however, the line was completed to
Bashtinab. On the 5th of May it had reached Abadia. On the 3rd of July
the whole railway from Wady Halfa to the Atbara was finished, and the
southern terminus was established in the great entrenched camp at the
confluence of the rivers. The question of supply was then settled once
and for all. In less than a week stores sufficient for three months were
poured along the line, and the exhausting labours of the commissariat
officers ended. Their relief and achievement were merged in the greater
triumph of the Railway Staff. The director and his subalterns had
laboured long, and their efforts were crowned with complete success. On
the day that the first troop train steamed into the fortified camp
at the confluence of the Nile and the Atbara rivers the doom of the
Dervishes was sealed. It had now become possible with convenience and
speed to send into the heart of the Soudan great armies independent of
the season of the year and of the resources of the country; to supply
them not only with abundant food and ammunition, but with all the varied
paraphernalia of scientific war; and to support their action on land
by a powerful flotilla of gunboats, which could dominate the river and
command the banks, and could at any moment make their way past Khartoum
even to Sennar, Fashoda, or Sobat. Though the battle was not yet fought,
the victory was won. The Khalifa, his capital, and his army were now
within the Sirdar's reach. It remained only to pluck the fruit in the
most convenient hour, with the least trouble and at the smallest cost.

CHAPTER IX: ABU HAMED

The last chapter carried the account of the war forward at express
speed. The reader, who had already on the railway reached the Atbara
encampment and was prepared for the final advance on Khartoum, must
allow his mind to revert to a period when the Egyptian forces are
distributed along the river in garrisons at Dongola, Debba, Korti,
and Merawi; when the reorganisation of the conquered province has been
begun; and when the Desert Railway is still stretching steadily forward
towards Abu Hamed.

The news of the fall of Dongola created a panic in Omdurman. Great
numbers of Arabs, believing that the Khalifa's power was about to
collapse, fled from the city. All business was at a standstill. For
several days there were no executions. Abdullah himself kept his house,
and thus doubtfully concealed his vexation and alarm from his subjects