about 150
wounded on their hands. The Sirdar's orders had been that these were to
be placed on the hospital barges, and that the field hospitals were to
follow the transport. But the moving of wounded men is a painful and
delicate affair, and by a stupid and grievous mistake the three regular
hospital barges, duly prepared for the reception of the wounded, had
been towed across to the right bank. It was necessary to use three
ammunition barges, which, although in no way arranged for the reception
of wounded, were luckily at hand. Meanwhile time was passing, and the
doctors, who worked with devoted energy, became suddenly aware that,
with the exception of a few detachments from the British division and
three Egyptian companies, there were no troops within half a mile, and
none between them and the dark Kerreri Hills. The two gunboats which
could have guarded them from the river were down stream, helping the
cavalry; MacDonald with the rear brigade was out in the plain; Collinson
was hurrying along the bank with his transport. They were alone and
unprotected. The army and the river together formed a huge "V" pointing
south. The northern extremity--the gorge of the redan, as it were--gaped
open towards Kerreri; and from Kerreri there now began to come, like the
first warning drops before a storm of rain, small straggling parties of
Dervish cavalry. The interior of the "V" was soon actually invaded by
these predatory patrols, and one troop of perhaps a score of Baggara
horse watered their ponies within 300 yards of the unprotected
hospitals. Behind, in the distance, the banners of an army began to
re-appear. The situation was alarming. The wounded were bundled on to
the barges, although, since there was no steamer to tow them, they were
scarcely any safer when embarked. While some of the medical officers
were thus busied, Colonel Sloggett galloped off, and, running the
gauntlet of the Baggara horsemen, hurried to claim protection for the
hospitals and their helpless occupants. In the midst of this excitement
and confusion the wounded from the cavalry charge began to trickle in.

When the British division had moved out of the zeriba, a few skirmishers
among the crags of Surgham Hill alone suggested the presence of an
enemy. Each brigade, formed in four parallel columns of route, which
closed in until they were scarcely forty paces apart, and both at
deploying interval--the second brigade nearer the river, the first
almost in