avalry and Camel Corps who followed lost about fifty men and many
horses and camels killed and wounded. The Camel Corps were the most
unfortunate. They were soon encumbered with wounded, and it was now
painfully evident that in rocky ground the Dervishes could go faster on
their feet than the soldiers on their camels. Pressing on impetuously at
a pace of nearly seven miles an hour, and unchecked by a heavy artillery
fire from the zeriba and a less effective fire from the Horse battery,
which was only armed with 7-pounder Krupps of an obsolete pattern,
the Arabs rapidly diminished the distance between themselves and their
enemies. In these circumstances Colonel Broadwood decided to send
the Camel Corps back to the zeriba under cover of a gunboat, which,
watchfully observing the progress of the fight, was coming down stream
to assist. The distance which divided the combatants was scarcely 400
yards and decreasing every minute. The cavalry were drawn up across the
eastern or river end of the trough. The guns of the Horse battery fired
steadily from their new position on the northern ridge. But the Camel
Corps were still struggling in the broken ground, and it was clear that
their position was one of great peril. The Dervishes already carpeted
the rocks of the southern ridge with dull yellow swarms, and, heedless
of the shells which still assailed them in reverse from the zeriba,
continued to push their attack home. On the very instant that they saw
the Camel Corps make for the river they realised that those they had
deemed their prey were trying, like a hunted animal, to run to ground
within the lines of infantry. With that instinctive knowledge of war
which is the heritage of savage peoples, the whole attack swung to the
right, changed direction from north to east, and rushed down the trough
and along the southern ridge towards the Nile, with the plain intention
of cutting off the Camel Corps and driving them into the river.

The moment was critical. It appeared to the cavalry commander that the
Dervishes would actually succeed, and their success must involve the
total destruction of the Camel Corps. That could not, of course, be
tolerated. The whole nine squadrons of cavalry assumed a preparatory
formation. The British officers believed that a terrible charge
impended. They would meet in direct collision the swarms of men who were
hurrying down the trough. The diversion might enable the Camel Corps to
escape. But the grou