Part 20 (1/2)

”Suakim is built of madrepore,” he replied to the above question; ”very curious. Houses and mosques all of the same materials as these reefs we are now coming to.”

”Madrepore--why, that is a sort of coral--isn't it?”

”Yes, it is coral.”

”That's queer though. My s.h.i.+rt-studs are made of coral; fancy a town built of s.h.i.+rt-studs!”

”s.h.i.+rt-studs are quite a secondary use of the article; the princ.i.p.al being to help babies cut their teeth. Have you got your coral still, Green?”

Green was a very young subaltern, who had not been to a public school, and was somewhat easily imposed upon.

”No,” he said; ”at least not here. It is somewhere at home, I believe.”

”That is right; you will want it when you come to cut your wisdom teeth.

You know, I suppose, that you cannot get your company until you have done that?”

”I knew I had to pa.s.s an examination,” said Green, not convinced that this information was quite _bona fide_.

”Of course, but this is in addition to that. When a vacancy occurs, you send in your certificate of having pa.s.sed in tactics, and then you are ordered to go to the Veterinary College, and there they look in your mouth.”

”But I am not a _horse_!” exclaimed Green.

”No, but the rule applies to other animals,” said his tormentor, gravely.

”I know you are chaffing me,” said Green, and indeed the roars of laughter were alone sufficient to show him that.

”But all the same, it is curious that a town should be built of child's corals.”

”That is why it has been selected as a good station for infantry,” said a young fellow amidst a chorus of groans.

”I tell you what it is, Tom,” said one of the captains; ”I will not have you in my company if you do that again. The man who would make a bad pun and a hackneyed pun in such beautiful scenery as this, would--I don't know what enormity he would _not_ commit. Come late on parade, very likely.”

”Oh, no!” said Tom Strachan, for the lieutenant was no other then our old friend, ”I hope I know better than to infringe on the privileges of my superior officers.”

A general grin showed that Strachan had scored there; for Fitzgerald, his captain, was noted for slipping into his place just in time to avoid reprimand, and no sooner. But he could not make any reply without fitting the cap; so he grinned too.

”Is Suakim an island?” he asked.

”Not now,” replied MacBean. ”When I was last here it was, but since that Gordon has had a causeway made to the mainland. There, you can see it now,” he added, as the vessel steamed through a gap in the outer coral reef.

”I wonder whether these pa.s.sages in the reef were made by cutting the coral out to build the town,” said another.

”No,” replied the doctor. ”Their origin is rather curious. Sometimes, in the wet season, torrents rush down from the mountains to the sea, and the fresh water kills the polypus which makes the coral, and so stops the formation of it just there, and makes an opening. This theory is confirmed by the fact that all such pa.s.sages through the reefs are immediately opposite valleys.”

”The town looks like a large fortification; I suppose the dwelling- houses are behind the walls.”

”No, those are the houses; and what look from here like loopholes are the windows. The place is worth looking over, though you won't have much time for that, I expect, nor yet for boating amongst the curious coral caves, or looking at the queer creatures which serve for fish and haunt them, until you have chawed up the Hadendowas and got Osman Digna in a cage.”

”Not then, I hope,” said one of the seniors of the group. ”I hope they will send us across to Berber, when Osman's forces are swept from the path.”