After the Victory.

sticks they found a woman liidden in the jungle.

She said she had left Rabi's camp that same afternoon, and that he was not many hours away, encamped in a plain. " Grod be thanked ! " I exclaimed, " we are approaching our goal ! " I immediately gave orders not to light any fires, and to keep perfect silence, so as not to warn the enemy of our presence.

Towards eleven p.m. I was awakened by a subofficer, who told me that some rebels had arrived in our camp, thinking we were Suleiman's people. This is how it happened. A rebel chief, called Idris-el-Sultan, was marching behind our column, with the intention of joining Rabi. Believing that we were the rear-guard of the army of Idris, he had sent these men forward to beg us not to march so fast, as he wished to join us the next morning.

I naturally kept away from these men,becaase my pronunciation of the Arabic, and also my face, would certainly have betrayed me, and I wished to profit by the error of the enemy to entice them, both those before and those behind, into an ambush. It was an uncomfortable position enough ; I was surrounded by enemies, and attempted to take the best possible course.

I sent for one of my captains and ordered him to go to these men and tell them to return to their chief, and inform him " that the commander of our column could not wait in this place as he wished, having many wounded who needed assistance to reach the main troops and some village where they could be cared for, but that three hours further on we would wait for him." One of the messengers set oif to carry this news to his chief, while the other five remained in our camp. As soon as their companion was gone, they were of course bound and strictly guarded.