The Dash for Khartoum: A Tale of the Nile Expedition, G. A. Henty [ebook offline reader txt] 📗

"We should not have known each other by our figures. It is nearly three years since you left Cheltenham, and of course we have both widened out a lot since then. You have widened more than I have, but I have grown most."

"Yes, you are quite two inches taller than I am, Rupert. What are you—six feet?"

"About half an inch under."

"Ah! then you are just the two inches taller. I am forty, chest measurement."

"I am not more than thirty-seven, Edgar."

"Ah! I expect you will be forty before you have done, Rupert; you see neither of us is anything like his full width yet. I have had harder work than you have."

"Ah! Edgar, if we could both play in the house team now it would make a difference, wouldn't it? You remember how Skinner was always lamenting our want of weight."

"I don't think," Edgar said with a laugh, "that he has gained much in weight. He was about our size before, but he looked to me quite a little chap when I saw him on the march."

"He is tough," Rupert said; "he is like whip-cord all over;[Pg 364] he is a capital fellow, not a bit changed. Easton has turned out first-rate; he was awfully good to me after you went away, and took no end of pains to cheer me up, had me down to his place in the holidays, and was a real friend. He is a big fellow now, and in another two or three years will make a splendid man. They will be delighted when we both turn up again. I don't think either of them thought, when they said good-bye to me, that I should ever get back. They thought the language would floor me, I think. You have got on wonderfully that way. I thought I had picked it up pretty quickly, but you jaw away as if you had been years at it."

"I have been more with them, Rupert; besides, I had picked up a little in the year I was at Cairo. You see I had nearly four months start of you, and in the life I led among them of course I had a lot more occasion to talk than you have had, always on camel back and only talking in the encampment at night. El Bakhat says that in a casual conversation now no one would notice that I was not a native. So if we do get into any mess and have to ride for it by ourselves, we shall have no difficulty in making our way across the country; but I do not see much chance of that. If we should fall in with the Mahdists your sheik can give his name and appear to be the head of the party, and as there is nothing against him I don't see why we should have any trouble."

"I daresay we shall fall in with some Mahdists," Rupert said. "I got up the maps thoroughly before I started, and specially studied the routes leading to the coast. I fancy the line we shall travel will take us down by Kassala. The Mahdists were besieging it, but I don't know whether it has fallen or not. The safest route would certainly be to go through Abyssinia, but the Arabs wouldn't like to travel that way if they could help it. There have been troubles for years between Abyssinia and the Soudan, and it is by no means certain what[Pg 365] sort of treatment we should meet if we got there. Massowah is certainly the best place to strike for. Suakim would have been the best place in some respects, because there are lots of English there and we should have no difficulty in getting money to pay the sheiks; but after all it is only a question of a week or two's delay at the most. I have letters from my father authorizing me to draw upon him for any amount, and if we cannot get it at Massowah we shall only have to send up to the officer in command at Suakim; he would cash a draft out of the pay-chest; or if he could not do it that way, would get some merchant there to do it."

They no longer hurried, but made moderate marches, stopping only at small villages. There was no difficulty in obtaining food and shelter, as Rupert's conductor had brought on with him a sufficient store of merchandise to pay their way down to the coast. On these occasions Edgar and Rupert kept in the background looking after the camels, while Yussuf waited upon the sheiks, and afterwards cooked a meal for the two Englishmen. He did most of the talking with the poorer villagers, gossiped with them about the state of the country, the chance of peace being re-established, and retailed all sorts of wonderful stories of the doings of the Mahdists.

Both branches of the Nile were crossed in their journey, but no incident of any kind occurred until they had passed the eastern arm. They were now getting into a more dangerous country. Bodies of the Mahdi's troops going to and from Kassala, which had, they learned, at last surrendered, were encountered, and questions were asked as to where they were going and what was the object of their journey.

Upon these occasions Ben Ibyn acted as spokesman and represented that they had friends among the Hadendowah tribesmen, and wished to learn whether any trade could be opened with the coast. When within a day's march of Kassala they[Pg 366] met a number of camels laden with spoil from that town on their way to Khartoum, accompanied by a number of foot soldiers and ten or twelve horsemen. Riding twenty or thirty yards behind the sheiks Edgar saw one of the horsemen look earnestly at El Bakhat, and then spur forward to speak to the others who were a short distance ahead.

"That fellow has recognized El Bakhat!" he exclaimed; "ride on, Rupert!"

They both shook the halters and the heiries broke into a trot.

"Ride, sheiks!" Edgar exclaimed as he came up to the others; "one of the horsemen has recognized El Bakhat."

A minute or two later they heard a shout behind them, but paid no attention.

"We have got four or five hundred yards start," Rupert said, looking back, "but the horsemen will overtake us; they can go faster than the camels for a burst. Ride, sheik," he said; "push on to the utmost. If we can get a mile away from the footmen before they come up to us we can thrash the horsemen."

The start they had obtained while the man who had recognized El Bakhat was explaining to the others who he was and how much his capture was desired at Khartoum, was invaluable to the fugitives, and the horsemen started in a body, shouting and yelling and firing their guns. The bullets whistled harmlessly round the fugitives.

"Make for that clump of trees on rising ground," Edgar said; "then spring off the camels and fight them on foot. What arms have you, Rupert?"

"I have two revolvers besides this rifle. You take one of them; we shall beat them off easily enough, they are only about two to one."

When they reached the trees they were but a hundred yards[Pg 367] ahead and less than a mile from the caravan, which had halted when the horsemen commenced the pursuit. They leapt from their camels.

"Do you hold their bridles, Yussuf," Edgar said; "we will beat them off," and steadying his rifle against the trunk of a tree he fired at the nearest horseman, who fell instantly from the saddle.

Rupert's rifle cracked a moment later, and the two sheiks added their fire. Had the horsemen been coming up in a close body they would have gained the wood, for the leader was but fifty yards away when Edgar fired; but they were scattered, and the leaders being shot down the others wheeled their horses and galloped back towards the caravan at full speed.

"Now we will be off again," Rupert said, and in a minute they had mounted and continued their flight.

"There is no fear of the footmen overtaking us," Ben Ibyn remarked. "Our camels are not like yours, but they can trot at a good pace for forty miles. It is fortunate we had them, for they would soon have been up to them had we only had common camels. Of course we must strike off straight for Massowah now. The danger is not over; some of the horsemen will bear the news to Kassala and a troop will be sent out in pursuit of us. It is well that we have journeyed quietly and that the beasts are in good condition."

Hour after hour passed. The camels kept on with unswerving gait until long after nightfall.

"My beast smells water," Ben Ibyn said as his camel, after waving his head backwards and forwards, suddenly quickened its pace.

Another quarter of an hour they stopped at a small pool in what during the rainy season was the bed of a river, and here they halted. The camels having drunk their fill were given an ample allowance of corn from the saddle-bags, and were then[Pg 368] picketed close at hand, while Yussuf prepared a meal for their masters.

"What is the country like that we have to traverse?" Edgar asked.

"By to-morrow night," Ben Ibyn said, "we shall have reached the mountains. We are on very high land now, and have a great descent to make to reach the coast. We must inquire the way to the pass by which the road from Kassala descends to Massowah. If we strike it without failure we shall be safe; but if we miss our way, and the horsemen from Kassala get there first, we shall be in a bad position. They will have heard of our arms and strength, and are sure to have too strong a force for us to attack. If we fail to find the road at once, our best plan would be to turn and travel north until we reach a road going down to Suakim."

"Would that one of us had travelled here before!" El Bakhat said. "If we could but have continued our journey to-night we should be safe. Upon the desert one can travel by the stars, but the ground is getting far too broken to cross at night; we should only weary our camels in vain."

"How far is it to the gorge you speak of, El Bakhat?"

"I know not for certain. Those who travel the road have told me that it is three or four days' journey with laden camels from Kassala. Our camels can easily do three days' march in one, and if we have the good fortune to strike the road near the mouth of the pass we may pass through it before dark to-morrow; but by that time they may be there from Kassala."

"Well, I suppose we must take our chances," Rupert said.

He and Edgar soon lay down and were fast asleep, but the two Arabs talked together for a long time before they followed their example. At daybreak the party were on their feet.

"We talked it over last night," Ben Ibyn said; "and we[Pg 369] both think that it were best not to proceed. The horsemen would have reached the town with the news three hours after noon, and had they sent off at once horsemen and fast camelmen down the road to Massowah, we think that they would be at the pass before we could possibly reach it. Had we known the country and could have travelled all night, we should have been there long before them. As it is, the risk would be too great. We are already some distance north of the Massowah road, and it will not be so many days longer a journey to Suakim than to Massowah. Osman Digma is lying at Handoub and Tamai, so we cannot come down by the Berber road; but there are passes by which we can descend to the low country near Tokar. Once down there we can cross from the foot of the hills to the sea by night, and then follow the coast until we arrive at Suakim."

"I think that is the best plan, sheik," Edgar said. "A few days will make no difference, and it would be as well to avoid all risks."

Accordingly, on mounting, the camels' heads were turned to the north-east. Yussuf rode behind Rupert and Edgar by turns, so as to divide the labour between the two heiries. A few villages were passed, but the inhabitants fled into their houses or into the fields on seeing the approach of the party, the arrival of