It was an anxious time for his wife, after Gregory started. He, and
those with him, had left with a feeling of confidence that the
insurrection would speedily be put down. The garrison of Khartoum had
inflicted several severe defeats upon the Mahdi, but had also suffered
some reverses. This, however, was only to be expected, when the troops
under him were scarcely more disciplined than those of the Dervishes,
who had always been greatly superior in numbers, and inspired with a
fanatical belief in their prophet. But with British officers to
command, and British officers to drill and discipline the troops, there
could be no fear of a recurrence of these disasters.
Before they started, Mrs. Hilliard had become intimate with the wife of
Hicks Pasha, and those of the other married officers, and had paid
visits with them to the harems of high Turkish officials. Visits were
frequently exchanged, and what with these, and the care of the boy, her
time was constantly occupied. She received letters from Gregory, as
frequently as possible, after his arrival at Omdurman, and until he set
out with the main body, under the general, on the way to El Obeid.
Before starting, he said he hoped that, in another two months, the
campaign would be over, El Obeid recovered, and the Mahdi smashed up;
and that, as soon as they returned to Khartoum, Hicks Pasha would send
for his wife and daughters, and the other married officers for their
wives; and, of course, she would accompany them.
"I cannot say much for Omdurman," he wrote; "but Khartoum is a nice
place. Many of the houses there have shady gardens. Hicks has promised
to recommend me for a majority, in one of the Turkish regiments. In the
intervals of my own work, I have got up drill. I shall, of course, tell
him then what my real name is, so that I can be gazetted in it. It is
likely enough that, even after we defeat the Mahdi, this war may go on
for some time before it is stamped out; and in another year I may be a
full-blown colonel, if only an Egyptian one; and as the pay of the
English officers is good, I shall be able to have a very comfortable
home for you.
"I need not repeat my instructions, darling, as to what you must do in
the event, improbable as it is, of disaster. When absolutely assured of
my death, but not until then, you will go back to England with the boy,
and see my father. He is not a man to change his mind, unless I were to
humble myself before him; but I think he would do the right thing for
you. If he will not, there is the letter for Geoffrey. He has no
settled income at present, but when he comes into the title he will, I
feel quite certain, make you an allowance. I know that you would, for
yourself, shrink from doing this; but, for the boy's sake, you will not
hesitate to carry out my instructions. I should say you had better
write to my father, for the interview might be an unpleasant one; but
if you have to appeal to Geoffrey, you had better call upon him and
show him this letter. I feel sure that he will do what he can.
"Gregory."
A month later, a messenger came up from Suakim with a despatch, dated
October 3rd. The force was then within a few days' march of El Obeid.
The news was not altogether cheering. Hordes of the enemy hovered about
their rear. Communication was already difficult, and they had to depend
upon the stores they carried, and cut themselves off altogether from
the base. He brought some private letters from the officers, and among
them one for Mrs. Hilliard. It was short, and written in pencil:
"In a few days, Dear, the decisive battle will take place; and although
it will be a tough fight, none of us have any fear of the result. In
the very improbable event of a defeat, I shall, if I have time, slip on
the Arab dress I have with me, and may hope to escape. However, I have
little fear that it will come to that. God bless and protect you, and
the boy!
"Gregory."
A month passed away. No news came from Hicks Pasha, or any of his
officers. Then there were rumours current in the bazaars, of disaster;
and one morning, when Annie called upon Lady Hicks, she found several
of the ladies there with pale and anxious faces. She paused at the
door.
"Do not be alarmed, Mrs. Hilliard," Lady Hicks said. "Nizim Pasha has
been here this morning. He thought that I might have heard the rumours
that are current in the bazaar, that there has been a disaster, but he
says there is no confirmation whatever of these reports. He does not
deny, however, that they have caused anxiety among the authorities; for
sometimes these rumours, whose origin no one knows, do turn out to be
correct. He said that enquiries have been made, but no foundation for
the stories can be got at. I questioned him closely, and he says that
he can only account for them on the ground that, if a victory had been
won, an official account from government should have been here before
this; and that it is solely on this account that these rumours have got
about. He said there was no reason for supposing that this silence
meant disaster. A complete victory might have been won; and yet the
messenger with the despatches might have been captured, and killed, by
the parties of tribesmen hanging behind the army, or wandering about
the country between the army and Khartoum. Still, of course, this is
making us all very anxious."
The party soon broke up, none having any reassuring suggestions to
offer; and Annie returned to her lodging, to weep over her boy, and
pray for the safety of his father. Days and weeks passed, and still no
word came to Cairo. At Khartoum there was a ferment among the native
population. No secret was made of the fact that the tribesmen who came
and went all declared that Hicks Pasha's army was utterly destroyed. At
length, the Egyptian government announced to the wives of the officers
that pensions would be given to them, according to the rank of their
husbands. As captain and interpreter, Gregory's wife had but a small
one, but it was sufficient for her to live upon.
One by one, the other ladies gave up hope and returned to England, but
Annie stayed on. Misfortune might have befallen the army, but Gregory
might have escaped in disguise. She had, like the other ladies, put on
mourning for him; for had she declared her belief that he might still
be alive, she could not have applied for the pension, and this was
necessary for the child's sake. Of one thing she was determined. She
would not go with him, as beggars, to the father who had cast Gregory
off; until, as he had said, she received absolute news of his death.
She was not in want; but as her pension was a small one, and she felt
that it would be well for her to be employed, she asked Lady Hicks,
before she left, to mention at the houses of the Egyptian ladies to
whom she went to say goodbye, that Mrs. Hilliard would be glad to give
lessons in English, French, or music.
The idea pleased them, and she obtained several pupils. Some of these
were the ladies themselves, and the lessons generally consisted in
sitting for an hour with them, two or three times a week, and talking
to them; the conversation being in short sentences, of which she gave
them the English translation, which they repeated over and over again,
until they knew them by heart. This caused great amusement, and was
accompanied by much laughter, on the part of the ladies and their
attendants.
Several of her pupils, however, were young boys and girls, and the
teaching here was of a more serious kind. The lessons to the boys were
given the first thing in the morning, and the pupils were brought to
her house by attendants. At eleven o'clock she taught the girls, and
returned at one, and had two hours more teaching in the afternoon. She
could have obtained more pupils, had she wished to; but the pay she
received, added to her income, enabled her to live very comfortably,
and to save up money. She had a Negro servant, who was very fond of the
boy, and she could leave him in her charge with perfect confidence,
while she was teaching.
In the latter part of 1884, she ventured to hope that some news might
yet come to her, for a British expedition had started for the relief of
General Gordon, who had gone up early in the year to Khartoum; where it
was hoped that the influence he had gained among the natives, at the
time he was in command of the Egyptian forces in the Soudan, would
enable him to make head against the insurrection. His arrival had been
hailed by the population, but it was soon evident to him that, unless
aided by England with something more than words, Khartoum must finally
fall.
But his requests for aid were slighted. He had asked that two regiments
should be sent from Suakim, to keep open the route to Berber, but Mr.
Gladstone's government refused even this slight assistance to the man
they had sent out, and it was not until May that public indignation, at
this base desertion of one of the noblest spirits that Britain ever
produced, caused preparations for his rescue to be made; and it was
December before the leading regiment arrived at Korti, far up the Nile.
After fighting two hard battles, a force that had marched across the
loop of the Nile came down upon it above Metemmeh. A party started up
the river at once, in two steamers which Gordon had sent down to meet
them, but only arrived near the town to hear that they were too late,
that Khartoum had fallen, and that Gordon had been murdered. The army
was at once hurried back to the coast, leaving it to the Mahdists--more
triumphant than ever--to occupy Dongola; and to push down, and
possibly, as they were confident they should do, to capture Egypt
itself.
The news of the failure was a terrible blow to Mrs. Hilliard. She had
hoped that, when Khartoum was relieved, some information at least might
be obtained, from prisoners, as to the fate of the British officers at
El Obeid. That most of them had been killed was certain, but she still
clung to the hope that her husband might have escaped from the general
massacre, thanks to his knowledge of the language, and the disguise he
had with him; and even that if captured later on he might be a
prisoner; or that he might have escaped detection altogether, and be
still living among friendly tribesmen. It was a heavy blow to her,
therefore, when she heard that the troops were being hurried down to
the coast, and that the Mahdi would be uncontested master of Egypt, as
far as Assouan.
She did, however, receive news when the force returned to Cairo, which,
although depressing, did not extinguish all hope. Lieutenant Colonel
Colborne, by good luck, had ascertained that a native boy in the
service of General Buller claimed to have been at El Obeid. Upon
questioning him closely, he found out that he had unquestionably been
there, for he described accurately the position Colonel Colborne--who
had started with Hicks Pasha, but had been forced by illness to
return--had occupied in one of the engagements. The boy was then the
slave of an Egyptian officer of the expedition.
The army had suffered much from want of water, but they had obtained
plenty from a lake within three days' march from El Obeid. From this
point they were incessantly fired at, by the enemy. On the second day
they were attacked, but beat off the enemy, though with heavy loss to
themselves. The next day they pressed forward, as it was necessary to
get to water; but they were misled by their guide, and at noon the
Arabs burst down upon them, the square in which the force was marching
was broken, and a terrible slaughter took place. Then Hicks Pasha, with
his officers, seeing that all was lost, gathered together and kept the
enemy at bay with their revolvers, till their ammunition was exhausted.
After that they fought with their swords till all were killed, Hicks
Pasha being the last to fall. The lad himself hid among the dead and
was not discovered until the next morning, when he was made a slave by
the man who found him.
This was terrible! But there was still hope. If this boy had concealed
himself among the dead, her husband might have done the same. Not being
a combatant officer, he might not have been near the others when the
affair took place; and moreover, the lad had said that the black
regiment in the rear of the square had kept together and marched away;
he believed all had been afterwards killed, but this he did not know.
If Gregory had been there when the square was broken, he might well
have kept with them, and at nightfall slipped on his disguise and made
his escape. It was at least possible--she would not give up all hope.
So years went on. Things were quiet in Egypt. A native army had been
raised there, under the command of British officers, and these had
checked the northern progress of the Mahdists and restored confidence
in Egypt. Gregory--for the boy had been named after his father--grew up
strong and hearty. His mother devoted her evenings to his education.
From the Negress, who was his nurse and the general servant of the
house, he had learnt to talk her native language. She had been carried
off, when ten years old, by a slave-raiding party, and sold to an
Egyptian trader at Khartoum; been given by him to an Atbara chief, with
whom he had dealings; and, five years later, had been captured in a
tribal war by the Jaalin. Two or three times she had changed masters,
and finally had been purchased by an Egyptian officer, and brought down
by him to Cairo. At his death, four years afterwards, she had been
given her freedom, being now past fifty, and had taken service with
Gregory Hilliard and his wife. Her vocabulary was a large one, and she
was acquainted with most of the dialects of the Soudan tribes.
From the time when her husband was first missing, Mrs. Hilliard
cherished the idea that, some day, the child might grow up and search
for his father; and, perhaps, ascertain his fate beyond all doubt. She
was a very conscientious woman, and was resolved that, at whatever pain
to herself, she would, when once certain of her husband's death, go to
England and obtain recognition of his boy by his family. But it was
pleasant to think that the day was far distant when she could give up
hope. She saw, too, that if the Soudan was ever reconquered, the
knowledge of the tribal languages must be of immense benefit to her
son; and she therefore insisted, from the first, that the woman should
always talk to him in one or other of the languages that she knew.
Thus Gregory, almost unconsciously, acquired several of the dialects
used in the Soudan. Arabic formed the basis of them all, except the
Negro tongue. At first he mixed them up, but as he grew, Mrs. Hilliard
insisted that his nurse should speak one for a month, and then use
another; so that, by the time he was twelve years old, the boy could
speak in the Negro tongue, and half a dozen dialects, with equal
facility.
His mother had, years before, engaged a teacher of Arabic for him. This
he learned readily, as it was the root of the Egyptian and the other
languages he had picked up. Of a morning, he sat in the school and
learned pure Arabic and Turkish, while the boys learned English; and
therefore, without an effort, when he was twelve years old he talked
these languages as well as English; and had, moreover, a smattering of
Italian and French, picked up from boys of his own age, for his mother
had now many acquaintances among the European community.
While she was occupied in the afternoon, with her pupils, the boy had
liberty to go about as he pleased; and indeed she encouraged him to
take long walks, to swim, and to join in all games and exercises.
"English boys at home," she said, "have many games, and it is owing to
these that they grow up so strong and active. They have more
opportunities than you, but you must make the most of those that you
have. We may go back to England some day, and I should not at all like
you to be less strong than others."
As, however, such opportunities were very small, she had an apparatus
of poles, horizontal bars, and ropes set up, such as those she had
seen, in England, in use by the boys of one of the families where she
had taught, before her marriage; and insisted upon Gregory's exercising
himself upon it for an hour every morning, soon after sunrise. As she
had heard her husband once say that fencing was a splendid exercise,
not only for developing the figure, but for giving a good carriage as
well as activity and alertness, she arranged with a Frenchman who had
served in the army, and had gained a prize as a swordsman in the
regiment, to give the boy lessons two mornings in the week.
Thus, at fifteen, Gregory was well grown and athletic, and had much of
the bearing and appearance of an English public-school boy. His mother
had been very particular in seeing that his manners were those of an
Englishman.
"I hope the time will come when you will associate with English
gentlemen, and I should wish you, in all respects, to be like them. You
belong to a good family; and should you, by any chance, some day go
home, you must do credit to your dear father."
The boy had, for some years, been acquainted with the family story,
except that he did not know the name he bore was his father's Christian
name, and not that of his family.
"My grandfather must have been a very bad man, Mother, to have
quarreled with my father for marrying you."
"Well, my boy, you hardly understand the extent of the exclusiveness of
some Englishmen. Of course, it is not always so, but to some people,
the idea of their sons or daughters marrying into a family of less rank
than themselves appears to be an almost terrible thing. As I have told
you, although the daughter of a clergyman, I was, when I became an
orphan, obliged to go out as a governess."
"But there was no harm in that, Mother?"
"No harm, dear; but a certain loss of position. Had my father been
alive, and had I been living with him in a country rectory, your
grandfather might not have been pleased at your father's falling in
love with me, because he would probably have considered that, being, as
you know by his photograph, a fine, tall, handsome man, and having the
best education money could give him, he might have married very much
better; that is to say, the heiress of a property, or into a family of
influence, through which he might have been pushed on; but he would not
have thought of opposing the marriage on the ground of my family. But a
governess is a different thing. She is, in many cases, a lady in every
respect, but her position is a doubtful one.
"In some families she is treated as one of themselves. In others, her
position is very little different from that of an upper servant. Your
grandfather was a passionate man, and a very proud man. Your father's
elder brother was well provided for, but there were two sisters, and
these and your father he hoped would make good marriages. He lived in
very good style, but your uncle was extravagant, and your grandfather
was over indulgent, and crippled himself a good deal in paying the
debts that he incurred. It was natural, therefore, that he should have
objected to your father's engagement to what he called a penniless
governess. It was only what was to be expected. If he had stated his
objections to the marriage calmly, there need have been no quarrel.
Your father would assuredly have married me, in any case; and your
grandfather might have refused to assist him, if he did so, but there
need have been no breakup in the family, such as took place.
"However, as it was, your father resented his tone, and what had been
merely a difference of opinion became a serious quarrel, and they never
saw each other, afterwards. It was a great grief to me, and it was
owing to that, and his being unable to earn his living in England, that
your father brought me out here. I believe he would have done well at
home, though it would have been a hard struggle. At that time I was
very delicate, and was ordered by the doctors to go to a warm climate,
and therefore your father accepted a position of a kind which, at
least, enabled us to live, and obtained for me the benefit of a warm
climate.
"Then the chance came of his going up to the Soudan, and there was a
certainty that, if the expedition succeeded, as everyone believed it
would, he would have obtained permanent rank in the Egyptian army, and
so recovered the position in life that he had voluntarily given up, for
my sake."
"And what was the illness you had, Mother?"
"It was an affection of the lungs, dear. It was a constant cough, that
threatened to turn to consumption, which is one of the most fatal
diseases we have in England."
"But it hasn't cured you, Mother, for I often hear you coughing, at
night."
"Yes, my cough has been a little troublesome of late, Gregory."
Indeed, from the time of the disaster to the expedition of Hicks Pasha,
Annie Hilliard had lost ground. She herself was conscious of it; but,
except for the sake of the boy, she had not troubled over it. She had
not altogether given up hope, but the hope grew fainter and fainter, as
the years went on. Had it not been for the promise to her husband, not
to mention his real name or to make any application to his father
unless absolutely assured of his death, she would, for Gregory's sake,
have written to Mr. Hartley, and asked for help that would have enabled
her to take the boy home to England, and have him properly educated
there. But she had an implicit faith in the binding of a promise so
made, and as long as she was not driven, by absolute want, to apply to
Mr. Hartley, was determined to keep to it.
A year after this conversation, Gregory was sixteen. Now tall and
strong, he had, for some time past, been anxious to obtain some
employment that would enable his mother to give up her teaching. Some
of this, indeed, she had been obliged to relinquish. During the past
few months her cheeks had become hollow, and her cough was now frequent
by day, as well as by night. She had consulted an English doctor, who,
she saw by the paper, was staying at Shepherd's Hotel. He had hesitated
before giving a direct opinion, but on her imploring him to tell her
the exact state of her health, said gently:
"I am afraid, madam, that I can give you no hope of recovery. One lung
has already gone, the other is very seriously diseased. Were you living
in England, I should say that your life might be prolonged by taking
you to a warm climate; but as it is, no change could be made for the
better."
"Thank you, Doctor. I wanted to know the exact truth, and be able to
make my arrangements accordingly. I was quite convinced that my
condition was hopeless, but I thought it right to consult a physician,
and to know how much time I could reckon on. Can you tell me that?"
"That is always difficult, Mrs. Hilliard. It may be three months hence.
It might be more speedily--a vessel might give way in the lungs,
suddenly. On the other hand, you might live six months. Of course, I
cannot say how rapid the progress of the disease has been."
"It may not be a week, doctor. I am not at all afraid of hearing your
sentence--indeed, I can see it in your eyes."
"It may be within a week"--the doctor bowed his head gravely--"it may
be at any time."
"Thank you!" she said, quietly. "I was sure it could not be long. I
have been teaching, but three weeks ago I had to give up my last pupil.
My breath is so short that the slightest exertion brings on a fit of
coughing."
On her return home she said to Gregory:
"My dear boy, you must have seen--you cannot have helped seeing--that
my time is not long here. I have seen an English doctor today, and he
says the end may come at any moment."
"Oh, Mother, Mother!" the lad cried, throwing himself on his knees, and
burying his face in her lap, "don't say so!"
The news, indeed, did not come as a surprise to him. He had, for
months, noticed the steady change in her: how her face had fallen away,
how her hands seemed nerveless, her flesh transparent, and her eyes
grew larger and larger. Many times he had walked far up among the hills
and, when beyond the reach of human eye, thrown himself down and cried
unrestrainedly, until his strength seemed utterly exhausted, and yet
the verdict now given seemed to come as a sudden blow.
"You must not break down, dear," she said quietly. "For months I have
felt that it was so; and, but for your sake, I did not care to live. I
thank God that I have been spared to see you growing up all that I
could wish; and though I should have liked to see you fairly started in
life, I feel that you may now make your way, unaided.
"Now I want, before it is too late, to give you instructions. In my
desk you will find a sealed envelope. It contains a copy of the
registers of my marriage, and of your birth. These will prove that your
father married, and had a son. You can get plenty of witnesses who can
prove that you were the child mentioned. I promised your father that I
would not mention our real name to anyone, until it was necessary for
me to write to your grandfather. I have kept that promise. His name was
Gregory Hilliard, so we have not taken false names. They were his
Christian names. The third name, his family name, you will find when
you open that envelope.
"I have been thinking, for months past, what you had best do; and this
is my advice, but do not look upon it as an order. You are old enough
to think for yourself. You know that Sir Herbert Kitchener, the Sirdar,
is pushing his way up the Nile. I have no doubt that, with your
knowledge of Arabic, and of the language used by the black race in the
Soudan, you will be able to obtain some sort of post in the army,
perhaps as an interpreter to one of the officers commanding a
brigade--the same position, in fact, as your father had, except that
the army is now virtually British, whereas that he went with was
Egyptian.
"I have two reasons for desiring this. I do not wish you to go home,
until you are in a position to dispense with all aid from your family.
I have done without it, and I trust that you will be able to do the
same. I should like you to be able to go home at one-and-twenty, and to
say to your grandfather, 'I have not come home to ask for money or
assistance of any kind. I am earning my living honourably. I only ask
recognition, by my family, as my father's son.'
"It is probable that this expedition will last fully two years. It must
be a gradual advance, and even then, if the Khalifa is beaten, it must
be a considerable time before matters are thoroughly settled. There
will be many civil posts open to those who, like yourself, are well
acquainted with the language of the country; and if you can obtain one
of these, you may well remain there until you come of age. You can then
obtain a few months' leave of absence and go to England.
"My second reason is that, although my hope that your father is still
alive has almost died out, it is just possible that he is, like Neufeld
and some others, a prisoner in the Khalifa's hands; or possibly living
as an Arab cultivator near El Obeid. Many prisoners will be taken, and
from some of these we may learn such details, of the battle, as may
clear us of the darkness that hangs over your father's fate.
"When you do go home, Gregory, you had best go first to your father's
brother. His address is on a paper in the envelope. He was heir to a
peerage, and has, perhaps, now come into it. I have no reasons for
supposing that he sided with his father against yours. The brothers
were not bad friends, although they saw little of each other; for your
father, after he left Oxford, was for the most part away from England,
until a year before his marriage; and at that time your uncle was in
America, having gone out with two or three others on a hunting
expedition among the Rocky Mountains. There is, therefore, no reason
for supposing that he will receive you otherwise than kindly, when once
he is sure that you are his nephew. He may, indeed, for aught I know,
have made efforts to discover your father, after he returned from
abroad."
"I would rather leave them alone altogether, Mother," Gregory said
passionately.
"That you cannot do, my boy. Your father was anxious that you should be
at least recognized, and afterwards bear your proper name. You will not
be going as a beggar, and there will be nothing humiliating. As to your
grandfather, he may not even be alive. It is seldom that I see an
English newspaper, and even had his death been advertised in one of the
papers, I should hardly have noticed it, as I never did more than just
glance at the principal items of news.
"In my desk you will also see my bank book. It is in your name. I have
thought it better that it should stand so, as it will save a great deal
of trouble, should anything happen to me. Happily, I have never had any
reasons to draw upon it, and there are now about five hundred and fifty
pounds standing to your credit. Of late you have generally paid in the
money, and you are personally known to the manager. Should there be any
difficulty, I have made a will leaving everything to you. That sum will
keep you, if you cannot obtain the employment we speak of, until you
come of age; and will, at any rate, facilitate your getting employment
with the army, as you will not be obliged to demand much pay, and can
take anything that offers.
"Another reason for your going to England is that your grandfather may,
if he is dead, have relented at last towards your father, and may have
left him some share in his fortune; and although you might well refuse
to accept any help from him, if he is alive, you can have no hesitation
in taking that which should be yours by right. I think sometimes now,
my boy, that I have been wrong in not accepting the fact of your
father's death as proved, and taking you home to England; but you will
believe that I acted for the best, and I shrank from the thought of
going home as a beggar, while I could maintain you and myself
comfortably, here."
"You were quite right, Mother dear. We have been very happy, and I have
been looking forward to the time when I might work for you, as you have
worked for me. It has been a thousand times better, so, than living on
the charity of a man who looked down upon you, and who cast off my
father."
"Well, you will believe at least that I acted for the best, dear, and I
am not sure that it has not been for the best. At any rate I, too, have
been far happier than I could have been, if living in England on an
allowance begrudged to me."
A week later, Gregory was awakened by the cries of the Negro servant;
and, running to Mrs. Hilliard's bedroom, found that his mother had
passed away during the night. Burial speedily follows death in Egypt;
and on the following day Gregory returned, heartbroken, to his lonely
house, after seeing her laid in her grave.
For a week, he did nothing but wander about the house, listlessly.
Then, with a great effort, he roused himself. He had his work before
him--had his mother's wishes to carry out. His first step was to go to
the bank, and ask to see the manager.
"You may have heard of my mother's death, Mr. Murray?" he said.
"Yes, my lad, and sorry, indeed, I was to hear of it. She was greatly
liked and respected, by all who knew her."
"She told me," Gregory went on, trying to steady his voice, "a week
before her death, that she had money here deposited in my name."
"That is so."
"Is there anything to be done about it, sir?"
"Not unless you wish to draw it out. She told me, some time ago, why
she placed it in your name; and I told her that there would be no
difficulty."
"I do not want to draw any of it out, sir, as there were fifty pounds
in the house. She was aware that she had not long to live, and no doubt
kept it by her, on purpose."
"Then all you have to do is to write your signature on this piece of
paper. I will hand you a cheque book, and you will only have to fill up
a cheque and sign it, and draw out any amount you please."
"I have never seen a cheque book, sir. Will you kindly tell me what I
should have to do?"
Mr. Murray took out a cheque book, and explained its use. Then he asked
what Gregory thought of doing.
"I wish to go up with the Nile expedition, sir. It was my mother's
wish, also, that I should do so. My main object is to endeavour to
obtain particulars of my father's death, and to assure myself that he
was one of those who fell at El Obeid. I do not care in what capacity I
go up; but as I speak Arabic and Soudanese, as well as English, my
mother thought that I might get employment as interpreter, either under
an officer engaged on making the railway, or in some capacity under an
officer in one of the Egyptian regiments."
"I have no doubt that I can help you there, lad. I know the Sirdar, and
a good many of the British officers, for whom I act as agent. Of
course, I don't know in what capacity they could employ you, but surely
some post or other could be found for you, where your knowledge of the
language would render you very useful. Naturally, the officers in the
Egyptian service all understand enough of the language to get on with,
but few of the officers in the British regiments do.
"It is fortunate that you came today. I have an appointment with Lord
Cromer tomorrow morning, so I will take the opportunity of speaking to
him. As it is an army affair, and as your father was in the Egyptian
service, and your mother had a pension from it, I may get him to
interest himself in the matter. Kitchener is down here at present, and
if Cromer would speak to him, I should think you would certainly be
able to get up, though I cannot say in what position. The fact that you
are familiar with the Negro language, which differs very widely from
that of the Arab Soudan tribes, who all speak Arabic, is strongly in
your favour; and may give you an advantage over applicants who can only
speak Arabic.
"I shall see Lord Cromer at ten, and shall probably be with him for an
hour. You may as well be outside his house, at half-past ten; possibly
he may like to see you. At any rate, when I come down, I can tell you
what he says."
With grateful thanks, Gregory returned home.