At present, he preferred to be a listener.
The distance to Wady Halfa was some three hundred miles; but the current was strong, and the steamer could not tow the boats more than five miles an hour, against it.

It was sixty hours, from the start, before they arrived.
Gregory was astonished at the stir and life in the place.

Great numbers of native labourers were at work, unloading barges and native craft; and a line of railway ran down to the wharves, where the work of loading the trucks went on briskly.

Smoke pouring out from many chimneys, and the clang of hammers, told that the railway engineering work was in full swing.

Vast piles of boxes, cases, and bales were accumulated on the wharf, and showed that there would be no loss of time in pushing forward supplies to Abu Hamed, as soon as the railway was completed to that point.
Wady Halfa had been the starting point of a railway, commenced years before.