to go on to Paris; it could do no harm, it might do good. I
could speak the French language fairly, and might, by some means, find
out the steps he had taken.

Arrived at Paris, I was completely blocked. He was not remembered in the
Custom House; he was not remembered at some twenty hotels at which I
called.

Again I began to think what he was likely to do. I did not think he
would possess very much money, and a man of his temperament would devise
some means of getting some. How? Work would be a slow process, and not
suited to his nature. Kaffar would get money by gambling. But that did
not help me forward. To search out all the gambling-houses in Paris
would be a hopeless task; besides, would he gamble in Paris, a city of
which he knew nothing? I did not think so. Where, then?

Monte Carlo!

No doubt the reader will smile at my attempts as a private detective,
but, realizing the circumstances by which I was surrounded, there may be
some excuse for my unbusinesslike way of going to work. Besides, I was
not sure that Kaffar was alive; I only had some vague grounds for
thinking he was.

I went to Monte Carlo. I inquired at the hotels; I inquired at the
Casino--without success. I learnt one great lesson there, however, and
that was the evil of gambling. In spite of tinsel and gilt, in spite of
gay attire and loud laughter, in spite of high-sounding titles and
ancient names, never did I see so much real misery as I saw in the
far-renowned gaming palace.

For days I tried to think what to do, without avail. Kaffar had not been
at the Casino; he had not stayed at any of the hotels. Where was he,
then?

I began to entertain the idea that he had gone to Egypt as he had said.
I would do my best to find out. Accordingly, I went to all the seaports
along the coast of France and Italy from which he would be likely to set
sail for Egypt. I was unsuccessful until I came to Brindisi.

Here I found that inquiries could easily be made. There were only two
hotels in the place, one of which was very small. At the smaller of the
two, I found on inquiry that a man answering to my description had
stayed there a day and a night, waiting for the boat for Alexandria. The
hotel proprietor said he should not have remembered him, but that he had
talked Arabic with him. This traveller had also told him he had come
from England, the land of luxury and gold, and was going to Cairo.

He did not remember his name. Egyptians often came to Br