They did
not break into a circling column as before, I but began forming an
advancing line. When they were 75 yards away, Sykes ordered his men to
begin firing.

The nomads were already shooting, and what their emissary had said was
true: these men were expert shots, even from horseback. Sykes heard the
bullets careening off the sloping face of the barricade. Two of his men
were down already.

He leveled his police pistol and fired steadily into the oncoming ranks.
He thought they were going to try to jump the fence this time, and he
braced for the shock. To his dismay, he now saw that a perfectly clear
space for their landing had been left between his own position and the
adjacent barricade.

Suddenly the line of attackers swerved to the left just a few feet from
the wire. The defending fire was furious, and for a moment Sykes thought
they were going to turn the line back. Then several of the nomads raised
their arms and hurled dark, small objects toward the barrier. Sykes
recognized them even while they were in the air. Grenades.

He shouted to his men and they flattened behind the barricade. Six
explosions thundered almost simultaneously. Mud and rocks sprayed into
the air and fell back in a furious rain upon the defenders.

Cautiously, Sykes lifted himself from the ground and got a glimpse of
the scene once more. A hundred feet of barbed-wire fence had disappeared
in a tangle of shattered posts and hanging coils. Through the opening,
the nomads poured over the barricades in the midst of Sykes' men.
Smashing hoofs landed almost upon him but for his frantic rolling and
twisting out of their path. Gunfire was a continuous blasting wave.
Sykes thought he heard above it the sound of Johnson's voice roaring
commands to the retreating men.

It sounded like he was saying, "Close up! Close up!" but Sykes never
knew for sure. An enormous explosion seemed to come from nowhere and
thunder directly in front of him. The day darkened suddenly and he felt
himself losing all control of his own being. He wondered if a cloud had
crossed the sun, but almost at the same time he ceased to be concerned
about the question at all.

* * * * *

The first of the wounded came in slowly, borne by stretcher bearers on
foot who had literally dragged their charges through the lines of
invading horsemen. Ken directed their assignment to the hospital-houses.
He had always believed he could take a scene like t