e an aggrieved bellow
of: "La! Mush quais!" and the perspiring native would get down to it once
more, while the others charged up again to see what in future to avoid.
Moreover, whatever mistakes they made subsequently it was rarely that one.

"Igri, Johnny!" or alternatively and more forcibly, "Get a bloomin' igri
on, Johnny!" was the favourite ejaculation of an N.C.O. when he wanted to
cure that tired feeling peculiar to the Egyptian native. (All natives
answer to the name of Johnny, by the way.)

"Imshi!" was the N.C.O.'s great word, however; he used it on all occasions
implying a departure from his presence; when a man's face displeased him,
for instance, and when he dismissed them for the day. They made a weird
combination, these two, the dominant white man and the dusky native; but
they built Kantara--and a few other places.

As the camp grew and grew so also did its needs. The Army Service Corps
arrived in force and demanded for themselves a great depot, covering many
acres, which was to be the Main Supply of the army advancing into
Palestine. Materials and stores could not now be brought in sufficient
quantities by the State railway on the other bank, and the traffic over the
Canal bridges was becoming increasingly heavy. Accordingly the engineers
found another outlet for their energies: they created a fleet!

Jetties and wharves were built on the east bank, and to them came presently
numbers of strange vessels, broad in the beam like a barge, and with
monstrous lateen sails that looked too unwieldy to be furled or set; and on
their bows they bore the painted letters "I.W.T., R.E." and a numeral.
They were native feluccas, garnered from every canal and waterway in Egypt.
They brought grain and fodder for the horses, rations for the men,
vegetables of all kinds from the fertile province of Fayoum, stores for the
roads; and at Port Said and Suez material from the outside world was
trans-shipped on to them for conveyance to Kantara. Loaded almost down to
the water's edge they came to the jetties, tied up, emptied, and went away
for more. Great wooden warehouses were built to receive the cargoes, and
almost daily the number grew until they extended for miles down the Canal
bank.

It would appear that the zenith of construction had now been reached, but
as it became increasingly evident that the Turks would never again reach
the Canal, so it was obvious that something more ambitious must be
attempted, if the grea