If not Lord Blackadder, what then?  What could have happened to Henriette?  Tangier was a wild place enough, but who would interfere with an English woman in broad daylight accompanied by her servant, by an escort, her attendant Moorish guide?  Full of anxiety, Basil called for a horse, and was about to ride off to institute a hue and cry, when my sister appeared in person upon the scene.

“Getting anxious about me?” she asked, with careless, almost childish gaiety.  “I am awfully late, but I have had such an extraordinary adventure.  Why, how serious you look!  Not on my account, surely?”

I took her aside, and in a few words told her of the terrible catastrophe that had just occurred, and for a time she was silent and seemed quite overcome.

“It’s too shocking, of course, to happen in this awful way.  But really, I cannot be very sorry except for one thing—­that now he will never know.”

“Know what, Henriette?  Have you taken leave of your senses?”

“Know that I have discovered the whole plot of which I was the victim.  My dear, I have found Susan Bruel, and she has made a full confession.  They were bribed to go away, and they have been here hiding in Tangier.”

“Go on, go on.  Tell me, please, all about it.”

“You must know we went out, the three of us, on our donkeys, and the fancy seized me to explore some of the dark, narrow streets where the houses all but join overhead.  I got quite frightened at last.  I was nearly suffocated for want of air.  I could not even see the sky, and at last desired Achmet to get me out into the open, anywhere.  After one or two sharp turns, we emerged upon a sort of plateau or terrace high above the sea, and in full view of it.

“There was a small hotel in front of it, and above the door was the name of the proprietor, would you believe it, Domenico Bruel!

“It was the name of Susan’s husband, and no doubt Susan was there.  I could not quite make up my mind how I should act.  I thought of sending Achmet back for you or the Colonel, but I could not bear parting with him.  Then, while I was still hesitating, Susan herself came out and rushed across to where I was, with her hands outstretched and fairly beside herself, laughing and crying by turns.

“’Oh, my lady!  It is you, then?  What shall I say to you?  How can I tell you?’ she began, quite hysterically.  ’We behaved most disgracefully, most wickedly, but indeed it was Domenico’s doing.  He insisted they offered us such a large sum, enough to make us rich for life, and so we consented to come away here.  I have never had one happy moment since.  Can you forgive me?’

“All this she poured forth, and much more of the same sort.  I could see she was truly sorry, and that it had not been entirely her fault.  Besides, I began to hope already that, how we had found her, we might get the case reopened, and that wicked order reversed.  It will be put right now, now that Ralph can no longer oppose it.”