A VOICE FROM THE DEAD 257 I packet. Gregory opened it with trembling hands. It contained, as the man had said, a large number of loose sheets, i evidently torn from a pocket-book and all covered with close !j writing. He opened the book that accompanied them. It f was written in ink, and the first few words sufficed to tell him i that his search was over. It began: “Khartoum. Thank I God, after two years of suffering and misery since the fatal i day at El Obeid, I am once again amongst friends. It is true that I am still in peril, for the position here is desperate.

! Still, the army that is coming up to our help may be here ji in time ; and even if they should not do so this may be found when they come, and will be given to my dear wife at Cairo if she is still there. Her name is Mrs. Hilliard, and her ad-I dress will surely be known at the Bank.”

j “ These are the papers I was looking for,” he said to Zaki ; I ‘I will tell you about them afterwards.”

[ He handed ten dollars to the native, thrust the packet into his breast-pocket, and walked slowly down to the river. He j had never entertained any hope of finding his father, but this I evidence of his death gave him a shock. His mother was I right, then; she had always insisted there was a possibility I that he might have escaped the massacre at El Obeid. He I had done so; he had reached Khartoum, he had started full i of hope of seeing his wife and child, but had been treacher-S ously massacred here. He would not now read this message f from the grave, that must be reserved for some time when he was alone. He knew enough to be able to guess the details they could not be otherwise than painful. He felt almost ' glad that his mother was not alive. To him the loss was ' scarcely a real one. His father had left him when an infant.

I Although his mother had so often spoken of him he had I scarcely been a reality to Gregory, for when he became old ' enough to comprehend the matter it seemed to him certain I that his father must have been killed. He could then hardly understand how his mother could cling to hope. His father had been more a real character to him since he started from Cairp than ever before.