And again a week later:
"The men are working very well; we have no drink, and therefore no crime or sickness. I am getting on well with altering our ammunition. We have 3,000,000 rounds to alter, but are making good progress, altering about 80,000 rounds per day."
In the same letter we read:
"There are crocodiles in the river here, but not many. A fisherman caught one about three feet long, a most vicious little brute, who snaps at everyone and everything; he is tied by the middle with a piece of string, and swims about in a bath; he will probably be eaten when his master gets hungry. Three days ago a gazelle was trapped and sent in to us by a native. He was uninjured, and a beautiful little brute, with large eyes like Lorna's. We all decided to keep him as a pet, and he got quite tame in a few hours. But alas! we got hungry, and some one suggested that he might escape—so we ate him. Perhaps it was the wisest course."
In a letter dated Abu Dis, February 24, we get the first word of the forced march that was ordered on the following day:
"I am so frightfully busy that I cannot find time for anything, so I think I may as well sit down and write to you for relaxation. Yesterday we had a seventy-mile ride to a place called Bastinab and back, looking out for future camping-grounds, for I have got a hint to be ready to move on at once, as Mahmoud at Metemma has crossed over to the east side of the Nile, and threatens to attack Atbara and Berber.... We may have to move and stack our camp baggage, etc., by the side of the line in the desert, and march on in light order, the same sort of thing as in Chitral—a most exciting business this would be, wouldn't it?
"My Maxim Battery came in to-day; I am quite pleased to get it. The men are looking splendid, and we have only thirty or so sick out of a total strength of nearly 3,000. I have now got my camel transport, something like 800 animals; this makes me more independent, and if I am required to move I can do so."
Between February 22 and 25 a series of telegrams had been flying between the Sirdar at Berber and the Brigadier at Abu Dis. All the details of the march which would be necessary to bring the British troops forward were proposed on the one side and sanctioned on the other, so that when on Friday, February 25, the following telegram was received at midday, orders were immediately issued and the start was made that evening.
"News has come in that enemy in ten rubs advancing. You can therefore move Brigade as arranged.—SIRDAR."
(A rub means any number between 500 and 1,500 men.)