e line, and Parliament grudges them every penny they
spend on it. Yet the railway was rushed through by order of Parliament
to prevent Doctor Karl Peters and the Germans from claiming occupation
of the head-waters of the Nile and so dominating Upper Egypt. You boys
must be considerate."

"All right," said Fred. "I'll grant all that."

"But what gets me" Will interrupted, "is that they should condemn us
out-of-hand--on sight--untried--on the say-so of this Lady Saffren
Waldon. She carries German letters of credit. She's so notoriously in
league with Germans that you'd think even these little Napoleons 'ud
know it. I'm American myself, thank God, but these two men are their
own kith and kin. Why should they judge their own countrymen unheard
on the say-so of a woman like that? That's what rattles me!"

Courtney blew six smoke rings.

"You'll have to forgive them, lad. Too many of the Englishmen who have
come here were bad bats from the South, so hot-footed that they burned
the grass. Then--don't forget that the Germans have a military
government to the south of us--all experienced men--a great many of
them unmitigated rascals, but nearly all of them clever--students of
strategy and psychology and tactics--some of them brilliant men who
have had to apply for colonial service because of debt or scandal.
They're overmanned where we are under-manned--backed up from home where
our boys are only blamed and neglected--well supplied with troops and
ammunition, where our police are kept down to the danger point and now
and then even without cartridges. The Germans have no railway yet, but
they've a policy and they keep it secret. We have a railway, and no
policy except retrenchment and economy. I'm convinced the German
government has no scruples. We have. So you must sympathize with our
young men, not quarrel with them."

"Believe me," I said, "we didn't start out to quarrel with anybody.
That woman lied about us. There's no excuse for believing her without
giving us a hearing."

"Oh, yes there is. I spoke with her myself this evening," said
Courtney. "She's staying at my hotel, you know. She's a match for
much more experienced men than our young officials. They've been
fighting Arabs, not flirting. She had the impudence to try to flatter
me. I don't doubt she's telling a crowd of men tonight that I'm in
love with her--perhaps not exactly telling them that, but giving them
to understand it. Why don't