The four Indians apparently regarded all of us with equal suspicion and animosity.
I could not foresee the end. The thing was so sudden, so serious, that at the time it banished even thoughts of Nahemah from my mind. I anticipated that we should all find ourselves arrested when we reached Port Said.
Later in the day Hamilton walked into my cabin and placed a little cardboard box upon the dressing table. It contained the crushed body of the scorpion.
'Where did that scorpion come from?' he asked abruptly.
It was a question which already had been asked fully a thousand times, yet no one had discovered an intelligent reply. I shook my head.
'It came from the open porthole,' he replied, 'and as it's a thousand to one against a scorpion's being aboard, somebody was carrying it for this very purpose--somebody who was on the deck outside the chief officer's cabin and who threw the scorpion into the cabin.'
'But such a deadly thing----' I began. 'Have a good look,' said Hamilton, turning the insect over with a lead pencil; 'this one isn't deadly, at all. See, its tail has been cut off!'
I looked and stifled an exclamation. It was as Hamilton had said. The scorpion was harmless.
IV. In The Room Below.
AFTER that day I never once set eyes upon Nahemah again until we arrived at Port Said. Then I saw her preparing to go ashore in one of the boats. I managed to join her, ignoring the scowls of her one-eyed attendant, and we arrived at the quay together. Right there by the water's edge a most curious scene was being enacted. Surrounded by two or three passengers and a perfect ring of uniformed officials, Hamilton, very excited, watched his baggage being turned out upon the ground. He saw me approaching.
'Hang it all, Fane,' he cried, 'this is disgraceful. I don't know upon whose orders they are acting, but the beastly police are searching my baggage for the diamond.'
I thought it very extraordinary and said as much to the Reverend Mr.
Rawlingson, who was one of the onlookers.
'It is very strange, indeed,' he said mildly, turning his gold-rimmed spectacles in my direction.
A moment later, to my horror and indignation, Nahemah was submitted to the same indignity. The crowd had been roped off from the part of the quay upon which we stood, and I could see that the whole thing had been arranged beforehand in some way--probably by wireless from the ship. Curiously, as I thought at the time, my own baggage was not examined in this way, but I was detained long enough to lose sight of Nahemah and her one-eyed guardian.
When I got to the hotel I indulged in some reflection. It occurred to me that Hamilton was bound for Colombo, which made it seem rather singular that he should have had his baggage put ashore at Port Said.
I should have liked to search the town for my lady of the yashmak, but having no clew to her present whereabouts, I realized the futility of such a proceeding. My last thought before I fell asleep that night was that some day in the near future I should visit Damascus.
I saw very little of Port Said, for we had arrived in the early morning and I was departing for Cairo by a train leaving shortly before midday. I wandered about the quaint streets a bit, however, and wondered if, from one of the latticed windows overhanging me, the dark eyes of Nahemah were peering out.
Although I looked up and down the train carefully, I failed to find among the passengers any one whom I knew, and I settled down into my corner to study the novel scenery. The shipping in the Canal fascinated me for a long time, as did the figures which moved upon its shores. The ditches and embankments, aimlessly wandering footpaths, and moving figures which seemed to belong to a thousand years ago, seized upon my imagination as they seize upon the imagination of every traveler when first he beholds them.
But my story jumps now to Zagazig. The train stopped at that city; and, walking out into the corridor and lowering a window, I soon was absorbed in contemplation of that unique place. Its narrow, dirty, swarming streets; the millions of flies that boarded the train; the noisy veneers of sugar cane, tangerines and other commodities; the throng beyond the barriers gazing open-mouthed at me as I gazed open-mouthed at them--it was a first impression, but an indelible one.
I was not to know that it was written I should spend the night in Zagazig; but such was the case. Generally speaking, I have found the service on the Egyptian state railway very good, but a hitch of some kind occurred on this occasion, and after an hour or so of delay, it was definitely announced to the passengers that owing to an accident to the permanent way, the journey to Cairo could not be continued until the following morning.
Then commenced a rush which I did not understand at first, and in which, feeling no desire to exert myself unduly, I did not participate.
Half an hour later I ascertained that the only two hotels which the place boasted were full to overflowing, and realized what the rush had meant. It was all part of the great scheme of things, no doubt; but when, thanks to the kindly, if mercenary, offices of the International Sleeping Car attendant, I found myself in possession of a room at a sort of native khan in the lower end of the town, I experienced no very special gratitude toward Providence.
I have enjoyed the hospitality of less pleasing caravanserai since; but this was my first experience of the kind and I thought very little of it.
I killed time, somehow or other, until the dinner hour; and the train, which now reposed in a siding, became a rendezvous for those who desired to patronize the dining car. Evidently no sleeping cars were available--or perhaps that idea was beyond the imagination of the native officials-- and having left a trail of tobacco smoke along the principal native street, I turned into my apartment which I shared with ants, mosquitoes, and other things.
An examination of my room by candlelight revealed the presence of a cupboard, or what I thought to be a cupboard; but opening the double doors, I saw that it was a window, latticed and overlooking a lower apartment. In the room below was a table and a chair--so much I perceived by the light of an oil lamp which stood upon the table.
Then, stifling a gasp of amazement, I hastily snuffed my candle and peered down eagerly at an incredible scene.
V. With Much Reluctance.
NAHEMAH, no longer veiled, was sitting at the table and opposite her was the hideous wall-eyed attendant They were conversing in low tones, so that, strive as I would I could not overhear a word. You ask me why I spied upon the lady's privacy in this manner? It was for a very good reason.
Midway between the two, upon the rough boards of the table, lay the Lure of Souls, twinkling and glittering like a thing of incarnate light!
I observed that there was a door to the room below, almost immediately opposite to the window through which I was peering; and this door was opening very slowly and noiselessly. At least, I could hear no noise, but the one-eyed man detected something, for suddenly he started up and did a remarkable thing. Snatching the diamond from the table, he clapped it into the eyeless cavity of his skull and turned in a twinkling to face the intruder.
Then the door was thrown open, and Hamilton leaped into the room. I could scarcely credit my senses. Honestly, I thought I was dreaming.
Hamilton's whole face was changed; a hard, cunning look had come over it, and he held a revolver in his hand. Nahemah sprang to her feet as he entered, but he covered the pair of them with his revolver, and, pointing to the one-eyed man, muttered something in a low voice.
Rage, fear, rebellion, chased in turn across the evil features of the Oriental; but there was something about Hamilton's manner that cowed.
Manipulating the sunken eyelids as though they had been of rubber, the guardian of the veiled lady slipped the diamond into the palm of his hand and tossed it, glittering, on to the table.
Hamilton's expression of triumph I shall never forget. One step forward he took and was about to snatch up the gem when out of the dark cavity of the doorway behind him stepped a second intruder. It was the Reverend Mr. Rawlingson.
The reverend gentleman's behavior was most unclerical. He leaped upon the unsuspecting Hamilton like a panther and jammed the muzzle of a revolver into that gentleman's right ear with quite unnecessary vigor. 'You have been wasting your time, Farland!' he snapped, in a voice that was quite new to me; 'that is, unless you have turned amateur detective.'
He made no attempt to reach for the diamond, but just held out his hand, and, with his eyes fixed upon Hamilton, silently commanded the latter to hand over the gem. This Hamilton did with palpable reluctance. Mr. Rawlingson, who, though still clerically garbed, had discarded his spectacles, slipped the stone into his pocket,
