Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1912-07-27

able asset He would give it away
later in the day; for he had decided
that while he was in funds there would
.he wisdom In the purchase Of a fine
gold Longines. A good watch, as ev-
ery one knows, is always as easily
converted into cash as London bank
note. providing. of course, one is
lucky enough to possess either. Many
watches had he left behind, in this
place or in that; and often he had
exchanged the ticket for small bottle
vith a green neck. Wherever fortune
had gone against him heavily at cards.,
there he might find his latest watch.
Besides getting new time-piece, he
was strongly inclined to leave the
bulk of his little fortune in the hotel
safe. One never could tell.
And another good idea, he unused,
as he swung the time-piece into his
yest-pocket, would be to add the splen-
dor of a small white stone to his mod
est scarf. There is only one we'll
defined precept among the sporting
fraternity; when flush, buy jewelry.
Not to the cause OF vanity, not at all;
but precious stones and gold watches
constitute a kind Of reserve-fund
against the evil day. When one has
money in the rocket the hand is quick
and eager to find it. But jewelry is
protected by certain quality OF
caution: it is not too readily passed
over bars and ganling-tables. While
the pawnbroker stands between the
passion and the green-baize, there's
food for thought.
Having settled these questions to
his satisfaction, there remained but
one other, how to spend his time. 1t
would be useless to seek the English
Bar before noon. Might as well ram.
Bile through the native town and the
bazaars. He might pick UP some little
curio to give to Fortune. So he
beckoned to an idle driver, climbed in.
to the carriage, and was driven off as
if empires hung upon minutes.
Ryanne never wearied Of the ba-
zaars of Cairo. They were to him no
less enchanting than the circus-pa-
rades of his youth. In certain ways,
they were not to be compared with
those in Constantinople and Smyrna;
but, on the other hand, there was
more light, more charm, more color.
Perhaps the magic nearness OF the
desert had something to do with 1t,
the rainless skies, the ever-recurring
suggestions of antiquity. His lively
observation, his sense OF the plctur-
esque and the humorous, always close
to the surface, gave him that singular
impetus which makes man prowler.
This gift had made possible his sue
cess in old Bagdad Some years be-
fore he had prowled through the mar
row city streets, had noted the wind
ings, the blind-alleyS, and had never
forgotten. Faces and localities were
written indelibly upon his memory.
One rode to the bazaars, but walk
ed through them or mounted donkeys.
Ryanne preferred his own legs. So
did Mahomed Once, so close did he
come that he could have put his two
brown hands round the infdels throat
But, patience. Did not the Koran
teach patience among the higher laws?
Patience. He could not, madly as he
had dreamed, throttle the white liar
here in the bazaars That would not
bring the Holy Yhiordes to his hands.
He must wait. He must plan to lure
the man out at night. then to hurry
him into the desert. Out into the des-
ert, where nc man might be his mas
ter. On, the Holy Yhiordes should be
his again. it was written.
The cries, the shouts, the tower OF
Babel reclaimed; the intermlngling OF
the races OF the world: the English
man, the American, the German, the
Italian, the Frenchman, the Greek, the
Levantine, the purple-back Ethiopian,
the bronze Nubian; the yelled women,
the naked children; all the color-tones
known to art, but predominating, that
marvellous faded tint of blue, the
Cairene blue, in the heavens, in the
waters. in the dyes.
make way, o my mother!" bawled
q donkey-boy to the old crone ped
ding matches.
"Backsheeshi Backsheesh!" in the
eight tones of the human voice. From
the beggar, his brother, his uncle,
his grandfather, his children and his
children's children. "Blacksheesh,
backsheesh!"
"To the right" was shrilled into
Ryanne's ear; and he lodged. A
troop of donl1eys passed, laden with
tourists, unhappy, fretful, self-con-
scious. A water-carrier brushed
against him, and he Whitfield the fresh
dampness Of the bullying goat-skin. A
woman, the long, black head-veil
streaming out behind in the clutch of
the monkey-like hand OF a toddling
child, carried terra-cotta water-jar
upon her head. The grace with which
she moved, the abruptness Of the col
ORDINANCES, caught Ryanne's rowing
eye and filled it with pleasure.