In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 29

"Fast for the desert, Excellency," he said. "No one expects to travel here faster than a camel walks when left to itself."

So at daybreak on that morning the last camel was laden, the last necessary attached, and amidst the farewell cries of the tribe a.s.sembled to bless and thank and pray for a safe journey to all, the leading camels started off, moaning and complaining, and apparently directing angry cries at those of their kin more fortunate than themselves who, instead of having to tramp over the burning, shifting sand, beneath the scorching desert sun, were to stop and browse around those pleasant water-holes, and tend their young, watched over by the women and children of the tribe the while.

The moaning and grumbling went on for some time, as the long line of ungainly beasts stepped out through the cool grey, and a running conversation seemed to be going on, as if the camels were comparing notes about their loads and the unfairness of the masters, who had given this a load too bulky, that, one too heavy, and another, moist water-skins to carry, instead of a Hakim or chief.

But as the stars paled out and the light increased, the camels settled down and shuffled silently along, while the silence extended to the party, who all had their feelings of sadness to bear.

For doubts arose as to the success of the dangerous adventure. The Sheikh felt that he was an old man, and that this journey, which must inevitably last for many months, might be his last. His followers thought of wife or child, and were ready to sigh as they pondered on the perils and dangers ahead; while Hakim, professor, servant, and Frank, each had his feeling of heart-soreness and doubt as to how the adventure would end.

Frank's greatest suffering was from the thought that time went on so fast while they went on so slowly. Already five days were dying out since they reached the temporary home of the tribe, and now that the start was made at last, how were they moving? In that long line of animals and pacing men advancing like some gigantic, elongated, crawling creature, whose home was the desert sand. Creeping patiently along, step by step, as if time were nothing, while probably the distance might prove to be a thousand miles before they reached, in the neighbourhood of Khartoum, some town or village which might be the prisoner's temporary home.

But there was no thought in any breast there of turning back. The start had been made, and there was to be no looking northward again till the task that had been set was achieved.

"Off at last, Frank," said the professor, who came up to where the young man was riding alone; "we are going splendidly."

"Splendidly?"

"Yes. Everything is beautifully packed; the Sheikh's men are all trained camel-drivers; and I never saw a finer set of animals since I first came to Egypt."

"But hark at them," said Frank.

"What for? It is their nature to, my lad. Your camel is a creature that seems to have been born with a grievance. I was talking about it to Morris just now, and he actually tried to make a joke about them."

"The doctor did?" said Frank, smiling.

"Fact, my dear boy. He says it is on account of their having so many stomachs."

"I always understood it was Nature's blessing to them to enable the poor beasts to exist in these waterless regions."

"That's what I said to him," replied the professor; "but he said that might be a great benefit, but his medical experience of patients was that most of their troubles from early childhood arose from disordered stomachs, and if human beings suffered so much from only having one, what must it be to have a plurality of these necessary organs like a camel! Enough to make anything ill-tempered, he said. Well, you don't laugh."

"No," said Frank sadly; "my spirits are too low."

"The time of day, my lad. I always feel at my worst about daybreak.

You'll be better soon. I say we are getting on capitally, and I feel no fear about our plan."

"I do," said Frank sadly.

"Why, what fresh doubts do you feel?"

"Over this dumb business. There seem to be always fresh difficulties cropping up."

"Seem," said the professor coolly. "Things that seem are generally like clouds: they soon fade away in the sunshine. What is the new 'seem'?"

"About the Sheikh's men. Now, for instance, they must notice that I am talking to you."

"Of course they do, my lad. You may take it for granted that they know quite as much as we do, and that they grasp the fact that we are playing parts to deceive the dervishes."

"And sooner or later, out of no ill-will, but by accident, they will betray us."

"Take it for granted that they will not do anything of the sort. These Arabs are narrow-minded, and there is a good deal of the savage about them in connection with their carelessness regarding human life. But my experience of the Arab is, that he is a gentleman, and I would as soon trust one whom I had made my friend as I would a man of any nation. Now then, I've knocked that difficulty on the head. What is the next?"

"There are no more at present," said Frank, smiling. "I suppose, then, that I need not keep trying to play my part while we are in company with our own party only?"

"Certainly not, my dear boy," said the professor. "Your great difficulty really is to contain yourself fully when strangers are with us."

"I shall try my best," said Frank.

"Yes, my fine fellow, you had better. Now then, we've made our start, and you don't feel so glum, do you?"

"No."

"There's the reason," said the professor cheerily, as he pointed to the sun peering over the edge of the desert. "Nothing like that golden ball for sweeping away clouds of every kind. The only objection to his work is that he is a bit too thorough at times, and treats people out here as if they were meant to cook. Now then, look back as well as forward; the camels march like a line of grenadiers. Just as if they had been drilled."

"But so slowly--so slowly," said Frank, with a sigh.

"Here, look sharp, Sol!" cried the professor. "Get higher; there's another cloud."

"How can you be so light-hearted at a time like this?" said Frank bitterly.

"Because 'A merry heart goes all the day; your sad tires in a mile-a,'

as Shakespeare says. Because we should never carry out our plans to success if we went at them with sad hearts. I found that out over many of my searches here. An eager, cheery captain makes an eager, cheery crew who laugh at wreck. Now then, I am going to demolish--with the help of the sun--that great, dense black cloud that has just risen above your mental horizon, my sable friend. Your fresh cloud is the slow one.

Now, you must remember that we have given up civilisation, steam, electricity, and the like, to take up the regular and only way of travelling here in the desert. Some day, perhaps, we shall have the railway and wires from north to south; but until we do we must travel by caravan, and to travel by caravan you must travel in caravan fashion, in the old, long proved style. You would like to hurry on and do fifty miles the first day, instead of ten or fifteen."

"Of course," said Frank, "with such things at stake."

"Exactly, my dear boy, and very naturally. Well, we'll say you'd like to go forty miles to-day?"

"Yes."

"Couldn't be done. Men can't walk forty miles over hot sand under a desert sun."

"Then why not have had more camels?"

"Because camels can suffer like men. You would knock up your desert ships, and make them sore-footed the first day, have great difficulty in getting them half the distance the next day, half that the third, and no distance at all the fourth."

"So bad as that?" said Frank.

"Most likely a good deal worse. Now we have old Ibrahim and his men, who know camels exactly, understand their const.i.tutions, how much they can do, and how to get them to do it. You see, we are not going on a week's journey."

"A week's!" said Frank bitterly; "at this rate it will be six months."

"Perhaps a year's," said the professor quietly.

"A year's?"

"Possibly; and if a camel should break down we can't send round to the livery stable in the next street, or order a fresh one from the Stores.

No one knows that better than the Sheikh. He is making the caravan travel so that it can go on for a year if necessary, and at the end of that year the camels, which mean life to us, will be fit to go on for another year."