With Kitchener in the Soudan: A Story of Atbara and Omdurman Read online

  Chapter 7: To Metemmeh.

  Zaki at once set to work to collect the articles needed for thejourney; and Gregory obtained, from the transport, another horse andtwo native saddles. He was well satisfied with his own animal; and,even had he found in the transport yard a better horse, he would stillhave preferred his own, as they were accustomed to each other. Hebought pistols for himself and Zaki, and a matchlock for the latter.

  Everything was ready by the time Gregory went to the mess to lunch, onthe day fixed for his departure. Nothing whatever had been said as tohis leaving, as it was possible that some of the native servants, whowaited upon them, might have picked up sufficient English to gatherthat something important was about to take place. When, however, themeal was over and he said carelessly, "I shall not be at mess thisevening;" he saw, by the expression of the officers' faces, that theyall were aware of the reason for his absence. One after another theyeither shook hands with him, or gave him a quiet pat on the shoulder,with the words "Take care of yourself, lad," or "A safe journey and aspeedy return," or some other kind wish.

  Going to his hut, he was shaved by Zaki at the back of the neck, up tohis ears; so that the white, closely-fitting cap would completely coverthe hair. Outside the tent a sauce pan was boiling with herbs andberries, which the lad had procured from an old woman who wasconsidered to have a great knowledge of simples. At four in theafternoon, Gregory was stained from head to foot, two coats of the dyebeing applied. This used but a small quantity of the liquor, and therest was poured into a gourd, for future use. The dresses were ready,with the exception of the Mahdi patches, which were to be sewn on attheir first halting place.

  Before it was dark, Gregory went across to the General's quarters. Theblack sentry stopped him.

  "The General wants to speak to me," Gregory said, in Arabic.

  The man called up the native sergeant from the guard tent, who askedwhat he wanted.

  "I am here by the orders of the General."

  The sergeant looked doubtful, but went in. He returned in a minute, andmotioned to Gregory to follow him in. The General looked at him, fromhead to foot.

  "I suppose it is you, Hilliard," he said, "but I certainly should nothave recognized you. With that yellowish-brown skin, you could passanywhere as a Soudan Arab. Will the colour last?"

  "I am assured that it will last for some days, but I am taking enoughwith me to renew it, four or five times."

  "Well, unless some unexpected obstacle occurs, I think you are safefrom detection. Mind you avoid men from El Obeid; if you do not fall inwith them, you should be safe. Of course, when you have sewn on thosepatches, your disguise will be complete.

  "I suppose you have no idea how long you will be away?"

  "It will take me five days to go there, and five days to come back. Ishould think that if I am three days in the camp, I ought to get allthe information required. In a fortnight I should be here; though, ofcourse, I may be longer. If I am not back within a few days of thattime, you will know that it is because I have stayed there, in thehopes of getting more certain news. If I don't return in three weeks,it will be because something has gone wrong."

  "I hope it will not be so, lad. As regards appearance and language, Ihave no fear of your being detected; but you must always bear in mindthat there are other points. You have had the advantage of seeing thecamps of the native regiments, when the men are out of uniform--howthey walk, laugh uproariously, play tricks with each other, andgenerally behave. These are all natives of the Soudan, and no smallproportion of them have been followers of the Mahdi, and have foughtagainst us, so they may be taken as typical of the men you are goingamong. It is in all these little matters that you will have to becareful.

  "Now, I will not detain you longer. I suppose your horses are onboard?"

  It had been arranged that Gregory should be taken down to Korti, in anative craft that was carrying some stores required at that camp.

  "Yes, sir. My boy put them on board, two hours ago."

  "Here is the pass by which you can enter or leave the British lines, atany time. The boat will be there before daylight, but the landing ofthe stores will not, of course, take place until later. Show this passto the first officer who comes down. It contains an order for you to beallowed to start on your journey, at once.

  "This other pass is for your return. You had better, at your firsthalt, sew it under one of your patches. It is, as you see, written on apiece of linen, so that however closely you may be examined, there willbe no stiffness or crackling, as would be the case with paper.

  "Now goodbye, Hilliard! It is a satisfaction to me that you haveundertaken this journey on your own initiative, and on your ownrequest. I believe that you have a fair chance of carrying itthrough--more so than men with wider shoulders and bigger limbs wouldhave. If you come to grief, I shall blame myself for having acceptedyour offer; but I shall at least know that I thought it over seriously,and that, seeing the importance of the object in view, I did not feelmyself justified in refusing."

  With a cordial shake of the hand, he said goodbye to Gregory. Thelatter went off to his hut. He did not leave it until dusk, and thenwent down to the boat, where Zaki had remained with the horses.

  As soon as it started they lay down alongside some bales, on the deckof the native craft, and were soon asleep. They did not wake until aslight bump told them they were alongside the wharf, at Korti.

  Day was just breaking, so no move was made until an hour later. Anofficer came down, with the fatigue party, to unload the stores thatshe had brought down. When the horses were ashore, Gregory handed thepass to the officer, who was standing on the bank. He looked at it,with some surprise.

  "Going to do some scouting," he muttered, and then called to a nativeofficer, "Pass these two men beyond the outposts. They have an orderfrom General Hunter."

  "Will you be away long?" he asked Gregory, in Arabic.

  "A week or more, my lord," the latter replied.

  "Ah! I suppose you are going to Gakdul. As far as we have heard, thereare no Dervishes there. Well, you must keep a sharp lookout. They maybe in hiding anywhere about there, and your heads won't be worth much,if they lay hands on you."

  "We intend to do so, sir;" and then, mounting, they rode on, the nativeofficer walking beside them.

  "You know the country, I suppose?" he said. "The Dervishes are bad, butI would rather fall into their hands than lose my way in the desert.The one is a musket ball or a quick chop with a knife, the other anagony for two or three days."

  "I have been along the road before," Zaki said. "There is no fear of mylosing my way; and, even if I did so, I could travel by the stars."

  "I wish we were all moving," the native said. "It is dull work stayinghere, month after month."

  As soon as they were beyond the lines, they thanked the officer andwent off, at a pace native horses are capable of keeping up for hours.

  "Korti is a much pleasanter camp to stay in than Merawi," Gregory said."It really looks a delightful place. It is quite evident that theMahdists have never made a raid here."

  The camp stood on a high bank above the river. There were spreadinggroves of trees, and the broad avenues, that had been constructed whenthe Gordon relief expedition was encamped there, could still be seen.Beyond it was a stretch of land which had been partly cultivated. Sevasgrass grew plentifully, and acacia and mimosa shrubs in patches.

  They rode to the wells of Hambok, a distance of some five-and-thirtymiles, which they covered in five hours. There they halted, wateredtheir horses and, after giving them a good feed, turned them out tomunch the shrubs or graze on the grass, as they chose. They then had ameal from the food they had brought with them, made a shelter ofbushes, for the heat was intense, and afterwards sewed the Mahdipatches upon their clothes.

  When the sun went down they fetched the horses in, gave them a smallfeed, and then fastened them to some bushes near. As there was plentyof water in the wells, they took an empty gourd down and, stripping,poured water ov
er their heads and bodies; then, feeling greatlyrefreshed, dressed and lay down to sleep.

  The moon rose between twelve and one; and, after giving the horses adrink, they mounted and rode to Gakdul, which they reached soon afterdaybreak. They had stopped a mile away, and Zaki went forward on foot,hiding himself as much as possible from observation. On his return hereported that no one was at the wells, and they therefore rode on,taking every precaution against surprise.

  The character of the scenery had completely changed; and they had, forsome miles, been winding along at the foot of the Jebel-el-Jilif hills.These were steep and precipitous, with spurs and intermediate valleys.The wells differed entirely from those at Hambok, which were merelyholes dug in the sand, the water being brought up in one of the skinbags they had brought with them, and poured into shallow cisterns madein the surface. At Gakdul the wells were large pools in the rock, atthe foot of one of the spurs of the hill, two miles from the line ofthe caravan route. Here the water was beautifully clear, and abundantenough for the wants of a large force.

  "It is lucky I had you with me, Zaki, for I should certainly have gonestraight on past the wells, without knowing where they were; and asthere are no others this side of Abu Klea, I should have had rather abad day."

  The three forts which the Guards had built, when they came on inadvance of General Stewart's column, were still standing; as well as anumber of smaller ones, which had been afterwards added.

  "It is rather a bad place for being caught, Zaki, for the ground is sobroken, and rocky, that the Dervishes might creep up without beingseen."

  "Yes, sir, it is a bad place," Zaki agreed. "I am glad that none of theDervishes were here, for we should not have seen them, until we werequite close."

  Zaki had, on the road, cut a large faggot of dried sticks, and a firewas soon lighted.

  "You must give the horses a good allowance of grain," Gregory said,"for they will be able to pick up nothing here, and it is a long rideto Abu Klea."

  "We shall have to be very careful there, my lord. It is not so very farfrom Metemmeh, and we are very likely to find Baggaras at the wells. Itwas there they met the English force that went through to Metemmeh.

  "I think it would be better for us to halt early, this evening, andcamp at the foot of Jebel Sergain. The English halted there, beforeadvancing to Abu Klea. We can take plenty of water in the two skins, togive the horses a drink and leave enough for tomorrow. There is grassin abundance there.

  "When the moon rises, we can make our way round to avoid Abu Klea, andhalt in the middle of the day for some hours. We could then ride on assoon as the sun is low, halt when it becomes too dark to ride, and thenstart again when the moon rises. In that way we shall reach the river,before it is light."

  "I think that would be a very good plan, Zaki. We should find it verydifficult to explain who we were, if we met any Dervishes at Abu Klea.I will have a look at my sketch map; we have found it very good andaccurate, so far; and with that, and the compass the General gave mebefore starting, we ought to have no difficulty in striking the river,as the direction is only a little to the east of south."

  He opened a tin of preserved meat, of which he had four with him, andplaced it to warm near the fire.

  "We should have had to throw the other tins away, if we had gone on toAbu Klea," he said. "It would never have done for them to be found uponus, if we were searched."

  When the meat was hot they ate it, using some biscuits as plates.Afterwards they feasted on a melon they had brought with them, and wereglad to hear their horses munching the leaves of some shrubs near.

  When the moon rose, they started. It was slow work at first, as theyhad some difficulty in passing the rough country lying behind the hill.Once past it, they came upon a level plain, and rode fast for somehours. At ten o'clock they halted, and lay down under the shelter ofthe shrubs; mounting again at four, and riding for another three hours.

  "How far do you think we are from the river now? By the map, I shouldthink we cannot be much more than twenty miles from it."

  "I don't know, my lord. I have never been along here before; but itcertainly ought not to be farther than that."

  "We have ridden nine hours. We travelled slowly for the first four orfive, but we have come fast, since then. We must give the horses a goodrest, so we will not move on till the moon rises, which will be about aquarter to two. It does not give a great deal of light, now, and weshall have to make our way through the scrub; but, at any rate, weought to be close to the river, before morning."

  When the sun was low they again lit a fire, and had another good meal,giving the greater portion of their stock of biscuits to the horses,and a good drink of water.

  "We must use up all we can eat before tomorrow, Zaki, and betakeourselves to a diet of dried dates. There is enough water left to givethe horses a drink before we start, then we shall start as genuineDervishes."

  They found that the calculation they had made as to distance wascorrect and, before daybreak, arrived on the bank of the Nile, and atonce encamped in a grove. In the morning they could see the houses ofMetemmeh, rising from the line of sandy soil, some five miles away.

  "There seems to be plenty of bush and cover, all along the bank, Zaki.We will stay here till the evening, and then move three miles fartherdown; so that you may be handy, if I have to leave the Dervishes in ahurry."

  "Could we not go into the camp, my lord?"

  "It would be much better, in some respects, if we could; but, you see,you do not speak Arabic."

  "No, master; but you could say I was carried off as a slave, when I wasa boy. You see, I do speak a little Arabic, and could understand simpleorders; just as any slave boy would, if he had been eight or ten yearsamong the Arabs."

  "It would certainly be a great advantage to have you and the horseshandy. However, at first I will go in and join the Dervishes, and seehow they encamp. They are, no doubt, a good deal scattered; and if wecould find a quiet spot, where a few mounted men have taken up theirstation, we would join them. But before we did that, it would benecessary to find out whether they came from Kordofan, or from some ofthe villages on the White Nile. It would never do to stumble into aparty from El Obeid."

  They remained quiet all day. The wood extended a hundred and fiftyyards back from the river, and there was little fear that anyone comingdown from Omdurman would enter it, when within sight of Metemmeh. Atdusk they rode on again, until they judged that they were within twomiles of the town; and then, entering a clump of high bushes by theriver, halted for the night.