Longfellow
THE SOUDAN campaign and Dick's broken head had been some months ended and
mended, and the Central Southern Syndicate had paid Dick a certain sum on
account for work done, which work they were careful to assure him was not
altogether up to their standard. Dick heaved the letter into the Nile at Cairo,
cashed the draft in the same town, and bade a warm farewell to Torpenhow at the
station.
"I am going to lie up for a while and rest," said Torpenhow. "I don't know
where I shall live in London, but if God brings us to meet, we shall meet.
Are you staying here on the off-chance of another row? There will be none till
the Southern Soudan is reoccupied by our troops. Mark that. Goodbye; bless you;
come back when your money's spent; and give me your address."
Dick loitered in Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, and Port Said,--especially Port
Said. There is iniquity in many parts of the world, and vice in all, but the
concentrated essence of all the iniquities and all the vices in all the
continents finds itself at Port Said. And through the heart of that sand-
bordered hell, where the mirage flickers day long above the Bitter Lake, move,
if you will only wait, most of the men and women you have known in this life.
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