Mrs. Haxton smiled sourly.
"We are dealing in candor," she cried. "Pray complete your confession, Baron von Kerber."
The Austrian did not abandon his dejected pose, but he took up the parable readily.
"There is one slip of papyrus you have never seen, Mr. Fenshawe," he said. "Perhaps you have been surprised that such a careful scribe as Demetriades gave no details of the loot? I kept them back. There were fifty camel-loads of precious vessels and rare stuffs brought from the East. There were one hundred and twenty camel-loads of gold coins, and two camels carried leather wallets filled with pearls and rubies and diamonds."
Irene could not restrain a little gasp of wonderment at von Kerber"s amazing catalogue. Her grandfather looked at her.
"You were wiser than I, little girl," he murmured. "You warned me that these people were deceiving me, yet I refused to listen."
"Oh, one has to follow the path that promises success," interrupted von Kerber savagely. "Had I told you these things you would have been the first to inform the Italian government. Why do you prate of deceit? Had we found the treasure, you must have seen everything. I only meant to hold you to your bond and demand my third share. _Lieber Gott!_ if you were not a stiff-necked Englishman you would now, even at the twelfth hour, force these Italian hirelings to disgorge."
"Meaning that you advise a surprise march on Suleiman"s Well, and the ma.s.sacre of every person who resists as?" inquired Mr. Fenshawe, acidly impatient.
"Better that than turn back at the very threshold."
"Excellent! The voyage of the _Aphrodite_ would then achieve an international fame which would survive the ages."
The blank despair in von Kerber"s face won Royson"s pity. He could not help sympathizing with him. And there was something to be said for his point of view. If Mrs. Haxton had given the true version of the finding of the papyrus, the Austrian"s methods were comprehensible. Seldom has poverty been tempted by a vision of such enormous wealth.
"May I make a suggestion, sir?" he asked, seeing that no one was willing to resume a somewhat acrid conversation.
"As to the form of attack?"
Mr. Fenshawe was still amused by the idea of treating the Italians to a _coup de main_.
"No. We have made a long journey, and it might at least be determined whether or not it was justified. Will you allow me and Abdur Kad"r, and, perhaps, one other Arab less widely known than the sheikh, to try a small experiment. Let us endeavor to enter the Italian camp and find out what is going on? I can pa.s.s easily as a member of a shooting party who has lost his way. They will not slay me at sight on that account.
At any rate, I am quite prepared to risk it."
"The very thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Haxton, springing out of her chair.
"Abdullah is there, and you know him. You must not appear. Let Abdur Kad"r send one of his men into the camp by night. He will bring Abdullah to you at a preconcerted rendezvous, and Abdullah will tell you what Alfieri is doing. Better still, let Abdullah come here. If he knows I sent you he will accompany you without a moment"s delay."
"The proper person to go and summon Abdullah is Baron von Kerber," put in Irene tremulously.
"Before I sanction any proceeding of the sort, I wish to ask why Abdullah is apparently in league with your sworn enemy?" demanded Mr.
Fenshawe.
"The Governor of Ma.s.sowah told me he was despatching an expedition to the Five Hills," said Mrs. Haxton eagerly. "I was sure it would fail, for reasons which the Baron has explained, but I bade Abdullah join the _kafila_, seeing that we could not carry out our first plan of landing lower down the coast. Then, if the Italian party received news of our whereabouts, Abdullah would steal away and warn us. The mere fact that he is not here now shows that our presence in this locality is altogether unsuspected." Fenshawe seemed to weigh his words before he answered.
"I prefer that Mr. Royson should go, and not Baron von Kerber," said he. "On the understanding that he interferes with our rivals in no way whatever, I shall be glad of his report. If we have failed, there is no harm in knowing the facts. May I ask, Baron, have you any other surprises to give us in the shape of history, ancient or modern?"
"I have nothing else to say," muttered the other.
"Then, as it is nearly dinner-time, I trust we may forget Saba and its legends until we learn what progress Signor Alfieri has made. You start to-night, Mr. Royson?"
"At the first possible moment, sir."
"No, no. Eat, rest, and travel under the stars. That is the golden rule of a forced march in the desert. We will give you two nights and a day.
Then, if you do not return, I shall send an open emba.s.sy to inquire for you."
Thus it came about that, soon after night fell, three sulky Bisharin camels were led away from their fellows and compelled to kneel unwillingly to receive their riders. The operation was attended with much squealing and groaning.
"They love not to leave their brethren," said Abdur Kad"r, pausing to take breath for a fresh torrent of abuse. The camels were forcibly persuaded, and Royson climbed into the high-peaked saddle. His last thought, as he quitted the red glare of the camp-fires, was that Irene might have s.n.a.t.c.hed a few minutes from her rest to bid him farewell.
But she was nowhere to be seen, so after a final hand-shake with Stump, he rode away into the night.
CHAPTER XV
THE DESERT AWAKES
The march Royson had undertaken was a trying one. The desert runs to extremes, and, at that season, the thermometer varied a hundred degrees between noon and midnight. When the sun dipped behind the hills, a tense darkness fell on the land. This impenetrable pall is peculiar to Egypt; probably it suggested to Moses that ninth plague wherewith he afflicted the subjects of a stubborn Pharaoh. Though this "darkness that may be felt" yields, as a rule, to the brilliancy of the stars after half an hour"s duration, while it lasts a lighted match cannot be seen beyond a distance of ten or twelve feet. It is due, in all likelihood, to the rapid radiation of surface heat. When the cold air has robbed sand and rock of the temperature acquired from the broiling sun, the atmosphere clears, and the desert reveals itself again in the gloomy monotone of night.
It may reasonably be supposed, that the excess of humidity which caused the remarkable mirage of the afternoon helped to continue the "black hour," as the Arabs term it, far beyond its ordinary limits. Hence it was nearly ten o"clock when Royson quitted the camp on his self-imposed task. To all outward semblance, he differed not a jot from the two Arabs who accompanied him. A burnous and hood covered his khaki riding costume. He bestrode a powerful camel nearly eight feet high. Like his companions, he carried a slung rifle; a haversack and water-bottle completed his equipment. His size alone distinguished him from Abdur Kad"r and Sheikh Hussain of Kenneh, the latter being a man whom Abdur Kad"r had selected as best fitted to win his way unquestioned into the Italian camp. Royson"s Arab dress was intended to secure the party from espionage while they traveled towards Suleiman"s Well. When they neared it he would throw aside the burnous. His pith helmet was on his saddle, but the Arab hood enabled him to dispense with it by night.
The older Arab led: behind him rode Royson; Hussain brought up the rear. In this fashion they climbed the slight rise of the wide valley which sheltered the expedition. They had gone some three hundred yards, and the leader was scanning the horizon for a gap through which the track pa.s.sed, when they were all amazed to hear Miss Fenshawe"s clear voice.
"I thought you were never coming, Mr. Royson," she said. "I was on the point of going back to my tent, but I caught the grumbling of your camels. Then I knew that you had really made a start."
After the first gasp of wonder and delight, d.i.c.k slipped to the ground.
He narrowly avoided a spiteful bite from his unwilling conveyance, but he handed the single rein to Abdur Kad"r, and hastened towards a rock in whose shadow stood Irene, garbed and cloaked so that she was scarcely discernible.
"I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you, Miss Fenshawe," he cried, "yet, in the same breath, I must protest against your wandering so far from the camp. Are you alone?"
"You may be sure of that. Otherwise I should not be here." She laughed cheerfully, for the escapade had in it a spice of adventure, and she wished to give it a lighter turn.
"Then you have news for me?"
"No. You heard all that pa.s.sed to-day. Since then, my grandfather has refused to discuss the affair. As a result, Mrs. Haxton and the Baron were snappy during dinner. In fact, they were unendurable, and I was delighted when they left us."
"It is a hateful thing to have to lecture you," he said, coming nearer, and trying to peer into her face, "but you know you ought not to take this risk. It is too venturesome. I think that this section of the desert is fairly clear of any real danger, so far as prowling Bedouins are concerned, but there are other unpleasant neighbors--in the shape of snakes and scorpions--"
"I am wearing riding boots," she interrupted. "And I shall soon relieve your anxiety by returning to my hammock. Pray don"t trouble about me, Mr. Royson. I have waylaid you with a purpose. It is too late now, I suppose, to dissuade you from carrying out a useless and absurd journey, but I do ask you not to commit the further folly of sacrificing your own life, and, perhaps, the lives of others, in the mistaken belief that you are serving Mr. Fenshawe"s interests."
Though she strove to speak in a tone of conventional friendliness, her voice shook a little. d.i.c.k was profoundly moved. It seemed to him suddenly that the burnous he wore exercised a stifling effect on him.
He threw it off, and it fell unheeded to the loose stones at his feet.
The girl laughed again, somewhat tremulously.
"What of those nasty creatures against which you warned me a moment ago?" she exclaimed. "Or is it that your disguise has become unbearable? You make an astonishingly tall Arab, Mr. Royson. I should have picked you out anywhere."
That wayward heart of d.i.c.k"s drove a hot flood of color to his face, but he still held mastery over his tongue.
"Why do you think I am likely to run into danger?" he asked. For an instant his calmness misled her. She had grown accustomed to his habit of self-restraint, and looked for nothing else.
"Because you would dare anything rather than fail," she said. "You would ride alone into the midst of a thousand enemies if you thought that thereby you could attain your ends. And I want to a.s.sure you that I--that Mr. Fenshawe--would object most strenuously to your incurring any real peril for the sake of the worthless people who have brought us to Africa on a wild-goose chase. By all means secure for us any possible information that can be obtained through the Arabs, but I came here because--because I shall feel happier if you promise me--that--you will avoid this man, Alfieri, and his friends. Did you see the look on Baron von Kerber"s face to-day? I never before realized what the hunger for gold meant. He would kill any one who barred his path. I could read his very soul. And--and--it frightened me. So you must come back safely, Mr. Royson, for I have confidence in you and Captain Stump, but I am terrified of what may happen if von Kerber tells the others the story of the treasure, and promises them a large share in it, should it be found."