Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/204

 the descent on the village of Atandan. Yet our officers at Wady Haifa are quite unable to take that view of the incident. They discussed it freely enough, and with a frank military admiration mingling with their disgust.

"It was really not half a bad performance for dervishes," said the staff officer, with whom we were conversing about it. "They came from a distance of over a hundred miles, and across a country without wells, and they got safe back again with their booty, and without losing a man. Yes, it was a very well organised and well executed piece of work."

"How long did it take them to sack the unfortunate village?"

"Well, that would only be a work of two or three hours; but it was getting back on to their own ground, and beyond the risk of our cutting them off—it was that which was the difficulty."

"They cut the telegraph wires, didn't they?"