ng," said Miss Adams, with a
decision which made every one smile.

So far their road had lain along the side of the river, which was
swirling down upon their left hand deep and strong from the cataracts
above. Here and there the rush of the current was broken by a black
shining boulder over which the foam was spouting. Higher up they could
see the white gleam of the rapids, and the banks grew into rugged
cliffs, which were capped by a peculiar, outstanding, semicircular rock.
It did not require the dragoman's aid to tell the party that this was
the famous landmark to which they were bound. A long, level stretch lay
before them, and the donkeys took it at a canter. At the farther side
were scattered rocks, black upon orange; and in the midst of them rose
some broken shafts of pillars and a length of engraved wall, looking in
its greyness and its solidity more like some work of Nature than of
man. The fat, sleek dragoman had dismounted, and stood waiting in his
petticoats and his cover-coat for the stragglers to gather round him.

[Illustration: He pointed up with his donkey-whip p66]

"This temple, ladies and gentlemen," he cried, with the air of an
auctioneer who is about to sell it to the highest bidder, "very fine
example from the eighteenth dynasty. Here is the cartouche of Thotmes
the Third," he pointed up with his donkey-whip at the rude, but deep,
hieroglyphics upon the wall above him. "He live sixteen hundred years
before Christ, and this is made to remember his victorious exhibition
into Mesopotamia. Here we have his history from the time that he was
with his mother, until he return with captives tied to his chariot.
In this you see him crowned with Lower Egypt, and with Upper Egypt
offering up sacrifice in honour of his victory to the God Ammon-ra. Here
he bring his captives before him, and he cut off each his right hand. In
this corner you see little pile--all right hands."

"My sakes, I shouldn't have liked to be here in those days," said Miss
Adams.

"Why, there's nothing altered," remarked Cecil Brown. "The East is still
the East. I've no doubt that within a hundred miles, or perhaps a good
deal less, from where you stand--"

"Shut up!" whispered the Colonel, and the party shuffled on down
the line of the wall with their faces up and their big hats thrown
backwards. The sun behind them struck the old grey masonry with a brassy
glare, and carried on to it the strange black shadows of the tourists,
mix