Excited as I was over the patchwork of news, I laughed scornfully at
Anthony's dream. For the man he described might be Colonel Corkran.




CHAPTER X

THE SECRET MONNY KEPT


Cairo at last! My watch said that the journey took only three hours;
but my nerves said six.

I had telegraphed Biddy first thing in the morning the hour of my
arrival with the "_Candace crowd_," and I half expected to see her at
the big white and red station, but there was no familiar form in the
throng, the gay throng which excited my charges. Everything interested
them; the black face of the Sudanese engine driver who looked down from
his huge British locomotive, the display of English, French and German
literature mingled with Greek, Italian, Arab, or Turkish papers on the
bookstall; the ebony and copper-coloured luggage carriers who seemed
eager to take one another's lives, but in reality desired no more than
to snatch each other's jobs, under the eyes of the uniformed
hotel-porters. To me, the busy place was a desert, lacking one face.

Even outside the station-yard, and in the streets and squares where
silent camels looked their contempt of electric trams, soldiers in
khaki uniforms jostled Bedouins in khaki robes, and drivers of arabeahs