23 CHAPTER V THE BATTLE OF FERKEH. BY the third week in May the railway had reached Ambigol Wells, more than halfway across the desert. Three months' supplies for 10,000 men had been collected in the camp at Akasha. The Intelligence Department had information that the Dervish chiefs werepreparing to raid the railway and the line of communications, and,as the simplest way to prevent these attacks and secure the undisweek,for every available man was beingpushed up to the front. Even the work on the railway wasstopped, so that the Railway Battalion might be available to garrison points on the line of communications,and thus set free better-trained troops for service at the front. The engineer officers were temporarily attached as gallopers to the staff. The secret of the precise date of the coming battle waswell kept, and it was not turbed progress of work on the new line, the Sirdar resolved to attack and breakuptheenemy's camp at Ferkeh in the first week of June. His intention was not merely to drive Hammuda's force back into the Dongola province, but to destroy and disorganise it completely. For this purpose he decided to attack in overwhelming strength. An Indian brigadehad been sent from Bombay to occupy Suakin inthemiddle of May, and he was thus enabled to transfer its garrison to the Upper Nile.

It waa apparently the idea in the Dervish camp that till about noon on Saturday that it became generally known in campthat the army was to marchoutthat evening, bivouac in the desert, and attack the Dervishes at ferkeh at dawn next day, Sunday, June 7th. Sir Herbert Kitchener had been well served by his intelligence Department. To use a familiar phrase, what Wingate and Slatin didnot know about Mahdism and the Mahdists was not worthknowing. Thanks to the careful questioning of spies and deserters they were able to draw up a plan of theDervishcamp at FRIENDLY ARAB SCOUTS.

nothing serious wouid be attempted by the Sirdar until he had his railway completed up to Akasha, and thus even the large concentration of troops in and near the advanced post in the first days of June did not warnHammuda and Osman Azrak of the crushing blow"that was about to fall upon them.

The Sirdar left Haifa on Monday, June 1st, with his staff,and transferredhis headquarters to Akasha. Along the river bank from thatplace toOkmeh, three miles to the northward, there was a great camp formed by the end of the Ferkeh, with a list of the tribesmen and black is assembled there, and of the Emirs who commanded them. They had also ascertained that the Dervish outposts were drawn in at night close to the camp, so that there was good prospect of getting within striking distance of tl neniy without coming upon his sentinels and patrols. Captain (now Colonel)Broadwood, the cavalry commander at the front, had repeatedly reconnoitredFerkeh;he had mapped the routes leading to it on alarge scale, and he had ascertained that cavalry could get south of