irculated from the staff
to the regimental officers, from the officers to the sergeants, from the
sergeants to the men, that the enemy were in position at the Wells of
Abu Klea, twenty-three miles from Matammeh, the place on the Nile they
were working for. Where was Abu Klea? Straight to their front was a
ridge of fantastically-shaped rocks, and there the enemy was in
position.

A little nearer square was formed, and in that formation the force
advanced to the foot of the ridge, and was there halted. Then, after
awhile, orders were issued to form a zereba for the night, and it was
soon made, the materials being plentiful and close at hand, and the
camels and stores were placed within it.

"Men for picket!" cried a sergeant, and Kavanagh, who had been warned
for the duty, stepped forward and fell in with the others, and presently
they were marched off and posted on one of the hills commanding the
zereba.

The officer in command took careful note of the position and posted his
sentries, taking care to be in communication with the pickets on his
right and left, and the zereba in his rear. The sentries were double,
that is, there were two men on each post, and were changed every hour.

An hour's sentry-go may seem to you but a short spell, but if you had a
swarm of agile sharp-sighted savages prowling about you all the time,
and knew that your own life and those of others who depended on you
would be sacrificed if your vigilance flagged, perhaps you would find it
long enough.

It was ten o'clock when Kavanagh was roused to go on; Dobbs was his
companion, and Corporal Adams posted them.

"You are to challenge any one approximating this post," he said; "and if
they say `friend' or `rounds' you must stop them and make them give the
countersign. If they can't you must run them in, and if they won't be
run in you must run them through with your bayonet; if they won't be run
through you must wait and see if there's many of them, and if there is
you must shoot. But you mustn't alarm the camp without reason, mind
you."

And with these somewhat conflicting "must's" and "must not's" he left
them in the gloom. The position was as uncomfortable a one as Kavanagh
had ever been in. His imagination peopled the night around him with
supple forms ready to leap upon him from behind every time he turned in
walking his beat. I won't say that either he or Thomas Dobbs was
frightened, for that would be a slur on a soldier, and