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As a kind of farewell barbecue, whether or not intended by the Khalifa as a warning to his departing general, ten prisoners had their feet and hands cut off in the Beit-el-Mal, and five lost their heads as well as their hands and feet. "It makes my blood run cold," said Slatin softly in English, as Macnamara passed him, walking at his master's stirrup. "Mine's boilin', sir!" answered Macnamara.
He complimented Captain Maitland upon his generalship. He had known Captain Maitland in the old days and he ought to have been on the lookout for the kind of thing he had put over. The Maitland Mill team had made a perfectly wonderful recovery in the last quarter, though he rather thought his friend Macnamara had helped it a little at a critical point.
Slatin, seeing his advantage, added: "I told him that you could not spare the time to teach him, sire; but he said that if you would talk to him for a little while every day for a month, after he had studied Arabic for two months, he would be ready to follow your majesty through life and death." "Approach, my son," said the Khalifa to Macnamara suddenly. Macnamara came near.
If you don't come with me I shall spread your newest frock on my 'rickshaw-bow, and when any one asks me what I am doing, I shall say that I am going to Phelps's to get it let out. I shall take care that Mrs. MacNamara sees me. Put your things on, there's a good girl. Mrs. Mallowe groaned and obeyed, and the two went off to the Library, where they found Mrs.
Nutter flat upon the floor, in a swoon, her white face and the front of her dress drenched with water. 'You've a scent bottle, Mrs. Macnamara let her smell to it, said the grim woman in black, coldly, but with a scarcely perceptible gleam of triumph, as she glanced on the horrified faces of the women. Well, it was a long fainting-fit; but she did come out of it.
An' if your pity's 'urtin' yer, think of 'im as 'adn't no wife nor kid to say when 'e's dead, 'Poor Peter Macnamara, 'e is gone." "A good job too, aw'm thinkin'." "An' a bloornin' 'ard 'eart y' 'ave. Wantin' of a man to die without leavin' 'is mark 'is bleedin' 'all mark on the world.
Then, when the Mahdi died he had been made the slave of the Khalifa's brother, whose vanity was flattered by having a European servant. The Khalifa Abdullah being angry one day with his brother, vented his spite by ordering Macnamara back to prison again.
For him nothing remained of the desperate journey but a couple of scars. It was different with Macnamara. He had to take a longer journey still. He was not glad to do it, for he liked the look of the English faces round him, and he liked what they said to him. Also, he was young enough to "go a-roaming still," as he said to Henry Withers.
The Spaniards fired upon the poor fellows in the water, only 78 escaping to land. Macnamara was seen to sink. His sword was found a few years ago by a Colonia fisherman, who presented it to the British consul at Montevideo. Most of the Irish names still extant in the Argentine provinces, such as Sarsfield, Carrol, and Butler, are probably derived from these captives.
One by one Captain Jack's team were passed in review the defence, Macnamara and "Jack" Johnson, so called for his woolly white head; "Reddy" Hughes, Ross, "Snoopy" Sykes, who with Captain Jack made the forward line, all were declared to be fit to deliver the last ounce in their bodies, the last flicker in their souls.
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