as most precious memorials of
the past?"

"Come now, Colonel," cried Headingly, laughing, "surely you don't mean
that they would shift the pyramids?"

"You cannot foretell what they would do. There is no iconoclast in the
world like an extreme Mohammedan. Last time they overran this country
they burned the Alexandrian library. You know that all representations
of the human features are against the letter of the Koran. A statue is
always an irreligious object in their eyes. What do these fellows care
for the sentiment of Europe? The more they could offend it the more
delighted they would be. Down would go the Sphinx, the Colossi, the
Statues of Abou-Simbel,--as the saints went down in England before
Cromwell's troopers."

"Well now," said Headingly, in his slow, thoughtful fashion, "suppose I
grant you that the Dervishes could overrun Egypt, and suppose also that
you English are holding them out, what I'm never done asking is, what
reason have you for spending all these millions of dollars and the lives
of so many of your men? What do you get out of it, more than France
gets, or Germany, or any other country, that runs no risk and never lays
out a cent?"

"There are a good many Englishmen who are asking themselves that
question," remarked Cecil Brown. "It's my opinion that we have been the
policemen of the world long enough. We policed the seas for pirates and
slavers. Now we police the land for Dervishes and brigands and every
sort of danger to civilisation. There is never a mad priest or a witch
doctor, or a firebrand of any sort on this planet, who does not report
his appearance by sniping the nearest British officer. One tires of it
at last. If a Kurd breaks loose in Asia Minor, the world wants to know
why Great Britain does not keep him in order. If there is a military
mutiny in Egypt, or a Jehad in the Soudan, it is still Great Britain who
has to set it right. And all to an accompaniment of curses such as the
policeman gets when he seizes a ruffian among his pals. We get hard
knocks and no thanks, and why should we do it? Let Europe do its own
dirty work."

"Well," said Colonel Cochrane, crossing his legs and leaning forward
with the decision of a man who has definite opinions, "I don't at all
agree with you, Brown, and I think that to advocate such a course is
to take a very limited view of our national duties. I think that behind
national interests and diplomacy and all that there lies a great guiding
for