dgate, as you are going to the General's, perhaps you will
take Mr. Hilliard with you, and introduce him."

"With pleasure.

"Now, Mr. Hilliard, let us be off, at once. The sun is getting hot, and
the sooner we are under shelter, the better."

Ten minutes' walk took them to the house formerly occupied by the
Egyptian Governor of the town, where General Hunter now had his
headquarters. The General, who was a brevet colonel in the British
Army, had joined the Egyptian Army in 1888. He had, as a captain in the
Lancashire regiment, taken part in the Nile Expedition, 1884-85; had
been severely wounded at the battle of Ginnis; and again at Toski,
where he commanded a brigade. He was still a comparatively young man.
He had a broad forehead, and an intellectual face, that might have
betokened a student rather than a soldier; but he was celebrated, in
the army, for his personal courage and disregard of danger, and was
adored by his black soldiers.

He rose from the table at which he was sitting, as Captain Fladgate
came in.

"I am glad to see you back again," he said. "I hope you have quite
shaken off the fever?"

"Quite, General. I feel thoroughly fit for work again. Allow me to
present to you Mr. Hilliard, who has just received a commission as
lieutenant in the Egyptian Army. He has a letter from the Sirdar, to
you."

"Well, I will not detain you now, Captain Fladgate. You will find your
former quarters in readiness for you. Dinner at the usual time; then
you shall tell me the news of Cairo.

"Now, Mr. Hilliard," and he turned to Gregory, "pray take a seat. This
is your first experience in soldiering, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir."

"I think you are the first white officer who has been appointed, who
has not had experience in our own army first. You have not been
appointed to any particular battalion, have you?"

"No, sir. I think I have come out to make myself generally useful.
These are the letters that I was to hand to you--one is from the Sirdar
himself, the other is from his chief of the staff, and this letter is
from Captain Ewart."

The General read the Sirdar's letter first. He then opened that from
the chief of the staff. This was the more bulky of the two, and
contained several enclosures.

"Ah! this relates to you," the General said as, after glancing over the
two official despatches, he read through the letter of Captain Ewart,
who was a personal friend of his.

The latter had given a full account of