ockery clattered into the
street.

"Allah! Allah! Save us, save us! The mad Australians! The mad
Australians!" cried the cowardly _effendis_ as they fled.

"Help! Help!" screamed the wantons, as they ran like maddened hares.
But the wrecking went on, despite the charging pickets and hoarse
commands from officers and police.

"Here's the fire brigade, boys, capture them," yelled a great hulking
fellow. And they did. With a wild haloo, they captured the engines,
cut the pipes, and terrified the poor gippy firemen out of their lives.
It was an ugly time. And the riot was only quelled by armed pickets
sent from other corps.

"It's a great pity we interfered at all," said a Cairo dignitary that
night.

"Why?" inquired his friend.

"They would have burned the whole dirty place down, and that would have
been the greatest blessing to Cairo."

"Then you don't blame them?"

"No. I think Cairo has been cursed with the vilest creatures God ever
made. Yes, I admit, the Capitulations have hitherto tied our hands.
Thank Heaven Egypt is now a Protectorate. We can clean out these
filthy dens after the war."

"Yes, it is a queer hole, but East is East, and West is West, and never
the twain shall meet," chipped in another member of the club. "It's a
wonder they didn't kill that fellow Hassein."

"Who's he?"

"A rotter who dresses as a woman and runs a crowd of white slaves.
And, by Jove! he looks like a woman too--all scented and faked."

"Oh, he's a law-abiding merchant of sin," said a gippy officer.
"There's a worse person than he here."

"Who's that?"

"Madame Mysterious, who owns dozens of these low shows in Cairo."

"Isn't that the woman who used to buy and sell wives to the rich
_effendis_ and gippy _pashas_?"

"The same. That old Pasha down near Alex is one of her patrons. He's
a proper old rascal. Do you know that he has got women in his harem
who have been educated in some of our greatest schools in England?"

"Not English women, surely?"

"No. Gippy girls, daughters of rich fellows."

"And why shouldn't he?" interjected an old gippy warrior who defended
the customs of the East. "We have no right to force our Western morals
down an Oriental's throat. It is easy to be a moralist in a freezing
climate like ours. The snow makes for virtue; the sun always warps
morality. The harem is as ancient as the sun. And the harem will
remain. It's no good of you fellows hoping to alter it. And,