to Khor Wintri, where they
found the column from Tokar already arrived. Marching early on the
15th, Major Sidney with 250 men of the Xth Soudanese, the only really
trustworthy troops in the force, had reached Khor Wintri the same
afternoon. He drove out the small Dervish post occupying the khor, and
was about to bivouac, when he was sharply attacked by a force of Arabs
said to have numbered 80 horsemen and 500 foot. The Soudanese fought
with their usual courage, and the Dervishes were repulsed, leaving
thirty dead upon the ground. The regulars had three men wounded.

Up to this point Colonel Lloyd's plan had been successfully carried out.
The columns from Suakin and Tokar had effected a junction at Khor Wintri
on the Erkowit road. It now remained to await the attack of Osman Digna,
and inflict a heavy blow upon him. It was decided, however, in view
of what had occurred, to omit this part of the scheme, and both forces
returned together without delay to Suakin, which they reached on the
18th, having lost in the operations eighteen Egyptian soldiers killed
and three wounded.

Their arrival terminated a period of anxious doubt as to their fate.
The town, which had been almost entirely denuded of troops, was left in
charge of Captain Ford-Hutchinson. At about two o'clock in the afternoon
of the 16th a few stragglers from the Egyptian cavalry with half-a-dozen
riderless horses knocked at the gates, and vague but sinister rumours
spread on all sides. The belief that a disaster had overtaken the
Egyptian force greatly excited the Arabs living within the walls, and
it appeared that they were about to rise, plunder the town, and massacre
the Christians. Her Majesty's ship Scout was, however, by good fortune
in the harbour. Strong parties of bluejackets were landed to patrol the
streets. The guns of the warship were laid on the Arab quarter. These
measures had a tranquillising effect, and order reigned in Suakin until
the return of the Field Force, when their victory was celebrated with
appropriate festivities.

It was announced that as a result of the successful operations the
Dervish enterprise against the Tokai Delta had collapsed, and that
Osman Digna's power was for ever broken. In order, however, that no
unfortunate incident should mar the triumph, the Xth Soudanese were sent
back to Tokar by sea via Trinkitat, instead of marching direct and the
garrison of Suakin confined themselves henceforward strictly to their
defenc