" I will write an order, Mr. Hilliard, to release at once the men you have brought in; then I will ask you to ride with these emirs to a point where there will be no fear of their falling in with our cavalrj^."
"You are a generous enemy," Khatim said, "and we thank you. We give in our allegiance to the Egyptian government; and henceforth regard ourselves as its servants."
" See, Mr. Hilliard, that the party takes sufficient food with it for their journey to El Obeid."
Colonel Wingate stepped forward and shook hands with the two emirs.
"You are no longer enemies," he said, "and I know that henceforth I shall be able to rely upon your loyalty."
" We are beaten," Khatim said, as they walked away, each leading his horse. "You can fight like men, and we who thought ourselves brave have been driven before } r ou like dust before the wind. And now when you are masters you can forgive as we should never have done, you can treat us as friends; you do not even take our arms, and we can ride into El Obeid with our heads high."
"It will be good for the Soudan," Abu said. "Your father told me often how peace and prosperity would return were you ever to become our masters, and I felt that his words were true. Two hours ago I regretted that Allah had not let me die, so that I should not have lived to see our people conquered; now I am glad. I believe all that he said, and that the Soudan will some day become again a happy country."
Khatim's men were separated from the rest of the prisoners. Six days' supply of grain from the stores found in the camp were handed over to them, together with ten camels with water-skins, and they started at once on their long march. Gregory rode out for a couple of miles with them and then took leave of the two emirs.
"Come to El Obeid," Khatim said, "and you shall be treated as a king. Farewell! and may Allah preserve you!"
So they parted; and Gregory rode back to the camp with a feeling of much happiness that he had been enabled in some way to repay the kindness shown to his dead father.
CHAPTER XXIII
AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY
THE victory had been a decisive one indeed. Three thousand prisoners, great quantities of rifles, swords, grain, and cattle had been captured, together with six thousand women and children. A thousand Dervishes had been killed or wounded; all the most important emirs had been killed, and the Sheik Ed Din, the Khalifa's eldest son and intended successor, was, with twenty-nine other emirs, among the prisoners. Our total loss was four men killed and two officers and twenty-seven men wounded in the action.
" I am much obliged to you, Mr. Hilliard," Colonel Wingate said to him that evening, "for the valuable services you have rendered, and shall have the pleasure of including your name among the officers who have specially distinguished themselves. As it was mentioned by General Rundle and Colonel Parsons—by the former for undertaking the hazardous service of carrying dispatches to the latter, and by Colonel Parsons for gallant conduct in the field—you ought to be sure of promotion when matters are arranged here."
"Thank you very much, sir! May I ask a favour? You know the outline of my story. I have learned by the papers I obtained at Hebbeh, and others which I was charged not to open until I had certain proof of my father's death, that the name under which he was known was an assumed one. He had had a quarrel with his family, and as, when he came out to Egypt, he for a time took a subordinate position, he dropped a portion of his name, intending to resume it when he had done something that even his family could not consider was any discredit to it. I was myself unaware of the fact until, on returning to Omdurman from Hebbeh, I opened those papers. I continued to bear the name by which I am known, but as you are good enough to say that you will mention me in dispatches, I feel that I can now say that my real name is Gregory Hilliard Hartley."
" I quite appreciate your motives in adhering to your former name, Mr. Hartley, and in mentioning your services under your new name I will add a note saying that your name mentioned in former dispatches for distinguished services had been erroneously given as Gregory Hilliard only."
" Thank you very much, sir!"
That evening, when several of the officers were gathered in Colonel Wingate's hut, the latter said, when one of them addressed Gregory as " Hilliard ":
"That is not his full name, Colonel Hickman. For various family reasons, with which he has acquainted me, he has borne it hitherto, but he will in future be known by his entire name, which is Gregory Hilliard Hartley. I may say that the reasons he has given me for not having hitherto used the family name are in my opinion amply sufficient, involving, as they do, no discredit to himself or his father, a brave gentleman who escaped from the massacre of Hicks's force at El Obeid, and finally died with Colonel Stewart at Hebbeh."
" I seem to know the name," Colonel Lewis said. " Gregory Hilliard-Hartley! I have certainly either heard or seen it somewhere. May I ask if your father bore the same Christian names?"
" Yes, sir."
" I have it now!" Colonel Lewis exclaimed a minute or two later. " I have seen it in an advertisement. Ever since I was a boy that name has occasionally been advertised for. Every two or three months it appeared in the Times. I can see it plainly now.Five hundred pounds reward will be given for any information concerning the present abode or death of Gregory Hilliard Hartley, or the whereabouts of his issue, if any. He left England about the year 1881. It is supposed that he went to the United States or to one of the British colonies. Apply to Messrs. Tufton & Sons, solicitors, Lincoln's Inn Fields.'
"Do you know when your father left England?"
" He certainly left about that time. I am nineteen now, and I know that I was born a few weeks after he came out to Alexandria."
" Then there ought to be something good in store for you," Colonel Wingate said; "people don't offer a reward of five hundred pounds unless something important hangs to it. Of course there may be another of the same name, but it is hardly likely that anyone would bear the two same Christian names as well as surname. Is it indiscreet to ask you if you know anything about your father's family?"
" Not at all, sir. Now that I have taken his name I need have no hesitation in relating what I know of him. Previous to his leaving England he married without his father's consent, and failing to make a living in England he accepted a situation in Alexandria, which he gained, I may say, because he was an excellent Arabic scholar, as he had spent two years in exploring tombs and monuments in Egypt. He was the second son of the Honourable James Hartley, who was brother, and I believe heir, of the Marquis of Langdale, and I should think by this time has succeeded to the title. At his death my father's eldest brother would of course succeed him."
" Then, my dear fellow," Colonel Mahon said, giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder, " allow me to congratulate you. I can tell you that the title has been in abeyance for the past fourteen years. Everyone knows the facts. Your grandfather died before the Marquis. Your uncle succeeded him, lived only three years, and being unmarried, your father became the next Earl, and has been advertised for in vain ever since. As, unhappily, your father is dead also, you are unquestionably the Marquis of Langdale."
Gregory looked round Avith a bewildered air. The news was so absolutely unexpected that he could hardly take it in.
" It seems impossible," he said at last.
"It is not only not impossible, but a fact," the Colonel said. " There is nothing very surprising in it. There were only two lives between your father and the peerage, and as one was that of an old man, the second of a man certainly in the prime of life but unmarried, why, the Jews would have lent money on the chance. I fancy your uncle was a somewhat extravagant man. I remember he kept a lot of race-horses and so on, but he could not have dipped very seriously into the property. At an}' rate there will be fourteen years' accumulations, which will put matters straight. I hope you have got papers that will prove you are your father's son, and that he was brother of the late Earl."