I made, however, the best of a bad job, and having
fortified myself with a good breakfast, I started off laden like a
pack-horse for the Hill of Rakh. Having covered four miles, I stopped. Miss Ottley and Captain Frankfort Weldon had suddenly come into view. They were mounted. I sat down on my baggage, lighted a cigarette and
waited. Common elementary Christian charity would compel them to offer
me a lift. It was a good thought. It is not right that a man should
work like a beast. And, besides, it was cheering to see Miss Ottley
again. She came up looking rather care-worn and a good deal surprised. I arose and doffed my hat like a courtier. Captain Weldon touched his
helmet with his whip by way of salute. He might have just stepped out
of a bandbox. I felt he did not like me. The girl looked at me with
level brows. "Sir Robert well and strong again?" I asked. "Quite," said Miss Ottley. "We were on our way to pay you a visit," observed the Captain. "Sir Robert wants me," I hazarded. Miss Ottley shrugged her shoulders. "Does he?" she asked, then added
with a tinge of irony, "You seem content to be one of those who are
always neglected until a need arises for their services. Does it appear
impossible that we might have contemplated a friendly call?" "I have no parlour tricks," I explained. Her lip curled. "You need not tell me. You left without troubling to
bid me as much as a good-day. How long ago? Three weeks. Why?" Her tone
was really imperious. "But I left a benediction on the doorstep," I responded. "You looked
cross and I was in a hurry." Her eyes blazed; they were beautiful to see. "Where are you going?" she
demanded. "To call on your father." "You have a load," observed the Captain. "A mere nothing." "Is not that a tent?" "I am shifting camp." "That nigger chap--Yazouk--came along last evening. But he vanished
during the night. We fancied something might have happened." "Oh, Yazouk. He broke a cup and feared I would turn him into a hyena,
so he ran away." "What!" shouted the Captain. "A superstitious creature," I shrugged. The Captain shook with laughter. "We wondered how you had tamed him,"
he chuckled presently--"after the bout. 'Pon honour, you served him
very prettily. Straight from the shoulder and savate, too. The dragoman
declares you have the evil eye." "Have you lost your donkey, Dr. Pinsent?" demanded Miss Ottley. "He expired suddenly last evening." Captain Weldon frowned and sat up very straight in his saddle. "Eh?" he said and looked a question. "I had an Arab visitor. My visitor or another killed my donkey with a
knife. I should like to have caught him in the act." "My dream," said Miss Ottley, and caught her breath. "By Jove," said the Captain, "it is really wonderful--but wait--you had
a visitor, Doctor?" "I believe it." "Did he offer to attack you?" "The spirit of the cavern!" cried the girl. "A lunatic of an Arab," I retorted, "and so little of a spirit that I
had hard work to prevent him throttling me." "But the face. Did you see the face?" "Our friend of the cavern," I admitted. Miss Ottley glanced at the Captain, then back at me. She was as white
as a lily. "I knew it," she said. "I saw him kill the donkey and steal upon
you--in a dream. His hands were bloody--and, look, there is blood still
on your throat." "My cask was empty, so perforce I could not wash," I murmured. The
Captain looked thunderstruck. "It's the most wonderful thing," he kept
repeating, "the most wonderful thing in the world." "And I never thought of looking in the mirror. It was packed up," I
went on. I took out a rather grimy kerchief and began to rub at my neck. "Has that wretched Arab--worried you at all--since I left, Miss Ottley?" "I have seen him twice--and once more" (she shuddered) "in my dream." "And where did you see him out of dreams?" "Once in the cavern and once in my father's tent. Each time at night. Each time he vanished like a shadow." "Did anyone else see him?" "My father and Captain Weldon." "The most hideous brute I ever saw," commented the Captain; "you could
put a good-sized head between his eyes. And such eyes. Dull as mud, but
horribly intelligent." "Well, well," said I. "We'll know more about him some day soon,
perhaps, that is, if we stay long enough at the Hill of Rakh. He has a
hiding thereabouts--without a doubt. Your father is pining to open the
tomb of Ptahmes, I suppose, Miss Ottley?" "He has opened it," she answered. "Oh!" I exclaimed--and stopped dead in the act of naming Sir Robert a
thankless perjurer. The girl was looking at me hard. "You are surprised?" "Curious," I growled. It was hard to say, for I was furious. "I cannot enlighten your curiosity," she said. "No?" "He permitted no one to be present to assist him. It took place the day
before yesterday in the cave temple. And the tomb is now closed again." "You are then unaware what is discovered?" "Perfectly." "And Sir Robert?" "You will find my father greatly changed, Dr. Pinsent." "Indeed." "He seems to be quite strong, but he has aged notably, and he will
hardly condescend to converse with anyone, even me. Moreover, the
subject of Ptahmes is tabooed. The very name enrages him. Dr.
Belleville has forbidden it to be mentioned in his hearing." "Humph!" said I. "If my donkey were alive I should go to Kwansu
straight. But as it is I shall have to trespass for a stretch on your
preserves at Rakh. I hate it, too, for your father has broken faith
with me." "Ah!" cried the girl. "He promised that you should help him open the
tomb." "Exactly." "You must not be hard on him. I believe that he is not quite himself." "Oh! I am accustomed to that sort of treatment from the Ottleys," I
replied. It was brutal beyond question, but I was past reckoning on niceties
with rage. Captain Weldon turned scarlet and raised his whip. "Dr.
Pinsent," he cried, "you forget yourself. For two pins----" then he
stopped--having met my eyes. I laughed in his face. "Why not?" I
queried jibingly. "It would be not only chivalrous--a lady looking
on--but safe. Have you ever seen a St. Bernard hurt a spaniel?" He went deathly and slashed me with his whip. Poor boy. I never blamed
him. I'd have done the same myself. As for me, the blow descended and
cooled my beastly temper, which was an unmitigated blessing. I took
his whip away and gave it back to him. Then I laughed out, tickled at
the humour of the situation, though it only told against myself. "I
had intended accepting your offer of your mule for my belongings," I
chuckled. "You haven't offered him, but that's a detail. And now I
can't." I shook with laughter. Weldon leaped on instant to the ground. "Do, do!" he almost groaned. He was a generous youngster. "And forgive me!" he said. "If you can--it
was a coward blow." "Gladly I'll forgive you," I replied, and we clasped hands. "I'll help you load the beast," said he. But I put my foot on my baggage. "That mule," I said, "belongs to Sir
Robert Ottley. I'll not risk the breaking of his back."