owards the Atbara. Complete as had been the
victory on that river, the Sirdar saw that the force which had been
sufficient to defeat the twenty thousand men, under Mahmud, was not
sufficiently strong for the more onerous task of coping with three
times that number, fighting under the eye of the Khalifa, and certain
to consist of his best and bravest troops. He therefore telegraphed
home for another British brigade, and additional artillery, with at
least one regiment of cavalry--an arm in which the Egyptian Army was
weak.

Preparations were at once made for complying with the request. The 21st
Lancers, 1st battalion of Grenadier Guards, 2nd battalion of the Rifle
Brigade, 2nd battalion of the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers, a field
battery, a howitzer battery, and two forty-pounders, to batter the
defences of Omdurman, should the Khalifa take his stand, were sent. A
strong detachment of the Army Service Corps and the Royal Army Medical
Corps was to accompany them, but they had yet some months to wait, for
the advance would not be made until the Nile was full, and the gunboats
could ascend the cataract.

However, there was much to be done, and the troops did not pass the
time in idleness. Atbara Fort was to be the base, and here the Egyptian
battalions built huts and storehouses. The Soudanese brigades returned
to Berber, and the transport of provisions and stores for them was thus
saved. The British at Darmali were made as comfortable as possible, and
no effort was spared to keep them in good health, during the ensuing
hot weather. A small theatre was constructed, and here smoking concerts
were held. There was also a race meeting, and one of the steamers took
parties, of the men who were most affected by the heat, for a trip down
the Nile. They were practised in long marches early in the morning, and
although, of course, there was some illness, the troops on the whole
bore the heat well.

Had there been a prospect of an indefinitely long stay, the result
might have been otherwise; but they knew that, in a few months, they
would be engaged in even sterner work than the last battle, that
Khartoum was their goal, and with its capture the power of the Khalifa
would be broken for ever, and Gordon avenged.

Early in April the railway reached Abadia, a few miles from Berber, and
in a short time a wonderful transformation took place here. From a
sandy desert, with scarce a human being in sight, it became the scene
of a busy indu