It was not without very careful consideration that Harry Forsyth had
determined to sacrifice his immediate salary, if not his prospects of
success in the commercial line for ever, in order to track Daireh, and
obtain the abstracted will.
On learning the whole story on his return to England, he had indeed at
once thought that that was the best thing to be done, but had not been
hasty in settling to do it.
His first act was to go to Dublin; his next to tell the whole story to
Mr Williams, the head of the house which employed him in London, and he
somewhat reluctantly fell in with his views, his hesitation arising
principally from Harry's youth.
"You are very young," he said, "but you have proved that you have a head
on your shoulders; and if your mother and sister have enough to support
them, and you possess funds for the journey, I cannot dissuade you from
the attempt. If you fail, come back to us, and we will see if we cannot
give you employment again. And even if you succeed you had better not
lead an idle life, and need not sever all connection with us. At any
rate, I will do what I can by letters of introduction to aid you."
Harry thanked Mr Williams heartily, and that gentleman was better than
his word, for, besides the letters, he gave him charge of some goods
which had to be sent out to Cairo, by which he not only got a free
passage, but salary up to the date of his arrival out.
Under the circumstances, and considering the object of his present visit
to Egypt, Harry had no hesitation in selling the amethysts given to him
by his uncle Ralph, or the Sheikh Burrachee. For he fully intended to
seek him, if he could not find Daireh, a matter which he felt to be
extremely problematical. Without the sale of these jewels he could not
attempt the rescue of the will at all. He was surprised at their value,
for he got more for them than he expected, and it seemed a great risk to
have left them in the secret drawer of his desk all this time. You may
be sure he did not forget the signet-ring and the thin silver case,
these being taken with him as before.
The trip to Cairo was uneventful, and he passed the time in improving
his Arabic, by the aid of a grammar, dictionary, and Koran. As soon as
he had delivered his cargo, and called upon the member of the firm who
resided out there, who was as kind and cordial as Mr Williams, he
started up the Nile.
The traveller who does that, proposing to do more than visit a pyramid
or two, requires a good deal of patience; and so would a reader if the
ordinary routine of travel were to be recorded. Suffice it then to say
that Harry voyaged up the Nile to Korosko, and there joined a caravan
across the desert to Abu Hamed, from which place he got passage again on
board a diabeheeh, which carried him to Berber.
With what excitement he beheld the white houses, the minarets, the palm-
trees, grow nearer and nearer! Within those walls, as he hoped, Daireh
was living. If so, and he could find him, and get the will, the object
of his journey would be accomplished.
For he had laid his plans. Armed with a letter he had got for the
Governor, he would find no difficulty in having his man seized
unexpectedly before he would have time to make away with the document,
and there was little doubt means would be found to make him give it up.
Confidence, which had fluctuated, revived at the sight of the place, and
when at length he was landed, Harry walked through the bazaars,
expecting every man he met to be the one he was in search of. After
many disappointments he recognised himself for an idiot, and calmed
down.
How should he set to work in a methodical manner?--that was the point.
The letter to the Pasha denounced Daireh as a criminal, and therefore if
he employed his officers to make search for him the fact might get
about, and Daireh, hearing of it, might hide, escape, or at any rate get
rid of all incriminatory documents. It was more prudent, perhaps, to
pretend to have business with him, and make inquiry in the bazaars.
The one advantage of the tedium of his journey was that Harry had
acquired much more fluency by constant practice in speaking the
language. The dress he had selected was not one to attract attention;
he had modelled it on that of a Greek merchant who was continually
trading with the interior. He wore full pantaloons, a loose sort of
jacket, with a shawl bound round the waist, and his head was protected
by a tarboosh, with a turban wrapped round it.
But though his clothes did not look European, the pistol stuck in his
shawl belt was of the best, strongest, and most hard-hitting type. Old-
fashioned, indeed, so far that it was not breech-loading; for he had
considered that if he lost his cartridges, or spent them, his weapon
would become a useless lump of iron, whereas percussion caps, powder,
and lead, are procurable almost everywhere.
He went to the stall of a man who sold filigree work, and at his
invitation squatted down and had a pipe and a cup of coffee, while he
asked the price of several things. That was very well, but when he
began to inquire about the object of his search, the shopkeeper lost all
interest in the conversation.
He tried a money-changer with better success; he knew Daireh, but had
not seen him for months. More he could not say. After many more
failures Harry turned into a coffee-house, to sit down and rest, and
have a glass of sherbet and enjoy a smoke.
While resting in the comparative cool portico where he was served, a
barber came and offered his services, and Harry, suddenly remembering
how the barber in the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments" always knew
everybody, thought he would try his luck with him.
"I have come all the way from Cairo," he said, in reply to a bit of
characteristic curiosity, "and my business is with one Daireh, who
should reside here; for the last time our house transacted business with
him he was here."
"He was here but six moons back. And he came from the land of the
English to his cousin, who lived here. If you have dealings with
Daireh, I know your business,"--and here the barber looked inexpressibly
cunning--"Gordon Pasha spoilt that trade; but since he has gone there is
good profit to be made. And what are the pagans fit for but slaves,
sons of pigs that they are? But they tell me there will be fine times
when the Mahdi rules. Not that I know, but while I shave heads the
tongues wag and I listen. It is nothing to me. Mahdi or Khedive, what
do I care! All want to be shaved."
"To be sure," said Harry; "the wise man has the same opinion as his
customer. And where has the family moved to?"
"They moved to Khartoum when trade grew better, and you will find them
there if Allah wills."
How long he would have gone on talking it is impossible to conjecture,
had it not been that a customer entered his stall, which was on the
opposite side of the street, and he shuffled off to attend to him, for
which Harry, who had got all the information he required, was by no
means sorry.
His one great desire now was to get away. To be so close, to find the
form of the hare almost warm, and yet to be just too late, was very
trying to his patience. It was all very well to say to himself that he
had only two hundred miles farther to go; and after travelling more than
a thousand from Cairo, let alone the journey out from England, what were
two hundred miles? But the answer he made himself was that two hundred
miles was a great distance, and there was the sixth cataract. He had
forced himself to be cool--mentally, of course, bodily coolness was
quite out of the question--all the way along, with looking upon Berber
as the end of his voyage. And here he had to go on another two hundred
miles, and up another tedious cataract. It was very disheartening.
However, there was no help for it; so he went at once down to the quay,
and began inquiries about boats going up. Luck here turned in his
favour, for there was one starting next day, and he engaged a passage by
it. And what was still more fortunate, the next day was Friday, and so
there was not any likelihood of the delay which is so charming to the
Nubian sailor mind. For Friday is their lucky day, and they would not
miss the chance of commencing any undertaking upon it on any account.
Now we account Friday an unlucky day (or used to do so). So either we
or the Soudanese must be utterly wrong--radically wrong. Which is it, I
wonder?
The dreary business commenced again on the morrow. A fair breeze, and
sailing; a foul one or a calm, and rowing; running on banks, and pushing
off; getting nearly wrecked half a dozen times in the rapids, and
escaping. And so they progressed until at length the mighty river
divided into two streams, that to the left the Blue Nile, that to the
right the White, and the real Nile, and they found at the junction the
city of Khartoum, dazzling in the glare of the sunshine, with the
governor's house and the mosque rising above the flat roofs.
Opposite the city, and on the west side of the Nile, there were a number
of tents visible, and Harry asked the reis what place that was.
"That is Um Durma, where the camp is," he replied.
"And what is the camp for? It seems a very large one."
"Yes, O traveller, it is large! Seven thousand foot soldiers, a
thousand of them that fight on horseback; many cannon, many camels to
carry powder, shot, provisions, water; thousands of those who fight not
themselves, but load and lead the baggage camels, sell things to the
soldiers, and live upon the camp. In all a large encampment, and must
cost the Khedive much money."
"Who commands the force, and what is it collected for?" asked Harry.
"Hicks Pasha commands it; he is an Englishman, and his principal
officers are also English; the men are Egyptians and Bashi-Bazooks."
The reis paused. He was a Soudanese; and a smile played over his face
as he added, "They are going to do wonderful things; to take El Obeid
back again, to destroy the Soudan army, take the Mahdi, and carry him to
Cairo in a cage, I believe. Oh! But they are great warriors, and the
Mahdi's days are numbered."
"Is El Obeid in the Mahdi's hands, then?" asked Harry; for the last time
he had heard news of that part of the country it had been still held by
the Egyptians; and Mahomet Achmet, or the Mahdi, as he professed himself
to be, had been repulsed with such heavy loss when he attacked it as to
oblige him to sheer off, this being his first defeat. But he had
returned in the January of that year, and taken the place after a
fortnight's siege.
"Yes," said the sarcastic reis; "he holds it just for the present, till
the warriors of Hicks Pasha find it convenient to walk across and take
it from him."
After the disappointment at Berber, Harry did not feel the same
confidence in finding his man that he had previously done. He began to
be disheartened, and to think luck was against him; and to settle the
matter quickly was a more important matter than ever it had been. If El
Obeid was taken by the Mahdi, the insurrection of the Soudanese against
the Egyptian yoke must be a very serious thing, and the country would be
in a disturbed state for a long time, so that the Nile route would be
closed against travellers, and passage across the desert to the sea
would be equally difficult. If then he caught his man and recovered the
will, he would not be able to get out of the country with it.
He had little doubt that Sheikh Burrachee's signet-ring and the
parchment in the silver case, would, properly used, find him safe
conduct to his uncle, if living; but the getting back again he suspected
would be much more difficult, for his fanatical relative would probably
want to keep him when he had got him.
But as Khartoum was a so much larger and more important town than
Berber, so much greater difficulty was there in tracing an individual;
and perseveringly and assiduously as Harry pursued his investigations,
he could learn nothing. Most of those of whom he made inquiries were
probably as ignorant as they professed to be; but there were some who,
at the name of Daireh, looked at the inquirer with a quick suspicious
glance. One of these replied with a verse out of the Koran, another
with a proverb, a third said he never meddled with other people's
affairs, and walked quickly away.
After three days of fruitless inquiry, Harry was obliged to have
recourse to the plan which he wished to avoid as long as he could--that
of applying to the authorities.
So he inquired for the house of Slatin Bey, to whom he had a letter of
introduction, and went to deliver his credentials.
Experience in transacting business on his former journey up the country
had taught him how to expedite his reception, and a judicious
application of baksheesh caused him to be introduced to the great man
without too great delay.
Slatin Bey read the letter, and received him courteously, motioning him
to a seat on the divan, and ordering him a chibouque to smoke, and
coffee.
Harry knew that the great man must not be bustled, so he sucked at his
long pipe with apparent complacency and indifference to all external
matters, and said that he was an Englishman, who had come from London to
bask in the sunshine of the Bey's presence.
"England is a great country, and London is a great town--twice as large
as Cairo. I am honoured," said the Bey. "And you need no interpreter?
That is pleasant."
"I speak but badly, but I can understand and reply," said Harry.
"It is well," said the Bey; "and if you have a message for the Governor
it is best delivered without an interpreter."
"I have no message; neither, though a merchant, have I come to trade,"
said Harry, when after a few observations on fleets, armies, and Mr
Gladstone--in which the Bey evidently tried to pump him--he thought he
saw an opening. "My business is a private one. A man named Daireh, a
native of Alexandria, went to England as a boy, and was brought up to be
a lawyer. He has fled with documents, for the want of which I cannot
obtain property which is mine by right, and I have traced him to
Khartoum; and I request your Highness's omnipotent aid to find him, and
induce him to make restitution of what is valueless to him, but of great
importance to me."