“That is the only clue we possess,” he said. “I cannot construe it, but I can tell you the story. We have had our agents working in Persia and Mesopotamia for years—mostly young officers of the Indian Army. They carry their lives in their hands, and now and then one disappears, and the sewers of Baghdad might tell a tale. But they find out many things, and they count the game worth the candle. They have told us of the star rising in the West, but they could give us no details. All but one—the best of them. He had been working between Mosul and the Persian frontier as a muleteer, and had been south into the Bakhtiari hills. He found out something, but his enemies knew that he knew and he was pursued. Three months ago, just before Kut, he staggered into Delamain’s camp with ten bullet holes in him and a knife slash on his forehead. He mumbled his name, but beyond that and the fact that there was a Something coming from the West he told them nothing. He died in ten minutes. They found this paper on him, and since he cried out the word ‘Kasredin’ in his last moments, it must have had something to do with his quest. It is for you to find out if it has any meaning.” 

 I folded it up and placed it in my pocket-book. 

 “What a great fellow! What was his name?” I asked. 

 Sir Walter did not answer at once. He was looking out of the window. “His name,” he said at last, “was Harry Bullivant. He was my son. God rest his brave soul!” 

 

CHAPTER II. The Gathering of the Missionaries

 I wrote out a wire to Sandy, asking him to come up by the two-fifteen train and meet me at my flat. 

 “I have chosen my colleague,” I said. 

 “Billy Arbuthnot’s boy? His father was at Harrow with me. I know the fellow—Harry used to bring him down to fish—tallish, with a lean, high-boned face and a pair of brown eyes like a pretty girl’s. I know his record, too. There’s a good deal about him in this office. He rode through Yemen, which no white man ever did before. The Arabs let him pass, for they thought him stark mad and argued that the hand of Allah was heavy enough on him without their efforts. He’s blood-brother to every kind of Albanian bandit. Also he used to take a hand in Turkish politics, and got a huge reputation. Some Englishman was once complaining to old Mahmoud Shevkat about the scarcity of statesmen in Western 

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