But I am--I am,
Saadat."

"I thought that the widow in Cairo, perhaps--" Lacey chuckled. "Say,
perhaps it was--cute as she can be, maybe, wouldn't like it, might be
prejudiced."

Suddenly David turned sharply to Lacey. "Thee spoke of silver mining
just now. I owe thee something like two hundred thousand pounds, I
think--Egypt and I."

Lacey winked whimsically at himself under the rim of his helmet. "Are
you drawing back from those concessions, Saadat?" he asked with apparent
ruefulness.

"Drawing back? No! But does thee think they are worth--"

Lacey assumed an injured air. "If a man that's made as much money as me
can't be trusted to look after a business proposition--"

"Oh, well, then!"

"Say, Saadat, I don't want you to think I've taken a mean advantage of
you; and if--"

David hastened to put the matter right. "No, no; thee must be the
judge!" He smiled sceptically. "In any case, thee has done a good deed
in a great way, and it will do thee no harm in the end. In one way the
investment will pay a long interest, as long as the history of Egypt
runs. Ah, see, the houses of Assouan, the palms, the river, the masts of
the dahabiehs!"

Lacey quickened his camel's steps, and stretched out a hand to the
inviting distance. "'My, it's great," he said, and his eyes were
blinking with tears. Presently he pointed. "There's a woman riding
to meet us, Saa dat. Golly, can't she ride! She means to be in it--to
salute the returning brave."

He did not glance at David. If he had done so, he would have seen that
David's face had taken on a strange look, just such a look as it wore
that night in the monastery when he saw Hylda in a vision and heard her
say: "Speak, speak to me!"

There had shot into David's mind the conviction that the woman
riding towards them was Hylda. Hylda, the first to welcome him back,
Hylda--Lady Eglington! Suddenly his face appeared to tighten and grow
thin. It was all joy and torture at once. He had fought this fight out
with himself--had he not done so? Had he not closed his heart to all
but duty and Egypt? Yet there she was riding out of the old life, out
of Hamley, and England, and all that had happened in Cairo, to meet him.
Nearer and nearer she came. He could not see the face, but yet he
knew. He quickened his camel and drew ahead of Lacey. Lacey did not
understand, he did not recognise Hylda as yet; but he knew by instinct
the Saadat's wishes, and he motioned the others to ride more s