If they were heard they still were safe from the guns, for they could not be seen, and those on shore could not know whether they were friend or foe.

Like ghostly vessels they passed on, until at last they could hear the stir and murmur 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.