hope they
will send us across to Berber, when Osman's forces are swept from the
path."

"I doubt if they will," replied the doctor, shaking his head. "It will
be frightfully hot in a couple of months."

"It is the only way to save Gordon."

"I fear you are right, but I hope not. But here is a boat coming off to
us."

It was a man-of-war's boat dashing along with the smart, lively stroke
which can never be mistaken. It was alongside presently, and almost the
moment it touched, the naval officer they had seen in the stern sheets
stood on the quarter-deck; a harlequin could not have done it more
quickly.

"It is a mistake your coming in here, sir," he said to the commanding
officer; "you are to go to Trinkitat."

So the chance of closely investigating a coral town, and seeing how
closely or otherwise it resembled a similar sort of colony in an
extravaganza, was lost for the present for the First Battalion of the
Blankshire, who growled. And yet, oh fortunate ones! If they but knew
it, they gained two more comfortable meals, and one comfortable night's
lodging, by having to go on.

For they did not anchor in Trinkitat harbour till it was too late to
land that night. The delay caused a last rise to be taken out of poor
Green, or rather a final allusion to a long-standing one. When the
battalion got its route for the Soudan, the lad was as keen to see
active service as any one of them, and it was a severe shock to him when
one of the most mischievous of his brother officers pretended to
discover that one of his legs was crooked, which would incapacitate him,
he feared, from marching across the desert.

"You would knock up in an hour's march, and have to be carried, you
know," said the tormentor; "it would never do."

"I am sure my legs seem to me all right," urged poor Green.

"Well, of course, I may be quite in error," candidly admitted the other.
"We will ask a doctor."

So Doctor MacBean was called in, and he made an examination of the
accused limb.

"Dear, dear!" he said, "however were you passed for the army? The
_scarsal bone_ of the _fons ilium_ is all out of drawing."

"But you won't tell, doctor?" pleaded poor Green; "it does not
inconvenience me in the least, I assure you."

"Not now, perhaps," said the doctor, nodding his head; "but after a long
march in sand, it might be serious. I am very sorry, but I must do my
duty."

But, being much entreated, the doctor was persuaded to try what