llets whizzed
overhead, or struck the biscuit-boxes with a sharp smack, while some
dropped with a sickening thud into the mass of camels. They were
patient sufferers, and even when struck made no sound or attempt to
move. Stretchers being constantly carried to and fro showed that the
medical staff had plenty of work; but it was not until some hours later
that the news leaked out among the men that Sir Herbert Stewart himself
was mortally wounded.

Feeling inclined for a smoke, and having no tobacco about him, our hero
asked permission to fetch a supply from the zuleetah-bag attached to
his saddle. "Lamentations" acknowledged his approach with the usual
grumble; but it was the last greeting he was ever destined to give his
master. A bullet flew past with a sharp zip, the poor beast started
and shivered, and a thin stream of blood trickled down his shoulder.
Poor "Lam!" he was unclean and unsavoury, an inveterate grumbler, and
possessed apparently of a chronic cold in his nose; his temper was none
of the best--he had kicked, and on one occasion had attempted to bite,
he had fought his comrades in the lines, and had got the picketing
ropes into dire confusion; but, for all that, he was a living thing,
and Jack, who was fond of all dumb creatures, watched him with tears in
his eyes. It did not last long: the unshapely head sank lower and
lower; then suddenly turning his long neck round to the side of his
body, the animal rolled over, and all that remained of poor
"Lamentations" was a meagre meal for the jackals and vultures.

Hour after hour the men waited, huddled together behind the
hastily-formed breastwork of the zareba. "Swabs" occasionally peered
through a loophole in the boxes to get a snap-shot at any figure that
might be seen creeping about among the distant bushes. Jack, worn out
with the night march, stretched himself upon the sand, and, in spite of
the constant zip of bullets and discharge of rifles, sank into a deep
slumber.

At length he was awakened by a general movement among his comrades:
orders had been issued for a portion of the column to fight its way to
the Nile, and a square was being formed for the purpose a little to the
left of the zareba. In silence, and with anxious expressions on their
faces, the men fell into their places, lying down to escape the leaden
hail. The force seemed a ridiculously small one to oppose to the
swarming masses of the enemy, yet on its success depended the saf