Two almost simultaneous glares from the field-guns lighted the clouds and showed up, for a moment, the high battlemented curtain-walls and the bastions of Sedd-el-Bahr castle, and showed the fo'c'sle he stood on, the cables, the capstan winch, some sand-bags piled up in the bows, some men standing behind them, and three box-shaped structures—two on the port side and one on the starboard.
He did not know what these were.
CHAPTER X
A Night Attack
The Orphan, holding his breath, crept forward to look over the sand-bags in the bows, treading on hundreds of empty cartridge-cases which rolled about the deck.
Another glare from the field-guns, and he saw that one of the men standing there, peering through his glasses into the gloom below, was an officer of the Royal Naval Division—the "R.N.D."—a Sub-lieutenant, wearing a naval cap with the silver anchor badge. (He actually belonged to the Armoured Car Section.)
"Hello! Who are you? Where've you sprung from?" this officer called out.
The Orphan told him, and, thirsting for information, asked what was happening. "What's going on, sir?"
"I'm hanged if I know."
"But what were you firing at? Those maxims were firing a minute ago, weren't they?" he asked, disappointed.