G.A. Henty - With Kitchener in the Soudan - a story of Atbara and Omdurman

On the morning after the Sirdar's arrival, an orderly came across to General Hunter's quarters with a request that Mr. Hilliard should at once be sent to head-quarters. Gregory had to wait nearly half an hour until the officers who had been there before him had had their audience and received their orders. He was then shown in.

"You have done very valuable service, Mr. Hilliard," the Sirdar said, "exceptionally valuable, and obtained at extraordinary risk. I certainly did not expect, when I saw you a few months ago in Cairo, that you would so speedily distinguish yourself. I was then struck with your manner, and thought that you would do well, and you have much more than fulfilled my expectations. I shall keep my eye upon you, and shall see that you have every opportunity of continuing as you have begun."

That evening General Hunter suggested to Colonel Wingate that Gregory should be handed over to him. " There will be nothing for him to do with me at present," he said, "and I am sure that you will find him very useful. Putting aside the expedition he undertook to Metemmeh, he is a most zealous young officer. Although his wound was scarcely healed, he took charge of the baggage animals on the way up from Merawi to Abu Hamed, and came forward here with Ahmed Bey and his followers, and in both cases he was most useful. But at the present I cannot find any employment for him."

"I will have a talk with him," Colonel Wingate said. "I think I can make good use of him. Captain Keppel asked me this morning if I could furnish him with a good interpreter.

He is going up the river in a day or two, and as neither he nor the other naval officers know much Arabic, Mr. Hilliard would be of considerable service to them in questioning any prisoners who may be captured as to hidden guns or other matters. I should think, from what you tell me, Mr. Hilliard will be very suitable for the post."

" The very man for it. He is a very pleasant lad—for he is not more than that,—quiet and gentlemanly, and yet full of life and go, and will be certain to get on well with a naval man." On returning to his quarters General. Hunter sent for Gregory.

"You will please go to Colonel Wingate, Mr. Hilliard. I have been speaking to him about you, and as it may be months before things are ready for the final advance, and I am sure you would prefer to be actively employed, I proposed to him that he should utilize your services, and it happens, fortunately, that he is able to do so. The gun-boats will be running up and down the river, stirring up the Dervishes at Metemmeh and other places, and as neither Keppel nor the commanders of the other two boats can speak Arabic with anything like fluency, it is important that he should have an interpreter. I think you will find the berth a pleasant one. Of course I don't know what arrangements will be made, or whether you would permanently live on board one of the boats. If so, I think you would be envied by all of us, as you would get away from the dust and all the discomforts of the encampment."

" Thank you very much, sir! It would indeed be pleasant, and I was beginning to feel that I was very useless here."

"You have not been useless at all, Mr. Hilliard. The Sirdar asked me about you, and I was able to give him a very favourable report of your readiness to be of service for whatever work I have found for you to do. I have told him that I had great doubts whether Ahmed Bey would have pushed forward to this place after he had lost the protection of the gun-boats if you had not been with him."

Gregory at once went to the quarters of Colonel Wingate and sent in his name. In two or three minutes he was shown in. A naval officer was in the room with the colonel. "You have come at the right time, Mr. Hilliard. I was just speaking of you to Captain Keppel. I suppose General Hunter has told you how I proposed utilizing your services?"

"Yes, sir, he was good enough to tell me."

"You speak both Arabic and the negro dialect perfectly, I am told?"

" I speak them very fluently, almost as well as English."

" Just at present you could not be of much use to me, Mr. Hilliard. Of course I get all my intelligence from natives, and have no occasion to send white officers out as scouts. Otherwise, from the very favourable report that I have received from General Hunter, I should have been glad to have you with me ; but I have no doubt that you would prefer to be in one of the gun-boats. They are certain to have a more stirring time of it for the next few weeks than we shall have here."

"I should like it greatly, sir, if Captain Keppel thinks I shall do."

" I have no doubt about that," the officer said with a smile. " I shall rate you as a first lieutenant and midshipman all in one, and I may say that I shall be very glad to have a white officer with me. There are one or two spare cabins aft, and you had better have your traps moved in at once; I may be starting to-morrow."

"Shall I take my servant with me, sir?"

" Yes, you may take him if you like. I suppose you have a horse?"

" Yes, sir, a horse and a camel; but I shall have no difficulty in managing about them. Excuse my asking, sir, but I have a few stores, shall I bring them on board?"

" No, there is no occasion for that. You will mess with me. Thank goodness, we left naval etiquette behind us when we came up the Nile, and it is not imperative that I should dine in solitary state. Besides, you have been on Hunter's staff, have you not?"

"Yes."

" I know his staff all mess together. I shall be very glad to have you with me. It is lonely work always messing alone. My boat is the Zafir, you know. You had better come on board before eight o'clock to-morrow morning, that is my breakfast hour."

Gregory needed but little time to make his arrangements. The transport department took over Zaki's horse and camel and gave him a receipt for them, so that when he returned, those or others could be handed over to him. One of the staff who wanted a second horse was glad to take charge of his mount. The tent, and the big case, and his other belongings were handed over to the stores. Zaki was delighted when he heard that he was going up in a gun-boat that would probably shell Metemmeh and knock some of the Dervish fortifications to pieces.

" What shall I have to do, master?" he asked.

"Not much, Zaki. You will brush my clothes and make my bed, and do anything that I want done, but beyond that I cannot tell you. I am really taking you, not because I think you will be of much use, but because I like to have you with me. Besides, I sha'n't have much to do, and the English officer who commands will have plenty to look after, so that I shall be glad to talk occasionally with you. However, as I know the gun-boats carry Maxim guns, and each have two sergeants of the marine artillery, I will hand you over to them, and ask them to put you in the Maxim crew. Then you will have the satisfaction of helping to fire at your old enemies."

Zaki's eyes glistened at the prospect. "They killed my mother!" he said, " and carried off my sisters, and burned our house. It will be good to fire at them; much better this, bey, than to load stores at Merawi."

Gregory was much gratified that evening after mess at the kindly manner in which the members of the staff all shook hands with him, and said that they were sorry that he was going to leave them, General Hunter was dining with the Sirdar. The next morning, when Gregory went to say " Goodbye " to him, he said:

" I was telling Sir Herbert Kitchener yesterday evening that you were transferred to the naval branch. He said:The gun-boats Avill all take up troops, and there will be native officers on board. It is a rule in our army, you know, that all white officers have the honorary rank of major, so as to make them senior to all Egyptian officers. Will you tell Mr. Hilliard that I authorize him to call himself Bimbashi? There is no occasion to put it in orders; my authorization is sufficient. As long as he was on your staff it did not matter, but as presently he may be attached to an Egj'ptian regiment it is as well that he should bear the usual rank, and it may save misunderstanding in communicating with the natives. He will be much more respected as Bimbashi than he would be as lieutenant, a title that they would not understand.' A good many lieutenants in the British army are Bimbashies here, so that there is nothing unusual in your holding that honorary rank."