The village sheik met him, as he went down.

"You have found nothing, my lord?"

"Nothing but a few old papers," he said.

"You will report well of us, I hope, to the great English commander?"

"I shall certainly tell him that you did all in your power to aid me."

He walked down towards the river. One of the men, who had gone on while
he had been speaking to the sheik, ran back to meet him.

"There is a steamer coming up the river, my lord."

"That is fortunate, indeed," Gregory exclaimed. "I had intended to
sleep here, tonight, and to bargain with the sheik for donkeys or
camels to take us back. This will save two days."

Two or three native craft were fastened up to the shore, waiting for a
breeze to set in, strong enough to take them up. Gregory at once
arranged, with one of them, to put his party on board the steamer, in
their boat. In a quarter of an hour the gunboat approached, and they
rowed out to meet her.

As she came up, Gregory stood up, and shouted to them to throw him a
rope. This was done, and an officer came to the side.

"I want a passage for myself and five men, to Abu Hamed. I am an
officer on General Hunter's staff."

"With pleasure.

"Have you come down from the front?" he asked, as Gregory stepped on
board, with the five blacks.

"Yes."

"Then you can tell me about the great fight. We heard of it, at
Dongola, but beyond the fact that we had thrashed the Khalifa, and
taken Omdurman, we received no particulars.

"But before you begin, have a drink.

"It is horribly annoying to me," he went on, as they sat down under the
awning, and the steward brought tumblers, soda water, some whisky, and
two lemons.

Gregory refused the whisky, but took a lemon with his cold water.

"A horrible nuisance," the officer went on. "This is one of Gordon's
old steamers; she has broken down twice. Still, I console myself by
thinking that, even if I had been in time, very likely she would not
have been taken up.

"I hope, however, there will be work to do, yet. As you see, I have got
three of these native craft in tow, and it is as much as I can do to
get them up this cataract.

"Now, please tell me about the battle."

Gregory gave him an outline of the struggle, of the occupation of
Omdurman, and of what might be called the funeral service of Gordon, at
Khartoum. It was dark before the story was finished.

"By the way," the officer said, as they were about to sit down to
dinner, "while we we