She felt intuitively that
the Austrian was puzzled, perhaps alarmed, by the presence of an
official expedition in the very territory he had hoped to explore
without hindrance--yet his manner hinted at something in reserve.
Though he quivered under Irene's outspoken incredulity, his aspect was
that of a man whose schemes have been foiled by sheer ill-luck. A rogue
unmasked will grovel: von Kerber was defiant. For the moment, Mrs.
Haxton was struck dumb with foreboding. Mr. Fenshawe's. dejected air
showed that a deadly blow had been dealt to the project to which she
had devoted all her resources since the beginning of the march. She,
too, had begun to doubt. Here, in the desert, the buried treasure was
an intangible thing. In England, the promises of the Greek's dying
message were satisfying by their very vagueness. In Africa, face to
face with the tremendous solitude, they became unbelievable, a dim
fable akin to the legends of vanished islands and those mysterious
races to be found only in unknown lands, which have tickled the
imaginations of mankind, ever since the dawn of human intelligence.
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