In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 13

"The young Excellency's words are good, and they make the eyes of his servant dark with sorrow; but it will not be freeing his brother from his chains if he goes as a young man would, to rashly throw away his life. It is so easy away out there. Here there is law, and if a man steals or raises his hand against his brother man, there is the wise judge waiting, and the judgment bar. But out yonder they make their own laws, and it is but a thrust with a spear, a stroke with a sharp sword, and the sand is ever athirst to drink up the blood, the jackals and the unclean birds to leave nothing but a few bones. Has the young Excellency thought of all this?"

"Yes," said Frank hoa.r.s.ely, "and I have seen in the darkness of the night when I could not sleep, my brother's hands stretched out to me, and have felt that I could hear his voice calling to me to come and save him."

The Sheikh stood silently there beneath the palms, and for some minutes no words came.

At last he repeated his former stereotyped expression.

"It is good. Yes," he said, "it is good, and G.o.d will go before you on such an errand as this, my son. I am growing old now."

"And you--"

Frank began to utter his thoughts impulsively, but the professor laid a hand sharply upon his arm.

"Silence," he said, and the Arab paused for a few moments as if to give way, but as Frank checked himself he went on--

"--And old men grow to love money and greater flocks and herds, and more and better camels, as they come nearer to the time when all these things will be as naught. I have been much with the wise men from Europe, and it has been pleasant to my soul to take their piastres to make my tribe richer every year. His Excellency here has paid me much gold in the past times, and I and my people have worked justly for him, so that he has come to us again and again, till his coming has been that of a friend, and my heart was sore when I heard that he was not to be with us this season of the year. And now he has come for this as to a friend to ask the help of me and mine. He has come to me as a brother in suffering, and it is good. Yes, Excellency, you are welcome to the tents of your brethren, and we will do all we can to bring the lost one back. And what I bid my people do they will do, till I am gathered to my fathers and my son takes my place. But when I go to my people to-night and tell them of your words, they will say 'O my father, this is not work for money. Our master must not give us payment for such a thing as this. Of a truth we will go and bring the young man back to those who mourn for him. If we redden the sand with our blood instead, well, we have died as men, and we shall sleep with the just.'"

The professor caught the old Arab's hand, and Frank s.n.a.t.c.hed impulsively at the other, the thin, nervous fingers closing tightly upon the English grip, and they stood in silence for some minutes.

"Tell him what I feel," said Frank at last. "I can't find words."

"Neither can I," said the professor, "but I must try."

"Listen, Sheikh," he said, "you have made our hearts glad within us.

For when this news came to England I said to myself that I would seek my old Arab friend and ask him to help me to find our young brother."

"It is good," said the Arab softly. "You remembered the far away."

"How could I forget the man who watched by me in his tent when I was sick unto death, and who rejoiced over me when I was brought back to life? I looked back upon you as a brother and friend, and now I have come; but this must not be only a work of friendship. You and your young men must be paid, and paid well, for all their risks, for we do not come as poor suppliants. I and my friends are fairly rich, and will gladly spend money over this adventure."

"Yes, money is as water that we fling upon the sand at such a time as this," said the Sheikh. "And you are rich. Well, so are we. Our life is simple; we live as we have always lived, in tents, and our riches are in our flocks and herds, our camels and our horses. We have our pride as you have, even if we do work for the rich English for the piastres they pay. But in such a work as this for our wise brother and friend, take money? No; we go to help our brother. It is for love."

"But Sheikh--" began Frank.

"Let your young brother be silent, Excellency; the bargain is made, and we must have much thought about how this is to be done. As you said, the fight must be with cunning; much wisdom must be brought to bear. We must try and find out what the Khalifa desires most. We must go as merchants, and you will need your piastres to buy enough for a little caravan of such things as will be welcome in the enemy's camp. Powder for the guns of his people for certain he will want. Strong wines and waters too, for he, like those of his kind, loves to break the prophet's laws. I will leave you now to sleep and muse upon all this. Mayhap you will find some plan or scheme, as you English call it, that will be better than mine; but something of this sort it must be, and we will go."

"Yes," said Frank eagerly, "and we will go."

The Sheikh shook his head slowly.

"No," he said, "this is no work for such as you. The task is for me and mine. Good-night."

He turned, and seemed to fade into the darkness at once, just as the doctor, who had been waiting impatiently upon the seat, strode up.

"Well," he said, "have you secured your man?"

"Yes," replied the professor; "but there is a battle yet to fight. He does not know our plans."

CHAPTER SIX.

THE STARTING POINT.

What with the excitement and the change, as it were, into another life such as he had only read of in books, Frank Frere's was a very poor night's rest, so that after dozing off and waking again and again, hot, feverish, and uncomfortable, he was not sorry to see the first signs of dawn peering through his blinds.

Getting from beneath the mosquito curtain, he opened the window wider, and then stayed for a few minutes to wonder that the morning air should be so cool to his heated brows.

Returning to bed, he lay thinking for a few minutes, and then all at once thought ceased and he slept soundly for an hour, to start up in horror, full of the impression that he had overslept himself.

But a glance at his watch showed that it was still early, as he began to dress, meaning to have a look round the place before breakfast.

Matters, however, shaped themselves differently, for on going to the window and looking out, there to the left lay the hotel garden with its clumps of palms and orange trees, where beneath the former he saw an early visitor in the shape of the tall, dignified-looking Sheikh in his clean white robes and turban, walking slowly to and fro, as if in expectation of seeing the professor.

Frank hurried down, too eager to reach the garden to pause and look about at the Eastern aspect of everything around; but he found that he was not first, for there before him were the professor and the doctor just pa.s.sing out, and he joined them just as they reached the Sheikh, who greeted them all with solemn dignity.

"I have slept on the matter, O Excellencies," he said.

"And now you think better of it?" said the doctor sharply.

The Sheikh smiled.

"I have thought much of it, Excellency," he said gravely, "but the matter was agreed upon last night. All that remained was to find out the best way and the safest. I feel that it must be as I said; we--my people and I--must journey through the desert to avoid the windings of the great river, taking with us such merchandise as the Mahdi's people will be glad to buy, and once at Khartoum or Omdurman we must trust to our good fortune about finding the prisoner. Once we do find him the merchandise must go, and we shall trust to our fleet camels and knowledge of the desert to escape. What do your Excellencies say?"

The professor turned to Frank.

"Will you tell him?" he said. "It was your idea."

Frank shrank for the moment, but mastering his hesitancy he turned to the old Sheikh, and rapidly growing earnest and warm, he vividly described his plans, while the old man stood stern and frowning, apparently receiving everything with the greatest disfavour, merely glancing once or twice at the doctor and then at the speaker, as allusions were made to the parts they were to play. When the professor was mentioned the listener remained unmoved, but he frowned more markedly when the servant's name was mentioned.

Frank worked himself up till in his eagerness his words came fast, as he strove hard to impress the Sheikh with the plausibility of his plans.

But the old man remained unmoved, and when at last the speaker had said all that he could say there was a dead and chilling silence, the young man turning from his listener to look despairingly from the doctor to the professor, and back again, "The Sheikh cannot see it," said the young man despairingly; "but it seems easier to me now than ever."

"Yes," said the doctor; "I feel that it might be done. The idea grows upon me."

"But you do not like it, Ibrahim," said the professor, looking hard in the solemn, impenetrable face before him.

"There is the servant--the doctor's man," said the Sheikh gravely. "I have not seen him."

"You soon shall," said the professor.

"Tell me," continued the Sheikh; "this young man--can he make cures--can he bind up wounds and attend to an injured or dying man?"

"He has been my servant and has helped me for years," said the doctor.

"Hah!"

Then there was silence again, and Frank gazed at the deeply-lined, calm and impa.s.sive face before him with a feeling of resentment.

"He will not do," thought the young man; "he is too slow and plodding.