his offer.

"Very well, then, that is settled," the officer said kindly. "I will
give you ten minutes to row back to the brig and return with your
clothes."

In ten minutes Edgar was on board again, having explained to the
astonished captain that he was going as interpreter on board the British
ship. As soon as he stepped on deck again orders were shouted, the sails
trimmed, and the _Tigre_ proceeded on her way. An officer came up to
Edgar.

"What is your name, sir?"

"Edgar Blagrove, sir."

"I remember the name," the officer said. "I put into Alexandria some ten
months ago to get some repairs done, and I remember that your father
undertook them." He beckoned to a lad of about the same age as Edgar.
"Mr. Wilkinson," he said, "you may take this young gentleman, Mr.
Blagrove, down to the cockpit and introduce him to your messmates. He is
entered on board the ship as a midshipman by Sir Sidney Smith's
orders."

The midshipman took him below without a word. There were two other lads
in the cabin.

"Allow me," Edgar's guide said with a theatrical flourish of the hand,
"to introduce to you Mr. Blagrove, a fellow midshipman and messmate."

"Really, Wilkinson, one never knows whether you are in earnest or
playing the fool," growled one of the others, who was a master's mate
some nineteen years old.

"On the present occasion I am in earnest, Mr. Condor," Wilkinson
replied.

"Where did he spring from?"

"He has just come on board from that little brig that we made lie to
just now."

"I come from Alexandria," Edgar said quietly.

"From Alexandria!" Condor repeated in surprise, for he had not been on
deck when the Italian captain had answered the hail.

"I was accidentally left behind when most of the English inhabitants
left when the French ships came in sight."

"What did they do to you? Have you been in prison ever since?"

"Fortunately they never laid hands on me. A sheik of one of the Arab
tribes was a friend of mine, and I have been staying with him ever
since."

"How did you make them understand what you wanted?"

"I can talk Arabic as well as I can English," Edgar replied.

"Still you must have felt it awfully slow stopping at an Arab camp all
this time."

"It has not been by any means slow. The tribe harassed the French on
their march. We were present at the battle of the Pyramids, though we
did not take any active part in it; for when the Mamelukes were defeated
the Arabs knew that alone they