lk, and we constantly diverged off the track, circling
to this side or the other whenever a field looked an improvement upon our
muddy quagmire, generally to find that it was very little better and
sometimes worse.

About half-way we met our luggage and messenger. The pock-marked boy had
taken our effects to the shore, had found no steamer, waited a short
time, then calculated that he would be late getting back to the city,
and ran risks of robbers, to say nothing of _ginns_ (spirits) lurking in
the wells by the road, so turned his face homewards.

We were in total ignorance, and so of course was he, all this time as to
the movements of the steamer: once out of the city, the level of the road
is such that nothing can be seen of the sea until a couple of hours'
riding, lands people right on the beach itself. With every hope that she
still lay at anchor, we turned our "pock-mark" round, and the poor mule
faced the bad road down to Martine for the second time that day.

Madunnah handed over the bracket to crown our baggage, and plodded
bravely on, often well up to his bare knees in mud and water. A brace of
duck forged across the sky above our heads; some plover called and called
again mournfully, wheeling above the irresponsive marshes and brown
fallows; a string of mules moved like mites over a cheese in the sandy
distance. We passed the Wad-el-Martine in heavy flood, its yellow yeasty
depths swirling between the soft red banks.

At last a couple of stone bridges came into sight, isolated in a waste of
water, remnants of the old Portuguese road, and in normal times affording
a dry path over two dykes. We plunged through unseen holes and among
stony pitfalls up to the lonely landmarks and dry ground for a few yards;
then more floods; but after that the last mile or two became easy enough,
the land rose, and dry sandy dunes, with tough bents flattened in the
wind, conduced towards a jog, almost a canter. Goats, picking up a bare
living, scattered as we hurried along, past the white Customs House and
an old wharf on the river, away to the beach. Behind us the mountains
were black and purple, heavy rain-clouds were gathering, and directly we
topped the crest of the sandy shore a strong east wind met us full in
the teeth straight off the sea. But there as large as life lay the
steamer, a long way out, on account of the bar and the wind, with a
choppy sea running between.

A cargo-boat was vainly trying to cross the bar, t