Toward ten o’clock a telegram arrived from the moodir that read as follows:
“It has been ascertained at the station that the children left the day before for Gharak el-Sultani.”
It is easy to imagine that the fathers were greatly surprised and very angry at this unexpected news. For a while they gazed at each other, as if they had not understood the words of the telegram; then Mr. Tarkowski, who was a very excitable man, struck the table with his fist and said:
“This is Stasch’s work, but I will soon cure him of such ideas.”
“I should never have thought that of him,” answered Nell’s father. But after a while he asked:
“Well, and Chamis?”
“Either he has not met them and does not know what to do, or he has gone in search of them.”
“That is what I think.”
An hour later they left for Medinet. In the tents they learned that the camel-drivers had also departed, and at the station it was stated on good authority that Chamis had left for El-Gharak with the children.
Things looked darker and darker, and they could only be explained at El-Gharak.