sentries, but as no
movement of the enemy followed they soon lay down again, supposing that
either the alarm had been a false one, and that the sentry had fired at
some low bush, or that, if he had really seen a man, the latter had made
off as soon as he had discovered that the garrison were awake and
vigilant. As soon as the moon set the sheik despatched one of the young
men to the wady. His instructions were to crawl carefully, taking
advantage of every bush until he deemed himself well beyond any of the
enemy who might be watching, and then to start at full speed. If he were
fired at, he was, if the enemy were still in front of him, to run back
to the zareba; if they were behind him, to press forward at full speed.

For an hour after he had left the garrison listened anxiously. They were
all under arms now, lest the enemy should try and attack during the
darkness. No sounds, however, broke the stillness of the plain, and they
were at last assured that their messenger had got safely through. For
four days the blockade continued, an occasional exchange of shots being
kept up. The dervishes, however, since they had learnt the range of
Edgar's rifle, seldom showed themselves, but crept among the rocks and
bushes, fired a shot, and then crawled off again to repeat the operation
fifty or a hundred yards away. When the hedge had been repaired on the
night after the fight the defenders buried their own dead in the sand a
short distance off, and had dragged the bodies of their fallen enemies
fifty yards away, as, had the siege lasted many days, the fort would
have otherwise become uninhabitable.

In the morning one of the Arabs had yelled to the besiegers that the
bodies were lying fifty yards away in front of the fort, and that four
of them were free to come and carry them away or bury them as they
chose. The invitation passed unregarded, but during the next night the
bodies were all removed. The sentries were ordered not to fire if they
heard any noise in that direction, for, as Edgar pointed out to the
sheik, it was important that the bodies should be carried away. The next
day several of the Arabs went out and raised heaps of sand over the
horses that still lay just outside the hedge.

The fourth night after his departure the messenger returned with the
news that the tribesmen, eighteen in number, had arrived in the
afternoon. They would carry out the sheik's orders. They were mounting
fresh camels just as he started.