In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 44

"And so this is Omdurman, is it?" he said. "Then I suppose Khartoum will be just such a city of mosques and palaces. Why, there isn't a redeeming feature in the whole spot! It's just a squalid collection of mud-houses and hovels, built anyhow by people accustomed to live in a tent or nothing at all. Why, if you took the trees away--and it wouldn't take long to do that--it would be fit for nothing but to be washed away as so much mud, if the Nile would flood as far."

"But surely poor old Harry can't be here!" said the doctor, in a low, troubled voice.

"Who knows?" said the professor softly, after glancing at Frank's pained features. "We must see, and--cheer up, everybody--we will, for we shall have splendid chances. Do you hear, O Chief Surgeon and Special Physician to the Emir?"

"But look," said the doctor; "I thought the place miserable enough yesterday evening, while now, though the sun does give it a sort of golden glaze, the miserable huddle of shabby huts looks ten times worse, for the light exposes its ruinous state."

"Go on," said the professor. "You can't speak evil enough of it, say what you will. But I say, both of you--I won't bother you much with my hobby--what a falling off there is everywhere; what a difference between the cities of the rule of the past, with their magnificent palaces and temples, or even the simple, majestic grandeur of the pyramids, and the buildings of the modern inhabitants! The glory has departed indeed.

Ah, here comes Ibrahim again. Well, Sheikh, how goes the world?"

"I have seen the Emir this morning, Excellencies, and he sends you greeting. He desires that you ride directly after the mounted men. You are to occupy a place of honour before the camels laden with the spoil taken by his warriors."

"As his princ.i.p.al prisoners," said the doctor coldly. "Well, we will try not to disgrace the man who has treated us as his friends. But what about his son? Am I to see and treat him before we start?"

"No, Excellency. He will ride in a litter borne by two led camels, and the Emir asks that you will see his son when you reach the rooms he has ordered to be ready for you beside his own palace."

"And for my friends as well, Ibrahim?" said the doctor quickly.

"Yes, Excellency; the house is large, and there are gardens and grounds with ample room for your servants and slaves as well as for your picked supply of camels. For they are picked, O Hakim. I have been round the camp this morning and seen the many beasts of burden being loaded ready for leading to the city. The horses too, and these are splendid beasts.

But the camels! Yours, O Hakim, are well fed, young, and healthy, full of strength."

"Mine, Ibrahim? Yours."

"No, Excellency; speak of them as yours, for yours they are. Your name protects them. If they were mine they would be taken before the day was past. If we get safely back to Cairo, as Heaven willing we shall, if it pleases you and you are satisfied with your servant's works you may give them back to him when their work is really done."

"We shall see, Ibrahim," said Frank, smiling, and then turning serious and resuming his part, for the Emir's men were approaching them, evidently with some message.

The sun was now well up, and this being the time arranged for, so as to give _eclat_ to the proceedings, trumpets and uncouth sounding horns began to blare out, the excitement in the camp increased, and soon after, with a certain amount of order prevailing over the barbarous confusion, the procession was started, a dense crowd pouring out from the city into the plain to meet them; when the faint answering sound of trumpets arose like an echo, accompanied by the dull, soft, thunderous boom of many drums.

At the first glance it seemed to be a grey-looking mob, all a mixture of black and white, debouching upon the plain; but soon after there was the glint of steel, and through the crowd a dense ma.s.s of hors.e.m.e.n could be seen approaching.

This was the signal for a wild shout from the returning raiders, trumpets were blown and drums beaten with all the force their bearers could command, and the Emir's hors.e.m.e.n rode proudly onward, following the trumpeters and drummers; and now several standards made their appearance in various parts of the procession, around which hors.e.m.e.n cl.u.s.tered, each looking as if he felt himself to be the hero of the day--the triumphant warrior returning clothed with honour from the slaughter of the enemies of the Prophet; and to a man they would have been prepared to deal out ignominy and death to the daring teller of the simple truth that they were nothing better than so many bloodthirsty murderers and despoilers of the industrious builders of the villages of the river banks.

Minute by minute the excitement grew, and the plain in front changed from tawny golden drab to grey, black, and white, for Omdurman seemed to be emptying itself in the desire to give the returning band a welcome.

Even the horses appeared to take part in the general feeling, for they curvetted and pranced, encouraged by their riders, whose flowing white headgear and robes added with the flashing of their spears to the picturesque aspect of the scene.

In an almost incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time the procession was formed, or rather formed itself. The slight camping arrangements had disappeared as if by magic, and that which one hour had been a swarming ant-hill of humanity, apparently all in confusion, was the next a long, trailing line of men, horses, and camels, headed by a barbaric band, moving steadily towards the entrance to the city, while the scene of the night's encampment was the barren plain once more, dotted with the grey ashes of so many fires.

Onward they went in a course which meant a meeting with the hors.e.m.e.n coming from the city, and a pa.s.sage through the increasing crowd, the Emir's warriors pa.s.sing on till the head of the guard galloped up as if in a state of wild excitement, shouting "The Hakim!--the Hakim!"

The Hakim was already mounted upon his sleek camel, in the whitest and most voluminous of turbans and robes, and sat with his followers, waiting till the last of the main body of hors.e.m.e.n had pa.s.sed.

Then came a little knot surrounding the camel litter in which lay the Emir's son, and at a sign from the officer, the Hakim's camel was led close behind the litter; Frank and the professor on their camels next; Sam, looking as dignified as his master, followed; with him the Sheikh, leading his men with the Hakim's sleek camels, of which he looked as proud as any member of the procession.

Following close behind came the Emir himself, a swarthy, n.o.ble-looking savage warrior, his brother chief by his side; and then in a long line were the trophies of their swords and spears, the heavily laden camels for the most part carrying a heterogeneous collection of objects dear to the hearts of the raiding band, but many bearing dull, heavy-eyed women, several with their children, slaves of their new masters, torn from their homes, and for the most part seeming apathetic and taking it all as a matter of course--kismet (fate)--which they must patiently bear till the next change in their condition came to pa.s.s; one which they knew might be at any hour, for their careers had taught them that a stronger force might at any moment appear in the mysterious desert and come down like a tempest, to reverse their state, the conquerors of to-day becoming the fugitives of to-morrow.

The last of the heavily laden, murmuring and groaning camels was followed by another troop of some fifty mounted men, whose horses pranced and caracoled to the faintly heard blaring of trumpet and beating of drum in front, while like a gigantic, ungainly serpent the returning force glided on over the sandy plain, till the musical (?) head disappeared between two long lines of hors.e.m.e.n who formed an avenue which kept back the crowd, and were ready when the last camel and the rear guard had pa.s.sed through to fall in behind and follow their more fortunate plunder-laden comrades into the city.

The Hakim's countenance was dignified and impressive enough to thoroughly keep up his character, and he listened in silence to the remarks made in a low tone from time to time by the professor, who was eagerly noting the crowd in front that they were approaching; but Frank sat his camel as if turned into stone, his eyes fixed upon the wilderness of mud-brick buildings, while he wondered which contained the prisoner they had come to save.

The Hakim's air of dignity was of course a.s.sumed; but one of his followers, in spite of his long intercourse with Europeans, took to his position proudly and as if to the manner born, and this was the Sheikh, whose handsome old grey-bearded face seemed to shine with a moon-like radiance reflected from the princ.i.p.al, the Hakim being his sun.

So manifest was this that after glancing at him several times in a half-amused, half-contemptuous way, Sam suddenly burst out with--

"You seem to like it, Mr Abrahams!"

The Sheikh started, and looked at the man riding the camel at his side in surprise.

"Yes," he said; "it is old-fashioned, and not new and civilised like things in Cairo, but it is grand, and I am proud of the Hakim and my camels; are not you?"

"Not a bit of it!" said Sam contemptuously. "It's all very well for you, Mr Abrahams, being a native and used to it. But me, an Englishman--a Londoner--proud of it! Why, I wonder at you."

"But," said the old man, "look at the camel you are riding; how soft, how sleek, how graceful, and how easily it moves! Ah! I see you are getting proud."

"Me? Proud? What, of being here?" cried Sam.

"Yes; you have learned to ride the camel, and you sit it easily and well. You ride as if, as you Englishmen say, you were born upon it."

"Oh, do we? Well, I won't say I can't ride it now, nor I won't say it don't come easy. You see, Mr Abrahams, there ain't many things an Englishman can't do if he gives his mind to it."

"You look well, Mr Samuel," said the old man, smiling.

"Now, no chaff!" said Sam suspiciously. "No gammon! You mean it?"

"Of course."

"Well, I'm glad I do. You think these savages will think so too, and that I am the real thing?"

"Oh, yes. Look at the Hakim."

"Sha'n't! I've been looking till I feel ashamed of him."

"Ashamed?" said the Sheikh. "Why?"

"Dressed up like that! Him a first-cla.s.s London surgeon and M.D., with Palladium Club and Wimpole Street on his card. I tell you I'm ashamed of him, and I'm ashamed of myself, and I ain't sure now that it isn't all a dream."

"I do not understand," said the Sheikh coldly.

"You can't, Mr Abrahams. You're a very nice, civil old gentleman, and I like you, and I'm much obliged for lots of good turns you've done me; but you see you've never been to London, and don't know what's what."

"No," said the Sheikh; "I have never been to London yet, but I have often thought of going with some family, for I have been asked twice.

But if I do come I shall try to see you, Mr Samuel."

"Glad to see you, old chap, any time," said Sam warmly; "and if you do come I'll show you what our country's like."

"Thank you, Mr Samuel," said the Sheikh, smiling pleasantly; "and if I do come I shall dress as you English do; but I will not be ashamed of it."

"Here, you're going on the wrong road, old gentleman," said Sam. "I'm not ashamed of the nightgown and nightcap. They're cool and comfortable. It's seeing the guv'nor dressed up, and him and me and Mr Frank and Mr Landon in this procession. Do you know how I feel just now?"