the 10th fight with their old
colonel at their head!"

There was a general chorus of assent.

"How splendidly he fought in Turkey!" another trooper said. "I am told
the Turks he led would have done anything for him, and had just the same
confidence in him our chaps used to have. If he had been in command of
the whole army, instead of those rotten old pashas, the Russians would
have found it a very different job. I wonder when we are going on. Now
we have got all the stores ashore it will be precious slow work being
stuck on this beach."

"We are waiting for the 65th," a sergeant said. "I hear the _Serapis_
was expected this morning. It is great luck for them getting a fight
without any trouble at all. How pleased they must have been when they
heard at Aden that they were to be stopped on their way up, to have a
share in the affair!"

"Yes, I call that a first-rate piece of luck," another agreed, "to have
a good fight and then go straight home, while we have got nothing to
look forward to afterwards but garrison duty in Cairo. I would rather be
going on to India fifty times."

"Like enough we may see some service there," the sergeant said. "If this
Mahdi fellow comes down, which they say he means to do, to invade Egypt,
you may be sure we shall all have to go up to stop him."

"I don't call it 'fighting' against these savages," one of the troopers
said. "What chance have they got against regular troops?"

"I don't know, Johnson. The Zulus were savages, and they made a pretty
tough fight against us. I suppose you don't want anything much harder
than that? These fellows have been every bit as brave as the Zulus. They
cut Hicks Pasha's army into mincemeat, and they have licked two Egyptian
armies down in this neighbourhood. If you think this is going to be no
harder work than a field-day at Aldershot, I think you are likely to
find you are mistaken."

"You don't suppose, sergeant, that these naked beggars are going to
stand for a moment against a charge of eight hundred cavalry?"

"It did not seem as if naked savages could stand infantry armed with
breech-loaders, but you see the Zulus did. It does not seem possible
these Arabs can stand for a moment against our charge; but, you see, we
do not understand these fellows. One knows what regular infantry can do
against cavalry, and it may be we shall find that these Arabs are not to
be ridden over as easily as we think. When you have got to reckon with
men who don't