They did so, but in vain. No person of that name or appearance was known there.
Instead of being put into the comfortable barracks of Kasr-el-Nil in the city, the Highland Brigade was kept in camp while October and November crept on, and this time was not entirely a peaceable one; for in the former month the Bedouins, who were greatly puzzled with their garb, and conceived them to be the English soldiers' wives all camped in one quarter, thought to make a dash there, and secure a few 'moon faces' to embellish their tents in the desert.
A body of them belonging to the band or tribe of Zeid-el-Ourdeh, the sheikh of Jebel Dimeshk, a mountain range that lies north-eastward of Grand Cairo, came swooping down upon the Highland lines with this view, and a result which very much bewildered them, for the Scottish forces turned out with rifles and fixed bayonets, and in a very few minutes more than forty amorous Bedouins bit their native dust.
On several other occasions the spiteful natives amused themselves by firing at a distance among the tents at random, and one evening a bullet whistled through Allan's tent within an inch of his head, thus necessitating some severe patrol duty.
It was while encamped here that he received Lady Aberfeldie's letter explaining the apparently false position in which the villainy of Holcroft—combined with his spite, avarice, and desperation—contrived to place Olive Raymond.
'Look here, Evan,' said Allan, to his fidus Achates, in a grumbling tone, 'read this letter from the mater. I don't know what to think of this strange story; but, without some other proofs, if she thinks we are going to kiss again with tears as the poet has it, she is very much mistaken. The mater says that Olive's own unruly heart has perhaps made a shipwreck of her life, whatever that may mean. Poor girl, what a fool she was not to confide more completely in me!'
In his tone tenderness was blended with bitterness and regret.
From this little speech Cameron was hopeful that all would come right in the end; but a short time was given them to think or talk over the matter, as both were hurriedly sent with a detachment consisting of about half-a-company—Allan, of course, in command—to a place called Matarieh, near Heliopolis, to take part there in a demonstration against the prowling Bedouins among the mountain ranges that overlook the desert traversed by the disused railway that ran from Cairo towards the plain of Muggreh.
And for this place, which lies some miles north-east of Cairo, they marched accordingly, taking with them provisions, ammunition, and tents, for the modern village was a small one, situated among the ruins of the ancient town, which was deserted far back as the days of Strabo, and is now to be traced only in extensive mounds of earth and a noble obelisk nearly seventy feet in height; and there disasters occurred which Allan Graham was fated never to forget.