“We’ve got to bury the hatchet, Mr. Cavanagh!” said Dexter. “It’s a case of the common enemy. I’ve brought you your bag!” and he pointed to the brown grip upon the floor.
“My bag!” I cried. “My bag is upstairs in my room.”
“Wrong, sir!” snapped The Stetson Man. “They are like as two peas in a pod, I’ll grant you, but the bag you snatched off the platform at New Street was mine! That’s what I’m after; I ought to be on the way to Liverpool. That’s what Hassan’s after!”
“The bag!”
“You don’t need to ask what’s in the bag?” suggested Dexter.
“What is in the bag?” ask Hilton hoarsely.
“The slipper of the Prophet, sir!” was the reply.
CHAPTER XXXIV
MY LAST MEETING WITH HASSAN OF ALEPPO
I felt dazed, as a man must feel who has just heard the death sentence pronounced upon him. Hilton seemed to have become incapable of speech or action; and in silence we stood watching Carneta tending the unconscious man. She forced brandy from a flask between his teeth, kneeling there beside him with her face very pale and dark rings around her eyes. Presently she looked up.
“Will you please get me a bowl of water and a sponge?” she said quietly.