CHAPTER XX 



ONLY twelve months had rolled by, when, for the second 

 time, I found myself nearing the land of the Pyramids, 

 though in somewhat different company. Ted, of course, was 

 one of the party, but vice Ida and my god-daughter Phyllis, 

 were installed my C.O. and her mother. Instead of landing 

 at Ismailia as before, we gave that verminous port a wide berth 

 and proceeded to Cairo, via Alexandria. But, before landing 

 at the latter city, my eyes had been delighted by the sight 

 of the irrepressible Hassanein (or Farag), who came out to 

 the ship in a native boat. His expressive grin on viewing me 

 was a sight for the gods. As soon as we had exchanged 

 greetings, he inquired eagerly whether I had brought him 

 the gold watch and chain and the double-barrelled gun which 

 I " had promised him." As I had not promised him anything 

 of the sort, I told him there was " nothing doing." Seeing 

 that his bluff had failed, he made the best of a bad job, and 

 resumed his normal attitude of superiority. But do you 

 suppose that we were to escape his toils ? Not on your life ! 

 He had made up his mind that the time had come when a 

 Nile voyage to Assouan was sine qua non. The copper-coloured 

 rascal had already chartered the cranky old Cleopatra with 

 Abu, Sallie, the Reis, and others of the old bunch, together 

 with various new " donkey-boys " whom he had engaged 

 or " Shanghaied." So there was nothing for it but to bow 

 to the inevitable. However, we had a few days' respite, and 

 as there was a large number of quail round about the Pyramids 

 we made up our minds to enjoy such sport as we could get 

 out of these gamesome little birds. We found them so plenti- 

 ful that one evening, after dinner, I began bucking about 

 what I could do with them ; whereupon I was challenged by 



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