But perhaps a little could
be spared from what trickled out by-and-by.

Presently Captain Reece came back to his visitor.

"Well, now I have time to ask, how on earth did you come to choose this
desert for a steeple-chase course, and our little zereba for a goal?" he
asked.

"I am acting on the staff," said Strachan; "only galloping, you know.
And I was sent out to find you if I could, and tell you to make for
Shebacat, and, if you could, to get on to Abu Klea at once. If I found
any of the enemy out in this direction, and could not get on, I was to
return at once, and a force was to be sent to relieve you; but it was
important to avoid this if possible, I was given to understand.
However, I had no chance of returning, for the first glimpse I got of
the enemy consisted of a small body of mounted Arabs, who cut off my
retreat, and chased me all the way here."

"We are not to make back to Gubat, then?" asked Reece in surprise.

"No," said Strachan.

"Matammeh has not been carried?"

"Not yet; I suppose it may be soon; everybody seems to expect it. But I
don't see the use now."

"Why not?"

"Well," said Strachan, "one hates to be the bearer of bad news, but it
must come. The expedition has been too late: Khartoum has fallen."

The two other officers had come up and heard this, and their faces
showed the blank dismay which had fallen upon their hearts, as the words
fell upon their ears.

Khartoum fallen! Why, then, what were they fighting for? What was to
happen next? All seemed chaos.

"And Gordon?" was the first question which rose to all lips.

"There is no certain news, yet," said Strachan; "but the rumours of his
death are only too probable. He was not the sort of man to be taken
alive, I think, was he?"

"No, no!"

"But when did you hear this?" asked Reece.

"Only last night," replied Strachan. "Gordon's four steamers arrived
while you were at Abu Kru, the camp at Gubat, I think?"

"Yes, and two of them, the _Bordein_ and _Telh-howeiya_, had started
with Sir Charles Wilson up the river. That was on the 24th of January."

"Exactly. Well, it seems when they got to Khartoum they found it in the
hands of the Mahdi, and it was with the greatest difficulty they got
away, having to run the gauntlet of several batteries and a tremendous
fusillade. Both steamers were wrecked coming down, and Sir Charles
Wilson, with the crews and the Royal Sussex men who went with him, is on
an island watche