110 WITH KITCHEHEK IH THE SOUDAH They found that the calculation they had made as to distance was correct, and before daybreak arrived on the bank of the Nile and at once encamped in a grove. In the morning they could see the houses of Metemmeh rising from the line of sandy soil some five miles away.

There seems to be plenty of bush and cover all along the bank, Zaki. We will stay here till the evening and then move three miles farther down, so that you may be handy if I have to leave the Derviihes in a hurry.”

“ Could we not go into the camp, my lord ? ” “It would be much better in some respects if we could; but, you see, you do not speak Arabic.”

“ No, master; but you could say I was carried ofi as a slave when I was a boy. You see, I do speak a little Arabic, and could understand simple orders just as any slave boy would, if he had been eight or ten years among the Arabs.”

“ It would certainly be a great advantage to have you and the horses handy. However, at first I will go in and join the Dervishes, and see how they encamp. They are no doubt a good deal scattered, and if we could find a quiet spot where a few mounted men have taken up their station, we would join them. But before we did that it would be necessary to find out whether they came from Kordofan or from some of the villages on the White Nile; it would never do to stumble into a party from El Obeid.”

They remained quiet all day. The wood extended a hundred and fifty yards back from the river, and there was little fear that anyone coming down from Omdurman would enter it when within sight of Metemmeh. At dusk they rode on again until they judged that they were within two miles of the town, and then, entering a clump of high bushes by the river, halted for the night.