"What, to young Halloran? How did they manage it?"
"I don"t know yet. I"ve had only a telegram. It came to a.s.suan too late, and Sir Marcus Lark brought it to the boat. I found it that night when we got back from Philae. But I haven"t told, because I dared not be with you alone long enough to speak of private affairs, till I could decide whether to let you know I loved you, or make believe I didn"t care a sc.r.a.p."
"As if I could have believed your tongue, unless you had shut your eyes! So Esme is married, and off your hands?"
"Not off my hands, I"m afraid. This may be visited on me. They must have known of her meeting Tom Halloran at St. Martin Vesubie, last summer. They find out everything, sooner or later. Probably they thought I"d whisked her off to Egypt with me (helped by my rich friend Miss Gilder, for whom they took Rachel Guest) in order to let her meet Tom Halloran again, and marry him secretly. Well, she has _married_ him secretly. When they discover what"s happened, they"re sure to put the blame on poor me. And indeed, it is a shocking thing for the son of that man in prison, and the daughter of the man who sent him there, to be husband and wife."
"I don"t see that at all," I argued. "Why shouldn"t their love end the feud?"
"It can"t, for strong as it may be, it won"t release prisoners, or bring back to life those who are dead."
"Anyhow, don"t borrow trouble," said I. "If Esme"s married the more reason for us to follow her example. After Khartum, when Miss Gilder--"
"Who"s taking my name in vain?" inquired the owner of it, at the sanctuary door.
"Oh, then you _have_ come, Monny!" Brigit exclaimed. "I--I"d given you up."
"I haven"t come for the reason you thought," returned the girl promptly. "I was sure you meant to head me off. And I"ve learned without asking, that Antoun Effendi didn"t write that note."
"I told you so! Who did?"
"He"s trying to find out. Probably it was a silly practical joke some one wanted to play on me. There are _lots_ quite capable of it, on board! Antoun Effendi said the sunrise was much finer really, from on top of the great sandhill, so we climbed up. And it came out that he hadn"t asked me to meet him here. If any one not on the boat wrote the letter, some steward must have been bribed to sell a bit of writing-paper, and allow a stranger to come on board, while we were away at Kasr Ibrim. There was a steam dahabeah moored not far off, if you remember, with Oriental decorations; so we fancied it must belong to an Egyptian or a Turk."
"It could easily have been hired at a.s.suan," Biddy exclaimed. "And it could have beaten us. We"ve stopped at such heaps of temples where other boats only touch coming back."
"If there were a plot, as you are always imagining, the dahabeah would have to be near here, too," Monny laughed incredulously.
"And so it may be. We haven"t seen round the corner of the Great Temple yet."
"One would think to hear you talk, that you"d expected this poor little sanctuary to be stuffed with murderers, or at the least, kidnappers."
"Ugh, don"t speak of it!" Biddy shuddered, "Let"s go out into the sunlight again, as quick as ever we can!"
CHAPTER XXVIII
WORTH PAYING FOR
When Anthony says that he will find out things he seldom fails. Perhaps n.o.body but a green-turbaned Hadji could so speedily have screwed information out of secretive Arabs, paid to be silent. And he had to fit deductions into s.p.a.ces of the puzzle left empty by fibs and glib self-excusings. What he did learn was this: a dragoman had come, in a small boat, from a steam dahabeah to the _Enchantress Isis_ while we were away at Kasr Ibrim. He presented credentials written out for him in Cairo by Miss Rachel Guest, and dated a few weeks ago. Inquiring for her, he seemed sorry to hear that she had gone on the excursion. The dragoman refused to disturb Antoun Effendi, on hearing that the Hadji was writing in his cabin. His errand was not of enough importance to trouble so ill.u.s.trious a man. All he wanted was permission to type one or two letters for his employers on the neighbouring dahabeah, which possessed no machine. In the absence of Mr. Kruger, who had gone on sh.o.r.e for exercise, the dragoman was given this privilege. Possibly he had taken some of the boat"s letter-paper. Who could be certain of these trifles? Possibly, also, he had walked about with one of the cabin stewards, to see the luxurious appointments of the _Enchantress Isis_. As for paying money for these small favours, who could tell? And n.o.body knew if the steam dahabeah had hurried on before us, to anchor out of sight round the oblique facade of Abu Simbel. In any case, when we went to look for the suspicious craft seen near Kasr Ibrim, she was not among the two or three small private dahabeahs of artists and others, moored within a mile of the Great Temple. Notwithstanding her absence, however, Anthony and I (suddenly confidential friends again) thought it likely that the shadows in the Sanctuary had not been its only tenants when we entered there. The invaluable Bedr knew enough of the Nile Temples to know that the sun"s first light strikes only the altar and the statues over it, in Abu Simbel"s inner shrine: that the four corners of the small cavern-room remain pitch black, unless the place is artificially illuminated: and that this is never done at sunrise. The dragoman and one or both of his employers would have had no difficulty in getting into the temple before the first streak of dawn, if they had warned its guardian the night before. So far, our deductions were simple, after learning how the trick of the typewritten note had been managed: but it was not so easy to guess the object of the plot. Was Monny Gilder to have been murdered in the dark Sanctuary, or was she to have been kidnapped? Either seemed an impossible undertaking, unless the plotters were willing to face certain detection and arrest.
As it was, we had no more tangible proof against the man than we had before, at the House of the Crocodile, in the desert near Medinet, at Asiut, and at Luxor. With a sly cleverness which did Bedr, or those employing him, much credit, they had screened themselves behind others.
Even if we had the names of the "tourists" Bedr had served as dragoman, and if we could lay our hands on their shoulders, we had not enough evidence of what they had done to obtain a warrant of arrest: and this of course they knew. Our best chance, Anthony thought, lay in springing a surprise on them, as they had vainly (so far) tried to do with us; and when we got them somehow at our mercy, force out the truth.
It was almost certain that a steam dahabeah could not unseen have pa.s.sed the _Enchantress Isis_ at Abu Simbel in broad daylight, going back toward a.s.suan. Therefore, since it was not moored near the temple, if it had been in the neighbourhood at all it must have dashed on ahead of us in the direction of Wady Haifa. With pleasure would we have given immediate chase, had not the _Enchantress_ been pledged to remain at Abu Simbel till afternoon. Even as it was, I expected to catch up with a boat so much smaller than our own; but Anthony damped my hopes, explaining the difficulties of navigation between Abu Simbel and Wady Haifa. There were, he said, great shifting sandbanks in the water which looked so transparently green, so treacherously clear. Without the most prudent piloting the river was actually dangerous, as new sandbanks had a habit of forming the minute you shut your eyes or turned your back.
The _Enchantress_ would have to pick her way slowly through the silver sands of the Nile, which mingled with the spilt gold-dust of the desert sh.o.r.e. All the same, these impudent rascals would find it hard to hide from us at Wady Haifa, especially if we stopped the boat and wired from the next telegraph station to have them watched on the arrival of their dahabeah.
"Perhaps, as they"re so clever they"ll be clever enough not to arrive at all," was my suggestion. And Anthony could only shrug his shoulders.
"Wait and see" had to be our policy.
Happily the Set wandered in and out of the two temples, big and little, all the morning, ignorant of our worries which, even to us, seemed small under the benign gaze of the great Colossi. The three stone Rameses who had faces, wore expressions no one could ever forget; and there was a sense of loss in turning away from them.
A crocodile swam past the _Enchantress_ as she steamed up river; a long, dark, prehistoric shape. He seemed an anachronism, but so did Bedr, with his plottings; yet both were real, real as this Nile-dream of dark rocks, of conical black mountains shaped like ruined pyramids, and yellow sandhills whose dazzling reflections turned the blue-green river to gold.
The next day at noon, we came to Wady Halfa; and the _Enchantress Isis_ who had brought us eight hundred miles from Cairo, was now to be deserted by those with Khartum in view. All save three of the party were going on through this gate of the Sudan, where the river way ended and the desert-way began. Neill Sheridan was turning back immediately, in a government steamer; and a bride and groom who cared not where they were, if with each other, would wait on board the _Enchantress_ until the band of pa.s.sengers should return from Khartum.
These things had to be thought of. But I meant to let Kruger do most of the thinking, when we landed at the neat, colourful town of Halfa, which lies (as a.s.suan lies) all pink and blue and green along the river bank, sentinelled with trees. From a distance Anthony and I caught sight of the steam dahabeah seen near Kasr Ibrim, and we could hardly wait to get on sh.o.r.e. The camp was but a mile and a half away, and I had wired in Lark"s name, to an officer whom he was sure to know, asking as a great favour to have the pa.s.sengers on board a boat of that description watched; and requesting him if possible to meet the _Enchantress_ on her arrival. "There he is!" said Fenton, standing at the rail. "I mustn"t seem to recognise him, of course. Can"t give myself away! But you--" "Good Lord, there"s Bedr!" I broke in, hardly believing my eyes. And there Bedr was, looking as if b.u.t.ter would by no means melt in his mouth: Bedr, smiling from the pier, evidently there for the special purpose of meeting us. His ugly squat figure, and the tall, khaki-clad form of the officer, were conspicuous among squatting blacks, male and female, in gay turbans, veils, and mantles, m.u.f.fled babies in arms, and children dressed in exceedingly brief fringes.
"I"ll attend to him, while you powwow with Ireton," said Anthony, ready for the unexpected situation. And while the indispensable if humble Kruger showed the pa.s.sengers how to get to the desert train, superintended the landing of the luggage, and made himself perspiringly useful, I thanked Major Ireton in Sir Marcus Lark"s and my own name.
His news was astonishing. There were no pa.s.sengers on board the steam dahabeah _Mamoudieh_. She had arrived with none save her crew, and the dragoman now talking with that good-looking Hadji there. As I murmured "Yes," and "No," and "Indeed--Really!" to the officer, who had kindly worked on our behalf, I was saying to myself, "My _dear_ Duffer, what an a.s.s you were not to think of that!" For of course the men had remained at Abu Simbel, hiding till we should be out of the way, and sending their boat on to put us off the track. A Cook steamer and a Hamburgh-American boat were due to stop at the temple. We had pa.s.sed both on the river. By this time the two men were doubtless on their way north, making for Cairo and safety.
Still, here was Bedr, looking like a fat fly who had deliberately come to pay a call on the lean and hungry spider. I was impatient for the moment when the need for genuine grat.i.tude and "faked" explanations was over, and Major Ireton had gone about other business.
Then I could follow the Hadji and the Armenian, who had mounted the steps leading up from river-level to the town. Not far off I could see the blue-windowed, white-painted desert train, round which, on the station platform, buzzed and scolded the Set, demanding their hand-luggage and their compartments. But Anthony and his victim (or was it by chance vice versa?) were keeping out of eyeshot and earshot of the late pa.s.sengers of the _Enchantress_. Brigit and Monny, who must have seen Bedr, were too tactful to hover near: also they knew "Antoun Effendi" too well to think it necessary.
Bedr gave me no time to speak. He rushed forward to greet me with effusion, as if I were a long-lost and well-loved patron. "I bin so glad see you again after these days, milord. Sure!" he began. "Antoun Effendi, he tell you I come here on purpose to do you good. I find out those genlemens very wicked men, so I leave them quick. They want to pay me for go back with them, but no money big enough now I know they try to do harm to my nice young lady. She wasn"t so good to me as the other nice young lady, but that makes no matter. I not stand for any hurt to her, sure I will not, milord."
"The meaning of this rigmarole," Anthony cut him short, speaking in German (which he knew I understood and trusted Bedr didn"t) "is, that the fellow wants us to buy information from him. He pretends to have broken with his employers on our account (though his explanation of getting here to Halfa on their dahabeah is ridiculous) and that, having come for our benefit against their wishes, he"s without pay, penniless, and stranded."
"A lie of course," I took for granted, also in German.
"The part about being broke--certainly. But it"s certain, too, that he must know some things we"d like to know."
"Could we trust a word he says?"
"No, as far as his moral sense is concerned. But my idea is to bargain with him. We to pay according to value received. That might be bait for a fish worth hooking."
"Yes, that"s our line. We haven"t much time to hear and digest his story, though. The train will start in less than an hour."
"We shan"t waste a minute. Without waiting for you, I began to bargain on the line I"ve just suggested."
"How far did you get?"
"A good way, for I was able to scare him a bit. You see, he earns his living in Cairo, and I"ve persuaded him that I have some influence there, in quarters that can make or break him. He hasn"t much more time to spare than we have, if it"s true that he wants to start back on the government boat. You know they take natives, third cla.s.s. My suggestion, subject to your approval, is this: in any case we give a thousand piasters, ten pounds. But if what he can tell us is of real use or even interest, we rise to the extent of ten times that sum."
"It"s a good deal for a beastly baboon like him."
"Remember, he has been doing services lately for which he probably got high pay."
"All right, whatever you say, goes," I agreed.
"I trust to your honours, my genlemens," remarked the beastly baboon in question, in a manner so apropos that I guessed him not entirely ignorant of German, after all.
"Thanks for the compliment," I responded gratefully.
"We shall have to talk here. There"s no time to find a more convenient place," said Fenton, returning to Arabic as a medium of communication.