r. The Sirdar and General Hunter have both taken
a great interest in you. It might be necessary, perhaps, for you to
enter the British Army and serve for two or three years, so as to get a
knowledge of drill and discipline; then, from your acquaintance with
the languages here you could, of course, get transferred to the
Egyptian Army, where you would rank as a major, at once."

"I have hardly thought of the future yet, sir; but of course, I shall
have to do so, as soon as I am absolutely convinced of my father's
death. Really, I have no hope now; but I promised my mother to do
everything in my power to ascertain it, for a certainty. She placed a
packet in my hands, which was not to be opened until I had so satisfied
myself. I do not know what it contains, but I believe it relates to my
father's family.

"I do not see that that can make any difference to me, for I certainly
should not care to go home to see relations to whom my coming might be
unwelcome. I should greatly prefer to stay out here, for a few years,
until I had obtained such a position as would make me absolutely
independent of them."

"I can quite understand that," Captain Keppel said. "Poor relations
seldom get a warm welcome, and as you were born in Alexandria, they may
be altogether unaware of your existence. You have certainly been
extremely fortunate, so far; and if you preferred a civil appointment,
you would be pretty certain of getting one when the war is over.

"There will be a big job in organizing this country, after the
Dervishes are smashed up; and a biggish staff of officials will be
wanted. No doubt most of these will be Egyptians, but Egyptian
officials want looking after, so that a good many berths must be filled
by Englishmen; and Englishmen with a knowledge of Arabic and the Negro
dialect are not very easily found. I should say that there will be
excellent openings, for young men of capacity."

"I have no doubt there will," Gregory said. "I have really never
thought much about the future. My attention, from childhood, has been
fixed upon this journey to the Soudan; and I never looked beyond it,
nor did my mother discuss the future with me. Doubtless she would have
done so, had she lived; and these papers I have may give me her advice
and opinion about it."

"Well, I must be going on deck," Captain Keppel said. "We shall start
in half an hour."

The three gunboats were all of the same design. They were flat
bottomed, so as to draw