"You knew his father; this is Daireh."
"And I knew him as a boy," said Hassib.
"It is years since I left," said Daireh.
Here Reouf the pilot joined the group, and he, too, was a friend of the
family, and was made known.
Harry Forsyth, seeing that old acquaintances had met after an absence,
kept in the background, and lit his pipe. He listened indeed, but
simply to try what words of Arabic, in which the conversation was being
held, he could pick up, not from any interest or curiosity which he felt
in the subject of their talk.
"Quite a boy when you went to England," said Reouf; "and yet I think I
can recognise you. Do you remember you went in my diabeheeh from Berber
home to Alexandria?"
"Have you been to Berber lately? Are my people there well?"
"I was there less than a year ago, and all was well with them. You are
journeying there now?" said Reouf.
"I am," replied Daireh. "I returned from the land of exile to visit my
home, hoping to share my hard-earned gains with my own people, when what
did I find? Ruins in the place of my home, my family dispersed, my
father slain by the English."
"Not so," said Hassib. "I heard of the misfortune; but it was by the
hand of Arabi's soldiers that he fell; not that of the English. Arabi's
soldiers, or plunderers who called themselves such. The English sailors
caught them red-handed, and hung them up for it then and there."
"May their graves be defiled, whoever they were," said Daireh. "I have
no friends now except at Berber."
Harry made out a good deal of this, and his heart bled for the Egyptian,
coming back as he thought to a home, to find nothing but desolation, and
to be driven out again from his native land. For there is nothing in
common between the Egyptian and the Nubian but religion. The former
race affects to despise the latter, and the latter really despises the
former. And with reason.
So when he rose to go back to his diabeheeh (Nile boat), he bade him
good-night in English, and expressed regret for the grievous
disappointment and sorrow he had experienced. And Daireh said of course
it was a great affliction, but he hoped to make a new home in the
Soudan. And so they parted, courteously enough.
The diabeheeh Daireh was travelling by had sustained some injury from a
sharp rock during the process of being hauled up the cataract, and the
crew were going to remain where they were for the purpose of repairs.
So when a sudden red flush burst on the eastern horizon, and spread and
deepened till it seemed as if a large city was on fire, and Hassib,
recognising this as the dawn, began kicking his lazy sailors into
wakefulness, the down-stream boat was the only one which made
preparations for a start.
By the time the anchor was up and the sails hoisted, however, there was
some movement on board the other diabeheeh, and parting greetings were
exchanged. Harry Forsyth, seeing the man who had excited his compassion
the night before on deck, waved his hand to him and shouted good-bye!
And the other returned the salutation. And the local pilot for the
second cataract took the helm, and the vessel entered the boiling
waters, and was whirled in apparent helplessness, though really guided
with great skill amidst innumerable rocks, any one of which would have
crushed her like an egg-shell.
And Harry, in the excitement and anxiety of the passage, forgot all
about the casual traveller from whom he had just parted. Little did he
dream that that man carried in his breast the document upon which his
fortune depended, and the obtaining of which would establish his mother
and sister in comfort, besides changing all the future prospects of his
old friend Kavanagh. And Daireh, had he but known that the Englishman
he had just parted from was Harry Forsyth, what a lucky opportunity he
would have esteemed it for making a bargain, and securing at least some
profit out of what threatened to be the barren crime he had committed.
For though it was not to be expected that the poor clerk and agent
should have command of sufficient funds to pay even the more moderate
ransom which he was now prepared to accept, he had formed all his plans
for eventually securing it. Something of course would have to be
trusted to the pledged word of the man with whom he treated, but though
he had no scruples about breaking his word, or his oath, indeed, for
that matter, himself, he knew well that other people had, and had before
traded, not without success, on what he considered a foolish weakness.
But the chance was gone both for the robber and the robbed. They had
met, and not known it, and now their paths diverged more widely every
minute.
Is there any truth in the notion of people having presentiments?
Whether or no, certainly Forsyth had none, for he was only too eager to
get back to Cairo. And the boat went well, though not fast enough for
his impatience, making a quick trip of it.
His employers were well satisfied with the result of their venture, and
Harry himself made as much as he expected out of his marabout feathers.
Shortly afterwards, as had been arranged, he sailed for England, and had
a warm greeting from his mother and Trix, though he did not bring the
promised crocodile.
And then he learned that his uncle, Richard Burke, was dead, and that
his will had mysteriously disappeared, as well as the confidential clerk
of the Dublin solicitors who had charge of it, who was therefore
supposed to have taken it.
"We would not write to you about it," said Mrs Forsyth, "because you
were on your way home, and the will might have been found in the
interim. But it hasn't."