"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 s.n.a.t.c.hed 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 subst.i.tuted.
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 ca.n.a.l 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 circ.u.mstance--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 amba.s.sador 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.