Ping Wang 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 Wang 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 Wang.'
Charlie and Ping Wang 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.' 'Krüger' 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 Canal. Fred and Charlie found plenty to interest them in the Canal. 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 passengers, with the captain's permission, went ashore and gathered flowers and shells to send home.
In the Red Sea there was still more to see. All day long the seagulls—brown with white breasts—hovered around the Twilight. Many other birds came and rested on the ship for hours, and, as the weather was intensely hot, Charlie, Fred, and Ping Wang found it very entertaining to sit quietly in their long chairs and watch their pretty little feathered visitors.