" 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.
" All day we held our position, killing great numbers but losing many men ourselves. By night our water was exhausted. Then the soldiers offered to attack the enemy, but they were twenty to one against us, and I said to them, 'No, fight one day longer if we can hold on. The Dervishes may retire or they may offer us terms.' So we stood. By the
next evening we had lost half our number. After they had drawn off, one of the Dervish emirs came in with a white flag and offered life to all who would surrender and would wear the badge of the Mahdi and be his soldiers. I replied that an answer should be given in the morning. When he had left I gathered the men together.You have fought nobly,' I said, 'but you have scarce a round of ammunition left. If we fight again to-morrow we shall all be slaughtered. I thank you in the name of the Khedive for all that you have done, but I do not urge you to reject the terms offered. Your deaths would not benefit the Khedive. As far as I am concerned you are free to accept the terms offered.'
" They talked for some time together, and then the three native officers who were still alive came forward.
"'Bimbashi,' they said, 'what will be done about you? We are Mahomedans and their countrymen, but you are a white man and a Christian. You would not fight for the Mahdi?'
" 'No,' I said, 'I would not fight for him, nor would I gain my life at the price of being his slave. I wish you to settle the matter without any reference to me. I will take my chance. I may not be here in the morning. One man might escape where many could not. All I ask is that I may not be watched. If in the morning I am not here, you can all say that I disappeared, and you do not know how. I do not myself know what I am going to do yet.'
" They went away, and in a quarter of an hour returned and said that the men would surrender. If they had water and ammunition they would go on fighting till the end; but as they had neither, they would surrender.
"I felt that this was best. The Soudanese love battle, and would as readily fight on one side as on the other. They have done their duty well to the Khedive, and will doubtless fight as bravely for the Mahdi.
" The men lay in a square as they had fought, with sentries placed to warn them should the Dervishes make a night-attack.
British troops would have been well-nigh maddened with thirst after being twenty-four hours without water and fighting all day in the blazing sun, but they felt it little. Thej r were thirsty, but in their desert marches they are accustomed to thirst and to hold on for a long time without water. I was better off, for I had drunk sparingly the day before from my water-bottle and had still a draught left in it.
"I waited until I thought that the men were all asleep; then I stripped and stained myself from head to foot. I had carried stain with me, in case I might have to go out as a native to obtain information. In my valise I had a native dress and a native cloth, in which I could have passed as a peasant, but not as one of the Baggara. However, I put it on, passed through the sleeping men, and went up to a sentry.