28
FROM CAIRO TO THE SOUDAN
of men to build up a reputation in one isthmus and to wreck it in another.
But it is our turn to "tie up" and give the northward-bound ships a chance, and to tie up may mean a wait of any length from half an hour to thrice that time. With so much more of the canal still to be traversed before we reach our destination a tying up of the steamer justifies the turning in of the passenger. We have still four or five good hours before us ere we bring to in Lake Timsah, and the steam tender bears us across its waters in the grey of the morning towards "the haven where we would be."
