Sethos—my presentiment had been correct—hauled me up onto the ledge of the tomb. He was dressed in a blue robe and a red-and-white-checked kaffiyeh, his tinted face obscured by wire-rimmed eyeglasses, an outrageously large mustache, a variety of artistic warts, and a singular black beetle brow. “You are exceedingly damp above the knees,” he said. “Would you care to remove—”

“No,” I gasped. Dangling from a rope high above roiling water has always had a deleterious effect on my composure.

“Ah well. Sit down then, and enjoy the view. I doubt the water will rise any higher.”

I came to my senses and peered down at the wadi. “The woman!” I exclaimed. “I do not see her. What became of her? She was heading straight for the deeper water.”

“A woman in distress? And you followed her? Will you never learn?”

“She may have been swept away. The flood—”

“Was an act of Providence,” Sethos interrupted. “If you had followed her a little farther you would have found yourself confronting not a woman, but a man armed with deadly weapons. He would probably have used a knife, but a pistol could have been a viable option. He would have been up the cliff and away before Emerson arrived. How the devil did you elude Emerson? He is supposed to be watching over you.”

“He went to speak with Herr Morgenstern.”

“And you went dashing off without a word to anyone?”

I felt certain I would hear a repetition (and more than once) of this criticism from Emerson, so I deliberated briefly over my response. Not that I felt obliged to make excuses, or even explanations, for my behavior, but it would save time and energy if Emerson accepted my reasons without excessive debate. I decided to ascertain how Sethos would respond to them.

“It was necessary to act immediately,” I said. “I believed the woman to be in imminent danger.”

“Amelia, kindly do me and your much-harried husband the favor of stopping to think before you act. It seems to require at least two of us to keep you out of trouble, and I cannot spend all my time here. My business is suffering.”

“That hardly elicits sympathy from me, since your business is tomb robbing, forgery, fraud, and murder.”

Sethos let out a peal of hearty laughter. “If you intended that as an insult, dear Amelia, you have missed the mark. It is a relatively accurate description.”