At Cette the fellows looked sick when they saw that we were more than three-quarters full. They shoved barrels of wine on top of our firewood. It took a day to level the logs of pine and elm. We were able to load two tiers in each hold, enough to keep the Army of the East drunk for three days only, and we got through without too much breakage--only three or four old casks which stove in while they were in the sling, and the crew fairly howled when they saw that good wine going overboard for the benefit of the fish! Just as we were on the point of sailing, there arrived from Cette a consignment of mules which had come from the Pyrenees for the soldiers in the East. They were to have embarked on a boat specially fitted for that sort of thing--only, the boat had been sunk two days before and there was a fearful fuss because General Sarrail was raising Cain to get mules. At the very moment we were weighing anchor, a fellow from the port ran back, signalling with his arms to us to stop. Fourgues had the ladder let down and the chap came on board and asked how many mules we could take. Old man, it was worth paying for to see Fourgues’ face. “Mules, sir, mules! So the _Pamir_ is a ---- stable now, is she? I am full to bursting, sir! I have big logs and little logs and elm logs and other logs. And I have two hundred barrels of wine, which, at the rate at which things are moving, will be vinegar before I arrive. And I have strict orders to get under way for Salonica at four o’clock, sir, and now you want to know how many mules I can take! Oh, as many as you wish, sir! Put them on the deck--in the funnels--in the chain-locker--up the masts, and in my cabin, sir. Cut them in pieces and stow them in the hold and we will stick them together again at Salonica. It’s all the same to me! The sea is deep and we shan’t touch the bottom even if you load us with mules enough to founder us. We can pack your mules, sir, in tiers, two or three tiers; and if they can eat coal or firewood, perhaps they will still be recognizable as mules when they get to Salonica!” I wish you could have seen the mug of the citizen with the mules! He would have crawled into the compass if that had been possible. He stammered excuses--urgent necessity, extremely urgent necessity, expected ship sunk, necessity of national defence, imperative order not to go ashore again until he had disposed of his mules on the _Pamir_.... When Fourgues saw that he had humbled him enough he suspended the order to get under way. Secretly he was enjoying it.