abs have not played fair, but
stolen a march upon us before the proper time. But that is no reason
why we should go home after all this trouble and preparation without a
fight."

"Of course not, sir!"

"Well, then, they have got the wells at El Teb, and have raised
fortifications to defend them, I believe, and our job to-day is to get
them out of that. Then we go on to Tokar, and we shall see if they make
another fight there."

"Thank you, sir," said the sergeant; "I understand quite enough now."

A puff of smoke from the bushes; another; twenty. But no bullets came,
the enemy firing from too long a distance. It was like a peaceable
field day with blank cartridge burning.

Trinkitat harbour was in full view, and an energetic ship there, seeing
the Arabs' position thus indicated, tried to throw shells amongst them.
But they, too, were out of range. Only, as shells when properly
constructed burst somewhere, and these were sent over the heads of
friends, their exploding short was dangerous, and after two or three
attempts the experiment was dropped.

The main body of the cavalry followed in rear of the square, and to the
left of it, in three lines.

"Look at those birds!" said Green to Tom, coming up to him to draw his
attention. "What lots of them! They look like vultures surely, some of
them."

"And they are vultures, too. What carrion have they got there I wonder.
Faugh! One can smell it from here."

"Look at General Baker, what a stern expression he has got," said
Fitzgerald, letting his subaltern come up to him. "What a scene those
birds and this stench must recall for him!"

"Ah, to be sure!" said Tom. "This was the line of the flight of his
Egyptian army a month ago, when they let the Arabs massacre them without
even attempting to resist. Well, we won't do that if we can help it,
will we, Green? We will strike a blow, even if we cut off our noses as
well as our ears."

"There, there, don't chaff him, Strachan; you are too bad. And look to
your half-company. Close up, there!"

The enemy kept up their innocuous out-of-distance popping, principally
at the advance cavalry. The square was halted two or three times for a
minute's rest, which the men dragging the guns must have particularly
wanted, considering the loose nature of the soil. Then on again, after
between two and three hours' march.

Tom Strachan could see huts, and what looked like a fort with guns;
earthworks also in anothe