Page:The tragedy of the Korosko (IA tragedyofkorosko00doylrich).pdf/58

 Headingly puffed thoughtfully at his cigarette.

“There is a house near ours, down on the Back Bay at Boston, which just ruins the whole prospect,” said he. “It has old chairs littered about the stoop, and the shingles are loose, and the garden runs wild; but I don’t know that the neighbours are exactly justified in rushing in, and stamping around, and running the thing on their own lines.”

“Not if it were on fire?” asked the Colonel.

Headingly laughed, and rose from his camp-stool.

“Well, it doesn’t come within the provisions of the Monroe Doctrine, Colonel,” said he. “I’m beginning to realise that modern Egypt is every bit as interesting as ancient, and that Rameses the Second wasn’t the last live man in the country.”

The two Englishmen rose and yawned.

“Yes, it’s a whimsical freak of fortune which has sent men from a little island in the Atlantic to administer the land of the Pharaohs,” remarked Cecil Brown. “We shall pass away again, and never leave a trace among these successive races