Egypt is the strangest land, the weirdest land, the saddest land in all
the world.
It is a land of memories, of monuments, and of mysticism; a land of
dreams that never come true, a land of mystery, a great cemetery
stretching from ancient Ethiopia away to the sea, a great grave hundreds
of miles long in which is buried perhaps as many millions of human
beings as exist upon our earth to-day.
Against the low-lying shore of the great Nile valley have beaten many of
the greatest waves of human history. It is the grave of a hundred dead
Egypts, old and forgotten Egypts, that existed and possessed kings and
priests and rules and creeds, and died and were succeeded by newer
Egypts that now, too, are dead, that in their time believed they reared
permanently above the ruins of the past.
The small white steamer lay moored in the evening light at the long
stone quay before the sun-baked town of Wady Haifa, close to the modern
European railway terminus of the long desert-line to Khartoum.
On board, dinner was in progress in the cramped little saloon, no larger
than that of a good-sized yacht, and everyone was in high spirits, for
the Second Cataract, a thousand miles from Cairo, had at last been
reached.
Amid the cosmopolitan chatter in French, English, Italian and German,
Boulos, arrayed in pale pink silk--for the dragoman is ever a chameleon
in the colour of his perfumed robes--made his appearance and clapped his
hands as signal for silence.
"La-dees and gen'lemens," he cried in his long-drawn-out Arab
intonation, "we haf arrived now in Wady Haifa, ze frontier of Sudan.
Wady Haifa in ze days of ze khalifa was built of Nile mud, and one of ze
strongholds of ze Dervishes. Ze Engleesh Lord Kig'ner, he make Wady
Haifa hees headquarter and make one railroad to Khartoum. After ze war
zis place he be rebuilt by Engleesh engineer, as to-morrow you will see.
After dinner ze Engleesh custom officer he come on board to search for
arms or ammunition, for no sporting rifle be allowed in ze Sudan without
ze licence, which he cost fifty poun' sterling. To-morrow I go ashor
wiz you la-dees and gen'lemens at ten o'clock. We remain here, in Wady
Haifa, till noon ze day after to-morrow to take back ze European mail
from Khartoum. Monuments teeckets are not here wanted."
There was the usual laugh at the mention of "monuments tickets," for
every Nile traveller before leaving Cairo has to obtain a permit from
the Department of Antiquities to allow him to visit the excavations.
Hence every dragoman up and down the Nile is ever reminding the
traveller of his "monument ticket," and also that "galloping donkeys are
not allowed."
"Monuments teeckets very much wanted; gallopin' don-kees not al-lowed,"
is the parrot-like phrase with which each dragoman concludes his daily
address to his charges before setting out upon an excursion.
Dinner over, many of the travellers landed to stroll through the small
town, half native, half European, which has lately sprung up at the head
of the Sudan railway.
As usual, Chester Dawson escorted Edna and went ashore laughing merrily.
Time was, and not so very long ago, when Wady Haifa was an unsafe place
for the European, even by day. But under the benign British influence
and control it is to-day as safe as Brighton.
Hubert Waldron lit a cigar, and alone ascended the long flight of steps
which led from the landing-stage to the quay. On the right lay the
long, well-lit European railway station, beyond, a clump of high palms
looming dark against the steely night sky. The white train, with its
closed sun-shutters, stood ready to start on its long journey south,
conveying the European mail over the desert with half a dozen passengers
to the capital of the Sudan.
He strolled upon the platform, and watched the bustle and excitement
among the natives as they entered the train accompanied by many huge and
unwieldy bundles, and much gesticulation and shouting in Arabic.
Attached to the end of the train was a long car, through the open door
of which it could be seen that it contained living and sleeping
apartment.
At the door stood a sturdy, sunburnt Englishman in shirt and trousers
and wide-brimmed solar topee. With him Waldron began to chat.
"Yes," the English engineer replied, "I and my assistant are just off
into the desert for three weeks. The train drops us off two hundred
miles south, and there we shall remain at work. The track is always
requiring repair, and I assure you we find the midday heat is sometimes
simply terrible. The only sign of civilisation that we see is when the
express passes up to Khartoum at daybreak, and down to Haifa at
midnight."
"Terribly monotonous," remarked the diplomat, used to the gay society of
the capitals.
"Oh, I don't know," replied the Englishman, with a rather sad smile. "I
gave up London five years ago--I had certain reasons--and I came out
here to recommence life and forget. I don't expect I shall ever go
back."
"Ah! Then London holds some painful memory for you--eh?" remarked
Waldron with sympathy.
"Yes," he answered, with a hard, bitter look upon his face. "But
there," he added quickly, "I suppose I shall get over it--some day."
"Why, of course you will," replied the diplomat cheerfully. "We all of
us have our private troubles. Some men are not so lucky as to be able
to put everything behind them, and go into self-imposed exile."
"It is best, I assure you," was the big, bronzed fellow's reply. Then
noticing the signals he shouted into the inner apartment: "We're off,
Clark. Want anything else?"
"No," came the reply; "everything is right. I've just checked it all."
"We have to take food and water," the engineer explained to Waldron with
a laugh. "Good night."
"Good night--and good luck," shouted Hubert, as the train moved off, and
a strong, bare arm waved him farewell.
Then after he had watched the red tail-light disappear over the sandy
waste he turned, and wondering what skeleton of the past that exile held
concealed in his cupboard, strode along the river-bank beneath the belt
of palms.
How many Englishmen abroad are self-exiles? How full of bitterness is
many a man's heart in our far-off Colonies? And how many good, sterling
fellows are wearily dragging out their monotonous lives, just because of
"the woman"? Does she remember? does she care? She probably still
lives her own life in her own merry circle--giddy and full of a modern
craving for constant excitement. She has, in most cases, conveniently
forgotten the man she wronged--forgotten his existence, perhaps even his
very name.
And how many men, too, have stood by and allowed their lives to be
wrecked for the purpose of preserving a woman's good name. But does the
woman ever thank him? Alas! but seldom--very seldom.
True, the follies of life are mostly the man's. But the woman does not
always pay--as some would have us believe.
Waldron, puffing thoughtfully at his cigar, his thoughts far away from
the Nile--for he was recalling a certain evening in Madrid when he had
sat alone with Beatriz in her beautiful flat in the Calle de Alcala--had
passed through the darkness of the palms, and out upon the path which
still led beside the wide river, towards the Second Cataract.
From the shadows of the opposite shore came the low beating of a tom-tom
and the Arab boatman's chant--that rather mournful chant one hears
everywhere along the Nile from the Nyanza to the sea, and which ends in
"Al-lah-hey! Al-lah-hey!" Allah! Always the call to Allah.
The sun--the same sun god that was worshipped at Abu Simbel--had gone
long ago, tired Nubia slept in peace, and the stars that gazed down upon
her fretted not the night with thoughts of the creeds of men.
Again Hubert Waldron reached another small clump of palms close to the
water's edge, and as he passed noiselessly across the sand he suddenly
became conscious that he was not alone.
Voices in French broke the silence, and he suddenly halted.
Then before him, silhouetted against the blue, clear light of the desert
night, rose two figures--Europeans, a man and a woman.
The woman, who wore a white dress, was clasped in the arms of the man,
while he rained hot, passionate kisses upon her brow.
Waldron stood upon the soft sand, a silent witness of that exchange of
passionate caresses. He feared to move lest he should attract their
attention and be accused of eavesdropping.
From where he was, half concealed by the big trunk of a date-palm, he
could distinctly hear the words uttered by the man.
"I have been here for three days awaiting you, darling. I travelled by
Port Sudan and Khartoum, and then on here to meet you."
"And I, too, Henri, have been wondering if you would arrive here in
time," was the girl's response, as her head lay in sweet content upon
her lover's shoulder. "Imagine my delight when the Arab came on board
and slipped your note into my hand."
"Ah, Lola darling, how I have longed for this moment!--longed to hold
you in my arms once again," he cried.
Lola!
Hubert Waldron held his breath, scarce believing his own ears.
Yes, it was her voice--the voice he knew so well. She had met her lover
there--in that out-of-the-way spot--he having travelled by the Red Sea
route to the Sudan in order to keep the tryst.
Waldron stood there listening, like a man in a dream.
It was all plain now. The man who had been marked out as Lola's husband
she hated, because of her secret love for that young Frenchman in whose
arms she now stood clasped.
He was telling her how he had left Brindisi three weeks before, and
going down the Red Sea had landed at Port Sudan, afterwards taking sail
to Khartoum and then post-haste across the desert to Haifa.
"Had I not caught the coasting steamer I could not have reached here
until you had left," he added.
"Yes, Henri. But you must be most careful," she urged. "My uncle must
never suspect--he must never dream the truth."
"I know, darling. If I travel back to Cairo with you I will exercise
the utmost discretion, never fear."
"Neither by word nor by look must the truth ever be betrayed," she said.
"Remember, Henri, my whole future is in your hands."
"Can I ever forget that, my darling?" he cried, kissing her with all the
frantically amorous passion of a Frenchman.
"It is dangerous," she declared. "Too dangerous, I fear. Gigleux is
ubiquitous."
"He always is. But leave it all to me," the man hastened to assure her,
holding her ungloved hand and raising it fervently to his lips. "I
shall join your steamer as an ordinary passenger just before you sail."
"But you must avoid me. Promise me to do that?" she implored in a low,
earnest tone.
"I will promise you anything, my darling--because I love you better than
my life," was his low, earnest answer, as he tenderly stroked the soft
hair from her brow. "Do you recollect our last evening together in
Rome, eh?"
"Shall I ever forget?" was her reply. "I risked everything that night
to escape and come to you."
"Then you really do love me, Lola--truly?" For answer she flung her
long arms around his neck and kissed him fondly. And she then remained
silent in his strong embrace.