As he had expected, he had no difficulty in making arrangements. Several of the native boats that had already landed their stores would leave on the following day, and Gregory obtained an order for the passage of the two women. He then drew some money from the paymaster, and on his return to head-quarters gave Zaki a hundred dollars for his sisters. The black was overpowered with joy, and, going off, returned with the two girls—for they were little more. Each took one of Gregory's hands and pressed it to her forehead and heart, and murmured her thanks.
"Do not thank me," he said; "it is but a small part of the debt that I owe your brother. I do not know whether he has told you that he saved my life at the risk of his own."
"I have been thinking, my lord," Zaki said, "that it would be well for them to go down in the boat as far as Don-gola. Our village is not many miles from that place, and many of our people fled there, and doubtless they will return to their villages and plant their fields now that they have no longer any fear of the Dervishes. At any rate they are certain to meet friends at Dongola."
"Very well, I will get the order altered; there will be no difficulty about that. I shall be very glad to know that you will have a home to go to when this war is quite over."
" I shall never go as long as my lord will keep me," Zaki said fervently.
" I certainly shall not part with you, Zaki, as long as I remain in this country, which will probably be for a long time."
The next day Zaki aided in carrying his sisters' goods down to the river bank, and saw them on board one of the native craft, which carried also fifteen or twenty other fugitives.
" Now, Mr. Hilliard," General Hunter said that morning, " you can devote yourself to the object for which you came here. Unquestionably there must be many among the prisoners who fought at El Obeid. You may gather all particulars of the battle from their lips. The greater portion of the white troops will march down the country at once. Of course I don't know what your plans may be, but unless you have a very good reason to the contrary I should certainly advise you to retain your position in the Egyptian army. A great deal of work will have to be done before matters are quite settled down, and then civil administration of some sort will of course be formed, under which you would certainly obtain a far better post than you could hope to get at home."
"I have quite made up my mind to do so, sir. Certainly when I left Cairo I had no idea of remaining permanently in the service; but I have been so exceptionally fortunate, owing largely to your kindness, that I have been seriously thinking the matter over, and am quite determined that if I can obtain an appointment I will remain here. I have no ties whatever either in Lower Egypt or in England, no way of earning my living there, and possibly, as I have begun so early, I may rest in time in what will no doubt become an important branch of the Egyptian administration."
"I am glad to hear that you take that view. We all grumble at the Soudan, and yet there are few of us but would be sorry to leave it; and there can be no doubt whatever that, under our administration, it will in time become a magnificently rich and fertile province."
Being relieved from other duty at present, Gregory Avent to the great yard near the mosque, called the Praying Square, where the majority of the Dervish prisoners were confined.
Addressing a man of some five-and-forty years, he asked him in Arabic whether many among the prisoners had fought against Hicks at El Obeid.
The man hesitated.
"I am not asking on the part of the Sirdar," Gregory said; "and you may be sure that if no punishment is inflicted against those who have fought against us now, there can be no thought of punishment for a thing that happened so many years ago. My father was, I believe, one of the English officers killed there; but as he spoke Arabic well it is just possible he was not killed, but, like Slatin and Neufeld, was kept as a slave, in case he might be useful."
"There are many here who fought against Hicks," the native said. "I myself fought there, and nearly all the Baggara who are as old as I am were there also. I have never heard of a white man who escaped death. When we broke into the square the English General and his officers charged into the middle of us, and all fell. I was not close at the time, but I saw their bodies an hour afterwards."
"My father was not a fighting officer; he was the interpreter, and may not have been near the others. When the attack by your people was made, I have heard that one of the Soudanese regiments held together and marched away, and that there was a white officer with them."
" That was so. Two days afterwards we surrounded' them. They fought hard, and at last, when we had lost many men, we offered that if they would surrender and become the Mahdi's men they would be spared. Most of them did so, just as some of our tribesmen taken by you at Atbara have now taken service with you."
"But the white officer—what became of him?'
"I cannot say," the native said. "I have no memory of him. He may have fallen before they surrendered—who can say ? Certainly I do not remember a white man being killed after they did so. I will ask others who were there, and to-morrow will tell you what they say."
It was a busy day in Omdurman. The army that had made such efforts and achieved so great a triumph marched in military order, with bands playing, through the town. The Sirdar had a double motive in ordering them to do so. In the first place, it was a legitimate triumph of the troops thus to march as conquerors through the town; in the second place, the sight would impress not only the inhabitants but the Dervish prisoners with a sense of the power of those who henceforth would be their masters, and undoubtedly the show had the desired effect. The orderly ranks as they swept along, the proud demeanour of the men, their physique and equipment, created a profound impression among the natives. Half of them were their own kinsmen, many of whom had fought for the Khalifa and had now aided in defeating him. This was what had been accomplished by drill and discipline, and the influence of white officers. The Soudanese were evidently well fed and cared for; not even the haughty Baggara held their heads so high.
Especially admired were the artillery, battery following battery in perfect order. These were the guns that had carried death into the ranks of the Dervishes, against whose fire even the fanatical bravery of the followers of the Khalifa was unable to stand. When the march past was concluded there was scarce one of the prisoners who Avould not gladly have enlisted. On the following day Gregory again went to the Praying Square. The man he had the morning before seen, at once came up to him.
"I have enquired of many who were at El Obeid, my lord," he said. " All say that there was no white man in the camp when the black battalion surrendered, though one had been seen while the fighting was going on; nor was the body of one found where the fight had taken place on the previous day. It was a matter of talk among the Dervishes of the time, for they had lain in a circle round the enemy, and were convinced that no one passed through their lines. Those who surrendered said that he had taken the command, and had exposed himself to the hottest fire and encouraged them, telling them that the more bravely they defended themselves the more likely they were to obtain favourable terms. The night before, he had advised them to accept any offer the Dervishes might make, but on the following morning he was missing, and none could give any account of what had become of him. The same tale is told by all to whom I have spoken."
The story made a profound impression upon Gregory. It seemed possible that the father of whom he had no remembrance might have been the sole white survivor of Hicks's army. True, there was nothing to prove that he was the white man who had joined the black battalion that escaped the first day's massacre. There were other non-combatants, Vizitelly, the artist of the Illustrated London News, and O'Donovan, the correspondent of the Daily News. Either of these might also have been at any other portion of the square when the attack commenced, and unable to join Hicks and his officers in their final charge into the midst of the enemy. Still, it was at least possible that his father was the man who had retired from the field with the black battalion, and who had afterwards so strangely disappeared. If so, what had become of him all these years ? Had he made off in disguise only to be murdered by wandering bands? Had he been concealed for months in the hut of a friendly tribesman? What had he been doing since? Had he been killed in trying to make his way down? Had he been enslaved, and was he still lingering on in a wretched existence? He could hardly hope that he had fallen into friendly hands, for had he been alive he would surely have managed, with his knowledge of the country, to make his way down, or to reach Khartoum when it was still held by the Egyptians.