Ismailia - Sir Samuel White Baker (best mystery novels of all time .txt) 📗

(My little station, Hellet-et-Sit, was a mile and a half north from the camp of Gondokoro, on the river's bank.) At 1 A.M. We started with a Bari guide named Sherroom, who had volunteered to serve me, together with his friend Morgian, at the commencement of the war. These men spoke Arabic, and since the flight of Tomby, the interpreter (who had joined our enemies), these two Baris were our invaluable allies.

The route to Belinian lay for the first two miles through open park-like country. We then entered the forest, where the darkness made it difficult to drag the gun, the wheels of which constantly stuck in the stumps and roots of trees. Several times we had to halt, for the rear to come up with this unmanageable gun, and I feared the delay might destroy our chance of taking the enemy by surprise.

To make matters worse, the route became swampy. Sometimes the horses sank nearly hock-deep in mud, which in the pitch darkness they could not avoid. In such places it required the force of thirty men to drag the gun, and the delays became serious. Lieutenant-Colonel Tayib Agha commanded the three companies of Soudani troops who escorted the field-piece, and took it in turns to assist the artillerymen in the weary work of dragging the gun through swamps and bush.

The night wore on; it began to rain. I was riding in advance with Lieutenant Baker, Mr. Higginbotham, and twenty of the "Forty Thieves," while Raouf Bey followed me with fifty Egyptian troops. It was absolutely necessary to push on. Tayib Agha had a native guide, therefore he and his gun could take care of themselves. Accordingly I pushed on ahead as an advanced guard, delighted to be quit of the impediment of artillery.

In about an hour we arrived at firm ground, and the country became more open and undulating. The clouds began to break and the rain ceased. We pushed briskly forward until, after marching at the pace of four miles per hour, the guide, Sherroom, suddenly halted. We were now in a clear space where a few large trees grew in a clump upon our right. Sherroom, who evidently knew every inch of the country, whispered that we must wait here in silence, as there were villages not far off, and the stockade that we were to attack was in the immediate neighbourhood. It was nearly 5 A.M., and although we had marched since one o'clock, we were not more than nine miles from Gondokoro. I trusted that our halt would allow the rear to join us with the gun which had caused so much delay.

We waited for about half-an-hour in perfect silence. There was not a star upon the sky, which was dark and murky, thus we could distinguish nothing. At length the black night began to grow more grey, and we could just make out some dark masses, that appeared to be villages, upon the right and left. We now marched rapidly, but without the slightest noise. The morning grew greyer, and birds began to whistle. We could distinguish trees and the tall crops of dhurra.

There was no sign of Tayib Agha and his detachment, but it was absolutely necessary to push forward.

We were thus hurrying on, sometimes through cultivated fields, at others through strips of forest, when we suddenly heard the long shrill cry that is the native signal of danger. This was from a Bari watchman, who, more awake than those by whom we must have passed unobserved, now gave the alarm. This cry was immediately repeated in various directions. There was no time to be lost. Sherroom bounded forward like an antelope, at a pace that kept our horses at a hand gallop. In a couple of minutes we saw a large circular stockade in a clear space, but within fifty yards of the forest on our left. We galloped up, followed closely by the "Forty Thieves," who ran like hounds. I immediately surrounded the stockade, from which the natives had commenced to shoot their arrows. The Egyptian troops were close up, and in the uncertain light it was impossible to see the arrows in their flight; thus one soldier was immediately wounded; another received a shot through his trousers. An arrow stuck in Mr. Higginbotham's saddle, and they began to fly about very viciously. The "Forty Thieves" now opened fire, while the Egyptians were drawn up in a line about fifty yards from the stockade. It was rather awkward, as the defence was a circle: thus as the troops fired into a common centre, the bullets that passed through the intervening spaces between the uprights of hard wood came pinging about our ears. The sky had become grey, and there was sufficient light to discover the doorway of the stockade. I ordered the bugles to sound "cease firing," and prepared to force the entrance. This was a narrow archway about four feet six inches high, constructed of large pieces of hard wood that it was impossible to destroy. The doorway was stopped by transverse bars of abdnoos, or Bari ebony, and protected by a mass of hooked thorn that had been dragged into the passage and jammed beneath the cross-bars.

I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Abd-el-Kader to force the gateway. This he immediately commenced, assisted by Lieutenant Baker and Mr. Higginbotham, together with a party of the "Forty Thieves," while others of the same corps closed up to the stockade on either side of the entrance, and kept up a heavy fire to protect the attack.

In the mean time the immense drum within the stockade was thundering out the summons to collect the whole of the neighbourhood for war. This signal was answered by the heavy booming sound of innumerable drums throughout the district far and near; and as it had now become light, I could distinguish the natives collecting from all parts and evidently surrounding our position. I therefore posted men as skirmishers around the circle about eighty yards distant from the stockade, facing outwards, while the small party forced the gateway.

The fire of the snider rifles and the steady shooting of the "Forty Thieves" quickly reduced the number of arrows, and the natives, finding that it was getting too hot, suddenly made a dash by a secret entrance and rushed through the troops, now of necessity widely scattered, and they gained the forest.

At the same time the gateway was forced, and we found a prize within of upwards of six hundred cows. The stockade, or zareeba, was immensely strong, formed of massive logs of ironwood deeply imbedded in the earth, and arranged so closely together that not one bullet out of ten would have found its way through the crevices if fired from a distance. The proper way to attack the circular strongholds is to make a sudden rush close up to the defence, and to lay the rifle between the openings; the stockade then becomes a protection to the attacking party, as there is no flank fire to enfilade them.

The natives were now gathering on all sides; but we were in possession, and although our party consisted of only seventy men, we had an impregnable position, which I could hold until joined by Tayib Agha. I accordingly took a few of the "Forty Thieves" to a distance of about 150 paces away from the centre, and concealed them as sharpshooters, wherever I found a convenient cover. The fire of the sniders kept the enemy at a respectful distance.

There were no signs of Tayib Agha. The sun was risen, and clouds of steam began to rise from the wet ground and the dripping trees. I ordered some grass huts to be fired, as the volume of smoke might attract the attention of Tayib Agha's detachment, which had evidently gone astray. If near, they must have heard the sound of our rifles.

The huts were soon in flames, and the smoke rose high in air, which would be a signal to be seen from a great distance.

I sent two buglers to the top of a tall tree, from which elevated post they blew the call for the lieutenant-colonel and his three companies continually for about half-an-hour.

We were hungry, therefore a fat calf was killed, and cooking immediately commenced. I had a little box of salt and pepper, together with some biscuits; thus we were in luxury. My good Monsoor was a fair cook; therefore the fat, kidneys, and liver having been cut into pieces about two inches square, and arranged on a steel ramrod, were well salted and peppered, and laid on the red-hot embers when the flame and smoke had subsided. There is nothing so good as kabobs thus simply prepared: the ramrod is then stuck upright in the ground, and you sit down and cut off the pieces as required. Salt should always be carried mixed with black and red pepper in proper proportions; it saves much trouble.

We were enjoying our breakfast; the cows lately captured gave plenty of milk, which our servants had boiled in the Baris' earthen pots, and we were discussing the possibility of Tayib Agha having lost his way, when we heard distant shots fired on the open hills at the foot of Belinian mountain, about a mile and, a half to our right. We shortly distinguished smoke, which was a reply to our signal. It was evident that Tayib Agha had strayed far to the south, but it was satisfactory to know that he had seen our position.

We could now distinguish the troops with the telescope, and even make out the gun that was dragged by about twenty men. They were on their direct way to join us.

My men had captured three young girls, whom they brought to me. The oldest was about fifteen, and was pretty and intelligent: she had formerly been a slave of the traders, and was marked, according to their custom, by several scars on either cheek. The girl spoke good Arabic, and did not appear to show the slightest alarm.

I asked her why the Belinian Baris had attacked us, and taken cattle from the station at Gondokoro, without the slightest provocation? She replied that they had been invited by the sheik Allorron to become allies, therefore they had attacked us and driven off the cows, some of which were now among the cattle we had that morning captured.

I told her that we never took slaves, therefore she and her companions might return to the Baris, and inform them that I had come upon the tracks of the cattle which they had driven off from Gondokoro. If they desired peace, I should be happy to treat with them, but if they should return to attack us at head-quarters, I should not spare them, but I would utterly root them out of the neighbourhood. The girls laughed and started off, not in the least disturbed by the scene around them.

At length, Tayib Agha's detachment arrived. They were very angry with Morgian, the guide, who, they declared, had purposely misled them. This was not the fact; the man had lost his way in the dark in the endeavour to seek a better path for the gun. However, we were now united, and I ordered the men to breakfast.

The sniders had cleared the natives from the vicinity, and now that we had been reinforced by Tayib Agha's party, there was no fear of the Baris. They kept aloof, and merely watched our movements from the tops of high trees, where they perched like cormorants, and saw the enjoyment of the troops engaged in roasting beef that had lately been their own.

I fully expected a difficulty with the natives when we should attempt to drive the herd of strange