fascinating Cairo. If I had the seven-leagued boots, I
should be a frequent visitor over there."

The two sisters linked arms, and gazed at him with awe-stricken eyes.

"And you have seen veiled women," sighed Esmeralda softly, "and Mont
Blanc, and the Pyramids, and the desert, and the Red Sea, and Saint
Peter's at Rome, and all the things I have dreamt about ever since I was
a child! Oh, you are lucky! I think I should die with joy if anyone
offered to take me a trip like that. Did you have any adventures? What
did you like best? Begin at the beginning, and tell us all about it!"

Well, as our American cousins would say, this was rather a large order;
but Hilliard could refuse nothing to such an audience, and, if the truth
must be told, had his full share of the traveller's love of relating his
experiences. He passed lightly over days spent in countries near home,
but grew even more and more animated as he went farther afield, and
reached the Eastern surroundings in which he delighted.

"Shall I tell you about Palestine? I never knew anything stranger than
arriving at that railway station and seeing `Jerusalem' written up on
the hoardings. It seemed extraordinary to have a station there at all,
and such a station! It was in autumn, and everything was white with
dust. Outside in the road were a number of the most extraordinary-
looking vehicles you can possibly imagine, white as if they had been
kept in a flour mill, and as decrepit as if a hundred years had passed
since they were last used. How they kept together at all was a marvel
to me, and as for the harness, there was more string than leather to be
seen. The drive from the station to the hotel was one of the most
exciting things I ever experienced. I am not nervous, and have had as
much driving as most fellows, but that was a bit too much even for me.
The road is very hilly, turns sharply at many corners, and is, of
course, badly made to the last degree, so that it would have seemed
difficult enough to manage suck crazy vehicles even at a foot-pace; but
our fellow drove as if the Furies were at his back, as if it were a
question of life and death to get to the hotel before any of his
companions. He stood up on the box and shouted to his horses; he lashed
at them with his whip; he yelled imprecations to the rivals who were
galloping in pursuit. When an especially dangerous corner came in view,
two drivers made for it in a reckless stampede, which