Ibrahim's soft eyes had become suddenly sharp and bright.

"Do you know Mahmoud Baroudi, my lady?"

"We met him on the ship coming from Naples."

"Very big--big as Rameses the Second, the statue of the King hisself
what you see before you at the Ramesseum--eyes large as mine, and hair
over them what goes like that!"

He put up his brown hands and suddenly sketched Baroudi's curiously
shaped eyebrows.

Mrs. Armine nodded. Ibrahim stretched out his arm towards the Nile.

"Those are his Noobian peoples. They come from his dahabeeyah. It is at
Luxor, waiting for him. They have nuthin' to do, and so they make the
fantasia to-night."

"He is coming here to Luxor?"

Ibrahim nodded his head calmly.

"He is comin' here to Luxor, my lady, very nice man, very good man. He
is as big as Rameses the Second, and he is as rich as the Khedive. He
has money--as much as that."

He threw out his arms, as if trying to indicate the proportions of a
great world or of an enormous ocean.