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In the Mahdi's Grasp, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 33. So Near--So Far |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. SO NEAR--SO FAR "Frank, my dear boy!" cried the Hakim, when, alone with his friends, the young man made his announcement. He could say no more, but sat holding Frank's hand, his lip trembling, and moved as neither of them had seen him before. For in all things he had been the calm, stern doctor, self-contained, and prepared for all emergencies. But now they heard him whisper to himself two or three times, as if uttering words of thankfulness. As for the professor, he sat listening to the end, and then leaped up. "Fancy? Imagination? Nonsense, boy, nonsense; it was as real as anything could be.--What? It must be fancy, or you would have run to his side and spoken? It would have been fancy if you had. Madness! Folly! Bedlam-ish lunacy. Why, you would have spoiled everything. Poor old Hal--poor old Hal! Thank Heaven! At last--at last!" He set off then walking up and down the tent-like room they were in, wiping the great drops of dew from his forehead openly as he passed his two friends; but the moment his back was to them the handkerchief glided to his eyes, where other salt drops kept on gathering, to be swept carefully away each time before he turned. "But who is this chief, Emir, or whatever he is?" said the professor, stopping before the doctor and Frank suddenly. "I've never heard of him before." "I know nothing about him whatever, only what I have told you. He is some friend of the Emir's son, and of course belongs to their party." "I suppose so," said the professor excitedly. "Well, it all seems simple enough now, Robert, my son. You must set Ibrahim to work the first time the Emir comes in, and tell him we have discovered that this other Emir's slave--Tut-tut-tut! reduced to camel driving! Poor old Hal! But better that than having his head cut off, eh? Let's see; what was I saying? I remember: that this other Emir's slave is a very dear old friend of ours, and that he must get him set free--or buy him--or let us buy him to come and help us. Oh dear! oh dear! Only fancy coming out to the Soudan to buy our old school-fellow! Then when we have got him we must make our plans and be off some dark night, and--I say, though," he said piteously, after a pause, "that won't do. Sounds childish, doesn't it?" "It would not do," said Frank firmly. "And it does sound childish, my dear Fred," said the doctor; "don't you think so?" "Of course it does," replied the professor. "It would upset everything; but I'm so completely knocked off my balance that I don't know what to propose. Yes, I do. Look here: I know. The poor fellow has been a prisoner for years, and looks old and thin, Frank says. Then we must send Ibrahim at once to tell him help is at hand, and put him out of his misery. No, no, no; that sounds like putting him out of his misery altogether. What do you think, Frank?" "That we have been _very_ careful so far, and have at last been thoroughly successful." "Yes, yes; of course," cried the professor excitedly. "Now we must be more cautious than ever." "Exactly; we must tell Ibrahim not to do the slightest thing to excite suspicion." "I am not going to trust Ibrahim to communicate with Hal," said Frank decisively. "I must do this myself." "You?" cried the doctor in surprise; and the professor looked at him wonderingly. "Why do you both stare at me like that?" said Frank warmly. "How is Ibrahim to get leave to speak to my brother?" "For the matter of that," cried the professor testily, "how are you to manage?" "I don't know yet, but in a way I have been introduced there, and have stood close to the poor fellow. Why may I not manage to go there again? The Emir's son would take me anywhere I wished." "That is true, Fred," said the doctor quietly. "We cannot set anyone else to do this," cried Frank warmly. "This must be my task." "Well, I daresay you are right," said the professor; "your black skin is a passport anywhere. But you must act at once." "If I can," said Frank gravely. "There must be no undue haste." "There I don't agree with you, my dear boy," said the professor, "for these Emirs, even if they have homes in the city, are here to-day and gone to-morrow, in these warlike times. They are wandering people, and it would be horrible to awaken some morning and find that poor Hal was gone." "But we could trace him now," said the doctor warmly. "Hah! One begins to breathe freely now that there is a bit of blue sky among the clouds." "Well, perhaps you are right, Frank," said the professor, in a more satisfied tone. "The lead belongs to you too after this discovery, but you must be careful, lad." "Try and trust me," was the reply; "but even now I am ready to think it was all a dream." "Here," cried the professor, "let us tell the Sheikh and poor Sam," and hurrying to the window he beckoned both in from the grounds, where the Sheikh was seeing to his treasured camels and Sam was looking on. "Then hadn't I better begin to pack up at once, gentlemen?" said the latter eagerly, after he had been twice checked in his exuberant joy. "Begin to pack up?" said the professor wonderingly. "What for?" "To get back into a Christian country, sir," said Sam warmly. "We've found Mr Harry, and he's alive. Let's be off at once, I say. I haven't grumbled, gentlemen, and I ain't never said a word, but I've gone to bed every night--if you can say that thing they calls a anger reb is a bed--every night feeling wondering like that I've got a head left to put on the pillow. Ugh! It's a horrible place, where no one's safe for ten minutes together. Hadn't I better begin to pack?" "When we have my brother safe," said Frank, smiling. "I'm afraid, Sam," he added sadly, "that we have a good deal to do yet before we start." "Yes," said the Sheikh gravely, "and the young Excellency must take more care than ever. If there was the slightest suspicion that we were here to take his brother away all our heads would fall." _ |
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