Mr Impossible Read Online Free PDF Page B

thing’s
definitely gone, then?” he said lightly. “Not misplaced,
or mixed in with the other papers?”

    “ I should
hardly confuse an ancient papyrus with ordinary papers,” she
said.

    “ Well, I’m
dashed if I can make out why anyone would go to so much bother for a
papyrus,” he said. “On the way here, I was accosted at
least six times by Egyptians waving so-called artifacts in my face.
You can hardly pass a coffee shop without some cheery fellow popping
out to offer you handfuls of papyri—not to mention his sisters,
daughters, and extra wives. Virgins, all of them, certified and
guaranteed.”

    She sank back on
her heels and looked up at him. “Mr. Carsington,” she
said, “I believe it is long past time we settled one important
matter.”

    “ Not that I’d
be interested, if they were the genuine article,” he went on.
“I could never understand the great to-do about virgins. In my
view, a woman of experience—”

    “ Your view is
not solicited, Mr. Carsington,” she said. “It is
unnecessary for you to ‘make out’ why this or that. You
are not here to think. You are to provide the brawn in this
undertaking. I am to provide the brain. Is that clear?”

    It was clear to
Rupert that irritating her was an excellent way to prevent
waterworks. The light was back in her eyes, and her skin, though
still pale, was not so taut and corpse-white.

    “ Clear as a
bell,” he said.

    “ Good.”
She indicated the divan opposite. “Kindly sit down. I have a
great deal to say, and it is tiring to look up at you. You needn’t
take off your shoes first. Eastern custom is inconvenient for those
wearing European dress. Not that I am at all sure why people here go
to the trouble of taking off their shoes before stepping on the rugs,
when the sand easily covers rugs, mats, divans, and everything else
with no help from us.”

    He took the seat
she indicated, plumped up a cushion, and leaned back on it. As she
settled onto the divan opposite, he noticed that she had shed her
shoes. He caught a glimpse of slim, stockinged feet before she tucked
her legs under her.

    He doubted she’d
done it on purpose. She was not that type of female at all. But those
nearly naked feet teased all the same, and the usual heat started
down low.

    The lady opened her
mouth to start lecturing, or whatever she had in mind, and he was
turning his mind to imagining the view from her ankles up when Leena
burst in. She pulled in after her the sturdy, cheerful fellow Rupert
had waved to in the courtyard a short while earlier.

    “ Drugged!”
the maid cried. “Look at him!”

    Everyone looked at
Wadid. He smiled and salaamed.

    “ All day long
he has been smoking hashish—or perhaps it was opium—mixed
in his tobacco,” Leena said. “I could not tell what it
was, because a perfume disguised the smell. But anyone can see that
Wadid is in a heavenly place, and looks kindly upon everyone. He can
tell us nothing.”

    Rupert got up,
walked up to within inches of the gatekeeper’s face, and peered
down into his half-closed eyes. Wadid smiled and nodded and said
something in singsong.

    Rupert grasped him
by the upper arms, lifted him off the floor, and held him aloft for a
moment. Wadid’s eyes opened wide. Rupert gave the man a shake,
then set him down.

    Wadid stared at
him, mouth opening and closing.

    “ Tell him,
the next time I pick him up, I’ll pitch him out the window,”
Rupert said. ‘Tell him, if he doesn’t want to test his
flying skills, I recommend he answer a few questions.“

    Leena spoke
rapidly. Wadid stuttered an answer, occasionally darting a frightened
look at Rupert.

    “ He says
thank you, kind sir,” Leena said. “His head is much
clearer now.”

    “ I thought it
might be,” Rupert said. He looked enquiringly at Mrs. Pembroke.

    Her remarkable
eyes, too, had opened very wide. Her mouth, previously taut with
disapproval, shaped an O. The prim expression had acted, apparently,
as a sort of