popping above the nearest bushes, on the borders of the zone which
had been cleared, and it was evident that directly the scouts were
withdrawn the Arabs had followed up to the English position, and were
now prowling and prying around it.

As the wells could not be taken that night, and the horses could not do
without water, the cavalry retraced their steps, and rode back to
Baker's zereba, the point from which they had started in the morning.
When they were gone the enemy entirely surrounded the zereba, which was
like a ship in the midst of angry waves, hungry for her destruction.
While daylight lasted the men inside watched Osman Digna's seemingly
innumerable soldiers dodging about, and when night fell the knowledge
that they were there unseen, and might attack on all sides at any
moment, was really calculated to try the nerves. For there is nothing
more unpleasant than the idea of any one pouncing upon you suddenly in
the dark. But the nerves of our friends were getting pretty well
seasoned by this time. Only Green, who was very frank, observed to
Strachan that it seemed very lonely now the cavalry had gone. Mr Tom,
to tell the truth, had the same feeling of isolation, and even his high
spirits were rather damped.

"I will tell you what is lonely if you like," he said plaintively, "and
that is my last meal: it wants a companion very much indeed, and I could
find plenty of room for it, and for a gallon or two of water besides."

"Yes, indeed," replied Green; "if one had a good square meal well
moistened, one would feel, I think, that even the enemy were a sort of
company."

But food and water had run very short, and some of the men were faint.
The colonel made them a little speech; he was not an orator, but what he
said was generally practical.

His remarks on the present occasion were to the following effect--

"We are short of rations, both liquid and solid, men; but you have
plenty of cartridges, and the wells are but a mile and a half off, so
that we only want daylight to get as much water as we please."

They got a supply sooner than was expected, however, for at half-past
nine there was a bustle, and the sentries challenged; and, after a brief
parley, a string of camels was admitted into the zereba, with water and
other necessaries on their backs. Major Cholmondeley Turner had brought
them over from Baker's zereba, and got them safely in clear of the
Arabs. He belonged to the Egyptian Carrier Corps,