"I fear there's mischief afoot, Petrie," he said. "Thanks to your
presence of mind, the ship's gossips need know nothing of it."
I glanced at Karamaneh, who, since the moment of my arrival, had never
once removed her gaze from me; she remained in that state of passive
fear in which I had found her, the lovely face pallid; and she stared
at me fixedly in a childish, expressionless way which made me dread
that the shock to which she had been subjected, whatever its nature,
had caused a relapse into that strange condition of forgetfulness from
which a previous shock had aroused her. I could see that Stacey shared
my view, for--
"Something has frightened you," he said gently, seating himself on the
arm of Karamaneh's chair and patting her hand as if to reassure her.
"Tell us all about it."
For the first time since our meeting that night, the girl turned her
eyes from me and glanced up at Stacey, a sudden warm blush stealing
over her face and throat and as quickly departing, to leave her even
more pale than before. She grasped Stacey's hand in both her own--and
looked again at me.
"Send for Mr. Nayland Smith without delay!" she said, and her sweet
voice was slightly tremulous. "He must be put on his guard!"
I started up.
"Why?" I said. "For God's sake tell us what has happened!"
Aziz, who evidently was as anxious as myself for information, and who
now knelt at his sister's feet looking up at her with that strange
love, which was almost adoration, in his eyes, glanced back at me and
nodded his head rapidly.
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