Page:The tragedy of the Korosko (IA tragedyofkorosko00doylrich).pdf/43

 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 émeute, 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.