THE CROWNING VICTORY 349 . I ' I had passed, had brought in very varying accounts of his ’ j strength. Then there were villagers who had complaints to I make of robbery, of ill-usage—for this the Arab irregulars, I who had been disbanded after the capture of Omdurman, j were largely responsible. Besides these there were many pe-I titions by fugitives, who had returned to find their houses j occupied and their land seized by others. Gregory was coni stantly sent off to investigate and decide in these disputes, j and was sometimes away for a week at a time. Zaki had I recovered rapidly, and as soon as he was able to rise accompanied his master, who obtained valuable assistance from him, as, while Gregory was hearing the stories of witnesses, Zaki went quietly about the villages talking to the old men and women, and frequently obtained evidence that showed that many of the witnesses were perjured, and so enabled his mas-: ter to give decisions which as’tonished the people by their ' justness.

i Indeed, the reports of the extraordinary manner in which he seemed able to pick out truth from falsehood, and to decide in favour of the rightful claimant, spread so rapidly from village to village that claimants who came in to Colonel Wingate often requested urgently that the young Bimbashi I should be sent out to investigate the matter. “You seem to be attaining the position of a modern Solomon, Hilliard,” ' the Colonel said one day with a smile ; “ how do you do it ? ” Gregory laughed, and told him the manner in which he ! got at the truth.

! “ An excellent plan,” he said, “ and one which it would be j well to adopt generally by sending men beforehand to a village. The only objection is, that you could not rely much more upon the reports of your spies than on those of the villagers. The chances are that the claimant who could bid highest would receive their support.”

Matters were quiet until the Sirdar returned from England, and determined to make an attempt to capture the Khalifa, whose force was reported not to exceed one thousand