The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters

rather than exertion that had quickened his breath. The tone in which he replied further strengthened this theory.

"Don't ask stupid questions, Peabody! He threw you straight at me, like a bundle of laundry. Would you rather I had let you fall to the floor? Even if I had been so cold-blooded, I reacted instinctively, and by
the time I had recovered myself he was long gone."

I sat up and began to straighten my disheveled hair. Somewhere along the way I had lost my pith helmet. I reminded myself to search for it next day, it was a new one and very expensive.

"The implied reproach was unfair, Emerson. I apologize. It would take him only a minute to achieve anonymity by divesting himself of his robes. They were not an exact copy of yours but they were close
enough."

"Confounded fancy dress!" Emerson had divested himself of bis robe, he tossed it into a corner and plucked the headdress from his head. I let out a cry.

"Is that blood on your face? Come here and let me see."

After some masculine grumbling he consented to let me have a look. (He likes being fussed over but refuses to admit it.) There was only a small trace of blood on his temple but it marked a tender spot that would no doubt blossom into a purple bruise before morning. "What the devil have you been up to?"
I asked.

Emerson stretched out on the bed. "I had a little adventure of my own You don't suppose it was Divine Guidance that brought me to your rescue in the traditional nick of time, do you?"

"I could believe in Divine Guidance, my dear. Are you not always at my side when danger threatens?"

Leaning over him, I pressed my lips to the wound "Ouch," said Emerson.

"What happened?"

"I had gone out for a smoke and some intelligent conversation,"

Emerson explained.

"Out of the hotel?"

"No one in the hotel—saving your presence, my dear—is capable of intelligent conversation. I thought Abdul or Ali might be hanging about. As I strolled innocently through the gardens, three men jumped me.

"Three? Was that all?"

Emerson frowned. "It was rather odd," he said. "The fellows were, I believe, ordinary Cairene thugs. If they had intended to murder me, they might have done some damage, for as you know, they all carry knives. They never used them, only their bare hands."

"Bare hands did not inflict this wound," I said, indicating his temple. "One of them had a club. The confounded headdress was of some use, it deflected the blow. I became a trifle annoyed then, and after
I had disposed of two of them, the third fled. I would have questioned them, but it occurred to me that you might be in similar straits and that I had better see what you were up to."

I got up and went to look for my medical kit. "Why should you suppose that? Your enemies are not necessarily mine, and I must say, Emerson, that over the years you have attracted quite a number of ... Where the devil did I put that box of bandages? The safragi has mixed up the luggage, nothing is where
I left it."

Emerson sat up. "What makes you think it was the safragi?"

I finally found the medicine box,- it was in the original container, but not in the original place. Emerson, who had been searching his own luggage, straightened. "Nothing appears to have been taken."

I nodded agreement. He was holding an article I had not seen before— a long narrow box of heavy cardboard. "Has something been added? Be careful opening it, Emerson!"

"No, this is my property. Ours, I should say." He removed the lid, and I saw a glitter of gold and a rich azure glow.

"Good heavens," I cried. "It is the regalia Nefret carried away with her from the Holy Mountain— the royal scepters. Why did you bring them?"

One scepter was shaped like a shepherd's crook, symbolizing the care of the king for his people. The materials were gold and lapis lazuli in alternating rings. The other object consisted of a short staff made
of gold foil and dark-blue glass over a bronze core, from which depended three flexible thongs of the same