al loneliness was symbolic of that
which characterised his place in the world. He, alone, had the
knowledge and the power to crush Antony Ferrara. He, alone, could rid
the world of the unnatural menace embodied in the person bearing that
name.

The town lay beneath his eyes, but now he saw nothing of it; before
his mental vision loomed--exclusively--the figure of a slim and
strangely handsome young man, having jet black hair, lustreless, a
face of uniform ivory hue, long dark eyes wherein lurked lambent
fires, and a womanish grace expressed in his whole bearing and
emphasised by his long white hands. Upon a finger of the left hand
gleamed a strange green stone.

Antony Ferrara! In the eyes of this solitary traveller, who stood
looking down upon Port Said, that figure filled the entire landscape
of Egypt!

With a weary sigh, Dr. Cairn turned and began to undress. Leaving the
windows open, he switched off the light and got into bed. He was very
weary, with a weariness rather of the spirit than of the flesh, but it
was of that sort which renders sleep all but impossible. Around and
about one fixed point his thoughts circled; in vain he endeavoured to
forget, for a while, Antony Ferrara and the things connected with him.
Sleep was imperative, if he would be in fit condition to cope with the
matters which demanded his attention in Cairo.

Yet sleep defied him. Every trifling sound from the harbour and the
canal seemed to rise upon the still air to his room. Through a sort of
mist created by the mosquito curtains, he could see the open windows,
and look out upon the stars. He found himself studying the heavens
with sleepless eyes, and idly working out the constellations visible.
Then one very bright star attracted the whole of his attention, and,
with the dogged persistency of insomnia, he sought to place it, but
could not determine to which group it belonged.

So he lay with his eyes upon the stars until the other veiled lamps of
heaven became invisible, and the patch of sky no more than a setting
for that one white orb.

In this contemplation he grew restful; his thoughts ceased feverishly
to race along that one hateful groove; the bright star seemed to
soothe him. As a result of his fixed gazing, it now appeared to have
increased in size. This was a common optical delusion, upon which he
scarcely speculated at all. He recognised the welcome approach of
sleep, and deliberately concentrated his mind upon the globe of