But we came across none in any need of help, save such offices as the dead require, along our route to the front; for, wherever we noticed any groups of bodies together, all alike, whether bluejacket or Arab, were stone dead.
Bullet and knife and sword had each and all had a busy day of it!
After burying the dead with all the honours of war, the corpse of the Arab chief I had killed with Captain Sackville’s sword being identified formally as that of the notorious Abdalah, as I had thought, our columns returned to the coast in triumph with the proud consciousness of having cleared the country of all the invading Somalis.
The bluejackets and marines belonging to the admiral’s division then rejoined their ships at Mombassa; while our contingent, led still by ‘old Hankey Pankey,’ who was none the worse for the fray, retraced their steps through Teita and the ‘baboon valley’—where, I may add, I met no second mishap—to Malindi.
We again went on board the Mermaid; and, to cut a long story short, the captain, who was very pleased with what he had seen of me during the campaign, besides my having a good word put in by Captain Sackville, promoted me to ‘leading seaman’ the very next day.
Naturally, I was very sorry to part company with Mick so soon after our long separation; but, as I have said before, a sailor’s life is made up of partings.
Here besides, as things turned out, no great period elapsed ere we hove in sight of each other again; aye, under circumstances, too, that have caused us to become closer companions than ever, as indeed we are now.
I will tell you how this was.
Not many months after our smashing up the Arabs and driving the Somalis out of the British protectorate back to their own inhospitable country, the Mermaid’s commission expired; when, instead of the cruiser going home to be paid off, a new crew was sent out to us from England, she still remaining on the station, in accordance with the routine at present in vogue.
The old Dromedary, that brought out our relief, which has cruised more thousands of miles, I believe, on such fetching and carrying work than have ever been covered by the oldest ship in the Navy, took us back home in her; and she called in at Simons Bay, en route, to fill up with supernumeraries and other paid-off crews from ships belonging to the Cape station.