sed safely, and finally they edged by the second
unnoticed. They had negotiated the hundred feet of descent and stood
pressed against the bottom, hugging the black shadow. They were waiting
an opportunity to slip across a narrow sliver of intervening moonlight
to the beach and the boat which lay at the water's edge.

Occasional lazy clouds drifted across the sky. The two refugees, goaded
by the realization that every wasted second cut their desperate hope
more and more to a vanishing point, watched the fleecy scraps of mist
skim by the moon afar off without veiling its face. Then for a short
moment a shred of silver-tipped cloud cut off the radiance. Blanco
seized the King's arm in a wordless signal. Karyl and the bull-fighter
raced across to the boat that lay at the water's edge. In a moment more
it was afloat and they were at the oars. The moon emerged and at the
same instant an outcry came from above. The musket of the man in the
lower sentry-box barked with a blatant reverberation. One of the figures
in the boat drooped forward and sagged limply over his oars. The other
only redoubled his efforts. And then again, like the curtain of a
theater, a cloud dropped downward and quenched the moon and the sea and
the rock in impartial obscurity.

CHAPTER XXIII

"SCARABS OF A DEAD DYNASTY"

Since the anchor had been weighed at Naples, the days had passed
uneventfully for the indolently cruising _Isis_ with no word from
Galavia. But at last the operator caught his call and made ready to
receive. The message consisted of one word, and the word was "Cairo."

Cara, with no suspicion of what was transpiring in Puntal, beguiled by
the spell of smooth seas and _dolce-far-niente_ softness of sky, was
once more the frank and charming companion of the American days.

The single word of the Marconigram had left the American in perplexity.
Evidently either Karyl or Von Ritz was to meet them at Cairo. Probably
Cairo instead of Alexandria had been designated because the King had
taken into consideration the possible danger from the plague at the
seaport. He told Cara only that Karyl would join the vacation party
there and kept to himself the reservation that his coming probably meant
disaster. Yet when they reached Cairo there was no news awaiting them.

It was the night of a confetti fete at Shephard's Hotel. Among the trees
of the gardens were ropes of lights and the soft color-spots of Chinese
lanterns. Branches glittere