“Allah Akbar! Then tell me plainly that I am a slave.”
“Be quiet and obey orders!” answered the messenger.
The Sudanese had seen the gallows in Omdurman almost broken down from the weight of those hanged on them, and that after the cruel Abdullah had pronounced sentence new bodies were strung up daily, so he was afraid. What the messenger had told him about the Mahdi never changing his mind and Abdullah never changing his orders was confirmed by all the Dervishes. Therefore there was no way of escape, and they would have to ride.
“I shall never see Idris again,” thought Gebhr. In his tiger-like heart there was still a feeling of affection for his elder brother, and the thought of leaving him behind ill filled him with despair. It was in vain that Chamis and the Bedouins explained to him that perhaps they would be better off in Fashoda than in Omdurman, and that Smain would probably not give them any larger reward than the calif had done. But nothing they could say was able to dispel Gebhr’s sadness or appease his anger, which of course he vented chiefly on Stasch.
For the boy this was a day of real martyrdom. He was not allowed to go to the market-place, and so he could neither earn nor beg anything, and he was made to work like a slave at the baggage, which was being made ready for the journey, and this was all the more difficult because he was very weak from hunger and fatigue. He was just about ready to die on the way, either from Gebhr’s scourge or from exhaustion.
Fortunately, toward evening the Greek appeared. As we have already said, he had a good heart, and notwithstanding all that had taken place, he came to see the children, to take leave of them, and to give them the most necessary things for the journey. He brought them several little quinine powders and some glass beads and provisions. On hearing that Idris was ill, he turned towards Gebhr, Chamis, and the Bedouins and said:
“I have come by order of the Mahdi.”
When they bowed low on hearing these words, he continued:
“You are to supply the children with food on the way and are to treat them well. They are to tell Smain how you have treated them, and Smain will report it to the prophet. If there be any complaint about you, the following post will bring you your death warrant.”
A second bow was the only answer to these words, whereupon Gebhr and Chamis made faces like dogs that are being muzzled.