CHAPTER XXI
LOVE ETERNAL
Godfrey awoke and looked about him. He was lying in a small roomopposite to an open window that had thin gauze shutters which, as anold Indian, he knew at once were to keep out mosquitoes. Through thiswindow he could see the mighty, towering shapes of the Pyramids, andreflected that after all there must have been some truth in thosewonderful dreams. He lifted his hand; it was so thin that the strongsunlight shone through it. He touched his head and felt that it waswrapped in bandages, also that it seemed benumbed upon one side.
A little dark woman wearing a nurse's uniform, entered the room and heasked her where he was, as once before he had done in France and undervery similar conditions. She stared and answered with an Irish accent:
"Where else but at Mena House Hospital. Don't the Pyramids tell youthat?"
"I thought so," he replied. "How long have I been here?"
"Oh! two months, or more. I can't tell you, Colonel, unless I look atthe books, with so many sick men coming and going. Shure! it's apleasure to see you yourself again. We thought that perhaps you'd neverwake up reasonably."
"Did you? I always knew that I should."
"And how did you know that?"
"Because someone whom I am very fond of, came and told me so."
She glanced at him sharply.
"Then it's myself that should be flattered," she answered, "or thenight nurse, seeing that it is we who have cared for you with novisitors admitted except the doctors, and they didn't talk that way.Now, Colonel, just you drink this and have a nap, for you mustn't speaktoo much all at once. If you keep wagging your jaw you'll upset thebandages."
When he woke again it was night and now the full moon, such a moon asone sees in Egypt, shone upon the side of the Great Pyramid and made itsilver. He could hear voices talking outside his door, one that of theIrish nurse which he recognised, and the other of a man, for althoughthey spoke low, this sense of hearing seemed to be peculiarly acute tohim.
"It is so, Major," said the nurse. "I tell you that except for a littlematter about someone whom he thought had been visiting him, he is asreasonable as I am, and much more than you are, saving your presence."
"Well," answered the doctor, "as you speak the truth sometimes, Sister,I'm inclined to believe you, but all I have to say is that I could havestaked my professional reputation that the poor chap would never gethis wits again. He has had an awful blow and on the top of an oldwound, too. After all these months, it's strange, very strange, and Ihope it will continue."
"Well, of course, Major, there is the delusion about the lady."
"Lady! How do you know it was a lady? Just like a woman making up aromance out of nothing. Yes, there's the delusion, which is bad. Keephis mind off it as much as possible, and tell him some of your own inyour best brogue. I'll come and examine him to-morrow morning."
Then the voices died away and Godfrey almost laughed because they hadtalked of his "delusion," when he knew so well that it was none. Isobelhad been with him. Yes, although he could neither hear nor see her,Isobel was with him now for he felt her presence. And yet how couldthis be if he was in Egypt and she was in England? So wondering, hefell asleep again.
By degrees as he gathered strength, Godfrey learned all the story ofwhat had happened to him, or rather so much of it as those in charge ofthe hospital knew. It appeared, according to Sister Elizabeth, as hisnurse was named, that when he was struck down in the church, "somewherein Africa" as she said vaguely, the guards whom he had with him, rushedin, firing on the native murderers who fled away except those who werekilled.
Believing that, with the missionary, they had murdered the King'sOfficer, a great man, they fled fast and far into German East Africaand were no more seen. The Chief, Jaga, who had escaped, caused him tobe carried out of the burning church to the missionary's house, andsent runners to the nearest magistracy many miles away, where there wasa doctor. So there he lay in the house. A native servant who once actedas a hospital orderly, had washed his wounds and bound them up. One ofthese, that on the head, was caused by a kerry or some bluntinstrument, and the other was a spear-stab in the lung. Also from timeto time this servant poured milk down his throat.
At length the doctor came with an armed escort and, greatly daring,performed some operation which relieved the pressure on the brain andsaved his life. In that house he lay for a month or more and then, in asemi-comatose condition, was carried by slow stages in a litter back toMombasa. Here he lay another month or so and as his mind showed nosigns of returning, was at length put on board a ship and brought toEgypt.
Meanwhile, as Godfrey learned afterwards, he was believed to have beenmurdered with the missionary, and a report to that effect was sent toEngland, which, in the general muddle that prevailed at the beginningof the war, had never been corrected. For be it remembered it was notuntil he was carried to Mombasa, nearly two months after he was hurt,that he reached any place where there was a telegraph. By this timealso, those at Mombasa had plenty of fresh casualties to report, andindeed were not aware, or had forgotten what exact story had been senthome concerning Godfrey who could not speak for himself. So it cameabout through a series of mischances, that at home he was believed tobe dead as happened to many other men in the course of the great war.