ilton's health. He
was one of those fortunates who seem to have been made of tougher clay
than the average of humanity. But his friend Armstrong was laid up for
a considerable time. Even Robert Macleod was knocked over for a brief
period, and the lively Corporal Flynn succumbed at last. Moses Pyne,
however, stood the test of hard work and bad climate well, and so, for a
time, did Sergeant Hardy. It was found generally that the abstainers
from strong drink suffered less from bad health and unwholesome
surroundings than their fellows, and as there were a good many in the
regiment, who were constantly endeavouring to convince their comrades of
the advantages of total-abstinence, things were not so bad as they might
have been.

It was about this time that one of the generals who visited Suakim
instituted athletic games, thereby vastly improving the health and
spirits of the men. And now Miles Milton learned, for the first time,
what an immense power there lies in "scientific training!"

One evening, when out walking with Stevenson, he took it into his head
to race with him, and, having been a crack runner at school, he beat him
easily.

"Why, Miles," said his friend, when the short race was over, "I had no
idea you could run so well. If you choose I will put you in training
for the coming sports. You must know that I have run and walked and
competed in the track many a time at home, and have trained and brought
out runners, who had no notion of what was in them, till I proved it to
them by training. Will you go in for it, and promise to do as I bid
you?"

"I have no objection," replied Miles, with a light laugh.

If he had known what his friend intended to do he might not have agreed
so readily, for, from that hour till the day of the sports, Stevenson
made him go through an amount of running--even after being made stiff by
previous runs--that he would never have agreed to undertake unless
forced to do so. We say _forced_, because our hero regarded a promise
once given as sacred. His was a curiously compound nature, so that
while in some points of conduct he was lax--as we have seen--in others
he was very strict. He was peculiarly so in regard to promises. His
comrades soon came to know this, and ultimately came to consider him a
very reliable man.

Having, then, promised his friend to keep sternly to his work, he did
so, with the result that his strength increased wonderfully. Another
result was that