s," Willcox put in, "that it is very
lucky for us that the river makes that big twist, other wise we might be
all kicking our heels at Aldershot or the Curragh, or in some garrison
town. But I thought camels were fast beasts. I am sure I have seen
pictures of Arabs riding about in the desert at a tremendous pace."

"There are some sort of camels called riding camels that are faster than
the others, and there are dromedaries, which can trot as fast as a horse
and keep it up for a long time; but the riding camels and dromedaries
are both scarce and expensive, and you may be sure we shall not have
many of them with us."

"They are beastly ill-tempered looking brutes," Willcox said. "When I
was walking in the streets there the other day a string of them came
along, and they grumbled and growled like wild beasts, and one showed
his teeth and made as if he was going right at me. If I had not jumped
into a shop I believe he would have had my ear off."

"They can bite, and bite very hard too; but it is very seldom they do,
though they do make a wonderful pretence of being fierce. They call them
the patient camel, but from what I have seen of them I should say that
they are the most impatient, grumbling beasts in creation. It makes no
difference what you do for them--whether you load them or unload them,
or tell them to get up or lie down, or to go on or stop--they always
seem equally disgusted, and grumble and growl as if what you wanted them
to do was the hardest thing in the world. Still, they can do a
tremendous lot of work, and keep on any number of hours, and I don't
know what the people of this country would do without them."

In the afternoon Edgar paraded with his troop and fell into the usual
routine of duty. As he had had a year's campaigning in Egypt he was
regarded as an authority, and after three or four days was as much at
home with the troop as he had been in his own regiment. He found these
big men very pleasant and cheery companions. All had been picked for the
service as being men of exemplary character; they were in high spirits
at the prospect of the expedition before them, and were like a party of
great school-boys out on a holiday. They took to Edgar kindly;
belonging, as he did, to the light cavalry, they regarded him as a sort
of guest among them, and from his being so much younger and smaller than
themselves they looked upon him as a boy, and he quickly got the
nickname of "The Kid."

Many question