“ Skerlock Holmes" m Egypt. 
THE METHODS OF THE BEDOUIN TRACKERS. 
By GREVILLE H. PALMER. 
Illustrations by J. Cameron, and from Photographs. 
THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY PROCEEDING TO THE SCENE OF THE ATTEMPTED ROBBERY. 
From a Photograph. 
RTECTIVE stories are so much 
to the taste of the reading 
public at present that a short 
account of some detective 
methods in Egypt may be 
interesting. 
The officers of justice in 
Egypt employ an agency to further their 
ends the methods of which are foreign to 
our ideas, and display an intelligence which 
is new to most of us, and recalls the methods 
of Sherlock Holmes or of the Red Indians in 
the novels of Fenimore Cooper. 
This agency is known as Bedouin Trackers, 
and a very remarkable and interesting case, 
illustrating their methods, has recently come 
under my personal observation. 
1 am paying a visit to the director of a 
large Government institution, situated not 
very far from Cairo on the borders of the 
desert, and outside the confines of European 
civilization. Jt is surrounded by a wire 
fence, and within its area of six hundred acres 
is contained a settlement which forms the 
residence of a large 'Staff. 'Che members of 
this staff are almost entirely natives, and in 
such a population there are constant changes, 
and among those who have been discharged 
for misconduct or incompetence there are 
doubtless many who cherish a feeling of 
resentment against the authorities of the 
place. 
An incident recently occurred pointing to 
some such feeling on the part of some persons 
who were evidently conversant with the 
routine of the institution. 
It is the practice at the beginning of each 
month to bring down from the Ministry of 
Finance the money required for the pay of 
the employes. This money, amounting to 
some hundreds of pounds, is kept for a few 
days in a safe in the office, and disbursed on 
a fixed day. This was common knowledge 
among the staff, who also knew that the 
premises were guarded, not only by a night 
watchman, who sleeps there and has charge 
of the keys of the offices, but also by a night 
porter, who patrols the building, marking a 
time clock every two hours. 
One morning lately we were informed that 
the safe, which is built into the wall of the 
office, had been attempted during the night 
by some persons who had evidently intended 
to carry it off, in the interval between two 
of the porter’s rounds. 
It so happens that this safe, which is a 
small one, had for some time stood upon a 
pedestal, but a few days previously had been 
built into the wall for greater security. This 
fact was apparently unknown to the would-be 
