" We then said farewell to our friends and to Goa.
We stayed at Bombay no longer than was absolutely necessary, and we
embarked on our return journey to Trieste in the Austrian Lloyd's
_Minerva_. It was an uneventful voyage, take it altogether. There
were a good many passengers on board, who grumbled greatly at the food,
as the manner is, and it was certainly a very hot and uncomfortable
voyage. We stopped at Aden again, and passed Jeddah. Thence we
steamed to Suez, where we anchored.
Here Richard and myself and six others left the ship to have a little
run through Egypt, and we were soon surrounded by a number of Richard's
old friends of the Mecca days. It was a lovely evening when we landed,
familiar to all who know Suez, with its blue sea, yellow sands, azure
sky, and pink-and-purple mountains. Our visit was to Moses' Wells,
about three miles in the Arabian Desert--a most picturesque spot,
surrounded by tropical verdure, intermingled with fellah huts. The
most romantic spot was a single tiny spring under an isolated palm
tree, all alone on a little hillock of sand in the desert, far from
all else. I said to Richard, "That tree and that spring have been
created for each other, like you and I." We took our _kayf_ for some
hours with the Arabs, and we had some delicious Arab coffee and
narghileh with them.
We remained a fortnight in Egypt, or rather more; and after then we
embarked in another Lloyd's, the _Apollo_, for Trieste, where we
arrived very quickly.
Pages:
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246