A swift broad river, with the water broken into foaming wavelets by
rocks which were everywhere showing their vicious heads above the
surface; a string of nuggars, or half-decked boats, fifteen feet broad,
forty-five feet long, flat-bottomed, each with a thick rope attached to
the bows, and a string of men on the bank towing it under a hot sun.
Perhaps you have yourself towed a skiff on the Thames, when the current
was so strong that the progress made with the oars was unsatisfactory.
Well, if you have, you _don't_ know one bit what this was like. In the
first place, the Thames, even by Monkey Island, is still water compared
to the Nile between Surras and Dal, a sixty-mile stretch. Then your
skiff did not carry six tons of beef, bacon, biscuit, and other stores.
It may also be safely asserted that the towing-path you walked on was
not composed of sharp pointed rocks.
Those were the conditions under which certain picked British soldiers,
one of whom was an old friend of ours, lost sight of for a considerable
time, were dragging their nuggar up a series of cataracts. Towing
always looks to me an absurd business, much as if a man were to carry a
horse about, and call it going for a ride.
"Are you growling or singing, Tarrant?" asked Kavanagh of the man behind
him on the string.
"Not singing, you may take your davy," growled the man addressed.
"I fancied not, though there is a certain likeness in your way of doing
both which made me ask. I suppose you are growling then--what about?"
"What about, indeed!" grunted Tarrant. "D'ye suppose I 'listed as a
soldier or a barge horse?"
"Don't know; never saw your attestation papers."
"Why, it was as a soldier then. I should have thought twice if I had
known I was to be put to this sort of work."
"Really! Why, when we were rowing, you did not like that, and said you
would sooner be doing any work on your legs."
"But I didn't mean this; why, I have cut two pairs of boots to pieces
against these here sharp rocks since we began it."
"Ay," said Kavanagh, "but you had already worn-out some of your garments
at the other game, so it was only considerate to give the feet a
chance."
"Well, it's a pity them that likes it should not have the doing of it,"
said the judicious Tarrant.
"Well, you know, you could not pull an oar, and you _can_ pull a rope,"
said Grady, "so you are a trifle more useful now than you were before;
and begorra you had need."
"I could pull a rope if it were over the bough of a tree, and the other
end round your neck," snarled Tarrant.
"Oh, the murdering villain!" cried Grady. "And would ye be after
hanging a poor boy who never harmed ye in all his life?"
"Well, keep a civil tongue in your head."
"Sure, and it's myself that has kissed the Blarney stone, and can do
that same. And if you had such a thing as a bottle of whisky or a pound
of tobacco about you, I would make you believe you were a pleasant
companion, and pretty to look at besides. But what's the use of telling
lies when there's nothing to be got by it?"
"Suppose you were to pull a bit harder and talk a bit less," said
Corporal Adams.
"And I will, corporal dear," replied Grady. "But sure I thought we was
marching at ease."
It may be well to explain that when troops get the word _March at
ease_!--which is generally given directly they step off, when they are
not drilling or manoeuvring, but simply on the route--they are allowed
to carry their arms as they please, open the ranks, though without
losing their places or straggling, smoke their pipes, and chat or sing
if they like.
At the word of command--_Attention_! They close up, slope their arms
properly, put away their pipes, and tramp on in perfect silence.
But marching at ease was such a singularly inappropriate expression for
men who were dragging a heavy nuggar up a cataract under a blazing sun
that there was a general laugh, and even Tarrant relaxed into a grin. A
general laugh, I say, not a universal one, for Macintosh, who was
plodding along behind Grady, preserved his gravity.
"I don't say that silence is incumberous," explained Corporal Adams,
who, since he had got his stripes, had taken to using rather fine
language, "but too much talking don't go with hauling."
"Ho, ho, ho!" chuckled Macintosh, and the corporal began to think he had
said something funny. But no; Macintosh had trodden on an unusually
sharp flint, and that presented Grady's idea of what marching at ease
was in a ridiculous form to his mind. So when the pang was over he was
tickled.
"Eh, but Grady's a poor daft creature to call this marching at ease; ho,
ho!"
A particularly stiff bit came just now. The rope strained as if it
would snap; the bows of the nuggar were buried in foam, and the men
hauling were forced to take the corporal's hint, and keep their breath
for other purposes than conversation.
When they had got over the worst, however, the boat got jammed on a
rock, and the work of getting her off devolved on the crew on board of
her, unless she were so fast as to require the aid of the others, who
for the present got a much-required rest.
"A set of duffers, those chaps," said the sergeant in charge of the
party, a young fellow named Barton, of good parentage, and Kavanagh's
particular friend off duty. "A regular Nile reis, with his crew of four
natives, would never have stuck the nuggar _there_."
"I wish we had them Canadian vogajaws, sergeant," said Corporal Adams.
"Ay, they are first-rate," replied the sergeant.
"A good many boats have them, haven't they?"
"Oh, yes! Most I suppose, or we should not get on at all. But we have
not had the luck to get them for our craft. There are only a few of
these who know how to work a boat up rapids at all, and I fancy they are
only apprentices at it. As for the others, one of them owned to me that
he had never been on any river before the Nile but the Thames at Putney,
and his idea of a rapid was the tide rushing under the bridge."
"But sure, sergeant, he can sing `Row, brothers, row,' iligantly, he
can," said Grady.
"Ay, but he can't do it," replied the sergeant. "He ought to be in the
water now. There's Captain Reece overboard and shoving; I must try and
get to him. Stand by the rope, men, and haul away like blazes when she
shifts."
What with poling, and shoving, and pulling at the rope, the nuggar was
floated once more at last, and on they went again, and by-and-by the
river widened, and the current was not so strong, and so long as they
kept the rope pretty taut the boat came along without any very great
exertion.
"Have a pipe out of my baccy-box, just to show there's no malice?" said
Grady to Tarrant.
"Thankee, I will," replied Tarrant, "for mine is so wet it won't burn.
I went up to my neck in shoving off the first time we stuck, before we
took to towing."
"Eh, but that was a chance for the crocodiles!" cried Macintosh. "I saw
ye go souse under, Tarrant, and thought one of them had got ye by the
leg. Ye might have grumbled a bit then, and folks would have said you
had reason."
"It is all very fine," said Tarrant, "and if you chaps are pleased, you
are welcome; but I don't call this riding on a camel. I had as soon
have stopped with my own regiment, amongst sensible and pleasant lads,
and taken my chance, as have volunteered to join this corps, if I had
known I was to march all the same, and lug a beast of a boat after me
too. I expected to have a camel to ride on."
"Thank you for putting me in mind that I'm mounted," said Grady; "I had
almost forgotten it."
"Make your minds easy," said Sergeant Barton. "You will have plenty of
camel riding in a day or two, quite as much as you like perhaps."
"And I hope it will be before I have worn-out my third pair of boots,"
said Macintosh. "Eh, but this is a grievous waste of shoe-leather."
"I had sooner wear that out than my own skin," said Kavanagh.
"I'm not that sure," replied Macintosh. "The skin grows again, and the
shoe-leather doesn't."
The sergeant laughed.
"Well, I think I may promise you that you will have no more of this work
after to-morrow," he said. "You will get your camels at Wady Haifa."
Barton had been specially instructed in camel drill, and selected for
his proficiency to assist in training the corps to which Kavanagh
belonged.
His story was a very simple one; he was not one of the plucked, who,
failing to get their commissions, join the ranks rather than not serve
at all, for it was most likely that he would have succeeded in any
competitive examination, being a clever and industrious youth, who was
doing well at Oxford when his father lost all his money, having shares
in a bank which suddenly failed, and left him responsible to the extent
of every penny he possessed. The undergraduate had been accustomed to a
handsome allowance, and owed bills which he was now unable to pay. This
he could not help, but being an honourable man he would not incur a
farthing more, but took his name off the boards at once, divided his
caution money, and what was obtained by the sale of his horse, the
furniture of his rooms, and whatever else he possessed, amongst his
creditors, and enlisted. Having once chosen his profession, he went at
it with prodigious zeal, and lost no opportunity of attending any school
of instruction which was open to him. When he had once acquired his
drill, he was soon made corporal, then sergeant. He distinguished
himself at Hythe; he learnt signalling both with flags and flashes. And
when useful men were wanted for the formation of Camel Corps, and the
battalions in Egypt searched for them, he was one of the first pitched
upon to learn and then to instruct. For, when people talk of the super-
human intelligence of German officers and soldiers, and speak of ours as
a set of dunder-headed idiots, you need not quite take all they say for
absolute fact. I think if you took the adjutants, sergeant-majors, and
musketry instructors of the British army, you would find it hard to pick
out an equal number of men in any country, even Germany itself, to beat
them for intelligence, common sense, and promptitude.
"There will be a new drill to learn!" growled Tarrant.
"Oh, that won't be much," said Kavanagh. "Lots of old words of command
would do over again, I should say. For instance, `Shouldare--oop!' only
it would be the camel's shoulder which has to be mounted."
"Now, that's mighty clever," said Grady. "Will you tell me something,
Kavanagh, you that's a real scholar now--can a man be two things at the
same time?"
"Of course he can; he can be an Irishman and a barge horse, you see."
"Ah, then a Mounted Infantry man can be a trooper and a foot soldier all
at once. And a camel rider, would you call him a horse soldier, now?"
"No, Pat, I could not afford it. I'm an Irishman as well as yourself,
and dull people would think it was a blunder."
"That's a true word," said Grady. "And have you not noticed now, when
folks laugh at an Irishman, he is mostly quite right if they had the
understanding? Now you have observed, and heard, what a bad country
Egypt is for the eyes. Sure they give us green goggles, or we should
get the--what do you call it, Mr Corporal, sir, if you plaze?"
"The hop-fallimy," replied Corporal Adams, proud of being appealed to.
"Thank you; the hop-family, what with the sun, and the sand, and the
flies. And if you get the hop-family you are likely to go blind, and
that is a bad thing. Is it not curious that the great river of a
country that is so bad for the eyes should have cataracts itself in it?
Now that would sound foolish to many people, but you, who are an
Irishman, see the bearings of it, don't you now?"
"But," observed Macintosh, "a cataract in the eye is a skin, or
something growing over it, and a cataract in the river is a kind of
waterfall. They are not the same sort of thing at all."
"And is that so? To be sure, now, what a stupid mistake then I made.
And did you ever undergo the operation, now, Macintosh?"
"Well, beyond vaccination and the lugging out of a broken tooth, I don't
call to mind that I have been in the surgeon's hands; and if ye want to
know the truth, I don't care if I never am. Eh, but that tooth now, it
took a tug!"
"I thought you had never had it done," said Grady. "It's a pity, sure.
And what do you say makes a cataract in the Nile?"
"Surely you have seen enough of them for yersel'. It's a rapid where
the water comes down a steep part with great vehemence. But what
operation are ye talking of? I expect ye mean some sauce or other."
"Sure, no; it's only that which they say a Scotchman must have done
before a joke can be got into his head. But I don't belave it at all;
folks are such liars!" said Grady.
"I would have ye to know," said Macintosh, when the others had stopped
laughing, "that a Scotchman is not deficient in wut, but he can't see it
in mere nonsense."
All this talk was not spoken right off the reel, as it reads, but at
intervals, during pauses in the harder part of the work, and rests. And
it was lucky they could keep their spirits up; there is health and
vigour in that:
"The merry heart goes all the day;
The heavy tires in a mile--a!"
Shakespeare is always right.
But the sergeant was better than his word, and that was their last
afternoon of rowing or towing, for they reached the place where the
camels were collected that evening before sun-down. On the very next
day the new drill commenced, for there was not an hour to be lost.
The last days of 1884 had arrived, and Khartoum still held out. The
chances of reaching that place and rescuing Gordon were always present
to every mind; that was the one goal to which all efforts were tending.
But there was no good in for ever talking about it; on the contrary, it
was more healthy to divert the thoughts, if possible, in other
directions. A fall from a horse is unpleasant, and risky to the bones,
but a tumble off a camel is worse, because it is more dangerous to fall
ten feet than five. The first step was a difficulty--to mount the
creature at all, that is. It looks easy enough, for it lies down for
you. Apparently all you have to do is to throw one leg over and settle
yourself in the saddle. But the camel has a habit of springing up like
a Jack-in-the-box just as your ankle is on a level with his back, and
away you go flying. Experienced travellers, who have camel drivers and
attendants, make one of them stand on the creature's fore legs to keep
them down while they settle themselves; but troopers had no such
luxuries provided for them, and had to look after their animals
themselves, and it took several trials and severe rolls on the sand
before some of them managed to mount at all. There the camel lay, quiet
and tame and lazy, to all appearance as a cat dozing before the fire.
But the moment the foot was over his back he resembled the same cat when
she sees a mouse, and away you went. Taught by experience, you spring
into the saddle with a vault. Up goes the camel on the first two joints
of his forelegs with a jerk which sends the small of your back against
the hinder pommel so violently that you think the spine broken. Before
you have time to decide this important question in your mind, the hind
legs go up with an equally spasmodic movement, and you hit the front
pommel hard with your stomach.
Surely now you are settled; not a bit of it. The beast jumps from his
knees to his feet with a third spring, and your back gets another severe
blow from the hind pommel. After these three pommellings you are
mounted. But when you want to get off, and your camel lies down for
you, you get it all over again; only your stomach gets the hits one and
three, and your back the middle one. Opinions differ as to which is the
most pleasant, but after several repetitions of it you feel as if you
had been down in the middle of a scrimmage at football, and both sides
had taken you for the object to be kicked at. The ordinary traveller,
when once on his camel, would stop there some hours; and again, when he
got off, would remain off till it was time to renew his journey, and so
he would not get so much of it. But a soldier learning camel drill must
go on till he is perfect.
After mounting, dismounting, and re-mounting a certain number of times,
the troopers learned to anticipate the camel jerks, and avoid the high
pommels which rose in front and rear of the saddles, or rather to use
them as aids instead of encumbrances. But it took a good deal of
practice, and some were longer about falling into it than others. But
they were not always at drill, though they had so much of it.
Some went in for fishing, and hooks and lines had been provided by the
authorities for that purpose. But the sport was very poor, little being
caught, and after trying it once or twice Kavanagh preferred to sit
under the tree or in an arbour and smoke his pipe either alone or with a
companion--Sergeant Barton for choice, but he was not always available.
When that was the case the honest Grady would sometimes join him, and
though he would rather have been left to his own thoughts, it was not in
his nature to show a want of cordiality towards a good fellow who made
advances to him. From the day of his enlistment Reginald Kavanagh had
frankly accepted the situation, and had been careful above all things to
avoid giving himself any airs of superiority.
"This is a mighty pretty spot you have fixed on, any way," said Grady,
stretching himself under the grateful shade of a palm-tree, "and reminds
me of Oireland entirely!"
"It is rather like Merrion Square," said Kavanagh, gravely; "or that
perhaps combined with the Phoenix Park, with a touch of the Lakes of
Killarney."
"Sure, now, you are making fun of a poor boy! Look at that bird now!
Isn't he an illigant bird that? There's a many of them about, and they
are the best looking I have seen at all in Egypt."
"Do they remind you of Ireland, too?" asked Kavanagh.
"Well, now, you are too hard on me."
"Not a bit of it, it is only natural that they should, for they are
called Paddy birds."
"And is that a fact now?"
"Certainly it is. Sergeant Barton told me, and he has been some time in
Egypt, and knows most of the birds and animals," replied Kavanagh.
"Well, now, it is only natural that the loveliest bird in the country
should be called Paddy. Are not the finest men and the prettiest girls
at all Irishmen? They call us every bad name there is, but they can't
do without us. Why, the general is an Irishman, and the Goughs and
Napiers are Irishmen, and the Duke of Wellington was an Irishman."
"And Grady and Kavanagh, the best men that ever rode on camels--or who
will be when they can sit them--are Irishmen," cried Kavanagh, laughing,
and Grady chuckled too.
"But, now, there's a thing I want to ask you, since you are larned about
animals. You may not have thought it, for I am no scholar, but when I
was a gossoon I went to school," said Grady presently, "and they had
pictures of bastes hung about the walls, and the queerest baste of all
to my fancy, barring the elephant, was the camel. I remember purty well
what they told me from the mouth, though I was bad at the reading and
the sums and that; and the master he said that a camel with one hump was
meant for carrying things, water and potatoes and other necessities, and
that was why he had only one, to make more room, and have something to
tie them on by. And he said there was another camel with two humps, and
he was created for riding, and was called a dromedary, and when ye rode
him, ye sat at your ease between the two humps, which made a soft
saddle, just like an arm-chair ye straddled on, only without arms. And
ye could go fast and easy for a week, with provisions all round ye, and
the dromedary he only wanted to eat and drink once a week. Now, have
the dromedaries died out, do ye think? Or are they more expensive, and
is the War Office that mane it won't afford them, but trates Christians
like baggage?"
"They were out of it altogether at your school, Grady," said Kavanagh.
"A dromedary is only a better bred camel; it is like a hack or hunter,
and a cart-horse, you know; the dromedary answering to the former. But
both are camels, just the same as both the others are horses, and one
hump unluckily is all either of them possess."
"But I saw the pictures of them," said Grady, with a puzzled look.
"I wish that the pictures had been painted from real animals, and not
from the artist's fancy," repeated Kavanagh. "It was a general idea, I
know--I had it myself--that there were two-humped camels, mighty
pleasant to ride. But I believe it is all a mistake."
"The one-humped beggar is not easy to ride, any how!" said Grady.
"No, that I vow he isn't!" cried Kavanagh. "Some of the camels trained
to trot, and called hygeens, are a bit easier, I believe. The Arabs say
that they can drink a cup of coffee on their backs without spilling it
while they are going at speed."
"We have not got any of them in our troop," said Grady. "Well, we will
get a bit of a holiday, plaze the pigs, the day after to-morrow, and not
before I want it, for one. For what with them saddle peaks, and the
rolls on the sand I have got, I don't know whether my inwards or my
outwards are the sorest. But the show is beginning; and, faith, it's
worth coming all the way to Egypt to see the sun set."
This was one of the things which made Kavanagh like Grady's company; he
had a real innate love of the beauties of Nature, which you would rarely
find in an Englishman of the same class. Together they watched the
glories of the transformation scene shifting before them. Low on the
horizon the deepest crimson changing and blending as it rose into
violet; higher up the blue of the sapphire and the green of the emerald;
and when these colours were the most intense, the two rose, and turned
back to camp slowly and reluctantly, still gazing in silence. For now
the after-glow succeeded; first the sky was a most brilliant orange,
such a tint as would cause the painter who could at all approach it to
be accused of the most absurd exaggeration by those who had not seen the
real colour, while those who had would esteem it far too faint. This
changed to an equally brilliant rose colour; and then, in a few seconds,
suddenly, as if "Lights out" had been sounded in the zenith, darkness!
"It is like going to church," said Grady.
"Yes," replied Kavanagh; "that makes one feel God great and man little,
doesn't it?"
"Aye!"
They were barely a quarter of an hour from camp, and the fires guided
them; for hot as it was in the daytime the nights were chilly, and a
bonfire in the open acceptable. They found their mates gathered round
the largest in great excitement.
"Here, you chaps," was the cry which assailed them when they made their
appearance, "can either of you make a plum-pudding?"
"Of course," replied Kavanagh. "There's nothing easier if you only have
the materials."
"Well, the materials have just come; how do you work them up?"
"Why, make them into a pudding and boil it, of course."
"Any idiot knows that; but how do you make them into a pudding? If we
spoil one, you know, we shan't have any opportunity of trying a second
time, so none of your experiments."
"That's serious!"
"I should think it was!"
"Well, you take the flour and put it in a basin, and moisten it with
water; and you put in your plums and raisins and citron, and beat up
half a dozen eggs and put them in too, and three glasses of brandy, and
anything else that's good you have got, and you knead it all up for a
good bit, and put it in a cloth, and tie it up tight with a piece of
string, and boil it as long as you can; all to-night and to-morrow and
to-morrow night, and so right up to dinnertime."
"It sounds pretty right," said the first speaker, doubtfully; "but how
do you know? Did you ever make one?"
"Why, I cannot say that exactly, but I have seen many made, and helped
to stir them."
"Lately?"
"Not so very, when I was a boy."
"It would be a sinful waste to put sperrits into a pudding," observed
Macintosh. "It would all boil away, and no one be a bit the better."
"No fear! Good liquor's too scarce for that," cried another.
"Brandy is a great improvement, when you have it, for all that,"
maintained Kavanagh.
But though this part of his recipe sounded to all like the dissolving of
Cleopatra's pearls in her drink for wilful waste, the other items of it
confirmed the previous opinion of the chief cook of the troop, and the
precious ingredients were entrusted to his care. When they were well
mixed, an unforeseen difficulty arose about a bag to boil it in; but
that was met by the sacrifice of a haversack, and at last it was
consigned to the gipsy kettle which was to bring it to perfection. If
it were literally true that a watched pot never boils, this would have
had a poor chance, for when off drill or duty next day every man ran to
have a look at it; but the proverb happily fell through, and it bubbled
away famously. Christmas-day dawned, and would have been hot in England
for July.
It is a curious experience the first Christmas spent away from home in a
warm climate, such a contrast to all early associations. There were
decorations of palm-branches, and instead of holly cactus, which
represented it well for prickliness. And there was church parade; and
afterwards came dinner of tinned roast beef, fish which some of the
persevering had caught in the Nile, and an ostrich _egg_, which a
friendly native had brought in, and which proved fresh. And the
pudding!
It was an anxious moment when the string was cut, and the remains of the
ancient haversack were opened, and every one was relieved when the
object of interest did _not_ fall to crumbs as some feared, but remained
firm and intact till cut. Was it good? Well, the proof of the pudding
is in the eating, and there was not a crumb or a plum left when the
party rose. Then a delightful afternoon of idleness and complete rest,
which took the ache out of many a poor fellow's bones, and talk of
friends in England, and reminiscences of home. And some lucky ones got
letters which succeeded in reaching them the right day, and got away
alone to read them; while others kept the link by writing. Rather
melancholy, but pleasant all the same, for the element of hope kept all
sweet. And at night a huge bonfire was lit; it was cold of nights, and
officers and men gathered round it for a sing-song. And there was a
platform of barrels and planks on which various performances, fiddling,
a hornpipe, recitations, nigger melodies, took place, the highest in
command enjoying themselves as heartily as the humblest. And there was
a tot of rum, not enough to hurt the weakest head indeed, but still a
taste, for every one to drink to absent friends, and a rousing chorus or
two, and sound sleep closing a day of thorough enjoyment. For to
_taste_ a holiday you must have a long spell of real hard work.
By this time the men were more at home with their queer steeds, and
mounting and dismounting was no longer a painful and even perilous
performance. The camels also had become accustomed to the drill, and
learned to know what was expected of them. All animals work better and
pick up ideas quicker in company. Sometimes, indeed, one would drop
suddenly on his knees without rhyme or reason that any one could guess
at, and send his rider flying over his head if he were not looking out
sharply; but such instances of eccentric conduct were rare, and grew
still less frequent as the bipeds and quadrupeds got to know one another
better.
A move was now made to Korti, higher up the Nile, a good deal nearer the
fourth cataract than the third in fact. But this journey was made on
camel back instead of by boat. Now, travelling by boat is not
unpleasant when the boat takes you, but when you have to take the boat
it is quite a different matter, and riding, even on a camel, is far
preferable. And those long days on camel back, near the Nile all the
way, and consequently with no stint of water, were about the most
pleasant experiences Kavanagh and his companions had.
"Well, Tarrant, I hope you are happy now," said a trooper one day, as
the column was on the march.
"Happy! With tinned meat and no beer, and more flies in the open in the
middle of winter than you get over a stable at home in August! I know I
wish I was back in Windsor barracks."
"Never mind, old boy; if you were there you would wish you were here."
"And a jolly idiot I should be."
"Don't fret about that same," interposed Grady, who was riding near.
"It's your misfortune, not your fault. Faith, we wud all be clever if
we could; but sure, I thought ye would be aisy in your mind now that you
had got your camel."