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

by G. A. Henty

  The letter to his sisters was in a different strain:— My dear Flossie and Janet,

  I am quite sure that you, like myself, felt deeply grieved over our separation, and I can guess that you will have done what you could with our father to bring about a reconciliation. When you receive this, dears, I shall have gone. I am about to start on an expedition that is certain to be dangerous, and which may be fated, and I have left this with my wife to send you if she has sure news of my death. I have had hard times. I see my way now, and I hope that I shall ere long receive a good official appointment out here. Still, it is as well to prepare for the worst; and if you receive this letter the worst has come. As I have only just begun to rise again in the world, I have been able to make no provision for my wife. I know that you liked her, and that you ivould by no means have disapproved of the step I took. If our father has not come into the title when you receive this, your pocket-money will be only sufficient for your own wants; therefore I am not asking for help in that way, but only that you will write to her an affectionate letter. She is without friends, and will fight her battle as best she can. She is a woman in a thousand, and worthy of the affection and esteem of any man on earth. There is a boy, too — another Gregory Hilliard Hartley. She will be alone in the world with him, and a letter from you would be very precious to her. Probably by the same post as you receive this our father will also get one requesting more substantial assistance, but with that you have nothing to do. I am only asking that you will let her know there are at least two people in the world who take an interest in her and my boy.

  Your affectionate Brother.

  There was yet another envelope, with no address upon it. It contained two documents: one was a copy of the certificate of marriage between Gregory Hilliard Hartley and Anne Forsyth at St. Paul's Church, Plymouth, with the names of two witnesses and the signature of the officiating minister; the other was a copy of the register of the birth at Alexandria of Gregory Hilliard, son of Gregory Hilliard Hartley and Anne, his wife. A third was a copy of the register of baptism of Gregory Hilliard Hartley, the son of Gregory Hilliard and Anne Hartley, at the Protestant Church, Alexandria.

  "I will write some day to my aunts," Gregory said, as he replaced the letters in the envelopes. " The others will never go; still, I may as well keep them. So I am either grandson or nephew of an earl. I can't say that I am dazzled by the honour. I should like to know my aunts, but as for the other two I would not go across the street to make their acquaintance."

  He carefully stowed the letters away in his portmanteau, and then lay down for a few hours' sleep.

  "The day is breaking, master," Zaki said, laying his hand upon Gregory's shoulder.

  " All right, Zaki! While you get the water boiling I shall run down to the river and have a bathe, and shall be ready for my cocoa in twenty minutes."

  "Are we going to put on those Dervish dresses at once, master? They came yesterday evening."

  "No; I sha'n't change till we get to the place where we land."

  As soon as he had breakfasted he told Zaki to carry his portmanteau, bed, and other belongings to the house that served as a store for General Hunter's staff. He waited until his return, and then told him to take the two rifles, the packets of ammunition, the spears, and the Dervish dresses down to the steamer. Then he joined the General, who was just starting with his staff to superintend the embarkation.

  Three steamers were going up, and each towed a barge, in which the greater part of the troops were to be stowed, and in the stern of one of these knelt two camels.

  "There are your nags, Mr. Hilliard," the General said. " There is an attendant with each. They will manage them better than strangers, and without them we might have a job in getting the animals ashore. Of course I shall take the drivers on with us. The sheik told me the camels are two of the fastest he has ever had. He has sent saddles with them and water-skins. The latter you will probably not want if all goes well; still, it is better to take them."

  " I shall assuredly do so, sir. They may be useful to us on the ride, and though I suppose the camels would do well enough without them, it is always well to be provided, when one goes on an expedition, for any emergency that may occur."

  An hour later the steamer started. The river was still full and the current rapid, and they did not move more than five miles an hour against it. At the villages they passed the people flocked down to the banks with cries of welcome and the waving of flags. They felt now that their deliverance was accomplished, and that they were free from the tyranny that had for so many years oppressed them. The banks were for the most part low, and save at these villages the journey was a monotonous one. The steamers kept on their way till nightfall, and then anchored.

  They started again at daybreak. At breakfast General Hunter said:

  " I think that in another two hours we shall be pretty well due west of El Fasher, so you had better presently get into your Dervish dress. You have got some iodine from the doctor, have you not?"

  "Yes."

  "You had better stain yourself all over, and take a good supply in case you have to do it again."

  Gregory went below and had his head shaved by one of the Soudanese, then re-stained himself from head to foot and put on the Dervish attire—loose trousers and a long smock with six large square patches arranged in two lines in front; a white turban and a pair of shoes completed the costume. The officers laughed as he came on deck again.

  "You look an out-and-out Dervish, Hilliard," one of them said. " It is lucky that there are none of the Lancers scouting about. They would hardly give you time to explain, especially with that rifle and spear."

  Presently they came to a spot where the water was deep up to the bank, which was some six feet above its level. The barge with the camels was brought up alongside. It had no bulwark, and as the deck was level with the land, the camels were, with a good deal of pressing on the part of their drivers, and pushing by as many Soudanese as could come near enough to them, got ashore.

  None of the Soudanese recognized Gregory, and looked greatly surprised at the sudden appearance of two Dervishes among them. As soon as the camels were landed, Gregory and Zaki mounted them.

  "You had better keep if anything to the south of east,"

  General Hunter's last instructions had been. " Unless Parsons has been greatly delayed they should be two or three days' march farther up the river, and every mile you strike the stream behind him is so much time lost."

  He waved his hand to them and wished them farewell as they started, and his staff shouted their wishes for a safe journey. The black soldiers, seeing that, whoever these Dervishes might be, they were well known to the General and his officers, raised a cheer, to which Zaki, who had hitherto kept in the background, waved his rifle in reply. As his face was familiar to numbers of the Soudanese, they now recognized him and cheered more heartily than before, laughing like school-boys at the transformation.

  CHAPTER XXI

  GEDAREH

  ABDUL AZIM was right about the camels," Gregory said, as soon as they were fairly off. " I have never ridden on one like this before. What a difference there is between them and the ordinary camel! It is not only that they go twice as fast, but the motion is so pleasant and easy."

  " Yes, master, these are riding camels of good breed. They cost twenty times as much as the others. They think nothing of keeping up this rate for twelve hours without a stop."

  " If they do that we shall be near the Atbara before it is dark. It is ten o'clock now, and if General Hunter's map is right we have only about eighty miles to go, and I should think they are trotting seven miles an hour."

  They carried their rifles slung behind them and across the shoulders rather than upright, as was the Arab fashion. The spears were held in their right hands.

  "We must see if we can't fasten the spears in some other way, Zaki; we should find them a nuisance if we held them in our hands all the way. I should say it would be easy to fasten them across the saddle
in front of us. If we see horsemen in the distance we can take them into our hands."

  " I think, master, it would be easier to fasten them behind the saddles, where there is more width, and rings on the saddle on both sides."

  A short halt was made, and the spears fixed. Gregory then looked at his compass.

  "We must make for that rise two or three miles away. I see exactly the point we must aim for. When we get there we must look at the compass again."

  They kept steadily on for six hours. They had seen no human figure since they started.

  " We will stop here for half an hour," Gregory said. " Give the animals a drink of water and a handful or two of grain."

  " I don't think they will want water, master. They had as much as they could drink before starting, and they are accustomed to drink when their work is over."

  "Very well; at any rate we will take something."

  They opened one of the water-skins, and poured some of the contents into a gourd; then, sitting down in the shadow of the camels, they ate some dates and bread. They had only brought native food with them, so that if captured and examined there should be nothing to show that they had been in contact with Europeans. Gregory had even left his revolver behind him, as, being armed with so good a weapon as a Remington, it was hardly likely that it would be needed, and if found upon them it would be accepted as a proof that he was in the employment of the infidels.

  It was dusk when they arrived at the bank of the river. No incident had marked the journey, nor had they seen any sign that Dervishes were in the neighbourhood. The Atbara was in full flood, and was rushing down at six or seven miles an hour.

  " Colonel Parsons must have had great difficulty in crossing,

  Zaki. He is hardly likely to have brought any boats across trom Kassala. I don't know whether he has any guns with him, but if he has I don't think he can have crossed, even if they made rafts enough to carry them."

  They kept along the bank until they reached a spot where the river had overflowed. Here the camels drank their fill. A little grain was given to them, and then they were turned loose to browse on the bushes.

  " There is no fear of their straying, I suppose, Zaki?"

  "No, master; they are always turned loose at night. As there are plenty of bushes here they will not go far."

  After another meal they both lay down to sleep, and as soon as it was light Zaki fetched in the camels and they continued their journey. In an hour they arrived at a village. The people were already astir, and looked with evident apprehension at the seeming Dervishes.

  "Has a party of infidels passed along here?" Gregory asked the village sheik, who came out and salaamed humbly.

  " Yes, my lord, a party of soldiers with some white officers came through here three days ago."

  " How many were there of them ?"

  " There must have been more than a thousand of them."

  "Many more?"

  "Not many; perhaps a hundred more. Your servant did not count them."

  " Had they any cannon with them? "

  " No, my lord; they were all on foot. They all carried guns, but there were no mounted men or cannon."

  " Where is Fadil and his army that they thus allowed so small a force to march along unmolested ?"

  "They say that he is still near the Nile. Two of his scouts were here the day before the Turks came along. They stayed here for some hours, but as they said nothing about the Turks coming from Kassala, I suppose they did not know they had crossed the river."

  " Well, we must go on and see where they are. They must be mad to come with so small a force when they must have known that Fadil has a large army. They will never go back again."

  Without further talk Gregory rode farther on. At each village through which they passed they had some news of the passage of Colonel Parsons' command. The camels had been resting from the time when Omdurman was taken, and having been well fed that morning Gregory did not hesitate to press them. The troops would not march above twenty-five miles a day, and two days would take them to Mugatta, so that if they halted there but for a day he should be able to overtake them that night. The character of the country was now greatly changed; the bush was thick and high, and a passage through it would be very difficult for mounted men. There was no fear, therefore, that they would turn off before arriving at Mugatta, from which place there would probably be a track of some sort to Gedareh. It was but a thirty-mile ride, and on arriving near the village Gregory saw that a considerable number of men were assembled there. He checked his camel.

  " What do you make them out to be, Zaki? Your eyes are better than mine. They may be Colonel Parsons' force, and on the other hand they may be Dervishes who have closed in behind him to cut off his retreat."

  " They are not Dervishes, master," Zaki said, after a long, steady look; " they have not white turbans. Some of their clothes are light, and some dark, but all have dark caps like those the Soudanese troops wear."

  "That is good enough, Zaki. We will turn our robes inside out so as to hide the patches, as otherwise we might have a hot reception."

  When they were a quarter of a mile from the village several men started out from the bushes, rifle in hand. They were all in Egyptian uniform. "We are friends!" Gregory shouted in Arabic. "I am an officer of the Khedive, and have come from Omdurman with a message to your commander,"

  A native officer, one of the party, at once saluted. "You will find the bey in the village, bimbashi."

  " How long have you been here?"

  " We came in yesterday, and I hear that we shall start tomorrow, but I know not whether that is so."

  "Are there any Dervishes about?"

  " Yes; forty of them yesterday afternoon, coming from Gedareh and ignorant that we were here, rode in among our outposts on that hill to the west. Three of them were killed and three made prisoners; the rest rode away."

  With a word of thanks Gregory rode on. He dismounted when he reached the village, and was directed to a neighbou^ , -ing hut. Here Colonel Parsons and the six Avhite officers with him were assembled. A native soldier was on sentry at the door.

  "I want to speak to Parsons Bey." The Colonel, hearing the words, came to the door. " Colonel Parsons," Gregory said in English, "I am Major Hilliard of the Egyptian army, and have the honour to be the bearer of a message to you from General Rundle, now in command at Omdurman."

  " You are well disguised indeed, sir," the Colonel said with a smile, as he held out his hand. " I should never have taken you for anything but a native. Where did you spring from! You can never have ridden, much less walked, across the desert from Omdurman?"

  "No, sir; I was landed from one of the gun-boats in which General Hunter, with fifteen hundred Soudanese troops, is ascending the Blue Nile to prevent Fadil from crossing and joining the Khalifa."

  "Have you a written dispatch?"

  " It was thought better that I should carry nothing, so that even the strictest search would not show that I was a messenger."

  "Is your message of a private character?"

  "No, sir, I think not."

  "Then will you come in?"

  Gregory followed Colonel Parsons into the hut, which con tained but one room. " Gentlemen," the former said with a smile, "allow me to introduce Bimbashi Hilliard, who is the bearer of a message to me from General Rundle, now in command at Omdurman. Major Hilliard, these are Captain Mac-Kerrel, commanding four hundred and fifty men of the 16th Egyptians; Captain Wilkinson, an equal number of the Arab battalion; Major Lawson, who has under his command three hundred and seventy Arab irregulars; Captain the Hon. H. Ruthven, who has under him eighty camel-men; also Captain Fleming of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who is at once our medical officer and in command of the baggage column; and Captain Dwyer. They are all, like yourself, officers in the Egyptian army, and rank, like yourself, as Bimbashis. Now, sir, will you deliver your message to me?"

  " It is of a somewhat grave character, sir, but General Rundle thought it very important that
you should be acquainted with the last news. The Sirdar has gone up the White Nile with some of the gun-boats and the 11th Soudanese. He deemed it necessary to go himself, because a body of foreign troops—believed to be French—have established themselves at Fashoda."

  An exclamation of surprise broke from all the officers.

  " In the next place, sir, Fadil, who had arrived with his force within forty miles of Khartoum, has retired up the banks of the Blue Nile on hearing of the defeat of the Khalifa. Major-general Hunter has therefore gone up that river with three gun-boats and another Soudanese battalion to prevent him, if possible, from crossing it and joining the Khalifa, who is reported to be collecting the remains of his defeated army. It is possible—indeed the General thinks it is probable—that Fadil, if unable to cross, may return with his army to Gedareh. It is to warn you of this possibility that he sent me here. Gedareh is reported to be a defensible position, and therefore he thinks that if you capture it, it would be advisable to maintain yourself there until reinforcements can be sent to you, either from the Blue Nile or the Atbara. The place, it seems, is well supplied with provisions and stores, and in the event of Fadil opposing you, it would be far safer for you to defend it than to be attacked in the open or during a retreat."