GORDON AND THE MAHDI. 136 wireentanglement,alongthe rear, the left,and the right of the position. In front a rough stone wall eighteen incheshigh was thrownup in twosections,betweenwhich there was anopening some thirty yards wide;and, as an additional safeguard, three small forts,constructed with commissariat boxes and cut bushes, were erected on the right,left,and rearof thezereba. The two lastpositions, which were really strong works, were held by the Mounted Infantry under CaptainsPayneand Pigot. On the peak which the Hussars hadoccupied— nearlyseven hundred yards on the left front— a fortalice of rough stones wasbuilt, and a companyof the Sussex was sent to holdit. These men were in an excellentpositionto give timely warningof any general advance of the enemy. A strongpicket wasalso dispatched to takeup ground ona ledge about the same distance from the left rear. The camels andbaggage were as usualplacedin the centre of thesquareand,thusdisposed,the columnpreparedto pass thenight. The faces of the square were each about two hundred yards in length. The camels were doubly tied down, knees and heads alike being* securely fastened to prevent confusion or stampede in the event of a fight or galling fire.

Before lying down the men stood to their arms, and the officers saw that everybodywas at his post. During the night several shots werefired at intervals into the camp by the Arabs, who at six o'clock had already indulgedin a fusillade promptly silencedby a fewrounds from the screw guns. Thrice the troops were called to arms before dawn, whena general attack upon theposition was expected, but everything remained tolerably quietuntil breakfast, when the enemyopened ahot fire from some stone breastworks, thrown up on the right flank of the zerebaduring the night. Several men and animals werewounded, one bullet striking Colonel Burnaby's grayhorse. "I'm not in luck to-day,"said the colonel, with a grim smile, and he thereupon led the limping creature awaytoprocure a fresh charger.

The firing went on tillnearly eight o'clock, whensome three thousand Arabs advanced in perfect order, with a front of two divisions,from therugged,stony hills onthe right of the position. Several red and white banners were wavingbravelyin the sunlight amidthe rebelranks, and one couldhear a number of tom-tomsbeating. The Arabs seemedsomewhatpuzzledby the apparentinaction of theBritish troops, and haltedin line withina mile of the zereba, occasionally firing a few shots, and gradually taking ground to the right, where their course was arrested by two sections of theMounted Infantry. At the same time, however, another party of rebels began creeping stealthily up the grassy wady on the left front, which was the direct road to the wells. General Stewart accordingly ordered Captain Norton's three screw guns to the left, together with the Gardner and theNaval Brigade, and a few shots speedily checked the threatened advance. Meanwhile,the Arabs made skilful use of theirRemingtons froma distance,and several men werehit in the zereba. Athalf-past nineit wasreported that some of the enemy's scouts were trying to creep, round the hills on the left flank,and Barrow's Hussars were dispatched to check this strategical movement. In front the fire was still kept up onboth sides, the Martinis proving especiallyeffective. So withering, indeed, was the Britishfusillade in this direction that the rebels. showedno dispositionto try close quarters.

GeneralStewarthadalready remarked, " Well, ifthey won'tcome on,Imust goout," andat twentyminutes to ten he took horse, andridingbetween the Guards in the centre and the Heavies on the left, he ordered an.

tected the reservoirs, joined the column, the fighting strength of which now comprized about 1,600 rifles and bayonets.

Beyond Gakdul the road led across a more barren region than that which had been previously traversed.

Only a short distance was covered on the afternoon of January 14,but at five a.m. the nextmorning the troops were once more on the move. The arduous march was tellingseverelyonthe heavilyladencamels, whohadbeen for several days already on half forage, and the column began to straggle at the veryperiod whenit shouldhave beenmost compact and thoroughly mobile. Numbers of animals fell through sheer exhaustion,andwere shot to put them out of their misery,or to prevent them from falling intothe hands of the Arabs. Therear guard had an especially hard time of it, unloading the prostrate animals and placing their packs on the " remount" camels, of which there were a hundred or so driven in a herd. However, despite these mishaps, the column perseveredinits course, with theMountedInfantry leading the advance and the Hussars protectingthe flanks.

On January 15, the troops passed Gebel Noos and Gebel Terain,two well-known land marks, and on the followingmorning theybegan to ascend a ridge of foot hills, whichrose aboutonehundred feet above theplain.

Across thesehills werethe wells of AbuKlea, a fewmiles to the south-east,at a point where the ground rolls and slopes down towards the Nile. The column rested on the west side of the ridgewhile the Hussars advanced some four miles to reconnoitre. Another four milesaway on the right hand there stretchedasecond range of bald black hills, on which straggling parties of the enemy, mountedand onfoot, wereto bo seen. Pressing forward the cavalry now movedto the south-east, alonga spur of high ground which projected towards the wells. The enemy's camplay about a couple of miles to the west of AbuKlea, part of their force beingscreenedbehindsome mimosascrub ina wad}*, while others were hidden in a dry water course, inthe rear of which weretwo groups of horsemen. Fifty or sixty of the Mahdi's banners, white, red, yellow and green, with texts of the Koran rudely inscribed upon them, wereconspicuouslydisplayed from polesof bamboo eight to ten feet long, andit could be seenthatthecampwasfortified. Therebels, onperceiving the Hussars, circled to the right andleft,and a skirmish ensued from a distance, with the result that the enemy speedilysoughtcoverbehind a ridge,whencetheykeptup anintermittent fire. ColonelBarrow of the Hussars, had occupied an isolated peak fromwhich hismen were well able to holdthe enemyin check, andeventuallyat about twoo'clock the van of the columnmadeits appearancein closefighting order;the Guards'CamelCorps on the left, the Heavy Division in the centre, and the Mounted Infantry on the right. The force movedforward until withinthree milesof Abu Klea,and as the enemyshowed no signs either of retreating or advancing, a halt was finally commanded.

General Stewart then carefully surveyed the rebels' camp andat 3 p.m. he decided that the column should bivouac for the night to the rear of the peak occupiedby the Hussars. The front and right of the positionrested upon a stony uplandslope, whilethe left andpart of the left rear lay upon a small wady. Orders were given,to form an entrenchmentor zereba, which might serve as a protectionin case of anight attack, and as a stronghold where thecamels andbaggage couldbe left undera guard when the main body moved out in the morning to meet the foe. Quantities of scrub mimosawere cut, and aline of these prickly bushes was placed, together with some