CHAPTER III.
IN A DESERT TOMB.
The conversation about the last of the Mamelukes filled Max with a restless ambition.
He wanted to leave civilization behind him and go “far from the madding crowd,” into the midst of the wild residents of the Dark Continent.
Like those who believe the American Indians to be a grand race, persecuted without reason by the dominant power, so Max looked upon the residents of the Dark Continent as being a superior people.
He said nothing to his father, knowing well that his boyish ideas would be laughed at, but he spent all his waking moments dreaming dreams of the savages of the jungles.
The wonders of Cairo fascinated him, but there was something too civilized about the houses.
The lattices—which covered the windows instead of glass—pleased him, and many a time would he catch a glimpse of some white brow of a lady fair through the interstices of the lattice, and would feel like
“The lover, all as frantic
Who saw Helen’s beauty on a brow of Egypt.”
It was to be his father’s last day in Cairo. All the wonders of the city—save the nearby pyramids and Heliopolis—had been seen, and these had to be left to a future visit, for business called the merchant back to Alexandria.