ow a ligure, an agate, and an
amethyst'?" Millicent trilled off the text laughingly.

"You have stooped to spying," he said. "You have an eavesdropper in
your camp?"

"'Verily those who do deeds of real goodness shall drink of a cup
tempered with camphor'! Well, is it tempered enough, Michael?" She
laughed mockingly, derisively. "Was the deed pure goodness? Was this
fanatic not the 'favoured of God' who was to lead you to Akhnaton's
treasure?"

"Go!" he cried. "I have heard enough!"

"And take all my provisions and medicines with me!"

"We must do the best we can for him without your luxuries, if you have
no mercy, no heart for the suffering."

"And how are you going to get rid of me?"

"You are going. I don't know how, but you're going."

"What if I refuse to go?"

"You won't."

Millicent laughed.

"You won't," he repeated. "You must go. You can't stay."

"And why?"

"Because. . . ." Michael hesitated. "Because . . . you know . . . you
know why . . . you know, what you have just said."

"Because you are afraid you will end by being my lover?"

"No. Because I wish to be free of spies and hindrances."

"Then I do hinder? You know my spying has not hurt you!" Her eyes
glowed.

Michael gazed sternly into them. He never lied. With him the truth
was instinctive, masterful; it was the keynote of his religion. "Yes,"
he said. "You are a spiritual hindrance. I am a human man--you are a
sensual woman. You have determined to do everything in your power to
keep me ever mindful of the fact. Because I love Margaret Lampton and
I do not love you, you have determined to make me unworthy of her, you
have trapped me and tricked me and followed me into the wilderness."

"You must admit I managed that part of the job very neatly."
Millicent's words were brave, but a little fear had crept into her
heart. Michael was in no mood for trifling. Her game was lost.

"How did you do it?" he said. His hands tightened; they held her
shoulders. The gentle aesthete was a furious Celt. He wished that it
was a man with whom he was dealing.

Still Millicent was brave, her voice scornful. "_Baksheesh_--the
moving finger in the East."

"You contemptible creature!" he said. "Who did you pay?"

"That would be telling."

"I know it would," he said. "And you are going to tell me." He held
her with painful firmness.

Millicent's courage gave way. Michael's eyes alarmed her. Something
in them war