IN CLOVER.
"Gentlemen," said the Turkish officer commanding the party, as he drew
up his men in front of the hut, and addressed us in French, "my
instructions are to have the man who is ill removed to the military
hospital, and to request that you will consider yourselves as my
prisoners, and accompany me to the barracks."
We told him that, of course, we should obey any orders that he gave us,
and at the same time asked him if he knew who we were. To this he
replied that his orders forbade him to converse with us on any subject
whatever, and he begged us to understand that, disagreeable as his duty
was, he was bound to carry out his instructions to the letter. There was
nothing more to be said, and though we were permitted to see that
Kellner was comfortably settled on the stretcher, we were afterwards
ordered to mount our horses, and ride, like real prisoners, in the midst
of the guard.
As we entered the town we soon saw that our capture had been noised
abroad; crowds of Arabs had assembled in the streets to witness our
arrival; but it was evident, from the remarks that we overheard, that
there was a good deal of speculation as to what it all meant. Until that
moment, I had not considered what queer-looking figures we must be, and
when I looked at Edwards and then at my own clothes, I almost laughed
aloud. Each of us wore dirty and ragged Arab garments; our hair was
long and unkempt, and our beards were thick and stubbly. That we were
respectable Englishmen no one would have guessed. Even our own mothers
would have failed to recognise us.
In due course we reached the barrack gate and were admitted, when we
found ourselves within a large quadrangle, where numbers of conscripts
were being drilled. Here we were ordered to dismount, and, our horses
having been led away, we were conducted to a house at the far end of the
quadrangle and shown into a well-appointed room, when the officer told
us that we were to remain there until visited by the Commandant.
As soon as we were alone, Edwards and I looked at one another, and burst
out laughing.
"We are a jolly looking couple," said I.
"Just what I was thinking," said Edwards.
"What do you suppose is going to happen to us?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing much," he replied. "As soon as we have proved our identity,
things will be all right. They seem to have a great many more troops
here than when last we were in the place. I wonder if our old friend,
the Captain who showed us round last time, is still here."
While we were talking, the door was suddenly thrown open, and the
Commandant himself was ushered in. He was a stout and pleasant-looking
old gentleman, with a merry twinkle in his eye, and no sooner did he see
us than he broke into a guffaw, at the same time holding out his hand to
each of us in turn.
"Pardon my laughing," said he, "but, for the life of me, I could not
help it. We will have you washed, and cleaned, and put into respectable
clothes, before you are taken before the Governor. In the meanwhile, now
that we have got you safe inside the barracks, if you like to give me
your word that you will not leave them, I shall be glad if you will
become my guests."
At first we thought that he was amusing himself at our expense, but he
appeared to be in earnest, so we accepted his proffered hospitality,
and were soon enjoying the luxuries of really good coffee and a
cigarette.
"How long, Effendi, have you been in Hillah?" I asked, for the sake of
something to say.
"Barely two weeks," he replied. "We came up with reinforcements for this
place and Meshed Ali, as trouble was expected from the desert."
"Some of the tribes in revolt, I suppose," said I.
"Yes," replied the Commandant, smiling, "but when I have heard you two
gentlemen cross-examined by His Excellency, I shall know more about what
has been going on. Now I will give you a piece of advice: when you are
asked questions, answer straightforwardly, and tell all you know. You
will save us all a vast amount of trouble, and you will not do
yourselves any harm. Of course we have spies everywhere, but we cannot
rely on them entirely, and in any case the views and opinions of two
intelligent Englishmen will be of more value to us than the information
supplied by a hundred Bedouin spies. The Governor is to interview you
this afternoon, and I have no doubt that, before that takes place, you
would like the services of a barber, and would wish to have a bath, and
some European clothes. I daresay we shall be able to provide them for
you."
We were delighted with the turn of events, and agreed to help the
Governor with any information that we were able to give, and we jumped
at the suggestion of cleaning ourselves up. So calling an orderly, the
Commandant told him to conduct us to the bath. There a real surprise
awaited us, for no sooner did we enter the room than we saw Edwards's
Persian servant boy, busying himself with towels and soap.
"What, Aziz!" gasped Edwards, gazing at him in blank astonishment. "How,
in heaven's name, did you get here?"
"Hoozoor," answered the lad, beaming with joy at the sight of his
long-lost master, "I was ordered some days back, to pack clothes for
your highness and the other sahib, and to leave Baghdad with the
dragoman and some zaptiehs, and to come to Hillah. I suffered much on
the road from fear of robbers, who were reported to be numerous, but,
praise be to Allah, we arrived here safely."
"Where is Dimitri Sahib?" asked Edwards.
"He journeyed a few days since to Meshed Ali," said Aziz, "saying that
he went to meet you, and would return with you here."
Then we plied the boy with questions, in the attempt to discover what
rumour had said about us, but we could get no coherent story out of him.
From what we could gather, at first we were supposed to have been
murdered; but, after a time, a report came that we had turned
Mohammedans, and were living with the people of some distant desert
town. But he did not appear to know very much, and he harked back
continuously to what was evidently the most important thing in the
world, viz., that he, Aziz, had braved the perils of the journey from
Baghdad to Hillah--in his eyes as great an event as a pilgrimage to
Mecca. We forgave him, however, for his inability to provide us with
news, chiefly because of the skill that he had displayed in his
selection of the clothes which he thought we would require. He had
forgotten nothing; and it was a real delight to us, after we had passed
through the hands of the barber and revelled in our baths, to get into
true British suits again.
Our toilet completed, we returned, with the patient orderly who had been
waiting for us, to our quarters, where we found the Commandant and
several other officers ready to accompany us to the Governor's audience.
The Commandant looked us up and down with apparent satisfaction, and
then we all marched off. Whether we were still supposed to be prisoners
I could not make out; at any rate, we walked along by the side of the
Commandant, and conversed with him as if we were his oldest friends,
until we reached our destination when everyone suddenly assumed an
official air.
A verbatim report of what took place at the great interview which
followed I shall not attempt to give. I doubt if any shorthand writer
could have done justice to it, for it was what may be described as
unconventional. We were treated by the Governor with the greatest
deference, and we were asked innumerable questions on everything
connected with the desert and the people whom we had come across. The
Aeniza and the Shammar, however, did not interest them much, as they
were regarded, like mosquitoes, as necessary evils. What they wanted
information about was Adiba and the trouble with Hayil, and on this
topic we were considered to be (as indeed we probably were) the best
authorities. Between us, we related our experiences with Ali Khan, and
gave a graphic description of the bombardment of his town and of his
enforced flight, striving to impress upon our listeners that he had been
basely betrayed by his Arab doctors, and that the Amir of Hayil had
behaved in a most high-handed manner. The dropping of the proverbial pin
could have been heard while Edwards gave his account of his treatment of
the sick child, and his description of the way in which he had outwitted
his rival physicians was received with no little applause. Ali Khan
became the hero of the hour, and the tyrant of Hayil was freely cursed.
Many and various were the questions asked us about the road to Adiba,
about the town itself, and about the strength of its defences, and then
we learned that Hayil was in the bad books of the Ottoman Empire, and
that the Turkish troops would probably be ordered to conduct Ali Khan
back to Adiba.
So far we had got on capitally, and had quite enjoyed the interview.
Now, however, the conversation took an awkward turn, and the Governor's
questions became more or less of a personal nature.
"Some four months ago," said our inquisitor, "you two gentlemen were
here, in Hillah. You left the town against the wishes of the Captain of
Police; he, poor man, is no more, but I possess a document signed by
yourselves, and its contents you will probably remember. In it you
stated that you determined to visit certain tribes of the desert, even
although he warned you that to do so might place himself and his
Government in difficulties. What have you to answer on that count?"
"Nothing," I replied, "except that we regret to have been the cause of
any inconvenience to your Government. We were anxious to visit the
Bedouins in their encampments, and we were willing to accept all risk in
so doing."
"Have you considered," continued the Governor, "what has resulted from
your headstrong behaviour? Possibly you may not have given it a thought.
Know, then, that had you not cast yourselves adrift in the desert, all
this trouble with Adiba and Hayil would never have occurred, and my
Government would not now be called upon to expend vast sums of money in
restoring order in those outlying provinces. Think again of the
misfortunes of Ali Khan and of all his people, driven from their homes
into the pitiless desert. Think of those homes, even when the people
once more return to them; many destroyed by shells, many burnt to the
ground, and all pillaged."
We stood before the assembly, with heads hung down, and feeling as
uncomfortable as any pair of naughty schoolboys, while our tormentor,
who was a word-painter of no mean order, continued to lash us with his
tongue. When, at length, he stopped, I took courage and spoke out.
"Your Excellency," I said, humbly, "all that you have said, we
acknowledge to be true, and your condemnation of us appears to be just.
Yet, on more than one occasion, we offered full apologies to our
protector, Ali Khan, for the great troubles that we had brought on
himself and his people; and not only did he freely forgive us
everything, but he even told us that he would not have it otherwise,
since he considered that, had we not visited Adiba, his child would have
died."
"And in return for such generosity," said the Governor, haranguing us
again, "you thought it right, when within a few marches of Meshed Ali,
to desert your kind host, and not only to desert him, but also to
liberate three of his lawful prisoners and to steal five of his horses.
Why you should have acted thus we cannot understand."
The speaker was now wound up, and refused to allow himself to be
interrupted, so we were forced to remain silent and listen to what he
had to say. He told us how, when we first disappeared from Hillah, and
did not return, our escort had proceeded for some distance into the
desert in search of us, but failing to find any trace of us went back to
Baghdad with the news that we had surely perished. The British
Consul-General then induced the authorities to make inquiries about us,
and at last it was reported that we had reached Adiba, and were the
guests of Ali Khan. Subsequently came the news of the downfall of Adiba,
and that we were with the sheik's party in flight towards Meshed Ali.
Naturally it was supposed that we would enter that town with Ali Khan;
and the British Consul-General, having been informed of events,
despatched his dragoman, Dimitri, to meet us and take us back to
Baghdad. As far as he himself was concerned, concluded the Governor, the
matter was at an end; he did not wish to intrude in our private affairs,
as our Consul-General had agreed to hold a full inquiry into our
conduct, which would doubtless form the subject of lengthy negotiations
between the two Governments, in all probability ending in the payment of
full compensation.
"On one point, however," said he, "I am anxious for information: the
sick man whom you brought with you. How did you meet with him?"
"We found him yesterday," I replied, "close to the Birs Nimroud, and he
seemed so ill that we abandoned our intention of journeying to Baghdad,
in order to bring the man to your hospital."
"He shall be properly attended to," said the Governor, "and for what he
has done he will have to account later on."
We were not sorry when the call to evening prayer closed the interview,
and the Governor, shaking hands with us, consigned us to the care of the
Commandant. With the latter we returned to the barracks, and on the way
learned that we were to be on parole, until the dragoman should take
charge of us. Our restraint was not very irksome, for the Commandant and
other officers went out of their way to make themselves agreeable to us,
and were evidently proud of having the opportunity of making the
acquaintance of men who had penetrated so far into the desert. How much
more interested they would have been, if they had known the whole story
of our wanderings!
That night Edwards and I talked matters over, and I found that he was
wretchedly down-hearted about the future. If things were really as bad,
he argued, as the Governor had made out, it was all up with him and his
appointment. The Consul-General would, of course, refuse to let him
return to duty at Baghdad, and though he might possibly be ordered to
India to assume medical charge of a native regiment, the chances were
that he had already been either cashiered, or removed from the service
for absence without leave.
"As to you," he said, "you have nothing to lose, since you do not hold
any official appointment; and you do not understand what it may mean to
me to be thrown on the world, without anything to do."
He was so doleful about it all, that he positively made me laugh.
"There is always Adiba," I said. "Ali Khan will take you back with him
as physician in ordinary, I am sure, if you ask him nicely."
But he was not to be comforted; and thinking it advisable to leave him
alone, I went outside and paced up and down in the moonlight. While thus
occupied, I encountered the Commandant, who had just returned from
dining with the Governor, and was coming to see us on important
business. I told him that my companion was not feeling well and had
already gone to bed; so he unburdened his mind to me. Our escapades had
been the subject of discussion at the Governor's dinner party, and the
end of it was that the Governor had decided that, as Dimitri had not yet
been informed of our arrival at Hillah, we should be sent to Meshed Ali
and be handed over to him there. It struck me at once as a somewhat
strange proceeding, because Meshed Ali and Baghdad lay on opposite sides
of Hillah, and there seemed to be no reason for sending us off on a
three days' journey and bringing us back again. But on my remarking on
this to the Commandant, I was told that the Governor considered that we
should be given the opportunity of renewing our friendship with Ali
Khan, and of explaining to him why we had deserted him. We were to start
early in the morning, and the Commandant himself would accompany us. I
expressed myself as delighted at the idea of a visit to Meshed Ali, and
of once again seeing Ali Khan; and after arranging that we would be
ready to set out soon after daybreak, I bade the Commandant
"good-night," and went off to break the news to Edwards. To my surprise,
he seemed quite agreeable to fall in with the new plan, saying that the
sooner he met Dimitri, the better pleased he should be, as he was
anxious to find out how he stood with the Consul-General.
Our ride to Nejf, or Meshed Ali, was a three days' picnic; we had
everything that we could want, a large escort, the companionship of the
cheery Commandant, the services of a cook who served up excellent
dinners, and Edwards's boy, Aziz, to wait upon us. Even Edwards forgot
his sorrows, and agreed with me that we were being treated right
royally.
"I suppose it will all go down in the bill," said he.
"What bill?" I asked.
"Why, the matter of the compensation to which the Governor referred--the
cost of all our evil deeds," said Edwards.
"Let us live in the present," said I, "and eat and drink all the good
things that we can. What is the use of worrying about the future, and
about such a hopeless thing as compensation? When nations begin to
discuss compensation, it means thousands, if not millions, of pounds.
How do you imagine that anyone is going to squeeze a paltry thousand
pounds, or even a hundred pounds, out of two such paupers as you and me?
My worldly possessions consist of the fifty golden sovereigns in my
salvaged money-belt, and they really belong to my uncle. So away with
dull care, and let the future look after itself."
"Excellent advice in theory," said Edwards. "However, I will try it for
a bit, and will be ever so jovial."
"Good man!" said I. "By the way, I wonder how that poor unfortunate
Kellner is getting on. Do you suppose we shall be able to take him to
Baghdad with us?"
"I should think not," said Edwards; "besides, he is much better off
where he is. I expect that the man in charge of the hospital knows quite
as much about his business as I do, and the long journey to Baghdad
would probably throw the patient back, and as likely as not kill him."
"Then," said I, "I think I shall try and stay at Hillah for a week or
two."
"What on earth for?" asked Edwards.
"To look after Kellner," I replied.
"What possible good do you think you can do him?"
"He might want to ease his mind," said I, laughing. "People do have
things on their mind sometimes, when they are sick. He might wish to
tell me, for instance, what has become of the Golden Girdle."
"Still that old, old story," said my companion sadly. "Surely you and
your Will-o'-the-wisp have done enough harm already. The words of wisdom
which we heard in Hillah the other day do not seem to have made much
impression on you."
"Water off a duck's back, old man," I replied. "When I have laid
Sophana's Serpent Belt at the feet of my uncle, then will I repent of
all my sins, and be good for ever afterwards."