"'Ah! Miss Poles, in seeing you I lose all thought of sleep,' said M. Delange. The doctor is charming. I no longer grudge him his passion for gambling. I have come to the pass, I confess, of loving even his faults.
"The French Consul was delighted at the success achieved by his fellow-countrymen, but he advised us to quit Djiddah as soon as possible. He feared lest, jealous of our triumph, and ashamed of their own inertness and impotence, the Turkish authorities should try to excite some unpleasant feeling, or induce the populace to fix a quarrel upon us.
"'You must never forget,' he said, 'so long as you are in a Mussulman country, the well-known proverb, 'The body of an unbeliever is not worth the trouble taken by a jackal to eat it!'
"On the quay we met the Bedouin, Abou-Zamil, waiting to claim his reward, which M. Périères gave him at once. It is ill-placed generosity, but Europeans are bound to teach these barbarians that their word is as good as their bond.
"Our steamer started as soon as we got on board, and the French flag at the Consulate was dipped in our honour.
"We are now making direct for Souakim, and we have to cross the Red Sea at its greatest breadth, whilst bearing at the same time several degrees southwards."
CHAPTER XXXI.
FROM M. DE MORIN TO M. DE POMMERELLE.
"I asked Périères to narrate to you our adventure with the Arabs, and to depict for your benefit the dance of the bayaderes. He had to deal with stirring scenes and picturesque effects, and, being a literary man, could impart to them both interest and colouring. For the present, however, there is nothing to do but to send you a few sketches of the country through which we have been passing for the last few days, and that is a work which I can safely undertake without the risk of boring you. Do not expect anything from me but a sort of itinerary, some passing notes of our journey from my pen, or, rather, my pencil, jotted down at the road-side, with my knees for a table, and at the end of a long day's march.
"Only, my dear fellow, you may rely upon my being always matter-of-fact and veracious, for I am not up to either invention or exaggeration, even for the sake of pleasing or interesting you. And, besides, you may easily verify my accounts by consulting those of the travellers who have passed along the same route, from Souakim by Berber to Khartoum, Combes in 1834, Beurmann in 1860, Heuglin in 1864, Schweinfurth in 1866, and bear in mind that Berber is called El-Mecheref by the English, and El-Mecherif by the Germans.