of life along the banks of the stream.

Boom! boom! boom! Through the mist the guns of the city were pouring
shot and shell out into Ali Wad Hei's camp, and Ali Wad Hei laughed
contemptuously. Surely now the Inglesi was altogether mad, and to-day,
this day after prayers at noon, he should be shot like a mad dog, for
yesterday's defeat had turned some of his own adherent sheikhs into angry
critics. He would not wait for starvation to compel the infidel to
surrender. He would win freedom to deal in human flesh and blood, and
make slave-markets where he willed, and win glory for the Lord Mahomet,
by putting this place to the sword; and, when it was over, he would have
the Inglesi's head carried on a pole through the city for the faithful to
mock at, a target for the filth of the streets. So, by the will of
Allah, it should be done!

Boom! boom! boom! The Inglesi was certainly mad, for never had there
been so much firing in any long day in all the siege as in this brief
hour this morning. It was the act of a fool, to fire his shot and shell
into the mist without aim, without a clear target. Ali Wad Hei scorned
to make any reply with his guns, but sat in desultory counsel with his
sheikhs, planning what should be done when the mists had cleared away.
But yesterday evening the Arab chief had offered to give the Inglesi life
if he would surrender and become a Muslim, and swear by the Lord Mahomet;
but late in the night he had received a reply which left only one choice,
and that was to disembowel the infidel, and carry his head aloft on a
spear. The letter he had received ran thus in Arabic:

"To Ali Wad Hei and All with Him:

"We are here to live or to die as God wills, and not as ye will. I