Nevill. "I don't think De
Mora can have got home yet from the palace. I saw him having supper.
Suppose I dart back, flutter gracefully round him, babble 'tile talk' a
bit--he's a tile expert after my own heart--then casually ask what Arabs
he's got staying with him. If Maieddine's in his house it can't be a
secret--incidentally I may find out where the fellow comes from and
where he's going."
"Good!" said Stephen. "I'll hang about in the shadow of some tree and
glue my eye to this gate. Is there any other way out?"
"There is; but not one a visitor would be likely to take, especially if
he didn't want to be seen. It opens into a street where a lot of people
might be standing to peer into the palace grounds and hear the music.
Now run along, Legs, and find a comfortable shadow. I'm off."
He was gone three-quarters of an hour, but nothing happened meanwhile.
Nobody went in at the gate, or came out, and the time dragged for
Stephen. He thought of a hundred dangers that might be threatening
Victoria, and it seemed that Caird would never come. But at last he saw
the boyish figure, hurrying along under the light of a street-lamp.
"Couldn't find De Mora at first--then had to work slowly up to the
subject," Nevill panted. "But it's all right. Maieddine _is_ stopping
with him--leaves to-morrow or day after; supposed to have come from El
Aghouat, and to be going back there. But that isn't to say either
supposition's true."
"We must find out where he's going--have him watched," said Stephen.
"Yes. Only, the trouble is, if he's on to the game, it's just what he'll
expect. But I've been thinking how we may be able to bluff--make him
think it was his guilty conscience tricked him to imagine our interest
in his movements. You know I'm giving a dinner to-morrow night to a few
people?"
"Yes. Lady MacGregor told me."
"Well, a Mademoiselle Vizet, a niece of De Mora's, is coming, so that
gave me a chance to mention the dinner to her uncle. Maieddine can
easily hear about it, if he chooses to inquire what's going on at my
house. And I said something else to De Mora, for the benefit of the same
gentleman. I hope you'll approve."
"Sure to. What was it?"
"That I was sorry my friend, Mr. Knight, had got news which would call
him away from Algiers before the dinner. I said you'd be going on board
the _Charles Quex_ to-morrow when she leaves for Marseilles."
"But Maieddine can find out----"
"That's just what we want. He
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