l the force on the station
were busy preparing an expedition on a grand scale, to drive the Somalis
altogether out of the British protectorate, and so prevent any further
attempt on their part to invade the country for some time to come.

These instructions were acted on immediately by `old Hankey Pankey' to
the letter, parties of seamen and marines from each ship in turn landing
and patrolling the outskirts of the settlement, in front of which our
little fleet of three vessels was anchored; and so we `marked time,' so
to speak, for the next few months, waiting for the ships belonging to
the West African squadron to come up with the admiral himself, as not
until then would we be able to resume active operations against the foe,
whose defeat of us before their stockade at Wooromoloo we were burning
to avenge.

"Lor', Tom," said Larrikins to me, expressing the current feeling of all
on board the _Mermaid_, "I'd die happy, s'help me, if I could only pot
that there bloomin' Arab thief Abdalah, him we see'd shoot poor little
Dabby. They told us, Tom, you reck'lect t'other day over in the nigger
town there when we was on sentry go, him were the chief of the gang, and
were boastin' o' killin' our h'officers and makin' all on us cut and
run. Lor', I'd give a year's pay to settle that there beggar's hash!"

At last one morning, when we were pretty well tired of this forced
inaction, a despatch boat came up from Mombassa, bringing orders from
the admiral, who had arrived there in his flagship, accompanied by
several gunboats and other vessels, nearly all the crews of which had
been landed.

The admiral informed our captain that he was about to proceed inland
through the province of Teita with this formidable column; and that he,
`old Hankey Pankey,' was to assemble as strong a force as he could
muster from the ships under his command and with a second column thus
formed he was to start from Malindi and work in a south-westerly
direction, when the two bodies would meet, completely hemming in the
Arabs.

`Old Hankey Pankey' got us all ashore the same afternoon the admiral's
orders came; and, early the next morning, nearly four hundred strong
now, just double our former strength, we marched off up country towards
the scene of our defeat at the hands of the Somali chieftain Abdalah, on
the occasion of our previous trip inland.

When we got near his stockade, though, which, it need hardly be stated,
we approached with conside