The Way of the Spirit | Page 5

my boy, but remorse may be a
perpetual agony. So live, then, that having obtained forgiveness for
what you have done amiss, it may not be there to torment you when
you come to die."
As it chanced, her words fell in a fruitful soil well prepared to receive
them--a strong soil, also--one which could grow corn as well as weeds.
"Mother," Rupert answered simply, "I will. I swear to you that
whatever it costs me I will," and stretching out his wasted arms he drew
down her grey head and kissed her on the brow.
This history will show how he kept that sick-bed promise under
circumstances when few would have blamed him for its breach.
Romantic as Rupert Ullershaw's life was destined to be, thenceforward
it was quite unstained.
CHAPTER I
THE VOICE OF THE SINGING SAND
More than eleven years have gone by, and the scene upon which our
curtain rises again is different indeed to that upon which it fell. In place
of that little London house where Rupert had lain sick, behold the
mouth of a cliff-hewn temple, and on the face of it, cut from the solid
rock, four colossal statues of an Egyptian king, nearly seventeen feet

high each of them, that gaze for ever across the waters of the Nile and
the desert beyond--that unchanging desert whence for three thousand
five hundred years, dawn by dawn, they have greeted the newly-risen
sun. For this place is the temple of Abu-Simbel below the Second
Cataract of the Nile in the Soudan.
It is afternoon in the month of September, of the year 1889, and
beneath one of the colossi near to the entrance of the temple is seated a
British officer in uniform--a big, bearded observer as remarkable for
intensity and power. Indeed, in this respect it was not unlike that
stamped upon the stone countenances of the mighty statues above him.
There was in it something of the same calm, patient
strength--something of that air of contemptuous expectancy with which
the old Egyptian sculptors had the art of clothing those effigies of their
gods and kings.
It would have been hard to recognise in this man the lad whom we left
recovering from a sore sickness, for some twelve years of work,
thought, struggle, and self-control--chisels, all of them, that cut
deeply--had made their marks upon him. Yet it was Rupert Ullershaw
and no other.
The history of that period of his life can be given in few words. He had
entered the army and gone to India, and there done very well. Having
been fortunate enough to be employed in two of our little frontier wars,
attention had been called to his conspicuous professional abilities. As it
chanced also he was a studious man, and the fact that he devoted
himself but little to amusements--save to big-game shooting when it
came in his way--left him plenty of time for study. A chance
conversation with a friend who had travelled much in the East, and who
pointed out to him how advantageous it might be for his future to have
a knowledge of Arabic, with which very few English officers were
acquainted at the time, caused him to turn his attention to that language.
These labours of his becoming known to those in authority, the Indian
Government appointed him upon some sudden need to a
semi-diplomatic office on the Persian Gulf. Here he did well, and
although he never got the full public credit of it, was fortunate enough

to avert a serious trouble that might have grown to large proportions
and involved a naval demonstration. In recognition of his services he
was advanced in rank and made a C.B. at a very early age, with the
result that, had he wished it, he might have entered on a diplomatic
career with every hope of distinction.
But Rupert was, above all things, a soldier, so turning his back upon
these pleasant prospects, he applied to be allowed to serve in Egypt, a
request that was readily granted on account of his knowledge of Arabic.
Here in one capacity or another he took part in various campaigns,
being present at the battles of El-Teb and Tamai, in the latter of which
he was wounded. Afterwards he marched with Sir Herbert Stewart from
Dongola and fought with him at Abu Klea. Returning to Egypt after the
death of Gordon, he was employed as an Intelligence officer at Cairo,
and finally made a lieutenant-colonel in the Egyptian army. In this
capacity he accompanied General Grenfell up the Nile, and took part in
the battle of Toski, where the Dervishes were routed on 3rd August,
1889. Then he was stationed at Abu-Simbel, a few miles away, to make
arrangements as to the disposal of prisoners, and subsequently to