as to be found.

It was no difficult matter for Michael to let things drift, and easier
for him under the circumstances than it might otherwise have been.

It was only after his complete recovery, and at the end of his long
journey with the faithful Abdul back to the Valley, that he realized
the utter desolation which faced him.

He had said good-bye with regret and gratitude to the Omdeh, who was
every day becoming more concerned about the secret propaganda which was
being preached in the desert mosques, and had travelled as quickly as
he could, more by train than by camel, back to Luxor. On an afternoon
of blistering heat he had crossed the Nile and ridden over the plain of
Thebes. He had to rest for a little time under the cliffs which
shelter the great temple of Hatshepsu at Der-el-Bahari, before he
continued his journey up the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, to the
hut in the wrinkles of the hills.

As he rode through the Valley, his thoughts were full of his first
meeting with Margaret. He remembered how at a certain point of the
desolate track, which winds like a dry river-bed through the Theban
hills, she had said, "Does Freddy live here all alone?" and how, when
he had assured her that Freddy was well guarded by watch-dogs at night,
she had said. "But dogs couldn't keep off this!" For Margaret they
had not kept off "this," the spirit of Egypt; nothing can keep off
Egypt; its power and mystery defy both time and science.

He remembered her almost childish eagerness, when she first listened to
his explanation of Akhnaton's beliefs and teachings. Then her vision
of the suffering Pharaoh came back to him, and all her arguments
against her super-sense, which told her that she had seen the spirit of
the first divinely-inspired man. He visualized her honest eyes and
their expression of interest when he had argued with her that God had
revealed Himself to mankind in many individuals and in many countries.
Surely she could not believe that God had left a single nation without
some revelation of Himself, that he had not sent upon all nations the
gift of His Spirit by some redeemer?

Margaret had said. "You mean, don't you, that Christ revealed Himself
to all nations?"

Michael had rejected her correction, for Christ was but one of God's
manifestations of Himself upon earth. There have been others--Buddha
was one, so was Mohammed; all great reformers, and those who are
inspired with the spirit of truth,