to his
comrades as they talked the matter over, "but they won't be masters
long. It is possible enough that they may cut the throats of all the
Europeans in Egypt, but they will have to pay dearly for it if they do.
I do not believe they will keep Alexandria long. Just look at all those
men-of-war in the harbour. Why, there are white ensigns flying over a
dozen of them! I suppose they are wasting time palavering at present,
but when the time for action comes you see they will astonish these
Egyptians."

"That fellow said this morning that there were twenty thousand troops in
the town," Jack said.

"If there were a hundred thousand it would make no odds, Jack."

"It would make no odds about our blowing the place up, Jim, but it would
make a lot of odds if it came to landing. I do not suppose they could
land more than a couple of thousand sailors from the fleet, if they did
as much, and though I have no doubt they could lick about five times
their own number in the field, it would be an awkward business if they
had to fight their way through the narrow streets of the town."

"Well, I suppose there will be some ships along with troops soon," Jim
said. "It would take them a fortnight or three weeks to get ready, and
another fortnight to get out here. Perhaps they waited a week or so to
see whether the Egyptians were going to cave in before they began to get
ready; but at any rate there ought to be troops here in another
fortnight."

The next morning early four of their guards came down and motioned them
to follow them. They were evidently in high glee. Among them was the one
who spoke English.

"Come along, you English boys," he said. "Big fight going to begin. You
see the forts sink all you ships in no time."

"Well, we shall see about that," Tucker muttered as they followed their
guard. "Perhaps you are crowing too early, my fine fellow."

"At any rate," Arthur Hill said, "we may thank them for giving us a view
of it."

The guards led them to a spot where six or seven other men, all like
themselves armed with muskets, were standing or sitting on a bank which
commanded a view of the port and the sea beyond it. The boys threw
themselves on the ground and looked at the panorama stretched away
before them. They could see the two great ports, known as the Old and
New Ports, with the peninsula jutting out between them, on which stood
the khedive's palace, named Ras-el-tin, and other important buildings.
Beyond stre