"There is nothing to do at present, sergeant. We have only to wait quietly until our fellows come down to the river, and then I will soon get you assistance."
"Do you hear the firing still?"
"It is just as it was," Edgar replied, after listening attentively for a minute.
"Then I expect they have formed another zareba, as they did at Abu Klea, and that they will leave the camels there and march straight down to the river."
"I will steal up to the edge of the desert, if you don't mind being left alone a bit. I shall be able to judge then how far they are off."
"Do so, lad; I am all right here. But do not be too long away or I shall be anxious."
Edgar made his way a quarter of a mile back. Some cultivated fields stretched before him, and beyond them the rolling hillocks of the desert. He could see men on horseback and foot moving about, and looking to the right saw about half a mile distant a place of some extent, which was, he felt sure, Metemmeh. Numbers of men were pouring out from the town. The firing was not straight ahead, but somewhat to the left. "If they attack Metemmeh at once we shall be all right," he said to himself. "If they march straight down to the river we shall be all right still. We shall only have to move along to them. It is lucky we did not strike the river above the town, for it would have been next to impossible to get round to them without being observed."
He went back to his companion, and told him what he had seen.
"There is evidently going to be another tough fight before they get down to the water," the sergeant said. "It is very hard our being cut off here. Not that I should be good for any fighting if I were with them."
"I have no great desire to be in another fight like the last," Edgar said. "One go at that sort of thing is quite enough for me."