man from Berber appeared on the scene, and they fled hastily.

In the evening, a boy whom we had sent with instructions to try and reach Abu Hamed, and bring back news, returned, saying that he had been stopped by a party of dervishes on the right bank about ten miles from our camp, and made prisoner, but had escaped. He had gathered from them that there were only a few of the enemy between us and Abu Hamed on this bank, but that the Monassir and Robatab, and a force from Berber with Suleiman Wad Gamr and other sheikhs, were holding a rocky position on the other bank, at a place called Shamkiyeh, near Jebel Gergerib, and intended to oppose our advance there. They were not aware of our having crossed all our mounted troops to the right bank.

We bivouacked in a strong semicircular position on the yellow sand, covering our boats and mounted troops on the sandbank below. At nine o'clock, being now within

the distance, we fired a rocket from the nearest high hill, and another five minutes later a preconcerted signal to inform Rundle's scouts, who should be on the watch, that we were within thirty miles of Abu Hamed. I walked round the position, and saw that perfect order reigning which came from the constant repetition and constant supervision of the nightly bivouac in readiness to meet instantaneous attack. Troops peacefully sleeping, tired with the hard day's work, beside their piled arms; double sentries alert and motionless, watching with trained eyes every foot of the open space before the bivouac; officers on watch vigilant; perfect silence everywhere. Not once, in any camp I had been in, had there ever been a sign of a false alarm. This day's work had been the best ever performed by the troops. Two hundred and fifteen boats had been rowed by their strong arms through ten or eleven miles of the swiftest water possible to contend with.

Our

wounded were all doing well. No death had occurred among them since we left our camp at Dulka. The physical condition of the men was magnificent. We had completed a month out from Hamdab-a month of almost unparalleled exertion, passed entirely in the open air. We had not sent back one sick man; we had had but one death from disease; and the total sick-list of the force was now only eighteen, a proportion of 6.4 per 1000-a condition of health which I believe to be unprecedented among any troops in any campaign. The men were in high spirits; and there were two battalions, neither of which had yet been in action, longing for the chance of emulating those who had fought so gallantly at Kirbekan. It was the first time I had seen the whole force in one bivouac; and I lay down with a feeling of perfect confidence in their power to conquer any host of Arabs that the Mahdi could bring against them from the farthest corners of the Soudan.

In four days, I said to myself, we shall be at Abu Hamed. We shall open up the Korosko desert-route, and our doing so will ring through the Soudan, and weaken the knees of the followers of Mahomet Achmet.

CHAPTER XV.

RECALL BACK TO SALAMAT.

24th Feb.

I HAD issued orders that to give the men more rest after so good a day's work, réveillé would not sound till half-past five; and it was seven o'clock on the morning of the 24th before the first boat was in readiness to move. Some letters and Reuter's telegrams had arrived the night before by camel-post; and an opportunity thus occurring of sending back to Korti, I reported in the most cheerful terms to Lord Wolseley. Seeking for something in my despatch-box, I came across the following cutting which I had taken at Halfa from the Army and Navy Gazette' of the 13th September 1884

"The opinions which were expressed in this