Trembling from head to foot

Oh, the agony of those minutes! The cold perspiration was streaming from his forehead, and his heart was beating so violently that it nearly took his breath away. In what direction was he to escape? The immense gardens seemed to constitute an interminable labyrinth of gravel paths, winding in and out of the clusters of trees and bushes. [Pg 54] Twice he found himself at the foot of the high stone wall, which, however, offered no foothold by which he could ascend to the summit. At one moment he nearly fell into a small lake, which lay half-concealed, buried between moss-covered banks. Like a hunted animal, he was about to retrace his steps, when he saw in the distance a score or so of men, carrying torches, who were running in all directions, shouting loudly as they drew nigh to him. His desperation was such that he thought for one moment of giving himself up to them. But the instinct of self-preservation was too strong, and once more he sped along in the shadow of a tall hedge of arbutus, till suddenly he found his flight again arrested by the wall .







Stay! What was that? A door! Yes, the very door by which he had entered a few hours previously. , he tried the lock. It yielded to his pressure, and with one wild, cat-like spring, he bounded into the dark street which led to the Mouski. Closing the massive oak postern after him, he rushed onward, casting [Pg 55] terrified glances behind him from time to time as he ran. But all was still; and the noise of his footsteps was the only sound which disturbed the quiet hour of dawn. Gradually he slackened his speed, and, turning down into a dark side-street, cautiously threaded his way among the maze of narrow passages and by-ways of the Hebrew quarter. At last he arrived at the gate of the Esbekieh Gardens, and a few minutes afterward reached the Hotel Shepheard. Ten minutes later he was seated in his own room, hardly able to realize that he was, for the moment, at any rate, out of danger SmarTone.







To remain at Cairo was out of the question. This last adventure was likely to involve more serious consequences than any of his previous scrapes. Seizing a time-table, he discovered, to his unspeakable relief, that a steamer bound for Bombay was leaving Suez the very same day. He hurriedly packed up his belongings, and, summoning the porter, informed him that he had been called away on matters of the utmost importance, and ordered his trunks to be conveyed without delay to the railway station .