eplied Tarrant, "for mine is so wet it won't burn.
I went up to my neck in shoving off the first time we stuck, before we
took to towing."

"Eh, but that was a chance for the crocodiles!" cried Macintosh. "I saw
ye go souse under, Tarrant, and thought one of them had got ye by the
leg. Ye might have grumbled a bit then, and folks would have said you
had reason."

"It is all very fine," said Tarrant, "and if you chaps are pleased, you
are welcome; but I don't call this riding on a camel. I had as soon
have stopped with my own regiment, amongst sensible and pleasant lads,
and taken my chance, as have volunteered to join this corps, if I had
known I was to march all the same, and lug a beast of a boat after me
too. I expected to have a camel to ride on."

"Thank you for putting me in mind that I'm mounted," said Grady; "I had
almost forgotten it."

"Make your minds easy," said Sergeant Barton. "You will have plenty of
camel riding in a day or two, quite as much as you like perhaps."

"And I hope it will be before I have worn-out my third pair of boots,"
said Macintosh. "Eh, but this is a grievous waste of shoe-leather."

"I had sooner wear that out than my own skin," said Kavanagh.

"I'm not that sure," replied Macintosh. "The skin grows again, and the
shoe-leather doesn't."

The sergeant laughed.

"Well, I think I may promise you that you will have no more of this work
after to-morrow," he said. "You will get your camels at Wady Haifa."
Barton had been specially instructed in camel drill, and selected for
his proficiency to assist in training the corps to which Kavanagh
belonged.

His story was a very simple one; he was not one of the plucked, who,
failing to get their commissions, join the ranks rather than not serve
at all, for it was most likely that he would have succeeded in any
competitive examination, being a clever and industrious youth, who was
doing well at Oxford when his father lost all his money, having shares
in a bank which suddenly failed, and left him responsible to the extent
of every penny he possessed. The undergraduate had been accustomed to a
handsome allowance, and owed bills which he was now unable to pay. This
he could not help, but being an honourable man he would not incur a
farthing more, but took his name off the boards at once, divided his
caution money, and what was obtained by the sale of his horse, the
furniture of his rooms, and whatever else he possessed, amongst hi