n was clearly expressed. The
accent of the exclamation indeed was so striking that Strachan turned as
sharply as if he had been struck, and at the further corner of the
square he saw white teeth, gleaming eyes, tangled black locks, dark
naked forms, and glittering spearheads, and--_British soldiers recoiling
before them_!

As the major uttered his cry, he crammed his spurs into his horse's
sides, and with one bound was among them, cutting and pointing like a
trooper, and Tom found himself close to him, though whether he moved or
the seething, struggling mass came upon him where he stood he did not
quite know. One thing he felt sure of, that the situation was just as
critical as it possibly could be. Careless, light-hearted lad as he
was, he could not lead the life and pass through the scenes of the last
few days without becoming familiar with the thought that every hour
might very likely prove his last.

But that conviction, which would have been so terrible in cold blood,
gave him little concern now; it was the feeling of _being beaten_ which
was such mental agony. What was his life, what was the life of any man,
of a million of men, compared with defeat? At that moment he would have
flung himself into the fire to secure victory for his side. I do not
wish to make him out an exceptional hero, and he was not a fellow to
brag, but it is certain that at that crisis he felt no fear whatever, no
more than when having got hold of the ball in a football match at
Harton, he had thought:

"I must have it between the goal posts, if I die for it!"

It has been explained before how he had attained a rare proficiency with
his weapons; he had not fired his pistol yet, and he was as clear-headed
and firm in nerve as man could be. While the chambers of his revolver
were loaded he was in little danger from spearmen in front of him, for
he parried the thrust with his sword, and shot the assailant _through
the head_, and even an Arab is knocked out of time by that. But against
a thrust in the side or the back no skill or coolness could defend him.
And presently he was so jammed up by retreating soldiers that he could
not use his arms, and then he was quite powerless for self-help.

It happened, by the best accounts, in this fashion. Covered by the
dense smoke, the Arabs swarmed out of the nullah upon the face of the
square on the edge of it. The foremost flung themselves on the
bayonets; those behind pressing them on to th