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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16054-8.txt b/16054-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f898be --- /dev/null +++ b/16054-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10748 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Palace of Darkened Windows, by Mary Hastings Bradley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace of Darkened Windows + +Author: Mary Hastings Bradley + +Illustrator: Edmund Frederick + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16054] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +The PALACE of DARKENED WINDOWS + +By +MARY HASTINGS BRADLEY + +AUTHOR OF "THE FAVOR OF KINGS" + + +ILLUSTRATED BY EDMUND FREDERICK + + +NEW YORK AND LONDON +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +1914 + + + [Frontispiece illustration: "'It is no use,' he repeated. + 'There is no way out for you.'" (Chapter IV)] + + + +TO +MY HUSBAND + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + I. THE EAVESDROPPER + II. THE CAPTAIN CALLS + III. AT THE PALACE + IV. A SORRY QUEST + V. WITHIN THE WALLS + VI. A GIRL IN THE BAZAARS + VII. BILLY HAS HIS DOUBTS + VIII. THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR + IX. A DESPERATE GAME + X. A MAID AND A MESSAGE + XI. OVER THE GARDEN WALL + XII. THE GIRL FROM THE HAREM + XIII. TAKING CHANCES + XIV. IN THE ROSE ROOM + XV. ON THE TRAIL + XVI. THE HIDDEN GIRL + XVII. AT BAY + XVIII. DESERT MAGIC + XIX. THE PURSUIT + XX. A FRIEND IN NEED + XXI. CROSS PURPOSES + XXII. UPON THE PYLON + XXIII. THE BETTER MAN + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out for you'" + _Frontispiece_ + +"'I do not want to stay here'" + +"He found himself staring down into the bright dark eyes of a girl + he had never seen" + +"Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out" + + + + +THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EAVESDROPPER + + +A one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile upon his head paused before +the steps of Cairo's gayest hotel and his expectant gaze ranged +hopefully over the thronged verandas. It was afternoon tea time; the +band was playing and the crowd was at its thickest and brightest. +The little tables were surrounded by travelers of all nations, some +in tourist tweeds and hats with the inevitable green veils; others, +those of more leisurely sojourns, in white serges and diaphanous +frocks and flighty hats fresh from the Rue de la Paix. + +It was the tweed-clad groups that the crocodile vender scanned for a +purchaser of his wares and harshly and unintelligibly exhorted to +buy, but no answering gaze betokened the least desire to bring back +a crocodile to the loved ones at home. Only Billy B. Hill grinned +delightedly at him, as Billy grinned at every merry sight of the +spectacular East, and Billy shook his head with cheerful +convincingosity, so the crocodile merchant moved reluctantly on +before the importunities of the Oriental rug peddler at his heels. + +Then he stopped. His turbaned head, topped by the grotesque, +glassy-eyed, glistening-toothed monster, revolved slowly as the +Arab's single eye steadily followed a couple who passed by him up +the hotel steps. Billy, struck by the man's intense interest, craned +forward and saw that one of the couple, now exchanging farewells at +the top of the steps, was a girl, a pretty girl, and an American, +and the other was an officer in a uniform of considerable green and +gold, and obviously a foreigner. + +He might be any kind of a foreigner, according to Billy's lax +distinctions, that was olive of complexion and very black of hair +and eyes. Slender and of medium height, he carried himself with an +assurance that bordered upon effrontery, and as he bowed himself +down the steps he flashed upon his former companion a smile of +triumph that included and seemed to challenge the verandaful of +observers. + +The girl turned and glanced casually about at the crowded groups +that were like little samples of all the nations of the earth, and +with no more than a faint awareness of the battery of eyes upon her +she passed toward the tables by the railing. She was a slim little +fairy of a girl, as fresh as a peach blossom, with a cloud of pale +gold hair fluttering round her pretty face, which lent her a most +alluring and deceptive appearance of ethereal mildness. She had a +soft, satiny, rose-leaf skin which was merely flushed by the heat of +the Egyptian day, and her eyes were big and very, very blue. There +were touches of that blue here and there upon her creamy linen suit, +and a knot of blue upon her parasol and a twist of blue about her +Panama hat, so that she could not be held unconscious of the +flagrantly bewitching effect. Altogether she was as upsettingly +pretty a young person as could be seen in a year's journey, and the +glances of the beholders brightened vividly at her approach. + +There was one conspicuous exception. This exception was sitting +alone at the large table which backed Billy's tiny table into a +corner by the railing, and as the girl arrived at that large table +the exception arose and greeted her with an air of glacial chill. + +"Oh! Am I so terribly late?" said the girl with great pleasantness, +and arched brows of surprise at the two other places at the table +before which used tea things were standing. + +"My sister and Lady Claire had an appointment, so they were obliged +to have their tea and leave," stated the young man, with an air of +politely endeavoring to conceal his feelings, and failing +conspicuously in the endeavor. "They were most sorry." + +"Oh, so am I!" declared the girl, in clear and contrite tones which +carried perfectly to Billy B. Hill's enchanted ears. "I never +dreamed they would have to hurry away." + +"They did not hurry, as you call it," and the young man glanced at +his watch, "for nearly an hour. It was a disappointment to them." + +"Pin-pate!" thought Billy, with intense disgust. "Is he kicking at a +two-some?" + +"And have you had your tea, too?" inquired the girl, with an air of +tantalizing unconcern. + +"I waited, naturally, for my guest." + +"Oh, not _naturally_!" she laughed. "It must be very unnatural for +you to wait for anything. And you must be starving. So am I--do you +think there are enough cakes left for the two of us?" + +Without directly replying, the young man gave the order to the +red-fezzed Arab in a red-girdled white robe who was removing the +soiled tea things, and he assisted the girl into a chair and sat +down facing her. Their profiles were given to the shameless Billy, +and he continued his rapt observations. + +He had immediately recognized the girl as a vision he had seen +fluttering around the hotel with an incongruously dismal +couple of unyouthful ladies, and he had mentally affixed a +magnate's-only-daughter-globe-trotting-with-elderly-friends label to +her. + +The young man he could not place so definitely. There were a good +many tall, aristocratic young Englishmen about, with slight stoops +and incipient moustaches. This particular Englishman had hair that +was pronouncedly sandy, and Billy suddenly recollected that in +lunching at the Savoy the other day he had noticed that young +Englishman in company with a sandy-haired lady, not so young, and a +decidedly pretty dark-haired girl--it was the girl, of course, who +had fixed the group in Billy's crowded impressions. He decided that +these ladies were the sister and Lady Claire--and Lady Claire, he +judiciously concluded, certainly had nothing on young America. + +Young America was speaking. "Don't look so thunderous!" she +complained to her irate host. "How do you know I didn't plan to be +late so as to have you all to myself?" + +This was too derisive for endurance. A dull red burned through the +tan on the young Englishman's cheeks and crept up to meet the +corresponding warmth of his hair. A leash within him snapped. + +"It is simply inconceivable!" burst from him, and then he shut his +jaw hard, as if only one last remnant of will power kept a seething +volcano, from explosion. + +"What is?" + +"How any girl--in Cairo, of all places!" he continued to explode in +little snorts. + +"You are speaking of--?" she suggested. + +"Of your walking with that fellow--in broad daylight!" + +"Would it have been better in the gloaming?" + +The sweet restraint in the young thing's manner was supernatural. It +was uncanny. It should have warned the red-headed young man, but +oblivious of danger signals, he was plunging on, full steam ahead. + +"It isn't as if you didn't know--hadn't been warned." + +"You have been so kind," the girl murmured, and poured a cup of tea +the Arab had placed at her elbow. + +The young man ignored his. The color burned hotter and hotter in his +face. Even his hair looked redder. + +"The look he gave up here was simply outrageous--a grin of insolent +triumph. I'd like to have laid my cane across him!" + +The girl's cup clicked against the saucer. "You are horrid!" she +declared. "When we were on shipboard Captain Kerissen was very +popular among the passengers and I talked with him whenever I cared +to. Everyone did. Now that I am in his native city I see no reason +to stalk past him when we happen to be going in the same direction. +He is a gentleman of rank, a relative of the Khedive who is ruling +this country--under your English advice--and he is----" + +"A Turk!" gritted out the young man. + +"A Turk and proud of it! His mother was French, however, and he was +educated at Oxford and he is as cosmopolitan as any man I ever met. +It's unusual to meet anyone so close to the reigning family, and it +gives one a wonderful insight into things off the beaten track----" + +"The beaten--damn!" said the young man, and Billy's heart went out +to him. "Oh, I beg pardon, but you--he--I--" So many things occurred +to him to say at one and the same time that he emitted a snort of +warring and incoherent syllables. Finally, with supreme control, "Do +you know that your 'gentleman of rank' couldn't set foot in a +gentleman's club in this country?" + +"I think it's _mean_!" retorted the girl, her blue eyes very bright +and indignant. "You English come here and look down on even the +highest members of the country you are pretending to assist. Why do +you? When he was at Oxford he went into your English homes." + +"English madhouses--for admitting him." + +A brief silence ensued. + +The girl ate a cake. It was a nice cake, powdered with almonds, but +she ate it obliviously. The angry red shone rosily in her cheeks. + +The young man took a hasty drink of his tea, which had grown cold +in its cup, and pushed it away. Obstinately he rushed on in his mad +career. + +"I simply cannot understand you!" he declared. + +"Does it matter?" said she, and bit an almond's head off. + +"It would be bad enough, in any city, but in Cairo--! To permit him +to insult you with his company, alone, upon the streets!" + +"When you have said insult you have said a little too much," she +returned in a small, cold voice of war. "Is there anything against +Captain Kerissen personally?" + +"Who knows anything about any of those fellows? They are all +alike--with half a dozen wives locked up behind their barred +windows." + +"He isn't married." + +"How do you know?" + +"I--inferred it." + +The Englishman snorted: "According to his custom, you know, it isn't +the proper thing to mention his ladies in public." + +"You are frightfully unjust. Captain Kerissen's customs are the +customs of the civilized world, and he is very anxious to have his +country become modernized." + +"Then let him send his sisters out walking with fellow officers.... +For _him_ to walk beside _you_----" + +"He was following the custom of my country," said the girl, with +maddening superiority. "Since I am an _American_ girl----" + +The young Englishman said a horrible thing. He said it with immense +feeling. + +"American goose!" he uttered, then stopped short. Precipitately he +floundered into explanation: + +"I beg your pardon, but, you know, when you say such bally nonsense +as that--! An American girl has no more business to be imprudent +than a Patagonian girl. You have no idea how these people +regard----" + +"Oh, don't apologize," murmured the girl, with charming sweetness. +"I don't mind what you say--not in the least." + +The outraged man was not so befuddled but what he saw those danger +signals now. They glimmered scarlet upon his vision, but his blood +was up and he plunged on to destruction with the extraordinary +remark, "But isn't there a reason why you should?" + +She gazed at him in mock reflection, as if mulling this striking +thought presented for her consideration, but her eyes were too +sparkly and her cheeks too poppy-pink to substantiate the reflective +pose. + +"N-no," she said at last, with an impertinent little drawl. "I can't +seem to think of any." + +He did not pause for innuendo. "You mean you don't give a _piastre_ +what I think?" + +"Not half a _piastre_," she confirmed, in flat defiance. + +The young man looked at her. He was over the brink of ruin now; +nothing remained of the interesting little affair of the past three +weeks but a mangled and lamentable wreck at the bottom of a deep +abyss. + +Perhaps a shaft of compunction touched her flinty soul at the sight +of his aghast and speechless face, for she had the grace to look +away. Her gaze encountered the absorbed and excited countenance of +Billy B. Hill, and the poppy-pink of her cheeks became poppy-red +and she turned her head sharply away. She rose, catching up her +gloves and parasol. + +"Thank you so much for your tea," she said in a lowered tone to her +unfortunate host. "I've had a delicious time.... I'm sorry if I +disappointed you by not cowering before your disapproval. Oh, don't +bother to come in with me--I know my way to the lift and the band is +going to play God Save the King and they need you to stand up and +make a showing." + +Billy B. Hill stared across at the abandoned young man with supreme +sympathy and intimate understanding. He was a nice and right-minded +young man and she was an utter minx. She was the daughter of +unreason and the granddaughter of folly. She needed, emphatically +needed, to be shown. But this Englishman, with his harsh and +violently antagonizing way of putting things, was clearly not the +man for the need. It took a lighter touch--the hand of iron in the +velvet glove, as it were. It took a keener spirit, a softer humor. + +Billy threw out his chest and drew himself up to his full five feet +eleven and one-half inches, as he passed indoors and sought the +hotel register, for he felt within himself the true equipment for +that delicate mission. He fairly panted to be at it. + +Fate was amiable. The hotel clerk, coerced with a couple of +gold-banded ones with the real fragrance, permitted Billy to learn +that the blue-eyed one's name was Beecher, Arlee Beecher, and that +she was in the company of two ladies entitled Mrs. and Miss +Eversham. The Miss Eversham was quite old enough to be entitled +otherwise. They were occupied, the clerk reported, with nerves and +dissatisfaction. Miss Beecher appeared occupied in part--with a +correspondence that would swamp a foreign office. + + * * * * * + +Now it is always a question whether being at the same hotel does or +does not constitute an introduction. Sometimes it does; sometimes it +does not. When the hotel is a small and inexpensive arrangement in +Switzerland, where the advertised view of the Alpenglühen is +obtained by placing the chairs in a sociable circle on the sidewalk, +then usually it does. When the hotel is a large and expensive affair +in gayest Cairo, where the sunny and shady side rub elbows, and +gamesters and débutantes and touts and school teachers and vivid +ladies of conspicuous pasts and stout gentlemen of exhilarated +presents abound, in fact where innocent sightseers and initiated +traffickers in human frailties are often indistinguishable, then +decidedly it does not. + +But fate, still smiling, dropped a silver shawl in Billy's path as +he was trailing his prey through the lounge after dinner. The shawl +belonged, most palpably, to a German lady three feet ahead of him, +but gripping it triumphantly, he bounded over the six feet which +separated him from the Eversham-Beecher triangle and with marvelous +self-restraint he touched Miss Eversham on the arm. + +"You dropped this?" he inquired. + +Miss Eversham looked surprisedly at Billy and uncertainly at the +shawl, which she mechanically accepted. "Why I--I didn't remember +having it with me," she hesitated. + +"I noticed you were wearing one other evenings," said Billy, the +Artful, "so I thought----" + +"You know whether this is yours or not, don't you, Clara?" +interposed the mother. + +"They all look alike," murmured Clara Eversham, eying helplessly the +silver border. + +Billy permitted himself to look at Miss Beecher. That young person +was looking at him and there was a disconcerting gaiety in her +expression, but at sight of him she turned her head, faintly +coloring. He judged she recalled his unmannerly eavesdropping that +afternoon. + +"Pardon--excuse me--but that is to me belonging," panted an agitated +but firm voice behind them, and two stout and beringed hands seized +upon the glittering shawl in Miss Eversham's lax grasp. "It but just +now off me falls," and the German lady looked belligerent accusation +upon the defrauding Billy. + +There was a round of apologetic murmurs, unacknowledged by the +recipient, who plunged away with her shawl, as if fearing further +designs upon it. Billy laughed down at the Evershams. + +"I feel like a porch climber making off with her belongings. But I +had seen you with----" + +"I do think I had mine this evening, after all," murmured Clara, +with a questioning glance after the departing one. + +"An uncultured person!" stated Mrs. Eversham. + +Miss Beecher said nothing at all. Her faint smile was mockingly +derisive. + +"Anyway you must let me get you some coffee," Billy most +inconsequentially suggested, beckoning to the red-girdled Mohammed +with his laden tray, and because he was young and nice looking and +evidently a gentleman from their part of the world and his evening +clothes fitted perfectly and had just the right amount of braid, +Mrs. Eversham made no objection to the circle of chairs he hastily +collected about a taborette, and let him hand them their coffee and +send Mohammed for the cream which Miss Eversham declared was +indispensable for her health. + +"If I take it clear I find it keeps me awake," she confided, and +Billy deplored that startling and lamentable circumstance, and +passed Mrs. Eversham the sugar and wondered if they could be the +Philadelphia Evershams of whom he had heard his mother speak, and +regretted that they were not, for then they would know who he +was--William B. Hill of Alatoona, New York. He found it rather +stupid traveling alone. Of course one met many Americans, but---- + +Mrs. Eversham took up that "but" most eagerly, and recounted +multiple and deplorable instances of nasal countrywomen doing the +East and monopolizing the window seats in compartments, and Miss +Eversham supplied details and corrections. + +Still Miss Beecher said nothing. She had a dreamy air of not +belonging to the conversationalists. But from an inscrutable +something in her appearance, Billy judged she was not unentertained +by his sufferings. + +At the first pause he addressed her directly. "And how do you like +Cairo?" was his simple question. That ought, he reflected, to be an +entering wedge. + +The young lady did not trouble to raise her eyes. "Oh, very much," +said she negligently, sipping her coffee. + +"Oh, very well!" said Billy haughtily to himself. If being her +fellow countryman in a strange land, and obviously a young and +cultivated countryman whom it would be a profit and pleasure for any +girl to know, wasn't enough for her--what was the use? He ought to +get up and go away. He intended to get up and go away--immediately. + +But he didn't. Perhaps it was the shimmery gold hair, perhaps it was +the flickering mischief of the downcast lashes, perhaps it was the +loveliness of the soft, white throat and slenderly rounded arms. +Anyway he stayed. And when the strain of waltz music sounded through +the chatter of voices about them and young couples began to stroll +to the long parlors, Billy jumped to his feet with a devastating +desire that totally ignored the interminable wanderings of Clara +Eversham's complaints. + +"Will you dance this with me?" he besought of Miss Arlee Beecher, +with a direct gaze more boyishly eager than he knew. + +For an agonizing moment she hesitated. Then, "I think I will," she +concluded, with sudden roguery in her smile. + +Stammering a farewell to the Evershams, he bore her off. + +It would be useless to describe that waltz. It was one of the +ecstatic moments which Young Joy sometimes tosses from her garlanded +arms. It was one of the sudden, vivid, unforgettable delights which +makes youth a fever and a desire. For Billy it was the wildest stab +the sex had ever dealt him. For though this was perhaps the nine +thousand nine hundred and ninety-ninth girl with whom he had danced, +it was as if he had discovered music and motion and girls for the +first time. + +The music left them by the windows. + +"Thank you," said Billy under his breath. + +"You didn't deserve it," said the girl, with a faint smile playing +about the corners of her lips. "You know you stared--scandalously." + +Grateful that she mentioned only the lesser sin, "Could I help it?" +he stammered, by way of a finished retort. + +The smile deepened, "And I'm afraid you listened!" + +He stared down at her anxiously. "Will you like me better if I +didn't?" he inquired. + +"I shan't like you at all if you did." + +"Then I didn't hear a word.... Besides," he basely uttered, "you +were entirely in the right!" + +"I should think I was!" said Arlee Beecher very indignantly. "The +very notion--! Captain Kerissen is a very nice young man. He is +going to get me an invitation to the Khedive's ball." + +"Is that a very crumby affair?" + +"Crumby? It's simply gorgeous! Everyone is mad over it. Most +tourists simply read about it, and it is too perfect luck to be +invited! Only the English who have been presented at court are +invited and there's a girl at the Savoy Hotel I've met--Lady Claire +Montfort--who wasn't presented because she was in mourning for her +grandmother last year, and she is simply furious about it. An old +dowager here said that there ought to be similar distinctions among +the Americans--that only those who had been presented at the White +House ought to be recognized. Fancy making the White House a social +distinction!" laughed the daughter of the Great Republic. + +"I wonder," said Billy, "if I met a nice Turkish lady, whether she +would get me an invitation? Then we could have another waltz----" + +"There aren't any Turkish ladies there," uttered Miss Beecher +rebukingly. "Don't you know that? When they are on the +Continent--those that are ever taken there--they may go to dances +and things, but here they can't, although some of them are just as +modern as you or I, I've heard, and lots more educated." + +"You speak," he protested, "from a superficial acquaintance with my +academic accomplishments." + +"Are you so very--proficient?" + +"I was--I am Phi Beta Kappa," he sadly confessed. + +Her laugh rippled out. "You don't look it," she cheered. + +"Oh, no, I don't look it," he complacently agreed. "That's the lamp +in the gloom. But I am. I couldn't help it. I was curious about +things and I studied about them and faculties pressed honors upon +me. I am even here upon a semi-learned errand. I wanted to have a +look at the diggings a friend of mine is making at Thebes and +several looks at the dam at Assouan, for I am by way of being an +engineer myself--a beginning engineer." + +"You have been up the Nile, then?" + +"Yes, I'm just back. Now I'm going to see something of Cairo before +I leave." + +"We start up the Nile day after to-morrow," said she. + +"The day after--" he stopped. + +'Twas ever thus. Fate never did one good turn but she sneaked back +and jabbed him unawares. She was a tricksy jade. + +"That's--that's gloomy luck," said Billy, and felt outraged. "Why, +how about that Khedive ball thing?" + +"Oh, that's when we come back." + +She was coming back, then. Hope lifted her head. + +"When will that be?" + +"In three weeks. It takes about three weeks to go up to the first +cataract and back, doesn't it?" + +"Yes, by boat," he said, adding hopefully, "but lots of people like +the express trains better. They--they don't keep you so long on the +way." + +"Oh, I hate trains," said she cheerfully. + +Three weeks ... Ruefully he surveyed the desolation. "I ought to be +gone by then," he muttered. + +A trifle startled, the girl looked up at him. As he was not looking +at her, but staring moodily into what was then black vacancy, her +look lingered and deepened. She saw a most bronzed and hardy looking +young man, tall and broad-shouldered, with gray eyes, wide apart +under straight black brows, and black hair brushed straight back +from a wide forehead. She saw a rugged nose, a likeable mouth, and +an abrupt and aggressive chin, saved somehow from grimness by a deep +cleft in the blunt end of it.... She thought he was a very +_stirring_ looking young man. Undoubtedly he was a very sudden +young man--if he meant one bit of what he intimated. + +Feminine-wise, she mocked. + +"What a calamity!" + +"Yes, for me," said Billy squarely. "You know it's--it's awfully +jolly to meet a girl from home out here!" + +"A girl from _home_----!" + +"Well, all America seems home from this place. And I shouldn't be +surprised if we knew a lot of the same people ... You can get a good +line on me that way, you know," he laughed. "Now I went to Williams +and then to Boston Tech., and there must be acquaintances----" + +"Don't!" said Arlee, with a laughing gesture of prohibition. "We +probably have thousands of the same acquaintances, and you would +turn out to be some one I knew everything about--perhaps the first +fiancé of my roommate whose letters I used to help her answer." + +"Where did you go to school?" + +"At Elm Court School, near New York. For just a year." + +He shook his head with an air of relief. "Never was engaged to +anybody's roommate there.... But if you'd rather not have my +background painted----" + +"_Much_ rather not," said the girl gaily. "Why, half the romance, I +mean the fun, of meeting people abroad is _not_ knowing anything +about them beforehand." + +The music was beginning again. Unwillingly the remembrance of the +outer world beat back into Billy's mind. Unhappily he became aware +that the room appeared blackened with young men in evening clothes, +staring ominously his way. + +Squarely he stood in front of the girl. "I think this is the encore +to our dance," he told her with a little smile. + +She shook her pretty head laughingly at him--and then yielded to his +clasping hands. "But we must dance back to the Evershams," she +demurred. "It is time for us to go to our concert." + +But Billy had no intention of relinquishing her before the music +ceased. It was a one step, and it carried them with it in a gaiety +of rhythm to which the girl gave herself with the light-hearted +abandon of a romping child. Her light feet seemed scarcely to brush +the floor; the delicate flush of her cheeks deepened with the +stirring blood; her lips parted breathlessly over white little +teeth, and when her eyes, intensely blue, met Billy's, the smile in +them quickened in sparkling radiance. She was the very spirit of the +dance; she was Youth and Joy incarnate. And the heart behind the +white shirt bosom near which her fairy hair was floating began to +pitch and toss like a laboring ship in the very devil of a sea. + +"I think I'll go up the Nile again," said Billy irrelevantly. + +She laughed elfishly at him, her head swaying faintly with the +rhythm. + +"Three weeks," said Billy under his breath, "that's twenty-one +days--at ten dollars a day. Now I wonder how many hours--or +moments--that rash outlay would assure?" + +"You miser! You calculating----" + +"You have to calculate--when you're an engineer." + +"But to be sure spoils the charm! Now I--I do things on impulse." + +"If you will only have the impulse to dance with me--on the +Nile----" + +"Why not risk it?" she challenged lightly, arrant mischief in her +eyes. She added, in mocking tone, "There's a moon." + +"That's a clincher," said he, with an air of decision. A faint +question dwelt in the look she gave him. It was ridiculous to think +he meant anything he was saying, but--she felt suddenly a little +confused and shy under that light-hearted young gaiety which took +every man's friendly admiration happily for granted. + +In silence they finished the dance, and this time the music failed +them when they were near the wide entrance to the room where the +Evershams, beckoning specters, were standing. + +"I'm keeping them waiting," said the girl, with a note of concern +which she had not shown over her performance in that line earlier in +the day. But Billy had no time for humorous comparisons. + +"When can I see you again?" he demanded bluntly. "Can I see you +to-morrow?" + +"To-morrow is a very busy day," she parried. + +"But the evening----?" + +"I shall be here," she admitted. + +"And could I--could I take you--and the Evershams, of +course--somewhere, anywhere, you'd like to go? If there's any other +concert----" + +She shook her head. "We leave bright and early the next morning, and +I know Mrs. Eversham will want her rest. I think they would rather +stay here in the hotel after dinner." + +"But you will keep a little time for me?" Billy urged. "Of course, +staying in the same hotel, I can't take my hat and go and make a +formal call on you--but that's the result I'm after." + +They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the +ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of +lowered tones. + +Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look, +questioning, shyly serious. + +"I shall be here--and you can call on me," she promised, and bade +him farewell. + +She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He +plunged his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he +wanted to whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to +vent the singular hilarity which possessed him. + +Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding him +with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy, +sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked. +Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off +the Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of +cherubic aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of +darkness! And this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The +thought was unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New +York--State--to offer to casual view worthy of competition with the +presumable advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying +with a Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title.... + +Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that +point. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTAIN CALLS + + +Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee +Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny +out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of +letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information +was added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first +thought was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was +overdoing it. + +She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she +crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her +caller see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a +handclasp, she greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry +upon him. + +The young man smiled secretly to himself. He was a young man not +without experience in ladies' moods and he had a very shrewd idea +that somebody had been making remarks, but he did not permit a hint +of any perception of the coolness of her manner to impair the +impeccable suavity of his. + +"Will you accord me two moments of your time that I may give you +two messages?" he inquired, and Arlee felt suddenly ill-bred before +his gentle courtesy and she sat down abruptly upon the edge of the +nearest chair. + +The Captain placed one near her and seated himself, with a clank of +his dangling scabbard. He was really a very handsome young man, +though his features were too finely finished to please a robust +taste, and there was a hint of insolence and cruelty about the nose +and mouth--though this an inexperienced and light-hearted young +tourist of one and twenty did not more than vaguely perceive. + +"They are, the both, of the ball of the Khedive," he continued in +his English, which was, though amazingly fluent and ready, a literal +sounding translation of the French, which was in reality his mother +tongue. "My sister thinks she can arrange that invitation. You are +sure that you will be returned at Cairo, then?" + +"Oh, dear, yes! I would come back by train," Arlee declared eagerly, +"rather than miss that wonderful ball!" + +She thought how astonished a certain red-headed young Englishman +would be to see her at that ball, and how fortunate she was compared +to his haughty and disappointed friend, the Lady Claire, and the +chill of her resentment against the Captain's intrusion vanished +like snow in the warmth of her gratitude. + +"Good!" He smiled at her with a flash of white teeth. "Then my +sister herself will see one of the household of the Khedive and +request the invitation for you and for your chaperon, the +Madame----" + +"Eversham." + +"Eversham. She will be included for you, but not the daughter--no?" + +"Is that asking too much?" said Arlee hesitantly. "Miss Eversham +would feel badly to be left out.... But, anyway, I'm not sure that I +shall be with them then," she reflected. + +"Not with them?" The young man leaned forward, his eyes curiously +intent upon her. + +"No, I may be with some other friends. You see, it's this way--I +didn't come abroad with the Evershams in the first place. I came in +the fall with a school friend and her mother to see Italy. The +Evershams were friends of theirs and were stopping at the same +hotel, and since my friends were called back very suddenly, the +Evershams asked me to go on to Egypt with them. It was very nice of +them, for I'm a dreadful bother," said Arlee, dimpling. + +"But you speak of leaving them?" he said. + +"Oh, yes, I may do that as soon as some other friends of mine, the +Maynards, reach here. They are coming here on their way to the Holy +Land and I want to take that trip with them. And then I'll probably +go back to America with them." + +The Turkish captain stared at her, his dark eyes rather inscrutable, +though a certain wonder was permitted to be felt in them. + +"You American girls--your ways are absolute like the decrees of +Allah!" he laughed softly. "But tell me--what will your father and +your mother say to this so rapidly changing from the one chaperon to +the other?" + +"I haven't any father or mother," said the girl. "I have a big, +grown-up, married brother, and he knows I wouldn't change from one +party unless it was all right." She laughed amusedly at the young +man's comic gesture of bewilderment. "You think we American girls +are terribly independent." + +"I do, indeed," he avowed, "but," and he inclined his dark head in +graceful gallantry, "it is the independence of the princess of the +blood royal." + +A really nice way of putting it, Arlee thought, contrasting the +chivalrous homage of this Oriental with the dreadful "American +goose!" of the Anglo-Saxon. + +"But tell me," he went on, studying her face with an oddly intent +look, "do these friends now, the Evershams, know these others, +the--the----" + +"Maynards," she supplied. "Oh, no, they have never met each other. +The Maynards are friends I made at school. And Brother has never met +them either," she added, enjoying his humorous mystification. + +"The decrees of Allah!" he murmured again. "But I will promise you +an invitation for your chaperon and arrange for the name of the lady +later--_n'est-ce-pas?_" + +"Yes, I will know as soon as I return from the Nile. You are going +to a lot of bother, you and your sister," declared Arlee gratefully. + +"I go to ask you to take a little trouble, then, for that sister," +said the Captain slowly. "She is a widow and alone. Her life is--is +_triste_--melancholy is your English word. Not much of brightness, +of new things, of what you call pleasure, enters into that life, and +she enjoys to meet foreign ladies who are not--what shall I +say?--seekers after curiosities, who think our ladies are strange +sights behind the bars. You know that the Europeans come uninvited +to our wedding receptions and make the strange questions!" + +Arlee had the grace to blush, remembering her own avid desire to +make her way into one of those receptions, where the doors of the +Moslem harem are thrown open to the feminine world in widespread +hospitality. + +The Captain went on, slowly, his eyes upon her, "But she knows that +you are not one of those others and has requested that you do her +the grace to call upon her. I assured her that you would, for I know +that you are kind, and also," with an air of naïve pride which Arlee +found admirable in him, "it is not all the world who is invited to +the home of our--our _haut-monde_, you understand?... And then it +will interest you to see how our ladies live in that seclusion which +is so droll to you. Confess you have heard strange stories," and he +smiled in quizzical raillery upon her. + +The girl's flush deepened with the memory of the confusing stories +her head was stuffed with; tales of the bloomers, the veils, the +cushions, the sweetmeats, the _nargueils_, the rose baths of the old +_régime_ were jostled by the stories of the French nurses and +English governesses and the Paris fashions of the new era. She had +listened breathlessly, with her eager young zest in life, to the +amazing and contradictory narrations of the tourists who were every +whit as ignorant as she was, and her curiosity was on fire to see +for herself. She felt that a chance in a thousand had come her lucky +way. + +"I shall be very glad to call," she told him, "just as soon as I +return from the Nile." + +His face showed his disappointment--and a certain surprise. "But not +before?" + +"Why, I go to-morrow morning, you know," said Arlee. "And----" + +"It would be better--because of the invitation," he said slowly, +hesitantly, with the air of one who does not wish to importune. "My +sister would like to ask for one who is known personally to herself. +She thought you could render her a few minutes this afternoon." + +"This afternoon?" Arlee thought quickly. "I ought to be packing," +she murmured, "my things aren't all ready.... And Mrs. Eversham is +at the bazaars again and dear knows when she will be back." + +Just for an instant a spark burned in the black eyes watching the +girl, and then was gone, and when she raised her own eyes, perplexed +and considering, to him, she saw only the same courteously +attentive, but faintly indolent regard as before. Then the young man +smiled, with an air of frank amusement. + +"That would seem to be a dispensation!" he laughed. "My sister and +the Madame Eversham--no, they would not be sympathetic!... But if +you can come," he went on quickly, leaning forward and speaking in a +hurried, lowered tone, "it can be arranged in an instant. I am to +telephone to my sister and she will send her car for you. It is not +far and it does not need but a few minutes for the visit--unless you +desire. I cannot escort you in the car--it is not _en règle_--but I +will come to the house and present you and then depart, that you +ladies may exchange the confidences.... Does that programme please +you?" + +"I--I don't know your sister's name," said Arlee. + +He smiled. "Nechedil Azade Seniha--she is the widow of Tewfik Pasha. +But say Madame simply to her--that will suffice. Shall I, then, +telephone her?" + +Just an instant Arlee hesitated, while her imagination fluttered +about the thought like humming-birds about sweets. Already she was +thinking of the story she could have to tell to her fellow travelers +here and to the people at home. It was a chance, she repeated to +herself, in a thousand, and the familiar details of phones and +motors seemed to rob its suddenness of all strangeness.... Besides, +there was that matter of the Khedive's ball. It would be very +ungracious to refuse a few minutes' visit to a lady who was going to +so much trouble for her. + +"I will be ready in ten minutes," she promised, springing to her +feet. + +The forgotten letters scattered like a fall of snow and the Captain +stooped quickly for them, hiding the flash of exultation in his +face. He thrust the letters rather hurriedly upon her. + +"Good!... But need you wait for a _toilette_ when you are so--so +_ravissante_ now?" + +He gazed with frank appreciation at the linen suit she was wearing, +but she shook her head laughingly at him. "To be interesting to a +foreign lady I must have interesting clothes," she avowed. "I shan't +be ten minutes--really." + +"Then the car will be in waiting. I will give your name to the +chauffeur and he will approach you." He thought a minute, and then +said, quickly, "And I will leave a note for Madame Eversham at the +desk to inform her of your destination and to express my regret that +she is not here to accept the invitation." His voice was flavored +with droll irony. "In ten minutes--_bien sûr_?" + +She confirmed it most positively, and it really was not quite +eighteen when she stepped out on the veranda, a vision, a positively +devastating vision in soft and filmy white, with a soft and filmy +hat all white lace and a pink rose. It is to be hoped that she did +not know how she looked. Otherwise there would have been no excuse +for her and she should have been summarily haled to the nearest +justice, with all other breakers of the peace, and condemned to good +conduct and Shaker bonnets for the rest of her life. The rose on the +hat, with such a rose of a face beneath the hat, was sheer wanton +cruelty to mankind. + +It brought the heart into the throat of one young man who was +reading his paper beneath the striped awning, when he was not +watching, cat-like, the streets and the hotel door. He dropped the +paper with an agitated rustle and half rose to his feet; his eyes, +alert and humorous gray-blue eyes, lighted with eagerness. His hand +flew up to his hat. + +He did not need to take it off. She did not even see him. She was +hurrying forward to the steps, following a long, lean Arab, some +dragoman, apparently, in resplendent pongee robes, who opened the +door of a limousine for her. The next instant he slammed the door +upon her, mounted the front seat, and the car rolled away. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT THE PALACE + + +That limousine utterly routed the tiny little qualm which had been +furtively worming into Arlee's thrill of adventure. Nothing very +strange or out-of-the-way, she thought, could be connected with such +a modern car; it presented every symptom of effete civilization. +Against the upholstery of delicate gray flamed the scarlet +poinsettias hanging in wall vases of crystal overlaid with silver +tracery; the mirror which confronted her was framed in silver, and +beneath it a tiny cabinet revealed a frivolous store of powders and +pins and scents. Decidedly the Oriental widow of said sequestration +had a car very much up to times. The only difference which it +presented from the cars of any modern city or of any modern lady was +in the smallness of the window panes, whose contracted size +confirmed the stories of the restrictions which Arlee had been told +were imposed upon Moslem ladies by even those emancipated masculine +relatives who conceded cars. + +She peered out of the diminutive windows at the throng of life in +the unquiet streets as they halted for the passing of a camel laden +with bricks and stones from a demolished building; the poor thing +teetered precariously past under such a back-breaking load that the +girl felt it would have been a mercy to add the last straw and be +done with it. After it bobbed what was apparently an animated load +of hay, so completely were this other camel's legs hidden by his +smothering burden. + +Then the car shot impatiently forward, passing a dog cart full of +fair-haired English children, the youngest clasped in the arms of a +dark-skinned nurse, and behind the cart ran an indefatigable _sais_, +bare-legged and sinewy, his red headdress and gold-embroidered +jacket and blue bloomers flashing in the sun. On the sidewalk a +party of American tourists were capitulating to a post-card vender, +and ahead of them a victoria load of German sightseers careened +around the corner in the charge of a determined dragoman. + +Arlee smiled in happy superiority over these mere outsiders. _She_ +was not going about the beaten track, peeping at mosques and tombs +and bazaars and windows; she was penetrating into the real life of +this fascinating city, getting behind the grills and veils to +glimpse the inner secrets. + +She thought, with a deepening of the sparkle in her blue eyes and a +defiant lifting of the pointed chin, of a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman and how wrong and reasonless and narrow and jealous were +his strictures upon her politeness to young Turks, and she thought +with a sense of vindicated pride of how thoroughly that nice young +man who had managed to introduce himself last night had endorsed her +views. Americans understood. And then her thoughts lingered about +Billy and she caught herself wondering just how much he did mean +about coming up the Nile again. For upon happening to meet Billy +that morning--Billy had devoted two hours and a half to the accident +of that happening!--he had joyously mentioned that he was trying to +buy out another man's berth upon that boat. It wasn't so much his +wanting to come that was droll--teasing sprites of girls with +peach-blossom prettiness are not unwonted to the thunder of pursuing +feet--but the frank and cheery way he had of announcing it. Not many +men had the courage of their desires. Not any men that little Miss +Arlee had yet met had the frankness of such courage. And because all +women love the adventurous spirit and are woefully disappointed in +its masculine manifestations, she felt a gay little eagerness which +she would have refused to own. It would be rather fun to see more of +him--on the Nile--while Robert Falconer was sulking away in Cairo. +And then when she returned she would surprise and confound that +misguided young Englishman with her unexpected--to him--presence at +the Khedive's ball. And after that--but her thoughts were lost in +haziness then. Only the ball stood out distinct and glittering and +fairylike. + +Thinking all these brightly revengeful thoughts she had been +oblivious to the many turnings of the motor, though it had occurred +to her that they were taking more time than the car had needed to +appear, and now she looked out the window and saw that they were in +a narrow street lined with narrow houses, whose upper stories, +slightly projecting in little bays, all presented the elaborately +grilled façades of _mashrubiyeh_ work which announced the barred +quarters of the women, the _haremlik_. + +Arlee loved to conjure up a romantic thrill for the mysterious East +by reflecting that behind these obscuring screens were women of all +ages and conditions, neglected wives and youthful favorites, eager +girls and revolting brides, whose myriad eyes, bright or dull or gay +or bitter, were peering into the tiny, cleverly arranged mirrors +which gave them a tilted view of the streets. It was the sense of +these watching eyes, these hidden women, which made those screened +windows so stirring to her young imagination. + +The motor whirled out of the narrow street and into one that was +much wider and lined by houses that were detached and separated, +apparently, by gardens, for there was a frequent waving of palms +over the high walls which lined the road. The street was empty of +all except an old orange vender, shuffling slowly along, with a +cartwheel of a tray on her head, piled with yellow fruit shining +vividly in the hot sun. The quiet and the solitude gave a sense of +distance from the teeming bazaars and tourist-ridden haunts, which +breathed of seclusion and aloofness. + +The car stopped and Arlee stepped out before a great house of +ancient stone which rose sharply from the street. A high, pointed +doorway, elaborately carved, was before her, arching over a dark +wooden door heavily studded with nails. Overhead jutted the little +balconies of _mashrubiyeh_. She had no more than a swift impression +of the old façade, for immediately a doorkeeper, very vivid in his +Oriental blue robes and his English yellow leather Oxfords, flung +open the heavy door. + +Stepping across the threshold, with a sudden excited quickening of +the senses, in which so many things were mingled that the misgiving +there had scarcely time to make itself felt, Arlee found herself in +a spacious vestibule, marble floored and inlaid with brilliant tile. +She had just a glimpse of an inner court between the high arches +opposite, and then her attention was claimed by Captain Kerissen, +who sprang forward with a flash of welcome in his eyes that was like +a leap of palpable light. + +"You are come!" he said, in a voice which was that of a man almost +incredulous of his good fortune. Then he bowed very formally in his +best military fashion, straight-backed from the waist, heels stiffly +together. "I welcome you," he said. "My sister is rejoiced.... This +stair--if you please." + +He waved to a stairway on the left, a small, steep affair, which +Arlee ascended slowly, a sense of strangeness mounting with her, in +spite of her confident bearing. She had not realized how odd it +would feel to be in this foreign house with the Captain at her +heels. + +There was a door at the top of the stairs standing open into a long, +spacious room which seemed shrouded in twilight after the sunflooded +court. One entire side of the room was a brown, lace-like screen of +_mashrubiyeh_ windows; wide divans stretched beside them, and at the +end of the room, facing Arlee, was a throne-like chair raised on a +small dais and canopied with heavy silks. + +By one of the windows a woman was squatting, a short, stout, +turbaned figure, striking a few notes on a tambourine and crooning +softly to herself in a low guttural. She raised her head without +rising, to look at the entering couple, and for a startled second +Arlee had the half hysterical fear that this squatting soloist was +the _triste_ and aristocratic representative of the _haut-monde_ of +Moslem which the Captain had brought her to see, but the next +instant another figure appeared in a doorway and came slowly toward +them. + +Flying to the winds went Arlee's anticipations of somber elegance. +She saw the most amazingly vivid creature that she had ever laid +eyes on--a woman, young, though not in her first youth, penciled, +powdered, painted, her hair a brilliant red, her gown a brilliant +green. After the first shock of scattering amazement, Arlee became +intensely aware of a pair of yellow-brown eyes confronting her with +a faintly smiling and rather mocking interrogation. The dark of +_kohl_ about the eyes emphasized a certain slant _diablérie_ of line +and a faint penciling connected with the high and supercilious arch +of the brows. Henna flamed on the pointed tips of the fingers +blazoned with glittering rings, and Arlee fancied the brilliance of +the hair was due to this same generous assistance of nature. + +"My soul!" thought the girl swiftly, "they _do_ get themselves up!" + +The Captain had stepped forward, speaking quickly in Turkish, with a +hard-sounding rattle of words. The sister glanced at him with a +deepening of that curious air of mockery and let fall two words in +the same tongue. Then she turned to Arlee. + +"_Je suis enchantée--d'avoir cet honneur--cet honneur +inattendu----_" + +She did not look remarkably enchanted, however. The eyes that played +appraisingly over her pretty caller had a quality of curious +hardness, of race hostility, perhaps, the antagonism of the East for +the West, the Old for the New. Not all the modernity of clothes, of +manners, of language, affected what Arlee felt intensely as the +strange, vivid foreignness of her. + +"My sister does not speak English--she has not the occasion," the +Captain was quickly explaining. + +"_Gracious_" thought Arlee, in dismay. She had no illusions about +her French; it did very well in a shop or a restaurant, but it was +apt to peeter out feebly in polite conversation. Certainly it was no +vessel for voyaging in untried seas. There were simply loads of +things, she thought discouragedly, the things she wanted most to +ask, that she would not be able to find words for. + +Aloud she was saying, "I am so glad to have the honor of being here. +I am only sorry that my French is so bad. But perhaps you can +understand----" + +"I understand," assented the Turkish woman, faintly smiling. + +The Captain had brought forward little gilt chairs of a French +design which seemed oddly out of place in this room of the East, and +the three seated themselves. Out of place, too, seemed the grand +piano which Arlee's eyes, roving now past her hostess, discovered +for the first time. + +"It was so kind of you," began Arlee again as the silence seemed to +be politely waiting upon her, "to send your automobile for me." + +"Ah--my automobile!" echoed the woman on a higher note, and laughed, +with a flash of white teeth between carmined lips. "It pleased you?" + +"Oh, yes, it is splendid!" the girl declared, in sincere praise. "It +is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen." + +"I enjoy it very much--that automobile!" said the other, again +laughing, with a quick turn of her eyes toward the brother. + +Negligently, rather caressingly, the young man murmured a few +Turkish words. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, the flash +of animation gone. "And Cairo--that pleases you?" she asked of +Arlee. + +Stumbling a little in her French, but resolutely rushing over the +difficulties, Arlee launched into the expression of how very much it +pleased her. Everything was beautiful to her. The color, the sky, +the mosques, the minarets, the Nile, the pyramids--they were all +wonderful. And the view from the Great Pyramid--and then she +stopped, wondering if that were not beyond her hostess's experience. + +In confirmation of the thought the Turkish lady smiled, with an +effect of disdain. "Ascend the pyramids--that is indeed too much for +us," she said. "But nothing is too much for you Americans--no?" + +Her curious glance traveled slowly from Arlee's flushed and lovely +face, under the rose-crowned hat, down over the filmy white gown and +white-gloved hands clasping an ivory card case, to the small, +white-shod feet and silken ankles. Arlee did not resent the +deliberate scrutiny; in coming to gaze she had been offering herself +to be gazed upon, and she was conscious that the three of them +presented a most piquant group in this dim and spacious old room of +the East--the modern American girl, the cosmopolitan young officer +in his vivid uniform, and this sequestered woman, of a period of +transition where the kohl and henna of the _odalisque_ contrasted +with a coiffure and gown from Paris. + +Slowly and disconnectedly the uninspiring conversation progressed. +Once, when it appeared halted forever, Arlee cast a helpless look at +the Captain and intercepted a sharp glance at his sister. Indeed, +Arlee thought, that sister was not distinguishing herself by her +grateful courtesy to this guest who was brightening the _tristesse_ +of her secluded day, but perhaps this was due to her Oriental +languor or the limitations of their medium of speech. + +It was a relief to have the Captain suggest music. At their polite +insistence Arlee went to the piano and did her best with a piece of +MacDowell. Then the sister took her turn, and to her surprise Arlee +found herself listening to an exquisite interpretation of some of +the most difficult of Brahms. The beringed and tinted fingers +touched the notes with rare delicacy, and brought from the piano a +quality so vivid and poignant in appeal that Arlee could dream that +here the player's very life and heart were finding their real +expression. + +The last note fell softly into silence, and with her hands still on +the keys the woman looked up over her shoulder at her brother, +looked with an intentness oddly provocative and prolonged. And for +the first time Arlee caught the quality of sudden and unforeseen +attraction in her, and realized that this insolence of color, this +flaunting hair and painted mouth might have their place in some +scheme of allurement outside her own standards.... And then suddenly +she felt queerly sorry for her, touched by the quick jarring +bitterness of a chord the woman suddenly struck, drowning the +laughing words the Captain had murmured to her.... Arlee felt +vaguely indignant at him. No one wanted to have jokes tossed at her +when she had just poured her heart out in music. + +The Captain was on his feet, making his adieux. Now that the ladies +were acquainted, he would leave them to discuss the modes and other +feminine interests. He wished Miss Beecher a delightful trip upon +the Nile and hoped to see her upon her return, and she could be sure +that everything would be arranged for her. When she had had her tea +and wished to leave, the motor would return her to the hotel. He +made a rapid speech in Turkish to his sister, bowed formally to +Arlee over a last _au revoir_ and was gone. + +Immediately the old woman entered with a tray of tea things, the +same old woman who had been squatting by the window, but who had +noiselessly left the room during the music. She was followed by a +bewitching little girl of about ten with another tray, who remained +to serve while the old woman shuffled slowly away. Arlee was struck +by the informality of the service; the servants appeared to be +underfoot like rugs; they came and went at will, unregarded. + +The tea was most disappointingly ordinary, for the pat of butter +bore the rose stamp of the English dairy and the bread was English +bake, but the sweetmeats were deliciously novel, resembling nothing +Arlee had seen in the shops, and new, too, was the sip of syrup +which completed the refreshment. + +Her hostess had said but little during the repast, remaining silent, +with an air of polite attention, her eyes fixed upon her caller with +a gaze the girl found bafflingly inscrutable. Now as the girl rose +to go, the Turkish woman suddenly revived her manners of hostess and +suggested a glimpse of some of the other rooms of the palace. "Our +seclusion interests you--yes?" she said, with a half-sad, +half-bitter smile on her scarlet lips, and Arlee was conscious of a +sense of apologetic intrusion battling with her lively curiosity as +she followed her down the long chamber and through a curtained +doorway to the right of the throne-like chair, into a large and +empty anteroom, where the sunlight streaming through the lightly +screened window on the wall at the right reminded Arlee that it was +yet glowing afternoon. + +She lingered by the window an instant, looking down into the court +which she had glimpsed from the vestibule. Across the court she saw +a row of windows which, being unbarred, she guessed to be on the +men's side of the house, and to the left the court was ended by a +sort of roofed colonnade. + +Her hostess passed under an elaborate archway, and Arlee followed +slowly, passing through one stately, high-ceiled, dusty room into +another, plunged again into the twilight of densely screening +_mashrubiyeh_. There were views of fine carving, painted ceilings, +inlaid door paneling, and rich and rusty embroideries where the name +of Allah could frequently be traced, but Arlee was ignorant of the +rare worth of all she saw; she stared about with no more than a +girl's romantic sense of the old-time grandeur and the Oriental +strangeness, mingled with a disappointment that it was all so empty +and devoid of life. + +This part of the palace was very old, her hostess said +uninterestedly; these were the rooms of the dead and gone ladies of +the dead and gone years. One of the Mamelukes had first built this +wing for his favorite wife--she had been poisoned by her rival and +died, here, on that divan, the narrator indicated, with a negligent +gesture. + +Wide-eyed, Arlee stared about the empty, darkened rooms and felt +dimly oppressed by them. They were so old, so melancholy, these +rooms of dead and gone ladies. How much of life had been lived here, +how much of hope had been smothered with these walls! What aching +love and fiery hate had vibrated here, only to smolder into helpless +ennui under the endless weight of tedious days.... She shivered +slightly, oppressed by the dreams of these ancient rooms, dreams +that were heavy with realities. + +Slowly she moved back after her hostess, who had pushed back a +panel in one wall, and Arlee stepped beside her within the tiny, +balcony-like enclosure the panel had revealed, one side of which was +a wooden lace-work of fine screening, permitting one to see but not +be seen. Pressing her face against the grill, Arlee found she was +looking down into a long and spacious hall, lined with delicate +columns bearing beautiful, pointed arches, and brilliant with old +gilding and inlay. + +This was the colonnade which she had seen forming one side of the +court; it was the hall of banquets, she was told, and connected this +wing of the palace, the _haremlik_, with the _selamlik_, the men's +wing, across the way. Here in old times the lord of the palace gave +his feasts, and this nook had been built for some favorite to view +the revels. + +Arlee stared down into the great empty hall with an involuntary +quickening of the breath. How desolate it was, but how beautiful in +its desolation! What strange revels had taken place there to the +notes of wild music, what girls had danced, what voices had shouted, +what moods had been indulged! She thought of the men who had made +merry there ... and then she thought of the women, generations of +women, who had stood where she was standing, pressing their young +faces against the grill, their bright eyes peering, peering down. +She felt their soft little silken ghosts all about her, their +bangles clinking, their perfumes enveloping her sense--lovely little +painted dolls, their mimic passions helpless in their hearts.... + +Dreaming, she turned and in silence retraced her way after her +hostess, loitering by the window in the anteroom to watch a veiled +girl drawing water at the old well in the center, an old well rich +in arabesques. + +How much happier, thought Arlee, were these serving maids in the +freedom of their poverty than the cloistered aristocrats behind +their darkened windows. She wondered if that strange figure beside +her, half Moslem, half modern, envied the little maid the saucy jest +which she flung at a bare-footed boy idling beside a dozing white +donkey. As she watched the old-world quiet of the picture was +broken. Some one, the doorkeeper, she thought, from his vivid robes +and yellow shoes, came running across the court, shouting something +at the girl which sent her flying to the house, her jar forgotten, +and another man, an enormous Nubian with blue Turkish bloomers, +short red jacket and a red fez, hurried across the court toward the +_haremlik_. + +The lady stepped toward the screening and called down; the man +stopped, raised his head, and shouted back a jargon of excited +gutturals, waving his arms in vehement gesturing. His mistress +interrupted with a brief question, then with another, then nodding +her head indifferently to herself, she called down an order, +apparently, and turned away. + +"One of our servants is dead," she murmured to Arlee in explanation. +"They say now it is the plague." + +"The plague?" repeated the girl absently. She was thinking what a +hideous creature that great Nubian was. Then, more vividly, "The +_plague_?" + +"You have fear?" said the negligent voice. + +Arlee nodded frankly. "Oh, yes, I should be terribly afraid of it," +she averred. "Aren't you?" And then she reflected, as she saw the +inscrutable smile playing about the older woman's lips, that she +must be witnessing that fatalistic apathy of the East that she had +read about. + +But there was nothing apathetic about the Captain. He followed on +the very heels of the announcement, his sword clanking, his spurs +jingling, as he bounded up the stairs and hurried through the long, +dim drawing-room toward them. + +"You have heard?" he cried in English as they came to meet him. "You +have heard?" + +"Of the plague!" Arlee answered, wondering at his agitation. "Yes, +your sister just told me. Is it really the plague?" + +"So say those damned doctors--pardon, but they are such imbeciles!" +He made an angry gesture with his clenched hand. His face was tense +and excited. "They say so. And there is another sick ... _Dieu_, +what a misfortune! Truly, there was illness about us, a little, but +who thought----" + +"I shall run back to my hotel," said Arlee lightly, "before I catch +one of your germs." + +"To the hotel--a thousand pardons, but that is the thing forbidden." +The young man made a gesture, with empty palms outspread, eloquent +of rebellion and despair. "Those doctors--those pig English--they +have set a quarantine upon us!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SORRY GUEST + + +"A quarantine?" said Arlee Beecher, in a perfectly flat little +voice. + +Again the young man exercised his power of gesture, his dark eyes +seeming to plead his own helpless desire to mitigate his words. + +"Truly a quarantine. It is tyranny, but what can one do? They will +hear nothing--they set their guard and it is finished--_bien +simple_. We are their prisoners." + +"Prisoners?" Her mind appeared but a hollow echo of his words. Her +heart was dropping, dropping sickishly, into unending space. Then +meaning stabbed her like a dentist's needle, and a pandemonium of +incredulity and revolt clamored through every nerve in her body. +"Why you can't mean--I'm going back to the hotel this instant! I +haven't seen your servant!" + +"That is nothing to them. They have no reason--heads of pigs! No one +must leave or they shoot--the tyrants, the imbecile tyrants! But +their day will not be forever--Islam will not endure----" + +It was of no moment to Arlee Beecher what Islam would not endure. +Her heart was galloping now like a runaway horse, but her voice rang +with quick reaction from that first sickening shock. + +"What nonsense," she said positively. "They wouldn't shoot _me_. Why +didn't you call me when the English doctor was here. I could have +explained then. But now--now I had better telephone, I suppose. +Either to the doctor or the English ambassador--or the American +consul. I'll make them understand in a jiffy. Where is your +telephone, please?" + +"Alas, not in the palace." The young captain's look of regret +deepened. + +"But--but you telephoned your sister! You telephoned her this +afternoon." + +"Ah, yes, but I spoke to a telephone which is in a palace near +here--the palace of my uncle. I sent a servant with the message. But +I can send a message to that palace," he offered eagerly, "and they +can telephone for you. Or I can send notes out to all the people you +wish. The soldiers will call boys to deliver them." + +Across the girl's perfectly white face a tremor of panic darted; +then she bit her lips very hard and stared very intently past the +Captain's green and gold shoulder. She had totally forgotten the +sister who had sunk on a divan beside them, her brown eyes rimmed in +their dark pencilings turning from one to the other as if to read +their faces. + +"I'll just speak to those soldiers, myself," said Arlee decidedly. +"I'll make them understand." She left them there, their eyes upon +her and sped down the long room to the door which the Captain's +hurried entrance had left half open. She disappeared down the steps. + +In three minutes she was back, a flame in the frightened white of +her cheeks, a flame in the frightened blue of her eyes. + +"Captain Kerissen," she called, and he took a step nearer to her, +his face alert with sympathy, "Captain Kerissen, that is a _native_ +soldier! He is at the bottom of the stairs--with a bayonet--and he +will not let me pass. He doesn't know a word I say. Please come and +tell him." + +"Miss Beecher, it is useless for me to tell him anything," said the +young Turk with a ring of quiet conviction. "I have been talking to +that one--and to the others. They are at every entrance. It is as I +told you--we are prisoners." + +"Surely you can tell him that I am a guest--you can _bribe_ him to +turn his head, to let me slip by----" + +"He would be shot if he let you out that street door. He has his +orders to keep the ladies in their quarters and it is death to him +to disobey. That is the discipline--and the discipline has no +mercy--particularly upon the native soldiers." His tone held +bitterness. "It is useless to resist the soldiers. You must resign +yourself to remain a guest until I can obtain word to one who can +render assistance.... Will it be so hard?" he added sympathetically, +as she stood silent, her lips pressed quiveringly together. "My +sister will do everything----" + +"Of course I can't stay here," broke in Arlee in her clear, positive +young tones. "I must get back to the Evershams--and we are going up +the Nile to-morrow morning. Can you get a message to that doctor _at +once_? And have someone go and telephone from the next house to the +consul and ambassador--and I'll write them notes, too." + +Her voice broke suddenly. On what wings of folly she had come alone +to this place! Her bright adventure was a stupid scrape. Oh, what +mischance--what mischance! She was chokingly ashamed of the +predicament--to be penned up by a quarantine in a Moslem household. +She was angry, defiant and humiliated at once. What would the +Evershams say--and Robert Falconer---- + + * * * * * + +She had never waited for anything as she waited for the answers to +the passionately urgent notes she sent out. She had written the +doctor, the ambassador, the consul, the Evershams. And then she +walked up and down, up and down that long, dim room which grew +darker and darker with the fading light and counted off the seconds +and the minutes and the hours with her pulsing heart beats. She had +never known there was such suspense in the world. It was comparable +to nothing in her girl's life--the only faint analogy was in the old +school-time when she thought she had failed in the history +examination and her roommate had gone to the office to find out for +her. She remembered walking the floor then, in a silly panic of +fear. But she had not failed--she had just squeaked through and it +would be like that now. Someone would come to tell her that +everything was all right and laugh with her at her foolish fright. +But underneath this strain of fervent reassurance ran a cold little +current like an underground brook, a seeping chill of dread and +vague fear and strange amazement that she should be here in this +lonely palace, peering out of darkened windows, waiting and +listening. + +This time it _was_ the Captain's steps, coming up the stairs. +Perceptive of her impatience, he had left her to herself, till he +could bring word. Now she stood, listening to the nearing jingle +that accompanied his footsteps, her hands clasped involuntarily +against her breast in rigid tension. And when she saw his face +through the dusk, saw the courteous deprecation of it, the +solicitous sympathy, she did not need his words to tell her that it +was not yet all right. + +There was nothing to be done. Legal and medical authorities united +in insisting that no one, not even the guest, should leave the +palace until the fear of spreading the infection was past. This +might be modified in a day or two, but for the present they were too +frightened to make exceptions. + +And they were going up the Nile Friday morning, Arlee remembered +numbly. And this was Thursday night. + +"Did the Evershams--did they answer my letter?" she said with dry +lips. + +The Evershams, it seemed, had not been at the hotel. Perhaps when +they had read the letter they would be able to do something about +it. + +"They'll just _talk_!" cried Arlee passionately, her breast heaving. + +She wanted to scream, she wanted to rave, she wanted to fly down +the stairs and hurl herself recklessly against that barring bayonet. +But because there was pride and spirit behind her delicate +loveliness she shut the door hard upon those imps of hysteria and +with high-held head and palely smiling lips she thanked the Captain +for the hospitality he was extending in his sister's name. Yes, +thank you, she would rejoin them at dinner. Yes, thank you, she +would like to go to her room now. + +A serving maid, called by her hostess, conducted her--the blue-robed +girl, she thought, that she had seen drawing water at the well. A +black shawl hung from her head and dangling in its folds the +_yashmak_ ready to be slipped on at the approach of the men before +whom she must appear veiled. Her bare feet were thrust into scarlet +slippers, and as she moved silver anklets were visible, hanging +loosely over slim, brown ankles. Shuffling slightly, yet with an +erectly graceful carriage, the girl led the way into the ante-room +again, pulled open one of the closed doors in the opposite wall and +passed up an encased staircase wrapped in darkness. They emerged +into the dusk of a long, dim hall, where hanging lamps from the +ceiling shed a mild luster and a strong smell of oil, and passing +one or two doors on the right, the maid pushed, open one that was +rich in old gilding. + +Crossing the threshold Arlee felt that she was crossing the +centuries again into her own time. + +The room was a glitter of white and rose; the windows, unscreened, +admitted the warm glow of late afternoon, and windows and doorway +and bed were smothered in rose and white hangings. A white +triple-mirrored dressing-table gleamed with gold and ivory pieces; a +white fur rug was stretched before a rose silk divan billowy with +plump pillows, and an open door beyond gave a view of shining tile +and a porcelain bath. Near her was a baby grand piano in white +enamel--reminding her of one she had seen in the White House--and +she noted absently a pile of gaudily covered music upon it +betokening tunes different from the Brahms she had heard downstairs. + +The maid indicated a pitcher of hot water in the bathroom--evidently +pipes and faucets played no part with the shining tub--and then +stepped outside, closing the door. + +After an instant's hesitation, Arlee took off her hat and bathed her +face and hands, then moved slowly to the dressing table to glance at +her hair. Hesitantly she picked up the shining brush and stared at +the flourish of an unintelligible monogram upon the back. Whose +brush was this? Whose room was she in? The place, vivid, silken, +scented, was fairly breathing with occupancy. + +She laid down the brush without using it, touched her hair with +absent fingers, and crossed to the windows. She looked down into a +garden, a deep tangle of a garden, presided over by a huge lebbek +tree that threw a pall of shadow upon the faintly moving flowers +beneath. + +The place seemed a riot in neglect, for across the white sanded +paths thick creepers had flung their arms, and vines and climbers +were scaling the gnarled limbs of the acacia trees and covering the +high walls beyond. She was looking to the west where the rose and +gold of sunset still hung breathless on the painted air, though the +sun was hidden below the fringe of palms which rose above the wall, +and for a moment that still brilliance of the sky above the sharply +silhouetted palms made her heart quicken in forgetfulness. + +And then her hands became aware of the bars she had been +unconsciously clasping, white-painted bars extending across the +window. They were of iron. + +Not even here was there freedom, she thought with a throb of dread, +not even here where one faced dark gardens and blank walls and the +empty west. + + * * * * * + +Somehow that dinner had passed, that queer dinner in the candle +light between the silent, painted woman and the politely talkative +young man, and passed without a word from outside for the girl whose +nerves were fraying with the suspense. The old woman and the little +girl had served them with a meal which would have been judged +delicious in any European hotel and though Arlee's nerves were +tricky her young appetite was not and she ate and talked with a +determined little air of trying to dissipate the strangeness of the +situation. + +And with the coffee came inspiration. She began to plan ... half +listening to the Captain's amiable efforts to entertain her with an +account of the palace, and of its history under Ismail, the Mad +Khedive, who had occupied it for some months, tearing down and +building in his feverish way, only to weary at the first hint of +completion. She was wondering why in the world the inspiration had +not arrived at once. Perhaps something in this fatalistic air, this +stupid acceptance of authority had numbed her. + +With alacrity she accepted the Captain's suggestion of a stroll in +the garden, and was relieved when the silent sister did not rise to +accompany them, but remained in the candle-light with her coffee and +cigarette. She found the woman's lightly mocking, watchful eyes, the +enigmatic smile upon the carmined lips, increasingly hard to bear. +That woman didn't like her--she had failed, somehow, to propitiate +her hostile curiosities. + +Back through the old empty rooms of the past, the Captain led her, +and passing by the screened alcove from which Arlee had looked down +into the ancient banquet hall he came to a small dark painted door +which he unlocked. The door opened upon a flight of worn and narrow +stone steps descending into the garden. + + * * * * * + +It had been night in the palace of darkened windows but in the +garden it was yet day, although the rose and gold of sunset had +faded to paling pinks and translucent ambers and in the east the +stars were shining in the deepening blue. It was the same garden on +which her windows opened; Arlee recognized the huge lebbek tree in +the center, the row of acacias, and the palms against the farthest +wall. It was a very old garden. Those trees must have seen many, +many years, she thought, and felt again that sense of vague +oppression and melancholy which the lonely rooms of the palace had +given her; that row of acacias which cast such crooked shadows over +the path had been planted by very long-ago hands. + +So she thought fleetingly, then stared about, her concern for other +things. Captain Kerissen lighted a cigarette; over his cupped hands +his eyes followed hers searchingly. + +"That is the hall of banquets?" she said, pointing to the raised +colonnade. + +"Ah, yes--you are quick to learn!" he complimented. + +"And could we walk through that into the courtyard?" + +"Undoubtedly." + +"And this side is the _haremlik_," she murmured, glancing up at the +windows upon the third floor which she felt were those of that rose +and white room. Much of the rest of the wing, she saw, extending +down to the high wall at right angles to it, was in a ruinous and +dilapidated condition. "What is there?" she asked. + +"The rooms the Khedive Ismail left unfinished. They are of no use." + +"And on the other side?" she persisted, pointing towards the wall +that was the continuation of the men's wing, which stopped at the +colonnade. + +"On the other side is the palace of another man, and on the other +side of that, ending the road is a _cimitère_--what you say, +cemetery." + +"And back of _that_ wall?" She nodded at the one behind the palms, +running parallel to the banquet hall. + +"Back of that a canal, Mademoiselle, and across are other +palaces.... You study the geography, it appears?" + +"Indeed I do!" She turned towards him, her face bright with +eagerness. Her light curls were blown about her forehead by a +breeze, hot and dry, that seemed to mingle the odors of the desert +with a piercing sweetness which it drew from the deep throats of the +lilies swaying beside the path. "And I think _that_ is going to be +the way out for me." Her quick nod was for the wall behind the +palms. "I want you to do me a great big favor, Captain Kerissen, +that will make me your debtor for life! You must help me break out +of this quarantine this very night?" + +Not the ghost of a fear of failure to persuade him lurked in those +bright, dancing eyes. Not the ghost of a fear of failure haunted +those confident, smiling lips. + +He sucked on his cigarette a moment, then slowly blew a thin ring of +blue smoke. He appeared interested in watching it. + +"What is it--this idea?" he murmured. + +"Well, you may have a better one but mine is just to climb that +wall, as soon as it gets dark. If you just get a ladder, or a pile +of chairs I am sure I can manage it--and then I'll be back at the +hotel in an hour!" + +He took out his cigarette and shook his head at her. "You would +drop, like the plum of Haydee, into the arms of the soldier who is +guarding on the other side.... Shall I tell you the story of that +plum?" + +"A soldier guarding--a _native_ soldier?" + +"Yes." + +"Then--then please won't you see if you can bribe him?" she +shamelessly pleaded, anxiously clasping and unclasping her hands. +"_Please_, Captain Kerissen, you must help me to run away to-night. +I _can't_ be shut up like this--I can't give up the Nile trip and +besides--Oh, I really must be back at that hotel to-night!... If +that soldier is sure no one else will see him I know you can +persuade him to look away just a little minute while I slip down and +run off!" + +"Ah, no, no, my dear Miss Beecher, there is no hope of that." The +young man started walking down the path and Arlee walked beside him, +her eyes fixed on his face, incredulous of the denial that they were +reading there. "He would think it a test, a trap--not for one minute +is it to be thought of! Now could I let you go alone in that place +by the canal. There is danger--you do not understand----" + +"Oh, I understand, but I can take care of myself!" Across her +pleading flashed the ironic thought of how excellently she had taken +care of herself in coming there that very afternoon! "Just let me +get over that wall and I can find my way--and if you cannot bribe +the man we can wait till it is darker and then, when he is at the +other end, why I can be down and off in a jiffy!" + +"He would shoot," said the Captain. "He has his order. I have talked +with them.... And what would the authorities say when they send here +the doctor to-morrow and you are gone?" + +"Say--say--Oh, what does it matter what they say? Tell them that I +ran away without your knowledge. Surely----" + +"But your name has been given as detained. They would not let you +reappear in the world----" + +"You leave that to me! I know it would be all right--once I was +there. Please do this for me, Captain Kerissen--_please_! I know +that in a great palace like this there must be many, many ways where +one could slip into the streets----" + +"In all this palace there are but three doors--the door in the +vestibule by which you entered, the great door to its right, under +the arch into the court, and the little door from the garden to the +canal." He waved his cigarette at the wall ahead of them, towards +which they were slowly walking. "And all those three doors are +barred upon the outside and there is a soldier before each one--and +the soldier that you saw within the vestibule, watching us there." + +"But--but the windows." She remembered the _mashrubiyeh_, but went +on resolutely, "I mean, the windows on the men's side. Aren't there +any windows in that part which are open?" + +"The _selamlik_ is a short wing and looks into the court." A note of +impatience sounded in his voice. He tossed away his cigarette which +fell, a burning spark, in the shadows. Already, as they talked, it +had grown darker, and the impatient tropic night was stealing on +them. "It is no use," he repeated. "There is no way out for you--or +any of us." + +Into her heart stole the unthinkable perception that he did not want +to help her--he was afraid of the authorities--or else--or +else--Desperately she returned to the appeal. + +"But do let me try to get over that wall. I will watch for the +soldier--I will take the responsibility. Please, now--let us plan +that attempt." + +His answer held a quiet finality. "It is impossible.... And the wall +is too high for such little feet." + +The startled color flashed into her cheeks. Only Oriental language +of course.... Perhaps she was unduly sensitive to any hint of +familiarity in her predicament. + +"I could manage it perfectly," she said with coldness. + +He bent over her, as they walked. "Are you so unhappy here?" + +"Of course I am unhappy," she gave back with a clear +matter-of-factness that strove to ignore the sudden softening of his +voice. "I am _very_ unhappy. I realize that I should not be here, +that I am intruding upon your hospitality----" + +"You are making me most happy." + +"And I am making my friends most anxious and losing my trip on the +Nile." + +"The Nile," he said, "flows on forever. Who knows how soon you will +see it and under what happier circumstances?" + +"Our boat was to sail at ten. I simply must find a way out +to-night----" + +"That is impossible." He spoke with sudden irritation, which he +softened the next instant, with a light laugh. "You Americans--how +you hurry!... Tell me--have you no heart for all this?" + +She looked about her at the silent garden, the deepening shadows, +the darkening sky. Above her head, now, high in the air were the +faintly rustling palm leaves. Behind the palms stretched the wall, +high and blankly impassable. She felt strange, unreal.... Her very +fright was unreal. + +"Tell me," he was saying, his voice low and caressing, "are there +many girls like you--in your America?" + +She tried to speak quite easily, quite simply. "You have been in +England and France, Captain Kerissen, and you have seen many +Americans traveling there." + +"I have seen many--yes. But not like you." She looked swiftly at +him, then more swiftly away. His eyes were glowing with a look of +deep excitement; his teeth flashed white under his small, dark +mustache. "Shall I tell you how you appear beside those others?" + +"No, thank you," the girl answered with a hurried crispness which +brought a stare and then a low laugh from him. + +"You have been told so often?" he suggested. + +"I never permit myself to be told at all!" Anger made her young +voice imperious, but her heart was beating furiously. Involuntarily +she quickened her steps and he reached his hand to her bare forearm +and held her back. + +"Pardon--but you are too quick." + +She stood rigid, some deep instinct warning her not to resist. The +situation had gone to the man's head, she felt dumbly; his courtesy +was only a scant veneer over that Oriental cast of view which, like +the Latin, reads every accident of propinquity as opportunity. His +hand fell away and they walked on in slower time. When he spoke his +voice betrayed the feeling quickening within him. + +"Then I have a pleasure before me, for you will listen, please. To +me your sister Americans are like big, bright flowers which grow by +the wayside where every wind blows hard upon them. And each receives +the dust of the footsteps of many men till comes the one who shall +possess her. But he does not bear her away. He puts his name upon +her, but leaves her out in the same field where every passerby may +look and handle----" + +"You are dreadfully rude," said Arlee clearly. "You don't understand +at all. I thought you knew better." + +"Ah, I know! Was I not in England and did I not hear men talk--yes, +of sisters and wives with bold words and laughter? Not so of our +ladies--they are sacred names not to be spoken by another.... But I +do not wish to speak of these others of your race. I speak of you." + +"Really, I would rather you would not speak of me." + +"But I wish to tell you." His voice was no louder; it was even +lower, but it took on a note of authority. Arlee was silent, a chill +creeping up about her heart--like a rising tide.... + +"You are a flower upon a height," he said, and his tones were soft +again and gently caressing, "laughing at others because you know you +are so high above them, and so proud. The blue of the skies is in +your eyes, and the gold of the sun in your hair. You have a beauty +that is too bright to be endured--it burns a man's heart like a +flame.... It was never meant to shine in a common field. It must be +guarded, revered, adored--a princess upon a height----" + +"You have an Oriental imagination," said Arlee Beecher, and prayed +God her voice did not tremble. "I must ask you not to pay me such +compliments while I am your guest." + +"No?... Why not?" + +"They--are embarrassing." + +"Embarrassment is an emotion rare to find among your ladies--it is +the dewy bloom upon your own perfect innocence.... Ah, I wish you +spoke my language! I could tell you many things----" + +"Your English is excellent," said the white-faced girl. "Did you +learn it at Oxford or before?" + +He did not pause for such foolish questionings. "Why do you not wish +me to tell you what you are?" he said reproachfully. "Is it because +you doubt that I mean it?" + +"Because I am not used to such compliments--and I would rather not +hear them now. I am your guest and I am very tired. I must go in." + +It was very dark in the garden. And it was still and unutterably +lonely. Only the stars burned above them in the heavens; only the +light wind of the desert stirred. From the far distance the muffled +beat of the tom-tom sounded. Surely, thought Arlee, surely she was +dreaming.... This could not be Arlee Beecher, here with this +man--this Turk. + +"I must go in," she repeated, with a heightening of assurance. + +As he looked down at her for a moment that chill dread seemed to +lay its icy hands on her very heart as she glimpsed something of the +tumult within his eyes. She had a vision of him as a man capable of +all, reckless, impassioned, poised upon the brink of some desperate +plunge.... Then the hands of consequences seemed to lay compelling +hold upon him; the fire was extinguished; the vision gone like a +mirage. His eyes were friendly, his lips smiling, as he bowed to +her, in deferential courtesy, to all appearances a gentleman of her +world. + +"I must not tire my guest," he said, and stood aside to let her pass +up the narrow stone steps. + +"We shall have other walks," he added, and the chill, delicate +menace of those words went with Arlee Beecher to the rose and white +room, and kept her sorry company through the long and restless +hours. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WITHIN THE WALLS + + +Again the knocking, muffled but softly insistent, and Arlee's eyes, +heavy with tardy sleep, came slowly open, resting blankly on the +glittering strangeness of the room. The daylight was streaming in +the wide windows, striking brightly on the white enameled furniture +which had glimmered so ghost-like through the wakeful darkness of +the night, and flung back in dancing points of color from the +mirrors and the glass and gold of toilet pieces. The air was hot and +close, as if the first freshness of the morning was already past. + +Again through the heavy door came the knocking and the soft +reassurance of a girl's voice. Arlee sprang from the couch where she +had lain down that night, not undressed, but with her white frock +exchanged for the negligée she had found laid out for her among +other things, and hurried toward the door where she had piled two +chairs to supplement the lock--a foolish-looking barricade in the +shining light of day, she thought, her lips lifting whimsically. + +The young Turkish maid entered with a huge jar of water which she +emptied into the bath, returning to the door to take in another and +yet another and another from some unseen porter, and pouring these +into the bath, she added a spray of perfume and laid out powders and +towels, smiling the while at Arlee, with the fascinated interest of +a child. + +"Do you speak English?" said Arlee eagerly. + +But the girl laughed and shook her head at the question, and at the +French and German with which Arlee next addressed her, and answered +in soft Turkish, at which it was Arlee's turn to laugh and shake her +head. But she felt a little rueful behind her pleasant smiling. She +wished she could talk with the girl. She wondered about her. She had +very handsome dark eyes, though perhaps overbold at times, but her +lips were thick and her nose was flattened as if generations of +_yashmak_-wearing women had crushed every hope of contour. + +The cool freshness of the water was grateful to her senses. It was a +plunge back into sanity and normal life again, drowning those ghosts +of vague foreboding and anxieties which had kept such unpleasant +vigil with her, and when the Turkish girl returned with a tray, +Arlee was able to sit and eat breakfast with a trace of amusement at +the oddity of the affair--sipping coffee in this Parisian boudoir +overlooking an Egyptian garden. + +As she was buttering a last crumb of toast the girl re-entered with +a box from the florist. Her white teeth flashing at Arlee in a smile +of admiring interest, she broke the cord with thick fingers and +Arlee found the box full of roses, creamy pink and dewy fresh. The +Captain's card was enclosed, and across the back of it he had +written a message: + + I am sending out for some flowers for our guest and I + hope that they will convey to her my greeting. If there + is anything that you would have, it is yours if it is in + my power to give. My sister is indisposed, but will visit + you when her indisposition will permit. This afternoon I + will see you and report the result of our protests to the + authorities. Until then, be tranquil, and accommodate + yourself here. + +A tacit apology, thought Arlee, pondering the dull letter a moment, +then dropping it to touch the roses with light fingers. The young +man's wits had evidently returned with the sun. He had utterly lost +them last night with the starshine and the shadows and his Oriental +conception of the intimacy of the situation--but, after all, he had +too much good sense not to be aware of the folly of annoying her. +Her cheeks flushed a little warmer at the memory of the bold words +and the lordly hand on her arm, and her heart quickened in its +beating. She had certainly been playing with fire, and the sparks +she had so ignorantly struck had lighted for her an unforgettable +glimpse of the Oriental nature beneath all its English polish, but +she imagined, very fearlessly, that the spark was out. She was not a +nature that was easily alarmed or daunted; beneath her look of +delicate fragility was a very sturdy confidence, and she had the +implicit sense of security instinct in the kitten whose blithe days +have known nothing but kindness. Yet she felt herself tremendously +experienced and initiated.... + +She wrote back a word of thanks for the flowers and a request for +writing paper and ink, and when they were brought she wrote three +most urgent letters, and after an instant's hesitation a fourth--to +the Viceroy himself. Feeling that his mail might be bulky, she +marked it "Immediate" in large characters and gave them to the maid, +who nodded intelligently and shuffled away. + +It was very odd, she thought then, that she had no letters. By now +the Evershams must surely have written--she had begged them to.... +But she was _not_ going to be silly and panicky, she determinedly +informed that queer little catch in her side which came at the +thought of her isolation, and humming defiantly she sat down at the +white piano and opened the score of a light opera which she knew: + + Say not love is a dream, + Say not that hope is vain ... + +She had danced to that tune last night--no, the night before +last--danced to it with that extraordinarily impulsive young man +from home--for all America was now home to her spirit. And she had +promised to see him last night. She wondered what he had thought of +her absence.... She could imagine the Evershams dolefully deploring +her rashness, yet not without a totally unconscious tinge of proper +relish at its prompt punishment. They were such dismal old dears! +They _would_ complain--they must have made her the talk of the hotel +by now. Robert Falconer would enjoy that! And his sister and Lady +Claire would ask about her, and Lady Claire would say, "How +odd--fancy!" in that rather clipped and high-bred voice of hers.... +But she was _not_ going to think about it! + +She opened more music, stared wonderingly at the unfamiliar pages, +read the English translation beneath the German lines, then pushed +them away, her cheeks the pinker. They were as bad as French +postcards, she thought, aghast. Whose room was this, anyway? Whose +piano was this? Whose was the lacy negligée she had worn and the +gossamer lingerie the maid had placed in the chiffonier for her? Was +she usurping her hostess's boudoir? + +She began to walk restlessly up and down the room, feeling time +interminable, hating each lagging second of delay. + +Then came a tray of luncheon, and lying upon it a yellow envelope. +With an eagerness that hurt in its keenness she snatched it up and +tore out the folded sheet. Her eyes leaped down the lines. Then +slowly they followed them again: + + I think it very strange of you to leave us like that, but + of course you are your own mistress. We are sorry and + hope it will soon be over and you will join us again, + unless you prefer your other friends, the Maynards. We + have packed your clothes and sent them to Cook's for your + orders, and we have paid your hotel bill. Let us know + when you can join us. + + MRS. EVERSHAM. + +That was all. No word of real sympathy--no declaration of help. +Passive acceptance of her predicament--perhaps indeed a retributive +feeling of its fitness for her folly. They were annoyed.... Packing +her clothes must have been a bother--so was paying her hotel bill. + +She crumpled the telegram with an angry little hand. Evidently they +had done none of the telephoning she had begged of them. Surely +there would have been time for that, if only they had hurried a +little! She remembered with a sort of hopeless rage their maddening +deliberateness.... Well, they were gone off to the Nile--the +telegram, she saw, had been sent as they were on their way to the +boat--and she had nothing more to hope from them! But surely the +other people, the consul, the ambassador, the mysterious medical +authorities, would understand when they had read her letters. + +She sent another note to the Captain, asking to be called when the +doctor came, and then she sat down at the little white table and +began again to write. + +But not to Falconer. Never would she beg of him, never, she +resolved, with a tightening of her soft lips. She would never let +him know how miserable she was over this stupid scrape; when she +returned to the hotel she would carry affairs with a high hand and +hold forth upon the interesting quaintness of her experience and the +old-world charm of her hostess. She laughed, in angry mockery. Never +to him, after their quarrel, would she confess herself. + +The letter was to a young man whose gray eyes she remembered as very +kind and whose chin as very vigorous. He would do things, she +thought. And he would understand--he was an American. And dimly she +felt that she didn't want him to think she had utterly forgotten +her promise of the evening before last, and she didn't want him to +be filled with whatever dismal impression the Evershams were giving +out. So she dwelt very lightly upon her annoyance at being detained, +and asked him please to see the consul or the English Ambassador or +somebody in power and hurry matters up a little, as her rightful +caretakers had taken themselves off to the Nile. And she said +nothing stupid about the strangeness of her writing to him after +only speaking to him twice and never being really presented. She +merely added, "Please hurry things--I hate being a prisoner," and +sealed and addressed it with a flourish to William B. Hill, and sent +it off by the maid, and felt oddly comforted by the memory of +Billy's vigorous chin. + +The heat of the rose-and-white room was stifling now as the slant +sun of afternoon burned through the closed blinds and drawn +hangings. Languidly she curled up upon the sofa and pillowed her +heavy head on the scented silk, and so, drowsing with fitful dreams, +she lost the sense of the lagging hours. + +She roused to find the maid at hand with more water jars, and, when +she had bathed, the girl reappeared and beckoned her to follow. +Perhaps the doctor was below, thought Arlee; perhaps the consulate +had sent for her! With flying feet she followed down the dark old +stairs and across the anteroom into the dim salon, only to find a +candle-lighted table set for dinner in the middle of the room and +Captain Kerissen bowing ceremoniously beside it. + +In the blankness of her disappointment she scarcely grasped what he +was saying about the dinner hour being early and his sister being +indisposed. She interrupted with a breathless demand for news: + +"And my letters--surely there has been time for answers!" + +"Answers, yes," he replied, "but not such as I could wish for your +sake." + +"You mean----?" + +"The English have written to me and request that I cease to trouble +the department with my importunities. For I myself had written to +them again, that I might find grace in your eyes by accomplishing +your desires. They say to me that it is useless. The plague is more +serious than the convenience of my visitors, and all must be done +according to rule. When there is no danger you may depart." + +The crash of hopes went echoing to the farthest reaches of her +consciousness. But pride stiffened her to dissemble, and she tried +to smile as she mechanically accepted the Captain's invitation to be +seated at the little candle-lighted table. + +"There was no word to me personally?" she asked. + +"None, but the telegram which came this morning. I judged that it +was not of a significance, for you did not send me a report." + +"No--it was not of a significance," she repeated, with a ghost of a +little smile. "It was from the Evershams." + +"Ah! Their condolences, I think?... And is it that they still make +the Nile trip?" + +"Yes.... They went this morning." She spoke hesitantly, averse to +having this eager-eyed young host perceive how truly deserted she +was. "They expect me to take the express train later and join them." + +"It is only a night's ride to Assouan." He spoke soothingly. "But +you are not eating, Miss Beecher. I recommend this consommé." + +It was worth the recommending. Miss Beecher spooned it slowly, then +demanded, "Why was I not called when the doctor came?" + +"But he does not come! Perhaps he is afraid"--the young man's brows +and shoulders rose expressively--"but certainly he does not risk +himself. If a servant is ill we are to tell a soldier and the sick +one will be taken away to the house of plague--_bien simple_. It is +so hard that I am helpless for you," he said, with sympathetic +concern, then added, with an air of boyish confession, "although I +do not deny that it is happiness for me to see you here." + +The look in his eyes forced itself upon her. And the secret sense of +discomfort intruded like a third presence at the little table. + +In a clear voice of dry indifference: "That's very polite of you," +she remarked, "but I imagine you are pretty furious, too, to be kept +pent up in somebody else's house like this." + +"But this is not somebody else's house," he smiled, his eyes +observant of her quick glance and look of confusion. "I am _chez +moi_." + +"Oh! I thought--I was visiting your sister." + +"My sister lives with me. She is a widow--and we are both alone." + +"She does not seem to care for company." + +"She is indisposed. She regrets it exceedingly." The young man +looked grave and solicitous. "But I trust your comfort is not being +neglected?" + +"Oh, my comfort is being beautifully attended to, thank you, but my +patience is wearing itself out!" Arlee spoke with a blithe +assumption of humor. + +"I wish that I could extend the resources of my palace for you." + +"You must tell me about the palace. I shall want to picture it to my +friends when I tell them about it. It's very old, isn't it? It must +have seen a great deal of life." + +"Ah, yes, it has seen life--and what life! _Quelle vie!_" A flash of +real enthusiasm dispelled the suave indolence of his handsome +features. + +"Have you seen those old rooms? Those rooms that were built by the +Mamelukes? There is nothing now in Cairo like them." + +"I thought them very beautiful," said the girl. "Tell me about those +Mamelukes who lived here." + +"They were _men_," he said with pride, his eyes kindling, "men who +lived as kings dare not live to-day!" The subject of those old days +and those old ancestors of his was evidently dear to the young +modern, and he launched into an animated sketch of those times, +trying to picture for Arlee something of the glowing pageant of the +past. And as she listened she found her own high spirit stirring in +sympathy with the barbaric strength of those old nobles, riding to +battle on their fiery Arab steeds, waging their private wars, +brooking no affront, no command, working no other man's will. + +"They knew both power and beauty," he declared, "like the Medici of +Florence. There are no leaders like that in the modern world. To-day +beauty is beggared, and power is lusterless.... And taste? Taste is +a hundred-headed Hydra, roaring with a hundred tongues!" + +"While in the old days in Cairo it only roared with the tongues of +Mamelukes?" Arlee suggested, a glint of mischief in her smile. + +He nodded. "It should be the concern of nobles--not of the rabble. +That is why I should hate your America--where the rabble prevail." + +"It's not nice of you to call me a rabble," said Arlee, busy with +her plate of chicken. "But I want to hear more about your old +Mamelukes. Is the story true about the Sultan's being so afraid of +them that he had them taken by surprise and killed?" + +"He did well to fear them," said Kerissen. "And he, too, was a +strong man who had the power to clear his own path. Those nobles +were in the path of Mohammed Ali. They were too strong for him, he +knew it--and they knew it and were not afraid. On one day they were +all assembled at the Citadel, at the ceremony which Mohammed Ali was +giving in honor of his son, Toussoum. It was the first of March, in +1811, and my ancestor, the father of my father's father, rode out +from this palace, through the gate by the court, which is the old +gate, in his most splendid attire to greet his sovereign's son. The +emerald upon his turban was as large as a man's eye, and his sword +hilt was studded with turquoise and pearls and the hilt was a blazon +of gold. His robes were of silk, gold threaded, and his horse was +trapped with gold and silver and a diamond hung between her eyes.... +The Mamelukes were fêted and courted, and then, as they were leaving +the Citadel--you have been up there?" he broke off to question, and +Arlee nodded, her eyes wide and intent like a listening child's, +"and you recall that deep, crooked way between the high walls, +between the fortified doors? Imagine to yourself that deep way +filled with men on horseback, quitting the Citadel, having taken +leave of their Sultan--they were a picture of such pride and pomp as +Egypt has never seen again. And then the treachery--the great gates +closed before them and behind them, the terrible fire upon them from +all sides, the bullets of the hidden Albanians pouring down like the +hosts of death--the uproar, the cries of horses, the shouts of the +trapped men, and then all the tumult dying, dying, down to the last +moan and hiccough of blood." + +"But one escaped?" questioned the girl, breaking the silence which +had followed the cessation of his voice. "Is it true that one really +escaped?" + +"Anym-bey--yes, he was the only one that escaped that massacre. He +had a fierce horse which gave him pain to mount, and he was still in +the courtyard of the palace when he heard the outburst of shots and +then the cries. He comprehended. Stripping his turban from his head +he bound it over the eyes of his stallion and, spurring to a gallop, +he dashed out over the parapet of the Citadel and down--down--down! +Magnificent! He did not die of it, but alas! he did not escape. +Wounded as he was he managed to reach the house of a relative, but +the soldiers of the Sultan tracked him there and seized him.... He +was killed." + +"Oh, the pity--after that splendid dash!" Arlee stopped and looked +around her, at the strange shadowy room hung with its old +embroideries and latticed with its ancient screening. "This room +makes it all so real, somehow," she murmured. "I didn't believe it +all when the dragoman told me--probably because he showed me the +mark of the horse's hoof in the stone of the parapet! I thought it +was all a legend--like the mark." + +"Did he show you, too, the bulrush where Moses was found and the +indentures in the stones in the crypt of the Coptic Church where +Saint Joseph and Mary sat to rest after the flight into Egypt?" +laughed the Captain. And, with a teasing smile, "Ah, what imbeciles +they think you tourists!" + +But Arlee merely laughed with him, while the old woman changed the +plates for dessert. Her spirits had brightened mercurially. This was +really interesting.... Uneasiness had vanished. + +"Is that an old Mameluke throne?" she asked, pointing to the raised +chair upon the dais, with its heavy, dusty draperies. + +The Captain glanced at it and shook his head, smiling faintly. "No, +that is the throne of marriage." He pushed away his sweet and +lighted a cigarette. "That is where sits the bride when she has been +brought to the home of her husband--there she holds her reception. +Those are the fêtes to which the English ladies come in such +curiosity." His smile was not quite pleasant. + +"You cannot blame them for feeling a real--interest," said Arlee +hesitantly. + +"Their interest--pah!" he flung back excitably and made a violent +gesture with his cigarette. "They peer at the bride with their +haggard eyes, and they say, 'What! You have not seen your husband +till to-day! How strange--how strange! Has he not written to you? +Suppose you do not like him,' and they laugh and add, 'Fancy a girl +among us being married like that!'... The imbeciles--whose own +marriages are abominations!" + +For a moment Arlee was silent, instinct and impulse warring within +her. The man was a maniac upon those subjects, and it was madness to +exchange a word with him--but her young anger darted through her +discretion. + +"They are _not_ abominations!" she gave back proudly. + +"But I know--I know--have I not been at marriages in England?" he +declared, with startling fierceness. "Men and women crowd about the +bride; they press in line and kiss her; bearded mouths and shaven +lips, young and old, they brush off that exquisite bloom of +innocence which a husband delights to discover. Her lips are soiled, +_fanée_.... And then the man and woman go away together into a +public hotel or a train, and the people laugh and shout after them, +and hurl shoes and rice, with a great din of noise. I have heard!" +He stopped, looked a moment at the flushed curve of Arlee's averted +face, the droop of her shadowy lashes which veiled the confusion and +anger of her spirit, and then, leaning forward, his eyes still upon +her, he spoke in a lower, softer tone, caressing in its inflections. + +"With us it is not so," he said. "We have dignity in our rejoicing, +and delicacy in our love. The bride is brought in state to the home +of her husband, no eyes in the street resting upon her, and there, +in his home, her husband welcomes her and retires with his friends, +while she holds a reception with hers. Later the husband will come +home and greet her, and he wooes her to him as tenderly as he would +gather a flower that he would wear. He is no rude master, no tyrant, +as you have been taught to think! He wins her heart and mind to him; +it is the conquest of the spirit!... I tell you that our men alone +understand the secret of women! Is not the life he gives her better +than what you call the world? The woman blooms like a flower for her +husband alone; his eyes only may dwell upon the beauty of her face; +for him alone, her lips--her lips----" + +The young man's voice, grown husky, died away. A dreadful stillness +followed, a stillness vibrating with unspoken thought. Her eyes +lifted toward him, then fled away, so full of strange, dark, +desirous things was the look she encountered. Abruptly he rose--he +was coming toward her, and she struggled suddenly to her feet, +battling against the cold terror which held her dumb and unready. +She flung one arm out before her and found it grasped by hands that +were hot and burning. The touch shot her with a fierce rage that +cleared her brain and unlocked her lips. + +"Is that--the conquest of the spirit?" she gasped, and for an +instant the white-hot scorn in her eyes, flashing into his, hid any +hint of the fear in her. + +Involuntarily his grasp relaxed, and violently she wrenched her arm +away and stood facing him, a little white-clad image of war, her +eyes blazing, her breast heaving, a defiant child in her intrepidity +who gave him back look for look. + +In his eyes there glowed and battled a conflict of desires. For one +moment they seemed flaming at her from the dark, like some wild +creature ready to spring; the next moment they were human, +recognizable. She read there grudging admiration, arrested ardor, +irresolution, dubiety, and secret calculation. + +Then he put both hands behind him and bowed with ceremony. + +"The spirit," he remarked dryly, "is worth the conquest." + +She said proudly, "You would not like your English friends to know +how you treat a guest!" + +At that she saw his lip curl in irony--at the mention of the +English, perhaps, or in disdain at the appearance of fearing a +threat, however powerful that threat might be. He answered with +calmness, "It is not the English I am considering.... Nor have I +treated my guest so ill, _chère petite mademoiselle_.... If for the +moment I mistook my cue--that look within your face--I ask grace for +my stupidity." + +Suddenly she was frightened. He did not look like a man who wholly +surrenders his desires. His eyes seemed to say to her, "Wait--the +last word has not been spoken!" She felt her knees trembling. + +With an effort she got out, "It is granted--but never again--must +you misunderstand. An American girl----" + +She stopped. There was a lump in her throat. Across a bright, +familiar veranda she could hear a clear, sharp voice answer, +"American goose!" She saw a lean tanned face burn red with anger. A +wave of loneliness went through her. The irony of it was pitiless. +How right Robert Falconer had been! + +He was staring down at the table beside him, frowning, considering. +She saw with peculiar distinctness how the cigarette he had dropped +had burned a hole in the fine linen. One of the candles was dripping +lopsidedly. She thought some one ought to right it. She wondered if +that soft step, hesitating, behind the curtains, was the serving +woman's, and she turned toward that doorway. + +"I don't think I care for any coffee," she said, with an air of +careless finality. "I think I will go back to my room. Good +evening." + +He followed her to the doorway, drawing aside the curtains as she +passed into the anteroom, and opening the door at the foot of the +steps, with an answering, "Good evening," and an added, "Till +to-morrow, Mademoiselle." And then, as the door closed below her, +she paused on the dark stairs and huddled against the wall, +listening to the faint footfalls from below, crossing and +recrossing. Then, when the silence seemed continual, she tiptoed +down the stairs again, softly pushed open the unlatched door, stole +across the anteroom to the curtained doorway and peered in. + +The salon was empty, and in its center the supper table stood +stripped of its cloth and candles. Only the pale light from the +windows dispelled the growing dark. Like a little white wraith Arlee +fled through the room and turned the handle of the door at the head +of the _haremlik_ stairs. The door was locked. + +She shook the handle, first cautiously, then with increasing +violence, then she ran back into the room to the nearest window, +staring down through the screen. It would have been a steep jump +down into the street, but her tense nerves would have dared it +instantly. Her hands tore at the _mashrubiyeh_, but the tiny +spindles and delicate curves held sound and firm. She beat against +it with fierce little fists; she leaped against it with all her +trifling weight. It did not yield an inch. Was there iron in all +that delicacy? Or was that old wood impregnable in its grim trust? + +Wildly she glanced back into the room. Suppose she took a chair and +beat at this carving--could she clear a way before the servants +came? Could she take the jump successfully? She gazed down into the +street, estimating the fall, trying to calculate the hurt. + +As she gazed, her eyes grew fixed and filled with utter amazement. +Down the street, on a black horse that arched his curving neck and +danced on light, fleet feet, rode a man in a uniform of green and +gold. He sat erect, his clear-cut profile toward her. The next +instant his horse, side-stepping at a blowing paper, turned his face +into view. It was Captain Kerissen. + +Some one was stirring in the anteroom, and Arlee darted to the left +of the throne-chair and through the door there which stood ajar. +She was in a dim salon, like the one that she had left, but smaller, +and across from her was another door. She flew toward it, wild with +the hope of escape, and it opened before her eager hands. + +From the shadows of the room it disclosed came a figure with a quick +cry. So suddenly it came, so tumultuously it threw itself toward her +that Arlee had a startled vision of bare arms, glittering with +jeweled bands, arrested outstretched before her as the low gladness +of the cry broke in an angry guttural. Slowly the arms dropped in a +gesture of despair. She saw a face, distorted, passionate, grow +haggard beneath its paint in the reversal of hope. + +"Madame!" stammered Arlee to that strange figure of her hostess. +"Madame--Oh, pardon me," she cried, snatching at her French, "but +tell me how I can go away from here. Tell me----" + +"_C'est toi--va-t-en!_" the woman answered in a voice of smothered +fury. She made a menacing gesture toward the door. "_Va-t-en_." +Suddenly her voice rose in a passion of angry phrases that were +indistinguishable to the girl, and then she broke off as suddenly +and flung herself down upon a couch. From behind her the old woman +came shuffling forth and put a hand on Arlee's arm, and Arlee felt +the muscles of that hand as strong and rigid as a man's. Utterly +confused and bewildered, the girl suffered herself to be led back +through the rooms to the foot of her stairs. + +"Mariayah!" screamed the old woman, and after a moment the voice of +waiting-maid answered from above, and then as Arlee dumbly ascended +the stairs, the voice of the old woman rose with her in shrill +admonition. + +It was the voice of a jailer, thought the white-lipped girl, and +that little, dark-skinned maid who waited upon her so eagerly, with +such sidelong glances of strange interest, was the tool of a jailer. +And though the turning of the key in her own hand gave her a +momentary sense of refuge from them, it was but a false illusion of +the moment. There was neither refuge nor safety here. She was being +deceived ... + +The quarantine was lifted. + +How else could the Captain be cantering down the street? He did +not look like a man escaping.... Perhaps he had bribed the +doorkeeper--that which he had declared impossible for Arlee.... +But certainly he was deceiving her. + +Like a swollen river bursting its banks, her racing mind, wild with +suspicion, surged out of its simple channels and swirled in every +direction.... What did he mean? What was he trying to do? Keep her +in ignorance of the outside world, detain her as long as he dared +while the Evershams' absence left her friendless, and inflict his +dreadful love-making upon her? Perhaps he thought that he could +fascinate her! + +She laughed aloud, but it was such a ghostly little laugh that it +set her nerves jumping. She stopped in her feverish pacing of the +floor; she tried to control her racing mind, she tried to be very +calm and to plan. + +Had he sent all those letters she had written? Steadily she stared +at the possibility that he had not. But at least the Evershams knew +where she was. Even the meager warmth of their telegram was like an +outstretched hand through the dark. She clung tight to it. + +It was absurd to be frightened. He would never dare to annoy +her--never, in his sober senses. When they were alone together he +had lost his head, but that was accident--impulse... + +She rolled the divan against the locked door. She piled two chairs +upon it. + +No, of course, she had nothing really to fear from him. He was too +wise not to understand the gulf between them. To-morrow she would +confront him flatly with his deceit; she would array the power of +the authorities behind her race. She would sweep instantly from that +ill-omened palace. There would be no more philandering. + +Her lips moved as she silently rehearsed the mighty speeches that +she would make, and all the while as she leaned there against a +window, staring strangely through the candle-light at the barricade +before the door, she could think of nothing but how mad and unreal +it all seemed--like some bad dream from which she would wake in an +instant. + +But she did not wake. The dream persisted, and the iron bars across +her window were very tangible. Down below her in the garden the old +lebbek tree rustled stealthily in the stillness. Gusty clouds hid +the stars. In the distance the interminable tom-tom beat. + +She cast herself into the bed and cried convulsively, like a +desperately frightened child, while the awful sense of terror and +utter loneliness seemed to be rolling over and over her, like an +unending sea. Her sobbing racked her from head to foot. She cried +until she was spent with weakness. Then, her wet face still pressed +against the pillow and her tangled hair flung out in disordered +curls, she fell at last into the deep sleep of exhausted youth. + +She woke with a smothered cry. In the darkness a hand had touched +her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A GIRL IN THE BAZAARS + + +Billy slapped on his hat with a clap of violence. She might have +just _seen_ him! Then he got up and marched down the steps. There +was no more use in camping on that veranda. There was no more use in +guarding that entrance. When a girl went whirling off in a +limousine, "all dolled up" as his academic English put it, that girl +wasn't going to be back in five minutes. And anyway he'd be blessed +if he lay around in the way any longer like a doormat with "Welcome" +inscribed upon the surface. + +So this spurt of masculine shame at his swift surrender to her, and +his masculine resentment at being ignored as she went by, sent him +hurrying down the street resolved not to return till dinner. + +From habit his steps took him to the bazaars. But the zest of that +bright pageant was dulled for him. The color was gone even from the +red canopies, and the excitement had vanished from the din of +noises, the interest fled from the grave figures squatting in their +cubby holes of shops draped with silky rags or sewing upon scarlet +slippers. He listened apathetically to the warring shouts of the +donkey boys and the anathemas of a jostled water carrier stooping +under his distended goatskin, then dodged out of the way of a +goaded donkey and turned into one of the passages where the +four-footed could not penetrate. + +For a few moments the bargaining over a silver bracelet between two +beturbaned and berobed Arabs caught the surface of his attention, +and as the wrangling became a bedlam of imprecations, and the +explosive gestures made physical violence a development apparently +of mere seconds, Billy's eyes brightened and he estimated chances. +But as he picked his favorite there was one final frenzy of fury, +and then--peace and joy, utter calm on the wild waters! One Arab +counted out the coins from a little leather bag about his neck and +the other passed over the bracelet, and with mutual salaams and +smiling speeches, behold! the affair was accomplished. + +Disgustedly Billy turned away. Then on the other side of him he +heard a voice, a sweet and rather high voice, with a musical +intensity of inflection that was as English as the Union Jack. + +"Yes, it's _sweetly_ pretty," the voice was saying irresolutely, +"but I don't think I _quite_ care to--not at _that_ price." + +"I--I will buy it for you--yes?" said another voice. "It is made for +you--so 'sweetly pretty' as you say." + +Billy turned. A slim, tall girl in a dark blue frock was standing +before a counter of Oriental jewelry, her head turned, with an air +of startled surprise, to the man on the other side of her who had +just spoken. He was a short, stout, blond man, heavily flushed, +showily dressed, with a fulsome beam in his light-blue eyes and an +ingratiating grin beneath his upturned straw-colored mustaches. + +The girl turned her head away toward the shop-keeper and put back +the turquoise-studded buckle she held in her hand. "No, I do not +care for it," she said in a steady voice whose coldness was for the +intruder and turned away. + +Billy had a glimpse of scarlet cheeks and dark lashed eyes before +the blond young man again took his attention. + +"You do not like it--no?" he said, blocking her path, his face +thrust out to smile into hers. "But I buy you anything you wish--I +make you one present----" + +The girl gave a quick look about. But she was in a pocket; for there +was no other exit to that line of shops but the path he was +blocking. All about her the dark-skinned venders and shoppers, the +bearded men, the veiled women, the impish urchins, were watching the +encounter with beady eyes of malicious interest. + +Billy took a quick step forward and touched the man on the arm. "Let +this lady pass, please," he said. + +The German confronted him with blood-shot blue eyes that ceased to +smile and clearly welcomed the belligerency. + +"Gott! Who are you?" he derided. "Get out--get out the way." + +"Get out yourself," said Billy, and stepping in front of the fellow +he extended a rigid arm, leaving a passage for the girl behind him. + +"Oh, thank you," he heard her say, and as he half turned his head at +the grateful murmur he felt a sudden staggering blow on the side of +his face. He whirled about, on guard, and as the man struck again, +lunging heavily in his intoxication, Billy knocked up the fist as it +came. + +"You silly fool!" he said impatiently, and as the man made a blind +rush upon him he caught him and by main force flung him off, but his +own foot struck something slippery and he lurched and went down, +with a wave of intense disgust, into the dirt of the bazaars. He +heard a chorus of cries and imprecations about him; he jumped up +instantly, looking for his assailant, but the German was clinging to +the front of the jewelry booth. "Meet you--satisfaction--honor," he +was saying stupidly. + +A native policeman elbowed his way through the throng, urging some +Arabic question upon Billy, who caught its import and replied with +the few sentences of reassurance at his command, pointing to the +banana peel as the cause of all. A fat dragoman had suddenly +appeared from nowhere and was hurriedly attempting to lead away the +intoxicated one. + +"You in charge of him? Take him to his hotel and throw him in the +tub," said Billy curtly, and the dragoman replied with profound +respect that he would do even as the heaven-born commanded. + +Brushing off his clothes Billy shouldered his way out of the throng +and was met by two bright and grateful eyes and a slim, bare, +outstretched hand. + +"Thank you _so_ much--I am _so_ sorry," said the musical voice. + +"You shouldn't have waited," said Billy, with a prompt pressure of +the friendly little hand. "It might have been a real row." + +"I couldn't run away," she said in serious protest at such +ingratitude. "I had to see what happened to you. And I am so sorry +about your clothes." + +"Not hurt a particle--I chose a fortunate place to drop," he +returned lightly, but distinctly chagrined that he _had_ dropped. + +"It was so fine of you," she answered, "just to parry him like +that--when he'd been drinking. I saw what you did." And then she +added, very matter-of-factly, "And I'm afraid your nose is bleeding, +too." + +Billy put up a startled hand. In the general soreness he had not +noticed that warm trickle. His whole face turned as scarlet as the +shameless blood. Frantically he rummaged with the other hand. + +The girl thrust a square of white linen upon him. "Please take +mine--it will ruin your clothes if it gets on them." + +Her immense practicality refused to be embarrassed in the least. +Feeling immensely foolish Billy accepted hers, but then he +discovered his own handkerchief and stuffed hers away into his +pocket. + +"You're a trump," he said heartily. "And it's all right now--all but +the swelling, I suppose." He sounded rueful. He had remembered his +engagement for the evening. + +Her head a little aslant, the girl regarded him critically. "N-no, +it doesn't seem to be swelling," she observed. "Of course it's a +little red but that will pass." + +They were walking side by side out of the narrow street and now, on +a crowded corner, they paused and looked around. "I left Miss +Falconer at the Maltese laces," she murmured, and to the laces they +turned their steps. + +Miss Falconer was still bargaining. She was a middle aged lady, +Roman nosed and sandy-haired, and she brought to Billy in a rush the +realization that she was "sister" and the girl was Lady Claire +Montfort. The story of the encounter and Billy's hero part, related +by Lady Claire, appeared most disturbing to the chaperon. + +"How awkward--how very awkward," she murmured, several times, and +Billy gathered from her covert glance upon him that part of the +awkwardness consisted in being saddled with his acquaintance. Then, +"Very nice of you, I'm sure," she added. "I hope the creature isn't +lingering about somewhere.... We'd better take a cab, Claire--I'm +sure we're late for tea." + +"Let me find one," said Billy dutifully, and charging into the +medley of vehicles he brought forth a victoria with what appeared to +be the least villainous looking driver and handed in the ladies. + +"Savoy Hotel, isn't it?" he added thoughtlessly, and both ladies' +countenances interrogated him with a varying _nuance_ of question. + +"I remember noticing you," he hastily explained. "I'm not exactly a +private detective, you know,"--the assurance seemed to leave Miss +Falconer cold--"but I do remember people. And then I heard you +spoken of by Miss Beecher." + +The name acted curiously upon them. They looked at each other. Then +they looked at Billy. Miss Falconer spoke. + +"Perhaps we can drop you at your hotel," said she. "Won't you get +in?" + +He got in, facing them a little ruefully with his damaged +countenance, and subtly aware that this accession of friendliness +was not a gush of airy impulse. + +"You know Miss Beecher then?" said Miss Falconer with brisk +directness. + +"Slightly," he said aloud. To himself he added, "So far." + +"Ah--in America?" + +"No, in Cairo." + +Miss Falconer looked disappointed. "But perhaps you know her +family?" + +"No," said Billy. He added humorously, "But I'll wager I could guess +them all right." + +"Can you Americans do that for one another? That is more than we can +venture to do for you," said the lady, and Billy was aware of irony. + +"We know so little about your life, you see," the girl softened it +for him, with a direct and friendly smile, and then gazed watchfully +at her chaperon. She was a nice girl, Billy decided emphatically. + +"How would you construct her family?" was the elder lady's next +demand. + +"Oh, big people in a small town," he hazarded carelessly. "The kind +of place where the life isn't wide enough for the girl after all her +'advantages' and she goes abroad in search of adventure." + +"Adventure," repeated Miss Falconer thoughtfully. She seemed to +have an idea, but Billy was certain it was not his idea. + +He hastened to clarify the light he had tried to cast upon his +upsetting little countrywoman. "All life, you know, is an adventure +to the American girl," he generalized. "She is a little bit more on +her own than I imagine your girls are," and for the fraction of a +second his eyes wandered to the listening countenance of Lady +Claire, "and that rather exhilarates her. And she doesn't want +things cut and dried--she wants them spontaneous and unexpected--and +people, just as people, interest her tremendously. I think that's +why she's so unintelligible on the Continent," he added +thoughtfully. "They don't understand there that girlish love of +experience as experience--enjoyment of romance apart from results." + +"Romance apart from results," repeated Miss Falconer in a peculiar +voice. + +"I don't believe you quite get me," said Billy hastily. He felt +foolish and he felt resentful. And if these English women couldn't +understand the bright, volatile stuff that Arlee was made of, he +certainly was not going to talk about it. But Miss Falconer had one +more question for him. + +"When you say big people in a small town do you mean her father +would be a sort of country squire?" + +"More probably a captain of industry," Billy smiled. + +"A captain--Oh, that is one of your phrases!" + +"One of our phrases," he laughed, and then parried, "I thought you +were acquainted with Miss Beecher?" + +"Quite slightly," said Miss Falconer in an aloof tone. "My brother +came over on the same ship with her--he came to join us here." + +Billy experienced a flood of mental light. The brother--at the hotel +he had discovered that his name was Robert Falconer--was coming to +join his elder sister and her young charge. He had come on the same +steamer as Miss Beecher. Ergo, he was staying at the hotel where +Miss Beecher was and not with his sister. Billy comprehended the +anxiety of the lady with the Roman nose. He looked at Lady Claire +with a certain sympathy. + +He caught her own eyes reconnoitering, and they each looked hastily +away. + +Again Miss Falconer returned to her attack. "Then you really know +nothing positive of Miss Beecher's family?" + +"Nothing in the world," said Billy cheerfully. "But why not ask Miss +Beecher?" + +The lady made no reply. "Miss Beecher is a beautiful girl," said +Lady Claire hastily. "She's _so_ beautiful that I suppose we are all +rather curious about her--of course people _will_ ask about a girl +like that!" + +"Of course," said Billy, and Lady Claire, perceiving that he +resented this catechism about his young countrywoman, and Miss +Falconer perceiving that nothing was to be gotten out of him, the +conversation was promptly turned into other channels, the vague, +general channels of comment upon Cairo. + + * * * * * + +The Evershams dined alone. Alternately, from their table to the +doorway went Billy's eager eyes, but no vision with shining curls +and laughing eyes appeared. Evidently she had stayed to dine with +whatever people she had gone to see. Robert Falconer was watching +that table, too.... Perhaps she would not return till late; perhaps +he would have only a tiny time with her that evening.... And he had +not been able to buy out that man's berth upon the steamer.... + +Consommé and whitebait, _boeuf rôti_ and _haricots vert_ and +_crême de cérises_ succeeded one another in deepening gloom. The +whole dinner over, and she had not appeared! + +He went out to the lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw +the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he +jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the +word Alexandria spoken fretfully by Mrs. Eversham. + +"Good evening, good evening," said Billy hurriedly to the ladies, +and being a young man of simple directness, undeterred by the +glacial tinge of the ladies' response--they had not forgotten his +defection of the evening before when they were entertaining him so +nicely--he put the question which had been tormenting him all +evening, "Where is Miss Beecher to-night?" + +"Alexandria," said Mrs. Eversham again, and this time there was a +hint of malicious satisfaction in her voice. + +"Alexandria?" Billy was incredulous. "Why I--I understood she was to +go up the Nile to-morrow morning." + +"She was, but she has changed her mind. She had word from some +friends of hers while we were out this afternoon and she flew right +off to join them." + +"You mean she isn't going up the Nile at all now?" + +"I haven't an idea what she is going to do. She is not in our care +any longer. And I don't suppose the boat company will do anything +about her stateroom at this late date--certainly she can't expect us +to go to any trouble about it." + +"She left us half her packing to do," Clara Eversham contributed, +addressing Falconer with plaintive mien, "and her hotel bill to pay. +She is the most unexpected creature!" + +Two young men silently and heartily concurred. + +"What was her hurry?" Billy demanded. + +"Oh, she's going camping in the desert with them--that sort of thing +would fascinate her, you know. Her telegram wasn't very clear. She +just sent a wire from the station, I think, or from Cook's, with +some money for her bill by the boy. So careless, trusting him like +that!" + +"I don't suppose he brought it all," Mrs. Eversham declared. "You +see, she didn't say how much she was sending--just said it was +enough for her bill." + +Billy looked at Falconer. He admired the stolidity of that +sandy-haired young man's countenance. He envied the unrevealing +blankness of his eyes. + +"May I ask where she is stopping in Alexandria?" he persisted. + +Mrs. Eversham shook her head. "She didn't give any address--the best +hotel, I suppose, whatever that is." + +"The Khedivial," Falconer supplied. + +"She just said to send her things to Cook's and to write to her +there and she would write when she came back. She had been expecting +to meet those friends, the Maynards, later, but we had no idea that +she was going to run off with them like this. It's very upsetting." + +"We shall miss her," said Clara Eversham suddenly, with a note of +sincerity that made Billy warm to her a trifle. So he bestirred +himself getting their after dinner coffee and remembered to send +Mohammed for the cream for her, and listened with a show of +attention to their interminable anecdotes and corrections. But his +mind was off on the way to Alexandria.... + +Not a word of farewell. Of course, they had not exactly arrived, in +those twenty-four hours, at a correspondence stage, but still she +had made a positive engagement for that evening--and she had known +he was trying to buy that berth. Only that morning she had listened +to his account of his endeavors with a mischievous light in her blue +eyes and a prankish smile edging her pink lips ... and she might, +after that, have left just a line to tell him to cancel his +arrangements.... But what could he expect from such a tricksy sprite +of a girl? Only twenty-seven hours before he had seen her, +flagrantly tardy, nonchalantly unrepentant, first mock and then +annihilate the worthy and earnest young Englishman who had +endeavored to correct her ways ... He had known then the volatile +stuff that she was made of--and had succumbed to it! + +But he _had_ succumbed. On that point he was most disastrously +certain. The memory of the young girl possessed him. Her beauty +haunted him, that spring-like beauty with its enchanting youth and +gaiety. And the spirit that animated that beauty, that young, +blithe, innocently audacious spirit which looked out on the world +with such sunnily trustful eyes, drew him with a golden cord. + + * * * * * + +He smoked many a pipe over it that night, his feet on the open +window ledge, his eyes on the far-spreading flat roofs, the distant +domes and minarets darkly silhouetted against the sky of softest, +deepest blue. The stars were silver bright. They spangled the heaven +with the radiance they never give to northern skies; they gleamed +like bright, wild creatures on their unearthly revels.... It would +be glorious camping in the desert on a night like this ... Heaven be +praised, he had not bought that berth ... Alexandria ... the +Maynards ... the desert ... + +He knocked out the ashes from his last pipe and rose briskly. His +decision was made, but its success was on the knees of the great god +Luck. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BILLY HAS HIS DOUBTS + + +The encounter in the bazaars that Thursday afternoon brought one +more result to young Hill besides the bruise upon his chin and the +privilege of bowing to Lady Claire and her vigilant chaperon, and +the presence of Lady Claire's little handkerchief in his coat +pocket. + +It brought a young German, scrupulously sober, soberly apologetic, +in formal state to Billy's hotel upon Friday morning, whose card +announced him to be Frederick von Deigen and whose speech proclaimed +him to be utterly aghast at his own untoward behavior. + +"I was not myself," he owned, with a sigh and a melancholy twist of +his upstanding mustaches. "I had been lunching alone--and it is bad +to lunch alone when one has a sadness. One drinks--to forget.... But +you are too young to understand." He waved his hand in compliment to +Billy's youth, then continued, with increasing energy, "But when I +find what _dummheit_ I have done--how I have so rudely addressed the +young Fräulein with you, and have used my fists upon you, even to +the point of hurling you upon the street--I have no words for my +shame." + +"Oh, it wasn't exactly a hurl," Billy easily amended. "There was a +banana peel where my heel happened to be--and I wasn't half +scrapping. I could see you weren't yourself." + +"Indeed no! Would I," he struck himself gloomily upon the breast, +"would I intrude upon a young Fräulein, and attack her protector? It +was that bottle--that last bottle.... I knew--at the time.... I +offer you my apology. I can do no more--unless you would have +satisfaction--no?" + +"I guess I had all the satisfaction that was coming to me +yesterday," said Billy. "You've got a fist like a professional. But +there's no harm done.... Only you want to get over taking that last +bottle and offering presents to young ladies," he concluded, with an +accent of youthful severity. + +The German nodded a depressed head. His melancholy, bloodshot eyes +fixed themselves sadly upon Billy. "Ach, it is so," he assented +meekly, "but when one has a sadness--" He sighed. + +"Yes, of course, that's tough," agreed Billy sympathetically. "I +hate a sadness." + +"Perhaps you have known--?" The other's eyes lifted toward him, then +dropped dispiritedly. "But, no, you are too young. But I--Ach!" He +added in his own tongue a line of which Billy caught _geliebt_ and +_gelebt_, and so nodded understandingly. + +"That geliebing business is bad stuff," he returned, and again the +other tugged at his mustaches with a nervous hand and shook his big +blond head. + +"She was to have met me here," he said abruptly. "She wrote--I was +to come quick--and then she comes not. That is woman, the _ewige +weibliche_." He scowled. "But, Gott, how enchantment was in her!" + +Billy heard himself sigh in unison. The phrase suggested Arlee. And +the situation was not dissimilar. He felt a positive sympathy for +the big blond fellow in his pronounced clothes and glossy boots and +careful boutonnière.... He smiled in friendly fashion. + +"She'll come along yet," he prophesied, "and if she doesn't, just +you go out after her. I wouldn't take too many chances in the +waiting game." + +The German shook his head. His blue eyes swam with sentimental +moisture. "You do not understand," he said. "She went with +another--I must wait for her to come away. I have no address--so?" + +"Well, that--that's different," stammered the young American. His +sympathy became cynical. Fishy business--but even a fishy business +has its human side. So presently he found himself gazing +interestedly upon the photograph the German displayed in the back of +his watch--the photograph of a decolleté young woman with +provocative dark eyes and parted lips and pearl-like teeth, and he +shook the caller's hand most heartily in parting, and prophesied, +with fine assurance, the successful end of this fishy romance. + +"You have a heart, my friend," said the German solemnly, and lifting +hat and stick and lemon-colored gloves from the table, he bowed +profoundly in farewell. + +"And to the Fräulein--you will give my so deep apology?" he added +earnestly, and Billy assured him that he would. And he found +himself, for all his pre-occupation with the vision of Arlee's +spring-like beauty, by no means displeased at the errand. A man must +have something to do while he is waiting--if he is to avoid last +bottles! He would seek her out that very afternoon. + + * * * * * + +But by afternoon he was tearing upstairs and downstairs through the +hotel after a very different quarry, which at last he ran to earth +at a tiny table behind a palm on the veranda. The quarry was further +protected by an enveloping newspaper, but Billy did not stand on +ceremony. + +"I want to talk to you," said he. + +Falconer looked up. He recognized Billy perfectly, though his gaze +gave no admission of that. This tall young fellow with the deep-set +gray eyes and the rugged chin and the straight black hair he first +remembered seeing dancing that Wednesday evening with Arlee--after +their own disastrous tea and its estrangement. Arlee had appeared on +mystifyingly good terms with him, though he was positive from his +own observations, and had corroboration from the Evershams, that she +had never spoken to him until five minutes before. Then the fellow +had fairly grilled the Evershams about the girl's whereabouts last +night. And he had learned that the previous afternoon he had managed +to take Claire's protection upon himself in the bazaars, actually +convincing her that she ought to feel indebted to him, and had +driven back with them.... An unabashed intruder, that fellow! He +ought to have a lesson. + +His air of unwelcome deepened, if possible, as Billy helped himself +to a chair, drew it confidentially close to him and cast a careful +glance about the veranda. + +"I don't want anyone to hear this," he explained. + +Falconer smiled cynically. He had met confidential young Americans +before. There was nothing they could sell _him_. + +"It's about Miss Beecher." Billy looked uncomfortable. He hesitated, +blushed boyishly through his tan, and blurted, "There's something +mighty queer about that departure of hers yesterday." + +"Ah!" + +"I don't feel right about it.... It's deuced queer. She isn't in +Alexandria." + +"Ah!" + +"If you say 'Ah' again, I hope you choke," said Billy violently to +himself. Aloud he continued, "I wired to the Khedivial and to all +the other hotels--there are just a few--and she isn't registered +there, and the Maynards are not, either." + +"Possibly staying with friends," said Falconer indifferently. He +regarded his paper. + +"Very few Americans have friends in Alexandria. However, that might +be so. But no ship has arrived from the Continent for three days, +and it seems mighty odd, if they were there three days ago, for them +to have wired at the last minute and had her tear off like that." + +"I do not pretend to account for your compatriots," said the +sandy-haired young man. + +Billy looked at him a minute. "There's no use in your being +disagreeable," he remarked. "I didn't thrust myself upon you because +I was attracted to you, at all. But I thought you were a sensible, +masculine human being who was interested in Miss Beecher's +whereabouts." + +"I beg your pardon," said the other young man. "I am--I mean I am +interested--if you think there is anything really wrong. But I do +not see your point." + +"Well, now, see if you can see this. I wired the consul there and +some other fellow at the port, and they wired back that no people of +the name of Maynard have arrived on any of the boats for the past +two weeks--that was as far back as they looked up. Now that's +_queer_." + +"He could be mistaken--or they could have bought some one else's +accommodations--and that would account for the hastiness of their +plans," Falconer argued. + +"But what train did she go on?" + +"What train? Why, the express for Alexandria." + +"That left at eight-thirty. Now why in the world would she rush away +in the middle of the afternoon, sending a telegram from the station +and leaving her packing undone, for an eight-thirty train?" + +"Why I--I really can't say. She may have had errands----" + +"Where did she have her dinner? Did she dine with friends at some of +the hotels? What friends has she here?" + +"I really can't say as to that, either. I wasn't aware that she had +any." + +"And where did she send that telegram from? There isn't a copy of +any such telegram at the offices I've been to--at Cook's or the +station. It might have been written on a telegraph blank and sent up +by messenger with the money--but why not come herself, with all that +time on her hands? And nobody remembers selling her any ticket to +Alexandria--and you know anybody would remember selling anything to +a girl like that." + +Falconer was silent. + +"And nobody at Cook's paid out any money on her letter of credit--or +cashed any express checks for her. Where did that money come from +that was sent back to the hotel?" + +"But what is the point of all this?" + +"That's what I just particularly don't know.... But it needs looking +into." + +Falconer favored him with a level scrutiny. "How long have you known +Miss Beecher?" + +"I met her the night before last. That, however, doesn't enter into +the case." + +"It would seem to me that it might." + +"Between three days and three weeks," said Billy, remembering +something, "the difference is sometimes no greater than between +Tweedledum and Tweedledee." He smiled humorously at the other young +man, a frank, likeable smile that softened magically the bluntness +of his young mouth. "That's why I came to you. You are the only soul +I know to be interested in Miss Beecher's welfare. The Evershams are +off up the Nile--and they'd probably be helpless, anyway. Besides, +you know more about this blamed Egypt of yours than I do.... Have +you any idea where she went yesterday afternoon?" + +"Not at all." + +"Neither have the Evershams. They were surprised when I asked them +about it this morning. They didn't know she was going. Now she went +somewhere in a limousine----" + +"Probably to the station." + +"American girls don't go to stations in floating white clothes and +hats all pink roses. I particularly remember the pink rose," said +Billy gloomily. "No, if she had been going to the station she would +have had on a little blue or gray suit, very up and down, and a +little minute of a hat with just one perky feather. And she'd have a +bag of sorts with her--no girl would rush away to Alexandria without +a bag." + +"She could have sent it ahead of her or returned and dressed later +for the station." + +"Why the mischief did I tramp off to those bazaars?" said the young +American. "But, see here--weren't you around the hotel after that +yesterday--at tea time?" + +"Er--yes--I----" + +"And weren't you rather looking out for Miss Beecher? Wouldn't you +have noticed if she had been coming or going?" + +Falconer stroked his small mustache and shot a look at Billy out of +the corners of his eyes which expressed his distinct annoyance at +these intrusive demands. + +"I don't remember to have met you," said he slowly. + +"You haven't. I know your name, but you don't know mine. I am +William B. Hill." + +"Ah--Behill." + +"No--_B._ Hill. The B is an initial." + +"Of what?" said the other casually, and Billy's cheeks grew suddenly +warm. + +"Of my middle name," said he, with steady composure. "If we are to +do any team-work you will have to let it go at the William and the +Hill." + +"What team-work do you suggest?" + +"Find out where she went yesterday. Find out where she is now. What +worries me," he burst out, with ungovernable uneasiness, yet with a +hint of humor at his own extravagant imaginings, "is her talking to +that Turk fellow yesterday--that Captain Kerissen, I think she +called him. She had told me the night before that he was going to +get her some ball tickets or other, and I didn't think anything of +it, but yesterday I thought he had his nerve to come and call upon +her. You see, I passed through the hall and saw them talking. I went +out to the veranda and after he had gone I came in again, but she +was nowhere in sight. Then I went back to the veranda, and in a few +moments she came out, in white with a rose on her hat, and went off +in a car that was ready. Of course Kerissen wasn't in the car, and I +haven't any proof of his connection with the thing, but he might +easily have induced her to look at some mosque or other off the +'beaten track'----" + +"But she returned, for later she sent that telegram from the +station," Falconer argued. + +Billy was silent. Then he burst out, "But all the same there is a +mystery to this thing.... She--she's too confoundedly young and +pretty to run around alone in this painted jade of a city." + +"This city has law and order--much more of them than there are in +your national hotbeds of robbery and murder." + +"H'm--well, I don't hold any brief for Chicago--I suppose Chicago is +the target--so I won't defend that. But I've heard stories." + +"Queer ones, I should say." + +"_Devilish_ queer ones!... How about that young Monkton or Monkhouse +who dropped out of things last winter?" + +Falconer looked annoyed. "Oh, there are rumors----" + +"Yes, rumors that he flirted with a Turkish lady--that he was on +horseback just outside her carriage during the jam at the +Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and they looked and smiled and afterwards met in +a shop. And rumors that she gave him a _rendezvous_ at her home and +that he told another man about it at the club, who warned him +sharply, and he only laughed.... But it's no rumor that he +disappeared. He's gone, all right, and nobody knows where he went, +and nobody seems to want to know. Officially they said he was +drowned out swimming--or lost in a sandstorm riding in the +desert--or spiked on top of an obelisk or something equally +reasonable--but, privately, people say other things.... No +international law intrudes into the Turkish woman question." + +"What of it?" Falconer looked stubborn. "I daresay the fellow +received his deserts.... But the case hardly applies--what?" + +"Well--it makes one feel that anything can happen here--that the +city is quicksand where a chance step would engulf one." Billy +stared frowningly out on the vivid street ahead of him. A pretty +English bride and her soldier husband were out exercising their +dogs. Two ladies in a victoria were advertising their toilettes. A +blond baby toddled past with his black nurse. It was all very +peaceful and charming. It did not look like quicksand.... Into the +picture came a one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile on his head, +stalking slowly along, scanning the veranda with his single, +penetrating eye, calling his wares in harsh gutturals, and with him +came suddenly the sense of that strange background before which all +this bright tourist life was played, that dark watching, secret +East, curious and incalculable. + +Falconer folded his paper with a sharp crackle that recalled young +Hill's wandering thought. "That's all very well, but it doesn't +apply," he observed, with conviction. + +"Then where is she?" Billy was bluntly belligerent. + +The other put his paper in his pocket. "In Alexandria, to be sure, +and not at all pleased, either, to have you bring her name into such +questioning." He looked squarely at Billy as he said that, and the +eyes of the two young man met and exchanged a secret challenge of +hostility. + +Billy rose. "Oh, all right," he returned. "I daresay I am as much a +fool as you take me for.... She may be all right. But if not--I +thought I'd give you a chance to take a hand in it." + +"The sporting chance," said Falconer, with an appreciable smile. +"I'm much obliged--but I don't at all share your misgivings.... And +what in the world do you propose to do about it?" + +For a minute Billy's gaze blankly interrogated the sunlit distances. +His eyes were fixed, but empty; his forehead knitted in an uncertain +frown. Then quite suddenly he turned and flashed at Falconer a look +of odd and unforeseen decision. + +"I'm going to buy a crocodile," he imparted, with a wide, boyish +grin. "I'm going to buy a crocodile of a one-eyed man." + +Stolidly Falconer eyed his departing back. Stolidly, definitely, +comprehensively, he pronounced judgment. "Mad," said he. "Mad as the +March Hare." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR + + +That stealthy touch brought Arlee half upright, shot with ghastly +alarms. Her heart stopped beating; it stood still in the cold clutch +of terror. The breath seemed to have left her body. + +Once more she felt the hands gropingly upon her. It came from the +back side of her bed, reaching apparently from the very wall. And +then she heard a voice whispering, "Be still--I do not hurt you. Be +still." + +It was a woman's voice, soft, sibilant, hushed, and the frozen grip +of fear was broken. She was trembling now uncontrollably. + +"Who is there?" + +"S-sh!" came the warning response, and then, her eyes staring into +the shadowy recess, she saw the curtains at the back side of the bed +were parting as a figure appeared between them. + +"Give me a box, a book--somethings to put here in this lock," +commanded the voice peremptorily, and in a daze Arlee found herself +extending a magazine across the bed toward the half-seen figure, who +turned and busied herself about the curtains a moment, then came +straight across the bed into the room beside Arlee. + +"Now you see who I am," said the astonishing intruder calmly. + +Mutely Arlee shook her head, seeing only a figure about her own +height clad in a dark negligée. Dumfounded she stood watching while +her visitor deliberately lighted a candle. + +"So--that is better," she observed, and in the light of the tiny +taper between them the two stood facing each other. + +Arlee saw a girl some years older than herself, a small, plump, +rounded creature, with a flaunting and insouciant prettiness. Her +eyes were dark and bright, her babyish lips were full and scarlet, +her nose was whimsically uptilted. Dark hair curled closely to the +vivid face and fell in ringlets over the white neck. + +"You don't know me?" she said in astonishment at Arlee's eyes of +wonder. "He has not told you?" Incredulity, impertinent and mocking, +darted out of the dark eyes. "What you think then--you what got my +room?" + +"Your room?" Arlee echoed faintly. She flung a quivering hand toward +the bed. "How did you get in here? I locked the door----" + +"You see how I came--I came by the panel," She waited a moment, +watching the wide blue eyes before her, the parted lips, the white +cheeks in which the blood was slowly stealing back, and incredulity +gave way to astonished acceptance. "You don't know that, either? +That is very funny." + +"Did you lock it?" was Arlee's next breathless question. "What was +that you said about putting in a magazine? Did you leave it open?" + +The other girl reached quickly and caught her arm, as Arlee turned +toward the bed. "No, no, if it goes shut we cannot open it inside," +she warned. "It does not open this side unless you have the key. It +opens from without. But he will not come in now--he is at the +Khedive's palace. We are all right." + +"But I want to get away," cried Arlee. She turned upon this other +girl great eyes of pitiful entreaty, eyes where the dark shadows +about them lay like cruel bruises on the white flesh. "I must get +away at once. Won't you help me?" + +"Help you? I would help myself, if I could. But there is no way out. +It is no use." The unknown girl spoke with a bitterness that brought +conviction. Piteously the flare of hope and spirit wilted. + +"You are sure?" she questioned faintly. "There is no way out?" + +"No way, no way!" The other shook her head impatiently. "Do I not +know? Let us talk of that again. Now I came to see you, to see what +pretty face had sent me packing!" She laughed, but there was +ugliness in the laughter, and catching up the candle she held it +before Arlee, her face impudently close, her eyes black darts of +curiosity. + +"Well you are pretty enough," she said coolly. "Hamdi has always the +good taste. But do you think you will keep my room from me--h'm?" + +"I do not want your room," said Arlee with passionate intensity. +"I do not want to stay here. I want only to go away. Oh, there must +be a way. Please help me--please." She choked and broke down, the +tears hot in her eyes. + + [Illustration: "'I do not want to stay here'"] + +The other girl abruptly drew her down on the couch and settled +herself beside her among the cushions. "Here--be comfortable--let us +be comfortable and talk," she said. "Do not cry so--What, you are so +soon sorry? You want to be off?" + +Desperately Arlee steadied her shaking voice. "I must go at once." + +"You got enough so soon?" + +"Enough!" was the quivering echo. + +"What you come for then?" + +"Come for? I did not know what I was coming into. I thought--but +tell me," she broke off to demand, "tell me about the plague. Was +there any quarantine at all? How soon was it over? What is really +happening?" + +"Quar--quar--what you mean?" + +"The plague? Has there been a plague here? Have people had to stay +in the palace on account of it?" + +"Oh--h!" The indrawn breath was eloquent of enlightenment. "Is that +somethings he said to you?" + +"Yes, yes. Isn't it true? Wasn't there any plague?" + +With eyes of dreadful apprehension she saw the other shake her head +in vigorous denial. "No plague," she said decisively. "My maid--she +know everything. No sickness here." + +"Then it was all a lie." Arlee's eyes fixed themselves on the +dancing candle flame, swaying in the soft night air. She tried to +think very coolly and collectedly, but her brain felt numb and +fogged and heavy. The sight of that tortured candle flame hypnotized +her. Faintly she whispered, "Then it was all--an excuse," and, at +that, sharp terror, like a knife, cleaved her numbness. She turned +furiously to her visitor. + +"But he would not dare make it all up!" + +She saw the callousness of the shrug. "Why not--he is the master +here!" Her own heart echoed fearfully the words. She stammered, +"But--but I wrote--I had a letter--there must----" + +"What in all the world are you saying?" demanded the other. "What is +this story?" and as Arlee began the quick, whispered narration she +listened intently, her little dark head on one side, nodding wisely +at intervals. + +"So--you came to have tea," she repeated at the close, in her +quaintly inflected, foreign-sounding English. "And you stay because +of the plague? So?" + +"But I wrote--I wrote to my friends and----" + +"And gave him the letters!" + +"But I had a letter from my friends--or a telegram rather." Arlee +knitted her brows in furious thought. "And it sounded like her." + +"Does he know her, that friend?" questioned the other and at Arlee's +nod, "Then he could write it himself--that is easy on telegraph +paper. He is so clever, that devil, Hamdi." + +"But my friends knew where I was going"--slowly the mind turned back +to trace the blind, careless steps of that afternoon. "At least he +said he'd leave a note--Oh, what a fool I was!" she broke off to +gasp, seeing how that forethought of his, that far-sighted remark, +had prevented her from leaving a note of her own. And she remembered +now, with flashing clearness, that upon her arrival he had +carelessly inquired if she, too, had left a note of explanation. How +lightly she had told him no! And what unguessed springs of action +came perhaps from that single word! For so cleverly had the trap +been swiftly prepared that if anything had gone wrong, if anyone had +become aware of her intentions, it could have passed off as a visit +and she would have returned to her hotel prattling joyously of her +wonderful glimpse into the seclusion of Turkish aristocracy! + +"But the soldier with the bayonet," she said aloud. "There was one +on the stairs." + +"A servant." + +"Oh, if I had passed him!" + +"You could not--he would run you through on a nod from Hamdi. They +watch that stairs always--day and night." + +Day and night--and she was alone here, in this grim palace, alone +and helpless and forsaken.... What were her friends thinking about +her? Where did they think she was? Her thoughts beat desperately +upon that problem, trying to find there some ray of hope, some +promise that there were clues which would lead them to her, but she +found nothing there but deeper mystery and fearful surmise. He was +clever enough to cover his traces. No one had known of his +connection with her departure.... Perhaps he had sent them some +false and misleading message like the one he had sent her.... What +were they thinking? What did they believe? This was Friday night, +and she had been gone since Thursday afternoon. + +In that moment she saw with merciless clarity the bitter straits +that she was in. + +"Oh, he is a devil!" her companion was reaffirming with an angry +little half-whisper sibilant with fury. "Look how he treat me--me, +Fritzi Baroff! You do not know me? You do not know that name? In +Vienna it is not so unknown--Oh, God, I was so happy in Vienna!" She +stopped, her breast heaving, with the flare of emotion, then went on +quickly, with suppressed vehemence, "I was a singer--in the light +opera. I dance, too, and I was arriving. Only this year I was to +have a fine rôle--and it all went, zut, it all went for that man! I +was one fool about him, and his dark eyes and his strange ways.... I +thought I had a prince. And he worship me then, too--he follow me, +he give me big diamonds.... So he take me here--it was to be the +vacation!" + +She gave a strangling little laugh. Arlee was listening with a +painful intensity. She was living, she thought, in an Arabian +nights. + +"I stay at the hotel first till he make this like a private +apartment for me," went on the little dancer, "and when I come here +he do everything for me. I have luxury, yes, jewels and dresses and +a fine new car. Then, by and by, I grow tired. It was always the +same and he was at the palace, much. And he would not let me make +acquaintance. We quarrel, but still I have a fancy for him, and +then, you understand, money is not always so easy to find. Life can +be hard. But I get more restless, I want to go back on the stage and +I, well, I write some letters that he finds out. _Bang_, goes the +door upon me! He laugh like a fiend. He say that I am to be a little +Turkish lady to the end of my life. Oh, God, he shut me up like a +prisoner in this place, and I can do nothing--nothing--nothing!" + +She beat out angry emphasis on the palm of one hand with a clenched +little fist. "I go nearly mad. I lose my head. He laugh--he is like +that. He is a devil when he turns against you, and, you understand, +he had somethings new to play with now.... Sometimes he seem to love +me as before, and then I would grow soft and coax that he take me to +Europe some day, and then when I think he mean it--Oh, how he +laugh!" She drew in her breath sharply. "Sometimes I think he will +take me again--sometime--but I cannot tell. And the days never end. +They are terrible. My youth is going, going. And my youth is all I +have." + +She looked at Arlee with eyes where her terror was visible, and all +the lines of her pretty, common little face were changed and +sharpened, and her babyish lips dragged down strangely at the +corners. + +A surge of pity went through Arlee Beecher. "Oh, you will escape," +she heard herself saying eagerly. "And I will escape--or--or----" + +"Or?" + +"Or I will kill myself," she whispered quiveringly. + +The little Viennese stared hard at her, and a sudden crinkle of +amusement darted across the bright shallows of her eyes. "Come, +love is not so bad," she said, "and Hamdi can be charming." Then as +she saw a shudder run through the young girl before her, "Oh, if you +do not fancy him!" she cried airily, yet with a keen look. + +But Arlee's two hands sought and covered up the scarlet shame in her +face. She did not cry; she felt that every tear in her was dried in +that bitter flame. Her whole body seemed on fire, burning with fury +and revulsion and that awful sense of humiliation. + +The other stirred restively, "Come, do not cry--I hate people to +cry. It makes everything so worse. And do not talk of killing. It is +not so easy anyway, that killing. Do I not think I will die and end +all when my rage is hot--but how? How? I cannot beat my head out +against the wall like a Russian. I cannot stick a penknife in my +throat or eat glass. To do that one must be a monster of courage. +And I have no poison to eat, no gas to turn on.... Then the mood +goes and the day is bright and I look in the glass and say, 'Die? +Die for you? Kill all this beautiful young thing that has such joy +to dance and sing? Never! Some day I will be out of this and laugh +at the memory of such blackness.' And so I practice my voice and my +steps--and I wait my chance. When you came, yesterday, first I was +furious to be pushed out, then I think it is the chance, maybe. I +think you would be glad to help me to get out and not to stay to +make you jealous. But if you are also in the trap----" Her voice +fell dispiritedly. She drew a long, weary breath. + +"But I shall not stay in the trap." Arlee spoke with desperate +resolve, her eyes on the sputtering candle, her palms against her +burning cheeks, her finger tips pressed into her throbbing temples. +"I shall not let him make me afraid like this. He must know he will +be found out--he cannot play like this with an American girl! I +shall face him to-morrow. I shall demand my freedom. I shall tell +him that I did tell people at the hotel--that he will be discovered. +I will make _him_ afraid!" + +"You cannot. He watches what happens on the outside--he knows." + +After a pause, "Oh, why did I come!" said Arlee in choking +bitterness. + +The little dancer turned, and, sitting there cross-legged on the +couch like a squat little idol, her chin sunk in her palm, her dark +eyes staring unwinkingly at Arlee, gave the girl a long, strange +scrutiny. + +"You do not like him?" she said. + +"I hate him!" + +"But you came to tea?" + +"To meet his sister. To see the palace." + +"His sister? Did he show you one?" + +"Yes--a woman with red hair. A Turkish woman. She spoke French to +me." + +"Ah--that would be Seniha!" + +"Seniha? I don't know. She played the piano. Has he more than one +sister?" + +But as she put the question a sudden flash of intuition forestalled +the dancer's mocking cry of "Sister!" And as Fritzi hurried on, "He +has no sister--not here, anyway," Arlee's thoughts ran back to the +beginning of that very evening which seemed so long ago when she had +plunged wildly into those unknown rooms, and saw again that +painted, jeweled woman with her outstretched arms. + +"She is his wife," the Viennese was saying. + +"I--I did not know that he was married." + +"Oh, Turkish marriages." The other shrugged, with a contempt a +trifle droll in one who had dispensed with every ceremony. "She was +his second. The first was a little girl, he said. The match was made +for him. She is dead. This Seniha was her cousin, a cousin who was +divorced and she lived with the wife. And our pretty Hamdi made love +to her, and she was mad about him and so, presently, it happens that +he must marry her, for it would be terrible to have disgrace upon +the wife's family. Besides the first wife had no children. So he +married her. But _she_ had no children. It was all one fairy story." +Fritzi laughed under her breath in great enjoyment. "So Hamdi was +cheated and he has been a devil to her. The first little wife dies +and he shut the second up here, teasing her sometimes, sometimes +making love when he is dull, but forcing her to his will for fear he +will divorce her.... How she must have hated you, when she had to +play that sister. Except that she was glad that _I_ was being put +aside," the dancer added with quick spite. "I think she would put +poison in my meat if she did not fear Hamdi so.... And always she +hopes that he will come back to her. I have seen her waiting, night +after night----" + +And Arlee thought of the jewels and the silks ... and the long, +long, silent hours.... Slowly she put out her hand and snuffed out +the smoking wick, then raised her eyes to where the painted bars +stretched black across the starry square of sky. "Won't _she_ +help?" she asked. + +"Not she! Hamdi would find her out.... Not through her can you get +word to your friends. For you have friends here? And they will help +you? And then you will help me?" + +"Oh, yes, if I can get help," promised Arlee. "But I am afraid my +friends have gone up the Nile--and there are just--just one or two +left in Cairo that would help. And I must get word to them _at +once_. What is the best way? Couldn't I push a note through the +windows on the street? Someone might see that!" + +"Yes, the doorkeeper. No, that is not safe.... If only that girl +were sure----" + +"Mariayah?" cried Arlee. + +"No, the other--the little one with the wart over her eye. Have you +seen her? Well, watch for her, then. She has an itching palm--she +may help. But only in little things, of course, for she is afraid. +And I have no money left and she is afraid to take a jewel." + +"I have almost no money," said Arlee blankly. "Only a letter of +credit----" + +"A letter of nothing here! But promise her your friends will give +much." + +"Would she mail a letter?" + +"Have you stamps? No? She is so ignorant that is an obstacle. And +the post is distant and she dare not go far. But sometimes the baker +sends a little boy, and if you had money to give she might get a +note to him to carry--though, maybe, she burns the note and keeps +the money," the Viennese ended pessimistically. + +"But I must get help _at once_," Arlee iterated passionately. +Before----" + +"Before?" the other repeated curiously, "He makes love to you--h'm?" + +"He--is beginning." + +"Only beginning?" + +"Only--beginning." Arlee felt the girl's strange, hard scrutiny +through the dark. Then she heard her draw a quick breath as if her +eyes on Arlee's flower-like face had convinced her of something +against all her sorry little reason. + +"Well, that is good then," she said. "Try to keep him off. What does +he promise you?" + +"Promise me? He does not promise anything." + +"But he must say something--what is between you--what?" demanded the +other impatiently. + +Briefly, her shamed cheeks grateful for the shadows, Arlee told of +that walk in the garden, of the flowers and the letter, the scene +after dinner. And the other girl's eyes grew wider and wider, and +then finally she burst into a smothered little laugh. + +"Oh, he is mad, that Hamdi!" she whispered. "He is a monster of +vanity--'conquest of the spirit'--h'm, I comprehend. That young man +has a pride beyond all sense. You dazzle him--he is in love again +like a boy. And he must dazzle you. His pride demands a victory not +of force alone.... Some men are like that.... Well, that is your +chance!" + +"My chance?" + +"Play with his vanity--fight his force with that!" said this strange +initiator into terrible secrets. "He will believe anything of his +fascinations--I know him. And if he is so mad for you that he dares +all this trouble to have you here, then he is so mad that you can +fool him and make him hold back in hopes to gain more from you. Make +him think you are coming, as he wishes, heart and body, but still +you would wait a little. So you gain time.... Oh, you must be +careful! If he loses hope, if you anger him, why the game is over. +But if you are careful you can gain a few days----" + +"A few days," said Arlee in a tense little voice. + +"Well, that is something--since you hate him so!" + +"Yes, that is something." Arlee drew a shivering breath, her head +drooping, her lashes on her cheeks. Then suddenly, amazingly, her +chin came pluckily up, her soft lips set with desperate decision, +her eyes turned on her counselor a look of flashing spirit. She was +like some young wild thing at bay, harried, defiant, tensely +defensive. Something of the pathos of her innocent presence there, +in that evil palace, utterly alone, hopelessly defiant, penetrated +for an instant the callous acceptances of the little dancer and her +eyes softened with facile sympathy, but the impression dulled, and +she only nodded her head encouragingly. + +"Good! That is the way! Women can always act!" she murmured, +slipping off the divan and drawing her fluttering robes about her. +"But it is very late and I must go--it is not safe to stay so." + +"Where is your room? Could I get to you?" + +"No--for you cannot open that panel on the inside--unless you can +steal the key from him as I could not! My room--for this present, +little one," and her eyes laughed suddenly in challenge, "is up on +the top--a little old room all alone. My doors are locked, but there +is a panel in my room, too, a panel at the top of tiny stairs, and +the lock on that panel is so old and rusty that a knife make it +open. So I pushed it open and came down the tiny stairs that end out +there in the passage way, and I opened your panel. Now I must steal +back, but I shall come again, and we must plan." + +"But where does this secret passage go?" Arlee had followed over the +bed, and held aside the heavy draperies while the little Baroff was +pushing the panel softly and carefully open. Eagerly Arlee peered +out into the darkness beyond. "Where does it go?" she repeated. + +"It runs above the hall of banquets and into the _selamlik_," +whispered the Viennese. "It opens into Hamdi's rooms, he says, and I +know that a servant sleeps always at his door and another is at the +foot of the stairs. So it would be madness to try that way." + +But Arlee stared thoughtfully into the secret place. "I am glad I +know," she said. + +"Well, good-by, little one." The Viennese was standing outside now, +softly closing the door. For a moment her face remained in the +opening. "You will not tell Hamdi that I came--no?" she demanded +sharply, and then on Arlee's quick reassurance she nodded, whispered +good-by again, and drew back her little face. + +The wall rolled into place and a gentle click told of the caught +lock. The curtains fell back over the wall. And Arlee was left +huddling there alone, feeling that it had all been a dream, but for +the heavy scent that lingered in the air and the wild fear beating +in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DESPERATE GAME + + +Very slowly the black night grayed down into a wan, spectral +morning, and slowly the gray morning paled into a dim +mother-of-pearl dawn. And then suddenly the mother-of-pearliness +brightened into a shimmering opal, and the ray of pale gold light +slanted through the barred window and the bright face of new day +peeped over the sill, staring out of countenance the lurking shadows +of the night. + +And then Arlee's eyes closed, and the heart which had been beating +like a frightened rabbit's at every sound and shadow steadied into a +rhythm as regular as a clock. She slept like a tired baby; while the +light grew brighter and higher, and reached in over the shining +dressing table, over the white piano, to rest upon the oblivious +face upon the couch and to play with the bright, tangled hair. + +The first knocking upon the door did not disturb that sleep, and it +was a long time before the knock was again sounded. Then Arlee heard +and sprang to her feet in a lightning rush of consciousness. It was +Mariayah again, and the water jars which already looked familiar to +her, and after the water jars appeared more roses and with the roses +a letter. + +Those roses came, the letter explained, to droop their heads before +her loveliness, which put theirs to shame. They would greet her as +humbler sisters greet a fairer. For they were roses of a day, but +she was the Rose of Life. The capitals were Kerissen's own. And then +abruptly the letter demanded: + + Did I frighten you last night? Is it so strange to you + that you have magic to make a man forget all the barriers + of your convention? Do you not know you have an + enchantment which distills in the blood and changes it to + wine? You are the Rose of Life, the Rose of Desire, and + no man can look upon you without longing. But you must + not be angry at me for that, for I am your slave, and + would strew roses always to soften the world for your + little feet.... Fortune has made you my guest. Will you + not smile upon me while Fortune smiles? Luncheon will be + in the garden, for it is cool and fresh today. + +The mask was slipping. Only a flimsy veil of sentiment now over his +rash will. Only a light pretense of her freedom, of his courtesy. He +was beginning to declare himself.... + +But she must not let him suspect that she knew. She must _not_. + +Her spirit responded fiercely to this tense demand upon it. The +dread, the panic of the night was gone. The fear that had shaken her +was beaten down like a cowardly dog. Excitement burned in her blood. +Everything depended upon her coolness and her wit, upon a look, +perhaps, the turn of a phrase, the droop of an eye, and she was +passionately resolved that neither coolness nor wit should fail her, +nor words nor looks nor eyes betray the heart of her. She would play +her rôle with every breath she drew. + + * * * * * + +She crossed the room at the luncheon summons in the nervous tensity +of mood that an actress might go to play a part in which her career +would live or die. Every half hour with Kerissen was now a duel, +every minute was a stroke to be parried, and she flung herself into +that duel with the desperate exhilaration of such daring. Her hands +were icy, and her cheeks were flaming with the excitement which +consumed her, but she revealed no other trace of it, and she +wondered to herself at the inscrutable fairness of the face which, +looked back at her from the glass. + +None of the record of those frightened, sleepless hours was written +there, none of her furious pride, her fixed intensity. Only the soft +shadows under the blue eyes gave her face a look of added delicacy +for all the unnatural flare of brilliant color, and a faint +wistfulness in those eyes seemed to overlay the smiles she +practiced, like a cloud shadow on a brook. And never, never, in all +her glad, care-free days, had she been as distractingly pretty as +she was that moment. With an angry little pang she recognized it, +pinning on the lace hat with its enchanting rose, and then +desperately she resolved to employ it and added two of Kerissen's +pink roses to the costume. + +She thought the scene was very like a stage, when she came out +through the narrow door which the old woman unlocked from a key she +carried on a girdle, and slowly descended the stone steps. Beneath +the wide-spreading lebbek a low table was laid for luncheon with two +wicker chairs beside it. The green of the fresh turf was as vivid as +stage grass; the lilies loomed unreally large and white; the +poinsettias flaunted like red paper flowers behind the vivid picture +that the Captain made in a dazzling buff and green uniform picked +out with gold. His bow was theatric, so was the deep look of +exaggerated admiration he bent upon her--it was strange to remember +that her danger was not theatric also. But that was deadly real, and +real, too, was the sudden surge of color into the young man's sallow +face. + +"You are kind to my roses--if not to me," he said quickly, and held +out his hand for the brief little clasp she accorded. + +"Your roses are dumb and have said nothing to make me cross," she +laughed lightly, and looked swiftly about her. "How lovely this is," +she ran on, "and how charming to feel a breeze. That room is rather +warm and close.... Is you sister still too ill to come?" + +And scarcely waiting for the assent which he began to frame with his +searching eyes upon her, she added, "I am afraid I made her angry +last night by intruding upon her. But I heard her voice and ran back +to her room to ask after her. She wouldn't let me stay at all." + +It was droll how natural her voice sounded, she thought. His eyes +held their fixed scrutiny in an instant, then dropped carelessly +away, as he drew forward the wicker chairs. "She is a _nerveuse_, +you understand," he said with an air of indolent resignation, "and +one can do nothing for that sort of thing. A crisis comes--one must +wait for it to pass.... She regrets that condition.... And she +wished me to present her regrets to you," he added suavely, "for +that reception of you last night. She was ill and did not expect +you--and she did not wish you to see her in that condition." + +"I should not have gone," acknowledged Arlee, "but, as I said, I +heard voices from the ante-room and thought I would like to see +her.... That pretty little maid she gave me does not speak any +English, so I cannot send any messages." + +"But you can write them." + +"My French spelling is worse than my pronunciation!" She laughed +amusedly. "I wish you would find me an interpreter to put my polite +remarks into polite sounding phrases. I know I put things like a +First Reader!" + +He smiled. "You do not put them like a First Reader to me. _We_ do +not need an interpreter.... Unless I need one to speak to you?" + +"Oh, no, your English is wonderful!" She waited an instant, then +took a breathless plunge. "Have you any more news for me?" she +demanded, forcing the note of expectancy. It would be suspicious, +indeed, if she did not ask that. But what if he had decided to throw +the pretense aside---- + +"Not one word of news more," he said slowly. + +She felt him watching her as she looked down on her plate. The +pretty little girl was passing a platter of pigeon: Arlee did not +speak until she had helped herself, then she said in a voice touched +faintly with chagrin, "Well, the English are not very gallant toward +ladies in misfortune, are they? I feel furiously snubbed.... Of +course Mrs. Eversham never was much of a writer, but they might send +over my letters from the hotel. The last mail ought to have brought +a lot from that big brother of mine." + +"Ah, yes, that big, grown-up, married brother who is so satisfied +with all you do!" + +She felt she had been unfortunate in her rash confidences. + +"He won't be so pleased when he learns how I wasted a perfectly good +Nile ticket," she remarked. "And Big Brother is rather fierce when +he isn't pleased." + +His eyes smiled, as if he understood and despised her suggestion. +"Cairo and your America are not so near," he observed negligently, +"that an incident here is a matter of immediate knowledge there." + +She felt the danger of seeming to threaten him. "Oh, I'd 'fess up," +she said lightly, playing with her food. "There--shoo--go away!" she +cried suddenly, with a militant gesture about her plate. "That's one +thing I hate about Egypt--the flies!" + +"I hope that is the only thing you hate," said the young man +blandly. + +"Isn't that enough? There are so many of them!" + +He laughed with real amusement at her petulance. "Is there netting +enough in your room?" he inquired. "Would you like more for your +bed?" + +"Oh, no, I'm all right, thank you. The flies are chiefly bothersome +at meals. This is certainly their paradise." + +"But is there anything you would like--to make you happy here? I +will get it for you. Would you not like some books, some music, some +new clothes----" + +"I don't wonder you ask! But really this white gown will last a +little longer--Cairo is so clean. No, thank you, there is nothing I +need bother you about--Oh, yes, there really is one book that I +would like--a Turkish or an Arabic dictionary. I have always meant +to learn a little of the language and this would seem the +opportunity." + +In the pause in which he appeared to be consuming pigeon she could +feel him weighing her request, foreseeing its results. + +"I shall be most happy to teach you," was what he said, but she knew +she would never have that dictionary. And so one plan of the morning +went flying to the winds. But she snatched at the next opening she +saw and plunged into interested questions about the Turkish +language, asking the words for such things as seemed spontaneously +to occur to her--wall, palace, table--numbers--days of the +week--repeating the pronunciation with the earnestness of a diligent +young pupil, until she felt that her memory had all it could hold. +And distrust, always ready now like a prompter in the box, suggested +most upsettingly that perhaps he was not giving the right words. She +resolved to experiment upon Mariayah. + +He reverted, with increasing emphasis, upon his desire to make her +happy in the palace, to surround her with whatever she desired, and +swiftly she availed herself of this second opening. + +"Yes, indeed, there is something that would make me happier, if you +don't mind, please," she added with a droll assumption of meekness. +"You don't know how horrid it is for me to be caged in one room and +not be out of doors, and I would love to come down into the garden +when I want to. Won't you give me a key to that door? That is, if it +is always locked." + +"Generally it is not," he said readily, "but now with the soldiers +about it is safer. You see, the soldiers can approach the garden +through the open banquet hall"--and he nodded to the colonnade +behind them--"and though it is forbidden, one cannot foretell their +obedience." + +To one who knew those soldiers were chimerical acquiescence was +maddening. + +"But, dear me, can't you have some one in the banquet hall to shoo +the soldiers away?" Arlee argued persuasively. "Since the rest of +the household has the court, it seems awfully selfish not to let the +ladies have the garden for their airing." + +"It may be managed," he assented. "It has always been done, for the +garden is for the ladies. Whenever you wish to be in the garden you +have but to send word, and the household will remain in the court, +as is, indeed, the custom." + +"It would not be so terrible, you know, if a gardener or a +donkey-boy did see my face!" laughed Arlee. "Plenty of them have had +that pleasure before this." + +She saw that the young man's face changed. Every clear-cut line of +it was sharp with repugnance. "You need not remind me of that," he +said with muffled fierceness, staring down at his plate. + +"The danger line!" she thought while shaking her head at him, with +the tense semblance of an amused little smile.... "You aren't the +least bit English," she rebuked, "and I thought you were." + +"Not in that.... And some day England will see her folly." + +"America is seeing her folly now," thought Arlee with secret +bitterness. But when she raised her eyes they were gently +contemplative. She spoke musingly. + +"In things like that you aren't at all what I thought you +were--about our social customs, I mean. Yet fundamentally, I think +you are." + +"That I am what?" + +"What I thought you were." + +He waited, palpably waited, but Arlee continued to peel a tangerine +with absorption, and the question had to come from him. He put it +with an air of indolent amusement, yet she felt the intent interest +in leash. + +"And what did you think I was like, _chère petite mademoiselle_?" + +"Very handsome for one thing, Monsieur! You see, I owe you a +compliment for calling me such a pretty name as this!" With a +mischievous smile she touched the roses nodding in her girdle. "And +very autocratic for another, with a very bad temper. If you can't +get your way you would be shockingly disagreeable!" + +"But I always get my way," he assured her lazily, his teeth showing +under his small, black mustache. + +"I believe you do!" Ingenuous admiration, simple and sustained, was +in the look she gave him. Her hands were not half so icy now, nor +her nerves so tense. She felt strangely surer of herself; the actual +presence of the danger calmed her. She must make good with this, she +thought simply, in strenuous American. + +"And yet," she went on thoughtfully, the pretty picture of +fascinated absorption in this most feminine topic--the dissection of +a young man--"yet, you are chivalrous. And I think that is the +quality we American girls admire most of all." + +"The quality--of indulgence?" he questioned, with a half-railing +air. + +"The quality--of gentleness." + +"But is there not another quality which you American girls would +admire more than that gentleness--if you ever had the chance in your +lives to see it? The quality of dominance? The courage of the man +who dares what he desires, and who takes what he wills? Is not +that----" + +"Ah, yes, we love strong men," Arlee flung into the speech that was +bearing him on like a tide, "but we don't think them strong unless +they are strong enough to fight themselves. They may take what they +will--but they mustn't crush it.... There is a gentleness in great +strength--I can't explain what I mean----" + +"Ah, I see, I see." He smiled subtly. "I am not to crush you, little +Rose of Desire," he said softly. + +She met the sly significance of his gaze with a look of frank, +unfaltering candor. "Of course not," she said stoutly. "When +you--you make me afraid of you, you make me like you less. You seem +less like the friend I knew on the boat." + +"Ah, that boat!... You were my friend, then!" he added suddenly, +with a note of question sounding through the affirmation, and she +answered quickly, looking away with an air of petulant reproach. +"Why, you know I was, Captain Kerissen. And here in Cairo----" + +"Yes, here in Cairo," he interrupted triumphantly, "in the face of +those eyes and tongues--I saw that red-headed dog of an Englishman +looking his anger at you! But you smiled on me before them +all--those fools, those tyrannic fools----" + +"But you mustn't abuse my other friends! They were only--stupid!" + +"Stupid as their blood brother, the ox!... But they are not in the +picture now--those other friends!" Disagreeably he laughed. "And you +do not grieve for them--no? The world has not touched you? There is +no one out there,"--he made a gesture over the guarding walls--"no +one who holds a fragment of your thought, of your heart in his +hands?" + +She looked at him as if puzzled, then burst into a bubbling laugh. +"Why, of course not! I've just had a nice time with people. There +has never been a bit of sentiment about it!" + +"Not on your side," he said meaningly, and because this was hitting +the truth smartly on the head she looked past him in some confusion. + +"Oh--boys!" she said with a deprecating little laugh. "I've never +listened to them." + +He leaned back in his chair, feeling for his cigarette case, and +the contentment of his look deepened. "You have been a child, asleep +to life," he murmured complacently. "I told you you were a +princess--let us say a sleeping princess waiting for the prince, +like that old fairy tale of the English." He was looking at his +cigarette as he tapped it on the arm of his chair, and slowly struck +a light, then, after the first breath, "But do you not hear his +footsteps in your sleep?" he added, and gave her a glance from the +corner of his eyes. + +She looked up and then down; she stared out into the sun-flooded +garden and laughed softly. "Even princesses dream," she demurely +acknowledged, and thought the line and her fleet, meaning glance +went very well with this mad opera-bouffe which fate was forcing her +to play. + +Kerissen seemed to think that went very well, too, for his flashing +teeth acknowledged his pleasure in her aptness; then his smile faded +and she felt him studying her over his cigarette, studying her +averted gaze, the bright color in her cheeks, the curves of her +lips, and he was puzzled and perturbed by the sweet, baffling beauty +of her. A wild elation began to swell his heart. His eyes glowed, +his blood burned with the triumph, not so much of his daring capture +of her, but of the flattering tribute that her pretty ways were +paying toward his personality alone. Wary as he was, cynical of +subterfuge, he did not penetrate her guard. His monstrous vanity +whispered eager flattery in his ears. + +And still he continued to stare at her, finding her unbelievably +lovely. "My grandfather would call you an _houri_ from paradise," +he told her, the warmth of admiration deepening in his eyes. + +"And your grandfather's grandson knows that I am only an _houri_ +from America!... But that _is_ paradise for _houris_!" + +"And not for men, no!... Sometimes I have wished that those English +would restore in me that young belief in the heaven of the Prophet," +he continued, smiling, "and now that wish is granted. It is here, +that paradise," and his smile, flashing about the lonely garden, +came to dwell again upon the girl before him. + +She laughed. "But does one _houri_ make a paradise?" she bantered, +while the beating, hurrying heart of her went faster and faster till +she thought his ears would hear it. "We have a proverb--one swallow +does not make a summer." + +"_Cela dépend_--that depends upon the _houri_.... When _you_ are +that one it is paradise indeed." He leaned toward her, speaking +softly, but with a voice that thrilled more and more in its own +eloquence. + +She was the Rose of Desire, he reminded her, and beside her all +other flowers drooped in envy. She was as lovely as young Dawn to +the eyes of men. She was the ravishing embodiment of gaiety and +youth and delight. He quoted from the poets, not from his own +Oriental poets, but snatches from Campion and Wilde, vowing that + + "There was a garden in her face, + Where roses and white lilies grow," + +and adding, with points of fire dancing in his heavy lidded eyes, + + "Her neck is like white melilote, + Flushing for pleasure of the sun," + +and went on to add praise to praise and extravagance to +extravagance, till a sudden little imp of mirth caught Arlee by the +throat, hysterically choking her. "I shall never like praise or +poetry or--or men again," she thought, struggling between wild +laughter and hot disgust, while aloud she mocked, "Ah, you know too +much poetry, Captain Kerissen! I do not recognize myself at all! You +are laughing at me!" + +"Laughing at you?... I am worshipping you," he said tensely, his +eyes on hers, and the fierce words shattered her light defenses to +confusion. + +Silence gripped her. She tried to meet his look and smile in mock +reproof, but her eyes fled away affrighted, so full of desperate, +passionate things was the dark gaze they touched. She gripped her +cold little hands in her lap and looked out beyond the lebbek's +shade into the vivid garden. The hot sunshine lay orange on the +white-sanded paths; the shadows were purple and indigo. A little +lizard had come out from a crack in a stone and was sunning himself, +while one bright eye upon them, fixed, motionless, irridescent, +warned him of their least stir. She envied him the safety of his +crack.... She herself must meet this crisis--must turn this tide.... + +"It is--so soon," she faltered. + +"Soon?" He had risen and was standing over her. "Soon? I was with +you on the boat--I walked by your side--I danced with you and held +you against my heart. And here in Cairo I walked and talked with +you.... And now for three days you have been under my roof, eating +at the table with me, alone within these walls, and you call it +soon! Truly, you are beyond belief! _Soon!_" + +"But soon--for _me_!" she interrupted swiftly, and sprang to her +feet to face him with eyes and lips that smiled without a trace of +fear. Only her cheeks were no longer crimson but white as chalk. +"Too soon--for me to be sure--how _I_ feel! I hadn't realized--I +hadn't known--Oh, you mustn't hurry me! You mustn't hurry me!" She +broke off in a confusion he might well misconstrue, and moved +nervously away, her back to him. + +He stood staring after her, a man not in two minds but in three and +four. Her broken words--her smiles--her emotion--these might well +arouse the most flattering surmise, and his vanity and his curiosity +were stirred to swift delight. He broke into a storm of words, of +protestations, of eager persuasion and honied flattery, drawing +nearer and nearer to her, while she slipped continually away from +him. + +"You mustn't hurry me," she echoed defensively. "I am not like +you--you Southerners. I----" + +"You are asleep--I have told you that you are that sleeping +princess," he broke in, and following after as she turned away from +him, he put a quick arm about her, and bending over her, tried to +turn her about toward him. "Do you know how that little sleeping +princess was awakened by her prince?" he murmured fatuously, +bending closer. + +The hat saved her, that coquettish little hat with its jealously +guarding brim which bent obstinately lower and lower between them. +And in the instant of his indecision, while he waited for the +surrender his vanity expected before exerting the force that would +conquer brutally, she broke unexpectedly from his clasp and darted a +few steps away from him, whirling about to face him with her head +flung back, her eyes on fire, her lips parted in a breathless +excitement. + +"Captain Kerissen," she cried, and there was a ring of gaiety in her +voice, "do I understand that you are proposing to me?" + +Very formally he bowed, a bow that hid the astonishment and the +cynical humor which zigzagged across his handsome face. "I am doing +myself that honor," he most suavely returned, and eyed her with an +astonished curiosity that checked his passion. + +"Really?... So soon?" she cried very childishly, and again he bowed. +But this time she caught his smile. + +"Really so soon, little Arlee." + +To his amazement she burst into prankish laughter. + +"Oh, you _are_ romantic!" she gave back. "And if I can believe you +truly in earnest--last night I was furious at you," she went on +rapidly, interrupting the speech forming on his lips, "for I thought +you a dreadful flirt, just taking advantage of my being here, and +yet--and yet you _didn't_ seem that kind. You seemed a _gentleman_! +And now if you really mean--all you are saying--but you can't, you +can't! I know your words are running ahead of you!" + +"My words--let my heart speak--I----" + +"But I don't know whether I ought to listen or not!" she burst out, +and with great naïveté, "I'm afraid it would be very silly to let +myself care for you." + +"Silly? An adorable silliness! Could you not be happy with me here +in this palace? You would be a princess, indeed, a queen of my +heart. I would put every luxury at your command." In mingled +eagerness and wariness he watched her, incredulous of her assenting +mood, but with a hope that lured him on to believe. And in his eyes, +dubious, desirous, calculating, watchful, she read the fluctuations +of his thought. If afterwards there should happen to be any trouble +about this affair, how wonderfully it would smooth things to have +the girl infatuated with him, to show that she had been a party to +the intrigue! And how spicily it sweetened the taste of success to +his lips! + +He had caught her two hands in his, and clasping them tightly he +bent forward, trying to scan the changes in her hesitating look, +while his words poured forth in a stream of praise and promise. She +would live like a little princess. His love and his wealth were at +her feet. Other women were eager for him, but he was hers alone. She +would adore Egypt, the Egypt that he would reveal to her, and when +she wearied they would go to the Continent and live always as she +desired. Only she must be kind to him, be kind and sweet and lift +her eyes and tell him that she would make him happy. She must not +keep him waiting. He was not a man with whom one amused oneself. + +"And I am not a girl whom one commands!" she gave back with a flash +of spirit and a childish toss of her head. "I like you, Monsieur, at +least I did like you before you hurt my fingers so horribly"--the +tight grasp on her hands relaxed and she drew them swiftly away, +rubbing them in mock ruefulness--"and I could like you better and +better--perhaps"--her blue eyes flashed a look into his--"if you +were _very_ nice and polite and give me time to catch my breath! You +are such a _hurrying_ sort of person!" Her whimsical little smile +enchanted him, even while he chafed at such delay. + +"I am mad about you," he said in a low tone. + +"And only me?" she laughed, her dimples showing. + +So, teasing and luring, she held him off, and her heart beat +exultantly as she saw that she had given him the thought of marriage +for that of conquest, the dream of a perfect idyll for that of an +enforced submission.... It was a desperate play, but she played it +valiantly, and her fearfulness and the spell of her beauty sweetened +the rôle of beseeching suitor for him, and gave a glamour to this +pretty garden dalliance.... The memory of time came to him at last +with a start, and frowningly he stared at the watch he drew out to +consult. + +"I must hurry away--to another part of the palace," he amended +swiftly, "where I have an engagement.... I shall not be at liberty +till to-night--rather late. I will send word to you, then----" + +She shook her head at him. "To-morrow," she substituted gaily. "Let +us have luncheon to-morrow under the trees again like this. + +"To-morrow is too far away----" + +"No, it is just right for me. And if you really want to please +me----" + +"But does it please you to make me miserable----?" + +"You can't be very miserable when you have a luncheon engagement," +she insisted. "_I'm_ not!" + +He shrugged. "Till luncheon then--unless I should be back earlier +than I think." He gave her a quick look, but her face did not betray +awareness of the slip. + +"Oh, of course, if you are at liberty sooner--And while you are busy +won't you manage things so I can stay out here awhile? I shall love +this garden, I know, when I am better friends with it," and after an +imperceptible pause he promised to send a maid back to keep watch +over her, and with a lingering pressure of hands and a look that +plainly said he was but briefly denying himself a more ardent +farewell, he hurried away through the banquet hall into the court. + +She dared not run after to spy upon his departure. She could only +wait, hoping in every throbbing nerve that the maid would prove to +be the little one with the wart over her eye. And as she hoped she +feared, lest all her frail barrier of cards should be swept away by +a single breath. + +If he should learn that the little dancer had visited her! If he +should discover that she was playing a game with him! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A MAID AND A MESSAGE + + +The March hare would have been a feeble comparison for Billy Hill's +madness if Robert Falconer could have seen him that Saturday +morning, that same Saturday on which Arlee was essaying her daring +rôle, for Billy Hill was sitting in the sun upon a camp stool, a +white helmet upon his head, an easel before him, and upon the easel +a square of blank canvas, and in Billy's left hand was a box of oils +and in his right a brush. And the camp stool upon which Billy was +stationed was planted directly before the small, high-arched door of +the Kerissen palace and in plain view of the larger door a few feet +to the right. + +It had all followed upon acquaintance with the one-eyed man. + +Taciturn in the beginning and suspicious of Billy's questionings, +that dark-skinned individual had at first betrayed abyssmal +ignorance of all save the virtues of stuffed crocodiles, but +convinced at last that this was no trap, but a genuine situation +from which he could profit, his greed overcame his native caution, +and through the aid of his jerky English and Billy's jagged Arabic +a certain measure of confidence was exchanged. + +The one-eyed man then recollected that he had noticed a Turkish +officer and an American girl returning together to the hotel upon +that Wednesday afternoon. He had stared, because truly it was +amazing, even for American madness--and also the young girl was +beautiful. "A wild gazelle," was his word for her. The man was +Captain Kerissen. He was known to all the city--well known, he +was--in a certain way. It was not a good way for the ladies. Yes, he +had a motor car--a grand, gray car. (Billy remembered that the fatal +limousine had been gray.) It was well known that he had bought it +for a foreign woman whom he had brought from over-seas and installed +in the palace of his fathers. Yes, he knew well where that palace +was. His brother's wife's uncle was a eunuch there, but he was a +hard man who held his own counsel and that of his master. + +Could a girl be shut up in that palace and the world be no wiser? +The one-eyed man stared scathingly at such ignorance. Why not? The +underworld might know, but native gossip never reached white ears. + +What was the best way of finding out, then? The one-eyed man had no +hesitation about his answer. + +A native must use his eyes and ears for the American. Through his +subtle skill and the American's money the discovery could be made. +The women servants would talk. + +That was the way, Billy agreed, and quoted to the Arab his own +proverb, "A saint will weary of well-doing and a braggart of his +boasts, but a woman's tongue will never stop of itself," and the +one-eyed man had nodded, with an air of resigned understanding, and +quoted in answer, "There is nothing so great and nothing so small, +nothing so precious and nothing so foul, but that a woman will put +her tongue to it," and an understanding appeared to have been +reached. + +The one-eyed man was to loiter about the palace, calling upon the +brother's wife's uncle if possible, and discover all that he could +without arousing suspicion. And Billy determined to do a little +loitering himself and quicken the one-eyed man's investigations and +keep watch of Kerissen's comings and goings, and a donkey boy was +hired by the one-eyed man to follow the Captain when he appeared in +the street and report the places to which he went. + +It was all very ridiculous, of course, Billy cheerfully agreed with +himself, but by proving its own folly it would serve to allay that +extraordinarily nagging uneasiness of his. If he could just be +_sure_ that little Miss Beecher wasn't tucked out of sight somewhere +in the power of that barbaric scamp with his Continental veneer! + +Meanwhile the Oriental methods to be employed in the finding out +appealed to the young American's humor and his rash love of +adventure. He was grinning as he sat there on that stool and stared +at the blank canvas before him. He had felt the rôle of artist would +be an excellent screen for his loitering, but he had done no +painting for a little matter of twenty years, not since he was a +tiny lad, flat upon his stomach in his home library, industriously +tinting the robes and beards of Bible characters and the backgrounds +of the Holy Land--this work of art being one of the few permitted +diversions of the family Sabbath. Now he reflected that the scenes +for his brush were decidedly similar. + +With humorous interest he fell to work, scaling off the palace on +his left, blocking off the cemetery ahead, and trying to draw a palm +without emphasizing the thought of a feather duster. His engineering +training made him critical of his lines and outlines, but when it +came to the introduction of color he had the sensation of a +shipwrecked mariner afloat upon uncharted seas. + +The color that his eyes perceived was not the color which his +stubborn memory persisted in reminding him was the actual hue of the +events, and the color that he produced upon canvas was no kin to any +of them. But it sufficed for an excuse, and he worked away, +whistling cheerily, warily observant of the dark and silent façade +of the old palace and alertly interested in the little groups his +occupation transiently attracted. But these little groups were all +of passers-by, shawl-venders, package-deliverers, beggars, veiled +desert women with children astride their shoulders, and the live +hens they were selling beneath their mantles, and these groups +dissolved and drew away from him without his being able to attract +any observation from the palace. + +But at least, he thought doggedly, any girl behind those latticed +windows up there could see him in the street, and if Arlee were +there she would understand his presence and plan to get word down +to him. But he began to feel extraordinarily foolish. + +At length his patience was rewarded. The small door opened and the +stalwart doorkeeper, in blue robes and yellow English shoes, marched +pompously out to him and ordered him to be off. + +Haughtily Billy responded that this was permitted, and displayed a +self-prepared document, gorgeous with red seals, which made the man +scowl, mutter, and shake his head and retire surlily to his door, +and finding a black-veiled girl peering out of it at Billy, he +thrust her violently within. But Billy had caught her eyes and tried +to look all the significance into them of which he was capable. + +Nothing, however, appeared to develop. The door remained closed, +save for brief admissions of bread and market stuff from little boys +on donkey-back or on a bicycle, all of whom were led willingly into +conservation, but none of whom had been into the palace, and though +Billy pressed as close to the door as possible when the boys +knocked, he was only rewarded with a glimpse of the tiled vestibule +and inner court. + +To the irate doorkeeper he protested that he was yearning to paint a +palace court, but though he held up gold pieces, the man ordered him +away in fury and spoke menacingly of a stick for such fellows. + +Now, however cool and fresh it was in the garden that Saturday, it +was distinctly hot in the dusty street, and by noon, as Billy sat in +the shade beside the palace door, eating the lunch he had brought +and drinking out of a thermos bottle, he reflected that for a man to +cook himself upon a camp stool, feigning to paint and observing an +uneventful door, was the height of Matteawan. He despised +himself--but he returned to the camp stool. + +Nothing continued to happen. + +Travelers were few. Occasionally a carriage passed; once a couple of +young Englishmen on polo ponies galloped by; once a poor native came +down the road, moving his harem--a donkey-cart load of black +shrouded women, with three half-naked children bouncing on a long +tailboard. + +Several groups of veiled women on foot proceeded to the cemetery and +back again. + +The one-eyed man sauntered by in vain. + +In the heat of the afternoon the wide door suddenly opened and +Captain Kerissen himself appeared on his black horse. He spurred off +at a gallop, intending apparently to ride down the artist on the +way, but changed his mind at the last and dashed past, showering him +with dust from his horse's hoofs. The little donkey-boy, lolling +down the road, started to follow him, crying out for alms in the +name of Allah. + +Billy stared up at the windows. Not a handkerchief there, not a +signal, not a note flung into the street! In great derision he +squirted half a tube of cerulean blue upon his canvas. + +This, he reflected, was zero in detective work. It was also minus in +adventure. + +But one never knows when events are upon the wing. Almost +immediately there came into the flatness of his bored existence a +victoria containing those two English ladies he had met--in the +unconventional way which characterized his meetings with ladies in +Cairo--two days before. + +The recognition was mutual. The curiosity appeared upon their side. +To his horror he saw that they had stopped their carriage and were +descending. + +"How interesting!" said Miss Falconer, with more cordiality than she +had shown on the previous occasion. "How very interesting! So you +are an artist--I do a little sketching myself, you know." + +"You do happen in the most unexpected places," smiled Lady Claire. + +The English girl looked very cool and sweet and fresh to the heated +painter. His impression of her as a nice girl and a pretty girl was +speedily reinforced, and he remembered that dark-haired girls with +gray-blue eyes under dusky lashes had been his favorite type not so +long ago ... before he had seen Arlee's fairy gold. + +"We've just been driving through the old cemetery--such interesting +tombs," said the elder lady, and Lady Claire added, "I should think +you could get better views there than here." + +By this time they had reached the easel and stood back of it in +observation. + +Blue, intensely blue, and thickly blue was the sky that Billy had +lavished. Green and rigid were the palms. Purple was the palace. +Very black lay the shadows like planks across the orange road. + +Miss Falconer looked as if she doubted her own eyes. Hurriedly she +unfolded her lorgnette. + +"It--it's just blocked in," said Billy, speaking with a peculiar +diffidence. + +"Quite so--quite so," murmured the lady, bending closer, as if +fascinated. + +Lady Claire said nothing. Stealing a look at her, Billy saw that she +was looking it instead. + +Miss Falconer tried another angle. The sight of that lorgnette had a +stiffening effect upon Billy B. Hill. + +"You get it?" he said pleasantly. "You get the--ah--symphonic chord +I'm striking?" + +"Chord?" said Miss Falconer. "Striking," she murmured in a peculiar +voice. + +"It's all in thirds, you see," he continued. + +"Thirds!" came the echo. + +"Perhaps you're of the old school?" he observed. + +"Really--I must be!" agreed the lady. + +"Ah!" said Billy softly, commiseratingly. He cocked his head at an +angle opposite from the slant of the lorgnette and stared his own +amazing canvas out of countenance. + +"Then, of course," he said, "this hardly conveys----" + +"What are you?" she demanded. "Is this a--a school?" + +"I?" He seemed surprised that there could be any doubt about it. "I +am a Post-Cubist." + +Miss Falconer turned the lorgnette upon him. "Oh, really," she said +vaguely. "I fancy I've heard something of that--you're quite new and +radical, aren't you?" + +"Oh, we're old," he said gently, "very, very old. We have returned +to Nature--but not the nature of mere academicians. We paint, not +the world of the camera, but the world of the brain. We paint, not +the thing you think you see, but the way you think you see it--its +vibrations of your inner mentality. To paint the apple ripening on +the bough one should reproduce the gentle swelling of the maturing +fruit in your perception.... Now, you see, I am not trying to +reproduce the precise carving of that door; I do not fix the wavings +of that palm. I give you the cerebellic----" + +"Quite so," said Miss Falconer, dropping her lorgnette and giving +the canvas the fixity of her unobstructed gaze. "It's most +interesting," she said, a little faintly. "Are there many of you?" + +"I don't know," said Billy. "We do not communicate with one another. +That always influences, you know, and it is better to work out +thought alone." + +"I should think it would be." Something in her tone suggested that +the inviolated solitude of the asylum suggested itself to her as a +fitting spot. "Well, we won't interrupt you any longer. You've been +most interesting.... The sun is quite hot, isn't it?" and with one +long, lingering look at the picture, a look convinced against its +will, she went her way toward the victoria. + +But Lady Claire stood still. Billy had fairly forgotten all about +her, and now as he turned suddenly from the clowning with her +chaperon, he found her gaze being transferred from his picture to +himself. It was a very steady gaze, calm-eyed and deliberate. + +"I'm afraid you're making game of us!" she said, in her musical, +high-bred tones, her clear eyes disconcertingly upon him. "Aren't +you?" she gently demanded. + +"That's not fair." Billy was uncomfortable and looked away in haste. +He felt a grin coming. + +Perhaps he was a shade too late, for Lady Claire laughed suddenly +and with a note of curious delight. + +"You're _too_ amusing!" she said. "What made you?... How did you +think of it all?... Are you just beginning?" + +"Oh, I began twenty years ago," he smiled back, "but I haven't done +anything in the meantime." + +Again she laughed with that ring of mischievous delight. "However +you could think of it all! I shan't tell on you--but she'll _never_ +be done wondering." She turned away, her pretty face still bright +with humor, and then she turned back hesitantly toward him. + +"It _is_ hot here in this sun," she said. "It _can't_ be good for +you. Shall we drive you back?" + +She had lovely eyes, dark, smoky-blue under black lashes, and when +they held a gentle, half-shy, half-proud invitation, as they did +then, they were very unsettling eyes.... And it was hot on that +infernal camp stool. And there was a crick in the back of his neck +and his errand was glaringly a fool's errand.... + +He half rose, and as he did so the door in the palace opened a crack +and a veiled face peered furtively out. Billy sat down again. + +"No, thank you," he said, "I think I'd better do a little more of +this." + +In such light ways is the gate of opportunity closed and opened. +Everything that happened afterwards with such appalling +startlingness hung on that instant's decision. + +For the moment he felt himself a donkey as Lady Claire turned +quietly away and the victoria rattled off with brisk finality. Then +the door opened again, and again the girl peered out, and furtively, +stealthily slipped just outside. + +Billy caught up a pad and a pencil and called out a request to +sketch her, holding up some silver. Instantly she assumed a fixed +pose, with a nervous giggle behind her veil, and he came quickly +near her, pretending to be drawing. Her dark, curious eyes met his +with questioning significance, and he threw all caution aside and +plunged into his demands. + +Did she want to earn money, he said quickly, in the Arabic he had +been preparing for such an encounter, and on her eager assent, he +asked if there was a foreign lady in the palace, an American. + +The flash of her eyes told him that he had struck the mark before +her half-frightened words came. + +His heart quickened with excitement. He might have suspected this +thing--but he had not really believed it! He asked, stammering in +his haste, "Does she want to get away?" + +Again that knowing nod and the quick assent. Then the girl burst +into low-toned speech, glancing back constantly through the door she +held nearly shut behind her. Billy was forced to shake his head. It +was one thing to have picked up a little casual Arabic, and another, +and horribly different, thing to comprehend the rapid outpourings +behind that muffling veil. + +Baffled, he went hurriedly on with his own questionings. Was this +lady safe? Again the nod and murmur of assent. Did she want help? +Vehement the confirmation. He repeated, with careful emphasis, "I +will reward you well for your help," and this time the direct +simplicity of her reply was entirely intelligible: + +"How much?" + +"One pound.... Two," he added, as she shook her head. + +"Four," she demanded. + +It was maddening to haggle, but it would be worse to yield. + +"Two--and this," said Billy, drawing out the gold and some silver +with it. + +She gave a frightened upward glance at the windows over them and +stepped closer. "I take it," she said. "Listen--" and that was all +that Billy could understand of the swift words she whispered to him. + +"Slower--slower," he begged. "Once more--slower." + +She frowned, and then, very slowly and distinctly, she articulated, +"_T'âla lil genaina ... 'end eltura_." + +He wrote down what he thought it sounded like. "Go on." + +"_Allailade_," she continued. + +"That's to-night," he repeated. "What else?" + +"_Assâa 'ashara_," she added hurriedly, and then, intelligible +again, "Now, quick, the money." + +"Hold on, hold on." He was in despair. "Go over that again, please," +and hastily the girl whispered the words again and he wrote down his +corrections. Then with a flourish he appeared to finish the sketch +and held out the gold and silver to her, saying, "Thank you," +carelessly. + +Quick as a flash she seized the money, leaving a little crumpled +ball of white linen in his hand, and then, apparently by lightning, +she secreted the gold, and with the silver shining in her dark palm +she came closer to him, urging him for another shilling, another +shilling for having a picture made. In an undertone she demanded, +"Is it yes? Shall I say yes to the lady?" + +"Yes, yes, yes," said Billy, desperately, to whatever the unknown +message might be. "Take a note to her for me?" he demanded, starting +to scribble one, but she drew back with a quick negation, and as a +sound came from the palace she slipped back through the door and was +gone like a shadow when a blind is thrown open. + +Only the crumpled little ball of linen remained in Billy's hand. He +straightened it out. It was a lady's handkerchief, a dainty thing, +delicately scented. In the corners were marvels of sheer embroidery +and among the leaves he found the initial he was seeking. It was the +letter B. + +As he stared down on it, that tiny, telltale initial, his face went +white under its tan and his mouth compressed till all the humor and +kindliness of it were lost in a line of stark grimness. And then he +swung on his heel and packed up his painting kit in a fury of haste, +and with one last, upturned look at those mocking windows, he was +off down the road like a shot. + +There were just two things to do. The first was to discover the +message hidden in those unknown words. + +The second was to do exactly as that message bade. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OVER THE GARDEN WALL + + +Two oil lamps flared in the little coffee-house. In one circle of +yellow light two bearded Sheiks were playing dominoes with +imperturbable gravity; the other lamp flickered over an empty table +beneath which the thin, flea-bitten legs of a ragged urchin were +showing in the oblivion of his tired sleep. In the shadow beyond sat +a young American with a keen, impatient face, and a one-eyed Arab +shrouded in a huge burnous. + +"I make fine dragoman?" the Arab was saying proudly. "This is ver' +old coffee-house. Many things happen here, ver' strange----" + +"Yes, but I'm sick of the doggone place," said Billy fiercely. "I +can't sit still and swallow coffee any longer. Can't we start now?" + +"Too soon--too soon before the time. You say ten? Come, we go next +door. Nice place next door, perhaps--dancing, maybe." + +There was noise enough next door, certainly, to promise dancing. The +strident notes of Oriental music came shrieking out the open +doorway, but as Billy stepped within and stared over the heads of +the squatting throng, he saw no sinewy dancers, but only two tiny +girls in bright colors huddled wearily against the wall. The music +which was absorbing every look came from the brazen throat of a huge +instrument in the corner. + +"Lord--a phonograph!" thought the young man in disgust, resenting +this intrusion of the genius of his race into foreign fields. + +The squatting men, their dark lips parted in pleased smiles, were +too intent upon the innovation to turn at his entrance, but the +little girls caught sight of him and ran forward, begging +clamorously, their bracelets clanking on their outstretched arms. + +With a little silver he tried to soften the vigor of the one-eyed +man's dismissal. "This cheap place--no good dancers any more," the +Arab uttered in disgust. "New man here--no good. Maybe next door +better--eh?" + +But next door was only a flight of steps and a lone little doll of a +sentinel, painted and hung like a bedizened idol. Only the dark eyes +in the tinted sockets were alive, and these turned curiously after +the strange young white man who had dropped a coin into her +outstretched hand and passed on so hurriedly. + +"I don't want any more of these joints," Billy was saying vehemently +to his harassed guide. "It's dark as the Styx now--let's be on our +way." + +The street they were on was narrow enough for any antiquarian, but +the one into which the Arab guide now turned was so narrow that the +jutting bays of the houses seemed pushing their faces impudently +against their neighbors. A voice in one room could have been heard +as clearly in the one over the way. It was a mean little street, +squalid and poor and pitiful, but it maintained its stripped +dignities of screened windows and isolation. It was better not to +wonder what nights were like in those women's rooms in summer heat. + +The lane-like path stopped at a rickety sort of wharf, and at their +approach a black head bobbed quickly up from a waiting boat. It was +the little boy who had shadowed the Captain that day--reporting his +arrival at the Khedivial palace--and he climbed out now and sat on +the wharf, watching curiously while Billy and his guide bestowed +themselves in the long canoe, and pushed silently away. + +It was an eerie backwater in which they were paddling, a sluggish +stream which moved between dark houses. Sometimes it scraped against +their sides and lapped their balconies; sometimes it was held in +check by walls and narrow terraces. For Billy the water between the +dark houses, the mirrored stars, the unexpected flare of some oil +lamp and its still reflection, the long windings and the stagnant +smells held their suggestions of Venice for his senses, and he +thought the business he was going about was very similar to the +business which had brought so many of the gentry of Venice to sudden +and undesired ends. + +The flies were horribly thick here. They settled upon the faces and +arms of the paddlers, totally unapprehensive of rebuff. Billy's +flesh crawled. He finished the swarm with a ringing slap that +brought a low caution from his guide. + +Now the canal was wider and shallower. The houses receded, and a +field or so appeared, and frequent walls hedged the way. Then +suddenly the houses came down again to the water, and the ruins of +old mosques and palaces lined the banks for a time; to be replaced +by walls again. The windings were interminable, and just when he was +thinking that his silent guide was as confused as he was, the man +made a sudden gesture to the right bank where a tiny strip of land +showed above the water clinging to a high brick wall, and with +careful, soundless strokes they brought the canoe up to that land. + +Billy looked at his watch. It was nearly ten. Hurriedly he climbed +out, taking out the stout, notched pole and the knotted rope with +the iron hook at the end which he had prepared. The message which +had been so unintelligible to him was very simple. "Escape by canal +to-night--come to garden at ten," had been the words, and Billy, on +hearing the description of the canal from the one-eyed man, had felt +he understood. + +"You're sure this is the place?" he demanded, and on the man's much +injured protestation, "Because if it isn't I'll wring your neck +instead of Kerissen's," he cheerfully promised and set his pole +against the wall, showing the man how to steady it. It was not the +best climbing arrangement in the world, but time had been extremely +limited, and the one-eyed man not inclined to pursue any +investigations which would advertise their expedition. + +Wrapping the rope about his shoulders, he started to pull himself up +that notched pole the Arab was holding against the wall, feeling +desperately for any hold for toes and fingers in the rough chunks +between the old bricks, and breathing hard he reached the top and +threw one leg over. He felt something grind through the serge of his +trousers and sting into the flesh. + +"Ground glass--the Old Boy!" said Billy through his teeth. He +hoisted himself cautiously, and with his handkerchief swept the top +of the wall as clean as he could. He heard the little pieces fall +with a perilously loud tinkling sound, and flattened himself upon +the wall, and strained his eyes through the darkness of the garden, +but no alarm was raised. The shadows seemed empty. + +He hoped to the Lord that no disturbance would break out in the +garden, for the man below would be off in the canoe like a flash. He +had no illusions about the one-eyed man's loyalty, but the fellow +was already in the secret; he was needy and resourceful and as +trustworthy as any dragoman that he could have gone to. And a +dragoman would have had a reputation and a patronage he'd fear to +lose. This melancholy Arab, hawking crocodiles for a Greek Jew, had +more to gain than lose. + +By now he had caught the end of the rough hook over the top of the +wall, and let down the knotted rope into the garden below. It was +long enough, thank goodness, he thought, wondering under what +circumstances and in what company he would ascend it again. Then +with one more keen look into the garden, and a reassuring touch of +the pocket where his revolver bulged, he gripped the rope and +swiftly lowered himself. + +Keeping close to the wall he pressed toward the buildings on the +right, which he had been told was the wing of the harem, and as he +stepped forward a flat black shadow near the wall came suddenly to +life. It sprang to its feet, revealing a shrouded little form, +wrapped and hooded in black, and ran to him with steps that stumbled +in excitement. + +"Quick, quick!" breathed an almost inaudible voice of terror, and +Billy flung one strong arm about the girl and dashed toward the +dangling rope. Gripping it with one hand he flung the light figure +over his left shoulder, and with a cheerily whispered "Hang tight," +he threw himself into the ascent. It was arm-wrenching, +muscle-racking work, with that dead weight upon him, but the touch +of those soft arms clinging childishly about his neck seemed to +double and treble his strength, and with incredible quickness he +lifted her to the top of the wall, and then, catching her by the +wrists, he lowered her into the upreaching clasp of the Arab. + +An instant more and he had reversed his rope ladder and climbed down +beside her as she stood waiting, and in the throbbing triumph of +that moment he flung his arm grippingly about her to sweep her into +the boat. But as she raised her face to his, the shrouding mantle +fell away, and he found himself staring down into the exultant face +and bright, dark eyes of a girl he had never seen before. + +Back of them beyond the wall, pandemonium was breaking out. + + [Illustration: "He found himself staring down into the bright dark + eyes of a girl he had never seen"] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GIRL FROM THE HAREM + + +He was dumb with the shock. Then, "Who are you?" he demanded. "And +where is she--where is Arlee Beecher?" + +On her own face the astonishment grew. "What you mean? Frederick--he +not send you?" she gasped, and then as the outcries grew louder and +louder behind them she gripped convulsively at his arms. "Oh, quick! +come away--quick, quick!" she besought. + +"I came for Arlee Beecher--an American girl. Isn't she held here? +Isn't she back there?" + +"What you going to do? What----" + +"I'm going to get her!" he said fiercely. "Tell me----" + +He had caught her and unconsciously shook her as if to shake the +words out of her. Furiously she struggled with him. + +"Let me go. No, no, she is not there! No one is there! You are gone +crazy to stay! They will kill me if they catch me--they will fire +over the wall. Oh, for God's sake, help me quick!" + +"She's not there?" he repeated stupidly, and then at her vehement +"No, _no_! I tell you _no_!" he drew a breath of deep astonishment +and chagrin, and turned to stow her safely low in the boat. +Hurriedly he and the one-eyed man bent over their paddles, and very +swiftly the long, dark canoe went gliding down the stream, but not +any too swiftly, for in an instant they heard a triumphant yell +behind them, and then light, thudding feet along the path. + +Steadily Billy urged the canoe forward with powerful strokes that +seemed to be lifting it out of the water at each impulse, and they +swept past a wall that reaching to the river bank must block their +pursuers for a time, and though there was a path after that, there +was soon another wall, and no more pursuit along the water edge. But +every opening ahead now might mean an ambush, and as soon as a +narrow lane showed between the houses to the left, the one-eyed man +steered swiftly there and Billy sprang out with the girl and they +raced through the lane into the adjoining street. + +He looked up and down it; either they had got out at the wrong lane +or the cab they had ordered to be in waiting had failed them, but +there was no time for speculation and they walked on as fast as they +could without the appearance of flight. The stray loiterers on the +dark street stared curiously as they passed, to see a young American +in gray tweeds, his cap pulled over his eyes, with a woman in the +Mohammedan wrap and mantle, but no one stopped them, and in another +minute they saw a lonely cab rattling through the streets and +climbed quickly in. + +"And now, for Heaven's sake, tell me all about it!" besought Billy +B. Hill, staring curiously at his most unforeseen companion. + +With a deep-drawn sigh of relief she had snuggled back against the +cushioned seat, and now she flung off the shrouding mantle and +looked up to meet his gaze with a smile of excited triumph. + +She had the prettiest teeth he had ever seen, lovely little rows of +pearls, and the biggest and brightest of dark eyes with wide lashes +curling dramatically back. Even in the thrill and elation of the +moment there was a spark of provocation in those eyes for the +good-looking young man who stared down at her, and Billy would have +been a very wooden young man, indeed, if he had not felt a tingling +excitement in this unexpected capture, for all the destruction of +his romantic plans. So this, he thought rapidly, was the foreign +girl in Kerissen's house, and Arlee, bless her little golden head, +was safe where she planned, in Alexandria. A warm glow of happiness +enveloped him at that. + +"Now tell me all about it," he demanded again. "You are running away +from Kerissen?" + +"Oh, yes," she cried eagerly. "You must not let him catch us. We are +safe--yes?" + +"I should rather think so," Billy laughed. "And there's a gun in my +pocket that says so.... And so you sent me that message to-day by +that little native girl? How in the world did that happen?" + +"That girl is one who will do a little for money, you understand," +said the Viennese, "and I have told her to look sharp out for a +foreign gentleman who come to save me. You see I have sent for a +friend, and I think that he--but never mind. That girl she come +running this afternoon to where I am shut in way back in the palace, +and she say that a foreign gentleman is painting a picture out in +the street, and he stare very cunning at her. So I tell her to find +out if he is the one for me, and to tell him to come quick this +night. She was afraid to take note--afraid the eunuch catch her. So +she went to you. She told afterwards that you ask her if there is +any strange lady there anxious to get away, and she give you the +message and my handkerchief and you say you will come--and my, how +you give me one great surprise!" + +"And a great disappointment," said Billy grinning. + +"Oh, no, no," she denied, eyes and lips all mischievous smiles. "I +say to myself, 'My God! That is a fine-looking young man! He and I +will have something to say to each other'--h'm?" + +"Now who in the world are you?" demanded Billy bluntly. "And how did +you happen to get into all this?" + +Volubly she told. She dwelt at picturesque length upon her shining +place upon the Viennese stage; she recounted her triumphs, she +prophesied the joy of the playgoers at her return to them. Darkly +she expatiated upon the villainy of the Turkish Captain, who had +lured her to such incarceration. Gleefully she displayed the +diamonds upon her small person which she was extracting from that +affair. + +"Not so bad, after all--h'm?" she demanded, in a brazen little +content. "Maybe that prison time make good for me," and Billy shook +his head and chuckled outright at the little baggage. + +But through his amusement a prick of uneasiness was felt. The +picture she had painted of the Captain corroborated his wildest +imaginings. + +"You're dead sure you know all that was going on in that palace?" he +demanded. "There wasn't any American girl coaxed into it on some +pretext?" + +He wanted merely the reassurance of her answer, but to his surprise +and growing alarm she hesitated, looking at him half fearfully and +half ashamedly. "Oh, I--I don't know about that," she murmured, with +evasive eyes. "An American girl--very light hair--yes?" + +"Very light hair--Oh, good God!" He leaned forward, gripping her +wrist as if afraid she would spring out of the carriage. "You said +she wasn't there," he thrust at her in a voice that rasped. + +"I said I don't know--don't know any such name you say. I never hear +it. You hurt me--take your hand away." + +"Not till you tell me." But he loosened his harsh grip. "Now tell me +all you know--_please_ tell me all you know," he besought with a +sudden melting into desperate entreaty. Worriedly he stared at this +curious little kitten-thing beside him on whose truth now that other +girl's life was resting. + +"Well, I tell you true I do not know that name," began Fritzi +Baroff, with a little sullen dignity over her shame. "And I saved +your life, for it was death for you to go back to that palace. You +heard them coming for us. You would have got yourself killed and +that little girl would be no better. Now I can tell you how to help +her." + +"All right--tell me," said the young American in a tense voice. +"Tell me everything you know about it," and Fritzi told him, +throwing aside all pretense of her uncertainty about Arlee, +revealing every detail of the situation that she knew. + +And from the heights of his gay relief Billy Hill was flung back +into the deeps of desperate indignation. The anger that had surged +up in him that afternoon when he had felt his fears confirmed flamed +up in him now in a fire of fury. His blood was boiling.... Arlee +Beecher in the power of that Turkish devil! Arlee Beecher prisoned +within that ghastly palace! It was unreal. It was monstrous.... That +radiant girl he had danced with, that teasing little sprite, half +flouting, half flirting. Why, the thing was unthinkable! + +He put a hand on the dancer's arm. "We must go to the consul at +once," he said. "We must get her out to-night." + +"Consul!" The girl gave a short, derisive laugh. "This is no matter +for consuls, my young friend. The law is slow, and by the time that +law will stand knocking upon the palace doorstep, your little girl +with the fair hair will be buried very deep and fast--I think she +would not be the first woman bricked into those black walls.... You +must go about this yourself.... You are in love with her--yes?" she +added impertinently, with keen, uptilted eyes. + +"That's another story," Billy curtly informed her. He made no +attempt to analyze his feeling for Arlee Beecher. She had enchanted +him in those two days that he had known her. She had obsessed his +thoughts in those two days of her disappearance. Now that he was +aware of her peril every selfish thought was overwhelmed in burning +indignation. He told himself that he would do as much for any girl +in her situation, and, indeed, so hot ran his rage and so dearly did +his young blood love rash adventure and high-handed justice, that +there was some honest excuse for the statement! + +"Zut! A man does not risk his neck for a matter of indifference!" +said the little Baroff sagely, her knowing eyes on Billy's grim +young face. "So I am to be the sister to you--the Platonic +friend--h'm?" she observed with droll resignation. "Never mind--I +will help you get her out as you got me--_Gott sei dank!_ There is a +way, I think--if you are not too particular about that neck. I will +tell you all and draw you a plan when we get to a hotel." + +But before they got to a hotel there was an obstacle or two to be +overcome. A lady in Mohammedan wraps might not be exactly _persona +grata_ at fashionable hotels at midnight. Casting off the wrap +Fritzi revealed herself in a little pongee frock that appeared to be +suitable for traveling, and with two veils and Billy's cap for a +foundation she produced an effect of headgear not unlike that of +some bedraped tourists. + +"I arrived on the night train," she stated as they drew up before +the shining hotel. "It is late now for that night train--but we +waited for my luggage, which you will observe is lost. So I pay for +my room in the advance--I think you had better give me some money +for that--I have nothing but these," and she indicated her flashing +diamonds. + +"My name," said Billy, handing over some sovereigns with the first +ray of humor since her revelation to him, "my name, if you should +care to address me, is Hill--William B. Hill." + +"William B. Hill," she echoed with an air of elaborate precision, +and then flashed a saucy smile at him as he helped her out of the +carriage. "What you call Billy, eh?" + +"You've got it," he replied in resignation. + +"Hill--that means a mountain," she commented. "A mountain of good +luck for me--h'm? And that B--what is that for?" + +"My middle name," said Billy patiently, as they reached the door the +Arab doorman was holding open for them. + +Absently she laughed. Her dark eyes were sparkling at the vision of +the safe and shining hotel, the dear familiar luxury, the sounds and +sights of her lost Continental life. A few late arrivals from some +dance gave a touch of animation to the wide rooms, and Fritzi's eyes +clung delightedly to the group. + +"God, how happy I am!" she sighed. + +Billy was busy avoiding the clerk's knowing scrutiny. It was the +same clerk he had coerced with real cigars to enlighten him +concerning Arlee Beecher, and he felt that that clerk was thinking +things about him now, mistaken and misguided things, about his +predilections for the ladies. Philosophically he wondered where they +had better try after this. + +But he underestimated the battery of Fritzi's charms, or else the +serene assurance of her manner. + +"My letters--letters for Baroff," she demanded of the clerk. "None +yet. Then my room, please.... But I sent a wire from Alexandria. +That stupid maid," she turned to explain to Billy, her air the last +stand of outraged patience. "She is at the train looking for that +luggage she lost," she added to the clerk, and thereupon she +proceeded to arrange for the arrival of the fictitious maid whom +Billy heard himself agreeing to go back and fetch if she did not +turn up soon, and to engage a room for herself--a much nicer room +than Billy himself was occupying--then handed over Billy's +sovereigns and turned happily away jingling the huge key of her +room. + +"It is a miracle!" she cried again, exultant triumph in every pretty +line of her. "My heart dances, my blood is singing--Oh, if I were on +the stage now, the music crashing, the lights upon me, the house +packed! I would enchant them! I would dance myself mad.... Ah, what +you say now--shall we have a little bottle of champagne to drink to +our better acquaintance, Mr. Billy?" + +"Not this evening," said the unemotional young man. "You are going +to sit down at this desk and draw me those plans of the palace." + +Petulantly she shrugged at her rescuer. "How stupid--to-morrow you +may not have that chance for the champagne," she observed. "You +think of nothing but to go back and get killed, then? And I must +help you? Very well. Here, I will draw it for you and I will tell +you all I know." + +She sat down at a desk and began working out the diagrams, and at +last she handed the paper to Billy, who sat beside her, and pointed +out the rooms and scribbled the words on them for his aid. + +"It is very simple," she said. "That first square is for the court, +and the next square is for the garden. The hall of banquets comes +so, between them, and the hall is two stories tall, and across the +top of that, from the _selamlik_ to the harem, runs that little +secret passage. And at the end of it, here, is the little panel into +the rose room where she is, and beside the panel outside in the +passage are the little steps that go up to that tower room, where +they put me on the top. And from that top room I broke out a locked +door on the roof--that is how I got away. I climbed down at the end +of the harem from one roof to another where it is unfinished.... The +rose room is here on the garden, but the windows have bars, and +those bars are too strong for breaking. I have tried it! There is no +way out but the secret way by that passage into the men's wing, or +the other way through the door into the long hall and down the +little stairs into the anteroom below. How Seniha hated me when I +made laughter and noise and talk going up and down those stairs to +my motor car!" + +She laughed impishly, pointing out Seniha's rooms, facing on the +street, and contributing several bizarre anecdotes of the palace +life. But Billy was not to be diverted, and went over the plans +again and again, before the diminished number of lights and the +hoverings of the attendant Arabs recalled the lateness of the hour +to his absorption. + +But late as they were they were not the only occupants of the lift. +Returning from a masquerade, a domino over his arm, stood Falconer. +Civilly enough he returned Billy's greeting, with no apparent +awareness of the little lady in pongee, but Billy was conscious that +her flaunting caliber had been promptly registered. And to his +annoyance the actress raised big eyes of reproach to him. + +"No champagne for me, after all, Mr. Billy!" she sighed. "You are +not very good for a celebration--h'm?... Well, then--good night." + +Her parting smile as she left the car adroitly included the tall +aristocratic young Englishman with the little moustache. + +Sharply Billy turned to him. "Come up to my room, please. I have +something to say to you." + +In silence Falconer followed. Billy flung shut the door, drew a long +breath, and turned to him. + +"Do you know where I got that girl?" he demanded. + +It took several seconds of Falconer's level-lidded look of distaste +to bring home the realization. + +"Oh, see here," he protested, "wait till you understand this +thing.... I pulled that girl over Kerissen's back wall at ten +o'clock to-night. I thought she was Miss Beecher, but a mistake had +been made and the wrong girl arrived. But the point is this--_Arlee +Beecher is in that palace_. This girl saw her and talked with her +last night. Now we've got to get her out. It's a two-man job," said +Billy, "or you'd better believe I'd never have come to you again." + +He had given it like a punch, and it knocked the breath out of +Falconer for one floored instant. But he was no open-mouthed +believer. The thing was more unthinkable to him than to Billy's +romantic and adventurous mind, and the very notion was so revolting +that he fought it stoutly. + +From beginning to end Billy hammered over the story as he knew it, +explaining, arguing, debating, and then he drew out the plans of the +palace and flung them on the table by Falconer while he continued +his excited tramping up and down the room. + +Falconer studied the plans, worried his moustache, stared at Billy's +tense and resolute face, and took up the plans again, his own chin +stubborn. + +"Granted there's a girl--you can't be sure it's Miss Beecher," he +maintained doggedly. "This Baroff girl had no idea of her name. Now +Miss Beecher would have told her name, the very first thing, it +appears to me, and the names of her friends in Cairo, asking for the +Baroff's offices in getting a letter to me--us." + +"She may have been too hurried to get to it. She had so many +questions to ask. And she probably expected to see the girl again +the next day or night." + +"Possibly," said Falconer without conviction. + +"But where, then, is Miss Beecher?" + +"We may hear from her to-morrow morning." + +"We won't," said Billy. + +Falconer was silent. + +"Good Lord!" the American burst out, "there can't be two girls in +Cairo with blue eyes and fair hair whom Kerissen could have lured +there last Wednesday! There can't be two girls with chaperons +departing up the Nile! Why--why--the whole thing's as clear to +me--as--as a house afire!" + +"I don't share your conviction." + +"Very well, then, if you don't think it is Miss Beecher, you don't +have to go into this thing. If you can feel satisfied to lay the +matter before the ambassador and let that unknown girl wait for the +arm of the law to reach her, you are at perfect liberty, of course, +to do so." Billy was growing colder and colder in tone as he grew +hotter and hotter in his anger. + +Falconer said nothing. He was a very plucky young man, but he had no +liking at all for strange and unlawful escapades. He didn't +particularly mind risking his neck, but he liked to do it in +accredited ways, in polo, for instance, or climbing Swiss peaks, or +swimming dangerous currents.... But he was young--and he had red +hair. And he remembered Arlee Beecher. These three days had not been +happy ones for him, even sustained as he was by righteous +indignation. And if there was any chance that this prisoned girl was +Arlee, as this infatuated American was so furiously sure--He +reflected that Billy was doing the sporting thing in giving him the +chance of it. + +"I'll join you," he said shortly. "I can't let it go, you know, if +there's a chance of its being Miss Beecher." + +"Good!" said Billy, holding out his hand and the two young men +clasped silently, eyeing each other with a certain mutual respect +though with no great increase of liking. + +"Now, this is my idea," Billy went on, and proceeded to develop it, +while Falconer carefully studied the plans and made a shrewd +suggestion here and there. + +It was late in the morning when they parted. + +"You must muzzle that Baroff girl," was Falconer's parting caution. +"We must keep this thing deuced quiet, you know." + +"Of course. He shan't get wind of it ahead." + +"Not only that. We mustn't have talk afterwards. It would kill the +girl, you know." + +Billy nodded. "She would hate it, I expect." + +"Hate it? My word, it would finish her--a tale of that kind going +the rounds.... She could never live it down." + +"Live it down? It would set her up in conversation for the rest of +her life!" Billy chuckled softly. "That is, if it comes out all +right--and that's the only way I can imagine its coming out." + +With one hand on the door Falconer paused to stare back at him. "You +don't mean she'd want to _tell_ about it!" he ejaculated with +unplumbed horror. + +Billy was suddenly sobered. "Well, nobody but you and I and the +Baroff know it now," he said, "and I think we can keep the Baroff's +mouth shut.... I'll see her in the morning. You'd better get in a +nap to-morrow, and I will, too, for we'll want steady nerves. Good +night; I'm glad you're going with me." + +"I'm damned if I'm glad," said the honest Englishman, with a wry +grin. "If we get our throats cut, I hope Miss Beecher will return +from the desert in time for our obsequies." + +"Something in that red-headed chap I like after all," soliloquized +Billy B. Hill, as he turned toward his long-deferred repose. "Hanged +if he hasn't grit to go into a thing on an off chance!... Now, as +for me, I'm _sure_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TAKING CHANCES + + +Late as he went to sleep, Billy B. Hill was up in good season that +Sunday morning. The need for cautioning Fritzi Baroff haunted him, +and he was not satisfied until he had had breakfast with that lively +young lady and laid down the law to her upon the situation. + +She was very loath not to talk about herself at first. She wanted to +tell her tale to the papers and see if one of them would be hardy +enough to publish the story of the outrageous incarceration; she +wanted to cable the Viennese theater where she had played of her +sensational detention--in short, she wanted to get all the possible +publicity out of her durance vile and to advertise her small person +from Cairo to the Continent. + +But Billy was urgent. "You just bide a wee on this publicity stunt," +he demanded. "Cable your manager and press agent all you want +to--but don't talk around the hotel here--and whatever you do and +whatever you say, keep Miss Beecher's name and mine out of it." + +He was very decided about that, and because she was very grateful to +him and because she liked him and because she lacked other friends +and other pocketbooks, the little Viennese held her tongue as +directed. And she borrowed as much money as Billy would lend her, +and drove off to the small shops which were open that day, and found +a frock or two and a hat which she declared passable, and returned +transfigured to the hotel and rendered the table where she lunched +with Billy, with the air of possessing him, quite the most +conspicuous in the room. The ladies gazed past them with chill eyes; +the men stared covertly, with the surreptitious envy with which even +the most virtuous of men surveys a lucky devil. And Billy sadly +perceived that he was acquiring a reputation. + +He did not blame Miss Falconer for turning haughtily aside as he and +his vivid companion went past them in the veranda. But he did think +her disdainful lack of memory a little overdone. + +His cheeks were still red as he looked away from her and encountered +the direct eyes of the girl who followed her. + +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Hill?" said Lady Claire, as clear as a +bell. "It's _such_ a nice day, isn't it?" she added, a little +breathlessly, as she went by. + +"It's much better than it was," said Billy, and he turned back to +open the door for her. + +"Claire!" said Miss Falconer from within. + +"Coming, dear," said Lady Claire, and with a little smile of defiant +friendliness at the young American she was gone. + +But the memory of that plucky little smile stayed right with Billy. +The girl liked him, she liked him in spite of his unknown +antecedents, his preposterous picture, his conspicuous companion. +She had a mind of her own, that tall English girl with the lovely +eyes and the proud mouth. In a warm surge of friendliness his +thoughts went out to her, and he wished vaguely that he could let +her know how fine he thought she was. + +Within an hour that vague wish came true. He had packed Fritzi off, +with a newly acquired maid, for a drive up and down the safe public +streets and he had re-interviewed the one-eyed man and the native +chauffeur that the one-eyed man introduced for the evening's work, +and he was at one of the public desks in the writing room, inditing +a letter to his aunt, which, he whimsically appreciated, might be +his last mortal composition, and reflecting thankfully that it was +highly unnecessary to make a will, when Lady Claire strolled into +the room and over to a desk. + +She tried a pen frowningly, and Billy jumped to offer another. "Oh, +thank you," she said. She seemed not to have seen him before. + +"That was rather nice of you, you know," he said gravely. + +She looked up at him. + +"I'm not really a wolf," he continued, the gravity surrendering to +his likable, warm smile, "and I'm glad you recognized it." + +Her reply took him unawares. "I think you're _splendid_," said Lady +Claire. "I thought so in the bazaars when you came to my help and +stood up to that _beastly_ German." + +"Oh, he wasn't such a beastly German, after all," Billy deprecated. +"And here I've had a message to you from him and never remembered to +give it. The fellow called on me the next morning in gala attire and +offered every apology and satisfaction in his power--even the +satisfaction of the duel, if I desired it. I didn't. But I promised +to express his deep apologies to you. He was horribly shocked at +himself. He'd been drinking, he said, to forget a 'sadness' which +possessed him. His lady love had failed to keep her tryst and life +was very dark." + +"I don't wonder at her," said Lady Claire unforgivingly. "I'm sure +he must have been horrid to her!" + +"I rather think she was horrid to him," Billy reflected, "although +she was a very sprightly looking lady love. He showed me her picture +in the back of his watch.... By _George_!" he uttered violently. + +"What is it?" + +"Oh--an idea, that's all. Something I must really attend to before +I--this afternoon, I mean. But there's no hurry about it," he added +cheerily. + +Oh, Billy, Billy! Not even with his blood hot with thoughts of the +evening's work, not even with his memory ridden with Arlee's gay +witchery, could he keep his restless young eyes from laughing down +at her. But there wasn't a notion in the back of his honest head as +to the picture he was making in Lady Claire's eyes as he leaned, +long-limbed, broad-shouldered, lazily at ease against the desk, his +gray eyes very bright between their dark lashes, his dark hair +sweeping back from his wide forehead. + +"Are you sure?" she asked of him, with the smile that he drew from +her. "Is it the inspiration for another picture?" + +"No, no--that was my first and my last. That was the one purple +bloom of my art. I have laid my brushes by.... But I'm keeping you +from that letter you were going to write." + +"It's just a few lines for Miss Falconer," Lady Claire unnecessarily +explained. "We are going to drive out to the Gezireh Palace Hotel +for tea, and she thought her brother might like to go out with us if +he came in in time." + +She did not add why Miss Falconer was unable to write her own notes, +but slanted her blue-hatted head over the desk and then hastily +blotted her brief lines and tucked the sheet into an envelope. +Hesitantly she looked up at Billy. + +"Have you been out to the Gezireh Palace?" she very innocently +inquired. + +"Alone," said Billy. + +"It's very jolly there," said she. "It's so gay--and the music is +_quite_ good." + +"H'm," meditated Billy. "The condemned man ate a hearty tea of +Orange Pekoe and cress sandwiches," he reflected silently. He also +reflected that Miss Falconer would be furious--and that invited +him--and that time was interminable and that this expedition was as +good a way of getting through the afternoon as any other. Thereupon +he turned to the English girl, with a humorous challenge in his +gaze. "I wonder if you and Miss Falconer would let this be my tea +party?" he suggested. + +"Miss Falconer will be delighted," said Lady Claire mendaciously. + +The traces of that delight, however, lay beneath so well schooled an +exterior that they were decidedly non-apparent. Nor did Robert +Falconer's mien reveal any hint of joy when he returned to the hotel +and found the two ladies starting with Billy. He joined them with +rather the air of a watch dog, but that air soon wore away during +the long drive under the spell of young Hill's frank friendliness +and gay good humor. For Billy was extravagantly in spirits. +Excitement stirred in him like wine; his blood was on fire with +thoughts of the evening. + +"It's the fool _lark_ of the thing," he said, half apologetically, +to Falconer's wonder when the two young men were alone for a minute +on the Gezireh verandas. "Didn't you ever want to be a pirate?" + +The red-headed young man nodded. "Yes, but this business doesn't +make me feel like a pirate--more like a second-story man!" + +"I've left letters with Fritzi Baroff," said Hill, "and if we're not +back by morning, she's to go to the authorities with them." + +"That won't do us any good," said the Englishman grimly. + +But after the ladies returned it was a very merry-seeming tea party. +Even Miss Falconer unbent to the artist, as she persisted in calling +Billy, though he had dutifully enlightened her that engineering was +his true and proper life work, and art but a random diversion, and +she promised to show him the sketches which she had been making, +and piled him with questions about his mysterious America. + +And Lady Claire was very prettily animated, and rallied Falconer +upon his absent-mindedness and told Billy tales of her English home +and how her father had threatened to change the name of the Hall to +_Mädchenheim_ because there were five daughters of them. "_Five_ +girls near an age, Mr. Hill, and all poor as church mice!" she had +blithely asserted. + +But from what Billy heard of balls and hunters and "seasons," he +gleaned that being poor as church mice, for these five titled girls, +meant merely an effort in keeping up with the things they felt +should be theirs by right divine. And as Billy listened, feeling the +force of the girl's attraction, the charm of her serene confidence +and the pleasant air of security and well-being that hedged her in, +he stole a covert glance at Falconer's unrevealing countenance and +reflected that it was rather a stormy day for that young man when he +became entangled with the fortunes of little Miss Beecher. It was +also a stormy day for himself, but he felt that storms belonged more +naturally to his adventurous lot. + + * * * * * + +But it was characteristic of Falconer when once committed to a plan +not to open his mind to the objections which besieged it. So that +night, at the fall of dark, as the two young men motored forth +together, he maintained a stolid resolution which refused to look +back. The approach of the danger was tuning up his nerves, and +whatever his common sense might think about it, his youth and pluck +greeted the adventure with a quickening heart and a rash warmth of +blood. + +Both young men were resolute and confident. Either would have been +more than human if he had not looked a trifle askance upon the other +and wished to thunder that he had been able to go into it alone and +to have tasted the intoxication of delivering the girl single-handed +out of the den of thieves. But the success of the plan was +paramount, as Billy reminded himself. + +He found himself hoping wildly that she would see him as well as +Falconer. + +"She has probably forgotten all about me," he thought ruefully. "She +won't remember that dance with me, nor that chat next morning. I'm +just an Also Met. She won't even perceive me. She'll see that +sandy-haired deliverer--and she'll tell him how right he was and how +good to come after her----" + +Thus jealousy darkly painted his undoing. "But, darn it, I had to +ask him!" Thus he downed his ungenerous thoughts. "It needed two men +at least--and besides, I don't want any handicap of gratitude in +this." + +They left the automobile in the Mohammedan graveyard with exact and +impressive instructions. And then they stole back among the gloomy +trees and ghostly tombs to where the canal washed the foot of the +little terraces, and there the one-eyed man sat waiting in the +canoe, a figure of profound misanthropy. + +Silently he lifted a stricken but set countenance, and they climbed +in and the three paddled off, approaching the back of the palace +with wary eyes, for they were afraid that a guard might now be set +upon the walls. But Billy had argued that Kerissen was unaware of +Fritzi's knowledge of Arlee's identity; in fact she had at first +supposed her a willing supplanter like herself, and so he would not +be apprehensive of any of her revelations. And he did not dream that +Fritzi's rescuers were interested in Arlee. + +At the strip of path the canoe made softly to shore and the two +young men climbed out, while the Arab remained in the canoe, his +single eye peering into the darkness. This time Billy had provided +three stout, but narrow, ladders, constructed of two poles nailed +together with occasional cross pieces that gave narrow room for a +foot. He set one of these in place against the wall now, grounding +its ends deep in the soft earth, so that it would remain in +readiness for any sudden descent. Then from the top of the wall they +reconnoitered the scene before them. + +It was very dark. The garden was full of blotting shadows, and the +long wing of the harem lay almost in darkness, with only a faint +beam from two adjacent windows to reveal a sign of life. Those +windows were on the third story, next the angle made by the union of +the banquet hall and the harem, and Billy's heart quickened as he +recognized the location of the rose room. + +"That's it--that's her room," he whispered excitedly to Falconer. + +Falconer stared and nodded. "I wish that beastly hall wasn't in the +way ahead of us. I'd like to see what lights are in the windows in +that court beyond." + +"We might both go and take a look," said Billy doubtfully, "but I +guess you had better make, straight for your roofs. It wouldn't do +to have us both nabbed. Do you hear anything?" + +They listened, crouching flat upon the wall, straining their eyes +toward the palace. There was a high wind blowing and above them the +leaves of the palm trees were slapping against each other, and below +the shrubs and flowers were stirring restlessly. But the noise of +the wind, they felt, was helpful to cover the sounds of their +approach. + +"Why can't I make my way around on top of this wall and climb on the +roofs from the start?" Falconer questioned, and Billy answered, "I +asked her that. She said it couldn't be done. You'd have to climb +through some unsafe rubbish. The best way is down and up again in +that angle that she showed me. Shall we start?" + +The same impulse made both men examine their revolvers, then drop +them in readiness into their right-hand coat pockets. They moved +along the top of the wall till they reached the angle with the wall +on their right, and then they lowered the same knotted rope which +Billy had used the night before, but now another rope added to it +made it into a rope ladder. Suspending that over the top of the wall +by iron hooks, they slipped down it, each with a pole ladder in his +arms, and with another hook of iron they drove the ends down into +the earth, so that the rope would not wave out in the wind and +either betray them or become displaced. + +It was insecure enough, anyway, but they felt it ought to be left in +readiness for a flight that might have no second to waste. Now, with +eyes sharply challenging the shadows, they stole along the edge of +the palace. + +Staring up at the building, Billy stopped. "Here's a place a story +and a half high--you could almost climb up by those carvings without +any ladder. And there's the next higher roof back of it--and then +you must go there to the left." + +"I can make it," said Falconer, surely. "Now how much time shall I +allow you for your sawing--fifteen minutes?" + +"Guess you'd better," Billy reflected, and they compared watches. + +It was tremendously difficult to arrive at any sort of concerted +action on this bewildering expedition, but they were hoping to +achieve it. Their plan had the simplicity of all desperate measures. +One from below and one from above they were to make their way to +that rose room and fight the way out with the girl. They considered +it wiser to come from two directions, for if one were discovered and +the alarm raised, the other had still a chance of getting off with +Arlee, and if one were trying to escape, the other could cover his +flight. They had drawn straws for their positions, and Billy had +been slightly relieved that the entrance from below, which he +considered a trifle more difficult, had fallen to him. He felt +responsible, as well as he might, for Falconer's neck. + +Now he steadied one narrow ladder of poles while Falconer crept up +it and then drew it up after him; and after a few moments of +waiting, crouched in the shadow, Billy saw the Englishman's figure +reappear against the sky on top of a higher roof. The route over +the old buildings had been found, so Billy turned and crept forward +along the wall, carrying the last long ladder of poles in his hand. +It was an unwieldy thing to carry and it distracted his attention +harassingly. + +"My job," said he to himself, "is evidently to make a racket and +draw their fire from below while that red-headed chap carries Arlee +off from above. Well, I hope to the Lord he does. When I think of +her here----" + +But it was unnerving to think of her here, so he didn't. He kept his +mind steadily on the plan. He had reached the stone steps that led +from the garden to the harem now, and laying down his pole-like +ladder he slipped up them and turned the handle. + +But the door was locked. Fearful lest the grating of the knob should +have roused some watcher, he ran down the steps and hurried into the +shadow of the banquet hall, where he stood close beside a pillar +until he satisfied himself of the objects in the court beyond. He +saw an edge of light along the crack of a closed door to the left on +the ground floor of the _selamlik_, and in the higher stories above +that a couple of windows showed a pale illumination. On the right, +in the harem, only one window betrayed a ray of light. Altogether +the old pile was as gloomy and gruesome as a tomb. + +Billy stared across the court to where the columned vestibule, +uniting the two Ls, indicated the door. He had been told a watchman +slept there, but he could see nothing now but vague outlines of the +arches of the vestibule. To the left was the open passage left for +the entry of the automobile and horses, but this, too, was roofed so +that a black shadow lay over it. But for that watchman Billy would +have made his way to those doors to draw back the bars in readiness, +but fearful of raising an alarm, he judged it was better to leave +escape to chance and turn his attention to his entry. + +He went back now for his ladder, and on the right side of the +banquet hall, up under the arched roof, he discovered the wooden +grating where Fritzi had described it. Against this wall he placed +his ladder and climbed to the top, from which he could reach up and +clasp the spindles of the grating above him. + +He drew himself swiftly up to this, and the end of his pole was +dislodged by his departure and fell to the inlaid pavement with a +bang that seemed to him to carry to the farthest echoes of the +sounding court. Instantly there was an answering clatter of steps. + +Like a monkey Billy clung to the grating, thrusting his toes +desperately into the first openings they could find, hanging on with +his hands for dear life, holding himself as close up in the darkness +as he could, and nearly twisting his neck off in the effort to watch +what was going on below him. + +The steps sounded nearer and nearer, and a huge Nubian in baggy +bloomers and a short jacket was outlined in the court. His bare feet +were thrust into clattering English shoes. He peered about him for a +time, with one hand pointing the muzzle of a revolver. Billy caught +the unpleasant gleam of it; then the man stepped in underneath the +arches of the hall and made a slow way across it. + +Directly in his path lay that fatal pole. It lay along the shadow of +a column, but its end protruded beyond that shadow and would surely +catch his eye. Billy tried to free his right hand to get at a gun of +his own. To be caught ridiculously like this, clutching like a +monkey on a stick----! + +Another man, shorter and bent, in a long robe and carrying a +lantern, now emerged from that door along whose closed edge Billy +had noticed the crack of light, and the Nubian diverged toward him. +The pole was unnoticed and the two joined forces and made a slow +circle in the garden. Billy remembered that dangling rope, and with +a thumping heart he hoped that it would hang unregarded in that +shadowed angle, overrun with vines. + +Apparently it did, for he heard the footsteps passing on without a +stop as he clung there to his grating, his muscles cramped, his +sockets strained. Slowly the two recrossed the hall, talking +together in low gutturals and not apparently of unpleasant things, +for a note of laughter sounded. They lingered in parley in the +court, but by the time that he thought that he could not hang on a +minute longer and would drop like a peach from the wall, they +separated and each moved slowly away. The man with the lantern shut +the door after him and all was darkness there and the great Nubian +was blotted out beneath the arches of the vestibule. + +The fear that Falconer was in the palace alone made Billy desperate. +Clinging with his feet and his left hand, he drew out a clasp knife +with a razor edge and hacked furiously at the delicate spindles and +frail carved work of the screen till he could thrust one arm through +the opening. The work was easier then, but he had to resist the +temptation to seize the brittle stuff and break it in pieces, for +fear the splintering sound would be too sharp. + +Torn between caution and impatience he worked on, and as soon as the +hole was large enough he pulled himself cautiously up and dropped +over the edge into the cage-like balcony on the other side. The +panel which separated it from the rest of the old room was half +open, and he stepped through it into what appeared utter darkness. + +He stood listening keenly, for he knew that he was standing below +the rose room; the very spot where he was must be almost exactly +beneath that secret passage outside the panel in the rose room's +wall. Not a sound came down to him and he dared not wait longer, but +turned to the left and passed through the arched doorway into the +next great salon. + +As his eyes grew accustomed to the dark he saw that it was not utter +blackness, but that some wan light from the paler night without +faintly penetrated through those jealously guarded windows--windows +not so heavily screened, he had been told, as those upon the front +of the palace, for these were upon the court. He found time for a +flash of horror at this stifling barricade as he made his hurried +way through the room and stepped out into the little anteroom +beyond. + +Here he paused, for he knew that to the left, ahead of him, was the +curtained opening into the long salon upon the street, and within +that, Fritzi had warned him, a eunuch sometimes slept or Seniha +occasionally came from her small salon to play on the piano there +and lingered apparently in wait. But no one seemed stirring, and +Billy stole to the door on his right, opening on the encased stairs, +and found it locked. Hurriedly he pried at it with a burglarious +tool, and then a sudden outburst sounded overhead. + +There was a racket of hurrying feet and then a muffled explosion of +a shot. A hoarse voice yelled. Another shot, and then a thud of +something falling. + +Desperately Billy fired his gun into the lock. The noise did not +matter now and might serve to divert the fight from Falconer. +Throwing his weight against the shattered lock, he bounded up the +narrow stairs and raced down the long hall to the door that was +brightly gilded. From beyond, but fainter now, came the sounds of +conflict. With a heart beating to suffocation he flung open the door +and rushed into that room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +IN THE ROSE ROOM + + +Candles flared on the table but not a figure greeted his eye. The +room was deathly still; nothing stirred but the long draperies +fluttering in the wind. + +"Arlee!" he whispered in a voice strained with excitement. "Arlee +Beecher, are you here?... Arlee!" + +No voice answered. No motion revealed her. Only the candle flames +danced drunkenly in a puff of air, flaunting their secret knowledge +of the tenant they had lighted. + +He darted to the tumbled bed and flung aside the covers; he looked +beneath it and beneath the couch; he sent a candle's light traveling +about the empty whiteness of the bath. No little figure, pitifully +silenced, was, hidden there. The room was empty. And all the while +that din sounded somewhere beyond them--running feet and strident +yells. + +"He's got her!" thought Billy, and first his heart leaped and then +it sank. For very dear to that boy's heart had been the dream of +rescuing her himself. And then he hated himself for that base envy. +For what did it matter as long as little Arlee was safe, and that +she was gone with Falconer, the empty room and the signs of hasty +departure all spoke in witness. He wondered sharply how they had +gone and whether he had better try to follow them and then thought +it was shrewder to go back the way he had come and from below to try +to guard whatever descent they must make. + +He turned swiftly and crossed to the door. With a hand outstretched +toward it he caught suddenly, beneath all the distant din, the click +of a sliding lock, and he whirled about, dropping his right hand +into his pocket, to see a pale face staring at him from the other +side of the bed. + +"Not a move--or you drop!" said Captain Kerissen. The candle lights +glinted on the muzzle of a gun leveled steadily at him. + +"Stay where you are," the Captain added, and Billy stayed, and +through the dusk the two men stood eyeing each with a glare of +hatred. But Kerissen's eyes held hatred triumphant. + +"So, Monsieur," said the Turk. "This is the midnight call you +gentlemen pay--in the chamber of my wife." + +"Your wife!" Billy gave a snort of unbelief. "She says you did not +marry her!" + +"When you are found dead--if you are found," the other continued, +looking lovingly along the sight, "there will not even be a question +into the cause. You will be carted off like carrion--carrion that +prowled too near." + +"Just the same you've made a mistake," said Billy in a dogged and +argumentative tone. "I'm not interested in visiting any wife of +yours. The lady I'm representing says you didn't marry her. But she +says you did keep back most of her jewelry and she's giving the +story to the papers to-morrow unless I return with the stuff +to-night." + +He could not guess what impression this speech was making. + +"I am not interested in your stories, Monsieur," the Turk returned +blandly. "I am interested only in your dispatching--which I feel +should be prolonged beyond the mercy of a shot." + +"Look here, I'm not a common robber and you know it," said Billy, +and his voice sounded rough and angry. "I'm here to collect the +property of the lady you detained here, while she was under contract +in Vienna. I don't want anything more than _belongs_ to her. She +left----" + +"With a great deal more upon her than she brought! But am I to +suppose, Monsieur, that you have made your way here, at some +personal inconvenience, I should say, to discuss the generosity of +my remuneration to the lady?" There was a tense silence and the +Captain continued in a low, almost purring voice, "You do not +appear, even now, to comprehend the thing you have done. I shall do +my best to make you comprehend--and before I have finished it may be +that I shall have a clearer explanation of this impulsive call. You +have no notion, Monsieur, how certain things unloose the tongue--but +you shall discover." + +Billy saw his white teeth show in a deadly smile. Back of him a +dark, heavy figure appeared and the Captain, without turning his +head or moving his eyes or his gun from Billy, gave some rapid +directions in Turkish and the figure disappeared. It occurred to +Billy like a flash that from that secret passage where the figure +had appeared there was a panel into the room on the right and that +room had a door opening into the hall outside. The next moment he +felt the door behind him open. + +Then he pulled the trigger of that gun in his pocket in which his +hand had been so lightly resting. The Captain seemed to fire the +same instant, but Billy had jumped aside as he shot his own gun and +he heard the bullet singing past his ear, and now, with his revolver +out of his pocket, he shot again with an aim so true that the other +man's right hand gave a spasmodic jerk and the revolver went +spinning to the ground. + +Across the room he hurled himself, springing from the onslaught of +the assailant entering behind him, and thrusting the cursing Captain +from his path he leaped through the sliding panel. The lock clicked +home and he paused even in that moment of hammering pulses and +pounding heart to fumble in the darkness to shut that other panel +into the next room, remembering Fritzi's warning that those locks +needed a key to open them from within. The minute's delay for the +key would mean many minutes for him. + +He stumbled against the tiny stairs that led to the tower room +through which Falconer had descended, but he did not dash up those +stairs for he heard the noise of feet overhead, as if returning from +pursuit, and he darted straight on through the long, narrow, +unlighted corridor, running like a hare. + +At the other end he crashed against a half-open door and fell +headlong down a flight of stairs. From his astonished fingers the +revolver went clattering and though he picked himself up, battered +but unbroken, at the foot, he dared not waste a minute to go back +and hunt for the gun in the dark. He was totally at a loss for +directions; he had expected to find himself in the Captain's rooms, +and the stairs were unknown. Now he could just make out a door ahead +of him and sent it flying open, smash in the face of an astonished +black boy who went stumbling backwards. + +Out went Billy's fist and caught the unguarded chin a staggering +blow, and as the boy reeled back he flung one hurried glance about +the big, lamp-lit chamber in which he found himself, the room +evidently of Captain Kerissen, and darted to an arsenal of weapons +that glinted against the inlaid panels. Wrenching down the shortest +scabbard he jerked out a most villainous looking two-edged knife and +gripping this piratical weapon he bounded out the door, fled through +the dim hall to his right, rounded a corner, to the right again, +hearing the sounds of pursuit louder and louder now behind him, shot +through a vast reception hall and plunged down a flight of stairs. + +From the darkness below a figure rose up to receive him with a grip +like iron. Billy's right arm was doubled at his side; the blade of +that villainous old dagger was pressed against the yielding softness +of the fellow's sash, but for the life of him Billy could not drive +home that knife against the human flesh. With a convulsive movement +he tore himself from those gorilla arms and sent up a desperate +kick, then leaped past the staggering man, and with the unused knife +in his teeth, he tore at the bars of the great gate in the wall at +his left. The bars were stiff and primitive and resisted his furious +fingers, and the big gate-keeper, gasping for a moment against the +stairs, suddenly straightened and sprang toward him. + +"Here's one hero that didn't open the door 'in the nick of time'!" +raced through Billy's grimly humorous mind, as he dodged the savage +thrust of a knife the man had drawn and turned and scuttled across +the court with the other on his heels. Through the arches he darted +and then down into the garden, sprinting as he had never sprinted +before, on, on to the southwest angles of the wall, thanking Heaven +fervently, as every step outdistanced his pursuer, that the man had +evidently no gun. + +The rope ladder was still there, blown free at the bottom now and +waving merrily in the wind. He snatched at it, dropping his knife in +his pocket, praying that the top hooks had not become dislodged, and +after him came the other man, hand over hand. Billy drew up his legs +in a horrid fear of having them gripped or hacked at, and gained the +top just as the other's head appeared below, his knife gleaming in +his teeth. + +Like a flash Billy drew out his knife and cut the rope. There was a +wild yell from below and a screech of curses and imprecations +following a rather sickening sounding thud, which persuaded Billy, +peering down from above, that the victim's lungs at least were +unimpaired, and then to his great amazement a shot went winging up +past his ear. + +"Had a gun all the time--too fighting mad to think of it--knife more +natural!" he thought amazedly, sliding down the other side in a +jiffy and then jerking his ladder down flat on the ground. + +Out in the shadows the one-eyed man was paddling earnestly to +safety. The shot so close at hand had been his sign for departure; +he did not look back at Billy's shrill whistling nor his wilder +shouts, and as the yells on the other side of the wall were bringing +the inmates of the palace upon him, Billy had no more time for +persuasion. + +Off went his shoes and out into the canal he flung them, then +headlong he plunged into the dark and uninviting water and struck +out to the right, in the same direction in which the canoe was +going, keeping carefully in the shadow of the bank, on the other +side. + +In a few moments the canoe was lost from sight and Billy was left +alone, swimming between two steep walls of old palaces, weighed down +by his tweeds, and maddened through and through with his inability +to wring the neck of the one-eyed canoeist. The distance seemed +unending to his slow progress but at last the palms of the cemetery +appeared upon the right hand bank, and he struck across the widening +waters and climbed out on the first foot of the graveyard that +presented itself. + +A dozen rods farther on the Arab was awaiting him in the canoe. +Billy's mood did not invite conversation and he did not linger now +for the other's explanations, but calling to him to wait he made in +through the cemetery, dodging warily from tomb to tomb, till he +reached the entrance of the main road. + +The motor was gone. He satisfied himself of that, and a wave of +rejoicing surged through him. That motor was to wait till one or the +other arrived with the girl and then leave with all speed, while the +other was to be left to the slower canoe. He was sure, now, that +Falconer had succeeded in carrying the thing through and Billy's +heart warmed to him. Then, for the first time, he felt something +numb and queer about his left arm and putting his hand on it he +found the sopping sleeve was torn and a warm ooze of blood welling +through the cold water from the canal. + +"Gosh, the chap winged me!" was his startled exclamation. "Feels as +if it's going to sleep--glad it didn't go back on me in the ditch, +there." Then he pressed back into the shadows for he saw a figure +edging forward beyond the corner of a tomb. After a moment's +hesitation it came directly toward him. He saw it was Robert +Falconer. + +Foreboding gripped him and he could scarcely keep himself from +shouting his eager question, but he hurried forward till the two +stood face to face and then, "Where is she? Did you get her?" burst +from him, and "Have you got her? Is she all right?" came at the same +instant from Falconer. + +Blankly they stared at each other and a cold sense of failure went +over and over Billy like a sea. His voice shook with this new, +sickening fear. "Didn't you see her at all?" + +"Did you?" counter-demanded Falconer, and Billy stammered, "Why no +I--I found the room empty. And I thought you were safely off with +her." + +"Safely off!" said Falconer grimly. "I got in all right, though +there must be a new lock on the door of that room up top, but I made +some noise about it and ran plump into a fellow half way down the +stairs. I threw him the rest of the way down, and he fired and +brought a couple of others swarming up at me but I got out on the +roofs again and gave them the slip. They went tearing back along the +wing toward the garden the way I'd come and I went toward the street +and got down." + +"Got down! _How_ did you get down?" + +"Over those bay-window places," said the Englishman briefly. "I tied +that cord I had to one of the doddering old cornices to start with. +It wasn't any trick at all." + +"Three stories," Billy shot in. + +"And you'd no better luck, it seems?" Falconer inquired. + +"No, I came up from below and found the room empty--but disheveled, +so I thought you were off with her sure. And just then the Captain +came in the panel places--just back from chasing you along the roof, +I guess, for I'd been hearing the racket--and another fellow with +him and we had a scrimmage and I got away through the men's wing." + +"You're wet." + +"That was a bit of canal bathing--our Arab put off with the canoe +when I was needing it badly. I left him waiting here all right, +however, and came here to find the motor gone." + +"Naturally--being paid in advance." + +"Only half paid." + +"Half pay was enough for him. I knew it would be.... The thing was +all rot in the first place." + +Billy was too bitter of soul to reply. He was remembering what he +ought to have done. He ought to have put that pistol to the +Captain's head and forced him through the palace inch by inch.... He +wondered if it would do any good to go back. His arm was rousing +from its numbness, however, and raising a little racket all its own. + +"We might as well get out of this," the Englishman advised, and +Billy's reason acquiesced in spite of his rage. In silence they went +down to the water's edge and embarked. The homeward course, from +caution, was not past the palace but upstream through a remote and +unknown region where they finally landed upon a bank and struck +through unfamiliar and unfriendly looking byways toward the city. + +Their walk was silent. Fierce gloom enveloped Billy; furious chagrin +bestrode him. Chump that he was to have jumped at such positive +conclusions! He ought to have stayed there. If only that second Turk +had not been coming up behind him! He could think now of a number of +brilliant ways out of his difficulties.... Morosely he trudged on +through the interminable streets, his chilly wetness like an outward +aspect of his gloom-soused mind. + +He could not bear to think of Arlee. He felt now that, warned by +Falconer's approach from above, they had snatched her from her room +and hidden her away. He wondered if he deceived the Captain about +the motives for his presence. He wondered what in the world could be +done now--if all effort was to resolve itself into the futility of +an official search-party. He wondered where in all that baffling +prison Arlee was hidden. + +Upon that tormenting question he unlocked his lips. "Where is she?" +he muttered worriedly. "That's the question--where is she?" + +"In Alexandria." + +Plainly the Englishman's wrath had been smoldering. Billy turned +upon him fiercely. + +"In that palace, I tell you." + +"So you say." + +"And I say, too," and Billy's exasperation strained its bonds, "that +if you don't believe she was there--if you think I got up this +little party to while away an idle evening, why it was most +uncommonly good of you to come! But I can't think why you did it if +you weren't convinced of the necessity. Certainly it was not from +love of me." + +"Rather not." + +"That goes double.... But you couldn't deny the facts and you _did_ +come. Because we failed doesn't change the facts at all. She's +there--only _where_? Had we better go straight to the consul now?" + +"I think," said Falconer coldly, "that we had better telegraph the +Evershams to see if they have had any word from her before we stir +up any hue and cry." + +"All right," said Billy, and then he gave a short laugh. "Lord, we +shall be quarreling like a couple of backyard dames next ... Of +course, we're chagrined. It's poor satisfaction to reflect that we +did our best--and if you are still uncertain about Miss Beecher's +danger there I can't blame you for seeing the folly of the +business." + +After this effort of pleasantness Billy subsided into the cab that +was most welcomely discovered, rousing after some minutes of violent +progress to change their direction to the English doctor's. + +"Winged," he said briefly, to Falconer's question. "Watchman chap as +I was getting over the wall. Nothing wrong, I know, but it feels +like--fire," he substituted. + +Falconer was instantly concerned, but his sympathy went against the +grain. Billy was too stirred for consolation. At the doctor's he +refused to have Falconer enter with him. + +"No use in having both of us traced if there is to be any trouble +about this," he said with decision. "Go ahead and telegraph the +Evershams and get an answer as soon as possible." + +He had no earthly belief in that answer, and great, therefore, was +his astonishment when, as he was walking the floor with his tingling +arm in the early morning hours, a telegram was sent to him which +Falconer had just received. His wire had caught the boat at Rhoda +where it tied up for the night and Mrs. Eversham had promptly +answered. + +"We have heard from Miss Beecher," she said, "and she may join us +later. Her address just Cook's, Alexandria." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ON THE TRAIL + + +Breakfasting, a little one-handedly, that Monday morning, Billy was +approached by his companion of the night. The young Englishman +looked fresh and fit and subtly triumphant. + +"Good news--what?" he said with a genial smile. + +"If authentic," said the dogged Billy. + +"Of all the fanatic f----!" The sandy-haired young man checked his +explosiveness in mid-air. He gave a glance at the bulge of bandage +beneath Billy's coat sleeve and dropped into a chair beside him. +"How's the arm?" he inquired in a tone of restraint. + +"Fine," said Billy without enthusiasm. + +"Glad of that. Afraid the canal bath wouldn't do it any good. +Beastly old place, that." Then the Englishman gave a sudden chuckle. +"It's a regular old lark when you come to think of it!" + +"Our lack of luck wasn't any great lark." Savagely Bill speared his +bacon. + +"Luck? Why we--Oh, come now, my dear fellow, you can't pretend to +maintain those suspicions now! Of course the letter is authentic!" +Falconer spoke between irritation and raillery. "That Turkish +fellow could hardly fake that letter to them, could he? No, and we +will have to acknowledge ourselves actuated by a too-hasty +suspicion--inevitable under the circumstance--and be grateful that +the uncertainty is over. That's the only way to look at it." + +"We don't know that the Evershams have received a 'letter.' It might +be another fraudulent telegram that was sent them from Alexandria." + +"That is a bit too thick. You're a Holmes for suspicion!" Falconer +laughed. "I believe if Miss Beecher herself walked into this dining +room you would question if she were not a deceiving effigy!" + +"I might question that anyway." Billy's tone was dry. "And I daresay +I am a fool. But that dancer's story is pretty straight if she +didn't know the names, and it fits in disasterously well with my +limousine story." + +"You're not the first man to be staggered by a coincidence," +Falconer told him. "And that woman's yarn was convincing enough, +though all the time I was dubious, you remember. But now that the +Evershams have heard," and the young Englishman's deep note of +relief showed how tormenting had been his uncertainty, "why now we +have no further right to put Miss Beecher's name into the affair. +There is evidently some other girl concerned who may or may not be +as guileless as she represented to the Baroff girl, and I shall lay +that story before the ambassador and leave her rescue to authentic +ways." + +He laughed a little shamefacedly at the unauthentic ways of last +night, and added, looking off across the room, "My sister and Lady +Claire are going to Luxor to-night, and I expect to accompany them. +If you should have any word about Miss Beecher's return here I +should be glad if you would let me know." + +"If she is safe in Alexandria she'd never think of writing me," said +Billy bluntly. "Our acquaintance is distinctly one-sided." + +"I quite understand. She was your countrywoman in a strange land and +all that." + +"And all that," Billy echoed. "What time is your train?" + +"Six-thirty." + +"Then if I don't see you before that here's good luck and good-by." + +Billy rose and shook hands and the two young men parted after a few +more words. + +"You have an _idée-fixe_--beware of it!" was Falconer's caution, +serious beneath its air of banter, and on the other hand Billy +perceived in the cautioner a latent uneasiness considered so +irrational that he was doing his sensible best to disown it. + +So Falconer took himself off about the preparations for departure +and Billy B. Hill was left to face his problem alone. Black worry +plucked at him. He did not know what under the sun he could do next. +Already that day he had done what he could. He had been out early +and run down the one-eyed factotum loitering about the corner and +under cover of a transaction over a scarab he had made a number of +plans. + +He wanted the Captain followed every instant of the day. There were +enough active little Arabs greedy for _piastres_ to do that well +and send back constant word to him. There was coming that day, he +felt, an interview between him and that Captain. Then he wanted the +one-eyed man to insinuate himself into the palace. He must find out +things. He could use his connection with the eunuch who was uncle of +his brother's wife. + +So much Billy had already arranged and now after a hasty breakfast +he was off to the consul, where he proceeded to unfold his story +while the consul drew little circles on his blotter and looked out +of the corners of his eyes at this astonishing young man. + +He made no comment when Billy paused. Perhaps he could think of none +adequate, or perhaps, after all, he had ceased to be amazed. He +merely said slowly and thoughtfully, "Of course the dancer's story +is all you really have to go upon. You had better bring her here." + +"Nothing easier," Billy declared, and thinking a cab as prompt as a +telephone he drove briskly off. + +The hotel held a shock for him. Fritzi Baroff was gone. She had gone +the evening before, the clerk reported, consulting the register, and +she had paid her bill. As he had not been the one on duty then he +knew nothing more about it. She had left no address. + +Ultimately the clerk who had been on duty was unearthed in the +labyrinths of the hotel's backgrounds, but he could supply very +little further except the certainty that she had paid her bill in +person, and the vague belief that she had been accompanied. This +belief was companioned by a hazy notion that some one had called on +her that evening. + +Even Billy's sense of humor was unstirred by the half-cynical +sympathy of the night-clerk's gaze; Billy didn't feel a laugh +anywhere within him. He was balked. The dancer had vanished with her +story, and that story was essential to the consul. Like a fool he +must return empty-handed with this yarn of her disappearance and the +consul would be justified in declaring that he had no actual proof +to act upon. Which was precisely what the consul did, but he +offered, impressed with Billy's earnestness, "to take the matter +up," with the proper authorities. + +It seemed the best that could be done. Billy urged him to prompt +action, and to himself he promised some prompt action of a totally +unofficial character. He knew now what he was going to do, or rather +he thought he did, for the day still held its unsettling surprises +for him, and as he set forth on business bent that afternoon he +found himself besieged by a skinny little boy in tattered blue +robes, who danced around him with a handful of dirty postcards. + +"Be off," said Billy, in vigorous Arabic, and the little boy +answered proudly, in most excellent English, "I am a messenger, sir. +I am the boy who held the canoe that night. Buy a postcard, sir? +Only six piastres a dozen, six piastres, Views of Egypt, the Sphinx, +the Nile, the----" + +Impatiently Billy cut him short. + +"Never mind the bluff. No one is listening. What's your message?" + +"The streets have ears, sir. Buy a postcard?... I have come from the +palace. I brought in the bread. I--_I_ got in under their nose while +the big Mohammed was turned away without sight of his uncle," +bragged the little Imp. "I am a clever boy, I. No one else so clever +to find out things. The American man did well to come to me." + +"What the devil, then, did you find out?" + +"Five piastres a dozen, then, only five.... Go on walking, sir, I +will run alongside. Keep shaking your head at me--very good.... I +find out where she are." + +"Where _who_ are?" + +The little braggart had roused Billy's suspicions. He determined to +be wary. + +"The young girl with the very light hair. Mohammed send me to ask of +her. You know, sir," the little fellow insisted, hopping up and down +beside him. "Only four a dozen--very cheap!" he screeched at him in +a tone that must have carried for blocks. "I run in with the bread +and take it to the kitchen where women are working. And I pretend +make love to one very pretty girl, tell her how I come marry her +when I old enough and make enough, and hold up piece money to show +how rich I am. And the rest they think I just make game, but I +whisper to her quick how much you pay her for news of that lady +upstairs with the fair hair, and I give her some money. It are not +much, sir. I promise her to come back with more." + +"Go on," demanded Billy, stopping short. "What did she tell you?" + +"Walk along, sir, walk along. Just half a dozen then--very cheap, +very beautiful!" cried the little rascal with deep enjoyment of his +rôle. Billy found his hands clenching frenziedly. The Imp proceeded, +"She are much afraid, that girl, to say things, but I tell her how +safe it is an' I tell her you great big rich man who pay her well. I +make her honest promise to come back with money--and she very poor +girl. She whisper quick what she know, looking backward over +shoulder like this." Turning his face about after this dramatic +illustration the Imp caught sight of Billy's countenance, and rolled +the rest of his narration into one speedy sentence. + +"She are gone," he cried. + +"Gone?" + +"Took away.... Take these cards, sir, stop and look at them.... Yes, +she are took away. It happen very quick; early that morning after +the other lady go in the night. Everyone much excited that night, +great noise about, and no one know just what happen. But the Captain +give orders quick, and early the motor car is ready and the strange +girl go away. Old woman go, too. Nobody know where." + +"That would be Sunday morning," Billy cried excitedly. "Are you sure +there is no mistake? There were lights in that room on Sunday +night." + +"I tell what the girl tell. She are very honest girl," the Imp +insisted. "She say the other lady run away with her lover an' +Captain afraid the new lady has a lover so he send her away quick." + +"But he didn't go himself?" + +"No, he have something with his reg-reglement," gulped the Imp +hastily, "that day and he stay and he there now--but now he sick." + +"What's the matter?" + +"I don't know, sir, but I know the doctor comes because she say to +me to come back and say I am boy from doctor with medicine, and if I +don't see her I must say I lost that medicine and go away, and come +again as I can till I bring that money to her. She are very much +afraid, sir." + +Billy shuffled the postcards with absent hands and stared down at +them with unseeing eyes. She was gone--and the Captain was not with +her! That much at least was gain. And the fellow was here sick from +his shot hand, apparently. "I hope gangreen sets in," he said +between his teeth. + +"You are pleased with me, sir?" the Imp was demanding. "You are glad +of so much clever boy? And you give me that money now to give that +girl? I make her most honest promise--and you see, sir, I am very +honest boy, I tell you all I know and I ask nothing of price yet. I +know that you are honest American man." + +At that Billy came out of his brown study and praised the tattered +little Imp with hearty earnestness. He saw no reason to doubt the +boy's story. If he had been trying to invent something in order to +make capital out of him he would hardly have invented that story of +Arlee's departure, for that put an immediate end to further +remunerative investigations in the palace. Of course Billy might be +mistaken, and the boy might be mistaken, but one had to leave +something to probabilities. He was very generous with the boy, and +the droll little brown face was lined with grins. Most naïvely he +besought that the American would not reveal the extent of his +donations to Mohammed, the one-eyed man, as the boys had promised +their employer a just one-half. + +It was the first laugh Billy had enjoyed in a long time. His spirits +were vastly lightened by the news that Arlee was out of the palace +where the Captain was staying. Fritzi had optimistically informed +him that the Turk's courtship could be made most lengthy, but that +had been a sadly slender hope and the picture of Arlee playing such +a fearful game was simply horrible to him. So his relief at her +departure was intense, although it complicated more and more the +hope of speedy rescue. + +For where was she now? In Cairo? In some of the outlying villages? +He felt swamped by the number of things were to be found out +immediately. He must find where that big gray motor went so early on +Sunday--surely there were people who had remarked it if they could +only be found and induced to talk! And he must find where the +Captain had other homes or palaces where he would be likely to hide +a girl. And he must find out where the Captain was every instant of +the day and night. + +That was the most important thing of all. For the Captain unless +delayed by extreme illness, or held back by a caution which Billy +judged was foreign to his nature, would not wait long before he +joined Arlee. He had evidently stayed behind for some review of his +troops and also to be _au courant_ of whatever stir would result +from Fritzi Baroff's reappearance in the world, and be on hand to +disarm whatever further suspicions would result from it. The lights +in the rose room that last night and the used look of the room, +puzzled Billy, but he concluded that the Captain liked the room and +there was a good deal in that palace that had better be left to no +imagination whatever. + +So back to the hotel went Billy to enter upon a period of waiting +that frayed his nerves to an utter frazzle. Inaction was horrible to +him, and now it was inevitable. He must wait for word from that +agile web of little spies which the one-eyed man was weaving about +the Captain's palace, and be ready to start whenever the word came. + +He slept with his clothes on that Monday night, but he slept heavily +for he was tired and his arm was no longer painful. The tear of +wound he called a scratch was healing swiftly. + +Tuesday morning passed in the same maddening suspense. Captain +Kerissen rode out that morning but only to the parade ground, where +he took part in a review with his troops. It was noticed that his +right hand was bandaged, but the injury could not have been severe +for his thumb was free from the bandage and he occasionally used +that hand upon the reins. It was the bright eyes of the Imp that +were sure of that. + +In the afternoon the Captain went again to the barracks and then to +the palace of one of the colonels in his regiment. Then he went +home. + +Utterly disgusted with this waiting game Billy began to dress for +dinner. All lathered for a shave he stood testing his razor on a +hair when his unlocked door was violently opened and a panting +little figure darted across to him. It was the Imp. + +"Sir, he goes, he goes upon the minute," he panted out. "He is in +the station. Quick!" + +Like a streak of lathered lightening Billy went for his clothes. A +centipede could have been no more active. He jerked up his +suspenders; he jerked on a shirt; he jerked on a coat; he was wiping +his face as he darted through the halls and down the stairs. No lift +had speed enough for his descent. At the desk he flung some gold +pieces at the clerk, cried something about being called out of the +city, and asked to have his room kept; then he was down the steps +and into the carriage that the Imp had magically summoned. + +The drive to the station was a series of escapes. Between jolts the +Imp gasped out the rest of the story. The Captain had ridden out in +the automobile. The Imp had given chase and so had the one-eyed man, +also on guard, and by dint of running for dear life they had kept +the motor in sight until the crowded city streets were reached and a +series of delays enabled them to catch up with it. As soon as they +saw the motor stop before the station the boy had rushed for Billy +while the Arab remained to shadow the Captain and learn his +destination. + +They themselves were at the station now, and Billy was still tying +his cravat. Now they jumped down and pressed through the confusion, +dodging dragomans, porters, drivers and hotel runners and making a +vigorous way past hurrying travelers and through bewildered +blockades of tourist parties. Suddenly over the bobbing heads they +saw the face they sought. A single eye glared significance upon +them. An uplifted hand beckoned furiously. + +"Assiout," whispered the one-eyed man as Billy reached him. +"Assiout. That one goes to Assiout on the night express." + +"My ticket? Got a ticket for me?" + +Upturned palms bespoke the absence of ticket and the Arab's deep +regret. "The price was much. I waited----" + +Billy was off. There was no chance of his getting past that stolid +guard without a ticket and he charged toward the seller's window, +where a line of natives was forming for another train. + +"_Siut_!" he shouted over their heads, and scattering silver and +smiles and apologies he crowded past the motley line to the window +and fairly snatched the miles of green ticket from the Copt's quick +fingers. + +He was the last man through the gate, and as he darted through the +clicking of compartment doors was heard with the parting cries of +the guards and the shouts of dragomans and porters. It was a train +_de luxe_ where the sleeping sections had long been reserved, but to +accommodate the crowded travel ordinary compartment cars had been +added at the last minute, and it was at one of these that Billy +grasped, as the wheels were moving faster and faster. A gold piece +caused a guard to unlock the first compartment door, although it +said, "_Dames Seules_," and "Ladies Only" in large letters. + +It was not a corridor train and the compartment was already filled, +and as Billy wormed his way, not into the nearest corner, for that +was not yielded to him, but into the modicum of space accorded +between two stout and glaringly grudging matrons, he became aware +from the hostile stares that his entrance had not been solitary. + +Between his legs the Imp was coiling. + +"I made a sneak with you," the boy whispered. "I say I your +dragoman, sir. You will be glad. You need such bright boy in +Assiout." + +Billy thought it highly probable that he would. But the ladies +neither needed nor desired him now, and ringed in by feminine +disgust the two scorned intruders sat silent hour after hour while +the train went rushing south through the increasing darkness of the +night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE HIDDEN GIRL + + +Hour after hour the little boat held its steady course; hour after +hour the distant banks flowed past in changing scenes. Forward on +the narrow deck a girl sat in a lounge chair beneath a striped +awning and gazed out over the water. Squatting in the shade behind +her an old woman stared up out of half-closed eyes with pupils as +keen and bright under their puckered lids as the eyes of a watching +hawk. + +No disturbing consciousness of this incessant scrutiny muffled the +serenity of the girl's appearance. Her hands lax in her lap, her +blue eyes quietly intent upon the view, she lay back in her chair +with as much confident unconcern as she might have shown in an opera +box. As a matter of incredulous fact she was feeling incredulously +at ease. + +The terrible tension of those days in the palace was over--for the +time, at least. She did not understand this new move, she had been +bewildered ever since that early dawn, on Sunday, when the old woman +and the eunuch had rushed her into the limousine, driven her +swiftly through the empty streets to a landing place on the river +beyond the bridge, and hurried her on board this little boat, an old +_dahabiyeh_ reconstructed and given a new engine. + +The Captain had not appeared except for a brief interview in the +vestibule where he had told her that the quarantine was prolonged +and that he was going to try to escape out of Cairo where the +authorities would not be aware, and would first try to smuggle her +out of the city, too. She must do exactly as the old woman indicated +and everything would be all right. + +And she had said, "How exciting!" and "What fun!" with lips that +smiled pluckily in apparent acceptance of this flimsy excuse. + +She had connected this flight with the pandemonium she had heard in +the palace the night before, and she guessed that in some way her +presence there had become embarrassing for the Turk. Perhaps her +friends had traced her! Perhaps Robert Falconer--for after all it +would only be Robert Falconer's flouted devotion, she thought, that +would interest itself in her. He mistrusted Kerissen; he would +suspect. + +So hope rose high in her, and hopeful, too, was this new glimpse of +freedom. Somewhere, soon, she thought confidently, the chance to +escape would come. The old woman could not watch forever. The big +eunuch was occupied with the boat. She could hear him now muttering +angrily to the little brown boy at the engines, while over the sound +of his muttering rose the rhythmic, unconcerned chant of two other +boys marching up and down the narrow passageways of deck outside the +little staterooms with a scrubbing brush under each left foot. +"_Allah Illeh Lessah_," they chanted monotonously, with a scrub of +the brush at each emphasis. "_Allah Illeh Lessah_." + +"Allah help _me_," thought Arlee Beecher. + +All day Sunday she had sat there in that chair watching the +pyramids, at first so sharp-cut against the cloudless blue, wane +imperceptibly and fade from sight, watching the golden Mokattan +Hills and the pearly tinted Tura range slip softly from the horizon +and all the old landmarks of the Egypt that she knew disappear and +be replaced by strange, new sights. Other pyramids showed like +child's toys upon the horizon; dense groves of palm trees appeared +along the banks, then the banks grew higher and higher and upon +them, silhouetted against the bright blue sky, showed a frieze-like +procession of country folk driving camels or donkeys or bullocks. + +All night long they had steamed, a search-light on the bow, and +Arlee had lain in the little stateroom trying to sleep, but +continually aware of the breathing of the old woman huddled outside +against her door, of the soft thudding of bare feet about the deck, +of the pulse of the engine, beating, beating steadily, and of quick, +muffled commands, of reversals, grinding of chains as some +treacherous shallow appeared ahead, then of the onward drive and the +steady rhythmic progress again. + +Where were they taking her? South to some haunt where she would be +farther than ever from the civilization which had flowed so +unheedingly past that old palace of darkened windows, south toward +the strange native cities and tiny villages and the grain fields +and the deserts. But it was all better than that stifling palace and +the absence of the Captain gave her a sense of temporary security. + +Sunday had been hot and dry, but this Monday was cooler and the +north wind, blowing freshly over the wide Nile, broke the +amber-brown of the water into little waves of sparkling blue edged +with silver ripples. The river was beautiful to her, even in her +sorry plight, and to-day there were little clouds in the sky, +furtive, scuddy little clouds with wind-teased edges, and they cast +soft shadows over the river and over the tender green of the fields +and the flat, mirroring water standing level in the trenches. In the +fields brown men and women were working, and on the river banks the +half-naked figures of _fellaheen_ were ceaselessly bending, +ceaselessly straightening, as they dipped up the water from the +_shadoufs_ to feed the thirsty land. Sometimes in the fields Arlee +saw the red rusty bulk of the old engines, which the Mad Khedive had +tried to install among his people, to do away with this +back-breaking work, now lying useless and ignored. God forbid that +we do otherwise than our fathers, said the people. + +Across the water came the monotonous chant of their labor song, and +sometimes the creak and squeak of some inland well-sweep drawn round +and round by some patient camel. She felt herself to be in another +world, as she sat in that boat guarded by that old woman and an +eunuch, a world strange and remote, yet desperately real as it +enmeshed her in its secret motives, its incalculable forces.... + +As she watched, as the surface of her mind reflected these sights +and was caught in the maze of fresh impressions, the back of that +mind was forever at work on her own terrifying problem. She thought +confidently of escape, not able to plan it but waiting intently upon +opportunity, upon the passing of a boat perhaps, or the moment of +tying to some bank. + +There was in her a high spirit of undaunted pluck and an excitement +in adventure, which made her heart quicken instead of flag at the +odds before her. Only the thought of the desperate stakes and the +reality of her hidden fears would often draw the color from her +cheeks and stop an instant the beating of that hurrying heart.... If +those hawk-like eyes were watching then they might see the slim +hands pressed feverishly together before warning self-control turned +them lax again. + +So hour after hour the boat went on. On the left now the long +mountain of Gebel-el-Tayr stretched golden and tawny like a lion of +stone basking in the sun. They passed Beni-Hassan, where a Nile +steamer lay staked to the shore, the passengers streaming gaily out +and starting off on donkeys for an excursion to the tombs. If only +it had been a little nearer, close enough to risk a desperate +hail--! But the very sight of it was comforting. + +Toward dusk the engine failed. That night the boat lay by the bank, +tied to long stakes which the boys had driven in. The big Nubian sat +at one end, cross-legged, a rifle on his knees. At the stern sat a +brown boy. And so Arlee sank into the tired sleep that claimed her, +and did not wake until the warm sunshine in her tiny window and the +ripple of water against the sides told her that another morning was +at hand and that they were on the move again. + +Stepping out on deck for breakfast, she found the boat was sailing. +Two _lanteen_ sails were hoisted; a great one in the bow, a small +one in the stern, and the boat was running swiftly before the north +wind that blew fresher than ever. But the course was variable now as +the river curved and as sand-banks threatened, and Arlee watched the +waters eagerly for a near-passing boat. But when they did draw close +to a _dahabiyeh_ upon whose deck she saw some white-clad loungers, +the Nubian gave a low order to the old woman who rose and gripped +Arlee on the wrist and led her to the stateroom, sitting in silence +opposite her like a squat gargoyle, till the Nubian's voice +permitted them to emerge. + +And now they came to a city upon the right bank and the domes and +minarets, the crowded building and high flat roofs pierced Arlee +with a terrible sense of loneliness. And when her eyes caught the +gleam of flags over a building and she saw her own stars and stripes +blowing against this Egyptian sky, the tears could not be fought +back. With wet eyes and working mouth she stood there and looked and +looked. She thought she could endure no more and that her heart was +breaking. + +Leaden discouragement was upon her as the boat made in toward the +shore. It did not approach the city landings; it came in south near +a shallow bank, and one of the brown boys jumped overboard and +splashed to the shore while the boat went on. But by and by it +turned in its course and came beating back against the wind till +opposite it was the city; then it tacked in to that same place near +the bank, and there the boy was waving at them. Skillfully the +_dahabiyeh_ was brought about close to the high bank; and ropes +thrown from bow and stern were quickly staked and made fast. + +A plank was put over the side and with the eunuch ahead and the old +woman behind Arlee was taken ashore and mounted on one of the camels +the boys had brought, with the old woman behind, gripping her about +the waist. The eunuch, on another camel, held the bridle rope, and +led them at a terrific pace along the river road and then across the +fields, thudding down the narrow, beaten paths, till the lush green +was past and the dry desert lands began. + +Ahead of them a low, tawny mass of mountain seemed to shimmer and +waver in the hot sun, and as they drew nearer and nearer the mass +was resolved into many masses broken into small foothills at the +base, through which the Nubian threaded a rapid, circuitous way that +led out on a rolling ground. A wide detour, still at the same urgent +speed which jolted the breath from the girl and made her cling to +the carpeted pummel of the saddle with both hands, led them at last +within sight of palm trees and mud walls. + +Arlee had no means of guessing whether these houses were the +outskirts of that city she had glimpsed or whether they were a +separate village. She only saw that they were being taken to the +largest house of the place, which stood a little apart from the +others and was half-surrounded by mud walls. Into this walled-in +court her camel was led and halted and jerkingly it accomplished +its collapsing descent, and Arlee found herself on her feet again, +quite breathless, but very alert. + +Her fleet glance saw a number of black-robed figures about a stair; +the next instant a mantle was flung over her head and that +compelling hand upon her wrist urged her swiftly forward, and up a +flight of steps. Within were more steps and then a door. Thrusting +back the mantle she found herself in the sudden twilight of a small, +low-ceiled chamber. There was no other door to it but the one she +heard bolted behind her; there was one window completely covered +with brown _mashrubiyeh_. She flew to it; it looked out over wide +sands, with a glimpse, toward the right, of a mud wall and pigeon +houses. The room was musty and dusty and dirty; but the rugs in it +were beautiful, and a divan was filled with pillows and hung with +embroidered cotton hangings. Other pillows were on the floor about +the walls. A green silk banner embroidered in gold hung upon one of +those walls and a laquered table stood by the divan. + +And as Arlee Beecher stood there in that strange, stifling room, the +mutterings of foreign voices, the squeals of the camels, the bray of +a donkey coming through that screened window, a sudden rage came +over her which was too hot to bear. Her heart burned; her hands +clenched; she could have beaten upon those walls with her helpless +fists and screamed at the top of her unavailing lungs. It was a fury +of despair that seized her, a fury that she fought back with every +breath of sanity within her. Then suddenly the air was black. The +room seemed to swim before her eyes and the ground came swaying +dizzily up to meet her, and receive her spent unconsciousness. + + * * * * * + +Water had been brought; she woke to find herself upon the couch, the +old woman woodenly sopping her head and hands. She smiled weakly +into that strange dark face; it was as unchanged as if it had been +carved from bronze. The business of reviving finished, the old woman +left her a handkerchief damp with a keen scent and went about the +work of unpacking a hamper that she brought in. + +Dully, Arlee saw the preparations for a meal advancing. She shook +her head at it; a cup of tea was all that she could touch. A +lethargy had seized her; even the anger of revolt was gone. She +closed her eyes languidly, grateful when the old woman went away, +grateful when the darkness deepened. When it was quite night, she +thought, she would break open the wooden screen and fling herself +through the wood into the sands. She lay there passively waiting; +her heavy eyes closed, and she slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT BAY + + +Voices sounded below; footsteps hurried; a door slammed. Then feet +upon the stairs, and a hand at the door. Arlee struggled to her feet +in sudden terror; the candle was out and the room was in darkness. +Outside a gale was blowing. The door opened, but the figure which +hurried in was not the one her fright anticipated. + +It was the old woman again, bustling with haste. She brought more +candles for the table, and then a tray with a bottle and glasses and +dishes covered with napkins. Then she bestowed her attention to +Arlee, bringing her a mirror and a comb from the hamper she had left +upon the floor, and a cloth thick with powder. Then Arlee was sure. + +She stood rigid a moment, listening to that low buzz of voices from +below, then desperately she shook out her tangled hair and combed it +back from her hot face. It was still damp from the water that had +been dashed upon her, and as she knotted it swiftly, soft strands of +it broke away and hung in wet, childish tendrils. She brushed some +powder on her face; she bit her bloodless lips, and stared into the +glass, to see a wan and big-eyed girl staring back affrighted. + +Then the door opened, and desperately calling on her courage, Arlee +heard the Captain speaking her name and saw his smiling face +advancing through the shadows. + +"A thousand greetings, Mademoiselle. Ah, I am glad to see you." A +strained emotion quivered through the false assurance of his tone. + +She stood very straight and tense before him, a childishly small +figure there in the dusk, the blowing candles making strange play of +light and shadow over her. Steadily she answered, "And I am very +glad to see you, Captain Kerissen." + +"And I am glad that you are glad." But his ear had caught the +hardness of her voice, for answering irony was in his. Some devil of +delay and disappointment seemed to enter into him, for his face, as +she saw it now in his advancing, struck fright into her. The four +fingers of his right hand were wrapped in a bandage and he extended +his left to her, murmuring an apology. "A slight accident, you see." + +"There is so much I do not see that I do not feel like shaking +hands," gave back Arlee. "Captain Kerissen, this is too strange a +situation to be maintained. You must end it." + +"It is a very delightful situation," he returned blandly, looking +about with dancing eyes. "To be again your host, even in so poor a +place as this old house of the Sheik--and the place has its +possibilities, Mademoiselle. It is romantic. Your window overlooks +that desert you were so anxious to see. The sunsets----" + +"Captain Kerissen, I must say that you use a very strange way to +keep me your guest!" + +"I might respond that any way was justifiable so that it kept you a +guest.... But you wrong me. Did I not bring you safely out from that +quarantine, as you besought me?" His smile was mockery itself. + +"But you did not bring me to my friends. I do not like your sending +me here, without explanation," she returned, trying to be very wise +and speak quietly and not rouse him to anger. "We passed a city +where the American flags were flying over a house, and I could have +gone there." + +"I am sorry you do not care for my hospitality. I did not know that +I was displeasing to you." + +"It is those ways that are displeasing to me. I----" + +"Then you shall change them," he laughed. "That will give me +pleasure.... But I did not come in the dead of this night, half sick +and fatigued, to find such welcome. Come, you must smile a little +and sit down at the table with me. Here are delicacies I sent from +Cairo." + +Smilingly he seated himself at the divan by the table and lifted the +covers from the plates, nodded satisfaction at the food, and began +to help himself, while she stood there, motionless. + +Without looking up, "Will you not help me to the Apollinaris, +Mademoiselle?" he suggested. "My right hand, you see, is not as it +should be. There is a bottle opener on the tray." + +Feeling a fool, but unwilling to provoke a crisis, Arlee tugged at +the cork and poured him a glass of the sparkling water and then a +glass for herself, which she thirstily drank. "How did you hurt your +hand?" it occurred to her to say. + +"By playing with fire--the single pastime of entertainment!" He +spoke gaily, but his lips twitched. "But will you not sit down and +join me? This caviar I recommend." + +"I do not care to eat." + +"No?" He finished his sandwich and drained his glass, talking +banteringly the while to her. She did not answer. Something told her +that the time of explanation between them was coming fast; he had +ceased to play with his good fortune, ceased to feel he could afford +to wait and look and fancy. He had come urgent, in the dead of +night. His mood was teasing, mocking, but imperative.... Slowly she +moved toward the unlatched door. + +Alertly he was before her; the bolts shot home. "Ah, pardon, but I +was negligent! We might be interrupted--and also," he laughed, as if +deprecatingly, "I have foolish fears that you are so dream-like that +you will vanish like a dream without those earthly bars. Locks are +for treasures.... And now where is that welcome for me? I came in +that door on fire to see you, and your eyes froze me. I came to +love--you made me mock. Shall we begin again? Will you be nice now, +little one, be kind and sweet----" + +"Captain Kerissen, you make it impossible for me to like you at all! +Why do you treat me like this? You shut me in this house like a +prisoner. If you--if you care for me at all," stammered Arlee, "you +would not treat me so!" + +"And how, then, would I treat you?" he inquired slowly. + +"You would--you would take me to my own people and give me back my +independence, my dignity. Then there would be honor in your--your +courtship. I----" + +"Would you come back to me?" + +"I----" + +The lie choked her. And the passion of anger which had flared in her +that afternoon sprang up in flame again; the candlelight showed the +hot blood in her cheeks. "I shall not come to you if you keep me +here!" she gave back fearlessly. + +"But here I can come to you. And the preliminaries are always +stupid--I have no desire to reënact them. I am well content with +where we have arrived. Be content, also." + +She stared back at his smiling face. And all she thought was, "Shall +I defy him now, or try to hold him off a little longer?" She had +ceased to feel afraid; her blood was on fire; it was battle now +between them; perhaps a battle of the wits a little longer, then---- + +"In America men do not make love by force," she flung at him. "You +are mad, Captain Kerissen! You will be sorry if you go on like this. +If you wish to marry me you must give me the freedom of choice. You +must give me time. I must have a minister of my own faith. Do you +think I will submit to this? You make me hate you!" + +"Hate is often love with a mask," he laughed, his eyes fixed on the +spirited, flushed face, the flashing eyes, the defiant mouth. "And +do not quote your America to me. You are done with America." + +"You say that? You forget who I am! My brother--I tell you my +brother will----" + +"Do I not know the risks?" His eyes narrowed. "But your brother will +ask in vain. He will not see you--until we reappear as husband and +wife. I will take you to the Continent, then I will give you +everything a woman wants, luxury and jewels--the pearls of my +ancestors I will hang on you. These have no woman of mine worn. You +shall be my adored, my dearest---- Oh, you must not turn from me," he +pleaded, his voice sinking softer and softer as he stole closer to +her. "You know that I am mad for you. You have bewitched me, little +Rose, you have made me strong and weak in a breath. I am clay in +your hands. Be sweet, be kind, be wife to me----" His hot hand +gripped her arm. He bent over her, and she sprang back, her hands +flung out before her. + +"Oh, wait!" she cried beseechingly. "Wait--please wait." + +"Wait? I have waited too long!" His voice was a snarl now. The mask +of indolent mockery was gone; his face was stamped with cruelty and +greed. "_Nom d'un nom_, I am through with this waiting!" + +She sprang back before his approach, then whirled about to face him, +trying to beat him back with words, with reason, with appeal. +Insanely he laughed and clutched at her as she flew past his +outstretched arms; in the corner he pinioned her against the wall +and gripped her to him. + +Terror gave her the strength of two--and his hand was bandaged. +Desperately she attacked it, and as his laughter changed to curses, +she wrenched free once more and flew across the room. With both +hands she seized the candles and flung them into the pillowed divan; +holding the last two to the draperies. Like magic the little flames +zigzagged up the cotton hangings. + +He threw himself upon the fire, dragging down the hangings, beating +on the cushions, but the corner was ablaze. Overhead the flames +seized cracklingly on the dry wood and darted little red tongues +over the dry surface and a scarlet snake ran out over the carved +ceiling. + +In utter wildness Arlee had carried the last candle to the open +hamper and the garments there caught instant fire. She was oblivious +of the sparks falling about her, oblivious of the increasing peril. +When Kerissen ran to the door, tearing open the bolts, furiously +cursing her, she gave him back the ghost of his earlier mocking +laughter and threatened him with a blazing cloth as he turned to +drag her from the room. + +But the fire reached her fingers and she flung the cloth at him, to +have him trample it under foot as he sprang toward her again. + +"Would you be burned--be marred?" he shouted at her. "You are mad, +you----" + +Behind him the door opened. Behind him a tall figure appeared +through the thickening smoke. She saw a face she knew; a voice she +knew cried out her name: + +"Arlee!" + +"Oh, here!" she cried and flung herself toward him. + +"Not unless you want another?" said Billy B. Hill to the Captain, +turning his gun suggestively. + +One tense instant the three faced each other in that flaming room, +then with a sound of impotent fury, Kerissen turned and darted out +the door. But as Billy turned to follow, his hand on Arlee's, there +was a sound of sliding bolts. + +"Burn, burn, then! Burn together!" called a hoarse voice through the +wood. + +Hill flung himself against the door; it was unyielding. On the other +side the taunts continued. He ran to the window, catching up the +little table as he ran, and rained a fury of blows with the table +against the close-carved screen. The wood splintered and broke; he +wrenched a side away, and dropping his gun in his pocket he crashed +through the hole and hung on the outside by his hands. + +"Climb out on my shoulders," he commanded, and Arlee climbed--how, +she never knew. For one instant she had an impression of hanging out +over an abyss with fire crackling in her face; the next instant the +soles of her feet were smarting and her eyes still seemed to see +stars. + +There was a run, stumbling, with Billy's hand sustaining her, and +then she was on a camel, clutching the saddle as the beast rose +swiftly in response to urgent whacks, and beside her Billy was on +another. Some one on foot goaded the beasts into a startled run, and +behind them yells and screeches were growing louder and louder. + +Over her lurching shoulder she had one last glimpse of a burning +building and saw flames pouring from the roof, and the room where +she had been an open furnace, and then she turned her face toward +the dark ahead. + +"Hang tight," Billy was calling to her, and she saw him lean over +and lash both camels into furious speed. "Some one is riding after," +and then he turned and shot his gun warningly into the air. + +The yells behind them stopped. But after some moments they heard a +camel snarl, and knew that some one was still back there in the +darkness, hanging on their trail. So they rode hard ahead, into the +enveloping night, over the rolling dunes, with the wind leaping and +tearing and hurling the sand in their faces, as if the very elements +were fighting against them. + +It was a strange chase and a hot one, pounding on and on, racked +with the wild, lurching flight, deeper and deeper into the +yellow-gray night that welcomed them with more strident blasts and +more stinging particles of sand. + +"It's a storm," Billy shouted at her, raising his voice above the +wind. "It's been blowing up this way for an hour now--they won't +follow long in the face of it. Can you hang on a little longer?" + +"Forever," she cried back, gripping the pommel tight and bending her +head before the whirling particles. There was sand in her hair, sand +on her lashes and in her eyes, sand on her face and down her neck, +and sand in her mouth when she wet her lips, but she heard herself +laughing in the night. + +"By and by we'll get off," he called back, and by and by when the +hot, stifling, stinging, choking, whirling gale was too blinding to +be borne, he checked the camels in one of the hollows of the desert +dunes from which the wind was skimming ammunition for its peppery +assaults, and the beasts knelt with a haste that spoke of gladness. + +"It's the backbone of it now; cover your head and lie down," Billy +commanded, and Arlee covered it with what he thrust into her +hands--his overcoat, she found--and tucked herself down against him +as he crouched beside the camels. + +"I should think--it was--the backbone," she gasped, unheard, into +her muffling coat. For the wind howled now like a rampaging demon; +it tore at them in hot anger; it dragged at the coat about her head, +and when her clutch resisted, it flung the sand over and over her +till she lay half buried and choking. And then, very slowly and +sulkily, it retreated, blowing fainter and fainter, but slipping +back for a last spiteful gust whenever she thought it finally gone, +but at last her head came out from its burrow, and she began +cautiously to wipe the sand crust off her face and lashes. + +"In your eyes?" said a sympathetic voice. + +In the darkness beside her Billy Hill was sitting up, digging at his +countenance. + +"Not now--I've cried--that all gone," she panted back. + +He chuckled. "I'll try it--swearing's no use." + +She sat up suddenly. "Are they coming?" + +"Not a bit. No use, if they did. You're safe now." + +"Oh, my _soul_!" She drew a long, long breath. "I can't believe +it." Then she whirled about on him. "How--why--why is it _you_?" + +He looked suddenly embarrassed, but the darkness hid it from her. He +became oddly intent on brushing his clothes. "Oh, I guessed," he +said in a casual tone. + +"You guessed? Don't they know? What did they think? Oh, where did +everyone think I was?" + +He told her, dwelling upon the misleading details; the hasty message +of farewell from the station, the directions about luggage, the +money to pay the hotel bill. "You see, his wits and luck were just +playing together," he said. + +"Then the Evershams _are_ up the Nile?" + +"Of course. They never dreamed----" + +"They wouldn't." Arlee was silent. She wondered confusedly--she +wanted to ask a question--she wanted to ask two questions. + +"But--but--no one else----?" she stammered. + +There was a particularly large lump of sand in Billy B. Hill's +throat just then; he cleared it heavily. "Oh, yes, some one else +guessed, too," he said then. "That English friend of yours, Robert +Falconer, he and I had a regular old shooting party in the palace +last Sunday evening. If you'd been there then he would certainly +have had you out." + +"So he knows." She said it a little faintly, Billy thought, as if +she was disappointed and troubled. She would know, of course, by +intuition, how the Englishman would think about a scrape of that +sort. + +"But he doesn't know now," he said eagerly. "He is sure you are all +right in Alexandria, because the Evershams received another fake +telegram from you from Alexandria. The Captain was stalling them +along, apparently, keeping everything under cover as long as +possible. And when Falconer heard about that, his suspicions were +over. He thought we'd made fools of ourselves in going to the +palace." + +She was silent. Looking at her, after a while, Billy saw her staring +out obliviously into the darkness; her hair was hanging all about +her. + +His glance seemed to recall her thoughts. She started and then +brushed back her hair; the sand fell from it and she took hold of +one soft strand. "Look out, I'm going to shake this!" she warned, +and he half shut his eyes and underneath the lids he saw her shaking +her head as vigorously as a little terrier after a bath. + +"Isn't it awful?" she appealed. + +"I could scratch a match on my face," he confirmed. + +"But tell me," she began again, "how did you know I was in that +palace? And I must tell you how I happened to go and how I was kept +there." + +"You were told there was a quarantine, weren't you?" Billy supplied, +as she hesitated. + +Her astonishment found quick speech. "Why, how did you know _that_?" + +"The Baroff told me--that Viennese girl who came into your room." + +"Why, you know _everything_! How did you?" + +"Oh, I carried her over a wall, thinking it was you." + +"But how could you think it was _I_? And what were you doing at the +wall? I don't see how----" + +"Oh, one of the palace maids gave me a message in Arabic and I +thought it was from you. You see, I suspected--I had seen you drive +off in that motor----" + +"But how could the maid bring you a message? Where were you? Where +did she see you?" + +"I was painting out in front of the palace." Billy sounded more and +more casual. + +"You said you were an engineer," said Arlee. His heart jumped. At +least she had remembered that! + +"So I am--the painting was just a joke." + +"And you happened there," she began, wondering, and after he had +opened his mouth to correct her, he closed it silently again. +Gratitude was an unwieldy bond. He did not want to burden her with +obligation. And he suspected, with a rankling sort of pang, that he +was not the rescuer she had expected. So he made as light as +possible of his entrance into the affair, telling her nothing at all +of his first uneasiness and his interview with the one-eyed man +which had confirmed his suspicions against the Captain's character, +and the masquerade he had adopted so he could hang about the palace. +Instead he let her think him there by chance; he ascribed the +delivery of Fritzi's message to sheer miracle, and his presence +under the walls that night to wanton adventure, with only a +half-thought that she was involved. + +Stoutly he dwelt upon Falconer's part in the attack the next night, +and upon the entire reasonableness of his abandonment of the trail. +He put it down to his own mulishness that he had hung on and had +learned through the little boy of her removal from the palace. + +He interrupted himself then with questions, and she told him of her +strange trip down the Nile in the _dahabiyeh_, under guard of the +old woman and the Nubian. "But how did you come?" she demanded. + +"Well, I just swung on to the same train he was in," said Billy. +"And I got out at Assiout because he'd bought a ticket there, but I +couldn't see a thing of him in the darkness and confusion of the +station, and I had a horrid feeling that he'd gone somewhere else, +the Lord knew where, to you. But the Imp--that's the little Arab boy +who adopted me and my cause--went racing up and down, and he got a +glimpse of the Captain tearing off on a horse and behind him a man +loping along with a bundle on a donkey, and the Imp raced behind him +and yelled he'd dropped something. The man went back to look, and +the Imp ran alongside him, asking him for work as a donkey boy. The +fellow shook him off, but that had delayed him, and though we lost +the horseman we kept the donkey-man in sight and followed him on to +the village. I reconnoitered while the Imp stole these two +camels--jolly good ones they are--and while I was trying to make out +where you were, for there were lights in several windows, I suddenly +heard your voice and then I saw a glare of fire. Well, my revolver +was a passport.... Now, how about that fire? What started it?" + +"I did; he--he was trying to make love to me," she answered +breathlessly, "and I just got to the candles." + +"Are you burned at all? Truthfully now? I never stopped to ask." + +"If I am, I don't know it," she laughed tremulously. Then, "Isn't +this _crazy_!" she burst forth with. + +"It's--it's off the beaten track," Billy B. Hill admitted. "It's a +jump back into the Middle Ages." His note of laughter joined hers as +they sat staring owlishly at each other through the dark of the +after-storm. + +A little longer they talked, their questions and answers flitting +back and forth over those six strange days; then, as the excitement +waned, Billy heard a sleepy little sigh and saw a small hand +covering a yawn. The girl's slender shoulders were wilting with +incalculable fatigue. + +Instantly he commanded sleep, and obediently she curled down into +the little nest he prepared, pillowing her head upon his coat, and +almost instantly he heard her rhythmic breathing, slow and unhurried +as a little child. His heart swelled with a feeling for which he had +no name, as he sat there, his back against a camel, staring out into +the night, an unknown feeling in which joy was very deep and triumph +was merged into a holy thankfulness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DESERT MAGIC + + +He had meant but forty winks, but it had been dark when his eyes +closed and he opened them to the unreal half-lights of early dawn. +The sky was pearl; the sands were fawn-colored; the crest of a low +hill to the east shone as if it were living gold, and the next +instant it seemed as if a fire were kindled upon it. It was the sun +surging up into the heavens, and great waves of color, like a sea of +flame, mounted higher and higher with it. + +Impulsively Billy bent over the little figure sleeping so soundly at +his side, speaking her name gently. And Arlee, waking with a start +and a catch of her breath that went to his heart, opened her eyes on +a wild splendor of morning that seemed the outer aspect of the +radiant joy within her. + +They looked and looked while the east flamed like a burning Rome, +and then the glow softened and paled and dissolved in mysteries and +miracles of color, in tender rose and exquisite shell pinks, in +amethysts and violets and limpid, delicate, fair greens. All about +them the sands were turning to gold, and the rim of the distant +horizon grew clearer and clearer against the brightening blue of the +sky, like a great circling tawny sea lapping on every side the arch +of the heavens. + +As they looked their hearts stirred and quickened with that +incommunicable thrill of the desert, and their eyes turned and +sought each other in silence. The gold of the sun was on Arlee's +hanging hair and the morning-blue of the sky in her eyes; her face +was flushed from sleep and a tiny tendril still clung to the pink +cheek on which she had been sleeping. Somehow that inconsequent +small tendril roused in Billy a thrill of absurd tenderness and +delight.... She was so very small and childish, sitting there in the +Libyan desert with him, looking up at him with such adorable +simplicity.... In her eyes he seemed to see something of the wonder +and the joy in his. It was a moment of magic. It brought a lump into +his throat.... He wanted to bend over her reverently, to lift a +strand of that shining hair to his lips, to touch the sandy little +hands.... + +Somehow he managed not to. The moment of longing and of glamor +passed. + +"It's exactly as if we'd been shipwrecked!" said Arlee, looking +about with an air of childish delight. + +"On a very large island," he smiled back, and felt a furtive pain +mingling with his joy. He was just her rescuer to her, of course; +she accepted him simply as a heaven-dropped deliverer; her thoughts +had not been going out to him in those long days as his had gone to +her.... Decisively he jumped to his feet and said breakfast. Where +was it? What was to be done? + +Directions were vague. They had come south on the edge of the +desert, and the Nile lay somewhere to the east of them, and to the +east, therefore lay breakfast and trains and telegraph lines and all +the outposts of civilization. + +To the east they rode then, straight toward the tinted dawn, and as +they went they laughed out at each other on their strange mounts +like two children on a holiday. Their spirits lifted with the beauty +of the morning, and with that strange primitive exhilaration of the +desert, that wild joy in vast, lonely reaches, in far horizons and +illimitable space. The air intoxicated them; the leaping light and +the free winds fired them, and with laughing shouts and challenges +they urged their camels forward in a wild race that sent the desert +hares scattering to right and left. Like runaways they tore over the +level wastes and through the rolling dunes, and at last, spent and +breathless, they pulled back into a walk their excited beasts that +squealed and tossed their tasseled heads. + +Their eyes met in a gaiety of the spirit that no words could +express. When Arlee spoke she merely cried out, "I've read the camel +had four paces, but mine has forty-four," and Billy gave back, "And +forty-three are sudden death!" and their ringing laughter made a +worried little jackal draw back his cautious nose into his rocky +lair. + +They were in broken ground now, more and more rocky, leading through +the low hills ahead of them, and great clumps of grayish _mit minan_ +and bright green hyssop dotted the amber of the sands. Here and +there the fork-like helga showed its purple blossom, and sometimes +a scarlet ice-plant gleamed at them from a rocky crack. Across their +path two great butterflies strayed, as gold and jeweled as the day. +High overhead, black against the stainless blue, hung a far hawk. + +At last the way entered a narrow defile among the rocky hills, and a +sharp curve led them finally out upon the other side, looking down +into green fields, as straight and trim as a checker board in their +varying tints, and off over the far Nile. The fertile lands were +wide here, and fed with broad canals that offered the surprise of +boats' white wings between the fields of grain. Not far ahead, +before the desert sands reached that magic green rose a group of +palms, and near them some mud houses and a pigeon tower. + +"Breakfast," said Billy triumphantly, and gaily they rode down on +the sleeping village. + + * * * * * + +Back toward the Libyan hills runs the canal El-Souhagich, and as it +curves to the north a reach of sand sweeps down from the higher +ground, interrupting the succession of green fields. Several jagged +rocks have tumbled from the limestone plateaus above and increased +the grateful bit of shade which the half dozen picturesque palms do +not sufficiently bestow. + +Here the runaways breakfasted upon the roast pigeon, dates and +tangerines they had bought from the curious villagers, and here +Billy, his back against a rock, was smoking a meditative cigar over +the situation. Beside him, tied to a palm, knelt the camels, and +before him, nibbling a last tangerine, Arlee was sitting. + +"We have to rest the beasts a bit." This from Billy, suggestive of +a conscience pricking at this holiday delay. "And then----" + +"Then--?" echoed Arlee cheerfully. + +"Then, what in the world am I going to do with you?" + +"With me?" + +"Yes. It's simple enough, I suppose, getting back to the city---but +if you don't want your friends to know----" + +The quick shadow in her eyes distressed him. "I _don't_," she cried +sharply. "At first--I might have made a lark out of it--but +afterwards.... No, I don't want to go explaining and explaining +forever and ever. Can't I just reappear?" + +"You can reappear from Alexandria," he said. "He, himself," his tone +changed as he reluctantly brought Kerissen into the beauty of that +morning, "has arranged it very neatly for you. You can just have +been camping in the desert--and true enough that is!--with those +friends of yours whom the Evershams don't know. Only your +reappearance has to be--managed a bit." + +Very carefully she tore the tangerine skin into very little bits, +her head bent over it. Then she flung the fragments far from her +with a gesture of rebellion. "I hate fibs," she said explosively. +And then, "But I hate explanations more!" She hesitated, stealing a +quick glance under her lashes at his frowning face. + +"And some people," she stammered, "might--might +not--understand--they would feel that--some people would----" + +"Some people are great fools, undoubtedly," Billy promptly agreed. +But back of the some people he saw Falconer in her mind, and +Falconer's instinctive distaste of all strangeness and sensation. + +"I have a perfect right to keep it from--them," she went on +argumentatively, and then with an upward glance, "Haven't I?" + +"Good Lord, yes! It was your adventure; it doesn't concern another +soul in this wide world." + +"You know," said Arlee, locking and unlocking her fingers, "you +know, some people wouldn't take it all for granted the way--you +do.... And it was very horrid." + +"It's over," said he crisply, "except I'd like to pound him to a +jelly." + +"I couldn't bear to _speak_ of him before," said the girl, "but now +it seems all far away and nightmarish.... And I'd like to tell you +how it was--a little." + +"You needn't." + +"I know I needn't." Arlee's tone was suddenly proud. Then she melted +again. "But I want you to know. He was--he was trying to make me +care for him.... He wasn't really as dreadful as you might think +him, only just insane--about me--and utterly unscrupulous. But he +did want me to like him and so, when I found out, when Fritzi told +me I was in a trap, I tried to play his game. I _flirted_ one day in +the garden, at lunch, and made him think---- You see, I _had_ to gain +time and try to get word to people. But I hated him so I----" She +broke off, the pupils of her fixed eyes big and black with the +memory. + +"You know I can't--I can't think of you--alone there," came huskily +from the young man. + +"He never _dared_ to touch me--really--till last night," she said +fiercely. "He tried, but I--I held him off. Only he talked to +me--Oh, how he talked. Like a river of words.... I hate all those +words.... If ever again a man asks me to marry him I don't ever want +him to _talk_ about it. I want him just to say two words, _Will +you?_" Her laugh caught quiveringly in her throat. + +It taxed all the young man's control to keep his tongue off the +echo. + +"He just raved," she went on after a pause, "and I had to +listen--but last night he was horrible. I could never have got to +the candles if his hand hadn't been hurt." + +"I wish I'd shot his hand off," said Billy bitterly. + +"Oh! Was it you who----?" + +"When we were in the palace." He told her again about the raid and +she nodded delightedly over it. + +"It's so wonderful for you to have done all this," she said with +sudden shyness. "You had just met me----" + +The things on Billy's tongue wouldn't do at all. None of them. What +he did say was absurdly stiff and constrained. "You were my +countrywoman--and alone." + +"So are the Evershams," said Arlee, with sudden bubbling laughter, +and then as suddenly checked herself. Her fleet glance at him was +half-scared. "You--you are very good to your countrywomen in +distress," she got out stammeringly. + +Billy contemplated his cigar. It was safer. + +Presently she reverted to the topic of discovery. "But about Mr. +Falconer? Are you sure his suspicions are over now?" + +"Perfectly sure. Or they will be the moment he sees you. You'll have +to laugh at him if he mentions them, of course;" Billy spoke with +heartiness. + +"He'd hate it," the girl said musingly. "The talk and all--about +me--Oh, after being such a fool _I'd never be the same to them_!" +she broke out passionately. + +The furtive pain was bolder now; Billy felt it worming deeper and +deeper into his sorry consciousness. It mattered so much to her what +Falconer thought--so much.... + +"But I'll do anything you say," she said meekly, looking up at her +rescuer with those big eyes whose blueness always startled him like +unsuspected lakes. He saw then that she meant to be very grateful to +him. Somehow that deepened the pang. He didn't want that kind of +bond.... + +"Then you will bury even the memory of this time and never whisper a +word of it," he told her stoutly. "The talk and explanation will be +over five minutes after your return. The thing is, to manage that +return. Now the Evershams left Friday and this is Wednesday--six +days." + +"Only six days," she echoed with a ghost of a sigh. + +"Now let me see where were we on the sixth day? When I was on the +Nile?" He knitted his brows over it. "Why, the steamer leaves +Assiout at noon of the fifth day--that was yesterday." + +"Oh! I must have passed them on the Nile," cried Arlee. + +"Maragha is where they stopped last night. To-day they'll be +steaming along steadily and stop to-night at Desneh. To-morrow night +they'll be at Luxor." + +"And they stay three days at Luxor?" + +"The steamer does, I believe. I left the steamer there and went to +the hotel for a while and spent another while at Thebes with a +friend of mine." + +"The excavator!" cried Arlee quickly. + +"Then you do remember," said Billy with a direct look, "that dance +and----" + +"And our talk," she finished gaily. "And your being Phi Beta Kappa. +Oh, I was properly impressed! And I didn't know then that you were a +regular Sherlock Holmes as well." + +"I didn't know it either," said Billy grinning. But he knew that she +didn't know now how much of a Sherlock Holmes he had managed to be +for her. + +"That seems ages ago," she declared, "and in an altogether different +world. The only real world seems to be this desert----" + +"Bedouin breakfast and camel races," finished Billy. "And it's so +much of a lark for me that I can't keep my mind on the problem of +the future. But I have to get you to Luxor by to-morrow night----" + +"And I can't arrive in the rags and tatters of a white silk calling +gown," mentioned Arlee cheerfully, surveying her disreputable and +most delightful disarray. "I must have trunks and a respectable +air--and a chaperon, I suppose." + +"And I won't do at that. But if you get to Luxor you'll be all +right. You can go to the hotel and to-morrow night the Evershams' +boat will get in about seven in the evening." + +"Did you say my trunks were sent to Cook's?" + +He repeated the story of the telegram to the Evershams. Over the +arrival of the boy with money for her hotel bill she wrinkled her +brows in perplexity. "I suppose he thought there would be less +discussion about me if my bills were paid," she said finally. "But +I'd like to get that money back to him." + +"I'll see he gets it--with interest," responded Billy. + +"And you----?" She looked up at him with a startled, vivid blush +that stained her soft skin from throat to brow. "You must have been +to a great deal of expense----" + +"Not a bit. Please don't----" + +"But I must. When I get to a bank. I still have my letter of credit +with me," she said thankfully, "but it didn't do me any good in that +wretched palace. It was just paper to them. I showed it to the girl +once and tried to make her understand." + +"The first station we find we'd better wire for your trunks to be +sent by express to Cook's at Luxor--or to the Grand Hotel. And then +you can take the train straight to Luxor and buy some clothes +there." + +"But the train--I can't travel in this! And there would be people on +it who would talk----" + +"Had we better make it to Assiout then?" said Billy doubtfully. +"Once in the city, of course, you'd be safe----" + +"How far is Assiout from Luxor? Where are we now?" + +"We're Alice in Wonderland about that. Somewhere about twenty-five +or thirty miles south of Assiout, I should say. It must be +nearly a hundred and twenty, as the crow flies, from Assiout to +Thebes--that's right across from Luxor, you know." + +Arlee was silent a moment. She lifted a handful of shining sands and +let them run down from her fingers in fine dust. "It's such a pity," +she mused, "when we've such a good start----" + +Billy stared. + +"And I never rode a camel," she went on. "I may never have such a +chance again." + +"You don't mean----?" + +"It would make my story a little truer, too.... And wouldn't it be +quicker?" + +"Quicker? The quickest way is to go back to Assiout and catch the +middle-of-the-night express there and get to Luxor to-morrow +morning." + +Arlee sighed. "I always wanted to be a gypsy," she murmured +regretfully, "and now I've begun it's such a pity to stop.... And +I'm _afraid_ to go back!" she cried, "They will be out looking for +us--they are probably now on the way. And they'll shoot at you and +carry me off--Oh, do let's go on! Don't go back to that city! We can +catch the train another place. Oh, it's so much more _sensible_!" + +"Sensible?" Billy repeated as if hypnotized. + +"Why, of course it is. And safer. For all those people back there +must be in that tribe of the sheik whose house I was in, and they +are dangerous, dangerous. I want to get as far away from them as +possible. I'd rather ride all the way to Thebes than run the risk +of falling in their traps." + +Billy was silent. + +"And I'm sure the camels could make the trip in a couple of days," +she continued, sounding assured now, and pleasantly argumentative. +"I used to read about their speed in my First Reader.... That is, if +you don't mind the trouble," she added apologetically, "and being +with me that day more?" + +Billy choked. She looked entirely unconscious, and his dumfounded +gaze fell blankly away. "There isn't anything in the world I'd like +better," he said slowly, sounding reluctance in the effort not to +sound anything else, "but from your point of view--if we should +meet----" + +"Only _fellaheen_ on the banks," she returned unconcernedly. "Not +half as awkward as people on trains." + +"But the--the chaperonless aspect of this picnic----?" + +"Oh, _that_!" She was mildly scornful. Then she giggled. "I think a +chaperon would look very silly tagging along behind on a camel.... +Besides we've gone so far already. You took the liberty of rescuing +me, you know, and then the sand storm and this breakfast _à +deux_--What's a few meals more?" + +There was truth in that--and truth in what she said about the danger +of returning to the city. They were already lingering overlong and +Billy jumped up and packed their supply of food in sudden haste. It +was folly, of course, to dream of the entire trip to Thebes on +camelback, but Girgeh was about fifty miles south, and it would be +safer and almost as near to push on there or to the next town, +wherever that was, and there get the train as to return to +Assiout.... + +Oh, Billy, Billy! What specious argument! And why must every bright +delightful fruit be forbidden by dull care or justified by +flagrantly untenable artifice? Who but a fool would boggle over this +chance, this gloriously deserved crown of the adventure, this gay, +random ride over the deserts with Arlee?... To her it was nothing +but a prolonging of the lark into which the affair had miraculously +been turned. Billy was Big Brother--the American Big Brother with +whom one might go safely adventuring for a day or a year.... And +suddenly Billy felt a warm gladness within him. Not even her +escapade with the unspeakable Turk had been able to shake her dear +faith in her own countrymen.... He was not man to her; he was +American. Billy waved the flag loyally in his grateful thoughts. + +Aloud he said, "There's risk in trying to go back, of course. That's +what they're expecting of us. But there will be uncertainty in going +on----" + +"I rather like it. It's the certainty that frightens," she gave back +eagerly. "I want the way that puts the greatest distance between me +and that man.... I don't care what else happens so he doesn't find +us." + + * * * * * + +It is utterly astonishing how unastonishing the most astonishing +situations become at the slightest wont. + +Nothing on the face of it could have been more preposterous to Billy +B. Hill's imagination than trotting along the banks of the Nile on +a camel with a gossamer-haired girl trotting beside him, two lone +strays in a dark-skinned land, and yet after a few hours of it, it +was the most natural thing in the world! + +It was all color and light and vivid, unforgettable impressions. It +was all sparkle and gaiety and charm. They were two children in a +world of enchantment. Nothing could have been more fantastic than +that day. + +Sometimes they rode low on paths between green _dhurra_ fields, +sometimes they rode high along the Nile embankment, watching the +blue waters alive with winged fleet, black buffaloes splashing in +shallows under charge of little bronze babies of boys, watching all +the scenes about them shift and change with magic mutability. + +They lunched beside an old well, they dined by the river bank, and +then as the velvet shadows deepened in the folds of the Arabian +mountains across the river and the first stars pricked through the +lilac sky above them, they pressed on hurriedly into the southwest +that glowed like molten gold behind the black bars of the palms.... +And by and by when even the after-glow had ceased to incarnadine the +far horizon and the path was too black and strange for them, they +turned off across the fertile valley into the edging desert again +and saw the new moon rise like an arrow of fire over the rim of the +world and pour forth a golden flood that lightened the way yet +farther south for their tired beasts. + +Arlee rode like a fairy princess of mystery, the silver shawl which +they had bought at a village to shield her from the sun, drooping in +heavy folds from her head, its metal threads glimmering in the moon +rays.... Her eyes were solemn with the beauty and the wonder, of +the night, and the strange solitude and isolation; her look was +ethereal to Billy and mystically lovely. + +But Girgeh seemed to retreat farther and farther into the unknown +south, and at last it was no fairy princess but only a very tired +girl who slid stiffly down from the saddle, and pillowed a heavy +head on Billy's coat. And it was a very tired young man who lay +beside her, listening to the deep breathing of the beasts and the +faint breath that rose rhythmically beside him. Yet for a time he +did not sleep. His heart was full of the awe and mystery of the +moonlit world about him--and the awe and mystery of that little bit +of the living world curled there so intimately in the dark.... + +With a reverent hand he drew the wraps he had purchased closer over +her. The night was growing cold. Far off the jackals howled.... With +his gun at hand he slept at last, and slept sound, though sand is +the hardest mattress in the world and a camel's back not the softest +pillow.... + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PURSUIT + + +"But I shall die," said Arlee. "I shall simply die if I have to go +another step upon that creature." + +She said it cheerfully, but firmly, a sleepy, sunburned little +nomad, sitting cross-legged in the sands, slowly plaiting her +honey-colored hair. "Even this," she announced, indicating the +slight gesture of braiding, "is agony." + +"It's the morning after," said Billy, testing his shoulder with wry +grimaces. "It's yesterday's speed--and then this infernally cold +night. No wonder we're lame. Why, I have one universal crick +wherever I used to have muscles. But let me call your attention to +the fact that we are in the wilds of Egypt and that tangerines are +hardly a lasting breakfast. Something has to be done." + +"Not upon camels," said Arlee fixedly. + +"They say it doesn't hurt after an hour or so more." + +"I shouldn't live to find out." + +"A walk," he suggested, "a slow, swaying, gently undulating +walk----?" + +"A long, lingering, agonizing death," the young lady translated. +She tossed the curly end of her braid over her shoulder and rose, +with sounds of lamentation. "I ought to have known better than to +sit down again when I was once up," she confided sadly. + +"Just what," inquired her companion, "is your idea for the day? How +do you expect to reach Girgeh? It can't be very far away now----" + +"Then we'll walk--_we'll_ walk," she emphasized, "and tow those +ships of the desert after us. That will be bad enough, but +better--_what's that?_" + +Like a top, for all his stiffness, Billy spun about to stare where +her finger pointed. Over the crest of a hillock, far to the +north--yes, something was hurrying their way. + +"A man on horseback," said Arlee anxiously. "They can't have traced +us, can they, all this way----?" + +"Of course not--but we'll take no chances," returned Billy briskly; +"no more talk of pedestrian tours now!" and promptly he helped the +girl, no longer demurring, into the saddle, and thwacked her camel +into arising, just dodging the long, yellow teeth that the resentful +beast tried to fasten upon his shoulder. + +They started at no soothing walk, but at a hurrying trot. + +Worriedly, her delicate brows knitting, "It's absurd, but," said +Arlee, "they could have traced us, I suppose, from my telegraphing +at that little native station for my trunks to be sent." + +"And mine," said Billy. "And from my trying to get my letter of +credit cashed." + +"That Captain could have telegraphed to all the places down the +line to know if we'd been seen----" + +"Even if we hadn't wired or tried to get money, our presence alone +and our buying food would have aroused talk. I told everybody," the +young man continued, "that I was an artist and you were my sister, +and that passed all right--but if Kerissen has been making +inquiries----" + +"I'm desperately glad we didn't go back toward Assiout," she thrust +in. "We'd have walked right into some trap of his!" + +"Lord knows what we ought to have done! Lord knows what we ought to +do now!" + +"Just keep on going," she encouraged. "We can't be very far from +Girgeh, can we?" + +"I don't know," said Billy soberly. "It may be half a day or a whole +day more--you remember how vague that old woman was last night...!" +Bitterly he added, "And I'm afraid you've got a chump of a guide." + +"I've the best one in the world!" she flashed indignantly. + +But her assurance brought no solace to the young man's troubled +soul. He reflected that they could have taken a train the day +before. To be sure, he had not money enough for tickets to Luxor, +yet he had enough for two to Girgeh. But Arlee had shrunk from +entering a train in her dishevelled costume, fearful of watching +eyes and gossiping tongues, and had advised riding on to Girgeh, +where shops and banks would help them, and he had yielded apparently +to her desires, but in reality to his own secret self that clung to +every joyful contraband moment of this magic time with her. +Sincerely he had thought their danger ended.... But those trailing +horsemen--"_Brute!_" he raged dumbly at himself. "Dolt! Idiot!" + +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. It was an ordeal of a ride. + +They had ridden on in silence, occasionally glancing back over their +shoulders. At last Arlee said, quietly, "Do you see anything--over +there--to the left?" + +Billy had been seeing it for fifteen minutes. + +"Another horseman, isn't it?" he carelessly suggested. + +"He seems to be riding the same way we are." + +"Well, we've no monopoly of travel in this region." + +She answered, after a moment, "There's another close behind him. I +just saw him on top of a little hill. I suppose they can see us?" + +"Probably." Billy's face was grave. If they continued their winding +path in from the desert to the intervening hills that shut them from +the Nile valley, and the horsemen continued their course along the +base of those hills, they would soon meet. + +"Do you mind speeding up a little?" he asked. "I'd rather like to +cross to the Nile ahead of that gentry." + +But as they speeded up the pursuers did the same, and from mere dots +they grew to tiny figures, clearly discernible, furiously galloping +over the sands. + +Billy thought hard about his cartridges, wishing he had more in his +clothes. When he had left the hotel that Tuesday evening he had +thrust the loaded revolver in his pocket, but he had already +discharged it twice at the beginning of their flight.... And then he +startlingly reflected that the Captain could easily cause their +arrest for stealing those camels, and wild and dreadful thoughts of +native jails and mixed tribunals darted into his harassed and +anxious mind. As a long ridge of sand intervened between them and +their pursuers he made a sudden decision. + +"Let's turn off," he said quickly, and from the little winding path, +edging southeast, they struck directly south over the trackless +sand. + +"You see, they'll expect us to make a railroad station as soon as +possible," he explained, "and they are probably trying to nab us on +the way to it--if those men have anything to do with us at all." He +said nothing about his vivid fear of arrest for the camels and the +tool such an arrest would be for Kerissen's designs. He merely +added, "I think we'd better try to give them the slip and steer +clear of all the little native joints until we get to Girgeh, which +is big enough to give us some protection. There must be an English +something-or-other there.... I really think we ought to go as fast +as we can now, and when the way is clear, hurry across the hills +into the Nile valley." + +But the way did not become clear. Disconcerted by that unexpected +dash off the path, and reduced for a time to mere dots again, the +horsemen, three in a row now, hung persistently upon their left +flank, keeping a parallel course between them and the hills. + +The day had dawned with a promise of sultry heat, and as the sun +rose higher and higher in the heavens the heat grew more and more +intolerable to their ill-protected heads and thirsty tongues. The +gaiety of yesterday was gone; the enchantment had vanished from the +waste spaces, and the desert was less a friend now than an enemy. +Chokingly the dust rose about them, and glaringly the gold of the +burning sands beat back the glare of the down-pouring sun. From such +a heat the landscape seemed to shrink and veiled itself with a faint +and swimming haze. + +By noon the flask of water in Billy's pocket was empty. By noon +their mouths were parched and their skins burning. And still on +their left there hung the hounding dots, like prowling jackals. + +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. This was an ordeal of a ride that +tried the stuff the girl was made of. She was no princess of mystery +now, crossing the moonlit sands; she was no gossamer wraith of a +girl miraculously with him for a time; she was a very hot and human +companion, worried and tired, shutting her dry mouth over any word +of complaint, smiling pluckily at him with dusty lips from the +shrouding hood of her veil. She was completely and thoroughly a +brick. + +And Billy's heart ached for her, even while his spirit exulted in +her spirit. + +"Beastly hot, isn't it?" he gasped, pulling his insufficient cap +down over his bloodshot eyes. + +Valiantly she smiled. "What's a little--heat?" came joltingly back. + +"And rough going." + +"What's a little--roughness?" + +There wasn't any word good enough for her. There wasn't any word +good enough to describe such superhuman courage and sweetness. Billy +had credited all beauties with being spoiled. All he had known had +been distinctly spoiled, even the near-beauties, and the not-so-near +ones, yet here was the most radiantly lovely girl he had ever seen +behaving like an angel of grit. + +He didn't quite know what else he expected her to do--have +hysterics, perhaps, or weep, or reproach him for having taken a +wrong way and elected a rash course. He had known that this girl +could be a very minx when piqued. But in the graver crises of life +she proved herself a thoroughbred. She would go till she dropped and +never whimper. + +He thought of all she must have been through in that horrible +palace, and he marvelled at the swiftness with which her spirit had +reverted to blitheness again. The disaster, that might have been so +stunning, so irremediable, had passed over her head like lightning +that had not struck.... Even the horror of it had seemed yesterday +to fade in her like the horror of an evil dream. That was what it +had been to her--an evil dream. She was so young, so much of her was +still a child, that the full terror had not touched her. + + * * * * * + +They had come to a road at last, a road which seemed to be leading +in from the desert very gradually to the hills upon their left, and +it seemed to Billy that it must be a caravan road to Girgeh, and he +felt themselves upon the right track. They must keep their lead, and +when that lead seemed sufficient, they must put on all possible +speed to make the crossing through the hills into the Nile valley +ahead of their pursuers. Once more he stirred their lagging camels +into a jogging trot.... + +It was around the middle of the afternoon now, and it had been noon +since their tongues had tasted water. Arlee felt her mouth parched +and her tongue dry and curling; her skin was feverishly hot; her +whole body burned and ached, and her head was giddy with the heat +and the hunger. But she thought how little a thing it was to be hot +and hungry and tired--when one was free. And she drew the silver +shawl closer over her head and wrapped the silken tunic of her frock +about her scorching shoulders, and clung tight to the pommel of her +big saddle as her beast pounded on and on in his lurching stride. + + * * * * * + +It had been some time since they had seen the dots, and now the road +ahead of them, like the former path they had abandoned, was turning +more and more to the left, winding in and out the low and broken +foothills, and as they followed its course with increasing security, +Billy began to tell himself that their fears had been unfounded and +the alarming horsemen were merely following their own route south. + +And then he heard a whistle. + +A prescience of danger shot through him. His fears returned a +hundredfold. Sharply he scanned the way about them, but nothing was +in sight. The whistle was not repeated; he could have imagined that +he dreamed it. An utter stillness possessed the wilderness. + +And then around the corner of a jutting rock ahead of them a +horseman trotted, a big black man on a gray horse, and reined in, +waiting, facing them. Arlee gave a choking cry. + +"The eunuch!" she gasped out. + +Behind them Billy flung a lightning glance, and over the heads of +the dunes two more riders appeared, converging down upon them from +the rear. Three in sight--how many more behind the rocks? + +Desperately Billy gripped his bridle rope, and with a wrenching pull +and a whack of his guiding stick he turned his camel sharply to the +left, snatching at Arlee's bridle rope as the beasts bumped against +each other in their surprise. + +"Quick--this way," Billy commanded, and with the left hand clutching +the girl's rope, with the right he wielded the stick furiously. Out +over the sand both camels plunged, goaded into wild speed by such +violent measures, and a cheated yell broke from the horsemen and the +outcries of pursuit. + +While rage at such unreason lasted the camels went like mad, but +such speed could not be for long. They had been hard ridden for two +days and they were nearly spent. The horsemen behind had drawn +together and hung on their trail like three hounds, riding +cautiously in the rear, but easily keeping the distance. It occurred +to Billy that these pursuers could have changed horses on the way, +and must inevitably tire them out. And then? + +On and on he beat his poor beasts, racing toward the hills that, +just ahead of them, rose sharply from the broken ground, seeking +among them some fortress of rocks for a defiant stand. + +A tug on the bridle rope nearly jerked it from his hand. Arlee's +camel had stumbled; the poor thing was lurching wearily. + +"He can't go--any more," the girl cried out pitifully. "He--he's +sobbing. Don't beat him--I won't have him beaten!" + +"We must get there," he called back, waving at the cliff-like rocks. + +"Then go--on foot. I could--run faster." + +"No, you couldn't," he shouted fiercely back. + +She flared. "Don't you hit him again!" + +The maddening absurdity of the quarrel in the face of hostile Africa +filled Billy with the futile fury of exasperation. He ground his +teeth, glowering at her, and wound her halter rope about his +smarting hand. All his hope was concentrated upon the necessity of +winning to that rocky shelter before their pursuers overtook them. +To him the camels were nothing in the face of such necessity. + +They were going slower and slower; his blows had no avail now on +either beast. They plodded on. He turned suddenly in his saddle and +saw the three riders spreading fan-shape around them, the one in the +center nearest. He whipped out his gun and fired at the horse. + +His own motion made the ball fly wild, but the horseman drew up +instantly, and the other edged discreetly away. And in the ensuing +moments the two fugitives gained the base of those cliff-like hills +and perceived the dark oblong of a cave mouth. + +Down from their exhausted camels they flung themselves, and hand in +hand raced to the entrance of the cave. Coolness and blackness +received them. Their eyes discovered nothing of the tunnel-like +interior. + +Putting Arlee some distance within, Billy went to the mouth and +stood, his gun in his hand, peering watchfully out. He saw the +horsemen draw together for a parley, then one remained on guard +while the others circled on separate ways beyond his range of sight. +His fear was that one of them might steal alongside the cave and +leap unexpectedly into its very mouth upon him, so with taut nerves +he crouched expectant. + +Behind him Arlee gave a sudden shriek. + + [Illustration: "Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out"] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +He whirled. "I'll fire!" he warned, staring into the dark, but his +eyes, dazed with the sun, discerned nothing, and in utter ignorance +he faced the black possibilities. + +"A man--a hand----" Arlee gasped incoherently. + +"Good Lord, what is it?" said a voice so near at hand that both were +startled. + +"Burroughs!" ejaculated Billy. "Is it you--Burroughs?" + +"Yes, it's I, Burroughs," the owner of the voice retorted irritably. +"And who the deuce are you?" + +"Hill--Billy B. Hill," came the jubilant answer, and "Billy be +damned!" said the astonished voice, with sudden joviality, and a +dark shape strode up to them. "What on earth are you doing here? And +what about that firing? Think I was a robber bold?" + +"Well, there are three robber sneaks outside that we are hiding +from, so I wasn't sure.... Great Cæsar, old scout, but I'm glad to +see you! That puts us out of the woods at last.... It's the +excavator friend," he added, turning to Arlee. "Burroughs, I present +you to Miss Beecher. She and I have been having a thoroughly +impossible adventure." + +"Let's have a little light upon these introductions," returned the +excavator, and a click was heard, and a light jumped out overhead, +flooding the tunnel-like place with brightness. In its beams the +three stood staring queerly at each other. + +Arlee saw a slim, wiry young American, in rough khaki clothes +stained with work, a browned, unshaven young man with sleepy looking +eyes and a mouth like a steel trap. + +What the excavator saw was more surprising. There was his friend +Billy, whom two weeks before he had seen off on a Nile steamer +returning to Cairo, in tropic splendor of white serge and Panama +hat, now a scarlet spectacle of sunburn and dirt, in most +disgraceful tweeds, and beside him what Burroughs took to be a child +in tatterdemalion white, a silky, fluttering white, which even his +untrained observation knew was hardly elected for desert wear. The +little girl's hair was hanging tangled over her shoulders, and was +much the color of the sand with which her face was coated, and +underneath that coating he saw that she was red as a peony with sun +and wind. They were a startling pair. + +Gravely, with unchanging eyes, he acknowledged the introduction, and +then, "What's this about robbers?" he went on. "What kind of a yarn +are you putting over?" + +"Nothing I want put over on the general public." Billy was thinking +very hard. "You're going to be our salvation, Burroughs, but even to +you--well, I'll put it briefly. We were having a desert ride and +some Turkish fellows who have annoyed her before chased us. There +are our camels, just outside. And you can see one of the fellows on +horseback keeping watch. The others are somewhere about.... And now, +for heaven's sake, get us a drink of water." + +Burroughs walked to the door of the tomb and looked out an instant, +then he turned and went toward the back, returning with a small +native jar full of water. + +"I've no glass, but if you can manage this----?" he said to Arlee, +and she clutched the cool pottery with two hot little hands and, +murmuring a quick affirmative, she put it to her lips. + +Then she held it out to Billy. + +"I suppose--we mustn't---drink as much as we want." + +"I couldn't," said Billy, after a grateful swallowing. "I'd drain +the Nile.... Got a camp here?" + +"Yes. You'd have seen my men any other time of day, but we knocked +off a while out of the sun," Burroughs explained. "I've rigged up +this tomb as living quarters while I'm here. Now what do you want me +to do? Would you like a guard?" + +"We'd like a guard and a bath and cold cream," said Billy joyfully. +"And then we'd like dinner and donkeys." + +Burroughs grunted. + +"Umph--I should say you'd one donkey already in your +party--careering around the desert with a little girl like this," he +vouchsafed, and Arlee's eyes widened at his brusque nod at her. She +was staring about her now with a curious interest, for all her +aching tiredness, gazing wonderingly at the dazzling white walls +with their strange and brilliant paintings. She saw they were in a +long, deep chamber, from which other openings led to unimagined +deeps. + +"I guess you never were in a place like this before?" Burroughs +inquired, and she shook her head dumbly, feeling suddenly too spent +for words. + +"Can she get a rest here?" said Billy anxiously. "We've had the +devil of a ride." + +"The place is all hers," returned Burroughs. "I'll send you some +food and cold cream--you mustn't wash that sunburn, you know, or +you'll be a sorry girl to-morrow--and then you can rest as long as +you like. How much of a hurry are you in?" he added to Billy. + +"Well, we want to take a train to Luxor to-night. I suppose Girgeh's +the next station?" + +"You suppose? You _are_ at sea--where did you start from, anyway?" +But hastily Burroughs sped from that inquisitive question. "Balliana +is your next station," he reported. "You've all the time you want, +and I'll take you over myself. Now make yourself as comfortable as +you can," he added to Arlee, handing her a big jar of cold cream and +lugging forward an armful of rugs. "I'll be back with some food in a +jiffy." + +"You're very kind," Arlee spoke stanchly, but as soon as the two men +stepped from the tomb, she seemed to wilt down into the rugs and lay +there, too tired to stir. + +Outside Burroughs blew sharply on a whistle, and from the mouth of +another cave a file of black boys in ragged robes made a straggling +appearance. Burroughs gave orders which resulted in a kindling of +fire and the opening of boxes, and then he walked back to where +Billy was surveying the weary camels. At a distance, like an +equestrian statue, the watching horseman was standing. Burroughs +stared hard at the distant Nubian, then stared harder at Billy. + +"This is wonderful luck," Billy said to him, very soberly. "I didn't +think of you as nearer than Thebes." + +"We just heard of some fresh finds here, so I'm combing over the +tombs.... But you--it's none of my business, Billy, but what in hell +are you doing racing over Egypt with a ten-year old kid?" + +"Ten-year-old--Great Cæsar, man, that's a _real girl_! She's _grown +up_! She's old enough to vote--or nearly." + +Burroughs stared harder than ever. + +Then, "I shouldn't call that an extenuating circumstance," he +mentioned wryly. + +"Extenuating nothing! Look here, let me----" + +"You needn't tell me anything, you know," Burroughs suggested in +great indifference. + +"Oh, shut up!" Billy spoke with deep disgust. "You've got to help us +out of this and then forget the whole business." He paused a moment; +then, "Miss Beecher made the mistake of taking a rash ride with me. +She was traveling alone, to meet some friends, to Luxor--and the +indiscretion is entirely mine, you understand. I got her into it. +And then, as I said, a Turkish fellow, that had been making himself +objectionable by following her, got his men out after us and chased +us down here. Her trunks have gone on to Luxor where those friends +are, and we have to find some presentable wraps for her and get her +to the first train. _Verstehen_?" + +"Grasped--and forgotten," said his friend laconically. Just for an +instant his sleepy gaze touched Billy's rugged face, then fell +casually away. "I suppose any comments that occur to me are +superfluous?" he pleasantly observed. + +"Completely.... And, Lord Harry, but I'm glad to see you!" + +"Same here." Burroughs gave Billy's arm a friendly grip and Billy +spun fiercely about on him. "Don't you do that again!" he warned. +"Take the other one. That's got a--a scratch." + +"A scratch? One of those fellows wing you out there? Let me have a +look----" + +"No, it's all right--it's nothing----" + +"Let me see, you old chump----" + +"It's all right, I tell you. It's been taken care of--it's just a +relic of Cairo." + +"Cairo!" Slowly Burroughs let fall the hand he had laid upon Billy's +arm. "You do seem to be having a lively trip," he commented, +grinning. "Here, hurry up, you rascals, hurry up with that big jug." + +Taking the large jar from them, he returned to the tomb, stopping +abruptly at sight of Arlee's weary abandon. She half sat up, a +frail, exhausted little figure, whose grace was strangely appealing +through all her sandy dishevelment. + +"Some water--for washing," he stammered. + +"You're very thoughtful." + +"I'll have to beg your pardon," he blurted, for Burroughs was no +squire of dames. "I thought you were a little girl and spoke to you +as if----" + +"It's just the hairpins that make the difference, isn't it?" said +Arlee, with a whimsical smile. "I don't suppose you have any of +those in camp that I could borrow?" + +He shook his head regretfully. Then his brain seized upon the +problem. "Bent wires?" he suggested. "I might try----" + +"Do," she besought. "I'll be grateful forever." + +He withdrew to make the attempt, and in his place came Billy with a +tray of luncheon. + +"Just--put it down," Arlee said faintly. "I'll eat--by and by." + +Worriedly Billy looked down on the girl. Her eyes closed. Excitement +had ebbed, leaving her like some spent castaway on the shores. He +dropped on his knees beside her, dipping a clean handkerchief in the +jar of cold cream. + +"Just let me get this off," he said quietly. "You'll feel better." + +Like a child she submitted, lying with closed eyes while with +anxious care he took the sand from her delicate, burning skin. He +did the same for her listless hands; he brushed back her hair and +put water on her temples; he dabbed more cold cream tenderly on the +pathetic little blisters on her lips. + +"I'm--all right." The blue eyes looked suddenly up at him with a +clear smile. "I'm--just resting." + +"And now you'll eat a bit?" + +Obediently she took the sandwich he made for her, and lifted her +head to drink the cup of tea. + +"I'm a--nuisance," she murmured. + +"You're a _brick_!" he gave back, with muffled intensity. "You're a +perfect brick!" + +Then he backed hastily out of her presence, for fear his stumbling +tongue would betray him--or his clumsy, longing hands--or his +foolish eyes. He felt choking with the tenderness he must not +express. He ached with his Big Brother pity for her, and with his +longing for her, which wasn't in the least Big Brotherly, and with +all the queer, bewildering jumble of emotion that she had power to +wake in him. + +Very silently he returned to Burroughs, and when he had made a +trifle of a toilet and eaten far from a trifle of lunch, the two +young men stretched themselves out in the shade, just beyond the +entrance of the tomb, conversing in low tones, while around them the +labor song of Burroughs' workmen rose and fell in unvarying +monotony, as from a nearby hole they carried out baskets of sand +upon their heads and poured the contents upon the heap where the +patient sifters were at work. + +Burroughs talked of his work, the only subject of which he was +capable of long and sustained conversation. He dilated upon a rare +find of some blue-green tiles of the time of King Tjeser, a third +dynasty monarch, and a mummy case of one of the court of King Pepi, +of the sixth dynasty, "about 3300 B.C.," he translated for +Billy, and then suddenly he saw that Billy's eyes were absent and +Billy's pipe was out. + +In sudden silence he knocked out the ashes from his own pipe and +slowly refilled it. "Congratulations," he ejaculated, and at Billy's +slow stare he jerked his head back toward the tomb. "I say, +congratulations, old man." + +"Oh!" Billy became ludicrously occupied with the dead pipe. + +"Nothing doing," he returned decidedly. + +"No? ... I thought----" + +"You sounded as if you had been thinking. Don't do it again." + +"And also I had been remembering," said Burroughs, with caustic +emphasis, "knowing that in the past wherever youth and beauty was +concerned----" + +So successfully had that past been sponged from Billy's concentrated +heart, so utterly had other youth and beauty ceased to exist for +him, that he greeted the reminder with belligerent unwelcome. + +"I tell you it was all an accident," he retorted irritably. "There's +nothing more to it.... Hello, our horseman is coming this way +again!" + +Grateful for the interruption to this ticklish excursion into his +sacred emotions, he jumped to his feet and went out to meet the man +who was riding slowly toward them, the two others in his train. +Burroughs went with him, and a brief parley followed. + +"He says," Burroughs translated, "that these are his camels and he +is going to take them away. He says you stole them from him at +Assiout." + +"That's right," Billy confirmed easily. "He can have 'em," and +Burroughs, vouchsafing no comment on this curious development, gave +the message to the Nubian. Then he turned again to Billy. "He wants: +the money for their hire." + +"For their----! Of all the dad-blasted, iron-clad cheek! You just +tell him for me that he'll get his 'hire' all right if he hangs +around me. Tell him I'll have him arrested for molesting and robbing +travelers; and tell him to tell his master that if he shows his head +near an English girl again I'll have him hanged as high as +Haman--and shot to pieces while he swings! The infernal +scoundrel----" + +Whatever work Burroughs made of this translation it sent the sullen, +inscrutable-looking fellow off in silence, his followers leading the +recovered camels. + +"And may that be the last of them," said Billy B. Hill, in fervent +thanksgiving. "Except Kerissen. I've got to meet him again--just +once." + + * * * * * + +Perhaps it was the hairpins. Perhaps it was the bathed face and the +sleep-brightened eyes and the rearranged gown. But certainly +Burroughs stared in amazement at the slim little figure that issued +from the entrance, and a queer, a very queer confusion seized upon +him. Not even outrageous sunburn and pathetic blisters could hide +Arlee's young loveliness. They only added an utterly upsetting +tenderness to the beholder, and a most dangerous compassion. + +And just as each man is smitten with madness after the manner of his +kind, so Burroughs, the taciturn, was struck into amazing +volubility. As they sat about a cracker box of a table at an early +supper, he became a perfect fount of information, pouring out to +this girl an account of his diggings that would have astounded any +of his intimates, and would surely have amazed Billy B. Hill if that +young man had been in a condition to notice his friend's +performances. But he was wrapped in a personal gloom that had +descended on him like a cloud of unreason. The escapade was nearly +over. The little girl comrade was gone, the little girl whose face +he had so tenderly scrubbed of its grimy sand. A very self-possessed +young lady was sitting beside him, drinking her coffee, an utterly +lovely and gracious young lady--but unfathomably remote--elusive.... + +Perhaps, again, it was the hairpins. + +Off to town on donkey back the three Americans rode slowly, a native +escort filing after, and there in town the bazaars yielded a long +pongee dust coat and a straw hat and a white veil, "to escape +detection," Arlee gaily said, and a satchel which she filled with +mysterious purchases, and then, clad once more in the semblance of +her traveling world, safe and sound and undiscovered, she stood upon +the station platform, awaiting the train to Luxor. + +Beside her, two very quiet young men responded but feebly to the +flow of spirits that had amazingly succeeded her exhaustion. +Burroughs was suddenly suffering from a depression most unfamiliar +to his practical mind, which caused him to moon about his work for +days and made his depleted jar of cold cream a wincing memory, and +Billy was increasingly glum. + +It was all over now. The girl, who for two winged days had been so +magically his gypsy comrade, was returning to her own world, the +world in which he played so infinitesimal a part. For very pride's +sake now he could never force himself upon her ... as he might +before ... + +He stared down at her eagerly, hopefully, for a sign of regret at +the ending of this strange companionship, much as a big Newfoundland +might watch for a caress from a cherished but tyrannic hand, but not +a scrap of regret was evidenced. She was as blithe as a cricket. Her +only pang was for discovery. + +"You're sure," she murmured as Burroughs left them to interview the +station clerk, "you're sure they'll never know?" + +"I'm positive," he stolidly responded. "Just stick to your story." + +"The Evershams won't question--they are never interested in other +people," she mused, with thankfulness. "But Mr. Falconer----" + +"Won't have a doubt," said Billy firmly. His gloom closed in thickly +about him. + + * * * * * + +It was a local, a train of corridor compartments. In one, marked +"Ladies Alone," Arlee was ensconced, with an Englishwoman and her +maid, and two pleasant German women, and in another Billy B. Hill +sat opposite some young Copts and lighted pipe after pipe. When the +train started out on the High Bridge across the Nile to the eastern +bank, he came out in the corridor to look out the wide glass windows +there, and found Arlee beside him. + +"How do you do?" she said brightly. "How nice to meet accidentally +like this--you see, I'm rehearsing my story," she added under her +breath. + +"Let's see if you have it straight," he told her. + +"I arrive on a local which left Cairo this morning.... Did I come +alone?" + +"You'd better invent some nice traveling friend----" + +She shook her head in flat refusal. "I won't. I'm not equal to +inventing anything. It's bad enough now to--to tell the _necessary_ +lies I have to." The brightness left her face looking suddenly wan +and sorry. "I suppose it's part of my--punishment--for my dreadful +folly," she said in a low tone. + +"It's just part of the coin the world has to be paid in for its +conventions," Billy quickly retorted. "_Don't_ let it worry you like +that--in a day no one will think to question you." + +"I know--but--it's having the memory always there. Always knowing +that there is something I can't be honest about--something secret +and dreadful----" + +She was staring unseeingly out the window, her soft lips twitching. + +"The Egyptians were a most sensible people," said Billy. "They drew +up a list of commandments against the forty-two cardinal sins, and +one of them was this, 'Thou shalt not consume thy heart.' That is a +religious law against regret--vain, unprofitable, morbid, +devastating regret. And you must take that law for your own." + +"Th--thank you." The low voice was suspiciously wavery. "I--you see, +I haven't had time to think about it till just now--we've been going +so fast----" + +"And the best thing that could have happened. And now that you have +the time to think, you mustn't think _weakly_. It was just a +nightmare. And it's over." + +"Just a nightmare.... And it's over," she repeated. Her eyes lifted +to Billy's in a look of ineffable softness and wonder. "It's +over--because _you_ came." + +"I want you to forget that." The young man spoke with cold curtness +in his effort to combat the wild temptation of that moment. "I only +did what anyone else in my place would have done--to have +accomplished it is all the gratitude I want. Please don't speak of +it to me again. You must forget about it." + +"Forget--as if I could help being grateful as long as I live!" + +"But I don't _want_ you to be grateful. It--it's obnoxious to me!" + +She was as blankly hurt as a slapped child. Then she looked away, a +little pulse in her throat beating fast. "Then I won't--try to thank +you," she answered in a very small voice, and stared harder and +harder out the window. + +Billy felt that he had accomplished a tremendous stride. "A feeling +of obligation kills a friendship," he told her didactically, "and I +want you to be really my friend." + +"I am." Her voice was distinct, though queerly lack-luster. And she +did not look at him again. + +He went on: "The Evershams will be in on the boat about seven. From +the station I'll take you straight to the boat, where your stateroom +is surely being kept for you. Then to-morrow your trunks will arrive +from Cook's, and by the time you are through resting, you will be +ready to sally out and meet the world.... I hope my own trunk will +make its appearance, too," he added. "I telegraphed the hotel to +pack my things and send them on." + +She made no comment on the obvious haste with which he had left +Cairo. She said slowly, "I want to do a little mathematics now. What +is the shocking sum I owe you?" + +He shut his lips in an obstinate line. After a moment she added, "I +can't take _that_, you know." + +It struck him as a trifle ludicrous that dollars were so important +among all the rest, but unwillingly enough he understood. + +"Won't you just let it stand as it is?" he said under his breath. +"Let me have the whole thing--please." + +"I can't." + +"You mean you won't?" + +"I can't," she repeated inflexibly, and then, with a childish flash, +"Since you dislike me to feel grateful--I should think you would be +glad to let me reduce the debt." + +"All right." He spoke gruffly. "Then you owe me what you spent just +now and what your railroad ticket cost. Not a cent more. For what +went before I am absolutely responsible, and I decline to let you +pay _my_ debts." + +This time he was inflexible. She repeated, with a spark of +resentment, "It's not fair to let you pay so much----" + +"It was _my_ adventure," said Billy firmly. + +She said, "Very well," in a voice that puzzled him. He felt she +was annoyed. And he realized more than ever that he could never +take advantage of her indebtedness to make her pay with her +companionship. It was becoming a queer tangle.... He felt they had +suddenly slipped out of tune.... She seemed to be escaping +him--withdrawing ... + +He wondered, very unhappily, with no fine glow of altruism at all, +if he had rescued her for another man. Those things happened, they +happened with dismal frequency. Billy distinctly recalled the +experience of a college friend who had carried a girl out of a +burning hotel, to have her wildly embrace an unstirring youth below. +Yes, such things happened. But he had never contemplated having +anything like that happen to him. + +He contemplated it now, however, contemplated it long and bitterly, +when Arlee had gone back to her compartment and he sat silent in his +beside the chattering Copts while the train rattled on and on. There +would be three days at Luxor before the boat proceeded upon its +southern journey. And then---- + +Three days.... Three miserable, paltry, insufficient days, blighted +by the chaperoning Evershams.... Frantically he hoped against his +dark foreboding that one menace at least might be averted--that by +now Luxor would have ceased to shelter a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CROSS PURPOSES + + +Luxor was warm and drowsy with afternoon sun. Motionless the fronds +of the tall palms along the water front; motionless the columns of +the temple reflected in the blue Nile. Even the almost continuous +commotion of the landing stage was stilled. + +The two big Nile steamers, of rival lines, lay quietly at rest, +emptied of their tourists, and on the embankment the dragomans, the +donkey boys, the innumerable venders, were lounging in the shade at +dominoes or dice. + +In the big white hotels facing the river many drawn blinds spoke of +napping travelers, and in the shade of the garden of the Grand other +travelers were whiling away the listless inertia of the hour before +tea. + +"I suppose it's _quite_ too early?" murmured a girl at one of the +tables, in the shade of a big acacia. Her companion, fussing with a +pastel sketch, answered absently, without looking up, "Oh, quite," +and then with a note of brisker attention, "I thought we were +waiting for Robert?" + +"Do you think he'll be back? It's _such_ a trip to the Tombs of the +Kings, you know!" + +"To be sure he'll be back!" Miss Falconer spoke with asperity. "And +why he wanted to go over it again--it's odd you didn't care to go, +too, Claire," she added, most inconsequently. "It was such an +excellent opportunity--and you had already spoken of wishing to go +again." + +"But not so exhaustively. They are doing the entire programme. I +only wanted some particular things." + +"You could have done them." + +"And it was hot." + +"It must have been just as hot in the bazaars with Mr. Hill." + +"Was it?" + +This was purposeful vagueness and Miss Falconer's crayon snapped. +She made a sound of annoyance, then began gathering her sketching +things tidily together. Presently, "He's rather an agreeable person, +that young American, after all," she cannily observed. + +"Why, after all?" Lady Claire was implacably aloof. + +"Well, first impressions, you know----" + +"_My_ first impressions of Mr. Hill were very delightful." The +English girl laughed softly, her eyes full of reminiscent amusement. +"He was a _deus ex machina_ to me--I quite jumped at him, I assure +you!" + +"You don't have to assure me!" was the elder lady's unspoken +comment. She had been in a state of chronic irritation, ever since +that Friday noon when Billy B. Hill's tall figure had appeared in +the hotel dining room. And hurrying Claire away from the +conversation he was promptly evoking, she had encountered Arlee +Beecher and the Evershams streaming with the other passengers from +their boat to see the temple of Luxor, a wonderfully gay and excited +Arlee, so radiant in the happiness of her own safe world again that +she was bright gladness incarnate.... Instantly Robert had reverted +to his alarming infatuation ... and Lady Claire had most shamelessly +welcomed the American. It was all unspeakably annoying.... + +Aloud Miss Falconer observed, "I wonder what brought Mr. Hill back +to the Nile." + +"I wonder," said Lady Claire pleasantly. "But it makes it very nice +for us, doesn't it?" she continued amiably. "He knows quite +_everything_ about temples." + +"And particularly nice for Miss Beecher--though I can't say she is +treating him very well. However, that may be their way. 'Romance +apart from results,' was, I believe, his phrase." + +Lady Claire was silent. But not overlong. "You really think----?" +she suggested tranquilly. + +"He came on the same train." + +"Coincidence. He mentioned he did not see her in the train till +Balliana." + +"Umph!" Miss Falconer drew out of her bag the especial knitting +which she reserved for the Sabbath, and her fingers flew with +expressive spirit. "It's scandalous," she said at length. "Girls +gadding about the face of the earth--picking up chaperons when they +remember them." + +"It's their way, you know." + +"Oh, yes, it's their way. And their men seem to like it. Mr. Hill +didn't seem to consider it even _unusual_.... But as I said, he's +hardly a judge," Miss Falconer went on unsparingly. "The man's +bewitched. He never takes his eyes off her." + +"I'm sure I don't blame him." Lady Claire's tone was most +successfully admiring. "She's too _wonderful_, isn't she, with those +great blue eyes and that astonishing hair! I'm sure Robert is +bewitched, too!" + +"Nonsense!" But Miss Falconer's tone was too vigorous, betraying the +effort to rout a palpable enemy. "What nonsense!" she repeated. +"He's civil--naturally--when _you_ haven't a moment for him. The boy +has pride. Too much." The knitting needles clicked warningly. + +"Civil!" The girl's low laughter was mocking. "Dear Miss Falconer, +you are such an _euphuist_!" + +Miss Falconer looked up, a trifle startled. Her young charge was +more than a match for her in irony, but the elder lady did not lack +for solid perseverance, and she charged on undeterred. + +"Of course the girl's pretty--too pretty. And Robert's a man--he has +eyes in his head and likes to please them. And she knows who he is +and draws him on." + +"I don't think Miss Beecher cares a twopence who Robert is," said +Lady Claire honestly. "When I told her he was going to stand for +Roxham she answered that she had a very poor opinion of M.P.s--from +reading Mrs. Ward. I can't _quite_ see what she meant--but as for +her drawing him on, a moment ago, dear, you were accusing her of +luring Mr. Hill back from Cairo." + +"I said he followed. I daresay she lured, too. The second +string----" + +"Then it's quite _nice_ of me, isn't it, to carry off her second +string to the bazaars and prevent her playing him against Robert!" + +Lady Claire laughed mischievously, in a flight of daring so foreign +to her usual reticence that Miss Falconer grimly perceived that she +was changed indeed. She thought helplessly that it was a great pity +that young people couldn't be treated as the children they +were--smacked and made to do what was best for them. + +"And after all this dreadful gossiping how can we face our guests at +tea?" the girl continued in mock chiding. + +"If they are much later we shall not be facing them at all," the +older woman declared. "I shall certainly have my tea at the proper +time." + +The sight of an Arab servant with a tray of dishes had stirred her +to this declaration, and promptly she gave her order. In the middle +of it, "I'm always late!" said a merry voice, and little Miss +Beecher and Falconer were standing on the grass beside them. + +"This time we had no following engagement," said Miss Falconer, +unpleasantly reminiscent of another tea time in Cairo, ten days +before, but even with her resentment of this American girl's +intrusion into her long-cherished plans, she could not prevent the +softening of her regard as she gazed upon her. + +"You don't look as if you had been riding very hard at the Tombs of +the Kings," she observed, in reluctant admiration. + +"Oh, but we have! We did quite a lot of Tombs--not anything like +thoroughly, of course!--and then we rode back early and made +ourselves tidy for your tea party," Arlee blithely explained, and +Miss Falconer perceived that her brother Robert had returned to the +hotel without seeking them out, had arrayed himself in fresh white +flannels and returned to the boat to escort Miss Beecher across the +road into the hotel garden. + +Absently she sighed. Her eyes fell away from the peach-blossom +prettiness of Arlee's lovely face to the subtle simplicity of her +white frock of loosely woven silk, and she wondered if that heavy +embroidery meant money--or merely spending money. And then she +looked across at Lady Claire, and sighed again for her dream of an +aristocratic alliance. + +"Mrs. Eversham--?" she thought to inquire. + +"They're having the vicar--or is it the rector?--to tea. They asked +him this morning before your message came," Arlee explained. She did +not explain that the vicar, or the rector, had imagined, in +accepting, that she, too, was to be of that tea party on the boat +and was even now inquiring zealously of her of the Evershams. + +"Here's Mr. Hill," said Lady Claire. + +Miss Falconer stirred; there was room for the fifth chair between +her and Arlee. Lady Claire also stirred; there was room between her +and Robert Falconer. And there Billy B. Hill seated himself after a +general exchange of greetings. + +"How were the bazaars?" said Arlee gaily across the table. + +"You mean the department store of Mr. Isaac Cohen," Billy laughed +back. "They are all under him, you know." + +"Not _really_!" Falconer exclaimed, in disillusionment. "It rather +takes it out, doesn't it, to know it is so commercialized." + +"What did you expect--it is the twentieth century," Miss Falconer +retorted, putting aside her knitting as the tea things arrived. + +"Sometimes it is," said Arlee. + +"I think it's more so than ever, here," declared Lady Claire. +"Egypt's so _frightfully_ civilized----" + +"Not when you're camping in the desert." + +Again that funny little smile flitted over Arlee's face; not once +did she glance at Billy, but for all her air of unconsciousness he +felt that she was subtly sharing her thoughts with him and a quick +spark of gladness flashed in him. + +Those had been three horrible days for Billy B. Hill. + +Friday morning he had been practically a prisoner until his trunks +had arrived. He had emerged upon a spectacle of England +triumphant--Robert Falconer escorting Arlee to the temple of Luxor. +Later that afternoon he had called upon Arlee upon the boat to find +Falconer still there, and the Evershams very much so. + +Robert Falconer had accompanied him back to the hotel. There was +something that he wanted to ask, and he asked it bluntly, but with +embarrassment. Had Billy said anything at all to Arlee of that +nonsense at the palace? + +Here was a contingency for which Billy was not provided. He made no +provisions for this with Arlee. + +"Have you?" he parried. + +"Not a word," said the young Englishman. "We've not mentioned the +fellow's filthy name. But I wondered----" + +"I did tell her we got worried one night, and tried to get into his +palace like a pair of brigands," Billy answered slowly. + +"She must have thought us great fools," the sandy-haired young man +replied disgustedly. Clearly he felt that Billy had flourished this +story before Arlee to appear romantic, and he winced at its +absurdity. + +"Oh, no--she just thought of it as a lark on our part," Billy went +on. "I didn't let her in for the horrible details--I don't think +she's likely to mention it to you. Or you to her," he added. + +"Rather not." The young Englishman was emphatic. "I'm sorry you said +anything about it." Then he looked at Billy, a crinkle of amusement +in his eyes. "Rather a sell, you know--what?" + +"I should say so!" returned Billy, with a hearty appearance of +chagrin, and a laugh cemented the understanding. + +That was all between them concerning the escapade. + +Billy had raced back to the boat, and secured an earnest fifteen +minutes with Arlee, who promised unlimited care, and then forced +upon him the wretched sovereigns that she owed. She was feeling +desperately spent and tired after her day of excitement, and +declared herself unequal to the dance upon the boat that evening. +Anxiously Billy had urged her to rest, and he spent a drifting and +distracted evening roaming alone in the temple of Luxor listening +to the distant music from the boat--thinking of Arlee.... Later he +had learned that she remained up for at least two dances with +Falconer. + +So much for Friday. Saturday had been worse. Arlee had said on +Friday night that she would join the passengers in the all-day +excursion to the Tombs of the Kings, and Billy had somehow found +himself in an arrangement with Lady Claire and Falconer to go with +them. Then Arlee had not gone. Mrs. Eversham reported that she had a +headache, and Falconer had very promptly dropped out of the party, +leaving Billy with Lady Claire upon his hands, and so he went, and +he and Lady Claire and the Evershams and about sixty other +passengers had a brisk and busy day of it. When he returned just +before dinner he saw Arlee, apparently headacheless, upon the deck +of the steamer, chatting to Falconer. + +That night she had attended the dance at the hotel under Miss +Falconer's wing. Billy had danced with her twice, and between times +his pride had kept him aloof--she might just have made one sign! But +though her bright friendliness was ever responsive; though she was +instantly, submissively, ready to accept his invitations or fulfill +his requests, he felt that there was something strangely lacking. + +The gay spark of her coquetry was gone; she did not tease or play +with him; animated as she was in company, when they were alone +together a constraint fell upon her. + +Miserably he felt that he reminded her of unhappy scenes and that +she would be secretly relieved when he was gone. + +So now he was absurdly glad to hear her declare, in answer to Lady +Claire's questionings, "Oh, but the desert is wonderful! I loved it +in spite of----" + +"In spite of--?" Lady Claire echoed. + +"The sand," said Arlee promptly. But under her lashes, her eyes +came, at last, half-scared, to Billy's face. + +"But the sand _is_ the desert," Lady Claire was murmuring. + +"It's only part of it," Billy took it upon himself to answer. "Space +is the biggest part--and then color. And sometimes--heat." + +"You spent quite a time on the desert edge with some excavators, +didn't you?" said the English girl, and Billy fell into talk with +her about his friend's work, and Falconer and his sister engrossed +Arlee. + +And to-night was the very last night of her stay at Luxor. To-morrow +the boat would take her on out of his life--unless he pursued her +along the Nile, a foolish, unwanted intruder.... The three days here +had all slipped from his clumsy grasp--they seemed to have put a +widening distance between them.... He heard Falconer calculating +that the boat would touch again at Luxor for the next Friday night. +There seemed to be talk of a masked ball.... + +Billy leaned suddenly across the table. + +"You have forgotten it's the best of the moon to-night?" he asked. +"You must let me take you to see it on Karnak." + +Falconer gave him a very blank look. + +"We've already planned for that," said he. + +"We'll all go," cried Arlee, with instant pleasantness. "We mustn't +miss it for anything." + +"You haven't seen the moon on the temple yet?" Billy inquired of +Lady Claire in the pause that ensued. + +"Only once--four nights ago. But it wasn't full then." + +Billy remembered that moon acutely. It had lighted two fugitives +across a waste of sand. He saw a little figure swaying rhythmically +high upon a camel, a quaint, old-world figure in misty white, with a +shimmering silver veil--like Rebecca coming across the desert, he +thought oddly. Then he looked up and saw a most modern figure in +white across the table, nibbling a cress sandwich, and laughing at +some jest of the Englishman's.... + +With a start he realized that Lady Claire was waiting for an answer. + +"I beg your pardon. You asked----?" + +"If _you_ had seen the temple in moonlight, Mr. Hill." + +"Not Karnak--only Luxor--night before last." + +"Only Luxor!" The girl beside him laughed. "How spoiled you are, Mr. +Hill! _Only_ Luxor!" + +It came to Billy, with the force of revelation, that it was going to +be _only_ a great many things for him after this.... Those wild days +in the desert had seen to that, with devastating completeness.... +Girls were only other girls--and delight in them a lost word. This +charming one beside him, with the friendly eyes where a faint shadow +of wistfulness underlay the surface brightness, was only Lady +Claire.... + +He wondered if he was going on like this forever. He wondered if he +was everlastingly to carry this memory about with him, like a +bullet.... Suddenly he felt enraged at himself, at his dumb pain and +useless longings, and with a stanch semblance of animation he flung +himself into the flow of talk which this pretty English girl was so +ready to offer him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +UPON THE PYLON + + +Two miles of Sphinxes in the moonlight--a double row of them on each +side of the way from the temple of Luxor--and then a towering pylon +overhead. Karnak was reached. + +Out of the victoria jumped two young men in evening clothes, one +sandy-haired with a slight moustache, the other black-haired and +clean shaven, and handed out three ladies. The first lady was +middle-aged and haughty featured, in a black evening gown overhung +with a black and gold Assiout shawl; the second was a tall girl in a +rose cloak, the third was a small girl, and her cloak was a delicate +blue. + +There was a pause at the pylon for the presentation of the little +red entrance books, and then the gate closed behind them, and the +five moved cautiously forward into the shadowy dark of the confusion +of the ruins. Beside the blue-cloaked girl bent the sandy-haired +young man; the black-haired young man was between the rose-cloaked +girl and the lady with the Roman nose. + +"You must be our dragoman, Mr. Hill; I understand you are up on all +this," said the lady, adhering closely to his side. "Where are we +now?" + +"Temple of Khonsu," said Billy with bitter brevity. Ahead of them +Arlee's blonde head was uptilted toward Falconer's remarks. + +"Khonsu? I never heard of him! Or is it her?" Lady Claire laughingly +demanded. + +"Khonsu is the son of the god, Amon, or Amon-Ra, and the goddess, +Mut, and so is the third person of the trinity of Thebes," Billy +pedagogically recited, his eyes on the little white shoes ahead +picking their delicate way over the fallen stones. "This temple at +Karnak is the temple of the god Amon, and so it was natural for old +Rameses the third to put the temple to Khonsu under the father's +wing like this--but it spoils the effect of the entrance from this +pylon. You don't get Karnak's bigness at a burst--but wait till you +reach the court ahead. Then you'll see Karnak." + +And then they did see it--as much as one view can give of that vast +desolation. Ahead of them, shadowy and mysterious in the velvet dark +and silver pallor of the stars, loomed the columns of the great +court, huge monoliths that dwarfed to pigmies the tiny groups of +people dotting the ground about them, trying to say something +appropriate. + +The place had been made for dead and gone gods, giants of gods, and +their spirits stalked now through its waste spaces, dominating and +ironic. There was an air about the place that seemed to scorn the +facile awe it woke in the breasts of the beholders and that fleered +at the human banalities upon their lips. + +"There are no words for a spot like this," said a voice near them. + +"Silence is fittest," corroborated a second voice. + +"Thomas Hardy once said, speaking of the heavens," said the first +voice again, "'There is a size at which dignity begins; farther on +there is a size at which grandeur begins; farther on there is a size +at which solemnity begins; farther on a size at which awfulness +begins; farther on a size at which ghastliness begins.' Surely that +was written unknowingly for this temple of Karnak?" + +A fluttering murmur from the group confirmed this thought. + +"Nice little speech," said Falconer in an undertone. + +The second voice was raised a trifle resentfully. "Yet was not the +very pith of it spoken by Ruskin when he stood upon this identical +spot? His words were these, 'At last size tells!'" + +Another murmur agreed that it was indeed the pith. + +"That's Clara Eversham," said Arlee under her breath. "They came +over early with some people from the boat." + +"She must be frightfully up on the guide books," muttered Falconer. + +"She's a _miner_ in them," Arlee laughed, as they made their way +over the rubbishy ground where great beams of stone and fallen +statues lay half-buried in the sands. + +"They must be very glad to have you back again with them," Falconer +told her, trying hard to keep their progress ahead of the others. + +"Oh, I don't know!" Honest dubiety spoke in Arlee's tone. "They +have mentioned twice how convenient it was to use my stateroom!" + +"They felt very badly when you ran away from them in Cairo." + +"I was shockingly sudden about that," owned the girl lightly, "but +the chance came--Are we going to climb the great pylon now?" + +"It will be a jolly high place to see the moon rise." + + * * * * * + +It _was_ a jolly high place to see the moon rise, and to see all +Karnak, and all Luxor, with its high Moslem minaret towering over +its crumbling columns, and to see the dark and distant country with +its tiny hamlets crouching under humbler mosques and lonely palms, +and on the other side the wide and winding Nile with the shadowy +cliffs of Thebes beyond. It gave Arlee the dizzying sensation of +being suspended between heaven and earth, so high was she above +those far-reaching plains, so high above the giant columns beneath +her, the vast beamed roofs, the pointing obelisks. It made her +breath quicken and her pulses beat. + +"Watch the moon," said Falconer in a low tone. + +Blood-red it rose behind the dark pile, throwing into sinister +relief a gallows-like angle of stone beams, then higher and higher +it soared till its resplendent light poured unchecked into the wide +courts and broken temples, the unroofed altars and the empty +shrines. + +"A dead world lighting a dead world," said Arlee under her breath. + +"I could read by it," stated Miss Falconer impressively. + +Lady Claire glanced up at Billy with a touch of mischief. "Would you +like to paint it?" she suggested. + +"Heaven forbid!" said Billy soberly. + +Falconer said nothing at all, except to Arlee. He was very shrewdly +drawing her to the other end of the pylon, seeing that the time of +descent was nearly upon them. And when the time arrived, and the +English ladies and their stoic escort started down the steep steps, +Falconer made no motion of following them. He stood still, his hands +in his pockets, and chuckled softly at the sound of his sister's +voice, floating lesseningly up to them. + +"How Emma is dragoning that William Whatdycallit Hill," he said +appreciatively. + +"Why do you call him that?" questioned Arlee. + +"Oh, that chap is so deuced odd about that name of his. I asked him +what the B. stood for, and he looked me in the eye like a fighting +cock and said for his middle name.... Queer chap--" Suddenly +Falconer looked sidewise at Arlee and stopped. + +"He is--unusual," she agreed, moving toward the steps. + +The curious expression upon Falconer's face deepened. "Let 'em go +on," he said jerkily. "I don't want to leave this yet, do you?" + +Arlee glanced about hesitantly, without answering, and slowly she +let fall the white froth of skirt she had been gathering for the +descent. + +In silence she looked out over the temple. The moon had paled from +fire to molten silver now, and like scattered sparks of it burned +the thousand circling stars. She felt very strange and unreal--a +tiny figure topping this great gate in the face of the ancient +silence.... + +"We never have a chance for a word together," Falconer was mumbling, +with a nervous hand at his mustache. + +Her thoughts came fleetly back from the ancient worlds.... Her own +was upon her. She turned and laughed at him. "We've talked for three +whole days!" + +"Have we? But always in some group.... I understand that Hill told +you what a couple of donkeys we made of ourselves on your account?" +Anxiously he scanned her face, silver-clear in the moonlight, for +signs of ridicule. + +But Arlee's smile was very sweet. It made the sandy-haired young +man's heart quicken mysteriously. "He told me," she said. "I think +it was fine of you." + +"Fine? It was lunacy.... He'd got worked up over some horrible story +he'd heard," went on the young man in the mingling humor and +embarrassment, "and nothing for it but that you'd gone the same way. +And if you'll believe it, he had us prowling around that old palace +like a pair of jolly idiots primed to get their heads blown off--and +served us jolly well right! He was in luck to get off with nothing +but a scratch." + +"A scratch--? You mean--you _don't_ mean----?" + +"He didn't tell you that?" Falconer was surprised; he had imagined +that Billy's narration had led romantically to Billy's wound. He +made the American a silent apology. "He was shot in the arm." + +"Badly?" + +"Of course not badly--he's all right now, isn't he? He said it was a +scratch." + +Arlee was silent. He had been hurt all the time that he had been +riding with her over the desert ... he had been hurt all through +those horrible hot hours. And he had said nothing.... + +"When I think of what that chap got me in for--scaling a man's +walls, smashing in his locks, letting myself down the front of his +house like a monkey on a rope! I might have been a dashed school kid +again." Resentment and reluctant humor struggled in the young man's +speech. "Why, the fellow has the imagination of a detective ... and +of course he had some reason." Falconer's thoughts touched on the +fair-haired girl of Fritzi's report. "I'll admit he had me +worried--until I heard from the Evershams that you were all O.K. You +see what bally nonsense you put into young men's heads," he added +with a look of meaning. + +"He's a very--chivalrous--young man," said Arlee. + +"He's a very unbalanced young idiot," contradicted Falconer. "I +rather like the chap, himself, you know; he has nerve to spare--but +no ballast. He might have set all Cairo talking of you." His voice +hardened; "I told him that. I told him you wouldn't thank him for +it." + +"I do thank him. I thank him with all my heart." + +"Well, you've no reason to," Falconer returned in blunt belief. +"Linking your name with that Turk fellow; hinting you were in the +palace--he might have started a lot of rotten rumor!" + +"What's--rumor?" said the girl in a breathless voice. "He was +thinking of--my safety!" + +"Well, your safety didn't depend on him, did it?" Sharp jealousy of +her defense of the American intruder drove Falconer to unseemly +curtness. He gave a short laugh. "You and I," he said, "seem to be +always tilting over some chap or other." + +A faint smile touched the girl's lips, a sorry little smile, edged +with rueful reminiscence ... and strange comparisons. In silence she +looked down into the shadowy temple courts where absurdly +small-looking people were strolling to and fro, while Falconer stood +looking down at her, with something akin to angry wonder in his +adoring eyes. + +"Why didn't you write to a chap?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Why should I?" + +"Then you meant to let it go at that?" He drew a sharp breath. "Just +the way you flared off from that table--not a word more?" + +"Why didn't you write?" the girl parried. + +"I did," indignantly. "Twice--to Alexandria." + +"Oh.... I didn't get them." + +"I wrote, all right. I was so stirred up over that alarm of Hill's +that I urged you to answer me at once. And when you didn't, and when +I heard you _had_ written the Evershams, well, I thought I knew what +I had to think.... When I met you here Friday I half expected you to +cut me, upon my word!" + +"But I didn't!" She laughed softly. "I remembered you--perfectly." + +"Oh, you did, did you?... You've acted as if that was about all you +did remember." + +"I've been very, _very_ nice to you!" + +"But with a difference," he insisted resentfully. "Didn't you know I +must have written? You didn't think I wanted to let it stop there, +did you? You didn't think I meant that nonsense at tea----" + +"Please don't go back to that," said the girl hurriedly. "We've been +good friends these three days without bringing it up--don't let us +do it now." + +"Well, I don't enjoy thinking about it." His voice was sharp with +feeling. "You gave me the most miserable time of my life." + +"I was very horrid." + +"You told me you didn't give a _piastre_ for what I thought!" + +"I said I didn't give half a _piastre_!" murmured Arlee +irrepressibly, with a wicked dimple. + +Reluctantly he grinned. "Well?" he put to her questioningly. + +"Well?" + +Their eyes met, sparkling, combative. + +"You do, don't you?" + +"What?" + +"You do give a _piastre_ for what I----" + +"I'm afraid I do. I'm afraid I give a good many _piastres_ for what +everyone thinks." The girl's smile had suddenly faded; her eyes +lowered and sought the far horizons. + +In the silence he came a little closer to her. "Then Arlee--Arlee, +dear----" + +She started, and turned hurriedly. "We must go down----" + +"Why must we?" + +"They'll be waiting." + +"Let 'em. They'll be glad of the chance if they can get away from +Emma.... I want to talk to you." + +"I think Mr. Hill is quite as nice as Lady Claire," flashed Arlee in +a childish voice. + +"Claire seems to agree with you." Falconer spoke lightly, but +underneath sounded the note of the disgruntled male ... resentful of +the defection of even the girls he left behind him. He added, with +his fatal gift of truculent expression, "But that's perfectly +absurd." + +"Why absurd?" Arlee's voice held careful calm. The flash in her eyes +was hidden. + +Falconer made a gesture of extreme exasperation. To waste these +precious moonlight moments in trifling debate was the very height of +maddening futility. + +"Oh, the chap's a feather-headed adventurer. What's the use of +talking about him?... But that's aside the mark. I want----" + +"You mustn't call him an adventurer!" The flash was far from hidden +now. Her wide eyes blazed challenge at the disconcerted young man. +"It's not fair. It's not true." + +"Oh, I don't mean it in any--any _financial_ sense," the harassed +Falconer gave back. "But you can't expect me to take him seriously +after his exploits in Cairo? He's flighty. He goes off like a +rocket. He has illusions--but----" + +"If you are going to slander him because of what he did for me--" +Arlee's voice was shaking. + +"Oh, can't you see that's the key to his character!" + +"Yes, I do see it." She sounded triumphant now. For a moment her +eves met his full of bright defiance; she hung fire, half scared, +then blazed into her revelation. + +"_For I was in that palace._" + +"What? What?" Falconer questioned in sheer vacancy of shock. + +"I said--I was in that palace, Kerissen's palace." + +"_What!_" came from him again, but now in twenty different +intonations, with absolute incredulity struggling for dominance. + +Desperately she rushed on, her voice shaken but passionate. + +"I tell you it is so. He got me there by a trick, a call upon his +sister. And he kept me by another trick, pretending a quarantine. I +was trapped there. The messages and all the Alexandria story were +Kerissen's frauds. He wanted to marry me. I'd have been there +to-night if it hadn't been for Billy Hill--that adventurer, as you +call him!" + +It was impossible. It was unthinkable. Falconer stood staring down +at this girl whose white, upturned face, so amazingly ethereal and +childish, met his astounded gaze with unfaltering fixity, and from +his stiff lips dropped disjointed words and phrases, ejaculations of +denial, of disbelief. + +She swept them utterly aside in her complete affirmation. "It's all +true--every bit." + +"You--in that man's palace!" He was very pale, but into her white +face there surged a sudden flood of color, crimsoning it from brow +to throat. + +"He didn't--hurt me," she stammered. "He was--quite mad--but he +didn't--hurt me." + +She heard Falconer draw his breath with a queer, whistling sound. He +pushed back his hat and drew his hand over his forehead. + +"It's--impossible," he persisted thickly, but there was bitter +relief in his voice. "The blackguard--the filthy blackguard!" + +"Don't, don't, please don't! I can't bear to think of him. I've done +with even the thought of him.... He was trying to make me marry him. +I told you he was quite mad." + +Sharply Falconer pulled himself together, in the tense effort to +meet this horrible astonishment like a man. + +"And Hill got you out?" + +"Yes.... He got me out." + +"But the Evershams--they don't know----?" + +"No, no, I've told no one. I'm not going to tell anyone. No one +knows of it but you and me--and Billy Hill." + +"That's right." He drew another long breath, this time in sharp +relief. The color was coming back to his face, splotching it +unevenly. "You mustn't tell anyone. You don't know how a beastly +thing like that would spread. You mustn't let anyone have a hint. +Not even my sister." + +Arlee's eyes were in shadow. Her voice came slowly. "They would +think so badly of me?" + +"No--not of you--but it's the kind of thing, the impossible +things--A girl simply can't afford----" + +"She can't afford to have even speculation against her," Arlee +finished quietly, but a little pulse in her throat was beating away +like mad. She knew he spoke the simple truth, but the taste of it +was bitter as gall to her mouth. However she had humbled herself in +secret self-communion, she had known no such shame as this.... She +felt cheapened ... tarnished.... + +"It's beastly--but she can't," he jerkily agreed, but with evident +relief at her sensible understanding. Perhaps he had remembered +Billy's fearful prophecy of the conversation with which the +adventure would supply her. "But of course nobody has a notion----" + +"Not a notion. And I shan't give them any--not till I'm a +white-haired old lady in Mechlin caps, and _then_ I shall make up +for lost time by boring all my world with the story of my romantic +youth and the wild deeds done for me!" She laughed airily, pride +high in her face, hiding her secret hurts. + +"And Hill got you out," Falconer repeated, with a sudden twinge of +jealous envy in his young voice. "He--he's a lucky one." + +"_I'm_ the lucky one," Arlee flashed. "Think of the glorious luck +for me that sent him to paint there, outside the palace, where a +maid mistook him, and so gave a message. Why, it was a chance in a +million, in ten million--and it happened!" + +"Happened?" Falconer looked at her a minute before continuing. Then +he asked quietly, "He told you that he just--happened--there?" + +"Yes, he said by accident. He was painting----" + +Now Falconer was an honest young man--and a gentleman. Deliberately +he brushed away his rival's generous subterfuge. "He doesn't paint," +he told her. "He did that for an excuse--for a reason to stay +outside the palace. No chance directed it." + +"Why, how--how did he know? Before----" + +"He guessed. He was uneasy from the beginning--he made conjectures +and set himself to verify them." + +After a moment, "I never knew--_that_!" said Arlee in slow wonder. + +"Well, you know now," returned Falconer with a sense of grim justice +to the man he had belittled. + +In the silence the girl moved toward the steps. He made a gesture to +stay her. + +"You're not going--yet?" + +"Yet?" she echoed, faintly mocking. "It's _hours_." + +"But--but we can never see this again," he argued, weakly, parrying +with himself. + +"We won't--forget it." + +The words held a too-keen prophecy for him. He looked at her in +heart-beating uncertainty, and it seemed to him that all his future +was waiting on that moment. Should he speak? Should he utter that +which had been so near utterance when her astounding revelation had +stopped him?... After all, he knew nothing of her--but that she was +lovely and wilful and enchanting--with a capacity for risk--and a +dire disregard of consequences.... She was volatile, unstable, +bewildering--so he thought stiffeningly as he looked at her, but he +looked too long. + +She was the very spirit of loveliness in the silver moon, her hair +a crown of light, her eyes deep with shadowy wistfulness, her lips +half sad, half tender.... He felt the blood burn hot in his face, +and took a quick step to bar the way. + +"You must wait to hear what I was saying," he said, with a ring of +new command. + +She gave him a sudden, startled look, and moved as if to pass him. + +"You were saying--nothing," she answered proudly. + +"I was saying--everything," he gave back incoherently. "Oh, Arlee, +do you think that story stops me! Don't you know--how much I want +you?" and with sudden vehemence he bent to clasp her in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BETTER MAN + + +Down in the court of Rameses, Lady Claire and Hill were straying. A +most opportune old bachelor, passing with a party of acquaintances, +had diverted even Emma Falconer from her dragoning, and the young +English girl and her American escort were left for the time to their +own devices. + +Not much was said. Claire, who had been fitfully gay all afternoon, +grew still as a church mouse now as they paced back and forth in the +shadows, stealing a slant glance from time to time at Billy's set +and silent face. She wondered a little at his absorption. But +chiefly she was thinking that she had never seen him look so +handsome ... with his brows knitted and his clear-cut lips pressed +sharply together ... but the boy of him somehow kept by that wilful +lock of black hair over his forehead. + +To Billy it seemed that the bitterest drop of the cup was at his +lips. Those two--upon the pylon--were they never coming down? He was +waiting for them in every nerve, and yet he shrank from the look he +might read upon their faces. He thought, very grimly, that this +could mean but one thing, and that thing was the end forever and +ever, for him.... His heart was sick in him and he longed most +desperately to break away from these other women and the sham of +talk and dash off to dark solitude where the primitive man could +have his way, could tramp and fight and curse and sob and break his +heart in decent privacy. He faced with loathing the refinements of +torture which civilization imposes. + +But the game had to be played. He was no quitter, he told himself +fiercely; he could stand up and take his punishment like a man. She +was not for him. He had loved her from the first, he had loved her +so that he had been clairvoyant to her peril, he had risked his neck +for her a dozen times and snatched her from a life that was a +death-in-life--and yet she was not for him. She was for a man who +had not believed in her danger, had not bestirred himself.... Black, +seething bitterness was boiling in Billy B. Hill. Darkly, through a +fog, he heard the outer man replying to some speech from the girl +beside him. + +He understood, he told himself in a burst of despairing anguish, how +Kerissen could have plotted for her. Almost he longed to be a +scrupleless Oriental and carry her off across his saddle bow.... And +then he brought himself up short. + +Was that all she meant to him, he asked himself with the sweat of +pain on his forehead beneath that black lock which was finding such +favor in Lady Claire's eyes--was that all she meant to him?--a prize +to be won? One man had tried to steal her; he had wished to _earn_ +her--but she was a gift beyond all price and the giving lay in her +own heart alone.... And if Falconer was the man for her, then at +least he, Billy B. Hill, was man enough to stand up and be glad for +her and be humbly grateful to the end of his days that he had been +able to save her ... and give her her happiness. For it was really +he who had given it to her. And in that thought Billy Hill's young +heart expanded, and his soul stretched itself to such unwonted +heights that it seemed to push among the stars. + + * * * * * + +"It is an unforgettable night," said the girl in the rose cloak. + +He thought that was just the word for it, and a wryly humorous glint +was in the look he gave her. And he thought that she, too, was +playing the game mighty stanchly, and had been playing it bravely +these three days, since her conquering little rival had made her +reappearance. His heart warmed toward her in understanding and +compassion. They were comrades in affliction. He was not the only +one in the world who was not getting the heart's desire. + +Aloud he answered, "And the last night for me." + +Lady Claire looked up quickly. Her voice showed her struck with +sudden surprise. "You are going--so soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"To Assouan?" Odd sharpness edged the question. + +He waited a perceptible moment, though his resolution had been +taken. "Back to Cairo." + +"Oh ... How long shall you be there?" + +"Just till I get sailings. It's time for me to be off. I'm really a +working person, you know, not a playing one." + +"You make bridges--and dams--and things, don't you?" she questioned +vaguely. + +"Bridges--and dams--and things." + +"Why don't you wait here for your sailings?" she asked impersonally +after another pause. "It's so _much_ more attractive here than +Cairo." + +"I'd like to." He thought of next Friday--and Arlee's return--and +the masked ball. For a moment temptation urged. Then he threw back +his head with a gesture of decision. "But I can't. It's impossible." + +Now Lady Claire did not know that he was thinking of next +Friday--and Arlee's return--and the masked ball. She only knew that +he spoke with a curious fierceness, and that his eyes were very +bright. And something in the girl, something strange and +acknowledged that had been so fitfully gay and light these three +days, quickened in mysterious excitement. + +"Nothing is impossible," she gave back, "to a _man_!" + +Billy thought she was resenting the conventions of the restricted +sex. She could not make any open advance toward Falconer while he, +as man, could make all the open advances to Arlee he was willing +to--but in this case his hands were tied. A man cannot inflict +himself upon a girl who may not feel herself free to reject him. He +laughed, with sorry ruefulness. + +"There's a whole lot," he observed, "that is impossible to a man who +tries to be one," and then, oblivious of any construction she might +choose to put upon this cryptic utterance, he strolled moodily on, +in brooding silence. + +After a pause, "Of course," said Lady Claire in so gentle a little +voice that it seemed to glide undisturbingly among his silent +meditations, "of course, a man has his--pride." + +"I hope so," said the young man briefly. He understood her to be +probing for his reason for abandoning the chase; he understood that +for her own sake she would like to see him successful with Arlee, +and he was queerly sorry to be failing to help her there. But he had +done all that he could.... + +The girl spoke again, her face straight ahead, her shadowy eyes +staring out into the moonlight. "Is it--money?" she said in the same +little breath of a voice. + +"Money!" Billy threw back the words in surprise, half contemptuous, +"Oh, Lord, no, it's not _money_! I haven't much of it _now_, but I'm +going to make a bunch of the stuff--if I want to." He spoke with +naïve and amazing confidence which somehow struck astounded belief +into the listener. "There's enough of it there, waiting to be +made--no, it's not money--though perhaps one might well think it +ought to be. I suppose my work might strike a girl as hard for her," +he went on, considering aloud these problems of existence, "for it's +here to-day and there to-morrow--now doing a building in a roaring +city and now damming up some reservoir deep in the mountains--but it +always seemed to me that the girl who would like me would like that, +too. It's seeing so much of life--and such real life! Oh, no," he +said, and though a trace of doubt had struck into his voice, "that +in itself wouldn't be what I'd call impossible--not for the right +girl." + +"But your work--would it always be in America?" said Lady Claire. + +"Oh, always. It has to be, of course." + +"Oh.... And--and--you--have to have--that work?" + +"Why, of course, I have to have it!" Billy was bewildered, but +entirely positive. "That's _my_ work--the thing I'm made to do. _I_ +couldn't earn my salt selling apartment houses." + +"Oh, no, no," the girl hurriedly agreed. + +A long, long silence followed, a silence in which he was entirely +oblivious to her imaginings. The moonlight lay heavy as dreams about +them; her thoughts went darting to and fro like fluttering +swallows.... She felt herself a stranger to herself.... She looked +up at him with a sudden deer-like lift of her head, and then looked +swiftly away. + +"Don't go," she said in a quick, low voice. "Don't go--yet. Even +things that look impossible--can be made to come right." + +He understood that she was pleading with him, partly for the sake of +her own chance with Falconer, but the sympathy flicked him on the +raw. He was sorry for her, sorry for the queer, strained look in her +face, sorry for the voice so full of feeling, but he couldn't do +anything to help her. + +In silence he shook his head and was astounded at the look of sudden +proud anger she darted at him. + +"You're a mighty real friend to take such an interest in my luck," +he said quickly, with warm liking in his voice, "and I only wish you +could play fairy godmother and give me my wish--but you can't, Lady +Claire, and apparently _she_ won't, and that is the end of the +matter. I have to take off my hat to the Better Man." + +Lady Claire did not gasp or stammer or question. She did none of the +dismayedly enlightening things into which a lesser poise might have +tottered. After an inconsiderable moment of silence she merely +uttered her familiar, "Oh!" and uttered it in a voice in which so +many things were blended that their elements could hardly be +perceived. + +She added hurriedly, "I'm sorry if I've seemed to--to intrude into +your affairs." + +"My affairs are on my sleeve," answered Billy and wondered at the +quick look she gave him. + +"Oh, no--not at all," she answered a little breathlessly. "I'm sure +they haven't seemed so to me--but then I'm stupid." She stopped for +a moment of hot wonder at that stupidity. She had not believed Miss +Falconer--had thought her prejudiced ... maneuvering.... Like +lightning she reviewed the baffling interchange of sentences, then +glanced up at Billy's silent absorption. She felt queerly grateful +for his innocent density. "And perhaps _she's_ stupid, too," she +told him. "You'd better make sure. You'd better make absolutely +_sure_." + +He looked down on her with sorry humor in his face. "Do I need to +make _surer_?" He nodded in the direction of the giant gateway. +"They've had time to settle the divisions of the Balkans up there." + +"Oh, yes, they've had time!" She seemed speaking at sudden laughing +random. "But _we've_ had the same time and you see we haven't +settled anything with it--not even that you're to stay. Yes, you'd +better make _sure_, Mr. Hill." + +Billy was hardly heeding. A laugh had caught his ears, a light high +laugh like the tinkle of a little silver bell through the darkness. +In the shadows behind them he made out a man and a woman arm in arm. + +"Just a moment," he begged of Lady Claire. "May I leave you here a +moment? I must see those--I think I know----" Without listening to +her automatic permission he was gone. + +The next moment he had laid his hand on the arm of the man with the +woman. Both spun quickly about. A babble of explanation broke out. + +"_Ach, mein freund, mein freund_----" + +"Oh, it is Billy----" + +"How _gut_ to find you here----" + +"Our American Billy." + +The last voice, piquantly foreign, was the voice of Fritzi Baroff. +And the first voice gutterally foreign was the voice of Frederick +von Deigen. Arm in arm, flushed, happy, sentimental, the two began +talking in a breath, thanking Billy for the letter he had sent von +Deigen which had brought them together, and apologizing for their +hasty flight--"a honeymoon upon the Nile," the German joyfully +explained. + +Discreetly Billy forbore to make any discoveries as to the exact +status of their "honeymoon." The German's face was very honestly +happy, and the little dancer was brimming with restless life and +vivacity. + +"It was the picture in my watch--_hein_? The picture I carry night +and day," Frederick repeated in needless explanation, and was about +to draw out the picture when Billy restrained him. + +He had a favor to ask. The American girl of Kerissen's palace had +escaped unharmed and returned to her friends who were ignorant of +all. She was this moment in the ruins. It would be a great shock to +her to meet Fritzi, to have Fritzi recognize her. On the morning she +would be gone. Would Fritzi----" + +"Fritzi must disappear--for the night?" said the little Viennese +smiling wisely, but with a trace of cynicism. "The little American +must not be reminded--h'm? We will go.... For you have done so much +for me, you big, strange, platonic Mr. Billy!" Dazzlingly she smiled +on him, her dark eyes quizzically provocative. + +"You're not at the Grand?" + +"No, not that." She named another. "You come see me, when that girl +goes--h'm?" + +Billy caught the German's eyes upon him, in their depths a faint +trouble, a vague appeal. He comprehended that the infatuated young +man had engaged in the tortuous business of keeping sparks from +tinder. + +"I'm gone to-morrow," he replied. + +"Maybe in Vienna?" went on the dancer. "We go soon--another day or +so maybe--and then back over the water to that life I left! Oh, my +God, how happy I am to go back to it all--to dance, to sing--Oh, I +could kiss you, Mr. Billy, if it would not make you so shock!" she +added with a malicious little laugh. "You know the news--about +_him_--h'm?" + +"Him?" + +"Kerissen--that devil fellow. He is in Cairo with a fever--in the +hospital there. A man who come from that hospital just tells +us--just by accident he tell us. A _bad_ fever, too!" She laughed in +satisfaction. "I hope he burn good and hard up," she added, with +energetic spite, "and teach him not to act like a wild man. That man +say he got a bad hand," she added, with a shrewd glance at Billy. + +The young man merely grunted. "I hope he has," he replied. "It +matches the rest of him. Good night." + +"Good night--for the now--h'm, Mr. Billy?" and with a quick little +clasp of his big hand and a gay little backward look the girl was +gone into the shadows upon the arm of her jealous cavalier. + +Three people were waiting at the statue foot where he had left the +English girl. + +"They've come at last, Mr. Hill," Lady Claire's voice struck very +gaily upon him, "and Miss Falconer has just come to tell us we must +see the colored lights in the great court--and then go home. So +hurry!" + +She turned as she spoke and put her arm suddenly through Falconer's +who was standing next her. "Come on," she lightly commanded, and +promptly led the way. + +That was something like a fairy godmother! Into Billy's eyes flashed +a warm light of gladness. Some moments out of that wretched evening +should yet be his own, bitter-sweet as they were in their sharp +finality. + +He turned to the blue-cloaked figure at his side. "Do you like +colored fire?" he demanded. "Won't you come and see something +else--something I've wanted to see and to have you see with me? It's +near the way out. We can meet them at the pylon." + +Of course she acquiesced. That was part of the cursed restraint +between them, he was reminded, to have her accept so obediently any +point-blank request of his. But for the nonce he was glad. He wanted +those few minutes desperately. + +"What is it?" she murmured. + +"I'll show you," and then, as he turned from the way they had come +and followed a winding path that dipped lower and lower between the +dune-like piles of sand, "It's the Sacred Lake," he explained. +"Perhaps you've seen it in the daytime--but I've been wanting to see +it at night." + +"I think I just caught the glint of it from the pylon," she +observed. + +"You had time to," said Billy, trying to twinkle down at her in +friendly fashion. + +She did not twinkle back. She looked as suddenly guilty as a kitten +in the cream, and Billy's heart smote him heavily. He did not speak +again till they had rounded a corner and their path had brought them +out upon the shore of the Sacred Lake. + +Like a little horseshoe it circled about three sides of the ruined +temple of the goddess Mut, inky-black and motionless with the stars +looking up uncannily like drowned lights from its still waters, and +inky-black and motionless, like guardian spirits about it, sat a +hundred cat-headed women of grim granite. It was a spot of stark +loneliness and utter silence, of ancient terror and desolate +abandonment; the solitude and the blackness and the aching age smote +upon the imagination like a heavy hand upon harp strings. + +"Who are--they?" Arlee spoke in a hushed voice, as if the cat-headed +women were straining their ears. + +"They're mysteries," said Billy, speaking in the same low tone. +"Generally they're said to be statues of the Goddess Pasht or +Sehket--but it's a riddle why the Amen-hotep person who built this +temple to the goddess Mut should have put Sehket here. Sehket is in +the trinity of Memphis--and Mut in that of Thebes. And so some +people say that this is not Pasht at all, but Mut herself, who was +sometimes represented as lion-headed. Between a giant cat and a +lion, you know, there's not much of difference." + +"I like Pasht better than Mut," said Arlee decidedly. + +"There you agree with Baedecker." + +"What did Pasht do?" + +"She was goddess of girls," said Billy, "and young wives. She got +the girls husbands and the wives--er--their requests. Girls used to +come down here at night and make a prayer to her and cast an +offering into the waters." + +"And then they had their prayer?" + +"Infallibly." + +"I'd like a guardian like that," said Arlee, with a sudden +mischievous wistfulness that played the dickens with Billy's forces +of reserve. "Do you think she'd grant _my_ prayer?" + +"Have you one to make?" said Billy, staring very hard for safety at +the monstrous images. + +"They look as if they were coming alive," he added. + +The moon had come up over an obstructing roof and now flashed down +upon them; a ripple of light began to swim across the star-eyes in +the inky waters; a finger of quicksilver seemed to be playing over +the scarred faces of the granite goddesses. + +"They never died," said Arlee positively. "They're just waiting +their time. Can't you see they know all about us?... They +particularly know that you are the most deceiving young man they +ever saw! Why didn't you tell me you were shot in the arm?" she +finished rapidly. + +"What?... Where did you hear that?" + +"Mr. Falconer enlightened me." + +"I wish Falconer would keep his stories to himself," said Billy +ungratefully. "It's just a----" + +"Scratch," said Arlee promptly. "That's always a hero's word for +it." + +Billy turned scarlet. He felt hot back to his ears. + +"And why did you tell me that you _happened_ to be painting outside +the palace?" went on the unsparing voice. "You let me think it was +all accident--and it was all you, just _you_!" + +"Good Lord," groaned Billy, effecting merriment over his +discomfiture, "Is there anything else he told you?... Look here, you +shouldn't have been talking about it," he said with sudden anxiety. + +Arlee smiled. "It's all over," she said. "I told him everything." + +Billy's heart missed a beat, and then hurried painfully to make up +for it. He felt a curious constriction in his throat. He tried to +think of something congratulatory to say and was lamentably silent. + +"Why did you deceive me so?" she continued mercilessly. "Because my +gratitude was so _obnoxious_ to you? Were you so afraid I would +insist upon flinging more upon you?" + +"That's a horrid word, obnoxious," said Billy painfully. + +"I thought so," thrust in a pointed voice. + +"I only meant," he slowly made out, "that a sense of--of obligation +is a stupid burden--and I didn't want you to feel you had to be any +more friendly to me than your heart dictated. That is all. It was +enough for me to remember that I had once been privileged to help +you." + +"You--funny--Billy B. Hill person," said the voice in a very serious +tone. Billy continued staring at the unwinking old goddess ahead of +him. "You take it all so for granted," laughed Arlee softly, "As if +it were part of any day's work! I go about like a girl in a +dream--or a girl _with_ a dream ... a dream of fear, of old palaces +and painted women and darkened windows. It comes over me at night +sometimes. And then I wake and could go down on my knees to you.... +I suppose there isn't any more danger from him?" she broke off to +half-whisper quickly. + +"He's sick in the Cairo hospital," Billy made haste to inform her. +"I found out by accident. I understand he has a bad fever. So I +think he'll be up to no more tricks--and I'm out the satisfaction +of a little heart-to-heart talk." + +"Oh, I told you you couldn't," she cried quickly. "You would make +him too angry. He isn't just--sane." + +"Then all I have to do in Egypt is to hunt up my little Imp," said +Billy. "I must see the little chap again--before I go." + +He waited--uselessly as he had foretold. She said nothing, and if +the glance he felt upon him was of inquiry he did not look about to +meet it. He was still staring a saturnine Pasht out of countenance. +There was a pause. + +Then, "However were you able to think of it all?" said Arlee in slow +wonder. "However were you able to think such an impossible thought +as my imprisonment?" + +"Because I was thinking about you," said Billy. Suddenly his tongue +ran away with him. "Incessantly," he added. + +She looked up at him. Unguardedly he looked down at her. No one but +a blind girl or a goose could have mistaken that look upon Billy B. +Hill's young face, the frustrate longing of it, the deep desire. The +heart beneath the sky-blue cloak cast off a most monstrous +accumulation of doubts and fears and began suddenly to beat like +mad. + +Totally unexpectedly, startlingly amazing, she flung out at him, +"Then what made you stop?" + +"Stop?" he echoed. "Stop? I've never stopped! There hasn't been a +moment----" + +"There have been three days. Three--horrible--days!" + +"Arlee!" + +"Do you think I _like_ being snubbed and ignored +and--and--obliterated?" she brought indignantly out. "Do you think I +call that--being friends?" + +"I--I wanted to leave you free--not to force your friendship----" he +stammered wildly. + +"You couldn't force _mine_," said Arlee Beecher. + +"But--but there was Falconer," he protested. "You had to be free +to--to have a choice----" + +"A choice? Do you call that a _choice_?" + +"I thought you were making it. That first night----" + +"I stayed up to dance with _you_," she cried hotly. "You never came +back!" + +"But the next day----" + +"I _wanted_ to go. But I couldn't keep up any more. I _had_ to +rest.... And you went with Lady Claire!" + +"Why, I had to! We'd planned. But when we came back, he was on deck +with you----" + +"Yes, and I was waiting up--to see _you_. And you only took two +dances that night----" + +"You didn't seem to want me to----" + +"I never guessed you wanted them! _I_ had my pride, too. I wasn't +going to be in the way--because you'd rescued me. I thought you +didn't want me in the way!" + +"Arlee--my girl--my precious girl----" + +"No, I'm not. I'm not." + +"Yes, you are," he said fiercely. "I don't care if you are engaged +to Falconer or not, I'm going to tell you so." + +"I'm not engaged to Falconer," she protested. + +He blurted in bewilderment. "Then what in the world were you doing +up there on that pylon?" + +Her elfish laughter disconcerted him. "Do you think one has to get +engaged if she stays on a pylon?... We were getting _not_ engaged." + +"I thought--I thought you liked him," he said bewilderedly. + +"I did. I do, I mean--but not that way. He--he--Oh, I really _like_ +him," she cried tremulously, "but not--we've had it all out and +everything's all over. I'm sorry--sorry--but he'll be really glad +bye and bye. For my story shocked him terribly.... And then there's +Lady Claire. He didn't like to have her down with you even when he +was up with me." She laughed softly. "Oh, I shouldn't have let him +be so friendly here but I did like him and you--you were so--so +hateful." + +The moon and stars whirled giddily around him as he put his arms +about her. Like a man in a dream he drew her to him. + +"I love you--love you," he said huskily over the bright maze of +hair. + +"You don't!" came with muffled intensity from the hidden lips. "You +said to that man--when I was in that cave--'Nothing doing!'" + +"It wasn't his affair--I hadn't a hope.... Oh, my dear, my dear, +I've been breaking my heart----" + +"And I've had such a perfectly h-hateful three days," sobbed the +voice. + +His arms closed tighter about her, incredible of their happiness. + +"Oh, Arlee, I can't tell you--I haven't words----" + +"I've had _deeds_!" she whispered. + +Through his rocking mind darted a memory of her earlier speech to +him. "You said you didn't want words. Arlee--_will you_?" + +She flung back her head and looked up at him, her face a flower, her +eyes like stars tangled in the bright mist of her hair. + +"Billy, what's your middle name?" + +"Bunker.... I can't help it, dear. They wished it on me and asked me +not to let it go. But _Bunker Hill_----!" + +"It's a wonderful name, Billy! A perfectly irresistible name!" Her +eyes laughed up at him through a dazzle of tears, and prankishly +over her curving lips hovered a mischievous dimple. "It's a +name--that--I--simply--can't--do--without--Billy Bunker Hill!" + +The dimple deepened then fled before its just deserts. For if ever a +dimple deserved to be caught and kissed that was the one. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace of Darkened Windows +by Mary Hastings Bradley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 16054-8.txt or 16054-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16054/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace of Darkened Windows + +Author: Mary Hastings Bradley + +Illustrator: Edmund Frederick + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16054] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 8em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/img1.jpg" width="290" height="450" +alt="'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out +for you.'" /> +</center> +<p class="cap"> "'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out +for you.'" <small>[<a href="#frontispiece">Page 57</a>]</small> +</p> + +<hr class="long" /> + +<h1> +<i>The</i> PALACE <i>of</i><br /> + DARKENED WINDOWS +</h1> +<h5> +BY +</h5> +<h2> +MARY HASTINGS BRADLEY +</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="sc"> +author of "the favor of kings"</span> +</p> +<br /> +<h4> +<span class="sc"> illustrated by</span><br /> +EDMUND FREDERICK +</h4> +<p class="pub"> +NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +1914 +</p> + +<hr class="long" /> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="sc">to</span> +</p> +<p class="center"><b>MY HUSBAND</b> +</p> + + + + +<hr class="long" /> + + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0001"> +<span class="sc">I. The Eavesdropper</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0002"> +II. <span class="sc">The Captain Calls</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0003"> +III. <span class="sc">At the Palace</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0004"> +IV. <span class="sc">A Sorry Quest</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0005"> +V. <span class="sc">Within the Walls</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0006"> +VI. <span class="sc">A Girl in the Bazaars</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0007"> +VII. <span class="sc">Billy Has His Doubts</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0008"> +VIII. <span class="sc">The Midnight Visitor</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0009"> +IX. <span class="sc">A Desperate Game</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0010"> +X. <span class="sc">A Maid and a Message</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0011"> +XI. <span class="sc">Over the Garden Wall</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0012"> +XII. <span class="sc">The Girl From the Harem</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0013"> +XIII. <span class="sc">Taking Chances</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0014"> +XIV. <span class="sc">In the Rose Room</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0015"> +XV. <span class="sc">On the Trail</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0016"> +XVI. <span class="sc">The Hidden Girl</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0017"> +XVII. <span class="sc">At Bay</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0018"> +XVIII. <span class="sc">Desert Magic</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0019"> +XIX. <span class="sc">The Pursuit</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0020"> +XX. <span class="sc">A Friend in Need</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0021"> +XXI. <span class="sc">Cross Purposes</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0022"> +XXII. <span class="sc">Upon the Pylon</span> +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#2HCH0023"> +XXIII. <span class="sc">The Better Man</span> +</a></p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> + +<p class="itoc"><a href="#image-0001"> +"'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out for you'" <i>Frontispiece</i></a> +</p> +<p class="itoc"><a href="#image-0002"> +"'I do not want to stay here'"</a> +</p> +<p class="itoc"><a href="#image-0003"> +"He found himself staring down into the bright dark +eyes of a girl he had never seen"</a> +</p> +<p class="itoc"><a href="#image-0004"> +"Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out"</a> +</p> + + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<hr class="long" /> + +<h3> + THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS +</h3> +<hr class="long" /> +<a name="2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<h3> + THE EAVESDROPPER +</h3> +<p> +A one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile upon his head paused before +the steps of Cairo's gayest hotel and his expectant gaze ranged +hopefully over the thronged verandas. It was afternoon tea time; the +band was playing and the crowd was at its thickest and brightest. +The little tables were surrounded by travelers of all nations, some +in tourist tweeds and hats with the inevitable green veils; others, +those of more leisurely sojourns, in white serges and diaphanous +frocks and flighty hats fresh from the Rue de la Paix. +</p> +<p> +It was the tweed-clad groups that the crocodile vender scanned for a +purchaser of his wares and harshly and unintelligibly exhorted to +buy, but no answering gaze betokened the least desire to bring back +a crocodile to the loved ones at home. Only Billy B. Hill grinned +delightedly at him, as Billy grinned at every merry sight of the +spectacular East, and Billy shook his head with cheerful +convincingosity, so the crocodile merchant moved reluctantly on +before the importunities of the Oriental rug peddler at his heels. +</p> +<p> +Then he stopped. His turbaned head, topped by the grotesque, +glassy-eyed, glistening-toothed monster, revolved slowly as the +Arab's single eye steadily followed a couple who passed by him up +the hotel steps. Billy, struck by the man's intense interest, craned +forward and saw that one of the couple, now exchanging farewells at +the top of the steps, was a girl, a pretty girl, and an American, +and the other was an officer in a uniform of considerable green and +gold, and obviously a foreigner. +</p> +<p> +He might be any kind of a foreigner, according to Billy's lax +distinctions, that was olive of complexion and very black of hair +and eyes. Slender and of medium height, he carried himself with an +assurance that bordered upon effrontery, and as he bowed himself +down the steps he flashed upon his former companion a smile of +triumph that included and seemed to challenge the verandaful of +observers. +</p> +<p> +The girl turned and glanced casually about at the crowded groups +that were like little samples of all the nations of the earth, and +with no more than a faint awareness of the battery of eyes upon her +she passed toward the tables by the railing. She was a slim little +fairy of a girl, as fresh as a peach blossom, with a cloud of pale +gold hair fluttering round her pretty face, which lent her a most +alluring and deceptive appearance of ethereal mildness. She had a +soft, satiny, rose-leaf skin which was merely flushed by the heat of +the Egyptian day, and her eyes were big and very, very blue. There +were touches of that blue here and there upon her creamy linen suit, +and a knot of blue upon her parasol and a twist of blue about her +Panama hat, so that she could not be held unconscious of the +flagrantly bewitching effect. Altogether she was as upsettingly +pretty a young person as could be seen in a year's journey, and the +glances of the beholders brightened vividly at her approach. +</p> +<p> +There was one conspicuous exception. This exception was sitting +alone at the large table which backed Billy's tiny table into a +corner by the railing, and as the girl arrived at that large table +the exception arose and greeted her with an air of glacial chill. +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Am I so terribly late?" said the girl with great pleasantness, +and arched brows of surprise at the two other places at the table +before which used tea things were standing. +</p> +<p> +"My sister and Lady Claire had an appointment, so they were obliged +to have their tea and leave," stated the young man, with an air of +politely endeavoring to conceal his feelings, and failing +conspicuously in the endeavor. "They were most sorry." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, so am I!" declared the girl, in clear and contrite tones which +carried perfectly to Billy B. Hill's enchanted ears. "I never +dreamed they would have to hurry away." +</p> +<p> +"They did not hurry, as you call it," and the young man glanced at +his watch, "for nearly an hour. It was a disappointment to them." +</p> +<p> +"Pin-pate!" thought Billy, with intense disgust. "Is he kicking at a +two-some?" +</p> +<p> +"And have you had your tea, too?" inquired the girl, with an air of +tantalizing unconcern. +</p> +<p> +"I waited, naturally, for my guest." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, not <i>naturally</i>!" she laughed. "It must be very unnatural for +you to wait for anything. And you must be starving. So am I—do you +think there are enough cakes left for the two of us?" +</p> +<p> +Without directly replying, the young man gave the order to the +red-fezzed Arab in a red-girdled white robe who was removing the +soiled tea things, and he assisted the girl into a chair and sat +down facing her. Their profiles were given to the shameless Billy, +and he continued his rapt observations. +</p> +<p> +He had immediately recognized the girl as a vision he had seen +fluttering around the hotel with an incongruously dismal +couple of unyouthful ladies, and he had mentally affixed a +magnate's-only-daughter-globe-trotting-with-elderly-friends label to +her. +</p> +<p> +The young man he could not place so definitely. There were a good +many tall, aristocratic young Englishmen about, with slight stoops +and incipient moustaches. This particular Englishman had hair that +was pronouncedly sandy, and Billy suddenly recollected that in +lunching at the Savoy the other day he had noticed that young +Englishman in company with a sandy-haired lady, not so young, and a +decidedly pretty dark-haired girl—it was the girl, of course, who +had fixed the group in Billy's crowded impressions. He decided that +these ladies were the sister and Lady Claire—and Lady Claire, he +judiciously concluded, certainly had nothing on young America. +</p> +<p> +Young America was speaking. "Don't look so thunderous!" she +complained to her irate host. "How do you know I didn't plan to be +late so as to have you all to myself?" +</p> +<p> +This was too derisive for endurance. A dull red burned through the +tan on the young Englishman's cheeks and crept up to meet the +corresponding warmth of his hair. A leash within him snapped. +</p> +<p> +"It is simply inconceivable!" burst from him, and then he shut his +jaw hard, as if only one last remnant of will power kept a seething +volcano, from explosion. +</p> +<p> +"What is?" +</p> +<p> +"How any girl—in Cairo, of all places!" he continued to explode in +little snorts. +</p> +<p> +"You are speaking of—?" she suggested. +</p> +<p> +"Of your walking with that fellow—in broad daylight!" +</p> +<p> +"Would it have been better in the gloaming?" +</p> +<p> +The sweet restraint in the young thing's manner was supernatural. It +was uncanny. It should have warned the red-headed young man, but +oblivious of danger signals, he was plunging on, full steam ahead. +</p> +<p> +"It isn't as if you didn't know—hadn't been warned." +</p> +<p> +"You have been so kind," the girl murmured, and poured a cup of tea +the Arab had placed at her elbow. +</p> +<p> +The young man ignored his. The color burned hotter and hotter in his +face. Even his hair looked redder. +</p> +<p> +"The look he gave up here was simply outrageous—a grin of insolent +triumph. I'd like to have laid my cane across him!" +</p> +<p> +The girl's cup clicked against the saucer. "You are horrid!" she +declared. "When we were on shipboard Captain Kerissen was very +popular among the passengers and I talked with him whenever I cared +to. Everyone did. Now that I am in his native city I see no reason +to stalk past him when we happen to be going in the same direction. +He is a gentleman of rank, a relative of the Khedive who is ruling +this country—under your English advice—and he is——" +</p> +<p> +"A Turk!" gritted out the young man. +</p> +<p> +"A Turk and proud of it! His mother was French, however, and he was +educated at Oxford and he is as cosmopolitan as any man I ever met. +It's unusual to meet anyone so close to the reigning family, and it +gives one a wonderful insight into things off the beaten track——" +</p> +<p> +"The beaten—damn!" said the young man, and Billy's heart went out +to him. "Oh, I beg pardon, but you—he—I—" So many things occurred +to him to say at one and the same time that he emitted a snort of +warring and incoherent syllables. Finally, with supreme control, "Do +you know that your 'gentleman of rank' couldn't set foot in a +gentleman's club in this country?" +</p> +<p> +"I think it's <i>mean</i>!" retorted the girl, her blue eyes very bright +and indignant. "You English come here and look down on even the +highest members of the country you are pretending to assist. Why do +you? When he was at Oxford he went into your English homes." +</p> +<p> +"English madhouses—for admitting him." +</p> +<p> +A brief silence ensued. +</p> +<p> +The girl ate a cake. It was a nice cake, powdered with almonds, but +she ate it obliviously. The angry red shone rosily in her cheeks. +</p> +<p> +The young man took a hasty drink of his tea, which had grown cold +in its cup, and pushed it away. Obstinately he rushed on in his mad +career. +</p> +<p> +"I simply cannot understand you!" he declared. +</p> +<p> +"Does it matter?" said she, and bit an almond's head off. +</p> +<p> +"It would be bad enough, in any city, but in Cairo—! To permit him +to insult you with his company, alone, upon the streets!" +</p> +<p> +"When you have said insult you have said a little too much," she +returned in a small, cold voice of war. "Is there anything against +Captain Kerissen personally?" +</p> +<p> +"Who knows anything about any of those fellows? They are all +alike—with half a dozen wives locked up behind their barred +windows." +</p> +<p> +"He isn't married." +</p> +<p> +"How do you know?" +</p> +<p> +"I—inferred it." +</p> +<p> +The Englishman snorted: "According to his custom, you know, it isn't +the proper thing to mention his ladies in public." +</p> +<p> +"You are frightfully unjust. Captain Kerissen's customs are the +customs of the civilized world, and he is very anxious to have his +country become modernized." +</p> +<p> +"Then let him send his sisters out walking with fellow officers.... +For <i>him</i> to walk beside <i>you</i>——" +</p> +<p> +"He was following the custom of my country," said the girl, with +maddening superiority. "Since I am an <i>American</i> girl——" +</p> +<p> +The young Englishman said a horrible thing. He said it with immense +feeling. +</p> +<p> +"American goose!" he uttered, then stopped short. Precipitately he +floundered into explanation: +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon, but, you know, when you say such bally nonsense +as that—! An American girl has no more business to be imprudent +than a Patagonian girl. You have no idea how these people +regard——" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, don't apologize," murmured the girl, with charming sweetness. +"I don't mind what you say—not in the least." +</p> +<p> +The outraged man was not so befuddled but what he saw those danger +signals now. They glimmered scarlet upon his vision, but his blood +was up and he plunged on to destruction with the extraordinary +remark, "But isn't there a reason why you should?" +</p> +<p> +She gazed at him in mock reflection, as if mulling this striking +thought presented for her consideration, but her eyes were too +sparkly and her cheeks too poppy-pink to substantiate the reflective +pose. +</p> +<p> +"N-no," she said at last, with an impertinent little drawl. "I can't +seem to think of any." +</p> +<p> +He did not pause for innuendo. "You mean you don't give a <i>piastre</i> +what I think?" +</p> +<p> +"Not half a <i>piastre</i>," she confirmed, in flat defiance. +</p> +<p> +The young man looked at her. He was over the brink of ruin now; +nothing remained of the interesting little affair of the past three +weeks but a mangled and lamentable wreck at the bottom of a deep +abyss. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps a shaft of compunction touched her flinty soul at the sight +of his aghast and speechless face, for she had the grace to look +away. Her gaze encountered the absorbed and excited countenance of +Billy B. Hill, and the poppy-pink of her cheeks became poppy-red +and she turned her head sharply away. She rose, catching up her +gloves and parasol. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you so much for your tea," she said in a lowered tone to her +unfortunate host. "I've had a delicious time.... I'm sorry if I +disappointed you by not cowering before your disapproval. Oh, don't +bother to come in with me—I know my way to the lift and the band is +going to play God Save the King and they need you to stand up and +make a showing." +</p> +<p> +Billy B. Hill stared across at the abandoned young man with supreme +sympathy and intimate understanding. He was a nice and right-minded +young man and she was an utter minx. She was the daughter of +unreason and the granddaughter of folly. She needed, emphatically +needed, to be shown. But this Englishman, with his harsh and +violently antagonizing way of putting things, was clearly not the +man for the need. It took a lighter touch—the hand of iron in the +velvet glove, as it were. It took a keener spirit, a softer humor. +</p> +<p> +Billy threw out his chest and drew himself up to his full five feet +eleven and one-half inches, as he passed indoors and sought the +hotel register, for he felt within himself the true equipment for +that delicate mission. He fairly panted to be at it. +</p> +<p> +Fate was amiable. The hotel clerk, coerced with a couple of +gold-banded ones with the real fragrance, permitted Billy to learn +that the blue-eyed one's name was Beecher, Arlee Beecher, and that +she was in the company of two ladies entitled Mrs. and Miss +Eversham. The Miss Eversham was quite old enough to be entitled +otherwise. They were occupied, the clerk reported, with nerves and +dissatisfaction. Miss Beecher appeared occupied in part—with a +correspondence that would swamp a foreign office. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Now it is always a question whether being at the same hotel does or +does not constitute an introduction. Sometimes it does; sometimes it +does not. When the hotel is a small and inexpensive arrangement in +Switzerland, where the advertised view of the Alpenglühen is +obtained by placing the chairs in a sociable circle on the sidewalk, +then usually it does. When the hotel is a large and expensive affair +in gayest Cairo, where the sunny and shady side rub elbows, and +gamesters and débutantes and touts and school teachers and vivid +ladies of conspicuous pasts and stout gentlemen of exhilarated +presents abound, in fact where innocent sightseers and initiated +traffickers in human frailties are often indistinguishable, then +decidedly it does not. +</p> +<p> +But fate, still smiling, dropped a silver shawl in Billy's path as +he was trailing his prey through the lounge after dinner. The shawl +belonged, most palpably, to a German lady three feet ahead of him, +but gripping it triumphantly, he bounded over the six feet which +separated him from the Eversham-Beecher triangle and with marvelous +self-restraint he touched Miss Eversham on the arm. +</p> +<p> +"You dropped this?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> +Miss Eversham looked surprisedly at Billy and uncertainly at the +shawl, which she mechanically accepted. "Why I—I didn't remember +having it with me," she hesitated. +</p> +<p> +"I noticed you were wearing one other evenings," said Billy, the +Artful, "so I thought——" +</p> +<p> +"You know whether this is yours or not, don't you, Clara?" +interposed the mother. +</p> +<p> +"They all look alike," murmured Clara Eversham, eying helplessly the +silver border. +</p> +<p> +Billy permitted himself to look at Miss Beecher. That young person +was looking at him and there was a disconcerting gaiety in her +expression, but at sight of him she turned her head, faintly +coloring. He judged she recalled his unmannerly eavesdropping that +afternoon. +</p> +<p> +"Pardon—excuse me—but that is to me belonging," panted an agitated +but firm voice behind them, and two stout and beringed hands seized +upon the glittering shawl in Miss Eversham's lax grasp. "It but just +now off me falls," and the German lady looked belligerent accusation +upon the defrauding Billy. +</p> +<p> +There was a round of apologetic murmurs, unacknowledged by the +recipient, who plunged away with her shawl, as if fearing further +designs upon it. Billy laughed down at the Evershams. +</p> +<p> +"I feel like a porch climber making off with her belongings. But I +had seen you with——" +</p> +<p> +"I do think I had mine this evening, after all," murmured Clara, +with a questioning glance after the departing one. +</p> +<p> +"An uncultured person!" stated Mrs. Eversham. +</p> +<p> +Miss Beecher said nothing at all. Her faint smile was mockingly +derisive. +</p> +<p> +"Anyway you must let me get you some coffee," Billy most +inconsequentially suggested, beckoning to the red-girdled Mohammed +with his laden tray, and because he was young and nice looking and +evidently a gentleman from their part of the world and his evening +clothes fitted perfectly and had just the right amount of braid, +Mrs. Eversham made no objection to the circle of chairs he hastily +collected about a taborette, and let him hand them their coffee and +send Mohammed for the cream which Miss Eversham declared was +indispensable for her health. +</p> +<p> +"If I take it clear I find it keeps me awake," she confided, and +Billy deplored that startling and lamentable circumstance, and +passed Mrs. Eversham the sugar and wondered if they could be the +Philadelphia Evershams of whom he had heard his mother speak, and +regretted that they were not, for then they would know who he +was—William B. Hill of Alatoona, New York. He found it rather +stupid traveling alone. Of course one met many Americans, but—— +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Eversham took up that "but" most eagerly, and recounted +multiple and deplorable instances of nasal countrywomen doing the +East and monopolizing the window seats in compartments, and Miss +Eversham supplied details and corrections. +</p> +<p> +Still Miss Beecher said nothing. She had a dreamy air of not +belonging to the conversationalists. But from an inscrutable +something in her appearance, Billy judged she was not unentertained +by his sufferings. +</p> +<p> +At the first pause he addressed her directly. "And how do you like +Cairo?" was his simple question. That ought, he reflected, to be an +entering wedge. +</p> +<p> +The young lady did not trouble to raise her eyes. "Oh, very much," +said she negligently, sipping her coffee. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, very well!" said Billy haughtily to himself. If being her +fellow countryman in a strange land, and obviously a young and +cultivated countryman whom it would be a profit and pleasure for any +girl to know, wasn't enough for her—what was the use? He ought to +get up and go away. He intended to get up and go away—immediately. +</p> +<p> +But he didn't. Perhaps it was the shimmery gold hair, perhaps it was +the flickering mischief of the downcast lashes, perhaps it was the +loveliness of the soft, white throat and slenderly rounded arms. +Anyway he stayed. And when the strain of waltz music sounded through +the chatter of voices about them and young couples began to stroll +to the long parlors, Billy jumped to his feet with a devastating +desire that totally ignored the interminable wanderings of Clara +Eversham's complaints. +</p> +<p> +"Will you dance this with me?" he besought of Miss Arlee Beecher, +with a direct gaze more boyishly eager than he knew. +</p> +<p> +For an agonizing moment she hesitated. Then, "I think I will," she +concluded, with sudden roguery in her smile. +</p> +<p> +Stammering a farewell to the Evershams, he bore her off. +</p> +<p> +It would be useless to describe that waltz. It was one of the +ecstatic moments which Young Joy sometimes tosses from her garlanded +arms. It was one of the sudden, vivid, unforgettable delights which +makes youth a fever and a desire. For Billy it was the wildest stab +the sex had ever dealt him. For though this was perhaps the nine +thousand nine hundred and ninety-ninth girl with whom he had danced, +it was as if he had discovered music and motion and girls for the +first time. +</p> +<p> +The music left them by the windows. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you," said Billy under his breath. +</p> +<p> +"You didn't deserve it," said the girl, with a faint smile playing +about the corners of her lips. "You know you stared—scandalously." +</p> +<p> +Grateful that she mentioned only the lesser sin, "Could I help it?" +he stammered, by way of a finished retort. +</p> +<p> +The smile deepened, "And I'm afraid you listened!" +</p> +<p> +He stared down at her anxiously. "Will you like me better if I +didn't?" he inquired. +</p> +<p> +"I shan't like you at all if you did." +</p> +<p> +"Then I didn't hear a word.... Besides," he basely uttered, "you +were entirely in the right!" +</p> +<p> +"I should think I was!" said Arlee Beecher very indignantly. "The +very notion—! Captain Kerissen is a very nice young man. He is +going to get me an invitation to the Khedive's ball." +</p> +<p> +"Is that a very crumby affair?" +</p> +<p> +"Crumby? It's simply gorgeous! Everyone is mad over it. Most +tourists simply read about it, and it is too perfect luck to be +invited! Only the English who have been presented at court are +invited and there's a girl at the Savoy Hotel I've met—Lady Claire +Montfort—who wasn't presented because she was in mourning for her +grandmother last year, and she is simply furious about it. An old +dowager here said that there ought to be similar distinctions among +the Americans—that only those who had been presented at the White +House ought to be recognized. Fancy making the White House a social +distinction!" laughed the daughter of the Great Republic. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," said Billy, "if I met a nice Turkish lady, whether she +would get me an invitation? Then we could have another waltz——" +</p> +<p> +"There aren't any Turkish ladies there," uttered Miss Beecher +rebukingly. "Don't you know that? When they are on the +Continent—those that are ever taken there—they may go to dances +and things, but here they can't, although some of them are just as +modern as you or I, I've heard, and lots more educated." +</p> +<p> +"You speak," he protested, "from a superficial acquaintance with my +academic accomplishments." +</p> +<p> +"Are you so very—proficient?" +</p> +<p> +"I was—I am Phi Beta Kappa," he sadly confessed. +</p> +<p> +Her laugh rippled out. "You don't look it," she cheered. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, I don't look it," he complacently agreed. "That's the lamp +in the gloom. But I am. I couldn't help it. I was curious about +things and I studied about them and faculties pressed honors upon +me. I am even here upon a semi-learned errand. I wanted to have a +look at the diggings a friend of mine is making at Thebes and +several looks at the dam at Assouan, for I am by way of being an +engineer myself—a beginning engineer." +</p> +<p> +"You have been up the Nile, then?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I'm just back. Now I'm going to see something of Cairo before +I leave." +</p> +<p> +"We start up the Nile day after to-morrow," said she. +</p> +<p> +"The day after—" he stopped. +</p> +<p> +'Twas ever thus. Fate never did one good turn but she sneaked back +and jabbed him unawares. She was a tricksy jade. +</p> +<p> +"That's—that's gloomy luck," said Billy, and felt outraged. "Why, +how about that Khedive ball thing?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, that's when we come back." +</p> +<p> +She was coming back, then. Hope lifted her head. +</p> +<p> +"When will that be?" +</p> +<p> +"In three weeks. It takes about three weeks to go up to the first +cataract and back, doesn't it?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, by boat," he said, adding hopefully, "but lots of people like +the express trains better. They—they don't keep you so long on the +way." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I hate trains," said she cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +Three weeks ... Ruefully he surveyed the desolation. "I ought to be +gone by then," he muttered. +</p> +<p> +A trifle startled, the girl looked up at him. As he was not looking +at her, but staring moodily into what was then black vacancy, her +look lingered and deepened. She saw a most bronzed and hardy looking +young man, tall and broad-shouldered, with gray eyes, wide apart +under straight black brows, and black hair brushed straight back +from a wide forehead. She saw a rugged nose, a likeable mouth, and +an abrupt and aggressive chin, saved somehow from grimness by a deep +cleft in the blunt end of it.... She thought he was a very +<i>stirring</i> looking young man. Undoubtedly he was a very sudden +young man—if he meant one bit of what he intimated. +</p> +<p> +Feminine-wise, she mocked. +</p> +<p> +"What a calamity!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, for me," said Billy squarely. "You know it's—it's awfully +jolly to meet a girl from home out here!" +</p> +<p> +"A girl from <i>home</i>——!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, all America seems home from this place. And I shouldn't be +surprised if we knew a lot of the same people ... You can get a good +line on me that way, you know," he laughed. "Now I went to Williams +and then to Boston Tech., and there must be acquaintances——" +</p> +<p> +"Don't!" said Arlee, with a laughing gesture of prohibition. "We +probably have thousands of the same acquaintances, and you would +turn out to be some one I knew everything about—perhaps the first +fiancé of my roommate whose letters I used to help her answer." +</p> +<p> +"Where did you go to school?" +</p> +<p> +"At Elm Court School, near New York. For just a year." +</p> +<p> +He shook his head with an air of relief. "Never was engaged to +anybody's roommate there.... But if you'd rather not have my +background painted——" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Much</i> rather not," said the girl gaily. "Why, half the romance, I +mean the fun, of meeting people abroad is <i>not</i> knowing anything +about them beforehand." +</p> +<p> +The music was beginning again. Unwillingly the remembrance of the +outer world beat back into Billy's mind. Unhappily he became aware +that the room appeared blackened with young men in evening clothes, +staring ominously his way. +</p> +<p> +Squarely he stood in front of the girl. "I think this is the encore +to our dance," he told her with a little smile. +</p> +<p> +She shook her pretty head laughingly at him—and then yielded to his +clasping hands. "But we must dance back to the Evershams," she +demurred. "It is time for us to go to our concert." +</p> +<p> +But Billy had no intention of relinquishing her before the music +ceased. It was a one step, and it carried them with it in a gaiety +of rhythm to which the girl gave herself with the light-hearted +abandon of a romping child. Her light feet seemed scarcely to brush +the floor; the delicate flush of her cheeks deepened with the +stirring blood; her lips parted breathlessly over white little +teeth, and when her eyes, intensely blue, met Billy's, the smile in +them quickened in sparkling radiance. She was the very spirit of the +dance; she was Youth and Joy incarnate. And the heart behind the +white shirt bosom near which her fairy hair was floating began to +pitch and toss like a laboring ship in the very devil of a sea. +</p> +<p> +"I think I'll go up the Nile again," said Billy irrelevantly. +</p> +<p> +She laughed elfishly at him, her head swaying faintly with the +rhythm. +</p> +<p> +"Three weeks," said Billy under his breath, "that's twenty-one +days—at ten dollars a day. Now I wonder how many hours—or +moments—that rash outlay would assure?" +</p> +<p> +"You miser! You calculating——" +</p> +<p> +"You have to calculate—when you're an engineer." +</p> +<p> +"But to be sure spoils the charm! Now I—I do things on impulse." +</p> +<p> +"If you will only have the impulse to dance with me—on the +Nile——" +</p> +<p> +"Why not risk it?" she challenged lightly, arrant mischief in her +eyes. She added, in mocking tone, "There's a moon." +</p> +<p> +"That's a clincher," said he, with an air of decision. A faint +question dwelt in the look she gave him. It was ridiculous to think +he meant anything he was saying, but—she felt suddenly a little +confused and shy under that light-hearted young gaiety which took +every man's friendly admiration happily for granted. +</p> +<p> +In silence they finished the dance, and this time the music failed +them when they were near the wide entrance to the room where the +Evershams, beckoning specters, were standing. +</p> +<p> +"I'm keeping them waiting," said the girl, with a note of concern +which she had not shown over her performance in that line earlier in +the day. But Billy had no time for humorous comparisons. +</p> +<p> +"When can I see you again?" he demanded bluntly. "Can I see you +to-morrow?" +</p> +<p> +"To-morrow is a very busy day," she parried. +</p> +<p> +"But the evening——?" +</p> +<p> +"I shall be here," she admitted. +</p> +<p> +"And could I—could I take you—and the Evershams, of +course—somewhere, anywhere, you'd like to go? If there's any other +concert——" +</p> +<p> +She shook her head. "We leave bright and early the next morning, and +I know Mrs. Eversham will want her rest. I think they would rather +stay here in the hotel after dinner." +</p> +<p> +"But you will keep a little time for me?" Billy urged. "Of course, +staying in the same hotel, I can't take my hat and go and make a +formal call on you—but that's the result I'm after." +</p> +<p> +They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the +ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of +lowered tones. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look, +questioning, shyly serious. +</p> +<p> +"I shall be here—and you can call on me," she promised, and bade +him farewell. +</p> +<p> +She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He +plunged his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he +wanted to whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to +vent the singular hilarity which possessed him. +</p> +<p> +Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding him +with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy, +sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked. +Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off +the Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of +cherubic aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of +darkness! And this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The +thought was unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New +York—State—to offer to casual view worthy of competition with the +presumable advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying +with a Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title.... +</p> +<p> +Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that +point. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<h3> + THE CAPTAIN CALLS +</h3> +<p> +Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee +Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny +out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of +letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information +was added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first +thought was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was +overdoing it. +</p> +<p> +She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she +crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her +caller see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a +handclasp, she greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry +upon him. +</p> +<p> +The young man smiled secretly to himself. He was a young man not +without experience in ladies' moods and he had a very shrewd idea +that somebody had been making remarks, but he did not permit a hint +of any perception of the coolness of her manner to impair the +impeccable suavity of his. +</p> +<p> +"Will you accord me two moments of your time that I may give you +two messages?" he inquired, and Arlee felt suddenly ill-bred before +his gentle courtesy and she sat down abruptly upon the edge of the +nearest chair. +</p> +<p> +The Captain placed one near her and seated himself, with a clank of +his dangling scabbard. He was really a very handsome young man, +though his features were too finely finished to please a robust +taste, and there was a hint of insolence and cruelty about the nose +and mouth—though this an inexperienced and light-hearted young +tourist of one and twenty did not more than vaguely perceive. +</p> +<p> +"They are, the both, of the ball of the Khedive," he continued in +his English, which was, though amazingly fluent and ready, a literal +sounding translation of the French, which was in reality his mother +tongue. "My sister thinks she can arrange that invitation. You are +sure that you will be returned at Cairo, then?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, dear, yes! I would come back by train," Arlee declared eagerly, +"rather than miss that wonderful ball!" +</p> +<p> +She thought how astonished a certain red-headed young Englishman +would be to see her at that ball, and how fortunate she was compared +to his haughty and disappointed friend, the Lady Claire, and the +chill of her resentment against the Captain's intrusion vanished +like snow in the warmth of her gratitude. +</p> +<p> +"Good!" He smiled at her with a flash of white teeth. "Then my +sister herself will see one of the household of the Khedive and +request the invitation for you and for your chaperon, the +Madame——" +</p> +<p> +"Eversham." +</p> +<p> +"Eversham. She will be included for you, but not the daughter—no?" +</p> +<p> +"Is that asking too much?" said Arlee hesitantly. "Miss Eversham +would feel badly to be left out.... But, anyway, I'm not sure that I +shall be with them then," she reflected. +</p> +<p> +"Not with them?" The young man leaned forward, his eyes curiously +intent upon her. +</p> +<p> +"No, I may be with some other friends. You see, it's this way—I +didn't come abroad with the Evershams in the first place. I came in +the fall with a school friend and her mother to see Italy. The +Evershams were friends of theirs and were stopping at the same +hotel, and since my friends were called back very suddenly, the +Evershams asked me to go on to Egypt with them. It was very nice of +them, for I'm a dreadful bother," said Arlee, dimpling. +</p> +<p> +"But you speak of leaving them?" he said. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, I may do that as soon as some other friends of mine, the +Maynards, reach here. They are coming here on their way to the Holy +Land and I want to take that trip with them. And then I'll probably +go back to America with them." +</p> +<p> +The Turkish captain stared at her, his dark eyes rather inscrutable, +though a certain wonder was permitted to be felt in them. +</p> +<p> +"You American girls—your ways are absolute like the decrees of +Allah!" he laughed softly. "But tell me—what will your father and +your mother say to this so rapidly changing from the one chaperon to +the other?" +</p> +<p> +"I haven't any father or mother," said the girl. "I have a big, +grown-up, married brother, and he knows I wouldn't change from one +party unless it was all right." She laughed amusedly at the young +man's comic gesture of bewilderment. "You think we American girls +are terribly independent." +</p> +<p> +"I do, indeed," he avowed, "but," and he inclined his dark head in +graceful gallantry, "it is the independence of the princess of the +blood royal." +</p> +<p> +A really nice way of putting it, Arlee thought, contrasting the +chivalrous homage of this Oriental with the dreadful "American +goose!" of the Anglo-Saxon. +</p> +<p> +"But tell me," he went on, studying her face with an oddly intent +look, "do these friends now, the Evershams, know these others, +the—the——" +</p> +<p> +"Maynards," she supplied. "Oh, no, they have never met each other. +The Maynards are friends I made at school. And Brother has never met +them either," she added, enjoying his humorous mystification. +</p> +<p> +"The decrees of Allah!" he murmured again. "But I will promise you +an invitation for your chaperon and arrange for the name of the lady +later—<i>n'est-ce-pas?</i>" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I will know as soon as I return from the Nile. You are going +to a lot of bother, you and your sister," declared Arlee gratefully. +</p> +<p> +"I go to ask you to take a little trouble, then, for that sister," +said the Captain slowly. "She is a widow and alone. Her life is—is +<i>triste</i>—melancholy is your English word. Not much of brightness, +of new things, of what you call pleasure, enters into that life, and +she enjoys to meet foreign ladies who are not—what shall I +say?—seekers after curiosities, who think our ladies are strange +sights behind the bars. You know that the Europeans come uninvited +to our wedding receptions and make the strange questions!" +</p> +<p> +Arlee had the grace to blush, remembering her own avid desire to +make her way into one of those receptions, where the doors of the +Moslem harem are thrown open to the feminine world in widespread +hospitality. +</p> +<p> +The Captain went on, slowly, his eyes upon her, "But she knows that +you are not one of those others and has requested that you do her +the grace to call upon her. I assured her that you would, for I know +that you are kind, and also," with an air of naïve pride which Arlee +found admirable in him, "it is not all the world who is invited to +the home of our—our <i>haut-monde</i>, you understand?... And then it +will interest you to see how our ladies live in that seclusion which +is so droll to you. Confess you have heard strange stories," and he +smiled in quizzical raillery upon her. +</p> +<p> +The girl's flush deepened with the memory of the confusing stories +her head was stuffed with; tales of the bloomers, the veils, the +cushions, the sweetmeats, the <i>nargueils</i>, the rose baths of the old +<i>régime</i> were jostled by the stories of the French nurses and +English governesses and the Paris fashions of the new era. She had +listened breathlessly, with her eager young zest in life, to the +amazing and contradictory narrations of the tourists who were every +whit as ignorant as she was, and her curiosity was on fire to see +for herself. She felt that a chance in a thousand had come her lucky +way. +</p> +<p> +"I shall be very glad to call," she told him, "just as soon as I +return from the Nile." +</p> +<p> +His face showed his disappointment—and a certain surprise. "But not +before?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, I go to-morrow morning, you know," said Arlee. "And——" +</p> +<p> +"It would be better—because of the invitation," he said slowly, +hesitantly, with the air of one who does not wish to importune. "My +sister would like to ask for one who is known personally to herself. +She thought you could render her a few minutes this afternoon." +</p> +<p> +"This afternoon?" Arlee thought quickly. "I ought to be packing," +she murmured, "my things aren't all ready.... And Mrs. Eversham is +at the bazaars again and dear knows when she will be back." +</p> +<p> +Just for an instant a spark burned in the black eyes watching the +girl, and then was gone, and when she raised her own eyes, perplexed +and considering, to him, she saw only the same courteously +attentive, but faintly indolent regard as before. Then the young man +smiled, with an air of frank amusement. +</p> +<p> +"That would seem to be a dispensation!" he laughed. "My sister and +the Madame Eversham—no, they would not be sympathetic!... But if +you can come," he went on quickly, leaning forward and speaking in a +hurried, lowered tone, "it can be arranged in an instant. I am to +telephone to my sister and she will send her car for you. It is not +far and it does not need but a few minutes for the visit—unless you +desire. I cannot escort you in the car—it is not <i>en règle</i>—but I +will come to the house and present you and then depart, that you +ladies may exchange the confidences.... Does that programme please +you?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I don't know your sister's name," said Arlee. +</p> +<p> +He smiled. "Nechedil Azade Seniha—she is the widow of Tewfik Pasha. +But say Madame simply to her—that will suffice. Shall I, then, +telephone her?" +</p> +<p> +Just an instant Arlee hesitated, while her imagination fluttered +about the thought like humming-birds about sweets. Already she was +thinking of the story she could have to tell to her fellow travelers +here and to the people at home. It was a chance, she repeated to +herself, in a thousand, and the familiar details of phones and +motors seemed to rob its suddenness of all strangeness.... Besides, +there was that matter of the Khedive's ball. It would be very +ungracious to refuse a few minutes' visit to a lady who was going to +so much trouble for her. +</p> +<p> +"I will be ready in ten minutes," she promised, springing to her +feet. +</p> +<p> +The forgotten letters scattered like a fall of snow and the Captain +stooped quickly for them, hiding the flash of exultation in his +face. He thrust the letters rather hurriedly upon her. +</p> +<p> +"Good!... But need you wait for a <i>toilette</i> when you are so—so +<i>ravissante</i> now?" +</p> +<p> +He gazed with frank appreciation at the linen suit she was wearing, +but she shook her head laughingly at him. "To be interesting to a +foreign lady I must have interesting clothes," she avowed. "I shan't +be ten minutes—really." +</p> +<p> +"Then the car will be in waiting. I will give your name to the +chauffeur and he will approach you." He thought a minute, and then +said, quickly, "And I will leave a note for Madame Eversham at the +desk to inform her of your destination and to express my regret that +she is not here to accept the invitation." His voice was flavored +with droll irony. "In ten minutes—<i>bien sûr</i>?" +</p> +<p> +She confirmed it most positively, and it really was not quite +eighteen when she stepped out on the veranda, a vision, a positively +devastating vision in soft and filmy white, with a soft and filmy +hat all white lace and a pink rose. It is to be hoped that she did +not know how she looked. Otherwise there would have been no excuse +for her and she should have been summarily haled to the nearest +justice, with all other breakers of the peace, and condemned to good +conduct and Shaker bonnets for the rest of her life. The rose on the +hat, with such a rose of a face beneath the hat, was sheer wanton +cruelty to mankind. +</p> +<p> +It brought the heart into the throat of one young man who was +reading his paper beneath the striped awning, when he was not +watching, cat-like, the streets and the hotel door. He dropped the +paper with an agitated rustle and half rose to his feet; his eyes, +alert and humorous gray-blue eyes, lighted with eagerness. His hand +flew up to his hat. +</p> +<p> +He did not need to take it off. She did not even see him. She was +hurrying forward to the steps, following a long, lean Arab, some +dragoman, apparently, in resplendent pongee robes, who opened the +door of a limousine for her. The next instant he slammed the door +upon her, mounted the front seat, and the car rolled away. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<h3> + AT THE PALACE +</h3> +<p> +That limousine utterly routed the tiny little qualm which had been +furtively worming into Arlee's thrill of adventure. Nothing very +strange or out-of-the-way, she thought, could be connected with such +a modern car; it presented every symptom of effete civilization. +Against the upholstery of delicate gray flamed the scarlet +poinsettias hanging in wall vases of crystal overlaid with silver +tracery; the mirror which confronted her was framed in silver, and +beneath it a tiny cabinet revealed a frivolous store of powders and +pins and scents. Decidedly the Oriental widow of said sequestration +had a car very much up to times. The only difference which it +presented from the cars of any modern city or of any modern lady was +in the smallness of the window panes, whose contracted size +confirmed the stories of the restrictions which Arlee had been told +were imposed upon Moslem ladies by even those emancipated masculine +relatives who conceded cars. +</p> +<p> +She peered out of the diminutive windows at the throng of life in +the unquiet streets as they halted for the passing of a camel laden +with bricks and stones from a demolished building; the poor thing +teetered precariously past under such a back-breaking load that the +girl felt it would have been a mercy to add the last straw and be +done with it. After it bobbed what was apparently an animated load +of hay, so completely were this other camel's legs hidden by his +smothering burden. +</p> +<p> +Then the car shot impatiently forward, passing a dog cart full of +fair-haired English children, the youngest clasped in the arms of a +dark-skinned nurse, and behind the cart ran an indefatigable <i>sais</i>, +bare-legged and sinewy, his red headdress and gold-embroidered +jacket and blue bloomers flashing in the sun. On the sidewalk a +party of American tourists were capitulating to a post-card vender, +and ahead of them a victoria load of German sightseers careened +around the corner in the charge of a determined dragoman. +</p> +<p> +Arlee smiled in happy superiority over these mere outsiders. <i>She</i> +was not going about the beaten track, peeping at mosques and tombs +and bazaars and windows; she was penetrating into the real life of +this fascinating city, getting behind the grills and veils to +glimpse the inner secrets. +</p> +<p> +She thought, with a deepening of the sparkle in her blue eyes and a +defiant lifting of the pointed chin, of a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman and how wrong and reasonless and narrow and jealous were +his strictures upon her politeness to young Turks, and she thought +with a sense of vindicated pride of how thoroughly that nice young +man who had managed to introduce himself last night had endorsed her +views. Americans understood. And then her thoughts lingered about +Billy and she caught herself wondering just how much he did mean +about coming up the Nile again. For upon happening to meet Billy +that morning—Billy had devoted two hours and a half to the accident +of that happening!—he had joyously mentioned that he was trying to +buy out another man's berth upon that boat. It wasn't so much his +wanting to come that was droll—teasing sprites of girls with +peach-blossom prettiness are not unwonted to the thunder of pursuing +feet—but the frank and cheery way he had of announcing it. Not many +men had the courage of their desires. Not any men that little Miss +Arlee had yet met had the frankness of such courage. And because all +women love the adventurous spirit and are woefully disappointed in +its masculine manifestations, she felt a gay little eagerness which +she would have refused to own. It would be rather fun to see more of +him—on the Nile—while Robert Falconer was sulking away in Cairo. +And then when she returned she would surprise and confound that +misguided young Englishman with her unexpected—to him—presence at +the Khedive's ball. And after that—but her thoughts were lost in +haziness then. Only the ball stood out distinct and glittering and +fairylike. +</p> +<p> +Thinking all these brightly revengeful thoughts she had been +oblivious to the many turnings of the motor, though it had occurred +to her that they were taking more time than the car had needed to +appear, and now she looked out the window and saw that they were in +a narrow street lined with narrow houses, whose upper stories, +slightly projecting in little bays, all presented the elaborately +grilled façades of <i>mashrubiyeh</i> work which announced the barred +quarters of the women, the <i>haremlik</i>. +</p> +<p> +Arlee loved to conjure up a romantic thrill for the mysterious East +by reflecting that behind these obscuring screens were women of all +ages and conditions, neglected wives and youthful favorites, eager +girls and revolting brides, whose myriad eyes, bright or dull or gay +or bitter, were peering into the tiny, cleverly arranged mirrors +which gave them a tilted view of the streets. It was the sense of +these watching eyes, these hidden women, which made those screened +windows so stirring to her young imagination. +</p> +<p> +The motor whirled out of the narrow street and into one that was +much wider and lined by houses that were detached and separated, +apparently, by gardens, for there was a frequent waving of palms +over the high walls which lined the road. The street was empty of +all except an old orange vender, shuffling slowly along, with a +cartwheel of a tray on her head, piled with yellow fruit shining +vividly in the hot sun. The quiet and the solitude gave a sense of +distance from the teeming bazaars and tourist-ridden haunts, which +breathed of seclusion and aloofness. +</p> +<p> +The car stopped and Arlee stepped out before a great house of +ancient stone which rose sharply from the street. A high, pointed +doorway, elaborately carved, was before her, arching over a dark +wooden door heavily studded with nails. Overhead jutted the little +balconies of <i>mashrubiyeh</i>. She had no more than a swift impression +of the old façade, for immediately a doorkeeper, very vivid in his +Oriental blue robes and his English yellow leather Oxfords, flung +open the heavy door. +</p> +<p> +Stepping across the threshold, with a sudden excited quickening of +the senses, in which so many things were mingled that the misgiving +there had scarcely time to make itself felt, Arlee found herself in +a spacious vestibule, marble floored and inlaid with brilliant tile. +She had just a glimpse of an inner court between the high arches +opposite, and then her attention was claimed by Captain Kerissen, +who sprang forward with a flash of welcome in his eyes that was like +a leap of palpable light. +</p> +<p> +"You are come!" he said, in a voice which was that of a man almost +incredulous of his good fortune. Then he bowed very formally in his +best military fashion, straight-backed from the waist, heels stiffly +together. "I welcome you," he said. "My sister is rejoiced.... This +stair—if you please." +</p> +<p> +He waved to a stairway on the left, a small, steep affair, which +Arlee ascended slowly, a sense of strangeness mounting with her, in +spite of her confident bearing. She had not realized how odd it +would feel to be in this foreign house with the Captain at her +heels. +</p> +<p> +There was a door at the top of the stairs standing open into a long, +spacious room which seemed shrouded in twilight after the sunflooded +court. One entire side of the room was a brown, lace-like screen of +<i>mashrubiyeh</i> windows; wide divans stretched beside them, and at the +end of the room, facing Arlee, was a throne-like chair raised on a +small dais and canopied with heavy silks. +</p> +<p> +By one of the windows a woman was squatting, a short, stout, +turbaned figure, striking a few notes on a tambourine and crooning +softly to herself in a low guttural. She raised her head without +rising, to look at the entering couple, and for a startled second +Arlee had the half hysterical fear that this squatting soloist was +the <i>triste</i> and aristocratic representative of the <i>haut-monde</i> of +Moslem which the Captain had brought her to see, but the next +instant another figure appeared in a doorway and came slowly toward +them. +</p> +<p> +Flying to the winds went Arlee's anticipations of somber elegance. +She saw the most amazingly vivid creature that she had ever laid +eyes on—a woman, young, though not in her first youth, penciled, +powdered, painted, her hair a brilliant red, her gown a brilliant +green. After the first shock of scattering amazement, Arlee became +intensely aware of a pair of yellow-brown eyes confronting her with +a faintly smiling and rather mocking interrogation. The dark of +<i>kohl</i> about the eyes emphasized a certain slant <i>diablérie</i> of line +and a faint penciling connected with the high and supercilious arch +of the brows. Henna flamed on the pointed tips of the fingers +blazoned with glittering rings, and Arlee fancied the brilliance of +the hair was due to this same generous assistance of nature. +</p> +<p> +"My soul!" thought the girl swiftly, "they <i>do</i> get themselves up!" +</p> +<p> +The Captain had stepped forward, speaking quickly in Turkish, with a +hard-sounding rattle of words. The sister glanced at him with a +deepening of that curious air of mockery and let fall two words in +the same tongue. Then she turned to Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Je suis enchantée—d'avoir cet honneur—cet honneur +inattendu——</i>" +</p> +<p> +She did not look remarkably enchanted, however. The eyes that played +appraisingly over her pretty caller had a quality of curious +hardness, of race hostility, perhaps, the antagonism of the East for +the West, the Old for the New. Not all the modernity of clothes, of +manners, of language, affected what Arlee felt intensely as the +strange, vivid foreignness of her. +</p> +<p> +"My sister does not speak English—she has not the occasion," the +Captain was quickly explaining. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Gracious</i>" thought Arlee, in dismay. She had no illusions about +her French; it did very well in a shop or a restaurant, but it was +apt to peeter out feebly in polite conversation. Certainly it was no +vessel for voyaging in untried seas. There were simply loads of +things, she thought discouragedly, the things she wanted most to +ask, that she would not be able to find words for. +</p> +<p> +Aloud she was saying, "I am so glad to have the honor of being here. +I am only sorry that my French is so bad. But perhaps you can +understand——" +</p> +<p> +"I understand," assented the Turkish woman, faintly smiling. +</p> +<p> +The Captain had brought forward little gilt chairs of a French +design which seemed oddly out of place in this room of the East, and +the three seated themselves. Out of place, too, seemed the grand +piano which Arlee's eyes, roving now past her hostess, discovered +for the first time. +</p> +<p> +"It was so kind of you," began Arlee again as the silence seemed to +be politely waiting upon her, "to send your automobile for me." +</p> +<p> +"Ah—my automobile!" echoed the woman on a higher note, and laughed, +with a flash of white teeth between carmined lips. "It pleased you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, it is splendid!" the girl declared, in sincere praise. "It +is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen." +</p> +<p> +"I enjoy it very much—that automobile!" said the other, again +laughing, with a quick turn of her eyes toward the brother. +</p> +<p> +Negligently, rather caressingly, the young man murmured a few +Turkish words. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, the flash +of animation gone. "And Cairo—that pleases you?" she asked of +Arlee. +</p> +<p> +Stumbling a little in her French, but resolutely rushing over the +difficulties, Arlee launched into the expression of how very much it +pleased her. Everything was beautiful to her. The color, the sky, +the mosques, the minarets, the Nile, the pyramids—they were all +wonderful. And the view from the Great Pyramid—and then she +stopped, wondering if that were not beyond her hostess's experience. +</p> +<p> +In confirmation of the thought the Turkish lady smiled, with an +effect of disdain. "Ascend the pyramids—that is indeed too much for +us," she said. "But nothing is too much for you Americans—no?" +</p> +<p> +Her curious glance traveled slowly from Arlee's flushed and lovely +face, under the rose-crowned hat, down over the filmy white gown and +white-gloved hands clasping an ivory card case, to the small, +white-shod feet and silken ankles. Arlee did not resent the +deliberate scrutiny; in coming to gaze she had been offering herself +to be gazed upon, and she was conscious that the three of them +presented a most piquant group in this dim and spacious old room of +the East—the modern American girl, the cosmopolitan young officer +in his vivid uniform, and this sequestered woman, of a period of +transition where the kohl and henna of the <i>odalisque</i> contrasted +with a coiffure and gown from Paris. +</p> +<p> +Slowly and disconnectedly the uninspiring conversation progressed. +Once, when it appeared halted forever, Arlee cast a helpless look at +the Captain and intercepted a sharp glance at his sister. Indeed, +Arlee thought, that sister was not distinguishing herself by her +grateful courtesy to this guest who was brightening the <i>tristesse</i> +of her secluded day, but perhaps this was due to her Oriental +languor or the limitations of their medium of speech. +</p> +<p> +It was a relief to have the Captain suggest music. At their polite +insistence Arlee went to the piano and did her best with a piece of +MacDowell. Then the sister took her turn, and to her surprise Arlee +found herself listening to an exquisite interpretation of some of +the most difficult of Brahms. The beringed and tinted fingers +touched the notes with rare delicacy, and brought from the piano a +quality so vivid and poignant in appeal that Arlee could dream that +here the player's very life and heart were finding their real +expression. +</p> +<p> +The last note fell softly into silence, and with her hands still on +the keys the woman looked up over her shoulder at her brother, +looked with an intentness oddly provocative and prolonged. And for +the first time Arlee caught the quality of sudden and unforeseen +attraction in her, and realized that this insolence of color, this +flaunting hair and painted mouth might have their place in some +scheme of allurement outside her own standards.... And then suddenly +she felt queerly sorry for her, touched by the quick jarring +bitterness of a chord the woman suddenly struck, drowning the +laughing words the Captain had murmured to her.... Arlee felt +vaguely indignant at him. No one wanted to have jokes tossed at her +when she had just poured her heart out in music. +</p> +<p> +The Captain was on his feet, making his adieux. Now that the ladies +were acquainted, he would leave them to discuss the modes and other +feminine interests. He wished Miss Beecher a delightful trip upon +the Nile and hoped to see her upon her return, and she could be sure +that everything would be arranged for her. When she had had her tea +and wished to leave, the motor would return her to the hotel. He +made a rapid speech in Turkish to his sister, bowed formally to +Arlee over a last <i>au revoir</i> and was gone. +</p> +<p> +Immediately the old woman entered with a tray of tea things, the +same old woman who had been squatting by the window, but who had +noiselessly left the room during the music. She was followed by a +bewitching little girl of about ten with another tray, who remained +to serve while the old woman shuffled slowly away. Arlee was struck +by the informality of the service; the servants appeared to be +underfoot like rugs; they came and went at will, unregarded. +</p> +<p> +The tea was most disappointingly ordinary, for the pat of butter +bore the rose stamp of the English dairy and the bread was English +bake, but the sweetmeats were deliciously novel, resembling nothing +Arlee had seen in the shops, and new, too, was the sip of syrup +which completed the refreshment. +</p> +<p> +Her hostess had said but little during the repast, remaining silent, +with an air of polite attention, her eyes fixed upon her caller with +a gaze the girl found bafflingly inscrutable. Now as the girl rose +to go, the Turkish woman suddenly revived her manners of hostess and +suggested a glimpse of some of the other rooms of the palace. "Our +seclusion interests you—yes?" she said, with a half-sad, +half-bitter smile on her scarlet lips, and Arlee was conscious of a +sense of apologetic intrusion battling with her lively curiosity as +she followed her down the long chamber and through a curtained +doorway to the right of the throne-like chair, into a large and +empty anteroom, where the sunlight streaming through the lightly +screened window on the wall at the right reminded Arlee that it was +yet glowing afternoon. +</p> +<p> +She lingered by the window an instant, looking down into the court +which she had glimpsed from the vestibule. Across the court she saw +a row of windows which, being unbarred, she guessed to be on the +men's side of the house, and to the left the court was ended by a +sort of roofed colonnade. +</p> +<p> +Her hostess passed under an elaborate archway, and Arlee followed +slowly, passing through one stately, high-ceiled, dusty room into +another, plunged again into the twilight of densely screening +<i>mashrubiyeh</i>. There were views of fine carving, painted ceilings, +inlaid door paneling, and rich and rusty embroideries where the name +of Allah could frequently be traced, but Arlee was ignorant of the +rare worth of all she saw; she stared about with no more than a +girl's romantic sense of the old-time grandeur and the Oriental +strangeness, mingled with a disappointment that it was all so empty +and devoid of life. +</p> +<p> +This part of the palace was very old, her hostess said +uninterestedly; these were the rooms of the dead and gone ladies of +the dead and gone years. One of the Mamelukes had first built this +wing for his favorite wife—she had been poisoned by her rival and +died, here, on that divan, the narrator indicated, with a negligent +gesture. +</p> +<p> +Wide-eyed, Arlee stared about the empty, darkened rooms and felt +dimly oppressed by them. They were so old, so melancholy, these +rooms of dead and gone ladies. How much of life had been lived here, +how much of hope had been smothered with these walls! What aching +love and fiery hate had vibrated here, only to smolder into helpless +ennui under the endless weight of tedious days.... She shivered +slightly, oppressed by the dreams of these ancient rooms, dreams +that were heavy with realities. +</p> +<p> +Slowly she moved back after her hostess, who had pushed back a +panel in one wall, and Arlee stepped beside her within the tiny, +balcony-like enclosure the panel had revealed, one side of which was +a wooden lace-work of fine screening, permitting one to see but not +be seen. Pressing her face against the grill, Arlee found she was +looking down into a long and spacious hall, lined with delicate +columns bearing beautiful, pointed arches, and brilliant with old +gilding and inlay. +</p> +<p> +This was the colonnade which she had seen forming one side of the +court; it was the hall of banquets, she was told, and connected this +wing of the palace, the <i>haremlik</i>, with the <i>selamlik</i>, the men's +wing, across the way. Here in old times the lord of the palace gave +his feasts, and this nook had been built for some favorite to view +the revels. +</p> +<p> +Arlee stared down into the great empty hall with an involuntary +quickening of the breath. How desolate it was, but how beautiful in +its desolation! What strange revels had taken place there to the +notes of wild music, what girls had danced, what voices had shouted, +what moods had been indulged! She thought of the men who had made +merry there ... and then she thought of the women, generations of +women, who had stood where she was standing, pressing their young +faces against the grill, their bright eyes peering, peering down. +She felt their soft little silken ghosts all about her, their +bangles clinking, their perfumes enveloping her sense—lovely little +painted dolls, their mimic passions helpless in their hearts.... +</p> +<p> +Dreaming, she turned and in silence retraced her way after her +hostess, loitering by the window in the anteroom to watch a veiled +girl drawing water at the old well in the center, an old well rich +in arabesques. +</p> +<p> +How much happier, thought Arlee, were these serving maids in the +freedom of their poverty than the cloistered aristocrats behind +their darkened windows. She wondered if that strange figure beside +her, half Moslem, half modern, envied the little maid the saucy jest +which she flung at a bare-footed boy idling beside a dozing white +donkey. As she watched the old-world quiet of the picture was +broken. Some one, the doorkeeper, she thought, from his vivid robes +and yellow shoes, came running across the court, shouting something +at the girl which sent her flying to the house, her jar forgotten, +and another man, an enormous Nubian with blue Turkish bloomers, +short red jacket and a red fez, hurried across the court toward the +<i>haremlik</i>. +</p> +<p> +The lady stepped toward the screening and called down; the man +stopped, raised his head, and shouted back a jargon of excited +gutturals, waving his arms in vehement gesturing. His mistress +interrupted with a brief question, then with another, then nodding +her head indifferently to herself, she called down an order, +apparently, and turned away. +</p> +<p> +"One of our servants is dead," she murmured to Arlee in explanation. +"They say now it is the plague." +</p> +<p> +"The plague?" repeated the girl absently. She was thinking what a +hideous creature that great Nubian was. Then, more vividly, "The +<i>plague</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"You have fear?" said the negligent voice. +</p> +<p> +Arlee nodded frankly. "Oh, yes, I should be terribly afraid of it," +she averred. "Aren't you?" And then she reflected, as she saw the +inscrutable smile playing about the older woman's lips, that she +must be witnessing that fatalistic apathy of the East that she had +read about. +</p> +<p> +But there was nothing apathetic about the Captain. He followed on +the very heels of the announcement, his sword clanking, his spurs +jingling, as he bounded up the stairs and hurried through the long, +dim drawing-room toward them. +</p> +<p> +"You have heard?" he cried in English as they came to meet him. "You +have heard?" +</p> +<p> +"Of the plague!" Arlee answered, wondering at his agitation. "Yes, +your sister just told me. Is it really the plague?" +</p> +<p> +"So say those damned doctors—pardon, but they are such imbeciles!" +He made an angry gesture with his clenched hand. His face was tense +and excited. "They say so. And there is another sick ... <i>Dieu</i>, +what a misfortune! Truly, there was illness about us, a little, but +who thought——" +</p> +<p> +"I shall run back to my hotel," said Arlee lightly, "before I catch +one of your germs." +</p> +<p> +"To the hotel—a thousand pardons, but that is the thing forbidden." +The young man made a gesture, with empty palms outspread, eloquent +of rebellion and despair. "Those doctors—those pig English—they +have set a quarantine upon us!" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<h3> + A SORRY GUEST +</h3> +<p> +"A quarantine?" said Arlee Beecher, in a perfectly flat little +voice. +</p> +<p> +Again the young man exercised his power of gesture, his dark eyes +seeming to plead his own helpless desire to mitigate his words. +</p> +<p> +"Truly a quarantine. It is tyranny, but what can one do? They will +hear nothing—they set their guard and it is finished—<i>bien +simple</i>. We are their prisoners." +</p> +<p> +"Prisoners?" Her mind appeared but a hollow echo of his words. Her +heart was dropping, dropping sickishly, into unending space. Then +meaning stabbed her like a dentist's needle, and a pandemonium of +incredulity and revolt clamored through every nerve in her body. +"Why you can't mean—I'm going back to the hotel this instant! I +haven't seen your servant!" +</p> +<p> +"That is nothing to them. They have no reason—heads of pigs! No one +must leave or they shoot—the tyrants, the imbecile tyrants! But +their day will not be forever—Islam will not endure——" +</p> +<p> +It was of no moment to Arlee Beecher what Islam would not endure. +Her heart was galloping now like a runaway horse, but her voice rang +with quick reaction from that first sickening shock. +</p> +<p> +"What nonsense," she said positively. "They wouldn't shoot <i>me</i>. Why +didn't you call me when the English doctor was here. I could have +explained then. But now—now I had better telephone, I suppose. +Either to the doctor or the English ambassador—or the American +consul. I'll make them understand in a jiffy. Where is your +telephone, please?" +</p> +<p> +"Alas, not in the palace." The young captain's look of regret +deepened. +</p> +<p> +"But—but you telephoned your sister! You telephoned her this +afternoon." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, yes, but I spoke to a telephone which is in a palace near +here—the palace of my uncle. I sent a servant with the message. But +I can send a message to that palace," he offered eagerly, "and they +can telephone for you. Or I can send notes out to all the people you +wish. The soldiers will call boys to deliver them." +</p> +<p> +Across the girl's perfectly white face a tremor of panic darted; +then she bit her lips very hard and stared very intently past the +Captain's green and gold shoulder. She had totally forgotten the +sister who had sunk on a divan beside them, her brown eyes rimmed in +their dark pencilings turning from one to the other as if to read +their faces. +</p> +<p> +"I'll just speak to those soldiers, myself," said Arlee decidedly. +"I'll make them understand." She left them there, their eyes upon +her and sped down the long room to the door which the Captain's +hurried entrance had left half open. She disappeared down the steps. +</p> +<p> +In three minutes she was back, a flame in the frightened white of +her cheeks, a flame in the frightened blue of her eyes. +</p> +<p> +"Captain Kerissen," she called, and he took a step nearer to her, +his face alert with sympathy, "Captain Kerissen, that is a <i>native</i> +soldier! He is at the bottom of the stairs—with a bayonet—and he +will not let me pass. He doesn't know a word I say. Please come and +tell him." +</p> +<p> +"Miss Beecher, it is useless for me to tell him anything," said the +young Turk with a ring of quiet conviction. "I have been talking to +that one—and to the others. They are at every entrance. It is as I +told you—we are prisoners." +</p> +<p> +"Surely you can tell him that I am a guest—you can <i>bribe</i> him to +turn his head, to let me slip by——" +</p> +<p> +"He would be shot if he let you out that street door. He has his +orders to keep the ladies in their quarters and it is death to him +to disobey. That is the discipline—and the discipline has no +mercy—particularly upon the native soldiers." His tone held +bitterness. "It is useless to resist the soldiers. You must resign +yourself to remain a guest until I can obtain word to one who can +render assistance.... Will it be so hard?" he added sympathetically, +as she stood silent, her lips pressed quiveringly together. "My +sister will do everything——" +</p> +<p> +"Of course I can't stay here," broke in Arlee in her clear, positive +young tones. "I must get back to the Evershams—and we are going up +the Nile to-morrow morning. Can you get a message to that doctor <i>at +once</i>? And have someone go and telephone from the next house to the +consul and ambassador—and I'll write them notes, too." +</p> +<p> +Her voice broke suddenly. On what wings of folly she had come alone +to this place! Her bright adventure was a stupid scrape. Oh, what +mischance—what mischance! She was chokingly ashamed of the +predicament—to be penned up by a quarantine in a Moslem household. +She was angry, defiant and humiliated at once. What would the +Evershams say—and Robert Falconer—— +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +She had never waited for anything as she waited for the answers to +the passionately urgent notes she sent out. She had written the +doctor, the ambassador, the consul, the Evershams. And then she +walked up and down, up and down that long, dim room which grew +darker and darker with the fading light and counted off the seconds +and the minutes and the hours with her pulsing heart beats. She had +never known there was such suspense in the world. It was comparable +to nothing in her girl's life—the only faint analogy was in the old +school-time when she thought she had failed in the history +examination and her roommate had gone to the office to find out for +her. She remembered walking the floor then, in a silly panic of +fear. But she had not failed—she had just squeaked through and it +would be like that now. Someone would come to tell her that +everything was all right and laugh with her at her foolish fright. +But underneath this strain of fervent reassurance ran a cold little +current like an underground brook, a seeping chill of dread and +vague fear and strange amazement that she should be here in this +lonely palace, peering out of darkened windows, waiting and +listening. +</p> +<p> +This time it <i>was</i> the Captain's steps, coming up the stairs. +Perceptive of her impatience, he had left her to herself, till he +could bring word. Now she stood, listening to the nearing jingle +that accompanied his footsteps, her hands clasped involuntarily +against her breast in rigid tension. And when she saw his face +through the dusk, saw the courteous deprecation of it, the +solicitous sympathy, she did not need his words to tell her that it +was not yet all right. +</p> +<p> +There was nothing to be done. Legal and medical authorities united +in insisting that no one, not even the guest, should leave the +palace until the fear of spreading the infection was past. This +might be modified in a day or two, but for the present they were too +frightened to make exceptions. +</p> +<p> +And they were going up the Nile Friday morning, Arlee remembered +numbly. And this was Thursday night. +</p> +<p> +"Did the Evershams—did they answer my letter?" she said with dry +lips. +</p> +<p> +The Evershams, it seemed, had not been at the hotel. Perhaps when +they had read the letter they would be able to do something about +it. +</p> +<p> +"They'll just <i>talk</i>!" cried Arlee passionately, her breast heaving. +</p> +<p> +She wanted to scream, she wanted to rave, she wanted to fly down +the stairs and hurl herself recklessly against that barring bayonet. +But because there was pride and spirit behind her delicate +loveliness she shut the door hard upon those imps of hysteria and +with high-held head and palely smiling lips she thanked the Captain +for the hospitality he was extending in his sister's name. Yes, +thank you, she would rejoin them at dinner. Yes, thank you, she +would like to go to her room now. +</p> +<p> +A serving maid, called by her hostess, conducted her—the blue-robed +girl, she thought, that she had seen drawing water at the well. A +black shawl hung from her head and dangling in its folds the +<i>yashmak</i> ready to be slipped on at the approach of the men before +whom she must appear veiled. Her bare feet were thrust into scarlet +slippers, and as she moved silver anklets were visible, hanging +loosely over slim, brown ankles. Shuffling slightly, yet with an +erectly graceful carriage, the girl led the way into the ante-room +again, pulled open one of the closed doors in the opposite wall and +passed up an encased staircase wrapped in darkness. They emerged +into the dusk of a long, dim hall, where hanging lamps from the +ceiling shed a mild luster and a strong smell of oil, and passing +one or two doors on the right, the maid pushed, open one that was +rich in old gilding. +</p> +<p> +Crossing the threshold Arlee felt that she was crossing the +centuries again into her own time. +</p> +<p> +The room was a glitter of white and rose; the windows, unscreened, +admitted the warm glow of late afternoon, and windows and doorway +and bed were smothered in rose and white hangings. A white +triple-mirrored dressing-table gleamed with gold and ivory pieces; a +white fur rug was stretched before a rose silk divan billowy with +plump pillows, and an open door beyond gave a view of shining tile +and a porcelain bath. Near her was a baby grand piano in white +enamel—reminding her of one she had seen in the White House—and +she noted absently a pile of gaudily covered music upon it betokening +tunes different from the Brahms she had heard downstairs. +</p> +<p> +The maid indicated a pitcher of hot water in the bathroom—evidently +pipes and faucets played no part with the shining tub—and then +stepped outside, closing the door. +</p> +<p> +After an instant's hesitation, Arlee took off her hat and bathed her +face and hands, then moved slowly to the dressing table to glance at +her hair. Hesitantly she picked up the shining brush and stared at +the flourish of an unintelligible monogram upon the back. Whose +brush was this? Whose room was she in? The place, vivid, silken, +scented, was fairly breathing with occupancy. +</p> +<p> +She laid down the brush without using it, touched her hair with +absent fingers, and crossed to the windows. She looked down into a +garden, a deep tangle of a garden, presided over by a huge lebbek +tree that threw a pall of shadow upon the faintly moving flowers +beneath. +</p> +<p> +The place seemed a riot in neglect, for across the white sanded +paths thick creepers had flung their arms, and vines and climbers +were scaling the gnarled limbs of the acacia trees and covering the +high walls beyond. She was looking to the west where the rose and +gold of sunset still hung breathless on the painted air, though the +sun was hidden below the fringe of palms which rose above the wall, +and for a moment that still brilliance of the sky above the sharply +silhouetted palms made her heart quicken in forgetfulness. +</p> +<p> +And then her hands became aware of the bars she had been +unconsciously clasping, white-painted bars extending across the +window. They were of iron. +</p> +<p> +Not even here was there freedom, she thought with a throb of dread, +not even here where one faced dark gardens and blank walls and the +empty west. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Somehow that dinner had passed, that queer dinner in the candle +light between the silent, painted woman and the politely talkative +young man, and passed without a word from outside for the girl whose +nerves were fraying with the suspense. The old woman and the little +girl had served them with a meal which would have been judged +delicious in any European hotel and though Arlee's nerves were +tricky her young appetite was not and she ate and talked with a +determined little air of trying to dissipate the strangeness of the +situation. +</p> +<p> +And with the coffee came inspiration. She began to plan ... half +listening to the Captain's amiable efforts to entertain her with an +account of the palace, and of its history under Ismail, the Mad +Khedive, who had occupied it for some months, tearing down and +building in his feverish way, only to weary at the first hint of +completion. She was wondering why in the world the inspiration had +not arrived at once. Perhaps something in this fatalistic air, this +stupid acceptance of authority had numbed her. +</p> +<p> +With alacrity she accepted the Captain's suggestion of a stroll in +the garden, and was relieved when the silent sister did not rise to +accompany them, but remained in the candle-light with her coffee and +cigarette. She found the woman's lightly mocking, watchful eyes, the +enigmatic smile upon the carmined lips, increasingly hard to bear. +That woman didn't like her—she had failed, somehow, to propitiate +her hostile curiosities. +</p> +<p> +Back through the old empty rooms of the past, the Captain led her, +and passing by the screened alcove from which Arlee had looked down +into the ancient banquet hall he came to a small dark painted door +which he unlocked. The door opened upon a flight of worn and narrow +stone steps descending into the garden. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It had been night in the palace of darkened windows but in the +garden it was yet day, although the rose and gold of sunset had +faded to paling pinks and translucent ambers and in the east the +stars were shining in the deepening blue. It was the same garden on +which her windows opened; Arlee recognized the huge lebbek tree in +the center, the row of acacias, and the palms against the farthest +wall. It was a very old garden. Those trees must have seen many, +many years, she thought, and felt again that sense of vague +oppression and melancholy which the lonely rooms of the palace had +given her; that row of acacias which cast such crooked shadows over +the path had been planted by very long-ago hands. +</p> +<p> +So she thought fleetingly, then stared about, her concern for other +things. Captain Kerissen lighted a cigarette; over his cupped hands +his eyes followed hers searchingly. +</p> +<p> +"That is the hall of banquets?" she said, pointing to the raised +colonnade. +</p> +<p> +"Ah, yes—you are quick to learn!" he complimented. +</p> +<p> +"And could we walk through that into the courtyard?" +</p> +<p> +"Undoubtedly." +</p> +<p> +"And this side is the <i>haremlik</i>," she murmured, glancing up at the +windows upon the third floor which she felt were those of that rose +and white room. Much of the rest of the wing, she saw, extending +down to the high wall at right angles to it, was in a ruinous and +dilapidated condition. "What is there?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"The rooms the Khedive Ismail left unfinished. They are of no use." +</p> +<p> +"And on the other side?" she persisted, pointing towards the wall +that was the continuation of the men's wing, which stopped at the +colonnade. +</p> +<p> +"On the other side is the palace of another man, and on the other +side of that, ending the road is a <i>cimitère</i>—what you say, +cemetery." +</p> +<p> +"And back of <i>that</i> wall?" She nodded at the one behind the palms, +running parallel to the banquet hall. +</p> +<p> +"Back of that a canal, Mademoiselle, and across are other +palaces.... You study the geography, it appears?" +</p> +<p> +"Indeed I do!" She turned towards him, her face bright with +eagerness. Her light curls were blown about her forehead by a +breeze, hot and dry, that seemed to mingle the odors of the desert +with a piercing sweetness which it drew from the deep throats of the +lilies swaying beside the path. "And I think <i>that</i> is going to be +the way out for me." Her quick nod was for the wall behind the +palms. "I want you to do me a great big favor, Captain Kerissen, +that will make me your debtor for life! You must help me break out +of this quarantine this very night?" +</p> +<p> +Not the ghost of a fear of failure to persuade him lurked in those +bright, dancing eyes. Not the ghost of a fear of failure haunted +those confident, smiling lips. +</p> +<p> +He sucked on his cigarette a moment, then slowly blew a thin ring of +blue smoke. He appeared interested in watching it. +</p> +<p> +"What is it—this idea?" he murmured. +</p> +<p> +"Well, you may have a better one but mine is just to climb that +wall, as soon as it gets dark. If you just get a ladder, or a pile +of chairs I am sure I can manage it—and then I'll be back at the +hotel in an hour!" +</p> +<p> +He took out his cigarette and shook his head at her. "You would +drop, like the plum of Haydee, into the arms of the soldier who is +guarding on the other side.... Shall I tell you the story of that +plum?" +</p> +<p> +"A soldier guarding—a <i>native</i> soldier?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes." +</p> +<p> +"Then—then please won't you see if you can bribe him?" she +shamelessly pleaded, anxiously clasping and unclasping her hands. +"<i>Please</i>, Captain Kerissen, you must help me to run away to-night. +I <i>can't</i> be shut up like this—I can't give up the Nile trip and +besides—Oh, I really must be back at that hotel to-night!... If +that soldier is sure no one else will see him I know you can +persuade him to look away just a little minute while I slip down and +run off!" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, no, no, my dear Miss Beecher, there is no hope of that." The +young man started walking down the path and Arlee walked beside him, +her eyes fixed on his face, incredulous of the denial that they were +reading there. "He would think it a test, a trap—not for one minute +is it to be thought of! Now could I let you go alone in that place +by the canal. There is danger—you do not understand——" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I understand, but I can take care of myself!" Across her +pleading flashed the ironic thought of how excellently she had taken +care of herself in coming there that very afternoon! "Just let me +get over that wall and I can find my way—and if you cannot bribe +the man we can wait till it is darker and then, when he is at the +other end, why I can be down and off in a jiffy!" +</p> +<p> +"He would shoot," said the Captain. "He has his order. I have talked +with them.... And what would the authorities say when they send here +the doctor to-morrow and you are gone?" +</p> +<p> +"Say—say—Oh, what does it matter what they say? Tell them that I +ran away without your knowledge. Surely——" +</p> +<p> +"But your name has been given as detained. They would not let you +reappear in the world——" +</p> +<p> +"You leave that to me! I know it would be all right—once I was +there. Please do this for me, Captain Kerissen—<i>please</i>! I know +that in a great palace like this there must be many, many ways where +one could slip into the streets——" +</p> +<p> +"In all this palace there are but three doors—the door in the +vestibule by which you entered, the great door to its right, under +the arch into the court, and the little door from the garden to the +canal." He waved his cigarette at the wall ahead of them, towards +which they were slowly walking. "And all those three doors are +barred upon the outside and there is a soldier before each one—and +the soldier that you saw within the vestibule, watching us there." +</p> +<p> +"But—but the windows." She remembered the <i>mashrubiyeh</i>, but went +on resolutely, "I mean, the windows on the men's side. Aren't there +any windows in that part which are open?" +</p> +<p> +"<a name="frontispiece"></a>The <i>selamlik</i> is a short wing and looks into the court." A note of +impatience sounded in his voice. He tossed away his cigarette which +fell, a burning spark, in the shadows. Already, as they talked, it +had grown darker, and the impatient tropic night was stealing on +them. "It is no use," he repeated. "There is no way out for you—or +any of us." +</p> +<p> +Into her heart stole the unthinkable perception that he did not want +to help her—he was afraid of the authorities—or else—or +else—Desperately she returned to the appeal. +</p> +<p> +"But do let me try to get over that wall. I will watch for the +soldier—I will take the responsibility. Please, now—let us plan +that attempt." +</p> +<p> +His answer held a quiet finality. "It is impossible.... And the wall +is too high for such little feet." +</p> +<p> +The startled color flashed into her cheeks. Only Oriental language +of course.... Perhaps she was unduly sensitive to any hint of +familiarity in her predicament. +</p> +<p> +"I could manage it perfectly," she said with coldness. +</p> +<p> +He bent over her, as they walked. "Are you so unhappy here?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course I am unhappy," she gave back with a clear +matter-of-factness that strove to ignore the sudden softening of his +voice. "I am <i>very</i> unhappy. I realize that I should not be here, +that I am intruding upon your hospitality——" +</p> +<p> +"You are making me most happy." +</p> +<p> +"And I am making my friends most anxious and losing my trip on the +Nile." +</p> +<p> +"The Nile," he said, "flows on forever. Who knows how soon you will +see it and under what happier circumstances?" +</p> +<p> +"Our boat was to sail at ten. I simply must find a way out +to-night——" +</p> +<p> +"That is impossible." He spoke with sudden irritation, which he +softened the next instant, with a light laugh. "You Americans—how +you hurry!... Tell me—have you no heart for all this?" +</p> +<p> +She looked about her at the silent garden, the deepening shadows, +the darkening sky. Above her head, now, high in the air were the +faintly rustling palm leaves. Behind the palms stretched the wall, +high and blankly impassable. She felt strange, unreal.... Her very +fright was unreal. +</p> +<p> +"Tell me," he was saying, his voice low and caressing, "are there +many girls like you—in your America?" +</p> +<p> +She tried to speak quite easily, quite simply. "You have been in +England and France, Captain Kerissen, and you have seen many +Americans traveling there." +</p> +<p> +"I have seen many—yes. But not like you." She looked swiftly at +him, then more swiftly away. His eyes were glowing with a look of +deep excitement; his teeth flashed white under his small, dark +mustache. "Shall I tell you how you appear beside those others?" +</p> +<p> +"No, thank you," the girl answered with a hurried crispness which +brought a stare and then a low laugh from him. +</p> +<p> +"You have been told so often?" he suggested. +</p> +<p> +"I never permit myself to be told at all!" Anger made her young +voice imperious, but her heart was beating furiously. Involuntarily +she quickened her steps and he reached his hand to her bare forearm +and held her back. +</p> +<p> +"Pardon—but you are too quick." +</p> +<p> +She stood rigid, some deep instinct warning her not to resist. The +situation had gone to the man's head, she felt dumbly; his courtesy +was only a scant veneer over that Oriental cast of view which, like +the Latin, reads every accident of propinquity as opportunity. His +hand fell away and they walked on in slower time. When he spoke his +voice betrayed the feeling quickening within him. +</p> +<p> +"Then I have a pleasure before me, for you will listen, please. To +me your sister Americans are like big, bright flowers which grow by +the wayside where every wind blows hard upon them. And each receives +the dust of the footsteps of many men till comes the one who shall +possess her. But he does not bear her away. He puts his name upon +her, but leaves her out in the same field where every passerby may +look and handle——" +</p> +<p> +"You are dreadfully rude," said Arlee clearly. "You don't understand +at all. I thought you knew better." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, I know! Was I not in England and did I not hear men talk—yes, +of sisters and wives with bold words and laughter? Not so of our +ladies—they are sacred names not to be spoken by another.... But I +do not wish to speak of these others of your race. I speak of you." +</p> +<p> +"Really, I would rather you would not speak of me." +</p> +<p> +"But I wish to tell you." His voice was no louder; it was even +lower, but it took on a note of authority. Arlee was silent, a chill +creeping up about her heart—like a rising tide.... +</p> +<p> +"You are a flower upon a height," he said, and his tones were soft +again and gently caressing, "laughing at others because you know you +are so high above them, and so proud. The blue of the skies is in +your eyes, and the gold of the sun in your hair. You have a beauty +that is too bright to be endured—it burns a man's heart like a +flame.... It was never meant to shine in a common field. It must be +guarded, revered, adored—a princess upon a height——" +</p> +<p> +"You have an Oriental imagination," said Arlee Beecher, and prayed +God her voice did not tremble. "I must ask you not to pay me such +compliments while I am your guest." +</p> +<p> +"No?... Why not?" +</p> +<p> +"They—are embarrassing." +</p> +<p> +"Embarrassment is an emotion rare to find among your ladies—it is +the dewy bloom upon your own perfect innocence.... Ah, I wish you +spoke my language! I could tell you many things——" +</p> +<p> +"Your English is excellent," said the white-faced girl. "Did you +learn it at Oxford or before?" +</p> +<p> +He did not pause for such foolish questionings. "Why do you not wish +me to tell you what you are?" he said reproachfully. "Is it because +you doubt that I mean it?" +</p> +<p> +"Because I am not used to such compliments—and I would rather not +hear them now. I am your guest and I am very tired. I must go in." +</p> +<p> +It was very dark in the garden. And it was still and unutterably +lonely. Only the stars burned above them in the heavens; only the +light wind of the desert stirred. From the far distance the muffled +beat of the tom-tom sounded. Surely, thought Arlee, surely she was +dreaming.... This could not be Arlee Beecher, here with this +man—this Turk. +</p> +<p> +"I must go in," she repeated, with a heightening of assurance. +</p> +<p> +As he looked down at her for a moment that chill dread seemed to +lay its icy hands on her very heart as she glimpsed something of the +tumult within his eyes. She had a vision of him as a man capable of +all, reckless, impassioned, poised upon the brink of some desperate +plunge.... Then the hands of consequences seemed to lay compelling +hold upon him; the fire was extinguished; the vision gone like a +mirage. His eyes were friendly, his lips smiling, as he bowed to +her, in deferential courtesy, to all appearances a gentleman of her +world. +</p> +<p> +"I must not tire my guest," he said, and stood aside to let her pass +up the narrow stone steps. +</p> +<p> +"We shall have other walks," he added, and the chill, delicate +menace of those words went with Arlee Beecher to the rose and white +room, and kept her sorry company through the long and restless +hours. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<h3> + WITHIN THE WALLS +</h3> +<p> +Again the knocking, muffled but softly insistent, and Arlee's eyes, +heavy with tardy sleep, came slowly open, resting blankly on the +glittering strangeness of the room. The daylight was streaming in +the wide windows, striking brightly on the white enameled furniture +which had glimmered so ghost-like through the wakeful darkness of +the night, and flung back in dancing points of color from the +mirrors and the glass and gold of toilet pieces. The air was hot and +close, as if the first freshness of the morning was already past. +</p> +<p> +Again through the heavy door came the knocking and the soft +reassurance of a girl's voice. Arlee sprang from the couch where she +had lain down that night, not undressed, but with her white frock +exchanged for the negligée she had found laid out for her among +other things, and hurried toward the door where she had piled two +chairs to supplement the lock—a foolish-looking barricade in the +shining light of day, she thought, her lips lifting whimsically. +</p> +<p> +The young Turkish maid entered with a huge jar of water which she +emptied into the bath, returning to the door to take in another and +yet another and another from some unseen porter, and pouring these +into the bath, she added a spray of perfume and laid out powders and +towels, smiling the while at Arlee, with the fascinated interest of +a child. +</p> +<p> +"Do you speak English?" said Arlee eagerly. +</p> +<p> +But the girl laughed and shook her head at the question, and at the +French and German with which Arlee next addressed her, and answered +in soft Turkish, at which it was Arlee's turn to laugh and shake her +head. But she felt a little rueful behind her pleasant smiling. She +wished she could talk with the girl. She wondered about her. She had +very handsome dark eyes, though perhaps overbold at times, but her +lips were thick and her nose was flattened as if generations of +<i>yashmak</i>-wearing women had crushed every hope of contour. +</p> +<p> +The cool freshness of the water was grateful to her senses. It was a +plunge back into sanity and normal life again, drowning those ghosts +of vague foreboding and anxieties which had kept such unpleasant +vigil with her, and when the Turkish girl returned with a tray, +Arlee was able to sit and eat breakfast with a trace of amusement at +the oddity of the affair—sipping coffee in this Parisian boudoir +overlooking an Egyptian garden. +</p> +<p> +As she was buttering a last crumb of toast the girl re-entered with +a box from the florist. Her white teeth flashing at Arlee in a smile +of admiring interest, she broke the cord with thick fingers and +Arlee found the box full of roses, creamy pink and dewy fresh. The +Captain's card was enclosed, and across the back of it he had +written a message: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + I am sending out for some flowers for our guest and I + hope that they will convey to her my greeting. If there + is anything that you would have, it is yours if it is in + my power to give. My sister is indisposed, but will visit + you when her indisposition will permit. This afternoon I + will see you and report the result of our protests to the + authorities. Until then, be tranquil, and accommodate + yourself here. +</p> +<p> +A tacit apology, thought Arlee, pondering the dull letter a moment, +then dropping it to touch the roses with light fingers. The young +man's wits had evidently returned with the sun. He had utterly lost +them last night with the starshine and the shadows and his Oriental +conception of the intimacy of the situation—but, after all, he had +too much good sense not to be aware of the folly of annoying her. +Her cheeks flushed a little warmer at the memory of the bold words +and the lordly hand on her arm, and her heart quickened in its +beating. She had certainly been playing with fire, and the sparks +she had so ignorantly struck had lighted for her an unforgettable +glimpse of the Oriental nature beneath all its English polish, but +she imagined, very fearlessly, that the spark was out. She was not a +nature that was easily alarmed or daunted; beneath her look of +delicate fragility was a very sturdy confidence, and she had the +implicit sense of security instinct in the kitten whose blithe days +have known nothing but kindness. Yet she felt herself tremendously +experienced and initiated.... +</p> +<p> +She wrote back a word of thanks for the flowers and a request for +writing paper and ink, and when they were brought she wrote three +most urgent letters, and after an instant's hesitation a fourth—to +the Viceroy himself. Feeling that his mail might be bulky, she +marked it "Immediate" in large characters and gave them to the maid, +who nodded intelligently and shuffled away. +</p> +<p> +It was very odd, she thought then, that she had no letters. By now +the Evershams must surely have written—she had begged them to.... +But she was <i>not</i> going to be silly and panicky, she determinedly +informed that queer little catch in her side which came at the +thought of her isolation, and humming defiantly she sat down at the +white piano and opened the score of a light opera which she knew: +</p> +<p class="verse"> + + Say not love is a dream, <br /> + Say not that hope is vain ... + +</p> +<p> +She had danced to that tune last night—no, the night before +last—danced to it with that extraordinarily impulsive young man +from home—for all America was now home to her spirit. And she had +promised to see him last night. She wondered what he had thought of +her absence.... She could imagine the Evershams dolefully deploring +her rashness, yet not without a totally unconscious tinge of proper +relish at its prompt punishment. They were such dismal old dears! +They <i>would</i> complain—they must have made her the talk of the hotel +by now. Robert Falconer would enjoy that! And his sister and Lady +Claire would ask about her, and Lady Claire would say, "How +odd—fancy!" in that rather clipped and high-bred voice of hers.... +But she was <i>not</i> going to think about it! +</p> +<p> +She opened more music, stared wonderingly at the unfamiliar pages, +read the English translation beneath the German lines, then pushed +them away, her cheeks the pinker. They were as bad as French +postcards, she thought, aghast. Whose room was this, anyway? Whose +piano was this? Whose was the lacy negligée she had worn and the +gossamer lingerie the maid had placed in the chiffonier for her? Was +she usurping her hostess's boudoir? +</p> +<p> +She began to walk restlessly up and down the room, feeling time +interminable, hating each lagging second of delay. +</p> +<p> +Then came a tray of luncheon, and lying upon it a yellow envelope. +With an eagerness that hurt in its keenness she snatched it up and +tore out the folded sheet. Her eyes leaped down the lines. Then +slowly they followed them again: +</p> +<p class="bquote"> + + I think it very strange of you to leave us like that, but + of course you are your own mistress. We are sorry and + hope it will soon be over and you will join us again, + unless you prefer your other friends, the Maynards. We + have packed your clothes and sent them to Cook's for your + orders, and we have paid your hotel bill. Let us know + when you can join us. +</p> + + <p class="ar"> <span class="sc">Mrs. Eversham</span>. +</p> +<p> +That was all. No word of real sympathy—no declaration of help. +Passive acceptance of her predicament—perhaps indeed a retributive +feeling of its fitness for her folly. They were annoyed.... Packing +her clothes must have been a bother—so was paying her hotel bill. +</p> +<p> +She crumpled the telegram with an angry little hand. Evidently they +had done none of the telephoning she had begged of them. Surely +there would have been time for that, if only they had hurried a +little! She remembered with a sort of hopeless rage their maddening +deliberateness.... Well, they were gone off to the Nile—the +telegram, she saw, had been sent as they were on their way to the +boat—and she had nothing more to hope from them! But surely the +other people, the consul, the ambassador, the mysterious medical +authorities, would understand when they had read her letters. +</p> +<p> +She sent another note to the Captain, asking to be called when the +doctor came, and then she sat down at the little white table and +began again to write. +</p> +<p> +But not to Falconer. Never would she beg of him, never, she +resolved, with a tightening of her soft lips. She would never let +him know how miserable she was over this stupid scrape; when she +returned to the hotel she would carry affairs with a high hand and +hold forth upon the interesting quaintness of her experience and the +old-world charm of her hostess. She laughed, in angry mockery. Never +to him, after their quarrel, would she confess herself. +</p> +<p> +The letter was to a young man whose gray eyes she remembered as very +kind and whose chin as very vigorous. He would do things, she +thought. And he would understand—he was an American. And dimly she +felt that she didn't want him to think she had utterly forgotten +her promise of the evening before last, and she didn't want him to +be filled with whatever dismal impression the Evershams were giving +out. So she dwelt very lightly upon her annoyance at being detained, +and asked him please to see the consul or the English Ambassador or +somebody in power and hurry matters up a little, as her rightful +caretakers had taken themselves off to the Nile. And she said +nothing stupid about the strangeness of her writing to him after +only speaking to him twice and never being really presented. She +merely added, "Please hurry things—I hate being a prisoner," and +sealed and addressed it with a flourish to William B. Hill, and sent +it off by the maid, and felt oddly comforted by the memory of +Billy's vigorous chin. +</p> +<p> +The heat of the rose-and-white room was stifling now as the slant +sun of afternoon burned through the closed blinds and drawn +hangings. Languidly she curled up upon the sofa and pillowed her +heavy head on the scented silk, and so, drowsing with fitful dreams, +she lost the sense of the lagging hours. +</p> +<p> +She roused to find the maid at hand with more water jars, and, when +she had bathed, the girl reappeared and beckoned her to follow. +Perhaps the doctor was below, thought Arlee; perhaps the consulate +had sent for her! With flying feet she followed down the dark old +stairs and across the anteroom into the dim salon, only to find a +candle-lighted table set for dinner in the middle of the room and +Captain Kerissen bowing ceremoniously beside it. +</p> +<p> +In the blankness of her disappointment she scarcely grasped what he +was saying about the dinner hour being early and his sister being +indisposed. She interrupted with a breathless demand for news: +</p> +<p> +"And my letters—surely there has been time for answers!" +</p> +<p> +"Answers, yes," he replied, "but not such as I could wish for your +sake." +</p> +<p> +"You mean——?" +</p> +<p> +"The English have written to me and request that I cease to trouble +the department with my importunities. For I myself had written to +them again, that I might find grace in your eyes by accomplishing +your desires. They say to me that it is useless. The plague is more +serious than the convenience of my visitors, and all must be done +according to rule. When there is no danger you may depart." +</p> +<p> +The crash of hopes went echoing to the farthest reaches of her +consciousness. But pride stiffened her to dissemble, and she tried +to smile as she mechanically accepted the Captain's invitation to be +seated at the little candle-lighted table. +</p> +<p> +"There was no word to me personally?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"None, but the telegram which came this morning. I judged that it +was not of a significance, for you did not send me a report." +</p> +<p> +"No—it was not of a significance," she repeated, with a ghost of a +little smile. "It was from the Evershams." +</p> +<p> +"Ah! Their condolences, I think?... And is it that they still make +the Nile trip?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes.... They went this morning." She spoke hesitantly, averse to +having this eager-eyed young host perceive how truly deserted she +was. "They expect me to take the express train later and join them." +</p> +<p> +"It is only a night's ride to Assouan." He spoke soothingly. "But +you are not eating, Miss Beecher. I recommend this consommé." +</p> +<p> +It was worth the recommending. Miss Beecher spooned it slowly, then +demanded, "Why was I not called when the doctor came?" +</p> +<p> +"But he does not come! Perhaps he is afraid"—the young man's brows +and shoulders rose expressively—"but certainly he does not risk +himself. If a servant is ill we are to tell a soldier and the sick +one will be taken away to the house of plague—<i>bien simple</i>. It is +so hard that I am helpless for you," he said, with sympathetic +concern, then added, with an air of boyish confession, "although I +do not deny that it is happiness for me to see you here." +</p> +<p> +The look in his eyes forced itself upon her. And the secret sense of +discomfort intruded like a third presence at the little table. +</p> +<p> +In a clear voice of dry indifference: "That's very polite of you," +she remarked, "but I imagine you are pretty furious, too, to be kept +pent up in somebody else's house like this." +</p> +<p> +"But this is not somebody else's house," he smiled, his eyes +observant of her quick glance and look of confusion. "I am <i>chez +moi</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I thought—I was visiting your sister." +</p> +<p> +"My sister lives with me. She is a widow—and we are both alone." +</p> +<p> +"She does not seem to care for company." +</p> +<p> +"She is indisposed. She regrets it exceedingly." The young man +looked grave and solicitous. "But I trust your comfort is not being +neglected?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my comfort is being beautifully attended to, thank you, but my +patience is wearing itself out!" Arlee spoke with a blithe +assumption of humor. +</p> +<p> +"I wish that I could extend the resources of my palace for you." +</p> +<p> +"You must tell me about the palace. I shall want to picture it to my +friends when I tell them about it. It's very old, isn't it? It must +have seen a great deal of life." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, yes, it has seen life—and what life! <i>Quelle vie!</i>" A flash of +real enthusiasm dispelled the suave indolence of his handsome +features. +</p> +<p> +"Have you seen those old rooms? Those rooms that were built by the +Mamelukes? There is nothing now in Cairo like them." +</p> +<p> +"I thought them very beautiful," said the girl. "Tell me about those +Mamelukes who lived here." +</p> +<p> +"They were <i>men</i>," he said with pride, his eyes kindling, "men who +lived as kings dare not live to-day!" The subject of those old days +and those old ancestors of his was evidently dear to the young +modern, and he launched into an animated sketch of those times, +trying to picture for Arlee something of the glowing pageant of the +past. And as she listened she found her own high spirit stirring in +sympathy with the barbaric strength of those old nobles, riding to +battle on their fiery Arab steeds, waging their private wars, +brooking no affront, no command, working no other man's will. +</p> +<p> +"They knew both power and beauty," he declared, "like the Medici of +Florence. There are no leaders like that in the modern world. To-day +beauty is beggared, and power is lusterless.... And taste? Taste is +a hundred-headed Hydra, roaring with a hundred tongues!" +</p> +<p> +"While in the old days in Cairo it only roared with the tongues of +Mamelukes?" Arlee suggested, a glint of mischief in her smile. +</p> +<p> +He nodded. "It should be the concern of nobles—not of the rabble. +That is why I should hate your America—where the rabble prevail." +</p> +<p> +"It's not nice of you to call me a rabble," said Arlee, busy with +her plate of chicken. "But I want to hear more about your old +Mamelukes. Is the story true about the Sultan's being so afraid of +them that he had them taken by surprise and killed?" +</p> +<p> +"He did well to fear them," said Kerissen. "And he, too, was a +strong man who had the power to clear his own path. Those nobles +were in the path of Mohammed Ali. They were too strong for him, he +knew it—and they knew it and were not afraid. On one day they were +all assembled at the Citadel, at the ceremony which Mohammed Ali was +giving in honor of his son, Toussoum. It was the first of March, in +1811, and my ancestor, the father of my father's father, rode out +from this palace, through the gate by the court, which is the old +gate, in his most splendid attire to greet his sovereign's son. The +emerald upon his turban was as large as a man's eye, and his sword +hilt was studded with turquoise and pearls and the hilt was a blazon +of gold. His robes were of silk, gold threaded, and his horse was +trapped with gold and silver and a diamond hung between her eyes.... +The Mamelukes were fêted and courted, and then, as they were leaving +the Citadel—you have been up there?" he broke off to question, and +Arlee nodded, her eyes wide and intent like a listening child's, +"and you recall that deep, crooked way between the high walls, +between the fortified doors? Imagine to yourself that deep way +filled with men on horseback, quitting the Citadel, having taken +leave of their Sultan—they were a picture of such pride and pomp as +Egypt has never seen again. And then the treachery—the great gates +closed before them and behind them, the terrible fire upon them from +all sides, the bullets of the hidden Albanians pouring down like the +hosts of death—the uproar, the cries of horses, the shouts of the +trapped men, and then all the tumult dying, dying, down to the last +moan and hiccough of blood." +</p> +<p> +"But one escaped?" questioned the girl, breaking the silence which +had followed the cessation of his voice. "Is it true that one really +escaped?" +</p> +<p> +"Anym-bey—yes, he was the only one that escaped that massacre. He +had a fierce horse which gave him pain to mount, and he was still in +the courtyard of the palace when he heard the outburst of shots and +then the cries. He comprehended. Stripping his turban from his head +he bound it over the eyes of his stallion and, spurring to a gallop, +he dashed out over the parapet of the Citadel and down—down—down! +Magnificent! He did not die of it, but alas! he did not escape. +Wounded as he was he managed to reach the house of a relative, but +the soldiers of the Sultan tracked him there and seized him.... He +was killed." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, the pity—after that splendid dash!" Arlee stopped and looked +around her, at the strange shadowy room hung with its old +embroideries and latticed with its ancient screening. "This room +makes it all so real, somehow," she murmured. "I didn't believe it +all when the dragoman told me—probably because he showed me the +mark of the horse's hoof in the stone of the parapet! I thought it +was all a legend—like the mark." +</p> +<p> +"Did he show you, too, the bulrush where Moses was found and the +indentures in the stones in the crypt of the Coptic Church where +Saint Joseph and Mary sat to rest after the flight into Egypt?" +laughed the Captain. And, with a teasing smile, "Ah, what imbeciles +they think you tourists!" +</p> +<p> +But Arlee merely laughed with him, while the old woman changed the +plates for dessert. Her spirits had brightened mercurially. This was +really interesting.... Uneasiness had vanished. +</p> +<p> +"Is that an old Mameluke throne?" she asked, pointing to the raised +chair upon the dais, with its heavy, dusty draperies. +</p> +<p> +The Captain glanced at it and shook his head, smiling faintly. "No, +that is the throne of marriage." He pushed away his sweet and +lighted a cigarette. "That is where sits the bride when she has been +brought to the home of her husband—there she holds her reception. +Those are the fêtes to which the English ladies come in such +curiosity." His smile was not quite pleasant. +</p> +<p> +"You cannot blame them for feeling a real—interest," said Arlee +hesitantly. +</p> +<p> +"Their interest—pah!" he flung back excitably and made a violent +gesture with his cigarette. "They peer at the bride with their +haggard eyes, and they say, 'What! You have not seen your husband +till to-day! How strange—how strange! Has he not written to you? +Suppose you do not like him,' and they laugh and add, 'Fancy a girl +among us being married like that!'... The imbeciles—whose own +marriages are abominations!" +</p> +<p> +For a moment Arlee was silent, instinct and impulse warring within +her. The man was a maniac upon those subjects, and it was madness to +exchange a word with him—but her young anger darted through her +discretion. +</p> +<p> +"They are <i>not</i> abominations!" she gave back proudly. +</p> +<p> +"But I know—I know—have I not been at marriages in England?" he +declared, with startling fierceness. "Men and women crowd about the +bride; they press in line and kiss her; bearded mouths and shaven +lips, young and old, they brush off that exquisite bloom of +innocence which a husband delights to discover. Her lips are soiled, +<i>fanée</i>.... And then the man and woman go away together into a +public hotel or a train, and the people laugh and shout after them, +and hurl shoes and rice, with a great din of noise. I have heard!" +He stopped, looked a moment at the flushed curve of Arlee's averted +face, the droop of her shadowy lashes which veiled the confusion and +anger of her spirit, and then, leaning forward, his eyes still upon +her, he spoke in a lower, softer tone, caressing in its inflections. +</p> +<p> +"With us it is not so," he said. "We have dignity in our rejoicing, +and delicacy in our love. The bride is brought in state to the home +of her husband, no eyes in the street resting upon her, and there, +in his home, her husband welcomes her and retires with his friends, +while she holds a reception with hers. Later the husband will come +home and greet her, and he wooes her to him as tenderly as he would +gather a flower that he would wear. He is no rude master, no tyrant, +as you have been taught to think! He wins her heart and mind to him; +it is the conquest of the spirit!... I tell you that our men alone +understand the secret of women! Is not the life he gives her better +than what you call the world? The woman blooms like a flower for her +husband alone; his eyes only may dwell upon the beauty of her face; +for him alone, her lips—her lips——" +</p> +<p> +The young man's voice, grown husky, died away. A dreadful stillness +followed, a stillness vibrating with unspoken thought. Her eyes +lifted toward him, then fled away, so full of strange, dark, +desirous things was the look she encountered. Abruptly he rose—he +was coming toward her, and she struggled suddenly to her feet, +battling against the cold terror which held her dumb and unready. +She flung one arm out before her and found it grasped by hands that +were hot and burning. The touch shot her with a fierce rage that +cleared her brain and unlocked her lips. +</p> +<p> +"Is that—the conquest of the spirit?" she gasped, and for an +instant the white-hot scorn in her eyes, flashing into his, hid any +hint of the fear in her. +</p> +<p> +Involuntarily his grasp relaxed, and violently she wrenched her arm +away and stood facing him, a little white-clad image of war, her +eyes blazing, her breast heaving, a defiant child in her intrepidity +who gave him back look for look. +</p> +<p> +In his eyes there glowed and battled a conflict of desires. For one +moment they seemed flaming at her from the dark, like some wild +creature ready to spring; the next moment they were human, +recognizable. She read there grudging admiration, arrested ardor, +irresolution, dubiety, and secret calculation. +</p> +<p> +Then he put both hands behind him and bowed with ceremony. +</p> +<p> +"The spirit," he remarked dryly, "is worth the conquest." +</p> +<p> +She said proudly, "You would not like your English friends to know +how you treat a guest!" +</p> +<p> +At that she saw his lip curl in irony—at the mention of the +English, perhaps, or in disdain at the appearance of fearing a +threat, however powerful that threat might be. He answered with +calmness, "It is not the English I am considering.... Nor have I +treated my guest so ill, <i>chère petite mademoiselle</i>.... If for the +moment I mistook my cue—that look within your face—I ask grace for +my stupidity." +</p> +<p> +Suddenly she was frightened. He did not look like a man who wholly +surrenders his desires. His eyes seemed to say to her, "Wait—the +last word has not been spoken!" She felt her knees trembling. +</p> +<p> +With an effort she got out, "It is granted—but never again—must +you misunderstand. An American girl——" +</p> +<p> +She stopped. There was a lump in her throat. Across a bright, +familiar veranda she could hear a clear, sharp voice answer, +"American goose!" She saw a lean tanned face burn red with anger. A +wave of loneliness went through her. The irony of it was pitiless. +How right Robert Falconer had been! +</p> +<p> +He was staring down at the table beside him, frowning, considering. +She saw with peculiar distinctness how the cigarette he had dropped +had burned a hole in the fine linen. One of the candles was dripping +lopsidedly. She thought some one ought to right it. She wondered if +that soft step, hesitating, behind the curtains, was the serving +woman's, and she turned toward that doorway. +</p> +<p> +"I don't think I care for any coffee," she said, with an air of +careless finality. "I think I will go back to my room. Good +evening." +</p> +<p> +He followed her to the doorway, drawing aside the curtains as she +passed into the anteroom, and opening the door at the foot of the +steps, with an answering, "Good evening," and an added, "Till +to-morrow, Mademoiselle." And then, as the door closed below her, +she paused on the dark stairs and huddled against the wall, +listening to the faint footfalls from below, crossing and +recrossing. Then, when the silence seemed continual, she tiptoed +down the stairs again, softly pushed open the unlatched door, stole +across the anteroom to the curtained doorway and peered in. +</p> +<p> +The salon was empty, and in its center the supper table stood +stripped of its cloth and candles. Only the pale light from the +windows dispelled the growing dark. Like a little white wraith Arlee +fled through the room and turned the handle of the door at the head +of the <i>haremlik</i> stairs. The door was locked. +</p> +<p> +She shook the handle, first cautiously, then with increasing +violence, then she ran back into the room to the nearest window, +staring down through the screen. It would have been a steep jump +down into the street, but her tense nerves would have dared it +instantly. Her hands tore at the <i>mashrubiyeh</i>, but the tiny +spindles and delicate curves held sound and firm. She beat against +it with fierce little fists; she leaped against it with all her +trifling weight. It did not yield an inch. Was there iron in all +that delicacy? Or was that old wood impregnable in its grim trust? +</p> +<p> +Wildly she glanced back into the room. Suppose she took a chair and +beat at this carving—could she clear a way before the servants +came? Could she take the jump successfully? She gazed down into the +street, estimating the fall, trying to calculate the hurt. +</p> +<p> +As she gazed, her eyes grew fixed and filled with utter amazement. +Down the street, on a black horse that arched his curving neck and +danced on light, fleet feet, rode a man in a uniform of green and +gold. He sat erect, his clear-cut profile toward her. The next +instant his horse, side-stepping at a blowing paper, turned his face +into view. It was Captain Kerissen. +</p> +<p> +Some one was stirring in the anteroom, and Arlee darted to the left +of the throne-chair and through the door there which stood ajar. +She was in a dim salon, like the one that she had left, but smaller, +and across from her was another door. She flew toward it, wild with +the hope of escape, and it opened before her eager hands. +</p> +<p> +From the shadows of the room it disclosed came a figure with a quick +cry. So suddenly it came, so tumultuously it threw itself toward her +that Arlee had a startled vision of bare arms, glittering with +jeweled bands, arrested outstretched before her as the low gladness +of the cry broke in an angry guttural. Slowly the arms dropped in a +gesture of despair. She saw a face, distorted, passionate, grow +haggard beneath its paint in the reversal of hope. +</p> +<p> +"Madame!" stammered Arlee to that strange figure of her hostess. +"Madame—Oh, pardon me," she cried, snatching at her French, "but +tell me how I can go away from here. Tell me——" +</p> +<p> +"<i>C'est toi—va-t-en!</i>" the woman answered in a voice of smothered +fury. She made a menacing gesture toward the door. "<i>Va-t-en</i>." +Suddenly her voice rose in a passion of angry phrases that were +indistinguishable to the girl, and then she broke off as suddenly +and flung herself down upon a couch. From behind her the old woman +came shuffling forth and put a hand on Arlee's arm, and Arlee felt +the muscles of that hand as strong and rigid as a man's. Utterly +confused and bewildered, the girl suffered herself to be led back +through the rooms to the foot of her stairs. +</p> +<p> +"Mariayah!" screamed the old woman, and after a moment the voice of +waiting-maid answered from above, and then as Arlee dumbly ascended +the stairs, the voice of the old woman rose with her in shrill +admonition. +</p> +<p> +It was the voice of a jailer, thought the white-lipped girl, and +that little, dark-skinned maid who waited upon her so eagerly, with +such sidelong glances of strange interest, was the tool of a jailer. +And though the turning of the key in her own hand gave her a +momentary sense of refuge from them, it was but a false illusion of +the moment. There was neither refuge nor safety here. She was being +deceived ... +</p> +<p> +The quarantine was lifted. +</p> +<p> +How else could the Captain be cantering down the street? He did +not look like a man escaping.... Perhaps he had bribed the +doorkeeper—that which he had declared impossible for Arlee.... +But certainly he was deceiving her. +</p> +<p> +Like a swollen river bursting its banks, her racing mind, wild with +suspicion, surged out of its simple channels and swirled in every +direction.... What did he mean? What was he trying to do? Keep her +in ignorance of the outside world, detain her as long as he dared +while the Evershams' absence left her friendless, and inflict his +dreadful love-making upon her? Perhaps he thought that he could +fascinate her! +</p> +<p> +She laughed aloud, but it was such a ghostly little laugh that it +set her nerves jumping. She stopped in her feverish pacing of the +floor; she tried to control her racing mind, she tried to be very +calm and to plan. +</p> +<p> +Had he sent all those letters she had written? Steadily she stared +at the possibility that he had not. But at least the Evershams knew +where she was. Even the meager warmth of their telegram was like an +outstretched hand through the dark. She clung tight to it. +</p> +<p> +It was absurd to be frightened. He would never dare to annoy +her—never, in his sober senses. When they were alone together he +had lost his head, but that was accident—impulse... +</p> +<p> +She rolled the divan against the locked door. She piled two chairs +upon it. +</p> +<p> +No, of course, she had nothing really to fear from him. He was too +wise not to understand the gulf between them. To-morrow she would +confront him flatly with his deceit; she would array the power of +the authorities behind her race. She would sweep instantly from that +ill-omened palace. There would be no more philandering. +</p> +<p> +Her lips moved as she silently rehearsed the mighty speeches that +she would make, and all the while as she leaned there against a +window, staring strangely through the candle-light at the barricade +before the door, she could think of nothing but how mad and unreal +it all seemed—like some bad dream from which she would wake in an +instant. +</p> +<p> +But she did not wake. The dream persisted, and the iron bars across +her window were very tangible. Down below her in the garden the old +lebbek tree rustled stealthily in the stillness. Gusty clouds hid +the stars. In the distance the interminable tom-tom beat. +</p> +<p> +She cast herself into the bed and cried convulsively, like a +desperately frightened child, while the awful sense of terror and +utter loneliness seemed to be rolling over and over her, like an +unending sea. Her sobbing racked her from head to foot. She cried +until she was spent with weakness. Then, her wet face still pressed +against the pillow and her tangled hair flung out in disordered +curls, she fell at last into the deep sleep of exhausted youth. +</p> +<p> +She woke with a smothered cry. In the darkness a hand had touched +her. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<h3> + A GIRL IN THE BAZAARS +</h3> +<p> +Billy slapped on his hat with a clap of violence. She might have +just <i>seen</i> him! Then he got up and marched down the steps. There +was no more use in camping on that veranda. There was no more use in +guarding that entrance. When a girl went whirling off in a +limousine, "all dolled up" as his academic English put it, that girl +wasn't going to be back in five minutes. And anyway he'd be blessed +if he lay around in the way any longer like a doormat with "Welcome" +inscribed upon the surface. +</p> +<p> +So this spurt of masculine shame at his swift surrender to her, and +his masculine resentment at being ignored as she went by, sent him +hurrying down the street resolved not to return till dinner. +</p> +<p> +From habit his steps took him to the bazaars. But the zest of that +bright pageant was dulled for him. The color was gone even from the +red canopies, and the excitement had vanished from the din of +noises, the interest fled from the grave figures squatting in their +cubby holes of shops draped with silky rags or sewing upon scarlet +slippers. He listened apathetically to the warring shouts of the +donkey boys and the anathemas of a jostled water carrier stooping +under his distended goatskin, then dodged out of the way of a +goaded donkey and turned into one of the passages where the +four-footed could not penetrate. +</p> +<p> +For a few moments the bargaining over a silver bracelet between two +beturbaned and berobed Arabs caught the surface of his attention, +and as the wrangling became a bedlam of imprecations, and the +explosive gestures made physical violence a development apparently +of mere seconds, Billy's eyes brightened and he estimated chances. +But as he picked his favorite there was one final frenzy of fury, +and then—peace and joy, utter calm on the wild waters! One Arab +counted out the coins from a little leather bag about his neck and +the other passed over the bracelet, and with mutual salaams and +smiling speeches, behold! the affair was accomplished. +</p> +<p> +Disgustedly Billy turned away. Then on the other side of him he +heard a voice, a sweet and rather high voice, with a musical +intensity of inflection that was as English as the Union Jack. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's <i>sweetly</i> pretty," the voice was saying irresolutely, +"but I don't think I <i>quite</i> care to—not at <i>that</i> price." +</p> +<p> +"I—I will buy it for you—yes?" said another voice. "It is made for +you—so 'sweetly pretty' as you say." +</p> +<p> +Billy turned. A slim, tall girl in a dark blue frock was standing +before a counter of Oriental jewelry, her head turned, with an air +of startled surprise, to the man on the other side of her who had +just spoken. He was a short, stout, blond man, heavily flushed, +showily dressed, with a fulsome beam in his light-blue eyes and an +ingratiating grin beneath his upturned straw-colored mustaches. +</p> +<p> +The girl turned her head away toward the shop-keeper and put back +the turquoise-studded buckle she held in her hand. "No, I do not +care for it," she said in a steady voice whose coldness was for the +intruder and turned away. +</p> +<p> +Billy had a glimpse of scarlet cheeks and dark lashed eyes before +the blond young man again took his attention. +</p> +<p> +"You do not like it—no?" he said, blocking her path, his face +thrust out to smile into hers. "But I buy you anything you wish—I +make you one present——" +</p> +<p> +The girl gave a quick look about. But she was in a pocket; for there +was no other exit to that line of shops but the path he was +blocking. All about her the dark-skinned venders and shoppers, the +bearded men, the veiled women, the impish urchins, were watching the +encounter with beady eyes of malicious interest. +</p> +<p> +Billy took a quick step forward and touched the man on the arm. "Let +this lady pass, please," he said. +</p> +<p> +The German confronted him with blood-shot blue eyes that ceased to +smile and clearly welcomed the belligerency. +</p> +<p> +"Gott! Who are you?" he derided. "Get out—get out the way." +</p> +<p> +"Get out yourself," said Billy, and stepping in front of the fellow +he extended a rigid arm, leaving a passage for the girl behind him. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, thank you," he heard her say, and as he half turned his head at +the grateful murmur he felt a sudden staggering blow on the side of +his face. He whirled about, on guard, and as the man struck again, +lunging heavily in his intoxication, Billy knocked up the fist as it +came. +</p> +<p> +"You silly fool!" he said impatiently, and as the man made a blind +rush upon him he caught him and by main force flung him off, but his +own foot struck something slippery and he lurched and went down, +with a wave of intense disgust, into the dirt of the bazaars. He +heard a chorus of cries and imprecations about him; he jumped up +instantly, looking for his assailant, but the German was clinging to +the front of the jewelry booth. "Meet you—satisfaction—honor," he +was saying stupidly. +</p> +<p> +A native policeman elbowed his way through the throng, urging some +Arabic question upon Billy, who caught its import and replied with +the few sentences of reassurance at his command, pointing to the +banana peel as the cause of all. A fat dragoman had suddenly +appeared from nowhere and was hurriedly attempting to lead away the +intoxicated one. +</p> +<p> +"You in charge of him? Take him to his hotel and throw him in the +tub," said Billy curtly, and the dragoman replied with profound +respect that he would do even as the heaven-born commanded. +</p> +<p> +Brushing off his clothes Billy shouldered his way out of the throng +and was met by two bright and grateful eyes and a slim, bare, +outstretched hand. +</p> +<p> +"Thank you <i>so</i> much—I am <i>so</i> sorry," said the musical voice. +</p> +<p> +"You shouldn't have waited," said Billy, with a prompt pressure of +the friendly little hand. "It might have been a real row." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't run away," she said in serious protest at such +ingratitude. "I had to see what happened to you. And I am so sorry +about your clothes." +</p> +<p> +"Not hurt a particle—I chose a fortunate place to drop," he +returned lightly, but distinctly chagrined that he <i>had</i> dropped. +</p> +<p> +"It was so fine of you," she answered, "just to parry him like +that—when he'd been drinking. I saw what you did." And then she +added, very matter-of-factly, "And I'm afraid your nose is bleeding, +too." +</p> +<p> +Billy put up a startled hand. In the general soreness he had not +noticed that warm trickle. His whole face turned as scarlet as the +shameless blood. Frantically he rummaged with the other hand. +</p> +<p> +The girl thrust a square of white linen upon him. "Please take +mine—it will ruin your clothes if it gets on them." +</p> +<p> +Her immense practicality refused to be embarrassed in the least. +Feeling immensely foolish Billy accepted hers, but then he +discovered his own handkerchief and stuffed hers away into his +pocket. +</p> +<p> +"You're a trump," he said heartily. "And it's all right now—all but +the swelling, I suppose." He sounded rueful. He had remembered his +engagement for the evening. +</p> +<p> +Her head a little aslant, the girl regarded him critically. "N-no, +it doesn't seem to be swelling," she observed. "Of course it's a +little red but that will pass." +</p> +<p> +They were walking side by side out of the narrow street and now, on +a crowded corner, they paused and looked around. "I left Miss +Falconer at the Maltese laces," she murmured, and to the laces they +turned their steps. +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer was still bargaining. She was a middle aged lady, +Roman nosed and sandy-haired, and she brought to Billy in a rush the +realization that she was "sister" and the girl was Lady Claire +Montfort. The story of the encounter and Billy's hero part, related +by Lady Claire, appeared most disturbing to the chaperon. +</p> +<p> +"How awkward—how very awkward," she murmured, several times, and +Billy gathered from her covert glance upon him that part of the +awkwardness consisted in being saddled with his acquaintance. Then, +"Very nice of you, I'm sure," she added. "I hope the creature isn't +lingering about somewhere.... We'd better take a cab, Claire—I'm +sure we're late for tea." +</p> +<p> +"Let me find one," said Billy dutifully, and charging into the +medley of vehicles he brought forth a victoria with what appeared to +be the least villainous looking driver and handed in the ladies. +</p> +<p> +"Savoy Hotel, isn't it?" he added thoughtlessly, and both ladies' +countenances interrogated him with a varying <i>nuance</i> of question. +</p> +<p> +"I remember noticing you," he hastily explained. "I'm not exactly a +private detective, you know,"—the assurance seemed to leave Miss +Falconer cold—"but I do remember people. And then I heard you +spoken of by Miss Beecher." +</p> +<p> +The name acted curiously upon them. They looked at each other. Then +they looked at Billy. Miss Falconer spoke. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps we can drop you at your hotel," said she. "Won't you get +in?" +</p> +<p> +He got in, facing them a little ruefully with his damaged +countenance, and subtly aware that this accession of friendliness +was not a gush of airy impulse. +</p> +<p> +"You know Miss Beecher then?" said Miss Falconer with brisk +directness. +</p> +<p> +"Slightly," he said aloud. To himself he added, "So far." +</p> +<p> +"Ah—in America?" +</p> +<p> +"No, in Cairo." +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer looked disappointed. "But perhaps you know her +family?" +</p> +<p> +"No," said Billy. He added humorously, "But I'll wager I could guess +them all right." +</p> +<p> +"Can you Americans do that for one another? That is more than we can +venture to do for you," said the lady, and Billy was aware of irony. +</p> +<p> +"We know so little about your life, you see," the girl softened it +for him, with a direct and friendly smile, and then gazed watchfully +at her chaperon. She was a nice girl, Billy decided emphatically. +</p> +<p> +"How would you construct her family?" was the elder lady's next +demand. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, big people in a small town," he hazarded carelessly. "The kind +of place where the life isn't wide enough for the girl after all her +'advantages' and she goes abroad in search of adventure." +</p> +<p> +"Adventure," repeated Miss Falconer thoughtfully. She seemed to +have an idea, but Billy was certain it was not his idea. +</p> +<p> +He hastened to clarify the light he had tried to cast upon his +upsetting little countrywoman. "All life, you know, is an adventure +to the American girl," he generalized. "She is a little bit more on +her own than I imagine your girls are," and for the fraction of a +second his eyes wandered to the listening countenance of Lady +Claire, "and that rather exhilarates her. And she doesn't want +things cut and dried—she wants them spontaneous and unexpected—and +people, just as people, interest her tremendously. I think that's +why she's so unintelligible on the Continent," he added +thoughtfully. "They don't understand there that girlish love of +experience as experience—enjoyment of romance apart from results." +</p> +<p> +"Romance apart from results," repeated Miss Falconer in a peculiar +voice. +</p> +<p> +"I don't believe you quite get me," said Billy hastily. He felt +foolish and he felt resentful. And if these English women couldn't +understand the bright, volatile stuff that Arlee was made of, he +certainly was not going to talk about it. But Miss Falconer had one +more question for him. +</p> +<p> +"When you say big people in a small town do you mean her father +would be a sort of country squire?" +</p> +<p> +"More probably a captain of industry," Billy smiled. +</p> +<p> +"A captain—Oh, that is one of your phrases!" +</p> +<p> +"One of our phrases," he laughed, and then parried, "I thought you +were acquainted with Miss Beecher?" +</p> +<p> +"Quite slightly," said Miss Falconer in an aloof tone. "My brother +came over on the same ship with her—he came to join us here." +</p> +<p> +Billy experienced a flood of mental light. The brother—at the hotel +he had discovered that his name was Robert Falconer—was coming to +join his elder sister and her young charge. He had come on the same +steamer as Miss Beecher. Ergo, he was staying at the hotel where +Miss Beecher was and not with his sister. Billy comprehended the +anxiety of the lady with the Roman nose. He looked at Lady Claire +with a certain sympathy. +</p> +<p> +He caught her own eyes reconnoitering, and they each looked hastily +away. +</p> +<p> +Again Miss Falconer returned to her attack. "Then you really know +nothing positive of Miss Beecher's family?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing in the world," said Billy cheerfully. "But why not ask Miss +Beecher?" +</p> +<p> +The lady made no reply. "Miss Beecher is a beautiful girl," said +Lady Claire hastily. "She's <i>so</i> beautiful that I suppose we are all +rather curious about her—of course people <i>will</i> ask about a girl +like that!" +</p> +<p> +"Of course," said Billy, and Lady Claire, perceiving that he +resented this catechism about his young countrywoman, and Miss +Falconer perceiving that nothing was to be gotten out of him, the +conversation was promptly turned into other channels, the vague, +general channels of comment upon Cairo. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The Evershams dined alone. Alternately, from their table to the +doorway went Billy's eager eyes, but no vision with shining curls +and laughing eyes appeared. Evidently she had stayed to dine with +whatever people she had gone to see. Robert Falconer was watching +that table, too.... Perhaps she would not return till late; perhaps +he would have only a tiny time with her that evening.... And he had +not been able to buy out that man's berth upon the steamer.... +</p> +<p> +Consommé and whitebait, <i>bœuf rôti</i> and <i>haricots vert</i> and +<i>crême de cérises</i> succeeded one another in deepening gloom. The +whole dinner over, and she had not appeared! +</p> +<p> +He went out to the lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw +the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he +jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the +word Alexandria spoken fretfully by Mrs. Eversham. +</p> +<p> +"Good evening, good evening," said Billy hurriedly to the ladies, +and being a young man of simple directness, undeterred by the +glacial tinge of the ladies' response—they had not forgotten his +defection of the evening before when they were entertaining him so +nicely—he put the question which had been tormenting him all +evening, "Where is Miss Beecher to-night?" +</p> +<p> +"Alexandria," said Mrs. Eversham again, and this time there was a +hint of malicious satisfaction in her voice. +</p> +<p> +"Alexandria?" Billy was incredulous. "Why I—I understood she was to +go up the Nile to-morrow morning." +</p> +<p> +"She was, but she has changed her mind. She had word from some +friends of hers while we were out this afternoon and she flew right +off to join them." +</p> +<p> +"You mean she isn't going up the Nile at all now?" +</p> +<p> +"I haven't an idea what she is going to do. She is not in our care +any longer. And I don't suppose the boat company will do anything +about her stateroom at this late date—certainly she can't expect us +to go to any trouble about it." +</p> +<p> +"She left us half her packing to do," Clara Eversham contributed, +addressing Falconer with plaintive mien, "and her hotel bill to pay. +She is the most unexpected creature!" +</p> +<p> +Two young men silently and heartily concurred. +</p> +<p> +"What was her hurry?" Billy demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, she's going camping in the desert with them—that sort of thing +would fascinate her, you know. Her telegram wasn't very clear. She +just sent a wire from the station, I think, or from Cook's, with +some money for her bill by the boy. So careless, trusting him like +that!" +</p> +<p> +"I don't suppose he brought it all," Mrs. Eversham declared. "You +see, she didn't say how much she was sending—just said it was +enough for her bill." +</p> +<p> +Billy looked at Falconer. He admired the stolidity of that +sandy-haired young man's countenance. He envied the unrevealing +blankness of his eyes. +</p> +<p> +"May I ask where she is stopping in Alexandria?" he persisted. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Eversham shook her head. "She didn't give any address—the best +hotel, I suppose, whatever that is." +</p> +<p> +"The Khedivial," Falconer supplied. +</p> +<p> +"She just said to send her things to Cook's and to write to her +there and she would write when she came back. She had been expecting +to meet those friends, the Maynards, later, but we had no idea that +she was going to run off with them like this. It's very upsetting." +</p> +<p> +"We shall miss her," said Clara Eversham suddenly, with a note of +sincerity that made Billy warm to her a trifle. So he bestirred +himself getting their after dinner coffee and remembered to send +Mohammed for the cream for her, and listened with a show of +attention to their interminable anecdotes and corrections. But his +mind was off on the way to Alexandria.... +</p> +<p> +Not a word of farewell. Of course, they had not exactly arrived, in +those twenty-four hours, at a correspondence stage, but still she +had made a positive engagement for that evening—and she had known +he was trying to buy that berth. Only that morning she had listened +to his account of his endeavors with a mischievous light in her blue +eyes and a prankish smile edging her pink lips ... and she might, +after that, have left just a line to tell him to cancel his +arrangements.... But what could he expect from such a tricksy sprite +of a girl? Only twenty-seven hours before he had seen her, +flagrantly tardy, nonchalantly unrepentant, first mock and then +annihilate the worthy and earnest young Englishman who had +endeavored to correct her ways ... He had known then the volatile +stuff that she was made of—and had succumbed to it! +</p> +<p> +But he <i>had</i> succumbed. On that point he was most disastrously +certain. The memory of the young girl possessed him. Her beauty +haunted him, that spring-like beauty with its enchanting youth and +gaiety. And the spirit that animated that beauty, that young, +blithe, innocently audacious spirit which looked out on the world +with such sunnily trustful eyes, drew him with a golden cord. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +He smoked many a pipe over it that night, his feet on the open +window ledge, his eyes on the far-spreading flat roofs, the distant +domes and minarets darkly silhouetted against the sky of softest, +deepest blue. The stars were silver bright. They spangled the heaven +with the radiance they never give to northern skies; they gleamed +like bright, wild creatures on their unearthly revels.... It would +be glorious camping in the desert on a night like this ... Heaven be +praised, he had not bought that berth ... Alexandria ... the +Maynards ... the desert ... +</p> +<p> +He knocked out the ashes from his last pipe and rose briskly. His +decision was made, but its success was on the knees of the great god +Luck. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<h3> + BILLY HAS HIS DOUBTS +</h3> +<p> +The encounter in the bazaars that Thursday afternoon brought one +more result to young Hill besides the bruise upon his chin and the +privilege of bowing to Lady Claire and her vigilant chaperon, and +the presence of Lady Claire's little handkerchief in his coat +pocket. +</p> +<p> +It brought a young German, scrupulously sober, soberly apologetic, +in formal state to Billy's hotel upon Friday morning, whose card +announced him to be Frederick von Deigen and whose speech proclaimed +him to be utterly aghast at his own untoward behavior. +</p> +<p> +"I was not myself," he owned, with a sigh and a melancholy twist of +his upstanding mustaches. "I had been lunching alone—and it is bad +to lunch alone when one has a sadness. One drinks—to forget.... But +you are too young to understand." He waved his hand in compliment to +Billy's youth, then continued, with increasing energy, "But when I +find what <i>dummheit</i> I have done—how I have so rudely addressed the +young Fräulein with you, and have used my fists upon you, even to +the point of hurling you upon the street—I have no words for my +shame." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it wasn't exactly a hurl," Billy easily amended. "There was a +banana peel where my heel happened to be—and I wasn't half +scrapping. I could see you weren't yourself." +</p> +<p> +"Indeed no! Would I," he struck himself gloomily upon the breast, +"would I intrude upon a young Fräulein, and attack her protector? It +was that bottle—that last bottle.... I knew—at the time.... I +offer you my apology. I can do no more—unless you would have +satisfaction—no?" +</p> +<p> +"I guess I had all the satisfaction that was coming to me +yesterday," said Billy. "You've got a fist like a professional. But +there's no harm done.... Only you want to get over taking that last +bottle and offering presents to young ladies," he concluded, with an +accent of youthful severity. +</p> +<p> +The German nodded a depressed head. His melancholy, bloodshot eyes +fixed themselves sadly upon Billy. "Ach, it is so," he assented +meekly, "but when one has a sadness—" He sighed. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, of course, that's tough," agreed Billy sympathetically. "I +hate a sadness." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps you have known—?" The other's eyes lifted toward him, then +dropped dispiritedly. "But, no, you are too young. But I—Ach!" He +added in his own tongue a line of which Billy caught <i>geliebt</i> and +<i>gelebt</i>, and so nodded understandingly. +</p> +<p> +"That geliebing business is bad stuff," he returned, and again the +other tugged at his mustaches with a nervous hand and shook his big +blond head. +</p> +<p> +"She was to have met me here," he said abruptly. "She wrote—I was +to come quick—and then she comes not. That is woman, the <i>ewige +weibliche</i>." He scowled. "But, Gott, how enchantment was in her!" +</p> +<p> +Billy heard himself sigh in unison. The phrase suggested Arlee. And +the situation was not dissimilar. He felt a positive sympathy for +the big blond fellow in his pronounced clothes and glossy boots and +careful boutonnière.... He smiled in friendly fashion. +</p> +<p> +"She'll come along yet," he prophesied, "and if she doesn't, just +you go out after her. I wouldn't take too many chances in the +waiting game." +</p> +<p> +The German shook his head. His blue eyes swam with sentimental +moisture. "You do not understand," he said. "She went with +another—I must wait for her to come away. I have no address—so?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, that—that's different," stammered the young American. His +sympathy became cynical. Fishy business—but even a fishy business +has its human side. So presently he found himself gazing +interestedly upon the photograph the German displayed in the back of +his watch—the photograph of a decolleté young woman with +provocative dark eyes and parted lips and pearl-like teeth, and he +shook the caller's hand most heartily in parting, and prophesied, +with fine assurance, the successful end of this fishy romance. +</p> +<p> +"You have a heart, my friend," said the German solemnly, and lifting +hat and stick and lemon-colored gloves from the table, he bowed +profoundly in farewell. +</p> +<p> +"And to the Fräulein—you will give my so deep apology?" he added +earnestly, and Billy assured him that he would. And he found +himself, for all his pre-occupation with the vision of Arlee's +spring-like beauty, by no means displeased at the errand. A man must +have something to do while he is waiting—if he is to avoid last +bottles! He would seek her out that very afternoon. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +But by afternoon he was tearing upstairs and downstairs through the +hotel after a very different quarry, which at last he ran to earth +at a tiny table behind a palm on the veranda. The quarry was further +protected by an enveloping newspaper, but Billy did not stand on +ceremony. +</p> +<p> +"I want to talk to you," said he. +</p> +<p> +Falconer looked up. He recognized Billy perfectly, though his gaze +gave no admission of that. This tall young fellow with the deep-set +gray eyes and the rugged chin and the straight black hair he first +remembered seeing dancing that Wednesday evening with Arlee—after +their own disastrous tea and its estrangement. Arlee had appeared on +mystifyingly good terms with him, though he was positive from his +own observations, and had corroboration from the Evershams, that she +had never spoken to him until five minutes before. Then the fellow +had fairly grilled the Evershams about the girl's whereabouts last +night. And he had learned that the previous afternoon he had managed +to take Claire's protection upon himself in the bazaars, actually +convincing her that she ought to feel indebted to him, and had +driven back with them.... An unabashed intruder, that fellow! He +ought to have a lesson. +</p> +<p> +His air of unwelcome deepened, if possible, as Billy helped himself +to a chair, drew it confidentially close to him and cast a careful +glance about the veranda. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want anyone to hear this," he explained. +</p> +<p> +Falconer smiled cynically. He had met confidential young Americans +before. There was nothing they could sell <i>him</i>. +</p> +<p> +"It's about Miss Beecher." Billy looked uncomfortable. He hesitated, +blushed boyishly through his tan, and blurted, "There's something +mighty queer about that departure of hers yesterday." +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"I don't feel right about it.... It's deuced queer. She isn't in +Alexandria." +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" +</p> +<p> +"If you say 'Ah' again, I hope you choke," said Billy violently to +himself. Aloud he continued, "I wired to the Khedivial and to all +the other hotels—there are just a few—and she isn't registered +there, and the Maynards are not, either." +</p> +<p> +"Possibly staying with friends," said Falconer indifferently. He +regarded his paper. +</p> +<p> +"Very few Americans have friends in Alexandria. However, that might +be so. But no ship has arrived from the Continent for three days, +and it seems mighty odd, if they were there three days ago, for them +to have wired at the last minute and had her tear off like that." +</p> +<p> +"I do not pretend to account for your compatriots," said the +sandy-haired young man. +</p> +<p> +Billy looked at him a minute. "There's no use in your being +disagreeable," he remarked. "I didn't thrust myself upon you because +I was attracted to you, at all. But I thought you were a sensible, +masculine human being who was interested in Miss Beecher's +whereabouts." +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon," said the other young man. "I am—I mean I am +interested—if you think there is anything really wrong. But I do +not see your point." +</p> +<p> +"Well, now, see if you can see this. I wired the consul there and +some other fellow at the port, and they wired back that no people of +the name of Maynard have arrived on any of the boats for the past +two weeks—that was as far back as they looked up. Now that's +<i>queer</i>." +</p> +<p> +"He could be mistaken—or they could have bought some one else's +accommodations—and that would account for the hastiness of their +plans," Falconer argued. +</p> +<p> +"But what train did she go on?" +</p> +<p> +"What train? Why, the express for Alexandria." +</p> +<p> +"That left at eight-thirty. Now why in the world would she rush away +in the middle of the afternoon, sending a telegram from the station +and leaving her packing undone, for an eight-thirty train?" +</p> +<p> +"Why I—I really can't say. She may have had errands——" +</p> +<p> +"Where did she have her dinner? Did she dine with friends at some of +the hotels? What friends has she here?" +</p> +<p> +"I really can't say as to that, either. I wasn't aware that she had +any." +</p> +<p> +"And where did she send that telegram from? There isn't a copy of +any such telegram at the offices I've been to—at Cook's or the +station. It might have been written on a telegraph blank and sent up +by messenger with the money—but why not come herself, with all that +time on her hands? And nobody remembers selling her any ticket to +Alexandria—and you know anybody would remember selling anything to +a girl like that." +</p> +<p> +Falconer was silent. +</p> +<p> +"And nobody at Cook's paid out any money on her letter of credit—or +cashed any express checks for her. Where did that money come from +that was sent back to the hotel?" +</p> +<p> +"But what is the point of all this?" +</p> +<p> +"That's what I just particularly don't know.... But it needs looking +into." +</p> +<p> +Falconer favored him with a level scrutiny. "How long have you known +Miss Beecher?" +</p> +<p> +"I met her the night before last. That, however, doesn't enter into +the case." +</p> +<p> +"It would seem to me that it might." +</p> +<p> +"Between three days and three weeks," said Billy, remembering +something, "the difference is sometimes no greater than between +Tweedledum and Tweedledee." He smiled humorously at the other young +man, a frank, likeable smile that softened magically the bluntness +of his young mouth. "That's why I came to you. You are the only soul +I know to be interested in Miss Beecher's welfare. The Evershams are +off up the Nile—and they'd probably be helpless, anyway. Besides, +you know more about this blamed Egypt of yours than I do.... Have +you any idea where she went yesterday afternoon?" +</p> +<p> +"Not at all." +</p> +<p> +"Neither have the Evershams. They were surprised when I asked them +about it this morning. They didn't know she was going. Now she went +somewhere in a limousine——" +</p> +<p> +"Probably to the station." +</p> +<p> +"American girls don't go to stations in floating white clothes and +hats all pink roses. I particularly remember the pink rose," said +Billy gloomily. "No, if she had been going to the station she would +have had on a little blue or gray suit, very up and down, and a +little minute of a hat with just one perky feather. And she'd have a +bag of sorts with her—no girl would rush away to Alexandria without +a bag." +</p> +<p> +"She could have sent it ahead of her or returned and dressed later +for the station." +</p> +<p> +"Why the mischief did I tramp off to those bazaars?" said the young +American. "But, see here—weren't you around the hotel after that +yesterday—at tea time?" +</p> +<p> +"Er—yes—I——" +</p> +<p> +"And weren't you rather looking out for Miss Beecher? Wouldn't you +have noticed if she had been coming or going?" +</p> +<p> +Falconer stroked his small mustache and shot a look at Billy out of +the corners of his eyes which expressed his distinct annoyance at +these intrusive demands. +</p> +<p> +"I don't remember to have met you," said he slowly. +</p> +<p> +"You haven't. I know your name, but you don't know mine. I am +William B. Hill." +</p> +<p> +"Ah—Behill." +</p> +<p> +"No—<i>B.</i> Hill. The B is an initial." +</p> +<p> +"Of what?" said the other casually, and Billy's cheeks grew suddenly +warm. +</p> +<p> +"Of my middle name," said he, with steady composure. "If we are to +do any team-work you will have to let it go at the William and the +Hill." +</p> +<p> +"What team-work do you suggest?" +</p> +<p> +"Find out where she went yesterday. Find out where she is now. What +worries me," he burst out, with ungovernable uneasiness, yet with a +hint of humor at his own extravagant imaginings, "is her talking to +that Turk fellow yesterday—that Captain Kerissen, I think she +called him. She had told me the night before that he was going to +get her some ball tickets or other, and I didn't think anything of +it, but yesterday I thought he had his nerve to come and call upon +her. You see, I passed through the hall and saw them talking. I went +out to the veranda and after he had gone I came in again, but she +was nowhere in sight. Then I went back to the veranda, and in a few +moments she came out, in white with a rose on her hat, and went off +in a car that was ready. Of course Kerissen wasn't in the car, and I +haven't any proof of his connection with the thing, but he might +easily have induced her to look at some mosque or other off the +'beaten track'——" +</p> +<p> +"But she returned, for later she sent that telegram from the +station," Falconer argued. +</p> +<p> +Billy was silent. Then he burst out, "But all the same there is a +mystery to this thing.... She—she's too confoundedly young and +pretty to run around alone in this painted jade of a city." +</p> +<p> +"This city has law and order—much more of them than there are in +your national hotbeds of robbery and murder." +</p> +<p> +"H'm—well, I don't hold any brief for Chicago—I suppose Chicago is +the target—so I won't defend that. But I've heard stories." +</p> +<p> +"Queer ones, I should say." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Devilish</i> queer ones!... How about that young Monkton or Monkhouse +who dropped out of things last winter?" +</p> +<p> +Falconer looked annoyed. "Oh, there are rumors——" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, rumors that he flirted with a Turkish lady—that he was on +horseback just outside her carriage during the jam at the +Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and they looked and smiled and afterwards met in +a shop. And rumors that she gave him a <i>rendezvous</i> at her home and +that he told another man about it at the club, who warned him +sharply, and he only laughed.... But it's no rumor that he +disappeared. He's gone, all right, and nobody knows where he went, +and nobody seems to want to know. Officially they said he was +drowned out swimming—or lost in a sandstorm riding in the +desert—or spiked on top of an obelisk or something equally +reasonable—but, privately, people say other things.... No +international law intrudes into the Turkish woman question." +</p> +<p> +"What of it?" Falconer looked stubborn. "I daresay the fellow +received his deserts.... But the case hardly applies—what?" +</p> +<p> +"Well—it makes one feel that anything can happen here—that the +city is quicksand where a chance step would engulf one." Billy +stared frowningly out on the vivid street ahead of him. A pretty +English bride and her soldier husband were out exercising their +dogs. Two ladies in a victoria were advertising their toilettes. A +blond baby toddled past with his black nurse. It was all very +peaceful and charming. It did not look like quicksand.... Into the +picture came a one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile on his head, +stalking slowly along, scanning the veranda with his single, +penetrating eye, calling his wares in harsh gutturals, and with him +came suddenly the sense of that strange background before which all +this bright tourist life was played, that dark watching, secret +East, curious and incalculable. +</p> +<p> +Falconer folded his paper with a sharp crackle that recalled young +Hill's wandering thought. "That's all very well, but it doesn't +apply," he observed, with conviction. +</p> +<p> +"Then where is she?" Billy was bluntly belligerent. +</p> +<p> +The other put his paper in his pocket. "In Alexandria, to be sure, +and not at all pleased, either, to have you bring her name into such +questioning." He looked squarely at Billy as he said that, and the +eyes of the two young man met and exchanged a secret challenge of +hostility. +</p> +<p> +Billy rose. "Oh, all right," he returned. "I daresay I am as much a +fool as you take me for.... She may be all right. But if not—I +thought I'd give you a chance to take a hand in it." +</p> +<p> +"The sporting chance," said Falconer, with an appreciable smile. +"I'm much obliged—but I don't at all share your misgivings.... And +what in the world do you propose to do about it?" +</p> +<p> +For a minute Billy's gaze blankly interrogated the sunlit distances. +His eyes were fixed, but empty; his forehead knitted in an uncertain +frown. Then quite suddenly he turned and flashed at Falconer a look +of odd and unforeseen decision. +</p> +<p> +"I'm going to buy a crocodile," he imparted, with a wide, boyish +grin. "I'm going to buy a crocodile of a one-eyed man." +</p> +<p> +Stolidly Falconer eyed his departing back. Stolidly, definitely, +comprehensively, he pronounced judgment. "Mad," said he. "Mad as the +March Hare." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<h3> + THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR +</h3> +<p> +That stealthy touch brought Arlee half upright, shot with ghastly +alarms. Her heart stopped beating; it stood still in the cold clutch +of terror. The breath seemed to have left her body. +</p> +<p> +Once more she felt the hands gropingly upon her. It came from the +back side of her bed, reaching apparently from the very wall. And +then she heard a voice whispering, "Be still—I do not hurt you. Be +still." +</p> +<p> +It was a woman's voice, soft, sibilant, hushed, and the frozen grip +of fear was broken. She was trembling now uncontrollably. +</p> +<p> +"Who is there?" +</p> +<p> +"S-sh!" came the warning response, and then, her eyes staring into +the shadowy recess, she saw the curtains at the back side of the bed +were parting as a figure appeared between them. +</p> +<p> +"Give me a box, a book—somethings to put here in this lock," +commanded the voice peremptorily, and in a daze Arlee found herself +extending a magazine across the bed toward the half-seen figure, who +turned and busied herself about the curtains a moment, then came +straight across the bed into the room beside Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"Now you see who I am," said the astonishing intruder calmly. +</p> +<p> +Mutely Arlee shook her head, seeing only a figure about her own +height clad in a dark negligée. Dumfounded she stood watching while +her visitor deliberately lighted a candle. +</p> +<p> +"So—that is better," she observed, and in the light of the tiny +taper between them the two stood facing each other. +</p> +<p> +Arlee saw a girl some years older than herself, a small, plump, +rounded creature, with a flaunting and insouciant prettiness. Her +eyes were dark and bright, her babyish lips were full and scarlet, +her nose was whimsically uptilted. Dark hair curled closely to the +vivid face and fell in ringlets over the white neck. +</p> +<p> +"You don't know me?" she said in astonishment at Arlee's eyes of +wonder. "He has not told you?" Incredulity, impertinent and mocking, +darted out of the dark eyes. "What you think then—you what got my +room?" +</p> +<p> +"Your room?" Arlee echoed faintly. She flung a quivering hand toward +the bed. "How did you get in here? I locked the door——" +</p> +<p> +"You see how I came—I came by the panel," She waited a moment, +watching the wide blue eyes before her, the parted lips, the white +cheeks in which the blood was slowly stealing back, and incredulity +gave way to astonished acceptance. "You don't know that, either? +That is very funny." +</p> +<p> +"Did you lock it?" was Arlee's next breathless question. "What was +that you said about putting in a magazine? Did you leave it open?" +</p> +<p> +The other girl reached quickly and caught her arm, as Arlee turned +toward the bed. "No, no, if it goes shut we cannot open it inside," +she warned. "It does not open this side unless you have the key. It +opens from without. But he will not come in now—he is at the +Khedive's palace. We are all right." +</p> +<p> +"But I want to get away," cried Arlee. She turned upon this other +girl great eyes of pitiful entreaty, eyes where the dark shadows +about them lay like cruel bruises on the white flesh. "I must get +away at once. Won't you help me?" +</p> +<p> +"Help you? I would help myself, if I could. But there is no way out. +It is no use." The unknown girl spoke with a bitterness that brought +conviction. Piteously the flare of hope and spirit wilted. +</p> +<p> +"You are sure?" she questioned faintly. "There is no way out?" +</p> +<p> +"No way, no way!" The other shook her head impatiently. "Do I not +know? Let us talk of that again. Now I came to see you, to see what +pretty face had sent me packing!" She laughed, but there was +ugliness in the laughter, and catching up the candle she held it +before Arlee, her face impudently close, her eyes black darts of +curiosity. +</p> +<p> +"Well you are pretty enough," she said coolly. "Hamdi has always the +good taste. But do you think you will keep my room from me—h'm?" +</p> +<p> +"I do not want your room," said Arlee with passionate intensity. +"I do not want to stay here. I want only to go away. Oh, there must +be a way. Please help me—please." She choked and broke down, the +tears hot in her eyes. +</p> +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/img2.jpg" width="290" height="450" +alt="''I do not want to stay here'' +" /> +</center> + +<p class="cap"> +"'I do not want to stay here'" +</p> +<p> +The other girl abruptly drew her down on the couch and settled +herself beside her among the cushions. "Here—be comfortable—let us +be comfortable and talk," she said. "Do not cry so—What, you are so +soon sorry? You want to be off?" +</p> +<p> +Desperately Arlee steadied her shaking voice. "I must go at once." +</p> +<p> +"You got enough so soon?" +</p> +<p> +"Enough!" was the quivering echo. +</p> +<p> +"What you come for then?" +</p> +<p> +"Come for? I did not know what I was coming into. I thought—but +tell me," she broke off to demand, "tell me about the plague. Was +there any quarantine at all? How soon was it over? What is really +happening?" +</p> +<p> +"Quar—quar—what you mean?" +</p> +<p> +"The plague? Has there been a plague here? Have people had to stay +in the palace on account of it?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh—h!" The indrawn breath was eloquent of enlightenment. "Is that +somethings he said to you?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes. Isn't it true? Wasn't there any plague?" +</p> +<p> +With eyes of dreadful apprehension she saw the other shake her head +in vigorous denial. "No plague," she said decisively. "My maid—she +know everything. No sickness here." +</p> +<p> +"Then it was all a lie." Arlee's eyes fixed themselves on the +dancing candle flame, swaying in the soft night air. She tried to +think very coolly and collectedly, but her brain felt numb and +fogged and heavy. The sight of that tortured candle flame hypnotized +her. Faintly she whispered, "Then it was all—an excuse," and, at +that, sharp terror, like a knife, cleaved her numbness. She turned +furiously to her visitor. +</p> +<p> +"But he would not dare make it all up!" +</p> +<p> +She saw the callousness of the shrug. "Why not—he is the master +here!" Her own heart echoed fearfully the words. She stammered, +"But—but I wrote—I had a letter—there must——" +</p> +<p> +"What in all the world are you saying?" demanded the other. "What is +this story?" and as Arlee began the quick, whispered narration she +listened intently, her little dark head on one side, nodding wisely +at intervals. +</p> +<p> +"So—you came to have tea," she repeated at the close, in her +quaintly inflected, foreign-sounding English. "And you stay because +of the plague? So?" +</p> +<p> +"But I wrote—I wrote to my friends and——" +</p> +<p> +"And gave him the letters!" +</p> +<p> +"But I had a letter from my friends—or a telegram rather." Arlee +knitted her brows in furious thought. "And it sounded like her." +</p> +<p> +"Does he know her, that friend?" questioned the other and at Arlee's +nod, "Then he could write it himself—that is easy on telegraph +paper. He is so clever, that devil, Hamdi." +</p> +<p> +"But my friends knew where I was going"—slowly the mind turned back +to trace the blind, careless steps of that afternoon. "At least he +said he'd leave a note—Oh, what a fool I was!" she broke off to +gasp, seeing how that forethought of his, that far-sighted remark, +had prevented her from leaving a note of her own. And she remembered +now, with flashing clearness, that upon her arrival he had +carelessly inquired if she, too, had left a note of explanation. How +lightly she had told him no! And what unguessed springs of action +came perhaps from that single word! For so cleverly had the trap +been swiftly prepared that if anything had gone wrong, if anyone had +become aware of her intentions, it could have passed off as a visit +and she would have returned to her hotel prattling joyously of her +wonderful glimpse into the seclusion of Turkish aristocracy! +</p> +<p> +"But the soldier with the bayonet," she said aloud. "There was one +on the stairs." +</p> +<p> +"A servant." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, if I had passed him!" +</p> +<p> +"You could not—he would run you through on a nod from Hamdi. They +watch that stairs always—day and night." +</p> +<p> +Day and night—and she was alone here, in this grim palace, alone +and helpless and forsaken.... What were her friends thinking about +her? Where did they think she was? Her thoughts beat desperately +upon that problem, trying to find there some ray of hope, some +promise that there were clues which would lead them to her, but she +found nothing there but deeper mystery and fearful surmise. He was +clever enough to cover his traces. No one had known of his +connection with her departure.... Perhaps he had sent them some +false and misleading message like the one he had sent her.... What +were they thinking? What did they believe? This was Friday night, +and she had been gone since Thursday afternoon. +</p> +<p> +In that moment she saw with merciless clarity the bitter straits +that she was in. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, he is a devil!" her companion was reaffirming with an angry +little half-whisper sibilant with fury. "Look how he treat me—me, +Fritzi Baroff! You do not know me? You do not know that name? In +Vienna it is not so unknown—Oh, God, I was so happy in Vienna!" She +stopped, her breast heaving, with the flare of emotion, then went on +quickly, with suppressed vehemence, "I was a singer—in the light +opera. I dance, too, and I was arriving. Only this year I was to +have a fine rôle—and it all went, zut, it all went for that man! I +was one fool about him, and his dark eyes and his strange ways.... I +thought I had a prince. And he worship me then, too—he follow me, +he give me big diamonds.... So he take me here—it was to be the +vacation!" +</p> +<p> +She gave a strangling little laugh. Arlee was listening with a +painful intensity. She was living, she thought, in an Arabian +nights. +</p> +<p> +"I stay at the hotel first till he make this like a private +apartment for me," went on the little dancer, "and when I come here +he do everything for me. I have luxury, yes, jewels and dresses and +a fine new car. Then, by and by, I grow tired. It was always the +same and he was at the palace, much. And he would not let me make +acquaintance. We quarrel, but still I have a fancy for him, and +then, you understand, money is not always so easy to find. Life can +be hard. But I get more restless, I want to go back on the stage and +I, well, I write some letters that he finds out. <i>Bang</i>, goes the +door upon me! He laugh like a fiend. He say that I am to be a little +Turkish lady to the end of my life. Oh, God, he shut me up like a +prisoner in this place, and I can do nothing—nothing—nothing!" +</p> +<p> +She beat out angry emphasis on the palm of one hand with a clenched +little fist. "I go nearly mad. I lose my head. He laugh—he is like +that. He is a devil when he turns against you, and, you understand, +he had somethings new to play with now.... Sometimes he seem to love +me as before, and then I would grow soft and coax that he take me to +Europe some day, and then when I think he mean it—Oh, how he +laugh!" She drew in her breath sharply. "Sometimes I think he will +take me again—sometime—but I cannot tell. And the days never end. +They are terrible. My youth is going, going. And my youth is all I +have." +</p> +<p> +She looked at Arlee with eyes where her terror was visible, and all +the lines of her pretty, common little face were changed and +sharpened, and her babyish lips dragged down strangely at the +corners. +</p> +<p> +A surge of pity went through Arlee Beecher. "Oh, you will escape," +she heard herself saying eagerly. "And I will escape—or—or——" +</p> +<p> +"Or?" +</p> +<p> +"Or I will kill myself," she whispered quiveringly. +</p> +<p> +The little Viennese stared hard at her, and a sudden crinkle of +amusement darted across the bright shallows of her eyes. "Come, +love is not so bad," she said, "and Hamdi can be charming." Then as +she saw a shudder run through the young girl before her, "Oh, if you +do not fancy him!" she cried airily, yet with a keen look. +</p> +<p> +But Arlee's two hands sought and covered up the scarlet shame in her +face. She did not cry; she felt that every tear in her was dried in +that bitter flame. Her whole body seemed on fire, burning with fury +and revulsion and that awful sense of humiliation. +</p> +<p> +The other stirred restively, "Come, do not cry—I hate people to +cry. It makes everything so worse. And do not talk of killing. It is +not so easy anyway, that killing. Do I not think I will die and end +all when my rage is hot—but how? How? I cannot beat my head out +against the wall like a Russian. I cannot stick a penknife in my +throat or eat glass. To do that one must be a monster of courage. +And I have no poison to eat, no gas to turn on.... Then the mood +goes and the day is bright and I look in the glass and say, 'Die? +Die for you? Kill all this beautiful young thing that has such joy +to dance and sing? Never! Some day I will be out of this and laugh +at the memory of such blackness.' And so I practice my voice and my +steps—and I wait my chance. When you came, yesterday, first I was +furious to be pushed out, then I think it is the chance, maybe. I +think you would be glad to help me to get out and not to stay to +make you jealous. But if you are also in the trap——" Her voice +fell dispiritedly. She drew a long, weary breath. +</p> +<p> +"But I shall not stay in the trap." Arlee spoke with desperate +resolve, her eyes on the sputtering candle, her palms against her +burning cheeks, her finger tips pressed into her throbbing temples. +"I shall not let him make me afraid like this. He must know he will +be found out—he cannot play like this with an American girl! I +shall face him to-morrow. I shall demand my freedom. I shall tell +him that I did tell people at the hotel—that he will be discovered. +I will make <i>him</i> afraid!" +</p> +<p> +"You cannot. He watches what happens on the outside—he knows." +</p> +<p> +After a pause, "Oh, why did I come!" said Arlee in choking +bitterness. +</p> +<p> +The little dancer turned, and, sitting there cross-legged on the +couch like a squat little idol, her chin sunk in her palm, her dark +eyes staring unwinkingly at Arlee, gave the girl a long, strange +scrutiny. +</p> +<p> +"You do not like him?" she said. +</p> +<p> +"I hate him!" +</p> +<p> +"But you came to tea?" +</p> +<p> +"To meet his sister. To see the palace." +</p> +<p> +"His sister? Did he show you one?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes—a woman with red hair. A Turkish woman. She spoke French to +me." +</p> +<p> +"Ah—that would be Seniha!" +</p> +<p> +"Seniha? I don't know. She played the piano. Has he more than one +sister?" +</p> +<p> +But as she put the question a sudden flash of intuition forestalled +the dancer's mocking cry of "Sister!" And as Fritzi hurried on, "He +has no sister—not here, anyway," Arlee's thoughts ran back to the +beginning of that very evening which seemed so long ago when she had +plunged wildly into those unknown rooms, and saw again that +painted, jeweled woman with her outstretched arms. +</p> +<p> +"She is his wife," the Viennese was saying. +</p> +<p> +"I—I did not know that he was married." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Turkish marriages." The other shrugged, with a contempt a +trifle droll in one who had dispensed with every ceremony. "She was +his second. The first was a little girl, he said. The match was made +for him. She is dead. This Seniha was her cousin, a cousin who was +divorced and she lived with the wife. And our pretty Hamdi made love +to her, and she was mad about him and so, presently, it happens that +he must marry her, for it would be terrible to have disgrace upon +the wife's family. Besides the first wife had no children. So he +married her. But <i>she</i> had no children. It was all one fairy story." +Fritzi laughed under her breath in great enjoyment. "So Hamdi was +cheated and he has been a devil to her. The first little wife dies +and he shut the second up here, teasing her sometimes, sometimes +making love when he is dull, but forcing her to his will for fear he +will divorce her.... How she must have hated you, when she had to +play that sister. Except that she was glad that <i>I</i> was being put +aside," the dancer added with quick spite. "I think she would put +poison in my meat if she did not fear Hamdi so.... And always she +hopes that he will come back to her. I have seen her waiting, night +after night——" +</p> +<p> +And Arlee thought of the jewels and the silks ... and the long, +long, silent hours.... Slowly she put out her hand and snuffed out +the smoking wick, then raised her eyes to where the painted bars +stretched black across the starry square of sky. "Won't <i>she</i> +help?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +"Not she! Hamdi would find her out.... Not through her can you get +word to your friends. For you have friends here? And they will help +you? And then you will help me?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, if I can get help," promised Arlee. "But I am afraid my +friends have gone up the Nile—and there are just—just one or two +left in Cairo that would help. And I must get word to them <i>at +once</i>. What is the best way? Couldn't I push a note through the +windows on the street? Someone might see that!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, the doorkeeper. No, that is not safe.... If only that girl +were sure——" +</p> +<p> +"Mariayah?" cried Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"No, the other—the little one with the wart over her eye. Have you +seen her? Well, watch for her, then. She has an itching palm—she +may help. But only in little things, of course, for she is afraid. +And I have no money left and she is afraid to take a jewel." +</p> +<p> +"I have almost no money," said Arlee blankly. "Only a letter of +credit——" +</p> +<p> +"A letter of nothing here! But promise her your friends will give +much." +</p> +<p> +"Would she mail a letter?" +</p> +<p> +"Have you stamps? No? She is so ignorant that is an obstacle. And +the post is distant and she dare not go far. But sometimes the baker +sends a little boy, and if you had money to give she might get a +note to him to carry—though, maybe, she burns the note and keeps +the money," the Viennese ended pessimistically. +</p> +<p> +"But I must get help <i>at once</i>," Arlee iterated passionately. +Before——" +</p> +<p> +"Before?" the other repeated curiously, "He makes love to you—h'm?" +</p> +<p> +"He—is beginning." +</p> +<p> +"Only beginning?" +</p> +<p> +"Only—beginning." Arlee felt the girl's strange, hard scrutiny +through the dark. Then she heard her draw a quick breath as if her +eyes on Arlee's flower-like face had convinced her of something +against all her sorry little reason. +</p> +<p> +"Well, that is good then," she said. "Try to keep him off. What does +he promise you?" +</p> +<p> +"Promise me? He does not promise anything." +</p> +<p> +"But he must say something—what is between you—what?" demanded the +other impatiently. +</p> +<p> +Briefly, her shamed cheeks grateful for the shadows, Arlee told of +that walk in the garden, of the flowers and the letter, the scene +after dinner. And the other girl's eyes grew wider and wider, and +then finally she burst into a smothered little laugh. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, he is mad, that Hamdi!" she whispered. "He is a monster of +vanity—'conquest of the spirit'—h'm, I comprehend. That young man +has a pride beyond all sense. You dazzle him—he is in love again +like a boy. And he must dazzle you. His pride demands a victory not +of force alone.... Some men are like that.... Well, that is your +chance!" +</p> +<p> +"My chance?" +</p> +<p> +"Play with his vanity—fight his force with that!" said this strange +initiator into terrible secrets. "He will believe anything of his +fascinations—I know him. And if he is so mad for you that he dares +all this trouble to have you here, then he is so mad that you can +fool him and make him hold back in hopes to gain more from you. Make +him think you are coming, as he wishes, heart and body, but still +you would wait a little. So you gain time.... Oh, you must be +careful! If he loses hope, if you anger him, why the game is over. +But if you are careful you can gain a few days——" +</p> +<p> +"A few days," said Arlee in a tense little voice. +</p> +<p> +"Well, that is something—since you hate him so!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, that is something." Arlee drew a shivering breath, her head +drooping, her lashes on her cheeks. Then suddenly, amazingly, her +chin came pluckily up, her soft lips set with desperate decision, +her eyes turned on her counselor a look of flashing spirit. She was +like some young wild thing at bay, harried, defiant, tensely +defensive. Something of the pathos of her innocent presence there, +in that evil palace, utterly alone, hopelessly defiant, penetrated +for an instant the callous acceptances of the little dancer and her +eyes softened with facile sympathy, but the impression dulled, and +she only nodded her head encouragingly. +</p> +<p> +"Good! That is the way! Women can always act!" she murmured, +slipping off the divan and drawing her fluttering robes about her. +"But it is very late and I must go—it is not safe to stay so." +</p> +<p> +"Where is your room? Could I get to you?" +</p> +<p> +"No—for you cannot open that panel on the inside—unless you can +steal the key from him as I could not! My room—for this present, +little one," and her eyes laughed suddenly in challenge, "is up on +the top—a little old room all alone. My doors are locked, but there +is a panel in my room, too, a panel at the top of tiny stairs, and +the lock on that panel is so old and rusty that a knife make it +open. So I pushed it open and came down the tiny stairs that end out +there in the passage way, and I opened your panel. Now I must steal +back, but I shall come again, and we must plan." +</p> +<p> +"But where does this secret passage go?" Arlee had followed over the +bed, and held aside the heavy draperies while the little Baroff was +pushing the panel softly and carefully open. Eagerly Arlee peered +out into the darkness beyond. "Where does it go?" she repeated. +</p> +<p> +"It runs above the hall of banquets and into the <i>selamlik</i>," +whispered the Viennese. "It opens into Hamdi's rooms, he says, and I +know that a servant sleeps always at his door and another is at the +foot of the stairs. So it would be madness to try that way." +</p> +<p> +But Arlee stared thoughtfully into the secret place. "I am glad I +know," she said. +</p> +<p> +"Well, good-by, little one." The Viennese was standing outside now, +softly closing the door. For a moment her face remained in the +opening. "You will not tell Hamdi that I came—no?" she demanded +sharply, and then on Arlee's quick reassurance she nodded, whispered +good-by again, and drew back her little face. +</p> +<p> +The wall rolled into place and a gentle click told of the caught +lock. The curtains fell back over the wall. And Arlee was left +huddling there alone, feeling that it had all been a dream, but for +the heavy scent that lingered in the air and the wild fear beating +in her heart. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<h3> + A DESPERATE GAME +</h3> +<p> +Very slowly the black night grayed down into a wan, spectral +morning, and slowly the gray morning paled into a dim +mother-of-pearl dawn. And then suddenly the mother-of-pearliness +brightened into a shimmering opal, and the ray of pale gold light +slanted through the barred window and the bright face of new day +peeped over the sill, staring out of countenance the lurking shadows +of the night. +</p> +<p> +And then Arlee's eyes closed, and the heart which had been beating +like a frightened rabbit's at every sound and shadow steadied into a +rhythm as regular as a clock. She slept like a tired baby; while the +light grew brighter and higher, and reached in over the shining +dressing table, over the white piano, to rest upon the oblivious +face upon the couch and to play with the bright, tangled hair. +</p> +<p> +The first knocking upon the door did not disturb that sleep, and it +was a long time before the knock was again sounded. Then Arlee heard +and sprang to her feet in a lightning rush of consciousness. It was +Mariayah again, and the water jars which already looked familiar to +her, and after the water jars appeared more roses and with the roses +a letter. +</p> +<p> +Those roses came, the letter explained, to droop their heads before +her loveliness, which put theirs to shame. They would greet her as +humbler sisters greet a fairer. For they were roses of a day, but +she was the Rose of Life. The capitals were Kerissen's own. And then +abruptly the letter demanded: +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> + Did I frighten you last night? Is it so strange to you + that you have magic to make a man forget all the barriers + of your convention? Do you not know you have an + enchantment which distills in the blood and changes it to + wine? You are the Rose of Life, the Rose of Desire, and + no man can look upon you without longing. But you must + not be angry at me for that, for I am your slave, and + would strew roses always to soften the world for your + little feet.... Fortune has made you my guest. Will you + not smile upon me while Fortune smiles? Luncheon will be + in the garden, for it is cool and fresh today. +</p> + +<p> +The mask was slipping. Only a flimsy veil of sentiment now over his +rash will. Only a light pretense of her freedom, of his courtesy. He +was beginning to declare himself.... +</p> +<p> +But she must not let him suspect that she knew. She must <i>not</i>. +</p> +<p> +Her spirit responded fiercely to this tense demand upon it. The +dread, the panic of the night was gone. The fear that had shaken her +was beaten down like a cowardly dog. Excitement burned in her blood. +Everything depended upon her coolness and her wit, upon a look, +perhaps, the turn of a phrase, the droop of an eye, and she was +passionately resolved that neither coolness nor wit should fail her, +nor words nor looks nor eyes betray the heart of her. She would play +her rôle with every breath she drew. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +She crossed the room at the luncheon summons in the nervous tensity +of mood that an actress might go to play a part in which her career +would live or die. Every half hour with Kerissen was now a duel, +every minute was a stroke to be parried, and she flung herself into +that duel with the desperate exhilaration of such daring. Her hands +were icy, and her cheeks were flaming with the excitement which +consumed her, but she revealed no other trace of it, and she +wondered to herself at the inscrutable fairness of the face which, +looked back at her from the glass. +</p> +<p> +None of the record of those frightened, sleepless hours was written +there, none of her furious pride, her fixed intensity. Only the soft +shadows under the blue eyes gave her face a look of added delicacy +for all the unnatural flare of brilliant color, and a faint +wistfulness in those eyes seemed to overlay the smiles she +practiced, like a cloud shadow on a brook. And never, never, in all +her glad, care-free days, had she been as distractingly pretty as +she was that moment. With an angry little pang she recognized it, +pinning on the lace hat with its enchanting rose, and then +desperately she resolved to employ it and added two of Kerissen's +pink roses to the costume. +</p> +<p> +She thought the scene was very like a stage, when she came out +through the narrow door which the old woman unlocked from a key she +carried on a girdle, and slowly descended the stone steps. Beneath +the wide-spreading lebbek a low table was laid for luncheon with two +wicker chairs beside it. The green of the fresh turf was as vivid as +stage grass; the lilies loomed unreally large and white; the +poinsettias flaunted like red paper flowers behind the vivid picture +that the Captain made in a dazzling buff and green uniform picked +out with gold. His bow was theatric, so was the deep look of +exaggerated admiration he bent upon her—it was strange to remember +that her danger was not theatric also. But that was deadly real, and +real, too, was the sudden surge of color into the young man's sallow +face. +</p> +<p> +"You are kind to my roses—if not to me," he said quickly, and held +out his hand for the brief little clasp she accorded. +</p> +<p> +"Your roses are dumb and have said nothing to make me cross," she +laughed lightly, and looked swiftly about her. "How lovely this is," +she ran on, "and how charming to feel a breeze. That room is rather +warm and close.... Is you sister still too ill to come?" +</p> +<p> +And scarcely waiting for the assent which he began to frame with his +searching eyes upon her, she added, "I am afraid I made her angry +last night by intruding upon her. But I heard her voice and ran back +to her room to ask after her. She wouldn't let me stay at all." +</p> +<p> +It was droll how natural her voice sounded, she thought. His eyes +held their fixed scrutiny in an instant, then dropped carelessly +away, as he drew forward the wicker chairs. "She is a <i>nerveuse</i>, +you understand," he said with an air of indolent resignation, "and +one can do nothing for that sort of thing. A crisis comes—one must +wait for it to pass.... She regrets that condition.... And she +wished me to present her regrets to you," he added suavely, "for +that reception of you last night. She was ill and did not expect +you—and she did not wish you to see her in that condition." +</p> +<p> +"I should not have gone," acknowledged Arlee, "but, as I said, I +heard voices from the ante-room and thought I would like to see +her.... That pretty little maid she gave me does not speak any +English, so I cannot send any messages." +</p> +<p> +"But you can write them." +</p> +<p> +"My French spelling is worse than my pronunciation!" She laughed +amusedly. "I wish you would find me an interpreter to put my polite +remarks into polite sounding phrases. I know I put things like a +First Reader!" +</p> +<p> +He smiled. "You do not put them like a First Reader to me. <i>We</i> do +not need an interpreter.... Unless I need one to speak to you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, your English is wonderful!" She waited an instant, then +took a breathless plunge. "Have you any more news for me?" she +demanded, forcing the note of expectancy. It would be suspicious, +indeed, if she did not ask that. But what if he had decided to throw +the pretense aside—— +</p> +<p> +"Not one word of news more," he said slowly. +</p> +<p> +She felt him watching her as she looked down on her plate. The +pretty little girl was passing a platter of pigeon: Arlee did not +speak until she had helped herself, then she said in a voice touched +faintly with chagrin, "Well, the English are not very gallant toward +ladies in misfortune, are they? I feel furiously snubbed.... Of +course Mrs. Eversham never was much of a writer, but they might send +over my letters from the hotel. The last mail ought to have brought +a lot from that big brother of mine." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, yes, that big, grown-up, married brother who is so satisfied +with all you do!" +</p> +<p> +She felt she had been unfortunate in her rash confidences. +</p> +<p> +"He won't be so pleased when he learns how I wasted a perfectly good +Nile ticket," she remarked. "And Big Brother is rather fierce when +he isn't pleased." +</p> +<p> +His eyes smiled, as if he understood and despised her suggestion. +"Cairo and your America are not so near," he observed negligently, +"that an incident here is a matter of immediate knowledge there." +</p> +<p> +She felt the danger of seeming to threaten him. "Oh, I'd 'fess up," +she said lightly, playing with her food. "There—shoo—go away!" she +cried suddenly, with a militant gesture about her plate. "That's one +thing I hate about Egypt—the flies!" +</p> +<p> +"I hope that is the only thing you hate," said the young man +blandly. +</p> +<p> +"Isn't that enough? There are so many of them!" +</p> +<p> +He laughed with real amusement at her petulance. "Is there netting +enough in your room?" he inquired. "Would you like more for your +bed?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, I'm all right, thank you. The flies are chiefly bothersome +at meals. This is certainly their paradise." +</p> +<p> +"But is there anything you would like—to make you happy here? I +will get it for you. Would you not like some books, some music, some +new clothes——" +</p> +<p> +"I don't wonder you ask! But really this white gown will last a +little longer—Cairo is so clean. No, thank you, there is nothing I +need bother you about—Oh, yes, there really is one book that I +would like—a Turkish or an Arabic dictionary. I have always meant +to learn a little of the language and this would seem the +opportunity." +</p> +<p> +In the pause in which he appeared to be consuming pigeon she could +feel him weighing her request, foreseeing its results. +</p> +<p> +"I shall be most happy to teach you," was what he said, but she knew +she would never have that dictionary. And so one plan of the morning +went flying to the winds. But she snatched at the next opening she +saw and plunged into interested questions about the Turkish +language, asking the words for such things as seemed spontaneously +to occur to her—wall, palace, table—numbers—days of the +week—repeating the pronunciation with the earnestness of a diligent +young pupil, until she felt that her memory had all it could hold. +And distrust, always ready now like a prompter in the box, suggested +most upsettingly that perhaps he was not giving the right words. She +resolved to experiment upon Mariayah. +</p> +<p> +He reverted, with increasing emphasis, upon his desire to make her +happy in the palace, to surround her with whatever she desired, and +swiftly she availed herself of this second opening. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, indeed, there is something that would make me happier, if you +don't mind, please," she added with a droll assumption of meekness. +"You don't know how horrid it is for me to be caged in one room and +not be out of doors, and I would love to come down into the garden +when I want to. Won't you give me a key to that door? That is, if it +is always locked." +</p> +<p> +"Generally it is not," he said readily, "but now with the soldiers +about it is safer. You see, the soldiers can approach the garden +through the open banquet hall"—and he nodded to the colonnade +behind them—"and though it is forbidden, one cannot foretell their +obedience." +</p> +<p> +To one who knew those soldiers were chimerical acquiescence was +maddening. +</p> +<p> +"But, dear me, can't you have some one in the banquet hall to shoo +the soldiers away?" Arlee argued persuasively. "Since the rest of +the household has the court, it seems awfully selfish not to let the +ladies have the garden for their airing." +</p> +<p> +"It may be managed," he assented. "It has always been done, for the +garden is for the ladies. Whenever you wish to be in the garden you +have but to send word, and the household will remain in the court, +as is, indeed, the custom." +</p> +<p> +"It would not be so terrible, you know, if a gardener or a +donkey-boy did see my face!" laughed Arlee. "Plenty of them have had +that pleasure before this." +</p> +<p> +She saw that the young man's face changed. Every clear-cut line of +it was sharp with repugnance. "You need not remind me of that," he +said with muffled fierceness, staring down at his plate. +</p> +<p> +"The danger line!" she thought while shaking her head at him, with +the tense semblance of an amused little smile.... "You aren't the +least bit English," she rebuked, "and I thought you were." +</p> +<p> +"Not in that.... And some day England will see her folly." +</p> +<p> +"America is seeing her folly now," thought Arlee with secret +bitterness. But when she raised her eyes they were gently +contemplative. She spoke musingly. +</p> +<p> +"In things like that you aren't at all what I thought you +were—about our social customs, I mean. Yet fundamentally, I think +you are." +</p> +<p> +"That I am what?" +</p> +<p> +"What I thought you were." +</p> +<p> +He waited, palpably waited, but Arlee continued to peel a tangerine +with absorption, and the question had to come from him. He put it +with an air of indolent amusement, yet she felt the intent interest +in leash. +</p> +<p> +"And what did you think I was like, <i>chère petite mademoiselle</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"Very handsome for one thing, Monsieur! You see, I owe you a +compliment for calling me such a pretty name as this!" With a +mischievous smile she touched the roses nodding in her girdle. "And +very autocratic for another, with a very bad temper. If you can't +get your way you would be shockingly disagreeable!" +</p> +<p> +"But I always get my way," he assured her lazily, his teeth showing +under his small, black mustache. +</p> +<p> +"I believe you do!" Ingenuous admiration, simple and sustained, was +in the look she gave him. Her hands were not half so icy now, nor +her nerves so tense. She felt strangely surer of herself; the actual +presence of the danger calmed her. She must make good with this, she +thought simply, in strenuous American. +</p> +<p> +"And yet," she went on thoughtfully, the pretty picture of +fascinated absorption in this most feminine topic—the dissection of +a young man—"yet, you are chivalrous. And I think that is the +quality we American girls admire most of all." +</p> +<p> +"The quality—of indulgence?" he questioned, with a half-railing +air. +</p> +<p> +"The quality—of gentleness." +</p> +<p> +"But is there not another quality which you American girls would +admire more than that gentleness—if you ever had the chance in your +lives to see it? The quality of dominance? The courage of the man +who dares what he desires, and who takes what he wills? Is not +that——" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, yes, we love strong men," Arlee flung into the speech that was +bearing him on like a tide, "but we don't think them strong unless +they are strong enough to fight themselves. They may take what they +will—but they mustn't crush it.... There is a gentleness in great +strength—I can't explain what I mean——" +</p> +<p> +"Ah, I see, I see." He smiled subtly. "I am not to crush you, little +Rose of Desire," he said softly. +</p> +<p> +She met the sly significance of his gaze with a look of frank, +unfaltering candor. "Of course not," she said stoutly. "When +you—you make me afraid of you, you make me like you less. You seem +less like the friend I knew on the boat." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, that boat!... You were my friend, then!" he added suddenly, +with a note of question sounding through the affirmation, and she +answered quickly, looking away with an air of petulant reproach. +"Why, you know I was, Captain Kerissen. And here in Cairo——" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, here in Cairo," he interrupted triumphantly, "in the face of +those eyes and tongues—I saw that red-headed dog of an Englishman +looking his anger at you! But you smiled on me before them +all—those fools, those tyrannic fools——" +</p> +<p> +"But you mustn't abuse my other friends! They were only—stupid!" +</p> +<p> +"Stupid as their blood brother, the ox!... But they are not in the +picture now—those other friends!" Disagreeably he laughed. "And you +do not grieve for them—no? The world has not touched you? There is +no one out there,"—he made a gesture over the guarding walls—"no +one who holds a fragment of your thought, of your heart in his +hands?" +</p> +<p> +She looked at him as if puzzled, then burst into a bubbling laugh. +"Why, of course not! I've just had a nice time with people. There +has never been a bit of sentiment about it!" +</p> +<p> +"Not on your side," he said meaningly, and because this was hitting +the truth smartly on the head she looked past him in some confusion. +</p> +<p> +"Oh—boys!" she said with a deprecating little laugh. "I've never +listened to them." +</p> +<p> +He leaned back in his chair, feeling for his cigarette case, and +the contentment of his look deepened. "You have been a child, asleep +to life," he murmured complacently. "I told you you were a +princess—let us say a sleeping princess waiting for the prince, +like that old fairy tale of the English." He was looking at his +cigarette as he tapped it on the arm of his chair, and slowly struck +a light, then, after the first breath, "But do you not hear his +footsteps in your sleep?" he added, and gave her a glance from the +corner of his eyes. +</p> +<p> +She looked up and then down; she stared out into the sun-flooded +garden and laughed softly. "Even princesses dream," she demurely +acknowledged, and thought the line and her fleet, meaning glance +went very well with this mad opera-bouffe which fate was forcing her +to play. +</p> +<p> +Kerissen seemed to think that went very well, too, for his flashing +teeth acknowledged his pleasure in her aptness; then his smile faded +and she felt him studying her over his cigarette, studying her +averted gaze, the bright color in her cheeks, the curves of her +lips, and he was puzzled and perturbed by the sweet, baffling beauty +of her. A wild elation began to swell his heart. His eyes glowed, +his blood burned with the triumph, not so much of his daring capture +of her, but of the flattering tribute that her pretty ways were +paying toward his personality alone. Wary as he was, cynical of +subterfuge, he did not penetrate her guard. His monstrous vanity +whispered eager flattery in his ears. +</p> +<p> +And still he continued to stare at her, finding her unbelievably +lovely. "My grandfather would call you an <i>houri</i> from paradise," +he told her, the warmth of admiration deepening in his eyes. +</p> +<p> +"And your grandfather's grandson knows that I am only an <i>houri</i> +from America!... But that <i>is</i> paradise for <i>houris</i>!" +</p> +<p> +"And not for men, no!... Sometimes I have wished that those English +would restore in me that young belief in the heaven of the Prophet," +he continued, smiling, "and now that wish is granted. It is here, +that paradise," and his smile, flashing about the lonely garden, +came to dwell again upon the girl before him. +</p> +<p> +She laughed. "But does one <i>houri</i> make a paradise?" she bantered, +while the beating, hurrying heart of her went faster and faster till +she thought his ears would hear it. "We have a proverb—one swallow +does not make a summer." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Cela dépend</i>—that depends upon the <i>houri</i>.... When <i>you</i> are +that one it is paradise indeed." He leaned toward her, speaking +softly, but with a voice that thrilled more and more in its own +eloquence. +</p> +<p> +She was the Rose of Desire, he reminded her, and beside her all +other flowers drooped in envy. She was as lovely as young Dawn to +the eyes of men. She was the ravishing embodiment of gaiety and +youth and delight. He quoted from the poets, not from his own +Oriental poets, but snatches from Campion and Wilde, vowing that +</p> +<p class="verse"> + "There was a garden in her face,<br /> + Where roses and white lilies grow," + +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +and adding, with points of fire dancing in his heavy lidded eyes, +</p> +1 +<p class="verse"> + + "Her neck is like white melilote,<br /> + Flushing for pleasure of the sun," + +</p> +<p class="noindent"> +and went on to add praise to praise and extravagance to +extravagance, till a sudden little imp of mirth caught Arlee by the +throat, hysterically choking her. "I shall never like praise or +poetry or—or men again," she thought, struggling between wild +laughter and hot disgust, while aloud she mocked, "Ah, you know too +much poetry, Captain Kerissen! I do not recognize myself at all! You +are laughing at me!" +</p> +<p> +"Laughing at you?... I am worshipping you," he said tensely, his +eyes on hers, and the fierce words shattered her light defenses to +confusion. +</p> +<p> +Silence gripped her. She tried to meet his look and smile in mock +reproof, but her eyes fled away affrighted, so full of desperate, +passionate things was the dark gaze they touched. She gripped her +cold little hands in her lap and looked out beyond the lebbek's +shade into the vivid garden. The hot sunshine lay orange on the +white-sanded paths; the shadows were purple and indigo. A little +lizard had come out from a crack in a stone and was sunning himself, +while one bright eye upon them, fixed, motionless, irridescent, +warned him of their least stir. She envied him the safety of his +crack.... She herself must meet this crisis—must turn this tide.... +</p> +<p> +"It is—so soon," she faltered. +</p> +<p> +"Soon?" He had risen and was standing over her. "Soon? I was with +you on the boat—I walked by your side—I danced with you and held +you against my heart. And here in Cairo I walked and talked with +you.... And now for three days you have been under my roof, eating +at the table with me, alone within these walls, and you call it +soon! Truly, you are beyond belief! <i>Soon!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"But soon—for <i>me</i>!" she interrupted swiftly, and sprang to her +feet to face him with eyes and lips that smiled without a trace of +fear. Only her cheeks were no longer crimson but white as chalk. +"Too soon—for me to be sure—how <i>I</i> feel! I hadn't realized—I +hadn't known—Oh, you mustn't hurry me! You mustn't hurry me!" She +broke off in a confusion he might well misconstrue, and moved +nervously away, her back to him. +</p> +<p> +He stood staring after her, a man not in two minds but in three and +four. Her broken words—her smiles—her emotion—these might well +arouse the most flattering surmise, and his vanity and his curiosity +were stirred to swift delight. He broke into a storm of words, of +protestations, of eager persuasion and honied flattery, drawing +nearer and nearer to her, while she slipped continually away from +him. +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't hurry me," she echoed defensively. "I am not like +you—you Southerners. I——" +</p> +<p> +"You are asleep—I have told you that you are that sleeping +princess," he broke in, and following after as she turned away from +him, he put a quick arm about her, and bending over her, tried to +turn her about toward him. "Do you know how that little sleeping +princess was awakened by her prince?" he murmured fatuously, +bending closer. +</p> +<p> +The hat saved her, that coquettish little hat with its jealously +guarding brim which bent obstinately lower and lower between them. +And in the instant of his indecision, while he waited for the +surrender his vanity expected before exerting the force that would +conquer brutally, she broke unexpectedly from his clasp and darted a +few steps away from him, whirling about to face him with her head +flung back, her eyes on fire, her lips parted in a breathless +excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Captain Kerissen," she cried, and there was a ring of gaiety in her +voice, "do I understand that you are proposing to me?" +</p> +<p> +Very formally he bowed, a bow that hid the astonishment and the +cynical humor which zigzagged across his handsome face. "I am doing +myself that honor," he most suavely returned, and eyed her with an +astonished curiosity that checked his passion. +</p> +<p> +"Really?... So soon?" she cried very childishly, and again he bowed. +But this time she caught his smile. +</p> +<p> +"Really so soon, little Arlee." +</p> +<p> +To his amazement she burst into prankish laughter. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you <i>are</i> romantic!" she gave back. "And if I can believe you +truly in earnest—last night I was furious at you," she went on +rapidly, interrupting the speech forming on his lips, "for I thought +you a dreadful flirt, just taking advantage of my being here, and +yet—and yet you <i>didn't</i> seem that kind. You seemed a <i>gentleman</i>! +And now if you really mean—all you are saying—but you can't, you +can't! I know your words are running ahead of you!" +</p> +<p> +"My words—let my heart speak—I——" +</p> +<p> +"But I don't know whether I ought to listen or not!" she burst out, +and with great naïveté, "I'm afraid it would be very silly to let +myself care for you." +</p> +<p> +"Silly? An adorable silliness! Could you not be happy with me here +in this palace? You would be a princess, indeed, a queen of my +heart. I would put every luxury at your command." In mingled +eagerness and wariness he watched her, incredulous of her assenting +mood, but with a hope that lured him on to believe. And in his eyes, +dubious, desirous, calculating, watchful, she read the fluctuations +of his thought. If afterwards there should happen to be any trouble +about this affair, how wonderfully it would smooth things to have +the girl infatuated with him, to show that she had been a party to +the intrigue! And how spicily it sweetened the taste of success to +his lips! +</p> +<p> +He had caught her two hands in his, and clasping them tightly he +bent forward, trying to scan the changes in her hesitating look, +while his words poured forth in a stream of praise and promise. She +would live like a little princess. His love and his wealth were at +her feet. Other women were eager for him, but he was hers alone. She +would adore Egypt, the Egypt that he would reveal to her, and when +she wearied they would go to the Continent and live always as she +desired. Only she must be kind to him, be kind and sweet and lift +her eyes and tell him that she would make him happy. She must not +keep him waiting. He was not a man with whom one amused oneself. +</p> +<p> +"And I am not a girl whom one commands!" she gave back with a flash +of spirit and a childish toss of her head. "I like you, Monsieur, at +least I did like you before you hurt my fingers so horribly"—the +tight grasp on her hands relaxed and she drew them swiftly away, +rubbing them in mock ruefulness—"and I could like you better and +better—perhaps"—her blue eyes flashed a look into his—"if you +were <i>very</i> nice and polite and give me time to catch my breath! You +are such a <i>hurrying</i> sort of person!" Her whimsical little smile +enchanted him, even while he chafed at such delay. +</p> +<p> +"I am mad about you," he said in a low tone. +</p> +<p> +"And only me?" she laughed, her dimples showing. +</p> +<p> +So, teasing and luring, she held him off, and her heart beat +exultantly as she saw that she had given him the thought of marriage +for that of conquest, the dream of a perfect idyll for that of an +enforced submission.... It was a desperate play, but she played it +valiantly, and her fearfulness and the spell of her beauty sweetened +the rôle of beseeching suitor for him, and gave a glamour to this +pretty garden dalliance.... The memory of time came to him at last +with a start, and frowningly he stared at the watch he drew out to +consult. +</p> +<p> +"I must hurry away—to another part of the palace," he amended +swiftly, "where I have an engagement.... I shall not be at liberty +till to-night—rather late. I will send word to you, then——" +</p> +<p> +She shook her head at him. "To-morrow," she substituted gaily. "Let +us have luncheon to-morrow under the trees again like this. +</p> +<p> +"To-morrow is too far away——" +</p> +<p> +"No, it is just right for me. And if you really want to please +me——" +</p> +<p> +"But does it please you to make me miserable——?" +</p> +<p> +"You can't be very miserable when you have a luncheon engagement," +she insisted. "<i>I'm</i> not!" +</p> +<p> +He shrugged. "Till luncheon then—unless I should be back earlier +than I think." He gave her a quick look, but her face did not betray +awareness of the slip. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, of course, if you are at liberty sooner—And while you are busy +won't you manage things so I can stay out here awhile? I shall love +this garden, I know, when I am better friends with it," and after an +imperceptible pause he promised to send a maid back to keep watch +over her, and with a lingering pressure of hands and a look that +plainly said he was but briefly denying himself a more ardent +farewell, he hurried away through the banquet hall into the court. +</p> +<p> +She dared not run after to spy upon his departure. She could only +wait, hoping in every throbbing nerve that the maid would prove to +be the little one with the wart over her eye. And as she hoped she +feared, lest all her frail barrier of cards should be swept away by +a single breath. +</p> +<p> +If he should learn that the little dancer had visited her! If he +should discover that she was playing a game with him! +</p> +<a name="2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<h3> + A MAID AND A MESSAGE +</h3> +<p> +The March hare would have been a feeble comparison for Billy Hill's +madness if Robert Falconer could have seen him that Saturday +morning, that same Saturday on which Arlee was essaying her daring +rôle, for Billy Hill was sitting in the sun upon a camp stool, a +white helmet upon his head, an easel before him, and upon the easel +a square of blank canvas, and in Billy's left hand was a box of oils +and in his right a brush. And the camp stool upon which Billy was +stationed was planted directly before the small, high-arched door of +the Kerissen palace and in plain view of the larger door a few feet +to the right. +</p> +<p> +It had all followed upon acquaintance with the one-eyed man. +</p> +<p> +Taciturn in the beginning and suspicious of Billy's questionings, +that dark-skinned individual had at first betrayed abyssmal +ignorance of all save the virtues of stuffed crocodiles, but +convinced at last that this was no trap, but a genuine situation +from which he could profit, his greed overcame his native caution, +and through the aid of his jerky English and Billy's jagged Arabic +a certain measure of confidence was exchanged. +</p> +<p> +The one-eyed man then recollected that he had noticed a Turkish +officer and an American girl returning together to the hotel upon +that Wednesday afternoon. He had stared, because truly it was +amazing, even for American madness—and also the young girl was +beautiful. "A wild gazelle," was his word for her. The man was +Captain Kerissen. He was known to all the city—well known, he +was—in a certain way. It was not a good way for the ladies. Yes, he +had a motor car—a grand, gray car. (Billy remembered that the fatal +limousine had been gray.) It was well known that he had bought it +for a foreign woman whom he had brought from over-seas and installed +in the palace of his fathers. Yes, he knew well where that palace +was. His brother's wife's uncle was a eunuch there, but he was a +hard man who held his own counsel and that of his master. +</p> +<p> +Could a girl be shut up in that palace and the world be no wiser? +The one-eyed man stared scathingly at such ignorance. Why not? The +underworld might know, but native gossip never reached white ears. +</p> +<p> +What was the best way of finding out, then? The one-eyed man had no +hesitation about his answer. +</p> +<p> +A native must use his eyes and ears for the American. Through his +subtle skill and the American's money the discovery could be made. +The women servants would talk. +</p> +<p> +That was the way, Billy agreed, and quoted to the Arab his own +proverb, "A saint will weary of well-doing and a braggart of his +boasts, but a woman's tongue will never stop of itself," and the +one-eyed man had nodded, with an air of resigned understanding, and +quoted in answer, "There is nothing so great and nothing so small, +nothing so precious and nothing so foul, but that a woman will put +her tongue to it," and an understanding appeared to have been +reached. +</p> +<p> +The one-eyed man was to loiter about the palace, calling upon the +brother's wife's uncle if possible, and discover all that he could +without arousing suspicion. And Billy determined to do a little +loitering himself and quicken the one-eyed man's investigations and +keep watch of Kerissen's comings and goings, and a donkey boy was +hired by the one-eyed man to follow the Captain when he appeared in +the street and report the places to which he went. +</p> +<p> +It was all very ridiculous, of course, Billy cheerfully agreed with +himself, but by proving its own folly it would serve to allay that +extraordinarily nagging uneasiness of his. If he could just be +<i>sure</i> that little Miss Beecher wasn't tucked out of sight somewhere +in the power of that barbaric scamp with his Continental veneer! +</p> +<p> +Meanwhile the Oriental methods to be employed in the finding out +appealed to the young American's humor and his rash love of +adventure. He was grinning as he sat there on that stool and stared +at the blank canvas before him. He had felt the rôle of artist would +be an excellent screen for his loitering, but he had done no +painting for a little matter of twenty years, not since he was a +tiny lad, flat upon his stomach in his home library, industriously +tinting the robes and beards of Bible characters and the backgrounds +of the Holy Land—this work of art being one of the few permitted +diversions of the family Sabbath. Now he reflected that the scenes +for his brush were decidedly similar. +</p> +<p> +With humorous interest he fell to work, scaling off the palace on +his left, blocking off the cemetery ahead, and trying to draw a palm +without emphasizing the thought of a feather duster. His engineering +training made him critical of his lines and outlines, but when it +came to the introduction of color he had the sensation of a +shipwrecked mariner afloat upon uncharted seas. +</p> +<p> +The color that his eyes perceived was not the color which his +stubborn memory persisted in reminding him was the actual hue of the +events, and the color that he produced upon canvas was no kin to any +of them. But it sufficed for an excuse, and he worked away, +whistling cheerily, warily observant of the dark and silent façade +of the old palace and alertly interested in the little groups his +occupation transiently attracted. But these little groups were all +of passers-by, shawl-venders, package-deliverers, beggars, veiled +desert women with children astride their shoulders, and the live +hens they were selling beneath their mantles, and these groups +dissolved and drew away from him without his being able to attract +any observation from the palace. +</p> +<p> +But at least, he thought doggedly, any girl behind those latticed +windows up there could see him in the street, and if Arlee were +there she would understand his presence and plan to get word down +to him. But he began to feel extraordinarily foolish. +</p> +<p> +At length his patience was rewarded. The small door opened and the +stalwart doorkeeper, in blue robes and yellow English shoes, marched +pompously out to him and ordered him to be off. +</p> +<p> +Haughtily Billy responded that this was permitted, and displayed a +self-prepared document, gorgeous with red seals, which made the man +scowl, mutter, and shake his head and retire surlily to his door, +and finding a black-veiled girl peering out of it at Billy, he +thrust her violently within. But Billy had caught her eyes and tried +to look all the significance into them of which he was capable. +</p> +<p> +Nothing, however, appeared to develop. The door remained closed, +save for brief admissions of bread and market stuff from little boys +on donkey-back or on a bicycle, all of whom were led willingly into +conservation, but none of whom had been into the palace, and though +Billy pressed as close to the door as possible when the boys +knocked, he was only rewarded with a glimpse of the tiled vestibule +and inner court. +</p> +<p> +To the irate doorkeeper he protested that he was yearning to paint a +palace court, but though he held up gold pieces, the man ordered him +away in fury and spoke menacingly of a stick for such fellows. +</p> +<p> +Now, however cool and fresh it was in the garden that Saturday, it +was distinctly hot in the dusty street, and by noon, as Billy sat in +the shade beside the palace door, eating the lunch he had brought +and drinking out of a thermos bottle, he reflected that for a man to +cook himself upon a camp stool, feigning to paint and observing an +uneventful door, was the height of Matteawan. He despised +himself—but he returned to the camp stool. +</p> +<p> +Nothing continued to happen. +</p> +<p> +Travelers were few. Occasionally a carriage passed; once a couple of +young Englishmen on polo ponies galloped by; once a poor native came +down the road, moving his harem—a donkey-cart load of black +shrouded women, with three half-naked children bouncing on a long +tailboard. +</p> +<p> +Several groups of veiled women on foot proceeded to the cemetery and +back again. +</p> +<p> +The one-eyed man sauntered by in vain. +</p> +<p> +In the heat of the afternoon the wide door suddenly opened and +Captain Kerissen himself appeared on his black horse. He spurred off +at a gallop, intending apparently to ride down the artist on the +way, but changed his mind at the last and dashed past, showering him +with dust from his horse's hoofs. The little donkey-boy, lolling +down the road, started to follow him, crying out for alms in the +name of Allah. +</p> +<p> +Billy stared up at the windows. Not a handkerchief there, not a +signal, not a note flung into the street! In great derision he +squirted half a tube of cerulean blue upon his canvas. +</p> +<p> +This, he reflected, was zero in detective work. It was also minus in +adventure. +</p> +<p> +But one never knows when events are upon the wing. Almost +immediately there came into the flatness of his bored existence a +victoria containing those two English ladies he had met—in the +unconventional way which characterized his meetings with ladies in +Cairo—two days before. +</p> +<p> +The recognition was mutual. The curiosity appeared upon their side. +To his horror he saw that they had stopped their carriage and were +descending. +</p> +<p> +"How interesting!" said Miss Falconer, with more cordiality than she +had shown on the previous occasion. "How very interesting! So you +are an artist—I do a little sketching myself, you know." +</p> +<p> +"You do happen in the most unexpected places," smiled Lady Claire. +</p> +<p> +The English girl looked very cool and sweet and fresh to the heated +painter. His impression of her as a nice girl and a pretty girl was +speedily reinforced, and he remembered that dark-haired girls with +gray-blue eyes under dusky lashes had been his favorite type not so +long ago ... before he had seen Arlee's fairy gold. +</p> +<p> +"We've just been driving through the old cemetery—such interesting +tombs," said the elder lady, and Lady Claire added, "I should think +you could get better views there than here." +</p> +<p> +By this time they had reached the easel and stood back of it in +observation. +</p> +<p> +Blue, intensely blue, and thickly blue was the sky that Billy had +lavished. Green and rigid were the palms. Purple was the palace. +Very black lay the shadows like planks across the orange road. +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer looked as if she doubted her own eyes. Hurriedly she +unfolded her lorgnette. +</p> +<p> +"It—it's just blocked in," said Billy, speaking with a peculiar +diffidence. +</p> +<p> +"Quite so—quite so," murmured the lady, bending closer, as if +fascinated. +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire said nothing. Stealing a look at her, Billy saw that she +was looking it instead. +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer tried another angle. The sight of that lorgnette had a +stiffening effect upon Billy B. Hill. +</p> +<p> +"You get it?" he said pleasantly. "You get the—ah—symphonic chord +I'm striking?" +</p> +<p> +"Chord?" said Miss Falconer. "Striking," she murmured in a peculiar +voice. +</p> +<p> +"It's all in thirds, you see," he continued. +</p> +<p> +"Thirds!" came the echo. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps you're of the old school?" he observed. +</p> +<p> +"Really—I must be!" agreed the lady. +</p> +<p> +"Ah!" said Billy softly, commiseratingly. He cocked his head at an +angle opposite from the slant of the lorgnette and stared his own +amazing canvas out of countenance. +</p> +<p> +"Then, of course," he said, "this hardly conveys——" +</p> +<p> +"What are you?" she demanded. "Is this a—a school?" +</p> +<p> +"I?" He seemed surprised that there could be any doubt about it. "I +am a Post-Cubist." +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer turned the lorgnette upon him. "Oh, really," she said +vaguely. "I fancy I've heard something of that—you're quite new and +radical, aren't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, we're old," he said gently, "very, very old. We have returned +to Nature—but not the nature of mere academicians. We paint, not +the world of the camera, but the world of the brain. We paint, not +the thing you think you see, but the way you think you see it—its +vibrations of your inner mentality. To paint the apple ripening on +the bough one should reproduce the gentle swelling of the maturing +fruit in your perception.... Now, you see, I am not trying to +reproduce the precise carving of that door; I do not fix the wavings +of that palm. I give you the cerebellic——" +</p> +<p> +"Quite so," said Miss Falconer, dropping her lorgnette and giving +the canvas the fixity of her unobstructed gaze. "It's most +interesting," she said, a little faintly. "Are there many of you?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," said Billy. "We do not communicate with one another. +That always influences, you know, and it is better to work out +thought alone." +</p> +<p> +"I should think it would be." Something in her tone suggested that +the inviolated solitude of the asylum suggested itself to her as a +fitting spot. "Well, we won't interrupt you any longer. You've been +most interesting.... The sun is quite hot, isn't it?" and with one +long, lingering look at the picture, a look convinced against its +will, she went her way toward the victoria. +</p> +<p> +But Lady Claire stood still. Billy had fairly forgotten all about +her, and now as he turned suddenly from the clowning with her +chaperon, he found her gaze being transferred from his picture to +himself. It was a very steady gaze, calm-eyed and deliberate. +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid you're making game of us!" she said, in her musical, +high-bred tones, her clear eyes disconcertingly upon him. "Aren't +you?" she gently demanded. +</p> +<p> +"That's not fair." Billy was uncomfortable and looked away in haste. +He felt a grin coming. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps he was a shade too late, for Lady Claire laughed suddenly +and with a note of curious delight. +</p> +<p> +"You're <i>too</i> amusing!" she said. "What made you?... How did you +think of it all?... Are you just beginning?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I began twenty years ago," he smiled back, "but I haven't done +anything in the meantime." +</p> +<p> +Again she laughed with that ring of mischievous delight. "However +you could think of it all! I shan't tell on you—but she'll <i>never</i> +be done wondering." She turned away, her pretty face still bright +with humor, and then she turned back hesitantly toward him. +</p> +<p> +"It <i>is</i> hot here in this sun," she said. "It <i>can't</i> be good for +you. Shall we drive you back?" +</p> +<p> +She had lovely eyes, dark, smoky-blue under black lashes, and when +they held a gentle, half-shy, half-proud invitation, as they did +then, they were very unsettling eyes.... And it was hot on that +infernal camp stool. And there was a crick in the back of his neck +and his errand was glaringly a fool's errand.... +</p> +<p> +He half rose, and as he did so the door in the palace opened a crack +and a veiled face peered furtively out. Billy sat down again. +</p> +<p> +"No, thank you," he said, "I think I'd better do a little more of +this." +</p> +<p> +In such light ways is the gate of opportunity closed and opened. +Everything that happened afterwards with such appalling +startlingness hung on that instant's decision. +</p> +<p> +For the moment he felt himself a donkey as Lady Claire turned +quietly away and the victoria rattled off with brisk finality. Then +the door opened again, and again the girl peered out, and furtively, +stealthily slipped just outside. +</p> +<p> +Billy caught up a pad and a pencil and called out a request to +sketch her, holding up some silver. Instantly she assumed a fixed +pose, with a nervous giggle behind her veil, and he came quickly +near her, pretending to be drawing. Her dark, curious eyes met his +with questioning significance, and he threw all caution aside and +plunged into his demands. +</p> +<p> +Did she want to earn money, he said quickly, in the Arabic he had +been preparing for such an encounter, and on her eager assent, he +asked if there was a foreign lady in the palace, an American. +</p> +<p> +The flash of her eyes told him that he had struck the mark before +her half-frightened words came. +</p> +<p> +His heart quickened with excitement. He might have suspected this +thing—but he had not really believed it! He asked, stammering in +his haste, "Does she want to get away?" +</p> +<p> +Again that knowing nod and the quick assent. Then the girl burst +into low-toned speech, glancing back constantly through the door she +held nearly shut behind her. Billy was forced to shake his head. It +was one thing to have picked up a little casual Arabic, and another, +and horribly different, thing to comprehend the rapid outpourings +behind that muffling veil. +</p> +<p> +Baffled, he went hurriedly on with his own questionings. Was this +lady safe? Again the nod and murmur of assent. Did she want help? +Vehement the confirmation. He repeated, with careful emphasis, "I +will reward you well for your help," and this time the direct +simplicity of her reply was entirely intelligible: +</p> +<p> +"How much?" +</p> +<p> +"One pound.... Two," he added, as she shook her head. +</p> +<p> +"Four," she demanded. +</p> +<p> +It was maddening to haggle, but it would be worse to yield. +</p> +<p> +"Two—and this," said Billy, drawing out the gold and some silver +with it. +</p> +<p> +She gave a frightened upward glance at the windows over them and +stepped closer. "I take it," she said. "Listen—" and that was all +that Billy could understand of the swift words she whispered to him. +</p> +<p> +"Slower—slower," he begged. "Once more—slower." +</p> +<p> +She frowned, and then, very slowly and distinctly, she articulated, +"<i>T'âla lil genaina ... 'end eltura</i>." +</p> +<p> +He wrote down what he thought it sounded like. "Go on." +</p> +<p> +"<i>Allailade</i>," she continued. +</p> +<p> +"That's to-night," he repeated. "What else?" +</p> +<p> +"<i>Assâa 'ashara</i>," she added hurriedly, and then, intelligible +again, "Now, quick, the money." +</p> +<p> +"Hold on, hold on." He was in despair. "Go over that again, please," +and hastily the girl whispered the words again and he wrote down his +corrections. Then with a flourish he appeared to finish the sketch +and held out the gold and silver to her, saying, "Thank you," +carelessly. +</p> +<p> +Quick as a flash she seized the money, leaving a little crumpled +ball of white linen in his hand, and then, apparently by lightning, +she secreted the gold, and with the silver shining in her dark palm +she came closer to him, urging him for another shilling, another +shilling for having a picture made. In an undertone she demanded, +"Is it yes? Shall I say yes to the lady?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes, yes," said Billy, desperately, to whatever the unknown +message might be. "Take a note to her for me?" he demanded, starting +to scribble one, but she drew back with a quick negation, and as a +sound came from the palace she slipped back through the door and was +gone like a shadow when a blind is thrown open. +</p> +<p> +Only the crumpled little ball of linen remained in Billy's hand. He +straightened it out. It was a lady's handkerchief, a dainty thing, +delicately scented. In the corners were marvels of sheer embroidery +and among the leaves he found the initial he was seeking. It was the +letter B. +</p> +<p> +As he stared down on it, that tiny, telltale initial, his face went +white under its tan and his mouth compressed till all the humor and +kindliness of it were lost in a line of stark grimness. And then he +swung on his heel and packed up his painting kit in a fury of haste, +and with one last, upturned look at those mocking windows, he was +off down the road like a shot. +</p> +<p> +There were just two things to do. The first was to discover the +message hidden in those unknown words. +</p> +<p> +The second was to do exactly as that message bade. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<h3> + OVER THE GARDEN WALL +</h3> +<p> +Two oil lamps flared in the little coffee-house. In one circle of +yellow light two bearded Sheiks were playing dominoes with +imperturbable gravity; the other lamp flickered over an empty table +beneath which the thin, flea-bitten legs of a ragged urchin were +showing in the oblivion of his tired sleep. In the shadow beyond sat +a young American with a keen, impatient face, and a one-eyed Arab +shrouded in a huge burnous. +</p> +<p> +"I make fine dragoman?" the Arab was saying proudly. "This is ver' +old coffee-house. Many things happen here, ver' strange——" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, but I'm sick of the doggone place," said Billy fiercely. "I +can't sit still and swallow coffee any longer. Can't we start now?" +</p> +<p> +"Too soon—too soon before the time. You say ten? Come, we go next +door. Nice place next door, perhaps—dancing, maybe." +</p> +<p> +There was noise enough next door, certainly, to promise dancing. The +strident notes of Oriental music came shrieking out the open +doorway, but as Billy stepped within and stared over the heads of +the squatting throng, he saw no sinewy dancers, but only two tiny +girls in bright colors huddled wearily against the wall. The music +which was absorbing every look came from the brazen throat of a huge +instrument in the corner. +</p> +<p> +"Lord—a phonograph!" thought the young man in disgust, resenting +this intrusion of the genius of his race into foreign fields. +</p> +<p> +The squatting men, their dark lips parted in pleased smiles, were +too intent upon the innovation to turn at his entrance, but the +little girls caught sight of him and ran forward, begging +clamorously, their bracelets clanking on their outstretched arms. +</p> +<p> +With a little silver he tried to soften the vigor of the one-eyed +man's dismissal. "This cheap place—no good dancers any more," the +Arab uttered in disgust. "New man here—no good. Maybe next door +better—eh?" +</p> +<p> +But next door was only a flight of steps and a lone little doll of a +sentinel, painted and hung like a bedizened idol. Only the dark eyes +in the tinted sockets were alive, and these turned curiously after +the strange young white man who had dropped a coin into her +outstretched hand and passed on so hurriedly. +</p> +<p> +"I don't want any more of these joints," Billy was saying vehemently +to his harassed guide. "It's dark as the Styx now—let's be on our +way." +</p> +<p> +The street they were on was narrow enough for any antiquarian, but +the one into which the Arab guide now turned was so narrow that the +jutting bays of the houses seemed pushing their faces impudently +against their neighbors. A voice in one room could have been heard +as clearly in the one over the way. It was a mean little street, +squalid and poor and pitiful, but it maintained its stripped +dignities of screened windows and isolation. It was better not to +wonder what nights were like in those women's rooms in summer heat. +</p> +<p> +The lane-like path stopped at a rickety sort of wharf, and at their +approach a black head bobbed quickly up from a waiting boat. It was +the little boy who had shadowed the Captain that day—reporting his +arrival at the Khedivial palace—and he climbed out now and sat on +the wharf, watching curiously while Billy and his guide bestowed +themselves in the long canoe, and pushed silently away. +</p> +<p> +It was an eerie backwater in which they were paddling, a sluggish +stream which moved between dark houses. Sometimes it scraped against +their sides and lapped their balconies; sometimes it was held in +check by walls and narrow terraces. For Billy the water between the +dark houses, the mirrored stars, the unexpected flare of some oil +lamp and its still reflection, the long windings and the stagnant +smells held their suggestions of Venice for his senses, and he +thought the business he was going about was very similar to the +business which had brought so many of the gentry of Venice to sudden +and undesired ends. +</p> +<p> +The flies were horribly thick here. They settled upon the faces and +arms of the paddlers, totally unapprehensive of rebuff. Billy's +flesh crawled. He finished the swarm with a ringing slap that +brought a low caution from his guide. +</p> +<p> +Now the canal was wider and shallower. The houses receded, and a +field or so appeared, and frequent walls hedged the way. Then +suddenly the houses came down again to the water, and the ruins of +old mosques and palaces lined the banks for a time; to be replaced +by walls again. The windings were interminable, and just when he was +thinking that his silent guide was as confused as he was, the man +made a sudden gesture to the right bank where a tiny strip of land +showed above the water clinging to a high brick wall, and with +careful, soundless strokes they brought the canoe up to that land. +</p> +<p> +Billy looked at his watch. It was nearly ten. Hurriedly he climbed +out, taking out the stout, notched pole and the knotted rope with +the iron hook at the end which he had prepared. The message which +had been so unintelligible to him was very simple. "Escape by canal +to-night—come to garden at ten," had been the words, and Billy, on +hearing the description of the canal from the one-eyed man, had felt +he understood. +</p> +<p> +"You're sure this is the place?" he demanded, and on the man's much +injured protestation, "Because if it isn't I'll wring your neck +instead of Kerissen's," he cheerfully promised and set his pole +against the wall, showing the man how to steady it. It was not the +best climbing arrangement in the world, but time had been extremely +limited, and the one-eyed man not inclined to pursue any +investigations which would advertise their expedition. +</p> +<p> +Wrapping the rope about his shoulders, he started to pull himself up +that notched pole the Arab was holding against the wall, feeling +desperately for any hold for toes and fingers in the rough chunks +between the old bricks, and breathing hard he reached the top and +threw one leg over. He felt something grind through the serge of his +trousers and sting into the flesh. +</p> +<p> +"Ground glass—the Old Boy!" said Billy through his teeth. He +hoisted himself cautiously, and with his handkerchief swept the top +of the wall as clean as he could. He heard the little pieces fall +with a perilously loud tinkling sound, and flattened himself upon +the wall, and strained his eyes through the darkness of the garden, +but no alarm was raised. The shadows seemed empty. +</p> +<p> +He hoped to the Lord that no disturbance would break out in the +garden, for the man below would be off in the canoe like a flash. He +had no illusions about the one-eyed man's loyalty, but the fellow +was already in the secret; he was needy and resourceful and as +trustworthy as any dragoman that he could have gone to. And a +dragoman would have had a reputation and a patronage he'd fear to +lose. This melancholy Arab, hawking crocodiles for a Greek Jew, had +more to gain than lose. +</p> +<p> +By now he had caught the end of the rough hook over the top of the +wall, and let down the knotted rope into the garden below. It was +long enough, thank goodness, he thought, wondering under what +circumstances and in what company he would ascend it again. Then +with one more keen look into the garden, and a reassuring touch of +the pocket where his revolver bulged, he gripped the rope and +swiftly lowered himself. +</p> +<p> +Keeping close to the wall he pressed toward the buildings on the +right, which he had been told was the wing of the harem, and as he +stepped forward a flat black shadow near the wall came suddenly to +life. It sprang to its feet, revealing a shrouded little form, +wrapped and hooded in black, and ran to him with steps that stumbled +in excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Quick, quick!" breathed an almost inaudible voice of terror, and +Billy flung one strong arm about the girl and dashed toward the +dangling rope. Gripping it with one hand he flung the light figure +over his left shoulder, and with a cheerily whispered "Hang tight," +he threw himself into the ascent. It was arm-wrenching, +muscle-racking work, with that dead weight upon him, but the touch +of those soft arms clinging childishly about his neck seemed to +double and treble his strength, and with incredible quickness he +lifted her to the top of the wall, and then, catching her by the +wrists, he lowered her into the upreaching clasp of the Arab. +</p> +<p> +An instant more and he had reversed his rope ladder and climbed down +beside her as she stood waiting, and in the throbbing triumph of +that moment he flung his arm grippingly about her to sweep her into +the boat. But as she raised her face to his, the shrouding mantle +fell away, and he found himself staring down into the exultant face +and bright, dark eyes of a girl he had never seen before. +</p> +<p> +Back of them beyond the wall, pandemonium was breaking out. +</p> +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/img3.jpg" width="284" height="450" +alt="'He found himself staring down into the bright dark +eyes of a girl he had never seen'" /> +</center> + +<p class="cap"> +"He found himself staring down into the<br /> bright dark +eyes of a girl he had never seen" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<h3> + THE GIRL FROM THE HAREM +</h3> +<p> +He was dumb with the shock. Then, "Who are you?" he demanded. "And +where is she—where is Arlee Beecher?" +</p> +<p> +On her own face the astonishment grew. "What you mean? Frederick—he +not send you?" she gasped, and then as the outcries grew louder and +louder behind them she gripped convulsively at his arms. "Oh, quick! +come away—quick, quick!" she besought. +</p> +<p> +"I came for Arlee Beecher—an American girl. Isn't she held here? +Isn't she back there?" +</p> +<p> +"What you going to do? What——" +</p> +<p> +"I'm going to get her!" he said fiercely. "Tell me——" +</p> +<p> +He had caught her and unconsciously shook her as if to shake the +words out of her. Furiously she struggled with him. +</p> +<p> +"Let me go. No, no, she is not there! No one is there! You are gone +crazy to stay! They will kill me if they catch me—they will fire +over the wall. Oh, for God's sake, help me quick!" +</p> +<p> +"She's not there?" he repeated stupidly, and then at her vehement +"No, <i>no</i>! I tell you <i>no</i>!" he drew a breath of deep astonishment +and chagrin, and turned to stow her safely low in the boat. +Hurriedly he and the one-eyed man bent over their paddles, and very +swiftly the long, dark canoe went gliding down the stream, but not +any too swiftly, for in an instant they heard a triumphant yell +behind them, and then light, thudding feet along the path. +</p> +<p> +Steadily Billy urged the canoe forward with powerful strokes that +seemed to be lifting it out of the water at each impulse, and they +swept past a wall that reaching to the river bank must block their +pursuers for a time, and though there was a path after that, there +was soon another wall, and no more pursuit along the water edge. But +every opening ahead now might mean an ambush, and as soon as a +narrow lane showed between the houses to the left, the one-eyed man +steered swiftly there and Billy sprang out with the girl and they +raced through the lane into the adjoining street. +</p> +<p> +He looked up and down it; either they had got out at the wrong lane +or the cab they had ordered to be in waiting had failed them, but +there was no time for speculation and they walked on as fast as they +could without the appearance of flight. The stray loiterers on the +dark street stared curiously as they passed, to see a young American +in gray tweeds, his cap pulled over his eyes, with a woman in the +Mohammedan wrap and mantle, but no one stopped them, and in another +minute they saw a lonely cab rattling through the streets and +climbed quickly in. +</p> +<p> +"And now, for Heaven's sake, tell me all about it!" besought Billy +B. Hill, staring curiously at his most unforeseen companion. +</p> +<p> +With a deep-drawn sigh of relief she had snuggled back against the +cushioned seat, and now she flung off the shrouding mantle and +looked up to meet his gaze with a smile of excited triumph. +</p> +<p> +She had the prettiest teeth he had ever seen, lovely little rows of +pearls, and the biggest and brightest of dark eyes with wide lashes +curling dramatically back. Even in the thrill and elation of the +moment there was a spark of provocation in those eyes for the +good-looking young man who stared down at her, and Billy would have +been a very wooden young man, indeed, if he had not felt a tingling +excitement in this unexpected capture, for all the destruction of +his romantic plans. So this, he thought rapidly, was the foreign +girl in Kerissen's house, and Arlee, bless her little golden head, +was safe where she planned, in Alexandria. A warm glow of happiness +enveloped him at that. +</p> +<p> +"Now tell me all about it," he demanded again. "You are running away +from Kerissen?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes," she cried eagerly. "You must not let him catch us. We are +safe—yes?" +</p> +<p> +"I should rather think so," Billy laughed. "And there's a gun in my +pocket that says so.... And so you sent me that message to-day by +that little native girl? How in the world did that happen?" +</p> +<p> +"That girl is one who will do a little for money, you understand," +said the Viennese, "and I have told her to look sharp out for a +foreign gentleman who come to save me. You see I have sent for a +friend, and I think that he—but never mind. That girl she come +running this afternoon to where I am shut in way back in the palace, +and she say that a foreign gentleman is painting a picture out in +the street, and he stare very cunning at her. So I tell her to find +out if he is the one for me, and to tell him to come quick this +night. She was afraid to take note—afraid the eunuch catch her. So +she went to you. She told afterwards that you ask her if there is +any strange lady there anxious to get away, and she give you the +message and my handkerchief and you say you will come—and my, how +you give me one great surprise!" +</p> +<p> +"And a great disappointment," said Billy grinning. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, no," she denied, eyes and lips all mischievous smiles. "I +say to myself, 'My God! That is a fine-looking young man! He and I +will have something to say to each other'—h'm?" +</p> +<p> +"Now who in the world are you?" demanded Billy bluntly. "And how did +you happen to get into all this?" +</p> +<p> +Volubly she told. She dwelt at picturesque length upon her shining +place upon the Viennese stage; she recounted her triumphs, she +prophesied the joy of the playgoers at her return to them. Darkly +she expatiated upon the villainy of the Turkish Captain, who had +lured her to such incarceration. Gleefully she displayed the +diamonds upon her small person which she was extracting from that +affair. +</p> +<p> +"Not so bad, after all—h'm?" she demanded, in a brazen little +content. "Maybe that prison time make good for me," and Billy shook +his head and chuckled outright at the little baggage. +</p> +<p> +But through his amusement a prick of uneasiness was felt. The +picture she had painted of the Captain corroborated his wildest +imaginings. +</p> +<p> +"You're dead sure you know all that was going on in that palace?" he +demanded. "There wasn't any American girl coaxed into it on some +pretext?" +</p> +<p> +He wanted merely the reassurance of her answer, but to his surprise +and growing alarm she hesitated, looking at him half fearfully and +half ashamedly. "Oh, I—I don't know about that," she murmured, with +evasive eyes. "An American girl—very light hair—yes?" +</p> +<p> +"Very light hair—Oh, good God!" He leaned forward, gripping her +wrist as if afraid she would spring out of the carriage. "You said +she wasn't there," he thrust at her in a voice that rasped. +</p> +<p> +"I said I don't know—don't know any such name you say. I never hear +it. You hurt me—take your hand away." +</p> +<p> +"Not till you tell me." But he loosened his harsh grip. "Now tell me +all you know—<i>please</i> tell me all you know," he besought with a +sudden melting into desperate entreaty. Worriedly he stared at this +curious little kitten-thing beside him on whose truth now that other +girl's life was resting. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I tell you true I do not know that name," began Fritzi +Baroff, with a little sullen dignity over her shame. "And I saved +your life, for it was death for you to go back to that palace. You +heard them coming for us. You would have got yourself killed and +that little girl would be no better. Now I can tell you how to help +her." +</p> +<p> +"All right—tell me," said the young American in a tense voice. +"Tell me everything you know about it," and Fritzi told him, +throwing aside all pretense of her uncertainty about Arlee, +revealing every detail of the situation that she knew. +</p> +<p> +And from the heights of his gay relief Billy Hill was flung back +into the deeps of desperate indignation. The anger that had surged +up in him that afternoon when he had felt his fears confirmed flamed +up in him now in a fire of fury. His blood was boiling.... Arlee +Beecher in the power of that Turkish devil! Arlee Beecher prisoned +within that ghastly palace! It was unreal. It was monstrous.... That +radiant girl he had danced with, that teasing little sprite, half +flouting, half flirting. Why, the thing was unthinkable! +</p> +<p> +He put a hand on the dancer's arm. "We must go to the consul at +once," he said. "We must get her out to-night." +</p> +<p> +"Consul!" The girl gave a short, derisive laugh. "This is no matter +for consuls, my young friend. The law is slow, and by the time that +law will stand knocking upon the palace doorstep, your little girl +with the fair hair will be buried very deep and fast—I think she +would not be the first woman bricked into those black walls.... You +must go about this yourself.... You are in love with her—yes?" she +added impertinently, with keen, uptilted eyes. +</p> +<p> +"That's another story," Billy curtly informed her. He made no +attempt to analyze his feeling for Arlee Beecher. She had enchanted +him in those two days that he had known her. She had obsessed his +thoughts in those two days of her disappearance. Now that he was +aware of her peril every selfish thought was overwhelmed in burning +indignation. He told himself that he would do as much for any girl +in her situation, and, indeed, so hot ran his rage and so dearly did +his young blood love rash adventure and high-handed justice, that +there was some honest excuse for the statement! +</p> +<p> +"Zut! A man does not risk his neck for a matter of indifference!" +said the little Baroff sagely, her knowing eyes on Billy's grim +young face. "So I am to be the sister to you—the Platonic +friend—h'm?" she observed with droll resignation. "Never mind—I +will help you get her out as you got me—<i>Gott sei dank!</i> There is a +way, I think—if you are not too particular about that neck. I will +tell you all and draw you a plan when we get to a hotel." +</p> +<p> +But before they got to a hotel there was an obstacle or two to be +overcome. A lady in Mohammedan wraps might not be exactly <i>persona +grata</i> at fashionable hotels at midnight. Casting off the wrap +Fritzi revealed herself in a little pongee frock that appeared to be +suitable for traveling, and with two veils and Billy's cap for a +foundation she produced an effect of headgear not unlike that of +some bedraped tourists. +</p> +<p> +"I arrived on the night train," she stated as they drew up before +the shining hotel. "It is late now for that night train—but we +waited for my luggage, which you will observe is lost. So I pay for +my room in the advance—I think you had better give me some money +for that—I have nothing but these," and she indicated her flashing +diamonds. +</p> +<p> +"My name," said Billy, handing over some sovereigns with the first +ray of humor since her revelation to him, "my name, if you should +care to address me, is Hill—William B. Hill." +</p> +<p> +"William B. Hill," she echoed with an air of elaborate precision, +and then flashed a saucy smile at him as he helped her out of the +carriage. "What you call Billy, eh?" +</p> +<p> +"You've got it," he replied in resignation. +</p> +<p> +"Hill—that means a mountain," she commented. "A mountain of good +luck for me—h'm? And that B—what is that for?" +</p> +<p> +"My middle name," said Billy patiently, as they reached the door the +Arab doorman was holding open for them. +</p> +<p> +Absently she laughed. Her dark eyes were sparkling at the vision of +the safe and shining hotel, the dear familiar luxury, the sounds and +sights of her lost Continental life. A few late arrivals from some +dance gave a touch of animation to the wide rooms, and Fritzi's eyes +clung delightedly to the group. +</p> +<p> +"God, how happy I am!" she sighed. +</p> +<p> +Billy was busy avoiding the clerk's knowing scrutiny. It was the +same clerk he had coerced with real cigars to enlighten him +concerning Arlee Beecher, and he felt that that clerk was thinking +things about him now, mistaken and misguided things, about his +predilections for the ladies. Philosophically he wondered where they +had better try after this. +</p> +<p> +But he underestimated the battery of Fritzi's charms, or else the +serene assurance of her manner. +</p> +<p> +"My letters—letters for Baroff," she demanded of the clerk. "None +yet. Then my room, please.... But I sent a wire from Alexandria. +That stupid maid," she turned to explain to Billy, her air the last +stand of outraged patience. "She is at the train looking for that +luggage she lost," she added to the clerk, and thereupon she +proceeded to arrange for the arrival of the fictitious maid whom +Billy heard himself agreeing to go back and fetch if she did not +turn up soon, and to engage a room for herself—a much nicer room +than Billy himself was occupying—then handed over Billy's +sovereigns and turned happily away jingling the huge key of her +room. +</p> +<p> +"It is a miracle!" she cried again, exultant triumph in every pretty +line of her. "My heart dances, my blood is singing—Oh, if I were on +the stage now, the music crashing, the lights upon me, the house +packed! I would enchant them! I would dance myself mad.... Ah, what +you say now—shall we have a little bottle of champagne to drink to +our better acquaintance, Mr. Billy?" +</p> +<p> +"Not this evening," said the unemotional young man. "You are going +to sit down at this desk and draw me those plans of the palace." +</p> +<p> +Petulantly she shrugged at her rescuer. "How stupid—to-morrow you +may not have that chance for the champagne," she observed. "You +think of nothing but to go back and get killed, then? And I must +help you? Very well. Here, I will draw it for you and I will tell +you all I know." +</p> +<p> +She sat down at a desk and began working out the diagrams, and at +last she handed the paper to Billy, who sat beside her, and pointed +out the rooms and scribbled the words on them for his aid. +</p> +<p> +"It is very simple," she said. "That first square is for the court, +and the next square is for the garden. The hall of banquets comes +so, between them, and the hall is two stories tall, and across the +top of that, from the <i>selamlik</i> to the harem, runs that little +secret passage. And at the end of it, here, is the little panel into +the rose room where she is, and beside the panel outside in the +passage are the little steps that go up to that tower room, where +they put me on the top. And from that top room I broke out a locked +door on the roof—that is how I got away. I climbed down at the end +of the harem from one roof to another where it is unfinished.... The +rose room is here on the garden, but the windows have bars, and +those bars are too strong for breaking. I have tried it! There is no +way out but the secret way by that passage into the men's wing, or +the other way through the door into the long hall and down the +little stairs into the anteroom below. How Seniha hated me when I +made laughter and noise and talk going up and down those stairs to +my motor car!" +</p> +<p> +She laughed impishly, pointing out Seniha's rooms, facing on the +street, and contributing several bizarre anecdotes of the palace +life. But Billy was not to be diverted, and went over the plans +again and again, before the diminished number of lights and the +hoverings of the attendant Arabs recalled the lateness of the hour +to his absorption. +</p> +<p> +But late as they were they were not the only occupants of the lift. +Returning from a masquerade, a domino over his arm, stood Falconer. +Civilly enough he returned Billy's greeting, with no apparent +awareness of the little lady in pongee, but Billy was conscious that +her flaunting caliber had been promptly registered. And to his +annoyance the actress raised big eyes of reproach to him. +</p> +<p> +"No champagne for me, after all, Mr. Billy!" she sighed. "You are +not very good for a celebration—h'm?... Well, then—good night." +</p> +<p> +Her parting smile as she left the car adroitly included the tall +aristocratic young Englishman with the little moustache. +</p> +<p> +Sharply Billy turned to him. "Come up to my room, please. I have +something to say to you." +</p> +<p> +In silence Falconer followed. Billy flung shut the door, drew a long +breath, and turned to him. +</p> +<p> +"Do you know where I got that girl?" he demanded. +</p> +<p> +It took several seconds of Falconer's level-lidded look of distaste +to bring home the realization. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, see here," he protested, "wait till you understand this +thing.... I pulled that girl over Kerissen's back wall at ten +o'clock to-night. I thought she was Miss Beecher, but a mistake had +been made and the wrong girl arrived. But the point is this—<i>Arlee +Beecher is in that palace</i>. This girl saw her and talked with her +last night. Now we've got to get her out. It's a two-man job," said +Billy, "or you'd better believe I'd never have come to you again." +</p> +<p> +He had given it like a punch, and it knocked the breath out of +Falconer for one floored instant. But he was no open-mouthed +believer. The thing was more unthinkable to him than to Billy's +romantic and adventurous mind, and the very notion was so revolting +that he fought it stoutly. +</p> +<p> +From beginning to end Billy hammered over the story as he knew it, +explaining, arguing, debating, and then he drew out the plans of the +palace and flung them on the table by Falconer while he continued +his excited tramping up and down the room. +</p> +<p> +Falconer studied the plans, worried his moustache, stared at Billy's +tense and resolute face, and took up the plans again, his own chin +stubborn. +</p> +<p> +"Granted there's a girl—you can't be sure it's Miss Beecher," he +maintained doggedly. "This Baroff girl had no idea of her name. Now +Miss Beecher would have told her name, the very first thing, it +appears to me, and the names of her friends in Cairo, asking for the +Baroff's offices in getting a letter to me—us." +</p> +<p> +"She may have been too hurried to get to it. She had so many +questions to ask. And she probably expected to see the girl again +the next day or night." +</p> +<p> +"Possibly," said Falconer without conviction. +</p> +<p> +"But where, then, is Miss Beecher?" +</p> +<p> +"We may hear from her to-morrow morning." +</p> +<p> +"We won't," said Billy. +</p> +<p> +Falconer was silent. +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord!" the American burst out, "there can't be two girls in +Cairo with blue eyes and fair hair whom Kerissen could have lured +there last Wednesday! There can't be two girls with chaperons +departing up the Nile! Why—why—the whole thing's as clear to +me—as—as a house afire!" +</p> +<p> +"I don't share your conviction." +</p> +<p> +"Very well, then, if you don't think it is Miss Beecher, you don't +have to go into this thing. If you can feel satisfied to lay the +matter before the ambassador and let that unknown girl wait for the +arm of the law to reach her, you are at perfect liberty, of course, +to do so." Billy was growing colder and colder in tone as he grew +hotter and hotter in his anger. +</p> +<p> +Falconer said nothing. He was a very plucky young man, but he had no +liking at all for strange and unlawful escapades. He didn't +particularly mind risking his neck, but he liked to do it in +accredited ways, in polo, for instance, or climbing Swiss peaks, or +swimming dangerous currents.... But he was young—and he had red +hair. And he remembered Arlee Beecher. These three days had not been +happy ones for him, even sustained as he was by righteous +indignation. And if there was any chance that this prisoned girl was +Arlee, as this infatuated American was so furiously sure—He +reflected that Billy was doing the sporting thing in giving him the +chance of it. +</p> +<p> +"I'll join you," he said shortly. "I can't let it go, you know, if +there's a chance of its being Miss Beecher." +</p> +<p> +"Good!" said Billy, holding out his hand and the two young men +clasped silently, eyeing each other with a certain mutual respect +though with no great increase of liking. +</p> +<p> +"Now, this is my idea," Billy went on, and proceeded to develop it, +while Falconer carefully studied the plans and made a shrewd +suggestion here and there. +</p> +<p> +It was late in the morning when they parted. +</p> +<p> +"You must muzzle that Baroff girl," was Falconer's parting caution. +"We must keep this thing deuced quiet, you know." +</p> +<p> +"Of course. He shan't get wind of it ahead." +</p> +<p> +"Not only that. We mustn't have talk afterwards. It would kill the +girl, you know." +</p> +<p> +Billy nodded. "She would hate it, I expect." +</p> +<p> +"Hate it? My word, it would finish her—a tale of that kind going +the rounds.... She could never live it down." +</p> +<p> +"Live it down? It would set her up in conversation for the rest of +her life!" Billy chuckled softly. "That is, if it comes out all +right—and that's the only way I can imagine its coming out." +</p> +<p> +With one hand on the door Falconer paused to stare back at him. "You +don't mean she'd want to <i>tell</i> about it!" he ejaculated with +unplumbed horror. +</p> +<p> +Billy was suddenly sobered. "Well, nobody but you and I and the +Baroff know it now," he said, "and I think we can keep the Baroff's +mouth shut.... I'll see her in the morning. You'd better get in a +nap to-morrow, and I will, too, for we'll want steady nerves. Good +night; I'm glad you're going with me." +</p> +<p> +"I'm damned if I'm glad," said the honest Englishman, with a wry +grin. "If we get our throats cut, I hope Miss Beecher will return +from the desert in time for our obsequies." +</p> +<p> +"Something in that red-headed chap I like after all," soliloquized +Billy B. Hill, as he turned toward his long-deferred repose. "Hanged +if he hasn't grit to go into a thing on an off chance!... Now, as +for me, I'm <i>sure</i>." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<h3> + TAKING CHANCES +</h3> +<p> +Late as he went to sleep, Billy B. Hill was up in good season that +Sunday morning. The need for cautioning Fritzi Baroff haunted him, +and he was not satisfied until he had had breakfast with that lively +young lady and laid down the law to her upon the situation. +</p> +<p> +She was very loath not to talk about herself at first. She wanted to +tell her tale to the papers and see if one of them would be hardy +enough to publish the story of the outrageous incarceration; she +wanted to cable the Viennese theater where she had played of her +sensational detention—in short, she wanted to get all the possible +publicity out of her durance vile and to advertise her small person +from Cairo to the Continent. +</p> +<p> +But Billy was urgent. "You just bide a wee on this publicity stunt," +he demanded. "Cable your manager and press agent all you want +to—but don't talk around the hotel here—and whatever you do and +whatever you say, keep Miss Beecher's name and mine out of it." +</p> +<p> +He was very decided about that, and because she was very grateful to +him and because she liked him and because she lacked other friends +and other pocketbooks, the little Viennese held her tongue as +directed. And she borrowed as much money as Billy would lend her, +and drove off to the small shops which were open that day, and found +a frock or two and a hat which she declared passable, and returned +transfigured to the hotel and rendered the table where she lunched +with Billy, with the air of possessing him, quite the most +conspicuous in the room. The ladies gazed past them with chill eyes; +the men stared covertly, with the surreptitious envy with which even +the most virtuous of men surveys a lucky devil. And Billy sadly +perceived that he was acquiring a reputation. +</p> +<p> +He did not blame Miss Falconer for turning haughtily aside as he and +his vivid companion went past them in the veranda. But he did think +her disdainful lack of memory a little overdone. +</p> +<p> +His cheeks were still red as he looked away from her and encountered +the direct eyes of the girl who followed her. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Hill?" said Lady Claire, as clear as a +bell. "It's <i>such</i> a nice day, isn't it?" she added, a little +breathlessly, as she went by. +</p> +<p> +"It's much better than it was," said Billy, and he turned back to +open the door for her. +</p> +<p> +"Claire!" said Miss Falconer from within. +</p> +<p> +"Coming, dear," said Lady Claire, and with a little smile of defiant +friendliness at the young American she was gone. +</p> +<p> +But the memory of that plucky little smile stayed right with Billy. +The girl liked him, she liked him in spite of his unknown +antecedents, his preposterous picture, his conspicuous companion. +She had a mind of her own, that tall English girl with the lovely +eyes and the proud mouth. In a warm surge of friendliness his +thoughts went out to her, and he wished vaguely that he could let +her know how fine he thought she was. +</p> +<p> +Within an hour that vague wish came true. He had packed Fritzi off, +with a newly acquired maid, for a drive up and down the safe public +streets and he had re-interviewed the one-eyed man and the native +chauffeur that the one-eyed man introduced for the evening's work, +and he was at one of the public desks in the writing room, inditing +a letter to his aunt, which, he whimsically appreciated, might be +his last mortal composition, and reflecting thankfully that it was +highly unnecessary to make a will, when Lady Claire strolled into +the room and over to a desk. +</p> +<p> +She tried a pen frowningly, and Billy jumped to offer another. "Oh, +thank you," she said. She seemed not to have seen him before. +</p> +<p> +"That was rather nice of you, you know," he said gravely. +</p> +<p> +She looked up at him. +</p> +<p> +"I'm not really a wolf," he continued, the gravity surrendering to +his likable, warm smile, "and I'm glad you recognized it." +</p> +<p> +Her reply took him unawares. "I think you're <i>splendid</i>," said Lady +Claire. "I thought so in the bazaars when you came to my help and +stood up to that <i>beastly</i> German." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, he wasn't such a beastly German, after all," Billy deprecated. +"And here I've had a message to you from him and never remembered to +give it. The fellow called on me the next morning in gala attire and +offered every apology and satisfaction in his power—even the +satisfaction of the duel, if I desired it. I didn't. But I promised +to express his deep apologies to you. He was horribly shocked at +himself. He'd been drinking, he said, to forget a 'sadness' which +possessed him. His lady love had failed to keep her tryst and life +was very dark." +</p> +<p> +"I don't wonder at her," said Lady Claire unforgivingly. "I'm sure +he must have been horrid to her!" +</p> +<p> +"I rather think she was horrid to him," Billy reflected, "although +she was a very sprightly looking lady love. He showed me her picture +in the back of his watch.... By <i>George</i>!" he uttered violently. +</p> +<p> +"What is it?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh—an idea, that's all. Something I must really attend to before +I—this afternoon, I mean. But there's no hurry about it," he added +cheerily. +</p> +<p> +Oh, Billy, Billy! Not even with his blood hot with thoughts of the +evening's work, not even with his memory ridden with Arlee's gay +witchery, could he keep his restless young eyes from laughing down +at her. But there wasn't a notion in the back of his honest head as +to the picture he was making in Lady Claire's eyes as he leaned, +long-limbed, broad-shouldered, lazily at ease against the desk, his +gray eyes very bright between their dark lashes, his dark hair +sweeping back from his wide forehead. +</p> +<p> +"Are you sure?" she asked of him, with the smile that he drew from +her. "Is it the inspiration for another picture?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no—that was my first and my last. That was the one purple +bloom of my art. I have laid my brushes by.... But I'm keeping you +from that letter you were going to write." +</p> +<p> +"It's just a few lines for Miss Falconer," Lady Claire unnecessarily +explained. "We are going to drive out to the Gezireh Palace Hotel +for tea, and she thought her brother might like to go out with us if +he came in in time." +</p> +<p> +She did not add why Miss Falconer was unable to write her own notes, +but slanted her blue-hatted head over the desk and then hastily +blotted her brief lines and tucked the sheet into an envelope. +Hesitantly she looked up at Billy. +</p> +<p> +"Have you been out to the Gezireh Palace?" she very innocently +inquired. +</p> +<p> +"Alone," said Billy. +</p> +<p> +"It's very jolly there," said she. "It's so gay—and the music is +<i>quite</i> good." +</p> +<p> +"H'm," meditated Billy. "The condemned man ate a hearty tea of +Orange Pekoe and cress sandwiches," he reflected silently. He also +reflected that Miss Falconer would be furious—and that invited +him—and that time was interminable and that this expedition was as +good a way of getting through the afternoon as any other. Thereupon +he turned to the English girl, with a humorous challenge in his +gaze. "I wonder if you and Miss Falconer would let this be my tea +party?" he suggested. +</p> +<p> +"Miss Falconer will be delighted," said Lady Claire mendaciously. +</p> +<p> +The traces of that delight, however, lay beneath so well schooled an +exterior that they were decidedly non-apparent. Nor did Robert +Falconer's mien reveal any hint of joy when he returned to the hotel +and found the two ladies starting with Billy. He joined them with +rather the air of a watch dog, but that air soon wore away during +the long drive under the spell of young Hill's frank friendliness +and gay good humor. For Billy was extravagantly in spirits. +Excitement stirred in him like wine; his blood was on fire with +thoughts of the evening. +</p> +<p> +"It's the fool <i>lark</i> of the thing," he said, half apologetically, +to Falconer's wonder when the two young men were alone for a minute +on the Gezireh verandas. "Didn't you ever want to be a pirate?" +</p> +<p> +The red-headed young man nodded. "Yes, but this business doesn't +make me feel like a pirate—more like a second-story man!" +</p> +<p> +"I've left letters with Fritzi Baroff," said Hill, "and if we're not +back by morning, she's to go to the authorities with them." +</p> +<p> +"That won't do us any good," said the Englishman grimly. +</p> +<p> +But after the ladies returned it was a very merry-seeming tea party. +Even Miss Falconer unbent to the artist, as she persisted in calling +Billy, though he had dutifully enlightened her that engineering was +his true and proper life work, and art but a random diversion, and +she promised to show him the sketches which she had been making, +and piled him with questions about his mysterious America. +</p> +<p> +And Lady Claire was very prettily animated, and rallied Falconer +upon his absent-mindedness and told Billy tales of her English home +and how her father had threatened to change the name of the Hall to +<i>Mädchenheim</i> because there were five daughters of them. "<i>Five</i> +girls near an age, Mr. Hill, and all poor as church mice!" she had +blithely asserted. +</p> +<p> +But from what Billy heard of balls and hunters and "seasons," he +gleaned that being poor as church mice, for these five titled girls, +meant merely an effort in keeping up with the things they felt +should be theirs by right divine. And as Billy listened, feeling the +force of the girl's attraction, the charm of her serene confidence +and the pleasant air of security and well-being that hedged her in, +he stole a covert glance at Falconer's unrevealing countenance and +reflected that it was rather a stormy day for that young man when he +became entangled with the fortunes of little Miss Beecher. It was +also a stormy day for himself, but he felt that storms belonged more +naturally to his adventurous lot. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +But it was characteristic of Falconer when once committed to a plan +not to open his mind to the objections which besieged it. So that +night, at the fall of dark, as the two young men motored forth +together, he maintained a stolid resolution which refused to look +back. The approach of the danger was tuning up his nerves, and +whatever his common sense might think about it, his youth and pluck +greeted the adventure with a quickening heart and a rash warmth of +blood. +</p> +<p> +Both young men were resolute and confident. Either would have been +more than human if he had not looked a trifle askance upon the other +and wished to thunder that he had been able to go into it alone and +to have tasted the intoxication of delivering the girl single-handed +out of the den of thieves. But the success of the plan was +paramount, as Billy reminded himself. +</p> +<p> +He found himself hoping wildly that she would see him as well as +Falconer. +</p> +<p> +"She has probably forgotten all about me," he thought ruefully. "She +won't remember that dance with me, nor that chat next morning. I'm +just an Also Met. She won't even perceive me. She'll see that +sandy-haired deliverer—and she'll tell him how right he was and how +good to come after her——" +</p> +<p> +Thus jealousy darkly painted his undoing. "But, darn it, I had to +ask him!" Thus he downed his ungenerous thoughts. "It needed two men +at least—and besides, I don't want any handicap of gratitude in +this." +</p> +<p> +They left the automobile in the Mohammedan graveyard with exact and +impressive instructions. And then they stole back among the gloomy +trees and ghostly tombs to where the canal washed the foot of the +little terraces, and there the one-eyed man sat waiting in the +canoe, a figure of profound misanthropy. +</p> +<p> +Silently he lifted a stricken but set countenance, and they climbed +in and the three paddled off, approaching the back of the palace +with wary eyes, for they were afraid that a guard might now be set +upon the walls. But Billy had argued that Kerissen was unaware of +Fritzi's knowledge of Arlee's identity; in fact she had at first +supposed her a willing supplanter like herself, and so he would not +be apprehensive of any of her revelations. And he did not dream that +Fritzi's rescuers were interested in Arlee. +</p> +<p> +At the strip of path the canoe made softly to shore and the two +young men climbed out, while the Arab remained in the canoe, his +single eye peering into the darkness. This time Billy had provided +three stout, but narrow, ladders, constructed of two poles nailed +together with occasional cross pieces that gave narrow room for a +foot. He set one of these in place against the wall now, grounding +its ends deep in the soft earth, so that it would remain in +readiness for any sudden descent. Then from the top of the wall they +reconnoitered the scene before them. +</p> +<p> +It was very dark. The garden was full of blotting shadows, and the +long wing of the harem lay almost in darkness, with only a faint +beam from two adjacent windows to reveal a sign of life. Those +windows were on the third story, next the angle made by the union of +the banquet hall and the harem, and Billy's heart quickened as he +recognized the location of the rose room. +</p> +<p> +"That's it—that's her room," he whispered excitedly to Falconer. +</p> +<p> +Falconer stared and nodded. "I wish that beastly hall wasn't in the +way ahead of us. I'd like to see what lights are in the windows in +that court beyond." +</p> +<p> +"We might both go and take a look," said Billy doubtfully, "but I +guess you had better make, straight for your roofs. It wouldn't do +to have us both nabbed. Do you hear anything?" +</p> +<p> +They listened, crouching flat upon the wall, straining their eyes +toward the palace. There was a high wind blowing and above them the +leaves of the palm trees were slapping against each other, and below +the shrubs and flowers were stirring restlessly. But the noise of +the wind, they felt, was helpful to cover the sounds of their +approach. +</p> +<p> +"Why can't I make my way around on top of this wall and climb on the +roofs from the start?" Falconer questioned, and Billy answered, "I +asked her that. She said it couldn't be done. You'd have to climb +through some unsafe rubbish. The best way is down and up again in +that angle that she showed me. Shall we start?" +</p> +<p> +The same impulse made both men examine their revolvers, then drop +them in readiness into their right-hand coat pockets. They moved +along the top of the wall till they reached the angle with the wall +on their right, and then they lowered the same knotted rope which +Billy had used the night before, but now another rope added to it +made it into a rope ladder. Suspending that over the top of the wall +by iron hooks, they slipped down it, each with a pole ladder in his +arms, and with another hook of iron they drove the ends down into +the earth, so that the rope would not wave out in the wind and +either betray them or become displaced. +</p> +<p> +It was insecure enough, anyway, but they felt it ought to be left in +readiness for a flight that might have no second to waste. Now, with +eyes sharply challenging the shadows, they stole along the edge of +the palace. +</p> +<p> +Staring up at the building, Billy stopped. "Here's a place a story +and a half high—you could almost climb up by those carvings without +any ladder. And there's the next higher roof back of it—and then +you must go there to the left." +</p> +<p> +"I can make it," said Falconer, surely. "Now how much time shall I +allow you for your sawing—fifteen minutes?" +</p> +<p> +"Guess you'd better," Billy reflected, and they compared watches. +</p> +<p> +It was tremendously difficult to arrive at any sort of concerted +action on this bewildering expedition, but they were hoping to +achieve it. Their plan had the simplicity of all desperate measures. +One from below and one from above they were to make their way to +that rose room and fight the way out with the girl. They considered +it wiser to come from two directions, for if one were discovered and +the alarm raised, the other had still a chance of getting off with +Arlee, and if one were trying to escape, the other could cover his +flight. They had drawn straws for their positions, and Billy had +been slightly relieved that the entrance from below, which he +considered a trifle more difficult, had fallen to him. He felt +responsible, as well as he might, for Falconer's neck. +</p> +<p> +Now he steadied one narrow ladder of poles while Falconer crept up +it and then drew it up after him; and after a few moments of +waiting, crouched in the shadow, Billy saw the Englishman's figure +reappear against the sky on top of a higher roof. The route over +the old buildings had been found, so Billy turned and crept forward +along the wall, carrying the last long ladder of poles in his hand. +It was an unwieldy thing to carry and it distracted his attention +harassingly. +</p> +<p> +"My job," said he to himself, "is evidently to make a racket and +draw their fire from below while that red-headed chap carries Arlee +off from above. Well, I hope to the Lord he does. When I think of +her here——" +</p> +<p> +But it was unnerving to think of her here, so he didn't. He kept his +mind steadily on the plan. He had reached the stone steps that led +from the garden to the harem now, and laying down his pole-like +ladder he slipped up them and turned the handle. +</p> +<p> +But the door was locked. Fearful lest the grating of the knob should +have roused some watcher, he ran down the steps and hurried into the +shadow of the banquet hall, where he stood close beside a pillar +until he satisfied himself of the objects in the court beyond. He +saw an edge of light along the crack of a closed door to the left on +the ground floor of the <i>selamlik</i>, and in the higher stories above +that a couple of windows showed a pale illumination. On the right, +in the harem, only one window betrayed a ray of light. Altogether +the old pile was as gloomy and gruesome as a tomb. +</p> +<p> +Billy stared across the court to where the columned vestibule, +uniting the two Ls, indicated the door. He had been told a watchman +slept there, but he could see nothing now but vague outlines of the +arches of the vestibule. To the left was the open passage left for +the entry of the automobile and horses, but this, too, was roofed so +that a black shadow lay over it. But for that watchman Billy would +have made his way to those doors to draw back the bars in readiness, +but fearful of raising an alarm, he judged it was better to leave +escape to chance and turn his attention to his entry. +</p> +<p> +He went back now for his ladder, and on the right side of the +banquet hall, up under the arched roof, he discovered the wooden +grating where Fritzi had described it. Against this wall he placed +his ladder and climbed to the top, from which he could reach up and +clasp the spindles of the grating above him. +</p> +<p> +He drew himself swiftly up to this, and the end of his pole was +dislodged by his departure and fell to the inlaid pavement with a +bang that seemed to him to carry to the farthest echoes of the +sounding court. Instantly there was an answering clatter of steps. +</p> +<p> +Like a monkey Billy clung to the grating, thrusting his toes +desperately into the first openings they could find, hanging on with +his hands for dear life, holding himself as close up in the darkness +as he could, and nearly twisting his neck off in the effort to watch +what was going on below him. +</p> +<p> +The steps sounded nearer and nearer, and a huge Nubian in baggy +bloomers and a short jacket was outlined in the court. His bare feet +were thrust into clattering English shoes. He peered about him for a +time, with one hand pointing the muzzle of a revolver. Billy caught +the unpleasant gleam of it; then the man stepped in underneath the +arches of the hall and made a slow way across it. +</p> +<p> +Directly in his path lay that fatal pole. It lay along the shadow of +a column, but its end protruded beyond that shadow and would surely +catch his eye. Billy tried to free his right hand to get at a gun of +his own. To be caught ridiculously like this, clutching like a +monkey on a stick——! +</p> +<p> +Another man, shorter and bent, in a long robe and carrying a +lantern, now emerged from that door along whose closed edge Billy +had noticed the crack of light, and the Nubian diverged toward him. +The pole was unnoticed and the two joined forces and made a slow +circle in the garden. Billy remembered that dangling rope, and with +a thumping heart he hoped that it would hang unregarded in that +shadowed angle, overrun with vines. +</p> +<p> +Apparently it did, for he heard the footsteps passing on without a +stop as he clung there to his grating, his muscles cramped, his +sockets strained. Slowly the two recrossed the hall, talking +together in low gutturals and not apparently of unpleasant things, +for a note of laughter sounded. They lingered in parley in the +court, but by the time that he thought that he could not hang on a +minute longer and would drop like a peach from the wall, they +separated and each moved slowly away. The man with the lantern shut +the door after him and all was darkness there and the great Nubian +was blotted out beneath the arches of the vestibule. +</p> +<p> +The fear that Falconer was in the palace alone made Billy desperate. +Clinging with his feet and his left hand, he drew out a clasp knife +with a razor edge and hacked furiously at the delicate spindles and +frail carved work of the screen till he could thrust one arm through +the opening. The work was easier then, but he had to resist the +temptation to seize the brittle stuff and break it in pieces, for +fear the splintering sound would be too sharp. +</p> +<p> +Torn between caution and impatience he worked on, and as soon as the +hole was large enough he pulled himself cautiously up and dropped +over the edge into the cage-like balcony on the other side. The +panel which separated it from the rest of the old room was half +open, and he stepped through it into what appeared utter darkness. +</p> +<p> +He stood listening keenly, for he knew that he was standing below +the rose room; the very spot where he was must be almost exactly +beneath that secret passage outside the panel in the rose room's +wall. Not a sound came down to him and he dared not wait longer, but +turned to the left and passed through the arched doorway into the +next great salon. +</p> +<p> +As his eyes grew accustomed to the dark he saw that it was not utter +blackness, but that some wan light from the paler night without +faintly penetrated through those jealously guarded windows—windows +not so heavily screened, he had been told, as those upon the front +of the palace, for these were upon the court. He found time for a +flash of horror at this stifling barricade as he made his hurried +way through the room and stepped out into the little anteroom +beyond. +</p> +<p> +Here he paused, for he knew that to the left, ahead of him, was the +curtained opening into the long salon upon the street, and within +that, Fritzi had warned him, a eunuch sometimes slept or Seniha +occasionally came from her small salon to play on the piano there +and lingered apparently in wait. But no one seemed stirring, and +Billy stole to the door on his right, opening on the encased stairs, +and found it locked. Hurriedly he pried at it with a burglarious +tool, and then a sudden outburst sounded overhead. +</p> +<p> +There was a racket of hurrying feet and then a muffled explosion of +a shot. A hoarse voice yelled. Another shot, and then a thud of +something falling. +</p> +<p> +Desperately Billy fired his gun into the lock. The noise did not +matter now and might serve to divert the fight from Falconer. +Throwing his weight against the shattered lock, he bounded up the +narrow stairs and raced down the long hall to the door that was +brightly gilded. From beyond, but fainter now, came the sounds of +conflict. With a heart beating to suffocation he flung open the door +and rushed into that room. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<h3> + IN THE ROSE ROOM +</h3> +<p> +Candles flared on the table but not a figure greeted his eye. The +room was deathly still; nothing stirred but the long draperies +fluttering in the wind. +</p> +<p> +"Arlee!" he whispered in a voice strained with excitement. "Arlee +Beecher, are you here?... Arlee!" +</p> +<p> +No voice answered. No motion revealed her. Only the candle flames +danced drunkenly in a puff of air, flaunting their secret knowledge +of the tenant they had lighted. +</p> +<p> +He darted to the tumbled bed and flung aside the covers; he looked +beneath it and beneath the couch; he sent a candle's light traveling +about the empty whiteness of the bath. No little figure, pitifully +silenced, was, hidden there. The room was empty. And all the while +that din sounded somewhere beyond them—running feet and strident +yells. +</p> +<p> +"He's got her!" thought Billy, and first his heart leaped and then +it sank. For very dear to that boy's heart had been the dream of +rescuing her himself. And then he hated himself for that base envy. +For what did it matter as long as little Arlee was safe, and that +she was gone with Falconer, the empty room and the signs of hasty +departure all spoke in witness. He wondered sharply how they had +gone and whether he had better try to follow them and then thought +it was shrewder to go back the way he had come and from below to try +to guard whatever descent they must make. +</p> +<p> +He turned swiftly and crossed to the door. With a hand outstretched +toward it he caught suddenly, beneath all the distant din, the click +of a sliding lock, and he whirled about, dropping his right hand +into his pocket, to see a pale face staring at him from the other +side of the bed. +</p> +<p> +"Not a move—or you drop!" said Captain Kerissen. The candle lights +glinted on the muzzle of a gun leveled steadily at him. +</p> +<p> +"Stay where you are," the Captain added, and Billy stayed, and +through the dusk the two men stood eyeing each with a glare of +hatred. But Kerissen's eyes held hatred triumphant. +</p> +<p> +"So, Monsieur," said the Turk. "This is the midnight call you +gentlemen pay—in the chamber of my wife." +</p> +<p> +"Your wife!" Billy gave a snort of unbelief. "She says you did not +marry her!" +</p> +<p> +"When you are found dead—if you are found," the other continued, +looking lovingly along the sight, "there will not even be a question +into the cause. You will be carted off like carrion—carrion that +prowled too near." +</p> +<p> +"Just the same you've made a mistake," said Billy in a dogged and +argumentative tone. "I'm not interested in visiting any wife of +yours. The lady I'm representing says you didn't marry her. But she +says you did keep back most of her jewelry and she's giving the +story to the papers to-morrow unless I return with the stuff +to-night." +</p> +<p> +He could not guess what impression this speech was making. +</p> +<p> +"I am not interested in your stories, Monsieur," the Turk returned +blandly. "I am interested only in your dispatching—which I feel +should be prolonged beyond the mercy of a shot." +</p> +<p> +"Look here, I'm not a common robber and you know it," said Billy, +and his voice sounded rough and angry. "I'm here to collect the +property of the lady you detained here, while she was under contract +in Vienna. I don't want anything more than <i>belongs</i> to her. She +left——" +</p> +<p> +"With a great deal more upon her than she brought! But am I to +suppose, Monsieur, that you have made your way here, at some +personal inconvenience, I should say, to discuss the generosity of +my remuneration to the lady?" There was a tense silence and the +Captain continued in a low, almost purring voice, "You do not +appear, even now, to comprehend the thing you have done. I shall do +my best to make you comprehend—and before I have finished it may be +that I shall have a clearer explanation of this impulsive call. You +have no notion, Monsieur, how certain things unloose the tongue—but +you shall discover." +</p> +<p> +Billy saw his white teeth show in a deadly smile. Back of him a +dark, heavy figure appeared and the Captain, without turning his +head or moving his eyes or his gun from Billy, gave some rapid +directions in Turkish and the figure disappeared. It occurred to +Billy like a flash that from that secret passage where the figure +had appeared there was a panel into the room on the right and that +room had a door opening into the hall outside. The next moment he +felt the door behind him open. +</p> +<p> +Then he pulled the trigger of that gun in his pocket in which his +hand had been so lightly resting. The Captain seemed to fire the +same instant, but Billy had jumped aside as he shot his own gun and +he heard the bullet singing past his ear, and now, with his revolver +out of his pocket, he shot again with an aim so true that the other +man's right hand gave a spasmodic jerk and the revolver went +spinning to the ground. +</p> +<p> +Across the room he hurled himself, springing from the onslaught of +the assailant entering behind him, and thrusting the cursing Captain +from his path he leaped through the sliding panel. The lock clicked +home and he paused even in that moment of hammering pulses and +pounding heart to fumble in the darkness to shut that other panel +into the next room, remembering Fritzi's warning that those locks +needed a key to open them from within. The minute's delay for the +key would mean many minutes for him. +</p> +<p> +He stumbled against the tiny stairs that led to the tower room +through which Falconer had descended, but he did not dash up those +stairs for he heard the noise of feet overhead, as if returning from +pursuit, and he darted straight on through the long, narrow, +unlighted corridor, running like a hare. +</p> +<p> +At the other end he crashed against a half-open door and fell +headlong down a flight of stairs. From his astonished fingers the +revolver went clattering and though he picked himself up, battered +but unbroken, at the foot, he dared not waste a minute to go back +and hunt for the gun in the dark. He was totally at a loss for +directions; he had expected to find himself in the Captain's rooms, +and the stairs were unknown. Now he could just make out a door ahead +of him and sent it flying open, smash in the face of an astonished +black boy who went stumbling backwards. +</p> +<p> +Out went Billy's fist and caught the unguarded chin a staggering +blow, and as the boy reeled back he flung one hurried glance about +the big, lamp-lit chamber in which he found himself, the room +evidently of Captain Kerissen, and darted to an arsenal of weapons +that glinted against the inlaid panels. Wrenching down the shortest +scabbard he jerked out a most villainous looking two-edged knife and +gripping this piratical weapon he bounded out the door, fled through +the dim hall to his right, rounded a corner, to the right again, +hearing the sounds of pursuit louder and louder now behind him, shot +through a vast reception hall and plunged down a flight of stairs. +</p> +<p> +From the darkness below a figure rose up to receive him with a grip +like iron. Billy's right arm was doubled at his side; the blade of +that villainous old dagger was pressed against the yielding softness +of the fellow's sash, but for the life of him Billy could not drive +home that knife against the human flesh. With a convulsive movement +he tore himself from those gorilla arms and sent up a desperate +kick, then leaped past the staggering man, and with the unused knife +in his teeth, he tore at the bars of the great gate in the wall at +his left. The bars were stiff and primitive and resisted his furious +fingers, and the big gate-keeper, gasping for a moment against the +stairs, suddenly straightened and sprang toward him. +</p> +<p> +"Here's one hero that didn't open the door 'in the nick of time'!" +raced through Billy's grimly humorous mind, as he dodged the savage +thrust of a knife the man had drawn and turned and scuttled across +the court with the other on his heels. Through the arches he darted +and then down into the garden, sprinting as he had never sprinted +before, on, on to the southwest angles of the wall, thanking Heaven +fervently, as every step outdistanced his pursuer, that the man had +evidently no gun. +</p> +<p> +The rope ladder was still there, blown free at the bottom now and +waving merrily in the wind. He snatched at it, dropping his knife in +his pocket, praying that the top hooks had not become dislodged, and +after him came the other man, hand over hand. Billy drew up his legs +in a horrid fear of having them gripped or hacked at, and gained the +top just as the other's head appeared below, his knife gleaming in +his teeth. +</p> +<p> +Like a flash Billy drew out his knife and cut the rope. There was a +wild yell from below and a screech of curses and imprecations +following a rather sickening sounding thud, which persuaded Billy, +peering down from above, that the victim's lungs at least were +unimpaired, and then to his great amazement a shot went winging up +past his ear. +</p> +<p> +"Had a gun all the time—too fighting mad to think of it—knife more +natural!" he thought amazedly, sliding down the other side in a +jiffy and then jerking his ladder down flat on the ground. +</p> +<p> +Out in the shadows the one-eyed man was paddling earnestly to +safety. The shot so close at hand had been his sign for departure; +he did not look back at Billy's shrill whistling nor his wilder +shouts, and as the yells on the other side of the wall were bringing +the inmates of the palace upon him, Billy had no more time for +persuasion. +</p> +<p> +Off went his shoes and out into the canal he flung them, then +headlong he plunged into the dark and uninviting water and struck +out to the right, in the same direction in which the canoe was +going, keeping carefully in the shadow of the bank, on the other +side. +</p> +<p> +In a few moments the canoe was lost from sight and Billy was left +alone, swimming between two steep walls of old palaces, weighed down +by his tweeds, and maddened through and through with his inability +to wring the neck of the one-eyed canoeist. The distance seemed +unending to his slow progress but at last the palms of the cemetery +appeared upon the right hand bank, and he struck across the widening +waters and climbed out on the first foot of the graveyard that +presented itself. +</p> +<p> +A dozen rods farther on the Arab was awaiting him in the canoe. +Billy's mood did not invite conversation and he did not linger now +for the other's explanations, but calling to him to wait he made in +through the cemetery, dodging warily from tomb to tomb, till he +reached the entrance of the main road. +</p> +<p> +The motor was gone. He satisfied himself of that, and a wave of +rejoicing surged through him. That motor was to wait till one or the +other arrived with the girl and then leave with all speed, while the +other was to be left to the slower canoe. He was sure, now, that +Falconer had succeeded in carrying the thing through and Billy's +heart warmed to him. Then, for the first time, he felt something +numb and queer about his left arm and putting his hand on it he +found the sopping sleeve was torn and a warm ooze of blood welling +through the cold water from the canal. +</p> +<p> +"Gosh, the chap winged me!" was his startled exclamation. "Feels as +if it's going to sleep—glad it didn't go back on me in the ditch, +there." Then he pressed back into the shadows for he saw a figure +edging forward beyond the corner of a tomb. After a moment's +hesitation it came directly toward him. He saw it was Robert +Falconer. +</p> +<p> +Foreboding gripped him and he could scarcely keep himself from +shouting his eager question, but he hurried forward till the two +stood face to face and then, "Where is she? Did you get her?" burst +from him, and "Have you got her? Is she all right?" came at the same +instant from Falconer. +</p> +<p> +Blankly they stared at each other and a cold sense of failure went +over and over Billy like a sea. His voice shook with this new, +sickening fear. "Didn't you see her at all?" +</p> +<p> +"Did you?" counter-demanded Falconer, and Billy stammered, "Why no +I—I found the room empty. And I thought you were safely off with +her." +</p> +<p> +"Safely off!" said Falconer grimly. "I got in all right, though +there must be a new lock on the door of that room up top, but I made +some noise about it and ran plump into a fellow half way down the +stairs. I threw him the rest of the way down, and he fired and +brought a couple of others swarming up at me but I got out on the +roofs again and gave them the slip. They went tearing back along the +wing toward the garden the way I'd come and I went toward the street +and got down." +</p> +<p> +"Got down! <i>How</i> did you get down?" +</p> +<p> +"Over those bay-window places," said the Englishman briefly. "I tied +that cord I had to one of the doddering old cornices to start with. +It wasn't any trick at all." +</p> +<p> +"Three stories," Billy shot in. +</p> +<p> +"And you'd no better luck, it seems?" Falconer inquired. +</p> +<p> +"No, I came up from below and found the room empty—but disheveled, +so I thought you were off with her sure. And just then the Captain +came in the panel places—just back from chasing you along the roof, +I guess, for I'd been hearing the racket—and another fellow with +him and we had a scrimmage and I got away through the men's wing." +</p> +<p> +"You're wet." +</p> +<p> +"That was a bit of canal bathing—our Arab put off with the canoe +when I was needing it badly. I left him waiting here all right, +however, and came here to find the motor gone." +</p> +<p> +"Naturally—being paid in advance." +</p> +<p> +"Only half paid." +</p> +<p> +"Half pay was enough for him. I knew it would be.... The thing was +all rot in the first place." +</p> +<p> +Billy was too bitter of soul to reply. He was remembering what he +ought to have done. He ought to have put that pistol to the +Captain's head and forced him through the palace inch by inch.... He +wondered if it would do any good to go back. His arm was rousing +from its numbness, however, and raising a little racket all its own. +</p> +<p> +"We might as well get out of this," the Englishman advised, and +Billy's reason acquiesced in spite of his rage. In silence they went +down to the water's edge and embarked. The homeward course, from +caution, was not past the palace but upstream through a remote and +unknown region where they finally landed upon a bank and struck +through unfamiliar and unfriendly looking byways toward the city. +</p> +<p> +Their walk was silent. Fierce gloom enveloped Billy; furious chagrin +bestrode him. Chump that he was to have jumped at such positive +conclusions! He ought to have stayed there. If only that second Turk +had not been coming up behind him! He could think now of a number of +brilliant ways out of his difficulties.... Morosely he trudged on +through the interminable streets, his chilly wetness like an outward +aspect of his gloom-soused mind. +</p> +<p> +He could not bear to think of Arlee. He felt now that, warned by +Falconer's approach from above, they had snatched her from her room +and hidden her away. He wondered if he deceived the Captain about +the motives for his presence. He wondered what in the world could be +done now—if all effort was to resolve itself into the futility of +an official search-party. He wondered where in all that baffling +prison Arlee was hidden. +</p> +<p> +Upon that tormenting question he unlocked his lips. "Where is she?" +he muttered worriedly. "That's the question—where is she?" +</p> +<p> +"In Alexandria." +</p> +<p> +Plainly the Englishman's wrath had been smoldering. Billy turned +upon him fiercely. +</p> +<p> +"In that palace, I tell you." +</p> +<p> +"So you say." +</p> +<p> +"And I say, too," and Billy's exasperation strained its bonds, "that +if you don't believe she was there—if you think I got up this +little party to while away an idle evening, why it was most +uncommonly good of you to come! But I can't think why you did it if +you weren't convinced of the necessity. Certainly it was not from +love of me." +</p> +<p> +"Rather not." +</p> +<p> +"That goes double.... But you couldn't deny the facts and you <i>did</i> +come. Because we failed doesn't change the facts at all. She's +there—only <i>where</i>? Had we better go straight to the consul now?" +</p> +<p> +"I think," said Falconer coldly, "that we had better telegraph the +Evershams to see if they have had any word from her before we stir +up any hue and cry." +</p> +<p> +"All right," said Billy, and then he gave a short laugh. "Lord, we +shall be quarreling like a couple of backyard dames next ... Of +course, we're chagrined. It's poor satisfaction to reflect that we +did our best—and if you are still uncertain about Miss Beecher's +danger there I can't blame you for seeing the folly of the +business." +</p> +<p> +After this effort of pleasantness Billy subsided into the cab that +was most welcomely discovered, rousing after some minutes of violent +progress to change their direction to the English doctor's. +</p> +<p> +"Winged," he said briefly, to Falconer's question. "Watchman chap as +I was getting over the wall. Nothing wrong, I know, but it feels +like—fire," he substituted. +</p> +<p> +Falconer was instantly concerned, but his sympathy went against the +grain. Billy was too stirred for consolation. At the doctor's he +refused to have Falconer enter with him. +</p> +<p> +"No use in having both of us traced if there is to be any trouble +about this," he said with decision. "Go ahead and telegraph the +Evershams and get an answer as soon as possible." +</p> +<p> +He had no earthly belief in that answer, and great, therefore, was +his astonishment when, as he was walking the floor with his tingling +arm in the early morning hours, a telegram was sent to him which +Falconer had just received. His wire had caught the boat at Rhoda +where it tied up for the night and Mrs. Eversham had promptly +answered. +</p> +<p> +"We have heard from Miss Beecher," she said, "and she may join us +later. Her address just Cook's, Alexandria." +</p> +<a name="2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<h3> + ON THE TRAIL +</h3> +<p> +Breakfasting, a little one-handedly, that Monday morning, Billy was +approached by his companion of the night. The young Englishman +looked fresh and fit and subtly triumphant. +</p> +<p> +"Good news—what?" he said with a genial smile. +</p> +<p> +"If authentic," said the dogged Billy. +</p> +<p> +"Of all the fanatic f——!" The sandy-haired young man checked his +explosiveness in mid-air. He gave a glance at the bulge of bandage +beneath Billy's coat sleeve and dropped into a chair beside him. +"How's the arm?" he inquired in a tone of restraint. +</p> +<p> +"Fine," said Billy without enthusiasm. +</p> +<p> +"Glad of that. Afraid the canal bath wouldn't do it any good. +Beastly old place, that." Then the Englishman gave a sudden chuckle. +"It's a regular old lark when you come to think of it!" +</p> +<p> +"Our lack of luck wasn't any great lark." Savagely Bill speared his +bacon. +</p> +<p> +"Luck? Why we—Oh, come now, my dear fellow, you can't pretend to +maintain those suspicions now! Of course the letter is authentic!" +Falconer spoke between irritation and raillery. "That Turkish +fellow could hardly fake that letter to them, could he? No, and we +will have to acknowledge ourselves actuated by a too-hasty +suspicion—inevitable under the circumstance—and be grateful that +the uncertainty is over. That's the only way to look at it." +</p> +<p> +"We don't know that the Evershams have received a 'letter.' It might +be another fraudulent telegram that was sent them from Alexandria." +</p> +<p> +"That is a bit too thick. You're a Holmes for suspicion!" Falconer +laughed. "I believe if Miss Beecher herself walked into this dining +room you would question if she were not a deceiving effigy!" +</p> +<p> +"I might question that anyway." Billy's tone was dry. "And I daresay +I am a fool. But that dancer's story is pretty straight if she +didn't know the names, and it fits in disasterously well with my +limousine story." +</p> +<p> +"You're not the first man to be staggered by a coincidence," +Falconer told him. "And that woman's yarn was convincing enough, +though all the time I was dubious, you remember. But now that the +Evershams have heard," and the young Englishman's deep note of +relief showed how tormenting had been his uncertainty, "why now we +have no further right to put Miss Beecher's name into the affair. +There is evidently some other girl concerned who may or may not be +as guileless as she represented to the Baroff girl, and I shall lay +that story before the ambassador and leave her rescue to authentic +ways." +</p> +<p> +He laughed a little shamefacedly at the unauthentic ways of last +night, and added, looking off across the room, "My sister and Lady +Claire are going to Luxor to-night, and I expect to accompany them. +If you should have any word about Miss Beecher's return here I +should be glad if you would let me know." +</p> +<p> +"If she is safe in Alexandria she'd never think of writing me," said +Billy bluntly. "Our acquaintance is distinctly one-sided." +</p> +<p> +"I quite understand. She was your countrywoman in a strange land and +all that." +</p> +<p> +"And all that," Billy echoed. "What time is your train?" +</p> +<p> +"Six-thirty." +</p> +<p> +"Then if I don't see you before that here's good luck and good-by." +</p> +<p> +Billy rose and shook hands and the two young men parted after a few +more words. +</p> +<p> +"You have an <i>idée-fixe</i>—beware of it!" was Falconer's caution, +serious beneath its air of banter, and on the other hand Billy +perceived in the cautioner a latent uneasiness considered so +irrational that he was doing his sensible best to disown it. +</p> +<p> +So Falconer took himself off about the preparations for departure +and Billy B. Hill was left to face his problem alone. Black worry +plucked at him. He did not know what under the sun he could do next. +Already that day he had done what he could. He had been out early +and run down the one-eyed factotum loitering about the corner and +under cover of a transaction over a scarab he had made a number of +plans. +</p> +<p> +He wanted the Captain followed every instant of the day. There were +enough active little Arabs greedy for <i>piastres</i> to do that well +and send back constant word to him. There was coming that day, he +felt, an interview between him and that Captain. Then he wanted the +one-eyed man to insinuate himself into the palace. He must find out +things. He could use his connection with the eunuch who was uncle of +his brother's wife. +</p> +<p> +So much Billy had already arranged and now after a hasty breakfast +he was off to the consul, where he proceeded to unfold his story +while the consul drew little circles on his blotter and looked out +of the corners of his eyes at this astonishing young man. +</p> +<p> +He made no comment when Billy paused. Perhaps he could think of none +adequate, or perhaps, after all, he had ceased to be amazed. He +merely said slowly and thoughtfully, "Of course the dancer's story +is all you really have to go upon. You had better bring her here." +</p> +<p> +"Nothing easier," Billy declared, and thinking a cab as prompt as a +telephone he drove briskly off. +</p> +<p> +The hotel held a shock for him. Fritzi Baroff was gone. She had gone +the evening before, the clerk reported, consulting the register, and +she had paid her bill. As he had not been the one on duty then he +knew nothing more about it. She had left no address. +</p> +<p> +Ultimately the clerk who had been on duty was unearthed in the +labyrinths of the hotel's backgrounds, but he could supply very +little further except the certainty that she had paid her bill in +person, and the vague belief that she had been accompanied. This +belief was companioned by a hazy notion that some one had called on +her that evening. +</p> +<p> +Even Billy's sense of humor was unstirred by the half-cynical +sympathy of the night-clerk's gaze; Billy didn't feel a laugh +anywhere within him. He was balked. The dancer had vanished with her +story, and that story was essential to the consul. Like a fool he +must return empty-handed with this yarn of her disappearance and the +consul would be justified in declaring that he had no actual proof +to act upon. Which was precisely what the consul did, but he +offered, impressed with Billy's earnestness, "to take the matter +up," with the proper authorities. +</p> +<p> +It seemed the best that could be done. Billy urged him to prompt +action, and to himself he promised some prompt action of a totally +unofficial character. He knew now what he was going to do, or rather +he thought he did, for the day still held its unsettling surprises +for him, and as he set forth on business bent that afternoon he +found himself besieged by a skinny little boy in tattered blue +robes, who danced around him with a handful of dirty postcards. +</p> +<p> +"Be off," said Billy, in vigorous Arabic, and the little boy +answered proudly, in most excellent English, "I am a messenger, sir. +I am the boy who held the canoe that night. Buy a postcard, sir? +Only six piastres a dozen, six piastres, Views of Egypt, the Sphinx, +the Nile, the——" +</p> +<p> +Impatiently Billy cut him short. +</p> +<p> +"Never mind the bluff. No one is listening. What's your message?" +</p> +<p> +"The streets have ears, sir. Buy a postcard?... I have come from the +palace. I brought in the bread. I—<i>I</i> got in under their nose while +the big Mohammed was turned away without sight of his uncle," +bragged the little Imp. "I am a clever boy, I. No one else so clever +to find out things. The American man did well to come to me." +</p> +<p> +"What the devil, then, did you find out?" +</p> +<p> +"Five piastres a dozen, then, only five.... Go on walking, sir, I +will run alongside. Keep shaking your head at me—very good.... I +find out where she are." +</p> +<p> +"Where <i>who</i> are?" +</p> +<p> +The little braggart had roused Billy's suspicions. He determined to +be wary. +</p> +<p> +"The young girl with the very light hair. Mohammed send me to ask of +her. You know, sir," the little fellow insisted, hopping up and down +beside him. "Only four a dozen—very cheap!" he screeched at him in +a tone that must have carried for blocks. "I run in with the bread +and take it to the kitchen where women are working. And I pretend +make love to one very pretty girl, tell her how I come marry her +when I old enough and make enough, and hold up piece money to show +how rich I am. And the rest they think I just make game, but I +whisper to her quick how much you pay her for news of that lady +upstairs with the fair hair, and I give her some money. It are not +much, sir. I promise her to come back with more." +</p> +<p> +"Go on," demanded Billy, stopping short. "What did she tell you?" +</p> +<p> +"Walk along, sir, walk along. Just half a dozen then—very cheap, +very beautiful!" cried the little rascal with deep enjoyment of his +rôle. Billy found his hands clenching frenziedly. The Imp proceeded, +"She are much afraid, that girl, to say things, but I tell her how +safe it is an' I tell her you great big rich man who pay her well. I +make her honest promise to come back with money—and she very poor +girl. She whisper quick what she know, looking backward over +shoulder like this." Turning his face about after this dramatic +illustration the Imp caught sight of Billy's countenance, and rolled +the rest of his narration into one speedy sentence. +</p> +<p> +"She are gone," he cried. +</p> +<p> +"Gone?" +</p> +<p> +"Took away.... Take these cards, sir, stop and look at them.... Yes, +she are took away. It happen very quick; early that morning after +the other lady go in the night. Everyone much excited that night, +great noise about, and no one know just what happen. But the Captain +give orders quick, and early the motor car is ready and the strange +girl go away. Old woman go, too. Nobody know where." +</p> +<p> +"That would be Sunday morning," Billy cried excitedly. "Are you sure +there is no mistake? There were lights in that room on Sunday +night." +</p> +<p> +"I tell what the girl tell. She are very honest girl," the Imp +insisted. "She say the other lady run away with her lover an' +Captain afraid the new lady has a lover so he send her away quick." +</p> +<p> +"But he didn't go himself?" +</p> +<p> +"No, he have something with his reg-reglement," gulped the Imp +hastily, "that day and he stay and he there now—but now he sick." +</p> +<p> +"What's the matter?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know, sir, but I know the doctor comes because she say to +me to come back and say I am boy from doctor with medicine, and if I +don't see her I must say I lost that medicine and go away, and come +again as I can till I bring that money to her. She are very much +afraid, sir." +</p> +<p> +Billy shuffled the postcards with absent hands and stared down at +them with unseeing eyes. She was gone—and the Captain was not with +her! That much at least was gain. And the fellow was here sick from +his shot hand, apparently. "I hope gangreen sets in," he said +between his teeth. +</p> +<p> +"You are pleased with me, sir?" the Imp was demanding. "You are glad +of so much clever boy? And you give me that money now to give that +girl? I make her most honest promise—and you see, sir, I am very +honest boy, I tell you all I know and I ask nothing of price yet. I +know that you are honest American man." +</p> +<p> +At that Billy came out of his brown study and praised the tattered +little Imp with hearty earnestness. He saw no reason to doubt the +boy's story. If he had been trying to invent something in order to +make capital out of him he would hardly have invented that story of +Arlee's departure, for that put an immediate end to further +remunerative investigations in the palace. Of course Billy might be +mistaken, and the boy might be mistaken, but one had to leave +something to probabilities. He was very generous with the boy, and +the droll little brown face was lined with grins. Most naïvely he +besought that the American would not reveal the extent of his +donations to Mohammed, the one-eyed man, as the boys had promised +their employer a just one-half. +</p> +<p> +It was the first laugh Billy had enjoyed in a long time. His spirits +were vastly lightened by the news that Arlee was out of the palace +where the Captain was staying. Fritzi had optimistically informed +him that the Turk's courtship could be made most lengthy, but that +had been a sadly slender hope and the picture of Arlee playing such +a fearful game was simply horrible to him. So his relief at her +departure was intense, although it complicated more and more the +hope of speedy rescue. +</p> +<p> +For where was she now? In Cairo? In some of the outlying villages? +He felt swamped by the number of things were to be found out +immediately. He must find where that big gray motor went so early on +Sunday—surely there were people who had remarked it if they could +only be found and induced to talk! And he must find where the +Captain had other homes or palaces where he would be likely to hide +a girl. And he must find out where the Captain was every instant of +the day and night. +</p> +<p> +That was the most important thing of all. For the Captain unless +delayed by extreme illness, or held back by a caution which Billy +judged was foreign to his nature, would not wait long before he +joined Arlee. He had evidently stayed behind for some review of his +troops and also to be <i>au courant</i> of whatever stir would result +from Fritzi Baroff's reappearance in the world, and be on hand to +disarm whatever further suspicions would result from it. The lights +in the rose room that last night and the used look of the room, +puzzled Billy, but he concluded that the Captain liked the room and +there was a good deal in that palace that had better be left to no +imagination whatever. +</p> +<p> +So back to the hotel went Billy to enter upon a period of waiting +that frayed his nerves to an utter frazzle. Inaction was horrible to +him, and now it was inevitable. He must wait for word from that +agile web of little spies which the one-eyed man was weaving about +the Captain's palace, and be ready to start whenever the word came. +</p> +<p> +He slept with his clothes on that Monday night, but he slept heavily +for he was tired and his arm was no longer painful. The tear of +wound he called a scratch was healing swiftly. +</p> +<p> +Tuesday morning passed in the same maddening suspense. Captain +Kerissen rode out that morning but only to the parade ground, where +he took part in a review with his troops. It was noticed that his +right hand was bandaged, but the injury could not have been severe +for his thumb was free from the bandage and he occasionally used +that hand upon the reins. It was the bright eyes of the Imp that +were sure of that. +</p> +<p> +In the afternoon the Captain went again to the barracks and then to +the palace of one of the colonels in his regiment. Then he went +home. +</p> +<p> +Utterly disgusted with this waiting game Billy began to dress for +dinner. All lathered for a shave he stood testing his razor on a +hair when his unlocked door was violently opened and a panting +little figure darted across to him. It was the Imp. +</p> +<p> +"Sir, he goes, he goes upon the minute," he panted out. "He is in +the station. Quick!" +</p> +<p> +Like a streak of lathered lightening Billy went for his clothes. A +centipede could have been no more active. He jerked up his +suspenders; he jerked on a shirt; he jerked on a coat; he was wiping +his face as he darted through the halls and down the stairs. No lift +had speed enough for his descent. At the desk he flung some gold +pieces at the clerk, cried something about being called out of the +city, and asked to have his room kept; then he was down the steps +and into the carriage that the Imp had magically summoned. +</p> +<p> +The drive to the station was a series of escapes. Between jolts the +Imp gasped out the rest of the story. The Captain had ridden out in +the automobile. The Imp had given chase and so had the one-eyed man, +also on guard, and by dint of running for dear life they had kept +the motor in sight until the crowded city streets were reached and a +series of delays enabled them to catch up with it. As soon as they +saw the motor stop before the station the boy had rushed for Billy +while the Arab remained to shadow the Captain and learn his +destination. +</p> +<p> +They themselves were at the station now, and Billy was still tying +his cravat. Now they jumped down and pressed through the confusion, +dodging dragomans, porters, drivers and hotel runners and making a +vigorous way past hurrying travelers and through bewildered +blockades of tourist parties. Suddenly over the bobbing heads they +saw the face they sought. A single eye glared significance upon +them. An uplifted hand beckoned furiously. +</p> +<p> +"Assiout," whispered the one-eyed man as Billy reached him. +"Assiout. That one goes to Assiout on the night express." +</p> +<p> +"My ticket? Got a ticket for me?" +</p> +<p> +Upturned palms bespoke the absence of ticket and the Arab's deep +regret. "The price was much. I waited——" +</p> +<p> +Billy was off. There was no chance of his getting past that stolid +guard without a ticket and he charged toward the seller's window, +where a line of natives was forming for another train. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Siut</i>!" he shouted over their heads, and scattering silver and +smiles and apologies he crowded past the motley line to the window +and fairly snatched the miles of green ticket from the Copt's quick +fingers. +</p> +<p> +He was the last man through the gate, and as he darted through the +clicking of compartment doors was heard with the parting cries of +the guards and the shouts of dragomans and porters. It was a train +<i>de luxe</i> where the sleeping sections had long been reserved, but to +accommodate the crowded travel ordinary compartment cars had been +added at the last minute, and it was at one of these that Billy +grasped, as the wheels were moving faster and faster. A gold piece +caused a guard to unlock the first compartment door, although it +said, "<i>Dames Seules</i>," and "Ladies Only" in large letters. +</p> +<p> +It was not a corridor train and the compartment was already filled, +and as Billy wormed his way, not into the nearest corner, for that +was not yielded to him, but into the modicum of space accorded +between two stout and glaringly grudging matrons, he became aware +from the hostile stares that his entrance had not been solitary. +</p> +<p> +Between his legs the Imp was coiling. +</p> +<p> +"I made a sneak with you," the boy whispered. "I say I your +dragoman, sir. You will be glad. You need such bright boy in +Assiout." +</p> +<p> +Billy thought it highly probable that he would. But the ladies +neither needed nor desired him now, and ringed in by feminine +disgust the two scorned intruders sat silent hour after hour while +the train went rushing south through the increasing darkness of the +night. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVI +</h2> +<h3> + THE HIDDEN GIRL +</h3> +<p> +Hour after hour the little boat held its steady course; hour after +hour the distant banks flowed past in changing scenes. Forward on +the narrow deck a girl sat in a lounge chair beneath a striped +awning and gazed out over the water. Squatting in the shade behind +her an old woman stared up out of half-closed eyes with pupils as +keen and bright under their puckered lids as the eyes of a watching +hawk. +</p> +<p> +No disturbing consciousness of this incessant scrutiny muffled the +serenity of the girl's appearance. Her hands lax in her lap, her +blue eyes quietly intent upon the view, she lay back in her chair +with as much confident unconcern as she might have shown in an opera +box. As a matter of incredulous fact she was feeling incredulously +at ease. +</p> +<p> +The terrible tension of those days in the palace was over—for the +time, at least. She did not understand this new move, she had been +bewildered ever since that early dawn, on Sunday, when the old woman +and the eunuch had rushed her into the limousine, driven her +swiftly through the empty streets to a landing place on the river +beyond the bridge, and hurried her on board this little boat, an old +<i>dahabiyeh</i> reconstructed and given a new engine. +</p> +<p> +The Captain had not appeared except for a brief interview in the +vestibule where he had told her that the quarantine was prolonged +and that he was going to try to escape out of Cairo where the +authorities would not be aware, and would first try to smuggle her +out of the city, too. She must do exactly as the old woman indicated +and everything would be all right. +</p> +<p> +And she had said, "How exciting!" and "What fun!" with lips that +smiled pluckily in apparent acceptance of this flimsy excuse. +</p> +<p> +She had connected this flight with the pandemonium she had heard in +the palace the night before, and she guessed that in some way her +presence there had become embarrassing for the Turk. Perhaps her +friends had traced her! Perhaps Robert Falconer—for after all it +would only be Robert Falconer's flouted devotion, she thought, that +would interest itself in her. He mistrusted Kerissen; he would +suspect. +</p> +<p> +So hope rose high in her, and hopeful, too, was this new glimpse of +freedom. Somewhere, soon, she thought confidently, the chance to +escape would come. The old woman could not watch forever. The big +eunuch was occupied with the boat. She could hear him now muttering +angrily to the little brown boy at the engines, while over the sound +of his muttering rose the rhythmic, unconcerned chant of two other +boys marching up and down the narrow passageways of deck outside the +little staterooms with a scrubbing brush under each left foot. +"<i>Allah Illeh Lessah</i>," they chanted monotonously, with a scrub of +the brush at each emphasis. "<i>Allah Illeh Lessah</i>." +</p> +<p> +"Allah help <i>me</i>," thought Arlee Beecher. +</p> +<p> +All day Sunday she had sat there in that chair watching the +pyramids, at first so sharp-cut against the cloudless blue, wane +imperceptibly and fade from sight, watching the golden Mokattan +Hills and the pearly tinted Tura range slip softly from the horizon +and all the old landmarks of the Egypt that she knew disappear and +be replaced by strange, new sights. Other pyramids showed like +child's toys upon the horizon; dense groves of palm trees appeared +along the banks, then the banks grew higher and higher and upon +them, silhouetted against the bright blue sky, showed a frieze-like +procession of country folk driving camels or donkeys or bullocks. +</p> +<p> +All night long they had steamed, a search-light on the bow, and +Arlee had lain in the little stateroom trying to sleep, but +continually aware of the breathing of the old woman huddled outside +against her door, of the soft thudding of bare feet about the deck, +of the pulse of the engine, beating, beating steadily, and of quick, +muffled commands, of reversals, grinding of chains as some +treacherous shallow appeared ahead, then of the onward drive and the +steady rhythmic progress again. +</p> +<p> +Where were they taking her? South to some haunt where she would be +farther than ever from the civilization which had flowed so +unheedingly past that old palace of darkened windows, south toward +the strange native cities and tiny villages and the grain fields +and the deserts. But it was all better than that stifling palace and +the absence of the Captain gave her a sense of temporary security. +</p> +<p> +Sunday had been hot and dry, but this Monday was cooler and the +north wind, blowing freshly over the wide Nile, broke the +amber-brown of the water into little waves of sparkling blue edged +with silver ripples. The river was beautiful to her, even in her +sorry plight, and to-day there were little clouds in the sky, +furtive, scuddy little clouds with wind-teased edges, and they cast +soft shadows over the river and over the tender green of the fields +and the flat, mirroring water standing level in the trenches. In the +fields brown men and women were working, and on the river banks the +half-naked figures of <i>fellaheen</i> were ceaselessly bending, +ceaselessly straightening, as they dipped up the water from the +<i>shadoufs</i> to feed the thirsty land. Sometimes in the fields Arlee +saw the red rusty bulk of the old engines, which the Mad Khedive had +tried to install among his people, to do away with this +back-breaking work, now lying useless and ignored. God forbid that +we do otherwise than our fathers, said the people. +</p> +<p> +Across the water came the monotonous chant of their labor song, and +sometimes the creak and squeak of some inland well-sweep drawn round +and round by some patient camel. She felt herself to be in another +world, as she sat in that boat guarded by that old woman and an +eunuch, a world strange and remote, yet desperately real as it +enmeshed her in its secret motives, its incalculable forces.... +</p> +<p> +As she watched, as the surface of her mind reflected these sights +and was caught in the maze of fresh impressions, the back of that +mind was forever at work on her own terrifying problem. She thought +confidently of escape, not able to plan it but waiting intently upon +opportunity, upon the passing of a boat perhaps, or the moment of +tying to some bank. +</p> +<p> +There was in her a high spirit of undaunted pluck and an excitement +in adventure, which made her heart quicken instead of flag at the +odds before her. Only the thought of the desperate stakes and the +reality of her hidden fears would often draw the color from her +cheeks and stop an instant the beating of that hurrying heart.... If +those hawk-like eyes were watching then they might see the slim +hands pressed feverishly together before warning self-control turned +them lax again. +</p> +<p> +So hour after hour the boat went on. On the left now the long +mountain of Gebel-el-Tayr stretched golden and tawny like a lion of +stone basking in the sun. They passed Beni-Hassan, where a Nile +steamer lay staked to the shore, the passengers streaming gaily out +and starting off on donkeys for an excursion to the tombs. If only +it had been a little nearer, close enough to risk a desperate +hail—! But the very sight of it was comforting. +</p> +<p> +Toward dusk the engine failed. That night the boat lay by the bank, +tied to long stakes which the boys had driven in. The big Nubian sat +at one end, cross-legged, a rifle on his knees. At the stern sat a +brown boy. And so Arlee sank into the tired sleep that claimed her, +and did not wake until the warm sunshine in her tiny window and the +ripple of water against the sides told her that another morning was +at hand and that they were on the move again. +</p> +<p> +Stepping out on deck for breakfast, she found the boat was sailing. +Two <i>lanteen</i> sails were hoisted; a great one in the bow, a small +one in the stern, and the boat was running swiftly before the north +wind that blew fresher than ever. But the course was variable now as +the river curved and as sand-banks threatened, and Arlee watched the +waters eagerly for a near-passing boat. But when they did draw close +to a <i>dahabiyeh</i> upon whose deck she saw some white-clad loungers, +the Nubian gave a low order to the old woman who rose and gripped +Arlee on the wrist and led her to the stateroom, sitting in silence +opposite her like a squat gargoyle, till the Nubian's voice +permitted them to emerge. +</p> +<p> +And now they came to a city upon the right bank and the domes and +minarets, the crowded building and high flat roofs pierced Arlee +with a terrible sense of loneliness. And when her eyes caught the +gleam of flags over a building and she saw her own stars and stripes +blowing against this Egyptian sky, the tears could not be fought +back. With wet eyes and working mouth she stood there and looked and +looked. She thought she could endure no more and that her heart was +breaking. +</p> +<p> +Leaden discouragement was upon her as the boat made in toward the +shore. It did not approach the city landings; it came in south near +a shallow bank, and one of the brown boys jumped overboard and +splashed to the shore while the boat went on. But by and by it +turned in its course and came beating back against the wind till +opposite it was the city; then it tacked in to that same place near +the bank, and there the boy was waving at them. Skillfully the +<i>dahabiyeh</i> was brought about close to the high bank; and ropes +thrown from bow and stern were quickly staked and made fast. +</p> +<p> +A plank was put over the side and with the eunuch ahead and the old +woman behind Arlee was taken ashore and mounted on one of the camels +the boys had brought, with the old woman behind, gripping her about +the waist. The eunuch, on another camel, held the bridle rope, and +led them at a terrific pace along the river road and then across the +fields, thudding down the narrow, beaten paths, till the lush green +was past and the dry desert lands began. +</p> +<p> +Ahead of them a low, tawny mass of mountain seemed to shimmer and +waver in the hot sun, and as they drew nearer and nearer the mass +was resolved into many masses broken into small foothills at the +base, through which the Nubian threaded a rapid, circuitous way that +led out on a rolling ground. A wide detour, still at the same urgent +speed which jolted the breath from the girl and made her cling to +the carpeted pummel of the saddle with both hands, led them at last +within sight of palm trees and mud walls. +</p> +<p> +Arlee had no means of guessing whether these houses were the +outskirts of that city she had glimpsed or whether they were a +separate village. She only saw that they were being taken to the +largest house of the place, which stood a little apart from the +others and was half-surrounded by mud walls. Into this walled-in +court her camel was led and halted and jerkingly it accomplished +its collapsing descent, and Arlee found herself on her feet again, +quite breathless, but very alert. +</p> +<p> +Her fleet glance saw a number of black-robed figures about a stair; +the next instant a mantle was flung over her head and that +compelling hand upon her wrist urged her swiftly forward, and up a +flight of steps. Within were more steps and then a door. Thrusting +back the mantle she found herself in the sudden twilight of a small, +low-ceiled chamber. There was no other door to it but the one she +heard bolted behind her; there was one window completely covered +with brown <i>mashrubiyeh</i>. She flew to it; it looked out over wide +sands, with a glimpse, toward the right, of a mud wall and pigeon +houses. The room was musty and dusty and dirty; but the rugs in it +were beautiful, and a divan was filled with pillows and hung with +embroidered cotton hangings. Other pillows were on the floor about +the walls. A green silk banner embroidered in gold hung upon one of +those walls and a laquered table stood by the divan. +</p> +<p> +And as Arlee Beecher stood there in that strange, stifling room, the +mutterings of foreign voices, the squeals of the camels, the bray of +a donkey coming through that screened window, a sudden rage came +over her which was too hot to bear. Her heart burned; her hands +clenched; she could have beaten upon those walls with her helpless +fists and screamed at the top of her unavailing lungs. It was a fury +of despair that seized her, a fury that she fought back with every +breath of sanity within her. Then suddenly the air was black. The +room seemed to swim before her eyes and the ground came swaying +dizzily up to meet her, and receive her spent unconsciousness. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Water had been brought; she woke to find herself upon the couch, the +old woman woodenly sopping her head and hands. She smiled weakly +into that strange dark face; it was as unchanged as if it had been +carved from bronze. The business of reviving finished, the old woman +left her a handkerchief damp with a keen scent and went about the +work of unpacking a hamper that she brought in. +</p> +<p> +Dully, Arlee saw the preparations for a meal advancing. She shook +her head at it; a cup of tea was all that she could touch. A +lethargy had seized her; even the anger of revolt was gone. She +closed her eyes languidly, grateful when the old woman went away, +grateful when the darkness deepened. When it was quite night, she +thought, she would break open the wooden screen and fling herself +through the wood into the sands. She lay there passively waiting; +her heavy eyes closed, and she slept. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVII +</h2> +<h3> + AT BAY +</h3> +<p> +Voices sounded below; footsteps hurried; a door slammed. Then feet +upon the stairs, and a hand at the door. Arlee struggled to her feet +in sudden terror; the candle was out and the room was in darkness. +Outside a gale was blowing. The door opened, but the figure which +hurried in was not the one her fright anticipated. +</p> +<p> +It was the old woman again, bustling with haste. She brought more +candles for the table, and then a tray with a bottle and glasses and +dishes covered with napkins. Then she bestowed her attention to +Arlee, bringing her a mirror and a comb from the hamper she had left +upon the floor, and a cloth thick with powder. Then Arlee was sure. +</p> +<p> +She stood rigid a moment, listening to that low buzz of voices from +below, then desperately she shook out her tangled hair and combed it +back from her hot face. It was still damp from the water that had +been dashed upon her, and as she knotted it swiftly, soft strands of +it broke away and hung in wet, childish tendrils. She brushed some +powder on her face; she bit her bloodless lips, and stared into the +glass, to see a wan and big-eyed girl staring back affrighted. +</p> +<p> +Then the door opened, and desperately calling on her courage, Arlee +heard the Captain speaking her name and saw his smiling face +advancing through the shadows. +</p> +<p> +"A thousand greetings, Mademoiselle. Ah, I am glad to see you." A +strained emotion quivered through the false assurance of his tone. +</p> +<p> +She stood very straight and tense before him, a childishly small +figure there in the dusk, the blowing candles making strange play of +light and shadow over her. Steadily she answered, "And I am very +glad to see you, Captain Kerissen." +</p> +<p> +"And I am glad that you are glad." But his ear had caught the +hardness of her voice, for answering irony was in his. Some devil of +delay and disappointment seemed to enter into him, for his face, as +she saw it now in his advancing, struck fright into her. The four +fingers of his right hand were wrapped in a bandage and he extended +his left to her, murmuring an apology. "A slight accident, you see." +</p> +<p> +"There is so much I do not see that I do not feel like shaking +hands," gave back Arlee. "Captain Kerissen, this is too strange a +situation to be maintained. You must end it." +</p> +<p> +"It is a very delightful situation," he returned blandly, looking +about with dancing eyes. "To be again your host, even in so poor a +place as this old house of the Sheik—and the place has its +possibilities, Mademoiselle. It is romantic. Your window overlooks +that desert you were so anxious to see. The sunsets——" +</p> +<p> +"Captain Kerissen, I must say that you use a very strange way to +keep me your guest!" +</p> +<p> +"I might respond that any way was justifiable so that it kept you a +guest.... But you wrong me. Did I not bring you safely out from that +quarantine, as you besought me?" His smile was mockery itself. +</p> +<p> +"But you did not bring me to my friends. I do not like your sending +me here, without explanation," she returned, trying to be very wise +and speak quietly and not rouse him to anger. "We passed a city +where the American flags were flying over a house, and I could have +gone there." +</p> +<p> +"I am sorry you do not care for my hospitality. I did not know that +I was displeasing to you." +</p> +<p> +"It is those ways that are displeasing to me. I——" +</p> +<p> +"Then you shall change them," he laughed. "That will give me +pleasure.... But I did not come in the dead of this night, half sick +and fatigued, to find such welcome. Come, you must smile a little +and sit down at the table with me. Here are delicacies I sent from +Cairo." +</p> +<p> +Smilingly he seated himself at the divan by the table and lifted the +covers from the plates, nodded satisfaction at the food, and began +to help himself, while she stood there, motionless. +</p> +<p> +Without looking up, "Will you not help me to the Apollinaris, +Mademoiselle?" he suggested. "My right hand, you see, is not as it +should be. There is a bottle opener on the tray." +</p> +<p> +Feeling a fool, but unwilling to provoke a crisis, Arlee tugged at +the cork and poured him a glass of the sparkling water and then a +glass for herself, which she thirstily drank. "How did you hurt your +hand?" it occurred to her to say. +</p> +<p> +"By playing with fire—the single pastime of entertainment!" He +spoke gaily, but his lips twitched. "But will you not sit down and +join me? This caviar I recommend." +</p> +<p> +"I do not care to eat." +</p> +<p> +"No?" He finished his sandwich and drained his glass, talking +banteringly the while to her. She did not answer. Something told her +that the time of explanation between them was coming fast; he had +ceased to play with his good fortune, ceased to feel he could afford +to wait and look and fancy. He had come urgent, in the dead of +night. His mood was teasing, mocking, but imperative.... Slowly she +moved toward the unlatched door. +</p> +<p> +Alertly he was before her; the bolts shot home. "Ah, pardon, but I +was negligent! We might be interrupted—and also," he laughed, as if +deprecatingly, "I have foolish fears that you are so dream-like that +you will vanish like a dream without those earthly bars. Locks are +for treasures.... And now where is that welcome for me? I came in +that door on fire to see you, and your eyes froze me. I came to +love—you made me mock. Shall we begin again? Will you be nice now, +little one, be kind and sweet——" +</p> +<p> +"Captain Kerissen, you make it impossible for me to like you at all! +Why do you treat me like this? You shut me in this house like a +prisoner. If you—if you care for me at all," stammered Arlee, "you +would not treat me so!" +</p> +<p> +"And how, then, would I treat you?" he inquired slowly. +</p> +<p> +"You would—you would take me to my own people and give me back my +independence, my dignity. Then there would be honor in your—your +courtship. I——" +</p> +<p> +"Would you come back to me?" +</p> +<p> +"I——" +</p> +<p> +The lie choked her. And the passion of anger which had flared in her +that afternoon sprang up in flame again; the candlelight showed the +hot blood in her cheeks. "I shall not come to you if you keep me +here!" she gave back fearlessly. +</p> +<p> +"But here I can come to you. And the preliminaries are always +stupid—I have no desire to reënact them. I am well content with +where we have arrived. Be content, also." +</p> +<p> +She stared back at his smiling face. And all she thought was, "Shall +I defy him now, or try to hold him off a little longer?" She had +ceased to feel afraid; her blood was on fire; it was battle now +between them; perhaps a battle of the wits a little longer, then—— +</p> +<p> +"In America men do not make love by force," she flung at him. "You +are mad, Captain Kerissen! You will be sorry if you go on like this. +If you wish to marry me you must give me the freedom of choice. You +must give me time. I must have a minister of my own faith. Do you +think I will submit to this? You make me hate you!" +</p> +<p> +"Hate is often love with a mask," he laughed, his eyes fixed on the +spirited, flushed face, the flashing eyes, the defiant mouth. "And +do not quote your America to me. You are done with America." +</p> +<p> +"You say that? You forget who I am! My brother—I tell you my +brother will——" +</p> +<p> +"Do I not know the risks?" His eyes narrowed. "But your brother will +ask in vain. He will not see you—until we reappear as husband and +wife. I will take you to the Continent, then I will give you +everything a woman wants, luxury and jewels—the pearls of my +ancestors I will hang on you. These have no woman of mine worn. You +shall be my adored, my dearest—— Oh, you must not turn from me," he +pleaded, his voice sinking softer and softer as he stole closer to +her. "You know that I am mad for you. You have bewitched me, little +Rose, you have made me strong and weak in a breath. I am clay in +your hands. Be sweet, be kind, be wife to me——" His hot hand +gripped her arm. He bent over her, and she sprang back, her hands +flung out before her. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, wait!" she cried beseechingly. "Wait—please wait." +</p> +<p> +"Wait? I have waited too long!" His voice was a snarl now. The mask +of indolent mockery was gone; his face was stamped with cruelty and +greed. "<i>Nom d'un nom</i>, I am through with this waiting!" +</p> +<p> +She sprang back before his approach, then whirled about to face him, +trying to beat him back with words, with reason, with appeal. +Insanely he laughed and clutched at her as she flew past his +outstretched arms; in the corner he pinioned her against the wall +and gripped her to him. +</p> +<p> +Terror gave her the strength of two—and his hand was bandaged. +Desperately she attacked it, and as his laughter changed to curses, +she wrenched free once more and flew across the room. With both +hands she seized the candles and flung them into the pillowed divan; +holding the last two to the draperies. Like magic the little flames +zigzagged up the cotton hangings. +</p> +<p> +He threw himself upon the fire, dragging down the hangings, beating +on the cushions, but the corner was ablaze. Overhead the flames +seized cracklingly on the dry wood and darted little red tongues +over the dry surface and a scarlet snake ran out over the carved +ceiling. +</p> +<p> +In utter wildness Arlee had carried the last candle to the open +hamper and the garments there caught instant fire. She was oblivious +of the sparks falling about her, oblivious of the increasing peril. +When Kerissen ran to the door, tearing open the bolts, furiously +cursing her, she gave him back the ghost of his earlier mocking +laughter and threatened him with a blazing cloth as he turned to +drag her from the room. +</p> +<p> +But the fire reached her fingers and she flung the cloth at him, to +have him trample it under foot as he sprang toward her again. +</p> +<p> +"Would you be burned—be marred?" he shouted at her. "You are mad, +you——" +</p> +<p> +Behind him the door opened. Behind him a tall figure appeared +through the thickening smoke. She saw a face she knew; a voice she +knew cried out her name: +</p> +<p> +"Arlee!" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, here!" she cried and flung herself toward him. +</p> +<p> +"Not unless you want another?" said Billy B. Hill to the Captain, +turning his gun suggestively. +</p> +<p> +One tense instant the three faced each other in that flaming room, +then with a sound of impotent fury, Kerissen turned and darted out +the door. But as Billy turned to follow, his hand on Arlee's, there +was a sound of sliding bolts. +</p> +<p> +"Burn, burn, then! Burn together!" called a hoarse voice through the +wood. +</p> +<p> +Hill flung himself against the door; it was unyielding. On the other +side the taunts continued. He ran to the window, catching up the +little table as he ran, and rained a fury of blows with the table +against the close-carved screen. The wood splintered and broke; he +wrenched a side away, and dropping his gun in his pocket he crashed +through the hole and hung on the outside by his hands. +</p> +<p> +"Climb out on my shoulders," he commanded, and Arlee climbed—how, +she never knew. For one instant she had an impression of hanging out +over an abyss with fire crackling in her face; the next instant the +soles of her feet were smarting and her eyes still seemed to see +stars. +</p> +<p> +There was a run, stumbling, with Billy's hand sustaining her, and +then she was on a camel, clutching the saddle as the beast rose +swiftly in response to urgent whacks, and beside her Billy was on +another. Some one on foot goaded the beasts into a startled run, and +behind them yells and screeches were growing louder and louder. +</p> +<p> +Over her lurching shoulder she had one last glimpse of a burning +building and saw flames pouring from the roof, and the room where +she had been an open furnace, and then she turned her face toward +the dark ahead. +</p> +<p> +"Hang tight," Billy was calling to her, and she saw him lean over +and lash both camels into furious speed. "Some one is riding after," +and then he turned and shot his gun warningly into the air. +</p> +<p> +The yells behind them stopped. But after some moments they heard a +camel snarl, and knew that some one was still back there in the +darkness, hanging on their trail. So they rode hard ahead, into the +enveloping night, over the rolling dunes, with the wind leaping and +tearing and hurling the sand in their faces, as if the very elements +were fighting against them. +</p> +<p> +It was a strange chase and a hot one, pounding on and on, racked +with the wild, lurching flight, deeper and deeper into the +yellow-gray night that welcomed them with more strident blasts and +more stinging particles of sand. +</p> +<p> +"It's a storm," Billy shouted at her, raising his voice above the +wind. "It's been blowing up this way for an hour now—they won't +follow long in the face of it. Can you hang on a little longer?" +</p> +<p> +"Forever," she cried back, gripping the pommel tight and bending her +head before the whirling particles. There was sand in her hair, sand +on her lashes and in her eyes, sand on her face and down her neck, +and sand in her mouth when she wet her lips, but she heard herself +laughing in the night. +</p> +<p> +"By and by we'll get off," he called back, and by and by when the +hot, stifling, stinging, choking, whirling gale was too blinding to +be borne, he checked the camels in one of the hollows of the desert +dunes from which the wind was skimming ammunition for its peppery +assaults, and the beasts knelt with a haste that spoke of gladness. +</p> +<p> +"It's the backbone of it now; cover your head and lie down," Billy +commanded, and Arlee covered it with what he thrust into her +hands—his overcoat, she found—and tucked herself down against him +as he crouched beside the camels. +</p> +<p> +"I should think—it was—the backbone," she gasped, unheard, into +her muffling coat. For the wind howled now like a rampaging demon; +it tore at them in hot anger; it dragged at the coat about her head, +and when her clutch resisted, it flung the sand over and over her +till she lay half buried and choking. And then, very slowly and +sulkily, it retreated, blowing fainter and fainter, but slipping +back for a last spiteful gust whenever she thought it finally gone, +but at last her head came out from its burrow, and she began +cautiously to wipe the sand crust off her face and lashes. +</p> +<p> +"In your eyes?" said a sympathetic voice. +</p> +<p> +In the darkness beside her Billy Hill was sitting up, digging at his +countenance. +</p> +<p> +"Not now—I've cried—that all gone," she panted back. +</p> +<p> +He chuckled. "I'll try it—swearing's no use." +</p> +<p> +She sat up suddenly. "Are they coming?" +</p> +<p> +"Not a bit. No use, if they did. You're safe now." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my <i>soul</i>!" She drew a long, long breath. "I can't believe +it." Then she whirled about on him. "How—why—why is it <i>you</i>?" +</p> +<p> +He looked suddenly embarrassed, but the darkness hid it from her. He +became oddly intent on brushing his clothes. "Oh, I guessed," he +said in a casual tone. +</p> +<p> +"You guessed? Don't they know? What did they think? Oh, where did +everyone think I was?" +</p> +<p> +He told her, dwelling upon the misleading details; the hasty message +of farewell from the station, the directions about luggage, the +money to pay the hotel bill. "You see, his wits and luck were just +playing together," he said. +</p> +<p> +"Then the Evershams <i>are</i> up the Nile?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course. They never dreamed——" +</p> +<p> +"They wouldn't." Arlee was silent. She wondered confusedly—she +wanted to ask a question—she wanted to ask two questions. +</p> +<p> +"But—but—no one else——?" she stammered. +</p> +<p> +There was a particularly large lump of sand in Billy B. Hill's +throat just then; he cleared it heavily. "Oh, yes, some one else +guessed, too," he said then. "That English friend of yours, Robert +Falconer, he and I had a regular old shooting party in the palace +last Sunday evening. If you'd been there then he would certainly +have had you out." +</p> +<p> +"So he knows." She said it a little faintly, Billy thought, as if +she was disappointed and troubled. She would know, of course, by +intuition, how the Englishman would think about a scrape of that +sort. +</p> +<p> +"But he doesn't know now," he said eagerly. "He is sure you are all +right in Alexandria, because the Evershams received another fake +telegram from you from Alexandria. The Captain was stalling them +along, apparently, keeping everything under cover as long as +possible. And when Falconer heard about that, his suspicions were +over. He thought we'd made fools of ourselves in going to the +palace." +</p> +<p> +She was silent. Looking at her, after a while, Billy saw her staring +out obliviously into the darkness; her hair was hanging all about +her. +</p> +<p> +His glance seemed to recall her thoughts. She started and then +brushed back her hair; the sand fell from it and she took hold of +one soft strand. "Look out, I'm going to shake this!" she warned, +and he half shut his eyes and underneath the lids he saw her shaking +her head as vigorously as a little terrier after a bath. +</p> +<p> +"Isn't it awful?" she appealed. +</p> +<p> +"I could scratch a match on my face," he confirmed. +</p> +<p> +"But tell me," she began again, "how did you know I was in that +palace? And I must tell you how I happened to go and how I was kept +there." +</p> +<p> +"You were told there was a quarantine, weren't you?" Billy supplied, +as she hesitated. +</p> +<p> +Her astonishment found quick speech. "Why, how did you know <i>that</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"The Baroff told me—that Viennese girl who came into your room." +</p> +<p> +"Why, you know <i>everything</i>! How did you?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I carried her over a wall, thinking it was you." +</p> +<p> +"But how could you think it was <i>I</i>? And what were you doing at the +wall? I don't see how——" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, one of the palace maids gave me a message in Arabic and I +thought it was from you. You see, I suspected—I had seen you drive +off in that motor——" +</p> +<p> +"But how could the maid bring you a message? Where were you? Where +did she see you?" +</p> +<p> +"I was painting out in front of the palace." Billy sounded more and +more casual. +</p> +<p> +"You said you were an engineer," said Arlee. His heart jumped. At +least she had remembered that! +</p> +<p> +"So I am—the painting was just a joke." +</p> +<p> +"And you happened there," she began, wondering, and after he had +opened his mouth to correct her, he closed it silently again. +Gratitude was an unwieldy bond. He did not want to burden her with +obligation. And he suspected, with a rankling sort of pang, that he +was not the rescuer she had expected. So he made as light as +possible of his entrance into the affair, telling her nothing at all +of his first uneasiness and his interview with the one-eyed man +which had confirmed his suspicions against the Captain's character, +and the masquerade he had adopted so he could hang about the palace. +Instead he let her think him there by chance; he ascribed the +delivery of Fritzi's message to sheer miracle, and his presence +under the walls that night to wanton adventure, with only a +half-thought that she was involved. +</p> +<p> +Stoutly he dwelt upon Falconer's part in the attack the next night, +and upon the entire reasonableness of his abandonment of the trail. +He put it down to his own mulishness that he had hung on and had +learned through the little boy of her removal from the palace. +</p> +<p> +He interrupted himself then with questions, and she told him of her +strange trip down the Nile in the <i>dahabiyeh</i>, under guard of the +old woman and the Nubian. "But how did you come?" she demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Well, I just swung on to the same train he was in," said Billy. +"And I got out at Assiout because he'd bought a ticket there, but I +couldn't see a thing of him in the darkness and confusion of the +station, and I had a horrid feeling that he'd gone somewhere else, +the Lord knew where, to you. But the Imp—that's the little Arab boy +who adopted me and my cause—went racing up and down, and he got a +glimpse of the Captain tearing off on a horse and behind him a man +loping along with a bundle on a donkey, and the Imp raced behind him +and yelled he'd dropped something. The man went back to look, and +the Imp ran alongside him, asking him for work as a donkey boy. The +fellow shook him off, but that had delayed him, and though we lost +the horseman we kept the donkey-man in sight and followed him on to +the village. I reconnoitered while the Imp stole these two +camels—jolly good ones they are—and while I was trying to make out +where you were, for there were lights in several windows, I suddenly +heard your voice and then I saw a glare of fire. Well, my revolver +was a passport.... Now, how about that fire? What started it?" +</p> +<p> +"I did; he—he was trying to make love to me," she answered +breathlessly, "and I just got to the candles." +</p> +<p> +"Are you burned at all? Truthfully now? I never stopped to ask." +</p> +<p> +"If I am, I don't know it," she laughed tremulously. Then, "Isn't +this <i>crazy</i>!" she burst forth with. +</p> +<p> +"It's—it's off the beaten track," Billy B. Hill admitted. "It's a +jump back into the Middle Ages." His note of laughter joined hers as +they sat staring owlishly at each other through the dark of the +after-storm. +</p> +<p> +A little longer they talked, their questions and answers flitting +back and forth over those six strange days; then, as the excitement +waned, Billy heard a sleepy little sigh and saw a small hand +covering a yawn. The girl's slender shoulders were wilting with +incalculable fatigue. +</p> +<p> +Instantly he commanded sleep, and obediently she curled down into +the little nest he prepared, pillowing her head upon his coat, and +almost instantly he heard her rhythmic breathing, slow and unhurried +as a little child. His heart swelled with a feeling for which he had +no name, as he sat there, his back against a camel, staring out into +the night, an unknown feeling in which joy was very deep and triumph +was merged into a holy thankfulness. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XVIII +</h2> +<h3> + DESERT MAGIC +</h3> +<p> +He had meant but forty winks, but it had been dark when his eyes +closed and he opened them to the unreal half-lights of early dawn. +The sky was pearl; the sands were fawn-colored; the crest of a low +hill to the east shone as if it were living gold, and the next +instant it seemed as if a fire were kindled upon it. It was the sun +surging up into the heavens, and great waves of color, like a sea of +flame, mounted higher and higher with it. +</p> +<p> +Impulsively Billy bent over the little figure sleeping so soundly at +his side, speaking her name gently. And Arlee, waking with a start +and a catch of her breath that went to his heart, opened her eyes on +a wild splendor of morning that seemed the outer aspect of the +radiant joy within her. +</p> +<p> +They looked and looked while the east flamed like a burning Rome, +and then the glow softened and paled and dissolved in mysteries and +miracles of color, in tender rose and exquisite shell pinks, in +amethysts and violets and limpid, delicate, fair greens. All about +them the sands were turning to gold, and the rim of the distant +horizon grew clearer and clearer against the brightening blue of the +sky, like a great circling tawny sea lapping on every side the arch +of the heavens. +</p> +<p> +As they looked their hearts stirred and quickened with that +incommunicable thrill of the desert, and their eyes turned and +sought each other in silence. The gold of the sun was on Arlee's +hanging hair and the morning-blue of the sky in her eyes; her face +was flushed from sleep and a tiny tendril still clung to the pink +cheek on which she had been sleeping. Somehow that inconsequent +small tendril roused in Billy a thrill of absurd tenderness and +delight.... She was so very small and childish, sitting there in the +Libyan desert with him, looking up at him with such adorable +simplicity.... In her eyes he seemed to see something of the wonder +and the joy in his. It was a moment of magic. It brought a lump into +his throat.... He wanted to bend over her reverently, to lift a +strand of that shining hair to his lips, to touch the sandy little +hands.... +</p> +<p> +Somehow he managed not to. The moment of longing and of glamor +passed. +</p> +<p> +"It's exactly as if we'd been shipwrecked!" said Arlee, looking +about with an air of childish delight. +</p> +<p> +"On a very large island," he smiled back, and felt a furtive pain +mingling with his joy. He was just her rescuer to her, of course; +she accepted him simply as a heaven-dropped deliverer; her thoughts +had not been going out to him in those long days as his had gone to +her.... Decisively he jumped to his feet and said breakfast. Where +was it? What was to be done? +</p> +<p> +Directions were vague. They had come south on the edge of the +desert, and the Nile lay somewhere to the east of them, and to the +east, therefore lay breakfast and trains and telegraph lines and all +the outposts of civilization. +</p> +<p> +To the east they rode then, straight toward the tinted dawn, and as +they went they laughed out at each other on their strange mounts +like two children on a holiday. Their spirits lifted with the beauty +of the morning, and with that strange primitive exhilaration of the +desert, that wild joy in vast, lonely reaches, in far horizons and +illimitable space. The air intoxicated them; the leaping light and +the free winds fired them, and with laughing shouts and challenges +they urged their camels forward in a wild race that sent the desert +hares scattering to right and left. Like runaways they tore over the +level wastes and through the rolling dunes, and at last, spent and +breathless, they pulled back into a walk their excited beasts that +squealed and tossed their tasseled heads. +</p> +<p> +Their eyes met in a gaiety of the spirit that no words could +express. When Arlee spoke she merely cried out, "I've read the camel +had four paces, but mine has forty-four," and Billy gave back, "And +forty-three are sudden death!" and their ringing laughter made a +worried little jackal draw back his cautious nose into his rocky +lair. +</p> +<p> +They were in broken ground now, more and more rocky, leading through +the low hills ahead of them, and great clumps of grayish <i>mit minan</i> +and bright green hyssop dotted the amber of the sands. Here and +there the fork-like helga showed its purple blossom, and sometimes +a scarlet ice-plant gleamed at them from a rocky crack. Across their +path two great butterflies strayed, as gold and jeweled as the day. +High overhead, black against the stainless blue, hung a far hawk. +</p> +<p> +At last the way entered a narrow defile among the rocky hills, and a +sharp curve led them finally out upon the other side, looking down +into green fields, as straight and trim as a checker board in their +varying tints, and off over the far Nile. The fertile lands were +wide here, and fed with broad canals that offered the surprise of +boats' white wings between the fields of grain. Not far ahead, +before the desert sands reached that magic green rose a group of +palms, and near them some mud houses and a pigeon tower. +</p> +<p> +"Breakfast," said Billy triumphantly, and gaily they rode down on +the sleeping village. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Back toward the Libyan hills runs the canal El-Souhagich, and as it +curves to the north a reach of sand sweeps down from the higher +ground, interrupting the succession of green fields. Several jagged +rocks have tumbled from the limestone plateaus above and increased +the grateful bit of shade which the half dozen picturesque palms do +not sufficiently bestow. +</p> +<p> +Here the runaways breakfasted upon the roast pigeon, dates and +tangerines they had bought from the curious villagers, and here +Billy, his back against a rock, was smoking a meditative cigar over +the situation. Beside him, tied to a palm, knelt the camels, and +before him, nibbling a last tangerine, Arlee was sitting. +</p> +<p> +"We have to rest the beasts a bit." This from Billy, suggestive of +a conscience pricking at this holiday delay. "And then——" +</p> +<p> +"Then—?" echoed Arlee cheerfully. +</p> +<p> +"Then, what in the world am I going to do with you?" +</p> +<p> +"With me?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. It's simple enough, I suppose, getting back to the city—-but +if you don't want your friends to know——" +</p> +<p> +The quick shadow in her eyes distressed him. "I <i>don't</i>," she cried +sharply. "At first—I might have made a lark out of it—but +afterwards.... No, I don't want to go explaining and explaining +forever and ever. Can't I just reappear?" +</p> +<p> +"You can reappear from Alexandria," he said. "He, himself," his tone +changed as he reluctantly brought Kerissen into the beauty of that +morning, "has arranged it very neatly for you. You can just have +been camping in the desert—and true enough that is!—with those +friends of yours whom the Evershams don't know. Only your +reappearance has to be—managed a bit." +</p> +<p> +Very carefully she tore the tangerine skin into very little bits, +her head bent over it. Then she flung the fragments far from her +with a gesture of rebellion. "I hate fibs," she said explosively. +And then, "But I hate explanations more!" She hesitated, stealing a +quick glance under her lashes at his frowning face. +</p> +<p> +"And some people," she stammered, "might—might +not—understand—they would feel that—some people would——" +</p> +<p> +"Some people are great fools, undoubtedly," Billy promptly agreed. +But back of the some people he saw Falconer in her mind, and +Falconer's instinctive distaste of all strangeness and sensation. +</p> +<p> +"I have a perfect right to keep it from—them," she went on +argumentatively, and then with an upward glance, "Haven't I?" +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord, yes! It was your adventure; it doesn't concern another +soul in this wide world." +</p> +<p> +"You know," said Arlee, locking and unlocking her fingers, "you +know, some people wouldn't take it all for granted the way—you +do.... And it was very horrid." +</p> +<p> +"It's over," said he crisply, "except I'd like to pound him to a +jelly." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't bear to <i>speak</i> of him before," said the girl, "but now +it seems all far away and nightmarish.... And I'd like to tell you +how it was—a little." +</p> +<p> +"You needn't." +</p> +<p> +"I know I needn't." Arlee's tone was suddenly proud. Then she melted +again. "But I want you to know. He was—he was trying to make me +care for him.... He wasn't really as dreadful as you might think +him, only just insane—about me—and utterly unscrupulous. But he +did want me to like him and so, when I found out, when Fritzi told +me I was in a trap, I tried to play his game. I <i>flirted</i> one day in +the garden, at lunch, and made him think—— You see, I <i>had</i> to gain +time and try to get word to people. But I hated him so I——" She +broke off, the pupils of her fixed eyes big and black with the +memory. +</p> +<p> +"You know I can't—I can't think of you—alone there," came huskily +from the young man. +</p> +<p> +"He never <i>dared</i> to touch me—really—till last night," she said +fiercely. "He tried, but I—I held him off. Only he talked to +me—Oh, how he talked. Like a river of words.... I hate all those +words.... If ever again a man asks me to marry him I don't ever want +him to <i>talk</i> about it. I want him just to say two words, <i>Will +you?</i>" Her laugh caught quiveringly in her throat. +</p> +<p> +It taxed all the young man's control to keep his tongue off the +echo. +</p> +<p> +"He just raved," she went on after a pause, "and I had to +listen—but last night he was horrible. I could never have got to +the candles if his hand hadn't been hurt." +</p> +<p> +"I wish I'd shot his hand off," said Billy bitterly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh! Was it you who——?" +</p> +<p> +"When we were in the palace." He told her again about the raid and +she nodded delightedly over it. +</p> +<p> +"It's so wonderful for you to have done all this," she said with +sudden shyness. "You had just met me——" +</p> +<p> +The things on Billy's tongue wouldn't do at all. None of them. What +he did say was absurdly stiff and constrained. "You were my +countrywoman—and alone." +</p> +<p> +"So are the Evershams," said Arlee, with sudden bubbling laughter, +and then as suddenly checked herself. Her fleet glance at him was +half-scared. "You—you are very good to your countrywomen in +distress," she got out stammeringly. +</p> +<p> +Billy contemplated his cigar. It was safer. +</p> +<p> +Presently she reverted to the topic of discovery. "But about Mr. +Falconer? Are you sure his suspicions are over now?" +</p> +<p> +"Perfectly sure. Or they will be the moment he sees you. You'll have +to laugh at him if he mentions them, of course;" Billy spoke with +heartiness. +</p> +<p> +"He'd hate it," the girl said musingly. "The talk and all—about +me—Oh, after being such a fool <i>I'd never be the same to them</i>!" +she broke out passionately. +</p> +<p> +The furtive pain was bolder now; Billy felt it worming deeper and +deeper into his sorry consciousness. It mattered so much to her what +Falconer thought—so much.... +</p> +<p> +"But I'll do anything you say," she said meekly, looking up at her +rescuer with those big eyes whose blueness always startled him like +unsuspected lakes. He saw then that she meant to be very grateful to +him. Somehow that deepened the pang. He didn't want that kind of +bond.... +</p> +<p> +"Then you will bury even the memory of this time and never whisper a +word of it," he told her stoutly. "The talk and explanation will be +over five minutes after your return. The thing is, to manage that +return. Now the Evershams left Friday and this is Wednesday—six +days." +</p> +<p> +"Only six days," she echoed with a ghost of a sigh. +</p> +<p> +"Now let me see where were we on the sixth day? When I was on the +Nile?" He knitted his brows over it. "Why, the steamer leaves +Assiout at noon of the fifth day—that was yesterday." +</p> +<p> +"Oh! I must have passed them on the Nile," cried Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"Maragha is where they stopped last night. To-day they'll be +steaming along steadily and stop to-night at Desneh. To-morrow night +they'll be at Luxor." +</p> +<p> +"And they stay three days at Luxor?" +</p> +<p> +"The steamer does, I believe. I left the steamer there and went to +the hotel for a while and spent another while at Thebes with a +friend of mine." +</p> +<p> +"The excavator!" cried Arlee quickly. +</p> +<p> +"Then you do remember," said Billy with a direct look, "that dance +and——" +</p> +<p> +"And our talk," she finished gaily. "And your being Phi Beta Kappa. +Oh, I was properly impressed! And I didn't know then that you were a +regular Sherlock Holmes as well." +</p> +<p> +"I didn't know it either," said Billy grinning. But he knew that she +didn't know now how much of a Sherlock Holmes he had managed to be +for her. +</p> +<p> +"That seems ages ago," she declared, "and in an altogether different +world. The only real world seems to be this desert——" +</p> +<p> +"Bedouin breakfast and camel races," finished Billy. "And it's so +much of a lark for me that I can't keep my mind on the problem of +the future. But I have to get you to Luxor by to-morrow night——" +</p> +<p> +"And I can't arrive in the rags and tatters of a white silk calling +gown," mentioned Arlee cheerfully, surveying her disreputable and +most delightful disarray. "I must have trunks and a respectable +air—and a chaperon, I suppose." +</p> +<p> +"And I won't do at that. But if you get to Luxor you'll be all +right. You can go to the hotel and to-morrow night the Evershams' +boat will get in about seven in the evening." +</p> +<p> +"Did you say my trunks were sent to Cook's?" +</p> +<p> +He repeated the story of the telegram to the Evershams. Over the +arrival of the boy with money for her hotel bill she wrinkled her +brows in perplexity. "I suppose he thought there would be less +discussion about me if my bills were paid," she said finally. "But +I'd like to get that money back to him." +</p> +<p> +"I'll see he gets it—with interest," responded Billy. +</p> +<p> +"And you——?" She looked up at him with a startled, vivid blush +that stained her soft skin from throat to brow. "You must have been +to a great deal of expense——" +</p> +<p> +"Not a bit. Please don't——" +</p> +<p> +"But I must. When I get to a bank. I still have my letter of credit +with me," she said thankfully, "but it didn't do me any good in that +wretched palace. It was just paper to them. I showed it to the girl +once and tried to make her understand." +</p> +<p> +"The first station we find we'd better wire for your trunks to be +sent by express to Cook's at Luxor—or to the Grand Hotel. And then +you can take the train straight to Luxor and buy some clothes +there." +</p> +<p> +"But the train—I can't travel in this! And there would be people on +it who would talk——" +</p> +<p> +"Had we better make it to Assiout then?" said Billy doubtfully. +"Once in the city, of course, you'd be safe——" +</p> +<p> +"How far is Assiout from Luxor? Where are we now?" +</p> +<p> +"We're Alice in Wonderland about that. Somewhere about twenty-five +or thirty miles south of Assiout, I should say. It must be +nearly a hundred and twenty, as the crow flies, from Assiout to +Thebes—that's right across from Luxor, you know." +</p> +<p> +Arlee was silent a moment. She lifted a handful of shining sands and +let them run down from her fingers in fine dust. "It's such a pity," +she mused, "when we've such a good start——" +</p> +<p> +Billy stared. +</p> +<p> +"And I never rode a camel," she went on. "I may never have such a +chance again." +</p> +<p> +"You don't mean——?" +</p> +<p> +"It would make my story a little truer, too.... And wouldn't it be +quicker?" +</p> +<p> +"Quicker? The quickest way is to go back to Assiout and catch the +middle-of-the-night express there and get to Luxor to-morrow +morning." +</p> +<p> +Arlee sighed. "I always wanted to be a gypsy," she murmured +regretfully, "and now I've begun it's such a pity to stop.... And +I'm <i>afraid</i> to go back!" she cried, "They will be out looking for +us—they are probably now on the way. And they'll shoot at you and +carry me off—Oh, do let's go on! Don't go back to that city! We can +catch the train another place. Oh, it's so much more <i>sensible</i>!" +</p> +<p> +"Sensible?" Billy repeated as if hypnotized. +</p> +<p> +"Why, of course it is. And safer. For all those people back there +must be in that tribe of the sheik whose house I was in, and they +are dangerous, dangerous. I want to get as far away from them as +possible. I'd rather ride all the way to Thebes than run the risk +of falling in their traps." +</p> +<p> +Billy was silent. +</p> +<p> +"And I'm sure the camels could make the trip in a couple of days," +she continued, sounding assured now, and pleasantly argumentative. +"I used to read about their speed in my First Reader.... That is, if +you don't mind the trouble," she added apologetically, "and being +with me that day more?" +</p> +<p> +Billy choked. She looked entirely unconscious, and his dumfounded +gaze fell blankly away. "There isn't anything in the world I'd like +better," he said slowly, sounding reluctance in the effort not to +sound anything else, "but from your point of view—if we should +meet——" +</p> +<p> +"Only <i>fellaheen</i> on the banks," she returned unconcernedly. "Not +half as awkward as people on trains." +</p> +<p> +"But the—the chaperonless aspect of this picnic——?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, <i>that</i>!" She was mildly scornful. Then she giggled. "I think a +chaperon would look very silly tagging along behind on a camel.... +Besides we've gone so far already. You took the liberty of rescuing +me, you know, and then the sand storm and this breakfast <i>à +deux</i>—What's a few meals more?" +</p> +<p> +There was truth in that—and truth in what she said about the danger +of returning to the city. They were already lingering overlong and +Billy jumped up and packed their supply of food in sudden haste. It +was folly, of course, to dream of the entire trip to Thebes on +camelback, but Girgeh was about fifty miles south, and it would be +safer and almost as near to push on there or to the next town, +wherever that was, and there get the train as to return to +Assiout.... +</p> +<p> +Oh, Billy, Billy! What specious argument! And why must every bright +delightful fruit be forbidden by dull care or justified by +flagrantly untenable artifice? Who but a fool would boggle over this +chance, this gloriously deserved crown of the adventure, this gay, +random ride over the deserts with Arlee?... To her it was nothing +but a prolonging of the lark into which the affair had miraculously +been turned. Billy was Big Brother—the American Big Brother with +whom one might go safely adventuring for a day or a year.... And +suddenly Billy felt a warm gladness within him. Not even her +escapade with the unspeakable Turk had been able to shake her dear +faith in her own countrymen.... He was not man to her; he was +American. Billy waved the flag loyally in his grateful thoughts. +</p> +<p> +Aloud he said, "There's risk in trying to go back, of course. That's +what they're expecting of us. But there will be uncertainty in going +on——" +</p> +<p> +"I rather like it. It's the certainty that frightens," she gave back +eagerly. "I want the way that puts the greatest distance between me +and that man.... I don't care what else happens so he doesn't find +us." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It is utterly astonishing how unastonishing the most astonishing +situations become at the slightest wont. +</p> +<p> +Nothing on the face of it could have been more preposterous to Billy +B. Hill's imagination than trotting along the banks of the Nile on +a camel with a gossamer-haired girl trotting beside him, two lone +strays in a dark-skinned land, and yet after a few hours of it, it +was the most natural thing in the world! +</p> +<p> +It was all color and light and vivid, unforgettable impressions. It +was all sparkle and gaiety and charm. They were two children in a +world of enchantment. Nothing could have been more fantastic than +that day. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes they rode low on paths between green <i>dhurra</i> fields, +sometimes they rode high along the Nile embankment, watching the +blue waters alive with winged fleet, black buffaloes splashing in +shallows under charge of little bronze babies of boys, watching all +the scenes about them shift and change with magic mutability. +</p> +<p> +They lunched beside an old well, they dined by the river bank, and +then as the velvet shadows deepened in the folds of the Arabian +mountains across the river and the first stars pricked through the +lilac sky above them, they pressed on hurriedly into the southwest +that glowed like molten gold behind the black bars of the palms.... +And by and by when even the after-glow had ceased to incarnadine the +far horizon and the path was too black and strange for them, they +turned off across the fertile valley into the edging desert again +and saw the new moon rise like an arrow of fire over the rim of the +world and pour forth a golden flood that lightened the way yet +farther south for their tired beasts. +</p> +<p> +Arlee rode like a fairy princess of mystery, the silver shawl which +they had bought at a village to shield her from the sun, drooping in +heavy folds from her head, its metal threads glimmering in the moon +rays.... Her eyes were solemn with the beauty and the wonder, of +the night, and the strange solitude and isolation; her look was +ethereal to Billy and mystically lovely. +</p> +<p> +But Girgeh seemed to retreat farther and farther into the unknown +south, and at last it was no fairy princess but only a very tired +girl who slid stiffly down from the saddle, and pillowed a heavy +head on Billy's coat. And it was a very tired young man who lay +beside her, listening to the deep breathing of the beasts and the +faint breath that rose rhythmically beside him. Yet for a time he +did not sleep. His heart was full of the awe and mystery of the +moonlit world about him—and the awe and mystery of that little bit +of the living world curled there so intimately in the dark.... +</p> +<p> +With a reverent hand he drew the wraps he had purchased closer over +her. The night was growing cold. Far off the jackals howled.... With +his gun at hand he slept at last, and slept sound, though sand is +the hardest mattress in the world and a camel's back not the softest +pillow.... +</p> +<a name="2HCH0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIX +</h2> +<h3> + THE PURSUIT +</h3> +<p> +"But I shall die," said Arlee. "I shall simply die if I have to go +another step upon that creature." +</p> +<p> +She said it cheerfully, but firmly, a sleepy, sunburned little +nomad, sitting cross-legged in the sands, slowly plaiting her +honey-colored hair. "Even this," she announced, indicating the +slight gesture of braiding, "is agony." +</p> +<p> +"It's the morning after," said Billy, testing his shoulder with wry +grimaces. "It's yesterday's speed—and then this infernally cold +night. No wonder we're lame. Why, I have one universal crick +wherever I used to have muscles. But let me call your attention to +the fact that we are in the wilds of Egypt and that tangerines are +hardly a lasting breakfast. Something has to be done." +</p> +<p> +"Not upon camels," said Arlee fixedly. +</p> +<p> +"They say it doesn't hurt after an hour or so more." +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't live to find out." +</p> +<p> +"A walk," he suggested, "a slow, swaying, gently undulating +walk——?" +</p> +<p> +"A long, lingering, agonizing death," the young lady translated. +She tossed the curly end of her braid over her shoulder and rose, +with sounds of lamentation. "I ought to have known better than to +sit down again when I was once up," she confided sadly. +</p> +<p> +"Just what," inquired her companion, "is your idea for the day? How +do you expect to reach Girgeh? It can't be very far away now——" +</p> +<p> +"Then we'll walk—<i>we'll</i> walk," she emphasized, "and tow those +ships of the desert after us. That will be bad enough, but +better—<i>what's that?</i>" +</p> +<p> +Like a top, for all his stiffness, Billy spun about to stare where +her finger pointed. Over the crest of a hillock, far to the +north—yes, something was hurrying their way. +</p> +<p> +"A man on horseback," said Arlee anxiously. "They can't have traced +us, can they, all this way——?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course not—but we'll take no chances," returned Billy briskly; +"no more talk of pedestrian tours now!" and promptly he helped the +girl, no longer demurring, into the saddle, and thwacked her camel +into arising, just dodging the long, yellow teeth that the resentful +beast tried to fasten upon his shoulder. +</p> +<p> +They started at no soothing walk, but at a hurrying trot. +</p> +<p> +Worriedly, her delicate brows knitting, "It's absurd, but," said +Arlee, "they could have traced us, I suppose, from my telegraphing +at that little native station for my trunks to be sent." +</p> +<p> +"And mine," said Billy. "And from my trying to get my letter of +credit cashed." +</p> +<p> +"That Captain could have telegraphed to all the places down the +line to know if we'd been seen——" +</p> +<p> +"Even if we hadn't wired or tried to get money, our presence alone +and our buying food would have aroused talk. I told everybody," the +young man continued, "that I was an artist and you were my sister, +and that passed all right—but if Kerissen has been making +inquiries——" +</p> +<p> +"I'm desperately glad we didn't go back toward Assiout," she thrust +in. "We'd have walked right into some trap of his!" +</p> +<p> +"Lord knows what we ought to have done! Lord knows what we ought to +do now!" +</p> +<p> +"Just keep on going," she encouraged. "We can't be very far from +Girgeh, can we?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know," said Billy soberly. "It may be half a day or a whole +day more—you remember how vague that old woman was last night...!" +Bitterly he added, "And I'm afraid you've got a chump of a guide." +</p> +<p> +"I've the best one in the world!" she flashed indignantly. +</p> +<p> +But her assurance brought no solace to the young man's troubled +soul. He reflected that they could have taken a train the day +before. To be sure, he had not money enough for tickets to Luxor, +yet he had enough for two to Girgeh. But Arlee had shrunk from +entering a train in her dishevelled costume, fearful of watching +eyes and gossiping tongues, and had advised riding on to Girgeh, +where shops and banks would help them, and he had yielded apparently +to her desires, but in reality to his own secret self that clung to +every joyful contraband moment of this magic time with her. +Sincerely he had thought their danger ended.... But those trailing +horsemen—"<i>Brute!</i>" he raged dumbly at himself. "Dolt! Idiot!" +</p> +<p> +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. It was an ordeal of a ride. +</p> +<p> +They had ridden on in silence, occasionally glancing back over their +shoulders. At last Arlee said, quietly, "Do you see anything—over +there—to the left?" +</p> +<p> +Billy had been seeing it for fifteen minutes. +</p> +<p> +"Another horseman, isn't it?" he carelessly suggested. +</p> +<p> +"He seems to be riding the same way we are." +</p> +<p> +"Well, we've no monopoly of travel in this region." +</p> +<p> +She answered, after a moment, "There's another close behind him. I +just saw him on top of a little hill. I suppose they can see us?" +</p> +<p> +"Probably." Billy's face was grave. If they continued their winding +path in from the desert to the intervening hills that shut them from +the Nile valley, and the horsemen continued their course along the +base of those hills, they would soon meet. +</p> +<p> +"Do you mind speeding up a little?" he asked. "I'd rather like to +cross to the Nile ahead of that gentry." +</p> +<p> +But as they speeded up the pursuers did the same, and from mere dots +they grew to tiny figures, clearly discernible, furiously galloping +over the sands. +</p> +<p> +Billy thought hard about his cartridges, wishing he had more in his +clothes. When he had left the hotel that Tuesday evening he had +thrust the loaded revolver in his pocket, but he had already +discharged it twice at the beginning of their flight.... And then he +startlingly reflected that the Captain could easily cause their +arrest for stealing those camels, and wild and dreadful thoughts of +native jails and mixed tribunals darted into his harassed and +anxious mind. As a long ridge of sand intervened between them and +their pursuers he made a sudden decision. +</p> +<p> +"Let's turn off," he said quickly, and from the little winding path, +edging southeast, they struck directly south over the trackless +sand. +</p> +<p> +"You see, they'll expect us to make a railroad station as soon as +possible," he explained, "and they are probably trying to nab us on +the way to it—if those men have anything to do with us at all." He +said nothing about his vivid fear of arrest for the camels and the +tool such an arrest would be for Kerissen's designs. He merely +added, "I think we'd better try to give them the slip and steer +clear of all the little native joints until we get to Girgeh, which +is big enough to give us some protection. There must be an English +something-or-other there.... I really think we ought to go as fast +as we can now, and when the way is clear, hurry across the hills +into the Nile valley." +</p> +<p> +But the way did not become clear. Disconcerted by that unexpected +dash off the path, and reduced for a time to mere dots again, the +horsemen, three in a row now, hung persistently upon their left +flank, keeping a parallel course between them and the hills. +</p> +<p> +The day had dawned with a promise of sultry heat, and as the sun +rose higher and higher in the heavens the heat grew more and more +intolerable to their ill-protected heads and thirsty tongues. The +gaiety of yesterday was gone; the enchantment had vanished from the +waste spaces, and the desert was less a friend now than an enemy. +Chokingly the dust rose about them, and glaringly the gold of the +burning sands beat back the glare of the down-pouring sun. From such +a heat the landscape seemed to shrink and veiled itself with a faint +and swimming haze. +</p> +<p> +By noon the flask of water in Billy's pocket was empty. By noon +their mouths were parched and their skins burning. And still on +their left there hung the hounding dots, like prowling jackals. +</p> +<p> +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. This was an ordeal of a ride that +tried the stuff the girl was made of. She was no princess of mystery +now, crossing the moonlit sands; she was no gossamer wraith of a +girl miraculously with him for a time; she was a very hot and human +companion, worried and tired, shutting her dry mouth over any word +of complaint, smiling pluckily at him with dusty lips from the +shrouding hood of her veil. She was completely and thoroughly a +brick. +</p> +<p> +And Billy's heart ached for her, even while his spirit exulted in +her spirit. +</p> +<p> +"Beastly hot, isn't it?" he gasped, pulling his insufficient cap +down over his bloodshot eyes. +</p> +<p> +Valiantly she smiled. "What's a little—heat?" came joltingly back. +</p> +<p> +"And rough going." +</p> +<p> +"What's a little—roughness?" +</p> +<p> +There wasn't any word good enough for her. There wasn't any word +good enough to describe such superhuman courage and sweetness. Billy +had credited all beauties with being spoiled. All he had known had +been distinctly spoiled, even the near-beauties, and the not-so-near +ones, yet here was the most radiantly lovely girl he had ever seen +behaving like an angel of grit. +</p> +<p> +He didn't quite know what else he expected her to do—have +hysterics, perhaps, or weep, or reproach him for having taken a +wrong way and elected a rash course. He had known that this girl +could be a very minx when piqued. But in the graver crises of life +she proved herself a thoroughbred. She would go till she dropped and +never whimper. +</p> +<p> +He thought of all she must have been through in that horrible +palace, and he marvelled at the swiftness with which her spirit had +reverted to blitheness again. The disaster, that might have been so +stunning, so irremediable, had passed over her head like lightning +that had not struck.... Even the horror of it had seemed yesterday +to fade in her like the horror of an evil dream. That was what it +had been to her—an evil dream. She was so young, so much of her was +still a child, that the full terror had not touched her. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +They had come to a road at last, a road which seemed to be leading +in from the desert very gradually to the hills upon their left, and +it seemed to Billy that it must be a caravan road to Girgeh, and he +felt themselves upon the right track. They must keep their lead, and +when that lead seemed sufficient, they must put on all possible +speed to make the crossing through the hills into the Nile valley +ahead of their pursuers. Once more he stirred their lagging camels +into a jogging trot.... +</p> +<p> +It was around the middle of the afternoon now, and it had been noon +since their tongues had tasted water. Arlee felt her mouth parched +and her tongue dry and curling; her skin was feverishly hot; her +whole body burned and ached, and her head was giddy with the heat +and the hunger. But she thought how little a thing it was to be hot +and hungry and tired—when one was free. And she drew the silver +shawl closer over her head and wrapped the silken tunic of her frock +about her scorching shoulders, and clung tight to the pommel of her +big saddle as her beast pounded on and on in his lurching stride. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It had been some time since they had seen the dots, and now the road +ahead of them, like the former path they had abandoned, was turning +more and more to the left, winding in and out the low and broken +foothills, and as they followed its course with increasing security, +Billy began to tell himself that their fears had been unfounded and +the alarming horsemen were merely following their own route south. +</p> +<p> +And then he heard a whistle. +</p> +<p> +A prescience of danger shot through him. His fears returned a +hundredfold. Sharply he scanned the way about them, but nothing was +in sight. The whistle was not repeated; he could have imagined that +he dreamed it. An utter stillness possessed the wilderness. +</p> +<p> +And then around the corner of a jutting rock ahead of them a +horseman trotted, a big black man on a gray horse, and reined in, +waiting, facing them. Arlee gave a choking cry. +</p> +<p> +"The eunuch!" she gasped out. +</p> +<p> +Behind them Billy flung a lightning glance, and over the heads of +the dunes two more riders appeared, converging down upon them from +the rear. Three in sight—how many more behind the rocks? +</p> +<p> +Desperately Billy gripped his bridle rope, and with a wrenching pull +and a whack of his guiding stick he turned his camel sharply to the +left, snatching at Arlee's bridle rope as the beasts bumped against +each other in their surprise. +</p> +<p> +"Quick—this way," Billy commanded, and with the left hand clutching +the girl's rope, with the right he wielded the stick furiously. Out +over the sand both camels plunged, goaded into wild speed by such +violent measures, and a cheated yell broke from the horsemen and the +outcries of pursuit. +</p> +<p> +While rage at such unreason lasted the camels went like mad, but +such speed could not be for long. They had been hard ridden for two +days and they were nearly spent. The horsemen behind had drawn +together and hung on their trail like three hounds, riding +cautiously in the rear, but easily keeping the distance. It occurred +to Billy that these pursuers could have changed horses on the way, +and must inevitably tire them out. And then? +</p> +<p> +On and on he beat his poor beasts, racing toward the hills that, +just ahead of them, rose sharply from the broken ground, seeking +among them some fortress of rocks for a defiant stand. +</p> +<p> +A tug on the bridle rope nearly jerked it from his hand. Arlee's +camel had stumbled; the poor thing was lurching wearily. +</p> +<p> +"He can't go—any more," the girl cried out pitifully. "He—he's +sobbing. Don't beat him—I won't have him beaten!" +</p> +<p> +"We must get there," he called back, waving at the cliff-like rocks. +</p> +<p> +"Then go—on foot. I could—run faster." +</p> +<p> +"No, you couldn't," he shouted fiercely back. +</p> +<p> +She flared. "Don't you hit him again!" +</p> +<p> +The maddening absurdity of the quarrel in the face of hostile Africa +filled Billy with the futile fury of exasperation. He ground his +teeth, glowering at her, and wound her halter rope about his +smarting hand. All his hope was concentrated upon the necessity of +winning to that rocky shelter before their pursuers overtook them. +To him the camels were nothing in the face of such necessity. +</p> +<p> +They were going slower and slower; his blows had no avail now on +either beast. They plodded on. He turned suddenly in his saddle and +saw the three riders spreading fan-shape around them, the one in the +center nearest. He whipped out his gun and fired at the horse. +</p> +<p> +His own motion made the ball fly wild, but the horseman drew up +instantly, and the other edged discreetly away. And in the ensuing +moments the two fugitives gained the base of those cliff-like hills +and perceived the dark oblong of a cave mouth. +</p> +<p> +Down from their exhausted camels they flung themselves, and hand in +hand raced to the entrance of the cave. Coolness and blackness +received them. Their eyes discovered nothing of the tunnel-like +interior. +</p> +<p> +Putting Arlee some distance within, Billy went to the mouth and +stood, his gun in his hand, peering watchfully out. He saw the +horsemen draw together for a parley, then one remained on guard +while the others circled on separate ways beyond his range of sight. +His fear was that one of them might steal alongside the cave and +leap unexpectedly into its very mouth upon him, so with taut nerves +he crouched expectant. +</p> +<p> +Behind him Arlee gave a sudden shriek. +</p> +<a name="image-0004"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/img4.jpg" width="288" height="450" +alt="'Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out'" /> +</center> + +<p class="cap"> +"Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out" +</p> +<a name="2HCH0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XX +</h2> +<h3> + A FRIEND IN NEED +</h3> +<p> +He whirled. "I'll fire!" he warned, staring into the dark, but his +eyes, dazed with the sun, discerned nothing, and in utter ignorance +he faced the black possibilities. +</p> +<p> +"A man—a hand——" Arlee gasped incoherently. +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord, what is it?" said a voice so near at hand that both were +startled. +</p> +<p> +"Burroughs!" ejaculated Billy. "Is it you—Burroughs?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it's I, Burroughs," the owner of the voice retorted irritably. +"And who the deuce are you?" +</p> +<p> +"Hill—Billy B. Hill," came the jubilant answer, and "Billy be +damned!" said the astonished voice, with sudden joviality, and a +dark shape strode up to them. "What on earth are you doing here? And +what about that firing? Think I was a robber bold?" +</p> +<p> +"Well, there are three robber sneaks outside that we are hiding +from, so I wasn't sure.... Great Cæsar, old scout, but I'm glad to +see you! That puts us out of the woods at last.... It's the +excavator friend," he added, turning to Arlee. "Burroughs, I present +you to Miss Beecher. She and I have been having a thoroughly +impossible adventure." +</p> +<p> +"Let's have a little light upon these introductions," returned the +excavator, and a click was heard, and a light jumped out overhead, +flooding the tunnel-like place with brightness. In its beams the +three stood staring queerly at each other. +</p> +<p> +Arlee saw a slim, wiry young American, in rough khaki clothes +stained with work, a browned, unshaven young man with sleepy looking +eyes and a mouth like a steel trap. +</p> +<p> +What the excavator saw was more surprising. There was his friend +Billy, whom two weeks before he had seen off on a Nile steamer +returning to Cairo, in tropic splendor of white serge and Panama +hat, now a scarlet spectacle of sunburn and dirt, in most +disgraceful tweeds, and beside him what Burroughs took to be a child +in tatterdemalion white, a silky, fluttering white, which even his +untrained observation knew was hardly elected for desert wear. The +little girl's hair was hanging tangled over her shoulders, and was +much the color of the sand with which her face was coated, and +underneath that coating he saw that she was red as a peony with sun +and wind. They were a startling pair. +</p> +<p> +Gravely, with unchanging eyes, he acknowledged the introduction, and +then, "What's this about robbers?" he went on. "What kind of a yarn +are you putting over?" +</p> +<p> +"Nothing I want put over on the general public." Billy was thinking +very hard. "You're going to be our salvation, Burroughs, but even to +you—well, I'll put it briefly. We were having a desert ride and +some Turkish fellows who have annoyed her before chased us. There +are our camels, just outside. And you can see one of the fellows on +horseback keeping watch. The others are somewhere about.... And now, +for heaven's sake, get us a drink of water." +</p> +<p> +Burroughs walked to the door of the tomb and looked out an instant, +then he turned and went toward the back, returning with a small +native jar full of water. +</p> +<p> +"I've no glass, but if you can manage this——?" he said to Arlee, +and she clutched the cool pottery with two hot little hands and, +murmuring a quick affirmative, she put it to her lips. +</p> +<p> +Then she held it out to Billy. +</p> +<p> +"I suppose—we mustn't—-drink as much as we want." +</p> +<p> +"I couldn't," said Billy, after a grateful swallowing. "I'd drain +the Nile.... Got a camp here?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes. You'd have seen my men any other time of day, but we knocked +off a while out of the sun," Burroughs explained. "I've rigged up +this tomb as living quarters while I'm here. Now what do you want me +to do? Would you like a guard?" +</p> +<p> +"We'd like a guard and a bath and cold cream," said Billy joyfully. +"And then we'd like dinner and donkeys." +</p> +<p> +Burroughs grunted. +</p> +<p> +"Umph—I should say you'd one donkey already in your +party—careering around the desert with a little girl like this," he +vouchsafed, and Arlee's eyes widened at his brusque nod at her. She +was staring about her now with a curious interest, for all her +aching tiredness, gazing wonderingly at the dazzling white walls +with their strange and brilliant paintings. She saw they were in a +long, deep chamber, from which other openings led to unimagined +deeps. +</p> +<p> +"I guess you never were in a place like this before?" Burroughs +inquired, and she shook her head dumbly, feeling suddenly too spent +for words. +</p> +<p> +"Can she get a rest here?" said Billy anxiously. "We've had the +devil of a ride." +</p> +<p> +"The place is all hers," returned Burroughs. "I'll send you some +food and cold cream—you mustn't wash that sunburn, you know, or +you'll be a sorry girl to-morrow—and then you can rest as long as +you like. How much of a hurry are you in?" he added to Billy. +</p> +<p> +"Well, we want to take a train to Luxor to-night. I suppose Girgeh's +the next station?" +</p> +<p> +"You suppose? You <i>are</i> at sea—where did you start from, anyway?" +But hastily Burroughs sped from that inquisitive question. "Balliana +is your next station," he reported. "You've all the time you want, +and I'll take you over myself. Now make yourself as comfortable as +you can," he added to Arlee, handing her a big jar of cold cream and +lugging forward an armful of rugs. "I'll be back with some food in a +jiffy." +</p> +<p> +"You're very kind," Arlee spoke stanchly, but as soon as the two men +stepped from the tomb, she seemed to wilt down into the rugs and lay +there, too tired to stir. +</p> +<p> +Outside Burroughs blew sharply on a whistle, and from the mouth of +another cave a file of black boys in ragged robes made a straggling +appearance. Burroughs gave orders which resulted in a kindling of +fire and the opening of boxes, and then he walked back to where +Billy was surveying the weary camels. At a distance, like an +equestrian statue, the watching horseman was standing. Burroughs +stared hard at the distant Nubian, then stared harder at Billy. +</p> +<p> +"This is wonderful luck," Billy said to him, very soberly. "I didn't +think of you as nearer than Thebes." +</p> +<p> +"We just heard of some fresh finds here, so I'm combing over the +tombs.... But you—it's none of my business, Billy, but what in hell +are you doing racing over Egypt with a ten-year old kid?" +</p> +<p> +"Ten-year-old—Great Cæsar, man, that's a <i>real girl</i>! She's <i>grown +up</i>! She's old enough to vote—or nearly." +</p> +<p> +Burroughs stared harder than ever. +</p> +<p> +Then, "I shouldn't call that an extenuating circumstance," he +mentioned wryly. +</p> +<p> +"Extenuating nothing! Look here, let me——" +</p> +<p> +"You needn't tell me anything, you know," Burroughs suggested in +great indifference. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, shut up!" Billy spoke with deep disgust. "You've got to help us +out of this and then forget the whole business." He paused a moment; +then, "Miss Beecher made the mistake of taking a rash ride with me. +She was traveling alone, to meet some friends, to Luxor—and the +indiscretion is entirely mine, you understand. I got her into it. +And then, as I said, a Turkish fellow, that had been making himself +objectionable by following her, got his men out after us and chased +us down here. Her trunks have gone on to Luxor where those friends +are, and we have to find some presentable wraps for her and get her +to the first train. <i>Verstehen</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"Grasped—and forgotten," said his friend laconically. Just for an +instant his sleepy gaze touched Billy's rugged face, then fell +casually away. "I suppose any comments that occur to me are +superfluous?" he pleasantly observed. +</p> +<p> +"Completely.... And, Lord Harry, but I'm glad to see you!" +</p> +<p> +"Same here." Burroughs gave Billy's arm a friendly grip and Billy +spun fiercely about on him. "Don't you do that again!" he warned. +"Take the other one. That's got a—a scratch." +</p> +<p> +"A scratch? One of those fellows wing you out there? Let me have a +look——" +</p> +<p> +"No, it's all right—it's nothing——" +</p> +<p> +"Let me see, you old chump——" +</p> +<p> +"It's all right, I tell you. It's been taken care of—it's just a +relic of Cairo." +</p> +<p> +"Cairo!" Slowly Burroughs let fall the hand he had laid upon Billy's +arm. "You do seem to be having a lively trip," he commented, +grinning. "Here, hurry up, you rascals, hurry up with that big jug." +</p> +<p> +Taking the large jar from them, he returned to the tomb, stopping +abruptly at sight of Arlee's weary abandon. She half sat up, a +frail, exhausted little figure, whose grace was strangely appealing +through all her sandy dishevelment. +</p> +<p> +"Some water—for washing," he stammered. +</p> +<p> +"You're very thoughtful." +</p> +<p> +"I'll have to beg your pardon," he blurted, for Burroughs was no +squire of dames. "I thought you were a little girl and spoke to you +as if——" +</p> +<p> +"It's just the hairpins that make the difference, isn't it?" said +Arlee, with a whimsical smile. "I don't suppose you have any of +those in camp that I could borrow?" +</p> +<p> +He shook his head regretfully. Then his brain seized upon the +problem. "Bent wires?" he suggested. "I might try——" +</p> +<p> +"Do," she besought. "I'll be grateful forever." +</p> +<p> +He withdrew to make the attempt, and in his place came Billy with a +tray of luncheon. +</p> +<p> +"Just—put it down," Arlee said faintly. "I'll eat—by and by." +</p> +<p> +Worriedly Billy looked down on the girl. Her eyes closed. Excitement +had ebbed, leaving her like some spent castaway on the shores. He +dropped on his knees beside her, dipping a clean handkerchief in the +jar of cold cream. +</p> +<p> +"Just let me get this off," he said quietly. "You'll feel better." +</p> +<p> +Like a child she submitted, lying with closed eyes while with +anxious care he took the sand from her delicate, burning skin. He +did the same for her listless hands; he brushed back her hair and +put water on her temples; he dabbed more cold cream tenderly on the +pathetic little blisters on her lips. +</p> +<p> +"I'm—all right." The blue eyes looked suddenly up at him with a +clear smile. "I'm—just resting." +</p> +<p> +"And now you'll eat a bit?" +</p> +<p> +Obediently she took the sandwich he made for her, and lifted her +head to drink the cup of tea. +</p> +<p> +"I'm a—nuisance," she murmured. +</p> +<p> +"You're a <i>brick</i>!" he gave back, with muffled intensity. "You're a +perfect brick!" +</p> +<p> +Then he backed hastily out of her presence, for fear his stumbling +tongue would betray him—or his clumsy, longing hands—or his +foolish eyes. He felt choking with the tenderness he must not +express. He ached with his Big Brother pity for her, and with his +longing for her, which wasn't in the least Big Brotherly, and with +all the queer, bewildering jumble of emotion that she had power to +wake in him. +</p> +<p> +Very silently he returned to Burroughs, and when he had made a +trifle of a toilet and eaten far from a trifle of lunch, the two +young men stretched themselves out in the shade, just beyond the +entrance of the tomb, conversing in low tones, while around them the +labor song of Burroughs' workmen rose and fell in unvarying +monotony, as from a nearby hole they carried out baskets of sand +upon their heads and poured the contents upon the heap where the +patient sifters were at work. +</p> +<p> +Burroughs talked of his work, the only subject of which he was +capable of long and sustained conversation. He dilated upon a rare +find of some blue-green tiles of the time of King Tjeser, a third +dynasty monarch, and a mummy case of one of the court of King Pepi, +of the sixth dynasty, "about 3300 <span class="sc">b.c.</span>," he translated for +Billy, and then suddenly he saw that Billy's eyes were absent and +Billy's pipe was out. +</p> +<p> +In sudden silence he knocked out the ashes from his own pipe and +slowly refilled it. "Congratulations," he ejaculated, and at Billy's +slow stare he jerked his head back toward the tomb. "I say, +congratulations, old man." +</p> +<p> +"Oh!" Billy became ludicrously occupied with the dead pipe. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing doing," he returned decidedly. +</p> +<p> +"No? ... I thought——" +</p> +<p> +"You sounded as if you had been thinking. Don't do it again." +</p> +<p> +"And also I had been remembering," said Burroughs, with caustic +emphasis, "knowing that in the past wherever youth and beauty was +concerned——" +</p> +<p> +So successfully had that past been sponged from Billy's concentrated +heart, so utterly had other youth and beauty ceased to exist for +him, that he greeted the reminder with belligerent unwelcome. +</p> +<p> +"I tell you it was all an accident," he retorted irritably. "There's +nothing more to it.... Hello, our horseman is coming this way +again!" +</p> +<p> +Grateful for the interruption to this ticklish excursion into his +sacred emotions, he jumped to his feet and went out to meet the man +who was riding slowly toward them, the two others in his train. +Burroughs went with him, and a brief parley followed. +</p> +<p> +"He says," Burroughs translated, "that these are his camels and he +is going to take them away. He says you stole them from him at +Assiout." +</p> +<p> +"That's right," Billy confirmed easily. "He can have 'em," and +Burroughs, vouchsafing no comment on this curious development, gave +the message to the Nubian. Then he turned again to Billy. "He wants: +the money for their hire." +</p> +<p> +"For their——! Of all the dad-blasted, iron-clad cheek! You just +tell him for me that he'll get his 'hire' all right if he hangs +around me. Tell him I'll have him arrested for molesting and robbing +travelers; and tell him to tell his master that if he shows his head +near an English girl again I'll have him hanged as high as +Haman—and shot to pieces while he swings! The infernal +scoundrel——" +</p> +<p> +Whatever work Burroughs made of this translation it sent the sullen, +inscrutable-looking fellow off in silence, his followers leading the +recovered camels. +</p> +<p> +"And may that be the last of them," said Billy B. Hill, in fervent +thanksgiving. "Except Kerissen. I've got to meet him again—just +once." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Perhaps it was the hairpins. Perhaps it was the bathed face and the +sleep-brightened eyes and the rearranged gown. But certainly +Burroughs stared in amazement at the slim little figure that issued +from the entrance, and a queer, a very queer confusion seized upon +him. Not even outrageous sunburn and pathetic blisters could hide +Arlee's young loveliness. They only added an utterly upsetting +tenderness to the beholder, and a most dangerous compassion. +</p> +<p> +And just as each man is smitten with madness after the manner of his +kind, so Burroughs, the taciturn, was struck into amazing +volubility. As they sat about a cracker box of a table at an early +supper, he became a perfect fount of information, pouring out to +this girl an account of his diggings that would have astounded any +of his intimates, and would surely have amazed Billy B. Hill if that +young man had been in a condition to notice his friend's +performances. But he was wrapped in a personal gloom that had +descended on him like a cloud of unreason. The escapade was nearly +over. The little girl comrade was gone, the little girl whose face +he had so tenderly scrubbed of its grimy sand. A very self-possessed +young lady was sitting beside him, drinking her coffee, an utterly +lovely and gracious young lady—but unfathomably remote—elusive.... +</p> +<p> +Perhaps, again, it was the hairpins. +</p> +<p> +Off to town on donkey back the three Americans rode slowly, a native +escort filing after, and there in town the bazaars yielded a long +pongee dust coat and a straw hat and a white veil, "to escape +detection," Arlee gaily said, and a satchel which she filled with +mysterious purchases, and then, clad once more in the semblance of +her traveling world, safe and sound and undiscovered, she stood upon +the station platform, awaiting the train to Luxor. +</p> +<p> +Beside her, two very quiet young men responded but feebly to the +flow of spirits that had amazingly succeeded her exhaustion. +Burroughs was suddenly suffering from a depression most unfamiliar +to his practical mind, which caused him to moon about his work for +days and made his depleted jar of cold cream a wincing memory, and +Billy was increasingly glum. +</p> +<p> +It was all over now. The girl, who for two winged days had been so +magically his gypsy comrade, was returning to her own world, the +world in which he played so infinitesimal a part. For very pride's +sake now he could never force himself upon her ... as he might +before ... +</p> +<p> +He stared down at her eagerly, hopefully, for a sign of regret at +the ending of this strange companionship, much as a big Newfoundland +might watch for a caress from a cherished but tyrannic hand, but not +a scrap of regret was evidenced. She was as blithe as a cricket. Her +only pang was for discovery. +</p> +<p> +"You're sure," she murmured as Burroughs left them to interview the +station clerk, "you're sure they'll never know?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm positive," he stolidly responded. "Just stick to your story." +</p> +<p> +"The Evershams won't question—they are never interested in other +people," she mused, with thankfulness. "But Mr. Falconer——" +</p> +<p> +"Won't have a doubt," said Billy firmly. His gloom closed in thickly +about him. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It was a local, a train of corridor compartments. In one, marked +"Ladies Alone," Arlee was ensconced, with an Englishwoman and her +maid, and two pleasant German women, and in another Billy B. Hill +sat opposite some young Copts and lighted pipe after pipe. When the +train started out on the High Bridge across the Nile to the eastern +bank, he came out in the corridor to look out the wide glass windows +there, and found Arlee beside him. +</p> +<p> +"How do you do?" she said brightly. "How nice to meet accidentally +like this—you see, I'm rehearsing my story," she added under her +breath. +</p> +<p> +"Let's see if you have it straight," he told her. +</p> +<p> +"I arrive on a local which left Cairo this morning.... Did I come +alone?" +</p> +<p> +"You'd better invent some nice traveling friend——" +</p> +<p> +She shook her head in flat refusal. "I won't. I'm not equal to +inventing anything. It's bad enough now to—to tell the <i>necessary</i> +lies I have to." The brightness left her face looking suddenly wan +and sorry. "I suppose it's part of my—punishment—for my dreadful +folly," she said in a low tone. +</p> +<p> +"It's just part of the coin the world has to be paid in for its +conventions," Billy quickly retorted. "<i>Don't</i> let it worry you like +that—in a day no one will think to question you." +</p> +<p> +"I know—but—it's having the memory always there. Always knowing +that there is something I can't be honest about—something secret +and dreadful——" +</p> +<p> +She was staring unseeingly out the window, her soft lips twitching. +</p> +<p> +"The Egyptians were a most sensible people," said Billy. "They drew +up a list of commandments against the forty-two cardinal sins, and +one of them was this, 'Thou shalt not consume thy heart.' That is a +religious law against regret—vain, unprofitable, morbid, +devastating regret. And you must take that law for your own." +</p> +<p> +"Th—thank you." The low voice was suspiciously wavery. "I—you see, +I haven't had time to think about it till just now—we've been going +so fast——" +</p> +<p> +"And the best thing that could have happened. And now that you have +the time to think, you mustn't think <i>weakly</i>. It was just a +nightmare. And it's over." +</p> +<p> +"Just a nightmare.... And it's over," she repeated. Her eyes lifted +to Billy's in a look of ineffable softness and wonder. "It's +over—because <i>you</i> came." +</p> +<p> +"I want you to forget that." The young man spoke with cold curtness +in his effort to combat the wild temptation of that moment. "I only +did what anyone else in my place would have done—to have +accomplished it is all the gratitude I want. Please don't speak of +it to me again. You must forget about it." +</p> +<p> +"Forget—as if I could help being grateful as long as I live!" +</p> +<p> +"But I don't <i>want</i> you to be grateful. It—it's obnoxious to me!" +</p> +<p> +She was as blankly hurt as a slapped child. Then she looked away, a +little pulse in her throat beating fast. "Then I won't—try to thank +you," she answered in a very small voice, and stared harder and +harder out the window. +</p> +<p> +Billy felt that he had accomplished a tremendous stride. "A feeling +of obligation kills a friendship," he told her didactically, "and I +want you to be really my friend." +</p> +<p> +"I am." Her voice was distinct, though queerly lack-luster. And she +did not look at him again. +</p> +<p> +He went on: "The Evershams will be in on the boat about seven. From +the station I'll take you straight to the boat, where your stateroom +is surely being kept for you. Then to-morrow your trunks will arrive +from Cook's, and by the time you are through resting, you will be +ready to sally out and meet the world.... I hope my own trunk will +make its appearance, too," he added. "I telegraphed the hotel to +pack my things and send them on." +</p> +<p> +She made no comment on the obvious haste with which he had left +Cairo. She said slowly, "I want to do a little mathematics now. What +is the shocking sum I owe you?" +</p> +<p> +He shut his lips in an obstinate line. After a moment she added, "I +can't take <i>that</i>, you know." +</p> +<p> +It struck him as a trifle ludicrous that dollars were so important +among all the rest, but unwillingly enough he understood. +</p> +<p> +"Won't you just let it stand as it is?" he said under his breath. +"Let me have the whole thing—please." +</p> +<p> +"I can't." +</p> +<p> +"You mean you won't?" +</p> +<p> +"I can't," she repeated inflexibly, and then, with a childish flash, +"Since you dislike me to feel grateful—I should think you would be +glad to let me reduce the debt." +</p> +<p> +"All right." He spoke gruffly. "Then you owe me what you spent just +now and what your railroad ticket cost. Not a cent more. For what +went before I am absolutely responsible, and I decline to let you +pay <i>my</i> debts." +</p> +<p> +This time he was inflexible. She repeated, with a spark of +resentment, "It's not fair to let you pay so much——" +</p> +<p> +"It was <i>my</i> adventure," said Billy firmly. +</p> +<p> +She said, "Very well," in a voice that puzzled him. He felt she +was annoyed. And he realized more than ever that he could never +take advantage of her indebtedness to make her pay with her +companionship. It was becoming a queer tangle.... He felt they had +suddenly slipped out of tune.... She seemed to be escaping +him—withdrawing ... +</p> +<p> +He wondered, very unhappily, with no fine glow of altruism at all, +if he had rescued her for another man. Those things happened, they +happened with dismal frequency. Billy distinctly recalled the +experience of a college friend who had carried a girl out of a +burning hotel, to have her wildly embrace an unstirring youth below. +Yes, such things happened. But he had never contemplated having +anything like that happen to him. +</p> +<p> +He contemplated it now, however, contemplated it long and bitterly, +when Arlee had gone back to her compartment and he sat silent in his +beside the chattering Copts while the train rattled on and on. There +would be three days at Luxor before the boat proceeded upon its +southern journey. And then—— +</p> +<p> +Three days.... Three miserable, paltry, insufficient days, blighted +by the chaperoning Evershams.... Frantically he hoped against his +dark foreboding that one menace at least might be averted—that by +now Luxor would have ceased to shelter a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXI +</h2> +<h3> + CROSS PURPOSES +</h3> +<p> +Luxor was warm and drowsy with afternoon sun. Motionless the fronds +of the tall palms along the water front; motionless the columns of +the temple reflected in the blue Nile. Even the almost continuous +commotion of the landing stage was stilled. +</p> +<p> +The two big Nile steamers, of rival lines, lay quietly at rest, +emptied of their tourists, and on the embankment the dragomans, the +donkey boys, the innumerable venders, were lounging in the shade at +dominoes or dice. +</p> +<p> +In the big white hotels facing the river many drawn blinds spoke of +napping travelers, and in the shade of the garden of the Grand other +travelers were whiling away the listless inertia of the hour before +tea. +</p> +<p> +"I suppose it's <i>quite</i> too early?" murmured a girl at one of the +tables, in the shade of a big acacia. Her companion, fussing with a +pastel sketch, answered absently, without looking up, "Oh, quite," +and then with a note of brisker attention, "I thought we were +waiting for Robert?" +</p> +<p> +"Do you think he'll be back? It's <i>such</i> a trip to the Tombs of the +Kings, you know!" +</p> +<p> +"To be sure he'll be back!" Miss Falconer spoke with asperity. "And +why he wanted to go over it again—it's odd you didn't care to go, +too, Claire," she added, most inconsequently. "It was such an +excellent opportunity—and you had already spoken of wishing to go +again." +</p> +<p> +"But not so exhaustively. They are doing the entire programme. I +only wanted some particular things." +</p> +<p> +"You could have done them." +</p> +<p> +"And it was hot." +</p> +<p> +"It must have been just as hot in the bazaars with Mr. Hill." +</p> +<p> +"Was it?" +</p> +<p> +This was purposeful vagueness and Miss Falconer's crayon snapped. +She made a sound of annoyance, then began gathering her sketching +things tidily together. Presently, "He's rather an agreeable person, +that young American, after all," she cannily observed. +</p> +<p> +"Why, after all?" Lady Claire was implacably aloof. +</p> +<p> +"Well, first impressions, you know——" +</p> +<p> +"<i>My</i> first impressions of Mr. Hill were very delightful." The +English girl laughed softly, her eyes full of reminiscent amusement. +"He was a <i>deus ex machina</i> to me—I quite jumped at him, I assure +you!" +</p> +<p> +"You don't have to assure me!" was the elder lady's unspoken +comment. She had been in a state of chronic irritation, ever since +that Friday noon when Billy B. Hill's tall figure had appeared in +the hotel dining room. And hurrying Claire away from the +conversation he was promptly evoking, she had encountered Arlee +Beecher and the Evershams streaming with the other passengers from +their boat to see the temple of Luxor, a wonderfully gay and excited +Arlee, so radiant in the happiness of her own safe world again that +she was bright gladness incarnate.... Instantly Robert had reverted +to his alarming infatuation ... and Lady Claire had most shamelessly +welcomed the American. It was all unspeakably annoying.... +</p> +<p> +Aloud Miss Falconer observed, "I wonder what brought Mr. Hill back +to the Nile." +</p> +<p> +"I wonder," said Lady Claire pleasantly. "But it makes it very nice +for us, doesn't it?" she continued amiably. "He knows quite +<i>everything</i> about temples." +</p> +<p> +"And particularly nice for Miss Beecher—though I can't say she is +treating him very well. However, that may be their way. 'Romance +apart from results,' was, I believe, his phrase." +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire was silent. But not overlong. "You really think——?" +she suggested tranquilly. +</p> +<p> +"He came on the same train." +</p> +<p> +"Coincidence. He mentioned he did not see her in the train till +Balliana." +</p> +<p> +"Umph!" Miss Falconer drew out of her bag the especial knitting +which she reserved for the Sabbath, and her fingers flew with +expressive spirit. "It's scandalous," she said at length. "Girls +gadding about the face of the earth—picking up chaperons when they +remember them." +</p> +<p> +"It's their way, you know." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, it's their way. And their men seem to like it. Mr. Hill +didn't seem to consider it even <i>unusual</i>.... But as I said, he's +hardly a judge," Miss Falconer went on unsparingly. "The man's +bewitched. He never takes his eyes off her." +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure I don't blame him." Lady Claire's tone was most +successfully admiring. "She's too <i>wonderful</i>, isn't she, with those +great blue eyes and that astonishing hair! I'm sure Robert is +bewitched, too!" +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense!" But Miss Falconer's tone was too vigorous, betraying the +effort to rout a palpable enemy. "What nonsense!" she repeated. +"He's civil—naturally—when <i>you</i> haven't a moment for him. The boy +has pride. Too much." The knitting needles clicked warningly. +</p> +<p> +"Civil!" The girl's low laughter was mocking. "Dear Miss Falconer, +you are such an <i>euphuist</i>!" +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer looked up, a trifle startled. Her young charge was +more than a match for her in irony, but the elder lady did not lack +for solid perseverance, and she charged on undeterred. +</p> +<p> +"Of course the girl's pretty—too pretty. And Robert's a man—he has +eyes in his head and likes to please them. And she knows who he is +and draws him on." +</p> +<p> +"I don't think Miss Beecher cares a twopence who Robert is," said +Lady Claire honestly. "When I told her he was going to stand for +Roxham she answered that she had a very poor opinion of M.P.s—from +reading Mrs. Ward. I can't <i>quite</i> see what she meant—but as for +her drawing him on, a moment ago, dear, you were accusing her of +luring Mr. Hill back from Cairo." +</p> +<p> +"I said he followed. I daresay she lured, too. The second +string——" +</p> +<p> +"Then it's quite <i>nice</i> of me, isn't it, to carry off her second +string to the bazaars and prevent her playing him against Robert!" +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire laughed mischievously, in a flight of daring so foreign +to her usual reticence that Miss Falconer grimly perceived that she +was changed indeed. She thought helplessly that it was a great pity +that young people couldn't be treated as the children they +were—smacked and made to do what was best for them. +</p> +<p> +"And after all this dreadful gossiping how can we face our guests at +tea?" the girl continued in mock chiding. +</p> +<p> +"If they are much later we shall not be facing them at all," the +older woman declared. "I shall certainly have my tea at the proper +time." +</p> +<p> +The sight of an Arab servant with a tray of dishes had stirred her +to this declaration, and promptly she gave her order. In the middle +of it, "I'm always late!" said a merry voice, and little Miss +Beecher and Falconer were standing on the grass beside them. +</p> +<p> +"This time we had no following engagement," said Miss Falconer, +unpleasantly reminiscent of another tea time in Cairo, ten days +before, but even with her resentment of this American girl's +intrusion into her long-cherished plans, she could not prevent the +softening of her regard as she gazed upon her. +</p> +<p> +"You don't look as if you had been riding very hard at the Tombs of +the Kings," she observed, in reluctant admiration. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, but we have! We did quite a lot of Tombs—not anything like +thoroughly, of course!—and then we rode back early and made +ourselves tidy for your tea party," Arlee blithely explained, and +Miss Falconer perceived that her brother Robert had returned to the +hotel without seeking them out, had arrayed himself in fresh white +flannels and returned to the boat to escort Miss Beecher across the +road into the hotel garden. +</p> +<p> +Absently she sighed. Her eyes fell away from the peach-blossom +prettiness of Arlee's lovely face to the subtle simplicity of her +white frock of loosely woven silk, and she wondered if that heavy +embroidery meant money—or merely spending money. And then she +looked across at Lady Claire, and sighed again for her dream of an +aristocratic alliance. +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Eversham—?" she thought to inquire. +</p> +<p> +"They're having the vicar—or is it the rector?—to tea. They asked +him this morning before your message came," Arlee explained. She did +not explain that the vicar, or the rector, had imagined, in +accepting, that she, too, was to be of that tea party on the boat +and was even now inquiring zealously of her of the Evershams. +</p> +<p> +"Here's Mr. Hill," said Lady Claire. +</p> +<p> +Miss Falconer stirred; there was room for the fifth chair between +her and Arlee. Lady Claire also stirred; there was room between her +and Robert Falconer. And there Billy B. Hill seated himself after a +general exchange of greetings. +</p> +<p> +"How were the bazaars?" said Arlee gaily across the table. +</p> +<p> +"You mean the department store of Mr. Isaac Cohen," Billy laughed +back. "They are all under him, you know." +</p> +<p> +"Not <i>really</i>!" Falconer exclaimed, in disillusionment. "It rather +takes it out, doesn't it, to know it is so commercialized." +</p> +<p> +"What did you expect—it is the twentieth century," Miss Falconer +retorted, putting aside her knitting as the tea things arrived. +</p> +<p> +"Sometimes it is," said Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"I think it's more so than ever, here," declared Lady Claire. +"Egypt's so <i>frightfully</i> civilized——" +</p> +<p> +"Not when you're camping in the desert." +</p> +<p> +Again that funny little smile flitted over Arlee's face; not once +did she glance at Billy, but for all her air of unconsciousness he +felt that she was subtly sharing her thoughts with him and a quick +spark of gladness flashed in him. +</p> +<p> +Those had been three horrible days for Billy B. Hill. +</p> +<p> +Friday morning he had been practically a prisoner until his trunks +had arrived. He had emerged upon a spectacle of England +triumphant—Robert Falconer escorting Arlee to the temple of Luxor. +Later that afternoon he had called upon Arlee upon the boat to find +Falconer still there, and the Evershams very much so. +</p> +<p> +Robert Falconer had accompanied him back to the hotel. There was +something that he wanted to ask, and he asked it bluntly, but with +embarrassment. Had Billy said anything at all to Arlee of that +nonsense at the palace? +</p> +<p> +Here was a contingency for which Billy was not provided. He made no +provisions for this with Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"Have you?" he parried. +</p> +<p> +"Not a word," said the young Englishman. "We've not mentioned the +fellow's filthy name. But I wondered——" +</p> +<p> +"I did tell her we got worried one night, and tried to get into his +palace like a pair of brigands," Billy answered slowly. +</p> +<p> +"She must have thought us great fools," the sandy-haired young man +replied disgustedly. Clearly he felt that Billy had flourished this +story before Arlee to appear romantic, and he winced at its +absurdity. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no—she just thought of it as a lark on our part," Billy went +on. "I didn't let her in for the horrible details—I don't think +she's likely to mention it to you. Or you to her," he added. +</p> +<p> +"Rather not." The young Englishman was emphatic. "I'm sorry you said +anything about it." Then he looked at Billy, a crinkle of amusement +in his eyes. "Rather a sell, you know—what?" +</p> +<p> +"I should say so!" returned Billy, with a hearty appearance of +chagrin, and a laugh cemented the understanding. +</p> +<p> +That was all between them concerning the escapade. +</p> +<p> +Billy had raced back to the boat, and secured an earnest fifteen +minutes with Arlee, who promised unlimited care, and then forced +upon him the wretched sovereigns that she owed. She was feeling +desperately spent and tired after her day of excitement, and +declared herself unequal to the dance upon the boat that evening. +Anxiously Billy had urged her to rest, and he spent a drifting and +distracted evening roaming alone in the temple of Luxor listening +to the distant music from the boat—thinking of Arlee.... Later he +had learned that she remained up for at least two dances with +Falconer. +</p> +<p> +So much for Friday. Saturday had been worse. Arlee had said on +Friday night that she would join the passengers in the all-day +excursion to the Tombs of the Kings, and Billy had somehow found +himself in an arrangement with Lady Claire and Falconer to go with +them. Then Arlee had not gone. Mrs. Eversham reported that she had a +headache, and Falconer had very promptly dropped out of the party, +leaving Billy with Lady Claire upon his hands, and so he went, and +he and Lady Claire and the Evershams and about sixty other +passengers had a brisk and busy day of it. When he returned just +before dinner he saw Arlee, apparently headacheless, upon the deck +of the steamer, chatting to Falconer. +</p> +<p> +That night she had attended the dance at the hotel under Miss +Falconer's wing. Billy had danced with her twice, and between times +his pride had kept him aloof—she might just have made one sign! But +though her bright friendliness was ever responsive; though she was +instantly, submissively, ready to accept his invitations or fulfill +his requests, he felt that there was something strangely lacking. +</p> +<p> +The gay spark of her coquetry was gone; she did not tease or play +with him; animated as she was in company, when they were alone +together a constraint fell upon her. +</p> +<p> +Miserably he felt that he reminded her of unhappy scenes and that +she would be secretly relieved when he was gone. +</p> +<p> +So now he was absurdly glad to hear her declare, in answer to Lady +Claire's questionings, "Oh, but the desert is wonderful! I loved it +in spite of——" +</p> +<p> +"In spite of—?" Lady Claire echoed. +</p> +<p> +"The sand," said Arlee promptly. But under her lashes, her eyes +came, at last, half-scared, to Billy's face. +</p> +<p> +"But the sand <i>is</i> the desert," Lady Claire was murmuring. +</p> +<p> +"It's only part of it," Billy took it upon himself to answer. "Space +is the biggest part—and then color. And sometimes—heat." +</p> +<p> +"You spent quite a time on the desert edge with some excavators, +didn't you?" said the English girl, and Billy fell into talk with +her about his friend's work, and Falconer and his sister engrossed +Arlee. +</p> +<p> +And to-night was the very last night of her stay at Luxor. To-morrow +the boat would take her on out of his life—unless he pursued her +along the Nile, a foolish, unwanted intruder.... The three days here +had all slipped from his clumsy grasp—they seemed to have put a +widening distance between them.... He heard Falconer calculating +that the boat would touch again at Luxor for the next Friday night. +There seemed to be talk of a masked ball.... +</p> +<p> +Billy leaned suddenly across the table. +</p> +<p> +"You have forgotten it's the best of the moon to-night?" he asked. +"You must let me take you to see it on Karnak." +</p> +<p> +Falconer gave him a very blank look. +</p> +<p> +"We've already planned for that," said he. +</p> +<p> +"We'll all go," cried Arlee, with instant pleasantness. "We mustn't +miss it for anything." +</p> +<p> +"You haven't seen the moon on the temple yet?" Billy inquired of +Lady Claire in the pause that ensued. +</p> +<p> +"Only once—four nights ago. But it wasn't full then." +</p> +<p> +Billy remembered that moon acutely. It had lighted two fugitives +across a waste of sand. He saw a little figure swaying rhythmically +high upon a camel, a quaint, old-world figure in misty white, with a +shimmering silver veil—like Rebecca coming across the desert, he +thought oddly. Then he looked up and saw a most modern figure in +white across the table, nibbling a cress sandwich, and laughing at +some jest of the Englishman's.... +</p> +<p> +With a start he realized that Lady Claire was waiting for an answer. +</p> +<p> +"I beg your pardon. You asked——?" +</p> +<p> +"If <i>you</i> had seen the temple in moonlight, Mr. Hill." +</p> +<p> +"Not Karnak—only Luxor—night before last." +</p> +<p> +"Only Luxor!" The girl beside him laughed. "How spoiled you are, Mr. +Hill! <i>Only</i> Luxor!" +</p> +<p> +It came to Billy, with the force of revelation, that it was going to +be <i>only</i> a great many things for him after this.... Those wild days +in the desert had seen to that, with devastating completeness.... +Girls were only other girls—and delight in them a lost word. This +charming one beside him, with the friendly eyes where a faint shadow +of wistfulness underlay the surface brightness, was only Lady +Claire.... +</p> +<p> +He wondered if he was going on like this forever. He wondered if he +was everlastingly to carry this memory about with him, like a +bullet.... Suddenly he felt enraged at himself, at his dumb pain and +useless longings, and with a stanch semblance of animation he flung +himself into the flow of talk which this pretty English girl was so +ready to offer him. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXII +</h2> +<h3> + UPON THE PYLON +</h3> +<p> +Two miles of Sphinxes in the moonlight—a double row of them on each +side of the way from the temple of Luxor—and then a towering pylon +overhead. Karnak was reached. +</p> +<p> +Out of the victoria jumped two young men in evening clothes, one +sandy-haired with a slight moustache, the other black-haired and +clean shaven, and handed out three ladies. The first lady was +middle-aged and haughty featured, in a black evening gown overhung +with a black and gold Assiout shawl; the second was a tall girl in a +rose cloak, the third was a small girl, and her cloak was a delicate +blue. +</p> +<p> +There was a pause at the pylon for the presentation of the little +red entrance books, and then the gate closed behind them, and the +five moved cautiously forward into the shadowy dark of the confusion +of the ruins. Beside the blue-cloaked girl bent the sandy-haired +young man; the black-haired young man was between the rose-cloaked +girl and the lady with the Roman nose. +</p> +<p> +"You must be our dragoman, Mr. Hill; I understand you are up on all +this," said the lady, adhering closely to his side. "Where are we +now?" +</p> +<p> +"Temple of Khonsu," said Billy with bitter brevity. Ahead of them +Arlee's blonde head was uptilted toward Falconer's remarks. +</p> +<p> +"Khonsu? I never heard of him! Or is it her?" Lady Claire laughingly +demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Khonsu is the son of the god, Amon, or Amon-Ra, and the goddess, +Mut, and so is the third person of the trinity of Thebes," Billy +pedagogically recited, his eyes on the little white shoes ahead +picking their delicate way over the fallen stones. "This temple at +Karnak is the temple of the god Amon, and so it was natural for old +Rameses the third to put the temple to Khonsu under the father's +wing like this—but it spoils the effect of the entrance from this +pylon. You don't get Karnak's bigness at a burst—but wait till you +reach the court ahead. Then you'll see Karnak." +</p> +<p> +And then they did see it—as much as one view can give of that vast +desolation. Ahead of them, shadowy and mysterious in the velvet dark +and silver pallor of the stars, loomed the columns of the great +court, huge monoliths that dwarfed to pigmies the tiny groups of +people dotting the ground about them, trying to say something +appropriate. +</p> +<p> +The place had been made for dead and gone gods, giants of gods, and +their spirits stalked now through its waste spaces, dominating and +ironic. There was an air about the place that seemed to scorn the +facile awe it woke in the breasts of the beholders and that fleered +at the human banalities upon their lips. +</p> +<p> +"There are no words for a spot like this," said a voice near them. +</p> +<p> +"Silence is fittest," corroborated a second voice. +</p> +<p> +"Thomas Hardy once said, speaking of the heavens," said the first +voice again, "'There is a size at which dignity begins; farther on +there is a size at which grandeur begins; farther on there is a size +at which solemnity begins; farther on a size at which awfulness +begins; farther on a size at which ghastliness begins.' Surely that +was written unknowingly for this temple of Karnak?" +</p> +<p> +A fluttering murmur from the group confirmed this thought. +</p> +<p> +"Nice little speech," said Falconer in an undertone. +</p> +<p> +The second voice was raised a trifle resentfully. "Yet was not the +very pith of it spoken by Ruskin when he stood upon this identical +spot? His words were these, 'At last size tells!'" +</p> +<p> +Another murmur agreed that it was indeed the pith. +</p> +<p> +"That's Clara Eversham," said Arlee under her breath. "They came +over early with some people from the boat." +</p> +<p> +"She must be frightfully up on the guide books," muttered Falconer. +</p> +<p> +"She's a <i>miner</i> in them," Arlee laughed, as they made their way +over the rubbishy ground where great beams of stone and fallen +statues lay half-buried in the sands. +</p> +<p> +"They must be very glad to have you back again with them," Falconer +told her, trying hard to keep their progress ahead of the others. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I don't know!" Honest dubiety spoke in Arlee's tone. "They +have mentioned twice how convenient it was to use my stateroom!" +</p> +<p> +"They felt very badly when you ran away from them in Cairo." +</p> +<p> +"I was shockingly sudden about that," owned the girl lightly, "but +the chance came—Are we going to climb the great pylon now?" +</p> +<p> +"It will be a jolly high place to see the moon rise." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It <i>was</i> a jolly high place to see the moon rise, and to see all +Karnak, and all Luxor, with its high Moslem minaret towering over +its crumbling columns, and to see the dark and distant country with +its tiny hamlets crouching under humbler mosques and lonely palms, +and on the other side the wide and winding Nile with the shadowy +cliffs of Thebes beyond. It gave Arlee the dizzying sensation of +being suspended between heaven and earth, so high was she above +those far-reaching plains, so high above the giant columns beneath +her, the vast beamed roofs, the pointing obelisks. It made her +breath quicken and her pulses beat. +</p> +<p> +"Watch the moon," said Falconer in a low tone. +</p> +<p> +Blood-red it rose behind the dark pile, throwing into sinister +relief a gallows-like angle of stone beams, then higher and higher +it soared till its resplendent light poured unchecked into the wide +courts and broken temples, the unroofed altars and the empty +shrines. +</p> +<p> +"A dead world lighting a dead world," said Arlee under her breath. +</p> +<p> +"I could read by it," stated Miss Falconer impressively. +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire glanced up at Billy with a touch of mischief. "Would you +like to paint it?" she suggested. +</p> +<p> +"Heaven forbid!" said Billy soberly. +</p> +<p> +Falconer said nothing at all, except to Arlee. He was very shrewdly +drawing her to the other end of the pylon, seeing that the time of +descent was nearly upon them. And when the time arrived, and the +English ladies and their stoic escort started down the steep steps, +Falconer made no motion of following them. He stood still, his hands +in his pockets, and chuckled softly at the sound of his sister's +voice, floating lesseningly up to them. +</p> +<p> +"How Emma is dragoning that William Whatdycallit Hill," he said +appreciatively. +</p> +<p> +"Why do you call him that?" questioned Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, that chap is so deuced odd about that name of his. I asked him +what the B. stood for, and he looked me in the eye like a fighting +cock and said for his middle name.... Queer chap—" Suddenly +Falconer looked sidewise at Arlee and stopped. +</p> +<p> +"He is—unusual," she agreed, moving toward the steps. +</p> +<p> +The curious expression upon Falconer's face deepened. "Let 'em go +on," he said jerkily. "I don't want to leave this yet, do you?" +</p> +<p> +Arlee glanced about hesitantly, without answering, and slowly she +let fall the white froth of skirt she had been gathering for the +descent. +</p> +<p> +In silence she looked out over the temple. The moon had paled from +fire to molten silver now, and like scattered sparks of it burned +the thousand circling stars. She felt very strange and unreal—a +tiny figure topping this great gate in the face of the ancient +silence.... +</p> +<p> +"We never have a chance for a word together," Falconer was mumbling, +with a nervous hand at his mustache. +</p> +<p> +Her thoughts came fleetly back from the ancient worlds.... Her own +was upon her. She turned and laughed at him. "We've talked for three +whole days!" +</p> +<p> +"Have we? But always in some group.... I understand that Hill told +you what a couple of donkeys we made of ourselves on your account?" +Anxiously he scanned her face, silver-clear in the moonlight, for +signs of ridicule. +</p> +<p> +But Arlee's smile was very sweet. It made the sandy-haired young +man's heart quicken mysteriously. "He told me," she said. "I think +it was fine of you." +</p> +<p> +"Fine? It was lunacy.... He'd got worked up over some horrible story +he'd heard," went on the young man in the mingling humor and +embarrassment, "and nothing for it but that you'd gone the same way. +And if you'll believe it, he had us prowling around that old palace +like a pair of jolly idiots primed to get their heads blown off—and +served us jolly well right! He was in luck to get off with nothing +but a scratch." +</p> +<p> +"A scratch—? You mean—you <i>don't</i> mean——?" +</p> +<p> +"He didn't tell you that?" Falconer was surprised; he had imagined +that Billy's narration had led romantically to Billy's wound. He +made the American a silent apology. "He was shot in the arm." +</p> +<p> +"Badly?" +</p> +<p> +"Of course not badly—he's all right now, isn't he? He said it was a +scratch." +</p> +<p> +Arlee was silent. He had been hurt all the time that he had been +riding with her over the desert ... he had been hurt all through +those horrible hot hours. And he had said nothing.... +</p> +<p> +"When I think of what that chap got me in for—scaling a man's +walls, smashing in his locks, letting myself down the front of his +house like a monkey on a rope! I might have been a dashed school kid +again." Resentment and reluctant humor struggled in the young man's +speech. "Why, the fellow has the imagination of a detective ... and +of course he had some reason." Falconer's thoughts touched on the +fair-haired girl of Fritzi's report. "I'll admit he had me +worried—until I heard from the Evershams that you were all O.K. You +see what bally nonsense you put into young men's heads," he added +with a look of meaning. +</p> +<p> +"He's a very—chivalrous—young man," said Arlee. +</p> +<p> +"He's a very unbalanced young idiot," contradicted Falconer. "I +rather like the chap, himself, you know; he has nerve to spare—but +no ballast. He might have set all Cairo talking of you." His voice +hardened; "I told him that. I told him you wouldn't thank him for +it." +</p> +<p> +"I do thank him. I thank him with all my heart." +</p> +<p> +"Well, you've no reason to," Falconer returned in blunt belief. +"Linking your name with that Turk fellow; hinting you were in the +palace—he might have started a lot of rotten rumor!" +</p> +<p> +"What's—rumor?" said the girl in a breathless voice. "He was +thinking of—my safety!" +</p> +<p> +"Well, your safety didn't depend on him, did it?" Sharp jealousy of +her defense of the American intruder drove Falconer to unseemly +curtness. He gave a short laugh. "You and I," he said, "seem to be +always tilting over some chap or other." +</p> +<p> +A faint smile touched the girl's lips, a sorry little smile, edged +with rueful reminiscence ... and strange comparisons. In silence she +looked down into the shadowy temple courts where absurdly +small-looking people were strolling to and fro, while Falconer stood +looking down at her, with something akin to angry wonder in his +adoring eyes. +</p> +<p> +"Why didn't you write to a chap?" he abruptly demanded. +</p> +<p> +"Why should I?" +</p> +<p> +"Then you meant to let it go at that?" He drew a sharp breath. "Just +the way you flared off from that table—not a word more?" +</p> +<p> +"Why didn't you write?" the girl parried. +</p> +<p> +"I did," indignantly. "Twice—to Alexandria." +</p> +<p> +"Oh.... I didn't get them." +</p> +<p> +"I wrote, all right. I was so stirred up over that alarm of Hill's +that I urged you to answer me at once. And when you didn't, and when +I heard you <i>had</i> written the Evershams, well, I thought I knew what +I had to think.... When I met you here Friday I half expected you to +cut me, upon my word!" +</p> +<p> +"But I didn't!" She laughed softly. "I remembered you—perfectly." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, you did, did you?... You've acted as if that was about all you +did remember." +</p> +<p> +"I've been very, <i>very</i> nice to you!" +</p> +<p> +"But with a difference," he insisted resentfully. "Didn't you know I +must have written? You didn't think I wanted to let it stop there, +did you? You didn't think I meant that nonsense at tea——" +</p> +<p> +"Please don't go back to that," said the girl hurriedly. "We've been +good friends these three days without bringing it up—don't let us +do it now." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I don't enjoy thinking about it." His voice was sharp with +feeling. "You gave me the most miserable time of my life." +</p> +<p> +"I was very horrid." +</p> +<p> +"You told me you didn't give a <i>piastre</i> for what I thought!" +</p> +<p> +"I said I didn't give half a <i>piastre</i>!" murmured Arlee +irrepressibly, with a wicked dimple. +</p> +<p> +Reluctantly he grinned. "Well?" he put to her questioningly. +</p> +<p> +"Well?" +</p> +<p> +Their eyes met, sparkling, combative. +</p> +<p> +"You do, don't you?" +</p> +<p> +"What?" +</p> +<p> +"You do give a <i>piastre</i> for what I——" +</p> +<p> +"I'm afraid I do. I'm afraid I give a good many <i>piastres</i> for what +everyone thinks." The girl's smile had suddenly faded; her eyes +lowered and sought the far horizons. +</p> +<p> +In the silence he came a little closer to her. "Then Arlee—Arlee, +dear——" +</p> +<p> +She started, and turned hurriedly. "We must go down——" +</p> +<p> +"Why must we?" +</p> +<p> +"They'll be waiting." +</p> +<p> +"Let 'em. They'll be glad of the chance if they can get away from +Emma.... I want to talk to you." +</p> +<p> +"I think Mr. Hill is quite as nice as Lady Claire," flashed Arlee in +a childish voice. +</p> +<p> +"Claire seems to agree with you." Falconer spoke lightly, but +underneath sounded the note of the disgruntled male ... resentful of +the defection of even the girls he left behind him. He added, with +his fatal gift of truculent expression, "But that's perfectly +absurd." +</p> +<p> +"Why absurd?" Arlee's voice held careful calm. The flash in her eyes +was hidden. +</p> +<p> +Falconer made a gesture of extreme exasperation. To waste these +precious moonlight moments in trifling debate was the very height of +maddening futility. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, the chap's a feather-headed adventurer. What's the use of +talking about him?... But that's aside the mark. I want——" +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't call him an adventurer!" The flash was far from hidden +now. Her wide eyes blazed challenge at the disconcerted young man. +"It's not fair. It's not true." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I don't mean it in any—any <i>financial</i> sense," the harassed +Falconer gave back. "But you can't expect me to take him seriously +after his exploits in Cairo? He's flighty. He goes off like a +rocket. He has illusions—but——" +</p> +<p> +"If you are going to slander him because of what he did for me—" +Arlee's voice was shaking. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, can't you see that's the key to his character!" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I do see it." She sounded triumphant now. For a moment her +eves met his full of bright defiance; she hung fire, half scared, +then blazed into her revelation. +</p> +<p> +"<i>For I was in that palace.</i>" +</p> +<p> +"What? What?" Falconer questioned in sheer vacancy of shock. +</p> +<p> +"I said—I was in that palace, Kerissen's palace." +</p> +<p> +"<i>What!</i>" came from him again, but now in twenty different +intonations, with absolute incredulity struggling for dominance. +</p> +<p> +Desperately she rushed on, her voice shaken but passionate. +</p> +<p> +"I tell you it is so. He got me there by a trick, a call upon his +sister. And he kept me by another trick, pretending a quarantine. I +was trapped there. The messages and all the Alexandria story were +Kerissen's frauds. He wanted to marry me. I'd have been there +to-night if it hadn't been for Billy Hill—that adventurer, as you +call him!" +</p> +<p> +It was impossible. It was unthinkable. Falconer stood staring down +at this girl whose white, upturned face, so amazingly ethereal and +childish, met his astounded gaze with unfaltering fixity, and from +his stiff lips dropped disjointed words and phrases, ejaculations of +denial, of disbelief. +</p> +<p> +She swept them utterly aside in her complete affirmation. "It's all +true—every bit." +</p> +<p> +"You—in that man's palace!" He was very pale, but into her white +face there surged a sudden flood of color, crimsoning it from brow +to throat. +</p> +<p> +"He didn't—hurt me," she stammered. "He was—quite mad—but he +didn't—hurt me." +</p> +<p> +She heard Falconer draw his breath with a queer, whistling sound. He +pushed back his hat and drew his hand over his forehead. +</p> +<p> +"It's—impossible," he persisted thickly, but there was bitter +relief in his voice. "The blackguard—the filthy blackguard!" +</p> +<p> +"Don't, don't, please don't! I can't bear to think of him. I've done +with even the thought of him.... He was trying to make me marry him. +I told you he was quite mad." +</p> +<p> +Sharply Falconer pulled himself together, in the tense effort to +meet this horrible astonishment like a man. +</p> +<p> +"And Hill got you out?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes.... He got me out." +</p> +<p> +"But the Evershams—they don't know——?" +</p> +<p> +"No, no, I've told no one. I'm not going to tell anyone. No one +knows of it but you and me—and Billy Hill." +</p> +<p> +"That's right." He drew another long breath, this time in sharp +relief. The color was coming back to his face, splotching it +unevenly. "You mustn't tell anyone. You don't know how a beastly +thing like that would spread. You mustn't let anyone have a hint. +Not even my sister." +</p> +<p> +Arlee's eyes were in shadow. Her voice came slowly. "They would +think so badly of me?" +</p> +<p> +"No—not of you—but it's the kind of thing, the impossible +things—A girl simply can't afford——" +</p> +<p> +"She can't afford to have even speculation against her," Arlee +finished quietly, but a little pulse in her throat was beating away +like mad. She knew he spoke the simple truth, but the taste of it +was bitter as gall to her mouth. However she had humbled herself in +secret self-communion, she had known no such shame as this.... She +felt cheapened ... tarnished.... +</p> +<p> +"It's beastly—but she can't," he jerkily agreed, but with evident +relief at her sensible understanding. Perhaps he had remembered +Billy's fearful prophecy of the conversation with which the +adventure would supply her. "But of course nobody has a notion——" +</p> +<p> +"Not a notion. And I shan't give them any—not till I'm a +white-haired old lady in Mechlin caps, and <i>then</i> I shall make up +for lost time by boring all my world with the story of my romantic +youth and the wild deeds done for me!" She laughed airily, pride +high in her face, hiding her secret hurts. +</p> +<p> +"And Hill got you out," Falconer repeated, with a sudden twinge of +jealous envy in his young voice. "He—he's a lucky one." +</p> +<p> +"<i>I'm</i> the lucky one," Arlee flashed. "Think of the glorious luck +for me that sent him to paint there, outside the palace, where a +maid mistook him, and so gave a message. Why, it was a chance in a +million, in ten million—and it happened!" +</p> +<p> +"Happened?" Falconer looked at her a minute before continuing. Then +he asked quietly, "He told you that he just—happened—there?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, he said by accident. He was painting——" +</p> +<p> +Now Falconer was an honest young man—and a gentleman. Deliberately +he brushed away his rival's generous subterfuge. "He doesn't paint," +he told her. "He did that for an excuse—for a reason to stay +outside the palace. No chance directed it." +</p> +<p> +"Why, how—how did he know? Before——" +</p> +<p> +"He guessed. He was uneasy from the beginning—he made conjectures +and set himself to verify them." +</p> +<p> +After a moment, "I never knew—<i>that</i>!" said Arlee in slow wonder. +</p> +<p> +"Well, you know now," returned Falconer with a sense of grim justice +to the man he had belittled. +</p> +<p> +In the silence the girl moved toward the steps. He made a gesture to +stay her. +</p> +<p> +"You're not going—yet?" +</p> +<p> +"Yet?" she echoed, faintly mocking. "It's <i>hours</i>." +</p> +<p> +"But—but we can never see this again," he argued, weakly, parrying +with himself. +</p> +<p> +"We won't—forget it." +</p> +<p> +The words held a too-keen prophecy for him. He looked at her in +heart-beating uncertainty, and it seemed to him that all his future +was waiting on that moment. Should he speak? Should he utter that +which had been so near utterance when her astounding revelation had +stopped him?... After all, he knew nothing of her—but that she was +lovely and wilful and enchanting—with a capacity for risk—and a +dire disregard of consequences.... She was volatile, unstable, +bewildering—so he thought stiffeningly as he looked at her, but he +looked too long. +</p> +<p> +She was the very spirit of loveliness in the silver moon, her hair +a crown of light, her eyes deep with shadowy wistfulness, her lips +half sad, half tender.... He felt the blood burn hot in his face, +and took a quick step to bar the way. +</p> +<p> +"You must wait to hear what I was saying," he said, with a ring of +new command. +</p> +<p> +She gave him a sudden, startled look, and moved as if to pass him. +</p> +<p> +"You were saying—nothing," she answered proudly. +</p> +<p> +"I was saying—everything," he gave back incoherently. "Oh, Arlee, +do you think that story stops me! Don't you know—how much I want +you?" and with sudden vehemence he bent to clasp her in his arms. +</p> +<a name="2HCH0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XXIII +</h2> +<h3> + THE BETTER MAN +</h3> +<p> +Down in the court of Rameses, Lady Claire and Hill were straying. A +most opportune old bachelor, passing with a party of acquaintances, +had diverted even Emma Falconer from her dragoning, and the young +English girl and her American escort were left for the time to their +own devices. +</p> +<p> +Not much was said. Claire, who had been fitfully gay all afternoon, +grew still as a church mouse now as they paced back and forth in the +shadows, stealing a slant glance from time to time at Billy's set +and silent face. She wondered a little at his absorption. But +chiefly she was thinking that she had never seen him look so +handsome ... with his brows knitted and his clear-cut lips pressed +sharply together ... but the boy of him somehow kept by that wilful +lock of black hair over his forehead. +</p> +<p> +To Billy it seemed that the bitterest drop of the cup was at his +lips. Those two—upon the pylon—were they never coming down? He was +waiting for them in every nerve, and yet he shrank from the look he +might read upon their faces. He thought, very grimly, that this +could mean but one thing, and that thing was the end forever and +ever, for him.... His heart was sick in him and he longed most +desperately to break away from these other women and the sham of +talk and dash off to dark solitude where the primitive man could +have his way, could tramp and fight and curse and sob and break his +heart in decent privacy. He faced with loathing the refinements of +torture which civilization imposes. +</p> +<p> +But the game had to be played. He was no quitter, he told himself +fiercely; he could stand up and take his punishment like a man. She +was not for him. He had loved her from the first, he had loved her +so that he had been clairvoyant to her peril, he had risked his neck +for her a dozen times and snatched her from a life that was a +death-in-life—and yet she was not for him. She was for a man who +had not believed in her danger, had not bestirred himself.... Black, +seething bitterness was boiling in Billy B. Hill. Darkly, through a +fog, he heard the outer man replying to some speech from the girl +beside him. +</p> +<p> +He understood, he told himself in a burst of despairing anguish, how +Kerissen could have plotted for her. Almost he longed to be a +scrupleless Oriental and carry her off across his saddle bow.... And +then he brought himself up short. +</p> +<p> +Was that all she meant to him, he asked himself with the sweat of +pain on his forehead beneath that black lock which was finding such +favor in Lady Claire's eyes—was that all she meant to him?—a prize +to be won? One man had tried to steal her; he had wished to <i>earn</i> +her—but she was a gift beyond all price and the giving lay in her +own heart alone.... And if Falconer was the man for her, then at +least he, Billy B. Hill, was man enough to stand up and be glad for +her and be humbly grateful to the end of his days that he had been +able to save her ... and give her her happiness. For it was really +he who had given it to her. And in that thought Billy Hill's young +heart expanded, and his soul stretched itself to such unwonted +heights that it seemed to push among the stars. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +"It is an unforgettable night," said the girl in the rose cloak. +</p> +<p> +He thought that was just the word for it, and a wryly humorous glint +was in the look he gave her. And he thought that she, too, was +playing the game mighty stanchly, and had been playing it bravely +these three days, since her conquering little rival had made her +reappearance. His heart warmed toward her in understanding and +compassion. They were comrades in affliction. He was not the only +one in the world who was not getting the heart's desire. +</p> +<p> +Aloud he answered, "And the last night for me." +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire looked up quickly. Her voice showed her struck with +sudden surprise. "You are going—so soon?" +</p> +<p> +"To-morrow." +</p> +<p> +"To Assouan?" Odd sharpness edged the question. +</p> +<p> +He waited a perceptible moment, though his resolution had been +taken. "Back to Cairo." +</p> +<p> +"Oh ... How long shall you be there?" +</p> +<p> +"Just till I get sailings. It's time for me to be off. I'm really a +working person, you know, not a playing one." +</p> +<p> +"You make bridges—and dams—and things, don't you?" she questioned +vaguely. +</p> +<p> +"Bridges—and dams—and things." +</p> +<p> +"Why don't you wait here for your sailings?" she asked impersonally +after another pause. "It's so <i>much</i> more attractive here than +Cairo." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to." He thought of next Friday—and Arlee's return—and +the masked ball. For a moment temptation urged. Then he threw back +his head with a gesture of decision. "But I can't. It's impossible." +</p> +<p> +Now Lady Claire did not know that he was thinking of next +Friday—and Arlee's return—and the masked ball. She only knew that +he spoke with a curious fierceness, and that his eyes were very +bright. And something in the girl, something strange and +acknowledged that had been so fitfully gay and light these three +days, quickened in mysterious excitement. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing is impossible," she gave back, "to a <i>man</i>!" +</p> +<p> +Billy thought she was resenting the conventions of the restricted +sex. She could not make any open advance toward Falconer while he, +as man, could make all the open advances to Arlee he was willing +to—but in this case his hands were tied. A man cannot inflict +himself upon a girl who may not feel herself free to reject him. He +laughed, with sorry ruefulness. +</p> +<p> +"There's a whole lot," he observed, "that is impossible to a man who +tries to be one," and then, oblivious of any construction she might +choose to put upon this cryptic utterance, he strolled moodily on, +in brooding silence. +</p> +<p> +After a pause, "Of course," said Lady Claire in so gentle a little +voice that it seemed to glide undisturbingly among his silent +meditations, "of course, a man has his—pride." +</p> +<p> +"I hope so," said the young man briefly. He understood her to be +probing for his reason for abandoning the chase; he understood that +for her own sake she would like to see him successful with Arlee, +and he was queerly sorry to be failing to help her there. But he had +done all that he could.... +</p> +<p> +The girl spoke again, her face straight ahead, her shadowy eyes +staring out into the moonlight. "Is it—money?" she said in the same +little breath of a voice. +</p> +<p> +"Money!" Billy threw back the words in surprise, half contemptuous, +"Oh, Lord, no, it's not <i>money</i>! I haven't much of it <i>now</i>, but I'm +going to make a bunch of the stuff—if I want to." He spoke with +naïve and amazing confidence which somehow struck astounded belief +into the listener. "There's enough of it there, waiting to be +made—no, it's not money—though perhaps one might well think it +ought to be. I suppose my work might strike a girl as hard for her," +he went on, considering aloud these problems of existence, "for it's +here to-day and there to-morrow—now doing a building in a roaring +city and now damming up some reservoir deep in the mountains—but it +always seemed to me that the girl who would like me would like that, +too. It's seeing so much of life—and such real life! Oh, no," he +said, and though a trace of doubt had struck into his voice, "that +in itself wouldn't be what I'd call impossible—not for the right +girl." +</p> +<p> +"But your work—would it always be in America?" said Lady Claire. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, always. It has to be, of course." +</p> +<p> +"Oh.... And—and—you—have to have—that work?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, of course, I have to have it!" Billy was bewildered, but +entirely positive. "That's <i>my</i> work—the thing I'm made to do. <i>I</i> +couldn't earn my salt selling apartment houses." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, no," the girl hurriedly agreed. +</p> +<p> +A long, long silence followed, a silence in which he was entirely +oblivious to her imaginings. The moonlight lay heavy as dreams about +them; her thoughts went darting to and fro like fluttering +swallows.... She felt herself a stranger to herself.... She looked +up at him with a sudden deer-like lift of her head, and then looked +swiftly away. +</p> +<p> +"Don't go," she said in a quick, low voice. "Don't go—yet. Even +things that look impossible—can be made to come right." +</p> +<p> +He understood that she was pleading with him, partly for the sake of +her own chance with Falconer, but the sympathy flicked him on the +raw. He was sorry for her, sorry for the queer, strained look in her +face, sorry for the voice so full of feeling, but he couldn't do +anything to help her. +</p> +<p> +In silence he shook his head and was astounded at the look of sudden +proud anger she darted at him. +</p> +<p> +"You're a mighty real friend to take such an interest in my luck," +he said quickly, with warm liking in his voice, "and I only wish you +could play fairy godmother and give me my wish—but you can't, Lady +Claire, and apparently <i>she</i> won't, and that is the end of the +matter. I have to take off my hat to the Better Man." +</p> +<p> +Lady Claire did not gasp or stammer or question. She did none of the +dismayedly enlightening things into which a lesser poise might have +tottered. After an inconsiderable moment of silence she merely +uttered her familiar, "Oh!" and uttered it in a voice in which so +many things were blended that their elements could hardly be +perceived. +</p> +<p> +She added hurriedly, "I'm sorry if I've seemed to—to intrude into +your affairs." +</p> +<p> +"My affairs are on my sleeve," answered Billy and wondered at the +quick look she gave him. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no—not at all," she answered a little breathlessly. "I'm sure +they haven't seemed so to me—but then I'm stupid." She stopped for +a moment of hot wonder at that stupidity. She had not believed Miss +Falconer—had thought her prejudiced ... maneuvering.... Like +lightning she reviewed the baffling interchange of sentences, then +glanced up at Billy's silent absorption. She felt queerly grateful +for his innocent density. "And perhaps <i>she's</i> stupid, too," she +told him. "You'd better make sure. You'd better make absolutely +<i>sure</i>." +</p> +<p> +He looked down on her with sorry humor in his face. "Do I need to +make <i>surer</i>?" He nodded in the direction of the giant gateway. +"They've had time to settle the divisions of the Balkans up there." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, yes, they've had time!" She seemed speaking at sudden laughing +random. "But <i>we've</i> had the same time and you see we haven't +settled anything with it—not even that you're to stay. Yes, you'd +better make <i>sure</i>, Mr. Hill." +</p> +<p> +Billy was hardly heeding. A laugh had caught his ears, a light high +laugh like the tinkle of a little silver bell through the darkness. +In the shadows behind them he made out a man and a woman arm in arm. +</p> +<p> +"Just a moment," he begged of Lady Claire. "May I leave you here a +moment? I must see those—I think I know——" Without listening to +her automatic permission he was gone. +</p> +<p> +The next moment he had laid his hand on the arm of the man with the +woman. Both spun quickly about. A babble of explanation broke out. +</p> +<p> +"<i>Ach, mein freund, mein freund</i>——" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it is Billy——" +</p> +<p> +"How <i>gut</i> to find you here——" +</p> +<p> +"Our American Billy." +</p> +<p> +The last voice, piquantly foreign, was the voice of Fritzi Baroff. +And the first voice gutterally foreign was the voice of Frederick +von Deigen. Arm in arm, flushed, happy, sentimental, the two began +talking in a breath, thanking Billy for the letter he had sent von +Deigen which had brought them together, and apologizing for their +hasty flight—"a honeymoon upon the Nile," the German joyfully +explained. +</p> +<p> +Discreetly Billy forbore to make any discoveries as to the exact +status of their "honeymoon." The German's face was very honestly +happy, and the little dancer was brimming with restless life and +vivacity. +</p> +<p> +"It was the picture in my watch—<i>hein</i>? The picture I carry night +and day," Frederick repeated in needless explanation, and was about +to draw out the picture when Billy restrained him. +</p> +<p> +He had a favor to ask. The American girl of Kerissen's palace had +escaped unharmed and returned to her friends who were ignorant of +all. She was this moment in the ruins. It would be a great shock to +her to meet Fritzi, to have Fritzi recognize her. On the morning she +would be gone. Would Fritzi——" +</p> +<p> +"Fritzi must disappear—for the night?" said the little Viennese +smiling wisely, but with a trace of cynicism. "The little American +must not be reminded—h'm? We will go.... For you have done so much +for me, you big, strange, platonic Mr. Billy!" Dazzlingly she smiled +on him, her dark eyes quizzically provocative. +</p> +<p> +"You're not at the Grand?" +</p> +<p> +"No, not that." She named another. "You come see me, when that girl +goes—h'm?" +</p> +<p> +Billy caught the German's eyes upon him, in their depths a faint +trouble, a vague appeal. He comprehended that the infatuated young +man had engaged in the tortuous business of keeping sparks from +tinder. +</p> +<p> +"I'm gone to-morrow," he replied. +</p> +<p> +"Maybe in Vienna?" went on the dancer. "We go soon—another day or +so maybe—and then back over the water to that life I left! Oh, my +God, how happy I am to go back to it all—to dance, to sing—Oh, I +could kiss you, Mr. Billy, if it would not make you so shock!" she +added with a malicious little laugh. "You know the news—about +<i>him</i>—h'm?" +</p> +<p> +"Him?" +</p> +<p> +"Kerissen—that devil fellow. He is in Cairo with a fever—in the +hospital there. A man who come from that hospital just tells +us—just by accident he tell us. A <i>bad</i> fever, too!" She laughed in +satisfaction. "I hope he burn good and hard up," she added, with +energetic spite, "and teach him not to act like a wild man. That man +say he got a bad hand," she added, with a shrewd glance at Billy. +</p> +<p> +The young man merely grunted. "I hope he has," he replied. "It +matches the rest of him. Good night." +</p> +<p> +"Good night—for the now—h'm, Mr. Billy?" and with a quick little +clasp of his big hand and a gay little backward look the girl was +gone into the shadows upon the arm of her jealous cavalier. +</p> +<p> +Three people were waiting at the statue foot where he had left the +English girl. +</p> +<p> +"They've come at last, Mr. Hill," Lady Claire's voice struck very +gaily upon him, "and Miss Falconer has just come to tell us we must +see the colored lights in the great court—and then go home. So +hurry!" +</p> +<p> +She turned as she spoke and put her arm suddenly through Falconer's +who was standing next her. "Come on," she lightly commanded, and +promptly led the way. +</p> +<p> +That was something like a fairy godmother! Into Billy's eyes flashed +a warm light of gladness. Some moments out of that wretched evening +should yet be his own, bitter-sweet as they were in their sharp +finality. +</p> +<p> +He turned to the blue-cloaked figure at his side. "Do you like +colored fire?" he demanded. "Won't you come and see something +else—something I've wanted to see and to have you see with me? It's +near the way out. We can meet them at the pylon." +</p> +<p> +Of course she acquiesced. That was part of the cursed restraint +between them, he was reminded, to have her accept so obediently any +point-blank request of his. But for the nonce he was glad. He wanted +those few minutes desperately. +</p> +<p> +"What is it?" she murmured. +</p> +<p> +"I'll show you," and then, as he turned from the way they had come +and followed a winding path that dipped lower and lower between the +dune-like piles of sand, "It's the Sacred Lake," he explained. +"Perhaps you've seen it in the daytime—but I've been wanting to see +it at night." +</p> +<p> +"I think I just caught the glint of it from the pylon," she +observed. +</p> +<p> +"You had time to," said Billy, trying to twinkle down at her in +friendly fashion. +</p> +<p> +She did not twinkle back. She looked as suddenly guilty as a kitten +in the cream, and Billy's heart smote him heavily. He did not speak +again till they had rounded a corner and their path had brought them +out upon the shore of the Sacred Lake. +</p> +<p> +Like a little horseshoe it circled about three sides of the ruined +temple of the goddess Mut, inky-black and motionless with the stars +looking up uncannily like drowned lights from its still waters, and +inky-black and motionless, like guardian spirits about it, sat a +hundred cat-headed women of grim granite. It was a spot of stark +loneliness and utter silence, of ancient terror and desolate +abandonment; the solitude and the blackness and the aching age smote +upon the imagination like a heavy hand upon harp strings. +</p> +<p> +"Who are—they?" Arlee spoke in a hushed voice, as if the cat-headed +women were straining their ears. +</p> +<p> +"They're mysteries," said Billy, speaking in the same low tone. +"Generally they're said to be statues of the Goddess Pasht or +Sehket—but it's a riddle why the Amen-hotep person who built this +temple to the goddess Mut should have put Sehket here. Sehket is in +the trinity of Memphis—and Mut in that of Thebes. And so some +people say that this is not Pasht at all, but Mut herself, who was +sometimes represented as lion-headed. Between a giant cat and a +lion, you know, there's not much of difference." +</p> +<p> +"I like Pasht better than Mut," said Arlee decidedly. +</p> +<p> +"There you agree with Baedecker." +</p> +<p> +"What did Pasht do?" +</p> +<p> +"She was goddess of girls," said Billy, "and young wives. She got +the girls husbands and the wives—er—their requests. Girls used to +come down here at night and make a prayer to her and cast an +offering into the waters." +</p> +<p> +"And then they had their prayer?" +</p> +<p> +"Infallibly." +</p> +<p> +"I'd like a guardian like that," said Arlee, with a sudden +mischievous wistfulness that played the dickens with Billy's forces +of reserve. "Do you think she'd grant <i>my</i> prayer?" +</p> +<p> +"Have you one to make?" said Billy, staring very hard for safety at +the monstrous images. +</p> +<p> +"They look as if they were coming alive," he added. +</p> +<p> +The moon had come up over an obstructing roof and now flashed down +upon them; a ripple of light began to swim across the star-eyes in +the inky waters; a finger of quicksilver seemed to be playing over +the scarred faces of the granite goddesses. +</p> +<p> +"They never died," said Arlee positively. "They're just waiting +their time. Can't you see they know all about us?... They +particularly know that you are the most deceiving young man they +ever saw! Why didn't you tell me you were shot in the arm?" she +finished rapidly. +</p> +<p> +"What?... Where did you hear that?" +</p> +<p> +"Mr. Falconer enlightened me." +</p> +<p> +"I wish Falconer would keep his stories to himself," said Billy +ungratefully. "It's just a——" +</p> +<p> +"Scratch," said Arlee promptly. "That's always a hero's word for +it." +</p> +<p> +Billy turned scarlet. He felt hot back to his ears. +</p> +<p> +"And why did you tell me that you <i>happened</i> to be painting outside +the palace?" went on the unsparing voice. "You let me think it was +all accident—and it was all you, just <i>you</i>!" +</p> +<p> +"Good Lord," groaned Billy, effecting merriment over his +discomfiture, "Is there anything else he told you?... Look here, you +shouldn't have been talking about it," he said with sudden anxiety. +</p> +<p> +Arlee smiled. "It's all over," she said. "I told him everything." +</p> +<p> +Billy's heart missed a beat, and then hurried painfully to make up +for it. He felt a curious constriction in his throat. He tried to +think of something congratulatory to say and was lamentably silent. +</p> +<p> +"Why did you deceive me so?" she continued mercilessly. "Because my +gratitude was so <i>obnoxious</i> to you? Were you so afraid I would +insist upon flinging more upon you?" +</p> +<p> +"That's a horrid word, obnoxious," said Billy painfully. +</p> +<p> +"I thought so," thrust in a pointed voice. +</p> +<p> +"I only meant," he slowly made out, "that a sense of—of obligation +is a stupid burden—and I didn't want you to feel you had to be any +more friendly to me than your heart dictated. That is all. It was +enough for me to remember that I had once been privileged to help +you." +</p> +<p> +"You—funny—Billy B. Hill person," said the voice in a very serious +tone. Billy continued staring at the unwinking old goddess ahead of +him. "You take it all so for granted," laughed Arlee softly, "As if +it were part of any day's work! I go about like a girl in a +dream—or a girl <i>with</i> a dream ... a dream of fear, of old palaces +and painted women and darkened windows. It comes over me at night +sometimes. And then I wake and could go down on my knees to you.... +I suppose there isn't any more danger from him?" she broke off to +half-whisper quickly. +</p> +<p> +"He's sick in the Cairo hospital," Billy made haste to inform her. +"I found out by accident. I understand he has a bad fever. So I +think he'll be up to no more tricks—and I'm out the satisfaction +of a little heart-to-heart talk." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, I told you you couldn't," she cried quickly. "You would make +him too angry. He isn't just—sane." +</p> +<p> +"Then all I have to do in Egypt is to hunt up my little Imp," said +Billy. "I must see the little chap again—before I go." +</p> +<p> +He waited—uselessly as he had foretold. She said nothing, and if +the glance he felt upon him was of inquiry he did not look about to +meet it. He was still staring a saturnine Pasht out of countenance. +There was a pause. +</p> +<p> +Then, "However were you able to think of it all?" said Arlee in slow +wonder. "However were you able to think such an impossible thought +as my imprisonment?" +</p> +<p> +"Because I was thinking about you," said Billy. Suddenly his tongue +ran away with him. "Incessantly," he added. +</p> +<p> +She looked up at him. Unguardedly he looked down at her. No one but +a blind girl or a goose could have mistaken that look upon Billy B. +Hill's young face, the frustrate longing of it, the deep desire. The +heart beneath the sky-blue cloak cast off a most monstrous +accumulation of doubts and fears and began suddenly to beat like +mad. +</p> +<p> +Totally unexpectedly, startlingly amazing, she flung out at him, +"Then what made you stop?" +</p> +<p> +"Stop?" he echoed. "Stop? I've never stopped! There hasn't been a +moment——" +</p> +<p> +"There have been three days. Three—horrible—days!" +</p> +<p> +"Arlee!" +</p> +<p> +"Do you think I <i>like</i> being snubbed and ignored +and—and—obliterated?" she brought indignantly out. "Do you think I +call that—being friends?" +</p> +<p> +"I—I wanted to leave you free—not to force your friendship——" he +stammered wildly. +</p> +<p> +"You couldn't force <i>mine</i>," said Arlee Beecher. +</p> +<p> +"But—but there was Falconer," he protested. "You had to be free +to—to have a choice——" +</p> +<p> +"A choice? Do you call that a <i>choice</i>?" +</p> +<p> +"I thought you were making it. That first night——" +</p> +<p> +"I stayed up to dance with <i>you</i>," she cried hotly. "You never came +back!" +</p> +<p> +"But the next day——" +</p> +<p> +"I <i>wanted</i> to go. But I couldn't keep up any more. I <i>had</i> to +rest.... And you went with Lady Claire!" +</p> +<p> +"Why, I had to! We'd planned. But when we came back, he was on deck +with you——" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and I was waiting up—to see <i>you</i>. And you only took two +dances that night——" +</p> +<p> +"You didn't seem to want me to——" +</p> +<p> +"I never guessed you wanted them! <i>I</i> had my pride, too. I wasn't +going to be in the way—because you'd rescued me. I thought you +didn't want me in the way!" +</p> +<p> +"Arlee—my girl—my precious girl——" +</p> +<p> +"No, I'm not. I'm not." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, you are," he said fiercely. "I don't care if you are engaged +to Falconer or not, I'm going to tell you so." +</p> +<p> +"I'm not engaged to Falconer," she protested. +</p> +<p> +He blurted in bewilderment. "Then what in the world were you doing +up there on that pylon?" +</p> +<p> +Her elfish laughter disconcerted him. "Do you think one has to get +engaged if she stays on a pylon?... We were getting <i>not</i> engaged." +</p> +<p> +"I thought—I thought you liked him," he said bewilderedly. +</p> +<p> +"I did. I do, I mean—but not that way. He—he—Oh, I really <i>like</i> +him," she cried tremulously, "but not—we've had it all out and +everything's all over. I'm sorry—sorry—but he'll be really glad +bye and bye. For my story shocked him terribly.... And then there's +Lady Claire. He didn't like to have her down with you even when he +was up with me." She laughed softly. "Oh, I shouldn't have let him +be so friendly here but I did like him and you—you were so—so +hateful." +</p> +<p> +The moon and stars whirled giddily around him as he put his arms +about her. Like a man in a dream he drew her to him. +</p> +<p> +"I love you—love you," he said huskily over the bright maze of +hair. +</p> +<p> +"You don't!" came with muffled intensity from the hidden lips. "You +said to that man—when I was in that cave—'Nothing doing!'" +</p> +<p> +"It wasn't his affair—I hadn't a hope.... Oh, my dear, my dear, +I've been breaking my heart——" +</p> +<p> +"And I've had such a perfectly h-hateful three days," sobbed the +voice. +</p> +<p> +His arms closed tighter about her, incredible of their happiness. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Arlee, I can't tell you—I haven't words——" +</p> +<p> +"I've had <i>deeds</i>!" she whispered. +</p> +<p> +Through his rocking mind darted a memory of her earlier speech to +him. "You said you didn't want words. Arlee—<i>will you</i>?" +</p> +<p> +She flung back her head and looked up at him, her face a flower, her +eyes like stars tangled in the bright mist of her hair. +</p> +<p> +"Billy, what's your middle name?" +</p> +<p> +"Bunker.... I can't help it, dear. They wished it on me and asked me +not to let it go. But <i>Bunker Hill</i>——!" +</p> +<p> +"It's a wonderful name, Billy! A perfectly irresistible name!" Her +eyes laughed up at him through a dazzle of tears, and prankishly +over her curving lips hovered a mischievous dimple. "It's a +name—that—I—simply—can't—do—without—Billy Bunker Hill!" +</p> +<p> +The dimple deepened then fled before its just deserts. For if ever a +dimple deserved to be caught and kissed that was the one. +</p> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace of Darkened Windows +by Mary Hastings Bradley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 16054-h.htm or 16054-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16054/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Palace of Darkened Windows + +Author: Mary Hastings Bradley + +Illustrator: Edmund Frederick + +Release Date: June 13, 2005 [EBook #16054] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + +The PALACE of DARKENED WINDOWS + +By +MARY HASTINGS BRADLEY + +AUTHOR OF "THE FAVOR OF KINGS" + + +ILLUSTRATED BY EDMUND FREDERICK + + +NEW YORK AND LONDON +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY +1914 + + + [Frontispiece illustration: "'It is no use,' he repeated. + 'There is no way out for you.'" (Chapter IV)] + + + +TO +MY HUSBAND + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + I. THE EAVESDROPPER + II. THE CAPTAIN CALLS + III. AT THE PALACE + IV. A SORRY QUEST + V. WITHIN THE WALLS + VI. A GIRL IN THE BAZAARS + VII. BILLY HAS HIS DOUBTS + VIII. THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR + IX. A DESPERATE GAME + X. A MAID AND A MESSAGE + XI. OVER THE GARDEN WALL + XII. THE GIRL FROM THE HAREM + XIII. TAKING CHANCES + XIV. IN THE ROSE ROOM + XV. ON THE TRAIL + XVI. THE HIDDEN GIRL + XVII. AT BAY + XVIII. DESERT MAGIC + XIX. THE PURSUIT + XX. A FRIEND IN NEED + XXI. CROSS PURPOSES + XXII. UPON THE PYLON + XXIII. THE BETTER MAN + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out for you'" + _Frontispiece_ + +"'I do not want to stay here'" + +"He found himself staring down into the bright dark eyes of a girl + he had never seen" + +"Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out" + + + + +THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EAVESDROPPER + + +A one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile upon his head paused before +the steps of Cairo's gayest hotel and his expectant gaze ranged +hopefully over the thronged verandas. It was afternoon tea time; the +band was playing and the crowd was at its thickest and brightest. +The little tables were surrounded by travelers of all nations, some +in tourist tweeds and hats with the inevitable green veils; others, +those of more leisurely sojourns, in white serges and diaphanous +frocks and flighty hats fresh from the Rue de la Paix. + +It was the tweed-clad groups that the crocodile vender scanned for a +purchaser of his wares and harshly and unintelligibly exhorted to +buy, but no answering gaze betokened the least desire to bring back +a crocodile to the loved ones at home. Only Billy B. Hill grinned +delightedly at him, as Billy grinned at every merry sight of the +spectacular East, and Billy shook his head with cheerful +convincingosity, so the crocodile merchant moved reluctantly on +before the importunities of the Oriental rug peddler at his heels. + +Then he stopped. His turbaned head, topped by the grotesque, +glassy-eyed, glistening-toothed monster, revolved slowly as the +Arab's single eye steadily followed a couple who passed by him up +the hotel steps. Billy, struck by the man's intense interest, craned +forward and saw that one of the couple, now exchanging farewells at +the top of the steps, was a girl, a pretty girl, and an American, +and the other was an officer in a uniform of considerable green and +gold, and obviously a foreigner. + +He might be any kind of a foreigner, according to Billy's lax +distinctions, that was olive of complexion and very black of hair +and eyes. Slender and of medium height, he carried himself with an +assurance that bordered upon effrontery, and as he bowed himself +down the steps he flashed upon his former companion a smile of +triumph that included and seemed to challenge the verandaful of +observers. + +The girl turned and glanced casually about at the crowded groups +that were like little samples of all the nations of the earth, and +with no more than a faint awareness of the battery of eyes upon her +she passed toward the tables by the railing. She was a slim little +fairy of a girl, as fresh as a peach blossom, with a cloud of pale +gold hair fluttering round her pretty face, which lent her a most +alluring and deceptive appearance of ethereal mildness. She had a +soft, satiny, rose-leaf skin which was merely flushed by the heat of +the Egyptian day, and her eyes were big and very, very blue. There +were touches of that blue here and there upon her creamy linen suit, +and a knot of blue upon her parasol and a twist of blue about her +Panama hat, so that she could not be held unconscious of the +flagrantly bewitching effect. Altogether she was as upsettingly +pretty a young person as could be seen in a year's journey, and the +glances of the beholders brightened vividly at her approach. + +There was one conspicuous exception. This exception was sitting +alone at the large table which backed Billy's tiny table into a +corner by the railing, and as the girl arrived at that large table +the exception arose and greeted her with an air of glacial chill. + +"Oh! Am I so terribly late?" said the girl with great pleasantness, +and arched brows of surprise at the two other places at the table +before which used tea things were standing. + +"My sister and Lady Claire had an appointment, so they were obliged +to have their tea and leave," stated the young man, with an air of +politely endeavoring to conceal his feelings, and failing +conspicuously in the endeavor. "They were most sorry." + +"Oh, so am I!" declared the girl, in clear and contrite tones which +carried perfectly to Billy B. Hill's enchanted ears. "I never +dreamed they would have to hurry away." + +"They did not hurry, as you call it," and the young man glanced at +his watch, "for nearly an hour. It was a disappointment to them." + +"Pin-pate!" thought Billy, with intense disgust. "Is he kicking at a +two-some?" + +"And have you had your tea, too?" inquired the girl, with an air of +tantalizing unconcern. + +"I waited, naturally, for my guest." + +"Oh, not _naturally_!" she laughed. "It must be very unnatural for +you to wait for anything. And you must be starving. So am I--do you +think there are enough cakes left for the two of us?" + +Without directly replying, the young man gave the order to the +red-fezzed Arab in a red-girdled white robe who was removing the +soiled tea things, and he assisted the girl into a chair and sat +down facing her. Their profiles were given to the shameless Billy, +and he continued his rapt observations. + +He had immediately recognized the girl as a vision he had seen +fluttering around the hotel with an incongruously dismal +couple of unyouthful ladies, and he had mentally affixed a +magnate's-only-daughter-globe-trotting-with-elderly-friends label to +her. + +The young man he could not place so definitely. There were a good +many tall, aristocratic young Englishmen about, with slight stoops +and incipient moustaches. This particular Englishman had hair that +was pronouncedly sandy, and Billy suddenly recollected that in +lunching at the Savoy the other day he had noticed that young +Englishman in company with a sandy-haired lady, not so young, and a +decidedly pretty dark-haired girl--it was the girl, of course, who +had fixed the group in Billy's crowded impressions. He decided that +these ladies were the sister and Lady Claire--and Lady Claire, he +judiciously concluded, certainly had nothing on young America. + +Young America was speaking. "Don't look so thunderous!" she +complained to her irate host. "How do you know I didn't plan to be +late so as to have you all to myself?" + +This was too derisive for endurance. A dull red burned through the +tan on the young Englishman's cheeks and crept up to meet the +corresponding warmth of his hair. A leash within him snapped. + +"It is simply inconceivable!" burst from him, and then he shut his +jaw hard, as if only one last remnant of will power kept a seething +volcano, from explosion. + +"What is?" + +"How any girl--in Cairo, of all places!" he continued to explode in +little snorts. + +"You are speaking of--?" she suggested. + +"Of your walking with that fellow--in broad daylight!" + +"Would it have been better in the gloaming?" + +The sweet restraint in the young thing's manner was supernatural. It +was uncanny. It should have warned the red-headed young man, but +oblivious of danger signals, he was plunging on, full steam ahead. + +"It isn't as if you didn't know--hadn't been warned." + +"You have been so kind," the girl murmured, and poured a cup of tea +the Arab had placed at her elbow. + +The young man ignored his. The color burned hotter and hotter in his +face. Even his hair looked redder. + +"The look he gave up here was simply outrageous--a grin of insolent +triumph. I'd like to have laid my cane across him!" + +The girl's cup clicked against the saucer. "You are horrid!" she +declared. "When we were on shipboard Captain Kerissen was very +popular among the passengers and I talked with him whenever I cared +to. Everyone did. Now that I am in his native city I see no reason +to stalk past him when we happen to be going in the same direction. +He is a gentleman of rank, a relative of the Khedive who is ruling +this country--under your English advice--and he is----" + +"A Turk!" gritted out the young man. + +"A Turk and proud of it! His mother was French, however, and he was +educated at Oxford and he is as cosmopolitan as any man I ever met. +It's unusual to meet anyone so close to the reigning family, and it +gives one a wonderful insight into things off the beaten track----" + +"The beaten--damn!" said the young man, and Billy's heart went out +to him. "Oh, I beg pardon, but you--he--I--" So many things occurred +to him to say at one and the same time that he emitted a snort of +warring and incoherent syllables. Finally, with supreme control, "Do +you know that your 'gentleman of rank' couldn't set foot in a +gentleman's club in this country?" + +"I think it's _mean_!" retorted the girl, her blue eyes very bright +and indignant. "You English come here and look down on even the +highest members of the country you are pretending to assist. Why do +you? When he was at Oxford he went into your English homes." + +"English madhouses--for admitting him." + +A brief silence ensued. + +The girl ate a cake. It was a nice cake, powdered with almonds, but +she ate it obliviously. The angry red shone rosily in her cheeks. + +The young man took a hasty drink of his tea, which had grown cold +in its cup, and pushed it away. Obstinately he rushed on in his mad +career. + +"I simply cannot understand you!" he declared. + +"Does it matter?" said she, and bit an almond's head off. + +"It would be bad enough, in any city, but in Cairo--! To permit him +to insult you with his company, alone, upon the streets!" + +"When you have said insult you have said a little too much," she +returned in a small, cold voice of war. "Is there anything against +Captain Kerissen personally?" + +"Who knows anything about any of those fellows? They are all +alike--with half a dozen wives locked up behind their barred +windows." + +"He isn't married." + +"How do you know?" + +"I--inferred it." + +The Englishman snorted: "According to his custom, you know, it isn't +the proper thing to mention his ladies in public." + +"You are frightfully unjust. Captain Kerissen's customs are the +customs of the civilized world, and he is very anxious to have his +country become modernized." + +"Then let him send his sisters out walking with fellow officers.... +For _him_ to walk beside _you_----" + +"He was following the custom of my country," said the girl, with +maddening superiority. "Since I am an _American_ girl----" + +The young Englishman said a horrible thing. He said it with immense +feeling. + +"American goose!" he uttered, then stopped short. Precipitately he +floundered into explanation: + +"I beg your pardon, but, you know, when you say such bally nonsense +as that--! An American girl has no more business to be imprudent +than a Patagonian girl. You have no idea how these people +regard----" + +"Oh, don't apologize," murmured the girl, with charming sweetness. +"I don't mind what you say--not in the least." + +The outraged man was not so befuddled but what he saw those danger +signals now. They glimmered scarlet upon his vision, but his blood +was up and he plunged on to destruction with the extraordinary +remark, "But isn't there a reason why you should?" + +She gazed at him in mock reflection, as if mulling this striking +thought presented for her consideration, but her eyes were too +sparkly and her cheeks too poppy-pink to substantiate the reflective +pose. + +"N-no," she said at last, with an impertinent little drawl. "I can't +seem to think of any." + +He did not pause for innuendo. "You mean you don't give a _piastre_ +what I think?" + +"Not half a _piastre_," she confirmed, in flat defiance. + +The young man looked at her. He was over the brink of ruin now; +nothing remained of the interesting little affair of the past three +weeks but a mangled and lamentable wreck at the bottom of a deep +abyss. + +Perhaps a shaft of compunction touched her flinty soul at the sight +of his aghast and speechless face, for she had the grace to look +away. Her gaze encountered the absorbed and excited countenance of +Billy B. Hill, and the poppy-pink of her cheeks became poppy-red +and she turned her head sharply away. She rose, catching up her +gloves and parasol. + +"Thank you so much for your tea," she said in a lowered tone to her +unfortunate host. "I've had a delicious time.... I'm sorry if I +disappointed you by not cowering before your disapproval. Oh, don't +bother to come in with me--I know my way to the lift and the band is +going to play God Save the King and they need you to stand up and +make a showing." + +Billy B. Hill stared across at the abandoned young man with supreme +sympathy and intimate understanding. He was a nice and right-minded +young man and she was an utter minx. She was the daughter of +unreason and the granddaughter of folly. She needed, emphatically +needed, to be shown. But this Englishman, with his harsh and +violently antagonizing way of putting things, was clearly not the +man for the need. It took a lighter touch--the hand of iron in the +velvet glove, as it were. It took a keener spirit, a softer humor. + +Billy threw out his chest and drew himself up to his full five feet +eleven and one-half inches, as he passed indoors and sought the +hotel register, for he felt within himself the true equipment for +that delicate mission. He fairly panted to be at it. + +Fate was amiable. The hotel clerk, coerced with a couple of +gold-banded ones with the real fragrance, permitted Billy to learn +that the blue-eyed one's name was Beecher, Arlee Beecher, and that +she was in the company of two ladies entitled Mrs. and Miss +Eversham. The Miss Eversham was quite old enough to be entitled +otherwise. They were occupied, the clerk reported, with nerves and +dissatisfaction. Miss Beecher appeared occupied in part--with a +correspondence that would swamp a foreign office. + + * * * * * + +Now it is always a question whether being at the same hotel does or +does not constitute an introduction. Sometimes it does; sometimes it +does not. When the hotel is a small and inexpensive arrangement in +Switzerland, where the advertised view of the Alpengluehen is +obtained by placing the chairs in a sociable circle on the sidewalk, +then usually it does. When the hotel is a large and expensive affair +in gayest Cairo, where the sunny and shady side rub elbows, and +gamesters and debutantes and touts and school teachers and vivid +ladies of conspicuous pasts and stout gentlemen of exhilarated +presents abound, in fact where innocent sightseers and initiated +traffickers in human frailties are often indistinguishable, then +decidedly it does not. + +But fate, still smiling, dropped a silver shawl in Billy's path as +he was trailing his prey through the lounge after dinner. The shawl +belonged, most palpably, to a German lady three feet ahead of him, +but gripping it triumphantly, he bounded over the six feet which +separated him from the Eversham-Beecher triangle and with marvelous +self-restraint he touched Miss Eversham on the arm. + +"You dropped this?" he inquired. + +Miss Eversham looked surprisedly at Billy and uncertainly at the +shawl, which she mechanically accepted. "Why I--I didn't remember +having it with me," she hesitated. + +"I noticed you were wearing one other evenings," said Billy, the +Artful, "so I thought----" + +"You know whether this is yours or not, don't you, Clara?" +interposed the mother. + +"They all look alike," murmured Clara Eversham, eying helplessly the +silver border. + +Billy permitted himself to look at Miss Beecher. That young person +was looking at him and there was a disconcerting gaiety in her +expression, but at sight of him she turned her head, faintly +coloring. He judged she recalled his unmannerly eavesdropping that +afternoon. + +"Pardon--excuse me--but that is to me belonging," panted an agitated +but firm voice behind them, and two stout and beringed hands seized +upon the glittering shawl in Miss Eversham's lax grasp. "It but just +now off me falls," and the German lady looked belligerent accusation +upon the defrauding Billy. + +There was a round of apologetic murmurs, unacknowledged by the +recipient, who plunged away with her shawl, as if fearing further +designs upon it. Billy laughed down at the Evershams. + +"I feel like a porch climber making off with her belongings. But I +had seen you with----" + +"I do think I had mine this evening, after all," murmured Clara, +with a questioning glance after the departing one. + +"An uncultured person!" stated Mrs. Eversham. + +Miss Beecher said nothing at all. Her faint smile was mockingly +derisive. + +"Anyway you must let me get you some coffee," Billy most +inconsequentially suggested, beckoning to the red-girdled Mohammed +with his laden tray, and because he was young and nice looking and +evidently a gentleman from their part of the world and his evening +clothes fitted perfectly and had just the right amount of braid, +Mrs. Eversham made no objection to the circle of chairs he hastily +collected about a taborette, and let him hand them their coffee and +send Mohammed for the cream which Miss Eversham declared was +indispensable for her health. + +"If I take it clear I find it keeps me awake," she confided, and +Billy deplored that startling and lamentable circumstance, and +passed Mrs. Eversham the sugar and wondered if they could be the +Philadelphia Evershams of whom he had heard his mother speak, and +regretted that they were not, for then they would know who he +was--William B. Hill of Alatoona, New York. He found it rather +stupid traveling alone. Of course one met many Americans, but---- + +Mrs. Eversham took up that "but" most eagerly, and recounted +multiple and deplorable instances of nasal countrywomen doing the +East and monopolizing the window seats in compartments, and Miss +Eversham supplied details and corrections. + +Still Miss Beecher said nothing. She had a dreamy air of not +belonging to the conversationalists. But from an inscrutable +something in her appearance, Billy judged she was not unentertained +by his sufferings. + +At the first pause he addressed her directly. "And how do you like +Cairo?" was his simple question. That ought, he reflected, to be an +entering wedge. + +The young lady did not trouble to raise her eyes. "Oh, very much," +said she negligently, sipping her coffee. + +"Oh, very well!" said Billy haughtily to himself. If being her +fellow countryman in a strange land, and obviously a young and +cultivated countryman whom it would be a profit and pleasure for any +girl to know, wasn't enough for her--what was the use? He ought to +get up and go away. He intended to get up and go away--immediately. + +But he didn't. Perhaps it was the shimmery gold hair, perhaps it was +the flickering mischief of the downcast lashes, perhaps it was the +loveliness of the soft, white throat and slenderly rounded arms. +Anyway he stayed. And when the strain of waltz music sounded through +the chatter of voices about them and young couples began to stroll +to the long parlors, Billy jumped to his feet with a devastating +desire that totally ignored the interminable wanderings of Clara +Eversham's complaints. + +"Will you dance this with me?" he besought of Miss Arlee Beecher, +with a direct gaze more boyishly eager than he knew. + +For an agonizing moment she hesitated. Then, "I think I will," she +concluded, with sudden roguery in her smile. + +Stammering a farewell to the Evershams, he bore her off. + +It would be useless to describe that waltz. It was one of the +ecstatic moments which Young Joy sometimes tosses from her garlanded +arms. It was one of the sudden, vivid, unforgettable delights which +makes youth a fever and a desire. For Billy it was the wildest stab +the sex had ever dealt him. For though this was perhaps the nine +thousand nine hundred and ninety-ninth girl with whom he had danced, +it was as if he had discovered music and motion and girls for the +first time. + +The music left them by the windows. + +"Thank you," said Billy under his breath. + +"You didn't deserve it," said the girl, with a faint smile playing +about the corners of her lips. "You know you stared--scandalously." + +Grateful that she mentioned only the lesser sin, "Could I help it?" +he stammered, by way of a finished retort. + +The smile deepened, "And I'm afraid you listened!" + +He stared down at her anxiously. "Will you like me better if I +didn't?" he inquired. + +"I shan't like you at all if you did." + +"Then I didn't hear a word.... Besides," he basely uttered, "you +were entirely in the right!" + +"I should think I was!" said Arlee Beecher very indignantly. "The +very notion--! Captain Kerissen is a very nice young man. He is +going to get me an invitation to the Khedive's ball." + +"Is that a very crumby affair?" + +"Crumby? It's simply gorgeous! Everyone is mad over it. Most +tourists simply read about it, and it is too perfect luck to be +invited! Only the English who have been presented at court are +invited and there's a girl at the Savoy Hotel I've met--Lady Claire +Montfort--who wasn't presented because she was in mourning for her +grandmother last year, and she is simply furious about it. An old +dowager here said that there ought to be similar distinctions among +the Americans--that only those who had been presented at the White +House ought to be recognized. Fancy making the White House a social +distinction!" laughed the daughter of the Great Republic. + +"I wonder," said Billy, "if I met a nice Turkish lady, whether she +would get me an invitation? Then we could have another waltz----" + +"There aren't any Turkish ladies there," uttered Miss Beecher +rebukingly. "Don't you know that? When they are on the +Continent--those that are ever taken there--they may go to dances +and things, but here they can't, although some of them are just as +modern as you or I, I've heard, and lots more educated." + +"You speak," he protested, "from a superficial acquaintance with my +academic accomplishments." + +"Are you so very--proficient?" + +"I was--I am Phi Beta Kappa," he sadly confessed. + +Her laugh rippled out. "You don't look it," she cheered. + +"Oh, no, I don't look it," he complacently agreed. "That's the lamp +in the gloom. But I am. I couldn't help it. I was curious about +things and I studied about them and faculties pressed honors upon +me. I am even here upon a semi-learned errand. I wanted to have a +look at the diggings a friend of mine is making at Thebes and +several looks at the dam at Assouan, for I am by way of being an +engineer myself--a beginning engineer." + +"You have been up the Nile, then?" + +"Yes, I'm just back. Now I'm going to see something of Cairo before +I leave." + +"We start up the Nile day after to-morrow," said she. + +"The day after--" he stopped. + +'Twas ever thus. Fate never did one good turn but she sneaked back +and jabbed him unawares. She was a tricksy jade. + +"That's--that's gloomy luck," said Billy, and felt outraged. "Why, +how about that Khedive ball thing?" + +"Oh, that's when we come back." + +She was coming back, then. Hope lifted her head. + +"When will that be?" + +"In three weeks. It takes about three weeks to go up to the first +cataract and back, doesn't it?" + +"Yes, by boat," he said, adding hopefully, "but lots of people like +the express trains better. They--they don't keep you so long on the +way." + +"Oh, I hate trains," said she cheerfully. + +Three weeks ... Ruefully he surveyed the desolation. "I ought to be +gone by then," he muttered. + +A trifle startled, the girl looked up at him. As he was not looking +at her, but staring moodily into what was then black vacancy, her +look lingered and deepened. She saw a most bronzed and hardy looking +young man, tall and broad-shouldered, with gray eyes, wide apart +under straight black brows, and black hair brushed straight back +from a wide forehead. She saw a rugged nose, a likeable mouth, and +an abrupt and aggressive chin, saved somehow from grimness by a deep +cleft in the blunt end of it.... She thought he was a very +_stirring_ looking young man. Undoubtedly he was a very sudden +young man--if he meant one bit of what he intimated. + +Feminine-wise, she mocked. + +"What a calamity!" + +"Yes, for me," said Billy squarely. "You know it's--it's awfully +jolly to meet a girl from home out here!" + +"A girl from _home_----!" + +"Well, all America seems home from this place. And I shouldn't be +surprised if we knew a lot of the same people ... You can get a good +line on me that way, you know," he laughed. "Now I went to Williams +and then to Boston Tech., and there must be acquaintances----" + +"Don't!" said Arlee, with a laughing gesture of prohibition. "We +probably have thousands of the same acquaintances, and you would +turn out to be some one I knew everything about--perhaps the first +fiance of my roommate whose letters I used to help her answer." + +"Where did you go to school?" + +"At Elm Court School, near New York. For just a year." + +He shook his head with an air of relief. "Never was engaged to +anybody's roommate there.... But if you'd rather not have my +background painted----" + +"_Much_ rather not," said the girl gaily. "Why, half the romance, I +mean the fun, of meeting people abroad is _not_ knowing anything +about them beforehand." + +The music was beginning again. Unwillingly the remembrance of the +outer world beat back into Billy's mind. Unhappily he became aware +that the room appeared blackened with young men in evening clothes, +staring ominously his way. + +Squarely he stood in front of the girl. "I think this is the encore +to our dance," he told her with a little smile. + +She shook her pretty head laughingly at him--and then yielded to his +clasping hands. "But we must dance back to the Evershams," she +demurred. "It is time for us to go to our concert." + +But Billy had no intention of relinquishing her before the music +ceased. It was a one step, and it carried them with it in a gaiety +of rhythm to which the girl gave herself with the light-hearted +abandon of a romping child. Her light feet seemed scarcely to brush +the floor; the delicate flush of her cheeks deepened with the +stirring blood; her lips parted breathlessly over white little +teeth, and when her eyes, intensely blue, met Billy's, the smile in +them quickened in sparkling radiance. She was the very spirit of the +dance; she was Youth and Joy incarnate. And the heart behind the +white shirt bosom near which her fairy hair was floating began to +pitch and toss like a laboring ship in the very devil of a sea. + +"I think I'll go up the Nile again," said Billy irrelevantly. + +She laughed elfishly at him, her head swaying faintly with the +rhythm. + +"Three weeks," said Billy under his breath, "that's twenty-one +days--at ten dollars a day. Now I wonder how many hours--or +moments--that rash outlay would assure?" + +"You miser! You calculating----" + +"You have to calculate--when you're an engineer." + +"But to be sure spoils the charm! Now I--I do things on impulse." + +"If you will only have the impulse to dance with me--on the +Nile----" + +"Why not risk it?" she challenged lightly, arrant mischief in her +eyes. She added, in mocking tone, "There's a moon." + +"That's a clincher," said he, with an air of decision. A faint +question dwelt in the look she gave him. It was ridiculous to think +he meant anything he was saying, but--she felt suddenly a little +confused and shy under that light-hearted young gaiety which took +every man's friendly admiration happily for granted. + +In silence they finished the dance, and this time the music failed +them when they were near the wide entrance to the room where the +Evershams, beckoning specters, were standing. + +"I'm keeping them waiting," said the girl, with a note of concern +which she had not shown over her performance in that line earlier in +the day. But Billy had no time for humorous comparisons. + +"When can I see you again?" he demanded bluntly. "Can I see you +to-morrow?" + +"To-morrow is a very busy day," she parried. + +"But the evening----?" + +"I shall be here," she admitted. + +"And could I--could I take you--and the Evershams, of +course--somewhere, anywhere, you'd like to go? If there's any other +concert----" + +She shook her head. "We leave bright and early the next morning, and +I know Mrs. Eversham will want her rest. I think they would rather +stay here in the hotel after dinner." + +"But you will keep a little time for me?" Billy urged. "Of course, +staying in the same hotel, I can't take my hat and go and make a +formal call on you--but that's the result I'm after." + +They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the +ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of +lowered tones. + +Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look, +questioning, shyly serious. + +"I shall be here--and you can call on me," she promised, and bade +him farewell. + +She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He +plunged his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he +wanted to whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to +vent the singular hilarity which possessed him. + +Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding him +with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy, +sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked. +Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off +the Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of +cherubic aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of +darkness! And this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The +thought was unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New +York--State--to offer to casual view worthy of competition with the +presumable advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying +with a Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title.... + +Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that +point. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CAPTAIN CALLS + + +Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee +Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny +out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of +letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information +was added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first +thought was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was +overdoing it. + +She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she +crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her +caller see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a +handclasp, she greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry +upon him. + +The young man smiled secretly to himself. He was a young man not +without experience in ladies' moods and he had a very shrewd idea +that somebody had been making remarks, but he did not permit a hint +of any perception of the coolness of her manner to impair the +impeccable suavity of his. + +"Will you accord me two moments of your time that I may give you +two messages?" he inquired, and Arlee felt suddenly ill-bred before +his gentle courtesy and she sat down abruptly upon the edge of the +nearest chair. + +The Captain placed one near her and seated himself, with a clank of +his dangling scabbard. He was really a very handsome young man, +though his features were too finely finished to please a robust +taste, and there was a hint of insolence and cruelty about the nose +and mouth--though this an inexperienced and light-hearted young +tourist of one and twenty did not more than vaguely perceive. + +"They are, the both, of the ball of the Khedive," he continued in +his English, which was, though amazingly fluent and ready, a literal +sounding translation of the French, which was in reality his mother +tongue. "My sister thinks she can arrange that invitation. You are +sure that you will be returned at Cairo, then?" + +"Oh, dear, yes! I would come back by train," Arlee declared eagerly, +"rather than miss that wonderful ball!" + +She thought how astonished a certain red-headed young Englishman +would be to see her at that ball, and how fortunate she was compared +to his haughty and disappointed friend, the Lady Claire, and the +chill of her resentment against the Captain's intrusion vanished +like snow in the warmth of her gratitude. + +"Good!" He smiled at her with a flash of white teeth. "Then my +sister herself will see one of the household of the Khedive and +request the invitation for you and for your chaperon, the +Madame----" + +"Eversham." + +"Eversham. She will be included for you, but not the daughter--no?" + +"Is that asking too much?" said Arlee hesitantly. "Miss Eversham +would feel badly to be left out.... But, anyway, I'm not sure that I +shall be with them then," she reflected. + +"Not with them?" The young man leaned forward, his eyes curiously +intent upon her. + +"No, I may be with some other friends. You see, it's this way--I +didn't come abroad with the Evershams in the first place. I came in +the fall with a school friend and her mother to see Italy. The +Evershams were friends of theirs and were stopping at the same +hotel, and since my friends were called back very suddenly, the +Evershams asked me to go on to Egypt with them. It was very nice of +them, for I'm a dreadful bother," said Arlee, dimpling. + +"But you speak of leaving them?" he said. + +"Oh, yes, I may do that as soon as some other friends of mine, the +Maynards, reach here. They are coming here on their way to the Holy +Land and I want to take that trip with them. And then I'll probably +go back to America with them." + +The Turkish captain stared at her, his dark eyes rather inscrutable, +though a certain wonder was permitted to be felt in them. + +"You American girls--your ways are absolute like the decrees of +Allah!" he laughed softly. "But tell me--what will your father and +your mother say to this so rapidly changing from the one chaperon to +the other?" + +"I haven't any father or mother," said the girl. "I have a big, +grown-up, married brother, and he knows I wouldn't change from one +party unless it was all right." She laughed amusedly at the young +man's comic gesture of bewilderment. "You think we American girls +are terribly independent." + +"I do, indeed," he avowed, "but," and he inclined his dark head in +graceful gallantry, "it is the independence of the princess of the +blood royal." + +A really nice way of putting it, Arlee thought, contrasting the +chivalrous homage of this Oriental with the dreadful "American +goose!" of the Anglo-Saxon. + +"But tell me," he went on, studying her face with an oddly intent +look, "do these friends now, the Evershams, know these others, +the--the----" + +"Maynards," she supplied. "Oh, no, they have never met each other. +The Maynards are friends I made at school. And Brother has never met +them either," she added, enjoying his humorous mystification. + +"The decrees of Allah!" he murmured again. "But I will promise you +an invitation for your chaperon and arrange for the name of the lady +later--_n'est-ce-pas?_" + +"Yes, I will know as soon as I return from the Nile. You are going +to a lot of bother, you and your sister," declared Arlee gratefully. + +"I go to ask you to take a little trouble, then, for that sister," +said the Captain slowly. "She is a widow and alone. Her life is--is +_triste_--melancholy is your English word. Not much of brightness, +of new things, of what you call pleasure, enters into that life, and +she enjoys to meet foreign ladies who are not--what shall I +say?--seekers after curiosities, who think our ladies are strange +sights behind the bars. You know that the Europeans come uninvited +to our wedding receptions and make the strange questions!" + +Arlee had the grace to blush, remembering her own avid desire to +make her way into one of those receptions, where the doors of the +Moslem harem are thrown open to the feminine world in widespread +hospitality. + +The Captain went on, slowly, his eyes upon her, "But she knows that +you are not one of those others and has requested that you do her +the grace to call upon her. I assured her that you would, for I know +that you are kind, and also," with an air of naive pride which Arlee +found admirable in him, "it is not all the world who is invited to +the home of our--our _haut-monde_, you understand?... And then it +will interest you to see how our ladies live in that seclusion which +is so droll to you. Confess you have heard strange stories," and he +smiled in quizzical raillery upon her. + +The girl's flush deepened with the memory of the confusing stories +her head was stuffed with; tales of the bloomers, the veils, the +cushions, the sweetmeats, the _nargueils_, the rose baths of the old +_regime_ were jostled by the stories of the French nurses and +English governesses and the Paris fashions of the new era. She had +listened breathlessly, with her eager young zest in life, to the +amazing and contradictory narrations of the tourists who were every +whit as ignorant as she was, and her curiosity was on fire to see +for herself. She felt that a chance in a thousand had come her lucky +way. + +"I shall be very glad to call," she told him, "just as soon as I +return from the Nile." + +His face showed his disappointment--and a certain surprise. "But not +before?" + +"Why, I go to-morrow morning, you know," said Arlee. "And----" + +"It would be better--because of the invitation," he said slowly, +hesitantly, with the air of one who does not wish to importune. "My +sister would like to ask for one who is known personally to herself. +She thought you could render her a few minutes this afternoon." + +"This afternoon?" Arlee thought quickly. "I ought to be packing," +she murmured, "my things aren't all ready.... And Mrs. Eversham is +at the bazaars again and dear knows when she will be back." + +Just for an instant a spark burned in the black eyes watching the +girl, and then was gone, and when she raised her own eyes, perplexed +and considering, to him, she saw only the same courteously +attentive, but faintly indolent regard as before. Then the young man +smiled, with an air of frank amusement. + +"That would seem to be a dispensation!" he laughed. "My sister and +the Madame Eversham--no, they would not be sympathetic!... But if +you can come," he went on quickly, leaning forward and speaking in a +hurried, lowered tone, "it can be arranged in an instant. I am to +telephone to my sister and she will send her car for you. It is not +far and it does not need but a few minutes for the visit--unless you +desire. I cannot escort you in the car--it is not _en regle_--but I +will come to the house and present you and then depart, that you +ladies may exchange the confidences.... Does that programme please +you?" + +"I--I don't know your sister's name," said Arlee. + +He smiled. "Nechedil Azade Seniha--she is the widow of Tewfik Pasha. +But say Madame simply to her--that will suffice. Shall I, then, +telephone her?" + +Just an instant Arlee hesitated, while her imagination fluttered +about the thought like humming-birds about sweets. Already she was +thinking of the story she could have to tell to her fellow travelers +here and to the people at home. It was a chance, she repeated to +herself, in a thousand, and the familiar details of phones and +motors seemed to rob its suddenness of all strangeness.... Besides, +there was that matter of the Khedive's ball. It would be very +ungracious to refuse a few minutes' visit to a lady who was going to +so much trouble for her. + +"I will be ready in ten minutes," she promised, springing to her +feet. + +The forgotten letters scattered like a fall of snow and the Captain +stooped quickly for them, hiding the flash of exultation in his +face. He thrust the letters rather hurriedly upon her. + +"Good!... But need you wait for a _toilette_ when you are so--so +_ravissante_ now?" + +He gazed with frank appreciation at the linen suit she was wearing, +but she shook her head laughingly at him. "To be interesting to a +foreign lady I must have interesting clothes," she avowed. "I shan't +be ten minutes--really." + +"Then the car will be in waiting. I will give your name to the +chauffeur and he will approach you." He thought a minute, and then +said, quickly, "And I will leave a note for Madame Eversham at the +desk to inform her of your destination and to express my regret that +she is not here to accept the invitation." His voice was flavored +with droll irony. "In ten minutes--_bien sur_?" + +She confirmed it most positively, and it really was not quite +eighteen when she stepped out on the veranda, a vision, a positively +devastating vision in soft and filmy white, with a soft and filmy +hat all white lace and a pink rose. It is to be hoped that she did +not know how she looked. Otherwise there would have been no excuse +for her and she should have been summarily haled to the nearest +justice, with all other breakers of the peace, and condemned to good +conduct and Shaker bonnets for the rest of her life. The rose on the +hat, with such a rose of a face beneath the hat, was sheer wanton +cruelty to mankind. + +It brought the heart into the throat of one young man who was +reading his paper beneath the striped awning, when he was not +watching, cat-like, the streets and the hotel door. He dropped the +paper with an agitated rustle and half rose to his feet; his eyes, +alert and humorous gray-blue eyes, lighted with eagerness. His hand +flew up to his hat. + +He did not need to take it off. She did not even see him. She was +hurrying forward to the steps, following a long, lean Arab, some +dragoman, apparently, in resplendent pongee robes, who opened the +door of a limousine for her. The next instant he slammed the door +upon her, mounted the front seat, and the car rolled away. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT THE PALACE + + +That limousine utterly routed the tiny little qualm which had been +furtively worming into Arlee's thrill of adventure. Nothing very +strange or out-of-the-way, she thought, could be connected with such +a modern car; it presented every symptom of effete civilization. +Against the upholstery of delicate gray flamed the scarlet +poinsettias hanging in wall vases of crystal overlaid with silver +tracery; the mirror which confronted her was framed in silver, and +beneath it a tiny cabinet revealed a frivolous store of powders and +pins and scents. Decidedly the Oriental widow of said sequestration +had a car very much up to times. The only difference which it +presented from the cars of any modern city or of any modern lady was +in the smallness of the window panes, whose contracted size +confirmed the stories of the restrictions which Arlee had been told +were imposed upon Moslem ladies by even those emancipated masculine +relatives who conceded cars. + +She peered out of the diminutive windows at the throng of life in +the unquiet streets as they halted for the passing of a camel laden +with bricks and stones from a demolished building; the poor thing +teetered precariously past under such a back-breaking load that the +girl felt it would have been a mercy to add the last straw and be +done with it. After it bobbed what was apparently an animated load +of hay, so completely were this other camel's legs hidden by his +smothering burden. + +Then the car shot impatiently forward, passing a dog cart full of +fair-haired English children, the youngest clasped in the arms of a +dark-skinned nurse, and behind the cart ran an indefatigable _sais_, +bare-legged and sinewy, his red headdress and gold-embroidered +jacket and blue bloomers flashing in the sun. On the sidewalk a +party of American tourists were capitulating to a post-card vender, +and ahead of them a victoria load of German sightseers careened +around the corner in the charge of a determined dragoman. + +Arlee smiled in happy superiority over these mere outsiders. _She_ +was not going about the beaten track, peeping at mosques and tombs +and bazaars and windows; she was penetrating into the real life of +this fascinating city, getting behind the grills and veils to +glimpse the inner secrets. + +She thought, with a deepening of the sparkle in her blue eyes and a +defiant lifting of the pointed chin, of a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman and how wrong and reasonless and narrow and jealous were +his strictures upon her politeness to young Turks, and she thought +with a sense of vindicated pride of how thoroughly that nice young +man who had managed to introduce himself last night had endorsed her +views. Americans understood. And then her thoughts lingered about +Billy and she caught herself wondering just how much he did mean +about coming up the Nile again. For upon happening to meet Billy +that morning--Billy had devoted two hours and a half to the accident +of that happening!--he had joyously mentioned that he was trying to +buy out another man's berth upon that boat. It wasn't so much his +wanting to come that was droll--teasing sprites of girls with +peach-blossom prettiness are not unwonted to the thunder of pursuing +feet--but the frank and cheery way he had of announcing it. Not many +men had the courage of their desires. Not any men that little Miss +Arlee had yet met had the frankness of such courage. And because all +women love the adventurous spirit and are woefully disappointed in +its masculine manifestations, she felt a gay little eagerness which +she would have refused to own. It would be rather fun to see more of +him--on the Nile--while Robert Falconer was sulking away in Cairo. +And then when she returned she would surprise and confound that +misguided young Englishman with her unexpected--to him--presence at +the Khedive's ball. And after that--but her thoughts were lost in +haziness then. Only the ball stood out distinct and glittering and +fairylike. + +Thinking all these brightly revengeful thoughts she had been +oblivious to the many turnings of the motor, though it had occurred +to her that they were taking more time than the car had needed to +appear, and now she looked out the window and saw that they were in +a narrow street lined with narrow houses, whose upper stories, +slightly projecting in little bays, all presented the elaborately +grilled facades of _mashrubiyeh_ work which announced the barred +quarters of the women, the _haremlik_. + +Arlee loved to conjure up a romantic thrill for the mysterious East +by reflecting that behind these obscuring screens were women of all +ages and conditions, neglected wives and youthful favorites, eager +girls and revolting brides, whose myriad eyes, bright or dull or gay +or bitter, were peering into the tiny, cleverly arranged mirrors +which gave them a tilted view of the streets. It was the sense of +these watching eyes, these hidden women, which made those screened +windows so stirring to her young imagination. + +The motor whirled out of the narrow street and into one that was +much wider and lined by houses that were detached and separated, +apparently, by gardens, for there was a frequent waving of palms +over the high walls which lined the road. The street was empty of +all except an old orange vender, shuffling slowly along, with a +cartwheel of a tray on her head, piled with yellow fruit shining +vividly in the hot sun. The quiet and the solitude gave a sense of +distance from the teeming bazaars and tourist-ridden haunts, which +breathed of seclusion and aloofness. + +The car stopped and Arlee stepped out before a great house of +ancient stone which rose sharply from the street. A high, pointed +doorway, elaborately carved, was before her, arching over a dark +wooden door heavily studded with nails. Overhead jutted the little +balconies of _mashrubiyeh_. She had no more than a swift impression +of the old facade, for immediately a doorkeeper, very vivid in his +Oriental blue robes and his English yellow leather Oxfords, flung +open the heavy door. + +Stepping across the threshold, with a sudden excited quickening of +the senses, in which so many things were mingled that the misgiving +there had scarcely time to make itself felt, Arlee found herself in +a spacious vestibule, marble floored and inlaid with brilliant tile. +She had just a glimpse of an inner court between the high arches +opposite, and then her attention was claimed by Captain Kerissen, +who sprang forward with a flash of welcome in his eyes that was like +a leap of palpable light. + +"You are come!" he said, in a voice which was that of a man almost +incredulous of his good fortune. Then he bowed very formally in his +best military fashion, straight-backed from the waist, heels stiffly +together. "I welcome you," he said. "My sister is rejoiced.... This +stair--if you please." + +He waved to a stairway on the left, a small, steep affair, which +Arlee ascended slowly, a sense of strangeness mounting with her, in +spite of her confident bearing. She had not realized how odd it +would feel to be in this foreign house with the Captain at her +heels. + +There was a door at the top of the stairs standing open into a long, +spacious room which seemed shrouded in twilight after the sunflooded +court. One entire side of the room was a brown, lace-like screen of +_mashrubiyeh_ windows; wide divans stretched beside them, and at the +end of the room, facing Arlee, was a throne-like chair raised on a +small dais and canopied with heavy silks. + +By one of the windows a woman was squatting, a short, stout, +turbaned figure, striking a few notes on a tambourine and crooning +softly to herself in a low guttural. She raised her head without +rising, to look at the entering couple, and for a startled second +Arlee had the half hysterical fear that this squatting soloist was +the _triste_ and aristocratic representative of the _haut-monde_ of +Moslem which the Captain had brought her to see, but the next +instant another figure appeared in a doorway and came slowly toward +them. + +Flying to the winds went Arlee's anticipations of somber elegance. +She saw the most amazingly vivid creature that she had ever laid +eyes on--a woman, young, though not in her first youth, penciled, +powdered, painted, her hair a brilliant red, her gown a brilliant +green. After the first shock of scattering amazement, Arlee became +intensely aware of a pair of yellow-brown eyes confronting her with +a faintly smiling and rather mocking interrogation. The dark of +_kohl_ about the eyes emphasized a certain slant _diablerie_ of line +and a faint penciling connected with the high and supercilious arch +of the brows. Henna flamed on the pointed tips of the fingers +blazoned with glittering rings, and Arlee fancied the brilliance of +the hair was due to this same generous assistance of nature. + +"My soul!" thought the girl swiftly, "they _do_ get themselves up!" + +The Captain had stepped forward, speaking quickly in Turkish, with a +hard-sounding rattle of words. The sister glanced at him with a +deepening of that curious air of mockery and let fall two words in +the same tongue. Then she turned to Arlee. + +"_Je suis enchantee--d'avoir cet honneur--cet honneur +inattendu----_" + +She did not look remarkably enchanted, however. The eyes that played +appraisingly over her pretty caller had a quality of curious +hardness, of race hostility, perhaps, the antagonism of the East for +the West, the Old for the New. Not all the modernity of clothes, of +manners, of language, affected what Arlee felt intensely as the +strange, vivid foreignness of her. + +"My sister does not speak English--she has not the occasion," the +Captain was quickly explaining. + +"_Gracious_" thought Arlee, in dismay. She had no illusions about +her French; it did very well in a shop or a restaurant, but it was +apt to peeter out feebly in polite conversation. Certainly it was no +vessel for voyaging in untried seas. There were simply loads of +things, she thought discouragedly, the things she wanted most to +ask, that she would not be able to find words for. + +Aloud she was saying, "I am so glad to have the honor of being here. +I am only sorry that my French is so bad. But perhaps you can +understand----" + +"I understand," assented the Turkish woman, faintly smiling. + +The Captain had brought forward little gilt chairs of a French +design which seemed oddly out of place in this room of the East, and +the three seated themselves. Out of place, too, seemed the grand +piano which Arlee's eyes, roving now past her hostess, discovered +for the first time. + +"It was so kind of you," began Arlee again as the silence seemed to +be politely waiting upon her, "to send your automobile for me." + +"Ah--my automobile!" echoed the woman on a higher note, and laughed, +with a flash of white teeth between carmined lips. "It pleased you?" + +"Oh, yes, it is splendid!" the girl declared, in sincere praise. "It +is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen." + +"I enjoy it very much--that automobile!" said the other, again +laughing, with a quick turn of her eyes toward the brother. + +Negligently, rather caressingly, the young man murmured a few +Turkish words. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, the flash +of animation gone. "And Cairo--that pleases you?" she asked of +Arlee. + +Stumbling a little in her French, but resolutely rushing over the +difficulties, Arlee launched into the expression of how very much it +pleased her. Everything was beautiful to her. The color, the sky, +the mosques, the minarets, the Nile, the pyramids--they were all +wonderful. And the view from the Great Pyramid--and then she +stopped, wondering if that were not beyond her hostess's experience. + +In confirmation of the thought the Turkish lady smiled, with an +effect of disdain. "Ascend the pyramids--that is indeed too much for +us," she said. "But nothing is too much for you Americans--no?" + +Her curious glance traveled slowly from Arlee's flushed and lovely +face, under the rose-crowned hat, down over the filmy white gown and +white-gloved hands clasping an ivory card case, to the small, +white-shod feet and silken ankles. Arlee did not resent the +deliberate scrutiny; in coming to gaze she had been offering herself +to be gazed upon, and she was conscious that the three of them +presented a most piquant group in this dim and spacious old room of +the East--the modern American girl, the cosmopolitan young officer +in his vivid uniform, and this sequestered woman, of a period of +transition where the kohl and henna of the _odalisque_ contrasted +with a coiffure and gown from Paris. + +Slowly and disconnectedly the uninspiring conversation progressed. +Once, when it appeared halted forever, Arlee cast a helpless look at +the Captain and intercepted a sharp glance at his sister. Indeed, +Arlee thought, that sister was not distinguishing herself by her +grateful courtesy to this guest who was brightening the _tristesse_ +of her secluded day, but perhaps this was due to her Oriental +languor or the limitations of their medium of speech. + +It was a relief to have the Captain suggest music. At their polite +insistence Arlee went to the piano and did her best with a piece of +MacDowell. Then the sister took her turn, and to her surprise Arlee +found herself listening to an exquisite interpretation of some of +the most difficult of Brahms. The beringed and tinted fingers +touched the notes with rare delicacy, and brought from the piano a +quality so vivid and poignant in appeal that Arlee could dream that +here the player's very life and heart were finding their real +expression. + +The last note fell softly into silence, and with her hands still on +the keys the woman looked up over her shoulder at her brother, +looked with an intentness oddly provocative and prolonged. And for +the first time Arlee caught the quality of sudden and unforeseen +attraction in her, and realized that this insolence of color, this +flaunting hair and painted mouth might have their place in some +scheme of allurement outside her own standards.... And then suddenly +she felt queerly sorry for her, touched by the quick jarring +bitterness of a chord the woman suddenly struck, drowning the +laughing words the Captain had murmured to her.... Arlee felt +vaguely indignant at him. No one wanted to have jokes tossed at her +when she had just poured her heart out in music. + +The Captain was on his feet, making his adieux. Now that the ladies +were acquainted, he would leave them to discuss the modes and other +feminine interests. He wished Miss Beecher a delightful trip upon +the Nile and hoped to see her upon her return, and she could be sure +that everything would be arranged for her. When she had had her tea +and wished to leave, the motor would return her to the hotel. He +made a rapid speech in Turkish to his sister, bowed formally to +Arlee over a last _au revoir_ and was gone. + +Immediately the old woman entered with a tray of tea things, the +same old woman who had been squatting by the window, but who had +noiselessly left the room during the music. She was followed by a +bewitching little girl of about ten with another tray, who remained +to serve while the old woman shuffled slowly away. Arlee was struck +by the informality of the service; the servants appeared to be +underfoot like rugs; they came and went at will, unregarded. + +The tea was most disappointingly ordinary, for the pat of butter +bore the rose stamp of the English dairy and the bread was English +bake, but the sweetmeats were deliciously novel, resembling nothing +Arlee had seen in the shops, and new, too, was the sip of syrup +which completed the refreshment. + +Her hostess had said but little during the repast, remaining silent, +with an air of polite attention, her eyes fixed upon her caller with +a gaze the girl found bafflingly inscrutable. Now as the girl rose +to go, the Turkish woman suddenly revived her manners of hostess and +suggested a glimpse of some of the other rooms of the palace. "Our +seclusion interests you--yes?" she said, with a half-sad, +half-bitter smile on her scarlet lips, and Arlee was conscious of a +sense of apologetic intrusion battling with her lively curiosity as +she followed her down the long chamber and through a curtained +doorway to the right of the throne-like chair, into a large and +empty anteroom, where the sunlight streaming through the lightly +screened window on the wall at the right reminded Arlee that it was +yet glowing afternoon. + +She lingered by the window an instant, looking down into the court +which she had glimpsed from the vestibule. Across the court she saw +a row of windows which, being unbarred, she guessed to be on the +men's side of the house, and to the left the court was ended by a +sort of roofed colonnade. + +Her hostess passed under an elaborate archway, and Arlee followed +slowly, passing through one stately, high-ceiled, dusty room into +another, plunged again into the twilight of densely screening +_mashrubiyeh_. There were views of fine carving, painted ceilings, +inlaid door paneling, and rich and rusty embroideries where the name +of Allah could frequently be traced, but Arlee was ignorant of the +rare worth of all she saw; she stared about with no more than a +girl's romantic sense of the old-time grandeur and the Oriental +strangeness, mingled with a disappointment that it was all so empty +and devoid of life. + +This part of the palace was very old, her hostess said +uninterestedly; these were the rooms of the dead and gone ladies of +the dead and gone years. One of the Mamelukes had first built this +wing for his favorite wife--she had been poisoned by her rival and +died, here, on that divan, the narrator indicated, with a negligent +gesture. + +Wide-eyed, Arlee stared about the empty, darkened rooms and felt +dimly oppressed by them. They were so old, so melancholy, these +rooms of dead and gone ladies. How much of life had been lived here, +how much of hope had been smothered with these walls! What aching +love and fiery hate had vibrated here, only to smolder into helpless +ennui under the endless weight of tedious days.... She shivered +slightly, oppressed by the dreams of these ancient rooms, dreams +that were heavy with realities. + +Slowly she moved back after her hostess, who had pushed back a +panel in one wall, and Arlee stepped beside her within the tiny, +balcony-like enclosure the panel had revealed, one side of which was +a wooden lace-work of fine screening, permitting one to see but not +be seen. Pressing her face against the grill, Arlee found she was +looking down into a long and spacious hall, lined with delicate +columns bearing beautiful, pointed arches, and brilliant with old +gilding and inlay. + +This was the colonnade which she had seen forming one side of the +court; it was the hall of banquets, she was told, and connected this +wing of the palace, the _haremlik_, with the _selamlik_, the men's +wing, across the way. Here in old times the lord of the palace gave +his feasts, and this nook had been built for some favorite to view +the revels. + +Arlee stared down into the great empty hall with an involuntary +quickening of the breath. How desolate it was, but how beautiful in +its desolation! What strange revels had taken place there to the +notes of wild music, what girls had danced, what voices had shouted, +what moods had been indulged! She thought of the men who had made +merry there ... and then she thought of the women, generations of +women, who had stood where she was standing, pressing their young +faces against the grill, their bright eyes peering, peering down. +She felt their soft little silken ghosts all about her, their +bangles clinking, their perfumes enveloping her sense--lovely little +painted dolls, their mimic passions helpless in their hearts.... + +Dreaming, she turned and in silence retraced her way after her +hostess, loitering by the window in the anteroom to watch a veiled +girl drawing water at the old well in the center, an old well rich +in arabesques. + +How much happier, thought Arlee, were these serving maids in the +freedom of their poverty than the cloistered aristocrats behind +their darkened windows. She wondered if that strange figure beside +her, half Moslem, half modern, envied the little maid the saucy jest +which she flung at a bare-footed boy idling beside a dozing white +donkey. As she watched the old-world quiet of the picture was +broken. Some one, the doorkeeper, she thought, from his vivid robes +and yellow shoes, came running across the court, shouting something +at the girl which sent her flying to the house, her jar forgotten, +and another man, an enormous Nubian with blue Turkish bloomers, +short red jacket and a red fez, hurried across the court toward the +_haremlik_. + +The lady stepped toward the screening and called down; the man +stopped, raised his head, and shouted back a jargon of excited +gutturals, waving his arms in vehement gesturing. His mistress +interrupted with a brief question, then with another, then nodding +her head indifferently to herself, she called down an order, +apparently, and turned away. + +"One of our servants is dead," she murmured to Arlee in explanation. +"They say now it is the plague." + +"The plague?" repeated the girl absently. She was thinking what a +hideous creature that great Nubian was. Then, more vividly, "The +_plague_?" + +"You have fear?" said the negligent voice. + +Arlee nodded frankly. "Oh, yes, I should be terribly afraid of it," +she averred. "Aren't you?" And then she reflected, as she saw the +inscrutable smile playing about the older woman's lips, that she +must be witnessing that fatalistic apathy of the East that she had +read about. + +But there was nothing apathetic about the Captain. He followed on +the very heels of the announcement, his sword clanking, his spurs +jingling, as he bounded up the stairs and hurried through the long, +dim drawing-room toward them. + +"You have heard?" he cried in English as they came to meet him. "You +have heard?" + +"Of the plague!" Arlee answered, wondering at his agitation. "Yes, +your sister just told me. Is it really the plague?" + +"So say those damned doctors--pardon, but they are such imbeciles!" +He made an angry gesture with his clenched hand. His face was tense +and excited. "They say so. And there is another sick ... _Dieu_, +what a misfortune! Truly, there was illness about us, a little, but +who thought----" + +"I shall run back to my hotel," said Arlee lightly, "before I catch +one of your germs." + +"To the hotel--a thousand pardons, but that is the thing forbidden." +The young man made a gesture, with empty palms outspread, eloquent +of rebellion and despair. "Those doctors--those pig English--they +have set a quarantine upon us!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SORRY GUEST + + +"A quarantine?" said Arlee Beecher, in a perfectly flat little +voice. + +Again the young man exercised his power of gesture, his dark eyes +seeming to plead his own helpless desire to mitigate his words. + +"Truly a quarantine. It is tyranny, but what can one do? They will +hear nothing--they set their guard and it is finished--_bien +simple_. We are their prisoners." + +"Prisoners?" Her mind appeared but a hollow echo of his words. Her +heart was dropping, dropping sickishly, into unending space. Then +meaning stabbed her like a dentist's needle, and a pandemonium of +incredulity and revolt clamored through every nerve in her body. +"Why you can't mean--I'm going back to the hotel this instant! I +haven't seen your servant!" + +"That is nothing to them. They have no reason--heads of pigs! No one +must leave or they shoot--the tyrants, the imbecile tyrants! But +their day will not be forever--Islam will not endure----" + +It was of no moment to Arlee Beecher what Islam would not endure. +Her heart was galloping now like a runaway horse, but her voice rang +with quick reaction from that first sickening shock. + +"What nonsense," she said positively. "They wouldn't shoot _me_. Why +didn't you call me when the English doctor was here. I could have +explained then. But now--now I had better telephone, I suppose. +Either to the doctor or the English ambassador--or the American +consul. I'll make them understand in a jiffy. Where is your +telephone, please?" + +"Alas, not in the palace." The young captain's look of regret +deepened. + +"But--but you telephoned your sister! You telephoned her this +afternoon." + +"Ah, yes, but I spoke to a telephone which is in a palace near +here--the palace of my uncle. I sent a servant with the message. But +I can send a message to that palace," he offered eagerly, "and they +can telephone for you. Or I can send notes out to all the people you +wish. The soldiers will call boys to deliver them." + +Across the girl's perfectly white face a tremor of panic darted; +then she bit her lips very hard and stared very intently past the +Captain's green and gold shoulder. She had totally forgotten the +sister who had sunk on a divan beside them, her brown eyes rimmed in +their dark pencilings turning from one to the other as if to read +their faces. + +"I'll just speak to those soldiers, myself," said Arlee decidedly. +"I'll make them understand." She left them there, their eyes upon +her and sped down the long room to the door which the Captain's +hurried entrance had left half open. She disappeared down the steps. + +In three minutes she was back, a flame in the frightened white of +her cheeks, a flame in the frightened blue of her eyes. + +"Captain Kerissen," she called, and he took a step nearer to her, +his face alert with sympathy, "Captain Kerissen, that is a _native_ +soldier! He is at the bottom of the stairs--with a bayonet--and he +will not let me pass. He doesn't know a word I say. Please come and +tell him." + +"Miss Beecher, it is useless for me to tell him anything," said the +young Turk with a ring of quiet conviction. "I have been talking to +that one--and to the others. They are at every entrance. It is as I +told you--we are prisoners." + +"Surely you can tell him that I am a guest--you can _bribe_ him to +turn his head, to let me slip by----" + +"He would be shot if he let you out that street door. He has his +orders to keep the ladies in their quarters and it is death to him +to disobey. That is the discipline--and the discipline has no +mercy--particularly upon the native soldiers." His tone held +bitterness. "It is useless to resist the soldiers. You must resign +yourself to remain a guest until I can obtain word to one who can +render assistance.... Will it be so hard?" he added sympathetically, +as she stood silent, her lips pressed quiveringly together. "My +sister will do everything----" + +"Of course I can't stay here," broke in Arlee in her clear, positive +young tones. "I must get back to the Evershams--and we are going up +the Nile to-morrow morning. Can you get a message to that doctor _at +once_? And have someone go and telephone from the next house to the +consul and ambassador--and I'll write them notes, too." + +Her voice broke suddenly. On what wings of folly she had come alone +to this place! Her bright adventure was a stupid scrape. Oh, what +mischance--what mischance! She was chokingly ashamed of the +predicament--to be penned up by a quarantine in a Moslem household. +She was angry, defiant and humiliated at once. What would the +Evershams say--and Robert Falconer---- + + * * * * * + +She had never waited for anything as she waited for the answers to +the passionately urgent notes she sent out. She had written the +doctor, the ambassador, the consul, the Evershams. And then she +walked up and down, up and down that long, dim room which grew +darker and darker with the fading light and counted off the seconds +and the minutes and the hours with her pulsing heart beats. She had +never known there was such suspense in the world. It was comparable +to nothing in her girl's life--the only faint analogy was in the old +school-time when she thought she had failed in the history +examination and her roommate had gone to the office to find out for +her. She remembered walking the floor then, in a silly panic of +fear. But she had not failed--she had just squeaked through and it +would be like that now. Someone would come to tell her that +everything was all right and laugh with her at her foolish fright. +But underneath this strain of fervent reassurance ran a cold little +current like an underground brook, a seeping chill of dread and +vague fear and strange amazement that she should be here in this +lonely palace, peering out of darkened windows, waiting and +listening. + +This time it _was_ the Captain's steps, coming up the stairs. +Perceptive of her impatience, he had left her to herself, till he +could bring word. Now she stood, listening to the nearing jingle +that accompanied his footsteps, her hands clasped involuntarily +against her breast in rigid tension. And when she saw his face +through the dusk, saw the courteous deprecation of it, the +solicitous sympathy, she did not need his words to tell her that it +was not yet all right. + +There was nothing to be done. Legal and medical authorities united +in insisting that no one, not even the guest, should leave the +palace until the fear of spreading the infection was past. This +might be modified in a day or two, but for the present they were too +frightened to make exceptions. + +And they were going up the Nile Friday morning, Arlee remembered +numbly. And this was Thursday night. + +"Did the Evershams--did they answer my letter?" she said with dry +lips. + +The Evershams, it seemed, had not been at the hotel. Perhaps when +they had read the letter they would be able to do something about +it. + +"They'll just _talk_!" cried Arlee passionately, her breast heaving. + +She wanted to scream, she wanted to rave, she wanted to fly down +the stairs and hurl herself recklessly against that barring bayonet. +But because there was pride and spirit behind her delicate +loveliness she shut the door hard upon those imps of hysteria and +with high-held head and palely smiling lips she thanked the Captain +for the hospitality he was extending in his sister's name. Yes, +thank you, she would rejoin them at dinner. Yes, thank you, she +would like to go to her room now. + +A serving maid, called by her hostess, conducted her--the blue-robed +girl, she thought, that she had seen drawing water at the well. A +black shawl hung from her head and dangling in its folds the +_yashmak_ ready to be slipped on at the approach of the men before +whom she must appear veiled. Her bare feet were thrust into scarlet +slippers, and as she moved silver anklets were visible, hanging +loosely over slim, brown ankles. Shuffling slightly, yet with an +erectly graceful carriage, the girl led the way into the ante-room +again, pulled open one of the closed doors in the opposite wall and +passed up an encased staircase wrapped in darkness. They emerged +into the dusk of a long, dim hall, where hanging lamps from the +ceiling shed a mild luster and a strong smell of oil, and passing +one or two doors on the right, the maid pushed, open one that was +rich in old gilding. + +Crossing the threshold Arlee felt that she was crossing the +centuries again into her own time. + +The room was a glitter of white and rose; the windows, unscreened, +admitted the warm glow of late afternoon, and windows and doorway +and bed were smothered in rose and white hangings. A white +triple-mirrored dressing-table gleamed with gold and ivory pieces; a +white fur rug was stretched before a rose silk divan billowy with +plump pillows, and an open door beyond gave a view of shining tile +and a porcelain bath. Near her was a baby grand piano in white +enamel--reminding her of one she had seen in the White House--and +she noted absently a pile of gaudily covered music upon it +betokening tunes different from the Brahms she had heard downstairs. + +The maid indicated a pitcher of hot water in the bathroom--evidently +pipes and faucets played no part with the shining tub--and then +stepped outside, closing the door. + +After an instant's hesitation, Arlee took off her hat and bathed her +face and hands, then moved slowly to the dressing table to glance at +her hair. Hesitantly she picked up the shining brush and stared at +the flourish of an unintelligible monogram upon the back. Whose +brush was this? Whose room was she in? The place, vivid, silken, +scented, was fairly breathing with occupancy. + +She laid down the brush without using it, touched her hair with +absent fingers, and crossed to the windows. She looked down into a +garden, a deep tangle of a garden, presided over by a huge lebbek +tree that threw a pall of shadow upon the faintly moving flowers +beneath. + +The place seemed a riot in neglect, for across the white sanded +paths thick creepers had flung their arms, and vines and climbers +were scaling the gnarled limbs of the acacia trees and covering the +high walls beyond. She was looking to the west where the rose and +gold of sunset still hung breathless on the painted air, though the +sun was hidden below the fringe of palms which rose above the wall, +and for a moment that still brilliance of the sky above the sharply +silhouetted palms made her heart quicken in forgetfulness. + +And then her hands became aware of the bars she had been +unconsciously clasping, white-painted bars extending across the +window. They were of iron. + +Not even here was there freedom, she thought with a throb of dread, +not even here where one faced dark gardens and blank walls and the +empty west. + + * * * * * + +Somehow that dinner had passed, that queer dinner in the candle +light between the silent, painted woman and the politely talkative +young man, and passed without a word from outside for the girl whose +nerves were fraying with the suspense. The old woman and the little +girl had served them with a meal which would have been judged +delicious in any European hotel and though Arlee's nerves were +tricky her young appetite was not and she ate and talked with a +determined little air of trying to dissipate the strangeness of the +situation. + +And with the coffee came inspiration. She began to plan ... half +listening to the Captain's amiable efforts to entertain her with an +account of the palace, and of its history under Ismail, the Mad +Khedive, who had occupied it for some months, tearing down and +building in his feverish way, only to weary at the first hint of +completion. She was wondering why in the world the inspiration had +not arrived at once. Perhaps something in this fatalistic air, this +stupid acceptance of authority had numbed her. + +With alacrity she accepted the Captain's suggestion of a stroll in +the garden, and was relieved when the silent sister did not rise to +accompany them, but remained in the candle-light with her coffee and +cigarette. She found the woman's lightly mocking, watchful eyes, the +enigmatic smile upon the carmined lips, increasingly hard to bear. +That woman didn't like her--she had failed, somehow, to propitiate +her hostile curiosities. + +Back through the old empty rooms of the past, the Captain led her, +and passing by the screened alcove from which Arlee had looked down +into the ancient banquet hall he came to a small dark painted door +which he unlocked. The door opened upon a flight of worn and narrow +stone steps descending into the garden. + + * * * * * + +It had been night in the palace of darkened windows but in the +garden it was yet day, although the rose and gold of sunset had +faded to paling pinks and translucent ambers and in the east the +stars were shining in the deepening blue. It was the same garden on +which her windows opened; Arlee recognized the huge lebbek tree in +the center, the row of acacias, and the palms against the farthest +wall. It was a very old garden. Those trees must have seen many, +many years, she thought, and felt again that sense of vague +oppression and melancholy which the lonely rooms of the palace had +given her; that row of acacias which cast such crooked shadows over +the path had been planted by very long-ago hands. + +So she thought fleetingly, then stared about, her concern for other +things. Captain Kerissen lighted a cigarette; over his cupped hands +his eyes followed hers searchingly. + +"That is the hall of banquets?" she said, pointing to the raised +colonnade. + +"Ah, yes--you are quick to learn!" he complimented. + +"And could we walk through that into the courtyard?" + +"Undoubtedly." + +"And this side is the _haremlik_," she murmured, glancing up at the +windows upon the third floor which she felt were those of that rose +and white room. Much of the rest of the wing, she saw, extending +down to the high wall at right angles to it, was in a ruinous and +dilapidated condition. "What is there?" she asked. + +"The rooms the Khedive Ismail left unfinished. They are of no use." + +"And on the other side?" she persisted, pointing towards the wall +that was the continuation of the men's wing, which stopped at the +colonnade. + +"On the other side is the palace of another man, and on the other +side of that, ending the road is a _cimitere_--what you say, +cemetery." + +"And back of _that_ wall?" She nodded at the one behind the palms, +running parallel to the banquet hall. + +"Back of that a canal, Mademoiselle, and across are other +palaces.... You study the geography, it appears?" + +"Indeed I do!" She turned towards him, her face bright with +eagerness. Her light curls were blown about her forehead by a +breeze, hot and dry, that seemed to mingle the odors of the desert +with a piercing sweetness which it drew from the deep throats of the +lilies swaying beside the path. "And I think _that_ is going to be +the way out for me." Her quick nod was for the wall behind the +palms. "I want you to do me a great big favor, Captain Kerissen, +that will make me your debtor for life! You must help me break out +of this quarantine this very night?" + +Not the ghost of a fear of failure to persuade him lurked in those +bright, dancing eyes. Not the ghost of a fear of failure haunted +those confident, smiling lips. + +He sucked on his cigarette a moment, then slowly blew a thin ring of +blue smoke. He appeared interested in watching it. + +"What is it--this idea?" he murmured. + +"Well, you may have a better one but mine is just to climb that +wall, as soon as it gets dark. If you just get a ladder, or a pile +of chairs I am sure I can manage it--and then I'll be back at the +hotel in an hour!" + +He took out his cigarette and shook his head at her. "You would +drop, like the plum of Haydee, into the arms of the soldier who is +guarding on the other side.... Shall I tell you the story of that +plum?" + +"A soldier guarding--a _native_ soldier?" + +"Yes." + +"Then--then please won't you see if you can bribe him?" she +shamelessly pleaded, anxiously clasping and unclasping her hands. +"_Please_, Captain Kerissen, you must help me to run away to-night. +I _can't_ be shut up like this--I can't give up the Nile trip and +besides--Oh, I really must be back at that hotel to-night!... If +that soldier is sure no one else will see him I know you can +persuade him to look away just a little minute while I slip down and +run off!" + +"Ah, no, no, my dear Miss Beecher, there is no hope of that." The +young man started walking down the path and Arlee walked beside him, +her eyes fixed on his face, incredulous of the denial that they were +reading there. "He would think it a test, a trap--not for one minute +is it to be thought of! Now could I let you go alone in that place +by the canal. There is danger--you do not understand----" + +"Oh, I understand, but I can take care of myself!" Across her +pleading flashed the ironic thought of how excellently she had taken +care of herself in coming there that very afternoon! "Just let me +get over that wall and I can find my way--and if you cannot bribe +the man we can wait till it is darker and then, when he is at the +other end, why I can be down and off in a jiffy!" + +"He would shoot," said the Captain. "He has his order. I have talked +with them.... And what would the authorities say when they send here +the doctor to-morrow and you are gone?" + +"Say--say--Oh, what does it matter what they say? Tell them that I +ran away without your knowledge. Surely----" + +"But your name has been given as detained. They would not let you +reappear in the world----" + +"You leave that to me! I know it would be all right--once I was +there. Please do this for me, Captain Kerissen--_please_! I know +that in a great palace like this there must be many, many ways where +one could slip into the streets----" + +"In all this palace there are but three doors--the door in the +vestibule by which you entered, the great door to its right, under +the arch into the court, and the little door from the garden to the +canal." He waved his cigarette at the wall ahead of them, towards +which they were slowly walking. "And all those three doors are +barred upon the outside and there is a soldier before each one--and +the soldier that you saw within the vestibule, watching us there." + +"But--but the windows." She remembered the _mashrubiyeh_, but went +on resolutely, "I mean, the windows on the men's side. Aren't there +any windows in that part which are open?" + +"The _selamlik_ is a short wing and looks into the court." A note of +impatience sounded in his voice. He tossed away his cigarette which +fell, a burning spark, in the shadows. Already, as they talked, it +had grown darker, and the impatient tropic night was stealing on +them. "It is no use," he repeated. "There is no way out for you--or +any of us." + +Into her heart stole the unthinkable perception that he did not want +to help her--he was afraid of the authorities--or else--or +else--Desperately she returned to the appeal. + +"But do let me try to get over that wall. I will watch for the +soldier--I will take the responsibility. Please, now--let us plan +that attempt." + +His answer held a quiet finality. "It is impossible.... And the wall +is too high for such little feet." + +The startled color flashed into her cheeks. Only Oriental language +of course.... Perhaps she was unduly sensitive to any hint of +familiarity in her predicament. + +"I could manage it perfectly," she said with coldness. + +He bent over her, as they walked. "Are you so unhappy here?" + +"Of course I am unhappy," she gave back with a clear +matter-of-factness that strove to ignore the sudden softening of his +voice. "I am _very_ unhappy. I realize that I should not be here, +that I am intruding upon your hospitality----" + +"You are making me most happy." + +"And I am making my friends most anxious and losing my trip on the +Nile." + +"The Nile," he said, "flows on forever. Who knows how soon you will +see it and under what happier circumstances?" + +"Our boat was to sail at ten. I simply must find a way out +to-night----" + +"That is impossible." He spoke with sudden irritation, which he +softened the next instant, with a light laugh. "You Americans--how +you hurry!... Tell me--have you no heart for all this?" + +She looked about her at the silent garden, the deepening shadows, +the darkening sky. Above her head, now, high in the air were the +faintly rustling palm leaves. Behind the palms stretched the wall, +high and blankly impassable. She felt strange, unreal.... Her very +fright was unreal. + +"Tell me," he was saying, his voice low and caressing, "are there +many girls like you--in your America?" + +She tried to speak quite easily, quite simply. "You have been in +England and France, Captain Kerissen, and you have seen many +Americans traveling there." + +"I have seen many--yes. But not like you." She looked swiftly at +him, then more swiftly away. His eyes were glowing with a look of +deep excitement; his teeth flashed white under his small, dark +mustache. "Shall I tell you how you appear beside those others?" + +"No, thank you," the girl answered with a hurried crispness which +brought a stare and then a low laugh from him. + +"You have been told so often?" he suggested. + +"I never permit myself to be told at all!" Anger made her young +voice imperious, but her heart was beating furiously. Involuntarily +she quickened her steps and he reached his hand to her bare forearm +and held her back. + +"Pardon--but you are too quick." + +She stood rigid, some deep instinct warning her not to resist. The +situation had gone to the man's head, she felt dumbly; his courtesy +was only a scant veneer over that Oriental cast of view which, like +the Latin, reads every accident of propinquity as opportunity. His +hand fell away and they walked on in slower time. When he spoke his +voice betrayed the feeling quickening within him. + +"Then I have a pleasure before me, for you will listen, please. To +me your sister Americans are like big, bright flowers which grow by +the wayside where every wind blows hard upon them. And each receives +the dust of the footsteps of many men till comes the one who shall +possess her. But he does not bear her away. He puts his name upon +her, but leaves her out in the same field where every passerby may +look and handle----" + +"You are dreadfully rude," said Arlee clearly. "You don't understand +at all. I thought you knew better." + +"Ah, I know! Was I not in England and did I not hear men talk--yes, +of sisters and wives with bold words and laughter? Not so of our +ladies--they are sacred names not to be spoken by another.... But I +do not wish to speak of these others of your race. I speak of you." + +"Really, I would rather you would not speak of me." + +"But I wish to tell you." His voice was no louder; it was even +lower, but it took on a note of authority. Arlee was silent, a chill +creeping up about her heart--like a rising tide.... + +"You are a flower upon a height," he said, and his tones were soft +again and gently caressing, "laughing at others because you know you +are so high above them, and so proud. The blue of the skies is in +your eyes, and the gold of the sun in your hair. You have a beauty +that is too bright to be endured--it burns a man's heart like a +flame.... It was never meant to shine in a common field. It must be +guarded, revered, adored--a princess upon a height----" + +"You have an Oriental imagination," said Arlee Beecher, and prayed +God her voice did not tremble. "I must ask you not to pay me such +compliments while I am your guest." + +"No?... Why not?" + +"They--are embarrassing." + +"Embarrassment is an emotion rare to find among your ladies--it is +the dewy bloom upon your own perfect innocence.... Ah, I wish you +spoke my language! I could tell you many things----" + +"Your English is excellent," said the white-faced girl. "Did you +learn it at Oxford or before?" + +He did not pause for such foolish questionings. "Why do you not wish +me to tell you what you are?" he said reproachfully. "Is it because +you doubt that I mean it?" + +"Because I am not used to such compliments--and I would rather not +hear them now. I am your guest and I am very tired. I must go in." + +It was very dark in the garden. And it was still and unutterably +lonely. Only the stars burned above them in the heavens; only the +light wind of the desert stirred. From the far distance the muffled +beat of the tom-tom sounded. Surely, thought Arlee, surely she was +dreaming.... This could not be Arlee Beecher, here with this +man--this Turk. + +"I must go in," she repeated, with a heightening of assurance. + +As he looked down at her for a moment that chill dread seemed to +lay its icy hands on her very heart as she glimpsed something of the +tumult within his eyes. She had a vision of him as a man capable of +all, reckless, impassioned, poised upon the brink of some desperate +plunge.... Then the hands of consequences seemed to lay compelling +hold upon him; the fire was extinguished; the vision gone like a +mirage. His eyes were friendly, his lips smiling, as he bowed to +her, in deferential courtesy, to all appearances a gentleman of her +world. + +"I must not tire my guest," he said, and stood aside to let her pass +up the narrow stone steps. + +"We shall have other walks," he added, and the chill, delicate +menace of those words went with Arlee Beecher to the rose and white +room, and kept her sorry company through the long and restless +hours. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WITHIN THE WALLS + + +Again the knocking, muffled but softly insistent, and Arlee's eyes, +heavy with tardy sleep, came slowly open, resting blankly on the +glittering strangeness of the room. The daylight was streaming in +the wide windows, striking brightly on the white enameled furniture +which had glimmered so ghost-like through the wakeful darkness of +the night, and flung back in dancing points of color from the +mirrors and the glass and gold of toilet pieces. The air was hot and +close, as if the first freshness of the morning was already past. + +Again through the heavy door came the knocking and the soft +reassurance of a girl's voice. Arlee sprang from the couch where she +had lain down that night, not undressed, but with her white frock +exchanged for the negligee she had found laid out for her among +other things, and hurried toward the door where she had piled two +chairs to supplement the lock--a foolish-looking barricade in the +shining light of day, she thought, her lips lifting whimsically. + +The young Turkish maid entered with a huge jar of water which she +emptied into the bath, returning to the door to take in another and +yet another and another from some unseen porter, and pouring these +into the bath, she added a spray of perfume and laid out powders and +towels, smiling the while at Arlee, with the fascinated interest of +a child. + +"Do you speak English?" said Arlee eagerly. + +But the girl laughed and shook her head at the question, and at the +French and German with which Arlee next addressed her, and answered +in soft Turkish, at which it was Arlee's turn to laugh and shake her +head. But she felt a little rueful behind her pleasant smiling. She +wished she could talk with the girl. She wondered about her. She had +very handsome dark eyes, though perhaps overbold at times, but her +lips were thick and her nose was flattened as if generations of +_yashmak_-wearing women had crushed every hope of contour. + +The cool freshness of the water was grateful to her senses. It was a +plunge back into sanity and normal life again, drowning those ghosts +of vague foreboding and anxieties which had kept such unpleasant +vigil with her, and when the Turkish girl returned with a tray, +Arlee was able to sit and eat breakfast with a trace of amusement at +the oddity of the affair--sipping coffee in this Parisian boudoir +overlooking an Egyptian garden. + +As she was buttering a last crumb of toast the girl re-entered with +a box from the florist. Her white teeth flashing at Arlee in a smile +of admiring interest, she broke the cord with thick fingers and +Arlee found the box full of roses, creamy pink and dewy fresh. The +Captain's card was enclosed, and across the back of it he had +written a message: + + I am sending out for some flowers for our guest and I + hope that they will convey to her my greeting. If there + is anything that you would have, it is yours if it is in + my power to give. My sister is indisposed, but will visit + you when her indisposition will permit. This afternoon I + will see you and report the result of our protests to the + authorities. Until then, be tranquil, and accommodate + yourself here. + +A tacit apology, thought Arlee, pondering the dull letter a moment, +then dropping it to touch the roses with light fingers. The young +man's wits had evidently returned with the sun. He had utterly lost +them last night with the starshine and the shadows and his Oriental +conception of the intimacy of the situation--but, after all, he had +too much good sense not to be aware of the folly of annoying her. +Her cheeks flushed a little warmer at the memory of the bold words +and the lordly hand on her arm, and her heart quickened in its +beating. She had certainly been playing with fire, and the sparks +she had so ignorantly struck had lighted for her an unforgettable +glimpse of the Oriental nature beneath all its English polish, but +she imagined, very fearlessly, that the spark was out. She was not a +nature that was easily alarmed or daunted; beneath her look of +delicate fragility was a very sturdy confidence, and she had the +implicit sense of security instinct in the kitten whose blithe days +have known nothing but kindness. Yet she felt herself tremendously +experienced and initiated.... + +She wrote back a word of thanks for the flowers and a request for +writing paper and ink, and when they were brought she wrote three +most urgent letters, and after an instant's hesitation a fourth--to +the Viceroy himself. Feeling that his mail might be bulky, she +marked it "Immediate" in large characters and gave them to the maid, +who nodded intelligently and shuffled away. + +It was very odd, she thought then, that she had no letters. By now +the Evershams must surely have written--she had begged them to.... +But she was _not_ going to be silly and panicky, she determinedly +informed that queer little catch in her side which came at the +thought of her isolation, and humming defiantly she sat down at the +white piano and opened the score of a light opera which she knew: + + Say not love is a dream, + Say not that hope is vain ... + +She had danced to that tune last night--no, the night before +last--danced to it with that extraordinarily impulsive young man +from home--for all America was now home to her spirit. And she had +promised to see him last night. She wondered what he had thought of +her absence.... She could imagine the Evershams dolefully deploring +her rashness, yet not without a totally unconscious tinge of proper +relish at its prompt punishment. They were such dismal old dears! +They _would_ complain--they must have made her the talk of the hotel +by now. Robert Falconer would enjoy that! And his sister and Lady +Claire would ask about her, and Lady Claire would say, "How +odd--fancy!" in that rather clipped and high-bred voice of hers.... +But she was _not_ going to think about it! + +She opened more music, stared wonderingly at the unfamiliar pages, +read the English translation beneath the German lines, then pushed +them away, her cheeks the pinker. They were as bad as French +postcards, she thought, aghast. Whose room was this, anyway? Whose +piano was this? Whose was the lacy negligee she had worn and the +gossamer lingerie the maid had placed in the chiffonier for her? Was +she usurping her hostess's boudoir? + +She began to walk restlessly up and down the room, feeling time +interminable, hating each lagging second of delay. + +Then came a tray of luncheon, and lying upon it a yellow envelope. +With an eagerness that hurt in its keenness she snatched it up and +tore out the folded sheet. Her eyes leaped down the lines. Then +slowly they followed them again: + + I think it very strange of you to leave us like that, but + of course you are your own mistress. We are sorry and + hope it will soon be over and you will join us again, + unless you prefer your other friends, the Maynards. We + have packed your clothes and sent them to Cook's for your + orders, and we have paid your hotel bill. Let us know + when you can join us. + + MRS. EVERSHAM. + +That was all. No word of real sympathy--no declaration of help. +Passive acceptance of her predicament--perhaps indeed a retributive +feeling of its fitness for her folly. They were annoyed.... Packing +her clothes must have been a bother--so was paying her hotel bill. + +She crumpled the telegram with an angry little hand. Evidently they +had done none of the telephoning she had begged of them. Surely +there would have been time for that, if only they had hurried a +little! She remembered with a sort of hopeless rage their maddening +deliberateness.... Well, they were gone off to the Nile--the +telegram, she saw, had been sent as they were on their way to the +boat--and she had nothing more to hope from them! But surely the +other people, the consul, the ambassador, the mysterious medical +authorities, would understand when they had read her letters. + +She sent another note to the Captain, asking to be called when the +doctor came, and then she sat down at the little white table and +began again to write. + +But not to Falconer. Never would she beg of him, never, she +resolved, with a tightening of her soft lips. She would never let +him know how miserable she was over this stupid scrape; when she +returned to the hotel she would carry affairs with a high hand and +hold forth upon the interesting quaintness of her experience and the +old-world charm of her hostess. She laughed, in angry mockery. Never +to him, after their quarrel, would she confess herself. + +The letter was to a young man whose gray eyes she remembered as very +kind and whose chin as very vigorous. He would do things, she +thought. And he would understand--he was an American. And dimly she +felt that she didn't want him to think she had utterly forgotten +her promise of the evening before last, and she didn't want him to +be filled with whatever dismal impression the Evershams were giving +out. So she dwelt very lightly upon her annoyance at being detained, +and asked him please to see the consul or the English Ambassador or +somebody in power and hurry matters up a little, as her rightful +caretakers had taken themselves off to the Nile. And she said +nothing stupid about the strangeness of her writing to him after +only speaking to him twice and never being really presented. She +merely added, "Please hurry things--I hate being a prisoner," and +sealed and addressed it with a flourish to William B. Hill, and sent +it off by the maid, and felt oddly comforted by the memory of +Billy's vigorous chin. + +The heat of the rose-and-white room was stifling now as the slant +sun of afternoon burned through the closed blinds and drawn +hangings. Languidly she curled up upon the sofa and pillowed her +heavy head on the scented silk, and so, drowsing with fitful dreams, +she lost the sense of the lagging hours. + +She roused to find the maid at hand with more water jars, and, when +she had bathed, the girl reappeared and beckoned her to follow. +Perhaps the doctor was below, thought Arlee; perhaps the consulate +had sent for her! With flying feet she followed down the dark old +stairs and across the anteroom into the dim salon, only to find a +candle-lighted table set for dinner in the middle of the room and +Captain Kerissen bowing ceremoniously beside it. + +In the blankness of her disappointment she scarcely grasped what he +was saying about the dinner hour being early and his sister being +indisposed. She interrupted with a breathless demand for news: + +"And my letters--surely there has been time for answers!" + +"Answers, yes," he replied, "but not such as I could wish for your +sake." + +"You mean----?" + +"The English have written to me and request that I cease to trouble +the department with my importunities. For I myself had written to +them again, that I might find grace in your eyes by accomplishing +your desires. They say to me that it is useless. The plague is more +serious than the convenience of my visitors, and all must be done +according to rule. When there is no danger you may depart." + +The crash of hopes went echoing to the farthest reaches of her +consciousness. But pride stiffened her to dissemble, and she tried +to smile as she mechanically accepted the Captain's invitation to be +seated at the little candle-lighted table. + +"There was no word to me personally?" she asked. + +"None, but the telegram which came this morning. I judged that it +was not of a significance, for you did not send me a report." + +"No--it was not of a significance," she repeated, with a ghost of a +little smile. "It was from the Evershams." + +"Ah! Their condolences, I think?... And is it that they still make +the Nile trip?" + +"Yes.... They went this morning." She spoke hesitantly, averse to +having this eager-eyed young host perceive how truly deserted she +was. "They expect me to take the express train later and join them." + +"It is only a night's ride to Assouan." He spoke soothingly. "But +you are not eating, Miss Beecher. I recommend this consomme." + +It was worth the recommending. Miss Beecher spooned it slowly, then +demanded, "Why was I not called when the doctor came?" + +"But he does not come! Perhaps he is afraid"--the young man's brows +and shoulders rose expressively--"but certainly he does not risk +himself. If a servant is ill we are to tell a soldier and the sick +one will be taken away to the house of plague--_bien simple_. It is +so hard that I am helpless for you," he said, with sympathetic +concern, then added, with an air of boyish confession, "although I +do not deny that it is happiness for me to see you here." + +The look in his eyes forced itself upon her. And the secret sense of +discomfort intruded like a third presence at the little table. + +In a clear voice of dry indifference: "That's very polite of you," +she remarked, "but I imagine you are pretty furious, too, to be kept +pent up in somebody else's house like this." + +"But this is not somebody else's house," he smiled, his eyes +observant of her quick glance and look of confusion. "I am _chez +moi_." + +"Oh! I thought--I was visiting your sister." + +"My sister lives with me. She is a widow--and we are both alone." + +"She does not seem to care for company." + +"She is indisposed. She regrets it exceedingly." The young man +looked grave and solicitous. "But I trust your comfort is not being +neglected?" + +"Oh, my comfort is being beautifully attended to, thank you, but my +patience is wearing itself out!" Arlee spoke with a blithe +assumption of humor. + +"I wish that I could extend the resources of my palace for you." + +"You must tell me about the palace. I shall want to picture it to my +friends when I tell them about it. It's very old, isn't it? It must +have seen a great deal of life." + +"Ah, yes, it has seen life--and what life! _Quelle vie!_" A flash of +real enthusiasm dispelled the suave indolence of his handsome +features. + +"Have you seen those old rooms? Those rooms that were built by the +Mamelukes? There is nothing now in Cairo like them." + +"I thought them very beautiful," said the girl. "Tell me about those +Mamelukes who lived here." + +"They were _men_," he said with pride, his eyes kindling, "men who +lived as kings dare not live to-day!" The subject of those old days +and those old ancestors of his was evidently dear to the young +modern, and he launched into an animated sketch of those times, +trying to picture for Arlee something of the glowing pageant of the +past. And as she listened she found her own high spirit stirring in +sympathy with the barbaric strength of those old nobles, riding to +battle on their fiery Arab steeds, waging their private wars, +brooking no affront, no command, working no other man's will. + +"They knew both power and beauty," he declared, "like the Medici of +Florence. There are no leaders like that in the modern world. To-day +beauty is beggared, and power is lusterless.... And taste? Taste is +a hundred-headed Hydra, roaring with a hundred tongues!" + +"While in the old days in Cairo it only roared with the tongues of +Mamelukes?" Arlee suggested, a glint of mischief in her smile. + +He nodded. "It should be the concern of nobles--not of the rabble. +That is why I should hate your America--where the rabble prevail." + +"It's not nice of you to call me a rabble," said Arlee, busy with +her plate of chicken. "But I want to hear more about your old +Mamelukes. Is the story true about the Sultan's being so afraid of +them that he had them taken by surprise and killed?" + +"He did well to fear them," said Kerissen. "And he, too, was a +strong man who had the power to clear his own path. Those nobles +were in the path of Mohammed Ali. They were too strong for him, he +knew it--and they knew it and were not afraid. On one day they were +all assembled at the Citadel, at the ceremony which Mohammed Ali was +giving in honor of his son, Toussoum. It was the first of March, in +1811, and my ancestor, the father of my father's father, rode out +from this palace, through the gate by the court, which is the old +gate, in his most splendid attire to greet his sovereign's son. The +emerald upon his turban was as large as a man's eye, and his sword +hilt was studded with turquoise and pearls and the hilt was a blazon +of gold. His robes were of silk, gold threaded, and his horse was +trapped with gold and silver and a diamond hung between her eyes.... +The Mamelukes were feted and courted, and then, as they were leaving +the Citadel--you have been up there?" he broke off to question, and +Arlee nodded, her eyes wide and intent like a listening child's, +"and you recall that deep, crooked way between the high walls, +between the fortified doors? Imagine to yourself that deep way +filled with men on horseback, quitting the Citadel, having taken +leave of their Sultan--they were a picture of such pride and pomp as +Egypt has never seen again. And then the treachery--the great gates +closed before them and behind them, the terrible fire upon them from +all sides, the bullets of the hidden Albanians pouring down like the +hosts of death--the uproar, the cries of horses, the shouts of the +trapped men, and then all the tumult dying, dying, down to the last +moan and hiccough of blood." + +"But one escaped?" questioned the girl, breaking the silence which +had followed the cessation of his voice. "Is it true that one really +escaped?" + +"Anym-bey--yes, he was the only one that escaped that massacre. He +had a fierce horse which gave him pain to mount, and he was still in +the courtyard of the palace when he heard the outburst of shots and +then the cries. He comprehended. Stripping his turban from his head +he bound it over the eyes of his stallion and, spurring to a gallop, +he dashed out over the parapet of the Citadel and down--down--down! +Magnificent! He did not die of it, but alas! he did not escape. +Wounded as he was he managed to reach the house of a relative, but +the soldiers of the Sultan tracked him there and seized him.... He +was killed." + +"Oh, the pity--after that splendid dash!" Arlee stopped and looked +around her, at the strange shadowy room hung with its old +embroideries and latticed with its ancient screening. "This room +makes it all so real, somehow," she murmured. "I didn't believe it +all when the dragoman told me--probably because he showed me the +mark of the horse's hoof in the stone of the parapet! I thought it +was all a legend--like the mark." + +"Did he show you, too, the bulrush where Moses was found and the +indentures in the stones in the crypt of the Coptic Church where +Saint Joseph and Mary sat to rest after the flight into Egypt?" +laughed the Captain. And, with a teasing smile, "Ah, what imbeciles +they think you tourists!" + +But Arlee merely laughed with him, while the old woman changed the +plates for dessert. Her spirits had brightened mercurially. This was +really interesting.... Uneasiness had vanished. + +"Is that an old Mameluke throne?" she asked, pointing to the raised +chair upon the dais, with its heavy, dusty draperies. + +The Captain glanced at it and shook his head, smiling faintly. "No, +that is the throne of marriage." He pushed away his sweet and +lighted a cigarette. "That is where sits the bride when she has been +brought to the home of her husband--there she holds her reception. +Those are the fetes to which the English ladies come in such +curiosity." His smile was not quite pleasant. + +"You cannot blame them for feeling a real--interest," said Arlee +hesitantly. + +"Their interest--pah!" he flung back excitably and made a violent +gesture with his cigarette. "They peer at the bride with their +haggard eyes, and they say, 'What! You have not seen your husband +till to-day! How strange--how strange! Has he not written to you? +Suppose you do not like him,' and they laugh and add, 'Fancy a girl +among us being married like that!'... The imbeciles--whose own +marriages are abominations!" + +For a moment Arlee was silent, instinct and impulse warring within +her. The man was a maniac upon those subjects, and it was madness to +exchange a word with him--but her young anger darted through her +discretion. + +"They are _not_ abominations!" she gave back proudly. + +"But I know--I know--have I not been at marriages in England?" he +declared, with startling fierceness. "Men and women crowd about the +bride; they press in line and kiss her; bearded mouths and shaven +lips, young and old, they brush off that exquisite bloom of +innocence which a husband delights to discover. Her lips are soiled, +_fanee_.... And then the man and woman go away together into a +public hotel or a train, and the people laugh and shout after them, +and hurl shoes and rice, with a great din of noise. I have heard!" +He stopped, looked a moment at the flushed curve of Arlee's averted +face, the droop of her shadowy lashes which veiled the confusion and +anger of her spirit, and then, leaning forward, his eyes still upon +her, he spoke in a lower, softer tone, caressing in its inflections. + +"With us it is not so," he said. "We have dignity in our rejoicing, +and delicacy in our love. The bride is brought in state to the home +of her husband, no eyes in the street resting upon her, and there, +in his home, her husband welcomes her and retires with his friends, +while she holds a reception with hers. Later the husband will come +home and greet her, and he wooes her to him as tenderly as he would +gather a flower that he would wear. He is no rude master, no tyrant, +as you have been taught to think! He wins her heart and mind to him; +it is the conquest of the spirit!... I tell you that our men alone +understand the secret of women! Is not the life he gives her better +than what you call the world? The woman blooms like a flower for her +husband alone; his eyes only may dwell upon the beauty of her face; +for him alone, her lips--her lips----" + +The young man's voice, grown husky, died away. A dreadful stillness +followed, a stillness vibrating with unspoken thought. Her eyes +lifted toward him, then fled away, so full of strange, dark, +desirous things was the look she encountered. Abruptly he rose--he +was coming toward her, and she struggled suddenly to her feet, +battling against the cold terror which held her dumb and unready. +She flung one arm out before her and found it grasped by hands that +were hot and burning. The touch shot her with a fierce rage that +cleared her brain and unlocked her lips. + +"Is that--the conquest of the spirit?" she gasped, and for an +instant the white-hot scorn in her eyes, flashing into his, hid any +hint of the fear in her. + +Involuntarily his grasp relaxed, and violently she wrenched her arm +away and stood facing him, a little white-clad image of war, her +eyes blazing, her breast heaving, a defiant child in her intrepidity +who gave him back look for look. + +In his eyes there glowed and battled a conflict of desires. For one +moment they seemed flaming at her from the dark, like some wild +creature ready to spring; the next moment they were human, +recognizable. She read there grudging admiration, arrested ardor, +irresolution, dubiety, and secret calculation. + +Then he put both hands behind him and bowed with ceremony. + +"The spirit," he remarked dryly, "is worth the conquest." + +She said proudly, "You would not like your English friends to know +how you treat a guest!" + +At that she saw his lip curl in irony--at the mention of the +English, perhaps, or in disdain at the appearance of fearing a +threat, however powerful that threat might be. He answered with +calmness, "It is not the English I am considering.... Nor have I +treated my guest so ill, _chere petite mademoiselle_.... If for the +moment I mistook my cue--that look within your face--I ask grace for +my stupidity." + +Suddenly she was frightened. He did not look like a man who wholly +surrenders his desires. His eyes seemed to say to her, "Wait--the +last word has not been spoken!" She felt her knees trembling. + +With an effort she got out, "It is granted--but never again--must +you misunderstand. An American girl----" + +She stopped. There was a lump in her throat. Across a bright, +familiar veranda she could hear a clear, sharp voice answer, +"American goose!" She saw a lean tanned face burn red with anger. A +wave of loneliness went through her. The irony of it was pitiless. +How right Robert Falconer had been! + +He was staring down at the table beside him, frowning, considering. +She saw with peculiar distinctness how the cigarette he had dropped +had burned a hole in the fine linen. One of the candles was dripping +lopsidedly. She thought some one ought to right it. She wondered if +that soft step, hesitating, behind the curtains, was the serving +woman's, and she turned toward that doorway. + +"I don't think I care for any coffee," she said, with an air of +careless finality. "I think I will go back to my room. Good +evening." + +He followed her to the doorway, drawing aside the curtains as she +passed into the anteroom, and opening the door at the foot of the +steps, with an answering, "Good evening," and an added, "Till +to-morrow, Mademoiselle." And then, as the door closed below her, +she paused on the dark stairs and huddled against the wall, +listening to the faint footfalls from below, crossing and +recrossing. Then, when the silence seemed continual, she tiptoed +down the stairs again, softly pushed open the unlatched door, stole +across the anteroom to the curtained doorway and peered in. + +The salon was empty, and in its center the supper table stood +stripped of its cloth and candles. Only the pale light from the +windows dispelled the growing dark. Like a little white wraith Arlee +fled through the room and turned the handle of the door at the head +of the _haremlik_ stairs. The door was locked. + +She shook the handle, first cautiously, then with increasing +violence, then she ran back into the room to the nearest window, +staring down through the screen. It would have been a steep jump +down into the street, but her tense nerves would have dared it +instantly. Her hands tore at the _mashrubiyeh_, but the tiny +spindles and delicate curves held sound and firm. She beat against +it with fierce little fists; she leaped against it with all her +trifling weight. It did not yield an inch. Was there iron in all +that delicacy? Or was that old wood impregnable in its grim trust? + +Wildly she glanced back into the room. Suppose she took a chair and +beat at this carving--could she clear a way before the servants +came? Could she take the jump successfully? She gazed down into the +street, estimating the fall, trying to calculate the hurt. + +As she gazed, her eyes grew fixed and filled with utter amazement. +Down the street, on a black horse that arched his curving neck and +danced on light, fleet feet, rode a man in a uniform of green and +gold. He sat erect, his clear-cut profile toward her. The next +instant his horse, side-stepping at a blowing paper, turned his face +into view. It was Captain Kerissen. + +Some one was stirring in the anteroom, and Arlee darted to the left +of the throne-chair and through the door there which stood ajar. +She was in a dim salon, like the one that she had left, but smaller, +and across from her was another door. She flew toward it, wild with +the hope of escape, and it opened before her eager hands. + +From the shadows of the room it disclosed came a figure with a quick +cry. So suddenly it came, so tumultuously it threw itself toward her +that Arlee had a startled vision of bare arms, glittering with +jeweled bands, arrested outstretched before her as the low gladness +of the cry broke in an angry guttural. Slowly the arms dropped in a +gesture of despair. She saw a face, distorted, passionate, grow +haggard beneath its paint in the reversal of hope. + +"Madame!" stammered Arlee to that strange figure of her hostess. +"Madame--Oh, pardon me," she cried, snatching at her French, "but +tell me how I can go away from here. Tell me----" + +"_C'est toi--va-t-en!_" the woman answered in a voice of smothered +fury. She made a menacing gesture toward the door. "_Va-t-en_." +Suddenly her voice rose in a passion of angry phrases that were +indistinguishable to the girl, and then she broke off as suddenly +and flung herself down upon a couch. From behind her the old woman +came shuffling forth and put a hand on Arlee's arm, and Arlee felt +the muscles of that hand as strong and rigid as a man's. Utterly +confused and bewildered, the girl suffered herself to be led back +through the rooms to the foot of her stairs. + +"Mariayah!" screamed the old woman, and after a moment the voice of +waiting-maid answered from above, and then as Arlee dumbly ascended +the stairs, the voice of the old woman rose with her in shrill +admonition. + +It was the voice of a jailer, thought the white-lipped girl, and +that little, dark-skinned maid who waited upon her so eagerly, with +such sidelong glances of strange interest, was the tool of a jailer. +And though the turning of the key in her own hand gave her a +momentary sense of refuge from them, it was but a false illusion of +the moment. There was neither refuge nor safety here. She was being +deceived ... + +The quarantine was lifted. + +How else could the Captain be cantering down the street? He did +not look like a man escaping.... Perhaps he had bribed the +doorkeeper--that which he had declared impossible for Arlee.... +But certainly he was deceiving her. + +Like a swollen river bursting its banks, her racing mind, wild with +suspicion, surged out of its simple channels and swirled in every +direction.... What did he mean? What was he trying to do? Keep her +in ignorance of the outside world, detain her as long as he dared +while the Evershams' absence left her friendless, and inflict his +dreadful love-making upon her? Perhaps he thought that he could +fascinate her! + +She laughed aloud, but it was such a ghostly little laugh that it +set her nerves jumping. She stopped in her feverish pacing of the +floor; she tried to control her racing mind, she tried to be very +calm and to plan. + +Had he sent all those letters she had written? Steadily she stared +at the possibility that he had not. But at least the Evershams knew +where she was. Even the meager warmth of their telegram was like an +outstretched hand through the dark. She clung tight to it. + +It was absurd to be frightened. He would never dare to annoy +her--never, in his sober senses. When they were alone together he +had lost his head, but that was accident--impulse... + +She rolled the divan against the locked door. She piled two chairs +upon it. + +No, of course, she had nothing really to fear from him. He was too +wise not to understand the gulf between them. To-morrow she would +confront him flatly with his deceit; she would array the power of +the authorities behind her race. She would sweep instantly from that +ill-omened palace. There would be no more philandering. + +Her lips moved as she silently rehearsed the mighty speeches that +she would make, and all the while as she leaned there against a +window, staring strangely through the candle-light at the barricade +before the door, she could think of nothing but how mad and unreal +it all seemed--like some bad dream from which she would wake in an +instant. + +But she did not wake. The dream persisted, and the iron bars across +her window were very tangible. Down below her in the garden the old +lebbek tree rustled stealthily in the stillness. Gusty clouds hid +the stars. In the distance the interminable tom-tom beat. + +She cast herself into the bed and cried convulsively, like a +desperately frightened child, while the awful sense of terror and +utter loneliness seemed to be rolling over and over her, like an +unending sea. Her sobbing racked her from head to foot. She cried +until she was spent with weakness. Then, her wet face still pressed +against the pillow and her tangled hair flung out in disordered +curls, she fell at last into the deep sleep of exhausted youth. + +She woke with a smothered cry. In the darkness a hand had touched +her. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A GIRL IN THE BAZAARS + + +Billy slapped on his hat with a clap of violence. She might have +just _seen_ him! Then he got up and marched down the steps. There +was no more use in camping on that veranda. There was no more use in +guarding that entrance. When a girl went whirling off in a +limousine, "all dolled up" as his academic English put it, that girl +wasn't going to be back in five minutes. And anyway he'd be blessed +if he lay around in the way any longer like a doormat with "Welcome" +inscribed upon the surface. + +So this spurt of masculine shame at his swift surrender to her, and +his masculine resentment at being ignored as she went by, sent him +hurrying down the street resolved not to return till dinner. + +From habit his steps took him to the bazaars. But the zest of that +bright pageant was dulled for him. The color was gone even from the +red canopies, and the excitement had vanished from the din of +noises, the interest fled from the grave figures squatting in their +cubby holes of shops draped with silky rags or sewing upon scarlet +slippers. He listened apathetically to the warring shouts of the +donkey boys and the anathemas of a jostled water carrier stooping +under his distended goatskin, then dodged out of the way of a +goaded donkey and turned into one of the passages where the +four-footed could not penetrate. + +For a few moments the bargaining over a silver bracelet between two +beturbaned and berobed Arabs caught the surface of his attention, +and as the wrangling became a bedlam of imprecations, and the +explosive gestures made physical violence a development apparently +of mere seconds, Billy's eyes brightened and he estimated chances. +But as he picked his favorite there was one final frenzy of fury, +and then--peace and joy, utter calm on the wild waters! One Arab +counted out the coins from a little leather bag about his neck and +the other passed over the bracelet, and with mutual salaams and +smiling speeches, behold! the affair was accomplished. + +Disgustedly Billy turned away. Then on the other side of him he +heard a voice, a sweet and rather high voice, with a musical +intensity of inflection that was as English as the Union Jack. + +"Yes, it's _sweetly_ pretty," the voice was saying irresolutely, +"but I don't think I _quite_ care to--not at _that_ price." + +"I--I will buy it for you--yes?" said another voice. "It is made for +you--so 'sweetly pretty' as you say." + +Billy turned. A slim, tall girl in a dark blue frock was standing +before a counter of Oriental jewelry, her head turned, with an air +of startled surprise, to the man on the other side of her who had +just spoken. He was a short, stout, blond man, heavily flushed, +showily dressed, with a fulsome beam in his light-blue eyes and an +ingratiating grin beneath his upturned straw-colored mustaches. + +The girl turned her head away toward the shop-keeper and put back +the turquoise-studded buckle she held in her hand. "No, I do not +care for it," she said in a steady voice whose coldness was for the +intruder and turned away. + +Billy had a glimpse of scarlet cheeks and dark lashed eyes before +the blond young man again took his attention. + +"You do not like it--no?" he said, blocking her path, his face +thrust out to smile into hers. "But I buy you anything you wish--I +make you one present----" + +The girl gave a quick look about. But she was in a pocket; for there +was no other exit to that line of shops but the path he was +blocking. All about her the dark-skinned venders and shoppers, the +bearded men, the veiled women, the impish urchins, were watching the +encounter with beady eyes of malicious interest. + +Billy took a quick step forward and touched the man on the arm. "Let +this lady pass, please," he said. + +The German confronted him with blood-shot blue eyes that ceased to +smile and clearly welcomed the belligerency. + +"Gott! Who are you?" he derided. "Get out--get out the way." + +"Get out yourself," said Billy, and stepping in front of the fellow +he extended a rigid arm, leaving a passage for the girl behind him. + +"Oh, thank you," he heard her say, and as he half turned his head at +the grateful murmur he felt a sudden staggering blow on the side of +his face. He whirled about, on guard, and as the man struck again, +lunging heavily in his intoxication, Billy knocked up the fist as it +came. + +"You silly fool!" he said impatiently, and as the man made a blind +rush upon him he caught him and by main force flung him off, but his +own foot struck something slippery and he lurched and went down, +with a wave of intense disgust, into the dirt of the bazaars. He +heard a chorus of cries and imprecations about him; he jumped up +instantly, looking for his assailant, but the German was clinging to +the front of the jewelry booth. "Meet you--satisfaction--honor," he +was saying stupidly. + +A native policeman elbowed his way through the throng, urging some +Arabic question upon Billy, who caught its import and replied with +the few sentences of reassurance at his command, pointing to the +banana peel as the cause of all. A fat dragoman had suddenly +appeared from nowhere and was hurriedly attempting to lead away the +intoxicated one. + +"You in charge of him? Take him to his hotel and throw him in the +tub," said Billy curtly, and the dragoman replied with profound +respect that he would do even as the heaven-born commanded. + +Brushing off his clothes Billy shouldered his way out of the throng +and was met by two bright and grateful eyes and a slim, bare, +outstretched hand. + +"Thank you _so_ much--I am _so_ sorry," said the musical voice. + +"You shouldn't have waited," said Billy, with a prompt pressure of +the friendly little hand. "It might have been a real row." + +"I couldn't run away," she said in serious protest at such +ingratitude. "I had to see what happened to you. And I am so sorry +about your clothes." + +"Not hurt a particle--I chose a fortunate place to drop," he +returned lightly, but distinctly chagrined that he _had_ dropped. + +"It was so fine of you," she answered, "just to parry him like +that--when he'd been drinking. I saw what you did." And then she +added, very matter-of-factly, "And I'm afraid your nose is bleeding, +too." + +Billy put up a startled hand. In the general soreness he had not +noticed that warm trickle. His whole face turned as scarlet as the +shameless blood. Frantically he rummaged with the other hand. + +The girl thrust a square of white linen upon him. "Please take +mine--it will ruin your clothes if it gets on them." + +Her immense practicality refused to be embarrassed in the least. +Feeling immensely foolish Billy accepted hers, but then he +discovered his own handkerchief and stuffed hers away into his +pocket. + +"You're a trump," he said heartily. "And it's all right now--all but +the swelling, I suppose." He sounded rueful. He had remembered his +engagement for the evening. + +Her head a little aslant, the girl regarded him critically. "N-no, +it doesn't seem to be swelling," she observed. "Of course it's a +little red but that will pass." + +They were walking side by side out of the narrow street and now, on +a crowded corner, they paused and looked around. "I left Miss +Falconer at the Maltese laces," she murmured, and to the laces they +turned their steps. + +Miss Falconer was still bargaining. She was a middle aged lady, +Roman nosed and sandy-haired, and she brought to Billy in a rush the +realization that she was "sister" and the girl was Lady Claire +Montfort. The story of the encounter and Billy's hero part, related +by Lady Claire, appeared most disturbing to the chaperon. + +"How awkward--how very awkward," she murmured, several times, and +Billy gathered from her covert glance upon him that part of the +awkwardness consisted in being saddled with his acquaintance. Then, +"Very nice of you, I'm sure," she added. "I hope the creature isn't +lingering about somewhere.... We'd better take a cab, Claire--I'm +sure we're late for tea." + +"Let me find one," said Billy dutifully, and charging into the +medley of vehicles he brought forth a victoria with what appeared to +be the least villainous looking driver and handed in the ladies. + +"Savoy Hotel, isn't it?" he added thoughtlessly, and both ladies' +countenances interrogated him with a varying _nuance_ of question. + +"I remember noticing you," he hastily explained. "I'm not exactly a +private detective, you know,"--the assurance seemed to leave Miss +Falconer cold--"but I do remember people. And then I heard you +spoken of by Miss Beecher." + +The name acted curiously upon them. They looked at each other. Then +they looked at Billy. Miss Falconer spoke. + +"Perhaps we can drop you at your hotel," said she. "Won't you get +in?" + +He got in, facing them a little ruefully with his damaged +countenance, and subtly aware that this accession of friendliness +was not a gush of airy impulse. + +"You know Miss Beecher then?" said Miss Falconer with brisk +directness. + +"Slightly," he said aloud. To himself he added, "So far." + +"Ah--in America?" + +"No, in Cairo." + +Miss Falconer looked disappointed. "But perhaps you know her +family?" + +"No," said Billy. He added humorously, "But I'll wager I could guess +them all right." + +"Can you Americans do that for one another? That is more than we can +venture to do for you," said the lady, and Billy was aware of irony. + +"We know so little about your life, you see," the girl softened it +for him, with a direct and friendly smile, and then gazed watchfully +at her chaperon. She was a nice girl, Billy decided emphatically. + +"How would you construct her family?" was the elder lady's next +demand. + +"Oh, big people in a small town," he hazarded carelessly. "The kind +of place where the life isn't wide enough for the girl after all her +'advantages' and she goes abroad in search of adventure." + +"Adventure," repeated Miss Falconer thoughtfully. She seemed to +have an idea, but Billy was certain it was not his idea. + +He hastened to clarify the light he had tried to cast upon his +upsetting little countrywoman. "All life, you know, is an adventure +to the American girl," he generalized. "She is a little bit more on +her own than I imagine your girls are," and for the fraction of a +second his eyes wandered to the listening countenance of Lady +Claire, "and that rather exhilarates her. And she doesn't want +things cut and dried--she wants them spontaneous and unexpected--and +people, just as people, interest her tremendously. I think that's +why she's so unintelligible on the Continent," he added +thoughtfully. "They don't understand there that girlish love of +experience as experience--enjoyment of romance apart from results." + +"Romance apart from results," repeated Miss Falconer in a peculiar +voice. + +"I don't believe you quite get me," said Billy hastily. He felt +foolish and he felt resentful. And if these English women couldn't +understand the bright, volatile stuff that Arlee was made of, he +certainly was not going to talk about it. But Miss Falconer had one +more question for him. + +"When you say big people in a small town do you mean her father +would be a sort of country squire?" + +"More probably a captain of industry," Billy smiled. + +"A captain--Oh, that is one of your phrases!" + +"One of our phrases," he laughed, and then parried, "I thought you +were acquainted with Miss Beecher?" + +"Quite slightly," said Miss Falconer in an aloof tone. "My brother +came over on the same ship with her--he came to join us here." + +Billy experienced a flood of mental light. The brother--at the hotel +he had discovered that his name was Robert Falconer--was coming to +join his elder sister and her young charge. He had come on the same +steamer as Miss Beecher. Ergo, he was staying at the hotel where +Miss Beecher was and not with his sister. Billy comprehended the +anxiety of the lady with the Roman nose. He looked at Lady Claire +with a certain sympathy. + +He caught her own eyes reconnoitering, and they each looked hastily +away. + +Again Miss Falconer returned to her attack. "Then you really know +nothing positive of Miss Beecher's family?" + +"Nothing in the world," said Billy cheerfully. "But why not ask Miss +Beecher?" + +The lady made no reply. "Miss Beecher is a beautiful girl," said +Lady Claire hastily. "She's _so_ beautiful that I suppose we are all +rather curious about her--of course people _will_ ask about a girl +like that!" + +"Of course," said Billy, and Lady Claire, perceiving that he +resented this catechism about his young countrywoman, and Miss +Falconer perceiving that nothing was to be gotten out of him, the +conversation was promptly turned into other channels, the vague, +general channels of comment upon Cairo. + + * * * * * + +The Evershams dined alone. Alternately, from their table to the +doorway went Billy's eager eyes, but no vision with shining curls +and laughing eyes appeared. Evidently she had stayed to dine with +whatever people she had gone to see. Robert Falconer was watching +that table, too.... Perhaps she would not return till late; perhaps +he would have only a tiny time with her that evening.... And he had +not been able to buy out that man's berth upon the steamer.... + +Consomme and whitebait, _boeuf roti_ and _haricots vert_ and +_creme de cerises_ succeeded one another in deepening gloom. The +whole dinner over, and she had not appeared! + +He went out to the lounge and smoked with violence. Presently he saw +the Evershams in the doorway talking to Robert Falconer, and he +jumped up and hurried to join them. As he approached he heard the +word Alexandria spoken fretfully by Mrs. Eversham. + +"Good evening, good evening," said Billy hurriedly to the ladies, +and being a young man of simple directness, undeterred by the +glacial tinge of the ladies' response--they had not forgotten his +defection of the evening before when they were entertaining him so +nicely--he put the question which had been tormenting him all +evening, "Where is Miss Beecher to-night?" + +"Alexandria," said Mrs. Eversham again, and this time there was a +hint of malicious satisfaction in her voice. + +"Alexandria?" Billy was incredulous. "Why I--I understood she was to +go up the Nile to-morrow morning." + +"She was, but she has changed her mind. She had word from some +friends of hers while we were out this afternoon and she flew right +off to join them." + +"You mean she isn't going up the Nile at all now?" + +"I haven't an idea what she is going to do. She is not in our care +any longer. And I don't suppose the boat company will do anything +about her stateroom at this late date--certainly she can't expect us +to go to any trouble about it." + +"She left us half her packing to do," Clara Eversham contributed, +addressing Falconer with plaintive mien, "and her hotel bill to pay. +She is the most unexpected creature!" + +Two young men silently and heartily concurred. + +"What was her hurry?" Billy demanded. + +"Oh, she's going camping in the desert with them--that sort of thing +would fascinate her, you know. Her telegram wasn't very clear. She +just sent a wire from the station, I think, or from Cook's, with +some money for her bill by the boy. So careless, trusting him like +that!" + +"I don't suppose he brought it all," Mrs. Eversham declared. "You +see, she didn't say how much she was sending--just said it was +enough for her bill." + +Billy looked at Falconer. He admired the stolidity of that +sandy-haired young man's countenance. He envied the unrevealing +blankness of his eyes. + +"May I ask where she is stopping in Alexandria?" he persisted. + +Mrs. Eversham shook her head. "She didn't give any address--the best +hotel, I suppose, whatever that is." + +"The Khedivial," Falconer supplied. + +"She just said to send her things to Cook's and to write to her +there and she would write when she came back. She had been expecting +to meet those friends, the Maynards, later, but we had no idea that +she was going to run off with them like this. It's very upsetting." + +"We shall miss her," said Clara Eversham suddenly, with a note of +sincerity that made Billy warm to her a trifle. So he bestirred +himself getting their after dinner coffee and remembered to send +Mohammed for the cream for her, and listened with a show of +attention to their interminable anecdotes and corrections. But his +mind was off on the way to Alexandria.... + +Not a word of farewell. Of course, they had not exactly arrived, in +those twenty-four hours, at a correspondence stage, but still she +had made a positive engagement for that evening--and she had known +he was trying to buy that berth. Only that morning she had listened +to his account of his endeavors with a mischievous light in her blue +eyes and a prankish smile edging her pink lips ... and she might, +after that, have left just a line to tell him to cancel his +arrangements.... But what could he expect from such a tricksy sprite +of a girl? Only twenty-seven hours before he had seen her, +flagrantly tardy, nonchalantly unrepentant, first mock and then +annihilate the worthy and earnest young Englishman who had +endeavored to correct her ways ... He had known then the volatile +stuff that she was made of--and had succumbed to it! + +But he _had_ succumbed. On that point he was most disastrously +certain. The memory of the young girl possessed him. Her beauty +haunted him, that spring-like beauty with its enchanting youth and +gaiety. And the spirit that animated that beauty, that young, +blithe, innocently audacious spirit which looked out on the world +with such sunnily trustful eyes, drew him with a golden cord. + + * * * * * + +He smoked many a pipe over it that night, his feet on the open +window ledge, his eyes on the far-spreading flat roofs, the distant +domes and minarets darkly silhouetted against the sky of softest, +deepest blue. The stars were silver bright. They spangled the heaven +with the radiance they never give to northern skies; they gleamed +like bright, wild creatures on their unearthly revels.... It would +be glorious camping in the desert on a night like this ... Heaven be +praised, he had not bought that berth ... Alexandria ... the +Maynards ... the desert ... + +He knocked out the ashes from his last pipe and rose briskly. His +decision was made, but its success was on the knees of the great god +Luck. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BILLY HAS HIS DOUBTS + + +The encounter in the bazaars that Thursday afternoon brought one +more result to young Hill besides the bruise upon his chin and the +privilege of bowing to Lady Claire and her vigilant chaperon, and +the presence of Lady Claire's little handkerchief in his coat +pocket. + +It brought a young German, scrupulously sober, soberly apologetic, +in formal state to Billy's hotel upon Friday morning, whose card +announced him to be Frederick von Deigen and whose speech proclaimed +him to be utterly aghast at his own untoward behavior. + +"I was not myself," he owned, with a sigh and a melancholy twist of +his upstanding mustaches. "I had been lunching alone--and it is bad +to lunch alone when one has a sadness. One drinks--to forget.... But +you are too young to understand." He waved his hand in compliment to +Billy's youth, then continued, with increasing energy, "But when I +find what _dummheit_ I have done--how I have so rudely addressed the +young Fraeulein with you, and have used my fists upon you, even to +the point of hurling you upon the street--I have no words for my +shame." + +"Oh, it wasn't exactly a hurl," Billy easily amended. "There was a +banana peel where my heel happened to be--and I wasn't half +scrapping. I could see you weren't yourself." + +"Indeed no! Would I," he struck himself gloomily upon the breast, +"would I intrude upon a young Fraeulein, and attack her protector? It +was that bottle--that last bottle.... I knew--at the time.... I +offer you my apology. I can do no more--unless you would have +satisfaction--no?" + +"I guess I had all the satisfaction that was coming to me +yesterday," said Billy. "You've got a fist like a professional. But +there's no harm done.... Only you want to get over taking that last +bottle and offering presents to young ladies," he concluded, with an +accent of youthful severity. + +The German nodded a depressed head. His melancholy, bloodshot eyes +fixed themselves sadly upon Billy. "Ach, it is so," he assented +meekly, "but when one has a sadness--" He sighed. + +"Yes, of course, that's tough," agreed Billy sympathetically. "I +hate a sadness." + +"Perhaps you have known--?" The other's eyes lifted toward him, then +dropped dispiritedly. "But, no, you are too young. But I--Ach!" He +added in his own tongue a line of which Billy caught _geliebt_ and +_gelebt_, and so nodded understandingly. + +"That geliebing business is bad stuff," he returned, and again the +other tugged at his mustaches with a nervous hand and shook his big +blond head. + +"She was to have met me here," he said abruptly. "She wrote--I was +to come quick--and then she comes not. That is woman, the _ewige +weibliche_." He scowled. "But, Gott, how enchantment was in her!" + +Billy heard himself sigh in unison. The phrase suggested Arlee. And +the situation was not dissimilar. He felt a positive sympathy for +the big blond fellow in his pronounced clothes and glossy boots and +careful boutonniere.... He smiled in friendly fashion. + +"She'll come along yet," he prophesied, "and if she doesn't, just +you go out after her. I wouldn't take too many chances in the +waiting game." + +The German shook his head. His blue eyes swam with sentimental +moisture. "You do not understand," he said. "She went with +another--I must wait for her to come away. I have no address--so?" + +"Well, that--that's different," stammered the young American. His +sympathy became cynical. Fishy business--but even a fishy business +has its human side. So presently he found himself gazing +interestedly upon the photograph the German displayed in the back of +his watch--the photograph of a decollete young woman with +provocative dark eyes and parted lips and pearl-like teeth, and he +shook the caller's hand most heartily in parting, and prophesied, +with fine assurance, the successful end of this fishy romance. + +"You have a heart, my friend," said the German solemnly, and lifting +hat and stick and lemon-colored gloves from the table, he bowed +profoundly in farewell. + +"And to the Fraeulein--you will give my so deep apology?" he added +earnestly, and Billy assured him that he would. And he found +himself, for all his pre-occupation with the vision of Arlee's +spring-like beauty, by no means displeased at the errand. A man must +have something to do while he is waiting--if he is to avoid last +bottles! He would seek her out that very afternoon. + + * * * * * + +But by afternoon he was tearing upstairs and downstairs through the +hotel after a very different quarry, which at last he ran to earth +at a tiny table behind a palm on the veranda. The quarry was further +protected by an enveloping newspaper, but Billy did not stand on +ceremony. + +"I want to talk to you," said he. + +Falconer looked up. He recognized Billy perfectly, though his gaze +gave no admission of that. This tall young fellow with the deep-set +gray eyes and the rugged chin and the straight black hair he first +remembered seeing dancing that Wednesday evening with Arlee--after +their own disastrous tea and its estrangement. Arlee had appeared on +mystifyingly good terms with him, though he was positive from his +own observations, and had corroboration from the Evershams, that she +had never spoken to him until five minutes before. Then the fellow +had fairly grilled the Evershams about the girl's whereabouts last +night. And he had learned that the previous afternoon he had managed +to take Claire's protection upon himself in the bazaars, actually +convincing her that she ought to feel indebted to him, and had +driven back with them.... An unabashed intruder, that fellow! He +ought to have a lesson. + +His air of unwelcome deepened, if possible, as Billy helped himself +to a chair, drew it confidentially close to him and cast a careful +glance about the veranda. + +"I don't want anyone to hear this," he explained. + +Falconer smiled cynically. He had met confidential young Americans +before. There was nothing they could sell _him_. + +"It's about Miss Beecher." Billy looked uncomfortable. He hesitated, +blushed boyishly through his tan, and blurted, "There's something +mighty queer about that departure of hers yesterday." + +"Ah!" + +"I don't feel right about it.... It's deuced queer. She isn't in +Alexandria." + +"Ah!" + +"If you say 'Ah' again, I hope you choke," said Billy violently to +himself. Aloud he continued, "I wired to the Khedivial and to all +the other hotels--there are just a few--and she isn't registered +there, and the Maynards are not, either." + +"Possibly staying with friends," said Falconer indifferently. He +regarded his paper. + +"Very few Americans have friends in Alexandria. However, that might +be so. But no ship has arrived from the Continent for three days, +and it seems mighty odd, if they were there three days ago, for them +to have wired at the last minute and had her tear off like that." + +"I do not pretend to account for your compatriots," said the +sandy-haired young man. + +Billy looked at him a minute. "There's no use in your being +disagreeable," he remarked. "I didn't thrust myself upon you because +I was attracted to you, at all. But I thought you were a sensible, +masculine human being who was interested in Miss Beecher's +whereabouts." + +"I beg your pardon," said the other young man. "I am--I mean I am +interested--if you think there is anything really wrong. But I do +not see your point." + +"Well, now, see if you can see this. I wired the consul there and +some other fellow at the port, and they wired back that no people of +the name of Maynard have arrived on any of the boats for the past +two weeks--that was as far back as they looked up. Now that's +_queer_." + +"He could be mistaken--or they could have bought some one else's +accommodations--and that would account for the hastiness of their +plans," Falconer argued. + +"But what train did she go on?" + +"What train? Why, the express for Alexandria." + +"That left at eight-thirty. Now why in the world would she rush away +in the middle of the afternoon, sending a telegram from the station +and leaving her packing undone, for an eight-thirty train?" + +"Why I--I really can't say. She may have had errands----" + +"Where did she have her dinner? Did she dine with friends at some of +the hotels? What friends has she here?" + +"I really can't say as to that, either. I wasn't aware that she had +any." + +"And where did she send that telegram from? There isn't a copy of +any such telegram at the offices I've been to--at Cook's or the +station. It might have been written on a telegraph blank and sent up +by messenger with the money--but why not come herself, with all that +time on her hands? And nobody remembers selling her any ticket to +Alexandria--and you know anybody would remember selling anything to +a girl like that." + +Falconer was silent. + +"And nobody at Cook's paid out any money on her letter of credit--or +cashed any express checks for her. Where did that money come from +that was sent back to the hotel?" + +"But what is the point of all this?" + +"That's what I just particularly don't know.... But it needs looking +into." + +Falconer favored him with a level scrutiny. "How long have you known +Miss Beecher?" + +"I met her the night before last. That, however, doesn't enter into +the case." + +"It would seem to me that it might." + +"Between three days and three weeks," said Billy, remembering +something, "the difference is sometimes no greater than between +Tweedledum and Tweedledee." He smiled humorously at the other young +man, a frank, likeable smile that softened magically the bluntness +of his young mouth. "That's why I came to you. You are the only soul +I know to be interested in Miss Beecher's welfare. The Evershams are +off up the Nile--and they'd probably be helpless, anyway. Besides, +you know more about this blamed Egypt of yours than I do.... Have +you any idea where she went yesterday afternoon?" + +"Not at all." + +"Neither have the Evershams. They were surprised when I asked them +about it this morning. They didn't know she was going. Now she went +somewhere in a limousine----" + +"Probably to the station." + +"American girls don't go to stations in floating white clothes and +hats all pink roses. I particularly remember the pink rose," said +Billy gloomily. "No, if she had been going to the station she would +have had on a little blue or gray suit, very up and down, and a +little minute of a hat with just one perky feather. And she'd have a +bag of sorts with her--no girl would rush away to Alexandria without +a bag." + +"She could have sent it ahead of her or returned and dressed later +for the station." + +"Why the mischief did I tramp off to those bazaars?" said the young +American. "But, see here--weren't you around the hotel after that +yesterday--at tea time?" + +"Er--yes--I----" + +"And weren't you rather looking out for Miss Beecher? Wouldn't you +have noticed if she had been coming or going?" + +Falconer stroked his small mustache and shot a look at Billy out of +the corners of his eyes which expressed his distinct annoyance at +these intrusive demands. + +"I don't remember to have met you," said he slowly. + +"You haven't. I know your name, but you don't know mine. I am +William B. Hill." + +"Ah--Behill." + +"No--_B._ Hill. The B is an initial." + +"Of what?" said the other casually, and Billy's cheeks grew suddenly +warm. + +"Of my middle name," said he, with steady composure. "If we are to +do any team-work you will have to let it go at the William and the +Hill." + +"What team-work do you suggest?" + +"Find out where she went yesterday. Find out where she is now. What +worries me," he burst out, with ungovernable uneasiness, yet with a +hint of humor at his own extravagant imaginings, "is her talking to +that Turk fellow yesterday--that Captain Kerissen, I think she +called him. She had told me the night before that he was going to +get her some ball tickets or other, and I didn't think anything of +it, but yesterday I thought he had his nerve to come and call upon +her. You see, I passed through the hall and saw them talking. I went +out to the veranda and after he had gone I came in again, but she +was nowhere in sight. Then I went back to the veranda, and in a few +moments she came out, in white with a rose on her hat, and went off +in a car that was ready. Of course Kerissen wasn't in the car, and I +haven't any proof of his connection with the thing, but he might +easily have induced her to look at some mosque or other off the +'beaten track'----" + +"But she returned, for later she sent that telegram from the +station," Falconer argued. + +Billy was silent. Then he burst out, "But all the same there is a +mystery to this thing.... She--she's too confoundedly young and +pretty to run around alone in this painted jade of a city." + +"This city has law and order--much more of them than there are in +your national hotbeds of robbery and murder." + +"H'm--well, I don't hold any brief for Chicago--I suppose Chicago is +the target--so I won't defend that. But I've heard stories." + +"Queer ones, I should say." + +"_Devilish_ queer ones!... How about that young Monkton or Monkhouse +who dropped out of things last winter?" + +Falconer looked annoyed. "Oh, there are rumors----" + +"Yes, rumors that he flirted with a Turkish lady--that he was on +horseback just outside her carriage during the jam at the +Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and they looked and smiled and afterwards met in +a shop. And rumors that she gave him a _rendezvous_ at her home and +that he told another man about it at the club, who warned him +sharply, and he only laughed.... But it's no rumor that he +disappeared. He's gone, all right, and nobody knows where he went, +and nobody seems to want to know. Officially they said he was +drowned out swimming--or lost in a sandstorm riding in the +desert--or spiked on top of an obelisk or something equally +reasonable--but, privately, people say other things.... No +international law intrudes into the Turkish woman question." + +"What of it?" Falconer looked stubborn. "I daresay the fellow +received his deserts.... But the case hardly applies--what?" + +"Well--it makes one feel that anything can happen here--that the +city is quicksand where a chance step would engulf one." Billy +stared frowningly out on the vivid street ahead of him. A pretty +English bride and her soldier husband were out exercising their +dogs. Two ladies in a victoria were advertising their toilettes. A +blond baby toddled past with his black nurse. It was all very +peaceful and charming. It did not look like quicksand.... Into the +picture came a one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile on his head, +stalking slowly along, scanning the veranda with his single, +penetrating eye, calling his wares in harsh gutturals, and with him +came suddenly the sense of that strange background before which all +this bright tourist life was played, that dark watching, secret +East, curious and incalculable. + +Falconer folded his paper with a sharp crackle that recalled young +Hill's wandering thought. "That's all very well, but it doesn't +apply," he observed, with conviction. + +"Then where is she?" Billy was bluntly belligerent. + +The other put his paper in his pocket. "In Alexandria, to be sure, +and not at all pleased, either, to have you bring her name into such +questioning." He looked squarely at Billy as he said that, and the +eyes of the two young man met and exchanged a secret challenge of +hostility. + +Billy rose. "Oh, all right," he returned. "I daresay I am as much a +fool as you take me for.... She may be all right. But if not--I +thought I'd give you a chance to take a hand in it." + +"The sporting chance," said Falconer, with an appreciable smile. +"I'm much obliged--but I don't at all share your misgivings.... And +what in the world do you propose to do about it?" + +For a minute Billy's gaze blankly interrogated the sunlit distances. +His eyes were fixed, but empty; his forehead knitted in an uncertain +frown. Then quite suddenly he turned and flashed at Falconer a look +of odd and unforeseen decision. + +"I'm going to buy a crocodile," he imparted, with a wide, boyish +grin. "I'm going to buy a crocodile of a one-eyed man." + +Stolidly Falconer eyed his departing back. Stolidly, definitely, +comprehensively, he pronounced judgment. "Mad," said he. "Mad as the +March Hare." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR + + +That stealthy touch brought Arlee half upright, shot with ghastly +alarms. Her heart stopped beating; it stood still in the cold clutch +of terror. The breath seemed to have left her body. + +Once more she felt the hands gropingly upon her. It came from the +back side of her bed, reaching apparently from the very wall. And +then she heard a voice whispering, "Be still--I do not hurt you. Be +still." + +It was a woman's voice, soft, sibilant, hushed, and the frozen grip +of fear was broken. She was trembling now uncontrollably. + +"Who is there?" + +"S-sh!" came the warning response, and then, her eyes staring into +the shadowy recess, she saw the curtains at the back side of the bed +were parting as a figure appeared between them. + +"Give me a box, a book--somethings to put here in this lock," +commanded the voice peremptorily, and in a daze Arlee found herself +extending a magazine across the bed toward the half-seen figure, who +turned and busied herself about the curtains a moment, then came +straight across the bed into the room beside Arlee. + +"Now you see who I am," said the astonishing intruder calmly. + +Mutely Arlee shook her head, seeing only a figure about her own +height clad in a dark negligee. Dumfounded she stood watching while +her visitor deliberately lighted a candle. + +"So--that is better," she observed, and in the light of the tiny +taper between them the two stood facing each other. + +Arlee saw a girl some years older than herself, a small, plump, +rounded creature, with a flaunting and insouciant prettiness. Her +eyes were dark and bright, her babyish lips were full and scarlet, +her nose was whimsically uptilted. Dark hair curled closely to the +vivid face and fell in ringlets over the white neck. + +"You don't know me?" she said in astonishment at Arlee's eyes of +wonder. "He has not told you?" Incredulity, impertinent and mocking, +darted out of the dark eyes. "What you think then--you what got my +room?" + +"Your room?" Arlee echoed faintly. She flung a quivering hand toward +the bed. "How did you get in here? I locked the door----" + +"You see how I came--I came by the panel," She waited a moment, +watching the wide blue eyes before her, the parted lips, the white +cheeks in which the blood was slowly stealing back, and incredulity +gave way to astonished acceptance. "You don't know that, either? +That is very funny." + +"Did you lock it?" was Arlee's next breathless question. "What was +that you said about putting in a magazine? Did you leave it open?" + +The other girl reached quickly and caught her arm, as Arlee turned +toward the bed. "No, no, if it goes shut we cannot open it inside," +she warned. "It does not open this side unless you have the key. It +opens from without. But he will not come in now--he is at the +Khedive's palace. We are all right." + +"But I want to get away," cried Arlee. She turned upon this other +girl great eyes of pitiful entreaty, eyes where the dark shadows +about them lay like cruel bruises on the white flesh. "I must get +away at once. Won't you help me?" + +"Help you? I would help myself, if I could. But there is no way out. +It is no use." The unknown girl spoke with a bitterness that brought +conviction. Piteously the flare of hope and spirit wilted. + +"You are sure?" she questioned faintly. "There is no way out?" + +"No way, no way!" The other shook her head impatiently. "Do I not +know? Let us talk of that again. Now I came to see you, to see what +pretty face had sent me packing!" She laughed, but there was +ugliness in the laughter, and catching up the candle she held it +before Arlee, her face impudently close, her eyes black darts of +curiosity. + +"Well you are pretty enough," she said coolly. "Hamdi has always the +good taste. But do you think you will keep my room from me--h'm?" + +"I do not want your room," said Arlee with passionate intensity. +"I do not want to stay here. I want only to go away. Oh, there must +be a way. Please help me--please." She choked and broke down, the +tears hot in her eyes. + + [Illustration: "'I do not want to stay here'"] + +The other girl abruptly drew her down on the couch and settled +herself beside her among the cushions. "Here--be comfortable--let us +be comfortable and talk," she said. "Do not cry so--What, you are so +soon sorry? You want to be off?" + +Desperately Arlee steadied her shaking voice. "I must go at once." + +"You got enough so soon?" + +"Enough!" was the quivering echo. + +"What you come for then?" + +"Come for? I did not know what I was coming into. I thought--but +tell me," she broke off to demand, "tell me about the plague. Was +there any quarantine at all? How soon was it over? What is really +happening?" + +"Quar--quar--what you mean?" + +"The plague? Has there been a plague here? Have people had to stay +in the palace on account of it?" + +"Oh--h!" The indrawn breath was eloquent of enlightenment. "Is that +somethings he said to you?" + +"Yes, yes. Isn't it true? Wasn't there any plague?" + +With eyes of dreadful apprehension she saw the other shake her head +in vigorous denial. "No plague," she said decisively. "My maid--she +know everything. No sickness here." + +"Then it was all a lie." Arlee's eyes fixed themselves on the +dancing candle flame, swaying in the soft night air. She tried to +think very coolly and collectedly, but her brain felt numb and +fogged and heavy. The sight of that tortured candle flame hypnotized +her. Faintly she whispered, "Then it was all--an excuse," and, at +that, sharp terror, like a knife, cleaved her numbness. She turned +furiously to her visitor. + +"But he would not dare make it all up!" + +She saw the callousness of the shrug. "Why not--he is the master +here!" Her own heart echoed fearfully the words. She stammered, +"But--but I wrote--I had a letter--there must----" + +"What in all the world are you saying?" demanded the other. "What is +this story?" and as Arlee began the quick, whispered narration she +listened intently, her little dark head on one side, nodding wisely +at intervals. + +"So--you came to have tea," she repeated at the close, in her +quaintly inflected, foreign-sounding English. "And you stay because +of the plague? So?" + +"But I wrote--I wrote to my friends and----" + +"And gave him the letters!" + +"But I had a letter from my friends--or a telegram rather." Arlee +knitted her brows in furious thought. "And it sounded like her." + +"Does he know her, that friend?" questioned the other and at Arlee's +nod, "Then he could write it himself--that is easy on telegraph +paper. He is so clever, that devil, Hamdi." + +"But my friends knew where I was going"--slowly the mind turned back +to trace the blind, careless steps of that afternoon. "At least he +said he'd leave a note--Oh, what a fool I was!" she broke off to +gasp, seeing how that forethought of his, that far-sighted remark, +had prevented her from leaving a note of her own. And she remembered +now, with flashing clearness, that upon her arrival he had +carelessly inquired if she, too, had left a note of explanation. How +lightly she had told him no! And what unguessed springs of action +came perhaps from that single word! For so cleverly had the trap +been swiftly prepared that if anything had gone wrong, if anyone had +become aware of her intentions, it could have passed off as a visit +and she would have returned to her hotel prattling joyously of her +wonderful glimpse into the seclusion of Turkish aristocracy! + +"But the soldier with the bayonet," she said aloud. "There was one +on the stairs." + +"A servant." + +"Oh, if I had passed him!" + +"You could not--he would run you through on a nod from Hamdi. They +watch that stairs always--day and night." + +Day and night--and she was alone here, in this grim palace, alone +and helpless and forsaken.... What were her friends thinking about +her? Where did they think she was? Her thoughts beat desperately +upon that problem, trying to find there some ray of hope, some +promise that there were clues which would lead them to her, but she +found nothing there but deeper mystery and fearful surmise. He was +clever enough to cover his traces. No one had known of his +connection with her departure.... Perhaps he had sent them some +false and misleading message like the one he had sent her.... What +were they thinking? What did they believe? This was Friday night, +and she had been gone since Thursday afternoon. + +In that moment she saw with merciless clarity the bitter straits +that she was in. + +"Oh, he is a devil!" her companion was reaffirming with an angry +little half-whisper sibilant with fury. "Look how he treat me--me, +Fritzi Baroff! You do not know me? You do not know that name? In +Vienna it is not so unknown--Oh, God, I was so happy in Vienna!" She +stopped, her breast heaving, with the flare of emotion, then went on +quickly, with suppressed vehemence, "I was a singer--in the light +opera. I dance, too, and I was arriving. Only this year I was to +have a fine role--and it all went, zut, it all went for that man! I +was one fool about him, and his dark eyes and his strange ways.... I +thought I had a prince. And he worship me then, too--he follow me, +he give me big diamonds.... So he take me here--it was to be the +vacation!" + +She gave a strangling little laugh. Arlee was listening with a +painful intensity. She was living, she thought, in an Arabian +nights. + +"I stay at the hotel first till he make this like a private +apartment for me," went on the little dancer, "and when I come here +he do everything for me. I have luxury, yes, jewels and dresses and +a fine new car. Then, by and by, I grow tired. It was always the +same and he was at the palace, much. And he would not let me make +acquaintance. We quarrel, but still I have a fancy for him, and +then, you understand, money is not always so easy to find. Life can +be hard. But I get more restless, I want to go back on the stage and +I, well, I write some letters that he finds out. _Bang_, goes the +door upon me! He laugh like a fiend. He say that I am to be a little +Turkish lady to the end of my life. Oh, God, he shut me up like a +prisoner in this place, and I can do nothing--nothing--nothing!" + +She beat out angry emphasis on the palm of one hand with a clenched +little fist. "I go nearly mad. I lose my head. He laugh--he is like +that. He is a devil when he turns against you, and, you understand, +he had somethings new to play with now.... Sometimes he seem to love +me as before, and then I would grow soft and coax that he take me to +Europe some day, and then when I think he mean it--Oh, how he +laugh!" She drew in her breath sharply. "Sometimes I think he will +take me again--sometime--but I cannot tell. And the days never end. +They are terrible. My youth is going, going. And my youth is all I +have." + +She looked at Arlee with eyes where her terror was visible, and all +the lines of her pretty, common little face were changed and +sharpened, and her babyish lips dragged down strangely at the +corners. + +A surge of pity went through Arlee Beecher. "Oh, you will escape," +she heard herself saying eagerly. "And I will escape--or--or----" + +"Or?" + +"Or I will kill myself," she whispered quiveringly. + +The little Viennese stared hard at her, and a sudden crinkle of +amusement darted across the bright shallows of her eyes. "Come, +love is not so bad," she said, "and Hamdi can be charming." Then as +she saw a shudder run through the young girl before her, "Oh, if you +do not fancy him!" she cried airily, yet with a keen look. + +But Arlee's two hands sought and covered up the scarlet shame in her +face. She did not cry; she felt that every tear in her was dried in +that bitter flame. Her whole body seemed on fire, burning with fury +and revulsion and that awful sense of humiliation. + +The other stirred restively, "Come, do not cry--I hate people to +cry. It makes everything so worse. And do not talk of killing. It is +not so easy anyway, that killing. Do I not think I will die and end +all when my rage is hot--but how? How? I cannot beat my head out +against the wall like a Russian. I cannot stick a penknife in my +throat or eat glass. To do that one must be a monster of courage. +And I have no poison to eat, no gas to turn on.... Then the mood +goes and the day is bright and I look in the glass and say, 'Die? +Die for you? Kill all this beautiful young thing that has such joy +to dance and sing? Never! Some day I will be out of this and laugh +at the memory of such blackness.' And so I practice my voice and my +steps--and I wait my chance. When you came, yesterday, first I was +furious to be pushed out, then I think it is the chance, maybe. I +think you would be glad to help me to get out and not to stay to +make you jealous. But if you are also in the trap----" Her voice +fell dispiritedly. She drew a long, weary breath. + +"But I shall not stay in the trap." Arlee spoke with desperate +resolve, her eyes on the sputtering candle, her palms against her +burning cheeks, her finger tips pressed into her throbbing temples. +"I shall not let him make me afraid like this. He must know he will +be found out--he cannot play like this with an American girl! I +shall face him to-morrow. I shall demand my freedom. I shall tell +him that I did tell people at the hotel--that he will be discovered. +I will make _him_ afraid!" + +"You cannot. He watches what happens on the outside--he knows." + +After a pause, "Oh, why did I come!" said Arlee in choking +bitterness. + +The little dancer turned, and, sitting there cross-legged on the +couch like a squat little idol, her chin sunk in her palm, her dark +eyes staring unwinkingly at Arlee, gave the girl a long, strange +scrutiny. + +"You do not like him?" she said. + +"I hate him!" + +"But you came to tea?" + +"To meet his sister. To see the palace." + +"His sister? Did he show you one?" + +"Yes--a woman with red hair. A Turkish woman. She spoke French to +me." + +"Ah--that would be Seniha!" + +"Seniha? I don't know. She played the piano. Has he more than one +sister?" + +But as she put the question a sudden flash of intuition forestalled +the dancer's mocking cry of "Sister!" And as Fritzi hurried on, "He +has no sister--not here, anyway," Arlee's thoughts ran back to the +beginning of that very evening which seemed so long ago when she had +plunged wildly into those unknown rooms, and saw again that +painted, jeweled woman with her outstretched arms. + +"She is his wife," the Viennese was saying. + +"I--I did not know that he was married." + +"Oh, Turkish marriages." The other shrugged, with a contempt a +trifle droll in one who had dispensed with every ceremony. "She was +his second. The first was a little girl, he said. The match was made +for him. She is dead. This Seniha was her cousin, a cousin who was +divorced and she lived with the wife. And our pretty Hamdi made love +to her, and she was mad about him and so, presently, it happens that +he must marry her, for it would be terrible to have disgrace upon +the wife's family. Besides the first wife had no children. So he +married her. But _she_ had no children. It was all one fairy story." +Fritzi laughed under her breath in great enjoyment. "So Hamdi was +cheated and he has been a devil to her. The first little wife dies +and he shut the second up here, teasing her sometimes, sometimes +making love when he is dull, but forcing her to his will for fear he +will divorce her.... How she must have hated you, when she had to +play that sister. Except that she was glad that _I_ was being put +aside," the dancer added with quick spite. "I think she would put +poison in my meat if she did not fear Hamdi so.... And always she +hopes that he will come back to her. I have seen her waiting, night +after night----" + +And Arlee thought of the jewels and the silks ... and the long, +long, silent hours.... Slowly she put out her hand and snuffed out +the smoking wick, then raised her eyes to where the painted bars +stretched black across the starry square of sky. "Won't _she_ +help?" she asked. + +"Not she! Hamdi would find her out.... Not through her can you get +word to your friends. For you have friends here? And they will help +you? And then you will help me?" + +"Oh, yes, if I can get help," promised Arlee. "But I am afraid my +friends have gone up the Nile--and there are just--just one or two +left in Cairo that would help. And I must get word to them _at +once_. What is the best way? Couldn't I push a note through the +windows on the street? Someone might see that!" + +"Yes, the doorkeeper. No, that is not safe.... If only that girl +were sure----" + +"Mariayah?" cried Arlee. + +"No, the other--the little one with the wart over her eye. Have you +seen her? Well, watch for her, then. She has an itching palm--she +may help. But only in little things, of course, for she is afraid. +And I have no money left and she is afraid to take a jewel." + +"I have almost no money," said Arlee blankly. "Only a letter of +credit----" + +"A letter of nothing here! But promise her your friends will give +much." + +"Would she mail a letter?" + +"Have you stamps? No? She is so ignorant that is an obstacle. And +the post is distant and she dare not go far. But sometimes the baker +sends a little boy, and if you had money to give she might get a +note to him to carry--though, maybe, she burns the note and keeps +the money," the Viennese ended pessimistically. + +"But I must get help _at once_," Arlee iterated passionately. +Before----" + +"Before?" the other repeated curiously, "He makes love to you--h'm?" + +"He--is beginning." + +"Only beginning?" + +"Only--beginning." Arlee felt the girl's strange, hard scrutiny +through the dark. Then she heard her draw a quick breath as if her +eyes on Arlee's flower-like face had convinced her of something +against all her sorry little reason. + +"Well, that is good then," she said. "Try to keep him off. What does +he promise you?" + +"Promise me? He does not promise anything." + +"But he must say something--what is between you--what?" demanded the +other impatiently. + +Briefly, her shamed cheeks grateful for the shadows, Arlee told of +that walk in the garden, of the flowers and the letter, the scene +after dinner. And the other girl's eyes grew wider and wider, and +then finally she burst into a smothered little laugh. + +"Oh, he is mad, that Hamdi!" she whispered. "He is a monster of +vanity--'conquest of the spirit'--h'm, I comprehend. That young man +has a pride beyond all sense. You dazzle him--he is in love again +like a boy. And he must dazzle you. His pride demands a victory not +of force alone.... Some men are like that.... Well, that is your +chance!" + +"My chance?" + +"Play with his vanity--fight his force with that!" said this strange +initiator into terrible secrets. "He will believe anything of his +fascinations--I know him. And if he is so mad for you that he dares +all this trouble to have you here, then he is so mad that you can +fool him and make him hold back in hopes to gain more from you. Make +him think you are coming, as he wishes, heart and body, but still +you would wait a little. So you gain time.... Oh, you must be +careful! If he loses hope, if you anger him, why the game is over. +But if you are careful you can gain a few days----" + +"A few days," said Arlee in a tense little voice. + +"Well, that is something--since you hate him so!" + +"Yes, that is something." Arlee drew a shivering breath, her head +drooping, her lashes on her cheeks. Then suddenly, amazingly, her +chin came pluckily up, her soft lips set with desperate decision, +her eyes turned on her counselor a look of flashing spirit. She was +like some young wild thing at bay, harried, defiant, tensely +defensive. Something of the pathos of her innocent presence there, +in that evil palace, utterly alone, hopelessly defiant, penetrated +for an instant the callous acceptances of the little dancer and her +eyes softened with facile sympathy, but the impression dulled, and +she only nodded her head encouragingly. + +"Good! That is the way! Women can always act!" she murmured, +slipping off the divan and drawing her fluttering robes about her. +"But it is very late and I must go--it is not safe to stay so." + +"Where is your room? Could I get to you?" + +"No--for you cannot open that panel on the inside--unless you can +steal the key from him as I could not! My room--for this present, +little one," and her eyes laughed suddenly in challenge, "is up on +the top--a little old room all alone. My doors are locked, but there +is a panel in my room, too, a panel at the top of tiny stairs, and +the lock on that panel is so old and rusty that a knife make it +open. So I pushed it open and came down the tiny stairs that end out +there in the passage way, and I opened your panel. Now I must steal +back, but I shall come again, and we must plan." + +"But where does this secret passage go?" Arlee had followed over the +bed, and held aside the heavy draperies while the little Baroff was +pushing the panel softly and carefully open. Eagerly Arlee peered +out into the darkness beyond. "Where does it go?" she repeated. + +"It runs above the hall of banquets and into the _selamlik_," +whispered the Viennese. "It opens into Hamdi's rooms, he says, and I +know that a servant sleeps always at his door and another is at the +foot of the stairs. So it would be madness to try that way." + +But Arlee stared thoughtfully into the secret place. "I am glad I +know," she said. + +"Well, good-by, little one." The Viennese was standing outside now, +softly closing the door. For a moment her face remained in the +opening. "You will not tell Hamdi that I came--no?" she demanded +sharply, and then on Arlee's quick reassurance she nodded, whispered +good-by again, and drew back her little face. + +The wall rolled into place and a gentle click told of the caught +lock. The curtains fell back over the wall. And Arlee was left +huddling there alone, feeling that it had all been a dream, but for +the heavy scent that lingered in the air and the wild fear beating +in her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DESPERATE GAME + + +Very slowly the black night grayed down into a wan, spectral +morning, and slowly the gray morning paled into a dim +mother-of-pearl dawn. And then suddenly the mother-of-pearliness +brightened into a shimmering opal, and the ray of pale gold light +slanted through the barred window and the bright face of new day +peeped over the sill, staring out of countenance the lurking shadows +of the night. + +And then Arlee's eyes closed, and the heart which had been beating +like a frightened rabbit's at every sound and shadow steadied into a +rhythm as regular as a clock. She slept like a tired baby; while the +light grew brighter and higher, and reached in over the shining +dressing table, over the white piano, to rest upon the oblivious +face upon the couch and to play with the bright, tangled hair. + +The first knocking upon the door did not disturb that sleep, and it +was a long time before the knock was again sounded. Then Arlee heard +and sprang to her feet in a lightning rush of consciousness. It was +Mariayah again, and the water jars which already looked familiar to +her, and after the water jars appeared more roses and with the roses +a letter. + +Those roses came, the letter explained, to droop their heads before +her loveliness, which put theirs to shame. They would greet her as +humbler sisters greet a fairer. For they were roses of a day, but +she was the Rose of Life. The capitals were Kerissen's own. And then +abruptly the letter demanded: + + Did I frighten you last night? Is it so strange to you + that you have magic to make a man forget all the barriers + of your convention? Do you not know you have an + enchantment which distills in the blood and changes it to + wine? You are the Rose of Life, the Rose of Desire, and + no man can look upon you without longing. But you must + not be angry at me for that, for I am your slave, and + would strew roses always to soften the world for your + little feet.... Fortune has made you my guest. Will you + not smile upon me while Fortune smiles? Luncheon will be + in the garden, for it is cool and fresh today. + +The mask was slipping. Only a flimsy veil of sentiment now over his +rash will. Only a light pretense of her freedom, of his courtesy. He +was beginning to declare himself.... + +But she must not let him suspect that she knew. She must _not_. + +Her spirit responded fiercely to this tense demand upon it. The +dread, the panic of the night was gone. The fear that had shaken her +was beaten down like a cowardly dog. Excitement burned in her blood. +Everything depended upon her coolness and her wit, upon a look, +perhaps, the turn of a phrase, the droop of an eye, and she was +passionately resolved that neither coolness nor wit should fail her, +nor words nor looks nor eyes betray the heart of her. She would play +her role with every breath she drew. + + * * * * * + +She crossed the room at the luncheon summons in the nervous tensity +of mood that an actress might go to play a part in which her career +would live or die. Every half hour with Kerissen was now a duel, +every minute was a stroke to be parried, and she flung herself into +that duel with the desperate exhilaration of such daring. Her hands +were icy, and her cheeks were flaming with the excitement which +consumed her, but she revealed no other trace of it, and she +wondered to herself at the inscrutable fairness of the face which, +looked back at her from the glass. + +None of the record of those frightened, sleepless hours was written +there, none of her furious pride, her fixed intensity. Only the soft +shadows under the blue eyes gave her face a look of added delicacy +for all the unnatural flare of brilliant color, and a faint +wistfulness in those eyes seemed to overlay the smiles she +practiced, like a cloud shadow on a brook. And never, never, in all +her glad, care-free days, had she been as distractingly pretty as +she was that moment. With an angry little pang she recognized it, +pinning on the lace hat with its enchanting rose, and then +desperately she resolved to employ it and added two of Kerissen's +pink roses to the costume. + +She thought the scene was very like a stage, when she came out +through the narrow door which the old woman unlocked from a key she +carried on a girdle, and slowly descended the stone steps. Beneath +the wide-spreading lebbek a low table was laid for luncheon with two +wicker chairs beside it. The green of the fresh turf was as vivid as +stage grass; the lilies loomed unreally large and white; the +poinsettias flaunted like red paper flowers behind the vivid picture +that the Captain made in a dazzling buff and green uniform picked +out with gold. His bow was theatric, so was the deep look of +exaggerated admiration he bent upon her--it was strange to remember +that her danger was not theatric also. But that was deadly real, and +real, too, was the sudden surge of color into the young man's sallow +face. + +"You are kind to my roses--if not to me," he said quickly, and held +out his hand for the brief little clasp she accorded. + +"Your roses are dumb and have said nothing to make me cross," she +laughed lightly, and looked swiftly about her. "How lovely this is," +she ran on, "and how charming to feel a breeze. That room is rather +warm and close.... Is you sister still too ill to come?" + +And scarcely waiting for the assent which he began to frame with his +searching eyes upon her, she added, "I am afraid I made her angry +last night by intruding upon her. But I heard her voice and ran back +to her room to ask after her. She wouldn't let me stay at all." + +It was droll how natural her voice sounded, she thought. His eyes +held their fixed scrutiny in an instant, then dropped carelessly +away, as he drew forward the wicker chairs. "She is a _nerveuse_, +you understand," he said with an air of indolent resignation, "and +one can do nothing for that sort of thing. A crisis comes--one must +wait for it to pass.... She regrets that condition.... And she +wished me to present her regrets to you," he added suavely, "for +that reception of you last night. She was ill and did not expect +you--and she did not wish you to see her in that condition." + +"I should not have gone," acknowledged Arlee, "but, as I said, I +heard voices from the ante-room and thought I would like to see +her.... That pretty little maid she gave me does not speak any +English, so I cannot send any messages." + +"But you can write them." + +"My French spelling is worse than my pronunciation!" She laughed +amusedly. "I wish you would find me an interpreter to put my polite +remarks into polite sounding phrases. I know I put things like a +First Reader!" + +He smiled. "You do not put them like a First Reader to me. _We_ do +not need an interpreter.... Unless I need one to speak to you?" + +"Oh, no, your English is wonderful!" She waited an instant, then +took a breathless plunge. "Have you any more news for me?" she +demanded, forcing the note of expectancy. It would be suspicious, +indeed, if she did not ask that. But what if he had decided to throw +the pretense aside---- + +"Not one word of news more," he said slowly. + +She felt him watching her as she looked down on her plate. The +pretty little girl was passing a platter of pigeon: Arlee did not +speak until she had helped herself, then she said in a voice touched +faintly with chagrin, "Well, the English are not very gallant toward +ladies in misfortune, are they? I feel furiously snubbed.... Of +course Mrs. Eversham never was much of a writer, but they might send +over my letters from the hotel. The last mail ought to have brought +a lot from that big brother of mine." + +"Ah, yes, that big, grown-up, married brother who is so satisfied +with all you do!" + +She felt she had been unfortunate in her rash confidences. + +"He won't be so pleased when he learns how I wasted a perfectly good +Nile ticket," she remarked. "And Big Brother is rather fierce when +he isn't pleased." + +His eyes smiled, as if he understood and despised her suggestion. +"Cairo and your America are not so near," he observed negligently, +"that an incident here is a matter of immediate knowledge there." + +She felt the danger of seeming to threaten him. "Oh, I'd 'fess up," +she said lightly, playing with her food. "There--shoo--go away!" she +cried suddenly, with a militant gesture about her plate. "That's one +thing I hate about Egypt--the flies!" + +"I hope that is the only thing you hate," said the young man +blandly. + +"Isn't that enough? There are so many of them!" + +He laughed with real amusement at her petulance. "Is there netting +enough in your room?" he inquired. "Would you like more for your +bed?" + +"Oh, no, I'm all right, thank you. The flies are chiefly bothersome +at meals. This is certainly their paradise." + +"But is there anything you would like--to make you happy here? I +will get it for you. Would you not like some books, some music, some +new clothes----" + +"I don't wonder you ask! But really this white gown will last a +little longer--Cairo is so clean. No, thank you, there is nothing I +need bother you about--Oh, yes, there really is one book that I +would like--a Turkish or an Arabic dictionary. I have always meant +to learn a little of the language and this would seem the +opportunity." + +In the pause in which he appeared to be consuming pigeon she could +feel him weighing her request, foreseeing its results. + +"I shall be most happy to teach you," was what he said, but she knew +she would never have that dictionary. And so one plan of the morning +went flying to the winds. But she snatched at the next opening she +saw and plunged into interested questions about the Turkish +language, asking the words for such things as seemed spontaneously +to occur to her--wall, palace, table--numbers--days of the +week--repeating the pronunciation with the earnestness of a diligent +young pupil, until she felt that her memory had all it could hold. +And distrust, always ready now like a prompter in the box, suggested +most upsettingly that perhaps he was not giving the right words. She +resolved to experiment upon Mariayah. + +He reverted, with increasing emphasis, upon his desire to make her +happy in the palace, to surround her with whatever she desired, and +swiftly she availed herself of this second opening. + +"Yes, indeed, there is something that would make me happier, if you +don't mind, please," she added with a droll assumption of meekness. +"You don't know how horrid it is for me to be caged in one room and +not be out of doors, and I would love to come down into the garden +when I want to. Won't you give me a key to that door? That is, if it +is always locked." + +"Generally it is not," he said readily, "but now with the soldiers +about it is safer. You see, the soldiers can approach the garden +through the open banquet hall"--and he nodded to the colonnade +behind them--"and though it is forbidden, one cannot foretell their +obedience." + +To one who knew those soldiers were chimerical acquiescence was +maddening. + +"But, dear me, can't you have some one in the banquet hall to shoo +the soldiers away?" Arlee argued persuasively. "Since the rest of +the household has the court, it seems awfully selfish not to let the +ladies have the garden for their airing." + +"It may be managed," he assented. "It has always been done, for the +garden is for the ladies. Whenever you wish to be in the garden you +have but to send word, and the household will remain in the court, +as is, indeed, the custom." + +"It would not be so terrible, you know, if a gardener or a +donkey-boy did see my face!" laughed Arlee. "Plenty of them have had +that pleasure before this." + +She saw that the young man's face changed. Every clear-cut line of +it was sharp with repugnance. "You need not remind me of that," he +said with muffled fierceness, staring down at his plate. + +"The danger line!" she thought while shaking her head at him, with +the tense semblance of an amused little smile.... "You aren't the +least bit English," she rebuked, "and I thought you were." + +"Not in that.... And some day England will see her folly." + +"America is seeing her folly now," thought Arlee with secret +bitterness. But when she raised her eyes they were gently +contemplative. She spoke musingly. + +"In things like that you aren't at all what I thought you +were--about our social customs, I mean. Yet fundamentally, I think +you are." + +"That I am what?" + +"What I thought you were." + +He waited, palpably waited, but Arlee continued to peel a tangerine +with absorption, and the question had to come from him. He put it +with an air of indolent amusement, yet she felt the intent interest +in leash. + +"And what did you think I was like, _chere petite mademoiselle_?" + +"Very handsome for one thing, Monsieur! You see, I owe you a +compliment for calling me such a pretty name as this!" With a +mischievous smile she touched the roses nodding in her girdle. "And +very autocratic for another, with a very bad temper. If you can't +get your way you would be shockingly disagreeable!" + +"But I always get my way," he assured her lazily, his teeth showing +under his small, black mustache. + +"I believe you do!" Ingenuous admiration, simple and sustained, was +in the look she gave him. Her hands were not half so icy now, nor +her nerves so tense. She felt strangely surer of herself; the actual +presence of the danger calmed her. She must make good with this, she +thought simply, in strenuous American. + +"And yet," she went on thoughtfully, the pretty picture of +fascinated absorption in this most feminine topic--the dissection of +a young man--"yet, you are chivalrous. And I think that is the +quality we American girls admire most of all." + +"The quality--of indulgence?" he questioned, with a half-railing +air. + +"The quality--of gentleness." + +"But is there not another quality which you American girls would +admire more than that gentleness--if you ever had the chance in your +lives to see it? The quality of dominance? The courage of the man +who dares what he desires, and who takes what he wills? Is not +that----" + +"Ah, yes, we love strong men," Arlee flung into the speech that was +bearing him on like a tide, "but we don't think them strong unless +they are strong enough to fight themselves. They may take what they +will--but they mustn't crush it.... There is a gentleness in great +strength--I can't explain what I mean----" + +"Ah, I see, I see." He smiled subtly. "I am not to crush you, little +Rose of Desire," he said softly. + +She met the sly significance of his gaze with a look of frank, +unfaltering candor. "Of course not," she said stoutly. "When +you--you make me afraid of you, you make me like you less. You seem +less like the friend I knew on the boat." + +"Ah, that boat!... You were my friend, then!" he added suddenly, +with a note of question sounding through the affirmation, and she +answered quickly, looking away with an air of petulant reproach. +"Why, you know I was, Captain Kerissen. And here in Cairo----" + +"Yes, here in Cairo," he interrupted triumphantly, "in the face of +those eyes and tongues--I saw that red-headed dog of an Englishman +looking his anger at you! But you smiled on me before them +all--those fools, those tyrannic fools----" + +"But you mustn't abuse my other friends! They were only--stupid!" + +"Stupid as their blood brother, the ox!... But they are not in the +picture now--those other friends!" Disagreeably he laughed. "And you +do not grieve for them--no? The world has not touched you? There is +no one out there,"--he made a gesture over the guarding walls--"no +one who holds a fragment of your thought, of your heart in his +hands?" + +She looked at him as if puzzled, then burst into a bubbling laugh. +"Why, of course not! I've just had a nice time with people. There +has never been a bit of sentiment about it!" + +"Not on your side," he said meaningly, and because this was hitting +the truth smartly on the head she looked past him in some confusion. + +"Oh--boys!" she said with a deprecating little laugh. "I've never +listened to them." + +He leaned back in his chair, feeling for his cigarette case, and +the contentment of his look deepened. "You have been a child, asleep +to life," he murmured complacently. "I told you you were a +princess--let us say a sleeping princess waiting for the prince, +like that old fairy tale of the English." He was looking at his +cigarette as he tapped it on the arm of his chair, and slowly struck +a light, then, after the first breath, "But do you not hear his +footsteps in your sleep?" he added, and gave her a glance from the +corner of his eyes. + +She looked up and then down; she stared out into the sun-flooded +garden and laughed softly. "Even princesses dream," she demurely +acknowledged, and thought the line and her fleet, meaning glance +went very well with this mad opera-bouffe which fate was forcing her +to play. + +Kerissen seemed to think that went very well, too, for his flashing +teeth acknowledged his pleasure in her aptness; then his smile faded +and she felt him studying her over his cigarette, studying her +averted gaze, the bright color in her cheeks, the curves of her +lips, and he was puzzled and perturbed by the sweet, baffling beauty +of her. A wild elation began to swell his heart. His eyes glowed, +his blood burned with the triumph, not so much of his daring capture +of her, but of the flattering tribute that her pretty ways were +paying toward his personality alone. Wary as he was, cynical of +subterfuge, he did not penetrate her guard. His monstrous vanity +whispered eager flattery in his ears. + +And still he continued to stare at her, finding her unbelievably +lovely. "My grandfather would call you an _houri_ from paradise," +he told her, the warmth of admiration deepening in his eyes. + +"And your grandfather's grandson knows that I am only an _houri_ +from America!... But that _is_ paradise for _houris_!" + +"And not for men, no!... Sometimes I have wished that those English +would restore in me that young belief in the heaven of the Prophet," +he continued, smiling, "and now that wish is granted. It is here, +that paradise," and his smile, flashing about the lonely garden, +came to dwell again upon the girl before him. + +She laughed. "But does one _houri_ make a paradise?" she bantered, +while the beating, hurrying heart of her went faster and faster till +she thought his ears would hear it. "We have a proverb--one swallow +does not make a summer." + +"_Cela depend_--that depends upon the _houri_.... When _you_ are +that one it is paradise indeed." He leaned toward her, speaking +softly, but with a voice that thrilled more and more in its own +eloquence. + +She was the Rose of Desire, he reminded her, and beside her all +other flowers drooped in envy. She was as lovely as young Dawn to +the eyes of men. She was the ravishing embodiment of gaiety and +youth and delight. He quoted from the poets, not from his own +Oriental poets, but snatches from Campion and Wilde, vowing that + + "There was a garden in her face, + Where roses and white lilies grow," + +and adding, with points of fire dancing in his heavy lidded eyes, + + "Her neck is like white melilote, + Flushing for pleasure of the sun," + +and went on to add praise to praise and extravagance to +extravagance, till a sudden little imp of mirth caught Arlee by the +throat, hysterically choking her. "I shall never like praise or +poetry or--or men again," she thought, struggling between wild +laughter and hot disgust, while aloud she mocked, "Ah, you know too +much poetry, Captain Kerissen! I do not recognize myself at all! You +are laughing at me!" + +"Laughing at you?... I am worshipping you," he said tensely, his +eyes on hers, and the fierce words shattered her light defenses to +confusion. + +Silence gripped her. She tried to meet his look and smile in mock +reproof, but her eyes fled away affrighted, so full of desperate, +passionate things was the dark gaze they touched. She gripped her +cold little hands in her lap and looked out beyond the lebbek's +shade into the vivid garden. The hot sunshine lay orange on the +white-sanded paths; the shadows were purple and indigo. A little +lizard had come out from a crack in a stone and was sunning himself, +while one bright eye upon them, fixed, motionless, irridescent, +warned him of their least stir. She envied him the safety of his +crack.... She herself must meet this crisis--must turn this tide.... + +"It is--so soon," she faltered. + +"Soon?" He had risen and was standing over her. "Soon? I was with +you on the boat--I walked by your side--I danced with you and held +you against my heart. And here in Cairo I walked and talked with +you.... And now for three days you have been under my roof, eating +at the table with me, alone within these walls, and you call it +soon! Truly, you are beyond belief! _Soon!_" + +"But soon--for _me_!" she interrupted swiftly, and sprang to her +feet to face him with eyes and lips that smiled without a trace of +fear. Only her cheeks were no longer crimson but white as chalk. +"Too soon--for me to be sure--how _I_ feel! I hadn't realized--I +hadn't known--Oh, you mustn't hurry me! You mustn't hurry me!" She +broke off in a confusion he might well misconstrue, and moved +nervously away, her back to him. + +He stood staring after her, a man not in two minds but in three and +four. Her broken words--her smiles--her emotion--these might well +arouse the most flattering surmise, and his vanity and his curiosity +were stirred to swift delight. He broke into a storm of words, of +protestations, of eager persuasion and honied flattery, drawing +nearer and nearer to her, while she slipped continually away from +him. + +"You mustn't hurry me," she echoed defensively. "I am not like +you--you Southerners. I----" + +"You are asleep--I have told you that you are that sleeping +princess," he broke in, and following after as she turned away from +him, he put a quick arm about her, and bending over her, tried to +turn her about toward him. "Do you know how that little sleeping +princess was awakened by her prince?" he murmured fatuously, +bending closer. + +The hat saved her, that coquettish little hat with its jealously +guarding brim which bent obstinately lower and lower between them. +And in the instant of his indecision, while he waited for the +surrender his vanity expected before exerting the force that would +conquer brutally, she broke unexpectedly from his clasp and darted a +few steps away from him, whirling about to face him with her head +flung back, her eyes on fire, her lips parted in a breathless +excitement. + +"Captain Kerissen," she cried, and there was a ring of gaiety in her +voice, "do I understand that you are proposing to me?" + +Very formally he bowed, a bow that hid the astonishment and the +cynical humor which zigzagged across his handsome face. "I am doing +myself that honor," he most suavely returned, and eyed her with an +astonished curiosity that checked his passion. + +"Really?... So soon?" she cried very childishly, and again he bowed. +But this time she caught his smile. + +"Really so soon, little Arlee." + +To his amazement she burst into prankish laughter. + +"Oh, you _are_ romantic!" she gave back. "And if I can believe you +truly in earnest--last night I was furious at you," she went on +rapidly, interrupting the speech forming on his lips, "for I thought +you a dreadful flirt, just taking advantage of my being here, and +yet--and yet you _didn't_ seem that kind. You seemed a _gentleman_! +And now if you really mean--all you are saying--but you can't, you +can't! I know your words are running ahead of you!" + +"My words--let my heart speak--I----" + +"But I don't know whether I ought to listen or not!" she burst out, +and with great naivete, "I'm afraid it would be very silly to let +myself care for you." + +"Silly? An adorable silliness! Could you not be happy with me here +in this palace? You would be a princess, indeed, a queen of my +heart. I would put every luxury at your command." In mingled +eagerness and wariness he watched her, incredulous of her assenting +mood, but with a hope that lured him on to believe. And in his eyes, +dubious, desirous, calculating, watchful, she read the fluctuations +of his thought. If afterwards there should happen to be any trouble +about this affair, how wonderfully it would smooth things to have +the girl infatuated with him, to show that she had been a party to +the intrigue! And how spicily it sweetened the taste of success to +his lips! + +He had caught her two hands in his, and clasping them tightly he +bent forward, trying to scan the changes in her hesitating look, +while his words poured forth in a stream of praise and promise. She +would live like a little princess. His love and his wealth were at +her feet. Other women were eager for him, but he was hers alone. She +would adore Egypt, the Egypt that he would reveal to her, and when +she wearied they would go to the Continent and live always as she +desired. Only she must be kind to him, be kind and sweet and lift +her eyes and tell him that she would make him happy. She must not +keep him waiting. He was not a man with whom one amused oneself. + +"And I am not a girl whom one commands!" she gave back with a flash +of spirit and a childish toss of her head. "I like you, Monsieur, at +least I did like you before you hurt my fingers so horribly"--the +tight grasp on her hands relaxed and she drew them swiftly away, +rubbing them in mock ruefulness--"and I could like you better and +better--perhaps"--her blue eyes flashed a look into his--"if you +were _very_ nice and polite and give me time to catch my breath! You +are such a _hurrying_ sort of person!" Her whimsical little smile +enchanted him, even while he chafed at such delay. + +"I am mad about you," he said in a low tone. + +"And only me?" she laughed, her dimples showing. + +So, teasing and luring, she held him off, and her heart beat +exultantly as she saw that she had given him the thought of marriage +for that of conquest, the dream of a perfect idyll for that of an +enforced submission.... It was a desperate play, but she played it +valiantly, and her fearfulness and the spell of her beauty sweetened +the role of beseeching suitor for him, and gave a glamour to this +pretty garden dalliance.... The memory of time came to him at last +with a start, and frowningly he stared at the watch he drew out to +consult. + +"I must hurry away--to another part of the palace," he amended +swiftly, "where I have an engagement.... I shall not be at liberty +till to-night--rather late. I will send word to you, then----" + +She shook her head at him. "To-morrow," she substituted gaily. "Let +us have luncheon to-morrow under the trees again like this. + +"To-morrow is too far away----" + +"No, it is just right for me. And if you really want to please +me----" + +"But does it please you to make me miserable----?" + +"You can't be very miserable when you have a luncheon engagement," +she insisted. "_I'm_ not!" + +He shrugged. "Till luncheon then--unless I should be back earlier +than I think." He gave her a quick look, but her face did not betray +awareness of the slip. + +"Oh, of course, if you are at liberty sooner--And while you are busy +won't you manage things so I can stay out here awhile? I shall love +this garden, I know, when I am better friends with it," and after an +imperceptible pause he promised to send a maid back to keep watch +over her, and with a lingering pressure of hands and a look that +plainly said he was but briefly denying himself a more ardent +farewell, he hurried away through the banquet hall into the court. + +She dared not run after to spy upon his departure. She could only +wait, hoping in every throbbing nerve that the maid would prove to +be the little one with the wart over her eye. And as she hoped she +feared, lest all her frail barrier of cards should be swept away by +a single breath. + +If he should learn that the little dancer had visited her! If he +should discover that she was playing a game with him! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A MAID AND A MESSAGE + + +The March hare would have been a feeble comparison for Billy Hill's +madness if Robert Falconer could have seen him that Saturday +morning, that same Saturday on which Arlee was essaying her daring +role, for Billy Hill was sitting in the sun upon a camp stool, a +white helmet upon his head, an easel before him, and upon the easel +a square of blank canvas, and in Billy's left hand was a box of oils +and in his right a brush. And the camp stool upon which Billy was +stationed was planted directly before the small, high-arched door of +the Kerissen palace and in plain view of the larger door a few feet +to the right. + +It had all followed upon acquaintance with the one-eyed man. + +Taciturn in the beginning and suspicious of Billy's questionings, +that dark-skinned individual had at first betrayed abyssmal +ignorance of all save the virtues of stuffed crocodiles, but +convinced at last that this was no trap, but a genuine situation +from which he could profit, his greed overcame his native caution, +and through the aid of his jerky English and Billy's jagged Arabic +a certain measure of confidence was exchanged. + +The one-eyed man then recollected that he had noticed a Turkish +officer and an American girl returning together to the hotel upon +that Wednesday afternoon. He had stared, because truly it was +amazing, even for American madness--and also the young girl was +beautiful. "A wild gazelle," was his word for her. The man was +Captain Kerissen. He was known to all the city--well known, he +was--in a certain way. It was not a good way for the ladies. Yes, he +had a motor car--a grand, gray car. (Billy remembered that the fatal +limousine had been gray.) It was well known that he had bought it +for a foreign woman whom he had brought from over-seas and installed +in the palace of his fathers. Yes, he knew well where that palace +was. His brother's wife's uncle was a eunuch there, but he was a +hard man who held his own counsel and that of his master. + +Could a girl be shut up in that palace and the world be no wiser? +The one-eyed man stared scathingly at such ignorance. Why not? The +underworld might know, but native gossip never reached white ears. + +What was the best way of finding out, then? The one-eyed man had no +hesitation about his answer. + +A native must use his eyes and ears for the American. Through his +subtle skill and the American's money the discovery could be made. +The women servants would talk. + +That was the way, Billy agreed, and quoted to the Arab his own +proverb, "A saint will weary of well-doing and a braggart of his +boasts, but a woman's tongue will never stop of itself," and the +one-eyed man had nodded, with an air of resigned understanding, and +quoted in answer, "There is nothing so great and nothing so small, +nothing so precious and nothing so foul, but that a woman will put +her tongue to it," and an understanding appeared to have been +reached. + +The one-eyed man was to loiter about the palace, calling upon the +brother's wife's uncle if possible, and discover all that he could +without arousing suspicion. And Billy determined to do a little +loitering himself and quicken the one-eyed man's investigations and +keep watch of Kerissen's comings and goings, and a donkey boy was +hired by the one-eyed man to follow the Captain when he appeared in +the street and report the places to which he went. + +It was all very ridiculous, of course, Billy cheerfully agreed with +himself, but by proving its own folly it would serve to allay that +extraordinarily nagging uneasiness of his. If he could just be +_sure_ that little Miss Beecher wasn't tucked out of sight somewhere +in the power of that barbaric scamp with his Continental veneer! + +Meanwhile the Oriental methods to be employed in the finding out +appealed to the young American's humor and his rash love of +adventure. He was grinning as he sat there on that stool and stared +at the blank canvas before him. He had felt the role of artist would +be an excellent screen for his loitering, but he had done no +painting for a little matter of twenty years, not since he was a +tiny lad, flat upon his stomach in his home library, industriously +tinting the robes and beards of Bible characters and the backgrounds +of the Holy Land--this work of art being one of the few permitted +diversions of the family Sabbath. Now he reflected that the scenes +for his brush were decidedly similar. + +With humorous interest he fell to work, scaling off the palace on +his left, blocking off the cemetery ahead, and trying to draw a palm +without emphasizing the thought of a feather duster. His engineering +training made him critical of his lines and outlines, but when it +came to the introduction of color he had the sensation of a +shipwrecked mariner afloat upon uncharted seas. + +The color that his eyes perceived was not the color which his +stubborn memory persisted in reminding him was the actual hue of the +events, and the color that he produced upon canvas was no kin to any +of them. But it sufficed for an excuse, and he worked away, +whistling cheerily, warily observant of the dark and silent facade +of the old palace and alertly interested in the little groups his +occupation transiently attracted. But these little groups were all +of passers-by, shawl-venders, package-deliverers, beggars, veiled +desert women with children astride their shoulders, and the live +hens they were selling beneath their mantles, and these groups +dissolved and drew away from him without his being able to attract +any observation from the palace. + +But at least, he thought doggedly, any girl behind those latticed +windows up there could see him in the street, and if Arlee were +there she would understand his presence and plan to get word down +to him. But he began to feel extraordinarily foolish. + +At length his patience was rewarded. The small door opened and the +stalwart doorkeeper, in blue robes and yellow English shoes, marched +pompously out to him and ordered him to be off. + +Haughtily Billy responded that this was permitted, and displayed a +self-prepared document, gorgeous with red seals, which made the man +scowl, mutter, and shake his head and retire surlily to his door, +and finding a black-veiled girl peering out of it at Billy, he +thrust her violently within. But Billy had caught her eyes and tried +to look all the significance into them of which he was capable. + +Nothing, however, appeared to develop. The door remained closed, +save for brief admissions of bread and market stuff from little boys +on donkey-back or on a bicycle, all of whom were led willingly into +conservation, but none of whom had been into the palace, and though +Billy pressed as close to the door as possible when the boys +knocked, he was only rewarded with a glimpse of the tiled vestibule +and inner court. + +To the irate doorkeeper he protested that he was yearning to paint a +palace court, but though he held up gold pieces, the man ordered him +away in fury and spoke menacingly of a stick for such fellows. + +Now, however cool and fresh it was in the garden that Saturday, it +was distinctly hot in the dusty street, and by noon, as Billy sat in +the shade beside the palace door, eating the lunch he had brought +and drinking out of a thermos bottle, he reflected that for a man to +cook himself upon a camp stool, feigning to paint and observing an +uneventful door, was the height of Matteawan. He despised +himself--but he returned to the camp stool. + +Nothing continued to happen. + +Travelers were few. Occasionally a carriage passed; once a couple of +young Englishmen on polo ponies galloped by; once a poor native came +down the road, moving his harem--a donkey-cart load of black +shrouded women, with three half-naked children bouncing on a long +tailboard. + +Several groups of veiled women on foot proceeded to the cemetery and +back again. + +The one-eyed man sauntered by in vain. + +In the heat of the afternoon the wide door suddenly opened and +Captain Kerissen himself appeared on his black horse. He spurred off +at a gallop, intending apparently to ride down the artist on the +way, but changed his mind at the last and dashed past, showering him +with dust from his horse's hoofs. The little donkey-boy, lolling +down the road, started to follow him, crying out for alms in the +name of Allah. + +Billy stared up at the windows. Not a handkerchief there, not a +signal, not a note flung into the street! In great derision he +squirted half a tube of cerulean blue upon his canvas. + +This, he reflected, was zero in detective work. It was also minus in +adventure. + +But one never knows when events are upon the wing. Almost +immediately there came into the flatness of his bored existence a +victoria containing those two English ladies he had met--in the +unconventional way which characterized his meetings with ladies in +Cairo--two days before. + +The recognition was mutual. The curiosity appeared upon their side. +To his horror he saw that they had stopped their carriage and were +descending. + +"How interesting!" said Miss Falconer, with more cordiality than she +had shown on the previous occasion. "How very interesting! So you +are an artist--I do a little sketching myself, you know." + +"You do happen in the most unexpected places," smiled Lady Claire. + +The English girl looked very cool and sweet and fresh to the heated +painter. His impression of her as a nice girl and a pretty girl was +speedily reinforced, and he remembered that dark-haired girls with +gray-blue eyes under dusky lashes had been his favorite type not so +long ago ... before he had seen Arlee's fairy gold. + +"We've just been driving through the old cemetery--such interesting +tombs," said the elder lady, and Lady Claire added, "I should think +you could get better views there than here." + +By this time they had reached the easel and stood back of it in +observation. + +Blue, intensely blue, and thickly blue was the sky that Billy had +lavished. Green and rigid were the palms. Purple was the palace. +Very black lay the shadows like planks across the orange road. + +Miss Falconer looked as if she doubted her own eyes. Hurriedly she +unfolded her lorgnette. + +"It--it's just blocked in," said Billy, speaking with a peculiar +diffidence. + +"Quite so--quite so," murmured the lady, bending closer, as if +fascinated. + +Lady Claire said nothing. Stealing a look at her, Billy saw that she +was looking it instead. + +Miss Falconer tried another angle. The sight of that lorgnette had a +stiffening effect upon Billy B. Hill. + +"You get it?" he said pleasantly. "You get the--ah--symphonic chord +I'm striking?" + +"Chord?" said Miss Falconer. "Striking," she murmured in a peculiar +voice. + +"It's all in thirds, you see," he continued. + +"Thirds!" came the echo. + +"Perhaps you're of the old school?" he observed. + +"Really--I must be!" agreed the lady. + +"Ah!" said Billy softly, commiseratingly. He cocked his head at an +angle opposite from the slant of the lorgnette and stared his own +amazing canvas out of countenance. + +"Then, of course," he said, "this hardly conveys----" + +"What are you?" she demanded. "Is this a--a school?" + +"I?" He seemed surprised that there could be any doubt about it. "I +am a Post-Cubist." + +Miss Falconer turned the lorgnette upon him. "Oh, really," she said +vaguely. "I fancy I've heard something of that--you're quite new and +radical, aren't you?" + +"Oh, we're old," he said gently, "very, very old. We have returned +to Nature--but not the nature of mere academicians. We paint, not +the world of the camera, but the world of the brain. We paint, not +the thing you think you see, but the way you think you see it--its +vibrations of your inner mentality. To paint the apple ripening on +the bough one should reproduce the gentle swelling of the maturing +fruit in your perception.... Now, you see, I am not trying to +reproduce the precise carving of that door; I do not fix the wavings +of that palm. I give you the cerebellic----" + +"Quite so," said Miss Falconer, dropping her lorgnette and giving +the canvas the fixity of her unobstructed gaze. "It's most +interesting," she said, a little faintly. "Are there many of you?" + +"I don't know," said Billy. "We do not communicate with one another. +That always influences, you know, and it is better to work out +thought alone." + +"I should think it would be." Something in her tone suggested that +the inviolated solitude of the asylum suggested itself to her as a +fitting spot. "Well, we won't interrupt you any longer. You've been +most interesting.... The sun is quite hot, isn't it?" and with one +long, lingering look at the picture, a look convinced against its +will, she went her way toward the victoria. + +But Lady Claire stood still. Billy had fairly forgotten all about +her, and now as he turned suddenly from the clowning with her +chaperon, he found her gaze being transferred from his picture to +himself. It was a very steady gaze, calm-eyed and deliberate. + +"I'm afraid you're making game of us!" she said, in her musical, +high-bred tones, her clear eyes disconcertingly upon him. "Aren't +you?" she gently demanded. + +"That's not fair." Billy was uncomfortable and looked away in haste. +He felt a grin coming. + +Perhaps he was a shade too late, for Lady Claire laughed suddenly +and with a note of curious delight. + +"You're _too_ amusing!" she said. "What made you?... How did you +think of it all?... Are you just beginning?" + +"Oh, I began twenty years ago," he smiled back, "but I haven't done +anything in the meantime." + +Again she laughed with that ring of mischievous delight. "However +you could think of it all! I shan't tell on you--but she'll _never_ +be done wondering." She turned away, her pretty face still bright +with humor, and then she turned back hesitantly toward him. + +"It _is_ hot here in this sun," she said. "It _can't_ be good for +you. Shall we drive you back?" + +She had lovely eyes, dark, smoky-blue under black lashes, and when +they held a gentle, half-shy, half-proud invitation, as they did +then, they were very unsettling eyes.... And it was hot on that +infernal camp stool. And there was a crick in the back of his neck +and his errand was glaringly a fool's errand.... + +He half rose, and as he did so the door in the palace opened a crack +and a veiled face peered furtively out. Billy sat down again. + +"No, thank you," he said, "I think I'd better do a little more of +this." + +In such light ways is the gate of opportunity closed and opened. +Everything that happened afterwards with such appalling +startlingness hung on that instant's decision. + +For the moment he felt himself a donkey as Lady Claire turned +quietly away and the victoria rattled off with brisk finality. Then +the door opened again, and again the girl peered out, and furtively, +stealthily slipped just outside. + +Billy caught up a pad and a pencil and called out a request to +sketch her, holding up some silver. Instantly she assumed a fixed +pose, with a nervous giggle behind her veil, and he came quickly +near her, pretending to be drawing. Her dark, curious eyes met his +with questioning significance, and he threw all caution aside and +plunged into his demands. + +Did she want to earn money, he said quickly, in the Arabic he had +been preparing for such an encounter, and on her eager assent, he +asked if there was a foreign lady in the palace, an American. + +The flash of her eyes told him that he had struck the mark before +her half-frightened words came. + +His heart quickened with excitement. He might have suspected this +thing--but he had not really believed it! He asked, stammering in +his haste, "Does she want to get away?" + +Again that knowing nod and the quick assent. Then the girl burst +into low-toned speech, glancing back constantly through the door she +held nearly shut behind her. Billy was forced to shake his head. It +was one thing to have picked up a little casual Arabic, and another, +and horribly different, thing to comprehend the rapid outpourings +behind that muffling veil. + +Baffled, he went hurriedly on with his own questionings. Was this +lady safe? Again the nod and murmur of assent. Did she want help? +Vehement the confirmation. He repeated, with careful emphasis, "I +will reward you well for your help," and this time the direct +simplicity of her reply was entirely intelligible: + +"How much?" + +"One pound.... Two," he added, as she shook her head. + +"Four," she demanded. + +It was maddening to haggle, but it would be worse to yield. + +"Two--and this," said Billy, drawing out the gold and some silver +with it. + +She gave a frightened upward glance at the windows over them and +stepped closer. "I take it," she said. "Listen--" and that was all +that Billy could understand of the swift words she whispered to him. + +"Slower--slower," he begged. "Once more--slower." + +She frowned, and then, very slowly and distinctly, she articulated, +"_T'ala lil genaina ... 'end eltura_." + +He wrote down what he thought it sounded like. "Go on." + +"_Allailade_," she continued. + +"That's to-night," he repeated. "What else?" + +"_Assaa 'ashara_," she added hurriedly, and then, intelligible +again, "Now, quick, the money." + +"Hold on, hold on." He was in despair. "Go over that again, please," +and hastily the girl whispered the words again and he wrote down his +corrections. Then with a flourish he appeared to finish the sketch +and held out the gold and silver to her, saying, "Thank you," +carelessly. + +Quick as a flash she seized the money, leaving a little crumpled +ball of white linen in his hand, and then, apparently by lightning, +she secreted the gold, and with the silver shining in her dark palm +she came closer to him, urging him for another shilling, another +shilling for having a picture made. In an undertone she demanded, +"Is it yes? Shall I say yes to the lady?" + +"Yes, yes, yes," said Billy, desperately, to whatever the unknown +message might be. "Take a note to her for me?" he demanded, starting +to scribble one, but she drew back with a quick negation, and as a +sound came from the palace she slipped back through the door and was +gone like a shadow when a blind is thrown open. + +Only the crumpled little ball of linen remained in Billy's hand. He +straightened it out. It was a lady's handkerchief, a dainty thing, +delicately scented. In the corners were marvels of sheer embroidery +and among the leaves he found the initial he was seeking. It was the +letter B. + +As he stared down on it, that tiny, telltale initial, his face went +white under its tan and his mouth compressed till all the humor and +kindliness of it were lost in a line of stark grimness. And then he +swung on his heel and packed up his painting kit in a fury of haste, +and with one last, upturned look at those mocking windows, he was +off down the road like a shot. + +There were just two things to do. The first was to discover the +message hidden in those unknown words. + +The second was to do exactly as that message bade. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OVER THE GARDEN WALL + + +Two oil lamps flared in the little coffee-house. In one circle of +yellow light two bearded Sheiks were playing dominoes with +imperturbable gravity; the other lamp flickered over an empty table +beneath which the thin, flea-bitten legs of a ragged urchin were +showing in the oblivion of his tired sleep. In the shadow beyond sat +a young American with a keen, impatient face, and a one-eyed Arab +shrouded in a huge burnous. + +"I make fine dragoman?" the Arab was saying proudly. "This is ver' +old coffee-house. Many things happen here, ver' strange----" + +"Yes, but I'm sick of the doggone place," said Billy fiercely. "I +can't sit still and swallow coffee any longer. Can't we start now?" + +"Too soon--too soon before the time. You say ten? Come, we go next +door. Nice place next door, perhaps--dancing, maybe." + +There was noise enough next door, certainly, to promise dancing. The +strident notes of Oriental music came shrieking out the open +doorway, but as Billy stepped within and stared over the heads of +the squatting throng, he saw no sinewy dancers, but only two tiny +girls in bright colors huddled wearily against the wall. The music +which was absorbing every look came from the brazen throat of a huge +instrument in the corner. + +"Lord--a phonograph!" thought the young man in disgust, resenting +this intrusion of the genius of his race into foreign fields. + +The squatting men, their dark lips parted in pleased smiles, were +too intent upon the innovation to turn at his entrance, but the +little girls caught sight of him and ran forward, begging +clamorously, their bracelets clanking on their outstretched arms. + +With a little silver he tried to soften the vigor of the one-eyed +man's dismissal. "This cheap place--no good dancers any more," the +Arab uttered in disgust. "New man here--no good. Maybe next door +better--eh?" + +But next door was only a flight of steps and a lone little doll of a +sentinel, painted and hung like a bedizened idol. Only the dark eyes +in the tinted sockets were alive, and these turned curiously after +the strange young white man who had dropped a coin into her +outstretched hand and passed on so hurriedly. + +"I don't want any more of these joints," Billy was saying vehemently +to his harassed guide. "It's dark as the Styx now--let's be on our +way." + +The street they were on was narrow enough for any antiquarian, but +the one into which the Arab guide now turned was so narrow that the +jutting bays of the houses seemed pushing their faces impudently +against their neighbors. A voice in one room could have been heard +as clearly in the one over the way. It was a mean little street, +squalid and poor and pitiful, but it maintained its stripped +dignities of screened windows and isolation. It was better not to +wonder what nights were like in those women's rooms in summer heat. + +The lane-like path stopped at a rickety sort of wharf, and at their +approach a black head bobbed quickly up from a waiting boat. It was +the little boy who had shadowed the Captain that day--reporting his +arrival at the Khedivial palace--and he climbed out now and sat on +the wharf, watching curiously while Billy and his guide bestowed +themselves in the long canoe, and pushed silently away. + +It was an eerie backwater in which they were paddling, a sluggish +stream which moved between dark houses. Sometimes it scraped against +their sides and lapped their balconies; sometimes it was held in +check by walls and narrow terraces. For Billy the water between the +dark houses, the mirrored stars, the unexpected flare of some oil +lamp and its still reflection, the long windings and the stagnant +smells held their suggestions of Venice for his senses, and he +thought the business he was going about was very similar to the +business which had brought so many of the gentry of Venice to sudden +and undesired ends. + +The flies were horribly thick here. They settled upon the faces and +arms of the paddlers, totally unapprehensive of rebuff. Billy's +flesh crawled. He finished the swarm with a ringing slap that +brought a low caution from his guide. + +Now the canal was wider and shallower. The houses receded, and a +field or so appeared, and frequent walls hedged the way. Then +suddenly the houses came down again to the water, and the ruins of +old mosques and palaces lined the banks for a time; to be replaced +by walls again. The windings were interminable, and just when he was +thinking that his silent guide was as confused as he was, the man +made a sudden gesture to the right bank where a tiny strip of land +showed above the water clinging to a high brick wall, and with +careful, soundless strokes they brought the canoe up to that land. + +Billy looked at his watch. It was nearly ten. Hurriedly he climbed +out, taking out the stout, notched pole and the knotted rope with +the iron hook at the end which he had prepared. The message which +had been so unintelligible to him was very simple. "Escape by canal +to-night--come to garden at ten," had been the words, and Billy, on +hearing the description of the canal from the one-eyed man, had felt +he understood. + +"You're sure this is the place?" he demanded, and on the man's much +injured protestation, "Because if it isn't I'll wring your neck +instead of Kerissen's," he cheerfully promised and set his pole +against the wall, showing the man how to steady it. It was not the +best climbing arrangement in the world, but time had been extremely +limited, and the one-eyed man not inclined to pursue any +investigations which would advertise their expedition. + +Wrapping the rope about his shoulders, he started to pull himself up +that notched pole the Arab was holding against the wall, feeling +desperately for any hold for toes and fingers in the rough chunks +between the old bricks, and breathing hard he reached the top and +threw one leg over. He felt something grind through the serge of his +trousers and sting into the flesh. + +"Ground glass--the Old Boy!" said Billy through his teeth. He +hoisted himself cautiously, and with his handkerchief swept the top +of the wall as clean as he could. He heard the little pieces fall +with a perilously loud tinkling sound, and flattened himself upon +the wall, and strained his eyes through the darkness of the garden, +but no alarm was raised. The shadows seemed empty. + +He hoped to the Lord that no disturbance would break out in the +garden, for the man below would be off in the canoe like a flash. He +had no illusions about the one-eyed man's loyalty, but the fellow +was already in the secret; he was needy and resourceful and as +trustworthy as any dragoman that he could have gone to. And a +dragoman would have had a reputation and a patronage he'd fear to +lose. This melancholy Arab, hawking crocodiles for a Greek Jew, had +more to gain than lose. + +By now he had caught the end of the rough hook over the top of the +wall, and let down the knotted rope into the garden below. It was +long enough, thank goodness, he thought, wondering under what +circumstances and in what company he would ascend it again. Then +with one more keen look into the garden, and a reassuring touch of +the pocket where his revolver bulged, he gripped the rope and +swiftly lowered himself. + +Keeping close to the wall he pressed toward the buildings on the +right, which he had been told was the wing of the harem, and as he +stepped forward a flat black shadow near the wall came suddenly to +life. It sprang to its feet, revealing a shrouded little form, +wrapped and hooded in black, and ran to him with steps that stumbled +in excitement. + +"Quick, quick!" breathed an almost inaudible voice of terror, and +Billy flung one strong arm about the girl and dashed toward the +dangling rope. Gripping it with one hand he flung the light figure +over his left shoulder, and with a cheerily whispered "Hang tight," +he threw himself into the ascent. It was arm-wrenching, +muscle-racking work, with that dead weight upon him, but the touch +of those soft arms clinging childishly about his neck seemed to +double and treble his strength, and with incredible quickness he +lifted her to the top of the wall, and then, catching her by the +wrists, he lowered her into the upreaching clasp of the Arab. + +An instant more and he had reversed his rope ladder and climbed down +beside her as she stood waiting, and in the throbbing triumph of +that moment he flung his arm grippingly about her to sweep her into +the boat. But as she raised her face to his, the shrouding mantle +fell away, and he found himself staring down into the exultant face +and bright, dark eyes of a girl he had never seen before. + +Back of them beyond the wall, pandemonium was breaking out. + + [Illustration: "He found himself staring down into the bright dark + eyes of a girl he had never seen"] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GIRL FROM THE HAREM + + +He was dumb with the shock. Then, "Who are you?" he demanded. "And +where is she--where is Arlee Beecher?" + +On her own face the astonishment grew. "What you mean? Frederick--he +not send you?" she gasped, and then as the outcries grew louder and +louder behind them she gripped convulsively at his arms. "Oh, quick! +come away--quick, quick!" she besought. + +"I came for Arlee Beecher--an American girl. Isn't she held here? +Isn't she back there?" + +"What you going to do? What----" + +"I'm going to get her!" he said fiercely. "Tell me----" + +He had caught her and unconsciously shook her as if to shake the +words out of her. Furiously she struggled with him. + +"Let me go. No, no, she is not there! No one is there! You are gone +crazy to stay! They will kill me if they catch me--they will fire +over the wall. Oh, for God's sake, help me quick!" + +"She's not there?" he repeated stupidly, and then at her vehement +"No, _no_! I tell you _no_!" he drew a breath of deep astonishment +and chagrin, and turned to stow her safely low in the boat. +Hurriedly he and the one-eyed man bent over their paddles, and very +swiftly the long, dark canoe went gliding down the stream, but not +any too swiftly, for in an instant they heard a triumphant yell +behind them, and then light, thudding feet along the path. + +Steadily Billy urged the canoe forward with powerful strokes that +seemed to be lifting it out of the water at each impulse, and they +swept past a wall that reaching to the river bank must block their +pursuers for a time, and though there was a path after that, there +was soon another wall, and no more pursuit along the water edge. But +every opening ahead now might mean an ambush, and as soon as a +narrow lane showed between the houses to the left, the one-eyed man +steered swiftly there and Billy sprang out with the girl and they +raced through the lane into the adjoining street. + +He looked up and down it; either they had got out at the wrong lane +or the cab they had ordered to be in waiting had failed them, but +there was no time for speculation and they walked on as fast as they +could without the appearance of flight. The stray loiterers on the +dark street stared curiously as they passed, to see a young American +in gray tweeds, his cap pulled over his eyes, with a woman in the +Mohammedan wrap and mantle, but no one stopped them, and in another +minute they saw a lonely cab rattling through the streets and +climbed quickly in. + +"And now, for Heaven's sake, tell me all about it!" besought Billy +B. Hill, staring curiously at his most unforeseen companion. + +With a deep-drawn sigh of relief she had snuggled back against the +cushioned seat, and now she flung off the shrouding mantle and +looked up to meet his gaze with a smile of excited triumph. + +She had the prettiest teeth he had ever seen, lovely little rows of +pearls, and the biggest and brightest of dark eyes with wide lashes +curling dramatically back. Even in the thrill and elation of the +moment there was a spark of provocation in those eyes for the +good-looking young man who stared down at her, and Billy would have +been a very wooden young man, indeed, if he had not felt a tingling +excitement in this unexpected capture, for all the destruction of +his romantic plans. So this, he thought rapidly, was the foreign +girl in Kerissen's house, and Arlee, bless her little golden head, +was safe where she planned, in Alexandria. A warm glow of happiness +enveloped him at that. + +"Now tell me all about it," he demanded again. "You are running away +from Kerissen?" + +"Oh, yes," she cried eagerly. "You must not let him catch us. We are +safe--yes?" + +"I should rather think so," Billy laughed. "And there's a gun in my +pocket that says so.... And so you sent me that message to-day by +that little native girl? How in the world did that happen?" + +"That girl is one who will do a little for money, you understand," +said the Viennese, "and I have told her to look sharp out for a +foreign gentleman who come to save me. You see I have sent for a +friend, and I think that he--but never mind. That girl she come +running this afternoon to where I am shut in way back in the palace, +and she say that a foreign gentleman is painting a picture out in +the street, and he stare very cunning at her. So I tell her to find +out if he is the one for me, and to tell him to come quick this +night. She was afraid to take note--afraid the eunuch catch her. So +she went to you. She told afterwards that you ask her if there is +any strange lady there anxious to get away, and she give you the +message and my handkerchief and you say you will come--and my, how +you give me one great surprise!" + +"And a great disappointment," said Billy grinning. + +"Oh, no, no," she denied, eyes and lips all mischievous smiles. "I +say to myself, 'My God! That is a fine-looking young man! He and I +will have something to say to each other'--h'm?" + +"Now who in the world are you?" demanded Billy bluntly. "And how did +you happen to get into all this?" + +Volubly she told. She dwelt at picturesque length upon her shining +place upon the Viennese stage; she recounted her triumphs, she +prophesied the joy of the playgoers at her return to them. Darkly +she expatiated upon the villainy of the Turkish Captain, who had +lured her to such incarceration. Gleefully she displayed the +diamonds upon her small person which she was extracting from that +affair. + +"Not so bad, after all--h'm?" she demanded, in a brazen little +content. "Maybe that prison time make good for me," and Billy shook +his head and chuckled outright at the little baggage. + +But through his amusement a prick of uneasiness was felt. The +picture she had painted of the Captain corroborated his wildest +imaginings. + +"You're dead sure you know all that was going on in that palace?" he +demanded. "There wasn't any American girl coaxed into it on some +pretext?" + +He wanted merely the reassurance of her answer, but to his surprise +and growing alarm she hesitated, looking at him half fearfully and +half ashamedly. "Oh, I--I don't know about that," she murmured, with +evasive eyes. "An American girl--very light hair--yes?" + +"Very light hair--Oh, good God!" He leaned forward, gripping her +wrist as if afraid she would spring out of the carriage. "You said +she wasn't there," he thrust at her in a voice that rasped. + +"I said I don't know--don't know any such name you say. I never hear +it. You hurt me--take your hand away." + +"Not till you tell me." But he loosened his harsh grip. "Now tell me +all you know--_please_ tell me all you know," he besought with a +sudden melting into desperate entreaty. Worriedly he stared at this +curious little kitten-thing beside him on whose truth now that other +girl's life was resting. + +"Well, I tell you true I do not know that name," began Fritzi +Baroff, with a little sullen dignity over her shame. "And I saved +your life, for it was death for you to go back to that palace. You +heard them coming for us. You would have got yourself killed and +that little girl would be no better. Now I can tell you how to help +her." + +"All right--tell me," said the young American in a tense voice. +"Tell me everything you know about it," and Fritzi told him, +throwing aside all pretense of her uncertainty about Arlee, +revealing every detail of the situation that she knew. + +And from the heights of his gay relief Billy Hill was flung back +into the deeps of desperate indignation. The anger that had surged +up in him that afternoon when he had felt his fears confirmed flamed +up in him now in a fire of fury. His blood was boiling.... Arlee +Beecher in the power of that Turkish devil! Arlee Beecher prisoned +within that ghastly palace! It was unreal. It was monstrous.... That +radiant girl he had danced with, that teasing little sprite, half +flouting, half flirting. Why, the thing was unthinkable! + +He put a hand on the dancer's arm. "We must go to the consul at +once," he said. "We must get her out to-night." + +"Consul!" The girl gave a short, derisive laugh. "This is no matter +for consuls, my young friend. The law is slow, and by the time that +law will stand knocking upon the palace doorstep, your little girl +with the fair hair will be buried very deep and fast--I think she +would not be the first woman bricked into those black walls.... You +must go about this yourself.... You are in love with her--yes?" she +added impertinently, with keen, uptilted eyes. + +"That's another story," Billy curtly informed her. He made no +attempt to analyze his feeling for Arlee Beecher. She had enchanted +him in those two days that he had known her. She had obsessed his +thoughts in those two days of her disappearance. Now that he was +aware of her peril every selfish thought was overwhelmed in burning +indignation. He told himself that he would do as much for any girl +in her situation, and, indeed, so hot ran his rage and so dearly did +his young blood love rash adventure and high-handed justice, that +there was some honest excuse for the statement! + +"Zut! A man does not risk his neck for a matter of indifference!" +said the little Baroff sagely, her knowing eyes on Billy's grim +young face. "So I am to be the sister to you--the Platonic +friend--h'm?" she observed with droll resignation. "Never mind--I +will help you get her out as you got me--_Gott sei dank!_ There is a +way, I think--if you are not too particular about that neck. I will +tell you all and draw you a plan when we get to a hotel." + +But before they got to a hotel there was an obstacle or two to be +overcome. A lady in Mohammedan wraps might not be exactly _persona +grata_ at fashionable hotels at midnight. Casting off the wrap +Fritzi revealed herself in a little pongee frock that appeared to be +suitable for traveling, and with two veils and Billy's cap for a +foundation she produced an effect of headgear not unlike that of +some bedraped tourists. + +"I arrived on the night train," she stated as they drew up before +the shining hotel. "It is late now for that night train--but we +waited for my luggage, which you will observe is lost. So I pay for +my room in the advance--I think you had better give me some money +for that--I have nothing but these," and she indicated her flashing +diamonds. + +"My name," said Billy, handing over some sovereigns with the first +ray of humor since her revelation to him, "my name, if you should +care to address me, is Hill--William B. Hill." + +"William B. Hill," she echoed with an air of elaborate precision, +and then flashed a saucy smile at him as he helped her out of the +carriage. "What you call Billy, eh?" + +"You've got it," he replied in resignation. + +"Hill--that means a mountain," she commented. "A mountain of good +luck for me--h'm? And that B--what is that for?" + +"My middle name," said Billy patiently, as they reached the door the +Arab doorman was holding open for them. + +Absently she laughed. Her dark eyes were sparkling at the vision of +the safe and shining hotel, the dear familiar luxury, the sounds and +sights of her lost Continental life. A few late arrivals from some +dance gave a touch of animation to the wide rooms, and Fritzi's eyes +clung delightedly to the group. + +"God, how happy I am!" she sighed. + +Billy was busy avoiding the clerk's knowing scrutiny. It was the +same clerk he had coerced with real cigars to enlighten him +concerning Arlee Beecher, and he felt that that clerk was thinking +things about him now, mistaken and misguided things, about his +predilections for the ladies. Philosophically he wondered where they +had better try after this. + +But he underestimated the battery of Fritzi's charms, or else the +serene assurance of her manner. + +"My letters--letters for Baroff," she demanded of the clerk. "None +yet. Then my room, please.... But I sent a wire from Alexandria. +That stupid maid," she turned to explain to Billy, her air the last +stand of outraged patience. "She is at the train looking for that +luggage she lost," she added to the clerk, and thereupon she +proceeded to arrange for the arrival of the fictitious maid whom +Billy heard himself agreeing to go back and fetch if she did not +turn up soon, and to engage a room for herself--a much nicer room +than Billy himself was occupying--then handed over Billy's +sovereigns and turned happily away jingling the huge key of her +room. + +"It is a miracle!" she cried again, exultant triumph in every pretty +line of her. "My heart dances, my blood is singing--Oh, if I were on +the stage now, the music crashing, the lights upon me, the house +packed! I would enchant them! I would dance myself mad.... Ah, what +you say now--shall we have a little bottle of champagne to drink to +our better acquaintance, Mr. Billy?" + +"Not this evening," said the unemotional young man. "You are going +to sit down at this desk and draw me those plans of the palace." + +Petulantly she shrugged at her rescuer. "How stupid--to-morrow you +may not have that chance for the champagne," she observed. "You +think of nothing but to go back and get killed, then? And I must +help you? Very well. Here, I will draw it for you and I will tell +you all I know." + +She sat down at a desk and began working out the diagrams, and at +last she handed the paper to Billy, who sat beside her, and pointed +out the rooms and scribbled the words on them for his aid. + +"It is very simple," she said. "That first square is for the court, +and the next square is for the garden. The hall of banquets comes +so, between them, and the hall is two stories tall, and across the +top of that, from the _selamlik_ to the harem, runs that little +secret passage. And at the end of it, here, is the little panel into +the rose room where she is, and beside the panel outside in the +passage are the little steps that go up to that tower room, where +they put me on the top. And from that top room I broke out a locked +door on the roof--that is how I got away. I climbed down at the end +of the harem from one roof to another where it is unfinished.... The +rose room is here on the garden, but the windows have bars, and +those bars are too strong for breaking. I have tried it! There is no +way out but the secret way by that passage into the men's wing, or +the other way through the door into the long hall and down the +little stairs into the anteroom below. How Seniha hated me when I +made laughter and noise and talk going up and down those stairs to +my motor car!" + +She laughed impishly, pointing out Seniha's rooms, facing on the +street, and contributing several bizarre anecdotes of the palace +life. But Billy was not to be diverted, and went over the plans +again and again, before the diminished number of lights and the +hoverings of the attendant Arabs recalled the lateness of the hour +to his absorption. + +But late as they were they were not the only occupants of the lift. +Returning from a masquerade, a domino over his arm, stood Falconer. +Civilly enough he returned Billy's greeting, with no apparent +awareness of the little lady in pongee, but Billy was conscious that +her flaunting caliber had been promptly registered. And to his +annoyance the actress raised big eyes of reproach to him. + +"No champagne for me, after all, Mr. Billy!" she sighed. "You are +not very good for a celebration--h'm?... Well, then--good night." + +Her parting smile as she left the car adroitly included the tall +aristocratic young Englishman with the little moustache. + +Sharply Billy turned to him. "Come up to my room, please. I have +something to say to you." + +In silence Falconer followed. Billy flung shut the door, drew a long +breath, and turned to him. + +"Do you know where I got that girl?" he demanded. + +It took several seconds of Falconer's level-lidded look of distaste +to bring home the realization. + +"Oh, see here," he protested, "wait till you understand this +thing.... I pulled that girl over Kerissen's back wall at ten +o'clock to-night. I thought she was Miss Beecher, but a mistake had +been made and the wrong girl arrived. But the point is this--_Arlee +Beecher is in that palace_. This girl saw her and talked with her +last night. Now we've got to get her out. It's a two-man job," said +Billy, "or you'd better believe I'd never have come to you again." + +He had given it like a punch, and it knocked the breath out of +Falconer for one floored instant. But he was no open-mouthed +believer. The thing was more unthinkable to him than to Billy's +romantic and adventurous mind, and the very notion was so revolting +that he fought it stoutly. + +From beginning to end Billy hammered over the story as he knew it, +explaining, arguing, debating, and then he drew out the plans of the +palace and flung them on the table by Falconer while he continued +his excited tramping up and down the room. + +Falconer studied the plans, worried his moustache, stared at Billy's +tense and resolute face, and took up the plans again, his own chin +stubborn. + +"Granted there's a girl--you can't be sure it's Miss Beecher," he +maintained doggedly. "This Baroff girl had no idea of her name. Now +Miss Beecher would have told her name, the very first thing, it +appears to me, and the names of her friends in Cairo, asking for the +Baroff's offices in getting a letter to me--us." + +"She may have been too hurried to get to it. She had so many +questions to ask. And she probably expected to see the girl again +the next day or night." + +"Possibly," said Falconer without conviction. + +"But where, then, is Miss Beecher?" + +"We may hear from her to-morrow morning." + +"We won't," said Billy. + +Falconer was silent. + +"Good Lord!" the American burst out, "there can't be two girls in +Cairo with blue eyes and fair hair whom Kerissen could have lured +there last Wednesday! There can't be two girls with chaperons +departing up the Nile! Why--why--the whole thing's as clear to +me--as--as a house afire!" + +"I don't share your conviction." + +"Very well, then, if you don't think it is Miss Beecher, you don't +have to go into this thing. If you can feel satisfied to lay the +matter before the ambassador and let that unknown girl wait for the +arm of the law to reach her, you are at perfect liberty, of course, +to do so." Billy was growing colder and colder in tone as he grew +hotter and hotter in his anger. + +Falconer said nothing. He was a very plucky young man, but he had no +liking at all for strange and unlawful escapades. He didn't +particularly mind risking his neck, but he liked to do it in +accredited ways, in polo, for instance, or climbing Swiss peaks, or +swimming dangerous currents.... But he was young--and he had red +hair. And he remembered Arlee Beecher. These three days had not been +happy ones for him, even sustained as he was by righteous +indignation. And if there was any chance that this prisoned girl was +Arlee, as this infatuated American was so furiously sure--He +reflected that Billy was doing the sporting thing in giving him the +chance of it. + +"I'll join you," he said shortly. "I can't let it go, you know, if +there's a chance of its being Miss Beecher." + +"Good!" said Billy, holding out his hand and the two young men +clasped silently, eyeing each other with a certain mutual respect +though with no great increase of liking. + +"Now, this is my idea," Billy went on, and proceeded to develop it, +while Falconer carefully studied the plans and made a shrewd +suggestion here and there. + +It was late in the morning when they parted. + +"You must muzzle that Baroff girl," was Falconer's parting caution. +"We must keep this thing deuced quiet, you know." + +"Of course. He shan't get wind of it ahead." + +"Not only that. We mustn't have talk afterwards. It would kill the +girl, you know." + +Billy nodded. "She would hate it, I expect." + +"Hate it? My word, it would finish her--a tale of that kind going +the rounds.... She could never live it down." + +"Live it down? It would set her up in conversation for the rest of +her life!" Billy chuckled softly. "That is, if it comes out all +right--and that's the only way I can imagine its coming out." + +With one hand on the door Falconer paused to stare back at him. "You +don't mean she'd want to _tell_ about it!" he ejaculated with +unplumbed horror. + +Billy was suddenly sobered. "Well, nobody but you and I and the +Baroff know it now," he said, "and I think we can keep the Baroff's +mouth shut.... I'll see her in the morning. You'd better get in a +nap to-morrow, and I will, too, for we'll want steady nerves. Good +night; I'm glad you're going with me." + +"I'm damned if I'm glad," said the honest Englishman, with a wry +grin. "If we get our throats cut, I hope Miss Beecher will return +from the desert in time for our obsequies." + +"Something in that red-headed chap I like after all," soliloquized +Billy B. Hill, as he turned toward his long-deferred repose. "Hanged +if he hasn't grit to go into a thing on an off chance!... Now, as +for me, I'm _sure_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +TAKING CHANCES + + +Late as he went to sleep, Billy B. Hill was up in good season that +Sunday morning. The need for cautioning Fritzi Baroff haunted him, +and he was not satisfied until he had had breakfast with that lively +young lady and laid down the law to her upon the situation. + +She was very loath not to talk about herself at first. She wanted to +tell her tale to the papers and see if one of them would be hardy +enough to publish the story of the outrageous incarceration; she +wanted to cable the Viennese theater where she had played of her +sensational detention--in short, she wanted to get all the possible +publicity out of her durance vile and to advertise her small person +from Cairo to the Continent. + +But Billy was urgent. "You just bide a wee on this publicity stunt," +he demanded. "Cable your manager and press agent all you want +to--but don't talk around the hotel here--and whatever you do and +whatever you say, keep Miss Beecher's name and mine out of it." + +He was very decided about that, and because she was very grateful to +him and because she liked him and because she lacked other friends +and other pocketbooks, the little Viennese held her tongue as +directed. And she borrowed as much money as Billy would lend her, +and drove off to the small shops which were open that day, and found +a frock or two and a hat which she declared passable, and returned +transfigured to the hotel and rendered the table where she lunched +with Billy, with the air of possessing him, quite the most +conspicuous in the room. The ladies gazed past them with chill eyes; +the men stared covertly, with the surreptitious envy with which even +the most virtuous of men surveys a lucky devil. And Billy sadly +perceived that he was acquiring a reputation. + +He did not blame Miss Falconer for turning haughtily aside as he and +his vivid companion went past them in the veranda. But he did think +her disdainful lack of memory a little overdone. + +His cheeks were still red as he looked away from her and encountered +the direct eyes of the girl who followed her. + +"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Hill?" said Lady Claire, as clear as a +bell. "It's _such_ a nice day, isn't it?" she added, a little +breathlessly, as she went by. + +"It's much better than it was," said Billy, and he turned back to +open the door for her. + +"Claire!" said Miss Falconer from within. + +"Coming, dear," said Lady Claire, and with a little smile of defiant +friendliness at the young American she was gone. + +But the memory of that plucky little smile stayed right with Billy. +The girl liked him, she liked him in spite of his unknown +antecedents, his preposterous picture, his conspicuous companion. +She had a mind of her own, that tall English girl with the lovely +eyes and the proud mouth. In a warm surge of friendliness his +thoughts went out to her, and he wished vaguely that he could let +her know how fine he thought she was. + +Within an hour that vague wish came true. He had packed Fritzi off, +with a newly acquired maid, for a drive up and down the safe public +streets and he had re-interviewed the one-eyed man and the native +chauffeur that the one-eyed man introduced for the evening's work, +and he was at one of the public desks in the writing room, inditing +a letter to his aunt, which, he whimsically appreciated, might be +his last mortal composition, and reflecting thankfully that it was +highly unnecessary to make a will, when Lady Claire strolled into +the room and over to a desk. + +She tried a pen frowningly, and Billy jumped to offer another. "Oh, +thank you," she said. She seemed not to have seen him before. + +"That was rather nice of you, you know," he said gravely. + +She looked up at him. + +"I'm not really a wolf," he continued, the gravity surrendering to +his likable, warm smile, "and I'm glad you recognized it." + +Her reply took him unawares. "I think you're _splendid_," said Lady +Claire. "I thought so in the bazaars when you came to my help and +stood up to that _beastly_ German." + +"Oh, he wasn't such a beastly German, after all," Billy deprecated. +"And here I've had a message to you from him and never remembered to +give it. The fellow called on me the next morning in gala attire and +offered every apology and satisfaction in his power--even the +satisfaction of the duel, if I desired it. I didn't. But I promised +to express his deep apologies to you. He was horribly shocked at +himself. He'd been drinking, he said, to forget a 'sadness' which +possessed him. His lady love had failed to keep her tryst and life +was very dark." + +"I don't wonder at her," said Lady Claire unforgivingly. "I'm sure +he must have been horrid to her!" + +"I rather think she was horrid to him," Billy reflected, "although +she was a very sprightly looking lady love. He showed me her picture +in the back of his watch.... By _George_!" he uttered violently. + +"What is it?" + +"Oh--an idea, that's all. Something I must really attend to before +I--this afternoon, I mean. But there's no hurry about it," he added +cheerily. + +Oh, Billy, Billy! Not even with his blood hot with thoughts of the +evening's work, not even with his memory ridden with Arlee's gay +witchery, could he keep his restless young eyes from laughing down +at her. But there wasn't a notion in the back of his honest head as +to the picture he was making in Lady Claire's eyes as he leaned, +long-limbed, broad-shouldered, lazily at ease against the desk, his +gray eyes very bright between their dark lashes, his dark hair +sweeping back from his wide forehead. + +"Are you sure?" she asked of him, with the smile that he drew from +her. "Is it the inspiration for another picture?" + +"No, no--that was my first and my last. That was the one purple +bloom of my art. I have laid my brushes by.... But I'm keeping you +from that letter you were going to write." + +"It's just a few lines for Miss Falconer," Lady Claire unnecessarily +explained. "We are going to drive out to the Gezireh Palace Hotel +for tea, and she thought her brother might like to go out with us if +he came in in time." + +She did not add why Miss Falconer was unable to write her own notes, +but slanted her blue-hatted head over the desk and then hastily +blotted her brief lines and tucked the sheet into an envelope. +Hesitantly she looked up at Billy. + +"Have you been out to the Gezireh Palace?" she very innocently +inquired. + +"Alone," said Billy. + +"It's very jolly there," said she. "It's so gay--and the music is +_quite_ good." + +"H'm," meditated Billy. "The condemned man ate a hearty tea of +Orange Pekoe and cress sandwiches," he reflected silently. He also +reflected that Miss Falconer would be furious--and that invited +him--and that time was interminable and that this expedition was as +good a way of getting through the afternoon as any other. Thereupon +he turned to the English girl, with a humorous challenge in his +gaze. "I wonder if you and Miss Falconer would let this be my tea +party?" he suggested. + +"Miss Falconer will be delighted," said Lady Claire mendaciously. + +The traces of that delight, however, lay beneath so well schooled an +exterior that they were decidedly non-apparent. Nor did Robert +Falconer's mien reveal any hint of joy when he returned to the hotel +and found the two ladies starting with Billy. He joined them with +rather the air of a watch dog, but that air soon wore away during +the long drive under the spell of young Hill's frank friendliness +and gay good humor. For Billy was extravagantly in spirits. +Excitement stirred in him like wine; his blood was on fire with +thoughts of the evening. + +"It's the fool _lark_ of the thing," he said, half apologetically, +to Falconer's wonder when the two young men were alone for a minute +on the Gezireh verandas. "Didn't you ever want to be a pirate?" + +The red-headed young man nodded. "Yes, but this business doesn't +make me feel like a pirate--more like a second-story man!" + +"I've left letters with Fritzi Baroff," said Hill, "and if we're not +back by morning, she's to go to the authorities with them." + +"That won't do us any good," said the Englishman grimly. + +But after the ladies returned it was a very merry-seeming tea party. +Even Miss Falconer unbent to the artist, as she persisted in calling +Billy, though he had dutifully enlightened her that engineering was +his true and proper life work, and art but a random diversion, and +she promised to show him the sketches which she had been making, +and piled him with questions about his mysterious America. + +And Lady Claire was very prettily animated, and rallied Falconer +upon his absent-mindedness and told Billy tales of her English home +and how her father had threatened to change the name of the Hall to +_Maedchenheim_ because there were five daughters of them. "_Five_ +girls near an age, Mr. Hill, and all poor as church mice!" she had +blithely asserted. + +But from what Billy heard of balls and hunters and "seasons," he +gleaned that being poor as church mice, for these five titled girls, +meant merely an effort in keeping up with the things they felt +should be theirs by right divine. And as Billy listened, feeling the +force of the girl's attraction, the charm of her serene confidence +and the pleasant air of security and well-being that hedged her in, +he stole a covert glance at Falconer's unrevealing countenance and +reflected that it was rather a stormy day for that young man when he +became entangled with the fortunes of little Miss Beecher. It was +also a stormy day for himself, but he felt that storms belonged more +naturally to his adventurous lot. + + * * * * * + +But it was characteristic of Falconer when once committed to a plan +not to open his mind to the objections which besieged it. So that +night, at the fall of dark, as the two young men motored forth +together, he maintained a stolid resolution which refused to look +back. The approach of the danger was tuning up his nerves, and +whatever his common sense might think about it, his youth and pluck +greeted the adventure with a quickening heart and a rash warmth of +blood. + +Both young men were resolute and confident. Either would have been +more than human if he had not looked a trifle askance upon the other +and wished to thunder that he had been able to go into it alone and +to have tasted the intoxication of delivering the girl single-handed +out of the den of thieves. But the success of the plan was +paramount, as Billy reminded himself. + +He found himself hoping wildly that she would see him as well as +Falconer. + +"She has probably forgotten all about me," he thought ruefully. "She +won't remember that dance with me, nor that chat next morning. I'm +just an Also Met. She won't even perceive me. She'll see that +sandy-haired deliverer--and she'll tell him how right he was and how +good to come after her----" + +Thus jealousy darkly painted his undoing. "But, darn it, I had to +ask him!" Thus he downed his ungenerous thoughts. "It needed two men +at least--and besides, I don't want any handicap of gratitude in +this." + +They left the automobile in the Mohammedan graveyard with exact and +impressive instructions. And then they stole back among the gloomy +trees and ghostly tombs to where the canal washed the foot of the +little terraces, and there the one-eyed man sat waiting in the +canoe, a figure of profound misanthropy. + +Silently he lifted a stricken but set countenance, and they climbed +in and the three paddled off, approaching the back of the palace +with wary eyes, for they were afraid that a guard might now be set +upon the walls. But Billy had argued that Kerissen was unaware of +Fritzi's knowledge of Arlee's identity; in fact she had at first +supposed her a willing supplanter like herself, and so he would not +be apprehensive of any of her revelations. And he did not dream that +Fritzi's rescuers were interested in Arlee. + +At the strip of path the canoe made softly to shore and the two +young men climbed out, while the Arab remained in the canoe, his +single eye peering into the darkness. This time Billy had provided +three stout, but narrow, ladders, constructed of two poles nailed +together with occasional cross pieces that gave narrow room for a +foot. He set one of these in place against the wall now, grounding +its ends deep in the soft earth, so that it would remain in +readiness for any sudden descent. Then from the top of the wall they +reconnoitered the scene before them. + +It was very dark. The garden was full of blotting shadows, and the +long wing of the harem lay almost in darkness, with only a faint +beam from two adjacent windows to reveal a sign of life. Those +windows were on the third story, next the angle made by the union of +the banquet hall and the harem, and Billy's heart quickened as he +recognized the location of the rose room. + +"That's it--that's her room," he whispered excitedly to Falconer. + +Falconer stared and nodded. "I wish that beastly hall wasn't in the +way ahead of us. I'd like to see what lights are in the windows in +that court beyond." + +"We might both go and take a look," said Billy doubtfully, "but I +guess you had better make, straight for your roofs. It wouldn't do +to have us both nabbed. Do you hear anything?" + +They listened, crouching flat upon the wall, straining their eyes +toward the palace. There was a high wind blowing and above them the +leaves of the palm trees were slapping against each other, and below +the shrubs and flowers were stirring restlessly. But the noise of +the wind, they felt, was helpful to cover the sounds of their +approach. + +"Why can't I make my way around on top of this wall and climb on the +roofs from the start?" Falconer questioned, and Billy answered, "I +asked her that. She said it couldn't be done. You'd have to climb +through some unsafe rubbish. The best way is down and up again in +that angle that she showed me. Shall we start?" + +The same impulse made both men examine their revolvers, then drop +them in readiness into their right-hand coat pockets. They moved +along the top of the wall till they reached the angle with the wall +on their right, and then they lowered the same knotted rope which +Billy had used the night before, but now another rope added to it +made it into a rope ladder. Suspending that over the top of the wall +by iron hooks, they slipped down it, each with a pole ladder in his +arms, and with another hook of iron they drove the ends down into +the earth, so that the rope would not wave out in the wind and +either betray them or become displaced. + +It was insecure enough, anyway, but they felt it ought to be left in +readiness for a flight that might have no second to waste. Now, with +eyes sharply challenging the shadows, they stole along the edge of +the palace. + +Staring up at the building, Billy stopped. "Here's a place a story +and a half high--you could almost climb up by those carvings without +any ladder. And there's the next higher roof back of it--and then +you must go there to the left." + +"I can make it," said Falconer, surely. "Now how much time shall I +allow you for your sawing--fifteen minutes?" + +"Guess you'd better," Billy reflected, and they compared watches. + +It was tremendously difficult to arrive at any sort of concerted +action on this bewildering expedition, but they were hoping to +achieve it. Their plan had the simplicity of all desperate measures. +One from below and one from above they were to make their way to +that rose room and fight the way out with the girl. They considered +it wiser to come from two directions, for if one were discovered and +the alarm raised, the other had still a chance of getting off with +Arlee, and if one were trying to escape, the other could cover his +flight. They had drawn straws for their positions, and Billy had +been slightly relieved that the entrance from below, which he +considered a trifle more difficult, had fallen to him. He felt +responsible, as well as he might, for Falconer's neck. + +Now he steadied one narrow ladder of poles while Falconer crept up +it and then drew it up after him; and after a few moments of +waiting, crouched in the shadow, Billy saw the Englishman's figure +reappear against the sky on top of a higher roof. The route over +the old buildings had been found, so Billy turned and crept forward +along the wall, carrying the last long ladder of poles in his hand. +It was an unwieldy thing to carry and it distracted his attention +harassingly. + +"My job," said he to himself, "is evidently to make a racket and +draw their fire from below while that red-headed chap carries Arlee +off from above. Well, I hope to the Lord he does. When I think of +her here----" + +But it was unnerving to think of her here, so he didn't. He kept his +mind steadily on the plan. He had reached the stone steps that led +from the garden to the harem now, and laying down his pole-like +ladder he slipped up them and turned the handle. + +But the door was locked. Fearful lest the grating of the knob should +have roused some watcher, he ran down the steps and hurried into the +shadow of the banquet hall, where he stood close beside a pillar +until he satisfied himself of the objects in the court beyond. He +saw an edge of light along the crack of a closed door to the left on +the ground floor of the _selamlik_, and in the higher stories above +that a couple of windows showed a pale illumination. On the right, +in the harem, only one window betrayed a ray of light. Altogether +the old pile was as gloomy and gruesome as a tomb. + +Billy stared across the court to where the columned vestibule, +uniting the two Ls, indicated the door. He had been told a watchman +slept there, but he could see nothing now but vague outlines of the +arches of the vestibule. To the left was the open passage left for +the entry of the automobile and horses, but this, too, was roofed so +that a black shadow lay over it. But for that watchman Billy would +have made his way to those doors to draw back the bars in readiness, +but fearful of raising an alarm, he judged it was better to leave +escape to chance and turn his attention to his entry. + +He went back now for his ladder, and on the right side of the +banquet hall, up under the arched roof, he discovered the wooden +grating where Fritzi had described it. Against this wall he placed +his ladder and climbed to the top, from which he could reach up and +clasp the spindles of the grating above him. + +He drew himself swiftly up to this, and the end of his pole was +dislodged by his departure and fell to the inlaid pavement with a +bang that seemed to him to carry to the farthest echoes of the +sounding court. Instantly there was an answering clatter of steps. + +Like a monkey Billy clung to the grating, thrusting his toes +desperately into the first openings they could find, hanging on with +his hands for dear life, holding himself as close up in the darkness +as he could, and nearly twisting his neck off in the effort to watch +what was going on below him. + +The steps sounded nearer and nearer, and a huge Nubian in baggy +bloomers and a short jacket was outlined in the court. His bare feet +were thrust into clattering English shoes. He peered about him for a +time, with one hand pointing the muzzle of a revolver. Billy caught +the unpleasant gleam of it; then the man stepped in underneath the +arches of the hall and made a slow way across it. + +Directly in his path lay that fatal pole. It lay along the shadow of +a column, but its end protruded beyond that shadow and would surely +catch his eye. Billy tried to free his right hand to get at a gun of +his own. To be caught ridiculously like this, clutching like a +monkey on a stick----! + +Another man, shorter and bent, in a long robe and carrying a +lantern, now emerged from that door along whose closed edge Billy +had noticed the crack of light, and the Nubian diverged toward him. +The pole was unnoticed and the two joined forces and made a slow +circle in the garden. Billy remembered that dangling rope, and with +a thumping heart he hoped that it would hang unregarded in that +shadowed angle, overrun with vines. + +Apparently it did, for he heard the footsteps passing on without a +stop as he clung there to his grating, his muscles cramped, his +sockets strained. Slowly the two recrossed the hall, talking +together in low gutturals and not apparently of unpleasant things, +for a note of laughter sounded. They lingered in parley in the +court, but by the time that he thought that he could not hang on a +minute longer and would drop like a peach from the wall, they +separated and each moved slowly away. The man with the lantern shut +the door after him and all was darkness there and the great Nubian +was blotted out beneath the arches of the vestibule. + +The fear that Falconer was in the palace alone made Billy desperate. +Clinging with his feet and his left hand, he drew out a clasp knife +with a razor edge and hacked furiously at the delicate spindles and +frail carved work of the screen till he could thrust one arm through +the opening. The work was easier then, but he had to resist the +temptation to seize the brittle stuff and break it in pieces, for +fear the splintering sound would be too sharp. + +Torn between caution and impatience he worked on, and as soon as the +hole was large enough he pulled himself cautiously up and dropped +over the edge into the cage-like balcony on the other side. The +panel which separated it from the rest of the old room was half +open, and he stepped through it into what appeared utter darkness. + +He stood listening keenly, for he knew that he was standing below +the rose room; the very spot where he was must be almost exactly +beneath that secret passage outside the panel in the rose room's +wall. Not a sound came down to him and he dared not wait longer, but +turned to the left and passed through the arched doorway into the +next great salon. + +As his eyes grew accustomed to the dark he saw that it was not utter +blackness, but that some wan light from the paler night without +faintly penetrated through those jealously guarded windows--windows +not so heavily screened, he had been told, as those upon the front +of the palace, for these were upon the court. He found time for a +flash of horror at this stifling barricade as he made his hurried +way through the room and stepped out into the little anteroom +beyond. + +Here he paused, for he knew that to the left, ahead of him, was the +curtained opening into the long salon upon the street, and within +that, Fritzi had warned him, a eunuch sometimes slept or Seniha +occasionally came from her small salon to play on the piano there +and lingered apparently in wait. But no one seemed stirring, and +Billy stole to the door on his right, opening on the encased stairs, +and found it locked. Hurriedly he pried at it with a burglarious +tool, and then a sudden outburst sounded overhead. + +There was a racket of hurrying feet and then a muffled explosion of +a shot. A hoarse voice yelled. Another shot, and then a thud of +something falling. + +Desperately Billy fired his gun into the lock. The noise did not +matter now and might serve to divert the fight from Falconer. +Throwing his weight against the shattered lock, he bounded up the +narrow stairs and raced down the long hall to the door that was +brightly gilded. From beyond, but fainter now, came the sounds of +conflict. With a heart beating to suffocation he flung open the door +and rushed into that room. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +IN THE ROSE ROOM + + +Candles flared on the table but not a figure greeted his eye. The +room was deathly still; nothing stirred but the long draperies +fluttering in the wind. + +"Arlee!" he whispered in a voice strained with excitement. "Arlee +Beecher, are you here?... Arlee!" + +No voice answered. No motion revealed her. Only the candle flames +danced drunkenly in a puff of air, flaunting their secret knowledge +of the tenant they had lighted. + +He darted to the tumbled bed and flung aside the covers; he looked +beneath it and beneath the couch; he sent a candle's light traveling +about the empty whiteness of the bath. No little figure, pitifully +silenced, was, hidden there. The room was empty. And all the while +that din sounded somewhere beyond them--running feet and strident +yells. + +"He's got her!" thought Billy, and first his heart leaped and then +it sank. For very dear to that boy's heart had been the dream of +rescuing her himself. And then he hated himself for that base envy. +For what did it matter as long as little Arlee was safe, and that +she was gone with Falconer, the empty room and the signs of hasty +departure all spoke in witness. He wondered sharply how they had +gone and whether he had better try to follow them and then thought +it was shrewder to go back the way he had come and from below to try +to guard whatever descent they must make. + +He turned swiftly and crossed to the door. With a hand outstretched +toward it he caught suddenly, beneath all the distant din, the click +of a sliding lock, and he whirled about, dropping his right hand +into his pocket, to see a pale face staring at him from the other +side of the bed. + +"Not a move--or you drop!" said Captain Kerissen. The candle lights +glinted on the muzzle of a gun leveled steadily at him. + +"Stay where you are," the Captain added, and Billy stayed, and +through the dusk the two men stood eyeing each with a glare of +hatred. But Kerissen's eyes held hatred triumphant. + +"So, Monsieur," said the Turk. "This is the midnight call you +gentlemen pay--in the chamber of my wife." + +"Your wife!" Billy gave a snort of unbelief. "She says you did not +marry her!" + +"When you are found dead--if you are found," the other continued, +looking lovingly along the sight, "there will not even be a question +into the cause. You will be carted off like carrion--carrion that +prowled too near." + +"Just the same you've made a mistake," said Billy in a dogged and +argumentative tone. "I'm not interested in visiting any wife of +yours. The lady I'm representing says you didn't marry her. But she +says you did keep back most of her jewelry and she's giving the +story to the papers to-morrow unless I return with the stuff +to-night." + +He could not guess what impression this speech was making. + +"I am not interested in your stories, Monsieur," the Turk returned +blandly. "I am interested only in your dispatching--which I feel +should be prolonged beyond the mercy of a shot." + +"Look here, I'm not a common robber and you know it," said Billy, +and his voice sounded rough and angry. "I'm here to collect the +property of the lady you detained here, while she was under contract +in Vienna. I don't want anything more than _belongs_ to her. She +left----" + +"With a great deal more upon her than she brought! But am I to +suppose, Monsieur, that you have made your way here, at some +personal inconvenience, I should say, to discuss the generosity of +my remuneration to the lady?" There was a tense silence and the +Captain continued in a low, almost purring voice, "You do not +appear, even now, to comprehend the thing you have done. I shall do +my best to make you comprehend--and before I have finished it may be +that I shall have a clearer explanation of this impulsive call. You +have no notion, Monsieur, how certain things unloose the tongue--but +you shall discover." + +Billy saw his white teeth show in a deadly smile. Back of him a +dark, heavy figure appeared and the Captain, without turning his +head or moving his eyes or his gun from Billy, gave some rapid +directions in Turkish and the figure disappeared. It occurred to +Billy like a flash that from that secret passage where the figure +had appeared there was a panel into the room on the right and that +room had a door opening into the hall outside. The next moment he +felt the door behind him open. + +Then he pulled the trigger of that gun in his pocket in which his +hand had been so lightly resting. The Captain seemed to fire the +same instant, but Billy had jumped aside as he shot his own gun and +he heard the bullet singing past his ear, and now, with his revolver +out of his pocket, he shot again with an aim so true that the other +man's right hand gave a spasmodic jerk and the revolver went +spinning to the ground. + +Across the room he hurled himself, springing from the onslaught of +the assailant entering behind him, and thrusting the cursing Captain +from his path he leaped through the sliding panel. The lock clicked +home and he paused even in that moment of hammering pulses and +pounding heart to fumble in the darkness to shut that other panel +into the next room, remembering Fritzi's warning that those locks +needed a key to open them from within. The minute's delay for the +key would mean many minutes for him. + +He stumbled against the tiny stairs that led to the tower room +through which Falconer had descended, but he did not dash up those +stairs for he heard the noise of feet overhead, as if returning from +pursuit, and he darted straight on through the long, narrow, +unlighted corridor, running like a hare. + +At the other end he crashed against a half-open door and fell +headlong down a flight of stairs. From his astonished fingers the +revolver went clattering and though he picked himself up, battered +but unbroken, at the foot, he dared not waste a minute to go back +and hunt for the gun in the dark. He was totally at a loss for +directions; he had expected to find himself in the Captain's rooms, +and the stairs were unknown. Now he could just make out a door ahead +of him and sent it flying open, smash in the face of an astonished +black boy who went stumbling backwards. + +Out went Billy's fist and caught the unguarded chin a staggering +blow, and as the boy reeled back he flung one hurried glance about +the big, lamp-lit chamber in which he found himself, the room +evidently of Captain Kerissen, and darted to an arsenal of weapons +that glinted against the inlaid panels. Wrenching down the shortest +scabbard he jerked out a most villainous looking two-edged knife and +gripping this piratical weapon he bounded out the door, fled through +the dim hall to his right, rounded a corner, to the right again, +hearing the sounds of pursuit louder and louder now behind him, shot +through a vast reception hall and plunged down a flight of stairs. + +From the darkness below a figure rose up to receive him with a grip +like iron. Billy's right arm was doubled at his side; the blade of +that villainous old dagger was pressed against the yielding softness +of the fellow's sash, but for the life of him Billy could not drive +home that knife against the human flesh. With a convulsive movement +he tore himself from those gorilla arms and sent up a desperate +kick, then leaped past the staggering man, and with the unused knife +in his teeth, he tore at the bars of the great gate in the wall at +his left. The bars were stiff and primitive and resisted his furious +fingers, and the big gate-keeper, gasping for a moment against the +stairs, suddenly straightened and sprang toward him. + +"Here's one hero that didn't open the door 'in the nick of time'!" +raced through Billy's grimly humorous mind, as he dodged the savage +thrust of a knife the man had drawn and turned and scuttled across +the court with the other on his heels. Through the arches he darted +and then down into the garden, sprinting as he had never sprinted +before, on, on to the southwest angles of the wall, thanking Heaven +fervently, as every step outdistanced his pursuer, that the man had +evidently no gun. + +The rope ladder was still there, blown free at the bottom now and +waving merrily in the wind. He snatched at it, dropping his knife in +his pocket, praying that the top hooks had not become dislodged, and +after him came the other man, hand over hand. Billy drew up his legs +in a horrid fear of having them gripped or hacked at, and gained the +top just as the other's head appeared below, his knife gleaming in +his teeth. + +Like a flash Billy drew out his knife and cut the rope. There was a +wild yell from below and a screech of curses and imprecations +following a rather sickening sounding thud, which persuaded Billy, +peering down from above, that the victim's lungs at least were +unimpaired, and then to his great amazement a shot went winging up +past his ear. + +"Had a gun all the time--too fighting mad to think of it--knife more +natural!" he thought amazedly, sliding down the other side in a +jiffy and then jerking his ladder down flat on the ground. + +Out in the shadows the one-eyed man was paddling earnestly to +safety. The shot so close at hand had been his sign for departure; +he did not look back at Billy's shrill whistling nor his wilder +shouts, and as the yells on the other side of the wall were bringing +the inmates of the palace upon him, Billy had no more time for +persuasion. + +Off went his shoes and out into the canal he flung them, then +headlong he plunged into the dark and uninviting water and struck +out to the right, in the same direction in which the canoe was +going, keeping carefully in the shadow of the bank, on the other +side. + +In a few moments the canoe was lost from sight and Billy was left +alone, swimming between two steep walls of old palaces, weighed down +by his tweeds, and maddened through and through with his inability +to wring the neck of the one-eyed canoeist. The distance seemed +unending to his slow progress but at last the palms of the cemetery +appeared upon the right hand bank, and he struck across the widening +waters and climbed out on the first foot of the graveyard that +presented itself. + +A dozen rods farther on the Arab was awaiting him in the canoe. +Billy's mood did not invite conversation and he did not linger now +for the other's explanations, but calling to him to wait he made in +through the cemetery, dodging warily from tomb to tomb, till he +reached the entrance of the main road. + +The motor was gone. He satisfied himself of that, and a wave of +rejoicing surged through him. That motor was to wait till one or the +other arrived with the girl and then leave with all speed, while the +other was to be left to the slower canoe. He was sure, now, that +Falconer had succeeded in carrying the thing through and Billy's +heart warmed to him. Then, for the first time, he felt something +numb and queer about his left arm and putting his hand on it he +found the sopping sleeve was torn and a warm ooze of blood welling +through the cold water from the canal. + +"Gosh, the chap winged me!" was his startled exclamation. "Feels as +if it's going to sleep--glad it didn't go back on me in the ditch, +there." Then he pressed back into the shadows for he saw a figure +edging forward beyond the corner of a tomb. After a moment's +hesitation it came directly toward him. He saw it was Robert +Falconer. + +Foreboding gripped him and he could scarcely keep himself from +shouting his eager question, but he hurried forward till the two +stood face to face and then, "Where is she? Did you get her?" burst +from him, and "Have you got her? Is she all right?" came at the same +instant from Falconer. + +Blankly they stared at each other and a cold sense of failure went +over and over Billy like a sea. His voice shook with this new, +sickening fear. "Didn't you see her at all?" + +"Did you?" counter-demanded Falconer, and Billy stammered, "Why no +I--I found the room empty. And I thought you were safely off with +her." + +"Safely off!" said Falconer grimly. "I got in all right, though +there must be a new lock on the door of that room up top, but I made +some noise about it and ran plump into a fellow half way down the +stairs. I threw him the rest of the way down, and he fired and +brought a couple of others swarming up at me but I got out on the +roofs again and gave them the slip. They went tearing back along the +wing toward the garden the way I'd come and I went toward the street +and got down." + +"Got down! _How_ did you get down?" + +"Over those bay-window places," said the Englishman briefly. "I tied +that cord I had to one of the doddering old cornices to start with. +It wasn't any trick at all." + +"Three stories," Billy shot in. + +"And you'd no better luck, it seems?" Falconer inquired. + +"No, I came up from below and found the room empty--but disheveled, +so I thought you were off with her sure. And just then the Captain +came in the panel places--just back from chasing you along the roof, +I guess, for I'd been hearing the racket--and another fellow with +him and we had a scrimmage and I got away through the men's wing." + +"You're wet." + +"That was a bit of canal bathing--our Arab put off with the canoe +when I was needing it badly. I left him waiting here all right, +however, and came here to find the motor gone." + +"Naturally--being paid in advance." + +"Only half paid." + +"Half pay was enough for him. I knew it would be.... The thing was +all rot in the first place." + +Billy was too bitter of soul to reply. He was remembering what he +ought to have done. He ought to have put that pistol to the +Captain's head and forced him through the palace inch by inch.... He +wondered if it would do any good to go back. His arm was rousing +from its numbness, however, and raising a little racket all its own. + +"We might as well get out of this," the Englishman advised, and +Billy's reason acquiesced in spite of his rage. In silence they went +down to the water's edge and embarked. The homeward course, from +caution, was not past the palace but upstream through a remote and +unknown region where they finally landed upon a bank and struck +through unfamiliar and unfriendly looking byways toward the city. + +Their walk was silent. Fierce gloom enveloped Billy; furious chagrin +bestrode him. Chump that he was to have jumped at such positive +conclusions! He ought to have stayed there. If only that second Turk +had not been coming up behind him! He could think now of a number of +brilliant ways out of his difficulties.... Morosely he trudged on +through the interminable streets, his chilly wetness like an outward +aspect of his gloom-soused mind. + +He could not bear to think of Arlee. He felt now that, warned by +Falconer's approach from above, they had snatched her from her room +and hidden her away. He wondered if he deceived the Captain about +the motives for his presence. He wondered what in the world could be +done now--if all effort was to resolve itself into the futility of +an official search-party. He wondered where in all that baffling +prison Arlee was hidden. + +Upon that tormenting question he unlocked his lips. "Where is she?" +he muttered worriedly. "That's the question--where is she?" + +"In Alexandria." + +Plainly the Englishman's wrath had been smoldering. Billy turned +upon him fiercely. + +"In that palace, I tell you." + +"So you say." + +"And I say, too," and Billy's exasperation strained its bonds, "that +if you don't believe she was there--if you think I got up this +little party to while away an idle evening, why it was most +uncommonly good of you to come! But I can't think why you did it if +you weren't convinced of the necessity. Certainly it was not from +love of me." + +"Rather not." + +"That goes double.... But you couldn't deny the facts and you _did_ +come. Because we failed doesn't change the facts at all. She's +there--only _where_? Had we better go straight to the consul now?" + +"I think," said Falconer coldly, "that we had better telegraph the +Evershams to see if they have had any word from her before we stir +up any hue and cry." + +"All right," said Billy, and then he gave a short laugh. "Lord, we +shall be quarreling like a couple of backyard dames next ... Of +course, we're chagrined. It's poor satisfaction to reflect that we +did our best--and if you are still uncertain about Miss Beecher's +danger there I can't blame you for seeing the folly of the +business." + +After this effort of pleasantness Billy subsided into the cab that +was most welcomely discovered, rousing after some minutes of violent +progress to change their direction to the English doctor's. + +"Winged," he said briefly, to Falconer's question. "Watchman chap as +I was getting over the wall. Nothing wrong, I know, but it feels +like--fire," he substituted. + +Falconer was instantly concerned, but his sympathy went against the +grain. Billy was too stirred for consolation. At the doctor's he +refused to have Falconer enter with him. + +"No use in having both of us traced if there is to be any trouble +about this," he said with decision. "Go ahead and telegraph the +Evershams and get an answer as soon as possible." + +He had no earthly belief in that answer, and great, therefore, was +his astonishment when, as he was walking the floor with his tingling +arm in the early morning hours, a telegram was sent to him which +Falconer had just received. His wire had caught the boat at Rhoda +where it tied up for the night and Mrs. Eversham had promptly +answered. + +"We have heard from Miss Beecher," she said, "and she may join us +later. Her address just Cook's, Alexandria." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ON THE TRAIL + + +Breakfasting, a little one-handedly, that Monday morning, Billy was +approached by his companion of the night. The young Englishman +looked fresh and fit and subtly triumphant. + +"Good news--what?" he said with a genial smile. + +"If authentic," said the dogged Billy. + +"Of all the fanatic f----!" The sandy-haired young man checked his +explosiveness in mid-air. He gave a glance at the bulge of bandage +beneath Billy's coat sleeve and dropped into a chair beside him. +"How's the arm?" he inquired in a tone of restraint. + +"Fine," said Billy without enthusiasm. + +"Glad of that. Afraid the canal bath wouldn't do it any good. +Beastly old place, that." Then the Englishman gave a sudden chuckle. +"It's a regular old lark when you come to think of it!" + +"Our lack of luck wasn't any great lark." Savagely Bill speared his +bacon. + +"Luck? Why we--Oh, come now, my dear fellow, you can't pretend to +maintain those suspicions now! Of course the letter is authentic!" +Falconer spoke between irritation and raillery. "That Turkish +fellow could hardly fake that letter to them, could he? No, and we +will have to acknowledge ourselves actuated by a too-hasty +suspicion--inevitable under the circumstance--and be grateful that +the uncertainty is over. That's the only way to look at it." + +"We don't know that the Evershams have received a 'letter.' It might +be another fraudulent telegram that was sent them from Alexandria." + +"That is a bit too thick. You're a Holmes for suspicion!" Falconer +laughed. "I believe if Miss Beecher herself walked into this dining +room you would question if she were not a deceiving effigy!" + +"I might question that anyway." Billy's tone was dry. "And I daresay +I am a fool. But that dancer's story is pretty straight if she +didn't know the names, and it fits in disasterously well with my +limousine story." + +"You're not the first man to be staggered by a coincidence," +Falconer told him. "And that woman's yarn was convincing enough, +though all the time I was dubious, you remember. But now that the +Evershams have heard," and the young Englishman's deep note of +relief showed how tormenting had been his uncertainty, "why now we +have no further right to put Miss Beecher's name into the affair. +There is evidently some other girl concerned who may or may not be +as guileless as she represented to the Baroff girl, and I shall lay +that story before the ambassador and leave her rescue to authentic +ways." + +He laughed a little shamefacedly at the unauthentic ways of last +night, and added, looking off across the room, "My sister and Lady +Claire are going to Luxor to-night, and I expect to accompany them. +If you should have any word about Miss Beecher's return here I +should be glad if you would let me know." + +"If she is safe in Alexandria she'd never think of writing me," said +Billy bluntly. "Our acquaintance is distinctly one-sided." + +"I quite understand. She was your countrywoman in a strange land and +all that." + +"And all that," Billy echoed. "What time is your train?" + +"Six-thirty." + +"Then if I don't see you before that here's good luck and good-by." + +Billy rose and shook hands and the two young men parted after a few +more words. + +"You have an _idee-fixe_--beware of it!" was Falconer's caution, +serious beneath its air of banter, and on the other hand Billy +perceived in the cautioner a latent uneasiness considered so +irrational that he was doing his sensible best to disown it. + +So Falconer took himself off about the preparations for departure +and Billy B. Hill was left to face his problem alone. Black worry +plucked at him. He did not know what under the sun he could do next. +Already that day he had done what he could. He had been out early +and run down the one-eyed factotum loitering about the corner and +under cover of a transaction over a scarab he had made a number of +plans. + +He wanted the Captain followed every instant of the day. There were +enough active little Arabs greedy for _piastres_ to do that well +and send back constant word to him. There was coming that day, he +felt, an interview between him and that Captain. Then he wanted the +one-eyed man to insinuate himself into the palace. He must find out +things. He could use his connection with the eunuch who was uncle of +his brother's wife. + +So much Billy had already arranged and now after a hasty breakfast +he was off to the consul, where he proceeded to unfold his story +while the consul drew little circles on his blotter and looked out +of the corners of his eyes at this astonishing young man. + +He made no comment when Billy paused. Perhaps he could think of none +adequate, or perhaps, after all, he had ceased to be amazed. He +merely said slowly and thoughtfully, "Of course the dancer's story +is all you really have to go upon. You had better bring her here." + +"Nothing easier," Billy declared, and thinking a cab as prompt as a +telephone he drove briskly off. + +The hotel held a shock for him. Fritzi Baroff was gone. She had gone +the evening before, the clerk reported, consulting the register, and +she had paid her bill. As he had not been the one on duty then he +knew nothing more about it. She had left no address. + +Ultimately the clerk who had been on duty was unearthed in the +labyrinths of the hotel's backgrounds, but he could supply very +little further except the certainty that she had paid her bill in +person, and the vague belief that she had been accompanied. This +belief was companioned by a hazy notion that some one had called on +her that evening. + +Even Billy's sense of humor was unstirred by the half-cynical +sympathy of the night-clerk's gaze; Billy didn't feel a laugh +anywhere within him. He was balked. The dancer had vanished with her +story, and that story was essential to the consul. Like a fool he +must return empty-handed with this yarn of her disappearance and the +consul would be justified in declaring that he had no actual proof +to act upon. Which was precisely what the consul did, but he +offered, impressed with Billy's earnestness, "to take the matter +up," with the proper authorities. + +It seemed the best that could be done. Billy urged him to prompt +action, and to himself he promised some prompt action of a totally +unofficial character. He knew now what he was going to do, or rather +he thought he did, for the day still held its unsettling surprises +for him, and as he set forth on business bent that afternoon he +found himself besieged by a skinny little boy in tattered blue +robes, who danced around him with a handful of dirty postcards. + +"Be off," said Billy, in vigorous Arabic, and the little boy +answered proudly, in most excellent English, "I am a messenger, sir. +I am the boy who held the canoe that night. Buy a postcard, sir? +Only six piastres a dozen, six piastres, Views of Egypt, the Sphinx, +the Nile, the----" + +Impatiently Billy cut him short. + +"Never mind the bluff. No one is listening. What's your message?" + +"The streets have ears, sir. Buy a postcard?... I have come from the +palace. I brought in the bread. I--_I_ got in under their nose while +the big Mohammed was turned away without sight of his uncle," +bragged the little Imp. "I am a clever boy, I. No one else so clever +to find out things. The American man did well to come to me." + +"What the devil, then, did you find out?" + +"Five piastres a dozen, then, only five.... Go on walking, sir, I +will run alongside. Keep shaking your head at me--very good.... I +find out where she are." + +"Where _who_ are?" + +The little braggart had roused Billy's suspicions. He determined to +be wary. + +"The young girl with the very light hair. Mohammed send me to ask of +her. You know, sir," the little fellow insisted, hopping up and down +beside him. "Only four a dozen--very cheap!" he screeched at him in +a tone that must have carried for blocks. "I run in with the bread +and take it to the kitchen where women are working. And I pretend +make love to one very pretty girl, tell her how I come marry her +when I old enough and make enough, and hold up piece money to show +how rich I am. And the rest they think I just make game, but I +whisper to her quick how much you pay her for news of that lady +upstairs with the fair hair, and I give her some money. It are not +much, sir. I promise her to come back with more." + +"Go on," demanded Billy, stopping short. "What did she tell you?" + +"Walk along, sir, walk along. Just half a dozen then--very cheap, +very beautiful!" cried the little rascal with deep enjoyment of his +role. Billy found his hands clenching frenziedly. The Imp proceeded, +"She are much afraid, that girl, to say things, but I tell her how +safe it is an' I tell her you great big rich man who pay her well. I +make her honest promise to come back with money--and she very poor +girl. She whisper quick what she know, looking backward over +shoulder like this." Turning his face about after this dramatic +illustration the Imp caught sight of Billy's countenance, and rolled +the rest of his narration into one speedy sentence. + +"She are gone," he cried. + +"Gone?" + +"Took away.... Take these cards, sir, stop and look at them.... Yes, +she are took away. It happen very quick; early that morning after +the other lady go in the night. Everyone much excited that night, +great noise about, and no one know just what happen. But the Captain +give orders quick, and early the motor car is ready and the strange +girl go away. Old woman go, too. Nobody know where." + +"That would be Sunday morning," Billy cried excitedly. "Are you sure +there is no mistake? There were lights in that room on Sunday +night." + +"I tell what the girl tell. She are very honest girl," the Imp +insisted. "She say the other lady run away with her lover an' +Captain afraid the new lady has a lover so he send her away quick." + +"But he didn't go himself?" + +"No, he have something with his reg-reglement," gulped the Imp +hastily, "that day and he stay and he there now--but now he sick." + +"What's the matter?" + +"I don't know, sir, but I know the doctor comes because she say to +me to come back and say I am boy from doctor with medicine, and if I +don't see her I must say I lost that medicine and go away, and come +again as I can till I bring that money to her. She are very much +afraid, sir." + +Billy shuffled the postcards with absent hands and stared down at +them with unseeing eyes. She was gone--and the Captain was not with +her! That much at least was gain. And the fellow was here sick from +his shot hand, apparently. "I hope gangreen sets in," he said +between his teeth. + +"You are pleased with me, sir?" the Imp was demanding. "You are glad +of so much clever boy? And you give me that money now to give that +girl? I make her most honest promise--and you see, sir, I am very +honest boy, I tell you all I know and I ask nothing of price yet. I +know that you are honest American man." + +At that Billy came out of his brown study and praised the tattered +little Imp with hearty earnestness. He saw no reason to doubt the +boy's story. If he had been trying to invent something in order to +make capital out of him he would hardly have invented that story of +Arlee's departure, for that put an immediate end to further +remunerative investigations in the palace. Of course Billy might be +mistaken, and the boy might be mistaken, but one had to leave +something to probabilities. He was very generous with the boy, and +the droll little brown face was lined with grins. Most naively he +besought that the American would not reveal the extent of his +donations to Mohammed, the one-eyed man, as the boys had promised +their employer a just one-half. + +It was the first laugh Billy had enjoyed in a long time. His spirits +were vastly lightened by the news that Arlee was out of the palace +where the Captain was staying. Fritzi had optimistically informed +him that the Turk's courtship could be made most lengthy, but that +had been a sadly slender hope and the picture of Arlee playing such +a fearful game was simply horrible to him. So his relief at her +departure was intense, although it complicated more and more the +hope of speedy rescue. + +For where was she now? In Cairo? In some of the outlying villages? +He felt swamped by the number of things were to be found out +immediately. He must find where that big gray motor went so early on +Sunday--surely there were people who had remarked it if they could +only be found and induced to talk! And he must find where the +Captain had other homes or palaces where he would be likely to hide +a girl. And he must find out where the Captain was every instant of +the day and night. + +That was the most important thing of all. For the Captain unless +delayed by extreme illness, or held back by a caution which Billy +judged was foreign to his nature, would not wait long before he +joined Arlee. He had evidently stayed behind for some review of his +troops and also to be _au courant_ of whatever stir would result +from Fritzi Baroff's reappearance in the world, and be on hand to +disarm whatever further suspicions would result from it. The lights +in the rose room that last night and the used look of the room, +puzzled Billy, but he concluded that the Captain liked the room and +there was a good deal in that palace that had better be left to no +imagination whatever. + +So back to the hotel went Billy to enter upon a period of waiting +that frayed his nerves to an utter frazzle. Inaction was horrible to +him, and now it was inevitable. He must wait for word from that +agile web of little spies which the one-eyed man was weaving about +the Captain's palace, and be ready to start whenever the word came. + +He slept with his clothes on that Monday night, but he slept heavily +for he was tired and his arm was no longer painful. The tear of +wound he called a scratch was healing swiftly. + +Tuesday morning passed in the same maddening suspense. Captain +Kerissen rode out that morning but only to the parade ground, where +he took part in a review with his troops. It was noticed that his +right hand was bandaged, but the injury could not have been severe +for his thumb was free from the bandage and he occasionally used +that hand upon the reins. It was the bright eyes of the Imp that +were sure of that. + +In the afternoon the Captain went again to the barracks and then to +the palace of one of the colonels in his regiment. Then he went +home. + +Utterly disgusted with this waiting game Billy began to dress for +dinner. All lathered for a shave he stood testing his razor on a +hair when his unlocked door was violently opened and a panting +little figure darted across to him. It was the Imp. + +"Sir, he goes, he goes upon the minute," he panted out. "He is in +the station. Quick!" + +Like a streak of lathered lightening Billy went for his clothes. A +centipede could have been no more active. He jerked up his +suspenders; he jerked on a shirt; he jerked on a coat; he was wiping +his face as he darted through the halls and down the stairs. No lift +had speed enough for his descent. At the desk he flung some gold +pieces at the clerk, cried something about being called out of the +city, and asked to have his room kept; then he was down the steps +and into the carriage that the Imp had magically summoned. + +The drive to the station was a series of escapes. Between jolts the +Imp gasped out the rest of the story. The Captain had ridden out in +the automobile. The Imp had given chase and so had the one-eyed man, +also on guard, and by dint of running for dear life they had kept +the motor in sight until the crowded city streets were reached and a +series of delays enabled them to catch up with it. As soon as they +saw the motor stop before the station the boy had rushed for Billy +while the Arab remained to shadow the Captain and learn his +destination. + +They themselves were at the station now, and Billy was still tying +his cravat. Now they jumped down and pressed through the confusion, +dodging dragomans, porters, drivers and hotel runners and making a +vigorous way past hurrying travelers and through bewildered +blockades of tourist parties. Suddenly over the bobbing heads they +saw the face they sought. A single eye glared significance upon +them. An uplifted hand beckoned furiously. + +"Assiout," whispered the one-eyed man as Billy reached him. +"Assiout. That one goes to Assiout on the night express." + +"My ticket? Got a ticket for me?" + +Upturned palms bespoke the absence of ticket and the Arab's deep +regret. "The price was much. I waited----" + +Billy was off. There was no chance of his getting past that stolid +guard without a ticket and he charged toward the seller's window, +where a line of natives was forming for another train. + +"_Siut_!" he shouted over their heads, and scattering silver and +smiles and apologies he crowded past the motley line to the window +and fairly snatched the miles of green ticket from the Copt's quick +fingers. + +He was the last man through the gate, and as he darted through the +clicking of compartment doors was heard with the parting cries of +the guards and the shouts of dragomans and porters. It was a train +_de luxe_ where the sleeping sections had long been reserved, but to +accommodate the crowded travel ordinary compartment cars had been +added at the last minute, and it was at one of these that Billy +grasped, as the wheels were moving faster and faster. A gold piece +caused a guard to unlock the first compartment door, although it +said, "_Dames Seules_," and "Ladies Only" in large letters. + +It was not a corridor train and the compartment was already filled, +and as Billy wormed his way, not into the nearest corner, for that +was not yielded to him, but into the modicum of space accorded +between two stout and glaringly grudging matrons, he became aware +from the hostile stares that his entrance had not been solitary. + +Between his legs the Imp was coiling. + +"I made a sneak with you," the boy whispered. "I say I your +dragoman, sir. You will be glad. You need such bright boy in +Assiout." + +Billy thought it highly probable that he would. But the ladies +neither needed nor desired him now, and ringed in by feminine +disgust the two scorned intruders sat silent hour after hour while +the train went rushing south through the increasing darkness of the +night. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE HIDDEN GIRL + + +Hour after hour the little boat held its steady course; hour after +hour the distant banks flowed past in changing scenes. Forward on +the narrow deck a girl sat in a lounge chair beneath a striped +awning and gazed out over the water. Squatting in the shade behind +her an old woman stared up out of half-closed eyes with pupils as +keen and bright under their puckered lids as the eyes of a watching +hawk. + +No disturbing consciousness of this incessant scrutiny muffled the +serenity of the girl's appearance. Her hands lax in her lap, her +blue eyes quietly intent upon the view, she lay back in her chair +with as much confident unconcern as she might have shown in an opera +box. As a matter of incredulous fact she was feeling incredulously +at ease. + +The terrible tension of those days in the palace was over--for the +time, at least. She did not understand this new move, she had been +bewildered ever since that early dawn, on Sunday, when the old woman +and the eunuch had rushed her into the limousine, driven her +swiftly through the empty streets to a landing place on the river +beyond the bridge, and hurried her on board this little boat, an old +_dahabiyeh_ reconstructed and given a new engine. + +The Captain had not appeared except for a brief interview in the +vestibule where he had told her that the quarantine was prolonged +and that he was going to try to escape out of Cairo where the +authorities would not be aware, and would first try to smuggle her +out of the city, too. She must do exactly as the old woman indicated +and everything would be all right. + +And she had said, "How exciting!" and "What fun!" with lips that +smiled pluckily in apparent acceptance of this flimsy excuse. + +She had connected this flight with the pandemonium she had heard in +the palace the night before, and she guessed that in some way her +presence there had become embarrassing for the Turk. Perhaps her +friends had traced her! Perhaps Robert Falconer--for after all it +would only be Robert Falconer's flouted devotion, she thought, that +would interest itself in her. He mistrusted Kerissen; he would +suspect. + +So hope rose high in her, and hopeful, too, was this new glimpse of +freedom. Somewhere, soon, she thought confidently, the chance to +escape would come. The old woman could not watch forever. The big +eunuch was occupied with the boat. She could hear him now muttering +angrily to the little brown boy at the engines, while over the sound +of his muttering rose the rhythmic, unconcerned chant of two other +boys marching up and down the narrow passageways of deck outside the +little staterooms with a scrubbing brush under each left foot. +"_Allah Illeh Lessah_," they chanted monotonously, with a scrub of +the brush at each emphasis. "_Allah Illeh Lessah_." + +"Allah help _me_," thought Arlee Beecher. + +All day Sunday she had sat there in that chair watching the +pyramids, at first so sharp-cut against the cloudless blue, wane +imperceptibly and fade from sight, watching the golden Mokattan +Hills and the pearly tinted Tura range slip softly from the horizon +and all the old landmarks of the Egypt that she knew disappear and +be replaced by strange, new sights. Other pyramids showed like +child's toys upon the horizon; dense groves of palm trees appeared +along the banks, then the banks grew higher and higher and upon +them, silhouetted against the bright blue sky, showed a frieze-like +procession of country folk driving camels or donkeys or bullocks. + +All night long they had steamed, a search-light on the bow, and +Arlee had lain in the little stateroom trying to sleep, but +continually aware of the breathing of the old woman huddled outside +against her door, of the soft thudding of bare feet about the deck, +of the pulse of the engine, beating, beating steadily, and of quick, +muffled commands, of reversals, grinding of chains as some +treacherous shallow appeared ahead, then of the onward drive and the +steady rhythmic progress again. + +Where were they taking her? South to some haunt where she would be +farther than ever from the civilization which had flowed so +unheedingly past that old palace of darkened windows, south toward +the strange native cities and tiny villages and the grain fields +and the deserts. But it was all better than that stifling palace and +the absence of the Captain gave her a sense of temporary security. + +Sunday had been hot and dry, but this Monday was cooler and the +north wind, blowing freshly over the wide Nile, broke the +amber-brown of the water into little waves of sparkling blue edged +with silver ripples. The river was beautiful to her, even in her +sorry plight, and to-day there were little clouds in the sky, +furtive, scuddy little clouds with wind-teased edges, and they cast +soft shadows over the river and over the tender green of the fields +and the flat, mirroring water standing level in the trenches. In the +fields brown men and women were working, and on the river banks the +half-naked figures of _fellaheen_ were ceaselessly bending, +ceaselessly straightening, as they dipped up the water from the +_shadoufs_ to feed the thirsty land. Sometimes in the fields Arlee +saw the red rusty bulk of the old engines, which the Mad Khedive had +tried to install among his people, to do away with this +back-breaking work, now lying useless and ignored. God forbid that +we do otherwise than our fathers, said the people. + +Across the water came the monotonous chant of their labor song, and +sometimes the creak and squeak of some inland well-sweep drawn round +and round by some patient camel. She felt herself to be in another +world, as she sat in that boat guarded by that old woman and an +eunuch, a world strange and remote, yet desperately real as it +enmeshed her in its secret motives, its incalculable forces.... + +As she watched, as the surface of her mind reflected these sights +and was caught in the maze of fresh impressions, the back of that +mind was forever at work on her own terrifying problem. She thought +confidently of escape, not able to plan it but waiting intently upon +opportunity, upon the passing of a boat perhaps, or the moment of +tying to some bank. + +There was in her a high spirit of undaunted pluck and an excitement +in adventure, which made her heart quicken instead of flag at the +odds before her. Only the thought of the desperate stakes and the +reality of her hidden fears would often draw the color from her +cheeks and stop an instant the beating of that hurrying heart.... If +those hawk-like eyes were watching then they might see the slim +hands pressed feverishly together before warning self-control turned +them lax again. + +So hour after hour the boat went on. On the left now the long +mountain of Gebel-el-Tayr stretched golden and tawny like a lion of +stone basking in the sun. They passed Beni-Hassan, where a Nile +steamer lay staked to the shore, the passengers streaming gaily out +and starting off on donkeys for an excursion to the tombs. If only +it had been a little nearer, close enough to risk a desperate +hail--! But the very sight of it was comforting. + +Toward dusk the engine failed. That night the boat lay by the bank, +tied to long stakes which the boys had driven in. The big Nubian sat +at one end, cross-legged, a rifle on his knees. At the stern sat a +brown boy. And so Arlee sank into the tired sleep that claimed her, +and did not wake until the warm sunshine in her tiny window and the +ripple of water against the sides told her that another morning was +at hand and that they were on the move again. + +Stepping out on deck for breakfast, she found the boat was sailing. +Two _lanteen_ sails were hoisted; a great one in the bow, a small +one in the stern, and the boat was running swiftly before the north +wind that blew fresher than ever. But the course was variable now as +the river curved and as sand-banks threatened, and Arlee watched the +waters eagerly for a near-passing boat. But when they did draw close +to a _dahabiyeh_ upon whose deck she saw some white-clad loungers, +the Nubian gave a low order to the old woman who rose and gripped +Arlee on the wrist and led her to the stateroom, sitting in silence +opposite her like a squat gargoyle, till the Nubian's voice +permitted them to emerge. + +And now they came to a city upon the right bank and the domes and +minarets, the crowded building and high flat roofs pierced Arlee +with a terrible sense of loneliness. And when her eyes caught the +gleam of flags over a building and she saw her own stars and stripes +blowing against this Egyptian sky, the tears could not be fought +back. With wet eyes and working mouth she stood there and looked and +looked. She thought she could endure no more and that her heart was +breaking. + +Leaden discouragement was upon her as the boat made in toward the +shore. It did not approach the city landings; it came in south near +a shallow bank, and one of the brown boys jumped overboard and +splashed to the shore while the boat went on. But by and by it +turned in its course and came beating back against the wind till +opposite it was the city; then it tacked in to that same place near +the bank, and there the boy was waving at them. Skillfully the +_dahabiyeh_ was brought about close to the high bank; and ropes +thrown from bow and stern were quickly staked and made fast. + +A plank was put over the side and with the eunuch ahead and the old +woman behind Arlee was taken ashore and mounted on one of the camels +the boys had brought, with the old woman behind, gripping her about +the waist. The eunuch, on another camel, held the bridle rope, and +led them at a terrific pace along the river road and then across the +fields, thudding down the narrow, beaten paths, till the lush green +was past and the dry desert lands began. + +Ahead of them a low, tawny mass of mountain seemed to shimmer and +waver in the hot sun, and as they drew nearer and nearer the mass +was resolved into many masses broken into small foothills at the +base, through which the Nubian threaded a rapid, circuitous way that +led out on a rolling ground. A wide detour, still at the same urgent +speed which jolted the breath from the girl and made her cling to +the carpeted pummel of the saddle with both hands, led them at last +within sight of palm trees and mud walls. + +Arlee had no means of guessing whether these houses were the +outskirts of that city she had glimpsed or whether they were a +separate village. She only saw that they were being taken to the +largest house of the place, which stood a little apart from the +others and was half-surrounded by mud walls. Into this walled-in +court her camel was led and halted and jerkingly it accomplished +its collapsing descent, and Arlee found herself on her feet again, +quite breathless, but very alert. + +Her fleet glance saw a number of black-robed figures about a stair; +the next instant a mantle was flung over her head and that +compelling hand upon her wrist urged her swiftly forward, and up a +flight of steps. Within were more steps and then a door. Thrusting +back the mantle she found herself in the sudden twilight of a small, +low-ceiled chamber. There was no other door to it but the one she +heard bolted behind her; there was one window completely covered +with brown _mashrubiyeh_. She flew to it; it looked out over wide +sands, with a glimpse, toward the right, of a mud wall and pigeon +houses. The room was musty and dusty and dirty; but the rugs in it +were beautiful, and a divan was filled with pillows and hung with +embroidered cotton hangings. Other pillows were on the floor about +the walls. A green silk banner embroidered in gold hung upon one of +those walls and a laquered table stood by the divan. + +And as Arlee Beecher stood there in that strange, stifling room, the +mutterings of foreign voices, the squeals of the camels, the bray of +a donkey coming through that screened window, a sudden rage came +over her which was too hot to bear. Her heart burned; her hands +clenched; she could have beaten upon those walls with her helpless +fists and screamed at the top of her unavailing lungs. It was a fury +of despair that seized her, a fury that she fought back with every +breath of sanity within her. Then suddenly the air was black. The +room seemed to swim before her eyes and the ground came swaying +dizzily up to meet her, and receive her spent unconsciousness. + + * * * * * + +Water had been brought; she woke to find herself upon the couch, the +old woman woodenly sopping her head and hands. She smiled weakly +into that strange dark face; it was as unchanged as if it had been +carved from bronze. The business of reviving finished, the old woman +left her a handkerchief damp with a keen scent and went about the +work of unpacking a hamper that she brought in. + +Dully, Arlee saw the preparations for a meal advancing. She shook +her head at it; a cup of tea was all that she could touch. A +lethargy had seized her; even the anger of revolt was gone. She +closed her eyes languidly, grateful when the old woman went away, +grateful when the darkness deepened. When it was quite night, she +thought, she would break open the wooden screen and fling herself +through the wood into the sands. She lay there passively waiting; +her heavy eyes closed, and she slept. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT BAY + + +Voices sounded below; footsteps hurried; a door slammed. Then feet +upon the stairs, and a hand at the door. Arlee struggled to her feet +in sudden terror; the candle was out and the room was in darkness. +Outside a gale was blowing. The door opened, but the figure which +hurried in was not the one her fright anticipated. + +It was the old woman again, bustling with haste. She brought more +candles for the table, and then a tray with a bottle and glasses and +dishes covered with napkins. Then she bestowed her attention to +Arlee, bringing her a mirror and a comb from the hamper she had left +upon the floor, and a cloth thick with powder. Then Arlee was sure. + +She stood rigid a moment, listening to that low buzz of voices from +below, then desperately she shook out her tangled hair and combed it +back from her hot face. It was still damp from the water that had +been dashed upon her, and as she knotted it swiftly, soft strands of +it broke away and hung in wet, childish tendrils. She brushed some +powder on her face; she bit her bloodless lips, and stared into the +glass, to see a wan and big-eyed girl staring back affrighted. + +Then the door opened, and desperately calling on her courage, Arlee +heard the Captain speaking her name and saw his smiling face +advancing through the shadows. + +"A thousand greetings, Mademoiselle. Ah, I am glad to see you." A +strained emotion quivered through the false assurance of his tone. + +She stood very straight and tense before him, a childishly small +figure there in the dusk, the blowing candles making strange play of +light and shadow over her. Steadily she answered, "And I am very +glad to see you, Captain Kerissen." + +"And I am glad that you are glad." But his ear had caught the +hardness of her voice, for answering irony was in his. Some devil of +delay and disappointment seemed to enter into him, for his face, as +she saw it now in his advancing, struck fright into her. The four +fingers of his right hand were wrapped in a bandage and he extended +his left to her, murmuring an apology. "A slight accident, you see." + +"There is so much I do not see that I do not feel like shaking +hands," gave back Arlee. "Captain Kerissen, this is too strange a +situation to be maintained. You must end it." + +"It is a very delightful situation," he returned blandly, looking +about with dancing eyes. "To be again your host, even in so poor a +place as this old house of the Sheik--and the place has its +possibilities, Mademoiselle. It is romantic. Your window overlooks +that desert you were so anxious to see. The sunsets----" + +"Captain Kerissen, I must say that you use a very strange way to +keep me your guest!" + +"I might respond that any way was justifiable so that it kept you a +guest.... But you wrong me. Did I not bring you safely out from that +quarantine, as you besought me?" His smile was mockery itself. + +"But you did not bring me to my friends. I do not like your sending +me here, without explanation," she returned, trying to be very wise +and speak quietly and not rouse him to anger. "We passed a city +where the American flags were flying over a house, and I could have +gone there." + +"I am sorry you do not care for my hospitality. I did not know that +I was displeasing to you." + +"It is those ways that are displeasing to me. I----" + +"Then you shall change them," he laughed. "That will give me +pleasure.... But I did not come in the dead of this night, half sick +and fatigued, to find such welcome. Come, you must smile a little +and sit down at the table with me. Here are delicacies I sent from +Cairo." + +Smilingly he seated himself at the divan by the table and lifted the +covers from the plates, nodded satisfaction at the food, and began +to help himself, while she stood there, motionless. + +Without looking up, "Will you not help me to the Apollinaris, +Mademoiselle?" he suggested. "My right hand, you see, is not as it +should be. There is a bottle opener on the tray." + +Feeling a fool, but unwilling to provoke a crisis, Arlee tugged at +the cork and poured him a glass of the sparkling water and then a +glass for herself, which she thirstily drank. "How did you hurt your +hand?" it occurred to her to say. + +"By playing with fire--the single pastime of entertainment!" He +spoke gaily, but his lips twitched. "But will you not sit down and +join me? This caviar I recommend." + +"I do not care to eat." + +"No?" He finished his sandwich and drained his glass, talking +banteringly the while to her. She did not answer. Something told her +that the time of explanation between them was coming fast; he had +ceased to play with his good fortune, ceased to feel he could afford +to wait and look and fancy. He had come urgent, in the dead of +night. His mood was teasing, mocking, but imperative.... Slowly she +moved toward the unlatched door. + +Alertly he was before her; the bolts shot home. "Ah, pardon, but I +was negligent! We might be interrupted--and also," he laughed, as if +deprecatingly, "I have foolish fears that you are so dream-like that +you will vanish like a dream without those earthly bars. Locks are +for treasures.... And now where is that welcome for me? I came in +that door on fire to see you, and your eyes froze me. I came to +love--you made me mock. Shall we begin again? Will you be nice now, +little one, be kind and sweet----" + +"Captain Kerissen, you make it impossible for me to like you at all! +Why do you treat me like this? You shut me in this house like a +prisoner. If you--if you care for me at all," stammered Arlee, "you +would not treat me so!" + +"And how, then, would I treat you?" he inquired slowly. + +"You would--you would take me to my own people and give me back my +independence, my dignity. Then there would be honor in your--your +courtship. I----" + +"Would you come back to me?" + +"I----" + +The lie choked her. And the passion of anger which had flared in her +that afternoon sprang up in flame again; the candlelight showed the +hot blood in her cheeks. "I shall not come to you if you keep me +here!" she gave back fearlessly. + +"But here I can come to you. And the preliminaries are always +stupid--I have no desire to reenact them. I am well content with +where we have arrived. Be content, also." + +She stared back at his smiling face. And all she thought was, "Shall +I defy him now, or try to hold him off a little longer?" She had +ceased to feel afraid; her blood was on fire; it was battle now +between them; perhaps a battle of the wits a little longer, then---- + +"In America men do not make love by force," she flung at him. "You +are mad, Captain Kerissen! You will be sorry if you go on like this. +If you wish to marry me you must give me the freedom of choice. You +must give me time. I must have a minister of my own faith. Do you +think I will submit to this? You make me hate you!" + +"Hate is often love with a mask," he laughed, his eyes fixed on the +spirited, flushed face, the flashing eyes, the defiant mouth. "And +do not quote your America to me. You are done with America." + +"You say that? You forget who I am! My brother--I tell you my +brother will----" + +"Do I not know the risks?" His eyes narrowed. "But your brother will +ask in vain. He will not see you--until we reappear as husband and +wife. I will take you to the Continent, then I will give you +everything a woman wants, luxury and jewels--the pearls of my +ancestors I will hang on you. These have no woman of mine worn. You +shall be my adored, my dearest---- Oh, you must not turn from me," he +pleaded, his voice sinking softer and softer as he stole closer to +her. "You know that I am mad for you. You have bewitched me, little +Rose, you have made me strong and weak in a breath. I am clay in +your hands. Be sweet, be kind, be wife to me----" His hot hand +gripped her arm. He bent over her, and she sprang back, her hands +flung out before her. + +"Oh, wait!" she cried beseechingly. "Wait--please wait." + +"Wait? I have waited too long!" His voice was a snarl now. The mask +of indolent mockery was gone; his face was stamped with cruelty and +greed. "_Nom d'un nom_, I am through with this waiting!" + +She sprang back before his approach, then whirled about to face him, +trying to beat him back with words, with reason, with appeal. +Insanely he laughed and clutched at her as she flew past his +outstretched arms; in the corner he pinioned her against the wall +and gripped her to him. + +Terror gave her the strength of two--and his hand was bandaged. +Desperately she attacked it, and as his laughter changed to curses, +she wrenched free once more and flew across the room. With both +hands she seized the candles and flung them into the pillowed divan; +holding the last two to the draperies. Like magic the little flames +zigzagged up the cotton hangings. + +He threw himself upon the fire, dragging down the hangings, beating +on the cushions, but the corner was ablaze. Overhead the flames +seized cracklingly on the dry wood and darted little red tongues +over the dry surface and a scarlet snake ran out over the carved +ceiling. + +In utter wildness Arlee had carried the last candle to the open +hamper and the garments there caught instant fire. She was oblivious +of the sparks falling about her, oblivious of the increasing peril. +When Kerissen ran to the door, tearing open the bolts, furiously +cursing her, she gave him back the ghost of his earlier mocking +laughter and threatened him with a blazing cloth as he turned to +drag her from the room. + +But the fire reached her fingers and she flung the cloth at him, to +have him trample it under foot as he sprang toward her again. + +"Would you be burned--be marred?" he shouted at her. "You are mad, +you----" + +Behind him the door opened. Behind him a tall figure appeared +through the thickening smoke. She saw a face she knew; a voice she +knew cried out her name: + +"Arlee!" + +"Oh, here!" she cried and flung herself toward him. + +"Not unless you want another?" said Billy B. Hill to the Captain, +turning his gun suggestively. + +One tense instant the three faced each other in that flaming room, +then with a sound of impotent fury, Kerissen turned and darted out +the door. But as Billy turned to follow, his hand on Arlee's, there +was a sound of sliding bolts. + +"Burn, burn, then! Burn together!" called a hoarse voice through the +wood. + +Hill flung himself against the door; it was unyielding. On the other +side the taunts continued. He ran to the window, catching up the +little table as he ran, and rained a fury of blows with the table +against the close-carved screen. The wood splintered and broke; he +wrenched a side away, and dropping his gun in his pocket he crashed +through the hole and hung on the outside by his hands. + +"Climb out on my shoulders," he commanded, and Arlee climbed--how, +she never knew. For one instant she had an impression of hanging out +over an abyss with fire crackling in her face; the next instant the +soles of her feet were smarting and her eyes still seemed to see +stars. + +There was a run, stumbling, with Billy's hand sustaining her, and +then she was on a camel, clutching the saddle as the beast rose +swiftly in response to urgent whacks, and beside her Billy was on +another. Some one on foot goaded the beasts into a startled run, and +behind them yells and screeches were growing louder and louder. + +Over her lurching shoulder she had one last glimpse of a burning +building and saw flames pouring from the roof, and the room where +she had been an open furnace, and then she turned her face toward +the dark ahead. + +"Hang tight," Billy was calling to her, and she saw him lean over +and lash both camels into furious speed. "Some one is riding after," +and then he turned and shot his gun warningly into the air. + +The yells behind them stopped. But after some moments they heard a +camel snarl, and knew that some one was still back there in the +darkness, hanging on their trail. So they rode hard ahead, into the +enveloping night, over the rolling dunes, with the wind leaping and +tearing and hurling the sand in their faces, as if the very elements +were fighting against them. + +It was a strange chase and a hot one, pounding on and on, racked +with the wild, lurching flight, deeper and deeper into the +yellow-gray night that welcomed them with more strident blasts and +more stinging particles of sand. + +"It's a storm," Billy shouted at her, raising his voice above the +wind. "It's been blowing up this way for an hour now--they won't +follow long in the face of it. Can you hang on a little longer?" + +"Forever," she cried back, gripping the pommel tight and bending her +head before the whirling particles. There was sand in her hair, sand +on her lashes and in her eyes, sand on her face and down her neck, +and sand in her mouth when she wet her lips, but she heard herself +laughing in the night. + +"By and by we'll get off," he called back, and by and by when the +hot, stifling, stinging, choking, whirling gale was too blinding to +be borne, he checked the camels in one of the hollows of the desert +dunes from which the wind was skimming ammunition for its peppery +assaults, and the beasts knelt with a haste that spoke of gladness. + +"It's the backbone of it now; cover your head and lie down," Billy +commanded, and Arlee covered it with what he thrust into her +hands--his overcoat, she found--and tucked herself down against him +as he crouched beside the camels. + +"I should think--it was--the backbone," she gasped, unheard, into +her muffling coat. For the wind howled now like a rampaging demon; +it tore at them in hot anger; it dragged at the coat about her head, +and when her clutch resisted, it flung the sand over and over her +till she lay half buried and choking. And then, very slowly and +sulkily, it retreated, blowing fainter and fainter, but slipping +back for a last spiteful gust whenever she thought it finally gone, +but at last her head came out from its burrow, and she began +cautiously to wipe the sand crust off her face and lashes. + +"In your eyes?" said a sympathetic voice. + +In the darkness beside her Billy Hill was sitting up, digging at his +countenance. + +"Not now--I've cried--that all gone," she panted back. + +He chuckled. "I'll try it--swearing's no use." + +She sat up suddenly. "Are they coming?" + +"Not a bit. No use, if they did. You're safe now." + +"Oh, my _soul_!" She drew a long, long breath. "I can't believe +it." Then she whirled about on him. "How--why--why is it _you_?" + +He looked suddenly embarrassed, but the darkness hid it from her. He +became oddly intent on brushing his clothes. "Oh, I guessed," he +said in a casual tone. + +"You guessed? Don't they know? What did they think? Oh, where did +everyone think I was?" + +He told her, dwelling upon the misleading details; the hasty message +of farewell from the station, the directions about luggage, the +money to pay the hotel bill. "You see, his wits and luck were just +playing together," he said. + +"Then the Evershams _are_ up the Nile?" + +"Of course. They never dreamed----" + +"They wouldn't." Arlee was silent. She wondered confusedly--she +wanted to ask a question--she wanted to ask two questions. + +"But--but--no one else----?" she stammered. + +There was a particularly large lump of sand in Billy B. Hill's +throat just then; he cleared it heavily. "Oh, yes, some one else +guessed, too," he said then. "That English friend of yours, Robert +Falconer, he and I had a regular old shooting party in the palace +last Sunday evening. If you'd been there then he would certainly +have had you out." + +"So he knows." She said it a little faintly, Billy thought, as if +she was disappointed and troubled. She would know, of course, by +intuition, how the Englishman would think about a scrape of that +sort. + +"But he doesn't know now," he said eagerly. "He is sure you are all +right in Alexandria, because the Evershams received another fake +telegram from you from Alexandria. The Captain was stalling them +along, apparently, keeping everything under cover as long as +possible. And when Falconer heard about that, his suspicions were +over. He thought we'd made fools of ourselves in going to the +palace." + +She was silent. Looking at her, after a while, Billy saw her staring +out obliviously into the darkness; her hair was hanging all about +her. + +His glance seemed to recall her thoughts. She started and then +brushed back her hair; the sand fell from it and she took hold of +one soft strand. "Look out, I'm going to shake this!" she warned, +and he half shut his eyes and underneath the lids he saw her shaking +her head as vigorously as a little terrier after a bath. + +"Isn't it awful?" she appealed. + +"I could scratch a match on my face," he confirmed. + +"But tell me," she began again, "how did you know I was in that +palace? And I must tell you how I happened to go and how I was kept +there." + +"You were told there was a quarantine, weren't you?" Billy supplied, +as she hesitated. + +Her astonishment found quick speech. "Why, how did you know _that_?" + +"The Baroff told me--that Viennese girl who came into your room." + +"Why, you know _everything_! How did you?" + +"Oh, I carried her over a wall, thinking it was you." + +"But how could you think it was _I_? And what were you doing at the +wall? I don't see how----" + +"Oh, one of the palace maids gave me a message in Arabic and I +thought it was from you. You see, I suspected--I had seen you drive +off in that motor----" + +"But how could the maid bring you a message? Where were you? Where +did she see you?" + +"I was painting out in front of the palace." Billy sounded more and +more casual. + +"You said you were an engineer," said Arlee. His heart jumped. At +least she had remembered that! + +"So I am--the painting was just a joke." + +"And you happened there," she began, wondering, and after he had +opened his mouth to correct her, he closed it silently again. +Gratitude was an unwieldy bond. He did not want to burden her with +obligation. And he suspected, with a rankling sort of pang, that he +was not the rescuer she had expected. So he made as light as +possible of his entrance into the affair, telling her nothing at all +of his first uneasiness and his interview with the one-eyed man +which had confirmed his suspicions against the Captain's character, +and the masquerade he had adopted so he could hang about the palace. +Instead he let her think him there by chance; he ascribed the +delivery of Fritzi's message to sheer miracle, and his presence +under the walls that night to wanton adventure, with only a +half-thought that she was involved. + +Stoutly he dwelt upon Falconer's part in the attack the next night, +and upon the entire reasonableness of his abandonment of the trail. +He put it down to his own mulishness that he had hung on and had +learned through the little boy of her removal from the palace. + +He interrupted himself then with questions, and she told him of her +strange trip down the Nile in the _dahabiyeh_, under guard of the +old woman and the Nubian. "But how did you come?" she demanded. + +"Well, I just swung on to the same train he was in," said Billy. +"And I got out at Assiout because he'd bought a ticket there, but I +couldn't see a thing of him in the darkness and confusion of the +station, and I had a horrid feeling that he'd gone somewhere else, +the Lord knew where, to you. But the Imp--that's the little Arab boy +who adopted me and my cause--went racing up and down, and he got a +glimpse of the Captain tearing off on a horse and behind him a man +loping along with a bundle on a donkey, and the Imp raced behind him +and yelled he'd dropped something. The man went back to look, and +the Imp ran alongside him, asking him for work as a donkey boy. The +fellow shook him off, but that had delayed him, and though we lost +the horseman we kept the donkey-man in sight and followed him on to +the village. I reconnoitered while the Imp stole these two +camels--jolly good ones they are--and while I was trying to make out +where you were, for there were lights in several windows, I suddenly +heard your voice and then I saw a glare of fire. Well, my revolver +was a passport.... Now, how about that fire? What started it?" + +"I did; he--he was trying to make love to me," she answered +breathlessly, "and I just got to the candles." + +"Are you burned at all? Truthfully now? I never stopped to ask." + +"If I am, I don't know it," she laughed tremulously. Then, "Isn't +this _crazy_!" she burst forth with. + +"It's--it's off the beaten track," Billy B. Hill admitted. "It's a +jump back into the Middle Ages." His note of laughter joined hers as +they sat staring owlishly at each other through the dark of the +after-storm. + +A little longer they talked, their questions and answers flitting +back and forth over those six strange days; then, as the excitement +waned, Billy heard a sleepy little sigh and saw a small hand +covering a yawn. The girl's slender shoulders were wilting with +incalculable fatigue. + +Instantly he commanded sleep, and obediently she curled down into +the little nest he prepared, pillowing her head upon his coat, and +almost instantly he heard her rhythmic breathing, slow and unhurried +as a little child. His heart swelled with a feeling for which he had +no name, as he sat there, his back against a camel, staring out into +the night, an unknown feeling in which joy was very deep and triumph +was merged into a holy thankfulness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DESERT MAGIC + + +He had meant but forty winks, but it had been dark when his eyes +closed and he opened them to the unreal half-lights of early dawn. +The sky was pearl; the sands were fawn-colored; the crest of a low +hill to the east shone as if it were living gold, and the next +instant it seemed as if a fire were kindled upon it. It was the sun +surging up into the heavens, and great waves of color, like a sea of +flame, mounted higher and higher with it. + +Impulsively Billy bent over the little figure sleeping so soundly at +his side, speaking her name gently. And Arlee, waking with a start +and a catch of her breath that went to his heart, opened her eyes on +a wild splendor of morning that seemed the outer aspect of the +radiant joy within her. + +They looked and looked while the east flamed like a burning Rome, +and then the glow softened and paled and dissolved in mysteries and +miracles of color, in tender rose and exquisite shell pinks, in +amethysts and violets and limpid, delicate, fair greens. All about +them the sands were turning to gold, and the rim of the distant +horizon grew clearer and clearer against the brightening blue of the +sky, like a great circling tawny sea lapping on every side the arch +of the heavens. + +As they looked their hearts stirred and quickened with that +incommunicable thrill of the desert, and their eyes turned and +sought each other in silence. The gold of the sun was on Arlee's +hanging hair and the morning-blue of the sky in her eyes; her face +was flushed from sleep and a tiny tendril still clung to the pink +cheek on which she had been sleeping. Somehow that inconsequent +small tendril roused in Billy a thrill of absurd tenderness and +delight.... She was so very small and childish, sitting there in the +Libyan desert with him, looking up at him with such adorable +simplicity.... In her eyes he seemed to see something of the wonder +and the joy in his. It was a moment of magic. It brought a lump into +his throat.... He wanted to bend over her reverently, to lift a +strand of that shining hair to his lips, to touch the sandy little +hands.... + +Somehow he managed not to. The moment of longing and of glamor +passed. + +"It's exactly as if we'd been shipwrecked!" said Arlee, looking +about with an air of childish delight. + +"On a very large island," he smiled back, and felt a furtive pain +mingling with his joy. He was just her rescuer to her, of course; +she accepted him simply as a heaven-dropped deliverer; her thoughts +had not been going out to him in those long days as his had gone to +her.... Decisively he jumped to his feet and said breakfast. Where +was it? What was to be done? + +Directions were vague. They had come south on the edge of the +desert, and the Nile lay somewhere to the east of them, and to the +east, therefore lay breakfast and trains and telegraph lines and all +the outposts of civilization. + +To the east they rode then, straight toward the tinted dawn, and as +they went they laughed out at each other on their strange mounts +like two children on a holiday. Their spirits lifted with the beauty +of the morning, and with that strange primitive exhilaration of the +desert, that wild joy in vast, lonely reaches, in far horizons and +illimitable space. The air intoxicated them; the leaping light and +the free winds fired them, and with laughing shouts and challenges +they urged their camels forward in a wild race that sent the desert +hares scattering to right and left. Like runaways they tore over the +level wastes and through the rolling dunes, and at last, spent and +breathless, they pulled back into a walk their excited beasts that +squealed and tossed their tasseled heads. + +Their eyes met in a gaiety of the spirit that no words could +express. When Arlee spoke she merely cried out, "I've read the camel +had four paces, but mine has forty-four," and Billy gave back, "And +forty-three are sudden death!" and their ringing laughter made a +worried little jackal draw back his cautious nose into his rocky +lair. + +They were in broken ground now, more and more rocky, leading through +the low hills ahead of them, and great clumps of grayish _mit minan_ +and bright green hyssop dotted the amber of the sands. Here and +there the fork-like helga showed its purple blossom, and sometimes +a scarlet ice-plant gleamed at them from a rocky crack. Across their +path two great butterflies strayed, as gold and jeweled as the day. +High overhead, black against the stainless blue, hung a far hawk. + +At last the way entered a narrow defile among the rocky hills, and a +sharp curve led them finally out upon the other side, looking down +into green fields, as straight and trim as a checker board in their +varying tints, and off over the far Nile. The fertile lands were +wide here, and fed with broad canals that offered the surprise of +boats' white wings between the fields of grain. Not far ahead, +before the desert sands reached that magic green rose a group of +palms, and near them some mud houses and a pigeon tower. + +"Breakfast," said Billy triumphantly, and gaily they rode down on +the sleeping village. + + * * * * * + +Back toward the Libyan hills runs the canal El-Souhagich, and as it +curves to the north a reach of sand sweeps down from the higher +ground, interrupting the succession of green fields. Several jagged +rocks have tumbled from the limestone plateaus above and increased +the grateful bit of shade which the half dozen picturesque palms do +not sufficiently bestow. + +Here the runaways breakfasted upon the roast pigeon, dates and +tangerines they had bought from the curious villagers, and here +Billy, his back against a rock, was smoking a meditative cigar over +the situation. Beside him, tied to a palm, knelt the camels, and +before him, nibbling a last tangerine, Arlee was sitting. + +"We have to rest the beasts a bit." This from Billy, suggestive of +a conscience pricking at this holiday delay. "And then----" + +"Then--?" echoed Arlee cheerfully. + +"Then, what in the world am I going to do with you?" + +"With me?" + +"Yes. It's simple enough, I suppose, getting back to the city---but +if you don't want your friends to know----" + +The quick shadow in her eyes distressed him. "I _don't_," she cried +sharply. "At first--I might have made a lark out of it--but +afterwards.... No, I don't want to go explaining and explaining +forever and ever. Can't I just reappear?" + +"You can reappear from Alexandria," he said. "He, himself," his tone +changed as he reluctantly brought Kerissen into the beauty of that +morning, "has arranged it very neatly for you. You can just have +been camping in the desert--and true enough that is!--with those +friends of yours whom the Evershams don't know. Only your +reappearance has to be--managed a bit." + +Very carefully she tore the tangerine skin into very little bits, +her head bent over it. Then she flung the fragments far from her +with a gesture of rebellion. "I hate fibs," she said explosively. +And then, "But I hate explanations more!" She hesitated, stealing a +quick glance under her lashes at his frowning face. + +"And some people," she stammered, "might--might +not--understand--they would feel that--some people would----" + +"Some people are great fools, undoubtedly," Billy promptly agreed. +But back of the some people he saw Falconer in her mind, and +Falconer's instinctive distaste of all strangeness and sensation. + +"I have a perfect right to keep it from--them," she went on +argumentatively, and then with an upward glance, "Haven't I?" + +"Good Lord, yes! It was your adventure; it doesn't concern another +soul in this wide world." + +"You know," said Arlee, locking and unlocking her fingers, "you +know, some people wouldn't take it all for granted the way--you +do.... And it was very horrid." + +"It's over," said he crisply, "except I'd like to pound him to a +jelly." + +"I couldn't bear to _speak_ of him before," said the girl, "but now +it seems all far away and nightmarish.... And I'd like to tell you +how it was--a little." + +"You needn't." + +"I know I needn't." Arlee's tone was suddenly proud. Then she melted +again. "But I want you to know. He was--he was trying to make me +care for him.... He wasn't really as dreadful as you might think +him, only just insane--about me--and utterly unscrupulous. But he +did want me to like him and so, when I found out, when Fritzi told +me I was in a trap, I tried to play his game. I _flirted_ one day in +the garden, at lunch, and made him think---- You see, I _had_ to gain +time and try to get word to people. But I hated him so I----" She +broke off, the pupils of her fixed eyes big and black with the +memory. + +"You know I can't--I can't think of you--alone there," came huskily +from the young man. + +"He never _dared_ to touch me--really--till last night," she said +fiercely. "He tried, but I--I held him off. Only he talked to +me--Oh, how he talked. Like a river of words.... I hate all those +words.... If ever again a man asks me to marry him I don't ever want +him to _talk_ about it. I want him just to say two words, _Will +you?_" Her laugh caught quiveringly in her throat. + +It taxed all the young man's control to keep his tongue off the +echo. + +"He just raved," she went on after a pause, "and I had to +listen--but last night he was horrible. I could never have got to +the candles if his hand hadn't been hurt." + +"I wish I'd shot his hand off," said Billy bitterly. + +"Oh! Was it you who----?" + +"When we were in the palace." He told her again about the raid and +she nodded delightedly over it. + +"It's so wonderful for you to have done all this," she said with +sudden shyness. "You had just met me----" + +The things on Billy's tongue wouldn't do at all. None of them. What +he did say was absurdly stiff and constrained. "You were my +countrywoman--and alone." + +"So are the Evershams," said Arlee, with sudden bubbling laughter, +and then as suddenly checked herself. Her fleet glance at him was +half-scared. "You--you are very good to your countrywomen in +distress," she got out stammeringly. + +Billy contemplated his cigar. It was safer. + +Presently she reverted to the topic of discovery. "But about Mr. +Falconer? Are you sure his suspicions are over now?" + +"Perfectly sure. Or they will be the moment he sees you. You'll have +to laugh at him if he mentions them, of course;" Billy spoke with +heartiness. + +"He'd hate it," the girl said musingly. "The talk and all--about +me--Oh, after being such a fool _I'd never be the same to them_!" +she broke out passionately. + +The furtive pain was bolder now; Billy felt it worming deeper and +deeper into his sorry consciousness. It mattered so much to her what +Falconer thought--so much.... + +"But I'll do anything you say," she said meekly, looking up at her +rescuer with those big eyes whose blueness always startled him like +unsuspected lakes. He saw then that she meant to be very grateful to +him. Somehow that deepened the pang. He didn't want that kind of +bond.... + +"Then you will bury even the memory of this time and never whisper a +word of it," he told her stoutly. "The talk and explanation will be +over five minutes after your return. The thing is, to manage that +return. Now the Evershams left Friday and this is Wednesday--six +days." + +"Only six days," she echoed with a ghost of a sigh. + +"Now let me see where were we on the sixth day? When I was on the +Nile?" He knitted his brows over it. "Why, the steamer leaves +Assiout at noon of the fifth day--that was yesterday." + +"Oh! I must have passed them on the Nile," cried Arlee. + +"Maragha is where they stopped last night. To-day they'll be +steaming along steadily and stop to-night at Desneh. To-morrow night +they'll be at Luxor." + +"And they stay three days at Luxor?" + +"The steamer does, I believe. I left the steamer there and went to +the hotel for a while and spent another while at Thebes with a +friend of mine." + +"The excavator!" cried Arlee quickly. + +"Then you do remember," said Billy with a direct look, "that dance +and----" + +"And our talk," she finished gaily. "And your being Phi Beta Kappa. +Oh, I was properly impressed! And I didn't know then that you were a +regular Sherlock Holmes as well." + +"I didn't know it either," said Billy grinning. But he knew that she +didn't know now how much of a Sherlock Holmes he had managed to be +for her. + +"That seems ages ago," she declared, "and in an altogether different +world. The only real world seems to be this desert----" + +"Bedouin breakfast and camel races," finished Billy. "And it's so +much of a lark for me that I can't keep my mind on the problem of +the future. But I have to get you to Luxor by to-morrow night----" + +"And I can't arrive in the rags and tatters of a white silk calling +gown," mentioned Arlee cheerfully, surveying her disreputable and +most delightful disarray. "I must have trunks and a respectable +air--and a chaperon, I suppose." + +"And I won't do at that. But if you get to Luxor you'll be all +right. You can go to the hotel and to-morrow night the Evershams' +boat will get in about seven in the evening." + +"Did you say my trunks were sent to Cook's?" + +He repeated the story of the telegram to the Evershams. Over the +arrival of the boy with money for her hotel bill she wrinkled her +brows in perplexity. "I suppose he thought there would be less +discussion about me if my bills were paid," she said finally. "But +I'd like to get that money back to him." + +"I'll see he gets it--with interest," responded Billy. + +"And you----?" She looked up at him with a startled, vivid blush +that stained her soft skin from throat to brow. "You must have been +to a great deal of expense----" + +"Not a bit. Please don't----" + +"But I must. When I get to a bank. I still have my letter of credit +with me," she said thankfully, "but it didn't do me any good in that +wretched palace. It was just paper to them. I showed it to the girl +once and tried to make her understand." + +"The first station we find we'd better wire for your trunks to be +sent by express to Cook's at Luxor--or to the Grand Hotel. And then +you can take the train straight to Luxor and buy some clothes +there." + +"But the train--I can't travel in this! And there would be people on +it who would talk----" + +"Had we better make it to Assiout then?" said Billy doubtfully. +"Once in the city, of course, you'd be safe----" + +"How far is Assiout from Luxor? Where are we now?" + +"We're Alice in Wonderland about that. Somewhere about twenty-five +or thirty miles south of Assiout, I should say. It must be +nearly a hundred and twenty, as the crow flies, from Assiout to +Thebes--that's right across from Luxor, you know." + +Arlee was silent a moment. She lifted a handful of shining sands and +let them run down from her fingers in fine dust. "It's such a pity," +she mused, "when we've such a good start----" + +Billy stared. + +"And I never rode a camel," she went on. "I may never have such a +chance again." + +"You don't mean----?" + +"It would make my story a little truer, too.... And wouldn't it be +quicker?" + +"Quicker? The quickest way is to go back to Assiout and catch the +middle-of-the-night express there and get to Luxor to-morrow +morning." + +Arlee sighed. "I always wanted to be a gypsy," she murmured +regretfully, "and now I've begun it's such a pity to stop.... And +I'm _afraid_ to go back!" she cried, "They will be out looking for +us--they are probably now on the way. And they'll shoot at you and +carry me off--Oh, do let's go on! Don't go back to that city! We can +catch the train another place. Oh, it's so much more _sensible_!" + +"Sensible?" Billy repeated as if hypnotized. + +"Why, of course it is. And safer. For all those people back there +must be in that tribe of the sheik whose house I was in, and they +are dangerous, dangerous. I want to get as far away from them as +possible. I'd rather ride all the way to Thebes than run the risk +of falling in their traps." + +Billy was silent. + +"And I'm sure the camels could make the trip in a couple of days," +she continued, sounding assured now, and pleasantly argumentative. +"I used to read about their speed in my First Reader.... That is, if +you don't mind the trouble," she added apologetically, "and being +with me that day more?" + +Billy choked. She looked entirely unconscious, and his dumfounded +gaze fell blankly away. "There isn't anything in the world I'd like +better," he said slowly, sounding reluctance in the effort not to +sound anything else, "but from your point of view--if we should +meet----" + +"Only _fellaheen_ on the banks," she returned unconcernedly. "Not +half as awkward as people on trains." + +"But the--the chaperonless aspect of this picnic----?" + +"Oh, _that_!" She was mildly scornful. Then she giggled. "I think a +chaperon would look very silly tagging along behind on a camel.... +Besides we've gone so far already. You took the liberty of rescuing +me, you know, and then the sand storm and this breakfast _a +deux_--What's a few meals more?" + +There was truth in that--and truth in what she said about the danger +of returning to the city. They were already lingering overlong and +Billy jumped up and packed their supply of food in sudden haste. It +was folly, of course, to dream of the entire trip to Thebes on +camelback, but Girgeh was about fifty miles south, and it would be +safer and almost as near to push on there or to the next town, +wherever that was, and there get the train as to return to +Assiout.... + +Oh, Billy, Billy! What specious argument! And why must every bright +delightful fruit be forbidden by dull care or justified by +flagrantly untenable artifice? Who but a fool would boggle over this +chance, this gloriously deserved crown of the adventure, this gay, +random ride over the deserts with Arlee?... To her it was nothing +but a prolonging of the lark into which the affair had miraculously +been turned. Billy was Big Brother--the American Big Brother with +whom one might go safely adventuring for a day or a year.... And +suddenly Billy felt a warm gladness within him. Not even her +escapade with the unspeakable Turk had been able to shake her dear +faith in her own countrymen.... He was not man to her; he was +American. Billy waved the flag loyally in his grateful thoughts. + +Aloud he said, "There's risk in trying to go back, of course. That's +what they're expecting of us. But there will be uncertainty in going +on----" + +"I rather like it. It's the certainty that frightens," she gave back +eagerly. "I want the way that puts the greatest distance between me +and that man.... I don't care what else happens so he doesn't find +us." + + * * * * * + +It is utterly astonishing how unastonishing the most astonishing +situations become at the slightest wont. + +Nothing on the face of it could have been more preposterous to Billy +B. Hill's imagination than trotting along the banks of the Nile on +a camel with a gossamer-haired girl trotting beside him, two lone +strays in a dark-skinned land, and yet after a few hours of it, it +was the most natural thing in the world! + +It was all color and light and vivid, unforgettable impressions. It +was all sparkle and gaiety and charm. They were two children in a +world of enchantment. Nothing could have been more fantastic than +that day. + +Sometimes they rode low on paths between green _dhurra_ fields, +sometimes they rode high along the Nile embankment, watching the +blue waters alive with winged fleet, black buffaloes splashing in +shallows under charge of little bronze babies of boys, watching all +the scenes about them shift and change with magic mutability. + +They lunched beside an old well, they dined by the river bank, and +then as the velvet shadows deepened in the folds of the Arabian +mountains across the river and the first stars pricked through the +lilac sky above them, they pressed on hurriedly into the southwest +that glowed like molten gold behind the black bars of the palms.... +And by and by when even the after-glow had ceased to incarnadine the +far horizon and the path was too black and strange for them, they +turned off across the fertile valley into the edging desert again +and saw the new moon rise like an arrow of fire over the rim of the +world and pour forth a golden flood that lightened the way yet +farther south for their tired beasts. + +Arlee rode like a fairy princess of mystery, the silver shawl which +they had bought at a village to shield her from the sun, drooping in +heavy folds from her head, its metal threads glimmering in the moon +rays.... Her eyes were solemn with the beauty and the wonder, of +the night, and the strange solitude and isolation; her look was +ethereal to Billy and mystically lovely. + +But Girgeh seemed to retreat farther and farther into the unknown +south, and at last it was no fairy princess but only a very tired +girl who slid stiffly down from the saddle, and pillowed a heavy +head on Billy's coat. And it was a very tired young man who lay +beside her, listening to the deep breathing of the beasts and the +faint breath that rose rhythmically beside him. Yet for a time he +did not sleep. His heart was full of the awe and mystery of the +moonlit world about him--and the awe and mystery of that little bit +of the living world curled there so intimately in the dark.... + +With a reverent hand he drew the wraps he had purchased closer over +her. The night was growing cold. Far off the jackals howled.... With +his gun at hand he slept at last, and slept sound, though sand is +the hardest mattress in the world and a camel's back not the softest +pillow.... + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE PURSUIT + + +"But I shall die," said Arlee. "I shall simply die if I have to go +another step upon that creature." + +She said it cheerfully, but firmly, a sleepy, sunburned little +nomad, sitting cross-legged in the sands, slowly plaiting her +honey-colored hair. "Even this," she announced, indicating the +slight gesture of braiding, "is agony." + +"It's the morning after," said Billy, testing his shoulder with wry +grimaces. "It's yesterday's speed--and then this infernally cold +night. No wonder we're lame. Why, I have one universal crick +wherever I used to have muscles. But let me call your attention to +the fact that we are in the wilds of Egypt and that tangerines are +hardly a lasting breakfast. Something has to be done." + +"Not upon camels," said Arlee fixedly. + +"They say it doesn't hurt after an hour or so more." + +"I shouldn't live to find out." + +"A walk," he suggested, "a slow, swaying, gently undulating +walk----?" + +"A long, lingering, agonizing death," the young lady translated. +She tossed the curly end of her braid over her shoulder and rose, +with sounds of lamentation. "I ought to have known better than to +sit down again when I was once up," she confided sadly. + +"Just what," inquired her companion, "is your idea for the day? How +do you expect to reach Girgeh? It can't be very far away now----" + +"Then we'll walk--_we'll_ walk," she emphasized, "and tow those +ships of the desert after us. That will be bad enough, but +better--_what's that?_" + +Like a top, for all his stiffness, Billy spun about to stare where +her finger pointed. Over the crest of a hillock, far to the +north--yes, something was hurrying their way. + +"A man on horseback," said Arlee anxiously. "They can't have traced +us, can they, all this way----?" + +"Of course not--but we'll take no chances," returned Billy briskly; +"no more talk of pedestrian tours now!" and promptly he helped the +girl, no longer demurring, into the saddle, and thwacked her camel +into arising, just dodging the long, yellow teeth that the resentful +beast tried to fasten upon his shoulder. + +They started at no soothing walk, but at a hurrying trot. + +Worriedly, her delicate brows knitting, "It's absurd, but," said +Arlee, "they could have traced us, I suppose, from my telegraphing +at that little native station for my trunks to be sent." + +"And mine," said Billy. "And from my trying to get my letter of +credit cashed." + +"That Captain could have telegraphed to all the places down the +line to know if we'd been seen----" + +"Even if we hadn't wired or tried to get money, our presence alone +and our buying food would have aroused talk. I told everybody," the +young man continued, "that I was an artist and you were my sister, +and that passed all right--but if Kerissen has been making +inquiries----" + +"I'm desperately glad we didn't go back toward Assiout," she thrust +in. "We'd have walked right into some trap of his!" + +"Lord knows what we ought to have done! Lord knows what we ought to +do now!" + +"Just keep on going," she encouraged. "We can't be very far from +Girgeh, can we?" + +"I don't know," said Billy soberly. "It may be half a day or a whole +day more--you remember how vague that old woman was last night...!" +Bitterly he added, "And I'm afraid you've got a chump of a guide." + +"I've the best one in the world!" she flashed indignantly. + +But her assurance brought no solace to the young man's troubled +soul. He reflected that they could have taken a train the day +before. To be sure, he had not money enough for tickets to Luxor, +yet he had enough for two to Girgeh. But Arlee had shrunk from +entering a train in her dishevelled costume, fearful of watching +eyes and gossiping tongues, and had advised riding on to Girgeh, +where shops and banks would help them, and he had yielded apparently +to her desires, but in reality to his own secret self that clung to +every joyful contraband moment of this magic time with her. +Sincerely he had thought their danger ended.... But those trailing +horsemen--"_Brute!_" he raged dumbly at himself. "Dolt! Idiot!" + +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. It was an ordeal of a ride. + +They had ridden on in silence, occasionally glancing back over their +shoulders. At last Arlee said, quietly, "Do you see anything--over +there--to the left?" + +Billy had been seeing it for fifteen minutes. + +"Another horseman, isn't it?" he carelessly suggested. + +"He seems to be riding the same way we are." + +"Well, we've no monopoly of travel in this region." + +She answered, after a moment, "There's another close behind him. I +just saw him on top of a little hill. I suppose they can see us?" + +"Probably." Billy's face was grave. If they continued their winding +path in from the desert to the intervening hills that shut them from +the Nile valley, and the horsemen continued their course along the +base of those hills, they would soon meet. + +"Do you mind speeding up a little?" he asked. "I'd rather like to +cross to the Nile ahead of that gentry." + +But as they speeded up the pursuers did the same, and from mere dots +they grew to tiny figures, clearly discernible, furiously galloping +over the sands. + +Billy thought hard about his cartridges, wishing he had more in his +clothes. When he had left the hotel that Tuesday evening he had +thrust the loaded revolver in his pocket, but he had already +discharged it twice at the beginning of their flight.... And then he +startlingly reflected that the Captain could easily cause their +arrest for stealing those camels, and wild and dreadful thoughts of +native jails and mixed tribunals darted into his harassed and +anxious mind. As a long ridge of sand intervened between them and +their pursuers he made a sudden decision. + +"Let's turn off," he said quickly, and from the little winding path, +edging southeast, they struck directly south over the trackless +sand. + +"You see, they'll expect us to make a railroad station as soon as +possible," he explained, "and they are probably trying to nab us on +the way to it--if those men have anything to do with us at all." He +said nothing about his vivid fear of arrest for the camels and the +tool such an arrest would be for Kerissen's designs. He merely +added, "I think we'd better try to give them the slip and steer +clear of all the little native joints until we get to Girgeh, which +is big enough to give us some protection. There must be an English +something-or-other there.... I really think we ought to go as fast +as we can now, and when the way is clear, hurry across the hills +into the Nile valley." + +But the way did not become clear. Disconcerted by that unexpected +dash off the path, and reduced for a time to mere dots again, the +horsemen, three in a row now, hung persistently upon their left +flank, keeping a parallel course between them and the hills. + +The day had dawned with a promise of sultry heat, and as the sun +rose higher and higher in the heavens the heat grew more and more +intolerable to their ill-protected heads and thirsty tongues. The +gaiety of yesterday was gone; the enchantment had vanished from the +waste spaces, and the desert was less a friend now than an enemy. +Chokingly the dust rose about them, and glaringly the gold of the +burning sands beat back the glare of the down-pouring sun. From such +a heat the landscape seemed to shrink and veiled itself with a faint +and swimming haze. + +By noon the flask of water in Billy's pocket was empty. By noon +their mouths were parched and their skins burning. And still on +their left there hung the hounding dots, like prowling jackals. + +Anxiously Billy looked at Arlee. This was an ordeal of a ride that +tried the stuff the girl was made of. She was no princess of mystery +now, crossing the moonlit sands; she was no gossamer wraith of a +girl miraculously with him for a time; she was a very hot and human +companion, worried and tired, shutting her dry mouth over any word +of complaint, smiling pluckily at him with dusty lips from the +shrouding hood of her veil. She was completely and thoroughly a +brick. + +And Billy's heart ached for her, even while his spirit exulted in +her spirit. + +"Beastly hot, isn't it?" he gasped, pulling his insufficient cap +down over his bloodshot eyes. + +Valiantly she smiled. "What's a little--heat?" came joltingly back. + +"And rough going." + +"What's a little--roughness?" + +There wasn't any word good enough for her. There wasn't any word +good enough to describe such superhuman courage and sweetness. Billy +had credited all beauties with being spoiled. All he had known had +been distinctly spoiled, even the near-beauties, and the not-so-near +ones, yet here was the most radiantly lovely girl he had ever seen +behaving like an angel of grit. + +He didn't quite know what else he expected her to do--have +hysterics, perhaps, or weep, or reproach him for having taken a +wrong way and elected a rash course. He had known that this girl +could be a very minx when piqued. But in the graver crises of life +she proved herself a thoroughbred. She would go till she dropped and +never whimper. + +He thought of all she must have been through in that horrible +palace, and he marvelled at the swiftness with which her spirit had +reverted to blitheness again. The disaster, that might have been so +stunning, so irremediable, had passed over her head like lightning +that had not struck.... Even the horror of it had seemed yesterday +to fade in her like the horror of an evil dream. That was what it +had been to her--an evil dream. She was so young, so much of her was +still a child, that the full terror had not touched her. + + * * * * * + +They had come to a road at last, a road which seemed to be leading +in from the desert very gradually to the hills upon their left, and +it seemed to Billy that it must be a caravan road to Girgeh, and he +felt themselves upon the right track. They must keep their lead, and +when that lead seemed sufficient, they must put on all possible +speed to make the crossing through the hills into the Nile valley +ahead of their pursuers. Once more he stirred their lagging camels +into a jogging trot.... + +It was around the middle of the afternoon now, and it had been noon +since their tongues had tasted water. Arlee felt her mouth parched +and her tongue dry and curling; her skin was feverishly hot; her +whole body burned and ached, and her head was giddy with the heat +and the hunger. But she thought how little a thing it was to be hot +and hungry and tired--when one was free. And she drew the silver +shawl closer over her head and wrapped the silken tunic of her frock +about her scorching shoulders, and clung tight to the pommel of her +big saddle as her beast pounded on and on in his lurching stride. + + * * * * * + +It had been some time since they had seen the dots, and now the road +ahead of them, like the former path they had abandoned, was turning +more and more to the left, winding in and out the low and broken +foothills, and as they followed its course with increasing security, +Billy began to tell himself that their fears had been unfounded and +the alarming horsemen were merely following their own route south. + +And then he heard a whistle. + +A prescience of danger shot through him. His fears returned a +hundredfold. Sharply he scanned the way about them, but nothing was +in sight. The whistle was not repeated; he could have imagined that +he dreamed it. An utter stillness possessed the wilderness. + +And then around the corner of a jutting rock ahead of them a +horseman trotted, a big black man on a gray horse, and reined in, +waiting, facing them. Arlee gave a choking cry. + +"The eunuch!" she gasped out. + +Behind them Billy flung a lightning glance, and over the heads of +the dunes two more riders appeared, converging down upon them from +the rear. Three in sight--how many more behind the rocks? + +Desperately Billy gripped his bridle rope, and with a wrenching pull +and a whack of his guiding stick he turned his camel sharply to the +left, snatching at Arlee's bridle rope as the beasts bumped against +each other in their surprise. + +"Quick--this way," Billy commanded, and with the left hand clutching +the girl's rope, with the right he wielded the stick furiously. Out +over the sand both camels plunged, goaded into wild speed by such +violent measures, and a cheated yell broke from the horsemen and the +outcries of pursuit. + +While rage at such unreason lasted the camels went like mad, but +such speed could not be for long. They had been hard ridden for two +days and they were nearly spent. The horsemen behind had drawn +together and hung on their trail like three hounds, riding +cautiously in the rear, but easily keeping the distance. It occurred +to Billy that these pursuers could have changed horses on the way, +and must inevitably tire them out. And then? + +On and on he beat his poor beasts, racing toward the hills that, +just ahead of them, rose sharply from the broken ground, seeking +among them some fortress of rocks for a defiant stand. + +A tug on the bridle rope nearly jerked it from his hand. Arlee's +camel had stumbled; the poor thing was lurching wearily. + +"He can't go--any more," the girl cried out pitifully. "He--he's +sobbing. Don't beat him--I won't have him beaten!" + +"We must get there," he called back, waving at the cliff-like rocks. + +"Then go--on foot. I could--run faster." + +"No, you couldn't," he shouted fiercely back. + +She flared. "Don't you hit him again!" + +The maddening absurdity of the quarrel in the face of hostile Africa +filled Billy with the futile fury of exasperation. He ground his +teeth, glowering at her, and wound her halter rope about his +smarting hand. All his hope was concentrated upon the necessity of +winning to that rocky shelter before their pursuers overtook them. +To him the camels were nothing in the face of such necessity. + +They were going slower and slower; his blows had no avail now on +either beast. They plodded on. He turned suddenly in his saddle and +saw the three riders spreading fan-shape around them, the one in the +center nearest. He whipped out his gun and fired at the horse. + +His own motion made the ball fly wild, but the horseman drew up +instantly, and the other edged discreetly away. And in the ensuing +moments the two fugitives gained the base of those cliff-like hills +and perceived the dark oblong of a cave mouth. + +Down from their exhausted camels they flung themselves, and hand in +hand raced to the entrance of the cave. Coolness and blackness +received them. Their eyes discovered nothing of the tunnel-like +interior. + +Putting Arlee some distance within, Billy went to the mouth and +stood, his gun in his hand, peering watchfully out. He saw the +horsemen draw together for a parley, then one remained on guard +while the others circled on separate ways beyond his range of sight. +His fear was that one of them might steal alongside the cave and +leap unexpectedly into its very mouth upon him, so with taut nerves +he crouched expectant. + +Behind him Arlee gave a sudden shriek. + + [Illustration: "Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out"] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A FRIEND IN NEED + + +He whirled. "I'll fire!" he warned, staring into the dark, but his +eyes, dazed with the sun, discerned nothing, and in utter ignorance +he faced the black possibilities. + +"A man--a hand----" Arlee gasped incoherently. + +"Good Lord, what is it?" said a voice so near at hand that both were +startled. + +"Burroughs!" ejaculated Billy. "Is it you--Burroughs?" + +"Yes, it's I, Burroughs," the owner of the voice retorted irritably. +"And who the deuce are you?" + +"Hill--Billy B. Hill," came the jubilant answer, and "Billy be +damned!" said the astonished voice, with sudden joviality, and a +dark shape strode up to them. "What on earth are you doing here? And +what about that firing? Think I was a robber bold?" + +"Well, there are three robber sneaks outside that we are hiding +from, so I wasn't sure.... Great Caesar, old scout, but I'm glad to +see you! That puts us out of the woods at last.... It's the +excavator friend," he added, turning to Arlee. "Burroughs, I present +you to Miss Beecher. She and I have been having a thoroughly +impossible adventure." + +"Let's have a little light upon these introductions," returned the +excavator, and a click was heard, and a light jumped out overhead, +flooding the tunnel-like place with brightness. In its beams the +three stood staring queerly at each other. + +Arlee saw a slim, wiry young American, in rough khaki clothes +stained with work, a browned, unshaven young man with sleepy looking +eyes and a mouth like a steel trap. + +What the excavator saw was more surprising. There was his friend +Billy, whom two weeks before he had seen off on a Nile steamer +returning to Cairo, in tropic splendor of white serge and Panama +hat, now a scarlet spectacle of sunburn and dirt, in most +disgraceful tweeds, and beside him what Burroughs took to be a child +in tatterdemalion white, a silky, fluttering white, which even his +untrained observation knew was hardly elected for desert wear. The +little girl's hair was hanging tangled over her shoulders, and was +much the color of the sand with which her face was coated, and +underneath that coating he saw that she was red as a peony with sun +and wind. They were a startling pair. + +Gravely, with unchanging eyes, he acknowledged the introduction, and +then, "What's this about robbers?" he went on. "What kind of a yarn +are you putting over?" + +"Nothing I want put over on the general public." Billy was thinking +very hard. "You're going to be our salvation, Burroughs, but even to +you--well, I'll put it briefly. We were having a desert ride and +some Turkish fellows who have annoyed her before chased us. There +are our camels, just outside. And you can see one of the fellows on +horseback keeping watch. The others are somewhere about.... And now, +for heaven's sake, get us a drink of water." + +Burroughs walked to the door of the tomb and looked out an instant, +then he turned and went toward the back, returning with a small +native jar full of water. + +"I've no glass, but if you can manage this----?" he said to Arlee, +and she clutched the cool pottery with two hot little hands and, +murmuring a quick affirmative, she put it to her lips. + +Then she held it out to Billy. + +"I suppose--we mustn't---drink as much as we want." + +"I couldn't," said Billy, after a grateful swallowing. "I'd drain +the Nile.... Got a camp here?" + +"Yes. You'd have seen my men any other time of day, but we knocked +off a while out of the sun," Burroughs explained. "I've rigged up +this tomb as living quarters while I'm here. Now what do you want me +to do? Would you like a guard?" + +"We'd like a guard and a bath and cold cream," said Billy joyfully. +"And then we'd like dinner and donkeys." + +Burroughs grunted. + +"Umph--I should say you'd one donkey already in your +party--careering around the desert with a little girl like this," he +vouchsafed, and Arlee's eyes widened at his brusque nod at her. She +was staring about her now with a curious interest, for all her +aching tiredness, gazing wonderingly at the dazzling white walls +with their strange and brilliant paintings. She saw they were in a +long, deep chamber, from which other openings led to unimagined +deeps. + +"I guess you never were in a place like this before?" Burroughs +inquired, and she shook her head dumbly, feeling suddenly too spent +for words. + +"Can she get a rest here?" said Billy anxiously. "We've had the +devil of a ride." + +"The place is all hers," returned Burroughs. "I'll send you some +food and cold cream--you mustn't wash that sunburn, you know, or +you'll be a sorry girl to-morrow--and then you can rest as long as +you like. How much of a hurry are you in?" he added to Billy. + +"Well, we want to take a train to Luxor to-night. I suppose Girgeh's +the next station?" + +"You suppose? You _are_ at sea--where did you start from, anyway?" +But hastily Burroughs sped from that inquisitive question. "Balliana +is your next station," he reported. "You've all the time you want, +and I'll take you over myself. Now make yourself as comfortable as +you can," he added to Arlee, handing her a big jar of cold cream and +lugging forward an armful of rugs. "I'll be back with some food in a +jiffy." + +"You're very kind," Arlee spoke stanchly, but as soon as the two men +stepped from the tomb, she seemed to wilt down into the rugs and lay +there, too tired to stir. + +Outside Burroughs blew sharply on a whistle, and from the mouth of +another cave a file of black boys in ragged robes made a straggling +appearance. Burroughs gave orders which resulted in a kindling of +fire and the opening of boxes, and then he walked back to where +Billy was surveying the weary camels. At a distance, like an +equestrian statue, the watching horseman was standing. Burroughs +stared hard at the distant Nubian, then stared harder at Billy. + +"This is wonderful luck," Billy said to him, very soberly. "I didn't +think of you as nearer than Thebes." + +"We just heard of some fresh finds here, so I'm combing over the +tombs.... But you--it's none of my business, Billy, but what in hell +are you doing racing over Egypt with a ten-year old kid?" + +"Ten-year-old--Great Caesar, man, that's a _real girl_! She's _grown +up_! She's old enough to vote--or nearly." + +Burroughs stared harder than ever. + +Then, "I shouldn't call that an extenuating circumstance," he +mentioned wryly. + +"Extenuating nothing! Look here, let me----" + +"You needn't tell me anything, you know," Burroughs suggested in +great indifference. + +"Oh, shut up!" Billy spoke with deep disgust. "You've got to help us +out of this and then forget the whole business." He paused a moment; +then, "Miss Beecher made the mistake of taking a rash ride with me. +She was traveling alone, to meet some friends, to Luxor--and the +indiscretion is entirely mine, you understand. I got her into it. +And then, as I said, a Turkish fellow, that had been making himself +objectionable by following her, got his men out after us and chased +us down here. Her trunks have gone on to Luxor where those friends +are, and we have to find some presentable wraps for her and get her +to the first train. _Verstehen_?" + +"Grasped--and forgotten," said his friend laconically. Just for an +instant his sleepy gaze touched Billy's rugged face, then fell +casually away. "I suppose any comments that occur to me are +superfluous?" he pleasantly observed. + +"Completely.... And, Lord Harry, but I'm glad to see you!" + +"Same here." Burroughs gave Billy's arm a friendly grip and Billy +spun fiercely about on him. "Don't you do that again!" he warned. +"Take the other one. That's got a--a scratch." + +"A scratch? One of those fellows wing you out there? Let me have a +look----" + +"No, it's all right--it's nothing----" + +"Let me see, you old chump----" + +"It's all right, I tell you. It's been taken care of--it's just a +relic of Cairo." + +"Cairo!" Slowly Burroughs let fall the hand he had laid upon Billy's +arm. "You do seem to be having a lively trip," he commented, +grinning. "Here, hurry up, you rascals, hurry up with that big jug." + +Taking the large jar from them, he returned to the tomb, stopping +abruptly at sight of Arlee's weary abandon. She half sat up, a +frail, exhausted little figure, whose grace was strangely appealing +through all her sandy dishevelment. + +"Some water--for washing," he stammered. + +"You're very thoughtful." + +"I'll have to beg your pardon," he blurted, for Burroughs was no +squire of dames. "I thought you were a little girl and spoke to you +as if----" + +"It's just the hairpins that make the difference, isn't it?" said +Arlee, with a whimsical smile. "I don't suppose you have any of +those in camp that I could borrow?" + +He shook his head regretfully. Then his brain seized upon the +problem. "Bent wires?" he suggested. "I might try----" + +"Do," she besought. "I'll be grateful forever." + +He withdrew to make the attempt, and in his place came Billy with a +tray of luncheon. + +"Just--put it down," Arlee said faintly. "I'll eat--by and by." + +Worriedly Billy looked down on the girl. Her eyes closed. Excitement +had ebbed, leaving her like some spent castaway on the shores. He +dropped on his knees beside her, dipping a clean handkerchief in the +jar of cold cream. + +"Just let me get this off," he said quietly. "You'll feel better." + +Like a child she submitted, lying with closed eyes while with +anxious care he took the sand from her delicate, burning skin. He +did the same for her listless hands; he brushed back her hair and +put water on her temples; he dabbed more cold cream tenderly on the +pathetic little blisters on her lips. + +"I'm--all right." The blue eyes looked suddenly up at him with a +clear smile. "I'm--just resting." + +"And now you'll eat a bit?" + +Obediently she took the sandwich he made for her, and lifted her +head to drink the cup of tea. + +"I'm a--nuisance," she murmured. + +"You're a _brick_!" he gave back, with muffled intensity. "You're a +perfect brick!" + +Then he backed hastily out of her presence, for fear his stumbling +tongue would betray him--or his clumsy, longing hands--or his +foolish eyes. He felt choking with the tenderness he must not +express. He ached with his Big Brother pity for her, and with his +longing for her, which wasn't in the least Big Brotherly, and with +all the queer, bewildering jumble of emotion that she had power to +wake in him. + +Very silently he returned to Burroughs, and when he had made a +trifle of a toilet and eaten far from a trifle of lunch, the two +young men stretched themselves out in the shade, just beyond the +entrance of the tomb, conversing in low tones, while around them the +labor song of Burroughs' workmen rose and fell in unvarying +monotony, as from a nearby hole they carried out baskets of sand +upon their heads and poured the contents upon the heap where the +patient sifters were at work. + +Burroughs talked of his work, the only subject of which he was +capable of long and sustained conversation. He dilated upon a rare +find of some blue-green tiles of the time of King Tjeser, a third +dynasty monarch, and a mummy case of one of the court of King Pepi, +of the sixth dynasty, "about 3300 B.C.," he translated for +Billy, and then suddenly he saw that Billy's eyes were absent and +Billy's pipe was out. + +In sudden silence he knocked out the ashes from his own pipe and +slowly refilled it. "Congratulations," he ejaculated, and at Billy's +slow stare he jerked his head back toward the tomb. "I say, +congratulations, old man." + +"Oh!" Billy became ludicrously occupied with the dead pipe. + +"Nothing doing," he returned decidedly. + +"No? ... I thought----" + +"You sounded as if you had been thinking. Don't do it again." + +"And also I had been remembering," said Burroughs, with caustic +emphasis, "knowing that in the past wherever youth and beauty was +concerned----" + +So successfully had that past been sponged from Billy's concentrated +heart, so utterly had other youth and beauty ceased to exist for +him, that he greeted the reminder with belligerent unwelcome. + +"I tell you it was all an accident," he retorted irritably. "There's +nothing more to it.... Hello, our horseman is coming this way +again!" + +Grateful for the interruption to this ticklish excursion into his +sacred emotions, he jumped to his feet and went out to meet the man +who was riding slowly toward them, the two others in his train. +Burroughs went with him, and a brief parley followed. + +"He says," Burroughs translated, "that these are his camels and he +is going to take them away. He says you stole them from him at +Assiout." + +"That's right," Billy confirmed easily. "He can have 'em," and +Burroughs, vouchsafing no comment on this curious development, gave +the message to the Nubian. Then he turned again to Billy. "He wants: +the money for their hire." + +"For their----! Of all the dad-blasted, iron-clad cheek! You just +tell him for me that he'll get his 'hire' all right if he hangs +around me. Tell him I'll have him arrested for molesting and robbing +travelers; and tell him to tell his master that if he shows his head +near an English girl again I'll have him hanged as high as +Haman--and shot to pieces while he swings! The infernal +scoundrel----" + +Whatever work Burroughs made of this translation it sent the sullen, +inscrutable-looking fellow off in silence, his followers leading the +recovered camels. + +"And may that be the last of them," said Billy B. Hill, in fervent +thanksgiving. "Except Kerissen. I've got to meet him again--just +once." + + * * * * * + +Perhaps it was the hairpins. Perhaps it was the bathed face and the +sleep-brightened eyes and the rearranged gown. But certainly +Burroughs stared in amazement at the slim little figure that issued +from the entrance, and a queer, a very queer confusion seized upon +him. Not even outrageous sunburn and pathetic blisters could hide +Arlee's young loveliness. They only added an utterly upsetting +tenderness to the beholder, and a most dangerous compassion. + +And just as each man is smitten with madness after the manner of his +kind, so Burroughs, the taciturn, was struck into amazing +volubility. As they sat about a cracker box of a table at an early +supper, he became a perfect fount of information, pouring out to +this girl an account of his diggings that would have astounded any +of his intimates, and would surely have amazed Billy B. Hill if that +young man had been in a condition to notice his friend's +performances. But he was wrapped in a personal gloom that had +descended on him like a cloud of unreason. The escapade was nearly +over. The little girl comrade was gone, the little girl whose face +he had so tenderly scrubbed of its grimy sand. A very self-possessed +young lady was sitting beside him, drinking her coffee, an utterly +lovely and gracious young lady--but unfathomably remote--elusive.... + +Perhaps, again, it was the hairpins. + +Off to town on donkey back the three Americans rode slowly, a native +escort filing after, and there in town the bazaars yielded a long +pongee dust coat and a straw hat and a white veil, "to escape +detection," Arlee gaily said, and a satchel which she filled with +mysterious purchases, and then, clad once more in the semblance of +her traveling world, safe and sound and undiscovered, she stood upon +the station platform, awaiting the train to Luxor. + +Beside her, two very quiet young men responded but feebly to the +flow of spirits that had amazingly succeeded her exhaustion. +Burroughs was suddenly suffering from a depression most unfamiliar +to his practical mind, which caused him to moon about his work for +days and made his depleted jar of cold cream a wincing memory, and +Billy was increasingly glum. + +It was all over now. The girl, who for two winged days had been so +magically his gypsy comrade, was returning to her own world, the +world in which he played so infinitesimal a part. For very pride's +sake now he could never force himself upon her ... as he might +before ... + +He stared down at her eagerly, hopefully, for a sign of regret at +the ending of this strange companionship, much as a big Newfoundland +might watch for a caress from a cherished but tyrannic hand, but not +a scrap of regret was evidenced. She was as blithe as a cricket. Her +only pang was for discovery. + +"You're sure," she murmured as Burroughs left them to interview the +station clerk, "you're sure they'll never know?" + +"I'm positive," he stolidly responded. "Just stick to your story." + +"The Evershams won't question--they are never interested in other +people," she mused, with thankfulness. "But Mr. Falconer----" + +"Won't have a doubt," said Billy firmly. His gloom closed in thickly +about him. + + * * * * * + +It was a local, a train of corridor compartments. In one, marked +"Ladies Alone," Arlee was ensconced, with an Englishwoman and her +maid, and two pleasant German women, and in another Billy B. Hill +sat opposite some young Copts and lighted pipe after pipe. When the +train started out on the High Bridge across the Nile to the eastern +bank, he came out in the corridor to look out the wide glass windows +there, and found Arlee beside him. + +"How do you do?" she said brightly. "How nice to meet accidentally +like this--you see, I'm rehearsing my story," she added under her +breath. + +"Let's see if you have it straight," he told her. + +"I arrive on a local which left Cairo this morning.... Did I come +alone?" + +"You'd better invent some nice traveling friend----" + +She shook her head in flat refusal. "I won't. I'm not equal to +inventing anything. It's bad enough now to--to tell the _necessary_ +lies I have to." The brightness left her face looking suddenly wan +and sorry. "I suppose it's part of my--punishment--for my dreadful +folly," she said in a low tone. + +"It's just part of the coin the world has to be paid in for its +conventions," Billy quickly retorted. "_Don't_ let it worry you like +that--in a day no one will think to question you." + +"I know--but--it's having the memory always there. Always knowing +that there is something I can't be honest about--something secret +and dreadful----" + +She was staring unseeingly out the window, her soft lips twitching. + +"The Egyptians were a most sensible people," said Billy. "They drew +up a list of commandments against the forty-two cardinal sins, and +one of them was this, 'Thou shalt not consume thy heart.' That is a +religious law against regret--vain, unprofitable, morbid, +devastating regret. And you must take that law for your own." + +"Th--thank you." The low voice was suspiciously wavery. "I--you see, +I haven't had time to think about it till just now--we've been going +so fast----" + +"And the best thing that could have happened. And now that you have +the time to think, you mustn't think _weakly_. It was just a +nightmare. And it's over." + +"Just a nightmare.... And it's over," she repeated. Her eyes lifted +to Billy's in a look of ineffable softness and wonder. "It's +over--because _you_ came." + +"I want you to forget that." The young man spoke with cold curtness +in his effort to combat the wild temptation of that moment. "I only +did what anyone else in my place would have done--to have +accomplished it is all the gratitude I want. Please don't speak of +it to me again. You must forget about it." + +"Forget--as if I could help being grateful as long as I live!" + +"But I don't _want_ you to be grateful. It--it's obnoxious to me!" + +She was as blankly hurt as a slapped child. Then she looked away, a +little pulse in her throat beating fast. "Then I won't--try to thank +you," she answered in a very small voice, and stared harder and +harder out the window. + +Billy felt that he had accomplished a tremendous stride. "A feeling +of obligation kills a friendship," he told her didactically, "and I +want you to be really my friend." + +"I am." Her voice was distinct, though queerly lack-luster. And she +did not look at him again. + +He went on: "The Evershams will be in on the boat about seven. From +the station I'll take you straight to the boat, where your stateroom +is surely being kept for you. Then to-morrow your trunks will arrive +from Cook's, and by the time you are through resting, you will be +ready to sally out and meet the world.... I hope my own trunk will +make its appearance, too," he added. "I telegraphed the hotel to +pack my things and send them on." + +She made no comment on the obvious haste with which he had left +Cairo. She said slowly, "I want to do a little mathematics now. What +is the shocking sum I owe you?" + +He shut his lips in an obstinate line. After a moment she added, "I +can't take _that_, you know." + +It struck him as a trifle ludicrous that dollars were so important +among all the rest, but unwillingly enough he understood. + +"Won't you just let it stand as it is?" he said under his breath. +"Let me have the whole thing--please." + +"I can't." + +"You mean you won't?" + +"I can't," she repeated inflexibly, and then, with a childish flash, +"Since you dislike me to feel grateful--I should think you would be +glad to let me reduce the debt." + +"All right." He spoke gruffly. "Then you owe me what you spent just +now and what your railroad ticket cost. Not a cent more. For what +went before I am absolutely responsible, and I decline to let you +pay _my_ debts." + +This time he was inflexible. She repeated, with a spark of +resentment, "It's not fair to let you pay so much----" + +"It was _my_ adventure," said Billy firmly. + +She said, "Very well," in a voice that puzzled him. He felt she +was annoyed. And he realized more than ever that he could never +take advantage of her indebtedness to make her pay with her +companionship. It was becoming a queer tangle.... He felt they had +suddenly slipped out of tune.... She seemed to be escaping +him--withdrawing ... + +He wondered, very unhappily, with no fine glow of altruism at all, +if he had rescued her for another man. Those things happened, they +happened with dismal frequency. Billy distinctly recalled the +experience of a college friend who had carried a girl out of a +burning hotel, to have her wildly embrace an unstirring youth below. +Yes, such things happened. But he had never contemplated having +anything like that happen to him. + +He contemplated it now, however, contemplated it long and bitterly, +when Arlee had gone back to her compartment and he sat silent in his +beside the chattering Copts while the train rattled on and on. There +would be three days at Luxor before the boat proceeded upon its +southern journey. And then---- + +Three days.... Three miserable, paltry, insufficient days, blighted +by the chaperoning Evershams.... Frantically he hoped against his +dark foreboding that one menace at least might be averted--that by +now Luxor would have ceased to shelter a certain sandy-haired young +Englishman. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CROSS PURPOSES + + +Luxor was warm and drowsy with afternoon sun. Motionless the fronds +of the tall palms along the water front; motionless the columns of +the temple reflected in the blue Nile. Even the almost continuous +commotion of the landing stage was stilled. + +The two big Nile steamers, of rival lines, lay quietly at rest, +emptied of their tourists, and on the embankment the dragomans, the +donkey boys, the innumerable venders, were lounging in the shade at +dominoes or dice. + +In the big white hotels facing the river many drawn blinds spoke of +napping travelers, and in the shade of the garden of the Grand other +travelers were whiling away the listless inertia of the hour before +tea. + +"I suppose it's _quite_ too early?" murmured a girl at one of the +tables, in the shade of a big acacia. Her companion, fussing with a +pastel sketch, answered absently, without looking up, "Oh, quite," +and then with a note of brisker attention, "I thought we were +waiting for Robert?" + +"Do you think he'll be back? It's _such_ a trip to the Tombs of the +Kings, you know!" + +"To be sure he'll be back!" Miss Falconer spoke with asperity. "And +why he wanted to go over it again--it's odd you didn't care to go, +too, Claire," she added, most inconsequently. "It was such an +excellent opportunity--and you had already spoken of wishing to go +again." + +"But not so exhaustively. They are doing the entire programme. I +only wanted some particular things." + +"You could have done them." + +"And it was hot." + +"It must have been just as hot in the bazaars with Mr. Hill." + +"Was it?" + +This was purposeful vagueness and Miss Falconer's crayon snapped. +She made a sound of annoyance, then began gathering her sketching +things tidily together. Presently, "He's rather an agreeable person, +that young American, after all," she cannily observed. + +"Why, after all?" Lady Claire was implacably aloof. + +"Well, first impressions, you know----" + +"_My_ first impressions of Mr. Hill were very delightful." The +English girl laughed softly, her eyes full of reminiscent amusement. +"He was a _deus ex machina_ to me--I quite jumped at him, I assure +you!" + +"You don't have to assure me!" was the elder lady's unspoken +comment. She had been in a state of chronic irritation, ever since +that Friday noon when Billy B. Hill's tall figure had appeared in +the hotel dining room. And hurrying Claire away from the +conversation he was promptly evoking, she had encountered Arlee +Beecher and the Evershams streaming with the other passengers from +their boat to see the temple of Luxor, a wonderfully gay and excited +Arlee, so radiant in the happiness of her own safe world again that +she was bright gladness incarnate.... Instantly Robert had reverted +to his alarming infatuation ... and Lady Claire had most shamelessly +welcomed the American. It was all unspeakably annoying.... + +Aloud Miss Falconer observed, "I wonder what brought Mr. Hill back +to the Nile." + +"I wonder," said Lady Claire pleasantly. "But it makes it very nice +for us, doesn't it?" she continued amiably. "He knows quite +_everything_ about temples." + +"And particularly nice for Miss Beecher--though I can't say she is +treating him very well. However, that may be their way. 'Romance +apart from results,' was, I believe, his phrase." + +Lady Claire was silent. But not overlong. "You really think----?" +she suggested tranquilly. + +"He came on the same train." + +"Coincidence. He mentioned he did not see her in the train till +Balliana." + +"Umph!" Miss Falconer drew out of her bag the especial knitting +which she reserved for the Sabbath, and her fingers flew with +expressive spirit. "It's scandalous," she said at length. "Girls +gadding about the face of the earth--picking up chaperons when they +remember them." + +"It's their way, you know." + +"Oh, yes, it's their way. And their men seem to like it. Mr. Hill +didn't seem to consider it even _unusual_.... But as I said, he's +hardly a judge," Miss Falconer went on unsparingly. "The man's +bewitched. He never takes his eyes off her." + +"I'm sure I don't blame him." Lady Claire's tone was most +successfully admiring. "She's too _wonderful_, isn't she, with those +great blue eyes and that astonishing hair! I'm sure Robert is +bewitched, too!" + +"Nonsense!" But Miss Falconer's tone was too vigorous, betraying the +effort to rout a palpable enemy. "What nonsense!" she repeated. +"He's civil--naturally--when _you_ haven't a moment for him. The boy +has pride. Too much." The knitting needles clicked warningly. + +"Civil!" The girl's low laughter was mocking. "Dear Miss Falconer, +you are such an _euphuist_!" + +Miss Falconer looked up, a trifle startled. Her young charge was +more than a match for her in irony, but the elder lady did not lack +for solid perseverance, and she charged on undeterred. + +"Of course the girl's pretty--too pretty. And Robert's a man--he has +eyes in his head and likes to please them. And she knows who he is +and draws him on." + +"I don't think Miss Beecher cares a twopence who Robert is," said +Lady Claire honestly. "When I told her he was going to stand for +Roxham she answered that she had a very poor opinion of M.P.s--from +reading Mrs. Ward. I can't _quite_ see what she meant--but as for +her drawing him on, a moment ago, dear, you were accusing her of +luring Mr. Hill back from Cairo." + +"I said he followed. I daresay she lured, too. The second +string----" + +"Then it's quite _nice_ of me, isn't it, to carry off her second +string to the bazaars and prevent her playing him against Robert!" + +Lady Claire laughed mischievously, in a flight of daring so foreign +to her usual reticence that Miss Falconer grimly perceived that she +was changed indeed. She thought helplessly that it was a great pity +that young people couldn't be treated as the children they +were--smacked and made to do what was best for them. + +"And after all this dreadful gossiping how can we face our guests at +tea?" the girl continued in mock chiding. + +"If they are much later we shall not be facing them at all," the +older woman declared. "I shall certainly have my tea at the proper +time." + +The sight of an Arab servant with a tray of dishes had stirred her +to this declaration, and promptly she gave her order. In the middle +of it, "I'm always late!" said a merry voice, and little Miss +Beecher and Falconer were standing on the grass beside them. + +"This time we had no following engagement," said Miss Falconer, +unpleasantly reminiscent of another tea time in Cairo, ten days +before, but even with her resentment of this American girl's +intrusion into her long-cherished plans, she could not prevent the +softening of her regard as she gazed upon her. + +"You don't look as if you had been riding very hard at the Tombs of +the Kings," she observed, in reluctant admiration. + +"Oh, but we have! We did quite a lot of Tombs--not anything like +thoroughly, of course!--and then we rode back early and made +ourselves tidy for your tea party," Arlee blithely explained, and +Miss Falconer perceived that her brother Robert had returned to the +hotel without seeking them out, had arrayed himself in fresh white +flannels and returned to the boat to escort Miss Beecher across the +road into the hotel garden. + +Absently she sighed. Her eyes fell away from the peach-blossom +prettiness of Arlee's lovely face to the subtle simplicity of her +white frock of loosely woven silk, and she wondered if that heavy +embroidery meant money--or merely spending money. And then she +looked across at Lady Claire, and sighed again for her dream of an +aristocratic alliance. + +"Mrs. Eversham--?" she thought to inquire. + +"They're having the vicar--or is it the rector?--to tea. They asked +him this morning before your message came," Arlee explained. She did +not explain that the vicar, or the rector, had imagined, in +accepting, that she, too, was to be of that tea party on the boat +and was even now inquiring zealously of her of the Evershams. + +"Here's Mr. Hill," said Lady Claire. + +Miss Falconer stirred; there was room for the fifth chair between +her and Arlee. Lady Claire also stirred; there was room between her +and Robert Falconer. And there Billy B. Hill seated himself after a +general exchange of greetings. + +"How were the bazaars?" said Arlee gaily across the table. + +"You mean the department store of Mr. Isaac Cohen," Billy laughed +back. "They are all under him, you know." + +"Not _really_!" Falconer exclaimed, in disillusionment. "It rather +takes it out, doesn't it, to know it is so commercialized." + +"What did you expect--it is the twentieth century," Miss Falconer +retorted, putting aside her knitting as the tea things arrived. + +"Sometimes it is," said Arlee. + +"I think it's more so than ever, here," declared Lady Claire. +"Egypt's so _frightfully_ civilized----" + +"Not when you're camping in the desert." + +Again that funny little smile flitted over Arlee's face; not once +did she glance at Billy, but for all her air of unconsciousness he +felt that she was subtly sharing her thoughts with him and a quick +spark of gladness flashed in him. + +Those had been three horrible days for Billy B. Hill. + +Friday morning he had been practically a prisoner until his trunks +had arrived. He had emerged upon a spectacle of England +triumphant--Robert Falconer escorting Arlee to the temple of Luxor. +Later that afternoon he had called upon Arlee upon the boat to find +Falconer still there, and the Evershams very much so. + +Robert Falconer had accompanied him back to the hotel. There was +something that he wanted to ask, and he asked it bluntly, but with +embarrassment. Had Billy said anything at all to Arlee of that +nonsense at the palace? + +Here was a contingency for which Billy was not provided. He made no +provisions for this with Arlee. + +"Have you?" he parried. + +"Not a word," said the young Englishman. "We've not mentioned the +fellow's filthy name. But I wondered----" + +"I did tell her we got worried one night, and tried to get into his +palace like a pair of brigands," Billy answered slowly. + +"She must have thought us great fools," the sandy-haired young man +replied disgustedly. Clearly he felt that Billy had flourished this +story before Arlee to appear romantic, and he winced at its +absurdity. + +"Oh, no--she just thought of it as a lark on our part," Billy went +on. "I didn't let her in for the horrible details--I don't think +she's likely to mention it to you. Or you to her," he added. + +"Rather not." The young Englishman was emphatic. "I'm sorry you said +anything about it." Then he looked at Billy, a crinkle of amusement +in his eyes. "Rather a sell, you know--what?" + +"I should say so!" returned Billy, with a hearty appearance of +chagrin, and a laugh cemented the understanding. + +That was all between them concerning the escapade. + +Billy had raced back to the boat, and secured an earnest fifteen +minutes with Arlee, who promised unlimited care, and then forced +upon him the wretched sovereigns that she owed. She was feeling +desperately spent and tired after her day of excitement, and +declared herself unequal to the dance upon the boat that evening. +Anxiously Billy had urged her to rest, and he spent a drifting and +distracted evening roaming alone in the temple of Luxor listening +to the distant music from the boat--thinking of Arlee.... Later he +had learned that she remained up for at least two dances with +Falconer. + +So much for Friday. Saturday had been worse. Arlee had said on +Friday night that she would join the passengers in the all-day +excursion to the Tombs of the Kings, and Billy had somehow found +himself in an arrangement with Lady Claire and Falconer to go with +them. Then Arlee had not gone. Mrs. Eversham reported that she had a +headache, and Falconer had very promptly dropped out of the party, +leaving Billy with Lady Claire upon his hands, and so he went, and +he and Lady Claire and the Evershams and about sixty other +passengers had a brisk and busy day of it. When he returned just +before dinner he saw Arlee, apparently headacheless, upon the deck +of the steamer, chatting to Falconer. + +That night she had attended the dance at the hotel under Miss +Falconer's wing. Billy had danced with her twice, and between times +his pride had kept him aloof--she might just have made one sign! But +though her bright friendliness was ever responsive; though she was +instantly, submissively, ready to accept his invitations or fulfill +his requests, he felt that there was something strangely lacking. + +The gay spark of her coquetry was gone; she did not tease or play +with him; animated as she was in company, when they were alone +together a constraint fell upon her. + +Miserably he felt that he reminded her of unhappy scenes and that +she would be secretly relieved when he was gone. + +So now he was absurdly glad to hear her declare, in answer to Lady +Claire's questionings, "Oh, but the desert is wonderful! I loved it +in spite of----" + +"In spite of--?" Lady Claire echoed. + +"The sand," said Arlee promptly. But under her lashes, her eyes +came, at last, half-scared, to Billy's face. + +"But the sand _is_ the desert," Lady Claire was murmuring. + +"It's only part of it," Billy took it upon himself to answer. "Space +is the biggest part--and then color. And sometimes--heat." + +"You spent quite a time on the desert edge with some excavators, +didn't you?" said the English girl, and Billy fell into talk with +her about his friend's work, and Falconer and his sister engrossed +Arlee. + +And to-night was the very last night of her stay at Luxor. To-morrow +the boat would take her on out of his life--unless he pursued her +along the Nile, a foolish, unwanted intruder.... The three days here +had all slipped from his clumsy grasp--they seemed to have put a +widening distance between them.... He heard Falconer calculating +that the boat would touch again at Luxor for the next Friday night. +There seemed to be talk of a masked ball.... + +Billy leaned suddenly across the table. + +"You have forgotten it's the best of the moon to-night?" he asked. +"You must let me take you to see it on Karnak." + +Falconer gave him a very blank look. + +"We've already planned for that," said he. + +"We'll all go," cried Arlee, with instant pleasantness. "We mustn't +miss it for anything." + +"You haven't seen the moon on the temple yet?" Billy inquired of +Lady Claire in the pause that ensued. + +"Only once--four nights ago. But it wasn't full then." + +Billy remembered that moon acutely. It had lighted two fugitives +across a waste of sand. He saw a little figure swaying rhythmically +high upon a camel, a quaint, old-world figure in misty white, with a +shimmering silver veil--like Rebecca coming across the desert, he +thought oddly. Then he looked up and saw a most modern figure in +white across the table, nibbling a cress sandwich, and laughing at +some jest of the Englishman's.... + +With a start he realized that Lady Claire was waiting for an answer. + +"I beg your pardon. You asked----?" + +"If _you_ had seen the temple in moonlight, Mr. Hill." + +"Not Karnak--only Luxor--night before last." + +"Only Luxor!" The girl beside him laughed. "How spoiled you are, Mr. +Hill! _Only_ Luxor!" + +It came to Billy, with the force of revelation, that it was going to +be _only_ a great many things for him after this.... Those wild days +in the desert had seen to that, with devastating completeness.... +Girls were only other girls--and delight in them a lost word. This +charming one beside him, with the friendly eyes where a faint shadow +of wistfulness underlay the surface brightness, was only Lady +Claire.... + +He wondered if he was going on like this forever. He wondered if he +was everlastingly to carry this memory about with him, like a +bullet.... Suddenly he felt enraged at himself, at his dumb pain and +useless longings, and with a stanch semblance of animation he flung +himself into the flow of talk which this pretty English girl was so +ready to offer him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +UPON THE PYLON + + +Two miles of Sphinxes in the moonlight--a double row of them on each +side of the way from the temple of Luxor--and then a towering pylon +overhead. Karnak was reached. + +Out of the victoria jumped two young men in evening clothes, one +sandy-haired with a slight moustache, the other black-haired and +clean shaven, and handed out three ladies. The first lady was +middle-aged and haughty featured, in a black evening gown overhung +with a black and gold Assiout shawl; the second was a tall girl in a +rose cloak, the third was a small girl, and her cloak was a delicate +blue. + +There was a pause at the pylon for the presentation of the little +red entrance books, and then the gate closed behind them, and the +five moved cautiously forward into the shadowy dark of the confusion +of the ruins. Beside the blue-cloaked girl bent the sandy-haired +young man; the black-haired young man was between the rose-cloaked +girl and the lady with the Roman nose. + +"You must be our dragoman, Mr. Hill; I understand you are up on all +this," said the lady, adhering closely to his side. "Where are we +now?" + +"Temple of Khonsu," said Billy with bitter brevity. Ahead of them +Arlee's blonde head was uptilted toward Falconer's remarks. + +"Khonsu? I never heard of him! Or is it her?" Lady Claire laughingly +demanded. + +"Khonsu is the son of the god, Amon, or Amon-Ra, and the goddess, +Mut, and so is the third person of the trinity of Thebes," Billy +pedagogically recited, his eyes on the little white shoes ahead +picking their delicate way over the fallen stones. "This temple at +Karnak is the temple of the god Amon, and so it was natural for old +Rameses the third to put the temple to Khonsu under the father's +wing like this--but it spoils the effect of the entrance from this +pylon. You don't get Karnak's bigness at a burst--but wait till you +reach the court ahead. Then you'll see Karnak." + +And then they did see it--as much as one view can give of that vast +desolation. Ahead of them, shadowy and mysterious in the velvet dark +and silver pallor of the stars, loomed the columns of the great +court, huge monoliths that dwarfed to pigmies the tiny groups of +people dotting the ground about them, trying to say something +appropriate. + +The place had been made for dead and gone gods, giants of gods, and +their spirits stalked now through its waste spaces, dominating and +ironic. There was an air about the place that seemed to scorn the +facile awe it woke in the breasts of the beholders and that fleered +at the human banalities upon their lips. + +"There are no words for a spot like this," said a voice near them. + +"Silence is fittest," corroborated a second voice. + +"Thomas Hardy once said, speaking of the heavens," said the first +voice again, "'There is a size at which dignity begins; farther on +there is a size at which grandeur begins; farther on there is a size +at which solemnity begins; farther on a size at which awfulness +begins; farther on a size at which ghastliness begins.' Surely that +was written unknowingly for this temple of Karnak?" + +A fluttering murmur from the group confirmed this thought. + +"Nice little speech," said Falconer in an undertone. + +The second voice was raised a trifle resentfully. "Yet was not the +very pith of it spoken by Ruskin when he stood upon this identical +spot? His words were these, 'At last size tells!'" + +Another murmur agreed that it was indeed the pith. + +"That's Clara Eversham," said Arlee under her breath. "They came +over early with some people from the boat." + +"She must be frightfully up on the guide books," muttered Falconer. + +"She's a _miner_ in them," Arlee laughed, as they made their way +over the rubbishy ground where great beams of stone and fallen +statues lay half-buried in the sands. + +"They must be very glad to have you back again with them," Falconer +told her, trying hard to keep their progress ahead of the others. + +"Oh, I don't know!" Honest dubiety spoke in Arlee's tone. "They +have mentioned twice how convenient it was to use my stateroom!" + +"They felt very badly when you ran away from them in Cairo." + +"I was shockingly sudden about that," owned the girl lightly, "but +the chance came--Are we going to climb the great pylon now?" + +"It will be a jolly high place to see the moon rise." + + * * * * * + +It _was_ a jolly high place to see the moon rise, and to see all +Karnak, and all Luxor, with its high Moslem minaret towering over +its crumbling columns, and to see the dark and distant country with +its tiny hamlets crouching under humbler mosques and lonely palms, +and on the other side the wide and winding Nile with the shadowy +cliffs of Thebes beyond. It gave Arlee the dizzying sensation of +being suspended between heaven and earth, so high was she above +those far-reaching plains, so high above the giant columns beneath +her, the vast beamed roofs, the pointing obelisks. It made her +breath quicken and her pulses beat. + +"Watch the moon," said Falconer in a low tone. + +Blood-red it rose behind the dark pile, throwing into sinister +relief a gallows-like angle of stone beams, then higher and higher +it soared till its resplendent light poured unchecked into the wide +courts and broken temples, the unroofed altars and the empty +shrines. + +"A dead world lighting a dead world," said Arlee under her breath. + +"I could read by it," stated Miss Falconer impressively. + +Lady Claire glanced up at Billy with a touch of mischief. "Would you +like to paint it?" she suggested. + +"Heaven forbid!" said Billy soberly. + +Falconer said nothing at all, except to Arlee. He was very shrewdly +drawing her to the other end of the pylon, seeing that the time of +descent was nearly upon them. And when the time arrived, and the +English ladies and their stoic escort started down the steep steps, +Falconer made no motion of following them. He stood still, his hands +in his pockets, and chuckled softly at the sound of his sister's +voice, floating lesseningly up to them. + +"How Emma is dragoning that William Whatdycallit Hill," he said +appreciatively. + +"Why do you call him that?" questioned Arlee. + +"Oh, that chap is so deuced odd about that name of his. I asked him +what the B. stood for, and he looked me in the eye like a fighting +cock and said for his middle name.... Queer chap--" Suddenly +Falconer looked sidewise at Arlee and stopped. + +"He is--unusual," she agreed, moving toward the steps. + +The curious expression upon Falconer's face deepened. "Let 'em go +on," he said jerkily. "I don't want to leave this yet, do you?" + +Arlee glanced about hesitantly, without answering, and slowly she +let fall the white froth of skirt she had been gathering for the +descent. + +In silence she looked out over the temple. The moon had paled from +fire to molten silver now, and like scattered sparks of it burned +the thousand circling stars. She felt very strange and unreal--a +tiny figure topping this great gate in the face of the ancient +silence.... + +"We never have a chance for a word together," Falconer was mumbling, +with a nervous hand at his mustache. + +Her thoughts came fleetly back from the ancient worlds.... Her own +was upon her. She turned and laughed at him. "We've talked for three +whole days!" + +"Have we? But always in some group.... I understand that Hill told +you what a couple of donkeys we made of ourselves on your account?" +Anxiously he scanned her face, silver-clear in the moonlight, for +signs of ridicule. + +But Arlee's smile was very sweet. It made the sandy-haired young +man's heart quicken mysteriously. "He told me," she said. "I think +it was fine of you." + +"Fine? It was lunacy.... He'd got worked up over some horrible story +he'd heard," went on the young man in the mingling humor and +embarrassment, "and nothing for it but that you'd gone the same way. +And if you'll believe it, he had us prowling around that old palace +like a pair of jolly idiots primed to get their heads blown off--and +served us jolly well right! He was in luck to get off with nothing +but a scratch." + +"A scratch--? You mean--you _don't_ mean----?" + +"He didn't tell you that?" Falconer was surprised; he had imagined +that Billy's narration had led romantically to Billy's wound. He +made the American a silent apology. "He was shot in the arm." + +"Badly?" + +"Of course not badly--he's all right now, isn't he? He said it was a +scratch." + +Arlee was silent. He had been hurt all the time that he had been +riding with her over the desert ... he had been hurt all through +those horrible hot hours. And he had said nothing.... + +"When I think of what that chap got me in for--scaling a man's +walls, smashing in his locks, letting myself down the front of his +house like a monkey on a rope! I might have been a dashed school kid +again." Resentment and reluctant humor struggled in the young man's +speech. "Why, the fellow has the imagination of a detective ... and +of course he had some reason." Falconer's thoughts touched on the +fair-haired girl of Fritzi's report. "I'll admit he had me +worried--until I heard from the Evershams that you were all O.K. You +see what bally nonsense you put into young men's heads," he added +with a look of meaning. + +"He's a very--chivalrous--young man," said Arlee. + +"He's a very unbalanced young idiot," contradicted Falconer. "I +rather like the chap, himself, you know; he has nerve to spare--but +no ballast. He might have set all Cairo talking of you." His voice +hardened; "I told him that. I told him you wouldn't thank him for +it." + +"I do thank him. I thank him with all my heart." + +"Well, you've no reason to," Falconer returned in blunt belief. +"Linking your name with that Turk fellow; hinting you were in the +palace--he might have started a lot of rotten rumor!" + +"What's--rumor?" said the girl in a breathless voice. "He was +thinking of--my safety!" + +"Well, your safety didn't depend on him, did it?" Sharp jealousy of +her defense of the American intruder drove Falconer to unseemly +curtness. He gave a short laugh. "You and I," he said, "seem to be +always tilting over some chap or other." + +A faint smile touched the girl's lips, a sorry little smile, edged +with rueful reminiscence ... and strange comparisons. In silence she +looked down into the shadowy temple courts where absurdly +small-looking people were strolling to and fro, while Falconer stood +looking down at her, with something akin to angry wonder in his +adoring eyes. + +"Why didn't you write to a chap?" he abruptly demanded. + +"Why should I?" + +"Then you meant to let it go at that?" He drew a sharp breath. "Just +the way you flared off from that table--not a word more?" + +"Why didn't you write?" the girl parried. + +"I did," indignantly. "Twice--to Alexandria." + +"Oh.... I didn't get them." + +"I wrote, all right. I was so stirred up over that alarm of Hill's +that I urged you to answer me at once. And when you didn't, and when +I heard you _had_ written the Evershams, well, I thought I knew what +I had to think.... When I met you here Friday I half expected you to +cut me, upon my word!" + +"But I didn't!" She laughed softly. "I remembered you--perfectly." + +"Oh, you did, did you?... You've acted as if that was about all you +did remember." + +"I've been very, _very_ nice to you!" + +"But with a difference," he insisted resentfully. "Didn't you know I +must have written? You didn't think I wanted to let it stop there, +did you? You didn't think I meant that nonsense at tea----" + +"Please don't go back to that," said the girl hurriedly. "We've been +good friends these three days without bringing it up--don't let us +do it now." + +"Well, I don't enjoy thinking about it." His voice was sharp with +feeling. "You gave me the most miserable time of my life." + +"I was very horrid." + +"You told me you didn't give a _piastre_ for what I thought!" + +"I said I didn't give half a _piastre_!" murmured Arlee +irrepressibly, with a wicked dimple. + +Reluctantly he grinned. "Well?" he put to her questioningly. + +"Well?" + +Their eyes met, sparkling, combative. + +"You do, don't you?" + +"What?" + +"You do give a _piastre_ for what I----" + +"I'm afraid I do. I'm afraid I give a good many _piastres_ for what +everyone thinks." The girl's smile had suddenly faded; her eyes +lowered and sought the far horizons. + +In the silence he came a little closer to her. "Then Arlee--Arlee, +dear----" + +She started, and turned hurriedly. "We must go down----" + +"Why must we?" + +"They'll be waiting." + +"Let 'em. They'll be glad of the chance if they can get away from +Emma.... I want to talk to you." + +"I think Mr. Hill is quite as nice as Lady Claire," flashed Arlee in +a childish voice. + +"Claire seems to agree with you." Falconer spoke lightly, but +underneath sounded the note of the disgruntled male ... resentful of +the defection of even the girls he left behind him. He added, with +his fatal gift of truculent expression, "But that's perfectly +absurd." + +"Why absurd?" Arlee's voice held careful calm. The flash in her eyes +was hidden. + +Falconer made a gesture of extreme exasperation. To waste these +precious moonlight moments in trifling debate was the very height of +maddening futility. + +"Oh, the chap's a feather-headed adventurer. What's the use of +talking about him?... But that's aside the mark. I want----" + +"You mustn't call him an adventurer!" The flash was far from hidden +now. Her wide eyes blazed challenge at the disconcerted young man. +"It's not fair. It's not true." + +"Oh, I don't mean it in any--any _financial_ sense," the harassed +Falconer gave back. "But you can't expect me to take him seriously +after his exploits in Cairo? He's flighty. He goes off like a +rocket. He has illusions--but----" + +"If you are going to slander him because of what he did for me--" +Arlee's voice was shaking. + +"Oh, can't you see that's the key to his character!" + +"Yes, I do see it." She sounded triumphant now. For a moment her +eves met his full of bright defiance; she hung fire, half scared, +then blazed into her revelation. + +"_For I was in that palace._" + +"What? What?" Falconer questioned in sheer vacancy of shock. + +"I said--I was in that palace, Kerissen's palace." + +"_What!_" came from him again, but now in twenty different +intonations, with absolute incredulity struggling for dominance. + +Desperately she rushed on, her voice shaken but passionate. + +"I tell you it is so. He got me there by a trick, a call upon his +sister. And he kept me by another trick, pretending a quarantine. I +was trapped there. The messages and all the Alexandria story were +Kerissen's frauds. He wanted to marry me. I'd have been there +to-night if it hadn't been for Billy Hill--that adventurer, as you +call him!" + +It was impossible. It was unthinkable. Falconer stood staring down +at this girl whose white, upturned face, so amazingly ethereal and +childish, met his astounded gaze with unfaltering fixity, and from +his stiff lips dropped disjointed words and phrases, ejaculations of +denial, of disbelief. + +She swept them utterly aside in her complete affirmation. "It's all +true--every bit." + +"You--in that man's palace!" He was very pale, but into her white +face there surged a sudden flood of color, crimsoning it from brow +to throat. + +"He didn't--hurt me," she stammered. "He was--quite mad--but he +didn't--hurt me." + +She heard Falconer draw his breath with a queer, whistling sound. He +pushed back his hat and drew his hand over his forehead. + +"It's--impossible," he persisted thickly, but there was bitter +relief in his voice. "The blackguard--the filthy blackguard!" + +"Don't, don't, please don't! I can't bear to think of him. I've done +with even the thought of him.... He was trying to make me marry him. +I told you he was quite mad." + +Sharply Falconer pulled himself together, in the tense effort to +meet this horrible astonishment like a man. + +"And Hill got you out?" + +"Yes.... He got me out." + +"But the Evershams--they don't know----?" + +"No, no, I've told no one. I'm not going to tell anyone. No one +knows of it but you and me--and Billy Hill." + +"That's right." He drew another long breath, this time in sharp +relief. The color was coming back to his face, splotching it +unevenly. "You mustn't tell anyone. You don't know how a beastly +thing like that would spread. You mustn't let anyone have a hint. +Not even my sister." + +Arlee's eyes were in shadow. Her voice came slowly. "They would +think so badly of me?" + +"No--not of you--but it's the kind of thing, the impossible +things--A girl simply can't afford----" + +"She can't afford to have even speculation against her," Arlee +finished quietly, but a little pulse in her throat was beating away +like mad. She knew he spoke the simple truth, but the taste of it +was bitter as gall to her mouth. However she had humbled herself in +secret self-communion, she had known no such shame as this.... She +felt cheapened ... tarnished.... + +"It's beastly--but she can't," he jerkily agreed, but with evident +relief at her sensible understanding. Perhaps he had remembered +Billy's fearful prophecy of the conversation with which the +adventure would supply her. "But of course nobody has a notion----" + +"Not a notion. And I shan't give them any--not till I'm a +white-haired old lady in Mechlin caps, and _then_ I shall make up +for lost time by boring all my world with the story of my romantic +youth and the wild deeds done for me!" She laughed airily, pride +high in her face, hiding her secret hurts. + +"And Hill got you out," Falconer repeated, with a sudden twinge of +jealous envy in his young voice. "He--he's a lucky one." + +"_I'm_ the lucky one," Arlee flashed. "Think of the glorious luck +for me that sent him to paint there, outside the palace, where a +maid mistook him, and so gave a message. Why, it was a chance in a +million, in ten million--and it happened!" + +"Happened?" Falconer looked at her a minute before continuing. Then +he asked quietly, "He told you that he just--happened--there?" + +"Yes, he said by accident. He was painting----" + +Now Falconer was an honest young man--and a gentleman. Deliberately +he brushed away his rival's generous subterfuge. "He doesn't paint," +he told her. "He did that for an excuse--for a reason to stay +outside the palace. No chance directed it." + +"Why, how--how did he know? Before----" + +"He guessed. He was uneasy from the beginning--he made conjectures +and set himself to verify them." + +After a moment, "I never knew--_that_!" said Arlee in slow wonder. + +"Well, you know now," returned Falconer with a sense of grim justice +to the man he had belittled. + +In the silence the girl moved toward the steps. He made a gesture to +stay her. + +"You're not going--yet?" + +"Yet?" she echoed, faintly mocking. "It's _hours_." + +"But--but we can never see this again," he argued, weakly, parrying +with himself. + +"We won't--forget it." + +The words held a too-keen prophecy for him. He looked at her in +heart-beating uncertainty, and it seemed to him that all his future +was waiting on that moment. Should he speak? Should he utter that +which had been so near utterance when her astounding revelation had +stopped him?... After all, he knew nothing of her--but that she was +lovely and wilful and enchanting--with a capacity for risk--and a +dire disregard of consequences.... She was volatile, unstable, +bewildering--so he thought stiffeningly as he looked at her, but he +looked too long. + +She was the very spirit of loveliness in the silver moon, her hair +a crown of light, her eyes deep with shadowy wistfulness, her lips +half sad, half tender.... He felt the blood burn hot in his face, +and took a quick step to bar the way. + +"You must wait to hear what I was saying," he said, with a ring of +new command. + +She gave him a sudden, startled look, and moved as if to pass him. + +"You were saying--nothing," she answered proudly. + +"I was saying--everything," he gave back incoherently. "Oh, Arlee, +do you think that story stops me! Don't you know--how much I want +you?" and with sudden vehemence he bent to clasp her in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BETTER MAN + + +Down in the court of Rameses, Lady Claire and Hill were straying. A +most opportune old bachelor, passing with a party of acquaintances, +had diverted even Emma Falconer from her dragoning, and the young +English girl and her American escort were left for the time to their +own devices. + +Not much was said. Claire, who had been fitfully gay all afternoon, +grew still as a church mouse now as they paced back and forth in the +shadows, stealing a slant glance from time to time at Billy's set +and silent face. She wondered a little at his absorption. But +chiefly she was thinking that she had never seen him look so +handsome ... with his brows knitted and his clear-cut lips pressed +sharply together ... but the boy of him somehow kept by that wilful +lock of black hair over his forehead. + +To Billy it seemed that the bitterest drop of the cup was at his +lips. Those two--upon the pylon--were they never coming down? He was +waiting for them in every nerve, and yet he shrank from the look he +might read upon their faces. He thought, very grimly, that this +could mean but one thing, and that thing was the end forever and +ever, for him.... His heart was sick in him and he longed most +desperately to break away from these other women and the sham of +talk and dash off to dark solitude where the primitive man could +have his way, could tramp and fight and curse and sob and break his +heart in decent privacy. He faced with loathing the refinements of +torture which civilization imposes. + +But the game had to be played. He was no quitter, he told himself +fiercely; he could stand up and take his punishment like a man. She +was not for him. He had loved her from the first, he had loved her +so that he had been clairvoyant to her peril, he had risked his neck +for her a dozen times and snatched her from a life that was a +death-in-life--and yet she was not for him. She was for a man who +had not believed in her danger, had not bestirred himself.... Black, +seething bitterness was boiling in Billy B. Hill. Darkly, through a +fog, he heard the outer man replying to some speech from the girl +beside him. + +He understood, he told himself in a burst of despairing anguish, how +Kerissen could have plotted for her. Almost he longed to be a +scrupleless Oriental and carry her off across his saddle bow.... And +then he brought himself up short. + +Was that all she meant to him, he asked himself with the sweat of +pain on his forehead beneath that black lock which was finding such +favor in Lady Claire's eyes--was that all she meant to him?--a prize +to be won? One man had tried to steal her; he had wished to _earn_ +her--but she was a gift beyond all price and the giving lay in her +own heart alone.... And if Falconer was the man for her, then at +least he, Billy B. Hill, was man enough to stand up and be glad for +her and be humbly grateful to the end of his days that he had been +able to save her ... and give her her happiness. For it was really +he who had given it to her. And in that thought Billy Hill's young +heart expanded, and his soul stretched itself to such unwonted +heights that it seemed to push among the stars. + + * * * * * + +"It is an unforgettable night," said the girl in the rose cloak. + +He thought that was just the word for it, and a wryly humorous glint +was in the look he gave her. And he thought that she, too, was +playing the game mighty stanchly, and had been playing it bravely +these three days, since her conquering little rival had made her +reappearance. His heart warmed toward her in understanding and +compassion. They were comrades in affliction. He was not the only +one in the world who was not getting the heart's desire. + +Aloud he answered, "And the last night for me." + +Lady Claire looked up quickly. Her voice showed her struck with +sudden surprise. "You are going--so soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"To Assouan?" Odd sharpness edged the question. + +He waited a perceptible moment, though his resolution had been +taken. "Back to Cairo." + +"Oh ... How long shall you be there?" + +"Just till I get sailings. It's time for me to be off. I'm really a +working person, you know, not a playing one." + +"You make bridges--and dams--and things, don't you?" she questioned +vaguely. + +"Bridges--and dams--and things." + +"Why don't you wait here for your sailings?" she asked impersonally +after another pause. "It's so _much_ more attractive here than +Cairo." + +"I'd like to." He thought of next Friday--and Arlee's return--and +the masked ball. For a moment temptation urged. Then he threw back +his head with a gesture of decision. "But I can't. It's impossible." + +Now Lady Claire did not know that he was thinking of next +Friday--and Arlee's return--and the masked ball. She only knew that +he spoke with a curious fierceness, and that his eyes were very +bright. And something in the girl, something strange and +acknowledged that had been so fitfully gay and light these three +days, quickened in mysterious excitement. + +"Nothing is impossible," she gave back, "to a _man_!" + +Billy thought she was resenting the conventions of the restricted +sex. She could not make any open advance toward Falconer while he, +as man, could make all the open advances to Arlee he was willing +to--but in this case his hands were tied. A man cannot inflict +himself upon a girl who may not feel herself free to reject him. He +laughed, with sorry ruefulness. + +"There's a whole lot," he observed, "that is impossible to a man who +tries to be one," and then, oblivious of any construction she might +choose to put upon this cryptic utterance, he strolled moodily on, +in brooding silence. + +After a pause, "Of course," said Lady Claire in so gentle a little +voice that it seemed to glide undisturbingly among his silent +meditations, "of course, a man has his--pride." + +"I hope so," said the young man briefly. He understood her to be +probing for his reason for abandoning the chase; he understood that +for her own sake she would like to see him successful with Arlee, +and he was queerly sorry to be failing to help her there. But he had +done all that he could.... + +The girl spoke again, her face straight ahead, her shadowy eyes +staring out into the moonlight. "Is it--money?" she said in the same +little breath of a voice. + +"Money!" Billy threw back the words in surprise, half contemptuous, +"Oh, Lord, no, it's not _money_! I haven't much of it _now_, but I'm +going to make a bunch of the stuff--if I want to." He spoke with +naive and amazing confidence which somehow struck astounded belief +into the listener. "There's enough of it there, waiting to be +made--no, it's not money--though perhaps one might well think it +ought to be. I suppose my work might strike a girl as hard for her," +he went on, considering aloud these problems of existence, "for it's +here to-day and there to-morrow--now doing a building in a roaring +city and now damming up some reservoir deep in the mountains--but it +always seemed to me that the girl who would like me would like that, +too. It's seeing so much of life--and such real life! Oh, no," he +said, and though a trace of doubt had struck into his voice, "that +in itself wouldn't be what I'd call impossible--not for the right +girl." + +"But your work--would it always be in America?" said Lady Claire. + +"Oh, always. It has to be, of course." + +"Oh.... And--and--you--have to have--that work?" + +"Why, of course, I have to have it!" Billy was bewildered, but +entirely positive. "That's _my_ work--the thing I'm made to do. _I_ +couldn't earn my salt selling apartment houses." + +"Oh, no, no," the girl hurriedly agreed. + +A long, long silence followed, a silence in which he was entirely +oblivious to her imaginings. The moonlight lay heavy as dreams about +them; her thoughts went darting to and fro like fluttering +swallows.... She felt herself a stranger to herself.... She looked +up at him with a sudden deer-like lift of her head, and then looked +swiftly away. + +"Don't go," she said in a quick, low voice. "Don't go--yet. Even +things that look impossible--can be made to come right." + +He understood that she was pleading with him, partly for the sake of +her own chance with Falconer, but the sympathy flicked him on the +raw. He was sorry for her, sorry for the queer, strained look in her +face, sorry for the voice so full of feeling, but he couldn't do +anything to help her. + +In silence he shook his head and was astounded at the look of sudden +proud anger she darted at him. + +"You're a mighty real friend to take such an interest in my luck," +he said quickly, with warm liking in his voice, "and I only wish you +could play fairy godmother and give me my wish--but you can't, Lady +Claire, and apparently _she_ won't, and that is the end of the +matter. I have to take off my hat to the Better Man." + +Lady Claire did not gasp or stammer or question. She did none of the +dismayedly enlightening things into which a lesser poise might have +tottered. After an inconsiderable moment of silence she merely +uttered her familiar, "Oh!" and uttered it in a voice in which so +many things were blended that their elements could hardly be +perceived. + +She added hurriedly, "I'm sorry if I've seemed to--to intrude into +your affairs." + +"My affairs are on my sleeve," answered Billy and wondered at the +quick look she gave him. + +"Oh, no--not at all," she answered a little breathlessly. "I'm sure +they haven't seemed so to me--but then I'm stupid." She stopped for +a moment of hot wonder at that stupidity. She had not believed Miss +Falconer--had thought her prejudiced ... maneuvering.... Like +lightning she reviewed the baffling interchange of sentences, then +glanced up at Billy's silent absorption. She felt queerly grateful +for his innocent density. "And perhaps _she's_ stupid, too," she +told him. "You'd better make sure. You'd better make absolutely +_sure_." + +He looked down on her with sorry humor in his face. "Do I need to +make _surer_?" He nodded in the direction of the giant gateway. +"They've had time to settle the divisions of the Balkans up there." + +"Oh, yes, they've had time!" She seemed speaking at sudden laughing +random. "But _we've_ had the same time and you see we haven't +settled anything with it--not even that you're to stay. Yes, you'd +better make _sure_, Mr. Hill." + +Billy was hardly heeding. A laugh had caught his ears, a light high +laugh like the tinkle of a little silver bell through the darkness. +In the shadows behind them he made out a man and a woman arm in arm. + +"Just a moment," he begged of Lady Claire. "May I leave you here a +moment? I must see those--I think I know----" Without listening to +her automatic permission he was gone. + +The next moment he had laid his hand on the arm of the man with the +woman. Both spun quickly about. A babble of explanation broke out. + +"_Ach, mein freund, mein freund_----" + +"Oh, it is Billy----" + +"How _gut_ to find you here----" + +"Our American Billy." + +The last voice, piquantly foreign, was the voice of Fritzi Baroff. +And the first voice gutterally foreign was the voice of Frederick +von Deigen. Arm in arm, flushed, happy, sentimental, the two began +talking in a breath, thanking Billy for the letter he had sent von +Deigen which had brought them together, and apologizing for their +hasty flight--"a honeymoon upon the Nile," the German joyfully +explained. + +Discreetly Billy forbore to make any discoveries as to the exact +status of their "honeymoon." The German's face was very honestly +happy, and the little dancer was brimming with restless life and +vivacity. + +"It was the picture in my watch--_hein_? The picture I carry night +and day," Frederick repeated in needless explanation, and was about +to draw out the picture when Billy restrained him. + +He had a favor to ask. The American girl of Kerissen's palace had +escaped unharmed and returned to her friends who were ignorant of +all. She was this moment in the ruins. It would be a great shock to +her to meet Fritzi, to have Fritzi recognize her. On the morning she +would be gone. Would Fritzi----" + +"Fritzi must disappear--for the night?" said the little Viennese +smiling wisely, but with a trace of cynicism. "The little American +must not be reminded--h'm? We will go.... For you have done so much +for me, you big, strange, platonic Mr. Billy!" Dazzlingly she smiled +on him, her dark eyes quizzically provocative. + +"You're not at the Grand?" + +"No, not that." She named another. "You come see me, when that girl +goes--h'm?" + +Billy caught the German's eyes upon him, in their depths a faint +trouble, a vague appeal. He comprehended that the infatuated young +man had engaged in the tortuous business of keeping sparks from +tinder. + +"I'm gone to-morrow," he replied. + +"Maybe in Vienna?" went on the dancer. "We go soon--another day or +so maybe--and then back over the water to that life I left! Oh, my +God, how happy I am to go back to it all--to dance, to sing--Oh, I +could kiss you, Mr. Billy, if it would not make you so shock!" she +added with a malicious little laugh. "You know the news--about +_him_--h'm?" + +"Him?" + +"Kerissen--that devil fellow. He is in Cairo with a fever--in the +hospital there. A man who come from that hospital just tells +us--just by accident he tell us. A _bad_ fever, too!" She laughed in +satisfaction. "I hope he burn good and hard up," she added, with +energetic spite, "and teach him not to act like a wild man. That man +say he got a bad hand," she added, with a shrewd glance at Billy. + +The young man merely grunted. "I hope he has," he replied. "It +matches the rest of him. Good night." + +"Good night--for the now--h'm, Mr. Billy?" and with a quick little +clasp of his big hand and a gay little backward look the girl was +gone into the shadows upon the arm of her jealous cavalier. + +Three people were waiting at the statue foot where he had left the +English girl. + +"They've come at last, Mr. Hill," Lady Claire's voice struck very +gaily upon him, "and Miss Falconer has just come to tell us we must +see the colored lights in the great court--and then go home. So +hurry!" + +She turned as she spoke and put her arm suddenly through Falconer's +who was standing next her. "Come on," she lightly commanded, and +promptly led the way. + +That was something like a fairy godmother! Into Billy's eyes flashed +a warm light of gladness. Some moments out of that wretched evening +should yet be his own, bitter-sweet as they were in their sharp +finality. + +He turned to the blue-cloaked figure at his side. "Do you like +colored fire?" he demanded. "Won't you come and see something +else--something I've wanted to see and to have you see with me? It's +near the way out. We can meet them at the pylon." + +Of course she acquiesced. That was part of the cursed restraint +between them, he was reminded, to have her accept so obediently any +point-blank request of his. But for the nonce he was glad. He wanted +those few minutes desperately. + +"What is it?" she murmured. + +"I'll show you," and then, as he turned from the way they had come +and followed a winding path that dipped lower and lower between the +dune-like piles of sand, "It's the Sacred Lake," he explained. +"Perhaps you've seen it in the daytime--but I've been wanting to see +it at night." + +"I think I just caught the glint of it from the pylon," she +observed. + +"You had time to," said Billy, trying to twinkle down at her in +friendly fashion. + +She did not twinkle back. She looked as suddenly guilty as a kitten +in the cream, and Billy's heart smote him heavily. He did not speak +again till they had rounded a corner and their path had brought them +out upon the shore of the Sacred Lake. + +Like a little horseshoe it circled about three sides of the ruined +temple of the goddess Mut, inky-black and motionless with the stars +looking up uncannily like drowned lights from its still waters, and +inky-black and motionless, like guardian spirits about it, sat a +hundred cat-headed women of grim granite. It was a spot of stark +loneliness and utter silence, of ancient terror and desolate +abandonment; the solitude and the blackness and the aching age smote +upon the imagination like a heavy hand upon harp strings. + +"Who are--they?" Arlee spoke in a hushed voice, as if the cat-headed +women were straining their ears. + +"They're mysteries," said Billy, speaking in the same low tone. +"Generally they're said to be statues of the Goddess Pasht or +Sehket--but it's a riddle why the Amen-hotep person who built this +temple to the goddess Mut should have put Sehket here. Sehket is in +the trinity of Memphis--and Mut in that of Thebes. And so some +people say that this is not Pasht at all, but Mut herself, who was +sometimes represented as lion-headed. Between a giant cat and a +lion, you know, there's not much of difference." + +"I like Pasht better than Mut," said Arlee decidedly. + +"There you agree with Baedecker." + +"What did Pasht do?" + +"She was goddess of girls," said Billy, "and young wives. She got +the girls husbands and the wives--er--their requests. Girls used to +come down here at night and make a prayer to her and cast an +offering into the waters." + +"And then they had their prayer?" + +"Infallibly." + +"I'd like a guardian like that," said Arlee, with a sudden +mischievous wistfulness that played the dickens with Billy's forces +of reserve. "Do you think she'd grant _my_ prayer?" + +"Have you one to make?" said Billy, staring very hard for safety at +the monstrous images. + +"They look as if they were coming alive," he added. + +The moon had come up over an obstructing roof and now flashed down +upon them; a ripple of light began to swim across the star-eyes in +the inky waters; a finger of quicksilver seemed to be playing over +the scarred faces of the granite goddesses. + +"They never died," said Arlee positively. "They're just waiting +their time. Can't you see they know all about us?... They +particularly know that you are the most deceiving young man they +ever saw! Why didn't you tell me you were shot in the arm?" she +finished rapidly. + +"What?... Where did you hear that?" + +"Mr. Falconer enlightened me." + +"I wish Falconer would keep his stories to himself," said Billy +ungratefully. "It's just a----" + +"Scratch," said Arlee promptly. "That's always a hero's word for +it." + +Billy turned scarlet. He felt hot back to his ears. + +"And why did you tell me that you _happened_ to be painting outside +the palace?" went on the unsparing voice. "You let me think it was +all accident--and it was all you, just _you_!" + +"Good Lord," groaned Billy, effecting merriment over his +discomfiture, "Is there anything else he told you?... Look here, you +shouldn't have been talking about it," he said with sudden anxiety. + +Arlee smiled. "It's all over," she said. "I told him everything." + +Billy's heart missed a beat, and then hurried painfully to make up +for it. He felt a curious constriction in his throat. He tried to +think of something congratulatory to say and was lamentably silent. + +"Why did you deceive me so?" she continued mercilessly. "Because my +gratitude was so _obnoxious_ to you? Were you so afraid I would +insist upon flinging more upon you?" + +"That's a horrid word, obnoxious," said Billy painfully. + +"I thought so," thrust in a pointed voice. + +"I only meant," he slowly made out, "that a sense of--of obligation +is a stupid burden--and I didn't want you to feel you had to be any +more friendly to me than your heart dictated. That is all. It was +enough for me to remember that I had once been privileged to help +you." + +"You--funny--Billy B. Hill person," said the voice in a very serious +tone. Billy continued staring at the unwinking old goddess ahead of +him. "You take it all so for granted," laughed Arlee softly, "As if +it were part of any day's work! I go about like a girl in a +dream--or a girl _with_ a dream ... a dream of fear, of old palaces +and painted women and darkened windows. It comes over me at night +sometimes. And then I wake and could go down on my knees to you.... +I suppose there isn't any more danger from him?" she broke off to +half-whisper quickly. + +"He's sick in the Cairo hospital," Billy made haste to inform her. +"I found out by accident. I understand he has a bad fever. So I +think he'll be up to no more tricks--and I'm out the satisfaction +of a little heart-to-heart talk." + +"Oh, I told you you couldn't," she cried quickly. "You would make +him too angry. He isn't just--sane." + +"Then all I have to do in Egypt is to hunt up my little Imp," said +Billy. "I must see the little chap again--before I go." + +He waited--uselessly as he had foretold. She said nothing, and if +the glance he felt upon him was of inquiry he did not look about to +meet it. He was still staring a saturnine Pasht out of countenance. +There was a pause. + +Then, "However were you able to think of it all?" said Arlee in slow +wonder. "However were you able to think such an impossible thought +as my imprisonment?" + +"Because I was thinking about you," said Billy. Suddenly his tongue +ran away with him. "Incessantly," he added. + +She looked up at him. Unguardedly he looked down at her. No one but +a blind girl or a goose could have mistaken that look upon Billy B. +Hill's young face, the frustrate longing of it, the deep desire. The +heart beneath the sky-blue cloak cast off a most monstrous +accumulation of doubts and fears and began suddenly to beat like +mad. + +Totally unexpectedly, startlingly amazing, she flung out at him, +"Then what made you stop?" + +"Stop?" he echoed. "Stop? I've never stopped! There hasn't been a +moment----" + +"There have been three days. Three--horrible--days!" + +"Arlee!" + +"Do you think I _like_ being snubbed and ignored +and--and--obliterated?" she brought indignantly out. "Do you think I +call that--being friends?" + +"I--I wanted to leave you free--not to force your friendship----" he +stammered wildly. + +"You couldn't force _mine_," said Arlee Beecher. + +"But--but there was Falconer," he protested. "You had to be free +to--to have a choice----" + +"A choice? Do you call that a _choice_?" + +"I thought you were making it. That first night----" + +"I stayed up to dance with _you_," she cried hotly. "You never came +back!" + +"But the next day----" + +"I _wanted_ to go. But I couldn't keep up any more. I _had_ to +rest.... And you went with Lady Claire!" + +"Why, I had to! We'd planned. But when we came back, he was on deck +with you----" + +"Yes, and I was waiting up--to see _you_. And you only took two +dances that night----" + +"You didn't seem to want me to----" + +"I never guessed you wanted them! _I_ had my pride, too. I wasn't +going to be in the way--because you'd rescued me. I thought you +didn't want me in the way!" + +"Arlee--my girl--my precious girl----" + +"No, I'm not. I'm not." + +"Yes, you are," he said fiercely. "I don't care if you are engaged +to Falconer or not, I'm going to tell you so." + +"I'm not engaged to Falconer," she protested. + +He blurted in bewilderment. "Then what in the world were you doing +up there on that pylon?" + +Her elfish laughter disconcerted him. "Do you think one has to get +engaged if she stays on a pylon?... We were getting _not_ engaged." + +"I thought--I thought you liked him," he said bewilderedly. + +"I did. I do, I mean--but not that way. He--he--Oh, I really _like_ +him," she cried tremulously, "but not--we've had it all out and +everything's all over. I'm sorry--sorry--but he'll be really glad +bye and bye. For my story shocked him terribly.... And then there's +Lady Claire. He didn't like to have her down with you even when he +was up with me." She laughed softly. "Oh, I shouldn't have let him +be so friendly here but I did like him and you--you were so--so +hateful." + +The moon and stars whirled giddily around him as he put his arms +about her. Like a man in a dream he drew her to him. + +"I love you--love you," he said huskily over the bright maze of +hair. + +"You don't!" came with muffled intensity from the hidden lips. "You +said to that man--when I was in that cave--'Nothing doing!'" + +"It wasn't his affair--I hadn't a hope.... Oh, my dear, my dear, +I've been breaking my heart----" + +"And I've had such a perfectly h-hateful three days," sobbed the +voice. + +His arms closed tighter about her, incredible of their happiness. + +"Oh, Arlee, I can't tell you--I haven't words----" + +"I've had _deeds_!" she whispered. + +Through his rocking mind darted a memory of her earlier speech to +him. "You said you didn't want words. Arlee--_will you_?" + +She flung back her head and looked up at him, her face a flower, her +eyes like stars tangled in the bright mist of her hair. + +"Billy, what's your middle name?" + +"Bunker.... I can't help it, dear. They wished it on me and asked me +not to let it go. But _Bunker Hill_----!" + +"It's a wonderful name, Billy! A perfectly irresistible name!" Her +eyes laughed up at him through a dazzle of tears, and prankishly +over her curving lips hovered a mischievous dimple. "It's a +name--that--I--simply--can't--do--without--Billy Bunker Hill!" + +The dimple deepened then fled before its just deserts. For if ever a +dimple deserved to be caught and kissed that was the one. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Palace of Darkened Windows +by Mary Hastings Bradley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 16054.txt or 16054.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/0/5/16054/ + +Produced by Janet Kegg and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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