Part 95 (1/2)

'This is a nice thing!' Fred declared, ruefully, as he pointed to a big tear in his trousers. 'To-day is the first time I have worn this suit.'

Ping w.a.n.g condoled with him, but Charlie, who always maintained that his brother thought too much of dress, laughed at his mishap.

'If you had been wearing a serviceable suit like mine,' he said, 'your trousers would not have been torn.'

'May the day never come,' Fred answered, solemnly, 'when I have to take your advice on the matter of dress. And now I think it is about time that we returned to the _Twilight_.'

'Shall we have another race?' Ping w.a.n.g asked eagerly, somewhat disappointed at having been robbed of his victory.

'I've had quite enough racing, thank you,' Fred declared, placing his hand over his knee to conceal the rent in his trousers.

'I haven't,' Charlie joined in. 'Come along, Ping w.a.n.g.'

Charlie and Ping w.a.n.g whipped up their donkeys, but no sooner had they started than Fred's animal, in spite of its rider's efforts to restrain it, bolted after them, and, overtaking them, ran a dead heat with 'Lord Roberts.' 'Kruger' was last.

When, after a little further exploration of the town, they went back to the _Twilight_, they were thoroughly delighted to find that she had finished coaling, and that nearly all traces of that unpleasant job had been removed.

They went down to dinner at once, and when they came on deck again they were in the Suez Ca.n.a.l. Fred and Charlie found plenty to interest them in the Ca.n.a.l. They saw several thin brown pariah dogs wandering about the desert in search of food, and once a dead camel came floating by them. Towards evening the _Twilight_ had to anchor for a time, and the three pa.s.sengers, with the captain's permission, went ash.o.r.e and gathered flowers and sh.e.l.ls to send home.

In the Red Sea there was still more to see. All day long the seagulls--brown with white b.r.e.a.s.t.s--hovered around the _Twilight_. Many other birds came and rested on the s.h.i.+p for hours, and, as the weather was intensely hot, Charlie, Fred, and Ping w.a.n.g found it very entertaining to sit quietly in their long chairs and watch their pretty little feathered visitors.

CHAPTER XI.

Three days after leaving Suez they saw, for the first time, the Southern Cross, and, on the following morning, they steamed into what, at first sight, Fred and Charlie thought was land, but was simply a wide streak of floating sand which had been blown out to sea during a sand-storm.

At night they were now permitted to sleep on deck--a boon which all three appreciated highly. They took their blankets and pillows on to the p.o.o.p, and slept with greater comfort than they had experienced for many days, though one night they were caught in a heavy thunder-shower.

One morning, when they went on deck, they found it literally strewn with flying fish. The s.h.i.+p's rats had evidently had a good feed, for many of the fish were gnawed and bitten.

'Would you like some flying fish for breakfast, gentlemen?' the cook said to the three pa.s.sengers as they stood looking at the stranded fish.

'Are they good?' Charlie inquired, suspiciously.

'First cla.s.s,' the cook declared; so Charlie, Fred, and Ping w.a.n.g had flying fish for breakfast.

'I can't say that I consider them ”first cla.s.s,”' Fred said when he had eaten two of them, 'but I am glad that I shall be able to say that I have eaten one.'

'Eaten two,' Charlie said, but Fred ignored the interruption.

'I make a practice of tasting any new dish I come across,' he continued.

'When we get to China,' Charlie said, 'Ping w.a.n.g will have the pleasure of offering you puppy-dog pie.'

Ping w.a.n.g smiled serenely.

'I don't think that you will find Chinese food so bad as you imagine,'