ooked, though they
were really covered with dry plantain and banana leaves, burning up like
so many fierce bonfires in our front, and right and left; while the
sharp rattle of musketry and loud banging of the guns of the first
division was mixed up with the platoon-like reports from the matchlocks
of the Somalis, who were urging on their somewhat reluctant allies, the
slave-traders of the interior, with hoarse yells and shrill screams,
bolstering up their courage likewise by the beating of innumerable gongs
and clashing cymbals, the consensus of sound making din enough to have
wakened up all the dead dervishes of the desert for generations past,
and caused them, had they come to life, to have proclaimed a `Jehad' or
holy war against us, and thus roused up all the fanaticism of all those
of the Moslem race yet left alive!

Such was our grand rush, however, coming as it did on top of the
cleverly planned combined attack of the admiral's columns in front of
the town, thus taking the Arabs between two fires, that even Saladin
would not have saved them.

Hundreds of them were shot down behind their stockades, which I must say
they defended gallantly to the last; while those who were not potted by
our bullets, were `put out of action' by the bayonets of us bluejackets,
who carried their intrenchments by storm.

So far, I was only one of the crowd, loading and firing my Martini as I
advanced or halted on the word of command being given by `old Hankey
Pankey'; who, plucky as a lion, was in the forefront all through, his
uniform cap tumbled off and his face all blackened with powder,
`potting' this chap with the revolver that he held in his left hand, or
sticking another Somali through the gizzard with his sword, which was
always thrust out straight before him as he went onward, and always `at
the point.'

But, now, I had a little diversion on my own account.

"Left turn!" shouted our company leader Mr Chisholm, whose sharp eye
detected through the smoke a body of the Arabs attacking an officer and
a detached party of our men who had escaladed the fortifications on the
right of the town; and seeing that they were hard pressed, though making
a gallant stand of it against heavy odds, our officer quickly called
out, "Double! Charge, my lads!"

By George! We did charge; and then, the bronze-coloured beggars, who
had thought to make an easy prey of our before isolated comrades, turned
savagely to receive us, a whole horde of