CHAPTER IX
MY FIRST CHANCE OF ESCAPE
It was during my first months in prison that Ahmed Nur ed Din of the Kabbabish succeeded in getting into prison, in the hope of effecting my escape. I had for some years had dealings with Nur ed Din in connection with the Intelligence Department, and also the caravan trade. When I left Wadi Haifa with Saleh's caravan, Nur ed Din was then at Saleh's camp with messages to him from the Government. On his return to Wadi Haifa, he heard of what had happened, and coming at once to Omdurman, he sent a message by my servant that he had come for me. All his applications to get into the prison being refused by the guards, and fearing to make an application to Idris es Saier or the Mehkemmeh, he arranged with a friend to have a petty quarrel in the market-place; his friend hurried him before the Kadi, and Nur ed Din was ordered into prison. On seeing me walk towards him as he entered, as I did not know then that he came as a prisoner, he gave me a "hooss," the Soudan equivalent for our "ssh" (silence), and walked off in another direction. Later in the day, and when we were being
