Flashman And The Tiger

"Found me! They can’t even find my blasted trunk! Here, what’s the matter? I ain’t a ghost, you know!"

For he was staring at me as though he couldn’t believe his eyes—or eye, rather, for he’d only one ogle, and it was wide in astonishment, which you didn’t often see in the imperturbable Garnet Wolseley.

"Stewart! He’s here!" cries he, to the men by the carriage, and as they turned to look my heart gave a lurch, and my stick fell clattering to the platform. The man addressed, tall, dark, and grinning all over his face, was striding forward to grip my hand—young Johnny Stewart, a Cherrypicker long after my time, but an old comrade from Egypt.

"Wherever did you spring from?" cries he. "Heavens, I’ve been turning the town upside down for you—at your clubs, your house, everywhere …"

But I wasn’t listening. I’d recognised the others at once—Cambridge, commander-in-chief of the Army, with his grey moustache and high balding head; Granville, the Foreign Secretary; and jumping down from the carriage and hastening towards me with his quick, neat step, hand outstretched and eyes bright with joy, the last man on earth I wanted to see, the man I’d left England to avoid at all costs: Chinese Charley Gordon.

"Flashman, old friend!" He was pumping my fin like a man possessed. "At the eleventh hour! Did you know—oh, but you must have, surely? Where have you been? Stewart and I had given up all hope!"

Somehow I found my voice. "I’ve been abroad. In Austria."

"Austria?" laughs he. "That ain’t abroad! I’ll tell you where’s abroad—Africa! That’s abroad!" He was grinning in disbelief. "You mean you didn’t know I was going back to Sudan?"

I shook my head, my innards like lead. "I’m this minute off the train from Calais—"

"The very place we’re bound for! Stewart and I are off to Suakim this very night! He’s my chief o' staff … and just guess—" he poked me in the chest "—who I’ve been moving heaven and earth to have as my intelligence bimbashi! Isn’t that so, Garnet? But you were nowhere to be found—and now you drop from the skies! … and you never even knew I was going out!"

"’Twasn’t confirmed until today, after all," says Joe.

"If Flashman had been in Town, he’d ha' caught the scent a week ago!" cries Gordon. "Eyes and ears like a dervish scout, he lifts! I low d’ye think he’s here? He knew by instinct the game was afoot, didn’t you, old fellow? My word, and I thought only we HreIandmen had the second sight!" He stepped closer, and his eyes held that barmy mystic glitter that told me God was going to he hauled into the conversation. "Providence guided you … aye, guided you to this very platform! Don’t let anyone try to tell me there’s nothing in the power of prayer!"

If there had been I’d have been back in Austria that minute, or m Wales or Paisley even—anywhere away from this dangerous maniac gripping my sleeve and not letting me get a word in edge-wise. I shot a wild glance at the others: Cambridge pop-eyed, Granville smiling but puzzled, Stewart alert and wondering, and only Joe having the grace to frown and chew his lip. I was speech-less at the effrontery of the thing, but Gordon, of course, couldn’t Nee an inch beyond what he thought was a priceless stroke of luck, the selfish hound. It was famous, the happiest of omens … and tit last I found my tongue.

"But I’ve just arrived—I’m going home!" I protested, and any normal man would have been checked for a moment at least, but not Gordon, drunk with enthusiasm.

"You were—and you shall, one o' these days! But you don’t think I’m letting you slip now? Not when Fate has delivered you into my hands?" He was all jocularity—and earnest an instant later, gripping my coat. "Flashman, this is big, believe me. Bigger than China, even—perhaps bigger than anything since the Mutiny. I don’t k now yet—but I do know it calls for the best we’ve got. It’s going to he the hardest thing I’ve ever tackled … and I need you, old comrade." He was a head shorter than I, and having to stare up at me with those pale hypnotic eyes that made you feel like a rabbit before it snake. "See here, I know it’s sudden, and here I am springing it on you like a jack-in-the-box—but the Mahdi’s sudden too, and Osman Digna, and every minute counts! Let me tell you on the train—too much to explain now—and I don’t even know how I’ll set about it, only that we’ve got to set the Sudan to rights before that madman destroys it. It may mean a fight, it may mean a rearguard action, can’t tell yet—and neither can they." He jerked his head at the others. "But they’re putting the power in my hands, flashman, and I can choose whoever I wish."

He stepped back, and he was grinning again. "And I have no hesitation in asking leave of His Grace the Commander-in-Chief—" a duck of the head towards Cambridge "—and the Cabinet—" a nod to Granville "—and our chief man-at-arms—" a flourish at Joe, who was trying to interrupt "—to enlist Sir Harry Flashman, and to the dickens with regulations and usual channels! Well, Harry, what d’ye say?"