Cairn nodded weakly.

"Saved you. Be all right in a couple of days. That damned _Khamsin_
has brought a whiff of the plague from somewhere! Curiously enough,
over fifty per cent. of the cases spotted so far are people who were
at the carnival! Some of them, Cairn--but we won't discuss that now. I
was afraid of it, last night. That's why I kept my eye on you. My boy,
you were delirious when you bolted out of the hotel!"

"Was I?" said Cairn wearily, and lay back on the pillow. "Perhaps I
was."

CHAPTER XIV

DR. CAIRN ARRIVES

Dr. Bruce Cairn stepped into the boat which was to take him ashore,
and as it swung away from the side of the liner sought to divert his
thoughts by a contemplation of the weird scene. Amid the smoky flare
of many lights, amid rising clouds of dust, a line of laden toilers
was crawling ant-like from the lighters into the bowels of the big
ship; and a second line, unladen, was descending by another gangway.
Above, the jewelled velvet of the sky swept in a glorious arc; beyond,
the lights of Port Said broke through the black curtain of the night,
and the moving ray from the lighthouse intermittently swept the
harbour waters; whilst, amid the indescribable clamour, the grimily
picturesque turmoil, so characteristic of the place, the liner took in
coal for her run to Rangoon.

Dodging this way and that, rounding the sterns of big ships, and
disputing the water-way with lesser craft, the boat made for shore.

The usual delay at the Custom House, the usual soothing of the excited
officials in the usual way, and his _arabiyeh_ was jolting Dr. Cairn
through the noise and the smell of those rambling streets, a noise and
a smell entirely peculiar to this clearing-house of the Near East.

He accepted the room which was offered to him at the hotel, without
troubling to inspect it, and having left instructions that he was to
be called in time for the early train to Cairo, he swallowed a whisky
and soda at the buffet, and wearily ascended the stairs. There were
tourists in the hotel, English and American, marked by a gaping
wonderment, and loud with plans of sightseeing; but Port Said, nay all
Egypt, had nothing of novelty to offer Dr. Cairn. He was there at
great inconvenience; a practitioner of his repute may not easily
arrange to quit London at a moment's notice. But the business upon
which he was come was imperative. For him the charm of the place had
not existence, but somewhere in Egyp