he midst of the stranded
ships, and the little soft-footed shadowy jackals will dance around it
and tell one another strange tales of that wonderful night when the air
was shaken by piercing screams, and strange heavy animals galloped
across the sands, making them shake and quiver, and yet, after it all,
there was nothing left for them to eat!

[Illustration: THE SHIPS SEEM TO BE GLIDING ALONG THE TOP OF A
SANDBANK.]

CHAPTER XIII

THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST

The anchor is up and we are in a stately ship moving on slowly into the
Suez Canal. When we arrived at Port Said--how many weeks ago was it? It
seems to me like a year--we were on the _Orontes_, of the Orient Line,
and we steamed into the harbour past a long breakwater like a thin arm;
standing upon it is a statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who made
the Suez Canal. That meant nothing to you then, for the canal was merely
a name and not of any special interest, but now that we are actually
passing into it it is different.

Just here, you remember, we are at the place where three continents
meet, Europe being represented by the Mediterranean Sea. The other two,
Asia and Africa, are joined by a strip of land called the Isthmus of
Suez, about a hundred miles across. For ages men had it in their minds
to cut through this strip so that their ships could sail straight from
the Mediterranean into the Red Sea on the other side of the Isthmus.
But it wasn't quite so easy to do as it sounds, for the land was mostly
desert sand, and if you have ever tried to dig out a trench on the
seashore and then let water into it, you will know very well what
happens. The sides slip down, and in a few minutes your trench is level
up to the top and is a trench no more!

The ancient Egyptians frequently marched across the Isthmus with their
armies and advanced into Palestine and made war on the wild tribes
there. They built also a strong wall across the Isthmus to prevent the
inhabitants of Palestine from retaliating, just as the Romans built a
wall across Northumbria to hold back the Picts and Scots.

It was not until comparatively recent days, that is to say, in the time
of your grandfather, that the attempt to cut a canal across the Isthmus
was successful, and the man who did it was Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose
statue stands on the breakwater. He was a Frenchman, but he wished to
get other nations to help in the great work, as France could not raise
all the money alone;