ng, the rough way between the river and the great wall was
partly cleared of the enemy. Thereupon the Sirdar and staff forded a
dirty, wide creek, the crossing being girth high, and trotted a few
hundred yards up stream. With double teams, four guns of the 32nd
Battery, Major Williams', were got across the pool, accompanying the
headquarters.

Entering a gateway through the outer rectangular wall, the force moved
towards the Mahdi's tomb and the Khalifa's chief residence or palace.
The Sirdar and staff reined up before Abdullah's doorway, for the
dervish leader's house was surrounded by an inner wall and various
small buildings. We were in a higgledy-piggledy looking corner,
surrounded by rough shelters or stables for animals, horses and
camels, and the unfinished but covered approaches to the Mahdi's tomb.
The staff sat on horseback facing the doorway and dwelling; I pulled
in opposite beside an angle of the wall. Upon the Sirdar's right were
some corrugated iron roofed sheds, and a little in front the Praying
Square. Behind was the Mahdi's tomb, and at no great distance various
important dervish buildings. Abdullah had so planted himself that he
had easy and private access to all places of public resort as well as
the official quarters.

[Illustration: MAHDI'S TOMB--EFFECT OF LYDDITE SHELLS.]

Slatin Pasha, Colonel Maxwell, and several soldiers, with one or two
others, went in and searched for the Khalifa. A few minutes previously
he had slipped out by a back door with the more important part of his
personal treasures. His harem had been sent away earlier in the day.
Mr Hubert Howard, correspondent of the _New York Herald_ and the
London _Times_, was near the headquarters staff. He came over to where
I was and chatted. To a companion who had joined me he offered some
cigarettes. He said it had been a splendid day, and he had seen much.
Nothing could have been better than the way things turned out, and he
was glad he had been through it from first to last, cavalry charge
included. Then he said he would like to get a photograph or two of the
surroundings and the Khalifa's house. I told him the light was spent
and he could get no good results. He said he would try, and rode
inside the courtyard. A minute or less later, there was the roar and
crash of a shrapnel shell, which burst over our heads in very
dangerous proximity. The iron and bullets struck the walls and rattled
upon the corrugated iron roofs alongside. "Tha