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

"No doubt that is so. Have you read your father's diary yet?"

"No, sir; I have not had the heart to do so, and shall put it off until the shock that this has given n;c has passed away. I feel that a little hard work will be the best thing for me; is there any chance of it?"

" You have just returned in time. I am going up the Blue Nile to-morrow morning to clear out the villages, which no doubt are all full of fugitives. I am glad that you have come back; I was speaking of you to-day to General Bundle, who is in command. One of the objects of the expedition is to prevent Fadil from crossing the river. He was advancing from Gedareh at the head of ten thousand troops to join the Khalifa, and

was but forty miles away on the day after we took this place; but when he received the news of our victory he fell back. If he can cross he will bring a very formidable reinforcement to the Khalifa. We know that Colonel Parsons started from Kassala on the 7th, his object being to capture Gedareh during the absence of Fadil. He is to cross the Atbara at El Fasher, and will then march up this bank of the river till he is at the nearest point to Gedareh. It is probable that he will not strike across before the 18th or the 20th. His force is comparatively small, and we do not know how large a garrison Fadil will have left there. Altogether we are uneasy about the expedition. It is very desirable that Parsons should know that Fadil is retiring, and that, so far as we can learn from the natives, he has not yet crossed the Blue Nile. Gedareh is said to be a strong place, and once there, Parsons might hold it against Fadil until we can send him reinforcements. In order to convey this information to him we require someone on whom we can absolutely rely. I said that if you were here I felt sure that you would volunteer for the service. Of course it is to a certain extent a dangerous one, but I think that, speaking the language as you do, and as you have already been among the Dervishes, you might, even if taken prisoner, make out a good story for yourself."

" I would undertake the commission with pleasure," Gregory said. " I shall, of course, go in native dress."

" I propose that we carry you a hundred miles up the river with us, and there land you. From that point it would not be more than sixty or seventy miles across the desert to the Atbara, which you would strike forty or fifty miles above El Fasher. Of course you would be able to learn there whether Parsons had crossed. If he had, you would ride up the bank till you overtake him; if he had not, you would probably meet him at Mugatta, he must cross below that, as it is there he leaves the river."

" That seems simple enough, sir. My story would be that I was one of the Dervishes who had escaped from the battle.

here, and had stopped at a village, thinking that I was sahj from pursuit, until your boats came along, and that I then crossed the desert to go to Gedareh, where I thought I should be safe. That would surely carry me through. I shall want two fast camels—one for myself and one for my boy."

" These we can get for you from Abdul Azil, the Abadah sheik. Of course you will put on Dervish robes and badges ?"

" Yes, sir."

" I will go across and tell General Rundle, and obtain written instructions for you to carry dispatches to Parsons. I will give them to you when you go up on the boat in the morning. I will see at once about the camels, and ask the Intelligence people to get you two of the Dervish suits. You will also want rifles."

"Thank you, sir! I have a couple of Eemingtons, and plenty of ammunition for them. I have two spears also which I picked up when we came in here."

"We are off again, Zaki," he said when he returned to his hut, where the black was engaged in sweeping up the dust and arranging everything as usual.

" Yes, master." Zaki suspended his work. " When do we go?"

" To-morrow morning."

"Do we take everything with us?"

"No; I start in uniform. We shall both want Dervish dresses, but you need not trouble about them—they will be got for us."

" Then we are going among the Dervishes again?"

"Well, I hope we are not; but we may meet some of them. We are going with the expedition up the Blue Nile, and will then land and strike across the desert to the Atbara. That is enough for you to know at present. We shall take our guns and spears with us."

Zaki had no curiosity. If his master was going it was of course all right—his confidence in him was absolute. In about an hour a native from the Intelligence Department

brought down two Dervish dresses complete. They had still three hours before mess, and Gregory sat down on his bed and opened his father's pocket-book, which he had had no opportunity to do since it came into his possession.

CHAPTER XVII

A FUGITIVE

I DO not suppose," the diary began, " that what I write here will ever be read. It seems to me that the chances are immeasurably against it. Still, there is a possibility that it may fall into the hands of some of my countrymen when, as will surely be the case, the Mahdi's rebellion is crushed and order restored; and I intend, so long as I live, to jot down from time to time what happens to me, in order that the only person living interested in me, my wife, may possibly some day get to know what my fate has been. Therefore, should this scrap of paper and other scraps that may follow it be ever handed to one of my countrymen, I pray him to send it to Mrs. Hilliard, care of the manager of the Bank at Cairo. It may be that this, the first time I write, may be the last, and I therefore before all things wish to send her my heart's love, to tell her that my last thoughts and my prayers will be for her, and that I leave it entirely to her whether to return to England in accordance with the instructions I left her before leaving, or to remain in Cairo.

" It is now five days since the battle. It cannot be called a battle. It was not fighting; it was a massacre. The men, after three days' incessant fighting, were exhausted and worn-out, half-mad with thirst, half-mutinous at being brought into the desert, as they said, to die; thus, when the Dervishes rushed down in a mass the defence was feeble. Almost before we knew what had happened the enemy had burst in on one (M917) " s

side of the square. Then all was wild confusion—camels and Dervishes, flying Egyptians, screaming camp-followers, were all mixed in confusion. The other sides of the square were also attacked. Some of our men were firing at those in their front, others turning round and shooting into the crowded mass in the square. I was with a black regiment on the side opposite to where they burst in. The white officer who had been in command had fallen ill, and had been sent back a few days after we left Khartoum, and as I had been for weeks before that aiding him to the best of my powers, and there were no other officers to spare, Hicks asked me to take his place. As I had done everything I could for the poor fellows' comfort on the march, they had come to like me and to obey my orders as promptly as those of their former commander.

" As long as the other two sides of the square stood firm, I did so; but they soon gave way. I saw Hicks with his staff charge into the midst of the Dervishes, and then lost sight of them. Seeing that all was lost, I called to my men to keep together, to march off in regular order, and repel all assaults, as this was the only hope there was of getting free. They obeyed my orders splendidly. Two or three times the Dervishes charged upon them, but the blacks were as steady as rocks, and their volleys were so fatal that the enemy finally left us alone, preferring to aid in the slaughter of the panic-stricken Egj^ptians, and to share the spoil. We made for the wells. Each man drank his fill; those who had water-bottles filled them. We then marched on towards El Obeid, but before nightfall the Dervish horse had closed up round us. At daylight their infantry had also arrived, and fighting began.