Under Antoine’s guidance, Perry quickly saw most of the worth-while parts of Cairo, and his cup of delight brimmed over when his guide secured permission for him to see Cairo at night, and took him through the old bazaars, agleam with light and merriment. Antoine skillfully guided him through the unspoiled native quarters, and avoided the half-and-half tourist section where a forced and unnatural gayety gives strangers a false idea of the old capital of Egypt under the caliphs. “Perry,” said his uncle to him the following morning, “you’d better come along with me to-day. I’ve had good news. The Survey is going to lend me much of their equipment and one of their experts will accompany us. The Viceroy has been exceedingly kind and given me every opportunity I could have wished, and instead of being compelled to spend a week in Cairo, we’re going to start over the desert to-morrow.” “How are we going, Uncle George?” “On camels.” “On camels!” Only the fact that he was attached to a Museum expedition kept Perry from doing a war-dance on the spot. “And am I going to ride on a camel?” “You’re certainly not going to ride on anything else. What do you suppose you’re going to ride, a broncho? You seem to forget that this is Egypt, my boy.” “But a camel, a real, live camel. Gee!” “Maybe you won’t like it so well after a while,” retorted his uncle with a grim smile. He had ridden camels before. “Oh, won’t I!” “We’ll see to-morrow night.” “Why, Uncle George? Do they buck?” “I never saw a camel try to buck,” the professor answered. “On the whole, I think it’s fortunate they’ve never learned the trick. Here’s the camel market now. Tell me what you think of them, Perry.” It might have been the camel market, but it sounded like Bedlam. No sooner did the professor appear than the camel-drivers were round him like a swarm of flies, and the Egyptian Survey expert, who had arranged to meet him there, had to shoulder the natives away like sheep in order to get through to his friend. A nearer view of the camels decided Perry that the Ship of the Desert did not look nearly as peaceful in real life as in pictures. The beasts had an ugly trick of lifting the upper lip and showing big teeth that was quite disconcerting. Nor did the boy fail to note that a number of the camels were strongly muzzled. “Do camels bite, Uncle George?” Perry asked, as soon as the palaver was over, and the Survey expert had not only chosen the camels he wanted but also driven off the men who had not been hired—a much harder task. “Some of them do,” was the reply. “A camel can be one of the most vicious beasts of burden in the world. You remember Kipling’s famous verses about the ‘’oont, the commissariat ’oont?’” “No,” honestly answered Perry, “I don’t.” “Learn them when you get home,” advised the professor, “there’s probably a copy in the hotel library. It’ll give you something to say to-morrow, when you want to express your feelings. I know camels!”