The Argosy, March 1907 — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

ah > ee > (Ay gen At pines 2 cant ‘. een ; : ~< - = . ay - r : mS ‘ ¥ “Pt x tal, » a - % BR Paso Sy cant OPA : , the girl had taken, Barry turned to the left, and in due course found himself within fifty yards of the hotel. Madge, on the contrary, hot tears of rage and mortification dimming her sight and dulling her faculties, had wheeled into the right-hand fork. - As she rode on she fought back the unwonted resentment that filled her heart. “They sha’n’t spoil my good time! They sha’n’t/” she told herself defiant- ly. “I’ve worked hard for four years, and I won’t let a cross old woman and a cub of a boy ruin my trip. Illl forget all about it and enjoy the rest of the tour just as much as I can. Thank goodness, all the others are nice to me! I’d be foolish to let myself worry over what Mr. Clive chooses to think about me.” Having at last talked herself into her normal sunny temper, she fell to wonder- ing at the length of the route she had chosen. It was now quite dark, and de- spite her Yankee fearlessness she began to grow a little nervous as the narrow black alley stretched out before her. It was not wholly pleasant to feel that she might have missed her way and been lost in the slums of one of the vilest cities on earth. She quickened her pace, glancing apprehensively at the occasion- al dark forms that slunk past her. Luckily, the night was as much her friend as her menace, in that it rendered her practically invisible to such frequent- ers of the quarter as she chanced to meet. At length, coming around a curve in the road, she saw ahead of her, not one hundred yards distant, a welcome glare of light, an open space where hurrying figures passed and repassed. “The hotel square at last!’ she thought gaily, as, dazzled by the light, she urged the donkey forward—into the very center of the Fishmarket. CHAPTER III. THE MAN OF DESTINY. MapceE Brant, divining how fatally she had lost her way and to what a goal her last dash for refuge had led her, sat dazed, inert. There, in the middle of that noisy, squalid square, she sat, a pathetic little huddled figure with white face and wide, frightened eyes. About her swirled the eddy ad backwater of all that is low- ect in Cairo’s mixed population. The air was vibrant with the monot- onous thud —thud— thud of native ~ drums in the various cafés and concert halls; shrill yells, laughter and song; thick with smoke and rank perfumes. The fithy pavements were syarming with the scum of the Mediterr: 1ean. And in the center of it all, pezched on a solitary small gray donkey, sat the trembling American girl. Before she could frame a plan for es- cape one or two idlers had spied her. Drawing about her in open-mouthed curiosity, their actions attracted others. In less than thirty seconds the girl found herself once more surrounded. Then came a shout from in front. She — was recognized as the Sz¢t (foreign lady) who had been in the _ Fishmarket less than an hour before. The shout brought men running from all direc- tions. It was seen that her escort was no longer with her, and this embold- ened the throng to press closer. Awakening to a sense of her peril, Madge sought to wheel her donkey to ‘one side and to force a way through to the friendlier shadows of the alleys. But the crowd was thick and the little beast exhausted. A loud laugh greeted the failure of her attempt. ‘‘ Five medjidie to the man who will conduct me to Shepheard’s Hotel,” she cried in French, in a voice she pluckily strove to steady. . But even as she spoke there was « stir and confusion in the press, as of some . one striving to force a way through. Men . fell back respectfully to either side, and through the lane thus formed waddled the fat man who had addressed her on her previous involuntary visit. His right hand was bound up in a dirty cloth where Clive’s riding-stick had struck. His expression had not been im- proved by the experience. ‘Let me be mademoiselle’s escort,” he said; “I shall be honored to conduct her to Shepheard’s.” Such. of the crowd as _ understood French laughed aloud as he waddled for- ward and with an air of mock gallantry held out his uninjured hand. > ~ GComirecboo ‘S:COMm