It deceives no one, but it is part of the play.
_Pourquoi ces droles de militaires, dragoman, hein ?_" It was the dragoman's _role_ to be all things to all men, so he looked cautiously round before he answered, to make sure that the English were mounted and out of earshot.
"_C'est ridicule, monsieur!_" said he, shrugging his fat shoulders.
"_Mais que voulez-vous?
C'est l'ordre official Egyptien._" "_Egyptien! Pah, Anglais, Anglais--toujours Anglais!_" cried the angry Frenchman.
The frieze now was more grotesque than ever, but had changed suddenly to an equestrian one, sharply outlined against the deep-blue Egyptian sky.
Those who have never ridden before have to ride in Egypt, and when the donkeys break into a canter, and the Nile Irregulars are at full charge, such a scene of flying veils, clutching hands, huddled swaying figures, and anxious faces is nowhere to be seen.

Belmont, his square figure balanced upon a small white donkey, was waving his hat to his wife, who had come out upon the saloon-deck of the _Korosko_.

Cochrane sat very erect with a stiff military seat, hands low, head high, and heels down, while beside him rode the young Oxford man, looking about him with drooping eyelids as if he thought the desert hardly respectable, and had his doubts about the Universe.

Behind them the whole party was strung along the bank in varying stages of jolting and discomfort, a brown-faced, noisy donkey-boy running after each donkey.

Looking back, they could see the little lead-coloured stern-wheeler, with the gleam of Mrs.Belmont's handkerchief from the deck.