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Updated: May 8, 2025
Ain't it strange! I wonder why it is." "It is strange, indeed," returned the marine quietly. "P'r'aps the climate suits me better than you." "I know what you're thinkin'," said Simkin, almost testily. "Why don't you say that drink is the cause of it straight out, like a man?"
"What good would it do to send him to Ireland?" asked Simkin, as he yawned, rolled over, and, like the rest of his comrades, loaded his rifle. "Why, man, don't ye see, av he was in ould Ireland he couldn't be disturbin' our night's rest here. Moreover, they'd make a dacent man of 'im there in no time.
"Just like them!" growled Simkin, looking about for a fairly level spot. "There's not a place big enough for a dog to lie on!" Supper made Rattling Bill a little more amiable, though not much more forgiving to his foes. A three-quarters moon soon afterwards shed a faint light on the host, which, except the sentries, was sound asleep.
At first Simkin seemed inclined to resent this, but, while he swayed about in frowning indecision, his comrades left him; shaking his head, therefore, with intense gravity, he walked away muttering, "Not a bad fellow Miles, after all, if he w-wasn't so fond o' the b-bottle!" Miles was at the same moment making the same remark to his friend in reference to Simkin, and with greater truth.
Then the captives all descended into the hole, which was not more than four feet deep, after which the Arab shut the trap, covered it as before with a little rubbish, and went away. "Suppose he has bolted the door!" suggested Moses. "Hold your tongue, man, and listen for the signal," said Miles. "I forget what he said the signal was to be," observed Simkin.
Stevenson was also there, you may be sure; and so were Moses and Sutherland, and Rattling Bill Simkin and Corporal Flynn, with his mother and Terence the Irish trooper, who fraternised with Johnson the English trooper, who was also home on the sick-list though he seemed to have a marvellous colour and appetite for a sick man.
One day Miles and his friend Armstrong went to have a ramble in the town of Suakim, and were proceeding through the bazaar when they encountered Simkin hurrying towards them with a much too serious expression on his face! "Have you heard the n-news?" he asked, on coming up. "No; what's up?"
Silence followed, for Simkin was too angry, as well as worn out, to give his mind seriously to anything at that time, and the others were more or less uncertain, as to the truth of what was advanced. Sleep, profound and dreamless, soon banished these and all other subjects from their minds. Blessed sleep! so aptly as well as beautifully styled, "Tired Nature's sweet restorer."
"Because I knew you were saying that to yourself, lad, so there was no need for me to say it," returned his friend, with a side-glance and a twinkle of the eyes. "Well, whoever says it, it's a fact," continued Simkin, almost sternly, "an' I make no bones of admitting it.
"But I ain't ill," returned Simkin, still declining, "and I don't see why I shouldn't be as able as you are to carry my own weight." "Of course you are better able to do it than I am, in a general way," returned his friend, "but I said that sometimes, you know, a fellow gives in, he don't well know why or how, an' then, of course, his comrades that are still strong are bound to help him.
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