"Monday—that’s the worst of it. The steamer doesn’t sail until Saturday, and you’ll have to stay in Alexandria until ... Or wait! Why not take a foreign boat? The French one to Marseilles, or—let me think—the Italian boat to Messina. The very thing! She sails on Wednesday. You can join the English ship at Naples. Splendid! Better than joining her at Alexandria. There’s Helena, you know. "Helena?" "A woman’s a woman after all, my boy. Mind I don’t say Helena would give you away, but she might—not having seen you since her father’s death and then coming so unexpectedly upon you at Alexandria—at the ship’s side, perhaps. Better not risk it. Get out of the country before you meet her—away from that brute of a Macdonald and all the tags and bobs of the Intelligence Department." "I’ll want a disguise of some sort, Hafiz." "Good idea!" said Hafiz, slapping his knee. "You can’t set foot in the streets of Cairo without being recognised. Then if I’m right about the trackers ... but we’ll not talk about that. Something Eastern, eh? What do you say to a Coptic priest? Old Michael could lend us a black gown and a black turban. Or no, a Bedouin, going to Naples for ammunition! Why, it happens every day! Splendid costume! Covers your head and nearly all your face, you know ... Oh, we’ll lick him, the big, bloated, blithering ... Ha, ha! Effendi thinks he holds the field, and he is walking about the city like a leopard among dogs. But wait! We’ll see!" Then getting up from the side of the bed and walking to and fro in the room, Hafiz laughed out loud in his savage joy at the thought of defeating Macdonald, until Gordon said— "I shall want a man to go with me. Can you find me a man, Hafiz?" and thereupon the good fellow’s spirits dropped suddenly and his laughing mouth began to lag. "A man? To go with you? Well, I ... I thought of doing that myself, Gordon ... as far as the boat I mean ... just to see the last of you ... not knowing when I may ... But perhaps you’re right. I might cause you to be suspected, and then ... Yes, I must give that up, I suppose." "That’s all right, Hafiz—we’ll meet again somewhere," said Gordon, and when Hafiz’s face had brightened afresh he added— "I’ll want camels, Hafiz—two good, strong camels." "Camels? Why, what the deuce.... Ah, of course! What a fool I am! Every station watched! Wonder I never thought of that before! The jackals are all along the line, and if you had gone by train, damn it, man! where should we have been? In Macdonald’s mousetraps in no time! Oh, yes, camels, of course. I’ll get you camels. Good ones, too. Bedouins always have good camels. Ha, ha! Effendi will go to the place he is fit for, and God increase the might of Islam!" "I’ll want money too, Hafiz." "Don’t trouble about that. I’ve got a little myself—all you’ll want to get away."