Knowing These Facts,
I Felt That A Difficulty Was At Hand.
The first thing was to take
Shaykh Nur's passport, which was en regle, and my own, which was not,
to the Bey for signature.
He turned the papers over and over, as if
unable to read them, and raised false hopes high by referring me to his
clerk. The under-official at once saw the irregularity of the document,
asked me why it had not been vise at Cairo, swore that under such
circumstances nothing would induce the Bey to let me proceed; and, when
I tried persuasion, waxed insolent. I feared that it would be necessary
to travel via Cosseir, for which there was scarcely time, or to
transfer myself on camel-back to the harbour of Tur, and there to await
the chance of finding a place in some half-filled vessel to
Al-Hijaz,-which would have been relying upon an accident. My last hope
at Suez was to obtain assistance from Mr. West, then H.B.M.'s
Vice-Consul, and since made Consul. I therefore took the boy Mohammed
with me, choosing him on purpose, and excusing the step to my
companions by concocting an artful fable about my having been, in
Afghanistan, a benefactor to the British nation. We proceeded to the
Consulate. Mr. West, who had been told by imprudent Augustus Bernal to
expect me, saw through the disguise, despite jargon assumed to satisfy
official scruples, and nothing could be kinder than the part he took.
His clerk was directed to place himself in communication with the Bey's
factotum; and, when objections to signing the Alexandrian Tazkirah were
offered, the Vice-Consul said that he would, at his own risk, give me a
fresh passport as a British subject from Suez to Arabia.
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