posite
to the midmost of them.

"See now, General Shabaka," said the guide, speaking for the first time
in a curious hissing whisper such as might come from a man who had no
lips, "beneath you sleeps the Eastern host, which being so great, has
not thought it needful to guard this ridge. Now marshal your archers in
a fourfold line in such fashion that at the first break of dawn they
can take cover behind the rocks and shoot, every man of them without
piercing his fellow. Do you bide here with the centre where your
standard can be seen by all to north and south. I and my companion will
lead your vanguard farther on to where the ridge draws nearer to the
Nile, so that with their arrows they can hold back and slay any who
strive to escape down stream. The rest is in your hands, for we are
guides, not generals. Summon your captains and issue your commands."

So we went back again and I called the officers together and told them
what they were to do, then despatched them to their regiments.

Presently the vanguard of ten thousand men drew away and vanished, and
with them the white-robed guides on whom I never looked again. Then I
marshalled my centre as well as I could in the gloom, and bade them lie
down to rest and sleep if they were able; also, within thirty minutes of
the sunrise, to eat and drink a little of the food they carried, to
see that every bow was ready and that the arrows were loosened in every
quiver. This done, with a few whom I trusted to serve me as messengers
and guard, I crept up to the brow of the hill or slope, and there we
laid us down and watched.

CHAPTER XVII. THE BATTLE--AND AFTER

Two hours went by and I knew by the stars that the dawn could not be far
away. My eyes were fixed upon the Nile and on the lights that hung to
the prows of the Great King's ships. Where were those who had been sent
to fire them, I wondered, for of them I saw nothing. Well, their journey
would be long as they must wade the river. Perhaps they had not yet
arrived, or perhaps they had miscarried. At least the fleet seemed very
quiet. None were alarmed there and no sentry challenged.

At length it grew near to dawn and behind me I heard the gentle stir of
the Ethiopians arising and eating as they had been bidden, whereon I
too ate and drank a little, though never had I less wished for food. The
East brightened and far up the Nile of a sudden there appeared what at
first I took to be a meteor or a lantern waving i