Then, for a time, all was silence in the camp.
Suddenly an outburst of shouts and cries broke out and, almost simultaneously, he heard the rattle of Maxim guns--the fight had begun.
Would the Egyptian horsemen stand firm, or would they give way to panic?
If they broke and fled, none whatever would return to their camp through the host of Baggara horsemen.
For a time, the roll of the fire from the machine guns was incessant.
Then there was a pause.

Two or three minutes later it broke out again, but it was evidently somewhat farther off; and so it went on, with intervals of silence, but ever getting farther away.

It was clear that the horsemen had not been able to bring the cavalry to a standstill, and that these were steadily falling back, covered by the fire of the Maxims.

At last the sound grew faint in the distance and, soon afterwards, the noise in the camp showed that the infantry were returning.
It was not till two hours later that he heard the mounted men ride in; and gathered, from the talk outside, that they had lost nearly two hundred men, and had been unable to prevent the Egyptian cavalry from returning to camp.

Towards evening he heard angry talking, and could distinguish Mahmud's voice.