ssed through the camp and saw my friend
superintending the correction of a Greek who was being bastinadoed. It
seemed a painful punishment.

I was sorry, therefore, when my friend's division was ordered to
Kamara, and we lost our neighbours. But my pupil did not forget his
schoolmistress. A few days after they had left the neighbourhood of
Spring Hill came a messenger, with a present of lambs, poultry, and
eggs, and a letter, which I could not decipher, as many of the
interpreters could speak English far better than they could write it.
But we discovered that the letter contained an invitation, to Mr. Day
and myself, to go over to Kamara, and select from the spoil of the
village anything that might be useful in our new buildings. And a few
days later came over a large araba, drawn by four mules, and laden
with a pair of glass-doors, and some window-frames, which the
thoughtful kind Pacha had judged--and judged rightly--would be a very
acceptable present. And very often the good-natured fellow would ride
over from Kamara, and resume his acquaintance with myself and my
champagne, and practise his English sentences.

We felt the loss of our Turkish neighbours in more ways than one. The
neighbourhood, after their departure, was left lonely and unprotected,
and it was not until a division of the Land Transport Corps came and
took up their quarters near us, that I felt at all secure of personal
safety. Mr. Day rarely returned to Spring Hill until nightfall
relieved him from his many duties, and I depended chiefly upon two
sailors, both of questionable character, two black servants, Jew
Johnny, and my own reputation for determination and courage--a poor
delusion, which I took care to heighten by the judicious display of a
double-barrelled pistol, lent me for the purpose by Mr. Day, and which
I couldn't have loaded to save my life.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BRITISH HOTEL--DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES--OUR
ENEMIES--THE RUSSIAN RATS--ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF A
CAT--LIGHT-FINGERED ZOUAVES--CRIMEAN THIEVES--POWDERING
A HORSE.

Summer was fairly advanced before the British Hotel was anything like
finished; indeed, it never was completed, and when we left the Hill, a
year later, it still wanted shutters. But long before that time Spring
Hill had gained a great reputation. Of course, I have nothing to do
with what occurred in the camp, although I could not help hearing a
great deal about it. Mismanagement and privation