ere is a ship sailing for
England to-night with despatches. I will sit down at once and write to
my father, and say that I am ready to leave the navy at once and fall to
work here. He is certain to come out as soon as he hears the news that
the place has surrendered, and that the French are going.

"I will tell him what you say about the other ship-yard, and ask him to
go to the Admiralty. I have no doubt that the president of the prize
court, who had some business with my father, and has since been on very
friendly terms with him, will give him a good introduction, and may
possibly go with him to urge that as I am going to undertake the
superintendence of a ship-yard here, and that we hope to be of service
to ships of war putting in for repairs, they will consent to my going on
half-pay instead of retiring altogether. It would certainly strengthen
my position here so far as our ships of war are concerned. I daresay
that you will be sending off too."

"Yes; I have kept everything written up and copies made so that I could
send them off should an opportunity offer; and a couple of hours' work
will enable me to bring matters pretty well up to date."

"I suppose, except for the ship work, everything has been of late very
dull?"

"Very dull indeed. We have had literally no goods whatever from the
interior. Of course production has fallen off very greatly, and the sale
of Egyptian products at Cairo, to the troops, has been considerable.
Then, too, the disturbed state of the country has prevented the
manufacturers from sending valuable goods down here, so that practically
that part of the business has been at a standstill, and I have not
attempted to accumulate a stock. However I have lately purchased many
large lots from native traders here who feared that their shops might be
pillaged in the event of a riot, and especially lately when they were
afraid that if your people took the town by storm there might be a
general sack. So as I was certain that the French must go before long,
and I got all these goods at a bargain, I have bought freely. Then I
have not done badly with goods run in by French ships that managed to
slip through the blockade, and which were laden with speculative cargoes
of luxuries for the army. As we are almost the only European house open,
and I was able to pay cash, I bought things up largely, and realized
very good profits by supplying the native shops here and the officers of
the garrison, and als