This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Biskra. Having wept, she was now become grim, and her eye upon her husband was that of a schoolteacher upon the worst boy in the class.

Tinker found it unbearable;—he set a powerful grip upon the arm of Le Seyeux. "Listen, John," he said. "You say Tunis is a place where you can buy anything. Well, it better be! What I want you to do when we get to the hotel, I want you to get there in the other car before we do, and when we come in the first thing I want you to do is to have everything ready and get the ladies up to their rooms the very minute they step into the lobby. I don't know, but I've got kind of an idea there might be a reason it'd be just as well if they didn't poke around any just at first, but went right upstairs and took a nap or something. You understand?"

"Yes, sir; but there is no reason to be uneasy: Tunis is entirely safe for ladies, especially in the French quarter. There would be no danger of any——"

"I certainly hope there isn't, myself!" Tinker said fervently; but he seemed dubious about it, and he halted at a little distance from the automobile, keeping the courier with him. "You do as I say. You get them right up to their rooms; that's the main