t the natives
had left.

On Monday morning the 38th Regiment and the third battalion of the 60th
Rifles arrived in the harbour, and were at once landed. General Sir
Archibald Alison also arrived and assumed the command on shore, and the
following day a body of troops marched along the line of railway to
Ramleh, six miles distant. Ramleh stands at the point where a narrow
neck of land connects the peninsula on which Alexandria stands with the
mainland. Along this narrow isthmus run the road, the railway, and the
Sweet-water Canal, and here there is a pumping-station, by which water
is raised to a higher level for the supply of Alexandria.

The khedive has a summer palace at Ramleh, and here are a large number
of pretty villas, the summer abodes of the merchants of Alexandria. It
was an important position, for here any advance upon the city from the
east could be readily checked.

Thursday was a busy day for the police and troops in Alexandria, for a
high wind got up and fanned the masses of embers into flames again, and
serious fires broke out in several places. The boys were busily engaged
all day. They acted now as aides-de-camp to Lord Charles Beresford,
carrying his orders to the various working parties, and making
themselves generally useful.

Lord Charles had established himself with his officers in an empty
house, and the three boys had a room assigned to them here. The party
all messed together. In the evening Lord Charles said to the officers,
"I hear that the khedive's people have got news that Arabi is damming up
the Sweet-water Canal. We shall have a deal of trouble if he does. There
is very bad news, too, from the country. They say that everywhere
except at Cairo the natives have risen and massacred the Europeans.
Arabi has ordered all the able-bodied men in the country to join the
army."

"I don't call the last part bad news," Captain Archer said. "We shall
have ten thousand men here in a short time, and the more of these
scoundrels that are gathered together the better, so that we can end it
at one blow. If Arabi does but stand there is no doubt as to the result.
The thing that would puzzle us would be for him and his troops to march
away into Upper Egypt and lead us a long dance there. In this tremendous
heat our fellows would not be able to march far, and it would be like a
tortoise trying to catch a hare, hunting them all over the country. The
more men Arabi gets together the more likely he is to