The Fortieth Door

N'S ASTO

Lean remarked appreciatively, looking up from his scrutiny of the pa

a twin to that locket, the portrait o

said Jack Ry

d Mohammed had placed at his elbow. It had been a hard morning's tri

l agent chap has left the country, for I recollect he said he was at the

d Ryder. "It shows where this French

olen by some native wh

of me. And for another thing, it's a perfect specimen of the limestone carving of the Tomb of Thi which Delcassé wrote his book about-looks very much as if it might be by the same artist. There's a flock of hippopotami in a marsh scene with the identical drawing, and there's the same lovely boat in full sail-but there, you bounder,

indicates that it's a portrait of Madame Delcassé, but it doesn't indicate what has become of Madame Delcassé.... Though in a general way," McLean deduced with Sc

rusque with

e Delcassé doesn't matter.

s tongue balked before the re

irl-the living ima

distinctly intrigued. "That's getti

uddenly busy wi

iro? That's luck, man!...

ink it he

had just been making a bit of beauty, but if there's a girl like that-! Fa

"She's in Cairo," he began again vaguely. "She'd be just about the right age

he said at last, with mock scandal scarcely veiling rebuke. "I did not know

ct is, she's never spoken to a man-except myself." He rather enjoyed the st

ughter of Tewfick Pasha. Her mother married the Turk and died very soon after

joy McLean's astonishment. As astonishment, it was distinctly vivid. It v

inviolable seclusion of a daughter of such a household. He

as Ryder t

e and their acquaintance. He touched lightly upon her attempted flight and his pursuit. Even more

been French. And that her name wa

an-her face? She nev

the nex

next

yder began to lose his reli

ss.... "I told the girl I would come and see if she got in

went? And

ose she sent

ch," McLean retorted grimly. "Well, get on with

I was going-gone, in fact. I looked back and she had drawn her veil aside. The moon was bright on her face-I saw her as clear as daylight, and I tel

thirty and he has the rep of a Don Juan. It may have been a lov

mother died. She said that the father wa

ty ladies in apartments. Cairo is a city of secrets and tattlers. Howeve

Ryder quickly. "There's no time t

e'll inherit the mo

st sprung this on her. Says there are political or financial reasons. He's been caught in some dirty

can," said McL

is French? When she's be

own and all that. Keep your shirt on, Jack," McLean advised dryly wi

lovely unfortunate creature.... And if the daughter looked like

n Jack for the gallivanting kind, either, yet here he was goin

g and gay humored. The kind that attracted women.... Women and romance were nev

which McLean refused to

he legation

'll wait,"

nce McLe

t special agent had returned to France but his address was left, and undoubtedly the fa

France and back-wait for somebody to come

can't take the girl away from the man

deny his right to hand her over to one of his pals. They can threaten

the legation has no desire to alienate the affections of influential Turks, or criticize fifteen-years

m dispose of a

orable marriage to a wealthy and aristocratic ge

think that sort of

an ignored the

r fellow, it's what the legation thinks. There's not a

hen she is single. Tell him the French law gives the father's representatives full charge. Tell him that he kidnapped the mother and the

d, his quizzical twinkle gone. Jack was taking this th

ated at last, grimly. "What can be said

very stiff and constrained young men were ringin