“You may say before Mr. Ross anything which you can tell me.  He has my fullest confidence, and is helping me in my trouble.  I do not think you quite understand how serious my Father’s condition is.  For three days he has not waked, or given any sign of consciousness; and I am in terrible trouble about him.  Unhappily I am in great ignorance of my Father and his life.  I only came to live with him a year ago; and I know nothing whatever of his affairs.  I do not even know who you are, or in what way your business is associated with him.”  She said this with a little deprecating smile, all conventional and altogether graceful; as though to express in the most genuine way her absurd ignorance.

He looked steadily at her for perhaps a quarter of a minute; then he spoke, beginning at once as though his mind were made up and his confidence established: 

“My name is Eugene Corbeck.  I am a Master of Arts and Doctor of Laws and Master of Surgery of Cambridge; Doctor of Letters of Oxford; Doctor of Science and Doctor of Languages of London University; Doctor of Philosophy of Berlin; Doctor of Oriental Languages of Paris.  I have some other degrees, honorary and otherwise, but I need not trouble you with them.  Those I have name will show you that I am sufficiently feathered with diplomas to fly into even a sick-room.  Early in life—­ fortunately for my interests and pleasures, but unfortunately for my pocket—­I fell in with Egyptology.  I must have been bitten by some powerful scarab, for I took it bad.  I went out tomb-hunting; and managed to get a living of a sort, and to learn some things that you can’t get out of books.  I was in pretty low water when I met your Father, who was doing some explorations on his own account; and since then I haven’t found that I have many unsatisfied wants.  He is a real patron of the arts; no mad Egyptologist can ever hope for a better chief!”

He spoke with feeling; and I was glad to see that Miss Trelawny coloured up with pleasure at the praise of her father.  I could not help noticing, however, that Mr. Corbeck was, in a measure, speaking as if against time.  I took it that he wished, while speaking, to study his ground; to see how far he would be justified in taking into confidence the two strangers before him.  As he went on, I could see that his confidence kept increasing.  When I thought of it afterward, and remembered what he had said, I realised that the measure of the information which he gave us marked his growing trust.

“I have been several times out on expeditions in Egypt for your Father; and I have always found it a delight to work for him.  Many of his treasures—­and he has some rare ones, I tell you-he has procured through me, either by my exploration or by purchase—­or—­or—­otherwise.  Your Father, Miss Trelawny, has a rare knowledge.  He sometimes makes up his mind that he wants to find a particular thing, of whose existence—­if it still exists—­he has become aware; and he will follow it all over the world till he gets it.  I’ve been on just such a chase now.”