No Road to Khartoum by Nigel Seed

Author:Nigel Seed [Seed, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 38.

Back to Egypt

They rode hard and the camels were almost worn out by the time they reached Wadi Haifa. The Egyptian army officers were surprised to see them. They had thought they would not survive below the border. They found the tents they had been allocated and unsaddled before walking the camels down to the Nile to drink their fill. They settled down outside the tents with the camels hobbled alongside them and started to cook their evening meal. McGuire had been invited to the officers’ mess, but had declined.

As they sat around waiting for the food to cook, Macklin was the first to bring out the things he had taken from the body he searched. McGuire was pleased that one of his two thieves was the first. They all laid whatever they had picked up in the middle of the group.

Jones looked at McGuire. “Will you divide it up sir?”

McGuire slid forward and started to sort the coins and trinkets into eight equal piles. There was little gold, but there were quite a few Egyptian piasters. There were curved daggers and two good swords as well as jewellery.

Asif sat quietly to one side and watched the sorting. As McGuire finished he leaned forward and tapped him on his arm.

“I have some for your sorting as well. First I must make a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Yes English. The quiet one saved the life of my brother and I have a gift for him.”

From under his robe he drew out the jewelled dagger he had picked up from the escaping man he had shot. “I do not know why that man had such a weapon, but it should be at the side of a brave man.”

He rose to his feet and walked across the small circle to where Parks sat. “This pays a small part of the debt I owe you for the life of my friend. Wear it when you go to battle and may it save your life as you saved his.”

Parks sat open mouthed as Asif walked back to his place and sat down. He smiled and nodded at the young Englishman, then reached under his robe again. He drew out a leather purse and tossed it to where McGuire sat cross legged.

“This should be shared as well. The spoils of a kill are shared. It is the way McGuire taught me that last time we fought in the Sudan.”

McGuire opened the pouch and upended it. A shower of gold coins fell to the ground and lay between his knees. He looked up at Asif.

“Truly, my generous friend, you are a man of honour.”

“It is easy to be a man of honour in such company as this, English.”

McGuire wrote a report for Wingate and sent it by telegraph the next morning. With that duty done he set about getting his men and animals back to Cairo. They were arranging passage when the telegraphed reply arrived. McGuire was ordered to make his way back as quickly as possible using any and all means he deemed fit.

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