I was lounging in the garden early the next afternoon, for there was no telling when the summons might come and I would take no chance of missing it. It was about four o’clock, at which hour all Cairo was on parade and the crowd was thickest around the hotel, that Ialla and her faithful female guards entered the lively scene. Her face was almost entirely hidden by her veil but there was no mistaking her eyes. They caught mine and a quick little beckoning motion, which no one else would have noticed, told me to follow her. She soon left, walking slowly, and I took up the trail, restraining myself with an effort from approaching her more closely than wisdom dictated. Avoiding the crowded Mooshka they led me, by a more circuitous route, back to the house where I had been so agreeably entertained the night before, and which was entered in the same way. Regal was waiting for me and with him were five of his countrymen, to whom I was introduced _en bloc_. They were dignified and reserved but sharp-eyed and vigorous and they looked like fighters of the first water. They were much younger than Regal and evidently, from the deference shown him, he was the chief conspirator. “These,” he said, with a courtly wave of his hand toward the others, “are the relatives and companions-in-arms of Arabi Pasha and the men who, with me, are directing our operations. They are perfectly responsible, as you will see, and in every way entitled to your confidence, as you are worthy of theirs.” With this formal assurance we sat down to a detailed discussion of the project. They told me of their plans, as Regal had previously explained them in a general way, and professed confidence that with Arabi in personal command of their forces, and with the active coöperation of the Soudanese, which was assured, they would drive the hated British out of Egypt, and keep them out. Their knowledge of the surroundings at Arabi’s place of confinement and their plan for overpowering his guards and securing his release, which was complete to the slaughter of the last man, showed an intimate acquaintance with conditions that surprised me. From all they told me on this point I gained the idea that they were working in harmony with their brother Mohammedans in India, and that the latter were planning a similar uprising when the conditions were judged to be opportune. Developments since then have strengthened this belief into a conviction. It is never wise to predict, but when England some day becomes involved in a war with a first-class power, like Germany for instance, which will tax her fighting forces to the limit, there need be no surprise if the natives of Egypt and India rise simultaneously and become their own masters.