"Stay here," he said, and leaving Hafiz in the darkness he stepped up to the door.
Ibrahim himself opened it, and the moment he had done so, Gordon entered the outer hall.
"Tell Fatimah I come from her son and wish to see her at once," he said.
Ibrahim looked searchingly at the stranger, and a shade of doubt and anger crossed his face.
"I can't do that, my man," he answered.
"Why can't you?" asked Gordon.
"I won't," said Ibrahim.
There was a little lodge at the right of the hall, where visitors to the Consul-General wrote their names in a book. Into this lodge Gordon drew Ibrahim by the arm and whispered a few hasty words in his ear. The man's lips whitened and quivered, and he began to stutter and stammer in his fright.
"Are you, then ... can it be ... is it really——"
"Hush! Yes. Ibrahim," said Gordon, "I wish to see my mother."