"Well, that sounds generous, but I guess he would get on without it, pasha. He would not want to be under any more obligations to you." "He is without money. He must be helped." "Just so." "He cannot go to the treasury, and Prince Kaid has refused. Why should he decline help from his friend?" Suddenly Lacey changed his tactics. He had caught a look in Nahoum's eyes which gave him a new thought. "Well, if you've any proposition, pasha, I'll take it to him. I'll be seeing him to-night." "I can give him fifty thousand pounds." "It isn't enough to save the situation, pasha." "It will help him over the first zareba." "Are there any conditions?" "There are no conditions, effendi." "And interest?" "There would be no interest in money." "Other considerations?" "Yes, other considerations, effendi." "If they were granted, would there be enough still in the stocking to help him over a second zareba--or a third, perhaps?" "That would be possible, even likely, I think. Of course we speak in confidence, effendi." "The confidence of the 'perfect friendship.'" "There may be difficulty, because the Saadat is sensitive; but it is the only way to help him. I can get the money from but one source; and to get it involves an agreement." "You think his Excellency would not just jump at it--that it might hurt some of his prejudices, eh?" "So, effendi." "And me--where am I in it, pasha?" "Thou hast great influence with his Excellency." "I am his servant--I don't meddle with his prejudices, pasha." "But if it were for his own good, to save his work here." Lacey yawned almost ostentatiously. "I guess if he can't save it himself it can't be saved, not even when you reach out the hand of perfect friendship. You've been reaching out for a long time, pasha, and it didn't save the steamer or the cotton-mills; and it didn't save us when we were down by Sobat a while ago, and you sent Halim Bey to teach us to be patient. We got out of that nasty corner by sleight of hand, but not your sleight of hand, pasha. Your hand is a quick hand, but a sharp eye can see the trick, and then it's no good, not worth a button." There was something savage behind Nahoum's eyes, but they did not show it; they blinked with earnest kindness and interest. The time would come when Lacey would go as his master should go, and the occasion was not far off now; but it must not be forced. Besides, was this fat, amorous- looking factotum of Claridge Pasha's as Spartan-minded as his master? Would he be superior to the lure of gold? He would see. He spoke seriously, with apparent solicitude. "Thou dost not understand, effendi. Claridge Pasha must have money. Prestige is everything in Egypt, it is everything with Kaid. If Claridge Pasha rides on as though nothing has happened--and money is the only horse that can carry him--Kaid will not interfere, and his black mood may pass; but any halting now and the game is done."