Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — CompleteParker, Gilbert
General
Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Complete
Parker, Gilbert
Egypt -- Fiction; Short stories
The citizen Mustapha Kali having asserted that there is no cholera,
and circulated various false statements concerning the treatment of
patients, is hereby appointed as hospital-assistant for three
months, in the Cholera Hospital of Kalamoun, that he may have
opportunity of correcting his opinions.
--Signed Ebn ben Hari, Mudir of Abdallah.
Fielding lay back and laughed--the first laugh on his lips for a
fortnight. He laughed till his dry, fevered lips took on a natural
moisture, and he said at last: “You’ve pulled it off, D. That’s
masterly. You and Norman have the only brains in this show. I get worse
every day; I do--upon my soul!”
There was a curious anxious look in Dicky’s eyes, but he only said: “You
like it? Think it fills the bill, eh?”
“If the Mudir doesn’t pass the sentence I’ll shut up shop.” He leaned
over anxiously to Dicky and gripped his arm. “I tell you this pressure
of opposition has got to be removed, or we’ll never get this beast of an
epidemic under, but we’ll go under instead, my boy.”
“Oh, we’re doing all right,” Dicky answered, with only apparent
carelessness. “We’ve got inspection of the trains, we’ve got some
sort of command of the foreshores, we’ve got the water changed in the
mosques, we’ve closed the fountains, we’ve stopped the markets, we’ve
put Sublimate Pasha and Limewash Effendi on the war-path, and--”
“And the natives believe in lighted tar-barrels and a cordon sanitaire!
No, D., things must take a turn, or the game’s lost and we’ll go with
it. Success is the only thing that’ll save their lives--and ours: we
couldn’t stand failure in this. A man can walk to the gates of hell to
do the hardest trick, and he’ll come back one great blister and live,
if he’s done the thing he set out for; but if he doesn’t do it, he falls
into the furnace. He never comes back. Dicky, things must be pulled our
way, or we go to deep damnation.”
Dicky turned a little pale, for there was high nervous excitement in
Fielding’s words; and for a moment he found it hard to speak. He was
about to say something, however, when Fielding continued.
“Norman there,”--he pointed to the deck-cabin, “Norman’s the same.
He says it’s do or die; and he looks it. It isn’t like a few fellows
besieged by a host. For in that case you wait to die, and you fight to
the last, and you only have your own lives. But this is different. We’re
fighting to save these people from themselves; and this slow, quiet,
deadly work, day in, day out, in the sickening sun and smell-faugh! the
awful smell in the air--it kills in the end, if you don’t pull your game
off. You know it’s true.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account