Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/43

 was beginning to filtrate into my mind. The whole thing was preposterous, of course, but the old fascination which ancient Egypt, with its gorgeousness, its mysteries, its glorious art had ever excited, even in my raw schoolboy mind, began to hold me enthralled.

"Remember, Mark, too, that due west, line for line with Wady-Halfa, a couple of thousand miles away, lies the high peak of Uj-en-ari, and that almost at its very base Rholf found traces of an ancient way which he took to have once led to, and therefore from, Egypt."

"And the arrow which the hieroglyphic person is shooting is depicted in the next sign as being stuck in a high and precipitous mountain, which might easily be Uj-en-ari," I added excitedly.

There was no doubt that my common sense was lulling itself to rest.

Hugh took hold of my coatsleeve and made me turn to where a large map of Egypt and the Libyan desert hung against the wall.

"There lies the land," he said, running his fingers round the vast blank space on the map, "and that is where I mean to go."

And common sense gave another dying gasp.

"Rholfs and Caillaud both found that inaccessible and shifting dunes, running from north to south, barred any way across the Libyan desert," I objected.

"If we go due west from that one spot I feel convinced that we shall find a way through those inaccessible sand dunes," replied Hugh, emphatically.

He was so sure, so convinced, there was so much power in his whole personality, that the conviction very soon dawned upon me that, if I did not choose to accompany him in his wild search after his Egyptians, he would risk the dangerous desert journey alone.