have set my feet on the rock, and not by threats of any man shall I
be moved. But I say that for all the blood that ye have shed here
there will be punishment, and for the slaves which ye have slain or
sold there will be high price paid. Ye have threatened the city and
me--take us if ye can. Ye are seven to one. Why falter all these
months? If ye will not come to us, we shall come to you, rebellious
ones, who have drawn the sword against your lawful ruler, the
Effendina.
"CLARIDGE PASHA"

It was a rhetorical document couched in the phraseology they best
understood; and if it begat derision, it also begat anger; and the
challenge David had delivered would be met when the mists had lifted from
the river and the plain. But when the first thinning of the mists began,
when the sun began to dissipate the rolling haze, Ali Wad Hei and his
rebel sheikhs were suddenly startled by rifle-fire at close quarters, by
confused noises, and the jar and roar of battle. Now the reason for the
firing of the great guns was plain. The noise was meant to cover the
advance of David's men. The little garrison, which had done no more than
issue in sorties, was now throwing its full force on the enemy in a last
desperate endeavour. It was either success or absolute destruction.
David was staking all, with the last of his food, the last of his
ammunition, the last of his hopes. All round the field the movement was
forward, till the circle had widened to the enemy's lines; while at the
old defences were only handfuls of men. With scarce a cry David's men
fell on the unprepared foe; and he himself, on a grey Arab, a mark for
any lance or spear and rifle, rode upon that point where Ali Wad Hei's
tent was set.

But after the first onset, in which hundreds were killed, there began the