many minutes they were all asleep.--Jack and Tucker were awakened
by a shout from Arthur.

"Watch on deck!"

They started into a sitting position and looked round. A ray of sunlight
was streaming in through an opening some six inches square, high up on
the wall.

"Well, we are objects!" Jim said, looking at his two companions. They
were indeed; their faces were bruised and stained with blood, their hair
matted together. Arthur's right eye was completely closed, and there was
a huge swelling from a jagged bruise over the eyebrow. Jack had received
a clear cut almost across the forehead, from which the blood was still
oozing. Jim's face was swollen and bruised all over, and one of his ears
was cut nearly off. He was inclined to bear his injuries philosophically
until Jack told him that half of his ear was gone. This put him into a
furious rage, and he vowed vengeance against the whole of the Egyptian
race.

"Fancy going about all one's life with half an ear. Why, every boy in
the street will point at it, and one will be a regular laughing-stock.
You fellows' wounds are nothing to that."

"You will have to wear your hair long, Jim; it won't be noticed much if
you do."

"Don't tell me," Jim replied. "I tell you I shall be a regular sight
wherever I go. I shall have fellows asking me what has happened to me.
Now, had it been an arm, chaps would have been sorry for me; but who is
going to pity a man for losing half an ear?"

"I don't think I would mind giving half an ear just at present for a
good drink and a bucket of water to wash in."

"Nor would I," Arthur agreed.

"That is all very well," Jim grumbled. "I have lost half an ear and
haven't got any water to drink."

"Well," Jack said, "I suppose they do not mean to starve us anyhow, so
no doubt they will bring us something before long."

Little more was said. Their tongues were swollen, their mouths parched,
they still felt dizzy and stupid from the blows they had received; so
they sat down and waited. The room they were in was apparently an
underground cellar, generally used as a store-room. It was about twelve
feet square, and the only light was that obtained through the little
opening in the wall. Jack thought as he looked at it that if one of them
stood on another's shoulders he could look out and see where they were.
But as that mattered nothing at present, and they were not in the mood
for any exertion, he held his tongue.

In about an hour a footstep