ck to camp, to
surrender to Colonel Wingate."

"I am glad of it. My orders are to push on another three miles. On our
return the camel corps shall collect the arms, and bring them in."

Gregory rode back to the emirs, who were slowly crossing the plain, but
who halted as the cavalry dashed on.

"Now, Emirs," he said, "we can ride quietly back to camp."

"You have not taken our arms," Khatim said.

"No, Emir, it is not for me to ask for them. It is the General to whom
you surrender, not me."

"I mourn to hear of the death of your father," Abu said, as they rode
in. "He was a good man, and a skilful hakim."

"He speaks always in the highest terms of you, Emir, in his journal,
and tells how he performed that operation on your left arm, which was
necessary to save your life; but did so with great doubt, fearing that,
never having performed one before, he might fail to save your life."

"I have often wondered what became of him," Abu said. "I believed that
he had got safely into Khartoum, and I enquired about him when we
entered. When I found that he was not among the killed, I trusted that
he might have escaped. I grieve much to hear that he was killed while
on his way down."

"Such was the will of Allah," Khatim said. "He preserved him at the
battle, He preserved him in the town, He enabled him to reach Khartoum;
but it was not His will that he should return to his countrymen. I say,
with Abu, that he was a good man; and while he remained with us, was
ever ready to use his skill for our benefit. It was Allah's will that
his son should, after all these years, come to us; for assuredly, if
any other white officer had asked us to surrender, I would have
refused."

"Many strange things happen by the will of God," Gregory said. "It was
wonderful that, sixteen years after his death, I should find my
father's journal at Hebbeh, and learn the story of his escape after the
battle, and of his stay with you at El Obeid."

Gregory rode into camp between the two emirs. He paused for a minute,
and handed over their followers to the officer in charge of the
prisoners; and then went to the hut formerly occupied by the Khalifa,
where Colonel Wingate had now established himself. Colonel Wingate came
to the entrance.

"These are El Khatim and his son Abu, sir. They surrendered on learning
that I was the son of the British officer whom they had protected, and
sheltered, for a year after the battle of El Obeid."

The two emirs