With Kitchener in the Soudan: A Story of Atbara and Omdurman by G. A. Henty (the beach read TXT) 📗

made for the spot where he had left Zaki and the horses. In five minutes he reached it.

"Is that you, my lord?" Zaki asked, as he came up.

"Yes, we must fly at once! I was discovered, and had to kill--or at least badly wound--a sheik, and they are searching for me everywhere."

"I have saddled the horses, and put the water skins on them."

"That is well done, Zaki. Let us mount and be off, at once. We will lead the horses. It is too dark to gallop among these bushes, and the sound of the hoofs might be heard. We will go quietly, till we are well away."

Not another word was spoken, till they had gone half a mile.

"We will mount now, Zaki. The horses can see better than we. We will go at a walk. I dare not strike a light to look at the compass, but there are the stars. I do not see the north star, it must be hidden by the mist, lower down; but the others give us the direction, quite near enough to go by.

"It is most unfortunate that the fellow who rushed against me was a sheik. I could see that, by the outline of his robe. If it had been a common man, there would not have been any fuss over it. As it is, they will search for us high and low. I know he wasn't killed on the spot, for he shouted after I had left him; and they are likely to guess, from his account, that I had been down at one of the emirs' tents, and was probably a spy.

"I know that I ought to have paused a moment, and given him another stab, but I could not bring myself to do it. It is one thing to stab a man who is trying to take one's life, but it is quite another when he has fallen, and is helpless."

Zaki had made no reply. He could scarcely understand his master's repugnance to making matters safe, when another blow would have done so, but it was not for him to blame.

They travelled all night and, when the moon rose, were able to get along somewhat faster; but its light was now feeble and uncertain. As soon as day broke, they rode fast, and at ten o'clock had left behind the range of hills, stretching between the wells of Abu Klea and Jebel Sergain.

"We ought to be safe now," Gregory said, as they dismounted. "At any rate, the horses must have a rest. We have done over forty miles."

"We are safe for the present, my lord. It all depends whether or not they think you are a spy. If they come to that conclusion, they will send at once to Abu Klea; and if a strong body is stationed there, they may have sent a party on to Gakdul, or even to El Howeyat, for they will feel sure that we shall make for one of the wells."

"How much water have you got in the bags?"

Zaki examined them.

"Enough for ourselves for five or six days; but only enough for two drinks each, for the horses and for ourselves, for a couple of days."

"That is bad. If we had had any idea of coming away so soon, we would have filled the large bags yesterday. I had intended to send down the horses in the morning, therefore left them only half full, and they must have leaked a good deal to get so low. See if one leaks more than the other."

It was found that one held the water well, but from the other there was a steady drip. They transferred the water from this to the sound bag.

"We must drink as little as we can, Zaki, and give the horses only a mouthful, now and then, and let them munch the shrubs and get a little moisture from them. Do you think there is any fear of the Dervishes following our tracks?"

"No, my lord. In the first place, they do not know that there are two of us, or that we are mounted. When those who camped near us notice, when they get up this morning, that we have moved; they will only think that we have shifted our camp, as there was no talk of horsemen being concerned in this affair. No, I do not think they will attempt to follow us, except along the caravan road, but I feel sure they will pursue us on that line."

They rested for some hours, in the shade of a high rock, leaving the horses to pick what herbage they could find. At four o'clock they started again. They had ridden two hours, when Zaki said:

"See, my lord, there are two men on the top of Jebel Sergain!"

Gregory gazed in that direction.

"Yes, I can notice them now, but I should not have done so, if you had not seen them."

"They are on watch, my lord."

"Well, they can hardly see us, at this distance."

"You may be sure that they see us," Zaki said; "the eyes of an Arab are very keen, and could not fail to catch two moving objects--especially horsemen."

"If they are looking for us, and have seen us, Zaki, they would not be standing stationary there."

"Not if they were alone. But others may have been with them. When they first caught sight of us, which may have been half an hour ago, the others may have gone down to Abu Klea, while those two remained to watch which course we took. The Arabs can signal with their lances, or with their horses, and from there they would be able to direct any party in pursuit of us."

"Well, we must keep on as hard as we can, till dark; after that, we can take it quietly. You see, the difficulty with us will be water. Now that they have once made out two horsemen riding north, they must know that we have some special object in avoiding them; and will, no doubt, send a party to Gakdul, if not farther."

They crossed the rough country as quickly as they could, and then again broke into a canter. An hour later, as they crossed a slight rise, Zaki looked back.

"There are some horsemen in pursuit, my lord. They have evidently come from Abu Klea."

Gregory looked round.

"There are about fifteen of them," he said. "However, they are a good three miles behind, and it will be dark in another half hour. As soon as it is so, we will turn off to the right or left, and so throw them off our track. Don't hurry your horse. The animals have made a very long journey, since we started, and we shall want them badly tomorrow."

In another half hour the sun went down. Darkness comes on quickly in the Soudan, and in another quarter of an hour they had lost sight of their pursuers, who had gained about a mile upon them.

"Another five minutes, Zaki, to allow for their eyes being better than ours. Which way do you think we had better turn?"

"I should say to the left, my lord. There is another caravan route from Metemmeh to Ambukol. It cannot be more than fifteen miles to the west."

"Do you know anything about it?"

"I have never been along there. It is a shorter route than the one to Korti, but not so much used, I believe, because the wells cannot be relied upon."

"Well, I feel sure we shall not be able to get at the wells on the other line, so we had better take that. As we shall be fairly safe from pursuit, we may as well bear towards the northwest. By doing so we shall be longer in striking the track, but the journey will be a good bit shorter than if we were to ride due west.

"Now we can safely dismount. It is getting pitch dark, and we will lead our horses. I can feel that mine is nearly dead beat. In a few minutes we will halt, and give them half a gourd full of water, each. After that, we had better go on for another six or seven miles, so as to be well out of sight of anyone on the hills."

Ten minutes later they heard the dull sound of horses' hoofs on the sand. They waited five minutes, until it died away in the distance, and then continued their course. It was slow work, as they had to avoid every bush carefully; lest, if their pursuers halted, they should hear the crackling of a dry stick in the still air. Zaki, who could see much better in the dark than his master, went on ahead; while Gregory led the two horses.

A good hour passed before they stopped. They gave the horses a scanty drink, and took a mouthful or two each; and then, throwing themselves down, allowed the horses to crop the scanty herbage.

After four hours' halt they pursued their way on foot for three hours, laying their course by the stars. They calculated that they must have gone a good fifteen miles from the point where they turned off, and feared that they might miss the caravan track, if they went on before daybreak.

Chapter 9: Safely Back.

As soon as the sun was up they pursued their journey, Gregory's compass being now available.

In half an hour, Zaki said, "There is a sign of the track, my lord," and he pointed to the skeleton of a camel.

"How many more miles do you think we have to go, Zaki?"

"We must be a good half way, my lord."

"Yes, quite that, I should think. Looking at the map, I should say that we must be about abreast of the line of Gakdul. This route is only just indicated, and there are no halting places marked upon it. Still, there must be water, otherwise caravans could not use it. We have about sixty miles farther to go, so that if the horses were fresh we might be there this evening; but as it is, we have still two, if not three days' journey before us.

"Well, we must hope that we shall find some water. Just let the horses wet their mouths; we can keep on for a bit, before we have a drink.

"How much more is there left?" he asked, after the lad had given a little water to each horse.

"Not above two gourdfuls."

"Well, we must ride as far as we can and, at any rate, must keep one gourdful for tomorrow. If we cover twenty-five miles today--and I don't think the horses can do more--we can manage, if they are entirely done up, to walk the other thirty-five miles. However, as I said, there must be wells, and even if they are dry, we may be able to scratch the sand out and find a little water. What food have we got?"

"Only about two pounds of dates."

"That is a poor supply for two days, Zaki, but we must make the best of them. We will only eat a few today, so as to have a fair meal in the morning. We shall want it, if we have to walk thirty-five miles over the sand."

"It will not be all sand," Zaki said; "there is grass for the last fifteen miles, near the river; and there were cultivated fields about ten miles out, before the Dervishes came."

"That is better. Now we will be moving."

The herbage the horses had cropped during the halt had served, to a certain degree, to supply the place of water; and they proceeded at a brisker pace than Gregory had expected.

"Keep a sharp lookout for water. Even if the wells are dry, you will see a difference in the growth of the bushes round them; and as it is certain that this route has not been used for some time, there may even be grass."

They rode on at an easy canter, and avoided pressing the horses in the slightest degree, allowing them to walk whenever they chose. The heat was very great, and after four hours' riding Gregory called a halt.

"We must have done twenty miles," he said. "The bushes look green about here, and the horses have got something of a feed."

"I think this must be one of the old halting places," Zaki said, looking round as they dismounted. "See, my lord, there are some broken gourds, and some rags scattered about."

"So there are," Gregory said. "We will take the bridles out of the horses' mouths, so that they can chew the leaves up better; and then we will see if we can find where the wells were."

Twenty yards farther away they found a deep hole.

"This was one of them," the lad said, "but it is quite dry. See, there is an old bucket lying at the bottom. I will look about; there may be some more of them."

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