Frank was puzzled for a few minutes; then he was convinced that the men
he saw were prisoners taken in the previous night's encounter, for there
was no doubt about their being members of a similar tribe. The manner,
too, of his companion endorsed the idea, as he spoke to him eagerly and
pointed at first one and then another with a scowl of hatred and
contempt, one of the nearest, to whom a few angry words were spoken,
turning upon him with a haughty look full of proud disdain and contempt,
which made the young Emir clap his hand to his sword and draw it from
its sheath, as he urged his horse forward as if to cut down the
prisoner, whose hands were securely tied behind him.
The dervish, whose garments were stained with blood, did not so much as
wince, but stood smiling at him with the same look of contempt, as if
quite ready to meet his fate at the hands of his cowardly enemy, and in
another minute the blow would have fallen, had not one of the mounted
spectators shouted something which Frank, whose blood felt chilled,
could not understand, and making his horse give a bound, interposed and
laughingly warned the young chief back.
It was quite enough; the young man nodded, lowered his sword, and
thrusting it into its sheath, rode back to Frank.
"And this is my new friend," thought the latter, as he strove hard to
conceal the repugnance he felt by gazing straight before him; so that
the change in his countenance passed unnoticed, the young Emir saying
something merrily and laughing in a peculiar manner, as he gave his head
a sidewise jerk in the direction of the prisoners.
"Why am I brought here?" said Frank to himself, "and what are they going
to do to these unfortunate wretches?"
But he already knew, and a terrible feeling of dread made his heart
contract as if it stood still; there was a strangling sensation at his
throat which checked his breathing, and the crowd in the open space swam
slowly round him, making him feel that in his giddiness he would the
next minute fall off his horse.
Then his heart began to throb violently, and an intense desire attacked
him to press the beautiful creature he rode with his heels and gallop
right away so as to hide the scene from his eyes. But directly after
the knowledge that he had so much at stake came in reaction, and he felt
that happen what might he must sit there, not showing the slightest
emotion, bearing everything, for no effort upon his part could alter the
fate of prisoners taken in what was no doubt a revolt against superior
authority, that authority being one of the most cruel and bloodthirsty
rulers of a cruel and bloodthirsty race.
"It is inevitable," he thought, and the words he had said rose to his
mind, as he felt and knew from all he had heard about the new Mahdi's
followers that if the fight had gone otherwise on the previous night the
Emir's people who were prisoners would have met with a similar fate.
"`All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,'" he
muttered, and then the power to stir seemed to have left him, as he sat
cold and stony in his saddle to witness whatever might come.
He was not long left in doubt.
The prisoners were in three bodies, strongly guarded, each group by a
couple of score or so of fierce-looking, well-armed men, some bearing
round shields in one hand, three spears of different lengths in the
other, while others wore swords only, hanging from a broad baldric, and
looking with their cross hilts and long, straight blades very similar to
those seen in illuminations and on effigies of the old crusaders, saving
that the blade widened out a little towards the point, and narrowed
again.
The prisoners were all fine-looking young men, fierce and savage of
aspect, and doubtless accustomed to deal out slaughter, torture, and
horrible cruelties amongst the conquered people of the Soudan; but to
Frank as he sat there the idea of their being slain before his eyes in
cold blood half maddened him, filling him with an intense desire to be
one of a retributive army whose task it would be to sweep their
conquerors from the land and back into the wild districts from which
they had flocked in response to the hoisting of the Mahdi's standard of
war with its promise of blood, treasure, and slaves.
"They are savages--savages," he muttered. "Why do such wretches cumber
the earth?"
At that moment he felt the young Emir's hand upon his arm, and he
started as if from some horrible nightmare to see the young man's
smiling face before him, and followed the direction of his pointing
hand.
For the horrible scene which he had been brought to see as a pleasant
sight, was the execution of some of the men who had risen against the
Emir and his friend.
It was a scene that, but for its truth and that it was but one of the
many horrors of its kind which stained the domination of the Khalifa and
his people, were better left unpenned--one of those which show the need
for retributive justice and the strong hand of a power whose strength
should at once crush down the vile rule of cruelty and crime against
modern civilisation and peace.
For as Frank's eyes followed the pointing hand it was to see that the
wholesale murder of the prisoners had begun, and that the preparations
he had supposed to be scaffolding for some fresh buildings were but part
of the horror he was to witness. Already ropes had been fastened round
the necks of three of the miserable prisoners, who were drawn up hanging
from a crossbeam; and as the crowds shouted in their triumph more and
more were drawn up, till quite twenty were suspended, quivering for a
brief time and then swinging slowly, becoming motionless and dead.
Fascinated and helpless, Frank gazed, till a loud shouting drew his eyes
to another group nearer to him, and there, bound and kneeling, with a
spear-armed man in front and a dozen more behind, were some thirty of
those who were never to look again upon the glory of the fast-sinking
sun.
But there was no struggling--no sign of resistance. The prisoners knelt
bare-headed, their faces proud and calm, and for the most part silent,
save where here and there one turned smiling to his companion to right
or left, as if to say a few words of encouragement, though for the most
part they gazed straight before them at their guards, and in imagination
it seemed to the young Englishman that they were bidding their enemies
see how brave men dared to die.
It was the hideous rule of the Mahdi and the sword, for as Frank looked,
one who seemed to be an officer, in flowing white garments, rode forward
from the young man's left, and, checking his horse close by the kneeling
line, shouted an order.
In an instant the swords of the men behind the prisoners gleamed in the
afternoon sunshine, they drew back the white sleeves from their dark
arms, and one by one, and in nearly every case at a single blow,
following what seemed like a lightning flash, head after head dropped
upon the sand, and the quivering bodies fell forward amidst the
triumphant shouts of the crowds around.
As the last head fell, the last body lay giving out the remnants of its
life, Frank drew a hoarse breath of thankfulness and relief that all was
over.
It was too soon, for his companion touched him again, to point to the
right, where a fresh horror was about to begin, and after watching once
more the riding forward of the officer, and hearing him shout his order,
the young Englishman closed his eyes, with the sickening sensation
coming back, as he asked himself whether it was not some frightful
dream; and with this thought he opened his eyes again that he might be
sure.
But it was too true, for there was another score of prisoners who were
mercifully spared from death, but were to suffer the new Mahdi's
judgment against them for revolt against the officers appointed by him
to be his vice-gerents in the city while he was away.
The mercy meted out was that of the tiger, not of the man. For swords
were busy, keen and trenchant blades hewing and hacking at the
unfortunate wretches, till all was over, and those who might recover
would pass to the end of their miserable days crippled and helpless,
each with his right hand and left foot shorn from the limbs.
Frank sat there motionless, for the power of action was completely gone,
and like one absolutely stunned and dead to mental and bodily feeling,
he looked and looked till there arose a wild, wailing outburst which
thrilled him to the core. It was as if the sound were two-edged, Frank
feeling that it was not uttered by the prostrate, partially butchered
prisoners, who lay as they had been thrown, giving forth no moan, not so
much as watching, with agonised eyes, their life-blood trickling into
the sand; the cry came from the trembling crowd of women and friends of
the victims, who had been waiting till they might dare to run forward in
a body to bear away husband or brother, and see if his life could be
saved.
It was now that a spasm of energy and excitement shot through Frank, as
he gazed for a few moments, and then thought of the Hakim and the need
for his ministrations there.
He turned quickly to his companion, who seemed to be reading his
thoughts, for he nodded, and together they touched the flanks of their
horses and cantered and then galloped off the field of blood, eager to
leave the quivering bodies and headless corpses far behind.
The young Emir was perfectly silent now, and Frank had ceased to suffer
from the repugnance he felt, for he could only think of what he had
seen, so that it seemed but a matter of minutes before they had reached
the gateway of the Emir's palace, though a good half hour had passed
away.
A minute later he had given the young Emir a quick nod, leaped from his
horse, thrown the rein to one of the guards who followed him in, and run
to their quarters at the garden end, where the camels were browsing
contentedly and their keepers looking on, when, finding the rooms empty,
the young man looked out.
Frank felt that the Hakim must be with the Emir's friend, and hurrying
through the passages and intervening rooms, he found Morris with the
professor, Sam, and the Sheikh near to an angareb, or bedstead, on to
which the wounded man had been carefully lifted a few minutes before.
Better still for the young man's mission, the Emir himself was standing
there as if he had been looking on, and he raised his head at the young
Englishman's entrance and gave him a friendly smile.
It was very near. Frank almost betrayed himself by bursting out
passionately with his news; but he recalled his position just in time,
signed to the Hakim for his tablets, and in a few brief words wrote of
the mutilated prisoners, and urged that the Hakim should ask for leave
to try and save the sufferers' lives.
Seeing that something terrible was wrong, Morris leaned over his young
companion's shoulder and read off the words he hastily wrote upon the
china tablets he carried in a folding book.
Then, nodding gravely, he glanced at the Emir, who was gazing at him
intently, and told the Sheikh to ask for permission to attend the
prisoners.
The Emir's countenance became very stern and hard as he listened to the
Sheikh's interpretation, and then replied--
"Tell the great Hakim that his mission is to heal the sick and wounded,
and that I know his heart and that of his young black slave are as
tender and compassionate as those of the angels of light. But I cannot
do this thing. These men rose against the great Mahdi as well as
against me and my friend whom you have saved. News of the revolt was
sent to Khartoum in the night; the Mahdi's chief officer rode over here
this day and gave the orders himself that these prisoners should die.
He was there to order each punishment himself. The great Hakim asks me
to let him save these men. If I send him there the Mahdi's officer will
take back the news, and my head will fall. Does the great Hakim wish
this, and can he give me back my life?"
The stern-looking chief smiled sadly as he spoke, and his eyes seemed to
speak as the words were interpreted to the end.
"You hear, Ben Eddin?" said the Hakim gravely, and turning to the Emir
he gravely bent his head in acceptance of his words, and the next minute
those two had grasped hands.