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 have set my feet on the rock, and not by threats of any man shall I be moved.