th open, and put the handle of your dagger between her
teeth. It will not hurt her at all. But I cannot get at the tooth
unless the mouth is open, and we cannot open it until she is asleep,
for the whole side of her face is swollen, and the jaw almost stiff.'

"The chloroform took effect very quickly. Her husband had some
difficulty in forcing the mouth open. When he had once done so, I took
a firm hold of the tooth, and wrenched it out.

"'You can withdraw the dagger,' I said, 'and then lift her up, and let
her rinse her mouth well with the warm water I brought in. She will
have little pain afterwards, though of course it will take some little
time, before the swelling goes down.'

"Then I went out, and left them together. In a few minutes, Abu came
out.

"'She has no pain,' he said. 'She could hardly believe, when she came
round, that the tooth was out. It is a relief, indeed. She has cried,
day and night, for the past three days.'

"'Tell her that, for the rest of the day, she had better keep quiet;
and go to sleep if possible, which I have no doubt she will do, as she
must be worn out with the pain she has been suffering.'

"'I begin to see, Mudil, that we are very ignorant. We can fight, but
that is all we are good for. How much better it would be if, instead of
regarding you white men as enemies, we could get some of you to live
here, and teach us the wonderful things that you know!'

"'Truly it would be better,' I said. 'It all depends upon yourselves.
You have a great country. If you would but treat the poor people here
well, and live in peace with other tribes; and send word down to Cairo
that you desire, above all things, white hakims and others who would
teach you, to come up and settle among you, assuredly they would come.
There are thousands of white men and women working in India, and China,
and other countries, content to do good, not looking for high pay, but
content to live poorly. The difficulty is not in getting men willing to
heal and to teach, but to persuade those whom they would benefit to
allow them to do the work.'

"Abu shook his head.

"'That is it,' he said. 'I would rather be able to do such things as
you do, than be one of the most famous soldiers of the Mahdi; but I
could never persuade others. They say that the Mahdi himself, although
he is hostile to the Turks, and would conquer Egypt, would willingly
befriend white men. But even he, powerful as he is, cannot go against
the fe