The Bordein, One Of Gordon's Old
Steamers, Plied Busily Between Omdurman And Wad Hamed, Transporting Guns
And Stores; And Ahmed Fedil Was Sent With A Sufficient Force To Hold The
Works When They Were Made.
But the prophecy of the Mahdi exercised a
powerful effect on the Khalifa's mind, and while he neglected no detail
he based his hopes on the issue of a great battle on the plains of Kerreri,
when the invaders should come to the walls of the city.
With this prospect
continually before him he drilled and organised the increasing army at
Omdurman with the utmost regularity, and every day the savage soldiery
practised their evolutions upon the plain they were presently to strew
with their bodies.
But after a while it became apparent that the 'Turks' were not advancing.
They tarried on the lands they had won. The steamers went no further than
Merawi. The iron road stopped at Kerma. Why had they not followed up their
success? Obviously because they feared the army that awaited them at
Omdurman. At this the Khalifa took fresh courage, and in January 1897 he
began to revolve schemes for taking the offensive and expelling the
invaders from the Dongola province. The army drilled and manoeuvred
continually on the plains of Kerreri; great numbers of camels were
collected at Omdurman; large stores of dried kisru or 'Soudan biscuit,'
the food of Dervishes on expeditions, were prepared.
The Sirdar did not remain in ignorance of these preparations.
The tireless enterprise of the Intelligence Branch furnished the most
complete information; and preparations were made to concentrate the troops
in Dongola on any threatened point, should the enemy advance.
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