preserve his things--

Was it actually possible that he _had_ that sheik's daughter
concealed in some nook or cranny of the place?

McLean told himself that it was preposterous. It _was_
preposterous--but Ryder had been doing preposterous things.... And
glancing at Thatcher he perceived that that perturbed and
transparent gentleman was also telling himself that _his_
suspicions were preposterous.

The search party, tiring of parley, was moving about the hall in
businesslike inspection.

And then Ryder reappeared, a distinctly alert but self-contained
Ryder, who met the interrogations of the police with scoffing and
absolute denial.

But McLean was conscious that there was something tense and nervous
in his alertness, something wary and defensive in his readiness, and
his own nerves began to tighten apprehensively.

It did not add to his composure to see Ryder salute Hamdi Bey with
an ironic and overdone politeness.

"Ah, monsieur le general! We meet as we parted--in the depths!"

The general appeared to smile as at some amiable pleasantry, but
McLean caught the snarl of his lifted lip, and felt the currents of
animosity.

So those two had met! Ryder had been discovered then.... McLean
tried, in futile bewilderment, to recall just what amazing thing
Ryder had been saying when this party had appeared.

He kept very close at that young man's side as the strange party
moved on into the inner chamber. The searchers were scrupulously
careful of the excavator's finds; they did not finger a frieze nor
disturb a single small box of the tenderly packed potteries and
beads and miniature boats, but they scraped every heap of dust to
see if it concealed an entrance, they exhausted the resources of
each corner, they circled every pillar, shook out every rug of
Jack's blankets and required the opening of the large chest in which
the wax reproductions of the friezes were placed, awaiting
transportation.

"You will perceive, messieurs," declared Ryder in mocking irony,
"that no human being is within this last fold of wax--especially a
being," he added thoughtfully with a glance at the stolid sheik, "of
the proportions of her papa.... This daughter, was she a large young
lady?" he inquired politely of the Arab.

The sheik vouchsafed no reply, but from across his ample person the
general leaned forward.

"She was small, Monsieur Ryder," he said in silken tones, "but she
can raise a man as high as the gallows--or as lo