CHAPTER XIV:  THE OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER

The British and Egyptian cavalry, supported by the Camel Corps and Horse Artillery, trotted out rapidly, and soon interposed a distance of eight miles between them and the army.  As before, the 21st Lancers were on the left nearest the river, and the Khedivial squadrons curved backwards in a wide half-moon to protect the right flank.  Meanwhile the gunboat flotilla was seen to be in motion.  The white boats began to ascend the stream leisurely.  Yet their array was significant.  Hitherto they had moved at long and indefinite intervals—­one following perhaps a mile, or even two miles, behind the other.  Now a regular distance of about 300 yards was observed.  The orders of the cavalry were to reconnoitre Omdurman; of the gunboats to bombard it.

As soon as the squadrons of the 21st Lancers had turned the shoulder of the steep Kerreri Hills, we saw in the distance a yellow-brown pointed dome rising above the blurred horizon.  It was the Mahdi’s Tomb, standing in the very heart of Omdurman.  From the high ground the field-glass disclosed rows and rows of mud houses, making a dark patch on the brown of the plain.  To the left the river, steel-grey in the morning light, forked into two channels, and on the tongue of land between them the gleam of a white building showed among the trees.  Before us were the ruins of Khartoum and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles.

A black, solitary hill rose between the Kerreri position and Omdurman.  A long, low ridge running from it concealed the ground beyond.  For the rest there was a wide-rolling, sandy plain of great extent, surrounded on three sides by rocky hills and ridges, and patched with coarse, starveling grass or occasional bushes.  By the banks of the river which framed the picture on the left stood a straggling mud village, and this, though we did not know it, was to be the field of Omdurman.  It was deserted.  Not a living creature could be seen.  And now there were many who said once and for all that there would be no fight; for here we were arrived at the very walls of Omdurman, and never an enemy to bar our path.  Then, with four squadrons looking very tiny on the broad expanse of ground, we moved steadily forward, and at the same time the Egyptian cavalry and the Camel Corps entered the plain several miles further to the west, and they too began to trot across it.

It was about three miles to the last ridge which lay between us and the city.  If there was a Dervish army, if there was to be a battle, if the Khalifa would maintain his boast and accept the arbitrament of war, much must be visible from that ridge.  We looked over.  At first nothing was apparent except the walls and houses of Omdurman and the sandy plain sloping up from the river to distant hills.  Then four miles away on our right front emerged a long black line with white spots.  It was the enemy.