“Do you suppose I don’t know that?” The light was dim, but I saw that Farouk’s face was shining with perspiration. “I would not be fool enough to harm her, or any of you, unless you force me to, nor am I fool enough to go on with a game that is becoming dangerous to me. Now listen. In exchange for what I can tell you I want two things: immunity and money. You will bring the money with you when we next meet. A thousand English pounds in gold.”

“A large sum,” Emerson mused.

“You will think it low when you hear what I have to say. She has it. Will you pay it, Nur Misur?”

“Yes,” she said quickly.

“Just a minute, Nefret,” Emerson said. “Before you agree to a bargain you had better make certain what it is you are paying for. The whereabouts of Kamil el-Wardani are not worth a thousand pounds to us or even to the police.”

“I have a bigger fish than that to put on your hook. Wardani is a pike, but I will give you a shark.”

“Well-read chap, isn’t he?” Emerson inquired of me.

“Do you agree or not?” Farouk demanded. “If you are trying to keep me here until the police come—”

“Furthest thing from my mind,” said Emerson.

“We agree,” Nefret exclaimed. “Where and when shall we deliver the money?”

“Tomorrow night… No. The night after. At an hour before midnight . There is a certain house in Maadi…”

Seshat let out a strangled mew and turned her head to stare accusingly at Ramses. He put her on the floor and straightened to face Farouk. The young villain’s lips had parted in a pleased smile. “You know the place,” he said.

“I know it,” Emerson said.

Farouk’s smile broadened. “You will come alone, Father of Curses.”

“I think not,” Ramses said. “Why should we trust you?”

“What good would it do me to kill him, even if I could? I will have the money, and his promise that he will not tell the police for three days. I will trust his word for that. He is known to be a man of honor.”

“Flattering,” said Emerson. “Very well, I will be there.”

“Good.”

Nefret was closer to him than the rest of us. He had only to put out his arm. It wrapped round her and pulled her hard against his body.

I tightened my grip on Emerson, but for once it was Ramses whose temper got the better of his common sense. Quickly as he moved, the other man was ready for him. The barrel of the gun caught him across the side of the head and sent him sprawling.

“Stop it!” Nefret cried. “I’ll go with him. Please, Professor! Ramses, are you all right?”

Ramses sat up. A dark trail of blood trickled down his cheek. “No. But I deserved it. Damned fool thing to do. If she comes to harm—”

“If she is injured it will be your fault,” Farouk snarled. “I only want her as a hostage, in case I am cornered by the police. You had better pray that I am not.”

“If it proves necessary we will head them off,” Emerson said. The arm I held felt like stone, but his voice was unnaturally calm. “If she is not back within an hour—”

“I have never known people who talked so much,” Farouk cried hysterically. “Stop talking! Go to the west gate of the Khan el Khalili and wait. She will come. In an hour! In the name of God, do not talk any more!”

He backed through the hanging at the other side of the room, pulling her with him.

“Don’t even think of following,” I said, as Ramses got to his feet.

“No,” said Emerson. “He’s on the edge of hysteria already. Ramses, that was a damned fool thing to do. Not that I blame you. I might have done the same if your mother had not had me in a firm grip.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Ramses said. He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. I offered him my handkerchief, which he took without acknowledging or even appearing to notice it. “You have better sense.”

“Where is Seshat?” I asked, looking round the room.

“Gone after them, do you think?” Emerson asked.

“I don’t know,” Ramses said. “And at the moment I don’t much care. Let’s go.”

It took us some time to make our way to the western gate of the Khan, which was now closed. The lanes were uncommonly deserted, even for that time of night. Evidently the police had gone in another direction, or had abandoned the hunt. There was a coffee shop under the tiled arch across from the entrance; we sat down on the wooden bench outside, the occupants having politely or prudently departed when they saw us. Emerson asked what I would like.

“Whiskey,” I said grimly. “But I will settle for tea.”

“She’ll be all right,” Ramses said. The trail of dried blood looked like a scar. I pried my handkerchief from his fingers and dipped it in the glass of water the waiter had brought.

“He did not strike me as a killer,” I said.

“Oh, he’s a killer, all right,” Ramses said. “But he won’t injure someone who has promised to give him a thousand pounds.”

Emerson took out his watch. It was the third time he had done so since we sat down, and I informed him I would smash the confounded thing if he did it again. Ramses sat like a block of stone while I cleaned his face. Then he said, “While we are waiting we may as well get our story straight. Do you think she suspects our presence at Aslimi’s was no accident?”

“Probably,” said Emerson, reaching for his pocket, catching my eye, and extracting his pipe instead of his watch. “She’s very quick. But so far as she knows, the police were after Wardani and nothing more. When Farouk offered us a bigger fish… Good Gad! You don’t suppose that was an indirect attempt at blackmail, do you? It would certainly be worth a thousand pounds to keep him quiet if he knows you are—”

“Don’t say it!” I exclaimed.

“I wasn’t going to,” Emerson said, giving me an injured look.

“I don’t see how he could know,” Ramses said. The only light came from a lamp that hung beside the grilled arch behind us. I could not make out his features, but I could see his hands. He had taken the handkerchief from me and was methodically tearing it into strips.

“Let us assume the worst,” I said. “That he suspects—er—the truth about you and—er—the other one. It cannot be more than a suspicion, and he cannot have passed it on to his—er—employer, or he would not—”

“Curse it, Peabody , don’t stutter!” Emerson snarled. “And don’t assume the worst! How can you sit there and—and assume things, in that cold-blooded fashion, when she is… When she may be… What time is it?”

“Father, please don’t look at your watch again,” Ramses said, in a voice so tightly controlled I expected it to crack. “It’s been less than half an hour. I don’t believe we need assume anything other than the obvious. The proposition was as direct as he dared make, and Nefret obviously understood his meaning too. She was with you when Russell told you he believed Wardani was collaborating with the enemy. The question of my identity is another matter altogether. There is no reason to believe Farouk knows about that, and Nefret certainly does not.”

“I wish we could tell her,” I murmured.

“You know why we cannot.” His eyes remained fixed on the gateway across the street. “Mother, she walked straight into that filthy den, with a gun pointing at her. She didn’t hesitate, she didn’t stop to think before she acted. She has always been guided by her heart instead of her head; she always will be. If she lost that fiery temper of hers she might say the wrong thing to the wrong person, and—”

His voice did crack then. I put my hand over his. “There is something more,” I said. “Isn’t there? Some particular reason why you don’t trust her to hold her tongue. You never told us how Percy learned it was you who got him out of the bandit camp. Was it Nefret who gave you away?”

The hand under mine clenched into a fist. “Mother, for God’s sake! Not now!”

“Better now than later, or not at all. You said only three people knew—David, Lia, and Nefret. It could not have been David or Lia, they did not arrive in Egypt until after Percy had concocted his dastardly scheme to have you accused of fathering his child. Percy had been pursuing Nefret—”