266 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN “ Well, I hope we are not; but we may meet some of them. We are going with the expedition up the Blue .Nile, and will then land and strike across the desert to the Atbara. That is enough for you to know at present. We shall take our guns and spears with us.”

Zaki had no curiosity. If his master was going it was of course all right— his confidence in him was absolute.

In about an hour a native from the Intelligence Department brought down two Dervish dresses complete. They had still three hours before mess, and Gregory sat down on his bed and opened his father’s pocket-book, which he had had no opportunity to do since it came into his possession.

CHAPTEK XVII A FUGITIVE “T DO not suppose,” the diary began, “ that what I write J-here will ever be read. It seems to me that the chances are immeasurably against it. Still, there is a possibility that it may fall into the hands of some of my countrymen when, as will surely be the case, the Mahdi’s rebellion is crushed and order restored; and I intend, so long as I live, to jot down from time to time what happens to me, in order that the only person living interested in me, my wife, may possibly some day get to know what my fate has been. Therefore, should this scrap of paper and other scraps that may follow it be ever handed to one of my countr5nnen, I pray him to send it to Mrs. Hilliard, care of the manager of the Bank at Cairo.

It may be that this, the first time I write, may be the last, and I therefore before all things wish to send her my heart’s love, to tell her that my last thoughts and my prayers will be for her, and that I leave it entirely to her whether to return to England in accordance with the instructions I left her before leaving, or to remain in Cairo.