“Frau Emerson!” Herr Morgenstern bellowed. “Is it you who is keeping me captive here?”

I gestured at David to release his opponent, which he did reluctantly. “No one is keeping you here against your will, Herr Morgenstern. I found you wandering the streets, incoherent and unwashed. Now you have enjoyed our hospitality and have been given food and a warm bed. Do you know your full name?”

He did, and he answered my other questions about his age, position, und so weiter (as he would have said) with a readiness that assured me my ministrations had restored him to his normal competence. I then told him he might go, and he departed with a pleasant nod in my general direction.

“Shall I follow him?” asked David.

“If you wish, but I suspect he will head to the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft to take sanctuary until he returns to Amarna. He believes this is his only hope of being reunited with Nefertiti.” I sighed as I thought this over. “Oh bother! Emerson and I were planning to stay in the dig house, and I wasted an entire day making sure it was habitable. We cannot refuse him possession of it, since he is the person who ordered its construction—and paid the workers.”

“I know it will be painful for you to endure Fatima’s hearty meals, elaborate teas, and rose petals sprinkled on your bed,” David said with a grin. “Did I fail to mention whiskey and soda on the upper deck, with a splendid view of the sun setting behind the mountains in the desert?”

I tossed the discarded thobe at him and returned to my room to pack.

To no one’s surprise, the railway station was crowded with those anticipating the arrival of passengers on the train and those preparing to climb aboard it. Daoud’s imposing stature provided us with a path to the boarding platform amid the jostling of elbows and the cacophony of jabbering, multilingual voices. Ramses kept a firm grip on my arm as we sought an adequate space in which to wait for however long was necessary. The railway authorities in Egypt are not obsessed with strict schedules; our particular train would appear, inshallah, when it appeared. David arranged our luggage as a barrier in front of us, and I sat down on a bench to rest, preferring it to the close confines of the Ladies Waiting Room.