“And now we need only question the great lady,” said Abd-ur-Rahim, when Rahah’s examination was over; and Georgia went in search of Lady Haigh, and brought her into the hall, worried and protesting, and determined that no one should approach Sir Dugald’s sick-room. She was much easier to deal with than the rest. “I haven’t an idea where the treaty is, and if I had, I wouldn’t tell you,” was her answer to Abd-ur-Rahim’s question. “Why do you come bothering me about treaties? Ask Mr Stratford; he is the proper person.” “But is it not hidden anywhere in the great lady’s apartments?” “I should think not, indeed! I have something else to do besides hiding treaties. Georgie, I want you to come and see Sir Dugald at once. I am sure he is not so well.” “The man of many words must have dropped the treaty into the sand as he came hither,” said one of the Ethiopians in a low voice to his chief, as Georgia retired with Lady Haigh. “Nay, that he could not have done without my seeing him,” objected Abd-ur-Rahim. “He may have hidden it among the rocks where we first came upon these English,” suggested another. “It is well thought of; I will have the place searched,” said Abd-ur-Rahim. “But mark me--my opinion is that none of those here know where it is. It has been given to the youth who is missing, and he is to escape with it or to hide it. Therefore let the youth be pursued and taken. The rest are trying to lead us to think that they have it concealed among them here, that so he may get away in safety.” This explanation of their defeat appeared to satisfy the Ethiopians, and they returned to the outer rooms, accompanied by Dick and Stratford, who were almost as much mystified as they were. CHAPTER XX. FOR THE HONOUR OF ENGLAND’S SAKE. Half an hour later, Georgia stepped out of the great latticed window on the terrace, and kneeling beside the parapet, rested her arms on it, and looked away over the desert. There in the distance rose the walls and towers of Bir-ul-Malikat, Fath-ud-Din’s second fortress, which crowned the top of a conical hill some four miles from Bir-ul-Malik. Within those walls old Khadija, the sorceress, bore rule, and held in her grasp the knowledge which alone could save Sir Dugald’s life. Lady Haigh’s intuition had been a true one, although there was no outward change in her husband’s condition. Whether the sand-storm and the hurried journeyings of the day had brought about a loss of vitality, or whether they had merely rendered perceptible a failure which had hitherto been too gradual to be noticed, it was undeniable that the pulse was less regular, and the action of the heart more feeble than before. The insidious poison administered by Fath-ud-Din was sapping Sir Dugald’s life away, and, unless the mysterious antidote could be obtained, his protracted unconsciousness would before long pass into death.