join them."

"You mean she isn't going up the Nile at all now?"

"I haven't an idea what she is going to do. She is not in our care
any longer. And I don't suppose the boat company will do anything
about her stateroom at this late date--certainly she can't expect us
to go to any trouble about it."

"She left us half her packing to do," Clara Eversham contributed,
addressing Falconer with plaintive mien, "and her hotel bill to pay.
She is the most unexpected creature!"

Two young men silently and heartily concurred.

"What was her hurry?" Billy demanded.

"Oh, she's going camping in the desert with them--that sort of thing
would fascinate her, you know. Her telegram wasn't very clear. She
just sent a wire from the station, I think, or from Cook's, with
some money for her bill by the boy. So careless, trusting him like
that!"

"I don't suppose he brought it all," Mrs. Eversham declared. "You
see, she didn't say how much she was sending--just said it was
enough for her bill."

Billy looked at Falconer. He admired the stolidity of that
sandy-haired young man's countenance. He envied the unrevealing
blankness of his eyes.

"May I ask where she is stopping in Alexandria?" he persisted.

Mrs. Eversham shook her head. "She didn't give any address--the best
hotel, I suppose, whatever that is."

"The Khedivial," Falconer supplied.

"She just said to send her things to Cook's and to write to her
there and she would write when she came back. She had been expecting
to meet those friends, the Maynards, later, but we had no idea that
she was going to run off with them like this. It's very upsetting."

"We shall miss her," said Clara Eversham suddenly, with a note of
sincerity that made Billy warm to her a trifle. So he bestirred
himself getting their after dinner coffee and remembered to send
Mohammed for the cream for her, and listened with a show of
attention to their interminable anecdotes and corrections. But his
mind was off on the way to Alexandria....

Not a word of farewell. Of course, they had not exactly arrived, in
t