ky knew, and five minutes from the time Mahommed Yeleb had
left him he was on his way to Ismail's palace, with his kavass behind
him, cool and ruminating as usual, now answering a salute in Turkish
fashion, now in English, as Egyptians or Europeans passed him.

II

There was one being in the Khedive's palace whose admiration for Dicky
was a kind of fetish, and Dicky loathed him. Twice had Dicky saved
this Chief Eunuch's life from Ismail's anger, and once had he saved
his fortune--not even from compassion, but out of his inherent love of
justice. As Dicky had said: "Let him die--for what he has done, not for
something he has not done. Send him to the devil with a true bill
of crime." So it was that Dicky, who shrank from the creature whom
Ministers and Pashas fawned upon--so powerful was his unique position
in the palace--went straight to him now to get his quid-pro-quo, his
measure for measure.

The tall, black-coated, smooth-faced creature, silent and watchful and
lean, stepped through the doorway with the footfall of a cat. He slid
forward, salaamed to the floor-Dicky wondered how a body could open and
shut so like the blade of a knife--and, catching Dicky's hand, kissed
it.

"May thy days be watered with the dew of heaven, saadat el basha," said
the Chief Eunuch.

"Mine eyes have not seen since thy last withdrawal," answered Dicky
blandly, in the high-flown Oriental way.

"Thou hast sent for me. I am thy slave."

"I have sent for thee, Mizraim. And thou shalt prove thyself, once for
all, whether thy hand moves as thy tongue speaks."

"To serve thee I will lay down my life--I will blow it from me as the
wind bloweth the cotton flower. Have I not spoken thus since the Feast
of Beiram, now two years gone?"

Dicky lowered his voice. "Both Mustapha Bey, that son of the he-wolf
Selamlik Pasha, still follow the carriage of the Khedive's favourite,
and hang about the walls, and seek to corrupt thee with gold, Mahommed
Mizraim?"

"Saadat el basha, but for thy word to wait, the Khedive had been told
long since."

"It is the sport to strike when the sword cuts with the longest arm, O
son of Egypt!"

The face of Mizraim was ugly with the unnatural cruelty of an unnatural
man. "Is the time at hand, saadat el basha?"

"You hate Selamlik Pasha?"

"As the lion the jackal."

Dicky would have laughed in scorn if he might have dared--this being to
class himself with lions! But the time was not fit for laughter. "