ught him. Again he was carried across the sun-baked pier, sheltered
from the sun and protected from the flies by one of those splendid
Alexandrian women, and taken down into a comfortable bunk in the
hospital-ship _Dongola_. Mac found in the adjutant of the ship a
friend of bygone days, who placed him in a spare deck cabin, which he
found not at all an unpleasant home for the next ten days.

He speedily gained strength at sea, and began to enjoy life a bit more.
A fine Australian, who was but slightly wounded, took Mac under his
wing, and with ceaseless care and affection walked with him on deck,
and in a wonderfully unselfish way did many little things to make time
pass quickly for him. A cheery Scottish sister poked her head in
occasionally, and came in the evening to do his dressing. The orderly
who brought Mac's meals, was an earnest, hardworking man, who had
worked once with a missionary among the Eskimos, and who did the work
of several lazy orderlies as well as his own. Late in the evening, as
a special treat, he brought a gramophone up from below deck, stood it
on a chair in the middle of the small cabin, directed the trumpet
straight at Mac's head, and set in motion mournful hymn tunes. It was
tough going for his aching head; but the earnest orderly was so wrapped
up in giving to him what he thought was great pleasure that he had not
the heart to stop him. Mac would silence it for a time by encouraging
dissertations on Eskimo life, or the future of the Gospel in India. An
hour of the gramophone, and it would retire below to end its rasping
for the day.

Twelve hot hours were passed in the Grand Harbour of Malta, while
thousands of cackling fowls were lowered from the boat deck and sent
ashore for men in hospital. The two following days Mac was almost
entirely deserted, as a heavy sea sent most of the sisters, orderlies
and patients to their bunks. The first night no one came to dress his
head; but the second night a quaint rough stoker put in an appearance,
and, chatting cheerfully the while, made his head more or less
comfortable. No water came for washing, and on two rare occasions a
fleeting orderly left a plate of some sort of food or other. He spent
those two days in bed, and was thankful when they were over. From then
onward the voyage went well, snoozing on deck in a chair, or walking up
and down arm and arm with the Australian.

At length, in the keen air of an English autumn morning, Mac