ght,
however, and came here to find the motor gone."

"Naturally--being paid in advance."

"Only half paid."

"Half pay was enough for him. I knew it would be.... The thing was
all rot in the first place."

Billy was too bitter of soul to reply. He was remembering what he
ought to have done. He ought to have put that pistol to the
Captain's head and forced him through the palace inch by inch.... He
wondered if it would do any good to go back. His arm was rousing
from its numbness, however, and raising a little racket all its own.

"We might as well get out of this," the Englishman advised, and
Billy's reason acquiesced in spite of his rage. In silence they went
down to the water's edge and embarked. The homeward course, from
caution, was not past the palace but upstream through a remote and
unknown region where they finally landed upon a bank and struck
through unfamiliar and unfriendly looking byways toward the city.

Their walk was silent. Fierce gloom enveloped Billy; furious chagrin
bestrode him. Chump that he was to have jumped at such positive
conclusions! He ought to have stayed there. If only that second Turk
had not been coming up behind him! He could think now of a number of
brilliant ways out of his difficulties.... Morosely he trudged on
through the interminable streets, his chilly wetness like an outward
aspect of his gloom-soused mind.

He could not bear to think of Arlee. He felt now that, warned by
Falconer's approach from above, they had snatched her from her room
and hidden her away. He wondered if he deceived the Captain about
the motives for his presence. He wondered what in the world could be
done now--if all effort was to resolve itself into the futility of
an official search-party. He wondered where in all that baffling
prison Arlee was hidden.

Upon that tormenting question he unlocked his lips. "Where is she?"
he muttered worriedly. "That's the question--where is she?"

"In Alexandria."

Plainly the Englishman's wrath had been smoldering. Billy turned
upon him fiercely.

"In that palace, I tell you."

"So you say."

"And I say, too," and Billy's exasperation strained its bonds, "that
if you don't believe she was there--if you think I got up this
little party to while away an idle evening, why it was most
uncommonly good of you to come! But I can't think why you did it if
you weren't convinced of the necessity. Certainly it was not from
love of me."

"Rather not."

"That go