An exotic tale of seduction from the pen of habu.

British solicitor Sir Cecil Pells has brought his American ward, innocent and golden-haired youth Michael Powell, on an educational trip to Egypt at one of the worst possible moments in Mideast history. Anti-British and nationalist sentiments have been increasing for four years and have just reached their peak with the violent reaction to the reparations demanded for the 1924 assassination in Cairo of the British governor of the Sudan.

Westerners and Egyptian British sympathizers alike are being kidnapped for ransom-or worse-by the score on the streets of Cairo. Sir Cecil and Michael, the lone orphan and heir of an American industrial fortune, sup in the Gentlemen's Dining Room of Cairo's venerable Shepheard's Hotel, center of the British colonial society in Cairo, on the eve of a journey up the Nile to visit the recently opened tomb of the boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun. Here the appearance of the handsome, fair-haired youth captures the notice of several men, including the Egyptian novelist and prominent wealthy citizen-and notorious debaucher of young men-Rushdy Abazar. Before the evening is over, Michael has been kidnapped and imprisoned . . . with Rushdy Abazar.

Michael has led a sheltered and highly controlled life, with all his natural curiosity and budding interests stifled by an oppressive guardian. To distract the distraught American, Abazar, the master storyteller, weaves for him enticing stories of the ultimate pleasure while depicting their current shared circumstances as proof of the fickleness and fleeting security of life. Does Michael want to live before he dies is the question that Abazar spins for the impressionable youth. There is little doubt what Abazar is interested in during days of cat-and-mouse maneuvering, but what he seeks is not easily attainable-and the whole situation has a hint of mystery and questionability about it. Is Abazar saving or destroying Michael?