"My G.o.d!" he said inaudibly. "It can"t be that, it can"t be that!"
To his naked eye the crescent and the star on the waving flag were still invisible, but he could see its vivid red, and he could see other objects--white patches, like a collection of saints" tombs.
"Abdul," he said--his voice was miserably broken and spent--"what are those white things?"
"Tents, Effendi."
"Government tents?"
"_Aiwah_, Effendi."
"What are they doing near the hills?"
"Must Abdul speak the words which will cause his master pain? Will the Effendi not wait until we draw nearer? It is not wise to antic.i.p.ate evil."
A horrible suspicion devastated Michael"s brain. He could brook no uncertainty. Abdul"s lengthy manner of getting to the point irritated him as it had never done before.
"Out with it, Abdul! Having said so much, you must say more." Michael was compelling his servant to give utterance to the suspicion which had become almost a certainty in his mind.
"_Aiwah_, Effendi. The treasure has already been discovered."
"Good G.o.d! Do you think it is that, Abdul?"
"_Aiwah_, Effendi." Abdul"s voice was contrite.
Michael felt as if all movement in the world had suddenly been arrested. Then his mind began scrambling amid the ruins of his dreams for some lucid thought, for some reason which would explain why he was seated high up on a camel"s back in the eastern desert.
He had never dreamed of such an ending to his dreams. In his most despondent moods he had contemplated no greater misfortune than the stealing of the jewels and the gold, the looting of its portable treasures by native _antika_ hunters. His super-man had never seriously contemplated even that misfortune; his faith was unshaken, his optimism complete.
The shock he had received affected his physical as well as his mental condition. An overwhelming desire came to him to get off his high seat and throw himself down on the sand and go to sleep for ever and ever.
That hateful flag, those smiling tents! whose whiteness had brought a vision of Millicent"s tent floating before his eyes.
"There are three tents, Effendi. Shall we journey towards them?"
Abdul"s voice sounded far away. What was he talking about? Michael tried to concentrate his thoughts.
"Oh yes, of course!" His voice was listless. "We must go on. You may be wrong." He struggled for mind-control.
He urged his camel to a quicker pace. They rode on in silence. Abdul was now convinced that the harlot--or, in other words, Mohammed Ali"s "golden lady"--had wreaked her vengeance on his master. He had taken into his camp the fever-stricken saint; she had slipped away in the night and discovered the treasure. With a comprehensiveness which would have astounded the impurest of Western ears, he cursed Millicent and her vile offspring into the third and fourth generations.
CHAPTER XI
As Michael got off his kneeling camel, a young Englishman left a tent, the outer one of the three which formed the excavation-camp, the white tents which Michael had seen from his high seat, and came quickly forward. It was obvious that strangers might come thus far and no further. In a voice of official authority, yet by no means ungraciously, he said to Michael:
"Can I do anything for you? What do you want? I"m afraid you can"t come any nearer."
Michael looked blankly into the thin, intelligent face, a sunburnt face, which any woman would have described as attractively ugly. For a moment or two neither man spoke. There was an unpleasant silence. It was significant of the atmosphere of the meeting. It expressed to the excavator strain, rather than shyness, on the traveller"s part. He had told Michael that he might come no further; he had asked him if he wanted anything.
At both remarks Michael almost laughed hysterically. He was not allowed to come any closer to his own treasure, to the gift of Akhnaton, to the legacy of the Pharaoh, which had been divinely revealed to him! This interloper had asked him if he wanted anything!
Quicker than light these thoughts flashed through his bewildered brain, while between himself and this representative of the Government the figure of the world"s first divinely-inspired man, with the rays of Aton shining brilliantly from behind his head, became clearer and clearer. It obliterated the figure of the excavator.
"What are these tents doing here?" He managed to ask the question by sheer force of will power; he felt relieved that the words had come.
"And that flag?"--he pointed to the Khedivial banner.
His companion hesitated for a moment. Who was this dazed questioner, who had suddenly appeared out of the sands of the desert? He looked almost as worn and physically exhausted as a desert fanatic.
"This is an excavation camp which has just been sanctioned by the Minister of Public Works. We are engaged in making temporary researches. The time-limit is one month."
Without being in the least discourteous, his words conveyed the impression that in so short a time there was more to be done than talk to curious travellers.
"How long has the camp been here?" Michael asked. "I hope you won"t think my questions impertinent. I have a very particular reason for wishing to know."
The blue eyes in the thin face became more alert. They searched Michael"s face with the same scrutiny as they searched the debris of the ruins.
"About four days," he said coldly.
"Has the Government claimed the site?" Michael"s voice trembled as he asked the question; it was so hard to keep cool.
"The Government is ent.i.tled to expropriate any land containing antiquities on paying a valuation and ten per cent. over, but this, of course, was not private property. It belongs to the Government."
"Yes, of course. I know something about these new rules--I have been working with Lampton in the Valley."
"Oh!" The stranger"s voice at once became cordial and intimate. "I didn"t know that I was speaking to a fellow-digger. How"s Lampton?"
"I wasn"t actually digging--I was doing some painting for him, and inking the pottery drawings. His latest discovery has developed amazing theories."
"So I"ve heard. But you look a bit done up. Come inside and have a drink." Before entering the tent, the stranger looked round. "Who"s your man? Is he all right?"
"He"s one of Lampton"s men--absolutely trustworthy. He"s been more than a servant to me for some weeks now." Michael paused, and then said abruptly, "Who told the Government of this site? What do you expect to find?"
"Will you first tell me where you got your information? Did you know we were here?"
"The _Omdeh_ in the subterranean village spoke of it. He told me that the natives had discovered a hidden treasure, a sort of King Solomon"s Mine, and that they were wading knee-deep in jewels and falling over crocks stuffed with Nubian gold--a desert fairytale, I suppose?"
"Absolutely! If there ever was any gold, it was not here when we arrived, and as for the jewels. . . !" He laughed. "Hallo! Are you feeling queer?"
Michael had managed to get inside the tent, but it was the limit of what his legs and head were fit for. He collapsed on to a lounge, made of wooden boxes covered with some rugs.
The stranger unfastened the padlock of a similar box to one of those upon which he was sitting with a key which hung from a chain at his side. He raised the lid; it had been converted into a wine-cellar.
"Hold hard," he said, in a kindly voice. "I"ll give you a drink."
Michael was not fainting; he was merely in a state of physical collapse. He gladly accepted the proffered hospitality.
When he had swallowed the whisky, he said: "I"m sorry, but I"ve been feeling a bit queer lately. For some days past I"ve had a touch of the sun." He could not tell this stranger of his bitter disappointment.