ert Stewart and the rest of the
wounded were taken down in the cacolets with the column.

Rupert Clinton had remained in the zareba when the square had marched
forward. He had been greatly exhausted by the night march and had had a
slight sunstroke before the square moved out; the doctors had therefore
ordered him not to accompany it, but to stay at the zareba and assist
the general and other wounded.

"You are looking very shaky, Clinton," Easton said when he joined him.

"I am all right to-day," he replied; "rather heavy about the head; but a
bath and a long night's rest will set me up again. Skinner is all right,
I hope?"

"No, I am sorry to say he has got his left arm broken. I saw him for a
moment before we started. He got hit just after he left here, but stuck
to his company all through. I asked one of the surgeons, and he said
that unless fever or anything of that sort came on he was likely to go
on all right, and that he did not think that there was much chance of
his losing his arm. He has plenty of pluck, Skinner has."

"I should think so," Rupert said. "A fellow who could play an uphill
game of football as he could can be trusted to keep his courage up under
any circumstances. Do you know what we are going to do, Easton? Are we
going to attack Metemmeh?"

"I have not the least idea. It is a big place, a lot bigger than we
expected, and there are a tremendous lot of fighting men there. It is
fortunate they did not all make a rush at us together yesterday,
although I don't think it would have made any difference. But it would
be a very risky thing to attack such a place as that, swarming with
fanatics, with our present force. It would be too big to hold if we
took it, and we might lose two or three hundred men in the attack and
street fighting; and as it is said that a big force is coming down the
river to attack us, it would certainly be a risk, and a big one, to lose
a lot of men in an attack on this place, which we shall be able to take
without any difficulty as soon as the rest of the force comes up. I
expect we shall try a reconnaissance. If the Arabs bolt, and we find
that we can take the place without hard fighting, we shall take it; but
if they show a determination to stick there and defend it to the last I
think we shall leave it alone."

The column returned to the river without meeting with any opposition;
but it was evident from the number of Arabs who were seen moving about
in the direction