The Tragedy of the Korosko

d the native pilot to

Soudanese escort filed along it, their light-blue gold-trimmed zouave uniforms, and their jaunty yellow and red forage-caps, showing up bravely in the clear morning light. Above them, on the top of t

each wearing the broad white puggareed hat of the tourist.

n't coming, Belmont

of the sun yesterday. H

trong and thick

p her company, Mr. Be

I learn that Mrs. Shle

ome letters which she m

ll not be

dams. We shall be back, y

at cer

e taking no lunch with us, and

seltzer at any rate," said the Colonel. "This

meridial heat of the weather." He ran his dark eyes over the little group of his tourists with a paternal expression. "You take your green glasses, Miss Adams, for glare very great out in the desert. Ah, Mr

bank, and the young girl's laughter rang frank and clear in the morning air as "Baedeker" came fluttering down at their feet. Mr. Belmont and Colonel Cochrane followed, the brims of their sun-hats touching as they discussed the relative advantages of the Mauser, the Lebel, and the Lee-Metford. Behind them walked Cecil Brown, listless, cynical, self-contained. The fat clergym

cort to-day," he whisp

obse

from Paris to Versailles. This is all part of the play, Monsieur Headingly. It deceives

so he looked cautiously round before he answered, to mak

ugging his fat shoulders. "Mais que voul

nglais-toujours Anglais!"

small white donkey, was waving his hat to his wife, who had come out upon the saloon-deck of the Korosko. Cochrane sat very erect with a stiff military seat, hands low, head high, and heels down, while beside him rode the young Oxford man, looking about him with drooping eyelids as if he thought the desert hardly respectable, and had his doubts about the Universe. Behind them the whole party was strung along the bank in varying stages of j

ters, and the saddle is just elegant. Did you ever see anything so cunning as these beads and thin

at he had the courage to tell her in her own language that she was just too sweet for anything. But he feared above all thin

very happy

the blue sky, and the crisp yellow sand, and a superb donkey to c

ryth

ng I have any u

ever know what i

know what I was crying about, and guessing what the reason was that I wouldn't tell them, when all the time the real true reason was that I didn't know mys

ver had any

my life that I really don't think, when I look

you will be able to say the same when you are the

ell this boy that I won't have the animals ill used, and that he ought to be ashamed of himself. Yes, you little rascal, you ought! He's grinning at me like an advertisement for a tooth

back at her. "We have found in India that they are the best support

But it's elegant to have the soldiers with us, though Monsieu

on, Miss Adams," said

olonel Cochrane t

ity of caring for the safety of the frontier," said the Colonel coldly. "At least we w

nic hills which rise upon the Libyan side. On the crest of the low sand-hills they would catch a glimpse every now and then of a tall, sky-blue soldier, walking swiftly, his rifle at the trail. For a

ed?" asked Sadie, watch

about the same tint as

at

or two references this morning in the ship's library. Here it is-re-that's to say, about black soldiers. I have it on my notes that they are from the 10th Soudanese

through the Dervishes, then

o such very great diff

, with a wink a

remains of the old bl

on at Khartoum, and h

them deserters from the

lo

ose blue jackets," Miss Adams observed. "But if there was any troubl

"I have seen these fellows in the field, and I assure yo

trying," said Miss Adams, with a

rew into rugged cliffs, which were capped by a peculiar, outstanding semi-circular rock. It did not require the dragoman's aid to tell the party that this was the famous landmark to which they were bound. A long, level stretch lay before them, and the donkeys took it at a canter. At the farther side were scattered rocks, bl

ep, hieroglyphics upon the wall above him. "He live sixteen hundred years before Christ, and this is made to remember his victorious exhibition into Mesopotamia. Here we have his history from the time that he was with his mother, until he return with captives tied to his

have liked to be here i

am

East is still the East. I've no doubt that within a hundred

old grey masonry with a brassy glare, and carried on to it the strange black shadows of the tourists, mixing them up with the grim, high-nosed, square-shouldered warriors,

in his wheezy voice, pointing

the tourists all tittered, for there was just a

he protested. "You see that the King is

t exceed his knee-which is not because he was so much taller, but so much more powerful. You see that he is bigger than his horse, because

ulpted that King's soul it would have needed a lens to see

han ever in Mesopotamia. But time brings revenge. Perhaps the day will soon come w

ed upon their sense of solemnity. They stood in silence watching the grotesque procession, with its sun-hats and green veils, as it passed in

lege?" said the O

ing. "I'm not quite clear in my own mind how these things should be approached-if they are to be approached at al

peculiarly bright smile, which faded aw

or example, the temple of Jupiter Ammon, which was one of the most considerable shrines in the world, was hundreds of miles away back of anywhere. Those are the ruins, solitary, unseen, unchangi

as it were-and find one's self in absolute solitude in the dim light of the temple, with these grotesque figures all round, it would be perfectly overwhelm

en I stood before the Great Pyramid, and couldn't get a quiet moment because they would boost me on to the top. I took a kick at one man which would have sent him to the to

are starting again," said he, and the two hastened forwards

f by similar hills, black and fantastic, like the slag-heaps at the shaft of a mine. A silence fell upon the little company, and even Sadie's bright face reflected the harshness o

, in a low voice, "you may think me a fo

e a short g

are here we do seem rather up in the air," said he. "Still, you kno

u have women with you, and a helpless crowd like this, it becomes really dreadful. Of course, the chances are a hundred to one that we have no troubl

behind them. "But for an afternoon dress, I think the French have more style than the English. Your milline

l smiled a

"Of course, I wouldn't say what I think to any one but yo

mont. "But what I cannot imagine is that they should just happen to

ery one knows a week beforehand what our programme is, and where we are

toutly, but he was glad in his heart that hi

before them. "Ay-ah! Ay-ah!" cried the boys, whack came their sticks upon the flanks of the donkeys, which broke into a gallop, and away they

njoy a panorama of remarkable fertility. But first you will observe that over the rocky side of the hill are everywhere c

?" asked M

urprised at yo

t, and he was a great man, and

ock you will see Belzoni. And up higher is Gordon. There is hardly a name famous in the Soudan which you will not find, if you like. And now, with

e swish of the water and the low roar as it surged over the mid-stream boulders boomed through the hot, stagnant air. Far up and far down they could see the course of the river, a quarter of a mile in breadth, and running very deep and strong, with sleek

e two blue mountains which you see very far away are in Dongola, more than a hundred miles from Sarras. The railway there is forty miles long, and has been much annoyed by the Dervishes, who

w, which was quite dazzling in the sunshine. Here and there, in a scattered cordon, stood the six trusty negro soldiers leaning motionless upon their rifles, and each throwing a shadow which looked as solid as himself. But beyond this golden plain lay a low line of those black slag-heaps, with yellow sand-valleys winding between them. These in their

world. Suppose you travel right west from here, and turn neither to the north nor to the south, the

by the conduct of Sadie, who had caught her arm by on

t upon her pretty face. "Do look, Mr. Stephens! That's just the one only thing we wanted to m

Cochrane had lit a match, and he stood with it in one hand and the unlit cigarette in the other until the flame licked round his fingers. Belmont whistled. The dragoman stood staring with his mou

ieve the hundred-to-one ch