"Instead of railways we shall have to put up with boats, bearers, and camels. As for money, it has not, in most African territories, the value which we give it. All sorts of cloth goods, glass beads, brass wire, copper rings, sometimes even shells, called _kourdi_ or _koungona_, but generally cowries, are far more appreciated as current coin than gold would be. All these things have their market prices, just as a bank note or a railway share has in France. So, you see that, up to the very moment of our departure, a great portion of your time will have to be given up to important purchases. All this business, of course, you will transact on behalf of our community; and, whilst on this subject, had we not better elect a cashier?" "Certainly," replied M. de Morin, "let us choose a cashier, or rather, will you appoint one of us to the post, for I hope you will not object to our raising you to the dignity of commander-in-chief of the expedition?" "I accept the post, gentlemen, and I trust that I shall prove myself worthy of the confidence which you repose in me. In immediate virtue of my office, then, I appoint M. Périères to be our cashier, and I also direct him, after our purchases are made, to arrange for the despatch of all our baggage to Cairo, where we will meet it." "Oh!" said the new cashier, "then we are going to attack Africa from the Egyptian side. And here have I been devoting myself for the last eight days to the study of Tripoli, Tunis, St. Louis, Sierra-Leone, Zanzibar—in short, all the customary points of departure for such expeditions." "Then you had better devote yourself now to Egypt, which leads to Nubia, the first region we have to traverse." "Nubia?" exclaimed M. de Morin. "It has ever been one of my dreams! And afterwards?" "I am not quite sure about the afterwards." "Charming! Charming! We do not know where we are going. I have always longed for an expedition of that sort." "You forget, perhaps," said she, gravely, "that the end of it may be death." "Better still! To be buried, in Nubia, instead of that commonplace Père-la-Chaise! My happiness is complete!" The Baroness could not help laughing, for this genuine gaiety disarmed her. As for M. Périères, who, not content with his appointment as cashier, had also constituted himself Historian to the Expedition, he was incessantly making notes, and, as he wrote, kept murmuring to himself disjointed phrases such as—"Cloth," "Brass-wire," "Cairo," "Nubia," "We are buried in the desert." "May I ask whether you are already practising the African dialect?" said M. de Morin, in astonishment at this telegraphic style of speech. "Yes," said the man of letters, "I am getting into some of their ways."