The PALACE of
DARKENED WINDOWS

BY

MARY HASTINGS BRADLEY

author of "the favor of kings"

illustrated by
EDMUND FREDERICK

NEW YORK AND LONDON
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1914

to

MY HUSBAND

CONTENTS

I. The Eavesdropper

II. The Captain Calls

III. At the Palace

IV. A Sorry Quest

V. Within the Walls

VI. A Girl in the Bazaars

VII. Billy Has His Doubts

VIII. The Midnight Visitor

IX. A Desperate Game

X. A Maid and a Message

XI. Over the Garden Wall

XII. The Girl From the Harem

XIII. Taking Chances

XIV. In the Rose Room

XV. On the Trail

XVI. The Hidden Girl

XVII. At Bay

XVIII. Desert Magic

XIX. The Pursuit

XX. A Friend in Need

XXI. Cross Purposes

XXII. Upon the Pylon

XXIII. The Better Man

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"'It is no use,' he repeated. 'There is no way out for you'" Frontispiece

"'I do not want to stay here'"

"He found himself staring down into the bright dark eyes of a girl he had never seen"

"Billy went to the mouth, peering watchfully out"

THE PALACE OF DARKENED WINDOWS

CHAPTER I

THE EAVESDROPPER

A one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile upon his head paused before the steps of Cairo's gayest hotel and his expectant gaze ranged hopefully over the thronged verandas. It was afternoon tea time; the band was playing and the crowd was at its thickest and brightest. The little tables were surrounded by travelers of all nations, some in tourist tweeds and hats with the inevitable green veils; others, those of more leisurely sojourns, in white serges and diaphanous frocks and flighty hats fresh from the Rue de la Paix.

It was the tweed-clad groups that the crocodile vender scanned for a purchaser of his wares and harshly and unintelligibly exhorted to buy, but no answering gaze betokened the least desire to bring back a crocodile to the loved ones at home. Only Billy B. Hill grinned delightedly at him, as Billy grinned at every merry sight of the spectacular East, and Billy shook his head with cheerful convincingosity, so the crocodile merchant moved reluctantly on before the importunities of the Oriental rug peddler at his heels.

Then he stopped. His turbaned head, topped by the grotesque, glassy-eyed, glistening-toothed monster, revolved slowly as the Arab's single eye steadily followed a couple who passed by him up the hotel steps. Billy, struck by the man's intense