The Golden One Read Online Free Page A

archaeologist the same – that is, he shouts at them
when he is out of temper and begs their pardon when he has been unjust. The waiter ought to have been trained in the proper way of dealing with Emerson, whose peculiarities are well known to the
staff at Shepheard’s, but he was very young and apparently he had not taken the warnings to heart.
    With the assistance of the headwaiter he managed to get the soup plates off the table and the fish course served, and Emerson, who was unaware of having done anything unusual, resumed where he
had left off. ‘What’s Sethos doing in Cairo? What was the point of that impertinent encounter? Was it a challenge or a warning or – ’
    ‘Why should it have been either?’ Nefret asked. ‘We haven’t heard from him for months, and he knows we have good reason to be concerned about him. Perhaps it was only his
way of telling us he is alive and well.’
    ‘Bah,’ said Emerson.
    Nefret laughed, and I said, ‘Now, Emerson, you mustn’t hold a grudge, my dear.’
    ‘Grudge! It is petty-minded, no doubt, to resent a man because he tried to kill me and seduce my wife and steal my antiquities.’
    ‘That was all in the past. The services he has rendered us and his country in the past few years attest to the sincerity of his reformation, and his recent – er – arrangement
with another lady should be sufficient assurance of his abandonment of an attachment that was, I do not doubt, occasioned as much by his resentment of you as by his interest in me.’
    I paused to draw a deep breath, and Emerson, who had been stabbing at his fish, placed his fork on the table. ‘Peabody,’ he said mildly, ‘that was even more pompous and
pedantic than your usual declarations. Do not suppose that the complexity of your syntax can conceal the inaccuracy of your conclusions. He has not reformed. He as good as said so last year. As for
his arrangement with Miss Minton, for all you know that came to an end almost as soon as it began. Your attempts to communicate with the lady this past summer were unsuccessful, weren’t they?
Don’t deny that you tried, for I know you did.’
    At this point he had to pause in order to breathe. ‘Ha!’ I exclaimed. ‘You did the same. And you learned, as did I, that after being incommunicado for several months she
had been accredited as a war correspondent and was in France. You also tried to get information about him from the War Office – without success, as you ought to have anticipated. Why
won’t you admit that you care about the man? After all, he is – ’
    ‘Mother, please!’ Nefret said. ‘You are becoming heated. And so are you, Father. Perhaps you might allow someone else to offer an opinion.’
    ‘Well?’ Emerson demanded of his daughter. ‘What have you to say?’
    ‘Nothing, really.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Emerson. ‘Ramses?’
    He had remained silent, only smiling faintly as he looked from one speaker (Emerson) to the other (me). Now he shrugged. ‘Speculation about the motives of my uncle are surely a waste of
time. One never knows what he will do until he does it.’ Reddening, Emerson started to speak. Ramses raised his voice a trifle. ‘Thus far, all he has done is greet you. An encounter of
that sort would appeal to his peculiar sense of humour, and he couldn’t risk a face-to-face meeting, not if he is still working undercover.’
    ‘I don’t give a curse about that,’ Emerson declared forcibly, if not entirely accurately. ‘What I want to know is whether he is still in the antiquities game. Ramses,
supposing you and I make the rounds of the cafés tonight and interrogate the dealers. If “the Master” is back in business – ’
    ‘They won’t tell you ,’ I said.
    ‘No,’ Nefret agreed. After the waiter had removed the plates without incident (Emerson’s attention being otherwise engaged), she planted her elbows on the table and leaned
forward, her blue eyes sparkling. ‘Your methods are too direct,