272 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN three or four days. Shielding myself as well as I could by the bushes, I crawled up until I was in the midst of some camels which were browsing. Here I stood up, and then walked boldly into the grove. As I had expected, two or th'ree score of Dervishes were sitting in groups, talking gravely. They had destroyed the Turks (as they always called the Egyptians and their infidel white leaders), but had suffered heavily themselves. The three hundred Soudanese who had surrendered, and who had taken service with the Mahdi, were but poor compensation for the losses they had suffered.

“ A year ago,’ one old sheik said, ‘ I was the father of eight brave sons. How they have all gone before me. E> ur of them fell in the assaults at El Obeid, two at Baria, and the last two have now been killed. I shall meet them again in the abode of the blessed, and the sooner the bett for I have no one left to care for.’ Others had tales of 1 .

loss of relations and friends, but I did not wait to listen further. Taking up a large water gourd that stood emjv at the foot of one of the trees, I boldly walked to the w( descended the rough steps at the water’s edge, and drank 1 I could drink no longer, and then, filling the gourd, went \ again. Ho one noticed me. Had they looked at me th would have seen even in the darkness the great patches do' the front of the robe, but I don’t think anyone did not me. Other figures were moving about from group to grou and I kept on through the grove until beyond the trees. came out on the side opposite to that which I had entered, and, as I expected, found some of the Dervish horses grazinj among the bushes.

“Ho guard was placed over them, as they were too well trained to wander far. I went out to them and chose tho poorest, which happened to be farther among the bushes thaii the others. I had thought the matter well over. If a good horse were taken, there would be furious pursuit as soon as it was missed, and this might be soon, for the Arabs are