"THE RIDDLE OF SIWA."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20136, 22 December 1928, Page 16 (Supplement)

"THE RIDDLE OF SIWA."

" BY DIXON KAYE.

SYNOPSIS. , * Eva Maadera. the daughter of Sir Bertram ■Slanders, a high official in Cairo, ends that ■he is followed whenever she appears in the streets. Greatly concerned, she seeks the assistance of het fiance. Seymour Barham. a clever young engineer, who exacts a projnise of help from a sheik friend, ibrahim

Later, in a remote village in the desert. Barhain meets Agib Hen Hassan, a wisened old man (aid to he over one hundred years of age. The old man , tells him of the jnysterious pyramid of Siwa ' where those within are not dead but have lived tor thousands of years 1"

• The story arouses Eiarhams interest:, and. Unknown to Eva. he visits the pyramid with his friend Ibrahim and a few followers '.Barham enters the pyramid, out the sheik, "sensing evil," decides to camp a short distance away. ] He saya he will wait two days lor Barham'a .return.

. Within the pyramid.. Barham is set upon and taken before a mystenoua Egyptian. Abdullah Bey. who sentences him to death. « Barham is apparently unmoved, and Bey lealises that such a man is more useful ilive than dead Consequently, a pact is made whereby Durham's lite is saved if he obtains the release of one of their Xumber who is in priion id England awaiting his trial for muidei , Barham is escorted to the railway by Osnjnn. a friendly Egyptian at the pyramid. "When they are camping at night, Barham "eees a vision of himself being burned at the stake, and so realistic is it that ho swoons into Osman'e arms

Barham journeys . to Port Said accompanied part of the way by Osinan, a friendly Egyptian from the pyramid _ On the boat Barham me«ita ComtesMs Xenia ae Mont Albert, or Xenia. as she is known, a beautiful girl whom ho had meen ftt tne pyramid.

CHAPTER Xll'.—(Continued). ° Who was this priest Signoseth ? Where Jtvas the Tomb of T.-immus ? Was it tho pyramid of Siwa? I' He could only guess that it was. Ho no means of knowing. 2 He locked up the mysterious document, jnent on deck and sat thinking of its contents, as the sun sank low over the sea. How was this document to help him in his search, and how was ha to begin it! He was awakened from a deep reverie by a very sweet woman's voice speaking in French at his elbow. " Monsieur is dull, I fear," she said. f Ho is perhaps leading someone behind vhom he loves." Seymour rose and stood looking at the woman. There was something that he recognised about he:." at the first glance; and then the appalling truth revealed itself. . This was the beautiful girl he had seen Sleeping in tho pyramid! There was no mistake about it in his own mind. He did not doubt her identity for a moment. '' " Are you not pleased to see me ?" she asked. He looked at her loveliness, her tall statuesque figure of perfect proportions, but he could not bring himself to say he .was glad to see her. " How did you como here, mademoiullehe asked. She answered perfectly frankly, without any attempt at concealment: " Abdullah sent me,", she said. "Ho thought you would! b9 dull during the .voyage, and I could bo your companion." Seymour inwardly groaned. How was Jia to account for this girl in his daily letter's to Eva which were always comprehensively and strictly truthful ? Certainly there were numbers of ladies on the boat, and he was not obliged to describe everyone of them to Eva. He decided at the moment that he would place this young Jady among the " also ran." " You see." continued the lady, to Seymour's amazement, " we are to be married—Abdullah has decided" that—and he thought wo could learn to know each other on the boat and perhaps learn to love each other, too. Seymour," she added, " I like you now very much; I shall soon love you, I am sure, amd I will tell you a secret; this is not the first time that I have seen you. That day when Abdullah brought you into my room I ,v?as not quite asleep, and I was astonished, oh, so astonished, to see a man in the English dress." Seymour saw that this affair was getting Worse and worse. They tad begun to promenade the deck now, and Seymour saw 'that the eyes of all the women were upon his companion and her dress Evidently her modern European costume vras perfect of its kind. " And now," conlinued the lady as they turned, " there is one thing you must tell me. How many wives have you got now, Seymour ?" Seymour turned iiharply. " None," he answered abruptly. She was distressed. ** Oh, but that is very triste," she answered. "No wives. You must be very lonely; but perhaps it is best. There will be no other wife to make quarrels. And now, my nan:e is Xenia, and you must call me by it always. And my other name is de Mont Albert; la Comtesse Xenia do Mojit, Albert.."' Seymour .was determined to put a stop to this at once. " Mademoiselle d.B Mont Albert," he said, '■ I am already pledged to marry one lady."

" Oh, that will he all right," she answered after a moment's reflection- "that will be all right. There will be only two of ns, and you can afford that, can you not? Abdullah is sure to give me a large dot. He in very rich—enormoment!" " And what relation is Abdullah to you?" Seymour aslied. She shrugged her shoulders. " I have always regarded him, as my .father," she answered. " But whether I am his child or not, 1 cannot tell you. I havo always lived in the town." "The town!" repeated Seymour. "Do you mean the town of Siwa?" " No, no," she answered, "tho town within what you call the Pyramid and >vfcat wo call the Tomb of Tammua." " But how can thore bo a town there?" Seymour asked. " Let us not talk of these things now," she answered. " When you and I return to Abdullah iD triumph with N Ahmed then perhaps if Abdullah will let me, I will show ycu many wosders, Seymour!" It was very evjjlent to him that, this Igirl knew the object of their journey. .'After all his precautions, how could Abdullah trust, a m n re girl like this ?" " No," she added, passing her arm through his, " we will talk no more of the Pyramid; we will talk, Seymour of love."

Yes, her eye 3 wero blue, as ho had conjectured when ho saw her lying asleep ,—or in pretended iileep, as she said—in the Pyramid. " Have you left the Pyramid before ?" he asked presently. "Do you know anything of the world ?" She laughed, showing a lovely set of vbito teeth. "Oh, yes she answered. "I left the Pyramid many times. I was at school in Paris for a loug time, and now «I frequently make journeys for Abdullah." Seymour wondered what these journeys could bo about and why sho was educated in Paris? Her position was beyond his comprehension. Sho had linked her arm through his in such a simple girl-like mauner that he had not the hesirt to disengage bim self.

They walked the deck, and the eyes of *U tho passengers were upon them —for Innately he knew none of them It was not that she was an ordinary pretty girl: she was a freak of beauty, and yet she was modest, yrithont a sign of the cocotte about her, and able to keep the other men on board at arm's length. jPreeently the passengers on deck to dr«iss' for dinner, and the fcwo.rwnained almoiit alone.

A WEIRDLY MYSTERIOUS, BRILLIANT STORY.

(COPYRIGHT.)

\ Then Xenia fled away to dress too.. Seymour paced the deck alone for a few minutes, trying to size up this new complication in which be found himself, but he could find no solution to it, except that Abdullah had sent this girl to waitcb him. If so, was she under the same horrible penalty for treachery as h<3 was himself ?

Somehow, he doubted it; she appeared to have some hidden interest of her own in the" matt'or.

Flo went down at last and duly ap

geared in the saloon, when the bell rang, [e was shown to a table' for two which had been reserved for him and at which the scond place was still vacant. Ete had received 60 many shocks al ready, that he no longer wondered when Xenia in a superb Parisian toilette, came and took tho vacant scat.

" It is more comme 11 faut," she explained, " that you and I, who are to be married, should sit at the same table for meals. It will show the other pas sengers that we wish to keep aloof." Seymour sat and dined by her side, and in her pleasant chatter, forgot his difficulties. CHAPTER XIII. Try as he would, Seymour could not keep this girl from his mind; the" force of her personality thrust itself upon him every hour of the day. She assumed that tlicy were in love with each other on every possible occasion, *nd frequently referred to her future position as one of his wives.

" But first," she always added, " let us accomplish our task in London and free poor Ahmed." As the days passod, Seymour began to adopt this view himself; let this task ba accomplished and his .life his own again, then he could order that life as he wished. But he had reckoned without. Xenia and her wonderful powers. She came to him as ho was pacing the deck one evening after lie had thought she had retired for the night, and ho was going to his lonely cabin. For some reason sho appeared to be moved by great anger; she, whom ho had left only a few minutes before calm and placid, had now tho flashing eyes of a Fury. "Seymour!" she cried, "I have been dreaming, and I have talked with Abdullah !"

Ho saw then that she had come on deck wearing only her robe de chambre. " I have talked with Abdullah, and ho has heard mc. We must marry directly the ship reaches England. Life or death depends upon it." Seymour stood looking at Xenia in amazement, and sho repeated her statement*

"Wo must marry directly the ship reaches England." And now sho added more to it: " Cannot wo be married here on board by the"captain ?" "Preposterous!" ho answered, now quite losing his patience with her. " I do not wish to marry you!" She looked at him

" Not marry me," sho replied. " But you love me. I know you do. You may not think so, but you do. You began to love mo tho first time you saw mo asleep in the Seraglio. Men cannot conceal their feelings, they show in their faces what they feel. Besides lam much handsomer than the other wife whom you are going to marry—Eva." "What do you know of Eva?" Seymour gasped. " I have never mentioned her name to you. How do you know it?"

" I know many things," she answered mockingly. " I know that your friend Shiek Ibrahim is in love with your Eva and may steal her away from you before you can marry her." Her knowledge astounded him; but tho first thought he had was of Eva. What a fool he had been to go'to the pyramid at all and thus bring Eva into peril! He blamed his obstinacy a thousand times, and yet— There was the glamour of it all. Would he have missed it ?

Xenia and he paced the deck for some minutes before Speaking; then ho broke the silence.

" Do you know Ibrahim tho sheik ?" he asked.

Once more she laughed. " Oh, yes; I know Ibrahim well. He has often been fo the tomb. He knows Abdullah well, but at present they are uot very good friends." Seymour looked at her in the moonlight; she was as beautiful as the moon itself, but it appeared to him that she had grown older, and harder in her manner. The look of anger on her face when she first, came to him that night, and which still remained, had taken away her sofa; girlish look. " But you have not answered my question," she reminded him. " Y'ou have not told me if the captain can marry tic

" I am perfectly certain," he answered, " that the captain cannot legally marry us." " Legally marry!" she laughed. " What a fuss you people make about a trifle. Why, anybody could marry us. Let us go ashore and find a priest." " T shall not go ashore and find a priest, for the good reason that I do not intend to marry you!" Seymour answered heatedly. When they reached tho head of the companion way she stopped. .

" You shall marry mo as soon as we land,'' she said " That I never will." replied Seymour, his heart full of Eva's pure personality. " Yes you will." answered Xcnia, her eyes flashing. " Abdullah will make you. You are entirely in his power, and — mine!"

Sho gavo him one look, full of determination, as she turned and descended the companion way. Seymour stayed behind and paced the now deserted promenade deck alone. He thought of this dilemma from every point of view, bu>. never abated one iota of his steadfastness to Eva. Then, as lie turned for tho last time, with the intention of going down to the loneliness of his cabin, a thought struck him.

He had been told in the document in the sealed packet given him by Osman to go straight to Sir Amroth Milvinn. To him he would go; his name sounded tike (hat of an Englishman. He would confide all his troubles to him. CHAPTER XIV. THE " WILD-BORE." Seymour kept strictly to his resolution to write up his diary every night, ,so that it should bo ready to send to Eva from the first port they reached. But ho found it increasingly difficult to keep Xenia out of it as the days went on. He had been absolutely truo to Eva through all the storm of' passion Xenia now hurled at him. Ho had not sinned against his fidelity to his affianced wife either in thought, word or deed.

. His difficulties weio not lessened when at Malta tho biggest bore in Cairo joined the ship and greeted him effusively with a slap on the buck This man, whoso namo was Wild was known at the Cairo Club as tho " Wild-bore."

" Been staym' a fortnight at Malta," he explained, as they walked aft, " with my brother-in-law, who's in tho gunners—awful good chap—" Seymour had seen tho " awful good chap"—who was in uniform and therefore unmistakablo—waving adieux to Wild and these adieux appeared to have more joy in them than sorrow.

■ Seymour understood it; the poor man had endured a fortnight of Wild's bore dom.

But it was on the second day of his arrival that the annoyance began. "I say," observed Wild—who was not a gentleman—" that's a nice bit of fluff you've got at your dinner table. Where did you raise her?"- •

" The lady at my table was placed there by the purser," Seymour frigidly, " and she is a 6tranger to me."

" Oh!" answered Wild, who saw he had made a mistake, but still answered somewhat incredulously: " I think ehe is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." To Seymour's chagrin, he knew that Xenia would form ono of the Wildbore's" principal subjects in his next letter to Cairo, where ho occupied a position in a bank. The same day as the letter's arrival he knew that the fact tliat ho was travelling with a beautiful girl would be all over the club, aud the next day all ovei Cairo. Ho now resolved that he would be first in the field with Eva. He knew that Wild could not post a letter until the ship got to Gibraltar; he therefore, decided to make a clean breast of it to Eva, and he regretted that be had the courage to do so from the fust. He sat down and wrote to Eya at once, through the medium of his diary. lor tunately Eva know the ways of the East and its womankind. "There is a woman on board tins ship," Seymour wrote, " who w trying to attach herselli to me, and I find her a great nuisance." He could have used even a stronger word to express his position. >f She has got placed at my table proceeded, " and I cannot gen ' What would you do under the cucumRt uTadded expressions of his irrevocable love and devotion to bis affianced wife and this was perhaps the best part his letter in Eva's eyes. But for all that it greatly disturbed him and ho was very glad when they reached the Rock of Gib, and bis letter diarv was safe m the post. He had little doubt that the " Wildbore had ono also for Cairo in the same bag Xenia had not broken out again into an, frenzy on the subject of tneir immediate marriage, but her attitude towar him remained as before—one of quiet possession—and one evening at dinner he was quite sure Wild had seen her place her hand on his as it rested on the dinner table. Much as ho tried to avoid these incidents, they would occur But the final trial of his patience cams on the night before they reached Southampton. She had followed him up from the dining saloon to the promenade deck, smoking a cigarette. " To-morrow, Seymour, she said, we reach Southampton, and then London Think of what it means! We shall soon be married 1 " , Seymour halted as they reached the far end of the deck, which was in shadows he turned to her, speaking in trench, as they always did. . "If you are willing, Xenia, he said Gently, to avoid exciting her, wo will go straight" to Sir Amroth Milvaio and consult him." To n.s surprise, she agreed at once._ " Yes." she replied, " I do not object to t..au* , o " You know Sir Amroth! Seymour asked, alarmed at her sudden acquiescence. "Oh yes." she answered. ' I know Monsieur Milvain well. Everybody knows him in Esrypt. He, too. is a great friend of Abdulla. Yes. we will go and sen him. And Seymour. she added. ' Monsieu. Milvain shall decide when we shall be married » " A man who had been leaning over the rail in the shadow, turned and looked at them. , , It was the " Wild-bore who understood French as well as they did. CHAPTER XV. THE EVE OIT LANDING. Seymour calculated when Xenia had left him for tbo night, that the " Wildbore " would havo a fresh talo to send to Cairo but ho hoped that the man would be discredited Seymour now wanted to concentrate on his coming interview with Sir Amroth Milvain. Knowing what he did of the laws of Eneland he believed that Sir Amroth would tell Xenia that the marriago was impossible; in any. case he himself would refuse absolutely. There were only a few hours morn before the ship would reach Southampton; it would be impossible for him to see Sir Amroth the same day, but b« could arrange for an interview the day He went down to his cabin, and found Willett, his valet, busy packing. Having ascertained his master's views concerning the suit he would wear next day. Willett was departing, when a steward brought a wireless message for Seymour. It wai very brief. " Suite reserved for your Excellency to-morrow. Ritz Hotel, London. This was one of the surprises which Seymour expected; he took it a matter of course " We are going to the Ritz, Willett. he said. " Very good, sir,'" replied the vaM and he 'would have made the same reply had he bewi informed that they wer# going to lodge in the Crystal Palace i such is the effect of custom on the English valet. The liner was pretty well on time, and reached Southampton about eleven o'clock but hopelessly too late for Seymour to interview Sir Amroth that dav.

As ho whs passing down the gang way with Xcnia she made a communication to Irini. " We must go to differeut hotels, Seymour," she said with a smile. " Although wo are going to be married, wo must not stay at tlio same hotel; it would not be proper," she added, her smile breaking into a little laugh of derision. Befort* getting into the train. Seymour sent a wire to Sir Amroth asking for an appointment for the next day, and giving the Ritz as his address. Ho was thankful that Xenia was going to another hotel j that, at any rate, would break the connection between them for the time. Situated as he was. he dare not break with her entirely; he did not know what power she had over Abdullah. Between this girl and Abdullah he was placed in a position more difficult and more terrorising than heforo. When tho train arrived at Waterloo, Seymour took a hasty leave of Xenia, and went cIT to his hotel.

" 1 hopo," sho said as tliey parted. " that you havo mado an appointment with Monsieur Amroth Mil vain." " I have asked him to seo us both to-morrow," Seymour answered. " I will let you know at your hotel directly I get his answer." Xenia went off waving her hand and throwing him kisses, to tho great joy of tho passengers from tho liner who had come to London in tho same train.

At the Ritz Seymour found the answer to his telegram. . " Will see you and Madcmoisello Xenia at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. Arnrotlr Milvain." Seymour put the wire in his pocket with thankfulness . " At least I may find a frier, 1 in this man to help me in the awful position I am in," he sighed, t He went off and phoned the appointment to Xenia.

(To be continued on Biturdav next.)