In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 48

In an instant the savage turned with raised whip upon his aggressor, but the guard's keen, straight sword flashed out of the scabbard, and the sight of the rest of the party cowed him, while pointing forward, the guard sat watching him sternly till the party had pa.s.sed the gang, when, with a quick sweep of his sharp blade he caught the whip close to the shaft, sheared it off, and then pressing his horse's sides he bounded on, leaving the brute scowling in his rear.

"We are to be saved from all insult, Ben Eddin," said the Sheikh gravely; "but you must not resent anything you see, and this shows you how careful we must be."

"Yes, but it makes my blood boil," said Frank to himself, as he gave the old Arab a meaning look full of promise as regards care.

They rode on and on and in and out through what at times was a teeming hive of misery and degradation, where filth and disorder seemed to be rampant. At times there were houses of larger build, and here and there attempts had been made to enclose a garden, in which there was the refreshing sight of a few trees; but the monotony of the place was terrible, and the absence of all trace of a busy, thriving, industrious population was depressing in the extreme.

"We must ride out from the city another time, Ben Eddin," said the Sheikh gravely, after they had gone on through the crowded ways for fully a couple of hours, their guard following patiently in the rear, and their presence ensuring a way being made through some of the well-armed, truculent-looking groups.

"Yes," said the professor, who overheard his words; "and I am afraid that we shall do no good hunting among these narrow streets. Can't you take us amongst the houses of the better-cla.s.s folk, Ibrahim?"

"That is what I am trying to do, Excellency," said the old man; "but you see--wherever there is a big house it is shut in with walls, and there are so few--so few. It is like one of our worst villages near Cairo made big--so big, and so much more dirty and bad."

"The place is a horror, Frank," said the professor. "I wonder the people do not die off like flies."

"Doubtless they do, Excellency," said the old Sheikh gravely.

"They must, Frank," continued the professor. "The dry sand saves the place from being one vast pest-house. Look at the foul dogs, and yonder at the filthy vultures seated on the top of that mud house."

"There's lot's more coming, sir," said Sam, putting in a word, as he looked upward in a disgusted way. "I do hate those great, bald-headed crows."

"Hideous brutes!" said the professor, watching the easy flight of about half a dozen that were sailing round as if waiting to swoop down upon some prey.

"There is a dead body near," said the Sheikh calmly.

"What, on in front?" said the professor quickly; "for goodness' sake, then, let's go another way!"

The Sheikh looked at him half-protestingly, and shrugged his shoulders a little.

"Does his Excellency mean to go back the way we came?" he said. "It is very bad, and if we go by here we shall soon be outside upon the wide plain where we can ride round to the gate near the Emir's palace."

"Then by all means let's go on," said the professor.

"There may be nothing dead," said the Sheikh. "I think not, for the birds are waiting."

There was evidently, though, some attraction, for the numbers of the birds were increasing as they pushed on, to ride out into an opening all at once--a place which had probably been a garden surrounded by buildings, now fast crumbling into dust, and here upon one side, not a dozen yards away, lay the attraction which had drawn the scavenger birds together, at least a hundred more that they had not previously seen dotting the ruins in all directions.

"What a place!" said the professor, halting the beast he rode, which, like its fellows, instead of paying the slightest heed seemed to welcome the rest; and they all stood bowing their heads gently as if it were a mere matter of course, and no broad hint of their fate in the to-come.

For there, crouched down with its legs doubled beneath, was a large camel, evidently in the last stage of weakness and disease, its ragged coat and flaccid hump hanging over to one side, bowing its head slowly at the waiting vultures, that calm, bald-headed and silent, sat about with their weird heads apparently down between their shoulders--a great gathering, waiting for the banquet that was to be theirs.

Frank had hard work to repress the words which rose to his lips, and he signed to the Sheikh as he urged his beast forward.

"Hold hard a minute," said the professor; "it is not nice, but I want to see in the cause of natural history. I never saw a camel die."

Frank knit his brows, and in the cause of natural history felt glad that the loathsome birds refrained from attacking the wretched beast until it was dead.

The poor animal had, however, nearly reached what was for it that happy state of release, for as the professor watched, the camel slowly raised its head, throwing it back until its ears rested against its hump, gazed upwards towards the sky, shivered, and was at rest.

"Poor brute!" said the professor; "and what a release. Why, Ibrahim, I thought the Arab of the desert was tender to his beast, whether it was camel or horse?"

"Well, Excellency," said the old man proudly, "look at the camel you ride; look at these. I am an Arab: have you ever seen me otherwise than merciful to my beasts?"

"No," said the professor; "but look at that wretched creature! Ugh! how horrible! Let's ride on."

It was time, for nearly heedless of the presence of man, the vultures were dropping down from the ruins, and those in the air were making a final sweep round before darting upon their carrion prey. The party rode on in silence for a few minutes, the Sheikh waiting for the professor to continue; but he remained silent, and the old man began in protest--

"An Arab does not leave his beast like that, Excellency. These men here are not Arabs, but the fierce, half-savage people from high up the country, who have descended the river, killing and destroying, till wherever they stop the land is turned into a waste. Time back, when the great general was sent up to Khartoum, we said 'Now there will be peace, and the savage followers of the Mahdi will be driven back into the wilds; people will dare to live again and grow their corn and pasture their flocks and herds;' but, alas! it was not to be. The great Gordon was murdered, his people slaughtered, and the country that has been watered with the blood of the just still cries aloud for help. Is it ever to come?"

"Yes, Ibrahim, and soon," said the professor. "Who knows of the preparations being made better than you?"

"Yes, Excellency, I know," said the Sheikh slowly; "but it is so long in coming, and while they are waiting to be freed from the horrible tyranny of the Mahdi and his successor, the people wither away and die."

The old man looked at Frank as he spoke, and the young man gave him an approving nod, after which they rode on through the squalor and horrors of the place till the road grew more straight and wide, the hovels fewer. Then the filth and misery grew scarcer, patches of cultivated land appeared, from which weary-eyed faces looked up, half wondering, here and there, but only to sink listlessly again as their owners toiled on, with taskmasters ready to urge them on with their labour, as they tortured their sluggish oxen toiling at water-wheel or grinding at a mill.

But for the most part the Baggaras' slaves allowed the pa.s.sers-by to go unnoticed, never once lifting their eyes from the ground.

As the party rode slowly on, their eyes carefully searched the buildings they pa.s.sed in these outskirts of the town, till they reached the entrance where they first arrived, and soon after were winding their way in and out of the narrow streets till they came to their portion of the Emir's palace, and pa.s.sed the guarded gate, to thankfully throw themselves upon the rugs of their shadowy room, hot, weary, and choked with dust.

"Well," said the Hakim, as soon as their guards were out of hearing, "good news?"

"No," said Frank, "the worst. We might go wandering in and out of this desolation of sordid hovels and crumbling huts for years, and see no sign of the poor fellow."

"And perhaps pa.s.s the place again and again," added the professor. "We are going the wrong way to work. What do you say, Ibrahim?"

"Thy servant fears that it is useless to go searching in such a way as this," replied the old Sheikh. "The city is so big--there are so many thousands crowding the place."

"Then what can we do?" said Frank wearily.

"Only try to get news of a white slave who was taken at Khartoum, Excellency," said the old man calmly. "I am working, but I fear to ask too much, for fear that I might do harm."

"Have we gone the wrong way to work, after all?"

"No," said the doctor decisively. "We are here, and Khartoum is so far away. You are hot and weary now, Frank; rest and refresh, my lad; they are grand remedies for despair."

"Yes," said the professor; "I feel as much out of heart as you, my boy, but common-sense says that we have only tried once."

Frank nodded, and rose to go into the room he shared with Sam, too weary and disheartened to notice that his old friend's servant had followed him, till he was startled by feeling the man's cool hands busy about him with a bra.s.s basin of cool water and a sponge, when he sat up quickly.

"Why, Sam," he cried, "are you going mad?"

"Hope not, sir," said the man, "though that hot sun and the dust can't be good."

"But what are you doing?"

"What'll set you right, sir, and ready for your meal."

"But you forget that I am the Hakim's slave."