Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/135

 Rh to Abu Hâmed. For a long time all the sheiks on the river banks,—those who remained loyal to the Government as well as those who in the depth of their souls favored the Mahdi,—were certain that the destruction of the dervishes and their prophet was inevitable, for no one had ever vanquished the Englishmen.

"Akbar Allah!" interrupted Idris, raising his hands upwards. "Nevertheless, they have been vanquished."

"No," replied the leader of the pursuing party. "The Mahdi sent against them the tribes of Jaalin, Barabra, and Janghey, nearly thirty thousand in all of his best warriors, under the command of Musa, the son of Helu. At Abu Klea a terrible battle took place in which God awarded the victory to the unbelievers.—Yes, it is so. Musa, the son of Helu, fell, and of his soldiers only a handful returned to the Mahdi. The souls of the others are in Paradise, while their bodies lie upon the sands, awaiting the day of resurrection. News of this spread rapidly over the Nile. Then we thought that the English would go farther south and relieve Khartûm. The people repeated, 'The end! the end!' And in the meantime God disposed otherwise."

"How? What happened?" asked Idris feverishly.

"What happened?" said the leader with a brightened countenance. "Why, in the meantime the Mahdi captured Khartûm, and during the assault Gordon's head was cut off. And as the Englishmen were concerned only about Gordon, learning of his death, they returned to the north. Allah! We again saw the steamers with the stalwart soldiers floating down the river, but did not understand what it meant. The English publish good news immediately and suppress bad. Some of our people said that the Mahdi had already perished. But finally the truth came to the surface. This region belongs yet to the