I stooped for a moment over the chief, wondering what secrets were locked up in that big brain of his; wondering what had really happened down there in the Tomb of the Black Ape, and how much he knew regarding the missing contents of the sarcophagus. Rima stood beside me, and: 'You must be dreadfully tired, dear,' I said.
'Oh, I get plenty of sleep,' she replied, 'in little bits. Nurse and I watch, turn and turn about, you know. I shouldn't be happy if I weren't doing it.'
She looked up at me in that grave way which always made me ashamed of myself, made me feel that in some spiritual sense I was infinitely less than she. She lifted her lips to mine and I took her in my arms....
Having little enough to do in the way of preparation, I might not have torn myself away so quickly had it not been for the arrival of the nurse, a stout and capable Scottish woman, well-known to the management.
Perhaps it was as well. Rima clung to me almost pitifully.... Yes! I think some Celtic premonition must have warned her.
Downstairs I found Petrie waiting. Nayland Smith had disappeared; but: 'We are to join him at Esna,' Petrie explained, 'and for some reason which I should regard as lunatic in any other than Smith, we are to pose as natives! '
'What! '
'Complete outfits--of which he has quite a wardrobe--are ready in his rooms. Weymouth is up there, now... and Said is standing by to guide us to the meeting place.'
We stared hard at one another. But neither of us was in jesting mood; and: 'Please God we all get back safe,' said Petrie simply.
Chapter Sixth
THE COUNCIL OF SEVEN
That journey across the desert was strange in many ways-- stranger and more horrible in its outcome than a merciful Provi- dence allowed me to foresee. Nevertheless it aroused within me that sort of warning sixth sense which once before, on the train to Cairo, had advised me of the fact that I was spied upon. Possibly those religious fanatics guarding the extraordinary woman who called herself Madame Ingomar, and whom I knew claimed a sort of divine ordinance for their ghastly crimes, reacted upon me in some odd way. All I know is that I seemed to have developed a capacity for smelling them out; as will presently appear.
Weymouth, Petrie, and Nayland Smith rode in the back of the car, and I sat in front with Said. The starting place outside Esna has been cunningly chosen and we had every reason to believe that the outset of our journey had been managed without attracting attention.
Our disguises were passably good. Both Weymouth and Petrie were well sun- browned, and I had the complexion which comes with months of exposure to the weather. Petrie's distinguished appearance was enhanced by a tarbush and we had agreed to address him as 'Bey.' Weymouth, his robes crowned by a small white turban, resembled a substantial village sheikh; and I knew I could pass anywhere for a working Arab. Nayland Smith had retained the dress he was wearing at our first meeting.
Clear of the cultivated land that borders the Nile, and well out upon that ancient route which once had known no passage more violent than that of the soft padding camels and the tinkling of the camel bells, we met never a soul for thirty miles.
An hour, and another hour, we carried on, over desolate, gravelly, boundless waste. The sun blazed down mercilessly, although it was dipping to the western horizon. On we went, and on; until, having mounted a long slope, I saw a wadi ahead.
Nothing moved within my view, although I searched the prospect carefully through Nayland Smith's field- glasses. The ground was hard as nails. But at the bottom of this little valley, I spied a clump of palms and knew that there must be water.
A sentinel vulture floated high overhead.
We bumped on merrily across the wildest irregularities. In no sense was this a motor road. And, having carefully studied the map, I had serious doubts of its practicability beyond the site of some Roman.ruins merely marked 'el-Der.'
Down we swept into the wadi. Said driving in that carefree manner which charac- terises the native chauffeur for whom tyres are things made to be burst, and engines, djinns or powerful spirits invulnerable to damage. However, we carried three spares and could only hope for the best.
I don't know what it was, unless perhaps the smoother running of the car, which drew my attention to the path ahead. We were now in the cup of the valley and rapidly approaching that clump of palms which I had noted. Suddenly:
'Pull up,' rapped Nayland Smith.
His hand gripped my shoulder. Said pulled up.
'Look!'
We all stood and stared ahead. Nayland Smith pointed. The surface was compara- tively soft here; and clearly discernible upon the road, crossing and recrossing, were many tyre marks! 'Fah Lo Suee!' said Smith, as if answering my unspoken query. 'You can set your mind at rest, Greville. The road to Kharga is practicable for driving.
It was a curious discovery, and it set me thinking, hard. When Madame Ingomar had visited the camp, had she come all the way from the oasis, and had she returned there? Presumably, this was so. And, as always happened when my thoughts turned to this phenomenal woman, a very vivid mental picture presented itself before my mind. Her long, narrow, jade-green eyes seemed to be staring into mine. And I saw one of those small cigarettes which she loved, smouldering in a long engraved holder between delicate ivory fingers.
We passed the tree-shaded well, and mounted a stiff slope beyond. I cannot answer for the others, but, as I have indicated, my own thoughts were far away. It was just as we reached the crest, and saw a farther prospect of boundless desert before us, that I became aware, or perhaps I should say conscious, of that old sense of espionage.
Nothing moved upon that desolate expanse, over which the air danced like running water. But a positive conviction seized me--a conviction that news of our journey had reached the enemy, or would shortly reach the enemy. I began to think about that solitary Pharoah's Chicken--that sentinel vulture--floating high above the palms....
'Stop!' I said.
'What is it?' snapped Nayland Smith.
'May be nothing,' I replied, 'but I want to walk back to the brow of the hill and take a good look at the wadi through which we have just come. '
'Good!' He nodded. 'I should have thought of it myself.'
I got out the glasses, slung them across my shoulder, and walked rapidly back. At a point which I remembered, because a great blackened boulder lying straight across the road had nearly brought us to grief, I stooped and went forward more slowly. This boulder, I reflected, might provide just the cover I required. Lying flat down beside the stone, to the great alarm of a number of lizards who fled rapidly to right and left, I focused my glasses upon the clump of trees below me.
At first I could see nothing unusual. But the vulture still floated in the sky and the significance of his presence had become unmistakable.... Some living thing was hidden in the grove!
Adjusting the sights to a nicety, I watched, I waited. And presently my patience was rewarded.
A figure came out of the clump of trees! I could see him clearly and only hoped that he could not see me. He might have passed muster, except for his tightly knotted blue turban. Emphatically, he was not an Egyptian. Standing beside the irregularly marked path, he placed a box upon the ground. I studied his movements with growing wonderment.
What could he be about? He seemed to be fumbling in the box.
