He strained his eyes in an endeavour to distinguish the strangers outline, but in vain. The man was standing in the deep shadow. Only the girls familiar form silhouetted against the starlit sky.
We must be very careful of my uncle, the girl urged. The slightest suspicion, and we shall assuredly be parted, and for ever.
I will exercise every discretion, never fear, dearest, was his reassuring reply, and again he took her soft, fair face in both his hands and kissed her passionately upon the lips.
But, Henri, she exclaimed presently, are you quite sure they suspect nothing at home that you have never betrayed to anyone your affection for me? Remember, there are spies everywhere.
Surely you can trust me, my darling? he asked in reproach.
Of course, dear, she cried, again raising her lips and kissing him fondly. But, naturally, I am full of fear lest our secret be known.
It cannot be known, was his confident reply. We can both keep the truth from others. Trust me.
And when we return to Europe. What then? she asked in a low, changed tone.
Then we shall see. Why try and look into the future? It is useless to anticipate difficulties which may not, after all, exist, he said cheerfully, again stroking her hair with tenderness.
He spoke in French in a soft, refined voice, and was evidently a gentleman, though he still stood in the shadow and was therefore undistinguishable. He was holding the girl in his arms and a silence had fallen between them a silence only broken by the low lapping of the Nile waters, and that rhythmic chant now receding: Ah-lal-hey! Al-lal-hey?
My darling! whispered the stranger passionately. My own faithful darling. I love you ah! so much more than you can ever tell. And, alas! I am so unworthy of you.
She, in return, sighed upon his breast and declared that she loved but one man in all the world himself.
Since that night we first met, Lola you remember it, he said, my only thought has been of you.
Ah, yes, was her reply. At my aunts ball in Vienna. I recollect how the Baron von Karlstadt introduced us, and how you bowed and invited me to dance. Shall I ever forget that evening, Henri just over a year ago.
And old Gigleux? Is he still quite as troublesome as ever?
Just. He has eyes in the back of his head.
And Mademoiselle Lambert is she loyal to you?
I fear not, alas! was Lolas reply. She is paid to spy upon me. At least that has latterly become my impression. I have wanted to become her friend, but she is unapproachable.
Then we must exercise every discretion. On board I shall avoid you studiously. We can, of course, meet again in Cairo, for it is a big city, and you will sometimes be free.
Yes. Till then, adieu, Henri. But, she added, it will be so hard to be near you for the next three weeks and never speak.
It must be. Gigleux is no fool, remember, the man replied.
I must be getting back. They will miss me, she said wistfully. How shall I be able to pass you by dozens of times a day, Henri, maybe sit down at the same table with you, and betray no sign of recognition? I really dont know.
But you must, darling! You must for both our sakes, he argued, and then he once again clasped her in his strong arms and smothered her with his fierce passionate caresses.
Hubert Waldron witnessed it all. He held his breath and bit his lip. Who could be this mysterious Henri this secret lover whom Lola had met by appointment in that far-off, out-of-the-world place?
He recollected that Lola had flirted with him and that she had amused herself by allowing him to pay her compliments. Yet the existence of one whom she loved so devotedly in secret was now revealed, and he stood aghast, filled with chagrin at the unexpected revelation.
The pair, locked in each others arms, moved slowly forward in his direction.
She was urging him to allow her to get back, but he was persuading her to remain a little longer.
Think of all the long weeks and months we have been parted, sweetheart! he was saying. Besides we must not speak again until we get to Cairo. I shall remain at the little hotel over to-morrow. But it would be far too dangerous for us to meet. One or other of the passengers might discover us.
Yes, she sighed; we shall be compelled to exercise the greatest caution always. All my future depends on the preservation of our secret.
Waldron slipped from his hiding-place and away behind another tree, just before the pair passed the spot where he had been standing.
He watched them as they went forth into the light, and at last realised that the man was tall and slim, though, of course, he could not see his face.
He watched their parting, a long and tender farewell. The ardent lover kissed her upon the lips many times, kissed her cheeks, kissed her soft white hands, and then at last reluctantly released her and stood watching as she hurried on to the next belt of palms back to the landing-stage.
Afterwards he strode leisurely on behind her, and was soon lost to view in the black shadows.
A fortnight fourteen lazy days of idleness and sunshine had gone by.
The white double-decked steamer descending the Nile had left modern Luxor, with its gorgeous Winter Palace Hotel on the site of ancient Thebes. It had passed the wonderful temple standing upon the bank, and was steering due northward for Cairo, still a weeks journey distant.
In the west a great sea of crimson spread over the clear sky, and shafts of golden light fell upon the sand-dunes that barred the view in that direction. Away in the farther distance to the west the steel-like rim of the utter desert also seemed somewhat softened by that mellow light which diffused all the face of nature. During all the full hours of the day that rigid desert ruin, where lay the valley of the tombs of the kings, had seemed to repel, to warn back, to caution that there lay the limit beyond which the human being might not go. But in the falling light it had surrendered, and in its softer appearance it seemed to promise that it, like destiny and death, would surrender its uttermost secrets to those whose hearts were brave enough to approach it without fear.
The tea interval was over, and it was the lazy hour before dinner. Most of the travellers were in their cabins dressing, for the European ever clings to the dinner-jacket or evening blouse. On board that small steamer were men Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans whose wealth could be reckoned at over a hundred millions sterling, men who wore bad hats and rather shabby clothes, but whose women-kind were always loud-speaking and bizarre. Truly the winter world of Egypt is a strange one of moneyed leisure, of reckless extravagance, and of all the modern vices of this our twentieth-century world.
The white steamer, with its silent, pensive reis squatting in the bows with his eternal cigarette, ever watchful of the appearance of the broad grey-green waters, puffed onward around the sudden bend.
To the east, the Arabian Desert beautiful beyond words, but where, save in a few narrow oases, Nature forbade the habitancy of man stretched away to the Red Sea and far on into Asia. And to the west, frowning now as though in hatred of the green Nile with its fertility, lay the Libyan Desert, which, with its great mother the Sahara, held so much of Africa in its cruel grasp, and which was as unlovely and repelling as its sister of Arabia was bright and beautiful.
And Egypt the Egypt of life and fertility, of men and history, tradition, and of modern travel lay a green and smiling land between the two deserts as a human life lies between the two great eternities before birth and after death; or as a notable writer once put it: as the moment of the present lies between the lost past and the undiscovered future.
Waldron had already dressed, and was lying back in a long deck-chair enjoying a cigarette, and gazing away at the crimson sunset, when a tall, thin-faced man of thirty passed along the deck. He, too, was in the conventional dinner-jacket and black cravat, but to his fellow-travellers he was a mystery, for ever since joining them at Wady, Haifa he had kept himself much to himself, and hardly spoken to anyone.
His name was Henri Pujalet, and he was from Paris. His father, Henri Pujalet, the well-known banker of the Rue des Capucines, had died two years before, leaving to his eldest son his great wealth. That was all that was known of him.
Only Hubert Waldron knew the truth the secret of Lolas love.
Ah, my dear friend! he cried in his enthusiastic French way as he approached the Englishman. Well how goes it?
Very well, thanks, responded the diplomat in French, for truth to tell he had cultivated the strangers acquaintance and had watched with amused curiosity the subtle glances which Lola sometimes cast towards him.
The secret lover sank into a chair at the diplomats side and slowly lit a cigarette.
He was a good-looking even handsome man, with refined and regular features, a smiling, complacent expression, and a small, well-trimmed moustache. But his cheek-bones were high, and his eyes rather narrowly set. To-day no young Frenchman as was the fashion ten years ago wears a beard. Time was when the beard was carefully oiled, perfumed, trimmed and curled. But to-day the fashion in France is a hairless face as in America and in England.
Waldron examined his companion for the hundredth time. Yes, he was a mystery. He had given the name of Pujalet to the steward, but was that his real name? Was he the son of Pujalet, the dead banker of the Rue des Capucines?
Old Gigleux often chatted with him, for were they not compatriots? But the white-headed old fellow apparently held no suspicion that he was his nieces secret lover who had travelled those many miles from Europe in order to be near her.
The situation was not without its humours. Of all the persons on board that gay crowd returning to Cairo to spend New Years Day, only Hubert Waldron knew the truth. And as a diplomat he stood by and watched in silence, aware that the looker-on always sees most of the game.
He had had many amusing chats on deck and in the smoking-room with Henri Pujalet, whom he had found to be a much more cosmopolitan person than he had at first imagined. He seemed to know Europe well even Madrid for he spoke of certain dishes at the Lhardy and the excellence of the wines at the Tournié in the Calle Mayor, of the Flamenco at the Gate Nero, and the smart teas in the ideal room in the Calle de Alcata; all of which were familiar, of course, to Waldron.
Equally familiar to him was Petersburg, with Cubats and such-like resorts; he knew the gay Boulevard Hotel in Bucharest, and the excellence of its sterlet, the Nazionale and Father Abrahams in Rome; the Hungaria in Budapest, the Adlon in Berlin, the Pera Palace in Constantinople, as indeed most of the other well-known resorts to which the constant traveller across Europe naturally drifts at one time or another.
That Henri Pujalet was a cosmopolitan was perfectly clear to his companion. Yet he was, as certainly, a man of mystery.
Hubert Waldron, a shrewd observer and a keen investigator of anything appertaining to mystery, watched him daily, and daily became more and more interested.
His suspicions were aroused that all was not quite right. Pujalets attitude towards Lola was quite remarkable. Not by the slightest glance or gesture did he give away his secret. To all on board he was to mademoiselle a stranger, and, moreover, perfectly oblivious to her very existence.
The two men chatted idly until suddenly the dinner-gong was sounded by a black-faced, grinning Nubian, who carried it up and down the deck beating it noisily.
Then he descended to the big white-and-gold saloon, where a few moments later there assembled a merry, chattering, and laughing crowd.
In the midst of dinner Waldron rose from the table and ascended to the upper deck and got his handkerchief. As he approached his cabin, however, he saw someone leave it, and disappear round the stern of the vessel. The incident instantly impressed itself upon his mind as a curious one, and in his evening slippers he sped lightly to the end of the deck and gazed after the receding figure of the fugitive.
It was Henri Pujalet!
Waldron returned instantly to his cabin in wonder why the Frenchman had intruded there.
As far as he could see nothing had been disturbed. All was in order, just as he had left it after dressing.
Only one object had been moved his small, steel, travelling dispatch-box, enclosed in its green canvas case. This, which had been upon a shelf, was now lying upon the bed. The green canvas cover had been unfastened, displaying the patent brass lock by the famous maker.
It had been examined and tampered with. An attempt had, no doubt, been made to open it, and the person who had made that attempt was none other than the tall, good-looking man who had so swiftly and silently descended to the saloon and now, unnoticed, retaken his place at dinner.
Well, gasped Waldron, taking out his keys and unlocking the steel box to reassure himself that his private papers were intact, this is curious distinctly curious, to say the least!
Chapter Seven.
The Night of the Golden Pig
It wanted thirty minutes to midnight.
The New Years Eve fun at Shepheards Hotel in Cairo was fast and furious.
Ministerial officers and their women-folk, British officers of the garrison, officials and their wives from all parts of Egypt, Society from the other hotels, and a sprinkling of grave, brown-faced Egyptian gentlemen in frock coats and fezes, all congregate here to dine, to dance, to throw serpentines, and to make merry by touching the golden pig a real pig covered with gold paint at the coming of the New Year.
That night was no exception, for the salons were crowded to overflowing, champagne flowed freely, and everyone laughed heartily at the various antics of the great assembly. Cosmopolitan it was, in every sense of the word, for most European languages could be heard there. In the ballroom a great dance was in progress, while the supper-room was crowded to suffocation, and in the big salons one could hardly move about so dense was the well-dressed crowd.
Upon this scene Hubert Waldron gazed when he arrived in a cab from the Savoy. Though Lola, her uncle, and Miss Lambert had, on landing, obtained rooms at Shepheards, the Englishman had failed to do so, and had therefore gone to the Savoy, whither Henri Pujalet had also gone, as well as Chester Dawson, the Easthams, and several other members of the party.
Already they had been in Cairo three days, and though Waldron had watched Pujalet continuously, the lovers had not held any clandestine meeting.
As he elbowed his way through that New Years Eve crush in the big Oriental lounge, however, he suddenly came upon the pair. Lola, her face beaming with supreme pleasure, was dressed in simple, yet becoming taste in turquoise blue, with a touch of the same colour in her dark hair, while the Frenchman, erect and well-groomed, presented a particularly smart appearance. Neither noticed the diplomat, so engrossed were they in their conversation. The opportunity of meeting was, of course, a unique one, for even if her uncle discovered her how could he reprove her for dancing with a man who had been their fellow-traveller for nearly three weeks?