"so it seems a fellow called arabi bey, or some such name, is making a row in cairo; but of course it won't come to anything—these things never do."
so spoke, after exchanging a few words with a pilot who had just come down the suez canal from port said, the captain of our homeward-bound steamer from india, little dreaming how world-famous the "row" of which he spoke so lightly was to become not many weeks later.
"if these arab fellows should ever want to destroy the canal," says a young english lieutenant of engineers going home from india on leave, "they wouldn't have much trouble with it. you see there's a regular hollow on each side here and there, and they need only dig through or blow up the embankment to run the channel bone-dry in no time."
his words are confirmed a few minutes later when a group of native goat-herds, as black and shaggy and wild-looking as the goats which they tend, wade out to within a few yards of the steamer, clamorously offering to dive for piastres (five-cent copper pieces). in fact, the suez canal, throughout its whole length of eighty-six miles, is as shallow as any ditch except in the very centre of the channel, and even there it has a depth of only twenty six and a quarter feet, with a mean breadth of seventy, widening to one hundred in the "sidings."
every now and then we pass a neat little landing-place, surmounted by a painted station house overlooking a tiny patch of stunted shrubs and straggling flowers, doing their best to grow upon a thin smear of soil brought from a distance, and plastered upon the barren, scorching sand. a little farther on we see, perched on a steep sand ridge just at the point where the canal enters the wide smooth expanse of the timsah lake, a primitive sentry-box, consisting merely of a screen of dried grass, supported by four tall canes, beneath which a drowsy arab is supposed to look out for passing steamers when he has nothing better to do.
but just as we are two-thirds of the way across the timsah lake itself, one of the many shallow lagoons through which the canal runs for a full third of its length, we see the french steamer ahead of us halt suddenly, and the next moment comes a signal that a boat has run aground in the canal beyond the lake, and that we must wait until she gets off again.
there is no help for it, and we are just making up our minds to a halt of several hours, with nothing to do but stare at the trim bonbon-like houses and dark green plantations of ismailia[1] along the farther shore, with the big white front of the khedive's palace standing up in the midst like an overgrown hotel, when an unexpected interruption occurs.
"look here, mates," shouts a sailor perched on the jib-boom; "here's one o' them darkies out for a swim. he'll be coming to challenge old jack here to swim a match for the championship of the canal."
"let him try it," retorts a tall, raw-boned, north country man behind him. "if that 'ere nigger thinks he can beat me, he'll know better afore long, or my name ain't jack hawley."
so saying, jack strips and plunges in, heading straight for the round black head which is bobbing about like a cork in the smooth water. but just as he reaches the arab the latter vanishes, and a sharp pinch on his right calf warns jack that his enemy has taken him in the rear, amid a shout of laughter from the steamer.
jack darts at his assailant, who dives again, and coming up beyond him, splashes a perfect cataract of water in his face, and instantly the two are at it with might and main, filling the whole air with showers of glittering spray.
"will you swim me to that buoy yonder, johnny?" challenges jack.
"you go, me go," grins the native, and off they start.
at first the egyptian's short, snapping, hand-over-hand stroke carries him bravely on; but little by little the long, steady, powerful strokes of the englishman begin to tell, and at length he forges slightly ahead. the crew cheer lustily, and fancy that jack has certainly won the race; but the young lieutenant, who knows arab ways, shakes his head and tells them to "wait a bit."
poor jack! he has forgotten in his eagerness that his head is unprotected, and that he has not one of those cast-iron eastern skulls that can defy a tropical sun. all at once his head is seen to sway dizzily back, he throws up his arms convulsively, and down he goes.
"stand by to lower the boat!" roars the captain. "be alive now!"
as if moved by a single impulse, the men spring at once to the davits; but, luckily for poor jack, other and nearer help is at hand. the arab, when he sees his rival's strength fail so suddenly, guesses in a moment what is the matter, and makes for him at once. three powerful strokes bring him alongside of the sinking man, and twining his sinewy fingers in jack's bushy hair, he holds the latter's head above water, paddling gently meanwhile to keep himself afloat.
"stand by your tackle! let go!"
the tackles rattle sharply through the blocks, the boat splashes into the water, and the passengers spring upon the bulwarks to give her a cheer as she darts away toward the two imperilled men, as fast as eight sturdy rowers can propel her.
but in this race between life and death the chances are terribly in favor of the latter. true, the water of the lake, salter by far than the sea itself, is buoyant as india rubber; but it is no easy matter for the arab, already spent with his long swim, to support the huge bulk of the helpless sailor, and the boat seems still a fearfully long way off.
[pg 19]
once, twice, the englishman's head dips below the surface, and the oarsmen almost leap from their seats as they see it. pull, boys, pull! and now they are but three lengths off, and now but one, and now, with a deafening hurrah, the fainting man and his exhausted rescuer are dragged into the boat.
"come, boys," cried lieutenant h——, "that's a plucky fellow, arab or no arab. what do you say to sending round the hat for him; here's a rupee" (fifty cents) "to begin with."
and half an hour later the arab was on his way back to the shore, with more money tied up in the white cotton sash round his waist than he had ever had before, in his life.
