A complete victory might have been won; and yet the messenger with the despatches might have been captured, and killed, by the parties of tribesmen hanging behind the army, or wandering about the country between the army and Khartoum.

Still, of course, this is making us all very anxious." The party soon broke up, none having any reassuring suggestions to offer; and Annie returned to her lodging, to weep over her boy, and pray for the safety of his father.

Days and weeks passed, and still no word came to Cairo.

At Khartoum there was a ferment among the native population.

No secret was made of the fact that the tribesmen who came and went all declared that Hicks Pasha's army was utterly destroyed.