"Daireh, where are the two wills you stole from Burrows and Fagan, the
Dublin lawyers, when you ran away from their employ?"
Surely such an incongruous question was never put in an Arab town in the
heart of Africa by a sheikh dressed in bernouse and turban, with a
jewel-hilted yataghan at his side, sitting cross-legged on a cushion.
No wonder Daireh was flabbergasted; such a thunderbolt out of a clear
sky has seldom fallen upon any man.
"Your Mightiness is mistaken," he stammered. "I have lived, earning an
honest livelihood as a poor merchant, at Khartoum and Berber, Alexandria
and Cairo. But what is Dublin? I know it not."
"Is that your photograph?" asked Harry Forsyth, suddenly, in English.
"No!" replied Daireh, startled into answering in the same language; and
the moment he did so he could have bitten his tongue out for vexation.
The sheikh took the likeness in his hand; it was unmistakable.
"Here is your portrait, and it was taken in Dublin, for it bears that
name upon it. Also you know English," he said.
"I learned that language at Alexandria," replied Daireh, more firmly now
he had collected his wits; "and I had a brother very like me who went
beyond the seas, and may have lived in the place you speak of, for I
never heard of him again."
"You speak the words of Sheytan, the father of lies," said the sheikh
sternly; "where are the stolen documents?"
"I never heard of them, your Justice; and I know not what you mean,"
replied Daireh, striving, but with indifferent success, not to tremble.
"Hassan!" called the sheikh, and a tall, stalwart black stepped forward,
with a courbash in his hand. "Twenty lashes to refresh his memory."
"Mercy, great sheikh; oh, favourite of Allah, have mercy, and listen to
me!" cried the wretch; but without heeding his cries four men seized him
and flung him on the ground face downwards. Two held his legs, one his
arms, and a third put a knee on his back between the shoulder-blades to
keep him in position. It was all done in a twinkling.
Then Hassan stepped up, courbash in hand, and measured his distance.
The courbash is a fearful whip made of hippopotamus' hide, a stroke from
which is felt by a bullock as painfully as a cut from an ordinary whip
is by a horse.
It whistled through the air, and came down upon the naked flesh of the
victim, who screamed with the pain as if he would break a blood-vessel.
The wild men in the hall gathered round, their eyes sparkling and their
teeth gleaming with enjoyment and laughter. It was good fun to them to
see any one flogged, but a money-lender and extortioner, that the
punishment should fall upon such an one, was indeed a treat! And Daireh
too was particularly disliked. Then the currish way in which he took
his licking added to the sport. The little civilisation they had was
very superficial, and did not go nearly deep enough to repress the
instinct of cruelty.
Another and another lash, and the fellow's howls, yells, and cries for
pity were hardly human, but seemed rather those of some powerful spirit
in pain. Harry felt quite faint and sick, and looked down so as not to
see what was going on. But he could not close his ears, unfortunately,
and he counted the strokes, longing for them to be over. He feared
being mastered by his feelings, and pleading for the wretch, so
displaying a compassion which would be considered by the Arabs as a most
despicable weakness, and it was part of his plan now to gain their
respect, and appear to enter into his uncle's plans.
No, it served the rascal right; let him have that, and more too. Only
he had rather not be present. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. The screams
subsided into a whimpering and wailing, and when Harry looked up he saw
Daireh on his feet again, his eyes bloodshot, and his features convulsed
with pain and terror.
"Where are the wills you stole?" asked the Sheikh Burrachee,
unconcernedly, as if nothing had occurred since he last put the
question.
"They are at my house, your Mightiness; send some one with me, and I
will give them up."
"I rejoice that your memory has returned; it is one of the choicest
gifts of Allah," said the sheikh. "Go with him and get the papers, and
bring them back with the prisoner."
"A bad speculation from the first!" reflected Daireh, as he was escorted
through the streets, his woe-begone appearance and gingerly gait
exciting much mirth and mockery amongst the juvenile population. "I
wish I had left the accursed wills alone. And what son of Sheytan is
this who has traced them, and had my likeness in his pocket? A
detective? No; no English policeman would win upon this mad fool of a
sheikh--may the vultures tear his heart out while he is still alive--to
treat him like a son. He must be one of the parties interested in the
last will. What wretched luck that I did not meet him in a fair way,
and make a proper agreement with him! But it is too late for that now.
If I could only be revenged upon him, upon all of them--sheikh,
torturer, mocking demons, and all! Ugh, how sore I am! If it were but
all over! But I fear they may torment me further. I had almost sooner
they took my head off at once rather than put me to more of that agony.
But no; I hope they won't do that either. There is a remedy for every
evil but death." With these reflections, fears, and impotent rages
tormenting him, Daireh reached his house, and from a box, which
contained what he had of most value, produced the required documents
which had cost Harry Forsyth so much anxiety, toil, and suffering to
come at. He was strongly tempted to destroy them, and so glean some
little vengeance; but the certainty of perishing in fearful pain if he
did so deterred him, and when he was brought back, he delivered them to
the sheikh, wrapped in the oilskin in which he had carried them about
him until he had a fixed residence where he could deposit them in
tolerable security.
"Are these the right wills?" asked the Sheikh Burrachee, handing them to
Harry.
"I think so," replied the latter, as he looked them over and examined
the signatures; "indeed, I feel certain that they are."
"Then," said the sheikh, "since after all it was but infidels, and not
true believers, that this rascal robbed, the justice of the case will
perhaps be met by fifty lashes of the courbash, those he has already
received being allowed to count. Dog!" he added, indignantly, as
Daireh, flinging himself on the ground, wallowed, gasping and crying for
mercy, "tempt me not, if you are wise, to treat you according to your
deserts, but know that you are treated with extreme leniency."
And so saying he rose and withdrew to the inner garden court, whither
his nephew gladly followed him, and here they refreshed themselves with
pipes and coffee.
But the screams of the miserable felon told with what energy Hassan was
performing his duty, and Harry thought the punishment would never be
over. If it seemed long to him, you may be certain Daireh thought it an
age, and indeed he believed that mortal endurance had reached the acme
of suffering, and that one more stroke must drive the soul from the
body, some time before the last had cut into his palpitating flesh.
But it takes a good deal to kill, and when all was over he was alive,
though unable to stand, and when spurned from the courtyard into the
street, managed to crawl and drag himself home, where he obtained the
draught of water, the want of which had been his chief torment since the
stripes ended.
"And now we have recovered the will, uncle, how are we to send it to my
mother?" asked Harry when the distracting cries extracted by the
courbash had ceased. "The old one I will destroy, as should have been
done before. The money will add to her comfort, but news that I am
alive and with you will make her happier still."
This last was a skilful touch, and, I fear, Harry was becoming a bit of
a cheat. For, though tidings of her son's own safety would undoubtedly
be the best news Mrs Forsyth could receive, the fact that he was
domiciled with her crazy brother would as certainly not add to her
satisfaction.
"Keep it safely for the present," said the sheikh, after smoking some
time in thoughtful deliberation; "we shall find a method of transmitting
it. Great events will occur soon. The authority of the Mahdi being
established in the Soudan, we shall sweep Egypt like the simoom, and
Cairo and Alexandria once in our hands, we shall find no difficulty in
communicating with Europe. Or, perhaps, it may be done more quickly by
Suakim, should the forces of the Mahdi's lieutenant, Osman Digna,
recover from their check," he added, musing and thinking aloud rather
than addressing his nephew.
Harry longed to ask what check, but it was part of his newly-formed
system not to ask questions or show curiosity, but yield himself
passively to the course of events, and watch his opportunity. For the
same reason he would not propose taking the will home himself, feeling
certain that so obvious a course would be suggested by his uncle himself
if he could feel it was practicable. But it was evident what he was
driving at now; as his nephew picked up health and strength he began
asking him about his connection with the volunteers, and whether he had
paid attention to the theory as well as the practice of shooting.
And though Harry pretended not to understand, and parried the questions
as well as he could, he saw very well that he wanted him to take an
active part in the training of Soudanese soldiers in the use of the
Remington rifles which had fallen into their hands.
For never in the history of war had a nation been armed so completely by
its enemies. The Egyptians sent out armies with weapons of precision
and improved artillery, and they fortified towns, where they massed vast
stores of ammunition, suited to both rifles and guns. The soldiers of
the Mahdi rushed upon their feeble foes with sword and spear, totally
annihilated army after army, and collected the rifles. Then they took
the towns and possessed themselves of the cartridges. Napoleon the
Great used to say that war should support war; but this was going a step
further, and making war supply the means of waging war. The only
drawback was this, that the more elaborate the weapons which you put
into a soldier's hands, the more skill he requires to use them
effectively; and this skill can only be acquired by proper training.
But the Mahdi had never taken the precaution to send any officers to
Hythe, and amongst the miraculous powers which he was said by some of
his followers to possess, that of creating ready-made musketry
instructors was apparently not included. The consequence was that his
men were extremely bad shots, and wasted their ammunition in an almost
incredible manner. What mischief they were enabled to do, especially
with the artillery, was principally owing to the lessons they received
from European scoundrels who had been forced to fly from their own
countries by their crimes, or reckless adventurers who did not care for
cause, nationality, or anything else, so long as they were where
fighting and a chance of plunder was going on--men who would have made
most excellent mediaeval heroes, and would have had a good chance of
living in song and story had they not been born a few centuries too
late.
Amongst all these the Sheikh Burrachee was an exception. He was a
genuine crack-brained enthusiast, sane and even shrewd enough in many
things, but quite crazy upon certain points. Convinced, to begin with,
that it was the duty of every Irishman to hate the English, he had
imaginary private wrongs of his own to avenge. On the top of all that,
he had become a thorough Mohammedan in his sympathetic feelings and
habits, and quite sincere in his adoption of the cause of the Mahdi.
The appearance of England in the field, which would have caused many to
hesitate, was a spur to his enthusiasm, since it offered him an
opportunity of having it out with the foes of his predilection.
Harry Forsyth had no idea whatever that England had engaged in
hostilities in the Soudan. When he last had any information, she was
firmly determined to do nothing of the kind, but to let the Egyptian
Government get out of the difficulty in the best way they could.
Indeed, it was the last thing he would have guessed. But still he knew
well enough that English interests were firmly bound up in Egyptian,
since any disturbance of the Government at Cairo might endanger the
route to India, and therefore that to assist in any way the enemies of
Egypt was to act indirectly against his own country; and he was
determined to be of no use, even if he made believe to espouse the cause
which his uncle had made his own. And this he suspected more and more
he would have to do, if he was to get an opportunity of leaving the
country.
His uncle had hinted at an impending advance upon Egypt; if he could
join that, and once reach the Nile, surely he would find some
opportunity of slipping down the river, and joining the Egyptian troops,
who would receive a relic of Hicks Pasha's army with open arms. Then he
would get to Cairo, and find friends to assist him to reach England with
the will in his pocket.
He did not fear that the Arabs would be able to penetrate far into Egypt
proper, for there were probably some English troops still at Cairo, and
more would be sent there on the first intimation of danger. The will,
by-the-by, had now taken the place which the parchment given to him by
his uncle had formerly held, and he seldom laid it aside, not knowing
what might happen from day to day.
His health, meantime, became re-established, and he grew rapidly
stronger, while his mind was perfectly clear now. At times, indeed, he
had violent neuralgic headaches, but these recurred less and less
frequently, and he had every prospect of soon losing all ill effects of
that wound in his head.
But the stronger and better he became, the more restless he grew. The
only amusement he had to pass the time in was riding. He had always
been very fond of horses, and now he had a good choice, and as the two
he had fancied most had not been often backed, they took some riding;
and that was exercise and amusement both. But the bits and the saddles
were not to his fancy: the former too severe; the latter heavy, with
high peaks before and behind. But one cannot have everything, and he
was grateful to be able once more to sit a horse and enjoy a gallop at
all. And to watch the wild cavalry at their exercises on a broad plain
outside the town was a pretty sight, though it seemed to him that their
performances were too much of the circus order.
"Can the English dragoons or hussars do anything like that?" the Sheikh
Burrachee asked him one day, when they were together watching a body of
horsemen who were supposed to be skirmishing.
They pulled up their horses to a dead halt from a gallop with their
cruel bits; went, not over the head, as it seemed they must, but under
the body of the animal; fired a shot from that position, and remounted
anyhow--one by the neck, another over the tail; a third ran alongside
his horse for some way, using him as cover, and then vaulted on his back
without checking the pace.
Harry was bound to confess that, to the best of his belief, no British
regiment, light or heavy, could rival such equestrian gymnastics.
"No," said the sheikh; "they learn to stick on while the horse keeps his
footing, but these cannot be thrown; for should the horse fall, even, he
jumps at once to the ground."
"But surely he must reach it head or shoulder first sometimes," objected
Harry.
"No," replied his uncle; "he turns a somersault and alights on his feet.
The European is as far behind the Asiatic in horsemanship as in
everything else which is manly and not demoniac. The use of the sword,
for example. The dragoon has a straight weapon, with which he is taught
to cut or thrust. If he does the former, and the blow is not parried,
he may knock his opponent down, but he seldom inflicts a dangerous
wound. If he gives point, he may kill his man indeed, but his weapon
will often become so entangled that he is for some time unable to free
it, and he remains defenceless against another attack. But with his
curved blade of temper, which will not shiver and which takes a razor's
edge, the warrior of the East neither strikes nor gives point, but
presents the half-moon-shaped sword at his opponent, holding it still if
galloping, pushing it forward if motionless, and will so slice off limb
or head, or cut deep into the body, without useless expenditure of
strength, or the chance of losing even the momentary control of his
weapon. I have seen an Arab meet an enemy in full career, and slice his
head clean off in this way, with hardly a perceptible movement of the
arm."
Having no knowledge on this subject, Harry assented without any mental
reserve; but concerning the military utility of acrobatic equestrian
performances, or of their being available at all in the hunting field,
he entertained the very gravest doubt. But they were good fun to watch,
for all that, and one, that of vaulting into the saddle while the horse
was in motion, he practised, and to a certain extent caught the knack.
He also went in for throwing the spear, which the natives could do for
ten yards or so with great force and accuracy; and though he did not
make very good practice, it proved an excellent exercise for his muscles
after his long confinement.
The Sheikh Burrachee was delighted to see how his nephew took to these
martial exercises, and at last he put the question to him point-blank,
whether he would not assist in teaching some of the men the use of the
Remington rifles they had captured.
Harry, having thought over the best course to pursue in such a
contingency, consented with apparent alacrity, but said that he hoped
his shortcomings would be excused. His uncle, not knowing how much that
hope covered, replied that he must not take the Kor Dofan for Wimbledon,
and the most elementary instruction would be esteemed extremely
scientific.
So the very next day Harry found himself with a squad of five hundred
men to instruct.
"Delightful task, to rear the tender root--to teach five hundred Arabs
how to shoot!" he said to himself, when the lot were handed over to him.
There was one consolation: do what he would, his instructions to so
large a number, without assistance, could not avail much: but he wanted
to do nothing at all.
His uncle was not present; he had no one to check him, able to judge
whether his instruction was good or bad. So he stuck some stones up for
butts, at about twelve hundred yards, and set them all firing at them.
He judged that by this he would in the first place accustom them to
firing at a comparatively innocuous distance; and in the second, that
they would waste a good deal of ammunition.
"His honour rooted in dishonour stood;
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true,"
in the words of Tennyson's famous conundrum.