There was an Arab hiding in the trees at the back of the glacis." "Yes." "Have you forgotten the yarn he told you ?" "About Gordon's letters and the wall of a house in Berber?
No, I have not forgotten." "Then here's something which will interest you," and Captain Mather, having folded the paper to his satisfaction, handed it to Durrance and pointed to a paragraph.

It was a short paragraph; it gave no details; it was the merest summary; and Durrance read it through between the puffs of his cigar.
"The fellow must have gone back to Berber after all," said he.

"A risky business.

Abou Fatma--that was the man's name." The paragraph made no mention of Abou Fatma, or indeed of any man except Captain Willoughby, the Deputy-Governor of Suakin.

It merely announced that certain letters which the Mahdi had sent to Gordon summoning him to surrender Khartum, and inviting him to become a convert to the Mahdist religion, together with copies of Gordon's curt replies, had been recovered from a wall in Berber and brought safely to Captain Willoughby at Suakin.
"They were hardly worth risking a life for," said Mather.
"Perhaps not," replied Durrance, a little doubtfully.