funds sufficient for your needs."

Dick had deemed this disturbing problem dead and done with. He had not
hesitated at Marseilles, nor was he less decided now. He held out the
letter to von Kerber frankly, little thinking how close a scrutiny had
been given to his face while he was learning its contents.

"Read it," he said, "and you will see for yourself that I am in no way
responsible."

Von Kerber seemed to be taken aback by this display of confidence.

"No, no," he said loftily. "I do not wish it. I have your word. That is
sufficient."

"May I send an answer?"

"Yes, from Suez."

And the incident might have ended there had it not been brought into
sharp prominence that evening. Mr. Tagg took the first watch, from
eight o'clock to midnight. Under ordinary conditions, Royson, who was
free until four in the morning, would have gone to his cabin and slept
soundly. But, like many another who passes through the great canal for
the first time, he could not resist the fascination of the ship's
noiseless, almost stealthy, passage through the desert.

After supper, while enjoying a pipe before turning in, he went forward
and stood behind the powerful electric lamp fitted in the bows to
illumine the narrow water-lane which joins East and West. The broad