No time was lost in sending the newly-arrived troops to their sphere of duty.

 

There was something appropriate in their landing on that day of gunpowdery memories, the 5th of November. It was four o’clock when they disembarked. By four-thirty they were drawn¹ up and inspected by the General, and immediately thereafter marched off in detachments to their respective stations—to Sphinx Redoubt, Fort Commodore, Bulimba, and other points of defence.

 

The detachment in which Miles Milton found himself was led by Captain Lacey to Sphinx Redoubt, where he was greatly pleased to find that his new friend, private Stevenson of the marines, was also stationed with some of his comrades.

 

There are probably times in the experiences of most of us when we seem to awake out of a long dream and begin to appreciate fully² that the circumstances in which we are placed are stern realities after all. Such a time of awakening³ came to our hero when he and his comrades each received fifty rounds of ball-cartridge, and stood ready to repel⁴ assault on the defences of Suakim.

 

Hitherto drill and reviews had seemed to him a good deal like playing at soldiers. Even when the distant sound of the big guns and the rattle⁵ of small arms touched his ear, the slumber⁶ of unbelief was only broken—not quite dispelled⁷. But now, weighted with the deadly missiles, with rifle in hand, with ears alert to every sound, and eyes open to every object that might present itself on the sandy waste beyond the redoubt, and a general feeling of expectancy⁸ pervading⁹ his thoughts and feelings, he became clearly convinced that the recent past was no flight of the imagination—that he was in very truth a soldier, and that his fighting career had in reality begun!

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