oriental stuffs and carpets. But the population were even more
amusing, with the mixture of Egyptians, Arabs, and Negroes clad in every
variety of garb: from the Egyptian functionary in his neat blue uniform
and fez, and the portly merchant in his oriental robes, to the Arabs
muffled up in cotton cloths with turban and bernous, the lightly-clad
Fellah, and the women shrouded in dark blue cottons with their faces
almost entirely hidden by the yashmack. It needed some dexterity to
avoid the strings of loaded camels that made their way through the
narrow streets, the porters carrying heavy weights hanging from the
centre of a thick bamboo pole resting on the shoulders of two or four
men, and the diminutive donkeys with their high saddles, on the top of
which were perched men who looked far more capable of carrying the
donkeys than the donkeys of supporting their weight.

The men soon discovered that spirits were cheap in Cairo, and the result
was a considerable addition to the number brought up at the orderly-room
for drunkenness. Among these, to Edgar's satisfaction, was Corporal
North, who was at once sent back to the ranks and sentenced to a week in
the cells. On the day he came out Edgar went up to him.

"Now look here, North. You have made it pretty hot for me while you were
corporal. If I had given you any cause for it I should bear no malice,
but it has been simply persecution. As long as you were corporal I had
to grin and bear it, but now that you are in the ranks we can settle
matters; so I challenge you to meet me in the riding-school after we are
dismissed from parade to-day."

"That will suit me exactly," North said. "You want a licking badly,
young fellow, and now you will get it."

"Well, if I were you I would say nothing about it until it is over,"
Edgar replied; "for, you see, it is quite possible that it may be the
other way."

As several of the men had heard the conversation there was a
considerable gathering in the riding-school after they were dismissed
from parade. The sympathies of the men were strongly with Edgar; but
most of them thought that he was hardly a match for North, who had
fought several times before he had got his stripes, and was a
well-built young fellow of two-and-twenty.

The fight lasted upwards of an hour. North had some knowledge of boxing,
but in this respect Edgar was his superior. He was far stronger and
longer in the reach, while Edgar was the more active. In the early p