Hicks, and if he is successful in crushing the rebellion I shall be certain of good permanent employment, when I can resume my name. The fact that you receive this letter will be a proof that I have fallen in battle, or by disease. I now, as a dying prayer, beg you to receive my wife and boy, or if that cannot be, to grant her some small annuity to assist her in her struggle ivith the world.
Except for her sake I do not regret my marriage. She has borne the hardships through which we have passed nobly and without a murmur. She has been the best of wives to me, and has proved herself a noble woman in every respect. I leave the matter in your hands, Father, feeling assured that from your sense of justice alone, if not for the affection you once bore me, you will befriend my wife. As I know that the Earl ivas in feeble health when I left England, you may by this time have come into the title, in which case you will be able, without in any way inconveniencing yourself, to settle an annuity upon my wife sufficient to keep her in comfort. I can promise, in her name, that in that case you will never be troubled in any way by her, and she will probably take up her residence permanently in Egypt, as she is not strong and the warm climate is essential to her.
The letter to his brother was shorter:—
My dear Geoffrey,
I am going up with General Hicks to the Soudan. If you receive this letter, it will be because I have died there. I leave behind one my wife and a boy. I know that at present you are scarcely likely to be able to do much for them pecuniarily, but as you will some day — possibly not a very distant one — inherit the title and estate, you will then be able to do so without hurting yourself. We have never seen much of each other. You left school before I began it, and you left Oxford two years before I went up to Cambridge. You have never been at home much since, and I was two years in Egypt, and Imve now been about the same time here. I charge my wife to send you this, and I trust that for my sake you will help her. She does not think of returning to England. Life is not expensive in this country; even an allowance of a hundred a year would enable her to remain here. If you can afford double that, do so for my sake; but at any rate I feel that I can rely upon you to do at least that much when you come into the title. Had I lived I should never have troubled anyone at home, but as I shall be no longer able to earn a living for her and the boy, I trust that you will not think it out of the way for me to ask for what ivould have been a very small younger brother's allowance had I remained at home.
The letter to his sisters was in a different strain:— My dear Flossie and Janet,
I am quite sure that you, like myself, felt deeply grieved over our separation, and I can guess that you will have done what you could with our father to bring about a reconciliation. When you receive this, dears, I shall have gone. I am about to start on an expedition that is certain to be dangerous, and which may be fated, and I have left this with my wife to send you if she has sure news of my death. I have had hard times. I see my way now, and I hope that I shall ere long receive a good official appointment out here. Still, it is as well to prepare for the worst; and if you receive this letter the worst has come. As I have only just begun to rise again in the world, I have been able to make no provision for my wife. I know that you liked her, and that you ivould by no means have disapproved of the step I took. If our father has not come into the title when you receive this, your pocket-money will be only sufficient for your own wants; therefore I am not asking for help in that way, but only that you will write to her an affectionate letter. She is without friends, and will fight her battle as best she can. She is a woman in a thousand, and worthy of the affection and esteem of any man on earth. There is a boy, too — another Gregory Hilliard Hartley. She will be alone in the world with him, and a letter from you would be very precious to her. Probably by the same post as you receive this our father will also get one requesting more substantial assistance, but with that you have nothing to do. I am only asking that you will let her know there are at least two people in the world who take an interest in her and my boy.
Your affectionate Brother.
There was yet another envelope, with no address upon it. It contained two documents: one was a copy of the certificate of marriage between Gregory Hilliard Hartley and Anne Forsyth at St. Paul's Church, Plymouth, with the names of two witnesses and the signature of the officiating minister; the other was a copy of the register of the birth at Alexandria of Gregory Hilliard, son of Gregory Hilliard Hartley and Anne, his wife. A third was a copy of the register of baptism of Gregory Hilliard Hartley, the son of Gregory Hilliard and Anne Hartley, at the Protestant Church, Alexandria.
'I will write some day to my aunts,' Gregory said, as he replaced the letters in the envelopes. ' The others will never go; still, I may as well keep them. So I am either grandson or nephew of an earl. I can't say that I am dazzled by the honour. I should like to know my aunts, but as for the other two I would not go across the street to make their acquaintance.'
He carefully stowed the letters away in his portmanteau, and then lay down for a few hours' sleep.
'The day is breaking, master,' Zaki said, laying his hand upon Gregory's shoulder.
' All right, Zaki! While you get the water boiling I shall run down to the river and have a bathe, and shall be ready for my cocoa in twenty minutes.'
'Are we going to put on those Dervish dresses at once, master? They came yesterday evening.'
'No; I sha'n't change till we get to the place where we land.'
As soon as he had breakfasted he told Zaki to carry his portmanteau, bed, and other belongings to the house that served as a store for General Hunter's staff. He waited until his return, and then told him to take the two rifles, the packets of ammunition, the spears, and the Dervish dresses down to the steamer. Then he joined the General, who was just starting with his staff to superintend the embarkation.
Three steamers were going up, and each towed a barge, in which the greater part of the troops were to be stowed, and in the stern of one of these knelt two camels.
'There are your nags, Mr. Hilliard,' the General said. ' There is an attendant with each. They will manage them better than strangers, and without them we might have a job in getting the animals ashore. Of course I shall take the drivers on with us. The sheik told me the camels are two of the fastest he has ever had. He has sent saddles with them and water-skins. The latter you will probably not want if all goes well; still, it is better to take them.'
' I shall assuredly do so, sir. They may be useful to us on the ride, and though I suppose the camels would do well enough without them, it is always well to be provided, when one goes on an expedition, for any emergency that may occur.'
An hour later the steamer started. The river was still full and the current rapid, and they did not move more than five miles an hour against it. At the villages they passed the people flocked down to the banks with cries of welcome and the waving of flags. They felt now that their deliverance was accomplished, and that they were free from the tyranny that had for so many years oppressed them. The banks were for the most part low, and save at these villages the journey was a monotonous one. The steamers kept on their way till nightfall, and then anchored.
They started again at daybreak. At breakfast General Hunter said:
' I think that in another two hours we shall be pretty well due west of El Fasher, so you had better presently get into your Dervish dress. You have got some iodine from the doctor, have you not?'
'Yes.'
'You had better stain yourself all over, and take a good supply in case you have to do it again.'
Gregory went below and had his head shaved by one of the Soudanese, then re-stained himself from head to foot and put on the Dervish attire—loose trousers and a long smock with six large square patches arranged in two lines in front; a white turban and a pair of shoes completed the costume. The officers laughed as he came on deck again.
'You look an out-and-out Dervish, Hilliard,' one of them said. ' It is lucky that there are none of the Lancers scouting about. They would hardly give you time to explain, especially with that rifle and spear.'
Presently they came to a spot where the water was deep up to the bank, which was some six feet above its level. The barge with the camels was brought up alongside. It had no bulwark, and as the deck was level with the land, the camels were, with a good deal of pressing on the part of their drivers, and pushing by as many Soudanese as could come near enough to them, got ashore.
None of the Soudanese recognized Gregory, and looked greatly surprised at the sudden appearance of two Dervishes among them. As soon as the camels were landed, Gregory and Zaki mounted them.
'You had better keep if anything to the south of east,'
General Hunter's last instructions had been. ' Unless Parsons has been greatly delayed they should be two or three days' march farther up the river, and every mile you strike the stream behind him is so much time lost.'
