nts quite motionless.

"Your father," he went on, "was a distinguished man in one of the
departments of human endeavor which the East has always neglected; and
in it he had what seemed to us incredible skill--with ease he was able
to do things which we considered impossible. And for this reason the
impulse taking him into the Gobi seemed entirely incredible to us; it
seemed entirely inconsistent with this special ability which we knew the
man to possess; and for a long time we rejected it, believing ourselves
to be somehow misled."

The girl sat straight and silent, in her chair near the brass fender
to the right of the buhl table; the drawing, showing the white granite
shaft, held idly in her fingers; the illuminated vellum wrapper fallen
to the floor.

The man continued speaking slowly.

"When, finally, it was borne in upon us that Major Carstair was seeking
a treasure somewhere on the barren plateau of the Gobi, we took every
measure, consistent with a proper courtesy, to show him how fantastic
this notion was. We had, in fact, to exercise a certain care lest
the very absurdity of the conception appear too conspicuously in our
discourse."

He looked across the table at the girl.

The man's great bald head seemed to sink a little into his shoulders, as
in some relaxation.

"We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes
and trails veining the whole of it. We explained the topography of this
desert plateau; the exact physical character of its relief. There was
hardly a square mile of it that we did not know in some degree, and
of which we did not possess some fairly accurate data. It was entirely
inconceivable that any object of value could exist in this region
without our knowledge of it."

The man was speaking like one engaged in some extremely delicate
mechanical affair, requiring an accuracy almost painful in its
exactness.

"Then, profoundly puzzled, we endeavored to discover what data Major
Carstair possessed that could in any way encourage him in this fantastic
idea. It was a difficult thing to do, for we held him in the highest
esteem and, outside of this bizarre notion, we had before us, beyond any
question, the evidence of his especial knowledge; and, as I have said,
his, to us, incredible skill."

He paused, as though the careful structure of the long sentence had
fatigued him.

"Major Carstair's explanations were always in the imagery of romance.
He sought 'a treasure--a