"That you are a punctilious old fool," I retorted. "Here is my authority!" What I showed him was a revolver. He jumped, I vow, two feet in the air, and hastily retreated. But I followed more quickly still, and forced him to the bridge. There he became very voluble, however; so much so, indeed, that I was constrained to cock my pistol. That settled him. He thundered out his orders and we were soon racing at ten knots an hour down stream. When rounding the nearest bend to the Hill of Rakh the temptation was very strong in me to sound the steamer's whistle. But I am proud to say that I refrained. It would have been a little-minded thing to do. About midnight, feeling weary, I ran the steamer's nose gently into a mud bank, drove the captain down to the deck and locked him with the rest of the crew in the engine-house. Then I foraged round for eatables, made a hearty supper and snatched about five hours' sleep. When morning came I awoke as fresh and strong as a young colt. After bath and breakfast, I released my prisoners, made them eat and then push off the bank. We lost an hour at that job, but, at length, it was accomplished, and our race for the punt recommenced. We overhauled it about four o'clock the same afternoon. It was just an ordinary flat-bottomed Nile abomination, towed by a tiny, panting, puffing-billy, with twenty yards of good Manilla. Twelve Arabs squatted round the sarcophagus. Seated on the sarcophagus, under a double awning, was a burly-looking Englishman. He was smoking a pipe, and one look at his face told me exactly why he had been entrusted with Sir Robert Ottley's priceless treasure. He was, as plain as daylight, a gentleman if one ever lived, a brave man, too, shrewd and self-reliant and as incorruptibly devoted to his duty as a bull-dog with a thief's hand between his jaws. I wondered if I would get the better of him. As a first step towards that desideratum, I assured the French captain that I entertained too much regard for him to put him to a lingering death should he disobey me. I had previously locked the rest of the crew in the engine-house. Then we bore down on the punt and I shouted for the tug to be stopped. This was done. As it lost way, we nosed up, going easy until we were alongside the punt. Then I ordered half speed astern until we, too, were stationary. Some power of suction or attraction began immediately to draw the two crafts together. The tug, however, continued to remain, say thirty feet off. The Englishman ordered out rope fenders and asked me what the blazes I was doing. I answered that I had come after him from Sir Robert Ottley--which was in a sense perfectly true--and that he could hardly expect me to shout out urgent private business before listeners, which was also a reasonably veracious statement of the facts. The Englishman--I never learned his name--observed, with some heat, that he would not leave his charge for a second for any man living except Sir