upercilious lip and inquired in its own unspoken tongue what _he_ knew
about the desert.

'I feel like a wurrum before the baste,' the Doctor said, nonplussed.

If the Nile was monotonous, the road to Wadi Bou was nothing short of
dreary. We crossed a great ridge of bare, gray rock, and followed a
rolling valley of sand, scored by dry ravines, and baking in the sun. It
was ghastly to look upon. All day long, save at the midday rest by some
brackish wells, we rode on and on, the brutes stepping forward with
slow, outstretched legs; though sometimes we walked by the camels' sides
to vary the monotony; but ever through that dreary upland plain, sand in
the centre, rocky mountain at the edge, and not a thing to look at. We
were relieved towards evening to stumble against stunted tamarisks,
half buried in sand, and to feel we were approaching the edge of the
oasis.

When at last our arrogant beasts condescended to stop, in their
patronising way, we saw by the dim light of the moon a sort of uneven
basin or hollow, studded with date-palms, and in the midst of the
depression a crumbling walled town, with a whitewashed mosque, two
minarets by its side, and a crowd of mud-houses. It was strangely
familiar. We had come all this way just to see Aboo-Teeg or Koos-kam
over again!

We camped outside the fortified town that night. Next morning we essayed
to make our entry.

At first, the servants of the Prophet on watch at the gate raised
serious objections. No infidel might enter. But we had a pass from
Cairo, exhorting the faithful in the name of the Khedive to give us food
and shelter; and after much examination and many loud discussions, the
gatemen passed us. We entered the town, and stood alone, three Christian
Europeans, in the midst of three thousand fanatical Mohammedans.

I confess it was weird. Elsie shrank by my side. 'Suppose they were to
attack us, Brownie?'

'Thin the sheikh here would never get paid,' Dr. Macloghlen put in with
true Irish recklessness. 'Faix, he'll whistle for his money on the
whistle I gave him.' That touch of humour saved us. We laughed; and the
people about saw we could laugh. They left off scowling, and pressed
around trying to sell us pottery and native brooches. In the intervals
of fanaticism, the Arab has an eye to business.

We passed up the chief street of the bazaar. The inhabitants told us in
pantomime the chief of the town was away at Asioot, whither he had gone
two days ago on bu