Il4r WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN Talk and laughter in the great camp ceased now, and it was not until the sun lost its power that it again began.

Gregory did not move till it began to get dusk.

I shall be away some time,” he said, “ so don’t be at all uneasy about me. I shall take my black blanket so that I can cover myself with it and lie down, as if asleep, close to any of the emirs’ tents where I hear talk going on, and so may be able to gather some idea as to their views. I have already learned that the tribesmen have not heard of any immediate move, and are discontented at being kept inactive so long. The leaders, however, may have their plans, but will not make them known to the men until it is time for action.”

The camp was thoroughly alive when he entered it. Men were sitting about in groups; the women, as before, keeping near their little shelters, laughing and chatting together, and sometimes quarrelling. From the manner of the men, who either sat or walked about, it was not difficult for Gregory to distinguish between the villagers who had been dragged away from their homes and forced to enter the service of the Khalifa, and the Baggara and kindred tribes who had so long held the Soudan in subjection. The former were quiet in their demeanour and sometimes sullen in their looks. He had no doubt that when the fighting came these would face death at the hands of the infidels as bravely as their oppressors, for the belief in Mahdism was now universal. His followers had proved themselves invincible; they had no doubt that they would destroy the armies of Egypt, but they resented being dragged away from their quiet homes, their families, and their fields.

Among these the Baggara strode haughtily. Splendid men for the most part, tall, lithe, and muscular; men with the supreme belief in themselves and in their cause, carrying themselves as the FTorman barons might have done among a crowd of Saxons; the conquerors of the land, the most trusted followers of the successor of the Mahdi, men who felt themselves invincible. It was true that they had so far failed