ll the enemy were killed or driven back.

It is difficult to explain all this without using technical terms, but I
think you will understand how absolutely necessary it was to move
steadily, with the men forming the four sides of this square standing
shoulder to shoulder, and leaving no openings.

If the forces opposed were about equal, no such square as this, which
moves with such cumbersome difficulty, would be thought of; but when a
mere handful of men have to encounter countless hordes, it is employed
to avoid being attacked in front and rear and flanks at the same time,
and to protect the wounded, the water, and the spare ammunition. But
let the overpowering masses of the enemy once break into the centre, all
advantage is gone, and the small body is worse off than it would be
advancing in any other way, because the four sides would be attacked in
front and rear, cut off from each other, and deprived of mutual support.
The ammunition would be seized, and the wounded in the ambulances
massacred, while the soldiers would just have to fight back to back
while their strength lasted.

To prevent a partial irruption resulting in such a catastrophe, spare
troops moved inside the square to oppose a second line, ready to repel
any Arabs who broke in, and so aid their comrades to regain their
formation.

The guns were at the corners of the square. While there was a clear
space in front of them, and they were well served, nothing alive could
approach. But suppose a hillock close in front, or a pit, full of
Arabs, into which they could not fire, just under their muzzles, and
they would become weak places, where the enemy could surge in without
being met by the bristling bayonets, and so stab the soldiers on the
right and left of the angle in their backs, increasing the gap, through
which their friends might penetrate. And the enemy saw this plainly
enough, and planned dodges to aid their rushes upon these corners.

There was one good thing for the British troops that day: a nice breeze
swept the smoke away, and they could see their enemies' movements, and
so stall off many a rush with their fire before it came to close
conflict. If a thick pall of smoke had combined with the broken ground
to cover the attacks of the Arabs, the losses would most likely have
been heavier, and the battle more protracted.

Tom Strachan had acquired an accomplishment which promised to be useful
before the day was over. He and others were