It was one bright evening, just about dusk, that, utterly exhausted by a
long day's march, the head of the long line of horses, camels heavily
laden, and marching men, came within sight of the city that was their
goal, and in the glimpse the English party had of the place before night
closed in it seemed to be one of the most desolate looking spots they
had ever seen.
"But it is not fair to judge it," said the professor quietly. "We can
see next to nothing; it is fully two miles away; and we are all weary
and low-spirited with our long march. Wait till morning."
It had been expected that they would march in that night, but a halt was
called in the midst of a great, dusty plain, and preparations for
camping were at once begun.
Frank lay wakeful and restless for long enough. In his excited state
sleep refused to come. Now that the goal had been reached it was hard
to believe that they were there, and had succeeded in making their way
to the neighbourhood of the far-famed cities of the Soudan with so
little difficulty. Of physical effort there had been plenty, but he had
anticipated bitter struggles and disappointments; attempts to reach the
prison of his brother in one direction, and being turned back, to
attempt it again and again in others. Instead all had been
straightforward, and their ruse had succeeded beyond all expectation.
But now that they were at one of the late Mahdi's strongholds on the
Nile the question was, Would Harry Frere be there after all, or taken
far to the south to the home of someone who held him as a slave?
Now for about the first time the adventurer fully realised the magnitude
of the task he had taken in hand. The desert journey had impressed him
by the vastness of the sandy plains and the utter desolation they had
traversed; but that only appeared now to be the threshold of the place
he had come to search. All the vast continent of Africa seemed to be
before him, dim, shadowy, and mysterious, and as he sank at last into a
feverish sleep, it was with his brother's despairing face gazing at him,
the reproachful eyes sunken and strained and looking farewell before all
was dark with the obscurity of the to-come.
"Hadn't you better rouse up now, sir?" said a familiar voice; but Frank,
after his long and painful vigil, was unable to grasp the meaning of the
words, far more to move.
"Mr Frank, sir--I mean, Ben--Ben Eddin. Humph! what an idiot I am!"
came softly out of the gloom. "It was bad enough to make such a slip
out in the desert, where there were no next door neighbours; but to go
and shout it out here, just beside this what-do-they-call-him's city was
about the maddest thing I could have done. S'pose some one had heard
me; it would have taken a great deal of lathering and scraping, more
than ever a 'Rabian Night's barber ever got through, to make people
believe I was the Hakim's slave.
"Mr--Bother! What's the matter with me this morning? I believe I'm
half asleep, or else my brains are all shook up into a muddle by that
brute of a camel. Here, Ben Eddin, rouse up and put on your best white
soot. Here's the Sheikh been with a message to say that we're all going
to form a procession and march through the town to camp in the groves on
the other side. It's to be a triumphal what-do-they-call-it? and the
Baggara chief is going to show off all his prisoners and plunder, and
we're to make the principal part of the show. I say, Ben, do wake up;
the coffee's nearly ready, and you ought to do a bit o' blacking, for
the back of your neck where the jacket doesn't reach is getting quite
grey with the sun burning it so much."
Procession--show--triumph--coffee--and the rest of it, made not the
slightest impression upon Frank's torpid brain; but those words about
the black stain and the bleaching caused by the scorching sun somehow
suggested the risk he might run of being discovered, and that meant the
frustration of his plans to rescue his brother. In a moment now his
brain began to work.
"Is that you, Sam?" he cried hastily.
"I suppose so, sir, but there are times when I get pinching my leg to
wake myself, expecting that I shall start up to find myself back in my
pantry. But I don't, even when I make a bruise which turns blacker than
your arms, and with a bit of blue touched up with yellow outside. I
say, are you awake now?"
"Yes, yes, of course; but the sun is not up yet."
"No, he ain't as industrious as we are out in these parts, and doesn't
get up so early. Now you understand about looking your best?"
"Yes, yes, I understand, Sam."
"But do you really, Ben? Don't deceive me, and go to sleep again. If
you do I know how it will be."
"How it will be?" said Frank impatiently.
"You'll say that I didn't call you. Come, now, recollect where you are,
and what we've got to do. Mr Abraham--"
"Ibrahim, man! I've told you so half a dozen times before."
"Then it's all right, Ben Eddin. You are wide awake."
"Yes, yes, of course. But what about the Sheikh?"
"He says we are to go to the Emir's palace."
"Emir's palace? What Emir--what palace?"
"That fierce old chap as had such a bad arm. He's an Emir. Mr
Imbrahim says he's just heard, and that an Emir's a great gun out here.
Sort of prince and general all in one, I suppose. He told me his name,
but I forget what it is. It's very foreign, though, and there's a good
lot of it. He's a great friend, and a sort of half brother of the other
fellow."
"Other fellow? What other fellow?" said Frank, half angrily.
"Oh, you know, sir, the other big man that followed the Mahdi in taking
the Soudan."
"You mean the Khalifa?"
"That's right, sir. I'm not good at all over these Egyptian chaps.
I've one name for them all--the bad lot, and that's enough for me. Now,
sir--bah! Ben Eddin, I mean; breakfast will be ready in ten minutes, so
look sharp. I like to see you have a good meal in the morning, just as
I like one for myself. It's something to keep you going all day. It
makes a deal of difference if you start fair."
"I'll be there," said Frank.
"Recollect you're to put on your clean white cotton jacket. Mr
Ibbrahim says his chaps have been seeing to the camels so that they
shall look their best, and that it's very important that the Hakim
should be dressed out well, and he will."
Frank's toilet in those days was very simple, and within the time he was
at the door of the Hakim's tent, to find him dressed and waiting to
begin his morning meal, the professor coming from the tent directly
after, ready to greet both and enjoy the excellent repast that was
waiting, the Emir having kept up his attentions in that direction to the
doctor who had saved his arm from mortification, and consequently
himself from death.
There was the loud hum of voices right away through the camp, from which
the fragrant smoke of many fires arose through the grey dawn, and an
unwonted stir indicating great excitement prevailed and rapidly
increased with the coming light, for the orange and gold streamers
announcing the rising of the sun were beginning to flush in the eastern
sky, illumining the far-spreading city, and turning the sands where it
was built into sparkling gold.
As the sun rose higher the three Englishmen gazed wonderingly at the
city which lay stretching to right and left--the place into which they
were to make their triumphal entry that morning, as soon as the Emir's
little force, which seemed to have grown unaccountably during the night,
was marshalled; and the professor pretty well expressed the feelings of
his two friends as he stood and gazed at the place, their eyes dwelling
longest upon a white dome-like structure that towered up, and which they
learned was the Mahdi's tomb.
"And so this is Omdurman, is it?" he said. "Then I suppose Khartoum
will be just such a city of mosques and palaces. Why, there isn't a
redeeming feature in the whole spot! It's just a squalid collection of
mud-houses and hovels, built anyhow by people accustomed to live in a
tent or nothing at all. Why, if you took the trees away--and it
wouldn't take long to do that--it would be fit for nothing but to be
washed away as so much mud, if the Nile would flood as far."
"But surely poor old Harry can't be here!" said the doctor, in a low,
troubled voice.
"Who knows?" said the professor softly, after glancing at Frank's pained
features. "We must see, and--cheer up, everybody--we will, for we shall
have splendid chances. Do you hear, O Chief Surgeon and Special
Physician to the Emir?"
"But look," said the doctor; "I thought the place miserable enough
yesterday evening, while now, though the sun does give it a sort of
golden glaze, the miserable huddle of shabby huts looks ten times worse,
for the light exposes its ruinous state."
"Go on," said the professor. "You can't speak evil enough of it, say
what you will. But I say, both of you--I won't bother you much with my
hobby--what a falling off there is everywhere; what a difference between
the cities of the rule of the past, with their magnificent palaces and
temples, or even the simple, majestic grandeur of the pyramids, and the
buildings of the modern inhabitants! The glory has departed indeed.
Ah, here comes Ibrahim again. Well, Sheikh, how goes the world?"
"I have seen the Emir this morning, Excellencies, and he sends you
greeting. He desires that you ride directly after the mounted men. You
are to occupy a place of honour before the camels laden with the spoil
taken by his warriors."
"As his principal prisoners," said the doctor coldly. "Well, we will
try not to disgrace the man who has treated us as his friends. But what
about his son? Am I to see and treat him before we start?"
"No, Excellency. He will ride in a litter borne by two led camels, and
the Emir asks that you will see his son when you reach the rooms he has
ordered to be ready for you beside his own palace."
"And for my friends as well, Ibrahim?" said the doctor quickly.
"Yes, Excellency; the house is large, and there are gardens and grounds
with ample room for your servants and slaves as well as for your picked
supply of camels. For they are picked, O Hakim. I have been round the
camp this morning and seen the many beasts of burden being loaded ready
for leading to the city. The horses too, and these are splendid beasts.
But the camels! Yours, O Hakim, are well fed, young, and healthy, full
of strength."
"Mine, Ibrahim? Yours."
"No, Excellency; speak of them as yours, for yours they are. Your name
protects them. If they were mine they would be taken before the day was
past. If we get safely back to Cairo, as Heaven willing we shall, if it
pleases you and you are satisfied with your servant's works you may give
them back to him when their work is really done."
"We shall see, Ibrahim," said Frank, smiling, and then turning serious
and resuming his part, for the Emir's men were approaching them,
evidently with some message.
The sun was now well up, and this being the time arranged for, so as to
give _eclat_ to the proceedings, trumpets and uncouth sounding horns
began to blare out, the excitement in the camp increased, and soon
after, with a certain amount of order prevailing over the barbarous
confusion, the procession was started, a dense crowd pouring out from
the city into the plain to meet them; when the faint answering sound of
trumpets arose like an echo, accompanied by the dull, soft, thunderous
boom of many drums.
At the first glance it seemed to be a grey-looking mob, all a mixture of
black and white, debouching upon the plain; but soon after there was the
glint of steel, and through the crowd a dense mass of horsemen could be
seen approaching.
This was the signal for a wild shout from the returning raiders,
trumpets were blown and drums beaten with all the force their bearers
could command, and the Emir's horsemen rode proudly onward, following
the trumpeters and drummers; and now several standards made their
appearance in various parts of the procession, around which horsemen
clustered, each looking as if he felt himself to be the hero of the
day--the triumphant warrior returning clothed with honour from the
slaughter of the enemies of the Prophet; and to a man they would have
been prepared to deal out ignominy and death to the daring teller of the
simple truth that they were nothing better than so many bloodthirsty
murderers and despoilers of the industrious builders of the villages of
the river banks.
Minute by minute the excitement grew, and the plain in front changed
from tawny golden drab to grey, black, and white, for Omdurman seemed to
be emptying itself in the desire to give the returning band a welcome.
Even the horses appeared to take part in the general feeling, for they
curvetted and pranced, encouraged by their riders, whose flowing white
headgear and robes added with the flashing of their spears to the
picturesque aspect of the scene.
In an almost incredibly short space of time the procession was formed,
or rather formed itself. The slight camping arrangements had
disappeared as if by magic, and that which one hour had been a swarming
ant-hill of humanity, apparently all in confusion, was the next a long,
trailing line of men, horses, and camels, headed by a barbaric band,
moving steadily towards the entrance to the city, while the scene of the
night's encampment was the barren plain once more, dotted with the grey
ashes of so many fires.
Onward they went in a course which meant a meeting with the horsemen
coming from the city, and a passage through the increasing crowd, the
Emir's warriors passing on till the head of the guard galloped up as if
in a state of wild excitement, shouting "The Hakim!--the Hakim!"
The Hakim was already mounted upon his sleek camel, in the whitest and
most voluminous of turbans and robes, and sat with his followers,
waiting till the last of the main body of horsemen had passed.
Then came a little knot surrounding the camel litter in which lay the
Emir's son, and at a sign from the officer, the Hakim's camel was led
close behind the litter; Frank and the professor on their camels next;
Sam, looking as dignified as his master, followed; with him the Sheikh,
leading his men with the Hakim's sleek camels, of which he looked as
proud as any member of the procession.
Following close behind came the Emir himself, a swarthy, noble-looking
savage warrior, his brother chief by his side; and then in a long line
were the trophies of their swords and spears, the heavily laden camels
for the most part carrying a heterogeneous collection of objects dear to
the hearts of the raiding band, but many bearing dull, heavy-eyed women,
several with their children, slaves of their new masters, torn from
their homes, and for the most part seeming apathetic and taking it all
as a matter of course--kismet (fate)--which they must patiently bear
till the next change in their condition came to pass; one which they
knew might be at any hour, for their careers had taught them that a
stronger force might at any moment appear in the mysterious desert and
come down like a tempest, to reverse their state, the conquerors of
to-day becoming the fugitives of to-morrow.
The last of the heavily laden, murmuring and groaning camels was
followed by another troop of some fifty mounted men, whose horses
pranced and caracoled to the faintly heard blaring of trumpet and
beating of drum in front, while like a gigantic, ungainly serpent the
returning force glided on over the sandy plain, till the musical (?)
head disappeared between two long lines of horsemen who formed an avenue
which kept back the crowd, and were ready when the last camel and the
rear guard had passed through to fall in behind and follow their more
fortunate plunder-laden comrades into the city.
The Hakim's countenance was dignified and impressive enough to
thoroughly keep up his character, and he listened in silence to the
remarks made in a low tone from time to time by the professor, who was
eagerly noting the crowd in front that they were approaching; but Frank
sat his camel as if turned into stone, his eyes fixed upon the
wilderness of mud-brick buildings, while he wondered which contained the
prisoner they had come to save.
The Hakim's air of dignity was of course assumed; but one of his
followers, in spite of his long intercourse with Europeans, took to his
position proudly and as if to the manner born, and this was the Sheikh,
whose handsome old grey-bearded face seemed to shine with a moon-like
radiance reflected from the principal, the Hakim being his sun.
So manifest was this that after glancing at him several times in a
half-amused, half-contemptuous way, Sam suddenly burst out with--
"You seem to like it, Mr Abrahams!"
The Sheikh started, and looked at the man riding the camel at his side
in surprise.
"Yes," he said; "it is old-fashioned, and not new and civilised like
things in Cairo, but it is grand, and I am proud of the Hakim and my
camels; are not you?"
"Not a bit of it!" said Sam contemptuously. "It's all very well for
you, Mr Abrahams, being a native and used to it. But me, an
Englishman--a Londoner--proud of it! Why, I wonder at you."
"But," said the old man, "look at the camel you are riding; how soft,
how sleek, how graceful, and how easily it moves! Ah! I see you are
getting proud."
"Me? Proud? What, of being here?" cried Sam.
"Yes; you have learned to ride the camel, and you sit it easily and
well. You ride as if, as you Englishmen say, you were born upon it."
"Oh, do we? Well, I won't say I can't ride it now, nor I won't say it
don't come easy. You see, Mr Abrahams, there ain't many things an
Englishman can't do if he gives his mind to it."
"You look well, Mr Samuel," said the old man, smiling.
"Now, no chaff!" said Sam suspiciously. "No gammon! You mean it?"
"Of course."
"Well, I'm glad I do. You think these savages will think so too, and
that I am the real thing?"
"Oh, yes. Look at the Hakim."
"Sha'n't! I've been looking till I feel ashamed of him."
"Ashamed?" said the Sheikh. "Why?"
"Dressed up like that! Him a first-class London surgeon and M.D., with
Palladium Club and Wimpole Street on his card. I tell you I'm ashamed
of him, and I'm ashamed of myself, and I ain't sure now that it isn't
all a dream."
"I do not understand," said the Sheikh coldly.
"You can't, Mr Abrahams. You're a very nice, civil old gentleman, and
I like you, and I'm much obliged for lots of good turns you've done me;
but you see you've never been to London, and don't know what's what."
"No," said the Sheikh; "I have never been to London yet, but I have
often thought of going with some family, for I have been asked twice.
But if I do come I shall try to see you, Mr Samuel."
"Glad to see you, old chap, any time," said Sam warmly; "and if you do
come I'll show you what our country's like."
"Thank you, Mr Samuel," said the Sheikh, smiling pleasantly; "and if I
do come I shall dress as you English do; but I will not be ashamed of
it."
"Here, you're going on the wrong road, old gentleman," said Sam. "I'm
not ashamed of the nightgown and nightcap. They're cool and
comfortable. It's seeing the guv'nor dressed up, and him and me and Mr
Frank and Mr Landon in this procession. Do you know how I feel just
now?"
"Thirsty?" said the Sheikh, smiling.
"Well, pretty tidy. I shall be worse soon. But if you come to that,
I've been thirsty ever since I came to Egypt. I mean I feel as if I'd
come down to a cheap circus, and we were going into a country town where
the big tent had been set up, and that by and by we should be all riding
round the ring doing Mazeppa and the Wild Horse, or Timour the Tartar;
stalls a shilling covered with red cloth; gallery thruppence."
The Sheikh stared wonderingly, and then shook his head.
"I do not understand, Mr Samuel," he said.
"Of course you don't, sir. How can you, seeing that you've picked up
what you know by accident like, and not had a regular English education?
There, it's all right. It was only a growl, and I'm better now."
"But you said you were ashamed of the Hakim."
"I said so, but I ain't, Mr Abrahams. He's splendid ain't he?"
"He is grand," said the Sheikh earnestly. "His power, his knowledge--it
is wonderful!"
"That's right, old man, so it is."
"And I hope when all the work is done, and we have taken Mr Frank's--"
"Steady there: Ben Eddin's."
"Yes, Ben Eddin's brother safely back to Cairo, that I may have an
accident."
"An accident?" said Sam, staring.
"Or a bad illness, so that the great Hakim may cure me. Hah! what a
physician! It is noble--it is grand!"
"I say, do you mean all that?" said Sam.
"Mean it?" said the Sheikh wonderingly. "I have been seventy years in
the world, and for forty of those years I have been taking travellers to
see the wonders of my land; but I have never met another man like the
Hakim, whom I could look up to as I do to him."
"You do mean it?" said Sam, whose eyes glistened and looked moist.
"Thank you, Mr Abrahams. You and me's the best of friends for saying
that. He is what you say--grand. You like him, and don't half know
him."
"I know him to have a great heart, Mr Samuel," said the old man warmly.
"Great heart, yes, and a big, broad chest; but it ain't half big enough
to hold it. Why, when my poor old mother was bad--dying of old age she
was--I made bold to ask the doctor to go down to see her, meaning to pay
him out of my savings, and feeling as I'd like the dear old girl to have
the best advice. Down in the country she was, forty miles away."
"How sad!" said the old Sheikh. "Two very long days' journey."
"Get out!" cried Sam, laughing. "England ain't the Soudan. Forty miles
by the express means under one hour's ride, Mr Abrahams."
The Sheikh looked at him gravely.
"Mr Samuel," he said, "the barbers in Egypt and Turkey and Persia
always have been famous for telling wonderful stories. I thought now
you were speaking seriously."
"So I was, and about the doctor being so good to my poor old mother.
Twice a week he kept on going to see her till she died, and when I
wanted to pay something, he laughed at me and said he had done it all
for a faithful servant and friend who was a good son. That's why I'm
out here to look after him, Mr Abrahams. He's splendid, and you're
right. Just you tumble off your camel and break a leg or a wing, or
crack your nut, and let him put you right. I'll nurse you, and so will
Mr Frrrr--Ben Eddin."
"Hah! I think I will," said the Sheikh, "when we have done; only I must
not break too much for I am growing old. But two long days' journey in
an hour, Mr Samuel? The Cairo railway never does anything like that."
"The Cairo railway!" said Sam scornfully. "Don't talk about it. Why, I
went down into the country with the Hakim once, and we rode part of the
way nearly twice as fast as I said. Not eighty miles an hour, but
seventy; that's a fact. Hullo! what's going on now? They look as if
they're going to eat us."
"It is only their way of showing joy, Mr Samuel."
"But they're a-shouting, `Hay--keem! Hay--keem!'"
"They have heard how the Hakim saved the Emir's and his son's lives and
cured so many more. Hark they are saying that a great prophet is come,
and they are crying aloud for joy."
"Prophet!" said Sam grimly, as he made an atrocious joke; "not much
profit for him, poor chap. Why, they'll bring all the sore places out
of the town for him to cure."
"Yes, he will be a great man here."
"And him sitting so cool and quiet there on his camel in his robes and
turban, looking like one of Madame Tussaud's wax figures out for the
day."
For the excitement had been rapidly increasing, as the returning party
were met and passed through the crowd, who had shouted themselves hoarse
by way of welcome to the warriors, their chiefs, and to their plunder.
The wild music, the sight of the fighting men and the spoil, had done
much; but the news, which had spread like fire through tow, of the Hakim
and his powers seemed to drive the excitable, wonder-loving people
almost wild. It was another prophet come into their midst, and had the
procession lasted much longer the Hakim's career in Omdurman would have
commenced with a long task of healing the injured who had been crushed
by the crowd.
Fortunately for all, the English party and the people themselves, the
two lines of mounted men helped to keep back the rush of the crowd who
pressed forward to see the great man of whose deeds they had just heard,
and the length, the intricacy, and narrowness of the streets played
their part in lessening the gathering; but it was a weary journey--one
which grew slower and slower, till the city was completely traversed,
and the mounted men rode off to one side, leaving the Hakim's followers
to pass through the rough gateway of a high mud wall, over which were
seen the pleasantest objects of the morning's ride.
For over the wall rose the broad leaves of palms, and as the party rode
into and under the greenery of a large enclosure, they found themselves
in sight of the Emir's palace, with the camel litter just in front--a
palace of sun-baked mud, at whose entrance-gate a dozen mounted men were
placed to keep back the crowd, among whom were already several
applicants for help from the Hakim. But these were driven away at once,
for the doctor's attention was required for the Emir's son.