from Alexandria. The Captain was stalling them
along, apparently, keeping everything under cover as long as
possible. And when Falconer heard about that, his suspicions were
over. He thought we'd made fools of ourselves in going to the
palace."

She was silent. Looking at her, after a while, Billy saw her staring
out obliviously into the darkness; her hair was hanging all about
her.

His glance seemed to recall her thoughts. She started and then
brushed back her hair; the sand fell from it and she took hold of
one soft strand. "Look out, I'm going to shake this!" she warned,
and he half shut his eyes and underneath the lids he saw her shaking
her head as vigorously as a little terrier after a bath.

"Isn't it awful?" she appealed.

"I could scratch a match on my face," he confirmed.

"But tell me," she began again, "how did you know I was in that
palace? And I must tell you how I happened to go and how I was kept
there."

"You were told there was a quarantine, weren't you?" Billy supplied,
as she hesitated.

Her astonishment found quick speech. "Why, how did you know _that_?"

"The Baroff told me--that Viennese girl who came into your room."

"Why, you know _everything_! How did you?"

"Oh, I carried her over a wall, thinking it was you."

"But how could you think it was _I_? And what were you doing at the
wall? I don't see how----"

"Oh, one of the palace maids gave me a message in Arabic and I
thought it was from you. You see, I suspected--I had seen you drive
off in that motor----"

"But how could the maid bring you a message? Where were you? Where
did she see you?"

"I was painting out in front of the palace." Billy sounded more and
more casual.

"You said you were an engineer," said Arlee. His heart jumped. At
least she had remembered that!

"So I am--the painting was just a joke."

"And you happened there," she began, wondering, and after he had
opened his mouth to correct her, he closed it silently again.
Gratitude was an unwieldy bond. He did not want to burden her with
obligation. And he suspected, with a rankling sort of pang, that he
was not the rescuer she had expected. So he made as light as
possible of his entrance into the affair, telling her nothing at all
of his first uneasiness and his interview with the one-eyed man
which had confirmed his suspicions against the Captain's character,
and the masquerade he had adopted so he could hang about the palace.
Instead he let her think h