on. Never had vessels taken such risks on the
Nile before, never had pilots trusted so to instinct, for there were
sand-banks and ugly drifts of rock here and there. A safe journey for
phantom ships; but these armed vessels, filled by men with white, eager
faces and others with dark Egyptian features, were no phantoms. They
bristled with weapons, and armed men crowded every corner of space.
For full two hours from the first streak of light they had travelled
swiftly, taking chances not to be taken save in some desperate moment.
The moment was desperate enough, if not for them. They were going to
the relief of besieged men, with a message from Nahoum Pasha to Claridge
Pasha, and with succour. They had looked for a struggle up this river as
they neared the beleaguered city; but, as they came nearer and nearer,
not a gun fired at them from the forts on the banks out of the mists. If
they were heard they still were safe from the guns, for they could not
be seen, and those on shore could not know whether they were friend or
foe. Like ghostly vessels they passed on, until at last they could hear
the stir and murmur of life along the banks of the stream.

Boom! boom! boom! Through the mist the guns of the city were pouring
shot and shell out into Ali Wad Hei's camp, and Ali Wad Hei laughed
contemptuously. Surely now the Inglesi was altogether mad, and to-day,
this day after prayers at noon, he should be shot like a mad dog, for
yesterday's defeat had turned some of his own adherent sheikhs into
angry critics. He would not wait for starvation to compel the infidel
to surrender. He would win freedom to deal in human flesh and blood, and
make slave-markets where he willed, and win glory for the Lord Mahomet,
by putting this place to the sword; and, when it was over, he would have
the Inglesi's head carried on a pole through the city for the faithful
to mock at, a target for the filth of the streets. So, by the will of
Allah, it should be done!

Boom! boom! boom! The Inglesi was certainly mad, for never had there
been so much firing in any long day in all the siege as in this brief
hour this morning. It was the act of a fool, to fire his shot and shell
into the mist without aim, without a clear target. Ali Wad Hei scorned
to make any reply with his guns, but sat in desultory counsel with his
sheikhs, planning what should be done when the mists had cleared away.
But yesterday evening the Arab chief had offered to give the Inglesi