"The Rani?"
"Yes, and no," said Gordon. "That is the daughter of our late General."
It seemed to Ishmael that Gordon had said something, but he tried in vain to realise what it was.
"Tell me," he stammered, "tell me."
Then, rapidly but forcibly, Gordon told him Helena's story, beginning with the day on which Ishmael came to the Citadel—how she had concluded, not without reason, that he had killed her father, he being the last person to be seen with him alive, and how, finding that the law and the Government were powerless to punish him, she had determined to avenge her father's death herself.
Ishmael listened with mouth open, fixing on Gordon a bewildered eye.
"Was that why she came to Khartoum?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Why she prompted me to come into Cairo?"
"Yes."