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In the Mahdi's Grasp, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 22. Nearing The Goal |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. NEARING THE GOAL It was more from hearing than seeing that Frank Frere gathered the fact that the Baggara chief had returned, for after a short pause the camel train was once more in motion, and they were ordered to keep steadily in line in the advance to the desert in the opposite direction to that by which the newcomers had arrived. At first the two parties formed the train alone, for the fresh arrivals had halted to water their horses and camels, quite an hour passing before the sound of approaching horsemen announced that the whole force was in motion, overtaking them at a sharp canter, but only to subside directly into the regular, slow camel pace, which was kept on hour after hour till the dawn, when, looking back, Frank made out that the train extended for nearly half a mile to the rear, being made up of a long line of camels, followed by a troop of many horsemen. It was nearly all surmise, but judging from the number of camels, which were certainly double those that the Baggara had before during their stay by the fountains, they had been engaged in some successful foray, for as the light grew stronger the baggage animals seemed to be very heavily laden. This idea naturally suggested that the wild horsemen had been engaged in some desperate encounter, and half laughingly the professor bantered his friends about their prospects. "It means a revival of professional practice for you," he said, "and that looks prosperous. You only lost your last patient a few hours ago--that is, if you have lost him--and now a score or two will come tumbling in." "Very well," said the doctor coolly; "it shows that they approve of my treatment. I suppose we shall know at the first halt." This was many hours in coming, for a long, monotonous march was made right away to the south-west, with the pile of rocks they had left gradually sinking till quite out of sight, and then, with the sun growing hotter and hotter, there was nothing visible on any side but the long, level stretch of sand. The halt was not made till near midday, when the heat had become unbearable, and horses and camels were growing sluggish, and showed plenty of indications of the need of whip and spur. Then, apparently without orders, the little knot of horsemen, led by the Baggara who had had charge of the prisoners, drew up short and faced round, when taking them as the extreme limit the rest of the train formed themselves up into a well ordered group as they came on, till, with the Sheikh's party and their guards as a kind of centre, and the camels with their loads behind, the horsemen closed them in as if for strategic reasons, and for the next half hour there was a busy scene, the camels being relieved of their loads as if the stay were to be of some hours' length. This was evidently intended, for fires were lit and food was prepared, many of the horsemen after picketing their horses settling down at once to coffee and pipes. It was while Frank and his friends were partaking of an _al fresco_ lunch, hastily prepared by Sam, that they had their first intimation of the Baggara chief being with the horsemen, for he cantered up to their temporary camp in company with his fierce-looking companion, leaped from his horse, and walked up to the Hakim at once, to give him a smile of recognition and hold out his left arm, which he tapped vigorously as if saying: "Look! Quite well again." Then turning round to the Sheikh he signed to him to approach, and said a few words hastily, before nodding to the Hakim again, returning to his horse, mounting, and cantering away. "Well, Ibrahim," said the professor; "what does it mean?" "That the chief's arm will soon be well; that the young chief his son will soon be well; and that the great Hakim and his slaves are to have no fear, for the Baggara are their friends." "Yes, and mean to keep the Hakim and his slaves as prisoners as long as there are any cripples to cure," said the professor merrily. "I suppose that is what it means," said the doctor quietly. "That's it, sure enough," said the professor; "and we shall reach Khartoum, Frank, in half the time we should have managed it in if we had been left to ourselves." Frank shook his head sadly. "What! you doubt?" cried the professor. "Here, Ibrahim, what do you say to that?" "His Excellency is quite right," replied the Sheikh. "We should have had to wander here and there, and have met with many hindrances by having to stay to perform cures of the sick people. Yes, it would have been a journey of many weary months." "It will take much time now," said the professor, "but it looks as if we were really bound due south." "I suppose there is a party of wounded men on the way?" said the doctor. "Yes, they follow the chief's visits," said the professor. "My word! learned one, your post is going to be no sinecure. Hah! here comes the first instalment." For a roughly contrived litter was seen approaching, and directly after the chief's son was borne up to them by four of his followers and set down in front of the doctor, who attended to his patient, finding him no worse for his journey. He was carried away again as soon as the Hakim had seen that his wound was healing well, and the arrival of the newly injured was expected; but none appeared, for the simple reason that the fresh tale of wounded was only imaginary, the Baggara chief, as was afterwards learned, having been successful in obtaining a large amount of plunder and many camels in his first raid after leaving the prisoners at the wells. These he had despatched under a small escort while he made for another village which had been marked down. Here, however, he met with a severe reverse, his men having to gallop for their lives, leaving their dead and wounded behind. Hence it was, then, that the Hakim's burden became light for the rest of the march, which was continued day after day, week after week, till so slow was the progress that months had passed and the despair in Frank's soul grew deeper. The party were well treated, and won the respect of the whole force from the many kindly acts they were able to perform. For sickness was more than once a deadly foe which had to be fought, while help was often required after occasional raids made during the journey, in which the desperate dwellers in village or camp fought hard and mostly in vain for their lives and property, as well as to save those whom they held dear from being carried off as slaves. "It is horrible!" Frank used to say. "These tribes are like a pestilence passing through the land. The atrocities of which they are guilty are a hundred times worse than I could have believed. There can never be rest for the unfortunate inhabitants till they are swept away." "Never," said the professor gravely. "The land will soon be one wide desolation, for the smiling oases where irrigation could do its part will soon be gone back to a waste of sand." "And by the irony of fate," continued Frank bitterly, "here are we--so many English people, whose hearts bleed for the horrors we are forced to see--doing our best afterwards to restore to health and strength the wretches who have robbed and murdered in every peaceful village they have passed." He looked, and spoke, at the Hakim, as these utterances passed his lips, and his brother's old school-fellow shook his head at him reproachfully. "Don't blame me, Frank, my lad," he said. "I often think as you do, and it is only by looking upon the wounded men brought in as patients that I can get on with my task. Then the interest in my profession helps me, and I forget all about what they may have done. But I get very weary of it all sometimes." "Weary, yes!" cried Frank; "but you must forgive me. It was all my doing, and I must be half mad to speak to you as I did." "You are both forgetting why we came," said the professor quietly; "and between ourselves, you two, isn't it rather childish to talk as you do?" "I don't know," said Frank impatiently; "all I can feel is that we seem as far from helping poor Hal as ever." "Oh, no, we are not," said the professor. "We must be getting very near to the Khalifa's strongholds now, and we are going to enter with pass-keys, my lad. Once there, it will be hard if we don't find poor old Hal." "Hard indeed," said the doctor, with energy; "but we must and will." "Well said!" continued the professor. "I think we have done wonders. Such good fortune can never have fallen to anyone before." "Good fortune!" said Frank bitterly. "Ah, you want your pulse felt, young fellow. You've got a sour instead of a thankful fit upon you. Give him something to-night, doctor." Morris bowed his head solemnly, as if he were playing Hakim still to his friends, and Frank made an angry gesture. "Look here," continued the professor; "you can ask old Ibrahim again if you are in doubt. He'll tell you that it would have been impossible to have got on at such a rate as we have come, and that the difficulties over supplies would have been insurmountable at times. While here, though we have often been scarce of water, we have never wanted once for food." "And how has it been obtained?" said Frank bitterly. "I don't know--I don't want to know." "You do know!" cried Frank angrily. "I tell you I won't know!" said the professor, almost as shortly. "I know that we have done nothing but good all the way--that we could not have done it without food--and that it was given to us in payment for what we have done. Be sensible, my lad. We did not let loose these murderous human beasts who have made us prisoners, and whether we eat or starve ourselves it will make no difference to their actions. Go on eating, then? Why, of course we do. You talk as if it were our mission as Christians when we came upon a wounded man to put him out of his misery." "No, no!" cried Frank. "But you and Bob Morris seem to think so. You can't take one of his bottles of hydrocyanic acid and pour it into one of the desert wells, and then call the whole band up to drink, can you?" "Don't talk nonsense, Landon!" said Frank angrily. "Then don't you, my dear boy. Can't you see that this is all outside of our plans?" "Yes, of course," said the doctor. "We never meant to be taken prisoners and to be forced to be chief surgeon-physician to a band of murderous cut-throats." "No," said Frank, "but we are." "Granted; but is it our fault?" "No," said the doctor firmly. "Can we escape from them, Frank?" There was no reply, and the professor repeated his question. "I do not see how." "Neither do I, and if I did I wouldn't try it now that we are so near the brave old lad we came to save.--Oh, here's Ibrahim." "Your Excellency wanted me?" said the Sheikh. "Yes. How far do you think we are now from Omdurman?" "As far as I can make out, Excellency, by asking some of the camel-drivers, about four days' journey." "Hah! That is getting near. But have you found out yet whether we are really going there or farther on to Khartoum?" "No, Excellency, and I have tried hard. No one really does know except the chief. Some say we are going to Omdurman, while others say for certain that we shall make a sweep round into the desert and then aim for Khartoum. While others--" "Opinions are various," said the professor drily. "_Tot homines_--_tot sententiae_, which being interpreted, my dear Frank, you being a lad who always hated your Latin accidence, means, some think a tot of one thing is good; some think a tot of another is better. Well, Ibrahim, what does the other set think?" "That the chief is going straight to Omdurman before passing on to Khartoum to dispose of his plunder." "Then let's hope the last are right, and then we shall have the chance of searching two places. There, cheer up, Frank, and try and think of nothing else but our own important mission." "Of course," said the doctor. "We did not come for the purpose of punishing these predatory hordes." "No," said Frank sadly; "I know. But have a little compassion upon me, and forgive my irritable ways. Look at me," he said, holding out his blackened hands, and then pointing with them to his face. "Can't you think how great an effort it is to keep up this miserable masquerade-- what agony it is to go about feeling that at any moment I may forget myself when in the presence of our masters, and speak?" "Yes, yes, I know, Frank, my dear boy," replied the professor; "and whenever I think of it I begin to wonder. I used to be in a constant state of fidget. 'He'll let the cat out of the bag as sure as eggs are eggs,' I used to say to myself; and then I lay awake at night and tried to think out the best way of helping you till the idea came, and it has acted beautifully." "What idea?" said the doctor sternly. "You never mentioned any idea to me." "Of course not; that would have spoiled the charm. Even Frank does not know." "Then it's all nonsense," said the doctor. "Is it? Well, we'll see. I did help you, didn't I, Frank?" "You have always helped me in every way you could, and been like an elder brother towards me, and I can never be sufficiently grateful." "Bother! Nonsense!" said the professor curtly. "But you mean to say I did not specially help you over the dummy business?" "Well, I really cannot recollect any special way." "Ingrate! And you talk about being grateful." "Well, out with it, Fred," said the doctor. "What was your plan?" "One of my own invention," said the professor, smiling proudly. "You, Frank, haven't I always lain down beside you every night when all was still?" "Oh, yes, of course." "And didn't I always say that I had come for a quiet chat?" "To be sure," said Frank. "And did I ever have it?" "Yes, we had one every night, carried on in a whisper." "False!" cried the professor. "True!" said Frank. "False!" cried the professor. "No, true!" said Frank. "I say false, sir, for from the time I lay down every night till you, being tired with your hard day's work, dropped off to sleep, I never hardly said a word." "Well, now you mention it," said Frank, "I don't think you did, for I often used to think you had gone to sleep." "Yes, and you used to ask me if I had. But I never had, eh?" "Never once," said Frank quickly; "and I often used to feel ashamed of myself for being so drowsy and going off as I did." "But look here," said the doctor, "what has this got to do with your patent plan for keeping Frank from betraying himself?" "Everything," said the professor triumphantly. "That was my patent plan. I said to myself that sooner or later Frank would be letting--" "Yes, yes, of course, betraying himself," said the doctor impatiently. "But the plan, man--the plan?" "Well, that's it, my dear Hakim," cried the professor, "I said to myself, that poor fellow cannot exist without talking; the words will swell up in him like so much gas. He must have a safety valve. Well, I provided it. I lay down beside him every night and let him talk till he fell asleep." "I never thought it meant anything more than a friendly feeling," said Frank wonderingly. "Well, perhaps there is something in what you say." _ |
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