The empty cartridges clashed on the floor and the smoke blew
back through the truck. There was indiscriminate firing at the rear of the
train, and return fire from the darkness without and unlimited howling. Dick
stretched himself on the floor, wild with delight at the sounds and the smells.
"God is very good--I never thought I'd hear this again. Give 'em hell, men. Oh,
give 'em hell!" he cried.
The train stopped for some obstruction on the line ahead and a party went out
to reconnoitre, but came back, cursing, for spades. The children of the desert
had piled sand and gravel on the rails, and twenty minutes were lost in
clearing it away. Then the slow progress recommenced, to be varied with more
shots, more shoutings, the steady clack and kick of the machine guns, and a
final difficulty with a half-lifted rail ere the train came under the
protection of the roaring camp at Tanai-el-Hassan.
"Now, you see why it takes an hour and a half to fetch her through," said the
subaltern, unshipping the cartridge-hopper above his pet gun.
"It was a lark, though. I only wish it had lasted twice as long. How superb it
must have looked from outside!" said Dick, sighing regretfully.
"It palls after the first few nights.
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