A RUNAWAY SLAVE.
Negroes have an immense respect for strength, and the, to him,
astounding manner in which Edgar had struck down his comrade as by a
stroke of lightning completely cowed the other negro, and he resumed his
work with Edgar with an air of timidity; but he soon recovered from
this, and before long was laughing and joking at the speed with which
the bucket was being raised and emptied, the water pouring out at a rate
vastly exceeding that usually achieved by their leisurely movements.
Indeed, he entered heartily into the fun of the thing, repeating Edgar's
English words of "Now, then, up she goes!" "Over with her!" and working
until the perspiration rolled down his black skin as fast as it did down
Edgar's white one. The other man had thrown himself down by the trough,
and lay there bathing his face with water till at an angry shout from
the sheik he rose to his feet and joined in the work sullenly and
silently.
"There is no great harm done," Edgar said cheeringly to him. "You had no
beauty to spoil, so you will be none the worse that way. You have had a
lesson, and it will do you good. I daresay we shall get on very well
together in future." Hamish gave an angry growl; he was in no mood for a
reconciliation, and continued to work silently until the sun went down.
As soon as it sunk below the sand-hills the negroes ceased work, and
signified to Edgar that their time of labour was over.
The sheik had several times looked out from his tent to see how the work
was getting on. "My capture was indeed a fortunate one, Amina," he said.
"Never did I see men work as they have done this afternoon. Three times
the usual amount of water has been poured over the field; truly he is a
treasure."
When the slaves had ceased work they went to the lower end of the
valley, where, on some ground covered with coarse grass, separated from
the growing crops by a thorn hedge, a herd of goats and some twenty
camels were grazing, and proceeded to milk the females. Edgar was a
passive spectator, for the animals all showed their aversion to his
white skin, and would not let him approach them. When the work was over
they returned to the tents with the calabashes of milk, and were
rewarded for their extra work with large platefuls of meal. Before
eating his share Edgar filled a tin pannikin Amina had given him for his
special use with water, boiled it over the fire, and dropped in a
spoonful of tea, and going up to Amina asked for a little milk, which
she readily gave him, surprised that a spoonful or two was all that he
required.
"If I use it sparingly," he said to himself as he sat down to his meal,
"that ten pounds of tea will last me over a year, and before it is gone
I hope I shall see some way of getting off." As soon as he had finished
it the woman whose child was ill came to him and took him off to see
her. She was, as even Edgar could see, better; her skin was soft and her
pulse was quieter, but she was evidently very weak. The woman held out a
bowl of the arrow-root, and signified that she would not eat it, which
Edgar was not surprised at, for it was thick and lumpy.
"I suppose the water didn't boil," he said to himself. "No wonder the
poor little beggar cannot eat that stuff. I should think the Liebig
would be the best for her, at any rate better than this stuff. I will
get a tin or two from Amina, or rather she had better get it; I don't
want to be always asking for things."
He had noticed where he had thrown the little pot the evening before,
brought it to the woman, and then pointing to the sheik's tent said,
"You fetch."
The woman understood and went off, and presently returned with two of
the pots. Boiling water was required. This is not an item to be found in
an Arab tent. Edgar therefore boiled some in his own tin over the fire
in front of the sheik's tent, and showed the woman how much of the paste
was to be used and how much water. When this was made he asked her for
milk; this also he boiled and made some arrow-root, and told the woman
to give that and the Liebig alternately every three or four hours. The
benefit the child had received had created a most favourable impression
towards Edgar in the community, and several of them came round him as he
left the tent to ask for medicine. Edgar was sorely puzzled, and
determined that if he could do no good he would certainly do no harm. He
thought it likely that most of the illnesses were imaginary, "For why,"
he said to himself as he looked at three of them who were all placing
their hands on their stomachs and twisting about to show that they were
suffering great pain, "should they be all bad together?" There was in
the chest a large bottle of pills marked "blue-pills," and of these he
gave two to each applicant.
One case of those who applied was of a very different character. It was
a boy some fifteen years old. He crawled up on his hands and knees, and
sitting down took off some bandages and showed him his leg. It was
terribly inflamed from the instep up to the knee, with a great sloughing
wound that showed the bone for two or three inches. It was evidently the
result of a serious graze, perhaps caused by falling on to a sharp rock.
Had it been attended to at first it would have been trifling, but
doubtless the boy thought nothing of it and had continued to get about
as usual. The sand and dirt had got into the wound, inflammation had set
in, and the leg was now in a very serious state.
Edgar felt a little more certain of his ground this time, for he
remembered that one of the fellows at River-Smith's house had had a bad
leg after a severe kick on the shin at football, and he knew what had
been done for it. The lad's father, who was one of the elderly men who
had remained in camp, had accompanied him. Edgar told him that, in the
first place, he wanted a good deal of water made hot. The chest
contained a half-gallon bottle of carbolic acid, and searching among the
smaller bottles Edgar found one containing caustic. When the lad's
father returned with the hot water, Edgar bathed the wound for a long
time; then he poured a little of the acid into a calabash of cold water,
dipped a piece of cotton cloth into it, folded it several times, and
laid it on the wound, then wrapped another cloth soaked in water round
and round the limb, and explained as well as he could to the father that
as often as the bandage became dry the one must be dipped in the
calabash with the lotion, the other in water, and applied again. For
two or three days this treatment was continued, and then Edgar burned
the unhealthy surfaces with caustic, continuing the carbolic poultices.
In a week the inflammation had greatly abated, and the sore assumed a
healthy aspect. The process of healing would in England have been a long
and tedious work, but in the dry air of the desert it healed with a
rapidity that surprised Edgar, and in a fortnight the boy was able to
walk again. The girl too had gained strength rapidly, and Edgar was
regarded in the encampment as a Hakim of extraordinary skill; and even
the children who had at first shouted Kaffir after him, and thrown
stones at him whenever they could do so unobserved, now regarded him
with something like awe, while the friends of the boy and girl showed
him many little kindnesses, often giving him a bowl of camels' milk, a
handful of dates, or a freshly-baked cake of meal. With one of the negro
slaves he got on very well. He could not be persuaded to continue to
work with the energy which he had displayed the first afternoon, but he
seconded Edgar's efforts fairly, and his merry talk and laughter,
although he could understand but a small portion of what he said,
cheered Edgar at his toil.
The other negro remained sullen and hostile. For some days after his
encounter with Edgar his face was so swollen up that he was scarcely
able to see. He would have been compelled to work as usual, for humanity
is not a characteristic of the Arabs; but Edgar told the sheik's wife
that if the man was forced to work at present he would be very ill, and
that he must for a time remain quiet and apply bandages soaked in hot
water to his face. Under this treatment the swelling gradually abated,
but the nose did not resume its normal shape, the bridge having been
broken by Edgar's blow. Any presents that the latter received in the way
of milk or other articles of food he shared with the negroes, the
allowance of food served out being very scanty and of the coarsest
description.
"Kaffirs are dogs," the sheik said to his wife as he one day saw Edgar
dividing some milk and dates with the others; "but there is good in
them. That Muley," for so they had named Edgar, "divides all that is
given him with the others, even giving Hamish a share. I could
understand his giving it to the other, so that he might do some of his
work for him, but not to Hamish, who I can see has not forgiven him that
blow."
"I don't think the other does his work for him," Amina said. "He works
for me of a morning and then goes into the fields; and when I watch them
to see that they are doing their work it seems to me that he does more
than any of them."
"He does," the sheik agreed; "he is a willing slave. I am glad I did not
give him up to the Mahdi. Kaffir as he is, I think he brings good luck
to the village. If he would change his religion and follow the Prophet I
would adopt him as my son, seeing that you have only girls."
Edgar made very rapid progress with the language. It was well for him
that he had picked up a few words and sentences at Suakim and Cairo, for
this enabled him to make far more rapid progress than he would have done
had he been ignorant of the language. He attempted to keep up a constant
conversation with the negro, and although the latter often went into
screams of laughter at his mistakes he was ready to help him, correcting
his errors and repeating sentences over and over again until he was able
to pronounce them with a proper accent. In two months he was able to
converse with tolerable fluency, and the sheik was meditating broaching
the subject of his conversion to him when an event occurred that for a
time gave him other matters to think of.
One morning when the encampment woke Hamish was found to be missing, and
it was ere long discovered that the best camel in the encampment had
been stolen, and that two water-skins had been taken from the sheik's
tent, and a perfect hubbub arose in the village when this became known.
The sheik seizing a stick fell upon the other negro and showered blows
upon him, exclaiming that he must have known of and aided his companion
in his flight, although he declared he had not the least idea of his
intentions. As soon as his first burst of rage was over the sheik
ordered four of the best camels to be saddled and water-bottles to be
filled.
"The fellow must be mad," he said as he walked up and down before his
tent; "he must know that he cannot escape; he would be known as a slave
by the first people he comes upon, and it would only be a change of
masters, and he would be long before he finds one so gentle as I have
been with him."
"I do not think he has gone away to make a change in masters," Amina
said. "It is worse than that, I fear."
"What is it, Amina? What do you mean?"
"I fear that he has made for Khartoum to report that you have a white
slave here. He hates Muley, and I think that it is to obtain vengeance
on him that he has fled."
"You are right, Amina; that is what the son of Sheitan intends to do.
Quick! bring up those camels," he roared.
Three of the men were ordered to accompany him. Then he gave orders that
the rest of the camels should be loaded at once with his goods, the
valuables of the village, and a portion of the crops, and that they
should start without delay to the oasis of Wady El Bahr Nile, or the
valley of the Dry River, two days' journey to the west, driving with
them the herd of goats.
"If I do not catch him we must break up the donar," he said, "and all
who do not wish to be found here by the Mahdi's men had best be in
readiness to start when we return. Let half a dozen men and women go to
the wady to look after the goats and guard the property. The camels must
be brought back as soon as they get there."
Ten minutes later he and his three companions had disappeared from sight
over the brow of the nearest sand-hill, while all in the encampment were
busy in preparing for their departure. A camel was allotted to each of
the ten tents of which the camp consisted; three camels were claimed by
Amina for the sheik's possessions; the remaining six were to carry the
food. All who were not engaged were at once set to work gathering the
maize that was fit to pluck and cutting and tying up into bundles the
forage for the camels.
In three hours a great change had been effected in the appearance of the
little valley. The sheik's tent and three others remained standing, but
the rest were levelled to the ground, their occupants preferring to
start at once rather than risk being caught by the Mahdists. It was
mid-day when the party started. Edgar could hardly help smiling at the
appearance the camels presented, each animal being almost hidden by the
pile of baggage, bundles, cooking-pots, and articles of all kinds, at
the top of which were perched a woman and two or three children. The men
walked, as did many of the younger women and boys and girls.
It would be a fatiguing journey, for they would travel without a halt
until morning, then rest until the sun was low again, and again journey
all night, when they would reach the wells soon after daybreak. As it
was but a two days' journey the camels carried far heavier loads than
would have been placed upon them had it been one of longer duration.
Amina took the lead in the whole matter. She gave orders to the men,
scolded the women, and saw that everything was done in order.
"Do you think that the sheik has any chance of catching Hamish?" Edgar
asked her as they stood together watching the retreating line of camels.
She shook her head.
"Very little," she said, "unless the camel breaks down, which is not
likely, or he misses the track. When he once gains the cultivated land
he will turn the camel adrift and will make his way on foot to Khartoum.
He will avoid all villages where he might be stopped and go straight to
the city, where he will tell his story to the first officer of the
Mahdi he meets. If the sheik does not overtake him before he gets beyond
the limit of the desert he will pursue no further. It would be useless.
He would never find him in the fields, where he might lie down among the
crops. It would only be waste of time to search for him."
"Does Hamish know of the other wady?"
She nodded. "It may be that the Mahdists will not follow further. It
will depend upon the orders they have received. Of course we shall leave
someone here to watch, and if they start for the wady he will bring us
news before they get there."
"Are there any other wells?"
"None nearer than six days' journey to the south. Then there is a great
cultivated country with many villages and towns, but the journey would
be terrible. I do not know what we shall do. But do not be afraid,
Muley; whatever we do you will not be given up until the last thing.
When my lord once sets his face one way he never turns it. He has said
the Mahdi shall not have you, for you are his captive and none other's,
and he will never go back from that."
"You have been very good to me," Edgar said, "and I would rather run my
own risk than that suffering and perhaps death should fall upon the
women and children of the douar."
"My lord will never hear of it," she said. "When he has said a thing he
has said it. There is nothing to do now but to wait until we learn what
force is coming against us. There is another encampment of the tribe in
a wady two days' journey to the north, and we may summon help from there
if the party is not too strong. The great thing will be to kill Hamish,
for the Wady El Bahr Nile is known only to a few of our own tribe, and
were he not with them they would not be able to find their way there.
Even this wady is known to few, for it lies altogether beyond the track
of caravans. But now there is nothing to do but to wait until my lord
returns. It will be, I think, on the fourteenth day. You were eight days
coming across the desert. They will do it in six but will be eight on
their return, for there will be no occasion for haste. Hamish will take
two more days to get to Khartoum; it may be a day or two before a party
is sent out from there, and they will take ten days getting here, so
that it should be some days at least after my lord's return before they
appear."
"I am sorry, indeed, to have been the cause of so much trouble falling
upon you," Edgar said.
"It is not your fault. It was the will of Allah that you should be
brought here. But anyhow we should not have stopped here much longer. We
have been here six months now, and my lord was saying but a few days
since that as soon as the rest of the crops were gathered he should send
those who are not fit to travel to El Bahr Nile, and should leave you
there and should start with the camels to Khartoum, sell our crops
there, and then carry merchandise to El-Obeid or some other distant
place. He has been waiting for things to settle down; we have only been
stopping here so long because trade has been stopped by the siege of
Khartoum, and since then he has not ventured to go there lest his camels
should be seized by the Mahdi; but, as he said, he must risk something.
Of what use is it to have camels if you do not employ them. They are
getting fat and lazy; never have they had so long a rest before. It
matters nothing our having to leave this wady. The worst is that the
Mahdi will be set against us, and that we shall have to move away far
from here to get trade."
"It is possible that at the present time Khartoum is in the hands of the
English," Edgar said. "We have heard no news from without since I came
here three months ago now, and by this time our expedition may have
arrived there and the Mahdi's power may be altogether broken."
"I hope it may be so," the woman said; "before the Mahdi came the
country was peaceful and prosperous; there was employment and trade for
our camels, and all went about their occupations unmolested. Now
everything is changed; trade is at an end, the villages are destroyed,
and the fields deserted. I know not how it will end. If the tribes would
all turn together against them they would soon drive them out of the
land. But there is no hope of this; we have our own quarrels, and cannot
unite even when everything is at stake. The Mahdi may be the Mahdi, but
what is that to us? He tells his followers that he will lead them to
conquer Egypt, and to go to Jerusalem and Roum (Constantinople). But how
is he to do it when a handful of white soldiers defeated thousands of
his men in the desert? What would it be were he to meet a great army of
them? It is one thing to fight the Egyptians as they did at El-Obeid,
but another when it is your soldiers. I hear that multitudes of Osman
Digma's men were slain down by the sea, and yet they say they fought
well."
"They did fight well," Edgar said. "I was there and saw it; no men could
have been braver; but we have terrible weapons, and it was impossible
for them to stand against them. The Mahdi may say what he likes, but
there is no more chance of his taking Egypt as long as we stay there
than there is of his flying."
"Well, well!" the woman said, "it will be as Allah chooses. You do not
believe in Allah, Muley, you are a Kaffir."
"I beg your pardon," Edgar said; "we and you worship the same God. We
call him God, and you call him Allah; but it is the same. Your Prophet
acknowledges Moses and Christ to be prophets. The only difference
between us is that you believe that Mohammed was also a prophet, and the
greatest of all, while we do not acknowledge that, but in other respects
there is no great difference between us."
"My lord will talk to you, Muley; I am but a woman, and these things are
not for us."
Each morning one of the boys remaining at the douar was sent up to the
crest of the sand-hills, and there remained all day on watch. At the end
of the thirteenth day the sheik's wife gave orders that everything
should be in readiness for instant departure. The camels had returned
on the previous day from El Bahr Nile, having made two journeys there
and back, and were now ready for a fresh departure. There was a further
cutting of the crops until as much was gathered as would, with the
remaining tents and goods, make up a full load for the camels, for as
the party had not arrived it was almost certain that they had not
succeeded in overtaking the fugitive. On the evening of the thirteenth
day a shout from the boy on the hill proclaimed that he saw figures
coming.
"How many of them?" one of the men shouted to him.
"There are five camels, but only four of them are ridden."
There was a shout of satisfaction. This looked as if the party had
overtaken the fugitive, in which case they would have brought the camel
back and left the body of Hamish in the desert.
A shout of welcome greeted the chief as he rode up. "You have overtaken
him, El Bakhat, I see; Bishmillah, God be praised, we are safe from the
trouble the treacherous dog would have brought upon us!"
The sheik shook his head. "The son of Sheitan has escaped. We caught
sight of him just at the edge of the desert, having ridden with scarce
an hour's rest from the time we started. As soon as we did so Aboo and
myself dismounted and started in pursuit; but he must have seen us as
soon as we caught sight of him, for when we came up to his camel it was
alone. We followed him to the edge of the cultivated lands, but the
grass was long and the crops stood in some places as high as our heads,
and it would have been useless searching for him, so we brought the
camels on, gave them water and a night's halt to fill themselves in the
fields, and then started back. Has all been well?"
"All has been well," his wife replied. "The camels made three journeys,
have rested, and are ready to start afresh. We have cut down as much as
they can carry, and have indeed left but little remaining."
"We will start the day after to-morrow," the sheik said. "Our camels
need a rest, and time does not press. Before we leave the wady we will
set fire to the dry stalks and grass. There is little that will not
burn. We must destroy all that we can, so that when they arrive here in
search of us they shall not be able to sit down here, but must turn and
travel back with all speed, unless they decide to push on in pursuit of
us to Wady El Bahr Nile."
Two days later the tents were struck and the camels loaded up; then when
they had moved away, the dried grass and corn stalks were fired at the
windward end of the valley and in a few minutes the flames swept along
in a broad sheet, and in a quarter of an hour a coating of gray ashes
covered the soil where lately the encampment with its surroundings of
cultivation stood. Two of the men were left behind with fast camels.
They were to leave the animals a mile from the camp on its northern
side, so that they would neither be on the line by which the enemy would
come or that leading to the wady. They had forage for their camels and
food for themselves for a fortnight. One was to remain by the camels,
the other to keep watch concealed among the sand-hills near the well.
If an enemy was seen approaching the watcher was to return at once to
the camels, take his own animal, and ride to the wady with news as to
their strength; the other was to remain on watch until they either
retired or set out on the track of the fugitives, when he was to push
forward with all speed with the news. A messenger was also sent off to
the douar to the north saying that an expedition of the Mahdi's men was
on its way out to plunder and destroy the encampments of the tribe, and
begging them to send to El Bahr Nile all their fighting men in order
that the dervishes should have such a lesson that they would be well
content to leave the tribes alone in future.
As before, the women and children were perched on the summit of their
household goods on the top of the camels. Contrary to their usual
custom most of the men walked, as the camels were loaded to the full
extent of their powers.
Edgar had manufactured for himself, soon after his arrival at the camp,
a pair of sandals from the skin of a goat that had been killed for food,
and he was therefore able to keep up with the camels with comfort. As it
was considered that there was no occasion for hurry, and as the camels
were very heavily laden, three days instead of two were devoted to the
journey, and even then it was a very fatiguing one for those on foot. On
arriving at El Bahr Nile Edgar found that the oasis was much smaller
than that they had quitted. The soil was rocky, and although there were
two large pools of clear water there was but little ground round them in
any way suitable for cultivation. Acacias and other shrubs, however,
grew thickly down the valley, showing that there was a certain amount of
moisture below the surface. The tents were soon erected by the side of
those of the first party, and when the fires were lighted and the camels
unloaded, taken to the water and then turned loose to browse among the
trees, the place assumed a home-like appearance.
"You can shoot, Muley," the sheik said to Edgar. "If I give you a gun
will you fight against these dervishes?"
"Certainly I will, sheik."
"Your guns carry a long way; they are wonderful weapons. At Metemmeh men
were killed two miles away."
"Yes, they are good weapons, sheik, and I wish I had one of them here,
for I am afraid I should not be able to do much with your guns."
The sheik turned to his wife: "Fetch out that Kaffir gun, Amina." And to
Edgar's surprise she brought out from the tent a Martini rifle and a
pouch filled with cartridges. This gun had been found strapped on to one
of the camels that had been captured, and the sheik had appropriated it
for his own use, concealing it in one of the bales, so that Edgar had
not noticed it when the camels were unloaded.
"I do not understand it," the sheik said; "it is much stranger to me
than our guns would be to you. I tried to put these brass things with
the bullet sticking out into it, but they would not go into the barrel.
You shall show me how to use it, but if the dervishes come I will hand
it to you, for you understand it and will do much better with it than I
should; but show me how it works."
The sheik's astonishment was great when Edgar pushed the lever, opened
the breech, inserted a cartridge, and closing the breech said that it
was now loaded and could be fired at once.
"Fire at that rock," he said, "and then load again as quickly as you
can."
Edgar did so, and in a few seconds was again ready to fire.
"Inshallah!" the sheik exclaimed, "but it is wonderful. No wonder that
they tell me that the roar of the guns was like never-ceasing thunder,
and that the sound of one shot could not be heard from another. Can you
take out the cartridge without firing?"
Edgar showed him how this was done, and the sheik then repeatedly loaded
and unloaded the gun until he could manipulate it quickly. "And what is
this thing?" he asked, touching the back sight.
Edgar explained to him that the sight was raised or lowered according to
the distance of the object to be aimed at.
"The Franks are wonderful men," the sheik said gravely; "if they had but
the true faith, and Allah was with them, no one could stand against
them. When the ammunition is used up can you make more?"
Edgar shook his head.
"If I had caps to fit in here and a mould for the bullets I could refill
these cases two or three times, but after that they would be useless.
Powerful machinery is used for making these cases. It might be possible
to have them made by hand by a skilled worker in brass in Khartoum, but
it would be very expensive, and I am afraid, sheik, when the ammunition
is gone the gun would be useless unless you can procure some more
cartridges from traders in Egypt; unless, indeed, my countrymen have
retaken Khartoum, in which case I could obtain for you any quantity of
cartridges."
"Your countrymen have retired to Korti," the sheik said.
Edgar gave a cry of disappointment. He had feared that when the news of
Gordon's death was known the expedition might be abandoned; but he had
still retained some hope that it might advance to Khartoum. The news
that they had already fallen back to Korti came as a shock.
"How did you learn the news, sheik?" he asked presently. "You did not
say that you had spoken to anyone."
"Yes, we went a little way into the fields in hopes of catching sight of
Hamish, and came upon two peasants who were gathering the crop. They had
seen nothing of the negro. Upon questioning them as to what was going on
at Khartoum they said that the Mahdi was still all-powerful; that the
Kaffirs had fallen back from Metemmeh and were scattered along the river
between Korti and Dongola; and that the Mahdi had announced that his
forces would ere long advance, conquer Egypt, and destroy the Kaffirs."
"Do you mean to wait for the attack of the Mahdi's men here or to go to
meet them?" Edgar asked after a long pause.
"If they come here too numerous to fight we must fly; but if they are
not too strong we will give them battle here. Why should we go to meet
them?"
"It is for you to decide," Edgar said. "I know nothing of your Arab ways
of fighting. But it seemed to me that it might be better, if they are
not altogether too strong, to meet them as near the other wells as we
can."
"But why so, Muley? They would have water close to them and we should
have none. If one was wounded he would have to be carried a long
distance. Why do you advise that we should fight them there?"
"You told me, sheik, that the existence of this well was only known to
you and your people and a small section of the tribe."
"That is so, Muley. It is a secret that has been well guarded. The wady
has served as a retreat many times in our history."
"If they come on and any of them go back again the secret will be a
secret no longer," Edgar said. "It is for this reason that I thought
that we had better go out and meet them. There is but one man with them
who knows the way hither, and against him our balls should be all
directed. If we kill him they would be without a guide and would be
unable to find the way, for they would never venture into this desert
knowing that if they failed to find our well they might all perish for
want of water."
"You speak well," the sheik said. "I had not thought of this; but I see
that your plan is a good one. As soon as I learn that they have arrived
at the wells we will set out to meet them unless their force is
altogether too strong for us."
On the seventh day after their arrival at the wady the messenger who had
been despatched for aid returned. His news was that the greater part of
the men were away; they were expected in a few days, but it might be a
week or more before they came back. The sheik was unwilling to send off
the few men at the douar, but promised that as soon as his main force
returned he would set out with the whole strength of his fighting men to
their assistance.
Upon the following morning one of the men left to watch the wells also
returned. He had come through without stopping, and reported that late
in the evening before he left he and his companions had seen a line of
camels with some horsemen coming towards the wells. He had waited until
morning in order to discover their force; he put it down as forty men.
"That is very bad news," the sheik said. "We can only muster eighteen
fighting men, and some of these are old and others mere lads. They are
two to one against us, and if we were beaten and forced to fly their
horsemen would overtake us and destroy us. Think it over, Muley; you
are full of expedients."
"How many men do you expect to get from the other douar?"
"Their encampment is the same size as ours; they are sure to leave some
of the old men to guard it, perhaps fifteen will come. That will make
our force nearly equal to theirs, and we might defend this wady, though
I doubt it, but I am sure that they would beat us easily in the desert.
They are almost all armed with the rifles that they took at El-Obeid
from Hicks Pasha's men, and will have found an abundance of arms at
Khartoum; besides, these dervishes fight desperately. The faith they
have in the Mahdi gives them strength and courage; they do not care
whether they die or live, and doubtless picked men have been sent on the
expedition. I fear there is nought before us but flight, unless you with
your knowledge of the Frank method of war can hit upon some plan."
"I will think it over, sheik, but at present I see no way in which we
can withstand them. We might, of course, cut down trees and make so
strong a fort here that we might beat them off; but in that case they
might return in much greater numbers, therefore it seems to me that if
we fight we must fight at the other wady."
"Then we cannot fight at all," the sheik said decisively. "There are two
to one against us, and it would be madness to attack them when they
could with their horsemen cut off all retreat."
"I will think, sheik," Edgar said, rising and walking away.
In half an hour he returned. "I have thought of a plan, sheik, but it is
not without great danger."
"I care not for danger," the sheik said, "so that it be but possible."
"My idea is this: that we should load up all your camels with
closely-pressed bundles of forage; then that we should advance a day's
march across the desert; and there that we should form a zareba. With
the forage we should, of course, take water-skins with us, with
sufficient to last for at least a week. I should send the camels back
again as soon as they are unloaded, and should order those who remained
behind to load all their goods upon them and to set out either for the
other douar of your tribe or for the villages to the south. I should
send a messenger to the other douar to say that we are going to defend
the zareba to the last and praying them to come at once to our rescue,
promising the moment they appear to sally out and fall upon the
dervishes while they attack them in rear. Your messenger should point
out that before they arrive a number of the enemy will certainly have
fallen in their attack upon us, and we shall, therefore, be decidedly
superior to them in point of numbers."
"The plan is a bold one," the sheik said; "but do you think that it
would be possible for us to defend the zareba?"
"I think so, sheik. It need be but a small one some twelve feet square
inside. They will have to cross the open to attack us, and outside we
can protect it by a facing of prickly shrubs."
"We will do it!" the sheik said in a tone of determination, springing to
his feet. "One can but die once, and if we succeed it will be a tale for
the women of our tribe to tell for all time."