to Metemmeh. However, it has got to be done; but
certainly I should not mind it half so much if we were going to travel
by daylight."

It was soon known that there was to be no delay at Gakdul, and orders
were issued that the start was to be made on the 13th; the intervening
day being devoted to seeing to the arms and ammunition, issuing stores,
and replenishing the water supply. The water-skins were extremely
defective, leaking freely, the only exception being the india-rubber
bags with which the sailors had been supplied. Every effort was made
during the halt to sew up holes and stop leaks, but with poor success.
Each man carried on his camel one of these skins in addition to his
water-bottle. Strict orders were given that upon the march he was to
rely upon the latter alone; the supply in the skins being for general
purposes, such as cooking and making tea.

During the halt Edgar applied himself steadily to the work of repairing
the water-skins. The camp of the Heavies joined that of the Guards, and
he felt that his danger of being recognized by Easton or Skinner was
great; but sitting with a group of others sewing, with his face shaded
by his helmet, the risk was very much less than if standing up or moving
about the camp. At two o'clock in the afternoon the force paraded and
moved off in columns of companies. The Heavy Camel Corps led, the Guards
followed, the baggage and stores were in the centre, and the Mounted
Infantry in the rear.

Many of the camels had to be left behind, and those that remained were
only sufficient to carry the absolutely necessary stores, the rations
for the men, and a quantity of corn that would suffice but to give two
feeds of eight pounds each to the animals, who were, therefore, obliged
to depend almost entirely on such sustenance as they could pluck from
the mimosa shrubs and the dry yellow grass. The men carried a hundred
and seventy rounds each. There were a hundred rounds per gun for the
artillery, but only a thousand rounds were brought for the Gardner gun,
a quantity sufficient but for five minutes' work when in action.

The journey was over a gravelly plain, and the halt was made at six
o'clock in the evening. Fires were lit of the shrubs and dry grass; the
camels were unloaded and fed, and were ranged in such order that in case
of attack the troops could form square at the angles of the mass, and
thus support each other and protect the convoy.

At three in the morning the tr