THE WEEK BEFORE THE BATTLE 145 and another officer reached the top a Dervish suddenly fired a “right and left” at them from a huge elephant gun ; but fortunately he missed with both barrels, and then bolted. With the exception of this man, who seemed to be a sort of “caretaker ”:in the empty camp, there was not a Dervish to be seen. The shell fire of the gunboats had rendered the ridge untenable.

In every direction lay the débrvzs of a deserted camp. Some of the fires were still smoking, and here and there were dotted the small — wattled shelters which the Sudanese Arabs rejoice to make. In one place a feeble sort of entrenchment had been commenced, but speedily abandoned.

By this time the dampness of the early morning had been succeeded by blazing sunshine. The march was the longest and most tedious one of the campaign, and scarcely a sound we heard except the muffled tramp, tramp, of thousands of men traversing the sand. Suddenly, as we were crossing a driedup water-course in the Wady Suetne, a little to the north of Kerreri, the roar of a heavy gun reached our ears from the south—then another, and another! A general murmur of Io