by Lewis Hough
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
ACROSS THE LOOP.
Korti was the pleasantest place Kavanagh had been to yet. It washealthy, there were plenty of trees to give shade, forage was easily gotfor the camels, and fresh provisions for the men, for the villages aboutseemed more prosperous than usual, and the inhabitants more friendly.Here the camel drill was polished up and brought to perfection. Theyworked in this way. You must know that though the soldiers rode camelson the march, they were not intended to fight on their backs, exceptperhaps incidentally when they were out scouting.
So their object when in immediate contact with the enemy was to get ridof their camels for the time being, but so that they might find themagain and remount at the shortest possible notice. The battalion beingin column--that is, suppose a double row of men on camels, forming afront and rear rank, and some way behind them another double row, andthen a third, and then a fourth; that forms what is meant by a column--well, then, the battalion, as I say, being in column, the word ofcommand, signifying what formation the men are to take after they havedismounted, is given, followed by the words, "Close order!" Upon thisthe rear rank of the leading line jambs up to the front rank, whichhalts at the word. All the rear rows break into a trot and jamb up tothe front in turn.
When all are close and compact, the camels are told to lie down; the mendismount, and tie up their animals' legs, so that they cannot rise, withthe head rope. The men who have to run out and mark the places wherethe others are to form when ready, get their camels knee-lashed for themby the two men whose duty it is to remain with the animals of theircompany.
By the time the beasts are in a square, helpless mass, the markers are"covered" (or got into their proper places according to the orderaccurately) by an officer, and the men form on them at once. After agood deal of drill this was done very quickly, as such things are wheneach man knows exactly what to do and how to do it, since it isconfusion and uncertainty which cause delay. When the battalion had tomove away and manoeuvre at some little distance from the camels, onecompany was always to be left to defend them.
The pleasant time at Korti was soon over, and they started across thedesert for Shendy. If you will look at the map you will see that fromKorti (which you will find in the neighbourhood of Old Dongola, Ambukoi,Merawi, places written large) the Nile stretches to the north for ahundred miles and more as far as Abu Hamed, when it makes a bendcompletely round, and goes south all the rest of its course. So that bycutting across the desert from Korti to Shendy, or rather Matammeh,which is on the nearer bank of the river, an enormous distance is cutoff.
And since time was of the utmost importance, if Khartoum and Gordon wereto be rescued, a force under General Stewart was to take the short cut,while the rest followed the tedious windings of the Nile, actuallyturning their backs for a precious hundred miles on the way they wantedto go. It was provoking, but it could not be helped; water carriage wasabsolutely necessary for the existence of the expedition.
Those who were to go with General Stewart's force were in high spirits,and the others envied them exceedingly, for they were going straight atthe throat of the enemy, and would probably relieve Khartoum, dispersethe Arab hordes, finish the campaign; who knew? They might even bringthe Mahdi back in a cage, perhaps, before those following the riverwould have a chance of distinguishing themselves. They need not havedistressed themselves; there would be plenty of hard fighting for all.
You might as well know how our friend Reginald Kavanagh was dressed whenhe mounted his camel for the desert ride. Picture him then in a loosered flannel tunic, corduroy knee-breeches, serge leggings, white pithhelmet with a puggaree round it. Over his shoulder he wore a bandolierbelt with sockets for fifty cartridges, and a rifle pocket, in which thebutt of the rifle was secured. The bandolier made him look somethinglike a mediaeval musketeer; or might have reminded an admirer of Dumas'wonderful story--and who is not?--of Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, andAramis.
The Naval Brigade was also mounted on camels, and it was great fun tosee them start. The camel has been called the ship of the desert, butthat was by a poet, who thought rightly enough that he said a prettything, but who did not mean it literally. Jack did.
"How this craft does roll!" cried one.
"Hard a port, Bill, or you'll foul me."
"What d'ye come across my bows for, then?"
"Can't help it; this here won't answer the helm. Port, will you!"
"Port it is."
"Mind, messmate, your camel's going to founder, I think."
But the warning came too late; the beast dropped on its knees, and Jackwent flying over his hideous head.
Love of adventure and excitement is one thing, patient endurance isanother. You want to combine the two to get good soldiers, andEnglishmen hitherto have done pretty well. So did these, only after acertain number of hours' march they were less jocular and more vicious.When they got to the first wells, where they expected to have a rest,being by that time pretty well baked, the supply of water was found tobe so scarce that they had to push on at once; but they did it for themost part in silence.
"Well, Tarrant," said Kavanagh, when they had been plodding on for sometwo hours in dead silence, "have you not got a growl for us?"
"No, I haven't," replied the champion grumbler. "I did get a drink atHasheen, but this poor brute I am riding didn't, so I leave the growlingto him."
"Sure it ought to be put in the _Gazette_" cried Grady, waking up."First grumbler, Tarrant's camel, _vice_ Tarrant, contented."
"I never said I was contented," replied Tarrant.
"Only it is a consolation to know there's some one worse off thanyourself."
"Meaning the camels?"
"Aye, and not only them. Don't you remember that 19th Hussar chap whocame up the last halt? There was a go!"
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you hear? Why, he belonged to Captain Fanshawe's troop, whowent skirmishing about, and caught a sheikh, called Abu Zoolah. Well,he said that a while ago the Mudir of Dongola had offered a thousanddollars for his head, and now it isn't worth the price of a pint. Justthink what a chance to nearly get, and miss! There's a lot of beer in athousand dollars."
"Sure, yes, that's hard lines," observed Grady. "What fun it would beto go out shooting, and get a thousand dollars for every man youbagged."
"Aye, that would make a man hold straight, if anything would," saidMacintosh. And there were a few spurts of talk like that, but mostlythey plodded on in silence.
It took close upon three days to reach Gakdul Wells, and during all thattime the camels were not watered, the supply at intermediate wells beingbarely sufficient for the men. But when they got to Gakdul there wasabundance of the life-restoring element for all, beasts and men, thanksto the Royal Engineers and their pumps. For the place was as wild andromantic as you can imagine, the wells being hidden away in deep cavernswith precipitous sides, in the midst of frowning and rugged rocks. Thesailors, with their contempt of heights, and entire freedom fromgiddiness, swung themselves down into the most horrible abysses, if onlythey had a rope made fast at top, without a moment's hesitation, fixingpipes by which the precious fluid was pumped up and conveyed to thetroops.
It was a treat to see the camels drink when at last they got the chance;they sucked the water up with a loud noise, and you could trace itflowing down their necks in waves. Four days is the longest period theycan go without a supply. There are people in India and elsewhere whobelieve that when they die their souls go into the bodies of animals,and Kavanagh's acquaintance with his camel enabled him to understandthis odd notion, for when he looked in its eyes for some time he almostexpected it to speak. It was an unsatisfactory beast in some respects,for it would not be petted in any way, and it was impossible to makefriends with it. Try to pet it, and it growled; persist, and it triedto bite him. I have known a dog of much the same disposition, but thenhe made one or two exceptions, and showed as much exaggerated fondnessfor them as made up for hi
s general want of amiability.
But the camel was consistent, and steadily refused to form the slightestattachment to anything human. You remember the genii in the "ArabianNights Entertainments" who were forced to serve powerful magicians, butwho hated them and longed to tear them in pieces all the time, and didso, too, if the omission of some necessary incantation gave them thepower. Well, the camel seemed like one of these subjugated spirits, anexcellent servant, but a most unwilling one, and resenting the power towhich, forced by inevitable destiny, he yielded implicit obedience.Evidently he was a fatalist, like the people he lived amongst.
When he was being loaded for the journey he moaned and howled as if hewere being beaten to death, and whenever a start was made, the outcry ofhundreds of the creatures remonstrating at once was something perfectlyunparalleled in the way of horrid and dismal noises.
"Sure," said Grady on the first occasion, "I have often heard spake of ahowling wilderness, but I never knew what it meant before at all. But Isee now; it's the camel that does the howling."
But once started he seemed to make up his mind to the inevitable. Whilehe was uncertain what Fate had in store for him he groaned and lamented,but once he knew the worst he thought it was no use bothering, andproceeded on his way in apparent content.
Indeed, that seemed to be his one aim and object, to be always goingstraight on to some place a long way off and never arriving, like theWandering Jew. As for his appearance, you have probably often seen acamel in the Zoological Gardens or a wild beast show, and know hisweird, shapeless, uncanny look, with the beard on his upper lip, and thehard natural pads on all parts of him which touch the ground when hesubsides for loading or unloading; his chest, knees, and so on. Anexperienced man has described his motion when he trots in thisway:--"Put a horse into a cart without springs, in the cart put arickety table; on the table place a music-stool screwed up as high as itwill go. Now seat yourself on the music-stool and gallop over aploughed field, and you will have a very correct notion of the sensationof riding a trotting camel." But with practice the motion is mucheasier, and with so many hours in the day in the saddle the troops hadplenty of practice.
The position at Gakdul was naturally strong, and with the aid of art wasmade perfectly impregnable, forming a place to fall back upon in case ofneed. The camels, it has been explained, utterly declined all friendlyadvances, but the affections of the company Kavanagh belonged to werenot on that account destined to grow utterly rusty for want of use,since a dog had attached himself in every sense of the word to it.Where the dog came from and to whom he belonged originally were mattersas mysterious as his breed, which seemed to partake of severalvarieties, amongst which the native sheep dog was the most perceptible.
But his virtues were manifold. He joined on that day of the march whenthe towing commenced, and posted himself, as no one did it for him, andhe was enlisted under the name of _Hump_, not because of any personaldeformity, but after the distinguishing characteristic of the camel.When the battalion took to riding, and, though still following thecourse of the Nile, often lost sight of it for some hours, eitherbecause the track was better or to cut off a corner, Hump carried hisown water-bottle, ingeniously constructed for him by a man named ThomasDobbs, out of an old preserved meat tin covered with a bit of felt, toprevent its becoming too hot; and this was fastened round his neck.When a halt was called, and he wanted a drink, he went up to one of themen, who would take off the cover and pour a little out for him. Thiswas all very well while the river was near, but when they were about tostrike across the desert, where water would be scarce, and he wouldhardly be able to carry enough for his own wants, it was determined toleave him behind, and he was made over to a man who promised to, takecharge of him, and who was to remain on the Nile.
But in the bivouac at Gakdul, Dobbs awoke with a start under theimpression that a snake was gliding over his face, and sitting up foundthat it was Hump licking him, the empty water-bottle still round hisneck.
It now seemed hopeless to get rid of him, so they let him take hischance; to live if he could manage to supply himself, and to be shotshould his sufferings from thirst prove too great. Poor Hump! The mostthoughtful feared that he had a poor chance of reaching a good old age.And yet he developed a wonderful talent for finding water in unexpectedplaces, which was useful to himself and others. Sometimes when menwould turn away in disappointment from a mud-hole which was indicated bya native guide as a well, but which proved to be dry, Hump would sniffout some place near, and scratch, and six inches or so below the surfacewater would begin to ooze and trickle.
On January 16th, 1885, at noon, the column on the march was roused fromthe lethargy induced by monotonous riding hour after hour under a warmsun by distant firing.
"By Jabers!" cried Grady. "There's an inimy somewheres after all. Ibegan to think Mr Mahdi had packed up his things--it's a mighty smallportmanteau most of them require--and gone out of the country entirely,with all his people."
"Make your mind quite easy, Grady," said Sergeant Barton, who was ridingnear. "The Arabs won't baulk you, if you want something to remind youof Donnybrook."
"It isn't for myself, Mr Sergeant, sir, that I care. I am a peaceableman, and would sooner get what I want quietly. It's my friend Tarranthere who is spoiling for a fight, and to see him pining away before mevery eyes, just for want of a little divarshion with his rifle, makes mefeel quite low."
"Here come the scouts back!" cried Kavanagh, and sure enough the Hussarswere seen riding in. For some time all was suspense and conjectureamongst our friends; but after awhile the news circulated from the staffto the regimental officers, from the officers to the sergeants, from thesergeants to the men, that the enemy were in position at the Wells ofAbu Klea, twenty-three miles from Matammeh, the place on the Nile theywere working for. Where was Abu Klea? Straight to their front was aridge of fantastically-shaped rocks, and there the enemy was inposition.
A little nearer square was formed, and in that formation the forceadvanced to the foot of the ridge, and was there halted. Then, afterawhile, orders were issued to form a zereba for the night, and it wassoon made, the materials being plentiful and close at hand, and thecamels and stores were placed within it.
"Men for picket!" cried a sergeant, and Kavanagh, who had been warnedfor the duty, stepped forward and fell in with the others, and presentlythey were marched off and posted on one of the hills commanding thezereba.
The officer in command took careful note of the position and posted hissentries, taking care to be in communication with the pickets on hisright and left, and the zereba in his rear. The sentries were double,that is, there were two men on each post, and were changed every hour.
An hour's sentry-go may seem to you but a short spell, but if you had aswarm of agile sharp-sighted savages prowling about you all the time,and knew that your own life and those of others who depended on youwould be sacrificed if your vigilance flagged, perhaps you would find itlong enough.
It was ten o'clock when Kavanagh was roused to go on; Dobbs was hiscompanion, and Corporal Adams posted them.
"You are to challenge any one approximating this post," he said; "and ifthey say `friend' or `rounds' you must stop them and make them give thecountersign. If they can't you must run them in, and if they won't berun in you must run them through with your bayonet; if they won't be runthrough you must wait and see if there's many of them, and if there isyou must shoot. But you mustn't alarm the camp without reason, mindyou."
And with these somewhat conflicting "must's" and "must not's" he leftthem in the gloom. The position was as uncomfortable a one as Kavanaghhad ever been in. His imagination peopled the night around him withsupple forms ready to leap upon him from behind every time he turned inwalking his beat. I won't say that either he or Thomas Dobbs wasfrightened, for that would be a slur on a soldier, and one or the othermight have me up for it; but they did not half like it. They had beenon about twenty minutes when Kavanagh thought he saw something move by aroc
k a little in front of him, and the next time he met Dobbs, as theyboth patrolled to the same spot and turned, he whispered his suspicionsto him, and he went with him a few paces back along his beat and gazedin the direction, but could distinguish nothing. Kavanagh did not knowwhether to challenge or not, but thought it best to wait and watch;perhaps he might have been mistaken.
Presently he heard Dobbs cry, "Who goes there?" in a decidedly startledvoice, and he brought his own rifle down to the charge. But immediatelyafterwards Dobbs said--
"What! Is it you, Hump, old boy, come to do a bit of sentry-go? Byjingo, you made me jump!"
And no wonder; in such a ticklish situation, to have something jump uponyou in the dark, when all your nerves are on the stretch, must be verystartling.
Five minutes passed, and there again by the rock Kavanagh was certain hesaw a figure move this time, and he, in his turn, called--
"Who goes there?" again bringing down his bayonet.
There was no reply, and he waited, uncertain what to do next, when Humpsuddenly dashed forward with a low, angry growl; and presentlyexclamations were heard in an unknown tongue indeed, but which, from theaccent, did not appear to be blessings.
"Good dog, Hump; shake him, boy!" cried Dobbs; but the animal wasevidently doing his best in that direction without encouragement.
But the man, who could not have been a dozen yards off, shook himselffree somehow, and Hump retired growling, from which Kavanagh feltconvinced there were more than one or two Arabs near. Presently he madeout three objects against the sky-line, and thought he ought to delay nolonger, so he fired at them.
Whether he hit anything he could not, of course, tell; but in reply tohis shot there were at least twenty flashes of fire in his front, andthe bullets came buzzing about the ears of Kavanagh and Dobbs like aswarm of hornets, though neither was touched.
The picket turned out, and, as the Arabs were some of them quite closeto them, the sentries retired upon it. The enemy kept on firing forabout five minutes, then ceased; and the sentries were advanced again,but somewhat closer in than before, since, but for the dog, these twowould have been cut off.
They were relieved presently; but there were two other alarms in thenight, and the troops in the zereba did not get a very sound rest,having thus to stand to their arms three times.
The morning at length dawned, and a sharp fire was maintained for sometime from the hills, the pickets being withdrawn into the zereba. Thenthe enemy advanced in two long lines, with banners flying, five thousandof them, an imposing spectacle, and the English soldiers grasped theirweapons, thinking that the struggle had come at last. But not yet wasit to be. The enemy declined to push the attack home, but halted at adistance, keeping up a galling fire. So, as men began to drop, and theday was slipping on, General Stewart determined at ten o'clock to takethe initiative.
The camels and other encumbrances were left in the zereba with a guard,and the square advanced, working round the left of the enemy's position.The Arabs retreated, and some of our young soldiers began to anticipatean easy victory. But the enemy showed that they too could manoeuvre;suddenly wheeling to the left, they came down like an avalanche on therear of the square, bearing back the men composing it, and breaking inat one of the corners.
Why detail the scene? It was very much the same as that which occurredthe year before at Tamai, on the Red Sea side, to the Second Brigade,and which was described while we were following the fortunes of TomStrachan. The hand-to-hand fighting was desperate, the slaughterterrible, and the enemy was finally beaten back. No matter; a step wastaken, though deep in blood, towards the great object--the relief ofKhartoum, and the rescue of Gordon, and hope beat high in every breast.
Next day, January the nineteenth, General Stewart left his wounded atthe wells of Abu Klea, which had been won, and pushed forward forMatammeh at three in the afternoon. No resistance was met with, no signof the enemy perceived all night, and when the day dawned a thread ofsilver shone in the south-east, and a hundred voices broke outsimultaneously in a chorus of--
"The Nile!"
Yes, there was the river, and as the light grew stronger the town ofMatammeh could be distinguished. At the same time the tam-tams wereheard beating, and the enemy appeared swarming over the hills whichintervened between the British army and the river.
Another zereba was constructed, for the men were exhausted with fatigueand want of food, and it was not thought wise to give battle until theywere refreshed, for it is ill fighting on an empty stomach. Sobreakfast was got ready, the troops of the Mahdi gathering round thewhile, like the masses of a thunder-cloud.
Presently it burst forth, with rifle flashes for lightning, and a deadlyleaden hail. Vainly the men piled up camel furniture, barrels, sacks,sand-bags, for protection; the bullets came amongst them in a storm, andthey fell in all directions. And then a rumour ran through all theranks which spread, not dismay, indeed, nor consternation, but a sterntightening of the heart-strings and bracing of the muscles, with adesire to shoot straight and strike home. The general was hit! Yes,the noble Stewart was down!
Sir Charles Wilson now took command. A redoubt was constructed by theRoyal Engineers on the right of the zereba, and manned by fifty-fiveLife Guardsmen and Scots Greys under Lord Cochrane, and by this meansthe enemy's fire was somewhat held in check.
At length the longed-for opportunity for vengeance came; the square leftthe zereba and advanced upon the foe. Straight it went for the sandyridge held by the enemy, who came charging down with their accustomedreckless courage.
But this time they did not get up to the square. The ground was tooopen, the zone of fire too unimpeded, the shooting too steady. Downthey went in hecatombs. At one hundred yards their pace was checked,those behind embarrassed by the heaps of dead and dying blocking theirpath. Still they struggled on to get to close quarters with theEnglish, but at thirty yards the withering volleys were too deadly evenfor their supernatural bravery, and they broke and fled. Steadilyadvanced the English troops over the ridge of sand, firing carefullywhile the fugitives were within range; then down to the Nile at Gubat,near Matammeh, victorious indeed, but having paid a high price forvictory.
"If them Arabs takes to shooting straight, and won't come on any more,it strikes me we shall be in a hole," said Thomas Dobbs to Grady.
"True for you, me boy," replied the Irishman.
"Or at any rate we shall not be able to go about in square for them toget all round and blaze away into the brown of us." And there were someof higher rank who began to entertain the same misgivings.
To resist a rush, the square was excellent, but for a long-continuedfire without coming to close quarters it was impossible. Many of themore sanguine, however, hoped that the tremendous losses the Arabs hadsustained would dishearten them--that they would awake to the fact thatthe Mahdi was by no means invincible, and had deceived them.
As for Gordon, had they not had a message from him? "All right; couldhold out for years."
Their chivalrous dash across the desert, and the hard fighting againstenormous odds, the loss of valuable men, and the fall of their general,were not fruitless then, since the object of the expedition would beattained.
"Sure we will all get a bar with _Khartoum_ on it under a medal!" saidGrady.
"Medals! Bars! Yah!" cried Tarrant.
"I'd sooner have tuppence a day extra for beer."
"We've got naither the medal nor the bar nor Khartoum yet, d'ye ken?"said Macintosh.