by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER V
SOUTHWARD
T the hour named, Gregory met Captain Ewart at the station. He was now dressed in uniform, and carried a revolver in his waist-belt, and a sword in its case. His luggage was not extensive. He had one large bundle; it contained a roll-up cork bed in a waterproof casing. At one end was a loose bag which contained a spare suit of clothes, three flannel shirts, and his underclothing; this formed the pillow. A blanket and a waterproof sheet were rolled up with it. In a small sack was the tente d'abri made of waterproof sheeting, with its two little poles. It only weighed some fifteen pounds. His only other luggage consisted of a large case with six bottles of brandy, and the provisions he had been recommended to take.
"Is that all your kit?" Captain Ewart said as he joined him.
" Yes, sir; I hope you don't think it is too much."
"No; I think it is very moderate, though if you move forward you will not be able to take the case with you. The others are light enough, and you can always get a native boy to carry them. Of course you have your pass?"
"Yes, sir; I received it yesterday when I went to headquarters for the letter to General Hunter."
" Then we may as well take our places at once. We have nearly an hour before the train starts, but it is worth waiting in order to get two seats next the window on the river side. We need not sit there till the train starts, if we put our traps in to keep our places. I know four or five other officers coming up, so we will spread our things about and keep the whole carriage to ourselves if we can."
In an hour the train started. Every place was occupied. Ewart had spoken to his friends as they arrived, and they
had all taken places in the same compartment. The journey lasted forty hours, and Gregory admitted that the description Captain Ewart had given him of the dust was by no means exaggerated. He had brought, as had been suggested, a water-skin and a porous earthenware bottle, together with a roll of cotton-wool to serve as a stopper to the latter to keep out the dust. In a tightly-fitting hand-bag he had an ample supply of food for three days. Along the opening of this he had pasted a strip of paper.
"That will do very well for your first meal, Hilliard, but it will be of no good afterwards."
"I have prepared for that," Gregory said. "I have bought a gum bottle, and as I have a newspaper in my pocket I can seal it up after each meal."
"By Jove, that is a good idea, one I never thought of!"
" The gum will be quite sufficient for us all up to Assouan. I have two more bottles in my box. That should be sufficient to last me for a long time when I am in the desert; and as it won't take half a minute to put a fresh paper on after each meal, I shall have the satisfaction of eating my food without its being mixed with the dust."
There was a general chorus of approval, and all declared that they would search every shop in Assouan and endeavour to find gum.
"Paste will do as well," Ewart said, "and as we can always get flour we shall be able to defy the dust fiend as far as our food goes. I certainly did not expect that old campaigners would learn a lesson from you, Hilliard, as soon as you started."
" It was just an idea that occurred to me," Gregory said.
The gum bottle was handed round, and although nothing could be done for those who had brought their provisions in hampers, three of them who had, like Gregory, put their food in bags were able to seal them up tightly.
It was now May, and the heat was becoming intolerable, especially as the windows were closed to keep out the dust,
In spite of this, however, it found its way in. It settled everywhere: clothes and hair became white with it; it worked its way down the neck, where the perspiration changed it into mud. It covered the face as if with a cake of flour. At first Gregory attempted to brush it off his clothes as it settled upon them, but he soon found that there was no advantage in this. So he sat quietly in his corner, and, like the rest, looked like a dirty white statue. There were occasional stops, when they all got out, shook themselves, and took a few mouthfuls of fresh air. Gregory's plan for keeping out the dust from the food turned out a great success, and the meals were eaten in the open air during the stoppages. On arriving at Assouan they all went to the transport department to get their passes for the journey up the Nile as far as Wady Haifa.
The next step was to go down to the river for a swim, and by dint of shaking and beating to get rid of the accumulated dust. Assouan was not a pleasant place to linger in, and as soon as they had completed their purchases Captain Ewart and Gregory climbed on to the loaded railway train and were carried by the short line to the spot where, above the cataract, the steamer that was to carry them was lying. She was to tow up a large barge and two native craft. They took their places in the steamer with a number of other officers—some new-comers from England, other men who had been down to Cairo to recruit. They belonged to all branches of the service, and included half a dozen of the medical staff, three of the transport corps, gunners, engineers, cavalry, and infantry. The barges were deep in the water with their cargoes of stores of all kinds, and rails and sleepers for the railway, and the steamer was also deeply loaded.
The passage was a delightful one to Gregory. Everything was new to him. The cheery talk and jokes of the officers, the graver discussion of the work before them, the calculations as to time and distance, the stories told of what had taken place during the previous campaign by those who shared in it —were all so different from anything he had ever before experienced that the hours passed almost unnoticed. It was glorious to think that, in whatever humble capacity, he was yet one of the band who were on their way up to meet the hordes of the Khalifa, to rescue the Soudan from the tyranny under which it had groaned, to avenge Gordon and Hicks and the gallant men who had died with them! Occasionally Captain Ewart came up and talked to him, but he was well content to sit on one of the bales and listen to the conversation without joining in it. In another couple of years he too would have had his experiences, and would be able to take his part. At present he preferred to be a listener.
The distance to Wady Haifa was some three hundred miles ; but the current was strong, and the steamer could not tow the boats more than five miles an hour against it. It was sixty hours from the start before they arrived. Gregory was astonished at the stir and life in the place. Great numbers of native labourers were at work unloading barges and native craft, and a line of railway ran down to the wharves, where the work of loading the trucks went on briskly. Smoke pouring out from many chimneys, and the clang of hammers, told that the railway engineering work was in full swing. Vast piles of boxes, cases, and bales were accumulated on the wharf, and showed that there would be no loss of time in pushing forward supplies to Abu Hamed as soon as the railway was completed to that point. Wady Haifa had been the starting-point of a railway commenced years before. A few miles has been constructed and several buildings erected for the functionaries, military and civil; but Gordon, when Governor of the Soudan, had refused to allow the province to be saddled with the expenses of the construction or to undertake the responsibility of carrying it out.
In 1884 there was some renewal of work, and had Gordon been rescued and Khartoum permanently occupied, the line would no doubt have been carried on; but with the retirement of the British troops work ceased, and the great stores of material that had been gathered there remained for years half-covered with the sand. In any other climate this would have been destructive, but in the dry air of Upper Egypt they remained almost uninjured, and proved very useful when the work was again taken up. It was a wonderful undertaking, for along the two hundred and thirty-four miles of desert, food, water, and every necessary had to be carried, together with all materials for its construction. Not only had an army of workmen to be fed, but a body of troops to guard them; for Abu Hamed, at the other end of the line, for which they were making, was occupied by a large body of Dervishes who might at any moment swoop down across the plain.
Had the Sirdar had the resources of England at his back th
e work would have been easier, for he could have ordered from home new engines and plant of every description; but it was an Egyptian work, and had to be done in the cheapest possible way. Old engines had to be patched up, and makeshifts of all kinds employed. Fortunately, he had in the chief engineer of the line a man whose energy, determination, and resource were equal to his own. Major Girouard was a young officer of the Royal Engineers, and, like all white officers in the Egyptian service, held the rank of major. He was a Canadian by birth, and proved in every respect equal to the onerous and responsible work to which he was appointed. However, labour was cheap, and railway battalions were raised among the Egyptian peasants, their pay being the same as that of the soldiers. Strong, hearty, and accustomed to labour and a scanty diet, no men could have been more fitted for the work. They preferred it to soldiering, for although, as they had already shown, and were still further to prove, the Egyptian can fight, and fight bravely, he is by nature peaceable and prefers work however hard. In addition to these battalions, natives of the country and of the Soudan, fugitives from ruined villages and desolated plains, were largely employed. The line had now been carried three-quarters of the distance to Abu Hamed, which was still in the hands of the Dervishes. It had been
constructed with extraordinary rapidity, for the ground was so level that only occasional cuttings were needed.
The organization of labour was perfect; the men were divided into gangs, each under a head man, and each having its own special work to do. There were the men who unloaded the trucks, the labourers who did the earth-work, and the more skilled hands who levelled it. As fast as the trucks were emptied gangs of men carried the sleepers forward and laid them down roughly in position; others followed and corrected the distance between each. The rails were then brought along and laid down with the fish-plates in the proper places; men put these on, and boys screwed up the nuts. Then plate-layers followed and lined the rails accurately, and when this was done sand was thrown in and packed down between the sleepers.
By this division of labour the line was pushed on from one to two miles a day, the camp moving forward with the line. Six tank trucks brought up the water for the use of the labourers daily, and everything worked with as much regularity as in a great factory at home. Troops of friendly tribesmen in our pay scoured the country and watched the wells along the road farther to the east, so as to prevent any bands of Dervishes from dashing suddenly down upon the workers.
At Wady Haifa, Captain Ewart and two or three other officers left the steamer to proceed up the line. Gregory was very sorry to lose him.
"I cannot tell you, Captain Ewart," he said, "how deeply grateful I feel to you for the immense kindness you have shown me. I don't know what I should have done had I been left without your advice and assistance in getting my outfit and making my arrangements to come up here."
"My dear lad," the latter said, "don't say anything more. In any case, I should naturally be glad to do what I could for the son of a man who died fighting in the same cause as we are now engaged in. But in your case it has been a pleasure, for I am sure you will do credit to yourself and to the mother who has taken such pains in preparing you for the work you are going to do, and in fitting you for the position that you now occupy."
As the officers who had come up with them in the train from Cairo were all going on, and had been told by Ewart something of Gregory's story, they had aided that officer in making Gregory feel at home in his new circumstances, and in the two days they had been on board the boat he had made the acquaintance of several others.
The river railway had now been carried from Wady Haifa to Kerma, above the third cataract. The heavy stores were towed up by steamers and native craft. Most of the engine? and trucks had been transferred to the desert line; but a few were still retained to carry up troops if necessary, and aid the craft in accumulating stores. One of these trains started a few hours after the arrival of the steamer at Wady Haifa. Gregory with the officers going up occupied two horse-boxes.
Several of them had been engaged in the last campaign, and pointed out the places of interest. At Sarras, some thirty miles up the road, there had been a fight on the 29th of April, 1887, when the Dervish host, advancing strong in the belief that they could carry all before them down to the sea, were defeated by the Egyptian force under the Sirdar and General Chermside.
The next stop of the train was at Akasheh. This had been a very important station before the last advance, as all the stores had been accumulated here when the army advanced. Here had been a strongly-entrenched camp, for the Dervishes were in force fifteen miles away, at Ferket.
" It was a busy time we had here," said one of the officers who had taken a part in the expedition. " A fortnight before we had no idea that an early move was contemplated, and indeed it was only on the 14th of March that the excitement began. That day Kitchener received a telegram ordering an immediate advance on Dongola. We had expected it would take place soon; but there is no doubt that the sudden order was the result of an arrangement on the part of our government with Italy that we should relieve her from the pressure of the Dervishes round Kassala by effecting a diversion and obliging the enemy to send a large force down to Dongola to resist our advance. It was a busy time. The Sirdar came up to Wady Haifa, and the Egyptian troops were divided between that place, Sarras, and Akasheh. The 9th Soudanese were marched up from Suakim, and they did the distance to the Nile (one hundred and twenty miles) in four days. That was something like marching. Well, you saw Wady Haifa. For a month this place was quite as busy. Now its glories are gone. Two or three huts for the railway men, and the shelters for a company of Egyptians, represent the whole camp."
As they neared Ferket the officer said: "There was a sharp fight out there on the desert. A large body of Dervishes advanced from Ferket. They were seen to leave by a cavalry patrol. As soon as the patrol reached camp all the available horse, two hundred and forty in number, started under Major Murdoch. Four miles out they came in sight of three hundred mounted Dervishes, with a thousand spearmen on foot. The ground was rough and unfavourable for a cavalry charge; so the cavalry retired to a valley between two hills, in order to get better ground. While they were doing so, however, the Dervishes charged down upon them. Murdoch rode at them at once, and there was a hand-to-hand fight that lasted for twenty minutes. Then the enemy turned and galloped off to the shelter of the spearmen. The troopers dismounted and opened fire, and on a regiment of Soudanese coming up the enemy drew off. Eighteen of the Dervishes were killed and eighty wounded.
"Our loss was very slight; but the fight was a most satisfactory one, for it showed that the Egyptian cavalry had now sufficient confidence in themselves to face the Baggara. Headquarters came up to Akasheh on the 1st of June. The spies had kept the Intelligence Department well informed as to the state of things at Ferket: it was known that three thousand troops were there, led by fifty-seven Emirs. The ground was carefully reconnoitred, and all preparation made for an attack.
It was certain that the Dervishes also had spies among the camel-drivers and camp-followers, but the Sirdar kept his intentions secret, and on the evening of June 5th it was not known to any, save three or four of the principal officers, that he intended to attack on the following morning. It was because he was anxious to effect a complete surprise that he did not even bring up the North Staffordshires.
"There were two roads to Ferket—one by the river, the other through the desert. The river column was the strongest, and consisted of an infantry division with two field-batteries and two Maxims. The total strength of the desert column, consisting of the cavalry brigade, camel corps, a regiment of infantry, a battery of horse-artillery, and two Maxims—in all two thousand one hundred men—-were to make a detour and come down upon the Nile to the south of Ferket, thereby cutting off the retreat of the enemy. Carrying two days' rations, the troops started late in the afternoon of the 6th, and halted at nine in the evening three miles from Ferket. At half-past two they moved forward again
, marching quietly and silently, and at half-past four deployed into line close to the enemy's position. A few minutes later the alarm was given, and the Dervishes, leaping to arms, discovered this formidable force in front of them, and at the same time found that their retreat was cut off by another large body of troops in their rear, while on the opposite bank of the river was a force of our Arab allies.
" Though they must have seen that their position was hopeless, the Dervishes showed no signs of fear: they fought with the desperation of rats in a trap. The Egyptians advanced with steady volleys; the Baggara horsemen attacked them furiously, but were repulsed with heavy loss. There was hand-to-hand fighting among their huts, and the second brigade carried with the bayonet that rough hill that you see over there. It was all over by seven o'clock. Our loss was only twenty killed and eighty wounded. About one thousand of the Dervishes were killed, including their chief Emir and some forty of the others, while five hundred were taken prisoners. It was a great victory and a very important one, but it can hardly be said that it was glorious, as we outnumbered them by three to one. Still, it was a heavy blow to the Dervishes, and the fact that the Khalifa was obliged to send troops down to the Nile to check an advance that had proved so formidable must have greatly relieved the pressure on the Italians at Kassala. There was a pause here. It was certain that we should have to meet a much stronger force before we got to Dongola. Well as the Egyptian troops had fought, it was thought advisable to give them a stronger backing. The heat was now tremendous, and cholera had broken out. We moved to Koshyeh, and there encamped. The only change we had was a terrific storm which almost washed us away. In the middle of August we managed to get the gun-boats up through the cataract, and were in hopes of advancing, when another storm carried away twenty miles of the railway, which by this time had come up as far as the cataract."
