It had grown to a head with revolution and conspiracy.

For months before he came conscripts had been gathered in the Nile country from Rosetta to Assouan, and here and there, far south, tribes had revolted.

He had come to power too late to devise another course.

One day, when this war was over, he would go alone, save for a faithful few, to deal with these tribes and peoples upon another plane than war; but here and now the only course was that which had been planned by Kaid and those who counselled him.

Troubled by a deep danger drawing near, Kaid had drawn him into his tough service, half-blindly catching at his help, with a strange, almost superstitious belief that luck and good would come from the alliance; seeing in him a protection against wholesale robbery and debt--were not the English masters of finance, and was not this Englishman honest, and with a brain of fire and an eye that pierced things?
David had accepted the inevitable.