his enemies would quail before him,
how terrified and amazed they would be!

In an ecstasy of wonder and surprise Margaret called to him. Her voice
broke the spell; her eyes saw nothing, nothing but the shadows and the
half-lights shed by her inadequate gas-jet in the large room.

She fell on her knees beside her bed. She must get closer to God, she
must feel Him, for there was no human being in whom she could confide.
She was terribly alone; her body hungered for arms of sympathy, her mind
for understanding ears. The lonely and love-starved will know how she
craved to be gathered up and comforted; how she longed to throw off her
self-reliance, to let it be lost in a strength which would make her feel
like a little child in a giant's arms. As only God knows what is in our
hearts, only God understood her unspoken prayer. He was not shocked by
its pitiful humanity. That night He permitted the tired V.A.D. to sleep
in the strength of His everlasting arms.

CHAPTER XXI

Some few days later a letter arrived for Margaret from Hadassah Ireton.
It contained interesting and surprising news. Michael Ireton had been
thrown in close contact with one of the excavators who had formed the
camp in the hills behind Tel-el-Amarna--they were now both employed in
the same Government office in Assiut.

From the excavator Michael Ireton had learned that the secret police
had traced the movements of the native who had given the Government the
information about the chambers in the hills, and had discovered him.
But, as bad luck would have it, he was ill with smallpox and incapable
of giving any information. The man had died without recovering
consciousness. The excavators had become more and more convinced that
he had stolen the treasure, and that it was now resting in its second
hiding-place, awaiting, it was to be hoped, its final discovery.

If the man had recovered, his information could no doubt have been
bought. To an Eastern a guinea in the hand is worth twenty in the bank.

The reason, Hadassah explained, for the excavators' belief that there
had been a hidden treasure, of jewels if not of gold, was the fact that
half a mile or more beyond the site of the excavation three uncut
jewels of considerable value had been found in the open desert. They
had been covered and hidden from sight by the drifting sand, and there
they would have lain perhaps for ever but for the stumbling of a tired
donkey, which was carrying