stood over their cooking-pots waiting for the moment of sunset; for it
was Ramadan, and the faithful fasted during the day--as though every day
was not a fast.

Sunset was almost come, as David left the city and galloped away
to send forces to stop the gap of danger before it was filled by the foe.
Sunset--the Three Pashas were to die at sunset! They were with Achmet,
and in a few moments they would be dead. As David and Lacey rode hard,
they suddenly saw a movement of men on foot at a distant point of the
field, and then a small mounted troop, fifty at most, detach themselves
from the larger force and, in close formation, gallop fiercely down on
the position which Achmet had left. David felt a shiver of anxiety and
apprehension as he saw this sharp, sweeping advance. Even fifty men,
well intrenched, could hold the position until the main body of Ali Wad
Hei's infantry came on.

They rode hard, but harder still rode Ali Wad Hei's troop of daring
Arabs. Nearer and nearer they came. Suddenly from the trenches, which
they had thought deserted, David saw jets of smoke rise, and a half-dozen
of the advancing troop fell from their saddles, their riderless horses
galloping on.

David's heart leaped: Achmet had, then, left men behind, hidden from
view; and these were now defending the position. Again came the jets of
smoke, and again more Arabs dropped from their saddles. But the others
still came on. A thousand feet away others fell. Twenty-two of the
fifty had already gone. The rest fired their rifles as they galloped.
But now, to David's relief, his own forces, which should have moved half
an hour before, were coming swiftly down to cut off the approach of Ali
Wad Hei's infantry, and he turned his horse upon the position where a