green melons. Across the
river, on the opposite bank, bands of women, enveloped in black and
walking in Indian file on the yellow sands, carrying water-jars on
their heads, were wending their way to their mud villages. The gleam
of their metal anklets caught the sunlight.

But the ferry-boat was drawing close to the bank; the next minute he
would be able to distinguish Freddy's sister, with Abdul in attendance.
The other passengers, with native politeness, were already making way
for the English Sitt and her servant to go ashore.

Michael hurried forward to greet her. Margaret's blue veil hid her
features until he was quite close to her.

"I'm Michael Amory, I live with your brother," Michael said. "I have
come to bring you to his camp. He was too busy, or he would have been
here himself--he asked me to apologize to you."

Margaret's long firm fingers gave Michael's outstretched hand a
grateful grasp. Michael, whose sensibilities were very near the
surface, lost nothing of the girl's meaning. A feeling of relief
soothed his anxiety.

"How awfully kind of you to come!" she said. "I knew Freddy would be
busy, digging up something that was once somebody, four thousand years
ago."

"That's about it," Michael said. "As I could be spared and he
couldn't, he asked me to look to your arrival and bring you to the
camp."

Abdul had hurried on to see that the donkeys were properly harnessed
and all in good order for the long ride across the plain and through
the immortal valley.

"Are you excavating too?" Margaret asked.

"I'm allowed to do a little 'picking' under your brother's eyes, but my
real job is painting. I'm only dabbling in archaeology as yet."

"Painting in connection with his School of Excavation?"

"Yes. Sometimes it is necessary to make almost instant copies of the
excavated paintings, while the colours are fresh and the text legible."

"Isn't it all awfully interesting?" the girl asked. "I feel almost
afraid to come in amongst you, for I know literally nothing about
Egyptology. I've only once been in the Egyptian section of the British
Museum, and that's the sum total of my knowledge."

"You will have to learn. Your brother put a huge tome of Maspero's
_The Dawn of Civilization_ in your room this morning; he means you to
start right away."

"Good old Freddy!" Margaret said, and as she smiled, Michael for the
first time saw her likeness to her brother; it had escaped him before,
beca