The Argosy, March 1907 — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

-encountered the wondering amusement “in the eyes of a passer-by whom he had recognized as a Harvard classmate of his own—an ultrafastidious member of the university’s ultraexclusive set. That this man should have seen him in the guise ofa “ tripper”’ was as vit- riol to Barry Clive’s vanity. He pic- tured to himself the unction with which the story would be repeated in Cam- bridge, and the malicious joy it would afford the coterie of snobs among whom Clive had ever shone as the brightest star. So absorbed was Barry in these wrath- ful musings that it was with a start he at length realized that the street through which he was jogging in Madge’s wake bore absolutely no likeness to that on which the hotel fronted. This same knowledge dawned on Madge at almost the same moment. She reined in her donkey and glanced about her in bewilderment. She was at the entrance of a long, crooked rectangle into which a number of filthy narrow alleys debouched. The square was alive with activity, yet not one European face did she see. ‘Natives everywhere; natives of both _ sexes; low-browed, evil of eye, and squalid of dress. She had, although she did not realize it, penetrated to that vilest quarter of all Egypt, the Cairo “ Fishmarket,” an unspeakable section, wherein, even in this semi-enlightened age, no foreigner’s life is safe, least of all if that foreigner be a woman, young, good to look upon, and defenseless. CHAPTER. -Il, A SERVICE AND A REPULSE. As Madge Brant glanced about her in perplexity she became aware that she had all at once become the cynosure of a thousand eyes. Comments of whose na- ture and phrasing she was luckily un- aware were freely bandied back and forth among the frequenters of the square. A little knot of people, quickly increasing, began to gather about her donkey’s head. A native woman would have screamed ; a European damsel would doubtless have THEIR LAST HOPE, fainted. Madge, being an American girl, with the fearless eyes and fearless soul of her type, felt only astonishment at the attention she attracted, and intense interest in the variegated costumes and _odd faces that met her gaze. Tall black Nubians in white robes and stolid faces; sullen Druses in white tur- bans and blue-tattooed eyelids; fat Cai- renes of the lower type; fcellaheen in ragged sheepskins; Turkish soldiers fat and dirty in their ill-fitting uniforms; shopmen, idlers, criminals, with here and there a man whose wild eyes and strange garb proclaimed him a dervish—all these congregated about the surprised girl. She cast a hasty“ backward glance to see if any of her friends had followed. Her eyes encountered only Barry Clive, who had ridden up to within a few yards of her, and who was looking past her in evident perturbation at the motley assem- blage in the square. “I’m afraid we’ve lost our way,’ ’ she began, when a hand on her arm caused her to turn suddenly. A large man, bloated and yellow-brown of face, and who, by his dress, seemed a personage of some importance, had laid an unwashed paw upon her sleeve and was addressing her in halting French. “ Mademoiselle has come to view the charms of the Fishmarket?” he asked, with an unpleasant laugh. ‘“I—we have lost our way,” replied Madge coldly, in the same language, as she withdrew her arm. ‘“ Will you kind- ly direct us to Shepheard’s? ” Alone, the fellow’s touch and words would have alarmed her. With a fellow countryman at her side—even so uncon- genial a fellow countryman as Barry Clive—she felt no fear. ; The man did not at once reply to her request. He said something in Arabic to the crowd, and a laugh arose—a laugh that was not reassuring. Nor were the distorted faces with their rows of grin- -ning white teeth good to look upon. The fat man, seeing evidently that the crowd expected something further from him by way of entertainment, again laid his hand on Madge’s arm. “Come!” ~ he said persuasively ; “mademotselle must stop and have a glass of cognac as the Fishmarket’s guest before she returns.” 621 Comicbooks.com .