Part 27 (1/2)

The Egyptian struggled to his feet, but Daniel caught him by the arm and half dragged him to the marble bench.

”What's happened?” she cried. ”I heard a shot.”

”Did anybody else hear it?” he asked, so sharply that his voice startled her.

”I don't think so,” she answered.

”Good,” he said. ”This young man's revolver went off by mistake: that's all. Please go away.”

”O Daniel!” she cried, realizing the truth. ”He tried to kill you!”

”Hus.h.!.+” he whispered, impatiently. ”Here, help me to tie up his wrist: I've broken it, I think.”

The Egyptian rocked himself to and fro, making no resistance as Daniel took hold of his injured arm, talking to him the while in Arabic, as though bidding him have no fear. With the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin's handkerchief he bound up the injured wrist, while Muriel gave all the a.s.sistance of which her trembling fingers were capable; and then, with his own large handkerchief he improvised a sling, never ceasing meanwhile to soothe the man with soft words of sympathetic consideration, as though he had been a doctor called in to attend the victim of an accident.

When the bandaging had been accomplished, he turned to Muriel. ”Now please go away, Muriel dear,” he said, ”and thanks very much for your help. Remember, not a word about this to anybody at all.”

He smiled at her rea.s.suringly, and obliged her to take her departure, again cautioning her to keep the incident secret. She walked across the lawn to the house, dazed and anxious; and thus she went up to her room, where, looking into the mirror, she was surprised to observe the paleness of her face.

Meanwhile Daniel sat upon the bench beside the Egyptian, smoking his pipe, and waiting for him to recover his composure. The incident had been so foolish, and the attempt upon his life so bungled, that he felt nothing but pity for the wretched man who, he presumed, had believed himself to be performing a patriotic act.

The Secret Service Agents had fully warned him of possible danger, and he had spotted this youth as a suspicious character as soon as he had entered the alcove. The man had been trembling visibly, and when his unsteady hand had fumbled in his pocket, Daniel had gripped his wrist on the instant that the revolver came into sight. The bullet had struck the bal.u.s.trade and had gone singing into the river, while the weapon had fallen with a clatter upon the pavement.

Daniel had experienced no alarm, and now he felt no anger. He was determined, however, to get to the root of the plot; and it seemed to him far wiser to take action here and now, than to await a judicial enquiry.

As soon, therefore, as his a.s.sailant had ceased his moaning and his monotonous rocking to and fro, Daniel took him by his left arm, and led him across the lawn and round to the front gates of the Residency. Here he hailed one of the little open carriages from the stand at the other side of the square, and, helping the Egyptian into it, told the coachman to drive to the nearest hospital.

In the consulting room he explained to the doctor that the man was a friend of his who had injured his wrist by a fall; and soon the mischief was rectified and the arm put into splints.

Daniel then announced his intention of seeing him back to his house; but at this the man aroused himself from the silent stupor into which he had fallen, and vehemently protested.

”You cannot come with me,” he declared. ”By G.o.d, I shall give no address.”

Daniel had been told by his agents an address at which a certain group of malcontents were known to meet; and, chancing the man's connection with this fraternity, he now named the house to the driver. The _effendi_ immediately sank back into the corner of the carriage with a look of terror upon his face which indicated clearly enough that the surmise had been correct.

”Do not fear,” said Daniel to him, ”I mean you no harm. If G.o.d is willing I shall meet some of your friends, and we shall be able to talk over this matter.”

Once during the journey, when their carriage had come to a momentary standstill, in the crowded Mousky, Daniel observed a certain tension in his companion's att.i.tude which indicated that he was contemplating flight; and he was prepared, therefore, when the man made a sudden leap forward.

”a.s.s!” he exclaimed, pulling him down on to the seat. The meaning of the expression in Arabic is much the same as it is in English.

For the rest of the way Daniel kept an eye upon the injured man; but the sharp twinge of pain consequent upon his attempted flight had led him once more to prefer a condition of fatalistic apathy, and he made no second effort to escape.

A turning off the Mousky brought them into a winding native street, where a few low-cla.s.s Greeks were the only European pedestrians to be observed in the crowd of Orientals; and at last the driver steered his carriage into a quiet alley, and pulled up before the arched doorway of a whitewashed house, the upper storeys of which projected outwards until they ab.u.t.ted those of the buildings on the opposite side.

Daniel a.s.sisted the Egyptian to alight, and, as they pa.s.sed through the archway into the stone-flagged hall beyond, where the light was dim, warned him against treachery.

”I still have your loaded revolver in my pocket,” he reminded him. ”I have come to speak to your friends, and if they are here you must lead me to them.”

For a moment the man hesitated, but Daniel accelerated matters by clapping his hands loudly, which is the Egyptian method of summoning a servant; and thereupon a door was opened at the head of the crazy flight of wooden stairs, and an untidy figure of a man in a blue-cotton s.h.i.+rt appeared before them.