. But at Meeanee and Dubba, where
he was in command, and almost everything depended upon him, and where,
too, he exposed himself in a manner which made the Sindhees think he had
a charmed life, he did not get a scratch."

"I wonder whether those Indian fellows fought as hard as these Arabs?"
observed Green.

"Not much difference, I should say," said the major. "They flung
themselves on the bayonets, and, if not mortally wounded, seized the
muzzles and pressed them to their bodies with the left hand, to get one
cut at their enemy and die. I don't quite see how _that_ could be
beaten in the way of game fighting, though these fellows equal it. I
saw one do much the same thing to-day."

"And did Sir Charles Napier fight them in square, sir?" asked Green, who
was of an inquiring mind on professional subjects.

"No, he met them in line, and his men had no breech-loaders in those
days; not even percussion caps; only the old brown bess with a flint and
steel lock, and a good bayonet on the end of her."

"But perhaps the odds were not so great."

"Quite, by all accounts. It is true that the Indians fought with swords
and shields, and, after firing their matchlocks, charged home with those
weapons. A swordsman requires space for the swing of his arm, so,
however more numerous they may be, they must fight in looser order than
soldiers armed with the bayonet, and therefore, at the actual point of
meeting, each individual swordsman finds at least two antagonists
opposed to him in the front rank alone. Now these Arabs, fighting
principally with spears, can very often come in a much denser mass. I
only give that idea for what it is worth. I think it may make a good
deal of difference. The nature of the ground, also, would alter the
condition of the contest. But, at any rate, I do not quite see how we
should be safe against getting taken in the rear in any other than the
square formation."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

TOUCH AND GO!

Tired men cannot go on talking all night, even about the events of an
exciting day, and one by one our friends rolled themselves up in their
coats and went off to sleep. And how the unfortunates on sentry-go
envied them! That was an infliction which Tantalus escaped, but it
might well compare with those which have caused his name to be embodied
in our language.

To feel that the lives of a number of other people as well as your own
depend on your keeping extremely wide awake, when you ar