," and came
down with my whole weight on the paper bag, and of all the stampedes you
ever saw, that was the worst.

[Illustration: Stampede 299]

You know what a noise it makes to bust a paper bag. Well, this was the
toughest old bag I ever busted, and it sounded like a cannon fired down
cellar somewhere, and the air was full of dust, and before I could get
up the sultan had tipped over the table and run yelling into another
room, praying to "Allah," and all the staff had lit out for tall timber,
and there was nobody left but dad and the unique and myself, and the
unique took dad by the arm and started for the door, and we were fired
out.

As I went out of the room I looked around, and there was a Turk's head
sticking out of every door to see how many had been killed by the bomb,
and as we got out doors, dad said "Now we have to get out of Turkey
before night, or we die. Me for Egypt, boy, if we can catch a boat
before we are drawn and quartered." So here goes for Cairo, Egypt.

Yours only,

Hennery.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Bad Boy and His Dad Arrive in Cairo--At the Hotel They
Meet Some Egyptian Princesses--Dan Rides a Camel to the
Pyramids and Meets with Difficulties.

Cairo, Egypt.--My Dear Old Irish Vegetable: Gee, but you ought to see
dad and I right now at a hotel, waiting for a chance at a room, when
a bride and groom get ready to vacate it, and go somewhere else. This
hotel is full of married people who look scared whenever there is a
new arrival, and I came pretty near creating a panic by going into the
parlor of the hotel, where a dozen couples were sitting around making
goo-goo eyes at each other, and getting behind a screen and, in a
disguised voice, shouting, "I know all! Prepare to defend yourself!"

The women turned pale and some said, "At last! At last!" while others
got faint in the head, and some fell on the bosoms of their husbands and
said: "Don't shoot!" You see, most of these wives had husbands somewhere
else that might be looking for them. I have warned dad not to be seen
conversing with a woman, or he may be shot by a husband who is on her
trail, or by the husband she has with her.

Well, sir, of all the trips we have had anywhere, the trip from
Constantinople here was the limit. For two or three days we were on
dinky steamboats with Arabs, Turks, negroes and all nationalities
camping on deck, full of fleas, and with cholera germs on them big
enough to pick like blu