o part in the fight outside
Metemmeh. They had evidently been far out in the desert, on the track
the column had followed, on the search for loot. The collection was a
singular one, and it appeared to Edgar that they must either have got
hold of three or four of the camels that had strayed away from the
column, or had followed the troops and rifled boxes and cases that had
fallen from the backs of the animals on their way through the trees, or
that had been left behind when the camels fell.

Here were articles of clothing of all sorts--shirts, socks, karkee
suits, boots, ivory-backed brushes (the property, no doubt, of some
officer of the Guards or Heavies), a hand-glass, a case of writing
materials and paper, a small medicine-chest, some camp-kettles, two or
three dozen tins of cocoa and milk and as many of arrow-root, scores of
small tins of Liebig (these three lots clearly forming part of the
burden of one of the hospital camels), a handsome field-glass, an
officer's sword without a scabbard, a large bundle of hospital rugs, a
tin-box marked "tea, 10 lbs.," a number of tin drinking-cups, plates,
knives, forks, and spoons, and a strange collection of odds and ends of
all sorts.

Each article that was taken out caused fresh excitement, its uses were
warmly discussed, and Edgar was presently dragged forward and ordered to
explain. The various articles of clothing particularly puzzled the
Arabs, and Edgar had to put on a shirt and pair of trousers to show how
they should be worn. The chocolate and arrow-root had apparently been
brought chiefly for the sake of their tins, and one of the Arabs
illustrated their use by putting one of them down on a rock, chopping it
in two with his sword, cleaning out the contents, and then restoring as
well as he could the two halves to the original shape. Some of the
children were about to taste the arrow-root scattered about the ground,
but the sheik sharply forbade them to touch it, evidently thinking that
it might be poison. Edgar was consulted, and said that the contents of
all the tins were good.

As they were evidently anxious to know their uses, he took one of the
tin pots, filled it with water, and placed it over the fire. Then with
one of the Arabs' knives he opened a tin of chocolate, cutting it
carefully round the edge so that it should make a good drinking tin when
empty. When the water boiled he took out some of the contents of the tin
with the spoon and stirred them into