. I forget just where he's stationed. Look at
Tom Briggs over there, he using his towel to put a patch on the seat of
his breeches. Hey, Tommy! how are you going to dry yourself when you
wash?"

"Wash!" answered the man, looking up from his work with a grin, "you'll
be glad enough afore long to lap up every spot of water you come
across; there won't be much talk of washin' in this 'ere desert, I'm
thinkin'."

The answer was lost on Jack; something else had suddenly attracted his
attention. He sat up and made a movement as though he would rise to
his feet. An officer had just strolled past, wearing a fatigue cap and
the usual serge jumper. His face was tanned a deep brown, and showed
up in strong contrast to his fair hair and small, light-coloured
moustache. Our hero's first impulse was to run after and accost the
stranger, but he checked himself, and sank back into his former
position.

"I say, Briggs," he called, "what men were those who came up in the
boats yesterday?"

"Some of the ----sex Regiment," answered the other, stooping forward to
bite off his cotton with his teeth.

Jack's heart thumped heavily, and he caught his breath; his eyes had
not deceived him, and the subaltern who had just walked by was
Valentine.

He was roused from his reverie by the warning call to "stables," it
being the time for feeding and grooming the camels. They were queer
steeds, these "ships of the desert," and for those who had never ridden
them before even mounting and dismounting was no easy task. In the
case of the former, unless the animals' heads were brought round to
their shoulders, and held there by means of the rope which served as a
rein, they were apt to rise up suddenly before the rider had got
properly into the saddle, a proceeding usually followed by disastrous
results; while, on the other hand, the sudden plunge forward as they
dropped on their knees, followed by the lurch in the opposite direction
when their hind-quarters went down, made it an extremely easy matter to
come a cropper in either direction. Their necks seemed to be made of
indiarubber, and their hind legs, with which they could scratch the top
of their heads, or, if so inclined, kick out behind, even when lying
down, appeared to be furnished with double joints. Jack had christened
his mount "Lamentations," from the continual complaints which it
uttered; but in this the animal was no worse than the remainder of its
fellows, who bellowed an