"Yes, sir," said I quietly, glancing to where the Somali chief was doubled up. "I paid off your score against that beggar over there with it, sir." "Indeed!" said Captain Sackville, trying to rise up on his legs, but falling back with a groan. "O-o-oh! I think that fellow gave me a bad thrust in the chest just before I dropped it; but, I declare I forgot all about it!" Mick and I at once tore open his tunic and shirt, when we found a deep wound on his right side, from which the captain must have lost a good deal of blood, his clothing being quite saturated; but the wound was not bleeding much now and we bound it up with our two silk handkerchiefs, winding them round his body, which relieved him so much that he was able to stand up on his feet. The battle between our forces and the foe was now pretty nigh over, and the combatants had long since swept past us; pursuers and pursued having alike disappeared in the bush surrounding the native town or lost to sight amid the smoking ruins, where some little desultory skirmishing was still going on. Presently, however, a grand hurrah went up on the left, where the Somalis had made their last stand. It was a cheer such as British bluejackets alone can give; and then we saw the Union Jack run up on the top of a big bungalow in the centre of the town, the only hut or building that had escaped destruction in the general conflagration. "It's all over, my lads," said Captain Sackville on hearing and seeing this. "I think we had better see about joining the main column, and pick up any stragglers we may see in want of assistance by the way." But we came across none in any need of help, save such offices as the dead require, along our route to the front; for, wherever we noticed any groups of bodies together, all alike, whether bluejacket or Arab, were stone dead. Bullet and knife and sword had each and all had a busy day of it! After burying the dead with all the honours of war, the corpse of the Arab chief I had killed with Captain Sackville's sword being identified formally as that of the notorious Abdalah, as I had thought, our columns returned to the coast in triumph with the proud consciousness of having cleared the country of all the invading Somalis. The bluejackets and marines belonging to the admiral's division then rejoined their ships at Mombassa; while our contingent, led still by `old Hankey Pankey,' who was none the worse for the fray, retraced their steps through Teita and the `baboon valley'--where, I may add, I met no second mishap--to Malindi. We again went on board the _Mermaid_; and, to cut a long story short, the captain, who was very pleased with what he had seen of me during the campaign, besides my having a good word put in by Captain Sackville, promoted me to `leading seaman' the very next day. Naturally, I was very sorry to part company with Mick so soon after our long separation; but, as I have said before, a sailor's life is made up of partings.