Part 25 (1/2)

This he did to a certain extent by 'setting a thief to catch a thief,'

that is, by holding one claimant to the throne in check by means of another The state hich he was surrounded made hiht or ten men to help nantly 'If I walk, everyone gets off and walks; so, furious, I get on again'

However, these pin-pricks to his te, for soon bad news came from Khartoum, and he had to set out for the Soudan directly

His daily journey on his camel was never less than thirty, and more often forty miles On his arrival at a station he received everybody, rich and poor, who chose to come to him, listened to all co constant reports to the khedive of what he was doing He had nobody to help him; it was far easier and quicker for him to do his oork than first to tell someone else what he wanted done, and then to make sure his instructions were properly carried out

At length Khartoueneral, the cere, weto the wishes of the khedive, he was treated like a sultan in the 'Arabian Nights' On no account was he ever to get up, even when a great chief came to pay his respects to him, and no one was allowed to remain seated in his presence Worse than all, his palace was filled with two hundred servants

The first reform he wished to make was to disband a body of six thousand Bashi+-Bazouks, or Arab and Turkish irregular troops, who pillaged the tribes on the frontiers that they were set to guard, and let the slave-dealers go free Of course this could only be done very slowly and cautiously; but he e a few at a time and to replace them with soldiers from the Soudan, whohthouses a proper water-supply, where before the lack of it had caused disease and discoan a march of several hundred miles ards to Darfour

Here the whole province had risen up against its new Egyptian masters, and those tribes which had not already broken out were preparing to do so With the hopeful spirit that never deserted him, and which more than once had created the ined that he would be able to turn his enemies into allies As to his own life, his faith in God was too real and too firm for him to take that into consideration Till his appointed task was finished he was perfectly safe, and after that he would, in his oords, 'leave much weariness for perfect peace'

Thus he went about his ith complete unconcern, and one day arrived at a discontented place an hour and a half before the few hundred soldiers that formed his army nobody expected hiold, flying towards them on the swiftest camel they had ever beheld, and with only one co would have been easier than to kill Gordon; but soht of it, and soon the people of Darfour and the neighbouring tribes caladly by the garrisons of the various little towns, some of whom had received no pay for three years These half-starvedin their weak condition even yptian soldier, he sent eastwards to be disbanded, and with an army of five hundred untrustworthy troops, who did not possess a single cannon, and whose aruns, he had to prepare to face the attack of thousands of rebels against the Egyptian government

Luckily, for so fired, and the danger being passed the Egyptians pushed on to Dara

[Illustration: They saw atowards the been looking forward--the life and death struggle with the slave-dealers, headed by Suleiman, son of Zebehr, who had armed six thousand of his own slaves, and could besides suood soldiers How thankfully, then, Gordon reeted the arrival of a powerful tribe seven thousand strong, who, having suffered bitterly froe That after a hard fight the victory re only to the support of this and other friendly tribes, for the Egyptians 'crowded into the stockade' and hid there, safe, as they hoped, fro bullets

It is in, when in the heat of summer, near the equator, he darted about on his camel from one place to another, 'a dirty, red-faced man, ornamented with flies,' and often by his unexpected appearance and proave his ene at the end of August that Suleiht to the spot, which he reached in the condition I have described

'If I had no escort of e escort of flies I suppose the queen fly was a them The people were paralysed at ot up, and putting on the golden arave me, mounted my horse, and with an escort of my robbers of Bashi+-Bazouks rode out to the camp of the other robbers, about three miles off There were about three thousand of the them'

Alone in a tent, with the chiefs, headed by Sulei in a circle round him, Gordon informed them 'in choice Arabic' that he was quite aware that they intended to revolt against the Egyptian government, and that he intended to disarm them and break them up

'They listened in silence and went off to consider what I had said

They have just now sent in a letter stating their submission, and I thank God for it,' he continues 'The sort of stupefied way in which they heard ns, the bad Arabic, was quite absurd' Then one by one the other slave-dealers surrendered, and though Suleiive one much better than he had feared, and by the middle of October he arrived at Khartoum, and after a week's hard work took a steaola In March he very unwillingly continued his journey to Cairo, at the command of the khedive, who desired to create hireat mistake; Gordon's views on the matter were different fro accustomed to be absolute master in any task he undertook to be able to work harmoniously with his equals The khedive, too, failed to support hiain his point, and depressed and annoyed hat had taken place, returned to Khartoum by way of the Suez Canal and Suakim

Then came the news that Suleiman had revolted, and had overrun the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal on the south of Darfour Gordon's old follower and lieutenant Gessi was sent with some troops to put down the revolt; but it was a rainy season, and the country was partially under water He had only one thousand troops, while daily fresh Arabs swelled the ar as well as prudent, and in the middle of November he came up with the enemy and entrenched himself behind stockades on the river Dyoor Here Suleiain was beaten back Gessi sent repeated overnor general could spare was soon exhausted At length Gessi obtained some from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and noas able to leave his cath he stormed a tohere Suleiman was stationed, and nearly captured 'the Cub' hiust that the leader had escaped, Gessi followed hies and dense forests, and though he did not succeed in catching his prey, he was able to break up the gang of slave-dealers

Meanwhile Gordon had left Khartouone to the slave-dealers'

headquarters at Shaka, and then back towards Khartou one week, on his way froa to Toashi+a, he thinks he must have taken about six hundred slaves, and he puts down the number that had lost their lives in the last four years from the cruelty of the dealers to have been at least one hundred thousand in Darfour alone

At Toashi+a Gordon had a short intervieith Gessi, whoovernor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, with a present of 2,000

On his way back to his province neas brought to Gessi of Suleiman's whereabouts He at once started in pursuit with three hundred ht at Gara The slave dealer, taken by surprise, surrendered, and was shot next day, and it would have been well for the Soudan if Suleiman's father Zebehr had paid the saainst the khedive