Your grandfather is a masterful man, Miss Fenshawe. If he suspected
that we were following a wild-goose chase he would turn south again
this very hour."
"Yet I am sure of my ground," she persisted.
Royson's horse started and shied. A small brown snake, coiled up in the
sunlight, and almost invisible amidst the stones, squirmed rapidly into
a crevice beneath a rock. Such incidents in the desert were too
frequent to demand comment. Dick patted the Arab's neck and soon
soothed him.
"Failing our discovery of this fabled treasure, I can appreciate Mrs.
Haxton's willingness to many a millionaire," he went on. "Yet there are
difficulties in the way. That viper reminds me of one. Would not von
Kerber object?"
"No," said Irene.
They jogged along in silence for some distance. The girl added nothing,
to her emphatic monosyllable. Dick felt a tugging at his heart-strings
which was becoming a dangerously frequent symptom.
"As you have favored me with your confidence thus far, won't you take
the next step, and tell me why you credit Baron von Kerber with such
complaisance?" he demanded.
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