["By the tombs of our Fathers"] . . . Frontispiece
[He stretched out his hand to her, but she made no response]
["Look here—and here," he cried, pointing to the broken sword]
["How interesting!" cried the ladies in chorus]
THE WHITE PROPHET
FIRST BOOK
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS
CHAPTER I
It was perhaps the first act of open hostility, and there was really nothing in the scene or circumstance to provoke an unfriendly demonstration.
On the broad racing ground of the Khedivial Club a number of the officers and men of the British Army quartered in Cairo, assisted by a detachment of the soldiers of the Army of Egypt, had been giving a sham fight in imitation of the battle of Omdurman, which is understood to have been the death-struggle and the end of Mahdism.