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The second expedition consisted of the gunboats Sheikh and Hafir, together with two companies and the brass band of the Xth Soudanese and a Maxim battery, all under the command of General Hunter. Leaving Omdurman on the 19th of September, they started up the Blue Nile to Abu Haraz.
Bombay then told me he had forgotten to do so before that when he was last at Kaze, Sheikh said told him he was sure we would succeed if both he and myself pulled together, although it was well known no one else of my party wished to go northwards. With at last a sufficiency of porters, we all set out together, walking over a new style of country.
In all seven were placed there, and just as the long line of sufferers had been gone through, the Sheikh returned and said that the chief's orders were that the worst sufferers were to stay at the tent so as to be under the Hakim's eye.
"I confess, my dear Charlie," he said to me soon afterwards, "that I often felt ashamed of myself, while I was enjoying the favour of the sheikh and the abundant food he provided for me, simply because I happened to know a little about medicine and surgery, to see you and Halliday ill-treated and badly fed, and to be unable to help you.
Some, as they emerged into the plain, galloped forward and threw their spears into the air; but the main body preserved an appearance of discipline, and proceeded at a slow pace to the pavilion of the Sheikh.
"I will go to the guard and tell him, Excellency," said the Sheikh humbly, and he went away. Within an hour a long and weary one to Frank he was back. "I have seen the chief guard, Excellency, and he has taken your message to the Emir, who sent for me at once." "Well?" said the doctor; and Frank and the professor came close to hear the reply.
Assuming that this affair is to end in a ransom, what we want now is to change the impressions of the great Sheikh respecting your wealth. This can only be done from the same spot where the original ideas emanated. I must induce him to permit me to accompany his messenger to Besso.
As he spoke the young chief dashed in again, followed by the Sheikh, the panting horse having been handed over to one of the guard; and this time the young man crossed to Frank, laid his left hand upon the young man's shoulder, smiling proudly, and waving his right hand in the air as if cutting with his sword.
Boxall had gone through numerous adventures; but having been fortunate enough to cure some of the sheikh's family and several other persons by practising the slight knowledge of medicine he possessed, he had been held in high estimation, and had gained the confidence of the sheikh and all the chief people, so that he had had few of the irksome duties to perform which had fallen to our lot.
The desert horse, feeling this extra weight, looked round almost as unsympathetically as the camel had; but nobody paid the slightest attention except his attendant, who was to lead him: a type of negro "Nut," who had a snobbish habit of reddening his nails with henna. By this time a crowd had assembled, kept in check by the tall, blue-robed sheikh of the Pyramids.
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