Part 43 (1/2)
”What about my food and medicine for your sick man, your valuable guide to the hidden treasure? You can't afford to let him slip through your hands!”
Michael's eyes dropped. He had allowed Millicent to remain unquestioned, even willingly, as a member of his expedition, since the sick man was in need of the delicate food and medicine her equipment contained.
As his eyes dropped, he asked her what she knew about the hidden treasure. He had only told her about the tomb of Akhnaton; he had particularly refrained from mentioning the Pharaoh's hidden store.
”How did I get to know all I wanted to know?” She glanced at him tauntingly. ”It wasn't quite all my love for you, dear man! Perhaps I, too, wished to pick up some of the jewels in King Solomon's Mines!”
”I never mentioned them to you--what do you know about them?”
”What about the precious jewel in the saint's ear--the oriental amethyst, the ninth jewel in the high priest's breast-plate, as mentioned in Exodus, 'and the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst'?” Millicent trilled off the text laughingly.
”You have stooped to spying,” he said. ”You have an eavesdropper in your camp?”
”'Verily those who do deeds of real goodness shall drink of a cup tempered with camphor'! Well, is it tempered enough, Michael?” She laughed mockingly, derisively. ”Was the deed pure goodness? Was this fanatic not the 'favoured of G.o.d' who was to lead you to Akhnaton's treasure?”
”Go!” he cried. ”I have heard enough!”
”And take all my provisions and medicines with me!”
”We must do the best we can for him without your luxuries, if you have no mercy, no heart for the suffering.”
”And how are you going to get rid of me?”
”You are going. I don't know how, but you're going.”
”What if I refuse to go?”
”You won't.”
Millicent laughed.
”You won't,” he repeated. ”You must go. You can't stay.”
”And why?”
”Because. . . .” Michael hesitated. ”Because . . . you know . . . you know why . . . you know, what you have just said.”
”Because you are afraid you will end by being my lover?”
”No. Because I wish to be free of spies and hindrances.”
”Then I do hinder? You know my spying has not hurt you!” Her eyes glowed.
Michael gazed sternly into them. He never lied. With him the truth was instinctive, masterful; it was the keynote of his religion. ”Yes,”
he said. ”You are a spiritual hindrance. I am a human man--you are a sensual woman. You have determined to do everything in your power to keep me ever mindful of the fact. Because I love Margaret Lampton and I do not love you, you have determined to make me unworthy of her, you have trapped me and tricked me and followed me into the wilderness.”
”You must admit I managed that part of the job very neatly.”
Millicent's words were brave, but a little fear had crept into her heart. Michael was in no mood for trifling. Her game was lost.
”How did you do it?” he said. His hands tightened; they held her shoulders. The gentle aesthete was a furious Celt. He wished that it was a man with whom he was dealing.