During Roger's week in Tigre he had formed such a firm friendship with the adventurous Sir Sidney that he had, on several occasions, been tempted to tell him his real name and the whole truth about himself. But his natural caution caused him to refrain because, even under the seal of secrecy, the fewer people who knew that Roger Brook and Robert MacElfic were the same person, the better. But he now had to become Colonel Breuc again, and how he should account to Bonaparte for the five months he had spent as Robert MacElfic had given him considerable thought.
He decided finally to say that, according to plan, he had gone aboard a Greek ship in Alexandria, had posed as an Englishman and had passed safely through the British blockade. But a fortnight later the ship had been captured by Corsairs and taken to Tripoli where, for two and a half months, he had had a hideous time as a slave loading cargo in the harbour. He had then managed to escape by concealing himself in the hold of a merchant ship and, when she was well out at sea, he had given himself up as a stowaway. To his delight, he found that the merchantman was a French blockade-runner and bound for Marseilles; so he had no hesitation in declaring himself to be Colonel Breuc and her Captain had treated him with the greatest politeness. On board he also met the owner of the ship's cargo, a Monsieur Drapeau, whom it happened that he had known well in Paris some years earlier; so there could be no question of his identity. But when the ship was sneaking by night through the narrows south of Malta his luck turned. She ran straight into
Sir Sidney Smith's Squadron on its way to Egypt, and was captured. As he was known to Drapeau, it had been out of the question to pretend that he had lied to the Captain about being Colonel Breuc and that he was in fact an Englishman; so, since Sir Sidney was not calling at any port under British control, he had been carried on to Syria as a prisoner.
At that time ships were being captured almost daily throughout the Mediterranean, either by Barbary pirates or the ships of the warring nations; so there was nothing in the least improbable in such a story, which provided a complete explanation of his never having reached France.
By six o'clock he had first cut then shaved off the fine, brown, curly beard that he had grown as MacElfic, and was ready to go ashore. Compared with other missions he had undertaken, he did not expect this last hazard in the Near East to prove particularly difficult or dangerous. Now that the French Army was arriving outside Acre there was no longer anything to be feared from marauding Arabs and Sir Sidney's gunboats would be constantly patrolling within cannon shot of the coast. He would be escorted at once to Bonaparte's headquarters and a few days there should be sufficient to inform himself of the size and resources of the Army. The odds were that the headquarters would be no more than a few miles from the coast; so he should be able to slip away from them one night and, as a Colonel, no French picket would interfere with his making his way to the shore. Only then might he meet with difficulties. However, there were still plenty of native-owned fishing boats coming and going in the long bay and before dawn he should be able to find one whose master could be bribed to take him off to the nearest British ship.
Sir Sidney wished him the best of luck and a speedy return. Having taken a cordial farewell of the gallant Commodore, Roger went over the side into a waiting boat. Half an hour later he landed, with the Lieutenant who had carried the flag of truce, at a previously agreed point about halfway along the Gulf, some six miles south of Acre.
A small body of French troops, headed by an officer, was waiting there and with them were the British sailors who had been taken prisoner the previous night. The formalities were soon concluded. The sailors, hilarious with joy that their captivity should have been of such short duration, clambered into the boat and it pushed off. Meanwhile the French officer had saluted Roger and introduced himself as Captain Elbee of the Camel Corps.
Roger remarked on the smart, although now slightly faded, sky-blue uniform of these French troops as it was new to him. After congratulating him on having regained his freedom, the Captain explained, 'We are a new regiment, created by the General-in-Chief last autumn. My men sit back to back, two to each dromedary; but, even so, we can travel at a considerable speed and can range the desert for several days without having to provide water for our animals. The regiment was formed to suppress the many roving bands of these accursed Arabs, and has been most successful. Very soon we became an elite Corps and now it is regarded as an honour to be transferred to us.'
' Then I congratulate you,' Roger replied. ' But, since you have such a fine turn of speed, I wonder that you are not being made use of in the advance guard.'
' We are the advance guard,' the Captain replied. ' At least, as far as the coast is concerned. The bulk of the Army has now spread out and is enveloping the city. It was, I believe, expected that other advance units would reach the coast north of Acre today. If so, the siege will begin tomorrow. My troop will not now be moving on until I receive further orders.'
' Do you know the whereabouts of the General-in-Chief's present headquarters? ' Roger enquired.' If you do I should like to proceed there tonight, so that I can report myself without delay.'
The Captain shook his head. '1 regret, mon Colonel, but that is not possible. I am told that the General-in-Chief intends to establish himself somewhere on the slopes of Mount Carmel, so that he can overlook the city. But as you can see we are a considerable distance from the Mount. Parties of enemy skirmishers have been coming out of Acre all day and roving the plain. It is certain they will continue to be active at night. If you proceeded on your own, you would run a grave risk of capture and I have not enough men to spare an escort for you.'
While talking, they had crossed the half-mile inland to the spot where, just out of range of the guns of the British ships, Elbee had made his camp. It was in a wide depression between two rolling sand-dunes on the crests of which look-outs were posted. In the flat valley bottom the remainder of the troops were gathered round a fire at which some of them were cooking supper, and beyond it a score of seated dromedaries were picketed in a neat line.
In all there were about thirty men, but no other officer. Elbee told Roger that since leaving Jaffa he had lost six of his men and his Lieutenant in skirmishes, then he apologized for lacking the means to entertain his guest in the way he would have wished. The baggage camels could carry only water, food and a reserve of ammunition; so there were no tents and supper would be only boiled beans, a mouthful of one of the two rabbits that had been snared and cornmush pudding. He added that one of the reasons for which his Colonel had been only too pleased to exchange the ten British sailors for Roger was that they had little enough food for themselves, let alone prisoners.
As darkness fell they ate their meagre meal, a little apart from the troops. While he ate, Roger, who had been unable to produce identity papers, set about removing any suspicion which might lurk in the Captain's mind that he might be a French Royalist whom the British had planted as a spy. He naturally refrained from disclosing why Bonaparte had sent him back to France or that he had posed during part of his voyage as an Englishman; but in other respects he gave the fictitious account that he had thought out of his adventures in the past five months, calling lavishly on his imagination as he described his sufferings while a slave in Tripoli. He then began to enquire after his many friends in the Army, displaying a familiarity with them that no ordinary spy could have shown.