246 WITH KITCHEHEK IN THE SOUDAN a native attire and was as black from exposure to the sun as any of the Arabs. I gave him directions, and did not ask him any questions; but it was said afterwards that he was one of Hicks’s officers. Later, I heard that he went down in the steamer with Colonel Stewart.”

“You did not hear his name?” Gregory asked anxiously. “ No, sir.” “ Hid he talk Arabic well ? ” “ Extremely well ; much better than I did at the time.” “ Do you remember how long he arrived before the steamer started ? ” “Not very long, sir, though I really cannot tell you how long it was.”

“ After you were cut off, I suppose ? ” “ Certainly it was, but I cannot say how long.” “No one else here would know more about it than you do?”

“No, sir; I should think not. But you can ask them.” He called up some of the other workmen. All knew that a white officer of Hicks Pasha’s army was said to have returned. One of them remembered that he had come down once with Gordon to see about some repairs required to the engines of a steamer, but he had never heard his name, nor could he recall his personal appearance, except that he seemed to be a man about thirty. But he remembered once seeing him again on board Stewart’s steamer, as they had been working at her engines just before she started.

After thanking the foreman Gregory returned to the hut where he and two other officers of Hunter’s staff had taken up their quarters. He was profoundly depressed. This white man might well have been his father; but if so, it was even more certain than before that he had fallen. He knew what had been the fate of Stewart’s steamer, the remains of which he had seen at Hebbeh. The Colonel and all with him had accepted the invitation of the treacherous sheik of that village, and had been massacred. He would at least go there.