"Look here, Ross, what's got into you?" McCormick blustered. "You were as keen on the scent as Clark is now and all of a sudden you back down. The fellow was Ide, all right; I've never known you to make a mistake yet in spotting a man, and I tell you this Atterbury woman, whoever she is, has an ace in the hole, somewhere. What's the dope?"
"Simply that she is too well known, too prominent. You couldn't touch her, sir. It's out of the question."
"Is it?" McCormick swore a vigorous oath. "Nobody ever flew so high yet that I couldn't bring 'em down when I had the goods on them. And I'll get it, Ross, don't make any mistake about that! This is the first time you've laid down on anything, but Clark will stick like a burr and even if Ide is out of it, there's some other little game being pulled off up there, you mark my words. We'll get to the bottom of it before I call Clark off it. But what's the good word in your own case?"
"Nothing doing." Ross raised his eyes with an effort to those of his chief. "I've been stalling Madame Dumois and trying to kid her into giving me enough data to work on, but you know how it was with you. She is fighting so shy of possible notoriety that she won't loosen, but I haven't given up hope. I found one clue that looked promising, but I was on the wrong track. It wasn't the right girl."
"Well, keep after the old lady." McCormick resumed the cigar butt he had relinquished at the other's appearance. "You can get around her in time if anyone can. Let me know when something turns up."
"Very well, sir." Ross accepted the hint and departed, but long after the door had closed behind him, McCormick sat gazing reflectively before him with a startled half-incredulous query in his eyes.
CHAPTER X.
Face to Face.
Betty attacked the new translation that evening with undiminished enthusiasm but her mind wandered and when midnight came a few meager lines proved to be the result of her labors. She paused to read them over before putting them away and the quaint phraseology fell strangely from her lips upon the stillness of the room.
"To the Stele of Abu I have come in peace to sepulchre this of eternity which I have made in the horizon western of the home of Abydos—"