Thirteen tourists, representing mixed nationalities and several religious creeds, find themselves engaged in examining ruins on the Nile when they are captured by dervishes. Blood is shed while they are hurried across the deserts; then the Arabs are captured by the camel corps, and there are many adventures before the surviving Europeans are rescued. The chief interest lies in the comparison of the actions of a soldier, a lawyer, a French gentleman, an American traveller, and others when exposed to the same dangers. Incidentally many Arab customs are described.
ctantly for a titter, and bowed to it when it arrived. "You will then return to Wady Halfa, and there remain two hours to suspect the Camel Corps, including the grooming of the beasts, and the bazaar before returning, so I wish you a very happy good-night."
There was a gleam of his white teeth in the lamplight, and then his long, dark petticoats, his short English cover-coat, and his red tarboosh vanished successively down the ladder. The low buzz of conversation which had been suspended by his coming broke out anew.
"I'm relying on you, Mr. Stephens, to tell me all about Abousir," said Miss Sadie Adams. "I do like to know what I am looking at right there at the time, and not six hours afterwards in my state-room. I haven't got Abou-Simbel and the wall pictures straight in my mind yet, though I saw them yesterday."
"I never hope to keep up with it," said her aunt. "When I am safe back in Commonwealth Avenue, and there's no dragoman to hustle me around, I'll have time to read about it all,
An excellent and timely book from 1898. With Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, you can't go wrong, but this narrative of an excursion on the river Nile is stunning in its parallels with the present. The characters have a great debate over the "world's policeman," Great Britain. The book relates a struggle with Mohammedans who are fierce and violent and behave as if they are still living in the 9th century. Just switch GB with USA and you have the story of US involvement in the Middle East. History sometimes repeats and this story gives tremendous insights.
