24 THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES

dust insinuates itself into the compartment somehow ; and if one can sleep through the

night one finds next morning a thick layer of dust over everything, and reflects with astonishment and dismay on the condition of

one’s lungs and internal economy in general.

The train was not a ‘‘troop train” in the special

sense, but it contained a good many officers.

It is worth noticing, by the way, that Egyptian

officers, even of high military rank, travel second class with British sergeant-majors and warrant officers. As no horse boxes would be

available for the conveyance of our animals

for two days, we were compelled to stay a couple of nights at the Luxor Hotel. The dreariness of this hotel out of the season was

still more marked than at Shepheard’s. Outside, all blistered by the heat, hung the quaint notice, as a warning to that species of knicker-bockered tourist who shoots gulls

from the Clacton cliffs, “// est défendu de chasser dans le jardin.” ‘The servants shuffled

listlessly about, the long corridors were

covered with dust, and forlorn notices about church services which were no longer served, and trained nurses who had vanished, were