Instinctively he shrank back, and his heart stood still as he thought of what would happen if the man chanced to turn the little ray of his lamp on him.

Almost involuntarily his thoughts went back to the promise of Queen Nitocris, and something like a prayer that it might be kept rose to his lips.
They came out, and the man flashed the thin electric ray up and down the passage.

It wavered hither and thither, and at last fell directly on his face.

He was anything but a coward, but he was thinking of Niti--and what if a knife-stab left her undefended?
But to his amazement, although they were both looking straight at him, the expression of neither face changed in the slightest.

They had not seen him.