black battalion that held together. If, then, it was a shock to him to know how his father had died, how vastly greater would it have been to his mother! She had pictured him as dying suddenly, fighting to the last and scarce conscious of pain till he received a fatal wound. She had said to Gregory that it was better to think of his father as having died thus than lingering in hopeless slavery like Neufeld; but it would have been agony to her to know that he did suffer for two years, that he had then struggled on through all dangers to Khartoum, and was on his way back full of hope and love for her when he was treacherously murdered.
The village sheik met him as he went down.
'You have found nothing, my lord?'
'Nothing but a few old papers,' he said.
'You will report well of us, I hope, to the great English commander?'
' I shall certainly tell him that you did all in your power to aid me.'
He walked down towards the river. One of the men who had gone on while he had been speaking to the sheik, ran back to meet him.
'There is a steamer coming up the river, my lord.'
' That is fortunate indeed,' Gregory exclaimed. ' I had intended to sleep here to-night, and to bargain with the sheik for donkeys or camels to take us back. This will save two days.'
Two or three native craft were fastened up to the shore waiting for a breeze to set in strong enough to take them up. Gregory at once arranged with one of them to put his party on board the steamer in their boat. In a quarter of an hour the gun-boat approached, and they rowed out to meet her. As she came up Gregory stood up and shouted to them to throw him a rope. This was done, and an officer came to the side.
' I want a passage for myself and five men to Abu Hamed. I am an officer on General Hunter's staff.'
'With pleasure. Have you come down from the front?' he asked, as Gregory stepped on board with the five blacks.
'Yes.'
'Then you can tell me about the great fight. We heard of it at Dongola, but beyond the fact that we had thrashed the Khalifa and taken Omdurman, we received no particulars. But before you begin, have a drink. It is horribly annoying to me,' he went on, as they sat down under the awning, and the steward brought tumblers, soda-water, some whisky, and two lemons. Gregory refused the whisky, but took a lemon with his cold water. 'A horrible nuisance,' the officer went on. 'This is one of Gordon's old steamers; she has broken down twice. Still, I console myself by thinking that even if I had been in time very likely she would not have been taken up. I hope, however, there will be work to do yet. As you see, I have got three of these native craft in tow, and it is as much as I can do to get them up this cataract. Now, please tell me about the battle.'
Gregory gave him an outline of the struggle, of the occupation of Omdurman, and of what might be called the funeral service of Gordon at Khartoum. It was dark before the story was finished.
'By the way,' the officer said, as they were about to sit down to dinner, 'while we were on deck I did not ask about your men. I must order food to be given them.'
'They have plenty,' Gregory said; 'I brought enough for a week with me. I thought that I might be detained two or three days here and be obliged to make the journey by land to Abu Hamed.'
' I have not asked you what you were doing at this out-of-the-way place, and how long you have been here?'
' I only landed this morning. I came down to search for some relics. My father was on board Stewart's steamer, and as there would be nothing doing at Omdurman for a few days I got leave to run down. I was fortunate in securing a boat at Abu Hamed on my arrival there, and I have been equally so now in having been picked up by you, so that I shall not be away from Omdurman more than seven days if I have equal
luck in getting a steamer at Atbara. I do not think I shall be disappointed, for the white troops are coming down and stores are going up for the Egyptian brigade, so that I am certain not to be kept there many hours. The Sirdar has gone up to Fashoda or I don't suppose I should have got leave.'
'Yes; I heard at Merawi from the officer in command that some foreign troops had arrived there. I suppose nothing more is known about it?'
'No; no news will probably come down for another fortnight, perhaps longer than that.'
'Who can they be?'
' The general idea is that they are French. They can only be French or a party from the Congo States.'
' They have tremendous cheek whoever they are,' the officer said. 'It is precious lucky for them that we have given the Khalifa something else to think about, or you may be sure he would have wiped them out pretty quickly unless they are a very strong force, which doesn't seem probable. I hear the Sirdar has taken a regiment up with him.'
'Yes, but I don't suppose any actual move will be made at present.'
'No, I suppose it will be a diplomatic business; still, I should think they would have to go.'
'No one has any doubt about that at Omdurman,' Gregory said. 'After all the expense and trouble we have had to retake the Soudan, it is not likely that we should let anyone else plant themselves on the road to the great lakes. When will you be at Abu Hamed, sir?'
' We shall be there about five o'clock,—at any rate I think you may safely reckon on catching the morning train. It goes, I think, at eight.'
' I am sure to catch a train soon, for orders have been sent down that railway materials shall be sent up as quickly as possible, as it has been decided that the railway shall be carried on at once to Khartoum. I expect that as soon as the Nile falls they will make a temporary bridge across the Atbara.'
It was six in the morning when the steamer arrived at Abu Hamed. Gregory at once landed, paid his four men, went up to the little station, and an hour later was on his way to Atbara Fort. He had but two hours to wait there, and reached Omdurman at three o'clock on the following afternoon. As he landed he met an officer he knew.
'Is there any news?' he asked.
' Nothing but Fashoda is talked about. It has been ascertained that the force there is undoubtedly French. The betting is about even as to whether France will back down or not. They have made it difficult for themselves by an outburst of enthusiasm at what they considered the defeat of England. Well, of course, that does not go for much except that it makes it harder for their government to give in.'
' And has any news been received of the whereabouts of the Khalifa?'
' No. Broadwood with two regiments of Egyptian cavalry and the camel corps started in pursuit of the Khalifa and Osman an hour after it was found that they had got away. Slatin Pasha went with them. But as the horses had been at work all day they had to stop at half-past eight. They could not then get down to the water, and bivouacked where they had halted. At four in the morning they started again, and at half-past eight found a spot where they could get down to the river; then they rode fifteen miles farther. They were now thirty-five miles from Omdurman. One of the gun-boats had gone up with supplies, but owing to the Nile having overflowed could not get near enough to land them. Next morning they got news that the Khalifa was twenty-five miles ahead, and had just obtained fresh camels, so they were ordered to return to the town. They had picked up a good many of the fugitives, among them the Khalifa's favourite wife, who, doubtless, with other women had slipped away at one of has halting-places, feeling unable to bear the constant fatigues and hardships of the flight in the desert. The cavalry have since been out again, but beyond the fact
that the Khalifa had been joined by many of the fugitives from the battle and was making for Kordofan, no certain news has been obtained.
'At present nothing can be done in that direction. That horse you bought is all right.'
' I really did not like taking him, for I already had one, and it looked almost like robbery giving him two pounds for it and the saddle.'
'Others have done as well,' the officer laughed; 'one of the brigade staff bought a horse for a pound from Burleigh, who had given forty for it at Cairo. There was no help for it, they could not take horses down. Besides, it is not their loss after all; the newspapers can afford to pay for them, they must have been coining money of late.'
'That reconciles me,' Gregory laughed; 'I did not think of the correspondents' expenses being paid by the papers.'
