The way of the spirit

by H. Rider Haggard

“Ah!” replied Mea enigmatically, and in English, “in cold country, cold wife; in warm country, kind wife; that all right.”

Then finding further explanation difficult, Rupert called the little dog, asked her to take him for a walk, and was tenderly led round the garden.

As soon as his general health was a little re-established, as he could not see to write, Rupert had dictated a letter to Mea addressed to the Government in Cairo, and giving an account of the miserable end of his mission. This letter was sent off by a messenger to Wady-Halfa, together with another to Edith, also written by Mea. When in after days he saw the postscript which she added, but had not thought necessary to read to him, he was somewhat astonished. It ran:

To the white wife of Rupert Bey from Mea, lady of Tama.

Do not trouble for your lord; I look after him well, and love him with all my heart. Why not? He massacred for me. I hope we not quarrel when we meet. In England, you head. In Soudan, I head. That good plan; no trouble at all. I give greetings, and make bow.—Your sister,

Mea.

As it happened, these epistles never reached their destinations, since within a week the messenger returned saying that the whole country on the other side of the Jebal Marru was in a ferment. It seemed that Abdullah, Rupert’s sergeant, had escaped safely, and reported that Rupert and all his people were killed. Thereon the Government had sent an expedition against the remnant of the tribe of Ibrahim, sheik of the Sweet Wells. These people, being warned of their fate, had appealed to the Khalifa, with the result that several thousand of his adherents, under a powerful emir, were despatched to their assistance, though whether from the neighbourhood of Suakim or from the north, Rupert could not discover. At any rate, they were too many to be attacked by the little Government expedition, and for the while remained in possession of the territory between the Jebal Marru and the Nile.

At first Rupert was inclined to believe that Mea had concocted this story for her own purposes, but Bakhita assured him that it was not so. She said, moreover, that the Black Pass by which alone the oasis could be approached was watched day and night to guard against sudden attack by those who wished to avenge the death of Ibrahim, and every possible preparation made to fight to the last. No attack came, however, for the oasis was looked upon as a haunted place among the neighbouring tribes, who feared its inhabitants also as infidel wizards favoured by the devil. Their treatment of the band of Ibrahim who had been found hanging to the trees, and especially of that unlucky sheik himself, had not, it seemed, lessened this impression.

Subsequently the letters were again despatched in the charge of two messengers. In due course one of these brought them back for the second time. He had fallen in with an outpost of the Mahdists and barely escaped with his life, his companion being overtaken and speared.

After this Rupert abandoned his attempts to communicate with civilisation. Plunged as he was in utter darkness of mind and body, his days were sad enough. He had failed in his mission, and the very chiefs whom he hoped to win over were, he learned, now firm adherents of the Khalifa. His career was at an end, for he had lost his leg and his sight, and worst of all, his wife must believe that he was dead. It tore his heart to think of her and his mother’s distress and agony; but what could he do except bow his head in patience before the Power that had decreed these things, and pray that some of the burden might be lifted from his back?