AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE. 171 sufficient resistance to cause them to explode ; when they did burst, they only knocked a hole in the cement ralls, without setting the place on fire there was lothing combustible bar the roofs, and, even when one did catch fire, for all practical purposes a hut without a oof was nearly as good as a hut with one. Thus half in hour was spent in slowly moving round the town, during which time nothing serious on either side was effected. As we got round between the town and the river, there was suddenly a heavy report from the walls, and a round stone shot, as we afterwards discovered it to be, whizzed over our heads and buried itself in the ground close by. This was entirely mexpected, and most unfair, we thought it at the time.

However, not much time was given us to think ; for a icond and third followed the first, each nearer than the one before. The third smashed a camel's jaw, and fell into the square, and the fourth wounded a man and killed a camel. It was time to move, so the [uare was rapidly deployed, and, wheeling into >pen column, we marched back just out of range of that infernal Krupp gun.