life if he would surrender and become a Muslim, and swear by the Lord
Mahomet; but late in the night he had received a reply which left only
one choice, and that was to disembowel the infidel, and carry his head
aloft on a spear. The letter he had received ran thus in Arabic:

"To Ali Wad Hei and All with Him:

"We are here to live or to die as God wills, and not as ye will. I
have set my feet on the rock, and not by threats of any man shall I
be moved. But I say that for all the blood that ye have shed here
there will be punishment, and for the slaves which ye have slain or
sold there will be high price paid. Ye have threatened the city and
me--take us if ye can. Ye are seven to one. Why falter all these
months? If ye will not come to us, we shall come to you, rebellious
ones, who have drawn the sword against your lawful ruler, the
Effendina.

"CLARIDGE PASHA"

It was a rhetorical document couched in the phraseology they best
understood; and if it begat derision, it also begat anger; and the
challenge David had delivered would be met when the mists had lifted
from the river and the plain. But when the first thinning of the mists
began, when the sun began to dissipate the rolling haze, Ali Wad Hei
and his rebel sheikhs were suddenly startled by rifle-fire at close
quarters, by confused noises, and the jar and roar of battle. Now the
reason for the firing of the great guns was plain. The noise was meant
to cover the advance of David's men. The little garrison, which had done
no more than issue in sorties, was now throwing its full force on the
enemy in a last desperate endeavour. It was either success or absolute
destruction. David was staking all, with the last of his food, the
last of his ammunition, the last of his hopes. All round the field the
movement was forward, till the circle had widened to the enemy's lines;
while at the old defences were only handfuls of men. With scarce a cry
David's men fell on the unprepared foe; and he himself, on a grey Arab,
a mark for any lance or spear and rifle, rode upon that point where Ali
Wad Hei's tent was set.

But after the first onset, in which hundreds were killed, there began
the real noise of battle--fierce shouting, the shrill cries of wounded
and maddened horses as they struck with their feet, and bit as fiercely
at the fighting foe as did their masters. The mist cleared slowly, and,
when it had wholly lifted, the f