"Helena, can you imagine what it is to a soldier to feel that he is on the wrong side in battle? If he is to fight well he ought to feel that he is fighting for his country, his flag, and – justice. But when the position is the reverse of that; when, for example – "
But at that moment the General came into the room and welcomed Gordon with a shout.
"Just been writing to Alexandria, telling Jenkinson to keep a force in readiness for you night and day," he said. "Only way, my boy! Force is the one thing the Easterns understand. Of course we don't want bloodshed, but if these rascals are telling the people that the power is not in our hands, or that England will not allow us to use it – we must let them see – we can't help it. Glorious commission, Gordon! I congratulate you! My job, though, and there's only one man I could give it up to – only one man in the world."
And then Gordon, who had been biting his underlip, said, "I almost wish you could do it yourself, General."
"Why, what the deuce – "
"Gordon has been taking counsel with the Chancellor of El Azhar," said Helena, "and the old silly seems to have given him 'the eye' or talked nonsense out of the noble Koran."
"Not nonsense, Helena, and not out of the Koran, but out of the book of life itself," said Gordon, and after the black boy had brought in the tea, he told them what the Chancellor had said.
"So you see," he said, "the preaching of this new prophet has nothing to do with England in Egypt – nothing more, at least, than with England in India, or South Africa, or even Canada itself. It transcends all that, and is teaching for the world, for humanity. Isn't it true, too? Take what he says about the lust of empire, and look at the conduct of the Christian countries. They are praying in their churches 'that it may please Thee to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord,' yet they are increasing their armaments every day. What for – defence? Certainly! But what does that mean? – fear of aggression. So, while in our King's speeches and our President's messages, in our newspapers and even in our pulpits we keep up the pretence that we are at peace with the world, we are always, according to the devil's code of honour, preparing for the time when two high-spirited nations may find it convenient to fly at each other's throats. Peace with the world! Lies, sir, all lies, and barefaced hypocrisy! The nations never are at peace with the world, never have been, never want to be."
The General tried to protest, but Gordon, who was now excited, said —
"Oh, I know – I'm a soldier too, sir, and I don't want to see my country walked upon. It may be all right, all necessary to the game of empire, but for Heaven's sake let us call it by its right name – conquest, not Christianity – and put away the cant and quackery of being Christian countries."
Again the General tried to protest, but Gordon did not hear.
"Think of it! Kaisers and Kings and Presidents asking God's blessing on their Ministries of War! Bishops and Archbishops praying for more battleships! Christians? Followers of Christ? Why, in the name of God, do they not tear the scales from their eyes and stand revealed to themselves as good, upright, honest, honourable Pagans, bent on the re-paganisation of the world and the destruction of Christian civilisation? I'm a soldier, yes, but I hope to Heaven I'm not a hypocrite, and show me the soldier worth his salt who is not at heart a man of peace."
The General's face was growing scarlet, but Gordon saw nothing of that.
"Then take what this new preacher says about the greed of wealth – isn't that true, too? We pretend to believe that 'it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,' yet we are nearly all trying, struggling, fighting, scrambling to be rich."
He laughed out loud and then said —
"Look at America – I'm half an American myself, sir, so I've a right to say it – where a man may become a millionaire by crushing out everybody else and appropriating the gifts of nature which God meant for humanity! But America is a Christian country, too, and its richest men build, of their abundance, churches in which to glorify the giving of the widow's mite! Is the man to be silenced who warns the world that such sordid and squalid materialism is swallowing up religion, morality, and truth? Such a man may be the very soul of a country, yet what do we do with him? We hang him or stone him or crucify him – that's what we do with him, sir."
Gordon, who had been walking up and down the room and talking in an intense and poignant voice, stopped suddenly and said —
"General, did you ever reflect upon the way in which Jesus Christ was brought to His death?"
"Good gracious, man, what has that subject to do with this?" said the General.
"A good deal, I think, sir. Did you ever ask yourself who it was that betrayed Jesus?"
"Judas Iscariot, I suppose."
"No, sir, Judas was only the catspaw – scorned through all the ages and burnt in a million effigies, but nearly as innocent of the death of his Master as you or I. The real betrayer was the High Priest of the Jews. He was the head of the bad system which Christ came to wipe out, and he saw that if he did not destroy Jesus, Jesus would destroy him. What did he do? He went to the Governor, the Consul-General of the Roman Occupation, and said, 'This man is setting himself up against Cæsar. If you let him go you are not Cæsar's friend.'"
"Well?"
"That's what the High Priest of Islam is doing in Egypt now. As I was going into the Agency yesterday I met the Grand Cadi coming out. You know what he is, sir – the most fanatical supporter of the old dark ways – slavery, divorce, polygamy, all the refuse of bad Mohammedanism."
"Well, well?"
"Well, my father told me the Grand Cadi had said, 'If you let Ishmael Ameer go on it will be death to the rule of England in Egypt.'"
"And what does it all come to?"
"It comes to this, sir – that if the Chancellor of El Azhar has told me the truth —if, I say if– when we take Ishmael Ameer and shut him up in prison for life with nothing but a desert around him, we shall be doing something that bears an ugly resemblance to what the Romans did in Palestine."
Then the General, who had not once taken his eyes off Gordon, rose in visible agitation and said —
"Gordon Lord, you astonish me! If what you say means anything it means that this man Ishmael is not only preaching sedition but is justified in doing so. That's what you mean! Am I wrong?"
In his excitement he spoke so rapidly that he stammered, and Helena cried, "Father!"
"Leave me alone, Helena. I'm calm, but when a man talks of … When you talk of conquest you mean England in Egypt – yes, you do – and you refuse to see that we have to hold high the honour of our country and to protect our dominions in the East."
His voice sounded choked, but he went on —
"More than that, when you compare our Lord's trial and death with that of this – this half-educated Arab out of the desert – this religious Don Quixote who is a menace not only to Government but to the very structure of civilised society – it's shocking, it's blasphemous, and I will not listen to it."
The General was going out in white anger when he stopped at the door and said —
"Gordon Lord, I take leave to think this man an impostor, and if you want my view of how to deal with him and with the credulous simpletons who are turning sedition into crime and crime into bloody anarchy, I give it to you – 'Martial law, sir, and no damned nonsense!'"
Save for one word Helena had not yet spoken, but now with tightly-compressed lips, and such an expression on her face as Gordon had never before seen there, she said —
"I hate that man! I hate him! I hate him!"
Her eyes blazed, and she looked straight into Gordon's face, as she said, "I hate him because you are allowing yourself to be influenced in his favour against your own father, and your own country. An Englishman's duty is to stand by England, whatever she is and whatever she does. And the duty of an English soldier is to fight