Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-01-30

zaars OF cairo. Tney were TO MIN 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
de 'ert had something to do with 1t,
the :ainless skies, the overcoming
suggestions of antiquity. His lively
observation, his sense of the pictur-
esque and the humorous, always close
to the surface, gave him that singular
impetus which makes man a 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 infidePs 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 no man might be his mas
ter. Oh, the Holy Yhiordes should be
his again; 1t was written.
The cries, the shouts, the tower of
Babel reclaimed; the intermingling OF
the races of the world: the English
man, the American, the German, the
italian, the Frenchman, the Greek, the
Levantine, the purple-black 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.
huhC way " UdWl6O
donkey-boy to the old crone ped
ding matches.
"Backsheesh! 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!"
ITO the right" was shrilled into
Ryanne's ear; and he lodged. A
troop Of donkeys 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 a terra-cotta water-jar
upon her head. The grace with which
she moved, the abruptness of the col
exchanges. caught Ryanne's rowing
eye and filled it with pleasure.
Dust rose and subsidized, eddied and
settled; beggars blind and one-eyed
squatted in it, children tossed it in
play, and beasts of burden shufied
through 1t. "a. ..- ...
The roar In front of the shops, the
pressing and crowding of customers,
the high cries of the merchants; the
gurgle of the waterpipes. the pleasant
fumes of coffee, the hardy loafers
lolling before the khans or caravan
saries; yelled face at lattice-win-
dow; the violet shadows in doorway;
the sunshine upon the soaring
mosques; true believer. rocking and
mumbling over his tattered Koran;
gold and silver and jewels; amber and
copper and brass; embroideries and
rugs and carpets; and the pest Of fieas,
the plague Of flies, the insidious
smells.
Rarely one saw the true son of the
desert, the Bedouin. He disdained
streets and walls, and only necessity
brought him here among the polyglot
and the polygon.
Ryanne found himself inspecting
"the largest emerald in the world.
worth twelve thousand pounds" which
looked more like a fine hexagonal Of
onyx than gem. 1t was one Of the
curiosities of the bazaars, however,
and tourists were generally round it
in force. To his experienced eye 1t
was no more than fine specimen Of
emerald quartz, worth what any fool
of a collector was willing to pay for it.
From this bazaar he passed on into
the next, and there he saw Fortune.
And as Mahomed, always close at
hand, saw the hard lines in Ryanne's
face soften, the cynical smile become
tender, he believed he saw his way to
strike.