late Sir Lucien Pyne was the actual head of the group,"
said Seton bluntly. "But Sin Sin Wa is the acting head. In view of his
physical peculiarities, I don't quite see how he's going to escape
us, either, sir. His wife has a fighting chance, and as for Mohammed
el-Kazmah, he might sail for anywhere tomorrow, and we should never
know. You see, we have no description of the man."

"His passports?" murmured Lord Wrexborough.

Seton Pasha smiled grimly.

"Not an insurmountable difficulty, sir," he replied, "but Sin Sin Wa is
a marked man. He has the longest and thickest pigtail which I ever
saw on a human scalp. I take it he is a Southerner of the old school;
therefore, he won't cut it off. He has also only one eye, and while
there are many one-eyed Chinamen, there are few one-eyed Chinamen who
possess pigtails like a battleship's hawser. Furthermore, he travels
with a talking raven, and I'll swear he won't leave it behind. On the
other hand, he is endowed with an amount of craft which comes very near
to genius."

"And--Mrs. Monte Irvin?"

Quentin Gray turned suddenly, and his boyish face was very pale.

"Seton, Seton!" he said. "For God's sake tell me the truth! Do you
think--"

He stopped, choking emotionally. Seton Pasha watched him with that cool,
confident stare which could either soothe or irritate; and:

"She was alive this morning, Gray," he replied quietly, "we heard her.
You may take it from me that they will offer her no violence. I shall
say no more."

Lord Wrexborough cleared his throat and took up a document from the
table.

"Your remark raises another point, Quentin," he said sternly, "which
has to be settled today. Your appointment to Cairo was confirmed this
morning. You sail on Tuesday."

Quentin Gray turned again abruptly and stared out of the window.

"You're practically kicking me out, sir," he said. "I don't know what
I've done."

"You have done nothing," replied Lord Wrexborough "which an honorable
man may not do. But in common with many others similarly circumstanced,
you seem inclined, now that your military duties are at an end, to
regard life as a sort of perpetual 'leave.' I speak frankly before Seton
because I know that he agrees with me. My friend the Foreign Secretary
has generously offered you an appointment which opens up a career that
should not--I repeat, that should not prove less successful than his
own."

Gray turned, and his face had flushed deeply.

"I know that