r with
him comes out, I will give your message to his orderly."

Gregory, however, was in no humour to be stopped; and in an
authoritative voice called, "Orderly!"

A soldier came down directly from the guard room.

"Tell the General, at once, that Mr. Hilliard has returned."

With a look of wonder, the orderly went into the tent. Half a minute
later, he returned.

"You are to come in," he said.

As the General had seen Gregory in his disguise, before starting, he of
course recognized him.

"My dear Hilliard," he said, getting up and shaking him cordially by
the hand, "I am heartily glad to see you back. You have been frequently
in my thoughts; and though I had every confidence in your sharpness, I
have regretted, more than once, that I allowed you to go.

"I suppose you failed to get there. It is hardly possible that you
should have done so, in the time. I suppose, when you got to Gakdul,
you learned that the Dervishes were at Abu Klea."

"They were at Abu Klea, General; but I made a detour, and got into
their camp at Metemmeh."

"You did, and have returned safely! I congratulate you, most warmly.

"I told you, Macdonald," he said, turning to the officer with whom he
had been engaged, "that I had the greatest hope that Mr. Hilliard would
get through. He felt so confident in himself that I could scarce help
feeling confidence in him, too."

"He has done well, indeed!" Colonel Macdonald said. "I should not have
liked to send any of my officers on such an adventure, though they have
been here for years."

"Well, will you sit down, Mr. Hilliard," the General said, "and give us
a full account? In the first place, what you have learned? And in the
second, how you have learned it?"

Gregory related the conversations he had heard among the soldiers; and
then that of Mahmud's brother and the commander of the Dervish cavalry.
Then he described the events of his journey there, his narrow escape
from capture, and the pursuit by the Dervishes at Abu Klea; how he gave
them the slip, struck the Ambukol caravan road, had a fight with a band
of robber Arabs, and finally reached the Egyptian camp.

"An excellently managed business!" the General said, warmly. "You have
certainly had some narrow escapes, and seem to have adopted the only
course by which you could have got off safely. The information you have
brought is of the highest importance. I shall telegraph, at once, to
the Sirdar that there will assuredly be no a