 Chapter 7 of Miss Kaylee's Adventures. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Barbara Edelman. Miss Kaylee's Adventures. Chapter 7. The Adventure of the Unobtrusive Oasis. I will not attempt to describe to you the minor episodes of our next twelve months, the manuscripts we type wrote and the many tools we sold, tis one of my aims in a world so rich in bores to avoid being tedious. I will merely say therefore that we spent the greater part of the year in Florence, where we were building up a connection, but rode back for the summer months to Switzerland as being a livelier place for the trade in bicycles. The net result was not only that we covered our expenses, but that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I found myself with a surplus in hand at the end of the season. When we returned to Florence for the winter, however, I confess I began to chafe. This is slow work, Elsie, I said. I started out to go round the world. It has taken me eighteen months to travel no farther than Italy. At this rate I shall reach New York a grey-haired old lady in a nice lace cap and taut her back into London a venerable crone on the verge of ninety. However, those invaluable doctors came to my rescue unexpectedly. I do love doctors. They are always sending you off at a moment's notice to delightful places you never dreamt of. Elsie was better, but still far from strong. I took it upon myself to consult our medical attendant, and his verdict was decisive. He did just what a doctor ought to do. She is getting on very well in Florence, he said, but if you want to restore her health completely, I should advise you to take her for a winter to Egypt. After six months of the dry warm desert air, I don't doubt she might return to her work in London. That last point I used as a lever with Elsie, she positively revels in teaching mathematics. At first, to be sure, she objected that we had only just money enough to pay our way to Cairo, and that when we got there we might starve her favourite programme. I have not this extraordinary taste for starving. My idea is to go where you like and find something decent to eat when you get there. However, to humour her, I began to cast about me for a source of income. There is no absolute harm in seeing your way clear before you for a twelve month, though, of course, it deprives you of the plot interest of poverty. Elsie, I said in my best didactic style, I excel in didactics. You do not learn from the lessons that life sets before you. Look at the stage, for example. The stage is universally acknowledged at the present day to be a great teacher of morals. Does not Irving say so? And he ought to know. There is that splendid model for imitation. For instance, the clown in the pantomime. How does the clown regulate his life? Does he take heed for the morrow? Not a bit of it. I wish I had a goose, he says at some critical juncture, and just as he says at Pat, a super strolls upon the stage with a property goose on a wooden tray and clown cries. Oh, look here, Joey, here's a goose and proceeds to appropriate it. Then he puts his fingers in his mouth and observes. I wish I had a few apples to make the sauce with. And as the words escape him, Pat again, a small boy with a very squeaky voice, runs on carrying a basket of apples. Clown trips him up and bolts with the basket. There's a model for imitation. The stage sets these great moral lessons before you regularly every Christmas, yet you fail to profit by them. Govern your life on the principles exemplified by clown. Expect to find that whatever you want will turn up with punctuality and dispatch at the proper moment. Be adventurous and you will be happy. Take that as a new maxim to put in your copy book. I wish I could think so dear, Elsie answered, but your confidence staggers me. That evening at her table d'hote, however, it was amply justified. A smooth-faced young man of ample girth and most prosperous exterior happened to sit next to us. He had his wife with him, so I judged it safe to launch on conversation. We soon found out that he was the millionaire editor-proprietor of a great London daily, with many more strings to his journalistic bow. His honoured name was L worthy. I mentioned casually that we thought of going for the winter to Egypt. He pricked his ears up. But at the time, he said nothing. After dinner, we adjourned to the cosy salon. I talked to him and his wife, and somehow, that evening, the devil entered into me. I am subject to devils. I hasten to add, they are mild ones. I had one of my reckless moods just then, however, and I reeled off rattling stories of our various adventures. Mr. L worthy believed in youth and audacity. I could see I interested him. The more he was amused, the more reckless I became. That's bright, he said at last when I told him the tale of our amateur exploits in the sale of many dues. That would make a good article. Yes, I answered with bravado, determined to strike while the iron was hot. What the daily telegraph lacks is just one enlivening touch of feminine brightness. He smiled. What is your forte? he inquired. My forte, I answered, is to go where I choose and write what I like about it. He smiled again. And a very good new departure in journalism too. A roving commission. Have you ever tried your hand at writing? Had I ever tried, it was the ambition of my life to see myself in print, though hitherto it had been ineffectual. I have written a few sketches, I answered, with becoming modesty. As a matter of fact, our office bulged with my unpublished manuscripts. Could you let me see them? he asked. I assented with inner joy but outer reluctance. If you wish it, I murmured. But you must be very lenient. Though I had not told Elsie the truth of the matter was, I had just then conceived an idea for a novel, my magnum opus, the setting of which compelled Egyptian local colour. And I was therefore dying to get to Egypt if chance so willed it. I accordingly submitted a few of my picked manuscripts to Mr. Elworthy in fear and trembling. He read them cruel man before my very eyes. I sat and waited, twiddling my thumbs, demure but apprehensive. When he had finished, he laid them down. Racy, he said. Racy! You're quite right, Miss Kaylee, that's just what we want on the daily telephone. I should like to print these three, selecting them out, at our usual rate of pay per thousand. You are very kind, but the room reeled with me. Not at all. I'm a man of business, and these are capital copy. Now, about this Egypt, I will put the matter in the shape of a business proposition. Will you undertake, if I pay your passage and your friends with all travelling expenses, to let me have three descriptive articles a week on Cairo, the Nile, Syria and India running to about two thousand words a piece at three guineas a thousand? My breath came and went. It was positive opulence. The super with the goose couldn't approach it for pateness. My editor had brought me the applesauce as well, without even giving me the trouble of cooking it. The very next day, everything was arranged. Elsie tried to protest on the foolish ground that she had no money, but the faculty had ordered the apex of her right lung to go to Egypt, and I couldn't let her fly in the face of the faculty. We secured our births in a P and O steamer from Brindisi, and within a week we were tossing upon the bosom of the Blue Mediterranean. People who haven't crossed the Blue Mediterranean cherish an absurd idea that it is always calm and warm and sunny. I am sorry to take away any sea's character, but I speak of it as I find it, to borrow a phrase from my old Dippetgerton, and I am bound to admit that the Mediterranean did not treat me as a lady expects to be treated. It behaved disgracefully. People may rhapsodise as long as they choose about a life on the ocean wave. For my own part, I wouldn't give a pin for seasickness. We glided down the Adriatic from Brindisi to Corfu with a reckless profusion of lateral motion, which suggested the idea that the ship must have been drinking. I tried to rouse Elsie when we came abreast of the Ionian islands and to remind her that here was the home of Nausica in the Odyssey. Elsie failed to respond. She was otherwise occupied. At last I succumbed and gave it up. I remembered nothing further till a day and a half later, when we got under Lee of Crete and the ship showed a tendency to resume the perpendicular. Then I began once more to take a languid interest in the dinner question. I may add parenthetically that the Mediterranean is a mere bit of a sea. When you look at it on the map, a pocket sea to be regarded with mingled contempt and affection. But you learn to respect it when you find that it takes four clear days and nights of abject misery merely to run across its eastern basin from Brindisi to Alexandria. I respected the Mediterranean immensely while we lay off the Peloponnesus in the trough of the waves with the north wind blowing. I only began to temper my respect with a distant liking when we passed under the welcome shelter of Crete on a calm, starlit evening. It was deadly cold. We had not counted upon such weather in the sunny south. I recollect now that the Greeks were want to represent Boreus as a chilly deity and spoke of the Thracian breeze with the same deferentially deprecating adjectives which we ourselves applied to the east wind of our fatherland. But that apt classical memory somehow failed to console or warm me. A good natured male passenger, however, volunteered to ask us, I get you all wrong, ladies. The form of his courteous question suggested the probability of his Irish origin. You are very kind, I answered. If you don't want it for yourself, I'm sure my friend would be glad to have the use of it. Is it myself? Sure, I've got my big oyster, and I'm as warm as toast in it. But you're not provided for this weather. You have trusted too much to those rascals to port. Where breaks the blue Sicilian say? The rogue's right. I'd like to set them down in it with a nor'easter blowing. He fetched up his rug. It was ample and soft, a smooth brown camel hair. He wrapped us both up in it. We sat late on deck that night as warm as toast ourselves thanks to our genial Irishman. We asked his name. It is Dr. McLaughlin, he answered. I'm from County Clare, you see, and I'm on my way to Egypt for travel and exploration. My father wished me to see the world a bit before I'd settle down to practice my profession at Liscanor. Have you ever been in County Clare? Sure, it is the pick of Ireland. We have that pleasure still in store, I answered, smiling. It spreads gold leaf over the future as George Meredith puts it. Is it Meredith? Oh, there's the fine writer, which is genius the man has. I can't understand a word of him, but he's half Irish, you know. What poof-a-voy got of it? And would he ride like that if it wasn't a drop of the blood of the Kelt in him? Next day and next night Dr. McLaughlin was our devoted slave. I had won his heart by admitting frankly that his country women had the finest and liveliest eyes in Europe. Eyes with a deep twinkle, half fun, half passion. He took to us at once and talked to us incessantly. He was a red-haired, raw-bone monster man, but a real good fellow. We forgot the aggressive inequalities of the Mediterranean while he talked to us of the Byzantry. Late the second evening he propounded a confidence. It was a lovely night. Orion overhead and the plashing phosphorescence on the water below conspired with the hour to make him specially confidential. Now Miss Cayley, he said, leaning forward on his deck chair and gazing earnestly into my eyes. There's one question I'd like to ask you. The ambition of my life is to go into Parliament, and all you want to know from me as a friend. If all you accomplish me hearts wish, is there anything in me appearance, are in my voice, are in me accent, are in me manner, that would lead anybody to suppose I was an Irishman. I succeeded, by good luck, in avoiding Elsie's eye. What on earth could I answer? Then a happy thought struck me. Dr. McLaughlin I said it would not be the slightest use of trying to conceal it, for even if nobody ever detected a faint Irish intonation in your words or phrases, how could your eloquence fail to betray you for a countryman of Sheridan and Burke and Gratton? He seized my hand with such warmth that I thought it best to hurry down to my state room at once under cover of my compliment. At Alexandria and Cairo we found him invaluable. He looked after our luggage which he gallantly rescued from the lean hands of fifteen Arab porters, all eagerly struggling to gain possession of our effects. He saw us safe into the train, and he never quitted us till he had safely ensconced us in our rooms at Shepards. For himself he said with subdued melancholy, it was to some cheaper hotel he must go. Shepards wasn't for the likes of him, though if land in a county clare was worth what it ought to be, there wasn't a finer estate in all oil than his father's. Our Mr. Elworthy was a modern proprietor who knew how to do things on the lordly scale. Having commissioned me to write this series of articles, he intended them to be written in the first style of art, but he had instructed me accordingly to hire one of Cook's little Steam Dahabias, where I could work at leisure. Dr. McLaughlin was in his element arranging for the trip. Sure and the only thing I mind, he said, is that oil not be going with you. I think he was half inclined to invite himself, but there again I draw the line. I will not sell saltfish, and I will not go up the Nile unshaperoned with a casual man acquaintance. He did the next best thing, however. He took a place in a sailing Dahabia, and as we steamed up slowly, stopping often on the way to give me time to write my articles, he managed to arrive almost always at every town or ruin exactly when we did. I will not describe the voyage. The Nile is the Nile. Just at first, before we got used to it, we conscientiously looked up the name of every village we passed on the bank in our Murray and our Vedica. After a couple of days niling, however, we found that formality quite unnecessary. They were all the same village under a number of aliases. They did not even take the trouble to disguise themselves anew, like Dr. Fortescue Langley, on each fresh appearance. They had every one of them a small whitewashed mosque with a couple of tall minarets, and around it spread a number of mud-built cottages looking more like beehives than human habitations. They had also every one of them a group of date palms overhanging a cluster of mean bear houses, and they all alike had a picturesque and even imposing air from a distance, but faded away into indescribable squalor as one got abreast of them. Our progress was monotonous. At 12 noon we would pass Aboutig with its mosque, its palms, its mud huts, and its camels. Then for a couple of hours we would go on through the midst of a green field on either side, headed by more mud huts, and backed up by a range of grey desert mountains, only to come at 2 p.m., 20 miles higher up, upon Aboutig once more, with the same mosque, the same mud huts, and the same haughty camels, placidly chewing the same aristocratic cud, but under the alias of Couscum. After a wild hubbub at the quay, we would leave Couscum behind, with its camels still serenely munching day before yesterday's dinner, and 20 miles farther on again, having passed through the same green plain, backed by the same grey mountains, we would stop once more at the identical Couscum, which this time absurdly described itself as Tata. But whether it was Aboutig or Couscum or Tata or anything else, only the name differed. It was always the same town, and had always the same camels, at precisely the same stage of the digestive process. It seemed to us immaterial whether you saw all the Nile, or only five miles of it. It was just like wallpaper, a sample sufficed. The whole was the sample infinitely repeated. However, I had my letters to write, and I wrote them valiantly. I described the various episodes of the complicated digestive process in the camel in the most minute detail. I gloated over the date palms, which I knew in three days as if I had been brought up upon dates. I gave word pictures of every individual child, veiled woman, Arab sheik, and Coptic priest whom we encountered on the voyage. And I am open to reprint those conscientious studies of mud huts and minarets with any enterprising publisher who will make me an offer. Another disillusionment weighed upon my soul. Before I went up the Nile, I had a fancy of my own that the bank was studded with endless ruined temples, whose vast red colonnades were reflected in the water at every turn. I think Macaulay's lays were primarily answerable for that particular misapprehension. As a matter of fact, it surprised me to find that we often went for two whole days hard steaming without ever a temple breaking the monotony of those eternal date palms, those calm and superciliously irresponsive camels. In my humble opinion, Egypt is a fraud. There is too much Nile, very dirty Nile at that, and not nearly enough temple. Besides, the temple, when you do come upon one, is just like the villages. They are the same temples over and over again, under a different name each time, and they have the same gods, the same kings, the same wearisome bar reliefs, except that the gentleman in a chariot ten feet high who is mowing down enemies a quarter his own size with unsportsmanlike recklessness is called Ramses in this place, and Seti in that, and Amenhotep in the other. With this trifling variation, when you have seen one temple, one obelisk, one hieroglyphic table, you have seen the whole of ancient Egypt. At last, after many days' voyage through the same scenery daily, rising in the morning off a village with a mosque, ten palms, and two minarets, and retiring late at night off the same village once more with mosque, palms, and minarets as before, we arrived one evening at a place called Girga. In itself, I believe Girga did not differ materially from all the other places we had passed on our voyage. It had its mosque, its ten palms, and its two minarets as usual. But I remember its name, because something mysterious went wrong here with our machinery, and the engineer informed us we must wait at least three days to mend it. Dr. McLaughlin's d'Ahabaia happened, opportunely, to arrive at the same spot on the same day, and he declared with fervour that he would see us through our troubles. But what on earth were we to do with ourselves through three long days and nights at Girga? There were the ruins of Abados close at hand to be sure, though I defy anybody, not a professed Egyptologist, to give more than one day to the ruins of Abados. In this emergency, Dr. McLaughlin came gallantly to our aid. He discovered by inquiring from an English-speaking guide that there was an unobtrusive oasis never visited by Europeans one long day's journey off across the desert. As a rule, it takes at least three days to get camels and guides together for such an expedition, for Egypt is not a land to hurry in. But the indefatigable doctor further unearthed the fact that a sheik had just come in who, for a consideration, would lend us camels for a two-days trip, and we seized the chance to do our duty by Mr. Elworthy and the worldwide circulation. An unvisited oasis and two Christian ladies to be the first to explore it. There's a journalistic enterprise for you. If we happen to be killed so much, the better for the daily telephone. I pictured the excitement at Piccadilly Sarkis, extra special, our own correspondent, brutally murdered. I rejoiced at the opportunity. I cannot honestly say that Elsie rejoiced with me. She cherished a prejudice against camels, massacres, and the new journalism. She didn't like being murdered, though this was premature, for she had never tried it. She objected that the fanatical Mohammedans of the Sanusi sect, who were said to inhabit the oasis in question, might cut our throats for dogs of infidels. I pointed out to her at some length that it was just that chance but added zest to our expedition as a journalistic venture. Fancy the glory of being the first lady journalist martyred in the cause. But she failed to grasp this aspect of the question. However, if I went she would go too, she said, like the dear girl that she is, she would not desert me when I was getting my throat cut. Dr. McLaughlin made the bargain for us and insisted on accompanying us across the desert. He told us his method of negotiations with the Arabs with extreme gusto. He said, pay in advance, you want, says Oi, to the dirty beggars. Develop any way you get till you bring these ladies safe back to Girga. And remember, Mr. Sheik says, Oi, finger in me, pistol so by way of emphasis. We take no money with us, so if your friends at Wadi Bou choose to cut our throats, tis for the pleasure of it they'll be cuttin' em, not for anything they'll be gainin' by it. Provisions offend, he said, he's alarming. Provisions, as it said, Oi, take everything you'll want, would ya? I suppose you can buy food fit for a Christian in the bazaar at Girga, and never one penny do you touch for at all till you've landed us on the bank again, safe as you took us. So, if the religious sentiments of the faithful at Wadi Bou should lead them to hack us to pieces, or just wave in me revolver, then tis yourself that will be out of pocket by it. And the old devil cringed as if he took me for the Prince of Wales. Faith, tis the purse that's the best argument to catch these hay-thin' Arabs upon. When we set out for the desert in the early dawn next day, it looked as if we were starting for a few months' voyage. We had a company of camels that might have befitted a caravan. We had two large tents, one for ourselves and one for Dr. McLaughlin, with a third to dine in. We had bedding and cushions and drinking water, tied up in swollen pig-skins, which were really goat-skins looking far from tempting. We had bread and meat and a supply of presents to soften the hearts and weaken the religious scruples of the sheiks at Wadi Bou. We travel on Prince, said the doctor. When all was ready, we got under way solemnly, our camels rising and sniffing the breeze with a superior air, as who should say, ah, I happen to be going where you happen to be going. But don't for a moment suppose I do it to please you. Tis me a coincidence. You are bound for Wadi Bou. I have business of my own which chances to take me there. Over the incidents of the journey I draw avail. Riding a camel I find does not greatly differ from sea sickness. They are the same phenomenon under altered circumstances. We had been assured beforehand on excellent authority that much of the comfort on a desert journey depends upon having a good camel. On this matter I am no authority. I do not set up as a judge of camel flesh. But I did not notice any of the comfort. So I ventured to believe my camel must have been an exceptionally bad one. We expected trouble from the fanatical natives. I am bound to admit we had most trouble with Elsie. She was not insubordinate but she did not care for camel riding and her beast took advantage of her youth and innocence. A well-behaved camel should go almost as fast as a child can walk and should not sit down plump on the burning sand without due reason. Elsie's brute crawled and called halts for prayer at frequent intervals. It tried to kneel like a good muslim many times a day and it showed an intolerant disposition to crush the infidel by rolling over on top of Elsie. Dr. McLaughlin admonished it with Irish eloquence not always in language intended for publication but it only turned up its supercilious lip and inquired in its own unspoken tongue what Dr. McLaughlin knew about the desert. I feel like a worm before the baste, the doctor said nonplussed. If the Nile was monotonous the road to Wattiboo was nothing short of dreary. We crossed a great ridge of bare grey rock and followed a rolling valley of sand scored by dry ravines and baking in the sun. It was ghastly to look upon. All day long save at the midday rest by some brackish wells we rode on and on the brute stepping forward with slow outstretched legs. Though sometimes we walked by the camel sides to vary the monotony but ever through that dreary upland plain sand in the centre, rocky mountain at the edge and not a thing to look upon. We were relieved towards evening to stumble against stunted tamarisks half buried in the sand and to feel that we were approaching the edge of the oasis. When at last our arrogant beasts condescended to stop in their patronizing way we saw by the dim light of the moon a sort of uneven basin or hollow studded with date palms and in the midst of the depression a crumbling walled town with a whitewashed mosque two minarets by its side and a crowd of mud houses. It was strangely familiar. We had come all this way just to see Aboutig or Kuskam over again. We camped outside the fortified town that night. Next morning we assayed to make our entry. At first the servants of the prophet on watch at the gate raised serious objections. No infidel might enter but we had a pass from Cairo exhorting the faithful in the name of the Kediv to give us food and shelter and after much examination and many loud discussions the gate men passed us. We entered the town and stood alone three Christian Europeans in the midst of three thousand fanatical Mohammedans. I confess it was weird. Elsie shrank by my side. I suppose they were to attack us brownie. Didn't the she-career would never get paid Dr. McLaughlin put in with true Irish recklessness Faith he'll whistle for his money on the whistle all you gave him. That touch of humour saved us. We laughed and the people about saw we could laugh. They left off scowling and pressed round trying to sell us pottery and native brooches. In the intervals of fanaticism the Arab has an eye to business. We passed up the chief street of the bazaar. The inhabitants told us in pantomime the chief of the town was away at Asiut whether he had gone two days ago on business. If he were here our interpreter gave us to understand. Things might have been different for the chief had determined that whom ever came no infidel dog should settle in his oasis. The women with their veiled faces attracted us strangely. They were wilder than on the river. They ran when one looked at them. Suddenly as we passed one we saw her give a little start. She was veiled like the rest but her agitation was evident through her thick covering. She is afraid of Christians. Elsie cried nestling towards me. The woman passed close to us. She never looked in our direction but in a very low voice she murmured as she passed. Then you are English. I had presence of mind enough to conceal my surprise at this unexpected utterance. Don't seem to notice her Elsie. I said looking away. Yes we are English. She stopped and pretended to examine some jewelry on a stall. So am I. She went on in the same suppressed low voice. For heaven's sakes help me. What are you doing here? I live here, married. I was with Gordon's force at Khartoum. They carried me off, a mere girl then. Now I am thirty. And you have been here ever since? She turned away and walked off but kept whispering behind her veil. We followed unobtrusively. Yes. I was sold to a man at Dongola. He passed me on again to the chief of this oasis. I don't know where it is but I have been here ever since. I hate this life. Is there any chance of a rescue? Any chance of a rescue is it? The doctor broke in, a trifle too ostensibly. If it costs us a whole British army, my dear lady, we'll fetch her away and save you. But now, today, you won't go away and leave me. You are the first Europeans I have seen since Khartoum fell. They may sell me again. You will not desert me. No, I said. We will not. Then I reflected for a moment. What on earth could we do? This was a painful dilemma. If we once lost sight of her, we might not see her again. Yet, if we walked with her openly and talked like friends, we would betray ourselves and her to these fanatical sonuses. I made up my mind promptly. I may not have much of a mind, but such as it is, I flatter myself I can make it up at a moment's notice. Can you come to us outside the gate at sunset? I asked, as if I was speaking to Elsie. The woman hesitated. I think so. Then keep us in sight all day, and when evening comes, stroll out behind us. She turned over some embroidered slippers on a booth and seemed to be inspecting them. But, my children, she murmured anxiously. The doctor interposed. Is it children he has, he asked. Then they'll be the Mohammedan gentlemen's. We mustn't interfere with them. We can take away the lady. She's English and detained against her will. But we can't deprive any man of his own children. I was firm and categorical. Yes, we can, I said stoutly. If he has forced a woman to bear them to him, whether she would or not, that's common justice. I have no respect for the Mohammedan gentlemen's rights. Let her bring them with her. How many are there? Two. A boy and a girl. Not very old. The eldest is seven. She spoke wistfully. A mother is a mother. Then say no more now, but keep us always in sight, and we will keep you. Come to us at the gate about sundown. We shall carry you off with us. She clasped her hands and moved off with the peculiar gliding air of the veiled Mohammedan woman. Our eyes followed her. We walked on through the bazaar thinking of nothing else now. It was strange how this episode made us forget our selfish fears for our own safety. Even dear Timid Elsie remembered only that an English woman's life and liberty were at stake. We kept her more or less in view all day. She glided in and out among the people in the alleys. When we went back to the camels at lunchtime, she followed us unobtrusively through the open gate and sat watching us from a little way off among a crowd of gazes. For all Wadi Bou was, of course, a gug at this unwanted invasion. We discussed the circumstances loudly so that she might hear our plans. Dr. McLaughlin advised that we should tell our sheik we meant to return part of the way to Gierga that evening by moonlight. I quite agreed with him. It was the only way out. Besides, I didn't like the looks of the people. They eyed our suspense. This was getting exciting now. I felt a professional journalistic interest. Whether we escaped or got killed, what splendid business for the daily telephone! The sheik, of course, declared it was impossible to start that evening. The men wouldn't move, the camels needed rest. But Dr. McLaughlin was inexorable. Very well then, Mr. Sheik, he answered philosophically. You'll praise yourself but whether you come on with us or whether you stop, that's your own business. But we set out at sundown and when you return by yourself on foot to Gierga, you can ask for your camels at the British consulate. All through that anxious afternoon we sat in our tents under the shade of the mud wall wondering whether we could carry out our plan or not. About an hour before sunset the veiled woman strode out of the gate with her two children. She joined the crowd of sightseers once more for never through the day where we left alone for a second. The excitement grew intense. Elsie and I moved up carelessly towards the group talking as if to one another. I looked hard at Elsie then I said as though I were speaking about one of the children. Go straight along the road to Gierga till you are past the big clump of palms at the edge of the oasis. Just beyond it comes a sharp ridge of rock wait behind the ridge where no one can see you. When we get there I padded the little girl's head don't say a word but jump on my camel. My two friends will take each one of the children. If you understand and consent stroke your boy's curls we will accept that for a signal. She stroked the child's head at once without the least hesitation even through her veil and behind her dress I could somehow feel and see her trembling nerves her beating heart but she gave no overt token she merely turned and muttered something carelessly in Arabic to a woman beside her. We waited once more in long drawn suspense would she manage to escape them? Would they suspect her motives? After ten minutes when we had returned to a crouching place under the shadow of the wall the woman detached herself slowly from the group and began strolling with almost overdone nonchalance along the road to Gierga. We could see the little girl was frightened and seemed to expostulate with her mother fortunately the Arabs about were much too occupied in watching the suspicious strangers to notice this episode of their own people. Presently our new friend disappeared and with beating hearts we awaited the sunset. Then came the usual scene of Habab with the sheik, the camels, the porters and the drivers it was eagerness against apathy with difficulty we made them understand we meant to get underway at all hazards I stormed in bad Arabic the doctor invade in very choice Irish at last they yielded and set out one by one our camels rose bent their slow knees and began to stalk in their lordly way without stretched necks along the road to the river we moved through the palm groves a crowd of boys following us and shouting for Bakshish we began to be afraid they would accompany us too far and discover our fugitives but fortunately they all turned back with one accord at a little whitewash shrine near the edge of the oasis we reached the clump of palms we turned the corner of the ridge had we missed one another? no there crouching by the rocks with her children by her side sat our mysterious stranger the doctor was equal to the emergency make those beasts kneel he cried authoritatively to the sheik the sheik was taken aback this was a new exploit burst upon him he flung his arms up just titulating wildly the doctor unmoved made the drivers understand by some strange pantomime what he wanted they nodded half terrified in a second the stranger was by my side Elsie had taken the girl, the doctor, the boy the camels were passively beginning to rise again that is the best of your camel once set him on his road and he goes mechanically the sheik broke out with several loud remarks in Arabic which we did not understand but whose hostile character could not easily escape us he was beside himself with anger then I was suddenly aware of the splendid advantage of having an Irishman on our side Dr. McLaughlin drew his revolver like one well used to such episodes and pointed it full at the angry Arab look here Mr. Sheik he said calmly yet with a fine touch of bravado do you see this revolver well unless you make your camels travel straight to Girga without one other word tis your own brains will be spattered sir on the sand of this desert and if you touch one hair of our heads you'll answer for it with your life to the British government I do not feel sure that the sheik comprehended the exact nature of each word in this comprehensive threat but I am certain he took in its general meaning punctuated as it was with some flourishes of the revolver he turned to the drivers and made a gesture of despair it meant apparently that this infidel was too much for him then he called out a few sharp directions in Arabic next minute our camel's legs were stepping out briskly along the road to Girga with a promptitude which I'm sure must have astonished their owners we rode on and on through the gloom in a fever of suspense had any of the sinuses noticed our presence would they miss the chief's wife before long and follow us under arms would our own sheik betray us I am no coward as women go but I confess if it had not been for our fiery Irishman I should have felt my heart sink we were grateful to him for the reckless and good-humoured courage of the untamed guilt it kept us from giving way you'll take notice Mr. Sheik he said as we threaded our way among the moonlit rocks that I have 21 cartridges in me case for me revolver and if there's trouble tonight tis 20 of them there'll be for your friends the sinuses and one for yourself but for fear of disappointment I point in a gentleman tis your own special bullet I'll distribute first if it comes to fighting the sheik's English was a vanishing quantity but to judge by the way he nodded and salamed at this playful remark I am convinced he understood the doctor's Irish quite as well as I did we spoke little by the way we were all far too frightened except the doctor who kept our hearts up by a running fire of wild Celtic humour but I found time meanwhile to learn by a few questions from our veiled friend something of her captivity she had seen her father massacred before her eyes at cartoom and had then been sold away to a merchant who conveyed her by degrees and by various exchanges across the desert through lonely spots to the Sinusi oasis there she had lived all those years with the chief to whom the last purchaser had trafficked her she did not even know that her husband's village was an integral part of the Kediv territory far less that the English were now in practical occupation of Egypt she had heard nothing and learnt nothing since that fateful day she had waited in vain for the off chance of a deliverer but did you never try to run away to the Nile I cried astonished run away how could I I did not even know which way the river lay and was it possible for me to cross the desert on foot or find the chance of a camel the Sinusi's would have killed me even with you to help me see what dangers surround me alone I should have perished like Hagar in the wilderness with no angel to save me and you've got the angel now Dr. McLaughlin exclaimed glancing at me steady there Mr. Sheik what's this that's coming it was another caravan going the opposite way on its road to the Oasis a voice hallowed from it our new friend clung tightly to me my husband she whispered gasping they were still far off on the desert and the moon shone bright a few hurried words to the doctor with a wild resolve we faced the emergency he made the camel's halt and all of us springing off crouched down behind their shadows in such a way that the coming caravan must pass on the far side of us at the same moment the doctor turned resolutely to the Sheik look here Mr. Arab he said in a quiet voice with one more appeal to the simple Valapak of the pointed revolver I cover you with this friends ears go by if there's any unnecessary talk in Twixtia or any trouble of any kind remember the first bullet goes straight as an arrow through that hay then head of yours the Sheik salamed more submissively than ever the caravan drew a breast of us we could hear them cry aloud on either side the customary salutes in Allah's name peace answered by Allah is great there is no god but Allah would anything more happen would our Sheik play us false it was a moment of breathlessness we crouched and cowered in the shade holding our hearts with fear while the Arab drivers pretended to be unsettling the camels a minute or two of anxious suspense then peering over our beast's backs we saw their long line filing off towards the oasis we watched their turbaned heads silhouetted against the sky disappearing slowly one by one they faded away the danger was passed with beating hearts we rose up again the doctor sprang into his place and seated himself on his camel now ride on Mr. Sheik he said with all your men death were after you camels or no camels you've got to march all night for you'll never draw rain till we're safe back at Girga and sure enough we never halted under the persuasive influence of that loaded revolver till we dismounted once more in the early dawn upon the Nile bank under British protection then Elsie and I and our rescued countrywoman broke down together in an orgy of relief we hugged one another and cried like so many children End of Chapter 7 Miss Kaylee's Adventures The Unobtrusive Oasis Recording by Barbara Edelman Los Angeles, California for more information please go to www.barbaretelmanvoice.com Chapter 8 of Miss Kaylee's Adventures This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jacqueline McKnight Miss Kaylee's Adventures by Grant Arlen Chapter 8 The Adventure of the P. Green patrician Away to India a life on the ocean wave once more and may it prove less wavy In plain prose my arrangement with my proprietor Mr. Elworthy thus we speak in the newspaper trade included a trip to Bombay for myself and Elsie so as soon as we had drained upper Egypt journalistically dry we returned to Cairo on our road to Suez I am glad to say my letters to the daily telephone gave satisfaction my employer wrote you are a born journalist I confess this surprised me for I have always considered myself a truthful person still as he evidently meant it for praise I took the doubtful compliment in good part and offered no remonstrance I have a mercurial temperament my spirits rise and fall as if they were consuls monotonous Egypt depressed me as it depressed the drill-oids but the passage of the red seas set me sounding my timbrel I love fresh air I love the sea if the sea will but behave itself and I politely reveled in the change from Egypt unfortunately we had taken our passages by a piano steamer from Suez to Bombay many beforehand so as to secure good births and still more unfortunately in a letter to Lady Georgina I had chance to mention the name of our ship and the date of the voyage I kept up a spasmodic correspondence with Lady Georgina nowadays tepence apennia fortnight the dear cantankerous, racy old lady had been the foundation of my fortunes and I was genuinely grateful to her or rather I ought to say she had been their second foundress for I will do myself the justice to admit that the first was my own initiative in enterprise I flatter myself if I have the knack of taking the tide on the turn and am justly proud of it but being a grateful animal I wrote once a fortnight to report progress to Lady Georgina besides let me whisper strictly between ourselves towards an indirect way of hearing about herald this time however as events turned out I recognized that I had made a grave mistake in confiding my movements to my shrew old lady she did not betray me on purpose of course but I gathered later that casually in conversation she must have mentioned the fact and date of my sailing before somebody who ought to have no concern in it and the somebody I found had governed himself accordingly all this however I only discovered afterwards so without anticipating I will narrate the facts exactly as they occurred to me when we mounted the gangway of the Jumna at Suez and began the process of frizzling down the Red Sea I noted on deck almost at once an odd looking young man of 22 or thereabouts with a curious faint pea green complexion he was the wishy washyest young man I had ever beheld in my life an achromatic study in spite of the delicate pea cleanliness of his skin all the colour and matter of the body seemed somehow to have faded out of him perhaps he had been bleached as he leaned over the tap rail gazing down with open mouth and big and stare at the water I took a good long look at him he interested me much because he was so exceptionally uninteresting a pallid anemic indefinite hobbly hoy with a high narrow forehead and sketchy features he had watery restless eyes of an insipid light blue thin yellow hair almost white in its paleness and twitching hands had played nervously all the time with a shadowy mustache this shadowy mustache seemed to absorb as a rule the best part of his attention it was so sparse and so blanched that he felt it continually to assure himself no doubt the mercy of its existence I need hardly air that he wore an eyeglass he was an aristocrat I felt sure eaten in Christchurch no ordinary person could have been quite so flavourless imbecility like his is only to be attained as a result of long and judicious selection he went on gazing in a vacant way at the water below an ineffectual patrician smile playing feebly around the corners of his mouth meanwhile then he turned and stared at me as I lay back in my deck chair for a minute he looked me over as if I were a horse for sale when he had finished inspecting me he beckoned to somebody at the far end of the quarter deck though somebody sidled up with a differential air which confirmed my belief in the pea green young man's aristocratic origin it was such deference as the police pay only to blue blood for he has gradations of plunky done he is respectful to wealth polite to a quiet rank but servile only to hereditary nobility indeed you can make a rough guess at the social status of the person he addresses by observing which one of his 27 nicely graduated manners he adopts in addressing him the pea green young man glanced over in my direction and murmured something to the satellite whose back was turned toward me I felt sure from his attitude he was asking whether I was the person he's suspecting me to be the satellite nodded ascent where at the pea green young man screwing up his face to fix his eyeglass stared horror than ever he must be heir to a peerage I felt convinced nobody short of that rank would consider himself entitled to stare with such frank unconcerned at an unknown lady presently it further occurred to me that the satellite's back seemed strangely familiar I have seen that man somewhere Elsie I whispered putting aside the whisk of hair that blew about my face so have I dear Elsie answered with a slight shudder and I was instinctively aware that I too disliked him as Elsie spoke the man turned and strolled slowly past us with that inequitable insolence which is the other side of the plonkies insufferable self abasement he cast a glance at us as he went by a withering glance of brazen effrontery we knew him of course it was that variable star our older queen tins Mr. Higginson the courier he was here as himself this time no longer the count all the mysterious faith healer the diplomat hit his raise under the garb of the man's servant deep penned upon it Elsie I cried clutching her arm with a vague sense of fear this man means mischief there is danger ahead when a creature of Higginson's sword who has risen to be a count and a fashionable position descends again to be a courier you may rest assured it is because he has something to gain by it he has some deep scheme afloat and we are part of it his master looks weak enough and silly enough for anything Elsie answered I am the suspected lordling I should think he is just the sort of man such a wily rogue would naturally fasten upon when a wily rogue gets hold of a weak fool who is also dishonest I said the two together may make a formidable combination but never mind we're forewarned I think I shall be even with him that evening at dinner in the saloon the pea green young man strolled in with a jaunty air and took his seat next to us the Red Sea by the way was kinder than the Mediterranean it allowed us to dine from the very first evening cards had been laid on the plates to mark our places I glanced at my neighbours it bore the inscription Viscount Southminster that was the name of lord Kyniston's eldest son Lady Georgina's nephew Herald Tillington's cousin so this was the man who might possibly inherit Mr. Marmaduke Ashworth's money I remembered now how often and how fervently Lady Georgina said Kyniston's sons are all fools if the rest came up to sample I was inclined to agree with her it also flashed across me that Lord Southminster might have heard through Higginson of our meeting with Mr. Marmaduke Ashworth in Florence and of my acquaintance with Herald Tillington at Schlagembad and Langer with a woman's instinct I jumped at the fact that the pea green young man was sent by this boat on purpose to battle both me and Herald think it over it seemed too that he might have various possible points of view on the matter he might desire, for example that Herald should marry me under the impression that his marriage with a penniless outsider would annoy his uncle for the pea green young man doubtless thought I was still to Mr. Ashworth that dreadful adventurer if so, his obvious cue would be to promote a good understanding between Herald and myself in order to make us marry so that the obeying old gentleman might then disinherit his favorite nephew and make a new will in Southminster's interest or again the pea green young man might on the contrary be aware that Mr. Ashworth and I had got on admirably together when we met at Florence in which case his aim would naturally be to find out something that might set the rich uncle against me yet once more he might merely have heard that I had drawn up Uncle Mamadouk's will at the office and he might desire to worm the contents of it out of me whichever was his design I resolved to be upon my guard in every word I said to him and leave no door open to any trickery either way for one thing I felt sure that the colorless young man had torn himself away from the mud honey of Piccadilly for this voyage to India only because he had heard there was a chance of meeting me that was a politic move whoever planned it himself or Higginson for a weak onboard ship with a person or persons is the very best chance of getting thrown in with them whether they like it or lump it they can easily avoid you it was while I was pondering these things in my mind and resolving with myself not to give myself away that the young man with a pea green face lounged in and dropped into the next seat to me he was dressed amongst other things in a dinner jacket and white tie for myself I did test such properties on board ship they seemed to me out of place they conflict with the infinite possibilities of the situation one stands too near the reality of things evening dress and Maldomer sort ill together as my neighbor sat down he turned to me with an inane smile which occupied all his face good evening he said in a baronial draw Miss Kaylee I gather I asked the skippers leave to sit next to you we ought to be friends rather I think you know my poor dear old Aunt Lady Georgina foley I bowed a somewhat freezing bow Lady Georgina is one of my dearest friends I answered no really poor dear old Georgie got somebody to stick up for her at last has she now that's what I call chivalrous of ya magnanimous isn't it I like to see people stick up for their friends and it must be a novelty for Georgie for between you and me a more cantankerous spiteful assiduated old cough drop than the poor dear soul it'd be difficult to hit upon Lady Georgina has brains I answered and they enabled to recognize a fool when she sees him I will admit that she does not suffer fools gladly he turned to me with a sudden sharp look in the depths of the lackluster eyes already it began to strike me that though the pea green young man was in name he had his due proportion of a certain insidious practical cunning that's true he answered me and according to her almost everybody's a fool especially her relations a fine knack of sweeping generalization about dear skinny old Georgie the few people she really liked are all archangels the rest are blithering idiots there's no middle course with her I held my peace frigidly she thinks me a very special and peculiar fool he went on crumbling his bread Georgina I answered is a person of exceptional discrimination I would almost always accept her judgment on anyone as practically final he laid down his soup spoon formed will be an perceptible moustache with his tapering fingers then broke once more into a cheerful expansive smile which reminded me of nothing so much as the village idiot it spread over his face as the splash from a stone spreads now that's a nice cheerful sort of thing to say to a fella he ejaculated fixing his eyeglass in his eye with a few fierce contortions of his facial muscles that's encouraging don't you know as the foundation of an acquaintance makes a good corner stone calculated to place things at once upon your call on a friendly basis Georgie said you had a pretty wit I see now why she admired it birds of a feather very wise old proverb I reflected that after all this young man had nothing over against him beyond a fishy blue eye and an inane expression so feeling that I had perhaps gone a little too far I continued after a minute and your uncle how is he mommy he inquired after an elephantine smile and then I perceived it was a form of humor with him or rather a cheap substitute to speak of his elder relations by their abbreviated Christian names without any prefix mommy's doing very well thank you as well as could be expected in fact better have a cook on the brain it's carrying him off at last he has bright disease very bad drink port don't you know and wouldn't trouble this wicked world much longer with his presence it would be a happy release especially for his nephews I was really grieved for I had grown to like the urbane old gentlemen as I had grown to like became angry as old lady in spite of his fussiness and his stock exchange views on the interpretation of scripture his genuine kindness and his real liking for me had softened my heart to him and my face must have shown my distress for the pea green young man added quickly with an after thought but you didn't be afraid you know it's all right for Harold Tillington you ought to know that as well as anyone and better for it was you who drew up his will for him at Florence I flushed crimson I believe then he knew all about me I was not asking on Mr. Tillington's account I answered I asked because I have a personal feeling of friendship for your uncle Mr. Arshos his hand straight up to the straggling yellow cares on his upper lip once more and he smiled again this time with a curious undercurrent of foolish craftiness that's a good one he answered Georgie told me you were original mommy's a millionaire and many people love millionaires for their money but to love mommy for himself I do call that originality why wait for age he's acknowledged to be the most potential old boy in London society I like Mr. Arshos because he's a kind heart and some genuine instincts I answered he has not allowed all human feeling to be replaced by a cheap master Paul Moll's cynicism oh I say how's that for preaching don't you manage to give it hot to a fella neither and at sight too without the usual three days of grace have some champagne I'm a forgiving creature no thank you I prefer this hawk your friend then an emotionless steward to pass the bottle to my great disgust Elsie held out her glass I was annoyed at that it showed she had missed the drift of our conversation that was therefore lacking in feminine intuition I should be sorry if I had allowed the higher mathematics to kill out in me the most distinctively womanly faculty first day forth however in spite of this beginning Lord Southminster almost persecuted me with his persistent attention he did all a man could possibly do to please me I could not make out precisely what he was driving at but I saw he had some artful game of his own to play and that he was playing it subtly I also saw that as vapid as he was his vapidity did not prevent him from being worldly wise with the wisdom of the self-seeking man of the world who utterly distrusts and disbelieves in all higher emotions of humanity he harped so often on this string that on our second day out as we lulled on the deck in the heat I had to rebuke him sharply he had been sneering for some hours there are two kinds of silly simplicity Lord Southminster I said at last one kind is the silly simplicity of the rustic who trusts everybody the other kind is the silly simplicity of the poor, more clubmen who trust nobody it's just as foolish and just as one sided to overlook the good as to overlook the evil in humanity if you trust everyone you are likely to be taken in but if you trust no one you put yourself at serious practical disadvantages besides losing half the joy of living then you think mere fool like Georgie he broke out I should never be rude enough to say so I answered fanning myself well, you're what I call a first-rate companion for a voyage down the Red Sea he put in gazing abstractly at the awnings such a lovely freezing mixture a fella doesn't need ices when you're on tap I recommend you as a refrigerator I am glad I answered demurely if I have secured your approbation in that humble capacity I'm sure I have tried hard for it yet nothing that I could say seemed to put the man down in spite of rebuffs he was assiduous in running down the companion ladder for my parasol or my smelling bottle he fetched me chairs he stayed me with cushions he offered to lend me books and he drank his wine and he kept Elsie in champagne which she annoyed me by accepting poor dear Elsie clearly failed to understand the creature he's so kind and polite brownie isn't he she would observe in her simple fashion do you know I think he's quite taken a fancy to you and he'll be an url by and by I call it romantic how lovely it would seem dear to see you a countess Elsie I said severely with one hand on her arm you are a dear little soul and I'm very fond of you but if you think I could sell myself for a coronet to a pasty face young man with a pea green complexion and glassy blue eyes I can only say my child you have misread my character he isn't a man he's a lump of putty I think Elsie was quite shocked that I should apply these terms to see Lord the eldest son of a pier nature had endowed her with a profound British belief that pierce should be spoken of in choice and peculiar language if a pierce a fool Lady Georgina said once to me people think you should say his temperament does not fit him for the conduct of affairs if he's a rue or drunkard they think you should say he has unfortunate weaknesses what most of all convinced me however, that the wishy washy young man with a pea green complexion must be playing some stealthy game was the demeanor and mental attitude of Mr Higginson this courier after the first day Higginson appeared to be politeness and deference itself to us he behaved to us both almost as if we belonged to the title classes he treated us with the second best of his 27 graduated manners he fetched and carried for us with courtly grace which recalled the distinguished diplomat the Comte de la Roche Solauret at the station at Malines with Lady Georgina it is true at his politeness moments I often caught the undercurrent of a wicked twinkle in his eye and felt sure he was doing all with some profound motive but his external demeanor was everything that one could desire from a well trained man servant I could hardly believe it was the same man who had growled to me in Florence I shall be even with you yet as he left our office Do you know Brownie Elsie mused once I really begin to think we must have misjudged Higginson he's so extremely polite perhaps after all he really is a count who has been exiled and impoverished for his political opinion I smiled and held my tongue silence cost nothing but Mr Higginson's political opinions I felt sure were of that simple communistic sort which the law in its blunt way calls fraudulent they consisted in a belief that all was his which he could lay his hands on Higginson's a splendid fellow for his place you know Miss Kaylee Lord Southminster said to me one evening as we were approaching Aidan what I like to think about him is he's so doosid intelligent extremely so I answered then the devil entered into me again he has the doosid intelligent even to take in Lady Georgina yes that's just it don't you know Georgie told me that story screamingly funny wasn't it I said to myself once Higginson's the man for me I want a courier with jolly lots of brains and no blooming scruples I'll entice this chap away from mommy and I did I outbid mommy oh yes he's a first rate fella Higginson what I want is a man who will do what he's told and ask no beastly unpleasant questions Higginson is that man he's as sharp as a ferret and as dishonest as they make them he opened his hands with a gesture of unconcern all the better for my purposes see how frank I am Miss Kaylee to tell the truth the truth is very rare you ought to respect me for it it depends somewhat upon the kind of truth I answered with a random shot I don't respect a man for instance for confessing to a forgery he winced not for months after did I know how a stone thrown at a venture had chance to hit the spot and had vastly enhanced his opinion of my cleverness you have heard about doctor Fortescue Langley too I suppose I went on oh yes wasn't it a real jam he did the doctor trick on a lady in Switzerland and the way is coming over dear simply old mommy he played mommy with Ezekiel not so dusty was it he's too lovely for anything he's an edge tool I said yes that's why I use him an edge tool may cut the user's fingers not mine he answered taking out a cigarette oh dear no he can't turn against me he wouldn't dare to you see I have the fella entirely in my power I know all his little games and I can expose him any day but it suits me to keep him I don't mind telling ya since I respect your intellect that he and I are engaged in pulling off a big coo together if it were not for that I wouldn't be here you don't catch me going so far from new market and the empire for nothing I judged as much I answered and then I was silent but I wanted to myself why the neutral tinted young man should be so communicative to an obviously hostile stranger for the next few days it amused me to show how hard our lordling tried to suit his conversation to myself and Elsie he was absurdly anxious to humor us just at first it is true he had discussed the subjects that lay nearest to his own heart he was an ardent vaulery of the noble quadruped and he loved the turf who swore we judged he had trod mainly at tattersalls he spoke to us with every addition on to year old form and gave us several safe things for spring handicaps once he considered a moral for Clarinda he also retailed certain choice anecdotes about ladies whose Christian names would chiefly taughty and flow and whose unknown surnames have escaped my memory most of them flourished I recollect at the frivolity music hall but when he learned that our interest in the noble quadruped was scarcely more than tepid and that we never even visited the friv as he affectionately call it he did his best in turn to acquire our subjects he had heard us talk about Florence for example and he gathered from our talk that we loved its art treasures so he set himself to work to be studiously artistic it was a beautiful study in human ineptitude ah yes he murmured turning the pale blue eyes ecstatically towards the master in place Florence I dot on the picker chows I know them all by heart I assure you I've spent hours and hours feeding my soul in the galleries and what particular painter does your soul most feed upon I asked bluntly with a smile the questions staggered him I could see him hunting through the vacant chambers of his brain painter then a faint light gleamed in the leaden eyes and he fingered the straw-colored moustache with that nervous hand till he almost put a visible point upon it ah Raphael he said tentatively with an inquiring air yet beaming at his success don't you think so splendid artist Raphael and a very safe guess I answered leaving him on you can't go far wrong in mentioning Raphael can you but after him he dived into the recesses of his memory again peered about him for a minute or two and brought back nothing I can't remember the other fellow's name he went on they're all so much alike all in Ellie don't you know but I recollect at the time they impressed me awfully no doubt I answered he tried to look through me and failed then he plunged like the noble sportsman that he was on a second fetch of memory ah and Michael Angelo he went on proud of his treasure trove sweet things Michael Angelo very sweet I admitted so simple so touching so tender so domestic I thought Elsie would explode but she kept her countenance the pea green young man gazed at me uneasily he had half an idea by this time that I was making game of him however he fished up a name once more and clutched at it Savonarola too I adored Savonarola his pictures are beautiful and so rare Elsie murmured then there is Father Diavolo I suggested going one better how do you like Father Diavolo he seemed to have heard the name before but still he hesitated ah what did he paint he asked with growing caution I stuffed him valiantly those charming angels you know answered with the roses and the glories oh yes I recollect all askew aren't they like this I remember them very well but a doubt flitted across his brain wasn't his name Father Angelico his brother I replied casting truth to the winds they worked together you must have heard one did the stains the other the opposite division of labour don't you see Father Angelico Father Diavolo he fingered his cigarette with a dubious hand and wriggled his eyeglass tighter yes beautiful beautiful but growing suspicious at pace wasn't Father Diavolo also a composer of course I assented in his off time he composed those early Italians so versatile you see so versatile he had his doubts but he suppressed them and Torricelli I went on with the cyclites at Elsie who was choking by this time and Chianti and Frittura and Cicchivelli this trust increased now you're trying to make me commit myself he'd rolled out I remember Torricelli he's the fella who used to paint all his women crooked but Chianti's a wine I've often drunk it and Romanos well every fella knows Romanos is a restaurant near the Gayety Theatre besides I continued in a draw like his own there are Risotto and Gnocchi and Vermicelli and Anchovi all famous painters and all of whom I don't doubt you admire Elsie exploded at last but he took no offence he smiled innately as if you rather enjoyed it look here you know he said with his crafty smile that's one too much I'm not taking any you think yourselves very clever for kidding me with painters who are really macaroni and cheese yet if I were to tell you the Leja was run at Ascot or the Caesar which at Don Custer why you'd be no wiser when it comes to art I don't have a look in but I could tell you a thing or two about starting prices and I was forced to admit even still I think he realised he'd better avoid the subject of art in the future as we avoided the noble quadruped he saw his limitations not to the last evening before we reached Bombay did I really understand the nature of my neighbour's project that evening as it chance Elsie had a headache and went below early I stopped with her till she dozed off then I slipped up on deck once more for a breath of fresh air before retiring for the night to the hot and stuffy cabins it was an exquisite evening the moon rowed in the pale green sky of the tropics a strange light still lingered on the western horizon the stifling heat of the red sea had given way long since to the refreshing coolness of the Indian ocean I strolled a while on the quarter deck and sat down at last near the stern next moment I was aware of somebody creeping up to me look here Miss Kaylee a voice broken I'm in luck at last I've been waiting oh ever so long for this opportunity I turned and faced him have you indeed I answered will I have not Lord Southminster I tried to rise but he motioned me back to my chair there were ladies on deck and to avoid being noticed I sank into my seat again I want to speak to you he went on in a voice that for him was almost impressive half a moment Kaylee I want to say this last night you misunderstand me on the contrary I answered the trouble is that I understand you perfectly no you don't look here he bent forward quite romantically I'm going to be perfectly brank of course you know that when I came on board this ship I came to checkmate here of course I replied why else should you and Higginson have bothered to come here he rubbed his hands together that's just it you're always clever you hit it first shot but there's where the point comes in at first I only thought of how we could circumvent you I treated you as the enemy now it's the other way Miss Kaylee you're the cleverest woman I ever met in this world and you extort my admiration I could not repress a smile I didn't know how it was I could see I possessed some mysterious attraction for the Arshas family I was fatal to Arshas Lady Georgina, Harold Tillington the honourable Mamadouk Lord Southmister different types as they were all succumbed to me without one blow you flatter me I answered coldly no I don't he cried flashing his cups and gazing affectionately at his sleevelings upon my soul I assure you I mean it I can't tell you how much I admire you I admire your intellect every day I have seen you I feel it more and more why you're the only person who has ever outflanked my fellow Higginson as a rule I don't think much of women I've been through several London seasons and lots of them have tried their level best to catch me the cleverest mamas have been after me for their Ethels but I wasn't so easily caught I dodged the Ethels with you this different I feel he paused you're a woman a fellow might be really proud of you are too kind I answered in my refrigerator voice well will you take me he asked trying to seize my hand miss Kaylee if you will you will make me unspeakably happy it was a great effort for him and I was sorry to crush it I regret I said that I'm compelled to deny your unspeakable happiness oh but you don't catch on you mistake let me explain you're backing the other man now I happen to know about that and I assure ya it's an error take my word for it you're staking your money on the wrong fella I do not understand you I reply drawing away from his approach and what is more I may add you could never understand me yes but I do I understand perfectly I can see where you were wrong you drew up Mami's will and you think Mami has left all his worth to Harold Tillington so you're putting every penny you've got on Harold well that's mere moonshine Harold may think it's all right but it's not all right there's many a slip and the probate court listen here miss Kaylee Higginson and I are a jolly sight sharper than your friend Harold Harold would they call a clever fella in society and I'm what they call a fool but I know better than Harold which side of my bread's buttered well I don't doubt it I answered well I have managed this business I don't mind telling you now I had a telegram from Mami's ballet when we touched at Aidan and poor old Mami's thinking Habba Cook's been too much for him 16 stone going under why am I not with him you may ask because when a man of Mami's temperament is dying it's safer to be away from him there's plenty of time for Mami to alter his will yet and there's other contingencies still Harold's quite out of it you take my word for it if you back Harold you back a man who's not gonna get anything if you back me back the winner with a coronet into the bargain and he smiled fortuitously I looked at him with a look that would have made a wiser man wince but it felt flat on Lord Southminster do you know why I do not rise and go down to my cabinet once I said slowly because if I did somebody as past might see my burning cheeks cheeks flushed with shame at your insulting proposal and might guess that you had asked me that I had refused you and I should shrink from the disgrace of anyone's knowing that you had put such a humiliation upon me you have been frank with me after your kind Lord Southminster Frank with the frankness of a low and purely commercial nature I will be frank with you in turn you are right in supposing I love Harold Tillington a man whose name I hate to mention in your presence but you are wrong in supposing that the disposition of Mr. Mamadouk Asher's money has or can have anything to do with the feelings I entertain towards him I would marry him all the sooner if he were poor and penniless you cannot understand that state of mind of course but you must be content to accept it and I would not marry you if there were no other man left in the world to marry I should have soon think of marrying a lump of dough I faced him all crimson is that plain enough do you see now that I really mean it he gazed at me with a curious look and thrilled what he considered his moustache once more quite airily the man was imperturbable a packet of maceous imbecile all wrong you know he said after a long pause during which he had regarded me through his spyglass as if I were a specimen of some rare new species you're all wrong and you won't believe me but I tell you I know what I'm talking about you think it's quite safe about Mamadouk's money that he's lent it to Harold because you drew the wheel up I assure you that wheel's not worth the paper it's written on you fancy Harold's a hot favorite he's a rank outsider I give you a chance and you won't take it I want ya because you're a remarkable woman most of the Ethels cry when they're trying to make a fella propose to him and I don't like him damp but you have some go about ya you insist upon backing the wrong man but you'll find your mistake out yet a bright idea struck him I say why don't you hedge leave it open till Mam is gone and then marry the winner it was hopeless trying to make this Claude understand his brain was not built with the right cells for understanding me Lord Southminster I said turning upon him and clasping my hands I will not go away while you stop here but you have some spark enough of a gentleman in your composition I hope not to inflict your company any longer upon a woman who does not desire it I ask you to leave me here alone when you have gone ahead time to recover from your degrading offer I may perhaps feel able to go down to my cabin he stared at me with open blue eyes those watery blue eyes oh just as you like he answered I wanted to do you a good turn because you're the only woman I ever really admired to say admire don't you know you don't sound like the Ethels but you won't allow me I'll go if you wish it though I tell you again you're backing the wrong man and sooner or later you'll discover it I don't mind laying you six to four against him however I'll do one thing for you I'll leave this offer always open I'm not likely to marry any other woman not good enough is it and if ever you find out your mistaken about Harold Tillington remember honour bright I shall be ready at any time to renew my offer by this time I was at boiling point I could not find words to answer him I waved him away angrily with one hand he raised his hat with quite a jaunty air and strolled off forward puffing his cigarette I don't think he even knew the disgust with which he inspired me I sat some hours with the cool air playing about my burning cheeks before I mustered up courage to rise and go down below again End of chapter 8