Wallace of the Secret Service Read Free

glee when they were presented to him. The sight of their compatriot’s success caused a horde of the chattering Arabs to descend on Wallace with their goods and, to escape them, he was forced to retire into the hotel. In the meantime Achmet, one of the most astute members of the rank and file of the Secret Service, who cloaked his real identity under the guiseof a purveyor of Turkish delight, had slipped away and before long, through channels known only to himself, was commencing his task of tracing Henderson.
    Three days passed slowly by, and Sir Leonard, having exhausted the diversions that Port Said presented for his amusement or delectation, impatiently awaited news from his assistant. It came in the form of a cryptic telegram regarding the despatch of curios to Europe. It did not take him long to decipher the message, and he frowned deeply at the news it contained. It told him, as he had feared, that Henderson was a prisoner in the hands of the people whose doings he had come to Egypt to study. Achmet was waiting in Cairo, and would watch at Shepheard’s Hotel for Sir Leonard’s advent.
    That same afternoon the latter left for the capital, and on arrival was driven to the hotel. He still retained the name of Collins and let it be known that he was a retired army officer travelling for his health.
    It was the wrong time of the year for tourists. The trouble in Egypt, too, was keeping a lot of visitors away. The hotel, therefore, was not overburdened with guests, a state of affairs which did not altogether please Sir Leonard. Inquisitiveness and speculation concerning him were more likely to be rife than if the hotel were crowded. However, it could not be helped; it behoved him to take extra precautions, that was all.
    Achmet came to him before he had been long installed in the hotel. He wore now the dress of a dragoman, and had told the servant, who announced him to the Englishman, that he had been ordered to attend, as the white lord had need of his services on the various excursions he contemplated making to the pyramids and other places of interest. When they were together,even though there was apparently no one within hearing of their conversation, little of a private nature passed between Wallace and his subordinate. The former merely detailed his plans for a trip up the Nile and asked Achmet to engage a dahabeeyah to be ready for him early the following morning. The spy stood obsequiously before the languid-looking Englishman, listening carefully to the instructions he was receiving, and appearing for all the world the typical dragoman.
    Wallace had no intention of travelling up the Nile at all, but he was careful to give the appearance of complete innocence to his meeting with the Arab, knowing perfectly well that the main lounge of Shepheard’s was hardly the place, under any circumstances, in which to discuss confidential matters. Apart from that, Achmet on arrival had uttered a warning.
    ‘This place is full of spies,’ he had said, as he bowed low before the other. ‘Command me to engage a small dahabeeyah . Tomorrow we will go a few miles beyond Cairo for a little trip. It will be safer to speak then.’
    Thus it was arranged, and Achmet departed. A little later Sir Leonard left the hotel for a stroll. It had been an intolerably hot day, but now, with the setting of the sun, a breeze had sprung up which materially cooled the atmosphere. He walked as far as the bridge, guarded so strikingly by the two bronze lions, and watched the heterogeneous crowd that was crossing over the Nile. Several years had passed since he had looked on that scene with its riot of gaudy colouring and its confused uproar, but nothing appeared to have altered. Motor cars, donkey carts, carriages, asses, and camels were mixed up in apparently hopeless disorder, but somehow managed to move and be content with the slowness of their pace. An ancient vehicle, drawn by adonkey almost as ancient, and containing two veiled women, did