A HAKIM 301 I can see but one way/ I said, and that may seem to you impossible, because you know nothing of the strength of England. We have, as you know, easily beaten the Egyptian Army, and we are now protectors of Egypt. If you invade that country, as the Mahdi has already threatened to do, it is we who will defend it; and if there is no other way of obtaining peace, we shall some day send an army to recover the Soudan. You will fight, and you will fight desperately, but you have no idea of the force that will advance against you. You know how Osman Digna’s tribes on the Red Sea have been defeated, not by the superior courage of our men, but by our superior arms. And so it will be here.

It may he many years before it comes about, but if you insist on war that is what will come. Then, when we have taken the Soudan, there will come peace, and the peasant will till his soil in safety; those who desire to be taught will be taught; great canals from the Nile will irrigate the soil, and the desert will become fruitful.’ ‘‘You really think that would come of it?’ Abu asked earnestly.

“ I do, indeed, Abu. We have conquered many brave peoples, far more numerous than yours; and those who were our bitterest enemies now see how they have benefited by it.

Certainly England would not undertake the cost of such an expedition lightly, but if she is driven to it by your advance against Egypt she will assuredly do so. Your people— I mean the Baggaras and their allies—would suffer terribly; but the people whom you have conquered, whose villages you have burned, whose women you have carried off, would rejoice.’

“ We would fight,’ Abu said passionately. “ ‘ Certainly you would fight, and fight gallantly, but it would not avail you. Besides, Abu, you would be fighting for that ignorance you have just regretted, and against the teaching and progress you have wished for.’

It is hard,’ Abu said quietly.