Yule Logs

he outpost to report that a djerm (large boat), crowd

self, Corporal Jones?" asked

; for the moon's so bright that it's just as clear as day. Sergeant Finnigan

Holroyd. "Whereabouts is this d

nigh that chapel-looking

royd, smiling. "Come, Tom, we'll go and see for ourselves. Take

lose to the river bank, within four hundred paces of the outpost, stood a small mosque, its slender

e made our way dow

arlie Holroyd through his facings when he first joined the 35th, and had been my father'

ined Holroyd, looking in the dire

the sergeant; "but she's there shure enough.

fter a moment's hesitation, "let you and I creep down nearer the river, and have

irectly towards the mosque for the first hundred yards, then

projecting into the Nile. Within a couple of oars' length of the wharf lay, not one, but two large djerms,

glass, through which he carefully examin

e Mamelukes?" I wh

ns, without doubt, and therefore enemies. Look for yo

that Holroyd was right; there was

f them," said Holroyd, as I returned the t

the proximity of a large body of the enemy; while another man took a message to Cantillo

royd; "so, with the exception of advancing our support, I shal

legs, for scarcely half-an-hour elap

he, saluting his captain,

his face darkening; "is that a

lroyd it's all right,' says he. I saluted, and waited a moment, thinkin' as how he'd say something more, or may-be ask me some questions; but

rt and brought back the reply correctly we did not for a moment doubt; for Jones was a steady,

" I asked in an undertone. "

ejoined. Then turning to the corporal, he in

er-away to our right rear. There's a young orficer

vent of a sudden attack. Do you, Tom, hurry back to the village and warn the senior officer. Tell him that the enemy evidently mean mischief, and that I advise

be prepared for any emergency. On regaining the piquet, I found that several more djerms had dropped down the Nile, and were lying off the little wha

was a study when he returned, and reported that the o

ed instructions?" said Hol

id 'Very well'; not another word, go

ng to try the experiment, and so has contented himself with sending a report to General Stewart of the enemy's proximity. But," he continued, "I am not going to run the risk of being cut off in such an exposed position as this, and therefore I shall warn the officer at El Hamet to put the village into as good a

I answered, handing him a

rder to observe the first hostile movement that might be made. Towards morning a thick fog came on, completely hiding the m

t not one of us close