"Wit, indeed! You call your bad puns wit, do you?"

Next day the rest of the troops marched in from Trinkitat, and bivouacked outside the fort. They had made a fair start, and commenced the campaign now, and the novelty of eating their evening meal in the open, by the light of a bonfire, had a charm for some of the young ones.

The officers' mess of the First Blankshire was held round an oval trench. A coat thrown on the earth dug out of it served for a seat; the feet were placed in it, and the pewter plate with food on it was held on the knees. This is infinitely more comfortable than feeding in a cramped position on the ground.

Though they knew all about it before, it seemed strange to the inexperienced to lie down at night in the open, like animals, instead of going to bed, but some were so tired that, not being on duty, they rolled themselves up in the coats they had been sitting on, and courted a nap directly they had done feeding.

Those who did so, however, were presently aroused by a tremendous cheering, which made them jump up, and run to see what had happened. It was the arrival of the Sixty-fifth, who had been stopped on their return from India, and sent to Trinkitat instead of England. They had only landed that afternoon, and had marched on at once. It was not long, however, before the challenge of the sentries, and the snores of sleepers alone broke the silence of the little host, lying stretched in slumber under the faint light of the new moon. Their sleep was disturbed by showers of rain, which interfered with all but the very sound, and even these were fairly roused at last by a regular drencher, the water coming down tropical fashion, in bucketfuls.

"Halloa, Green!" said Strachan, to that young hero, whom he found standing in astonishment, drenched, but not dismayed. "Do you believe that it rains sometimes in the Soudan, now?"

"I do," replied Green, solemnly. "Books talk nonsense."

"I wish it was time to start," said Edwards, joining them. "It seems so absurd to stand here saturated, with no possibility of resting oneself, when one might be getting on."

"It is more than half-past four, and reveille is to sound at five.

Let's try and light the fire again; there's a bit smouldering, in spite of the rain."

This was Strachan's suggestion, and voted a good one; and they had just succeeded in raising a blaze, when a bugle started the most romantic, melancholy, musical call in the whole category. I mean in itself, and not for its a.s.sociations; and yet when one thinks how many thousands of brave men have been roused by it to go to death, it is not free from these. Number one only got about three notes start, when a second began, and presently the whole air was full of plaintive sound.

Then flickers of fire shone out, and coffee was boiled, and the men got their breakfasts. Then, after a while, the Fall-in sounded, and the different corps and detachments stood to their arms. The commanding officer of the First Blankshire went round the ranks, and spoke to the men here and there. He did not remark on the mud which still clove to James Gubbins, but he stopped opposite Green.

"Why, what is the matter, Green; where and how are you hurt?" he asked.

"I, sir?" said Green, in astonishment; "I believe I am all right."

"Why, you are bleeding like a pig!" And so he was, from his right ear.

"I must have cut it with my sword, sir, carrying it carelessly. I forgot that I had had it sharpened."

"Well, it can't be very bad, if you did not know it," said the colonel, laughing as he rode on. The bleeding stopped presently, but not before it had made Green's kharkee sleeve and his sword, down which there had been a trickle, look exceedingly warlike.

"He has fleshed his maiden blade!" said Tom Strachan.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

EL TEB.

The force started on the march about eight o'clock. It moved in square, with camels, mules, baggage, ammunition in the centre. Also inside were the surgeons and ambulance, and some troops ready to strengthen any weak part in the course of action; there were guns, either machine-guns, (as guns which fire bullets through individual barrels by turning a handle-- various improvements upon the mitrailleuse--are called) or Krupp guns, at the corners, manned either by sailors or artillerymen.

The square was not a square in the sense of Euclid, because two sides of it were longer than the other two. One of the longest faces led, the men being in line. The other formed the rear face, and moved also in line, turned to the right-about; but when halted and fronted it would face to the rear. The side faces marched, the right side "fours left,"

the left side "fours right," so that when halted and fronted they too would face outwards.

The officer in command, General Graham, had two men who knew the ground well, Baker and Burnaby, to point out the best route to avoid obstacles which would break the formation, and so they moved over a flat expanse of sand, with now and then a hill overgrown with low bushes. Not far from the line of march these sand-hills were larger and more numerous, and the bushes thicker, and amongst and beyond these parties of the enemy were hovering; to guard the infantry against a sudden attack from these, a squadron of light cavalry were spread out half a mile ahead, covering the flanks.

"I ask your pardon, sir," said a sergeant to Strachan, as they tramped through the sand, "but do you happen to know what we are going to fight about? Not that it matters, only it gives an interest like to the business."

"Oh, yes, sergeant," said Tom. "We are going to relieve Tokar."

"So I thought, sir. But then, you see, Tokar, they say, has fallen."

"I believe it has," replied Tom; "but that was the original idea. And if we are a bit late, why then we must show them how we would have relieved it if it had not been taken. The Arabs had no right to be in such a hurry. You remember the sham fights we used to have at Aldershot? Neither side was to commence manoeuvring before a certain hour, when a gun fired. Well, these Arabs have not played fair, but stolen a march upon us before the proper time. But that is no reason why we should go home after all this trouble and preparation without a fight."

"Of course not, sir!"

"Well, then, they have got the wells at El Teb, and have raised fortifications to defend them, I believe, and our job to-day is to get them out of that. Then we go on to Tokar, and we shall see if they make another fight there."

"Thank you, sir," said the sergeant; "I understand quite enough now."

A puff of smoke from the bushes; another; twenty. But no bullets came, the enemy firing from too long a distance. It was like a peaceable field day with blank cartridge burning.

Trinkitat harbour was in full view, and an energetic ship there, seeing the Arabs' position thus indicated, tried to throw sh.e.l.ls amongst them.

But they, too, were out of range. Only, as sh.e.l.ls when properly constructed burst somewhere, and these were sent over the heads of friends, their exploding short was dangerous, and after two or three attempts the experiment was dropped.

The main body of the cavalry followed in rear of the square, and to the left of it, in three lines.

"Look at those birds!" said Green to Tom, coming up to him to draw his attention. "What lots of them! They look like vultures surely, some of them."

"And they are vultures, too. What carrion have they got there I wonder.

Faugh! One can smell it from here."

"Look at General Baker, what a stern expression he has got," said Fitzgerald, letting his subaltern come up to him. "What a scene those birds and this stench must recall for him!"

"Ah, to be sure!" said Tom. "This was the line of the flight of his Egyptian army a month ago, when they let the Arabs ma.s.sacre them without even attempting to resist. Well, we won't do that if we can help it, will we, Green? We will strike a blow, even if we cut off our noses as well as our ears."

"There, there, don't chaff him, Strachan; you are too bad. And look to your half-company. Close up, there!"

The enemy kept up their innocuous out-of-distance popping, princ.i.p.ally at the advance cavalry. The square was halted two or three times for a minute's rest, which the men dragging the guns must have particularly wanted, considering the loose nature of the soil. Then on again, after between two and three hours' march.

Tom Strachan could see huts, and what looked like a fort with guns; earthworks also in another part, with flags stuck upon them. Also, of all earthly things in such a spot, an old boiler, such as you may see in some Thames-side yard, where old vessels are broken up and worn-out machinery acc.u.mulates.

Here the cavalry skirmishers, having done their work, retired to their main body. Another halt, almost within rifle-shot of the position, and the men flung themselves carelessly down on the sand. Major Elmfoot was examining the defences through his field-gla.s.s.

"That thing looks like an old boiler, major," said Fitzgerald.

"And it _is_ an old boiler," replied the other. "I was hearing about it the other day; there was a sugar-mill here once; that ruined building was part of it."

"Ten-shun!"

The men sprang to their feet all together. The enemy were close, and there would be serious work in a minute. A flash and a puff of smoke from the earthworks, a singing in the air, another flash and report close by, and the fragments of a sh.e.l.l were flying about their ears.

Two more bursting right over, and a man here and there dropped.

Then the rifle-fire opened in earnest, and those who had never yet heard it learned what the sound of a bullet was like. More men were hit, collapsed, and were picked up by the ambulance.

Still the square pressed steadily on, the men stepping jauntily as if marching past. Green said to himself with joy--

"I am under fire, really under fire! And I am not half so frightened as I thought I should be."