They had been carried down the Nile as far as Berber. But the day after
they reached Berber, that town surrendered to the Mahdists. Abou Fatma,
the messenger who carried them, hid them in the wall of the house of an
Arab called Yusef, who sold rock-salt in the market-place. Abou was then
thrown into prison on suspicion, and escaped to Suakin. The letters
remained hidden in that wall until Feversham recovered them. I looked
over them and saw that they were of no value, and I asked Feversham
bluntly why he, who had not dared to accompany his regiment on active
service, had risked death and torture to get them back."
Standing upon that verandah, with the quiet pool of water in front of
him, Feversham had told his story quietly and without exaggeration. He
had related how he had fallen in with Abou Fatma at Suakin, how he had
planned the recovery of the letters, how the two men had travelled
together as far as Obak, and since Abou Fatma dared not go farther, how
he himself, driving his grey donkey, had gone on alone to Berber. He had
not even concealed that access of panic which had loosened his joints
when first he saw the low brown walls of the town and the towering date
palms behind on the bank of the Nile; which had set him running and
leaping across the empty desert in the sunlight, a marrowless thing of
fear.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213