you have?"

Calder leaned ever so slightly forward with his eyes quietly resting on
Durrance. Durrance looked round the table, and then called the
mess-waiter. "Moussa, get me something cold," said he, and the waiter
went back into the mess-room. Calder nodded his head with a faint smile,
as though he understood that here was a difficulty rather cleverly
surmounted.

"There's tea, cocoa, and coffee," he said. "Help yourself, Durrance."

"Thanks," said Durrance. "I see, but I will get Moussa to bring me a
brandy-and-soda, I think," and again Calder nodded his head.

Durrance ate his breakfast and drank his brandy-and-soda, and talked the
while of his journey. He had travelled farther eastward than he had
intended. He had found the Ababdeh Arabs quiet amongst their mountains.
If they were not disposed to acknowledge allegiance to Egypt, on the
other hand they paid no tribute to Mahommed Achmet. The weather had been
good, ibex and antelope plentiful. Durrance, on the whole, had reason to
be content with his journey. And Calder sat and watched him, and
disbelieved every word that he said. The other officers went about their
duties; Calder remained behind, and waited until Durrance should finish.
But it seemed that Durrance never would finish. He loitered over his
breakfast, and when that was done he pushed his plate away and sat
talking. There was no end to his questions as to what had passed at Wadi
Halfa during the last eight weeks, no limit to his enthusiasm over the
journey from which he had just returned. Finally, however, he stopped
with a remarkable abruptness, and said, with some suspicion, to his
companion:--

"You are taking life easily this morning."

"I have not eight weeks' arrears of letters to clear off, as you have,
Colonel," Calder returned with a laugh; and he saw Durrance's face cloud
and his forehead contract.

"True," he said, after a pause. "I had forgotten my letters." And he
rose from his seat at the table, mounted the steps, and passed into the
mess-room.

Calder immediately sprang up, and with his eyes followed Durrance's
movements. Durrance went to a nail which was fixed in the wall close to
the glass doors and on a level with his head. From that nail he took
down the key of his office, crossed the room, and went out through the
farther door. That door he left open, and Calder could see him walk down
the path between the bushes through the tiny garden in front of the
mess, unlatch the ga