rush of some excited natives disturbed the air Ben Kelham swung around.

He had suddenly scented the perfume of Zulannah the courtesan.

He looked to right, to left and all about him, eyed with disfavour the
dirty woman so close to him, who stood crookedly, with an evil leer to
one eye; frowned and walked away to the platform from which the train
starts for Luxor. All stations in the East are invariably and most
uncomfortably crowded with natives who either stray hopelessly after
the manner of lost sheep, or stand stock-still, as hopelessly incapable
of movement, or rush pell-mell hither-thither at the sound of clanging
bell, or shriek from locomotive; but the station was unduly crowded
this evening, owing to the return of hundreds of pilgrims from a visit
to a certain shrine in the countryside and an influx of their friends
and relations from the bazaar to greet them.

The strong electric lights were blazing, intensifying the vivid colours
and modifying the dirt upon what was intended to be the white portions
of the natives' picturesque raiment; they shone down also upon the
disfigured woman who, with a certain amount of satisfaction in her
heart, brought about by the grim look on Ben Kelham's face, was limping
towards the exit. She had just reached it when her veil was caught on
the rough wicker of a basket containing hens which was being carried on
the back of a man whose mean hovel--which yet had been his home--had
been razed to the ground to allow of the building of the courtesan's
house.

He had stood the best part of the day, with heart full of vengeance,
amongst the little knots of people loitering outside the courtesan's
gate, and had only been induced to leave the spot to go and claim the