138 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



board paddle-wheel was buckled up and twisted 

 into inconceivable shapes. No bicycle, after the 

 most serious accident, ever looked in worse case. 

 There was nothing for it but to make fast the bows 

 of the boat to the bank and let her swing round 

 with the current, the damaged wheel being thus 

 left on the outside ; and the chief engineer, Mr. 

 Nicholson, then set to work with all available 

 hands to repair the damages. I am fain to admit 

 that, for my part, I was not even awakened by 

 the accident, a seventeen- mile donkey ride to 

 Abydos and back having disposed me to excessive 

 sleep — and what a good donkey I had on that 

 occasion ! He was Mr. Darling's selection, and 

 , „, showed much St. Simon character. A 



A St. 



Simon Western States American had avowed 

 his^intention of being first back to the 

 ship, and I beat him by fifteen minutes, he being 

 the second to arrive. 



" But this has been a strange day. We are 

 stranded on a most desolate portion of the Nile, 

 with great cliffs towering up a couple of hundred 

 yards from the shore, and on the other side of the 

 river, w^hich takes a big bend here and there, are 

 sand banks. On looking out one saw a little forge 

 with wheezy bellows already estabhshed on shore, 

 with an anvil, hammers, etc., and machines of 

 various sorts for trimming up nuts, bolts, and so 



