THE SECRET MONNY KEPT
Cairo at last! My watch said that the journey took only three hours;
but my nerves said six.
I had telegraphed Biddy first thing in the morning the hour of my
arrival with the "_Candace crowd_," and I half expected to see her at
the big white and red station, but there was no familiar form in the
throng, the gay throng which excited my charges. Everything interested
them; the black face of the Sudanese engine driver who looked down from
his huge British locomotive, the display of English, French and German
literature mingled with Greek, Italian, Arab, or Turkish papers on the
bookstall; the ebony and copper-coloured luggage carriers who seemed
eager to take one another's lives, but in reality desired no more than
to snatch each other's jobs, under the eyes of the uniformed
hotel-porters. To me, the busy place was a desert, lacking one face.
Even outside the station-yard, and in the streets and squares where
silent camels looked their contempt of electric trams, soldiers in
khaki uniforms jostled Bedouins in khaki robes, and drivers of arabeahs
made the way one long procession of shrieks, I still glanced at passing
carriages in hopes of a belated Biddy. All in vain! And destitute of
news I resigned myself to the task of piloting the Set out to Mena
House. The moon would be full that night--and it's "the thing" to be a
neighbour of the Sphinx while the moon feeds her with honey.
The Flock, under the guidance of Mr. Watts, had now definitely parted
from the Set, chieftained by me. They went meekly off to the cheaper
hotels, where they would live before boarding the _Candace_ again for
Palestine, and Colonel Corkran, who was supposed to have joined that
party, had announced that he was "bound for a long talk with Mark the
Lark." Mr. Watts, refused by Enid Biddell and separated from her, had
relapsed into melancholia. He had ceased to brilliantine his once sleek
hair, and dust and crumbs were allowed to collect in each fold of his
clerical waistcoat. As we of the Set buzzed richly away in taxicabs, I
saw him in a shabby arabeah between two old ladies, gazing wistfully
after us. He was envying me Enid!
It is a wonderful drive through Cairo to the Pyramids, whether you spin
out there in a motor, or trot on a donkey, or lilt on a camel,
squatting cross-legged on a load of green bersím. Past the great
swinging bridge, and the Island of Ghezireh (the word that in itself
means "island") begins the six-mile dyke, which is the road made by
Ismaïl to please the Empress Eugénie. Since her visit, in the days when
the Suez Canal was opened, it has pleased two empresses, and more
queens than I have time to count. Under the deep shade of lebbek trees
it goes on and on, toward the Pyramids, a dark cool avenue, high above
cultivated fields flooded by the Nile when the river is "up." The
emerald waves of grain flow like green water to the foot of the broad
dyke-road, and canals like long, tight-drawn blue ribbons are threaded
through it, their ends lost to sight at the shimmering horizon.
Even at this noon hour when the world should have been eating lotuses
or luncheon, the interminable arbour was crowded with strings of
camels, forever going both ways, into Cairo and out, one wondered why
--and there were flocks of woolly brown sheep, and donkeys drawing
sideless carts in which whole families of veiled women and half-naked
children were seated tailor fashion. On we spun, past the Zoo, past
scattered villas of Frenchified, Oriental fashion which might have been
designed by a confectioner: past azure lakes left by the ebbing Nile,
and so into sudden dazzling sight of three geometric mountains in a
tawny desert--two, monsters in size, and one a baby trying to catch up
with them.
"Oh!" everybody breathed. For these things were beyond words.
Then in a moment more the Great Pyramid had grown so big that it loomed
over us, and ate up half the sky--a pyre of yellow flame against a
flame of blue.
We were at the end of the shadowy road that leads like a causeway to
the desert, and on the verge of the golden, billowing sea which flows
round the Pyramids and engulfs the distant Sphinx. Oriental life
encircled us, in the foreground of the picture--a long row of waiting
camels gaily saddled and tasselled, delicately nibbling bersím green as
heaped emeralds--donkeys white and gray, beribboned and beaded--small
yellow sandcarts; little white, desert horses and tall brown, desert
men; camels snarling, donkeys braying, horses whinnying, and men
touting. "Very nice sandcarts--very nice camels! Take ladies and
gentlemen quick to Pyramids and Sphinx or Petrified Forest!" Farther
on, the big, modern hotel, rather like an overgrown Swiss chalet built
by Arabs--a vast, confused building the colour of sand or brown heather
honey, with carved mushrbiyeh work lending an Eastern charm to windows,
balconies, and loggias, and enough green, flowery garden to give a
sensational effect of contrast with the tidal wave of desert poised
ready, it would seem, to overwhelm palms and roses. Clustered near, the
tiny mushroom village which huddles under the shelter of Cheops'
Pyramid. Beyond, the immense upward sweep of golden dunes, culminating
in the Great Pyramid itself.
I stayed in the picture only long enough to settle my big children into
their quarters, and to see most of them making for the dining-room,
agreeably Oriental with its white and red walls, its dome and windows
of mushrbiyeh work. Then I darted back to Cairo, in a taxi driven by a
Nubian youth, so black that he was almost blue, like a whortleberry. He
wore a scarlet tarboosh, a livery of violet, and the holes for silver
rings in the tops of his ears were so large that the light shining
through gave the effect of inserted diamonds. Unconsciously he made a
nice contrast with his modern motor.
He drove with such reckless speed that camels "rubber-necked" to look
at us--and whirled me past the fat black gate-keeper into the Ghezireh
Palace garden of scarlet paths, moonlike lamps, Khedivial statues, and
spreading banyans where each tree continued itself in its own "next
number," like an endless serial romance.
I nearly asked for Mrs. O'Brien, but turned her into Jones at the
danger point. The face of the concierge, as he said that she was at
home, conveyed nothing, yet I could not resist adding, "Are the ladies
well?"
"Mrs. East is not very well to-day," he replied. "We have had the
doctor; but the young ladies have been out spending the night with
friends, I believe. They have not yet returned."
It was a long five minutes before Biddy and I were wildly shaking hands
in a huge private sitting-room all red-and-gold brocade and crystal
chandeliers, as it had been in the days of Ismaïl. I knew I should be
delighted to see her, but I didn't realize that it was going to be
quite as good as it was.
"Anyhow, _you're_ all right and safe," I heard myself blurt out.
"I'm safe, but not all right!" she reproached me. "My messenger who
went to the train didn't find you from my description, I know, because
he came back with my note----"
"Too flattering, was your description, or the other way?" I asked,
trying to buoy her up with frivolity.
"You wouldn't joke if you'd read the note. Oh, Ernest, Monny and Rachel
have disappeared!"
"Good gracious! But Anthony----"
"He went to look for them, of course; and he's disappeared, too."
"By Jove!" The exclamation sounded inadequate, but I was so taken aback
that I had nothing else to say. It seemed impossible that Anthony,
instead of averting danger, could be involved in it himself. It was
unlike his resourcefulness. I could not believe it of him, and so,
when I had time to control mind and tongue, I said as much to Biddy.
"Yes, I felt like that, too, at first," she admitted. "He gives one the
impression of being so infallible in any emergency, somehow, as if he'd
be above it, and look down on it from his height. But it's more than
twelve hours since he went, and he promised to send me word how things
were going on if he couldn't get to me himself. No word has come."
"What have you done?" I asked. "Have you communicated with the police?"
"Sir Marcus Lark has. He was at the ball, and has been very good. But
it's for Mrs. East's sake, mostly. One feels he's glad it happened, to
give him the chance to win her gratitude--or something. He's been back
and forth all day; and I'm expecting him any minute. Mrs. East has been
fainting and hysterical, and everything early Edwardian, so I sent for
a doctor. But she's better on the strength of _sal volatile_ and
eggnog, and she's promised to see Sir Marcus."
"Now tell me what happened, from the beginning," I said, when I had
made Biddy sit down by me on the sofa, and was trying to warm a cold
little hand in mine.
What it all amounted to, told disjointedly, was this: Since Monny had
had an inspiration the day after our arrival in Cairo, to give Rachel
Guest a lot of her new unworn clothes, Rachel had become quite girlish
and "flighty." She had lost her puritan primness, and behaved more in
accordance with her slanting eyes than with her bringing up. She
giggled like a schoolgirl rather than a schoolmistress, tried to make
herself look young, and copied Monny in the way she tilted her hat and
dressed her hair. No harm in this; but it had seemed to Biddy that
Rachel deliberately incited the girl to do things which "Antoun"
disapproved. Brigit fancied that Bedr's influence had been at work, for
knowing as he did that "Antoun" would gladly have given him marching
orders, he took pleasure in thwarting his superior when he could do so
with safety. Bedr had been clever in enlisting the girls' sympathy for
his soul. As for Biddy, she had disliked him from the first, and
imagined that he had tacked himself onto our party as a spy, upon the
receipt of orders from America, he having learned most of his English
there. The idea appeared so far-fetched that she had abandoned it. Now,
however, it was again hovering at the back of her mind.
Bedr had told Rachel stories of the fascination of hasheesh smoking,
and had said that no stranger knew Cairo who did not visit one of the
"best houses" where hasheesh, though forbidden, was still secretly
smoked. He had assured her that there were several which were
"perfectly respectable," even for the "nicest ladies and gentlemen;"
and Rachel, probably at his suggestion, had tried to persuade Monny to
make the expedition. Monny had mentioned it to "Antoun," in the
presence of everybody; and as Rachel and Bedr had looked guilty, Biddy
guessed that they had wished to keep the plan a secret.
"Antoun" had perhaps too brusquely vetoed the idea. He said that there
were no such houses, which could be visited by ladies, and that it was
absurd to think of going. That word "absurd" stung Monny. She began to
protest that Bedr knew Cairo as well as Antoun did, and was as likely
to be right. "I don't see why we shouldn't go, if others do," she
persisted, "and I've always longed to know what a hasheesh dream was
like, ever since I read De Quincey. A little, just once, could do us no
harm, and Rachel says----"
But what Rachel had said was evidently not for publication. Miss Guest
stopped her with a hand on hers, and a "_Dear_ Monny, please don't let
us think of it any more, if Antoun Effendi disapproves. Maybe it was a
silly idea, and we've plenty of amusing things to do every minute."
Monny was apparently contented to let the idea slip, and Brigit had
thought that, in the excitement of getting ready for the ball, she and
Rachel had really forgotten it. Then, before writing me, she had
overheard Rachel say to her friend, "It's for twelve o'clock sharp."
And Monny had answered, "Won't it be _great!_ Does Bedr think----" But
she had stopped short at sight of Brigit.
Even this did not suggest to Biddy a visit to a "hasheesh den," for
various other plans had been broached and discouraged by "Antoun." She
did not feel that, as she was not supposed to know his real status, she
could go "blabbing" to him; and fearing that mischief was on foot, she
had wished for me. When I didn't arrive, she soothed herself by
reflecting that, after all, she need only keep a sharp watch over Monny
when midnight drew near. None of the party intended to dance, and so it
would be easy, Brigit thought, to "have an eye upon the girls."
Monny had bought Oriental costumes for herself and Rachel. They were
rather conspicuous, luckily for Biddy's plan, for among the many
gorgeous dresses in the Casino she had no difficulty in tracking those
two. Until half past eleven, she told herself, she need not be on the
alert every instant; but therein had lain her mistake. Sir Marcus Lark
had appeared, dressed (more or less) as a Roman officer of the
Occupation days, he having heard Mrs. East remark that, "whatever
_anybody_ said, it was her favourite period." The lady, of course, had
not missed such an opportunity to appear as Cleopatra. She had brought
a costume with her from New York; and while Biddy "lost herself" in
watching the effect of this magnificence on Sir Marcus, the girls
vanished.
Without alarming Mrs. East, Brigit had begun to search. She asked
everybody she knew in the ballroom if the girls had gone out, and
inquired in the cloakroom; but the two had been seen by nobody. It was
as if they had melted into air; and Brigit began to suspect that they
must have covered up their brilliant dresses with dominoes smuggled
into the Casino. Willis Bailey was at the ball, but he had developed a
flirtation with Miss Guest, and Biddy felt that he was not to be
trusted as a confidant. Perhaps, too, he had helped the girls to
disappear. It seemed cruel to frighten Mrs. East, when the scheme,
whatever it was, might be no more than an innocent freak; so Biddy said
nothing to Queen Cleopatra or her Roman attendant. She slipped across
the garden to the hotel, and sent an Arab messenger off in a taxi with
a note to the address "Antoun" had told her would find him. In less
than an hour he arrived, and when he had listened to her account of
what had happened, he said after a minute's reflection that the ladies
had almost surely gone with Bedr to some hasheesh den, or a place
masquerading as such. "Antoun" consoled Biddy as well as he could, by
saying that no harm would come to Miss Gilder or Miss Guest. Bedr would
know too well on which side his bread was buttered to take his clients
where insult or danger could reach them. Off "Antoun" went to look for
the missing ones though, and assured Biddy that she should have news as
soon as possible.
It was not till three o'clock that she had begun to be very anxious,
and had disturbed the harmony of Sir Marcus Lark's duet with Mrs. East.
Even then she would not have spoken had she not feared that the ball
would break up, and there would be no man to appeal to!
Sir Marcus had been inclined to smile at the notion of danger; but he,
like Anthony Fenton, was ignorant of any private qualms which troubled
Brigit O'Brien. She could not tell him who she was, and that she
considered herself far from being a "mascot" to her fellow-travellers.
If she had told, and added that she feared enemies who might for
certain reasons make a mistake in Monny's identity, he would have
laughed his hearty laugh, and said that such melodramatic things didn't
happen, even in Egypt.
"But _you_ know," Biddy appealed to me, "that melodramatic things
_have_ happened to me and those near me. I'm not even _sure_ that poor
Richard's death was natural, though I watched over him like a hawk in
those dreadful days when he was fearing every shadow, and we were
flitting from pillar to post, with Esmé. Through Richard two men were
electrocuted. He used to get threatening letters forwarded from place
to place, always signed with the same initials, and he wouldn't tell me
what they meant. It was because of them that he hid Esmé in a
convent-school before he died; for she was threatened as well as he. I,
too, for the matter of that! Not that the child or I had done the
organization any harm; but Esmé is of his blood, and they may have
thought I had more of their secrets than I really have. I've not used
the name of O'Brien for years now, and I've moved about so much that
sometimes I have felt I must be safe. Still, I ought perhaps not to
have gone to visit Esmé, though she wrote and begged me to, for special
reasons I needn't bother you with: a curious little love romance which
I fear must end badly. I didn't think of danger to Monny; but you see,
as I've told you, the convent isn't far from Monaco. I got off the
_Laconia_ there, to visit Esmé, and when I came on board again, Monny
and Mrs. East and Rachel came with me. They'd been in Italy and France,
and had picked up Miss Guest, who was only too enchanted to batten on
Monny's kindness and dollars. It was I who had engaged their
staterooms, on a cable from Monny, long before. And if there were a spy
anywhere, he might have the idea that I wanted to smuggle Esmé out of
her convent by a trick, and--"
"But almost every one must know Miss Gilder's face from her photographs
in newspapers," I broke in, on a stifled sob of Biddy's. "She couldn't
be mistaken for another girl, as an unimportant young person might."
"I'm not sure. Those photographs were snapshots, and very bad, as you
must know if you've ever seen any. Monny never gave a portrait of
herself to a newspaper, and it's years since they got hold of a good
one. Besides, if she weren't mistaken for Esmé O'Brien, that wretched
Bedr might have made up a plot to have her kidnapped for ransom. It was
the thing Monny's father was always afraid of--absurdly afraid of, I
_used_ to think."
"I think so still," I said. "Such things don't happen--anywhere, to a
grown-up girl."
"What about Raisuli in Tangier?" Biddy challenged me. "He used to
kidnap people whenever he liked. And so do lots of brigands."
"We haven't to do with brigands."
"Oh, what's in a name? And I wouldn't put _anything_ past that horrid
Bedr."
"As Anthony said to you, he knows which side his bread's buttered."
"But if he hopes some one will give him more butter for being wicked
than he can get from us for being good?"
"Let's not think of far-fetched contingencies, dear," said I. "Now
you've told me all, I will try to do something--"
"May I come in?" boomed a big voice at the door. "I knocked and nobody
answered, so I thought the room would be empty--"
Biddy dropped my hand like a hot potato. She had jumped up so quickly
from our sofa that Sir Marcus Lark's observant eyes could hardly have
seen us sitting there together.
"Of course, come in," she said. "Have you anything to tell? But I'll
call Mrs. East. She won't like you to begin without her."
Biddy darted off to an adjoining room, leaving me alone with my
employer.
"What do you think of this affair?" I wanted to know. "Well," said he,
"I can only judge other men by myself. If I had such a chance to appear
a hero in the eyes of a pretty woman as Fenton has, I'm afraid I'd be
tempted to take advantage of it, even if I had to play some trick to
make myself indispensable. Now you see in a nutshell what I think.
Captain Fenton will certainly rescue those young ladies from a trap if
he has to make the trap himself."
I was disgusted, and shrugged my shoulders. "You have a poor opinion of
Fenton," I said.
"On the contrary, I think very highly of his intelligence. I'm not
worrying about any one of the three, though don't mention it to Mrs.
East or Mrs. Jones that I said so. I've come to tell them that my men
have searched Cairo and found nothing. Not the police, you know; I
haven't applied to the police after all. I thought Fenton would be
furious. And anyhow it might make talk. But I've paid the best
dragomans in town to look sharp; and they know as much about this old
place as the police do, if not more. By the way, Lord Ernest, did
Corkran say anything to you about an intention to throw over his job on
the _Candace_?"
"No. He said he was going to call on you, that's all."
"He did call. I was out--on this business, as it happens. He waited,
and I found him, making himself at home in my sitting-room--which I use
as a kind of office. I wish I knew how many of my letters and papers
he'd had time to read."
"Surely he wouldn't--"
"I shouldn't say 'surely' was the word. I'd gone out in a hurry and
left things scattered about--which isn't my habit. When I came back, it
struck me that my desk looked a bit tempting for a man with a retired
conscience. I was going to keep him on the _Candace_, rather than fuss,
because it wasn't so much his fault as mine that he was the wrong man
in the place. He couldn't do any harm in Jerusalem, it seemed. Let him
wail in the Jews' Wailing Place, if he'd any complaints, said I to
myself. I thought he was too keen on money to resign because his silly
pride was hurt. But to my surprise, he informed me that he'd come to
'hand in his papers,' as he called it. So much the worse for his pocket
and the better for mine! Only it struck me as d--d queer, considering
Corkran's character. I wanted to ask if he'd spit out any venom to
you."
"Not a drop," said I. But I, too, thought it queer, considering
Corkran's character, and the fact that having resigned of his own free
will, he could hardly expect Lark to pay his way home. It even occurred
to me to wonder if the resignation were not a sudden thought of the
Colonel's. He had spoken several times of going on to Palestine, and
had mentioned the trip that morning. Had Sir Marcus said something
inadvertently, which had so piqued Corkran that he threw over his
appointment on the impulse? Or had he perhaps been dishonourable enough
to glance at a letter, in which Lark referred to him in terms
uncomplimentary?
As I asked myself these questions, Mrs. East came in with Brigit, and
Sir Marcus forgot me. His face said "What a woman!" And anxiety was
becoming to Cleopatra. It gave to her that thrilling look which only
beautiful Jewesses or women of Latin race ever wear: a look of all the
tragedy and mystery of womanhood since Eve. "What news of _them_?" she
asked Sir Marcus, when she had given a ringed hand and an almond-eyed
glance to me.
"No news exactly," said the big man, "but I feel sure your niece and
her friend are safe--"
"My niece and her friend!" exclaimed Cleopatra, ungratefully frowning.
"Why do you say nothing of 'Antoun?' Does nobody care what becomes of
him?"
As she spoke, there was a knock at the door. One of the Arab servants
of the hotel announced that a man had a letter for Mrs. Jones.
"Mrs. Jones?" cried Biddy. "I am Mrs. Jones. Where's the letter?"
"That man not give it to us. He say he see you or not give it at all."
"Well, why didn't you send him up?"
"Arab mans not let in hotel, if peoples don't ask for them."
"An Arab! Not--not--is he a stranger?"
"Yes, Missis. Very low man. Never comed before."
"Bring him here--quick!"
Five minutes passed. We tried to talk, but could think of nothing to
say. Then the servant returned, ushering in a dwarfish Arab in a dirty
white turban, and the shabby black galabeah worn only by the poor who
cannot afford good materials and the bright colours loved by Egyptians.
"From Antoun Effendi?" asked Biddy, in excitement, as he held out a
piece of folded paper, not in an envelope.
The man shook his head. "He spik no English," explained the servant who
waited.
"_You_ talk to him," Biddy appealed to me, while Cleopatra told the
hotel footman that he might go. But I had no time to question the
messenger. Biddy cried out as she unfolded the paper. "Why, Duffer,
inside it's addressed to you! It says:
"'For Lord Ernest Borrow. To be opened by Mrs. Jones in his absence.'"
Within the outer wrapping was a second folded paper, of the same kind.
They looked like sheets torn from a notebook. And I saw that the
address, scrawled in pencil, was in Anthony's handwriting.