I"m great on specializing. And that brings me to what we have in common; a scheme of yours; a scheme of mine."
I wanted to detest the man, but somehow couldn"t. To hate him would be hating an overpowering force, like heat, or electricity.
With an old-fashioned politeness he made me sit down, picking out my chair, the most comfortable in the room, then taking the next best for himself. He fitted into it as tightly as a ripe plum into its skin, and talked with one leg crossed over the other and swinging, the points of his brown fingers joined. I was glad they were brown.
"I"m afraid you"re sore with me," he began, having ordered coffee and liqueurs, and forced upon his guest a cigar as big as a sausage. "I"ve got what you and your friend wanted; and I"m going to be frank with you as I"ve been with him, and admit that I got it because you did want it.
Simply and solely for that reason and nothing else. He told you this?"
"He left the telling to you," I said, wondering why I wasn"t more furious than curious. But it was the other way round.
"Good egg! He promised he would, and he looks the sort of chap to keep his promise. Well, I see you want me to get down to business, and I will. I"m going to lay all my cards on the table. I came here to Egypt for the first time in my life, to see a scheme through, and I landed on the scene in time to find that I was likely to fail. I haven"t told any one else that, but your friend Fenton; for I never have made a business failure yet, and I don"t mean to now if I can help it. The scheme had to be saved in a hurry if it could be saved at all; and when I set my wits to work I saw that I must get hold of some such young men as you and Captain Fenton to help me. I don"t know how the thought of you two popped into my head, but I suppose it was seeing a lot of stuff about Fenton in the papers, his Balkan adventure, and the announcement that he"d been recalled to his regiment. There were paragraphs about him as a linguist, and an Egyptologist, and anecdotes of him as a smart soldier. You know the sort of thing. And the stories about his parentage caught my fancy a bit. They"re romantic. I"ve got enough romance in me to see that side of life, and to know how it goes down with the women. This scheme of mine depends on women. Most schemes do.
At the same time the Egyptian papers were printing paragraphs about Lord Ernest Borrow. I don"t know whether you"re aware of that or not?
No? Would you like to see "em? I"ve had my secretary cut "em out--and the Fenton stuff, too. The minute this idea began to wiggle in my mind like a tadpole in water, I kept everything."
"Don"t trouble about the paragraphs, thanks," I said.
"All right. It will save our time not to. But your wish to go in with your friend, for the rights of excavating in the Sudan, was mentioned, and the delay on account of alleged interference with Garstang"s pitch."
"By Jove, I wonder how the reporters got onto that?" I couldn"t help exclaiming.
"It"s their livelihood to get onto everything. "Well then," I said to myself, "Here"s my chance, my only one. I want those two young men.
They"re the right combination nation for me, to give real distinction to my undertaking. I have money, but they ain"t the sort you can buy with money. There must be an incentive. If I get what they want, perhaps I can get _them_." So I went into the job tooth and nail.
Neither you nor Fenton was on the spot. I was--very much on it. Nothing was definitely fixed up between the Government and Fenton for the right to excavate at the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid, as they call the little old molehill, and I scored. Now, if you two will do what I want, you can have your mountain, and whatever you find you can keep. You"re worth more to me than any beads and broken-nosed statues under the sand of Egypt. I think I"ve made some impression on your friend. He may be inclined to go in with me, if you will. He"s explained that in any case he can"t use his own name, on account of his position in the army and so on. That"s a disappointment to me, but I"ll put up with it for the sake of his accomplishments and his looks. Your name alone will carry the necessary weight as a leader."
"You"re very flattering," said I. "But I"m in the dark."
"I"m going to put you wise, as Americans say. My scheme was--and is--to be a rival _de luxe_ of Cook on the Nile. Not only that, but all over the near East. You"ve heard, of course, about my buying the Marquis of Redruth"s yacht _Candace,_ on his bankruptcy--the second biggest, and the most up-to-date yacht in the world--and turning her into a pleasure cruiser for the Mediterranean?"
"If I"ve heard, I"m afraid my memory"s treacherous," said I, glad to show how unimportant to me were the schemes of financiers, but interested in the yacht"s name, which carried my thoughts away to Meroe.
"Great Scout! And I"ve spent two thousand in advertising! I"ve taken whole pages of London and Continental papers!"
"I never read advertis.e.m.e.nts if I can help it, except of new patents in razors. They"re a fad of mine."
"Thank goodness you"ve got fads. Then we"ve something in common. I make money out of my fads. I call "em inspirations. I thought the _Candace_ business was one of my inspirations, and that I"d have some fun out of it. I advertised her to start on her first pleasure cruise from Ma.r.s.eilles to Gib, Algiers, Tangier, Tunis, Greece, Alexandria, and Jaffa. "That"ll be a smack in the eye for the big liners," I said to myself. "I"ll skim the top layer of clotted cream off their pa.s.senger lists!" I was going to do the thing _de luxe_ straight through--bid for the swell set, exclusiveness my motto. Of course I didn"t expect to hit the dukes and dollar kings first shot, but I thought if everything went right the pa.s.sengers would tell their friends at home how much better we did them on board than any one else had ever done, and we"d get a "s...o...b..ll" ad, that nothing could stop. All would have worked out first rate, if I hadn"t made one mistake. I engaged a retired army colonel for a conductor on board my yacht. I got the man cheap. But I was a fool to economize on him. I ought to have launched out on a belted earl. Folks, especially Americans, don"t like retired colonels. The woods are full of "em over there, crawling with "em. Most Americans are colonels and not retired. Besides, this chap of mine"s no good anyhow --fancies himself as a politician, and is a first-cla.s.s sn.o.b; has no tact; rubs up the pa.s.sengers the wrong way, and outrages their feelings. We got a lot of people from the north of England, rich and a bit crude, like me. Will you believe it, Colonel Corkran began his job by sneering audibly at "provincials" to some beastly friend of his, come to see him off at Ma.r.s.eilles? Instead of making his dinner-table lectures a kind of travellogue as he was hired to do, he turns "em into political tirades, and calls the Liberals scoundrels, half of our folks being red-hot Rads. Not only that, if the girls and boys talk while the band"s playin" any of his favourite airs, he hisses out "Silence,"
through a hole in his mouth where one tooth"s missin". That tooth bein"
gone, has got on the girls" nerves worse than anything else, it would seem, except his being down on Suffragettes. And the crisis was reached when he insulted Miss Ha.s.sett Bean, the richest and most important woman in the bunch, when she expressed her political opinions. Said to her, "My dear lady, why do you bother to have opinions? They give you a lot of trouble to collect, and n.o.body else will trouble to listen. Why not collect insects or stamps instead?" Of course she did think Germany had already invaded England with a large army of soldiers disguised as hotel waiters, which was calculated to rile an old officer; but that"s no excuse for a man who"s paid to please. And now the fellow"s wondering why he"s not popular with the pa.s.sengers!"
I laughed, but Sir Walter had worked himself into a state past smiling point. "It"s no laughing matter," he said, "This sn.o.b Corkran"s killing my scheme. There"s a plot on foot for the party to walk off the yacht at Alexandria, and demand half their pa.s.sage money. Some old grampus on board has started the story that the _Candace_ has been down three times------"
"A lie, of course," I soothed him.
"A dastardly lie. She"s been down only twice. The first time was a collision, the second a coincidence."
"But I thought she was the most up-to-date yacht in the world!"
"So she is, as the _Candace._ That was the Marquis"s name for her: gave it after a trip to Egypt. He bought her second hand, and rechristened her while she was being redecorated. He spared no expense, which he could well afford, seeing that he never paid a penny. I got her at cost price, as you may say. But these plotters are going to claim that they were inveigled on board under false pretences, by my advertising the _Candace_ as the newest thing in yachts. I"ve had a letter and several cypher telegrams from the a.s.sistant conductor, a useful chap, telling me the whole story of the plot, which he"s nosed out; and I"m faced with humiliating failure unless I can save the situation by a grand coup at the eleventh hour. Now, you can guess why on the spur of the moment I bought up your rights to dig in the Sudan, can"t you?"
"I confess I can"t," I said.
"Why, I want you to take Colonel Corkran"s place on the _Candace_ as conductor. And I want you and your friend Fenton to go up Nile in charge of the splendid steam dahabeah I"ve bought to supplement the Mediterranean trip. There you have my motives in a nutsh.e.l.l!"
I burst out laughing. "A cracked nutsh.e.l.l," I remarked. Sir Marcus"
rosy face turned royal purple. "What--you won"t undertake it?"
"I couldn"t," I a.s.sured him. "For one thing, I"d be a fish out of water. My dear sir, perhaps you don"t know that my nickname since the age of five has been "Duffer?" I"m proud of it. I take pains to live up to it----"
"I bet you do. I bet it opens doors and lays down velvet carpets for you. Why, a duffer with a t.i.tle is exactly what I want! Duffers are the rage nowadays. You and your friend will make a brilliant pair, a fine contrast, especially with your friend"s present get up. If you"d both been born for me you couldn"t suit me better."
I laughed again. "You said you ought to have launched out on belted earls. We"re humble----"
"There"s no earls handy, and if there were any, they wouldn"t be what you two are in looks and talents, to say nothing of your brother being a marquis. I"m offering you both the softest kind of job. All you have to do is to be agreeable young gentlemen, with a knowledge of society, and history; that means, you can be yourselves. You get a fine trip on high salaries if you don"t scorn to accept my money; and as a reward for a good holiday you receive the right to explore your golden mountain. I suppose you must think it _is_ a golden mountain, or you wouldn"t be such nuts on it. You"d better consult your friend before you refuse my offer, anyhow."
"Haven"t you heard that Fenton"s left Cairo?" I took the precaution to ask. "That doesn"t look as if he were entertaining the idea of going up the Nile on your steam dahabeah." "I have heard that he"s left. But I happen to know--it isn"t so. I saw him standing in front of Shepheard"s Hotel this morning, waiting for you. I got on to what was in that green turban before the pretty girl in white--Miss Gilder, I"ve found out since--called him on to the terrace. Don"t look as if you wanted to eat me, Lord Ernest. I"ve won my way up from the bottom rung of the ladder by keeping my eyes open, and by putting two and two together. I specialize on that. I don"t suppose there"s another man in Cairo except me and you, would have recognized Fenton, so you needn"t worry. I twigged that he"d dressed up for serious business, not for fun, because I read about some smart coups he"d brought off by going among the natives like one of themselves. I"m not a sneak, and I shan"t revenge myself by giving him away, even if you two do show me the frozen face.
Captain Fenton encouraged me to think he might consider my proposition if you would, though he refused to influence your decision one way or the other. Naturally I conclude that he could be on my Nile boat if he wanted to, even if not in his own capacity as an officer. I"ll take him in his green turban. He makes the best looking Egyptian I ever saw, and he"d go down with the ladies like hot cakes."
"Sir Marcus," I smiled, "you"re one of the most amusing as well as the sharpest men, if you"ll allow me to say so, that I ever met. Whatever happens I shall not forget this conversation."
"I don"t want you to forget it," he grinned, beginning to hope. "Think it over. We"re the chance of a lifetime for each other. And remember the Mountain of the Golden Pyramid." I rose, and he got up heavily.
"When will you let me know?" he asked.
I was tempted to reply that he must have taken Fenton"s seeming encouragement too seriously, that, mountain or no mountain, it was practically impossible for us to accept his amazing proposition. But suddenly I seemed to hear "Antoun Effendi" telling Miss Gilder that she must wait for his decision until evening. He had said afterward, also, that it depended on me. It was evident that he had a scheme of his own, worked by wheels within wheels. He had consoled me after the first blow by saying that all was not lost. And I had four months" leave from duty. A lot could be done in four months. "I will let you know before night," I said to Sir Marcus Lark.
CHAPTER VII
THE REVELATIONS OF A RETIRED COLONEL
Fenton"s orders were, when the Cairo business should be finished, to go slowly up the Nile in native dress, and get at the truth of certain rumours which had disturbed officialdom at Cairo. At Denderah, Luxor, and two or three other places there had been "incidents," small but troublesome. English sightseers had complained of being hustled, and even insulted by the inhabitants of several river towns, and it was important to find out whether the Egyptians or the foreigners had been more to blame; whether there were real symptoms of sedition, as reported, or whether the young men of the suspected places had merely resented with roughness some discourtesy of tactless tourists. Fenton had seized upon the idea that, as Egyptian lecturer and conductor--a sort of super-dragoman--on board Lark"s Nile boat, he might find a plausible pretext for his secret errand. "Why do you travel?" would be the question he must expect from suspicious leaders of any plot that might be hatching, if he journeyed from one Nile village to another without the excuse of business. As a glorified conductor of a pleasure-trip for a party of tourists his excuse would be readymade for him; but he had been far from sure that I would fall in with Sir Marcus Lark"s plan, despite the bribe. He had wanted me to hear the whole story, the whole project, from Sir Marcus" own lips; and in his uncertainty of the result, he had thought of Miss Gilder as an attractive "victim." There she was, as he had said, presented to him by Providence. If I should pour scorn upon the Lark suggestion, he might find it worth while to guide the Gilded Girl and her friends on their Nile pilgrimage. He left the question for me, and I decided to kill as many birds as possible with one stone. The name of the yacht was in itself an incentive: _Candace_--Queen of Meroe--our Meroe. She seemed to call, and to promise good luck. We would accept Lark"s terms, and enter his service in return for a written agreement to hand over his ill-got digging rights to us, whether or no we turned out to be satisfactory as guides.
We could but do our best, and at all events we should earn the reward which we had looked upon as ours already. Anthony would play his double part, serving the interests of government and those of Sir Marcus Lark.
As for Monny Gilder, why shouldn"t she and her party become Lark"s pa.s.sengers? The only reason against this "inspiration" (as Sir Marcus would have called it), lay in the fact that Monny wished to engage a private dahabeah. When she wished for a thing, it appeared that only a miracle or a cataclysm could induce her to give it up for something else suggested by an outsider. But when I mentioned this peculiarity to Fenton, he was fired to punish the girl by forcing her compliance with our will. She had treated him like a servant. She looked upon a man supposedly of Egyptian blood, even though of princely birth, somewhat as she looked upon an American "n.i.g.g.e.r." True, Anthony Fenton had in his veins but very few such drops. On his father"s side he was all English, and his mother had been more than two thirds Greek and Italian. Nevertheless this spoilt girl had struck a blow at the pride which went ever walking about the world with a chip lightly poised on its shoulder. Anthony had no desire to poach on my preserves. At the same time he yearned to show Miss Gilder that he could be her master, not her servant.
Once Anthony and I had made up our minds, everything else arranged itself with lightning speed. Sir Marcus, rejoicing in his ill-got conquest of us, broke to me the news that I must go by the first ship to the Piraeus, to meet the _Candace,_ and head off the recalcitrant band of pa.s.sengers. He flattered me by thinking that, if I took the place of Colonel Corkran as conductor, they would abandon their plot to desert the yacht at Alexandria. It was, according to Lark"s secret information, only the "smart and would-be smart set" who had combined to spring this mine upon the management. The rest grumbled no more than it was normal for all pleasure-pilgrims to grumble; and as, roughly speaking, the contented travellers were all going on to Palestine after a week"s wild sightseeing in Cairo, the colonel might be allowed to continue his voyage without the interruption of a "row."
"I should have had enough common sense at the start," growled Sir Marcus with crude candour, "to engage a lord for the Smart Set, and a parson for the Ernest Inquirers. There"s a world of difference catering for a Set, and a Flock. The art is, to know it, and how to do it. Now I"ve secured you, I"m all right with the S. S. and thanks be, I"ve a young reformed missionary on board to shepherd the Flock. Now the Reverend Watts will come in handy, herding his sheep through Palestine, while the colonel swaggers and fancies he"s bossing the show. It"s the Egypt lot I worry about: girls out for dukes, and dukes out for dollars. Not that there"s a darned duke on board, but there are some who think they out-duke the dukes, and it"s our business to humour "em.
You just duff all you want to, Lord Ernest, they"ll swallow anything you do, like honey. Don"t bother about a line of conduct: only be genial. Murmur soft nothings to the women; flirt but don"t have favourites. Don"t be too political with the men: work in plenty of anecdotes about your swell relations."
I replied that I could confidently promise geniality, except if seasick: but Sir Marcus implored me at all costs not to be seasick.
That was the one thing I must not be. My whole time between the Piraeus and Alexandria, on board the _Candace,_ must be spent ingratiating myself with the sulky pa.s.sengers, and obliterating from their memories the crimes of Colonel Corkran. In Sir Marcus" opinion my future charges had taken pa.s.sage on the _Candace,_ and would go up the Nile, not to see sights, but to be seen doing the right things. According to him not two out of twenty cared tuppence for Egypt, but wished to talk about it in sparkling style at home. My friend Captain Fenton and I must make it sparkle. Sir Marcus had resigned himself to the fact that one of his trump cards--Anthony--could not be produced until the arrival in Cairo of the troupe, and that even then, the name of Fenton must not be used as an attraction. Lark felt confident that I was a good enough card to make his hand worth playing, and in spite of the half contemptuous amus.e.m.e.nt with which I regarded the whole scheme, I couldn"t help being "on my mettle." I found myself wanting to succeed, wanting to please the big, common man whom a few hours ago I had been cursing.
I had to start for Greece the night after our decision. Meanwhile, I was anxious to explain the unexplainable to Brigit and Monny, and secure the party for Sir Marcus Lark"s alleged dahabeah, which turned out to be one of Cook"s old boats bought and newly decorated. Both my tasks would be difficult. I had to hide the secret reason for selling myself to the financier, and at the same time keep the respect of the ladies. As for inducing Miss Gilder to give up her dream of a private dahabeah, I foresaw that it would be like persuading the youngest lioness in the Cairo Zoo to surrender her cherished wooden ball. But I began by giving Monny a present; a fine old turban-box of rare, red tortoise sh.e.l.l inlaid with mother of pearl, which I found at an antiquary"s. In the silklined box reposed a green turban; and that green turban told its own story. Miss Gilder flushed with pleasure at sight of it. "I"ve won my bet!" she exclaimed.
"Yes," said I. "To my astonishment! The man consents. He"s a great prize, knows Cairo and upper Egypt like a book. But you"ll have to surrender him when you go on the Nile."
In her haste to know why, Monny forgot to ask how I had obtained the green turban; and for this I was glad, because it was only the second best headgear of my smart friend the Hadji. In explaining that the distinguished Egyptian had been engaged by Sir Marcus Lark, I slipped in a word about my own part in the trip, describing it as an ideal rest-cure for a budding diplomat on sick leave. I praised the boat and spoke of the fun on board. I regretted Miss Gilder"s preference for a private dahabeah, so obvious, so millionairy! Still, I added, every one to his taste! And anyhow, no doubt all the best cabins on the _Enchantress Isis_ were taken.