A MODEST REQUEST. 69 



him have it, for he would give us half this village if we 

 asked him for it. As, however, we neither wished to test 

 his magnanimity so far, nor had any intention of granting 

 so mild a request, we tried to make a compromise by 

 offering to send him a gun from England ; but to no 

 effect, for he was quite wide-awake enough to know that 

 if we fulfilled our part of the compact, it would never 

 get beyond Cairo. 



Finding then that he must draw in his horns, he 

 changed his tactics, and gladly accepted a collapsing 

 drinking-cup that looked very like silver, and a pocket- 

 knife ; and the discarded revolver, now eagerly coveted, 

 was, as a punishment, only promised after our return 

 here. 



