The Argosy, March 1907 — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

baie. There had been no “apparent rea- son for putting in at so unprepossessing a spot, and it was still early afternoon. But Halil reported the engine in need of repairs, and had announced that the dahabiyeh would not go on until the following morning. The tourists, for the most part, had gone ashore, and were wandering with frank curiosity about the little Nile-side town, paying the natives exorbitant prices for bogus antiquities and tawdry bits of Egyptian needlework. Halil had been the first to land, and he had bent his steps directly to the plastered abode of the Sheik-el-beled (head man of the village). “Well,” he said impatiently, in re- sponse to that civic dignitary’s salaams, “what orders from my lord, Abou Saoud? I thought to find him here. Is he not ready?” ‘“‘ No, effendi,” returned the head man, ‘“he is not. He passed through here four days ago, and bade me tell you that there are still squadrons of Guzppies [native colloquialism for Egyptian troops] returning through the country toward Assouan and he dare not yet make the capture, lest he fall in with some of these. Within a week, he says, the last of them will be gone and all will be safe. He bids you go on to the Great [Second] Cataract, and to stop here on the return. All will then be ready.” Halil, with a grunt of disappointment at the thought that he must be servile for another ten days or more to the Unbe- lievers he despised, eased his ruffled feel- ings by imparting a resounding kick upon the cringing head man, and then strode out into the blazing glare ‘of the filthy little street. But what he saw there changed his majestic walk into a run. Jonas Fitch, Mrs. Chittenden, and Barry Clive had gone ashore with the rest, but had strayed off by themselves to a quarter of the local bazaar. tionally gaudy lace had awakened Mrs, Chittenden’s admiration. She had priced it, and had been horri- fied to hear the shopman appraise it, in broken French, at something approxi- mating its real value. With every sense of bargaining at once on the alert, the old lady had striven to beat down the There a bit of excep-- price. F ailing in Se he ae : fast enough to suit her, she had lost her temper. Had she possessed enough eno wicene of the East to walk quietly away, t shopman would doubtless have nated after her and begged her to take the lace at her own price. Instead, she slammed ‘-down on his table a medjidie (about eighty-four cents), snatched up the lace, and started off with it. This was'a method of shopping hith- erto unheard of in that land where every innovation is regarded in the light of a personal insult. ‘he shopman, slipping the medjidie into the fold of his scarf, screamed aloud that he had been robbed by the Unbelievers. In an instant the space in front of his booth was alive with screaming, gestic- ulating villagers. Here again the party’s ignorance of the East led them into an error. 7 They did not know that the unarmed Oriental is harmless as long as he screams and makes gestures. As it was, they judged him by Occidental: mobs, and foresaw themselves torn to pieces. So they did the one foolish thing that was left to do—they. tried to escape. Barry, as a vanguard, sought to force a passage where the crowd was thinnest, and the scared Mr. Fitch attempted to guide Mrs. Chittenden through the open- ing thus formed. The crowd hooted with joy at this new afternoon recrea- tion, and a lump of mud flew past Barry’s -ear, plastering itself mushily across Fitch’s sallow face. ; Jonas howled in an access of fright. Mrs. Chittenden promptly fainted. It was at this juncture that Halil Sadik Ali fell upon the natives with the flat of his drawn saber, scattering them to the four winds. The rescued trio were escorted in safety to the dahabiyeh, whither the others had .some time preceded them. The story of their adventure lost noth- ‘ing in oft-repeated telling, the one im- portant result of the recital being that each and every man of the party sol- © emnly resolved never again to set foot ashore on [Egyptian soil without carry- ing along at least one revolver. Halil was profuse in apologies for the mishap, and on his venturing to present . Eomichboo S;GOMm _