Part 13 (1/2)

”I'll go and see if he's busy,” Rupert volunteered.

”Thanks,” droned Mr. Bindane, his mouth dropping more widely open than usual.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A SCENE FROM THE PHOTOPLAY-BURNING SANDS_]

”Well, you have got some nerve!” exclaimed his wife.

Rupert went out of the room, and sought the Great Man in his study.

”What is it, what is it?” Lord Blair muttered with some irritation, looking up from a ma.s.s of disordered papers.

”Oh, sorry, sir,” said Rupert. ”I didn't know you were busy. There's somebody here who wants to see you.”

”I can't see anybody-no, n.o.body,” Lord Blair expostulated. ”What's he want? Who is he?”

”A Mr. Bindane. He's in the drawing-room with Lady Muriel.”

Lord Blair sat up briskly. ”Benifett Bindane?” he asked, sharply.

Rupert nodded, and thereat the Great Man jumped to his feet.

”Where is he?” he exclaimed. ”Show him in at once. Dear me, dear me! How fortunate! I had no idea he was in Egypt. No, I'll come into the drawing-room.”

He hurried past Rupert, and hastened across the corridor.

”How d'you do, my dear sir, how d'you do,” he exclaimed, as he tripped into the room and wrung his visitor's feeble hand.

”My wife,” said Mr. Bindane, bowing towards his startled spouse.

Lord Blair took her hand in both his own. ”An old friend!” he cried.

”Capital, capital! We were reading about your marriage the other day.

Splendid!” And he beamed from one to the other. Then, turning again to Mr. Bindane, ”You've come to see for yourself, eh?” he exclaimed. ”Very wise, very wise indeed.”

”It's a pleasure trip,” the other replied; ”our honeymoon, you know.”

”Of course, yes,” muttered Lord Blair. ”Business and pleasure!”

”Business?” muttered Mrs. Bindane. ”It's the first I've heard of it.

What a dark horse you are, Benifett.” And she abused him roundly in that absurd mimicry of the dialect of the slums which was habitual with her.

Muriel looked vacant. Her thoughts were racing ahead. Here was the desired accomplice, married to a rich fool who was evidently on the best of terms with her father. They had a private steamer on the Nile. Could anything be better, more secluded, more romantic? All she had to do was to find her Romeo.

CHAPTER IX-ON THE NILE

Muriel was not slow to spy out the possibilities of her friend's steamer. Her father, she soon discovered, was glad enough that she should make herself agreeable to the Bindanes; for, as he explained to her at some length, Mr. Bindane was at that time engaged in raising an enormous sum of money for agricultural investment in the western oases of Egypt, and it was of great importance that the luxurious river-steamer and the Residency should be on intimate terms.

For years Lord Blair and his predecessors had endeavoured in vain to interest the financial world in the mineral products and rich soil of the chain of oases which spreads across the desert between Egypt and Tripoli. But n.o.body, least of all the Government, would yet trust their money in an outlying territory so recently explored and opened up. Then Benifett Bindane had wandered into the Foreign Office, when Lord Blair was on leave in England, and had remarked laconically that he would raise the necessary millions.