"Allah! Something ails me. Has not some sickness taken hold of me?"
"You have seen the Mahdi, so you will not fall sick," answered Gebhr.
They finally reached the huts. Stas, hurrying with the remnants of his strength, delivered sleeping Nell to the hands of old Dinah, who, though unwell also, nevertheless made a comfortable bed for her little lady. The Sudânese and the Bedouins, swallowing a few strips of raw meat, flung themselves, like logs, on the saddle-cloth. Stas was not given anything to eat, but old Dinah shoved into his hand a fistful of soaked durra, a certain amount of which she had stolen from the camels. But he was not in the mood for eating or sleeping, for the load which weighed on his shoulders was in truth too heavy. He felt that in rejecting the favor of the Mahdi, for which it was necessary to pay with denial of faith and soul, he had acted as he should have done; he felt that his father would have been proud and happy at his conduct, but at the same time he thought that he had caused the destruction of Nell, his companion in misfortune, his little beloved sister, for whom he would willingly have sacrificed his last drop of blood.
So when all had fallen asleep he burst into a flood of tears, and, lying on a piece of saddle-cloth, he wept long, like the child which, after all, he still was.
XIX
The visit to the Mahdi and the interview with him evidently did not heal Idris, as during the night he grew worse and in the morning became unconscious. Chamis, Gebhr, and the two Bedouins were summoned to the caliph who detained them some hours and praised their courage. But they returned in the worst humor and with rage in their souls for they had expected the Lord knows what rewards, and in the meantime Abdullahi gave each one an Egyptian pound* [* About five dollars.—Translator's note.] and a horse.
The Bedouins began a quarrel with Gebhr which almost resulted in a fight; in the end they announced that they would ride together with the camel-post to Fashoda to demand payment from Smain. They were joined by Chamis who expected that the patronage of Smain would be more beneficial to him than a sojourn in Omdurmân.
For the children a week of hunger and misery began, for Gebhr did not think of feeding them. Fortunately Stas had the two dollars with the effigy of Maria Theresa, which he got from the Greek; so he went to the city to buy dates and rice. The Sudânese did not oppose this trip as they knew that he could not escape from Omdurmân and that under no circumstances would he desert the little "bint." This experience did not pass without some adventures, however, for the sight of a boy in European dress buying provisions at the market-place, again attracted a crowd of semi-savage dervishes, who received him with laughter and yells. Fortunately many knew that he had been at the Mahdi's the previous day, and they restrained those who wanted to assault him. Only children threw sand and stones at him, but he paid no attention to them.
At the market-place the prices were too high. Stas could not obtain any dates at all and a considerable part of the rice was taken away from him by Gebhr for "his sick brother." The boy resisted with all his strength, in consequence of which a scuffle and fight ensued, in which the really weaker one came out with numerous contusions and bruises. In addition the cruelty of Chamis became manifest. The latter evinced an attachment for Saba and fed him with raw meat; on the other hand, at the distress of the children, whom he knew of old and who had always been kind to him, he looked with the utmost indifference, and when Stas addressed him with a request that he should at least give Nell a morsel of food, he replied, laughing:
"Go and beg."