"Will she keep up to the end?" he asked himself.
CHAPTER XXVI
As the hours of the day passed on, Helena became painfully aware that her courage was ebbing away.
Unconsciously Ishmael was adding to her torture. Soon after the midday meal he called on her to write to his dictation a letter which Gordon was to take into Cairo...
"One more letter, O Rani, only one, before our friend and brother leaves us."
It was to the Ulema, telling them of the change in his plans and begging them to be good to Gordon.
"Trust him and love him. Receive him as you would receive me, and believe that all he does and says is according to my wish and word."
Helena had to write this letter. It was like writing Gordon's death-warrant.
Later in the day, seeing her idle, nibbling the top of the reed pen which she held in her trembling fingers, Ishmael called for the kufiah.
"Where is the kufiah, O Rani—the kufiah that was to disguise the messenger of God from his enemies?"