The Besieged City
"Steady! Now, lower very slowly, for we are close to the houses."
Commander Jackson pressed the button of the electric indicator aboard
the platform on which he and Dick Hamshaw and Alec Jardine were being
lowered into the besieged city of Adrianople, and applied his lips to
the loud-speaking telephone. He barely whispered into the receiver, but
Dick and Alec knew well that his voice would be heard easily enough
aloft.
"Stop! Move away to the right; we are directly above a very large
building."
The platform of the lift jerked slightly as the motor above was
arrested, and for the space of a minute perhaps, it and its human
freight rose and fell as the long steel wire stretched and then
contracted. Dick craned his head over the edge, for he was kneeling,
just as he had been on that earlier occasion when the Commander came
down to his rescue. Below, barely visible in the all-pervading gloom, he
made out the dim, hazy details of a building, which stretched on either
hand for some considerable distance. Then he turned on his elbow and
stared upward, to find that nothing was visible. There was not even the
barest outline of the great airship which he knew well enough was
directly overhead, not a light, not a single sound, not even the gentle
tune of that humming motor. But down below there were sounds. Hark! What
was that?
"Men marching through the streets," whispered the Commander. "We shall
have to be cautious, for it would never do to drop into the hands of the
Turks. They would not understand our coming. We should be spies, as a
matter of course. Hold on up there," his companions heard him whisper
into the receiver of the telephone. "Hoist a little higher. Now, move
ahead."
Somewhere in the distance a clock struck musically, the sound easily
reaching the ears of the adventurous three descending to the city. One,
two, three.
"Two hours more and we shall have the dawn," whispered the Commander.
"Listen! Troops are on the move. There must be thousands marching
beneath us. No doubt reinforcements are being taken to some part where a
new and fierce attack is anticipated. Ah!"
Dick flushed as red as a beetroot in the darkness, and was thankful for
the cloak it lent him. For who could help starting violently under the
circumstances? A loud report had suddenly rung out away on their left, a
detonation which set the air above the city reverberating. There was a
flash in the distance, a streak of flame cutting into the darkness, and
then, heard perhaps half a minute later, a hideous shriek, getting
louder and more insistent.
"A messenger from the besiegers," said the Commander hoarsely. "Ah! It
plumped into the house away over there to the right. Lucky we weren't
directly over it."
It was fortunate for all three without a doubt, for that messenger from
the lines of the Bulgarians or from those of the Servians, who were now
aiding their comrades in this siege, was certainly not of the peaceful
variety. That shriek, in fact, was followed by a clatter, by the crash
of a hard, heavy body striking against masonry. Then there was a
thunderous roar, a huge spot of flame and smoke and debris, and finally
darkness and silence, silence made more intense by the occasional low
moaning of some poor injured person. A second later another gun spoke
from the distance, while the streak of flame from the muzzle was
followed by a third detonation from a different direction, and later by
half a dozen more. Suspended in midair Dick and his friends listened to
the roar of the shells, to the clatter of tumbling masonry, and to the
explosions that followed with feelings which can hardly be described as
precisely comfortable.
"George! A near shave," whispered Dick. "Hear it, sir?"
"Hear it? Rather!" came gruffly from the Commander. "That shell went
over our heads, and I reckon there cannot have been more than a dozen
feet between it and us. Nasty, eh! if one were to hit the wire rope."
"Ugh! What's he want to talk like that for?" Alec grumbled beneath his
breath. He peered over the edge of the platform and shivered. Not that
he had not plenty of courage and spirit. But somehow the dangers of a
bombardment seemed greater when suspended between earth and sky than
when one has one's feet firmly planted upon Mother Earth. It seemed,
too, that the jovial Commander felt the same also.
"It'd be nasty to get that rope cut, eh?" he asked again. "We'd fall
heavily. Let's move on. Do either of you lads hear any more troops
moving?"
A few minutes before there had been the muffled sound of a multitude of
rough boots treading upon uneven cobbles. Sometimes one heard the clink
of a sabre against the stones, or of one man's rifle against that of a
comrade. And now and then voices had reached the three suspended
overhead--sharp voices, as if officers were there issuing commands.
"Hear 'em?" asked the Commander.
"Moved on, sir, I think," responded Dick. "Now's the time for us to do
the same."
"Listen! They've gone away to our left. You can hear their steps still,"
said Alec. "Ah! That ends all sounds from them. I suppose this is a
general bombardment, sir?"
"Sounds like it," admitted the Commander. "Guns are directing shells
upon the city now from every side. It's time, as you say, Dick, to get a
move on. Ah! The ship has carried us away from that building. What's
below us?"
They craned their necks over the edge of the platform and peered down
into the darkness. "A garden, sir," suggested Dick.
"Clear ground in any case," came from Alec.
"Then lower away," the Commander whispered into the receiver. "Steady!
Ah, she's bumped! Hop out, you fellows. All clear? Then hoist above
there. We're safely in the city."
Did they hear a gentle hum from high up overhead? Dick fancied he could
for one brief instant as the lift shot upward. But it may have been
merely imagination. In any case there came quickly enough other sounds
to drown any there may have been from the airship; for a monstrous gun
spoke in the distance. The air above this devoted city shook and
vibrated, while the steel monster launched into space howled and
shrieked as it rushed to its destination.
"Down behind this wall," called the Commander, who had stood up to stare
in the direction from which the shot had come. "Down, quick! That
shell's coming straight for us."
Throwing themselves down upon the ground behind a low wall beside which
the lift had dropped them, they waited breathlessly for the landing of
that messenger. It shrieked a warning at them. It announced its coming
in a manner there was no mistaking. Then suddenly it burst upon them.
The shriek grew positively deafening, rising to such a blood-curdling
pitch that it would have shaken the pluck even of a veteran. But it was
muffled all in a second. There was a ponderous thud within a dozen
yards of the adventurous trio, an uncanny silence, and then a detonation
that threw them against the wall, and sent earth and stones and debris
in every direction. And what a sight the wide-spreading flames of that
explosion presented! Dick saw buildings all about him, buildings over
which stones and clods of earth were hurtling. To his left, within two
hundred yards perhaps, was an enormous erection, the actual size of
which he could not hope to estimate. But the momentary flash of the
explosion showed him towers and minarets, proof positive that here was a
mosque, the mosque, no doubt, for which Major Harvey had aimed when
descending into the city. That fleeting flash gave him in addition just
one glimpse of a huge shape floating almost directly overhead, no doubt
the gigantic outline of the airship.
"Lor! Supposing she felt the shock?" he groaned. "Supposing the airship
has sustained some damage."
"Not she! As right as a trivet," came in somewhat shaking tones from
close beside him, for unconsciously the young midshipman had spoken
aloud. "But, jingo, what an explosion! I've been hanging on to my hair
ever since. Hope we don't get another of those gentlemen within such
close distance."
The hope was hardly expressed when a second shell announced its coming,
and caused them once more to shelter close to the wall which had already
given them protection. As for the giant airship, when Dick gazed aloft
as this other messenger exploded, there was no longer a sign of her. No
doubt Andrew and his nephew had set the elevators going, and were now
high overhead, out of reach of danger.
"And so we've only ourselves to think about," said Dick. "What next,
then? What are the orders, sir? I caught a sight of the great mosque for
which Major Harvey said he would make. It's close to us. I suppose
that's where we shall begin our search?"
Strangely enough there came no answer. Dick caught his breath, Alec
gasped aloud. The midshipman could hear his breath coming fast and deep
within two feet perhaps of where he was sitting.
"Wait," he whispered. "He was just to my right. I'll crawl that way and
see where he has got to."
Getting to his knees, for till now he had been prone beside the friendly
wall which had sheltered them from stones and splinters sent hurtling
through the air by the shells which had fallen so close to them, Dick
made his way along the edge of the wall in search of the Commander. And
presently his fingers lit upon his figure. The officer was huddled up
against the brickwork; and though Dick pulled his sleeve violently there
came no response, not even when he kneeled above him, felt for his head,
and spoke sharply into his ear.
"Come along and join me," he called gently to Alec. "The Commander's
hit; yes, hit in the head. I'm sure of that, for I can feel that his
hair is wet; and listen to his breathing."
Neither of those two young fellows had had up till then much
acquaintance with wounds and injuries. But Dick had once seen a man
lying severely stunned, and now he recognized one at least of the
symptoms. For the unfortunate Commander was breathing
stertorously--positively snoring--while he took not the smallest notice
when his junior tugged at his clothing.
"Bend over him and strike a light," whispered Dick when Alec had joined
him. "We'll have to chance being seen. Got any matches?"
Evidently Alec was well provided, for in a moment there came the
tell-tale scrape of a lucifer being rubbed against the box. Then a tiny
flame blazed out, a flame which Alec shielded with his hand, while he
directed a portion of it on to the unconscious Commander.
"Yes; hit in the head. See, here's a big scalp wound," whispered Dick,
making a rapid examination, and discovering blood welling from a nasty
wound just above the Commander's forehead. "I'm not much used to this
sort of thing, Alec, but I imagine that he's not very badly hurt. He's
stunned, of course, and the thing is to know how to deal with him. First
thing, anyway, is to tie a handkerchief round the wound. Get another
match ready. Strike when I tell you to. Now. I've got his head lifted on
to my knee and my handkerchief unfolded. Strike now."
With the help of that feeble glimmer, lasting perhaps for half a minute,
they bound up the Commander's wound, and then, finding a raised piece of
ground close to the wall, gently lowered his head upon it.
"Better than nothing. It'll act like a cushion," said Dick. "Now?"
"Ah--a dickens of a business! There's the Commander down and wounded,
Major Harvey lost, perhaps dead for all we know, or only a prisoner; and
this Charlie, whom we've never seen, and hardly heard of, somewhere in
this awful city. What's to be done?"
"That's what I asked you," came quickly from Dick. "Let's see, we could
make a flare with your box of matches I suppose, and so call the
attention of Mr. Andrew. Pish! That's funking. Never! Besides, the
airship's gone by now. Didn't it strike three as we were descending?"
"Three, yes; what's the time now?"
"At a guess four o'clock. Might be less; feels as though it were a heap
more."
That, in fact, was the position. So much had happened since they set
foot in this besieged city of Adrianople, that hours might have passed,
and Dick really felt as if they had. And yet he knew well enough that
that was not possible. But the mention of the hour made him recollect
matters of greater moment.
"George!" he cried, "it will be light soon, and we shall be seen unless
we manage to discover a hiding-place of sorts. Lor! This is the maddest
kind of expedition I have ever been on, for here we are wanting a place
in which to hide, and yet our job is to discover two individuals whom we
can't possibly recognize unless we see 'em in broad daylight."
"While the airship has hooked it, eh?"
"Certain. It's getting a trifle lighter already, and she might be seen,
which would be dangerous. Well now, it seems to me that we must do
something pretty soon or we shall find ourselves in chokey. Look here,
Alec, are you game to stand by the Commander while I go on a tour of
inspection? The flash sent out by those two shells when they exploded
gave me a rough idea of our surroundings. In any case I spotted a huge
mosque away to our left, so I shall make over in that direction. I'll
follow this wall, and when it comes to an end I'll take good care to get
hold of something which will tell me I am on the right road when
returning. Ah! Listen to that! Rifle fire, eh? Getting lighter outside
the city and the pickets are having shots at one another. Or it is a
real attack opening. Yes, there go the guns again."
This time the roar which came to their ears was, perhaps, not so loud,
and it seemed probable that it emanated from the guns of the defenders.
But whoever was responsible for the firing, the enemy ringing in the
city lost no time in replying. For these were the days of strenuous
fighting about the beleaguered city. The allies, consisting of the
Bulgarians, the Servians, the Montenegrins, and the Greeks, had swept
the Turks in all directions before them, till the former were within
striking distance of Constantinople itself, while such important cities
as Salonica had been captured. But Adrianople still held out beneath the
command of Shukri Pasha, while Scutari also resisted the Montenegrins.
It may be imagined therefore, that the presence of a strong force of
Turks in Adrianople made it essential that the allies should detach an
even stronger force to watch and hem in their enemy. For weeks the
armies had, in fact, watched one another, passage out of the beleaguered
city being impossible, while actual fighting was intermittent and
confined to mere skirmishing. But now pour-parlers between the allies
and the enemy had broken down. Terms for peace had been rejected by the
Ottomans, and as a consequence the war had been resumed after an
armistice of some weeks' duration. To force the Turks to accede to the
terms demanded by the allies, Adrianople must be taken, even at a great
cost, and it happened that the arrival of Andrew Provost and his friends
had coincided with this period. Indeed, a furious bombardment of the
city was to begin forthwith, shells were to pour into the streets and
about the houses, while the encircling forts were to be rushed one by
one, at huge cost to the allies and the Turks, and the siege pressed
daily closer. Here, then, was an explanation of this beginning
cannonade.
"Get down close to the wall," Dick called to his chum, as those
answering guns opened and that same tell-tale shriek sounded in the
distance. "Here come the shells. Hope they won't fall closer than
formerly, for what has happened to the Commander may very well happen to
us. Look out! Get down close. Wish to goodness there was a trench here
in which we could shelter."
In spite of the fact that a huge shell had just whizzed overhead, Dick
went scuttling along beside the wall on hands and knees in search of
some shelter. And hardly three minutes had passed before he was back
again close to Alec.
"There's a bit of a ditch close to the wall farther along there," he
said hastily. "Let's carry the Commander there. Wait, though, till that
beggar has passed us."
That beggar happened to be a shell whose advance they could hear, and
every instant they expected it to pitch in the ground somewhere beyond
them. But this time it failed to carry to such a distance, and landing
with a thud some few yards behind the wall beside which they lay, it
exploded with violence, almost smothering them with dirt and debris and
tipping stones from the wall upon them. At once Dick and Alec took the
Commander by his legs and arms and carried his unconscious figure away
from this danger zone till they reached the ditch of which the former
had spoken.
"Better be in the open for a while than in one of the houses," said
Dick, panting after such exertion, and bending over his officer. "I dare
say we could manage to discover a house that's deserted, for there are
sure to be numbers left untenanted at such a time. But the danger would
be greater there. If a shell happened to strike the place, and one were
not killed by it, one would stand the chance of being buried alive in
the ruins. Now, you're game to stick here and wait for a while?"
Of course Alec was game. He was getting quite accustomed to those
falling shells now, for more guns were speaking in the distance, and
shots were raining into the city. All he feared really was discovery,
and when he came to think of it the risk at present was not so very
great. Indeed, while there was darkness no one was likely to stumble
upon them, and less so just then when the enemy were battering the
place, and people had their attention fully engaged in looking after
their own security. It was when daylight came that the real danger would
arise, so that it was urgent that one of them should at once seek out a
place which would provide a haven.
"You hop off and leave the Commander to me, Dick," he said. "I ain't
afraid. If any of these Turkish beggars interfere with me, I'll--well,
I'll shoot 'em."
He felt for and handled the revolver with which Andrew had been careful
to arm his young friends, and then slipped it back into his pocket.
"Right-o!" he said. "Off you go. But don't get lost and fail to find us
again. Remember, too, that it's getting lighter; we ought to be hidden
somewhere within an hour, eh?"
"And shall be," answered the midshipman optimistically. "Keep your hair
on if people come near you, and lie low. This place seems to be out of
the way, so I don't anticipate you'll have any trouble. So long! I'm
going."
He rose swiftly to his feet and went off along the wall, the fingers of
one hand trailing along the stones of which it was composed. Perhaps he
went a hundred paces, more than that even, before the wall ended
abruptly, the termination being jagged and broken. A few feet beyond was
what appeared in the dim light to be a ruined house, while a few paces
more brought him to a cobbled street, into which a shell fell as he
entered. Stepping back into the shelter of a doorway, against which he
happened to have arrived, Dick waited for the following explosion. Then
he crossed the street, stepped on the narrow footway beyond and bumped
heavily into an individual at that moment emerging from an opening in
the house opposite. At once an angry shout burst from this stranger,
while Dick distinctly heard the clatter of the end of a sword against
the rough cobbles of the pathway. A moment later there was a glimmer of
light, a hand shot out of the darkness and seized him by the collar,
while the dark lantern, with its slide now drawn fully open, was turned
upon him.
"Ah! Who goes racing about the streets thus at night when every soldier
should be in the trenches, and every dog of a civilian in his house?"
The light was flashed full into his face. From the darkness behind the
lamp a pair of fierce Turkish eyes glared at Dick Hamshaw, and in an
instant the individual who had spoken shouted loudly.
"What! A European!" he cried. "In uniform too! How now? A spy!"
It may be imagined that poor Dick was dumbfounded. Not that he was
ignorant of what had been said or shouted by this stranger, for Dick was
quite a travelled individual and something of a linguist. But then he
was the son of a sailor, and his father had for some considerable while
been attached to the British Embassy at Constantinople. It happened,
then, that Dick spent some five years in that cosmopolitan city, where
he was surrounded by Ottomans, and forced to speak the language to some
extent at least, simply because his father's servants were Turkish.
There need be no surprise, therefore, that he at once took in the gist
of what was shouted, while he blinked at the lantern held so close to
his face. Then the hand gripping his collar seemed to stir him to
action, that and the fact that it suddenly left his clothing, while
there came a curious rasping sound telling him that this man had drawn
his sword.
Things were looking decidedly unpleasant he decided. But what was he to
do? Bolt! No, certainly not, for as the man swung to draw his weapon the
lamp was turned partly upon his own person, and in a flash Dick saw that
a revolver hung in his open holster. More than that, he saw that this
was an officer. The very next second, before the sabre had quite left
its scabbard, he had lunged forward desperately with one fist, into
which he put all the force of which he was capable.
"Spy!" The officer was in the midst of the shout when the blow struck
him on the forehead, for in the darkness Dick missed his aim and went a
trifle high. But a lusty fist, wielded though it was by a youth not yet
fully grown, and coming against the Turk's forehead so unexpectedly, had
a startling effect upon that individual. His sword left his hand and
went to the ground with a clatter, the man himself following swiftly and
landed upon the cobbles with a thump. As for Dick, he turned to bolt for
his life, guessing that other undesirable and inquisitive persons might
be near at hand and have heard that shout. But he need have had little
fear. If anyone had heard and were inclined to venture near, their
inclination was subdued at once by the landing of a shell some thirty
yards down this narrow street. Dick heard it crash against the cobbles
and instantly threw himself flat, being only just in time to escape the
succeeding explosion. A hot blast of flame and gas swept over his
recumbent figure. For one brief second the street and the mean houses on
either side were brilliantly illuminated, and then there was darkness
and silence again, save for dimly-heard shrieks of terror from the
distance and the moaning of a man nearer at hand. Dick scrambled to his
feet, turned to go, and then swung his head round to look at the spot he
had so recently vacated. There was a glimmer on the cobbles, and the
faint outline of a lamp turned on its side.
"Why not?" he asked himself. "A lamp would be useful later on perhaps.
That officer fellow is moaning. Wonder whether that's due to my blow or
to the shell which just now exploded?"
As a matter of fact, his sudden blow had considerably startled the Turk,
and had made him lose his balance with a vengeance. Then he had sat up
giddily, only to be struck by a stone hurled in that direction by the
explosion. Dick went hastily across to him, picked up the lamp, and
closely inspected his late enemy.
"Captain of an infantry battalion," he told himself. "No, not a captain;
merely a subaltern. Not so very old either. No hair on his face at any
rate. Let's see how he's dressed. Greatcoat, belts and sabre, and
revolver pouch. Nothing on his head at the moment but--ah, there's the
fez! Why, it just fits me. Now I wonder if----"
It was hardly the place to stop and wonder, for without doubt a general
bombardment had begun, and stray messages from the allies were falling
about him. Dick took the lamp and went to the opening from which this
officer had come. He pushed the door before him and found it opened
easily. He knocked loudly, then entered without hesitation, and threw
his light into the downstairs rooms. They were empty, as was also the
upper part of the house.
"Just the sort of little crib we want," he told himself. "Sorry, of
course, for the officer, but he shouldn't have been so inquisitive.
Anyway, I'll have to borrow some of his belongings. But first I'll fetch
Alec and the Commander."
Perhaps ten minutes later Commander Jackson was resting on a settee or
divan in the house which Dick had selected, while Dick and Alec rapidly
removed the Turk's greatcoat and fez as well as his weapons. Then they
picked him up, and staggered away with his unconscious figure till they
had gained a street some distance from the spot where he had accosted
our hero.
"That'll do. He'll be picked up by his friends some time, and won't soon
find his way back to the house. Jingo, ain't things humming!"
It was strange, as the morning light slowly stole upon the besieged city
of Adrianople and penetrated the windows of that house borrowed by Dick
and Alec, to see those two young hopefuls resting contentedly on the
divan running the length of an upstairs room, eagerly discussing the
food they had brought with them, as well as this curious situation. As
to the Commander, he was no longer snoring so stertorously. He was
conscious, and was gazing fixedly at his comrades.
"What next?" he was asking quite jovially in spite of his headache.
"That's it, sir," grinned Dick. "What next? That wants a heap of
guessing."