He burst into tears. When he left the pulpit screams and wailing rent the air. Every one wept. The two califs, Abdullah and Ali-uled-Helu, gave their arms to the Mahdi to support him, and led him to the sheepskin, on which he knelt. During this short moment Idris feverishly asked Stasch whether Smain was not among the emirs.
“No!” replied the boy, who with his sharp eyes had searched in vain for the well-known face. “I can not see him anywhere. Perhaps he fell in the attack on Khartum.”
Nor could Chamis, who had known Smain in Port Said, find him. The prayers lasted a long while. The Mahdi moved his hands and legs like a circus-clown, then raised his eyes in ecstasy, while repeating: “There is God! There he is!” And as the sun was about to set he arose and walked homeward.
The children now saw with what reverence the Dervishes surrounded their prophet, for crowds followed his footsteps and scraped up the earth on which he had trodden. This led to quarrels and fights, for the people believed that this earth would secure health to the well and also cure the sick. Gradually the crowd left the place of prayer. Idris did not know what was best to do, and he had just decided to return to the tents for the night with the children and all the baggage, when the same Greek who had given Stasch and Nell the dates and coin that morning stood before them.
“I have spoken to the Mahdi about you,” he said in Arabic, “and the prophet wishes to see you.”
“Thanks to Allah and to you, sir!” cried Idris. “Shall we find Smain again by the Mahdi’s side?”
“Smain is in Fashoda,” answered the Greek. Then he said to Stasch in English:
“Perhaps the prophet will take you under his protection, for I have done my best to get him to do so. I told him that the fame of his mercy would spread abroad throughout all the white nations. Terrible things are happening all around us, and unless you are under his protection you will surely succumb to hunger, privation, and sickness from the treatment you will receive at the hands of these madmen. But he must be kept interested in you.”
“What shall I do, sir?” asked Stasch.
“When you first come into his presence, fall on your knees, and when he gives you his hand, kiss it respectfully and beseech him to take you both under his protecting wing.”