u see, it is
not going to be so bad after all. That chap who brought us up here is
evidently friendly, though why he should have sent us the fruit by
itself instead of with the bread and water I do not know. However, never
mind that now; let us set to."

The boys enjoyed their breakfast immensely. They first ate the grapes;
when these were finished they looked longingly at the melon, which was a
very large one.

"How on earth are we to tackle that?" Jim asked. "Our knives have gone
with our other things."

"Perhaps we can find something to cut it up," Jack said, getting up and
turning over the litter on the floor with his foot. For two or three
minutes he searched about. "Hurrah!" he exclaimed at last, "here is a
bit of old hoop-iron that will do first-rate. It is not stiff enough to
cut with, but I think we can saw with it, if one takes hold of each
end."

Without much difficulty the melon was cut into three parts, and devoured
to the rind. Breakfast over they had time to consider their situation
again.

"I expect," Jack said, "this pasha or whatever he is who has got us here
is waiting to see how things go. If the Egyptians get the best of it he
will hand us over to Arabi, or whoever comes to be their chief. If we
get the best of it he will give us up, and say that he has saved our
lives. That would account, you see, for this breakfast business. He only
sent us bread and water by his Egyptian fellows, and he sent us the
fruit privately by that black slave of his, whom he can rely upon to
hold his tongue."

"I should not be surprised if that was it, Jack. That makes it look
hopeful for us, for there is no doubt in the world who will get the best
of it in the end. We may not thrash the beggars for a time. Alexandria
is a big place, and there are a lot of troops here, and they can bring
any number more down from Cairo by rail. The crews of the ships of war
here are nothing like strong enough to land and do the whole business at
once; besides, they have no end of forts and batteries. I expect it will
be some time before they can bring ships and troops from England to
capture this place."

"But there are the Italians and French," Arthur said. "They are just as
much interested in the matter as we are, for I expect there were a good
many more Italians and French killed yesterday than there were English."

"Ten to one, I should think," Jim agreed. "I don't think there are many
English here, except the big merchants