No More Learning

"

Throughout the night, when the troops were encamped by the whale-boats,
a black figure danced in the strong moonlight on the sand-bar and
shouted that Khartoum the accursed one was dead,--was dead,--was
dead,--that two steamers were rock-staked on the Nile outside the city,
and that of all their crews there remained not one; and Khartoum was
dead,--was dead,--was dead! But Torpenhow took no heed. He was watching
Dick, who called aloud to the restless Nile for Maisie,--and again
Maisie! "Behold a phenomenon," said Torpenhow, rearranging the blanket.
"Here is a man, presumably human, who mentions the name of one woman
only. And I've seen a good deal of delirium, too. --Dick, here's some
fizzy drink. "

"Thank you, Maisie," said Dick.



CHAPTER III

So he thinks he shall take to the sea again
For one more cruise with his buccaneers,
To singe the beard of the King of Spain,
And capture another Dean of Jaen
And sell him in Algiers.
--Dutch Picture. 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. Dick established himself in quarters
more riotous than respectable. He spent his evenings on the quay, and
boarded many ships, and saw very many friends,--gracious Englishwomen
with whom he had talked not too wisely in the veranda of Shepherd's
Hotel, hurrying war correspondents, skippers of the contract troop-ships
employed in the campaign, army officers by the score, and others of less
reputable trades.

He had choice of all the races of the East and West for studies, and
the advantage of seeing his subjects under the influence of strong
excitement, at the gaming-tables, saloons, dancing-hells, and elsewhere.
For recreation there was the straight vista of the Canal, the blazing
sands, the procession of shipping, and the white hospitals where the
English soldiers lay. He strove to set down in black and white and
colour all that Providence sent him, and when that supply was ended
sought about for fresh material. It was a fascinating employment, but
it ran away with his money, and he had drawn in advance the hundred and
twenty pounds to which he was entitled yearly. "Now I shall have to work
and starve! " thought he, and was addressing himself to this new fate
when a mysterious telegram arrived from Torpenhow in England, which
said, "Come back, quick; you have caught on. Come. "

A large smile overspread his face.