ontingency that it would arrive at its destination within a few months.
It was therefore evident that the line of advance of the powerful army
moving south from the Mediterranean and of the tiny expedition moving
east from the Atlantic must intersect before the end of the year, and
that intersection would involve a collision between the Powers of Great
Britain and France.

I do not pretend to any special information not hitherto given to the
public in this further matter, but the reader may consider for himself
whether the conciliatory policy which Lord Salisbury pursued towards
Russia in China at this time--a policy which excited hostile criticism
in England--was designed to influence the impending conflict on the
Upper Nile and make it certain, or at least likely, that when Great
Britain and France should be placed in direct opposition, France should
find herself alone.

With these introductory reflections we may return to the theatre of the
war.

On the 7th of September, five days after the battle and capture of
Omdurman, the Tewfikia, a small Dervish steamer--one of those formerly
used by General Gordon--came drifting and paddling down the river. Her
Arab crew soon perceived by the Egyptian flags which were hoisted on the
principal buildings, and by the battered condition of the Mahdi's Tomb,
that all was not well in the city; and then, drifting a little further,
they found themselves surrounded by the white gunboats of the 'Turks,'
and so incontinently surrendered. The story they told their captors was
a strange one. They had left Omdurman a month earlier, in company with
the steamer Safia, carrying a force of 500 men, with the Khalifa's
orders to go up the White Nile and collect grain. For some time all had
been well; but on approaching the old Government station of Fashoda they
had been fired on by black troops commanded by white officers under
a strange flag--and fired on with such effect that they had lost some
forty men killed and wounded. Doubting who these formidable enemies
might be, the foraging expedition had turned back, and the Emir in
command, having disembarked and formed a camp at a place on the east
bank called Reng, had sent the Tewfikia back to ask the Khalifa for
instructions and reinforcements. The story was carried to the Sirdar and
ran like wildfire through the camp. Many officers made their way to the
river, where the steamer lay, to test for themselves the truth of the
report. The woodwor