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Chapter Two: The
Queen of the Nile
 We
soon learnt that a certain Captain Cavor
had been sent by the Admiralty to Egypt in command of the White
Manatee, a dirigible airship modeled upon the French invention. He
took on an immediate interest in our catch, and contrived to fashion a
superior model. On this enterprise he obtained the approval of the
Admiralty, and did manufacture a similar vehicle utilizing the boiler
plates from a steamship. He spoke excitably of the flash-boilers and
steam-recycler in the German machine which made it more powerful, but
much of it was incomprehensible to me.
 Now the fault with
Captain Chard (if indeed it can be called a fault in a soldier) was
that he is drawn to the fight as a hound would be top the chase on the
scent of blood. It was not too long after Captain Cavor had completed
his work on the new Steam-tank, which he named 'The Queen of the
Nile', that Captain Chard proposed an expedition against the Germans.
Reasoning that they must have made themselves a base in the Soudan, it
was a simple matter of finding them along the course of the Nile, for
beyond the banks of the river there was no water and no life, save a
few oases.
And so with Captain Chard in command of the Queen and
Captain Cavor in command of the White Manatee (which was the name of
the dirigible airship), we set off along the Nile. And
towards mid-morning we came by the oasis which the scout had reported.
The Germans had set themselves here, and there under the shade of the
trees sat a company of German soldiers by a second steam-tank of the
same design. Our men set upon the Germans with such surprise that they
were upon the Germans before the stokers could get their boilers
started. But this time were were not so lucky, and even as they were
upon the tank the men could not enter its hull to stop the machine.
Then Captain Cavor came on with the White Manatee, and the gunners
began to rain shells onto the German tank. I must say the impression
they made was minimal. 
And suddenly, upon a ridge to the west another
company of men appeared - it was a company of the French Foreign
Legion! No doubt word of the German's presence in the Soudan had
reached them. It was clear they had come to seize the German tank for
themselves too, for they immediately fell upon the Germans. Thus
outnumbered, the Germans fell back south, abandoning much of their
gear by the oasis. And then the French turned upon us!
It seemed that
now that the German tank had fled, their commander would avail himself
to any other tank! A hard, confused fight followed, for the French,
unlike the Germans, were made of sterner stuff and would not give the
fight up easy. We got away that day badly mauled, even if the French
did come off worse. Captain Chard, however, was unfazed, and on the
journey home vowed to return the French a favour. For it was known
that they had a fort by the border to the west, from whence the
company we have just met had come from."
To
Chapter Three...
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