visitor had not come."

"And Durrance left no message?"

"No. I was up myself before he started. I thought that he was puzzled
and worried. I thought, too, that he meant to tell me what was the
matter. I still think that he had that in his mind, but that he could
not decide. For even after he had taken his seat upon his saddle and his
camel had risen from the ground, he turned and looked down towards me.
But he thought better of it, or worse, as the case may be. At all
events, he did not speak. He struck the camel on the flank with his
stick, and rode slowly past the post-office and out into the desert,
with his head sunk upon his breast. I wonder whether he rode into a
trap. Who could this visitor have been whom he meets in the street of
Tewfikieh, and who must come so secretly to Wadi Halfa? What can have
been his business with Durrance? Important business, troublesome
business--so much is evident. And he did not come to transact it. Was
the whole thing a lure to which we have not the clue? Like Colonel
Dawson, I am afraid."

There was a silence after he had finished, which Major Walters was the
first to break. He offered no argument--he simply expressed again his
unalterable cheerfulness.

"I don't think Durrance has got scuppered," said he, as he rose from his
chair.

"I know what I shall do," said the colonel. "I shall send out a strong
search party in the morning."

And the next morning, as they sat at breakfast on the verandah, he at
once proceeded to describe the force which he meant to despatch. Major
Walters, too, it seemed, in spite of his hopeful prophecies, had
pondered during the night over Calder's story, and he leaned across the
table to Calder.

"Did you never inquire whom Durrance talked with at Tewfikieh on that
night?" he asked.

"I did, and there's a point that puzzles me," said Calder. He was
sitting with his back to the Nile and his face towards the glass doors
of the mess-room, and he spoke to Walters, who was directly opposite. "I
could not find that he talked to more than one person, and that one
person could not by any likelihood have been the visitor he expected.
Durrance stopped in front of a cafe where some strolling musicians, who
had somehow wandered up to Tewfikieh, were playing and singing for their
night's lodging. One of them, a Greek I was told, came outside into the
street and took his hat round. Durrance threw a sovereign into the hat,
the man turned to thank him, and th