THE BATTLE OF OMDURMAN 173 In fact, during the last half-hour of this portion of the engagement, the actual rifle fire of the Dervishes had been confined almost ex-_clusively to a small body of sharpshooters, who had ensconced themselves in a sandy hollow some nine hundred yards away on our left centre. These riflemen, being sheltered from the hail of bullets which whizzed over their heads, continued to make very fair practice on our ranks for some time. At last a shell from Major Williams’ battery pitched right into the middle of their retreat. What exactly happened I do not know, but, at anyrate, we were troubled by no more bullets from that quarter. Throughout the fighting up to this point I never saw a Dervish vux; whenever he retreated he simply walked off the field.

I noticed many of the wounded struggle to their feet, attempt to walk away, and then fall to rise no more as merciless volleys again struck them to the ground.

As the Sirdar appeared to think that all danger from Dervish attack was now past and over, the entire army received orders to leave the zeriba and march in &helon straight on Omdurman. Meanwhile, however, the