With Kitchener in the Soudan : a story of Atbara and Omdurman

by G. A. Henty

  "Well, Bimbashi," Captain Keppel said, when the work for the day was over, " so you have had your first brush with the enemy. What do you think of it?

  " I would rather that you did not call me Bimbashi, Captain Keppel. The title is ridiculous for me, and it was only given me that it might be useful when with Egyptian or Soudanese soldiers. I should feel really obliged if you would simply call me Hilliard. I felt all right, sir, during the fight, except that I envied the gunners, who were doing something while I had nothing to do but look on. It certainly made me jump when that shell struck the boat, because I had quite made up my mind that their guns would not carry so far, and so it was a complete surprise to me."

  " Yes, it was a very harmless affair; still, it was good as a preparation for something more severe. You have got accustomed to the noise now, and that is always as great a trial to the nerves as actual danger."

  "I wish I could be doing something, sir; everyone else had some duty, from yourself down to the black firemen,—even my servant made himself useful in carrying up shot."

  "I tell you what I will do, Mr. Hilliard; I will get those marine sergeants to instruct you in the working of the Maxim and in the duties of the men attending on it. Then next time we come up I will put you in command of one of them. Your duties will not be severe, as you would simply direct the men as to the object at which they are to aim, watch the effect and direction of the bullets, and see that they change their aim as circumstances may direct. The black gunners are well trained and know their work; still, if by any chance the gun jams, it will be useful for you to be able to show them what to do even though they know it as well as, or better than, you do yourself. The blacks like being commanded by a white officer, and will feel pleased rather than otherwise at your being appointed to command their gun. Your lessons cannot begin for a day or two, for I have not done with Metemmeh yet."

  " I am very much obliged to you indeed," Gregory said warmly. " I will take care not to interfere with the men's working of the gun."

  "No, you will not have to do that; but a word or two of commendation when they make good practice pleases them immensely, and they will work all the better and faster for your standing by them."

  At daybreak next morning the gun-boats went up again and engaged the forts as before. The Dervishes had placed more guns in position, but again the shells fell short, while those of the boats played havoc with the enemy's defences. Some ten thousand of the Dervish horse and foot came down near the town in readiness to repel any attempt at a landing. After some hours' bombardment the gun-boats retired. As they steamed away, the Dervish host were shouting and waving their banners, evidently considering that they had won a great victory. Having fulfilled their object, which was to retain Mahmud at Metemmeh by showing him that if he advanced against Merawi and Dongola we had it in our power to occupy the town, and so cut off his retreat and prevent reinforcements or stores from reaching him from Omdurman, the gun-boats returned to Berber.

  So far Gregory had had no duties to perform in his capacity of interpreter, for no prisoners had been taken. On the way down the river one of the artillery sergeants explained the working of the Maxim to him, taking the weapon to pieces and explaining to him how each part acted, and then showing him how to put it together again. The sergeant having done this several times, Gregory was then told to perform the operation himself, and the lessons continued after their arrival at Berber. In the course of a week he was able to do this smartly, and had learned, in case of a breakdown, which parts of the mechanism would most probably have given way, and how to replace broken parts by spare ones carried up for the purpose. There was no long rest at Berber, and on the 1st of November the gun-boats again went up the river, reinforced by the Metemmeh, which had now arrived. Each boat, as before, carried fifty soldiers, and Major Stuart-Wortley went up as staff-officer. The evening before starting they received the welcome news that the railway line had that day reached Abu Hamed. This time there was but a short pause made opposite Metemmeh, and after shelling the forts, which had been added to since the last visit, they proceeded up the river

  Shortly after passing the town a large Dervish camp was seen in a valley, and this, they afterwards found, was occupied by the force that had returned from Berber. A heavy fire of shell and shrapnel was opened upon it, and it was speedily destroyed. The gun-boats then went up as high as the sixth cataract. The country was found to be absolutely deserted, neither a peasant nor a Dervish being visible. Having thus accomplished the object of their reconnaissance, the flotilla returned, exchanged fire with the Metemmeh batteries, and then kept on their way down to Berber.

  CHAPTER XI

  A PRISONER

  RATHER than remain unoccupied on board the gun-boat, Gregory went to Colonel Wingate's head-quarters and said that he should be very glad if he would allow him, while the flotilla remained at Berber, to assist in interrogating the fugitives who arrived from the south, and the spies employed to gain early information of the intentions and movements of the enemy. The position of the Dervishes at Metemmeh was becoming critical. The Khalifa was desirous that Mahmud should return with his force to Omdurman, there to take part in the battle in which, as he was convinced, the invaders would be annihilated. Mahmud, who was of an eager and impetuous disposition, was anxious to take the offensive at once, and either to march upon Merawi and Dongola, or to drive the British out of Berber.

  There could be no doubt that his view was a more sagacious one than that of his father, and that the best tactics to be adopted were to harass the British advance, fall upon their convoys, cut their communications, and so oblige them to fall back for want of supplies. The Khalifa's mistake was similar to that made by Theodore in Abyssinia and Koffee Kalkalli in Ashanti. Had either of these leaders adopted the system of harassing the invaders from the moment they left the coast, it would have been next to impossible for the latter to arrive at their destination. But each allowed them to march on unmolested until within striking distance, then hazarded everything on the fortune of a single battle, and lost. Mahmud made no movement in obedience to the Khalifa's orders to retire to Omdurman, and the latter thereupon refused to send any further supplies to him, and Mahmud's army was therefore obliged to rely upon raids and plunder for subsistence.

  These raids were carried out with great boldness, and villages situated within a few miles of Berber were attacked. The Dervishes, however, met with a much warmer reception than they had expected, for rifles and ammunition had been served out freely to the villagers; and these, knowing the fate that awaited them were the Dervishes victorious, offered so obstinate a resistance that the latter fell back discomfited. Early in January the Sirdar learned that the Khalifa had changed his mind, and had sent peremptory orders to Mahmud to advance and drive the British out of Berber and destroy the railway. Mahmud had now been joined by Osman Digna with five thousand men; and as the Egyptian troops, well as they had fought, had never yet been opposed to so formidable a force as that which Mahmud commanded, the Sirdar telegraphed to England for white troops. His request was at once complied with. The Warwickshires, Lincolnshires, and Cameron Highlanders were ordered to proceed from Cairo and Alexandria to the front, and the Seaforth Highlanders at Malta and the Northumberland Fusiliers at Gibraltar were also dispatched without delay. Major-general Gatacre was appointed to the command of the brigade.

  At the end of the third week in January the three regiments from Lower Egypt had arrived at Wady Haifa, and the Seaforths at Assouan. At the beginning of February the British brigade was carried by railway to Abu Dis. Here they remained until the 26th, when they marched to Berber, and then to a camp ten miles north of the Atbara, where they arrived on the 4th of March, having covered a hundred and forty-four miles in six days and a half, a great feat in such a climate. Mahmud had made no movement until the 10th of February, when he began to cross the Nile to Shendy. This movement had not been expected by the Sirdar, and was hailed by him with satisfaction. Had Mahmud remained at Metemmeh he c
ould, aided by the forts, his artillery, and the walled town, have offered a very formidable resistance. Had he marched along the banks of the Nile he would have been exposed to the fire of the gun-boats, but these could not have arrested his course. The country round Berber was favourable to the action of his cavalry, and if defeated he could have fallen back unmolested through Metemmeh on Omdurman; but by crossing the river he practically cut himself off from the Dervish base, and now had only a desert behind him, for we had taken over Kassala from the Italians, and the Egyptian battalion there and a large force of friendly Arabs would prevent him from retiring up the banks of the Atbara.

  Mahmud's plan was to march along the Nile to Aliab, then to cross the desert to Hudi at an angle of the river whence a direct march of twenty-five miles would take him to Berber, and in this way he would avoid our strong position at the junction of the Atbara and the Nile. It would have been easy for the gun-boats to prevent Mahmud from crossing the Nile, but the Sirdar was glad to allow him to do so. The movement afforded him time to concentrate his force and to get up large supplies. For each day the distance that these could be transported by the railway had increased, and he saw that when the time for fighting came the victory would be a decisive one, and that few indeed of Mahmud's men would ever be able to make their way to Omdurman and swell the Khalifa's force there.

  On one occasion, however, the gun-boats went up to watch what was going on, and take advantage of any opportunity that might offer to destroy some of Mahmud's boats, and thus render the work of his getting his force over slower and more difficult.

  An entrenchment had been thrown up at the point where the Dervishes crossed, and this had been manned by two hundred and fifty riflemen. The Zafir steamed up close to the bank and opened fire with her Maxims. Another gun-boat sank one large craft and captured two others, and the troops landed and, covered by the fire of the guns, captured a fourth which had grounded in shallow water. A smaller boat was half-way across the river when the gun-boats arrived. It was seen that there were several women on board, and as the capture would have been of no value, no regard was paid to it. As it would have been as dangerous to return as to keep on, the boatmen plied their hardest to get across, but the stream carried them down near the Zafir. The boat was quite unnoticed, all eyes being intent upon the shore. She was passing about thirty yards astern of the gun-boat when a badly-aimed shell from a Dervish battery struck her, and she sank almost instantly.

  Gregory, who was superintending the working of the Maxim nearest the stern, looked round at the sound of the explosion. Several of the occupants had evidently been killed, but two or three of the boatmen started to swim to shore. Only two of the women came to the surface, struggling wildly and screaming for help. With scarcely a thought of what he was doing, Gregory unclasped his sword-belt, dropped his pistol, and sprang overboard. One of the women had sunk before he reached them, the other was on the point of doing so when he caught her by the arm. She at once clung to him, and he had hard work to disengage her arm from his neck; then, after turning her so that her face was above water, he looked round. The gun-boat was already a hundred yards away. Her wheel was revolving, so as to keep her in her place facing the redoubt, and the stream was driving him fast away from her. Within ten yards of him was a black head, and a moment later Zaki was beside him. He had been working at Gregory's Maxim, and had suddenly missed his master.

  Looking round he had seen him struggling with the woman in the stream, and without hesitation had leapt overboard.

  "I am sorry you came," Gregory said, "for it is only throwing away your life. It is of no use shouting, for they could not hear us in that din, and if they happened to catch sight of us would take us for two of the black boatmen. I Bee the stream is taking us nearer to the bank."

  Zaki had taken hold of the woman while he was speaking, " We might swim a long way down, master, if we let go oi her."

  " I won't do that, Zaki. I know now that I was a fool to jump overboard, but now that I have done so I will save her life. Besides, I could not swim very far even without her; I am feeling the weight of my boots and clothes. Will you swim with us till I can touch the ground, and then leave us? Strike right into the river again—I know that you are a good swimmer—and drop down the stream until you reach one of the islands, and then you can land and hail the gun-boats as they come down. Tell Captain Keppel why I jumped over."

  " I am not going to leave you, master. No doubt the Dervishes will shoot me, but my life is of no consequence, and I shall be glad to die by the side of so good a master."

  The woman, who had ceased to struggle when Gregory shook off her grasp, was now conscious, as, with one of them supporting her on each side, her head was above water.

  " They will not kill you," she said; " you have saved me, and they will be grateful."

  Gregory had no faith whatever in Dervish gratitude.

  "Well, Zaki," he said, "if you will not leave us we will strike at once for the shore. The gun-boats are nearly half a mile away now. There is just a chance that we may not have been noticed by the Dervishes, and may be able to hide in the bushes till the gun-boats return. When they see me they will at once send a boat ashore under cover of their fire, and take us off."

  "There is a good chance of that, master," Zaki said cheerfully, "and the Dervishes are busy up there fighting, and will not think much of a little boat."

  Three or four minutes later they were in shallow water. As soon as they landed, Gregory threw himself down utterly exhausted, and the woman sank down beside him, but not before hastily rearranging her veil. In a couple of minutes Gregory roused himself.

  " I can climb the bank now," he said, " and the sooner we are hidden among the bushes the better." But as he spoke he heard the sound of galloping horsemen, and almost immediately an Emir on a magnificent animal, followed by a dozen Dervishes, dashed up. "Mahmud!" the woman cried as she rose to her feet, "it is I, Fatma!"

  Mahmud gave a cry of joy, and waved his hand to his followers, who had already pointed their rifles at Gregory.

  " These have saved me, my lord," the woman went on. " They jumped from their boat and reached me just as I was sinking, and have borne me up. For my sake you must spare their lives."

  Mahmud frowned. He dismounted and went up to his wife. "Have I not sworn, Fatma," he said, "that I would slay every unbeliever who falls into my hands? How, then, can I spare even one who has saved your life?"

  " Others have been spared who have been of service, my lord," she said. "There are Greeks and Egyptians who work your guns, and they were spared because they were useful. There is Neufeld, who lives under the protection of the Khalifa. Surely these men have done far more to deserve not only life but honour at your hands. They risked their lives to save mine. What follower of the Prophet could do more? They could not have known who I was, a woman they saw drowning. Are there any among the bravest of the tribes who would have done the same?"

  " I have sworn an oath," Mahmud said gloomily.

  " But you have not sworn to slay instantly. You can keep them at least until you can take them before the Khalifa, and say to him: 'Father, I have sworn to kill unbelievers, but these men have saved Fatma's life; and I pray you to absolve me from the oath or order them to be taken from me, and then do you yourself pardon them and set them free for the service that they have rendered me'. If he refuses, if these men are killed, I also swear that as my life is due to them, I myself will perish by my own hands if they die for saving it!'"'

  " It needs not that, Fatma. You think that I am ungrateful, that I do not feel that these men have acted nobly thus to risk their lives to save a strange woman whose face they have never seen. It is my oath that lies heavily upon me; I have never been false to an oath."

  "Nor need you be now," Fatma said earnestly. "You swore to slay any unbeliever that fell into your hands. This man has not fallen into your hands. I have a previous claim to him. He is under my protection. I cover him with my robe" —and she swept a portion of
her garment round Gregory— "and as long as he is under it he is, according to tribal laws, safe even from the vengeance of my husband! As to the other, he is not an unbeliever. Your oath concerns him not. Him you can honour and reward according to the value you place upon my life."

  The Arab's face cleared. " Truly you have discovered a way out of it, Fatma, at any rate for the present." He turned to Gregory for the first time. " Do you speak our tongue ?" he asked.

  "Yes, Emir, as Avell as my own."

  " Then you understand what we have said. Had I not been bound by my oath I would have embraced you as a brother. We Arabs can appreciate a brave deed, even when it is done by an enemy. When one of the boatmen ran into the battery where I was directing the guns against your boat, and said that the boat in which my wife with other women were crossing had been sunk by a shell from our batteries on the other side, I felt that my blood was turned to water. He said he believed that all had been killed or drowned, but that he looked back as he swam and saw a white man jump overboard, and a short time after another followed him, and that when he reached the shore they were supporting a woman in the water. I rode hither, having but small "hope indeed that it was my wife, but marvelling much that a white officer should thus risk his life to save a drowning woman. My oath pressed heavily upon me as I rode. Even had it been but a slave girl whom you rescued, I should no less have admired your courage. I myself am said to be brave, but it would never have entered my mind thus to risk my life for a stranger. When I found that it was my wife who was saved, I still more bitterly regretted the oath that stood between me and her preserver, and truly glad am I that she has herself shown me how I can escape from its consequences. Now I see you I wonder even more than before at what you have done, for indeed in years you are little more than a boy."