s
cut in the stones."

"No, the slaughterers here nowadays are more barbarous. Not the
city-building monarchs, but the nomadic chiefs who force themselves to
the height of power with their horrible religious despotism--your
Mahdis. It is a wonder that they find so many followers, but they do."

"Fanaticism, I suppose," said Frank.

"Yes, that and the love of conquest, with its additions in the shape of
plunder. For years past these vast tracts of fertile land bordering the
river have gone back to waste, village after village of industrious
people having been massacred or forced to flee for their lives."

"But--I have read so little about the Khedival rule--why has not the
Egyptian Government put a stop to all this frightful persecution?"

"From want of power, my lad. The country has been too big, the army too
small, and the invading tribes from the south too warlike a fighting
race to be withstood. There is the consequence--a smiling land,
irrigated by the mighty river which brings down the rich tropic mud from
the highlands of the south, utterly depopulated, and strewn with the
wretched people's bones."

"And how long is this to last?" said Frank, as he thought of his
brother's fate.

"Till England stretches forth her hand to sweep the blasphemous invader
from the land he destroys. It is coming, Frank, but the old lion moves
slowly and takes some time to rouse."

"But when he does make his spring--!"

"Yes, when he does! The Indian tiger learned his power then. But the
sun is getting too hot for a political lecture, my lad. Come, use your
glass again. There's another enemy about to cross our track."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

RECEIVING THE ENEMY.

As Frank was about to raise the glass to his eye, the doctor, who was
some little distance in advance, checked his camel for them to come up
alongside, and pointed the while away to where in the distance about a
dozen column-like clouds were spinning round as if upon pivots, while
they advanced as if to cross their course.

"A sand-storm," said the professor. "Not much, but unpleasant enough if
it comes upon us. Hi! Ibrahim; will those pillars cross before we get
near them?"

"I cannot say, Excellency," replied the old man. "I fear not. It will
be better to halt."

The preparations for the storm were soon made, the camels crouching down
with their necks fully outstretched, while their riders knelt down
sheltered by the animals and their packs, a