listening for the slightest sound.  Every eye seeks to pierce the darkness.  Every sense in the body is raised to a pitch of expectancy.  In such hours doubts and fears come unbidden to the brain, and the marching men wonder anxiously whether all will be well with the army, and whether they themselves will survive the event.  And if suddenly out of the black silence there burst the jagged glare of rifles and the crash of a volley followed by the yell of an attacking foe, the steadiest troops may be thrown into confusion, and a panic, once afoot, stops only with the destruction or dispersal of the whole force.  Nevertheless, so paramount is the necessity of attacking at dawn, with all the day to finish the fight, that in spite of the recorded disasters and the known dangers, the night-march is a frequent operation.

For more than two hours the force advanced, moving across smooth swells of sand broken by rocks and with occasional small bushes.  Several shallow khors traversed the road, and these rocky ditches, filled with a strange, sweet-scented grass, delayed the brigades until the pace was hardly two miles an hour.  The smell of the grass was noticed by the alert senses of many, and will for ever refresh in their minds the strong impression of the night.  The breeze which had sprung up at sundown gradually freshened and raised clouds of fine sand, which deepened the darkness with a whiter mist.

At nine o’clock the army halted in a previously selected space, near the deserted village of Mutrus and about two miles from the river.  Nearly half the distance to Mahmud’s zeriba was accomplished, and barely four miles in the direct line divided the combatants; but since it was not desirable to arrive before the dawn, the soldiers, still formed in their squares, lay down upon the ground.  Meat and biscuits were served out to the men.  The transport animals went by relays to the pools of the Atbara bed to drink and to replenish the tanks.  All water-bottles were refilled, pickets being thrown out to cover the business.  Then, after sufficient sentries had been posted, the army slept, still in array.

During the halt the moon had risen, and when at one o’clock the advance was resumed, the white beams revealed a wider prospect and, glinting on the fixed bayonets, crowned the squares with a sinister glitter.  For three hours the army toiled onwards at the same slow and interrupted crawl.  Strict silence was now enforced, and all smoking was forbidden.  The cavalry, the Camel Corps, and the five batteries had overtaken the infantry, so that the whole attacking force was concentrated.  Meanwhile the Dervishes slept.

At three o’clock the glare of fires became visible to the south, and, thus arrived before the Dervish position, the squares, with the exception of the reserve brigade, were unlocked, and the whole force, assuming formation of attack, now advanced in one long line through the scattered bush and scrub, presently to emerge upon a large plateau which overlooked Mahmud’s zeriba from a distance of about 900 yards.