For Fortune and Glory: A Story of the Soudan War

by Lewis Hough

  CHAPTER ELEVEN.

  A GLIMPSE AT A TRAGEDY.

  As the power of the sun increased, Harry Forsyth found that his renewedstrength was but partial, and though considerable compared to hisweakness before that long sleep, was by no means up to his powerstwenty-four hours previously, before he got that cut down through hisscalp and lost all that blood. And soon the thirst began; but thirstwas his familiar now, and he had learned to bear it as we do what isconstantly recurring and inevitable.

  But as time passed on the thought would intrude upon his mind. Was hegoing in the right direction? El Obeid, indeed, must lie to the west,if the guides were to be depended upon, but would not the Generaldiverge very likely on approaching the place? It could not be toldbeforehand from what side he would find it best to attack it, and Harrymight be going quite away from his friends. Still, if he once caught aglimpse of the town, he should feel fresh confidence, for then he wouldcertainly get round to the army, somehow, and in time for the attack.But this last consideration was not so important a matter with him as ithad been some hours before. He did not feel particularly keen afterfighting just now. A beefsteak and a pot of porter, and then to turninto a comfortable bed, with a lump of ice on the top of his head, wouldhave formed his programme of perfect bliss. And yet, if his friendswere in the thick of it, he would like to be there, and take his sharein what was going, too.

  Pshaw! He must not get nervous, he said to himself. Unless the guideswere treacherous, he must sight the minarets of El Obeid soon _Unlessthe guides were treacherous_! Was there a chance of that? Experienceshowed that there was always. And that professed friendly sheikh, whohad come in with his scratches and told such a plausible tale, was he tobe trusted?

  Hark! What was that? Dropping shots away to his right front. Again,others; and now a volley; more single shots, increasing to a continuousroll of musketry.

  "They are at it, and I am not there!" Harry cried aloud, as, forgettingfatigue, weakness, even thirst, he pressed forward in the direction ofthe firing. What surprised him most was that he heard no report of theKrupp guns, no whish of rockets, no continuous grinding of machine-guns.Why did they not use their artillery?

  Half an hour brought him to rocks, herbage, and palm-trees, and herewere empty preserved meat cans and other _debris_, showing that theforce had bivouacked there the night before. And here, too, deep downin a rocky dell, he found a well of clear, bright, sweet, cool water!He flung himself down, plunged his face in the delicious liquid, andsucked in large draughts of the life-inspiring elixir. When he coulddrink no more he filled his water-bottle, and then, removing his pithhelmet, he unbound the bandage which he had tied over his head. It hadof course stuck, and the attempt to remove it was painful, but bywetting it freely he got it off, and then bathed his head and face,saturated his pocket handkerchief, and tied that on as a fresh bandage.

  Then, much refreshed, he again hastened forwards, guided by the sound ofthe still continued firing. The character of the country was nowcompletely changed. It became hilly, and the hills were precipitous andcovered with inky black rocks, which lay so thickly about that it seemedas if a shower of enormous aerolites had fallen there.

  Harry threaded his way amongst these, some way up a ravine, which woundto the right. The firing now seemed quite close; indeed, he could seesmoke floating up to the dear sky. But surely El Obeid could not bethere, in the middle of a mountain pass, commanded on all sides byhigher ground! The army must surely have been attacked on the march.

  He turned a corner, from which the valley ran for some distancestraight, and came suddenly on volumes of smoke, pierced by incessantflashes of fire, not a thousand yards in his front, while every now andthen a spent bullet came pattering against the rock behind which hecrouched, trying to make out whether those nearest him were friends orfoes.

  Firing was also going on from the higher ground to right and left, andone or two of these points were visible from Harry's present position.He had no field-glass, but he carried a small pocket telescope of greatpower, and adjusting this, and holding it steadily with some difficultyagainst the rock side, for the field of vision was very small, and hishand shook with excitement, he made out that the men holding these werecertainly Arabs.

  And presently some wounded men of those engaged in the valley to hisfront falling to the rear, and coming within five hundred yards of him,and clear of the smoke, he perceived that they were Arabs too. And thenthe fearful truth broke upon him. The spent bullets which fell towardshim came from his friends. The army had been enticed into the defile,round which the Mahdi's troops were posted. When it was hopelesslyentangled, a body of Arabs, which had lain in ambush for the purpose,had closed in upon their rear to cut off retreat, and these were the mennow in front of him.

  Though he felt convinced that this must be the state of the case, Harrydid not give up all hope that the Egyptians might fight their waythrough, though with severe loss, to the other end of the defile, and toascertain this he went back, and then began mounting the higher ground,trying to work round to the front of the position. This he had to dovery cautiously, to avoid falling in with groups of Arabs, whom he wasperpetually sighting. Indeed, to get near the edge of the rockscommanding the defile without being observed was impossible, but bymaking a wide detour he kept clear of them. And thus, after the lapseof some hours, and with occasional difficult climbing, he reached alofty point, from which he could distinguish the sides of the ravineheld by the Arabs and the pall of smoke which covered the doomed square,fighting like a lion at bay, surrounded by the hunters.

  For eagerly as he searched with his telescope in every direction hecould perceive no line of advance or retreat; every point appeared to bebarred by the enemy. There seemed to him only one hope; if GeneralHicks could hold on till nightfall, perhaps he might push throughbackwards or forwards under cover of the darkness.

  So the hours passed, and the fusillade did not cease; only slackened attimes to burst out again, till the sun sank down in all his glory, andthe heavenly splendour of the after-glow bathed the sky, just as if allon earth was peace, goodwill, and happiness, and men had ceased tostrain all the powers and talents which the God of Mercy has bestowedupon them for their mutual benefit to one another's destruction; thensudden darkness, and silence broken only at long intervals by a fitfulsplutter of musketry.

  Harry had marked a little cave, where two boulders leaned together, andinto this he now crept, for the air was cold. Here he lay, thinkingwith agony of his friends below there. How many were now living, andwhat chance had they of getting clear if they had survived thus far?

  And his own position, was that any better? Nay, they indeed would diefighting, but he would either probably perish of want, or be barbarouslymurdered in cold blood. He still wore his uncle the sheikh's ring onhis finger, and carried the silver case containing the parchment in hisbreast, but since he had thrown in his lot with the Egyptian army, hisfaith in those talismans had become weakened. Why, he did not know; itwas an illogical feeling, for, of course, the circumstances had notaltered. Probably it was because it is impossible to trust to twodiametrically opposite sources of aid at the same time.

  Then his thoughts wandered to home, and his mother and sister, and theirterrible anxiety at his long silence, and how they would not knowwhether or not to mourn him as dead. And then he dropped asleep.

  He woke at dawn, wondering how he could have slept when his comradeswere in such sore straits. Had they got away? In answer to histhought, the firing recommenced as before, and in the same quarter,answering "No!"

  All day long the noise of battle lasted, and Harry watched in vain for achange in the situation.

  At one period a body of Arabs came up and crossed the mountain from hisrear, and he only just had time to conceal himself in his rocky hole toescape observation.

  But they pushed on, and went down into the fight; doubtless carryingammunition. How Harry got through that long day he could not remember.He made his wat
er-bottle last, but he had no food beyond one biscuit.But anxiety for some time prevented his feeling hungry. There seemed nochange in the situation, except that the volume of fire diminishedperceptibly; and the cloud of smoke becoming thinner, he could, from onepoint, just distinguish something of the square. It was still existing,then, and might, perhaps, cut through that night, though it had failedto do so on the preceding.

  When darkness fell, Harry crept back to his hole, and again he slept.But he awoke before dawn, roused by the cravings of hunger. It was ofno use to stop where he was, and at the first glimpse of daylight hecommenced his descent towards the plain, not by the way he had come, buton the opposite side, in the direction he calculated the remains of thearmy must take if they succeeded in pushing through.

  At the foot of the hill, in a rocky, barren-looking dell, not at all theplace where you would expect to find it, he chanced upon a spring; andafter drinking and replenishing his gourd, he sat down to try andcollect his thoughts.

  And as he sat there he saw a solitary figure coming towards the spot.It was a camel, with an Arab on his back. Harry concealed himselfbehind a boulder and watched. The poor beast could hardly move, and, inspite of all urging, presently fell. The rider took certain articlesfrom the saddle, and came to the spring, where he sat down, afterdrinking; and, pulling out a lump of bread, began to make his breakfast.The sight made Harry feel ravenous; he was determined that he wouldhave a share of that bread. He would probably have been justified inpotting him with his pistol, which he might easily have done, for he wasalmost certainly a hostile Arab with despatches. But he might belong toa friendly tribe, and if he were an enemy, Harry could not murder himlike that.

  He had a Remington rifle, so Harry must pounce upon him, or he would nothave a chance. He did it rather cleverly, and the meal of the Arab wassuddenly interrupted by finding the muzzle of a revolver within a yardof his head, while, at the same time, his rifle, which rested against arock beside him, was thrown to some distance.

  "Throw away your sword and pistol, or I will shoot," said Harry. "Butdo that, and share your bread with me, and I will not hurt you."

  "My hygeen is dead; I am weary and wounded; and the chance is yours,"said the Arab. "What have I to do but to submit? It is fate," drawinghis highly ornamented and damascened pistols from his waist-band, for hewas a considerably dressed Arab, this one. These he laid aside; then hetook out his sheathed scimitar, but appeared to hesitate.

  "How do I know," he said, "that you will not kill me when I amcompletely disarmed?"

  "Why should I?" replied Harry. "Could I not have shot you from behindthe rock?"

  "Fool you were, not to!" cried the Arab with the bound of a wild beast,springing up, flashing the blade out, and uttering the taunt, which inhis own idiom was but a couple of words, simultaneously.

  So quick and sudden was the movement that it might well have deceivedthe eye and paralysed the nerve. But the very start made Harry pressthe trigger with his fore-finger. Even so, and only a yard off, he wasas likely to have fired over his shoulder as to have hit him. But hedid not. The point of the scimitar just left the scabbard as the ownerof it went down on his back motionless as a wax figure.

  Harry was perfectly bewildered; he was not conscious of having fired;yet, there lay the Arab, with his face blackened with the powder, and asmall hole in the forehead just between the eyes.

  I hope you will not think the worse of Harry Forsyth for what he didnext. War makes the feelings very callous, for the time being, at allevents, with regard to certain things. Besides, Harry had had nothingbut biscuits to eat for one hundred and seventy-two hours, about, andnot many of them. He pounced upon the bread and devoured it. What todo next?

  The conviction had now forced itself upon him that there was no hope forthe Egyptian army, but that it was doomed to certain destruction. Therewas no possibility of surrender; it was war to the knife, for the Arabsneither took nor gave quarter. And thus his mind reverted to the objectof his throwing in his lot with that body, which he had in a greatmeasure lost sight of in the company of Howard and the excitement of atotally new life. But, after all, he had not come out to Egypt and theSoudan to fight but to discover Daireh and, if possible, gain possessionof the will.

  The only chance for him to accomplish this now was obviously throughfinding his uncle, the Sheikh Burrachee, and to do this he must followthe course he had pointed out: find a dervish or fakir, and show thering and parchment. Of course the efficacy of these might all be thedelusion of a crazy brain, but he must take his chance of that. It wascertain, however, that he would never get the chance of a hearing in hispresent costume. The helmet, the uniform kharkee jacket, would insurehis being shot or cut down by the first follower of the Mahdi who sawhim. They must be discarded, and the dead Arab lying hard by wouldsupply him with a disguise. For, instead of going nearly naked, like somany of them, this man had a smart turban and a long garment, which camea good bit below the knees, bound round his waist with a sort of shawlof gay colours.

  So, after having taken his life and his breakfast, Harry now proceededto despoil him of his clothes.

  There was a fair supply of cartridges in a bag which the ill-fated Arabhad worn over his shoulder, so Harry took that and the rifle, andpresently he came out of the glen in complete Arab costume, his Europeanclothes being made into a bundle and shoved under a rock. The onlyarticle of dress he had retained was a light linen waistcoat, in whichwere pockets containing the silver case with the parchment, his watch,and his money. The dead man's pistols, though ornamental, had flintlocks and were heavy, so he left them, but the scimitar he stuck,together with his own revolver, in the waist-shawl, and the rifle heslung over his shoulder.

  Then he went to the hygeen, or camel, hoping that water might revive it,but the poor beast was past that--its eyes were already glazing.

  All this time the roll of musketry in the distant ravine stillcontinued, and with a heavy heart he turned from the spot, and went outinto the wilderness.

  His idea was boldly to accost the first living being he met, and ask theway to El Obeid, intending to represent himself as a merchant whosecaravan had been attacked and robbed by Nubian blacks. He knew that hewould be recognised as a European by his speech, and probably arrestedas a spy, but then would be the time to test the efficacy of his uncle'stalisman. It might be inefficacious, or he might perish in the desertbefore he met any one, but he did not give up all hope of a better fate.His being sent out on that scouting expedition, wounded, and soprevented from rejoining the ill-fated column, was so extraordinary thathe felt that his hour was not yet come. For it almost seemed to him asif a miracle had been performed in his behalf.

  He had not gone a hundred yards before he noticed several black specksin the distant sky. Nearer and larger they came, till he coulddistinguish two eagles and five vultures hovering lower and lower, tillat length they settled down in the dell by the spring which he had justleft. And he shuddered. How soon he might lie, helpless and dying, andwatching these loathsome birds of prey swooping towards him!

  His idea was to keep bearing to the west, which was the direction inwhich he knew that El Obeid lay, unless indeed he had passed to one sideof it, which he did not think probable, or he should most likely haveseen it from the mountain-top. Any other high ground he came to hewould ascend, so as to get as wide a view as possible. And so hetramped on towards the declining sun till it sank; then he lay down inthe solitude and darkness, and fatigue gave him sleep.

  When dawn awoke him he was beyond the sound of the firing, or else ithad ceased. And though he knew well enough that this was no good sign,the silence was less harrowing. He resumed his weary march till the sunreached its full power. There were some stunted bushes a little out ofhis track, and he made for them, hoping to find water. In this he wasdisappointed; so taking a sparing pull at his water-bottle, he crawledunder one of them, seeking its shade. There was a slight rustle, and asnake rose on its tail, and darted at him
with its forked tongue, but,just missing him, glided away.

  Harry then looked more carefully, but there was no other, and he rested.Another escape! Did he, then, bear a charmed life? After about anhour, he grew restless. The sand in that part lay in high ridges ordunes, some of them at least a hundred feet high, and he hoped that onsurmounting the next beyond him he would come in sight of the town, orat least of some oasis, with water and human habitations, and with eachrecurring disappointment he became only the more eager to reach thesand-hill beyond. But he was becoming very faint, and the wound in hishead throbbed to agony. He was at last so "_beat_" that he was on thepoint of letting himself sink down on the sand to struggle no more, whensuddenly there, straight before him, lay the object of his desires!Surely not a mile off, but say a mile and a half, rose towers,fortifications, minarets, palm-trees, and, most grateful sight, all thiswas reflected in a broad clear sheet of water.

  "El Obeid!" he cried aloud, forgetting everything else in the joy of themoment.

  He had never heard that it was on a lake, and thus his wildestexpectations were surpassed.

  No need now to torture himself by refraining from his water-bottle. Heseized and drained it, and then falling on his knees he thanked Heavenfor this deliverance. For though, when considered calmly at a distance,he had recognised the perils which would attend his adventure inentering the place, which was now the head-quarters of the Mahdi and hisfanatics, they seemed as nothing compared with the immediate prospect ofperishing of want and thirst, alone, in the desert. Rising to his feetagain he hurried onwards, but the place was much farther off than it hadfirst seemed, for when he had gone on for a full twenty minutes, withspeed inspired by hope, he seemed to be no whit nearer.

  On again, plunging through the loose sand, reeling, staggering. Alittle more effort; he must be nearing it, though it did not seem so;another ten minutes, say, and he would be able to plunge into thatdelicious water! And so he fought on, when suddenly all vanished.

  He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Had sudden blindness fallen uponhim? No, he could see the sand-hills as plainly as possible. But thecity, the fortifications, the minarets, the water, which were sodistinct a minute ago, where were they? All turned to sand? That couldnot be. He was giddy, and must have altered his course without knowingit.

  He looked all round him, bewildered. Sand, sand, sand, and nothingelse. Then the truth flashed across his memory: the mirage! Towers andwater were as unreal as the magician's money in the "Arabian Nights'Entertainments," which turned to paper in the drawer where it was. Forthe first time Harry was stricken with utter despair; without water,without food, alone in the trackless desert, exposed to a fierce sun, hefell, and lay motionless for awhile. Then up and on blindly, in whatdirection he knew not. His tongue swelled; his throat seemed choked andbreathing was difficult.

  Soon he lost consciousness of everything but a sense of distress andpain; and after awhile even that left him, and he fell senseless.