The Seventh Scroll: The Egyptian Series 2 (Egypt Series)

by Wilbur Smith

Evelyn Baring, the first Earl of Cromer, British Consul-General of Egypt from 1883 to 1907. With his plenipotentiary powers he was the unchallenged dictator of my country for all that period.

‘A wise rat has more than one exit from its burrow.’ This was a family maxim, passed down through the generations. There should always be a little something tucked away for the day the heavens opened. He was going to need funds for the expedition, and the lawyers had most of those locked up already.

Call me at the flat in the UK. No hurry. Yesterday, or the day before, will do just fine.’

Such was the cycle of war and violence in this racked continent, where the endless struggles were fuelled and nurtured by the age-old tribal enmities and the greed and corruption of the new-age politicians and their outmoded ideologies.

‘You trust me?’ ‘You are my friend.’ ‘Friends are the easiest to cheat – they never expect it,’