"
Dick summoned the steward, and ascertained that the watch were quietly
chatting and smoking forward, whereas the Baron's stateroom was
situated aft. The delay enabled von Kerber to collect his thoughts.
When he resumed the promised disclosure, his voice was under control,
and he spoke with less constraint.
"It is probable that you gentlemen are not familiar with the history of
Egypt," he said, "but you may take it from me that the facts I now lay
before you are accurate. At one time, about the beginning of the
Christian era, the Romans were all-powerful in the Nile delta. They
pushed their stations a long way south, almost to the borders of
Abyssinia, but it is important, to remember that they followed the
lines of the river, not the sea. In the year 24 B.C., the Roman
Governor, hearing of the great wealth of a people called the Sabaeans,
whose country lay in Arabia, in the hinterland of Mocha and Aden, sent
an expedition there under the command of Aelius Gallus. This legion is
historically reported to have met with reverses.
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