It is hardly possible that you should have done so, in the time.

I suppose, when you got to Gakdul, you learned that the Dervishes were at Abu Klea." "They were at Abu Klea, General; but I made a detour, and got into their camp at Metemmeh." "You did, and have returned safely! I congratulate you, most warmly.
"I told you, Macdonald," he said, turning to the officer with whom he had been engaged, "that I had the greatest hope that Mr.Hilliard would get through.

He felt so confident in himself that I could scarce help feeling confidence in him, too." "He has done well, indeed!" Colonel Macdonald said.

"I should not have liked to send any of my officers on such an adventure, though they have been here for years." "Well, will you sit down, Mr.Hilliard," the General said, "and give us a full account?
In the first place, what you have learned?
And in the second, how you have learned it ?" Gregory related the conversations he had heard among the soldiers; and then that of Mahmud's brother and the commander of the Dervish cavalry.
Then he described the events of his journey there, his narrow escape from capture, and the pursuit by the Dervishes at Abu Klea; how he gave them the slip, struck the Ambukol caravan road, had a fight with a band of robber Arabs, and finally reached the Egyptian camp.
"An excellently managed business!" the General said, warmly.

"You have certainly had some narrow escapes, and seem to have adopted the only course by which you could have got off safely.