artillery the Indian troops took the offensive.
The Serapeum garrison, which had stopped the enemy three-quarters of a
mile from the position, cleared its front, and the Tussum garrison by a
brilliant counter-attack drove the enemy back. Two battalions of
Anatolians of the Twenty-eighth Regiment were thrown vainly into the
fight. Our artillery gave them no chance, and by 3:30 in the afternoon a
third of the enemy, with the exception of a force that lay hid in bushy
hollows on the east bank between the two posts, were in full retreat,
leaving many dead, a large proportion of whom had been killed by
shrapnel.

Meanwhile the warships on the lake had been in action. A salvo from a
battleship woke up Ismailia early, and crowds of soldiers and some
civilians climbed every available sandhill to see what was doing till
the Turkish guns sent shells sufficiently near to convince them that it
was safer to watch from cover. A husband and wife took a carriage and
drove along the lake front, much peppered by shells, till near the old
French hospital, when they realized the danger and suddenly whisked
around and drove back full gallop to Ismailia.

But the enemy's fire did more than startle. At about 11 in the morning
two six-inch shells hit the Hardinge near the southern entrance of the
lake. The first damaged the funnel and the second burst inboard. Pilot
Carew, a gallant old merchant seaman, refused to go below when the
firing opened and lost a leg. Nine others were wounded. One or two
merchantmen were hit, but no lives were lost. A British gunboat was
struck.

Then came a dramatic duel between the Turkish big gun or guns and a
warship. The Turks fired just over and then just short of 9,000 yards.
The warship sent in a salvo of more six-inch shells than had been fired
that day.

During the morning the enemy moved toward Ismailia Ferry. The infantry
used the ground well, digging shelter pits as they advanced, and were
covered by a well-served battery. An officer, apparently a German,
exposed himself with the greatest daring, and watchers were interested
to see a yellow "pie dog," which also escaped, running about the
advancing line. Our artillery shot admirably and kept the enemy from
coming within 1,000 yards of the Indian outposts. In the afternoon the
demonstration--for it was no more--ceased but for a few shells fired as
"a nightcap." During the dark night that followed some of the enemy
approached the outpost line of the f