for some years. It is an avant courier. I hope,
however, that it may be welcomed for its own sake.

G. P.

NOTE: A Glossary will be found at the end of the volume.

WHILE THE LAMP HOLDS OUT TO BURN

There is a town on the Nile which Fielding Bey called Hasha, meaning
"Heaven Forbid!" He loathed inspecting it. Going up the Nile, he would
put off visiting it till he came down; coming down, he thanked his fates
if accident carried him beyond it. Convenient accidents sometimes did
occur: a murder at one of the villages below it, asking his immediate
presence; a telegram from his Minister at Cairo, requiring his return;
or a very low Nile, when Hasha suddenly found itself a mile away from
the channel and there was no good place to land. So it was that Hasha,
with little inspection, was the least reputable and almost the dirtiest
town on the Nile; for even in those far-off days the official Englishman
had his influence, especially when Kubar Pasha was behind him. Kubar had
his good points.

There were certain definite reasons, however, why Fielding Bey shrank
from visiting Hasha. Donovan Pasha saw something was wrong from the
first moment Hasha was mentioned.

On a particular day they were lying below at another village, on the
Amenhotep. Hasha was the next place marked red on the map, and that
meant inspection. When Dicky Donovan mentioned Hasha, Fielding Bey
twisted a shoulder and walked nervously up and down the deck. He stayed
here for hours: to wait for the next post, he said-serious matters
expected from head quarters. He appeared not to realise that letters
would get to Hasha by rail as quickly as by the Amenhotep.

Every man has a weak spot in his character, a sub-rosa, as it were, in
his business of life; and Dicky fancied he had found Fielding Bey's.
While they waited, Fielding made a pretence of working hard--for
he really was conscientious--sending his orderly for the
mamour--[magistrate]--and the omdah--[head of a village]--, and holding
fatuous conferences; turning the hose on the local dairymen and butchers
and dategrowers, who came with backsheesh in kind; burying his nose in
official papers; or sending for Holgate, the Yorkshire engineer, to find
out what the run would be to the next stopping-place beyond Hasha. Twice
he did this; which was very little like Fielding Bey. The second time,
when Holgate came below to his engine, Dicky was there playing with a
F