_are_ no Dervishes. They were an invention of Lord Cromer in the year
1885."

"You don't say!" cried Headingly.

"It is well known in Paris, and has been exposed in _La Patrie_ and
other of our so well-informed papers."

"Hut this is colossal," said Headingly. "Do you mean to tell me,
Monsieur Fardet, that the siege of Khartoum and the death of Gordon and
the rest of it was just one great bluff?"

"I will not deny that there was an emeute, but it was local, you
understand, and now long forgotten. Since then there has been profound
peace in the Soudan."

"But I have heard of raids, Monsieur Fardet, and I've read of battles,
too, when the Arabs tried to invade Egypt. It was only Two days ago
that we passed Toski, where the dragoman said there had been a fight.
Is that all bluff also?"

"Pah, my friend, you do not know the English. You look at them as you
see them with their pipes and their contented faces, and you say, 'Now,
these are good, simple folk, who will never hurt any one.' But all the
time they are thinking and watching and planning. 'Here is Egypt weak,'
they cry. '_Allons!_' and down they swoop like a gull upon a crust.
'You have no right there,' says the world. 'Come out of it!'
But England has already begun to tidy everything, just like the good
Miss Adams when she forces her way into the house of an Arab.
'Come out,' says the world. 'Certainly,' says England; 'just wait one