d.

"We came across them in Cairo, sir," Edgar replied reluctantly. "I was
with my friend, the sheik's son. They did not recognize me, being in my
Arab dress, but they knew him at once and pounced upon him, and were
dragging him into a house. Of course, I took his part and there was a
fight."

"And what was the result, Mr. Blagrove?"

"The result was that they were both killed," Edgar said quietly. "They
attacked us with knives, and we had to use ours. My friend killed one of
them and I killed the other. It was unfortunate, but it was their lives
or ours, and if we hadn't done it then, the thing would have happened
again, and next time we might have been stabbed before we had a chance
of defending ourselves."

"I can quite understand that, Mr. Blagrove," Sir Sidney said kindly,
while the others smiled at the matter-of-fact way in which Edgar related
what must have been a very dangerous business.

"I see that, whatever else we may have to teach you, it will not be how
to use your weapons. Indeed, it seems to me that you are getting on very
fast. I saw you go up the shrouds to-day, and I can see that you will
very soon be as much at home there as any of my midshipmen. And now,
gentlemen, we have had rather a long sitting, for it is nearly ten
o'clock; but I am sure that you must have been as interested as I have
been myself, in the information Mr. Blagrove has been good enough to
give us."

"By Jove, Blagrove," Wilkinson said when they had left the cabin, "if
you had told me all this before I should not have felt so doubtful about
your fight with Condor. So you can really use your fists well?"

"I learnt for over two years from some of the best light-weights in
London," Edgar replied, "and unless he has had wonderfully good teachers
I ought to have no trouble about the matter."

Two days later the _Tigre_ left the Pireus. To Sir Sidney Smith's
disappointment, he had not found Lord Nelson there, as he had expected
to do, and he was the more disappointed inasmuch as he had missed Lord
St. Vincent, who was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, at
Gibraltar.

CHAPTER X.

A SEA-FIGHT.

Finding that the last news from Lord Nelson was that he was sailing to
join the fleet blockading Toulon, Sir Sidney Smith remained but a couple
of days at the Pireus, and then continued his voyage to Constantinople.
They had had no intercourse with any of the natives, and Edgar's
services had consequently not been calle