The Argosy, March 1907 — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

“THEIR L LAST HOPE. 4 “You ‘forget, 2 hie said, ‘ King Co- crumpled page ran- ‘this sentence pees __ phetua came a// the way down from his Arabic: ee Sos throne; oo le Stery “G0, 10 Breet “the 16 irs EXCELLENCY, GorDON PasHA (on. + beggar maid. : : t avhom be peace!) ae — Oh, come!” he growled, “ what's the Death waits for yeu in the south. | Sm: use of rubbing it in? [I said I was sorry, ea ’ didn’t I?” Stewart ran to the window. The gar- 9 z You said all that was necessary,” den beneath was empty. = 8 she answered, “and so far as I am con- = fo Cerned the whole affair is forgotten. | = = = > But may I offer you one little sugges-. CHAPTER V. Si | tion? If a thing is worth apologizing THE RETORT DISCOURTEOUS. | = for, it is worth apologizing for grace- = fully. Not that it matters in this case, Gorpvon Pasua had begun his south- sag of course.” ward journey to Khartum, starting up He was about to reply, but Colonel the Nile toward Berber, whence he was | Stewart returned. With him was Gor- to strike inland. don Pasha. Barry stood irresolute a Cairo, recovering from the little rip- - moment, then backed away to give place ple of excitement occasioned by the BE to them. ! He had sought if vain all evening for an introduction to the hero of the hour. And now Gordon had come of idolized pasha’s sudden arrival and early aS departure, had settled back once more into its habitual plethoric calm—a calm that overlies more intrigue, crime, and his own accord to seek out this girl whom Clive had looked on as a nonentity. , “Have you enjoyed it, Miss Brant?” asked Gordon, leaning against the open casement of the window and _ looking down at her. “ More than I can tell you,” she an- swered eagerly. “It is all so new—so beautiful. A scene from fairy-land. I shall never forget it.” “Stewart tells me you are going up the Nile in a few days, as far as the Sec- ond Cataract. Why not come still far- ther south and bring your party to visit me at Khartum? You will-be made ‘very welcome, there, I can assure you.” He spoke in idle kindliness. At a later, supreme, hour both were destined to recall his careless words as vividly “as though they had been written in letters of blood. Madge was about to make some light reply, when, with a faint whirring sound, some object, apparently hurled from the moonlit garden below, whizzed through the window, struck Gordon on the shoulder,-and bounded off into the girl’s lap. Gordon did not move a neck of face or body; but at Madge’s involuntary exclamation Colonel Stewart sprang for- ward and snatched up the missile. It was a small stone around which was wrapped a sheet of paper. And on the evil than any mere outsider dreams of.’ Such members of the Cook party as were to make the Nile trip to the Sec- ond Cataract were busy with prepara- tions. To every rumor of discontent among the up-country tribes there came from all sides a dozen emphatic denials of the possibility of anything of the sort. For it is hard for the Englishman in the Orient to credit the idea of his sub- dued vassals venturing to rise up against him. And this despite the red memory of such exceptions as the Sepoy Mu- tiny, the insurrection of Araby Bey, the Zulu and Boer wars, and the Mahdist rebellion. Soon or late all these uprisings have been crushed and terribly avenged, but at the price of thousands of innocent lives. At last all was ready for the Nile journey. The dahabiyeh was equipped from the tips of its lateen sails to the clumsy wooden hull. Halil had engaged a particularly vil- lainous-looking and incompetent crew, for the regular sailors attached to the Cook service were not permitted to make the journey. The tourists—a~ round dozen, all told—were assigned to their respective stuffy cabins opening out on the deck. So it was that in the gray of the morn- ~ “eee rid ed : i wey me WD AY lt aS Ke anit : - Ly £ a” se 5 7 , V ." ie Misi ve. ee * odie he Fal vee ‘ ee a oe ee oil sxexe)