Jack paid off the donkey boy and cast a professional eye at the line of modern forts, noting the soldiers supervising fellahin labouring with picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows. “I wouldn’t like to storm this place by sea when Arabi completes these forts,” he said. “Start your drawing, Mary, and I’ll take notes.”
“I’ve started,” Mary said without looking up. “The light’s quite good for sketching; the slanting rays give me interesting highlights.”
As Mary drew, Jack counted sixteen guns in Fort Mex, a modern building beside some older fortifications and defensive lines. He had brought a small notebook and jotted down the fort as MEX, with the figure ‘16’ at the side. Leaving Mary with her artwork, he strolled along the coastline to the nearby Round Tower, where he saw seven modern guns and
