d, and idling amid that unique throng is
idleness _de luxe_.

Sime watched him covertly, and saw that his face had acquired
lines--lines which told of the fires through which he had passed.
Something, it was evident--something horrible--had seared his mind.
Considering the many indications of tremendous nervous disaster in
Cairn, Sime wondered how near his companion had come to insanity, and
concluded that he had stood upon the frontiers of that grim land of
phantoms, and had only been plucked back in the eleventh hour.

Cairn glanced around with a smile, from the group of hawkers who
solicited his attention upon the pavement below.

"This is a delightful scene," he said. "I could sit here for hours;
but considering that it's some time after sunset it remains unusually
hot, doesn't it?"

"Rather!" replied Sime. "They are expecting _Khamsin_--the hot wind,
you know. I was up the river a week ago and we struck it badly in
Assouan. It grew as black as night and one couldn't breathe for sand.
It's probably working down to Cairo."

"From your description I am not anxious to make the acquaintance of
_Khamsin_!"

Sime shook his head, knocking out his pipe into the ash-tray.

"This is a funny country," he said reflectively. "The most weird ideas
prevail here to this day--ideas which properly belong to the Middle
Ages. For instance"--he began to recharge the hot bowl--"it is not
really time for _Khamsin_, consequently the natives feel called upon
to hunt up some explanation of its unexpected appearance. Their ideas
on the subject are interesting, if idiotic. One of our Arabs (we are
excavating in the Fayum, you know), solemnly assured me yesterday
that the hot wind had been caused by an Efreet, a sort of Arabian
Nights' demon, who has arrived in Egypt!"

He laughed gruffly, but Cairn was staring at him with a curious
expression. Sime continued:

"When I got to Cairo this evening I found news of the Efreet had
preceded me. Honestly, Cairn, it is all over the town--the native
town, I mean. All the shopkeepers in the Muski are talking about it.
If a puff of _Khamsin_ should come, I believe they would permanently
shut up shop and hide in their cellars--if they have any! I am rather
hazy on modern Egyptian architecture."

Cairn nodded his head absently.

"You laugh," he said, "but the active force of a superstition--what we
call a superstition--is sometimes a terrible thing."

Sime stared.

"Eh!" The medical man had