o find their houses occupied, and their
land seized by others.

Gregory was constantly sent off to investigate and decide in these
disputes, and was sometimes away for a week at a time. Zaki had
recovered rapidly and, as soon as he was able to rise, accompanied his
master; who obtained valuable assistance from him as, while Gregory was
hearing the stories of witnesses, Zaki went quietly about the villages,
talking to the old men and women, and frequently obtained evidence that
showed that many of the witnesses were perjured; and so enabled his
master to give decisions which astonished the people by their justness.

Indeed, the reports of the extraordinary manner in which he seemed able
to pick out truth from falsehood, and to decide in favour of the
rightful claimant, spread so rapidly from village to village, that
claimants who came in to Colonel Wingate often requested, urgently,
that the young Bimbashi should be sent out to investigate the matter.

"You seem to be attaining the position of a modern Solomon, Hilliard,"
the Colonel said one day, with a smile. "How do you do it?"

Gregory laughed, and told him the manner in which he got at the truth.

"An excellent plan," he said, "and one which it would be well to adopt,
generally, by sending men beforehand to a village. The only objection
is, that you could not rely much more upon the reports of your spies
than on those of the villagers. The chances are that the claimant who
could bid highest would receive their support."

Matters were quiet until the Sirdar returned from England, and
determined to make an attempt to capture the Khalifa, whose force was
reported not to exceed one thousand men. Two squadrons of Egyptian
cavalry and a Soudanese brigade, two Maxims, two mule guns, and a
company of camel corps were placed under the command of Colonel
Kitchener. The great difficulty was the lack of water along the route
to be traversed. Camels were brought from the Atbara and the Blue Nile;
and the whole were collected at Kawa, on the White Nile. They started
from that point, but the wells were found to be dry; and the force had
to retrace its steps, and to start afresh from Koli, some forty miles
farther up the river.

They endured great hardships, for everything was left behind save the
clothes the men and officers stood in, and one hundred rounds of
ammunition each; only one pint of water being allowed per head. The
country was a desert, covered with interlacing