contract for the British?"

Monsieur Fardet was an honest man, if an imaginative one.

"It is a French company, monsieur, which holds the railway contract,"
said he.

The American was puzzled.

"They don't seem to get much for their trouble," said he. "Still, of
course, there must be some indirect pull somewhere. For example, Egypt
no doubt has to pay and keep all those red-coats in Cairo."

"Egypt, monsieur! No, they are paid by England."

"Well, I suppose they know their own business best, but they seem to me
to take a great deal of trouble, and to get mighty little in exchange.
If they don't mind keeping order and guarding the frontier, with a
constant war against the Dervishes on their hands, I don't know why any
one should object. I suppose no one denies that the prosperity of the
country has increased enormously since they came. The revenue returns
show that. They tell me also that the poorer folks have justice, which
they never had before."

"What are they doing here at all?" cried the Frenchman angrily.
"Let them go back to their island. We cannot have them all over the
world."

"Well, certainly, to us Americans, who live all in our own land, it does
seem strange how you European nations are for ever slopping over into