We then made them lie down on the ground, and put sentries over them, with orders to shoot if anyone stood up. Nothing, however, happened during the night; and as the Arabs, contrary to their custom, did not attack at dawn, the Commandant decided to take the initiative.

De Wouters and I were given the advance-guard, with which we had a Krupp gun; the camp being left in charge of two officers and half the men. After three-quarters of an hour's march the road forked: the right-hand branch, the guides told us, led direct to the Arab bomas; the left-hand branch we followed, the guides explaining that by so doing we should take the Arab force in the rear. On our right, we had now a strip of forest which separated us from the other road. Hearing a hum at this point, which sounded like a large body of men in our immediate