In the Mahdi's Grasp Part 42

"Hard indeed," said the doctor, with energy; "but we must and will."

"Well said!" continued the professor. "I think we have done wonders.

Such good fortune can never have fallen to anyone before."

"Good fortune!" said Frank bitterly.

"Ah, you want your pulse felt, young fellow. You've got a sour instead of a thankful fit upon you. Give him something to-night, doctor."

Morris bowed his head solemnly, as if he were playing Hakim still to his friends, and Frank made an angry gesture.

"Look here," continued the professor; "you can ask old Ibrahim again if you are in doubt. He'll tell you that it would have been impossible to have got on at such a rate as we have come, and that the difficulties over supplies would have been insurmountable at times. While here, though we have often been scarce of water, we have never wanted once for food."

"And how has it been obtained?" said Frank bitterly.

"I don't know--I don't want to know."

"You do know!" cried Frank angrily.

"I tell you I won't know!" said the professor, almost as shortly. "I know that we have done nothing but good all the way--that we could not have done it without food--and that it was given to us in payment for what we have done. Be sensible, my lad. We did not let loose these murderous human beasts who have made us prisoners, and whether we eat or starve ourselves it will make no difference to their actions. Go on eating, then? Why, of course we do. You talk as if it were our mission as Christians when we came upon a wounded man to put him out of his misery."

"No, no!" cried Frank.

"But you and Bob Morris seem to think so. You can't take one of his bottles of hydrocyanic acid and pour it into one of the desert wells, and then call the whole band up to drink, can you?"

"Don't talk nonsense, Landon!" said Frank angrily.

"Then don't you, my dear boy. Can't you see that this is all outside of our plans?"

"Yes, of course," said the doctor.

"We never meant to be taken prisoners and to be forced to be chief surgeon-physician to a band of murderous cut-throats."

"No," said Frank, "but we are."

"Granted; but is it our fault?"

"No," said the doctor firmly.

"Can we escape from them, Frank?"

There was no reply, and the professor repeated his question.

"I do not see how."

"Neither do I, and if I did I wouldn't try it now that we are so near the brave old lad we came to save.--Oh, here's Ibrahim."

"Your Excellency wanted me?" said the Sheikh.

"Yes. How far do you think we are now from Omdurman?"

"As far as I can make out, Excellency, by asking some of the camel-drivers, about four days' journey."

"Hah! That is getting near. But have you found out yet whether we are really going there or farther on to Khartoum?"

"No, Excellency, and I have tried hard. No one really does know except the chief. Some say we are going to Omdurman, while others say for certain that we shall make a sweep round into the desert and then aim for Khartoum. While others--"

"Opinions are various," said the professor drily. "_Tot homines_--_tot sententiae_, which being interpreted, my dear Frank, you being a lad who always hated your Latin accidence, means, some think a tot of one thing is good; some think a tot of another is better. Well, Ibrahim, what does the other set think?"

"That the chief is going straight to Omdurman before pa.s.sing on to Khartoum to dispose of his plunder."

"Then let's hope the last are right, and then we shall have the chance of searching two places. There, cheer up, Frank, and try and think of nothing else but our own important mission."

"Of course," said the doctor. "We did not come for the purpose of punis.h.i.+ng these predatory hordes."

"No," said Frank sadly; "I know. But have a little compa.s.sion upon me, and forgive my irritable ways. Look at me," he said, holding out his blackened hands, and then pointing with them to his face. "Can't you think how great an effort it is to keep up this miserable masquerade-- what agony it is to go about feeling that at any moment I may forget myself when in the presence of our masters, and speak?"

"Yes, yes, I know, Frank, my dear boy," replied the professor; "and whenever I think of it I begin to wonder. I used to be in a constant state of fidget. 'He'll let the cat out of the bag as sure as eggs are eggs,' I used to say to myself; and then I lay awake at night and tried to think out the best way of helping you till the idea came, and it has acted beautifully."

"What idea?" said the doctor sternly. "You never mentioned any idea to me."

"Of course not; that would have spoiled the charm. Even Frank does not know."

"Then it's all nonsense," said the doctor.

"Is it? Well, we'll see. I did help you, didn't I, Frank?"

"You have always helped me in every way you could, and been like an elder brother towards me, and I can never be sufficiently grateful."

"Bother! Nonsense!" said the professor curtly. "But you mean to say I did not specially help you over the dummy business?"

"Well, I really cannot recollect any special way."

"Ingrate! And you talk about being grateful."

"Well, out with it, Fred," said the doctor. "What was your plan?"

"One of my own invention," said the professor, smiling proudly. "You, Frank, haven't I always lain down beside you every night when all was still?"

"Oh, yes, of course."

"And didn't I always say that I had come for a quiet chat?"

"To be sure," said Frank.

"And did I ever have it?"

"Yes, we had one every night, carried on in a whisper."

"False!" cried the professor.