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bade him good night, and, leaving the pleasant
gardens of Mena House behind, we started up the slope toward the pyramids.
    Words
fail me when I attempt to describe the grandeur of the scene. The swollen orb
of the full moon hung in the sky, resembling the disks of beaten gold that had
crowned the queens of this antique land. Her radiance flooded the landscape,
silvering the mighty pyramids and casting eerie shadows over the enigmatic features
of the Sphinx, so that he seemed to smile cynically at the insignificant human
creatures crawling around his base. The sand lay white as
fallen snow, broken only by ebon shadows that betokened the presence of a
vandalized tomb or sunken shrine.
    Unfortunately
this magnificent spectacle was marred by the presence of the vociferous insect
Man. Flaring torches and crawling human bodies spotted the pale sides of the
Great Pyramid, and the night echoed with the shouts of travelers who ought to
have remained reverently silent in the presence of such wonders. The voice of
one visitor blessed with a mighty set of vocal cords rang out above the rest:
"Hey, Mabel, looka me!"
    Mabel's
response, if any, was lost in the night, but there came a peal of scornful
laughter from near at hand. A carriage had drawn up—the same open carriage I
had seen leave Shepheard's earlier. Miss Debenham had changed to an evening
frock of white satin. Her bare arms and breast glowed like ivory in the
moonlight, and as she turned to address her companion, diamonds flashed in the
ebony darkness of her hair. Kalenischeff was a study in black and white. The
ribbon of some (probably apocryphal) order, cutting across the front of his
shirt, had been robbed of its color by the moonlight, and looked like a bar
sinister.
    Impulsively
I started toward them, but before I had taken more than a few steps
Kalenischeff whipped up the horses and the carriage continued along the dusty
road toward the top of the plateau.
    "Imbeciles,"
said Emerson. "I am sorry we came, Peabody. I might have known every
ignorant tourist in Cairo would be here tonight. Shall we make the attempt, or
return to the hotel?"
    "We
may as well go on now we are here," I replied. "Ramses, you are to
stay with us. Don't stir so much as a step from my side."
    The
self-styled guides, antiquities peddlers and miscellaneous beggars were out in
full force. They came pelting toward us with offers of assistance, and of
dubious scarabs. The usual ratio of assistants is three to each tourist—two
pull from above and one pushes from below. It is an awkward and quite
unnecessary procedure, since few of the steplike blocks are as high as three and
a half feet.
    The
assault halted as soon as the sheikh in nominal charge of the horde recognized
Emerson, whom he greeted with the "Essaldmu 'aleikum" generally
reserved by Moslems for others of their faith, Emerson replied in kind, but
refused Sheikh Abu's offer of men to drag him up the pyramid. He was quite
capable of giving me a hand whenever necessary, but we did hire two men to
hoist Ramses from step to step, his short legs making such an expedient
advisable.
    After
a lazy summer doing little except riding, gardening, hiking and bicycling, I
was a trifle out of condition, and was glad of Emerson's strong hand from time
to time. Although it had appeared from below that the slope was crowded with
people, it was not really a populous thoroughfare. We passed one or two other
groups, several of whom had paused to rest along the way. From time to time I
heard the voice of Ramses, carrying on an interminable, if breathless,
conversation with his guides.
    The
pyramidion and the upper courses of the monument have been removed, leaving on
the summit a flat table some thirty feet square. Upon the blocks scattered here
and there, a number of the successful climbers sprawled in various positions of
collapse. Instinctively avoiding them, we moved to one side.
    I
had climbed the