ole length to attack.
More than all this: to advance to Berber must inevitably force the
development of the whole war. The force in the town would certainly have
its communications threatened, would probably have to fight for its
very existence. The occupation of Berber would involve sooner or later
a general action; not a fight like Firket, Hafir, or Abu Hamed, with
the advantage of numbers on the side of the Egyptian troops, but an even
battle. For such a struggle British troops were necessary. At this time
it seemed most unlikely that they would be granted. But if Berber was
occupied, the war, until the arrival of British troops, would cease to
be so largely a matter of calculation, and must pass almost entirely
into the sphere of chance. The whole situation was premature and
unforeseen. The Sirdar had already won success. To halt was to halt in
safety; to go on was to go on at hazard. Most of the officers who had
served long in the Egyptian army understood the question. They waited
the decision in suspense.

The Sirdar and the Consul-General unhesitatingly faced the
responsibility together. On the 3rd of September General Hunter received
orders to occupy Berber. He started at once with 350 men of the IXth
Soudanese on board the gunboats Tamai, Zafir, Naser, and Fateh. Shortly
after daybreak on the 5th the Egyptian flag was hoisted over the town.
Having disembarked the infantry detachment, the flotilla steamed south
to try to harass the retreating Emir. They succeeded; for on the next
day they caught him, moving along the bank in considerable disorder,
and, opening a heavy fire, soon drove the mixed crowd of fugitives,
horse and foot, away from the river into the desert. The gunboats then
returned to Berber, towing a dozen captured grain-boats. Meanwhile the
Sirdar had started for the front himself. Riding swiftly with a small
escort across the desert from Merawi, he crossed the Nile at the Baggara
Cataract and reached Berber on the 10th of September. Having inspected
the immediate arrangements for defence, he withdrew to Abu Hamed, and
there busily prepared to meet the developments which he well knew might
follow at once, and must follow in the course of a few months.

CHAPTER X: BERBER

The town of Berber stands at a little distance from the Nile, on the
right bank of a channel which is full only when the river is in flood.
Between this occasional stream and the regular waterway there runs a
long strip