He offered no argument--he simply expressed again his unalterable cheerfulness.
"I don't think Durrance has got scuppered," said he, as he rose from his chair.
"I know what I shall do," said the colonel.

"I shall send out a strong search party in the morning." And the next morning, as they sat at breakfast on the verandah, he at once proceeded to describe the force which he meant to despatch.

Major Walters, too, it seemed, in spite of his hopeful prophecies, had pondered during the night over Calder's story, and he leaned across the table to Calder.
"Did you never inquire whom Durrance talked with at Tewfikieh on that night ?" he asked.
"I did, and there's a point that puzzles me," said Calder.

He was sitting with his back to the Nile and his face towards the glass doors of the mess-room, and he spoke to Walters, who was directly opposite.

"I could not find that he talked to more than one person, and that one person could not by any likelihood have been the visitor he expected.
Durrance stopped in front of a cafe where some strolling musicians, who had somehow wandered up to Tewfikieh, were playing and singing for their night's lodging.