In spite of this burning impatience it was nearly evening ere the lighthouse boat began to move. Madame had said a great deal both to George and the captain touching the arrangements that were to be made for ****'s benefit. Very few men who had the honour of her acquaintance cared to disregard Madame's advice. That sort of contempt might end in being knifed by a stranger in a gambling hell upon surprisingly short provocation.
For six days--two of them were wasted in the crowded Canal--the little steamer worked her way to Suakin, where she was to pick up the superintendent of the lighthouse; and **** made it his business to propitiate George, who was distracted with fears for the safety of his light-of-love and half inclined to make **** responsible for his own discomfort. When they arrived George took him under his wing, and together they entered the red-hot seaport, encumbered with the material and wastage of the Suakin-Berger line, from locomotives in disconsolate fragments to mounds of chairs and pot-sleepers.
'If you keep with me,' said George, 'nobody will ask for passports or what you do. They are all very busy.'
'Yes; but I should like to hear some of the Englishmen talk. They might remember me. I was known here a long time ago--when I was some one indeed.'
'A long time ago is a very long time ago here. The graveyards are full.
Now listen. This new railway runs out so far as Tanai-el-Hassan--that is seven miles. Then there is a camp. They say that beyond Tanai-el-Hassan the English troops go forward, and everything that they require will be brought to them by this line.'
'Ah! Base camp. I see. That's a better business than fighting Fuzzies in the open.'
'For this reason even the mules to up in the iron-train.'
'Iron what?'
'It is all covered with iron, because it is still being shot at.'
'An armoured train. Better and better! Go on, faithful George.'
'And I go up with my mules to-night. Only those who particularly require to go to the camp go out with the train. They begin to shoot not far from the city.'
'The dears--they always used to!' **** snuffed the smell of parched dust, heated iron, and flaking paint with delight. Certainly the old life was welcoming him back most generously.
'When I have got my mules together I go up to-night, but you must first send a telegram of Port Said, declaring that I have done you no harm.'
'Madame has you well in hand. Would you stick a knife into me if you had the chance?'
'I have no chance,' said the Greek. 'She is there with that woman.'
'I see. It's a bad thing to be divided between love of woman and the chance of loot. I sympathise with you, George.'
They went to the telegraph-office unquestioned, for all the world was desperately busy and had scarcely time to turn its head, and Suakin was the last place under sky that would be chosen for holiday-ground. On their return the voice of an English subaltern asked **** what he was doing. The blue goggles were over his eyes and he walked with his hand on George's elbow as he replied--'Egyptian Government--mules. My orders are to give them over to the A.
C. G. at Tanai-el-Hassan. Any occasion to show my papers?'
'Oh, certainly not. I beg your pardon. I'd no right to ask, but not seeing your face before I----'
'I go out in the train to-night, I suppose,' said ****, boldly. 'There will be no difficulty in loading up the mules, will there?'
'You can see the horse-platforms from here. You must have them loaded up early.' The young man went away wondering what sort of broken-down waif this might be who talked like a gentleman and consorted with Greek muleteers. **** felt unhappy. To outface an English officer is no small thing, but the bluff loses relish when one plays it from the utter dark, and stumbles up and down rough ways, thinking and eternally thinking of what might have been if things had fallen out otherwise, and all had been as it was not.
George shared his meal with **** and went off to the mule-lines. His charge sat alone in a shed with his face in his hands. Before his tight-shut eyes danced the face of Maisie, laughing, with parted lips. There was a great bustle and clamour about him. He grew afraid and almost called for George.
'I say, have you got your mules ready?' It was the voice of the subaltern over his shoulder.
'My man's looking after them. The--the fact is I've a touch of ophthalmia and can't see very well.
'By Jove! that's bad. You ought to lie up in hospital for a while. I've had a turn of it myself. It's as bad as being blind.'
'So I find it. When does this armoured train go?'
'At six o'clock. It takes an hour to cover the seven miles.'
'Are the Fuzzies on the rampage--eh?'
'About three nights a week. Fact is I'm in acting command of the night-train. It generally runs back empty to Tanai for the night.'
'Big camp at Tanai, I suppose?'
'Pretty big. It has to feed our desert-column somehow.'
'Is that far off?'
'Between thirty and forty miles--in an infernal thirsty country.'
'Is the country quiet between Tanai and our men?'
'More or less. I shouldn't care to cross it alone, or with a subaltern's command for the matter of that, but the scouts get through it in some extraordinary fashion.'
'They always did.'
'Have you been here before, then?'
'I was through most of the trouble when it first broke out.'
'In the service and cashiered,' was the subaltern's first thought, so he refrained from putting any questions.
'There's you man coming up with the mules. It seems rather queer----'
'That I should be mule-leading?' said ****.
'I didn't mean to say so, but it is. Forgive me--it's beastly impertinence Iknow, but you speak like a man who has been at a public school. There's no mistaking the tone.'
'I am a public school man.'
'I thought so. I say, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you're a little down on your luck, aren't you? I saw you sitting with your head in your hands, and that's why I spoke.'
'Thanks. I am about as thoroughly and completely broke as a man need be.'
'Suppose--I mean I'm a public school man myself. Couldn't Iperhaps--take it as a loan y'know and----'
