he English advance. And then a group of mounted infantry were
seen returning at a slower pace.

"Look!" cried Strachan, whose eyes were remarkably good; "they have
caught some natives."

And sure enough the troopers could presently be distinguished, coming on
in a semi-circle, driving before them a group of men who were unarmed,
and declared themselves friendly, or at least no adherents of the Mahdi,
Osman Digna, or any votaries of the new Mohammedan heresy. This might
be true, but the officer with the scouts thought the general had better
decide so knotty a point, and so they were thus brought before him,
travelling perhaps a little quicker than they were accustomed to, but
otherwise uninjured.

"That's the way to run fellows in!" cried Tom, enthusiastically. "A
fellow, you see, is bound to go straight when he has several rifles
pointed at his head in cold blood. There goes the interpreter. I wish
the colonel would just go up and hear what it is about, because he would
tell the major, and the major would tell the captains loud enough for us
poor subs to hear, perhaps."

"The colonel knows his duty," said Fitzgerald, "and does not intrude
upon the general unless he is sent for."

"I know he doesn't, but I wish he did," replied Tom. "However, we shall
get it all out of old MacBean."

And sure enough, soon after the captured natives had been pumped dry and
dismissed, the doctor rode up.

"No fighting for you, my boys," he said. "The Arabs won't meet you this
time, I expect, and you have had your walk for nothing. I expect that
they see that the sun will lick us single-handed, and they need not take
the trouble."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, at El Teb, you know, they kept their women and boys with them,
and these carried hatchets to kill our wounded with after the fight."

"That's their notion of surgery," said Tom, in a very audible aside.

"It goes more directly to its result than ours."

"Wait till you come under my hands, you young monkey! You will sing a
different song then."

"I have no doubt you will hurt me more than Mrs Arab would, doctor; but
then you would cure me, you know, and she wouldn't."

"Never mind that cheeky boy, MacBean," said Fitzgerald. "Why won't they
fight now?"

"Because they have sent all their women and boys away, and that, the
friendly natives say, is a sure sign."

"Curious; it is just the other way on with other savage people, who send
their families off