For Fortune and Glory: A Story of the Soudan War

by Lewis Hough

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  EL TEB.

  The force started on the march about eight o'clock. It moved in square,with camels, mules, baggage, ammunition in the centre. Also inside werethe surgeons and ambulance, and some troops ready to strengthen any weakpart in the course of action; there were guns, either machine-guns, (asguns which fire bullets through individual barrels by turning a handle--various improvements upon the mitrailleuse--are called) or Krupp guns,at the corners, manned either by sailors or artillerymen.

  The square was not a square in the sense of Euclid, because two sides ofit were longer than the other two. One of the longest faces led, themen being in line. The other formed the rear face, and moved also inline, turned to the right-about; but when halted and fronted it wouldface to the rear. The side faces marched, the right side "fours left,"the left side "fours right," so that when halted and fronted they toowould face outwards.

  The officer in command, General Graham, had two men who knew the groundwell, Baker and Burnaby, to point out the best route to avoid obstacleswhich would break the formation, and so they moved over a flat expanseof sand, with now and then a hill overgrown with low bushes. Not farfrom the line of march these sand-hills were larger and more numerous,and the bushes thicker, and amongst and beyond these parties of theenemy were hovering; to guard the infantry against a sudden attack fromthese, a squadron of light cavalry were spread out half a mile ahead,covering the flanks.

  "I ask your pardon, sir," said a sergeant to Strachan, as they trampedthrough the sand, "but do you happen to know what we are going to fightabout? Not that it matters, only it gives an interest like to thebusiness."

  "Oh, yes, sergeant," said Tom. "We are going to relieve Tokar."

  "So I thought, sir. But then, you see, Tokar, they say, has fallen."

  "I believe it has," replied Tom; "but that was the original idea. Andif we are a bit late, why then we must show them how we would haverelieved it if it had not been taken. The Arabs had no right to be insuch a hurry. You remember the sham fights we used to have atAldershot? Neither side was to commence manoeuvring before a certainhour, when a gun fired. Well, these Arabs have not played fair, butstolen a march upon us before the proper time. But that is no reasonwhy we should go home after all this trouble and preparation without afight."

  "Of course not, sir!"

  "Well, then, they have got the wells at El Teb, and have raisedfortifications to defend them, I believe, and our job to-day is to getthem out of that. Then we go on to Tokar, and we shall see if they makeanother fight there."

  "Thank you, sir," said the sergeant; "I understand quite enough now."

  A puff of smoke from the bushes; another; twenty. But no bullets came,the enemy firing from too long a distance. It was like a peaceablefield day with blank cartridge burning.

  Trinkitat harbour was in full view, and an energetic ship there, seeingthe Arabs' position thus indicated, tried to throw shells amongst them.But they, too, were out of range. Only, as shells when properlyconstructed burst somewhere, and these were sent over the heads offriends, their exploding short was dangerous, and after two or threeattempts the experiment was dropped.

  The main body of the cavalry followed in rear of the square, and to theleft of it, in three lines.

  "Look at those birds!" said Green to Tom, coming up to him to draw hisattention. "What lots of them! They look like vultures surely, some ofthem."

  "And they are vultures, too. What carrion have they got there I wonder.Faugh! One can smell it from here."

  "Look at General Baker, what a stern expression he has got," saidFitzgerald, letting his subaltern come up to him. "What a scene thosebirds and this stench must recall for him!"

  "Ah, to be sure!" said Tom. "This was the line of the flight of hisEgyptian army a month ago, when they let the Arabs massacre them withouteven attempting to resist. Well, we won't do that if we can help it,will we, Green? We will strike a blow, even if we cut off our noses aswell as our ears."

  "There, there, don't chaff him, Strachan; you are too bad. And look toyour half-company. Close up, there!"

  The enemy kept up their innocuous out-of-distance popping, principallyat the advance cavalry. The square was halted two or three times for aminute's rest, which the men dragging the guns must have particularlywanted, considering the loose nature of the soil. Then on again, afterbetween two and three hours' march.

  Tom Strachan could see huts, and what looked like a fort with guns;earthworks also in another part, with flags stuck upon them. Also, ofall earthly things in such a spot, an old boiler, such as you may see insome Thames-side yard, where old vessels are broken up and worn-outmachinery accumulates.

  Here the cavalry skirmishers, having done their work, retired to theirmain body. Another halt, almost within rifle-shot of the position, andthe men flung themselves carelessly down on the sand. Major Elmfoot wasexamining the defences through his field-glass.

  "That thing looks like an old boiler, major," said Fitzgerald.

  "And it _is_ an old boiler," replied the other. "I was hearing about itthe other day; there was a sugar-mill here once; that ruined buildingwas part of it."

  "Ten-shun!"

  The men sprang to their feet all together. The enemy were close, andthere would be serious work in a minute. A flash and a puff of smokefrom the earthworks, a singing in the air, another flash and reportclose by, and the fragments of a shell were flying about their ears.Two more bursting right over, and a man here and there dropped.

  Then the rifle-fire opened in earnest, and those who had never yet heardit learned what the sound of a bullet was like. More men were hit,collapsed, and were picked up by the ambulance.

  Still the square pressed steadily on, the men stepping jauntily as ifmarching past. Green said to himself with joy--

  "I am under fire, really under fire! And I am not half so frightened asI thought I should be."

  "Mayn't I give them one back, sir?" a man asked him.

  "Not yet; presently," he replied.

  He had hardly spoken before the words, "Halt! Lie down!" were passed,and return fire was opened, both from guns and rifles, overpowering andalmost silencing that of the enemy.

  "Advance!" Up the men jumped again, and pressed forward towards theworks.

  The ground was broken by lumps of rock, bushes, and holes, which madetemporary breaks in the ranks as the men had to give way to pass oneither side of them, and then run up into their places again. Behindevery rock and bush, crouched in every pit or hollow, were Arabs, whoseized the opportunity to dash amongst the men, getting into the veryranks, and striking with their spears and sharp swords right and left,and on equal terms.

  For the rifle, considered as a firearm, was of no use at such very closequarters; the bayonet at the end of it, or the butt, was all that couldbe used. The bayonet exercise is often spoken of as a bit of gymnasticsrather than of practical value; but smartness in the delivery of athrust was just everything now. In civilised warfare it may be thatbayonets are seldom crossed, but when you have to deal with a barbarianfoe, who places his trust in cold steel, the case is different. For thefirst thrust perhaps the bayonet has the advantage, for the weight ofthe rifle behind it sends it very quick and true, and difficult toparry. But the point once turned or avoided, the spear gets the pull,as, by drawing back the hand which holds it, the point can be withdrawnto the shoulder, and launched, without a chance of parrying, at anyunguarded spot.

  True, that the English soldier can also shorten arms, but it takes bothhands to do that, and in the meantime the whole body is exposed; whilethe Arab shortens his spear with the right-hand alone, and the left arm,with a round shield of hippopotamus hide upon it, can be used to putaside the bayonet thrust. Unless wounded to death, they fight on whenthey have fallen, clutching at their enemies' legs, stabbing while theycan hold a weapon.

  Such struggling as this caused the advance of the square to be veryslow, for those portions of the front line w
hich had no obstacles toenable the enemy to get amongst them had to wait while the men engagedin these single combats despatched their foes and were ready to advanceagain. Not that they wasted their time, for they had plenty of shootingto do to clear their own immediate front.

  Nor was this the only cause of delay; the rear line of the square wasalso subject to rushes of the enemy, who lay in ambush till it hadpassed, and then dashed upon it. To meet the attack it must halt andface about, and the rest of the square must halt too, or a gap would beopened through which the determined foe would rush. Then, again, theflanks, or side faces of the square, were also attacked. These had toturn towards the front when the square advanced, not in file, or twodeep, as they stood, because men moving like that must always straggleout too much, but in fours. Thus, on each forward movement, the rightside of the square formed fours left, the left side of it fours right.But in this way the men would have their sides towards the surroundingenemy, and would be helpless. So when attacked they had to halt andfront, thus becoming a line two deep again, facing their foes. But thisrequired another general halt till the enemy were killed or driven back.

  It is difficult to explain all this without using technical terms, but Ithink you will understand how absolutely necessary it was to movesteadily, with the men forming the four sides of this square standingshoulder to shoulder, and leaving no openings.

  If the forces opposed were about equal, no such square as this, whichmoves with such cumbersome difficulty, would be thought of; but when amere handful of men have to encounter countless hordes, it is employedto avoid being attacked in front and rear and flanks at the same time,and to protect the wounded, the water, and the spare ammunition. Butlet the overpowering masses of the enemy once break into the centre, alladvantage is gone, and the small body is worse off than it would beadvancing in any other way, because the four sides would be attacked infront and rear, cut off from each other, and deprived of mutual support.The ammunition would be seized, and the wounded in the ambulancesmassacred, while the soldiers would just have to fight back to backwhile their strength lasted.

  To prevent a partial irruption resulting in such a catastrophe, sparetroops moved inside the square to oppose a second line, ready to repelany Arabs who broke in, and so aid their comrades to regain theirformation.

  The guns were at the corners of the square. While there was a clearspace in front of them, and they were well served, nothing alive couldapproach. But suppose a hillock close in front, or a pit, full ofArabs, into which they could not fire, just under their muzzles, andthey would become weak places, where the enemy could surge in withoutbeing met by the bristling bayonets, and so stab the soldiers on theright and left of the angle in their backs, increasing the gap, throughwhich their friends might penetrate. And the enemy saw this plainlyenough, and planned dodges to aid their rushes upon these corners.

  There was one good thing for the British troops that day: a nice breezeswept the smoke away, and they could see their enemies' movements, andso stall off many a rush with their fire before it came to closeconflict. If a thick pall of smoke had combined with the broken groundto cover the attacks of the Arabs, the losses would most likely havebeen heavier, and the battle more protracted.

  Tom Strachan had acquired an accomplishment which promised to be usefulbefore the day was over. He and others were practising with their newrevolvers one day on the grounds near the rifle butts, where they werequartered, when the colonel rode by, and stopped to look on.

  "I tell you what you should do," he said to them, "you should practisewith the left hand. I have learned to shoot as well with my left handas my right, and I believe it saved my life in India during the Mutiny.It leaves the sword-arm free to ward off a cut or thrust if there aremore than one at you, or you fail to shoot your man dead."

  All tried it, but Strachan at least persevered, and it came quitenatural to him after a while to use his left hand for that purpose. Notonly that, but the determination to conquer the awkwardness he felt atfirst made him practise pistol shooting much more than he wouldotherwise have done, and he became a first-rate shot.

  The weapon, however, lay in its leather case at present; he had enoughto do to look after his men, and to catch and repeat the word of commandamidst the din, without thinking of personal combat. He, like Green,had got an edge put on his sword. It was Kavanagh's present, and duringthe lull preceding the attack, he had thought of his old friend,wondered where he was, and regretted that they were not side by sidethat day. He and Harry Forsyth--what fun it would have been! But whenthe firing once commenced, he had no thought but of what he was about.

  "Fire low, men! Steady! Don't shoot wildly. Harris, cover your man,just as if he were a target at home."

  "Close up, there; never mind Roberts, the ambulance will look to him.Good man, Gubbins! That's your sort; can't well miss 'em at ten yards.Aim at the waist-cloth. Cease firing! Advance; _fours left_ there!Close up."

  Orders could not always be heard in the din; it was necessary to watchthe front of the square, and move on or halt as it did, unless aparticular rush at a certain point compelled those at it to take theinitiative, and then others had to conform to it.

  When the square got close to the right end of the curved earthwork, thetroops nearest to it charged at it with a cheer, leaving a big gap inthe ranks they left. Had they succeeded in carrying the place with therush, this would not have mattered; but it could not be done. Tap abee-hive smartly with your stick on a mild May day, and see theinhabitants swarm out at you, and you may form some idea of how theHadendowas flew over the parapet at their assailants. Every one of themfixed his eye on an enemy, and went straight at him. Every soldierfound himself with two or three opponents, and, instead of pressing oninto the earthwork, had enough to do to hold his ground.

  The cool, brave man, who made sure of getting rid of one with a steadyshot a few yards off, and then plied his bayonet till he got a moment'spause to re-load, came off well; the flurried soldier, who was not quitesure whether to stand or retire, who missed or only wounded his man, andthen stood strictly on the defensive, was most likely overpowered andspeared.

  The greater the daring the greater was the safety, and _vice versa_.But brave or timid, the men who had rushed out of the ranks to attackwere borne back by the sheer weight of numbers. The Soudanese, however,never got through the gap that was left. The Marines inside the squarepromptly presented themselves as a second barrier, till the attackers,retiring in good order, fell back into their places again.

  But there was some hard fighting at the point for a minute or two. Goodold-fashioned cut and thrust, hammer and tongs, like cutting out a ship.Tom Strachan found himself, he did not know how, with the hilt of hissword right up against a Soudanese breast-bone, the weapon having passedright through the man's body. But there was no expression of pain inthe dying face so close to his own, only hate and defiance. He waskilled, not conquered.

  Before he could disencumber himself from the body another Hadendowarushed at him with uplifted spear. Tom levelled his pistol at him, andpressed the trigger; but the weapon did not explode. He had alreadyfired all the barrels.

  Another second and the spear-head would have been buried in his throat,but suddenly the Arab's arm dropped, nearly severed by a cut from Green,which caught him between wrist and elbow. The wounded man caught hisspear with the left hand, and strove to stab, but before he had time hegot the point in his throat, and that stopped him.

  At this time Private Gubbins had a narrow escape. He fired at an Arab,about twenty yards off, and hit him hard, but he came on at him all thesame, trying to spear him. Gubbins thrust at him with his bayonet, butperhaps rather timidly; anyhow he missed his body, though he wounded himagain in the shoulder, and with that, and parrying, knocked the spearout of his hand. Whereupon the Soudanese caught hold of the bayonet andtried to unfix it. He could not manage that, and a tug of warcommenced, in which Gubbins, being the weaker and less active, waspulled bodily out of th
e ranks, and would have been made mincemeat ofhad not some one shot the Arab through the head, while his rear rank manpulled him back. He owned afterwards that he was fairly scared.

  "Thought that 'ere cannibal couldn't die!" he said, "Fust I shot him,and then I bayoneted him, and he only snarled like a wild cat. Fancy achap pulling like that with one hole in his stomach and another in hisshoulder! 'Taint reasonable."

  They fought like that, many of them.

  When the momentary confusion was over, and the square again compact,Strachan found an opportunity of slipping fresh cartridges into hisrevolver; the work in prospect did not look like being suited to anempty pistol. He had hardly done it before they were under the parapetof the earthwork.

  Here there was a pause; the Arabs, not dashing out, the British, aftertheir late experience, apparently not quite knowing whether they oughtto break the square formation by dashing in. Not to mention that theArabs were ticklish gentlemen to tumble over a bank into the middle of!

  During this pause a stalwart, almost gigantic figure was seen walking upthe slope with a double-barrelled fowling-piece in his hand. Coming tothe parapet he brought the gun to his shoulder, fired right and left,and calmly opening the breech, replaced the two empty cartridges withtwo fresh ones, just as if he were standing during a battue, shootingpheasants and not Soudanese.

  "Look at Burnaby!" cried some one, and hundreds were looking at him,expecting that at last he must fall, this dauntless traveller, keenobserver, and born soldier, who courted peril as other men court safety;who spurned luxury and loved hardship; who seemed to treat the king ofterrors as a playfellow.

  Again he gave the enemy in the earthwork, and within a few yards of him,both barrels, and retreated a few steps down to re-load.

  The Soudanese followed to the top of the parapet, but the moment one ofthem showed his head above it he was shot by the soldiers close below.

  Directly he had got fresh cartridges in, Colonel Burnaby stepped back tohis old place, and added another brace to his bag. But this combatbetween one man and a host would never take the fort, and the foremostline did not stand long at gaze, but ran up and clambered over theartificial bank, which was about four feet high, pouring a volley intothe defenders as they did so. And now single combats again commenced,and the interior of the earthwork resembled an ancient arena.

  The theoretical duty of an officer in action was suspended, for he hadto fight physically and practically like the men, the only differencelying in the arms he wielded.

  His sword was no longer a baton of office, but a weapon to cut andthrust with, and the better its temper and the keener its edge, thegreater friend was it to him that day. Not always did it prove true.

  Captain Wilson, RN, cut down an Arab who was about to kill a soldier,and his blade shivered to the hilt, leaving him without a weapon to wardoff a cut which wounded him, though happily not severely, in the head.

  Captain Littledale, of the York and Lancaster Regiment, also bent hissword over one of the Soudanese in the fort, and would have lost hislife had not two of his company come to his rescue. Some of the men'sweapons proved equally rotten.

  "Look here, sergeant," said a fine broad-shouldered young fellow, whoseface was like a sweep's with powder and dust, and whose clothes werebespattered with what Tennyson delicately calls "drops of onset," as heshowed his bayonet twisted like a corkscrew, with the point bent overinto a hook.

  "Why, what have you been using it for, Sullivan?" asked the sergeant,taking it into his hand.

  "Only prodding Johnnies, and not above three of them. It wouldn't gointo the last, and I had to polish him off with the butt end. Mighthave smashed the stock, for their heads is uncommon hard."

  "It's a deal too bad," said the sergeant. "I'll show it to the captain,and he will report it. Take Brown's rifle and bayonet, he will neverwant it again, poor fellow."

  And indeed poor Brown was lying at the foot of the parapet with a spearcompletely through his body, his first and last battle ended. Thespears and swords of the savages did not break or bend, or lose theiredge over the first bone they touched, like the weapons of theircivilised opponents.

  Fitzgerald came up, and the sergeant showed him the twisted bayonet. Hewas not easily put out, but the sight was too much even for his placidtemper.

  "Keep it, sergeant, keep it. We will see if we cannot get it stuck upin Saint James's Park with the trophies of captured guns, that theBritish public may see the weapons soldiers are sent out to fight with.The man who is responsible for this, and the fellow who forged it, oughtto be shot."

  "_Forged_ is a good word," said Major Elmfoot. "To pass off stuff likethat for good steel is rank forgery, and a worse crime than making badmoney, for here men's lives are sacrificed by it."

  "I wish we had some of 'em here!" murmured one of the men.

  "Aye, and the triangles rigged up," said another, "I should like to layon the first dozen myself."

  And so say all of us.

  This conversation took place after the earthwork was cleared of theenemy--at least of the living enemy, for the whole interior was crowdedwith their dead--and while the sailors and artillerymen were turning thetwo Krupp guns found in it upon the retiring foe and the ruins of theold sugar-mill to which the Soudanese still clung. And the troops had alittle rest while the leaders determined the direction of the nextattack. And the water-bottles you may be sure were mostly drained, forthe men's throats were like lime-kilns.

  An officer standing on the highest part of the parapet beckoned toStrachan, who doubled up and joined the group assembled there.

  "Look," said the friend who had called him, pointing to the right, "thecavalry are going to have their turn." Sure enough, there were thethree lines of cavalry, advancing at a walk towards the dense hordes ofSoudanese who covered the plain, some retiring slowly and reluctantly,but the majority still holding their ground.

  As they drew nearer the Hussars broke into a trot, and then, when quiteclose, they were loosed, and swept down on the foe at full gallop, asimoon of glittering steel. Surely the grandest sight the modern worldcan afford; the last remnant of chivalry. For ever since the inventionof fire-arms the infantry officer's place in battle has necessarily beenin rear of his men; but the cavalry officer still rides in front, yardsin front. He believes that his men are behind him, but he sees themnot. Alone he plunges into the enemy's ranks, and the first shock ofthe encounter is his. He is a knight without his grandsire's defensivearmour, and exposed to rifle bullets and bursting shells, which the oldpaladin knew not.

  "Oh, to be with them!" cried Tom in his excitement, uttering what was inthe hearts of all the group, as with eager eyes, parted lips, and breathcoming short, they saw the line swallowed up in the sea of Arabs. Aminute's confusion, with nothing distinguishable but the flash ofweapons, and they re-appeared _beyond_ the masses through whom they cuttheir way, prostrate figures marking their track, and were now serryingtheir ranks, disordered in the fierce passage.

  But the spectators could watch no more, for the shells failed todislodge the Arabs from the ruined mill, and it was impossible toadvance and leave any such indomitable fanatics, who cared not fornumbers and despised death, so long as they could wreak their wrath uponan infidel, in their rear; and the immediate business was to turn themout of that lair.

  There were about a couple of hundred sheltered by the ruin and the oldboiler; and for some distance round about the ground was regularlyhoney-combed with rifle-pits, each of which contained an Arab, crouchingdown, spear in hand, only desiring to kill an enemy and die.

  It was said before that they swarmed out of the fort earlier in the daylike bees when their hive is tapped. Like bees, too, when angered, theyonly sought to sting, though they knew that the act of stinging wastheir own destruction. As a soldier came to the edge of an apparentlyempty hole in the ground, a man would spring out upon him and transfixhim before he had time to offer resistance. Not that this succeededoften.

  The men soon le
arned to approach these rifle-pits with their muzzleslowered, finger on trigger, the point of the bayonet over the openingbefore they came up to it. Then, if the Arab made his spring, he wastransfixed; if he kept crouching, waiting for the other to pass, he wasshot. A large number of the holes became the graves they looked likebefore the boiler was reached.

  Here the massacre was horrible, for at that point the state of thingswas reversed, and the Soudanese were few in number, while the Englishwere the many. And it was a revolting thing to have to shoot down andstab this handful of heroes.

  But it could not be helped; they would not fly, and they would notsurrender; and to endeavour to spare one of them was to insure your owndeath or that of a friend. It was even necessary to slay the slain, forthey would sham and lie still, to spring up when the English had passedand stab one in the back; then stand with extended arms to be shot, witha smile of triumph and joy, secure of Paradise since he had sent adouble-dyed infidel, a disbeliever, both in Mahomet and the Mahdi, tohis doom.

  The old sugar-mill and the ground about it being at length cleared, thevictorious square advanced upon the wells. The whole body of Arabs werenow in retreat, dismayed at last by the terrible slaughter amongst theirbest and bravest; for the reckless heroism which is described, thoughthere were so many hundreds of examples of it, as to entitle it to befairly considered as characteristic of the race, could not, of course,be universal, or they would be absolutely invincible, except byextermination.

  They were brave, every man and boy of them, but the vast majority werenot mad fanatics; and, indeed, a certain number of the tribes engageddid not believe in the Mahdi at all, but joined him partly because hewas the strongest, and partly because they hated the Turks--and to themTurks and Egyptians were all one--and their oppressive corruptgovernment, and the Mahdi had thrown it off.

  But they were not prepared to commit actual suicide, and did not want togo to Mahomet's Paradise just yet. So, after a certain number werekilled without gaining any advantage, they grew disheartened, andretired. And then the machine-guns sent their continuous streams ofbullets tearing through the dense masses, and volleys from the Martini-Henrys ran the death list up still higher, and the retreat becameflight.

  They marched steadily on. At the wells the Arab sheiks strove hard torally their warriors, charging alone, and, in some instances,weaponless, to shame their men into following them. But it was no use."Tommy Atkins" was not flurried or excited now, success had made himfirm and confident, and there was no wild firing. Every shot was aimedas steadily as if the charging Arab were an inanimate target and whoevercame within that zone of fire was swept into eternity.

  This was an expiring effort, and when two companies of the GordonHighlanders had carried the last earthwork, with three guns and amachine-gun in it, the enemy made no further resistance, but left theircamp, the huts containing the spoils of Baker Pasha's army--cut topieces by them a month ago--and the wells in the conquerors' possession.

  A well is a grand name for a hole in the mud, but the water was freshand plentiful, and there were ten of them. It is difficult to keep thebands of discipline very tight when men are flushed with victory, wildwith thirst, and water is before them. So, perhaps, there was a littlecrowding which defeated its own object, causing needless delay inobtaining the coveted water for all. But order was soon restored, andevery one served.

  "Shall we go on to Tokar to-night, do you think?" Tom Strachan askedhis captain.

  "I hope not," replied Fitzgerald; "I want something to eat, don't you?Glory is all very well, but one cannot dine off it. Besides, it isabsurd to cram too much of it into one day. If four hours' fighting,part of which was as severe as Association football playing, is notenough for one day, I should like to know what General Graham wouldhave."

  The general was not unreasonable, or he thought it better to hold thewells. At any rate, the troops remained in the position lately held bythe enemy, strengthening it in parts, after the men had had a rest, andbivouacking there for the night. Provisions came up from Fort Baker,and the officers of the First Blankshire had a good mess--tinned beef,chicken and ham, sardines, and other delicacies, with biscuit and tea,with just a taste of rum apiece to top up with.

  A really useful invention is that of preserving fresh meat in tins. Theman who found that out, and he who discovered chloroform, ought to go upto the head of the Inventors' Class, in my humble opinion. I hope theymade their fortunes. You may despise tinned food at home, when you canget fresh-killed meat and poultry not so overcooked. But go a longvoyage, or even on a yachting tour, travel in wild countries forexploration, or to shoot big game, and then say.

  And when they lit their pipes and lay round the bivouac fire, talkingover the events of the day, what a time that was! The First Blankshirehad not come off scathless as regarded men or officers. There was acaptain lying yonder with his cloak over his face who would never hearthe cheery bugle call again; a lieutenant was in the ambulance tent witha bullet in his leg, forcing himself to bear the pain without moaning.And of those present, several bore gashes which would have been thoughtnasty at home, though after being dressed by the surgeon they wereaccounted scratches of no signification, beyond a certain smarting andthrobbing. Green had a bandage under his chin, and going up on eachside till his helmet covered it.

  "No," he said, when asked if it was binding his self-inflicted cut ofthe morning; "it's the other ear. Curiously enough, a bit of a shell ora bullet, or something, has taken the lobe off; and as it would not stopbleeding, and the flies were troublesome when I took off my helmet,which hurt, I asked a doctor to look at it, and he put this thing on tokeep the lint in its place."

  "You will never be able to wear earrings, if they come into fashion formen, my poor Green," said Strachan. "But what is the row with yourhand, Edwards? I did not see it was bound up in a handkerchief before."

  "Ah, it's nothing; only a bite."

  "A bite!"

  "Yes. There was a poor little Arab chap, such a game little boy, with asmall spear made for him, fighting like a bantam till a bullet broke hisleg and knocked him over. He lay in the first earthwork, and I tried togive him a drink, but the little rat darted up at me and bit my hand."

  "Have you had it cauterised? I do believe these savages are mad," saidthe major. "And what became of the varmint?"

  "I don't know; we had to move on just then."

  "That is the worst part of these Arabs, letting their children go intothe ranks so soon. I hate to see babies made into little men and women.If they must fight, let them punch one another's heads with theirfists."

  "I suppose, major, that as these Arabs are always fighting with oneanother, if there is no one else, it becomes a necessary branch ofeducation."

  "Well, at any rate," said Jones, who was learned in dogs--their trainingand management--and who, indeed, was known as Doggy Jones, "they neednot `enter' them to the British soldier. There are plenty of Egyptiansfor them to worry till they have come to their full growth."

  "That is a curious thing about General Baker," said the colonel to MajorElmfoot.

  "Yes, indeed, it is."

  "Was he hit, sir?" asked Dudley. "I heard something of it."

  "Yes, by a splinter of a shell in the face, just as we came under fire."

  "But I saw him after that."

  "Oh, yes; he got the wound dressed, and remounted, knowing how useful hecould be, knowing the ground. But it is a nasty wound for all that,MacBean says. The strange thing is that he should have passed unscathedthrough the hordes a month ago, when his troops fled and left himunprotected, and the chances against him looked a hundred to one, andget hit to-day; the odds were a hundred to one the other way."

  "The most curious case of that sort was Sir Charles Napier," said themajor. "He was one of the most unlucky men that ever lived in the wayof getting hit. In every great battle in which he took part during thePeninsular War he was severely wounded. But at Meeanee and Dubba, wherehe was in command, and alm
ost everything depended upon him, and where,too, he exposed himself in a manner which made the Sindhees think he hada charmed life, he did not get a scratch."

  "I wonder whether those Indian fellows fought as hard as these Arabs?"observed Green.

  "Not much difference, I should say," said the major. "They flungthemselves on the bayonets, and, if not mortally wounded, seized themuzzles and pressed them to their bodies with the left hand, to get onecut at their enemy and die. I don't quite see how _that_ could bebeaten in the way of game fighting, though these fellows equal it. Isaw one do much the same thing to-day."

  "And did Sir Charles Napier fight them in square, sir?" asked Green, whowas of an inquiring mind on professional subjects.

  "No, he met them in line, and his men had no breech-loaders in thosedays; not even percussion caps; only the old brown bess with a flint andsteel lock, and a good bayonet on the end of her."

  "But perhaps the odds were not so great."

  "Quite, by all accounts. It is true that the Indians fought with swordsand shields, and, after firing their matchlocks, charged home with thoseweapons. A swordsman requires space for the swing of his arm, so,however more numerous they may be, they must fight in looser order thansoldiers armed with the bayonet, and therefore, at the actual point ofmeeting, each individual swordsman finds at least two antagonistsopposed to him in the front rank alone. Now these Arabs, fightingprincipally with spears, can very often come in a much denser mass. Ionly give that idea for what it is worth. I think it may make a gooddeal of difference. The nature of the ground, also, would alter thecondition of the contest. But, at any rate, I do not quite see how weshould be safe against getting taken in the rear in any other than thesquare formation."