ing to probabilities. He was very generous with the boy, and
the droll little brown face was lined with grins. Most naively he
besought that the American would not reveal the extent of his
donations to Mohammed, the one-eyed man, as the boys had promised
their employer a just one-half.

It was the first laugh Billy had enjoyed in a long time. His spirits
were vastly lightened by the news that Arlee was out of the palace
where the Captain was staying. Fritzi had optimistically informed
him that the Turk's courtship could be made most lengthy, but that
had been a sadly slender hope and the picture of Arlee playing such
a fearful game was simply horrible to him. So his relief at her
departure was intense, although it complicated more and more the
hope of speedy rescue.

For where was she now? In Cairo? In some of the outlying villages?
He felt swamped by the number of things were to be found out
immediately. He must find where that big gray motor went so early on
Sunday--surely there were people who had remarked it if they could
only be found and induced to talk! And he must find where the
Captain had other homes or palaces where he would be likely to hide
a girl. And he must find out where the Captain was every instant of
the day and night.

That was the most important thing of all. For the Captain unless
delayed by extreme illness, or held back by a caution which Billy
judged was foreign to his nature, would not wait long before he
joined Arlee. He had evidently stayed behind for some review of his
troops and also to be _au courant_ of whatever stir would result
from Fritzi Baroff's reappearance in the world, and be on hand to
disarm whatever further suspicions would result from it. The lights
in the rose room that last night and the used look of the room,
puzzled Billy, but he concluded that the Captain liked the room and
there was a good deal in that palace that had better be left to no
imagination whatever.

So back to the hotel went Billy to enter upon a period of waiting
that frayed his nerves to an utter fra