group.

"They seem very fond of us, sir," said Stacy.

"Yes," responded the major. "I wonder whether they went through the
same performance when the Mahdi's army arrived."

"But they showed fight, and he took the place by storm, did he not,
sir?"

"I really do not know; a spy said so. But the place does not look
knocked about at all, and the people seem very jolly. I should not be
surprised if the whole thing were a farce, and Tokar had not been
besieged or taken at all."

"Then you do not think they are genuine in their welcome, sir?"

"I do not say that; these people have shops of a sort, I believe, and a
customer is a customer all the world over."

The troops bivouacked outside Tokar, where nothing further occurred of
any interest, and shortly afterwards they tramped back to the wells at
El Teb, and so to Trinkitat, where they were re-embarked as quickly as
might be, and steamed round to Suakim, which now became the base of
operations.

And soon Trinkitat was entirely abandoned, and since no natives lived
there (how could they when they had no fresh water?) the place ceased to
be a place at all in any rational sense of the word.

You may have heard the old explanation of how a cannon is made: "you
take a hole, and pour a lot of melted iron round it." Well, Trinkitat
was a hole, and the English store-houses tents, soldiers, horses, camels
were poured round it, and when they were withdrawn, nothing but the hole
remained. But Suakim was a considerable place, built of coral too, and
very interesting in its way to some people. And what was of more
consequence, there were many good wells close by, from which water could
be obtained all the year round.

Suakim itself, as has been explained before, is built on an island, but
the British camp was on the mainland, within the circuit of earthworks
which protected the town and harbour. It was on the eighth of March
that the First Blankshire were landed at this camp. The look of the
houses in the town disappointed some of them now they were closer.

"They don't look like coral at all," said Tom Strachan. "If I had not
been told I should have thought they were the ordinary sun-dried brick
affairs whitewashed."

"I vote we have a regular inspection of them on the first opportunity,"
said Edwards, "and settle the matter once for all."

"It would be kind to posterity," replied Tom.

"If you have so much time to spare, which I very much doubt," said
MacBean