Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/203

of course, it is impossible to stretch along so many miles of river, can properly or fairly be so called—and very evident is the natural soreness displayed by our genial hosts at the recollection of the incident. Their feeling on the subject is eminently characteristic, and well brings out the everlasting contrast between Oriental apathy and the strenuous energy of the West. The task which has been set to these British officers—that of policing some two hundred miles of absolutely exposed river-bank from two stations, one at each end of the line—is an impracticable one, and they know it. Yet they devote themselves to it with a cheerful and untiring activity which refreshes one to witness, and they are far more restless under occasional illustrations of its impossibility than the people who suffer from the fact. If ever there were a case when the "Kismet" which amply satisfies the victims of a robber raid in these regions might do consolation-duty for their baffled protectors it is that of