Boom! boom! boom! Through the mist the guns of the city were pouring shot
and shell out into Ali Wad Hei's camp, and Ali Wad Hei laughed
contemptuously. Surely now the Inglesi was altogether mad, and to-day,
this day after prayers at noon, he should be shot like a mad dog, for
yesterday's defeat had turned some of his own adherent sheikhs into angry
critics. He would not wait for starvation to compel the infidel to
surrender. He would win freedom to deal in human flesh and blood, and
make slave-markets where he willed, and win glory for the Lord Mahomet,
by putting this place to the sword; and, when it was over, he would have
the Inglesi's head carried on a pole through the city for the faithful to
mock at, a target for the filth of the streets. So, by the will of Allah,
it should be done!
Boom! boom! boom! The Inglesi was certainly mad, for never had there been
so much firing in any long day in all the siege as in this brief hour
this morning. It was the act of a fool, to fire his shot and shell into
the mist without aim, without a clear target.
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