k of the hull was marked with many newly made holes,
and cutting into these with their penknives the officers extracted
bullets--not the roughly cast leaden balls, the bits of telegraph wire,
or old iron which savages use, but the conical nickel-covered bullets of
small-bore rifles such as are fired by civilised forces alone. Here was
positive proof. A European Power was on the Upper Nile: which? Some said
it was the Belgians from the Congo; some that an Italian expedition had
arrived; others thought that the strangers were French; others, again,
believed in the Foreign Office--it was a British expedition, after all.
The Arab crew were cross-examined as to the flag they had seen. Their
replies were inconclusive. It had bright colours, they declared; but
what those colours were and what their arrangement might be they could
not tell; they were poor men, and God was very great.

Curiosity found no comfort but in patience or speculation. The camp for
the most part received the news with a shrug. After their easy victory
the soldiers walked delicately. They knew that they belonged to the most
powerful force that had ever penetrated the heart of Africa. If there
was to be more war, the Government had but to give the word, and the
Grand Army of the Nile would do by these newcomers as they had done by
the Dervishes.

On the 8th the Sirdar started up the White Nile for Fashoda with five
steamers, the XIth and XIIIth Battalions of Soudanese, two companies of
the Cameron Highlanders, Peake's battery of artillery, and four Maxim
guns. Three days later he arrived at Reng, and there found, as the crew
of the Tewfikia had declared, some 500 Dervishes encamped on the
bank, and the Safia steamer moored to it. These stupid fellows had
the temerity to open fire on the vessels. Whereat the Sultan, steaming
towards their dem, replied with a fierce shell fire which soon put
them to flight. The Safia, being under steam, made some attempt to
escape--whither, it is impossible to say--and Commander Keppel by a
well-directed shell in her boilers blew her up, much to the disgust of
the Sirdar, who wanted to add her to his flotilla.

After this incident the expedition continued its progress up the White
Nile. The sudd which was met with two days' journey south of Khartoum
did not in this part of the Nile offer any obstacle to navigation, as
the strong current of the river clears the waterway; but on either side
of the channel a belt of the tangl