With Kitchener in the Soudan : a story of Atbara and Omdurman

by G. A. Henty

  " I had no thought of trying to return to Khartoum. The wells were far apart, and Dervish bands were certain to be moving along the line. It seemed to me that El Obeid was

  the safest place to go to. True, it was in the hands of the Mahdists, but doubtless many wounded would be making their way there. Some doubtless would have wives and children, others might have come from distant villages, but these would all make for the town as the only place where they could find food, water, and shelter. Riding till morning I let the horse graze, and threw myself down among the bushes, intending to remain there until nightfall. In the afternoon, on waking from a long sleep, I sat up and saw a quarter of a mile away a Dervish making his way along on foot, slowly and painfully. This was the very chance I had hoped might occur. I got up at once and walked towards him. 'My friend is sorely wounded,' I said.

  "'My journey is well-nigh ended,' he said. 'I had hoped to reach El Obeid, but I know that I shall not arrive at the well, which lies three miles away. I have already fallen three times; the next will be the last. Would that the bullet of the infidel had slain me on the spot!'

  "The poor fellow spoke with difficulty, so parched were his lips and swollen his tongue. I went to the bush where I had left the gourd half-full of water. The man was still standing where I had left him, but when he saw the gourd in my hand he gave a little cry and tottered feebly towards me.

  "' Let my friend drink,' I said. I held the gourd to his lips. 'Sip a little first,' I said; 'you can drink your fill afterwards.'

  " 'Allah has sent you to save me,' he said; and after two or three gulps of water he drew back his head.Now I can rest till the sun has set, and then go forward as far as the well, and die there.'

  '"Let me see your wound,' I said, 'it may be that I can relieve the pain a little.'

  " He had been shot through the body, and it was a marvel to me how he could have walked so far; but the Arabs, like other wild creatures, have a wonderful tenacity of life. I aided him to the shelter of the thick bush, then I let him have

  "TAKING THE BRIDLE I LED THE HORSE TOWARDS THE WELL'

  another and longer drink, and bathed his wound with water. Tearing off a strip from the bottom of his robe, I bound it round him, soaking it with water over the wound. He had been suffering more from thirst than from pain, and he seemed stronger already. 'Now,' I said, 'you had better sleep.'

  "' I have not slept since the last battle,' he said.I started as soon as it was dark enough for me to get up without being seen by the Turks. I have been walking ever since, and dared not lie down. At first I hoped that I might get to the town where my wife lived, and die in my own house. But that hope left me as I grew weaker and weaker, and I have only prayed for strength enough to reach the well, to drink, and to die there.'

  "Sleep now,' I said.Be sure that I will not leave you. Is it not our duty to help one another? When the heat is over we may go on. I have a horse here which you shall ride. How far is it from the well to El Obeid?'

  " It is four hours' journey on foot.'

  " Good! Then you shall see your wife before morning. We will stop at the well to give my horse a good drink, and then, if you feel well enough to go on, we will not wait above an hour.'

  " 'May Allah bless you!' the man said, and he then closed his eyes and at once went to sleep. I lay down beside him, but not to sleep. I was overjoyed with my good fortune. Now I could enter El Obeid boldly, and the wounded man being a native there, no questions would be asked me. I had a house to go to and shelter for the present. As to what might happen afterwards I did not care to think. Some way of escape would surely occur in time. Once my position as a Mahdist was fully established, I should be able to join any party going towards Khartoum, and should avoid all questioning; whereas if I were to journey alone I should be asked by every band I met where I came from, and might at any moment be detected if there happened to be any from the village I should name as my abode. It was all-important that this poor fellow should live until at least I had been with him two days in the town.

  "From time to time I dipped a piece of rag in the gourd, squeezed a few drops of water between his lips, and then laid it on his forehead. When the sun began to get low I went out and caught the horse. As I came up the Dervish opened his eyes. 'I am better,' he said. 'You have restored me to life. My head is cool, and my lips no longer parched.'

  "Now,' I said,I will lift you into the saddle. You had better ride with both legs on the same side, it will be better for your wound. There is a mound of earth a few yards away; if you will stand up on that I can lift you into the saddle easily. Now put your arms round my neck and I will lift you in the standing position; if you try to get up yourself your wound might easily break out again.'

  "I managed better than I had expected, and, taking the bridle, led the horse towards the well.

  "You must tell me the way,' I said,for I am a stranger in this part, having come from the Blue Nile.'

  "'I know it perfectly,' he said, 'having been born in El Obeid. I fought against the Mahdists till we were starved out, and then as we all saw that the power of the Mahdi was great, and that Allah was with him, we did not hesitate to accept his terms and to put on his badges.'

  "In less than an hour we saw the trees that marked the position of the well, and in another half-hour reached it. At least a score of wounded men were there, many of them so sorely hurt that they would get no farther. They paid little attention to us. One of them was known to Saleh—for the wounded man told me that that was his name—he also was from El Obeid. He was suffering from a terrible cut in the shoulder which had almost severed the arm. He told my man that it was given by one of the infidel officers before he fell. I thought it was as well to have two friends instead of one, and did what I could to bind his wound tip and fasten his arm firmly to his side. Then I said to him,My horse, after ihree hours' rest, will be able to carry you both. You can sit behind Saleh and hold him on with your unwounded arm.'

  "' Truly, stranger, you are a merciful man and a good one. Wonderful is it that you should give up your horse to men who are strangers to you, and walk on foot yourself.'

  "' Allah commands us to be compassionate to each other. What is a walk of a few miles? It is nothing, it is not worth speaking of. Say no more about it, I beseech you. I am a stranger in El Obeid, and you may be able to befriend me there.'

  "Three hours later Abdullah, which was the name of the second man, mounted and assisted me to lift Saleh in front of him, and we set out for El Obeid. We got into the town at daybreak. There were few people about, and these paid no attention to us. Wounded men had been coming in in hundreds. Turning into the street where both the men lived, we went first to the house of Saleh, which was at the farther end, and was indeed quite in the outskirts of the place. It stood in a walled enclosure, and was of better appearance than I had expected. I went to the door and struck my hand against it. A voice within asked what was wanted, and I said, 'I bring home the master of the house; he is sorely wounded.'

  " There was a loud cry, and the door opened and a woman ran out.

  '"Do not touch him,' Abdullah exclaimed. 'We will get him down from the horse, but first bring out an angareb. We will lower him down on to that.'

  " The woman went in and returned with an angareb. It was the usual Soudan bed, of wooden framework, with a hide lashed across it. I directed them how to lift one end against the horse so that Saleh could slide down on to it.

  " 'Wife,' the Arab said when this was done, 'by the will of Allah, who sent this stranger to my aid, I have returned alive. His name is Mudil. I cannot tell you now what he has done for me. This house is his. He is more than guest, he is master. He has promised to remain with me till I die or am given back to life again. Do as he bids you in all things.'

  "Abdullah would have assisted to carry the bed in, but I told him that it might hurt his arm, and I and the woman could do it. 'You had better go off at once to your own people, Abdullah. There must be many here who understand the treatment of w
ounds; you had better get one at once to attend to your arm.'

  " 'I will come again this evening,' the man replied. 'I consider that I also owe my life to you; and when you have stayed a while here you must come to me. My wives and children will desire to thank you when I tell them how you brought me in here.'

  " 'Is there any place where I can put my horse V I asked.

  "Yes,' the woman replied;take it to that door in the wall. I will go and unfasten it.'

  " There was a shed in the garden. Into this I put my horse, and then entered the house.

  " Most of the Arab women know something of the dressing of wounds. Saleh's wife sent out a slave to buy various drugs; then she got a melon from the garden, cut off the rind, and mincing the fruit in small pieces squeezed out the juice and gave it to her husband to drink. When she had done this she set before me a plate of pounded maize which was boiling over a little fire of sticks when we went in.

  "It is your breakfast,' I said.

  " She waved her hand.

  "'I can cook more,' she said; 'it matters not if we do not eat till sunset.'

  "I sat down at once, for indeed I was famishing. The food had all been exhausted at the end of the first day's fighting. I had been more than two days without eating a morsel. I have no doubt I ate ravenously, for the woman, without a word, emptied the contents of the pot into my bowl and then went out and cut another melon for me. When the slave woman returned she boiled some of the herbs, made a sort of poultice of them, and placed it on the wound. Saleh had fallen asleep the moment he had drunk the melon juice, and did not move while the poultice was being applied.

  "The house contained three rooms—the one which served as kitchen and living room; one leading from it on the right with the curtains hanging before the door (this was Saleh's room); and on the opposite side the guest-chamber. I have not mentioned that there were four or five children, all of whom had been turned out as soon as we entered, and threatened with terrible punishments by their mother if they made any noise.

  " When I finished my meal I went into the guest-chamber, threw myself down on the angareb there, and slept till sunset. When I awoke I found that a native doctor had come and examined Saleh. He had approved of what the woman had done, told her to continue to poultice the wound, and had given her a small phial from which she was to pour two drops into the wound morning and evening. He said, what I could have told her, that her husband was in the hands of Allah. If He willed it, her husband would live. Of course I had seen something of wounds, for in the old times—it seems a lifetime back—when I was for two years searching tombs and monuments with the professor, there had been frays between our workmen and bands of robbers; and there were also many cases of injuries incurred in the work of moving heavy fragments of masonry. Moreover, although I had no actual practice, I had seen a good deal of surgical work, for when I was at the university I had some idea of becoming a surgeon, and attended the courses there and saw a good many operations. I had therefore, of course, a general knowledge of the structure of the human frame and the position of the arteries.

  "So far, the wound, which I examined when the woman poured in what I suppose was a styptic, looked healthy and but little inflamed. Of course a skilled surgeon would have probed it and endeavoured to extract the ball, which had not gone through. The Soudanese were armed only with old muskets, and it was possible that the ball had not penetrated far, for if, as he had told me, he was some distance from the square when he was hit, the bullet was probably spent. I told the woman so, and asked her if she had any objection to my endeavouring to find it. She looked surprised.

  " 'Are you, then, a hakim?'

  "No, but I have been at Khartoum, and have seen how the white hakims find which way a bullet has gone. They are sometimes able to get it out. At any rate, I should not hurt him, and if, as is likely, the ball has not gone in very far—for had it done so he would probably have died before he got home—I might draw it out.'

  "'You can try,' she said. 'You have saved his life and it is yours.'

  "Bring me the pistol that your husband had in his belt.'

  " She brought it to me. I took out the ramrod.Now,' I said, 'it is most important that this should be clean; therefore heat it in the fire so that it is red-hot, and then drop it into cold water.' When this had been done I took a handful of sand and polished the rod till it shone, and afterwards wiped it carefully with a cloth. Then I inserted it in the wound very gently. It had entered but an inch and a half when it struck something hard which could only be the bullet. It was as I had hoped, the ball had been almost spent when it struck him. Saleh was awake now, and had at once consented to my suggestion, having come to have implicit faith in me.

  "It is, you see, Saleh, just as I had hoped. I felt sure that it could not have gone in far, as in that case you could never have walked twenty miles from the battle-field to the point where you met me. Now, if I had a proper instrument I might be able to extract the bullet. I might hurt you in doing so, but if I could get it out you would recover speedily; while if it remains where it is, the wound may inflame and you will die.'

  "I am not afraid of pain, Mudil.'

  " I could touch the ball with little finger, but beyond feeling that the flesh in which it was embedded was not solid to the touch, I could do nothing towards getting the ball out. I dare not try to enlarge the wound so as to get two fingers in. After thinking the matter over in every way I decided that the only chance was to make a tool from the ramrod. I heated this again and again, flattening it with the pistol-barrel till it was not more than a tenth of an inch thick; then I cut from the centre a strip about a quarter of an inch wide. I then rubbed down the edges of the strip on a stone till they were perfectly smooth, and bent the end into a curve. I again heated it to a dull red and plunged it into water to harden it, and finally rubbed it with a little oil. It was late in the evening before I was satisfied with my work.

  "'Now, Saleh,' I said, 'I am going to try if this will do. If I had one of the tools I have seen the white hakims use, I am sure I could get the ball out easily enough, but I think I can succeed with this. If I cannot, I must make another Kite it, so as to put one down each side of the bullet. You soe, this curve makes a sort of hook; the difficulty is to get it under the bullet.'

  " I understand,' he said.Do not mind hurting me. I have seen men die of bullets even after the wound seemed to heal. I know it is better to try and get it out.'

  "It was a difficult job. Pressing back the flesh with my finger, I succeeded at last in getting the hook under the bullet; this I held firmly against it, and to my delight felt as I raised finger and hook together that the bullet was coming. A few seconds later I held it triumphantly between my fingers.

  "There, Saleh, there is your enemy. I think, now, that if there is no inflammation it will not be long before you are well and strong again.'

  "Truly, it is wonderful!' the man said gratefully. 'I have heard of hakims who are able to draw bullets from wounds, but I have never seen it done before.'

  "If Saleh had been a white man I should still have felt doubtful as to his recovery, but I was perfectly confident that a wound of that sort would heal well in an Arab, especially as it would be kept cool and clean. Hard exercise, life in the open air, entire absence of stimulating liquors, and only very occasionally, if ever, meat diet, render them almost insensible to wounds that would paralyse a white. Our surgeons had been astonished at the rapidity with which the wounded prisoners recovered. Saleh's wife had stood by as if carved in stone while I performed the operation, but when I produced the bullet she burst into tears and poured blessings on my head.

  "I am writing this on the following morning. Saleh has slept quietly all night; his hand is cool this morning, and I think I may fairly say that he is convalescent.

  "Abdullah's wife came in yesterday evening and told the women here that her husband was asleep, but that he would come round in the morning. I warned her not to let him stir out-of-doors, and said I would come and
see him.

  "It has taken me five hours to write this, which seems a very long time to spend on details of things not worth recording; but the act of writing has taken my thoughts off myself, and I intend always to note down anything special. It will be interesting to me to read it if I ever get away; should I be unable to escape, I shall charge Saleh to carry it to Khartoum if he ever has the chance, and hand it over to the Governor there, to send down to Cairo.

  "A week later. I am already losing count of days, but days matter nothing. I have been busy, so busy that I have not even had time to write. After I had finished my story so far, Saleh's slave woman took me to Abdullah's house. I found that he was in a state of high fever, but all I could do was to recommend that a wet rag should be applied, and freshly wetted every quarter of an hour; that his head should be kept similarly enveloped in wet bandages; and that his hands should be dipped in water very frequently. When I got back I found several women waiting outside Saleh's house. His wife had gossiped with a neighbour, and told them that I had got the bullet out of his wound. The news spread rapidly, and these women were all there to beg that I would see their husbands.

  " This was awkward. I certainly could not calculate upon being successful in cases where a bullet had penetrated more deeply, and even if I could do so, I should at once excite the hostility of the native hakims, and draw very much more attention upon myself than I desired. In vain I protested that I was not a hakim, and had done only what I had seen a white hakim do. Finding that this did not avail, I said that I would not go to see any man except with one of the native doctors.