The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-02
PART I.
BY a. CONAN DOYLE.

high on the bank. and below it the brown
Nile swirled swiftly towards the Amigcle
cataract, fitting a little frill of foam round
each of the powders which studded its
| surface. Above. out of a naked, blue sky,
the sun was beating down upon the sand,
and up again from the sand under the
brims of the pith hats of the horsemen
with the scorching glare of a blast fur
mace. 1t had risen so high that the shad-
ows of the horses were no larger than
themselves.
"Whew!' cried Mortimer, hopping his
forehead, you'd pay five shillings for this
at the ~hummums.'
Precisely" said Scott. But you are not
| asked to ride twenty miles in a Turkish
bath Will a field glass and a revolver. with
a water bottle and a whole Christmas
treeful of things dangling from you. The
dollhouse at Kew is excellent as a con-
| servatory, but not adapted for exhibitions
upon the horizontal bar. / vote for a
camp in the palm grove and a halt until
evening"
Mortimer rose on his stirrups and looked
hard to the southwark. Everywhere were
the same black. burned rocks and deep
orange sand. At one spot only an inter-
mittent line appeared to have been cut
| through the rugged spurs which ran down
10 ADG IlNtI- II was bitC " - ~ Wv
railway, long destroyed by the Arabs. but
now in process of reconstruction by the
advancing Egyptians. There was no other
| sign of mans handiwork in all that des-
olate scene.
Its PLAN trees or nothing" said Scott.
We'll, I suppose we must; and yet 1
gruge every hour until We reach the force
up. What. would our editors say If We
we're late for the action?'
MY dear chap. an old bird like you
doesn't need to be told that no sane mod
ern general would ever attack until the
press is uD."
"You don't mean that?" said young An
erley. Il thought we were looked upon as
an unmitigated nuisance"
Newspaper correspondents and travel
ing gentlemen, and all that tribe of use
less drones'-being an extract from Lord
Wolseley's Soldiers Pocketbook,'" cried
Scott. We know all about that, Anerley"
ard he winked behind his blue spectacles.
eff there were going to be a battle we
should very soon have an escort of cav
larry to hurry US up. I've been in fifteen,
and / never saw one where they had not
| arranged for a reporters table,"
That's very well; but the enemy may
be less considerable said Mortimer.
""They are not strong enough to force a
battle
IA skirmish, then?'
Much more likely to be a raid upon the
rear. In that case we are just where we
should be-"
so we are. What a score over Reuters
man up with the advance! Well, We'll out
span and have our tiffin under the palms"
There were three of them, and they stood
fer three great London de ilics. Reuter- was
thirty miles ahead; two evening pennies
upon camels were twenty miles behind.
And among them they Represented the eyes
and the ears of the public--the great silent
millions and millions who had paid for ev-
CT ything and who waited patiently to know
the result of their outlay.
They were remarkable men, these body
servant of the press, two of them already
veterans in the camps, the other setting
out upon his first campaign and full of
Difference for his famous comrades.
This first one, who had just Disappointed
from his bay polo pony, was Mortimer,
of the Intelligence-tall, straight and hawk
faced, with kharki tunic and riding breech-
es, drab putties, a scarlet summerbund and
a skin tanned to the red of a Scotch fir
by sun and wind and notified by the mos
quito and the sand fly. The ~other-small,
quick, mercurial, with biue-black, curling
beard and hair, a fly switch forever flick
ing in his left hand-was Scott, of the
Courier, who had come through more dam
gers and brought off more brilliant scoops
than any man in the profession, save the
eminent Chandler, now no longer in a con-
dition to take the field. They We're a sim
gular contrast, Mortimer and Scott, and it
was in their differences that the secret of
their close friendship lay. Each dovetailed
into the other. The strength of each was
in the others weakness. Together they
formed a perfect unit. Mortimer was Saxon
slow, conscientious and deliberate; Scott
was ~Celt!e-quick. happy-go-lucky and bril-
liant. Mortimer was the more solid, Scott
the more attractive. Mortimer was the
deeper thinker, Scott the brighter talker.
BY d curious coincidence, though each had
seen much of warfare, their. campaigns
had never conceded. Together they COW
cred all recent military history. Scott had
done Plevna, the Shipka, the Zulus, Egypt,
Suakin; Mortimer had seen the Boer war,
the Gillian, the Bulgaria and Servian, the
Gordon relief, the Indian frontier, Brazilian
rebellion and Madagascar. This intimate
personal knowledge gave a peculiar flavor
to their talk. There was none of the sec
ond-hand surmise and conjecture which
forms so much of our CONVERSATIONAL was
all concrete and final. The speaker had
been there, had seen ii, and there was an
end to it.
In spite of their friendship there was the
keenest professional rivalry between the
two men. Either would have sacrificed
himself to help his companion, but either
would also have sacrificed his companion
to help his paper. Never did a jockey
yearn fer q. winning mount as keenly as
each of them 1onged to have a full column
in u morning edition whilst every other
daily was blank. They were perfectly
frank about the matter. Each professed
himself ready to steal a march on his
neighbour, and each recognized that the
others duty to his employer was far higher
than any personal consideration.
The third man was Anerley, of the Ga
zette - young, inexperienced and rather
simple looking. He had a droop of the lip
which some of his more intimate friends
regarded as a libel upon mis- character, and
his eyes were SO slow and so sleepy that
they suggested an affectation. A leaning
toward soldering had sent him twice to
autumn maneuvers. and a touch Of color in
his descriptions had induced the proprietors
of the Gazette to give him {. trial as a war
special. There was a pleasing dlfiidence
about his bearing which recommended him
to his experienced companions. and IL they