"I have seen these fellows in the field, and I assure you that I have the utmost confidence in their steadiness." "Well, I'll take your word without trying," said Miss Adams, with a decision which made every one smile.
So far their road had lain along the side of the river, which was swirling down upon their left hand deep and strong from the cataracts above.

Here and there the rush of the current was broken by a black shining boulder over which the foam was spouting.

Higher up they could see the white gleam of the rapids, and the banks grew into rugged cliffs, which were capped by a peculiar, outstanding semi-circular rock.
It did not require the dragoman's aid to tell the party that this was the famous landmark to which they were bound.

A long, level stretch lay before them, and the donkeys took it at a canter.

At the farther side were scattered rocks, black upon orange; and in the midst of them rose some broken shafts of pillars and a length of engraved wall, looking in its greyness and its solidity more like some work of Nature than of man.
The fat, sleek dragoman had dismounted, and stood waiting in his petticoats and his cover-coat for the stragglers to gather round him.
"This temple, ladies and gentlemen," he cried, with the air of an auctioneer who is about to sell it to the highest bidder, "very fine example from the eighteenth dynasty.