“A learned Hakim like his Excellency here would live on simple food, such as one of my young men could prepare.”
“Well, I don’t know what to say, Ibrahim. He is a very useful fellow.”
“But his being with us might mean making the Mahdi’s followers doubt, and once they doubted it means death to us all.”
The professor’s face was a study as he turned to Frank.
“He’s right, my lad; he’s right.”
“It may mean ruin to our journey, even as men perish when they make for a water-hole, to find it dry. Can he do anything else?”
“Heaps of things,” cried the professor.
“But they are as nothing if they are not suited to our task, Excellency. Does he look to be an Englishman?”
“A thorough-paced Cockney, Ibrahim, I am sorry to say.”
“Cockney, Excellency?”