er, in his hand. Tall and bearded, in his flowing white
robes, he might have been Moses praying apart in the wilderness,
pleading for the children of Israel until the anger of the Lord was
turned away.

With inimitable dignity he came towards the two riders, who had so
suddenly appeared in the Valley. He was the trusted servant of the
Excavation Society; his duty it was to patrol the district which
surrounded the freshly-opened tomb, the one which Freddy had
discovered; his duty it was also to see that no harm came to the hut,
to which the Effendi Lampton would return in the autumn.

When Michael asked him for information about the Effendi Lampton, he
threw back his head. He had heard nothing from him, or about him,
since he had left the Valley and that was in the second week in May.
He had gone away in a great hurry, and had left some of the settling of
his papers and the packing of his _antikas_ which were in the hut, in
charge of the Effendi King. When Michael questioned him if the _Sitt_,
his sister, had remained with him until he left the Valley, the
_gaphir_ appeared uncertain; he, personally, had not seen the _Sitt_,
but then he had only come to take up his job the day before Mistrr
Lampton had gone away; the _Sitt_ might have been there--he did not
know.

As the dignified personage seemed to be disinclined to volunteer any
information, and he was unable to give Michael a satisfactory answer to
the questions he asked him, there was nothing else to do but to let him
return to his meditations. Michael supposed that there were native
mounted police in the Valley, whom the man could call to his assistance
if any trouble arose; they would appear from some sheltered fold in the
hills in answer to his signal.

Down the Valley of Death, in which the flames of the inferno seemed to
have licked and scorched the dry air ever since the world was created,
Michael rode with Abdul at his side. He had turned his back on the
hut, for the place thereof knew him no more. Freddy and Margaret had
left it; it was as though their presence there had never been. He knew
that he had been foolish to hope to find either Freddy or Margaret in
the Valley; it was far too late in the season and too hot for any
excavating work in Egypt. This he had been conscious of, but in his
heart he felt the urging necessity of going to the Valley and proving
the fact with his own eyes. Perhaps there was hidden in the back of
his mind a hope t