“I understand and he pay a hundred shillings a day and extra for ze camels.”
“Yes, a hundred shillings and camels, food, tents, and dragoman extra. Will give five hundred pounds “backsheesh” to you before you start.”
Mohammed could wait no longer. The prospect of such a mine to explore was too good to be lost. He went to Boulak immediately, and during the rest of my stay I saw him only once, and then he was walking in the morning toward Boulak to take up his waiting station. I understood afterward that we really did him a good turn as his stay at Boulak was rewarded with a customer,—not as good as the Grand Duke of Chicago, but yet a remunerative one.
The day at length arrived for my departure. So I paid a farewell visit to our excellent representative, Consul-General Beardsley, and to a few other friends and acquaintances, and in other ways made ready for departure.
I spent a last morning in the bazaars and devoted an hour to the purchase of an oriental necklace and a few other trifles. An hour was the least time in which I could do the necessary bargaining; in London or Paris it would have been all over in two minutes.
In buying the necklace I left the shop four times and gradually beat the fellow down to a decent price; he asked less on each occasion that I approached him, and if I had devoted half a day to the business I might have done better than I did. I paid him for my purchase a little more than fifty per cent, of what he demanded at the outset and probably quite as much as he expected to receive. I left Cairo by the slow train as I wished to see the stations along the road, and was in no hurry to be whisked through by express. Two of us offered a rupee, (fifty cents,) to the conductor if he would give us the exclusive use of a compartment, and to make sure that he would carry out his agreement we suggested that we would pay him at the end of the journey.
He was entirely content with the arrangement and carried out his part of it to perfection. He came to us at every station to see if we wanted anything, and when we left the car at places where the stops were long, he carefully locked the compartment and stationed a brakeman to watch it and make sure that nobody else should enter it. We gave him his rupee at the last station before reaching Alexandria and saw him no more.