"Then I'm with yer, mate. Yer know drink ain't nothing to me now, and I
can see as the feller what keeps himself fit, takes walks and plenty of
fresh air, and don't eat nor drink too much, finds himself better able
to enjoy his life. Why, ever since that ugly old bear gave me a mauling
I've been a different man. I have, Phil. A different and a better man.
But come along, mate, let's take a stroll about and see what's
happening. Some of those French blokes is going to do a gun drill, I
hear, and we may as well look at 'em."
It was a wise resolution on Phil's part to keep himself in good trim,
for no one possessed of common sense can doubt that nothing is more
prejudicial to a young man than riotous living. For a time an excellent
constitution may stand the unusual strain, but sooner or later health is
shattered, and with additional strain, when met by cold and exposure,
and perhaps insufficient food, disease finds a ready victim, and another
patient falls into the hands of doctors already heavily pressed by work.
Fortunately for all, orders were not long in coming, and soon the
Grenadiers were on the sea again. A short and most interesting voyage
followed till they reached the entrance to the Dardanelles and dropped
anchor.
It was pitchy dark, and the outlines of the forts which guard the narrow
entrance could not be made out; but excited shouts and an occasional
blue flare which lit up a limited area, showing gesticulating figures
clad in Turkish costume, proved that the coming of the _Orinoco_ had not
passed unnoticed.
On the following morning the ship weighed anchor, and, steaming into the
Bosphorus, drew up opposite Scutari, fated to prove the scene of awful
misery to the British. That evening Phil and his comrades were ashore,
and were safely housed under canvas. Two days later they obtained
permission to visit Gallipoli, where the bulk of our army had landed,
with numbers of the French, and, hiring a native craft, were rowed
across.
"Looks like a fairy place, don't it, Phil?" remarked Tony as, seated in
the boat, he gazed at the shore of Gallipoli. "Look at them things like
white fingers a-sticking up into the sky, and those white houses amongst
the green trees."
And, indeed, seen from a distance, and, above all, from the sea,
Gallipoli with its immediate surroundings is a paradise. It consists of
a collection of all sorts of houses scattered here and there hap-hazard
on the foreground, othe
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