ght have spared himself the trouble; his uncle never
noticed him; he only came there because the spot afforded the best view
of a portion of the English advance.

"It is impossible!" he cried; "and yet there they are. Has Sheytan
given them charmed lives?" and he charged down, waving his banner, and
calling on his tribesmen to follow him and extirpate the infidels.

Harry saw him falter on the brow of a crag, stretch his arms wide, drop
weapon and banner, and fall backwards. Forgetting everything else at
the sight, he ran down to him and raised his head.

He was quite dead.

"Poor Uncle Ralph! You were kind to me, and you loved my dear mother.
Would that you had met with a better fate!" he said, as he turned away,
and looked about for the means of escape.

There was no reason for further delay; the Arabs had too much to do to
look after themselves to notice him; and his uncle was dead!

Round the side of the rock he crept, keeping well under shelter, till he
found a side where no fight was raging, and here he clambered cautiously
down into the plain, and made for that part of the Nile where he had
seen the English pontoons and boats.

After about an hour's cautious approach, he came near enough to hail the
nearest sentry.

"I am an English prisoner, released by your attack!" he cried; and after
his report of himself had been carefully heard by an officer, he was
received with welcome and eagerly questioned as to what he knew about
the progress of the fight.

"Most of the points had been carried when I made my escape," Harry said;
"but I fear the loss has been very heavy."

Heavy indeed it proved when the full news came in! Colonel Eyre,
commanding the South Staffordshire, fell at the head of his regiment at
the first onset; Colonel Green was killed at the hottest moment of the
struggle; and shortly afterwards General Earle, the commander of the
expedition himself, was shot dead from a stubbornly-defended building.

Harry told his story, was examined, cross-examined, re-examined; for all
he had to say was most interesting, and very different from the meagre
and often contradictory reports to be gleaned from natives. He told
them of the force in Dulka Island. But they knew of that, and heeded it
not, finding no difficulty in shelling the Arabs there out of it without
an attack.

The only thing he was reticent about was the story of his uncle. Poor,
crack-brained visionary, he had gone to his account n