u WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOUDAN and moreover, the lad had said that the black regiment in the rear of the square had kept together and marched away; he believed all had been afterwards killed, but this he did not know. If Gregory had been there when the square was broken he might well have kept with them, and at nightfall slipped on his disguise and made his escape. It was at least possible—she would not give up all hope. So years went on. Things were quiet in Egypt. A native army had been raised there under the command of British officers, and these had checked the northern progress of the Mahdists and restored confidence in Egypt. Gregory—for the boy had been named after his father—grew up strong and hearty. His mother devoted her evenings to his education. From the negress, who was his nurse and the general servant of the house, he had learnt to talk her native language. She had been carried off when ten years old by a slave-raiding party, and sold to an Egyptian trader at Khartoum, been given by him to an Atbara chief with whom he had dealings, and five years later had been captured in a tribal war by the Jaulin. Two or three times she had changed masters, and finally had been purchased by an Egyptian officer and brought down by him to Cairo. At his death four years afterwards she had been given her freedom, being now past fifty, and had taken service with Gregory Hilliard and his wife. Her vocabulary was a large one, and she was acquainted with most of the dialects of the Soudan tribes.

From the time when her husband was first missing, Mrs.

Hilliard cherished the idea that some day the child might grow up and search for his father, and perhaps ascertain his fate beyond all doubt. She was a very conscientious woman, and was resolved that at whatever pain to herself she would, when once certain of her husband’s death, go to England and obtain recognition of his boy by his family. But it was pleasant to think that the day was far distant when she could give up hope. She saw, too, that if the Soudan was ever reconquered the knowledge of the tribal languages must be