"As you please, sir."
"You and I and Helena must be the only ones to know anything about it."
"Very well, but you must promise to take care. Any undue excitement, any over-exertion, any outburst of anger even——"
"It shall not occur—I give you my word for it," said the General.
But it had occurred, not once but frequently during the twelve months following. It occurred after Gordon asked for Helena, and again last night, the moment the General reached his bedroom on his return from the Khedivial Club.
He was better next morning, and then Helena took up the letter from Lord Nuneham. "Read it," said the General, and Helena read—
"DEAR GENERAL,—Gordon is here, and I will send him up to tell you what I think it necessary to do in order to put an end to the riots at Alexandria and make an example of the ringleaders.
"The chief of them is the Arab preacher, Ishmael Ameer, and I propose that we bring him up to Cairo immediately, try him by Special Tribunal, and despatch him without delay to our new penal settlement in the Soudan.
"For that purpose (as the local police are chiefly native and therefore scarcely reliable, and your Colonel on the spot might hesitate to act on his own initiative in the possible event of a rising of the man's Moslem followers), I propose that you send some one from Cairo to take command, and therefore suggest Gordon, your first staff officer, and the most proper person (always excepting yourself) to deal with a situation of such gravity.—Yours in haste, NUNEHAM."
While Helena was reading the letter the General could hardly restrain his excitement.