"I cannot say how hard it is to me to be engaged in a secret means to frustrate my father's plans—it is like fighting one's own flesh and blood, and is not fair warfare....
"Neither can I say what a struggle it has been to me as an English soldier to make up my mind to intercept an order of the British army—it is like playing traitor, and I can scarcely bear to think of it....
"But all the same I know it is necessary. I also know God knows it is necessary, and when I think of that my heart beats wildly....
"I am willing to give my life for England, whatever name she may know me by ... and I am willing to die for these poor Egyptians, because...
"This may be the last letter I shall write to you....
"May the great God of Heaven bless and protect you...."
The Consul-General was overwhelmed. The Grand Cadi's duplicity stifled him; Ishmael's innocence of conspiracy humiliated him, but his son's heroism crushed him, and made him feel like a little man.
Yet he had just now denounced his son as a traitor, handed him over to the military authorities, and, in effect, condemned him to death!
As the old man read Gordon's letters his iron face seemed to decompose. Helena could not bear to look at him any longer, and she had to turn her face away. At length she became conscious that he had ceased to read, and that his great, sad, humid eyes were looking at her.
"So you came here to plead with me for the life of my boy?" he said, and, as well as she could for the tears that were choking her, she answered—