“Then I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear
the Ephah?
“And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar;
and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.”
David raised his head from the paper he was studying. He looked at Lacey
sharply. “And how many rounds of ammunition?” he asked.
“Ten thousand, Saadat.”
“How many shells?” he continued, making notes upon the paper before him.
“Three hundred, Saadat.”
“How many hundredweight of dourha?”
“Eighty--about.”
“And how many mouths to feed?”
“Five thousand.”
“How many fighters go with the mouths?”
“Nine hundred and eighty-of a kind.”
“And of the best?’
“Well, say, five hundred.”
“Thee said six hundred three days ago, Lacey.”
“Sixty were killed or wounded on Sunday, and forty I reckon in the
others, Saadat.”
The dark eyes flashed, the lips set. “The fire was sickening--they fell
back?”
“Well, Saadat, they reflected--at the wrong time.”
“They ran?”
“Not back--they were slow in getting on.”
“But they fought it out?”
“They had to--root hog, or die. You see, Saadat, in that five hundred
I’m only counting the invincibles, the up-and-at-’ems, the blind-goers
that ‘d open the lid of Hell and jump in after the enemy.”
The pale face lighted. “So many! I would not have put the estimate half
so high. Not bad for a dark race fighting for they know not what!”
“They know that all right; they are fighting for you, Saadat.”
David seemed not to hear. “Five hundred--so many, and the enemy so near,
the temptation so great.”
“The deserters are all gone to Ali Wad Hei, Saadat. For a month there
have been only the deserted.”
A hardness crept into the dark eyes. “Only the deserted!” He looked out
to where the Nile lost itself in the northern distance. “I asked Nahoum
for one thousand men, I asked England for the word which would send
them. I asked for a thousand, but even two hundred would turn the
scale--the sign that the Inglesi had behind him Cairo and London. Twenty
weeks, and nothing comes!”
He got to his feet slowly and walked up and down the room for a moment,
glancing out occasionally towards the clump of palms which marked
the disappearance of the Nile into the desert beyond his vision. At
intervals a cannon-shot crashed upon the rarefied air, as scores of
thousands had done for months past, torturing to ear and sense and
nerve. The confused and dulled roar of voices came from the distance
also; and, looking out to the landward side, David saw a series of
movements of the besieging forces, under the Arab leader, Ali Wad Hei.
Here a loosely formed body of lancers and light cavalry cantered away
towards the south, converging upon the Nile; there a troop of heavy
cavalry in glistening mail moved nearer to the northern defences; and
between, battalions of infantry took up new positions, while batteries
of guns moved nearer to the river, curving upon the palace north and
south. Suddenly David’s eyes flashed fire. He turned to Lacey eagerly.
Lacey was watching with eyes screwed up shrewdly, his forehead shining
with sweat.
“Saadat,” he said suddenly, “this isn’t the usual set of quadrilles.
It’s the real thing. They’re watching the river--waiting.”
“But south!” was David’s laconic response. At the same moment he struck
a gong. An orderly entered. Giving swift instructions, he turned to
Lacey again. “Not Cairo--Darfur,” he added.
“Ebn Ezra Bey coming! Ali Wad Hei’s got word from up the Nile, I guess.”
David nodded, and his face clouded. “We should have had word also,” he
said sharply.
There was a knock at the door, and Mahommed Hassan entered, supporting
an Arab, down whose haggard face blood trickled from a wound in the
head, while an arm hung limp at his side.
“Behold, Saadat--from Ebn Ezra Bey,” Mahommed said. The man drooped
beside him.
David caught a tin cup from a shelf, poured some liquor into it, and
held it to the lips of the fainting man. “Drink,” he said. The
Arab drank greedily, and, when he had finished, gave a long sigh of
satisfaction. “Let him sit,” David added.
When the man was seated on a sheepskin, the huge Mahommed squatting
behind like a sentinel, David questioned him. “What is thy name--thy
news?” he asked in Arabic.
“I am called Feroog. I come from Ebn Ezra Bey, to whom be peace!” he
answered. “Thy messenger, Saadat, behold he died of hunger and thirst,
and his work became mine. Ebn Ezra Bey came by the river....”
“He is near?” asked David impatiently.
“He is twenty miles away.”
“Thou camest by the desert?”
“By the desert, Saadat, as Ebn Ezra effendi comes.”
“By the desert! But thou saidst he came by the river.”
“Saadat, yonder, forty miles from where we are, the river makes a great
curve. There the effendi landed in the night with four hundred men to
march hither. But he commanded that the boats should come on slowly and
receive the attack in the river, while he came in from the desert.”
David’s eye flashed. “A great device. They will be here by midnight,
then, perhaps?”
“At midnight, Saadat, by the blessing of God.”
“How wert thou wounded?”
“I came upon two of the enemy. They were mounted. I fought them. Upon
the horse of one I came here.”
“The other?”
“God is merciful, Saadat. He is in the bosom of God.”
“How many men come by the river?”
“But fifty, Saadat,” was the answer, “but they have sworn by the stone
in the Kaabah not to surrender.”
“And those who come with the effendi, with Ebn Ezra Bey, are they as
those who will not surrender?”
“Half of them are so. They were with thee, as was I, Saadat, when the
great sickness fell upon us, and were healed by thee, and afterwards
fought with thee.” David nodded abstractedly, and motioned to Mahommed
to take the man away; then he said to Lacey: “How long do you think we
can hold out?”
“We shall have more men, but also more rifles to fire, and more mouths
to fill, if Ebn Ezra gets in, Saadat.”
David raised his head. “But with more rifles to fire away your ten
thousand rounds”--he tapped the paper on the table--“and eat the eighty
hundredweight of dourha, how long can we last?”
“If they are to fight, and with full stomachs, and to stake everything
on that one fight, then we can last two days. No more, I reckon.”
“I make it one day,” answered David. “In three days we shall have no
food, and unless help comes from Cairo, we must die or surrender. It is
not well to starve on the chance of help coming, and then die fighting
with weak arms and broken spirit. Therefore, we must fight to morrow, if
Ebn Ezra gets in to-night. I think we shall fight well,” he added. “You
think so?”
“You are a born fighter, Saadat.”
A shadow fell on David’s face, and his lips tightened. “I was not born a
fighter, Lacey. The day we met first no man had ever died by my hand or
by my will.”
“There are three who must die at sunset--an hour from now-by thy will,
Saadat.”
A startled look came into David’s face. “Who?” he asked.
“The Three Pashas, Saadat. They have been recaptured.”
“Recaptured!” rejoined David mechanically.
“Achmet Pasha got them from under the very noses of the sheikhs before
sunrise this morning.”
“Achmet--Achmet Pasha!” A light came into David’s face again.
“You will keep faith with Achmet, Saadat. He risked his life to get
them. They betrayed you, and betrayed three hundred good men to death.
If they do not die, those who fight for you will say that it doesn’t
matter whether men fight for you or betray you, they get the same stuff
off the same plate. If we are going to fight to-morrow, it ought to be
with a clean bill of health.”
“They served me well so long--ate at my table, fought with me. But--but
traitors must die, even as Harrik died.” A stern look came into his
face. He looked round the great room slowly. “We have done our best,” he
said. “I need not have failed, if there had been no treachery....”
“If it hadn’t been for Nahoum!”
David raised his head. Supreme purpose came into his bearing. A grave
smile played at his lips, as he gave that quick toss of the head which
had been a characteristic of both Eglington and himself. His eyes
shone-a steady, indomitable light. “I will not give in. I still have
hope. We are few and they are many, but the end of a battle has never
been sure. We may not fail even now. Help may come from Cairo even
to-morrow.”
“Say, somehow you’ve always pulled through before, Saadat. When
I’ve been most frightened I’ve perked up and stiffened my backbone,
remembering your luck. I’ve seen a blue funk evaporate by thinking of
how things always come your way just when the worst seems at the worst.”
David smiled as he caught up a small cane and prepared to go. Looking
out of a window, he stroked his thin, clean-shaven face with a lean
finger. Presently a movement in the desert arrested his attention.
He put a field-glass to his eyes, and scanned the field of operations
closely once more.
“Good-good!” he burst out cheerfully. “Achmet has done the one thing
possible. The way to the north will be still open. He has flung his
men between the Nile and the enemy, and now the batteries are at work.”
Opening the door, they passed out. “He has anticipated my orders,” he
added. “Come, Lacey, it will be an anxious night. The moon is full, and
Ebn Ezra Bey has his work cut out--sharp work for all of us, and...”
Lacey could not hear the rest of his words in the roar of the artillery.
David’s steamers in the river were pouring shot into the desert where
the enemy lay, and Achmet’s “friendlies” and the Egyptians were making
good their new position. As David and Lacey, fearlessly exposing
themselves to rifle fire, and taking the shortest and most dangerous
route to where Achmet fought, rode swiftly from the palace, Ebn Ezra’s
three steamers appeared up the river, and came slowly down to where
David’s gunboats lay. Their appearance was greeted by desperate
discharges of artillery from the forces under Ali Wad Hei, who had
received word of their coming two hours before, and had accordingly
redisposed his attacking forces. But for Achmet’s sharp initiative, the
boldness of the attempt to cut off the way north and south would have
succeeded, and the circle of fire and sword would have been complete.
Achmet’s new position had not been occupied before, for men were too
few, and the position he had just left was now exposed to attack.
Never since the siege began had the foe shown such initiative and
audacity. They had relied on the pressure of famine and decimation by
sickness, the steady effects of sorties, with consequent fatalities and
desertions, to bring the Liberator of the Slaves to his knees. Ebn Ezra
Bey had sought to keep quiet the sheikhs far south, but he had been shut
up in Darffur for months, and had been in as bad a plight as David. He
had, however, broken through at last. His ruse in leaving the steamers
in the night and marching across the desert was as courageous as it was
perilous, for, if discovered before he reached the beleaguered place,
nothing could save his little force from destruction. There was one way
in from the desert to the walled town, and it was through that space
which Achmet and his men had occupied, and on which Ali Wad Hei might
now, at any moment, throw his troops.
David’s heart sank as he saw the danger. From the palace he had sent
an orderly with a command to an officer to move forward and secure the
position, but still the gap was open, and the men he had ordered to
advance remained where they were. Every minute had its crisis.
As Lacey and himself left the town the misery of the place smote him in
the eyes. Filth, refuse, debris filled the streets. Sick and dying men
called to him from dark doorways, children and women begged for bread,
carcasses lay unburied, vultures hovering above them--his tireless
efforts had not been sufficient to cope with the daily horrors of
the siege. But there was no sign of hostility to him. Voices called
blessings on him from dark doorways, lips blanching in death commended
him to Allah, and now and then a shrill call told of a fighter who had
been laid low, but who had a spirit still unbeaten. Old men and women
stood over their cooking-pots waiting for the moment of sunset; for it
was Ramadan, and the faithful fasted during the day--as though every day
was not a fast.
Sunset was almost come, as David left the city and galloped away to
send forces to stop the gap of danger before it was filled by the foe.
Sunset--the Three Pashas were to die at sunset! They were with Achmet,
and in a few moments they would be dead. As David and Lacey rode hard,
they suddenly saw a movement of men on foot at a distant point of the
field, and then a small mounted troop, fifty at most, detach themselves
from the larger force and, in close formation, gallop fiercely down on
the position which Achmet had left. David felt a shiver of anxiety and
apprehension as he saw this sharp, sweeping advance. Even fifty men,
well intrenched, could hold the position until the main body of Ali Wad
Hei’s infantry came on.
They rode hard, but harder still rode Ali Wad Hei’s troop of daring
Arabs. Nearer and nearer they came. Suddenly from the trenches,
which they had thought deserted, David saw jets of smoke rise, and
a half-dozen of the advancing troop fell from their saddles, their
riderless horses galloping on.
David’s heart leaped: Achmet had, then, left men behind, hidden from
view; and these were now defending the position. Again came the jets of
smoke, and again more Arabs dropped from their saddles. But the others
still came on. A thousand feet away others fell. Twenty-two of the fifty
had already gone. The rest fired their rifles as they galloped. But now,
to David’s relief, his own forces, which should have moved half an hour
before, were coming swiftly down to cut off the approach of Ali Wad
Hei’s infantry, and he turned his horse upon the position where a
handful of men were still emptying the saddles of the impetuous enemy.
But now all that were left of the fifty were upon the trenches. Then
came the flash of swords, puffs of smoke, the thrust of lances, and
figures falling from the screaming, rearing horses.
Lacey’s pistol was in his hand, David’s sword was gripped tight, as they
rushed upon the melee. Lacey’s pistol snapped, and an Arab fell; again,
and another swayed in his saddle. David’s sword swept down, and a
turbaned head was gashed by a mortal stroke. As he swung towards another
horseman, who had struck down a defender of the trenches, an Arab raised
himself in his saddle and flung a lance with a cry of terrible malice;
but, even as he did so, a bullet from Lacey’s pistol pierced his
shoulder. The shot had been too late to stop the lance, but sufficient
to divert its course. It caught David in the flesh of the body under the
arm--a slight wound only. A few inches to the right, however, and his
day would have been done.
The remaining Arabs turned and fled. The fight was over. As David,
dismounting, stood with dripping sword in his hand, in imagination, he
heard the voice of Kaid say to him, as it said that night when he killed
Foorgat Bey: “Hast thou never killed a man?”
For an instant it blinded him, then he was conscious that, on the ground
at his feet, lay one of the Three Pashas who were to die at sunset. It
was sunset now, and the man was dead. Another of the Three sat upon the
ground winding his thigh with the folds of a dead Arab’s turban, blood
streaming from his gashed face. The last of the trio stood before David,
stoical and attentive. For a moment David looked at the Three, the
dead man and the two living men, and then suddenly turned to where
the opposing forces were advancing. His own men were now between the
position and Ali Wad Hei’s shouting fanatics. They would be able to
reach and defend the post in time. He turned and gave orders. There
were only twenty men besides the two pashas, whom his commands also
comprised. Two small guns were in place. He had them trained on that
portion of the advancing infantry of Ali Wad Hei not yet covered by his
own forces. Years of work and responsibility had made him master of many
things, and long ago he had learned the work of an artilleryman. In a
moment a shot, well directed, made a gap in the ranks of the advancing
foe. An instant afterwards a shot from the other gun fired by the
unwounded pasha, who, in his youth, had been an officer of artillery,
added to the confusion in the swerving ranks, and the force hesitated;
and now from Ebn Ezra Bey’s river steamers, which had just arrived,
there came a flank fire. The force wavered. From David’s gun another
shot made havoc. They turned and fell back quickly. The situation was
saved.
As if by magic the attack of the enemy all over the field ceased. By
sunset they had meant to finish this enterprise, which was to put
the besieged wholly in their hands, and then to feast after the day’s
fasting. Sunset had come, and they had been foiled; but hunger demanded
the feast. The order to cease firing and retreat sounded, and three
thousand men hurried back to the cooking-pot, the sack of dourha,
and the prayer mat. Malaish, if the infidel Inglesi was not conquered
to-day, he should be beaten and captured and should die to-morrow! And
yet there were those among them who had a well-grounded apprehension
that the “Inglesi” would win in the end.
By the trenches, where five men had died so bravely, and a traitorous
pasha had paid the full penalty of a crime and won a soldier’s death,
David spoke to his living comrades. As he prepared to return to the
city, he said to the unwounded pasha: “Thou wert to die at sunset; it
was thy sentence.”
And the pasha answered: “Saadat, as for death--I am ready to die, but
have I not fought for thee?” David turned to the wounded pasha.
“Why did Achmet Pasha spare thee?”
“He did not spare us, Saadat. Those who fought with us but now were
to shoot us at sunset, and remain here till other troops came. Before
sunset we saw the danger, since no help came. Therefore we fought to
save this place for thee.”
David looked them in the eyes. “Ye were traitors,” he said, “and for an
example it was meet that ye should die. But this that ye have done shall
be told to all who fight to-morrow, and men will know why it is I pardon
treachery. Ye shall fight again, if need be, betwixt this hour and
morning, and ye shall die, if need be. Ye are willing?”
Both men touched their foreheads, their lips, and their breasts.
“Whether it be death or it be life, Inshallah, we are true to thee,
Saadat!” one said, and the other repeated the words after him. As they
salaamed David left them, and rode forward to the advancing forces.
Upon the roof of the palace Mahommed Hassan watched and waited, his eyes
scanning sharply the desert to the south, his ears strained to catch
that stir of life which his accustomed ears had so often detected in the
desert, when no footsteps, marching, or noises could be heard. Below,
now in the palace, now in the defences, his master, the Saadat,
planned for the last day’s effort on the morrow, gave directions to the
officers, sent commands to Achmet Pasha, arranged for the disposition of
his forces, with as strange a band of adherents and subordinates as ever
men had--adventurers, to whom adventure in their own land had brought
no profit; members of that legion of the non-reputable, to whom Cairo
offered no home; Levantines, who had fled from that underground world
where every coin of reputation is falsely minted, refugees from the
storm of the world’s disapproval. There were Greeks with Austrian
names; Armenians, speaking Italian as their native tongue; Italians of
astonishing military skill, whose services were no longer required by
their offended country; French Pizarros with a romantic outlook, even
in misery, intent to find new El Dorados; Englishmen, who had cheated
at cards and had left the Horse Guards for ever behind; Egyptian
intriguers, who had been banished for being less successful than greater
intriguers; but also a band of good gallant men of every nation.
Upon all these, during the siege, Mahommed Hassan had been a
self-appointed spy, and had indirectly added to that knowledge
which made David’s decisive actions to circumvent intrigue and its
consequences seem almost supernatural. In his way Mahommed was a great
man. He knew that David would endure no spying, and it was creditable
to his subtlety and skill that he was able to warn his master, without
being himself suspected of getting information by dark means. On the
palace roof Mahommed was happy to-night. Tomorrow would be a great day,
and, since the Saadat was to control its destiny, what other end could
there be but happiness? Had not the Saadat always ridden over all that
had been in his way? Had not he, Mahommed, ever had plenty to eat and
drink, and money to send to Manfaloot to his father there, and to
bribe when bribing was needed? Truly, life was a boon! With a neboot of
dom-wood across his knees he sat in the still, moonlit night, peering
into that distance whence Ebn Ezra Bey and his men must come, the
moon above tranquil and pleasant and alluring, and the desert beneath,
covered as it was with the outrages and terrors of war, breathing
softly its ancient music, that delicate vibrant humming of the latent
activities. In his uncivilised soul Mahommed Hassan felt this murmur,
and even as he sat waiting to know whether a little army would steal out
of the south like phantoms into this circle the Saadat had drawn round
him, he kept humming to himself--had he not been, was he not now, an
Apollo to numberless houris who had looked down at him from behind
mooshrabieh screens, or waited for him in the palm-grove or the
cane-field? The words of his song were not uttered aloud, but yet he
sang them silently--
“Every night long and all night my spirit is moaning and crying
O dear gazelle, that has taken away my peace!
Ah! if my beloved come not, my eyes will be blinded with weeping
Moon of my joy, come to me, hark to the call of my soul!”
Over and over he kept chanting the song. Suddenly, however, he leaned
farther forward and strained his ears. Yes, at last, away to the
south-east, there was life stirring, men moving--moving quickly. He
got to his feet slowly, still listening, stood for a moment motionless,
then, with a cry of satisfaction, dimly saw a moving mass in the white
moonlight far over by the river. Ebn Ezra Bey and his men were coming.
He started below, and met David on the way up. He waited till David had
mounted the roof, then he pointed. “Now, Saadat!” he said.
“They have stolen in?” David peered into the misty whiteness.
“They are almost in, Saadat. Nothing can stop them now.”
“It is well done. Go and ask Ebn Ezra effendi to come hither,” he said.
Suddenly a shot was fired, then a hoarse shout came over the desert,
then there was silence again.
“They are in, Saadat,” said Mahommed Hassan.
.......................
Day broke over a hazy plain. On both sides of the Nile the river mist
spread wide, and the army of Ali Wad Hei and the defending forces were
alike veiled from each other and from the desert world beyond. Down the
river for scores of miles the mist was heavy, and those who moved within
it and on the waters of the Nile could not see fifty feet ahead. Yet
through this heavy veil there broke gently a little fleet of phantom
vessels, the noise of the paddle-wheels and their propellers muffled
as they moved slowly on. Never had vessels taken such risks on the
Nile before, never had pilots trusted so to instinct, for there were
sand-banks and ugly drifts of rock here and there. A safe journey for
phantom ships; but these armed vessels, filled by men with white, eager
faces and others with dark Egyptian features, were no phantoms. They
bristled with weapons, and armed men crowded every corner of space.
For full two hours from the first streak of light they had travelled
swiftly, taking chances not to be taken save in some desperate moment.
The moment was desperate enough, if not for them. They were going to
the relief of besieged men, with a message from Nahoum Pasha to Claridge
Pasha, and with succour. They had looked for a struggle up this river as
they neared the beleaguered city; but, as they came nearer and nearer,
not a gun fired at them from the forts on the banks out of the mists. If
they were heard they still were safe from the guns, for they could not
be seen, and those on shore could not know whether they were friend or
foe. Like ghostly vessels they passed on, until at last they could hear
the stir and murmur of life along the banks of the stream.
Boom! boom! boom! Through the mist the guns of the city were pouring
shot and shell out into Ali Wad Hei’s camp, and Ali Wad Hei laughed
contemptuously. Surely now the Inglesi was altogether mad, and to-day,
this day after prayers at noon, he should be shot like a mad dog, for
yesterday’s defeat had turned some of his own adherent sheikhs into
angry critics. He would not wait for starvation to compel the infidel
to surrender. He would win freedom to deal in human flesh and blood, and
make slave-markets where he willed, and win glory for the Lord Mahomet,
by putting this place to the sword; and, when it was over, he would have
the Inglesi’s head carried on a pole through the city for the faithful
to mock at, a target for the filth of the streets. So, by the will of
Allah, it should be done!
Boom! boom! boom! The Inglesi was certainly mad, for never had there
been so much firing in any long day in all the siege as in this brief
hour this morning. It was the act of a fool, to fire his shot and shell
into the mist without aim, without a clear target. Ali Wad Hei scorned
to make any reply with his guns, but sat in desultory counsel with his
sheikhs, planning what should be done when the mists had cleared away.
But yesterday evening the Arab chief had offered to give the Inglesi
life if he would surrender and become a Muslim, and swear by the Lord
Mahomet; but late in the night he had received a reply which left only
one choice, and that was to disembowel the infidel, and carry his head
aloft on a spear. The letter he had received ran thus in Arabic:
“To Ali Wad Hei and All with Him:
“We are here to live or to die as God wills, and not as ye will. I
have set my feet on the rock, and not by threats of any man shall I
be moved. But I say that for all the blood that ye have shed here
there will be punishment, and for the slaves which ye have slain or
sold there will be high price paid. Ye have threatened the city and
me--take us if ye can. Ye are seven to one. Why falter all these
months? If ye will not come to us, we shall come to you, rebellious
ones, who have drawn the sword against your lawful ruler, the
Effendina.
“CLARIDGE PASHA”
It was a rhetorical document couched in the phraseology they best
understood; and if it begat derision, it also begat anger; and the
challenge David had delivered would be met when the mists had lifted
from the river and the plain. But when the first thinning of the mists
began, when the sun began to dissipate the rolling haze, Ali Wad Hei
and his rebel sheikhs were suddenly startled by rifle-fire at close
quarters, by confused noises, and the jar and roar of battle. Now the
reason for the firing of the great guns was plain. The noise was meant
to cover the advance of David’s men. The little garrison, which had done
no more than issue in sorties, was now throwing its full force on the
enemy in a last desperate endeavour. It was either success or absolute
destruction. David was staking all, with the last of his food, the
last of his ammunition, the last of his hopes. All round the field the
movement was forward, till the circle had widened to the enemy’s lines;
while at the old defences were only handfuls of men. With scarce a cry
David’s men fell on the unprepared foe; and he himself, on a grey Arab,
a mark for any lance or spear and rifle, rode upon that point where Ali
Wad Hei’s tent was set.
But after the first onset, in which hundreds were killed, there began
the real noise of battle--fierce shouting, the shrill cries of wounded
and maddened horses as they struck with their feet, and bit as fiercely
at the fighting foe as did their masters. The mist cleared slowly, and,
when it had wholly lifted, the fight was spread over every part of the
field of siege. Ali Wad Hei’s men had gathered themselves together after
the first deadly onslaught, and were fighting fiercely, shouting the
Muslim battle-cry, “Allah hu achbar!” Able to bring up reinforcements,
the great losses at first sustained were soon made up, and the sheer
weight of numbers gave them courage and advantage. By rushes with lance
and sword and rifle they were able, at last, to drive David’s men back
upon their old defences with loss. Then charge upon charge ensued, and
each charge, if it cost them much, cost the besieged more, by reason of
their fewer numbers. At one point, however, the besieged became again
the attacking party. This was where Achmet Pasha had command. His men on
one side of the circle, as Ebn Ezra Bey’s men on the other, fought with
a valour as desperate as the desert ever saw. But David, galloping here
and there to order, to encourage, to prevent retreat at one point, or
to urge attack at another, saw that the doom of his gallant force was
certain; for the enemy were still four to one, in spite of the carnage
of the first attack. Bullets hissed past him. One carried away a button,
one caught the tip of his ear, one pierced the fez he wore; but he
felt nothing of this, saw nothing. He was buried in the storm of battle
preparing for the end, for the final grim defence, when his men would
retreat upon the one last strong fort, and there await their fate. From
this absorption he was roused by Lacey, who came galloping towards him.
“They’ve come, Saadat, they’ve come at last! We’re saved--oh, my God,
you bet we’re all right now! See! See, Saadat!”
David saw. Five steamers carrying the Egyptian flag were bearing around
the point where the river curved below the town, and converging upon
David’s small fleet. Presently the steamers opened fire, to encourage
the besieged, who replied with frenzied shouts of joy, and soon there
poured upon the sands hundreds of men in the uniform of the Effendina.
These came forward at the double, and, with a courage which nothing
could withstand, the whole circle spread out again upon the discomfited
tribes of Ali Wad Hei. Dismay, confusion, possessed the Arabs. Their
river-watchers had failed them, God had hidden His face from them; and
when Ali Wad Hei and three of his emirs turned and rode into the desert,
their forces broke and ran also, pursued by the relentless men who had
suffered the tortures of siege so long. The chase was short, however,
for they were desert folk, and they returned to loot the camp which had
menaced them so long.
Only the new-comers, Nahoum’s men, carried the hunt far; and they
brought back with them a body which their leader commanded to be brought
to a great room of the palace. Towards sunset David and Ebn Ezra Bey and
Lacey came together to this room. The folds of loose linen were lifted
from the face, and all three looked at it long in silence. At last Lacey
spoke:
“He got what he wanted; the luck was with him. It’s better than
Leperland.”
“In the bosom of Allah there is peace,” said Ebn Ezra. “It is well with
Achmet.”
With misty eyes David stooped and took the dead man’s hand in his for a
moment. Then he rose to his feet and turned away.
“And Nahoum also--and Nahoum,” he said presently. “Read this,” he added,
and put a letter from Nahoum into Ebn Ezra’s hand.
Lacey reverently covered Achmet’s face. “Say, he got what he wanted,” he
said again.