THE CAMEL CORPS.
"Trumpeter Smith! Trumpeter Smith!" The shout ran through the arched
corridor of the barracks, and a soldier putting his head through one of
the windows repeated the cry at the top of his voice, for Trumpeter
Smith was not in his barrack-room. Edgar, in fact, was walking on the
shady side of the great court-yard chatting with two other troopers when
his name was shouted.
"Hullo! What is it?"
"You are to go to Major Horsley's quarters."
Edgar buttoned up his jacket, ran to the washing-place, plunged his head
and hands in water and hastily dried them, smoothed down his hair with
his pocket-comb at a piece of looking-glass that had been stuck up
against the wall above the basins, and adjusting his cap to the correct
angle made his way to Major Horsley's quarters, wondering much what he
could be wanted for, but supposing that he was to be sent on some
message into the town.
The soldier-servant showed him into the room where Major Horsley and his
wife were sitting.
After a word or two of kindly greeting from the lady, Major Horsley went
on: "I told you a long time back, Smith, that I should not forget the
service you did my wife and her sister, and that I would do you a good
turn if I ever got the chance. Is there anything you particularly want
at present?"
"No, sir, except that I have been thinking that I should be glad to give
up my trumpet. I am just eighteen now, and it would be better for me, I
think, to take my regular place in the ranks. I should be more likely to
be promoted there than I am as a trumpeter."
"Yes, you would be sergeant in a very short time, Smith; after your
behaviour at El-Teb you would be sure of your stripes as soon as you
were eligible for them. But I should not advise you to give up your
trumpet just at the present moment."
"Very well, sir," Edgar said, somewhat surprised.
"But there is something else you are wishing for, is there not? I fancy
every officer and man in the regiment is wishing for it."
"To go up the Nile, sir?" Edgar said eagerly. "Yes; I do wish that,
indeed. Is there any chance of the regiment going, sir?"
"No, I am sorry to say there is not," the major said.
"And a very good thing too, Richard," his wife put in.
"I do not think so at all. It is the hardest thing ever heard of that
the regiments here that have had all the heat and hard work, and
everything else of this beastly place, are to be left behind, while
fellows from England go on. Well, Smith," he went on, turning to Edgar,
"I am glad to say I have been able to do you a good turn. When I was in
the orderly-room just now a letter came to the colonel from the general,
saying that a trumpeter of the Heavy Camel Corps is down with sunstroke
and will not be able to go, and requesting him to detail a trumpeter to
take his place. I at once seized the opportunity and begged that you
might be chosen, saying that I owed you a good turn for your plucky
conduct at Aldershot. The adjutant, I am glad to say, backed me up,
saying that you have done a lot of credit to the regiment with your
cricket, and that the affair at El-Teb alone ought to single you out
when there was a chance like this going. The colonel rather thought that
you were too young, but we urged that as you had stood the climate at
Suakim you could stand it anywhere on the face of the globe. So you are
to go, and the whole regiment will envy you."
"I am obliged to you indeed, sir," Edgar said in delight. "I do not know
how to thank you, sir."
"I do not want any thanks, Smith, for a service that has cost me
nothing. Now you are to go straight to Sergeant Edmonds. I have sent him
a note already, and he is to set the tailors at work at once to rig you
out in the karkee uniform. We cannot get you the helmet they are fitted
out with. But no doubt they have got a spare one or two; probably they
will let you have the helmet of the man whose place you are to take. You
will be in orders to-morrow morning, and I have asked Edmonds to get
your things all finished by that time. Come in and say good-bye before
you start in the morning."
There was no slight feeling of envy when Edgar's good fortune became
known, and the other trumpeters were unanimous in declaring that it was
a shame his being chosen.
"Well, you see, you could not all go," the trumpet-major said, "and if
Smith had not been chosen it would have been long odds against each of
you."
"But he is the last joined of the lot," one of the men urged.
"He can blow a trumpet as well as any of you," the sergeant said, "and
that is what he is wanted for. I think that it is natural enough the
colonel should give him the pull. The officers think a good deal of a
fellow who helped the regiment to win a dozen matches at cricket, and
who carried off the long-distance running prize at Aldershot; besides,
he behaved uncommonly well in that fight, and has as good a right to the
V.C. as any man there. I think that a fellow like that ought to have the
pull if only one is to get it, and I am sure the whole regiment will be
of opinion that he has deserved the chance he has got."
By the next morning the suit of karkee was ready, and Edgar was sent for
early to the orderly-room and officially informed by the colonel that he
had been detailed for service in the Heavy Camel Corps.
"I need not tell you, Smith, to behave yourself well--to be a credit to
the regiment. I should not have chosen you for the service unless I felt
perfectly confident that you would do that. I hope that you will come
back again safe and sound with the regiment. Good-bye, lad!"
Edgar saluted and left the room. Several of the officers followed him
out and bade him a cheery farewell, for he was a general favourite. All
knew that he was a gentleman, and hoped that he would some day win a
commission. He then accompanied Major Horsley to his quarters, and there
the officer and his wife both shook hands with him warmly.
"You will be a sergeant three months after you come back," Major Horsley
said; "and your having been on this Nile expedition, and your conduct at
El-Teb, will help you on when the time comes, and I hope you will be one
of us before many years are over."
Edgar then went up to his barrack-room to say good-bye to his friends,
and took off his smart Hussar uniform and put on the karkee suit, amid
much laughter and friendly chaff at the change in his appearance. The
adjutant had ordered a trooper to accompany him to the camp of the Camel
Corps, which was pitched close by the Pyramids, and to bring back his
horse. He therefore mounted and rode out of the barracks, amid many a
friendly farewell from his comrades. He rode with his companion into the
town and down to the river, crossed in a ferry-boat, and then rode on to
the camp. Inquiring for the adjutant's tent Edgar dismounted and walked
up to that officer, and presented a note from the colonel.
The officer glanced at it. "Oh, you have come to accompany us!" he said.
"You look very young for the work, lad; but I suppose your colonel would
not have chosen you unless he thought you could stand it. I see you have
got our uniform, but you want a helmet. We can manage that for you.
Sergeant Jepherson, see if Trumpeter Johnson's helmet will fit this man;
he is going with us in his place. Fit him out with water-bottle and
accoutrements, and tell him off to a tent."
The helmet fitted fairly, and only needed a little padding to suit
Edgar, who, after putting it on, ran out to where his comrade was
waiting for him and fastened his own head-gear to the pummel of his
saddle.
"Good-bye, young un!" the trooper said. "Hold your own with these
heavies for the honour of the regiment. They mean well, you know, so
don't be too hard upon them."
Edgar laughed as he shook the man by the hand, and as he rode off turned
to look at the scene around him.
There were two camps at a short distance from each other, that of the
Heavy Camel Corps to which he now belonged, composed of men of the 1st
and 2d Life Guards, Blues, Bays, 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards, Royals,
Scots Greys, 5th and 16th Lancers. The other was the Guards Corps,
composed of men of the three regiments of foot guards. Edgar's first
feeling as he looked at the men who were standing about or lying in the
shade of the little triangular Indian mountain-service tents, was that
he had suddenly grown smaller. He was fully up to the average height of
the men of his own regiment, but he felt small indeed by the side of the
big men of the heavy cavalry regiments.
"This way, lad," the sergeant into whose charge he had been given, said.
"What is your name?"
"I am down as Ned Smith."
The sergeant smiled at the answer, for no inconsiderable number of men
enlist under false names. He led the way through the little tents until
he stopped before one where a tall soldier was lying at full length on
the sand. "Willcox, this man has come to take the place of Trumpeter
Johnson. He is detached for duty with us from the Hussars. He will, of
course, share your tent."
"All right, sergeant! I will put him up to the ropes. What's your name,
mate?"
"I go as Ned Smith," Edgar said.
"So you are going in for being a heavy at present."
"I don't care whether I am a heavy or a light, so that I can go up the
river."
"Have you been out here long?"
"About a year; we were through the fighting at Suakim, you know. It was
pretty hot down there, I can tell you."
"It is hot enough here for me--a good deal too hot, in fact; and as for
the dust, it is awful!"
"Yes, it is pretty dusty out here," Edgar agreed; "and of course, with
these little tents, the wind and dust sweep right through them. Over
there in Cairo we have comfortable barracks, and as we keep close during
the day we don't feel the heat. Besides, it is getting cooler now. In
August it was really hot for a bit even there."
"Where are we going to get these camels, do you know?"
"Up the river at Assouan, I believe; but I don't know very much about
it. It was only yesterday afternoon I got orders that I was to go with
you, to take the place of one of your men who had fallen sick, so I have
not paid much attention as to what was going on. It has been rather a
sore subject with us, you see. It did seem very hard that the regiments
here that have stood the heat and dust of this climate all along should
be left behind now that there is something exciting to do, and that
fresh troops from England should go up."
"Well, I should not like it myself, lad. Still I am precious glad I got
the chance. I am one of the 5th Dragoon Guards, and you know we don't
take a turn of foreign service--though why we shouldn't I am sure I
don't know--and we are precious glad to get a change from Aldershot and
Birmingham and Brighton, and all those home stations. You are a lot
younger than any of us here. The orders were that no one under
twenty-two was to come."
"So I heard; but of course as we are out here, and we have got
accustomed to it, age makes no difference."
"What do they send us out here for?"
"There are no barracks empty in the town, no open spaces where you could
be comfortably encamped nearer. Besides, this gives you the chance of
seeing the Pyramids."
"It is a big lump of stone, isn't it?" Willcox said, staring at the
Great Pyramid. "The chaps who built that must have been very hard up for
a job. When I first saw it I was downright disappointed. Of course I had
heard a lot about it, and when we got here it wasn't half as big as I
expected. After we had pitched our tents and got straight, two or three
of us thought we would climb up to the top, as we had half an hour to
spare. Just as we set off one of the officers came along and said,
'Where are you going, lads?' and I said, 'The cooks won't have tea ready
for half an hour, sir, so we thought we would just get up to the top and
look round.' And he said, 'If you do you will be late for tea.'
"Well, it didn't seem to us as if it would take more than five minutes
to get to the top and as much to get down again, so off we went. But
directly we began to climb we found the job was not as easy as we had
expected. It looked to us as if there was but a hundred steps to go up;
but each step turned out to be about five feet high, and we hadn't got
up above twenty of them when the trumpet sounded, and we pretty near
broke our necks in coming down again. After that I got more respect for
that lump of stone. Most of the officers went up next day, and a few of
us did manage it, but I wasn't one of them. I did try again; but I
concluded that if I wanted to go up the Nile, and to be of any good when
I got there, I had best give it up, for there would not be anything left
of me to speak of by the time I got to the top. Then those Arab fellows
got round, and shrieked and jabbered and wanted to pull us up; and the
way they go up and down those stones is wonderful. But of course they
have no weight to carry. No, I never should try that job again, not if
we were to be camped here for the next ten years."
"I have been up to the top," Edgar said; "but it is certainly a hard
pull, and there is nothing much to see when you do get there--only so
much more sand in all directions. The view from the great mosque at
Cairo is much finer. Do you have much drill?"
"Morning and evening we work away pretty stiff. It is infantry drill we
have. They say we are not going to fight on the camels, but only to be
carried along by them and to get off and fight if we see the enemy, and
as we are all new to each other there is a good bit of work to be done
to get us down to work as one battalion. We and the 4th make a troop
together. We have drill in the afternoon, too, for a bit. Of a morning
those that like can go across and have a look at the town. I went
yesterday. Rum old place, isn't it? The rummiest thing is the way those
little donkeys get about with a fat chap perched on the top of a saddle
two feet above them. Never saw such mokes in my life. They ain't bigger
than good-sized dogs some of them, and yet they go along with fifteen
or sixteen stone on their backs as if they did not feel it. Those and
the camels pleased me most. Rum beasts those camels. I can't think what
it must feel like to be stuck up on top of them, and if one does fall
off it must be like coming off a church. Have you tried one?"
"No. I have never been on a camel. Of course we always have had our
horses."
"Why didn't they get us horses?"
"I don't know. They could have bought a couple of thousand, no doubt, if
they had tried; besides, they could have got some from the Egyptian
cavalry. But if they had they would never have sent out you and the
Guards; though the horses would have done very well to carry light
cavalry. I fancy the idea is that in the first place we have to go long
distances without water. Camels can stand thirst for three or four days
together, and each camel can carry water for its rider. Then, too, we
may perhaps march sometimes, and the camels could carry water and food.
So, you see, they will be useful both ways."
"Well, I suppose it is all right," Willcox said; "and as you say, if
they had gone in for horses they could not have carried us heavies. I am
precious glad to come. So are we all; though why they wanted to bring us
and the Guards--the biggest and heaviest men they could pick out in the
army--on a job like this, is more than I can say."
"It is more than anyone can say, I should think," Edgar said; and indeed
no reason has ever been assigned for the singular choice of the heaviest
men that could be collected in the service for duty on a campaign such
as this was to be, and for which light, active, wiry men were especially
suitable.
"There is the dinner call."
"What troop are we in?" Edgar asked, seizing his trumpet, and on
learning at once gave the troop call.
"We are in messes of eight," Willcox replied. "We and the three tents to
the right have one mess. It is our turn to go over and get the grub."
Accordingly Willcox and Edgar went across to the field-kitchen and
received the rations for their mess, consisting of beef and
vegetables--the bread for the day had been served out early. Returning
to the tents the rations were divided between the party of eight, and
Edgar was introduced by Willcox to his new messmates.
"Your regiment was at Aldershot with us eighteen months ago."
"Yes; but I did not know any of your men. I was over one or two evenings
at your canteen, which was by a long way the best in the camp."
"Yes, we used to have some good singing there and no mistake," one of
the men said.
"The Long Valley is not bad in the way of dust, but this place beats it
hollow," another put in.
"This is a cleaner dust," Edgar said. "The Long Valley dust blackened
one; this does not seem to have any dirt in it. As far as the uniforms
go there is not much difference, but one doesn't feel so grimy after a
charge over this Egyptian sand as one did in the Long Valley."
"We played you fellows at cricket, I remember," the man said. "I was in
our eleven. You beat us, for you had a youngster we could not stand up
against, he was a beggar to bowl."
Edgar laughed. "I rather think I am the fellow," he said, "Trumpeter
Smith."
"It was Trumpeter Smith, sure enough. Well, you can bowl and no mistake,
young un. It is rum meeting out here like this. And how have you been
getting on since? You fellows were in the thick of it at El-Teb, I saw;
and got cut up a bit by those niggers, didn't you?"
"That we did," Edgar replied. "I am not sorry that we are going to fight
as infantry this time, for I can tell you it is not pleasant charging
among fellows who throw themselves down and hamstring your horse or
drive a spear into him as he passes over them; and once down it is
likely to go pretty hard with you."
"The infantry had it pretty hot too at Tamanieb?"
"Yes, they got into one of our squares, and I don't think many of our
fellows would have ever got away if it had not been that Buller's square
came up to their assistance. Still, I don't suppose that will ever
happen again. If the infantry stand firm and shoot straight they ought
never to be broken, while that cavalry business was a thing nothing
could guard against. The best horseman in the world may go down if a
fellow shams dead and then suddenly stabs your horse."
"There is no doubt the beggars can fight," Willcox said; "and I expect
we shall get some tough work before we get to Khartoum. I only hope they
won't catch us suddenly before we have time to get off those camels.
Fancy being stuck up on one of those long-legged beasts with half a
dozen niggers making a cock-shy of you with their spears."
"I don't think that will happen," Edgar replied. "We shall have the 19th
to act as scouts, and as there will be no woods or thick scrub, from
what I have heard of the country, as there was on the plains round
Suakim, we ought not to be surprised."
"This meat is horribly tough," Willcox remarked. "It strikes me they
ought to have examined every one's mouth before they sent them out, and
to have chosen men with good sets of grinders, for I am sure they will
want them for this stuff."
"The meat is tough out here. You see, it won't keep and has to be cooked
pretty nearly warm, but it is better by a long way than that tinned meat
which is all we shall get, I expect, when we once start."
"When are we going to start?"
"In a few days, I should think. The boats are being taken up fast, and I
believe a lot of the Canadians went up yesterday. There are two or three
infantry regiments up there ready to go on as soon as the boats for them
get up; and as most of the camels are up there too, I should think they
will push us up as soon as they can, as I suppose we are intended to go
ahead of the boats and clear the banks."
Then they began to talk about the route, and Edgar, who had studied the
maps and knew all that was known on the subject of the journey, drew on
the sand the course of the Nile with its windings and turnings.
"You see the river makes a tremendous bend here," he said, "round by
Berber. The general idea is that when we get to this spot, where there
is a place called Ambukol, if there is news that Gordon is hard pressed
and cannot hold out long, a column will march across this neck to
Metemmeh, where there are some of Gordon's steamers. I expect that is
the work that will fall to the Camel Corps, and that it is specially for
this that we have been got up. You see, the rest of the journey is along
the water side, and horses would have done just as well as camels, and
would be much more useful, for, of course, the infantry will do the main
fighting, and the cavalry are only wanted for scouting and pursuit.
Camels are no good for either one work or the other, for nothing will
persuade the beggars to move out of their regular pace, which is just
about two and three-quarter miles an hour. If they did not intend to cut
across this neck, I don't see what they wanted more than the boats with
the infantry and a regiment or two of light cavalry on these country
horses, which are wonderfully hardy and can stand work that would knock
English horses to pieces in no time."
"Well, then, all that I can say is," Willcox put in, "that it is very
lucky for us that the river makes that big twist, other wise we might be
all kicking our heels at Aldershot or the Curragh, or in some garrison
town. But I thought camels were fast beasts. I am sure I have seen
pictures of Arabs riding about in the desert at a tremendous pace."
"There are some sort of camels called riding camels that are faster than
the others, and there are dromedaries, which can trot as fast as a horse
and keep it up for a long time; but the riding camels and dromedaries
are both scarce and expensive, and you may be sure we shall not have
many of them with us."
"They are beastly ill-tempered looking brutes," Willcox said. "When I
was walking in the streets there the other day a string of them came
along, and they grumbled and growled like wild beasts, and one showed
his teeth and made as if he was going right at me. If I had not jumped
into a shop I believe he would have had my ear off."
"They can bite, and bite very hard too; but it is very seldom they do,
though they do make a wonderful pretence of being fierce. They call them
the patient camel, but from what I have seen of them I should say that
they are the most impatient, grumbling beasts in creation. It makes no
difference what you do for them--whether you load them or unload them,
or tell them to get up or lie down, or to go on or stop--they always
seem equally disgusted, and grumble and growl as if what you wanted them
to do was the hardest thing in the world. Still, they can do a
tremendous lot of work, and keep on any number of hours, and I don't
know what the people of this country would do without them."
In the afternoon Edgar paraded with his troop and fell into the usual
routine of duty. As he had had a year's campaigning in Egypt he was
regarded as an authority, and after three or four days was as much at
home with the troop as he had been in his own regiment. He found these
big men very pleasant and cheery companions. All had been picked for the
service as being men of exemplary character; they were in high spirits
at the prospect of the expedition before them, and were like a party of
great school-boys out on a holiday. They took to Edgar kindly;
belonging, as he did, to the light cavalry, they regarded him as a sort
of guest among them, and from his being so much younger and smaller than
themselves they looked upon him as a boy, and he quickly got the
nickname of "The Kid."
Many questions were asked him as to the fighting powers of the wild
natives.
"How they could break right into a square beats me altogether," one of
the big troopers said. "They always tell us that cavalry have no chance
nowadays of breaking into a square, for they would all be shot down by
the breech-loaders before they could reach it, and yet these niggers,
with nothing but spears, manage to do it. I cannot make head or tail of
it; no more I can of you chaps getting cut up by them."
"You will understand it when you see it," Edgar said. "They run pretty
nearly as fast as a horse can gallop, and they don't seem to fear death
in the slightest, for they believe that if they are killed they go
straight to heaven. It seems to me that savages must be braver than
civilized soldiers. It was the same thing with the Zulus, you know, they
came right down on our men at Isandula, and the fire of the
breech-loaders did not stop them in the slightest."
"No more it would stop us, young un, if we got orders to charge. It did
not at Balaclava."
"No, that is true enough," Edgar agreed; "but then we have got
discipline. The order is given, and the whole regiment goes off
together; one could not hold back if one would. But that is a different
thing from rushing forward each man on his own account, as they did
against us, and running up to what seemed certain death. I know the
feeling among our fellows was that they would not have believed it had
they not seen it."
"Well, I hope we shall get a chance of seeing it," the man said, "only I
hope that we shall not be atop of them camels when they try it. I have
been looking at the beasts over there in the city, and there does not
seem to me to be any go about them. Beastly-tempered brutes! I don't
believe you could get a charge out of them if you tried ever so much."
"No, I don't think you could," Edgar laughed. "But, you see, we are
intended to fight on foot. We shall be like the old dragoons, who used
their horses only to carry them to the place where they were to fight."
"No chance of any loot?" another put in.
"No chance in the world. At the best of times they wear a sort of dirty
cotton sheet round their shoulders, but when they go into battle they
leave that behind them, and fight only in their loin-cloths."
"I have heard," an old soldier said, "from some of our chaps who fought
in the Indian mutiny, that they often found a lot of money and jewels
and things in those loin-cloths of the sepoys."
"Ah, that was because they had been plundering treasuries and capturing
booty of all sorts. But I do not suppose many of these Arabs ever saw a
gold coin in their lives. They don't see many silver ones. What wealth
they have is in sheep and cattle and horses, and with these they barter
for such things as they require. No; if you are fighting out here for a
year you will get nothing except a few worthless charms, of no value
whatever except as curios."
"Well, I wish they would let us be off," another said. "I am sick
already of these sands and that big lump of stone. I hear the boats are
going up every day, and if they do not move us soon the infantry will be
there before us."
"I think we shall travel a good deal faster than they do when we are
once off," Edgar said. "They will have rapids and all sorts of
difficulties to contend with, while we shall go on steadily,
five-and-twenty miles a day perhaps. You may be sure we shall be well in
front when the time for work comes. They would never go to the expense
of sending you all out, and mounting you on camels, and then keep you
behind."
"Have you heard the news, lads?" a sergeant asked, joining the group.
"No! What is it?"
"We are to strike tents at four o'clock this afternoon, march down to
the river, embark in a steamer, and start to-night."
"Hooray!" the men shouted. "That is the best news we have had since we
landed."
In a short time most of the men were at work giving a final polish to
their arms. By four o'clock the tents were levelled and rolled up, the
baggage was packed and sent forward on camels, and the regiment was
formed up awaiting the orders to march. The heat of the day had somewhat
abated, but the march, short as it was, was a trying one, from the
clouds of light sand that rose from beneath the feet of the column, and
the men were heartily glad when they embarked, two troops on board the
steamer and the rest on large flats which she was to tow up the stream.
Kits and belts were taken off, and the men made themselves as
comfortable as the crowded state of the flats would permit. The officers
were on board the steamer. As they started a loud cheer broke from the
men. They were fairly off at last. There was no thought of the dangers
and difficulties before them. It was enough for them that they were
fairly on their way up the Nile to relieve, as they hoped, Khartoum, and
to rescue Gordon.
"If this is campaigning I don't care how much we have of it," the
soldier who was sitting next to Edgar said, looking up at the deep blue
sky studded with stars. "This suits me down to the ground."
"You had better make the most of it," Edgar laughed, "it won't last
long; and you will have nothing like it again. I own that, at any rate
until we reach the highest point to which the boats can go, I think the
infantry have got the best of it. Of course they will have hard work in
hauling the boats past the rapids, and they will have some rowing to do
when the wind is too light for the sails to carry them up, but I would
rather sit in a boat and row than sit on the back of a camel."
"But the boats will go all the way, won't they?"
"It is not known yet. It is possible that when we get to a place named
Korti, where the river makes a tremendous bend, some of us may cross the
desert to Metemmeh, where Gordon's steamers will meet us. If we do I
expect that will be the work of the three Camel Corps, and all the boats
will go right round the river and join us there; that is, if they can
get up the cataracts. I know the Egyptians say the water will be too low
for the boats to go up. That may be true enough as to the native boats,
but ours draw so little water that I believe there must always be depth
enough for them, for there is always a good lot of water coming down
here even at the driest season."
The regiment was disembarked at Assouan, and the next day four companies
went up in two steamers to Wady Halfa, a hundred and eighty miles higher
up the river. Edgar's troop formed part of the detachment. They had
expected to see a place of some size, but found that it consisted only
of a few mud huts and some sheds of the unfinished railway. Here for
some days the men practised infantry drill and received their equipments
and saddles, and then they were marched to the camel depot a mile away.
The soldiers were immensely amused at the sight of their chargers. These
animals had been collected from all parts of Egypt, from Aden and
Arabia. As soon as the proper number had been received and told off to
the men, the work of fitting on the saddles commenced. This was by no
means easy, as the camel humps differed greatly from each other, and a
good deal of padding and altering was necessary before the saddles were
comfortably fitted. When the men mounted they formed in line, and found
that the animals were docile and obedient to the rein, and maneuvered
together without difficulty. Several days were spent in learning to sit
the animals, and there were many spills, but as the sand was deep no
harm came of them, and they caused great amusement to all except the
victims themselves.
The greatest difficulty was the mounting and dismounting, both of which
performances had to be done when the camel was kneeling. In order to
make him kneel it was necessary to tug at the head-rope, at the same
time making a sound like clearing the throat. Then the rope was pulled
at until his head was brought round to his shoulder. This prevented him
from getting up again. The rifle, which was slung in a bucket on one
side behind the rider, was found to render it impossible to get the leg
over, and it consequently became necessary for the man to mount with his
rifle in his hand, and to drop it into the bucket afterwards. As the
camel always rose and lay down with great suddenness, men were, until
accustomed to it, constantly pitched over his head.
"I never want to see a camel again," Edgar grumbled, after one or two
days' exercise diversified by numerous falls; "they are the most
discontented beasts I ever saw."
"I don't mind their growling," a trooper said; "it is the twistiness of
the brutes I hate. When you are looking after a horse you know what he
can do and where he can reach you. Of course if you get behind him he
can kick, but when you are standing beside him all that you have got to
look after is his head, and he cannot bring that round to bite very far.
These brutes can reach all over the place; they can kick at you any way.
They can scratch their ears with their hind legs, and even rub the top
of their humps with it if they are disposed, or scratch themselves under
the chin. Their necks are the same, they can twist them anywhere. They
can bite the root of their tails, and lay their heads back and give them
a rub on the top of their humps. There is no safety with them at all;
and when they come at you growling and roaring with their mouths open
and showing their teeth it is enough to scare you."
"It is fortunate that their hoofs are soft and spongy, so that they
cannot hurt like the kick of a horse," Edgar said.
"Spongy, be blowed!" the trooper replied. "Mine kicked me in the chest
yesterday and I went flying about ten yards, and the breath was knocked
out of my body for a quarter of an hour."
"That was bad, no doubt," Edgar laughed; "but if it had been a horse you
would be in the hospital-tent now with some of your ribs broken, if you
hadn't been smashed up altogether."
"They are up to all sorts of tricks," the trooper went on, looking
savagely at his growling camel. "There was Rogers, this morning, he was
just passing a camel who was kneeling down. Well, who would think that a
kneeling camel could do anything except with his head. Rogers swore that
he did not go within four yards of him, and the brute suddenly shot out
his hind leg and caught him on the knee and cut him clean over, and he
thought for some time that his leg was broken. Blow all camels, I say!"
As the camels were not to be used for fighting from, in the presence of
an enemy the troopers were to dismount and fight on foot. When down the
camels were to be knee haltered, one of the fore-legs being doubled up
and strapped, which prevented the animal from rising. Each camel
received about five pounds of grain night and morning, and the whole
were taken down to the river every other day to drink. The conduct of
many of them was exasperating in the extreme to their riders. When taken
down into the stream they would stand and look about in an aimless way
as if wondering what on earth they had been brought there for, and would
be sometimes ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before the idea seemed
to occur to them that they might as well have a drink.
Once on the march they went steadily and well, obeying the slightest
motion of the halter, and keeping up their regular pace without
intermission from the time they started until they were ordered to halt.
After a week's drill and practice the men became accustomed to the ways
of their animals, and were glad when the order came for them to start.
By this time the leading regiments of the infantry had begun to go up in
their boats. These were broad, flat crafts, which had been specially
built in England for the purpose. Each carried twelve men and three
months' supply of provisions and stores for them. They were provided
with sails and oars, and as the direction of the wind was up the
river the sails were of great assistance.
[Illustration: TOWING THE BOATS UP THE NILE.]
As the cavalry passed the Great Cataract they had an opportunity of
seeing the process of getting the boats up. The rush of waters was
tremendous, and it seemed well-nigh impossible to force the boats
against them. It would indeed have been impossible to row them, and they
were dragged up by tow-ropes by the united strength of the troops and a
large number of natives. At times, in spite of all the efforts of the
men at the ropes, the boats made no progress whatever, while if the
steersman allowed the stream for a moment to take the boat's head it
would be whirled round and carried down to the foot of the rapid, when
the work had to be recommenced.
The troopers thought, as they watched the exertions of the infantry,
that, rough as was the action of the camels, they had decidedly the best
of it, but such was not their opinion on the following day when, as they
were jogging wearily along, several of the boats passed them running
before a strong wind, with the soldiers on board reclining in
comfortable positions in the bottom or on the thwarts. Again their
opinions changed when, the wind having dropped, they saw the men
labouring at the oars in the blazing sun.
"There are pulls both ways," one of the troopers said philosophically,
"and take it all round I don't know which has got the best of it. If
there are many of these cataracts I should say we are best off, and they
say there are lots of them between this and Khartoum."
"I think we have got the best of it, certainly," Edgar said; "for if it
comes to leaving the river and pushing on we are sure to be in it."
The journey from Wady Halfa to Dongola was 235 miles. The day's march
was generally about twenty miles, the halting-places being made at spots
previously settled upon, where there were depots of provisions formed
for them. The start was made about five o'clock in the morning. For the
first two hours the men walked, leading their camels; then when the sun
became hot they mounted and rode the rest of the distance. At first they
found the monotonous motion very trying, but became accustomed to it in
time, and would even go off to sleep in the saddles, with the result,
however, that they were probably shot off if the camel came upon a
sudden irregularity of the ground.
In the cool of the evening the men bathed in the river, and the officers
often went out in search of game, which was found, however, to be very
scarce. There were many regrets among the men that they had brought no
fish-hooks or lines with them, for these would have furnished not only
amusement during their halts, but might have afforded a welcome change
to the monotony of their diet.
The country bordering the Nile was composed of low rocky hills and hard
gravel, with occasional tufts of dry grass and scrub. Sometimes the
troops marched four abreast, at other times they had to go in single
file across the rocky ground. The fun of the camel-riding very soon
passed off, and the men found the marches extremely dull and monotonous,
and were heartily glad when they got to Dongola.
Here the rest of the regiment joined them. Marching twenty miles up the
river they crossed the Nile in boats, and another day's march took them
to Shabadud; and after a stay there of some days, drilling with other
corps, they moved on to Korti, four days' march. The site chosen for the
camp delighted the men. Groves of palms grew along the steep banks of
the river; beyond were fields of grass and broad patches of cultivated
land. Here they were to wait until the rest of the mounted troops came
up, and a portion, at any rate, of the infantry arrived in the boats.