Legion. If you get a fall out of the man at the top, you're solid with
the Legion. And if the man at the top gets up again and salaams and
strokes your hand, and says, 'Be my brother,' then it's a full Nile, and
the fig-tree putteth forth its tender branches, and the date-palm
flourisheth, and at the village pond the thanksgiving turkey gobbles and
is glad. 'Selah'!"

The sunset gun boomed out from the citadel. David turned to go, and
Lacey added:

"I'm waiting for a pasha who's taking toll of the officers inside there
--Achmet Pasha. They call him the Ropemaker, because so many pass
through his hands to the Nile. The Old Muslin I call him, because he's
so diaphanous. Thinks nobody can see through him, and there's nobody
that can't. If you stay long in Egypt, you'll find that Achmet is the
worst, and Nahoum the Armenian the deepest, pasha in all this sickening
land. Achmet is cruel as a tiger to any one that stands in his way;
Nahoum, the whale, only opens out to swallow now and then; but when
Nahoum does open out, down goes Jonah, and never comes up again. He's a
deep one, and a great artist is Nahoum. I'll bet a dollar you'll see
them both to-night at the Palace--if Kaid doesn't throw them to the lions
for their dinner before yours is served. Here one shark is swallowed by
another bigger, till at last the only and original sea-serpent swallows
'em all."

As David wound his way down the hills, Lacey waved a hand after him.

"Well, give my love to the girls," he said.