As the young men entered, a gaunt figure
clothed all in white rose from a sofa at the
upper end of the room, and stood to receive
them.

This was Mr. Melchisedek.

The great Commercial Authority was, beyond
doubt, a very extraordinary-looking individual.
He was a Jew, pur et simple. It needed no
ethnologist to see that. A Jew of marked
Arabian type, with deep-set fiery eyes, a complexion
almost the colour of a Roxburgh binding,
a high, narrow, intellectual forehead, and a
"sable-silvered" beard and moustache. He
wore a crimson fez, and a suit of fine white
linen, that shone all over like the richest satin.
The buttons of his coat and waistcoat were also
of linen; but in his shirt he wore three superb
brilliants, and the long, slender brown hand
which held his chibouque was all ablaze with
jewels.

Handing this chibouque to one of four
gorgeously attired Nubian slaves that stood behind
his sofa, Mr. Melchisedek inclined his head,
pointed to a couple of divans, and said, in the
tone of a sovereign giving audience:

"Gentlemen, you are welcome."

Pipes and coffee were then brought round in
the Eastern fashion, and for some minutes the
trio smoked and sipped in silence.

Mr. Melchisedek was the first to speak.

"May I inquire," he said, "which gentleman
I am to address as Mr. Trefalden?"

"Myself, if you please," replied Saxon,
bluntly.

The Commercial Authority removed his pipe
from his lips, and looked at him with some
appearance of interest.

"I know your name well, Mr. Trefalden," he
said. "You came lately into the possession of
a fortune founded one hundred years ago."

"I did," replied Saxon, laughingly. "But I
did not expect to find that fact known in
Egypt."

"All remarkable financial facts are known
among financial men," replied Mr. Melchisedek;
"and the fame of the Trefalden legacy has been
considerable."

Hereupon he resumed his pipe, and a second
round of coffee made its appearance.

Saxon and Castletowers exchanged glances.
The semi-Oriental gravity of the man, the
peculiarities of his appearance, the pacha-like
splendour of his palace, and the train of slaves about
the place, amazed and amused them.

In obedience to a sign from the Earl, Saxon
left Mr. Melchisedek to conduct the conversation
according to his own pleasure.

Presently the Nubians removed the coffee-
cups and brought round a silver bowl of rosewater,
and three embroidered napkins. The
guests dipped their fingers in the one, and dried
them on the others. The slaves then closed the
lattices, lit the lamps, and withdrew.

They were no sooner gone than Mr. Melchisedek
turned to Saxon, and said:

"If I understand my secretary aright, Mr.
Trefalden, you have been informed that a second
Anglo-Indian Company, calling itself the New
Overland Route Company, has lately been incorporated;
and you wish to know whether that
information be correct?"

"Not precisely," replied Saxon, "for I have
reason to know that such a company has actually
been formed; but . . . ."

"May I inquire what that reason is?" said
Mr. Melchisedek.

"I have taken shares in it."

"Will you permit me to see your debentures?"

"I have none that is to say, they are doubtless
in the care of my lawyer. He takes charge
of all my papers, and transacts all my business."

Mr. Melchisedek looked at Saxon with something
like a grim smile hovering about the
corners of his mouth, and said in his oracular
tone:

"Sir, there is no such company."

"But . . . ."

"There is no such company. All joint-stock
companies must be publicly registered as the
act directs. They do not exist as companies till
that registration has taken place, and, being
registered, they become capable of legally carrying
on the business for which they are formed,
according to the provisions of their deeds of
settlement. No such company as this New
Overland Route Company has been registered
in England or elsewhere consequently, no such
company exists."

Saxon changed colour, and was silent.

Mr. Melchisedek touched a silver bell, and
the Armenian chamberlain presented himself
upon the threshold.

"My volume of maps," said the master,
laconically.

The Armenian vanished; but presently reappeared
with a huge folio, which Mr. Melchisedek
opened at the Eastern Hemisphere.

"Be so good, Mr. Trefalden,' said he, "as
to show me this supposititious route."

Saxon drew his finger along the map from
Marseilles, through the Straits of Messina, to
Sidon on the coast of Syria; from Sidon to
Palmyra; from Palmyra along the valley of the
Euphrates, down the Persian Gulf, and over to
Bombay. He explained the scheme as he
proceeded. It seemed so brilliant, so easy, so
perfect, that before he came to the end of his
commentary his tone of voice had become quite
triumphant, and all his doubts had vanished.

But the great Commercial Authority only
smiled again, more grimly than before.

"You have been grossly imposed upon, Mr.
Trefalden," he said. "'No offices such as you
describe have been erected here or elsewhere.
No surveyors have been sent out. No deputations
have been despatched. The whole transaction
is less than a bubble a mere figment of
the imagination."

"But may it not be possible that, without
your knowledge . . . ."

"No Oriental undertaking can be set on foot
without my knowledge," replied Mr. Melchisedek.