themselves yesterday in
that hand-to-hand fight that the names sent in will be very much larger
than the number of crosses given. Still, your having been recommended
will count in your favour when the time comes." So saying, with a kindly
nod he moved on to the next bed.

At nine o'clock the force moved out towards Tokar, half the Gordon
Highlanders being left at El-Teb for the protection of the hospital and
stores, and with orders to find and bury the Europeans that had fallen.
During the day many of the Egyptian garrison of Tokar came into the camp
from the surrounding villages. In the afternoon a mounted orderly
brought in the news that the force had met with no resistance whatever
on their way. Several parties of the enemy had been seen, but these fled
as soon as they saw the troops advancing. In Tokar seventy of the
Egyptian garrison were found in a half-starved condition. While their
comrades had consented to join the Arabs they had steadily refused to do
so, and had been very badly treated in consequence by them and by the
inhabitants of the town. The arrival of the troops was hailed with great
joy. The inhabitants had had a terrible time during the occupation of
the place by the Arabs, and the whole population were preparing to
accompany the troops on their march back to the coast. The cavalry had
ridden out to Debbah, where the camp of the force besieging Tokar had
been established.

In the afternoon Edgar was so far recovered that he was able to sit up.
His wounds were sore and painful, and the strapping of plaster in which
they were enveloped rendered him very stiff and uncomfortable. But, as
he said to another soldier, he had been just as stiff and sore after a
football match, and felt confident that in a few days he should be as
well as ever.

The next evening the force returned from Tokar, and Edgar and the other
troopers who were well enough to go outside the hospital tent to see
them come in were amused at their appearance, for they had before
starting armed themselves with spears taken from the fallen Arabs; for
the fight on the previous day had shown them that their swords were of
little avail against the tactics of the Arabs in throwing themselves
flat upon the ground, and that spears were much better suited for
warfare against savages. They were accompanied by the greater portion of
the population of Tokar, who were to be conveyed in the ships up to
Suakim. The cavalry had found that the Arabs ha