ds
they want, and there are first-class tailors and dressmakers here."

"My passengers must speak for themselves," answered the captain. "I fear
you cannot furnish the supplies I need."

"We can furnish everything that can be named," persisted the agent of
the Parsee merchants. "What do you require?"

"Two twenty-four pounders, brass, naval carriages, and all the
ammunition needed for their use," replied the commander; and he felt as
though he had made an impossible demand.

"We can furnish anything and everything you may desire in this line; in
fact, we can fit out your ship as a man-of-war. But do you need only two
such guns as you describe, Captain Ringgold?" asked the business-driving
Mr. Gaskill. "We have a lot of four of them, and we should like to
dispose of them together."

"I will see the guns before I say anything more about the matter. When
can you fill our water-tanks and coal-bunkers?" inquired the commander.

"We are very busy to-day, for we have several steamers to supply; but it
shall be done before to-morrow noon."

"Now I will introduce you to our chief steward."

Mr. Sage insisted upon seeing his supplies before he named the quantity
needed, and made an appointment on shore.

CHAPTER XXXIII

A DISAPPOINTMENT TO CAPTAIN SCOTT

Captain Ringgold knew something about Aden before he decided to make a
stopping-place of it, and it was certainly a more agreeable location
than Perim. The town--or towns, for there appear to be several of
them--is described by a former resident as a sort of crater like that of
a volcano, formed by a circular chain of steep hills, the highest of
which is 1,775 feet above the sea level. The slope outside of them
reaching to the waters of the Arabian Gulf, or the Gulf of Aden as it is
now called, has several strings of hills in that direction, with valleys
between them, radiating from the group to the shore.

Aden is a peninsula connected with Hadramaut, the southern section of
Arabia, by a narrow isthmus, covered at the spring tides by the
surrounding waters. Over it is a causeway conveying an aqueduct which is
always above the sea level. The region looks as though it might have
been subject to volcanic convulsions at some remote period. Within the
circle of hills are the town and a portion of the military works. In its
natural location, as well as in the strength of its defences, it bears
some resemblance to Gibraltar.

This was the substance of what the c