CHAPTER XXIX.

We leave Dongola Abu Fatmeh Krooboys Getting down-stream Egyptian athletics Wady Haifa.

THE ist of June dawned (and I had won my bets). It was an awful day, worse than any we had yet had.

The wind blew hard from the south-east, and wit!

it clouds of black dust which made us long for the appearance of the West Kent. By telegram we heard that they and the South Stafford had left Shabadud on the previous day, so they ought not to have arrivi before evening. However, the wind blew them downstream a grand pace, and they appeared about tw< o'clock.

It did not take long for them to get themselves and baggage out, or for us to take their places. Before the sun was down we were well beyond Dongola, skimming along at a rate that would take us about three times as fast as the authorities had intended. As we sailed along, straggly caravans of unfortunate