"I will write some day to my aunts," Gregory said, as he replaced the letters in the envelopes. " The others will never go; still, I may as well keep them. So I am either grandson or nephew of an earl. I can't say that I am dazzled by the honour. I should like to know my aunts, but as for the other two I would not go across the street to make their acquaintance."
He carefully stowed the letters away in his portmanteau, and then lay down for a few hours' sleep.
"The day is breaking, master," Zaki said, laying his hand upon Gregory's shoulder.
" All right, Zaki! While you get the water boiling I shall run down to the river and have a bathe, and shall be ready for my cocoa in twenty minutes."
"Are we going to put on those Dervish dresses at once, master? They came yesterday evening."
"No; I sha'n't change till we get to the place where we land."
As soon as he had breakfasted he told Zaki to carry his portmanteau, bed, and other belongings to the house that served as a store for General Hunter's staff. He waited until his return, and then told him to take the two rifles, the packets of ammunition, the spears, and the Dervish dresses down to the steamer. Then he joined the General, who was just starting with his staff to superintend the embarkation.
Three steamers were going up, and each towed a barge, in which the greater part of the troops were to be stowed, and in the stern of one of these knelt two camels.
"There are your nags, Mr. Hilliard," the General said. " There is an attendant with each. They will manage them better than strangers, and without them we might have a job in getting the animals ashore. Of course I shall take the drivers on with us. The sheik told me the camels are two of the fastest he has ever had. He has sent saddles with them and water-skins. The latter you will probably not want if all goes well; still, it is better to take them."
" I shall assuredly do so, sir. They may be useful to us on the ride, and though I suppose the camels would do well enough without them, it is always well to be provided, when one goes on an expedition, for any emergency that may occur."
An hour later the steamer started. The river was still full and the current rapid, and they did not move more than five miles an hour against it. At the villages they passed the people flocked down to the banks with cries of welcome and the waving of flags. They felt now that their deliverance was accomplished, and that they were free from the tyranny that had for so many years oppressed them. The banks were for the most part low, and save at these villages the journey was a monotonous one. The steamers kept on their way till nightfall, and then anchored.
They started again at daybreak. At breakfast General Hunter said:
" I think that in another two hours we shall be pretty well due west of El Fasher, so you had better presently get into your Dervish dress. You have got some iodine from the doctor, have you not?"
"Yes."
"You had better stain yourself all over, and take a good supply in case you have to do it again."
Gregory went below and had his head shaved by one of the Soudanese, then re-stained himself from head to foot and put on the Dervish attire—loose trousers and a long smock with six large square patches arranged in two lines in front; a white turban and a pair of shoes completed the costume. The officers laughed as he came on deck again.
"You look an out-and-out Dervish, Hilliard," one of them said. " It is lucky that there are none of the Lancers scouting about. They would hardly give you time to explain, especially with that rifle and spear."
Presently they came to a spot where the water was deep up to the bank, which was some six feet above its level. The barge with the camels was brought up alongside. It had no bulwark, and as the deck was level with the land, the camels were, with a good deal of pressing on the part of their drivers, and pushing by as many Soudanese as could come near enough to them, got ashore.
None of the Soudanese recognized Gregory, and looked greatly surprised at the sudden appearance of two Dervishes among them. As soon as the camels were landed, Gregory and Zaki mounted them.
"You had better keep if anything to the south of east,"
General Hunter's last instructions had been. " Unless Parsons has been greatly delayed they should be two or three days' march farther up the river, and every mile you strike the stream behind him is so much time lost."
He waved his hand to them and wished them farewell as they started, and his staff shouted their wishes for a safe journey. The black soldiers, seeing that, whoever these Dervishes might be, they were well known to the General and his officers, raised a cheer, to which Zaki, who had hitherto kept in the background, waved his rifle in reply. As his face was familiar to numbers of the Soudanese, they now recognized him and cheered more heartily than before, laughing like school-boys at the transformation.
CHAPTER XXI
GEDAREH
ABDUL AZIM was right about the camels," Gregory said, as soon as they were fairly off. " I have never ridden on one like this before. What a difference there is between them and the ordinary camel! It is not only that they go twice as fast, but the motion is so pleasant and easy."
" Yes, master, these are riding camels of good breed. They cost twenty times as much as the others. They think nothing of keeping up this rate for twelve hours without a stop."
" If they do that we shall be near the Atbara before it is dark. It is ten o'clock now, and if General Hunter's map is right we have only about eighty miles to go, and I should think they are trotting seven miles an hour."
They carried their rifles slung behind them and across the shoulders rather than upright, as was the Arab fashion. The spears were held in their right hands.
"We must see if we can't fasten the spears in some other way, Zaki; we should find them a nuisance if we held them in our hands all the way. I should say it would be easy to fasten them across the saddle in front of us. If we see horsemen in the distance we can take them into our hands."
" I think, master, it would be easier to fasten them behind the saddles, where there is more width, and rings on the saddle on both sides."
A short halt was made, and the spears fixed. Gregory then looked at his compass.
"We must make for that rise two or three miles away. I see exactly the point we must aim for. When we get there we must look at the compass again."
They kept steadily on for six hours. They had seen no human figure since they started.
" We will stop here for half an hour," Gregory said. " Give the animals a drink of water and a handful or two of grain."
" I don't think they will want water, master. They had as much as they could drink before starting, and they are accustomed to drink when their work is over."
"Very well; at any rate we will take something."
They opened one of the water-skins, and poured some of the contents into a gourd; then, sitting down in the shadow of the camels, they ate some dates and bread. They had only brought native food with them, so that if captured and examined there should be nothing to show that they had been in contact with Europeans. Gregory had even left his revolver behind him, as, being armed with so good a weapon as a Remington, it was hardly likely that it would be needed, and if found upon them it would be accepted as a proof that he was in the employment of the infidels.
It was dusk when they arrived at the bank of the river. No incident had marked the journey, nor had they seen any sign that Dervishes were in the neighbourhood. The Atbara was in full flood, and was rushing down at six or seven miles an hour.