," said one to whom Dimsdale's honesty was monstrous,
"may God preserve you from harm--the thing has not been known, that all
men shall fare alike! It is not the will of God."

"It is the will of God that water shall be distributed as I am going
to distribute it; and that is, according to every man's just claim,"
answered Dimsdale stubbornly, and he did not understand the vague smile
which met his remark.

It took him a long time to realise that his plans, approved by Imshi
Pasha, were constantly coming to naught; that after three years' work,
and extensive invention and travel, and long reports to the Ministry,
and encouragement on paper, he had accomplished nothing; and that he had
no money with which to accomplish anything. Day in, day out, week in,
week out, month in, month out, when the whole land lay sweltering with
the moist heat of flood-time, in the period of the khamsin, in the dry
heat which turned the hair grey and chapped the skin like a bitter wind,
he slaved and schemed, the unconquerable enthusiast, who built houses
which immediately fell down.

Fifty times his schemes seemed marching to fulfilment; but something
always intervened. He wrote reams of protest, he made many arid journeys
to Cairo, he talked himself hoarse; and always he was met by the
sympathetic smiling of Imshi Pasha, by his encouraging approval.

"Ah, my dear friend, may. Heaven smooth your path! It is coming right.
All will be well. Time is man's friend. The dam shall be built. The
reservoirs shall be made. But we are in the hands of the nations.
Poor Egypt cannot act alone--our Egypt that we love. The Council sits
to-morrow--we shall see." This was the fashion of the Pasha's speech.

After the sitting of the Council, Dimsdale would be sent away with
unfruitful promises.

Futility was written over the Temple of Endeavour, and by-and-by
Dimsdale lost hope and health and heart. He had Nilotic fever, he had
ophthalmia; and hot with indomitable will, he had striven to save one
great basin from destruction, for one whole week, without sleeping or
resting night and day: working like a navvy, sleeping like a fellah,
eating like a Bedouin.

Then the end came. He was stricken down, and lay above Assouan in a
hut by the shore, from which he could see the Temple of Philoe, and
Pharaoh's Bed, and the great rocks, and the swift-flowing Nile. Here lay
his greatest hope, the splendid design of his life--the great barrage
of Assouan. With it he