Gregory saw, with pleasure, that the Arabs were now thoroughly wound up to fighting point.

The same vigilant watch was kept up as before; but the air of gloom that had hung over them, when they first started, had now disappeared; each man was ready to fight to the last.

As the town was seen, the tension was at its highest; but the pace quickened, rather than relaxed.
"Now is the moment!" the Bey shouted.

"If they are there, they will come out to fight us.

If, in five minutes, they do not appear; it will be because they have all gone." But there were no signs of the enemy, no clouds of dust rising in the town, that would tell of a hasty gathering.