"What dost thou here? Wert thou not commanded?" asked Kaid.
"Effendina, Claridge Pasha is waiting," was the reply.
Kaid frowned, hesitated; then, with a sudden resolve, made a gesture of
dismissal to Sharif Bey, and nodded David's admittance to the slave.
As David entered, he passed Sharif Bey, and something in the look on the
Arab physician's face--a secret malignancy and triumph--struck him
strangely. And now a fresh anxiety and apprehension rose in his mind as
he glanced at Kaid. The eye was heavy and gloomy, the face was clouded,
the lips once so ready to smile at him were sullen and smileless now.
David stood still, waiting.
"I did not expect thee till to-morrow, Saadat," said Kaid moodily at
last.
"The business is urgent?"
"Effendina," said David, with every nerve at tension, yet with outward
self-control, "I have to report--" He paused, agitated; then, in a firm
voice, he told of the disaster which had befallen the cotton-mills and
the steamer.
As David spoke, Kaid's face grew darker, his fingers fumbled vaguely with
the linen of the loose white robe he wore.
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