KHARTOUM AND OMDURMAN 
307 
opened for us . . . when subsequently-—(on March 18th, 
1919)—the outbreak in Egypt cut off Sudan from the outer 
world, and, for the time, utterly closed every homeward 
route. 
[Having digressed so far, I may as well complete the yarn : 
—The “ Northern Gateway” being thus closed, we essayed the 
Eastern; and after a terribly rough week on the Red Sea— 
aboard a coaster, crammed with pilgrims for Mecca (very high), 
cattle, and crowds of other passengers—we finally (my brother 
and L) reached Suez, and thence Port Said by rail, passing on 
the latter journey certain marvellous monuments of British 
The Barbaric Beauty (Nectarinia metallica '). 
energy during the strenuous days of war; particularly El 
Kantara, on the Canal, the military base whence was organised 
the conquest of Palestine and Syria. Port Said proved a cul- 
de-sac, crammed to every roof with crowds all homeward-bound 
yet never a vacant berth aboard the huge troopers, transports 
and liners that daily passed our doorstep—each a swarming ftdL 
hive of massed humanity (in khaki). At length, in exhaustion* / 
and despair, we had “ signed-on ” at the British Consulate/as 
aboard a tramp" bound to Leghorn—at a shi fling * 77)2 , 
stevedores 
a month! Then, at the eleventh hour, a true deus ex machina 
descended and a great 12,000-ton New Zealander, the Ruahine, 
found steerage room (fourth class) for one— and two desperate 
men jumped at the chance. Thus we reached home just in 
time to catch an April trout—(in a snowstorm . . . and a 
spring-salmon when that snow melted!)] 
To return to Khartoum and its historic palace. Therein 
still remains one human link with the tragic past. When 
a cruel temperature oft soared beyond no°, Gordon’s 
