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In the Mahdi's Grasp

by George Manville Fenn · English · Gutenberg #24926 · 649,432 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: In the Mahdi's Grasp

Author: George Manville Fenn

Illustrator: Lancelot Speed


        
Release date: March 28, 2008 [eBook #24926]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24926

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE MAHDI'S GRASP ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




In the Mahdi's Grasp, by George Manville Fenn.

________________________________________________________________________

A young army officer has been captured during the wars in Soudan, and is
being held as a slave in the stronghold of the Mahdi.  For years it had
been thought that he was dead.  His friends in London decide to go and
try to rescue him.  One of them is a well-known and proficient surgeon.
They arrive in Cairo, and proceed on down into the Soudan, where they
get in contact with an influential Sheikh.  They establish themselves by
doing many cures, where it is possible, and gradually work themselves
nearer and nearer to the place where they estimate the missing Harry to
be.  Eventually they are able to make contact.  Harry breaks his own arm
in order to be brought to the surgeon, or Hakim, for a cure.

Eventually they are able to escape with him, but to do so they have to
run right through a battle.  They had brought out with them a personal
manservant, at his own request, and he had been in a semi-disguise, by
staining the skin a very deep colour.  This very nearly results in his
being killed on the battlefield through which they are escaping.

An informative book, quite a long one, in a good Manville Fenn style,
which is well-known for sustained tension.

________________________________________________________________________

IN THE MAHDI'S GRASP, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.



CHAPTER ONE.

IN WIMPOLE STREET.

Sam--or, as he liked to be called, "Mr Samuel," or "Mr Downes,"
holding as he did the important post of confidential and body-servant to
Dr Robert Morris, a position which made it necessary for him to open
the door to patients and usher them into the consulting-room, and upon
particular occasions be called in to help with a visitor who had turned
faint about nothing--"a poor plucked 'un," as he termed him--

To begin again:--

Sam, who was in his best black and stiffest white tie, consequent upon
"the doctor" having company to dinner that evening, had just come out of
the dining-room of the dingy house in Wimpole Street, carrying a
mahogany tray full of dish covers, when cook opened the glass door at
the top of the kitchen stairs, thrust her head into the hall, looked
eagerly at Sam, as she stood fanning her superheated face with her
apron, and said--

"Well?"

There was a folding pair of trestles standing ready, and Sam placed the
tray upon them, raised a white damask napkin from where it hung over his
arm, and was about to wipe his perspiring forehead with it, when cook
exclaimed sharply--

"Sam!"

"Forgot," said that gentleman, and he replaced the napkin upon his arm
and took out a clean pocket-handkerchief, did what was necessary, and
then repeated cook's word--

"Well?"

"Did they say anything about the veal cutlets?"

"No," said Sam, shaking his head.

"Nor yet about the curry?"

"No.  And they didn't say a word about the soup, nor half a word about
the fish."

"My chycest gravy soup, _ar lar prin temps_" said cook bitterly, "and
_filly de sole mater de hotel_.  One might just as well be cutting chaff
for horses.  I don't see any use in toiling and moiling over the things
as I do.  Mr Landon's just as bad as master, every bit.  I don't
believe either of 'em's got a bit o' taste.  Hot as everything was,
too!"

"Spesherly the plates," said Sam solemnly.  "Burnt one of my fingers
when the napkin slipped."

"Then you should have took care.  What's a dinner unless the plates and
dishes are hot?"

"What, indeed?" said Sam; "but they don't take no notice of anything.
My plate looked lovely, you could see your face out o' shape in every
spoon; and I don't believe they even saw the eighteen-pen'orth o'
flowers on the table."

"Savages! that's what they are," said cook.  "But they did eat the
things."

"Yes, they pecked at 'em, but they was talking all the time."

"About my cooking?"

"Not they!  The doctor was talking about a surgical case he had been to
see at the hospital.  Something about a soldier as had been walking
about for three years with a bit of broken spear stuck in him out in the
Soudan."

"Ugh!" grunted cook, with a shudder of disgust.  "That was over the veal
cutlets," said Sam thoughtfully.

"And what did Mr Landon say?  He ought to have known better than to
talk about such 'orrid stuff over his meals."

"Him?" said Sam, with a grin of contempt; "why, he's worse than master."

"He couldn't be, Sam."

"Couldn't?  But he is.  Master does talk about live people as he does
good to.  Mr Landon don't.  He began over the curry."

"Made with best curry paste too, and with scraped cocoanut, a squeeze of
lemon, a toemarter, and some slices of apple in, just as old Colonel
Cartelow taught me hisself.  Talk about throwing pearls!  And pray what
did Mr Landon talk about?"

"Mummies."

"Ugh!" ejaculated cook.  "I saw some of 'em once, at the British Museum;
but never no more!  The idea of bringing a mummy on to a dinner-table!"

"Ah," said Sam, "it's a good job, old lady, that you don't hear all that
I do."

"So I suppose," said cook, with a snort.  "And he calls hisself a
professor!"

"No, no, he don't, old lady.  It's other people calls him a professor,
and I suppose he is a very clever man."

"I don't hold with such clever people.  I like folks as are clever
enough to understand good cooking.  Professor, indeed!  I should like to
professor him!"

"Well, master's no better," said Sam.  "Look at the trouble I have with
him to keep him decent.  If I didn't watch him he'd put on anything.  I
can't even keep a book out of his hand when I'm cutting his hair.  Only
yesterday he gives a duck down to cut the leaf of his book just at an
awk'ard moment, and of course in goes the point of the scissors."

"Serve him right!" said cook.

"And what do you think he said?"

"Oh, don't ask me."

"Nothing; and I dabbed the place and put a bit o' black court-plaister
on his ear, and I don't hardly believe he even knew of it."

"I'm not surprised," said cook indignantly.  "Them two read and read
till they're a pair of regular old scribums.  Anyone would think they
were old ancient men instead of being--How old is master?"

"Six years older than me."

"And you're six-and-twenty."

"Yes."

"And a fine, handsome man too."

"Thankye, cook," said Sam, smiling.

"Get out!  I don't mean you.  Master.  How old's the professor?"

"Oh, he's thirty-five," said Sam, in rather a disappointed tone.

"And looks it," said cook.  "Well, I wish he'd go abroad again to his
nasty grave-digging in the sands, and then praps master would have
decent people to dine with him.  Oh!  There's the front bell."

Cook dived down into the lower regions, and Sam opened the folding inner
doors to go and answer the street door bell, frowning the while.

"Wanted for some patient," he muttered sourly.  "I do wish people would
have their accidents at decent times."



CHAPTER TWO.

"NEWS!  NEWS!"

On the other side of the dining-room door Doctor Morris, a
thoughtful-looking man of goodly presence, and the better looking for a
calm ignorance of his being handsome, was seated opposite to his thin,
yellow-skinned, and rather withered, nervous-looking old college friend,
both partaking slowly of the good things the doctor's domestic had
prepared for them, as if it came perfectly natural to them to follow out
the proverbial words of the old Greek philosopher who bade his pupils,
"Live not to eat, but eat to live."

As Sam had truthfully said, they had been talking very learnedly about
their investigations in the particular branches of science which they
had followed up since their old school and college days when they had
begun their friendship, in company with another companion, missing now;
and the doctor had said, with a far-off look in his large dark eyes--

"No, Fred, old chap, I don't want to settle down here yet, because I
know how it will be.  Once I regularly begin, the practice will
completely swallow me, as it did the dear old dad.  People came from far
and wide to be treated by him, and he had hardly an hour to call his
own.  Of course I shall be glad to do the same, for it's a duty to one's
fellow-creatures; but I want to leave it all to old Stanley for another
two or three years while I travel and see more of the world.  I should
like to go with some army if I could."

"Yes," said his guest, "I see; as a volunteer surgeon."

"Exactly; the experience and confidence I should gain would be so great.
After that, here is my place, and I could relieve Stanley till he
retires, which he says he shall do as soon as I like to take the old
practice fully in hand."

"Hah!  Yes, Bob," said the visitor.  "There's nothing like travel--
seeing foreign countries, with some special pursuit to follow.  I'm like
a fish out of water now, with all this trouble in Egypt.  Oh, hang the
Khalifa, or Mahdi, or whatever they call him!"

"That's what a good many people would like to do," said the doctor
drily.

"Like to?  I should like to do it myself," cried Landon, with his yellow
face flushing.  "The wretch, the impostor, the cruel, heartless brute!
Poor Harry Frere! as handsome, manly, true-hearted a gentleman as ever
breathed."

"Hah, yes!" said the doctor, sighing.  "Don't talk about it, old fellow.
It makes me miserable every night as it is."

"Miserable?  Yes, for if ever friend was like a brother poor old Harry
was.  He had only one fault in him, and that was his blind faith and
belief in poor Gordon."

"Fault?"

"No, no, not fault.  You know what I mean; but it is so pitiful to think
of.  Only the other day we gave him that dinner on his appointment to
his regiment in the Egyptian army, and he is off to Cairo.  Then the
next thing is that he goes on the expedition to join Gordon up the
country."

"And the next news," said the doctor sadly, "is that he and all with him
have been massacred, fighting in poor Gordon's defence."

"Horrible!  Horrible!" said Landon passionately.  "So bright, so brave a
lad, with, in the ordinary course, a good manly career of fifty years
before him."

"Think there is any possibility of his having escaped after all?" said
the doctor, after a pause.

"Not a bit, poor lad.  I was red-hot to go up the country somehow or
other last year when I was about to investigate those buried tombs of
the Ra Sa dynasty.  I wanted to give up the search for those mummies and
the stores of old incised inscriptions."

"Yes, and you applied for permission," said the doctor.

"Like an idiot," said Landon angrily, "instead of keeping my own counsel
and going without saying a word.  I might have found poor old Hal a
prisoner, or a slave, or something.  But what did the authorities say?"

"That they were quite convinced that there were no survivors of the last
expedition, and that they must debar your proceeding up the country."

"Debar!" cried Landon, with a peculiar laugh.  "Splendid word for it.
Bar, indeed!  Yes, and they politely bundled me out of the country just
when I was on the scent of some of the most wonderful discoveries ever
made, connected with the ancient Egyptian civilisation."

"You must wait a few years, and when the country is settled try again."

"I was willing to give up further researches then, but they wouldn't let
me go in search of poor Harry."

"Their belief was that the attempt would be fatal."

"But they did not know; I was the best judge of that.  See what a
knowledge I have of the people and their language.  I believe I could
have gone anywhere."

"That was young Frank's belief."

"Yes, but that was different.  The boy did not know what he was talking
about.  He'd have been murdered before he had gone fifty miles up the
country."

"It was very brave and true of him, though."

"Of course," said Landon, "and I should have risked taking him with me
if I could have obtained permission.  But perhaps it was better that he
should stick to his chemistry."

"Yes," said the doctor, with a sigh, "and that you should have been sent
home."

"Nonsense!  I say it was a disgraceful thing that a scientist like
myself should be so treated."

"But the result is that Harry's brother is safe at home, Fred, and that
I have not lost another companion."

The doctor stretched out his hand to his rather excitable friend, who
grasped it directly.

"That's very good of you, Bob, old fellow.  Thank you; but I felt it
bitterly not being allowed to go in search of poor Harry."

"Yes, but so did Frank."

"Of course, poor boy.  He would.  Ah, well, I tried my best.  I feel it,
though, and I am very miserable doing my work in the museum instead of
in Egypt amongst the sand.  I suppose the upper country will become
settled again."

"Sure to," said the doctor, "and in the meantime why don't you go and
try Nineveh or Babylon?"

"No; I can't take up an entirely fresh rut.  I must give years upon
years yet to the sand-buried cities and tombs of Egypt.  Ah! what an
endless mine of wonders it is."

"Yes, I suppose so."

"With everything so preserved by the drifting sand."

"But the ruins of the Tigris and Euphrates must be equally interesting."

"They can't be."

"But look here: you can't go to Egypt now, and you could to Nineveh.
Have a trip there, and I'll go with you."

"You will, Bob?" cried Landon excitedly.

"I will, Fred, on my word."

"Then we will, Bob," said the professor enthusiastically.  "We'll start
and--No, we won't.  Egypt is my motto, and much as I should like to have
you for a companion, no, sir, no.  As the old woman said, `Wild horses
sha'n't drag me from my original plans and unfinished work.'  I must get
back to the sand.  I'd give anything to be there digging."

"Humph!" ejaculated the doctor.  "After all, it is a nasty, ghoulish
business: moleing in the old tombs and unrolling mummies."

"It may seem so to you, but to me it is intensely interesting.  Besides,
much as you condemn it, this is the only way to find out the history--
the manners and customs of the people two and three thousand years ago."

"The bell!" exclaimed the doctor.  "I hope no poor creature wants me
to-night."

"So do I," said Landon, "for my own sake as well as for his or hers.  I
wanted a long chat with you as soon as this tiresome dinner is at an
end."

"Hark," said the doctor.  "Some one has come in.  Yes, I'm wanted, and--
Hullo, Frank, my dear boy, how are you?" he cried, as a youthful-looking
young man, who appeared flushed and excited, threw open the door without
waiting to be announced, and strode in, to nod to first one and then the
other.

"Why, there is something the matter!" said the doctor quickly.  "You
want to see me?"

"To see you?  Yes, of course," said the young man shaking hands
hurriedly.  "No, no, not professionally.  I hurried on to Old Bones, but
the servant said he had come to dine with you, so I jumped into a cab
and made the fellow canter here."

"Then you have come for a snack with us.  Wish I'd known, and we'd have
waited.  Sit down, my lad.  Why didn't you come sooner?"

"Dinner?" cried the young man, ignoring the chair, and beginning to
stride up and down the room, swinging his arms excitedly; "don't talk to
me about dinner!"

"Very well, little man," said the professor, smiling; "but don't jump
quite out of your skin."

The newcomer turned upon the speaker sharply, and stopping short stood
pointing at him.

"Hark at that fellow, doctor," he cried.  "That's Old Bones all over.
He's as cool as one of his dry mummies.  Why, my news is enough to make
any fellow with a heart jump out of his skin!"

"Sit still, Bob," said the professor quietly; "the boy has made a
discovery."

"Yes, a discovery," cried the newcomer--"a discovery!" and he brought
his hand down so heavily upon the dining table that the glasses jumped.

"That's it," said the professor; "metaphorically speaking, he has been
pouring sulphuric acid upon the carbonate of lime of his composition,
and all this effervescence is the consequence.  He'll be better soon.
Now, Frank, boy, what is the discovery--something that will set the
Thames on fire?"

"Have you got a good appointment as chemist, Frank?" said the doctor.

"Discovery--appointment!" cried the young man, with his voice breaking
from the emotion he felt.  "Something a thousand times better than
either of those.  It's the news of news, I tell you--Hal!"

His two hearers sprang to their feet and rushed at him excitedly, each
seizing a hand.

"What about him?" cried the doctor.

"Not dead?" shouted the professor.

"No--no--no!" cried the young man wildly, and then his voice thoroughly
broke, becoming almost inaudible as he tried to declare his news.

"I can't bear it," he panted; "I can't bear it.  Morris--Landon--don't
take any notice of me--I've kept all this in for days, and now--now--Oh,
tell me--is it true, or am I going mad?"

The young man sank heavily into the chair to which his friends helped
him, and then he lay back quivering, with his hands covering his face,
while the doctor made a sign to his companion and went hurriedly into
his consulting-room, where he turned up the gas and then opened a
cabinet, from which he took down a stoppered bottle and a graduated
glass, into which he carefully measured a small portion, half filled the
glass from a table filter, and then hurried back into the dining-room.

"Drink this, Frank, my boy," he said.

"No, no; let me be.  I shall soon come round."

"Drink this, my lad," said the doctor sternly; "it is for your good."

The young man caught the glass from his friend's hand, tossed down the
contents, shuddered, and then drew a deep breath, pulling himself
together directly.

"I'm better now," he said.  "It has all been such a shock, and I've been
travelling night and day."

"Where from?" said the doctor, so as to give the young fellow time for
the medicine to produce its effect.

"Berlin," was the reply.

"Berlin?  That accounts for it.  I was wondering why you had not been
here.  I thought you were in Paris about some mineral business."

"I was there, but I heard some news about--about poor Hal."

"Indeed?" said the professor, growing excited now.

"Yes, it was from a gentleman who had escaped out of Khartoum."

"Go on, my lad; go on," said Morris.

"Yes, yes, I can go on now," said the young man calmly.  "Don't think
any more about what I said."

"No, no, of course not, Frank, my lad," said the doctor; "but pray speak
out.  Landon and I are suffering pain."

"Of course, and I've travelled night and day as I told you, so as to
bring you the news myself.  This German gentleman has been a prisoner
ever since Khartoum was taken by the Mahdi, and only managed to get out
of the place in disguise six months ago."

"Yes, yes," said the doctor excitedly, and the professor took up a
carafe and made it rattle against a glass as he hurriedly poured out
some water and drank it with avidity.

"He knew poor old Hal well by sight, and spoke to him twice, and heard
who he was.  He was alive, and seemed to be well the last time this
gentleman saw him; but he was a miserable slave in irons without the
slightest prospect of getting away."

"Hah!" exclaimed the doctor, dropping into a chair and beginning to wipe
his forehead.

"Oh!" groaned the professor, sinking back in his chair, but only to
become excited directly after, as he turned upon the bearer of the news.

"But he's alive, Frank, boy! he's alive!" he cried, in a peculiarly
altered voice.

"Yes, thank Heaven!" said Frank Frere softly; "he is alive."

No one spoke for a few moments.  Then the professor began again
excitedly--

"Look here," he cried, "both of you; that German sausage is a fool!"

The others turned on him with wondering eyes as if they doubted his
sanity, a notion quite pardonable from his manner of speaking and the
wild look he had given himself by thrusting both his hands through his
rather long, shaggy black hair, and making it stand up on end.

"Well," he said sharply, "what are you two staring at?"

"Well, Fred," said the doctor smiling, "I suppose it was at you."

"And pray why were you staring in that peculiar way at me?  Here, you
answer--you, Frank."

"I was staring on account of the sausage," said the young man, sinking
back in his chair and laughing aloud.

"Here, Bob," said the professor excitedly, "what have you been giving
this fellow--ether?  It's too strong for him.  Got on his nerves."

"Nonsense," said the doctor, joining softly in their young friend's
mirth.  "What makes you think that?"

"Why, you heard.  He doesn't know what he's talking about--staring on
account of the sausage!"

"Well, that's why I was looking at you so hard."

The professor stared now in turn, passed one hand across his forehead,
stared again, and then said gravely--

"I say, you two, has this glorious news sent you both out of your
minds?"

"No," cried both heartily.  "It only sounded so comical and so different
from your ordinary way," continued the younger man, "when you called my
German friend a sausage."

The professor's face was so full of perplexity that in the reaction
after the pain of the sudden good news, his friends began to laugh
again, making the clever scientist turn his eyes inquiringly upon the
doctor.

"Well, it's a fact," said the latter.  "You did."

"What!" cried the professor indignantly.  "That I didn't!  I said that
German gentleman was a fool."

"No, no, no," cried Frank, half hysterically.  "You said sausage."

"Frank, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, I do," cried the young man.  "Sausage, sausage, sausage."

The professor drew lines horizontally across his forehead from his
eyebrows to the roots of his hair, and shook his head slowly and
piteously at the speaker.

"Well, really, Fred, old fellow," said the doctor, "I must take Frank's
part.  You certainly did say sausage.  I suppose it was suggested by the
common association of the two words, German sausage."

"Humph!" ejaculated the professor slowly; "suppose then I must.  German
silver--German band--German tinder--German sausage.  But I meant to say
German gentleman, upon my word."

"Nobody doubts you," said Frank; "but why did you call him a fool?"

"Oh! for saying that Harry couldn't escape.  Do you both mean to tell me
that an Englishman, and such an Englishman as our Harry Frere, couldn't
do what a German has done?"

"I don't," said the doctor, bringing his fist down upon the table.
"Come, Franky, lad, what have you to say to that?"

"Hah!" sighed the young man sadly, "it is easily accounted for.  My
German friend managed to gain the confidence of the Khalifa from his
knowledge of Arabic, and was freed from the chains he first wore.  Poor
Harry was wearing heavy irons up to the day when my new friend left."

"Oh!" groaned the professor, "that's bad, that's bad.  Frank, boy, I beg
your German friend's pardon.  He isn't a--"

"Sausage!" put in the doctor quickly.

"A fool," said the professor, shaking his fist playfully at his old
school-fellow.  "Well, I feel ten years younger than I did half an hour
ago, and this settles it at once."

"Settles what?" said the doctor.

"Settles what!" cried the professor, in a tone full of mock disgust.
"Hark at him, Frank!  Settles this, sir," he continued, flashing his
fierce eyes upon the doctor, clenching his fist menacingly, and shaking
his shaggy hair.  "I'm off back to Egypt as soon as ever I can get a
berth in a steamer, and then I'm going right up the country with tools
in every pocket on purpose to file off those chains."

"Bravo! bravo!" shouted the other two.

"An Englishman in chains," continued the professor, gesticulating like
an orator, though as a rule he was one of the quietest of men, "and of
all Englishmen in the world, our Harry, the merriest school-fellow, the
heartiest undergrad, and the truest friend!"

"And brother," said Frank softly.

"Yes," cried the professor excitedly, "and brother, that man ever had.
The brother we three have mourned as dead for years, but who lives--as a
slave."

"Britons never shall be slaves," cried the doctor solemnly.

"Never!" said Frank through his teeth, and with a look of stern
determination in his eyes which meant more than words could have
expressed.

"Never!" cried the professor, bringing his fist down with such a crash
that this time a large goblet leaped off the table, was smashed upon the
floor, and the next moment the door was thrown open and Sam, the
doctor's butler, as he called himself, looking white with anxiety,
rushed into the room, to stand staring wildly from one to the other.

This quelled the professor's excitement at once, and he dropped back in
his chair and began mopping his face.

"What's the matter, Samuel?" said the doctor sternly.

"That's what I've come to see, sir," cried the man piteously.  "I did
stop in the hall, sir, in aggynies, waiting to know.  First in comes Mr
Frank when I opens the door to him and hits me in the chest hard, just
like a patient as has got rid of the strait w.  Into the dining-room he
bangs, before I could announce him, and without a bit o' pollergy, slams
the door after him.  Then master goes into his consulting-room in a
hurry and comes back with a something to exhibit, looking as he always
do when there's anything serious on; and ever since it's been getting
worse and worse, and you never rung for me, sir.  Fancy my feelings,
sir!  First s'posing as it was fits with Mr Frank, sir; then it seemed
to be you, sir; and then the professor went on, having it worse than
either of you, sir, till it got to the smashing of my glass, and I
couldn't bear it no longer."

"No, no, of course you couldn't, Sam," cried Frank; "and you must know
at once.  It's news, Sam--glorious news--the best of news.  My brother
is alive after all!"

"What!" cried the man.  "Mr Harry, sir?"

"Yes, alive, Sam--alive!"

"What, him as was dead, sir?"

"Yes, alive, I tell you."

"What, him as was killed out in the Soudan--our Mr Harry, sir, as we
give the dinner to in this very room, when he made that speech as I
stood and heared to the very end?"

"Yes, Sam; yes, yes!" cried Frank, as excited now as the man, who now
dashed at him and seized him by the hand and shook it with all his
might.

"Then--then--then," he cried.  "Oh, Mr Frank--oh, Mr Frank--oh, Mr
Frank!"

Dropping the young man's hand, he seized the professor's and shook at
that for a few moments, before rushing at his master's, to pump that
wildly up and down before dashing to the door, flinging it open, and
yelling--

"Here! hi! cook!  Mary! everyone!  He isn't dead after all.  Hooray!
hooray! hoo--"

From a tremendous emphasis and sonorous roar over the first hurrah, Sam
made a rapid diminuendo to the first syllable of the last, which trailed
off and would have died away but for Frank, who, touched by the man's
show of devotion, finished it heartily, and led off with another cheer,
in which the others joined, the shouts having an accompaniment in the
pattering of feet upon the floor-cloth of the hall.

Sam's fit of exaltation was over, and he stood shamefaced and troubled,
wiping his damp hands upon the white napkin.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said humbly.  "You see, I knowed Mr Harry
so well.  He was always such a gentleman to me, and it was such an upset
when he died that--that now he's come to life again, sir, it seemed like
making a man forget himself, sir, and--"

"Show that he felt a genuine attachment to our very dear friend,
Samuel," said the doctor quietly.  "Thank you.  My friends thank you
too, for we know it was all perfectly sincere."

"Hah!" said the professor, as the door closed.  "I always liked your
Sam, though as a bit of a linguist I must say that sometimes his use of
the Queen's English does rather jar upon my feelings."

"But his heart's in the right place," said Frank warmly.

"And a good heart too.  But as we were saying when he burst into the
room, Britons never shall be slaves, and I'm going back to Egypt after
all to file off those chains."

"That's right," said the doctor warmly, "and just what I knew you would
say.  You are a man, Fred, who has found out things that have puzzled a
good many--"

"Better ones," said the professor modestly.  "Well, I have."

"And you've made out many an Egyptian hieroglyphic in your time."

"Yes, and I hope to find out more," said the professor.

"And will," cried Frank.

"But," said the doctor, "you are forbidden to go up the country--by the
English and Egyptian authorities; and the Soudan is in the power of a
savage and cruel impostor, who vows death to the white.  How are you
going up there to use those files?"

"Hah!" said the professor gravely; "whenever I have a difficult problem
to solve I always put on my old red fez and have a thorough good think,
and then the way seems to come."

"Yes," said the doctor, while Frank listened eagerly to what was said,
"but--"

"Yes, but--" said the professor, taking him up sharply.  "We've got our
news, thank Heaven! and that's enough for to-night."

"And you can't put on your old red fez," said Frank, "because--"

"Exactly," said the professor; "because it is at my rooms in Fountain
Court."



CHAPTER THREE.

PERFECTLY SANE.

"Good morning, Frank, my lad," said Doctor Morris, shaking hands upon
the young man entering his study.  "Ready for business?"

"Ready, yes," was the reply, made with feverish haste.  "Am I late?"

"Late?  No," said the doctor, glancing at the clock on the study
mantelpiece.  "Half an hour before the time."

"Oh, nonsense; that thing's wrong.  Ever so much slow."

"Don't you insult my clock, my boy," said the doctor.  "It keeps as good
time as any one in London.  It's you who are too fast.  Keep cool, my
lad, keep cool."

"Who can keep cool at a time like this?" said Frank impatiently.

"You, if you try.  Surgeons have to.  Important work requires cool
heads."

"I'll try," said Frank briefly.

"Fred Landon was right last night in putting matters off till this
morning, so that we could all have a good night's rest."

Frank looked quickly up at his brother's old school-fellow with
something like envy, as he sat there softly stroking the great, dark
brown beard, which flowed pretty well all over the breast of the heavy
blue dressing-gown, tied with thick silk cords about his waist, and
thought what a fine-looking specimen of humanity he was; while the
doctor at the same time scanned the rather thin, anxious face before him
and mused to himself--

"Poor Frank! the boy looks pulled down and careworn, and this has
completely upset him.  I must take him in hand a bit.  He has been
working too hard, too, over his chemistry."

Just then their eyes met, and Frank coloured a little, as if
self-conscious.

"I was afraid Landon would be here first," he said hurriedly, "and that
you would both be waiting for me."

"You ought to have known him better," said the doctor, laughing.  "Fred
Landon never is first at any meeting.  I always allow him an hour's
latitude."

"Oh, surely he will not be late this morning?" cried Frank anxiously.

"I hope not; but he may be.  Of course he meant to be punctual, and I
have no doubt he got up and breakfasted extra early; but anything takes
off his attention--a book, a drawing, a note about Egypt--and he forgets
everything else.  You should have called in the Temple this morning and
brought him on."

"Of course!  I didn't think of that.  Here, I'll go and fetch him at
once."

"No, no; give him time.  Perhaps he will have been thinking so seriously
about poor Harry, that for once he will be punctual."

"Here he is!" cried Frank excitedly, as a thundering knock was heard at
the front door, and he sprang up in his anxiety to go and open to their
friend himself.

"No, no; don't do that," cried the doctor, smiling.  "Sam would be
disgusted."

"Oh, I can't stop to think about Sam's feelings now," cried Frank
hurriedly.

"But you must keep cool.  Look here, Frank, you are eighteen, and pretty
well a man grown."

"What has that to do with it?" said the lad impatiently.

"Only this," said the doctor gravely; "we want manly action now, and you
are as impatient as a boy of twelve."

At that moment the professor entered the room, hooked stick in hand, and
with his hat on, closely followed by the doctor's man, who stood with
one hand held out and a puzzled look on his face, staring at the
visitor, whose dress looked shabby and aspect wild, the want of what
fashionable young men term "well grooming"--to wit, shaving,
hair-cutting, and shampooing--making him appear ten years older than his
real age.

"Good morning, dear boys," he said, shaking hands warmly, and without
taking off his hat.  "Well, what is it?"

He turned sharply upon Sam as he spoke.

"Your hat, sir," said the man hesitatingly.

"Well, what about it?  It's mine, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir; of course, sir.  I thought you'd like me to take it and hang
it up."

"Then you thought wrong," said the professor, and he so thoroughly
stared Sam out of countenance, that the man shrank from the fierce frown
and backed out of the room.

"Just as if a man can't do as he likes with his own hat," said the
professor, with his face relaxing, as he crossed to one of the easy
chairs, wheeled it forward, sat down, and then slipped off his hat,
thrust his hand inside, whisked something out, and placed hat and stick
under the table, before, with a good deal of flourish, he drew a very
dingy-looking old scarlet fez over his starting black hair, with the big
blue silk tassels hanging down behind, and settled himself comfortably
by drawing up first one and then the other leg across and beneath him,
_a la turque_.

"There," he said, with a pleasant smile.  "This chair isn't so
comfortable as the sand of the desert, but I must make it do.  Now I'm
ready for business.  What's the first thing to be done?"

"To make arrangements for your start at once," said Frank sharply.  "You
will sail for Egypt, and make your preparations for going up the
country, and I shall go with you."

"Oh, you've settled that, have you?" said the professor, turning upon
the speaker, and pulling the fez a little more tightly on, for his stiff
hair had a disposition to thrust it off.  "You two have been busy then,
eh, Bob?"

"Certainly not," said the doctor; "not a word has been said of this
before."

"That's right," said the professor.  "Are you aware of what it will
cost, Frank?"

"No.  A good deal, no doubt; but I have all that money to come when I am
of age, and there is Harry's.  There ought to be no difficulty about the
executors advancing what is required."

"Bob and your humble servant being the said executors," said the
professor.  "Of course not; but I did not mean money, Frank, I meant
life.  It would cost yours."

"Well, I am ready to spend it," said the youth warmly, "so long as I can
save my brother's."

"Hah!" sighed the doctor.

"That's very nicely spoken, Frank," said the professor, leaning forward
to pat the young fellow on the arm, "but it's all sentiment."

"Sentiment?"

"Yes, and we want hard, matter-of-fact stuff.  Now look at me."

"Well, I am looking at you," said Frank, half angrily.

"What do I look like?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"Of course, my boy."

"Well, you look like a Turk hard up in London, who has bought a
second-hand suit of English clothes that don't fit him."

The doctor threw himself back and roared with laughter, while the
professor joined silently in the mirth and then sat wiping his eyes, not
in the least offended.

"Well done, Frank!" he said.  "You've hit the bull's-eye, boy.  That's
exactly how I do look; and if I went to Cairo and put on a haik and
burnoose, and a few rolls of muslin round this fez, speaking Arabic as I
do, and a couple of the Soudan dialects, I could go anywhere with a
camel unquestioned.  While as for you, my dear boy, you couldn't go a
mile.  You'd be a Christian dog that every man would consider it his
duty to kill."

"I must risk that," said Frank stubbornly.

"Must you?" said the professor.  "What do you say, Bob?"

"I say it would be madness," replied the doctor emphatically.

"Stick--stark--staring madness," said the professor.  "I, who have been
out there for years, and who can be quite at home with the people,
should have hard work to get through by the skin of my teeth."

"And you would not get through, Frank," said the doctor decisively.
"This business must be carried out wisely and well."

"What would you do, then," said Frank impatiently.

"Make application to the Foreign Office at once.  Diplomacy must be set
to work, and failing that, force."

"Oh!" cried Frank, in a despairing tone; "why, it would take years to
get that slow machine to work, and all that time wasted in
correspondence and question and answer, while poor Hal is slaving away
yonder in chains!  Oh, Morris, what are you thinking about?"

"Acting in the slower and surer way," replied the doctor firmly.  "This
can only be done with coolness.  We know that Hal is a prisoner out
yonder, and we must apply to Government to get him free."

"Humph!" ejaculated the professor.

"Hah!" cried Frank.  "You don't agree with this, Landon?"

"Of course not.  Bob Morris is as clever a chap as any in London at
cutting people to pieces and putting 'em together again; but over
Egyptian matters he'd be like a baby.  Mine is the plan."

"To get your head cut off," growled the doctor.

"Well, if I did," retorted the professor, "that would beat you.  Clever
as you are, old chap, you couldn't get that to grow again.  Look here,
Frank, you side with me.  I'll go at once."

"And take me with you?"

"No, my boy, I--will--not," said the professor decisively.  "Be
sensible, and take what is really the best way.  I am not bragging when
I say that I am one of the most likely men living to carry this business
through."

"Oh, we know that you are not bragging," said the doctor.  "You mean
right; so does Frank.  And now let me say this.  The first thing last
night that I thought, was that you, Fred, must go, and that I would go
with you."

"Impossible," said the professor shortly.

"Yes, I thought it well over, and dearly as I long to go and help poor
Hal, I am obliged to confess that it would be impossible."

"Hear, hear," said the professor; "just as impossible as for Frank to
insist upon going with me to stick his head into the lion's mouth, get
it bitten off, and spoil my plans as well.  Once more, it is impossible
for either of you two to go; so be sensible and help me to get off, and
trust me like a brother to help and save our brother in distress."

"I will," said the doctor firmly.  "Now, Frank."

"I won't," cried the youth.

"I ask you as a brother," said the doctor.

"Yes, as a little brother--as a boy whom you look upon as wanting in
manliness to help at a time like this.  Both of you cry _impossible_.
I'm much younger than either of you, but surely I've got some brains.
Always up to now, and it was the same when poor old Hal was with us, you
three treated me as if I was your equal, and it made me feel older.  But
now, when there is quite a crisis in my life, and I want to prove to you
that young as I am I can be manly and help to save our poor Hal from the
clutches of these savage Arab fiends with their cruelty and slavery, you
combine to fight against me, and it is impossible--impossible."

"Humph!" grunted the professor, shaking his head at the doctor, who
shook his in turn.

"You talk too much, Frank, lad," said the latter, in an injured tone.
"Do be cool, and think a little.  I'm sure you would see then that you
are wrong.  What we want in this is calm matter-of-fact planning."

"No, we don't," said Frank impatiently; "we want a good plan, of course,
but we want plenty of pluck and good manly dash.  Impossible, you both
say, because each of you has his own pet plan, one of you for Government
interference, the other for going alone in disguise, and consequently
you combine against me for one of you to carry out his."

"Well, and if you cannot propose a better ought you not to give way to
us?"

"No," said Frank, "because it would be horrible to settle down here at
home, thinking of that poor fellow's sufferings.  How do you think I
could ever get on with any study?  I should go out of my mind."

"But look here, Frank," said the doctor.

"I can't look there," said Frank.  "I can't reason with you two.  I want
to act; I want to be up and doing, so as to feel that every day I am a
little nearer getting poor Harry free."

"That's quite reasonable, Bob," said the professor, slowly and
thoughtfully.  "But I say, Franky, my boy, I don't want to be obstinate;
I don't want to hinder you if you can suggest a better plan.  We only
say that so far your ideas are impossible.  Come, now have you any other
plan?"

"Yes," said the lad excitedly.  "Brother Hal is sitting out there in
chains, looking longingly year after year for the help that does not
come, and eating his poor heart out with despair because those to whom
he should look for help do not come."

"That's all true enough," said the doctor sadly.

"But the question is," said the professor, holding out one hand and
apparently putting down every word he said with the other: "How--are--
we--to--help--the--poor--boy?"

"Let's all three go," said Frank hotly.

"Oh!" ejaculated the doctor.

"That's more and more impossible still," cried the professor.

"No, it isn't," cried Frank.  "I have a plan in my head now that would
answer if it were properly done.  I haven't been out in Egypt like
Landon here, but ever since poor Hal got his appointment I've read up
the country till I'm regularly soaked with it."

"Can't be," said the professor, smiling grimly.  "Moisture's too scarce
when you're away from the Nile.  You may be gritty with it."

"Never mind about that," said Frank.  "I know one or two things about
the people, and I know this--there is one man who is always welcome
among them and their sufferers from fever and eye complaints and
injured, and that is the doctor--the surgeon."

"Eh?" ejaculated the professor sharply, looking up.  "Yes, that's true
enough, boy."

"Well," said Frank, pointing, "there he is--the Hakim--the learned
physician and curer of all ills.  Look at him now in that dressing-gown,
with his big, long beard, and that handsome, calm appearance.  Doesn't
he look as if he could cure anything?  Just suppose him sitting
cross-legged in a tent now, with a big white turban on; what would he
look like then?"

"An impostor!" cried the doctor angrily.  "Frank, the good news has
swollen your head up till it has cracked."

"That it hasn't," cried the professor sharply, "and you would not look
like an impostor, sir.  Well done, Franky.  I say he'd look like what he
is--a splendid specimen of a man, and as good a doctor and surgeon as I
know of.  Impostor, indeed!  I should be ready to punch the head of any
scoundrel who dared to say so.  Bravo, my boy!  The great Frankish
physician--the learned Hakim travelling through the country to perform
his cures."

"Yes," cried Frank; "and performing them too."

"To be sure," said the professor, growing excited.  "The news of his
cures would spread through the land, and the people would welcome him,
and he could go anywhere.  Here, I say, Bob, this plant's coming up."

"You're as bad as Frank," said the doctor angrily.  "You both take my
breath away.  What! me go masquerading through the Soudan, dressed up as
a mock doctor?"

"Mock doctor be hanged!" cried the professor; "where's the mockery?  The
people out there suffer by scores and thousands from eye complaints and
other evils, and as to the number you meet with who have been chopped
and speared and shot--why, the place teems with them.  Couldn't you do
them good?"

"Well, of course I could," said the doctor thoughtfully.  "I should say
that with antiseptic treatment one's cures would seem almost marvellous
to the poor wretches."

"Of course they would.  I doctored scores myself when I was out there,"
said the professor.  "Now, look here; I mean to go out there, of course,
and I shall take you with me, Bob."

"What!"

"No whatting.  You've got to go; that's settled.  You're the great
Frankish Hakim, and I'm your interpreter.  You can't speak a word of
Arabic.  There's no imposture in that, is there?"

"Oh, no; I can't speak a word of Arabic, but as to the doctoring--"

"Look here, Bob; you'd be doing these people good, wouldn't you?"

"Of course."

"Well, then, there's no imposture there.  We'll go right up to Khartoum,
together with our servants, and get the poor boy away.  That's settled,
so you had better lay in your stock of ointment-pots, bottles,
plaisters, and pills."

"Well, I'm beginning to think I'm dreaming," said the doctor.

"But you are not," said the professor, and he turned to Frank, who was
excitedly listening to all that was said.  "Now then, my boy," he said,
"we've settled that; but I can't see that by any possibility you could
come with us."

"I can," said the lad eagerly.  "You talked about having servants with
you."

"Yes, blacks," said the professor.  "It would not do to take white
ones."

"Very well, then, I'll go as a black."

The doctor and the professor turned upon the speaker sharply, and fixed
him with their eyes, as if doubtful about the state of his mind, gazing
at him in silence, till he laughed merrily.

"I have not lost a slate or tile," he said.  "I am quite what Morris
calls _compos mentis_."

"No," said the doctor sharply; "I'll be hanged if you can be, Frank, my
lad."

"And so say I," chimed in the professor.  "How in the world can you go
as a black?"

"Bah!" cried Frank.

"What does _Baa_! mean?" said the professor.  "Black sheep?"

"Nonsense!  Ask Morris if it would not be as easy as easy to tinge one's
skin to any depth, from a soft brown to black."

"Won't do," said the professor.  "You'd dye your face, neck, and arms,
and some time or other you'd be caught bathing."

"Not much chance for bathing out there when we were away from the Nile,
eh?"

"Well, having a sand-bath; and then they'd see that the rest of your
skin was white."

"Oh, no, they wouldn't," cried Frank.  "I should do as that amateur did
who wanted to play Othello properly--black myself all over."

The professor took off his fez, laid it upon his knees, and with both
hands gave his shaggy hair a vicious rub, which, however, did not
disorder it in the least, seeing that it was as rough as could be
before.

"Yes," said the doctor; "he has an answer for all objections, Fred, old
fellow."

"Yes, yes, yes," cried the professor, putting on his fez again, and
making a vicious dab at the tassel, which was tickling his neck, but
subsided quietly between his shoulders after it had done swinging.  "He
has something to say to everything.  Too much talk.  It wouldn't do.
The Baggara are as keen as their swords: they'd see through it
directly."

"Then I'd dye it blacker," said Frank.

"Oh, the colour would be right enough, boy," cried the professor, "but
that's what would let the cat out of the bag."

"What do you mean?"

"That tongue of yours, my lad.  Your speech would betray you directly."

"Oh, no, it would not," said Frank.  "Mutes are common enough in the
East, are they not?"

"Oh, yes, but--"

"Well, I would not talk."

"Pooh!" cried the professor contemptuously.  "You wouldn't talk?  Why,
you've got a tongue as long as a girl's.  You not talk?  Why, you'd be
sure to burst out with something in plain English just when our lives
were depending upon your silence."

"_Urrr_!" growled the young fellow angrily.  "Give me credit for a
little more common-sense.  Do you think, with the success of our
expedition and poor Hal's life and happiness at stake, I couldn't make a
vow to preserve silence for so many months, and keep it?"

"I do think so," said the professor, clapping one hand down upon the
other.  "You would find it impossible.  What do you say, Bob?"

"Humph!" grunted the doctor.

"Come, there's no need for you to hold your tongue," cried the professor
petulantly.  "Say something."

"Very well, I'll say something," replied the doctor: "I don't know."

"Yes, you do.  You know it's impossible."

"No," said the doctor thoughtfully; "I know it would be very hard, but
seeing what a stubborn, determined fellow Frank is, I should not be
surprised if he succeeded."

"Hurrah!" cried Frank.  "There, Landon."

"Bob ought to know better," cried the professor.  "It's impossible--
that's impossible--the whole business is impossible.  Can't be done."

"Well, I don't know," said the doctor, taking both hands to his beard
and stroking and spreading it out over his breast, where it lay in crisp
curls, glistening with many lights and giving him a very noble and
venerable aspect.  "I'm beginning to like that idea of going as a
learned physician."

"Oh, yes, that's right enough," said the professor.  "There's no
imposition there.  The Arabs would have nothing to find out, and their
suspicions would be allayed at once.  Then, too, you could humbug them
grandly with a few of your modern doctors' tools--one of those
double-barrelled stethoscopes, for instance; or a clinical thermometer."

"To be sure," cried Frank.  "Modern Magic--good medicine for the
unbelieving savages.  An electric battery, too; and look here, both of
you: the Rontgen rays."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the doctor, and making his beard wag with enjoyment.
"Yes, that would startle them.  White man's magic.  Fancy, Fred, old
chap, a wounded man with a bullet in him, and I at work with my black
slave, Frank, here, to help me, in a dark tent, while I made the poor
wretch transparent to find out where the bullet lay."

"Yes, or broken spear-head," said the professor eagerly.  "I say, Bob,
there'd be no gammon over that: the savage beggars would believe that
they had a real live magician come amongst them then."

"Yes, ha, ha! wouldn't they?  I say, old fellow, I'm beginning to think
it ought to be worked."

"Worked, yes," cried Frank excitedly.  "I could take a few odds and ends
from my laboratory, too, so as to show them some beautiful experiments--
fire burning under water, throwing potassium on the river to make it
blaze; use some phosphorescent oil; and startle them with Lycopodium
dust in the air; or a little fulminating mercury or silver."

"H'm, yes, you might," said the professor thoughtfully.  "You could both
of you astonish them pretty well, and all that would keep up your
character."

"But of course it's all impossible, isn't it?" said Frank, smiling.

"H'm!  I don't quite know," said the professor slowly.

"Look here," said the doctor rising, to seat himself upon one end of the
hearthrug, where he began trying to drag his legs across into a
comfortable sitting position, but failed dismally; "I'm afraid I should
never manage this part of the business.  My joints have grown too
stiff."

"Oh, nonsense," said the professor sharply; "it only wants a little
practice.  Look here."

He plumped himself down upon the other end of the hearthrug quite in the
native manner, and seemed perfectly at his ease, while Frank sat
watching them both with his eyes twinkling in his delight.

"You can't do it in those tight trousers.  You want good loose, baggy
breeches, knickerbockery sort of things.  Oh, you'd soon do it.--That's
better."

"Yes," said the doctor dubiously; "that's a little better; but these
trousers are, as you say, too tight.  I tell you what I'd do, Frank," he
continued, perfectly seriously, "I'd have my head shaved clean, and keep
it so."

"Bravo!" cried the professor excitedly.  "Splendid!  Your bald head over
that grand beard and a very large white turban of the finest Eastern
muslin, twisted up as I could twist it for you, would give just the
finishing touches.  Just spread the skirts of that dressing-gown a
little."

Frank sprang to the task, and in arranging the folds uncovered one of
the yellow Morocco slippers the doctor happened to be wearing.

"That's good," cried the professor excitedly.  "Fetch those sofa
cushions, Frank, and put them so that he can rest his arm upon them.
Good!  Now a pipe.  Here, fish out my stick from under the table.
That's right," he continued, as Frank placed the stick upside down in
the doctor's hand, with the ferrule near his lips and the hook resting
on the floor, turned up like a bowl.

"Well, I am!" cried the professor, drawing his legs more under him, and
nodding at his old school-fellow seated opposite at the other end of the
hearthrug.  "Franky, boy, he looks the very perfection of a Turkish
doctor now, while with the real things on and his head shaved, and the
turban--Oh, I haven't a doubt of it, he'd humbug the Mahdi himself if he
were alive.  I haven't a bit of fear about him.  Sit still, old man.--As
for myself, I should be all right; when I get out there I feel more of a
native than an Englishman.  It's you who are the trouble, Franky, for I
confess I am coming round."

"I shall get myself up perfectly.  You may depend upon that," said the
lad confidently, "and all through the voyage out Morris will coach me up
about bandaging and helping him in ambulance work, so that I may get to
be a bit clever as his assistant."

"Yes, yes, yes, that's all right," said the professor impatiently.
"It's not that which bothers me.  Look at Bob.  I can see him in his
part exactly.  Nothing could be better; but I can't see you at all."

"Why?  Set your imagination to work."

"I am, my dear boy; I am.  It's working till my brain's beginning to
throb; but I can't see you, as I say."

"But why not?"

"No shape; no form.  You're too skinny.  A young nigger ought to be
plump, and shine like butter."

"Well, I'll oil myself," said Frank, laughing as much at himself as at
the doctor seated _a la Turque_ so solemnly upon the hearthrug.

"But your hair, Frank, my boy.  It's brown and streaky.  It ought to
curl up more tightly than Bob's beard."

"I'll put it in paper every night, and dye it at the same time as I do
my skin."

"H'm!  Well, perhaps we might work it that way.  If we can't, we must
shave your head too."

"Barkis is willin'," said the young man readily.  "As to the sitting--
look here: won't this do?"

He seized the tongs from the fender, took a live coal from between the
bars, dropped down sitting upon his heels halfway between the pair, but
outside the hearthrug, and completed the Eastern picture in Wimpole
Street by resting upon his left hand and making believe to be holding
the live coal to the bowl of the Hakim's pipe.

"Bravo!  Splendid!" cried the professor.  "A _tableau vivant_, only
wanting in colour and clothes to be perfect in all its details, and
then--"

And then the group remained speechless in horror and disgust, for they
suddenly became aware of the fact that Sam had silently entered with a
letter upon a silver waiter, and had stopped short close to the door, to
stand staring in astonishment at the living picture spread before his
eyes.  These seemed starting, while his brow was lined, the rest of his
face puckered, and his mouth opened, at the same time his muscles
relaxing so that the silver waiter dropped a little and the letter fell
upon the soft carpet with a light pat which in the silence sounded loud.



CHAPTER FOUR.

THE NEW RECRUIT.

For a few moments the picture was at its best, actors and spectator
looking as rigid as if carved in wood or stone.

Then all was over, the doctor dropping the stick and scrambling up;
Frank putting the tongs into the fender, Sam stooping to pick up the
letter from the carpet, and the professor tearing his fez off his head,
to dash it on the floor.

"Hang it!" he cried angrily; "destroyed the illusion!  There, it's all
over, Frank.  I can't see it now."

"Beg pardon, sir.  Letter, sir," said Sam stiffly, and he was as rigid
as a drill sergeant, and his face like wood in its absence of all
expression, as he stared hard over the waiter at his master, whose
fingers trembled and cheeks coloured a little as he took the missive.

"Ahem!" said the doctor uneasily, and Sam, who was about to wheel about
and leave the room, stood fast.  "A--er--er--a little experiment,
Samuel," he continued.

"Yes, sir," said the man quietly.

"Er--errum--Samuel," said the doctor; "the fact is, I--er--we--er--we do
not wish this--that you have seen just now--talked about downstairs."

"Suttonly _not_! sir," said the man sharply, though the moment before he
had been chuckling to himself about how he would make cook laugh about
the games being carried on in the study.

"Thank you, Samuel," said the doctor, clearing his throat and gaining
confidence as he went on.  "The fact is, Samuel, a confidential servant
ought to be trustworthy."

"Suttonly, sir," said Sam.

"And hear, see, and--"

"Say nothing, sir, of course.  You may depend upon me, sir."

"Thank you, Samuel.  Well, after what you heard last night you will not
be surprised that we have decided to go out to Egypt at once in search
of Mr Harry Frere."

"Not a bit, sir.  Just what I should expect."

"Exactly, Samuel.  To go up the country means, you see, the necessity of
dressing ourselves like the people out there."

"Yes, sir; much better for the climate."

"And that is why we were, so to speak, going through a little practice."

"Suttonly, sir.  Quite right.  And about luggage, sir.  What shall I get
ready?"

"Ah!  That requires a little consideration, Samuel.  I'll go into that
with you by and by."

"Very good, sir.  But I should like to ask one question."

"Certainly, Samuel," said the doctor gravely; "what is it?"

"Only this, sir.  When do we start?"

"When do we start?" said the doctor, staring.  "My good man, I did not
propose to take you."

"Not take me, sir?" cried the butler, staring.  "Why, whatever do you
think you could do without me?"

The doctor stared blankly at his man, and then turned to the professor.

"Ah!  No hesitation, Morris," said the latter sharply.  "I haven't quite
come round yet regarding both of you, though matters have altered me a
good deal during the last five minutes; but with regard to this last
phase--the idea of taking your servant--that really is quite out of the
question."

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Sam seriously; "I don't think that it
would be right for master to think of going without me."

"Well, Samuel, I must own," said the doctor thoughtfully, "I should miss
your services very much."

"You couldn't do it without me, sir," said the man sternly.  "I
shouldn't like you to attempt it."

"Look here, Doctor Morris," said the professor angrily, "do you allow
your servant to dictate to you like this?"

"Well, you see," said the doctor, "Samuel has always been such a good,
attentive fellow, and taken so much interest in his work, Landon, that I
feel rather puzzled as to whether this is dictation or no."

"It aren't, sir, really," cried Sam appealingly.  "Is it, Mr Frank?"

"Well, no, I don't think it is," said the young man.  "I take it that
Sam is only anxious to go on waiting upon his master."

"That's it, sir.  Thankye, Mr Frank.  That's it, but it ain't all.  If
you three gentlemen are going on your travels to find and bring back Mr
Harry, it seemed to me that I'm just the sort o' man as would be useful.
I don't want to make out as I'm a dabster at any one thing, gentlemen,
but there ain't many things I shouldn't be ready to have a try at, from
catching one's dinner to cooking it, or from sewing on buttons to making
a shoe."

"Look here, Sam, you can shave, I know," said Frank, "for you've shaved
me several times."

"Well, sir," said the man, with a queer cock of the eye, "I've soaped
and lathered your chin, and I've run a razor over your face, but I don't
think I found anything to scrape off."

"I call that mean," cried Frank; "just when I was putting in a word for
you.  I'm sure there was a little down on my upper lip and chin."

"Oh, yes, sir, just as if you had had a touch with a sooty finger; but
down don't count with me in shaving; it's what comes up bristly and
strong."

"Well, leave my beard alone," said Frank.  "Look here, could you shave a
man's head?"

"Ask master, sir," said the butler with a grin, and Frank turned to his
brother's old companion.

"Oh, yes, he has shaved the heads of patients for me several times,"
said the doctor.  "He's very clever at that."

"I say, Professor Landon," said Frank, turning to him, "do you hear
this?  The Hakim ought to have his barber, and you know what important
folk they are in the East."

"Humph!  Yes," said the professor thoughtfully; "there is something in
that.  Barbers have become grand viziers, and in such shaving countries
a barber is held in high respect.  He would be all right there.  But no,
no, I cannot be weak over so vital a thing as this.  Just think, you
two, of the consequences if through some inept act on his part he should
ruin all our prospects."

"Me, sir?" cried Sam excitedly; "me ruin your prospects by committing
that there act as you said!  I wouldn't do it for any money.  Take a
oath before a magistrate or a judge that I wouldn't I don't even know
what it is."

"Oh, you'd do your best, I believe, Sam," said the professor.

"I'm glad you do, sir," said the man, who was almost whimpering.  "It
sounds hard on an old servant to be thought likely to do what you said."

"But look here, my lad; we ought to do all that is wanted for ourselves,
excepting such little jobs as we could set the Arabs to do."

"Arabs, sir?  The Arabs!" cried Sam.  "Oh, I don't think much of them.
I've seen 'em.  That lot as come over to London seven years ago.
Bed-ridden Arabs they call theirselves.  They could tumble head over
heels, and fire off guns when they were in the air; but you gentlemen
want a good honest English servant, not a street tumbler and accryback."

"Tut, tut, tut! listen to me," said the professor.  "Do you know what
the desert is like?"

"Can't say I know much about it, sir, only what I read in Mungo Park's
travels.  Deal o' sand, ain't there?"

"Yes," said the professor, "there is a deal of sand there, and no
houses, no butlers' pantries, no kitchens."

"Well, sir, if I made up a box with half a knifeboard for a lid, and my
bottle o' blacking, my brushes, and a leather or two and the rouge for
my plate, I daresay I could get on."

"Bah-h-h-h!" snarled the professor.  "Why didn't you add a big stone
filter, a plate-rack, and a kitchen boiler?  My good man, you're
impossible."

"I ain't, sir, 'pon my word.  You mean I should have to make more of a
shift.  Well, of course I would."

"Look here, then, I grant that you can shave.  You can make a fire, boil
water, and cook?"

"Can I, sir?" cried the man scornfully.  "I should think I can!"

"Can you cook kabobs?"

"What's them, sir--Egyptian vegetables?"

"Vegetables!  Hark at him!  Did you ever hear of Kous-kous?"

"Can't say I ever did, sir; but look here, I'll buy `Cookery for the
Million,' and I'll soon learn."

"Oh, you're improving!" said the professor sarcastically.  "Here, I'll
try you on something else.  Could you ride and drive a camel?"

"What, one of them wobbly, humpy things at the Zoo?  I never tried, sir,
but I've seen the children have rides on them.  I could soon manage one
o' them, sir.  I'd try an elephant if it came to that."

The professor shook his head disparagingly, and Sam gave Frank and his
master an imploring look, which made the former take his part.  "Look
here, professor," he said quietly; "really I think it might be managed,"
and Sam's long face shortened.

"Managed!  Do you think we shall do what we propose if you and Morris
take your valets?"

"There is going to be a black slave in the party," said Frank, "and I do
not see why the Hakim should not have a barber who is a white slave."

"Humph!" ejaculated the professor, in a regular camel-like grunt, and he
set up his back after the manner of that animal.

"Would you mind going as a slave, Sam?" asked Frank--"the Hakim's
slave?"

"Not a bit, sir, so long as Mr Hakim's going to be one of the party.
Me mind being a slave?  Not I.  Ain't Mr Harry one pro tempenny?  I'm
willing, sir, willing for anything.  I don't want no wages.  I want to
go."

"And you shall go, Samuel," said the doctor firmly.  "I'll talk the
matter over with Mr Landon."

"Thankye, sir, thankye," cried the man joyfully.  "And I beg your
pardon, Mr Landon, sir; don't you take against me because it's going
against you.  I'm willing to do any manner of things to make you
gentlemen comfortable all the time."

"I believe you, Sam," said the professor.  "There, I give way."

"Thankye kindly, sir!" cried the man excitedly.

"But look here.  It is only due to him that he should be told that we
are going upon a very dangerous expedition.  We shall have to travel
amongst people who would think it a meritorious action to cut our
throats if they had the merest suspicion that we were going to try and
rescue Mr Harry Frere.  Then we shall have the risks of fever, dying
from thirst, perhaps from hunger, and as likely as not being taken
prisoners ourselves and made slaves--are you listening, Sam?"

"Hearing every word, sir.  But I say, sir, is it as bad as that?"

"Honestly, my man," said the professor solemnly; "it is all that and
worse, because we shall have to cut ourselves adrift from all Government
protection and trust to our own wits.  Now then, my man, do not hesitate
for an instant--if you feel that you cannot cheerfully put up with peril
and danger, and dare every risk, say so at once, for you will be doing
your master a good turn as well as us."

"Are you gentlemen going to chance it all?" said Sam quietly.

"Certainly."

"All right, gentlemen, then so am I, and as soon as ever you like."

"Hah!" ejaculated Frank, who had been watching the play of the man's
countenance anxiously, and he crossed to Sam and shook his hand, making
the butler's face glow with pride and pleasure combined.

"Now then," said the professor, "one more word, Sam.  It is of vital
importance that you keep all this a profound secret.  From this hour you
know nothing except that you are the Hakim's servant till we have left
Cairo.  After that you are the Hakim's slave, and you hold him in awe."

"Of course, sir," said Sam, with his face wrinkling with perplexity.
"I'll hold him in anything you like.  I won't say a word to a soul.  I
won't know anything, and I hope Mr Hakim will be as satisfied with me
as master has always been."

"And you think I have always been satisfied with you, Samuel?" said the
doctor, smiling pleasantly.

"I think so, sir," replied the man.  "I've been some years in your
service, and you're a gentleman as will always have everything done as
it should be."

"Of course."

"And you never found fault with me yet.  And I _will_ say that a better
mas--"

"No, you will not," said the doctor quickly.  "That will do."

"Certainly, sir," said the man, looking abashed.

"You like the doctor as a master, then?" said Frank, with a twinkle of
the eye.

"Like him, sir!" cried Sam.

"Well, I think you will like your new master quite as well."

"I hope so, sir.  I'll do my best.  Shall I see him soon?"

"Of course," said Frank.  "There he is.  The Hakim, Doctor Morris--the
learned surgeon who is going to practise through the Soudan."

"Oh-h-h!" cried Sam, with his face lighting up.  "I see now, gentlemen."

"But remember," said the doctor sternly, "the necessity for silence has
begun, so keep your own counsel, which will be keeping ours."

"Yes, sir."

"Now go and begin putting together the few things you will require on
our voyage and journey."

"Remembering," said the professor, "that we must take only the simplest
necessaries.  I shall have to overhaul every man's bag after you have
brought it down to the lowest state.  There, Sam, I agree to your going
fully, for I believe you will not let us repent it."

"Thank you, sir.  Shall we go soon?"

"Within forty-eight hours if it can be managed.  Give me my hat and
stick.  I'll go at once and see if berths are to be had on a P. and O.
boat.  You two will begin getting absolute necessaries together in the
way of your professional needs, not forgetting your instruments and
chemicals, Frank.  Take all you said.  They will be heavy and bulky, but
they will pay for taking.  As for me, as soon as I have settled about
the boat I will get my own few things together and see to the arms.  I
have a pretty good selection of Arabian weapons.  What more we require
can be obtained in the Cairene bazaar."



CHAPTER FIVE.

SHEIKH IBRAHIM.

Time works wonders, they say; so does money in able and experienced
hands.

The professor's were experienced hands, and he had ample funds at his
disposition.  The result of his inquiries that morning was that he found
he could by starting the next night catch the mail which would bear him
and his friends, travelling night and day, to Brindisi--for southern
Italy, where the mail steamer would be waiting to take them on to
Ismailia.  Then in a few days from starting they would have changed into
the not very efficient Egyptian railway, to be set down within sight of
the pyramids on the borders of the mighty desert, with the south open to
them, if all went as they had arranged, for their journey in search of
the prisoner gazing northward and hoping still that help might come and
his captivity and sufferings at last be ended.

It is wonderful what energy will do.

Now that the plans had been decided upon the professor worked like a
slave.  Long experience had made him an adept.  He knew exactly what
outfitters to go to, and when there what to select, and it was wonderful
how little he deemed necessary.

"You see we hardly want anything here, Frank, lad," he said.  "Some
things we cannot get out there, but the majority of our necessaries we
must buy in Cairo, and quietly too, for if it got wind that we were
going upon such an expedition we should be stopped."

"I suppose so."

"But I can manage all that.  I have an old friend or two, sheikhs who
will do anything I ask, and supply me on the quiet with followers and
tents and camels.  For they love me as a brother, and you shall hear
them say all sorts of sugary flowers of speech.  They will bless me, and
say that it is like the rising of the sun upon their tents to see my
noble visage once again.  They will kiss the sand beneath my feet in the
warmth of their attachment, and do all I wish for shekels, Franky, all
for shekels."

"But can you trust them?" said Frank.

"Certainly.  They will keep faith, and be ready even to fight for us if
the odds are not too great, and the shekels are duly paid.  There, I
don't think we need trouble about anything more, after the two leather
cases are packed with the conjuring tricks and physic of the learned
Hakim and his slaves.  The sinews of war will do the rest.  Hah!  I am
glad we are going into the desert once again.  We must get to Hal as
soon as possible, and somehow scheme to get him free, but you must curb
your impatience.  It will be all express till we reach Cairo--all the
end of the nineteenth century; but once we are there, excepting for the
civilisation of that modern city we shall have gone back to the times of
the Arabian Nights and find the country and the people's ways unchanged.
And do you know what that means?"

"Pretty well," said Frank; "crawling at a foot's pace when one wants to
fly."

"That's it; just as fast as a camel will walk."

Those hours of preparation passed more quickly to Frank than any that he
could recall during his busy young life, and over and over again he
despaired of the party being ready in time, so that he could hardly
believe it when the carriage-door was slammed, the whistle sounded, and
the train glided out of the London terminus with the question being
mentally asked, Shall we ever see the old place again?

Then sleepless nights and drowsy days, as the party sped through France
and Switzerland, dived through the great tunnel, to flash out into light
in sunny Italy, and then on and on south, with the rattle of the train
forming itself into a constant repetition of two words, which had been
yelled in the tunnel and echoed from the rocky walls of the deep
cutting--always the same: "_Save Harry!  Save Harry_!" till Frank's
brain throbbed.

Then Brindisi, with the mails being hurried from the train to the noble
steamer waiting to plough the Mediterranean and bear the adventurers
south and east for the land of mystery with its wonders of a bygone
civilisation buried deeply in the ever-preserving sand.

And now for the first time Frank's brain began to be at rest from the
hurry of the start, as he lay back half asleep in the hot sunshine,
watching the surface of the blue Mediterranean and the soft, silvery
clouds overhead, while the doctor and the professor sat in deck-chairs,
reading or comparing notes, but all three resting so as to be ready for
the work in hand.

It was one glorious evening when Frank was leaning over the side gazing
forward towards the land that they were soon to reach, and where they
would give up the inert life they were leading for one of wild and
stirring adventure, that the young man suddenly started out of his
dreamy musings, for a voice behind him said softly--

"Beg pardon, sir."  Frank turned sharply round.  "Don't mind me
speaking, sir, I hope?"

"No, Sam," said Frank, rousing himself and speaking in a tone which
plainly suggested, "_Go on_."

"Thankye, sir.  Don't seem to have had a chance to speak to you in all
this rumble tumble sort of look-sharp-or-you'll-be-left-behind time."

"No, we haven't seen much of one another, Sam."

"We ain't, sir, and I don't know as I've wanted to talk much, for it's
took all my time to think and make out whether it's all true."

"All true?"

"Yes, sir.  Seems to me as if I'm going to wake up directly to find I've
been having a nap in my pantry in Wimpole Street."

"Hah!  It has been a rush, Sam."

"Rush, sir?  It's wonderful.  Seems only yesterday we were packing up,
and now here we are--down here on the map.  One of the sailors put his
finger--here it is, sir, signed Jack Tar, his mark, for it was one of
the English sailors, not one of the Lascar chaps.  That's where we are,
sir."

Sam held up a conveniently folded map, surely enough marked by the tip
of a perspiring finger.

"He says we shall be in port to-morrow, and have to shift on to the rail
again, and in a few hours be in Cairo on the River Nile."

"That's quite correct, Sam," said Frank, smiling; "and then our work
will begin."

"And a good job too, sir; I want to be at it.  But my word! it seems
wonderful.  Me only the other day in my pantry, Wimpole Street, W., and
to-morrow in King Pharaoh's city where there were the plagues and
pyramids."

"And now hotels and electric lights, and the telegraph to communicate
with home."

"Yes, sir, it's alarming," said Sam.  "Pity it don't go right up to
Khartoum--that's the place, ain't it, sir?"

"Yes, Sam."

"So as we could send a message to Mr Harry: `Keep up your spirits;
we're on the way.'"

"Ah, if we could, Sam!" said Frank, with a sigh.

"Never mind, sir; we're not losing much time.  But who'd ever think it!
I used to fancy that foreign abroad would look foreign, but it don't a
bit.  Here's the sea and the sky looking just as it does off the Isle o'
Wight when you're out o' sight o' land; and only when we saw the
mountains with a morsel of snow on their tops did the land look
different to at home.  I suppose it will be a bit strange in Egypt,
though, sir, won't it?"

"Oh, yes.  Wait a few hours longer," said Frank, "and then you'll see."

Sam came to him the next night when they were settled in the European
hotel, where the professor was welcomed as an old friend.

"I've put out all you'll want, sir," said the man.  "Is there anything
else I can do?"

"No, Sam; I'm just going to bed so as to have a good night's rest ready
for work to-morrow.  Well, does this seem foreign?"

"Foreign, sir?  Hullo! there's another of 'em."--_Slap_.--"Missed him
again!  Have they been at you yet, sir?"

"What, the mosquitoes?  Yes.  I just brushed one off."

"They seem to fancy me, sir.  I expected they'd be great big things, but
they're only just like our gnats at home."

"Indeed!  What about their bite!"

"Oh, yes, they bite sharper, sir.  I expect it's because they're so
precious hungry, sir.  But foreign?  Oh, _yes_, this'll do, sir.  It's
wonderful, what with the camels and the donkeys.  My word! they are fine
'uns.  I saw one go along cantering like a horse.  Yes, sir, this'll do.
But I suppose we're not going to stay here long?"

"Only till the professor can make his preparations for the start, and
then we're off right away into the desert."

"Right, sir; on donkeys?"

"On camels, Sam."

"H'm!  Seems rather high up in the air, sir.  Good way to fall on to a
hard road."

"Road--hard road, Sam?" said Frank laughing.  "If you fall it will be on
to soft sand.  There are no roads in the desert."

"No roads, sir?  You mean no well-made roads."

"I mean no roads at all; not even a track, for the drifting sand soon
hides the last foot-prints."

Sam stared.

"Why, how do you find your way, sir?" said Sam, staring blankly.

"Either by the compass, as one would at sea, or by trusting to the
Arabs, who know the landmarks."

"And sometimes by the camels' bones," said the professor, who had
entered the room unheard.  "Plenty of them die along the caravan tracks.
But I daresay we shall find our way, for there is the big river which
marks our course pretty well, if we were at fault."

"Thankye, sir; you'd be sure to know," said Sam hurriedly.  "I was only
asking Mr Frank like so as to pick up a little about the place."

The man asked no more questions, but made the best of his way to his own
room.

"Come down and out into the grounds, my lad," said the professor.  "The
doctor's sitting in the garden having his cigar."

"I was just going to bed."

"Yes, but come with me for an hour first.  I've an old friend waiting to
see me, and I thought I'd bring you down."

"I don't want to meet his old friends," thought Frank impatiently.  Then
aloud, as he followed: "Of course you will say nothing about the object
of our visit here?"

"Trust me," said the professor quietly.

"Is your friend staying here?"

"Yes; he comes here regularly at this time of year, expecting to meet
old visitors to Egypt."

"I see," said Frank drily.  Then to himself, "I wish he was at Jericho.
I can't talk about anything now but the desert."

As they descended into the prettily lit-up hall and went out into the
garden among the palm trees, the scene was attractive enough to fix any
newcomer's eyes; but Frank could see nothing but a long wide stretch of
desert country, at the horizon of which were a few palms overshadowing
dingy, sun-baked mud buildings, houses formed of the brick made of straw
now as in the days when the taskmaster-beaten Israelitish bondmen put up
such pitiful plaint.

"Where is the doctor?" said Frank.

"Over yonder on that seat," replied the professor, as they were going
down a sandy path towards a group of palms.  "Ah, there's my friend."

Frank looked in the indicated direction, but he saw no English visitor.
There was a stately looking turbaned figure, draped in white, standing
in the dim shadowy light among the palms, and he seemed to catch sight
of them at the same moment, and came softly forward, to stop short and
make a low obeisance to each in turn.

"Well, Ibrahim, how are you?" said the professor sharply.

"His Excellency's servant is well and happy now, for his soul rejoices
to find that the dogs told lies.  They said his Excellency would not
come to El Caire until the war was over, and the Mahdi's successor--may
his fathers' graves be defiled--had gone back to the other dogs of the
far desert."

"Oh, yes, I've come again.  Frank, this is Sheikh Ibrahim, of the Dhur
Tribe.  And look here, Ibrahim, this is my friend and brother, Mr Frank
Frere."

"And my master," said the Arab, with another grave and dignified
reverence, speaking too, in spite of the flowery Eastern ornamentation,
in excellent English.  "His Excellency has come, then, to continue his
search for the remains of the old people?"

"Hah!" cried the professor, "that's right.  Now let's understand one
another at once.  No, Ibrahim, I have not."

"Not come, Excellency?" cried the Sheikh, in a disappointed tone, and
his hands flew up to his long flowing grey beard, but he did not tear
it, contenting himself with giving two slight tugs.

"No, not come to explore."

"But, your Excellency, I and my people have found a fresh temple with
tombs, and deep in the sand where no one has been before."

"Yes, and you know too that the authorities have given strict orders
that no expeditions are to be made right out in the desert on account of
the danger?"

"It is true, O Excellency," said the Arab, with a sigh, "and I and mine
will starve.  We had better have been driving our sheep and goats here
and there for pasture far away yonder, than waiting for English
travellers.  All who are here go up the river in boats.  There are no
journeys into the wilds this year.  I have been stopped twice."

Frank glanced at the professor, and saw that his eyes were glittering as
he spoke in a low tone.

"Yes, Sheikh," he said; "it is very ill for you, and it is bad for me.
There are those stones cut into and painted that we left buried in the
sand."

"Yes, Excellency; hidden safely away, waiting for your servants to dig
them out.  Why not let me gather my people and let us go so many days'
journey out into the wilderness and carry them off, before some other
learned traveller to whose eyes all the mysteries of the past are like
an open book shall come and find them?"

"That would be bad, Ibrahim," said the professor slowly.

"It would break thy servant's heart, Excellency," said the man.  "Look
here, Excellency.  It is forbidden, but my people are away there to the
south with the tents and camels, and their Excellencies might come and
dwell with us in the tents for days, and then some night the camels
would be ready--the poor beasts are sobbing and groaning for burdens to
bear and long journeys into the desert--and some moonlight night they
might be loaded with their sacks of grain and skins of water, and no one
would know when we stole away into the desert to where the old tombs are
hidden.  Then the treasures could be found and brought away by his
Excellency's servants, who would rejoice after and have the wherewithal
to buy oil and honey, dhurra and dates, so that their faces might shine
and the starving camels grow sleek and fat upon his Excellency's
bounty."

"Ah," said the professor slowly and dubiously, as Frank listened with
his heart beating fast, while he held his quivering nether lip pressed
tightly by his teeth; "you think that would be possible, Sheikh?"

"Possible, your Excellency?" said the man, in an earnest whisper; "why
not?  Am I a man to boast and say `I will do this,' and then show that I
have a heart of water, and do it not?"

"No," said the professor slowly; "Sheikh Ibrahim has always been a man
in whom my soul could trust, in the shadow of whose tent I have always
lain down and slept in peace, for I have felt that his young men were
ready with their spears to protect me, and that their father looked upon
me as his sacred charge."

"Hah!" said the Sheikh, with calm, grave dignity.  "They are the words
of truth.  His Excellency trusts me as he has always done.  Will he
come, then, into the desert once again?  If he says yes, Ibrahim will go
away to-night with gladsome heart to the village close by, and there
will be joy in the hearts of his two young men, who are waiting
sorrowfully there."

"You know the desert well, Ibrahim," said the professor slowly.

"It is my home, Excellency.  My eyes opened upon it first, and when the
time comes they will look upon it for the last time, and I shall sleep
beneath its sands."

"Yes, as a patriarchal Sheikh should," said the professor.  "But you and
your young men are quite free from engagements?"

"Ready to be thy servants, to do thy bidding, for no one wants us now;
go where you will choose, and work and dig, and find as they have found
before."

"It is good," said the professor gravely.  "Of course I shall pay you
well."

"His Excellency always did pay us well," said the Arab, bending low.

"And my two friends will add to the payment."

The Arab smiled.

"You will keep our departure quite private, Ibrahim--no one is to know."

The man shook his head.

"And I should want you to lead us wherever I chose to go."

"You always did, Excellency."

"But suppose I wanted you to go where some of your people--I mean men of
your race--would consider it dangerous?"

"There are Arabs of some tribes, Excellency, who are of low breed--men
who are not of the pure blood, who would say the way was dangerous: the
men of my tribe, the Dhur, do not know that word.  If they said they
would take the English learned one, they would take him.  They have
their spears and their guns and swords, and their camels are swift.  Is
not that enough, O Excellency?"

"Quite," said the professor; "but there would be danger, perhaps, for
the Mahdi's followers range far."

"True, my lord, and they are many.  Mine are but as a handful of sand.
His Excellency would not go to fight the Khalifa?  It would be mad."

"A wise man can fight with cunning, and do more than a strong man with
his sword and spear."

The Sheikh was silent, and stood in the semi-darkness with his eyes
reflecting the lights of the hotel strangely, as he glanced from one to
the other as if trying to read their faces.

"I shall have to tell him all, Frank," said the professor slowly, in
Latin.

"The risk is too great," replied Frank hurriedly.  "We should be putting
ourselves in his power, and if he is not true he would destroy all our
hopes."

"We can go no further without his help, Frank," said the professor
gravely.  "_Tace_."

"His Excellency's words are dark," said the Sheikh, in a low, deep
voice.  "He speaks of dangers, and of the Mahdi's men, and of fighting
with cunning.  Will he not fully trust his servant, and make his words
and wishes shine with the light of day?  Does his Excellency wish to
play the spy upon the new Mahdi's movements?"

"No," said the professor firmly.

The Sheikh drew a long breath which sounded like a sigh of relief.

"I am glad," he said softly, "for their lives are dear to my young men.
They have their wives and little ones, and the followers of the Mahdi
seek blood.  What would the learned Englishman who loves the stone
writings of the ancient people do amongst the conquering spearmen of the
prophet's chosen one?"

"Answer this, Ibrahim: Do you believe this new Mahdi or Khalifa is the
chosen one of the prophet?"

The Sheikh laughed softly.

"Thy servant thought much when he was young, and all his life he has had
dealings with the wise men from the west who have come here from many
countries to see and seek out what the old people left buried in the
sands of time.  He could not help, as he saw the wonders they brought to
light, and sat in the same tent with them, growing wiser and thinking in
their tongue.  He has seen, too, again and again, fresh prophets rise to
utter the same cry, `Lo, O people, I am the prophet's chosen, sent to
free the country from the heathen Christian dog.'  And it has always
been the same: the people cry aloud and believe and follow him to the
fight always to kill and destroy, to make slaves, and to pass like a
flight of locusts across the land, and the new prophet eats and drinks
and makes merry till he dies like the thousands he has killed; but he
does not carry out his boast, and another arises and cries, `Lo, I am
the chosen of the prophet.  Upon me does the Mahdi's mantle fall.'
Excellency, I am a man of the desert, but there is wisdom even amongst
the sand, and I have picked up some, enough to know when false prophets
come amongst the people.  No; I do not believe the new Mahdi is the
chosen one.  He is only another man of blood.  Why does my master ask?
Why does he wish to run where there is danger to him and his friends--
danger to us who would be his guides?"

"Listen," said the professor, and in a few well-chosen words he told the
old Sheikh of Harry Frere's unhappy fate.

"Hah!" ejaculated the old Arab, after hearing the speaker to the end.
"Yes; I have heard of this before.  With mine own eyes I saw the German
who escaped, and it was said that there was a young Englishman out
yonder, a slave.  And he is your brother, my lord?" he continued,
turning quickly upon Frank.

"Yes; my brother, whom I have come here to save."

"It is good," said the Arab slowly.  "But I hear that an army is going
south to fight the Khalifa."

"Yes," said Frank bitterly; "but it will be months or years before they
reach the place, and before then my brother may be dead.  Sheikh," said
Frank, in a low, hoarse voice that bespoke the emotion from which he
suffered "he is a slave, and in chains.  I must go to his help at once."

"The young Excellency's words are good, and they make the eyes of his
servant dark with sorrow; but it will not be freeing his brother from
his chains if he goes as a young man would, to rashly throw away his
life.  It is so easy away out there.  Here there is law, and if a man
steals or raises his hand against his brother man, there is the wise
judge waiting, and the judgment bar.  But out yonder they make their own
laws, and it is but a thrust with a spear, a stroke with a sharp sword,
and the sand is ever athirst to drink up the blood, the jackals and the
unclean birds to leave nothing but a few bones.  Has the young
Excellency thought of all this?"

"Yes," said Frank hoarsely, "and I have seen in the darkness of the
night when I could not sleep, my brother's hands stretched out to me,
and have felt that I could hear his voice calling to me to come and save
him."

The Sheikh stood silently there beneath the palms, and for some minutes
no words came.

At last he repeated his former stereotyped expression.

"It is good.  Yes," he said, "it is good, and God will go before you on
such an errand as this, my son.  I am growing old now."

"And you--"

Frank began to utter his thoughts impulsively, but the professor laid a
hand sharply upon his arm.

"Silence," he said, and the Arab paused for a few moments as if to give
way, but as Frank checked himself he went on--

"--And old men grow to love money and greater flocks and herds, and more
and better camels, as they come nearer to the time when all these things
will be as naught.  I have been much with the wise men from Europe, and
it has been pleasant to my soul to take their piastres to make my tribe
richer every year.  His Excellency here has paid me much gold in the
past times, and I and my people have worked justly for him, so that he
has come to us again and again, till his coming has been that of a
friend, and my heart was sore when I heard that he was not to be with us
this season of the year.  And now he has come for this as to a friend to
ask the help of me and mine.  He has come to me as a brother in
suffering, and it is good.  Yes, Excellency, you are welcome to the
tents of your brethren, and we will do all we can to bring the lost one
back.  And what I bid my people do they will do, till I am gathered to
my fathers and my son takes my place.  But when I go to my people
to-night and tell them of your words, they will say `O my father, this
is not work for money.  Our master must not give us payment for such a
thing as this.  Of a truth we will go and bring the young man back to
those who mourn for him.  If we redden the sand with our blood instead,
well, we have died as men, and we shall sleep with the just.'"

The professor caught the old Arab's hand, and Frank snatched impulsively
at the other, the thin, nervous fingers closing tightly upon the English
grip, and they stood in silence for some minutes.

"Tell him what I feel," said Frank at last.  "I can't find words."

"Neither can I," said the professor, "but I must try."

"Listen, Sheikh," he said, "you have made our hearts glad within us.
For when this news came to England I said to myself that I would seek my
old Arab friend and ask him to help me to find our young brother."

"It is good," said the Arab softly.  "You remembered the far away."

"How could I forget the man who watched by me in his tent when I was
sick unto death, and who rejoiced over me when I was brought back to
life?  I looked back upon you as a brother and friend, and now I have
come; but this must not be only a work of friendship.  You and your
young men must be paid, and paid well, for all their risks, for we do
not come as poor suppliants.  I and my friends are fairly rich, and will
gladly spend money over this adventure."

"Yes, money is as water that we fling upon the sand at such a time as
this," said the Sheikh.  "And you are rich.  Well, so are we.  Our life
is simple; we live as we have always lived, in tents, and our riches are
in our flocks and herds, our camels and our horses.  We have our pride
as you have, even if we do work for the rich English for the piastres
they pay.  But in such a work as this for our wise brother and friend,
take money?  No; we go to help our brother.  It is for love."

"But Sheikh--" began Frank.

"Let your young brother be silent, Excellency; the bargain is made, and
we must have much thought about how this is to be done.  As you said,
the fight must be with cunning; much wisdom must be brought to bear.  We
must try and find out what the Khalifa desires most.  We must go as
merchants, and you will need your piastres to buy enough for a little
caravan of such things as will be welcome in the enemy's camp.  Powder
for the guns of his people for certain he will want.  Strong wines and
waters too, for he, like those of his kind, loves to break the prophet's
laws.  I will leave you now to sleep and muse upon all this.  Mayhap you
will find some plan or scheme, as you English call it, that will be
better than mine; but something of this sort it must be, and we will
go."

"Yes," said Frank eagerly, "and we will go."

The Sheikh shook his head slowly.

"No," he said, "this is no work for such as you.  The task is for me and
mine.  Good-night."

He turned, and seemed to fade into the darkness at once, just as the
doctor, who had been waiting impatiently upon the seat, strode up.

"Well," he said, "have you secured your man?"

"Yes," replied the professor; "but there is a battle yet to fight.  He
does not know our plans."



CHAPTER SIX.

THE STARTING POINT.

What with the excitement and the change, as it were, into another life
such as he had only read of in books, Frank Frere's was a very poor
night's rest, so that after dozing off and waking again and again, hot,
feverish, and uncomfortable, he was not sorry to see the first signs of
dawn peering through his blinds.

Getting from beneath the mosquito curtain, he opened the window wider,
and then stayed for a few minutes to wonder that the morning air should
be so cool to his heated brows.

Returning to bed, he lay thinking for a few minutes, and then all at
once thought ceased and he slept soundly for an hour, to start up in
horror, full of the impression that he had overslept himself.

But a glance at his watch showed that it was still early, as he began to
dress, meaning to have a look round the place before breakfast.
Matters, however, shaped themselves differently, for on going to the
window and looking out, there to the left lay the hotel garden with its
clumps of palms and orange trees, where beneath the former he saw an
early visitor in the shape of the tall, dignified-looking Sheikh in his
clean white robes and turban, walking slowly to and fro, as if in
expectation of seeing the professor.

Frank hurried down, too eager to reach the garden to pause and look
about at the Eastern aspect of everything around; but he found that he
was not first, for there before him were the professor and the doctor
just passing out, and he joined them just as they reached the Sheikh,
who greeted them all with solemn dignity.

"I have slept on the matter, O Excellencies," he said.

"And now you think better of it?" said the doctor sharply.

The Sheikh smiled.

"I have thought much of it, Excellency," he said gravely, "but the
matter was agreed upon last night.  All that remained was to find out
the best way and the safest.  I feel that it must be as I said; we--my
people and I--must journey through the desert to avoid the windings of
the great river, taking with us such merchandise as the Mahdi's people
will be glad to buy, and once at Khartoum or Omdurman we must trust to
our good fortune about finding the prisoner.  Once we do find him the
merchandise must go, and we shall trust to our fleet camels and
knowledge of the desert to escape.  What do your Excellencies say?"

The professor turned to Frank.

"Will you tell him?" he said.  "It was your idea."

Frank shrank for the moment, but mastering his hesitancy he turned to
the old Sheikh, and rapidly growing earnest and warm, he vividly
described his plans, while the old man stood stern and frowning,
apparently receiving everything with the greatest disfavour, merely
glancing once or twice at the doctor and then at the speaker, as
allusions were made to the parts they were to play.  When the professor
was mentioned the listener remained unmoved, but he frowned more
markedly when the servant's name was mentioned.

Frank worked himself up till in his eagerness his words came fast, as he
strove hard to impress the Sheikh with the plausibility of his plans.
But the old man remained unmoved, and when at last the speaker had said
all that he could say there was a dead and chilling silence, the young
man turning from his listener to look despairingly from the doctor to
the professor, and back again, "The Sheikh cannot see it," said the
young man despairingly; "but it seems easier to me now than ever."

"Yes," said the doctor; "I feel that it might be done.  The idea grows
upon me."

"But you do not like it, Ibrahim," said the professor, looking hard in
the solemn, impenetrable face before him.

"There is the servant--the doctor's man," said the Sheikh gravely.  "I
have not seen him."

"You soon shall," said the professor.

"Tell me," continued the Sheikh; "this young man--can he make cures--can
he bind up wounds and attend to an injured or dying man?"

"He has been my servant and has helped me for years," said the doctor.

"Hah!"

Then there was silence again, and Frank gazed at the deeply-lined, calm
and impassive face before him with a feeling of resentment.

"He will not do," thought the young man; "he is too slow and plodding.
We want a brisk, dashing fellow, full of spirit and recklessness."

He turned to the professor, and spoke a few words in Latin.

The professor smiled.

"You do not know Ibrahim yet," he said quietly.  "A young Englishman
dashes at a thing without consideration; an Arab looks before he leaps,
and examines the starting and the landing place.  Hush!"

"Yes," said the Sheikh at last, and he bowed his head again and again as
he spoke, evidently calculating every move in the great game of chess
with live pieces in which he was about to engage.  "Yes; his Excellency
here will be the learned Hakim--he _is_ a learned Hakim, and the people
will crowd to his tent.  I could take him and his Excellency the
professor, who speaks our tongue like I speak it myself, anywhere, and
they would be welcome.  The idea is grand and cannot fail, but my heart
grows faint when I think of his young Excellency here.  Could he bear to
act like a slave for all the many weary months in that disguise?"

"Yes," said Frank firmly.

"And hold your peace, no matter what may befall?"

"Yes.  I _will_" said Frank, through his set teeth.

"We may come suddenly upon the prisoner in chains; we may see him beaten
by his taskmaster.  Brothers love brothers," said the Sheikh gravely.
"Could the young Excellency hold his peace and stand by looking on at
such a time?"

"Yes," said Frank, in a low, harsh voice: "it is to save my brother's
life.  I would not speak to save my own."

The old Sheikh's face was stern and rugged as ever; not a muscle
twitched; but there was a new light in his eyes as they rested upon
Frank's, and he uttered a low sigh of satisfaction.

"The English are a great, brave nation," he said gravely.  "No wonder
they make themselves masters of the world."

"Then you are satisfied, Ibrahim?"

"No, Excellency, not yet," replied the Sheikh.  "Take off those clothes
and put on those that I will get, and you are the interpreter of the
great Frankish Hakim.  That is enough.  The people will rush to you and
call you brother.  His Excellency here, clothed as I will clothe him,
that great, grand head white from the barber's razor, with that
magnificent beard hanging down over his robe in front, and with the
wisdom of the physician to cure the sufferers who will come--even the
Khalifa and his greatest officers would come and bend to him.  Yes, all
this is grand."

"Well done," said the professor, with a sigh of relief.

"His Excellency here _is_ a great doctor--one who can cure bad wounds?"
asked the Sheikh.

"One of the best in London," said the professor enthusiastically.  "He
can almost perform miracles."

"It is good," said the Sheikh gravely.  "He will find much work to do,
for the Mahdi's followers die like flocks and herds in time of plague
for want of help.  Now about his young Excellency here.  He will be the
Hakim's slave?"

"Yes; his learned slave, Ibrahim.  He is skilled in chemistry and
science."

"I do not know what chemistry and science mean, Excellency."

"The power to perform natural miracles," said the professor.

"It is enough; but he must do as he said.  As he is now he would be
watched by suspicious eyes; I could not answer for his life.  As the
Hakim's black slave who helps his master and is mute, yes, he will be
safe too.  But this man--this servant?  What can he do?  Will he be
black and mute?"

"H'm, no," said the professor, hesitating.

"Has he a brother in chains and misery whom he would die to save?"

"H'm, no," said the professor again.  "Frank, lad," he said, in Latin,
"I'm afraid Sam will not pass."

"What will he do, then?" asked the Sheikh.

"Attend on his master, the Hakim."

"One of my young men can do that."

"Hold the wounded when the Hakim bandages their cuts."

"One of my young men would be safer far."

"He knows the Hakim's ways, and will sponge the bullet-wounds and fetch
the water bowl."

"The Hakim's black slave should do all that, Excellency."

"I'm afraid you are right," said the professor; "but I want to take him
if we can.  Come, he is a capital cook."

"A learned Hakim like his Excellency here would live on simple food,
such as one of my young men could prepare."

"Well, I don't know what to say, Ibrahim.  He is a very useful fellow."

"But his being with us might mean making the Mahdi's followers doubt,
and once they doubted it means death to us all."

The professor's face was a study as he turned to Frank.

"He's right, my lad; he's right."

"It may mean ruin to our journey, even as men perish when they make for
a water-hole, to find it dry.  Can he do anything else?"

"Heaps of things," cried the professor.

"But they are as nothing if they are not suited to our task, Excellency.
Does he look to be an Englishman?"

"A thorough-paced Cockney, Ibrahim, I am sorry to say."

"Cockney, Excellency?"

"Well, very English indeed."

"Would he be painted black, Excellency?" said Ibrahim.

"He'd only look like an imitation Christy Minstrel if he were, eh,
Frank?" said the professor.

"Would he have his head shaved like his Excellency the Hakim?" said the
Sheikh.

"Got him!" cried the professor excitedly.  "Here, Ibrahim, you wanted to
know what he can do.  He's the Hakim's barber, and can shave a head."

"Ah-h-h-h!" said the Sheikh, drawing out the ejaculation to an
inordinate length.  "He can shave--and well?"

"Splendidly!  Can't he, Morris?"

"Oh, yes, excellently well," said the doctor, smiling.

The Sheikh took off his turban and softly passed one hand over a head
which was like a very old, deeply-stained billiard ball at the top, but
was stubbly at the back and sides, as if it had not been touched by a
barber for a week.

"May he shave me, Excellency?" said the old man.  "I should like to see
the man and whether he is skilful enough to deceive those who will watch
him with jealous eyes."

"Of course you can see him," said the doctor.  "He will be in my room."

"Let's go, then, at once," said the professor.  "I say, Ibrahim, there
need be no disguise about him.  He is a Frank, and the Hakim's slave."

"Yes, that will do, Excellency," said the Sheikh.  "The Hakim's skill as
a learned man and curer of the people's ills will cover all.  If this
man is clever, too, as a barber every Moslem will look upon him as a
friend.  Barber, surgeon, and the Hakim's slave.  Yes, that will do."

Five minutes after the party were in the doctor's room, and upon the
bell being answered by a native servant, Sam was fetched from his
breakfast, to come up wondering, half expecting that something was
wrong.

"Sam," said the doctor gravely, "I wish you to shave this gentleman's
head."

"Certainly, sir.  I'll ring for some hot water."

"No," said the professor; "we're going where hot water will be scarce--I
mean that sort of hot water.  Do it with cold."

"Right, sir," said the man, in the most unruffled way, and slipping off
his coat he turned up his sleeves, placed a chair for the Sheikh, opened
the doctor's dressing-case, brought out shaving-box, strop, and razors,
and then made the old chief look a little askance as one of the latter
was opened, examined, and laid down, while the brush and shaving-box
were brought so vigorously into action, that in a very short time the
Arab's head was thoroughly lathered, and left to soak.

"I always prefer hot water, gentlemen," said Sam, confidentially; "it's
better for the patient, and better for the razor, for it improves the
edge.  But these are splendid tools, as I know."

Whipping open one of the choice razors, and drawing the strop as if it
were a short Roman sword, Sam made the Sheikh wince a little as the
sharp blade was made to play to and fro and from end to end, changing
from side to side, and with all the dash and light touch of a clever
barbel, being finished off by sharp applications to the palm of the
operator's hand.

"There we are, sir," said Sam, who seemed to be quite in his element.
"Don't squirm, sir; I won't cut you, nor hurt you either.  I was taught
shaving by a first-class hand."

"Don't talk so much, Sam," said Frank impatiently.  "We want you to
shave this Arab gentleman carefully and well."

"Well, ain't I trying my best, Master Frank?  Look at that, and look at
that, and that.  Razor cuts beautifully."

As he spoke he scraped off with long sweeps the white, soapy foam, which
came away darkened with tiny swathes of blackish-grey stubble.

"I call this a regular big shave.  Don't hurt, do I, sir?"

The Arab uttered a grunt which might have meant yes or no.

Sam took it to mean the latter.

"Thought not, sir.  That's fine shaving-soap, sir; he--mollient; softens
the stubble and the skin at the same time.  My word! this is a prime
razor.  Only fancy, Mr Frank, being out here, shaving a native!"

"Will you keep your tongue quiet!" whispered Frank angrily.  "This is a
serious matter.  Mind what you're doing, and don't talk."

"Don't ask a man to do impossibilities, sir," said the man appealingly;
"did you ever know anyone shaved without the operator talking all the
time?  It's natural, sir, and seems to make you shave cleaner.  I'm
a-doing the very best I can.  I must talk, or I should get nicking his
skin and spoil the job."

"Then for goodness' sake talk," cried Frank petulantly.

"Thankye, sir; now I can get on," and with wonderful celerity Sam
scraped away with light hand till the last line of lather was taken off,
a touch or two here and there given with the brush, and this fresh soap
removed, after which the razor was closed, sponge and water applied, and
a clean towel handed to the Sheikh, who received it with a grave smile
and nod of the head.

"Good," he said softly.  "Clever barber.  It is good."

"Then you are satisfied?" said the professor eagerly.

"Quite, Excellency.  Now I have no fear."

Sam smiled too with satisfaction as he carefully wiped and re-stropped
the razor before placing it in its case.  At the same time, though,
there was a peculiar, inquisitive look in his eyes.  For the whole
business seemed to be strange, and he looked longingly at Frank as if
hoping that he would follow and explain, when the doctor said--

"That will do, Samuel.  Go and have your breakfast."

But Frank did not follow, for he was eager to hear what the Sheikh would
say as soon as they were alone.

Little was said, though, the old Arab being anxious to go and rejoin his
followers staying in the village half a mile outside the town, promising
to be back during the morning to talk over the arrangements for the
venturesome journey.

"Will he come back and hold to the promise?" said Frank to the
professor.

"For certain," was the reply.

"But do you think he will prove business-like and go to work heart and
soul in our service?"

"I can only speak from past experience," replied the professor.  "I have
always found him thoroughly trustworthy, and I feel sure he will be so
now."

"And about the preparations, the dress, provisions, and the many odds
and ends we shall require?"

"All that I shall leave to Ibrahim.  What you have to get ready is a
couple of portmanteaus that can be swung one on either side of a strong
camel by means of straps.  These must contain all your chemical and
electrical apparatus in one, the doctor's instruments and medicines in
the other, with an ample supply of lint, bandages, antiseptics,
plaisters, and the like.  Chloroform, of course.  But there must be no
superfluities.  As to dress, we must place ourselves in Ibrahim's
hands."

"What about weapons?" said Frank.  "Swords and revolvers, of course.
What about rifles?"

"I have brought two or three antiquated weapons for show; that is all.
We are not going to fight.  Give up all thoughts of that."

Frank stared at the speaker anxiously.

"Surely we ought to carry revolvers," he said.

"Surely we ought not.  If we go as men of war we shall fail.  If we go
as men of peace we may succeed.  Leave all that to Ibrahim, and we shall
know what is to be done when he comes back this morning.  Now then, the
first thing to be done is to eat and drink."

Frank sighed.

"Without this we shall do no work."

Frank knew the wisdom there was in these words, and he resigned himself
to his fate, accompanying his companions to the hotel coffee-room to
take their places at the table set apart for them, to become for the
time being a mere group of the many, for the place was full of visitors
staying, and others making a temporary sojourn before continuing their
steamer's route, these to India or China, those back to Europe; while
other tables were occupied by officers awaiting their orders to go up
country, or go on making preparations for the advance of the troops
already there, and further arrangements for those coming out by the
great transports expected; for it was the common talk now that before
long a large force was to march against the Mahdi's successor, and
Gordon was to be at last avenged.



CHAPTER SEVEN.

BY MOONLIGHT.

The people at the hotel were too much occupied with their own affairs to
pay much heed to three ordinary visitors and their servant.  It was
rumoured that one of them was a famous Egyptologist, but plenty of
scientists came and went in this city of change, so that in a few hours
Frank's anxiety as to the risk of their expedition being stopped, died
out, and the visits of the Sheikh excited no more notice than those of a
dragoman or letter of boats and donkeys who waited upon the tourists and
arranged to take them to the pyramids, the river, or other objects of
interest within easy reach.

When Ibrahim appeared again about midday, he inquired anxiously about
the amount of baggage the party intended to take, and seemed pleased
with the narrow compass into which, under the professor's
superintendence, it was to be condensed.  He then had a long discussion
with the doctor, and when this was over it was announced that the Arab
was going to be busy in the bazaar for the rest of the day, and that in
the evening he would be at the door of the hotel with four camels and
attendants to take the baggage that was ready, the rest being placed in
the care of the manager ready for them upon their return from an
expedition with the Sheikh.

"That's prompt," said the professor.  "Are you satisfied, Frank?"

"More than satisfied.  But about our disguises, our provisions for the
journey, and other preparations?  We have done nothing yet."

"There is nothing to do," said the professor quietly.

"But our disguises?" said the doctor anxiously.

"Ibrahim will see to all that.  We don't want to draw anyone's attention
to the task we have in hand.  If we did the news would spread, and run
like wildfire amongst the people, perhaps reach the enemy's camp."

"But can we leave everything to this Arab Sheikh?"

"Everything," said the professor, "as I have left things again and
again.  Here is our position: I am known here, and it is no novelty for
me to go upon an expedition with this old guide.  So all we have to do
is to eat our dinner in peace, and when Ibrahim comes, mount our beasts
and go off in the moonlight and silently steal away through the further
parts of the city, and in a very short time be swallowed up in the
mysterious gloom, travelling onward over the sand."

"All night?" said the doctor.

"Yes, all night, and in good time in the morning we shall have reached
the tents of the Sheikh, where we shall have an early meal and sleep.
When we shall go on depends upon the preparations there.  These will be
extremely simple, but they will be sufficient.  Make your minds easy,
and throw all the arrangement of the journey upon Ibrahim and me.  He
will do his best, but as he said to me an hour ago, the success of our
adventure must be left to fate."

"But our preparations seem so small," said Frank uneasily.

"Preparations for desert journeys are small from an Englishman's point
of view.  A man here takes his camel, a bag of meal and another of
dates, with a waterskin to fill when it is more than a day's journey to
the next well.  The Sheikh expressed himself satisfied with our baggage,
but in his eyes it is very large."

"Well," said the doctor, "I have said very little, but I share Frank's
uneasiness.  We seem to be making ridiculously small preparations.
Surely we ought to go better prepared if we are to get to our journey's
end."

"We shall never get to it if we do," said the professor gruffly, "and
the sooner you two try to fit yourselves to the necessities of a desert
journey the better."

"I'm ready to do anything," said the doctor, "but I do not want to fail
from doing too little."

"What more would you do than Ibrahim is doing?"

"I can hardly say on the spur of the moment, but with the exception of
my medicines and instruments, and Frank's chemicals and things, we seem
as if we are going on the march in the clothes we stand up in."

"Yes," said the professor coolly, "and those we are going to leave
behind in Ibrahim's tents."

"Is all this true, Frank?" said the doctor.

"I suppose so," was the reply; "but certainly things are moving far more
rapidly than I anticipated."

"It is what you wished," said the professor.

"Then all we have to do now is to be ready?"

"Yes, that is all."

It was in furtherance of this that directly after dinner Frank summoned
Sam and told him that they were to start in about an hour.

"So the guv'nor's been telling me, sir; but he says we're to leave
nearly everything behind."

"Yes, Sam; it will be safe enough here."

"Well, it caps me, sir, that it do!  Mr Landon took pretty well
everything away that I thought we wanted, and now he says that we're to
leave the miserable little lot he chose himself."

"Yes," said Frank quietly.

"The only thing we're taking plenty of, it seems to me, is physic."

"But you've packed the shaving tackle, Sam?" said Frank hastily.

"Oh, yes; that goes in my pockets, sir; but one can't live on a wash and
brush-up, and one wants something else on a journey besides soap.  Seems
to me, sir, that the doctor thinks a little physic's the best thing to
have with us, because it spoils the appetite and keeps people from
wanting to eat.  He's taken plenty of care of the people out yonder, but
I should have liked to see him provide a little more for us."

"Don't be alarmed.  I daresay we shall find plenty."

"From what the people here tell me about the desert, sir, I don't think
we shall; but there, I'm not going to grumble, sir.  An hour's time,
eh?"

"Yes, in less now.  Then the Sheikh will be here with the camels."

"To take us right away into the desert, sir.  Do you think he's safe?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, I hope he is, sir; but if he means mischief and plays any games
when he's got us right away from the police, I just hope he won't ask me
to shave his head again."

"Why?" said Frank, smiling.

"Why, sir?  Well, because it won't be safe."

It was about nine o'clock, the moon past the full, rising, richly golden
of hue, in the east, and the air moist and fragrant with the cloying
scent of the orange trees, when with a strange feeling of unreality
about the whole proceeding, the little English party passed the groups
of visitors smoking and chatting in the garden, or listening to the
strains of a very excellent band.  It almost seemed to the doctor that
he ought to go and occupy the seat he had found so pleasant on the
previous night; but the professor was by his side talking earnestly of
the peculiarities of a night ride in the desert, and Frank was close
behind with Sam.

In another minute they were in an open court, where, looking mysterious
and strange, were a group of about a dozen camels and their leaders, in
front of whom stood the figure of the Sheikh, his white robes and turban
looking thoroughly in keeping with the strangely formed animals, four of
which were keeping up a peculiar, querulous, discontented whining grunt,
and turning their heads from side to side in their disgust at being
laden with portmanteaus and bags, while their fellows had been allowed
to go scot-free.

And now all seemed more unreal than ever; and anything less like a start
upon so dangerous an expedition it would have been impossible to
imagine.

"Ready, Ibrahim?" said the professor.

"Yes, Excellency," replied the Sheikh; "it is past the time, and the
camels are loaded."

Frank looked round the court, where a couple of servants were standing
beneath an arcade, while the moon was just peering over the house in a
one-eyed fashion as if watching what was going on; but no one came from
within to see the night start being made, and with the feeling of dreamy
unreality increasing, the young man replied to the Sheikh's indication
by stepping to the kneeling camel he was to ride.

"Beg pardon, Mr Frank," whispered Sam, coming close to his side.  "Am I
to ride one of them long-legged things?"

"Yes, of course.  You're not afraid?"

"Afraid, sir?  Not me.  I've rid most everything, and I meant to have
gone up to the Zoo for a lesson in camels, only there warn't time.  I'm
not afraid, and I'm going to do it, but I do begin to feel as if I ought
to be tied on."

However, Sam climbed to his strange saddle, as did the rest, and a few
minutes later the silent-pacing, long-legged animals were following
their leader out of the court and into the lighted road, down which they
stole on in the moonlight like strange creatures in a picture, passing
people, but taking no one's attention, while more than ever the whole
scene appeared to the party like a portion of some dream.



CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE DESERT.

"How are you getting on, Sam?" said Frank, after they had progressed
about a mile, during which the outskirts of the city had given place to
garden, cultivated field, trees dotted here and there, and then hedges
which looked weird, ghastly, and strange in the moonlight, being
composed of those fleshy, nightmare-looking plants of cactus growth, the
prickly pears, with their horrible thorns, while more and more the way
in front began to spread out wild, desolate and strange in the soft,
misty, silvery grey of the moonlight, through which the long-legged
animals stalked, casting weird shadows upon the soft, sandy road, and
save for one thing the passing of the little train would have been in an
oppressive silence, for the spongy feet of the birdlike animals rose and
fell without a sound.

"How'm I getting on, sir?" was the reply.  "Well, about as bad as a man
can.  Look at me, sir; there I am.  That's my shadder.  I don't know
what our servants at home would say to see me going along over the sand
this how.  Look at my shadder, sir; looks like a monkey a-top of a
long-legged shed."

"The shadows do look strange, Sam."

"Strange, sir?  They _look_ horrid.  Just like so many ghosts out for a
holiday, and it's us.  And look at what makes the shadders.  They look
creepy in the moonshine.  Why, if we was out on a country road now in
dear old England, and the police on duty saw us we should give 'em
fits."

"Rather startling, certainly," said Frank.  "It does look a weird
procession."

"Seems a mad sort of a set out altogether, sir: three British gentlemen
and a respectable servant going out for a ride in the night in a place
like this a-top of these excruciating animals, along with so many silent
blacks dressed in long white sheets.  It all seems mad to me, sir, and
as if we ought to be in bed.  I fancy I am sometimes, and having
uncomfortable dreams, like one does after cold boiled beef for supper,
and keep expecting to wake up with a pain in the chest.  But I don't,
for there we are sneaking along in this silent way with our tall
shadders seeming to watch us.  Ugh!  It's just as if we were going to do
something wicked somewhere."

"It's all so strange, Sam," said Frank quietly.  "You are not used to
it."

"That's true enough, sir, and I don't feel as if I ever should be.  Just
look at this thing!  It's like an insult to call it a saddle.  Saddle!
why it's more like--I don't know what; and I've been expecting to have
an accident with this stick-up affair here in front.  How do you get on
with your legs, sir?"

"Pretty well," said Frank, smiling.  "I've managed better during the
past ten minutes."

"I wish you'd show me how you do it, sir, for I get on awfully, and I'm
that sore that I'm beginning to shudder."

"It's a matter of use, Sam.  Try and sit a little more upright, like
this."

"Like that, sir?" said the man, excitedly.  "No, thankye, sir.  It's bad
enough like this.  I suppose I must grin and bear it.  Here, I've tried
straightforward striddling like one would on a donkey, but this beast
don't seem to have no shape in him.  Then I've tried like a lady,
sitting left-handed with my legs, and then after I've got tired that way
for a bit, and it don't work comfortable, I've tried right-handed with
my legs.  But it's no good.  Bit ago I saw one of these niggers shut his
legs up like a pocket foot-rule, and I says to myself, `That's the way,
then;' so I began to pull my legs up criss-cross like a Turk in a
picture."

"Well, did that do?" said Frank, listening to the man, for the remarks
kept away his own troubled thoughts.

"Nearly did for me, sir.  I had to claw hold like a kitten to the top of
a basket of clothes, or I should have been down in the sand, with this
wicked-looking brute dancing a hornpipe in stilts all over me.  Ugh, you
beast! don't do that."

"What's the matter?" said Frank, as the man shuddered and exclaimed at
the animal he rode.

"Oh, I do wish he wouldn't, sir.  It's just as if he don't like me, and
does it on purpose."

"Does what?"

"Turns his head and neck round to look at me, just like a big giant
goose, and he opens and shuts his mouth, and leers and winks at me, sir.
It gives me quite a turn.  It's bad enough when he goes on steady, but
when he does that I feel just as I did when we crossed the Channel, and
as if I must go below.  I say, sir, can a man be sea-sick with riding on
a camel?"

"I don't know about sea-sick, Sam," said Frank, laughing outright, "but
I really did feel very uncomfortable at first.  The motion is so
peculiar."

"Ain't it, sir?" cried Sam eagerly.  "Beg your pardon sir, for saying
it, but I am glad you felt it too.  It upset me so that I got thinking
I'd no business to have left my pantry, because I wasn't up to this sort
of thing."

"Cheer up, and make the best of it," said Frank quietly.  "You'll soon
get accustomed to what is very new to us all."

"I will, sir.  I'll try, but everything seems to be going against me.
Ugh!  Look at that now.  Ugh! the smell of it!"

"Smell?  Why, I only notice the professor's pipe."

"Yes, sir, that's it.  It seems horrid now, and there he sits with that
long, snaky pipe and his legs twisted in a knot, smoking away as
comfortably as the old Guy Fox in the tablecloth that I shaved.  He went
to sleep and nodded, for I watched him, and he keeps on see-sawing and
looking as if he'd tumble off; but he seems to be good friends with his
camel, for it kept on balancing him and keeping him up.  I wish I could
go to sleep too."

"Well, try," said Frank.

"Try, sir?  What, to wake up with a bump, and sit in the sand seeing
this ridgment of legs and shadows going off in the distance?  No, thank
you, sir.  They tell me there's lions and jackals and hyaenas out here.
No, thankye, sir; I'm going to fight it out."

Just then the professor checked his camel and tried to bring it
alongside of the pair behind, when a struggle ensued, the quaint-looking
creature refusing to obey the rein or to alter its position in the
train, whining, groaning, and appealing against force being used to
place it where it made up its mind there must be danger.

"That's how those brutes that are carrying the luggage went on, sir,"
whispered Sam to Frank.  "Groaning and moaning and making use of all
sorts of bad language.  One of 'em kep' it up just like a human being,
and it was as if he was threatening to write to the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for them to put a stop to our ill-using
him and tying heavy things on his back and making creases with ropes on
his front--I mean his underneath, sir."

Just then one of the Sheikh's followers, who had seen the trouble, came
from where he was walking beside the baggage camels, and led the
obstinate animal to where it was required to go, and it ceased its
objections.

"Fine animals for displaying obstinacy, Frank," said the professor.

"Yes; they'd beat donkeys of the worst type."

"I daresay they would; but they have plenty of good qualities to make up
for their bad ones.  How do you like the riding?"

"I'll tell you when I've had some more experience.  At present it would
not be fair."

"Perhaps not," said the professor.  "How do you get on, Sam?"

The butler groaned.

"Hullo!  Is it as bad as that?"

"Worse, sir, ever so much.  Couldn't I have a donkey, sir?  I saw some
fine ones in Cairo well up to my weight."

"I'm afraid not, Sam.  But you'll soon get used to the animal you are
riding."

"Never, sir, never," said Sam.

"Nonsense, man!  Once you get used to the poor creatures you will think
it delightful.  I could go to sleep on mine, and trust it to keep
ambling along."

"Do what, sir?"

"Ambling gently."

"Then yours is a different sort, sir, to mine.  Ambling's going like a
lady's mare does in the Park, isn't it?"

"Yes, Sam; that's quite correct, I believe."

"This one don't, sir, a bit.  If you shut your eyes and hold tight, sir,
you forget that he's an animal, but begin thinking he must be what he
seems like to me--a sort of giant sea-goose with you on his back and him
swimming in rough water and going up and down horrid."

"Oh, that's the peculiarity of the creature's pace.  I'm used to it, and
I find the elasticity most enjoyable."

"Elastic, sir?  Yes, that's just it, sir; elastic.  A bit back he was
going on like an Indy-rubber ball; one o' that sort, sir, as is all wind
and skin.  Made me wish he was one, and that I'd got a pin in my hand."

"Oh, never mind, my lad," said the professor good-humouredly; "its rough
work to learn riding a horse, but once you've mastered the task it's
pleasant enough.  What do you think of the desert, Frank?"

"Do you consider that we have reached the desert now?" was the reply, as
Sam fell back a little, leaving them to converse.

"Oh, yes; we've left the cultivated ground behind, and right away south
and west now, saving a _few_ oases, there's nothing but the sand
covering all about here the ruins of ancient cities.  I believe if we
dug anywhere here we should find traces--buildings, temples, or tombs."

"Has there been cultivation, too, here?"

"No doubt.  It only wants water, sandy as it is, for it to break out
blushing with soft green."

"Where does the Nile lie from here?"

"Away to the left."

"Shall we see its waters when the morning comes?"

"No; we are going farther and farther away to a bit of an oasis where
the Sheikh's people are gathered with their flocks.  They find pasture
there at this time of year, and a little employment with the travellers
who come to Cairo.  In the summer time, when the city is pretty well
empty, they go right away to some high ground where it is rocky and
fairly fertile.  We shall reach the present camp before the sun gets hot
in the morning."

"How is the doctor getting on?" asked Frank, after a pause.

"Pretty well.  It makes him a little irritable, so I don't think I'd ask
him.  He is enjoying the night ride, though."

Sam sighed and said to himself--

"He says that because he wants to make the best of it, but I'm not going
to believe my poor guv'nor's enjoying this.  He's wishing himself back
in Wimpole Street, I know."

"What's that?" said Frank suddenly.

"What?  I see nothing."

"No, no.  I mean that wild cry."

"Only a jackal.  I daresay if you listen you will hear another answer
it.  Pleasant note, isn't it?"

"Horrible!  It sounded like some poor creature in pain."

"Hungry, perhaps," said the professor coolly.  "Fine, wild, weird
prospect, this, eh?"

"It seems very dream-like and strange."

"Yes, it impressed me like that at first.  After a while you begin to
think of how delightful it is, and what a change from pacing over the
burning sand in the daylight with the sun making the air quiver and glow
like a furnace, and your mouth turn dry and lips crack with the parching
you have to undergo."

"Shall we have to journey much by night?"

"Oh, yes; we shall do most of our marching then, but we need not trouble
about that.  Ibrahim will do what is best.  I have had a long talk with
him, and he proposes to go in a roundabout way for the enemy's camp."

"What! not go straight there?"

"No; it would mean suspicion.  We must not go there unasked."

"Landon!" said Frank appealingly.

"It is quite right, and even if it takes time it will be the surest way.
Ibrahim says that if the Hakim performs a few cures as we get nearer,
the news thereof will reach the Khalifa's camp, where men die off in
hundreds, and after a time he will be sure to send for us.  Just think
of the difference in our reception."

Frank nodded.

"In the one case we should be received with suspicion and most probably
turned back, perhaps be made prisoners; while, if at the new Mahdi's
wish we are sent for, we go there in triumph, and are respected and well
treated by everyone."

"Yes, yes; but the time will be passing away so swiftly, and that poor
fellow lying in agony and despair."

"Yes, but the more reason for being cautious.  We must not build the
castle of our hopes upon the sand, Frank.  I know it seems very hard,
and no doubt I sound cold-blooded for agreeing so readily to this Arab's
proposals, but I speak from ten years' experience of the old fellow.  He
has thrown himself heart and soul into the adventure, and he is well
worthy of our trust; so, even at the expense of going against your own
wishes now and then, give way and follow out the old man's advice, even
when he would be ready to give way to you."

"I'll do my best," said Frank; "but it seems to me that I have already
bound _myself_ down to profound obedience in all things by undertaking
to go as a slave."

"Well, yes, that does bind you, certainly," said the professor.

"But what about these men that the Sheikh is taking with us?  They will
be in the secret."

"Of course."

"Suppose they betray what I am."

"That would mean betraying their Sheikh.  You need have no fear of
that."

"Well, let's talk about something else.  We are bound now for the
Sheikh's encampment.  What is going to be done first when we get there?"

"We put off Europe and put on Africa as far as is necessary."

"Hah!" said Frank, with a sigh.

"What does that mean, my lad?" said the professor sternly.  "Are you
beginning to repent?"

"Repent!" said Frank between his teeth.  "What a question!  I am longing
to commence, for so far everything has been preparation."

"And a very brief preparation," said the professor, "if you come to
think of how short a time it is since you dashed in upon us after dinner
that evening with your news."

"Well, don't reproach me, Landon."

"Not I, my lad.  I know what you must feel.  All I want of you now is
for you to play the stoic.  Make up your mind that you have done your
utmost to set the ball rolling; now let it roll, and only give it a
touch when you are asked.  Believe me that you will be doing your best
then."

"I will try," said Frank firmly.  "Only give me time.  I am schooling
myself as hardly as I can.  It is a difficult part to play."

The professor reached out his hand and gripped his young companion's
shoulder firmly, riding on for some minutes without relaxing his grasp,
the touch conveying more in the way of sympathy than any words would
have done, while the discomforts of the novel ride seemed to die away,
and the soft dreaminess of the night grew soothing; the vast silvery
grey expanse, melting away in its vastness, became lit-up with a faint
halo of hope, and with his spirits rising, Frank seemed another man when
the professor spoke again--

"Bob Morris will be feeling neglected."

"Go to him, then," said Frank quietly.

"No; you go first.  But there's nothing like making a beginning at
once."

"In what way?" asked Frank, for his companion paused.

"Begin treating him as what he is to be till our task is done--the
learned Hakim; and begin to school yourself into acting as his slave."

"Now?"

"Why not?  I spoke of him just now as Bob Morris.  That's the last time
till we are safely under the British flag again."

"Yes, you are right," said Frank, and urging on his camel the animal
stepped out and passed of its own accord alongside that of the doctor,
who uttered a sigh of relief as he saw who it was.

"That's better, Frank," he said.  "I was beginning to feel a bit lonely,
for this ride is not very cheerful, and the bringing of fresh muscles
into play is producing aches and pains."

Frank raised his hands to his head, and bowed down.

"Humph!" ejaculated the doctor; "not such a very bad imitation of a
salaam.  What have you two been talking about?"

Frank raised his hand, and saw that his tall shadow was repeating the
action, as he pointed straight ahead.

"About our journey's end, eh?" said the doctor.  "That's right.  I shall
be glad to get there and lie down, if it is only upon the sand.  How do
you get on with your camel?"

Frank made a despairing gesture.

"Same here," said the doctor.  "I wish we could have had some lessons
first.  But use is second nature, and I suppose this weary, aching
sensation of being waved about in the air will soon pass off.  But I
say, Frank, my lad."

Frank turned to him.

"There, that will do for to-night," said the doctor pettishly.  "I
haven't cut your tongue out yet, so just talk like a Christian.  This
vast open place seems to sit upon my spirits, especially now that we're
making this night journey instead of lying comfortably in our beds.
Talk to me.  You've done acting enough for the present."

"Very well," said Frank quietly; "but Landon thinks with me, that the
sooner I begin to play my part the sooner I shall make myself perfect."

"Well, yes, of course," grunted the doctor; "but leave it till we put on
our costumes.  I say, I think this Sheikh is all right."

"Yes; I have perfect faith in him now."

"So have I.  He's a fine old fellow; there is no doubt about that.  But
Frank, my lad, I don't think I could have kept this up much longer if
you had gone on with that dumb-motion business.  It only wanted that to
give me the horrors, for this night ride seems to be about the most
mysteriously weird business possible to conceive.  Just look at the
ghostly appearance of the camels and their leaders, the long, strongly
marked shadows, and the mysterious light!  I can't get away from the
idea that it is all a dream."

"That is how it has been impressing us," replied Frank.

"And no wonder.  Everything is terribly unreal, and between ourselves I
am beginning to lose heart."

"You?" said Frank reproachfully.  "You, the calm, grave surgeon,
accustomed to terrible scenes, to awful emergencies where men's lives
depend upon your coolness and that calm, firm manner in which you face
all difficulties!"

"Yes, at home and in my proper place.  But here I seem to be
masquerading--playing, as it were."

"Playing!" said Frank reproachfully.

"Well, I hardly mean that, my dear boy," said the doctor softly; "but
all this is so strange and--well, yes--risky."

"Yes, it is risky," said Frank sadly, "but--"

"Yes, I know," said the doctor, interrupting; "I do think of why we are
doing it, and I can't help shrinking a bit and doubting my nerve to
carry it all through.  If I break down in any way I shall sacrifice the
liberty if not the lives of you all.  It is this that makes me feel
doubts about my nerve."

"I have none whatever," said Frank quietly.  "You know how often you
have talked to me about the operations you have performed."

"Well, yes, I have talked to you a good deal both before and after some
of them.  Harry and I always opened out our hearts to one another, and
when he went away he asked me to make you his substitute--to take his
place with you."

"So like Hal," said Frank softly.  "Well, and so you have."

"Have I, lad?  Well, I have tried, and it has been very pleasant to have
you come to me to chat over your experiences and successes and failures,
and to tell you mine."

"You have made more of a man of me," said Frank softly; "often and often
when I have felt that I was only an ignorant, blundering boy."

"I never saw much of the ignorance or blundering," said the doctor
quietly.  "You were always too enthusiastic over your studies for that."

"Never mind about my qualities," said Frank, with a little laugh; "it is
like trying to put me off from talking about you.  As I was going to
say, don't you remember telling me that whenever you were going to
perform an operation upon some poor suffering fellow-creature you always
felt a strong sensation of shrinking and want of nerve?"

"Of course.  I always do."

"And that you always prayed that your efforts might be rightly guided?"

"Yes," said the doctor, very softly and slowly.

"And that the next day when you went into the operating theatre and
stood there with the patient before you, the students and surgeons with
your assistants about you ready for the task, you always felt as calm
and cool as possible, and that your nerves were like steel?"

"Yes!  It is so."

"Then why should you feel doubt now?  I have none."

The doctor was silent for a few minutes as they rode on through the
mysterious-looking night, their shadows bowing and undulating on the
sand.

"I suppose it is the same," he said at last, "with the soldiers going
into some engagement.  There is the feeling of nervousness which they
suffer from till the stern work begins, and then--well, they act as
brave men do act."

"Even if they are generals in the great fight with disease and death,"
said Frank gravely.  "I wish I could feel as sure of our ultimate
success as I do of your being perfectly calm and self-contained in all
you do."

"I should be, my dear boy," said the doctor, "if I could only get rid of
the feeling that I shall be an impostor."

Frank laughed pleasantly.

"That feeling troubling you again?" he said.  "How absurd!  Are you
going to cheat the poor creatures you attend with sham medicines?"

"Am I going to do what?" said the doctor indignantly.

"And play tricks with the wounds they are suffering from?"

"My dear Frank!"

"And make believe to extract bullets and sew up wounds, or set broken
bones?"

"My good lad, are you talking in your sleep?  Did I ever do anything but
my very best for the poor creatures to whom my poor skill was
necessary--did I ever give less attention to the humblest patient than I
do to the wealthiest or highest in position?"

"Never," said Frank warmly.  "That big, generous disposition of yours
would never have allowed it."

"Then why did you talk in so absurd a strain?"  Frank laughed merrily,
and for the time being he was the schoolboy again.

"Please, sir," he said mockingly, "it wasn't me.  Answer me first," he
cried.  "Why do you talk about feeling like an impostor?  Why,"
continued the young man warmly, "I feel as if through my plan I am going
to heap blessings upon mine enemy's head.  I am taking you through this
country, amongst these cruelly savage people, to do nothing but good.
Wherever you go your name will be blessed; they will think of the Great
Hakim as long as they live."

"Look here, young man," said the doctor playfully, "I've made a mistake
to-night.  You began to play your part very nicely, and you were as
quiet as a dumb waiter--that old black mahogany one in the dining-room
at home.  Then for company's sake I stopped you, and here is the
consequence.  You took advantage of the liberty given you, and at once
developed into a base flatterer, putting your adulation into all the
flowery language you could muster.  Now, no more of it, if you please.
There, to speak soberly and well: Frank, lad, I am not the great,
learned Hakim of your young imagination, but the hard-working student
who tries his best to acquire more and more knowledge of our fallen
human nature so as to fight against death like an earnest man.  I know
something of my profession, and I work hard, and always shall, to know
more, so as to apply my skill in the best way.  Please God, I hope to do
a great deal of good during this our journey, and I promise you that I
will think only of this application of my knowledge.  Yes, I feel now
that I can go on and face all that I have to do, for I shall not be such
a sorry impostor, after all."

"Isn't it my turn now for a chat?" said the professor.  "You two seem to
be having a most interesting discussion, and it's very dull back here.
The Sheikh is fast asleep on his camel, and poor Sam has become
speechless with misery, in spite of all I could say to him about
mastering the art of camel-riding.  He says he can't get over the
feeling that he is at sea.  How are you two getting on?"

"Better, I suppose," said the doctor, "for I have not thought so much of
the motion lately.  I suppose I'm getting used to it."

"And you, Frank?"

"I had forgotten it too till you spoke.  But I am utterly tired out.
How long will it be before we get to the tents?"

"Oh, hours yet," said the professor cheerfully.

"What!" cried the doctor and Frank in a breath.

"Not till well on in the morning," said the professor; and then, as his
companions turned to gaze at one another in dismay, "but we're going to
halt soon, to rest the camels and--ourselves."



CHAPTER NINE.

THE HAKIM BEGINS.

The professor had hardly finished speaking when something dark loomed up
through the silvery gloom, and the camels began making a peculiar,
complaining sound, while they slightly increased their pace and soon
after stopped short, craning their necks and muttering and grumbling
peevishly.

A water-hole had been reached, where the beasts were refreshed, after
they had been relieved of their living burdens--those which were loaded
with the travellers' baggage having to be content with a good drink and
then folding their legs to crouch in the sand and rest.

"Yes, it's all very well, Mr Frank," said Sam, "but I don't believe
that thing which carries me is half so tired as I am.  Oh my!
See-sawing as I've been backwards and forwards all these hours, till my
spinal just across the loins feels as if it had got a big hinge made in
it and it wanted oiling."

"Lie flat down upon your back and rest it."

"But won't the grass be damp, sir?"

"Grass?" said Frank, smiling.  "Where are you going to find it?"

"I forgot, sir," said the man wearily.  "No grass; all sand.  That comes
of being used to riding in a Christian country."

"That's right," said the professor, joining them, for Frank had set Sam
the example and was lying flat on the soft sand.  "I've just been
telling the Hakim to do so.  Don't sit down to rest out here; lie flat
whenever you get a chance.  It does wonders.  Are you thirsty, Frank?"

"Oh no," was the reply.

"That comes of travelling by night.  If we had come this distance under
the burning sun we should have been parched."

"Better move, hadn't we?" said Frank, a minute or two later, as he
glanced significantly towards Sam.

"I think we had," replied the professor, laughing.  "I thought it was
one of the camels."

The sound that came regularly was not unlike that uttered by one of the
grumbling creatures, but it was due to their man's ways of breathing in
his sleep, for not many seconds had elapsed before he had forgotten all
his weariness, and the troubles of the first lesson in camel-riding, in
a deep slumber which lasted through the two hours' halt, during which
the Sheikh and his men had sat together and smoked in silence, while
Frank and his companions had lain chatting in a low tone about the
beauty of the moon-silvered rocks and the soft, transparent light which
spread around.

At last the Sheikh rose and stalked softly towards them in his long
white garments, looking thoroughly in keeping with the scene, and made
his customary obeisance.

"Are their Excellencies rested?" he asked gravely.

"Oh, yes; let us get on," said the professor, looking at his watch.
"Four o'clock.  I did not know it was so late.  How are you, Frank?
Stiff?"

"Terribly."

"Yes," said the doctor, stretching himself.  "We have been giving some
idle muscles work to do that they had never had before."

"Their Excellencies will soon be as much used to it as their friend,"
said the Sheikh; and he led the way towards where the camels crouched,
some moving their under jaws, chewing after their fashion, others with
their long necks stretched straight out and their heads nestling in the
sand.

"Here, Sam," cried the professor, breaking the silence that reigned
around, and his words were echoed from the rocks on the far side of the
water-holes.

But the man's reply was only a gurgling, camel-like snore.

"Sound enough," said the professor; and he was stepping towards him, but
Frank interposed.

"I'll wake him," he said.  "The poor fellow feels fagged and
low-spirited.  We must not be hard upon him.  He hasn't our motive to
spur him on."

"No," said the professor, "but he must try and brace himself up a bit."

"Give him time," replied Frank, and he bent down on one knee--pretty
stiffly too--and laid his hand upon the sleeper's breast.

"Come, Sam," he said; "we're ready to start."

But there was no reply, and the touch had to be followed up by a shake,
and that by one far more vigorous, before there was a loud yawn, and two
fists were thrown out in a vigorous stretch.

"What's the matter?  Night bell?"

"Wake up, man."

"Eh?  Who is it?--Where am I?--You, Mr Frank?"

"Yes.  Your camel is waiting for its load.  Up with you!"

"Oh, Mr Frank," moaned the poor fellow, "never mind me.  I'm about done
for."

"Nonsense, man!  Don't let the professor see how weak you are."

"But I can't help it, sir.  I'm that sore all over that it's just as if
I'd been broken.  Go on and leave me; I ain't a bit o' good."

"Leave you here in the desert to die?"

"Yes, sir; it don't matter a bit.  I'm regularly done for."

"Nonsense!  Rouse yourself like a man."

"I couldn't do it, sir.  I only want to lie still and die decently.
Daresay the next people who come along will cover me over with a bit of
sand."

Frank laughed.

"I do call that unfeeling of you, sir," moaned the poor fellow.  "It's
heartless, that it is!"

"I can't help it, Sam," said Frank merrily; "the idea is so absurd."

"What, me dying out here in the desert?"

"No, what you said about being covered over with the sand."

"I don't see anything absurd, sir.  It's very horrible."

"Not a bit," said Frank.  "There wouldn't be anything to bury."

"What!" said Sam, rising up on one elbow and staring wildly at the
speaker.

"You see, there are the vultures to begin with, and then there would be
the jackals."

"Ugh!  Don't, Mr Frank," cried the poor fellow, shuddering.  "I never
thought about them.  That's worse than the camel."

"Ever so much," said Frank.  "Come, be a man.  How do you spell
`pluck'?"

"I dunno, sir," whined the poor fellow.  "I suppose it would be with a
very small `p'."

"Try and spell it with a big capital, Sam.  Come, don't let the doctor
feel ashamed of you."

"But I don't seem to mind anything now, sir."

"Yes, you do, Sam.  You came to help us, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir, I did, but--"

"Are you going to break down over the first difficulty."

"No, I ain't, sir.  I--oh dear!--oh my!--I--ugh! what a scrunch!--Hah!
Would you mind lending me a hand, sir?"

"Not a bit, Sam," said Frank.  "I'll help you in any way, as you will
me; but I want to see you master all this."

"That's right, sir.  Here goes, then."

The next moment the man had made a brave effort, and he walked at once
to his camel and mounted, Frank standing by as the ungainly beast
see-sawed to and fro and sprawled out its legs, and grumbled and snarled
as it rose upright.

"Don't make that row!" cried Sam.  "You ought to be used to it by this
time.  That's done it, Mr Frank.  Don't tell the doctor what I said."

"Not I, Sam.  Bravo!  You have plenty of pluck, you see."

"Have I, sir?" said the man pitifully.  "I began to think I hadn't a
bit.  It had got to the bottom somewhere."

"Yes," said Frank; "now keep it up at the top."

In another minute the little camel train was steadily pacing on again
over the sands, with the air feeling fresher.  The moon, too, was
beginning to cast the shadows in a different direction, while the whole
party had become silent, no one feeling the slightest inclination to
talk.

But it did not seem long now before the silvery radiance of the moon
began to grow pale before the soft opalescence in the east, and the
far-spreading desert sands took a less mystic tint.  Then all at once
far on high there was a soft, roseate speck, which grew orange and then
golden as if it were the advance guard of the gathering array of
dazzling hues which now rapidly advanced till the east blazed with a
glory wondrous to behold.

"Your first desert sunrise, Frank," said the professor quietly, as he
saw the young man's rapt gaze.  "Ah, we have some splendid sky effects
here to make up for the want of flower and tree!  The desert has glories
of its own, as you will see."

For the next half hour Frank forgot his weariness, the want of sleep,
and his anxieties in the grandeur of the scene around, as the glories of
the day expanded till the sun rose well above the horizon, sending the
shadows of the camels long and strange over the yielding sand.  Then
hour after hour the monotony increased, and the silence grew more
oppressive, the heat harder to bear, and but for the calm, contented
ease exhibited by the Sheikh and his men, and the example they felt
bound to show to their followers, both the Doctor and Frank would have
put in a plea for another halt.

As it was they sat firmly as they could, swaying to and fro with the
monotonous motion of the camels, and growing more and more faint, while
at last Frank spoke to the Sheikh to set one of his young men to keep an
eye upon Sam, for he felt at times too much irritated to meet the poor
fellow's pleading eyes, and followed close behind the professor, who
kept turning in his seat to make some remark to cheer him up.

Then apparently all at once, after he had been straining his eyes vainly
over the far-spreading, interminable plain in search of their
halting-place, the Sheikh rode alongside, smiling and apparently as
fresh as when they had started, to point away in the direction they were
going.

"The tents, Excellency," he said.

Frank felt as if he had taken a draught of renewed life, as he raised
his hand to his brow and shaded his eyes from the sun.

"I see nothing," he said.

"Look again, Excellency.  Your eyes are not used to the desert.  There,
straight past the Hakim's camel."

"Ah, yes!  I can see something like a heap of sand."

"Look again in half an hour," said the Sheikh smiling, "and that which
you see will have changed to something more than a heap of sand."

"Can you make out the tents, Landon?" said Frank.

"Oh, no; my eyes are not like Ibrahim's," was the reply; "but I take it
for granted, and I shall be very glad to get there.  I want my breakfast
badly.  I say, Ibrahim, there will be some coffee?"

"I sent one of my sons yesterday with two camel-loads of necessaries,
Excellency," replied the old Arab.  "They can see us coming, for they
will have been watching, and there will be all their Excellencies need."

"Come, Frank, that does you good, doesn't it?" said the professor.

"Oh, yes; and I shall, I hope, make a better show of endurance after a
day or two."

"The young Excellency has done well," said the Sheikh, smiling
pleasantly.  "The way is long; he is not accustomed to travelling like
this, and his mind is not at rest.  He and the Hakim have borne the ride
well."

"Does the Hakim know that we are in sight?" said Frank, who was watching
the bent, weary figure in front.

"No, Excellency."

"I'll go and cheer him up with the news," said the professor, urging on
his camel, while Frank checked his to let Sam's long-legged steed come
abreast, and boldly now met the poor fellow's appealing eyes.

"It's you at last, Mr Frank," said the man faintly.  "I've been asking
that native chap how long a man could go on like this before he's
knocked over by the sun."

"And what does he say?" replied Frank cheerily.

"Only grunted like this beast does.  I might just as well have asked
it."

"Feel very tired, then?"

"Tired, sir?  I feel as if--as if--as if--"

"As if you wanted rest and a good breakfast."

"Rest?--breakfast?" said Sam faintly.  "Oh, don't talk about such
things, sir! if it's only to keep me lingering on for another hour, sir.
Mr Frank, I used to grumble sometimes in Wimpole Street about my
pantry being dark and made mizzable by the iron bars and the old,
yellowish, wobbly glass; but it seems a sort of place now as I'd give
anything to get back to--parrydicey, and that sort of thing.  Rest--
breakfast!  There can't be either of them out here, only sand.  Oh, sir,
you're a-laughing.  I know what you're going to say.  You're going to
make jokes about the breakfast, and say we're to have the sand which is
there."

"Wrong, Sam," replied Frank laughing; "but I'm glad to see that you can
think about jokes.  There, sit up, man, and look yonder straight ahead.
The tents are in sight."

"Tents?  Where?" cried the man, changing his tone.  "I can't see 'em."

"They are not very plain yet, but there they are."

"White uns, sir, with flags flying, and that sort of thing?  What are
they--marquees, or bell-tents like the soldiers have?"

"I don't suppose they are either, but native tents," said Frank, shading
his eyes again.  "They look very low and small, right away on the
horizon, and they seem to be brown."

"On the horizon, sir?  Why, that means out at sea, and we sha'n't be
there before night."

"Well, right away on the horizon of this sea of sand," said Frank
cheerfully; "but I don't think we are above a mile or two away."

"Oh!" groaned Sam.  "Say two miles, then, and chuck in another because
places are always farther away than you think.  Three miles, and we're
going a mile an hour.  Mr Frank, sir, have you got a pencil and a bit
o' paper?"

"Yes, in my pocket-book.  Will you have them now?"

"Me, sir," said the man faintly.  "I couldn't write, sir; I want you to
do it for me."

"A letter?  Well, when we get to the tents."

"No, sir, now.  I sha'n't live to see no tents.  There ain't much, sir;
only a silver watch and chain, a bit in the Post Office Savings Bank,
and my clothes, as my brother 'll be very glad to have."

"Oh, I see! you want to make your will, Sam," said Frank seriously.

"That's it, sir; and you'd better write it as plain as you can, sir, so
as there sha'n't be no mistakes after, and I dessay I can manage to make
my cross."

"A will made on a camel in the desert, Sam!" said Frank seriously.
"Rather a novelty in wills, eh?  Better wait till after breakfast."

"Breakfast, sir?"

"The Sheikh says there'll be coffee."

"Coffee out here, sir?"

"Yes, and these people know what good coffee is."

"Yes, sir; it was very good at the hotel.  'Most as good as ours at
home."

"And he said that he sent two camel-loads of necessaries on before us
yesterday."

"He did, sir?" said Sam, whose voice sounded stronger.

"Yes, and look now: the tents are getting quite plain.  They look
peculiar, and there are camels about them, and there are green trees--
palms, I think.  There must be a water-hole there, I suppose."

"Yes, I can see the trees, sir--toy-shop sort o' trees."

"Here's a man coming to meet us on a camel too--a man all in white."

There was a pause for a few minutes, during which period the camels
stepped out more freely, as they blinked and looked from under their
eyelids in a supercilious way, drooping their lips and sniffing as if
they smelt water.

"Think there's likely to be a pen and ink yonder, sir?"

"There is with the doctor's medicine chest, I know."

"These camels do move about in a dreadful, wobbly way, sir, don't they?"

"Yes; but I'm growing more accustomed to the motion already."

"That's because you're young, sir, and not set like I am.  But I was
thinking that it would be rather hard to write plain, going as we are."

"Very, Sam."

"And there are so many troubles about wills when the lawyers get hold of
'em, and often just about a word or two."

"Quite true, Sam," said Frank seriously.

"You see, there's a nice bit of money I've saved up, sir--over fifty
pound--and I shouldn't rest easy if it all went in law through the will
being made hasty like.  P'r'aps it would be better if we stopped till we
got to the tents.  What do you say, sir?  Might be a table there for you
to write on."

"Well, I feel very doubtful about the table, Sam; but I can't help
thinking that I could write a good deal more clearly lying on the sand
with the paper on a box or a biscuit-tin."

"Yes, sir, I feel sure it would be better to wait now, and I'll risk
it."

"Risk what--the writing?"

"No, sir; holding out till we get to the tents.  Seems as if we shall
get there a bit sooner than I thought for."

"Oh, yes! we shall be there in less than half an hour."

"Soon as that, sir?"

"Yes."

"Think I can hold out till then?"

"If you try very hard, Sam," said Frank seriously.  "You seem terribly
knocked up; but I feel in hope that a good breakfast and a few hours'
sleep will do you a lot of good, and then if the doctor takes you in
hand, you will feel a different man by to-morrow."

"To-morrow, sir?  Think I shall ever see to-morrow?"

"I hope so.  Ah, here's the man from the tents!  What a good-looking
young Arab he seems, and what a clean-limbed, swift camel he is on--a
beauty!"

"Ugh!  Don't say that, sir.  They seem to me the most unnatural-looking,
big, birdy creatures I ever set eyes on; and oh, Mr Frank! do you think
it's possible for a man to get to ride them and like it?"

"Look at that fellow," said Frank; "he seems as if he were part of the
beast he rides."

"P'r'aps he is, sir; being a native."

"Oh, come, Sam, you're getting better," cried Frank cheerily.  "Look,
there's a fire outside that tent--two fires.  That means cooking, and
cooking means breakfast.  I feel as if I shall be ready for some after
all.  Look at the place here."

Sam began to grow interested, for they were approaching an oasis of some
two or three hundred acres in extent, where, consequent upon the welling
up of a spring of water at the foot of a clump of rocks, a few dom and
date palms rose up gracefully, and the ground was covered pretty
liberally with closely nibbled-off herbage, and dotted with sheep and
goats, a few camels lying about here and there close to the group of
booth-like tents, while for three or four hundred yards the course of
the flowing water which rose from the spring could be clearly traced, by
the richness of the plants and shrubs which owed their existence to its
presence.

The clump of tents proved to be more extensive than they had seemed to
be at a distance, and the Sheikh's little patriarchal family greater
than the travellers had anticipated.  Children could be seen staring
curiously at the newcomers; dark-eyed women stole from tent to tent, and
quite twenty tall, dark, well-featured men came forward to bid them
welcome and relieve the laden camels of their loads; while when the
Sheikh led the way to the largest tent, into whose shadowy gloom the
party entered with a feeling of relief, it was to find ample traces of
the fact at which the old man had hinted in conversation, that he was
comparatively wealthy.  For the tent boasted divans; handsome carpets
were spread over the sand, and upon one there was that European luxury,
a white linen cloth, upon which was already prepared, simple and good,
all that was necessary for the welcome breakfast, while in a little side
tent, greatest luxury of all, there were brass basins, towels, and great
earthen vessels full of clear, cool water.

"Hah, Sheikh," said the doctor, with a sigh of relief, "this is grand!
I'm coming to life again."

"I am glad the learned Hakim is satisfied with his servant's
preparations," said the Sheikh humbly.  "There will be breakfast in a
very short time.  It was hastened by the women as soon as the camels
came in sight."

"But of course we cannot travel with tents like this," said the doctor.

"Oh, no, Excellency," replied the Sheikh; "only two that will be
smaller; but everything necessary for their Excellencies' comfort will
be done.  It will be right, and impress the Baggara and others of the
Mahdi's followers.  For the Hakim is not a poor dervish who tries to
cure; he is a great Frankish doctor who travels to do good.  He does not
treat the sick and wounded to be paid in piastres, or to receive gifts,
but because he loves to cure the suffering."

"Quite right," said the doctor gravely.

"Then it is right and fit that he should travel with good tents and
camels, and such things as suit his dignity."

"But this will be travelling like an eastern prince," said the doctor,
who was beaming with satisfaction, after a refreshing sluice in some
cool water.

"A learned Hakim such as his Excellency Landon assures me that you are,
is greater than any eastern prince," said the Sheikh, handing a fresh
bath-towel; "and I have a petition to make to his Excellency."

"A petition?  What is it, Ibrahim?"

"I have a son here, Excellency; he is my youngest, and the light of my
old eyes, but he is weak and sickly, and there are times when I feel
that I am fighting against fate, and that it would be better that I
should let him die in peace.  But I love him, and I would have him live.
Will the Hakim see the boy and say whether he is to live or die?"

"Yes.  What is his ailment?"

"It was through a fall from a camel.  A fierce old bull rushed at the
young one he rode, and fell upon him and crushed him."

"Ah, I see," said the doctor.  "That is in my way."

"Then the learned Hakim will see the boy?"

"Yes, at once.  Where is he?"

"No, no, not at once," said the Sheikh.  "Poor Hassan has waited three
years; he can wait another hour till the Hakim has eaten and rested.
Then his Excellency will be refreshed, his eyes will see more clearly,
and may be then he will be able to make an old man's heart rejoice.  If
it is not to be--well, His will be done."

"Yes," said the doctor gravely, as he laid his hand upon the Sheikh's
arm.

"And there are other sufferers here, Excellency, who would pray to you
for help, for we are not free from the ills which afflict mankind.  A
mother would ask you if her little one will live.  There is a little
girl whose sight is nearly gone, and one of my young men whose broken
leg does not grow together again.  Shall we be asking too much of the
Hakim if we say, look at these sufferers and give them words of comfort
if you can give them nothing more, not even hope?"

"I am a learned Hakim, you say, Sheikh, and I have come out here to use
my knowledge without fee or reward.  Heaven helping me, I hope to do
much good, and I place myself in your hands.  You will lead us where you
think best, and you will bring the people whom I ought to see.  That is
enough."

"Yes, Excellency, and as soon as your friends are ready the breakfast
waits."



CHAPTER TEN.

AN OPERATION.

The meal prepared by the Sheikh's people astounded the little party--
there were crisp cutlets, freshly made cakes, bowls of a porridge made
with fresh milk and some kind of finely ground grain, and fruit in
abundance, while all pronounced the freshly roasted coffee to be
delicious.  So appetising did it prove in the pleasant, subdued shadow
of the tent, that the weariness of the past night was forgotten by more
than one, for before the meal was at an end Sam made his appearance,
washed and refreshed, to help attend to his master's wants, and say in
answer to Frank's inquiries that he couldn't have believed he could feel
so much better in so short a time.

Frank smiled to himself, but he did not allude to the will.  It was soon
evident, though, that the man had his words upon his conscience, for he
kept on giving Frank peculiar, meaning looks, one and all of which were
ignored, the only words that passed being later in the afternoon, when
Sam suddenly edged up close to his confidant and said--

"It's wonderful what a good rest does for a man, Mr Frank, sir, isn't
it?"

"Wonderful, Sam," was the reply.  "I feel very little the worse for my
night's ride."

"That's just about like I am, sir, and--"

"I can't stop Sam," said Frank, interrupting him; "your master wants me
again."

Frank hurried back to the doctor's side to resume his position of
assistant, for he had been pretty busy making his first essays at the
task which was to be his for many months to come.

For the Sheikh's son had been seen, examined, and an operation
performed, one of a very simple nature, but sufficient to give instant
relief; while the Hakim's instructions that the lad was to remain lying
down for a month were not hard for one who had not stood up, save in
acute agony, for three years.

"I am well paid for this operation, Frank, my lad," said the Hakim, when
he left the lad's tent; for the old Sheikh had gone down on one knee to
touch the hand extended to him.

"It is a miracle, Excellency," he said; "but tell me that he will live."

"It is no miracle, Sheikh," replied the doctor, "only the result of
study and practice.  Oh, yes, the boy will live and grow strong.  Don't
kneel to me; I am but a man like yourself, and glad to help one who has
come forward so nobly to help us."

The visit to the sick child was not of so happy a nature, for the Hakim
took the mother's hand sadly, and the Sheikh interpreted his words, that
told how hopeless was the case, and how much better for her that she
should cease to suffer soon.

In another tent, though, the Hakim brought light and hope, for the
failing sight, though it would soon have become hopeless, was at a stage
when a slight operation and the following treatment of keeping the girl
in darkness, were sufficient to ensure recovery.

The next patient was the young Arab suffering from the broken limb, and
over this the Hakim's examination, after the poor fellow had limped by
the help of a stick to a rough couch in one of the smaller tents, was
long and careful.

"The youth is healthy and strong," the doctor said to the Sheikh and the
young man's brother, "but the leg will never mend while it is like this.
There is diseased bone."

"Then the Hakim cannot cure him?" said the Sheikh sadly, and the
sufferer lay watching anxiously, gazing from one to the other, longing
intensely to know the meaning of the words spoken in what was, in spite
of the people of his tribe being so much in touch with the English who
came to Cairo, an unknown tongue.

"Oh, yes, I can certainly cure him if he is willing to bear some pain,
which I will alleviate all I can, and will undertake to wait patiently
afterwards until the broken bones have knit together."

"Ah, then," cried the Sheikh, "cure him.  He must bear the pain."

"Ask his consent first," said the doctor.

"His?" said the Sheikh, looking wonderingly at the doctor; "he is one of
my people.  I give you my permission."

"Never mind that.  Ask him if he is willing.  Who is this?"

"His brother, Excellency."

"Ask him too."

The words were interpreted, and the anxious look on the brothers' faces
gave place to one of eager hope and pleasure as they heard and replied--

"Yes, Excellency, we beg that you will do what is right, no matter what
pain he suffers.  He prays you to make him a man instead of the useless
cripple he remains--useless to himself, a trouble to his friends."

The Hakim bowed and turned to Frank.

"You will have to help me," he said.  "I will not ask you if you have
the nerve.  There is diseased bone, which must be removed, and he must
be kept under an anaesthetic, for he could not bear the pain, and his
sufferings would hinder me."

Half an hour later, by the Sheikh's orders, everyone was sent to a
distance from the tent, into which the Hakim was watched with looks full
of awe, as he disappeared therein, followed by Frank and the Sheikh, the
brother sitting by waiting, and both looking reverently at the man whose
knowledge was something tremendous in their eyes.

"Are you going to stay, Sheikh?" said the Hakim.  "It would be better
that you and this young man should go."

"I should like his brother to stay and see what is done, Excellency,
while I--I am the father and chief of my tribe; the people look to me,
and it is through me that you are going to do this thing.  My people
would not be contented if I did not stay."

"Very well," said the doctor quietly, and for the next half hour he was
busily employed, finishing the securing of the last bandage within that
time, while when the patient had fully recovered his consciousness, the
calm look of content and satisfaction with which he smiled up in his
surgeon's face on being told that all was done, augured well for a quick
recovery.

The Hakim's reputation had been planted that day like so much seed
thrown into fertile soil; and as they left the tent after the last
patient had sunk into a calm sleep, Frank, who had seen the brother
steal out before, now noticed how the people of the tribe were standing
about waiting to see the Hakim return to his own tent, one and all eager
to catch his eye and make obeisance after their fashion to this man, who
seemed greater to them than any chief.



CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE NOMAD LIFE.

It was settled that a stay of three days was to be made at the
encampment, a period that seemed grievously long to Frank; but there
were excellent reasons for the delay.

The Sheikh said it would take that time to make all the preparations
necessary for the start; and he advocated the wisdom of the three who
were not accustomed to camel-riding, going out twice each day with some
of the young men, so as to grow more at ease.

On the other hand, the Hakim said that it would be absolutely necessary
for him to stay that time with his patients, so as to ensure good
following his operations, and this was unanswerable.

"We shall not be losing time, Excellencies," said the Sheikh, "for you
must now take at once to the native dress, and assume the characters of
those you are to represent."

"But your people here," said Frank quickly; "is it wise for them to
know?"

The Sheikh smiled.

"Oh, yes," he said; "why not?  They must know.  It is to ensure the
safety of you all from the wild and savage followers of the Mahdi, I
have told them, and they feel that it is good.  No harm can come from
their knowing all this."

"Forgive me," said Frank quickly.  "I feel now that my suspicions were
unworthy."

"Only natural, Frank," said the professor quietly.  "You do not know
Ibrahim and his people as I do."

"That is my misfortune," said the young man, smiling.  "I am going to
know them as well."

That evening Sam came to the Hakim's tent to ask if he could do anything
for his master.

He found him sitting at the tent door talking with Frank and the
professor, and the three exchanged glances.

"Well, no, Samuel," said the Hakim quietly.  "You are tired out with
your long ride."

"Yes, sir; I ache all over, and my hands are quite shaky."

"I shall want nothing more.  Go and rest yourself, and go to your bed in
good time, so as to get a long night's rest."

"Thankye, sir; I'm much obliged, sir.  I think that is about what I want
to set me right."

Sam went back to the little tent set apart for him, and lost no time in
throwing himself down upon a rug, to lie listening to the bleating of
the sheep and goats, mingled with which came at times the moaning and
complaining of the camels.

As soon as his back was turned the doctor had laughed softly.

"I meant to have set him to work to-night," he said, "over my head; but
I don't think his touch would have been very light after his last
night's work."

"Oh, no," said the professor; "besides, you ought to have daylight for
that job.  Between ourselves, I shall not be sorry to take to the native
dress again.  It is much more suitable for the climate than ours.  I
have used it in a modified form ever since I first came out.  The sooner
we begin the better."

The conversation then turned upon the doctor's patients.

"So you found them patient patients," said the professor, smiling.

"Poor creatures, yes.  They seem to have the most unbounded faith in
me."

"Of course," said the professor; "and a fine thing for them that they
have, Robert my son."

"Yes, Fred, old fellow, I suppose it is, for it means quick recovery.  I
always like to have to do with a patient who looks relieved as soon as I
come into the room.  He little knows how he is helping me towards his
cure."

"Poor fellow! he doesn't think, then, of what is to come?"

"His sufferings?" said the doctor.  "No, only about how I may be able to
relieve them."

"Didn't mean that, old fellow," said the professor.  "I meant his mental
sufferings over the fees; eh, Frank?"

"Don't try to joke, Fred," said the doctor; "this place makes me feel
solemn--the gentle calm of the oasis, the trickling of the water in this
thirsty land, and the simple, patriarchal life of the people."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the professor softly; "hear this Frank?"

"Hear what?" said the young man, in a tone or voice which suggested that
the calm of the desert was influencing him too.

"Bob Morris talking as if it wouldn't take much to make him give up
civilisation and take to a nomad life."

"Well," said the doctor quietly, "I confess that already I feel
something of its fascination, and I am glad we have come.  All this is
growing irresistibly attractive."

"And when I've been at home and have vaunted the beauty of the old,
simple, patriarchal life, and told of how I enjoyed it during my
Egyptian explorations, you laughed at me, and as good as called me a
lunatic.  What do you say to that?"

"That I spoke in ignorance, old fellow," said the doctor quietly.  "Of
course I should not like to give up our civilisation, but for a time
this has a great charm.  I feel, too, that we have done very wisely in
following out Frank's plan."

"Thank you," said the young man eagerly.

"I shall get on famously with these simple people, who will all prove
excellent patients, and the result will be that we shall get in touch
with poor old Harry, and bring him safely away."

"Yes, we're going to do it, Frank, my lad.  It looks easier to me every
hour."

No more was said for a time, for they all felt the fatigue consequent
upon their exertions of the past night, and that it was very delicious
to lounge there in the soft sand, watching the fall of evening with the
paling glories of the most wonderful sunset two of the party had ever
beheld.  And this was made the more agreeable by the respect with which
they were treated, their part of the encampment being kept, as it were,
sacred, and everything sordid hidden from their sight.



CHAPTER TWELVE.

A FIGHT WITH A BLACK.

Now it so happened that Sam soon ceased to congratulate himself upon his
good luck.  He had thrown himself upon the couch provided for his
resting-place.  He had discovered by turning it up that sheep-skins were
stretched beneath it to make it soft, and that beneath these the sand
was yielding and dry.  But all the same the couch felt hard, and sleep
would not come.

He tried this side and that side, front after back, and returned to the
back; but it was no good, for the fact was that he was over-tired; and
over-weariness, that is to say, exhaustion, is one of the worst
opponents to a calm and satisfying sleep.

The evening came on cool and soft after the ardour of the afternoon, and
he began thinking about the proceedings of that time, and felt a little
hurt that the doctor had not called upon him to come and act as his
assistant, and these thoughts lasted him for about an hour, but did not
weary him into dropping off to sleep.  They seemed to have the contrary
effect, making him irritable; and though he made up his mind to watch
the stars peer out through the opalescent sky--he did not call it
opalescent, for the simple word dusky took its place--even their soft
light had no effect upon him, and to come to the result at once the
would-be sleeper gave it up at last for a bad job.

"I'll go and get something to eat and drink, and then try what I can
do."

In this spirit he rose from his couch, feeling stiff and awkward,
grunted, stretched, and then stood in the tent door looking out upon the
glorious, star-spangled sky, noting that it was lighter towards the
east, where the moon was about to rise.

"Ought to be able to sleep," he said.  "Nice fine night, and it's all
quiet and cool."

Then his attention was taken up by the soft light which came from the
gentlemen's tent, in which a lamp was burning, while some twenty yards
away another was lighting up the opening of the Sheikh's big tent,
showing the figures of the chief and his visitors seated comfortably
smoking, as they conversed in a low voice.

Sam made up his mind at once.  There would be drinking water in a brass
vessel in the gentlemen's tent, and perhaps something to eat--something
to refresh him and give him the night's rest of which he was so sorely
in need.

Walking across the open space, he turned his head for a moment,
attracted by a complaining voice as of some one in trouble, and he was
about to run off to find out what was the matter.  But a repetition of
the sound made him jerk himself angrily away.

"One of those beauties!" he muttered.  "Talk about a bad-tempered horse,
why he's an angel compared to a camel!  Of all the disagreeable,
whining, sour, vicious things that ever breathed, they seem about the
worst.  Gritty, that's what they are.  Get the sand into their tempers
when they're young, I suppose.--Oh, he's quiet now.  Well, it is a
beautiful night after all, and the cool air seems to do one good.  I
expect I shall get to like it when I've learnt to ride that brute of a
camel, so long as there's no stabbing and spearing and that sort of
thing."

Sam shook his head very solemnly as these last thoughts came into his
head in company with recollections of scraps he had read in the daily
papers about encounters with the dervishes, and the horrible massacres
they had perpetrated.

"Seems to me," he said, "that these people ought to be stopped.  If I
was Government I wouldn't let people go about carrying swords and
spears.  With things like them fashionable it stands to reason that
they're sure to want to stick them into somebody.--Ugh!  It's very
horrid.  There ought never to be any other fighting than what is done
with a fist."

Sam had by this time sauntered up to the opening into the gentlemen's
tent, and there he paused to look round at the figures by that of the
Sheikh, before stepping inside in search of what he required.

The low murmur of conversation came softly to his ears as he looked and
then turned back to enter.

"Shouldn't a bit wonder if they've got a nice hot cup of coffee there,
and that's just the thing that would suit my complaint exactly.  I
should be all right if I was at home, but I sha'n't get it here, and--"

By this time he was half across the roomy, booth-like tent, where he
stopped short as if turned to stone in his surprise.  For dimly seen by
the light from the hanging lamp, he could see a figure stooping down--
through the opening into the inner tent where the water and brass basins
stood ready for washing.

It was within this place that the leather cases containing the
travellers' clothes and various necessaries had been placed, and over
one of these open portmanteaus the dimly seen figure was bending, and
from the slight noises he made it was evident that he was ransacking the
case in search of something.

"Oh," thought Sam excitedly, "that's why I couldn't sleep--sort o'
warning like to do my dooty.  Thieves, eh? and not a policeman on the
beat!"

Just at that moment the figure straightened itself up, and quick as
thought Sam stepped close back to the entrance and behind a hanging rug,
which hid him from the figure but enabled him to watch its proceedings.

Sam's first idea was to shout for help to capture the thief, but he
checked himself.

"Wouldn't do," he thought.  "This sort's too slippery.  He'd be off over
the sands and gone before anyone came.  I've got to catch my gentleman
myself.  Wonder whether he has a knife."

Sam's heart beat fast, but it was with excitement, for there was no
leaven of fear.  A marauder was robbing his master or one of his
master's friends, and he felt it to be his duty to capture the
scoundrel.  At the same time he intended to do this without injury to
himself.

"Bless him!" he muttered; "if he'll only come close and turn his back
I'll have him down on his face in a jiffy, and sit upon him as if he was
a camel.  It will be time enough to holloa then."

Those were exciting moments, and Sam's heart beat faster still as the
man stepped softly out of the inner tent and stood for a few moments
where the dim light of the lamp fell upon him, showing him to be a
light, active-looking black in white cotton jacket and short drawers,
his arms, breast, and legs from mid-thigh being bare, and glistening
softly as he moved, while his eyes rolled and the whites stood out
clearly against the dark skin.

"He'll be hard to hold," thought Sam, "and I mustn't trust to that thin
cotton stuff.  He'll tear away in a moment.  But he hasn't a knife, as
far as I can see.  What's he got in his pockets, I wonder."

Sam wondered more the next moment, as he saw the black dart softly back
into the inner tent and disappear, his bare feet not making a sound.

"Is there a way out behind there?" the man asked himself, for all was
quiet and the minutes glided by till he was just on the point of
stepping forward to make sure of the enemy's presence, when the black
appeared again, carrying an armful of clothes, which he threw down on
the carpet, and to Sam's great delight dropped upon his knees in the
very position he would have placed him, while the object of his visit
was plainly shown, for he began to rummage the pockets of the garments
and transfer their contents, the chink of money being heard, and a faint
gleam was apparently given forth by something metallic, evidently a
watch.

As Sam saw all this he softly raised his hands to his lips after the
fashion of a boy about to moisten them so as to get a good grip.  But it
was only in form, and as he did so he stepped softly from behind the
hanging rug and then onward slowly to within springing distance, when
with extended hands he crouched and sprang at the black, landed upon his
back, driving him forward, and gripped him tightly.

"Got you!" he muttered to himself, and this was perfectly true, but the
black did not lie quiet like the camel Sam had settled himself to ride.
For he began to act at once as if made of a combination of steel
springs.  He swung himself sidewise as he felt Sam upon his back,
disorganised the butler's holding, and behaved in a thoroughly eel-like
fashion as he struggled hard to get away.

It was many years since Sam had engaged in such a struggle, but he had
not quite forgotten old, boyish encounters.  The resistance stirred up
the latent temper within him, and though his holding was not what he had
meant it to be, it was fast, and he made it tighter, locking arms and
legs about his captive, and the next minute they were rolling over and
over, twisting and twining on the carpet, and panting hard as each
strove for the mastery.

Sam's intention had been to shout for help as soon as he had seized the
black, but he was too busy holding him, and all recollection of his
plans passed from his memory at once.  All he could think of now was
that he must keep his prize, while it was perfectly evident that his
prize did not mean to be kept, but fought for his liberty with might and
main, while at the first encounter the writhing pair had come in contact
with one of the poles which supported the tent, the lamp had fallen, and
the place now, save for the dim starlight seen through the doorway, was
in utter darkness.

It was only working by touch, but Sam made good use of his muscles,
forgetting all about his stiffness, and for quite a couple of minutes
the panting and scuffling of the wrestling pair went on, till Sam found
himself upon his back with the black sitting upon his chest and a pair
of hands in close proximity to his throat.

But in spite of his being in the worse position Sam was not beaten.  He
had fast hold of his enemy with his hands, and had thrown up his legs so
as to tighten them round those of his foe, and in this position both
held on as if trying to recover breath.

Then all at once Sam felt the grip of one of the black's hands loosen,
and a horrible thought flashed through his brain--

It was his adversary's right hand, and he was about to seek for his
knife!

"Look here, you black hound," panted Sam.  "If you stab me you'll be
hung."

"Sam!" came in a hoarse voice, and the grip slackened.

"Who are you?" panted Sam.  "Why!--what I--'Tain't you, is it, Master
Frank?"

"Oh, you idiot! you fool!"

"But I don't under--I say, Mr Frank, I took you for a nigger."

"You've dragged me all to pieces, and I'm so hot I--"

"But is it you, Master Frank, dressed up?"

"You knew it was," cried the young man angrily, as the grasp being
slackened he struggled up, to stand breathing hard.

"'Strue as goodness, sir, I didn't!" said Sam, rising to his knees.
"Oh, just wait till I get my wind again.  I say, Mr Frank, you are
strong--strong as--as a donkey."

"I?  Come, I like that!" panted Frank.  "I'm a donkey, am I, sir?"

"'Pon my word, Mr Frank, I beg your pardon.  I came into the tent and
saw, as I thought, a real nigger robbing the place, and though I felt
scared about his having a knife, I went at him, and it was you all the
time."

"Yes, it was I all the time," cried Frank angrily.  "Why didn't you
speak?"

"Never thought about it, sir.  Seemed to me that I ought to catch the
thief, and I caught a Tartar instead."

"It is most vexatious!  Oh, how hot I am!  Have you got a match?"

"Yes, I've got a box somewhere."

"Look sharp, then, and light the lamp."

"All right, sir," said Sam, fumbling in his box, and proceeding to
strike a light.  "I 'spose you've made me in a pretty mess, sir."

"What!  Have I made your nose bleed?"

"Oh, no, sir.  I meant the lampblack.  I suppose I shall be covered with
it."

"Wait till you get the light, and see," said Frank sharply.

_Scratch_!  The little wax match flashed, the lamp was picked up
uninjured, and after a little trying, burned freely, so that the
adversaries could gaze in each other's faces.

But prior to doing this Sam examined his hands twice over, and then
passed them over his face.  He next took out a pocket-handkerchief and
rubbed his face well, bringing away plenty of perspiration, but the
linen remained white.

"It hasn't come off, sir," he said, in a tone full of wonder; and then,
moistening his handkerchief with his lips, "Beg your pardon, sir, would
you mind?"

Frank, whose annoyance was dying out, being driven off by a feeling of
amusement caused by the man's looks of wonder, stood fast while Sam
passed his handkerchief over the back of one hand and then drew back,
laughing softly.

"Well, Sam!" he cried.

"I say, sir, you do look rum!  I shouldn't have known you.  I don't know
you now, and I don't believe your own mother would."

"Then you think the disguise is perfect enough?"

"Disguise, sir?  You can't call that a disguise!  It's the real thing.
Why, you're a downright genuine nigger, that you are!"

"That's right, Sam," said Frank, smiling now.

"And the best of it is, sir, that you're regular fast colours."

"I hope so, Sam."

"Think you could bear to wash yourself, sir?"

"Oh, yes.  It will take weeks to make this look lighter."

"Well, I call it amazing, sir.  There ain't no need for you to mind
where you go.  No dervish could take you for a white man, unless he was
mad.  But am I to be painted that colour?"

"No; you will go as you are--the Hakim's white servant."

"Well, just as you like, sir; I don't mind.  I'll be touched up like you
are if you think it will be safer for a man.  It's wonderful, sir.  And
no fear of its showing the dirt.  But pst! here's some one coming.  The
doctor and Mr Landon, sir.  I thought you were sitting along with them.
Have they seen you like this?"

"No, Sam; I was just getting ready for them."

"Did they know it, sir?"

"No."

"Then I'll go in yonder.  You stop and let 'em catch you sudden like.
Just to try if they'll know you."

Frank nodded, and Sam darted into the inner tent, just having
disappeared as the professor sauntered in with the doctor, and both drew
up short.

"Hullo, you, sir!" said the professor gruffly, in Arabic; "what business
have you here?"

Frank made no reply, but edged a little to one side, while at the same
moment the doctor caught sight of the clothes lying on the floor, and
uttered an exclamation.

"Yes, see!" cried the professor.  "Robbers, eh?  Help me, and we'll tie
this fellow up."

"Quick, then," said the doctor.  "Look out for his knife.  Bah! how
absurd!" he added the next moment, calming down from the excitability he
had displayed.

"What do you mean?" cried the professor sharply.

"Don't hold back.  Why!--what!--My dear Frank, what a metamorphosis!"

"Yes," said Frank quietly.  "I have passed muster with three of you, so
I suppose it will do."

"Do!" cried the professor.  "Why, it is simply admirable.  Stop a
minute, I'll fetch Sam from his tent and try him.--Eh?  You here, sir?"
he added, as Sam came out of the inner tent.--"You've seen him, then?"

"Yes, sir, and felt him too!" said the man, and the newcomers heard what
had taken place.



CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

BEN EDDIN.

The Hakim was carefully prepared the next morning for his visit to his
patients, Sam making the preparations, even to the extent of having a
brass pot of boiling water for the razors.

"Seems a pity, sir," he said, as the three gentlemen sat together in the
tent, a turned-up case forming the barber's chair, upon which the doctor
took his seat; "master's got such a fine, thick head of hair."

"Operate, Sam, operate," said the doctor; and the next minute, comb in
one hand, scissors in the other, the man was snipping away, and the
doctor's crisp, dark hair fell rapidly over his shoulders and down about
him upon the cloth that had been spread.

Sam's cutting was clever enough, and a pretty good transformation was
produced even with the scissors, while, when the razor had done its
part, and the finishing touches had been given, the doctor passed his
hands over his head and then drew them over his long beard.

"Like a looking-glass?" said the professor drily.

"No, thanks.  I know my features pretty well," was the reply.  "I shall
not forget them."

"But don't you want to see the Hakim?"

"No," said the doctor quietly.  "How many years older do I look, Frank?"
he added quickly.

"Twenty," was the prompt reply.

"Quite," said the professor.

"The clothes the Sheikh sent in, Sam," said the doctor, after giving a
nod of satisfaction.  "Now then, let me finish the work, so that you may
see whether it will pass muster."

"I'll keep you company," said the professor, and he followed his friend
into the further tent, leaving Frank walking thoughtfully up and down,
passing and repassing the doorway, till his attention was caught by the
tall, stately figure of the Sheikh who was coming across from his own
place.

Frank hesitated a moment or two, and then he drew himself up and stood
waiting with folded arms till the Sheikh reached the entrance, and said
quietly--

"May I enter, O Excellency?"

"Yes, come in," cried the doctor from the inner tent, and the old Arab
bent a little as he came in, and then raised himself erect as he took a
step or two into the half light of the shady place, and stopped short
face to face with Frank, at whom for the first few moments he stood
staring without the slightest sign of recognition in his countenance,
while the youth resembled an ebony carving more than a living being.

"Hah!" said the Sheikh at last.  "It is very good, Excellency, very
good.  It would deceive me.  I should not have known.  But the dark
stain?  Will it come off?"

Frank shook his head.

"Not if you used water?"

There was another shake of the head.

"It is good--more than good," said the Sheikh.  "I have come over to
walk with the Hakim to see his sick people.  Is he ready to go?"

Frank shook his head, and raising a hand slowly pointed to his mouth.

"Ah, I forgot that," said the old man, smiling gravely.  "It is very
good indeed; but can you keep this painful silence?"

Frank bowed his head slowly, and pointed to the divan for the Sheikh to
take his seat, the young man preserving his erect position of respect
the while.

"It is soon to begin, Excellency," said the Sheikh smiling, "but you
must be Excellency no more till our work is done; only in my heart.
What name will you bear?"

"Frank!" cried the doctor from the inner tent, and the Sheikh smiled,
but the young man shook his head violently.  "Tell the Sheikh I shall be
with him in a minute."

"I am waiting patiently, Excellency," said the old man aloud.  Then
turning to Frank, "Suppose we say Ben Eddin?"

Frank nodded and smiled.

"Let it be so, then, Ben Eddin, my son, slave to the learned Hakim, with
whom you have been so long that you understand his Frankish tongue.  I
have lain awake thinking many hours about the Hakim's other slave, and I
feel that it would be wise that he should be his Frankish slave.  There
will be no mistake then.  He can wear our burnoose and haik; they will
be enough.  It is quite right that he should have brought a servant from
his own country.  What say you, Ben Eddin?"

Frank bowed his head gravely at once, and the Sheikh smiled his
satisfaction, before springing up quickly, and forgetting his grave
manner he clapped his hands together, applauding, and then bowing low to
the grave and reverend Hakim who entered the tent slowly in flowing
white garments and voluminous turban, in front of which was fastened a
large, dark green scarab, a genuine treasure found by the professor in
the tomb of a man who was supposed to have been physician to one of the
Egyptian kings.  It had been intended to form a brooch, and the doctor
had had it set in gold.  This he had taken from among his curios as
being most suitable for the purpose in hand, and it took the Sheikh's
attention at once.

"Well, Ibrahim," said the doctor, slowly removing his turban as if to
place it more comfortably, but holding it long enough for the Arab to
see his closely shaven head; "do you think this will do?"

"It is perfect, Excellency," said the old man warmly.  "It far exceeds
all I could have thought possible."

"So say I," cried the professor, entering now in travel-stained Egyptian
garments and muslin-covered fez.

"Excellent, too, Excellency," said the Sheikh.  "And now you will keep
to this?"

"Of course.  The Hakim is ready now to go round and see his sick."

The Sheikh bowed, and feeling a little nervous the party set off at
once, leaving Sam watching them from the door.

It was rather an ordeal, for they had not gone many paces towards the
first tent they were to visit before they were seen, and word seemed to
be passed quickly through the encampment, so that as they reached this
first tent several of the Sheikh's people appeared, while when they came
out of it again nearly everyone of those occupying the place had hurried
forth to stand watching.

But there was no look of wonder, no vestige of a smile, only respectful
looks and bending down as the little party passed on.

That first visit was a solemn one, for it was to the tent where they
were met by the mother of the little child, who led them to where her
little sufferer lay in its last sleep.  She reverently pressed the
Hakim's extended hand to her forehead, her tear-filled eyes and
trembling lips seeming to say that she accepted patiently the blow which
had fallen during the night, and that the Great Physician was very wise.

Frank Frere felt more at his ease by the time the next tent was reached,
and perfectly satisfied when all was done.  For he had played his part
of slave and assistant easily and well, holding water vessels, passing
bandage and lint, and standing by the sufferers while the Hakim tended
his patients with the greatest

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