a thief to catch a thief,'
that is, by holding one claimant to the throne in check by means of
another. The state with which he was surrounded made him very cross, as
any kind of fuss over him always did. 'Eight or ten men to help me off
my camel, as if I were an invalid,' he writes indignantly. 'If I walk,
everyone gets off and walks; so, furious, I get on again.'

However, these pin-pricks to his temper did not last long, for soon bad
news came from Khartoum, and he had to set out for the Soudan directly.
His daily journey on his camel was never less than thirty, and more
often forty miles. On his arrival at a station he received everybody,
rich and poor, who chose to come to him, listened to all complaints, and
settled all disputes, besides writing constant reports to the khedive of
what he was doing. He had nobody to help him; it was far easier and
quicker for him to do his own work than first to tell someone else what
he wanted done, and then to make sure his instructions were properly
carried out.

* * * * *

At length Khartoum was reached, and Gordon was duly proclaimed
governor-general, the ceremony being, we may be sure, as short as he
could make it. According to the wishes of the khedive, he was treated
like a sultan in the 'Arabian Nights.' On no account was he ever to get
up, even when a great chief came to pay his respects to him, and no one
was allowed to remain seated in his presence. Worse than all, his palace
was filled with two hundred servants.

The first reform he wished to make was to disband a body of six thousand
Bashi-Bazouks, or Arab and Turkish irregular troops, who pillaged the
tribes on the frontiers that they were set to guard, and let the
slave-dealers go free. Of course this could only be done very slowly and
cautiously; but he managed gradually to discharge a few at a time and to
replace them with soldiers from the Soudan, whom he always found very
trustworthy. Then, after setting right many abuses in Khartoum itself,
and giving the outlying houses a proper water-supply, where before the
lack of it had caused disease and discomfort, he began a march of
several hundred miles westwards to Darfour.

Here the whole province had risen up against its new Egyptian masters,
and those tribes which had not already broken out were preparing to
do so. With the hopeful spirit that never deserted him, and which more
than once had created the miracle he had expected,