Everybody laughed and the excavation proceeded, but the fellaheen had learned the importance of every bone, no matter how tiny, and several small but important finds were made. The amount of sand to be removed, however, proved greater than Dr. Hunt had anticipated, and it was with great pleasure that the expedition saw the arrival of a party of twelve men from Kuft, coming to ask for work. They had walked the two days’ distance into the waterless desert, and it was evident, as soon as they arrived, that they were already regretting the loss of the cooler and more grateful valley of the Nile. Also, they speedily saw that the distance of the camp from the base of supplies might mean scanty rations.
“I’m glad to have those extra men,” remarked the professor at dinner that evening.
“Are you?” queried Wyr pointedly.
The scientist looked at him inquiringly.
“Why not?”
“I rather fancy there’s trouble ahead,” he answered. “They didn’t come up in the sort of way those beggars usually do when they’re looking for work. They may be all right, you know, but, personally, I thought them a bally discontented-looking lot.”
The truth of this guess was apparent less than half an hour later. Daoud, accompanied by the leader of the twelve men from Kuft, came to the tent and asked to see El Mudir. He made a demand of ten piastres (fifty cents) a day, or all the men would quit work immediately. The professor heard them and sent them away without an answer.
“You know I can’t pay it,” he said to the members of the party, after the natives had gone. “If I do, it’ll upset the labor market along the Nile, everywhere, and every government party will have to pay that price forever after. I suppose I can give them a little more than the average, because this work is on the desert and a long way from everything. What do you think, Mr. Wyr?”
“I’ll try to handle them, if you like,” was the reply.
“Only too glad,” said the professor, and the leaders of the natives were sent for.