the first signs of a rush upon it. The Soudanese, however, made
none; on the contrary, they seemed to find the marksmanship of the
escort too accurate for their taste, for they drew off to a distance
where the bush was thicker, but so far that the fire they maintained was
a mere waste of ammunition.

"Where's Grady?" cried a man. "Why don't he come and take his camel?"

"Grady!" called the corporal.

"Grady!" called the sergeant; but even _his_ superior authority evoked
no answer.

The officer in command again halted the convoy.

"He may be only wounded; we must not leave him," he said.

"Who saw him last?"

"I can find the place exactly, sir," said Kavanagh, "because of a bit of
rock among the scrub which marked the place, and he was making towards
it."

"Is it far?"

"No, not five hundred yards; it was just before we ran in."

"Then double out and look for him. Go with him, another of you, and
Corporal Adams."

But just as this start was being made Grady appeared, shoving before him
a man dressed in bernouse and cap, bearing the Mahdi's colours of blue
and white, whom he grasped by the scruff of the neck, and, when he
showed unwillingness to advance, expedited his movements with a bump
from his knee. What had happened was this. While skirmishing he had
caught sight of a pair of human heels protruding from a bush which grew
on the side of a rock, and he came to the conclusion that there probably
were legs attached to those heels, and a body in continuation. So he
made a detour, and crept up very softly from behind till he was within
reach of those heels, which he promptly seized--or rather the ankles
above them--and drew out a wriggling Arab with a rifle in his hand,
which he could not get a chance of using against the person who was
drawing him.

Flattering himself that he was entirely concealed, he thought he had got
a beautiful place for a pot-shot when the skirmishers had passed, and
the convoy came abreast of him. And so indeed he had, and with the
barrel of his Remington in the natural rest formed by a fork in the
boughs of a tree, he had a first-rate chance of bagging something. But
he reckoned without his extremities; had he been a foot shorter, or the
scrub a foot deeper, he would have remained unnoticed.

"Come out, you spalpeen, and drop that gun, will ye?" cried Grady, and
both directions were obeyed, involuntarily enough; for, as he spoke, the
butt of the rifle was brought with su