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The Desertion Of Mahommed Selim
by
They sat silent too long for Wassef’s pleasure, for he took pride in what he was pleased to call his friendship with Donovan Pasha, and he could see his watchful neighbours gathering at a little distance. It did not suit his book that they two should not talk together.
“May Allah take them to his mercy!–A regiment was cut to pieces by the Dervishes at Dongola last quarter of the moon,” he said.
“It was not the regiment of Mahommed Selim,” Dicky answered slowly, with a curious hard note in his voice.
“All blessings do not come at once–such is the will of God!” answered Wassef with a sneer.
“You brother of asses,” said Dicky, showing his teeth a little, “you brother of asses of Bagdad!”
“Saadat el basha!” exclaimed Wassef, angry and dumfounded.
“You had better have gone yourself, and left Mahommed Selim your camels and your daughter,” continued Dicky, his eyes straight upon Wassef’s.
“God knows your meaning,” said Wassef in a sudden fright; for the Englishman’s tongue was straight, as he well knew.
“They sneer at you behind your back, Mahommed Wassef. No man in the village dare tell you, for you have no friends, but I tell you, that you may save Soada before it is too late. Mahommed Selim lives; or lived last quarter of the moon, so says Yusef the ghaffir. Sell your ten-months’ camel, buy the lad out, and bring him back to Soada.”
“Saadat!” said Wassef, in a quick fear, and dropped the stem of the narghileh, and got to his feet. “Saadat el basha!”
“Before the Nile falls and you may plant yonder field with onions,” answered Dicky, jerking his head towards the flooded valley, “her time will be come!”
Wassef’s lips were drawn, like shrivelled parchment over his red gums, the fingers of his right hand fumbled in his robe.
“There’s no one to kill–keep quiet!” said Dicky, But Wassef saw near by the faces of the villagers, and on every face he thought he read a smile, a sneer; though in truth none sneered, for they were afraid of his terrible anger. Mad with fury he snatched the turban from his head and threw it on the ground. Then suddenly he gave one cry, “Allah!” a vibrant clack like a pistol-shot, for he saw Yusef, the drunken ghaffir, coming down the road.
Yusef heard that cry of “Allah!” and he knew that the hour had come for settling old scores. The hashish clouds lifted from his brain, and he gripped his naboot of the hard wood of the dom-palm, and, with a cry like a wolf, came on.
It would have been well for Wassef the camel-driver if he had not taken the turban from his head, for before he could reach Yusef with his dagger, he went down, his skull cracking like the top of an egg under a spoon.
III
Thus it was that Soada was left to fight her battle alone. She did not weep or wail when Wassef’s body was brought home and the moghassil and hanouti came to do their offices. She did not smear her hair with mud, nor was she moved by the wailing of the mourning women nor the chanters of the Koran. She only said to Fatima when all was over: “It is well; he is gone from my woe to the mercy of God! Praise be to God!” And she held her head high in the village still, though her heart was in the dust.
She would have borne her trouble alone to the end, but that she was bitten on the arm by one of her father’s camels the day they were sold in the marketplace. Then, helpless and suffering and fevered, she yielded to the thrice-repeated request of Dicky Donovan, and was taken to the hospital at Assiout, which Fielding Bey, Dicky’s friend, had helped to found.
But Soada, as her time drew near and the terror of it stirred her heart, cast restless eyes upon the whitewashed walls and rough floors of the hospital. She longed for the mud hut at Beni Souef, and the smell of the river and the little field of onions she planted every year. Day by day she grew harder of heart against those who held her in the hospital–for to her it was but a prison. She would not look when the doctor came, and she would not answer, but kept her eyes closed; and she did not shrink when they dressed the arm so cruelly wounded by the camel’s teeth, but lay still and dumb.