e on
it who would talk----"

"Had we better make it to Assiout then?" said Billy doubtfully.
"Once in the city, of course, you'd be safe----"

"How far is Assiout from Luxor? Where are we now?"

"We're Alice in Wonderland about that. Somewhere about twenty-five
or thirty miles south of Assiout, I should say. It must be
nearly a hundred and twenty, as the crow flies, from Assiout to
Thebes--that's right across from Luxor, you know."

Arlee was silent a moment. She lifted a handful of shining sands and
let them run down from her fingers in fine dust. "It's such a pity,"
she mused, "when we've such a good start----"

Billy stared.

"And I never rode a camel," she went on. "I may never have such a
chance again."

"You don't mean----?"

"It would make my story a little truer, too.... And wouldn't it be
quicker?"

"Quicker? The quickest way is to go back to Assiout and catch the
middle-of-the-night express there and get to Luxor to-morrow
morning."

Arlee sighed. "I always wanted to be a gypsy," she murmured
regretfully, "and now I've begun it's such a pity to stop.... And
I'm _afraid_ to go back!" she cried, "They will be out looking for
us--they are probably now on the way. And they'll shoot at you and
carry me off--Oh, do let's go on! Don't go back to that city! We can
catch the train another place. Oh, it's so much more _sensible_!"

"Sensible?" Billy repeated as if hypnotized.

"Why, of course it is. And safer. For all those people back there
must be in that tribe of the sheik whose house I was in, and they
are dangerous, dangerous. I want to get as far away from them as
possible. I'd rather ride all the way to Thebes than run the risk
of falling in their traps."

Billy was silent.

"And I'm sure the camels could make the trip in a couple of days,"
she continued, sounding assured now, and pleasantly argumentative.
"I used to read about their speed in my First Reader.... That is, if
you don't mind the trouble," she added apologetically, "and being
with me that day more?"

Billy choked. She looked entirely unconscious, and his dumfounded
gaze fell blankly away. "There isn't anything in the world I'd like
better," he said slowly, sounding reluctance in the effort not to
sound anything else, "but from your point of view--if we should
meet----"

"Only _fellaheen_ on the banks," she returned unconcernedly. "Not
half as awkward as people on trains."

"But the--the chaperonless aspect of this picnic----