In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 47

"But your Excellencies are not to have perfect freedom," said Ibrahim slowly.

"What do you mean?" cried Frank.

"When you go out I and three or four of my young men are to attend you with the camels."

"So much the better, Ibrahim. You will be invaluable to us."

"Your Excellency is very good to say so," replied the old man sadly; "but that is not all."

"Not all?" cried the professor.

"No, Excellency. The Emir Prince says that he feels answerable to the great Hakim for your safety; that you are well known to be the Hakim's followers, and that there are wise men, Hakims of the people here in Omdurman and Khartoum, who are dogs, he said--fools and pretenders who can do nothing but work ill. These people, he says, hate the great Hakim with a jealous hate, and would gladly injure his servants.

Therefore he gives the head of his bodyguard, the Baggara who has charge of us here, orders to attend you everywhere you go."

"Alone?" said Frank, after a few moments' display of blank surprise and annoyance.

"No, Excellency; always with eight or ten men; and he is to answer for your safety abroad and here with his head."

The Sheikh's words seemed to have robbed the little party of the power of speech. But at last Frank exclaimed--

"Then we have journeyed all this way for naught?"

"To be as badly off as if we had stayed in Cairo and waited for the British and Egyptian advance."

"No," said the doctor quietly; "disappointment is making you both go to extremes. We are here on the spot, and we must work by other hands."

"Whose?" said Frank bitterly.

The doctor pointed gravely to Ibrahim, who drew himself up with a look at the speaker full of grat.i.tude and pride.

"Yes, O Hakim," he said quietly; "it seems that I and my young men are at liberty to come and go with the camels, and we can mix with the people as we please. If, then, their Excellencies will trust their servant and give him time he will do all he can to search out tidings of their friend and brother. Shall it be so?"

"Yes," said the doctor firmly.

The old Sheikh bowed, and then turned to Frank.

"Ben Eddin is black," he said, with a smile, "and the day or night may come when I shall say to him, 'I have glad tidings for you. Come as one of my camel-drivers, and maybe I can get you past the guard.'"

"Ibrahim!" cried the young man wildly, "don't promise me too much."

"I promise nothing, Ben Eddin," said the old man smiling; "but an Arab Sheikh and the black slave with him can go far unnoticed. Wait and see.

Till then go on and be a patient servant to the sick man here, the Emir's son. He likes you in his way. Maybe he will be better soon, and want you to bear him company here and there."

"Yes, it is possible," cried Frank excitedly.

"And it would give you time to search the place or learn by chance where the prisoner may be. It is not wise to let the heart sink in sorrow as the sun goes down amongst the mists of night. Does it not rise again and bring the light? Surely it is better that you are here."

"Yes," said Frank eagerly. "I spoke in haste."

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

SAM'S TONGUE.

As soon as the first disappointment had pa.s.sed off it was decided to make the best of their position--one whose advantages soon grew upon the adventurers. So the Hakim settled down steadily to his task of healing, and the Emir's son not only rapidly improved, but grew more friendly as he gained strength.

This friendliness was not displayed in his behaviour towards his doctor but in his dealings with Frank, who in his efforts to help Morris devoted himself heart and soul to their princ.i.p.al patient.

The young Emir had from the first seemed to be attracted by Frank, while he was morose to his white attendants, the very fact of the young man being a black and a slave to a white seeming to form a bond of sympathy; and finding that the Hakim would take no gifts, he often showed his satisfaction by making some present or another to his dumb attendant.

A greater one was to come.

Advantage was soon taken of the Emir's concession. Notice was given to the Baggara guard, and one afternoon, guarded by six mounted men, Frank, the professor, and Sam, attended by the Sheikh, mounted their camels and rode out of the palace gates to inspect the city and a part of its surroundings, with which, from the freedom he had already enjoyed, Ibrahim was becoming pretty well acquainted.

As soon as they started, the guard fell back to the rear, contenting themselves with following, and leaving the Sheikh to take whatever course he chose, so that he led, with Frank at his side, talking to him in a low voice as if describing all they saw to his dumb companion, who questioned him from time to time with his eager eyes.

Long experience as dragoman and guide had made the old man wonderfully intelligent and apt to comprehend his employer's desires, and that he did so now was shown at the first start.

"Which way am I going, Ben Eddin?" he said quietly. "Through the better parts of the city, where the wealthier people are, who keep slaves," and in a few minutes Frank was gazing about him with horror as he asked himself what must the worst parts of the place be if these were the best. For eyes and nostrils were disgusted at every turn. The heat was intense, and wherever any creature died or the offal of the inhabitants'

food was cast out into the narrow ways, there it festered and rotted beneath the torrid rays of the sun, while myriads of loathsome flies, really a blessing to the place in their natural duty of scavengers, rose in clouds, and to hurry from one plague was only to rush into another.

Misery, neglect, and wretchedness appeared on every hand; but the population swarmed, and habit seemed to have hardened them to the power of existing where it appeared to be a certainty that some pestilence must rise and sweep them off.

Frank was not long in discriminating between the free and the enslaved.

Those swarthy, black often and s.h.i.+ning, sauntering about well-armed, and with a haughty, insolent bearing and stare at the mounted party; these dull of eye and skin, cringing, dejected, half naked, and often displaying the marks of the brutality of their conquerors, as they bent under heavy loads or pa.s.sed on with the roughest of agricultural implements to and from the outskirts of the town.

"Plenty of slaves, Ben Eddin," said the Sheikh gravely. "Poor wretches, swept in from the villages to grow the Baggara's corn and draw and carry their water. They spare their camels to make these people bear the loads. Plenty of slaves. Look!"

Frank's eyes were already noting that to which the Sheikh drew his attention, for a party of about a dozen unhappy fellaheen, joined together by a long chain, which in several cases had fretted their black skins into open sores, were being driven along by a Baggara mounted upon a slight, swift-looking camel, from whose high back he wielded a long-lashed whip, and flicked with it from time to time at the bare skin of one of the slaves who cringed along looking ready to drop.

They were on in front, stopping the way in the narrow street between two rows of mud-brick houses, and consequently Frank's party had to slacken their pace, the driver having glanced insolently back at them and then fixed his eyes half-wonderingly upon Frank, before turning again and continuing his way, quite ignoring the fact that those behind were waiting to pa.s.s.

When he stopped he had turned his camel across the narrow road, completely blocking the way, and when he went on again, after gazing his full, he hurried his camel a little so as to overtake the last of the ironed slaves, and lashed at him sharply, making the poor wretch wince and take a quick step or two which brought him into collision with his fellow-sufferer in front, causing him to stumble and driving him against the next, so that fully half of the gang were in confusion.

The result was a savage outburst from their driver, who pressed on, making his whip sing through the air and crack loudly, as he lashed at the unfortunates, treating them far worse than the beasts that perish; but not a murmur arose as they stumbled on through the foul sand of the narrow way.

But there was one sound, a low, harsh, menacing grating together of teeth, and the Sheikh, who had long been inured to such scenes, turned sharply, to see that Frank's eyes were blazing with the rage within him.

"Yes," he whispered warningly, "it is horrible; but they are the conquering race from the south. We must bear it. Yes."

"Hah!" sighed Frank, and he shuddered at the bare idea of his brother being a victim to such a fate.

Just at that moment the roadway widened out a little, and the Sheikh took advantage of this to press on, so as to get his party past the depressing scene.

The camel he rode protested a little, and at the moaning growl it uttered the Baggara turned a little, and his eyes met those of Frank, looking dark and menacing.

"Hasten, Ben Eddin," whispered the Sheikh, and the young man's camel made step for step with that of the Sheikh; but before Frank's eyes quitted those of the slave-driver the man said something fiercely, raised his whip, and was in the act of striking at the young Englishman when there was a plunge, a bound, and the leader of the Emir's guard had driven his beautiful Arab horse against the flank of the driver's camel, sending the poor beast staggering against the mud house to the left and nearly dismounting the rider.