Theywere armed with twelve- and six-pounder quick-firing guns, and withbatteries of Maxim machine-guns on their upper decks. He declared Ahmed his heir and, in the unpredictable fashion inwhich he often did things, sent for the mullah and made Rebecca hiswife. He could not trust thejittery Egyptians to resist blazing away at their first glimpse of theenemy boats before the Dervish were disembarked upon the beach and wellinside the trap. Then hemounted up again and followed Yakub through the shimmering wasteland.
The usual form of ordealwas by thrusting the hand into boiling water. Let the first bull run, he cried. One of the emirs who had brought his tribe to join the array was noneother than Osman Atalan of the Beja. Then he realized thatwomen were carrying bundles on their heads from the embankment into therear gate of Courtney's compound.
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