It was a strange experience to sit outside the tent door that night,
breathing the soft moist air which seemed so different from the dry,
harsh, parching wind of the desert. There was the pleasant scent of
growing plants, too, rising from wherever the overflow from the
fountains permeated the sand, quite unseen in the broad sunshine, but
showing its effect in a blush of green which gradually grew less and
less, till at a few hundred yards from the rocks and pools it died right
away and all was arid barrenness once more.
Now and then a wailing howl came from a distance, to be answered here
and there by the prowling animals which scented the food of the camp,
and hung about waiting till the caravans had passed on to make a rush in
safety for the scraps that were left, with the result that the
neighbourhood of the pools and wells was found free from all refuse by
the next comers.
The Hakim's party was too weary with the nervous excitement and hard
labour of the past day to talk much, finding it pleasanter to sit or
recline and listen to the various sounds that reached their ears from
the Baggara camp or far out in the desert, till after being absent for
some little time the Sheikh came softly up to the tent and waited to be
questioned. He did not have to wait long, for the professor attacked
him at once.
"Well, Ibrahim," he said, "what news?"
"Little, Excellency. The Baggara have sentries out all round the camp."
"And ours?"
"Yes, Excellency; we are prisoners."
"But in no danger?"
"No, Excellency. It is peace between us and the fighting men. But if
they are attacked in the night or just before daybreak we are in bad
company, as you would say, and we shall perish with these tribesmen if
they are beaten."
"That sounds bad," said the professor. "But look here, who is likely to
attack their camp?"
"Who can say, Excellency? Like the people of old, their hand is against
every man, and every man's hand is against them. They are wandering
about harassing villages, plundering, and making slaves. Some of the
village people may take heart and join together to slay them; or the
Khedive's men may hear of their being in the neighbourhood, and come
from boats upon the river. There may be soldiers of your own journeying
south, who, hearing from spies that a party of the Khalifa's men have
come so far north, would be sure to try and scatter them like the sand
before the storm."
"But, on the other hand," said the doctor quietly, "none of these things
may happen, and we may sleep in peace and trust that all will be well."
"Yes, Excellency; that is what we must do always."
"Then let us sleep while we can," said the doctor. "I am very weary,
and there is sure to be plenty more hard work to-morrow."
The Hakim's words were taken as law, and as there were very few
preparations to make, a short time only elapsed before all were sleeping
soundly, it being deemed superfluous to attempt to watch, since they
were utterly helpless in the enemy's hands.
At such a time restless wakefulness might have been expected, but sleep
came, deep and refreshing, out in the desert whenever they were in the
neighbourhood of water. Frank lay thinking of the day's work with its
risks and chances, and then of his brother far away to the south; but in
about a quarter of an hour he was sleeping soundly as the rest, till
hours had passed, when, as if conscious of something being near, he
awoke suddenly, to find that all was dark and so still that, setting
down his feelings to imagination, he sank back, with a sigh, and was
dropping off to sleep again when from far away out in the desert there
was the shrill neigh of a horse, and he started up again, to hear the
challenge answered from where the Baggara horses and camels were
picketed or lying about.
This was startling, suggesting as it did the approach of other horsemen,
who might be inimical and about to attack. On the other hand, though,
he reasoned that a single horse might have broken away from where it was
tethered. He recalled, too, what the Sheikh had said about sentries
being scattered about so that no danger could approach without an alarm
being given, and he was settling down once more when, plainly enough and
increasing in loudness, there came through the darkness of the night the
dull, rustling trampling of horses coming at a sharp canter over the
sand.
But for a minute or so there was no warning uttered--no cry of alarm.
Then all at once there was a shout and a reply. Silence again, and
Frank lay wondering whether this was a good or evil sign, since a sentry
might have been cut down at once.
Then voices were plainly heard as of people talking loudly, and it
seemed to be impossible that this could mean danger. So he lay still,
making out by degrees that a large body of horsemen had ridden up, and
from the talking that went on there seemed to be no doubt that earlier
in the night this party must have gone out upon a reconnaissance while
the Sheikh's party slept, and that this was their return.
Certainly there was no danger, for by degrees the various sounds died
out, and all was still.
Frank's eyes closed once more, and his next awakening was at broad day,
to find that a fire was burning and that Sam and his help from the
camel-drivers were busy preparing for the morning meal, while the Sheikh
and his men were as busy seeing to the camels, after being in doubt as
to whether they would be there.
But there had been no interference with anything belonging to the
Hakim's party, and the old man was evidently fairly contented in mind as
he made his report about what he knew of the night's proceedings.
His first and most important announcement was that the Baggara chiefs
force had been nearly doubled during the night, it seeming probable that
the water-holes had been made the place of meeting for a divided force.
The question that troubled the party now was whether the newcomers would
prove well disposed; but they were not long left in doubt, for quite
early in the morning the Baggara chief made his appearance for his wound
to be dressed, and smiled with satisfaction at the change in its state.
"Tell the Hakim," he said, "that he is great, and that he can stay here
to rest his camels till to-morrow, and then he shall come with us."
This was as he was about to leave the Hakim's presence, with his injured
arm resting comfortably in its sling, and he turned away at once.
"_Nolens volens_, Frank," said the professor; "but so far nothing could
be better for us. Look here, another present."
For three men were approaching with a kid, dates, and bananas, and in
addition one of them bore a handsome large rug, evidently intended for
the Hakim's use.
The men approached with the same deference that they had displayed on
the previous day, and then departed; but before they were half over the
space which divided the two camps, a party of five men were seen
approaching, one of whom was mounted upon a cream-coloured horse, two
others supporting him as he swayed to and fro, apparently quite unable
to retain his seat.
It was the _avant-garde_ of the patients the Hakim was to treat that
day, and coming as it did on the Baggara chiefs announcement that they
were to accompany him the next morning, quite settled what, for at all
events the present, was to be their position in connection with the
force.
"You are to be surgeon in chief to the tribe, Robert," said the
professor merrily, "so you had better make the best of it."
The doctor did not pause to reply, but gravely prepared to receive the
fresh patient, shaking his head solemnly at Frank the while.
"It looks bad," he said. "The poor fellow seems to be beyond help."
The Baggara appeared to be a finely built, manly young fellow as he was
allowed to subside into his followers' arms, and then borne to where the
Hakim waited. There they laid him upon a rug which Frank dragged ready
for his reception, to leave their burden lying flat upon his back, while
the bearers drew back, but the horse advanced, to lower its soft muzzle
and sniff at its rider's face, before raising its head and uttering a
shrill neigh.
The four men stood looking at the Hakim, as much as to say, "He is dead,
but you must bring him to life."
The doctor's broad white brow was as a rule wonderfully free from lines,
but as Frank glanced at him it was to see them gather now as straight
and regular almost as if they had been ruled, from his eyebrows high up
to where the hair had been shorn away.
But no time was wasted, and no search was needed. The young chief--for
such he seemed to be--had received a terrible thrust from a spear just
below the collar-bone, and to all appearance he had bled to death.
But as the doctor busily did what was necessary to the frightful wound,
a slight quivering about the eyelids announced that life still lingered,
and as the busy hands checked all further effusion and administered a
restorative, the failing spirit's flight was for the time being stayed,
though whether this would be permanent was more than the Hakim dared to
say.
"He must have been bleeding all the night," the doctor said, "and
jolting about on a horse. The man's constitution is wonderful, or he
would have died long before now."
"Can you save him?" asked the professor.
"I fear not, but I'll do all I can. Ask the men how this happened,
Ibrahim."
The information was soon obtained.
"It was in a skirmish, Hakim, a day's journey from here. The men who
joined us last night came in contact with a body of mounted men armed
with spears, and from their description they seem to have been English
troops. Many of the Baggara were killed, others wounded, and this man,
their leader, was as you see. He will die, Excellency, will he not?"
"It all depends on the way in which he is treated," replied the doctor.
"He is in a dying state, but no dangerous part is touched. I may save
his life."
"It would be a miracle, Excellency," said the Sheikh slowly. "Look:
there is a dark cloud coming over his face."
"No," said the doctor gravely; "that is because the spirit in him is so
low. He is falling into a sleep that is almost death, but he still
lives. Tell these men that he is not to be moved, and that their chief
must send a tent here to place over him. Let two of your men come now
to spread a cloth above him to keep off the sun until the tent is set
up."
The message was given, and the men hurried away to rejoin their people,
while in a very few minutes the Baggara chief and his companion
appeared, walking hurriedly, and made their way to the side of the
wounded man, to look at him anxiously and as if his condition was a
great trouble to them, the elder going down on one knee to lay a hand
upon the sufferer's brow.
The next minute he was up again, and the two chiefs were chatting
hurriedly together, before the elder turned to Ibrahim and spoke
earnestly, his voice sounding hoarse and changed.
"O Hakim," said the Sheikh, "he says that this is his son, whom he
loves, and it will be like robbing him of his own life if the boy dies.
He says that you must not let him sink. Sooner let all the wounded men
who are coming to you die than this one. You must make him live, and
all that the chief has is thine."
"How can I make the man live?" said the Hakim sternly, and frowning at
the chief as he spoke to the interpreter. "Has not all his life-blood
been spilled upon the sand as they brought him here? Tell him at once
that I am not a prophet, only a simple surgeon; that I have done all
that is possible, and that the rest is with God."
The Sheikh reverently translated the Hakim's words to the Baggara chief,
and those who heard him fully expected to hear some angry outburst; but
the chief bent humbly before the Hakim and touched his hand.
In a short time, under the Baggara chief's supervision, a tent was set
up over the wounded man, and by then two large groups of patients were
waiting patiently for the Hakim's ministrations--those whom he had
tended on the previous day, and about a dozen wounded men who had come
in during the night.
It was a new class of practice for the London practitioner, however
familiar it might have been to the surgeon of a regiment on active
service; but wounds are wounds, whether received in the everyday life of
a mechanic who has injured himself with his tools or been crushed by
machinery, or caused by shot, sword, and spear. So the Hakim toiled
away hour after hour till his last patient had left the space in front
of his tent and he had leisure to re-examine the chief's son, the father
looking anxiously on in spite of an assumed sternness, and waiting till
the keen-eyed surgeon rose from one knee.
"Tell him," said the Hakim gravely, "that it will be days before the
young chief can be moved."
The words were interpreted, and the chief seemed to forget his own
injury as he said in an angry tone that the little force must start at
daybreak the next morning.
"Then the young man will die," said the Hakim coldly.
Ibrahim again interpreted, and the chief suggested that a camel litter
should be prepared.
But the Hakim shook his head.
"Can't you give way?" said the professor softly. "A fairly easy couch
could be made."
"The man will certainly die if he is moved to-morrow," replied Morris
sternly, "and if I lose a patient now a great deal of my prestige goes
with him."
"Yes, I know," said the professor; "but we are making an enemy instead
of a friend; this man is not in the habit of having his will crossed."
"We shall lose his friendship all the same," said the doctor, "if his
son dies in my hands. I can save his life if he is left to me."
"Dare you say that for certain?"
The doctor was silent for a few minutes, during which he bent over his
patient again, took his temperature, and examined the pupils of his
eyes, and at last rose up and stepped from beneath the shade of the
rough little tent.
"Yes," he said; "I can say, I think for certain, that I will save his
life if he is left to me."
"What does the wise Hakim say?" asked the Baggara of Ibrahim; and the
question was interpreted to the doctor.
"Tell him, No! That his son must not stir if he is to live. If he is
left for say a week all may be well."
There was no outburst of anger upon the interpretation of these words,
the Baggara hearing them to the end and then walking away, frowning and
stern, without once looking back.
About an hour later some half-dozen men came up leading a couple of
camels laden with a larger tent and other gear. This was set up a short
distance from the small one in which the young chief lay, and soon after
it was done the chief rode up once more to see his son, looking anxious
and careworn upon seeing the young man lying apparently unchanged.
The Baggara went away without a word to the Hakim, but signed to the
Sheikh to follow him.
Meanwhile the rest of the sufferers came or were carried to take their
turn before their surgeon, who was busy with his two aides, easing
bandages, and where necessary redressing the wounds; while to the
professor's surprise two of them, instead of being carried or supported
away by their comrades were helped into the large tent.
In all seven were placed there, and just as the long line of sufferers
had been gone through, the Sheikh returned and said that the chief's
orders were that the worst sufferers were to stay at the tent so as to
be under the Hakim's eye.
The doctor's was evidently to be no sinecure appointment, but he took it
quite complacently, giving a few orders for the comfort of his staying
patients, and without further incident the night fell, when a small
hand-lamp was placed in the little tent, and the doctor announced that
he was going to watch beside the young chief for the night.
Accordingly a rug was placed for him, as well as such requisites as
might be needed for his patient, and saying good-night, and refusing all
offers to share his vigil, the doctor glanced inside the larger tent to
see that all was going on right there, and then stood in the open for a
few minutes to breathe the cool night air and listen to the low murmur
going on in the camp, before entering the smaller tent and starting
slightly.
"You here, Frank?" he said quickly.
"Yes, I am going to share your watch."
"There is no need, my dear boy," said the doctor warmly. "Go and get a
good night's rest. You must be tired."
"I have not done half the work you have," was the reply, and after a
little further argument the doctor gave way, and the watch was
commenced, first one and then the other taking the lamp to bend over the
insensible man, and make sure that he was breathing still.
It was about an hour after midnight that Frank's turn had come, and as
he had done some three times before, he took the lamp from where it
stood, shaded from the sufferer's eyes, and went behind him, to kneel
down and watch for the feeble pulsation, breathing deeply himself with
satisfaction as he found that the respiration still went on, when as he
rose, lamp in hand he nearly let it fall on finding himself face to face
with a tall figure in white robes, who looked at him sternly, took the
lamp from his hand, and bent over in turn.
Frank neither spoke nor moved, but drew back a little, watching the face
of the Baggara chief as the light struck full upon the swarthy, aquiline
features for a few minutes, before the visitor rose and handed back the
lamp, gazing full in the young man's eyes. Then, thrusting his hand
into his waist scarf, he freed the sheath of a handsome dagger from the
folds, and without a word handed it to Frank, motioning him to place it
in his own belt, after which he went silently out of the tent, vanishing
like a shadow.
Frank stood motionless for a few minutes before setting down the lamp,
and he was about to return to his place when the doctor's voice said
softly--
"Well, Frank, how is he?"
"Just the same," replied Frank. "You heard the chief come in, of
course?"
"The Baggara? No; surely he has not been again?"
"Yes; looked at his son, and went away a few minutes ago. Were you
asleep?"
"No, I think not--I am sure not," said the doctor. "I turned my face
away from the light when I lay down; but I heard you rise, and saw the
movement of the lamp over the tent side when you took it up, and again
when you set it down. Well, I am not sorry that he has been. It shows
that even such a savage chief as this--one who lives by rapine and
violence--has his natural feelings hidden somewhere in his heart."
The pair were silent for some little time, and then the doctor rose to
look at his patient in turn.
"These are the anxious hours, Frank," he said, "before daylight comes.
Much depends on our getting well through the next two. If the poor
fellow is alive at sunrise I shall feel quite satisfied that he will
recover; but if he does it will be by a very narrow way."
The pair sat then and listened and watched, with the patient still
breathing slowly and softly, seeming very calm at last when the first
faint dawn appeared; and soon after the doorway was shaded by the
Sheikh.
"How is he, Excellencies?" he said in a whisper.
"He will live, Ibrahim," replied the doctor. "Come and watch now while
we go to my tent and snatch a few hours' rest."
"I have some coffee ready for you, Excellency," whispered the old man.
"You will take that first?"
"Yes, it will be very welcome," said the doctor.
"I suppose you heard them go?" said the Sheikh, as they stepped out into
the soft grey light. "Go? Heard whom go?" said Frank quickly.
"The Baggara," replied the Sheikh. "About two hours ago."
"No!" said the doctor. "Not a sound."
"They have all gone, Excellency, excepting the wounded in the next tent
and twelve mounted men who are stationed round to act, I suppose, as a
guard."
"But they will come back?"
"I cannot say, Excellency," replied the old man; "I only know that they
have gone."
"`And fold their tents like the Arabs,'" said Frank softly to himself,
"`and as silently steal away.'"