He handed him as he thus spoke the manilla which he had been smoking throughout our march, as if he were going to some picnic and probably feeling quite as jovial as if he had been; and, Adams at once setting light to the end of the rocket, it soared aloft like its compeer the moment before, with a whish and a rush that must have scared all the stray baboons within earshot of its flight. Then we heard tom-toms beating close by, and the clash of brass or some other metal that had a ring like cymbals. "They're waking up," cried `old Hankey Pankey' to Mr Gresham, with a pleased smile on his face. "The column will now advance. Close your ranks, men. Keep steady. Forward!" We had hardly taken a dozen paces, advancing in the same formation as before, when we heard the roar of guns in front and steady volleys of rifle-fire, whose sound clearly betokened that it emanated from weapons similar to our own. "By George, we'll be too late!" cried `old Hankey Pankey,' hobbling onwards at a fine rate for a moment, and then slewing round to give some fresh order to those following up behind. "Come on, men--come on at the double. Spread out your flanks, Mr Gresham! Spread out your flanks, d'ye hear? Tell Mr Shrapnell to bring up the guns. Spread out there, men--spread out in skirmishing order, to cover your front! Hang it, come on, my lads--come on, or we'll be too late!" Captain Oliver of the _Merlin_ was running us cheek by jowl with his contingent on the left and Commander Jellaby of the _Bullfinch_ trying to outstrip him on our right; so, we had hard work to keep our place in line ahead. But `old Hankey Pankey' was not going to let any one, junior or senior in the service, beat him for first place when fighting was on; and no one who had known how terribly he had been wounded, the muscles of his legs having become shrunk after the holes made by the matchlock ball had closed up, would have dreamt him capable of going the pace he did now. "Forward, men--forward!" he yelled out spasmodically, as he hobbled on like the wind in front, taking long hops at intervals over any obstruction that lay in his path. "_Mermaids_ to the front! You're not going to let us be licked, men, by any other ship on the station!" How he got out the words between his leaps, and bounds, and hops, I am sure I cannot tell; but, get them out he did, though he must have been pretty well pumped out already by his exertions, and his breath nearly all spent. But, we hardly needed the stimulus to prompt us to action; for in barely another half minute we burst out of the bush, going at the double and spread out in a half circle, so as to catch all stragglers who might have vainly hoped to escape in our direction, for we were right in the rear of the Arab town.