50 WITH KITCHENER IN THE SOHDAN montlis I have felt that it was so, and but for your sake I did not care to live. I thank God that I have been spared to see you growing up all that I could wish ; and though I should have liked to see you fairly started in life, I feel that you may now make your way unaided. JTow I want, before it is too late, to give you instructions. In my desk you will find a sealed envelope. It contains a copy of the registers of my marriage and of your birth. These will prove that your father married and had a son. You can get plenty of witnesses who can prove that you were the child mentioned. I promised your father that I would not mention our real name to anyone until it was necessary for me to write to your grandfather. I have kept that promise. His name was Gregory Hilliard, so we have not taken false names. They were his Christian names; the third name, his family name, you will find when you open that envelope.

“ I have been thinking for months past what you had best do, and this is my advice, but do not look upon it as an order. You are old enough to think for yourself. You know that Sir Herbert Kitchener, the Sirdar, is pushing his way up the Nile. I have no doubt that with your knowledge of Arabic and of the language used by the black race in the Soudan, you will be able to obtain some sort of post in the army, perhaps as an interpreter to one of the ofiicers commanding a brigade—the same position, in fact, as your father had, except that the army is now virtually British, whereas that he went with was Egyptian. I have two reasons for desiring this. I do not wish you to go home until you are in a position to dispense with all aid from your family. I have done without it, and I trust that you will be able to do the same.

I should like you to be able to go home at one-and-twenty and to say to your grandfather, I have not come home to ask for money or assistance of any kind. I am earning my living honourably. I only ask recognition by my family as my father’s son.’

‘It is probable that this expedition will last fully two