As for Gordon, had they not had a message from him? “All right; could hold out for years.”
Their chivalrous dash across the desert, and the hard fighting against enormous odds, the loss of valuable men, and the fall of their general, were not fruitless then, since the object of the expedition would be attained.
“Sure we will all get a bar with Khartoum on it under a medal!” said Grady.
“Medals! Bars! Yah!” cried Tarrant.
“I’d sooner have tuppence a day extra for beer.”
“We’ve got naither the medal nor the bar nor Khartoum yet, d’ye ken?” said Macintosh.