Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/206

 announcement made to the commanding officer watching the evolutions of the combatants; and "All right" was the natural reply. "So much the better for the officer in command of them." It was, of course, some little time before the two armies could be generally apprised of the fact that it was a question of real and not of sham Dervishes, and that they must unite forces in pursuit of the common enemy, who, thanks to the leisurely proceedings of the villagers, were by that time well on their way back to their base of operations.

"It was too many hours' start to give the rascals," said our informant, regretfully.

We expressed the surprise of ignorance at its being possible to give them any start at all. Surely a tribe whose business is "robbery under arms," would be as well mounted as a clan of Border-reivers in the old cattle-lifting days. The camels of a band of raiding Dervishes ought to be a match for any others.

"Wait till you have seen ours," replied