anteroom was a second room much larger, +which also gave upon the garden court. At the door of this, the eunuch +bowed himself away; but an involuntary glance which Monny threw at him +over her shoulder showed that he was grinning. The grin died quickly as +a white flash of heat-lightning fades from a black night-sky: but +though the heavy face composed itself respectfully, there remained a +disquieting twinkle in the full-lidded eyes. It struck Monny that the +negro was amusing himself at the expense of the visitors, because of +something he knew which they did not know. + +"We're not going to be allowed to see Mabel!" she thought, with a jump +of her pulses; and even when a negress, smiling invitingly, beckoned +her and Biddy into the large room whose three windows looked on the +garden, she still believed that they had been deceived. She did not, +however, speak out her conviction to Brigit. Nothing could be done yet. +They must wait and see what would happen. + +The room was furnished in abominable taste, with cheap Trench +furniture, upholstered with blue brocade that clashed hideously with +the scarlet carpet. There were several sofas and chairs stiffly +arranged round the walls; but no tables, save low maidahs of carved +wood inlaid with pearl, such as they had seen in Cairo bazaars and +hotels. The windows were closed, and the air heavy, as in a room seldom +used. The two seated themselves close together, on one of the ugly +sofas facing a door through which the beckoning negress had gone out. +There was no sound except the harsh ticking of a huge, bulbous clock, +all gilding and flowers, which stood in a corner. Monny's and Brigit's +eyes met, with a question. + +Who would open the door just closed? Would it be Mabel, or would Rechid +Bey stride in, to reproach or insult them? + +"_Are you sure it's loaded_?" Biddy whispered. + +No need for Monny to ask what she meant. + +"Sure," she answered. + +The handle of the door turned. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE DRIVER OF AN ARABEAH + + +"Thank God!" cried Biddy, as a slim figure in a loose white robe framed +itself in the doorway. + +With a sob, Mabel ran toward them, both hands held out, and in an +instant she was being hugged and kissed and cooed over. + +"You've found me--you've come!" she cried. "I never dared think you +would, when _he_ rushed me away from Asiut. He said he would keep me +here all the rest of my life, to punish me for complaining to you." + +"But how did he know?" Monny asked. "Did your sister-in-law tell him +about the letter?" + +"I don't think so, unless he has made her confess. It was like this: He +was coming to his place here on business. I felt so thankful. It seemed +providential he should be away then, just when you were starting up +Nile. I was almost happy that morning, when suddenly he appeared again +and I was ordered to put on a habberah and yashmak, and travel with +him. Yeena, the woman who acts as my maid, had to get ready in a hurry, +too. The chief eunuch, a hateful hypocritical wretch, followed. Some +clothes have been sent to me since, but not many. At first I couldn't +guess what had happened, and _he_ was in such a fiendish temper I +daren't ask questions. It wasn't till after we arrived that he +explained. I'm sure he took pleasure in hurting me. He said that he +left home early the morning he was going to Luxor, because he meant to +stop and make a business call on the way to the depot, otherwise he +wouldn't have been able to rush home and fetch me as he did, and still +be in time to catch his train after the warning. It was some dragoman +you employed in Cairo, he told me, who had seen us getting off the +_Laconia_, and who ran after his carriage in the street, in Asiut. The +wicked creature warned him that you were all there, and that he'd heard +you say something which sounded as if there were a plot to get at me. +Just at that minute, by the worst of luck, Mr. Sheridan passed. You +know how foolish and cruel _he_ was about Mr. Sheridan on the ship. +Well, he hadn't forgotten. So he turned round and almost snatched me +out of the house, rather than I should be left in Asiut with him away." + +"This is exactly what we thought must have happened!" exclaimed Monny. +"That beast, Bedr! And to think that Rachel and I wasted our time +trying to convert him! How I wish I hadn't let Aunt Clara engage him at +Alexandria! She thought he'd come from a man with her favourite name, +Antony: but she wouldn't have insisted if I hadn't encouraged her. I +feel as if this trouble were partly my fault. And if I hadn't been +thoughtless enough at Asiut to blurt out your husband's name--." + +"You're not to blame for anything, dearest," Biddy tried to comfort +her. "It was your unfailing resolve to help, which has brought us +here." + +"You're both my good angels," said Mabel, "Oh, it's heavenly to see +you. But I can't understand why I'm allowed to, after all the threats +and punishments. I'm afraid I shall be made to pay somehow. He loves to +torture me--and he knows how. I believe he hates me, now he's begun to +realize that I'd give anything to leave him, that I don't consider +myself his wife." + +"If he hates you, why isn't he willing to let you go?" Monny questioned +her. + +"Partly because he's very vain, and it would humiliate him. Partly +because he has no son yet, only that horrid little brown girl; and he's +set his heart on a boy who's to possess all the qualities and strength +of the West. No, he won't let me go!" + +"Well, you'll do it in spite of him then," said Monny eagerly. "That's +what we're here for. We shall take you with us. You must say to your +servants that we've invited you to drive, and you've accepted. There's +nothing in that to make them suspect. Lots of Turkish ladies go driving +and motoring with European women, in Cairo. And you can have that fat +black man sit on the box seat, with--with our coachman, if it would +make things easier, taking him to guard you. He can be hustled or +bribed or something, when the right time comes to get rid of him, never +fear. Oh, it's going to be a glorious adventure, and at the end of it +you'll be free! Nobody could blame you, as the man has another wife." + +Mabella Hânem shook her head. "You're splendid to plan this. But it's +too late. It was too late from the moment that dragoman warned--my +husband. Why you've been allowed to come into the house and talk with +me, I can't think, unless _he_ is watching and listening through a +hidden spyhole. There's sure to be _some_ secret reason in his head, +anyhow--a reason that's for _his_ good and not mine. And I shall not be +able to get out, if you do." + +"_If_ we do!" echoed Biddy, a catch in her voice. + +She glanced furtively at Monny. What had we all been dreaming of when +we let this beautiful girl run into danger? I know Biddy well enough to +be sure that her thought at that instant was for Monny Gilder, not +Brigit O'Brien. But the fear in her heart was vague, until the next +answer Mabel made--an answer that came almost with calmness; for +Mabella Hânem's whole being was concentrated upon herself, and her own +imbroglio. Everything else, everybody else--even these friends who were +risking much to help her--were secondary considerations. + +"I don't suppose real harm will come to you. I don't see how he'd +_dare_. And yet--there may be something on foot. Three men had come +to-day, one who might be a dragoman, and two Europeans. They came +together. I saw them. And I haven't seen them go away. They're in the +men's part of the house--the _selâmlik_. They must be with my husband. +Perhaps there's only some business about the sugarcane. But--" + +"Did you see the men distinctly?" Biddy asked, in a changed tone. + +"Yes, quite distinctly, for they glanced up at the window where I was +peeping out. Of course they couldn't see me, through the wooden lattice +and the bougainvillia, but I had a good look at them. The dragoman +seemed to have one blind eye. Oh! I hadn't thought of _that_ before! +Can it be the man who gave the warning?" + +"What were the Europeans like?" Biddy questioned, without answering. +"Were they wearing light tweed knickerbockers with big checks?" + +"No, they were in dark clothes, not very noticeable." + +"Had one a scar on his forehead?" + +"Why, yes, I believe he had!" + +The eyes of Brigit and Monny met: but there was none of that deadly +fear in the girl's, which Biddy was trying to keep out of hers. Even +now, it was hardly fear for herself. It was nearly all for Monny; but +Monny must not know, lest she should lose her nerve when it was needed +most. That idea of Brigit's, about Monny being mistaken for Esmé +O'Brien by members of the Organization O'Brien betrayed, had seemed +foolish and far fetched, although Esmé was hidden from her father's +enemies near Monaco, and it was at Monaco that Miss Gilder and Rachel +Guest and Mrs. East had joined Brigit on the _Laconia_. I had laughed +at the suggestion, and Biddy had been half-ashamed to make it. But now, +in this lonely house where she and the girl had been unexpectedly +welcomed, in this house where the master watched, entertaining three +strange men, the thought did not appear quite so foolish, quite so far +fetched. Indeed, Biddy marvelled why it had occurred to none of us that +one of the dangers to be run in rescuing Mabel might come through Bedr, +the same danger which had perhaps threatened in the House of the +Crocodile. + +Too late to think of this now! The fact remained that we had not +thought of it when there was time. Not even Biddy had felt certain that +there was a secret motive for taking the girls to the hasheesh den, or +that Bedr had been guilty of anything worse than indiscretion. His +warning to Rechid Bey we had put down to a petty desire for revenge, to +"pay us out" for his discharge. Though Biddy had never felt sure of his +new employers' German origin, and though she had had qualms at sight of +the party, following or arriving before us on our pilgrimage through +the desert and up the Nile, she had never associated their possible +designs with Rechid Bey's grudge against us. Yet how obvious that Bedr +should take advantage of it for his clients' sake, if those two men +were what she sometimes feared! Brigit had never spoken out to Monny +what was in her mind about Esmé O'Brien. She had known that Monny would +laugh, and perhaps say "What fun!" For the girl had invited Biddy to +Egypt "because she attracted adventures," and because Monny badly +needed a few, her life having been, up to the date of starting, a "kind +of fruit and flower piece in a neat frame." Now, perhaps Monny wouldn't +laugh; but it was not the time to speak of new dangers. + +"Well, if your husband thinks that creatures like Bedr and his Germans +are going to help him stop us from getting out, or taking you out, he's +wrong," said Monny, stoutly. "Bedr's the most sickening coward, as +Rachel Guest and I have reason to remember. But I'm glad we know what +we have to expect, aren't you, Biddy?" + +It was hard to answer, because the girl was in reality so far from +knowing what she might have to expect. Brigit tried to smile her reply, +as Monny began to tell Mabel something of their plan: about the friends +ready to rally round them, once they were in the carriage waiting +outside the gate; and about the motor coat and veiled hood which had +been brought for Mabel to put on, at a safe distance from the house. +"You'll have to start in your own things," the girl was saying, +"otherwise your servants would think it odd. Ring now, dear, for your +woman, and have her give you your habberah and yashmak." + +"There are no bells," said Mabella Hânem, with her soft air of +obstinate hopelessness. "When I want Yeena, if she isn't in the room, I +clap my hands as hard as I can. But I tell you, it is no use. It is too +late." As she spoke, throwing up her arms and letting them fall with a +gesture of helpless despair, both Brigit and Monny felt that Islam had +already raised a barrier between them and this delicate creature it had +taken into its keeping. In the white wool robe she wore--the kind of +loose dressing gown affected by Turkish women--she looked more like a +Circassian than an American girl. Always she had seemed to her would-be +rescuers a charming doll, a feminine thing of exactly the type which +would appeal to a Turk, weary of dark beauties: her hair was so very +golden, her eyes so very big and blue, her lashes so very black, her +mouth so very red and small: but now she had become an odalisque. +Mabel's friends realized that she would do nothing to save herself. +They must do all. + +Hesitating no longer, Monny struck her hands loudly together. Yeena did +not come. The girl clapped again, and yet again, till her palms +smarted, but nothing happened. + +"Yeena is in it--whatever they mean to do," said Mabel. "She's had her +orders." + +"Very well, then," Monny persisted, her eyes shining and her cheeks +carnation, "you must go without your wraps. Come along. Don't be +frightened. Isn't it better to risk something to get away than to stay +here alone when we're gone?" + +The pretty doll, with a little moan, gave herself up to her friends. +Brigit as well as Monny realized that the moment had come. They must +take her while she was in this mood. + +"Let me go ahead," said Monny, in a low, firm voice. "You know why." + +Brigit did know why. Monny had Anthony's Browning, and she alone +understood the use of it. Yes, she must lead the way; yet Brigit longed +to fling herself in front, to make of her body a shield for the tall +white girl she had never so loved and admired. Biddy put Mabel in front +of her, and behind Monny, keeping her between them with two cold but +determined little hands on the shrinking shoulders, and so pushing her +along, protected front and rear, in the piteous procession. + +Of course, if the door leading toward the house entrance had been +locked on the outside, there would have been the end of the endeavour, +for the moment: but it opened to Monny's hand, and all three went on +unchecked, until they came to the vestibule, where on the wall bench +they had seen the koran of the fat negro, awaiting his return. + +They had come tiptoeing, and had made no more sound than prowling +kittens, yet he sat there facing the door, no longer heavy lidded, a +black mountain of lazy flesh, but alert, beady eyed, as if he had been +counting the minutes. + +As they swept through the doorway, hoping to surprise him, the eunuch +jumped to his feet as lightly as a man of half his weight, and smiling +with pleasure in the excitement of an event to break monotony, he +blocked with his great bulk the aperture between wall and projecting +screen. + +No wonder they had not needed to lock doors, with this giant for a +jailer, and a big Sudanese knife conspicuously showing in a belt under +his open galabeah! Rechid had perhaps wanted the white mouse in his +trap to feel the thrill of hope, and then the shock of disappointment. +He had counted completely on the guardian of his harem, but--though he +had chosen an American wife, he had not counted on the courage of +another type of American girl. The knife looked terrible; but it was +sheathed and tucked into a belt. Anthony's Browning was in Monny's +hand, and hidden only under her serge coat. Out it came, with a warning +click of the trigger. And with an astonished, frightened gurgle in his +throat the negro involuntarily fell back. + +"Run!" Monny breathed, prisoning him where he stood, with the little +bright eye of the Browning cocked up at his face. She had to be obeyed +then, and they ran, the two of them, flashing past the black man, +touching his clothes as they squeezed by, yet he dared not put out a +detaining hand. When they were away--safe or not, she could not tell +--Monny still kept the pistol in position, but began slowly to turn, that +she too might pass the dragon, holding him at her mercy till the end. +Not a word of Arabic could she recall, but the Browning spoke for her, +a language understood without the trouble of learning, by all the sons +of Adam. + +When she had backed through the doorway, the girl still faced toward +the inner vestibule, and it was well she did so, for scarcely was she +out of his sight before the black giant was after her, taking the +chance that she would have turned to run. But there was the resolute +young face, with eyes defying his; and there was the weapon ready to +blow out such brains as he had, if the hand on the knife moved. Again +he fell back, and then Monny did run, making the best use she had ever +made of those long limbs which gave her the air of a young Diana. She +ran until she had caught up with the other two, flying toward the +distant gate; for something told her that the negro would have hurried +to tell his master of the trick the women had played--preferring the +lash on his back perhaps, to a bullet through his head. + +She was right, no doubt, to trust her instinct, for the eunuch did not +pursue, though his tale of failure was not needed. Rechid Bey had been +watching from a window of the selâmlik, as Mabel his wife had watched +when he received visitors. He did not wait for the negro's warning, but +dashed out of the house, followed and then passed by several long-robed +men in Arab dress. The faces of these were almost hidden by the loose +hoods which desert men pull over their heads in a high wind, but had +they been uncovered the women would not have seen them. The thing was +to escape, not to take note of the pursuers; and it was only Biddy, +looking over her shoulder for Monny, who even saw that they were +followed. She cried out to her friend to hurry, that some one was +coming, that they must get to the gate or all would be ended; then +feeling Mabel falter, she held her more tightly and ran the faster. + +Rechid and his companions were shouting, not to the women, but to the +gatekeeper; and as the master's furious voice rang out, just in front +of the fugitive (all three together now), appeared the big form of the +man at the gate. + +Monny did not know what to do; for in whichever direction she faced +with the Browning, she could be captured from the other. She might kill +the negro, and then turn to keep the pursuers back: but the thought of +killing a man sickened her. She had meant only to threaten, not to take +life. Suddenly she felt afraid of the Browning. She hesitated, in a +wild second of confusion, hating herself for failing her friends, yet +unable to decide or act: but hardly had the gatekeeper sprung in sight +than he went down, flat on his face, struck in the back of the neck by +the shabby fellow who had driven their carriage. "Go on!" the dirty-faced +Arab said in French. "There's some one else to drive you. I'll +follow. I'm armed." + +The three sped by him, as he stood aside to let them pass, showing to +Monny a pistol which matched the one he had lent her. This consoled the +girl in obeying; for as "Antoun" had trusted her courage in this +adventure, so did she trust his, and his strength and wit against four +men or four dozen men, if need were. + +There was the waiting arabeah, and there on the box was a much cleaner, +more self-respecting Arab to drive it than the soiled figure which had +left the horses and strayed into the garden. Afterwards they learned +that the new man was the "sister's cousin's uncle" of the Hadji's café +acquaintance. He had been engaged to stroll past in the road, stop, +speak, offer the gatekeeper a cigarette, drift into conversation, and +be ready to jump onto the box seat the instant Antoun left it. His +instructions included furious driving with the three ladies (once they +had bundled into the arabeah), to the Temple of Mût. + +Rechid Bey had every right, according to his own point of view, to +resent the kidnapping of his wife, and to get her back in any way he +could, even if blood had to be spilt. But his companions--they who were +muffled in the cloaks and hoods to save their faces from the sharp +wind--had perhaps not the same right or interest. In any case, when +they saw that the women had a man, or men, to help them, and that so +helped they had passed from the privacy of the garden to the publicity +of the road, the three fell back. Publicity, it may be, did not please +them: or else, thinking to have only women to deal with, they were not +armed and did not like the look of the pistol. Rechid, evidently no +coward, or past feeling fear in rage at the failure of his counterplot, +ran on, wheezing slightly--he was fat for his age--toward the erect +Arab and the prostrate negro. + +"Beast! devil!" he panted breathlessly, and cried out other words of +evil import in both Turkish and Arabic; threatening the silent man of +the pistol with death and things even worse. But before he had gone +far, the hooded men caught up with him, and surrounding, urged him +back. What they said, Anthony could not hear, or what he said in +return; but he thought they were proposing some plan which appealed to +Rechid's reason, for he showed signs of yielding. There was now no +longer anything to detain the protector of the ladies, for by this +time, he hoped and believed that their arabeah must be far on its way +toward the Temple of Mût, the meeting-place agreed upon. Accordingly, +he stepped over the unconscious gatekeeper, who lay with his nose in +the grass, and backed calmly out of the garden. Not far off, an arabeah +was crawling along the road, so slowly that one might have thought the +driver half asleep. But this supposition would have done him an +injustice. Dusk had fallen now, the purple dusk which drops like a +curtain just after the pageant of sunset is finished, yet the driver +was wide enough awake to pierce the purple with a pair of sharp eyes, +and recognize a figure expected. He whipped up his horse, and the dirty +Arab running to meet it, in a few seconds the latter was on the box +beside the coachman. Then the arabeah turned, and dashed wildly off +according to the custom of arabeahs, back in the direction whence it +had been crawling. + +The two dark-faced men in the vehicle talked rapidly in low voices, +speaking the language not only of the country but the _patois_ of Luxor +itself. "Your brother passed you in his arabeah?" + +"Yes, Hadji, he passed with the three European ladies you told me had +been in secret to visit their friend." + +Then Anthony knew that Brigit and Monny had been able already to carry +out their plan of wrapping Mabella Hânem in one of their own cloaks. +This was well, and would save gossip, if the occupants of the arabeah +were stared at by passers by. And at the temple also it would be well, +for if possible the Set were to know nothing, now or later, of the +adventure. But though Anthony was glad of the news he had got from this +Arab ordered to meet him at the gate, he did not settle down +comfortably and say to himself: "Thank goodness, the thing is over." +Those men back there in the garden would not so easily have persuaded +Rechid Bey to let his wife go unpursued, if they had not offered some +alternative plan that could be carried out quickly. + +Still, so far so good. Brigit and Monny had "won out," and secured the +prize, as Anthony had prophesied that they would do. They were on their +way to the temple, where I would be with the comfortable, commonplace +crowd from the _Enchantress Isis_, and where the American Consul and +his wife would just "happen" also to be wandering. Instead of driving +straight there himself, Anthony went with a friend to an obscure, +mud-built house in the village. When he came out of that house, his +brown-stained face was no longer disfigured with dirt. It was as +immaculate, as noble as the proudest Hadji's face should be, and above +it was wound the green turban. Ahmed Antoun Effendi's own dignified, +old-fashioned robes of the Egyptian gentleman flowed round his tall +figure, when once more he took his place in the waiting arabeah--this +time not on the box seat--and drove off at more furious speed than ever, +toward the Temple of Mût. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +BENGAL FIRE + + +The Temple of Mût I think must always be mysterious even by day. That +night it was more than mysterious. It was sinister. + +Darkness shut us in among the pillars and the black, lion-faced +statues. The least imaginative of my charges seemed to feel the +influence of the place. Not an Arab, not even the superior boat +dragoman, would come inside with us: because after the sun has set, +dethroned Sekhet comes into her own again. Strange stories are +whispered by Arabs, of the Temple of Mût, and of the ghostly, golden +dahabeah that, once a year, sails slowly by to a faint sound of music, +on the Sacred Lake. We had brought candles with us, protected by smoky +glass from the wind that swept down the avenue of broken Sphinxes +outside, and hissed like angry cats through the dark courts lined with +granite statues of the Cat-goddess. Yet despite the mystery, or because +of it, people seemed curiously happy. The spirit of the past, of Old +Egypt, touched them in the shadowy spaces of this ruined temple, +brushed them with its wings, and whispered half-heard words into their +ears. They talked to each other in low tones, as if not to miss the +whispers or the soft footfalls of unseen things; and they did not laugh +and make jokes, or ask silly questions, according to their irritating +custom. + +I blessed this mood, for my nerves were jangled (more than ever after +the Bronsons unobtrusively appeared) waiting for Brigit and Monny to +come, wondering if they would come, or what we should do if they +didn't; because suddenly in this place of gloom and eloquent silence +all the clever little plans Anthony and I had made, in case of +accident, seemed futile. How could we have let those two walk alone +into a trap? I blamed myself, I blamed Anthony; and sometimes I gave +the wrong answers to Mrs. East, who walked with me, trying to keep out +of the way of the crowd. + +She was anxious to talk of her niece, and to relate how she had been +singing my praises to Monny. "You mustn't be discouraged," she said. +"Never mind about the hieroglyphic letter. Oh, no, you needn't worry! I +haven't told her it was yours. Better let her think what she thought at +first. Did she _tell_ you what she thought? _Please_ answer me, Lord +Ernest! I don't mind your knowing--_now_--that I believed it was from +Antoun to me. Believing so, did no harm. Why should it, to me, or to +him? I soon guessed that there was a mistake somewhere--when he didn't +--didn't follow the letter up. I was not offended by the proposal as +Monny would have been--oh, not if she'd known it was _yours_, but if +she'd supposed Antoun was making love to her. Don't you see--you must +have seen, you're so quick and observant--that she's been caught by the +romance of him, just as she was afraid she might be by some thrilling +prince, when she came to Egypt. She's miserable. She's hating herself. +And you _won't_ save her though I've prepared her mind!" + +"So _that's_ what you meant when you hinted that I could spare her +humiliation!" I said, half in laughter, half in bitterness, suddenly +able to concentrate my mind upon the talk. "Do you think a man would +want a girl to take him for such a reason, when she's caring for some +one else?" + +"But, if it would be impossible for her to marry the some one else?" + +"Why should it be impossible?" + +"She would think it impossible." + +"Would she, if--" I checked myself, but Mrs. East understood instantly. +"If he has a secret," she said, "then none of us has a right to suggest +it to her. Every man for himself, Lord Ernest, in _love_! Antoun +Effendi has no reason too feel too kindly to Monny. You'll be robbing +your friend of _nothing_, if you speak to her. If he's in _love_ with +any one, it isn't my niece." + +"At least it's not _you_. Perhaps it's Biddy after all!" my thoughts +interpolated. + +"To care for Monny would be beneath his dignity, considering all that's +passed. And you can make _her_ happy, as well as yourself, by taking my +advice," Mrs. East went on. "Aren't you going to be sensible?" + +Just then came a murmur expressing surprise or some other new emotion, +from one of the outer courts where the crowd wandered, Cleopatra having +lured me--yes, "lured" _is_ the word--into the sanctuary itself. + +"Something has happened!" I said. "Let's go back, and see what it is." + +"Perhaps Antoun has come!" Mrs. East caught me up eagerly. "He was +coming, wasn't he, when he'd finished his business? Or maybe it's only +Monny and Brigit." + +"_Only_ Monny and Brigit!" + +In the hope of seeing Antoun, Cleopatra turned her back upon the dreary +sanctuary not unwillingly, even though the burning question was left +unanswered. I hurried her through the dark passages which lay between +us and the courts, lighting our way with a glassed-in candle; and it +was all I could do not to cry out aloud "Thank heaven!" or "Hurrah!" or +something else that would have opened people's eyes, when I saw that +indeed, Brigit and Monny had arrived. It was Rachel Guest and Willis +Bailey who had hailed them from afar, as candlelights flashed across +their faces; and suddenly to my eyes the gloomy temple seemed to be +brilliantly illuminated. I don't know exactly how I contrived to leave +Cleopatra, and get to the newcomers; but I did get to them in less than +a minute. Perhaps I was a little rude to Mrs. East. I wasn't thinking +of that at the time, however, nor of her. + +I separated the two I wanted from the others. Their faces radiated +excitement, but I was not sure if it meant success. I was sure only +that they had been through an ordeal and were feeling the reaction. + +"You're safe!" I said, and shook hands with them feverishly. Then I +shook hands all over again. + +"Safe, yes," Monny answered. "And Mabel--why don't you ask about her? +Oh, Lord Ernest, we've done it--we've done it--thanks to Antoun +Effendi! We should have failed at the last if it hadn't been for him. +Just look over there, at the Bronsons, and see if you can guess who it +is they're talking to?" + +I looked and saw tall, thin Mr. Bronson, and short, plump Mrs. Bronson +trying to form a hollow square around a little figure in a long gray +coat of Biddy's, and a hood with a veil I remembered her wearing the +day we motored to Heliopolis. It seemed about a hundred years ago. I +had conducted so much and so violently since; but I was not too old to +remember Biddy's hood. What if Neill Sheridan, poking about alone with +a candle, could see through that veil? + +"Triumph!" I exclaimed. "You're heroines!" (I didn't know then how true +were my own words.) "Was it a great adventure?" + +"_Was it_, Biddy?" the girl asked, half shyly of her friend. + +"So great that I can't talk about it," Brigit answered, and her eyes +implored mine not to ask questions. Also they said that she had things +to tell me--not now but by and by. Things for me alone. Biddy's eyes +could be wonderful. + +"Where's Antoun Effendi?" Monny broke in, when I had taken Brigit's +hint, and was beginning to say that we must go and speak to the +Bronsons. + +"He hasn't come yet," I answered; and then her eyes, too, began to +implore. + +"Not come yet? But--it's a long time. We found Mr. and Mrs. Bronson +outside, hoping for us to arrive, and we talked to them and introduced +Mabel, and explained things. They would have liked to go and take her +away quickly, but Biddy and I begged them not to. We said it would be +better to wait for the rest, and all the crowd to be together in case +of--trouble. Oh, we discussed everything, for ages--minutes and +minutes. I do think Antoun Effendi ought to be here, unless--" + +I caught her up quickly. "Unless?" + +"Well, you see, we left him inside Rechid's gate, where he'd just +knocked down a big negro, and was keeping back Rechid and _lots_ of +other men--anyhow three--with a pistol--not the one he lent me. He told +us to go, so we went." + +He told them to go--so they went! A change, this, for the Gilded Rose. +She spoke at the moment like an obedient little girl. + +"If he told you to go--it was all right, you may be sure," I said +encouragingly. But despite my faith in Anthony as a fighting man, I +felt--well, somewhat dismayed at the picture called up. "Rechid and +anyhow three men!" It was rather a large order. If with a wish I could +have sent every member of the Set back to their peaceful homes in +England and America, and thus rid myself of them in a second, they +would all have found themselves walking in at their respective front +doors. + +I wished this wish, but having a mere smoking candle in my hand, and +not Aladdin's lamp, it didn't work. There they inconveniently remained +in the Temple of Mût, looking twice as large as life. + +"What if I tell them they've seen everything?" I muttered. "They +haven't, but that's a detail. If I could rush 'em all back to the boat +--and you with them, of course, and get Mabella Hânem and the Bronsons +off safely, I could go look for Anth--for Antoun. Of course we were to +wait for him, but I don't like the picture you've painted--" + +"Oh, _do_ look for him!" broke in Monny. "Leave us to take care of +ourselves. I'm sure we can. There are enough of us. And Mr. Bronson is +a _Consul_. Go and get the police." + +"I can't leave you," I said. "Antoun would be the last one to forgive +me if I did that. But I'll start off the party, now. The arabeahs and +donkeys are waiting. Listen to the stentorian voice of the Conductor, +announcing--" + +I tried to speak gayly; but the announcement, which I opened my mouth +to roar through the temple, was never made. There came instead, at that +instant, a rival roar from outside. Mine would have been the roar of a +sucking dove. This other was a wild bull roar of rage. What it was for, +who was making it, and whether it concerned us, we did not know; but it +was the sound of many voices, and flowing to us on the wind, driving +nearer out of distance, it was startling and caused the heart to miss a +beat. + +Suddenly the thought sprang into my mind that this was like something +in a theatre. We were on the stage, in a play of Ancient Egypt, and a +mob of supers was yelling for our lives in the wings. They would pour +out upon the stage and attack us. Only the hero and heroine would be +saved. All the villains and other unnecessary people would be polished +off. + +Everybody had stopped talking. Involuntarily groups drew together. We +looked over our smoking candles, past the standing statues and the +fallen statues, away toward the columns of the temple entrance. + +Mr. and Mrs. Bronson, and the girl in Biddy's veiled hood and cloak, +walked across the court and joined our party of three. Neill Sheridan +was at a distance. His prophetic soul told him nothing. "I hope that +fellow Rechid Bey hasn't worked up any trouble against us," the +American Consul from Asiut said in a low, somewhat worried tone. + +Instantly I was certain that what he hoped had not happened, was indeed +the thing that had happened. I seemed to see Rechid stirring up a crowd +of his fellow Mussulmans, telling them that dogs of Christians had +robbed him of his foreign wife, who was on the point of accepting +Islam. Nothing easier than for Rechid to find us. All Luxor knew we +were in the Temple of Mût. These men of Luxor and other Nile towns of +Upper Egypt, had not yet settled down after the outburst against +Christian insults which had alarmed the authorities in Cairo. In three +days Anthony Fenton had discovered the dregs at the bottom of the +teapot and had doubtless done something toward calming the tempest in +it, but the troubled water had not time to cool. It could easily be +brought to the boil again; and the despoiling of a harem by Europeans +--the harem of an important man--would be oil thrown onto the dying fire +under the tempestuous teapot. + +The furious voices grew louder. From the wave of sound words spattered +out and up like spray. Perhaps in all that astonished crowd gathered in +the Temple of Mût, Bronson and I were the only ones who knew enough +Arabic to catch their meaning. His question was answered. And this was +not a stage. Those shouting men were not supers in the wings. They were +in earnest. Foolish and dreamlike and utterly unreal as it seemed, +their hearts were hot with savage anger against men and women of an +alien race: and though what they might do to us would be visited on +their own heads to-morrow, they were not thinking of to-morrow now. As +for us--it was just possible that owing to this silly dream we were +having about a mob of common, uneducated Arabs, for some of us there +might not be any to-morrow. + +"Is there a back door where we can dash out and give them the slip?" +asked Bronson. + +I was thinking hard. Mine was the responsibility for my charges, these +rich, comfortable tourists from London and New York, Birmingham and +Manchester, Chicago and St Louis. None of them knew yet that they were +in danger. They were thinking about their dinner, and their pleasant, +lighted cabins on board the _Enchantress Isis_, waiting for them not +far away. They realized that something was the matter out there, that a +lot of Arabs were making a row; but it interested and amused them +impersonally. If somebody had robbed or murdered somebody else, morally +it was a pity, of course: but it added to the picturesqueness of the +scene, and would be nice to tell about at home. I felt myself +overflowing with a sudden, new tenderness for the Set, so often +troublesome. This that was going to happen--unless we could stop it +--was in truth the affair of Monny and Brigit, Mabella Hânem and the +Bronsons, Anthony Fenton and me; but all would be involved, the +innocent with the guilty, unless very quickly the duffer of the company +could think of some way out. + +"No," I heard myself say with decision, "we mustn't leave the temple. +They're superstitious about it. Few, if any, will venture in. What they +want is to lure us into the open. And there must be no panic. Certainly +my friend, unless he's been hurt, is working for us--somewhere. It's +only a question of minutes. He borrowed my Browning to-day. I wish--" I +glanced toward Brigit and Monny. They stood at a little distance, with +Mrs. Bronson and Mabel, but the faces of both were turned toward us. I +saw that they guessed the meaning of the uproar outside. Biddy's great +soft eyes spoke to mine, spoke, and told me all the truth about myself. +How I loved her, Biddy O'Brien, and no one else on earth! How I would +die for her, and let all the rest die, if need be, yes, even Monny +Gilder, to whom I had been idiot enough to write that letter! If I +could save Biddy, what did anything beside matter? But--yes, it did +matter. I must save them all. And the light that had lit up my dim soul +gave me inspiration. Because I loved Biddy, I knew what to do. + +"I've got a little surprise for every one!" I yelled, to be heard over +the noise outside, where Rechid Bey's mob was now probably trying to +make our donkey-boys and arabeah-men join in the fight or the siege. +"Mr. Neill Sheridan will kindly lead the whole party to the sanctuary, +which his knowledge of architecture will enable him to find, on the +axis of the temple. Down that passage, please! In fifteen minutes the +surprise will be ready, and you will receive the signal to return, from +Mr. Bronson, American Consul at Asiut--no time for introductions now." + +Sheridan, amazed, but perhaps not displeased, emerged from the dark +corner where, until the row began, he had been examining a half-erased +wall-carving. "Come along, then, everybody!" he shouted good-naturedly; +and as the procession formed--discussing the "surprise" and the noise, +now mysteriously linked together in the minds of my charges--I saw the +veiled and hooded Mabel shyly try to pull Mrs. Bronson into place with +her, as near as possible to Sheridan. She must have suspected that +there was trouble brewing, and guessed the cause. Her timid, +self-centred little soul instinctively sought shelter in the neighbourhood +of a friend, who would perhaps have been more than a friend, if he +could. So she followed him, he not knowing what eyes the gray veil hid: +but Mrs. Bronson broke away from the small hand and hurried back to her +husband. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +"Go with the others," he said, quietly. "Take care of the girl. Lord +Ernest has some plan." + +She went reluctantly; but Brigit and Monny and Mrs. East lingered at +the tail of the procession, returning to us as the others vanished down +the passage that led toward the sanctuary. I motioned them away, but +Monny ran forward, while Biddy kept Cleopatra from following. They +talked together and argued, Biddy's arm round the taller woman's waist, +as Monny came straight to me, and put into my hand Anthony Fenton's +pistol. + +"I didn't have to use it," she said. "It's all loaded and ready. And +I'm going to stay here with you and Mr. Bronson, to help. What are you +planning to do?" + +"Please run away," I said, "and take Biddy and your aunt. You must. +That's the only help we want--" + +"Not till you tell me what you mean to do." + +"Oh, only to try a trick to frighten those Arab sheep out there. They +funk this temple at night anyhow. And I've just remembered that I +brought some Bengal fire to light the place up and amuse the crowd. I +thought if a red blaze suddenly burst out it would give those fellows a +scare--and the police are on the way--" + +"But the Arabs will see that you're only two!" + +"They shan't see us at all. We'll hide behind those statues and pot at +them if they do come in, which I doubt. Now, off with the three of +you!" And I was getting my illumination ready. + +To my surprise and relief, Monny obeyed without further argument. Dimly +it passed through my mind that she had been profiting by her lessons +lately. I threw one glance over my shoulder, more, I'm afraid, to see +whether my dear Brigit were on her way to safety than through anxiety +for Miss Gilder. The three figures had already disappeared in the +darkness, and Bronson and I gave ourselves to the work of lighting up. + +An ocean-roar of voices surged round the temple entrance now; but the +red light flamed like the fires of hell, and I, peeping from behind a +statue, revolver in hand, saw that the temple itself had not been +invaded. The flare lit the foreground of the darkness outside, and the +columns of the front court. I could see a moving throng of white and +black clad figures, gesticulating, running to and fro, seeming to urge +each other to some action, yet none coming forward. I sprinkled on more +powder, and up blazed the Bengal fire again. Now somebody was taking +the lead. A tall man was pushing through the crowd. Would they follow +this brave one? My fingers closed round the Browning. He was between +the columns at last, but the light was dying down. I threw on all I had +of the powder, and stared through the red dazzle to make certain what +was happening--since this might decide our fate. The tall man's back +was turned to us. He seemed to be motioning the crowd away instead of +urging them on. How to make sure, in the blood-coloured glare, whether +a man's turban was white or green or crimson? But that gesture--that +lift of the head! No mistaking that. The man was Antoun--Ahmed Antoun, +the worshipful Hadji, haranguing the mob. + +Hardly would they let him speak at first. Those on the outskirts tried +to yell him down. I heard the word "traitor!" and before the light +ebbed I thought I caught sight of Rechid's pale face under the red +tarboosh, Rechid's broad shoulders in European coat, edging past +jebbahs and galabeahs, toward the columns. Then, just as the light +died, from behind us in the temple came a cry. Above the shouting of +the Hadji, who was beginning to make himself heard by the crowd, it +rang out shrill and clear--a woman's voice: Monny Gilder's. She called +on the name of Antoun, and then was silent. + +I lifted my candle-lantern--all that was left to illumine the darkness, +and saw at the far end of the court shadowy figures struggling +together. It seemed to me that there were not two, but four or five. I +ran toward them, and Bronson ran, but some one bounded past us both--a +tall man in a green turban. A shot was fired after him, and hit a +statue. I heard subconsciously a miniature crash of chipped granite, +but I don't think Anthony heard, or had heard anything since that call +for "Antoun!" + +He had dashed ahead, though we had had the start and were running fast. +Rounding a group of statues, erect and fallen, I saw a candle-lantern +on the floor, and knew that Monny--and perhaps Biddy--had not +obediently followed the procession to the sanctuary, after all. They +had waited to watch and listen, hiding behind the black statues of +Sekhet, and men who had crept in by another way--doubtless by the small +Ptolemaic gate opening on the lake--had taken them by surprise. + +Anthony had got to the shadowy mass, which, moved like black, wind-blown +clouds, vague and shapeless, before Bronson and I were near +enough to distinguish one form from another. As for our eyes, his tall +figure blended with the waving shadows; two revolver shots exploded +with thunderous reverberations. We did not know if he, or another, had +fired; but almost simultaneously with the second shot two black shapes +separated themselves from the rest, fleeing into darkness. They took +the way by which they must have come, the way leading toward the gate +on the lake. + +Three seconds later we were on the spot; and the only shadows left +resolved themselves under my candle light into the forms of Brigit +O'Neill, Monny Gilder, Anthony Fenton, and Mrs. East somewhat in the +background. + +Monny's hat was off, and Biddy's was apparently hanging by a hatpin. +Their hair was in disorder, a rope of Biddy's falling over one +shoulder, a shining braid of Monny's hanging down her back. Monny +seemed to be more or less in the arms of Antoun, but only vaguely and +by accident. Dimly I gathered that she had stumbled, and he had saved +her from falling. Biddy was fastening up the front of her gray chiffon +blouse, which was open, and torn. Her hands trembled and I could see +that her breast rose and fell convulsively; for, though the light was +dim, I was looking at her, while I merely glanced at the others. Mrs. +East was crying. But Brigit and Monny had smiles for Bronson and me as +we came blundering along, stumbling over unseen obstacles. + +"Some one stole up behind with an electric torch, and tried to drag me +away," said Monny, in a weak little voice, scarcely at all like her +own. It sounded as if a ventriloquist were imitating her. "Some one +called me Esmé O'Brien--whispered right in my ear. And I screamed, and +fought, and Antoun came. I think then the man pushed me down as he ran +away. Anyhow I fell, and Antoun picked me up. Oh, Biddy, are you safe? +Why, your dress is torn!" + +"Yes, but I'm safe," answered another small, weak voice. "I fought, +too. I--I think they wanted to rob me. Thank goodness, I didn't have it +on." + +"The bag, dearest?" + +"Yes, darling, the bag. I thought I wouldn't wear it to-day." + +Out in the night the yells had subsided since the Hadji's harangue, if +not wholly because of it. + +"The police have come," said Anthony. "It occurred to me that Rechid +and some friends of his were cooking up a plan, and while I was getting +into my clothes in the village it jumped into my head what it might be. +So on my way out to the temple I stopped and left a warning. We're all +right now. And I don't think the Arab lot would have dared venture in +anyhow. These chaps who sneaked in at the back and attacked the ladies +were dressed like the rest, but I doubt they were Arabs." + +He would have doubted still more, if he had known all that I knew. But +the one secret I'd kept from him was Biddy's secret. The words "Esmé +O'Brien" whispered to Monny, as yet meant nothing save bewilderment to +Fenton. + +"The fifteen minutes are up, and no signal yet for your famous +surprise," called out Sir John Biddell's complaining voice, from the +end of a dark passage. "Has anything gone wrong?" + +"Oh, I was going to give you a Bengal fire illumination of the temple, +for a climax," I explained, coming suavely forward to meet him with my +candle. "But the beastly stuff--er--sort of went off by itself, and +it's all used up. I was--er--just going to call you." + +"Well, not much harm done," said Sir John. "We've seen the sanctuary, +such as it is. A little disappointing, perhaps, especially as Mr. +Sheridan found a friend with Mrs. Bronson, the Consul's wife, and +preferred talking with her to giving out information to us, from his +stores of knowledge. But luckily not more than twenty minutes wasted. +By the way, what's become of the row outside? Seems to have fizzled +down while we were away, like your red fire." + +"Yes, a great man of some sort was addressing the crowd. But the police +came along and made it move on. There's been a bit of native grumbling +in these Nile towns lately--you may have read some paragraph about it +in the Cairo papers? So the police are rather quick to break up +meetings." + +"Why should men meet near the Temple of Mût?" inquired Sir John. "_I_ +shouldn't think of doing it." + +"Perhaps in the beginning they hoped to get something out of the +Europeans," said I lightly. "But they've given that up, evidently." + +"I hope they haven't seduced our donkey-boys and arabeah drivers!" +exclaimed Sir John. "I'm hungry. And I'm in a hurry to get home." + +"Not they. Donkey-boys and arabeah-men aren't easily seduced when +there's a question of baksheesh. _They're_ all right! I'm only sorry +about the Bengal fire." + +"Well, it was a good idea, anyhow," Sir John patronized me. + +"_C'est vrai_," I heard murmur in his chosen language, the Hadji, who +had saved the situation. "_C'etait une idée très bien pour +un_--duffer." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +PLAYING HEAVY FATHER TO RACHEL + + +Never had the _Enchantress Isis_ looked so enchanting to my eyes as she +looked that night. I felt, as the Set trooped on board, like an anxious +hen-mother who, contrary to her fears, has safely returned a brood of +ducklings to the home chicken-coop after a swim out to sea. I valued +each duckling, even the least downy, far more than I had dreamed it +would be possible. But there was one duckling valued so much more than +all the rest (how much more I had realized only when, cackling on the +bank, I saw it on the wave)--that knowing it was safe made me +hysterical with joy. I could have kissed its napkin when it slid off +its lap and I picked it up--the napkin, not the duck--at dinner. The +drawback was that I had not saved it, as Anthony had saved Monny. It +had no reason to be grateful to me, or care more than it had always +cared, for a friend. And still another drawback presented itself when +the confusion of dressing in haste and dining, as the _Enchantress +Isis_ steamed out of Luxor, gave me time to think. The duckling was not +my duckling: and considering that it had calmly laid plans for me to +capture an heiress, considering also that it had not yet abandoned +these plans, I saw little reason to hope that, now I had come to a few +--just a few--of my senses--it would ever take the idea seriously, of +becoming mine. + +To abandon once and forever the duckling simile, the first thing I did +on board the boat, after recovering from the excitement of seeing Mabel +off by train with the Bronsons, was to wonder how I could make up for +all this hideous waste of time when I might have been making love to +Biddy. But there was no chance to say anything personal to her that +night. I had to hear--and wanted to hear--the story of all that had +happened from the moment she and Monny entered Rechid Bey's gate, to +the moment they came out. Then there was Antoun's story to follow; and +after that we had to compare notes: how everybody had felt, what +everybody had thought, what everybody had done. This subject was +inexhaustible, and kept cropping up in the midst of others; but that of +Mabella Hânem, her escape from bondage and from "conversion" to Islam, +and what revenge Rechid was likely to take, was almost as engrossing. + +When at last, late that evening, I managed to get Biddy alone for a +moment, she could no more be induced to talk of herself than if she had +been a ghost without visible existence, a mere voice, to speak of +others, Monny by preference. What a heroine Monny had been from first +to last! And what did I think _now_ about the foolishness of that +theory--the theory that Bedr was a spy, and had led his employers to +believe that "Mrs. Jones" was travelling with her stepdaughter +concealed under an impeccably important _nom de guerre_? + +What I thought was, that we must get hold of Miss Rachel Guest, and +question her as to her whole acquaintance with the Armenian learning +how, by all that was incredible, the double mystery of mixed names had +originated. "Monny knows only that Rachel was supposed to be the +heiress, testing her personal attractions by pretending to be the poor +school teacher," said Brigit. "The child's been wildly enjoying the +situation, for she was tired of young men. Rachel wasn't! And Rachel's +been profiting by it--far more wickedly. As for Esmé, I'm sure no +thought of her name coming into this business, ever entered Monny's +head. We must try to find out what Bedr said to Rachel at the +beginning, as you advise, Duffer--and all about it. After what I told +you that I heard from Esmé about an exciting love romance, any mistake +of _this_ sort might be particularly dangerous. The Organization might +think it had more right than ever to be bitter against us. And now, I +don't mind your confiding in your friend Captain Fenton. I think I'd +like him to know my story." + +What Biddy had told me about Esmé was, that the girl had confessed, in +a letter, having been made love to (during a summer holiday in the +mountains with friends) by the son of a man her father had deeply +injured. The accidental meeting had been a real romance: the girl and +the young man thought that no one, save themselves, shared their +secret. But who could tell, when Fate itself stood between them with a +drawn sword? The love of Romeo for Juliet was a safe and simple affair +compared with the merest flirtation between the daughter of Richard +O'Brien and the son of John Halloran, whom O'Brien's testimony had sent +to prison for life. + +Sometimes I thought, as the days went on, that Biddy guessed--not my +change of heart, but my new understanding of it: and that she wanted +quietly and gently to show me, according to Bill Bailey's pet +expression, there was "nothing doing." Her expressed wish that Fenton +should hear her story, looked to my suddenly suspicious mind as if his +strong personality and his extremely picturesque position had made an +appeal to the romance in her, as it had in the case of Mrs. East and +perhaps Monny Gilder. Always interested in "Mrs. Jones," from first +sight, when he had laughingly said that the "little sprite of a woman" +would be almost too alluring if surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery +and intrigue, Anthony was now frankly preoccupied with her affairs. He +was not even annoyed that, unaided by me, her quick mind had grasped +the secret of his identity. "It was like her to spring on to it by +instinct," he said, smiling that thoughtful smile of his, which was +more than ever effective in his Arab get up. "And like her not to give +anybody else a hint, except you, of course--though she must have been +tempted sometimes. I suppose"--and he looked up quickly--"she _hasn't_ +given any one else a hint?" + +"I'd swear she hasn't." + +"Miss Gilder--you're sure she hasn't the slightest suspicion?" + +"As sure as a man can be of anything about a woman." + +"You aren't trying to evade the question, Duffer?" + +"On my word, I'm not. I feel morally certain Miss Gilder labours under +the impression that you're as brown as you're painted. That somehow or +other you can't be Moslem because she's seen you without a turban, and +you've got the hair of a Christian. Maybe she thinks you're a Copt. I +heard her learnedly arguing the other day that the Copts are the only +_real_ Egyptians. She has the air of studying you, sometimes: but with +all her study, she sees you only as an Egyptian of high birth and +attainments, with a few drops of European blood in your veins, perhaps +just enough to make things aggravating, and a vague right to a princely +position if you chose to overlook something or other, and claim it. +There you have her conception of you, in a nutshell." + +There would still have been room in that nutshell for Cleopatra's ideas +concerning her niece's feelings. But if she were right, it was +Anthony's business to discover those feelings for himself, provided he +cared to do so. And of this I was not sure. There was the doubt that it +might be Biddy, even though he appeared to attach some unexplained +importance to Miss Gilder's continued ignorance about himself. + +The day after leaving Luxor, there was no time for the heart to heart +talk I planned with Rachel Guest. Each hour, each minute almost, was +taken up with my duties as Conductor, which I was obliged to regard +seriously, whether I liked them or not. If I did not, the Set growled, +snapped or clamoured; which gave me even more trouble than doing my +duty. + +For some reason best known to herself (but suspected by me) Mrs. East +kept to her suite, nursing a grievance and the Siberian lap-dog from +Asiut. This saved me a certain amount of brain strain, for among other +places of interest we had to pass near was ancient Hermonthis, where in +her Cleopatra incarnation she had built a temple with a portrait of +herself adoring the patron Bull of the city. If she had known how easy +it would be to visit the ruins, she would have been capable of desiring +the boat to stop, or telegraphing complaints to Sir Marcus if it +hadn't. + +The two excitements of the day were passing through a huge lock (with +sides like those of a canyon, and scarlet doors such as might adorn the +house of an ogre) in which we nearly stuck, and were saved by Antoun +seizing the pole from the inferior hands of a Nubian boatman; also a +visit to Esneh, a very Coptic town, starred with convents built by the +ever-present Saint Helena, sacred once to the Latos fish, now sacred to +gorgeous baskets of every size and colour, also somewhat over-beaded, +and over-scarabed. A ruined quay jutted into the wine-brown water, +where Roman inscriptions could have been spied out, if any one had had +eyes to spare from the basket sellers, the sellers of grape-fruit, and +all the other shouting merchants who flocked to head us off on our way +to the temple, despite a flurry of rain that freckled the deep sand of +the landing hill. But nobody did have eyes for anything Roman, now that +Cleopatra sulked in her throne-room, and our only archeologist was as +absent-minded as if he had been his own astral body. He had seen the +wisdom of "sticking to the trip," and not turning back by train with +the Bronsons and Somebody Else, as he may have yearned to do (if Monny +were right): but History had suddenly become as dry husks to Sheridan. +His soul was no longer with us, journeying up the Nile; and I suspected +his body of packing to join it, as soon as things had been arranged to +un-Hânem Mabel, and send her, freed from a marriage which was not +marriage, freed from this fear or forcible conversion, home to the +United States. + +It was just on the cards, Anthony and I thought, that there might be +another "demonstration" at Esneh, that unruly town where Mohammed Ali +banished the superfluous dancing girls of Cairo in the eighteen +forties. If Rechid Bey had not discovered the truth about that hurried +departure from Luxor for Asiut (as a matter of fact, Mabel and her +guardians were almost thrown on board as the train began to move) he +might have sent emissaries, or come himself to Esneh, where he must +have known the _Enchantress Isis_ would land. As for Bedr and his +employers, Anthony (who now knew Biddy's suspicions) was inclined to +think that, even if she were right, we had seen the last of them. After +such a setback as that in the Temple of Mût, he thought they would not +only be discouraged but frightened. They had run away from us, in the +temple; and despite the proverb concerning those who fight and run, to +fight another day, it was probable that men of their calibre would see +the wisdom of abandoning the chase. They had shown themselves cowards, +Anthony thought, whatever their object had been in attacking Miss +O'Brien and Miss Gilder: and though we must be on the watch during the +rest of the trip, his idea was that the men had retreated in fear of +arrest. + +In any case, we had no trouble at Esneh, and saw no sinister faces +peering out of low doorways in the bazaars, or over the heads of the +pretty (sometimes fair and blue-eyed) dancing girls' descendants. + +Buried in the heart of the village we came upon the temple. Only the +portico was visible under piled houses and a triumphant mosque; but +once we were down in the entombed temple itself, it gave a sense of +secrecy, and mystic rites, to look up from under the dark roof of heavy +stone with its painted zodiac, out from hidden halls of carving and +colour, to the clustered houses of dried brick built before the temple +was uncovered. There was a sense of tragedy and failure, too, toiling +up the steep slope to the town level, and passing, on the half-buried +walls, gigantic carved figures making thwarted gestures, in +commemoration of kingly triumphs forgotten hundreds upon hundreds of +years ago. + +At night there was _fantasia_ on board, with our boatmen dancing each +other down, like Highlanders, and the next day brought us to Edfu, +which all the women were wild to see because Robert Hichens had called +its green-blue the "true colour of love": an adorable temple sacred to +Horus, as there he conquered and killed Set. + +It was only after we had passed Sir Ernest Cassell's red house, with +the smoky irrigation works where fourteen hundred Arabs have chased the +desert into the background, and after we had visited the splendid twin +temples of Light and Darkness at Kom Ombo, towering majestically above +the Nile bank, that I found time to catechize and lecture Miss Guest. I +contrived to separate her from her sculptor, and lure her to a part of +the deck unfrequented because it was windy. Rachel was looking happy, +young and prosperous, in one of Monny's most becoming (and expensive) +dresses. + +At first, I think she felt inclined to be flattered by my desire for +her society, for I had never yet wished her joy, or formally +congratulated Bailey. One look into my eyes, with those clever, +slanting green orbs of hers, however, and instinct must have told her +that my intention was different. She glanced round for an excuse to +escape, but found none, for I hedged her in from all her friends. Then +she quickly decided to shunt me off on an emergency track laid by +herself. + +"What a wonderful day it's been!" she remarked. And Kom Ombo is one of +the best temples. The only thing I didn't like was those mummied +crocodiles. Their smiles look so hypocritical, and to think they've +been smiling them for thousands of years--" + +"It must be unpleasant to smile the smile of a hypocrite, even for a +few weeks," I seized the chance to work up to business. + +"Yes, indeed," agreed Miss Guest a slight colour staining her cheeks. +"And didn't you notice several new sorts of wall-inscriptions?" + +"Yes," I admitted. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to skip sixteen or +seventeen centuries and come down to you. I've been wanting a chat--" + +"Why, I'm delighted!" she exclaimed, frightened, but all the more +ingratiating. "Oh, isn't the Nile beautiful as we come toward Nubia? +And aren't the sakkiyehs more interesting than the shadoofs, which they +use mostly when the river is low? Willis said quite a lovely thing, +about the sakkiyehs: that their chains of great water cups, going up +and down, look like enormous strings of red and green prayer-beads, +being 'told' by unseen hands. He ought to be a poet, he's so romantic." + +"No doubt everything about you, Miss Guest, must make an appeal to his +romantic side," I cut in, while she was forced to pause for breath. + +"I hope I do appeal to him," she said, meekly, "I never thought to be +so happy." This was a direct appeal to _me_; and it hit the mark. I +didn't care a rap about Willis Bailey, or his sketches or the wooden +statues with crystal eyes which he was going to make the fashion. If +Miss Guest chose to hook her shining fish with a false fly it wasn't my +business. It was hers and his, and perhaps Monny's, for Monny had +backed Rachel up in creating a wrong impression, as if they two had +been playing together, like children, to trick the grown-ups. But I had +to find out what had started the ball rolling, because it looked as if +that ball had come out of the pocket of Bedr. + +"I'm glad you're happy," I said, "and my hope is that you'll remain so. +I wish you so well, that perhaps you'll give me the right to ask a few +questions. You see, I'm one of your oldest friends in Egypt, after Miss +Gilder and her aunt--and Mrs. Jones. You met Miss Gilder and Mrs. East +travelling in France, they've told me--" + +"Yes, in a dining-car. We were put at the same table, and got talking. +I just loved Monny at first sight, and she's been heavenly to me. What +fun we've had! I never had _any_ fun before. I hardly knew the meaning +of the word." + +"I suppose it must have amused you and Miss Gilder," I planted my arrow +at last, though not remorselessly, "this quaint idea that's got round, +about your having changed places." + +Rachel's face crimsoned. "Oh, Lord Ernest!" she sighed in an explosive +whisper, with a glance round to see if any one were near. But we were +alone with the beginnings of a sunset, that flushed the dun hills as +unripe peaches are flushed on a garden wall. "I've promised Monny not +to say a word and spoil her fun, as long as the trip lasts. She's +finding out, you see, which people are really attracted to her, for +herself. She says it's a wonderful experience--and it's given her such +a rest from men: the silly ones, you know. It isn't _my_ fault. I'd +tell in a _minute_ if she'd let me." + +"Was it she who began the game?" I dared to inquire. "Or was it Bedr? +Now, this is a question I really _have_ a right to ask. I'll tell you +why afterward, if you don't know already from Monny." + +"No, I don't think Monny's said anything to make me understand that," +Rachel answered, stammering a little, and trying pathetically not to +look anxious. "But I'll answer you, of course. There's nothing to hide +from _you_--now--that I can see. It _was_ Bedr who began. He was the +most intelligent, extraordinary person! I don't believe any one fully +realized it, except me. But from that first night at Alexandria, he +seemed to feel that I saw something of value behind his poor face. He +was _very_ sensitive. And he attached himself to me in the most +beautiful, faithful way. Really and truly, if there hadn't come that +trouble about the hasheesh place (which _wasn't_ his fault, because +Monny wanted to go, and when she wants things she wants them very much) +I believe I could have made a Christian of him. He would have been a +wonderful convert! We talked more about religion than anything else, +but he used to like to chat about America, because he'd been there, and +hoped to go again. _That_ was the way the joke about Monny and me +started. He _did_ ask me not to speak of it, but it can't matter now. +He told me when he was in New York, with a family who took him from +Egypt, one day the great Mr. Gilder's daughter was pointed out to him +in the street. She was with her father, in an automobile, but there was +a block in the traffic: a policeman was keeping it back, so he saw her +distinctly for several minutes, and he was interested, because his +employers told him how important the Gilders were, and how Mr. Gilder +used to have his daughter guarded every minute for fear she might be +kidnapped for ransom, as several rich people's children had been. Monny +couldn't have been more than fourteen then, as it's seven years ago; +and Bedr said that the little girl he saw in the automobile was exactly +like _me_--hardly at all like what Monny is now. He wanted me to tell +him, for a reason which he vowed and swore was _very_ important, +whether I wasn't really Miss Gilder, and _she_ Miss Guest." + +"Well?" + +"Well, I thought the idea so funny, so thoroughly _quaint_, you know, +and like something in a book, that just for fun I answered that I +couldn't tell him anything until I'd consulted my friend. Monny nearly +went wild about it. She said she'd come to Egypt to have adventures and +she was going to _have_ them, no matter whether 'school kept or not'. +That's just a little slang expression, people use at home, sometimes. I +daresay you've heard her say much the same thing. She said this idea of +Bedr's was too good to miss, and we'd get bushels of fun out of it. So +we have--in different ways. And she's been lovely, about giving me +dresses and things. When she and I talked the matter over, she +understood why Bedr should have thought she was more like me, at the +age of fourteen, than like her present self. She'd had typhoid fever +just before the time she must have been pointed out to him, and it had +left her thin as a rail, and as pale as a ghost. Her hair was short, +too, and some of the colour had been burnt out of it by the fever. Now, +you know, she has a brilliant complexion, and her face is much rounder +than mine, as well as more pink and white. Compared to her, I am +_sallow_, I'm afraid, and lanky: and when she and I stand together, her +hair looks bright gold, and mine light brown in comparison. + +"Monny wouldn't let me tell Bedr right out that he was mistaken about +us. She said we wouldn't fib, but we'd act self-conscious, as if we had +a secret, and he'd stumbled on it. He must have started the story--oh, +if you could call it a story! I don't believe anything has ever been +put into words. It was in the air. People got the idea. But Bedr must +have put it into their heads. Neither Monny nor I did more than smile +and look away, and change the subject if any one hinted. We said, 'You +mustn't breathe such things to Mrs. East or Mrs. Jones, or they'll be +angry.' Apparently nobody ever did dare to breathe it to them. And I +think Monny mentioned you, too, Lord Ernest. She didn't want you to +know. She was afraid you'd say that the whole thing was nonsense. I +suppose it was Enid Biddell who came to you? She was afraid Mr. Snell +--but it isn't worth talking about, now. Only she is a cat." + +Miss Biddell had said exactly the same of Miss Guest. Naturally, +however, I did not mention the coincidence. + +"Now I've told you everything you wanted to know, haven't I?" Rachel +went on. "Or were there any more questions you'd like to ask--I mean, +about Bedr?" + +"Only one more, I think. Did it ever strike you that he was curious +about you--or rather, about Miss Gilder who, you both let him suppose, +was really Miss Guest? Anything about your name?" + +"Why, yes, he was curious. They say Arabs always are, if you let them +be. Not that he is exactly an Arab. But I suppose Armenians are the +same. He seemed to want to know things about me--what I'd done, where +I'd lived, and--oh, lots of little questions he would ask. Monny and I +made up our minds from the first, as I told you, that there mustn't be +any fibs. I simply put him off. He never got anything out of me at +all." + +"I see," I said; and let myself drift away from her into +thoughtfulness. + +"Is that all, then?" + +"Yes, that is all, thank you." + +Her tone sounded as if she were relieved of a mental weight, and would +like to go. I expected her to make some excuse: it would soon be time +to dress for dinner: or she had a letter to write. But no, she +lingered. She was trying to bring herself to say something. I waited, +in silence, my eyes on the shining river, looking back at the golden +trail of the sun that was like a rich mantle draping a gondola on a +fête day in Venice. + +"I suppose you think," she forced the words out at last, "that Willis +Bailey wouldn't have--fallen in love--or proposed--if he hadn't thought +like the rest, that I--I--" "I don't see why he shouldn't, Miss +Guest." + +"He--really does seem to care for me--as I _am_, you know. And I've +never told him a single untruth. I've _nothing_ to blame myself for." + +"I'm sure of that." + +"Yet you don't approve of me--one bit. You think I'm a--kind of +adventuress. So does Mrs. Jones. _Me_! Why, what would the people at +home in Salem say if any one suggested such a thing? You don't know the +life I've led, Lord Ernest." + +"I can imagine. You don't want to go back to it again, do you?" + +"It does seem as if I _couldn't_, now. It's seemed so, even before +Willis--oh, I'm sure you think I _never_ meant to go back, once I'd +broken free from the dull grind." + +"No harm in that!" + +"I'm glad you say so. I took all my legacy to see the world a little +--well, nearly all, not quite, perhaps, to tell the truth. And being +brave has brought me this reward: the love of a man who can give me +everything worth having. I shan't be _outside_ life any more. And +Willis won't have any reason to blame me when he--when he--" + +"No reason, of course," I fitted into her long pause. "But men as well +as women are unreasonable, sometimes, you know. And if he should be so +--er--wrong-headed as to think you'd deceived him about yourself--" + +"Then he ought to blame Monny, not me!" + +"He ought, perhaps. But the question is, what he will do. And you can't +like having a sword hanging over your head? Supposing he should be +unjust, and refuse to carry out--" + +"Oh, Lord Ernest, you don't think he will, after he's sworn that I'm +the only woman in the world he could ever have loved? He thinks me +_much_ better looking than Monny. He says she hasn't got a _soul_, yet. +He doubts if she ever will have one." + +I didn't doubt it. I thought I had heard it stirring in the throes of +birth, a soul such as would blind the eyes of a Rachel Guest, with its +white shining. Monny had said that she would "find her soul in Egypt." +But the mention of this was not indicated just then. + +"I haven't the courage to tell him, even if there were really anything +definite enough to tell," Rachel went on. "It would be insulting a man +like Willis to suggest that he'd been influenced--you know what I mean. +But--now we're talking of it--oh, do advise me! We're planning to be +married in Egypt, at the end of this trip, and then settle down in +Cairo, for Mr. Bailey's studies at the museum. He came up the Nile only +for me, you see! And he says I shall be his first model for the new +style--my eyes are _just_ right, as if they'd been made on purpose to +help him. I lie awake nights wondering what if, before the wedding, +when he finds out for certain that my name is really only Rachel Guest, +and that I'm I--oh, I daren't _think_ of it!" + +"Then, if you want me to advise, why don't you in some tactful, perhaps +joking way, speak of the story Bedr started, and--" + +"I can't--I simply can't." + +"Yet you feel it would be better?" + +"Yes--sometimes I feel it. _You_ help me, Lord Ernest. _You_ tell him. +And then, if you see any signs--you'll make him understand how dreadful +it would be to throw me over because I'm poor and have been a nobody +till now?" + +"I'll do my best," I heard myself weakly promising. + +No wonder I have earned the nickname of Duffer! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +MAROONED + + +Had any human fly ever buzzed himself so fatally into the spider-webs +of other people's love affairs? I asked myself sternly. As soon as +Providence plucked me out of one web, back I would bumble into another, +though I had no time for a love affair of my own. + +When the _Enchantress Isis_ had slipped past many miles of desert +shore, black-striped and tawny as a leopard's skin, and other desert +shores so fiercely yellow as to create an effect of sunshine under gray +skies, we arrived at Assuan. I had not yet kept my promise to Rachel, +though whether from lack of opportunity or courage I was not sure. + +Here we were at historic Assuan; and nothing had happened, nothing +which could be written down in black and white, since the excitements +at Luxor. Nevertheless, some of us were different within, and the +differences were due, directly or indirectly, to those excitements. + +Now we were nearing Ethiopia, alias the Land of Cush, though Monny said +she could not bear to have it called by that name, except, of course, +in the Bible, where it couldn't be helped. How would any of us like to +"register" at an hotel as Mr. or Miss So-and-So, of Cush? Oshkosh +sounded more romantic. + +No land, however, could look more romantic than Assuan, City of the +Cataracts, Greek Syene, that granite quarry whose red syenite made +obelisks and sarcophagi for kings of countless dynasties. "Suan," as +the Copts renamed it (a frontier town of Egypt since the days of +Ezekiel the prophet), now appeared a gay place, made for +pleasure-pilgrims. + +Sky and river were dazzling blue, and the sea of sand was a sea of +gold, the dark rocks lying like tamed monsters at the feet of Khnum, +god of the Cataract, glittered bright as jet, over which a libation of +red wine had gushed. The river-front of the town, with its hotels and +shops, was brightly coloured as a row of shining shells from a southern +sea; tints of pink and blue and amber, translucently clear in contrast +with the dark green of lebbek trees and palms, in whose shadow flowers +burned, like rainbow-tinted flames of driftwood. Between our eyes and +the brilliant picture, a network of thin dark lines was tangled, as if +an artist had defaced his canvas with scratches of a drying brush. +These scratches were in reality the masts of moored feluccas, bristling +close to the shore like a high hedge of flower stems, stripped of +blossoms and bent by driving wind. + +On the opposite side of the river, the desert crouched like a lion who +flings back his head with a shake of yellow mane, before he stoops to +drink. And in the midst of the stream rose Elephantine Island, with its +crown of feathery palms, its breastwork of Roman ruins (a medal of fame +for the kings it gave to Egypt) and its undying lullaby sung by the +cataract, among surrounding rocks. + +Very strange rocks they were, black as wet onyx, though for thousands +of years they had been painted rose by sunrise and sunset; shapes of +animal gods, shapes of negro slaves, shapes of broken obelisks and +fallen temples; shapes of elephants like those seen first by Egyptians +on this island; shapes which one felt could never have taken form +except in Egypt. + +Over our heads armies of migrating birds made a network like a great +floating scarf of beads, each bead a bird: and the blue water round the +slow-gliding _Enchantress_ was crowded with boats of so many hitherto +unknown sorts, that they might have been visiting craft from another +world: feluccas with sails red or white, or painted in strange +patterns, or awninged; some with rails like open trellis work of many +colours, over which dark faces shone like copper in the sunshine; +rowing boats, "galleys" with fluttering flags, and old soap-boxes +roughly lined with tin, in which naked imps of boys perilously paddled. +Out from the boats rushed music in clouds like incense; wild, African +music of chanting voices, beating tom-toms, or clapping hands that +clacked together like castanets. Very old men and very young youths +thumped furiously on earthen drums shaped like the jars of Elephantine, +once so famous that they travelled the length of Egypt filled with +wine. The breeze that fanned to us from beyond the palms and lebbeks, +the roses and azaleas, was soft and flower-laden. There was a scent in +it, too, as of ripe grapes, as if a fragrance lingered from vanished +days when wine for the gods was made from Elephantine vineyards, and +fig-trees never lost their leaves. We ourselves, and our big three-decked +boat were alone in our modernity, if one forgot the line of gay +buildings on the shore. Everything else might have been of the time +when the world supposed Elephantine to be placed directly on the Tropic +of Cancer, and believed in the magic lamp which lit the unfathomable +well; the time when quarries of red and yellow clay gave riches to the +island, and all Egypt thanked its gods when Elephantine's Nilemeter +showed that the Two Lands would be plentifully watered. + +Most of us were going to live on board the _Enchantress_ for our three +days at Assuan; but, hearing that lords and ladies of high degrees +swarmed at the Cataract Hotel with its wild, watery view of tumbled +rocks, and at the Savoy in its flowery gardens, some went where they +might hope to cross the path of dukes and duchesses. + +The Monny-ites were not "wild" about the aristocracy, nor would royalty +(of later date than the Ptolemies) have lured Cleopatra from her suite +on the boat. But the whole party was eager for shore, and no sooner had +the _Enchantress_ put her foot on the yellow sands than she was +deserted by her passengers. The bazaars were the first attractions, for +"everybody said" that they were as fine in their way as the bazaars of +Cairo; so very soon we were all buying silver, ivory, stuffed +crocodiles and ostrich feathers from the Sudan, which now opened its +gates not far ahead: the Sudan, mysterious, unknown, and vast. + +Cleopatra clung to me, with a certain wistfulness, as if in this +incarnation she were not so intimately at home in Upper Egypt as she +had hoped to be. Perhaps this loneliness of her soul was due to the +fact that instead of seeking her society, "Anthony with an H" seldom +came near her now. Something had warned him off. He would never tell me +or any one on earth: but, unused to the ways of women as he was, I felt +sure that he had been uncomfortably enlightened as to Cleopatra's +feelings. The cure, according to his prescription, was evidently to be +"absent treatment." But there was another which I fancied might be +efficacious; the sudden arrival on the scene of Marcus Antonius Lark. + +I happened to know that he proposed a dash from Cairo to Assuan by +train, for I had received two telegrams at the moment of walking off +the boat. The first message announced his almost immediate advent; the +second regretted unavoidable delay, but expressed an intention not to +let us steam away for Wady Halfa without seeing him. The excuse alleged +was business, but I thought I saw through it, and sympathized; for he +whom I had once cursed as a brutal tyrant of money-bags now loomed +large as a pathetic figure. + +Despite the lesson of the lotuses, I believed that his motive was to +try his chance with Mrs. East; that life had become intolerable, unless +"Lark's Luck" might hold again; and that he could not wait till the +cruel lady returned to Cairo. It was a toss-up, as we walked side by +side to the incense-laden bazaar, whether I told her the news or left +her to be surprised by the unexpected visitor. Eventually I decided +that silence would help the cause; and in thus making up my mind I was +far from guessing that my own fate and Monny's and Anthony's and +Brigit's hung also on that insignificant decision. I was thankful that +Mrs. East said no more of bringing her niece and me together, and that, +on the contrary, she dropped dark hints about "everything in life which +she had wanted" being now "too late, and useless to hope for" in this +incarnation. Why she had changed her plans for Monny I could not be +sure; enough for me that she apparently had changed them. + +Sir Marcus did not appear the next day or the next, and I heard no +more. Indeed, between dread of breaking the truth to Bill Bailey, and +self-reproach at letting time pass without breaking it, I almost forgot +Lark's love affair. I salved my conscience by working unnecessarily +hard, and even helping Kruger with his accounts, when Anthony too +generously relieved me of other duties. + +How I envied Fenton at this time, because no girls asked him what men +they ought to marry; or implored him to prevent men from jilting them; +or urged him to enlighten handsome sculptors with wavy, soft hair, and +hard eyes resembling the crystal orbs which were to become fashionable +in Society! Anthony loved Assuan, and apparently enjoyed displaying its +beauties. Not knowing that I hid a fox under my mantle, he meant to be +kind in "taking people off my hands," giving them tea on the Cataract +Hotel veranda; escorting them to the ruined Saracen Castle which, with +Elephantine opposite, barred the river and made a noble gateway; +leading them at sunset to the Arab cemetery in the desert, and to the +Bisharin village where wild, dark creatures (whose hair was pinned with +arrows and whose ancestors were mentioned in the Bible) sold baskets +and bracelets and what not. There were really, as Sir John Biddell +remarked, a "plethora of sights," not counting the magnificent Rock +Tombs, since the Set had definitely "struck" against tombs of all +descriptions. But even with an excursion to the ancient quarries, for a +look at half-finished obelisks, for once I had not enough to do. And +Fenton had snatched Biddy from me as well as Monny. Mercilessly he had +them sightseeing every moment. And I could no longer scold Rachel for +"letting things slide." To blame her would be for the pot to call the +kettle black. + +It was on the day of the Great Dam that I screwed my courage to the +sticking-place, and made Bailey understand that his fiancée was nobody +but Rachel Guest; that she would be Rachel Guest all her life until she +became Mrs. Some One-or-Other: preferably Mrs. Willis Bailey. Somehow +it seemed appropriate to do the deed at the Dam. And always in future, +when people ask what impression the eighth wonder of the world made +upon me, I shall doubt for an instant whether they refer to the +American sculptor, or to the Barrage. + +The way in which we went was so impressive that it was comparatively +easy to be keyed up to anything. + +Most travellers make the trip on donkey back; or else, as far as +Shellal, in a white, blue-eyed desert train, where violet window-glass +soothes their eyes and prepares their minds for a future journey to +Khartum. After Shellal they go on in small boats to the wide, still +lake which the Great Dam has stored up for the supply of Egypt. But we +of the _Enchantress Isis_ were super-travellers. Our boat being of less +bulk than her new rivals, she was able to reach the Barrage by passing +up through its many locks and proceed calmly along the Upper Nile, +between the golden shores of Nubia, to Wady Haifa. We remained on board +for the experience; and though I had the task of telling Bailey, still +before me, I would not have changed places with a king, as standing on +deck, with Biddy by my side, I felt myself ascending the once +impassable Cataracts of the god Khnum. + +If Biddy had been the only person by my side, I should have risked +telling her the secret she ought always to have known. But there were +as many others as could crowd along the rail. For once they were +reflective, not inclined to chatter. Perhaps the same thought took +different forms, according as it fitted itself into different heads; +the thought of that marvellous campaign of the boats which fought their +way past these cataracts to relieve Gordon. The ascent was a pageant +for us. For them it had meant strife and disaster and death. We admired +the glimpses of yellow desert: we exclaimed joyously at the mad turmoil +of green water, the blood-red and jet-black rocks, below the Dam. For +us it was a scene of unforgettable majesty. For those others, the waste +of stone-choked river must have yawned like a wicked mouth, full of +water and jagged black teeth, which opened to gulp down boats and men. + +It was on the brink of the Barrage itself that I spoke to Bailey. And +there, looking down over the immense granite parapet, upon line after +line of tamed cataracts breathing rainbows, we were so small, so +insignificant, that surely it could not matter to a man whether the +girl of his heart were an heiress or a beggar maid! There was room in +the world only for the mighty organ-music of these waters, and the ever +underlying song of love. + +I saw by the look in Bailey's eyes, however, as he gazed away from me +to the long-necked dragon form of a huge derrick, that it _did_ matter. +I had been tactful. I had mentioned the mistake in identity as if it +were a silly game played by children, a game which neither he nor I nor +any one could ever have regarded seriously. He controlled himself, and +took it well, so far as outward appearance went: but soon he made an +excuse to escape: and presently I saw him strolling off alone, head +down, hands in pockets. Luncheon was being prepared on the veranda of a +house belonging to the chief engineer of the Dam. Its owner was a +friend of Sir Marcus Lark, and, being away, had agreed to lend his +place to our party, Kruger having done no end of writing and +telegraphing to secure it. Many of our people had got off the +_Enchantress Isis_ in one of the locks, and had walked up the steps to +the summit-level of the Barrage, Brigit and I among others. And as we +assembled for lunch it was an odd sight to see our white, floating home +rising higher and higher, until at last she rode out on the surface of +the broad sea of Nile which is held up by the granite wall of the +Barrage. She was to be moored by the Dam, and to wait for us there +until evening, when we should have exhausted the Barrage and ourselves; +and have visited Philae. + +By and by luncheon was ready, served by our white-robed, red-sashed +waiters from the _Isis_, but Bailey did not return. Rachel begged that +our table might wait for a few minutes. Perhaps he had gone the length +of the Dam in one of those handcars, on which some of our people had +dashed up and down the famous granite mile, their little vehicles +pushed by Arabs. He might be back in a few minutes. But the minutes +passed and he did not come. The dragon-derrick stretched its neck from +far away, as if to peer curiously at Rachel. The black and red and +purple monsters disguised as rocks for this wild, masquerade ball of +the Nile, foamed at the mouth with watery mirth at the trouble these +silly things called girls had always been bringing on themselves, since +Earth and Egypt were young together. The look of the forsaken, the +jilted, was already stamped upon Rachel's face. She tried to eat: when +the picnic meal could be put off no longer, but could scarcely swallow. +Monny glanced at her anxiously from time to time, perhaps suspecting +something of the truth. And the eyes of both, girls turned to me now +and then with an appeal which made unpalatable my well-earned +hard-boiled eggs, and drumsticks. Bother the whole blamed business! +thought I. Hadn't I done all I could? Wasn't I practically running the +lives of these tiresome tourists, as well as their tour? What did that +adventuress out of a New England schoolroom want of me now, when I'd +washed my hands of her and her affairs? + +But all through, there was no real use in asking myself these +questions. I knew what Rachel wanted, and that I should have to do it, +if only to please Biddy, who would be broken-hearted if Monny's +indiscretions should wreck the happiness of even the most undeserving +young female. Darling Monny must be saved from remorse at all costs! + +One of the costs to me was luncheon as well as peace of mind. I excused +myself from the table. I pretended to have forgotten some business of +importance. I whispered to the _Enchantress_ dining-room steward, who +had come to look after the waiters, that the meal must be served as +slowly as possible. "Drag out the courses," said I. "Make 'em eat salad +by itself, and everything separate, except bread and butter." Having +given these last instructions, I was off like an arrow shot from the +bow, a reluctant arrow sulking at its own impetus. Instinct was the +hand that aimed me; the _Enchantress Isis_ was the target; and deck +cabin No. 36 was the bull's-eye. As I expected, Bailey was in his +stateroom. I had not far to go; only to hurry from the engineer's +house, along the riverbank to the landing place, where a number of +native boats were lying; jump into one, and row out a few yards. But +the heat of noon, after the cool shade of the veranda, was terrific. I +arrived out of breath, my brow richly embroidered with crystal beads, +just in time to find Bailey squeezing his bath sponge preparatory to +packing it, in a yawning kitbag already full. At such a moment he could +squeeze a sponge! I hated him for this, as though the sponge had been +Rachel's heart. + +On his berth lay a letter addressed to her, and another to me. No doubt +he told us both that he had received an urgent telegram. He was so +taken aback at sight of the task master that he let me withdraw the +sponge from his pulseless fingers. I laid it reverently on the +washhand-stand, as a heart should be laid on an altar. + +"My dear fellow," I began. (Yes, to my credit be it spoken, I said +"dear fellow!") "You don't know what you are doing. I speak for your +own sake. Think what people will say! Everyone will see why you left +her. And you don't _want_ to leave her, you know! Of course you don't! +You love Miss Guest. She loves you. Not all the crystal eyes in the +world can make you the fashion, if the eyes of your fiancée are red +with tears because you jilted her, when you found out she was--only +herself! People don't like such things. They won't have their artists +cold and calculating. It isn't done. You can't afford to squeeze a +sp--I mean, break a heart in this fashion. It will ruin your reputation." + +So I argued with a certain eloquence, forcing conviction until with a +fierce gesture Bailey snatched six collars from his bag and flung them +on the bed. Seeing thus clearly what I thought showed him what others +were sure to think: and the world's opinion was life itself to Bailey. +He was cowed, then conquered. At last I dared to say: "May I?" + +He nodded. + +Instantly I tore the letters into as many pieces as there were collars. +Afterward, when we walked off the boat, arm in arm, I dropped them into +the water. + +We got back to the engineer's before the picnickers had finished their +belated Turkish coffee. Bailey took the vacant chair between Rachel +Guest and Monny Gilder. Biddy said that she had asked to have some +coffee kept hot for me. I needed it! + + * * * * * + +That is what delayed our start for Philae and is, I suppose, why +everything that took place there afterward happened exactly as it did. +If we had left the Dam an hour earlier, there would have been no excuse +to stop for sunset at the temple which those who love it call the +"Pearl of Egypt." As it was--but that comes afterward. + +When Strabo went from Syene to Philae, he drove in a chariot with the +prefect of that place, "through a very flat plain," and on both sides +of their road (I fear, for their bones, it was a rough one!) rose +"blocks of dark, hard rock resembling Hermes-towers." Nearly two +thousand years later we were rowed to the same temple, across an +immensely deep, vast sheet of shining crystal. We lolled (I am fond of +that word, though aware that it's reserved for villainesses) in +"galleys" painted in colours so violent that they looked like tropical +birds. They were awninged, and convulsively propelled by Nubians whose +veins swelled in their full black throats, and whose ebony faces were +plastered with a grayish froth of sweat. Each pressed a great toe, like +a dark-skinned potato, on the seat in front of him for support in the +fierce effort of rowing. Turbans were torn off shaved, perspiring +heads, and even skull-caps went in the last extreme. Wild appeals were +chanted to all the handiest saints to grant aid in the terrible +undertaking. An eagle-eyed child at the steering wheel gazed pityingly +at his agonized elders. And then, just as you expected the whole crew +to fall dead from heart failure, they chuckled with glee at some joke +of their own. There was always breath and energy enough to spare when +they wanted it. But what would you? The labourer must be worthy of his +hire, and a little something over. When Strabo saw Philae, she was a +distant neighbour of the mighty Cataracts. Now, the waters which once +rushed down are prisoned by the Great Dam, and stand enslaved, to wall +the temple round like a great pearl in a crystal case. She is the true +Bride of the Nile; for, as long ago the fairest of maidens gave herself +to the water as a sacrifice, so Philae gives herself for the life of +the people. She drowns, but in death she is more beautiful than when +the eyes of the old historian beheld her, glowing with the colours of +her youth, yet already old, deserted by gods and priests and +worshippers. Now she has worshippers from the four ends of the earth, +and the greatest singers of the world chant her funeral hymn. For in +all Egypt, with its many temples of supreme magnificence, there is +nothing like Philae. None can forget her. None can confuse her identity +for a moment with that of any other monument of a dead religion. And if +she were the only temple in Egypt, Egypt would be worth crossing the +ocean to see, because of this dying pearl in its crystal case. + +Venus rose from the sea. Philae, the Marriage Temple of Osiris and +Isis--Venus of Egypt--sinks into the sea of waters poured over her by +Khnum, god of the Cataracts. Thus the great enchantress sings her +swan-song to touch the heart of the world, her fair head afloat like a +sacred lotus on the gleaming water. I think there were few among us who +did not fancy they heard that song, as our Nubian men rowed across the +sea stored up by the great Barrage. From far away we saw a strange +apparition, as of a temple rising from the waters. It seemed unreal at +first, a mere mirage of a temple. Then it took solid outline; darkly +cut in silver; a low, column-supported roof; a pylon towering high; and +to the south, separated from both these, a thing that might have been a +huge wreath of purple flowers. We knew, however, from too many +photographs and postcards, that this was "Pharaoh's Bed," the +unfinished temple of Augustus and Trajan, standing on a flooded island. + +Our boat glided close to the flower-like stems of the columns +supporting the low roof. Far down in the clear depths we could see the +roots of the pillars, or their phantom reflections. And in the light of +afternoon, the water was so vivid a green that the colour of it seemed +to have washed off from the painted stones. Onto this roof we +scrambled, up a flight of steps, and found that we were not to have +Philae to ourselves. There were other boats, other tourists; but we +pretended that they were invisible, and they played the same game with +us. Ignoring one another, the rival bands wandered about, wondered what +the place would be like with the water "down," quoted poetry and +guide-books, and climbed the pylon. From that height the kiosk called +"Pharaoh's Bed" showed a mirrored double, like an old ivory casket with +jewelled sides, piled full of a queen's emeralds. We loitered; we +explored; and having descended sat down to rest, dangling irreverent +feet over beryl depths, splashed with gold. Thus we whiled away an +hour, perhaps. Then the Set, impressed at first, had had enough of the +mermaid temple's tragic beauty. Sir John Biddell reminded me that it +had been a long day for the ladies, and very hot. Hadn't we better get +back to the _Enchantress_ before sunset? But that was exactly what some +of us did not want to do. + +The matter was finally settled by retaining our one small boat, with +two rowers, and sending off the two larger "galleys" with their full +complement of passengers, excepting only "Mrs. Jones," Miss Gilder, +Antoun Effendi, the melancholy Cleopatra, and the guilty shepherd of +the flock, who knew he had no business to desert his sheep. He did +nevertheless feel, poor brute, that after such a day he had earned a +little pleasure, and, accordingly proceeded to snatch it from Fate, +despite disapproving glances. Punishment, however, fell as soon as it +was due. I had stayed behind with the intention of amusing Brigit. But +Monny took her from me, as if she had bought the right to use my +childhood's friend whenever it suddenly occurred to her to want a +chaperon. Instead of Biddy, I got Cleopatra. And by this time, so far +as we knew, all tourists save ourselves had gone. + +I knew in my heart that, in accusing Monny Gilder of claiming Brigit +O'Neill because she was paying her expenses, I did the girl an +injustice. Monny was afraid of herself with Anthony. I saw that +plainly, since the fact had been laid under my nose by Mrs. East. She +feared the glamour of this magical place, perhaps, and felt the need of +Biddy's companionship to keep her strong, not realizing that any one +else was yearning for the lady. This was the whole front of her +offending; yet I was so disappointed that I wanted to be brutal. +Without Biddy, I should wish but to howl at the sunset, as a dog bays +the moon. And feeling thus I may not have made myself too agreeable to +Cleopatra. In any case, after we had sat in silence for a while, +waiting for a sunset not yet ready to arrive, she turned reproachful +eyes upon me. "Lord Ernest," she said, "I think you had better go and +join Monny." + +"Why?" I surlily inquired. "I thought _you_ thought that idea of yours +was too late to be of any use now?" + +"I do think so," she replied. "_Everything_ interesting is too late +now. Still, you'd better go." + +"Are you tired of me?" I stupidly catechised her. + +"Well, I feel as if I should like to be alone in this wonderful place. +_I want to think back._" + +"I see," said I, scrambling up from my seat on the edge of the temple +roof, and trying not to show by my expression that I was pleased, or +that both my feet had gone to sleep. "In that case, I'll leave you to +the spooks. May none but the right ones come!" + +"Thank you," she returned dryly; and I limped off, walking on air, +tempered with pins and needles. Joy! my luck had turned! At the top of +the worn stone stairway, cut in the pylon, I met Biddy. She was dim as +one of Cleopatra's Ptolemaic ghosts, in the darkness of the passage; +but to me that darkness was brighter than the best thing in sunsets. + +"Salutation to Caesar from one about to die!" I ejaculated. + +"What _do_ you mean?" she asked. + +"I mean that both my feet are fast asleep, and I shall certainly fall +and kill myself if I try to go one step further, up or down." + +"You, the climber of impossible cliffs after sea-birds' nests!" she +laughed. But she stood still. + +"I'm after something better than sea-birds' nests now," said I. "The +question is, whether it's not still more inaccessible?" + +"Are you talking about--Monny?" she wanted to know, in a whisper. + +"Sit down and I'll tell you," was my answer. + +"Oh, not here at the top of the steps, if it's anything as private as +_that_," Biddy objected, all excitement in an instant. "Let's come into +a tiny room off the stairway, which the guardian showed me a few +minutes ago. There's a bench in it. You see, he's up there on the pylon +roof now with Monny and Captain Fenton (I _can't_ call him Antoun when +I talk to you; its _too_ silly!) and he'll probably be coming down in a +minute. Then, if we stop where we are, we'll have to jump up and get +out of the way, to let him pass. And he's sure to linger and work off +his English on us. I don't think we'll want to be interrupted that way, +do you?" + +"No, nor any other way," I agreed. + +"Oh, but what about the sunset? We may miss it." + +"Hang the sunset! Let it slide--down behind the Dam if it likes!" + +"I don't wonder you feel so, you poor dear," Biddy sympathized, "when +it's a question of Monny, and all our hopes going to pieces the way +they are doing, every minute. There isn't a second to lose." + +So we went into the little room in the tower, which was lit only by a +small square opening over our heads. We sat down on the bench. It was +beautifully dark. I began to talk to Biddy. We had forgotten my feet; +and I forgot Mrs. East. But I must tell what was happening to her at +the time (as I learned afterward, through the confession of an +impenitent), before I begin to tell what happened to us. Otherwise the +situation which developed can't be made clear. + +I left Cleopatra calling spirits from the vasty deep, or rather one +spirit; the spirit of Antony. I am morally sure that any other would +have been _de trop_. And sailing to her across the wide water from +Shellal came Marcus Antonius Lark. + +I can't say whether she considered him an answer to her prayer, or a +denial of it. Anyhow, there he was; better, perhaps, than nobody, until +she learned from his own lips--tactless though ardent lips--that he had +come from Cairo to Assuan, from Assuan to Philae, to see her. Then she +took alarm, and remarked in the old, conventional way of women, that +they'd "better go look for the others." But Sir Marcus hadn't spent his +money, time, and gray matter in hurrying to Philae from Shellal, for +nothing. Finding himself too late to catch us at Assuan, he had paid +for a special train in order to follow his "Enchantress" (the lady and +the boat). + +Taking a felucca with a fine spread of canvas and many rowers, which +(characteristically) he bargained for at the Shellal landing-place, he +sailed across to the moored steamer, only to learn from Kruger that we +had gone on our expedition to Philae. That meant a long sail and row +for the impatient lover. For us, the longer it was, the better: one of +the chief charms of our best day. But for him it must have been +tedious, despite a good breeze that filled the sails and helped the +rowers. + +On his way to the temple, he met the galleys going "home" to the +_Enchantress Isis_. An instant's shock of disappointment, and then the +glad relief of realizing that the one he sought was still at the place +where he wished to find her. There were only four Obstacles which might +prevent an ideal meeting. The names of these Obstacles, in his mind +were: Jones, Gilder, Fenton, and Borrow; and being an expert in +abolishing Obstacles, the great Sir Marcus began to map out a plan of +action. + +Luckily for him, our small boat had moved out of Cleopatra's sight, as +she sat and dreamed on the low temple-roof, while we four Obstacles +disported ourselves on different parts of the high pylon. The two +Nubians wished to play a betting game with a kind of Egyptian +Jack-stones, and it was not desirable that the pensive lady should behold +them doing it. Observing the graceful figure of Mrs. East silhouetted +against the sky's eternal flame of blue, and at the same time noticing +that she could not see the waiting boat, Sir Marcus got his +inspiration. He knew that the four Obstacles were somewhere about the +temple. Now was his great chance, while they were out of the way! And +if he resolved to play them a trick, perhaps he salved his conscience +by telling it that the Obstacles, male and female, ought to thank him. + +Cleopatra probably thought, if she glanced up to see his boat: "Oh +dear, another load of tourists!" and promptly looked down to avoid the +horrid vision. By the time Sir Marcus came within "How do you do?" +distance, he had bribed our waiting boatmen to row away. This in order +not to be caught in a lie. + +With our Nubians and their craft out of his watery way, he was free to +fib when the time came. "Go look for the others?" he echoed Mrs. East's +proposal. "Why, they've gone. I met them." + +"Gone! And left me behind when they knew I was here?" she exclaimed. +"They can't have done such a thing." + +"I'm afraid there's been a mistake," replied Sir Marcus presently. +"They certainly _have_ gone. I met the boat. Borrow was expecting me +to-day, you know--or maybe you don't know. And when he saw me in my +felucca, he stopped his to explain that evidently there'd been a +_contretemps_." (I'm sure Lark mispronounced that word!) "The temple +guardian said a gentleman had arrived and taken the lady who was +waiting, off in a boat. Of course Borrow thought I had come along, and +persuaded you to go with me, after telling the guardian to let him +know. I expect the guardian's got mighty little English: and they say +white ladies all look alike to blacks. He must have mixed you up with +some other lady. I suppose my folks haven't been the only people at +Philae since you came?" + +Mrs. East admitted that a number of "creatures" had come and gone. But +she thought all had vanished before the departure of the galleys. + +"You see you thought wrong. That's all there is to it," Sir Marcus +assured her. And having taken these elaborate measures to secure the +lady's society for himself alone (Nubian rowers don't count) he +proceeded to lure her hastily into his own boat, lest any or all of the +Obstacles should arrive to spoil his _coup_. + +That was the manner of our marooning. + +At the time, we were ignorant of what was happening behind our backs; +the sunset for instance, and the only available boat calmly rowing away +from the drowned Temple of Philae. + +We were thinking of something else; and so was Sir Marcus, or he would +not have forgotten the repentant promise he made himself, soon to send +back a boat and take us off. We were, therefore, in the position of +unrehearsed actors in a play who don't know what awaits them in the +next act: while those who may read this can see the whole situation +from above, below, and on both sides. Four of us, marooned at Philae, +not knowing it, and night coming on. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +WHAT WE SAID: WHAT WE HEARD + + +"Biddy, you were never wiser in your life," I exploded as I got her on +the bench. "You warned me there wasn't a second to lose. I've lost +years already, and I can't stand it the sixtieth part of a minute +longer, without telling you how I love you!" + +"My goodness!" gasped Biddy. "Do be serious for once, Duffer. This is +no time for jokes. Don't you know you've delayed and delayed in spite +of my advice, till you've practically lost that girl? And if there's +any chance left--" + +"The only chance I want is with you," I said. "Darling, I want you with +my heart and soul, and all there is of me. _Have_ I any chance?" + +"And how long since were you taken this way?" demanded Biddy, at her +most Irish, staring at me through the darkness of the little dim room +in the pylon. + +"Ever since you were an adorable darling of four years," I assured her. +"Only I was interrupted by going to Eton and Oxford, and your being +married. But the love has always been there, in a deep undertone. The +music's never stopped once. It never could. And when I saw you on the +_Laconia_--" + +"You fell in love with Monny!" breathlessly she cut me short. + +"Nothing of the kind," I contradicted her fiercely. "You _ordered_ me +to fall in love with Miss Gilder. I objected politely. You overruled my +objections, or tried to. I let you think you had. And for a while after +that, you know perfectly well, Biddy, the Set gave me no time to think +any thoughts _at all_, connected with myself." + +"You poor fellow, you have been a slave!" The soft-hearted angel was +caught in the trap set for her pity. + +"And a martyr. A double-dyed martyr. I deserve a reward. Give it to me, +Biddy. Promise, here in this beautiful Marriage Temple, to marry me. +Let me take care of you all the rest of your life." + +"My patience, a nice reward for you!" she snapped. "Let you be hoist by +the same petard that's always lying around to hoist me! What do you +_think_ of me, Duffer--and after all the proofs we've just had of the +dangerous creature I am? Why, the whole trouble at Luxor was on my +account. Even you must see that. Monny and I wouldn't have been let +into Rechid's house if those secret men hadn't persuaded him to play +into their hands, and revenge himself on you men as well as on us, for +interfering with Mabel. It was _their_ plot, not Rechid's, we escaped +from! And it was theirs at the Temple of Mût, too. Rechid was only +their cat's-paw, thinking he played his own hand. _Just_ what they +wanted to do I can't tell, but I can tell from what one of them said to +Monny in the temple, that they took her for Richard O'Brien's daughter. +Poor child, her love for me and all her affectionate treatment of me, +must have made it seem likely enough to them that she was Esmé, safely +disguised as an important young personage, to travel with her +stepmother. Bedr must have assured his employers that he was certain +the pale girl was really Miss Gilder; so they thought the other one +with me must be Esmé. You can't laugh at my fears any more! And I ask +you again, what _do_ you think of me, to believe I'd mix you up in my +future scrapes?" + +"I think you're the darling of the world," said I. "And my one talent, +as you must have noticed, is getting people out of scrapes. It'll be +wasted if I can't have you. Besides, under the wing of an Embassy no +one will dare to try and steal you, or blow you up. We'll be diplomats +together, Biddy. Come! You say I've 'duffed' all my life, to get what I +wanted. Certainly I've done a lot of genuine duffing in love; but do +bear out your own expressed opinion of the work by saving it from +failure. Couldn't you try and like me a little, if only for that? You +were always so unselfish." + +"Hush!" said Biddy, suddenly, "Hush!" + +"Do you hate me, then? Is it by any chance, Anthony, you love?" + +"No--no! Hold your tongue, Duffer." + +"'No' to _both_ questions? I shan't stop till you answer." + +"No, to both, then! _Now_ will you be silent?" + +"Not unless you say you do care for me." + +"Yes--yes, I do care. But, Sh! Don't you hear, they're talking just +outside that window in the wall? If you can't keep a still tongue in +your head, then for all the saints whisper!" + +Her brogue was exquisite, and so was she. I worshipped her. When I +slipped my arm round her waist, she dared not cry out. The same when I +clasped her hand. Things were coming my way at last. And if I put my +lips close against her ear I could whisper as low as she liked. I liked +it too. And I _loved_ the ear. + +She was right. They were indeed talking just outside the window, Monny +Gilder and Anthony Fenton. The prologue was evidently over, and the +first act was on. It began well, with a touch of human interest certain +to please an audience. But unfortunately for every one concerned, this +was a private rehearsal for actors only, not a public performance. +Biddy and I had no business in the dark auditorium. We were deadheads. +We had sneaked in without paying. The situation was one for a +nightmare. + +"For heaven's sake, let me cough, or knock something over!" I implored +Biddy's ear, which (it struck me at the moment) was more like a flower +than an unsympathetic shell, best similes to the contrary. Who could +have imagined that it would be so heavenly a sensation to have your +nose tickled by a woman's hair? + +"There's nothing you can knock over, but me," Biddy retorted, as +fiercely as she could in a voice no louder than a mosquito's. "And if +you cough, I'll know you're a dog-in-the-manger." + +"Why?" curiosity forced me to pursue. + +"Because, you donkey, ye say ye don't want her yourself, yet ye won't +give yer best friend a chance!" + +"Can't be a dog and a donkey at the same time," I murmured. "Choose +which, and stick to it, if ye want me to know what ye mean." + +"Why, you--you Man, don't ye see, if we interrupt at such a minute, and +such a conversation, they can _never_ begin again where they left off? +If _you'd_ wanted her, I'd have tried to save her for ye, at any cost. +But as ye don't, for goodness' sake give the two their chance to come +to an understanding. Now be still, I tell ye, or they may hear us." + +"We can't just sit and eavesdrop." + +"Stop yer ears then. It'll take both hands." + +It would; which is the reason I didn't do it. That would have been +asking too much, of the most honourable man, in the circumstances. + +Meanwhile, the two outside went on talking. Believing themselves to be +alone with the sunset, there was no reason to lower their voices. They +spoke in ordinary tones, though what they said was not ordinary; and we +on the other side of the little unglazed window could not help hearing +every word. + +"I've been wanting to say it for a long time," in a voice like that of +a penitent child Monny was following up something we had (fortunately) +lost. "Only how could I begin it? I don't see even now how I did begin, +exactly. It's almost easy though, since I have begun. I was horrid +--horrid. I can't forgive myself, yet I want you to forgive me for doing +your whole race a shameful injustice, for not understanding it, or you, +or--or anything. You've shown me what a modern Egyptian man can be, in +spite of things I've read and heard, and been silly enough to believe. +Oh, it isn't just that you come from some great family, and that you +could call yourself a prince if you liked, as Lord Ernest says. He's +told me how you could have a fortune, and a great place in your country +if you'd reconcile yourself with your grandfather in Constantinople; +but that you won't, because it would mean going against England. It +isn't your position, but what you _are_, that has made me see how small +and ridiculous I've been, Antoun Effendi. Can you possibly forgive me +for the way I treated you at first, now I've confessed and told you I'm +very, very sorry and ashamed?" + +"I would forgive you, if there were anything to forgive," Anthony +answered. And it must have taken pretty well all his immense +self-control to go on speaking to the girl in French--an alien language +--just then. + +"Perhaps there would be something to forgive, if I weren't on my side a +great deal more to blame than you. Will you let _me_ confess?" + +"If you wish. Otherwise, you needn't. For I've deserved--" + +"I do wish. But first, will you answer me a question?" + +"I'm sure you wouldn't ask me a question I oughtn't to answer." + +"It's only this: Did Ernest Borrow tell you anything else about me?" + +"Nothing, except his opinion of you. And you must know that, by this +time." + +"I think I do. Or Mrs. Jones--or Mrs. East? Neither have--for any +reason--_advised_ you to apologize to me for what you very nobly felt +was wrong in your conduct?" + +"No. Not a soul has advised me. If they _had_--" + +She didn't finish, but Biddy and I both knew the Monny-habit of +conscientiously going against advice. + +"Thank you. You've changed your opinion of me, then, without urging +from outside." + +"It has all come from _inside_. From recognition of--of what you are, +and what you've done for--for us all. You've been a hero. And you've +been kind as well as brave. Antoun Effendi, I think you are a very +great gentleman, and I respect Egyptians for your sake." + +"Wait!" said Anthony. "You haven't heard my confession. When I first +saw you on the terrace at Shepheard's, I willed you to look at me, and +you did look." + +"How strange! Yes, I felt it. Something made me look. Why did you will +me, Antoun Effendi?" Monny's voice was soft. But it was not like a +child's now. It was a woman's voice. + +Listening with tingling ears, I knew what she wanted him to answer. +Perhaps he also knew, but he boldly told the truth. "It was a kind of +wager I made with myself. There was some troublesome business I had to +carry out in Cairo. A good deal hung upon it. I saw your profile. You +didn't turn my way, and I said to myself: 'If by willing I can make +that girl look at me, I'll take it for a sign that I shall succeed in +my work.'" + +"Oh! It was nothing to do with _me_?" + +"Not then. Afterward I knew that, while I thought my own free will +suggested my influencing you, it was destiny that influenced me. +Kismet! It had to happen so. But you punished me for my presumption. +You treated me as if I were a slave, a Thing that hardly had a place in +your world." + +"I know! That's what I've asked you to forgive me for." + +"And because you've asked me to forgive, I'm telling you this. I was +furious; and I said, 'She shall be sorry. I will make her sorry.' My +whole wish was to humble you. I wanted to conquer, and though you +classed me with servants, to be your master." + +"I don't blame you, Antoun Effendi! And you _have_ conquered, in a +better way than you meant when you were angry and hating me. You've +conquered by showing your true self. You are my friend. That's what you +want, isn't it?--Not to be my master, when you don't hate me any +longer." + +"No, that is not what I want. I still want to be your master." + +"Then you _do_ hate me, even now?" + +"No, I don't hate you, Mademoiselle Gilder, although you've punished me +over and over again for being the brute I was at first. You have +conquered me, not I you. But I don't want to be your friend. If you +didn't look at me as being a man beyond the pale, you would understand +very well what I want." + +"Don't say that!" cried Monny, quickly. "Don't say that you're a man +beyond the pale. I can't stand it. Oh! I _do_ know what you want. I do +understand. I think I should have died if you hadn't wanted it. And +yet--I could almost die because you do." + +"You could die because I love you?" + +"Yes, of joy--and--" + +"You _care_ for me?" + +"Wait! I could die of joy, and sorrow too. Joy, because I do care, and +my heart longs for you to care. Sorrow, because--oh, it's the saddest +thing in the world, but we can never be any more to each other than we +are now." "You say that so firmly, because you think of me in your +heart as a man of Egypt. Dearest and most beautiful, you are great +enough if you choose, to mount to your happiness over your prejudice. +If you can love me in spite of what I am--" + +"I love you in spite of it, and because of it, too; and for every +reason, and for no reason." + +"Thank God for that! You've said this to me against your convictions. I +have won." + +"No, for it's all I can ever say. There can be no more between us." + +"You couldn't love me enough to be my wife, though I tell you now that +you're the star of my soul? Never till I saw you, have I loved a woman +or spoken a word of love to one, except my beautiful mother. I've kept +all for you, more than I dreamed I had to give. And it's yours for ever +and ever. But just because you've said to yourself that we're of +stranger races, who mustn't meet in love, you raise a barrier between +us. Are our souls of stranger races?" + +"No. Sometimes it almost seems as if our souls were one. You have waked +mine with a spark from your own. I think I was fast asleep. I didn't +know I had a soul--scarcely even a heart. But now I know! Learning to +know you has taught me to know myself. And if I'm kinder to everybody, +all the rest of my life--even silly rich people I used to think didn't +need kindness--it will be through loving you. I'm not afraid to tell +you that, and though I _used_ to be afraid I might love you, I'm glad I +do, now--glad! I shall never regret anything, even when I suffer. And I +shall suffer, when we're parted." + +"You're sure we must part?" + +"Sure, because there's no other way, being what we are, and life being +what it is. Always I've thought since my father died, that he was near +me, watching to see what I did with my life. For he loved me dearly, +and I loved him. We were everything to each other. Even if that were +the only reason, I couldn't do a thing that would have broken his +heart. It would be treacherous, now that he's helpless to forbid me. +Don't you see?" + +"I see. And if it were not for that reason?" + +"If it were not for that--oh, I don't know, I don't know! But yes, I do +know. The truth comes to me. It speaks out of my heart. If it were only +for myself if I felt free from a vow, nothing could make me say to you, +'Go out of my life!'" + +"That's what I wanted to be sure of. I could thank you on my knees for +those words. For I, too, have made a vow which I won't break. And if I +were free of it, I might tell you a thing now which would beat down the +barrier. Well! We will keep our vows, both of us, my Queen." + +"Yes, we must keep them. But oh, how are we to bear it? Fate has +brought us together, and it's going to part us. We love each other, and +we must go out of one another's lives. What shall we do when we can't +see each other any more--ever any more?" + +"That time shall not come." + +"But it must--soon." + +"Will you trust me, till Khartum?" + +"I'll trust you always." + +"I mean for a special thing--just till Khartum. In the foolish days +when I wished to conquer you, and make you humble yourself to me, I +vowed by my mother's love that I'd not tell you, or let Borrow tell, a +fact about myself which might win your favour. It was a bad vow to +make: a stupid vow. But a vow by my mother's love I could not break, +any more than you can break one to your father's memory. I'll abide by +it: but trust me till Khartum, and there you shall know what I can't +tell you now. I always hoped you would find out there--if we went as +far as Khartum together. Then I hoped, because I was a conceited fool. +Now I hope this thing--and all it means--because I am your lover." + +"Ah, dear Antoun, don't hope. Because it seems to me that nothing +nearer than Heaven can bring us the kind of happiness you want." + +"If you hadn't told me you cared, nothing that may come at Khartum +could have brought any happiness to me at all. For it would have been +too late after that, for you to say you cared--and for the word to have +the value it has now. You've said it--in spite of yourself. Trust me +for the rest. Will you?" + +"If you ask me like that--yes. I trust you. Though I don't understand." + +"That's what I want. Say this. 'I believe that we shall be happy; and I +trust without understanding, that it will be proved at Khartum.'" + +Monny repeated the words after him. And although I was that vile worm, +an eavesdropper, I was so happy that I could have picked Biddy up in my +arms, and waved her like a flag. Anthony was going to be happy, and +that ought to be a good omen that I should be happy too. + +"I am almost happy now," Monny went on. "Happier than I thought I could +be, with things as they are. I used to be miserable, partly about +myself, partly because I thought you were in love with Biddy (you were +so much nicer to her than me!), and partly because I believed, till I +knew you well, that you wanted to marry Aunt Clara for money, though +you cared for someone else. I even told Lord Ernest that about you. I +had to tell somebody! And besides, I felt it would be good for him to +think you cared for Biddy. Being jealous might wake him up to see that +he was in love with her himself. He really is rather a duffer, at +times! And oh, talking of him and Biddy reminds me of them! Where can +they be, all this time?" + +"Heaven alone knows--or cares," replied Anthony. And I realized the +truth of the proverb about listeners, even where their best friends are +concerned. I was obliged to kiss Biddy to keep from laughing out loud. +And she couldn't scream or box my ears, or all our dreadful precautions +would have been vain. + +"We must find them," said Monny. + +"Why?" + +"Oh, if we don't, they might find us." + +Anthony laughed--a give-away, English-sounding laugh. But Monny did not +recognize its birthplace. Her own laugh interrupted it too soon, +ringing out so happily, it probably surprised herself. + +"_If_ they find us here!" quavered Biddy, clinging to me. + +"They can't, if only you'll let me hold you tight enough," I whispered. +"If they look in, they'll just take us for a black spot in the dark!" + +But they didn't look in. They went downstairs. And then was the time to +get in the rest of my deadly work with Biddy. We _must_ wait a few +minutes, or they couldn't help knowing we'd been near them: and I made +the best use of those few minutes. Biddy wouldn't promise anything, but +said that she would think it over, and let me know the result of her +thinking in a day or two. + +To our great surprise, on arriving in open air at the level of the roof +below, we saw that the sun was gone, and a slim young moon was sliding +down the rose-red trail. It is indeed wonderful, say prophets of the +obvious, how quickly time passes when your attention is engaged! And +one comfort of being obvious is, that you are generally right. + +We tried to flit forth from the dark recess of the pylon stairway +without being seen or heard; but as luck would have it, Monny and +Fenton had had just time to discover that our boat was gone. The girl +was hunting for us, to see if we were "anywhere," or if in some mad +freak we could have gone off and left them to their fate. As we sneaked +guiltily out, she caught us. + +"Biddy! Lord Ernest!" she exclaimed. "Why--why--you have been +_upstairs_!" + +A good rule for diplomats, duffers, and others, is never to tell a +falsehood when there is no hope that any one will believe it. + +"We--er--yes," we both mumbled. + +"But--there isn't any upstairs except--where we were." + +"Yes there is," Biddy assured her hastily--too hastily. "You were on +the roof. We were in the little room of the guardian." + +"He showed it to us. There's a window. Oh, we were _under_ it! You must +both have heard." + +"Murder will out," I said, with the calmness of despair. But then it +occurred to me that there was a way of using the weapon which +threatened, as a boomerang. + +"Dearest," Biddy adjured her beloved, humbly, "you wouldn't have had us +spoil everything by moving, would you? I said to the Duffer when he +wanted to do something desperate, 'If we interrupt them, nothing will +ever come right--'" + +"Besides, we were too busy getting engaged ourselves," said I, "to +bother for long about what anybody else was saying or doing." + +"You _were_! Oh, Biddy, that's what I've prayed for." + +"Nothing of the sort!" began Mrs. O'Brien, ferociously. But the +boomerang had come to my hand, and I'd caught it on the fly. Before she +could go on contradicting me, Anthony, followed by the guardian of the +temple, had mounted the steps from the lower ledge of the roof, where +we had landed in the afternoon. + +"It wasn't you who took the boat, then, for a joke!" said Fenton, at +sight of us. And the mystery of our felucca's disappearance had to be +discussed. Biddy saw to it that Monny couldn't edge in a word on the +forbidden subject. How those two would talk later, in Miss Gilder's +stateroom! + +Nobody could explain what had happened, not even the guardian. He, it +seemed, spent his night at the siren temple in the water, sleeping in +the cell where I had blackmailed Biddy, and not even appearing to know +that the custom scintillated with romance. By and by his companion who +joined him for night work, would arrive in a small boat, bringing food; +but this man rowed himself, and neither could leave the temple again +that night. + +"You will lend the boat to us," said Anthony. "We'll row, and send it +back to you here by some one who is trustworthy." + +"We have no right to lend the boat," returned the Nubian. + +"Then I will steal it," replied the Hadji. + +But none of us cared how long a time might pass before deliverance +came. The _Enchantress Isis_ couldn't steam away and leave her +Conductor behind. As Mrs. East had disappeared, I vaguely associated +the puzzle of our missing craft with Sir Marcus; and anyhow, curiosity +wasn't the strongest emotion in my being just then. I thought that +perhaps never in my life again would love and romance and beauty all +blend together in one, as here at Philae in the moonlight. The sharp +sickle of the young moon cut a silver edge on each tiny wave, that +murmured against the submerged pillars like a chanting of priests under +the sea. The temple commemorating love triumphant was carved in silver, +and drowned in a silver flood. The flowering capitals of the columns as +they showed above the water, blossomed white as lilies bound together +in sheaves with silver cords, and placed before an altar. + +Yes, Egypt was giving us what we asked. But would she give us all we +asked? Just as there might have been a renewed chance of getting an +answer to this question, black men in a black boat hailed us. Sir +Marcus had deigned at last to remember our plight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE INNER SANCTUARY + + +We made a sensation when we returned to the fold. Everybody wondered so +much that they gave us no time to answer their questions, even if we +would. But somehow it seemed to be taken for granted that the whole +thing was my fault. Perhaps Mrs. East or Sir Marcus had spread the +report. I let it pass. + +As for Sir Marcus, he stayed only long enough for a talk with me. It +began with trumped-up business, and ended in a confession. She had +snubbed him, it seemed. Snubs being new to Sir Marcus, he had been +dazed, and had forgotten for a while to send us a boat. I assured him +that we bore no grudge, really none whatever. It had been quite an +adventure. And I tried to cheer him up. Better luck next time! Why +wouldn't he go on with us? Fenton and I could chum together, to give +him cabin-room. And Neill Sheridan, the American Egyptologist, had let +me know that he was obliged to leave us at Wady Haifa. There would be +an empty cabin, going down again. But no, the "Boss" refused his +Conductor's hospitality. "I think the less she sees of me, the better +she likes me," he said dismally. "She was civil enough until I--but no +matter. I suppose a man can't expect his luck to always hold." + +"Don't split your infinitives till things get desperate," I begged. "It +hasn't come to that yet. If you must go back, I'll take it on my +shoulders to watch your private interests a bit, as well as the rest. +Look out for a telegram one of these fine days, saying 'Come at once.' +You'll know what it means." + +"I will, bless you, my boy," he said heartily. "Though I am hanged if I +know what you mean by a split infinitive. I hope if its improper, I've +never inadvertently done it before a lady." + +There seemed to be an atmosphere of suspense for everybody who +mattered, as we steamed on between strange black mountainettes, and +tiger-golden sands toward Wady Halfa. Anthony was in suspense about the +way his fate might arrange itself at Khartum. I was in suspense as to +Biddy's decision, which nothing I was able to say could wheedle or +browbeat out of her. He and I were both in suspense together, about the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. It would be ours now, we knew that. But +what would be in it? Would it be full of treasure, or full of nothing +but mountain, just as a crusty baked pudding is full of pudding? The +doubt was harder to bear, now that Anthony was in love with a very rich +girl, and desired something from the mountain more substantial than the +adventure which would once have contented him. Harder to bear for me, +too, wanting Biddy and wanting to give her luxury as well as peace, +such as she had never known in her life of tragedy and brave laughter. + +Monny was in suspense quite equal to Anthony's about Khartum, and what +could possibly happen there to give her happiness. Brigit was in +suspense about the two men who had so strangely and secretly worked +with their spy, Bedr, and whom she expected to meet again later. Rachel +was in suspense about Bailey, although I had told her it was "going to +be all right," and he had said not a word of the business to her. What +she wanted, was to make sure of him, and there was the difficulty at +present, since we had failed to arrange for a registry-office or a +clergyman on board. Other hearts were no doubt throbbing with the same +emotions, but they were of comparatively small importance to me. + +Our feelings were all so different and so much more intense than they +had been, that the extraordinary difference in the scenery gave us a +vague sense of satisfaction. We were in another world, now that we had +heard the first cataract's roar, and left it behind; a world utterly +unlike any conceptions we had formed of Egypt. But we did not for a +long time leave the influence of the Barrage. Black rocks ringed in a +blue basin so lake-like that it was hard to realize it as the Nile. Now +and then a yellow river of sand poured down to the sapphire sea, and +where its bright waves were reflected, the water became liquid gold +under a surface of blue glass. The sky was overcast, and through a +thick silver veil, the sun shone with a mystic light as of a lamp +burning in an alabaster globe; yet the flaming gold of the sand created +an illusion as of sunshine. It was as if the treasure of all the lost +mines of Nub had been flung out on the black rocks, and lay in a +glittering carpet there. + +We passed small, submerged temples, with their foreheads just above +water; drowning palm groves whose plumes trailed sadly on the blue +expanse, and deserted mud-villages where the high Nile looked in at +open doors to say, "This is for Egypt's good!" + +Then there was the little Temple of Dendur, whose patron goddess was +prayed to spit if rain were needed; and so many other ruined temples +that we lost count (though one was the largest in Nubia) until we came +to Wadi-es-Sabuá, "the Valley of the Lions." This we remembered, not +because it was imposing, or because it had a dromos of noble-faced +sphinxes--the only hawk-faced ones in Egypt--or because of its +prehistoric writings, on dark boulders; or because it had been used as +a Christian Church: but owing to the fact that the ladies bought rag +dolls from little Nubian girls, who wore their hair in a million +greased braids. Here the influence of the Dam faded out of sight. +Forlorn trees and houses no longer crawled half out of water. Mountains +crowded down to the shore, wild and dark and stately as Nubian warriors +of ancient days. Then came Korosko, point of departure for the old +caravan route, where kings of forgotten Egyptian dynasties sent for +acacia wood, and Englishmen in the Campaign of the Cataracts fought and +died; deserted now, with houses dead and decayed, their windows staring +like the eye-sockets of skulls; and the black, tortured mountain-shapes +behind, lurking in the background as hyenas lurk to prey. More temples, +and many sakkeyehs (no shadoofs here, on the Upper Nile) but few boats. +The spacious times were past, when loads of pink granite, +honey-coloured sandstone, fragrant woods, and spices from the Land of +Punt, went floating down the stream! + +There were tombs as well as temples which we might have seen, savage +gorges and mild green hills. There was the great grim fort of Kasr +Ibrim; and at last--there was Abu Simbel. + +Somehow I knew that things were bound to happen at Abu Simbel. I didn't +know what they would be, but they hovered invisible at my berth-side in +the night, and whispered to warn me that I might expect them. + +A few people rose stealthily before dawn to prepare for Abu Simbel, +because it had been hammered into their intellects by me that this +Rock-Temple was the Great Thing of the Upper Nile. Also that every he, +she, or it, who did not behold the place at sunrise would be as mean a +worm as one who had not read the "Arabian Nights." + +Not everybody heeded the advice, though at bedtime most had resolved to +do so. We had anchored for the night not far off, in order to have the +mysterious light before sun-up, to go on again, and see the grand +approach to the grandest temple of the Old World. But after all, most +of the cabin eyelids were still down when we arrived before dawn at our +journey's end, and only a few intrepid ghosts flitted out on deck; +elderly male ghosts in thick dressing-gowns: youthful ghosts of the +same sex, fully clothed and decently groomed because of cloaked +girl-ghosts, with floating hair (if there were enough to float +effectively: others made a virtue of having it put up): and middle-aged +female ghosts, with transformations apparently hind-side in front. + +No ghost's looks mattered much, however, for good or ill, once the +slowly moving _Enchantress_ had swept aside a purple curtain of +distance and shown us such a stagesetting as only Nature's stupendous +theatre can give. + +It was a stage still dimly, but most effectively revealed: lights down: +pale blue, lilac and cold green; a thrilling, almost sinister +combination: no gold or rose switched on yet. Turned obliquely toward +the river, facing slightly northward, four figures sat on thrones, +super-giants, immobile, incredible, against a background of rock whence +they had been released by forgotten sculptors--released to live while +the world lasted. These seated kings gave the first shock of awed +admiration; then lesser marvels detached themselves in detail from the +shadows of the vast façade; the frieze, the cornice, the sun-god in his +niche over the door of the Great Temple: the smaller Temple of Hathor, +divided from her huge brother by a cataract of sand, whose piled gold-dust +already called the sun, as a magnet calls iron. + +The stage-lights were still down when the _Enchantress_ moored by the +river bank, within a comparatively short walk of the mountain which +Rameses II had turned into a temple, as usual glorifying himself. But +though the walk was comparatively short, on second thoughts elderly +ghosts already chilled to the bone, funked it on empty stomachs. They +made various excuses for putting off the excursion (the boat was to +remain till late afternoon), until finally the sun-worshippers were +reduced to a party of ten. + +Since Philae, Biddy had kept out of my way when she could do so without +being actually rude; but as our small, shivering procession formed, she +suddenly appeared at my side. Thus we two headed the band, save for a +sleepy dragoman who knew the rather intricate paths through scaly dried +mud, sand, and vegetation. + +"I want to say something to you, Duffer," she murmured; and the +roughness of the way excused me for slipping her arm through mine. + +"Not as much as I want to say something to you," I retorted fervently. + +"But this is _serious_," she reproached me. + +"So is--" + +"Please listen. There isn't much time. I heard this only last night, or +I'd have spoken before, and asked you what you thought. Do you happen +to know whether Captain Fenton wrote a note to Monny, asking her to +wait for him in the inner sanctuary of the temple till after the people +had gone, as he wanted to see her alone about something of great +importance?" + +"I don't know," I said. "Anthony hasn't mentioned Miss Gilder's name to +me since Philae. As a matter of fact he's been particularly taciturn." + +"You haven't quarrelled, surely?" + +"Anthony and I! Thank goodness, no. But I'm afraid he misunderstands, +and is a bit annoyed. Miss Gilder of course told him we'd overheard a +certain conversation, and he's never given me a chance to explain. +After Khartum it will be all right, if not before, but meanwhile--" + +"I see. Then let me tell you quickly what's happened. When we came back +on board the boat, after climbing about the fort of Kasr Ibrim, Monny +found on the table in her cabin a note in French, typewritten on +_Enchantress Isis_ paper. It had no beginning or signature, only an +urgent request to grant the writer five minutes just after sunrise, in +the sanctuary at Abu Simbel, _as soon as every one was out of the way_. +There's only one typewriter on board, isn't there?" + +"Yes, Kruger's." + +"And nobody but you and he and Captain Fenton ever use it, I suppose?" + +"Nobody else, so far as I know." + +"Captain Fenton didn't land with us to see the fort, but came up later, +just as we were ready to go down. Well, for all these reasons and the +note being in French Monny thinks it was written by Antoun Effendi. It +was only in chatting last night about the sunrise expedition that she +mentioned finding the letter. I begged her to make certain it _was_ +from him, before doing what it asked; because, you see, I'm still +afraid of anything that seems queer or mysterious. But she laughed and +said, 'What nonsense! Who else could have written it except Lord +Ernest, unless you think Mr. Kruger's in a plot.' And she refused to +question Antoun, because if he'd wanted the thing to be talked over, +he'd have spoken instead of writing. As for doing what he asked, she +pretended not to have made up her mind. She said she'd 'see what mood +she was in,' after the others had finished with the sanctuary. Well, +what I want, is for you and me to stay in the place ourselves when the +others have gone." + +"With the greatest of pleasure on earth!" said I. + +"Don't be foolish. You aren't to torment me there." + +"That depends on what you call 'tormenting.' If I'm to be made a +spoil-sport for Fenton and Miss Gilder, a kind of live scarecrow, I mean +to get something out of it for myself." + +There was no time for more. We had arrived at the foot of the long +flight of stone steps which lead up to the rocky plateau of the Great +Temple. In the east, a golden fire below the horizon was sending up +premonitory flames, and the procession must bestir itself, or be too +late. The whole object of arriving at this unearthly hour would be +defeated, if, before the sun's forefinger touched the faces of the +altar statues, we were not in the sanctuary. No time to study the +features of the Colossi, or to search for the grave of Major Tidwell. +These things must wait. The dark-faced guardian examined our tickets, +and let us file through the rock-hewn doorway, whose iron _grille_ he +had just opened. As we passed into the cavernous hall of roughly carved +Osiride columns, the huge figures attached to them loomed vaguely out +of purple gloom. There was an impression of sculptured rock walls, with +splashes of colour here and there; of columns in a chamber beyond, and +still a third chamber, whence three rooms opened off, the side doorways +mere blocks of ebony in the dimness. But already the sun's first ray +groped for its goal, like the wandering finger of a blind man. We had +only time to hurry through the faintly lit middle doorway, and plaster +ourselves round the rock walls of the sanctuary, when the golden digit +touched the altar and found the four sculptured forms above: Harmachis, +Rameses, Amen and Ptah. Night lingered in the temple, a black, brooding +vulture. But suddenly the bird's dark breast was struck by a golden +bullet and from the wound a magic radiance grew. The effect, carefully +calculated by priests and builders thousands of years ago, was as +thrilling to-day as on the morning when the sun first poured gold upon +the altar. The sightless faces of the statues were given eyes of an +unearthly brilliance to stare into ours, and search our souls. But with +most of the party, to be thrilled for a minute was enough. As the sun's +finger began to move, they found it time to move also. There was the +whole temple to be seen, and then the walk back to the boat before +dressing for breakfast. + +Soon Biddy and I had--or seemed to have--the sanctuary to ourselves. +Even the sun's ray had left us, mounting higher and passing above the +doorway of the inner shrine. The momentarily disturbed shadows folded +round us again, with only a faint glimmer on the wall over the altar to +show that day was born. + +"Did you notice that Monny wasn't with the others?" asked Brigit, in a +low voice. "She lingered behind, I think, and never came near us. I +wasn't sure till I watched the rest filing out of this room. Then I saw +she wasn't among them. Neither was Captain Fenton." + +"If they're together, it's all right," I assured her. + +"Yes, but are they? That affair of the typewritten note has worried +me." + +"You're very nervous, darling. But no wonder!" + +"You mustn't call me 'darling.'" + +"Why not? It's no worse than Duffer. I like your calling me that." + +"I wonder if we ought to go, as she never came--or stay and wait?" + +"If we go, we shall be playing into Miss Gilder's hands. If we stay, we +shall be playing into mine. Which do you prefer?" + +"Oh, I suppose we'd better stay--for fear of something. But you must be +good." + +Then abruptly I attacked her with a change of weapons. I had fenced +lightly, knowing that Biddy liked a man who could laugh. But now I +threw away my rapier and snatched a club. I told her I would stand no +more of this. Did she want to spoil my life and break my heart? She was +the one thing I needed. Now she would have to say whether she'd put me +off because she didn't love me and never could, or because of that +trash about not wanting to involve me in her troubles. No use +prevaricating! I should know whether she lied or told the truth by the +sound of her voice. But I might as well confess before she began, that +I'd rather be loved by her and refused, than _not_ loved and refused. +Women seemed to think the unselfish thing was to pretend not to care, +if a man had to be sent away; because in the end that made it easier +for him. But in real life, with a real man, it was the other way round. + +"I think you're right, Duffer," Biddy said softly. "That's why I +wouldn't answer you for good and all, that night at Philae. I felt then +it might be kinder to tell you I could never care. But I've thought of +nothing else since--except a little about Monny--and I decided that if +it were _me_, I'd rather be loved, whatever happened. Men can't be so +very different where their hearts are concerned. So I'm going to tell +you I _do_ love you. It was hard to give you to Monny. But I thought it +would be for your happiness. I nearly died of love for you when I was a +little girl. I kept every tiniest thing you ever gave me. I was in love +with your memory when you went up to Oxford. And it was then Richard +O'Brien came. He swept me off my feet, and made me think my heart was +caught in the rebound. When it was too late, I realised that it hadn't +been caught at all. Only hypnotized for a while. I've loved you always, +Duffer dear. The thought of you was my one comfort, often, although I +hardly expected to see you again: or maybe, for that very reason. No, +don't touch me! please let me go on now, or I'll not tell you any more. +I wonder if you never guessed what I had in that chamois-skin bag +you're so worried about?" + +"Why, yes, I did guess, Biddy, right or wrong." + +"And I'll _bet_ you it was wrong! What did you think, when I wouldn't +understand any of your hints to tell what I wore over my heart?" + +"I thought then," I answered after a moment's deliberation, "that you +kept--compromising documents which might be of interest to the +organization you and I have talked about. Now I think differently. I +think you kept a lock of my childish hair, or my first tooth." + +"You conceited Duffer!--not so bad as that, because I had never a +chance of getting either. Once I _did_ keep in that bag just what you +said: compromising documents, that the organization would have given +thousands of dollars to get. And my life wouldn't have stood in their +way for a minute, I'm sure. But that was before Richard died. He was +afraid--I mean, I thought it would be better and less suspicious if _I_ +had charge of the papers. And if the Society had ever got hold of him, +he believed the letters and lists of names I had, might have bought +back his safety, if I played my hand well. He'd told me just what to +do. But when he was ill, he had a nurse whom I began to suspect as a +spy. Once when I was called into Richard's room suddenly, half dressed, +the chamois-skin bag showed, as my wrapper fell open at the breast. I +caught her looking at it with an eager look; and that very night I had +it locked up in a bank. It was only a few days later that Richard died; +and with him gone, I felt there was no more need to keep papers which +might cost the lives or liberty of men. Richard had wronged his +friends, and I wanted none of them to come to harm through me, though +they'd made me suffer with him. I burned every scrap of paper I had, +every single one! And it wasn't till there was an attempt to kidnap +Esmé that I asked myself if I'd been right. Still, even now, I am not +sorry. I wouldn't hurt a hair of their heads. For a while the bag was +empty; but coming away from America and feeling a bit lonesome, I +thought it would do me good to look now and then at the only love-letter +you ever wrote me. It was on my ninth birthday--but I don't +believe you could write a better one now. There was a photograph, too, +of my lord when he was seventeen. I stole that, but it was all the +dearer. At this very minute, the letter and the picture are lying on my +heart. So now you know whether I care for you or not; and you can +understand why I wouldn't put the bag into a bank." + +"Oh, Biddy darling," I said, "you've made me the happiest man in the +world." + +"Well, I'm glad," she snapped, twisting away from me, "that it takes so +little to make you happy." + +"So little, when I'm going to have you for my wife?" + +"But you're not. You said you'd rather be loved and refused--" + +"I would, if I had to choose between the two. That's not the case with +me, for I shall marry you, now I know the truth, in spite of fifty, or +fifty thousand, refusals, or any other little obstacles like that." + +"Never, Duffer! Not for all the world would I be your wife, loving you +as I do, unless the organization would forget or forgive Esmé and me. +And that I can't fancy they'll ever do, till the millenium. I shall be +past the marrying age then! Oh, Duffer, I _almost_ wish you had fallen +in love with Monny as I wanted you to do--' + +"Honest Injun, you really wanted that to happen?" + +"Well, I tried to want it, for your sake; and in a way for my own, too. +If I'd seen you caring for Monny, I should have found some medicine to +cure my heartache. Oh, it would have been a very good thing all around, +except for your friend, Anthony Fenton." + +"And I was half afraid he was in love with you! I can tell you I've had +my trials, Biddy. It's my turn to be happy now, and yours, too. Just +think, nearly everybody in the world is engaged, but us--or next door +to being engaged. Miss Gilder and Anthony--who's the only man on earth +to keep her in order: and Rachel Guest and Bailey; and Enid Biddell and +Harry Snell; and even your stepdaughter, Esmé O'Brien--" + +"Duffer, she's _married_!" + +"What, to young Halloran? How did they manage it?" + +"I don't know yet. I've had only a telegram. It came to Assuan too +late, and Sir Marcus Lark brought it to the boat. I found it that night +when we got back from Philae. But I haven't told, because I dared not +be with you alone long enough to speak of private affairs, till I could +decide whether to let you know I loved you, or make believe I didn't +care a scrap." + +"As if I could have believed your tongue, unless you had shut your +eyes! So Esmé is married, and off your hands?" + +"Not off my hands, I'm afraid. This may be visited on me. They must +have known of her meeting Tom Halloran at St. Martin Vesubie, last +summer. They find out everything, sooner or later. Probably they +thought I'd whisked her off to Egypt with me (helped by my rich friend +Miss Gilder, for whom they took Rachel Guest) in order to let her meet +Tom Halloran again, and marry him secretly. Well, she has _married_ him +secretly. When they discover what's happened, they're sure to put the +blame on poor me. And indeed, it is a shocking thing for the son of +that man in prison, and the daughter of the man who sent him there, to +be husband and wife." + +"I don't see that at all," I argued. "Why shouldn't their love end the +feud?" + +"It can't, for strong as it may be, it won't release prisoners, or +bring back to life those who are dead." + +"Anyhow, don't borrow trouble," said I. "If Esmé's married the more +reason for us to follow her example. After Khartum, when Miss Gilder--" + +"Who's taking my name in vain?" inquired the owner of it, at the +sanctuary door. + +"Oh, then you _have_ come, Monny!" Brigit exclaimed. "I--I'd given you +up." + +"I haven't come for the reason you thought," returned the girl +promptly. "I was sure you meant to head me off. And I've learned +without asking, that Antoun Effendi didn't write that note." + +"I told you so! Who did?" + +"He's trying to find out. Probably it was a silly practical joke some +one wanted to play on me. There are _lots_ quite capable of it, on +board! Antoun Effendi said the sunrise was much finer really, from on +top of the great sandhill, so we climbed up. And it came out that he +hadn't asked me to meet him here. If any one not on the boat wrote the +letter, some steward must have been bribed to sell a bit of writing-paper, +and allow a stranger to come on board, while we were away at +Kasr Ibrim. There was a steam dahabeah moored not far off, if you +remember, with Oriental decorations; so we fancied it must belong to an +Egyptian or a Turk." + +"It could easily have been hired at Assuan," Biddy exclaimed. "And it +could have beaten us. We've stopped at such heaps of temples where +other boats only touch coming back." + +"If there were a plot, as you are always imagining, the dahabeah would +have to be near here, too," Monny laughed incredulously. + +"And so it may be. We haven't seen round the corner of the Great Temple +yet." + +"One would think to hear you talk, that you'd expected this poor little +sanctuary to be stuffed with murderers, or at the least, kidnappers." + +"Ugh, don't speak of it!" Biddy shuddered, "Let's go out into the +sunlight again, as quick as ever we can!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +WORTH PAYING FOR + + +When Anthony says that he will find out things he seldom fails. Perhaps +nobody but a green-turbaned Hadji could so speedily have screwed +information out of secretive Arabs, paid to be silent. And he had to +fit deductions into spaces of the puzzle left empty by fibs and glib +self-excusings. What he did learn was this: a dragoman had come, in a +small boat, from a steam dahabeah to the _Enchantress Isis_ while we +were away at Kasr Ibrim. He presented credentials written out for him +in Cairo by Miss Rachel Guest, and dated a few weeks ago. Inquiring for +her, he seemed sorry to hear that she had gone on the excursion. The +dragoman refused to disturb Antoun Effendi, on hearing that the Hadji +was writing in his cabin. His errand was not of enough importance to +trouble so illustrious a man. All he wanted was permission to type one +or two letters for his employers on the neighbouring dahabeah, which +possessed no machine. In the absence of Mr. Kruger, who had gone on +shore for exercise, the dragoman was given this privilege. Possibly he +had taken some of the boat's letter-paper. Who could be certain of +these trifles? Possibly, also, he had walked about with one of the +cabin stewards, to see the luxurious appointments of the _Enchantress +Isis_. As for paying money for these small favours, who could tell? And +nobody knew if the steam dahabeah had hurried on before us, to anchor +out of sight round the oblique façade of Abu Simbel. In any case, when +we went to look for the suspicious craft seen near Kasr Ibrim, she was +not among the two or three small private dahabeahs of artists and +others, moored within a mile of the Great Temple. Notwithstanding her +absence, however, Anthony and I (suddenly confidential friends again) +thought it likely that the shadows in the Sanctuary had not been its +only tenants when we entered there. The invaluable Bedr knew enough of +the Nile Temples to know that the sun's first light strikes only the +altar and the statues over it, in Abu Simbel's inner shrine: that the +four corners of the small cavern-room remain pitch black, unless the +place is artificially illuminated: and that this is never done at +sunrise. The dragoman and one or both of his employers would have had +no difficulty in getting into the temple before the first streak of +dawn, if they had warned its guardian the night before. So far, our +deductions were simple, after learning how the trick of the typewritten +note had been managed: but it was not so easy to guess the object of +the plot. Was Monny Gilder to have been murdered in the dark Sanctuary, +or was she to have been kidnapped? Either seemed an impossible +undertaking, unless the plotters were willing to face certain detection +and arrest. + +As it was, we had no more tangible proof against the man than we had +before, at the House of the Crocodile, in the desert near Medinet, at +Asiut, and at Luxor. With a sly cleverness which did Bedr, or those +employing him, much credit, they had screened themselves behind others. +Even if we had the names of the "tourists" Bedr had served as dragoman, +and if we could lay our hands on their shoulders, we had not enough +evidence of what they had done to obtain a warrant of arrest: and this +of course they knew. Our best chance, Anthony thought, lay in springing +a surprise on them, as they had vainly (so far) tried to do with us; +and when we got them somehow at our mercy, force out the truth. + +It was almost certain that a steam dahabeah could not unseen have +passed the _Enchantress Isis_ at Abu Simbel in broad daylight, going +back toward Assuan. Therefore, since it was not moored near the temple, +if it had been in the neighbourhood at all it must have dashed on ahead +of us in the direction of Wady Haifa. With pleasure would we have given +immediate chase, had not the _Enchantress_ been pledged to remain at +Abu Simbel till afternoon. Even as it was, I expected to catch up with +a boat so much smaller than our own; but Anthony damped my hopes, +explaining the difficulties of navigation between Abu Simbel and Wady +Haifa. There were, he said, great shifting sandbanks in the water which +looked so transparently green, so treacherously clear. Without the most +prudent piloting the river was actually dangerous, as new sandbanks had +a habit of forming the minute you shut your eyes or turned your back. +The _Enchantress_ would have to pick her way slowly through the silver +sands of the Nile, which mingled with the spilt gold-dust of the desert +shore. All the same, these impudent rascals would find it hard to hide +from us at Wady Haifa, especially if we stopped the boat and wired from +the next telegraph station to have them watched on the arrival of their +dahabeah. + +"Perhaps, as they're so clever they'll be clever enough not to arrive +at all," was my suggestion. And Anthony could only shrug his shoulders. +"Wait and see" had to be our policy. + +Happily the Set wandered in and out of the two temples, big and little, +all the morning, ignorant of our worries which, even to us, seemed +small under the benign gaze of the great Colossi. The three stone +Rameses who had faces, wore expressions no one could ever forget; and +there was a sense of loss in turning away from them. + +A crocodile swam past the _Enchantress_ as she steamed up river; a +long, dark, prehistoric shape. He seemed an anachronism, but so did +Bedr, with his plottings; yet both were real, real as this Nile-dream +of dark rocks, of conical black mountains shaped like ruined pyramids, +and yellow sandhills whose dazzling reflections turned the blue-green +river to gold. + +The next day at noon, we came to Wady Halfa; and the _Enchantress Isis_ +who had brought us eight hundred miles from Cairo, was now to be +deserted by those with Khartum in view. All save three of the party +were going on through this gate of the Sudan, where the river way ended +and the desert-way began. Neill Sheridan was turning back immediately, +in a government steamer; and a bride and groom who cared not where they +were, if with each other, would wait on board the _Enchantress_ until +the band of passengers should return from Khartum. + +These things had to be thought of. But I meant to let Kruger do most of +the thinking, when we landed at the neat, colourful town of Halfa, +which lies (as Assuan lies) all pink and blue and green along the river +bank, sentinelled with trees. From a distance Anthony and I caught +sight of the steam dahabeah seen near Kasr Ibrim, and we could hardly +wait to get on shore. The camp was but a mile and a half away, and I +had wired in Lark's name, to an officer whom he was sure to know, +asking as a great favour to have the passengers on board a boat of that +description watched; and requesting him if possible to meet the +_Enchantress_ on her arrival. "There he is!" said Fenton, standing at +the rail. "I mustn't seem to recognise him, of course. Can't give +myself away! But you--" "Good Lord, there's Bedr!" I broke in, hardly +believing my eyes. And there Bedr was, looking as if butter would by no +means melt in his mouth: Bedr, smiling from the pier, evidently there +for the special purpose of meeting us. His ugly squat figure, and the +tall, khaki-clad form of the officer, were conspicuous among squatting +blacks, male and female, in gay turbans, veils, and mantles, muffled +babies in arms, and children dressed in exceedingly brief fringes. + +"I'll attend to him, while you powwow with Ireton," said Anthony, ready +for the unexpected situation. And while the indispensable if humble +Kruger showed the passengers how to get to the desert train, +superintended the landing of the luggage, and made himself perspiringly +useful, I thanked Major Ireton in Sir Marcus Lark's and my own name. + +His news was astonishing. There were no passengers on board the steam +dahabeah _Mamoudieh_. She had arrived with none save her crew, and the +dragoman now talking with that good-looking Hadji there. As I murmured +"Yes," and "No," and "Indeed--Really!" to the officer, who had kindly +worked on our behalf, I was saying to myself, "My _dear_ Duffer, what +an ass you were not to think of that!" For of course the men had +remained at Abu Simbel, hiding till we should be out of the way, and +sending their boat on to put us off the track. A Cook steamer and a +Hamburgh-American boat were due to stop at the temple. We had passed +both on the river. By this time the two men were doubtless on their way +north, making for Cairo and safety. + +Still, here was Bedr, looking like a fat fly who had deliberately come +to pay a call on the lean and hungry spider. I was impatient for the +moment when the need for genuine gratitude and "faked" explanations was +over, and Major Ireton had gone about other business. + +Then I could follow the Hadji and the Armenian, who had mounted the +steps leading up from river-level to the town. Not far off I could see +the blue-windowed, white-painted desert train, round which, on the +station platform, buzzed and scolded the Set, demanding their +hand-luggage and their compartments. But Anthony and his victim (or was it +by chance vice versa?) were keeping out of eyeshot and earshot of the +late passengers of the _Enchantress_. Brigit and Monny, who must have +seen Bedr, were too tactful to hover near: also they knew "Antoun +Effendi" too well to think it necessary. + +Bedr gave me no time to speak. He rushed forward to greet me with +effusion, as if I were a long-lost and well-loved patron. "I bin so +glad see you again after these days, milord. Sure!" he began. "Antoun +Effendi, he tell you I come here on purpose to do you good. I find out +those genlemens very wicked men, so I leave them quick. They want to +pay me for go back with them, but no money big enough now I know they +try to do harm to my nice young lady. She wasn't so good to me as the +other nice young lady, but that makes no matter. I not stand for any +hurt to her, sure I will not, milord." + +"The meaning of this rigmarole," Anthony cut him short, speaking in +German (which he knew I understood and trusted Bedr didn't) "is, that +the fellow wants us to buy information from him. He pretends to have +broken with his employers on our account (though his explanation of +getting here to Halfa on their dahabeah is ridiculous) and that, having +come for our benefit against their wishes, he's without pay, penniless, +and stranded." + +"A lie of course," I took for granted, also in German. + +"The part about being broke--certainly. But it's certain, too, that he +must know some things we'd like to know." + +"Could we trust a word he says?" + +"No, as far as his moral sense is concerned. But my idea is to bargain +with him. We to pay according to value received. That might be bait for +a fish worth hooking." + +"Yes, that's our line. We haven't much time to hear and digest his +story, though. The train will start in less than an hour." + +"We shan't waste a minute. Without waiting for you, I began to bargain +on the line I've just suggested." + +"How far did you get?" + +"A good way, for I was able to scare him a bit. You see, he earns his +living in Cairo, and I've persuaded him that I have some influence +there, in quarters that can make or break him. He hasn't much more time +to spare than we have, if it's true that he wants to start back on the +government boat. You know they take natives, third class. My +suggestion, subject to your approval, is this: in any case we give a +thousand piasters, ten pounds. But if what he can tell us is of real +use or even interest, we rise to the extent of ten times that sum." + +"It's a good deal for a beastly baboon like him." + +"Remember, he has been doing services lately for which he probably got +high pay." + +"All right, whatever you say, goes," I agreed. + +"I trust to your honours, my genlemens," remarked the beastly baboon in +question, in a manner so apropos that I guessed him not entirely +ignorant of German, after all. + +"Thanks for the compliment," I responded gratefully. + +"We shall have to talk here. There's no time to find a more convenient +place," said Fenton, returning to Arabic as a medium of communication. +"Fire away, Bedr. But don't start your story in the middle. Begin where +you took service with these Irish-American gentlemen." + +"Was the genlemens Irish? I never know that," purred the guileless +Bedr; but Fenton brought him to his bearings. All questions were to be +from us to him. So Bedr "fired away": and there, within a stone's throw +of the train getting up steam for Khartum, we listened to a strange +tale--as strange, and as great an anachronism as that dark crocodile-shape +we had seen--except in the Nile country, where live crocodiles +and many other dark things can easily happen any day. + +Blount's name, according to Bedr, was not Blount, but something else, +well-known in America. It was a name already associated with that of +O'Brien, which inclined us to hope for some grains of truth in the +chaff of lies we expected. Bedr said that in New York, years ago, he +had known the man "Blount." He was related to the American family who +took Bedr from Cairo. Later, when the Armenians had returned to Egypt, +"Blount" had come with him, for a "rest cure." He had engaged Bedr as +dragoman, and on leaving had asked for Bedr's card. That was years ago, +and nothing had been heard from him since: but before the _Laconia_ was +due to arrive, Bedr had received a telegram from Blount instructing him +to meet the ship, and wire to Paris whether Miss Gilder of New York and +a "Mrs. Jones" were on board, with a party. "Blount" knew that Bedr had +seen Miss Gilder as a child, and might now be able to recognize her. On +the day in New York when a block in traffic had given a glimpse of the +little girl in a motor-car with her father, Bedr and "Blount" had been +together. + +As soon as possible after Bedr's reply, "Blount" and another man, who +called himself Hanna, had arrived in Cairo. Bedr knew that they had a +fixed theory in regard to the young lady who passed as Miss Gilder. Who +they supposed her to be, he could not tell; but once he had "happened" +to be near, when they were not aware of his presence, and had heard one +of them mention a woman's name, which sounded like "Esny." They +accepted his word that he had been able to identify the so-called Miss +Guest as Rosamond Gilder, and in her they appeared to take no further +interest. Their attention was concentrated on Mrs. Jones and on the +lady who, according to their belief, was but posing as Miss Gilder. +Apparently they imagined her to be quite another person, one whom they +had taken a great deal of trouble to reach. Also they had an idea that +Mrs. Jones possessed something of which they were anxious to get hold. +It was a thing which ought to be theirs, and they had been after it for +years; but she had contrived to hide herself and it, until lately. + +Why he had been told to guide the two younger ladies to the House of +the Crocodile, Bedr pretended not to know. Perhaps--only perhaps +--Blount and his companion, Hanna, wished to kidnap the one we called +Miss Gilder, and they called "Esney." But good, kind Bedr had never +dreamed that they meant any real harm. There had been a plan of some +sort for that night. Blount and Hanna were to arrive at the House of +the Crocodile for a close look at the young ladies, when the latter had +gone to sleep under the influence of the hasheesh they intended to +smoke. But the two gentlemen had not kept the appointment. At first, +Bedr had not understood why, and had not known what to do. Afterward, +of course, when he had heard of the row in the street, which had caused +the closing of the house for many tedious hours, he had guessed. And +later when he learned that poor Mr. Blount lay wounded in a hospital, +it had all become clear. Mr. Hanna, who seemed to work under Mr. +Blount's orders, had not been able to act alone. + +Then, as to all the travelling up the Nile, Bedr had never been told +why "his genlemen" made the journey. Every one who came to Egypt went +up the Nile. Only, he had been instructed to find out, always, where we +were, and told to arrange their arrival at about the same time. At +Medinet they had not camped, or gone to an hotel, but had stayed in the +house of a friend of Bedr's. It was convenient, though not as +comfortable as he could wish for his clients. The advantage was, that +from the roof it was possible to see into our camp. Bedr had made +friends with one of the camel-boys who went to market to buy the black +lamb: and while we were away, had found out which was the tent where +Mrs. Jones and Miss Gilder (or "Esney") slept. What happened in the +night he could not say. He had stayed at his friend's house, while the +two gentlemen went out. He had done nothing at all for them in Medinet, +except to discover the ladies' tent, and also to buy a bottle of olive +oil. When the gentlemen came home in the middle of the night, they were +angry with him because they said he had shown them the wrong tent. But +that was unjust. It was the only time they had been unkind. Except for +that, they had been good, and had given him plenty of money for a +while. At Asiut and Luxor they had been pleased with him. All they +wanted at Rechid Bey's house, was to get the thing Mrs. Jones had, +which ought to be theirs. They had not told him this, but he heard them +talk sometimes. He knew more languages than they thought. If they +wanted to steal the young lady, they had never said so. When the plan +failed, they did not blame Bedr. It was not his fault. They saw that. + +The _Mamoudieh_ had been engaged as long ago as just after Medinet, +when the thing the gentlemen wanted to do there could not be done. But +Bedr thought that, if the Luxor plan had been a success, the steam +dahabeah would have gone north from there instead of south. It was +because of that failure the boat had followed us up the Nile. At Abu +Simbel Bedr had quarrelled with the gentlemen, because he began to +suspect they meant harm to the ladies, or to one of them. He had been +clever, and got on board the _Enchantress_ as they told him to do. He +had obtained writing-paper, and typed a copy of a letter. In America, +he had learned to do typing. Often he could make better money in an +engagement now, because he knew how to use a machine. And when the +steward showed him over the boat, he left the letter in the stateroom +which the Arab boy said was Miss Gilder's. In spite of all these good +services, which no other dragoman in Egypt could have given, those +gentlemen would not listen to a word of advice. Bedr heard them speak +with the guardian of the temple, about going in before any one else +came to see the sunrise: and afterward they talked of hiding in the +Sanctuary. First, they had asked him if it were always dark there, as +the guide-books said. After hearing this he had put two and two +together: and when he remembered what was in the note he typed for Miss +Gilder, Bedr feared for her and Mrs. Jones. He begged the gentlemen not +to do anything rash, and they were so angry at his interference that +they sent him off with no more pay--nothing at all since Luxor. + +Oh, no, they were not afraid of him, and what he could tell, because +they said nobody would believe a dragoman's word, against rich white +gentlemen. People would say he lied, for spite. But Bedr thought maybe +we should believe, because we knew already that something strange had +been going on. The gentlemen paid off the men on the _Mamoudieh_ and +ordered her to go on to Wady Halfa. They did not know that Bedr had +slipped on board, and hidden there, on purpose to find us, and tell his +story. + +A part of this tale carried truth on its face. But Anthony and I agreed +that there was a queer discrepancy at the end. If Bedr spoke the truth, +Blount and his comrade must have had a reason for wishing to get rid of +the fellow, or for not caring what became of him, a reason unconnected +with a quarrel. And it was certain that, if there had been a quarrel, +it was not because of virtuous plain-speaking from Bedr. It seemed +impossible that he could have got on board their hired boat to follow +us, without his employers' knowledge. Was his appearance at Wady Halfa, +and his apparent betrayal of his clients, all a part of their plan? + +We could not decide this question in our minds, or by cross-questioning +Bedr, while the train waited, for only time could prove. But what we +had heard was interesting enough to be worth the promised thousand +piasters, and the fare north on the government boat just starting. To +make sure that Bedr did start, we called Kruger, put the whole sum into +his hands, asking him to help the dragoman by buying his ticket and +getting the notes changed into gold and silver. This little manoeuvre +left the Armenian so calm, however, that we fancied his wish must +really be to depart on the government boat. Such inquiries as we had +time to make concerning the _Mamoudieh_ seemed to show that she must +remain at Halfa for slight repairs to her engine, and instructions from +her owner, who was staying at Assuan. It was just at the last minute of +grace, with the station-master adjuring, and the Set reproaching us, +that Anthony and I jumped on board the train. + + * * * * * + +Strange that two rows of blue glass windows should have power to turn +the whole world topsy-turvy, or to create a new one, of an entirely +original colour-scheme! But so it was. Those people seated in their +grand, travelling "bed-sitting rooms," had only a superficial +resemblance to the passengers of the _Enchantress Isis_. Monny, for +instance, had pale green hair, with immense purple eyes; and showed +every sign of rapid transformation into a mermaid. Cleopatra's auburn +waves had turned to a vivid magenta: Biddy's black tresses had a blue, +grapey bloom on them: and Anthony's dark eyes were a sinister green, +with red lights. Ghostly, mother o' pearl faces with opal shadows, +peered through the violet glass at an unreal landscape, which would +instantly cease to exist if the windows were opened. But the windows +could not be opened, or a rain of sand would pour in; so we gazed out +on an impossible fairy land consisting of golden sea, with mountainous +shores carved from amethyst, through which shone the glow of pulsing +fires. Always we carried with us an immense shadow, like a trailing +purple banner, unfurling as we moved. Men and women and animals seen at +the numbered white stations in the sand, were but fantastic figures in +a camera obscura. The shadow of the train was torn with fiery streaks: +and when the sun had burned to death on a red funeral-pyre, the moon +stole out to mourn for him. Her coming was sudden. She seemed abruptly +to draw aside a hyacinth curtain, and hold up a lamp over the desert, +when the sun's fire had died. And the lamp gave forth an unearthly +light, which poured over the endless sands a sheet of primrose-yellow +flame. The warm sun-shadow was chilled from purple to gray, and flowed +over the magic primrose fields like a river of molten silver. + +At Number Six Station, where we stopped for water after dinner, a hyena +came galumping over the sand like a humpbacked dog, to stare at us, as +we strolled in couples away from the train into the desert. Next +morning, every one was up early to see the gray hornets' nest huts +which were Sudanese villages, and the villagers themselves, who urged +us to buy straw rugs, baskets, fans, oranges, dried beans, live birds, +and milk in wooden bowls, whenever the train stopped: respectable old +ladies, dressed in short fringes, and small, full-stomached boys +dressed in nothing at all. + +I had not told Biddy about our bargain with Sir Marcus: Anthony's and +my services in exchange for the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Why +should she be forced to share our suspense? For she would share it, if +she knew, even though she didn't yet yield to me, in the matter of a +united future. I wanted to wait before telling her the story, until +Fenton and I had made sure if there were anything golden about the +mountain, except its name. If we were doomed to disappointment I could +then give the tale a humorous turn, easier to do in retrospect than +anticipation. Now, when in blinding light of noon we pointed out, in an +impersonal manner, to all who cared to see, the pyramid-field of Meröe, +it seemed strange to think that no heart but Anthony's and mine beat +the faster. The sun was so hot that most people, blinking dazedly, +retired behind their screens of blue glass almost as soon as the train +stopped, close to Garstang's camp. I had informed the Set, casually, +that wonderful things were being found here in the rocky desert: that +the few neat white tents sheltered men who were going to make of Meröe +a world's wonder: that not only had the army of stunted black pyramids +visible from the train, yielded up treasures, but three tiers of +palaces were being unearthed, or rather, unsanded. I said nothing, +however, of the more distant dark shapes, like the pyramids yet unlike +them. Among those low, conical mountains which perhaps gave inspiration +to the pyramid builders, was our mountain. And I was not sorry when the +burning sun smote curiosity from eyes and brains, and sent nearly all +my flock back to their places, while the train had still some minutes +at the station. + +Cleopatra had not come out. She had frankly lost interest in scenic +history, and did not want to be intelligent: but as Anthony and I +stepped off the train, we saw that Brigit and Monny stood arm in arm in +the doorway. + +"Would you like to jump down?" I asked, reluctantly. For the first time +I did not wish Biddy O'Brien to give me her society. I hoped she would +say "No, thank you," for I wanted Fenton to point out our mountain +(which he had told me could be seen): and it would be inconvenient to +answer questions. + +"Yes, we should like it," they both replied together: so Anthony and I +had to look delighted. It really was a pleasure to help them down: but +even that we could have waited for till our arrival at Khartum. And the +first remark that Biddy made was too intelligent. "What are those weird +things off there in the distance, that look exactly like ruined +pyramids--sort of mudpie pyramids?" + +"Mountains," said Fenton. + +"What, didn't anybody _make_ them?" + +"The legend is, that Djinns, or evil spirits, created them to use as +tombs for themselves." + +"But they're almost precisely like the made pyramids, only a little +more tumbledown. Have they names?" + +"Some have, I believe," Anthony returned, with his well-put-on air of +indifference. "That blackest and most ruined looking one of all, for +instance, between two which are taller--there, away to the left, I +mean--that is called the 'Mountain of the Golden Pyramid.'" + +Our eyes met over the girls' veiled hats. After all, he had found an +opportunity of telling me what I wanted to know. + +"What a fascinating name!" said Monny. "It sounds as if there were some +special story connected with it. Is there?" + +"Ye--es," Anthony was obliged to admit. "There is a legend that it was +used as a tomb by the first Queen Candace, who lived about two hundred +years B.C. after Ptolemy Philadelphus. She used to reign over what they +called the "Island of Meröe." It was this once fertile kingdom, between +the Atbara River over there, and the Blue Nile. They say she wished to +be buried with all her jewels and treasure, and was afraid of her tomb +being robbed, so she wouldn't trust to a man-made pyramid. She ordered +a secret place to be hollowed out in the heart of a mountain; and +that's the one they pretend it is." + +"What a lovely legend! But I suppose there's nothing in it, really, or +clever people like those who're digging here now would have found the +tomb and the treasure long ago," said Monny. + +"I don't know," I left Anthony to answer; wondering what he would say. +"Only a very few have ever put enough faith in the story to search, and +they have never been able to discover traces of an entrance into that +mountain or any other. Of course, in trying to enter the great pyramid +of Ghizeh, they looked a long time before they succeeded. But that was +different. There was never any doubt of there being something worth +seeing, inside, whereas this black lump may be solid rock, and nothing +more. It's many years since anybody has tried to get at the secret." + +"I beg your pardon," politely said (in French) an elderly man, in a +pith helmet, blue spectacles, and khaki clothes, who stood near. "I +couldn't help hearing your conversation; and it may interest you and +these ladies to learn that at this very moment work is going on at the +so-called Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." + +I envied Anthony the brown stain on his face, for I felt the blood +rushing to mine. + +"Indeed!" I ejaculated in English. "We are very much interested. Work +--actually going on!" + +"Yes, it was begun about four or five weeks ago, by an agent of Sir +Marcus Lark, the well-known financier, who got the concession which +some other party was said to be trying for. I am here," went on the +helmeted man, gazing benevolently through his blue spectacles at the +two pretty women, "I am here with my son, who is one of Garstang's men. +We have nothing to do with the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Luckily +for Sir Marcus, it was adjudged to be off our 'pitch.' Still, we are +interested. They are keeping their work very secret, but--these things +are in the air. The talk here is that they're on the point of making, +if they haven't made already, some very startling discovery." + +"All aboard, _if_ you please!" shouted the Greek guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EXIT ANTOUN + + +If there had been no Brigit and no Monny in the world we should have +let that train go on without us, and--hang the Set and its feelings! +But there was a Brigit; there was a Monny; and they were more to us +than all the treasure Sir Marcus was apparently stealing while we +slaved. + +What fools we had been to trust in such a man! And I had actually +wasted pity on the fellow. Now, as we were borne away from Meröe, we +saw our hopes, which had begun to seem certainties, dissolving into +air. They were like the mirage of the desert which lured us with siren +enchantment and mystery in this Never-Never-land which thousands of +brave men had died to win: shimmering blue lakes, that mirrored green +trees and low purple mountains, and the gold of sand-dunes, so real, so +near, it seemed we might walk to them in a few moments: only mocking +dreams, like our belief in a famous financier's loyalty; like our hopes +of fortune. For if Sir Marcus Lark had secretly begun work at the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, it meant that he intended to steal +everything best worth having, for himself. + +It was maddening to realize that we might be too late to thwart him, +but we had to risk this, or risk losing something dearer than the +jewels of a Queen Candace. Anthony was staking the happiness of his +future on the events of the following night. Now that the small cloud +of misunderstanding had passed from the clear sky of our friendship, we +were one again in confidence, as we had been before the Philae +eavesdropping: and I knew the plan he meant to carry out at the +Sirdar's ball. It was rather a melodramatic plan, perhaps, but somehow +it fitted into the circumstances of his queer courtship, and I could +see why Anthony preferred it to any other more conventional. As for me, +I too counted on Khartum to give me a present of happiness. Bedr's +story, largely false as it might be, must have a basis of truth. I'd +ceased to argue with Biddy. "We'll leave the subject of the future +alone till we get to Khartum," I had said. She thought, maybe, that she +had half convinced me of her worldly wisdom. But this was far from +being the case. I was only waiting to see whether my theory were right +or wrong. I couldn't know until Khartum: and nothing on earth, or +hidden under earth, would have induced me to put off the moment of +finding out. + +North Khartum was standing in a mirage as we approached. And Fenton and +I were superstitious enough to wonder if it were a bad omen, that +lovely lake which was not there, reflecting clearly each white and +ochre-coloured house of the city in the sand. Only the blue glitter of +the Nile was real, as the train crossed the river on a high bridge, and +landed us in the surprising garden of beauty which is Khartum itself. +Wide streets, bordered with flowering trees, rose-pink acacias and +coral pendants of pepper-berries; lawns green as velvet; big, verandaed +houses of silver-gray or ruddy stone; roses climbing over hedge and +wall; scent of lilies and magnolias floating in an air clear as +crystal; droning sakkeyehs spraying pearls over the warm bodies of +slow-moving oxen; white sails like butterflies' wings dotting the Blue +Nile: this was the new city created as if by magic, in sixteen years, +upon the sad ruins of Gordon's stronghold. + +On the wide veranda of the Grand Hotel, where pretty girls were giving +tea to young officers in khaki, Fenton came up to Brigit and Monny, who +were questioning me about letters. The look on his face struck the girl +into silence. + +"What is it?" she asked, almost sharply. + +"Don't let me interrupt you," he said. "I can wait a few minutes." + +"No," Monny insisted. "Please speak. I know it's something important." + +"Important only to myself, perhaps," he answered, with a smile that was +rather wistful. "I have to say good-bye now." + +"Good-bye?" echoed Monny, surprised and even frightened, more by his +look and tone than the words themselves. + +"My engagement with Sir Marcus Lark ended when our train stopped at +Khartum. I have other business to attend to here. I've just made my +adieux with everybody else. I saved you till the last." + +Monny was pale. Even the fresh young rose that was her mouth had +blanched. Otherwise she controlled herself perfectly. Was this part of +Anthony's plan? I wondered. He had told me what he intended to do at +the Palace ball to-morrow night; but he had said nothing about this +preliminary scene. I understood, however, why he had not manoeuvred to +get Monny to himself, in a deserted corner of this big ground-floor +balcony of the hotel. Even when with the Set it was a question of +getting their tea, or looking at their rooms, eyes were always ready to +observe Miss Gilder, especially since it was "in the air" that she +really _was_ Miss Gilder--"_the_ Miss Gilder." He did not want Miss +Hassett-Bean and Mrs. Harlow to be saying: "Look, my dear, at the +tragic, private farewell Antoun Effendi and our American Beauty are +having!" Since Philae, there would have been no use in trying to +conceal his feelings for Monny from Brigit or me. Therefore we made +useful chaperons, and could be regarded as dummies. + +"You never told me you were leaving us at Khartum," the girl stammered. +"I thought--" But, though we knew what she thought, she could go no +further before an audience. + +"My business prevents me from staying at the hotel," Anthony explained. +"And--though I shall see you, never again will you see poor Ahmed +Antoun." + +"I don't understand," Monny said. + +"I know. But that was what we agreed upon. You promised to trust me +without understanding. To-morrow night, at the Sirdar's ball, you will +understand. I've arranged with Lord Ernest that you and Mrs. Jones and +Mrs. East and he shall write your names in the book at the Palace. Then +you will all receive invitations for the ball; you four only, of the +party." + +"And you will be there?" + +"I've just told you," Anthony repeated, "that Antoun is saying good-bye +to you forever." + +"Yet you told me, too, that after Khartum I should be hap--" She cut +herself short, and shut her lips closely. I was angry with Fenton for +what seemed cruelty to one who had very nobly confessed her love for +him. Biddy's eyes protested, too; but the man and the girl cared no +more for us or our criticism, at that moment, than if we had been +harmless, necessary chairs for them to sit upon. + +"There are many paths to happiness," Fenton answered. "I shall see you +to-morrow night, and I shall know whether you are happy. Meanwhile I +say again--trust me. And good-bye." + +He held out his strong, nervous hand, so browned by the sun that it +needed little staining for the part he had played--and was to play no +more. As if mechanically, Monny Gilder laid her hand in it. They looked +into each other's eyes, which were almost on a level, so tall was she. +Then Antoun Effendi turned abruptly away, forgetting apparently that he +had not taken leave of Brigit or me. + +"Let's go upstairs at once, dear, and see our rooms," Biddy said +quickly. + +An instant later, I stood alone on the veranda. But I knew well enough +where to find Captain Anthony Fenton when I wanted him, although the +death knell of Antoun was sounding. I was not in the least melancholy, +and despite the tense emotion of that short scene, I had never felt +less sentimental in my life. My whole being concentrated itself in a +desire to visit the post-office, and to bash Sir Marcus Lark's head. + +When Anthony came up for his farewell I had been asking Brigit and +Monny if they expected letters at the Poste Restante. Both said no, but +advised by me, they gave me their cards, armed with which I could ask +for letters and obtain them if there were any. "It's very unlikely any +one will address me there," Biddy had assured me. "The only letter I'm +hoping for will come to the hotel." + +I was not jealous: because I was sure the said letter was from Esmé +O'Brien, now for weal or woe Mrs. Halloran. The letter I hoped for +would be from a very different person, though if it materialized it +would certainly mention the runaway bride. And if such a letter came to +Khartum, the place to look for it, I thought, would be the Poste +Restante. The writer not being a personal friend of Mrs. O'Brien, and +presumably not knowing Khartum, could not be certain at which hotel she +would stop. + +I was hurrying away, a few minutes later, to prove once and for all +whether I were a budding Sherlock Holmes or merely an imaginative fool, +when a servant came out from the hotel and handed me a telegram. + +"_Lark!_" I read the signature at the end with a snort of rage. "I +wonder he has the cheek to--" But by that time I was getting at the +meat of the message. "What the dev--by Jove! Here's a complication!" I +heard myself mutter a running accompaniment to Marcus Lark's words-- + +This is what he had to say on two sheets of paper: + + +LORD ERNEST BORROW, Grand Hotel, Khartum: + +In train leaving Assuan met man from Meröe told me work begun at our +place strange news don't understand but sure you two haven't gone +ahead of bargain must be foul play or else mistake but thought +matter too serious go on north left train returned Assuan caught +government steamer for Halfa just arrived too late for train de luxe +but will proceed by ordinary train to camp better meet me there soon +as possible leaving boat people take care of themselves. Wire +Kabushîa Lark. + +His loyalty to us shamed me. We had not given him the benefit of the +doubt, but had at once believed the worst. He, though "not a gentleman" +in the opinion of Colonel Corkran and some others, was chivalrously +sure that we had "not gone ahead of the bargain!" A revulsion of +feeling gave me a spasm of something like affection for the big fellow +whom his adored Cleopatra sneered at as "common." + +I longed to show the telegram to Anthony; but he would now be at the +Palace, reporting to the Sirdar. Later he would be at his own quarters, +transforming himself from a pale brown Hadji in a green turban into a +sunburned young British officer in uniform. Meantime I would go to the +Poste Restante, and then (whatever the result of the visit) I would +return, collect Brigit and Monny, and take them to the Palace to write +their names in the book. + +I dare not think what my blood pressure must have been as I waited for +a post-office official to look through a bundle of letters. + +"Mrs. B. Jones," he murmured. "No, nothing for B. Jones--unless it's +O'Brien Jones. Here's a letter addressed to Mrs. O'Brien Jones." + +"That's it," said I, swallowing heavily, "Mrs. O'Brien Jones. I think +the letter must be postmarked Assuan." + +Without further hesitation the post-office man handed me the envelope, +on the strength of Mrs. B. Jones' visiting card. + +Going out of the office, I walked on air. "Sherlock Holmes it is!" I +congratulated myself. And I ventured to be wildly happy, because it +seemed to me that a letter sent to Mrs. O'Brien Jones, from Assuan, +could mean only one thing; a justification of my theory. + +I went straight to Biddy's door and knocked. There was no answer, and I +stood fuming with impatience on the upstairs balcony, upon which each +bedroom opens. It seemed impossible to live another minute without +putting that letter into Biddy's hand. And not for the world would I +have let it come to her from any one else. I was tempted to tear open +the envelope, but before I had time to test my character, Biddy +appeared on the balcony, coming round the corner from Monny's room. + +"Why, Duffer! You look as if the sky had fallen!" she exclaimed. + +"It has," I returned. "It's lying all over the place. There's a bit of +it in this letter. A bit of heaven, maybe." + +"A letter for me?" + +"Yes. And if you aren't quick about opening it I'll commit hari kari." + +She was quick about opening it. + +As she read, almost literally my eyes were glued to her face. It went +white, then pink. "Thank heaven!" I said within myself. If she had been +pink first and white afterward, I should have been alarmed. For a +woman's colour to blossom warmly from a snowfield, means good news. + +"Duffer!" she breathed. "Do you--know--what's in this?" + +"I--thought it would come." My voice sounded rather queer. I'd fancied +I had more self-control. "That's why I--wanted your card--for the Poste +Restante." + +"Read this," she said, and gave me the open letter. + +It was written on paper of a hotel at Assuan, near the railway station, +and was as follows: + + +MADAM: Let me explain frankly before I go further, that my name is +Thomas Macmahan. You may remember it. If you do, you will not think +it strange that I--as a private person, as well as a member of a +Society--whose name it is not necessary to mention--wanted certain +papers you were supposed to possess. For a long time I, and others +almost equally interested, tried to trace you, after learning that +you had the documents, or in any case knew where they were. +Naturally we were prepared to go far in order to make you give them +up. We believed that your step-daughter was with you. As the need +was pressing, and we had failed more than once, we would, if +necessary, have worked upon your feelings through her. Had we +questioned you, and you had replied that we were mistaken concerning +the young lady and the papers, we should have been incredulous. But +accident enabled us to hear from your own lips, details which we +could not disbelieve. As a woman we wish you no harm, therefore we +rejoice in this turn of events, for your sake. Your step-daughter +must now be _one of us_, through her husband. She has nothing +further to fear, much as we regret her marriage into a family so +deeply injured by her father. As for you, Madam, you may be at rest +where we are concerned. You said to Lord Ernest Borrow in the Temple +of Abu Simbel, that you could never be happy, until the Organization +Richard O'Brien betrayed, "forgot and forgave his daughter and +yourself." Through me, the Organisation now formally both forgets +and forgives. + +Wishing you well in future, Yours truly, + +T. MACMAHAN (alias Blount). + +P. S. Kindly acknowledge receipt of this letter in care of Bedr el +Gemály whose address you have at Cairo. Not hearing from you, we +shall try to communicate this news in some other way. The present +method has occurred to us, as you may find it useful to know the +state of affairs without delay. + +"Oh, Biddy, _do_ you find it useful?" I asked. + +She held out her hands to me. There was no one on the veranda just then +and I kissed her. + +"Mine!" I said. "What a gorgeous place Khartum would be, to be married +in!" + + * * * * * + +Monny was very brave next day. She went to Omdurman with the rest of +us. And it was the chance of a lifetime, because (through Anthony) +Slatin Pasha himself took us to the place of his captivity: Slatin +Pasha, slim, soldierly, young, vital and brilliant. It was scarcely +possible to believe that this man, who looked no more than thirty-five, +and radiated energy, could have passed eleven years in slavery terrible +beyond description. He spoke of those experiences almost lightly, as if +telling the story of some one else, and it was "all in the day's work" +that he should have triumphed over his persecutors in a way more +complete, more dramatic than any author of romance would dare invent +for his hero. + +He took us, from the river-steps in front of his own big, verandaed +house, down the Blue Nile in a fast steam launch. It was a Nile as blue +as turquoise; and after the low island of Tuli had been left behind it +was strange to see the junction of the Blue and the White Niles, in a +quarrelsome swirl of sharply divided colours. Landing on the shore at +Omdurman, we met carts loaded with elephant-tusks, and wagons piled +with hides. Giant men, like ebony statues, walked beside pacing camels +white as milk. The vegetable market was a town of little booths: the +grain markets had gathered riches of green and orange-gold. Farther on, +in the brown shadows of the roughly roofed labyrinth of bazaars, were +stores of sandalwood, and spices smelling like Araby the blest; +open-fronted shops showing splendid leopard skins, crocodile heads +bristling with knives, carved tusks of elephants, shields, armour said to +have been captured from crusaders; Abyssinian spears, swords and strange +headgear used by the Mahdi's and Khalifa's men. The bazaars of Cairo +and even Assuan seemed tame and sophisticated compared to this wild +market of the Sudan, where half the men, and all the bread-selling +women who were old enough, had been the Khalifa's slaves. + +With Slatin Pasha we went to the Khalifa's "palace" to gaze at the +"saint's" carriage, the skeleton of Gordon's piano, and scores of +ancient guns which had cut short the lives of Christian men. Slatin's +house we saw, too, and the gate whence he had escaped: the Mahdi's +shattered tomb, and the famous open-air Mosque. + +Then we had a run up the Blue Nile, as far as "Gordon's Tree," and +lunched on board the launch. In the afternoon, back at Khartum again, +there was still time to group round the statue of Gordon on his camel, +holding the short stick that was his only weapon, and gazing over the +desert. The Set were allowed to walk through the Palace gardens, to +behold the spot at the head of the grand staircase, where Gordon fell, +and to have a glimpse, in the Sirdar's library, of the Khalifa's +photograph, taken after death. This was a special favour, and as they +knew nothing about the four invitations to the ball, they were +satisfied with their day. + +Dinner was in the illuminated garden of the hotel: and when it was +over, I smuggled Brigit and Monny and Cleopatra inconspicuously away. +No one suspected; and if the lovely dresses worn by Mrs. East and Miss +Gilder were commented upon, doubtless aunt and niece were merely +supposed to be "showing off." + +Never, I think, had Monny come so near to being a great beauty. In her +dress of softly folding silver cloth she was a tall white lily. She +wore no jewels except a string of pearls, and there was no colour about +her anywhere, except the deep violet her hazel eyes took on at night, +and the brown-gold of her hair. Even her lips were pale as they had +been when Antoun bade her good-bye. Hers was no gay, dancing mood. She +was going to the ball because Antoun Effendi had ordered, rather than +asked, her to go. But she was like some fair, tragic creature on trial +for her life, waiting to hear what the verdict of the jury might be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE SIRDAR'S BALL + + +Biddy, radiating joy, walked beside me with wide-open, eager eyes, +taking in every detail of the historic house. She admired the immense +hall, whose archways opened into dim, fragrant gardens. She was +entranced with the Sudanese band, ink-black giants uniformed in white, +playing wild native music in the moonlight. She wanted to stop and make +friends with the Shoebill, a super-stork, apparently carved in shining +metal, with a bill like an enormous slipper, eyes like the hundredth- +part-of-a-second stop in a Kodak, and feet that tested each new tuft of +grass on the lawn, as if it were a specimen of some hitherto +undiscovered thing. + +No question but she was happy! I was proud of her, and proud of myself +because my love had power to give her happiness. What matter now if I +were being robbed at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, by some +unknown thief? Neither he nor any one could steal Biddy. + +Even Cleopatra seemed pleased to be coming to the Sirdar's ball, though +gloom lay heavy upon her. She wanted to look her best. She wanted to be +admired by the officers she was to meet, and to have as many partners +as she could split dances for. To be admired by some one was essential +to her just now, a soothing medicine to heal the smart of hurt vanity. +Monny, I felt, had made herself look beautiful only because she thought +that Antoun, unseen, would see her. As we entered the ballroom, her +eyes were wistful, searching, yet not expecting to find. He had said +that she would never see Antoun again. + +I found friends in the ballroom: men I knew at home, and a few pretty +women I had met in England or abroad: but there was no more than time +to be received by the Aide-de-Camp, and to introduce a few officers to +my three ladies, when the moment came for the formal entry of our host +and hostess, the soldier-Sirdar and his graceful wife, the Royalties of +the Sudan. We were presented: and I guessed at once that the Sirdar had +been prepared in advance to take a special interest in Rosamond Gilder. + +"Anthony has told him the whole thing, and asked his help," was my +thought. From the instant of his kindly greeting for the girl, I found +myself suddenly, excitedly assuming the attitude of a spectator in a +theatre, on the night of a new play. I knew the plot of the play, but +not how it would be presented, nor how it would work out. I saw that +the Sirdar had made up his mind to a certain line of action where Monny +was concerned. And by and by, when he had time to spare from his +general duties as host, I heard him ask if she would like to go on the +roof, where Gordon used to stand watching for the English soldiers to +come. + +"I will take you," he said. "And if you like to stay longer than I can +stop away from our guests, I'll give you another guide." + +He turned to Biddy and me. (Cleopatra was dancing with Baron Rudolph +von Slatin Pasha, gorgeous in medals and stars: Brigit and I had just +stopped.) + +"Would you like to come, too?" the Sirdar asked. + +I answered for Biddy, knowing what she would want me to say. And still +the sense of being a spectator in a wonderful theatre was dreamily upon +me. Stronger and stronger the impression grew, as the Sirdar led us out +onto a wide loggia white with moonlight, and up a flight of stairs to a +flat roof. Overhead a sky of milk was spangled with flashing stars. +Beneath our eyes lay the palace gardens, where the torches of the +Sudanese band glowed like transfixed fireflies, in the pale moon-rays. +Palms and acacias and jewelled flower-beds, were cut out sharply in +vivid colour by the lights which streamed from open windows. Beyond +--past the zone of violet shadow so like a stage background--was the +sheen of the river, bright as spilt mercury under the moon. And beyond +again, on the other side of the Nile, the tawny flame of that desert +across which came the Khalifa's fierce army. "This is where Gordon +used to stand," the Sirdar stopped us near the parapet. "Only the roof +was one story lower then. He climbed up here every day, till the last, +to look out across the desert, saying: 'The English _will_ come!' +There's a black gardener I have, who thinks he meets him now, on +moonlight nights like this, walking in the garden. It wasn't much of a +garden in his day; only palms and orange trees: but a rose-bush he +planted and loved is alive still. I've just asked one of my officers +--one whom I particularly want you to meet, Miss Gilder--to pluck a rose +from Gordon's bush and bring it to you here. He knows where to find us; +and when he comes, I must go back to the ballroom and leave you--all +three--to his guidance. Lord Ernest and he used to be friends as boys, +I believe. Perhaps you've heard him speak of Captain Anthony Fenton?" + +"Perhaps. I don't remember," Monny answered, apologetically. She, so +self-confident and self-possessed, was charmingly shy with this great +soldier who had made history in the Sudan. + +"If you don't remember, Lord Ernest can't have done justice to the +subject. Fenton's one of the finest young officers in Egypt, or indeed, +in the service. We're rather proud of him. Lately he's been employed on +a special mission, which he has carried out extremely well. Few others +could have done it, for a man of great audacity and self-restraint was +needed: a combination hard to find. He has been in the Balkans. And +since, has had a particularly delicate task intrusted to him, to be +conducted with absolute secrecy. No 'kudos' to be got out of it in case +of success. And failure would almost certainly have cost his life. It +was a question of disguise, and getting at the native heart." + +"It sounds like something in a story book," said Monny, while Brigit +and I kept mum, drinking in gulps of moonlight. + +"Yes," the Sirdar agreed, "or the autobiography of Sir Richard Burton. +Fenton has the same extraordinary gift of language and dialect that +Burton had: the art of 'make-up,' too; and he's been to Mecca; a great +adventure I believe he had. Perhaps you can get him to talk of it: +though he's not fond of talking about himself. Altogether he's what I +sometimes hear the ladies call 'a romantic figure.' His father was a +famous soldier. If you were English you would have heard of him. He +broke off a brilliant career in Egypt by running away with a beautiful +princess. She was practically all Greek and Italian, though her father +called himself a Turk: no Egyptian blood whatever. But there was a +great row, of course, and Charles Fenton left the Army. Now Anthony +Fenton's grandfather, who lives in Constantinople, would like to adopt +his grandson: but the young man is in every sense of the word an +Englishman, devoted to his career, and doesn't want a fortune or a +Turkish title." + +"Why, that sounds--" Monny faltered. + +"Like a man of character, and a born soldier, doesn't it? Here he comes +now." + +There was a sound of quick, light footsteps on the stairs. In silence +we turned to see a tall young officer in uniform walk out upon the flat +roof. The moon shone straight into a face grave, yet eager, so deeply +sunburned as to be brown even in that pale light: long eyebrows +sketched sharply as if in ink--the black lines running down toward the +temples; large, sad eyes; a slight upward hitch of the mouth on one +side; clear cut Roman nose; aggressive chin. + +"Miss Gilder, let me introduce Captain Anthony Fenton," the Sirdar +said. + +"I've brought you a rose," said Anthony. + +They stood looking at one another for a long moment, the sun-browned +British officer, and the pale girl. We, Biddy and I, stared at them +both from our distance; and when the spell of the instant had broken, +we saw that the Sirdar had gone. + +We, too, would have gone, though the man and the girl were between us +and the stairway, and we should have had to push past them. But +Anthony, seeing our hesitation, spoke quietly. "Don't go," he said. "I +may want you." + +Never until to-night had Monny Gilder heard him speak English. + +"You see," he said to her, "why I told you yesterday you would never +see Antoun again. I had to tell you that, to make sure you would trust +me--fully, through everything. You _have_ trusted me, and so you've +made it possible for me to keep my vow--a wrong and stupid vow, but it +had to be kept. When I was angry because you treated me like a servant, +I swore that never, no matter how I might be tempted, would I tell you +with my own lips who I was--or let Borrow tell. I was going to make +myself of importance in your life as Ahmed Antoun, if I could, not as +Anthony Fenton. But long before that night at Philae I was ashamed. I +--but you said then, you would forgive me. Now, when you understand what +you didn't understand then, can you still say the same?" + +"I--hardly know what to say," she answered. "I don't know how I feel +--about anything." + +"Well, I know, you goose!" exclaimed Biddy, rushing to the rescue, +where angels who haven't learned to think with their hearts might have +feared to tread. "You feel so happy you're afraid you're going to howl. +Why, it's all perfectly wonderful! And only the silliest, earliest +Victorian girls would sulk because they'd been 'deceived.' If anybody +deceived you, you deceived _yourself_. _I_ knew who he was from the +first! So did your Aunt Clara. We'd kept our ears open, and heard the +Duffer talk about his friend Anthony Fenton who was coming to meet us. +_You_ were mooning I suppose, and didn't listen. We didn't give him +away partly because it wasn't our business, and partly because each of +us was up to another game, never mind what. Captain Fenton never tried +to play you a trick. You threw yourself at his head, you know you did, +from Shepheard's terrace. He had his _mission_ to think of, and you'd +be _very_ conceited if you thought he ought to have let you interfere +with it. As it happened, you worked in quite well with the mission at +first. Then Fate stepped in, and made the band play a different dance +tune; no military march, but a love-waltz. That wasn't his fault. And I +have to remind you of all this, because you're glaring at Captain +Fenton now as if he'd done something wrong instead of fine, and he +can't praise himself." + +As she finished, out of breath, having dashed on without a single +comma, the giant black musicians in the garden began to sing a strange +African love song, in deep rich voices, their instruments, which had +played with precision European airs, suddenly pouring out their +primitive, passionate souls. + +"Biddy dear," said the girl in a small, meek voice, "thank you very +much, and you're just sweet. But I _didn't_ need even you to defend him +to me. I was only just stopping to breathe, for fear my heart would +burst, because I was _dizzy_ with too much joy. I _worship_ him! And +--and you can both go away now, please. We don't want you." + +We went. Biddy would have fallen downstairs, if I hadn't caught her +round the waist. Needless to say, I didn't look back; but Biddy did, +and should by rights have been turned into a pillar of salt. + +"My gracious, but they're beautiful!" she gasped. "For goodness' sake, +let's dash as fast as we can, down into the garden, and do the same +thing!" + +"What?" I floundered. + +"Why, you _duffer_, kiss each other like mad!" + + * * * * * + +Boiling with excitement, when I met Cleopatra later in the ballroom, I +told her what was going on above, in the moonlight, on the roof. + +"At last your niece knows what I think you have guessed all along, but +so wisely kept to yourself," I said. "About Fenton, I mean. It's all +right between those two now. They will come downstairs engaged." + +"Everybody is engaged!" Cleopatra stormily retorted. + +"That's exactly what I remarked to Brigit, before I could persuade her +to follow the general example. 'Everybody in the world is engaged +except ourselves,' are the words I used." + +"And except me," added Mrs. East. "You forgot me, didn't you?" + +"Never!" I insisted. "You could be engaged to a dozen men any moment, +if you wanted to." + +"I think you're exaggerating a little, Lord Ernest," Cleopatra replied +modestly and unsmilingly. But her countenance brightened faintly. "Of +course there are a few men--there were some in New York--" + +"You don't need to tell me that," I assured her. + +"I feel as if I'd like to tell you something else," she went on, "if +you can spare a few minutes." + +"Will you sit out the next dance?" I asked. "It isn't a Bunny Hug or +Tango, or anything distracting for lookers-on." + +"Aren't you dancing with Brigit?" + +"No such luck--I mean, fortunately not. She has grabbed Slatin Pasha, +and forgotten that I exist. By jove, there come Miss Gilder and Fenton. +What a couple! They're rather gorgeous, waltzing together--what?" + +"Very nice," said Cleopatra, trying with all her over-amuleted heart, +not to be acid. "But oh, Lord Ernest, that _settles_ it! I _must_ be +engaged myself, _before_ Monny brings him to show me, like a cat with a +mouse it's caught. Otherwise I couldn't _stand_ it; and afterward would +be too late." + +Hastily I rushed her out into the garden, where the Shoebill regarded +her with one eye of prehistoric wisdom. If she really were a +reincarnation, I'm sure he knew it: and had probably belonged to her in +Alexandria, when she was Queen. + +"There's a Mr. Talmadge in New York," she went on, wildly. "He said he +would come to me from across the world, at a moment's notice, if I +wired. Only it would be awkward if I announced our engagement to-night, +and then found he'd changed his mind. Besides, he'd be a _last_ resort: +and Sayda Sabri said I ought--" + +"Why not wire _Sir Marcus_?" I ventured. (If his telegram had not come +yesterday, I would as soon have advised Cleopatra to adopt an asp.) + +"Oh! well--I _was_ thinking of it. That's one thing I wanted to ask +your advice about. I believe he does love me." + +"Idolizes is the word." + +"And now and then in the night I've had a feeling, it was almost like +wasting something _Providential_, to refuse a Marcus Antonius. Sayda +Sabri warned me to wait for a man named Antony, whom I should meet in +Egypt. That's why I--but no matter now. The 'Lark' is a dreadful +obstacle, though. How could I live with a lark?" + +"Lady Lark has quite a musical lilt." + +"Do you think so? There's one thing, even if you're the wife of a +marquis or an earl, you can only be called 'Lady' This or That. You +might be _anything_. He's taller than Antoun--I mean, Captain Fenton. +And his eyes are just as nice--in their way. They quite haunt me, since +Philae. But Lord Ernest, he has some horrid, common little tricks! He +scratches his hair when he's worried. If you look up his coat sleeves +you catch glimpses of gray Jaeger, a thing I always felt I could +_never_ marry. And worst of all, when he finishes a meal and goes away +from the table, he walks off _eating!_" + +"I don't suppose," said I, "that your first Marcus Antonius ever went +away from a table at all--on his feet; anyhow, while you were doing him +so well in Egypt. He had to be carried. _I_ call Sir Marcus (and I +stole the Sirdar's epithet for the other Anthony) a Romantic Figure! +His adoration for you is a--a sonnet. There's no 'h' in his name to +bother you. And he fell in love at first sight, like a real sport--I +mean, like the hero of a book. If he has ways you don't approve, you +can cure them; redecorate and remodel him with the latest American +improvements. Why, I believe he'd go so far as to give his Lark a tail +if you asked him to spell it with an 'e'." + +"Well--I suppose you're right about what I'd better do," she sighed. "A +bird in the hand--oh, I'm not making a silly pun about a lark--is worth +two in New York! Please tell _every one_ you see I'm engaged to Sir +Marcus, for he is my bird in the hand: and I'll send off a telegram the +first thing to-morrow morning, for fear he hears the news that he's +engaged to me, prematurely. Where is he--do you know?" + +"By to-morrow he'll be at Meröe Camp," I said: But I did not add: "So +shall we!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GOLDEN PYRAMID + + +There was not much room in our hearts for mountains or gold just then: +yet somehow, before we left the Palace, Anthony and I had told Brigit +and Monny the secret which had been the romance of our lives, until +they came into it to paint dead gold with the living rose of love. + +Victorian women would have been grieved or angry with men who could +leave them at such a time; but these two, instead of reproaching us, +urged us on. Naturally, they wanted to go with us. They said, if there +were danger, they wished to share it. And if there were to be a "find," +they wished to be among the first to see what no eyes had seen for two +thousand years. But when Anthony explained that there wasn't time to +get tents together and make a decent camp for ladies, even if we were +sure not to tumble into trouble, they said no more. This was surprising +in Monny, if not in Brigit. I supposed, however, that she was being on +her best behaviour, as a kind of thank-offering to Providence for its +unexpected gift of legitimate happiness. + +Our secret was to be kept. Only the Sirdar knew--and gave Fenton leave +of absence for a few days. The Set did not suspect the existence of a +mountain at Meröe more important than its neighbours. They did not even +know what had become of Antoun Effendi after he bade them farewell, and +"good luck." From the first, he had given it out that he must leave the +party at Khartum. The object of returning to Meröe was to "meet Sir +Marcus;" and I promised to be back in plenty of time to organize the +return trip to Cairo. My departure, therefore, was all in the day's +work: and the great sensation was Mrs. East's engagement. Even though, +for obvious reasons, Monny's love affair was kept dark, Cleopatra could +not resist parading hers, the minute her wire to Sir Marcus had been +safely sent. I got an invitation for all the members of the Set to a +tennis party in the Palace gardens, at which the Sultan of Dafur and a +bodyguard armed with battle axes would be the chief attraction. Also I +induced the landlord of our hotel to promise special illuminations, +music, and an impromptu dance for the evening. This was to make sure +that none of our friends should find time to see me off at the train. +Anthony was to join me there, in mufti, and might be recognised by +sharp eyes on the lookout for mysteries. Once we got away, that danger +would be past: unless Cleopatra told. But I was certain that she would +not to any one ever again mention the name of Antoun. + +It was a full train that night, but no one in it who knew Antoun. Many +people who had been visiting friends or staying at an hotel for weeks, +were saying good-bye. The narrow corridors of the sleeping-cars had +African spears piled up on the floor against the wall, very long and +inconvenient. Ladies struggled in, with rainbow-coloured baskets almost +too big for their compartments. Seats were littered with snake-skins +like immense, decayed apple parings; fearsome, crescent-shaped knives; +leopard rugs in embryo; and strange headgear in many varieties. Stuffed +crocodiles fell down from racks and got underfoot: men walked about +with elephant tusks under their arms; dragomans solicited a last tip; a +six-foot seven Dinka, black as ink and splendid as a Greek statue, +brought flowers from the Palace for some departing acquaintance of the +Sirdar and his wife. Officers in evening dress dashed up through the +sand, on donkey-back, to see the last of friends, their mess jackets +making vivid spots of colour in the electric light. All the fragrant +blossoms of Khartum seemed to be sending farewell messages of perfume +on the cool evening air. No more fantastic scene at a railway-station +could be imagined. If the world and its doings is but a moving picture +for the gods on Olympus they must enjoy the film of "a train departing +from Khartum." + +Anthony did not join me until just as the train was crawling out of the +station, for we had asked Brigit and Monny not to see us off, and they +had been startlingly acquiescent. We had a two-berthed compartment +together, and talked most of the night, in low voices; of the mountain; +of the legends concerning it, and the papers of the dead Egyptologist +Ferlini, which indirectly had brought Fenton into Monny Gilder's life, +and given Brigit back to me. There was the out-of-doors breakfast +party, too, on the terrace at Shepheard's. Had it not been for this +incident Antoun, the green-turbaned Hadji, would never have been +selected by Miss Gilder, in words she might now like to forget. "I'll +have _that_!" But, had not a distressed artist called on me one morning +in Rome, months ago, with an old notebook to sell, I should not have +come to Egypt for my sick-leave; and none of us would have met. I had +visited the artist's studio to please a friend, and bought a picture to +please him (not myself); therefore he regarded me as a charitable +dilettante, likely to buy anything if properly approached. Bad luck had +come to him; he wanted to try pastures new, and needed money at short +notice: therefore he wished to dispose of a secret which might be the +key to fortune. Why didn't he use the key himself? was the obvious +question; which he answered by saying that a poor man would not be able +to find the lock to fit it. + +The notebook he had to sell had been the property of a distinguished +distant relative, long since dead; the Italian, Ferlini, who about 1834 +ransacked the ruins of Meröe in the kingdom of Candace. Ferlini had +given treasure in gold, scarabs, and jewels to Berlin, all of which he +had discovered in a secret _cache_ in the masonry of a pyramid, in the +so-called "pyramid field" of Meröe. But he had been blamed for +unscientific work, and in some quarters it was not believed that he had +found the hoard at Meröe. This jealousy and injustice had prevented +Ferlini's obtaining a grant for further explorations he wished to make. +He claimed to have proof that in a certain mountain not far from the +Meröe pyramids, and much resembling them in shape, was hidden the tomb +of a Candace who lived two hundred years earlier than the queen of that +name mentioned in the New Testament, mistress of the eunuch baptized by +St. Philip. In the notebook which had come down with other belongings +of Ferlini the Egyptologist, to Ferlini the artist, was a copy of +certain Demotic writing, of a peculiar and little known form. The +original had existed, according to the dead Ferlini's notes, on the +wall of an antechapel in one of the most ruinous pyramids at Meröe, +decorated in a peculiarly barbaric Ethiopian style. The wall-writing +described the making of the mountain tomb, ordered by Candace in fear +that her body might be disturbed, according to a prophecy which +predicted the destruction of the kingdom if the jewels of the dead were +found. + +Ferlini, a student of the Demotic writings which had superseded +hieroglyphics, doubted not that he had translated the revelation +aright, though he admitted supplying many missing words in accordance +with his own deductions. He was in disfavour at the time he tried to +organize an expedition in search of the queen's hoard, and though +legends of the mountain confirmed the writings which Ferlini was the +first to translate, the Italian could induce no one to finance his +scheme. The one person he succeeded in interesting had a relative, +already excavating in Egypt: but eventually addressed on the subject, +this young man replied that the antechapel in question had fallen +completely into ruin. It would be impossible, therefore, to find the +wall-writing, "if indeed it ever existed." + +This verdict had put an end to Ferlini's hopes, and nothing remained of +them save the translated copy of the writing in his notebook (the +missing words inserted) and the legends of the negroes who, generation +after generation since forgotten times, had told the story of the +"Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." Nobody, within the memory of man, had +ever searched for the problematical tomb: and as tales of more or less +the same character are common in Egypt, I did not place much faith in +the enthusiastic jottings of Ferlini. However, my love of the unknown, +the mysterious and romantic, made me feel that the possession of the +notebook was worth the price asked: two thousand lire. When I had +brooded over it myself, I posted it to Fenton at Khartum; and his +opinion had brought me to Egypt. Thinking of the matter in this way, it +seemed that we owed our love stories to the impecunious artist, who had +probably spent his eighty pounds and forgotten me by this time. In a +few hours, or a few days, we might owe him even more. + +Anthony, acquainted with Meröe, its pyramids and pyramidal mountains, +since his first coming to the Sudan, had been able to plan out our +campaign almost at an hour's notice. He knew where to wire for camels +[to take us to our destination, eighteen miles from Kabushîa], also for +trained excavators. And he knew one who, if the white men were in +ignorance, could tell us all the most hidden happenings of the desert +for fifty miles around. This was the great character of the +neighbourhood, among the blacks, the Wise Man of the Meröitic desert, +who claimed to be over a hundred years old, had a tribe of sons and +grandsons, and practically ruled the village of Bakarawiya. For +countless generations his forbears had lived under the shadow of the +ruined pyramids. Family tradition made them the descendants of those +Egyptian warriors who revolted in the time of King Psammetichus, +migrating from Elephantine Island to Ethiopia. There they were well +received by the sovereign, given lands in Upper Nubia, and the title of +Autolomi, or Asmack, meaning "Those who stand on the left side of the +King." Anthony's friend and instructor in the lore of legends rejoiced +in the name of "Asmack," which, he proudly said, had been bestowed on +the eldest son in his family, since time immemorial. + +Asmack the old and wise was to meet us at Kabushîa Station, with +camels, one for each, and one for Sir Marcus, in case he had arrived +and wished to ride to the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. + +It was orange-red afternoon when our white train slowed down, to pause +for a moment at Kabushîa Station, and the first face we saw was that of +Sir Marcus Antonius--a radiant face whose beaming smile was, I knew, +not so much a welcome for us as a sign that he had received the +telegram from Cleopatra. He hurried along the platform to the steps of +our sleeping car; and Anthony, ready to swing himself down before the +train stopped, pointed out Asmack not far off,--a thin old black man +who must once have been a stately giant, but bent forward now as if +searching the earth for his own grave. He had got to his feet, from a +squatting position in the coal-stained, alluvial clay of this strange +desert, and was gazing toward us, his few rags fluttering in the warm +wind. Beside him stood a mere youth of fifty or so, and two or three +young men, with several sulky camels. + +Sir Marcus began to shake hands almost before we were on the platform; +and so did he engross himself in us and absorb our attention that none +of us quite knew when the train went out. + +"My dear boys!" he addressed us, nearly breaking our finger bones. +"Lord, Fenton, you're even better looking as a true Britisher than a +false Arab! But never mind that now. Borrow, you're a trump. I believe +I owe everything to you. I mean, in the matter of Mrs. East--_Clara_. +It always was my favourite name. Fenton knows? Thanks for the +congratulations. Thanks to you both. You must be my best men. What? +Can't have but one? Well, it must be Borrow, then, I suppose. Oh, about +the mountain? Why, of course you're anxious. Don't think I have not +been busy. I have. Got here by special train. Cost me a lot of money. +But who cares? It's worth it. I want to hurry things up, and get to +Khartum. What your blessed mountain is to you, that is a certain lady +to me." + +"What have you found out?" I managed at last to cut short his +rhapsodies. + +"Why, not much, I'm bound to confess. But I've had only a few hours. +Some one--heaven knows who--came here, it seems, with Arabs he'd +engaged heaven knows where, and pretended to be my agent, empowered by +me to work at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, where it was well +known I'd got the right to excavate. Well, the chap was armed with +credentials, and had a contract signed by me, so the authorities +thought he was all right of course, and let him go on. This was more +than a month ago. He pitched his camp out by the mountain, and nobody +disturbed him. Fact is, from what I hear, I don't believe the +excavating men from the Liverpool School of Archeology or whatever you +call it, thought much of his chances of success. A case of looking for +Captain Kidd's treasure! He and his men were excavating round the +mountain, and he'd engaged some more fellows from the neighbourhood to +make the work go faster. But a few days ago--not yet a week--he +discharged the lot, paid them up and sent them off saying he'd +abandoned hope of finding any entrance to an alleged tomb. The Arabs +departed by train; but the fellows from hereabouts gossiped a bit, it +seemed, and the story was started that they'd been got rid of because +the Boss had hit on something, and wanted to be left to himself. + +"You haven't told us yet the name of the man," Anthony reminded him. + +"By Jove, no more I haven't! I'm so excited about everything. You won't +know it, but Borrow will. Colonel Corkran." + +Anthony gave me a look. "I do know the name," he said. "It's the man of +my dream." + +"The man of your dream? Corkran a _dream_?" + +"A dream which has kept repeating itself until I grew superstitious +about it. A red-faced man with a purplish sort of moustache, I saw +coming between you and us, or looking at me out of a dark recess, +something like a deep doorway. Borrow said when I told him, I was +describing your man, Corkran, whose place he took on your yacht +_Candace_." + +"Well, I'm hanged! If that's not the rummiest go! I only hope he's not +in that recess or deep doorway now, if it leads into your mountain. You +remember, Borrow, my telling you he'd been alone for a while in the +sitting-room I use as an office at the Semiramis Hotel, and had had a +good chance if he wanted to browse among my papers? Well, I didn't +mention this to you at the time, but an unsigned contract with you for +your services, in return for all my rights in the Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid, was lying on the desk. (As for the contract he's been +showing here, it could only have been for the trip; but it showed him +to be my agent right enough.) And there were two confidential letters +on my desk: one from a man I'd written to, an Egyptologist chap, saying +in his opinion there _might_ be a tomb in the mountain; the other, an +answer, not finished, telling him I meant to run the risk, and had +secured the rights. You know how queer I thought it, Corkran should +throw up his job, which was paying him pretty well? But it wasn't my +business, and I was jolly glad to be rid of him as it happened. Well, +here we have the mystery explained." + +"Not quite yet! I wish we had," I said, thinking of the sly old poacher +on our preserves, who had perhaps by this time skimmed the cream off +the secret. It was easy to guess why he had sent away his workers if, +indeed, he had imagined himself on the eve of a discovery. Rights to +dig are given on the understanding that the Egyptian government shall +have half of anything found, worth the taking. Corkran's scheming to be +alone must mean that he intended annexing what treasure he could carry +off, and then getting out of the bad business. Already six days had +passed since the Arabs and Nubians had left him alone in his camp; and +though it was lucky that we had learned what was going on, it might be +too late to profit by the information. Even if we caught Corkran +red-handed, he might have hidden his spoil where none but he, or some +messenger, could ever find it. + +"You'll go out with us to the mountain, Sir Marcus?" I went on. "We'll +be ready to start--" + +But Sir Marcus had suddenly become deaf. He had turned as if to gaze +after the long ago departed train. Instead of answering me, he was +stalking off toward a group of people at the far end of the platform: +three ladies and two men in khaki. For a second I felt an impulse of +indignation. Cheek of him to march away like that, not caring much that +we had been robbed, largely through his carelessness, and by one of his +own men! + +But the indignation turned to surprise, sheer incredulous amazement. I +glanced at Anthony to learn whether he had seen; but he was beckoning +the old wise man of the desert. "Fenton," said I, "it seems we weren't +the only passengers to get off here. There are three people we know, +talking to two we don't." + +Anthony looked. "Great Scott!" said he. And in another instant we were +following Sir Marcus hastily along the platform to greet--or scold (we +weren't sure which it ought to be) the big hatted, green-veiled, +khaki-dressed but easily recognised figures of Brigit O'Brien, Monny +Gilder, and Mrs. East. + +"We couldn't help it," Monny cried in self-defence to Anthony, before +he had time to reach the group. "We knew you wouldn't let us come, so +we came--because we _had_ to be in this with you. Even Biddy wanted to +--and she's so _wise_. As, for Aunt Clara, I believe she'd have started +without us, if we hadn't been wild for the journey. So you _see_ how it +was!" + +We did see. And we couldn't help rejoicing in their pluck, as well as +in the sight of them, though it was all against our common sense. + +"We've ordered our own camels, and a tent, and things to eat and drink, +so we shan't be any bother to you," Monny went on, as Anthony rather +gravely shook hands, his eager brows lifted, his eyes smiling in spite +of himself. "We couldn't have done it, if it hadn't been for Slatin +Pasha. We first went and confided _everything_ to him, because we knew +he loved adventures and would be sure to sympathize. These gentlemen +from the camp are his friends, and they've organized our little +expedition at his request. More than one person can use the telegraph, +you know! And oh, won't it be lovely going with you out into the +desert!" + + * * * * * +It was not yet evening when we set forth; but it was the birth of +another day when we arrived within sight of Corkran's camp. The tents +glimmered pale in the light which comes up out of the desert before +dawn, as light rises from the sea; and so deep was the stillness that +it might have been a ghost camp. There was not even the howling of a +dog; and this silence was more eerie than the silence of sleep in a +lonely place; because of the tale a grandson of Asmack's had brought to +the village. He was one of the Nubian men Corkran had engaged to help +his Arab workmen from the north; and when the whole gang had been +discharged he, suspecting that some secret thing was on foot, hid in +the desert-scrub that he might return by night to spy. He had wished +his brothers to stay with him, but they, fearing the djinns who haunt +the mountain and have power at night, refused, and begged him to come +away lest he be struck by a terrible death. The legend was that Queen +Candace, the queen who ordered the making of the tomb--had been a +witch. When she died, by her magic arts learned from the lost Book of +Thoth, she had turned all those aware of the tomb's existence, into +djinns, to guard the secret dwelling of her soul. Even the great men of +the court who by her wish hid in the mountain her body and jewels and +treasure, became djinns the moment they had closed and concealed the +entrance to the tomb. They could never impart the secret to mortals; +and because of the knowledge which burned within their hearts, and the +anguish of being parted forever from those they loved, the tortured +spirits in prison grew malevolent. While the sun (still worshipped by +them as Rã) was above the horizon they had no power over men, but the +moment that Rã? "died his red death" the djinns could destroy those who +ventured within such distance of the mountain as its shadow might +reach: and if any man ventured nearer in the darkness of night, he +heard the wailing of the spirits. Camp had been pitched beyond the +shadow's furthest reach; but the night after the workmen were +discharged, Asmack's one brave grandson had been led by curiosity to +approach the haunted mountain. When he had crept within the trench most +lately dug, he had heard the wicked voice of the djinns raging and +quarrelling together. There had been a threatening cry when they knew +how a man had defied their power, and the Nubian had escaped a fate too +horrible to put in words, only by running, running, until his breath +gave out, and the sun rose. + +This story gave the silent desert power even over European minds, as we +came where the small camp glimmered, just outside the Shadow's wicked +circle. + +Not one of Asmack's men would go with us to the tent, which was +evidently that of the leader. He might be lying there dead, struck by +the djinns, they said, and all those who looked upon the body would be +accursed. The three women would not have gone to Corkran's tent, even +had we allowed them to do so; and Sir Marcus, already a slave, though a +willing one, stayed with his adored lady and her friends, inside the +ring which the Nubians proceeded to make with the camels. Carrying a +lighted lantern Anthony and I walked alone to the tent. + +The flap was down, but not fastened, and the canvas moved slightly as +if trembling fingers tried to hold it taut. + +"Colonel Corkran!" I called out, sharply. But there was no answer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE SECRET + + +Anthony lifted the flap, holding up the lantern, and we both looked in. + +No one was there--but the tent had the look of recent occupation. It +was neatly arranged, as the tent of an old soldier should be: but on +the table stood a half-used candle stuck in a bottle; and beside it a +book lay open, face downward. Entering the tent the first thing I did +was to glance at the title of this book. It was a learned archeological +treatise. Here and there a paragraph was marked, and leaves +dog's-eared. Three other volumes of the same sort were piled one upon the +other. Anthony and I had read all four during the last few months, +since our minds had concentrated on the subject of pyramids and rock +tombs. + +"What do you think has become of Corkran?" I said to Anthony. + +"I think the djinns have got him," he answered, gravely. + +"You mean--" + +"I don't quite know what I mean. But--he must have hit upon something, +and then--have been prevented from coming back." + +"Why should he have had such luck, after a few weeks' work, an +unscientific fellow like him, if the secret of the mountain has been +inviolate for over two thousand years?" + +"Wait and see what's happened to him before you call it 'luck,' Duffer. +But you must remember that nobody except Ferlini and a few +superstitious blacks ever believed that the mountain had a secret. +Incredulity has protected it. And Corkran had to work like a thousand +devils if he hoped to get hold of anything before he was found out. I +believe he has got hold of something, and--that it then got hold of +him. But we shall see." + +"Yes, we shall see," I repeated. "And before long if we too have luck." + +"I hope it won't be the same kind as his. But come along out of this. +We must get to work before sunrise, and try for a result of some sort +before the worst of the heat. If _he's_ found anything, we ought pretty +quickly to profit by his weeks of frantic labour. That, maybe, will be +our revenge." + +We had to tell the party what we had found in the tent, and what we +meant to do next. Sir Marcus was now excused by Mrs. East; but until +summoned by us the ladies were to remain where they were, under shelter +of the tent which the camel-boys were getting into shape. When exhorted +to be patient, they received the advice in sweet silence; but we did +not until later attach much importance to this unusual mood. Perhaps at +the moment we were too preoccupied to notice expressions, even in the +eyes we loved best. + +We took with us two men whom Asmack had provided as diggers, and in +five minutes we were at the base of the little dark, conical mountain +which for weeks had been the object of our dreams. Now, standing face +to face with it, the glamour faded. The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid +was exactly like a dozen other tumbled shapes of black rock, grouped or +scattered over the dull clay desert which many centuries ago had been +the fertile realm of Candace. Why should a queen have selected it from +among its lumpish fellows, to do it secret honour? But Corkran had had +faith. Here were traces of what Fenton called his "frantic labours." + +A parallel trench had been dug with the evident object of unearthing a +buried entrance into the mountain. Down it went through hardened sand +and clay, to a depth of eight or ten feet; and descending, we found as +we expected to do, several low tunnels driven at right angles toward +the mountain itself. One after another we entered, crawling on hands +and knees, only to come up against a solid wall of rock at the end. +Each of these burrows represented just so much toil and disappointment. +But Corkran, whose undertaking could be justified even to his own mind +only by success, had not been discouraged. The trench went round three +sides of the mountain, as we soon discovered; and the corner of the +fourth façade not having yet been turned, it seemed a sign that Corkran +had, as Anthony said, "hit upon something," or thought that he had done +so. Otherwise he would not have discharged his men before the fourth +gallery was begun. We had started from the south because our camp faced +the long trench on that side, and it was quicker to jump into it than +to walk round and examine the excavations from ground-level. On the +east, the plan of the work was the same as on the south, except that +the tunnels leading mountainward were driven at different distances, +relatively to each other; and each of these also ended in a _cul de +sac_. Now remained the trench on the north side of the mountain, which +was the most promising direction for a "find": and as we turned the +corner which brought us into this third trench the sun rose, making the +sky blossom like the primrose fields of heaven. + +On this side, sand driven by the northerly wind which never rests had +banked itself high against the mountain, and the excavation had been a +more serious task. There were only two tunnels, and into both sand had +fallen. One was nearly blocked up, and impossible to enter without +reopening; but we took it for granted hopefully that the second had +been made later. This ran toward the mountain with a northeasterly +slant; and though it was partly choked by sand, it was possible to +crawl in. Anthony insisted on going first. I followed, at the pace of +my early ancestor the worm, and Sir Marcus comfortably waited outside. +He wanted to be a pioneer only in financial paths; and after all, this +was _our_ mountain now. It wasn't worth his while to be killed in it. +Besides, as he pointed out, if anything happened to us there must be +some one to organize a rescue, and break the news to the ladies. + +Anthony had a small electric torch, and I a lantern, but going on hands +and knees, we could use the lights only now and then. When we had crept +ahead (descending always) for twelve or fifteen feet, Anthony stopped. +"Hullo!" I heard him call, in a muffled, reverberating voice. "Here's +the reason why Corkran sent his Arabs away!" + +"What is it?" I yelled, my heart jumping. + +"The rock's been cut back, by the hands of men." + +"His men, perhaps." + +"No, it isn't done like that nowadays. The tunnel turns here, dips +down, and goes on along this flat wall. I bet Corkran always kept ahead +of the men. When he saw this, he discharged his workers--And yet, it +may be nothing of importance after all. Only a flat surface for some +old wall-inscription such as Romans and even Egyptian soldiers made +constantly, on the march." + +The rumbling voice ceased, as Anthony crawled round the turn of the +passage. I followed, literally close on his heels, the burrow +descending like a rabbit-hole. Suddenly Anthony stopped again. "I've +come into a sort of chamber Corkran's scooped out," I heard him say. +"It's high enough to sit up in--no, to stand up in. This is the end of +the passage, I think. By Jove, look out!" He had disappeared in the +darkness behind a higher arch in the roof of the gallery. As he cried +out, I slipped through after him, slid down a steep, abrupt slope, and +by the light of my agitated lantern saw Anthony standing waist-deep in +a well-like hole, into which he had evidently stumbled. + +"Let me give you a hand up," I said. + +"No thank you," he answered, in a tense, excited voice. "This is where +I want to be. Look!" + +I looked and saw, at the bottom of the scooped-out hole, a crevice in +the flat wall of rock which we had been following down the passage, +after its turn from the right angle way to creep along the +mountainside. Out of this crevice protruded a large iron crowbar, +apparently jammed into place, the first tool we had seen anywhere. + +The chamber in which I stood, was littered and piled up with hard +masses of earth which had been thrown out of the hole; and on the rough +floor of the latter I stepped on the spade which had done the work. It +nearly turned my ankle as I jumped on to it, but I hardly felt the +pain. Torch and lantern showed clearly that the crevice in the wall was +not a natural crack, but a man-made opening. It was as if a slab of +rock fitted roughly into grooves had first been lifted, and had then +fallen heavily on to the crowbar. + +I set the lantern on the earthy floor and its yellow light streamed +through the crack, whence the crowbar protruded like a black pipe in a +negro's mouth. It was all darkness on the other side; from behind the +screen of rock, set in its deep grooves, came the strangest sound I +ever heard, or shall ever hear. It was a voice, groaning, yet it was +not like a human voice. The horrid idea jumped into my head that it was +the howl of an evil spirit sitting in a dead man's skull. + +"He's alive then," exclaimed Anthony, pale in the sickly light. "Is +that you, Corkran?" he called. The only answer was another groan. + +"I see the whole business now, don't you?" Fenton said. "This passage +is very steep. Already it was far under ground-level, before we got to +the cutting on the mountain wall, and it must have been under ground-level +for many centuries. They dug deep down, to make the tomb, and +then covered up the entrance with earth. When Corkran got to his +portcullis, he thought he'd reached the reward of his labours. Well--so +he had--the punishment. Here's the heap of stone he used as a fulcrum +for his lever. The heap tumbled when he was on the other side, and the +slab of rock came down to trap him. We'll have to build up his fulcrum +again, before we can do anything ourselves." + +Together we forced the flat end of the crowbar into the crevice, +pressed a piece of rock under it, and exerted all our strength. The +slab moved upward an inch or two, grating in its rough grooves. The +crack, no higher than the diameter of the crowbar plus a stone or two, +when we saw it first, was now twice its original height. In went +another stone, and so on. We worked like demons in hell, and in an +atmosphere almost as hot and breathless. Yet we could breathe. Whether +all the air we got came through the long twisting passage Corkran had +made, or whether there were ventilation from the other side of the +rock-curtain--some opening in an unseen cave--we could not tell. All we +knew was that the mountain had a secret, and that the man who had tried +to rob us of our rights to it, was caught in the trap of the djinns. + +Our "rights!" How fragile as spider-webs, how almost laughable they +seemed down here! Rights we had bargained for with men, which they, not +owning them, had gravely given! I suddenly realized, and I think +Anthony realized, as sweating and silent we piled up the fulcrum of +stones thrown down by the djinns, that they alone, or the sleeping +queen they guarded, had "rights" in this hidden place. + +When we had raised the slab to a height of about two feet in its +grooves, and had made sure that the stones held it firmly in place, we +told each other that it was time to cross the threshold. The rock-door +was scarcely more than a yard in width, and we crawled through in +single file, Anthony going ahead as before, with his torch. I passed my +lantern in after him, and then followed. As I crept through the narrow +aperture I was conscious, among other emotions, of vague +disappointment. "If this is the way to a tomb, and the only way, there +can't be anything very fine to discover," I said to myself. "Why, the +entrance isn't big enough to let in a decent-sized sarcophagus." + +"It's the man of my dreams all right, and he's lying close to a deep-set +doorway, like the one where I've seen him often. I told you so!" +Anthony was saying in quite a commonplace voice, as I picked myself up, +on the other side of the rock-screen. + +We were in a small chamber more roughly hewn, and not so large as the +inner sanctuary of Abu Simbel, which I had such good cause to remember. +Exactly opposite the entrance by which we had come in was--as Anthony +had said--a door, deeply set in the rock--a door of the same type as +that through which we had passed; and in the shadow of the overhanging +arch lay the heavy figure of Colonel Corkran, dressed in khaki. + +His eyes were open, but he did not stir as we bent over him. Only his +lips moved slightly, as if he were making a grimace. + +"He's trying to ask for something to eat or drink," said Fenton. "What +a confounded fool I am!--I've nothing, not even a flask. Have you?" + +"No. I'll go back at once and get something," I answered. Strange, but +I was not in the least angry with Corkran, whom I had been execrating. +Perhaps this was partly because the impression that the djinns had sole +rights here was growing stronger every moment. We were all interlopers, +usurpers. + +Without stopping for more words, I turned my back to the secret still +unsolved. To my surprise, however, I saw a light stronger than our own +shining outside the partly raised screen of rock. Getting on my knees +to crawl out, my face almost met the face of Monny Gilder, about to +crawl in. Involuntarily I gave way, and in she crept like a big baby, +Biddy coming after. Then we laughed, though I had seldom felt less like +laughing. And the echo of our laughter was as if the spirits laughed, +behind our backs. + +"We never _promised_ we wouldn't come," Monny hastily began, before +Anthony could speak. "We just kept still. And Sir Marcus thought you +wouldn't much mind, because the two nicest Nubians brought us quite +safely. Oh, isn't it wonderful? And to be here when you open that door! +But--why, it _isn't_ one of our men with you. It's--it's the _thief_!" + +"Don't call him names now, dearest," Brigit begged. "Poor wretch! He +looks nearly dead. What a good thing we brought the biscuits and +brandy." + +"I was going for some," I said. Not only had I got to my feet again, +but had helped Biddy to hers, and Anthony had snatched his tall Monny +up, as if she had been a bundle of thistle-down. The Angels! It would +never have done to tell them how glad we were that they had disobeyed +us. It was Providence, apparently, not Marcus Lark, who had sent them +to the rescue. + +"We thought perhaps if you found anything interesting you'd want to +stay with it a long time," explained Monny. "That's why we brought you +food and drink. It is a good thing we came, isn't it?" + +Fenton and I did not answer. Instead, we occupied ourselves with +ministering to the enemy: a few bits of crumbled biscuit, a few drops +of brandy to moisten them. He mumbled and swallowed and choked; and +slowly the veinous red came back to the flabby gray cheeks, with their +prickles of sprouting beard. + +"It's fresh air he needs now," said Anthony. "He won't die from two or +three days' fasting, not he! And it can't be more, for it would have +taken him days and nights of hard work to get here, after his men were +sent off. Jove, I believe it's more funk than anything else, that's +laid him low. Thought he was done for, and all that. Look, there's his +candle-lantern upset on the floor. It couldn't have been very gay for +him when the light went out. Lend a hand, Duffer, and we'll give him to +the Nubians the girls have brought. They'll carry him to his own tent. +He never got as far in as the second door here, so we needn't search +him. Otherwise I would, like a shot." + +Yes, it was Something higher than a mere financier who sent the girls +to us in the antechamber of the secret. We could not, for their own +sakes, have risked bringing them. But here they were, and we should +always have this memory together, we told ourselves, though we did not +tell the disobedient ones. That would have been a bad precedent. What +there was to see, they would see with us. And even the djinns could not +work harm to Angels. + +We went out and collected more stones with which to prop up the second +screen of rock, which was not so thick as the first, and used Corkran's +spade to hold it up at last. Beyond, was another roughly hewn chamber, +and at the far end, set in a curiously fitted frame of wood, a wooden +door, looking almost as new as though it had been made yesterday. +Anthony flashed his electric torch over it, and we saw the grain of +deal. There was a bronze lock, and a latch of strange, crude +workmanship which Monny touched deprecatingly. "May I?" she half +whispered. For to her also the place was haunted. She seemed to ask +permission of spirits rather than of her lover. But the latch did not +move. + +"It would be sacrilege to break the lock," she said. "What shall you +do?" + +"Take the door off its supports: they're not hinges," Fenton answered, +in the queer low tone which somehow we all instinctively adopted. +"We've got one or two implements may help to do the trick." + +He worked cautiously, even tenderly: for this queen's secret was our +secret in the finding, even if the right to it was in the keeping of +the djinns. Monny held my lantern, and it was a good half hour before +Anthony and I together could carefully lift the deal door, unbroken, +from its place. + +Still Monny held the lantern, and at the threshold of a dimly seen room +beyond, we all drew back: for on the sanded floor were footprints. To +them the girl pointed, her eyes turning to Anthony's face, as if to +ask; "How can it be that any one came in, when the door was locked, and +there was that screen of rock to raise?" + +But as we looked, over one another's shoulders, we realised that the +prints were not made by modern boots. They were the marks of sandals; +and they went across the floor to a thing that glittered in the middle +of the room--a vague shape like a draped coffin, with something high +and pointed on top: crossed to a glittering table on which a ray from +the lantern revealed offerings to the dead: a loaf; a roasted duck, its +wings neatly tied with string: cakes and fruit, all dried and +blackened, but perfect in form: and a saucer of incense, from which a +little ash had fallen from a ghostly pastille onto the table. There the +sandalled feet had paused, while the incense caught a spark, and moving +on, had walked straight to the door. + +A faint fragrance from perfume jars came to our nostrils: a strange, +subtle fragrance still, though most of its sweetness had gone, leaving +more marked the smell of fat which had held the perfume all these +years, while civilizations grew up and perished. The man who had lit +the incense and locked the door seemed to have hurried back from--who +knew where?--to stand behind us, saying "I forbid you entrance, in the +name of the ancient gods!" We could not see him, nor hear his voice; +but we could feel that he was there, and something in us revolted +against the ruthlessness of disobeying, of forcing our way into the +room in spite of him, to crush his footprints with ours. + +"Why does the sand glitter so?" Monny asked. "Everything glitters! +Everything looks as if it were made of gold." + +"The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid," Biddy murmured. + +"Go in first, you two, and bless the place," I said, my heart wildly +beating. + +They obeyed for once, moving delicately as if to music which ears of +men were not fine enough to hear. They went hand in hand: and as Monny +in her straight, pale-tinted dress, held up the lantern, I thought of +the Wise Virgin. When this room had last been lighted, the parable of +the Virgins of the Lamps was yet unspoken. + +"It is not sand," said Monny, gasping a little in the heavy air. "It is +sprinkled gold dust. Now it is on the soles of our feet. It shines--it +shines!" + +Anthony and I followed, still with that curious sense of hesitation, as +if we ought to apologize to some one. The room of the dead was very +close, and we drew our breath with difficulty for a moment. But the +discomfort passed. Mechanically we avoided the footmarks printed in +gold--avoided them as if they had been covered by invisible feet. + +Monny was right. Everything was gold--and it shone--it shone. Dust from +the terrible mines of Nub, whence the convict-miners never returned, +lay thickly scattered over the rock-floor. The walls of rock were +plastered with gold leaf, as high as the low ceiling: and upon the +ceiling itself, on a background of deep blue colour, was traced in gold +the form of Nut, goddess of Night, her long arms outspread across an +azure sky of golden stars. + +The table of offerings was decorated with gold in barbaric patterns, +and the saucer which held the burnt pastille of incense was of gold, +crudely designed, but beautiful. Cloth of gold, soft as old linen, +draped a coffin in the centre of the room, and hid the conical object +on the coffin's lid. On a sudden half savage impulse I lifted the +covering, with a pang of fear lest the fabric should drop to pieces. +But it did not. Its limp, yet heavy folds fell across my feet, as I +stood looking at the wonderful thing it had concealed. + +There was no sarcophagus of stone. The doors leading to the rock-tomb +were not large enough to have admitted one. Instead, there was an +extraordinarily high, narrow coffin or mummy-case, richly gilded, and +decorated with intricate designs different from any I had seen in the +museum at Cairo. The top of the case represented the figure of a woman, +with a smiling golden face, painted lips and hair. But the strangeness +and wonder were under the long eyelids, and in the woman's hands. The +slanting eyes had each an immense cabuchon emerald for its iris, set +round with brilliant stones like diamonds, curiously cut. And the +carved, gilded hands of wood, with realistic fingers wearing rings, +were clasped round a pyramid of gold. This it was which had betrayed +its conical shape through the drapery of gold cloth. + +The opening in the miniature pyramid was not concealed. There was a +little door, guarded by a tiny golden sphinx; and on the neck of the +sphinx, suspended by a delicate chain, was a bell. + +"It is to call the spirit of the queen, if a profane touch should +violate her tomb," Fenton said, dreamily. He was beginning to look like +a man hypnotized. Perhaps it was the close air, with its lingering +perfume of two thousand years ago. Perhaps it was something else, more +subtile; something else that we could all feel, as one feels the touch +of a living hand that moves under a cloak. + +No one spoke for an instant. I think we half expected the bell to ring. +Then Fenton said: "Monny, you and Mrs. O'Brien must choose which is to +have the privilege of finding out the secret of the golden pyramid. The +Duffer and I want it to be one of you." + +"Oh no, not I!" cried Monny, almost angrily. + +"Nor I," Biddy firmly echoed. + +"Duffer, the papers were yours. Will you--" Anthony began. + +"No--I--It was _your_ faith in the mountain that brought us to it," I +reminded him. "It ought to be you--" + +"If--if it ought to be _any one of us_," Monny broke in, with a little +breathless catch in her voice. + +"If--But what do you mean?" Anthony turned an odd, startled look upon +the girl. + +"I--hardly know what I mean. Only--I couldn't touch anything here. They +are--_hers_. They've been hers for two thousand and two hundred years. +I never thought I should feel like this. I'd rather drop dead, this +minute, than try to take that little pyramid out of those golden hands. +They've clasped it so long! She wanted so much to keep the secret. +Anthony--this is the strongest feeling that ever came into my heart +--except love for you, this feeling that--we have no right--that it would +be monstrous to rob--this queen." + +"It wouldn't be robbing," Anthony said, heavily, "we have the right--" + +"Oh, I _wonder_?" Biddy whispered. + +"What would become of museums if everybody felt as you suddenly feel +--or think you feel?" Fenton went on. "If it were wrong to open tombs, +the best men in Egypt--" + +"Not wrong, perhaps," Monny explained, "but--oh, I'm sure you +understand. I'm sure in your hearts you both--you men--feel just as we +do now we're in this wonderful secret place. That something forbids--I +don't know whether it's something in ourselves or outside, but it's +_here_. It says "No; whatever others do, _you_ cannot do this thing." +If you didn't feel it, you would have taken the pyramid out of those +poor hands, and tried to tear off the rings, and open the coffin +itself, to get at the mummy. But you haven't--either of you. You don't +want to do it. You can't! I dare one of you to tell me it's only for +Biddy and me that you've kept your hands off." + +"We've come a long way, and have done a good deal to find this secret +that we expected Egypt to give us," I said, dully, instead of answering +her challenge. + +Monny had no argument for me. She turned to Anthony. + +"The secret you expected Egypt to give!" she echoed. "And hasn't Egypt +given you a secret?" + +"Yes," said Anthony, "Egypt has given us a secret: the greatest secret +of all. But--" + +"Is there a 'but'? I wonder if that isn't the only secret which one +_can_ open and learn by heart, without breaking the charm?" Biddy +seemed to be speaking to herself, but we heard. "The secret of love +goes on forever being a secret, doesn't it, the more you find out about +it, just as the world and its beauty grows greater and more wonderful +the higher you climb up a mountain? But other secrets!--You find them +out, and they're gone, like a bright soap bubble. Nothing can mend +broken romance!" + +"If we didn't touch anything here, what a memory this would be to carry +away!" Monny said. "Don't you remember, Anthony, my saying once how I +loved to dream of all the beautiful lost things, hidden beneath the sea +and earth, never to be found while the world lasts, and stuck miserably +under glass cases? You said you felt the same, in some moods. I love +those moods!" + +"I felt--I feel--so about things in general," Anthony admitted. "It was +my romantic side you appealed to--" + +"Have you a better side?" + +"No better, but more practical. _This_ isn't 'things in general.' It's +a thing particular, personal, and definite. If we should be quixotic +enough not to take what we've earned the right to take, we should be +called fools. Instead of claiming our half, the Egyptian government +would get all--" + +"Let it!" Monny cried. "A government is a big, cold, soulless +--impersonality! It never could know the thrill that's in our blood this +wonderful minute--or miss the thrill if it were destroyed. Do you mind +being called a fool, Anthony--and you, Lord Ernest?" + +Anthony was silent; but something made me speak. "I don't mind. You +know, I've always been a Duffer." + +"Our future largely depends on this," Fenton persisted, with a +conscientious wish to persuade us--and himself. + +"I believe it does!" Monny strangely agreed with him. + +"What do you mean?" Anthony's voice was suddenly sharp with some +emotion; which sounded more like anxiety than anger. "Do you mean, that +if Ernest Borrow and I insist on our rights to whatever treasure is +hidden here, you and Mrs. O'Brien will think less of us?" + +"Not less. Nothing you could do would make us think less, after all +that has happened to us, together. But--could it ever be as it has +been--as beautiful, as sweet, with all the dearest kind of romance in +our thoughts of you? You see, you _have_ the glory of finding the +secret. Queen Candace saved it for you. She wouldn't give it to such a +man as Colonel Corkran. She knew he wouldn't respect her. Maybe she +hoped _you_ would. I seem to hear her saying so. All this gold, and the +treasure we haven't seen, is hers. It's been hers for more than two +thousand years. Why should we steal it? _We_ aren't a horrid, cold +Government. It won't be our fault, whatever a Government may choose to +do. She'll know that, and so shall we. Besides, we can beg to have the +tomb kept like this for the great shrine of Meröe. Our memory of this +place can't have the glamour torn away whatever happens. Nothing sordid +will come between it and us, as it would if--why, after all, where's +the great difference between opening the coffin of a woman dead +thousands of years ago, or a few months? Supposing people wanted to dig +up Queen Elizabeth, to see what had been buried with her? Or Napoleon? +What an outcry there'd be all over the world. This poor queen is +defenceless, because her civilization is dead, too. Could _you_ force +open the lid of her coffin, Lord Ernest, and take the jewels off her +neck?" + +"Just now, I feel as if I couldn't," I confessed humbly. + +"And you, Anthony? What if _I_ died, and asked to have the jewels I +loved because you'd given them, put on my body to lie there till +eternity, and--" + +"Don't," Anthony cut her short. "There are some things I can't listen +to from you." + +"And some things you can't _do_. You may think you could, but--Go and +take the golden pyramid out of those golden hands if you can!" + +"I shall not take it," said Anthony, "I shall never take it now. You +must know that." + +"I'm not saying I shan't go on loving you if you go against me. I shall +love you always. I can't help that. But--" + +"That's it: the 'but'. Let it all go! At least, we've had the +adventure. And we've got Love. I don't want the treasure, now. Or the +secret. I give up my part in them forever." + +"For me?" + +"Yes, for you. But there's something more." + +"Another reason?" + +"I think so. Frankly, it isn't all for you. Only, you've made me feel +it. Without you, I might have felt it--but too late. If there's a drop +of Egyptian blood in my veins--why, yes, it must be that, telling me +the same thing that you have told. This Egyptian queen may lose her +treasure, and must lose her secret; but it won't be through me." + +"And because you wouldn't steal them, she has given you the secret and +the treasure, the best of both, with her royal blessing," Biddy said. +"_This_ is what Ferlini's papers, and the legends, really meant for you +and Ernest. Everything that's happened, not only in Egypt, but in our +whole lives, has been leading up to the discovery of the Treasure and +the Secret that we can take without stealing. Do you know what I'm +talking about? And if you do, was it worth coming so far to find--this +treasure that I mean, and this secret?" + +"We know very well," Anthony said, "and _you_ know that we realize it +was worth journeying to the end of the world for--or into the next." + +"Or into the next!" Monny echoed. "Here we're on the threshold of the +next. That's why the Queen's blessing feels so near." + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of It Happened in Egypt +by C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + +This file should be named 8hpeg10.txt or 8hpeg10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8hpeg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8hpeg10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Williamson</title> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; background-color: white} +img {border: 0;} +h1,h2,h3 {text-align: center;} +.ind {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} +hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} +.ctr {text-align: center;} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of It Happened in Egypt +by C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: It Happened in Egypt + +Author: C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9799] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="tp.jpg"><img src="tp_th.jpg" width="150" +alt="title page"></a> +</p> + + +<h1>IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT</h1> + +<h3>by</h3> + +<h2>C.N. & A.M. Williamson</h2> + +<h3><i>Authors of</i></h3> + +<h3> +"The Port of Adventure" +</h3> +<h3> +"The Heathen Moon", Etc. +</h3> + +<br> +<br> + + +<h3> +1914 +</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h3>TO D.D. AND F.C.J.</h3> +<h3>WHO WERE THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED</h3> +<h3>WE DEDICATE THIS STORY OF ADVENTURES GRAVE AND GAY IN EGYPT</h3> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="frontis.jpg"><img src="frontis_th.jpg" width="150" +alt="'A Man With a Green Turban?' I Repeated. 'Well, I'll Take Him.'"></a> +</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> + + +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH1">CHAPTER I</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH2">CHAPTER II</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH3">CHAPTER III</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH4">CHAPTER IV</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH5">CHAPTER V</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH6">CHAPTER VI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH7">CHAPTER VII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH8">CHAPTER VIII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH9">CHAPTER IX</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH10">CHAPTER X</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH11">CHAPTER XI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH12">CHAPTER XII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH13">CHAPTER XIII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH14">CHAPTER XIV</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH15">CHAPTER XV</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH16">CHAPTER XVI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH17">CHAPTER XVII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH19">CHAPTER XIX</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH20">CHAPTER XX</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH21">CHAPTER XXI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH22">CHAPTER XXII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH23">CHAPTER XXIII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH24">CHAPTER XXIV</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH25">CHAPTER XXV</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH26">CHAPTER XXVI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH27">CHAPTER XXVII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH28">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH29">CHAPTER XXIX</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH30">CHAPTER XXX</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH31">CHAPTER XXXI</a></p> +<p class="ctr"><a href="#CH32">CHAPTER XXXII</a></p> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h2> + IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT +</h2> + + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<a name="CH1"><!-- CH1 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE SECRET AND THE GIRL +</p> +<p> +The exciting part began in Cairo; but perhaps I ought to go back to +what happened on the <i>Laconia</i>, between Naples and Alexandria. Luckily +no one can expect a man who actually rejoices in his nickname of +"Duffer" to know how or where a true story should begin. +</p> +<p> +The huge ship was passing swiftly out of the Bay of Naples, and already +we were in the strait between Capri and the mainland. I had come on +deck from the smoking-room for a last look at poor Vesuvius, who lost +her lovely head in the last eruption. I paced up and down, acutely +conscious of my great secret, the secret inspiring my voyage to Egypt. +For months it had been the hidden romance of life; now it began to seem +real. This is not the moment to tell how I got the papers that revealed +the secret, before I passed them on to Anthony Fenton at Khartum, for +him to say whether or not the notes were of real importance. But the +papers had been left in Rome by Ferlini, the Italian Egyptologist, +seventy years ago, when he gave to the museum at Berlin the treasures +he had unearthed. It was Ferlini who ransacked the pyramids all about +Meroë, that so-called island in the desert, where in its days of +splendour reigned the queens Candace. Fenton, stationed at Khartum, an +eager dabbler in the old lore of Egypt, sent me an enthusiastic +telegram the moment he read the documents. They confirmed legends of +the Sudan in which he had been interested. Putting two and two +together—the legends and Ferlini's notes—Anthony was convinced that +we had the clue to fortune. At once he applied for permission to +excavate under the little outlying mountain named by the desert folk +"the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." At first the spot was thought to +fall within the province given up to Garstang, digging for Liverpool +University. Later, however, the <i>Service des Antiquités</i> pronounced the +place to be outside Garstang's borders, and it seemed that luck was +coming our way. No one but we two—Fenton and I—had any inkling of +what might lie hidden in the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. That was +the great secret! Then Fenton had gone to the Balkans, on a flying trip +in every sense of the word. It was only a fortnight ago—I being then +in Rome—that I had had a wire from him in Salonica saying, "Friends at +work to promote our scheme. Meet me on my return to Egypt." After that, +several telegrams had been exchanged; and here I was on the <i>Laconia</i> +bound for the land of my birth, full of hope and dreams. +</p> +<p> +For some moments distant Vesuvius had beguiled my thoughts from the +still more distant mountain of the secret, when suddenly a white girl +in a white hood and a long white cloak passed me on the white deck: +whereupon I forgot mountains of reality and dreams. She was one of +those tall, slim, long-limbed, dryad-sort of girls they are running up +nowadays in England and America with much success; and besides all +that, she was an amazing symphony in white and gold against an azure +Italian sea and sky, the two last being breezily jumbled together at +the moment for us on shipboard. She walked well in spite of the blue +turmoil; and if a fair girl with golden-brown hair gets herself up in +satiny white fur from head to foot she is evidently meant to be looked +at. Others were looking: also they were whispering after she went by: +and her serene air of being alone in a world made entirely for her +caused me to wonder if she were not Some One in Particular. +</p> +<p> +Just then a sweet, soft voice said, close to my ear: +</p> +<p> +"Why, Duffer, dear, it can't possibly be you!" +</p> +<p> +I gave a jump, for I hadn't heard that voice for many a year, and +between the ages of four and fourteen I had been in love with it. +</p> +<p> +"Brigit O'Brien!" said I. Then I grabbed her two hands and shook them +as if her arms had been branches of a young cherry tree, dropping +fruit. +</p> +<p> +"Why not Biddy?" she asked. "Or are ye wanting me to call ye Lord +Ernest?" +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens, no! Once a Duffer, always a Duffer," I assured her. "And +I've been thinking of you as Biddy from then till now. Only—" +</p> +<p> +"'Twas as clever a thing as a boy ever did," she broke in, with one of +her smiles that no man ever forgets, "to begin duffing at an early age, +in order to escape all the professions and businesses your pastors and +masters proposed, and go your own way. Are ye at it still?" +</p> +<p> +"Rather! But you? I want to talk to you." +</p> +<p> +"Then don't do it in a loud voice, if you please, because, as you must +have realized, if you've taken time to think, I'm Mrs. Jones at +present." +</p> +<p> +"Why Jones?" +</p> +<p> +"Because Smith is engaged beforehand by too many people. Honestly, +without joking, I'm in danger here and everywhere, and it's a wicked, +selfish thing for me to come the way I have; but Rosamond Gilder is the +hardest girl to resist you ever saw, so I'm with her; and it's a long +history." +</p> +<p> +"Rosamond Gilder? What—the Cannon Princess, the Bertha Krupp of +America?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, the 'Gilded Babe' that used to be wheeled about in a caged +perambulator guarded by detectives: the 'Gilded Bud' whose coming out +in society was called the Million Dollar Début: now she's just had her +twenty-first birthday, and the Sunday Supplements have promoted her to +be the Golden Girl, alternating with the Gilded Rose, although she's +the simplest creature, really, with a tremendous sense of the +responsibility of her riches. Poor child! There she is, walking toward +us now, with those two young men. Of course, young men! Droves of young +men! She can't get away from them any more than she can from her money. +No, she's stopped to talk to Cleopatra." +</p> +<p> +"That tall, white girl Rosamond Gilder! Just before you came, I was +wondering who she was; and when you smiled at each other across the +deck it sprang into my mind that—that—" +</p> +<p> +"That what?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it seems stupid now." +</p> +<p> +"Give me a chance to judge, dear Duffer." +</p> +<p> +"Well, seeing you, and knowing—that is, it occurred to me you might be +travelling with—the daughter of—your late—" +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens, don't say any more! I've been frightened to death +somebody would get that brilliant notion in his head, especially as +Monny and her aunt came on board the <i>Laconia</i> only at Monaco. Esmé +O'Brien is in a convent school not thirty miles from there. But that's +the <i>deepest</i> secret. Poor Peter Gilder's fears for his millionaire +girl would be child's play to what might happen, before such a mistake +was found out if once it was made. That's just one of the hundred +reasons why it would be as safe for Monny Gilder to travel with a bomb +in her dressing-bag as to have me in her train of dependants. She +telegraphed to New York for me, because of a stupid thing I said in a +letter, about being lonely: though she pretends it would be too dull +journeying to such a romantic country alone with a mere aunt. And she +thinks I 'attract adventures.' It's only too true. But I couldn't +resist her. Nobody can. Why, the first time I ever saw Monny she'd cast +herself down in a mud-puddle, and was screaming and kicking because she +wanted to walk while one adoring father, one sycophantic governess and +two trained nurses wanted her to get into an automobile. That was on my +honeymoon—heaven save the mark—! and Monny was nine. She has other +ways now of getting what she wants, but they're even more effective. I +laughed at her that first time, and she was so surprised at my +impudence she took a violent fancy to me. But I don't always laugh at +her now. Oh, she's a perfect terror, I assure you—and a still more +perfect darling! Such an angel of charity to the poor, such a demon of +obstinacy with the rich! I worship her. So does Cleopatra. So does +everybody who doesn't hate her. So will you the minute you've been +introduced. And by the way, why not? Why shouldn't I make myself useful +for once by arranging a match between Rosamond Gilder, the prettiest +heiress in America, and Lord Ernest Borrow, of the oldest family in +Ireland?" +</p> +<p> +"And the poorest." +</p> +<p> +"All the more reason why. Don't you <i>see?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"She mightn't." +</p> +<p> +"Well, what's the good of her having all that money if she doesn't get +hold of a really grand title to hang it on? I shall tell her that +Borrow comes down from Boru, Brian Boru the rightful King of Ireland: +and when your brother dies you'll be Marquis of Killeena." +</p> +<p> +"He'll not die for thirty or forty years, let's hope." +</p> +<p> +"Why hope it, when he likes nobody and nobody likes him, and everybody +likes you? He can't be happy. And anyhow, isn't it worth a few millions +to be Lady Ernest Borrow, and have the privilege of restoring the most +beautiful old castle in Ireland? I'm sure Killeena would let her." +</p> +<p> +"He would, out of sheer, weak kindness of heart! But she's far too +thickly gilded an heiress for me to aspire to. A few thousands a year +is my most ambitious figure for a wife. Look at the men collecting +around her and the wonderful lady you call Cleopatra. Why Cleopatra? +Did sponsors in baptism—" +</p> +<p> +"No, they didn't. <i>Why</i> she's Cleopatra is as weird a history as why +I'm Mrs. Jones. But she's Monny's aunt—at least, she's a half-sister +of Peter Gilder, and as his only living relative his will makes her +Monny's guardian till the girl marries or reaches twenty-five. A +strange guardian! But he didn't know she was going to turn into +Cleopatra. She wisely waited to do that until he was dead; so it came +on only a year ago. It was a Bond Street crystal-gazer transplanted to +Fifth Avenue told her who she really was: you know Sayda Sabri, the +woman who has the illuminated mummy? It's Cleopatra's idea that Monny's +second mourning for Peter should be white, nothing but white." +</p> +<p> +"Her idea! But I thought Miss Monny, as you call her, adopted only her +own ideas. How can a mere half-aunt, labouring under the name of +Cleopatra, force her—" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you see, white's very becoming; and as for the Cleopatra part, +it pleases our princess to tolerate that. It's part of the queer +history that's mixing me up with the family. We've come to spend the +season in Egypt because Cleopatra thinks she's Cleopatra; also because +Monny (that's what she's chosen to call herself since she tried to lisp +'Resamond' and couldn't) because Monny has read 'The Garden of Allah,' +and wants the 'desert to take her.' That book had nothing to do with +Egyptian deserts; but any desert will do for Monny. What she expects it +to do with her exactly when it has taken her, on the strength of a Cook +ticket, I don't quite know; but I may later, because she vows she'll +keep me at her side with hooks of steel all through the tour—unless +something worse happens to me, or to some of us <i>because</i> of me." +"Biddy, dear, don't be morbid. Nothing bad will happen," I tried to +reassure her. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you for saying so. It cheers me up. We women folk are so in the +habit of believing anything you men folk tell us. It's really quaint!" +</p> +<p> +"Stop rotting, and tell me about yourself; and a truce to heiresses and +Cleopatras. You know I'm dying to hear." +</p> +<p> +"Not a syllable, until you've told me about <i>your</i>self. Where you're +going, and what the dickens for!" +</p> +<p> +We laughed into each other's eyes. To do so, I had to look a long way +down, and she a long way up. This in itself is a pleasantly Victorian +thing for a man to do in these days of Jerrybuilt girls, on the same +level or a story or two higher than himself. I'm not a tall man: just +the dull average five foot ten or eleven that appears taller, while it +keeps lean—so naturally I have a hopeless yearning for nymph-like +creatures who pretend to be engaged when I ask them to dance. Still, +there's consolation and homely comfort in talking with a little woman +who makes you feel the next best thing to a giant. Biddy is an +old-fashioned five foot four in her highest heels; and as she smiled up at +me I saw that she hadn't changed a jot in the last ten years, despite +the tragedy that had involved her. Not a silver thread in the black +hair, not a line on the creamy round face. +</p> +<p> +"You're just yourself," I said. +</p> +<p> +"I oughtn't to be. I know that very well. I ought to be a Dido and +Niobe and Cassandra rolled into one. I'm a brute not to be dead or look +a hag. I've gone through horrors, and the secrets I know could put +dozens of people in prison, if not electrocute them. But you see I'm +not the right type of person for the kind of life I've had, as I should +be if I were in a story book, and the author had created me to suit my +background. I can't help flapping up out of my own ashes before they're +cold. I can't help laughing in the face of fate." +</p> +<p> +"And looking a girl of twenty-three, at most, while you do it!" +</p> +<p> +"If I look a girl, I must be a phenomenon as well as a phoenix, for +nobody knows better than you that my Bible age is thirty-one if it's a +day. And I think Burke and Debrett have got the same tale to tell about +you, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"They have. I was always delighted to share something with you." +</p> +<p> +"You can have the whole share of my age over twenty-six. There's one +advantage 'Mrs. Jones' has. She can, if her looking-glass doesn't +forbid, go back to that classic age dear to all sensible adventuresses. +I'm afraid I come under the head of adventuress, with my alias, and +travelling as companion to the rich Miss Gilder." +</p> +<p> +"You're the last person on earth for the part! Your fate was thrust on +you. You've thrust yourself on no one. Miss Gilder 'achieved' you." +</p> +<p> +"Collected me, rather, as one of her 'specimens.' She has a noble +weakness for lame ducks, and though she fails sometimes in trying to +strengthen their game legs, she tries gloriously. She and her aunt have +been travelling in France and Italy, guided by instinct and French +maids, and already Monny has picked up two weird <i>protégées</i>, sure to +bring her to grief. The most exciting and deadly specimen is a +perfectly beautiful American girl just married to a Turkish Bey who met +her in Paris, and is taking her home to Egypt. I haven't even seen the +unfortunate houri, because the Turk has shut her up in their cabin and +pretends she's seasick. Monny doesn't believe in the seasickness, and +sends secret notes in presents of flowers and boxes of chocolate. But I +have seen the Turk. He's pink and white and looks angelic, except for a +gleam deep down in his eyes, if Monny inquires after his wife when any +of her best young men are hanging about. Especially when there's Neill +Sheridan, a young Egyptologist from Harvard, Monny met in Paris, or +Willis Bailey, a fascinating sculptor who wants to study the crystal +eyes of wooden statues in the Museum at Cairo. He is going to make them +the fashion in America, next year. Yes, Madame Rechid Bey is a most +explosive <i>protégée</i> for a girl to have, on her way to Egypt. I'm not +sure even I am not innocuous by comparison; though I do wish you hadn't +reminded me of my poor little step-daughter Esmé, in her convent-school. +If any one should get the idea that Monny—but I won't put it +in words! Besides me, and the brand-new bride of Rechid Bey ('Wretched +Bey' is our name for him), there's one more <i>protégée</i>, a Miss Rachel +Guest from Salem, Massachusetts, a school-teacher taking her first +holiday. That <i>sounds</i> harmless, and it looks harmless to an amateur; +but wait till <i>you</i> meet her and see what instinct tells you about her +eyes. Oh, we shall have ructions! But that reminds me. You haven't told +me where you're bound—or anything." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks for putting me among the 'specimens.' But this sample hasn't +yet been collected by Miss Gilder." +</p> +<p> +"You might be her salvation, and keep her out of mischief. She's quite +wild now with sheer joy because she's going to Egypt. But do be +serious, and tell me all I pine to know, if you want me to do the same +by you." +</p> +<p> +"Well—though it's unimportant compared to what you have to tell! I'm +an insignificant second secretary to Sir Raymond Ronalds, the British +Ambassador at Rome. I've got four months' leave——" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, <i>that's</i> what comes of duffing so skilfully, and avoiding all the +things you didn't want to do, till you got exactly what you did want! I +remember when we were small boy and girl, and you used to walk down to +the vicarage every day, to talk Greek or Latin or something with +father——" +</p> +<p> +"No, to see you!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you used to tell me, if you couldn't be the greatest +prize-fighter or the greatest opera-singer in the world, you thought +you'd like to be a diplomat. +</p> +<p> +"I haven't become a diplomat yet, in spite of Foreign Office grubbing. +But I've been enjoying life pretty well, fagging up Arabic and modern +Greek, and playing about with pleasant people, while pretending to do +my duty. Now I've got leave on account of a mild fever which turned out +a blessing in disguise. I could have found no other excuse for Egypt +this winter." +</p> +<p> +"You speak as if you had some special reason for going to Egypt." +</p> +<p> +"I've been wishing to go, more or less, for years, because you know—if +you haven't forgotten—I was accidentally born in Cairo while my father +was fighting in Alexandria. My earliest recollections are of Egypt, for +we lived there till I was four—about the time I met and fell in love +with you. I've always thought I'd like to polish up old memories. But +my special hurry is because I'm anxious to meet a friend, a chap I +admire and love beyond all others. I want to see him for his own sake, +and for the sake of a plan we have, which may make a lot of difference +for our future." +</p> +<p> +"How exciting! Did I ever know him?" +</p> +<p> +"I think not." +</p> +<p> +"Well? Don't you mean to tell me who he is?" +</p> +<p> +I hesitated, sorry I had let myself go: because Anthony had written +that he didn't want his movements discussed at present. +</p> +<p> +"I'll tell you another time," I said. "I want to talk about you. +Anybody else is irrelevant." +</p> +<p> +"Clever Duffer! Your friend is a <i>secret</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Not he! But if there's a secret anywhere, it's only a dull, dusty sort +of secret. You wouldn't be interested." +</p> +<p> +"Women never are, in secrets. Well, I'm glad somebody else besides +myself has a mystery to hide." +</p> +<p> +"You're very quick." +</p> +<p> +"I'm Irish! But I'm merciful. No more questions—till you're off your +guard. You're free to ask me all you like, if there's anything you care +to know which horrid newspapers haven't told you these last few years." +</p> +<p> +"There are a thousand things. You didn't answer anybody's letters, +after—after——" +</p> +<p> +"After Richard died. Oh, I can talk about it, now. It was the best +thing that could happen for him, poor fellow. Life in hiding was +purgatory. No, I couldn't answer letters, though my old friends (you +among them) wanted to be kind. There wasn't anything I could let +anybody do for me. Monny Gilder's different. You'll soon see why." +</p> +<p> +I smiled indulgently. But, though I was to be introduced to Miss Gilder +for the purpose of being eventually gilded by her, at the instant my +thoughts were for my childhood's sweetheart. +</p> +<p> +Brigit Burne made a terrible mess of things in marrying, when she was +eighteen or so, Richard O'Brien, in the height of his celebrity as a +socialist leader. People still believed in him then, at the time of his +famous lecturing tour and visit to his birthplace on our green island; +and though he was more than twice her age, the fascination he had for +Biddy surprised few who knew him. +</p> +<p> +He was eloquent, in a fiery way. He had extraordinary eyes, and it was +his pride to resemble portraits of Lord Byron. After an acquaintance of +a month, Biddy married O'Brien (I had just gone up to Oxford at the +time, or I should have tried not to let it happen), went to America +with him, and voluntarily ceased to exist for her friends. +</p> +<p> +Poor girl, she must have had an awakening! He had posed as a bachelor; +but after her marriage she found out (and the world with her) that he +was a widower with one child, a little girl he had practically +abandoned. Biddy adopted her, though the mother had been a rather +undesirable Frenchwoman; and now when I saw her smiling at the tall +white girl on the <i>Laconia</i>, I had thought for an instant that Biddy +and her stepdaughter might be in flight together. O'Brien was a +drunkard, as well as a demagogue; and not long after Brigit's flitting +with him there was a scandal about the accepting of bribes from +politicians on the opposing side, apparently his greatest enemies; but +a minor scandal compared to what came some years afterward. O'Brien's +name was implicated in the blowing up of the <i>World-Republican</i> +Building in Washington, and the wrecking of Senator Marlowe's special +train after his speech against socialist interests, but the coward +turned informer against his friends and associates in the secret +society of which he had been a leader, and saved himself by sending +them to prison. From that day until his death he lived the life of a +hunted animal flying from the hounds of vengeance. Brigit stood by him +in spite of threats against her life as well as his, and the life of +the child. Since then, though she answered none of our letters, we had +heard rumours. The girl Esmé, whom the avengers had threatened to +kidnap, was supposed to be hidden in some convent-school in Europe. As +for Brigit, she was said to be training for a hospital nurse: reported +to have become a missionary in India, China, and one or two other +countries; seen on the music-hall stage, and traced to Johannesburg, +where she had married a diamond-merchant; yet here she was on board the +<i>Laconia</i>, unchanged in looks, or nature, and the guest of a much +paragraphed, much proposed to American heiress <i>en route</i> to Egypt. +</p> +<p> +While Brigit was telling me the real story of her last two years, as +governess, companion, teacher of music, and journalist, Miss Gilder +regarded us sidewise from amid her bodyguard of young men. Evidently +she was dying to know who was the acquaintance her darling Biddy had +picked up in mid-Mediterranean the moment her back was turned; and at +last, unable to restrain herself longer, she made use of some magic +trick to attach the band of youths to her aunt. Then, separating +herself with almost indecent haste from the group, she marched up to +us, gazing—I might say, staring—with large unfriendly eyes at the +intruder. +</p> +<p> +Brigit promptly accounted for me, however, rolling her "r's" +patriotically because I reminded her of Ireland. "Do let me introduce +Lord Ernest Borrow," she said. "I must have told you about him in my +stories, when you were a child, for he was me first love." +</p> +<p> +"It was the other way round," I objected. "She wouldn't look at me. I +adored her." +</p> +<p> +Biddy glared a warning. Her eyes said, "Silly fellow, don't you know +every girl wants to be the one and only love of a man's life?" +</p> +<p> +I had supposed that this old craze had gone out of fashion. But perhaps +there are a few primitive things which will never go out of fashion +with women. +</p> +<p> +Now that I had Miss Gilder's proud young face opposite mine, I saw that +it wasn't quite so perfect as I'd fancied when she flashed by in her +tall whiteness. Her nose, pure Greek in profile, seen in full was +—well, just neat American: a straight, determined little +twentieth-century nose. The full red mouth, not small, struck me as being +determined also, rather than classic, despite the daintily drawn +cupid's bow of the short upper lip. I realized too that the +long-lashed, wide-open, and wide-apart eyes were of the usual bluish-gray +possessed by half the girls one knows. And as for the thick wavy hair +pushed crisply forward by the white hood, now it was out of the sun's +glamour, there was more brown than gold in it. I said to myself, that +the face with the firm cleft chin was only just pretty enough to give a +great heiress or a youthful princess the reputation of a beauty; a +combination desired and generally produced by journalists. Then, as I +was thinking this, while Brigit explained me, Miss Gilder suddenly +smiled. I was dazzled. No wonder Biddy loved her. It would be a wonder +if I didn't love her myself before I knew what was happening. +</p> +<p> +And so I should instantly have done, perhaps, if it hadn't been for +Biddy's eyes seeming to come between mine and Miss Gilder's: and the +fact that at the moment I was in quest of another treasure than a +woman's heart. My thoughts were running ahead of the ship to +Alexandria, to find out from Anthony Fenton ("Antoun Effendi" the +biggest boys used to nickname him at school) more about the true +history of that treasure than he dared trust to paper and ink and the +post office. +</p> +<p> +So I put off falling in love with Rosamond Gilder till I should have +seen Anthony, and tidied up my distracted mind. A little later would +do, I told myself, because (owing to the fact that my ancestral castle +had figured in Biddy's tales of long ago) I was annexed as one of the +<i>protégés</i>; allowed to make a fifth at the small, flowery table under a +desirable porthole in the green and white restaurant; also I was +invited to go about with the ladies and show them Cairo. Just how much +"going about," and falling in love, I should be able to do there, +depended on "Antoun Effendi." But when Biddy congratulated me on my +luck, and chance of success in the "scheme," I said nothing of Anthony. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH2"><!-- CH2 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +CLEOPATRA AND THE SHIP'S MYSTERY +</p> +<p> +Now, at last, I can skip over the three days at sea, and get to our +arrival at Alexandria, because, as I've said, the exciting part began +soon after, at Cairo. +</p> +<p> +They were delightful days, for the <i>Laconia</i> is a Paris hotel disguised +as a liner. And no man with blood in his veins could help enjoying the +society of Brigit O'Brien and Rosamond Gilder. Cleopatra, too, was not +to be despised as a charmer; and then there was the human interest of +the <i>protégées</i>, the one with the eyes and the one who had reluctantly +developed into the Ship's Mystery. +</p> +<p> +Still, in spite of Biddy and Monny and the others, and not for them, my +heart beat fast when, on the afternoon of the third day out from +Naples, the ship brought us suddenly in sight of something strange. We +were moving through a calm sea, more like liquefied marble than water, +for it was creamy white rather than blue, veined with azure, and +streaked, as marble is, with pink and gold. Far away across this +gleaming floor blossomed a long line of high-growing lotus flowers, +white and yellow against a silver sky. The effect was magical, and the +wonder grew when the big flower-bed turned into domes and cupolas and +spires rising out of the sea. Unimaginative people remarked that the +coast looked so flat and uninteresting they didn't see why Alexander +had wanted to bother with it; but they were the sort of people who +ought to stop at home in London or Birmingham or Chicago and not make +innocent fellow-passengers burn with unchristian feelings. +</p> +<p> +Soon I should see Anthony and hear his news. I felt sure he would be at +Alexandria to meet the ship. When "Antoun Effendi" makes up his mind to +do a thing, he will crawl from under a falling sky to do it. As the +<i>Laconia</i> swept on, I hardly saw the glittering city on its vast +prayer-rug of green and gold, guarded by sea forts like sleepy +crocodiles. My mind's eyes were picturing Anthony as he would look +after his wild Balkan experiences: brown and lean, even haggard and +bearded, perhaps, a different man from the smart young officer of +everyday life, unless he'd contrived to refit in the short time since +his return to Egypt—a day or two at most, according to my calculation. +But all my imaginings fell short of the truth. +</p> +<p> +As I thought of Anthony, Mrs. East came and stood beside me. I knew she +was there before I turned to look, because of the delicate tinkling of +little Egyptian amulets, which is her accompaniment, her <i>leit motif</i>, +and because of the scent of sandalwood with which, in obedience to the +ancient custom of Egyptian queens, she perfumes her hair. +</p> +<p> +I don't think I have described Monny Gilder's aunt, according to my +conception of her, though I may have hinted at Biddy's. Biddy having a +habit of focussing her sense of humour on any female she doesn't wholly +love, may not do Mrs. East justice. The fact is, Monny's aunt is a +handsome creature, distinctly a charmer who may at most have reached +the age when Cleopatra—Antony's and Caesar's Cleopatra—died in the +prime of her beauty. If Mrs. East chooses to date herself at thirty-three, +any man not a confirmed misanthrope must believe her. Biddy says +that until Peter Gilder was safely dead, Clara East was just an +ordinary, well-dressed, pleasure-loving, novel-reading, +chocolate-eating, respectable widow of a New York stockbroker: +superstitious perhaps; fond of consulting palmists, and possessing +Billikens or other mascots: (how many women are free from +superstition?) slightly oriental in her love of sumptuous colours +and jewellery; but then her mother (Peter Gilder's step-mother) +was a beautiful Jewish opera singer. After Peter's death, his +half-sister gave up novels for Egyptian and Roman history, +took to studying hieroglyphics, and learning translations of +Greek poetry. She invited a clairvoyant and crystal-gazer, claiming +Egyptian origin, to visit at her Madison Square flat. Sayda Sabri, +banished from Bond Street years ago, took up her residence in New York, +accompanied by her tame mummy. Of course, it is the mummy of a +princess, and she keeps it illuminated with blue lights, in an inner +sanctum, where the bored-looking thing stands upright in its +brilliantly painted mummy case, facing the door. About the time of +Sayda's visit, it was noticed by Mrs. East's friends (this, according +to Biddy) that the colour of the lady's hair was slowly but surely +changing from black to chestnut, then to auburn; she was heard to +remark casually that Queen Cleopatra's hair had been red. She took to +rich Eastern scents, to whitening her face as Eastern women of rank +have whitened theirs since time immemorial. The shadows round her +almond-shaped eyes were intensified: her full lips turned from +healthful pink to carmine. The ends of her tapering fingers blushed +rosily as sticks of coral. The style of her dress changed, at the +moment of going into purple as "second mourning" for Peter, and became +oriental, even to the turban-like shape of her hats, and the design of +her jewellery. She did away with crests and monograms on handkerchiefs, +stationery, luggage and so on, substituting a curious little oval +containing strange devices, which Monny discovered to be the +"cartouche" of Cleopatra. Then the whole truth burst forth. Sayda +Sabri's crystal had shown that Clara East, née Gilder, was the +reincarnation of Cleopatra the Great of Egypt. There had been another +incarnation in between, but it was of no account, and, like a poor +relation who has disgraced a family, the less said about it the better. +</p> +<p> +The lady did not proclaim her identity from the housetops. Rare souls +possessing knowledge of Egyptian lore might draw their own conclusions +from the cartouche on her note-paper and other things. Only Monny and a +few intimates were told the truth at first; but afterward it leaked +out, as secrets do; and Mrs. East seemed shyly pleased if discreet +questions were asked concerning her amulets and the cartouche. +</p> +<p> +Now, I never feel inclined to laugh at a pretty woman. It is more +agreeable, as well as gallant, to laugh with her; but the trouble is, +Cleopatra doesn't go in for laughter. She takes life seriously. Not +only has she no sense of humour, but she does not know the difference +between it and a sense of fun, which she can understand if a joke +(about somebody else) is explained. She is grateful to me because I +look her straight in the eyes when the subject of Egypt is mentioned. +Sheridan from Harvard has been in her bad books since he put Ptolemaic +rulers outside of the pale of Egyptian history, called their art ornate +and bad, mentioned that each of their queens was named Cleopatra and +classified the lot as modern, almost suburban. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East, leaning beside me on the rail, was burning with thoughts +inspired by Alexandria. She had "Plutarch's Lives" under her arm, and +"Hypatia" in her hand. Of course, she dropped them both, one after the +other, and I picked them up. +</p> +<p> +"Do you know, Lord Ernest," she said, in the low, rich voice she is +cultivating, "I don't mind telling you that I felt as if I were coming +home, after a long absence. Monny wanted to see Egypt; I was dying to. +That's the difference between us." +</p> +<p> +"It's natural," I answered, sympathetically. +</p> +<p> +"Yes—considering everything. Yet we're both afraid. She in one way, I +in another. I haven't told her. She hasn't told me. But I know. She has +the same impression I have, that something's going to <i>happen</i> +—something very great, to change the whole of life—in Egypt: 'Khem,' it +seems to me I can remember calling it. You know it was Khem, until the +Arabs came and named it Misr. Do you believe in impressions like that?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't disbelieve," I said. "Some people are more sensitive than +others." +</p> +<p> +"Yes. Or else they're older souls. But it may be the same thing. I +can't fancy Monny an old soul, can you?—yet she may be, for she's very +intelligent, although so self-willed. I think what she's afraid of is +getting interested in some wonderful man with Turkish or Egyptian +blood, a magnificent creature like you read of in books, you know; then +you have to give them up in the last chapter, and send them away +broken-hearted. I suppose there <i>are</i> such men in real life?" +</p> +<p> +"I doubt if there are such romantic figures as the books make out," I +tried to reassure her. "There might be a prince or two, handsome and +cultivated, educated in England, perhaps, for some of the 'swells' are +sent from Egypt to Oxford and Cambridge, just as they are in India. But +even if Miss Gilder should meet a man of that sort, I should say she +was too sensible and clear-headed—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she is, almost too much so for a young girl, and she has a +detestation for any one with a drop of dark blood, in America. She +doesn't even like Jews; and that makes friction between us, if we ever +happen to argue, for—maybe you don't know?—my mother was a Jewess. +I'm proud of her memory. But that's just <i>why</i>, if you can understand, +Monny's <i>afraid</i> in Egypt. Some girls would like to have a tiny +flirtation with a gorgeous Eastern creature (of course, he must be a +bey, or prince or something, otherwise it would be <i>infra dig</i>), but +Monny would hate herself for being attracted. Yet I know she dreads it +happening, because of the way I've heard her rave against the heroines +of novels, saying she has no patience with them; they ought to have +more strength of mind, even if it broke their hearts." +</p> +<p> +I wondered if Biddy, too, suspected some such fear in the mind of her +adored girl, and if that were one reason why she had turned matchmaker +for my benefit. Since the first day out she had used strategems to +throw us together: and it seemed that, years ago, when she used to +teach the little girl French, Monny's favourite stories had been of +Castle Killeena, and my boyish exploits birds'-nesting on the crags. +(Biddy said that this was a splendid beginning, if I had the sense to +follow it up.) +</p> +<p> +"And you?" I went on to Mrs. East. "What do you feel is going to happen +to you in the land of Khem?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I don't know," she sighed. "I wish I did! And 'afraid' isn't +exactly the word. I just know that something will happen. I wonder if +history does repeat itself? I should hate to be bitten by an asp——" +</p> +<p> +"Asps are out of fashion," I comforted her. "I doubt if you could find +one in all of Egypt, though I remember my Egyptian nurse used to say +there were cobras in the desert in summer. Anyhow, we'll be away before +summer." +</p> +<p> +"I suppose so," she agreed. "Yet—who knows what will become of any of +us? Madame Rechid Bey will be staying, of course. I don't know whether +to be sorry for her or not. The Bey's good-looking. He has brown eyes, +and is as white as you or I. Probably it's true that she's been too +seasick to leave her room for the last ten days, though Monny and Mrs. +O'Bri—I mean, Mrs. Jones—think she's shut up because men stared, and +because Mr. Sheridan talked to her. As for me, there's always that +question asking itself in my mind: <i>'What</i> is going to happen?' And I +hear it twice as loud as before, in sight of Alexandria. Rakoti, we +Lagidae used to call the city." As she spoke, the long, oriental eyes +glanced at me sidewise, but my trustworthy Celtic features showed a +grave, intelligent interest in her statements. +</p> +<p> +"It must be," she went on, encouraged, "that I'm the reincarnation of +Cleopatra, otherwise how <i>could</i> I have the sensation of remembering +everything? There's no other way to account for it! And you know my +modern name, Clara, does begin with 'C.' Sayda must be right. She's +told lots of women the most extraordinary things. You really ought to +consult her, Lord Ernest, if you ever go to New York." +</p> +<p> +I did not say, as Neill Sheridan might, that a frothy course of +Egyptian historical novels would account for anything. I simply looked +as diplomatic training can teach any one to look. +</p> +<p> +Evidently it was the right look in the right place, for Cleopatra +continued more courageously, recalling the great Pharos of white marble +which used to be one of the world's wonders in her day; the Museum, and +the marvellous Library which took fire while Julius Caesar burned the +fleet, nearby in the harbour. +</p> +<p> +"Think of the philosophers who deserted the College of Heliopolis for +Alexandria!" she said. "Antony was more of a soldier than a student, +but even he grieved for the Library. You know he tried to console +Cleopatra by making her a present of two hundred thousand MSS. from the +library of the King of Pergamus. It was a generous thought—like +Antony!" +</p> +<p> +"Does the harbour looked changed?" I hastened to inquire. +</p> +<p> +"Not from a distance, though landing may be a shock: they tell me it's +all so Italian now. It was Greek in old days. I've read that there +isn't a stone left of my—of the lovely place on Lochias Point, except +the foundations they found in the seventies. But I must go to see +what's left of the Baths, even though there's only a bit of mosaic and +the remains of a room. Monny's anxious to get on to Cairo, but we shall +come back to Alexandria later. Lord Ernest, when I shut my eyes, I +really do seem to picture the Mareotic Lake, and the buildings that +made Alexandria the glory of the world. Do you remember what Strabo +said about Deinchares, the architect who laid out the plan of the city +in the shape of a Macedonian mantle, to please Alexander?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm not as well up in history as you are," I said, "though I've +studied a bit, because I was born in Egypt. Poor Alexander didn't live +long in his fine city, did he? I wonder what he'd think of it now? And +I wonder if his palace was handsomer than the Khedive's? That huge +white building with the pillars and domes. I seem to remember——" +</p> +<p> +"What, you remember, too? You <i>ought</i> to consult Sayda!" +</p> +<p> +"I didn't mean exactly what you mean," I explained, humbly. "Still, why +shouldn't I have lived in Egypt long ago? The learned ones say you're +always drawn back where you've been in other states of existence——" +</p> +<p> +"That's true, I'm sure!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, then, why shouldn't I have the same sort of right to Egypt you +have, if you were Cleopatra?—I believe you must have been, because you +look as she ought to have looked, you know. Why shouldn't I have been a +friend of Marc Antony, coming from Rome to give him good advice and +trying to persuade——" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, <i>not</i> that he ought to give me up!" +</p> +<p> +"No, indeed: to urge him to leave the island where he hid even from you +(didn't they call it Timoneum?). Why couldn't Antony play his cards so +as to keep Cleopatra and the world, too? She'd have liked him better, +wouldn't she? My friend Antoun Effendi—I mean Anthony Fenton,"—I +stopped short: for the less said about Fenton the better, at present. +But Cleopatra caught me up. +</p> +<p> +"What—have you really a friend Antony? Where does he live? and what's +he like?" +</p> +<p> +I hesitated; and glancing round for inspiration (in other words for +some harmless, necessary fib) I saw that Brigit and Monny had arrived +on the scene. They had been pacing the deck, arm in arm; and now, +arrested by Mrs. East's question, they hovered near, awaiting my answer +with vague curiosity. A twinkle in Biddy's eyes, which I caught, +rattled me completely. I missed all the easiest fibs and could catch +hold of nothing but the bare truth. There are moments like that, when, +do what you will, you must be truthful or silent; and silence fires +suspicion. +</p> +<p> +"What is he?" I echoed feebly. "Oh, Captain Fenton. He's in the Gyppy +Army stationed up at Khartum, hundreds of miles beyond where Cook's +boats go. You wouldn't be interested in Anthony, because he spells his +name with an 'H', and he's dark and thin, not a bit like <i>your</i> Antony, +who was a big, stout fellow, I've always heard, and fair." "Big, but +<i>not</i> stout," Cleopatra corrected me. "And—and if he's incarnated +again, he may be dark for a change. As for the 'H', that's not +important. I wonder if we shall meet your Anthony? We think of going to +Khartum, don't we, Monny?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said the girl, shortly. She was always rather short in her +manner at that time when in her opinion her aunt was being "silly." +</p> +<p> +I gathered from a vexed flash in the gray eyes that there had never +been any hint of an impending Antony. +</p> +<p> +"Is your friend in Khartum now?" Biddy ventured, in her creamiest +voice. The twinkle was carefully turned off like the light of a dark +lantern, but I knew well that "Mrs. Jones" was recalling a certain +conversation, in which I had refused to satisfy her curiosity. Brigit's +quick, Irish mind has a way of matching mental jigsaw puzzles, even +when vital bits appear to be missing; and if she could make a cat's paw +of Cleopatra, the witch would not be above doing it. I bore her no +grudge—who could bear soft-eyed, laughing, yet tragic Biddy a grudge? +—but I wished that she and Monny were at the other end of the deck. +</p> +<p> +"I—er—really, I don't know where my friend is just now," I answered, +with more or less foundation of truth. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder if I didn't read in the papers about a Captain Fenton who +took advantage of leave he'd got, to make a rush for the Balkans, and +see the fighting from the lines of the Allies?" Biddy murmured with +dreadful intelligence. "Can he be your Captain Fenton? I fancy he'd +been stationed in the Sudan; and he was officially supposed to have +gone home to spend his leave in England. Anyhow, there was a row of +some sort after he and another man dropped down on to the Turks out of +a Greek aeroplane. Or was it a Servian one? Anyhow, I know he oughtn't +to have been in it; and 'Paterfamilias' and 'Patriot' wrote letters to +the <i>Times</i> about British officers who didn't mind their own business. +Why, I saw the papers on board this ship! They were old ones. Papers on +ships always are. But I think they came on at Algiers or somewhere." +</p> +<p> +"Probably 'somewhere,'" I witheringly replied. "<i>I</i> didn't come on at +Algiers, so I don't know anything about it." +</p> +<p> +"Diplomatists never do know anything official, do they, Duffer dear?" +smiled Biddy. "I'll wager your friend is interesting, even if he does +spell himself with an 'H', and weighs two stone less than his namesake +from Rome. Mrs. East believes in reincarnation, and I'm not sure I +don't, though Monny's so young she doesn't believe in anything. Just +suppose your friend is a reincarnation of Antony without an 'H'? And +suppose, too, by some strange trick of fate he should meet you in +Alexandria or Cairo? You'd introduce him to us, wouldn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"It's the most unlikely thing in the world. And he'd be no good to you. +He's a man's man. He thinks he doesn't like women." +</p> +<p> +"Doesn't like women!" echoed Monny Gilder. "He must be a curmudgeon. Or +has he been jilted?" +</p> +<p> +"Rather not!" Too impulsively I defended the absent. "Girls go mad +about him. He has to keep them off with a stick. He's got other things +to think of than girls, things he believes are more important—though, +of course, he's mistaken. He'll find that out some day, when he has +more time. So far, he's been hunting other game, often in wild places. +A book might be written on his adventures." +</p> +<p> +"What kind of adventures? Tell us about them," said Biddy, "up to the +Balkan one, which you deny having heard of." +</p> +<p> +"You wouldn't care about his sort of adventures. There aren't any women +in them," said I. "Women want love stories. It's only the heroines they +care for, not the heroes, and I don't somehow see the right heroine for +Fenton's story." +</p> +<p> +I noticed an expression dawning on Cleopatra's face, as I thus bereft +her of a possible Antony (with an "H"). There was a softening of the +long eyes, and the glimmer of a smile which said "Am I Cleopatra for +nothing?" +</p> +<p> +Never had she looked handsomer. Never before had I thought of her as +really dangerous. I'd been inclined to poke fun at the lady for her +superstition and her cartouche, and Cleopatra-hood in general. But +suddenly I realized that her make-up was no more exaggerated than that +of many a beauty of the stage and of society: and that nowadays, women +who are—well, forty-ish—can be formidable rivals for younger and +simpler sisters. Not that I feared much for Anthony from Cleopatra or +any other female thing, for I'd come to consider him practically +woman-proof; still, I saw danger that the lady might make a dead set at +him, if she got the chance, and all through my stupidity in giving away +his name. "Antony" was a thrilling password to that mysterious "something" +which she expected to happen in Egypt: and already she regarded my +friend as a ram caught in the bushes, for a sacrifice on her altar. +Instead of screening him I had dragged him in front of the footlights. +But fortunately there was still time to jerk down the curtain. +</p> +<p> +I threw a glance at Brigit and Monny, and was relieved to find that +their attention was distracted by a new arrival: Miss Rachel Guest from +Salem, Massachusetts: a pale, thin, lanky copy of our Rose, with the +beauty and bloom left out; but a pair of eyes to redeem the colourless +face—oh, yes, a pair of eyes! Strange, hungry, waiting eyes. +</p> +<p> +When I am alone, I fear Monny's favourite <i>protégée</i>, who started out +to "see the world" on a legacy of two thousand dollars, and won Miss +Gilder's admiration (and hospitality) through her unassuming pluck. To +my mind she is the ideal adventuress of a new, unknown, and therefore +deadly type; but for once I rejoiced at sight of the pallid, fragile +woman, so cheerful in spite of frail health, so frank about her +twenty-eight years. She had news to tell of a nature so exciting that, +after a whisper or two, Cleopatra forgot Anthony in her desire to know the +latest development in the Ship's Mystery. +</p> +<p> +"My stewardess says he won't let his wife land till we're all off," +murmured the ex-schoolmistress, in her colourless voice. "She heard the +end of a conversation, when she carried the poor girl's lunch to the +door—just a word or two. So we shan't see her again, I suppose." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, we shall," said Monny. "If Wretched Bey can get a private +boat, so can I. I'll not desert her, if I have to stay on board the +<i>Laconia</i> the whole night." +</p> +<p> +All four began talking together eagerly, and blessing Miss Guest I +sneaked away. Presently I saw that clever Neill Sheridan and handsome, +actor-like Willis Bailey, the two <i>bêtes noires</i> of Wretched Bey, had +joined the group. +</p> +<p> +By this time the roofs and domes and minarets of Alexandria sparkled in +clearly sketched outlines between sunset-sky and sea; sunset of Egypt, +which divided ruby-flame of cloud, emerald dhurra, gold of desert, and +sapphire waters into separate bands of colour, vivid as the stripes of +a rainbow. +</p> +<p> +There was a new buzz of excitement on the decks and in the ivy draped +veranda café. Those who had been studying Baedeker gabbled history, +ancient and modern, until the conquest of Alexander and the bombardment +of '82 became a hopeless jumble in the ears of the ignorant. Bores who +had travelled inflicted advice on victims who had not. People told each +other pointless anecdotes of "the last time I was in Egypt," while +those forced to listen did so with the air of panthers waiting to +pounce. A pause for breath on the part of the enemy gave the wished-for +opportunity to spring into the breach with an adventure of their own. +</p> +<p> +We took an Arab pilot on board—the first Arab ever seen by the ladies +of my party—and before the red torch of sunset had burned down to +dusky purple, tenders like big, black turtles were swimming out to the +<i>Laconia</i>. We slaves of the Rose, however, had surrendered all personal +interest in these objects. The word of Miss Gilder had gone forth, and, +unless Rechid Bey changed his mind at the last minute, we were all to +lurk in ambush until he appeared with his wife. Then, somehow, Monny +was to snatch her chance for a word with the Ship's Mystery; and +whatever happened, none of us were to stir until it had been snatched. +</p> +<p> +Arguments, even from Biddy, were of no avail, and mine were silenced by +cold permission to go away by myself if I chose. It was terrible, it +was wicked to talk of people making their own beds and then lying in +them. It was nonsense to say that, even if the wife of Rechid Bey asked +for help, we could do nothing. Of course, we would do something! If the +girl wanted to be saved, she should be saved, if Monny had to act +alone. Whatever happened, Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Bailey must remain in +the background, as the very sight of them would drive "Wretched Bey" +<i>wild!</i> +</p> +<p> +I was thinking of Anthony's surprise when one after the other, two +tenders should reach the quay without me; and if the Gilded Rose had +not been so sweet, her youthful cocksureness would have made me yearn +to slap her. In spite of all, however, the girl's excitement became +contagious as passengers crowded down the gangway and Rechid Bey did +not appear. +</p> +<p> +"Allah—Allah!" cried the boatman and the Arab porters as they hauled +huge trunks off the ship onto a float. Then one after the other the two +tenders puffed away, packed from stem to stern. A few people for whom +there was no room embarked in small boats manned by jabbering Arabs. +Two of these cockle-shells still moved up and down under the black, +mountainous side of the ship, and the officer whose duty it was to see +the passengers off was visibly restless. He wanted to know if my +lordship was ready; and my lordship's brain was straining after an +excuse for further delay, when a man and woman arrived opportunely; +Rechid Bey and a veiled, muffled form hooked to his arm; a slender, +appealing little figure: and through the veil I fancied that I caught a +gleam of large, wistful, anxious eyes. +</p> +<p> +The ladies were lying in wait out of sight, and I dodged behind the +sturdy blue shoulders guarding the gangway. This was my first glimpse +of the Ship's Mystery; and though I did not like my job (I had to +surprise Rechid Bey and take his mind off his wife) my curiosity was +pricked. The figure in sealskin looked very girlish; the veiled head +was bowed. The mystery took on human personality for me, and Monny +Gilder was no longer obstinate; she was a loyal friend. I did not see +that we could be of use to the poor little fool who had married a Turk, +yet I was suddenly ready to do what I could. As Rechid Bey brought his +wife to the top of the gangway, I lounged out, and spoke. Disconcerted, +the stout, good-looking man of thirty let drop the arm of the girl, +putting her behind him. And this was what Monny wanted. They would have +an instant for a few disjointed words: Monny might perhaps have time to +promise help which the girl dared not ask, even behind her husband's +back. +</p> +<p> +"Good evening," I said in French, taking advantage of a smoke-room +acquaintance. "Is that smart boat down there for you? I was trying to +secure it, in my best Arabic, but the fellow said it was engaged." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it is mine," Rechid answered, civilly, trying to hide his +annoyance. "I telegraphed from Naples to a friend in Alexandria to send +me a private boat. I do not like crowds." +</p> +<p> +"Neither do I, so I waited, too," I explained. "They told me there were +always boats, and my big luggage has gone. I suppose yours has, too?" +</p> +<p> +"No doubt," said Rechid Bey. "Good night, Milord Borrow." +</p> +<p> +He turned quickly to his wife, as if to catch her at something, but the +slim veiled mystery stood meekly awaiting his will. To my intense +relief Monny and her friends were invisible. I could hardly wait until +the two figures had passed out of sight down the gangway, to know +whether my skirmishing attack had been successful. +</p> +<p> +"Well?" I asked, as Miss Gilder, "Mrs. Jones," Cleopatra, Rachel Guest, +and two maids filed out from concealment. "Did I give you time enough? +Did you get the chance you wanted?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, thank you ever so much," said Monny, with one of those dazzling +smiles that would make her a beauty even if she were not the favourite +Sunday supplement heiress. "I counted on you—and <i>she</i> had counted on +me. She must have known I wouldn't fail her, for she had this bit of +paper ready. When I jumped out she slipped it into my hand. We didn't +need to say a word, and Wretched Bey has no idea I came near her." +</p> +<p> +"A bit of paper?" I echoed, with interest. For it sounded the obvious +secret thing; a bit of paper stealthily slid from hand to hand. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, with her address on it—nothing more in writing: but two other +words, pricked with a pin. '<i>Save me.</i>' Don't you see, if her husband +had pounced on it, no harm would have been done. He wouldn't have +noticed the pin-pricks, as a woman would. I thought she was going to +live in Cairo, and I believe she thought so too, at first. But she's +written down the name of a house in a place called Asiut. Did you ever +hear of such a town, Lord Ernest?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes," said I. "The Nile boats stop there and people see tombs and +mummied cats and buy silver shawls." +</p> +<p> +"Good!" said Monny. "<i>My</i> boat shall stop there, but not only for tombs +or cats or silver shawls. I have an idea that the poor girl is +frightened, and wants me to help her escape." +</p> +<p> +"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "You mustn't on any account get mixed up +in an adventure of that sort! Remember, this is Egypt——" +</p> +<p> +"I don't care," said Monny, "if it's the moon." +</p> +<p> +She believed that this settled the matter. I believed the exact +opposite. But I left it at that, for the moment, as the boat was +waiting, and Asiut seemed a long way off. +</p> +<p> +This was my first lesson in what Brigit called "Monny's little ways"; +but the second lesson was on the heels of the first. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH3"><!-- CH3 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +A DISAPPOINTMENT AND A DRAGOMAN +</p> +<p> +It was a blow not to see Anthony on the quay. And other blows rained +thick and fast. My two consolations were that I was actually in Egypt; +and that in the confusion Rechid Bey with the veiled figure of his +silent bride had slipped away without further incidents. Their +disappearance was regretted by no one save Monny, unless it was Neill +Sheridan, and he was discreet enough to keep his feelings to himself. +The girl was not. She protested on principle, although she had the +Asiut address. But where all men, black and brown and white, were +yelling with the whole force of their lungs, and pitching and tossing +luggage (mostly the wrong luggage) with all the force of their arms, +nobody heard or cared what she said. For once Monny Gilder was +disregarded by a crowd of men. This could happen only at the departure +of a boat train! But if I was not thinking about her, I was thinking +about her fifteen trunks, and Cleopatra's sixteen and Biddy's and Miss +Guest's two. The maids were worse than useless, and I had no valet. I +have never had a valet. I clawed, I fought, I wrestled in an arena +where it was impossible to tell the wild beasts from the martyrs. I +rescued small bags from under big boxes, and dashed off with a few +samples to the train, in order to secure places. All other able-bodied +men, including Sheridan and the artist sculptor Bailey, were engaged in +the same pursuit, and our plan was to "bag" a whole compartment between +us in the boat-special for Cairo. But we never met again till we +reached our destination. One expects Egypt to warm the heart with its +weather, but the cold was bitter; so was the disappointment about +Anthony. Both cut through me like knives. Darkness had fallen before I +was ready to join the ladies—if I could. In passing earlier, I had +shouted to the maids where to find the places, grabbed with difficulty, +for their mistresses. Whether they had found them, or whether any of +the party still existed, was the next question; and it was settled only +as the train began to move. The compartment I had selected was boiling +over with a South American president and his effects; but as I stood +transfixed by this transformation scene, Cleopatra's maid hailed me +from the end of the corridor. <i>Les quatres dames</i> were in the +restaurant car. Why? Ah, it was the Arab they had engaged as dragoman, +who had advised the change in milord's absence. He said it would be +better, as of course they would want dinner. He himself was looking +after the small <i>baggages</i>, except the little sacks of the hand which +the maids kept. +</p> +<p> +What, the ladies had engaged a dragoman! And they had trusted him—a +stranger—with luggage? Then it was as good as gone! But no, mildly +ventured Cleopatra's handmaiden. The dragoman came recommended. He had +a letter from a friend of milord. +</p> +<p> +My thoughts jumped, of course, to Anthony. Yet how could he have known +that I was travelling with ladies? And if by some Marconian miracle he +had heard, why should he, who prided himself on "not bothering" with +women, trouble to provide a dragoman at Alexandria? +</p> +<p> +I hurried to the dining car, and found Monny with her satellites seated +at a table, three of them looking as calmly innocent as if they had not +upset my well-laid scheme for their comfort. Biddy alone had a guilty +air, because, perhaps, I was more important in her eyes than in the +eyes of the others. "Oh, dear Duffer," she began to wheedle me: "We +hope you don't mind our coming here? We thought it a good idea, for +we're starving, although we're perfectly happy because we're in Egypt, +and because it's such a <i>quaint</i> train, so different and Eastern. The +dragoman who——" +</p> +<p> +"I think he came from your friend Anthony with an 'H,'" Cleopatra broke +in. "He seemed providential. And he speaks English. The only objection +is, he's not as good-looking as Monny and I wanted our dragoman to be. +We did hope to get one who would be <i>becoming</i> to us, you see, and give +the right sort of Eastern background. But I suppose one can't have +<i>everything!</i> And it was I who said your friend Anthony's messenger +must be engaged even if his face is—is—rather like an <i>accident!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"It's like a catastrophe," remarked Monny, looking as if she blamed me. +</p> +<p> +"Where <i>is</i> it?" I wanted to know. +</p> +<p> +"It's waiting in a vestibule outside where the cook's cooking," Biddy +explained ungrammatically. "I told it you'd want to see it. And it's +got a letter for you from some one." "Did the fellow say the letter was +from Fenton?" I inquired. +</p> +<p> +"No. He only said, from a friend who'd expected to meet you; and Mrs. +East was sure it must be from the one you were talking about." +</p> +<p> +Wasting no more words, I marched off to the fountainhead for +information. Near the open door of the infinitesimal kitchen stood a +fat little dark man with a broken nose, and one white eye. The other +eye, as if to make up, was singularly, repellently intelligent. It +fixed itself upon me, as I approached, with eager questioning which +melted into ingratiating politeness. Instinct warned the fellow that I +was the person he awaited. At the same moment, instinct was busily +whispering to me that there was something fishy about him, despite the +alleged letter. He did not look the type of man Fenton would recommend. +And though his face was of an unwholesome olive tint, and he wore a +tarbush, and a galabeah as long as a dressing-gown, under his short +European coat, I was sure he was not of Arab or Egyptian blood. +</p> +<p> +"Milord Borrow?" he began, displaying large white teeth, of which he +was evidently proud. +</p> +<p> +I assented. +</p> +<p> +"My name is Bedr el Gemály," he introduced himself. "I have a letter +for milord." +</p> +<p> +"Who gave it to you?" I challenged him. +</p> +<p> +The ingratiating smile seemed to flicker like a candle flame in a +sudden puff of wind. "A friend of my, a dragoman. He could not come to +bring it. So he give it to me. The gentleman's name was Fenton. My +friend, he was sent from him at Cairo." As the fellow spoke, in fairly +good English, he took from a pocket of the short coat which spoiled his +costume, a colourful silk handkerchief. Unwrapping this, he produced an +envelope. It was addressed to me in the handwriting of Fenton, but +before opening it I went on with my catechism. +</p> +<p> +"Then the letter doesn't introduce you, but your friend?" +</p> +<p> +The smile was practically dead now. "I think it do not introduce any +ones. It is only a letter. My friend Abdullah engaged to carry it. But +he got sick too soon to come to the ship." +</p> +<p> +"I see," said I. "You seem to have used the letter, however, to get +yourself taken on as dragoman by the ladies of my party. How the devil +did you find out that they were travelling with me, eh?" I shot the +question at him and tried to imitate gimlets with my eyes. But he was +ready with his answer. No doubt he had prepared it. +</p> +<p> +"I see you all together, from a distant place, before I come there. A +gentleman off the ship, he pointed you out when I ask where I find +Milord Borrow. I see you, and those ladies. When I come, you was away +already, so I speak to them, and say if I could help, I be very +pleased. When I tell one of the ladies I was from a friend of milord's +with a letter, she say, is the friend's name Captain Fenton, and I say +'yes, madame, Captain Fenton, that is the name; and I am a dragoman to +show Egypt to the strangers. I know it all very well, from Alexandria +way up Nile.' Then the lady say very quick she will take me for her +dragoman. I am pleased, for I was not engaged for season, and she say +if I satisfy her she keep me in Cairo and on from there." "H'm," I +grunted, still screwing in the gimlets. "I see you're not an Egyptian. +You have selected the name of an Armenian famous in history. Are you +Armenian?" +</p> +<p> +"I am the same thing as Egyptian, I bin here for dragoman so many +years. I am Mussulman in faith. But I was born Armenian," he admitted. +</p> +<p> +"You speak English with an American accent," I went on. "Have you lived +in America?" +</p> +<p> +"One time a family take me to New York and I stay a year or two. Then I +get homesick and come to Egypt again. But I learn to talk maybe some +like American peoples while I am over there." +</p> +<p> +It sounded plausible enough, the whole story. And if Mrs. East had +snapped the dragoman up under the impression that he came from a man +she had determined to meet, the fellow might be no more to blame than +any other boaster, touting in his own interest. Still, I had an uneasy +feeling that something lay hidden under Armenian plausibility. Bedr el +Gemály was perhaps a thief who had courted a chance for a big haul of +jewellery. Yet if that were all, why hadn't he hopped off the tram, as +it began to move, with the ladies' hand luggage? He might easily have +got away, and disappeared into space, before we could wire the police +of Alexandria to look out for him. He had not done that, but had +waited, and risked facing my suspicions. And he must have realized, +while in charge of Monny's and Cleopatra's attractive dressing bags, +that he was missing an opportunity such as might never come to him +again. This conduct suggested an honest desire to be a good dragoman. +Yet—well, I resolved not to let the gimlets rust until Bedr el Gemály +had been got rid of. If Mrs. East had really promised him a permanent +engagement, she could salve his disappointment by giving him a day's +pay. I would take the responsibility of sending him about his business. +</p> +<p> +Without further parley I opened the letter. It was short, evidently +written in a hurry. Anthony had scribbled: +</p> +<p> +Horribly sorry, dear old Duffer, but I'm wanted by the Powers that Be +in Cairo. No other reason could have kept me from Alexandria. I was +afraid a wire wouldn't reach you, so I sent a decent old chap by the +train I meant to take. He's pledged to find you on the quay, and he +will—unless some one makes him drunk. This seems unlikely to happen, +as he won't be paid till he gets back, and having no friends on earth, +nobody will stand him drinks. Beastly luck, but I shan't be able to see +you to-night even in Cairo. Tell you all to-morrow—and there's a lot +to tell, about many things. +</p> +<p> +Yours ever, +</p> +<p class="ctr"> +A.F. +</p> +<p> +The messenger had "no friend on earth," according to Fenton. Then the +friendship stated to exist between him and Bedr el Gemály must have +come readymade from heaven, or—its opposite. I guessed the nature of +the "decent old chap's" illness. But I should have been glad to know +whether it had been produced by design or accident. +</p> +<p> +When I went back to the ladies, Bedr went with me, at my firm +suggestion, and gave them their handbags to use as footstools. Dinner +was ready, and a seat had been kept for me at a table just across the +aisle, but before beginning, I explained the real circumstances +governing the dragoman's arrival. "Whatever else he may be, he's a +shark," I said, "or he wouldn't have traded on a misunderstanding to +grab an engagement. You owe him nothing really, but if you choose, give +him a sovereign when we get to Cairo, and I'll tell him that I have a +dragoman in view for the party. He'll then have two days' pay, +according to the guide-books." +</p> +<p> +With this, I slipped into my seat, thinking the matter settled. But +between courses, Monny leaned across from her table (she and I had end +seats) and said that she and her aunt had been talking about that poor +dragoman. "Aunt Clara raised his hopes," the girl went on, "and now +Rachel Guest and I think it would be mean to send him away, just +because he's hideous." +</p> +<p> +"That won't be the reason!" said I. "It will be because we don't know +anything about him, and because in his sharpness he's over-reached +himself." +</p> +<p> +"But we do know things about him. He showed Aunt Clara letters from +people who'd employed him, lots of Americans whose names we've heard, +and some we're acquainted with. The tragic thing is, that he finds +difficulty in getting engaged because of his face. I've felt guilty +ever since I called it a catastrophe. Of course it <i>is</i>; but I said it +to be funny, which was cruel. And we deserve to punish ourselves by +keeping the poor wretch a few days, or more, if he's good." +</p> +<p> +"I thought you wanted a becoming dragoman?" I reminded her. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, that was just our silliness. I <i>do</i> like good-looking people, I +must say. But what <i>does</i> it matter whether a brown person is handsome +or homely, when you come to think of it? Besides, we can have another +dragoman, too, for ornament, if we run across a very picturesque one." +</p> +<p> +I laughed. "But you can't go up the Nile on a boat with a drove of +private dragomans, you know!" +</p> +<p> +"I <i>don't</i> know, Lord Ernest. And why don't you call them dragomen? You +make them sound as if they were some kind of animal." +</p> +<p> +"Dragomans is the plural," I persisted. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I shall call them dragomen. And if this poor thing can't get any +one else to drag, he <i>shall</i> drag us up the Nile, if he's as +intelligent in his ways as he is in that one eye, which is so like a +hard-boiled egg. You see, Lord Ernest, we're going to have a boat of +our own. A steam dahabeah is what we want, so we won't be at the mercy +of the wind. And we can have all the dragomen we choose, can't we?" +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you can fill up your cabins with them," I agreed, because I +felt that the Gilded Rose wished me to argue the point, and that if I +did I should be worsted. As I should not be on board the dahabeah in +question, it would not matter to me personally if the boat were +entirely manned by dragomans. Except that there would in that case +probably be a collision, and I should not be near to save Biddy—and +incidentally the girl Biddy wished me to marry. +</p> +<p> +After that, we went on eating our dinner and talking of Egypt, Miss +Guest doing all the listening, as usual. When we had finished, we kept +our places because we had no others. Cleopatra was curious about my +friend's failure to arrive, but I put her off with vaguenesses; and +said to myself that, for Anthony's sake, it was well that mysterious +business had kept him in Cairo. Still, I wondered what the business +was: why he would be unable to see me that night: and what were the +"many things" he had to tell. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH4"><!-- CH4 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +A MAN IN A GREEN TURBAN +</p> +<p> +I shall never know for certain whether or not our future was entirely +shaped by Monny's resolve to breakfast on the terrace of Shepheard's +Hotel next morning. +</p> +<p> +A great many remarkable things have happened on that historic site. +Napoleon made the place his headquarters. General Klèber was murdered +in the garden. Half the most important people in the world have had tea +on the terrace: but, according to a German waiter, there was one deed +yet undone. Nobody had ever ordered breakfast out of doors. +</p> +<p> +Of course, Monny got what she wanted. Not by storming, not by putting +on power-of-wealth airs, but simply by turning bright pink and looking +large-eyed. At once that waiter rushed off, and fetched other waiters; +and almost before the invited guests knew what to expect, two tables +had been fitted together, covered with white, adorned with fresh roses, +and set forth with cups and saucers. I was the one man invited, and I +felt like an actor called to play a new part in an old scene, a scene +vaguely, excitingly familiar. Could I possibly be remembering it, I +asked myself, or was my impression but the result of a life-long +debauch of Egyptian photographs? Anyhow, there was the impression, with +a thrill in it; and I felt that I ought to be handsomer, more romantic, +altogether more vivid, if I were to live up to the moving picture. It +seemed as if nothing would be too extraordinary to do, if I wanted to +match my surroundings. I thought, even if I burst into a passionate +Arab love-song and proposed to Monny across the table, it would be +quite the right note. But somehow I didn't feel inclined to propose. It +was enough to admire her over the rim of a coffee cup. In her white +tussore (I heard Biddy call it tussore) and drooping, garden-type of +hat, she was a different girl from the girl of the ship. She had been a +winter girl in white fur, then. Now she was a summer girl, and a +radiant vision, twice as pretty as before, especially in this Oriental +frame; still I was waiting to see myself fall in love with her, much in +the same way that Biddy was waiting. And there was that Oriental frame! +It belonged to my past, and perhaps Monny Gilder didn't belong even to +my future, so it was excusable if I thought of it more than of her. +</p> +<p> +It was hardly nine o'clock, but already the wonderful coloured cinema +show of Cairo daily life had begun to flash and flicker past the +terrace of Shepheard's, where East and West meet and mingle more +sensationally than anywhere in Egypt. Nobody save ourselves had dared +suggest breakfast; but travellers were pouring into the hotel, and +pouring out. Pretty women and plain women were sitting at the little +wicker tables to read letters, or discuss plans for the day with each +other or their dragomans. Officers in khaki came and talked to them +about golf and gymkhanas. Down on the pavement, close under the +balustrade, crowded young and old Egyptian men with dark faces and +wonderful eyes or no eyes at all, struggling to sell painted +post-cards, strings of blue-gray mummy beads; necklaces of cornelian and +great lumps of amber; fans, perfumes, sample sticks of smoking incense, +toy camels cleverly made of jute; fly whisks from the Sudan with +handles of beads and dangling shells; scarab rings and brooches; cheap, +gay jewellery, scarfs from Asiut, white, black, pale green and purple, +glittering like miniature cataracts of silver, as brown arms held them +up. Darting Arab urchins hawked tame ichneumons, or shouted newspapers +for sale—English, American, Greek, French, German, Italian, and +Turkish. Copper-tinted, classic-featured youths in white had golden +crowns of bananas round their turbans; withered patriarchs in blue +galabeahs offered oranges, or immense bunches of mixed flowers, fresh +and fragrant as the morning; or baskets of strawberries red and bright +as rubies. Dignified Arabs stalked by, bearing on nobly poised heads +pots of growing rose-bushes or arum lilies, or azaleas. Jet-black +giants, wound in rainbow-striped cottons, clanked brass saucers like +cymbals, advertising the sweet drinks in their glass jars, while memory +whispered in my ears the Arab name "sherbétly." Across the street, +clear silver-gold sunshine of winter in Egypt shone on precious stones, +on carved ivories, silver anklets, Persian rugs, and embroideries, +brilliant as hummingbirds' wings, all displayed in the windows of shops +where dark eyes looked out eagerly for buyers. Everything was for sale, +for sale to the strangers! The whole clamouring city seemed to consist +of one vast, concentrated desire on the part of brown people to sell +things to fair people. They shouted and wheedled and besought on the +sidewalks; and the roadway between was a wide river of colour and life. +Motor cars with Arab chauffeurs carried rich Turks to business, or to +an audience of State. Now and then a face of ivory glimmered through a +gauzy veil and eyes of ink and diamonds shot starry glances from +passing carriage windows. Erect English women drove high dog-carts. +Gordon Highlanders swung along in the kilt, more at home in Cairo then +in Edinburgh, the droning of their pipes as Oriental as the drone of a +räita, or the beat of tom-toms. A wedding party with a hidden bride in +a yellow chariot, met a funeral, and yashmaked faces peeped from +curtained windows, in one procession, to stare at the wailing, marching +men of the other, and to shrink back hastily from the sight of the +coffin. Tangled it would seem inextricably with streams of traffic, +surging both ways, moved the "ships of the desert," loaded with +emerald-green bersím; long, lilting necks, and calm, mysterious eyes of +camels high above the cloaked heads of striding Bedouins, heads of +defiant Arab prisoners, chained and handcuffed to each other; heads of +blue-eyed water buffaloes, and heads of trim white, tasselled donkeys. +</p> +<p> +None of us talked very much, as we sat at the breakfast table: the +novelty and wonder of the scene made the actors forget their words: and +if we had been able to talk, we could not have appreciated each other's +rhapsodies, over the shoutings of men who wanted us to buy their wares, +and harangues of dragomans who wished, as Monny said, to "drag" us. +These latter, especially, were persistent, and Bedr the One Eyed, +having been forbidden to come till ten o'clock, was not on the spot to +give protection. Our method at first was to appear oblivious, but +presently in my wickedest Arabic, I would have ordered the troop away +if Monny had not interfered. +</p> +<p> +"Don't!" she said, "they're part of the picture. Besides, they've more +right here than we have. It's their country, not ours. And they're so +interesting—most of them. That tall man over there, for instance, with +the green turban. He's the only one who hasn't opened his mouth. Just +to show him that virtue's its own reward, I'm going to engage him. Will +you call him to us, please, Lord Ernest?" +</p> +<p> +Sitting as I sat, I could not see the person indicated. "What do you +want him for, Miss Gilder?" I obeyed temptation, and asked. +</p> +<p> +"Why, to be a dragoman, of course," she explained. "That's what he's +for. I told you, I'd have a picturesque one for ornament. This +creature's a perfect specimen." +</p> +<p> +I stood up reluctantly, and looked down over the balustrade. "A man +with a green turban?" I repeated. "But that means he's a Hadji, who's +been to Mecca and back. I never heard of a dragoman—" +</p> +<p> +I stopped short in my argument. My eyes had found the man with the +green turban. +</p> +<p> +He stood at some distance behind the pavement-merchants and +self-advertising dragomans who pressed against the railing. In his long +galabeah of Sudan silk, ashes of roses in colour, he was tall and +straight as a palm, gravely dignified with his folded arms and the +haughty remoteness of his expression. Dark and silent, half-disdainful, +half-amused, he was like a prince compared with his humbler brethren; +but there was another resemblance more relevant and intimate which cut +my sentence short. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove," I thought, "how like he is to Anthony Fenton!" +</p> +<p> +He was looking, not at me, but at Miss Gilder, quite respectfully yet +hypnotically, as if by way of an experiment he had been willing her to +find and single out the one motionless figure, the one person whose +tongue had not called attention to himself. +</p> +<p> +Yes, I thought again, he was an Arab copy of Anthony, but more as +Anthony had been years ago before his moustache grew, than as Anthony +had become in late years. Still, there were the aquiline features, the +long, rather sad eyes shaded with thick, straight lashes, the eyebrows +raised at the bridge of the thin nose, then sloping steeply down toward +the temples; the slight working of muscles in the cheeks; the +peculiarly charming mouth which could be irresistible in a smile, the +stern, contradictory chin marring by its prominence the otherwise +perfect oval of the face. I wondered if Anthony had as noble a throat +as this collarless galabeah left uncovered, reminding myself that I +could not at all recall Anthony's throat. Then, as the sombre eyes +turned to me, drawn perhaps by my stare, I was stunned, flabbergasted, +what you will, by realizing that Anthony himself was looking at me from +under the green turban. +</p> +<p> +The dark face was blankly expressionless. He might have been gazing +through my head. His eyes neither twinkled with fun nor sent a message +of warning; but somehow I knew that he saw me, that he had been +watching me for a long time. "You see the one I mean, don't you?" asked +Monny. "Well, that's the one I want. I'll take <i>him</i>." +</p> +<p> +She spoke as if she were selecting a horse at a horse show. +</p> +<p> +Anthony had brought this on himself, but I was not angry with Anthony. +I was angry with the girl for putting her finger into our pie. +</p> +<p> +"That's not a dragoman," I assured her. "If he were, he'd come and bawl +out his accomplishments, as the others do. He's a very different sort +of chap." +</p> +<p> +"That's why I want him," said Monny. "And if he isn't a dragoman, he'll +jump at being one if I offer to pay him enough. He's an Egyptian, +anyhow, by his clothes, or a Bedouin or something—although he isn't as +dark as the rest of these men. I suppose he must know a little about +his own city and country." +</p> +<p> +"It doesn't follow he'd tell travellers about them for money," said I. +"He looks to me a man of good birth and distinction in old fashioned +dress. Why he's lingering on the pavement in front of this hotel I +can't explain, but I'm certain he isn't touting. Probably he's waiting +for a friend." +</p> +<p> +"He's the best looking Arab we've seen yet," remarked Mrs. East. "Like +my idea of an Egyptian gentleman." +</p> +<p> +"Pooh!" said Monny. "Just test him, Lord Ernest." +</p> +<p> +"Sorry, but I can't do it," I answered, with a firmness which ought to +have been tried on her long ago. "And I wouldn't discuss him in such a +loud tone of voice. He may understand English." +</p> +<p> +"We have to yell to hear ourselves speak over all this row," Biddy +apologized for her darling; but she need not have troubled herself. +Miss Gilder had been deaf to my implied reproach. +</p> +<p> +"I'm glad I'm an American girl," she said. "When I want things I want +them so dreadfully I just go for them, and surprise them so much that I +get them before they know where they are. Now I'm going for this +dragoman." +</p> +<p> +"He's not a drag—" I persisted, but she cut me short. +</p> +<p> +"I bet you my hat he will be one! What will you bet that he won't, Lord +Ernest?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll bet you his green turban," said I. +</p> +<p> +"How can you get it?" +</p> +<p> +"As easily as you can get him," I retorted. "It's a safe bet." +</p> +<p> +Monny looked excited, but firm. Luckily, as she does it so often, it's +becoming to her to look firm. (I have noticed that it's not becoming to +most girls. It squares their jaws and makes their eyes snap.) But the +spoiled daughter of the dead Cannon King at her worst, merely looks +pathetically earnest and Minerva-like. This, I suppose, is one of the +"little ways" she has acquired, since she gave up kicking and screaming +people into submission. As Biddy says, the girl can be charming not +only when she wants to be, but quite often when she doesn't. +</p> +<p> +The man with the green turban was no longer engaged in hypnotizing. He +had retired within himself, and appeared oblivious to the outer world. +Yet nobody jostled the tall, straight figure which stood with folded +arms, lightly leaning against a tree. The colour of his turban was +sacred in the eyes of the crowd; and when Miss Gilder, leaning over the +terrace railing beckoned him, surprise rather than jealousy showed on +the faces of the unwanted dragomans. As for the wearer of the turban, +he did what I expected and wished him to do: paid not the slightest +attention to the gesture. Whatever the motive for his masquerade, it +was not to attract anything feminine. +</p> +<p> +I smiled sardonically. "That's a nice hat you've got on, Miss Gilder," +I remarked. +</p> +<p> +"Do you collect girls' hats?" she asked sweetly. "But mine isn't +eligible yet for your collection. Let me see, what did you say he was? +Oh, a Hadji!" And she shrilled forth sweetly, her voice sounding young +and clear, "Hadji! Hadji! Effendi! Venez ici, s'il vous plait. Please +come here." +</p> +<p> +I could have been knocked flat by a blow of the smallest, cheapest +ostrich feather in the hands of any street-merchant. For he came. +Anthony came! Not to look meekly up from the pavement below the +railing, but to ascend the steps of the terrace, and advance with grave +dignity toward our table. Within a yard of us he stopped, giving to me, +not to Miss Gilder, the beautiful Arab salute, a touch on forehead and +heart. +</p> +<p> +"You devil!" I was saying to myself. "So you walk into this trap, do +you, and calmly trust me to get you out. Serve you right if I don't +move hand or foot." And I almost made up my mind that I wouldn't. But I +was interested. I wanted intensely to know what the dickens Anthony was +up to, and whether he would have been up to it if he'd known the sort +of young woman he had to deal with. +</p> +<p> +"It was I who called to you, not this gentleman," said Monny, when she +found that Green Turban did not look at her. "Do you speak French or +English a little?" +</p> +<p> +"A little of both. But I choose French when talking to Americans," +replied Anthony Fenton, with astounding impertinence, in the preferred +language. "I do not know you, Madame. But I do know this gentleman." +</p> +<p> +Good heavens! What next? He acknowledged me! What was I to do now? What +did the impudent fellow want me to do? Evidently he was trying an +experiment. Anthony is great on experiments, and always has been. But +this was a bomb. I thought he wanted to see if I could catch it on the +fly, and drop it into water before it had time to explode. +</p> +<p> +"Why didn't you tell us, Lord Ernest?" asked Monny, with a flash in her +gray eyes. "I thought you hadn't been in Egypt since you were a child." +</p> +<p> +"I haven't, and I didn't recognize him at first," I answered, trying +for the coolness which Anthony dared to count upon. +</p> +<p> +"You remember me now?" he inquired politely. +</p> +<p> +"I—er—yes," I replied, also in French. "Your face is familiar, though +you've changed, I think, since—er—since you were in England. It must +have been there—yes, of course. You were on a diplomatic mission. But +your name—" +</p> +<p> +"You may have known me as Ahmed Antoun," said the wretch, not dreaming +of that slip he had made. +</p> +<p> +Cleopatra, who has little French, nevertheless started, and fixed upon +the face under the turban a stare of feverish interest. Brigit and the +unobtrusive lady with the slanting eyes both showed such symptoms of +surprise as must too late have warned Fenton that he had missed his +footing, skating on thin ice. +</p> +<p> +"Antoun!" exclaimed Mrs. East. "Why, that's what you said you called +your friend Captain Fenton." +</p> +<p> +I glanced at Anthony. His profile had no more expression than that of +an Indian on an American penny, and, indeed, rather resembled it. If he +were blaming me for letting anything out, I had a right to blame him +for letting himself in. He was silent as well as expressionless. He +left it all to me—diplomat or duffer. +</p> +<p> +"'Antoun Effendi' was the nickname my friend Fenton got at school," I +explained to Cleopatra, "because it sounded a bit like his own name, +and because he had—er—because he had associations with Egypt. He was +proud of them and is still. But Antoun is a name often heard here. And +every man who isn't a Bey or a Prince, or a Sheikh, is an Effendi. I +quite remember you now," I hurried on, turning to Anthony once more. +"You are Hadji as well as Effendi." +</p> +<p> +"I have the right to call myself so, if I choose," he admitted. "I am +pleased to meet you again. I was waiting for a friend when you +beckoned. If you did not recognize my face at first, may I ask what it +was you wanted of me?" +</p> +<p> +There was no limit, then, to his audacity. He had not learned his +lesson yet, after all, it would seem. +</p> +<p> +Monny could not bear tamely to lose her hat, though she must have felt +her hatpins trembling in the balance. "I told you before," she +repeated, "that it was I who beckoned you." He looked at her, without +speaking; and somehow the green turban and the long straight gown, by +adding to his dignity, added also to his remote air of cold politeness. +How could she go on? Had she the cheek to go on? She had; but the cheek +was flushed with embarrassment. +</p> +<p> +"I—er—I am anxious for a guide, some one who knows Egypt well, and +several languages," she desperately blurted out, looking like a +half-frightened, half-defiant child. "I thought——" +</p> +<p> +"There are plenty of dragomans, Madame," Green Turban reminded her. "I +can recommend you several." +</p> +<p> +"I don't want a regular dragoman," she said. "And I'm not 'Madame.' I +am Miss Gilder." +</p> +<p> +"Indeed?" Chilling indifference in the tone. (Monny's hat was +practically mine. I thought I should rather value it.) +</p> +<p> +"Yes. But of course that can't matter to you." +</p> +<p> +"No. It cannot, Mademoiselle." +</p> +<p> +"What I want to say, is this. You're a Hadji, which means you've been +to Mecca; Lord Ernest Borrow's just told us. So you must be very +intelligent. Are you in business?" +</p> +<p> +"I am interested in excavations." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! And are you allowed to make them yourself?" +</p> +<p> +"Not always." +</p> +<p> +I glanced at him quickly, wondering if he meant that answer more for me +than for the girl. But his face told nothing. +</p> +<p> +"Would you be able to, if you were rich enough?" +</p> +<p> +"It is possible." "Well, I'd be willing to give you a big salary for +showing us about Cairo, and perhaps going up the Nile." +</p> +<p> +"You do not know who I am, Mademoiselle. Ask your friend Lord Ernest +Borrow. Perhaps he may remember something about my circumstances now he +has recalled my face." +</p> +<p> +I was honestly not sure whether this were further deviltry, or an +appeal for help. In any case, I thought it time for the scene to end. +"I told you," I said to Monny in English, "that he was a man of +importance, not at all the sort of person you could expect to engage +for a guide. You must see now that he's a gentleman. And a—a—an +Egyptian gentleman is just the same as any other." +</p> +<p> +"Surely not quite!" she answered in the same language, and I realized +my foolish mistake in using it, as if I meant her to understand that +Antoun Effendi knew it too little to catch our secrets. +</p> +<p> +"An Egyptian man can't have the same feelings as a European? Why, for +hundreds and hundreds of years they've been an enslaved race, like our +black people at home. We'd never think of calling even the fairest +quadroon man a gentleman, though he might be wonderfully good looking +and nice mannered." +</p> +<p> +Literally, I was frightened. Anthony Fenton is fiercely devoted to the +memory of the beautiful princess-mother, for love of whom his father's +career was ruined. <i>Her</i> mother was a Sicilian woman, and her father +was half Greek, so there is little enough Egyptian blood, after all, in +the veins of General Fenton's son. He is proud of what there is—proud, +because of his mother's fatal charm, and the romance of her story (it +was on the eve of her wedding with a cousin of the Sultan that the +famous soldier Charles Fenton ran away with Princess Lalla and married +her in Sicily): but he is sensitive, too, because, great name as +Charles Fenton had made in Egypt, he was asked to resign his commission +on account of the escapade. Anthony, sent to England to a public +school, had fought bigger boys than himself, who, in a certain tone, +had sneeringly called him "Egyptian." I imagined now that through the +dark stain on his face I could see him turn pale with rage. He thought, +perhaps, that the American beauty was revenging herself for his +impertinence, and maybe he was right, but that did not excuse her. +</p> +<p> +"Be careful, Miss Gilder!" I warned the girl. "This man understands +English better than you think. He comes of a princely family and he's +got only to put out his hand to claim a fortune—" +</p> +<p> +"You seem to remember all about me now, Lord Ernest," broke in Fenton, +looking dangerous. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I said. "It comes back to me. You must forgive Miss Gilder." +</p> +<p> +"There is nothing to forgive," he caught me up. "I am not a dragoman, +to be sure, but I'm enough of an Egyptian to have a price for anything +I do. I may put myself at this lady's service if she will pay my price, +though I'm not a servant and can't accept wages, even for the sake of +pursuing my excavations!" +</p> +<p> +He continued to speak in French, lest my companions' suspicions should +be further roused by the English of an Englishman; and Monny, pale +after her blush, answered in neat, schoolgirl French, with a pretty +American, accent. "What's the price you wish to name?" she inquired, +looking a little afraid of him and ashamed of herself, now that talk of +princes and fortunes was bandied about. "Of course," she went on, when +he did not answer at once, "if I'd known—all this, I shouldn't have +asked you to be a dragoman. At least, perhaps I shouldn't. Anyhow, I +shouldn't have made a bet—" +</p> +<p> +"A bet that I would have a 'price,' Mademoiselle? Then you may win your +bet, for I've just told you; I have a price. But I think it unlikely +you would be willing to pay it." +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens, is he going to try and marry the girl?" I asked myself. +It would be the last thing to expect of Anthony Fenton. However, he had +already done the last but one; the thing I had bet his green turban he +would not do. After all, he was a man, and a reckless man, as he had +proved on more than one wild occasion. He was in a strange mood, +capable of anything; and the Gilded Rose could never have been prettier +in her life than at this minute. She had made him furious, and I had +imagined that his acceptance of her overtures was the beginning of some +scheme of punishment. Now I was almost sure I had been right, yet I +could not guess what he would be at. Neither could Monny. But here was +the dangerously picturesque Arab who "must be a prince or something," +as Cleopatra had expressed it. And he was even more dangerous than +picturesque. +</p> +<p> +"You—you said you wouldn't take wages," she stammered (I enjoyed +hearing the self-willed young person stammer): "so I can't understand +what you mean. But even though you are all those things Lord Ernest +says you are, your price can't be so terribly high as to be beyond my +power to pay—if I choose to pay." +</p> +<p> +"First, Mademoiselle, I must decide whether I choose to be paid." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" Monny exclaimed, taken aback. "I thought it was a question of +price." +</p> +<p> +"Not only that. 'I <i>may</i> put myself at the lady's service—for a +price,' was what I said. I didn't say, 'I will.' I shall not be able to +tell you until to-night." The patronizing tone in which Anthony spoke +this sentence was worth to me everything I had gone through in the last +half hour. +</p> +<p> +"But—I want to settle things this morning or—not at all," said Monny, +reverting to type: that of the spoiled child. +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry," replied the man of the green turban. "In that case, it +must be not at all." And he made as if to go. +</p> +<p> +The Gilded Girl could not bear this. I and the others would see that +she was fallible; that there were things she wanted which she could not +get. "Why can't you tell me now what your price is?" she persisted. +</p> +<p> +"Because, Mademoiselle, I may not need to tell you ever. It depends +partly on another than myself." He threw a quick glance at me. "I +expect to meet that other at Abdullahi's Café in an hour from now at +latest. Everything will depend on the interview. In any case, I will +let you know to-night what I can do." +</p> +<p> +"I may not be in," said Monny. "But if I'm out, you can leave a note." +</p> +<p> +"If I must refuse to serve you, yes, I can leave a note. If I am to +accept, I must see you in person. Should you be out, I'll take it for +granted that you have changed your mind and do not want"—he smiled +faintly for the first time—"so expensive a guide." +</p> +<p> +Monny hesitated. "I am not stingy. I'll stay at home this evening," she +volunteered at last. +</p> +<p> +"Bravo Petruchio!" I said under my breath. But if Biddy's plot were to +succeed, it was <i>my</i> business to play the part of Petruchio to this +Katherine. Let the masquerading prince find a Desdemona who would suit +his Othello! +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH5"><!-- CH5 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE CAFÉ OF ABDULLAH +</p> +<p> +"Well—you got away from them all right?" began the man with the green +turban when, according to his roundabout instructions, I met him an +hour later at the café he had named, one of the principal resorts of +Cairo, where Europeans can consort with natives without attracting +remark. +</p> +<p> +"The real dragoman came and took them off my hands—at least the realer +one than you—a dreadful creature with a game eye, who murdered your +messenger last night, and gave me your letter and induced the ladies to +engage him on the strength of it. No wonder they want a 'looker' to +take the taste of him out of their mouths. And you certainly are a +'looker' in that get-up. Now kindly tell me all about it, and +everything else." +</p> +<p> +"That's what I'm here for," said Anthony, running a match-box to earth +in some mysterious Arab pocket. "But hold on, Duffer. Something you +said just then may be important. Is it true that my messenger didn't +give you the letter?" +</p> +<p> +"If you'd hung about Shepheard's Hotel ten minutes longer, you'd have +seen the fellow who did give it. Bedr el Gemály he calls himself +—Armenian Mussulman, a sickening combination, and an awful brute to look +at—said your messenger was taken suddenly ill; pretends to be a +dragoman." +</p> +<p> +"What is he like?" +</p> +<p> +"Rather like a partially decayed but decently dressed goat." +</p> +<p> +"Don't rot. This may be serious." +</p> +<p> +I described Bedr el Gemály as best I could, feature by feature. When I +had polished them off, Anthony shook his green-turbaned head. "No +portrait of him in my rogues' gallery. Just now, I'm sensitive about +spies—over-sensitive rather. Of course, you've spotted my game?" +</p> +<p> +"I confess I was conceited enough to think you'd given yourself all +this trouble with the costumier in order to take a rise out of me. But +when you speak of spies, I begin to put two and two together—your +business in Cairo—the powers that be, keeping you from me last night, +etc. I suppose it's an official job, this fancy dress affair?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. In my own capacity, I'm not in Cairo. I turned up day before +yesterday, jolly glad to get back from Adrianople—though it was good +fun there, I can tell you, for a while; and I looked forward to +wallowing no end in the alleged delights of civilization. I reported +myself, and all seemed well. I took a room at Shepheard's where you and +I had arranged to meet, and when I'd scrubbed, I strolled over to the +Turf Club to see what the gay world would have to say to a fellow in +disgrace." +</p> +<p> +"Only silly asses swallowed that newspaper spoof! Every one in London +who knows anything about you was betting his boots that the story had +been spread on purpose to save our face with Turkey." I couldn't resist +interrupting his narrative to this extent. But Anthony merely smiled, +and watched a long-lived smokering settle like a halo over the head of +an Arab at the nearest table. He was not giving away official secrets, +but I was sure and always had been sure that he was a martyr, not a +rebel, in the matter of the Balkan incident, just closed. What the +public were led to suppose was this: that Captain Fenton had asked for +two months' leave from regimental duty at Khartum, in order to spend +the time with a relative who was seriously ill in Constantinople. That +instead of remaining at his relative's bedside, he had used his leave +for a dash to the Balkans. That this indiscretion might have been kept +a secret had he not capped it with another: a flight with a Greek +officer in an army aeroplane which had ended by crashing down in the +midst of a Turkish encampment. +</p> +<p> +What I and friends who knew him best supposed, was that the "leave" had +been a pretext—that Fenton had been sent on a secret mission of some +sort—and that he was bound to take the blame if anything went wrong. +Aeroplanes have the habits of other fierce, untamed animals: they won't +always obey their trainers. Thus Anthony and his plan had both been +upset. (Or had it really been premeditated that he should fall into +that camp?) The remainder of his "leave" was cancelled, in punishment, +and he had been "recalled" to Egypt, to be scolded in Cairo before +proceeding to Khartum. +</p> +<p> +"Queer how many silly asses one knows!" Anthony said. "Still, +considering what a mess I seem to have made of things, fellows were +jolly kind, at the Turf Club. Nobody cut me, and only a few let me +alone. Maybe there'd have been still fewer if there hadn't been a hero +present who claimed attention: an American chap, Jack Dennis, who knows +Miss Gilder and was telling the good news that she was on her way to +Egypt. He called her the Gilded Rose and said it was going to be a good +flower season in Cairo and up the Nile. All the men with one exception +seemed to have heard a lot about her and to find her an interesting +subject, and to want Dennis to introduce them." +</p> +<p> +"I can guess the 'one exception'!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"Can you? Well, I don't read newspaper gossip about heiresses. Thank +heaven, I've something better to do with my time. But the others wanted +to meet her, or pretended to, perhaps to chaff Dennis, rather a cocky +youth, though I oughtn't to say so, as he was nice to me, according to +his lights. He got Sam Blake to introduce us, when he happened to hear +my name, and went out of his way to pay me compliments, which I daresay +he thought I'd like. When there was a lull in the discussion of what +could be done to make Miss Gilder enjoy herself in Egypt—chaps +suggesting trips in their motor cars or on their camels and a lot of +rot, Dennis remarked that I was the only man who hadn't chipped into +the conversation. And hadn't I any ideas for entertaining the Golden +Girl? Naturally I said that I didn't know who she was and had never +heard of her, and even if I had, entertaining girls wasn't in my line. +They all roared, and Dennis wouldn't believe at first that I didn't +know of such an important person's existence; but the other men rotted +a bit, and described me to him according to their notions of me. So he +let me alone on the subject; and having plenty of other things to think +of, I forgot all about it till the lady in question introduced herself +this morning. Then—well, it struck me as rather amusing at first that +I, the only one in the crowd who hadn't made plans to get at her, +should have her trying to get at me. That was partly why I came up on +the terrace when she beckoned." +</p> +<p> +"Partly? For purely intellectual reasons I'm curious to know the rest. +I suppose it had nothing to do with her looks?" +</p> +<p> +"As it happened, my cynical friend, it hadn't. I've got eyes in my head +and I could see she was pretty, very pretty, though not my ideal type +at all. That little sprite of a woman in fawn colour, the one with +green eyes and a lot of black lashes, is more what I'd fall in love +with if I were frivolous. But apart from the funny side of my meeting +with Miss Golder, or Gilder, it popped into my head that I might make +her a victim in a certain cause. Don't ask me to explain yet, because +there are a lot of things that have got to be explained first, or you +couldn't understand. You were right, of course, when you thought I'd +stationed myself in front of Shepheard's to take a rise out of you. I +gave up my room there yesterday, for reasons I'll tell you. But I knew +you'd be in the hotel, and that you'd be bound to show yourself on the +terrace, in order to go out. I wanted to see if you'd recognize me, and +to have a little fun with you if you didn't. By the way, I'm not +pleased that you did. It's a poor compliment to my make-up, which I may +tell you has been warmly praised in high quarters!" "Well, you see," I +apologized, "I knew you were a nailer at that sort of thing, or you +would never have got to Mecca, and earned your green turban. I knew +you'd been pretty often called upon to disguise yourself and go about +among the natives for one thing or another. And besides, we were chums +before you had the shadow of a moustache, so I have an advantage over +the other Sherlock Holmeses! But even as it was, I couldn't be sure at +first. You must have got some fun out of my expression." +</p> +<p> +"I did. I took revenge on you for recognizing me by tormenting you as +far as I dared. Dear old boy, I knew you'd see me through to the end, +bitter or sweet!" +</p> +<p> +"Which was it?" I inquired. +</p> +<p> +"Mixed. The girl riled me, rather, so much so that I definitely decided +it would be fair play to make use of her as a cat's-paw. But it depends +on you, whether she's to lose or win her bet." +</p> +<p> +"If she loses, I get her hat. If she wins, I've engaged myself to +procure for her—your green turban." +</p> +<p> +"Did you think you could, without my consent?" +</p> +<p> +"No. I distinctly thought I couldn't. But I would have been willing to +bet the head in the turban, served up on a charger, so sure I was that +you'd refuse to come near her. I thought I knew you <i>au fond</i>, you +see." +</p> +<p> +"You do. I haven't changed. But—circumstances have changed. And that +brings me near to the stage of this business which concerns you and me. +First, before I go further though, I'll tell you a part of the reason +why I'm sporting the green turban. There's been the dickens to pay +here, about a new street that had to be made; an immensely important +and necessary street. Well, they couldn't make it, because the tomb of +a popular saint or sheikh was in the way. To move the body or even +disturb a saint's tomb would mean no end of a row. You remember or have +read enough about Mohammedans to know that. What to do, was the +question. Nobody'd been able to answer it till yesterday, when the +sight of me reminded them of a trick or two I'd brought off some time +ago, by disguising myself and hanging about the cafés. They wanted me +to try it again. Consequently Captain A. Fenton received a telegram and +had to leave Cairo at once on business. He gave up his room at +Shepheard's, and the only regrettable thing to the official mind is, +that the fellow'd been seen about town even for an hour. However, it +couldn't be helped. Luckily Ahmed Antoun is not unknown in Cairo cafés. +He's made quite an impression upon the public on several occasions +since his pilgrimage to Mecca, two years ago. And since yesterday +afternoon, he's been drinking enough coffee to give him jaundice, while +casually spreading the story of a dream he had. Our friend the Hadji +related how he had slept in the mosque of Ibn Tulun after the noon +hour, and dreamed of the sheikh whose tomb is so inconveniently placed. +In the dream, the saint clamoured to have his tomb moved on account of +a bad smell of drainage which he considers an insult to his own memory. +Also dogs have taken to howling round his resting-place at night, and +you know that to the true believer a dog is an unclean animal. Except +for hunting purposes, or watch-dogging in various branches, good +Mohammedans class dogs and Christians together in their mind. Well, +already the Hadji's dream is working like yeast. The news of it is +being carried from one café to another; and I hope that a few more +nights' work will do the trick. The votaries of the saint will get up a +petition to have his body moved. When it has found another abode, the +making of the new thoroughfare will be suggested." +</p> +<p> +"Very neat! I see it all, except the connection with Miss Gilder. What +has your saint got to do with her?" +</p> +<p> +"Very little, I should say, by the look in her eyes. But though a green +turban's as good as an heirloom, and extorts respect wherever it goes, +even a Hadji may have jealous detractors. I have mine. Another green +turban in this town, whose genuineness is doubted for some obscure +reason or other, has sneered at my dream." +</p> +<p> +"I say! That sounds as if you might be in danger. If one man suspects +you to-day, to-morrow———" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it's only the dream he suspects—at present. I know all the little +prayer tricks so well, and I've invented my own history so ingeniously, +with a <i>patois</i> to match my province, that I shall get through this +incident as I have through others of the sort. There's only one hole in +my jebbah. Last night, when my rival sprang a sudden question as to +what I was doing in Cairo (I'm supposed to be a Luxor man), on the spur +of the moment I replied that I was acting as dragoman to a rich family +of tourists. On that, the brute inquired with honeyed accents where +they were staying. I said Shepheard's, because I expected you to be +there, and thought if I were followed, you might be useful as a dummy." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, that's where Miss Gilder comes in? A gilded gingerbread lamb, +ready for the sacrifice. Why didn't you accept her offer at once, as +she seemed so providential?" "I'm coming to that. It sounds +complicated, but it isn't. For one thing, though, it may be well to +wait and find out a little more about that goat-eyed Armenian of +yours." +</p> +<p> +"He isn't mine. He's—". +</p> +<p> +"I want to know for certain whose he is. If he has anything to do with +my rival Hadji, there's more venom and wit inside that green turban +than I've given it credit for. Is there a reason, by the way, except +their riches, why one should want to 'get at' a member of the American +party?" +</p> +<p> +"By Jove!" said I, as if I had been pinched—for there was a sharp nip +in the thought Anthony's question jabbed into my mind. I had disliked +and distrusted Bedr el Gemály, but I had associated my distaste for him +with Fenton's affairs. It had not occurred to me that Biddy's fears +meant more than a nervous woman's vague forebodings. During the few +hideous years of hide-and-seek she had passed in trying to protect the +traitor, Richard O'Brien, she had no doubt had real enough reason to +dread a spy in every stranger; but I had cheerfully advised her "not to +be morbid" when she spoke of herself as a dangerous companion, or +stopped me with a gasp in the midst of what seemed an innocent question +about her stepdaughter. Could it be possible that her alarms might +after all be justified, and that the powerful association betrayed by +O'Brien would visit his sins on his widow and daughter? That American +accent of Gemály's! He admitted having been in New York. Of course, he +had made acquaintances there. My thoughts flashed back to the meeting +at the railway train. Could the fellow have found out in advance that I +was with Mrs. O'Brien, [alias Jones] and her friends? It seemed as if +such knowledge could have reached land ahead of us only by miracle. But +there was always Marconi. Perhaps news of Miss Gilder had been sent by +wireless to Alexandria, with our humbler names starred as satellites of +that bright planet. If this were so, Bedr, instructed from afar to +watch Richard O'Brien's widow, might easily have been clever enough to +suborn a messenger waiting for one Ernest Borrow. +</p> +<p> +"What are you mumbling about?" Anthony wanted to know, when I forgot to +answer. "Have I put some idea that you don't like into your head?" +</p> +<p> +"I was turning your question over in it," I explained, "and wondering +what to answer. Of course, Miss Gilder's rather important, and I +believe her father's obsession used to be when she was a child, that +she'd be kidnapped for ransom. The 'little sprite of a woman' you +admire so much, knew the Gilders in those days. She says that the +unfortunate baby used to be dragged about in a kind of caged +perambulator, and that some of her nurses were female detectives in +disguise, with revolvers under their white aprons. No wonder the girl +revels in emancipation and travel! I should think, now she's grown up +to twenty-one years and five foot eight or nine of height, without +being kidnapped, there's not much danger so long as she keeps in the +boundaries of civilization. Still, one never knows, in such a queer +world as ours, where newspapers live on happenings we'd laugh to scorn +if they came out of novel writers' brains." +</p> +<p> +"That's the only incentive you can suggest for spying, unconnected with +my affairs?" +</p> +<p> +I hesitated, for Biddy's secret was not my secret, and it seemed that I +had no right to pass it on, even to my best friend. I must ask Biddy's +permission before telling Fenton that Mrs. Jones was the widow of the +informer Richard O'Brien; that she feared over-subtlety on the part of +the enemy might confuse her girl travelling companion with Esmé +O'Brien, hidden in a convent school near Monaco. "It's just credible +that there may be other incentives," I said. "But I must confess, I'd +rather believe that Armenian spies were on the track of Ahmed Antoun, +who can take care of himself, than after poor Miss Gilder or—any of +her party." +</p> +<p> +"What's the name of the laughing sprite?" suddenly asked Fenton. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs.—er—Jones. Brigit Jones." +</p> +<p> +"Where's her husband?" +</p> +<p> +"In his grave." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Well, his widow looks ready to bubble over with the joy of life, +so I suppose we can't associate spies or anything shady with her? +That's too much to hope for?" +</p> +<p> +"Why to 'hope' for?" +</p> +<p> +"It would make her too interesting." +</p> +<p> +"Look here, my dear fellow, you can't have them both!" +</p> +<p> +The dark eyes of Antoun lit with a spark of surprise and laughter. "I +don't want either, thanks. I admire flowers, but I never gather them. I +leave them growing. However, you might tell me which one you want for +your own buttonhole?" "Really, I don't know," I mumbled, taken aback. +"All I do know is, it's not likely I can get either." +</p> +<p> +Anthony stared at me with a curious expression, then abruptly changed +the subject. "You've heard of Sir Marcus Lark?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +"Of course," said I, surprised at this question sandwiched into our +affairs. Sir Marcus Lark is a man who has had his finger in many pies, +but I didn't see how he could poke one into ours. Everybody knows Sir +M. A. Lark, given a baronetcy by the Radicals some years ago in return +for services to the party—starting and running a newspaper which must +have cost him fifty thousand pounds before it began to pay. He has +financed theatres, and vegetarian restaurants; he owns cocoa +plantations and factories, and a garden city; he has a racing yacht +which once beat the German Emperor's; he owns two hotels; he has +written a book of travel; his name as a director is sought by financial +companies; he has lent money to a distressed South American government +in the making; and though the success of his enterprises has sometimes +hung in the balance for months or years, his wonderful luck seems +invariably to triumph in the end; so much so, that "Lark's Luck" has +become a well-known heading for newspaper columns, in the middle of +which his photograph is inset. At the mention of his name, the oft-seen +picture rose before my eyes—a big man, anywhere between thirty-six and +fifty—good head, large forehead, curly hair, kind eyes, pugnacious +nose, conceited smile under waxed moustache, heavy jaw, unconquerable +chin, and prize-fighter's neck and shoulders. "What has Sir Marcus Lark +to do with us?" "He's in Egypt—in Cairo just now; and—he's got our +mountain." +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens!" I stared blankly at Anthony, seeing not his dark face +under the green turban, but that everlasting, ever-smiling newspaper +block portrait. Down toppled our castle in the air, Anthony's and +mine—the shining castle which had been the lodestone of my journey to +Egypt, the secret hope and romance of our two lives, for all those +months since Anthony first read the Ferlini papers and began +negotiations with the Egyptian Government. +</p> +<p> +"It's all up then," I said, when I felt that I could speak without +betraying palsy of the jaw. "We're done!" +</p> +<p> +"I'm not sure of that," Fenton answered. "If I had been, I shouldn't +have broken the news so brutally. It's on the cards that we may be able +to bring the thing off yet." +</p> +<p> +"But how, if that bounder has got the place for himself? He must have +found out the truth about it somehow, or he wouldn't have bothered. And +if he knows what we know—or think we know—he certainly won't give up +to us what he's grabbed for himself. A beastly shame we should have +been let in like this, after being given to understand that it would be +all right." +</p> +<p> +"Lark must have had a pull of some sort, I haven't learned what; but I +will. The one hope is, that he hasn't stumbled onto the secret." +</p> +<p> +"What! You think he hit on our pitch by a mere coincidence—an +accident?" +</p> +<p> +"No. There's not a shadow of doubt that he had a special motive for +wanting <i>our</i> mountain and no other." "Have you formed an idea what the +motive is, if not the same as ours?" +</p> +<p> +"I've heard his version from his own lips. It's rather astounding. And +I want you to hear it from him, too." +</p> +<p> +"You've met him!" +</p> +<p> +"Yesterday at Shepheard's, before I went in for this dressing-up +business. Lark heard I had wired for a room at the hotel, and was lying +in wait for me on the terrace when I got back from the Agency. We had a +talk. I'd heard just before, the news about the mountain. But he +explained. Now he wants to see you. He's got something special to say, +and I've made an appointment for you with him at two o'clock." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH6"><!-- CH6 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE GREAT SIR MARCUS +</p> +<p> +The appointment was at the Semiramis Hotel, where Sir Marcus Lark was +staying. I went with my mind an aching void, and my heart a cold boiled +potato. I can think of nothing more disagreeable! For not a word more +would Fenton let drop as to the great man's business with us or the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. +</p> +<p> +I sent up my card, and a few minutes later was shown into a private +salon more appropriate to a beautiful young duchess than to a middle-aged, +bumptious financier. It was pale green and white, full of lilies +and fragrance, and an immense French window opened out upon a roofed +loggia overlooking the Nile. This would have been the ideal environment +for our Gilded Rose; and I felt more venomous than before, if possible, +toward the rich bounder who posed against such an unsuitable +background. I thought, as the door of the salon was opened for me by +the smart Arab servant, that the room was untenanted, and that Sir +Marcus Lark meant to keep me waiting; but there he was, on the balcony, +gazing in rapture at the shining river. As if he were capable of +raptures, he, an earth-bound worm! But there was no mistaking that +back, those shoulders, or the face, as the big body turned. He advanced +through the open window, holding out a hand as big as a steak. He was +exactly like his photograph, except that there was even more of him +than I had been led to expect. The pretty room was net small, but +entering, he seemed to turn it into a doll's house parlour. "Six foot +two, if he's an inch!" I said to myself, longing to play David to his +Goliath. "Big, rich, common brute!" I thought. "You snatch our mountain +out of our mouths, and then you send for us as if we were servants—men +whose boots you ought to be blacking!" I was vindictive. I stared him +straight between the eyes—where a stone from David's sling would have +fitted in neatly. +</p> +<p> +The eyes were wide apart, and kinder than in the photographs. They were +even curiously innocent, and boyish. His grin of greeting made the +large, waxed black moustache point joyously up. He showed teeth white +as a child's, and had dimples—actually dimples—in his big cheeks, to +say nothing of the one in his chin, with which snapshots had +familiarized me. He looked like a huge, overgrown schoolboy with a +corked moustache. My glare faded in the light of his smile. No man with +a gleam of humour could have kept a mask of grimness. I found my hand +enveloped in the pound of steak, and warmly shaken up and down inside +it. +</p> +<p> +"Lord Ernest Borrow, I'm delighted to see you. Very good of you to +come, I'm sure!" to David quoth Goliath, in a big voice, mellow despite +a slight Cockney accent. "Nice view I've treated myself to here, what? +I'm in Egypt on business, but I like to have pretty things around me +—pleasant colours and flowers and a view. That's a specialty of mine. +I'm great on specializing. And that brings me to what we have in +common; a scheme of yours; a scheme of mine." +</p> +<p> +I wanted to detest the man, but somehow couldn't. To hate him would be +hating an overpowering force, like heat, or electricity. +</p> +<p> +With an old-fashioned politeness he made me sit down, picking out my +chair, the most comfortable in the room, then taking the next best for +himself. He fitted into it as tightly as a ripe plum into its skin, and +talked with one leg crossed over the other and swinging, the points of +his brown fingers joined. I was glad they were brown. +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid you're sore with me," he began, having ordered coffee and +liqueurs, and forced upon his guest a cigar as big as a sausage. "I've +got what you and your friend wanted; and I'm going to be frank with you +as I've been with him, and admit that I got it because you did want it. +Simply and solely for that reason and nothing else. He told you this?" +</p> +<p> +"He left the telling to you," I said, wondering why I wasn't more +furious than curious. But it was the other way round. +</p> +<p> +"Good egg! He promised he would, and he looks the sort of chap to keep +his promise. Well, I see you want me to get down to business, and I +will. I'm going to lay all my cards on the table. I came here to Egypt +for the first time in my life, to see a scheme through, and I landed on +the scene in time to find that I was likely to fail. I haven't told any +one else that, but your friend Fenton; for I never have made a business +failure yet, and I don't mean to now if I can help it. The scheme had +to be saved in a hurry if it could be saved at all; and when I set my +wits to work I saw that I must get hold of some such young men as you +and Captain Fenton to help me. I don't know how the thought of you two +popped into my head, but I suppose it was seeing a lot of stuff about +Fenton in the papers, his Balkan adventure, and the announcement that +he'd been recalled to his regiment. There were paragraphs about him as +a linguist, and an Egyptologist, and anecdotes of him as a smart +soldier. You know the sort of thing. And the stories about his +parentage caught my fancy a bit. They're romantic. I've got enough +romance in me to see that side of life, and to know how it goes down +with the women. This scheme of mine depends on women. Most schemes do. +At the same time the Egyptian papers were printing paragraphs about +Lord Ernest Borrow. I don't know whether you're aware of that or not? +No? Would you like to see 'em? I've had my secretary cut 'em out—and +the Fenton stuff, too. The minute this idea began to wiggle in my mind +like a tadpole in water, I kept everything." +</p> +<p> +"Don't trouble about the paragraphs, thanks," I said. +</p> +<p> +"All right. It will save our time not to. But your wish to go in with +your friend, for the rights of excavating in the Sudan, was mentioned, +and the delay on account of alleged interference with Garstang's +pitch." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, I wonder how the reporters got onto that?" I couldn't help +exclaiming. +</p> +<p> +"It's their livelihood to get onto everything. 'Well then,' I said to +myself, 'Here's my chance, my only one. I want those two young men. +They're the right combination nation for me, to give real distinction +to my undertaking. I have money, but they ain't the sort you can buy +with money. There must be an incentive. If I get what they want, +perhaps I can get <i>them</i>.' So I went into the job tooth and nail. +Neither you nor Fenton was on the spot. I was—very much on it. Nothing +was definitely fixed up between the Government and Fenton for the right +to excavate at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, as they call the +little old molehill, and I scored. Now, if you two will do what I want, +you can have your mountain, and whatever you find you can keep. You're +worth more to me than any beads and broken-nosed statues under the sand +of Egypt. I think I've made some impression on your friend. He may be +inclined to go in with me, if you will. He's explained that in any case +he can't use his own name, on account of his position in the army and +so on. That's a disappointment to me, but I'll put up with it for the +sake of his accomplishments and his looks. Your name alone will carry +the necessary weight as a leader." +</p> +<p> +"You're very flattering," said I. "But I'm in the dark." +</p> +<p> +"I'm going to put you wise, as Americans say. My scheme was—and is—to +be a rival <i>de luxe</i> of Cook on the Nile. Not only that, but all over +the near East. You've heard, of course, about my buying the Marquis of +Redruth's yacht <i>Candace,</i> on his bankruptcy—the second biggest, and +the most up-to-date yacht in the world—and turning her into a pleasure +cruiser for the Mediterranean?" +</p> +<p> +"If I've heard, I'm afraid my memory's treacherous," said I, glad to +show how unimportant to me were the schemes of financiers, but +interested in the yacht's name, which carried my thoughts away to +Meröe. +</p> +<p> +"Great Scout! And I've spent two thousand in advertising! I've taken +whole pages of London and Continental papers!" +</p> +<p> +"I never read advertisements if I can help it, except of new patents in +razors. They're a fad of mine." +</p> +<p> +"Thank goodness you've got fads. Then we've something in common. I make +money out of my fads. I call 'em inspirations. I thought the <i>Candace</i> +business was one of my inspirations, and that I'd have some fun out of +it. I advertised her to start on her first pleasure cruise from +Marseilles to Gib, Algiers, Tangier, Tunis, Greece, Alexandria, and +Jaffa. 'That'll be a smack in the eye for the big liners,' I said to +myself. 'I'll skim the top layer of clotted cream off their passenger +lists!' I was going to do the thing <i>de luxe</i> straight through—bid for +the swell set, exclusiveness my motto. Of course I didn't expect to hit +the dukes and dollar kings first shot, but I thought if everything went +right the passengers would tell their friends at home how much better +we did them on board than any one else had ever done, and we'd get a +'snowball' ad, that nothing could stop. All would have worked out first +rate, if I hadn't made one mistake. I engaged a retired army colonel +for a conductor on board my yacht. I got the man cheap. But I was a +fool to economize on him. I ought to have launched out on a belted +earl. Folks, especially Americans, don't like retired colonels. The +woods are full of 'em over there, crawling with 'em. Most Americans are +colonels and not retired. Besides, this chap of mine's no good anyhow +—fancies himself as a politician, and is a first-class snob; has no +tact; rubs up the passengers the wrong way, and outrages their +feelings. We got a lot of people from the north of England, rich and a +bit crude, like me. Will you believe it, Colonel Corkran began his job +by sneering audibly at 'provincials' to some beastly friend of his, +come to see him off at Marseilles? Instead of making his dinner-table +lectures a kind of travellogue as he was hired to do, he turns 'em into +political tirades, and calls the Liberals scoundrels, half of our folks +being red-hot Rads. Not only that, if the girls and boys talk while the +band's playin' any of his favourite airs, he hisses out 'Silence,' +through a hole in his mouth where one tooth's missin'. That tooth bein' +gone, has got on the girls' nerves worse than anything else, it would +seem, except his being down on Suffragettes. And the crisis was reached +when he insulted Miss Hassett Bean, the richest and most important +woman in the bunch, when she expressed her political opinions. Said to +her, 'My dear lady, why do you bother to have opinions? They give you a +lot of trouble to collect, and nobody else will trouble to listen. Why +not collect insects or stamps instead?' Of course she did think Germany +had already invaded England with a large army of soldiers disguised as +hotel waiters, which was calculated to rile an old officer; but that's +no excuse for a man who's paid to please. And now the fellow's +wondering why he's not popular with the passengers!" +</p> +<p> +I laughed, but Sir Walter had worked himself into a state past smiling +point. "It's no laughing matter," he said, "This snob Corkran's killing +my scheme. There's a plot on foot for the party to walk off the yacht +at Alexandria, and demand half their passage money. Some old grampus on +board has started the story that the <i>Candace</i> has been down three +times———" +</p> +<p> +"A lie, of course," I soothed him. +</p> +<p> +"A dastardly lie. She's been down only twice. The first time was a +collision, the second a coincidence." +</p> +<p> +"But I thought she was the most up-to-date yacht in the world!" +</p> +<p> +"So she is, as the <i>Candace.</i> That was the Marquis's name for her: gave +it after a trip to Egypt. He bought her second hand, and rechristened +her while she was being redecorated. He spared no expense, which he +could well afford, seeing that he never paid a penny. I got her at cost +price, as you may say. But these plotters are going to claim that they +were inveigled on board under false pretences, by my advertising the +<i>Candace</i> as the newest thing in yachts. I've had a letter and several +cypher telegrams from the assistant conductor, a useful chap, telling +me the whole story of the plot, which he's nosed out; and I'm faced +with humiliating failure unless I can save the situation by a grand +coup at the eleventh hour. Now, you can guess why on the spur of the +moment I bought up your rights to dig in the Sudan, can't you?" +</p> +<p> +"I confess I can't," I said. +</p> +<p> +"Why, I want you to take Colonel Corkran's place on the <i>Candace</i> as +conductor. And I want you and your friend Fenton to go up Nile in +charge of the splendid steam dahabeah I've bought to supplement the +Mediterranean trip. There you have my motives in a nutshell!" +</p> +<p> +I burst out laughing. "A cracked nutshell," I remarked. Sir Marcus' +rosy face turned royal purple. "What—you won't undertake it?" +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't," I assured him. "For one thing, I'd be a fish out of +water. My dear sir, perhaps you don't know that my nickname since the +age of five has been 'Duffer?' I'm proud of it. I take pains to live up +to it——" +</p> +<p> +"I bet you do. I bet it opens doors and lays down velvet carpets for +you. Why, a duffer with a title is exactly what I want! Duffers are the +rage nowadays. You and your friend will make a brilliant pair, a fine +contrast, especially with your friend's present get up. If you'd both +been born for me you couldn't suit me better." +</p> +<p> +I laughed again. "You said you ought to have launched out on belted +earls. We're humble——" +</p> +<p> +"There's no earls handy, and if there were any, they wouldn't be what +you two are in looks and talents, to say nothing of your brother being +a marquis. I'm offering you both the softest kind of job. All you have +to do is to be agreeable young gentlemen, with a knowledge of society, +and history; that means, you can be yourselves. You get a fine trip on +high salaries if you don't scorn to accept my money; and as a reward +for a good holiday you receive the right to explore your golden +mountain. I suppose you must think it <i>is</i> a golden mountain, or you +wouldn't be such nuts on it. You'd better consult your friend before +you refuse my offer, anyhow." +</p> +<p> +"Haven't you heard that Fenton's left Cairo?" I took the precaution to +ask. "That doesn't look as if he were entertaining the idea of going up +the Nile on your steam dahabeah." "I have heard that he's left. But I +happen to know—it isn't so. I saw him standing in front of Shepheard's +Hotel this morning, waiting for you. I got on to what was in that green +turban before the pretty girl in white—Miss Gilder, I've found out +since—called him on to the terrace. Don't look as if you wanted to eat +me, Lord Ernest. I've won my way up from the bottom rung of the ladder +by keeping my eyes open, and by putting two and two together. I +specialize on that. I don't suppose there's another man in Cairo except +me and you, would have recognized Fenton, so you needn't worry. I +twigged that he'd dressed up for serious business, not for fun, because +I read about some smart coups he'd brought off by going among the +natives like one of themselves. I'm not a sneak, and I shan't revenge +myself by giving him away, even if you two do show me the frozen face. +Captain Fenton encouraged me to think he might consider my proposition +if you would, though he refused to influence your decision one way or +the other. Naturally I conclude that he could be on my Nile boat if he +wanted to, even if not in his own capacity as an officer. I'll take him +in his green turban. He makes the best looking Egyptian I ever saw, and +he'd go down with the ladies like hot cakes." +</p> +<p> +"Sir Marcus," I smiled, "you're one of the most amusing as well as the +sharpest men, if you'll allow me to say so, that I ever met. Whatever +happens I shall not forget this conversation." +</p> +<p> +"I don't want you to forget it," he grinned, beginning to hope. "Think +it over. We're the chance of a lifetime for each other. And remember +the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." I rose, and he got up heavily. +"When will you let me know?" he asked. +</p> +<p> +I was tempted to reply that he must have taken Fenton's seeming +encouragement too seriously, that, mountain or no mountain, it was +practically impossible for us to accept his amazing proposition. But +suddenly I seemed to hear "Antoun Effendi" telling Miss Gilder that she +must wait for his decision until evening. He had said afterward, also, +that it depended on me. It was evident that he had a scheme of his own, +worked by wheels within wheels. He had consoled me after the first blow +by saying that all was not lost. And I had four months' leave from +duty. A lot could be done in four months. "I will let you know before +night," I said to Sir Marcus Lark. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH7"><!-- CH7 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE REVELATIONS OF A RETIRED COLONEL +</p> +<p> +Fenton's orders were, when the Cairo business should be finished, to go +slowly up the Nile in native dress, and get at the truth of certain +rumours which had disturbed officialdom at Cairo. At Denderah, Luxor, +and two or three other places there had been "incidents," small but +troublesome. English sightseers had complained of being hustled, and +even insulted by the inhabitants of several river towns, and it was +important to find out whether the Egyptians or the foreigners had been +more to blame; whether there were real symptoms of sedition, as +reported, or whether the young men of the suspected places had merely +resented with roughness some discourtesy of tactless tourists. Fenton +had seized upon the idea that, as Egyptian lecturer and conductor—a +sort of super-dragoman—on board Lark's Nile boat, he might find a +plausible pretext for his secret errand. "Why do you travel?" would be +the question he must expect from suspicious leaders of any plot that +might be hatching, if he journeyed from one Nile village to another +without the excuse of business. As a glorified conductor of a pleasure-trip +for a party of tourists his excuse would be readymade for him; but +he had been far from sure that I would fall in with Sir Marcus Lark's +plan, despite the bribe. He had wanted me to hear the whole story, the +whole project, from Sir Marcus' own lips; and in his uncertainty of the +result, he had thought of Miss Gilder as an attractive "victim." There +she was, as he had said, presented to him by Providence. If I should +pour scorn upon the Lark suggestion, he might find it worth while to +guide the Gilded Girl and her friends on their Nile pilgrimage. He left +the question for me, and I decided to kill as many birds as possible +with one stone. The name of the yacht was in itself an incentive: +<i>Candace</i>—Queen of Meröe—our Meröe. She seemed to call, and to +promise good luck. We would accept Lark's terms, and enter his service +in return for a written agreement to hand over his ill-got digging +rights to us, whether or no we turned out to be satisfactory as guides. +We could but do our best, and at all events we should earn the reward +which we had looked upon as ours already. Anthony would play his double +part, serving the interests of government and those of Sir Marcus Lark. +As for Monny Gilder, why shouldn't she and her party become Lark's +passengers? The only reason against this "inspiration" (as Sir Marcus +would have called it), lay in the fact that Monny wished to engage a +private dahabeah. When she wished for a thing, it appeared that only a +miracle or a cataclysm could induce her to give it up for something +else suggested by an outsider. But when I mentioned this peculiarity to +Fenton, he was fired to punish the girl by forcing her compliance with +our will. She had treated him like a servant. She looked upon a man +supposedly of Egyptian blood, even though of princely birth, somewhat +as she looked upon an American "nigger." True, Anthony Fenton had in +his veins but very few such drops. On his father's side he was all +English, and his mother had been more than two thirds Greek and +Italian. Nevertheless this spoilt girl had struck a blow at the pride +which went ever walking about the world with a chip lightly poised on +its shoulder. Anthony had no desire to poach on my preserves. At the +same time he yearned to show Miss Gilder that he could be her master, +not her servant. +</p> +<p> +Once Anthony and I had made up our minds, everything else arranged +itself with lightning speed. Sir Marcus, rejoicing in his ill-got +conquest of us, broke to me the news that I must go by the first ship +to the Piraeus, to meet the <i>Candace,</i> and head off the recalcitrant +band of passengers. He flattered me by thinking that, if I took the +place of Colonel Corkran as conductor, they would abandon their plot to +desert the yacht at Alexandria. It was, according to Lark's secret +information, only the "smart and would-be smart set" who had combined +to spring this mine upon the management. The rest grumbled no more than +it was normal for all pleasure-pilgrims to grumble; and as, roughly +speaking, the contented travellers were all going on to Palestine after +a week's wild sightseeing in Cairo, the colonel might be allowed to +continue his voyage without the interruption of a "row." +</p> +<p> +"I should have had enough common sense at the start," growled Sir +Marcus with crude candour, "to engage a lord for the Smart Set, and a +parson for the Ernest Inquirers. There's a world of difference catering +for a Set, and a Flock. The art is, to know it, and how to do it. Now +I've secured you, I'm all right with the S. S. and thanks be, I've a +young reformed missionary on board to shepherd the Flock. Now the +Reverend Watts will come in handy, herding his sheep through Palestine, +while the colonel swaggers and fancies he's bossing the show. It's the +Egypt lot I worry about: girls out for dukes, and dukes out for +dollars. Not that there's a darned duke on board, but there are some +who think they out-duke the dukes, and it's our business to humour 'em. +You just duff all you want to, Lord Ernest, they'll swallow anything +you do, like honey. Don't bother about a line of conduct: only be +genial. Murmur soft nothings to the women; flirt but don't have +favourites. Don't be too political with the men: work in plenty of +anecdotes about your swell relations." +</p> +<p> +I replied that I could confidently promise geniality, except if +seasick: but Sir Marcus implored me at all costs not to be seasick. +That was the one thing I must not be. My whole time between the Piraeus +and Alexandria, on board the <i>Candace,</i> must be spent ingratiating +myself with the sulky passengers, and obliterating from their memories +the crimes of Colonel Corkran. In Sir Marcus' opinion my future charges +had taken passage on the <i>Candace,</i> and would go up the Nile, not to +see sights, but to be seen doing the right things. According to him not +two out of twenty cared tuppence for Egypt, but wished to talk about it +in sparkling style at home. My friend Captain Fenton and I must make it +sparkle. Sir Marcus had resigned himself to the fact that one of his +trump cards—Anthony—could not be produced until the arrival in Cairo +of the troupe, and that even then, the name of Fenton must not be used +as an attraction. Lark felt confident that I was a good enough card to +make his hand worth playing, and in spite of the half contemptuous +amusement with which I regarded the whole scheme, I couldn't help being +"on my mettle." I found myself wanting to succeed, wanting to please +the big, common man whom a few hours ago I had been cursing. +</p> +<p> +I had to start for Greece the night after our decision. Meanwhile, I +was anxious to explain the unexplainable to Brigit and Monny, and +secure the party for Sir Marcus Lark's alleged dahabeah, which turned +out to be one of Cook's old boats bought and newly decorated. Both my +tasks would be difficult. I had to hide the secret reason for selling +myself to the financier, and at the same time keep the respect of the +ladies. As for inducing Miss Gilder to give up her dream of a private +dahabeah, I foresaw that it would be like persuading the youngest +lioness in the Cairo Zoo to surrender her cherished wooden ball. But I +began by giving Monny a present; a fine old turban-box of rare, red +tortoise shell inlaid with mother of pearl, which I found at an +antiquary's. In the silklined box reposed a green turban; and that +green turban told its own story. Miss Gilder flushed with pleasure at +sight of it. "I've won my bet!" she exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said I. "To my astonishment! The man consents. He's a great +prize, knows Cairo and upper Egypt like a book. But you'll have to +surrender him when you go on the Nile." +</p> +<p> +In her haste to know why, Monny forgot to ask how I had obtained the +green turban; and for this I was glad, because it was only the second +best headgear of my smart friend the Hadji. In explaining that the +distinguished Egyptian had been engaged by Sir Marcus Lark, I slipped +in a word about my own part in the trip, describing it as an ideal +rest-cure for a budding diplomat on sick leave. I praised the boat and +spoke of the fun on board. I regretted Miss Gilder's preference for a +private dahabeah, so obvious, so millionairy! Still, I added, every one +to his taste! And anyhow, no doubt all the best cabins on the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> were taken. +</p> +<p> +That was the entering wedge—the mention of an obstacle to overcome. +Miss Gilder looked thoughtful, though she kept silence: and next day, +when making my adieux before starting for Alexandria, she flung out a +careless question. When would the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> leave Cairo? How +many passengers would she carry? Would there be a rush at the Temples, +or would there be plenty of time for proper sightseeing? And was I sure +that all the nicest cabins were engaged? No, I was not sure. I could +inquire. I tried not to look triumphant, but I must have darted out a +ray, because Monny withdrew into her shell. She had inquired out of +curiosity, she explained. I had told such stories about the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> that she would like to see her. Perhaps Antoun +Effendi could get permission for a visit to the boat. +</p> +<p> +In this state I had to leave affairs, and start for the Piraeus, where +I must await the return of the tourists from Athens. I had two days at +sea in which to work up an agony of apprehension, and I could have +thanked heaven when, arriving on board the big white yacht, I found +that I was ahead of the passengers. I was expected, however, and a deck +cabin was ready for my occupation. I hoped that I had not turned out my +rival from the room, but dared not question the steward. He seemed to +know all about me, nevertheless, and said that my name had been "posted +up" as conductor of the Nile party. "If I may take the liberty of +mentioning it, my lord," he added, "it has made a very good +impression." We were to steam for Alexandria the moment the passengers +arrived in the special train—having had three days of sightseeing in +Athens—and I had just got my possessions stowed away when a wave of +chattering voices broke over the ship. My heart gave a jump, as a +soldier's must when called to fight on an empty stomach at dawn on a +winter's morning. What ought I to do? How was I to make the +acquaintance of my future charges? Must it be en masse, or could it be +done singly? I had neglected to ask Sir Marcus what would be expected +of me, and I was in a worse funk than a new boy on his first day at +school. Soon it would be dinner time. I wished that I were ill, but I +remembered that the one thing I must not do was to be seasick. Already +the ship was beginning to move out of the Greek harbour, or I should +have been tempted to get a telegram calling me home. Even the Mountain +of the Golden Pyramid seemed not too great a sacrifice to make—but it +was too late to make it—and some one was knocking at my door. +</p> +<p> +I opened it with such courage as I had; and the instant I set eyes on +the man I knew that he was Colonel Corkran. He was born to be a retired +colonel. What came before the retiring could have been but a prelude. A +stout figure of middle height; red face, veined on cheeks and nose; +pale blue eyes which looked as if they had faded in the wash; purple +moustache and eyebrows; close-cropped gray hair; a double chin +clamouring for extra collar space; and a bridge-player's expression. +This was the rival whose place I had virtually, though not officially, +usurped. +</p> +<p> +I was prepared to hear him hiss "Viper!" between his teeth, as +characters in melodramatic serials do to perfection, their front teeth +having doubtless been designed for such purposes. But his look seemed +to denote pity rather than hatred. So might a prison-warder regard a +condemned man, in coming to announce the hour of execution. +</p> +<p> +"Lord Ernest Borrow?" said he, in a slightly hoarse voice. "I'm Colonel +Corkran. Delighted to meet you. I've met your brother, Lord Killeena. +Daresay he wouldn't remember me. I don't think I can begin better than +by thanking you for coming to take over my job." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I haven't done that!" I hastened to protest, as he sat fatly down +in a chair I pushed forward. "As I understand, I'm to take a few people +off your hands, and the hands of your assistant, Mr. Kruger, so that +you can go to Palestine instead of leaving that important excursion +entirely to the chaplain, Mr. Watts." +</p> +<p> +Colonel Corkran laughed. "Thank you for trying to save my feelings," +said he. "But I assure you they're not hurt. I'm sincerely delighted to +see you—for my own sake. For yours—well, that's another pair of +shoes! My dear fellow, I wonder if you've the smallest idea what you're +in for?" +</p> +<p> +"In for?" I echoed. +</p> +<p> +"Yes. I'm saying this as a friend. Don't think I'm jealous. Lord, no! I +look on you as a deliverer. And don't think I want to frighten you. It +isn't that. But I feel it's my duty to prepare you. I might have got on +better if there'd been some one to do the same by me. There wasn't. +Kruger, my so-called assistant, is a spy. At best, he's a mere +accountant, not supposed to look after the passengers socially. I +gather that he was some secretary of Lark's. Beware of him. He writes +to Lark from every port. As for the passengers, the saintly lot are bad +enough. Yet it's only the food and the cabins and the attendance <i>they</i> +grumble about. I'm shunted off the worldly lot onto them in future. But +at their worst, they'll be a rest-cure! and Lark has the decency not to +reduce my screw. It's the worldly lot that's going to make you curse +the day you were born." +</p> +<p> +He wanted me to speak, or groan; but I maintained a stricken silence, +to which I gave some illusion of dignity. After a disappointed pause he +went on: "You'd better know something about these people. Beasts, every +one of 'em, young or old, some beastly common beasts, but all beastly +rich, except those that are beastly poor, and on the make—to marry +their daughters, or cadge for smart friends. Lark was bidding for +swells, and got snobs. Thinks his silly title will carry weight in +society as it does in the city. 'Lark Pie,' we're called, I hear. I +call us a 'Pretty Kettle of Fish!' The girls are the worst of the +caboodle, though some of 'em aren't bad looking. You won't believe the +trouble I've had with the creatures till you begin to get the same +yourself." +</p> +<p> +"What kind of trouble?" I inquired gingerly. +</p> +<p> +"Every kind a woman can make. Apart from food troubles, they think +they're not being entertained enough on board; think I ought to get up +more dances; tango teas I suppose! Don't like the way I organize games; +are mad because they can't have music at meals—which they can't +because the band's all stewards; blame me because the men don't make +love to them, or because they do. And at the hotels where we go on +shore, it's Hades. Naturally the people staying in the hotels resent +us. They look on us as a menagerie—a rabble. So we are. At least, they +are. I don't count myself in with them. What can I do? I'm not +omnipotent. Perhaps you are. Anyhow, they're prepared to believe it, +for you're a new broom—a broom with a fine handle. I'm only a poor +colonel with a few medals given by my country for services that were +appreciated. You're brother to a marquis." +</p> +<p> +"You paint a lurid picture" I said, when he stopped for breath. +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't paint it lurider than it is. But you'll have to find out +for yourself. It won't be so bad while you're a novelty. Don't say I +haven't warned you. And oh, by the way, I've announced that you're to +be presented to the passengers at dinner to-night, on coming in, before +the soup is served." +</p> +<p> +"As a sort of <i>hors d'oeuvre,</i> I suppose," I murmured weakly. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Corkran stared, without a smile. "As the titled conductor of +the Egypt tour," he explained to my dull intelligence, with a slight +sneer. "So will you please be in the dining saloon just before the +bugle blows the beasts in? I have to introduce you, in a short speech. +It's all I can do, except say, God help you! But I don't see how He +can. I suppose your friend Sir Marcus told you that you would be +expected to deliver a lecture on Egypt, to-night at the dinner table? +After you've finished your dinner, of course. I hope the cracking and +crunching of nuts doesn't disturb you much? I confess I've found it +getting on my nerves." +</p> +<p> +I was aghast. My mind jumped to the wild thought of eating soap, in +order to froth at the mouth and simulate a fit. It seemed my only way +of escape, and after that, the Deluge. But my rival was so revelling in +the mental havoc he had wrought that I rallied, replying that, as Sir +Marcus had not broken the news to me, I didn't see how it would be +possible to deliver a lecture. +</p> +<p> +"Aren't you up on Egypt?" the colonel asked, pityingly. "Neither am I, +though I've sweated over Baedeker with my head in wet towels, when I +wanted to be at bridge. But I thought that was the excuse for engaging +you? That, and your title, of course, which is going to make you +popular. As fast as I fag up the names of those beastly Egyptian gods +or kings and queens, they run out of my brains like water out of a +sieve. Or if I do contrive to remember any, by chance, together with +their dates, which is almost more than can be expected of the human +intellect, why, I find that I pronounce 'em wrong; or they're spelled +another way in the next book. But I suppose as you know Egypt, its d—d +history comes natural as breathing." +</p> +<p> +How I wished it did! And how different was this new programme from the +one outlined by Sir Marcus. Just to be genial, and flirt with the +girls. "My recollections of Egypt are from some time ago," I admitted. +"To give a lecture at half an hour's notice.——" +</p> +<p> +"In justice to yourself I'm afraid you'll have to," the colonel +persisted. "It's been announced that you will give the lecture, and the +Egypt lot are looking forward to it as the animals in a zoo look +forward to their food. If they're defrauded, they'll think you a +slacker, and that you're presuming on your title." +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't like that!" my anguish racked out of me. +</p> +<p> +"I fancied you wouldn't. But what's to be done? Am I to announce, when +I introduce you, that your knowledge of Egypt isn't equal to the +strain?" +</p> +<p> +I took an instant for reflection. I knew that he was hoping I might +throw myself on his mercy, or else that I would speak and fail; but I +determined to do neither. "On second thoughts, I may be able to give +some kind of a pow-wow," I replied. +</p> +<p> +Colonel Corkran's face fell. "That's all right, then!" he exclaimed, +getting to his feet. "Well, I must be off. Will you have a cocktail?" +</p> +<p> +"No, thanks," said I. "I think I can get on without it." +</p> +<p> +He was at the door. "Kind of hash of gods and goddesses with a +peppering of kings and queens, and mixed sauce of history and legend, +is what's needed," were his farewell words. Then he shut the door; and +I tore my watch from the pocket of my waistcoat. I had twenty-eight +minutes in which to prepare the said hash with its seasoning and sauce; +and the bugle was inviting my judges to dress for the inquisition. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH8"><!-- CH8 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +FOXY DUFFING +</p> +<p> +"I'll show you your place," Corkran volunteered, lying in wait for me +inside the saloon door, with a cocktail in his hand. "Sorry you +wouldn't have one. You'll need it. But no time to change your mind. +I've put you at the head of the table that would be the captain's, if +he ate with us, which he doesn't—happy man! Place of honour. 'Twas +mine, 'tis yours. But I can't go on with the quotation unless I turn it +into 'You're slave to thousands.' Sixty odd can be as formidable as +thousands." +</p> +<p> +"Are there sixty odd?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, very 'odd.' The Egypt lot will be about twenty-five. But the +whole gang's yours for the present. I give them to you, with the seat +of honour." +</p> +<p> +"Please don't put me in your place," I protested. "I prefer———" +</p> +<p> +"My poor boy, it isn't a question of what you prefer, as you'll learn +if you stick this out. Of course if you funk it—but that's a joke! +This table's the only one where you can be heard. Do you see?" +</p> +<p> +I did see; and accepted the situation, because the dinner bugle began +to sound, and I could not be scampering round the saloon like a +frightened rabbit as the Set and the Flock began dropping in to dinner. +As it happened, they did not drop—they poured into the room in a +steady stream, which phenomenon, whispered Corkran, was caused by +curiosity for a first sight of me. My heart counted each new arrival, +with a bump. +</p> +<p> +If Corkran had not represented "Lark's Party" as being a menagerie for +which I had inadvertently engaged as tamer, I should have thought they +looked a harmless crowd. But then, of course, I was not obliged to tame +anybody on the <i>Laconia,</i> which makes a difference in one's point of +view. Miss Gilder needed taming, no doubt, but I hadn't tackled the +task. My thoughts flew to Cairo, as I stood struggling to look +pleasant; and I wished myself back where Anthony Fenton was now in the +taming business. I envied him, for there was only one Monny, whereas in +this terrible, bright dining saloon, the air was pink and white with +girls, dozens of girls, with eyes fixed on me, glittering eyes, which +appeared like the headlights of motor cars. I didn't suppose there +could be so many eyes in the world as these people of all ages and +every possible sex seemed to own. Sixty odd they were, according to +Corkran, but they looked like six hundred; a human miracle of loaves +and fishes. +</p> +<p> +Yes, the creatures might have appeared harmless enough had there been +no retired colonel. But there was a retired colonel, and so deftly had +he undermined my courage that almost any shock might cause it to +explode in a blue flame of funk. His speech of introduction was now to +come, and if I survived that, I might hope to live through my own +fireworks. +</p> +<p> +"They've put on their best bibs and tuckers," Corkran mumbled in a +stage whisper, as the eight dwellers at our table began to sort +themselves for places. Then, in portentous silence he paused till +everybody everywhere was seated. Waiting still, until satisfied that +eyes and ears were focussed upon us, he rapped on the table with the +handle of a knife. +</p> +<p> +"Ladies and gentlemen," he roared, "I have the pleasure of introducing +to you Sir Marcus Lark's Great Surprise, entitled Lord Ernest Borrow, +younger brother of the Marquis of Killeena, a peer, as Sir Marcus has +reminded us, of the oldest lineage in Ireland. Let me reassure you all +by saying that Lord Ernest's last name is as unsuited to his nature as +the first is true to it. If you'll pardon the pun it is Sir Marcus who +'Borrows' for your benefit, and he hasn't Borrowed Trouble, but a +Blessing—in disguise. I am now left free, as suits my superior age and +experience, to devote my attention to the serious minded ones among +you, who are to proceed with the Reverend Mr. Watts and myself to +Palestine. This young and gallant neophyte will 'lord' it over the +fleshpots of Egypt and those about to seek them. I hope you'll help him +as loyally as you have helped <i>me:</i> and later we'll drink to his health +and success, in any beverage we happen to have signed for!" +</p> +<p> +To have killed Corkran might have been butchery; no jury could have +brought in a verdict of murder or even manslaughter, had I stabbed him +with the knife he used to pound upon the table. I smiled the smile of a +skull in a doctor's waiting-room, and in a sickly voice bleated my +pleasure in meeting these new acquaintances. I hoped we might be—er +—friends as well as shipmates. Then like a mass of jelly out of its +mould I plopped onto my chair. The colonel had sneaked off to his own +table and I was left to recover myself as best I might among eight of +his enemies. They proved (in whispers) to be the most active of these, +and tacitly offered me allegiance which I accepted in the same manner. +There was a Sir John Biddell, who informed me in the first five minutes +that he had been Lord Mayor of London. He promised to show me a speech +he had made in the presence of King Edward which, in the form of a +newspaper cutting, he never travelled without. This, however, was his +first trip farther than Paris, and he had brought with him, not only +the speech, but his wife and twin daughters. The distinguished family +occupied one side of my table: the other was given up to a General +Harlow, his wife (both with high profiles and opinions of themselves), +a youngish newspaper proprietor from Manchester, evidently rich and a +"catch," and a maiden lady doubtless of importance equal to her +proportions, as she was allowed to bring to the table a melancholy +marmoset. These people did their best to raise my spirits. The girls, +who copied royalties in their hair-dressing, looked alike, dressed +alike, talked and laughed alike, and entertained me with chat about +high society in London. They had red cheeks, black eyes, white teeth, +and an almost indecent familiarity with the private lives of the +aristocracy. The Misses Biddell and fat Miss Hassett-Bean (the lady of +the marmoset) hinted that the cream of the yacht's social life had +risen to our table, and told me, not only what to lecture about, but +how to treat the rival cliques. My brain felt more and more like a +blotting-pad. I answered at random and longed for the meal to end +—until I remembered my lecture. Then I wished that dinner might go on +indefinitely like the tea party of the Mad Hatter. All too soon the +glory of a French menu flickered down to a dying spark of nuts and +raisins, and hardly had I cracked my first almond (was it an ill omen +that there should be a worm in it?) when a steward handed me a twisted +note from the executioner. "The rule for conductor's dinner speech is, +rise with the raisins! Hope you won't find your lecture too hard a nut +to crack. Yours sympathetically, Corkran. Bang on the table to make +them stop gabbling. Or shall I do it for you? If you haven't by the +time I count ten, I will." +</p> +<p> +He did. I trust it wasn't my courage that failed. But having a raisin +in my mouth I could not on the instant respond to the lash. And as +Corkran would have said, it takes more than one swallow to make a +speech. Ruthlessly he rapped, seizing what I wished might be his dying +chance to indulge a mania for puns and thumping wood. +</p> +<p> +"Ladies and gentlemen," he bawled from his comparatively obscure +corner. "Lord Ernest Borrow will render your last moments the most +enjoyable of the meal, by washing down your nuts and raisins with the +wine of his eloquence. Take your desserts now. We conscientious +conductors hope for ours in heaven." +</p> +<p> +How ardently I desired that these might indeed be the "last moments" +not only of my audience but of Colonel Corkran. If the next second had +brought a tidal wave or a collision I should have blessed Providence. +But I got to my feet—and nothing happened. I seemed to be in a dream, +of having shot up to a gigantic height, and having put on the wrong +clothes, or none. My hands weighed two pounds each, and ought to have +been at the butcher's. My mouth was the size of a negro minstrel's, and +so full of large bones which once had been teeth that I could not utter +a syllable. I clacked my jaws, and emitted a hacking cough which +fortunately so much resembled that of a professional lecturer that I +kept my senses. Not only did I keep them, but they seemed suddenly to +become my servants. The thought of a certain fable jumped into my head, +and I began thereupon to speak; although I had forgotten everything I +had ever read of Egyptian history. +</p> +<p> +"It happens," said I, in a phonographic voice, "that I was born in +Egypt. I played with clay gods and goddesses instead of tin soldiers. I +preferred stories of Egypt's past and present to tales of adventure. I +confess to you what I fear I didn't confess to Sir Marcus Lark. The +trouble is, I'm stuffed too full of facts about Egypt. I want you to +help me get them out, and not duplicate yours. No doubt all of you, in +travelling to the East, have packed your brains with knowledge as well +as your boxes with guide books. Why should I bore you by telling you +things that you were born knowing? A plan has occurred to me by which +your knowledge can be turned into account. As I said, I beg your help. +And permission to drink a cup of coffee would be first aid." +</p> +<p> +People laughed, whether at me, or with me, I was not sure; yet I felt +that I had tickled their curiosity. Coffee was going round. Corkran was +unctuously sipping his, and had not expected me to receive mine till +after the battle. But I got it in spite of him, and mapped out a +programme as I drank. Then I ceased to tremble before the confused +assemblage or bird-headed gods, cat-faced goddesses, and sacred +vultures that danced or flapped in my brain. +</p> +<p> +I no longer felt inclined to commit suicide because I could remember +nothing about Egypt except that the Delta was shaped like a lily, with +the Fayum for a bud, and the Nile for its stem: that Alexander the +Macedonian defeated Darius the Persian B. C. three hundred and +something; that ancient Egyptians loved beer, but were forbidden to eat +beans. +</p> +<p> +"My proposal is," I went on, "that before I unload any of my knowledge +upon you, I gleam some idea of what you know already. Thus I can spare +you repetitions. Any one who has anything particularly interesting to +say about Egypt, let him—or her—hold up a hand." +</p> +<p> +Now was the crucial moment. If no hand went up, I was lost. But hardly +were the words out of my mouth when there was a waving as if in a +wind-swept wheatfield <i>Place aux dames!</i> I called upon Miss Hassett-Bean +to begin. She rustled silkily up, bowing to me, then directing an +acetylene glare upon Colonel Corkran's end of the room. She was, I +foresaw, about to kill two birds with one stone, to say nothing of the +marmoset, who fell off her arm into General Harlow's coffee and created +a brief diversion. As soon, however, as the monkey was rescued and +before General Harlow's shirt front was dried, the lady began to speak. +</p> +<p> +"We all thank Lord Ernest," she said, looking from the colonel to the +Reverend Wyman Watts, and back again, "for sparing us one of those +commonplace inflictions from which we've nightly suffered on board this +yacht. If we didn't know already, such school-book facts as +Christianity being introduced to Egypt by St. Mark in Nero's time, and +Moses and Plato both studying philosophy at Heliopolis, and things like +that, we wouldn't be spending our money with Sir Marcus A. Lark to see +Egypt. Never before have we been encouraged to air our views. Those of +us with political opinions have been snubbed; and we who are interested +in Woman Suffrage have been assured that we'll find nothing to please +us in the land of Veiled Women. At last I am given a chance to state +without being interrupted that Egypt was once the most enlightened +country in her treatment of women. Long before the time of the Greeks, +and even before the Shepherd Kings Mr. Watts has told us so much about, +using his Old Testament as if it were a Baedeker, the women of Ancient +Egypt had rights according to their class. Queens and princesses were +considered equal with their husbands. Women were great musicians, +playing on many instruments, especially the sistrum, sacred to the +goddess Hathor. And weren't all the best gods goddesses, when you come +to think of it? Women used to drive their own chariots, as we do our +motors, and hold salons, like the French ladies. There was Rhodopis, +for instance, who married the brother of Sappho. I wonder if Colonel +Corkran could have told you that the story of Cinderella comes from an +anecdote of Rhodopis? I hardly think that he's been able to spare +enough time from bridge to study Strabo, who was the Baedeker of Egypt +for tourists six hundred years before Christ. An eagle saw Rhodopis +bathing, and stealing one of her sandals flew with it to Memphis, where +he dropped it into the king's lap. It was so small and dainty that King +Hophra scoured Egypt for the owner, and when he found her at last, +according to Strabo, made her his queen." +</p> +<p> +"If Strabo was right, she lived long before Sappho's day!" interpolated +the colonel's voice. +</p> +<p> +"Of course, Strabo was right. There were two of Rhodopis. Everybody +knows that. The Third Pyramid was built for the tomb of the first one, +<i>not</i> for King Mycineris, <i>I</i> believe. Why shouldn't a woman have a +Pyramid to herself? The Sphinx is a woman, as I will insist to my dying +day, if it were my last word! I hope Lord Ernest won't ram down our +throats any nonsense about that noble and graceful tribute to the +Mystery of Womanhood being a stupid King Harmachis, or Horemkhu. I +wouldn't believe it if I found a hundred nasty stone beards lying +buried in the sand under her chin, instead of one, which could easily +have been put there to deceive people. Probably King Harmachis had the +Sphinx altered to look like him. No wonder she shuddered at such +profanation, and shed her false beard. There you have my theory. And as +for Egypt being now the land of Veiled Women, where Suffragettes find +no sympathy, I've heard that the prophet's order for veiling has been +purposely misconstrued by tyrannical men, with their usual jealousy. +Even Mohammed himself was jealous." +</p> +<p> +With this Miss Hassett-Bean sat down, amid fitful applause; and at my +earnest request, Miss Enid Biddell, the prettier twin, stood bravely +up. She wished, before the subject was changed, to tell some little +things she had read about the girls of Ancient Egypt, how like they +were to girls of to-day, in all their ways, especially in—in things +concerning love. It was they who first questioned the petals of flowers +for their lovers' loyalty. How much they thought about their clothes, +too, getting their best things from foreign countries, as women did +now, from Paris! It was so funny to read how the girls of Old Egypt had +consulted palmists and fortune tellers and astrologers just as girls +did in Bond Street now; and that what 'Billikens' and 'Swasticas' and +birth-stones were to us, images of gods were to the girls of Egypt who +lived before the days of Moses! They had scarab rings with magic +inscriptions, and sacred apes for the symbol of Intelligence, and lucky +eyes of Horus, wounded by the wicked god Set, and cured by the love of +Isis. On their bracelets and necklaces they hung charms, and their +dressing-tables were covered with images of favourite gods and +goddesses. Hathor, the goddess of Love and Joy, was supposed to give +her choicest gifts to girls who wore her special colour (that green-blue +in the Temple of Edfu which Robert Hichens calls "the colour of +love") and to those who had her pet stones, emeralds, or turquoises. +Nowadays, in Egypt, the jewels of the women Were only lent to them by +their men, and could be taken away as a punishment, or be pawned or +sold in case of need; but in old days Egyptian women had all their most +beautiful possessions buried with them. +</p> +<p> +When her sister had finished I urged the other twin to speak, and +timidly Miss Elaine repeated to us what a friend of hers, a clergyman +(here a blush) had told her. That the Red Sea was not red but a +brighter blue than any sea in the world, and called red only because it +washed the Red Lands. Her friend had written down for her in verse +<i>such</i> a sweet legend about the Nile rising every spring from a single +tear shed by Isis, a <i>much</i> more powerful goddess than Hathor, because +she was the goddess of goodness as well as love. And the Nile used to +be named Sihor by the Egyptians; and the year separated into three +seasons, Flood time, Seed time, and Harvest. Miss Biddell's friend was +writing a book about Egypt and was going to divide it in three parts +like that. It was to be dedicated to <i>her</i>. +</p> +<p> +Bless the dear creatures, how they kept the ball rolling to please +themselves, and—indirectly—to sort out my stock of ideas! +</p> +<p> +Harry Snell, the newspaper man, was not hard to persuade to his feet. +He was studying the resemblance between Arabic and English words. He +had found out, among other things, that Tallyho was "Tallyhoon," +brought home by the Crusaders. He even had a theory that some of our +words came from the early Egyptian. "Amen," for instance, he believed +to be derived from "Amon," the name of the great god, father of all the +other gods of Egypt, which was cried aloud, he understood, in the +temples, during religious services. The parson jumped eagerly up to +dispute this theory, and happily forgetful of me, seized the +opportunity to spring upon us a few facts from his own store. When, +however, Mr. Watts' discourse got him as far as Joseph's Well in the +Citadel, General Harlow could bear no more, but sprang up to inform us +that the Joseph of the Well in the Citadel was quite another Joseph, +some Yusef of the Arab conquerors. The general knew all about that, +because his son was stationed in the Citadel. And he proceeded to +meander on historically, over a period between the first Arab conqueror +Amru, to Haroun-al-Raschid, assuring us that old Cairo was the city of +the Arabian Nights. He would, to my joy, have gone on indefinitely from +Saladin to Napoleon if Sir John Biddell, as the only baronet on board, +had not cut the only general short. He is a square man whose portrait +could be properly done only by a Cubist. "Too much history, my friend!" +he shouted, getting up with the manner of one accustomed to making +dinner-table speeches. "What most of us are coming to Egypt for is +<i>mummies</i>. Egyptian history is too troublesome, anyhow, for a normal +man to grasp. Give me mummies! There's something <i>in</i> them. Why, even +if you get a king or queen fixed in your head, somebody who's paid to +make you know things you don't know" (an eye-shot for Corkran) "comes +along and swears they didn't exist. Now, there's Mena. I'd pinned him +like a stuck butterfly. I could remember that he was the first known +king, and founded Memphis and lived six thousand years before Christ, +all because we're going to stay at Mena House, which is named after +him. I don't know why I remembered him that way, but I did. Just as I +could recall the queen with a name like a sneeze by thinking of her as +Queen Hat-and-Shoes. Now Colonel Corkran informs us that we must +pronounce her, in a different way. And what's the consequence to me? +I've ceased to try and keep track of her. King Mena, too, is lost to me +forever, through the over-conscientiousness of our late conductor, who +says there never was a Mena, only several kings they've mixed into one. +I seem to be the one who's most mixed up! To whet my appetite for Egypt +now, I have to have something tasty. Where's the good of stuffing my +mind with a string of names which I couldn't mention to any one at +home, because I can't pronounce them? The word Dynasty (he pronounced +it Die-nasty) makes me sick! Luckily I feel that nobody else will know +any more than I do. I'm coming to Egypt for a rest-cure, because I +don't have to learn its history. But some lecturers won't let me have a +minute's peace. A king named Sneferu couldn't expect to appeal to a man +like me, even if he did build the oldest Pyramid, and even if you could +show me his mummy, which you can't. But I draw the line at kings +without mummies. I don't want to know them. Now, my wife is against +mummies on show. She's heard that the malignance of mummies, especially +in museums, is incredible. And she thinks it a judgment that some of +the most distinguished ones are going bad. She says it's spite. I say +its management. But I'm not ready to sit down yet! My wife means to +start a society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Mummies, with the +object of sending them back to their tombs where they can rest in that +state of death it pleased their gods to call them to. Their object was +eternal privacy, and they spent more on their tombs than their houses, +because they expected to be dead a long tune, and wanted all the +comforts of home. But I judge mummies by myself. It wouldn't have taken +me these thousands of years to realize how narrow and un-christian my +notions had been. I should see that I owed some duty to the world; and +as so much posterity had rolled by since my day, I'd feel that lying in +a museum at some large place like Cairo, was, after all, the only way +to keep my name before the public. Now, that brings me to my tip for +Lord Ernest. He asks what there is we don't know, and want to know. +I'll answer for us all, being used to feel the pulse of crowds. We want +to know what the deuce Ancient Egyptians really believed about death +and religion. Had they any sense, or were they just plain fools?" +</p> +<p> +On the tide of applause which congratulated the boat's only baronet, I +rose. I felt that I was on the crest of the wave; for the ancient +religion of Egypt appeals to me; and as I now had reason to hope that +others were comfortably ignorant of my subject I could spread myself as +much as I pleased. +</p> +<p> +"The Ancient Egyptians were far from being fools," I answered Sir John +with the air of being in their confidence. "We who are tempted to think +so, don't take the trouble to try the key of their Faith in its door. I +might say that its door was the door of the Tomb. If we go through that +door into the Kingdom of Osiris, Amenti, which the Greeks renamed +Hades, the mysteries which appear tangled sort themselves graciously +out. The story of Isis the Great Enchantress, and her search for the +body of her husband Osiris, murdered by Set, his wicked and jealous +brother, Spirit of Evil, is perhaps the most lovable legend of the +world. But in hearing that Horus, the son of Isis, was really the same +god as Osiris, modern ideas begin to get mixed, and confuse themselves +over Isis, goddess of love and goodness, cow-headed Hathor, mistress of +love and joy, cat-headed Pasht and lioness-headed Sekhet, goddesses of +love and passion. There's hawk-headed Horus, the youth, too; and Horus +the child, represented in statues with his thumb in his mouth. How is +one to make sense of them all? But once you have the key, it is easy +and even beautiful. The esoteric or secret religion known to the high +priests and the instructed ones was different from the animal-worship +and adoration of bird-headed deities, which gave the common people such +interest in daily life. They would have been lost without their +monsters; and the priests would have been lost without the temples +necessary for the worship of such a menagerie. For Egypt was a +priest-ridden country in old days. The explanation of the many gods and +goddesses was this: each was a different phase of the one God, Rã, the +Sun, by whom and through whom only the world could exist. Animals and +birds were chosen to express the different phases, because animals were +considered to be nearer nature, therefore nearer God than human beings; +besides, to give a god the head of a man would not set him apart from +humanity, as it would to make him appear with the body of a man and the +head of some bird or beast. Horus, finished off with the head of a hawk +(that sacred bird who could look the sun in the face), became to the +uneducated eye a supernatural being, which he would not have been with +the face of a smiling youth. The child Horus, or Harpocrates, was not +respected as was Horus of the Hawk Head. He was merely petted and +loved. Even Set, god of evil, wasn't all bad. He was the Spirit of +Storm and Strife in Nature, and had to be propitiated by the ignorant. +Typhon, or Typhoon, and he were one. Red was his colour, and red-haired +people were his children. There were a hundred phases of the one god, +each made incarnate, given his own mission, and worshipped in a +different place. It's an ill wind (of Set) that blows nobody good, and +animals had a gorgeous time in those days. Very few weren't sacred for +some reason or other. It was death and destruction to kill a cat. And I +don't think that cats have forgotten to this day the importance they +had in Egypt. It's made them the most supercilious of animals. +</p> +<p> +"If Amon-Rã were angry he could become Menthu, the war god. If he were +inclined to be gentle, he could shrink to the dimensions of Horus, +child-god of the Rising Sun. If he were weary, he could rest as the old +god Tum, of the Setting Sun. Probably gods and goddesses never enjoyed +themselves so much as in Ancient Egypt; and though it does seem a +drawback from our artistic point of view for Hathor to have the head or +ears of a cow, for wise Thoth to have the long beak of an ibis, and so +on, it was for them only an amusing kind of masquerade or 'tête' party, +on the walls of the temples and tombs. At home, they could be what they +liked. Think how interesting for the Egyptians to have all these queer +gods, and what variety it gave to their lives. Perhaps the priests +really meant well in keeping the secret of the One God for themselves +and the kings, as the people weren't fitted to bear its solemnity. +Fancy how amusing it was for the children to be told, on silver-bright +nights, about Khonsu, god of the moon, always young, wearing the curled +lock of youth on his brow—who staked five nights of his light playing +draughts with Thoth, father of Magic. But he had a more serious phase, +for when he was not a gambler he was an Expeller of Demons, a most +popular accomplishment. Indeed, almost every god had several thriving +businesses, conducted under different aliases. Khnum the Creator, +dweller at the Cataracts, is my favourite, and is still busy, as he +looks after the rise and fall of the river. Hekt, goddess of birth, was +a pal of his, in spite of her appalling ugliness; and she used to kneel +by his potter's wheel. While he fashioned the clay she would hold the +Sign of Life, so that spirit might enter into the formed body when +Khnum got it to the right state. For very important babies, royal ones +or geniuses, she held a Sign of Life in each hand, which made them +extraordinarily vital. When you arrive in Egypt, the first thing you'll +be asked to buy will be the Sign, or Key of Life, in the shape of paper +knives or brooches or what not, and it will be pointed out to you in +tombs till you're tired and sick of it. You can buy Hekt, too, and +funny old Bes, nurse-goddess of children, quite the golliwog of her +day; and all the other gods and goddesses will be offered to you, to +say nothing of the kings who were entitled to worship themselves as +gods if they wanted to. +</p> +<p> +"It's easy, you see, to make fun of the ancient religion, and other +nations did make fun of it. But to be serious, the priests were nearer +right than it would seem; for they believed that God was All: that +there was nothing in this or any Universe which was not part of God." +</p> +<p> +That note was my highest, and I stopped on it. Besides, I could think +of nothing more to say. I ventured to sit down; and because the people +were glad to hear the last of me, or because I had helped them finish +their almonds and raisins, they applauded. Secretly I shook hands with +myself, as the monkey must have done, when, with the catspaw, he had +pulled the hot chestnuts out of the fire. I had carefully selected my +chestnuts—and waited till they were cool. Also, I had disappointed +Colonel Corkran. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH9"><!-- CH9 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BACK WAS TURNED +</p> +<p> +Three letters for me, brought out by the pilot! One I had expected from +Anthony; but my heart gave a bound as I recognized Brigit's +handwriting, not seen for years; and instinct told me that the third +was from Monny Gilder. +</p> +<p> +My one thought for the last two days, steaming back from the Piraeus to +Alexandria, had been that I was drawing nearer to Cairo, and to those +whose doings in my absence pulled at my curiosity and keyed my interest +to breaking point. But if you think that I tore open those envelopes +and greedily absorbed their contents the moment they were put into my +hands, you have never been a conductor or even an observant passenger +on a "pleasure yacht." When the letters arrived I was engaged in +persuading breakfast-lingerers (they of the eggs-and-bacon habit, who +ought never to leave their peaceful English homes) that it would give +them more real pleasure to be first in the shore boats than last at the +table. Then to get them into the boats; then to hypnotize Lady Biddell +and Mrs. Harlow into the belief that they would not, could not, be +seasick on the dancing waves which bobbed us up and down. No time to +think of the letters; much less to feel the strangeness of fate which +brought me back in such queer circumstances to the port I had entered +on the <i>Laconia</i> eight days ago. +</p> +<p> +"As soon as we get on shore," I soothed my gnawing impatience, "I'll +steal a minute somehow." But each moment was so conspicuously labelled +that I could not be a thief of time—my time, which was my charges' +time, bought and paid for by Sir Marcus Lark. +</p> +<p> +This was not the first occasion on which I'd heard the clanking of my +chains, for, although I flattered myself that I was a popular success, +popularity had penalties. On the night of the lecture I had used the +passengers. Since then they had used me. Old ladies appealed to me on +questions of etiquette, health or religion, and retailed my answers, +not always correctly. Girls asked my advice about keeping up +flirtations, and men wanted my help in getting out of them. I was +expected to spout pages of Strabo or Pliny at an instant's notice; I +must know why Plato went to Egypt, or how long he stayed; and be umpire +between American and British bridge-players. I must be able to explain +the true meaning and age of the Sphinx; invent new deck games; and show +those who hadn't learned, how to dance the Tango. But with those three +letters burning over my heart the duties of conductor became +infuriating. +</p> +<p> +It was an awful day; for what was Pompey's Pillar to me while I +remained ignorant of my friends' adventures? As I discoursed (more or +less) learnedly about Diocletian, and Ptolemy's plot to drown Pompey in +the Nile, something inside was asking, "Has Anthony fallen in love with +Monny Gilder?" "What scrapes has that blessed girl got into?" "Has +anything happened to worry Biddy?" Even that nameless but incomparable +tomb on the hill of Kom esh-Shukafa could not distract my thoughts from +the sealed envelopes; and three very modern handwritings came +obstinately between my eyes and the matchless wall-paintings—paintings +as fresh in their underground hiding-place as if finished yesterday +instead of in days when it was dowdy to be pagan, fashionable to be +Christian. +</p> +<p> +Corkran, as a soldier, had to guide a band to Aboukir, and chat about +Nelson; point out the medieval fort of Kait Bey, and dash with hired +motors to Adjemi, where Napoleon landed. Kruger took a few studious +pilgrims to that unspoiled Oriental Nile town where the Rosetta Stone +gave the secrets of Ancient Egypt to the world. It was mine to pilot +the "frivolous lot"; to escort them in carriages round the +Italian-looking city when they had absorbed its two chief sights; to give +them a glimpse of the Museum, and to let them see the beauty and fashion +of Alexandria driving out to San Stefano in the late afternoon. Still I +had no chance to read my letters; but, thought I at the hotel, "Now at +last, it has come!" Not at all! People's trunks were missing, or in the +wrong rooms. It was I who had to sooth alarms, and calm rising storms. +It was I who must assure Mrs. Harlow that her room was really +preferable to that of Lady Biddell; and Lady Biddell that she, and not +Miss Hassett-Bean, had the best in the hotel. Still, I had ten minutes +to dress for dinner. Like Mr. Gladstone, I could do it in five, and +have five left for my letters. But hardly had I slipped a paper knife +under the flap of Monny's envelope (I should have felt a vandal to tear +it) when one of the hotel managers knocked at my door. A gentleman was +being very angry in the dining-room. He insisted on seeing me. He said +he had been Lord Mayor of London, and ought to have a window-table. All +these were previously engaged. What was to be done? Would I kindly come +at once? +</p> +<p> +I persuaded Sir John that window-tables were the least desirable, owing +to draughts, and returning to my room, had four minutes to dress or +risk further rows. After dinner Miss Hassett-Bean burst into tears +because she was alone in the world owing to the marmoset's death from +seasickness; and now that she was growing old nobody cared to talk to +her. I argued that people were shy because she was more important than +they, and had a reputation for satire. It took half an hour for the +lady's nose to go from red to pink (I think she had papier poudré in +her handkerchief); and then I was obliged to walk on the beach with +Miss Enid Biddell to keep Mr. Watts from proposing. As Snell relieved +me from sentry duty, I was called by Kruger to discuss certain details +of next morning's start for Cairo; and at midnight, when I crawled to +my room a shattered wreck, the letters were still unread. +</p> +<p> +"I'm incapable of caring now," I groaned, "what has happened to any of +them. If an earthquake has swallowed up our mountain, and Anthony's +married Monny, and Brigit's been abducted, or vice versa, and Miss +Guest has gone off with the jewels, it will leave me calm." +</p> +<p> +That was the spirit in which I tossed up a coin to see which letter to +read first. Heads, Monny's; tails, Anthony's; but the penny rolled +away, far under the bed where collar-buttons go, and so—I opened +Biddy's. She began: +</p> +<p class="ctr"> +MY DEAR GOOD DUFFER! +</p> +<p> +For any sake hurry back. Make an excuse to leave your pilgrims the +minute you get this, and take the first train to Cairo. Surely the late +conductor can be your understudy, and trot the people round Alexandria +for a day? We need you more than they do. I picture you reading this +early in the morning, with Alexandria still in the distance; for you +said you'd arrange to have letters come out to the yacht by the pilot. +I shall expect a telegram saying by what train you'll arrive here in +the afternoon. You'll understand when I've told you everything, why +it's <i>necessary</i> for you to hurry. +</p> +<p> +We have done and seen so many things, it seems years instead of days +since you left us in care of that handsome Hadji of yours. I wonder if +really you didn't suspect that I guessed who he was; or <i>did</i> you +suspect; and didn't care? I caught the look in your eyes, when you +first saw him standing under the terrace at Shepheard's, and then, when +the name "Antoun Effendi" came up in the conversation, I put two and +two together. Mrs. East guesses, also. I don't know if she did from the +first, but she does now. It isn't a question of "guessing" with either +of us, really. It's a certainty. Not that she's said anything to me or +I to her. That is the malady of us all since you went. We are boiling +with secret thoughts, and keeping them to ourselves, which is bad for +us and for each other in the long run. I haven't told Monny that the +"Egyptian Prince," as Rachel Guest has nicknamed him, is your friend +Captain Anthony Fenton playing some deep game, partly connected with +us, partly connected with a secret of his and yours; the secret you +said was a "dusty" one in which women would not be interested. I +haven't told her, because I don't want her to know. She is always +talking and thinking about him, and is vexed with herself for doing so. +She tries to stop, but can't. If she knew who he was, she wouldn't try +to stop. She'd let herself go, and feel she was living in a beautiful +romance. So she is living in a romance, but I want you to be the hero +of it, not your Anthony Fenton. That's why I don't open her eyes to the +game that's going on. The man is a perfect devil. Not a bad devil, but +a wild devil. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East doesn't tell Monny that Antoun is "Anthony with an h" because +she is enjoying the thought that she alone knows the wonderful truth. +She imagines that she is in love with him. She believes Fate has +brought them together—that he is a "reincarnation," as she is, and +that they ought to belong to each other. Well, let them! She isn't more +than six or seven years older than he, and she's rich (though poor +compared to Monny, of course), and every day she grows handsomer. So +does Monny. As for Rachel Guest—but she is in another part of my +story. Yet no, come to think of it, I'll bring her in now, because if +it weren't for developments concerning that young woman, I might be +able to wait one more day without begging you to come to us. She is +taking Monny away from me; and something odd is going on, I can't make +out what. Anyhow, that horrid Bedr el Gemály is in it. And there's to +be a climax, I'm sure, to-morrow night. You'll get this letter +to-morrow morning, for I'm writing it early, with my hair down my back, +and my coffee not ordered, though I'm starving. We've left Shepheard's +because Monny wanted to live for a few days in a hotel close to the +Nile; and we were all pleased with the plan, for this was once a palace +of Khedive Ismael, and his furniture's still in it, the wildest mixture +of Orientalized French taste. There's a garden, with paths of vermilion +sand brought from somewhere in the desert. But the most convulsive +things live along the Nile Valley and spend their nights braying, +hooting, cooing, whining, bellowing, and barking. If only the donkeys +and dogs and birds and a few other sacred animals of Egypt would be a +little more reticent, especially after dark, the country would be +faultless. But what with worrying myself, and listening to furred and +feathered creatures worrying themselves, I couldn't sleep last night, +and I want you to help me! You'll be here to-morrow afternoon, and I +shall stay in to receive you instead of going to the bazaars with the +others, chaperoned by that dark-eyed devil of yours, "Antoun." I was +there all yesterday, watching crowds of tourists buy beautiful +expensive things for themselves, and horrid inexpensive things to take +to their friends. Cleopatra purchased some disgracefully cheap pearls +no self-respecting <i>mummy</i> would be seen in; and my prophetic soul +tells me that she's going to try and dissolve them in wine. +</p> +<p> +There's to be a fancy dress ball at this hotel to-morrow night—or +rather in the adjacent Casino, which is one reason we migrated here; +and praise the saints you'll be in time for it because if anything's +going to happen, you'll be able to stop whatever it is. If I were +supposed to know that Antoun was Anthony Fenton, I might take him into +my counsels. As it is, I can't. And anyhow, it wouldn't do much good, +at present, because a silent duel is going on between him and Monny. He +is bent on compelling her to acknowledge his authority. She is bent on +resisting it—which is a great compliment to his power—but he doesn't +know that, for he doesn't know Monny yet. It would be fun to watch them +together, if I hadn't your interests to think of. +</p> +<p> +He hasn't got rid of Bedr el Gemály; but he would have done so, I'm +sure, if it hadn't been for an unexpected turn of the wheel, by the +hand of Fate in the person of Rachel Guest. Her hand is never <i>off</i> the +wheel just now! The few days since you have been away have brought out +the true inwardness of her. <i>Felis Domestica</i> with very little +<i>Domestica!</i> Perhaps it's the air of Egypt which is having a really +extraordinary effect on all of us; perhaps it's the fact that Monny has +given Rachel a lot of lovely clothes which have rejuvenated and +apparently revitalized her. But you will see for yourself, and talk +things over with Your old friend, Biddy. +</p> +<p> +This was a nice letter to read, heaven knew how many hours too late! +</p> +<p> +My fatigue had slipped off like the skin off a grape. I felt energetic +enough to start out and walk to Cairo. What could be in Biddy's mind? +And what must she have thought when afternoon and evening passed +without even a telegram? The evening paper, if she had happened to +look, would have told her that the <i>Candace</i> had reached Alexandria in +the morning, as she expected; and she could neither have guessed nor +believed that the whole day would pass without my having a chance to +read her letter. I ransacked the writing-table drawers for a telegraph +form; and finding one had begun to address it, when I stopped. The +message could not go out until morning. Meanwhile there were Monny's +and Anthony's letters to read. One or both might give me some clue to +the "climax" Biddy feared for to-night at the ball. I cut open Monny's +envelope, which had on it an alluring sunset picture of the Pyramids +and the name of the hotel. Hastily I ran through the pages. Not a hint +of anything disquieting! If I had read her letter instead of Brigit's I +might have gone to my well-earned rest without a qualm. +</p> +<p> +"Dear Lord Ernest," Miss Gilder addressed me, in a handwriting which to +any "expert" would reveal some originality, more pride, still more +conscientiousness, any amount of self-will, and singularly little +conceit. An odd combination! But the Gilded Rose is that. She went on: +</p> +<p> +You asked me to write to you while you were away, and tell you the +news, and what I thought about things. But I'm thinking so much and so +fast that I can't sort out my thoughts. I suppose it must be so with +every one who comes to Egypt for the first time. Everything fascinates +and absorbs me, even more than I had hoped it would—almost too much, I +feel sometimes. Your Antoun Effendi is a very good guide, and I am not +sorry that we have him—except once in a while. And now and then I'm +glad. We're proud of his looks when we go about, for every one stares +at him and envies us for having him to take us about, instead of being +condemned to a mere dragoman. Oh, talking of dragomen (you see I <i>will</i> +call them that!), we still have Bedr, though I know you thought we +ought to give him up, and I don't see how we are ever to discharge him +now, for he has attached himself to Rachel G. in the most wonderful +way. It is <i>pathetic</i>. It began with a talk they had the day you left, +about his having been in America, and about <i>religion</i>. She found him +half inclined to be converted, and of course, her goodness and +unselfishness made her long to snatch him like a brand from the +burning. He thinks no one ever talked so wonderfully about religion as +she does, which she, dear thing, attributes to the fact that she taught +Sunday-school in Salem. She says, if she can have him to work upon even +for a few weeks, she is sure to make him a convert. +</p> +<p> +We haven't wasted a minute since you went away, but have seen sights +from morning till night, so as not to have missed anything when we +leave Cairo on the <i>Enchantress Isis</i>. I hope you'll be pleased that +I've given up my dream of having a private dahabeah, and that we shall +be with you on Sir Marcus Lark's boat. She is really a beauty. Antoun +took us over her, and on board we met Sir Marcus, who was showing some +friends round. Antoun introduced him to us. I think Sir M. asked him to +do it. We had great fun, for Sir Marcus seemed to take the most violent +fancy to Aunt Clara, who didn't like him at all. She says now that she +believes when she was Cleopatra he was Caesar, and that it's a pity he +can't wear a wreath to hide his baldness, as she remembers his doing +then. It's only a <i>very</i> little bald spot, really, and Rachel Guest +says it reminds her of a tonsure on the head of a fine-looking monk. +Aunt C. quite resents Sir Marcus being able to engage the services of +you and Antoun. She wants you both to be there, but she doesn't like +Sir M. to have a superior position to Antoun's. That day on the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> Sir M. invited us to have tea on the deck, and it +really was enchanting; a deck like a huge open-air drawingroom, or one +of our biggest verandas at Newport, or somewhere, with jolly green +wicker chairs and tables and sofas with heaps of cushions. But I +forgot—you've seen the boat. The best rooms <i>were</i> engaged, but when +we talked to Sir Marcus, he called a man who can speak many languages +in bits—broken English, cracked German, fractured French, and goodness +knows what all. Between them, they arranged it somehow that we should +have our choice, and the other people were to take what was left. I +would have refused, because it didn't seem fair, but it was for Aunt +Clara's sake, evidently, that Sir M. wanted to make the exchange, and +<i>she</i> accepted. She was as haughty as a queen, but in rather a +fascinating, soft way that I think men like. And she was looking +beautiful. So is Rachel, as even Biddy admits. I do believe Rachel +looks younger than I do, in some new dresses and hats she has. I never +noticed before, but I fancy now that we're rather alike. I'm so +delighted to see her enjoying herself so much, for you know, she's +<i>wonderful</i>. Think what courage it must have taken to break with her +tiresome old life, because she felt she must see the glory of the +world, when a tiny legacy gave her the chance she'd longed for. She +wouldn't have had a penny left, after she'd finished her trip, if Aunt +C. and I hadn't been able to help her out. It's a privilege to do +anything for such a brave creature. And I can't bear to think of her +having to go back when this is over, to the dull round. Perhaps some +way out will be found for her. +</p> +<p> +I've fallen in love with Cairo, although—or perhaps because—I still +feel as if I were moving in a marvellous picture. Antoun does make it +live for us! I will say that for him, though he can be so annoying that +at times he spoils everything, and makes me wish you'd won my hat +instead of my winning his green turban. I'm dying to find out how you +got it. But, of course, I can't ask him: it would be <i>infra dig</i>. You +<i>must</i> tell me when you come. I think the one he wears now is handsomer +though. I wish I could change it for mine. +</p> +<p> +We have been to heaps of mosques, and I can't help wishing we were the +only tourists in Cairo. Of course, this is a selfish wish; and as dear +Biddy says, it's quite funny to think how each tourist feels that <i>he</i> +is the only spiritual-minded, imaginative person travelling—that he +alone has the right to be in Egypt—that all the others are offensive, +vulgar creatures, who desecrate the beautiful places with their +presence. But really, you know, it gets on one's nerves, meeting droves +of silly men in pith helmets with little white lambrequins looped up, +when it would be so much more appropriate to wear the kind of hats they +have at home. And some of the women are <i>weird!</i> They have the queerest +ideas of what is suitable for Egypt. One friend of Bedr's refused to go +about and be seen with the ladies who'd engaged him, as he was the +smartest dragoman in Cairo and had his reputation to keep up. Don't you +<i>like</i> that? Even Antoun laughed—which he hardly ever does. He's so +dignified I wish his turban would blow off or something. I <i>wonder</i> how +he'd look without it, and if most of the charm would be gone? Almost, I +hope so. One doesn't like to catch one's self feeling toward an +Egyptian, even for a minute, as one does toward men of one's own blood +—I mean, on the same level, or even as if a person like that were +<i>above</i> one. It's just the picturesque dignity of the <i>costume</i>, and +the <i>pose,</i> perhaps. And then, this strange glamour of the East is over +everybody and everything, here. I used to wonder why people wrote and +spoke of the East as <i>mysterious.</i> Why should it be more mysterious +than the West? I would ask. Nobody could explain exactly. They said +only, "It is." Now I know why—at least I <i>feel</i> why. Without his green +turban, or in European coat instead of his graceful silk robe, and away +from these luminous sunsets of pale rose and gold and emerald, Antoun +would be nothing extraordinary, would he? He says he is considered old +fashioned in his way of dress. Most of his friends wear European +clothes, and the tarboosh which Egyptians love because it never blows +away or falls off when they pray. He <i>does</i> make me angry, because he +wants to banish the beggars and poor men who sell things in the street, +instead of letting me give and buy. What am I <i>for</i>, with all my money, +except to do things for people? And it's such fun making them happy by +saying "I <i>want</i> a cat-necklace—" or a scarab, or whatever they have, +instead of pushing past with a stony glare as if they were dust under +our feet. Of course we're attended by great crowds whereever we go, +because it's got round that we don't refuse any one, consequently it +takes a <i>little</i> long to arrive anywhere. But what does that matter in +Egypt? Already I'm losing my American hustle. I want to eat lotuses, +which seem out of season in Egypt now! I've asked for them everywhere +but can't get them. I want to feel back in the Middle Ages, in Cairo, +which, as Antoun says, is an Oriental and Medieval Gateway to the Egypt +older than history. And how I am looking forward to the <i>Desert!</i> Sir +Marcus tells us that <i>you</i> are to take the people of the <i>Candace</i> for +a desert trip before they go up the Nile; so of course you must count +us among your "trippers," and Mr. Willis and Mr. Sheridan, who have +settled to go on the <i>Isis</i>. You didn't mention the desert plan before +you went away! +</p> +<p> +No news of that poor, beautiful child, Wretched Bey's wife though I've +written twice. I'm worried about her. Mabel she used to be. Now she's +Mabella Hânem! Biddy says you'll arrive for the ball to-morrow night. +But somehow I don't <i>feel</i> you will. I don't know why you should. Men +don't care for such things much. And of course I shall not dance, as +I'm still in half mourning. I shall only look on, and then—Rachel and +I have an amusing plan for the end of the evening. But even if you +came, we couldn't let you into the secret, as you would think it silly. +</p> +<p> +Yours sincerely, +</p> +<p class="ctr"> +ROSAMOND GILDER. +</p> +<p> +Mine "sincerely, Rosamond Gilder!" So she ended her letter, with +youthful and characteristic dignity, childishly unaware, apparently, +that there was more to read between the lines than in the lines +themselves. +</p> +<p> +Had I read this Rosamond letter first, the last four or five sentences +would have meant little for me. As it was, I would have given a month +out of my future for the gift of an astral body which could go this +minute to the ball at the Ghezireh Palace. I was lost in the mystery of +that "amusing plan." +</p> +<p> +In Anthony's letter lay my last hope of a clue. But in it there was +none. He did not even mention Monny's name. It was all about that +"desert trip" which, from her, I hadn't taken seriously. Sir Marcus was +actually planning it. Kruger had written that some of the passengers +were clamouring for a few days' camping, and the idea was to send them +off in my care, after three days in Cairo, while the others remained in +charge of Antoun, who wasn't yet ready to leave. Fenton said: +</p> +<p> +Somebody's trying to defeat my scheme for getting the sheikh's tomb +moved. I don't know who it is yet. Meanwhile my time and my head are so +full, that in the few hours of the night I put aside for sleep, I dream +queerer dreams than the visits of ghostly sheikhs. Apropos of dreams, +do you know by chance a man who answers this description: elderly, +stoutish, red face, gray hair, black moustache, pale eyes with sharp +look in them. Sounds commonplace, doesn't it? +</p> +<p> +But I have a recurring dream of such a man, whose face I never saw +elsewhere. For the last three nights, as soon as I shut my eyes, he +comes. He seems to interrupt some scene between you and Lark, and +myself, and I see him looking over Lark's shoulder. Then he turns +quickly away, and tiptoes off to a very low, closed door in a deep +recess. There he disappears into shadow—and I wake up with a jump, or +slide off into another dream—but generally this rouses me, for there's +an impression of something stealthy in the shadow round the door. That +so ordinary a type of person should be in a dream. You'll laugh at my +asking if you've ever known such a man, and say that I'm back at my old +tricks again, as a dreamer of dreams. Never mind, I scored, dreaming of +our Mountain of the Golden Pyramid the night before I got your letter +with Ferlini's papers. I can't help feeling that there may be something +in dreams—in mine, anyhow, though I never have any except in Egypt. +This one about the red-faced man and the closed door in the deep recess +is getting a bit on my nerves. +</p> +<p> +Excited as I was over the patchwork of news, I laughed scornfully at +Anthony's dream. For the man he described might be Colonel Corkran. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH10"><!-- CH10 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE SECRET MONNY KEPT +</p> +<p> +Cairo at last! My watch said that the journey took only three hours; +but my nerves said six. +</p> +<p> +I had telegraphed Biddy first thing in the morning the hour of my +arrival with the "<i>Candace crowd</i>," and I half expected to see her at +the big white and red station, but there was no familiar form in the +throng, the gay throng which excited my charges. Everything interested +them; the black face of the Sudanese engine driver who looked down from +his huge British locomotive, the display of English, French and German +literature mingled with Greek, Italian, Arab, or Turkish papers on the +bookstall; the ebony and copper-coloured luggage carriers who seemed +eager to take one another's lives, but in reality desired no more than +to snatch each other's jobs, under the eyes of the uniformed +hotel-porters. To me, the busy place was a desert, lacking one face. +</p> +<p> +Even outside the station-yard, and in the streets and squares where +silent camels looked their contempt of electric trams, soldiers in +khaki uniforms jostled Bedouins in khaki robes, and drivers of arabeahs +made the way one long procession of shrieks, I still glanced at passing +carriages in hopes of a belated Biddy. All in vain! And destitute of +news I resigned myself to the task of piloting the Set out to Mena +House. The moon would be full that night—and it's "the thing" to be a +neighbour of the Sphinx while the moon feeds her with honey. +</p> +<p> +The Flock, under the guidance of Mr. Watts, had now definitely parted +from the Set, chieftained by me. They went meekly off to the cheaper +hotels, where they would live before boarding the <i>Candace</i> again for +Palestine, and Colonel Corkran, who was supposed to have joined that +party, had announced that he was "bound for a long talk with Mark the +Lark." Mr. Watts, refused by Enid Biddell and separated from her, had +relapsed into melancholia. He had ceased to brilliantine his once sleek +hair, and dust and crumbs were allowed to collect in each fold of his +clerical waistcoat. As we of the Set buzzed richly away in taxicabs, I +saw him in a shabby arabeah between two old ladies, gazing wistfully +after us. He was envying me Enid! +</p> +<p> +It is a wonderful drive through Cairo to the Pyramids, whether you spin +out there in a motor, or trot on a donkey, or lilt on a camel, +squatting cross-legged on a load of green bersím. Past the great +swinging bridge, and the Island of Ghezireh (the word that in itself +means "island") begins the six-mile dyke, which is the road made by +Ismaïl to please the Empress Eugénie. Since her visit, in the days when +the Suez Canal was opened, it has pleased two empresses, and more +queens than I have time to count. Under the deep shade of lebbek trees +it goes on and on, toward the Pyramids, a dark cool avenue, high above +cultivated fields flooded by the Nile when the river is "up." The +emerald waves of grain flow like green water to the foot of the broad +dyke-road, and canals like long, tight-drawn blue ribbons are threaded +through it, their ends lost to sight at the shimmering horizon. +</p> +<p> +Even at this noon hour when the world should have been eating lotuses +or luncheon, the interminable arbour was crowded with strings of +camels, forever going both ways, into Cairo and out, one wondered why +—and there were flocks of woolly brown sheep, and donkeys drawing +sideless carts in which whole families of veiled women and half-naked +children were seated tailor fashion. On we spun, past the Zoo, past +scattered villas of Frenchified, Oriental fashion which might have been +designed by a confectioner: past azure lakes left by the ebbing Nile, +and so into sudden dazzling sight of three geometric mountains in a +tawny desert—two, monsters in size, and one a baby trying to catch up +with them. +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" everybody breathed. For these things were beyond words. +</p> +<p> +Then in a moment more the Great Pyramid had grown so big that it loomed +over us, and ate up half the sky—a pyre of yellow flame against a +flame of blue. +</p> +<p> +We were at the end of the shadowy road that leads like a causeway to +the desert, and on the verge of the golden, billowing sea which flows +round the Pyramids and engulfs the distant Sphinx. Oriental life +encircled us, in the foreground of the picture—a long row of waiting +camels gaily saddled and tasselled, delicately nibbling bersím green as +heaped emeralds—donkeys white and gray, beribboned and beaded—small +yellow sandcarts; little white, desert horses and tall brown, desert +men; camels snarling, donkeys braying, horses whinnying, and men +touting. "Very nice sandcarts—very nice camels! Take ladies and +gentlemen quick to Pyramids and Sphinx or Petrified Forest!" Farther +on, the big, modern hotel, rather like an overgrown Swiss chalet built +by Arabs—a vast, confused building the colour of sand or brown heather +honey, with carved mushrbiyeh work lending an Eastern charm to windows, +balconies, and loggias, and enough green, flowery garden to give a +sensational effect of contrast with the tidal wave of desert poised +ready, it would seem, to overwhelm palms and roses. Clustered near, the +tiny mushroom village which huddles under the shelter of Cheops' +Pyramid. Beyond, the immense upward sweep of golden dunes, culminating +in the Great Pyramid itself. +</p> +<p> +I stayed in the picture only long enough to settle my big children into +their quarters, and to see most of them making for the dining-room, +agreeably Oriental with its white and red walls, its dome and windows +of mushrbiyeh work. Then I darted back to Cairo, in a taxi driven by a +Nubian youth, so black that he was almost blue, like a whortleberry. He +wore a scarlet tarboosh, a livery of violet, and the holes for silver +rings in the tops of his ears were so large that the light shining +through gave the effect of inserted diamonds. Unconsciously he made a +nice contrast with his modern motor. +</p> +<p> +He drove with such reckless speed that camels "rubber-necked" to look +at us—and whirled me past the fat black gate-keeper into the Ghezireh +Palace garden of scarlet paths, moonlike lamps, Khedivial statues, and +spreading banyans where each tree continued itself in its own "next +number," like an endless serial romance. +</p> +<p> +I nearly asked for Mrs. O'Brien, but turned her into Jones at the +danger point. The face of the concierge, as he said that she was at +home, conveyed nothing, yet I could not resist adding, "Are the ladies +well?" +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. East is not very well to-day," he replied. "We have had the +doctor; but the young ladies have been out spending the night with +friends, I believe. They have not yet returned." +</p> +<p> +It was a long five minutes before Biddy and I were wildly shaking hands +in a huge private sitting-room all red-and-gold brocade and crystal +chandeliers, as it had been in the days of Ismaïl. I knew I should be +delighted to see her, but I didn't realize that it was going to be +quite as good as it was. +</p> +<p> +"Anyhow, <i>you're</i> all right and safe," I heard myself blurt out. +</p> +<p> +"I'm safe, but not all right!" she reproached me. "My messenger who +went to the train didn't find you from my description, I know, because +he came back with my note——" +</p> +<p> +"Too flattering, was your description, or the other way?" I asked, +trying to buoy her up with frivolity. +</p> +<p> +"You wouldn't joke if you'd read the note. Oh, Ernest, Monny and Rachel +have disappeared!" +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! But Anthony——" +</p> +<p> +"He went to look for them, of course; and he's disappeared, too." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove!" The exclamation sounded inadequate, but I was so taken aback +that I had nothing else to say. It seemed impossible that Anthony, +instead of averting danger, could be involved in it himself. It was +unlike his resourcefulness. I could not believe it of him, and so, +when I had time to control mind and tongue, I said as much to Biddy. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I felt like that, too, at first," she admitted. "He gives one the +impression of being so infallible in any emergency, somehow, as if he'd +be above it, and look down on it from his height. But it's more than +twelve hours since he went, and he promised to send me word how things +were going on if he couldn't get to me himself. No word has come." +</p> +<p> +"What have you done?" I asked. "Have you communicated with the police?" +</p> +<p> +"Sir Marcus Lark has. He was at the ball, and has been very good. But +it's for Mrs. East's sake, mostly. One feels he's glad it happened, to +give him the chance to win her gratitude—or something. He's been back +and forth all day; and I'm expecting him any minute. Mrs. East has been +fainting and hysterical, and everything early Edwardian, so I sent for +a doctor. But she's better on the strength of <i>sal volatile</i> and +eggnog, and she's promised to see Sir Marcus." +</p> +<p> +"Now tell me what happened, from the beginning," I said, when I had +made Biddy sit down by me on the sofa, and was trying to warm a cold +little hand in mine. +</p> +<p> +What it all amounted to, told disjointedly, was this: Since Monny had +had an inspiration the day after our arrival in Cairo, to give Rachel +Guest a lot of her new unworn clothes, Rachel had become quite girlish +and "flighty." She had lost her puritan primness, and behaved more in +accordance with her slanting eyes than with her bringing up. She +giggled like a schoolgirl rather than a schoolmistress, tried to make +herself look young, and copied Monny in the way she tilted her hat and +dressed her hair. No harm in this; but it had seemed to Biddy that +Rachel deliberately incited the girl to do things which "Antoun" +disapproved. Brigit fancied that Bedr's influence had been at work, for +knowing as he did that "Antoun" would gladly have given him marching +orders, he took pleasure in thwarting his superior when he could do so +with safety. Bedr had been clever in enlisting the girls' sympathy for +his soul. As for Biddy, she had disliked him from the first, and +imagined that he had tacked himself onto our party as a spy, upon the +receipt of orders from America, he having learned most of his English +there. The idea appeared so far-fetched that she had abandoned it. Now, +however, it was again hovering at the back of her mind. +</p> +<p> +Bedr had told Rachel stories of the fascination of hasheesh smoking, +and had said that no stranger knew Cairo who did not visit one of the +"best houses" where hasheesh, though forbidden, was still secretly +smoked. He had assured her that there were several which were +"perfectly respectable," even for the "nicest ladies and gentlemen;" +and Rachel, probably at his suggestion, had tried to persuade Monny to +make the expedition. Monny had mentioned it to "Antoun," in the +presence of everybody; and as Rachel and Bedr had looked guilty, Biddy +guessed that they had wished to keep the plan a secret. +</p> +<p> +"Antoun" had perhaps too brusquely vetoed the idea. He said that there +were no such houses, which could be visited by ladies, and that it was +absurd to think of going. That word "absurd" stung Monny. She began to +protest that Bedr knew Cairo as well as Antoun did, and was as likely +to be right. "I don't see why we shouldn't go, if others do," she +persisted, "and I've always longed to know what a hasheesh dream was +like, ever since I read De Quincey. A little, just once, could do us no +harm, and Rachel says——" +</p> +<p> +But what Rachel had said was evidently not for publication. Miss Guest +stopped her with a hand on hers, and a "<i>Dear</i> Monny, please don't let +us think of it any more, if Antoun Effendi disapproves. Maybe it was a +silly idea, and we've plenty of amusing things to do every minute." +</p> +<p> +Monny was apparently contented to let the idea slip, and Brigit had +thought that, in the excitement of getting ready for the ball, she and +Rachel had really forgotten it. Then, before writing me, she had +overheard Rachel say to her friend, "It's for twelve o'clock sharp." +And Monny had answered, "Won't it be <i>great!</i> Does Bedr think——" But +she had stopped short at sight of Brigit. +</p> +<p> +Even this did not suggest to Biddy a visit to a "hasheesh den," for +various other plans had been broached and discouraged by "Antoun." She +did not feel that, as she was not supposed to know his real status, she +could go "blabbing" to him; and fearing that mischief was on foot, she +had wished for me. When I didn't arrive, she soothed herself by +reflecting that, after all, she need only keep a sharp watch over Monny +when midnight drew near. None of the party intended to dance, and so it +would be easy, Brigit thought, to "have an eye upon the girls." +</p> +<p> +Monny had bought Oriental costumes for herself and Rachel. They were +rather conspicuous, luckily for Biddy's plan, for among the many +gorgeous dresses in the Casino she had no difficulty in tracking those +two. Until half past eleven, she told herself, she need not be on the +alert every instant; but therein had lain her mistake. Sir Marcus Lark +had appeared, dressed (more or less) as a Roman officer of the +Occupation days, he having heard Mrs. East remark that, "whatever +<i>anybody</i> said, it was her favourite period." The lady, of course, had +not missed such an opportunity to appear as Cleopatra. She had brought +a costume with her from New York; and while Biddy "lost herself" in +watching the effect of this magnificence on Sir Marcus, the girls +vanished. +</p> +<p> +Without alarming Mrs. East, Brigit had begun to search. She asked +everybody she knew in the ballroom if the girls had gone out, and +inquired in the cloakroom; but the two had been seen by nobody. It was +as if they had melted into air; and Brigit began to suspect that they +must have covered up their brilliant dresses with dominoes smuggled +into the Casino. Willis Bailey was at the ball, but he had developed a +flirtation with Miss Guest, and Biddy felt that he was not to be +trusted as a confidant. Perhaps, too, he had helped the girls to +disappear. It seemed cruel to frighten Mrs. East, when the scheme, +whatever it was, might be no more than an innocent freak; so Biddy said +nothing to Queen Cleopatra or her Roman attendant. She slipped across +the garden to the hotel, and sent an Arab messenger off in a taxi with +a note to the address "Antoun" had told her would find him. In less +than an hour he arrived, and when he had listened to her account of +what had happened, he said after a minute's reflection that the ladies +had almost surely gone with Bedr to some hasheesh den, or a place +masquerading as such. "Antoun" consoled Biddy as well as he could, by +saying that no harm would come to Miss Gilder or Miss Guest. Bedr would +know too well on which side his bread was buttered to take his clients +where insult or danger could reach them. Off "Antoun" went to look for +the missing ones though, and assured Biddy that she should have news as +soon as possible. +</p> +<p> +It was not till three o'clock that she had begun to be very anxious, +and had disturbed the harmony of Sir Marcus Lark's duet with Mrs. East. +Even then she would not have spoken had she not feared that the ball +would break up, and there would be no man to appeal to! +</p> +<p> +Sir Marcus had been inclined to smile at the notion of danger; but he, +like Anthony Fenton, was ignorant of any private qualms which troubled +Brigit O'Brien. She could not tell him who she was, and that she +considered herself far from being a "mascot" to her fellow-travellers. +If she had told, and added that she feared enemies who might for +certain reasons make a mistake in Monny's identity, he would have +laughed his hearty laugh, and said that such melodramatic things didn't +happen, even in Egypt. +</p> +<p> +"But <i>you</i> know," Biddy appealed to me, "that melodramatic things +<i>have</i> happened to me and those near me. I'm not even <i>sure</i> that poor +Richard's death was natural, though I watched over him like a hawk in +those dreadful days when he was fearing every shadow, and we were +flitting from pillar to post, with Esmé. Through Richard two men were +electrocuted. He used to get threatening letters forwarded from place +to place, always signed with the same initials, and he wouldn't tell me +what they meant. It was because of them that he hid Esmé in a +convent-school before he died; for she was threatened as well as he. I, +too, for the matter of that! Not that the child or I had done the +organization any harm; but Esmé is of his blood, and they may have +thought I had more of their secrets than I really have. I've not used +the name of O'Brien for years now, and I've moved about so much that +sometimes I have felt I must be safe. Still, I ought perhaps not to +have gone to visit Esmé, though she wrote and begged me to, for special +reasons I needn't bother you with: a curious little love romance which +I fear must end badly. I didn't think of danger to Monny; but you see, +as I've told you, the convent isn't far from Monaco. I got off the +<i>Laconia</i> there, to visit Esmé, and when I came on board again, Monny +and Mrs. East and Rachel came with me. They'd been in Italy and France, +and had picked up Miss Guest, who was only too enchanted to batten on +Monny's kindness and dollars. It was I who had engaged their +staterooms, on a cable from Monny, long before. And if there were a spy +anywhere, he might have the idea that I wanted to smuggle Esmé out of +her convent by a trick, and—" +</p> +<p> +"But almost every one must know Miss Gilder's face from her photographs +in newspapers," I broke in, on a stifled sob of Biddy's. "She couldn't +be mistaken for another girl, as an unimportant young person might." +</p> +<p> +"I'm not sure. Those photographs were snapshots, and very bad, as you +must know if you've ever seen any. Monny never gave a portrait of +herself to a newspaper, and it's years since they got hold of a good +one. Besides, if she weren't mistaken for Esmé O'Brien, that wretched +Bedr might have made up a plot to have her kidnapped for ransom. It was +the thing Monny's father was always afraid of—absurdly afraid of, I +<i>used</i> to think." +</p> +<p> +"I think so still," I said. "Such things don't happen—anywhere, to a +grown-up girl." +</p> +<p> +"What about Raisuli in Tangier?" Biddy challenged me. "He used to +kidnap people whenever he liked. And so do lots of brigands." +</p> +<p> +"We haven't to do with brigands." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, what's in a name? And I wouldn't put <i>anything</i> past that horrid +Bedr." +</p> +<p> +"As Anthony said to you, he knows which side his bread's buttered." +</p> +<p> +"But if he hopes some one will give him more butter for being wicked +than he can get from us for being good?" +</p> +<p> +"Let's not think of far-fetched contingencies, dear," said I. "Now +you've told me all, I will try to do something—" +</p> +<p> +"May I come in?" boomed a big voice at the door. "I knocked and nobody +answered, so I thought the room would be empty—" +</p> +<p> +Biddy dropped my hand like a hot potato. She had jumped up so quickly +from our sofa that Sir Marcus Lark's observant eyes could hardly have +seen us sitting there together. +</p> +<p> +"Of course, come in," she said. "Have you anything to tell? But I'll +call Mrs. East. She won't like you to begin without her." +</p> +<p> +Biddy darted off to an adjoining room, leaving me alone with my +employer. +</p> +<p> +"What do you think of this affair?" I wanted to know. "Well," said he, +"I can only judge other men by myself. If I had such a chance to appear +a hero in the eyes of a pretty woman as Fenton has, I'm afraid I'd be +tempted to take advantage of it, even if I had to play some trick to +make myself indispensable. Now you see in a nutshell what I think. +Captain Fenton will certainly rescue those young ladies from a trap if +he has to make the trap himself." +</p> +<p> +I was disgusted, and shrugged my shoulders. "You have a poor opinion of +Fenton," I said. +</p> +<p> +"On the contrary, I think very highly of his intelligence. I'm not +worrying about any one of the three, though don't mention it to Mrs. +East or Mrs. Jones that I said so. I've come to tell them that my men +have searched Cairo and found nothing. Not the police, you know; I +haven't applied to the police after all. I thought Fenton would be +furious. And anyhow it might make talk. But I've paid the best +dragomans in town to look sharp; and they know as much about this old +place as the police do, if not more. By the way, Lord Ernest, did +Corkran say anything to you about an intention to throw over his job on +the <i>Candace</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"No. He said he was going to call on you, that's all." +</p> +<p> +"He did call. I was out—on this business, as it happens. He waited, +and I found him, making himself at home in my sitting-room—which I use +as a kind of office. I wish I knew how many of my letters and papers +he'd had time to read." +</p> +<p> +"Surely he wouldn't—" +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't say 'surely' was the word. I'd gone out in a hurry and +left things scattered about—which isn't my habit. When I came back, it +struck me that my desk looked a bit tempting for a man with a retired +conscience. I was going to keep him on the <i>Candace</i>, rather than fuss, +because it wasn't so much his fault as mine that he was the wrong man +in the place. He couldn't do any harm in Jerusalem, it seemed. Let him +wail in the Jews' Wailing Place, if he'd any complaints, said I to +myself. I thought he was too keen on money to resign because his silly +pride was hurt. But to my surprise, he informed me that he'd come to +'hand in his papers,' as he called it. So much the worse for his pocket +and the better for mine! Only it struck me as d—d queer, considering +Corkran's character. I wanted to ask if he'd spit out any venom to +you." +</p> +<p> +"Not a drop," said I. But I, too, thought it queer, considering +Corkran's character, and the fact that having resigned of his own free +will, he could hardly expect Lark to pay his way home. It even occurred +to me to wonder if the resignation were not a sudden thought of the +Colonel's. He had spoken several times of going on to Palestine, and +had mentioned the trip that morning. Had Sir Marcus said something +inadvertently, which had so piqued Corkran that he threw over his +appointment on the impulse? Or had he perhaps been dishonourable enough +to glance at a letter, in which Lark referred to him in terms +uncomplimentary? +</p> +<p> +As I asked myself these questions, Mrs. East came in with Brigit, and +Sir Marcus forgot me. His face said "What a woman!" And anxiety was +becoming to Cleopatra. It gave to her that thrilling look which only +beautiful Jewesses or women of Latin race ever wear: a look of all the +tragedy and mystery of womanhood since Eve. "What news of <i>them</i>?" she +asked Sir Marcus, when she had given a ringed hand and an almond-eyed +glance to me. +</p> +<p> +"No news exactly," said the big man, "but I feel sure your niece and +her friend are safe—" +</p> +<p> +"My niece and her friend!" exclaimed Cleopatra, ungratefully frowning. +"Why do you say nothing of 'Antoun?' Does nobody care what becomes of +him?" +</p> +<p> +As she spoke, there was a knock at the door. One of the Arab servants +of the hotel announced that a man had a letter for Mrs. Jones. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Jones?" cried Biddy. "I am Mrs. Jones. Where's the letter?" +</p> +<p> +"That man not give it to us. He say he see you or not give it at all." +</p> +<p> +"Well, why didn't you send him up?" +</p> +<p> +"Arab mans not let in hotel, if peoples don't ask for them." +</p> +<p> +"An Arab! Not—not—is he a stranger?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Missis. Very low man. Never comed before." +</p> +<p> +"Bring him here—quick!" +</p> +<p> +Five minutes passed. We tried to talk, but could think of nothing to +say. Then the servant returned, ushering in a dwarfish Arab in a dirty +white turban, and the shabby black galabeah worn only by the poor who +cannot afford good materials and the bright colours loved by Egyptians. +</p> +<p> +"From Antoun Effendi?" asked Biddy, in excitement, as he held out a +piece of folded paper, not in an envelope. +</p> +<p> +The man shook his head. "He spik no English," explained the servant who +waited. +</p> +<p> +"<i>You</i> talk to him," Biddy appealed to me, while Cleopatra told the +hotel footman that he might go. But I had no time to question the +messenger. Biddy cried out as she unfolded the paper. "Why, Duffer, +inside it's addressed to you! It says: +</p> +<p> +"'For Lord Ernest Borrow. To be opened by Mrs. Jones in his absence.'" +</p> +<p> +Within the outer wrapping was a second folded paper, of the same kind. +They looked like sheets torn from a notebook. And I saw that the +address, scrawled in pencil, was in Anthony's handwriting. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH11"><!-- CH11 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE HOUSE OF THE CROCODILE +</p> +<p> +The letter had evidently been dashed off in a great hurry. It was short +and written in French, the language in which "Antoun" chose to talk +with foreigners. +</p> +<p> +Give the bearer two hundred piastres and let him go. Don't try to make +him speak. I have promised this. Then quick to Jarvis Pasha and get him +to raid the House of the Crocodile. Question of hasheesh. We must be +smuggled out when arrests are made—also Bedr, to save scandal. +</p> +<p> +Not a word as to whether all were safe, or in danger! But I realized +that, for some reason, each instant had been of value. And each instant +was of value now. +</p> +<p> +Anthony was one who knew precisely what he wanted and why he wanted it. +I obeyed his instructions implicitly. Two hundred piastres went from my +pocket into the hand of the withered Arab, and he was allowed to take +his departure despite a burst of protest from my companions, who +naturally wished the man to be catechised. Once the door had shut +behind the bent blue back, I handed round the letter, which had to be +translated for Sir Marcus, who professed contempt for "foreign +gibberish." +</p> +<p> +Jarvis Pasha is at the head of the police, has been for many years, and +is the most interesting man in Egypt after the well-beloved "K." +Leaving Sir Marcus to go on with his task of consoling Mrs. East, I +dashed off in my waiting taxi with the Nubian of the silver earrings. +We drove to the Governorat, a big house in a square near what was once +known as the Guarded City, the very heart and birthspot of Cairo: +Masrel Kahira, the Martial, founded under the planet Mars. +</p> +<p> +I scribbled a line to Jarvis Pasha, and sent it to him in an envelope +with my card. This combination opened doors for me; and three minutes +later I was shaking hands with a tall, thin, white moustached, +hawk-featured Englishman who looked all muscle and bones and brain. Jarvis +Pasha being in the secret of "Antoun's" identity and business in Cairo, +simplified the explanation, and did away with the necessity for a +preface. All I had to tell was the brief story of the girls' +disappearance with Bedr el Gemály, and Fenton's following them into +space; then, how word had come after fourteen hours. +</p> +<p> +"The House of the Crocodile," Jarvis Pasha said, when he had taken and +read the letter. "H'm! Do you know anything about that house?" +</p> +<p> +"I know the old stories connected with it," I answered. "If it's +reputation to-day is as sinister as ever——." +</p> +<p> +"Not at all. Figuratively speaking it has been whitewashed. It's become +a show place—<i>a monument historique</i>. This is interesting information +which Fenton sends, but if it came from any one else, I should say he +had dreamed it. He may be giving us the chance of an important <i>coup</i>. +Wait a few minutes, and I'll have this thing attended to, Lord Ernest. +But you look upset. Is it that you haven't had lunch, or are you +worrying about the ladies?" "Both," I answered with a sickly grin. "Not +that I mind about lunch. I couldn't have eaten if I'd had the time." +</p> +<p> +"You haven't as much belief as I have, in your friend," remarked Jarvis +Pasha, "if you think he'd let them come to harm." "They're all in the +same box, apparently," I excused my lack of faith. +</p> +<p> +"Trust Fenton!" said the Head of the Police. "He was sharp enough to +find the needles in the haystack, and he's smart enough and strong +enough to take care of them when they're found." +</p> +<p> +On this, Jarvis Pasha went out and left me to my reflections, which +rushed to the House of the Crocodile. Every one who has read or heard +stories of native Cairo, knows the House of the Crocodile, in the +Street of the Sisters, and how, in the later days of Mohammed Ali, +people scarcely dared to name it aloud. The "Tiger" Defterdar Ahmed +built it, for that beautiful Tigress, Princess Zohra, favourite +daughter of Mohammed Ali, who married her off to the fierce soldier +when she became too troublesome at home. Zohra had loved a young Irish +officer who was murdered for her sake, and had no true affection to +give Ahmed or any other. She hated all men because of the murderer, her +own nephew, and vowed that since her love had cost the life of the one +who had her heart, others who dared to love her must pay the same +price. When Ahmed died suddenly, soon after the wedding, those who had +heard of Zohra's vow (and there were many in the harems) whispered +"poison." Never again did the Princess drive out to see the women she +knew; and those who had been her friends were sent away from the door +of the dead Ahmed's palace, over which he had suspended for "luck," a +huge crocodile killed in the far south. But Zohra was beautiful, with +strange eyes which drew love whether she asked for it or not; and +sometimes a small lattice would open in a bay of one of those windows +of wooden lace whose carving was known as mushrbiyeh work because +shirib, or sherbet, used to be placed there to cool. Out of the lattice +would look a wonderful face, as thinly veiled as the moon by a mist, +and then it would vanish so quickly that a man who saw, half believed +that he had dreamed. But the eyes of the dream seemed to call, and +could not be forgotten, any more than the song of a siren can cease to +echo in ears which once have heard. +</p> +<p> +After the beginning of Zohra's widowhood, the noblest and handsomest +youths of Cairo began mysteriously to disappear. They would be well and +happy one day, and the next they would be gone from the places that +knew them. By and by their bodies would be found in a canal; always the +same canal, near the water gate of the House of the Crocodile. Then the +vow of the Princess was remembered: but there was no English rule in +those days, and the police shut their ears and eyes where a daughter of +Mohammed Ali was concerned. Mothers and sisters of handsome young men +shuddered and begged those they loved never to pass through the dark +Street of the Sisters (Sharia el Benât) where the crocodile grinned +over the door, and the vision of a face looked down from a latticed +window. The women thought of the water gate at the back of the house; +the little children, who had heard secret words spoken, thought of the +crocodile, and ran crying past the house; but the handsome young men +thought only of the face, and each one said to himself, "She will not +make <i>me</i> pay the price." Still, as years went on, bodies were seen in +the water from time to time, with a tiny purple spot over the heart to +show the curious that death had not come from drowning. And some, who +looked for lost ones, could not reclaim them from the canal, for bodies +were not always found. As time passed, it seemed to people who hurried +by the house in the narrow street, that the crocodile grew larger and +larger. It was said that it had been fed on the children of men Tiger +Ahmed had murdered in Sennaar. +</p> +<p> +None dared to say what they believed of Princess Zohra, but when, after +a long imprisonment by her nephew Abbas, in the House of the Crocodile, +she escaped to Constantinople, nobody would live where she had lived, +and the palace fell almost into ruin. +</p> +<p> +This was the story of the house where Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest and +Anthony Fenton were now. I had heard it talked about by our Arab +servants when I was a child, and had never forgotten, though scarcely +since then had I thought of the tale, until the remembered name and the +horrors attached to it jumped into my mind on reading Anthony's letter. +What had happened in the House of the Crocodile since Zohra's day, I +did not know; but because of the old story it seemed more sinister that +my friends should appeal for help from that place than from any other +in Cairo. +</p> +<p> +I was not left long alone. Five minutes after Jarvis Pasha went out of +the room to "arrange things" according to Fenton's request, he sent me +a man with whiskey and soda, and biscuits. I drank gladly, and ate +rather than seem ungrateful. But there was a lump in my throat which +would stick there, I knew, until those three were away from the House +of the Crocodile. I was still crumbling biscuits when Jarvis Pasha came +briskly back. +</p> +<p> +"Well," he asked, "are you braced up now? If you'd like to be in this +business, you can. I'm sending a white superintendent with my police to +raid the house, on the strength of Fenton's letter to you, though until +now the place hasn't been suspected. As I said, it's been a 'show' +house, for some years—ground floor and first story in repair, just as +in Zohra's day—upper floors ruinous, and the public not admitted +there. If anything queer's going on, it must be in the forbidden part: +and the caretaker is mixed up in the show. A pity you felt bound to let +Fenton's messenger off! You can go with my superintendent, Allen, and +reach your friends as soon as my men do. Allen has instructions to let +Fenton and the ladies, if they're found there, slip away, and it's best +for you to be on the spot to save mistakes in identification. Also I've +ordered a closed arabeah to wait for you, as near as possible—my men +will show you where. You'll know it for certain by a red camellia on +the Arab driver's European coat. And by the way, take this Browning, in +case of an attack; which I don't anticipate." +</p> +<p> +As Jarvis Pasha spoke, he opened the door, and summoned in a brown +young Britisher wearing the tarboosh which denotes "Gyppy" officialdom. +Evidently Allen was prepared for me as I for him, and we started off +together on foot, for it seemed that our destination was not far away. +We walked swiftly through the crowded Mousky (once the fashionable part +of Cairo, before the tide flowed to the modern Isma'iliya quarter), and +after a few intricate turnings plunged into a still, twilight region. +The streets through which we passed were so narrow, and the old houses +so far overhung the path that the strip of sky at the top of the dark +canyon was a mere line of inlaid blue enamel flecked with gold. The +splendid mushrbiyeh windows thrust out toward each other big and little +bays, across the ten or twelve feet of distance which parted them, as +if to whisper secrets; yet the delicate wooden carvings skilfully hid +all that they wished to hide, and only suggested their secrets. +</p> +<p> +"Now we'll soon be coming to the House of the Crocodile," said Allen. +"By Jove, it's a joke on us, and a smart one, if it's been turned into +a hasheesh den, under our noses. But it must be something new, or we +should have got onto it. The Chief thinks already he can guess who's at +the bottom of the business and who has put the money up: a certain Bey, +in whose service the caretaker was—a rich old Johnny, very old +fashioned, who lives not far off in a beautiful house of the best +Cairene period. He's keen on antiquities, and has been of service to +the government in several ways, though he's a reformed smuggler; and +his only son, dead now, was a hopeless hashash; that's what they call +slaves of the hasheesh habit. I suppose you've read all about the +'Hashashseyn' of the Crusaders' days, whom we speak of as Assassins? +Well, ever since then the Hashasheyn have had a bad reputation; but +this old man I speak of has been pitied for his son's failings, which +he pretends to think a 'judgment for his own past, repented sins.' Now, +Lord Ernest, saunter, please, as if you were a tourist in my charge, +admiring the old doorways." +</p> +<p> +Two native workmen appeared in front of us, with pickaxes on their +shoulders. Stopping, they threw down their tools. One produced a cord +which he stretched across the street from house to house; and in the +middle he hung a small red flag. Then the pair began to pick in a +leisurely way at the surface of the road, and before we reached the +barrier, an Arab policeman stationed himself by the cord. Glancing +ahead, I saw that the farther end of the narrow lane was blocked in the +same manner. +</p> +<p> +"This is one trick we have of doing our work quietly," said Allen. "It +always answers pretty well." +</p> +<p> +I said nothing, but used my eyes. Coming from nowhere apparently, there +were twenty men in the street. A few had crowbars in their hands. +Others, native policemen, carried the canes with which they control the +movements of the people. From the shaded doorway of a large house a +native sergeant of police stepped out as we approached, and saluted +Allen. Over the closed door, a large, dryly smiling, ancient crocodile +hung. +</p> +<p> +"Have our men come and taken their places?" asked my companion in +Arabic. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Effendi," the sergeant answered. "All has been done according to +order. The back entrance which was the water gate before the old canal +was filled up, is surrounded, and the adjoining houses with which some +communication may have been established are watched. Not a rat could +have crawled out since we came, nor could one have gone in. To-day is +the feast of a saint, and these people have their excuse not to open +the house to visitors, for so it is with other show places. Look, it is +written up, that until to-morrow there is no admission." As the man +pointed to a card hanging from a hook, he and Allen smiled at the +cleverness of this pretext for closing the door. In English, French, +and Arabic, the reason was announced in neat print. Probably this was +not the first time the same excuse had been used in the same way. +</p> +<p> +"They must have taken alarm at something, and thought they were being +watched," Allen said to me. "That's why they've sported their oak. I +expect we shall make a haul, as—for everybody's sake concerned—they +wouldn't dare let their clients out, to fall into a trap. Yes, that's +why! Or else—" +</p> +<p> +He stopped, and I did not ask him to go on, for I knew that to ask +would be useless. Yet I guessed what he had meant to say, and why he +had stopped. He didn't wish to alarm me, but it was in his mind that +the house had teen closed because of something planned to happen +inside. And that something might be connected with my friends. We +should soon know! +</p> +<p> +My first thought was that we were to get through the door, by breaking +it in, or by forcing those on the other side to open for us. In an +instant, however, I realized that my idea was absurd. It would take an +hour to batter down that thick slab of old cedarwood, and Allen had +said that he wanted to do things quietly. No, the brown sergeant was +not here to open the door, but to see that it did not open unless for +our benefit. +</p> +<p> +Two of Allen's men were unfolding a curious ladder like a lattice, +which they made secure with screws when they had stretched it to full +length. Then, up it went to one of the beautiful mushrbiyeh windows +which, on the level of the story above the ground floor, bayed +graciously, overhanging the street. One man standing below held the +ladder firmly in place, while another, small and lithe as a monkey and +enjoying the task as a monkey might, ran up to the top that leaned +against the window. Evidently he was a skilled worker, for before I +knew what he would be at, he had with some small, sharp instrument, +prized out without breaking it, one of the sections of carved lattice. +This he tossed lightly down to a man who caught it, and as he and four +others after him slipped through the opening, the sergeant knocked on +the closed door, under the swinging form of the crocodile. Nobody +answered. But three minutes passed, and then suddenly there was the +sound of a falling bar, and a very old, very dark man, with a white +turban and a white beard, peeped out. +</p> +<p> +"Thieves!" he cried in Arabic. "Thieves break in at the windows!" +</p> +<p> +He was making the best of a bad business, I guessed, and hoped somehow +to justify himself to the police. But though he was gray with fright, +he forgot to look surprised. +</p> +<p> +My Arabic was not equal to the strain of catching all the gabble that +followed: the old man protesting that it was right to close the house +to-day; that if it were the police and not thieves who broke in, it was +unjust, it was cruel, and his son Mansoor, the caretaker, would appeal +to all the Powers. Before he had come to the end of his first breath, +he was hushed and handcuffed, and hustled away; and another man sprang +forward from behind the angle of a screen-wall inside the entrance. He +was young, and looked strong and fierce as an angry giant, but at sight +of Allen and the rest of us, he stopped as if we had shot him. Perhaps +he had not expected so many. In any case, he saw that there was nothing +he could hope to gain by violence or bluster. All he could do was to +protest as his father had done, that this visit was a violation of his +right to close the house on a holiday. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be a fool, Mansoor," said Allen, who evidently knew him. "You +understand very well that isn't why we are here. You've jot a hasheesh +den upstairs, above the public show rooms. A nice trick you thought +you'd played us, but you see you didn't bring it off." +</p> +<p> +By this time we were inside the house, having thrust the caretaker in +again, and passing the three tortuous screen walls of the entrance, +into a courtyard. Several young Arabs dressed as servants stood there, +large-eyed, and stricken at sight of their giant master held by four +policemen. But there was not a sign of our men who had crawled through +the window, and I was impatient to go where they had gone. +</p> +<p> +There was no sound of scuffling, no sound at all, except the crying of +some startled doves, and Mansoor's voice, swearing by the Prophet's +sacred beard that if anything were wrong he was not the one to blame. +There were those above him who must be obeyed or he and all that were +his would be put out of life; but I cared too little for him, or what +might become of him and his, to listen much. I looked up and saw at the +left of the courtyard, with its several closed doors, a short flight of +steps with a mounting-block, and a doorway leading to a winding +staircase. Round the court went a gallery, supported with old marble +pillars, and underneath on one side was a large recess, the takhtabosh, +raised slightly above the level of the courtyard, and having a row of +wooden benches round its three walls. Here the caretaker and his male +relatives and friends had evidently been smoking their nargilehs and +drinking coffee; our arrival had disturbed them in the midst. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly, into the frightened mourning of the doves, broke a sharp +sound of cracking wood. "Come along!" cried Allen. "They'll be past the +barrier in a minute!" And leaving Mansoor and the others to be dealt +with by subordinates, he led the way up the steep stairs, at a run. +</p> +<p> +We did not stop at the first story, the "show" part of the House of the +Crocodile; but catching a glimpse of a latticed balcony off the +landing, all lovely mushrbiyeh work, and a great room of Persian tiled +walls and coloured marble floor, beyond, we dashed up another flight of +stairs to the story above. These stairs were of common wood, and +somewhat out of repair. At the top was a door of carved cedarwood like +those below, but rough in execution, faded, and with here and there a +starpoint or triangle of the pattern missing, leaving a hole in the +thick wood. On this door was nailed a large card with the notice in +English, French, and Arabic, "Forbidden to the Public." +</p> +<p> +"What a grand idea to install a hasheesh den here!" I could not help +thinking as I followed at Allen's heels to the head of the stairs, +where two of his men worked with crowbars to prize open that +theatrically dilapidated door. Behind the pair who worked were the +others who had entered by the window below; and hardly had we taken our +places in the strange <i>queue</i>, when with a loud groan the door gave +way. The couple in front almost fell into a dark passage on the other +side, and my heart leaped, for I half expected to see them driven back +upon us by an attack with knives or pistols. But the dim vista seemed +to hold only silence and emptiness as I peered over men's shoulders; +and as we crowded in, Allen pushing ahead to take the lead, nothing +stirred. +</p> +<p> +The passage was but a gallery, like that below, but instead of being +open, it was closed in with lattice of mushrbiyeh work, so that, though +those within could look through, it was as secret for those outside as +if it had been enclosed by a solid wall. +</p> +<p> +The darkness was patterned with light, like ebony thinly inlaid with +gold, for the afternoon sunlight trickled into the delicate loopholes +of the carvings, and we began to see what Enterprise had made of this +ruinous upper story. The floor had been dilapidated and unsafe; but new +boards had been placed over it, covered with Egyptian-made matting and +rugs to deaden sound and give an appearance of comfort. We walked +quickly along to the end where this closed gallery turned at right +angles, and there found another door, new and rough, evidently but +lately put up. It was not so strong as the old one; and it yielded in a +few minutes to the furious industry of our men with their crowbars. +They lifted the door from its broken hinges, leaning it against a wall; +and as we passed through, an Arab pulled aside a thick curtain which +filled in a doorway. He was evidently a servant, and seeing the police, +showed no sign of surprise, but only of a most humble resignation which +disclaimed responsibility and begged for mercy. +</p> +<p> +In silence the man was taken into custody; and Allen and I, with three +of the four policemen, passed into the region behind the portière. +There, all was dusk, save for the faint light sifting down from a +carved wooden dome in the ceiling, partly curtained; and a dark lantern +flashed out a long revealing ray. The men ran to pull back heavy cloth +hangings which entirely covered the latticed windows, and would allow +lamps to be lit at night without being seen from street or courtyard. +Instantly sunshine pierced the carved interstices, and let us see what +Enterprise had done for his clients. We were in the antechamber of a +long, beautiful room. The old, coloured marble of the durkááh—the +lower level of floor nearest the entrance—had been repaired with new; +the dilapidations of a fountain were almost hidden by pink azaleas in +pots; the liwán, on the next level, had a good rug or two; and the +diwáán, at the farthest and highest end, was furnished with red-covered +mattresses and pillows. The low wall-benches of marble were set here +and there with glass bowls of roses and syringa; and tiny cedarwood +cupboards high in the tiled walls were open to show coffee cups, +tobacco jars, and pipes made of cocoanut shells with long stems of +cane. +</p> +<p> +Four men, who had apparently been lying on the mattresses, stood up and +faced us, not fiercely, but with something of the attendant's +resignation. Two were in European clothes, with the inevitable +tarboosh; and two, equally well dressed, were old fashioned and +picturesque in the long, silk gown and turban style which "Antoun" and +other lovers of the ancient ways affected. They were of the "Effendi +class," and might be merchants or professional persons. A turbaned man +with a black beard Allen knew, and greeted in Arabic, "Hussein Effendi! +Who would have thought to see you here!" +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" answered the other, with a melancholy smile and shrug of the +shoulders. "There is no harm, really, but only in the eyes of the +English. We are caught, and we cannot complain, for we have had true +delight: and we have known, since the alarm came last night, that we +might have to pay for our pleasure." +</p> +<p> +"So you had the alarm last night?" said Allen, looking as if there were +nothing surprising or puzzling in that. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, why should we not admit it now? Word came that a watch had been +set outside, both back and front, and none of us dared leave the house. +We consented to be locked in, though there is one in another room who +wished to get out and run the risk. That was not permitted, for the +sake of others; and to prevent him from taking his own way in spite of +prudence, we let ourselves be shut in, with only one attendant who took +through the holes in the door such little food as we needed. We had +begun to hope that it had been a false alarm, or, since no inquiries +seemed to have been made below, that the watchers had gone and would +not come again. We planned as soon as night fell to go to our homes; +but it was not to be. And if any are to blame, it is not those who come +to take pleasures provided for them, but rather they who cheat the +coastguard of the swift-running camels, and bring what is forbidden +into Egypt." +</p> +<p> +"The blame will be rightfully apportioned," said Allen. "Meanwhile, I +am sorry to say, Hussein Effendi, that you and those in your company +are subject to the law. I must now leave you, and go farther to see +what others we have to deal with." +</p> +<p> +The four Effendis were politely left in charge of two policemen who +would have been equal to twice their number, and our one remaining man +went on with Allen and me. +</p> +<p> +"Your friends, and perhaps two or three who can afford to pay big +prices, will have had their smoke in private rooms," Allen explained. +"We can guess <i>who</i> it was, who wanted to break out! There are probably +no more doors, only curtains, so we shall have no trouble. But don't +forget that, if anything unexpected should happen, you have a pistol. +Of course, you understand that it could be used only in an extreme +case." +</p> +<p> +A curtained doorway led out from the diwáán into a small anteroom, and +there, on the floor, sat Bedr el Gemály, the picture of dejection. Had +I raised my voice in the next room, he would perhaps have ventured in +to see what I could do to help him; for now, at sight of me, he +scrambled up in shamefaced eagerness. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my lordship!" he began to cackle. "Praise be to Allah you are +come! I was persuaded to bring the young ladies here. They would make +me do it. Yes, sir. It is not my fault. They pay me. I have to obey. +Then we get caught, like we was some rats. No fair to punish me. The +ladies all right. No harm come, except a little sick." +</p> +<p> +"If no harm has come, that's not due to you, but to a very different +man, as you well know," I said. And as I spoke, the man I had in my +mind appeared before my eyes. "Hullo!" I exclaimed, joyously. +</p> +<p> +Anthony's eyes and Allen's met; but I could not tell if they knew each +other, nor could I ask then. It was enough for Allen in any case, +however, that this magnificent Hadji was one of the friends for whom I +searched. He turned to Bedr. "You brought two ladies here, I +understand," he said quickly and sharply. "Then you must have +acquaintance with the place. For good reasons which have nothing to do +with you, I shall not arrest you, but you will have to report at the +Governorat inside the hour, or you will regret it. Do you know the way +out at the back of the house?" +</p> +<p> +"I do, gracious one," Bedr responded with businesslike promptness. +</p> +<p> +"Then take these gentlemen, and the ladies, whom I do not need to see, +out by that door, and you will all be allowed to go, because my men who +are there have seen Lord Ernest Borrow, and they have my instructions." +</p> +<p> +We waited for no more, but followed Anthony, who made a dash through +the further room, and into another. There, on a mattress, crouched two +forlorn figures, veiled as if in haste, and muffled in black satin +<i>habberahs</i> such as Turkish ladies wear in the street. +</p> +<p> +"Lord Ernest! Oh, how glad I am!" cried one of these creatures, while +the other, less vital or more miserable, whimpered and gurgled a little +behind her veil. +</p> +<p> +"Come along, quick!" I said; and they came. Bedr led the way, thankful +to show himself of use. Anthony followed as if to protect or screen the +girls from sight. I brought up the rear, and so, scuttling through a +rabbit warren of little unfurnished, dilapidated rooms, we found a +narrow side staircase, and tumbled down it, anyhow, in dust and +dimness. Then two more staircases, and we were in a cellar which looked +as if it might once have been used as a prison. Up again, and rattling +at a chained door. Then out, into light and air, into the midst of a +group, which for an instant, closed threateningly round us. But the +sergeant I had seen was among the alert brown men. A glance, a gesture, +and we were allowed to pass, a youth running with us, to show the +promised carriage and the Arab driver with the red camellia. So it was +over, this adventure! +</p> +<p> +Yet was it over? +</p> +<p> +That remained to be seen. And remained also, to see what it meant, if +indeed there were a meaning underneath the surface. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH12"><!-- CH12 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON +</p> +<p> +"It seems too good to be true that it should end like this," said +Monny. +</p> +<p> +She said it on the roof of Mena House, in the kiosk-room made of +mushrbiyeh work, which I had engaged for a little private dinner-party +that night. You see, it was the night of the full moon, the magic night +of the Sphinx-spell, which must not be wasted, no matter how tired you +may be or how many excitements you may have lived through. +</p> +<p> +Anthony and I had had our explanations. He had told me that one night +in a café, where he was spreading the news of his dream, he had heard +two men talking in low voices about the House of the Crocodile. The +word "hasheesh" had not been mentioned, but Anthony had imbibed a vague +impression of something secret, and had wondered, and been interested. +Then the matter had slipped his mind; but, summoned in the night from +the writing of letters, to advise Mrs. Jones, he had recalled Monny's +wish to visit a hasheesh den. He knew of none, but suspected the +existence of one or two. How to find out in a hurry? he had asked +himself. And with that, the remembrance of those few whispered words in +the café had come echoing back to his brain. He acted upon the +suggestion; went to the door of the swinging crocodile, knocked, and +knocked again; had the door opened to him as if in surprise by an +apparently sleepy man. Announced the motive of his coming as if it were +a foregone conclusion that hasheesh could be smoked in that house by +the initiated. His disguise was not suspected. It never was, when he +played the Egyptian; and when asked who had sent him, he had the +inspiration to utter the name of that Bey who had been Mansoor's +master. This gave him entrance. He was taken upstairs, passed through +the door "Forbidden to the Public"; and the first person he saw in the +long room as he entered, was Bedr smoking a gozeh, one of those +cocoanut, cane-stemmed pipes in which hasheesh is mingled with the +Persian tobacco called tumbák. +</p> +<p> +Bedr was accused of treachery, and defended himself. The ladies had +insisted. It was his place to obey. He had done no wrong in engaging a +carriage to wait outside the Ghezireh Palace gardens, and bringing his +employers to the best place in Cairo for the hasheesh smoking. The +ladies were safe and happy, in a private room where they had tried +their little experiment, and now they were sleeping. As soon as they +waked and felt like going home, he was ready to take them. It was for +Miss Gilder, not for Bedr, to beg pardon of her friends if they were +frightened. And all the time, it had seemed to Anthony, that the man +was expecting some one to arrive. He watched the doorway half eagerly, +half anxiously; when a servant came or went, he started, and betrayed +emotion which might have been disappointment or relief. But when +Anthony questioned him, he said, "I expect no one, Effendi. It is only +that I shall not be easy till we get the ladies home, now you tell me +their people are alarmed." +</p> +<p> +Just then, and before Anthony saw the girls, a servant had come running +in to say that there was an alarm. Something had happened in the +street, and the police were there. Mansoor feared that it was a ruse, +and that the house was being watched, back and front. Where the +forbidden thing is, no precaution can be too great. For their own +sakes, and Mansoor's sake, no one must go out, perhaps not till the +next night; but luckily a saint's day would give peace for the morrow, +and all doors could be shut without causing remark. The news that there +was no escape for many hours to come distressed no one apparently, +except "Antoun." He had gone to the door, and tried to open it, but +found that already it was locked on the other side. Then he knew that +it was useless to struggle, for he was unarmed, the door was thick, and +no one outside could hear if he shouted. He must use his wits; but +first he must make sure that the two girls were safe. He forced, rather +than induced Bedr to show him the room they had engaged—a small one, +closed only with a portière, and looking over the court, down into the +open-fronted recess where Mansoor's family-life went on, like a watch +dog's in his kennel. +</p> +<p> +It was true, as Bedr had said; the girls slept on a cushioned mattress, +wrapped in black habberahs, their faces turned to the wall. As they +could not be taken out, Anthony did not wake them, but let them get, in +peace, their money's worth of dreaming. His next thought was to try and +bribe the Arab attendant to smuggle out a letter; but acceptable as a +bribe would have been, the man explained his helplessness to earn it, +at least for the time being. He could do nothing till one of his +fellow-servants came up from below, to pass the food for the imprisoned +smokers through a hole in the door, made purposely in case of just such +an emergency. Probably no one would appear till morning, for who would +be hungry before then? Even with the morning, it might be Mansoor +himself who would bring the food, and inquire again at the door if all +were well within. But if the noble Hadji wrote the letter, it should be +sent when opportunity arose. One of the servants below stairs, said the +man, was his father, who might during the next day be able to slip out +as if on some errand. Then he would perhaps take a letter, if he could +be sure of good pay, and that he would not be delivered up to the +police. So Anthony had written on a sheet torn from his notebook, and +made an envelope of another sheet. The address of the Ghezireh Palace +had helped the man to believe that no evil would reach his father; and +a "sweetener" in the shape of all Anthony's ready money had done the +rest. But evidently the old man had not succeeded in finding an excuse +for an errand until after the noon hour, and meanwhile time had seemed +long in the House of the Crocodile. When the girls waked, wanting to go +home, they were ill. They found the game not worth the candle—but +Anthony's presence had given them comfort. They were humble, and +remorseful; and Bedr was so conspicuously a worm that Monny consented +to his discharge. "It would take more time than we've got to make him +worth converting," she said to Rachel when the Armenian had carefully +laid all the blame of the expedition upon her shoulders. +</p> +<p> +Never were two runaway children more glad to be found and restored to +their anxious relatives than Monny Gilder and Rachel Guest. As for +Bedr, he took his dismissal, with a week's wages, submissively; but the +gravest question concerning him still lacked an answer. Had he merely +been officious and indiscreet in guiding the girls secretly to the +House of the Crocodile, and there procuring hasheesh to buy them +dreams, or had he wanted something to happen, in that house, which had +not happened? A certain amount of browbeating from "Antoun," and +bullying from me, dragged nothing out of him. And perhaps there was +nothing to be dragged. Perhaps it was through oversensitiveness that +Brigit and I dwelt suspiciously upon Bedr's motives, and asked each +other who it was he had expected at the House of the Crocodile. Even +Anthony did not accuse the Armenian of anything worse than slyness and +cowardice, according to him the two worst vices of a man; but he +volunteered to find out what mysterious night-disturbance in the street +had caused the sudden closing of the doors. It was Biddy's thought that +the person Bedr wished to meet might fortunately have been prevented by +this very disturbance from keeping his appointment, and Monny saved a +serious ending to her adventure. It began to seem rather a worry, +travelling with so important a young woman as Miss Gilder: and a vague +dread of the future hung over me, as it hung over Brigit, who loved the +girl. We felt, dimly, as if we had had a "warning," and did not yet +know how to profit by it. The atmosphere was charged with electricity, +as before an earthquake; and we felt that the affair of the hasheesh +den might be but a preface to some chapter yet unwritten. Still, it was +impossible not to forgive Monny her indiscretion. Indeed, she became so +honey-sweet and childlike in her desire to "make up" for what we had +suffered, that the difficulty was not to like her better. +</p> +<p> +She besought us to forget the episode. If we only <i>knew</i> how sick she +and Rachel had been, we'd see why they never wanted to think of those +hours again! And when I chanced to mention that to-night would be full +moon—the night of nights when the Sphinx and the Ghizeh Pyramids held +their court—Monny begged to have the bad taste of her naughtiness +taken out of her mouth by a dinner at Mena House. We might dine early, +and plunge into the desert later, when the moon was high. Of course, I +proposed that all should be my guests—all except "Antoun" who, though +recognized as a gentleman of Egypt, was considered by Miss Gilder an +alien, not exactly on "dining terms." He was supposed to go home, "to +his own address." At eight-thirty he was to take a taxi to Mena House, +where he would arrive before nine, in time to help me organize my +expedition. +</p> +<p> +I explained to Monny that, though we should dine privately, it would be +my duty to see that the <i>Candace</i> people paid their respects to the +Sphinx, and gazed upon her as she ate moon-honey. If they missed this +sight, or if anything went wrong with their way of seeing it, I should +never be forgiven. But the much chastened Monny graciously "did not +mind." She thought it would be fun to watch the sheep-dog rounding up +his flock. Useless to explain to her the subtle social distinction +between a "Flock" and a "Set" (both with capitals)! To her, the blaze +of the Set's smartness was but the flicker of a penny dip. We could +drive the crowd on ahead, and look at <i>our</i> moon when they were out of +its light. +</p> +<p> +So there's the explanation of Monny's presence in the mushrbiyeh kiosk +on the roof of Mena House, on the night following the great adventure, +which would have put most girls to bed with nervous prostration! +</p> +<p> +Part of our programme, to be sure, had failed; but it was not a part +which could interfere with my selfish enjoyment. Mrs. East had changed +her mind at the last moment, and had decided not to dine, although I +had invited Sir Marcus on purpose for her. According to Biddy, +Cleopatra had "something up her sleeve," something her excuse of +"seediness" was meant to cover. Maybe it was only a flirtatious wish to +disappoint Sir Marcus—maybe it was something more subtle. But it did +not matter much to anybody except Lark, who was obliged to put up with +Mrs. Jones in place of Mrs. East; for Rachel Guest and the sculptor, +whom we nicknamed "Bill Bailey" were to be paired off: and, urged by +Biddy, I intended to monopolize Monny. +</p> +<p> +I suppose there could scarcely be a more ideal room for an intimate +dinner-party on a moonlight night than that kiosk on the flat roof of +Mena House. Through the wide open doors, and the openwork walls like a +canopy of black lace lined with silver, the moonlight filtered, +sketching exquisite designs upon the white floor and bringing out +jewelled flecks of colour on the covering and cushions of the divans. +There was no electricity in this kiosk, and we aided the moonlight only +with red-shaded candles, and ruby domed "fairy lamps," the exact shade +of the crimson ramblers which decorated the table. For the corners by +the open doors, I had ordered pots of Madonna lilies, which gave up +their perfume to the moon, and looked, in the mingling radiance of rose +and silver, like hovering doves. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I could hug and <i>kiss</i> that moon!" sighed Monny, tall and fair in +her white dress as the lilies I had chosen for her. +</p> +<p> +I was relieved that the Man in the Moon has now been superseded by a +Gibson Girl; for Monny was beautiful at that moment as a vision met in +the secret garden which lies on the other side of sleep. +</p> +<p> +"And the stars," Monny said, as I watched her uplifted face, wondering +just how much I was in love with it, "the little stars high up at the +zenith twinkle like silver bees. Those that sit on the edge of the +horizon are huge and golden, like desert watch-fires. Oh, do you know, +Lord Ernest, if quite a dull, uninteresting man, or—or one that it +would be madness even to <i>think</i> of—proposed to me on such a night, I +should <i>have</i> to say yes. It would seem so prosaic and such a waste, of +moonlight, not to. Wouldn't you feel like that if you were a girl?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure I should," I replied with extraordinary sympathy. "I <i>do</i> +feel like it, even as a man. I warn you not to propose, or I shall snap +at you." +</p> +<p> +She laughed; but I was wondering if I were dull and uninteresting +enough to stand a chance. It seemed as if Providence were actually +<i>handing</i> it to me. But just then Biddy and Sir Marcus came to the +doorway which so becomingly framed Monny's form and mine. Naturally +that put the idea out of my head; and two such opportunities don't come +to a man in a single night. +</p> +<p> +Dinner was not ready yet, and we sauntered about on the flat roof, +white as marble in the moonlight. The sky was milk—the desert, honey +—far off Cairo with its crowned citadel, pale opal veined with light, +and faintly streaked with misty greens and purples; the cultivated land +a deep indigo sea. The fantastically built hotel (in its ancient +beginnings the palace of a Pasha) was like a closely huddled group of +châlets, looked down on from its central roof. On the fringe of the +oasis-garden the cafés and curiosity-shops buzzed with life, and +glittered like lighted beehives. Outside the gateway, donkey-boys and +camel-men and drivers of sandcarts chattered. To-night, and on a few +moonlight nights to come they would reap their monthly harvest. They +were all ready to start off anywhere at a moment's notice; but apart +from them and their clamour, reposed a row of camels previously +engaged, free, therefore, to enjoy themselves until after dinner. As we +gazed down as if from a captive balloon, at the line of sitting forms, +they looked immense, like giant, newborn birds, with their huge +egg-shaped bodies and thin necks. Along the arboured road from Cairo, +flashed motor-car after motor-car, their lights winking in and out +between the dark trees, now blazing, now invisible, their occupants all +intent on doing the right thing: dining at Mena House, and seeing the +full moon feed honey to the Sphinx. Some, wishing to save time, or to +dine later in town, or to take a train, for somewhere, later, did not +turn in at the hotel gate, but swept past with siren shrieks, and tore +on, hoping to "rush" the steep hill to the Pyramid platform at top +speed. Only a few of the strongest succeeded, and, with a dash instead +of an ignominious crawl, triumphantly fanned their lights along the +base of that vast monument in which King Cheops vainly sought eternal +privacy. What would he say, we wondered, could he see the crowds of +tourists tearing out to pay him a call, on their way to the Sphinx? +Would he blight them with a curse, or would he remember pearly nights +of old, when his subjects assembled in multitudes for the feast of the +Goddess Neith when the moon was full, and all the white, brightly +painted houses along the Nile reflected their flowerlike illuminations +in the water? Anyhow (as Sir John Biddell would have said), this was +helping to keep his name before the public; and nothing could succeed +in vulgarizing his mountain of gold in its gleaming waves of desert, +under pulsing stars and creamy floods of moonlight. +</p> +<p> +Anthony had told me that the great "tip" was to go out while the less +instructed sightseers ate their dinner. Then, the desert was +comparatively empty; and, more important still, instead of having the +moon on her head, and her face in shadow, the Sphinx received its full +blaze in her farseeing eyes. Of this advice I meant to avail myself, +feeling vaguely guilty as I thought of the giver, who was absent from +the feast: Anthony Fenton, one of the finest young soldiers in Egypt, +who could be lionized in drawing-rooms at home if he would "stand for +it"! Anthony who, would he but accept the repentant overtures of that +tyrannical old prince, his maternal grandfather, might inherit a +fortune and a palace at Constantinople! Yet as Ahmed Antoun in his +green turban, he was "taboo" at our little party. +</p> +<p> +He was due later, however, and I rather expected to find him waiting +below, when I excused myself to descend to the Set. But I had not left +the roof when a note for Monny was brought up by an ebony person in +livery. I watched her as she read, one side of her face turned to +marble by the moon, the other stained rose by the red-shaded candles. I +thought that the rosy side grew more rosy as she finished the letter. +</p> +<p> +"There's a—message for you, Lord Ernest," she said. "Aunt Clara wants +me to tell you that 'Antoun' can't meet you at the hotel, because she +—changed her mind about not coming out, and sent for him. She felt +better, it seems, and got thinking what a pity it would be to miss the +full moon, so she suddenly remembered that 'Antoun' wasn't with us, and +decided to invite him. She writes in a hurry and didn't know where they +would dine, but says anyhow they'll meet us by the Sphinx between nine +and ten." +</p> +<p> +"Where '<i>they'd</i>' dine!" echoed Sir Marcus, pricked to interest. "Was +she going to let Fe—I mean 'Antoun,' take her out to dinner?" +</p> +<p> +"Apparently she was," replied Monny, rather dryly. +</p> +<p> +"Why not?" asked Brigit. "He's perfectly splendid. And Mrs. East—not +that she isn't a young woman, of course—is old enough to go about +without a chaperon." +</p> +<p> +"If we're to meet them between nine and ten at the Sphinx," said Monny +briskly, "don't you think, Lord Ernest, you'd better hurry and get your +people off, so we can set out ourselves?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm going," I assured her. "But I thought we planned to give them a +long start, in hopes that they might be ready to come back by the time +we arrived?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, well," she said, "that will make it very late, won't it, and we +may miss Aunt Clara? Anyhow, lots of other creatures just as bad as +yours will be there, for we can't engage the desert like a private +sitting-room." +</p> +<p> +That settled it. I dashed downstairs and sorted out my charges. They +had got themselves up in all kinds of costumes, for this "act." One man +had on a folding opera-hat, which he had thought just the right thing +for Egypt, as it was so easy to pack! Girls in evening dress; men young +and old in helmets and straw hats, ancient maidens, and fat married +ladies, in dust cloaks or ball gowns, climbed or leaped or scrambled +onto camels, with shrieks of joy or moans of horror: or else they +tumbled onto donkeys which bounded away before the riders were well on +their backs. And men, women, and animals were shouting, giggling, +groaning, gabbling, snarling, and squeaking; an extraordinary +procession to pay honour to the Pyramids and the lonely Sphinx. +</p> +<p> +We of the roof-party considered ourselves, figuratively speaking, above +camels, far above donkeys, and scornful of motor-cars, in which it was +irreverent to charge up to the Great Pyramid as if to the door of a +café. We walked, and Monny still lent herself to me; but she no longer +bubbled over with delight at everything. A subdued mood was upon her, +and her eyes looked sad, even anxious, in the translucent light which +was not so much like earthly moonlight as the beginning of sunrise in +some far, magic dreamland. She had the pathetic air of a spoiled child +who begins suddenly, if only vaguely, to realize that it cannot have +everything it wants in the world. And she merely smiled when I told her +how, to insure the peace of the desert, I had offered a prize of a +large blue scarab as big as a paperweight, for that member of the Set +who did not even say "Oh!" to the Sphinx. "Antoun" had "vetted" the +alleged scarab and pronounced it a modern forgery; but nobody else knew +that, and as a prize it was popular. +</p> +<p> +The sky had that clear pale blue of dawn, when day first realizes that, +though born of night, it is no longer night. Casseopeia's Chair and +Orion were being tossed about the burning heavens like golden furniture +out of a house on fire; and one great star-jewel had fallen on the apex +of cruel Khufu's Pyramid. I should have liked to believe it was Sirius, +the "lucky" star sacred to Isis and Hathor; but Monny's schoolgirl +knowledge of astronomy bereft me of that innocent pleasure. No wonder +that the ancient Egyptians, with such jewels in their blue treasure-house, +were famous astrologers and astronomers before the days when +Rameses' daughter found Moses in the bulrushes of Roda Island! +</p> +<p> +The stars spoke to us as we walked, soft-footed, through the sand; and +the pure wind of the desert spoke other words of the same language, the +language of the Universe and of Nature. Here and there yellow lights in +a distant camp flashed out like fireflies; far away across the +billowing sands, rocks bleached like bone gave an effect of surf on an +unseen shore; now and then a silent, swift-moving Arab stealing out of +shadow, might have been the White Woman who haunts the Sphinx, hurrying +to a fatal tryst: and the Great Pyramid seemed to float between desert +sand and cloudless sky like the golden palace of Aladdin being +transported through air by the Geni of the Lamp. There never was such +gold as this gold of sand and pyramids, under the moon! We said that it +was like condensed sun rays, so vivid, so bright, that the moon could +not steal its colour. Cloudlike white figures were running up Khufu's +geometric mountain; Arabs expecting money when they should come leaping +down, whole or in pieces. And the khaki uniforms of British soldiers +mounting or descending for their own stolid amusement, made the Pyramid +itself seem to be writhing, so like was the colour of the cloth to that +of the stone. No use being angry because the monument was crawling with +Tommies! The Pyramids were as much theirs as ours. And probably +Napoleon's soldiers spent their moonlit evenings in the same way; a +thought which somehow made the thing seem less intolerable. +</p> +<p> +We climbed to the vast platform of the Ghizeh Pyramids, and then +plunged into the billows of the desert, in quest of the Sphinx. Sir +Marcus was entitled to call himself the pioneer, but we needed no one +to show us the way. It was but too clearly indicated by the bands of +pilgrims, going or returning. And among the latter were those whom +Monny callously referred to as "poor Lord Ernest's crowd." Miss +Hassett-Bean and the Biddell girls made us linger, with sand trickling +over the tops of our shoes, while they poured into our ears their +impressions of the Sphinx. Miss H. B. thought that She (with a capital +S) was a combination of Goddess, Prophetess, and Mystery. Enid thought +she was like an Irish washerwoman making a face; and Elaine said she +was the image of their bulldog at home. Monny (after a sandy +introduction) listened to these verbal vandalisms in horrified silence. +I could see that she was exerting herself, for my sake, to be civil to +my charges (who were more interested in her than they had been in the +Sphinx), and that, if she could have done so without hurting their +feelings, she would have struck them dead. But my fears that their +mental suggestions might obsess her were baseless. She did not speak +when the golden billows parted to give us a first vision of the great +Mystery of the Desert. I had led Monny by a roundabout way, and instead +of seeing the Sphinx from the back, we came upon her face to face, as +she gazed with her wonderful, all-knowing eyes, straight into that +world beyond knowledge which lies somewhere east of the moon. Veiled by +the night in silver and blue, with a proud lift of the head, she faced +past and future, which were one for her, and the present, nothing. The +moon gave back for a few hours all her lost loveliness, of which men +had robbed her, seeming miraculously to restore the broken features, +whole and beautiful as they had been in her youth before history began. +It was as if in the moon's rays were silver hands, mending the marred +majesty, giving life to the eyes and to the haunting, secret smile. I +thought of the story of King Harmachis: how he dreamed that the Sphinx +came to him, saying that the sand pressed upon her, and she could not +breathe. Nobody since his day had for long left her buried! +</p> +<p> +"What does it mean to you?" I broke the silence to ask. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," Monny said. "All I know is that she's more wonderful +than I expected, and as beautiful as the loveliest marble Venus of +Italy, though a thousand times greater—if one perfect thing can be +greater than another. She's so great that I don't think she can be +meant to be a woman—or even a man. She is like a <i>soul</i> carved in +stone." +</p> +<p> +"All in a moment you have guessed the riddle!" I exclaimed, liking and +understanding the girl better than I had liked or understood her yet. +"I believe that's the secret of the Sphinx. The king who had this +stupendous idea, and caused it to be carried out, said to some inspired +sculptor, 'Make for me from the rock of the desert, a portrait, not of +me as I am seen by men, in my mortal part or Khat, for that can be +placed elsewhere; but an image of my real self, my soul or Ka, looking +past the small things of this world into eternity, which lies beyond +this desert and all deserts.' Then the sculptor made the Sphinx, and +gave it such grandeur, such mystery of countenance that instinctively +the souls of people recognized the <i>soul look</i>. You have a soul, and it +told you the secret. Only those who have no souls find the Sphinx heavy +or hideous, or utterly beyond their comprehension." +</p> +<p> +"Have I a soul?" Monny asked, dreamily. "Men I've known have told me I +haven't. Yet sometimes I've thought I felt it fluttering. And if I have +a soul, I shall find it in Egypt. Oh, I shall! Something—yes, the +Sphinx herself!—tells me that." +</p> +<p> +I was tempted to ask "What about a heart?" And then—in a violent +hurry, before anybody came—to mention my own, into which the moon +seemed pouring a little of the honey it had brought for the Sphinx. I +did feel that some one owed a moonlight proposal under the Sphinx's +nose (or the place where its nose had been) to such a girl as Monny. +Her Egyptian experience could never be perfect and complete unless she +were proposed to on the night of the full moon, with the Sphinx's +blessing; and as no better man was here to do it, I could not be +thought conceited if I took the duty upon myself. Besides, Brigit would +so thoroughly approve! +</p> +<p> +"Look here, Biddy, I mean Monny," I began hastily, "there's something I +want to tell you, something very important you ought to know, because +matters can't go on much longer as they are—" +</p> +<p> +"Is it something about 'Antoun'?" she broke in, with a little gasp, as +I paused for breath and courage. "If it is, maybe I know it already!" +</p> +<p> +Extraordinary, the relief I felt! I ought to have suffered a shock of +disappointment, because I couldn't possibly finish a proposal after +such an interruption. But instead, my spirits went up with a bound. +Probably, however, that was because her hint was a whip to my +curiosity. "<i>What</i> do you know about 'Antoun'?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps I forgot to lower my voice; or perhaps voices carry far across +desert-spaces, as across water. Anyhow the clear tones of Cleopatra +answered like an echo. "Antoun—Antoun! I hear Lord Ernest calling." +</p> +<p> +Biddy—dear little matchmaking Biddy—had managed Sir Marcus, Bill +Bailey and Rachel, as a circus rider manages three spirited white +horses at one time. The desert was her ring, and she had reined her +steeds to her will, keeping them out of my way and Monny's at all +costs, no matter whether they saw the Sphinx in back view or noseless +profile. But Mrs. East's principal occupation in life was not to get me +engaged to the Gilded Rose. And either she lost her presence of mind, +or else she was not so much enjoying her moonlight tête-à-tête with +Fenton, that it was worth while to hide from us behind a sand dune. +</p> +<p> +The two emerged from a gulf of shadow, Anthony very splendid under the +moon, a true man of the desert. I thought I heard Monny draw in a +little sharp breath as she saw that noble incarnation of Egypt (so he +must have seemed, unless she knew the British reality of him) walking +beside Cleopatra. +</p> +<p> +Then up came the others, Sir Marcus impossible to restrain; and we all +talked together as people are expected to talk when they have come +thousands of miles to see these monuments of Egypt. Yes, yes! +Wonderful—incredible! Which do you find more impressive, the Sphinx or +the Pyramids? Isn't it a pity they let the temple between the paws +remain buried? And aren't the Pyramids just like Titanic, golden +beehives? And can't you simply <i>see</i> the swarming builders, like bees +themselves, working for twenty years? +</p> +<p> +Thus we jabbered; and others, many others, appeared to dispute the +scene with us, to break the magic of the moonlight, and to puncture the +vast silence of the desert with their cooings and gurglings and +chatterings in German, English, Arabic, and every other language known +since the Tower of Babel. Arab guides lit up the Sphinx with flaring +magnesium, an impertinence that should have made hideous with hate the +insulted features, but instead turned them for a thrilling instant of +suspense into marble. Indeed, none of our petty vulgarities could jar +or even fret the majestic calm of the desert and the stone Mystery +among its billows. The Sphinx gazed above and past us all. She was like +some royal captive surrounded by a rabble mob, yet as undisturbed in +soul as though her puny, hooting tormentors had no existence. It was +not so much that she scorned us, as that she did not know we were +there. +</p> +<p> +When we sorted ourselves out, to escape Sir Marcus, Cleopatra deigned +to make use of me, having first observed (with burning interest) that +Monny and Rachel were with Bailey, and that "Antoun" was pointing +things out to Brigit O'Brien, as it is Man's métier (in pictures and +advertisements) to point things out to Woman. +</p> +<p> +"It's been a wonderful evening," Mrs. East said. "It has made up for +everything I suffered last night. We brought dinner out into the +desert, in that smallest tea-basket, you know, and ate it together, he +and I—Antony and I. There! I may as well confess that's what I call +him to myself, for I've guessed your secret—and his. But don't be +afraid. I won't tell a soul. It's too romantic and fascinating for +words—or to put into words. He let me have my fortune told by an Arab +sand diviner, who came while we were at dinner. I can't repeat to you +what the fortune-teller said. But I feel as if I were living in a book. +Oh, if only I were writing it myself and could make everything happen +just as I want it to happen! Do you know one thing I would put into the +story?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I can't think," I said, rather anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"I would have <i>you</i> propose to Monny." +</p> +<p> +"Oh—by Jove, Mrs. East!" +</p> +<p> +"Why—don't you admire her?" +</p> +<p> +"But of course. She's irresistible. Only she's so horribly rich. And +besides, she doesn't think of me in that way." +</p> +<p> +"You can't be sure. Now, Lord Ernest, I'm going to whisper you a +secret. I believe—I really do—that Monny would be <i>glad</i> if you'd +propose. If I were in your place, if I <i>liked</i> her, I would do so as +soon as possible. It might save her from humiliation—from a great +trouble." +</p> +<p> +Being a duffer, I could only say once again, "By Jove!" +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH13"><!-- CH13 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +AN UNDERGROUND PROPOSAL +</p> +<p> +I didn't sleep much that night, for thinking of Monny; and when I did +sleep, I dreamed of her; tangled dreams, in which she was Monny Gilder +with Brigit O'Brien's eyes. Could it be possible that she liked me? +Mrs. East ought to know. I made up my mind that to-morrow I would begin +by feeling my way, but when to-morrow came I had no time to feel +anything which concerned my private affairs. +</p> +<p> +It seemed, or so I was told "for my own good" by Miss Hassett-Bean, +that the Candace people thought it "snobby" for me to have indulged in +a private dinner-party, and to have hustled them off in a drove to the +Sphinx while I went leisurely with my smart friends. They knew all +about the feast on the roof, and were of opinion that they ought to +have been there. Did I consider my American heiress better than they, +better even than the family of an ex-Lord Mayor? If I wished to make up +lost ground, I must devote myself to duty, and be nicer than ever to +everybody. +</p> +<p> +This was one of the moments when I was tempted to throw over my job; +but I remembered the reward, and set myself once more to the earning of +it. For the next few days I scarcely saw Monny or Brigit, or even heard +what was happening to them—for they had "done" the principal sights of +Cairo, and I (at the head of the <i>Candace</i> crowd) was "doing" them. As +if in a game of "Follow my Leader," I led the band from mosque to +mosque; not indeed visiting the whole two hundred and sixty-four, but +calling on the best ones. To begin with, I collected the Set on the +height of the Citadel, which commands all Cairo, the platform of the +Pyramids (not only the Ghizeh Pyramids but the sixty odd others, which +newcomers don't talk about): the tawny Mokattam Hills, and the silver-blue +serpent of the Nile. From this vantage place I pointed out the +things we had to see in the city spread out below us, so that on the +vaguest minds the picture might be painted in its entirety, before they +began to absorb details on that mosaic map which was Cairo. The tombs +of the Mamelukes, strangely shaped monuments, vague and white as +squatting ghosts; the graves of the Caliphs; the historic gates of +el-Kahira; and the many ancient mosques, whose minarets soared against the +blue like tall-stemmed flowers in a palace garden. +</p> +<p> +Mentally fortified by this bird's-eye view from the Citadel (of course, +I had to trot them up again for the sunset), my charges let themselves +be led from mosque to mosque, from tomb to tomb. Some, possessed with a +demoniac desire to get their money's worth of Egypt, were unable to +enjoy any sight, in their nervous dread of missing some other +spectacle, which people at home might ask them about. These strained +their wearied intelligences to see more than they possibly could at any +one moment, unless they had eyes all round their heads; and others, of +an even more irritating type, never lifted the few eyes they had from +the pages of guide-books. I liked better those who, like Monny, frankly +said that they didn't wish to have their minds tidied up, and be told a +string of things about Egypt. They just wanted to <i>feel</i> the things, +and let them slowly soak in. And the nice, lazy, Southern Americans, +who said they were "tomb shy," and loitered about, betting from one to +six scarabs on the speed of fleas, or donkeys, while I whipped forth +for their tired companions a dull drove of facts fattened for their +benefit. +</p> +<p> +Mosques and churches and tombs had to be visited, but did not appeal to +all tastes. The Bazaars did. So did the Zoo, more fascinating than any +other zoo, because each animal has its trick, or pet, or plaything. +</p> +<p> +As an excuse to see Monny and the rest of my friends, I got up a +moonlight digging expedition at Fustat, those great mounds of rubbish +and buried treasure near Egyptian Babylon where a city was burnt lest +it should fall into the hands of the Crusaders. Monny and her party +were invited to join us, and accepted the invitation, piloted by +"Antoun." And concerning this entertainment, I had an idea. Those who +choose to dig among these desert-like sandhills, between the Coptic +churches of Babylon and the tombs of the Mamelukes, may chance on +something of value, especially after a windstorm or a landslip: bits of +Persian pottery, fragments of iridescent glass, broken bracelets of +enamel, opaline beads, or tiny gods and goddesses. Why should I not +(thought I) apportion off to each member of the band his or her own +digging patch? This would save squabbling, and would provide an +opportunity for me to propose in a unique way to Monny. +</p> +<p> +Regarding the idea as an inspiration, I carried it out scientifically. +Helped by Anthony, after the sun had set and the mounds were deserted, +I staked out the most promising "claims," and marked each space with +the name of the "miner" for whom I intended it. In Monny's patch, near +the surface where she could not possibly miss it, I buried a letter +wrapped round a cow-eared head of Hathor which I had bought at the +Egyptian Museum-shop. Now, in justice to myself, I must tell you that +this letter was no common letter, such as any Tom, Dick, or Harry may +write to the Mary Jane Smith of the moment. It was a missive which cost +me midnight electricity and brain-strain; for not only must I appeal to +my lady, I must also suit an environment. +</p> +<p> +Monny had taken up the study of hieroglyphics, in order to appreciate +intelligently the tombs and temples of the Nile. She had bought books, +and was learning with the energy of a stenographer, to write and read. +She wrote out exercises, and submitted them for correction to "Antoun" +who, as an Egyptian, was to be considered an authority. "Of course," +she explained to me, "one comes here thinking that all Egyptians +nowadays, even Copts, are Arabs. But <i>he</i> says that Egyptians are as +Egyptian as they ever were, because Arab invasion has left little more +trace in their blood than the Romans left in the blood of the English. +It interests me <i>much</i> more to feel when I'm in Egypt that I'm among +real Egyptians." +</p> +<p> +With this in my mind, I was convinced that a love letter in +hieroglyphics, unearthed by moonlight in the mounds of Fustat, would +please Monny. +</p> +<p> +The difficulty was that, though I could speak Arabic fairly well, I +hardly knew the difference between hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic +forms; but the limited symbols I was able to employ were so strong in +themselves that a few would go a long way: and if they were not as +correct as the sentiments they expressed, Monny was not herself a +mistress of hieroglyphic style. I could find no hieroglyphic suit in +which to clothe the name Ernest; but since I had become keeper of men, +mice, and morals in Sir Marcus Lark's floating zoo, Monny's craze for +Egyptianizing everything had suggested the nickname of Men-Kheper-Rã. +She sometimes called me Rã for short, therefore I now ventured to +divert to my own uses a sign and cartouche once the property of a "son +of the Sun," and King of Egypt: +</p> + + +<p class="ctr"> +<a href="illp192.jpg"><img src="illp192_th.jpg" width="150" alt="'the Love Letter'"></a> +</p> + +<p> +Translation: Beautiful Queen, Star (of) My Heart (and) Soul. Give Me +(your) Love. Become My Wife (and) Goddess (for) Eternity. +</p> +<p> +Men-Kheper-(Ka) Rã. +</p> +<p> +I patted myself on the back, put the letter in the ground; and the +digging party was a wild success; but time passed on, and I had no +answer. What I expected was a reply in kind, an hieratic acceptance or +a demotic refusal; either one would be good practice for Monny. But not +a hieroglyph of any description came. I had to go on as if nothing had +happened. To be ignored was less tolerable than being refused. Monny's +silence began to get upon my nerves; and to make matters worse, there +was that desert trip hanging over my head. I knew even less about +organizing a desert trip than I knew about hieroglyphics; yet it had to +be done. As Sir Marcus said it was "up to me" to do it so well that +Cook would look sick. Anthony was absorbed in secret official duties +and open, unofficial duties. His was a great "thinking" part, and our +occupations kept us apart rather than brought us together. On the one +occasion when we were alone, he devoted four out of five minutes to +telling me what he had learned of the night disturbance in front of the +House of the Crocodile. "A Britisher of sorts" had come into the +street, guided by an Arab. There had been some dispute about payment, +and the Britisher had slapped the dragoman's face. This had been +followed, as he might have known it would, with a stab; a crowd had +assembled, and scattered before the police; the stabbed one had gone to +hospital, the stabber to prison. Altogether it was not surprising that +Mansoor, the suspicious caretaker, had feared a trap, and closed his +doors. Bedr el Gemály, now one of the great unemployed, had been seen +near the hospital where the injured man lay; but he had taken the alarm +and departed without inquiring for the invalid's health; or else his +being in that neighbourhood was a coincidence. The name of the man +knifed was Burke, and London was given as his address. He was between +thirty-five and forty, and according to the arrested dragoman was "not +a gentleman, but a tourist." His hurt was not severe: and as the Arab +had been exasperated by a blow, the punishment would not be excessive. +</p> +<p> +When at length I had seized the last remaining minute to put the +question, "Do you think Miss Gilder has found out who you really are?" +Fenton seemed astonished. +</p> +<p> +"I hadn't thought of it at all," he answered simply. "She's giving me +too many other things to think of." +</p> +<p> +"What kind of things?" I stealthily inquired. +</p> +<p> +"Oh,"—with an evasive air—"I don't know what to make of her yet. But +I haven't given up my silly scheme." +</p> +<p> +"What silly scheme?" +</p> +<p> +"Antoun" looked almost sulky. "Well, if you've forgotten, I won't +remind you. It's absurd; it's even brutal; and I'm ashamed of it. But I +stick to it." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH14"><!-- CH14 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE DESERT DIARY BEGUN +</p> +<p> +I found out why Monny paid no attention to my buried letter. But the +way in which I found it out (and several other things at the same time) +is part of the desert trip. +</p> +<p> +I am not a man whose soul turns to diaries for consolation; but I did +keep up a bowing acquaintance with a notebook in Egypt—it helped me +with my lectures—and in the desert it relieved my feelings. Looking +over the desert pages, I'm tempted to give them as they stand: +</p> +<p> +<i>Black Friday</i>: Morning. The start's for Monday, and nothing done! +Could I develop symptoms of creeping paralysis, and throw the +responsibility on Anthony? But too late for that now; and he may have +to stay on in Cairo for a day or two. Why did I leave my peaceful home? +It's the lure of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Last night before +I went to bed, read over my copy of Ferlini's letters, to gain courage. +Gained it for a little; but when I think of that desert I'm supposed to +turn into a happy playground for trippers, and not a tent hired or a +prune bought, or an egg laid, for all I know, I wish Anthony and I had +let Lark stick to our mountain. +</p> +<p> +This is Lark's fault anyhow. He sprang the thing on me. Said it would +be easy as falling off a log. Said Cairo was full of Arabs whose +mission in life was supplying tents and utensils for desert tours. +People would be charmed with simple life, and me as universal provider. +All I had to do was to supply cheap editions of "The Garden of Allah," +and plenty of dates; and hint that it was considered vulgar in the Best +Circles to put on Pêche Melba airs in the desert. With a few +quotations, I should make them content with a loaf of bread, a cup of +wine, and Thing-um-Bob. Why, they'd be falling in love with each other +under the desert stars, and my principal occupation would be saying, +"Bless you, my children!" +</p> +<p> +Sounded neat; and I remembered that, according to Brigit, Monny wanted +the "desert to take her." Thought it might be useful if I were on in +that act. Abyssmal beast of a dragoman who lurks round Mena House +buoyed me up with false hopes. Said he had a fine outfit which he let, +and threw himself in as guide. Plenty of everything (including cheek) +for fifteen people, the exact number who have put down their names to +go. (Some girls and parents are staying for a ball at the Semiramis, +where I've tearfully persuaded the only soft-hearted officers I know to +dance with them—otherwise the lot would have been on my hands in the +desert.) Had so much to do yesterday taking the crowd to Matariyeh, +where the Holy Family hid in a hollow tree, that I had no time to look +at the Arab's outfit. Was inclined to save trouble and trust him, but +saw Anthony a minute last night; he urged me to inspect everything. Did +so early this morning. Rotten outfit: tents like old patchwork quilts, +pots and pans, etc., probably bought job lot from Noah when the Ark was +docked. Those keenest on desert "taking" them, will be mad as hatters +if it takes them in. Suppose I'll have to interview half the Arabs in +Cairo to-day. Wish I had a Ka or Ba or whatever you get for an astral +body in Egypt, and I could say to it, "Here, my dear chap, I trust you +to do this job while I stay in Cairo and rest my features." Then he'd +get the blame, and I'd disappear, never to be seen again. Or if he were +a Ka with Cook accomplishments, maybe he'd bring the thing off all +right, in which case I could turn up and take the credit and marry +Monny. Happy thought! Cook! Why shouldn't I sneak to Cook, and inquire +in a careless way if they publish any pamphlet on "How to Do a Desert +Tour." +</p> +<p> +<i>Later</i>: Have been to Cook. No pamphlet, but a friend in need. Talk of +casting bread on the waters! In Rome I cast a crust which I didn't +want, and it's come back in Cairo with butter and sugar on it. +</p> +<p> +Must have been two years ago in Rome when a young chap wrote to me to +the Embassy. Said he'd been disappointed in getting work he'd come +abroad for, had seen my name, recognized it, was from my county; and +could I use him as a stenographer or anything? I couldn't; but I found +him some one who could; and forgot him till I saw him this morning a +fully fledged clerk at Cook's. Checking the impulse to fall on his +neatly striped blue and white bosom, I invited him to lunch; and as a +reward for what he calls "past and present favours," he had given me +new life. What I mean to say is, he's promised to provide me not only +with tents, but camels and camel-boys and a camp chef, and waiters and +washbowls and a desert dragoman, and thousands of things I'd never +thought of. It seems practically certain that since Napoleon no such +genius has been born as Slaney. Cleopatra would say that S. is the +reincarnation of Napoleon; but neither Cleopatra nor any one else +—above all, Sir Marcus Lark—is to know of his existence. Such is the +disinterested self-sacrifice of this buttered-and-sugared Crust, that +it will do everything for me, while keeping itself and the Organization +which controls it, completely in the background. The Organization is +too great to mind; and the Crust, alias T. Slaney, thinks itself too +small. +</p> +<p> +Lark, Ltd., considers himself a budding rival of the firm of Cook; but +a deadly bud. If, however, Sir M. should come to hear that I had flown +for succour to the enemy's camp, I fear it would be all over with the +bargain for which Anthony and I are selling our souls. T. Slaney says +he never shall know. He guarantees that Cook labels and other telltale +marks shall be removed from everything, though time is short and there +is much to do. He will be the power behind the tents, and I will be in +them, absorbing all the credit. +</p> +<p> +<i>Saturday</i>: All <i>couleur de Rose</i>, thanks to Slaney. Should like to get +him canonized. Many less worthy men, now deceased, have been given the +right to put Saint before their names. He has handed me a list, +something less than a mile long, of articles which Biddy and I, as +children, used to call eaties and drinkies. He has told me where the +things can be bought, and has written a letter of introduction which +secures me "highest consideration and lowest prices." Also he has +suggested a medicine-chest, packs of cards, the newest games, +cigarettes suited to European and Arab tastes, picture post-cards of +desert scenes; ink, pens, and writing paper. "People forget everything +they want on these trips, but you mustn't," said he. I have acted on +all his suggestions, and feel as proud as if I had originated them +myself. +</p> +<p> +<i>Sunday:</i> My precious friend Slaney has made a large collection of +Arabs, camels, tents, etc., and ordered everything, animate and +inanimate, to assemble in the neighbourhood of Mena House this +afternoon, in order to be inspected by me, and to be ready for a start +early to-morrow morning. We are to have a sandcart with a desert horse +for Cleopatra, who has tried a camel and found it wanting. I fancy she +thinks a sandcart the best modern substitute for a chariot; and at +worst, it ought to be as comfortable. Slaney has promised a yellow one +—cart, not horse. The horse, by request, is to be white. The other +ladies are having camels. I daren't think of Miss Hassett-Bean at the +end of the week. The men, also, will camel. There is, indeed, no +alternative between camelling and sandcarting—sandcarting not +recommended by the faculty but insisted upon by Cleopatra. Hope it will +work out all right; and am inclined to be optimistic. A week in the +desert and the flowery oasis of the Fayum, with the two most charming +women in Egypt! There will be others, but there's a man each, and more. +I shall have to look after Monny and Brigit, as Anthony is having his +hands full with Cleopatra lately, and, besides, he can't start with us. +Something keeps him in Cairo for two days more, and he will have to +join us near Tomieh. +</p> +<p> +<i>Sunday Evening:</i> Back from Great Pyramid, where I went to inspect the +assembling army. Magnificent is the only word! The camels fine animals, +but Anthony has provided the three best, borrowing these aristocrats of +the camel world from Major Gunter of the Coast Guard. They have chased +hasheesh smugglers, and have seen desert fighting. Were snarling +horribly when I was introduced, but a snarl as superior to the common +snarls of baggage-camels as their legs are superior in shape. Biddy, +Monny, Mrs. East, and Rachel Guest were there with Sir M. and "Antoun," +having been inside the pyramid and up to the top. Monny on her high +horse because "Antoun" says it will be better for the ladies to ride +the baggage-camels. The others take his word, meekly, but she persists, +and Anthony agrees to give her the camel he had meant to ride, the one +supposed to be the most spirited. When he joins us, he will have the +animal intended for her. When this bargain was struck between them I +thought his eyes looked dangerous, but she didn't notice or didn't +care. Fenton tells me he has dreamed again of the red-faced man with +the purple moustache. I laughed at his bugbear and flung Colonel +Corkran in his teeth. By the way, nothing has been heard of C. by any +of us since the day he handed in his resignation. Suppose he has gone +back to England in the sulks. +</p> +<p> +<i>Monday Night:</i> I am writing in my tent, which is to be shared with +Anthony when he arrives. I feel years older than when we started this +morning. Middle age seems to have overtaken me. If I keep on at this +rate, shall be a centenarian by the time we get back to Cairo. +</p> +<p> +We made a splendid caravan at the start. Besides the train of camels +ridden by my party from the <i>Candace</i> and Monny Gilder with her +satellites (it goes against the grain, though, to call a bright +particular star like Biddy a satellite), there were over thirty +gigantic beasts laden with our numerous bedroom, kitchen, luncheon, and +dinner-tents, tent-pegs, cooking-stove, food for humans, fodder for +animals, casks of water, mattresses, folding-beds, other tent +furniture, tourists' luggage, and so on. I was happy till after the +baggage-train had got away, each camel with its head roped to the tail +of the one ahead, all trailing off toward the distant Pyramids of +Sakkhara well in advance of us. Each camel looked like a house-moving. +On top of the kitchen-camel's load was perched the chêf, a singularly +withered old gentleman with black and blue complexion, clad in a vague, +flying blanket. (Has been Turkish-coffee man in Paris hotels.) Many +other negroid persons in white with large turbans; a few café au lait +Arabs; these all counted beforehand by Slaney, for me, and identified +as assistant-cooks, waiters, bed-makers, and camel-men, enough +apparently to stock a village. But we had one surprise at the moment of +starting in the form of a bright black child, clad in white, with a +white skull cap and a flat profile evidently copied from the Sphinx. I +don't know yet why this Baby Sphinx has come or who he is; but he rode +on the kitchen-camel's tail, hanging on by the bread (our bread!) which +was in a bag. +</p> +<p> +When this cavalcade had wound away, the camels making blue heart-shaped +tracks in the yellow sand, it was our turn to start. Not one of us +would have changed places with any old Egyptian king or queen, and we +did not feel vulgar for doing this trip in luxury, because ancient +royalties had done the same, and so do the great sheikhs of the desert +even now. As I put Cleopatra into the sandcart with its broad, +iron-rimmed wheels, she was recalling the days when she travelled with a +train of asses in order to have milk for her bath. I suggested a modern +condensed substitute, but the offer was not received in the spirit with +which it was made. Now to get the ladies on their camels, after which +we men would vault upon our animals, and wind away among billowing +dunes full of shadowy ripples and high lights, like cream-coloured +velvet! +</p> +<p> +But just here arose the first small cloud in the blue. It was bigger +than a man's hand, for it was the exact size and shape of Miss +Hassett-Bean's hat. It was a largish hat of imitation Panama trimmed with +green veiling, just the hat for a post-card desert all pink sunset and no +wind. As she was about to mount the squatting camel, a breeze blew the +flap over her eyes. This prevented Miss H.B. from seeing that the camel +had turned its neck to look at her; and so, as she reached the saddle +and the hat blew up, lady and camel met face to face. It was a moment +of suspense, for neither liked the other at first sight. The camel +began to gurgle its throat in a threatening manner, and at the same +time to rise. Miss Hassett-Bean, staring into two quivering nostrils +shaped like badly made purses, shrieked, forgot whether she must first +bend forward or bend back, bent in the way she ought not to have bent, +and fell upon the sand. I don't quite see why I was to blame for this +result, but she <i>saw</i>, and said I ought to have warned her what a vile +creature a camel was. Nothing would induce her to try again. She would +go to any extreme rather than ride a beast with a snake for a neck, and +a nasty unsympathetic face full of green juice which it spit out at +you. She was used to being liked. She simply couldn't go about on a +thing which would never love her, and she wouldn't want it to if it +did. She would go home or else she would have a sandcart. All the +neighbouring sandcarts were engaged; but fortunately "Antoun Effendi" +appeared at that instant (he'd taxied out to see us off), and he +persuaded Cleopatra to let Miss Hassett-Bean drive with her. The desert +horse, feeling this extra weight, looked round almost as +unsympathetically as the camel had; but nobody paid the slightest +attention except his attendant, who was to lead him: a type of negro +"Nut," who had a snobbish habit of reddening his nails with henna. +</p> +<p> +By this time a crowd had assembled, kept in check by the tall, +blue-robed sheikh of the Pyramids. It consisted mostly of Arabs determined +to take our photographs or sell us scarabs—which Miss Hassett-Bean +refused on the ground that she disliked things off dead people. But on +the fringe lurked a few Europeans, amused to see so large a caravan +setting forth; and the men of our party, hitherto proud of their +curtained helmets and desert get-up, became self-conscious under a fire +of snapshots. +</p> +<p> +"Hello, my Boy Scout!" I was hailed by Sir Marcus, arriving three +minutes behind Anthony, and on the same errand. This blow to my +self-esteem fell as I was leading Monny to the white camel which was hers +and should have been Anthony's. She laughed—I suppose she couldn't +help it. I couldn't myself, if it had been Harry Snell or Bill Bailey; +but as it was, my pride of khaki helmet, knickers, and puttees +collapsed like a burst balloon. I seemed to feel the calves of my legs +wither. It was in this mood that I had to put Monny on that coastguard +camel, while "Antoun" stood looking on. He did not offer to help the +girl, as their talk yesterday on the subject of baggage-camels versus +running camels had not conduced to officiousness. +</p> +<p> +Monny was in white: broad white helmet such as women wear, white suede +shoes, white silk stockings, and a lot of lacy, garden-party things +that showed frills when she flew, birdlike, onto the cushioned saddle. +"<i>That's</i> the way to do it!" I heard her cry, exultantly—and what +happened next I can't say, for the white camel knocked me over as it +bounded up, jerking its nose rope from the leader's hand, and the next +thing I knew it was making for the horizon. I hadn't been on a camel +since I was four, if then, so it was useless to follow. But while I +stood spitting out sand, Anthony flung himself onto one of the swift +coastguard beasts, and was after her like a streak of four-legged +lightning. None of us had the nerve to continue our operations until, a +quarter of an hour later, they appeared from behind the Great Pyramid, +coming at a walk, "Antoun" holding the bridle of Monny's camel. +</p> +<p> +I saw by Fenton's face that he intended to make no suggestions, and I +guessed that he was practising his chosen method. If Miss Gilder wished +for anything she must ask for it, and ask for it humbly if she expected +to get it. +</p> +<p> +Her face, too, was a study. She was pale and even piteous. I thought +there were tears in the blue-gray eyes; and if I had been Anthony I +could not have hardened my heart. Pride or no pride, I should have +begged her to abandon this praiseworthy adventure, and deign to mount +the baggage brute. Not so Anthony. He led back the camel, with Monny +limply sitting on it, and when it had calmed down at sight of its +friends he retired into the background. +</p> +<p> +"How wonderful that you kept on, darling!" exclaimed Biddy. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't," said Monny. Then she turned to "Antoun," who remained on +his beast, in case of another emergency, or because he did not wish to +be looked down upon by her. He was rather glorious enthroned on his +camel, the only one of our party who was truly "in" the desert picture. +I didn't blame him for stopping up there on his sheepskin, eye to eye +with the girl. +</p> +<p> +For a moment Monny did not speak. She was evidently hesitating what to +do, but common sense and natural sweetness got the better of false +pride. "Antoun, you were right, and I was wrong," she admitted. "I said +yesterday that you were selfish, keeping the coastguard camels for +yourself and Lord Ernest and General Harlow, and giving us women the +baggage ones. Now I'm sorry. I was silly and hateful. I wouldn't ride +another fifty yards on this demon for fifty thousand dollars. He's +nearly broken my back, and if it hadn't been for you, he would quite +have done it. Please help me off, and put me on any old baggage thing +that nobody else wants." +</p> +<p> +Anthony's eyes lit for an instant, from satisfaction as a man, or from +Christian joy in her moral improvement. He sprang off his sky-scraping +camel, brought Monny's animal to its knees, helped her off, and +motioned to the Arab attendant of the Ugly Duckling of all the other +creatures. It gave the effect of being a cross between a camel and an +ostrich, and had been chosen by "Antoun" as his own mount, when he +surrendered the aristocrat to Monny. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dearest, I can't have you ride that grasshopper!" cried Biddy. +"'Antoun' took it for himself very kindly because it's the worst. And I +don't care any more than he did. Give the thing to me, and take <i>my</i> +one, that dear creature with the blue bead necklace." +</p> +<p> +But Anthony answered for Monny. "Mademoiselle Gilder made a bargain +with me yesterday," he said. "If she failed in what <i>she</i> wanted to do, +she was to do what <i>I</i> wanted her to do. I think she will wish to keep +her bargain." +</p> +<p> +"I'm <i>sure</i> I wish to," added Monny. +</p> +<p> +With a chastened, not to say shattered air, she curled herself up on +the sheepskin-covered cushion which was the ugly Duckling's saddle. +This time it was "Antoun" who settled her into place, with her feet +meekly crossed; and the caricature of a camel rose like a sofa at a +spiritualistic séance. Strange to say, however, when all were ready to +start, Monny appeared more comfortably lodged than any of the +camel-riding ladies; and the thought entered my mind that perhaps Anthony +had, with extreme subtlety, taken this roundabout way of benefitting +Miss Gilder. +</p> +<p> +After this we got off with only a few minor mishaps. The one remaining +incident of note was the arrival on the scene, as we left it, of +another caravan—a small caravan consisting of two Europeans—a few +laden camels, and camel-boys marshalled by one dragoman. The dragoman +was Bedr el Gemály, and he smiled at us as affectionately as though we +had not driven him from us in disgrace. +</p> +<p> +"How forgiving Arabs are, even when they're not converted!" remarked +Rachel Guest, by whose side I happened to be riding. +</p> +<p> +"He isn't an Arab," said I. "He's an Armenian. And both are supposed to +be the reverse of forgiving. But he's found another job quickly, so he +can afford to let bygones be bygones." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, he would <i>anyway</i>!" Miss Guest exclaimed, warmly. "Poor fellow, +you've all done him a great injustice, but I'm thankful he's not going +to suffer for it. I wonder if he and his people are bound the same way +we are?" +</p> +<p> +I feared that this was likely to be the case, as we were going the +conventional round, sticking—as one might say—to suburban desert, on +our way to the Fayum. But, as Monny observed the other night, we +couldn't engage the desert like a private sitting-room. I would, +however, have preferred sharing it with most people rather than Bedr +and his clients, though the two latter looked singularly harmless, +almost Germanic. +</p> +<p> +We went on more or less happily, though I noticed that whenever a camel +changed its walk for a trot, each one of the ladies reached back a +desperate hand to clutch the saddle and save her spine from the +bruising bump! bump! which smote the bone with every step. As for me, +that feeling of middle age began to creep on while my coast-guard camel +and I were getting acquainted. I tried to distract my thoughts from the +end of my spine, by concentrating them in admiration upon the scene. +There was the Sphinx welcoming us with an immense smile of benevolence, +as suitable to the sunshine as had been her mysterious solemnity to the +moonlight. There, far away to the left, the spire-crowned Citadel +floated in translucent azure. Its domes and minarets, and the long +serrated line of the Mokattam Hills were carved against the sky in the +yellow-rose of pink topaz. Shafts of light gave to jagged shapes and +terraces of rock on the low mountains an appearance of temples and +palaces, very noble and splendid, as must have been the first glimpse +of Ancient Egypt to desert-worn fugitives from famine in Palestine. +Between us and the Nile, hiding the sparkling water as we rode, went a +dark line of palms, purple, with glints of peacock-feather green, in +the distance. Hundreds of tiny birds flew up into the burning blue like +a black spray, and the sand was patterned by their feet, in designs +intricate as lace. Wherever lay a patch of white and yellow flowers or +of rough grass no bigger than a prayer rug, a lark soared from its nest +singing its jewel-song; and here and there a gentle hoopoo reared the +crown which rewarded it for guiding lost King Solomon and his starving +army to safety. +</p> +<p> +All this was beautiful; but I wondered painfully if Monny could be +happy in spite of the bumps, now that the desert was taking her. +Strange, how a disagreeable sensation constantly repeated at the end of +a mere bone can change a man's outlook on life! If Monny had come to my +camel-side and whispered, "I found your buried letter, oh, Men-Kheper-Rã. +Behold that bird now flying toward you. It is my Ba—my Heart or +Soul-bird carrying the gift of my love:" I should with difficulty have +prevented myself from snapping out, "Thanks very much; but, my good +girl, I'm in no mood to talk tommy-rot." +</p> +<p> +It was sympathy, kind, friendly sympathy I yearned for, not spoken in +words, but given from soft, sweet eyes, as little Biddy had given it +when I tore my hands and barked my shins birds'-nesting on the rocks a +hundred years ago. +</p> +<p> +I think we should have liked the excuse to stop and gaze at the ruinous +Pyramids of Abusir; but the dragoman-guide supplied by Slaney urged us +on to the great plateau of the Pyramids and Necropolis of Sakkara. +There, on the terrace of Marriette's House, we saw a crowd of Cook's +tourists from Bedrachen, and I had some moments of guilty fear lest my +Secret should leak out, as their dragoman rushed down and warmly +greeted ours. But in the throes of rolling off their camels for the +first time, the ever-wakeful suspicions of the Set were submerged under +physical emotions. It's an ill camel that bumps no one any good! +</p> +<p> +I was only too glad to lure my charges away from danger-zone; and +luckily it was so early that the influential ones who never lunched +until two "at home," gave the word, "Tombs before food." Girding up its +aching loins, the procession allowed itself to be led by me and my +dragoman down inclined planes into dark, mysteriously warm passages +where our lights were wandering red stars. Now and then a face would +start suddenly out of the gloom, haloed with candle-light: and in this +way, Biddy's flashed upon me, starry-eyed. "Oh, I'm glad to see you!" +she whispered. Bedr and his two tourists are here. I'm afraid!" +</p> +<p> +"My dear child," I said soothingly, but not as soothingly as if I +hadn't had toothache in the spine, "you may be afraid of Bedr, but +hardly of two stout Germans in check suits." +</p> +<p> +"Not if they <i>are</i> Germans. But are they? Just now one of their candles +almost collided with mine, and his eyes stared so! Then they looked +over my head at Monny, who was behind me. And where she is now, heaven +knows!" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing can happen to either of you here," I assured her. "And +probably our fuss about Bedr is much ado about nothing. We have no +evidence—" +</p> +<p> +"The man who stared at me over his candle has a scar on his forehead," +said Biddy. "Maybe he got it in that row in front of the House of the +Crocodile. Maybe he is Burke, and has just come out of the hospital." +</p> +<p> +"Most likely he is Schmidt, and adorned himself with the wound in a +student duel," said I. +</p> +<p> +"It's too fresh-looking. He must be over thirty," she objected, but at +that moment Miss Hassett-Bean loomed into sight; and in the stuffy +atmosphere of the tomb felt the need of my arm to keep her from +fainting. +</p> +<p> +We "did" the Pyramid of Unas, dilapidated without, secretively +beautiful within. We went from tomb to tomb, lingering long in the +labyrinthine Mansion of Mereruka who, ruddy and large as life, stepped +hospitably down in statue-form from his stela recess, to welcome us in +the name of himself and wife. Almost he seemed to wave his hands and +say, "Look at these nice pictures of me and my family and our ways of +life, painted on the walls—our servants, our dwarfs, our mountebanks +and acrobats, our flocks and herds. Sorry there's no refreshment at +present on my alabaster mastaba, or table of offerings, but you see I +didn't prepare for visitors outside my own immediate circle of Ka's and +Ba's. Still, as you <i>have</i> come, make yourselves at home, and take pot +luck. I think when you've examined everything, you'll admit that you +haven't a Soul-House in Europe to touch mine which, if I do say it, is +the best thing this side of Thebes." +</p> +<p> +Next came the Tomb of Thi; but by this time, mural representations of +fish, flesh, and fruit began to be aggravating. It would be past two +before we could reach our luncheon-tent; and somehow it seemed less +desirable to feed after than before that sacred hour, though the custom +be sanctioned by royalty. "Another tomb to see before lunch?" groaned +Sir John Biddell, when the dragoman firmly insisted on the Apis +Mausoleum. "Oh, darn! <i>Need</i> we? What? Where they buried <i>Bulls</i>? I'd +as soon see a slaughter house, on an empty stomach. Lady Biddell and I +will go sit in the shadow of our camels." +</p> +<p> +And they did; nor would they believe the twins' assertions that the +dark Mausoleum, with its cavernous rock chambers and granite vaults, +was the most impressive thing they had seen in Egypt. "You say that to +be aggravating, because we weren't there," I heard Lady Biddell snap, +over the grumbling of the camels. +</p> +<p> +The sky blazed down and the sand blazed up. The desert was white-hot, +with a silver whiteness hotter than gold, and the foreshortened shadows +were turquoise blue. It was heaven to arrive at a miniature oasis, and +see the open-fronted, awninged luncheon-tent reflected with its green +frame of palms, in a clear lagoon, thoughtfully left by the receding +Nile. At sight of this picture, my popularity went up with a bound. It +really was a lovely vision: the big tent lined with Egyptian appliqué +work in many colors, the porchlike roof extension supported by poles, +and in its shadow a white table loaded with good things and guarded by +Arab waiters waving beaded fly-whisks. As we lingered over our +chicken-salad, fruit, and cool drinks, and lazily watched our camels +munching bersím, all our first enthusiasm for these interesting beasts +streamed back. The ladies called them poor dears, and sweet things; and +the men marvelled at their calm endurance, or the number of their +leg-joints. +</p> +<p> +Monny was gay and charming, and looked at me so kindly that I thought +she must mean to give a favorable answer to the buried letter. I +blessed Cleopatra for the "tip" she had given, though I wondered what +was the "humiliation" from which I could save her niece. "After all," +said I, "the desert trip's going to pan out a success." But it must +have been about this time that the wind rose. It blew Miss Hassett-Bean's +hat up instead of down, and other hats off, when we had started +again—and it blew into our eyes grains of sand as large as able bodied +paving-stones. Also, as we passed through a picturesque mud-village +which ought to have pleased everybody, it blew into our noses smells +which Lady Biddell knew would give us plague. As if this were not +enough, the sandcart nearly turned over in a rut, and Miss Hassett-Bean +said that she must go home or be left to die in the desert. I had to +lead the little stallion before she would consent to go on, and +realized when I had ploughed through fifty yards of sand, that the +manicured snob of a leader was a thin brown hero. By the time I had had +a mile or two of this, the dark Pyramids of Dahshur were visible, and I +knew that our camp was to be pitched not far beyond. My first emotion +was pleasure; my second, panic. +</p> +<p> +What if Slaney had forgotten his promise to remove the Cook labels? +</p> +<p> +Since remounting Farag (only the coastguard camels had names; the +baggage-beasts smelt as sweet without) Monny and I had been bumping +along side by side, and she had just said, "If I tell you something, +you'll never breathe it to a soul, will you?" when I saw those +Pyramids, and was smitten with the fear of Cook. +</p> +<p> +"Never!" I vowed, torn between the desire to hear her secret, and to +dash ahead of the caravan into camp. +</p> +<p> +"It's about 'Antoun,'" Monny went on. "You know I said to you the other +night, that perhaps I knew something about him?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes—er—oh, yes!" +</p> +<p> +We were within a few hundred yards of the Pyramids now. At any instant +the camp might burst into sight. +</p> +<p> +"You don't look interested!" +</p> +<p> +"But I am, awfully!" +</p> +<p> +"You're <i>sure</i> you won't tell?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Dead</i> sure." +</p> +<p> +(Was that a flag fluttering on the horizon?) +</p> +<p> +"Well, then—it isn't <i>my</i> business, of course. But one can't help +being interested in him, he's such a—such a romantic sort of figure, +as you said yourself. And there's something so high and noble about +him—I mean, about his looks and manners—that one hates to be +disappointed." +</p> +<p> +"You <i>would</i> have him with us, you know!" +</p> +<p> +"I know. And—and I'm glad I—we—<i>have</i> got him. It's a—it's an +experience. I suppose he's rather wonderful. But don't you think he +ought to remember that he isn't <i>exactly</i> a prince? He isn't even +called Bey. And if he were, its not the same as being a prince of +Ancient Egypt." +</p> +<p> +"In what way has he presumed on his—er—near—princehood?" +</p> +<p> +"I believe he has—fallen in love with Biddy!" +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! <i>Let</i> the flag flutter!" +</p> +<p> +"What flag?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh—er—that was only an expression. They use it where I live. Why +shouldn't he fall in love with Biddy, when you come to think of it?" +</p> +<p> +"He's of a darker race. Though—he does seem so like <i>us</i>. Of course +she couldn't marry him. It wouldn't do. <i>Would</i> it?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know. I must think it over. Is that all you were going to tell +me?" +</p> +<p> +"No. I suppose it's natural he should fall in love with Biddy. She's +<i>so</i> attractive! But the worst part about it is that he has <i>proposed</i> +to Aunt Clara." +</p> +<p> +"Not possible!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. He has. I saw part of the letter—the first part. She's the only +one of us who thinks it would be right to marry a man of Egyptian +blood, because you know she believes she's Egyptian herself—and she's +always talking about reincarnations. <i>I</i> don't see that It's such a +wonderful coincidence his name being 'Antoun.' It wouldn't be so bad if +he were in love with her; but it's Biddy who is always right in +everything she says and does, according to him—just as I am always +wrong. Aunt Clara is richer than Biddy. I can't bear to fancy that's +why he has proposed; it would take away all the romance" +</p> +<p> +"Don't strip him of his romance yet," said I, again torn between +interest in Monny's incredible statement, and excitement which grew +with the growing in size of those flags on the horizon. "You may wrong +him. If you saw only the <i>first</i> part of the letter—" +</p> +<p> +"There could be no mistake. It was in hieroglyphics, and who but +'Antoun' would have written such a letter to Aunt Clara? She asked me +to translate it, the night she dug it up at Fustât—" +</p> +<p> +"Dug—" +</p> +<p> +"And when I'd read as far as, 'Beautiful Queen, Star of my Heart, be my +wife,' she snatched the paper away, and put it inside her dress, saying +she'd look up the rest in one of my books." +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens! You must have changed places at Fustât. That letter +couldn't have been for her!" +</p> +<p> +"It couldn't have been for any one else. 'Beautiful Queen' meant Queen +Cleopatra. She said so herself. I don't know what she's going to do +about it." +</p> +<p> +"Do about it?" I echoed desperately. "Why—" and just then my straining +eyes saw that on the middle flag in the fluttering row were four large +red letters on a white ground. Slaney had betrayed me! Everything +depended on getting that flag down before those letters declared +themselves to other eyes. "Excuse me," I finished my sentence with a +gasp. +</p> +<p> +Monny must have gasped also, as she saw me suddenly dash away from her +at full speed of one-camel power. But I had no time to think about what +she might think. I suppose I must have done something to the steering-gear +of that camel, which coastguard camels do not permit. Whatever it +was, it got me into the midst of camp before I could draw breath; but I +have a dim recollection of being caught by Arab arms, and seeing +suppressed Arab grins, as mechanically I felt to see how far the end of +my spine stuck out at the top of my head. +</p> +<p> +"That flag! Pull it down!" was my first gasp, pointing convulsively to +the banner which shrieked, "Cook!" "Quick—before they come!" +</p> +<p> +Dazed by my vehemence, several Arabs scuttled to obey the order, but +there were too many of them. Each hindered his neighbour, and as I +danced about, making matters worse, out pounced our withered chêf from +the kitchen-tent. +</p> +<p> +"It was <i>he</i> brought that flag, wrapped round something," explained one +of the men, in Arabic. "When he saw we had other flags, but none of +Cook, he gave it to us to put over the biggest tent, because he thought +it shameful to have no flag of the master's." +</p> +<p> +"Cook isn't the master. I'm it," I burbled, with a leap to catch the +tell-tale square of white as it reluctantly came down. But I was too +late. Sir John Biddell and Harry Snell, the newspaper man, came +gallumping up on their camels before I could stuff the flag into my +pocket. +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter?" they asked, as their animals squatted to let them +down. "Were you run away with? What are you so mad about? Hullo! What +flag's that—C-O-O-K!" +</p> +<p> +"It should be over the kitchen-tent," I heard myself explaining. "Don't +you see? C-O-O-K! It's the cook's special flag. He brought it himself, +but these chaps went and flew it over the dining-tent in place of the +Union Jack. That's why he and I are mad." +</p> +<p> +And I thanked all the stars on Monny's tent flag that none of the Set +understood Arabic. +</p> +<p> +After this, how could I hope to explain to Monny that the hieroglyphic +proposal was mine, and that she, not Cleopatra, ought to have dug it +up? She isn't a girl used to having men run away from her, on camelback +or anything else—so naturally she thought me a rude beast, and showed +it. Besides, even if I'd dared, I should have had no chance to +straighten matters out; for though the flag-episode was after all no +fault of Slaney's, there were a few little things which had escaped +even his Napoleonic memory; and it was only by combining the feats of +an acrobat with those of a juggler that I saved my reputation during +the next half hour. +</p> +<p> +No sight could have been more beautiful in our eyes than that village +of white tents in the waste of yellow sand. Our wildest imaginings +could have pictured nothing more perfect, more peaceful. +</p> +<p> +Tea was ready, in the huge dining-tent, where folding chairs were +grouped round a white-covered table. The floor of sand was hidden with +thick, bright-coloured rugs, and it was finding "T. C. and Son" on the +wrong side of one which Miss Hassett-Bean's foot turned up, that filled +me with renewed alarms. Hastily I laid the rug straight, placed a chair +upon it, and persuaded everybody to have tea before inspecting their +bedroom tents. While they drank draughts and dabbed jam on an Egyptian +conception of scones, I hurried like a haggard ghost from tent to tent, +seeking the forbidden thing. Cook on the backs of the little mirrors +hanging from the pole hooks!... Will it wash off?... No! Cut it out +with a penknife! Down on your knees and tear off the label from the +wrong side of another carpet! (Memo: Must do the one in the dining-tent +when the people are asleep for the night.) Cram three Cook towels into +my pockets. Hastily pin a handkerchief over the name on a white bit of +a tent wall. Must have it cut out, and patched with something, later. +Shall have to pay damages when I settle up with Slaney. Lady Macbeth +wasn't in it with me! All she needed was a little water. I have to have +pins and penknives and pockets all over the place. +</p> +<p> +I didn't get any tea. But that was a detail. And everybody was so +delighted with everything that my spirits rose, despite a snub or two +from Monny—for which Biddy tried to make up. People took desert +strolls, or sat on dunes, and gazed into the sunset which couldn't have +been better if I had turned it on myself. Along the western horizon ran +a pale flame of green blending with rose, rose blending with amethyst, +and in the distance the Pyramids of Dahshur burned with the red of +pigeon-blood rubies. +</p> +<p> +The wind had died among the desert dunes, and it was not till after +dinner that any one realized the arctic fall of temperature. It was too +cold to enjoy playing bridge or any of the games I had brought; and the +only hope of comfort was in bed. People said good night to each other +in the comparatively warm dining-tent, and then gave surprised shrieks +or grunts (according to sex) at the piercing cold. Several of the elder +ladies fell over ten-tropes, despite the large lanterns illuminating +the desert, and had to be escorted to their bedroom tents, and soothed. +After this, silence reigned for a few minutes, and I had stealthily +begun to work on the biggest rug-label, when arose a clamour of voices +and presently appeared the dragoman lent by Slaney. +</p> +<p> +"Eight ladies wishing hot-water bottles," he explained. +</p> +<p> +But there were no hot-water bottles. We had thought of everything, it +seemed, except hot-water bottles. +</p> +<p> +"I tell them very sorry but can't have?" Yusef suggested, looking +pleased. +</p> +<p> +"Let me think!" I groaned. "What about the mineral water bottles we +emptied at lunch and dinner? Let the cook boil water, and we'll supply +the bottles." +</p> +<p> +This was done; and I was proud of the inspiration, with the pride that +comes before a fall. When I began to write, in my bedroom tent, wrapped +in all the blankets of the bed that should be Anthony's, I had the +place to myself. But about midnight a head was unexpectedly thrust +through the door-flap. It looked ghostly in the haze of colour made by +the gorgeous appliqué work of high roof and octagon walls, which gave +an effect of sitting at the bottom of a giant kaleidoscope. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that?" I hissed, in a whisper meant to be discreet, but which +roused a camel or two in the ring outside the tents. +</p> +<p> +"Biddell—Sir John Biddell," replied the head. "I saw your light, and +remembered you had your tent to yourself to-night. Those hot-water +bottles have been leaking. There's one at least gone wrong in most of +the ladies' tents. The married men have given their beds to girls who +are drowned out. 'Twas <i>your</i> idea about those bottles, wasn't it? I +expect you'll hear from it in the morning! Three of us want to come and +camp in here with you." +</p> +<p> +"All right," I sighed, with a sinking heart. "I <i>like</i> sitting up, and +you can toss for the cots." +</p> +<hr> +<p> +At this moment Sir John Biddell reposes in one of them, General Harlow +in the other. These gentlemen were so affected with the cold that they +went to bed in their clothes, then got up to put on their overcoats, +then got up again and put on their hats. On the floor lies a certain +Mills of Manchester, rolled in all the rugs, except one which I have +on, after surrendering my blankets. He has his head in a basket, to +keep off the icy draught; and in the ruggy region of his spine, as he +rests on his side, are the letters C-O-O-K. I wonder if I could rip +them off without waking him up? +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH15"><!-- CH15 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE DESERT DIARY TO ITS BITTER END +</p> +<p> +<i>Tuesday</i>: The principal water-cask has leaked; consequently not enough +water to go round. Chêf said it was a question of baths, or soup. +Considering the cold, most of the people voted for soup. Some washed in +Apollinaris. Others douched with soda siphons. We can get more water +to-night. Can't think why the north wind doesn't stop and warm itself +while traversing the Mediterranean or the hot sands! It seems to be in +too fierce a hurry and consequently cuts across the desert, like a +frozen scythe, the moment its rival the sun has gone to sleep. I hear +that Miss Hassett-Bean cried with cold as she dressed, and put on two +of everything; but she is luckier than the younger women. Monny and +Mrs. East, though warned that nights would be chill, have come clothed +in silk and gossamer, and have brought low-necked nightgowns of +nainsook trimmed with lace. This was confided to me soon after sunrise +by a blue-nosed Biddy, hovering over the kitchen fire and +—incidentally—ingratiating herself with the cook. It wouldn't be Biddy +if she weren't ingratiating herself with some one! +</p> +<p> +Nobody yearned to get up early (I speak for others, as <i>I</i> passed my +night in the attitude of a suspension bridge between two folding +chairs); but in camp where sleep is concerned, men may propose, camels +dispose. +</p> +<p> +Their nights they spend in a ring of camelhood, huddled together for +warmth; and if they do not have nightmare or bite each other in their +sleep, mere humans in neighbouring tents may hope for comparative +silence in the desert, if not near a village full of pi-dogs. At +sunrise, however, a change comes o'er their spirit. They are given +food, and made as happy and contented as it is their nature to be, +which apparently is not saying much. Judging by the strange, +inarticulate oaths they constantly mutter, they are equally accursed in +their sitting down and their getting up. It is only when they are +actually "on the move," floating and swaying through the air—legs, +tail, neck, jaws—that they have nothing disagreeable to say. +Immediately after dawn this morning, our camels began to imitate every +animal they could have met since the days of the Ark, when one had to +know everybody. They mewed like cats, hissed like snakes, bleated like +sheep, roared like toy lions, grunted like pigs, barked like dogs, +squawked like geese, and bellowed like baby bulls. Also they gargled +their throats like elderly invalids. It was useless trying to sleep; +and when I had accomplished such bathing as the chêf permitted, I went +out to see what was the matter. Nothing was the matter, except that the +creatures had the sunrise in their eyes, and could see the camel-boys +preparing their loads; but I was glad I had come out, because Biddy was +there and the scene was beautiful. Shivering, we chuckled over the +morning toilet of the camels, who turned their faces disconcertingly +upon us, sneering with long yellow teeth, and bubbling as if their +mouths were full of pink soapsuds, when they realized that we were +laughing at them. +</p> +<p> +Incidentally we learned why the Baby Sphinx accompanied our caravan +uninvited. His name is Salih; and he came because there's a very +important camel (the property of his father) who refuses to eat or stir +without him. It is a most original and elaborate camel. It has a neat +way of turning its ears with their backs to the wind, in order to make +them sand-proof. If any person other than Salih touches it, an +incredible quantity of green cud is instantly let loose over their +turbans; but at the approach of Salih it emits a purring noise, preens +its head for the nose-strap ornamented with a bunch of palmlike plumes, +and playfully pretends not to want the bersím which the little black +Sphinx thrusts down its throat in handfuls. This, it seems, is good +camel table-manners. And it is to the tail of this animal that Salih +clings on the march. If he is not there, the animal looks round, stops, +or turns to charge at any Arab who jestingly misuses its idol. +</p> +<p> +Yesterday the miniature Sphinx was in a white robe. To-day he is in +black. All the Arabs have changed their clothes, although they have +brought no visible luggage except vague pieces of sacking. The dragoman +is exquisitely arrayed, galabeah and kaftan gray-blue, with a pink +petticoat, and a white one under that. I suspect that he sleeps beneath +the dining-table—and the other Arabs among the kitchen pots—yet they +are smarter than any of us Europeans, all of whom have a frayed air. +This, I suppose, would not be so in desert-fiction. Nothing would be +said about hot-water bottles leaking, or beetles beetling (one doesn't +come to Egypt to see live scarabs), or draughts raging, or camels +gobbling, or flags flapping all night. (Memo: Abolish flags, even at +expense of patriotism.) +</p> +<p> +Despite every desert drawback, however, Biddy and I agreed that the +sunrise alone was worth the journey, and the pure air of dawn which, +though cold, seemed perfumed by mysterious rose-fields. Just at sun-up +the desert was lily pale—then, as the horizon flamed, a dazzling flood +of gold poured over the dunes. The sun was a fantastic brooch of beaten +copper, caught in a veil of ruby gauze, while here and there a belated +star was a dull, flawed emerald sewn into the veil's fringe. Shadows +swept westward across the desert like blue water, showing a glitter of +drowned jewels underneath; and though last night it had seemed that we +were alone in a vast wilderness, now there were signs that a village +lay not far off. A group of children in red and blue, staring avidly at +the camp, were like a bunch of ragged poppies in the sand. Their mangy +pi-dogs had ventured nearer, to smell sadly at the meat-safes hanging +outside our kitchen-tent. A gypsy-woman with splendid eyes and a blue +tattooed chin, breakfasted on an adjacent dune with her husband. Men +like living hencoops passed in the distance. Patriarchal persons blew +by, in that graceful way in which people do blow in Egypt, driving a +flock of sheep, with a black lamb "for luck." These men were dressed as +their ancestors had dressed in the time of Abraham, and Biddy and I +envied them. How nice, said she, to wear the same clothes for a hundred +years if you happened to live, and never be out of fashion. If a few of +your things dropped off by degrees, you were still all right, and +nobody would be rude enough to notice! +</p> +<p> +Our faded family revived after breakfast, and even those who vowed they +hadn't closed an eye all night enjoyed the scene of striking camp. The +big white tents fell to the ground like pricked soap-bubbles; whereupon +their remains were deftly rolled up and tied on to the backs of +bitterly protesting camels. Beds, mattresses, tables, chairs ceased to +be what they had been and became something else. Camels made faces and +noises. Arabs tore this way and that, doing as little work as possible. +The cook fluttered about in his blanket, brandishing a saucepan. Yusef +the dragoman made noble gestures of command, and our little desert city +ceased to exist except on camels' backs. It was shaved off the surface +of the earth, and went churning and swaying along toward the next +stand; the procession rising and falling among swelling dunes, under a +sky which seemed to trail like a heavy blue curtain, where at the +horizon it met the gold. +</p> +<p> +We travelled over pebbly plateaus, scattered with jewel-like stones. +Sand-pyramids rose out of the glistening plain. Here and there were +rocks like partly hewn sphinxes pushing out of the sand to breathe; +other rocks like monstrous toads; and still others dark and dreadful in +the distance as ogres' houses. Altogether the desert gave us a truly +Libyan effect, which made the Set feel that after all they were getting +what they had paid for, with an introduction to a beauty and heiress +thrown in. But apropos of this latter boon, it is dawning upon me that +Rachel Guest is receiving more attention than Monny. This strikes me as +inexplicable. There are more men than women in our party, all young +except Sir John Biddell, General Harlow, and Mills of Manchester, a +soft, fat sort of fellow whose first name you can never remember. It +occurred to me on starting, that the desire of so many unattached young +men to spend a week in the desert and the Fayoum, might not be +unconnected with Miss Gilder's intention to join the party. Not being +jealous, I expected to see a little fun, and laugh over it with Biddy, +who is a heavenly person with whom to share a joke. But if there is a +joke, I haven't seen the point yet, nor has she. There's no disputing +the fact that Miss Guest, the poor, brave school teacher on holiday, is +the belle of the desert. +</p> +<p> +Of course, if Monny had stopped in Cairo, Rachel's success with our men +wouldn't be astonishing. As Brigit and Monny warned me in their letters +to the <i>Candace</i>, she grows better looking every day; but though she is +distinctly of Monny's type, despite those slanting eyes, she will never +be a real beauty, or a Complete Fascinator, like our Gilded Girl. +Besides, Monny has millions, and Rachel hasn't a cent. Yet there it is! +Miss Guest is having the "time of her life" in spite of leaky water +bottles and bumping camels, while Miss Gilder might be an old married +woman, for all the attention she gets from any man on this trip except +me. What can be the explanation? Even those two exaggerately +German-looking men with Bedr stared at Rachel from their respectful +distance. It turns out that they camped not far from us last night. +Yusef heard this from one of our camel-boys. But they kept to themselves, +and didn't come within a mile of us, so there's nothing to complain of. +Every one except Sir John delighted with to-day's desert. He can't see +anything beautiful in yellow lumps that keep you sawing up and down, +though he has no doubt the desert is full of other fools doing what +we're doing; and we could all see each other doing it if it weren't for +those darn dunes. +</p> +<p> +<i>Later</i>: Adventure for sandcart on one of the biggest plateaus. Looked +all right from the top; but a shriek from Mrs. East put me to the dire +necessity of sliding off Farag and running to the rescue. The plateau +was broken off in front and became a precipice which, Cleopatra seemed +to think, would not have existed had "Antoun" arrived in tune to +arrange it. +</p> +<p> +Great wind came roaring up again about noon. Feared to learn that it +had been impossible to get luncheon-tent in position. But when the time +came to find it, there it was with its back to the blast, and its shady +open front, of tile-patterned appliqué, offering the hoped-for picture +of white table and smiling brown waiters. +</p> +<p> +While we lunched, the fierce gusts striking the back canvas wall were +like the frightened flappings of giant wings, and the beating of a +great bird's heart. Otherwise we might have forgotten the elements as +we ate, save for a slight powdering of sand on our food. But even that +wasn't bad, if we selected only the port side of our bread and chicken, +leaving windward bits to the Arabs. +</p> +<p> +Our night camp was in shelter of the two vast dunes which hide the +ancient city of Bacchias, now called Um-el-Atl, where we found "Antoun" +awaiting us. He had started from Cairo in the morning on a coastguard +camel, coming quickly along the camel route between Bedrashen and +Tomieh, and the extra few miles to our encampment. Before we arrived he +had sent the camel back with the mounted Arab who accompanied him; and +somehow the camp seemed all the smarter and more ship-shape for the +presence of the handsome Hadji, in his green turban. The Set are all +extremely interested in him; and on hearing my version of his history, +sketchily told, have taken to calling him "the prince." Enid and Elaine +almost fawn upon him, in their admiration of so romantic and splendid +an addition to our party: a real, live Egyptian gentleman, with enough +European blood in his veins to justify nice-minded maidens in +cherishing a hopeless love for him, when he has safely vanished out of +their lives. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East made Anthony pick up pre-historic oyster shells in the +desert, between flaming sunset and twilight, when the sky became a vast +blue tent hung with a million lamps. And at dinner she was not nice to +Enid and Elaine who admired her hero too frankly. She has developed an +embarrassing clearness of vision as to other people's former +incarnations, especially their disagreeable or shocking ones. "Ah, it +has <i>just</i> come to me!" she exclaimed, her elbows on the table, looking +dreamily into Elaine Biddell's face. "You were <i>Xantippe</i>. I knew I'd +seen you somewhere." +</p> +<p> +As for Enid, it seems that she was Charmian or Iris, Cleopatra can't be +sure which; but the girl has come to me saying that, if Mrs. East +doesn't stop calling her "My dear handmaiden," one or the other of them +will have to give up starting on the Nile trip next week. +</p> +<p> +<i>Wednesday</i>: We had lobster á la Newburgh for dinner, in mid-Libyan +desert, and drank the chêf's health in champagne. I don't know which +was to blame, or whether it was the combination; but in the windy +middle of the night when tent flaps stirred like a nestful of young +birds, there were demands for ginger and for peppermint. Now, ginger +and peppermint happened to be the only two medicaments in the whole +pharmacopoeia left out of the medicine chest. But nothing else would +do. The more the things weren't there, the more they were wanted; and +all the people who had made notes to remember me in their wills, +scratched me out again. Then, to pile Ossa on Pelion, the dogs of +Tomieh arrived to pay a visit. They barked, of course; but they barked +so much that the noise was like a silence, and nobody minded after the +first half hour. The worst was, that they did not confine their +demonstrations to barking. In order to signify their disapproval of our +stingy ways, they took the boots we had confided to the sand in front +of our tents to be cleaned, and worried them at a considerable +distance. Some of the boots were past wearing when found, and some were +not found. Judging from cold glances directed at me by those obliged to +resort to pumps or bedroom slippers, one would imagine me the trainer +of this canine menagerie. It has been hinted, too, that a conductor +worth his salt would have filled up interstices of the medicine chest +with toothbrushes. Several members of the party forgot to pack theirs +in moving camp and they are now the property of jackals. A stock of +toothbrushes is the one other thing besides peppermint and ginger and +hot-water bottles that Slaney and I left out of our calculations; +still, I do think bygones ought to be bygones. Anthony is the hero now, +because it occurred to him to buy in Cairo flannelette nightwear, male +and female, of the thickest and most hideously pink description. Had +these horrors been suggested at the start, they would have been +rejected with fury, in favour of lace and nainsook; but the +contribution has made a <i>success fou</i>, at a crisis when vanity has been +forgotten, and the girls are employing their prettiest frocks as bed +covering. +</p> +<p> +<i>Another Day:</i> Have now forgotten which, or how many we've had. This is +Anthony's hour—but he may take such advantage of it as he chooses—I'm +indifferent. On top of my troubles I've contracted Desert Snivels. +Whether the habit of using sand for snuff has produced the malady, or +whether I've caught something (despite the tonic air) from nomads or +oasis-dwellers, all of whom emit a storm of coughs and sneezes, I do +not know. All desire to use this grand opportunity of taking +Cleopatra's advice and winning Monny's love while for once she's +neglected by others, has died within me. My one wish is to keep away +from her and the rest, except perhaps Biddy, and suffer alone, like a +cat. Biddy has got Desert Snivels, too. It makes another link between +us, like the memories of our childhood. We swop stories of symptoms. +Both feel that sense of terrible resignation which desert babies have +when their eyes are full of flies and no one takes them out. +</p> +<p> +The sky lowers. Big black birds flap over our heads like pirate flags +that have blown away. They are the vultures which used to be sacred to +Egyptians, and seem to labour under the delusion that they are sacred +still. The sand blows into our back hair, and the Arabs make scarves +and veils of their turbans. Apparently these Moslems never say any +prayers, and the <i>Candace</i> people feel they've been cheated of a +promised sensation of desert life. The only religious thing the men do +is to bawl "Allah!" when they lift the heavy, rolled up tents onto the +camels. +</p> +<p> +People are beginning to grumble about their meals, which at first +seemed to them miracles of culinary art. "Same old desert things we've +been eating ever since Moses," I heard Harry Snell mutter. And Sir John +Biddell is sick of h. b. eggs. I suppose he means hard-boiled. I should +like to feed him on soft-shell scarabs! +</p> +<p> +Tea is the only incident in the desert which has palled on no one yet. +Very jolly, having finished the day's exertion, and sitting on folding +chairs inside tent door, teacup in hand, watching the winged shadows +sweep across the dunes! One feels like Jacob or Rebecca or some one. +There may be a fine saint's tomb standing up, marble-white, against the +rose-garden of a sunset sky, but one doesn't bother to walk out and +examine it at close quarters. There's nothing like sitting still after +a windy day on camel back. +</p> +<p> +We lack interest in history ancient and modern, although Egypt is the +country which ought to make one want to know all other history. There +may be a European war or an earthquake. We don't care what happens to +any one but ourselves. It is all we can do to keep track of our own +affairs. As for ancient history, we content ourselves with wondering if +Anthony and Cleopatra, when picnicking in the desert, dropped orange +peel and cake to feed the living scarabs of their day. +</p> +<p> +We seem to be lost to the world, yet now and then we're reminded that +we have neighbours in the desert. We've had glimpses of a distant +caravan which must be Bedr's; and when we came in sight of our own camp +last evening, we were just in time to catch a party of Germans being +photographed in front of it, with our things for an unpaid background. +Ever beauteous picture, by the by, your own encampment! White tents +blossoming like snowy flowers in a wilderness; a dense black cloud, +massed near by on the golden sand, which might in the distance be a +plantation of young palms, but is in reality a congested mass of +camels. You sing at the top of your voice "From the desert I come to +thee, on a stallion shod with fire!" hoping to thrill the girls. But +they are thinking about their tea. Girls in the desert, I find, are +always thinking about their tea, or their dinner, or their beds. You +would like (when your Desert Snivels improve) to walk with a maiden +under the stars; but no, she is sleepy! She wants to get to bed early. +Even the camels are most particular about their bed hours. It would be +irritating, if you didn't secretly feel the same yourself. But what a +waste of stars! +</p> +<p> +<i>Some old Day or Other:</i> Interesting but dusty dyke road into the +Fayoum oasis. Every one enraged with Robert Hichens because "Bella +Donna's" Nigel recommended The Fayoum. "No wonder she poisoned him!" +snarled Mrs. Harlow. Our Arabs riding ahead look magnificent, seeming +to wade through a flood of gold, the feet and legs of their camels +floating in a rose-pink mist. But alas, the flood of gold and the +rose-pink mist are composed of dust—that reddish dust in which presumably +the boasted Fayoum roses grow; and it blows into our noses. This upsets +our tempers, and prevents our enjoying the pictures we see in the +sudden transition from desert to oasis. Biblical patriarchs on white +asses, disputing the high, narrow "gisr" or dyke road; women with huge +gold nose rings; running processions of girls, in blowing coral and +copper robes, large ornamental jars on their veiled heads, thin +trailing black scarves and slim figures dark against a sky of gold. +Blue-eyed water-buffaloes—gamoushas—and exaggerated brown-gray +calves, with wide-open, boxlike ears in which you feel you ought to +post something. Canals stretching away through emerald fields to +distant palm groves; here and there a miniature cataract; children +playing in the water, imps whose red and amber rags ring out high notes +of colour like the clash of cymbals; now and then a jerboa or a +mongoose waddling across the path; travelling families on trotting +donkeys or swinging camels who pass us with difficulty. Camels +everywhere, indeed, on dyke or in meadow; even the clouds are shaped +like camels who have gone to heaven and turned to mother o' pearl. +There are horses, too; not little sand stallions like ours, but +ordinary, plodding animals whose hoofs know only Fayoum dust or mud. +Our desert creature, however, does not spurn them. On the contrary, +though he pretends not to notice camels, cows, or buffaloes, he +whinnies and prances with delight when he meets anything of his own +shape, and assumes hobby-horse attitudes, much to the alarm of +Cleopatra and Miss Hassett-Bean. Also, just to remind everybody that +sand is his element, he shies at water, and almost swoons at sight of +the Fayoum light railway. +</p> +<p> +Much wind again. But thank goodness out of Fayoum dust, and in desert +sand for lunch! Prop up tent with our backs, leaning against the blast. +However, we have now a special clothes-brush for the bread, and a +moderately clean bandanna for the fruit. Plates, we blow upon without a +qualm. Scarabei gambolling in the sand around our feet we pass +unnoticed. This is the simple desert life! +</p> +<p> +But ah, what an encampment for the night! It makes up for everything, +and a sudden realization of abounding health is tingling in our veins. +We adore the desert. We want to spend our lives in it. Thank goodness +we have two nights here, on the golden shore of the blue Birket Karun, +all that's left of Lake Moeris of which Strabo and Herodotus raved. +From the dune-sheltered plateau where our white tents cluster, the +glitter of water in the desert is like a mirage: a mysterious, +melancholy sheet of steel and silver turning to ruby in the sunset, +with dark birds skimming over the clear surface. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the Bible seems as exciting as some wonderful novel. Not far +from here ran Joseph's river, making the desert to blossom like the +rose. In tents like ours, perhaps, Abraham rested with Sarah, planning +how to save himself by giving her to the Egyptian king. To see this +lake is like seeing a bright, living eye suddenly open in the face of a +mummy, dead for six thousand years! +</p> +<p> +Our best sunset; romance but slightly damaged by an Arab waiter +wrapping up his head in a towel with which he had just dried our +teacups and no doubt will again. +</p> +<p> +<i>Another Day:</i> (Merely slavish to look it out in the calendar, and +besides there is none.) All I know is, we've had two on the shore of +Birket Kurun (I spell it a different way now, because no books ever +spell anything in Egypt twice alike), "The Lake of the Horns"; and +we've been on the water in some very old boats, in order to see things +which may have existed once, but don't now; and at present we're +encamped near Medinet-el-Fayoum, a kind of lesser Cairo: originally +named Medinet-el Fâris, City of the Horseman, because of a Roman +equestrian statue found in the neighbouring mounds of "Crocodilopolis." +We have just arrived, hot and dusty, with more dust of more Fayoum than +we had before Lake Moeris. "Fayoum" means Country of the Lake it seems; +and it really is a great emerald cup sunk below the level of the Nile +—as if to dip up water for its roses. +</p> +<p> +However, the Set is happy despite the state of its clothes and its +hair. None of us quite realized what the Fallahcen were really like +before, or that the word Fellal meant "ploughman." This has been +market-day, and we met an endless stream of riding men, and walking +women with black trailing garments. They had bought sheep, and goats, +and rabbits, and quantities of rustling, pale green sugar cane, which +they carried on their shoulders. +</p> +<p> +There were wild adventures for the sandcart, and watery spaces across +which Cleopatra was carried (at her own urgent request) by Anthony; +Miss Hassett-Bean by me and the strongest Arab. There were the +wonderfully picturesque squalid mud towns of Senoures and two or three +others, honey-yellow in a green mist of palms, against an indigo sky +with streaks of sunshine like bright bayonets of Djinns. And then +Medinet, through which our caravan had to pass <i>en route</i> to camp, much +to the ribald joy of smart, silk-robed Egyptian "undergrads" who +strolled hand in hand along the broad streets near the University. They +were big, fantastic houses to suit modern Oriental taste, painted pink +and green, and set in shady gardens. And between high brick embankments +we saw the river Joseph made—swiftly running, deep golden yellow like +the Nile, with ancient water-wheels pouring crystal jets into enormous +troughs. +</p> +<p> +This was our most fatiguing day, and we wanted our last encampment to +be the best. We found the worst: a suburban meadow inhabited by goats +and buffaloes. "Can't we move somewhere else?" Cleopatra besought +Anthony, to whom she appeals when he's within appealing distance. +"Isn't this tour for our <i>pleasure</i>, and can't we do what we <i>like</i>?" +</p> +<p> +Anthony absolved the camp-makers, explaining that we must be near the +town in order to get carriages and see the sights we had come to see. +Also our water supply had given out, and we must beg some from the +"government people." He hinted that it would be well to make the best +of things; but Cleopatra, with her royal memories, is not good at +making the best of what she doesn't like. She wants what she wants, +especially in her own Egypt, where things ought to know that they once +belonged to her. Miss Hassett-Bean is quite as <i>exigeante</i>, in a +different way, more Biblical, less pagan. Her criticism on the +encampment was that it, and all her oasis experiences, are destroying +her faith in hymns. "By cool Siloam's Shady Rill," for instance, used +to be her favourite, but she doesn't believe now that Siloam ever had a +rill. +</p> +<p> +<i>Later: 11 p. m</i>. Fallahcen and Fellahah (doesn't sound female, but is) +pretended to have things to do on the frontier of their field and ours, +as we were settling in, and stared unblinkingly at us, whenever we +stuck a nose outside a tent. Also they laughed. Also they brought their +dogs. But they couldn't spoil the sunset, and Medinet was a colourful +picture of the Orient, towering against the crimson west. I took Monny +and Biddy into the town to see the bridge and dilapidated Mosque of +Kait Bey, with its pillars stolen from Arsinoë. Anthony took Cleopatra, +and most of the other unmarried men took Rachel Guest. When Brigit +remarked rather sharply upon the ex-school teacher's popularity, Monny +laughed an odd, understanding little laugh. "I believe you think you +know <i>why</i> they're all so mad about that girl!" exclaimed Biddy. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps I do," smiled Miss Gilder. +</p> +<p> +"<i>What</i> is her fascination?" +</p> +<p> +"Bedr could have told you," Monny cryptically replied. "He told several +people." +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean, child? I'm eating my heart out to know!" +</p> +<p> +"Don't eat it, dearest. You can't eat your heart and have it, too. And +it's your most important possession." +</p> +<p> +"I wish you wouldn't tease me when I'm tired. Is it part of the secret +you and Rachel were always giggling over, when we first got to Cairo?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, dear, it is, if you must know. But I don't want to tell even you +what the secret is, please! You might think it your duty to spoil +Rachel's fun, and she and I are both enjoying it <i>so</i> much." +</p> +<p> +"Can you guess what she means, Duffer?" Biddy appealed to me. "You know +I wrote you that Monny and Miss Guest had a secret. I thought afterward +it might have been only their plan to see the hasheesh den; but since +then I've realized it was something else." +</p> +<p> +"Even if I could guess, ought I to give Miss Gilder away, when she has +just told you she doesn't want you to know?" I asked innocently. +</p> +<p> +They both turned on me in a flash. (I expected that.) "<i>Do</i> you guess?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't see, if I do, why I shouldn't have <i>my</i> little secret," I +mildly replied. I knew that, after this, Monny would give me a good +deal of her society, even though she might not have forgiven me for +bolting to haul down the Cook ensign, in the midst of her confidences. +But in truth I have not guessed the secret! My wits go wheeling round +it, like screaming swallows who see a crumb. I get a glimpse of the +crumb, and lose it again. In my present mood I almost regret that Bedr +and his supposed Germans have not dumped themselves down in our field. +It would have been like them to do so, judging by the aggressive checks +on those mustard tweeds; but as a matter of fact the party has +disappeared from view since just before Birket Karun. They may have +turned back to Cairo; they may have been swallowed up by a palsied sand +dune; they may have been eaten by jackals (we saw a dead one), or they +may have taken to the fleshpots of a Greek hotel in Medinet; but the +fact remains that, just when he might be useful, Bedr is not to be had. +</p> +<p> +In our tent to-night, I took advantage of our friendship to try and +draw Fenton out a little on the subject of his feelings. It seemed the +right hour to open the door of the soul. The Fallaheen having taken +their families home, our tent-flaps were up, and only the stars looked +in—stars swarming like fireflies in the blue cup of a hanging flower; +but Anthony would speak of nothing more intimate than the Mountain of +the Golden Pyramid, or his tiresome sheikh's tomb. I yearned to tell +him of the <i>contretemps</i> about the hieroglyphic letter, but something +stopped the confession on the end of my tongue, though perhaps in the +circumstances, I owed it to Mrs. East. If he had mentioned her name the +story might have come out; but the one drop of Eastern blood which +mingles with a hundred of the West in Anthony's veins makes him +singularly reserved, aggravatingly reticent where women are concerned. +I used to think that this was because he was not interested in them. +But something—I can't explain what, unless it's instinct—tells me +that this is no longer the case. Another interest has come into his +life, rivalling his soldier interest, and the secret hope buried deep +in our Mountain. I see it in his eyes. I hear it in the <i>timbre</i> of his +voice. It means Woman. But what woman? Is Monny right? Is he falling +seriously in love for the first time in his strenuous life with Biddy, +whom he picked out for admiration the moment he set eyes on her? Or is +it Monny herself? I must be a dog in the manger, because I don't like +the idea of its being either. +</p> +<p> +He is asleep on the other side of the tent as I write. Desert dogs do +not disturb him. He's great on concentrating his mind, and when he goes +to sleep he concentrates on that. +</p> +<p> +I wish he'd talk in his sleep! But even in unconsciousness, he is +discreet as a statue. +</p> +<p> +<i>The Last Day. Evening:</i> I am in disgrace, and am left alone to bear +it, so I may as well finish my Desert Diary. It's all an account of a +lamb, just an ordinary, modern lamb you might meet anywhere. But I +mustn't begin with that, though it haunts me. In spirit it's here in +the tent, sitting at my feet, staring up into my face. Avaunt, lamb! +Thy blood is not on <i>my</i> head. Go to those who deserve thee. I wish to +write of Crocodilopolis. Shetet, the city was called in the beginning +of things; Shetet, or the "Reclaimed," for the Egyptians stole land +from the water, and made it the capital of their great Lake Province, +which Ptolemy Philadelphus renamed to please his adored wife. Queen +Arsinoë was charming, no doubt; and the Greek ruins and papyri of her +day are interesting, but it is the city sacred to the crocodile god +Sebek which can alone distract my thoughts now from the tragedy of the +black lamb. If his Ka refuses to go I shall set crocodiles at it +—ghosts of crocodiles mummied somewhere under the desert hills which +separate the Fayoum from the Nile Valley. +</p> +<p> +We drove out to the ruins in a string of hired carriages, at an +incredibly early hour this morning. As the night was one long dog-howl, +and the dawn one overwhelming cockcrow, people were thankful to get up. +But what a waste of hardly obtained baths before the start! Between +Medinet and Crocodilopolis rose a solid wall of red dust. We had to +break through it, as firemen dash through the smoke of a burning house; +and when our arabeahs stopped at the foot of a mountainous mound, about +a mile out of Medinet, the dust had come too. Scrambling up, with the +wind on our backs, we began to breathe; but it was not until we had +ascended to the old guard house on top of the pottery strewn height, +that we could draw a clean breath. Then the reward was worth the pains. +</p> +<p> +Down below us, seen as from a bird's-eye view, lay a vast, unroofed +honeycomb. It's size was incredible. The thing could not really be +there. It was a startling dream, that endless gold-brown city of +regular streets, and mud brick buildings, big and small, shops and +houses, theatres and libraries, lacking only their roofs, deserted save +by ghosts for thousands of years, yet looking as though it had been +destroyed by a cyclone yesterday. Down there in the devastated beehive +myriads of bees still worked frantically, human bees, which Cleopatra +said were reincarnations of those who had owned slaves and killed them +with forced labour, when Shetet was among the richest cities of the +"Two Lands." These bees of to-day worked to destroy, not to recreate, +for the crumbling brick is the best of fertilizers—and fertilizing +their land is the one great interest in life for the Fellaheen of the +Fayoum. Furiously they tore at the remaining walls; furiously they +packed away their treasure of dried mud in sacks; furiously they piled +it on backs of donkeys and rushed away to make room for others. Each +instant hundreds of wild figures in dusty black or blue scampered off, +beating loaded donkeys, only to be replaced by hundreds more doing the +same thing in the same manner. Yet always a few forms remained +stationary. They were police guardians of the ruins, men armed with +staves, whose business was to oversee each worker's sack, lest some +rare roll of papyri, some rich jewel which once adorned a pampered +crocodile of the lake, should be found and stolen. Glimpsed through the +red flame of blowing, ruby dust, the scene was a vision of Inferno; we +on our mount looking down on it were in company of Dante and Virgil. +</p> +<p> +The rest of the day we gave to a light-railway excursion to Illahun and +the brick Pyramid of Hawara. There was much laughing and shrieking +among the girls of the Set (I don't count Monny, who shrieks for +nothing less terrible than the largest spiders) as Arabs pushed our +trolley cars along the line; and we were frivolous even on the site of +the labyrinth which was, perhaps, copied from the Labyrinth of Crete. +</p> +<p> +The Set were frankly disappointed in the few remains of granite columns +and carvings; but vague memories of jewels seen at the Egyptian Museum +waked an interest in the brick pyramid tomb at Hawara where King +Amenemhat and his daughter Ptah-nefru lay for a few thousand years. All +of us were eager for the "last camp tea," when we got "home" from our +expedition, and it was then that the tragedy happened: the tragedy of +the black lamb. +</p> +<p> +How could I guess, when Yusef said the camel-boys wanted money to buy +meat as a feast for the last day, that they meant to buy it alive? +</p> +<p> +When we arrived in camp, an idyllic scene was being enacted. A woolly +black lamb with a particularly engaging facial expression was being +hospitably entertained by all our men with the exception of the chêf. +They formed an admiring ring round it, taking turns in feeding it with +bersim, and patting its delightfully innocent head. It was difficult to +say which was happier, the charming guest or its kind hosts. +</p> +<p> +"How <i>sweet</i> of them!" said Miss Hassett-Bean. "I must write a few +verses about this, for our home paper!" +</p> +<p> +Everybody joined with her in thinking the Arabs sweet, and Enid Biddell +went round and took up a collection. The men arranged a football match +for our benefit, to show their gratitude, and played so well and were +so picturesque that Sir John and other ardent sportsmen pressed more +money upon them. It was altogether a red-letter day for the camel-boys, +quite apart from the fact that they would get rid of their noble +benefactors to-morrow; and by way of a climax they had what we supposed +to be a bonfire at dark. +</p> +<p> +"Aren't all those white figures wonderful, grouped round the blaze?" +asked Monny, who appeared on the whole satisfied with the way in which +the desert had taken her. "And look, the flames are reflected on the +clouds. I do believe it's going to <i>rain</i>, if such a thing can happen +here! I hope it won't spoil the poor darlings' celebration. Why, they +seem to have something big and black hanging over the fire. What <i>can</i> +it be? Oh, it looks awful!" +</p> +<p> +"It is not awful, mees," Yusef, standing near, good naturedly reassured +her. "It very naice. It is the lamb, they cook for their supper. The +genelman, milord, he give them money to buy it." +</p> +<p> +"Lamb?" shrieked Monny, in a wild voice which brought a crowd round us. +"<i>Lamb</i>! Not—oh, not—" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, mees, you all see it feeded when you come home, when you say it +so sweet. Camel-boys find sweeter now!" +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" the girl exclaimed. "Fiends! They invited that lamb here, and +brought it in their arms and played with it and did everything they +could to make it think it was having a pleasant afternoon, and then +—they <i>killed</i> it!" +</p> +<p> +"Of course, yes, mees," said Yusef, puzzled. "Why else for milord tell +they can buy it? They kill and pound it up to make it good, and soon +they eat in honour of the genelmen and ladies who have been so kind +this naice trip." +</p> +<p> +"I should like to kill <i>them</i>!" gasped Monny, preparing to cry, and +flinging herself into Biddy's arms. "Oh—<i>somebody</i> give me a hanky +—quick!" +</p> +<p> +We all felt mechanically in our pockets; but I, being nearest, was +first in the field. It was a shock to see Monny wave my handkerchief +away with a gesture of horror, and bury her face in a far inferior one +tendered by Anthony. +</p> +<p> +"No <i>wonder</i>!" exclaimed Miss Hassett-Bean, who is not, as a rule, a +Monny-ite. "You're <i>quite</i> right, Miss Gilder. Lord Ernest Borrow, I +don't see <i>much</i> difference between you and a murderer!" +</p> +<p> +For a minute, I did not know what she meant. Then it broke upon me that +the Arabs' monstrous breach of hospitality to the lamb was laid at my +door. I jabbered explanations, but no one listened; and just then the +rain, which nobody had believed in, seized the opportunity of coming +down in floods. The camels roared with rage and surprise; the camel-boys +swore Arab oaths; the fire sputtered, and what became of the half-cooked +lamb I shall never know. We rushed for the dining-tent, all +soaked in an instant, with the exception of Brigit and Monny, whom +"Antoun" protected with a long cloak. +</p> +<p> +Dinner was a gloomy feast, which might have been composed of funeral +baked meats, though the chêf himself came to the door and vowed by all +his saints that the lamb cutlets were not from <i>that</i> lamb. So well did +he exonerate himself, so eloquently did he protest that he had nothing +to do with the camel-boys' orgy, that another special collection was +taken up for him. +</p> +<p> +"Poor, dear old gentleman!" sighed Miss Hassett-Bean. "I shall never be +able to forget him. When I'm out of this awful country of <i>cannibals</i>, +and safe in my own home, he will simply haunt me, passing his +respectable old age, black though he is, chasing across deserts on +camels, wrapped in a blanket and covered with chicken coops, at the +mercy of any queer Christian who can afford to pay for him. It's a +<i>tragedy</i>!" +</p> +<p> +Perhaps she wrote her poem about the cook instead of the camel-boys. +Luckily, however, at the last moment I remembered a superstition of the +Ancient Egyptians. They were in the habit of sacrificing a black lamb +to propitiate Set, the sender of storms. Our lamb <i>was</i> black: and at +the hour of his untimely death a storm was coming up. The dreadful +deed, therefore, was turned into a Rite. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH16"><!-- CH16 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XVI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +AN OILED HAND +</p> +<p> +That is where my diary of the desert stopped; for the adventure that +ended our trip was not of the sort that mixes well with tragedies of +lambs. +</p> +<p> +Before dinner Monny had apologized for refusing my handkerchief, I +really believe because she was sorry she had misunderstood, <i>not</i> +because the rain had leaked through her tent, and she wanted me to give +her mine. In fact, she and Biddy refused pointblank at first when +Anthony and I suggested the change. They would not have told us that +the water had come in on their beds if they had thought we would +suggest such a thing. All they wished for was to have the tent-roof +somehow mended before matters got worse. But we insisted, especially +Fenton; and he is difficult to disobey. A look from him, and a drawing +together of the black eyebrows has the same effect on the mind of a +rebellious woman as an "Off with her head!" from an Arabian Nights +Sultan, while I might vainly exert my ingenuity to achieve the result +he gets by sheer mysterious magnetism. +</p> +<p> +It was bedtime when the leak showed itself, but the change of quarters +was accomplished with military quickness and precision, as Fenton's +undertakings generally are; and almost before they knew what had +happened, Monny and Brigit, who had been tent-mates during the tour, +found themselves transferred bag and baggage to our tent, with the last +clean sheets in the bedroom-Arab's possession. +</p> +<p> +Transferred, we set ourselves to making repairs, and soon patched up +the leaks. Rain at this season comes so rarely, it was not surprising +that a stitch or two had been neglected. +</p> +<p> +Only the pillows and upper blankets had had time to get wet, and we had +but to remove the coverings and turn the pillows. We both did this +simultaneously, and simultaneously exclaimed "Hullo!" +</p> +<p> +"They've left their treasures" said Anthony, not with quite the +masculine scorn of feminine weaknesses I was used to noticing in him. +Indeed, he spoke almost tenderly, as a father might speak at finding +the forgotten doll of an absent child. +</p> +<p> +Each of us stood with a wet pillow in his hand, gazing at his borrowed +bunk. In the one I had selected, lay a small chamois-skin bag, attached +to a narrow pink ribbon. In the bed chosen by Fenton, was a tiny white +enamelled watch, on a platinum chain. Both these things had been +covered by their respective owners' pillows, and forgotten in the hasty +change of quarters. The watch was Monny's. She wore it round her neck +every day—therefore the chamois-skin bag on the other bed must be +Brigit's. I told myself that in it she probably kept her pathetic store +of money, hidden under her bodice by day, her pillow by night; and +beholding this intimate souvenir of my childhood's friend, my heart +yearned over her. +</p> +<p> +"Too late to rouse them up now," said Anthony. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said I. "We must have been twenty minutes or half an hour +getting the roof to rights. They may be asleep, and if not, they won't +worry anyhow. They'll know that their things are safe till to-morrow +morning." +</p> +<p> +Fenton agreed with this verdict, and each keeping charge of his own +treasure trove, we went to bed and to sleep. +</p> +<p> +I am a champion dreamer. So much so, that I often find the life of +dreamland rivalling in interest the life this side of sleep. I look +forward to my dreams, as some people look forward to an interesting +dinner-party; but that night I was too tired to inspect the dream-menu, +before lying down to it. The first thing I knew, a handsome Egyptian +god with crystal eyes, like those which Bill Bailey means to make the +fashion, stood by my bedside. I asked him politely whether he were Rã +or Osiris, deliberately picking the two best gods of the bunch in order +to flatter him; but without answering, he pointed a bronze hand to the +mat on which he stood. It was a white mat, and on it I read a word +which evidently he meant me to take as his name: TAM HTAB. For an +instant it seemed to me a fine name for an Egyptian god, though I +hadn't met it before. Then I burst out laughing disrespectfully. "Why, +you're only a Bath Mat wrong side out!" I heard myself sneering; and +the god disappeared as a flash of lightning comes and is gone. In +going, however, he stumbled slightly against the bed. It was a mere +touch; but that, or my own voice, half waked me up. +</p> +<p> +"TAM HTAB," I mumbled dreamily; and was just reminding myself before +dropping off to sleep again that I must tell Biddy about the new bath +god, when I realized that he had not quite gone. No, not quite gone! It +must be he who still lingered by the bed, for it could be nobody else. +Anthony would not come and hover silently at my bedside in the middle +of the night. Besides, I was almost awake now, and I could hear the +gentle, regular breathing of a man asleep: Anthony's breathing. +</p> +<p> +"Go away, TAM HTAB," I tried to say, but I was not awake enough to +speak. He was bending over the bed. His face was near to mine. I felt +rather than saw it. "How could I see in the dark?" sleepily, even +fretfully, I asked myself. And yet, <i>was</i> the tent dark?...It had been, +I remembered that. I remembered that Anthony had got to bed first, and +I had extinguished the two candles on the washhand-stand. Afterward, I +had had to grope my way to the bed. Now, however, there was a light...a +very faint, rather curious light. There seemed to be only a square of +it, a square sloped off at the top. It was opposite my eyes, which +really were open now, I felt sure. I couldn't be dreaming this. It was +like a queer-shaped window in the blackness, a window full of +starlight, but close to the floor. Then the rain must have stopped. The +stars must be out. Yes, but how could I see that? There was no window +in the tent. +</p> +<p> +This thought dragged the last film of sleep off my tired brain, like a +veil snatched away by impatient fingers on an unseen hand. +</p> +<p> +Odd! Those very words said over themselves in my head: "Fingers on an +unseen hand." And that was because a hand was being slipped cautiously, +inch by inch, under my pillow. It was the Egyptian god's hand. But I +knew suddenly that the dream-god had turned into a thief: that the +silver-glimmering square of light was one of the tent flaps unbuttoned +and turned back. That the man must stealthily have pulled up a peg or +two while we slept our heavy sleep, must have crept into the tent, +soft-footed over the thick rugs, and now here he was, trying to steal. +</p> +<p> +After that, I did not go on with the thought. My dull reasoning snapped +off as short as a dry stick. I made a grab for the hand under my +pillow, seized a wrist, held it for an instant in a grip which must +have hurt, then had the shame and disappointment of feeling it slip out +of my grasp, like a greased snake. There was a stifled exclamation of +pain or surprise, scarcely louder than a sigh, and I was out of bed and +after a shadow that ran for the low square of starlight. Something +caught and tripped me as I reached the opening. What it was I did not +know then and don't know now, but I had a vague impression that it was +warm. If I had stumbled against a bare leg thrust out to stop me, it +would have felt like that. Yet it could not have been the leg of the +man running away. He was using both his, and must have used them well, +for I was up and out from under the lifted tent flap which had fallen +on top of me as I tumbled, before I could have counted five. Very wide +awake now, I stood in the rough, sandy grass, under a sky encrusted +with stars, and could see no one. Barefooted, I pattered this way and +that, searching every shadow, but the whole camp seemed an abode of +peace. There was not a sound or movement even in the black ring of +sleeping camels. Rain had driven to shelter the roving dogs which had +troubled us last night. The camp lanterns burned clear and strong, +yellow and crude in the silver flood of starlight which dulled their +radiance. The smell of earth and grass after the heavy shower was like +the fragrance of tea roses. Could it be that an evil, stealthy presence +had but just broken this sweet serenity with its vile intention, or had +the whole incident been after all a singularly vivid dream? I should +have believed so, if my hand which had clutched that other hand, had +not been slippery with oil. +</p> +<p> +No, I had not dreamed. And suddenly a troubling thought leaped into my +mind. "Biddy!" The name sprang to my lips and spoke itself aloud. +</p> +<p> +If this were for her! I had laughed at her forebodings. Sensational +revenges such as she feared seemed so incongruous, so utterly unsuited +to those laughing, long-lashed eyes of hers! Yet she had in her past +life lived side by side with fear and tragedy for more years than I +liked to count. And as she said, men such as those whom Richard O'Brien +had betrayed had been known to reach out very far to take revenge. +Biddy had done nothing. Surely they owed her no grudge. But she had +known things. Perhaps they thought that she knew even more than she did +know. Their organization was rich as well as powerful. It had many +branches. Yet why should men use its power to hurt the widow of a dead +enemy, now that they—or fate—had put him underground? +</p> +<p> +In a flash I remembered the chamois-skin bag, which she had forgotten +under the pillow: and lifting the loosened canvas flap with its +dangling pegs, I stooped to go back into the tent. Inside, I expected +to find darkness, but instead I found light; Anthony up, setting a +match to a candle wick, and looking a tall, dark silhouette in his +pyjamas. +</p> +<p> +"What's the row?" he calmly wanted to know—too calmly to suit my +ruffled mood. +</p> +<p> +"A thief, that's all," I answered, hastily searching under the pillow +where the unseen hand had been. Sheet and pillow-case were slimy with +oil, yet the chamois-skin bag was safe. "But he didn't get what he +wanted!" I finished. +</p> +<p> +"Good," said Anthony, who had lighted both candles. "Let's go look for +him." +</p> +<p> +"I've been, and couldn't see anything." +</p> +<p> +"I know. I heard a sound. I sang out, and you didn't answer, so I +thought something must be up. Let's have another try. I've got Miss +Gilder's watch." +</p> +<p> +I slipped Biddy's bag into the pocket of my pyjamas, and pulling on our +boots we went out into the night. +</p> +<p> +"It's <i>their</i> tent I'm thinking of," I said, though I'd never talked of +Brigit O'Brien's affairs to Fenton. "If some one had planned to rob +them, not knowing of the change we made at the last minute—" +</p> +<p> +"All our Arabs did know—" +</p> +<p> +"I'm not talking of them. We've been here two days. Any one could have +spied on us enough to find out which tent was Mrs. Jones' and Miss +Gilder's." +</p> +<p> +"You're thinking of Bedr?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, yes, I suppose I am. Biddy never believed they were Germans." +</p> +<p> +"Who, those chaps in checked clothes he had in tow? By Jove! yes—I +heard her speak of a scar on the forehead of one." +</p> +<p> +"She thought he might have been Burke, the fellow in the street row, +that night at the House of the Crocodile." +</p> +<p> +"These things happen to heiresses in old-fashioned story books," said +Anthony. "But there's nothing that happens in a story which can't +happen in real life, I suppose—especially to <i>such</i> a girl. She—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but I wasn't thinking of her!" I began, then stopped, shocked +because it was true, and also because I was unwilling to tell why my +thoughts had turned to "Mrs. Jones." +</p> +<p> +"We must find out if they're safe," I went on. "The thieves seem to +have got clear away and we're not likely to find them, unless they've +gone to our old tent—" +</p> +<p> +"Come along," said Anthony. "We'll slip on something, and call the +ladies as softly as we can, not to disturb the others and have the +whole camp buzzing like a beehive. When we're sure <i>they're</i> all right, +we can attend to such details as searching for tracks." +</p> +<p> +He seemed as eager as I was, to know that the two women were safe; but +there was no sign to tell me about which one he chiefly concerned +himself. +</p> +<p> +A minute transformed him from a pyjamaed Englishman into a robed +Egyptian of that old-fashioned order which despises things European. +Only, he forgot to put on his turban. I didn't think of the omission +myself at the time, but I recalled it later. +</p> +<p> +Going to the tent which had been ours, I scratched on the tight drawn +canvas near the spot where I knew one of the folding iron bedsteads was +placed. "Biddy—Biddy!" I called gently, and after a few repetitions I +heard her voice, rather sleepy, a little anxious, cry, "Is that you, +Duffer?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I whispered, seeing the tent quiver in the region of some big +cushiony buttons. "'Antoun' and I are both here. But don't be scared. +Could you come and peep out from under the door flap a minute?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said she. "Go round there, and I'll come." +</p> +<p> +There was not much delay, for Biddy's crinkled black hair needs no +night disfigurements by way of patent curlers. In a few seconds the +door flap waved, and Biddy looked out into the starlight, the yellow +glimmer of a candle flame within the tent silhouetting the Japanesey +little figure wrapped in a kimono. Behind her dark head and above it, +floated a mist of bronzy gold, which I took to be Miss Gilder's hair. +There seemed to be quantities of it, and I should have been feverishly +interested in wondering how long it was, if I had had time to think of +anything but my thankfulness that Biddy and Monny were both safe. +</p> +<p> +"Are either of you ill?" asked the creamy Irish voice which had never +sounded half so sweet as now, in the starlight and fragrance of this +strange night. "Because if you are, I've some lovely medicine—" +</p> +<p> +"I wouldn't frighten them any more than I could help, if I were you," I +heard Fenton mumbling advice in muffled tones at my back. +</p> +<p> +For obvious reasons I made no audible answer; but I had just been +resolving not to tell Biddy my suspicions unless it were necessary to +do so. +</p> +<p> +"No, we're not ill," I assured her. "But there's been a silly sort of +scare about a sneak thief: may have been a false alarm, and we won't +say anything about it to-morrow, if others don't. We're horribly sorry +to disturb you and Miss Gilder, but we couldn't rest without making +sure you hadn't been worried." +</p> +<p> +"<i>You</i> heard nothing, did you, Monny?" Brigit threw a question over her +shoulder to the floating mist of gold. +</p> +<p> +"No, and I wasn't asleep either," Miss Gilder's voice answered. "I was +lying awake thinking about its being our last night—and lots of +things." +</p> +<p> +"I was lying half awake, too, thinking of 'lots of things,'" Biddy +mimicked her friend, "or I shouldn't have heard you so easily when you +scratched on the canvas. Oh, by the way, Duffer, did you or Antoun +Effendi find a little chamois-skin bag under the pillow?" +</p> +<p> +"I found it," said I, and this gave me a chance I had been wanting but +hadn't quite known how to snatch. "I was rather worried over the +responsibility. Of course you knew that we'd take care of your +treasures." +</p> +<p> +"It's all my money, and—and just <i>one</i> other thing!" Biddy answered, +with an odd little hesitation in her manner and a catch in her voice. +"I should hate to have anybody open that bag. I'm thankful it's safe. +With you, I know it's <i>sacred</i>. All the same, I'd like to have it, if +you don't mind the bother." +</p> +<p> +"You oughtn't to carry the thing about with you, if it's so important," +I scolded her. "Why not leave your secret treasure, whatever it is, and +most of your money, in Cairo, when you come off on an expedition like +this?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," she mumbled evasively. "I'm used to having this thing +with me. I can't think how I forgot it under my pillow. I never have +before. It isn't the sort of—of valuable one keeps in a bank. Monny +embroidered the bag when she was a little girl. It was her first work. +I taught her how to do it, and she gave it to me for a birthday +present. I wouldn't lose it for the world." +</p> +<p> +"You shan't," I said soothingly. I had heard what I had been afraid to +hear; but why should Biddy's trip be spoiled by another worry if I +could shield her? We could not <i>know</i> that the oiled hand had been +groping for that bag; and I resolved not to distress Brigit by putting +the idea into her head at present. "Go to sleep again in peace, both of +you," I went on. "All's well, since <i>you</i> are well. Probably some +prowler has been sneaking round the kitchen-tent." +</p> +<p> +"Yes. The news of the lamb has gone forth!" said Biddy. "Good night!" +</p> +<p> +"Good night!" I answered. +</p> +<p> +Down went the tent flap, and hid the sparkle of eyes in starsheen, and +mist of gold in wavering candle-light. We trusted that the two had +crept back into their beds; but we did not return to ours. We took one +of the camp lanterns and searched for footprints—those which were +freshest after the rain. The rough grass growing sparsely out of the +sandy earth was not favourable to such attempts, however; and even at +dawn, when we looked again before the camp was stirring, we made no +notable discoveries such as amateur detectives make, in books. +</p> +<p> +Our next expedition, as soon as light came, was to the town, where we +inquired at the few hotels, and put questions to the police. Nobody +answering the description of Bedr and his two companions had been seen +in Medinet, and we had to go back to camp baffled. +</p> +<p> +There was our adventure; and when we reached Cairo by train, the +mystery of the oiled hand was still unsolved. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH17"><!-- CH17 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XVII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE SHIP'S MYSTERY AGAIN +</p> +<p> +I expected a black mark for the lamb and every little desert +difficulty, but, to my surprise, only our joys were remembered. Those +who had stayed in Cairo exchanged tales with the desert travellers, and +it was astonishing to hear what a marvellous week we had had. Each day +had been better than its brother. In fact, our trip had been one long, +glorious dream of golden sands and amethyst sunsets; the camels were as +easy to ride as sofas, and combined the intelligence of human beings +with the disposition of angels; the camp was as luxurious as the Savoy +or the Plaza; and to me and that wonderful Antoun Effendi all credit +was suddenly due. Not to be outdone, the stayers in Cairo had had the +"time of their lives." They had not been herded together like animals +in a menagerie, as in Colonel Corkran's day. The girls had not only +been to dances, but had danced with darling pets of officers, friends +of Ernest Borrow; while their mothers had been asked to those +fascinating picnics they get up in Egypt, don't you know, where you dig +in ancient burial grounds and find mummy beads and amulets. Somehow or +other, all these people attributed their pleasures to me, as they had +blamed me for their mishaps; and my spirits were at the top of the +thermometer three days later when, after some hard work, the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> was ready to start "up Nile." +</p> +<p> +Sir Marcus wanted "his tours to be different from every other Nile +tour, and a little better." He wanted to "show what he could do," and +he was beginning well. Though the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> had had a past +under other owners, she looked as if this were her maiden trip, and she +was as beautifully decorated as a débutante for her first ball. Her +paint was new and gleaming white; her brass and nickel glittered like +jewellery; and even those who thought nothing quite good enough for +them, uttered admiring "Ohs!" as they trooped on board. +</p> +<p> +"The Highway of Egypt" was a silver-paved road, leading to adventure. +The masts of native boats lying along the river bank were etched in +black lines crowding one over another, on the lightly washed-in +background of blue. Near by, the great Kasr-el-Nil bridge gleamed with +colour and life like a rainbow "come alive"; and the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> +looked as gay and inviting as a houseboat <i>en fête</i> for Henley regatta. +She was smaller than the most modern of the Nile boats, for she had +been sold cheap to Sir Marcus by another firm: but she was big enough +for his experiment, though he had turned some of her cabins into +private baths and sitting-rooms. Her three decks towered out of the +water with a superior air of stateliness, such as small women put on +beside tall sisters; and her upper deck was a big open-air sitting-room. +There were Turkish rugs on the white floor, and basket chairs and +sofas with silk cushions. On the tables and on the piano top there were +picture-books of Egypt, and magazines, and bowls of flowers. From the +roof, sprouted electric lamps with brass leaves and glass lotuses; and +smiling Arabs in white from turban to slippers had blue larks flying +wide-winged on their breasts. Oh, yes, Sir Marcus was "doing" his +clients well, that was patent at first glance, and became even more +conspicuous to the eyes of the Set as they wandered into the dining +saloon, drawing-room and library, or peeped into each other's cabins. +Sir Marcus himself had come on board ostensibly to see us off, really +to watch the effect of his boat upon Cleopatra. He lay in wait for her +outside the door of her suite (the best on board), pretending to engage +me in conversation, but forgot my existence as she appeared. The +ecstasy on his big face was pathetic, as his brown eyes fixed +themselves on a quantity of artificial blue lotuses she held in her +hands. +</p> +<p> +"Do you like 'em, Mrs. East?" he ventured. +</p> +<p> +"Do I like what?" she inquired, that quiver of impatience in her tone +which she kept for her unfortunate adorer. +</p> +<p> +"The—those flowers," he stammered. "I—" +</p> +<p> +"They're <i>awful</i>!" she exclaimed. "The rooms are lovely, but these +dreadful artificial things some <i>silly</i> person has stuck all over the +place spoil the whole effect. I want to find an Arab to take them away. +Or do you think I might throw them overboard? No one <i>could</i> like them, +I'm sure." +</p> +<p> +"Of course, chuck 'em overboard—or hand 'em to me, and I'll do it," +said Sir Marcus, looking ready to cry. "But—they're <i>lotuses</i>, I +suppose you know? I heard you say you'd give anything to have some." +</p> +<p> +"Not artificial ones," explained Cleopatra, <i>belle dame sans merci</i>. "I +can't stand artificial flowers even on hats, much less in rooms. Who +could have put such horrors all over my <i>salon</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," Sir Marcus lied stoutly; "but it shan't happen again. +There ain't any real lotuses to be got, so maybe the—er—the +decorator—" his meanderings died into silence, as he took the bunch of +flowers from Mrs. East, and viciously flung them as tribute to the +Nile. +</p> +<p> +"After all, we oughtn't to do that," said Cleopatra. "In the beautiful +old days real lotuses were given to the Nile. These are an insult." +</p> +<p> +"They aren't meant as such," the big man apologized, all joy in his +fine boat and the compliments he had received crushed out of him. I +knew now that he had hovered at Cleopatra's door hoping for a cry of +pleasure. Probably he had ransacked Cairo for the lotuses, or +telegraphed to Paris, before his cruel lady went from him into the +desert. I was sorry for the "boss," though a snub or two would be good +for him, no doubt, and perhaps were being specially provided by a wise +Providence. But I had other things to think of than Sir Marcus Lark's +love-troubles: Monny, for instance, who at last had found a letter from +"Madame Wretched" in Cairo, and had wonderful schemes in her head. On +board the <i>Laconia</i> I should have thought such schemes obstinate and +headstrong, the wish of a spoiled child to do something dangerous, to +meddle in matters which did not concern her, and to have "an +adventure." But I understood the Gilded Rose a little better now. I +began to see the real Monny as Biddy saw her, bright with the flame of +courage and enthusiasm and passionate generosity, behind the passing +cloud of superficial faults. She wanted everybody to be as fortunate +and happy as she, and was prepared to be exceedingly trying and +disagreeable in the effort to make them so. +</p> +<p> +We had not been on board ten minutes when Biddy told me about the +exciting letter, and escorted me to find it and Monny. Miss Gilder was +in the act of insisting that General and Mrs. Harlow should accept her +suite, and that she should take their cabin. The matter had to be +argued out before she could spare attention for anything else; but as +she made it clear that the Harlows were not to pay extra, their +scruples were soon conquered. "The baggage hasn't been put into the +cabins yet," she explained breathlessly to me, "so that's all right!" +</p> +<p> +In my astonishment, I forgot Madame Wretched. "But why," I adjured +Monny in my professional tone, as conductor, "why on earth should you +sacrifice yourself to these people? What have they done for you? I +thought you didn't like them?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't," she replied, calmly, while Biddy listened, smiling. "That's +why I gave them my suite—at least, it's partly why." +</p> +<p> +"I should think the other part of the 'partly' is more convincing," I +remarked; and Monny blushed. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps you know that your friend Antoun Effendi thinks me the most +selfish as well as the most obstinate girl he ever saw," she said. "And +I don't intend to have foreigners like him go on doing American girls +an injustice. Besides, maybe he's right about me—and I want him to be +wrong. I hate having all the best things there are everywhere, just +because I'm rich. The Harlows wanted a suite, and they couldn't afford +to take one. They were looking sadly through the door at my rooms and +envying me, so I thought I would change. I was <i>determined</i> to change, +whether they would let me or not. They are old; I'm young, and I shall +enjoy thinking I've done something nice for people I thoroughly +dislike, as much as <i>they</i> will enjoy having their own bathroom." +</p> +<p> +"If Mrs. Harlow could hear you calling her old!" gurgled Biddy. +</p> +<p> +"Well, she <i>is</i> old. And she's perfectly horrid, much more horrid even +than Miss Hassett-Bean; so I'd rather give my suite to her and her +husband than any one else. Biddy and Rachel are together, and Aunt +Clara is alone. I'm robbing no one but myself." +</p> +<p> +"How do you know Antoun Effendi thinks you selfish and obstinate?" I +inquired. "Surely he wasn't rude enough to say so?" +</p> +<p> +"He was indeed, the day I <i>would</i> have the coastguard camel, and he +came after me when it ran away," she confessed. "And you're not to tell +him about the suite. I didn't give it up to please him." +</p> +<p> +"I thought you did," I ventured, "in order that Egyptian princes +shouldn't do injustice to American girls?" +</p> +<p> +"I meant," she explained hastily, "that I like to know they're <i>wrong</i> +about us. And now what was it that Biddy and you wanted to say? Oh, +poor Mabel's letter! How thankful I am to get it! I've been wondering +if I dared write, and thinking of all sorts of desperate plans. But, +Biddy thought we must wait till Wretched was off his guard. You see, we +shall have to rescue her when we get to Asiut." +</p> +<p> +I would have answered, but a look from Biddy enjoined silence. And so +we were in touch with the "Ship's Mystery" again! I took the envelope, +which was addressed to Miss Gilder in a distinctively American +handwriting, strange to see coming from an Egyptian harem. +</p> +<p> +The letter began abruptly, and showed signs of haste: +</p> +<p> +"You were so good, I know I can appeal to you, but I'm not sure if +there's any way to help me. I began to be frightened on the ship, when +<i>he</i> behaved so queerly, just because I talked about the most ordinary +things to one or two men. He made me stay in my cabin—but you'll +remember that. Already it's like ages ago! I tell myself now that I was +almost happy then. At least, I believed I was his <i>wife</i>, and that it +was better than being poor, and a governess to hateful French children +in Paris. He was kind, too—he seemed to love me; and I thought it was +like living in a romance to marry a Turk. He swore he'd never loved any +one except me, that he'd never been married, and that he wouldn't try +to convert me or shut me up like Turkish women. But everything was +untrue and different from what he said. I hardly know how to tell you, +for you will think it horrible, yet I must tell. When I came here, I +found he <i>had a wife already</i>, and a perfectly fiendish little girl. It +is legal in this dreadful country to have four wives, but I don't care +about the law. I want to get away. I've been cheated. This isn't +marriage! I don't know what will become of me, for I haven't any money, +but I'd rather starve than stay. I heard Mr. Sheridan say on board ship +that it was easy to get a divorce in Egypt or Turkey. Maybe he meant me +to hear, thinking some day I might be glad to know. But I can't get a +divorce while I'm shut up in this house and watched. Now, <i>he</i> suspects +I want to leave him (since a scene we had about the wife), and he won't +let me go out, even into the garden. You are my only hope. You'll +wonder why I don't try appealing to the American Consul here, instead +of to you. I suppose there must be a consul—Asiut seems a big, +important town. I'll tell you why I don't. For one thing, there mayn't +be a consul. For another thing, the woman who has promised to post this +wouldn't do so if she guessed I was writing against my husband, who is +her brother-in-law, and she would guess if she saw an envelope +addressed to a consul, although she knows scarcely any English. I have +to talk to her in French. He thinks she is devoted to him, and that +she's explaining the Mussulman religion and ideas of a woman's life to +me, or he wouldn't let her come. It's true, she is loyal to him, in a +way. She wouldn't help me to escape. But I think women in the harems +like to have secrets with each other, which they hide from their men. +I've told her about you, how pretty you are, and a great heiress and +she's so interested, she's dying to see you. She hopes, if she posts +this letter, that you will call on me on your way up the Nile. She can +perhaps find out what day your boat is to arrive, through her husband, +and then she'll try to come to our house on the chance of meeting you. +I'm almost sure she'll keep her promise and post this letter. If not +—if he sees it, maybe he will kill me. I believe now he would do +anything. But I must run the risk. Do come. Do think of some way to +help. +</p> +<p class="ctr"> +"MABEL. +</p> +<p> +"I don't feel I have the right to any other name, for surely as he has +a wife I'm not truly married." +</p> +<p> +"Well?" asked Monny, as she saw me finish and fold up the letter. "You +were horrid about her at first, but just at the last minute on the +ship, you were good, and kept Wretched Bey talking, so I might have my +chance with Mabel. If you hadn't, I shouldn't like you as much as I do. +And I'm sure even you'll be anxious to do something now." +</p> +<p> +"Yet we don't wish Ernest or Antoun Effendi to run into danger, do we, +dear?" Biddy suggested, coaxingly. "When you wanted to show the letter, +I said yes, but—" +</p> +<p> +Monny listened no longer. Her eyes were sparkling, as they looked +straight into mine. "Antoun Effendi!" she repeated. "Tell me first +—because, you know, you are his friend—what would he think about a case +like this? Whatever he is, he's not a Mussulman, I'm sure. Still, he's +not one of us—" +</p> +<p> +"You're sure he's not a Mussulman?" I echoed. "What makes you sure, +when you know he's been to Mecca, unless somebody has put the idea into +your head?" "His own head put it there," she answered. "I saw it +without his turban, the night of the alarm in camp. It wasn't shaved, +as I've read the heads of Moslem men are. It was a head like—like the +head of every Christian man I know, except that it was a better shape +than most! So, as he isn't Mussulman, he might not mind our trying to +help this poor deceived girl?" +</p> +<p> +"Shall I ask his advice?" I inquired, rather drily perhaps. +</p> +<p> +She hesitated for an instant, then said "Yes!" +</p> +<p> +"You seem certain that whatever he thinks, he won't betray your plan." +</p> +<p> +"I am certain," she replied, looking rapt. "He's not the kind of man +who betrays." +</p> +<p> +"You're right," I said. "He's not the kind of man who betrays. He's the +kind that helps. Though in such a case as this—you know, the very +meani`or "forbidden." Still—we shall +see!" +</p> +<p> +We could not "see" at once, however, because Anthony had not come on +board. Even when the hour for starting arrived, there was no Anthony, +no message from Anthony. "Your friend isn't going to leave us in the +lurch, is he?" asked Sir Marcus, watch in hand. He had meant to travel +with us as far as Beni Hasan, our first stop, and return to Cairo by +donkey and train, but had changed his intention and was going off at +once—I thought I could guess why. "The <i>Enchantress Isis</i> ought to be +under way this minute, but Antoun and you are our chief attractions. We +can't leave him behind." +</p> +<p> +I agreed. We could not leave Anthony behind, but I was not worrying. If +he had to drop down out of an aeroplane, I felt sure that having said +he would come, he would keep his word. So, while Sir Marcus stared at +his watch and fumed, I rushed usefully about among the ladies who +clamoured for their luggage, or complained that their cabins were too +small for innovation trunks. I showed them how these travelling +wardrobes could be opened wide and flattened against the walls, taking +up next to no room; I assured each woman in confidence that she had +been given the best cabin on the boat; I dealt out little illustrated +books about the trip; I advised people which tables to choose in the +dining-saloon, and consoled them when the places they wanted were gone. +Still, the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> had not stirred, and a rumour was +beginning to go round that something had happened, when suddenly I saw +Antoun Effendi's green turban. +</p> +<p> +"Thank goodness!" muttered Sir Marcus, putting his watch into his +pocket. And then Mrs. East came swiftly across the deck from the door +of her own suite, where she must have stood watching, hidden behind the +portière. "Oh, Antoun Effendi!" she cried, and though her face was +turned toward us, she did not seem to know that we existed. How Anthony +looked at her we could not judge, for we saw only his back; but her +eyes must have told Sir Marcus a piece of news. He glanced from her to +Fenton, and from Fenton to her, with the expression of a school-boy who +has been punished for something he hasn't done. Then he turned to me as +though to ask a question; but shut his mouth tightly, as if gulping +down a large pill, wheeled, and left me without a good-bye. I wondered, +Cleopatra-fashion, what he had done in his last incarnation to deserve +these heavy blows in the hour which should have seen his triumph. "What +if he changes his mind and doesn't want Fenton and me after all?" I +asked myself. To my surprise, I realized that it would be a genuine +disappointment not to be wanted by Sir Marcus Lark. The Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid had nothing to do with this. It was borne in upon me +that I had begun to enjoy the rôle of conductor; and certainly I was +learning lessons in high diplomacy which might be useful in my career. +</p> +<p> +Anthony, who was free as an eagle from questions of innovation trunks +and how to give everybody the best cabins, and places at table, looked +as if he were bound for the Island of Hesperides, on a voyage of pure +romance. The air of gravity and responsibility he had worn in Cairo and +in the desert was gone with the starting of the boat. I knew suddenly, +without asking him, that his mission had been of a far more serious +nature than the transplanting of a sheikh's tomb; that there had been +something else, and that it had finished at the last moment in success. +</p> +<p> +"Sir Marcus was worrying about you," I said, when the importance of +unpacking left the deck empty save for Anthony and me. +</p> +<p> +"You weren't, were you?" He was smiling at me in a friendly, +confidential way that showed a happy mood. +</p> +<p> +"Not I! I knew you'd turn up, as you'd said you would." +</p> +<p> +"Thanks, my good Duffer. But now it's over, I don't mind telling you +that it was a toss up." +</p> +<p> +"You mean there was a chance of your failing us—in spite of the +Mountain?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I meant to bring this off somehow. But my first duty was to +finish up the Cairo business. I simply had to finish it, and I did. It +was a—rather bigger job than the sheikh's tomb racket, though of +course that was on the cards, too. Everything's all right now; but I +spent last night in getting the full details of an Arab plot to blow up +the house of a rich Copt, who's been of great service to the +Government. Some of the young Nationalists think that the Christian +Copts are put ahead of Moslems by the British, and there are +jealousies. The whole set of men concerned in this affair were arrested +an hour ago, so all's well with the world! I'm free to turn my face +toward the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid—free to enjoy myself, +although I must stick to my turban still." +</p> +<p> +"Are you getting tired of it?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"I've been tired of it since the first day I put it on. I don't like +play-acting for long. But it was necessary. And it has had its +advantages as well as disadvantages for me." +</p> +<p> +I should have liked to ask another question then, but dared not, so +instead I told him about the letter from Bechid Bey's beautiful +American bride, Mabella Hânem, the "Ship's Mystery" of the <i>Laconia</i>. +Anthony listened, as the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> slipped past the Island of +Roda, past Ghizeh, past old Cairo and still older Babylon, then out on +to the broad bosom of the river where the Nile Valley lay bathed in +sunshine from Gebel Mokattam in the east, to the Libyan hills—haunt of +departed spirits—in the west. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Gilder wants me to help, does she?" he asked at last. "She told +you to tell me about this?" +</p> +<p> +"I warned her that you mightn't approve," I explained. "I said you had +more knowledge of Egypt in your little finger than I had in all my gray +matter, and you might think that nothing could be done—" +</p> +<p> +"Tell her I think something may be done," he interrupted me. "And +before we reach Asiut we'll plan out how best to do it." +</p> +<p> +"You and I?" +</p> +<p> +"You and <i>she</i> and I. She has brains as well as courage." +</p> +<p> +"She?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course I mean Miss Gilder." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Is it 'of course'? There are others who answer that description." +</p> +<p> +Fenton smiled. "But it's going to be her show." +</p> +<p> +"She is under the impression," I reminded him, laughing, "that all +Egypt, including the Nile, and you and your green turban, are her +'show'." +</p> +<p> +Anthony did not answer. Perhaps already he was thinking of something +else. I should have liked to be sure exactly what his smile meant. Was +it for Monny? Was it for Biddy? Or only for an adventure which he saw +in the distance? +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH18"><!-- CH18 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE ASIUT AFFAIR +</p> +<p> +Nothing could be less appropriate to the Spirit of the Nile than our +spirit in setting out. We had turned our backs upon medieval Cairo, and +our faces toward Ethiopia. Our minds should have teemed with thoughts +of early gods, and the mysteries of their great temples. But not at +all. Medieval or prehistoric, it was all one to us in our secret +hearts, which throbbed with passionate excitement over our own small +affairs of to-day, and to-morrow. Little cared we, as our white boat +bore us southward, on the bosom of the sacred river—little cared we +for the love-story of the Great Enchantress—pupil of Magician Thoth, +—fair Isis, in whose honour that boat was named. Her tragic journey +along this river, whose stream she could augment by one sacred tear, +should have been followed by our fancy. We should have seen with our +minds' eyes the lovely lady asking news of the painted boat which +carried the dead body of her murdered husband Osiris, asking always +vainly, until she thought of questioning the little children. But +instead we thought of our own love-stories and amusements. We played +bridge, and danced the Tango on deck; we drummed on the piano, or +warbled the latest musical comedy airs. Above all, we flirted, or +gossiped about those who flirted, if for any reason we were off the +active list of flirters ourselves. +</p> +<p> +To be sure, we had brought learned books, and took pains to leave them +in our chairs, open at marked passages of deep interest to students. We +even scribbled heterogeneous notes, if for a moment there were nothing +more amusing to do; and bits of paper scampered wildly about the deck +informing those who retrieved them that "Nub" was ancient Egyptian for +"gold," that Osiris created men and women from the tears he wept over +his own body, cut in pieces by Set; that the ivy was his favourite +plant; or that "scarabeus" was the Greek word for a blue-green beetle, +which created itself from itself, becoming the symbol of eternal life. +All this, however, was affectation. Each hoped others might think that +he or she was not an ordinary tourist: each wished to pose as a devotee +of some phase of history concerning gods, temples, or portrait statues, +anything not difficult to "study up." But life was too strong for us. +The colour and glamour of the Nile got into our blood. Hathor, goddess +of Love, bewitched us into doing queer things which we should not have +dreamed of doing if we hadn't drunk "Nile champagne." Yet after all, +what did it matter? We were absorbing what our hearts, if not our +minds, called out for: the enchantment of Egypt. +</p> +<p> +More or less conscientiously I performed the duties Sir Marcus Lark had +bribed me to perform. I gave neat little lectures, and tried to remind +people, whether they liked it or not, that almost every moment the boat +was taking us past places of astonishing interest. +</p> +<p> +The so-called tombs of "Beni Hasan," the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> stopped for +us to see, in order that we might admire wall-paintings in rock +chambers, and gabble about Queen Hatasu or King Seti and his mother +Pakhet, the "Beautiful Lady of the Speos." But it was difficult to +rouse emotion concerning things which we glided by without visiting. +</p> +<p> +Ruined temples were everywhere, "thick as flies," as I heard Harry +Snell say to Enid Biddell; but why bother about them, when finer ones +were waiting further down on the menu-card of the Nile-feast? +Especially when there was a pretty girl to walk the deck with, +meanwhile? As for Tell el-Marna, the Heretic King's great city, the +general vote went against a visit to the ruins. Antoun Effendi praised +it as one of the most interesting places near the Nile, because with +the exception of Queen Hatasu and Rameses the Great, Amen-hetep IV was +the most human personality in Egyptian history. But only Monny, who was +making a hero of Aknator, really wished to delay at the Disc +Worshipper's Utopia. It must have seemed strange to the Gilded Rose not +to have her will prevail; but there was a "clique" on board who +appeared to find pleasure in thwarting Monny. Her sacrifice to the +Harlows was misunderstood. She had made it, said those who did not like +her, in order to gain credit for unselfishness, or to have an excuse +for displaying herself <i>en route</i> to the public bath, in a dream of a +dressing-gown, and a vision of a cap, carrying a poem of a sponge bag. +Rachel Guest was still mysteriously more popular than Monny, and was +said to have had two proposals on the first day. She didn't want to get +off the boat to see irrelevant painted pavements, in the harem of +Aknaton's royal palace, and her laziness won, when the vote was taken. +But what did anything matter, if the glamour of the Nile was in our +blood? +</p> +<p> +Not one of us but thrilled to the droning cry of the shadoof men on the +brown banks, as the dripping water jars went up and up, tier after tier +above the river level. Not one but felt a strange allurement in the +passing scene; the dark mystery of palm groves, whose slender stems +were prison bars against the shining sky; the copper glow of the +mud-bricks in piled-up villages; the colour of the flowing water, where +secret gleams as from flooded gold mines seemed to glint through masses +of dead violets, that floated with the tide. No eye so dull that it +could not see how the shadows on land and water were painted at evening +with a blue glaze, like the bloom on old scarabs and mummy beads, and +broken bits of pottery that art cannot copy now. +</p> +<p> +In her way, even Miss Hassett-Bean felt the charm of the Nile, and its +shores of brown and emerald and peacock-purple. "I don't call it +<i>scenery</i>," she explained. "Except when the light is different, or +there's some green stuff for cattle growing on the banks, everything's +the same yellow-brown; and nothing happens but palms and mud villages, +and shadoofs, and a few Arabs, or camels, or those ugly water buffaloes +they say the devil made, to show what he could do. But the funny thing +is, you can't bear to shut your eyes for a single minute for fear of +missing a tree, or a mound, or one of those tall-masted gyassas loaded +with white and pink pottery: they all seem so ridiculously <i>important</i>, +somehow! Then, there's that bothersome north wind following you, and +trying to freeze your spine, unless you pounce on the best seat where +it can't reach. If you put on your fur coat you're too hot; if you +don't you're too cold. At night your bed creaks, and so does everybody +else's. You hear a creaking all down the line when people turn over, +which gets on your nerves: but you soon forget; and the whole +experience is so perfectly wonderful that I'd like to spend the rest of +my natural life going up and down on a Nile boat!" +</p> +<p> +Through the opalescent dream of these first days and nights, shot the +fiery thought of our mission in Asiut. I had been surprised at first +that Anthony, who knew so well the dangers and mysteries of the East, +encouraged Miss Gilder to meddle in so delicate an affair; and there +had never been any explanations between us. But I told myself that his +motive was sympathy with Monny's desire to help: or else he had been +tempted to associate himself with her in an adventure where again, as +once or twice before, he had been able to win her gratitude. Perhaps +both motives combined. +</p> +<p> +As for Mrs. East, she frankly sulked. Intuition told me that she had +never dared speak to "Antoun Effendi" about the proposal in +hieroglyphics (so difficult for me to explain) which she attributed to +him. Never had she dared say: "You have written me a love letter. Why +don't you follow it up, and give me a chance to answer it, one way or +the other?" But it was puzzling her, disappointing her, if not breaking +her heart, that he avoided rather than sought her, on this glorified +houseboat where "the Egyptian Prince" was more or less a hero with +romantic women. While we four planned, in thrilling whispers, how to +rescue the "Ship's Mystery," and Rachel Guest walked the deck with Bill +Bailey or Harry Snell, Cleopatra was reduced to writing picture +post-cards. I thought, if Sir Marcus had but the inspiration to reappear +at some stopping place farther on, she might be ready to forgive him the +false lotus flowers: and perhaps he would come, for the Lark type is as +difficult to snub as Cleopatra's Needle. I was half inclined to send +him a telegram, on some excuse or other. +</p> +<hr> +<p> +We came to Asiut in the morning, and it was to be a long stop, for +there was much to see, and every one was excited at the thought of our +first Nile town, a town already of Upper Egypt, which made it seem that +we had come a tremendous way from Cairo. For us, Egypt existed no +longer as a country, but as a golden brown, purple-green river-bed and +a flowing stream of history on which we floated; so it was fun for +those having no special mission, to feel that once again bazaars and +more or less sophisticated "Sights" awaited their pleasure. I had given +my after-dinner lecture the night before, trying to behave as if I were +not boiling with emotion, and had told those who deigned to listen that +Asiut, "City of the Wolves," was the capital of a province. I had +babbled, too, about the tombs which self-respecting tourists must see, +even if they hurry over the inspection of carvings, cartouches, and +representations of very small queens smelling very large lotuses (most +Egyptian queens apparently spent much of their time, lightly clothed, +and smelling lotuses, a ladylike pursuit for those about to have their +portraits taken); in order to find time for the mummied cats, the +bazaars, the silver scarves, the red and black pottery, and the images +of wolves, crocodiles, and camels cheap enough to be freely bought for +poor relations at home. "Antoun" and I hinted at business which must +prevent our joining the sightseers, who would be chaperoned by the +dragoman. Luckily, they got the idea into their heads that our affairs +were connected with Sir Marcus, and the "trip." We were pitied, rather +than blamed, but our real difficulty was with Mrs. East, as Monny did +not wish Cleopatra to be let into the secret. If she knew, she would +want to be in the adventure, and in Monny's opinion, Aunt Clara was a +dear, but unfitted for adventures. +</p> +<p> +We planned that Brigit and Monny should call upon the wife of Rechid +Bey, whose house would be easy to find. If they were admitted, they +would try to bring her out, as if for a drive, for it seemed a case of +now or never if she were to escape. In case she were able to come, they +would take her straight to the American Consulate, which I was to visit +meanwhile, in order to explain matters. But if the rescuers were +refused admission, the Consul must be entreated to give active help. I, +as a "diplomat," was considered a suitable person to deal with this +side of the affair; and Antoun Effendi was to keep unobtrusive guard +within sight of Rechid's house until Brigit and Monny, with or without +a companion, should come forth safely. As I said, however, the +difficulty was Mrs. East. She would expect her niece if not Brigit to +go about with her, and would not be easily persuaded to join any other +party. As for Rachel, we need not think of her, as she had been annexed +by the Biddells, who would otherwise have lost Harry Snell. But +Cleopatra! What to do with Cleopatra? It was Anthony who had an +inspiration. +</p> +<p> +There lived near Asiut, it seemed, an Italian who bred Sicilian lap-dogs, +said to be like those which had been favourite pets in the day of +Cleopatra the Great. Indeed, Antony was supposed to have given one to +the Queen. Now, Fenton asked permission to present a Sicilian lap-dog +to Mrs. East, a dog so small, so polite, that he could be taken +anywhere. Anthony could not go himself to select the gift, but would +find an interpreter as a guide to the kennel and bring her back to the +exploring party. Cleopatra, delighted with her hero's thoughtfulness, +caught at the idea: and when the Set went tearing furiously away in +arabeahs or on donkeys, Mrs. East followed sedately in a carriage with +the elderly Greek interpreter, and Miss Hassett-Bean, who also fancied +the idea of a Sicilian lap-dog, to replace the lamented Marmoset. +</p> +<p> +Everything glittered at Asiut. The sun glittered on the water; palm +trees in gardens glittered as the wind waved their big green fans; the +white or pink facades of large, square houses glittered, those fine +houses along the Nile, in one of which Rechid Bey was known to live. +But brighter than all glittered the silver scarfs which Arabs begged us +to buy. Hanging over arms raised to show them off, the shining folds +glittered like cascades of running water in moonlight. "Very cheap! +very beautiful!" cried the merchants. "Ladies, see here! Your +gen'lemen, they buy for you!" +</p> +<p> +In spite of "Antoun's" dignified refusals, putting the men off till our +return, they ran after us, waving scarfs and shawls and robes, white as +scintillating hoarfrost, pink as palest roses, purple as sunset clouds, +green and golden as Nile water, or sequined black as a night of stars. +Their vendors feared that if we did not buy of them, others might +beguile us, and saw danger ahead in a distant group of rivals crowding +round some tourists from another boat. This group we had to pass, and +as we did so, who should break out from the glittering ring but Bedr. +</p> +<p> +He came toward us, humble and cringing, giving the beautiful Arab +salute. "Dear gen'lemen and ladies!" he exclaimed. "I am very happy to +see you again. Won't you shake hands, to forgive, because I meaned no +harm, and did no wrong thing but obey the sweet ladies' wish when they +would go to that House of the Crocodile. I too much punished when I +been sent away." +</p> +<p> +"That's past now, and forgotten," said Monny, shrinking slightly from +the outstretched hand. "Perhaps it wasn't your fault, that trouble we +got into, but we didn't need you afterward, anyhow, and probably the +people you are with now are nicer to you than we were." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no peoples could be nicer, though they are very nice, my two +gen'lemens you seed with me in the desert. They travel with me yet. We +go everywhere by trains, because it takes not so much time as the +boats. And Miss Guest, that nice good young lady, is she well?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, she is very well," replied Miss Gilder, beginning to be restless, +her beauty-loving eyes avoiding Bedr's face, as had been her habit when +the man was in our employ. She did not like to hurt his feelings (Monny +can't bear to hurt the feelings of any one below herself in wealth or +station, though apparently she doesn't consider that one is bound to be +kind-hearted with the rich); but I could see that she wanted to escape. +Never had she liked Bedr. He had been Rachel's man from the first. +"Miss Guest has gone to see the tombs," Monny explained. +</p> +<p> +"You not go there, and to the bazaars? I take my gen'lemen in a few +minutes." +</p> +<p> +"We shall go by and by; just now we've other things to do," said the +girl evasively, rather too evasively, perhaps. But in the hope of +killing two birds with one stone (luring the man to betray his secret +if he had one, and then shunting him), I broke in. +</p> +<p> +"How have you been getting on," I inquired, looking into the squint +eyes, "since that night I saw you at Medinet-el-Fayoum?" +</p> +<p> +But the eyes opened wide, with a stare of innocence. +</p> +<p> +"You see <i>me</i> there, milord? I thought your party had not come when we +went away. My gen'lemen not like that camping place, and we stay there +not even one night. You must make mistake, and think some other man me. +Sure!" +</p> +<p> +We could not help laughing at the "Sure!" It was spoken in so truly an +American way that it was funny on those lips. Afterward, however, it +struck me in remembering the scene, that the man's accent in speaking +English was even more distinctly American than it had been. This was +odd, if he had been associating with Germans; but natural if his new +clients were Americans. +</p> +<p> +Another question was on my tongue, but before I had time to speak, +Monny cried out: "Oh, there's Wretched Bey, in a carriage, all alone +with some luggage! I hope he's going away!" +</p> +<p> +Naturally we turned, but I saw Biddy raise her eyebrows warningly. The +girl looked puzzled, as if, for an instant, she did not see what she +had done that was wrong. But I guess that Biddy's distrust of Bedr as a +possible spy was still alive in her breast. She did not know of my +suspicions concerning the "camp thief," for the affair at Medinet, +thanks to a white fib or two, had never assumed serious proportions in +her mind. It did not need that, however, to make her feel that Bedr's +ears were not fit receptacles for secrets. +</p> +<p> +Monny had not been mistaken. It was Rechid Bey, leaning comfortably +back in an old-fashioned but not badly appointed open carriage, drawn +by two very decent horses, and driven by a smart, red-sashed, white-robed +negro. We saw him in profile as he passed along the road at some +distance, but he was reading a paper with an expression so placid that +I felt sure he had not seen us. On the seat beside him was a suitcase +with the air of having been made in France; and circumstantial evidence +said that Monny's wish was to be granted. +</p> +<p> +I glanced hastily at Bedr, to observe, if I could, whether the girl's +impulsive exclamation had aroused undue interest; for it was not +unlikely that he had seen Rechid Bey and Mabel landing at Alexandria +the night of his first meeting with us. But the ugly face showed +nothing. +</p> +<p> +"If you have things you want to do, my ladies," he said, "please excuse +that I have keeped you. I go to my gen'lemen or they give the men with +the silver shawls too much money." +</p> +<p> +The "gen'lemen" in question were more interested in observing our +movements than in completing any bargain with the street vendors; +nevertheless Bedr hastened back as if in great fear that they might be +cheated. An arabeah waited for them; and having bought a scarf or two, +they drove off before we had parted to go our several ways. An arabeah +was in attendance upon us, also, and we put Brigit and Monny into it +alone, for Rechid Bey's house, the driver informed us, was not far off. +</p> +<p> +"Good luck!" I said encouragingly, and Brigit smiled gayly at me; but +Monny was looking at Fenton. She was telling him something with her +eyes; and, with a significant little gesture, she touched the small +leather handbag she carried. +</p> +<p> +"One would think she was a suffragette with a bomb," I remarked to +Anthony, trying to speak easily, as though I were not at all anxious, +when the carriage had turned its back on us. +</p> +<p> +"Instead of which," said Anthony, gazing at the dark head and the fair +head, as earnestly as if he never expected to see them again, "instead +of which, she's merely a brave girl with a pistol that she knows how to +use. Or, anyhow, she says she does." +</p> +<p> +"Great heavens! Has she got one in that bag?" I gasped. +</p> +<p> +"She has. My Browning." +</p> +<p> +"Jove! You gave it to her?" +</p> +<p> +"I did. Last night." +</p> +<p> +My heart began suddenly to feel like a cannon ball, in my breast. I +felt that I had not understood the situation, and that now I did not +understand Anthony—though that was far from being a new sensation. +</p> +<p> +"I thought that <i>you</i> thought there was no danger?" I bleated. "You +know Egypt and I don't. I didn't want them to go in for this thing, but +when you said it would be all right, I yielded. I wish to heaven I +hadn't!" +</p> +<p> +"Do you think if you hadn't given in, Miss Gilder would have given up?" +</p> +<p> +"You and I together could have kept them both out of the business." +</p> +<p> +"Only by sheer force. You see, Miss Gilder was interested in this girl +and fond of her before she met you. So was Mrs. East. As Rechid tricked +the pretty little governess by making her believe she would be his +first and only wife, they don't look upon her as married to him: And I +think they're right. Don't you glory in them both for knowing there's a +risk, yet taking it so gayly for that foolish child's sake?" +</p> +<p> +"I glory in them, but I wouldn't have let them go if—" +</p> +<p> +"You've changed your mind, just because I gave Miss Gilder my Browning? +Honestly, Duffer, I don't think there's actual danger. But, anyhow, +don't you see, they <i>had</i> to go, and they had to go alone. They would +have hated us and themselves and each other if they hadn't answered the +girl's appeal. And <i>we</i> couldn't do the thing, unfortunately, as it +deals with the harem. If it can be done at all, it's woman's business. +These two are the right ones, as they felt bound to do it, and you and +I can but see them through, from the outside." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH19"><!-- CH19 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XIX +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +"IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED" +</p> +<p> +Now that we were thoroughly launched on this somewhat quixotic +adventure, I envied Anthony because his part in the drama kept him "in +the wings," within sight of the stage. He was to watch the house of +Rechid Bey, and if the rescue party of two did not appear after an +hour's absence, the true story of the affair and Mabel's appeal was to +be laid before the Inspector General of Upper Egypt—laid before him +not by "Ahmed Antoun Effendi," but by Captain Anthony Fenton, +officially on leave, secretly on a special mission for the British +government. +</p> +<p> +My rôle, less exciting but perhaps no less important, was to play the +diplomat in beguiling the American Consul to stand by the wife of +Rechid Bey, if the attempt at rescue succeeded, or—if possible—even +if it failed. +</p> +<p> +"Antoun" accounted for his presence in front of Rechid Bey's high +garden wall, by attracting a crowd, and lecturing them in his character +of Hadji, while I dashed off in a jingling arabeah, to the American +Consulate. As in Cairo, my progress was one long adjuration of the +crowd by the driver, who would have revelled in conducting the car of +Juggernaut. +</p> +<p> +"Shemalak, ya welad!" ("To the left, oh, boy!"), or "Yeminick!" ("To +the right!"), he roared, while men dived and dipped under his horse's +prancing feet. A hawk flew by on my right side, and my right eyelid +twitched, as we neared the Consulate. In Egypt these were good omens. +Besides, there had been a red sunrise, which in the Nile country had +meant, since Egyptians superseded the prehistoric "new race," that Rã +had conquered his enemies, and stained the sky with their blood. +Therefore all should be well with me and the world; and it did seem as +if my hopes bade fair to be fulfilled, when in the Consul I recognized +a man I had been able to advise in a small official difficulty in my +early days at the Embassy in Rome. This was even more fortunate than +the case of Slaney. We shook hands warmly, and as soon as was decent, I +interrupted a flow of reminiscent gratitude by flooding Mr. James +Bronson with the story of Rechid Bey's unhappy American bride, Mabella +Hânem, ill treated as well as cruelly deceived, if her story were true. +He knew Rechid slightly, but the marriage was news to him. With +interest he listened to my account of the lonely little governess in +Paris, bewitched by the love-making of a handsome Turk as white as +herself. But when I asked for help, the Consul shook his head. +</p> +<p> +"Lord Ernest," he said, "there's nothing I'd like better than to pay my +debt by doing you some favour. But you're asking me the one thing +that's hardest, as you probably know. You understand as well as I do +that when a girl marries a man, she ceases to be a subject of her +native land. And to interfere with the inmate of a harem is just about +impossible. But I'll tell you what I will do for your sake. If you can +get the girl out of Rechid Bey's house—which, mind you, I doubt—you +may bring her to my wife, and we'll cook up some story about her being +a relative of mine. So she is, I guess, through Adam and Eve! If you +think she's been badly treated, we'll stand by her, once she's under +this roof (which means she'll be on American soil), through thick and +thin, whatever the consequences. I can't go farther, and I don't +believe you expected that I would." +</p> +<p> +I admitted that I had not, and thanked him for his promise. +</p> +<p> +By this time, I thought that Brigit and Monny might be on their way to +meet me at the Consulate, as arranged, escorted by "Antoun," and +perhaps bringing Mabel. Even the route they were to take was planned, +so that I could not miss them if I started. +</p> +<p> +Meanwhile, Mr. Bronson was to interest his wife in our protégée. Back I +flew, my ears deafened by more "Ya Welads," but though I met many +things and many creatures on the congested road, there was no arabeah +containing the desired ones. I made my driver slacken pace as we neared +the big, square pink house of Rechid Bey, set far back in its garden of +palms and impossible statues, on the bank of the Nile. No green turban +was in sight, and I wondered what could have happened, as we drove +slowly past the ponderous black gate-keeper, apparently half asleep on +his bench. There was nothing to do but crawl along at a snail's pace, +lest that droop of the crocodile-lids should be assumed for effect. I +went on, meaning to turn presently; but when the arabeah had taken me +beyond eyeshot of Rechid's gate-keeper, an Arab sacca, or water seller, +ran forward, striking his musical gong. From his brass jar, protected +by crimson-dyed horse hair to keep out dust, he offered a draught; and +his look said that he had something more for me than a drink of water. +I beckoned him close, stopping the arabeah; and under the tumbler he +handed up was a folded bit of paper. None save the water seller had +attention to spare for me just then, as a wedding procession was +approaching, with a crude but gorgeous curtained litter drawn by +camels, and a number of musicians with räitas, darabukas, the "key and +bottle," and other Eastern instruments which may have been ancestors of +the Highlanders' bagpipes. The street crowd followed, enchanted by the +plaintive, monotonous notes, grotesque to newcomers from the west, but +enthralling to those who have fallen under the spell of their +melancholy magic. +</p> +<p> +"Failure for the present, but Miss G. and Mrs. J. safe," Anthony had +scrawled in pencil. "Couldn't wait in front of R.'s house, but you'll +find us at an Arab restaurant to which the messenger will guide you. +All you have to do is to discharge your arabeah, and walk in the +direction the man takes, keeping your distance in case you're watched." +</p> +<p> +I obeyed instructions, and in the town of Asiut, far from the gardens +along the Nile front, I came to a house between the mosque of the +tallest minaret, and the great market whither Arabia as well as Egypt +sends her wares. It was a house of some pretension, though in a narrow +unpaved street, lined with humble native dwellings. I guessed that it +must have been built for a rich man who had died or failed in business, +but now a sign in Arabic announced that it was a restaurant. A nod from +the water seller told that I had reached the end of the journey. Nubian +servants salaamed in the big room where once the master of the house +had held receptions, and in a smaller room beyond I saw Antoun, Brigit, +and Monny. They were seated at a low table where no forks or knives or +even plates were laid. In the centre of the white cloth stood a large +dish of something sweet and rich-looking, from which everybody +pretended to eat; but at sight of me, Brigit and Monny began talking +together. They told me breathlessly how they had been informed by the +gatekeeper that "Mabella Hânem" was not well. Having insisted that they +were intimate friends whom she would desire to see, they had been +bidden to return in an hour. Reluctantly coming away, they had as soon +as was prudent been joined by Antoun. He had then taken them to the +bazaars, hoping to give them a glimpse of the shops before the Set +returned from the Tombs; but they had met Neill Sheridan, who had +something to tell. He had caught sight of Bedr running after the +carriage of a Turk strongly resembling Rechid Bey. The carriage had +stopped near the railway station; and after an instant's conversation +the horses had been turned to gallop off in the direction whence they +had come. +</p> +<p> +"Of course we were sure the Turk <i>was</i> Rechid," said Monny, "so Antoun +Effendi thought we'd better go back to watch his house. When we got +there, it was too late, for already some time had passed since Mr. +Sheridan saw Bedr. Rechid's gate-man said that Mabella Hânem was +suddenly better, and had gone away with her husband. He could talk a +little French, so we understood perfectly—and, anyhow, you know I'm +studying Arabic. It's <i>so</i> discouraging when Arabs answer me in Cockney +English, or say "Sure" in American! We believed the fellow, because it +seemed exactly what Wretched <i>would</i> do—come back and grab Mabel away +at a minute's notice. So unfortunate about Neill Sheridan! Wretched was +idiotically jealous of him on the <i>Laconia</i>; and if he caught a glimpse +of him to-day he's certain to think Mr. Sheridan's here to try and see +Mabel. We tore to the railroad depot, but the train was just going out. +No doubt Rechid and his wife were both on it. Isn't it heartbreaking?" +</p> +<p> +I sat mute, thinking things over, but Anthony tried to give consolation +by saying that he still had some hope. He had found out that Rechid Bey +owned a sugar plantation, with a house on it, near Luxor. The train +which had left Asiut was bound for Luxor. In a very few days our boat +would land us there, and we would try our luck again. +</p> +<p> +"Not much doubt," Fenton added, speaking as always in French, "that +this is Bedr's revenge on us. He must have told Rechid that Miss Gilder +had mentioned his name saying she hoped he was leaving home. That hint +of danger would be enough for any Turk." +</p> +<p> +"It will be my fault, then," moaned Monny, "if he kills Mabel. He's +deceived and shut her up and tried to convert her. Worse than all, he +has another wife. The next step will be murder. Oh, how can we bear the +delay of going on to Luxor by boat! Hadn't we better take a train? +Better miss all the things we've come to Egypt to see, rather than +leave Mabel to her fate." +</p> +<p> +"Rechid isn't the sort to have her put out of the way,"! said Anthony. +"He's not a bad fellow, as such men go, and he's hardly had time to +tire of his conquest yet. According to his lights, he's right not to +allow any interference with his harem from Europeans. He was jealous on +board ship, of one or two men of your acquaintance, you've told me. +This attempted visit of yours will revive his interest in his wife, +inconveniently for us; but if I know his type it will die down again, +the minute he thinks he has covered his tracks. For a day or two he +will be a dragon. Then he'll begin to think we're discouraged, or that +we haven't found out about his sugar plantation, or that nothing more +than a visit to his wife was intended, and he'll turn his attention to +other things than watch-dogging. It's far better to go on by boat, and +make a dash when he's off guard again." +</p> +<p> +After a few arguments, we agreed with "Antoun," as we usually ended by +doing, and soothed our restlessness by visiting Mr. Bronson to tell him +of our disappointment. If it hadn't been for Monny, I think the Consul +would have taken the point of view that he was now "out" of the affair, +but Monny, sapphire-eyed with generous zeal, is rather irresistible. +Fired by her enthusiasm, as he had not been by my beguiling, he +volunteered to go to Luxor on two or three days' leave, with his wife, +to visit a Syrian friend who had often vainly invited them to his +villa, and arriving if possible about the time our boat was due. If we +succeeded in our quest, we might bring Mabel to them, and they would +smuggle her back to the American Consulate at Asiut. +</p> +<p> +Our great adventure thus postponed, we let the Nile-dream take us once +more; and though we had moments of impatience, the dream was too fair +to be resisted. Besides, we were all four dreaming it together. Poor +Cleopatra was the only one outside, for Rachel Guest was dreaming her +own dream, with an extremely practical side to it, unless Biddy and I +were mistaken. She wore Monny's clothes, and used her special perfume, +and took advantage of the same initials, to accept gifts of filmy +handkerchiefs and monogrammed bags and brushes. Also she had firmly +annexed most of the men on board who would, in normal states of mind, +have belonged to the Gilded Rose. But they all seemed to have gone mad +on the subject of Miss Guest. Even Harry Snell, who had been the +property of Enid Biddell on board the <i>Candace</i>, on the <i>Enchantress +Isis</i> was gravitating Guest-ward, lured by that meek, mysterious +witchery which I was trying hard to understand. +</p> +<p> +We got past Sohâg, and the famous White and Red Coptic Monasteries +built by Saint Helena, without jarring notes of any sort in the +Nile-dream (save for the failure of our rescue plot): past Akhmin, which +Herodotus wrote of as Chemmis: past Girgah, where once stood ancient +This, that gave the first dynasty of kings to Egypt: but when we +arrived at Baliana to visit Abydos, between Enid Biddell and Harry +Snell I had an interlude of nightmare. It was Rachel's fault, but it +was I who had to suffer for her sins. I, who had engaged as Conductor +of the Set and found myself their Arbiter as well. +</p> +<p> +Other tourists on other boats do not see Abydos until the return trip; +but the aim of Sir Marcus was originality as well as "exclusiveness." +This was a special tour, and everything we were to do must be special. +Some passengers might wish to stay longer than others at Khartum, or +from there go up the White or Blue Nile after Big Game. Or they might +tire of the Nile, and wish to tear back to Cairo by train. Sir Marcus +was boldly outdoing his rivals by allowing clients to engage cabins for +"up Nile" only, instead of paying the return also: and they were not to +miss any temple because of this concession. "I consider it an +advertisement, and a cheap one," he had explained to me, in saying that +we were to visit at Abydos on our way south. +</p> +<p> +Beautiful smiling donkeys, adorned with beads and amulets, met us at +the boat-landing. We ought to have called it Al-Balyana, but we didn't. +We called it Baliana, and we pronounced Abydos according to our +education. We had a ride of an hour and a half from the boat to the +temple; and having sent off Cleopatra and Lady Biddell in a carriage, +my conscience was free, my heart light. The sun shone on tawny desert +hills, like lions creeping stealthily out from the horizon toward the +Nile to drink. There were sweet smells of unseen flowers, and herbs +such as ancient Egyptian doctors used, and I looked forward to keeping +my donkey near Biddy's. Of course I ought to have preferred Monny's, +but then, I could talk of Monny to Biddy, and we had had so many +subjects in common since childhood that it was restful to ride even the +most energetic donkey at the side of "Mrs. Jones." No sooner, however, +had I begun to urge my gray animal after her white one, than I was +called by Enid Biddell. "Oh, Lord Ernest! I <i>must</i> speak to you!" she +pleaded so piteously that I couldn't pretend not to hear. +</p> +<p> +When we were ambling side by side, separated from the rest of the party +by a gleaming cloud of copper dust, a few long-haired, brown sheep, +some blue-eyed water buffalo, and a plague of little birds, Enid turned +upon me a pair of tear-wet eyes. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Miss Biddell, what is the matter—or is it a cold in your head?" +I asked anxiously. +</p> +<p> +"It's not a cold in my head," she confessed. "It's a dreadful, dreadful +pain in my heart. And you're the only one who can cure it." +</p> +<p> +For a fearful moment I thought that she was going to propose. One hears +of these awful visitations. But I need not have trembled. +</p> +<p> +"I feel as if I could say anything to you," she murmured. "You are so +understanding, and so sympathetic." +</p> +<p> +It was on the tip of my tongue to reply that it was my duty as +Conductor to be so, and that, if I succeeded, a mountain full of hidden +treasure might perhaps reward me. But just in time I realized that this +speech would not be tactful. Instead of speaking, I looked at her and +let her go on. +</p> +<p> +"It's Harry Snell," she said. "You have influence with him. He thinks +you such a great swell, he'd hate to do anything you would call +unworthy of a gentleman. He—he's making me so unhappy. He's done +—everything—to win my love and now—now he's gone over to that Miss +Guest." The donkey having begun inopportunely to trot, the words were +jolted out, one after another, like a shower of pebbles. And they fell +on my feelings like paving stones. She expected <i>me</i> to do something +about it! Horrible! I should almost have preferred the proposal. +</p> +<p> +"My dear Miss Biddell," I soothed her in my best salad-oil voice, +cultivated at the Embassy, "you are much prettier than Miss Guest, and +you can win Snell back easily if you want him. Probably he's only +flirting, to make you jealous." +</p> +<p> +"It's me he was flirting with," she moaned. "But I <i>don't</i> believe he +cares for Miss Guest. It's only a case of 'follow my leader,' because +other men like her so much. Nothing succeeds like success, you know. +And other men's admiration is the most becoming background a girl can +have. He told Mrs. Harlow it was haunting him, that Elaine and I would +get fat like our mother, and the men who married us would have to spend +dull years seeing us slowly grow into mother's likeness. Wasn't it +cruel? And we eat scarcely <i>anything</i> except pickles on purpose to keep +thin. But that's only his excuse. It's the romance of the situation, +and the <i>secret</i> that appeals to him." +</p> +<p> +"What secret?" I felt entitled to inquire. +</p> +<p> +"Why, the secret between those two girls, Miss Gilder and Miss Guest. +You <i>know</i> what all the men believe about them, don't you? But of +course you do." +</p> +<p> +"But of course I don't." +</p> +<p> +"Why, that they've changed places, to deceive people, just as heiresses +and poor girls do in old-fashioned plays or books. They think Miss +Gilder (I mean the girl we <i>call</i> Miss Gilder) is really the +school-teacher, and the one we call Miss Guest, and that all the men are +after, is Rosamond Gilder the cannon heiress." +</p> +<p> +"Whew!" I whistled, bumpily, as my donkey kept up with Enid's. "For +goodness' sake, what makes them think that?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know exactly how the story started, but it seems <i>authentic</i>. +Have you known them long?" +</p> +<p> +"Only since Naples. But—" +</p> +<p> +"Then you can't be certain whether it's true or not?" +</p> +<p> +I paused, swallowing an answer. So <i>this</i> was the explanation of the +Monny puzzle! Yet it was but the first word of another enigma. <i>Who</i> +was responsible for the wild story? There was more than met the eye—or +ear—in this. I could hardly believe that Monny would have chosen, or +Rachel dared, to start this rumour, though it might have amused the +real heiress, and suited the false one, to watch it run. I dared not +contradict it flatly, without consulting Brigit or the Gilded Rose +herself. It was not my business to be a spoil-sport, if there were +sport to spoil, no matter how sternly I might disapprove. +</p> +<p> +"In the matter of actual knowledge, I have very little about Miss +Gilder," I decided to reply, "except that she's charming enough and +pretty enough for any man to fall in love with, if she hadn't a penny. +As for Miss Guest" +</p> +<p> +"Miss Guest is a cat! And if <i>only</i> you'll tell Harry Snell so, I'll +bless you all my life." +</p> +<p> +"Good gracious! I couldn't do that." +</p> +<p> +"I mean, tell him you think she isn't the heiress, that she's only what +she seems to be, and nothing mysterious or interesting. He'll believe +<i>you</i>! Why, she <i>can't</i> have any money, or even a nice mind. She always +writes 'No,' with her finger on top of her cold cream at hotels, she +told me so herself. Not that it's any good with Arabs, they don't want +to steal cold cream. But such a trick would never occur to a rich girl, +would it? She grows vainer every day, too, till one can just see vanity +spouting from the top of her head. She intends to use this mistake +people are making about her, to bag a rich man like Harry Snell, or a +successful one with a big, growing reputation like Mr. Bailey the +American sculptor. You <i>will</i> help me save Harry from her, and bring +him back to me, won't you? You're the only one he'll listen to. If you +don't speak, I shall simply jump overboard into the Nile, and Sir +Marcus Lark would <i>hate</i> that." +</p> +<p> +"So should I, dear Miss Biddell," I assured her. "But what can I +possibly do in—in such a very intimate matter?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, you're a diplomat, aren't you? I thought they always knew what to +do. You make us all dance to your tune like puppets, and imagine we're +prancing about to please ourselves. Tell him he's breaking my heart." +</p> +<p> +"By Jove! You're not in earnest?" +</p> +<p> +"I am. Oh, he must come back! I thought on board the <i>Candace</i> we were +as good as engaged. I—I submitted to his kisses, and now—" +</p> +<p> +"'Submitted' is a good word," I sneered to my inner self, but outwardly +I submitted a handkerchief to the lady, as she had lost hers in one of +the last donkey jolts, and ventured to insert sympathetically into a +pause a small suggestion. It was usual, I reminded Miss Biddell, if a +gentleman's intentions had to be asked, that the father did the asking. +This hint, however, fell flatter than a flounder; and all the way to +Abydos, most sacred temple of ancient Egypt, I was persecuted with Enid +Biddell's woes, when I should have been free to meditate upon the +tragic history of Isis and Osiris. It was here that the head of the +murdered god was buried, and perhaps his whole body, when the magic +secret of Thoth had enabled Isis to collect the fourteen separate +pieces Set had hidden. Many temples claimed the sacred body of Osiris, +ruler over departed spirits and Amenti, their dim dwelling place beyond +the western desert; Philae and Memphis among others; but it was Abydos +to which the Egyptians give their most reverent faith, as the true +burial place of the Beloved One. It was there they wished to lie when +they died and were mummied, in order to rest through eternity near the +relic of their most precious god. Thus a necropolis grew like a +poppy-garden of sleep, round the temple; and a city rose also. But even in +the long-ago time of Strabo, the city was reduced to a village, and all +traces of the shrine had vanished. The great white jewel of the +temples—temple of Seti I, and the temple of his son Rameses II—remain +to this day, however, with the Tablet of Ancestors which has helped in +the tracing of Egyptian history. Therefore is it that this treasure of +the Nile-desert is still a shrine for travellers from the four corners +of the earth. +</p> +<p> +After the long, straight road, and a high, sudden hill, we came face to +face with the marble-white columns of the outer court. If I had been +with Brigit or Monny, I could have run back into the past, hand in hand +with either, to see with my mind's eyes the white limestone palace of +Memnon, copied from the Labyrinth, standing above the city between the +canal and the desert. I should have peered into the depths of its +fountain; and with a hand shading my eyeballs from the sun I should +have gazed at the grove of Horus' sacred acanthus trees, dark against +the burning blue. I should have found the Royal tombs which Rameses +restored, grouped near the buried body of Osiris. But bad luck gave me +Enid Biddell for my companion. She would not let any one else come near +me, even had the Right Somebody wished to dispute my battered remains +with her. "Antoun Effendi" had the others hypnotized, and I wondered if +they noticed how like his boldly cut profile was to certain portraits +of the youthful Rameses carved on the glittering white walls. So +splendid were they that had I been a woman my spirit would have rushed +back along the sand-obliterated, devious paths of Egypt's history, to +find and fall at the feet of their original. But—there was Antoun, +much easier to get at, and perhaps better worth the gift of a woman's +heart than Rameses the Great with all his faults and cruelties! +</p> +<p> +Crowds of birds lived in interstices of the broken columns, and their +tiny faces peeped out like flowers growing among rocks, their eyes +bright and arresting as personal anecdotes in long, dull chapters of +history. They seemed to look at me, and sympathize, cocking their heads +on one side as if to say, "Poor, foolish, modern man, why don't you +make a virtue of necessity and get rid of this still more foolish +modern maid, by promising her anything she asks? Then you can go listen +to that princely looking person in the green turban, who might be +descended from the kings our ancestors used to behold. He does seem to +know something about the history of this place, on which <i>we</i> are +authorities! The dragomans who bring crowds of tourists to our temple +and gabble nonsense, put us really off our feed. Peep, peep! Just hear +him tell about the staircase we're so proud of. Did <i>you</i> know there +was a picture of it in the Book of The Dead, with Osiris standing at +the top, like a good host waiting to receive his guests? Well, then, if +you didn't, do anything you must to escape from that lovesick girl, +while there's time to hear a real scholar talk of 'Him who is at the +Head of the Staircase!' Peep, peep! Hurry up, or you'll lose it all, +you Silly. Of course, the real staircase is in Amenti, which your Roman +Catholics call Purgatory; and no doubt Osiris is standing on it to this +day." +</p> +<p> +So I took the birds' advice, and promised Enid to have a "heart to +heart" talk with Harry Snell. Satisfied that she had got all that was +to be got out of me, she powdered her nose (in the same spirit that +David anointed his head) and attached herself to Rachel, in whose train +was the Desired One. Thus basely did I free myself to enjoy the society +of Biddy and Osiris, with lovely carved glimpses of Isis thrown in, to +say nothing of Seti I and Rameses II. Trying to push into the +background of my mind the nauseating thought of my vow and its +fulfillment, I helped Brigit and Monny take snapshots of King Seti +showing his son Rameses how to lasso, and also to catch by its tail the +most fascinating of bulls. They were on the wall, of course (Rameses +and Seti, I mean, not Brigit and Monny), but seemed so real they might +leap off at any instant; and so charmed was Monny with Rameses' braided +"lock of youth" that she resolved to try one over her left temple in +connection with an Egyptian Princess costume she was having made for +some future fancy-dress ball. "I can't take a grain of interest in any +one but Egyptian Princes and Princesses and their profiles," she +exclaimed; then blushed faintly and added, "I mean Princes and +Princesses of the <i>past</i>." +</p> +<p> +We got some good pictures of the temple of Seti, for Monny had an +apparatus for natural colour photography which gave sensational results +in ancient wall-paintings—when any one except Monny herself did the +taking. It was better still in the Seven Chapels, the holy of holies at +Abydos, and in the joy of my first colour photography I forgot the doom +ahead. Appropriately, the sword I had hung up over my own cranium +descended in the Necropolis, at that place of tombs called Umm +el-Ka'ab, "Mother of Pots." Nobody wanted to see the fragments of this +mother's pots, but I insisted on a brief visit, as important +discoveries have been made there, among the most important in Egypt. It +was a dreary place where Harry Snell strolled up and caught me alone, +gazing at a desolation of sandy hillocks, full of undiscovered +treasure. +</p> +<p> +"Look here," said he. "You're supposed to know everything. Tell me why +they call seats outside shops in bazaars, and tombs of the Ancient +Empire by the same name: mastaba?" +</p> +<p> +I explained that mastaba was an Arab word meaning bench. Then, +realizing that it would be flying in the face of Providence not to get +the ordeal over while my blood was up, I spoke of Enid. Among the +shattered pots and yawning sepulchres, I racked up her broken heart and +blighted affections. I talked to Snell like a brother, and when he had +heard me through in silence, to the place where words and breath +failed, I thought that I had moved him. His eyes were downcast. I +fancied that I saw a mist as of tears, a man's slow tears. Then +suddenly he opened his eyelids wide, and glared—a glare stony as the +pots, and as the desert hills. "Borrow," he said, "I thought you were a +good fellow and a man of the world. I see now that you're a damned +sentimental ass." +</p> +<p> +With this he stalked off, and I could not run after him to bash his +head, because what he said was perfectly true. I was almost sorry that +evening, on board the boat, when he apologized and the Nile-dream went +on as if I hadn't broken it by being the sort of fool Snell had said +that I was. +</p> +<p> +In the dream were Nile cities, with crowding houses whose walls were +heightened by tier upon tier of rose-and-white pots, moulded in with +honey-coloured mud. There were stretches of sandy shore, and green +gloom of palm groves. There were domed tombs of saints, glittering like +snow-palaces in the sun. There were great golden mounds inlaid with +strips of paler gold picked out with ebony. There were sinister +hillsides cut into squarely by door-holes, leading to cave-dwellings. +There were always shadoofs, where giant soup-ladles everlastingly +dipped water and threw it out again, mounting up from level to level of +the brown, dyke-like shore. The wistful, musical wail of the men at the +wells was as near to the voice of Nature as the sighing of wind, or the +breaking of waves which has never ceased since the world began. +Sometimes the horizon was opal, sometimes it throbbed with azure fire, +or blazed ruby red, as the torch of sunset swept west and east before +the emerald darkness fell. When our <i>Enchantress</i> landed, great flocks +of kites, like in form and wing to the sacred vulture of Egypt, flew to +welcome us with swoopings of wide purple wings. Their shadows on the +water were like passing spirits; and at night when the Nubian boatmen +danced, their feet thudding on the lower deck to the cry of the +darabukah, the Nile whispered of the past, with a tinkling whisper, +like the music of Hathor's sacred sistrum. Gyassas glided by, loaded +with pots like magic melons, long masts pointing as though they had +been wands in the hands of astrologers: and the reflection of the piled +pots as they moved gave vague glimpses as of sunken treasure. +</p> +<p> +Denderah meant work for Fenton. There had been trouble there, and +tourists had complained of insults. It was the Hadji's business to find +out whether natives or Europeans had been more to blame, and whether +there were wrongs to right, misunderstandings to adjust. But to the +rest of us, Denderah meant the sacred temple of Hathor, Goddess of +Love, in some ways one of the most beautiful of all the Nile temples; +though, being not much over two thousand years old (it was built upon +ruins more ancient than King Menes) archeologists like Neill Sheridan +class it as "late Ptolemaic," uninterestingly modern. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East had been looking forward to the temple of Denderah more +eagerly than to any other, because she had read that on an outer wall +was carved the portrait of Cleopatra the Great. That of Cæsarion was +there also, as she must have known; but Cleopatra's son was never +referred to by her reincarnation, who chose to ignore the Cæsar +incident. Mrs. East had not yet deigned to mount a donkey, but to reach +the temple she must do so or walk, or sway in a dangerous looking +<i>chaise à porteur</i>. Rather than miss the joy of seeing herself on a +stone wall as others had had the privilege of seeing her for two +thousand years, she consented to accept as a seat a large gray animal, +tasselled with red to keep off flies and evil eyes. "Won't you ride +with me, Antoun Effendi?" she asked. "I'm afraid. This creature looks +as large as an elephant and as wild as a zebra. I feel <i>you</i> could calm +him." But Antoun Effendi was not going to ride. He had other fish to +fry; and poor Cleopatra's luminous dark eyes were like overflowing +lakes, when he had politely excused himself on the plea of a pressing +engagement. I felt sure that she would have been kind to Sir Marcus if +at that moment he could have appeared from behind the picturesque group +of bead-necklace sellers, or emerged from one of the huge +bright-coloured baskets exposed for sale on a hill of brown-gold sand. +</p> +<p> +I don't know whether it made things better or worse that the gray +donkey should be named "Cleopatra," but it was evidently a blow when +the animal's white-robed attendant announced himself as Anthony. +</p> +<p> +"I can't and won't have the creature with me!" she murmured, as I +helped her to mount when she had pushed the boy aside. "Thank you, Lord +Ernest. You're very kind. But Antoun ought to have been here. Fancy +seeing <i>this</i> temple, of all others, without an Anthony of any sort on +the horizon! A pity it isn't <i>your</i> middle name! If you could spare +time to ride with me, that would be better than nothing!" +</p> +<p> +"I'll be delighted," I said hypocritically, for I had been dying to +talk with Brigit about the Monny and Rachel imbroglio which, as a +hard-worked Conductor, I had not since Abydos found a chance to discuss. +Besides, Biddy had whispered in passing that a letter just delivered at +Denderah, had brought exciting news of Esmé O'Brien: But I was sorry +for Cleopatra, and wondered whether I could manage after all to hint an +explanation of the hieroglyphic love-letter—that fatal letter of mine +which had stealthily made mischief between Mrs. East and Anthony. I +didn't quite see how the subject was to be broached: still, some way +might open. "I'm sorry about the middle name," I said. "But if I +assumed it—like a virtue which I have not—I should be the third +person connected with this trip, labelled the same fashion." +</p> +<p> +"Who is the second person?" she asked abruptly, as all the animals of +the party started to trot vivaciously through the blowing yellow sand. +</p> +<p> +"Sir Marcus. Surely you've heard that his 'A' stands for Antonius?" +</p> +<p> +"Good heavens!" she gasped: and I hardly knew whether it was the shock +of my news, or a jolt of the donkey which forced the exclamation. +Whatever it was, the emotion she felt bound her to silence after that +one outburst. She said not a word, and did not even groan or threaten +to fall off when both our beasts broke into a thumping gallop. In +silence we swept round that great bulk of rubbish heap, Roman and early +Christian, under which lies An, the town of the Column. Cleopatra did +not cry out when suddenly we came in sight of Hathor's temple, honey-gold +against the turquoise sky, and vast as some Wagnerian palace of +the gods. The tasselled donkey (or I) had given her cause to think. Or +perhaps she did not consider me worth talking to, as we approached the +temple toward which all her previous travelling had been a mere +pilgrimage. Still silently, when we had left our donkeys and were +following the crowd up the dromos (Harry Snell actually with Enid, +thanks to me and the wisdom of second thoughts), Cleopatra's eyes +wandered over the Hathor-headed columns with their clinging colour; and +over the portal with its brilliant mass of yellow, of dark Pompeian +red, and the green-blue sacred to Hathor, whom Horus loved +—Venus-Hathor, whose priestesses danced within these walls in Cleopatra's +day. "Oh, this red and this green-blue were my colours, I remember," she +murmured, and then hardly spoke when I walked with her in the gloom of +the temple itself—the rich gloom under heavily ornamented ceilings. +She wanted to save the portrait till the last, she announced, until +after she had seen everything else: and she didn't care <i>what</i> Mr. +Sheridan said about her temple; it was wonderful. I tried to interest +her in the crocodiles, which had been detested and persecuted at +Denderah in the late Cleopatra's time as ardently as they were +worshipped at Crocodilopolis and other places. I joked about Old Egypt +having consisted of "crocs and non crocs," just as the inhabitants of +Florence had to be Guelphs or Ghibellines. I explained carefully the +geography of the place, or rather, "reminded" Cleopatra of it, adding +details of the canal which once led to Koptos, where the magic book of +the Wisdom of Thoth lay hidden under the Nile. I could not waken Mrs. +East from reverie to interest, as Antoun would have had the power to +do; but my vanity was not hurt. It was only my curiosity which +suffered, for I wanted desperately to know whether the donkey had +seriously jolted the lady's spine, or whether the news that Sir M. A. +Lark was Marcus Antonius, not a more obvious Marcus Aurelius, had fired +her imagination. +</p> +<p> +In any case I devoted myself to her while Monny and Brigit frolicked +with others; and I had a reward of a kind. When we had seen all the +halls and chambers, and the crypt with its carvings all fresh as if +made yesterday; when we had been on the roof where chanting priests had +once awaited the rising of Sirius; when I had taken her outside the +temple, where blowing columns of dusty sand rose like incense from +hidden altars of Hathor, we stood at last alone together, gazing up at +the figures of Cleopatra and her son. The wall on which they were +carved rose behind the Holy of Holies, where the golden statue of the +Goddess had been kept; but alas, the figures themselves! Alas! I knew +how Cleopatra must be feeling; and I dared not speak. Perhaps she was +even blushing: but I did not look. Instead, I gazed helplessly up at +that exposed, misshapen form, that flaccid chin. +</p> +<p> +"Thank heaven it's only <i>you</i> who are with me!" breathed Mrs. East. +</p> +<p> +That was my reward. Or should I call it a punishment? Anyhow, it made +it easier for the insignificant person in question to unburden his +conscience about the hieroglyphic letter. I stammered it all out, on +the way back, apropos of the rubbish-heap which had been Tentyra. I let +it remind me of Fustât and our digging expedition. I had meant to +follow Mrs. East's advice and propose to Miss Gilder, I explained, but +Monny had not found my buried love-letter. What had become of it I—er +—had never been told. All I knew was that it hadn't come into Miss +Gilder's hands; and I should never have as much courage again. +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" Cleopatra exclaimed, with a curious light in her eyes, more like +relief than disappointment. "You really do want to marry my niece? You +delayed so, that I wondered. I wasn't sure, sometimes, if it were Monny +or—but I am on your side, Lord Ernest. It isn't too late yet <i>for any +of us</i>, perhaps. Trust in me. I'm going to help you." +</p> +<p> +I could have bitten my tongue out, though I had blundered with the best +intentions. "Mrs. East," I protested almost ferociously, "you mustn't +do anything. I said before I began, that I was going to tell you a +<i>secret</i>." +</p> +<p> +"I won't betray your confidence. But I <i>will</i> help. I want to. It would +be a good thing for Monny to accept you, Lord Ernest, a very good thing +in more ways than one. Mrs. Jones wants it too, or did. I promise you, +I'll be discreet." +</p> +<p> +With that, we arrived in sight of the boat. Once more, necklaces and +scarabs and baskets were thrust under our noses. Anthony had returned +from his mysterious whisperings in cafés or mosques in the new town, +and was waiting for us. Cleopatra called him, with a note of gayety in +her voice, to help her off "the elephant." He came. I felt she was +going to hint to him that I was in love with Monny—hint to Brigit +also. +</p> +<p> +Virtue may be its own reward, but it makes you very lonely! +</p> +<p> +I hadn't another easy moment for dreaming the Nile-dream. And we all +woke out of it when, with the pink dawn of a certain morning, we saw a +vast temple, repeated column for column, in the clear river, as in a +mirror of glass. +</p> +<p> +We were at Luxor; and somewhere not far off, Mabella Hânem was praying +for release. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH20"><!-- CH20 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XX +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE ZONE OF FIRE +</p> +<p> +Just at the first moment of waking, when I was moved by my subconscious +self to roll out of my berth and bound to the cabin window, I forgot +that we had anything more active to do at Luxor than worship the glory +of sky and river and temples. I had room in my mind only for the +dream-beauty of that astounding picture, into the foreground of which I +seemed to have been thrust, so close upon my eyes loomed the line of +lotus columns. It was as if the ancient gods had poured a libation of +ruby wine from their zenith-dwelling into the translucent depths of the +Nile. Even the long colonnade of broken pillars was deep rose-red +against a pale rose sky, repeated again in deeper rose down in a magic +world beneath the pink crystal roof of shining water. Then, suddenly, +bright windows of sky behind the dark rose-columns flamed to the colour +of primroses, were shot with pansy purple, and cleared to the +transparent green of unflawed emerald. The thought came as I gazed at +the carved wonder (reflected flower for flower and line for line in the +still river) that here was illustrated in unearthly beauty the chief +religious legend of ancient Egypt. As each human soul was believed to +be a part of the World-Soul, Osiris, reunited with him beyond the +western desert, after death, so did these columns made by human hands +unite themselves at sunrise with the soul of the Nile, the life of +Egypt. I caught a glimpse as if in an illuminated parable, of the +Egyptian Cosmos, the Heavens, the Earth, the Depths, three separate +entities, yet forever one as is the Christian's Trinity. Almost I +expected to see the sun-boat of the gods steered slowly across the +river from the city of Kings, westward to the tombs of Kings; and the +little white-breasted birds, which promenaded the deck of our boat as +though it belonged to them, might have been Heart-birds from the world +of mummies across the Nile, escaped for a glimpse of Rameses' gayly +painted, mosaiced white palace with its carved brass balconies, its +climbing roses, its lake of lotuses and its river gardens. I was sure +that, if I told these tiny creatures that the Pharaohs and all their +glories had vanished off the earth except for a few bits in museums, +they would not believe the tale. I wasn't even sure I believed it +myself; and deliberately blotting out of sight the big modern hotels +and the low white line of shops away to the right of the temple, I +tried to see with the Ba-birds, eastern Thebes as it must have been in +the days of Rameses II. I pictured the temple before Cambyses the +Persian, and the great earthquake felled arches and pillars, obelisks +and kingly statues. I built up again the five-story houses of the +priests and nobles, glistening white, and fantastically painted in many +colours: I laid out lawns and flower beds, and set fountains playing. +Then, with a rumbling shock, a chasm many thousand years deep yawned +between me and ancient No, the City of Palaces: +</p> +<p> +It was the voice of Sir John Biddell which opened the ravine of time, +and let the Nile pour through it. He was on deck, in pyjamas and +overcoat, with General Harlow, holding forth on his favourite topic of +mummies—an appropriate subject for this neighbourhood of all others; +yet, I should have preferred silence. +</p> +<p> +Poor Sir John! He had been disappointed in Cairo because a villain had +not lurked behind each of the trees in the Esbekîya Gardens, and notes +tied with silken black hairs had not tumbled on his respectable bald +head from the mystery of latticed windows; but he was thoroughly +enjoying his Nile trip, and learning something every day to tell at +home. Lady Biddell had humiliated him twice, once by asking me if +"those old hieroglyphics were written in Arabic?" again by inquiring +whether the stone-barred temple windows had been "filled in once with +pretty stained glass?" But he had forgiven her because yesterday had +been their silver-wedding day, and he meant to buy her a present at +some curiosity-shop at Luxor. "A pity it isn't the wooden wedding," I +heard him say to General Harlow, "for I might give a handsome mummy-case. +I suppose silver will have to be Persian or Indian, unless I can +get hold of one of those old bracelets or discs the Egyptians used for +money: but that's too good to hope for." +</p> +<p> +It certainly was: though no doubt some industrious manufacturer of +antiques would cheerfully have made and dug up any amount on the site +of Rameses' palace, could he have known in time. +</p> +<p> +We were to have three days at Luxor—three days, when three months +would have been too little!—and the second attempt at abducting an +ill-used lady from the harem of her treacherous lord would take place +as soon as we could learn that our auxiliaries, the Bronsons, had +arrived. Until they were on the spot, even a success might prove an +anti-climax. Meanwhile I had plenty to do in playing my more obvious +part of Conductor, and arranging the last details of our excursion +programme. Every one had bundled out early to see the sunrise. +Consequently most members of the Set were cross or hungry, or both. +Nothing could be less suitable than to clamour for porridge on the +Nile, but they did it, and called for bacon, too, in a land where the +pig is an unclean animal. They were the same people who played "coon +can" and bridge on the deck at twilight, when moving figures on shore +were etched in black on silver, or against flaming wings of sunset, and +in gathering darkness the blue-robed shadoof-men who bent and rose +against gold-brown dykes, were like Persian enamels done on copper. +</p> +<p> +"Hundred gated" Thebes, the dwelling of Amen-Rã whom Greece adopted as +Jupiter-Amon, used to lie on both banks of the Nile; the east for the +living, the west for the dead and those who lived by catering for +mummyhood. +</p> +<p> +I had arranged to take our people first round Luxor, making them +acquainted with the temple which had already introduced its reflection +to us. As for the town, they were capable of making themselves +acquainted with that, its hotels and curiosity-shops, when there was +nothing more important on hand. Next was to come Karnak, the "father of +temples," once connected with the younger temple at Luxor as if by a +long jewelled necklace of ram-headed sphinxes. And for those whose +brains and legs were intact, by evening I thought of a visit to the +thrilling temple of Mût. This last would be an adventure; for Mût, +goddess of matter, the Mother goddess, has apparently not taken kindly +to Moslem rule. Any disagreeable trick she, and her attendant black +statues of passion, fierce Sekhet, can play on a devout Mohammedan, are +meat and drink to her: but she can work her spells only after dusk, +therefore none save the bravest Arab will venture his head inside her +domain, past sunset. I was sure we could get no dragoman to go with us, +and equally sure that the adventure would be more popular for its spice +of horror. +</p> +<p> +The second and third days I allotted to western Thebes, the city of the +dead: the tombs of the Kings, the tombs of the Queens and the Nobles; +then the Ramesseum, the "Musical Memnon" with his companion Colossus, +and the great temples wrapped in the ruddy fire of the western desert, +where Hathor receives the setting sun in outstretched arms. +</p> +<p> +As I was about to unfold these projects at breakfast, a telegram was +handed to me. I read it; and while bacon plates were being exchanged +for dishes of marmalade, I cudgelled my brain like a slave to make it +rearrange the whole programme without a hitch. +</p> +<p> +The American Consul wired from Asiut that he was detained by an +Important Personage, who wanted to know things about Egyptian Cotton +and its enemy the boll worm. But Mr. and Mrs. Bronson would arrive at +the Villa Sirius, Luxor, day after to-morrow, "ready for emergencies." +</p> +<p> +Of course, being Conductor of a tour, and next a man, I ought to have +put the interests of Sir Marcus and his "Lark Pie" (as we were called +by rival firms) ahead of personal concerns. I ought to have immolated +myself in the western Mummyland with the consciousness of duty done, +while on the eastern side of the Nile, Anthony Fenton and Monny Gilder +and Biddy played the live, modern game of kidnapping a lady. But I +determined to do nothing of the sort. I gazed at the telegram with the +air of committing to heart instructions from my superior officer; and +without sign of inward tremour, announced that we would explore the +wonders of the west before visiting those nearer at hand. The weather +being cool and the wind not too high (I said), it would be well to +seize this opportunity for the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, an +expedition trying in heat or sand storms. To-morrow also would be +devoted to the west, and our third day would belong to Luxor and +Karnak. As a <i>bonne bouche</i>, I dangled the adventure of the Temple of +Mût, to sweeten the temper of grumblers: but there were no grumblers. +The Set listened calmly to my honeyed plausibilities; and the alarmed +stewards dared not betray their consternation at the lightning change. +</p> +<p> +No doubt they thought me mad, or worse, because a day in western Thebes +meant a picnic: magical apparition at the right moment, in a convenient +tomb, of smiling Arabs and Nubian men with baskets of food and iced +drinks. +</p> +<p> +Somehow the trick had to be managed, however; for I must be in eastern +Thebes, alias Luxor, on the day when the Bronsons' presence would +render our second attempt at rescue feasible. I had to interview the +chêf—a formidable person—hypnotizing him and the stewards to work my +will, and above all, I had to make sure of boats and donkeys for the +party at short notice. Only by a miracle could all go well; but I set +my heart upon that miracle. "Antoun," hurriedly taken into my +confidence, volunteered to arrange about the boats, and the donkeys for +the other side. Fortunately there was no rival ahead of us; and with +juggling of plans and jingle of silver, Anthony's part was done. Just +at the moment when, by dint of bribes and adjurations I had induced +chêf and stewards to smile, Fenton dashed on board to cry "Victory!" +Somehow, less than an hour later than we should have started, we got +off in two big boats with white sails and brown rowers. The canvas did +its work in silent, bulging dignity; but the rowers exhausted +themselves by breathlessly imploring Allah to grant them strength, and +shouting extra prayers to some sailor-saint whose name was calculated +to pump dry the strongest lungs. +</p> +<p> +On the mystic western side, where once landed with pomp and pageant the +sun-boat of the gods, and the mourning boats of the dead, we scrambled +on shore with that ribald mirth which always made the Set feel it was +getting its money's worth of enjoyment. Many donkeys and a few +carriages awaited us: the whole equipment previously engaged for +to-morrow! and in opaline sunshine which stained with pale rose the Theban +hills and piled the shadows full of dark, dulled rubies, we started +across an emerald plain, kept ever verdant by Nile water. The touch of +comedy in the dream of beauty was the queer, mud-brick village of +Kurna, with its tomb dwellings of the poor, and immense mud vases +shaped like mushrooms, standing straight up on thick brown stems before +the crowded hovels. In each vase reposed sleeping babies, brooding +hens, dogs, rabbits, or any other live stock, mixed with such rubbish +as the family possessed: and the most ambitious mushrooms were +decorated with barbaric crenellations. +</p> +<p> +Almost as far as the Temple of Seti I flowed the green wave like a lake +in the desert, but beyond, to join the Sahara, rolled and billowed a +waste of rose-pink sand, shot with topaz light, and walled with +fantastic rocks, yellow and crimson, streaked with purple. In the heart +of each shadow, fire burned like dying coals in a mass of rosy ashes: +and the light over all was luminous as light on southern seas at +moonrise and sunset. Before our eyes seemed to float a diaphanous veil +of gilded gauze; and white robes and red sashes of donkey-boys, +animals' bead necklaces, and blue or green scarfs on girls' hats, were +like magical flowers blowing over the gold of the desert. +</p> +<p> +Everything blew: above all, sand blew. We found that out to our sorrow, +after we had seen the Temple of Kurna, with its noble columns, and its +fine fragment of roof, where squares of sky were let in like blocks of +lapis lazuli. I rushed here and there on donkey-back assuring people +that this was not <i>wind</i> we felt: it was only a breeze. We could not +have a more favourable day for our excursion into this world of the +dead. Why, if we'd waited till to-morrow we might have met a <i>real</i> +wind, perhaps even Khamsin, alias Simoom, the terror of the desert. To +make Miss Hassett-Bean and Cleopatra forget the smarting of their eyes, +I told them what a true-sand-storm was like, and how its names in +Arabic, Turkish, and Persian all came from the fiend "Samiel," who +destroyed caravans, just as "devil" came from the Persian "div." <i>Our</i> +little breeze was from the east, which at Thebes in old days was +considered lucky. The west wind used to bear across the river evil +spirits disguised as sand-clouds. And these wicked ones had not far to +travel, because the Tuat, or Underworld, was a long narrow valley +parallel to Egypt, beginning on the west bank of the Nile. Red-haired +Set was ruler there, the god who had to be propitiated by having kings +named after him. But Rä, greater than he, could safely pass down the +dim river running through that world: could pass in his golden +sun-boat, guided by magic words of Thoth instead of oars or sails; and the +guardian hippopotamus (whom Greeks turned into the dog Cerberus) dared +not put out a paw. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East remembered that Thebes was Tape in "her day," at which Miss +Hassett-Bean snorted: and when out came that familiar story about +Cleopatra making red hair fashionable, Miss Hassett-Bean stared coldly +at the lady's auburn waves. "I wonder if the queen got the colour at +her hairdresser's, as people do now?" she murmured. "I've read that +they had beauty-doctors in those days, and used arsenic for their +complexion, and all sorts of mixtures. Besides, I can't imagine +anything natural about Cleopatra, except the asp wanting to bite her!" +Upon this, Mrs. East retaliated by calling her companion Miss Bean +without the Hassett. +</p> +<p> +I shall always think of the Valley of the Tombs as a place of terror +and splendour, meant to be hidden from mortals by the spells of Thoth, +who circled the rock-houses of the dead with a zone of fire, as Wotan +hid Brunhilda, and decreed that they should be lost forever in the +blazing desert. Despite Thoth and his magic, men have burst through the +blazing belt and found in the gold-rose heart of the rocks, sacred +shrines the wise old god would have protected. They have found many but +not all: for in the breast of some one among Thoth's sleeping lions +which masquerade as rocks, may yet be discovered a tomb, better than +all those we know with their buried store of jewels, and their painted +walls like drapings of strange tapestry. +</p> +<p> +We broke through the zone of fire, and it pursued us with burning smoke +of sand, pink as powdered rubies. Always it was beautiful and terrible +as we rode in the blowing pink mist: and still it was beautiful and +terrible, when half dazed we slipped off donkeys or slid out of +carriages, to enter the tombs which the desert had vainly striven to +hide. It was hot and breathless in those underground chambers, scooped +out of solid rock thousands of years ago, that great kings and their +queens and families and friends might rest with their kas in eternal +privacy. Enid Biddell waited until Harry Snell happened to be exactly +behind her, and then fainted, with dexterity beyond praise. Cleopatra, +however, was in her element. She felt at home, and did not turn one of +those auburn hairs scorned by "Miss Bean," at sight of the royal +mummies lit up by electricity in their coffins. These gave the rest of +us a shock, our nerves being already in the condition of Aladdin's on +his way down to the Cave of Jewels. When the guardian of the Tomb of +Amenhetep (the king had several other names, which annoyed Sir John +Biddell) darkened the painted, royal chamber of death, and suddenly lit +up several white, sleeping faces, the ghostly dusk was alive with +little gasps. There lay Amenhetep himself, in a disproportionately +large sarcophagus of rose-red granite from Suan; and in companion +coffins were a woman and a girl, all three brilliantly illuminated. +They had the look of the light hurting their poor eyes, and being +outraged because, against their will, they were treated as if they had +been paintings by old masters. +</p> +<p> +The dreadful rumour ran that the woman was none other than the great +Queen Hatasu (never mind her more scientific names), her mummy never +having been found, or, at any rate, identified: and it was pitiful +seeing her so small and female, when in life she had wished to be +represented with a beard and the clothing of a man. Our dragoman, who +read English newspapers and whose idea of entertaining his crowd was to +make cheap jokes (just as his family doubtless manufactured cheap +scarabs), announced that Hatasu was the "first suffragette." But even +those who thought her downtrodden nephew, Thothmes III, justified in +erasing every trace of her existence wherever possible, did not smile +at this jest. In fact, having Antoun and me to refer to, the Set as a +whole sat upon the unfortunate dragoman, trying to talk him down in +tombs and temples, or ostentatiously reading Weigall, Maspero, Petrie, +Sladen, and Lorimer when he attempted to give them information. A few +with kinder intentions, however, interrupted his flow of historical +narrative by exclaiming, "Why, yes, of <i>course</i>!" "I thought so!" and +"Now I remember!" He revenged himself by advising everybody to buy +antiques from an extraordinary old gentleman, extremely like a +galvanized mummy. The antiques were extraordinary, too, so everybody +took the dragoman's advice, neglecting the other curiosity merchants of +the squatting row near the luncheon-tomb and the glorious three-tier +temple, in that vast copper cup of desert and cliff which is called Der +el-Bahari. The sale in mummied hawks, gilded rams' horns, broken tiles +with beetles flying out of the sun, boats of the gods, and gods +themselves, was brisk round this ancient gentleman, who advertised a +blue mummy-cap by wearing it on his bald pate, and seemed to possess as +many royal scarabs as a dressmaker has pins. Afterward I learned that +he was our dragoman's father; but I was loyal and did not tell. +</p> +<p> +It was a wonderful day, all the more wonderful perhaps because it left +in the mind a colourful confusion; pictures of painted tombs hidden +deep under red rock and drifted sand, tombs which we should perhaps +never reach again through their guarding zone of fire—tombs of kings +and queens and nobles forgotten through thousands of centuries save by +their kas and has, their friends and servants, painted or sculptured on +the walls with the sole purpose of caring for or entertaining them +eternally. +</p> +<p> +Already we had ceased to remember which was which. And back on the +boat, in the hour of sunset, when dazzling tinsel and pale pink +cloud-flowers sailed over a lake of clear green sky, the Set argued +whether the King with the Horses, or the Queen with the Retroussé Nose +was in this or that tomb. Sir John Biddell recalled the fact that Egyptian +horses had been celebrated, and that it was "as swell a thing to be a +charioteer then as it was now to be a Vanderbilt with a coach and +four." As for a retroussé nose, it didn't matter <i>where</i> it was, on a +tomb-wall or on a girl's face. +</p> +<p> +Monny thought differently. She and Biddy were glad that the sand and +rocks would still hide many secret treasures, while the world lasted. +It would be dreadful to think that everything was dug up, for tourists +to pry into, or to cart away to museums, and no mysteries left. As for +Mrs. East, she was doubtful whether to rejoice or grieve that +Cleopatra's mummy had not been found. If, however, it were like the +incised wall portrait at Denderah, it would be well that it should +share the fate of Alexander's body and remain lost forever. +</p> +<p> +The next day gave us another trip to the west of the Nile: not again in +the burning desert, but only as far as the Ramesseum, and then to see +the Colossi, seated side by side on their green carpet of meadow, +looking out past the centuries toward eternity. +</p> +<p> +We had a dance on board that night; and next morning it came out that +Rachel Guest, who had disappeared during a "turkey trot" and a "castle +walk," had got herself engaged to Bailey. I was not as pleased about +this event as was Enid Biddell, who now saw her "title clear" to Harry +Snell; for I had "bagged" Willis Bailey and Neill Sheridan for Sir +Marcus in order to gain Kudos for myself: but Biddy, appealed to, +consoled me by saying it served Bailey right if he were mercenary: and +that both men would have come in any case. +</p> +<p> +The third day was to be the Great Day for us, the day big with fate for +Mabella Hânem; and the first thing that happened was a letter sent by +hand from the Bronsons at the Villa Sirius. They had arrived. The +fireworks could begin. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH21"><!-- CH21 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE OPENING DOOR +</p> +<p> +Not half an hour after the first word from Bronson, came another +hurried note. An unexpected obstacle had cropped up. So confident had +he and Mrs. Bronson been of their friends' cooperation, that rather +than put such important matters on paper, they had waited to explain by +word of mouth. The owner of the villa was a rich Syrian with a +French-American wife. He was a Copt in religion, hating Mohammedanism in +general and the father of Rechid Bey in particular. This had seemed to +the American Consul a providential combination: but to his disgust he +found that there had been a reconciliation between the families. +Dimitrius Nekean would not betray the Bransons' confidence, but he +could not allow his roof to be used as a shelter for Rechid's runaway +wife—no, not even if Rechid had three other wives in his harem. +</p> +<p> +Here was a situation! And as Monny remarked, in neat American slang, we +were "right up against it." She thought that, if Antoun and I "put our +heads together," maybe we could think of "some way out." So we did, +almost literally put our heads together across a table no bigger than a +handkerchief, in my cabin: and decided that the visit to Rechid Bey's +harem must be made by Brigit and Monny in the late afternoon. They must +time their departure from the house at about the hour when the Set +would arrive at the Temple of Mût. "Antoun" would be waiting for them, +and they would drive in a closed arabeah to the temple, where Mr. and +Mrs. Bronson would happen to be "sightseeing." If Mabella Hânem had +been rescued, she would then be put in charge of the American Consul, +whose very footprints created American soil around him as far as his +shoes could reach. Rechid would be unlikely to search at the Temple of +Mût, nor could he induce any Arab servant to accompany him there after +sundown. We would escort Mabel and her two protectors to the town, and +to the train for Cairo, Mr. Bronson promising to take the girl to +Alexandria, whence she could sail for "home." +</p> +<p> +It was the best plan we could think of in the circumstances, and Monny +approved it, though her patience was tried by having to wait through +nearly all of another day. Mabel must have begun to believe that we had +ignored her prayer and meant to do nothing. I argued that the girl +would believe we were working for her in our own way. I said, too, that +if Rechid were spying, his suspicions would be disarmed by seeing us go +the ordinary round of tourists. Every one came to Luxor. We had come, +leisurely, by river, and were sightseeing every moment. Even Bedr, if +he were on the spot, intending to finish his revenge as neatly as it +had been begun, could have noticed nothing suspicious in our actions. +The mention of Bedr in this connection seemed to startle Biddy, and I +was sorry I had let his name slip. But, as I had said, every one came +to Luxor. Bedr had with apparent frankness explained that he was +travelling up the Nile by rail with his two clients: and if that were +true, he would arrive at all our destinations in advance of us. +Probably it would depend on "the clients" whether they lingered at +Luxor long enough for us to run across them again. +</p> +<p> +"What are you afraid of," I asked Biddy when I had a chance with her +alone, "even if Bedr is a spy? Surely you kept your promise and left +that chamois-skin bag in a Cairo bank?" +</p> +<p> +"It wasn't a promise," she reminded me. "I only said I'd think about +it. Well, I did think about it, and I couldn't put it in a bank. I told +you it was the sort of thing one <i>doesn't</i> put in banks." +</p> +<p> +"You didn't tell me what it was—I mean, what was in it besides money." +</p> +<p> +"No, I couldn't." +</p> +<p> +"Will you now?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, then, will you give it to me to keep till we get back to Cairo?" +</p> +<p> +"No, <i>indeed</i>! But Duffer dear, honestly and truly it isn't for myself +I'm afraid. You <i>know</i> that, don't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course. Yet if people are believing that Monny Gilder is Rachel +Guest, a poor little school teacher, then no one who heard the gossip +would bother to risk kidnapping her for ransom. And, also, there'll be +no further danger of those you fear mistaking her for—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't speak the name!" +</p> +<p> +"I wasn't going to. I was merely about to use the word 'another.'" +</p> +<p> +"Good Duffer! Yours is a consoling argument. Still, I never liked Bedr +or wanted him with us. And even now, there seems something mysterious +about Rachel thinking so much of him. As if there were a secret +arrangement between them, you know! I've never got over that, or +understood it a bit." +</p> +<p> +"He flattered Miss Guest, perhaps. She loves flattery. But she's made +her market now, and all through Monny's charity. She couldn't want to +do her benefactress harm." +</p> +<p> +"No-o, I suppose not. Unless it were to do herself good. Don't those +eyes of hers say to you that she'd sacrifice any one for herself?" +</p> +<p> +"I've been thinking more about a different pair of eyes. And there were +such a lot of men crowding round Rachel's—for some reason or other." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Now</i> we know what the reason was—as she and Monny must have known +all along, since their joke together began. Oughtn't <i>you</i> to tell Bill +Bailey the truth?" +</p> +<p> +"No, my dear girl, I must draw the line somewhere! I've gone about at +people's beck and call, telling other people disagreeable truths, till +I'm a physical and mental wreck. Bill Bailey knows all about statues, +with and without glass eyes. Let him find out for himself about a mere +girl—" +</p> +<p> +"With cat's eyes." Biddy snapped. +</p> +<p> +If one triumph leads to another, Anthony could afford to be hopeful for +the ending of our stay at Luxor. He had not done as much sightseeing as +the rest of us, but when we had been asleep in our beds or berths, +dreaming of temples—or of each other—he had been out whispering and +listening, in places where his green turban opened doors and hearts. He +had traced the mysterious "trouble" to its source, and learned the +inner history of that regrettable incident which, like a dropped match, +had lit a fire hard to extinguish. A party of young men travelling with +a "bear leader" had laughed at some Arabs prostrating themselves to +pray, at that sacred moment, just after sunset, ordained by Mohammed +lest his people should appear to worship the orb itself. One of these +youths, fancying himself a mimic, had imitated the Moslems. They were +old men, unable to resent with violence what they thought an insult to +their religion; but they had told their sons, and the story had spread. +Later that night the joyous tourists with their near-sighted "bear +leader," had been attacked apparently without reason, on coming out of +a native café. Having forgotten the sunset prayer, they honestly +believed that they had been set upon by men to whom they had given no +provocation. They had uttered statements and complaints; and disgusted +with the "beastly natives" had pursued their journey up Nile, visiting +their grievances on the innocent, and making more mischief at each +stopping place. Murmured threats, with dark looks, insulting words and +jostlings of strangers by the inhabitants of Upper Nile villages, had +occasioned anxiety at the British Agency. It had proved impossible to +get at the truth, and the influence of the Young Nationalists had been +suggested. Our Hadji had now turned the green light of his sacred +turban upon obscurity, and those in power at Cairo would know how to +set about repairing damages. In spite of private anxieties, those which +I shared and others which I didn't share but suspected, I think Anthony +was happy on that third morning at Luxor. He must have been tired, for +much of his work had been night work, but he showed no fatigue. The +true soldier-look was in his eyes, the look I knew far better than the +new and strange expression which had said to me lately, "A woman has +come to be of importance in Anthony Fenton's life." +</p> +<p> +We spent our morning and a good part of the afternoon at Karnak, +lunching irreverently but agreeably in the shade of fallen pillars +Cambyses or the great earthquake had thrown down. Neill Sheridan, who +had been to California, likened the ruddy columns of the Great Hall to +the giant redwoods. He was enjoying Karnak because there was +practically nothing "modern and Ptolemaic about it," but I thought how +quickly he would lose this calmness of the student if some one blurted +out a word about our plan for that evening. According to Monny, he had +been "taken" with poor Mabella Hânem on board the Laconia—admiring her +so frankly that Rechid had banished his bride to her cabin. If Sheridan +regretted her, as a man regrets a woman vainly loved, he had confided +in no one, not even Monny, who had risked seeming to seek his society +in order to reach the secret of his heart. He had, however, been graver +in manner than at first, so said the girl, who had been much with him +before my appearance on the scene. Whether it was intuition, or sheer +love of romance which inclined her to the opinion, she believed that +Sheridan was unhappy. It would make things worse for Mabel (if our +scheme failed) were Neill Sheridan mixed up in the plot; therefore, +even impulsive Monny admitted the wisdom of keeping him out of it. But +I could see by the way she looked at him—almost pityingly—when he +discoursed of lotus and papyrus columns, how she was saying to herself: +"You poor fellow, if only you <i>knew</i>!" +</p> +<p> +The "thing" being to see the Temple of Luxor at sunset, we gave it the +afternoon, as if condescending to do it a favour. When I remembered how +I had meant to linger here week after week, I felt that I was paying a +big price for my share of the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, making a +knock-about comedian of myself, rushing through halls of history +followed by a procession of tourists, as a comet tears past the best +worth seeing stars, obediently followed by its tail. Still, I had +Brigit and Monny as bright spots in the tail; and my old dreams of +Luxor had been empty of them. +</p> +<p> +These ideas were in my mind, while on donkeys and in arabeahs we dashed +as if our lives depended on speed, from the Temple of Karnak to the +Temple of Luxor, along the dusty white road trimmed with sphinxes. This +description was Enid Biddell's, she being happy and therefore +frivolous. She rode with Harry Snell, as queens may have ridden along +that way, guarding a captive prince who had been subdued forever. +</p> +<p> +Sunset illumined the world, as for a New Year's festival of Amen-Rã in +his ruby-studded boat of gold, when we were ready to leave the glorious +temple, and turn to the region of little bazaars and big hotels, fair +gardens, and girls with tennis rackets whose shape reminded our +Egypt-steeped minds of the key of life. Monny and Brigit had slipped away. +Their <i>real</i> day was just beginning. +</p> +<p> +My heart was with them; Anthony's, too, and his work permitted him to +conduct <i>his</i> heart along the way that they must take, while I had to +conduct the Set to the Winter Palace Hotel, and give them tea on the +terrace. +</p> +<p> +When everybody was rested and had had enough strawberry tarts, view and +flirtation, we were to make for the Temple of Mût: and, having returned +at last to the <i>Enchantress Isis</i>, were to steam away just as tourist +boats and dahabeahs were lighting up along the shore. We were to dine +late, after starting, and anchor in some dark solitude, so as to enjoy +a peaceful, dogless night on the Nile. But—what would have happened to +Brigit and Monny before the sounding of that dinner gong? +</p> +<p> +What did happen at the beginning I must tell as best I can, because I +was not there, and can speak for myself only from the Temple of Mût. +</p> +<p> +When they stole almost secretly away from Karnak, they took an arabeah +which was waiting and drove to the sugar-plantation of Rechid Bey. This +place of his is not prepared for a lengthy or luxurious residence; but +as I have said, there is a house. There is also a small gatehouse, in a +somewhat neglected condition; but a gatekeeper was there: the usual +stout negro. Monny and Biddy were quivering with fear lest they should +be refused admission, as at Asiut: but this time their coachman was +Ahmed Antoun, carefully disguised as a common driver of an arabeah, a +rather exaggeratedly common driver perhaps, for his face and turban +were not as clean as the face and turban of a self-respecting Moslem +ought to be. He had been helped to play this trick by one of the secret +friends he had made in some café or other, the cousin of an uncle of a +brother of him who should have sat on the box seat. But the motive he +had alleged was not the real one. The two beating hearts in the arabeah +had confidence in him. If the gatekeeper tried to send them away, +Antoun would bribe him, or threaten him with black magic, or say some +strange word which would be for them as an "Open Sesame." +</p> +<p> +The fat creature at the gate had no French, but the driver of the +arabeah addressed him in Arabic, and translated his answers. Yes, the +great lady had come hither with her husband the Bey. Word should go to +her. It should be ascertained whether it was her pleasure to receive +these friends who had journeyed from a far country to pay her a visit. +</p> +<p> +Monny and Brigit sat in the arabeah to wait, but they dared not talk to +the dirty-faced driver, lest some spy should be on the watch, where +every group of flowering plants might have ears and eyes. Even if the +big gatekeeper came back with an excuse, as seemed too probable, there +was hope from Antoun's diplomacy; but the chances were two to one +against success. Rechid Bey had almost certainly been put upon his +guard by the revengeful Bedr who had shown himself all grinning +friendliness to us. Rechid might have tired of playing dragon, as +Antoun prophesied; yet it would be strange if he had not given +instructions that no European ladies were to visit his wife. Mabella +Hânem had been snatched in haste from Asiut, but if she were still in +Luxor with her husband, she and her women in the harem would be guarded +by eunuchs, as in the more ambitious villa which Rechid called his +home. +</p> +<p> +I suppose Anthony, slouching on the box seat in his unattractive +disguise, must have been as much astonished as Monny and Brigit when +the gatekeeper returned with another big negro to say that the ladies +would be welcomed by Mabella Hânem. The two girls were wildly +delighted. Fenton's emotions were mixed. He wanted to save the American +bride from the consequences of her tragic mistake, but he cared more +for his friends' safety than for hers. +</p> +<p> +He knew that Monny and Brigit were brave, and that Monny had his +Browning, but the thought that she might need to use it could not have +made him comfortable on the box seat of his borrowed arabeah, outside +Rechid's gate. It was arranged that he should give Mabel's visitors one +hour, thus allowing for delays and emergencies; but if they did not +appear at the end of that time, he would dash off to tell the Luxor +police that two ladies were detained against their will in the house of +Rechid Bey. +</p> +<p> +Once in charge of the chief eunuch, who had come to take them to the +harem, Brigit and Monny might almost as well have been deaf and dumb. +Brigit knew practically nothing of Arabic; and Monny, though she had +been vaguely studying since her arrival, had been too passionately +occupied with other things to give much time or attention to the +language of Egypt's invaders. Her blood was beating in her veins now, +and she could think of no words except "Imshi!" "Malish!" and +"Ma'salama!" These buzzed in her head, like persistent flies, as she +and Biddy followed their silent, white-robed and turbaned conductor +along a narrow pink path, toward a modern villa almost shrouded with +bougainvillia. And they were the last words she needed. She didn't want +to tell the ponderous negro to "get out." On the contrary, she wished +to be polite. So far from saying "no matter," everything mattered +intensely. And, unfortunately, it was not time yet to bid the creature +"farewell." +</p> +<p> +Behind the white house with its crimson embroidery of flowers, rose a +thick growth of tall sugar-cane, the shimmering green pale as beryl, in +the dreaming light which precedes sunset. The dark red of the +bougainvillia looked like streaming blood against such a background. +</p> +<p> +Though the villa appeared to be comparatively new, it was built +according to Turkish, not European ideas, as it might have been were +the owner a Copt instead of a Mohammedan. The building was in two +parts, entirely separating the <i>selamlik</i> from the <i>haremlik</i>. The +latter was small and insignificant compared with the former, for this +was not a place prepared for family life: it was but a temporary +dwelling, where the master would more often come alone than with the +ladies of his harem. +</p> +<p> +The eunuch opened a door leading into the women's building, and Brigit +and Monny entered the same secretive sort of vestibule they must have +remembered in the House of the Crocodile. A screen-wall prevented them +from seeing what was beyond; and the dead silence frightened them a +little, so easy was it to make of this place a trap. +</p> +<p> +In the vestibule was a long, cheaply cushioned bench, the resting-place +of the women's custodian; and upon it lay spread open the eunuch's +well-used koran, which he had deserted to meet the visitors. Who had +given him the order to go, and why it had been given, the guests began +to ask themselves. +</p> +<p> +Beyond the screen-wall they entered an anteroom. Through a big window-door +they could look into a small, grassy court that served as a +garden: and opening from the anteroom was a second room much larger, +which also gave upon the garden court. At the door of this, the eunuch +bowed himself away; but an involuntary glance which Monny threw at him +over her shoulder showed that he was grinning. The grin died quickly as +a white flash of heat-lightning fades from a black night-sky: but +though the heavy face composed itself respectfully, there remained a +disquieting twinkle in the full-lidded eyes. It struck Monny that the +negro was amusing himself at the expense of the visitors, because of +something he knew which they did not know. +</p> +<p> +"We're not going to be allowed to see Mabel!" she thought, with a jump +of her pulses; and even when a negress, smiling invitingly, beckoned +her and Biddy into the large room whose three windows looked on the +garden, she still believed that they had been deceived. She did not, +however, speak out her conviction to Brigit. Nothing could be done yet. +They must wait and see what would happen. +</p> +<p> +The room was furnished in abominable taste, with cheap Trench +furniture, upholstered with blue brocade that clashed hideously with +the scarlet carpet. There were several sofas and chairs stiffly +arranged round the walls; but no tables, save low maidahs of carved +wood inlaid with pearl, such as they had seen in Cairo bazaars and +hotels. The windows were closed, and the air heavy, as in a room seldom +used. The two seated themselves close together, on one of the ugly +sofas facing a door through which the beckoning negress had gone out. +There was no sound except the harsh ticking of a huge, bulbous clock, +all gilding and flowers, which stood in a corner. Monny's and Brigit's +eyes met, with a question. +</p> +<p> +Who would open the door just closed? Would it be Mabel, or would Rechid +Bey stride in, to reproach or insult them? +</p> +<p> +"<i>Are you sure it's loaded</i>?" Biddy whispered. +</p> +<p> +No need for Monny to ask what she meant. +</p> +<p> +"Sure," she answered. +</p> +<p> +The handle of the door turned. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH22"><!-- CH22 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE DRIVER OF AN ARABEAH +</p> +<p> +"Thank God!" cried Biddy, as a slim figure in a loose white robe framed +itself in the doorway. +</p> +<p> +With a sob, Mabel ran toward them, both hands held out, and in an +instant she was being hugged and kissed and cooed over. +</p> +<p> +"You've found me—you've come!" she cried. "I never dared think you +would, when <i>he</i> rushed me away from Asiut. He said he would keep me +here all the rest of my life, to punish me for complaining to you." +</p> +<p> +"But how did he know?" Monny asked. "Did your sister-in-law tell him +about the letter?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't think so, unless he has made her confess. It was like this: He +was coming to his place here on business. I felt so thankful. It seemed +providential he should be away then, just when you were starting up +Nile. I was almost happy that morning, when suddenly he appeared again +and I was ordered to put on a habberah and yashmak, and travel with +him. Yeena, the woman who acts as my maid, had to get ready in a hurry, +too. The chief eunuch, a hateful hypocritical wretch, followed. Some +clothes have been sent to me since, but not many. At first I couldn't +guess what had happened, and <i>he</i> was in such a fiendish temper I +daren't ask questions. It wasn't till after we arrived that he +explained. I'm sure he took pleasure in hurting me. He said that he +left home early the morning he was going to Luxor, because he meant to +stop and make a business call on the way to the depot, otherwise he +wouldn't have been able to rush home and fetch me as he did, and still +be in time to catch his train after the warning. It was some dragoman +you employed in Cairo, he told me, who had seen us getting off the +<i>Laconia</i>, and who ran after his carriage in the street, in Asiut. The +wicked creature warned him that you were all there, and that he'd heard +you say something which sounded as if there were a plot to get at me. +Just at that minute, by the worst of luck, Mr. Sheridan passed. You +know how foolish and cruel <i>he</i> was about Mr. Sheridan on the ship. +Well, he hadn't forgotten. So he turned round and almost snatched me +out of the house, rather than I should be left in Asiut with him away." +</p> +<p> +"This is exactly what we thought must have happened!" exclaimed Monny. +"That beast, Bedr! And to think that Rachel and I wasted our time +trying to convert him! How I wish I hadn't let Aunt Clara engage him at +Alexandria! She thought he'd come from a man with her favourite name, +Antony: but she wouldn't have insisted if I hadn't encouraged her. I +feel as if this trouble were partly my fault. And if I hadn't been +thoughtless enough at Asiut to blurt out your husband's name—." +</p> +<p> +"You're not to blame for anything, dearest," Biddy tried to comfort +her. "It was your unfailing resolve to help, which has brought us +here." +</p> +<p> +"You're both my good angels," said Mabel, "Oh, it's heavenly to see +you. But I can't understand why I'm allowed to, after all the threats +and punishments. I'm afraid I shall be made to pay somehow. He loves to +torture me—and he knows how. I believe he hates me, now he's begun to +realize that I'd give anything to leave him, that I don't consider +myself his wife." +</p> +<p> +"If he hates you, why isn't he willing to let you go?" Monny questioned +her. +</p> +<p> +"Partly because he's very vain, and it would humiliate him. Partly +because he has no son yet, only that horrid little brown girl; and he's +set his heart on a boy who's to possess all the qualities and strength +of the West. No, he won't let me go!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you'll do it in spite of him then," said Monny eagerly. "That's +what we're here for. We shall take you with us. You must say to your +servants that we've invited you to drive, and you've accepted. There's +nothing in that to make them suspect. Lots of Turkish ladies go driving +and motoring with European women, in Cairo. And you can have that fat +black man sit on the box seat, with—with our coachman, if it would +make things easier, taking him to guard you. He can be hustled or +bribed or something, when the right time comes to get rid of him, never +fear. Oh, it's going to be a glorious adventure, and at the end of it +you'll be free! Nobody could blame you, as the man has another wife." +</p> +<p> +Mabella Hânem shook her head. "You're splendid to plan this. But it's +too late. It was too late from the moment that dragoman warned—my +husband. Why you've been allowed to come into the house and talk with +me, I can't think, unless <i>he</i> is watching and listening through a +hidden spyhole. There's sure to be <i>some</i> secret reason in his head, +anyhow—a reason that's for <i>his</i> good and not mine. And I shall not be +able to get out, if you do." +</p> +<p> +"<i>If</i> we do!" echoed Biddy, a catch in her voice. +</p> +<p> +She glanced furtively at Monny. What had we all been dreaming of when +we let this beautiful girl run into danger? I know Biddy well enough to +be sure that her thought at that instant was for Monny Gilder, not +Brigit O'Brien. But the fear in her heart was vague, until the next +answer Mabel made—an answer that came almost with calmness; for +Mabella Hânem's whole being was concentrated upon herself, and her own +imbroglio. Everything else, everybody else—even these friends who were +risking much to help her—were secondary considerations. +</p> +<p> +"I don't suppose real harm will come to you. I don't see how he'd +<i>dare</i>. And yet—there may be something on foot. Three men had come +to-day, one who might be a dragoman, and two Europeans. They came +together. I saw them. And I haven't seen them go away. They're in the +men's part of the house—the <i>selâmlik</i>. They must be with my husband. +Perhaps there's only some business about the sugarcane. But—" +</p> +<p> +"Did you see the men distinctly?" Biddy asked, in a changed tone. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, quite distinctly, for they glanced up at the window where I was +peeping out. Of course they couldn't see me, through the wooden lattice +and the bougainvillia, but I had a good look at them. The dragoman +seemed to have one blind eye. Oh! I hadn't thought of <i>that</i> before! +Can it be the man who gave the warning?" +</p> +<p> +"What were the Europeans like?" Biddy questioned, without answering. +"Were they wearing light tweed knickerbockers with big checks?" +</p> +<p> +"No, they were in dark clothes, not very noticeable." +</p> +<p> +"Had one a scar on his forehead?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, yes, I believe he had!" +</p> +<p> +The eyes of Brigit and Monny met: but there was none of that deadly +fear in the girl's, which Biddy was trying to keep out of hers. Even +now, it was hardly fear for herself. It was nearly all for Monny; but +Monny must not know, lest she should lose her nerve when it was needed +most. That idea of Brigit's, about Monny being mistaken for Esmé +O'Brien by members of the Organization O'Brien betrayed, had seemed +foolish and far fetched, although Esmé was hidden from her father's +enemies near Monaco, and it was at Monaco that Miss Gilder and Rachel +Guest and Mrs. East had joined Brigit on the <i>Laconia</i>. I had laughed +at the suggestion, and Biddy had been half-ashamed to make it. But now, +in this lonely house where she and the girl had been unexpectedly +welcomed, in this house where the master watched, entertaining three +strange men, the thought did not appear quite so foolish, quite so far +fetched. Indeed, Biddy marvelled why it had occurred to none of us that +one of the dangers to be run in rescuing Mabel might come through Bedr, +the same danger which had perhaps threatened in the House of the +Crocodile. +</p> +<p> +Too late to think of this now! The fact remained that we had not +thought of it when there was time. Not even Biddy had felt certain that +there was a secret motive for taking the girls to the hasheesh den, or +that Bedr had been guilty of anything worse than indiscretion. His +warning to Rechid Bey we had put down to a petty desire for revenge, to +"pay us out" for his discharge. Though Biddy had never felt sure of his +new employers' German origin, and though she had had qualms at sight of +the party, following or arriving before us on our pilgrimage through +the desert and up the Nile, she had never associated their possible +designs with Rechid Bey's grudge against us. Yet how obvious that Bedr +should take advantage of it for his clients' sake, if those two men +were what she sometimes feared! Brigit had never spoken out to Monny +what was in her mind about Esmé O'Brien. She had known that Monny would +laugh, and perhaps say "What fun!" For the girl had invited Biddy to +Egypt "because she attracted adventures," and because Monny badly +needed a few, her life having been, up to the date of starting, a "kind +of fruit and flower piece in a neat frame." Now, perhaps Monny wouldn't +laugh; but it was not the time to speak of new dangers. +</p> +<p> +"Well, if your husband thinks that creatures like Bedr and his Germans +are going to help him stop us from getting out, or taking you out, he's +wrong," said Monny, stoutly. "Bedr's the most sickening coward, as +Rachel Guest and I have reason to remember. But I'm glad we know what +we have to expect, aren't you, Biddy?" +</p> +<p> +It was hard to answer, because the girl was in reality so far from +knowing what she might have to expect. Brigit tried to smile her reply, +as Monny began to tell Mabel something of their plan: about the friends +ready to rally round them, once they were in the carriage waiting +outside the gate; and about the motor coat and veiled hood which had +been brought for Mabel to put on, at a safe distance from the house. +"You'll have to start in your own things," the girl was saying, +"otherwise your servants would think it odd. Ring now, dear, for your +woman, and have her give you your habberah and yashmak." +</p> +<p> +"There are no bells," said Mabella Hânem, with her soft air of +obstinate hopelessness. "When I want Yeena, if she isn't in the room, I +clap my hands as hard as I can. But I tell you, it is no use. It is too +late." As she spoke, throwing up her arms and letting them fall with a +gesture of helpless despair, both Brigit and Monny felt that Islam had +already raised a barrier between them and this delicate creature it had +taken into its keeping. In the white wool robe she wore—the kind of +loose dressing gown affected by Turkish women—she looked more like a +Circassian than an American girl. Always she had seemed to her would-be +rescuers a charming doll, a feminine thing of exactly the type which +would appeal to a Turk, weary of dark beauties: her hair was so very +golden, her eyes so very big and blue, her lashes so very black, her +mouth so very red and small: but now she had become an odalisque. +Mabel's friends realized that she would do nothing to save herself. +They must do all. +</p> +<p> +Hesitating no longer, Monny struck her hands loudly together. Yeena did +not come. The girl clapped again, and yet again, till her palms +smarted, but nothing happened. +</p> +<p> +"Yeena is in it—whatever they mean to do," said Mabel. "She's had her +orders." +</p> +<p> +"Very well, then," Monny persisted, her eyes shining and her cheeks +carnation, "you must go without your wraps. Come along. Don't be +frightened. Isn't it better to risk something to get away than to stay +here alone when we're gone?" +</p> +<p> +The pretty doll, with a little moan, gave herself up to her friends. +Brigit as well as Monny realized that the moment had come. They must +take her while she was in this mood. +</p> +<p> +"Let me go ahead," said Monny, in a low, firm voice. "You know why." +</p> +<p> +Brigit did know why. Monny had Anthony's Browning, and she alone +understood the use of it. Yes, she must lead the way; yet Brigit longed +to fling herself in front, to make of her body a shield for the tall +white girl she had never so loved and admired. Biddy put Mabel in front +of her, and behind Monny, keeping her between them with two cold but +determined little hands on the shrinking shoulders, and so pushing her +along, protected front and rear, in the piteous procession. +</p> +<p> +Of course, if the door leading toward the house entrance had been +locked on the outside, there would have been the end of the endeavour, +for the moment: but it opened to Monny's hand, and all three went on +unchecked, until they came to the vestibule, where on the wall bench +they had seen the koran of the fat negro, awaiting his return. +</p> +<p> +They had come tiptoeing, and had made no more sound than prowling +kittens, yet he sat there facing the door, no longer heavy lidded, a +black mountain of lazy flesh, but alert, beady eyed, as if he had been +counting the minutes. +</p> +<p> +As they swept through the doorway, hoping to surprise him, the eunuch +jumped to his feet as lightly as a man of half his weight, and smiling +with pleasure in the excitement of an event to break monotony, he +blocked with his great bulk the aperture between wall and projecting +screen. +</p> +<p> +No wonder they had not needed to lock doors, with this giant for a +jailer, and a big Sudanese knife conspicuously showing in a belt under +his open galabeah! Rechid had perhaps wanted the white mouse in his +trap to feel the thrill of hope, and then the shock of disappointment. +He had counted completely on the guardian of his harem, but—though he +had chosen an American wife, he had not counted on the courage of +another type of American girl. The knife looked terrible; but it was +sheathed and tucked into a belt. Anthony's Browning was in Monny's +hand, and hidden only under her serge coat. Out it came, with a warning +click of the trigger. And with an astonished, frightened gurgle in his +throat the negro involuntarily fell back. +</p> +<p> +"Run!" Monny breathed, prisoning him where he stood, with the little +bright eye of the Browning cocked up at his face. She had to be obeyed +then, and they ran, the two of them, flashing past the black man, +touching his clothes as they squeezed by, yet he dared not put out a +detaining hand. When they were away—safe or not, she could not tell +—Monny still kept the pistol in position, but began slowly to turn, that +she too might pass the dragon, holding him at her mercy till the end. +Not a word of Arabic could she recall, but the Browning spoke for her, +a language understood without the trouble of learning, by all the sons +of Adam. +</p> +<p> +When she had backed through the doorway, the girl still faced toward +the inner vestibule, and it was well she did so, for scarcely was she +out of his sight before the black giant was after her, taking the +chance that she would have turned to run. But there was the resolute +young face, with eyes defying his; and there was the weapon ready to +blow out such brains as he had, if the hand on the knife moved. Again +he fell back, and then Monny did run, making the best use she had ever +made of those long limbs which gave her the air of a young Diana. She +ran until she had caught up with the other two, flying toward the +distant gate; for something told her that the negro would have hurried +to tell his master of the trick the women had played—preferring the +lash on his back perhaps, to a bullet through his head. +</p> +<p> +She was right, no doubt, to trust her instinct, for the eunuch did not +pursue, though his tale of failure was not needed. Rechid Bey had been +watching from a window of the selâmlik, as Mabel his wife had watched +when he received visitors. He did not wait for the negro's warning, but +dashed out of the house, followed and then passed by several long-robed +men in Arab dress. The faces of these were almost hidden by the loose +hoods which desert men pull over their heads in a high wind, but had +they been uncovered the women would not have seen them. The thing was +to escape, not to take note of the pursuers; and it was only Biddy, +looking over her shoulder for Monny, who even saw that they were +followed. She cried out to her friend to hurry, that some one was +coming, that they must get to the gate or all would be ended; then +feeling Mabel falter, she held her more tightly and ran the faster. +</p> +<p> +Rechid and his companions were shouting, not to the women, but to the +gatekeeper; and as the master's furious voice rang out, just in front +of the fugitive (all three together now), appeared the big form of the +man at the gate. +</p> +<p> +Monny did not know what to do; for in whichever direction she faced +with the Browning, she could be captured from the other. She might kill +the negro, and then turn to keep the pursuers back: but the thought of +killing a man sickened her. She had meant only to threaten, not to take +life. Suddenly she felt afraid of the Browning. She hesitated, in a +wild second of confusion, hating herself for failing her friends, yet +unable to decide or act: but hardly had the gatekeeper sprung in sight +than he went down, flat on his face, struck in the back of the neck by +the shabby fellow who had driven their carriage. "Go on!" the dirty-faced +Arab said in French. "There's some one else to drive you. I'll +follow. I'm armed." +</p> +<p> +The three sped by him, as he stood aside to let them pass, showing to +Monny a pistol which matched the one he had lent her. This consoled the +girl in obeying; for as "Antoun" had trusted her courage in this +adventure, so did she trust his, and his strength and wit against four +men or four dozen men, if need were. +</p> +<p> +There was the waiting arabeah, and there on the box was a much cleaner, +more self-respecting Arab to drive it than the soiled figure which had +left the horses and strayed into the garden. Afterwards they learned +that the new man was the "sister's cousin's uncle" of the Hadji's café +acquaintance. He had been engaged to stroll past in the road, stop, +speak, offer the gatekeeper a cigarette, drift into conversation, and +be ready to jump onto the box seat the instant Antoun left it. His +instructions included furious driving with the three ladies (once they +had bundled into the arabeah), to the Temple of Mût. +</p> +<p> +Rechid Bey had every right, according to his own point of view, to +resent the kidnapping of his wife, and to get her back in any way he +could, even if blood had to be spilt. But his companions—they who were +muffled in the cloaks and hoods to save their faces from the sharp +wind—had perhaps not the same right or interest. In any case, when +they saw that the women had a man, or men, to help them, and that so +helped they had passed from the privacy of the garden to the publicity +of the road, the three fell back. Publicity, it may be, did not please +them: or else, thinking to have only women to deal with, they were not +armed and did not like the look of the pistol. Rechid, evidently no +coward, or past feeling fear in rage at the failure of his counterplot, +ran on, wheezing slightly—he was fat for his age—toward the erect +Arab and the prostrate negro. +</p> +<p> +"Beast! devil!" he panted breathlessly, and cried out other words of +evil import in both Turkish and Arabic; threatening the silent man of +the pistol with death and things even worse. But before he had gone +far, the hooded men caught up with him, and surrounding, urged him +back. What they said, Anthony could not hear, or what he said in +return; but he thought they were proposing some plan which appealed to +Rechid's reason, for he showed signs of yielding. There was now no +longer anything to detain the protector of the ladies, for by this +time, he hoped and believed that their arabeah must be far on its way +toward the Temple of Mût, the meeting-place agreed upon. Accordingly, +he stepped over the unconscious gatekeeper, who lay with his nose in +the grass, and backed calmly out of the garden. Not far off, an arabeah +was crawling along the road, so slowly that one might have thought the +driver half asleep. But this supposition would have done him an +injustice. Dusk had fallen now, the purple dusk which drops like a +curtain just after the pageant of sunset is finished, yet the driver +was wide enough awake to pierce the purple with a pair of sharp eyes, +and recognize a figure expected. He whipped up his horse, and the dirty +Arab running to meet it, in a few seconds the latter was on the box +beside the coachman. Then the arabeah turned, and dashed wildly off +according to the custom of arabeahs, back in the direction whence it +had been crawling. +</p> +<p> +The two dark-faced men in the vehicle talked rapidly in low voices, +speaking the language not only of the country but the <i>patois</i> of Luxor +itself. "Your brother passed you in his arabeah?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Hadji, he passed with the three European ladies you told me had +been in secret to visit their friend." +</p> +<p> +Then Anthony knew that Brigit and Monny had been able already to carry +out their plan of wrapping Mabella Hânem in one of their own cloaks. +This was well, and would save gossip, if the occupants of the arabeah +were stared at by passers by. And at the temple also it would be well, +for if possible the Set were to know nothing, now or later, of the +adventure. But though Anthony was glad of the news he had got from this +Arab ordered to meet him at the gate, he did not settle down +comfortably and say to himself: "Thank goodness, the thing is over." +Those men back there in the garden would not so easily have persuaded +Rechid Bey to let his wife go unpursued, if they had not offered some +alternative plan that could be carried out quickly. +</p> +<p> +Still, so far so good. Brigit and Monny had "won out," and secured the +prize, as Anthony had prophesied that they would do. They were on their +way to the temple, where I would be with the comfortable, commonplace +crowd from the <i>Enchantress Isis</i>, and where the American Consul and +his wife would just "happen" also to be wandering. Instead of driving +straight there himself, Anthony went with a friend to an obscure, +mud-built house in the village. When he came out of that house, his +brown-stained face was no longer disfigured with dirt. It was as +immaculate, as noble as the proudest Hadji's face should be, and above +it was wound the green turban. Ahmed Antoun Effendi's own dignified, +old-fashioned robes of the Egyptian gentleman flowed round his tall +figure, when once more he took his place in the waiting arabeah—this +time not on the box seat—and drove off at more furious speed than ever, +toward the Temple of Mût. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH23"><!-- CH23 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +BENGAL FIRE +</p> +<p> +The Temple of Mût I think must always be mysterious even by day. That +night it was more than mysterious. It was sinister. +</p> +<p> +Darkness shut us in among the pillars and the black, lion-faced +statues. The least imaginative of my charges seemed to feel the +influence of the place. Not an Arab, not even the superior boat +dragoman, would come inside with us: because after the sun has set, +dethroned Sekhet comes into her own again. Strange stories are +whispered by Arabs, of the Temple of Mût, and of the ghostly, golden +dahabeah that, once a year, sails slowly by to a faint sound of music, +on the Sacred Lake. We had brought candles with us, protected by smoky +glass from the wind that swept down the avenue of broken Sphinxes +outside, and hissed like angry cats through the dark courts lined with +granite statues of the Cat-goddess. Yet despite the mystery, or because +of it, people seemed curiously happy. The spirit of the past, of Old +Egypt, touched them in the shadowy spaces of this ruined temple, +brushed them with its wings, and whispered half-heard words into their +ears. They talked to each other in low tones, as if not to miss the +whispers or the soft footfalls of unseen things; and they did not laugh +and make jokes, or ask silly questions, according to their irritating +custom. +</p> +<p> +I blessed this mood, for my nerves were jangled (more than ever after +the Bronsons unobtrusively appeared) waiting for Brigit and Monny to +come, wondering if they would come, or what we should do if they +didn't; because suddenly in this place of gloom and eloquent silence +all the clever little plans Anthony and I had made, in case of +accident, seemed futile. How could we have let those two walk alone +into a trap? I blamed myself, I blamed Anthony; and sometimes I gave +the wrong answers to Mrs. East, who walked with me, trying to keep out +of the way of the crowd. +</p> +<p> +She was anxious to talk of her niece, and to relate how she had been +singing my praises to Monny. "You mustn't be discouraged," she said. +"Never mind about the hieroglyphic letter. Oh, no, you needn't worry! I +haven't told her it was yours. Better let her think what she thought at +first. Did she <i>tell</i> you what she thought? <i>Please</i> answer me, Lord +Ernest! I don't mind your knowing—<i>now</i>—that I believed it was from +Antoun to me. Believing so, did no harm. Why should it, to me, or to +him? I soon guessed that there was a mistake somewhere—when he didn't +—didn't follow the letter up. I was not offended by the proposal as +Monny would have been—oh, not if she'd known it was <i>yours</i>, but if +she'd supposed Antoun was making love to her. Don't you see—you must +have seen, you're so quick and observant—that she's been caught by the +romance of him, just as she was afraid she might be by some thrilling +prince, when she came to Egypt. She's miserable. She's hating herself. +And you <i>won't</i> save her though I've prepared her mind!" +</p> +<p> +"So <i>that's</i> what you meant when you hinted that I could spare her +humiliation!" I said, half in laughter, half in bitterness, suddenly +able to concentrate my mind upon the talk. "Do you think a man would +want a girl to take him for such a reason, when she's caring for some +one else?" +</p> +<p> +"But, if it would be impossible for her to marry the some one else?" +</p> +<p> +"Why should it be impossible?" +</p> +<p> +"She would think it impossible." +</p> +<p> +"Would she, if—" I checked myself, but Mrs. East understood instantly. +"If he has a secret," she said, "then none of us has a right to suggest +it to her. Every man for himself, Lord Ernest, in <i>love</i>! Antoun +Effendi has no reason too feel too kindly to Monny. You'll be robbing +your friend of <i>nothing</i>, if you speak to her. If he's in <i>love</i> with +any one, it isn't my niece." +</p> +<p> +"At least it's not <i>you</i>. Perhaps it's Biddy after all!" my thoughts +interpolated. +</p> +<p> +"To care for Monny would be beneath his dignity, considering all that's +passed. And you can make <i>her</i> happy, as well as yourself, by taking my +advice," Mrs. East went on. "Aren't you going to be sensible?" +</p> +<p> +Just then came a murmur expressing surprise or some other new emotion, +from one of the outer courts where the crowd wandered, Cleopatra having +lured me—yes, "lured" <i>is</i> the word—into the sanctuary itself. +</p> +<p> +"Something has happened!" I said. "Let's go back, and see what it is." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps Antoun has come!" Mrs. East caught me up eagerly. "He was +coming, wasn't he, when he'd finished his business? Or maybe it's only +Monny and Brigit." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Only</i> Monny and Brigit!" +</p> +<p> +In the hope of seeing Antoun, Cleopatra turned her back upon the dreary +sanctuary not unwillingly, even though the burning question was left +unanswered. I hurried her through the dark passages which lay between +us and the courts, lighting our way with a glassed-in candle; and it +was all I could do not to cry out aloud "Thank heaven!" or "Hurrah!" or +something else that would have opened people's eyes, when I saw that +indeed, Brigit and Monny had arrived. It was Rachel Guest and Willis +Bailey who had hailed them from afar, as candlelights flashed across +their faces; and suddenly to my eyes the gloomy temple seemed to be +brilliantly illuminated. I don't know exactly how I contrived to leave +Cleopatra, and get to the newcomers; but I did get to them in less than +a minute. Perhaps I was a little rude to Mrs. East. I wasn't thinking +of that at the time, however, nor of her. +</p> +<p> +I separated the two I wanted from the others. Their faces radiated +excitement, but I was not sure if it meant success. I was sure only +that they had been through an ordeal and were feeling the reaction. +</p> +<p> +"You're safe!" I said, and shook hands with them feverishly. Then I +shook hands all over again. +</p> +<p> +"Safe, yes," Monny answered. "And Mabel—why don't you ask about her? +Oh, Lord Ernest, we've done it—we've done it—thanks to Antoun +Effendi! We should have failed at the last if it hadn't been for him. +Just look over there, at the Bronsons, and see if you can guess who it +is they're talking to?" +</p> +<p> +I looked and saw tall, thin Mr. Bronson, and short, plump Mrs. Bronson +trying to form a hollow square around a little figure in a long gray +coat of Biddy's, and a hood with a veil I remembered her wearing the +day we motored to Heliopolis. It seemed about a hundred years ago. I +had conducted so much and so violently since; but I was not too old to +remember Biddy's hood. What if Neill Sheridan, poking about alone with +a candle, could see through that veil? +</p> +<p> +"Triumph!" I exclaimed. "You're heroines!" (I didn't know then how true +were my own words.) "Was it a great adventure?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Was it</i>, Biddy?" the girl asked, half shyly of her friend. +</p> +<p> +"So great that I can't talk about it," Brigit answered, and her eyes +implored mine not to ask questions. Also they said that she had things +to tell me—not now but by and by. Things for me alone. Biddy's eyes +could be wonderful. +</p> +<p> +"Where's Antoun Effendi?" Monny broke in, when I had taken Brigit's +hint, and was beginning to say that we must go and speak to the +Bronsons. +</p> +<p> +"He hasn't come yet," I answered; and then her eyes, too, began to +implore. +</p> +<p> +"Not come yet? But—it's a long time. We found Mr. and Mrs. Bronson +outside, hoping for us to arrive, and we talked to them and introduced +Mabel, and explained things. They would have liked to go and take her +away quickly, but Biddy and I begged them not to. We said it would be +better to wait for the rest, and all the crowd to be together in case +of—trouble. Oh, we discussed everything, for ages—minutes and +minutes. I do think Antoun Effendi ought to be here, unless—" +</p> +<p> +I caught her up quickly. "Unless?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, you see, we left him inside Rechid's gate, where he'd just +knocked down a big negro, and was keeping back Rechid and <i>lots</i> of +other men—anyhow three—with a pistol—not the one he lent me. He told +us to go, so we went." +</p> +<p> +He told them to go—so they went! A change, this, for the Gilded Rose. +She spoke at the moment like an obedient little girl. +</p> +<p> +"If he told you to go—it was all right, you may be sure," I said +encouragingly. But despite my faith in Anthony as a fighting man, I +felt—well, somewhat dismayed at the picture called up. "Rechid and +anyhow three men!" It was rather a large order. If with a wish I could +have sent every member of the Set back to their peaceful homes in +England and America, and thus rid myself of them in a second, they +would all have found themselves walking in at their respective front +doors. +</p> +<p> +I wished this wish, but having a mere smoking candle in my hand, and +not Aladdin's lamp, it didn't work. There they inconveniently remained +in the Temple of Mût, looking twice as large as life. +</p> +<p> +"What if I tell them they've seen everything?" I muttered. "They +haven't, but that's a detail. If I could rush 'em all back to the boat +—and you with them, of course, and get Mabella Hânem and the Bronsons +off safely, I could go look for Anth—for Antoun. Of course we were to +wait for him, but I don't like the picture you've painted—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, <i>do</i> look for him!" broke in Monny. "Leave us to take care of +ourselves. I'm sure we can. There are enough of us. And Mr. Bronson is +a <i>Consul</i>. Go and get the police." +</p> +<p> +"I can't leave you," I said. "Antoun would be the last one to forgive +me if I did that. But I'll start off the party, now. The arabeahs and +donkeys are waiting. Listen to the stentorian voice of the Conductor, +announcing—" +</p> +<p> +I tried to speak gayly; but the announcement, which I opened my mouth +to roar through the temple, was never made. There came instead, at that +instant, a rival roar from outside. Mine would have been the roar of a +sucking dove. This other was a wild bull roar of rage. What it was for, +who was making it, and whether it concerned us, we did not know; but it +was the sound of many voices, and flowing to us on the wind, driving +nearer out of distance, it was startling and caused the heart to miss a +beat. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the thought sprang into my mind that this was like something +in a theatre. We were on the stage, in a play of Ancient Egypt, and a +mob of supers was yelling for our lives in the wings. They would pour +out upon the stage and attack us. Only the hero and heroine would be +saved. All the villains and other unnecessary people would be polished +off. +</p> +<p> +Everybody had stopped talking. Involuntarily groups drew together. We +looked over our smoking candles, past the standing statues and the +fallen statues, away toward the columns of the temple entrance. +</p> +<p> +Mr. and Mrs. Bronson, and the girl in Biddy's veiled hood and cloak, +walked across the court and joined our party of three. Neill Sheridan +was at a distance. His prophetic soul told him nothing. "I hope that +fellow Rechid Bey hasn't worked up any trouble against us," the +American Consul from Asiut said in a low, somewhat worried tone. +</p> +<p> +Instantly I was certain that what he hoped had not happened, was indeed +the thing that had happened. I seemed to see Rechid stirring up a crowd +of his fellow Mussulmans, telling them that dogs of Christians had +robbed him of his foreign wife, who was on the point of accepting +Islam. Nothing easier than for Rechid to find us. All Luxor knew we +were in the Temple of Mût. These men of Luxor and other Nile towns of +Upper Egypt, had not yet settled down after the outburst against +Christian insults which had alarmed the authorities in Cairo. In three +days Anthony Fenton had discovered the dregs at the bottom of the +teapot and had doubtless done something toward calming the tempest in +it, but the troubled water had not time to cool. It could easily be +brought to the boil again; and the despoiling of a harem by Europeans +—the harem of an important man—would be oil thrown onto the dying fire +under the tempestuous teapot. +</p> +<p> +The furious voices grew louder. From the wave of sound words spattered +out and up like spray. Perhaps in all that astonished crowd gathered in +the Temple of Mût, Bronson and I were the only ones who knew enough +Arabic to catch their meaning. His question was answered. And this was +not a stage. Those shouting men were not supers in the wings. They were +in earnest. Foolish and dreamlike and utterly unreal as it seemed, +their hearts were hot with savage anger against men and women of an +alien race: and though what they might do to us would be visited on +their own heads to-morrow, they were not thinking of to-morrow now. As +for us—it was just possible that owing to this silly dream we were +having about a mob of common, uneducated Arabs, for some of us there +might not be any to-morrow. +</p> +<p> +"Is there a back door where we can dash out and give them the slip?" +asked Bronson. +</p> +<p> +I was thinking hard. Mine was the responsibility for my charges, these +rich, comfortable tourists from London and New York, Birmingham and +Manchester, Chicago and St Louis. None of them knew yet that they were +in danger. They were thinking about their dinner, and their pleasant, +lighted cabins on board the <i>Enchantress Isis</i>, waiting for them not +far away. They realized that something was the matter out there, that a +lot of Arabs were making a row; but it interested and amused them +impersonally. If somebody had robbed or murdered somebody else, morally +it was a pity, of course: but it added to the picturesqueness of the +scene, and would be nice to tell about at home. I felt myself +overflowing with a sudden, new tenderness for the Set, so often +troublesome. This that was going to happen—unless we could stop it +—was in truth the affair of Monny and Brigit, Mabella Hânem and the +Bronsons, Anthony Fenton and me; but all would be involved, the +innocent with the guilty, unless very quickly the duffer of the company +could think of some way out. +</p> +<p> +"No," I heard myself say with decision, "we mustn't leave the temple. +They're superstitious about it. Few, if any, will venture in. What they +want is to lure us into the open. And there must be no panic. Certainly +my friend, unless he's been hurt, is working for us—somewhere. It's +only a question of minutes. He borrowed my Browning to-day. I wish—" I +glanced toward Brigit and Monny. They stood at a little distance, with +Mrs. Bronson and Mabel, but the faces of both were turned toward us. I +saw that they guessed the meaning of the uproar outside. Biddy's great +soft eyes spoke to mine, spoke, and told me all the truth about myself. +How I loved her, Biddy O'Brien, and no one else on earth! How I would +die for her, and let all the rest die, if need be, yes, even Monny +Gilder, to whom I had been idiot enough to write that letter! If I +could save Biddy, what did anything beside matter? But—yes, it did +matter. I must save them all. And the light that had lit up my dim soul +gave me inspiration. Because I loved Biddy, I knew what to do. +</p> +<p> +"I've got a little surprise for every one!" I yelled, to be heard over +the noise outside, where Rechid Bey's mob was now probably trying to +make our donkey-boys and arabeah-men join in the fight or the siege. +"Mr. Neill Sheridan will kindly lead the whole party to the sanctuary, +which his knowledge of architecture will enable him to find, on the +axis of the temple. Down that passage, please! In fifteen minutes the +surprise will be ready, and you will receive the signal to return, from +Mr. Bronson, American Consul at Asiut—no time for introductions now." +</p> +<p> +Sheridan, amazed, but perhaps not displeased, emerged from the dark +corner where, until the row began, he had been examining a half-erased +wall-carving. "Come along, then, everybody!" he shouted good-naturedly; +and as the procession formed—discussing the "surprise" and the noise, +now mysteriously linked together in the minds of my charges—I saw the +veiled and hooded Mabel shyly try to pull Mrs. Bronson into place with +her, as near as possible to Sheridan. She must have suspected that +there was trouble brewing, and guessed the cause. Her timid, +self-centred little soul instinctively sought shelter in the neighbourhood +of a friend, who would perhaps have been more than a friend, if he +could. So she followed him, he not knowing what eyes the gray veil hid: +but Mrs. Bronson broke away from the small hand and hurried back to her +husband. +</p> +<p> +"What am I to do?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Go with the others," he said, quietly. "Take care of the girl. Lord +Ernest has some plan." +</p> +<p> +She went reluctantly; but Brigit and Monny and Mrs. East lingered at +the tail of the procession, returning to us as the others vanished down +the passage that led toward the sanctuary. I motioned them away, but +Monny ran forward, while Biddy kept Cleopatra from following. They +talked together and argued, Biddy's arm round the taller woman's waist, +as Monny came straight to me, and put into my hand Anthony Fenton's +pistol. +</p> +<p> +"I didn't have to use it," she said. "It's all loaded and ready. And +I'm going to stay here with you and Mr. Bronson, to help. What are you +planning to do?" +</p> +<p> +"Please run away," I said, "and take Biddy and your aunt. You must. +That's the only help we want—" +</p> +<p> +"Not till you tell me what you mean to do." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, only to try a trick to frighten those Arab sheep out there. They +funk this temple at night anyhow. And I've just remembered that I +brought some Bengal fire to light the place up and amuse the crowd. I +thought if a red blaze suddenly burst out it would give those fellows a +scare—and the police are on the way—" +</p> +<p> +"But the Arabs will see that you're only two!" +</p> +<p> +"They shan't see us at all. We'll hide behind those statues and pot at +them if they do come in, which I doubt. Now, off with the three of +you!" And I was getting my illumination ready. +</p> +<p> +To my surprise and relief, Monny obeyed without further argument. Dimly +it passed through my mind that she had been profiting by her lessons +lately. I threw one glance over my shoulder, more, I'm afraid, to see +whether my dear Brigit were on her way to safety than through anxiety +for Miss Gilder. The three figures had already disappeared in the +darkness, and Bronson and I gave ourselves to the work of lighting up. +</p> +<p> +An ocean-roar of voices surged round the temple entrance now; but the +red light flamed like the fires of hell, and I, peeping from behind a +statue, revolver in hand, saw that the temple itself had not been +invaded. The flare lit the foreground of the darkness outside, and the +columns of the front court. I could see a moving throng of white and +black clad figures, gesticulating, running to and fro, seeming to urge +each other to some action, yet none coming forward. I sprinkled on more +powder, and up blazed the Bengal fire again. Now somebody was taking +the lead. A tall man was pushing through the crowd. Would they follow +this brave one? My fingers closed round the Browning. He was between +the columns at last, but the light was dying down. I threw on all I had +of the powder, and stared through the red dazzle to make certain what +was happening—since this might decide our fate. The tall man's back +was turned to us. He seemed to be motioning the crowd away instead of +urging them on. How to make sure, in the blood-coloured glare, whether +a man's turban was white or green or crimson? But that gesture—that +lift of the head! No mistaking that. The man was Antoun—Ahmed Antoun, +the worshipful Hadji, haranguing the mob. +</p> +<p> +Hardly would they let him speak at first. Those on the outskirts tried +to yell him down. I heard the word "traitor!" and before the light +ebbed I thought I caught sight of Rechid's pale face under the red +tarboosh, Rechid's broad shoulders in European coat, edging past +jebbahs and galabeahs, toward the columns. Then, just as the light +died, from behind us in the temple came a cry. Above the shouting of +the Hadji, who was beginning to make himself heard by the crowd, it +rang out shrill and clear—a woman's voice: Monny Gilder's. She called +on the name of Antoun, and then was silent. +</p> +<p> +I lifted my candle-lantern—all that was left to illumine the darkness, +and saw at the far end of the court shadowy figures struggling +together. It seemed to me that there were not two, but four or five. I +ran toward them, and Bronson ran, but some one bounded past us both—a +tall man in a green turban. A shot was fired after him, and hit a +statue. I heard subconsciously a miniature crash of chipped granite, +but I don't think Anthony heard, or had heard anything since that call +for "Antoun!" +</p> +<p> +He had dashed ahead, though we had had the start and were running fast. +Rounding a group of statues, erect and fallen, I saw a candle-lantern +on the floor, and knew that Monny—and perhaps Biddy—had not +obediently followed the procession to the sanctuary, after all. They +had waited to watch and listen, hiding behind the black statues of +Sekhet, and men who had crept in by another way—doubtless by the small +Ptolemaic gate opening on the lake—had taken them by surprise. +</p> +<p> +Anthony had got to the shadowy mass, which, moved like black, wind-blown +clouds, vague and shapeless, before Bronson and I were near +enough to distinguish one form from another. As for our eyes, his tall +figure blended with the waving shadows; two revolver shots exploded +with thunderous reverberations. We did not know if he, or another, had +fired; but almost simultaneously with the second shot two black shapes +separated themselves from the rest, fleeing into darkness. They took +the way by which they must have come, the way leading toward the gate +on the lake. +</p> +<p> +Three seconds later we were on the spot; and the only shadows left +resolved themselves under my candle light into the forms of Brigit +O'Neill, Monny Gilder, Anthony Fenton, and Mrs. East somewhat in the +background. +</p> +<p> +Monny's hat was off, and Biddy's was apparently hanging by a hatpin. +Their hair was in disorder, a rope of Biddy's falling over one +shoulder, a shining braid of Monny's hanging down her back. Monny +seemed to be more or less in the arms of Antoun, but only vaguely and +by accident. Dimly I gathered that she had stumbled, and he had saved +her from falling. Biddy was fastening up the front of her gray chiffon +blouse, which was open, and torn. Her hands trembled and I could see +that her breast rose and fell convulsively; for, though the light was +dim, I was looking at her, while I merely glanced at the others. Mrs. +East was crying. But Brigit and Monny had smiles for Bronson and me as +we came blundering along, stumbling over unseen obstacles. +</p> +<p> +"Some one stole up behind with an electric torch, and tried to drag me +away," said Monny, in a weak little voice, scarcely at all like her +own. It sounded as if a ventriloquist were imitating her. "Some one +called me Esmé O'Brien—whispered right in my ear. And I screamed, and +fought, and Antoun came. I think then the man pushed me down as he ran +away. Anyhow I fell, and Antoun picked me up. Oh, Biddy, are you safe? +Why, your dress is torn!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but I'm safe," answered another small, weak voice. "I fought, +too. I—I think they wanted to rob me. Thank goodness, I didn't have it +on." +</p> +<p> +"The bag, dearest?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, darling, the bag. I thought I wouldn't wear it to-day." +</p> +<p> +Out in the night the yells had subsided since the Hadji's harangue, if +not wholly because of it. +</p> +<p> +"The police have come," said Anthony. "It occurred to me that Rechid +and some friends of his were cooking up a plan, and while I was getting +into my clothes in the village it jumped into my head what it might be. +So on my way out to the temple I stopped and left a warning. We're all +right now. And I don't think the Arab lot would have dared venture in +anyhow. These chaps who sneaked in at the back and attacked the ladies +were dressed like the rest, but I doubt they were Arabs." +</p> +<p> +He would have doubted still more, if he had known all that I knew. But +the one secret I'd kept from him was Biddy's secret. The words "Esmé +O'Brien" whispered to Monny, as yet meant nothing save bewilderment to +Fenton. +</p> +<p> +"The fifteen minutes are up, and no signal yet for your famous +surprise," called out Sir John Biddell's complaining voice, from the +end of a dark passage. "Has anything gone wrong?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I was going to give you a Bengal fire illumination of the temple, +for a climax," I explained, coming suavely forward to meet him with my +candle. "But the beastly stuff—er—sort of went off by itself, and +it's all used up. I was—er—just going to call you." +</p> +<p> +"Well, not much harm done," said Sir John. "We've seen the sanctuary, +such as it is. A little disappointing, perhaps, especially as Mr. +Sheridan found a friend with Mrs. Bronson, the Consul's wife, and +preferred talking with her to giving out information to us, from his +stores of knowledge. But luckily not more than twenty minutes wasted. +By the way, what's become of the row outside? Seems to have fizzled +down while we were away, like your red fire." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, a great man of some sort was addressing the crowd. But the police +came along and made it move on. There's been a bit of native grumbling +in these Nile towns lately—you may have read some paragraph about it +in the Cairo papers? So the police are rather quick to break up +meetings." +</p> +<p> +"Why should men meet near the Temple of Mût?" inquired Sir John. "<i>I</i> +shouldn't think of doing it." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps in the beginning they hoped to get something out of the +Europeans," said I lightly. "But they've given that up, evidently." +</p> +<p> +"I hope they haven't seduced our donkey-boys and arabeah drivers!" +exclaimed Sir John. "I'm hungry. And I'm in a hurry to get home." +</p> +<p> +"Not they. Donkey-boys and arabeah-men aren't easily seduced when +there's a question of baksheesh. <i>They're</i> all right! I'm only sorry +about the Bengal fire." +</p> +<p> +"Well, it was a good idea, anyhow," Sir John patronized me. +</p> +<p> +"<i>C'est vrai</i>," I heard murmur in his chosen language, the Hadji, who +had saved the situation. "<i>C'etait une idée très bien pour +un</i>—duffer." +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH24"><!-- CH24 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIV +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +PLAYING HEAVY FATHER TO RACHEL +</p> +<p> +Never had the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> looked so enchanting to my eyes as she +looked that night. I felt, as the Set trooped on board, like an anxious +hen-mother who, contrary to her fears, has safely returned a brood of +ducklings to the home chicken-coop after a swim out to sea. I valued +each duckling, even the least downy, far more than I had dreamed it +would be possible. But there was one duckling valued so much more than +all the rest (how much more I had realized only when, cackling on the +bank, I saw it on the wave)—that knowing it was safe made me +hysterical with joy. I could have kissed its napkin when it slid off +its lap and I picked it up—the napkin, not the duck—at dinner. The +drawback was that I had not saved it, as Anthony had saved Monny. It +had no reason to be grateful to me, or care more than it had always +cared, for a friend. And still another drawback presented itself when +the confusion of dressing in haste and dining, as the <i>Enchantress +Isis</i> steamed out of Luxor, gave me time to think. The duckling was not +my duckling: and considering that it had calmly laid plans for me to +capture an heiress, considering also that it had not yet abandoned +these plans, I saw little reason to hope that, now I had come to a few +—just a few—of my senses—it would ever take the idea seriously, of +becoming mine. +</p> +<p> +To abandon once and forever the duckling simile, the first thing I did +on board the boat, after recovering from the excitement of seeing Mabel +off by train with the Bronsons, was to wonder how I could make up for +all this hideous waste of time when I might have been making love to +Biddy. But there was no chance to say anything personal to her that +night. I had to hear—and wanted to hear—the story of all that had +happened from the moment she and Monny entered Rechid Bey's gate, to +the moment they came out. Then there was Antoun's story to follow; and +after that we had to compare notes: how everybody had felt, what +everybody had thought, what everybody had done. This subject was +inexhaustible, and kept cropping up in the midst of others; but that of +Mabella Hânem, her escape from bondage and from "conversion" to Islam, +and what revenge Rechid was likely to take, was almost as engrossing. +</p> +<p> +When at last, late that evening, I managed to get Biddy alone for a +moment, she could no more be induced to talk of herself than if she had +been a ghost without visible existence, a mere voice, to speak of +others, Monny by preference. What a heroine Monny had been from first +to last! And what did I think <i>now</i> about the foolishness of that +theory—the theory that Bedr was a spy, and had led his employers to +believe that "Mrs. Jones" was travelling with her stepdaughter +concealed under an impeccably important <i>nom de guerre</i>? +</p> +<p> +What I thought was, that we must get hold of Miss Rachel Guest, and +question her as to her whole acquaintance with the Armenian learning +how, by all that was incredible, the double mystery of mixed names had +originated. "Monny knows only that Rachel was supposed to be the +heiress, testing her personal attractions by pretending to be the poor +school teacher," said Brigit. "The child's been wildly enjoying the +situation, for she was tired of young men. Rachel wasn't! And Rachel's +been profiting by it—far more wickedly. As for Esmé, I'm sure no +thought of her name coming into this business, ever entered Monny's +head. We must try to find out what Bedr said to Rachel at the +beginning, as you advise, Duffer—and all about it. After what I told +you that I heard from Esmé about an exciting love romance, any mistake +of <i>this</i> sort might be particularly dangerous. The Organization might +think it had more right than ever to be bitter against us. And now, I +don't mind your confiding in your friend Captain Fenton. I think I'd +like him to know my story." +</p> +<p> +What Biddy had told me about Esmé was, that the girl had confessed, in +a letter, having been made love to (during a summer holiday in the +mountains with friends) by the son of a man her father had deeply +injured. The accidental meeting had been a real romance: the girl and +the young man thought that no one, save themselves, shared their +secret. But who could tell, when Fate itself stood between them with a +drawn sword? The love of Romeo for Juliet was a safe and simple affair +compared with the merest flirtation between the daughter of Richard +O'Brien and the son of John Halloran, whom O'Brien's testimony had sent +to prison for life. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes I thought, as the days went on, that Biddy guessed—not my +change of heart, but my new understanding of it: and that she wanted +quietly and gently to show me, according to Bill Bailey's pet +expression, there was "nothing doing." Her expressed wish that Fenton +should hear her story, looked to my suddenly suspicious mind as if his +strong personality and his extremely picturesque position had made an +appeal to the romance in her, as it had in the case of Mrs. East and +perhaps Monny Gilder. Always interested in "Mrs. Jones," from first +sight, when he had laughingly said that the "little sprite of a woman" +would be almost too alluring if surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery +and intrigue, Anthony was now frankly preoccupied with her affairs. He +was not even annoyed that, unaided by me, her quick mind had grasped +the secret of his identity. "It was like her to spring on to it by +instinct," he said, smiling that thoughtful smile of his, which was +more than ever effective in his Arab get up. "And like her not to give +anybody else a hint, except you, of course—though she must have been +tempted sometimes. I suppose"—and he looked up quickly—"she <i>hasn't</i> +given any one else a hint?" +</p> +<p> +"I'd swear she hasn't." +</p> +<p> +"Miss Gilder—you're sure she hasn't the slightest suspicion?" +</p> +<p> +"As sure as a man can be of anything about a woman." +</p> +<p> +"You aren't trying to evade the question, Duffer?" +</p> +<p> +"On my word, I'm not. I feel morally certain Miss Gilder labours under +the impression that you're as brown as you're painted. That somehow or +other you can't be Moslem because she's seen you without a turban, and +you've got the hair of a Christian. Maybe she thinks you're a Copt. I +heard her learnedly arguing the other day that the Copts are the only +<i>real</i> Egyptians. She has the air of studying you, sometimes: but with +all her study, she sees you only as an Egyptian of high birth and +attainments, with a few drops of European blood in your veins, perhaps +just enough to make things aggravating, and a vague right to a princely +position if you chose to overlook something or other, and claim it. +There you have her conception of you, in a nutshell." +</p> +<p> +There would still have been room in that nutshell for Cleopatra's ideas +concerning her niece's feelings. But if she were right, it was +Anthony's business to discover those feelings for himself, provided he +cared to do so. And of this I was not sure. There was the doubt that it +might be Biddy, even though he appeared to attach some unexplained +importance to Miss Gilder's continued ignorance about himself. +</p> +<p> +The day after leaving Luxor, there was no time for the heart to heart +talk I planned with Rachel Guest. Each hour, each minute almost, was +taken up with my duties as Conductor, which I was obliged to regard +seriously, whether I liked them or not. If I did not, the Set growled, +snapped or clamoured; which gave me even more trouble than doing my +duty. +</p> +<p> +For some reason best known to herself (but suspected by me) Mrs. East +kept to her suite, nursing a grievance and the Siberian lap-dog from +Asiut. This saved me a certain amount of brain strain, for among other +places of interest we had to pass near was ancient Hermonthis, where in +her Cleopatra incarnation she had built a temple with a portrait of +herself adoring the patron Bull of the city. If she had known how easy +it would be to visit the ruins, she would have been capable of desiring +the boat to stop, or telegraphing complaints to Sir Marcus if it +hadn't. +</p> +<p> +The two excitements of the day were passing through a huge lock (with +sides like those of a canyon, and scarlet doors such as might adorn the +house of an ogre) in which we nearly stuck, and were saved by Antoun +seizing the pole from the inferior hands of a Nubian boatman; also a +visit to Esneh, a very Coptic town, starred with convents built by the +ever-present Saint Helena, sacred once to the Latos fish, now sacred to +gorgeous baskets of every size and colour, also somewhat over-beaded, +and over-scarabed. A ruined quay jutted into the wine-brown water, +where Roman inscriptions could have been spied out, if any one had had +eyes to spare from the basket sellers, the sellers of grape-fruit, and +all the other shouting merchants who flocked to head us off on our way +to the temple, despite a flurry of rain that freckled the deep sand of +the landing hill. But nobody did have eyes for anything Roman, now that +Cleopatra sulked in her throne-room, and our only archeologist was as +absent-minded as if he had been his own astral body. He had seen the +wisdom of "sticking to the trip," and not turning back by train with +the Bronsons and Somebody Else, as he may have yearned to do (if Monny +were right): but History had suddenly become as dry husks to Sheridan. +His soul was no longer with us, journeying up the Nile; and I suspected +his body of packing to join it, as soon as things had been arranged to +un-Hânem Mabel, and send her, freed from a marriage which was not +marriage, freed from this fear or forcible conversion, home to the +United States. +</p> +<p> +It was just on the cards, Anthony and I thought, that there might be +another "demonstration" at Esneh, that unruly town where Mohammed Ali +banished the superfluous dancing girls of Cairo in the eighteen +forties. If Rechid Bey had not discovered the truth about that hurried +departure from Luxor for Asiut (as a matter of fact, Mabel and her +guardians were almost thrown on board as the train began to move) he +might have sent emissaries, or come himself to Esneh, where he must +have known the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> would land. As for Bedr and his +employers, Anthony (who now knew Biddy's suspicions) was inclined to +think that, even if she were right, we had seen the last of them. After +such a setback as that in the Temple of Mût, he thought they would not +only be discouraged but frightened. They had run away from us, in the +temple; and despite the proverb concerning those who fight and run, to +fight another day, it was probable that men of their calibre would see +the wisdom of abandoning the chase. They had shown themselves cowards, +Anthony thought, whatever their object had been in attacking Miss +O'Brien and Miss Gilder: and though we must be on the watch during the +rest of the trip, his idea was that the men had retreated in fear of +arrest. +</p> +<p> +In any case, we had no trouble at Esneh, and saw no sinister faces +peering out of low doorways in the bazaars, or over the heads of the +pretty (sometimes fair and blue-eyed) dancing girls' descendants. +</p> +<p> +Buried in the heart of the village we came upon the temple. Only the +portico was visible under piled houses and a triumphant mosque; but +once we were down in the entombed temple itself, it gave a sense of +secrecy, and mystic rites, to look up from under the dark roof of heavy +stone with its painted zodiac, out from hidden halls of carving and +colour, to the clustered houses of dried brick built before the temple +was uncovered. There was a sense of tragedy and failure, too, toiling +up the steep slope to the town level, and passing, on the half-buried +walls, gigantic carved figures making thwarted gestures, in +commemoration of kingly triumphs forgotten hundreds upon hundreds of +years ago. +</p> +<p> +At night there was <i>fantasia</i> on board, with our boatmen dancing each +other down, like Highlanders, and the next day brought us to Edfu, +which all the women were wild to see because Robert Hichens had called +its green-blue the "true colour of love": an adorable temple sacred to +Horus, as there he conquered and killed Set. +</p> +<p> +It was only after we had passed Sir Ernest Cassell's red house, with +the smoky irrigation works where fourteen hundred Arabs have chased the +desert into the background, and after we had visited the splendid twin +temples of Light and Darkness at Kom Ombo, towering majestically above +the Nile bank, that I found time to catechize and lecture Miss Guest. I +contrived to separate her from her sculptor, and lure her to a part of +the deck unfrequented because it was windy. Rachel was looking happy, +young and prosperous, in one of Monny's most becoming (and expensive) +dresses. +</p> +<p> +At first, I think she felt inclined to be flattered by my desire for +her society, for I had never yet wished her joy, or formally +congratulated Bailey. One look into my eyes, with those clever, +slanting green orbs of hers, however, and instinct must have told her +that my intention was different. She glanced round for an excuse to +escape, but found none, for I hedged her in from all her friends. Then +she quickly decided to shunt me off on an emergency track laid by +herself. +</p> +<p> +"What a wonderful day it's been!" she remarked. And Kom Ombo is one of +the best temples. The only thing I didn't like was those mummied +crocodiles. Their smiles look so hypocritical, and to think they've +been smiling them for thousands of years—" +</p> +<p> +"It must be unpleasant to smile the smile of a hypocrite, even for a +few weeks," I seized the chance to work up to business. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, indeed," agreed Miss Guest a slight colour staining her cheeks. +"And didn't you notice several new sorts of wall-inscriptions?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I admitted. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to skip sixteen or +seventeen centuries and come down to you. I've been wanting a chat—" +</p> +<p> +"Why, I'm delighted!" she exclaimed, frightened, but all the more +ingratiating. "Oh, isn't the Nile beautiful as we come toward Nubia? +And aren't the sakkiyehs more interesting than the shadoofs, which they +use mostly when the river is low? Willis said quite a lovely thing, +about the sakkiyehs: that their chains of great water cups, going up +and down, look like enormous strings of red and green prayer-beads, +being 'told' by unseen hands. He ought to be a poet, he's so romantic." +</p> +<p> +"No doubt everything about you, Miss Guest, must make an appeal to his +romantic side," I cut in, while she was forced to pause for breath. +</p> +<p> +"I hope I do appeal to him," she said, meekly, "I never thought to be +so happy." This was a direct appeal to <i>me</i>; and it hit the mark. I +didn't care a rap about Willis Bailey, or his sketches or the wooden +statues with crystal eyes which he was going to make the fashion. If +Miss Guest chose to hook her shining fish with a false fly it wasn't my +business. It was hers and his, and perhaps Monny's, for Monny had +backed Rachel up in creating a wrong impression, as if they two had +been playing together, like children, to trick the grown-ups. But I had +to find out what had started the ball rolling, because it looked as if +that ball had come out of the pocket of Bedr. +</p> +<p> +"I'm glad you're happy," I said, "and my hope is that you'll remain so. +I wish you so well, that perhaps you'll give me the right to ask a few +questions. You see, I'm one of your oldest friends in Egypt, after Miss +Gilder and her aunt—and Mrs. Jones. You met Miss Gilder and Mrs. East +travelling in France, they've told me—" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, in a dining-car. We were put at the same table, and got talking. +I just loved Monny at first sight, and she's been heavenly to me. What +fun we've had! I never had <i>any</i> fun before. I hardly knew the meaning +of the word." +</p> +<p> +"I suppose it must have amused you and Miss Gilder," I planted my arrow +at last, though not remorselessly, "this quaint idea that's got round, +about your having changed places." +</p> +<p> +Rachel's face crimsoned. "Oh, Lord Ernest!" she sighed in an explosive +whisper, with a glance round to see if any one were near. But we were +alone with the beginnings of a sunset, that flushed the dun hills as +unripe peaches are flushed on a garden wall. "I've promised Monny not +to say a word and spoil her fun, as long as the trip lasts. She's +finding out, you see, which people are really attracted to her, for +herself. She says it's a wonderful experience—and it's given her such +a rest from men: the silly ones, you know. It isn't <i>my</i> fault. I'd +tell in a <i>minute</i> if she'd let me." +</p> +<p> +"Was it she who began the game?" I dared to inquire. "Or was it Bedr? +Now, this is a question I really <i>have</i> a right to ask. I'll tell you +why afterward, if you don't know already from Monny." +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't think Monny's said anything to make me understand that," +Rachel answered, stammering a little, and trying pathetically not to +look anxious. "But I'll answer you, of course. There's nothing to hide +from <i>you</i>—now—that I can see. It <i>was</i> Bedr who began. He was the +most intelligent, extraordinary person! I don't believe any one fully +realized it, except me. But from that first night at Alexandria, he +seemed to feel that I saw something of value behind his poor face. He +was <i>very</i> sensitive. And he attached himself to me in the most +beautiful, faithful way. Really and truly, if there hadn't come that +trouble about the hasheesh place (which <i>wasn't</i> his fault, because +Monny wanted to go, and when she wants things she wants them very much) +I believe I could have made a Christian of him. He would have been a +wonderful convert! We talked more about religion than anything else, +but he used to like to chat about America, because he'd been there, and +hoped to go again. <i>That</i> was the way the joke about Monny and me +started. He <i>did</i> ask me not to speak of it, but it can't matter now. +He told me when he was in New York, with a family who took him from +Egypt, one day the great Mr. Gilder's daughter was pointed out to him +in the street. She was with her father, in an automobile, but there was +a block in the traffic: a policeman was keeping it back, so he saw her +distinctly for several minutes, and he was interested, because his +employers told him how important the Gilders were, and how Mr. Gilder +used to have his daughter guarded every minute for fear she might be +kidnapped for ransom, as several rich people's children had been. Monny +couldn't have been more than fourteen then, as it's seven years ago; +and Bedr said that the little girl he saw in the automobile was exactly +like <i>me</i>—hardly at all like what Monny is now. He wanted me to tell +him, for a reason which he vowed and swore was <i>very</i> important, +whether I wasn't really Miss Gilder, and <i>she</i> Miss Guest." +</p> +<p> +"Well?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I thought the idea so funny, so thoroughly <i>quaint</i>, you know, +and like something in a book, that just for fun I answered that I +couldn't tell him anything until I'd consulted my friend. Monny nearly +went wild about it. She said she'd come to Egypt to have adventures and +she was going to <i>have</i> them, no matter whether 'school kept or not'. +That's just a little slang expression, people use at home, sometimes. I +daresay you've heard her say much the same thing. She said this idea of +Bedr's was too good to miss, and we'd get bushels of fun out of it. So +we have—in different ways. And she's been lovely, about giving me +dresses and things. When she and I talked the matter over, she +understood why Bedr should have thought she was more like me, at the +age of fourteen, than like her present self. She'd had typhoid fever +just before the time she must have been pointed out to him, and it had +left her thin as a rail, and as pale as a ghost. Her hair was short, +too, and some of the colour had been burnt out of it by the fever. Now, +you know, she has a brilliant complexion, and her face is much rounder +than mine, as well as more pink and white. Compared to her, I am +<i>sallow</i>, I'm afraid, and lanky: and when she and I stand together, her +hair looks bright gold, and mine light brown in comparison. +</p> +<p> +"Monny wouldn't let me tell Bedr right out that he was mistaken about +us. She said we wouldn't fib, but we'd act self-conscious, as if we had +a secret, and he'd stumbled on it. He must have started the story—oh, +if you could call it a story! I don't believe anything has ever been +put into words. It was in the air. People got the idea. But Bedr must +have put it into their heads. Neither Monny nor I did more than smile +and look away, and change the subject if any one hinted. We said, 'You +mustn't breathe such things to Mrs. East or Mrs. Jones, or they'll be +angry.' Apparently nobody ever did dare to breathe it to them. And I +think Monny mentioned you, too, Lord Ernest. She didn't want you to +know. She was afraid you'd say that the whole thing was nonsense. I +suppose it was Enid Biddell who came to you? She was afraid Mr. Snell +—but it isn't worth talking about, now. Only she is a cat." +</p> +<p> +Miss Biddell had said exactly the same of Miss Guest. Naturally, +however, I did not mention the coincidence. +</p> +<p> +"Now I've told you everything you wanted to know, haven't I?" Rachel +went on. "Or were there any more questions you'd like to ask—I mean, +about Bedr?" +</p> +<p> +"Only one more, I think. Did it ever strike you that he was curious +about you—or rather, about Miss Gilder who, you both let him suppose, +was really Miss Guest? Anything about your name?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, yes, he was curious. They say Arabs always are, if you let them +be. Not that he is exactly an Arab. But I suppose Armenians are the +same. He seemed to want to know things about me—what I'd done, where +I'd lived, and—oh, lots of little questions he would ask. Monny and I +made up our minds from the first, as I told you, that there mustn't be +any fibs. I simply put him off. He never got anything out of me at +all." +</p> +<p> +"I see," I said; and let myself drift away from her into +thoughtfulness. +</p> +<p> +"Is that all, then?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, that is all, thank you." +</p> +<p> +Her tone sounded as if she were relieved of a mental weight, and would +like to go. I expected her to make some excuse: it would soon be time +to dress for dinner: or she had a letter to write. But no, she +lingered. She was trying to bring herself to say something. I waited, +in silence, my eyes on the shining river, looking back at the golden +trail of the sun that was like a rich mantle draping a gondola on a +fête day in Venice. +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you think," she forced the words out at last, "that Willis +Bailey wouldn't have—fallen in love—or proposed—if he hadn't thought +like the rest, that I—I—" "I don't see why he shouldn't, Miss +Guest." +</p> +<p> +"He—really does seem to care for me—as I <i>am</i>, you know. And I've +never told him a single untruth. I've <i>nothing</i> to blame myself for." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure of that." +</p> +<p> +"Yet you don't approve of me—one bit. You think I'm a—kind of +adventuress. So does Mrs. Jones. <i>Me</i>! Why, what would the people at +home in Salem say if any one suggested such a thing? You don't know the +life I've led, Lord Ernest." +</p> +<p> +"I can imagine. You don't want to go back to it again, do you?" +</p> +<p> +"It does seem as if I <i>couldn't</i>, now. It's seemed so, even before +Willis—oh, I'm sure you think I <i>never</i> meant to go back, once I'd +broken free from the dull grind." +</p> +<p> +"No harm in that!" +</p> +<p> +"I'm glad you say so. I took all my legacy to see the world a little +—well, nearly all, not quite, perhaps, to tell the truth. And being +brave has brought me this reward: the love of a man who can give me +everything worth having. I shan't be <i>outside</i> life any more. And +Willis won't have any reason to blame me when he—when he—" +</p> +<p> +"No reason, of course," I fitted into her long pause. "But men as well +as women are unreasonable, sometimes, you know. And if he should be so +—er—wrong-headed as to think you'd deceived him about yourself—" +</p> +<p> +"Then he ought to blame Monny, not me!" +</p> +<p> +"He ought, perhaps. But the question is, what he will do. And you can't +like having a sword hanging over your head? Supposing he should be +unjust, and refuse to carry out—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Lord Ernest, you don't think he will, after he's sworn that I'm +the only woman in the world he could ever have loved? He thinks me +<i>much</i> better looking than Monny. He says she hasn't got a <i>soul</i>, yet. +He doubts if she ever will have one." +</p> +<p> +I didn't doubt it. I thought I had heard it stirring in the throes of +birth, a soul such as would blind the eyes of a Rachel Guest, with its +white shining. Monny had said that she would "find her soul in Egypt." +But the mention of this was not indicated just then. +</p> +<p> +"I haven't the courage to tell him, even if there were really anything +definite enough to tell," Rachel went on. "It would be insulting a man +like Willis to suggest that he'd been influenced—you know what I mean. +But—now we're talking of it—oh, do advise me! We're planning to be +married in Egypt, at the end of this trip, and then settle down in +Cairo, for Mr. Bailey's studies at the museum. He came up the Nile only +for me, you see! And he says I shall be his first model for the new +style—my eyes are <i>just</i> right, as if they'd been made on purpose to +help him. I lie awake nights wondering what if, before the wedding, +when he finds out for certain that my name is really only Rachel Guest, +and that I'm I—oh, I daren't <i>think</i> of it!" +</p> +<p> +"Then, if you want me to advise, why don't you in some tactful, perhaps +joking way, speak of the story Bedr started, and—" +</p> +<p> +"I can't—I simply can't." +</p> +<p> +"Yet you feel it would be better?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes—sometimes I feel it. <i>You</i> help me, Lord Ernest. <i>You</i> tell him. +And then, if you see any signs—you'll make him understand how dreadful +it would be to throw me over because I'm poor and have been a nobody +till now?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll do my best," I heard myself weakly promising. +</p> +<p> +No wonder I have earned the nickname of Duffer! +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH25"><!-- CH25 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXV +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +MAROONED +</p> +<p> +Had any human fly ever buzzed himself so fatally into the spider-webs +of other people's love affairs? I asked myself sternly. As soon as +Providence plucked me out of one web, back I would bumble into another, +though I had no time for a love affair of my own. +</p> +<p> +When the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> had slipped past many miles of desert +shore, black-striped and tawny as a leopard's skin, and other desert +shores so fiercely yellow as to create an effect of sunshine under gray +skies, we arrived at Assuan. I had not yet kept my promise to Rachel, +though whether from lack of opportunity or courage I was not sure. +</p> +<p> +Here we were at historic Assuan; and nothing had happened, nothing +which could be written down in black and white, since the excitements +at Luxor. Nevertheless, some of us were different within, and the +differences were due, directly or indirectly, to those excitements. +</p> +<p> +Now we were nearing Ethiopia, alias the Land of Cush, though Monny said +she could not bear to have it called by that name, except, of course, +in the Bible, where it couldn't be helped. How would any of us like to +"register" at an hotel as Mr. or Miss So-and-So, of Cush? Oshkosh +sounded more romantic. +</p> +<p> +No land, however, could look more romantic than Assuan, City of the +Cataracts, Greek Syene, that granite quarry whose red syenite made +obelisks and sarcophagi for kings of countless dynasties. "Suan," as +the Copts renamed it (a frontier town of Egypt since the days of +Ezekiel the prophet), now appeared a gay place, made for +pleasure-pilgrims. +</p> +<p> +Sky and river were dazzling blue, and the sea of sand was a sea of +gold, the dark rocks lying like tamed monsters at the feet of Khnum, +god of the Cataract, glittered bright as jet, over which a libation of +red wine had gushed. The river-front of the town, with its hotels and +shops, was brightly coloured as a row of shining shells from a southern +sea; tints of pink and blue and amber, translucently clear in contrast +with the dark green of lebbek trees and palms, in whose shadow flowers +burned, like rainbow-tinted flames of driftwood. Between our eyes and +the brilliant picture, a network of thin dark lines was tangled, as if +an artist had defaced his canvas with scratches of a drying brush. +These scratches were in reality the masts of moored feluccas, bristling +close to the shore like a high hedge of flower stems, stripped of +blossoms and bent by driving wind. +</p> +<p> +On the opposite side of the river, the desert crouched like a lion who +flings back his head with a shake of yellow mane, before he stoops to +drink. And in the midst of the stream rose Elephantine Island, with its +crown of feathery palms, its breastwork of Roman ruins (a medal of fame +for the kings it gave to Egypt) and its undying lullaby sung by the +cataract, among surrounding rocks. +</p> +<p> +Very strange rocks they were, black as wet onyx, though for thousands +of years they had been painted rose by sunrise and sunset; shapes of +animal gods, shapes of negro slaves, shapes of broken obelisks and +fallen temples; shapes of elephants like those seen first by Egyptians +on this island; shapes which one felt could never have taken form +except in Egypt. +</p> +<p> +Over our heads armies of migrating birds made a network like a great +floating scarf of beads, each bead a bird: and the blue water round the +slow-gliding <i>Enchantress</i> was crowded with boats of so many hitherto +unknown sorts, that they might have been visiting craft from another +world: feluccas with sails red or white, or painted in strange +patterns, or awninged; some with rails like open trellis work of many +colours, over which dark faces shone like copper in the sunshine; +rowing boats, "galleys" with fluttering flags, and old soap-boxes +roughly lined with tin, in which naked imps of boys perilously paddled. +Out from the boats rushed music in clouds like incense; wild, African +music of chanting voices, beating tom-toms, or clapping hands that +clacked together like castanets. Very old men and very young youths +thumped furiously on earthen drums shaped like the jars of Elephantine, +once so famous that they travelled the length of Egypt filled with +wine. The breeze that fanned to us from beyond the palms and lebbeks, +the roses and azaleas, was soft and flower-laden. There was a scent in +it, too, as of ripe grapes, as if a fragrance lingered from vanished +days when wine for the gods was made from Elephantine vineyards, and +fig-trees never lost their leaves. We ourselves, and our big three-decked +boat were alone in our modernity, if one forgot the line of gay +buildings on the shore. Everything else might have been of the time +when the world supposed Elephantine to be placed directly on the Tropic +of Cancer, and believed in the magic lamp which lit the unfathomable +well; the time when quarries of red and yellow clay gave riches to the +island, and all Egypt thanked its gods when Elephantine's Nilemeter +showed that the Two Lands would be plentifully watered. +</p> +<p> +Most of us were going to live on board the <i>Enchantress</i> for our three +days at Assuan; but, hearing that lords and ladies of high degrees +swarmed at the Cataract Hotel with its wild, watery view of tumbled +rocks, and at the Savoy in its flowery gardens, some went where they +might hope to cross the path of dukes and duchesses. +</p> +<p> +The Monny-ites were not "wild" about the aristocracy, nor would royalty +(of later date than the Ptolemies) have lured Cleopatra from her suite +on the boat. But the whole party was eager for shore, and no sooner had +the <i>Enchantress</i> put her foot on the yellow sands than she was +deserted by her passengers. The bazaars were the first attractions, for +"everybody said" that they were as fine in their way as the bazaars of +Cairo; so very soon we were all buying silver, ivory, stuffed +crocodiles and ostrich feathers from the Sudan, which now opened its +gates not far ahead: the Sudan, mysterious, unknown, and vast. +</p> +<p> +Cleopatra clung to me, with a certain wistfulness, as if in this +incarnation she were not so intimately at home in Upper Egypt as she +had hoped to be. Perhaps this loneliness of her soul was due to the +fact that instead of seeking her society, "Anthony with an H" seldom +came near her now. Something had warned him off. He would never tell me +or any one on earth: but, unused to the ways of women as he was, I felt +sure that he had been uncomfortably enlightened as to Cleopatra's +feelings. The cure, according to his prescription, was evidently to be +"absent treatment." But there was another which I fancied might be +efficacious; the sudden arrival on the scene of Marcus Antonius Lark. +</p> +<p> +I happened to know that he proposed a dash from Cairo to Assuan by +train, for I had received two telegrams at the moment of walking off +the boat. The first message announced his almost immediate advent; the +second regretted unavoidable delay, but expressed an intention not to +let us steam away for Wady Halfa without seeing him. The excuse alleged +was business, but I thought I saw through it, and sympathized; for he +whom I had once cursed as a brutal tyrant of money-bags now loomed +large as a pathetic figure. +</p> +<p> +Despite the lesson of the lotuses, I believed that his motive was to +try his chance with Mrs. East; that life had become intolerable, unless +"Lark's Luck" might hold again; and that he could not wait till the +cruel lady returned to Cairo. It was a toss-up, as we walked side by +side to the incense-laden bazaar, whether I told her the news or left +her to be surprised by the unexpected visitor. Eventually I decided +that silence would help the cause; and in thus making up my mind I was +far from guessing that my own fate and Monny's and Anthony's and +Brigit's hung also on that insignificant decision. I was thankful that +Mrs. East said no more of bringing her niece and me together, and that, +on the contrary, she dropped dark hints about "everything in life which +she had wanted" being now "too late, and useless to hope for" in this +incarnation. Why she had changed her plans for Monny I could not be +sure; enough for me that she apparently had changed them. +</p> +<p> +Sir Marcus did not appear the next day or the next, and I heard no +more. Indeed, between dread of breaking the truth to Bill Bailey, and +self-reproach at letting time pass without breaking it, I almost forgot +Lark's love affair. I salved my conscience by working unnecessarily +hard, and even helping Kruger with his accounts, when Anthony too +generously relieved me of other duties. +</p> +<p> +How I envied Fenton at this time, because no girls asked him what men +they ought to marry; or implored him to prevent men from jilting them; +or urged him to enlighten handsome sculptors with wavy, soft hair, and +hard eyes resembling the crystal orbs which were to become fashionable +in Society! Anthony loved Assuan, and apparently enjoyed displaying its +beauties. Not knowing that I hid a fox under my mantle, he meant to be +kind in "taking people off my hands," giving them tea on the Cataract +Hotel veranda; escorting them to the ruined Saracen Castle which, with +Elephantine opposite, barred the river and made a noble gateway; +leading them at sunset to the Arab cemetery in the desert, and to the +Bisharin village where wild, dark creatures (whose hair was pinned with +arrows and whose ancestors were mentioned in the Bible) sold baskets +and bracelets and what not. There were really, as Sir John Biddell +remarked, a "plethora of sights," not counting the magnificent Rock +Tombs, since the Set had definitely "struck" against tombs of all +descriptions. But even with an excursion to the ancient quarries, for a +look at half-finished obelisks, for once I had not enough to do. And +Fenton had snatched Biddy from me as well as Monny. Mercilessly he had +them sightseeing every moment. And I could no longer scold Rachel for +"letting things slide." To blame her would be for the pot to call the +kettle black. +</p> +<p> +It was on the day of the Great Dam that I screwed my courage to the +sticking-place, and made Bailey understand that his fiancée was nobody +but Rachel Guest; that she would be Rachel Guest all her life until she +became Mrs. Some One-or-Other: preferably Mrs. Willis Bailey. Somehow +it seemed appropriate to do the deed at the Dam. And always in future, +when people ask what impression the eighth wonder of the world made +upon me, I shall doubt for an instant whether they refer to the +American sculptor, or to the Barrage. +</p> +<p> +The way in which we went was so impressive that it was comparatively +easy to be keyed up to anything. +</p> +<p> +Most travellers make the trip on donkey back; or else, as far as +Shellal, in a white, blue-eyed desert train, where violet window-glass +soothes their eyes and prepares their minds for a future journey to +Khartum. After Shellal they go on in small boats to the wide, still +lake which the Great Dam has stored up for the supply of Egypt. But we +of the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> were super-travellers. Our boat being of less +bulk than her new rivals, she was able to reach the Barrage by passing +up through its many locks and proceed calmly along the Upper Nile, +between the golden shores of Nubia, to Wady Haifa. We remained on board +for the experience; and though I had the task of telling Bailey, still +before me, I would not have changed places with a king, as standing on +deck, with Biddy by my side, I felt myself ascending the once +impassable Cataracts of the god Khnum. +</p> +<p> +If Biddy had been the only person by my side, I should have risked +telling her the secret she ought always to have known. But there were +as many others as could crowd along the rail. For once they were +reflective, not inclined to chatter. Perhaps the same thought took +different forms, according as it fitted itself into different heads; +the thought of that marvellous campaign of the boats which fought their +way past these cataracts to relieve Gordon. The ascent was a pageant +for us. For them it had meant strife and disaster and death. We admired +the glimpses of yellow desert: we exclaimed joyously at the mad turmoil +of green water, the blood-red and jet-black rocks, below the Dam. For +us it was a scene of unforgettable majesty. For those others, the waste +of stone-choked river must have yawned like a wicked mouth, full of +water and jagged black teeth, which opened to gulp down boats and men. +</p> +<p> +It was on the brink of the Barrage itself that I spoke to Bailey. And +there, looking down over the immense granite parapet, upon line after +line of tamed cataracts breathing rainbows, we were so small, so +insignificant, that surely it could not matter to a man whether the +girl of his heart were an heiress or a beggar maid! There was room in +the world only for the mighty organ-music of these waters, and the ever +underlying song of love. +</p> +<p> +I saw by the look in Bailey's eyes, however, as he gazed away from me +to the long-necked dragon form of a huge derrick, that it <i>did</i> matter. +I had been tactful. I had mentioned the mistake in identity as if it +were a silly game played by children, a game which neither he nor I nor +any one could ever have regarded seriously. He controlled himself, and +took it well, so far as outward appearance went: but soon he made an +excuse to escape: and presently I saw him strolling off alone, head +down, hands in pockets. Luncheon was being prepared on the veranda of a +house belonging to the chief engineer of the Dam. Its owner was a +friend of Sir Marcus Lark, and, being away, had agreed to lend his +place to our party, Kruger having done no end of writing and +telegraphing to secure it. Many of our people had got off the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> in one of the locks, and had walked up the steps to +the summit-level of the Barrage, Brigit and I among others. And as we +assembled for lunch it was an odd sight to see our white, floating home +rising higher and higher, until at last she rode out on the surface of +the broad sea of Nile which is held up by the granite wall of the +Barrage. She was to be moored by the Dam, and to wait for us there +until evening, when we should have exhausted the Barrage and ourselves; +and have visited Philae. +</p> +<p> +By and by luncheon was ready, served by our white-robed, red-sashed +waiters from the <i>Isis</i>, but Bailey did not return. Rachel begged that +our table might wait for a few minutes. Perhaps he had gone the length +of the Dam in one of those handcars, on which some of our people had +dashed up and down the famous granite mile, their little vehicles +pushed by Arabs. He might be back in a few minutes. But the minutes +passed and he did not come. The dragon-derrick stretched its neck from +far away, as if to peer curiously at Rachel. The black and red and +purple monsters disguised as rocks for this wild, masquerade ball of +the Nile, foamed at the mouth with watery mirth at the trouble these +silly things called girls had always been bringing on themselves, since +Earth and Egypt were young together. The look of the forsaken, the +jilted, was already stamped upon Rachel's face. She tried to eat: when +the picnic meal could be put off no longer, but could scarcely swallow. +Monny glanced at her anxiously from time to time, perhaps suspecting +something of the truth. And the eyes of both, girls turned to me now +and then with an appeal which made unpalatable my well-earned +hard-boiled eggs, and drumsticks. Bother the whole blamed business! +thought I. Hadn't I done all I could? Wasn't I practically running the +lives of these tiresome tourists, as well as their tour? What did that +adventuress out of a New England schoolroom want of me now, when I'd +washed my hands of her and her affairs? +</p> +<p> +But all through, there was no real use in asking myself these +questions. I knew what Rachel wanted, and that I should have to do it, +if only to please Biddy, who would be broken-hearted if Monny's +indiscretions should wreck the happiness of even the most undeserving +young female. Darling Monny must be saved from remorse at all costs! +</p> +<p> +One of the costs to me was luncheon as well as peace of mind. I excused +myself from the table. I pretended to have forgotten some business of +importance. I whispered to the <i>Enchantress</i> dining-room steward, who +had come to look after the waiters, that the meal must be served as +slowly as possible. "Drag out the courses," said I. "Make 'em eat salad +by itself, and everything separate, except bread and butter." Having +given these last instructions, I was off like an arrow shot from the +bow, a reluctant arrow sulking at its own impetus. Instinct was the +hand that aimed me; the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> was the target; and deck +cabin No. 36 was the bull's-eye. As I expected, Bailey was in his +stateroom. I had not far to go; only to hurry from the engineer's +house, along the riverbank to the landing place, where a number of +native boats were lying; jump into one, and row out a few yards. But +the heat of noon, after the cool shade of the veranda, was terrific. I +arrived out of breath, my brow richly embroidered with crystal beads, +just in time to find Bailey squeezing his bath sponge preparatory to +packing it, in a yawning kitbag already full. At such a moment he could +squeeze a sponge! I hated him for this, as though the sponge had been +Rachel's heart. +</p> +<p> +On his berth lay a letter addressed to her, and another to me. No doubt +he told us both that he had received an urgent telegram. He was so +taken aback at sight of the task master that he let me withdraw the +sponge from his pulseless fingers. I laid it reverently on the +washhand-stand, as a heart should be laid on an altar. +</p> +<p> +"My dear fellow," I began. (Yes, to my credit be it spoken, I said +"dear fellow!") "You don't know what you are doing. I speak for your +own sake. Think what people will say! Everyone will see why you left +her. And you don't <i>want</i> to leave her, you know! Of course you don't! +You love Miss Guest. She loves you. Not all the crystal eyes in the +world can make you the fashion, if the eyes of your fiancée are red +with tears because you jilted her, when you found out she was—only +herself! People don't like such things. They won't have their artists +cold and calculating. It isn't done. You can't afford to squeeze a +sp—I mean, break a heart in this fashion. It will ruin your reputation." +</p> +<p> +So I argued with a certain eloquence, forcing conviction until with a +fierce gesture Bailey snatched six collars from his bag and flung them +on the bed. Seeing thus clearly what I thought showed him what others +were sure to think: and the world's opinion was life itself to Bailey. +He was cowed, then conquered. At last I dared to say: "May I?" +</p> +<p> +He nodded. +</p> +<p> +Instantly I tore the letters into as many pieces as there were collars. +Afterward, when we walked off the boat, arm in arm, I dropped them into +the water. +</p> +<p> +We got back to the engineer's before the picnickers had finished their +belated Turkish coffee. Bailey took the vacant chair between Rachel +Guest and Monny Gilder. Biddy said that she had asked to have some +coffee kept hot for me. I needed it! +</p> +<hr> +<p> +That is what delayed our start for Philae and is, I suppose, why +everything that took place there afterward happened exactly as it did. +If we had left the Dam an hour earlier, there would have been no excuse +to stop for sunset at the temple which those who love it call the +"Pearl of Egypt." As it was—but that comes afterward. +</p> +<p> +When Strabo went from Syene to Philae, he drove in a chariot with the +prefect of that place, "through a very flat plain," and on both sides +of their road (I fear, for their bones, it was a rough one!) rose +"blocks of dark, hard rock resembling Hermes-towers." Nearly two +thousand years later we were rowed to the same temple, across an +immensely deep, vast sheet of shining crystal. We lolled (I am fond of +that word, though aware that it's reserved for villainesses) in +"galleys" painted in colours so violent that they looked like tropical +birds. They were awninged, and convulsively propelled by Nubians whose +veins swelled in their full black throats, and whose ebony faces were +plastered with a grayish froth of sweat. Each pressed a great toe, like +a dark-skinned potato, on the seat in front of him for support in the +fierce effort of rowing. Turbans were torn off shaved, perspiring +heads, and even skull-caps went in the last extreme. Wild appeals were +chanted to all the handiest saints to grant aid in the terrible +undertaking. An eagle-eyed child at the steering wheel gazed pityingly +at his agonized elders. And then, just as you expected the whole crew +to fall dead from heart failure, they chuckled with glee at some joke +of their own. There was always breath and energy enough to spare when +they wanted it. But what would you? The labourer must be worthy of his +hire, and a little something over. When Strabo saw Philae, she was a +distant neighbour of the mighty Cataracts. Now, the waters which once +rushed down are prisoned by the Great Dam, and stand enslaved, to wall +the temple round like a great pearl in a crystal case. She is the true +Bride of the Nile; for, as long ago the fairest of maidens gave herself +to the water as a sacrifice, so Philae gives herself for the life of +the people. She drowns, but in death she is more beautiful than when +the eyes of the old historian beheld her, glowing with the colours of +her youth, yet already old, deserted by gods and priests and +worshippers. Now she has worshippers from the four ends of the earth, +and the greatest singers of the world chant her funeral hymn. For in +all Egypt, with its many temples of supreme magnificence, there is +nothing like Philae. None can forget her. None can confuse her identity +for a moment with that of any other monument of a dead religion. And if +she were the only temple in Egypt, Egypt would be worth crossing the +ocean to see, because of this dying pearl in its crystal case. +</p> +<p> +Venus rose from the sea. Philae, the Marriage Temple of Osiris and +Isis—Venus of Egypt—sinks into the sea of waters poured over her by +Khnum, god of the Cataracts. Thus the great enchantress sings her +swan-song to touch the heart of the world, her fair head afloat like a +sacred lotus on the gleaming water. I think there were few among us who +did not fancy they heard that song, as our Nubian men rowed across the +sea stored up by the great Barrage. From far away we saw a strange +apparition, as of a temple rising from the waters. It seemed unreal at +first, a mere mirage of a temple. Then it took solid outline; darkly +cut in silver; a low, column-supported roof; a pylon towering high; and +to the south, separated from both these, a thing that might have been a +huge wreath of purple flowers. We knew, however, from too many +photographs and postcards, that this was "Pharaoh's Bed," the +unfinished temple of Augustus and Trajan, standing on a flooded island. +</p> +<p> +Our boat glided close to the flower-like stems of the columns +supporting the low roof. Far down in the clear depths we could see the +roots of the pillars, or their phantom reflections. And in the light of +afternoon, the water was so vivid a green that the colour of it seemed +to have washed off from the painted stones. Onto this roof we +scrambled, up a flight of steps, and found that we were not to have +Philae to ourselves. There were other boats, other tourists; but we +pretended that they were invisible, and they played the same game with +us. Ignoring one another, the rival bands wandered about, wondered what +the place would be like with the water "down," quoted poetry and +guide-books, and climbed the pylon. From that height the kiosk called +"Pharaoh's Bed" showed a mirrored double, like an old ivory casket with +jewelled sides, piled full of a queen's emeralds. We loitered; we +explored; and having descended sat down to rest, dangling irreverent +feet over beryl depths, splashed with gold. Thus we whiled away an +hour, perhaps. Then the Set, impressed at first, had had enough of the +mermaid temple's tragic beauty. Sir John Biddell reminded me that it +had been a long day for the ladies, and very hot. Hadn't we better get +back to the <i>Enchantress</i> before sunset? But that was exactly what some +of us did not want to do. +</p> +<p> +The matter was finally settled by retaining our one small boat, with +two rowers, and sending off the two larger "galleys" with their full +complement of passengers, excepting only "Mrs. Jones," Miss Gilder, +Antoun Effendi, the melancholy Cleopatra, and the guilty shepherd of +the flock, who knew he had no business to desert his sheep. He did +nevertheless feel, poor brute, that after such a day he had earned a +little pleasure, and, accordingly proceeded to snatch it from Fate, +despite disapproving glances. Punishment, however, fell as soon as it +was due. I had stayed behind with the intention of amusing Brigit. But +Monny took her from me, as if she had bought the right to use my +childhood's friend whenever it suddenly occurred to her to want a +chaperon. Instead of Biddy, I got Cleopatra. And by this time, so far +as we knew, all tourists save ourselves had gone. +</p> +<p> +I knew in my heart that, in accusing Monny Gilder of claiming Brigit +O'Neill because she was paying her expenses, I did the girl an +injustice. Monny was afraid of herself with Anthony. I saw that +plainly, since the fact had been laid under my nose by Mrs. East. She +feared the glamour of this magical place, perhaps, and felt the need of +Biddy's companionship to keep her strong, not realizing that any one +else was yearning for the lady. This was the whole front of her +offending; yet I was so disappointed that I wanted to be brutal. +Without Biddy, I should wish but to howl at the sunset, as a dog bays +the moon. And feeling thus I may not have made myself too agreeable to +Cleopatra. In any case, after we had sat in silence for a while, +waiting for a sunset not yet ready to arrive, she turned reproachful +eyes upon me. "Lord Ernest," she said, "I think you had better go and +join Monny." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" I surlily inquired. "I thought <i>you</i> thought that idea of yours +was too late to be of any use now?" +</p> +<p> +"I do think so," she replied. "<i>Everything</i> interesting is too late +now. Still, you'd better go." +</p> +<p> +"Are you tired of me?" I stupidly catechised her. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I feel as if I should like to be alone in this wonderful place. +<i>I want to think back.</i>" +</p> +<p> +"I see," said I, scrambling up from my seat on the edge of the temple +roof, and trying not to show by my expression that I was pleased, or +that both my feet had gone to sleep. "In that case, I'll leave you to +the spooks. May none but the right ones come!" +</p> +<p> +"Thank you," she returned dryly; and I limped off, walking on air, +tempered with pins and needles. Joy! my luck had turned! At the top of +the worn stone stairway, cut in the pylon, I met Biddy. She was dim as +one of Cleopatra's Ptolemaic ghosts, in the darkness of the passage; +but to me that darkness was brighter than the best thing in sunsets. +</p> +<p> +"Salutation to Caesar from one about to die!" I ejaculated. +</p> +<p> +"What <i>do</i> you mean?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"I mean that both my feet are fast asleep, and I shall certainly fall +and kill myself if I try to go one step further, up or down." +</p> +<p> +"You, the climber of impossible cliffs after sea-birds' nests!" she +laughed. But she stood still. +</p> +<p> +"I'm after something better than sea-birds' nests now," said I. "The +question is, whether it's not still more inaccessible?" +</p> +<p> +"Are you talking about—Monny?" she wanted to know, in a whisper. +</p> +<p> +"Sit down and I'll tell you," was my answer. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, not here at the top of the steps, if it's anything as private as +<i>that</i>," Biddy objected, all excitement in an instant. "Let's come into +a tiny room off the stairway, which the guardian showed me a few +minutes ago. There's a bench in it. You see, he's up there on the pylon +roof now with Monny and Captain Fenton (I <i>can't</i> call him Antoun when +I talk to you; its <i>too</i> silly!) and he'll probably be coming down in a +minute. Then, if we stop where we are, we'll have to jump up and get +out of the way, to let him pass. And he's sure to linger and work off +his English on us. I don't think we'll want to be interrupted that way, +do you?" +</p> +<p> +"No, nor any other way," I agreed. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but what about the sunset? We may miss it." +</p> +<p> +"Hang the sunset! Let it slide—down behind the Dam if it likes!" +</p> +<p> +"I don't wonder you feel so, you poor dear," Biddy sympathized, "when +it's a question of Monny, and all our hopes going to pieces the way +they are doing, every minute. There isn't a second to lose." +</p> +<p> +So we went into the little room in the tower, which was lit only by a +small square opening over our heads. We sat down on the bench. It was +beautifully dark. I began to talk to Biddy. We had forgotten my feet; +and I forgot Mrs. East. But I must tell what was happening to her at +the time (as I learned afterward, through the confession of an +impenitent), before I begin to tell what happened to us. Otherwise the +situation which developed can't be made clear. +</p> +<p> +I left Cleopatra calling spirits from the vasty deep, or rather one +spirit; the spirit of Antony. I am morally sure that any other would +have been <i>de trop</i>. And sailing to her across the wide water from +Shellal came Marcus Antonius Lark. +</p> +<p> +I can't say whether she considered him an answer to her prayer, or a +denial of it. Anyhow, there he was; better, perhaps, than nobody, until +she learned from his own lips—tactless though ardent lips—that he had +come from Cairo to Assuan, from Assuan to Philae, to see her. Then she +took alarm, and remarked in the old, conventional way of women, that +they'd "better go look for the others." But Sir Marcus hadn't spent his +money, time, and gray matter in hurrying to Philae from Shellal, for +nothing. Finding himself too late to catch us at Assuan, he had paid +for a special train in order to follow his "Enchantress" (the lady and +the boat). +</p> +<p> +Taking a felucca with a fine spread of canvas and many rowers, which +(characteristically) he bargained for at the Shellal landing-place, he +sailed across to the moored steamer, only to learn from Kruger that we +had gone on our expedition to Philae. That meant a long sail and row +for the impatient lover. For us, the longer it was, the better: one of +the chief charms of our best day. But for him it must have been +tedious, despite a good breeze that filled the sails and helped the +rowers. +</p> +<p> +On his way to the temple, he met the galleys going "home" to the +<i>Enchantress Isis</i>. An instant's shock of disappointment, and then the +glad relief of realizing that the one he sought was still at the place +where he wished to find her. There were only four Obstacles which might +prevent an ideal meeting. The names of these Obstacles, in his mind +were: Jones, Gilder, Fenton, and Borrow; and being an expert in +abolishing Obstacles, the great Sir Marcus began to map out a plan of +action. +</p> +<p> +Luckily for him, our small boat had moved out of Cleopatra's sight, as +she sat and dreamed on the low temple-roof, while we four Obstacles +disported ourselves on different parts of the high pylon. The two +Nubians wished to play a betting game with a kind of Egyptian +Jack-stones, and it was not desirable that the pensive lady should behold +them doing it. Observing the graceful figure of Mrs. East silhouetted +against the sky's eternal flame of blue, and at the same time noticing +that she could not see the waiting boat, Sir Marcus got his +inspiration. He knew that the four Obstacles were somewhere about the +temple. Now was his great chance, while they were out of the way! And +if he resolved to play them a trick, perhaps he salved his conscience +by telling it that the Obstacles, male and female, ought to thank him. +</p> +<p> +Cleopatra probably thought, if she glanced up to see his boat: "Oh +dear, another load of tourists!" and promptly looked down to avoid the +horrid vision. By the time Sir Marcus came within "How do you do?" +distance, he had bribed our waiting boatmen to row away. This in order +not to be caught in a lie. +</p> +<p> +With our Nubians and their craft out of his watery way, he was free to +fib when the time came. "Go look for the others?" he echoed Mrs. East's +proposal. "Why, they've gone. I met them." +</p> +<p> +"Gone! And left me behind when they knew I was here?" she exclaimed. +"They can't have done such a thing." +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid there's been a mistake," replied Sir Marcus presently. +"They certainly <i>have</i> gone. I met the boat. Borrow was expecting me +to-day, you know—or maybe you don't know. And when he saw me in my +felucca, he stopped his to explain that evidently there'd been a +<i>contretemps</i>." (I'm sure Lark mispronounced that word!) "The temple +guardian said a gentleman had arrived and taken the lady who was +waiting, off in a boat. Of course Borrow thought I had come along, and +persuaded you to go with me, after telling the guardian to let him +know. I expect the guardian's got mighty little English: and they say +white ladies all look alike to blacks. He must have mixed you up with +some other lady. I suppose my folks haven't been the only people at +Philae since you came?" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. East admitted that a number of "creatures" had come and gone. But +she thought all had vanished before the departure of the galleys. +</p> +<p> +"You see you thought wrong. That's all there is to it," Sir Marcus +assured her. And having taken these elaborate measures to secure the +lady's society for himself alone (Nubian rowers don't count) he +proceeded to lure her hastily into his own boat, lest any or all of the +Obstacles should arrive to spoil his <i>coup</i>. +</p> +<p> +That was the manner of our marooning. +</p> +<p> +At the time, we were ignorant of what was happening behind our backs; +the sunset for instance, and the only available boat calmly rowing away +from the drowned Temple of Philae. +</p> +<p> +We were thinking of something else; and so was Sir Marcus, or he would +not have forgotten the repentant promise he made himself, soon to send +back a boat and take us off. We were, therefore, in the position of +unrehearsed actors in a play who don't know what awaits them in the +next act: while those who may read this can see the whole situation +from above, below, and on both sides. Four of us, marooned at Philae, +not knowing it, and night coming on. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH26"><!-- CH26 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +WHAT WE SAID: WHAT WE HEARD +</p> +<p> +"Biddy, you were never wiser in your life," I exploded as I got her on +the bench. "You warned me there wasn't a second to lose. I've lost +years already, and I can't stand it the sixtieth part of a minute +longer, without telling you how I love you!" +</p> +<p> +"My goodness!" gasped Biddy. "Do be serious for once, Duffer. This is +no time for jokes. Don't you know you've delayed and delayed in spite +of my advice, till you've practically lost that girl? And if there's +any chance left—" +</p> +<p> +"The only chance I want is with you," I said. "Darling, I want you with +my heart and soul, and all there is of me. <i>Have</i> I any chance?" +</p> +<p> +"And how long since were you taken this way?" demanded Biddy, at her +most Irish, staring at me through the darkness of the little dim room +in the pylon. +</p> +<p> +"Ever since you were an adorable darling of four years," I assured her. +"Only I was interrupted by going to Eton and Oxford, and your being +married. But the love has always been there, in a deep undertone. The +music's never stopped once. It never could. And when I saw you on the +<i>Laconia</i>—" +</p> +<p> +"You fell in love with Monny!" breathlessly she cut me short. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing of the kind," I contradicted her fiercely. "You <i>ordered</i> me +to fall in love with Miss Gilder. I objected politely. You overruled my +objections, or tried to. I let you think you had. And for a while after +that, you know perfectly well, Biddy, the Set gave me no time to think +any thoughts <i>at all</i>, connected with myself." +</p> +<p> +"You poor fellow, you have been a slave!" The soft-hearted angel was +caught in the trap set for her pity. +</p> +<p> +"And a martyr. A double-dyed martyr. I deserve a reward. Give it to me, +Biddy. Promise, here in this beautiful Marriage Temple, to marry me. +Let me take care of you all the rest of your life." +</p> +<p> +"My patience, a nice reward for you!" she snapped. "Let you be hoist by +the same petard that's always lying around to hoist me! What do you +<i>think</i> of me, Duffer—and after all the proofs we've just had of the +dangerous creature I am? Why, the whole trouble at Luxor was on my +account. Even you must see that. Monny and I wouldn't have been let +into Rechid's house if those secret men hadn't persuaded him to play +into their hands, and revenge himself on you men as well as on us, for +interfering with Mabel. It was <i>their</i> plot, not Rechid's, we escaped +from! And it was theirs at the Temple of Mût, too. Rechid was only +their cat's-paw, thinking he played his own hand. <i>Just</i> what they +wanted to do I can't tell, but I can tell from what one of them said to +Monny in the temple, that they took her for Richard O'Brien's daughter. +Poor child, her love for me and all her affectionate treatment of me, +must have made it seem likely enough to them that she was Esmé, safely +disguised as an important young personage, to travel with her +stepmother. Bedr must have assured his employers that he was certain +the pale girl was really Miss Gilder; so they thought the other one +with me must be Esmé. You can't laugh at my fears any more! And I ask +you again, what <i>do</i> you think of me, to believe I'd mix you up in my +future scrapes?" +</p> +<p> +"I think you're the darling of the world," said I. "And my one talent, +as you must have noticed, is getting people out of scrapes. It'll be +wasted if I can't have you. Besides, under the wing of an Embassy no +one will dare to try and steal you, or blow you up. We'll be diplomats +together, Biddy. Come! You say I've 'duffed' all my life, to get what I +wanted. Certainly I've done a lot of genuine duffing in love; but do +bear out your own expressed opinion of the work by saving it from +failure. Couldn't you try and like me a little, if only for that? You +were always so unselfish." +</p> +<p> +"Hush!" said Biddy, suddenly, "Hush!" +</p> +<p> +"Do you hate me, then? Is it by any chance, Anthony, you love?" +</p> +<p> +"No—no! Hold your tongue, Duffer." +</p> +<p> +"'No' to <i>both</i> questions? I shan't stop till you answer." +</p> +<p> +"No, to both, then! <i>Now</i> will you be silent?" +</p> +<p> +"Not unless you say you do care for me." +</p> +<p> +"Yes—yes, I do care. But, Sh! Don't you hear, they're talking just +outside that window in the wall? If you can't keep a still tongue in +your head, then for all the saints whisper!" +</p> +<p> +Her brogue was exquisite, and so was she. I worshipped her. When I +slipped my arm round her waist, she dared not cry out. The same when I +clasped her hand. Things were coming my way at last. And if I put my +lips close against her ear I could whisper as low as she liked. I liked +it too. And I <i>loved</i> the ear. +</p> +<p> +She was right. They were indeed talking just outside the window, Monny +Gilder and Anthony Fenton. The prologue was evidently over, and the +first act was on. It began well, with a touch of human interest certain +to please an audience. But unfortunately for every one concerned, this +was a private rehearsal for actors only, not a public performance. +Biddy and I had no business in the dark auditorium. We were deadheads. +We had sneaked in without paying. The situation was one for a +nightmare. +</p> +<p> +"For heaven's sake, let me cough, or knock something over!" I implored +Biddy's ear, which (it struck me at the moment) was more like a flower +than an unsympathetic shell, best similes to the contrary. Who could +have imagined that it would be so heavenly a sensation to have your +nose tickled by a woman's hair? +</p> +<p> +"There's nothing you can knock over, but me," Biddy retorted, as +fiercely as she could in a voice no louder than a mosquito's. "And if +you cough, I'll know you're a dog-in-the-manger." +</p> +<p> +"Why?" curiosity forced me to pursue. +</p> +<p> +"Because, you donkey, ye say ye don't want her yourself, yet ye won't +give yer best friend a chance!" +</p> +<p> +"Can't be a dog and a donkey at the same time," I murmured. "Choose +which, and stick to it, if ye want me to know what ye mean." +</p> +<p> +"Why, you—you Man, don't ye see, if we interrupt at such a minute, and +such a conversation, they can <i>never</i> begin again where they left off? +If <i>you'd</i> wanted her, I'd have tried to save her for ye, at any cost. +But as ye don't, for goodness' sake give the two their chance to come +to an understanding. Now be still, I tell ye, or they may hear us." +</p> +<p> +"We can't just sit and eavesdrop." +</p> +<p> +"Stop yer ears then. It'll take both hands." +</p> +<p> +It would; which is the reason I didn't do it. That would have been +asking too much, of the most honourable man, in the circumstances. +</p> +<p> +Meanwhile, the two outside went on talking. Believing themselves to be +alone with the sunset, there was no reason to lower their voices. They +spoke in ordinary tones, though what they said was not ordinary; and we +on the other side of the little unglazed window could not help hearing +every word. +</p> +<p> +"I've been wanting to say it for a long time," in a voice like that of +a penitent child Monny was following up something we had (fortunately) +lost. "Only how could I begin it? I don't see even now how I did begin, +exactly. It's almost easy though, since I have begun. I was horrid +—horrid. I can't forgive myself, yet I want you to forgive me for doing +your whole race a shameful injustice, for not understanding it, or you, +or—or anything. You've shown me what a modern Egyptian man can be, in +spite of things I've read and heard, and been silly enough to believe. +Oh, it isn't just that you come from some great family, and that you +could call yourself a prince if you liked, as Lord Ernest says. He's +told me how you could have a fortune, and a great place in your country +if you'd reconcile yourself with your grandfather in Constantinople; +but that you won't, because it would mean going against England. It +isn't your position, but what you <i>are</i>, that has made me see how small +and ridiculous I've been, Antoun Effendi. Can you possibly forgive me +for the way I treated you at first, now I've confessed and told you I'm +very, very sorry and ashamed?" +</p> +<p> +"I would forgive you, if there were anything to forgive," Anthony +answered. And it must have taken pretty well all his immense +self-control to go on speaking to the girl in French—an alien language +—just then. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps there would be something to forgive, if I weren't on my side a +great deal more to blame than you. Will you let <i>me</i> confess?" +</p> +<p> +"If you wish. Otherwise, you needn't. For I've deserved—" +</p> +<p> +"I do wish. But first, will you answer me a question?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure you wouldn't ask me a question I oughtn't to answer." +</p> +<p> +"It's only this: Did Ernest Borrow tell you anything else about me?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing, except his opinion of you. And you must know that, by this +time." +</p> +<p> +"I think I do. Or Mrs. Jones—or Mrs. East? Neither have—for any +reason—<i>advised</i> you to apologize to me for what you very nobly felt +was wrong in your conduct?" +</p> +<p> +"No. Not a soul has advised me. If they <i>had</i>—" +</p> +<p> +She didn't finish, but Biddy and I both knew the Monny-habit of +conscientiously going against advice. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you. You've changed your opinion of me, then, without urging +from outside." +</p> +<p> +"It has all come from <i>inside</i>. From recognition of—of what you are, +and what you've done for—for us all. You've been a hero. And you've +been kind as well as brave. Antoun Effendi, I think you are a very +great gentleman, and I respect Egyptians for your sake." +</p> +<p> +"Wait!" said Anthony. "You haven't heard my confession. When I first +saw you on the terrace at Shepheard's, I willed you to look at me, and +you did look." +</p> +<p> +"How strange! Yes, I felt it. Something made me look. Why did you will +me, Antoun Effendi?" Monny's voice was soft. But it was not like a +child's now. It was a woman's voice. +</p> +<p> +Listening with tingling ears, I knew what she wanted him to answer. +Perhaps he also knew, but he boldly told the truth. "It was a kind of +wager I made with myself. There was some troublesome business I had to +carry out in Cairo. A good deal hung upon it. I saw your profile. You +didn't turn my way, and I said to myself: 'If by willing I can make +that girl look at me, I'll take it for a sign that I shall succeed in +my work.'" +</p> +<p> +"Oh! It was nothing to do with <i>me</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"Not then. Afterward I knew that, while I thought my own free will +suggested my influencing you, it was destiny that influenced me. +Kismet! It had to happen so. But you punished me for my presumption. +You treated me as if I were a slave, a Thing that hardly had a place in +your world." +</p> +<p> +"I know! That's what I've asked you to forgive me for." +</p> +<p> +"And because you've asked me to forgive, I'm telling you this. I was +furious; and I said, 'She shall be sorry. I will make her sorry.' My +whole wish was to humble you. I wanted to conquer, and though you +classed me with servants, to be your master." +</p> +<p> +"I don't blame you, Antoun Effendi! And you <i>have</i> conquered, in a +better way than you meant when you were angry and hating me. You've +conquered by showing your true self. You are my friend. That's what you +want, isn't it?—Not to be my master, when you don't hate me any +longer." +</p> +<p> +"No, that is not what I want. I still want to be your master." +</p> +<p> +"Then you <i>do</i> hate me, even now?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't hate you, Mademoiselle Gilder, although you've punished me +over and over again for being the brute I was at first. You have +conquered me, not I you. But I don't want to be your friend. If you +didn't look at me as being a man beyond the pale, you would understand +very well what I want." +</p> +<p> +"Don't say that!" cried Monny, quickly. "Don't say that you're a man +beyond the pale. I can't stand it. Oh! I <i>do</i> know what you want. I do +understand. I think I should have died if you hadn't wanted it. And +yet—I could almost die because you do." +</p> +<p> +"You could die because I love you?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, of joy—and—" +</p> +<p> +"You <i>care</i> for me?" +</p> +<p> +"Wait! I could die of joy, and sorrow too. Joy, because I do care, and +my heart longs for you to care. Sorrow, because—oh, it's the saddest +thing in the world, but we can never be any more to each other than we +are now." "You say that so firmly, because you think of me in your +heart as a man of Egypt. Dearest and most beautiful, you are great +enough if you choose, to mount to your happiness over your prejudice. +If you can love me in spite of what I am—" +</p> +<p> +"I love you in spite of it, and because of it, too; and for every +reason, and for no reason." +</p> +<p> +"Thank God for that! You've said this to me against your convictions. I +have won." +</p> +<p> +"No, for it's all I can ever say. There can be no more between us." +</p> +<p> +"You couldn't love me enough to be my wife, though I tell you now that +you're the star of my soul? Never till I saw you, have I loved a woman +or spoken a word of love to one, except my beautiful mother. I've kept +all for you, more than I dreamed I had to give. And it's yours for ever +and ever. But just because you've said to yourself that we're of +stranger races, who mustn't meet in love, you raise a barrier between +us. Are our souls of stranger races?" +</p> +<p> +"No. Sometimes it almost seems as if our souls were one. You have waked +mine with a spark from your own. I think I was fast asleep. I didn't +know I had a soul—scarcely even a heart. But now I know! Learning to +know you has taught me to know myself. And if I'm kinder to everybody, +all the rest of my life—even silly rich people I used to think didn't +need kindness—it will be through loving you. I'm not afraid to tell +you that, and though I <i>used</i> to be afraid I might love you, I'm glad I +do, now—glad! I shall never regret anything, even when I suffer. And I +shall suffer, when we're parted." +</p> +<p> +"You're sure we must part?" +</p> +<p> +"Sure, because there's no other way, being what we are, and life being +what it is. Always I've thought since my father died, that he was near +me, watching to see what I did with my life. For he loved me dearly, +and I loved him. We were everything to each other. Even if that were +the only reason, I couldn't do a thing that would have broken his +heart. It would be treacherous, now that he's helpless to forbid me. +Don't you see?" +</p> +<p> +"I see. And if it were not for that reason?" +</p> +<p> +"If it were not for that—oh, I don't know, I don't know! But yes, I do +know. The truth comes to me. It speaks out of my heart. If it were only +for myself if I felt free from a vow, nothing could make me say to you, +'Go out of my life!'" +</p> +<p> +"That's what I wanted to be sure of. I could thank you on my knees for +those words. For I, too, have made a vow which I won't break. And if I +were free of it, I might tell you a thing now which would beat down the +barrier. Well! We will keep our vows, both of us, my Queen." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, we must keep them. But oh, how are we to bear it? Fate has +brought us together, and it's going to part us. We love each other, and +we must go out of one another's lives. What shall we do when we can't +see each other any more—ever any more?" +</p> +<p> +"That time shall not come." +</p> +<p> +"But it must—soon." +</p> +<p> +"Will you trust me, till Khartum?" +</p> +<p> +"I'll trust you always." +</p> +<p> +"I mean for a special thing—just till Khartum. In the foolish days +when I wished to conquer you, and make you humble yourself to me, I +vowed by my mother's love that I'd not tell you, or let Borrow tell, a +fact about myself which might win your favour. It was a bad vow to +make: a stupid vow. But a vow by my mother's love I could not break, +any more than you can break one to your father's memory. I'll abide by +it: but trust me till Khartum, and there you shall know what I can't +tell you now. I always hoped you would find out there—if we went as +far as Khartum together. Then I hoped, because I was a conceited fool. +Now I hope this thing—and all it means—because I am your lover." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, dear Antoun, don't hope. Because it seems to me that nothing +nearer than Heaven can bring us the kind of happiness you want." +</p> +<p> +"If you hadn't told me you cared, nothing that may come at Khartum +could have brought any happiness to me at all. For it would have been +too late after that, for you to say you cared—and for the word to have +the value it has now. You've said it—in spite of yourself. Trust me +for the rest. Will you?" +</p> +<p> +"If you ask me like that—yes. I trust you. Though I don't understand." +</p> +<p> +"That's what I want. Say this. 'I believe that we shall be happy; and I +trust without understanding, that it will be proved at Khartum.'" +</p> +<p> +Monny repeated the words after him. And although I was that vile worm, +an eavesdropper, I was so happy that I could have picked Biddy up in my +arms, and waved her like a flag. Anthony was going to be happy, and +that ought to be a good omen that I should be happy too. +</p> +<p> +"I am almost happy now," Monny went on. "Happier than I thought I could +be, with things as they are. I used to be miserable, partly about +myself, partly because I thought you were in love with Biddy (you were +so much nicer to her than me!), and partly because I believed, till I +knew you well, that you wanted to marry Aunt Clara for money, though +you cared for someone else. I even told Lord Ernest that about you. I +had to tell somebody! And besides, I felt it would be good for him to +think you cared for Biddy. Being jealous might wake him up to see that +he was in love with her himself. He really is rather a duffer, at +times! And oh, talking of him and Biddy reminds me of them! Where can +they be, all this time?" +</p> +<p> +"Heaven alone knows—or cares," replied Anthony. And I realized the +truth of the proverb about listeners, even where their best friends are +concerned. I was obliged to kiss Biddy to keep from laughing out loud. +And she couldn't scream or box my ears, or all our dreadful precautions +would have been vain. +</p> +<p> +"We must find them," said Monny. +</p> +<p> +"Why?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, if we don't, they might find us." +</p> +<p> +Anthony laughed—a give-away, English-sounding laugh. But Monny did not +recognize its birthplace. Her own laugh interrupted it too soon, +ringing out so happily, it probably surprised herself. +</p> +<p> +"<i>If</i> they find us here!" quavered Biddy, clinging to me. +</p> +<p> +"They can't, if only you'll let me hold you tight enough," I whispered. +"If they look in, they'll just take us for a black spot in the dark!" +</p> +<p> +But they didn't look in. They went downstairs. And then was the time to +get in the rest of my deadly work with Biddy. We <i>must</i> wait a few +minutes, or they couldn't help knowing we'd been near them: and I made +the best use of those few minutes. Biddy wouldn't promise anything, but +said that she would think it over, and let me know the result of her +thinking in a day or two. +</p> +<p> +To our great surprise, on arriving in open air at the level of the roof +below, we saw that the sun was gone, and a slim young moon was sliding +down the rose-red trail. It is indeed wonderful, say prophets of the +obvious, how quickly time passes when your attention is engaged! And +one comfort of being obvious is, that you are generally right. +</p> +<p> +We tried to flit forth from the dark recess of the pylon stairway +without being seen or heard; but as luck would have it, Monny and +Fenton had had just time to discover that our boat was gone. The girl +was hunting for us, to see if we were "anywhere," or if in some mad +freak we could have gone off and left them to their fate. As we sneaked +guiltily out, she caught us. +</p> +<p> +"Biddy! Lord Ernest!" she exclaimed. "Why—why—you have been +<i>upstairs</i>!" +</p> +<p> +A good rule for diplomats, duffers, and others, is never to tell a +falsehood when there is no hope that any one will believe it. +</p> +<p> +"We—er—yes," we both mumbled. +</p> +<p> +"But—there isn't any upstairs except—where we were." +</p> +<p> +"Yes there is," Biddy assured her hastily—too hastily. "You were on +the roof. We were in the little room of the guardian." +</p> +<p> +"He showed it to us. There's a window. Oh, we were <i>under</i> it! You must +both have heard." +</p> +<p> +"Murder will out," I said, with the calmness of despair. But then it +occurred to me that there was a way of using the weapon which +threatened, as a boomerang. +</p> +<p> +"Dearest," Biddy adjured her beloved, humbly, "you wouldn't have had us +spoil everything by moving, would you? I said to the Duffer when he +wanted to do something desperate, 'If we interrupt them, nothing will +ever come right—'" +</p> +<p> +"Besides, we were too busy getting engaged ourselves," said I, "to +bother for long about what anybody else was saying or doing." +</p> +<p> +"You <i>were</i>! Oh, Biddy, that's what I've prayed for." +</p> +<p> +"Nothing of the sort!" began Mrs. O'Brien, ferociously. But the +boomerang had come to my hand, and I'd caught it on the fly. Before she +could go on contradicting me, Anthony, followed by the guardian of the +temple, had mounted the steps from the lower ledge of the roof, where +we had landed in the afternoon. +</p> +<p> +"It wasn't you who took the boat, then, for a joke!" said Fenton, at +sight of us. And the mystery of our felucca's disappearance had to be +discussed. Biddy saw to it that Monny couldn't edge in a word on the +forbidden subject. How those two would talk later, in Miss Gilder's +stateroom! +</p> +<p> +Nobody could explain what had happened, not even the guardian. He, it +seemed, spent his night at the siren temple in the water, sleeping in +the cell where I had blackmailed Biddy, and not even appearing to know +that the custom scintillated with romance. By and by his companion who +joined him for night work, would arrive in a small boat, bringing food; +but this man rowed himself, and neither could leave the temple again +that night. +</p> +<p> +"You will lend the boat to us," said Anthony. "We'll row, and send it +back to you here by some one who is trustworthy." +</p> +<p> +"We have no right to lend the boat," returned the Nubian. +</p> +<p> +"Then I will steal it," replied the Hadji. +</p> +<p> +But none of us cared how long a time might pass before deliverance +came. The <i>Enchantress Isis</i> couldn't steam away and leave her +Conductor behind. As Mrs. East had disappeared, I vaguely associated +the puzzle of our missing craft with Sir Marcus; and anyhow, curiosity +wasn't the strongest emotion in my being just then. I thought that +perhaps never in my life again would love and romance and beauty all +blend together in one, as here at Philae in the moonlight. The sharp +sickle of the young moon cut a silver edge on each tiny wave, that +murmured against the submerged pillars like a chanting of priests under +the sea. The temple commemorating love triumphant was carved in silver, +and drowned in a silver flood. The flowering capitals of the columns as +they showed above the water, blossomed white as lilies bound together +in sheaves with silver cords, and placed before an altar. +</p> +<p> +Yes, Egypt was giving us what we asked. But would she give us all we +asked? Just as there might have been a renewed chance of getting an +answer to this question, black men in a black boat hailed us. Sir +Marcus had deigned at last to remember our plight. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH27"><!-- CH27 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE INNER SANCTUARY +</p> +<p> +We made a sensation when we returned to the fold. Everybody wondered so +much that they gave us no time to answer their questions, even if we +would. But somehow it seemed to be taken for granted that the whole +thing was my fault. Perhaps Mrs. East or Sir Marcus had spread the +report. I let it pass. +</p> +<p> +As for Sir Marcus, he stayed only long enough for a talk with me. It +began with trumped-up business, and ended in a confession. She had +snubbed him, it seemed. Snubs being new to Sir Marcus, he had been +dazed, and had forgotten for a while to send us a boat. I assured him +that we bore no grudge, really none whatever. It had been quite an +adventure. And I tried to cheer him up. Better luck next time! Why +wouldn't he go on with us? Fenton and I could chum together, to give +him cabin-room. And Neill Sheridan, the American Egyptologist, had let +me know that he was obliged to leave us at Wady Haifa. There would be +an empty cabin, going down again. But no, the "Boss" refused his +Conductor's hospitality. "I think the less she sees of me, the better +she likes me," he said dismally. "She was civil enough until I—but no +matter. I suppose a man can't expect his luck to always hold." +</p> +<p> +"Don't split your infinitives till things get desperate," I begged. "It +hasn't come to that yet. If you must go back, I'll take it on my +shoulders to watch your private interests a bit, as well as the rest. +Look out for a telegram one of these fine days, saying 'Come at once.' +You'll know what it means." +</p> +<p> +"I will, bless you, my boy," he said heartily. "Though I am hanged if I +know what you mean by a split infinitive. I hope if its improper, I've +never inadvertently done it before a lady." +</p> +<p> +There seemed to be an atmosphere of suspense for everybody who +mattered, as we steamed on between strange black mountainettes, and +tiger-golden sands toward Wady Halfa. Anthony was in suspense about the +way his fate might arrange itself at Khartum. I was in suspense as to +Biddy's decision, which nothing I was able to say could wheedle or +browbeat out of her. He and I were both in suspense together, about the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. It would be ours now, we knew that. But +what would be in it? Would it be full of treasure, or full of nothing +but mountain, just as a crusty baked pudding is full of pudding? The +doubt was harder to bear, now that Anthony was in love with a very rich +girl, and desired something from the mountain more substantial than the +adventure which would once have contented him. Harder to bear for me, +too, wanting Biddy and wanting to give her luxury as well as peace, +such as she had never known in her life of tragedy and brave laughter. +</p> +<p> +Monny was in suspense quite equal to Anthony's about Khartum, and what +could possibly happen there to give her happiness. Brigit was in +suspense about the two men who had so strangely and secretly worked +with their spy, Bedr, and whom she expected to meet again later. Rachel +was in suspense about Bailey, although I had told her it was "going to +be all right," and he had said not a word of the business to her. What +she wanted, was to make sure of him, and there was the difficulty at +present, since we had failed to arrange for a registry-office or a +clergyman on board. Other hearts were no doubt throbbing with the same +emotions, but they were of comparatively small importance to me. +</p> +<p> +Our feelings were all so different and so much more intense than they +had been, that the extraordinary difference in the scenery gave us a +vague sense of satisfaction. We were in another world, now that we had +heard the first cataract's roar, and left it behind; a world utterly +unlike any conceptions we had formed of Egypt. But we did not for a +long time leave the influence of the Barrage. Black rocks ringed in a +blue basin so lake-like that it was hard to realize it as the Nile. Now +and then a yellow river of sand poured down to the sapphire sea, and +where its bright waves were reflected, the water became liquid gold +under a surface of blue glass. The sky was overcast, and through a +thick silver veil, the sun shone with a mystic light as of a lamp +burning in an alabaster globe; yet the flaming gold of the sand created +an illusion as of sunshine. It was as if the treasure of all the lost +mines of Nub had been flung out on the black rocks, and lay in a +glittering carpet there. +</p> +<p> +We passed small, submerged temples, with their foreheads just above +water; drowning palm groves whose plumes trailed sadly on the blue +expanse, and deserted mud-villages where the high Nile looked in at +open doors to say, "This is for Egypt's good!" +</p> +<p> +Then there was the little Temple of Dendur, whose patron goddess was +prayed to spit if rain were needed; and so many other ruined temples +that we lost count (though one was the largest in Nubia) until we came +to Wadi-es-Sabuá, "the Valley of the Lions." This we remembered, not +because it was imposing, or because it had a dromos of noble-faced +sphinxes—the only hawk-faced ones in Egypt—or because of its +prehistoric writings, on dark boulders; or because it had been used as +a Christian Church: but owing to the fact that the ladies bought rag +dolls from little Nubian girls, who wore their hair in a million +greased braids. Here the influence of the Dam faded out of sight. +Forlorn trees and houses no longer crawled half out of water. Mountains +crowded down to the shore, wild and dark and stately as Nubian warriors +of ancient days. Then came Korosko, point of departure for the old +caravan route, where kings of forgotten Egyptian dynasties sent for +acacia wood, and Englishmen in the Campaign of the Cataracts fought and +died; deserted now, with houses dead and decayed, their windows staring +like the eye-sockets of skulls; and the black, tortured mountain-shapes +behind, lurking in the background as hyenas lurk to prey. More temples, +and many sakkeyehs (no shadoofs here, on the Upper Nile) but few boats. +The spacious times were past, when loads of pink granite, +honey-coloured sandstone, fragrant woods, and spices from the Land of +Punt, went floating down the stream! +</p> +<p> +There were tombs as well as temples which we might have seen, savage +gorges and mild green hills. There was the great grim fort of Kasr +Ibrim; and at last—there was Abu Simbel. +</p> +<p> +Somehow I knew that things were bound to happen at Abu Simbel. I didn't +know what they would be, but they hovered invisible at my berth-side in +the night, and whispered to warn me that I might expect them. +</p> +<p> +A few people rose stealthily before dawn to prepare for Abu Simbel, +because it had been hammered into their intellects by me that this +Rock-Temple was the Great Thing of the Upper Nile. Also that every he, +she, or it, who did not behold the place at sunrise would be as mean a +worm as one who had not read the "Arabian Nights." +</p> +<p> +Not everybody heeded the advice, though at bedtime most had resolved to +do so. We had anchored for the night not far off, in order to have the +mysterious light before sun-up, to go on again, and see the grand +approach to the grandest temple of the Old World. But after all, most +of the cabin eyelids were still down when we arrived before dawn at our +journey's end, and only a few intrepid ghosts flitted out on deck; +elderly male ghosts in thick dressing-gowns: youthful ghosts of the +same sex, fully clothed and decently groomed because of cloaked +girl-ghosts, with floating hair (if there were enough to float +effectively: others made a virtue of having it put up): and middle-aged +female ghosts, with transformations apparently hind-side in front. +</p> +<p> +No ghost's looks mattered much, however, for good or ill, once the +slowly moving <i>Enchantress</i> had swept aside a purple curtain of +distance and shown us such a stagesetting as only Nature's stupendous +theatre can give. +</p> +<p> +It was a stage still dimly, but most effectively revealed: lights down: +pale blue, lilac and cold green; a thrilling, almost sinister +combination: no gold or rose switched on yet. Turned obliquely toward +the river, facing slightly northward, four figures sat on thrones, +super-giants, immobile, incredible, against a background of rock whence +they had been released by forgotten sculptors—released to live while +the world lasted. These seated kings gave the first shock of awed +admiration; then lesser marvels detached themselves in detail from the +shadows of the vast façade; the frieze, the cornice, the sun-god in his +niche over the door of the Great Temple: the smaller Temple of Hathor, +divided from her huge brother by a cataract of sand, whose piled gold-dust +already called the sun, as a magnet calls iron. +</p> +<p> +The stage-lights were still down when the <i>Enchantress</i> moored by the +river bank, within a comparatively short walk of the mountain which +Rameses II had turned into a temple, as usual glorifying himself. But +though the walk was comparatively short, on second thoughts elderly +ghosts already chilled to the bone, funked it on empty stomachs. They +made various excuses for putting off the excursion (the boat was to +remain till late afternoon), until finally the sun-worshippers were +reduced to a party of ten. +</p> +<p> +Since Philae, Biddy had kept out of my way when she could do so without +being actually rude; but as our small, shivering procession formed, she +suddenly appeared at my side. Thus we two headed the band, save for a +sleepy dragoman who knew the rather intricate paths through scaly dried +mud, sand, and vegetation. +</p> +<p> +"I want to say something to you, Duffer," she murmured; and the +roughness of the way excused me for slipping her arm through mine. +</p> +<p> +"Not as much as I want to say something to you," I retorted fervently. +</p> +<p> +"But this is <i>serious</i>," she reproached me. +</p> +<p> +"So is—" +</p> +<p> +"Please listen. There isn't much time. I heard this only last night, or +I'd have spoken before, and asked you what you thought. Do you happen +to know whether Captain Fenton wrote a note to Monny, asking her to +wait for him in the inner sanctuary of the temple till after the people +had gone, as he wanted to see her alone about something of great +importance?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," I said. "Anthony hasn't mentioned Miss Gilder's name to +me since Philae. As a matter of fact he's been particularly taciturn." +</p> +<p> +"You haven't quarrelled, surely?" +</p> +<p> +"Anthony and I! Thank goodness, no. But I'm afraid he misunderstands, +and is a bit annoyed. Miss Gilder of course told him we'd overheard a +certain conversation, and he's never given me a chance to explain. +After Khartum it will be all right, if not before, but meanwhile—" +</p> +<p> +"I see. Then let me tell you quickly what's happened. When we came back +on board the boat, after climbing about the fort of Kasr Ibrim, Monny +found on the table in her cabin a note in French, typewritten on +<i>Enchantress Isis</i> paper. It had no beginning or signature, only an +urgent request to grant the writer five minutes just after sunrise, in +the sanctuary at Abu Simbel, <i>as soon as every one was out of the way</i>. +There's only one typewriter on board, isn't there?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Kruger's." +</p> +<p> +"And nobody but you and he and Captain Fenton ever use it, I suppose?" +</p> +<p> +"Nobody else, so far as I know." +</p> +<p> +"Captain Fenton didn't land with us to see the fort, but came up later, +just as we were ready to go down. Well, for all these reasons and the +note being in French Monny thinks it was written by Antoun Effendi. It +was only in chatting last night about the sunrise expedition that she +mentioned finding the letter. I begged her to make certain it <i>was</i> +from him, before doing what it asked; because, you see, I'm still +afraid of anything that seems queer or mysterious. But she laughed and +said, 'What nonsense! Who else could have written it except Lord +Ernest, unless you think Mr. Kruger's in a plot.' And she refused to +question Antoun, because if he'd wanted the thing to be talked over, +he'd have spoken instead of writing. As for doing what he asked, she +pretended not to have made up her mind. She said she'd 'see what mood +she was in,' after the others had finished with the sanctuary. Well, +what I want, is for you and me to stay in the place ourselves when the +others have gone." +</p> +<p> +"With the greatest of pleasure on earth!" said I. +</p> +<p> +"Don't be foolish. You aren't to torment me there." +</p> +<p> +"That depends on what you call 'tormenting.' If I'm to be made a +spoil-sport for Fenton and Miss Gilder, a kind of live scarecrow, I mean +to get something out of it for myself." +</p> +<p> +There was no time for more. We had arrived at the foot of the long +flight of stone steps which lead up to the rocky plateau of the Great +Temple. In the east, a golden fire below the horizon was sending up +premonitory flames, and the procession must bestir itself, or be too +late. The whole object of arriving at this unearthly hour would be +defeated, if, before the sun's forefinger touched the faces of the +altar statues, we were not in the sanctuary. No time to study the +features of the Colossi, or to search for the grave of Major Tidwell. +These things must wait. The dark-faced guardian examined our tickets, +and let us file through the rock-hewn doorway, whose iron <i>grille</i> he +had just opened. As we passed into the cavernous hall of roughly carved +Osiride columns, the huge figures attached to them loomed vaguely out +of purple gloom. There was an impression of sculptured rock walls, with +splashes of colour here and there; of columns in a chamber beyond, and +still a third chamber, whence three rooms opened off, the side doorways +mere blocks of ebony in the dimness. But already the sun's first ray +groped for its goal, like the wandering finger of a blind man. We had +only time to hurry through the faintly lit middle doorway, and plaster +ourselves round the rock walls of the sanctuary, when the golden digit +touched the altar and found the four sculptured forms above: Harmachis, +Rameses, Amen and Ptah. Night lingered in the temple, a black, brooding +vulture. But suddenly the bird's dark breast was struck by a golden +bullet and from the wound a magic radiance grew. The effect, carefully +calculated by priests and builders thousands of years ago, was as +thrilling to-day as on the morning when the sun first poured gold upon +the altar. The sightless faces of the statues were given eyes of an +unearthly brilliance to stare into ours, and search our souls. But with +most of the party, to be thrilled for a minute was enough. As the sun's +finger began to move, they found it time to move also. There was the +whole temple to be seen, and then the walk back to the boat before +dressing for breakfast. +</p> +<p> +Soon Biddy and I had—or seemed to have—the sanctuary to ourselves. +Even the sun's ray had left us, mounting higher and passing above the +doorway of the inner shrine. The momentarily disturbed shadows folded +round us again, with only a faint glimmer on the wall over the altar to +show that day was born. +</p> +<p> +"Did you notice that Monny wasn't with the others?" asked Brigit, in a +low voice. "She lingered behind, I think, and never came near us. I +wasn't sure till I watched the rest filing out of this room. Then I saw +she wasn't among them. Neither was Captain Fenton." +</p> +<p> +"If they're together, it's all right," I assured her. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but are they? That affair of the typewritten note has worried +me." +</p> +<p> +"You're very nervous, darling. But no wonder!" +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't call me 'darling.'" +</p> +<p> +"Why not? It's no worse than Duffer. I like your calling me that." +</p> +<p> +"I wonder if we ought to go, as she never came—or stay and wait?" +</p> +<p> +"If we go, we shall be playing into Miss Gilder's hands. If we stay, we +shall be playing into mine. Which do you prefer?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I suppose we'd better stay—for fear of something. But you must be +good." +</p> +<p> +Then abruptly I attacked her with a change of weapons. I had fenced +lightly, knowing that Biddy liked a man who could laugh. But now I +threw away my rapier and snatched a club. I told her I would stand no +more of this. Did she want to spoil my life and break my heart? She was +the one thing I needed. Now she would have to say whether she'd put me +off because she didn't love me and never could, or because of that +trash about not wanting to involve me in her troubles. No use +prevaricating! I should know whether she lied or told the truth by the +sound of her voice. But I might as well confess before she began, that +I'd rather be loved by her and refused, than <i>not</i> loved and refused. +Women seemed to think the unselfish thing was to pretend not to care, +if a man had to be sent away; because in the end that made it easier +for him. But in real life, with a real man, it was the other way round. +</p> +<p> +"I think you're right, Duffer," Biddy said softly. "That's why I +wouldn't answer you for good and all, that night at Philae. I felt then +it might be kinder to tell you I could never care. But I've thought of +nothing else since—except a little about Monny—and I decided that if +it were <i>me</i>, I'd rather be loved, whatever happened. Men can't be so +very different where their hearts are concerned. So I'm going to tell +you I <i>do</i> love you. It was hard to give you to Monny. But I thought it +would be for your happiness. I nearly died of love for you when I was a +little girl. I kept every tiniest thing you ever gave me. I was in love +with your memory when you went up to Oxford. And it was then Richard +O'Brien came. He swept me off my feet, and made me think my heart was +caught in the rebound. When it was too late, I realised that it hadn't +been caught at all. Only hypnotized for a while. I've loved you always, +Duffer dear. The thought of you was my one comfort, often, although I +hardly expected to see you again: or maybe, for that very reason. No, +don't touch me! please let me go on now, or I'll not tell you any more. +I wonder if you never guessed what I had in that chamois-skin bag +you're so worried about?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, yes, I did guess, Biddy, right or wrong." +</p> +<p> +"And I'll <i>bet</i> you it was wrong! What did you think, when I wouldn't +understand any of your hints to tell what I wore over my heart?" +</p> +<p> +"I thought then," I answered after a moment's deliberation, "that you +kept—compromising documents which might be of interest to the +organization you and I have talked about. Now I think differently. I +think you kept a lock of my childish hair, or my first tooth." +</p> +<p> +"You conceited Duffer!—not so bad as that, because I had never a +chance of getting either. Once I <i>did</i> keep in that bag just what you +said: compromising documents, that the organization would have given +thousands of dollars to get. And my life wouldn't have stood in their +way for a minute, I'm sure. But that was before Richard died. He was +afraid—I mean, I thought it would be better and less suspicious if <i>I</i> +had charge of the papers. And if the Society had ever got hold of him, +he believed the letters and lists of names I had, might have bought +back his safety, if I played my hand well. He'd told me just what to +do. But when he was ill, he had a nurse whom I began to suspect as a +spy. Once when I was called into Richard's room suddenly, half dressed, +the chamois-skin bag showed, as my wrapper fell open at the breast. I +caught her looking at it with an eager look; and that very night I had +it locked up in a bank. It was only a few days later that Richard died; +and with him gone, I felt there was no more need to keep papers which +might cost the lives or liberty of men. Richard had wronged his +friends, and I wanted none of them to come to harm through me, though +they'd made me suffer with him. I burned every scrap of paper I had, +every single one! And it wasn't till there was an attempt to kidnap +Esmé that I asked myself if I'd been right. Still, even now, I am not +sorry. I wouldn't hurt a hair of their heads. For a while the bag was +empty; but coming away from America and feeling a bit lonesome, I +thought it would do me good to look now and then at the only love-letter +you ever wrote me. It was on my ninth birthday—but I don't +believe you could write a better one now. There was a photograph, too, +of my lord when he was seventeen. I stole that, but it was all the +dearer. At this very minute, the letter and the picture are lying on my +heart. So now you know whether I care for you or not; and you can +understand why I wouldn't put the bag into a bank." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Biddy darling," I said, "you've made me the happiest man in the +world." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I'm glad," she snapped, twisting away from me, "that it takes so +little to make you happy." +</p> +<p> +"So little, when I'm going to have you for my wife?" +</p> +<p> +"But you're not. You said you'd rather be loved and refused—" +</p> +<p> +"I would, if I had to choose between the two. That's not the case with +me, for I shall marry you, now I know the truth, in spite of fifty, or +fifty thousand, refusals, or any other little obstacles like that." +</p> +<p> +"Never, Duffer! Not for all the world would I be your wife, loving you +as I do, unless the organization would forget or forgive Esmé and me. +And that I can't fancy they'll ever do, till the millenium. I shall be +past the marrying age then! Oh, Duffer, I <i>almost</i> wish you had fallen +in love with Monny as I wanted you to do—' +</p> +<p> +"Honest Injun, you really wanted that to happen?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, I tried to want it, for your sake; and in a way for my own, too. +If I'd seen you caring for Monny, I should have found some medicine to +cure my heartache. Oh, it would have been a very good thing all around, +except for your friend, Anthony Fenton." +</p> +<p> +"And I was half afraid he was in love with you! I can tell you I've had +my trials, Biddy. It's my turn to be happy now, and yours, too. Just +think, nearly everybody in the world is engaged, but us—or next door +to being engaged. Miss Gilder and Anthony—who's the only man on earth +to keep her in order: and Rachel Guest and Bailey; and Enid Biddell and +Harry Snell; and even your stepdaughter, Esmé O'Brien—" +</p> +<p> +"Duffer, she's <i>married</i>!" +</p> +<p> +"What, to young Halloran? How did they manage it?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know yet. I've had only a telegram. It came to Assuan too +late, and Sir Marcus Lark brought it to the boat. I found it that night +when we got back from Philae. But I haven't told, because I dared not +be with you alone long enough to speak of private affairs, till I could +decide whether to let you know I loved you, or make believe I didn't +care a scrap." +</p> +<p> +"As if I could have believed your tongue, unless you had shut your +eyes! So Esmé is married, and off your hands?" +</p> +<p> +"Not off my hands, I'm afraid. This may be visited on me. They must +have known of her meeting Tom Halloran at St. Martin Vesubie, last +summer. They find out everything, sooner or later. Probably they +thought I'd whisked her off to Egypt with me (helped by my rich friend +Miss Gilder, for whom they took Rachel Guest) in order to let her meet +Tom Halloran again, and marry him secretly. Well, she has <i>married</i> him +secretly. When they discover what's happened, they're sure to put the +blame on poor me. And indeed, it is a shocking thing for the son of +that man in prison, and the daughter of the man who sent him there, to +be husband and wife." +</p> +<p> +"I don't see that at all," I argued. "Why shouldn't their love end the +feud?" +</p> +<p> +"It can't, for strong as it may be, it won't release prisoners, or +bring back to life those who are dead." +</p> +<p> +"Anyhow, don't borrow trouble," said I. "If Esmé's married the more +reason for us to follow her example. After Khartum, when Miss Gilder—" +</p> +<p> +"Who's taking my name in vain?" inquired the owner of it, at the +sanctuary door. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, then you <i>have</i> come, Monny!" Brigit exclaimed. "I—I'd given you +up." +</p> +<p> +"I haven't come for the reason you thought," returned the girl +promptly. "I was sure you meant to head me off. And I've learned +without asking, that Antoun Effendi didn't write that note." +</p> +<p> +"I told you so! Who did?" +</p> +<p> +"He's trying to find out. Probably it was a silly practical joke some +one wanted to play on me. There are <i>lots</i> quite capable of it, on +board! Antoun Effendi said the sunrise was much finer really, from on +top of the great sandhill, so we climbed up. And it came out that he +hadn't asked me to meet him here. If any one not on the boat wrote the +letter, some steward must have been bribed to sell a bit of writing-paper, +and allow a stranger to come on board, while we were away at +Kasr Ibrim. There was a steam dahabeah moored not far off, if you +remember, with Oriental decorations; so we fancied it must belong to an +Egyptian or a Turk." +</p> +<p> +"It could easily have been hired at Assuan," Biddy exclaimed. "And it +could have beaten us. We've stopped at such heaps of temples where +other boats only touch coming back." +</p> +<p> +"If there were a plot, as you are always imagining, the dahabeah would +have to be near here, too," Monny laughed incredulously. +</p> +<p> +"And so it may be. We haven't seen round the corner of the Great Temple +yet." +</p> +<p> +"One would think to hear you talk, that you'd expected this poor little +sanctuary to be stuffed with murderers, or at the least, kidnappers." +</p> +<p> +"Ugh, don't speak of it!" Biddy shuddered, "Let's go out into the +sunlight again, as quick as ever we can!" +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH28"><!-- CH28 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXVIII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +WORTH PAYING FOR +</p> +<p> +When Anthony says that he will find out things he seldom fails. Perhaps +nobody but a green-turbaned Hadji could so speedily have screwed +information out of secretive Arabs, paid to be silent. And he had to +fit deductions into spaces of the puzzle left empty by fibs and glib +self-excusings. What he did learn was this: a dragoman had come, in a +small boat, from a steam dahabeah to the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> while we +were away at Kasr Ibrim. He presented credentials written out for him +in Cairo by Miss Rachel Guest, and dated a few weeks ago. Inquiring for +her, he seemed sorry to hear that she had gone on the excursion. The +dragoman refused to disturb Antoun Effendi, on hearing that the Hadji +was writing in his cabin. His errand was not of enough importance to +trouble so illustrious a man. All he wanted was permission to type one +or two letters for his employers on the neighbouring dahabeah, which +possessed no machine. In the absence of Mr. Kruger, who had gone on +shore for exercise, the dragoman was given this privilege. Possibly he +had taken some of the boat's letter-paper. Who could be certain of +these trifles? Possibly, also, he had walked about with one of the +cabin stewards, to see the luxurious appointments of the <i>Enchantress +Isis</i>. As for paying money for these small favours, who could tell? And +nobody knew if the steam dahabeah had hurried on before us, to anchor +out of sight round the oblique façade of Abu Simbel. In any case, when +we went to look for the suspicious craft seen near Kasr Ibrim, she was +not among the two or three small private dahabeahs of artists and +others, moored within a mile of the Great Temple. Notwithstanding her +absence, however, Anthony and I (suddenly confidential friends again) +thought it likely that the shadows in the Sanctuary had not been its +only tenants when we entered there. The invaluable Bedr knew enough of +the Nile Temples to know that the sun's first light strikes only the +altar and the statues over it, in Abu Simbel's inner shrine: that the +four corners of the small cavern-room remain pitch black, unless the +place is artificially illuminated: and that this is never done at +sunrise. The dragoman and one or both of his employers would have had +no difficulty in getting into the temple before the first streak of +dawn, if they had warned its guardian the night before. So far, our +deductions were simple, after learning how the trick of the typewritten +note had been managed: but it was not so easy to guess the object of +the plot. Was Monny Gilder to have been murdered in the dark Sanctuary, +or was she to have been kidnapped? Either seemed an impossible +undertaking, unless the plotters were willing to face certain detection +and arrest. +</p> +<p> +As it was, we had no more tangible proof against the man than we had +before, at the House of the Crocodile, in the desert near Medinet, at +Asiut, and at Luxor. With a sly cleverness which did Bedr, or those +employing him, much credit, they had screened themselves behind others. +Even if we had the names of the "tourists" Bedr had served as dragoman, +and if we could lay our hands on their shoulders, we had not enough +evidence of what they had done to obtain a warrant of arrest: and this +of course they knew. Our best chance, Anthony thought, lay in springing +a surprise on them, as they had vainly (so far) tried to do with us; +and when we got them somehow at our mercy, force out the truth. +</p> +<p> +It was almost certain that a steam dahabeah could not unseen have +passed the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> at Abu Simbel in broad daylight, going +back toward Assuan. Therefore, since it was not moored near the temple, +if it had been in the neighbourhood at all it must have dashed on ahead +of us in the direction of Wady Haifa. With pleasure would we have given +immediate chase, had not the <i>Enchantress</i> been pledged to remain at +Abu Simbel till afternoon. Even as it was, I expected to catch up with +a boat so much smaller than our own; but Anthony damped my hopes, +explaining the difficulties of navigation between Abu Simbel and Wady +Haifa. There were, he said, great shifting sandbanks in the water which +looked so transparently green, so treacherously clear. Without the most +prudent piloting the river was actually dangerous, as new sandbanks had +a habit of forming the minute you shut your eyes or turned your back. +The <i>Enchantress</i> would have to pick her way slowly through the silver +sands of the Nile, which mingled with the spilt gold-dust of the desert +shore. All the same, these impudent rascals would find it hard to hide +from us at Wady Haifa, especially if we stopped the boat and wired from +the next telegraph station to have them watched on the arrival of their +dahabeah. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps, as they're so clever they'll be clever enough not to arrive +at all," was my suggestion. And Anthony could only shrug his shoulders. +"Wait and see" had to be our policy. +</p> +<p> +Happily the Set wandered in and out of the two temples, big and little, +all the morning, ignorant of our worries which, even to us, seemed +small under the benign gaze of the great Colossi. The three stone +Rameses who had faces, wore expressions no one could ever forget; and +there was a sense of loss in turning away from them. +</p> +<p> +A crocodile swam past the <i>Enchantress</i> as she steamed up river; a +long, dark, prehistoric shape. He seemed an anachronism, but so did +Bedr, with his plottings; yet both were real, real as this Nile-dream +of dark rocks, of conical black mountains shaped like ruined pyramids, +and yellow sandhills whose dazzling reflections turned the blue-green +river to gold. +</p> +<p> +The next day at noon, we came to Wady Halfa; and the <i>Enchantress Isis</i> +who had brought us eight hundred miles from Cairo, was now to be +deserted by those with Khartum in view. All save three of the party +were going on through this gate of the Sudan, where the river way ended +and the desert-way began. Neill Sheridan was turning back immediately, +in a government steamer; and a bride and groom who cared not where they +were, if with each other, would wait on board the <i>Enchantress</i> until +the band of passengers should return from Khartum. +</p> +<p> +These things had to be thought of. But I meant to let Kruger do most of +the thinking, when we landed at the neat, colourful town of Halfa, +which lies (as Assuan lies) all pink and blue and green along the river +bank, sentinelled with trees. From a distance Anthony and I caught +sight of the steam dahabeah seen near Kasr Ibrim, and we could hardly +wait to get on shore. The camp was but a mile and a half away, and I +had wired in Lark's name, to an officer whom he was sure to know, +asking as a great favour to have the passengers on board a boat of that +description watched; and requesting him if possible to meet the +<i>Enchantress</i> on her arrival. "There he is!" said Fenton, standing at +the rail. "I mustn't seem to recognise him, of course. Can't give +myself away! But you—" "Good Lord, there's Bedr!" I broke in, hardly +believing my eyes. And there Bedr was, looking as if butter would by no +means melt in his mouth: Bedr, smiling from the pier, evidently there +for the special purpose of meeting us. His ugly squat figure, and the +tall, khaki-clad form of the officer, were conspicuous among squatting +blacks, male and female, in gay turbans, veils, and mantles, muffled +babies in arms, and children dressed in exceedingly brief fringes. +</p> +<p> +"I'll attend to him, while you powwow with Ireton," said Anthony, ready +for the unexpected situation. And while the indispensable if humble +Kruger showed the passengers how to get to the desert train, +superintended the landing of the luggage, and made himself perspiringly +useful, I thanked Major Ireton in Sir Marcus Lark's and my own name. +</p> +<p> +His news was astonishing. There were no passengers on board the steam +dahabeah <i>Mamoudieh</i>. She had arrived with none save her crew, and the +dragoman now talking with that good-looking Hadji there. As I murmured +"Yes," and "No," and "Indeed—Really!" to the officer, who had kindly +worked on our behalf, I was saying to myself, "My <i>dear</i> Duffer, what +an ass you were not to think of that!" For of course the men had +remained at Abu Simbel, hiding till we should be out of the way, and +sending their boat on to put us off the track. A Cook steamer and a +Hamburgh-American boat were due to stop at the temple. We had passed +both on the river. By this time the two men were doubtless on their way +north, making for Cairo and safety. +</p> +<p> +Still, here was Bedr, looking like a fat fly who had deliberately come +to pay a call on the lean and hungry spider. I was impatient for the +moment when the need for genuine gratitude and "faked" explanations was +over, and Major Ireton had gone about other business. +</p> +<p> +Then I could follow the Hadji and the Armenian, who had mounted the +steps leading up from river-level to the town. Not far off I could see +the blue-windowed, white-painted desert train, round which, on the +station platform, buzzed and scolded the Set, demanding their +hand-luggage and their compartments. But Anthony and his victim (or was it +by chance vice versa?) were keeping out of eyeshot and earshot of the +late passengers of the <i>Enchantress</i>. Brigit and Monny, who must have +seen Bedr, were too tactful to hover near: also they knew "Antoun +Effendi" too well to think it necessary. +</p> +<p> +Bedr gave me no time to speak. He rushed forward to greet me with +effusion, as if I were a long-lost and well-loved patron. "I bin so +glad see you again after these days, milord. Sure!" he began. "Antoun +Effendi, he tell you I come here on purpose to do you good. I find out +those genlemens very wicked men, so I leave them quick. They want to +pay me for go back with them, but no money big enough now I know they +try to do harm to my nice young lady. She wasn't so good to me as the +other nice young lady, but that makes no matter. I not stand for any +hurt to her, sure I will not, milord." +</p> +<p> +"The meaning of this rigmarole," Anthony cut him short, speaking in +German (which he knew I understood and trusted Bedr didn't) "is, that +the fellow wants us to buy information from him. He pretends to have +broken with his employers on our account (though his explanation of +getting here to Halfa on their dahabeah is ridiculous) and that, having +come for our benefit against their wishes, he's without pay, penniless, +and stranded." +</p> +<p> +"A lie of course," I took for granted, also in German. +</p> +<p> +"The part about being broke—certainly. But it's certain, too, that he +must know some things we'd like to know." +</p> +<p> +"Could we trust a word he says?" +</p> +<p> +"No, as far as his moral sense is concerned. But my idea is to bargain +with him. We to pay according to value received. That might be bait for +a fish worth hooking." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, that's our line. We haven't much time to hear and digest his +story, though. The train will start in less than an hour." +</p> +<p> +"We shan't waste a minute. Without waiting for you, I began to bargain +on the line I've just suggested." +</p> +<p> +"How far did you get?" +</p> +<p> +"A good way, for I was able to scare him a bit. You see, he earns his +living in Cairo, and I've persuaded him that I have some influence +there, in quarters that can make or break him. He hasn't much more time +to spare than we have, if it's true that he wants to start back on the +government boat. You know they take natives, third class. My +suggestion, subject to your approval, is this: in any case we give a +thousand piasters, ten pounds. But if what he can tell us is of real +use or even interest, we rise to the extent of ten times that sum." +</p> +<p> +"It's a good deal for a beastly baboon like him." +</p> +<p> +"Remember, he has been doing services lately for which he probably got +high pay." +</p> +<p> +"All right, whatever you say, goes," I agreed. +</p> +<p> +"I trust to your honours, my genlemens," remarked the beastly baboon in +question, in a manner so apropos that I guessed him not entirely +ignorant of German, after all. +</p> +<p> +"Thanks for the compliment," I responded gratefully. +</p> +<p> +"We shall have to talk here. There's no time to find a more convenient +place," said Fenton, returning to Arabic as a medium of communication. +"Fire away, Bedr. But don't start your story in the middle. Begin where +you took service with these Irish-American gentlemen." +</p> +<p> +"Was the genlemens Irish? I never know that," purred the guileless +Bedr; but Fenton brought him to his bearings. All questions were to be +from us to him. So Bedr "fired away": and there, within a stone's throw +of the train getting up steam for Khartum, we listened to a strange +tale—as strange, and as great an anachronism as that dark crocodile-shape +we had seen—except in the Nile country, where live crocodiles +and many other dark things can easily happen any day. +</p> +<p> +Blount's name, according to Bedr, was not Blount, but something else, +well-known in America. It was a name already associated with that of +O'Brien, which inclined us to hope for some grains of truth in the +chaff of lies we expected. Bedr said that in New York, years ago, he +had known the man "Blount." He was related to the American family who +took Bedr from Cairo. Later, when the Armenians had returned to Egypt, +"Blount" had come with him, for a "rest cure." He had engaged Bedr as +dragoman, and on leaving had asked for Bedr's card. That was years ago, +and nothing had been heard from him since: but before the <i>Laconia</i> was +due to arrive, Bedr had received a telegram from Blount instructing him +to meet the ship, and wire to Paris whether Miss Gilder of New York and +a "Mrs. Jones" were on board, with a party. "Blount" knew that Bedr had +seen Miss Gilder as a child, and might now be able to recognize her. On +the day in New York when a block in traffic had given a glimpse of the +little girl in a motor-car with her father, Bedr and "Blount" had been +together. +</p> +<p> +As soon as possible after Bedr's reply, "Blount" and another man, who +called himself Hanna, had arrived in Cairo. Bedr knew that they had a +fixed theory in regard to the young lady who passed as Miss Gilder. Who +they supposed her to be, he could not tell; but once he had "happened" +to be near, when they were not aware of his presence, and had heard one +of them mention a woman's name, which sounded like "Esny." They +accepted his word that he had been able to identify the so-called Miss +Guest as Rosamond Gilder, and in her they appeared to take no further +interest. Their attention was concentrated on Mrs. Jones and on the +lady who, according to their belief, was but posing as Miss Gilder. +Apparently they imagined her to be quite another person, one whom they +had taken a great deal of trouble to reach. Also they had an idea that +Mrs. Jones possessed something of which they were anxious to get hold. +It was a thing which ought to be theirs, and they had been after it for +years; but she had contrived to hide herself and it, until lately. +</p> +<p> +Why he had been told to guide the two younger ladies to the House of +the Crocodile, Bedr pretended not to know. Perhaps—only perhaps +—Blount and his companion, Hanna, wished to kidnap the one we called +Miss Gilder, and they called "Esney." But good, kind Bedr had never +dreamed that they meant any real harm. There had been a plan of some +sort for that night. Blount and Hanna were to arrive at the House of +the Crocodile for a close look at the young ladies, when the latter had +gone to sleep under the influence of the hasheesh they intended to +smoke. But the two gentlemen had not kept the appointment. At first, +Bedr had not understood why, and had not known what to do. Afterward, +of course, when he had heard of the row in the street, which had caused +the closing of the house for many tedious hours, he had guessed. And +later when he learned that poor Mr. Blount lay wounded in a hospital, +it had all become clear. Mr. Hanna, who seemed to work under Mr. +Blount's orders, had not been able to act alone. +</p> +<p> +Then, as to all the travelling up the Nile, Bedr had never been told +why "his genlemen" made the journey. Every one who came to Egypt went +up the Nile. Only, he had been instructed to find out, always, where we +were, and told to arrange their arrival at about the same time. At +Medinet they had not camped, or gone to an hotel, but had stayed in the +house of a friend of Bedr's. It was convenient, though not as +comfortable as he could wish for his clients. The advantage was, that +from the roof it was possible to see into our camp. Bedr had made +friends with one of the camel-boys who went to market to buy the black +lamb: and while we were away, had found out which was the tent where +Mrs. Jones and Miss Gilder (or "Esney") slept. What happened in the +night he could not say. He had stayed at his friend's house, while the +two gentlemen went out. He had done nothing at all for them in Medinet, +except to discover the ladies' tent, and also to buy a bottle of olive +oil. When the gentlemen came home in the middle of the night, they were +angry with him because they said he had shown them the wrong tent. But +that was unjust. It was the only time they had been unkind. Except for +that, they had been good, and had given him plenty of money for a +while. At Asiut and Luxor they had been pleased with him. All they +wanted at Rechid Bey's house, was to get the thing Mrs. Jones had, +which ought to be theirs. They had not told him this, but he heard them +talk sometimes. He knew more languages than they thought. If they +wanted to steal the young lady, they had never said so. When the plan +failed, they did not blame Bedr. It was not his fault. They saw that. +</p> +<p> +The <i>Mamoudieh</i> had been engaged as long ago as just after Medinet, +when the thing the gentlemen wanted to do there could not be done. But +Bedr thought that, if the Luxor plan had been a success, the steam +dahabeah would have gone north from there instead of south. It was +because of that failure the boat had followed us up the Nile. At Abu +Simbel Bedr had quarrelled with the gentlemen, because he began to +suspect they meant harm to the ladies, or to one of them. He had been +clever, and got on board the <i>Enchantress</i> as they told him to do. He +had obtained writing-paper, and typed a copy of a letter. In America, +he had learned to do typing. Often he could make better money in an +engagement now, because he knew how to use a machine. And when the +steward showed him over the boat, he left the letter in the stateroom +which the Arab boy said was Miss Gilder's. In spite of all these good +services, which no other dragoman in Egypt could have given, those +gentlemen would not listen to a word of advice. Bedr heard them speak +with the guardian of the temple, about going in before any one else +came to see the sunrise: and afterward they talked of hiding in the +Sanctuary. First, they had asked him if it were always dark there, as +the guide-books said. After hearing this he had put two and two +together: and when he remembered what was in the note he typed for Miss +Gilder, Bedr feared for her and Mrs. Jones. He begged the gentlemen not +to do anything rash, and they were so angry at his interference that +they sent him off with no more pay—nothing at all since Luxor. +</p> +<p> +Oh, no, they were not afraid of him, and what he could tell, because +they said nobody would believe a dragoman's word, against rich white +gentlemen. People would say he lied, for spite. But Bedr thought maybe +we should believe, because we knew already that something strange had +been going on. The gentlemen paid off the men on the <i>Mamoudieh</i> and +ordered her to go on to Wady Halfa. They did not know that Bedr had +slipped on board, and hidden there, on purpose to find us, and tell his +story. +</p> +<p> +A part of this tale carried truth on its face. But Anthony and I agreed +that there was a queer discrepancy at the end. If Bedr spoke the truth, +Blount and his comrade must have had a reason for wishing to get rid of +the fellow, or for not caring what became of him, a reason unconnected +with a quarrel. And it was certain that, if there had been a quarrel, +it was not because of virtuous plain-speaking from Bedr. It seemed +impossible that he could have got on board their hired boat to follow +us, without his employers' knowledge. Was his appearance at Wady Halfa, +and his apparent betrayal of his clients, all a part of their plan? +</p> +<p> +We could not decide this question in our minds, or by cross-questioning +Bedr, while the train waited, for only time could prove. But what we +had heard was interesting enough to be worth the promised thousand +piasters, and the fare north on the government boat just starting. To +make sure that Bedr did start, we called Kruger, put the whole sum into +his hands, asking him to help the dragoman by buying his ticket and +getting the notes changed into gold and silver. This little manoeuvre +left the Armenian so calm, however, that we fancied his wish must +really be to depart on the government boat. Such inquiries as we had +time to make concerning the <i>Mamoudieh</i> seemed to show that she must +remain at Halfa for slight repairs to her engine, and instructions from +her owner, who was staying at Assuan. It was just at the last minute of +grace, with the station-master adjuring, and the Set reproaching us, +that Anthony and I jumped on board the train. +</p> +<hr> +<p> +Strange that two rows of blue glass windows should have power to turn +the whole world topsy-turvy, or to create a new one, of an entirely +original colour-scheme! But so it was. Those people seated in their +grand, travelling "bed-sitting rooms," had only a superficial +resemblance to the passengers of the <i>Enchantress Isis</i>. Monny, for +instance, had pale green hair, with immense purple eyes; and showed +every sign of rapid transformation into a mermaid. Cleopatra's auburn +waves had turned to a vivid magenta: Biddy's black tresses had a blue, +grapey bloom on them: and Anthony's dark eyes were a sinister green, +with red lights. Ghostly, mother o' pearl faces with opal shadows, +peered through the violet glass at an unreal landscape, which would +instantly cease to exist if the windows were opened. But the windows +could not be opened, or a rain of sand would pour in; so we gazed out +on an impossible fairy land consisting of golden sea, with mountainous +shores carved from amethyst, through which shone the glow of pulsing +fires. Always we carried with us an immense shadow, like a trailing +purple banner, unfurling as we moved. Men and women and animals seen at +the numbered white stations in the sand, were but fantastic figures in +a camera obscura. The shadow of the train was torn with fiery streaks: +and when the sun had burned to death on a red funeral-pyre, the moon +stole out to mourn for him. Her coming was sudden. She seemed abruptly +to draw aside a hyacinth curtain, and hold up a lamp over the desert, +when the sun's fire had died. And the lamp gave forth an unearthly +light, which poured over the endless sands a sheet of primrose-yellow +flame. The warm sun-shadow was chilled from purple to gray, and flowed +over the magic primrose fields like a river of molten silver. +</p> +<p> +At Number Six Station, where we stopped for water after dinner, a hyena +came galumping over the sand like a humpbacked dog, to stare at us, as +we strolled in couples away from the train into the desert. Next +morning, every one was up early to see the gray hornets' nest huts +which were Sudanese villages, and the villagers themselves, who urged +us to buy straw rugs, baskets, fans, oranges, dried beans, live birds, +and milk in wooden bowls, whenever the train stopped: respectable old +ladies, dressed in short fringes, and small, full-stomached boys +dressed in nothing at all. +</p> +<p> +I had not told Biddy about our bargain with Sir Marcus: Anthony's and +my services in exchange for the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Why +should she be forced to share our suspense? For she would share it, if +she knew, even though she didn't yet yield to me, in the matter of a +united future. I wanted to wait before telling her the story, until +Fenton and I had made sure if there were anything golden about the +mountain, except its name. If we were doomed to disappointment I could +then give the tale a humorous turn, easier to do in retrospect than +anticipation. Now, when in blinding light of noon we pointed out, in an +impersonal manner, to all who cared to see, the pyramid-field of Meröe, +it seemed strange to think that no heart but Anthony's and mine beat +the faster. The sun was so hot that most people, blinking dazedly, +retired behind their screens of blue glass almost as soon as the train +stopped, close to Garstang's camp. I had informed the Set, casually, +that wonderful things were being found here in the rocky desert: that +the few neat white tents sheltered men who were going to make of Meröe +a world's wonder: that not only had the army of stunted black pyramids +visible from the train, yielded up treasures, but three tiers of +palaces were being unearthed, or rather, unsanded. I said nothing, +however, of the more distant dark shapes, like the pyramids yet unlike +them. Among those low, conical mountains which perhaps gave inspiration +to the pyramid builders, was our mountain. And I was not sorry when the +burning sun smote curiosity from eyes and brains, and sent nearly all +my flock back to their places, while the train had still some minutes +at the station. +</p> +<p> +Cleopatra had not come out. She had frankly lost interest in scenic +history, and did not want to be intelligent: but as Anthony and I +stepped off the train, we saw that Brigit and Monny stood arm in arm in +the doorway. +</p> +<p> +"Would you like to jump down?" I asked, reluctantly. For the first time +I did not wish Biddy O'Brien to give me her society. I hoped she would +say "No, thank you," for I wanted Fenton to point out our mountain +(which he had told me could be seen): and it would be inconvenient to +answer questions. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, we should like it," they both replied together: so Anthony and I +had to look delighted. It really was a pleasure to help them down: but +even that we could have waited for till our arrival at Khartum. And the +first remark that Biddy made was too intelligent. "What are those weird +things off there in the distance, that look exactly like ruined +pyramids—sort of mudpie pyramids?" +</p> +<p> +"Mountains," said Fenton. +</p> +<p> +"What, didn't anybody <i>make</i> them?" +</p> +<p> +"The legend is, that Djinns, or evil spirits, created them to use as +tombs for themselves." +</p> +<p> +"But they're almost precisely like the made pyramids, only a little +more tumbledown. Have they names?" +</p> +<p> +"Some have, I believe," Anthony returned, with his well-put-on air of +indifference. "That blackest and most ruined looking one of all, for +instance, between two which are taller—there, away to the left, I +mean—that is called the 'Mountain of the Golden Pyramid.'" +</p> +<p> +Our eyes met over the girls' veiled hats. After all, he had found an +opportunity of telling me what I wanted to know. +</p> +<p> +"What a fascinating name!" said Monny. "It sounds as if there were some +special story connected with it. Is there?" +</p> +<p> +"Ye—es," Anthony was obliged to admit. "There is a legend that it was +used as a tomb by the first Queen Candace, who lived about two hundred +years B.C. after Ptolemy Philadelphus. She used to reign over what they +called the "Island of Meröe." It was this once fertile kingdom, between +the Atbara River over there, and the Blue Nile. They say she wished to +be buried with all her jewels and treasure, and was afraid of her tomb +being robbed, so she wouldn't trust to a man-made pyramid. She ordered +a secret place to be hollowed out in the heart of a mountain; and +that's the one they pretend it is." +</p> +<p> +"What a lovely legend! But I suppose there's nothing in it, really, or +clever people like those who're digging here now would have found the +tomb and the treasure long ago," said Monny. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," I left Anthony to answer; wondering what he would say. +"Only a very few have ever put enough faith in the story to search, and +they have never been able to discover traces of an entrance into that +mountain or any other. Of course, in trying to enter the great pyramid +of Ghizeh, they looked a long time before they succeeded. But that was +different. There was never any doubt of there being something worth +seeing, inside, whereas this black lump may be solid rock, and nothing +more. It's many years since anybody has tried to get at the secret." +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon," politely said (in French) an elderly man, in a +pith helmet, blue spectacles, and khaki clothes, who stood near. "I +couldn't help hearing your conversation; and it may interest you and +these ladies to learn that at this very moment work is going on at the +so-called Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." +</p> +<p> +I envied Anthony the brown stain on his face, for I felt the blood +rushing to mine. +</p> +<p> +"Indeed!" I ejaculated in English. "We are very much interested. Work +—actually going on!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it was begun about four or five weeks ago, by an agent of Sir +Marcus Lark, the well-known financier, who got the concession which +some other party was said to be trying for. I am here," went on the +helmeted man, gazing benevolently through his blue spectacles at the +two pretty women, "I am here with my son, who is one of Garstang's men. +We have nothing to do with the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. Luckily +for Sir Marcus, it was adjudged to be off our 'pitch.' Still, we are +interested. They are keeping their work very secret, but—these things +are in the air. The talk here is that they're on the point of making, +if they haven't made already, some very startling discovery." +</p> +<p> +"All aboard, <i>if</i> you please!" shouted the Greek guard. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH29"><!-- CH29 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIX +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +EXIT ANTOUN +</p> +<p> +If there had been no Brigit and no Monny in the world we should have +let that train go on without us, and—hang the Set and its feelings! +But there was a Brigit; there was a Monny; and they were more to us +than all the treasure Sir Marcus was apparently stealing while we +slaved. +</p> +<p> +What fools we had been to trust in such a man! And I had actually +wasted pity on the fellow. Now, as we were borne away from Meröe, we +saw our hopes, which had begun to seem certainties, dissolving into +air. They were like the mirage of the desert which lured us with siren +enchantment and mystery in this Never-Never-land which thousands of +brave men had died to win: shimmering blue lakes, that mirrored green +trees and low purple mountains, and the gold of sand-dunes, so real, so +near, it seemed we might walk to them in a few moments: only mocking +dreams, like our belief in a famous financier's loyalty; like our hopes +of fortune. For if Sir Marcus Lark had secretly begun work at the +Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, it meant that he intended to steal +everything best worth having, for himself. +</p> +<p> +It was maddening to realize that we might be too late to thwart him, +but we had to risk this, or risk losing something dearer than the +jewels of a Queen Candace. Anthony was staking the happiness of his +future on the events of the following night. Now that the small cloud +of misunderstanding had passed from the clear sky of our friendship, we +were one again in confidence, as we had been before the Philae +eavesdropping: and I knew the plan he meant to carry out at the +Sirdar's ball. It was rather a melodramatic plan, perhaps, but somehow +it fitted into the circumstances of his queer courtship, and I could +see why Anthony preferred it to any other more conventional. As for me, +I too counted on Khartum to give me a present of happiness. Bedr's +story, largely false as it might be, must have a basis of truth. I'd +ceased to argue with Biddy. "We'll leave the subject of the future +alone till we get to Khartum," I had said. She thought, maybe, that she +had half convinced me of her worldly wisdom. But this was far from +being the case. I was only waiting to see whether my theory were right +or wrong. I couldn't know until Khartum: and nothing on earth, or +hidden under earth, would have induced me to put off the moment of +finding out. +</p> +<p> +North Khartum was standing in a mirage as we approached. And Fenton and +I were superstitious enough to wonder if it were a bad omen, that +lovely lake which was not there, reflecting clearly each white and +ochre-coloured house of the city in the sand. Only the blue glitter of +the Nile was real, as the train crossed the river on a high bridge, and +landed us in the surprising garden of beauty which is Khartum itself. +Wide streets, bordered with flowering trees, rose-pink acacias and +coral pendants of pepper-berries; lawns green as velvet; big, verandaed +houses of silver-gray or ruddy stone; roses climbing over hedge and +wall; scent of lilies and magnolias floating in an air clear as +crystal; droning sakkeyehs spraying pearls over the warm bodies of +slow-moving oxen; white sails like butterflies' wings dotting the Blue +Nile: this was the new city created as if by magic, in sixteen years, +upon the sad ruins of Gordon's stronghold. +</p> +<p> +On the wide veranda of the Grand Hotel, where pretty girls were giving +tea to young officers in khaki, Fenton came up to Brigit and Monny, who +were questioning me about letters. The look on his face struck the girl +into silence. +</p> +<p> +"What is it?" she asked, almost sharply. +</p> +<p> +"Don't let me interrupt you," he said. "I can wait a few minutes." +</p> +<p> +"No," Monny insisted. "Please speak. I know it's something important." +</p> +<p> +"Important only to myself, perhaps," he answered, with a smile that was +rather wistful. "I have to say good-bye now." +</p> +<p> +"Good-bye?" echoed Monny, surprised and even frightened, more by his +look and tone than the words themselves. +</p> +<p> +"My engagement with Sir Marcus Lark ended when our train stopped at +Khartum. I have other business to attend to here. I've just made my +adieux with everybody else. I saved you till the last." +</p> +<p> +Monny was pale. Even the fresh young rose that was her mouth had +blanched. Otherwise she controlled herself perfectly. Was this part of +Anthony's plan? I wondered. He had told me what he intended to do at +the Palace ball to-morrow night; but he had said nothing about this +preliminary scene. I understood, however, why he had not manoeuvred to +get Monny to himself, in a deserted corner of this big ground-floor +balcony of the hotel. Even when with the Set it was a question of +getting their tea, or looking at their rooms, eyes were always ready to +observe Miss Gilder, especially since it was "in the air" that she +really <i>was</i> Miss Gilder—"<i>the</i> Miss Gilder." He did not want Miss +Hassett-Bean and Mrs. Harlow to be saying: "Look, my dear, at the +tragic, private farewell Antoun Effendi and our American Beauty are +having!" Since Philae, there would have been no use in trying to +conceal his feelings for Monny from Brigit or me. Therefore we made +useful chaperons, and could be regarded as dummies. +</p> +<p> +"You never told me you were leaving us at Khartum," the girl stammered. +"I thought—" But, though we knew what she thought, she could go no +further before an audience. +</p> +<p> +"My business prevents me from staying at the hotel," Anthony explained. +"And—though I shall see you, never again will you see poor Ahmed +Antoun." +</p> +<p> +"I don't understand," Monny said. +</p> +<p> +"I know. But that was what we agreed upon. You promised to trust me +without understanding. To-morrow night, at the Sirdar's ball, you will +understand. I've arranged with Lord Ernest that you and Mrs. Jones and +Mrs. East and he shall write your names in the book at the Palace. Then +you will all receive invitations for the ball; you four only, of the +party." +</p> +<p> +"And you will be there?" +</p> +<p> +"I've just told you," Anthony repeated, "that Antoun is saying good-bye +to you forever." +</p> +<p> +"Yet you told me, too, that after Khartum I should be hap—" She cut +herself short, and shut her lips closely. I was angry with Fenton for +what seemed cruelty to one who had very nobly confessed her love for +him. Biddy's eyes protested, too; but the man and the girl cared no +more for us or our criticism, at that moment, than if we had been +harmless, necessary chairs for them to sit upon. +</p> +<p> +"There are many paths to happiness," Fenton answered. "I shall see you +to-morrow night, and I shall know whether you are happy. Meanwhile I +say again—trust me. And good-bye." +</p> +<p> +He held out his strong, nervous hand, so browned by the sun that it +needed little staining for the part he had played—and was to play no +more. As if mechanically, Monny Gilder laid her hand in it. They looked +into each other's eyes, which were almost on a level, so tall was she. +Then Antoun Effendi turned abruptly away, forgetting apparently that he +had not taken leave of Brigit or me. +</p> +<p> +"Let's go upstairs at once, dear, and see our rooms," Biddy said +quickly. +</p> +<p> +An instant later, I stood alone on the veranda. But I knew well enough +where to find Captain Anthony Fenton when I wanted him, although the +death knell of Antoun was sounding. I was not in the least melancholy, +and despite the tense emotion of that short scene, I had never felt +less sentimental in my life. My whole being concentrated itself in a +desire to visit the post-office, and to bash Sir Marcus Lark's head. +</p> +<p> +When Anthony came up for his farewell I had been asking Brigit and +Monny if they expected letters at the Poste Restante. Both said no, but +advised by me, they gave me their cards, armed with which I could ask +for letters and obtain them if there were any. "It's very unlikely any +one will address me there," Biddy had assured me. "The only letter I'm +hoping for will come to the hotel." +</p> +<p> +I was not jealous: because I was sure the said letter was from Esmé +O'Brien, now for weal or woe Mrs. Halloran. The letter I hoped for +would be from a very different person, though if it materialized it +would certainly mention the runaway bride. And if such a letter came to +Khartum, the place to look for it, I thought, would be the Poste +Restante. The writer not being a personal friend of Mrs. O'Brien, and +presumably not knowing Khartum, could not be certain at which hotel she +would stop. +</p> +<p> +I was hurrying away, a few minutes later, to prove once and for all +whether I were a budding Sherlock Holmes or merely an imaginative fool, +when a servant came out from the hotel and handed me a telegram. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Lark!</i>" I read the signature at the end with a snort of rage. "I +wonder he has the cheek to—" But by that time I was getting at the +meat of the message. "What the dev—by Jove! Here's a complication!" I +heard myself mutter a running accompaniment to Marcus Lark's words— +</p> +<p> +This is what he had to say on two sheets of paper: +</p> +<p> +LORD ERNEST BORROW, Grand Hotel, Khartum: +</p> +<p> +In train leaving Assuan met man from Meröe told me work begun at our +place strange news don't understand but sure you two haven't gone +ahead of bargain must be foul play or else mistake but thought +matter too serious go on north left train returned Assuan caught +government steamer for Halfa just arrived too late for train de luxe +but will proceed by ordinary train to camp better meet me there soon +as possible leaving boat people take care of themselves. Wire +Kabushîa Lark. +</p> +<p> +His loyalty to us shamed me. We had not given him the benefit of the +doubt, but had at once believed the worst. He, though "not a gentleman" +in the opinion of Colonel Corkran and some others, was chivalrously +sure that we had "not gone ahead of the bargain!" A revulsion of +feeling gave me a spasm of something like affection for the big fellow +whom his adored Cleopatra sneered at as "common." +</p> +<p> +I longed to show the telegram to Anthony; but he would now be at the +Palace, reporting to the Sirdar. Later he would be at his own quarters, +transforming himself from a pale brown Hadji in a green turban into a +sunburned young British officer in uniform. Meantime I would go to the +Poste Restante, and then (whatever the result of the visit) I would +return, collect Brigit and Monny, and take them to the Palace to write +their names in the book. +</p> +<p> +I dare not think what my blood pressure must have been as I waited for +a post-office official to look through a bundle of letters. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. B. Jones," he murmured. "No, nothing for B. Jones—unless it's +O'Brien Jones. Here's a letter addressed to Mrs. O'Brien Jones." +</p> +<p> +"That's it," said I, swallowing heavily, "Mrs. O'Brien Jones. I think +the letter must be postmarked Assuan." +</p> +<p> +Without further hesitation the post-office man handed me the envelope, +on the strength of Mrs. B. Jones' visiting card. +</p> +<p> +Going out of the office, I walked on air. "Sherlock Holmes it is!" I +congratulated myself. And I ventured to be wildly happy, because it +seemed to me that a letter sent to Mrs. O'Brien Jones, from Assuan, +could mean only one thing; a justification of my theory. +</p> +<p> +I went straight to Biddy's door and knocked. There was no answer, and I +stood fuming with impatience on the upstairs balcony, upon which each +bedroom opens. It seemed impossible to live another minute without +putting that letter into Biddy's hand. And not for the world would I +have let it come to her from any one else. I was tempted to tear open +the envelope, but before I had time to test my character, Biddy +appeared on the balcony, coming round the corner from Monny's room. +</p> +<p> +"Why, Duffer! You look as if the sky had fallen!" she exclaimed. +</p> +<p> +"It has," I returned. "It's lying all over the place. There's a bit of +it in this letter. A bit of heaven, maybe." +</p> +<p> +"A letter for me?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. And if you aren't quick about opening it I'll commit hari kari." +</p> +<p> +She was quick about opening it. +</p> +<p> +As she read, almost literally my eyes were glued to her face. It went +white, then pink. "Thank heaven!" I said within myself. If she had been +pink first and white afterward, I should have been alarmed. For a +woman's colour to blossom warmly from a snowfield, means good news. +</p> +<p> +"Duffer!" she breathed. "Do you—know—what's in this?" +</p> +<p> +"I—thought it would come." My voice sounded rather queer. I'd fancied +I had more self-control. "That's why I—wanted your card—for the Poste +Restante." +</p> +<p> +"Read this," she said, and gave me the open letter. +</p> +<p> +It was written on paper of a hotel at Assuan, near the railway station, +and was as follows: +</p> +<p> +MADAM: Let me explain frankly before I go further, that my name is +Thomas Macmahan. You may remember it. If you do, you will not think +it strange that I—as a private person, as well as a member of a +Society—whose name it is not necessary to mention—wanted certain +papers you were supposed to possess. For a long time I, and others +almost equally interested, tried to trace you, after learning that +you had the documents, or in any case knew where they were. +Naturally we were prepared to go far in order to make you give them +up. We believed that your step-daughter was with you. As the need +was pressing, and we had failed more than once, we would, if +necessary, have worked upon your feelings through her. Had we +questioned you, and you had replied that we were mistaken concerning +the young lady and the papers, we should have been incredulous. But +accident enabled us to hear from your own lips, details which we +could not disbelieve. As a woman we wish you no harm, therefore we +rejoice in this turn of events, for your sake. Your step-daughter +must now be <i>one of us</i>, through her husband. She has nothing +further to fear, much as we regret her marriage into a family so +deeply injured by her father. As for you, Madam, you may be at rest +where we are concerned. You said to Lord Ernest Borrow in the Temple +of Abu Simbel, that you could never be happy, until the Organization +Richard O'Brien betrayed, "forgot and forgave his daughter and +yourself." Through me, the Organisation now formally both forgets +and forgives. +</p> +<p> +Wishing you well in future, Yours truly, +</p> +<p> +T. MACMAHAN (alias Blount). +</p> +<p> +P. S. Kindly acknowledge receipt of this letter in care of Bedr el +Gemály whose address you have at Cairo. Not hearing from you, we +shall try to communicate this news in some other way. The present +method has occurred to us, as you may find it useful to know the +state of affairs without delay. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Biddy, <i>do</i> you find it useful?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +She held out her hands to me. There was no one on the veranda just then +and I kissed her. +</p> +<p> +"Mine!" I said. "What a gorgeous place Khartum would be, to be married +in!" +</p> +<hr> +<p> +Monny was very brave next day. She went to Omdurman with the rest of +us. And it was the chance of a lifetime, because (through Anthony) +Slatin Pasha himself took us to the place of his captivity: Slatin +Pasha, slim, soldierly, young, vital and brilliant. It was scarcely +possible to believe that this man, who looked no more than thirty-five, +and radiated energy, could have passed eleven years in slavery terrible +beyond description. He spoke of those experiences almost lightly, as if +telling the story of some one else, and it was "all in the day's work" +that he should have triumphed over his persecutors in a way more +complete, more dramatic than any author of romance would dare invent +for his hero. +</p> +<p> +He took us, from the river-steps in front of his own big, verandaed +house, down the Blue Nile in a fast steam launch. It was a Nile as blue +as turquoise; and after the low island of Tuli had been left behind it +was strange to see the junction of the Blue and the White Niles, in a +quarrelsome swirl of sharply divided colours. Landing on the shore at +Omdurman, we met carts loaded with elephant-tusks, and wagons piled +with hides. Giant men, like ebony statues, walked beside pacing camels +white as milk. The vegetable market was a town of little booths: the +grain markets had gathered riches of green and orange-gold. Farther on, +in the brown shadows of the roughly roofed labyrinth of bazaars, were +stores of sandalwood, and spices smelling like Araby the blest; +open-fronted shops showing splendid leopard skins, crocodile heads +bristling with knives, carved tusks of elephants, shields, armour said to +have been captured from crusaders; Abyssinian spears, swords and strange +headgear used by the Mahdi's and Khalifa's men. The bazaars of Cairo +and even Assuan seemed tame and sophisticated compared to this wild +market of the Sudan, where half the men, and all the bread-selling +women who were old enough, had been the Khalifa's slaves. +</p> +<p> +With Slatin Pasha we went to the Khalifa's "palace" to gaze at the +"saint's" carriage, the skeleton of Gordon's piano, and scores of +ancient guns which had cut short the lives of Christian men. Slatin's +house we saw, too, and the gate whence he had escaped: the Mahdi's +shattered tomb, and the famous open-air Mosque. +</p> +<p> +Then we had a run up the Blue Nile, as far as "Gordon's Tree," and +lunched on board the launch. In the afternoon, back at Khartum again, +there was still time to group round the statue of Gordon on his camel, +holding the short stick that was his only weapon, and gazing over the +desert. The Set were allowed to walk through the Palace gardens, to +behold the spot at the head of the grand staircase, where Gordon fell, +and to have a glimpse, in the Sirdar's library, of the Khalifa's +photograph, taken after death. This was a special favour, and as they +knew nothing about the four invitations to the ball, they were +satisfied with their day. +</p> +<p> +Dinner was in the illuminated garden of the hotel: and when it was +over, I smuggled Brigit and Monny and Cleopatra inconspicuously away. +No one suspected; and if the lovely dresses worn by Mrs. East and Miss +Gilder were commented upon, doubtless aunt and niece were merely +supposed to be "showing off." +</p> +<p> +Never, I think, had Monny come so near to being a great beauty. In her +dress of softly folding silver cloth she was a tall white lily. She +wore no jewels except a string of pearls, and there was no colour about +her anywhere, except the deep violet her hazel eyes took on at night, +and the brown-gold of her hair. Even her lips were pale as they had +been when Antoun bade her good-bye. Hers was no gay, dancing mood. She +was going to the ball because Antoun Effendi had ordered, rather than +asked, her to go. But she was like some fair, tragic creature on trial +for her life, waiting to hear what the verdict of the jury might be. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH30"><!-- CH30 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXX +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE SIRDAR'S BALL +</p> +<p> +Biddy, radiating joy, walked beside me with wide-open, eager eyes, +taking in every detail of the historic house. She admired the immense +hall, whose archways opened into dim, fragrant gardens. She was +entranced with the Sudanese band, ink-black giants uniformed in white, +playing wild native music in the moonlight. She wanted to stop and make +friends with the Shoebill, a super-stork, apparently carved in shining +metal, with a bill like an enormous slipper, eyes like the hundredth- +part-of-a-second stop in a Kodak, and feet that tested each new tuft of +grass on the lawn, as if it were a specimen of some hitherto +undiscovered thing. +</p> +<p> +No question but she was happy! I was proud of her, and proud of myself +because my love had power to give her happiness. What matter now if I +were being robbed at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, by some +unknown thief? Neither he nor any one could steal Biddy. +</p> +<p> +Even Cleopatra seemed pleased to be coming to the Sirdar's ball, though +gloom lay heavy upon her. She wanted to look her best. She wanted to be +admired by the officers she was to meet, and to have as many partners +as she could split dances for. To be admired by some one was essential +to her just now, a soothing medicine to heal the smart of hurt vanity. +Monny, I felt, had made herself look beautiful only because she thought +that Antoun, unseen, would see her. As we entered the ballroom, her +eyes were wistful, searching, yet not expecting to find. He had said +that she would never see Antoun again. +</p> +<p> +I found friends in the ballroom: men I knew at home, and a few pretty +women I had met in England or abroad: but there was no more than time +to be received by the Aide-de-Camp, and to introduce a few officers to +my three ladies, when the moment came for the formal entry of our host +and hostess, the soldier-Sirdar and his graceful wife, the Royalties of +the Sudan. We were presented: and I guessed at once that the Sirdar had +been prepared in advance to take a special interest in Rosamond Gilder. +</p> +<p> +"Anthony has told him the whole thing, and asked his help," was my +thought. From the instant of his kindly greeting for the girl, I found +myself suddenly, excitedly assuming the attitude of a spectator in a +theatre, on the night of a new play. I knew the plot of the play, but +not how it would be presented, nor how it would work out. I saw that +the Sirdar had made up his mind to a certain line of action where Monny +was concerned. And by and by, when he had time to spare from his +general duties as host, I heard him ask if she would like to go on the +roof, where Gordon used to stand watching for the English soldiers to +come. +</p> +<p> +"I will take you," he said. "And if you like to stay longer than I can +stop away from our guests, I'll give you another guide." +</p> +<p> +He turned to Biddy and me. (Cleopatra was dancing with Baron Rudolph +von Slatin Pasha, gorgeous in medals and stars: Brigit and I had just +stopped.) +</p> +<p> +"Would you like to come, too?" the Sirdar asked. +</p> +<p> +I answered for Biddy, knowing what she would want me to say. And still +the sense of being a spectator in a wonderful theatre was dreamily upon +me. Stronger and stronger the impression grew, as the Sirdar led us out +onto a wide loggia white with moonlight, and up a flight of stairs to a +flat roof. Overhead a sky of milk was spangled with flashing stars. +Beneath our eyes lay the palace gardens, where the torches of the +Sudanese band glowed like transfixed fireflies, in the pale moon-rays. +Palms and acacias and jewelled flower-beds, were cut out sharply in +vivid colour by the lights which streamed from open windows. Beyond +—past the zone of violet shadow so like a stage background—was the +sheen of the river, bright as spilt mercury under the moon. And beyond +again, on the other side of the Nile, the tawny flame of that desert +across which came the Khalifa's fierce army. "This is where Gordon +used to stand," the Sirdar stopped us near the parapet. "Only the roof +was one story lower then. He climbed up here every day, till the last, +to look out across the desert, saying: 'The English <i>will</i> come!' +There's a black gardener I have, who thinks he meets him now, on +moonlight nights like this, walking in the garden. It wasn't much of a +garden in his day; only palms and orange trees: but a rose-bush he +planted and loved is alive still. I've just asked one of my officers +—one whom I particularly want you to meet, Miss Gilder—to pluck a rose +from Gordon's bush and bring it to you here. He knows where to find us; +and when he comes, I must go back to the ballroom and leave you—all +three—to his guidance. Lord Ernest and he used to be friends as boys, +I believe. Perhaps you've heard him speak of Captain Anthony Fenton?" +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps. I don't remember," Monny answered, apologetically. She, so +self-confident and self-possessed, was charmingly shy with this great +soldier who had made history in the Sudan. +</p> +<p> +"If you don't remember, Lord Ernest can't have done justice to the +subject. Fenton's one of the finest young officers in Egypt, or indeed, +in the service. We're rather proud of him. Lately he's been employed on +a special mission, which he has carried out extremely well. Few others +could have done it, for a man of great audacity and self-restraint was +needed: a combination hard to find. He has been in the Balkans. And +since, has had a particularly delicate task intrusted to him, to be +conducted with absolute secrecy. No 'kudos' to be got out of it in case +of success. And failure would almost certainly have cost his life. It +was a question of disguise, and getting at the native heart." +</p> +<p> +"It sounds like something in a story book," said Monny, while Brigit +and I kept mum, drinking in gulps of moonlight. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," the Sirdar agreed, "or the autobiography of Sir Richard Burton. +Fenton has the same extraordinary gift of language and dialect that +Burton had: the art of 'make-up,' too; and he's been to Mecca; a great +adventure I believe he had. Perhaps you can get him to talk of it: +though he's not fond of talking about himself. Altogether he's what I +sometimes hear the ladies call 'a romantic figure.' His father was a +famous soldier. If you were English you would have heard of him. He +broke off a brilliant career in Egypt by running away with a beautiful +princess. She was practically all Greek and Italian, though her father +called himself a Turk: no Egyptian blood whatever. But there was a +great row, of course, and Charles Fenton left the Army. Now Anthony +Fenton's grandfather, who lives in Constantinople, would like to adopt +his grandson: but the young man is in every sense of the word an +Englishman, devoted to his career, and doesn't want a fortune or a +Turkish title." +</p> +<p> +"Why, that sounds—" Monny faltered. +</p> +<p> +"Like a man of character, and a born soldier, doesn't it? Here he comes +now." +</p> +<p> +There was a sound of quick, light footsteps on the stairs. In silence +we turned to see a tall young officer in uniform walk out upon the flat +roof. The moon shone straight into a face grave, yet eager, so deeply +sunburned as to be brown even in that pale light: long eyebrows +sketched sharply as if in ink—the black lines running down toward the +temples; large, sad eyes; a slight upward hitch of the mouth on one +side; clear cut Roman nose; aggressive chin. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Gilder, let me introduce Captain Anthony Fenton," the Sirdar +said. +</p> +<p> +"I've brought you a rose," said Anthony. +</p> +<p> +They stood looking at one another for a long moment, the sun-browned +British officer, and the pale girl. We, Biddy and I, stared at them +both from our distance; and when the spell of the instant had broken, +we saw that the Sirdar had gone. +</p> +<p> +We, too, would have gone, though the man and the girl were between us +and the stairway, and we should have had to push past them. But +Anthony, seeing our hesitation, spoke quietly. "Don't go," he said. "I +may want you." +</p> +<p> +Never until to-night had Monny Gilder heard him speak English. +</p> +<p> +"You see," he said to her, "why I told you yesterday you would never +see Antoun again. I had to tell you that, to make sure you would trust +me—fully, through everything. You <i>have</i> trusted me, and so you've +made it possible for me to keep my vow—a wrong and stupid vow, but it +had to be kept. When I was angry because you treated me like a servant, +I swore that never, no matter how I might be tempted, would I tell you +with my own lips who I was—or let Borrow tell. I was going to make +myself of importance in your life as Ahmed Antoun, if I could, not as +Anthony Fenton. But long before that night at Philae I was ashamed. I +—but you said then, you would forgive me. Now, when you understand what +you didn't understand then, can you still say the same?" +</p> +<p> +"I—hardly know what to say," she answered. "I don't know how I feel +—about anything." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I know, you goose!" exclaimed Biddy, rushing to the rescue, +where angels who haven't learned to think with their hearts might have +feared to tread. "You feel so happy you're afraid you're going to howl. +Why, it's all perfectly wonderful! And only the silliest, earliest +Victorian girls would sulk because they'd been 'deceived.' If anybody +deceived you, you deceived <i>yourself</i>. <i>I</i> knew who he was from the +first! So did your Aunt Clara. We'd kept our ears open, and heard the +Duffer talk about his friend Anthony Fenton who was coming to meet us. +<i>You</i> were mooning I suppose, and didn't listen. We didn't give him +away partly because it wasn't our business, and partly because each of +us was up to another game, never mind what. Captain Fenton never tried +to play you a trick. You threw yourself at his head, you know you did, +from Shepheard's terrace. He had his <i>mission</i> to think of, and you'd +be <i>very</i> conceited if you thought he ought to have let you interfere +with it. As it happened, you worked in quite well with the mission at +first. Then Fate stepped in, and made the band play a different dance +tune; no military march, but a love-waltz. That wasn't his fault. And I +have to remind you of all this, because you're glaring at Captain +Fenton now as if he'd done something wrong instead of fine, and he +can't praise himself." +</p> +<p> +As she finished, out of breath, having dashed on without a single +comma, the giant black musicians in the garden began to sing a strange +African love song, in deep rich voices, their instruments, which had +played with precision European airs, suddenly pouring out their +primitive, passionate souls. +</p> +<p> +"Biddy dear," said the girl in a small, meek voice, "thank you very +much, and you're just sweet. But I <i>didn't</i> need even you to defend him +to me. I was only just stopping to breathe, for fear my heart would +burst, because I was <i>dizzy</i> with too much joy. I <i>worship</i> him! And +—and you can both go away now, please. We don't want you." +</p> +<p> +We went. Biddy would have fallen downstairs, if I hadn't caught her +round the waist. Needless to say, I didn't look back; but Biddy did, +and should by rights have been turned into a pillar of salt. +</p> +<p> +"My gracious, but they're beautiful!" she gasped. "For goodness' sake, +let's dash as fast as we can, down into the garden, and do the same +thing!" +</p> +<p> +"What?" I floundered. +</p> +<p> +"Why, you <i>duffer</i>, kiss each other like mad!" +</p> +<hr> +<p> +Boiling with excitement, when I met Cleopatra later in the ballroom, I +told her what was going on above, in the moonlight, on the roof. +</p> +<p> +"At last your niece knows what I think you have guessed all along, but +so wisely kept to yourself," I said. "About Fenton, I mean. It's all +right between those two now. They will come downstairs engaged." +</p> +<p> +"Everybody is engaged!" Cleopatra stormily retorted. +</p> +<p> +"That's exactly what I remarked to Brigit, before I could persuade her +to follow the general example. 'Everybody in the world is engaged +except ourselves,' are the words I used." +</p> +<p> +"And except me," added Mrs. East. "You forgot me, didn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Never!" I insisted. "You could be engaged to a dozen men any moment, +if you wanted to." +</p> +<p> +"I think you're exaggerating a little, Lord Ernest," Cleopatra replied +modestly and unsmilingly. But her countenance brightened faintly. "Of +course there are a few men—there were some in New York—" +</p> +<p> +"You don't need to tell me that," I assured her. +</p> +<p> +"I feel as if I'd like to tell you something else," she went on, "if +you can spare a few minutes." +</p> +<p> +"Will you sit out the next dance?" I asked. "It isn't a Bunny Hug or +Tango, or anything distracting for lookers-on." +</p> +<p> +"Aren't you dancing with Brigit?" +</p> +<p> +"No such luck—I mean, fortunately not. She has grabbed Slatin Pasha, +and forgotten that I exist. By jove, there come Miss Gilder and Fenton. +What a couple! They're rather gorgeous, waltzing together—what?" +</p> +<p> +"Very nice," said Cleopatra, trying with all her over-amuleted heart, +not to be acid. "But oh, Lord Ernest, that <i>settles</i> it! I <i>must</i> be +engaged myself, <i>before</i> Monny brings him to show me, like a cat with a +mouse it's caught. Otherwise I couldn't <i>stand</i> it; and afterward would +be too late." +</p> +<p> +Hastily I rushed her out into the garden, where the Shoebill regarded +her with one eye of prehistoric wisdom. If she really were a +reincarnation, I'm sure he knew it: and had probably belonged to her in +Alexandria, when she was Queen. +</p> +<p> +"There's a Mr. Talmadge in New York," she went on, wildly. "He said he +would come to me from across the world, at a moment's notice, if I +wired. Only it would be awkward if I announced our engagement to-night, +and then found he'd changed his mind. Besides, he'd be a <i>last</i> resort: +and Sayda Sabri said I ought—" +</p> +<p> +"Why not wire <i>Sir Marcus</i>?" I ventured. (If his telegram had not come +yesterday, I would as soon have advised Cleopatra to adopt an asp.) +</p> +<p> +"Oh! well—I <i>was</i> thinking of it. That's one thing I wanted to ask +your advice about. I believe he does love me." +</p> +<p> +"Idolizes is the word." +</p> +<p> +"And now and then in the night I've had a feeling, it was almost like +wasting something <i>Providential</i>, to refuse a Marcus Antonius. Sayda +Sabri warned me to wait for a man named Antony, whom I should meet in +Egypt. That's why I—but no matter now. The 'Lark' is a dreadful +obstacle, though. How could I live with a lark?" +</p> +<p> +"Lady Lark has quite a musical lilt." +</p> +<p> +"Do you think so? There's one thing, even if you're the wife of a +marquis or an earl, you can only be called 'Lady' This or That. You +might be <i>anything</i>. He's taller than Antoun—I mean, Captain Fenton. +And his eyes are just as nice—in their way. They quite haunt me, since +Philae. But Lord Ernest, he has some horrid, common little tricks! He +scratches his hair when he's worried. If you look up his coat sleeves +you catch glimpses of gray Jaeger, a thing I always felt I could +<i>never</i> marry. And worst of all, when he finishes a meal and goes away +from the table, he walks off <i>eating!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"I don't suppose," said I, "that your first Marcus Antonius ever went +away from a table at all—on his feet; anyhow, while you were doing him +so well in Egypt. He had to be carried. <i>I</i> call Sir Marcus (and I +stole the Sirdar's epithet for the other Anthony) a Romantic Figure! +His adoration for you is a—a sonnet. There's no 'h' in his name to +bother you. And he fell in love at first sight, like a real sport—I +mean, like the hero of a book. If he has ways you don't approve, you +can cure them; redecorate and remodel him with the latest American +improvements. Why, I believe he'd go so far as to give his Lark a tail +if you asked him to spell it with an 'e'." +</p> +<p> +"Well—I suppose you're right about what I'd better do," she sighed. "A +bird in the hand—oh, I'm not making a silly pun about a lark—is worth +two in New York! Please tell <i>every one</i> you see I'm engaged to Sir +Marcus, for he is my bird in the hand: and I'll send off a telegram the +first thing to-morrow morning, for fear he hears the news that he's +engaged to me, prematurely. Where is he—do you know?" +</p> +<p> +"By to-morrow he'll be at Meröe Camp," I said: But I did not add: "So +shall we!" +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH31"><!-- CH31 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXI +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE MOUNTAIN OF THE GOLDEN PYRAMID +</p> +<p> +There was not much room in our hearts for mountains or gold just then: +yet somehow, before we left the Palace, Anthony and I had told Brigit +and Monny the secret which had been the romance of our lives, until +they came into it to paint dead gold with the living rose of love. +</p> +<p> +Victorian women would have been grieved or angry with men who could +leave them at such a time; but these two, instead of reproaching us, +urged us on. Naturally, they wanted to go with us. They said, if there +were danger, they wished to share it. And if there were to be a "find," +they wished to be among the first to see what no eyes had seen for two +thousand years. But when Anthony explained that there wasn't time to +get tents together and make a decent camp for ladies, even if we were +sure not to tumble into trouble, they said no more. This was surprising +in Monny, if not in Brigit. I supposed, however, that she was being on +her best behaviour, as a kind of thank-offering to Providence for its +unexpected gift of legitimate happiness. +</p> +<p> +Our secret was to be kept. Only the Sirdar knew—and gave Fenton leave +of absence for a few days. The Set did not suspect the existence of a +mountain at Meröe more important than its neighbours. They did not even +know what had become of Antoun Effendi after he bade them farewell, and +"good luck." From the first, he had given it out that he must leave the +party at Khartum. The object of returning to Meröe was to "meet Sir +Marcus;" and I promised to be back in plenty of time to organize the +return trip to Cairo. My departure, therefore, was all in the day's +work: and the great sensation was Mrs. East's engagement. Even though, +for obvious reasons, Monny's love affair was kept dark, Cleopatra could +not resist parading hers, the minute her wire to Sir Marcus had been +safely sent. I got an invitation for all the members of the Set to a +tennis party in the Palace gardens, at which the Sultan of Dafur and a +bodyguard armed with battle axes would be the chief attraction. Also I +induced the landlord of our hotel to promise special illuminations, +music, and an impromptu dance for the evening. This was to make sure +that none of our friends should find time to see me off at the train. +Anthony was to join me there, in mufti, and might be recognised by +sharp eyes on the lookout for mysteries. Once we got away, that danger +would be past: unless Cleopatra told. But I was certain that she would +not to any one ever again mention the name of Antoun. +</p> +<p> +It was a full train that night, but no one in it who knew Antoun. Many +people who had been visiting friends or staying at an hotel for weeks, +were saying good-bye. The narrow corridors of the sleeping-cars had +African spears piled up on the floor against the wall, very long and +inconvenient. Ladies struggled in, with rainbow-coloured baskets almost +too big for their compartments. Seats were littered with snake-skins +like immense, decayed apple parings; fearsome, crescent-shaped knives; +leopard rugs in embryo; and strange headgear in many varieties. Stuffed +crocodiles fell down from racks and got underfoot: men walked about +with elephant tusks under their arms; dragomans solicited a last tip; a +six-foot seven Dinka, black as ink and splendid as a Greek statue, +brought flowers from the Palace for some departing acquaintance of the +Sirdar and his wife. Officers in evening dress dashed up through the +sand, on donkey-back, to see the last of friends, their mess jackets +making vivid spots of colour in the electric light. All the fragrant +blossoms of Khartum seemed to be sending farewell messages of perfume +on the cool evening air. No more fantastic scene at a railway-station +could be imagined. If the world and its doings is but a moving picture +for the gods on Olympus they must enjoy the film of "a train departing +from Khartum." +</p> +<p> +Anthony did not join me until just as the train was crawling out of the +station, for we had asked Brigit and Monny not to see us off, and they +had been startlingly acquiescent. We had a two-berthed compartment +together, and talked most of the night, in low voices; of the mountain; +of the legends concerning it, and the papers of the dead Egyptologist +Ferlini, which indirectly had brought Fenton into Monny Gilder's life, +and given Brigit back to me. There was the out-of-doors breakfast +party, too, on the terrace at Shepheard's. Had it not been for this +incident Antoun, the green-turbaned Hadji, would never have been +selected by Miss Gilder, in words she might now like to forget. "I'll +have <i>that</i>!" But, had not a distressed artist called on me one morning +in Rome, months ago, with an old notebook to sell, I should not have +come to Egypt for my sick-leave; and none of us would have met. I had +visited the artist's studio to please a friend, and bought a picture to +please him (not myself); therefore he regarded me as a charitable +dilettante, likely to buy anything if properly approached. Bad luck had +come to him; he wanted to try pastures new, and needed money at short +notice: therefore he wished to dispose of a secret which might be the +key to fortune. Why didn't he use the key himself? was the obvious +question; which he answered by saying that a poor man would not be able +to find the lock to fit it. +</p> +<p> +The notebook he had to sell had been the property of a distinguished +distant relative, long since dead; the Italian, Ferlini, who about 1834 +ransacked the ruins of Meröe in the kingdom of Candace. Ferlini had +given treasure in gold, scarabs, and jewels to Berlin, all of which he +had discovered in a secret <i>cache</i> in the masonry of a pyramid, in the +so-called "pyramid field" of Meröe. But he had been blamed for +unscientific work, and in some quarters it was not believed that he had +found the hoard at Meröe. This jealousy and injustice had prevented +Ferlini's obtaining a grant for further explorations he wished to make. +He claimed to have proof that in a certain mountain not far from the +Meröe pyramids, and much resembling them in shape, was hidden the tomb +of a Candace who lived two hundred years earlier than the queen of that +name mentioned in the New Testament, mistress of the eunuch baptized by +St. Philip. In the notebook which had come down with other belongings +of Ferlini the Egyptologist, to Ferlini the artist, was a copy of +certain Demotic writing, of a peculiar and little known form. The +original had existed, according to the dead Ferlini's notes, on the +wall of an antechapel in one of the most ruinous pyramids at Meröe, +decorated in a peculiarly barbaric Ethiopian style. The wall-writing +described the making of the mountain tomb, ordered by Candace in fear +that her body might be disturbed, according to a prophecy which +predicted the destruction of the kingdom if the jewels of the dead were +found. +</p> +<p> +Ferlini, a student of the Demotic writings which had superseded +hieroglyphics, doubted not that he had translated the revelation +aright, though he admitted supplying many missing words in accordance +with his own deductions. He was in disfavour at the time he tried to +organize an expedition in search of the queen's hoard, and though +legends of the mountain confirmed the writings which Ferlini was the +first to translate, the Italian could induce no one to finance his +scheme. The one person he succeeded in interesting had a relative, +already excavating in Egypt: but eventually addressed on the subject, +this young man replied that the antechapel in question had fallen +completely into ruin. It would be impossible, therefore, to find the +wall-writing, "if indeed it ever existed." +</p> +<p> +This verdict had put an end to Ferlini's hopes, and nothing remained of +them save the translated copy of the writing in his notebook (the +missing words inserted) and the legends of the negroes who, generation +after generation since forgotten times, had told the story of the +"Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." Nobody, within the memory of man, had +ever searched for the problematical tomb: and as tales of more or less +the same character are common in Egypt, I did not place much faith in +the enthusiastic jottings of Ferlini. However, my love of the unknown, +the mysterious and romantic, made me feel that the possession of the +notebook was worth the price asked: two thousand lire. When I had +brooded over it myself, I posted it to Fenton at Khartum; and his +opinion had brought me to Egypt. Thinking of the matter in this way, it +seemed that we owed our love stories to the impecunious artist, who had +probably spent his eighty pounds and forgotten me by this time. In a +few hours, or a few days, we might owe him even more. +</p> +<p> +Anthony, acquainted with Meröe, its pyramids and pyramidal mountains, +since his first coming to the Sudan, had been able to plan out our +campaign almost at an hour's notice. He knew where to wire for camels +[to take us to our destination, eighteen miles from Kabushîa], also for +trained excavators. And he knew one who, if the white men were in +ignorance, could tell us all the most hidden happenings of the desert +for fifty miles around. This was the great character of the +neighbourhood, among the blacks, the Wise Man of the Meröitic desert, +who claimed to be over a hundred years old, had a tribe of sons and +grandsons, and practically ruled the village of Bakarawiya. For +countless generations his forbears had lived under the shadow of the +ruined pyramids. Family tradition made them the descendants of those +Egyptian warriors who revolted in the time of King Psammetichus, +migrating from Elephantine Island to Ethiopia. There they were well +received by the sovereign, given lands in Upper Nubia, and the title of +Autolomi, or Asmack, meaning "Those who stand on the left side of the +King." Anthony's friend and instructor in the lore of legends rejoiced +in the name of "Asmack," which, he proudly said, had been bestowed on +the eldest son in his family, since time immemorial. +</p> +<p> +Asmack the old and wise was to meet us at Kabushîa Station, with +camels, one for each, and one for Sir Marcus, in case he had arrived +and wished to ride to the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid. +</p> +<p> +It was orange-red afternoon when our white train slowed down, to pause +for a moment at Kabushîa Station, and the first face we saw was that of +Sir Marcus Antonius—a radiant face whose beaming smile was, I knew, +not so much a welcome for us as a sign that he had received the +telegram from Cleopatra. He hurried along the platform to the steps of +our sleeping car; and Anthony, ready to swing himself down before the +train stopped, pointed out Asmack not far off,—a thin old black man +who must once have been a stately giant, but bent forward now as if +searching the earth for his own grave. He had got to his feet, from a +squatting position in the coal-stained, alluvial clay of this strange +desert, and was gazing toward us, his few rags fluttering in the warm +wind. Beside him stood a mere youth of fifty or so, and two or three +young men, with several sulky camels. +</p> +<p> +Sir Marcus began to shake hands almost before we were on the platform; +and so did he engross himself in us and absorb our attention that none +of us quite knew when the train went out. +</p> +<p> +"My dear boys!" he addressed us, nearly breaking our finger bones. +"Lord, Fenton, you're even better looking as a true Britisher than a +false Arab! But never mind that now. Borrow, you're a trump. I believe +I owe everything to you. I mean, in the matter of Mrs. East—<i>Clara</i>. +It always was my favourite name. Fenton knows? Thanks for the +congratulations. Thanks to you both. You must be my best men. What? +Can't have but one? Well, it must be Borrow, then, I suppose. Oh, about +the mountain? Why, of course you're anxious. Don't think I have not +been busy. I have. Got here by special train. Cost me a lot of money. +But who cares? It's worth it. I want to hurry things up, and get to +Khartum. What your blessed mountain is to you, that is a certain lady +to me." +</p> +<p> +"What have you found out?" I managed at last to cut short his +rhapsodies. +</p> +<p> +"Why, not much, I'm bound to confess. But I've had only a few hours. +Some one—heaven knows who—came here, it seems, with Arabs he'd +engaged heaven knows where, and pretended to be my agent, empowered by +me to work at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, where it was well +known I'd got the right to excavate. Well, the chap was armed with +credentials, and had a contract signed by me, so the authorities +thought he was all right of course, and let him go on. This was more +than a month ago. He pitched his camp out by the mountain, and nobody +disturbed him. Fact is, from what I hear, I don't believe the +excavating men from the Liverpool School of Archeology or whatever you +call it, thought much of his chances of success. A case of looking for +Captain Kidd's treasure! He and his men were excavating round the +mountain, and he'd engaged some more fellows from the neighbourhood to +make the work go faster. But a few days ago—not yet a week—he +discharged the lot, paid them up and sent them off saying he'd +abandoned hope of finding any entrance to an alleged tomb. The Arabs +departed by train; but the fellows from hereabouts gossiped a bit, it +seemed, and the story was started that they'd been got rid of because +the Boss had hit on something, and wanted to be left to himself. +</p> +<p> +"You haven't told us yet the name of the man," Anthony reminded him. +</p> +<p> +"By Jove, no more I haven't! I'm so excited about everything. You won't +know it, but Borrow will. Colonel Corkran." +</p> +<p> +Anthony gave me a look. "I do know the name," he said. "It's the man of +my dream." +</p> +<p> +"The man of your dream? Corkran a <i>dream</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"A dream which has kept repeating itself until I grew superstitious +about it. A red-faced man with a purplish sort of moustache, I saw +coming between you and us, or looking at me out of a dark recess, +something like a deep doorway. Borrow said when I told him, I was +describing your man, Corkran, whose place he took on your yacht +<i>Candace</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I'm hanged! If that's not the rummiest go! I only hope he's not +in that recess or deep doorway now, if it leads into your mountain. You +remember, Borrow, my telling you he'd been alone for a while in the +sitting-room I use as an office at the Semiramis Hotel, and had had a +good chance if he wanted to browse among my papers? Well, I didn't +mention this to you at the time, but an unsigned contract with you for +your services, in return for all my rights in the Mountain of the +Golden Pyramid, was lying on the desk. (As for the contract he's been +showing here, it could only have been for the trip; but it showed him +to be my agent right enough.) And there were two confidential letters +on my desk: one from a man I'd written to, an Egyptologist chap, saying +in his opinion there <i>might</i> be a tomb in the mountain; the other, an +answer, not finished, telling him I meant to run the risk, and had +secured the rights. You know how queer I thought it, Corkran should +throw up his job, which was paying him pretty well? But it wasn't my +business, and I was jolly glad to be rid of him as it happened. Well, +here we have the mystery explained." +</p> +<p> +"Not quite yet! I wish we had," I said, thinking of the sly old poacher +on our preserves, who had perhaps by this time skimmed the cream off +the secret. It was easy to guess why he had sent away his workers if, +indeed, he had imagined himself on the eve of a discovery. Rights to +dig are given on the understanding that the Egyptian government shall +have half of anything found, worth the taking. Corkran's scheming to be +alone must mean that he intended annexing what treasure he could carry +off, and then getting out of the bad business. Already six days had +passed since the Arabs and Nubians had left him alone in his camp; and +though it was lucky that we had learned what was going on, it might be +too late to profit by the information. Even if we caught Corkran +red-handed, he might have hidden his spoil where none but he, or some +messenger, could ever find it. +</p> +<p> +"You'll go out with us to the mountain, Sir Marcus?" I went on. "We'll +be ready to start—" +</p> +<p> +But Sir Marcus had suddenly become deaf. He had turned as if to gaze +after the long ago departed train. Instead of answering me, he was +stalking off toward a group of people at the far end of the platform: +three ladies and two men in khaki. For a second I felt an impulse of +indignation. Cheek of him to march away like that, not caring much that +we had been robbed, largely through his carelessness, and by one of his +own men! +</p> +<p> +But the indignation turned to surprise, sheer incredulous amazement. I +glanced at Anthony to learn whether he had seen; but he was beckoning +the old wise man of the desert. "Fenton," said I, "it seems we weren't +the only passengers to get off here. There are three people we know, +talking to two we don't." +</p> +<p> +Anthony looked. "Great Scott!" said he. And in another instant we were +following Sir Marcus hastily along the platform to greet—or scold (we +weren't sure which it ought to be) the big hatted, green-veiled, +khaki-dressed but easily recognised figures of Brigit O'Brien, Monny +Gilder, and Mrs. East. +</p> +<p> +"We couldn't help it," Monny cried in self-defence to Anthony, before +he had time to reach the group. "We knew you wouldn't let us come, so +we came—because we <i>had</i> to be in this with you. Even Biddy wanted to +—and she's so <i>wise</i>. As, for Aunt Clara, I believe she'd have started +without us, if we hadn't been wild for the journey. So you <i>see</i> how it +was!" +</p> +<p> +We did see. And we couldn't help rejoicing in their pluck, as well as +in the sight of them, though it was all against our common sense. +</p> +<p> +"We've ordered our own camels, and a tent, and things to eat and drink, +so we shan't be any bother to you," Monny went on, as Anthony rather +gravely shook hands, his eager brows lifted, his eyes smiling in spite +of himself. "We couldn't have done it, if it hadn't been for Slatin +Pasha. We first went and confided <i>everything</i> to him, because we knew +he loved adventures and would be sure to sympathize. These gentlemen +from the camp are his friends, and they've organized our little +expedition at his request. More than one person can use the telegraph, +you know! And oh, won't it be lovely going with you out into the +desert!" +</p> +<hr> +<pre> +It was not yet evening when we set forth; but it was the birth of +another day when we arrived within sight of Corkran's camp. The tents +glimmered pale in the light which comes up out of the desert before +dawn, as light rises from the sea; and so deep was the stillness that +it might have been a ghost camp. There was not even the howling of a +dog; and this silence was more eerie than the silence of sleep in a +lonely place; because of the tale a grandson of Asmack's had brought to +the village. He was one of the Nubian men Corkran had engaged to help +his Arab workmen from the north; and when the whole gang had been +discharged he, suspecting that some secret thing was on foot, hid in +the desert-scrub that he might return by night to spy. He had wished +his brothers to stay with him, but they, fearing the djinns who haunt +the mountain and have power at night, refused, and begged him to come +away lest he be struck by a terrible death. The legend was that Queen +Candace, the queen who ordered the making of the tomb—had been a +witch. When she died, by her magic arts learned from the lost Book of +Thoth, she had turned all those aware of the tomb's existence, into +djinns, to guard the secret dwelling of her soul. Even the great men of +the court who by her wish hid in the mountain her body and jewels and +treasure, became djinns the moment they had closed and concealed the +entrance to the tomb. They could never impart the secret to mortals; +and because of the knowledge which burned within their hearts, and the +anguish of being parted forever from those they loved, the tortured +spirits in prison grew malevolent. While the sun (still worshipped by +them as Rã) was above the horizon they had no power over men, but the +moment that Rã? "died his red death" the djinns could destroy those who +ventured within such distance of the mountain as its shadow might +reach: and if any man ventured nearer in the darkness of night, he +heard the wailing of the spirits. Camp had been pitched beyond the +shadow's furthest reach; but the night after the workmen were +discharged, Asmack's one brave grandson had been led by curiosity to +approach the haunted mountain. When he had crept within the trench most +lately dug, he had heard the wicked voice of the djinns raging and +quarrelling together. There had been a threatening cry when they knew +how a man had defied their power, and the Nubian had escaped a fate too +horrible to put in words, only by running, running, until his breath +gave out, and the sun rose. +</pre> +<p> +This story gave the silent desert power even over European minds, as we +came where the small camp glimmered, just outside the Shadow's wicked +circle. +</p> +<p> +Not one of Asmack's men would go with us to the tent, which was +evidently that of the leader. He might be lying there dead, struck by +the djinns, they said, and all those who looked upon the body would be +accursed. The three women would not have gone to Corkran's tent, even +had we allowed them to do so; and Sir Marcus, already a slave, though a +willing one, stayed with his adored lady and her friends, inside the +ring which the Nubians proceeded to make with the camels. Carrying a +lighted lantern Anthony and I walked alone to the tent. +</p> +<p> +The flap was down, but not fastened, and the canvas moved slightly as +if trembling fingers tried to hold it taut. +</p> +<p> +"Colonel Corkran!" I called out, sharply. But there was no answer. +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<a name="CH32"><!-- CH32 --></a> +<h2> + CHAPTER XXXII +</h2> + +<p class="ctr"> +THE SECRET +</p> +<p> +Anthony lifted the flap, holding up the lantern, and we both looked in. +</p> +<p> +No one was there—but the tent had the look of recent occupation. It +was neatly arranged, as the tent of an old soldier should be: but on +the table stood a half-used candle stuck in a bottle; and beside it a +book lay open, face downward. Entering the tent the first thing I did +was to glance at the title of this book. It was a learned archeological +treatise. Here and there a paragraph was marked, and leaves +dog's-eared. Three other volumes of the same sort were piled one upon the +other. Anthony and I had read all four during the last few months, +since our minds had concentrated on the subject of pyramids and rock +tombs. +</p> +<p> +"What do you think has become of Corkran?" I said to Anthony. +</p> +<p> +"I think the djinns have got him," he answered, gravely. +</p> +<p> +"You mean—" +</p> +<p> +"I don't quite know what I mean. But—he must have hit upon something, +and then—have been prevented from coming back." +</p> +<p> +"Why should he have had such luck, after a few weeks' work, an +unscientific fellow like him, if the secret of the mountain has been +inviolate for over two thousand years?" +</p> +<p> +"Wait and see what's happened to him before you call it 'luck,' Duffer. +But you must remember that nobody except Ferlini and a few +superstitious blacks ever believed that the mountain had a secret. +Incredulity has protected it. And Corkran had to work like a thousand +devils if he hoped to get hold of anything before he was found out. I +believe he has got hold of something, and—that it then got hold of +him. But we shall see." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, we shall see," I repeated. "And before long if we too have luck." +</p> +<p> +"I hope it won't be the same kind as his. But come along out of this. +We must get to work before sunrise, and try for a result of some sort +before the worst of the heat. If <i>he's</i> found anything, we ought pretty +quickly to profit by his weeks of frantic labour. That, maybe, will be +our revenge." +</p> +<p> +We had to tell the party what we had found in the tent, and what we +meant to do next. Sir Marcus was now excused by Mrs. East; but until +summoned by us the ladies were to remain where they were, under shelter +of the tent which the camel-boys were getting into shape. When exhorted +to be patient, they received the advice in sweet silence; but we did +not until later attach much importance to this unusual mood. Perhaps at +the moment we were too preoccupied to notice expressions, even in the +eyes we loved best. +</p> +<p> +We took with us two men whom Asmack had provided as diggers, and in +five minutes we were at the base of the little dark, conical mountain +which for weeks had been the object of our dreams. Now, standing face +to face with it, the glamour faded. The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid +was exactly like a dozen other tumbled shapes of black rock, grouped or +scattered over the dull clay desert which many centuries ago had been +the fertile realm of Candace. Why should a queen have selected it from +among its lumpish fellows, to do it secret honour? But Corkran had had +faith. Here were traces of what Fenton called his "frantic labours." +</p> +<p> +A parallel trench had been dug with the evident object of unearthing a +buried entrance into the mountain. Down it went through hardened sand +and clay, to a depth of eight or ten feet; and descending, we found as +we expected to do, several low tunnels driven at right angles toward +the mountain itself. One after another we entered, crawling on hands +and knees, only to come up against a solid wall of rock at the end. +Each of these burrows represented just so much toil and disappointment. +But Corkran, whose undertaking could be justified even to his own mind +only by success, had not been discouraged. The trench went round three +sides of the mountain, as we soon discovered; and the corner of the +fourth façade not having yet been turned, it seemed a sign that Corkran +had, as Anthony said, "hit upon something," or thought that he had done +so. Otherwise he would not have discharged his men before the fourth +gallery was begun. We had started from the south because our camp faced +the long trench on that side, and it was quicker to jump into it than +to walk round and examine the excavations from ground-level. On the +east, the plan of the work was the same as on the south, except that +the tunnels leading mountainward were driven at different distances, +relatively to each other; and each of these also ended in a <i>cul de +sac</i>. Now remained the trench on the north side of the mountain, which +was the most promising direction for a "find": and as we turned the +corner which brought us into this third trench the sun rose, making the +sky blossom like the primrose fields of heaven. +</p> +<p> +On this side, sand driven by the northerly wind which never rests had +banked itself high against the mountain, and the excavation had been a +more serious task. There were only two tunnels, and into both sand had +fallen. One was nearly blocked up, and impossible to enter without +reopening; but we took it for granted hopefully that the second had +been made later. This ran toward the mountain with a northeasterly +slant; and though it was partly choked by sand, it was possible to +crawl in. Anthony insisted on going first. I followed, at the pace of +my early ancestor the worm, and Sir Marcus comfortably waited outside. +He wanted to be a pioneer only in financial paths; and after all, this +was <i>our</i> mountain now. It wasn't worth his while to be killed in it. +Besides, as he pointed out, if anything happened to us there must be +some one to organize a rescue, and break the news to the ladies. +</p> +<p> +Anthony had a small electric torch, and I a lantern, but going on hands +and knees, we could use the lights only now and then. When we had crept +ahead (descending always) for twelve or fifteen feet, Anthony stopped. +"Hullo!" I heard him call, in a muffled, reverberating voice. "Here's +the reason why Corkran sent his Arabs away!" +</p> +<p> +"What is it?" I yelled, my heart jumping. +</p> +<p> +"The rock's been cut back, by the hands of men." +</p> +<p> +"His men, perhaps." +</p> +<p> +"No, it isn't done like that nowadays. The tunnel turns here, dips +down, and goes on along this flat wall. I bet Corkran always kept ahead +of the men. When he saw this, he discharged his workers—And yet, it +may be nothing of importance after all. Only a flat surface for some +old wall-inscription such as Romans and even Egyptian soldiers made +constantly, on the march." +</p> +<p> +The rumbling voice ceased, as Anthony crawled round the turn of the +passage. I followed, literally close on his heels, the burrow +descending like a rabbit-hole. Suddenly Anthony stopped again. "I've +come into a sort of chamber Corkran's scooped out," I heard him say. +"It's high enough to sit up in—no, to stand up in. This is the end of +the passage, I think. By Jove, look out!" He had disappeared in the +darkness behind a higher arch in the roof of the gallery. As he cried +out, I slipped through after him, slid down a steep, abrupt slope, and +by the light of my agitated lantern saw Anthony standing waist-deep in +a well-like hole, into which he had evidently stumbled. +</p> +<p> +"Let me give you a hand up," I said. +</p> +<p> +"No thank you," he answered, in a tense, excited voice. "This is where +I want to be. Look!" +</p> +<p> +I looked and saw, at the bottom of the scooped-out hole, a crevice in +the flat wall of rock which we had been following down the passage, +after its turn from the right angle way to creep along the +mountainside. Out of this crevice protruded a large iron crowbar, +apparently jammed into place, the first tool we had seen anywhere. +</p> +<p> +The chamber in which I stood, was littered and piled up with hard +masses of earth which had been thrown out of the hole; and on the rough +floor of the latter I stepped on the spade which had done the work. It +nearly turned my ankle as I jumped on to it, but I hardly felt the +pain. Torch and lantern showed clearly that the crevice in the wall was +not a natural crack, but a man-made opening. It was as if a slab of +rock fitted roughly into grooves had first been lifted, and had then +fallen heavily on to the crowbar. +</p> +<p> +I set the lantern on the earthy floor and its yellow light streamed +through the crack, whence the crowbar protruded like a black pipe in a +negro's mouth. It was all darkness on the other side; from behind the +screen of rock, set in its deep grooves, came the strangest sound I +ever heard, or shall ever hear. It was a voice, groaning, yet it was +not like a human voice. The horrid idea jumped into my head that it was +the howl of an evil spirit sitting in a dead man's skull. +</p> +<p> +"He's alive then," exclaimed Anthony, pale in the sickly light. "Is +that you, Corkran?" he called. The only answer was another groan. +</p> +<p> +"I see the whole business now, don't you?" Fenton said. "This passage +is very steep. Already it was far under ground-level, before we got to +the cutting on the mountain wall, and it must have been under ground-level +for many centuries. They dug deep down, to make the tomb, and +then covered up the entrance with earth. When Corkran got to his +portcullis, he thought he'd reached the reward of his labours. Well—so +he had—the punishment. Here's the heap of stone he used as a fulcrum +for his lever. The heap tumbled when he was on the other side, and the +slab of rock came down to trap him. We'll have to build up his fulcrum +again, before we can do anything ourselves." +</p> +<p> +Together we forced the flat end of the crowbar into the crevice, +pressed a piece of rock under it, and exerted all our strength. The +slab moved upward an inch or two, grating in its rough grooves. The +crack, no higher than the diameter of the crowbar plus a stone or two, +when we saw it first, was now twice its original height. In went +another stone, and so on. We worked like demons in hell, and in an +atmosphere almost as hot and breathless. Yet we could breathe. Whether +all the air we got came through the long twisting passage Corkran had +made, or whether there were ventilation from the other side of the +rock-curtain—some opening in an unseen cave—we could not tell. All we +knew was that the mountain had a secret, and that the man who had tried +to rob us of our rights to it, was caught in the trap of the djinns. +</p> +<p> +Our "rights!" How fragile as spider-webs, how almost laughable they +seemed down here! Rights we had bargained for with men, which they, not +owning them, had gravely given! I suddenly realized, and I think +Anthony realized, as sweating and silent we piled up the fulcrum of +stones thrown down by the djinns, that they alone, or the sleeping +queen they guarded, had "rights" in this hidden place. +</p> +<p> +When we had raised the slab to a height of about two feet in its +grooves, and had made sure that the stones held it firmly in place, we +told each other that it was time to cross the threshold. The rock-door +was scarcely more than a yard in width, and we crawled through in +single file, Anthony going ahead as before, with his torch. I passed my +lantern in after him, and then followed. As I crept through the narrow +aperture I was conscious, among other emotions, of vague +disappointment. "If this is the way to a tomb, and the only way, there +can't be anything very fine to discover," I said to myself. "Why, the +entrance isn't big enough to let in a decent-sized sarcophagus." +</p> +<p> +"It's the man of my dreams all right, and he's lying close to a deep-set +doorway, like the one where I've seen him often. I told you so!" +Anthony was saying in quite a commonplace voice, as I picked myself up, +on the other side of the rock-screen. +</p> +<p> +We were in a small chamber more roughly hewn, and not so large as the +inner sanctuary of Abu Simbel, which I had such good cause to remember. +Exactly opposite the entrance by which we had come in was—as Anthony +had said—a door, deeply set in the rock—a door of the same type as +that through which we had passed; and in the shadow of the overhanging +arch lay the heavy figure of Colonel Corkran, dressed in khaki. +</p> +<p> +His eyes were open, but he did not stir as we bent over him. Only his +lips moved slightly, as if he were making a grimace. +</p> +<p> +"He's trying to ask for something to eat or drink," said Fenton. "What +a confounded fool I am!—I've nothing, not even a flask. Have you?" +</p> +<p> +"No. I'll go back at once and get something," I answered. Strange, but +I was not in the least angry with Corkran, whom I had been execrating. +Perhaps this was partly because the impression that the djinns had sole +rights here was growing stronger every moment. We were all interlopers, +usurpers. +</p> +<p> +Without stopping for more words, I turned my back to the secret still +unsolved. To my surprise, however, I saw a light stronger than our own +shining outside the partly raised screen of rock. Getting on my knees +to crawl out, my face almost met the face of Monny Gilder, about to +crawl in. Involuntarily I gave way, and in she crept like a big baby, +Biddy coming after. Then we laughed, though I had seldom felt less like +laughing. And the echo of our laughter was as if the spirits laughed, +behind our backs. +</p> +<p> +"We never <i>promised</i> we wouldn't come," Monny hastily began, before +Anthony could speak. "We just kept still. And Sir Marcus thought you +wouldn't much mind, because the two nicest Nubians brought us quite +safely. Oh, isn't it wonderful? And to be here when you open that door! +But—why, it <i>isn't</i> one of our men with you. It's—it's the <i>thief</i>!" +</p> +<p> +"Don't call him names now, dearest," Brigit begged. "Poor wretch! He +looks nearly dead. What a good thing we brought the biscuits and +brandy." +</p> +<p> +"I was going for some," I said. Not only had I got to my feet again, +but had helped Biddy to hers, and Anthony had snatched his tall Monny +up, as if she had been a bundle of thistle-down. The Angels! It would +never have done to tell them how glad we were that they had disobeyed +us. It was Providence, apparently, not Marcus Lark, who had sent them +to the rescue. +</p> +<p> +"We thought perhaps if you found anything interesting you'd want to +stay with it a long time," explained Monny. "That's why we brought you +food and drink. It is a good thing we came, isn't it?" +</p> +<p> +Fenton and I did not answer. Instead, we occupied ourselves with +ministering to the enemy: a few bits of crumbled biscuit, a few drops +of brandy to moisten them. He mumbled and swallowed and choked; and +slowly the veinous red came back to the flabby gray cheeks, with their +prickles of sprouting beard. +</p> +<p> +"It's fresh air he needs now," said Anthony. "He won't die from two or +three days' fasting, not he! And it can't be more, for it would have +taken him days and nights of hard work to get here, after his men were +sent off. Jove, I believe it's more funk than anything else, that's +laid him low. Thought he was done for, and all that. Look, there's his +candle-lantern upset on the floor. It couldn't have been very gay for +him when the light went out. Lend a hand, Duffer, and we'll give him to +the Nubians the girls have brought. They'll carry him to his own tent. +He never got as far in as the second door here, so we needn't search +him. Otherwise I would, like a shot." +</p> +<p> +Yes, it was Something higher than a mere financier who sent the girls +to us in the antechamber of the secret. We could not, for their own +sakes, have risked bringing them. But here they were, and we should +always have this memory together, we told ourselves, though we did not +tell the disobedient ones. That would have been a bad precedent. What +there was to see, they would see with us. And even the djinns could not +work harm to Angels. +</p> +<p> +We went out and collected more stones with which to prop up the second +screen of rock, which was not so thick as the first, and used Corkran's +spade to hold it up at last. Beyond, was another roughly hewn chamber, +and at the far end, set in a curiously fitted frame of wood, a wooden +door, looking almost as new as though it had been made yesterday. +Anthony flashed his electric torch over it, and we saw the grain of +deal. There was a bronze lock, and a latch of strange, crude +workmanship which Monny touched deprecatingly. "May I?" she half +whispered. For to her also the place was haunted. She seemed to ask +permission of spirits rather than of her lover. But the latch did not +move. +</p> +<p> +"It would be sacrilege to break the lock," she said. "What shall you +do?" +</p> +<p> +"Take the door off its supports: they're not hinges," Fenton answered, +in the queer low tone which somehow we all instinctively adopted. +"We've got one or two implements may help to do the trick." +</p> +<p> +He worked cautiously, even tenderly: for this queen's secret was our +secret in the finding, even if the right to it was in the keeping of +the djinns. Monny held my lantern, and it was a good half hour before +Anthony and I together could carefully lift the deal door, unbroken, +from its place. +</p> +<p> +Still Monny held the lantern, and at the threshold of a dimly seen room +beyond, we all drew back: for on the sanded floor were footprints. To +them the girl pointed, her eyes turning to Anthony's face, as if to +ask; "How can it be that any one came in, when the door was locked, and +there was that screen of rock to raise?" +</p> +<p> +But as we looked, over one another's shoulders, we realised that the +prints were not made by modern boots. They were the marks of sandals; +and they went across the floor to a thing that glittered in the middle +of the room—a vague shape like a draped coffin, with something high +and pointed on top: crossed to a glittering table on which a ray from +the lantern revealed offerings to the dead: a loaf; a roasted duck, its +wings neatly tied with string: cakes and fruit, all dried and +blackened, but perfect in form: and a saucer of incense, from which a +little ash had fallen from a ghostly pastille onto the table. There the +sandalled feet had paused, while the incense caught a spark, and moving +on, had walked straight to the door. +</p> +<p> +A faint fragrance from perfume jars came to our nostrils: a strange, +subtle fragrance still, though most of its sweetness had gone, leaving +more marked the smell of fat which had held the perfume all these +years, while civilizations grew up and perished. The man who had lit +the incense and locked the door seemed to have hurried back from—who +knew where?—to stand behind us, saying "I forbid you entrance, in the +name of the ancient gods!" We could not see him, nor hear his voice; +but we could feel that he was there, and something in us revolted +against the ruthlessness of disobeying, of forcing our way into the +room in spite of him, to crush his footprints with ours. +</p> +<p> +"Why does the sand glitter so?" Monny asked. "Everything glitters! +Everything looks as if it were made of gold." +</p> +<p> +"The Mountain of the Golden Pyramid," Biddy murmured. +</p> +<p> +"Go in first, you two, and bless the place," I said, my heart wildly +beating. +</p> +<p> +They obeyed for once, moving delicately as if to music which ears of +men were not fine enough to hear. They went hand in hand: and as Monny +in her straight, pale-tinted dress, held up the lantern, I thought of +the Wise Virgin. When this room had last been lighted, the parable of +the Virgins of the Lamps was yet unspoken. +</p> +<p> +"It is not sand," said Monny, gasping a little in the heavy air. "It is +sprinkled gold dust. Now it is on the soles of our feet. It shines—it +shines!" +</p> +<p> +Anthony and I followed, still with that curious sense of hesitation, as +if we ought to apologize to some one. The room of the dead was very +close, and we drew our breath with difficulty for a moment. But the +discomfort passed. Mechanically we avoided the footmarks printed in +gold—avoided them as if they had been covered by invisible feet. +</p> +<p> +Monny was right. Everything was gold—and it shone—it shone. Dust from +the terrible mines of Nub, whence the convict-miners never returned, +lay thickly scattered over the rock-floor. The walls of rock were +plastered with gold leaf, as high as the low ceiling: and upon the +ceiling itself, on a background of deep blue colour, was traced in gold +the form of Nut, goddess of Night, her long arms outspread across an +azure sky of golden stars. +</p> +<p> +The table of offerings was decorated with gold in barbaric patterns, +and the saucer which held the burnt pastille of incense was of gold, +crudely designed, but beautiful. Cloth of gold, soft as old linen, +draped a coffin in the centre of the room, and hid the conical object +on the coffin's lid. On a sudden half savage impulse I lifted the +covering, with a pang of fear lest the fabric should drop to pieces. +But it did not. Its limp, yet heavy folds fell across my feet, as I +stood looking at the wonderful thing it had concealed. +</p> +<p> +There was no sarcophagus of stone. The doors leading to the rock-tomb +were not large enough to have admitted one. Instead, there was an +extraordinarily high, narrow coffin or mummy-case, richly gilded, and +decorated with intricate designs different from any I had seen in the +museum at Cairo. The top of the case represented the figure of a woman, +with a smiling golden face, painted lips and hair. But the strangeness +and wonder were under the long eyelids, and in the woman's hands. The +slanting eyes had each an immense cabuchon emerald for its iris, set +round with brilliant stones like diamonds, curiously cut. And the +carved, gilded hands of wood, with realistic fingers wearing rings, +were clasped round a pyramid of gold. This it was which had betrayed +its conical shape through the drapery of gold cloth. +</p> +<p> +The opening in the miniature pyramid was not concealed. There was a +little door, guarded by a tiny golden sphinx; and on the neck of the +sphinx, suspended by a delicate chain, was a bell. +</p> +<p> +"It is to call the spirit of the queen, if a profane touch should +violate her tomb," Fenton said, dreamily. He was beginning to look like +a man hypnotized. Perhaps it was the close air, with its lingering +perfume of two thousand years ago. Perhaps it was something else, more +subtile; something else that we could all feel, as one feels the touch +of a living hand that moves under a cloak. +</p> +<p> +No one spoke for an instant. I think we half expected the bell to ring. +Then Fenton said: "Monny, you and Mrs. O'Brien must choose which is to +have the privilege of finding out the secret of the golden pyramid. The +Duffer and I want it to be one of you." +</p> +<p> +"Oh no, not I!" cried Monny, almost angrily. +</p> +<p> +"Nor I," Biddy firmly echoed. +</p> +<p> +"Duffer, the papers were yours. Will you—" Anthony began. +</p> +<p> +"No—I—It was <i>your</i> faith in the mountain that brought us to it," I +reminded him. "It ought to be you—" +</p> +<p> +"If—if it ought to be <i>any one of us</i>," Monny broke in, with a little +breathless catch in her voice. +</p> +<p> +"If—But what do you mean?" Anthony turned an odd, startled look upon +the girl. +</p> +<p> +"I—hardly know what I mean. Only—I couldn't touch anything here. They +are—<i>hers</i>. They've been hers for two thousand and two hundred years. +I never thought I should feel like this. I'd rather drop dead, this +minute, than try to take that little pyramid out of those golden hands. +They've clasped it so long! She wanted so much to keep the secret. +Anthony—this is the strongest feeling that ever came into my heart +—except love for you, this feeling that—we have no right—that it would +be monstrous to rob—this queen." +</p> +<p> +"It wouldn't be robbing," Anthony said, heavily, "we have the right—" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I <i>wonder</i>?" Biddy whispered. +</p> +<p> +"What would become of museums if everybody felt as you suddenly feel +—or think you feel?" Fenton went on. "If it were wrong to open tombs, +the best men in Egypt—" +</p> +<p> +"Not wrong, perhaps," Monny explained, "but—oh, I'm sure you +understand. I'm sure in your hearts you both—you men—feel just as we +do now we're in this wonderful secret place. That something forbids—I +don't know whether it's something in ourselves or outside, but it's +<i>here</i>. It says "No; whatever others do, <i>you</i> cannot do this thing." +If you didn't feel it, you would have taken the pyramid out of those +poor hands, and tried to tear off the rings, and open the coffin +itself, to get at the mummy. But you haven't—either of you. You don't +want to do it. You can't! I dare one of you to tell me it's only for +Biddy and me that you've kept your hands off." +</p> +<p> +"We've come a long way, and have done a good deal to find this secret +that we expected Egypt to give us," I said, dully, instead of answering +her challenge. +</p> +<p> +Monny had no argument for me. She turned to Anthony. +</p> +<p> +"The secret you expected Egypt to give!" she echoed. "And hasn't Egypt +given you a secret?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said Anthony, "Egypt has given us a secret: the greatest secret +of all. But—" +</p> +<p> +"Is there a 'but'? I wonder if that isn't the only secret which one +<i>can</i> open and learn by heart, without breaking the charm?" Biddy +seemed to be speaking to herself, but we heard. "The secret of love +goes on forever being a secret, doesn't it, the more you find out about +it, just as the world and its beauty grows greater and more wonderful +the higher you climb up a mountain? But other secrets!—You find them +out, and they're gone, like a bright soap bubble. Nothing can mend +broken romance!" +</p> +<p> +"If we didn't touch anything here, what a memory this would be to carry +away!" Monny said. "Don't you remember, Anthony, my saying once how I +loved to dream of all the beautiful lost things, hidden beneath the sea +and earth, never to be found while the world lasts, and stuck miserably +under glass cases? You said you felt the same, in some moods. I love +those moods!" +</p> +<p> +"I felt—I feel—so about things in general," Anthony admitted. "It was +my romantic side you appealed to—" +</p> +<p> +"Have you a better side?" +</p> +<p> +"No better, but more practical. <i>This</i> isn't 'things in general.' It's +a thing particular, personal, and definite. If we should be quixotic +enough not to take what we've earned the right to take, we should be +called fools. Instead of claiming our half, the Egyptian government +would get all—" +</p> +<p> +"Let it!" Monny cried. "A government is a big, cold, soulless +—impersonality! It never could know the thrill that's in our blood this +wonderful minute—or miss the thrill if it were destroyed. Do you mind +being called a fool, Anthony—and you, Lord Ernest?" +</p> +<p> +Anthony was silent; but something made me speak. "I don't mind. You +know, I've always been a Duffer." +</p> +<p> +"Our future largely depends on this," Fenton persisted, with a +conscientious wish to persuade us—and himself. +</p> +<p> +"I believe it does!" Monny strangely agreed with him. +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" Anthony's voice was suddenly sharp with some +emotion; which sounded more like anxiety than anger. "Do you mean, that +if Ernest Borrow and I insist on our rights to whatever treasure is +hidden here, you and Mrs. O'Brien will think less of us?" +</p> +<p> +"Not less. Nothing you could do would make us think less, after all +that has happened to us, together. But—could it ever be as it has +been—as beautiful, as sweet, with all the dearest kind of romance in +our thoughts of you? You see, you <i>have</i> the glory of finding the +secret. Queen Candace saved it for you. She wouldn't give it to such a +man as Colonel Corkran. She knew he wouldn't respect her. Maybe she +hoped <i>you</i> would. I seem to hear her saying so. All this gold, and the +treasure we haven't seen, is hers. It's been hers for more than two +thousand years. Why should we steal it? <i>We</i> aren't a horrid, cold +Government. It won't be our fault, whatever a Government may choose to +do. She'll know that, and so shall we. Besides, we can beg to have the +tomb kept like this for the great shrine of Meröe. Our memory of this +place can't have the glamour torn away whatever happens. Nothing sordid +will come between it and us, as it would if—why, after all, where's +the great difference between opening the coffin of a woman dead +thousands of years ago, or a few months? Supposing people wanted to dig +up Queen Elizabeth, to see what had been buried with her? Or Napoleon? +What an outcry there'd be all over the world. This poor queen is +defenceless, because her civilization is dead, too. Could <i>you</i> force +open the lid of her coffin, Lord Ernest, and take the jewels off her +neck?" +</p> +<p> +"Just now, I feel as if I couldn't," I confessed humbly. +</p> +<p> +"And you, Anthony? What if <i>I</i> died, and asked to have the jewels I +loved because you'd given them, put on my body to lie there till +eternity, and—" +</p> +<p> +"Don't," Anthony cut her short. "There are some things I can't listen +to from you." +</p> +<p> +"And some things you can't <i>do</i>. You may think you could, but—Go and +take the golden pyramid out of those golden hands if you can!" +</p> +<p> +"I shall not take it," said Anthony, "I shall never take it now. You +must know that." +</p> +<p> +"I'm not saying I shan't go on loving you if you go against me. I shall +love you always. I can't help that. But—" +</p> +<p> +"That's it: the 'but'. Let it all go! At least, we've had the +adventure. And we've got Love. I don't want the treasure, now. Or the +secret. I give up my part in them forever." +</p> +<p> +"For me?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, for you. But there's something more." +</p> +<p> +"Another reason?" +</p> +<p> +"I think so. Frankly, it isn't all for you. Only, you've made me feel +it. Without you, I might have felt it—but too late. If there's a drop +of Egyptian blood in my veins—why, yes, it must be that, telling me +the same thing that you have told. This Egyptian queen may lose her +treasure, and must lose her secret; but it won't be through me." +</p> +<p> +"And because you wouldn't steal them, she has given you the secret and +the treasure, the best of both, with her royal blessing," Biddy said. +"<i>This</i> is what Ferlini's papers, and the legends, really meant for you +and Ernest. Everything that's happened, not only in Egypt, but in our +whole lives, has been leading up to the discovery of the Treasure and +the Secret that we can take without stealing. Do you know what I'm +talking about? And if you do, was it worth coming so far to find—this +treasure that I mean, and this secret?" +</p> +<p> +"We know very well," Anthony said, "and <i>you</i> know that we realize it +was worth journeying to the end of the world for—or into the next." +</p> +<p> +"Or into the next!" Monny echoed. "Here we're on the threshold of the +next. That's why the Queen's blessing feels so near." +</p> +<p class="ctr"> +THE END +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of It Happened in Egypt +by C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IT HAPPENED IN EGYPT *** + +This file should be named 8hpeg10h.htm or 8hpeg10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8hpeg11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8hpeg10ah.htm + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Gundry, Michael Lockey, +Martin Agren, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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