A Thrilling Rescue
Perhaps no quainter or more exciting situation could be imagined than
that which found Dick Hamshaw and his little party scuttling down the
dark streets of Adrianople. For there he was, leading surely a strange
following.
"Enough to make the people open their eyes and rub 'em hard," he told
himself with a grin, for Dicky was not the one to be scared easily or
disheartened. "Here we are, led by a Turkish officer, that's me;
followed by a British naval officer, in uniform too, that's the
Commander, and jolly groggy he seems to be after that wound of his. Then
there's Alec--well, nothing out of the ordinary--while behind come the
Major, almost a stranger, though we know all about him, and then
'Charlie', dear old Charlie."
"Where away? Where are you leading to?" suddenly came from the Major.
"We've gained on those beggars. Hadn't we better stop a moment and
discuss matters?"
Discuss matters when they were almost blown, and when the Turks were
rushing pell-mell after them!
"Good idea," cried Dick cheerily. "In here! Come along. Now, bang the
door. Jingo! Hope there ain't other people to kick up a rumpus."
Really his cheek and coolness were amazing, for hardly had the Major
finished calling when Dick halted at a doorway leading into a small
dwelling, threw it open, and beckoned them to enter. Then he banged the
door to, and leaving his friends went off on a tour of inspection.
"All bright-o!" he whispered, reappearing. "Place empty. No one here for
a long while and not a scrap of food. I squinted into what must be their
larder."
"H--hush! There they are. Foiled for the moment," whispered the Major,
peering through a narrow window. "Wait! They've halted and are looking
about them. One of the men is pointing up the street, and let's hope
they'll make off in that direction. Good! There they go as if the old
gentleman himself were behind them. Now; what's the meaning of all this
bother, and how comes it that you are masquerading in Turkish uniform?
Dick, my boy, you've a heap to answer for. Seriously, though, I'm
eternally obliged to you for liberating us from that prison. That
reminds me. I haven't so far had an opportunity of making formal
presentations. Commander Jackson, let me introduce Colonel Steven,
Intelligence Department, War Office, the 'Charlie' we've come after.
Colonel, my excellent friends and comrades Mr. Midshipman Hamshaw and
Alec Jardine. Now you all know one another."
Cordial hand-grips were exchanged all round, and here again one may say
that seldom before was there such a curious meeting. As for "Charlie",
the gallant Colonel Steven, Dick and his friends liked his looks
immensely. He smiled at them all, not in the least ruffled by what had
been passing.
"'Pon my word, gentlemen," he said, "but it needs an active man to keep
touch with your movements. First I come most miraculously in contact
with my friend, the Major, who descends actually and really from the
sky. Then, when I am reclining comfortably in a prison where the
circumstances of the bombardment, the breakdown of all discipline, and
the natural hate of an Ottoman made it likely enough that I and the
Major might have our throats slit, there appears upon the scene a
Turkish officer, who is not a Turkish officer, but a midshipman from our
own fleet, and who likewise has descended from the sky. Lastly, I am
taken to a place of refuge which is no place of refuge, and from which I
am bundled before even I have time to be formally acquainted with other
gentlemen, birds of the same feather as my friend the Major. Really,
this is almost enough for one long day."
Cool! Of course he was cool. His pleasant satire showed that, while his
easy smile, his jaunty manner, the knowledge that he had been engaged on
an important and doubtless dangerous enterprise made Dick and his
friends take to the Colonel promptly. And naturally enough, though the
midshipman was not easily abashed, he now waited for his seniors to give
a lead. Not that the Commander was capable of doing so.
"I've a head that feels as big as a football and heavier than lead," he
told them, sitting down of a sudden and looking faint. "Carry on without
me; I'll be better in a twinkling."
"Then we turn to Dick. The Navy commands here," smiled Colonel Steven,
while the Major nodded. "Have the goodness, Mr. Dick, to issue your
orders. Really, though, lad, you have the situation at your finger tips.
Do we stay here, or do we issue out again and seek some other
residence?"
Dick removed his fez and scratched his head. It was not, perhaps, a very
refined operation, but it seemed to help.
"You see," he began, "I'm thinking about the airship and how we are to
rejoin her. Supposing we hide here and send up a flare to-night. Well,
these johnnies may catch sight of the flame and rush us before we can
board the lift. Awkward that, very."
"Then let us suppose that we change our quarters. Are we better off?"
asked the Colonel.
"Perhaps. If we can find a crib, sir, that's easier to hold, more
ungetatable as one might say."
"For instance," interjected the Major. "You've some such crib in your
mind's eye, Dick."
"Well, there's the mosque. It's empty, save for a sentry at the door.
There are four towers at least there, and I climbed up one of 'em this
very morning. Now, a stairway could be held. There are no doors and
windows in all sorts of directions. Besides, we'd be above the beggars
who wanted to get us, and that'd be an advantage. We could hold out
perhaps till the airship arrived to take us."
It was a likely enough suggestion, and the two soldiers thought well of
it. But the Colonel soon put his finger on what appeared to be a weak
spot.
"We're up in this tower, let's imagine," he said. "Then the ship comes.
We're bottled in perhaps. How do we emerge? How reach the line which
this ship throws out to us?"
"Wait. You haven't seen the airship yet," cried Alec. "Wait, sir, and
you'll have an eye-opener. She can pick us up easily wherever we are,
even on the top of a chimney, for her lift can be manoeuvred with an
ease and certainty that will astonish you. Oh yes, it don't matter where
we happen to get to, Mr. Andrew and Joe can reach us."
There was pride in his voice. His words conveyed the impression that if
anything in this world were a success it was the curious lift attached
to the great airship, although, as a matter of course, that huge vessel
was of even greater excellence. But it can be imagined that to one who
had never seen the ship floating in the air, who had never even set foot
upon her galleries, nor climbed to the height of her upper deck, it was
hard to believe that what Alec described so glowingly could in fact be
possible. Not that the gallant Colonel was a sceptic, or in the habit of
decrying new inventions, or disbelieving in the possibility of things
that he had never seen. On the contrary, he was very much awake and
alive to the astonishing progress to be observed on every side,
particularly progress appertaining to mechanics. For has not the latter
end of the nineteenth century, and the beginning of the present seen an
amazing advancement on every hand, an advancement beside which the
progress of the so-called Victorian era pales almost to insignificance?
Think of the conquest which the internal-explosion motor has
accomplished, of the rapid road and sea locomotion it has made possible,
of the trackless pathways of the air which it has thrown open to human
beings. For the beginning and the end of man's first successful journeys
at speed through the air, upon machines heavier than the atmosphere
which supports them, is attributable almost solely to the petrol motor,
that internal-explosion engine which less than twenty years ago was but
the crudest of inventions.
Colonel Steven had kept in close touch with the whole movement, and had,
during the hours he lay in prison with the Major, listened to his
description of the wonderful airship which Joe Gresson and his uncle had
constructed. He was burning to board the vessel, to ferret out its
secrets, to understand its construction; and he may be forgiven if he
failed to comprehend quite how the ship could manage to remove himself
and his friends even from the tower of a mosque, should the party happen
to find themselves in such a position. However, the discussion as to
their movements was cut short at the moment. Cries were heard from the
street, and the Major soon made an important announcement.
"That fellow again!" he cried, in low tones. "He and his followers had
run out of sight, and I was in hopes that we had thrown them off the
scent. But they are coming back, yes, and numbers have joined them. All
the ragtag and bobtail of this terrible city have joined in the search."
Dick dived towards the window there to join him, and stood peering out
into the street. It was true enough that the man who led these searchers
was returning, and true too that others had joined his following.
Indeed, some fifty ragged fellows were trailing after that young Turkish
officer, whose head was swathed in bandages, and amongst them,
immediately in rear of the officer, was no less a person than the sentry
whom Dick had accosted at the door of the mosque, and whom he had duped
so cleverly.
"Jingo!" he cried, turning with a somewhat scared expression upon the
company. "They've got to the bottom of the whole business. The chap in
advance is the beggar I collided with last night, and I suppose he's
anxious to get back these clothes I was compelled to borrow. Then
there's the man who was at the guard-house, and who helped to put the
Major and the Colonel in prison. Jingo! They're entering the houses on
either side and searching them."
There was a blank look upon the faces of the forlorn little party. Not
that they were frightened, or were likely to submit themselves as
prisoners without a struggle. But the outlook was black without a doubt.
This mob of Turkish soldiers, dressed in their ragged khaki uniforms,
unkempt, undisciplined, capable of any violence now that the only
authority over them was represented by a single youthful officer, were
searching every corner, and when they came to the house in which Dick
and his friends had sheltered they would find the party, would drag them
out and then, perhaps, shoot them.
"Nasty place," admitted the Colonel. "Regular troops might be trusted to
make prisoners of us, to treat us decently, and wait for their officers
to investigate the matter. Now----" he shrugged his shoulders. "Well,"
he said, "we might find ourselves placed against a wall and shot down
deliberately. Adrianople is in a condition of disorder, which one may
imagine will get worse rather than better. Who is to prevent violence
just now, when every soldier who can be controlled is in the firing
line? That officer? No."
"Not he!" Dick cried. "He was furious last night. He'll be more angry
this morning. Besides, all these fellows are wasters, men who ought to
be in the forts but who have slunk to the rear. I ain't going to wait to
be torn to pieces, or shot out of hand. They've rifles with them, sir."
"While we have revolvers," said the Major coolly. "Now, Dick, you're
leader still. What happens? Do we wait for these gentlemen, or--what?"
"We pick the Commander up, carry him out at the back of the house, and
slink off to the great mosque," came the instant answer. "It's not more
than three hundred yards from us, and if we can only get within easy
distance we can keep this mob off with our weapons. Shall I lead the way
out of the back door, sir?"
"At once," came promptly from the Colonel. "See, I am a strong man, and
as hard as nails. I will shoulder the Commander. Come, Jackson," he
said, turning to the naval officer who had meanwhile struggled to get to
his feet, and had sunk back almost fainting. "Now, up you go. That's the
way. Cling with your arms round my neck. I've a good grip of your legs,
and can manage to use my revolver. Ready, Dick."
"Then off we go," cried the Major. "First Dick, then the Colonel, then
Alec. I bring up the rear, and Alec can help me if there's any bother.
Come, don't let us delay any longer; those ruffians are already getting
far too close for our safety."
Silently opening the rickety back door of the house that had sheltered
them, Dick peered out and issued into the open.
"Come," he called gently. "There's a garden here, and a door at the end.
It ought to take us into another street and so away from those beggars.
Listen to 'em. They're kicking up more row than those fellows away in
the trenches."
To speak the truth, this mob of unattached individuals in search of our
friends were by now infuriated at their want of success, for it began to
look as if they had been completely hoodwinked. Some fifty of them were
dashing into and out of the houses, breaking doors open with the stocks
of their rifles without the smallest ceremony, and venting upon
cupboards and beds and woodwork, where they imagined someone might be
hiding, all the ferocity they might have been expected to display had
they been directly engaged with the Bulgarians. Many had their bayonets
fixed, and drove them deep into recesses, into dark corners, and through
the very heart of the gigantic mattresses on some of the beds. They
bellowed at one another. Some even slipped cartridges into the breeches
of their rifles and fired into the cellars and through the windows of
the houses. Altogether there was pandemonium in that part of the city,
pandemonium made worse by the rattle of musketry in the distance, by
those bursting shells which still clattered amidst houses and streets,
and by the shrill cries of terror, by the sobs and execrations of the
civil population now subjected to this added trouble.
"Ah! See! We have found their last lair. Look!"
The sentry whom Dick had accosted at the mosque came rushing from the
door of the tenement which our hero had but just vacated and waved an
object aloft. It was a cap, the same which the Colonel had been wearing,
and which the effort to lift the Commander to his back had dislodged
from his head. In an instant the Turk had pounced upon it, and there he
was now in the street, calling the officer and his ragged following
towards him, gesticulating and shouting.
"See! I remember this cap. It was upon the head of one of our prisoners,
one of the foreign spies sent in here by the Bulgarians."
"And the men themselves. You saw them also?" asked the officer,
snatching the cap from him.
"The house is empty. They are gone. That cap proves that they were there
lately."
"Fool! Did you not look for them? Did you not attempt to discover whence
they had gone?" was shouted at him, while the furious officer looked as
if he were capable of shooting him down in his anger. "Into the house,"
he bellowed. "Empty! Nothing here to keep us. Then out at the back.
Look. The ground is soft after the melting of the snow. Here are fresh
footmarks. Follow! Follow!"
Led by the officer the mob went tearing down the tiny garden of the
humble tenement, and burst their way through the gate at the bottom.
Indeed, in their eagerness and fury at having been so duped, and in
their knowledge that order was done with in Adrianople for the moment,
they tore the gate from its hinges, trampled upon a couple of harmless
civilians walking in the road to which the gate gave entrance, and then
seized and beat them unmercifully.
"Release their throats so that they may speak!" commanded the brutal
young officer who led this riotous following. "Now, we seek some
foreigners who but lately escaped along this road. You saw them? What!
You shake your heads. Shoot them!"
It was a sample of the justice and treatment which Dick and his friends
might encounter if they fell into the hands of these rascals. At such a
time it seemed that friend and foe were alike to these men, skulkers for
the most part. Furious at the thought that the two unfortunate people
they had come upon could not help them they hurried them to the house
opposite, and perhaps would even have gone to the length of shooting
them had not one of the poor wretches shouted at the top of his voice:
"We can help you," he called. "Give us but the opportunity, and I swear
by the Koran that we can speak. But you have beaten the breath from our
bodies."
"Then release them. Speak!" commanded the officer. "We seek some
foreigners."
"Five men passed us but a few minutes ago, one of whom was injured and
was borne by a comrade. They were hurrying towards the great mosque, and
a Turkish officer led them."
"The same--the ones we seek! They went this way?" demanded the officer.
Hardly had the route been indicated when the whole mob was in motion
again, racing off along the street in pursuit of our hero. Nor was it
long before these wretches came in sight of the forlorn little party. A
shriek of glee escaped them immediately. Men levelled their rifles as
they ran and pulled their triggers, careless where the bullets went,
while the ruffianly officer drew his revolver and sent shot after shot
at Dick and his fellows.
"Keep straight on, Dick," the Major sang out. "Those fellows couldn't
hit a haystack at the pace they're going, so we've only fluke shots to
chance. That's the mosque, ain't it?"
"Yes, sir," Dick called out over his shoulder. "Two minutes'll do it.
Then we cross the floor of the hall, reach the foot of one of the
towers, and then, by jingo, the business begins with a vengeance."
"Then on we go. When we reach the tower, let Alec help the Colonel carry
our wounded friend to safety. You and I, Dick, 'll do our best to teach
these rascals a lesson. Ah! That's a sentry."
Well, it was a sentry at the moment the Major was speaking, for a ragged
Turk emerged from the entrance to the mosque and stared in amazement at
the scene before him. It filled him with perplexity to observe a Turkish
officer racing in his direction, followed by a strange quartet, one of
whom was carried on the shoulders of a comrade, while in rear, and
getting rapidly closer came a mob of his own fellows, led again by an
officer whose head was swathed in soiled bandages. However, he was as
sharp as others of his country and smelling a rat immediately swung his
rifle up to his shoulder and covered the dashing Dick. But his finger
never quite reached the sights. Indeed, as we have intimated, he was a
sentry at the moment the Major called to our hero. The next he was
merely a bundled-up and extremely astonished human object. For Dick
planted a seaman's blow on the end of his prominent nose, a blow that
brought a thousand stars to the eyes of this sluggish Turk, and toppled
him backward in masterly fashion.
"One for his boko!" shouted the incorrigible Dick. "Number two does for
his rifle. Ah! The pouch of cartridges might be useful. Here we are.
I've got 'em both. Now, we make for the tower--quite close and handy."
It was a little more than ten yards across the floor of the hall, and
long before the followers had reached the door of the mosque the Colonel
had entered the narrow door that led to the steep steps ascending to the
summit of the tower. Alec followed instantly, and together the two bore
the now almost unconscious Commander upward. Dick slung his borrowed
rifle over his shoulder, strapped the cartridge belt about him and
leaned against the wall mopping his forehead. As for the Major, he blew
his nose loudly, brushed some dust from his boots with an impatient
movement, and then turned smiling towards his companion.
"Congratulations once more," he said in the complimentary tones he would
have used in a drawing-room. "And next, please?"
Dick flushed a rosy red, and then spoke out promptly.
"Still to lead, sir?" he asked.
"Of course, lad! Why not? Haven't you done well for us? Besides, this is
entirely a naval expedition, while for the moment I am merely a
civilian."
"Then, now that we've given Alec and the Colonel a little start we had
better retire up the steps. Those fellows could rush us here. But higher
up it wouldn't be so easy. That right, sir?"
"Certainly; up we go--ah! The steps curl round and round a central
pillar. That's really excellent. You go ahead, Dick; I'll follow. The
higher we can get the better, I think, for then we string these men out
so that the front of the line is a good distance from those who follow.
Listen!"
They stood still for one brief moment, and listened to the mob of Turks
enter the mosque. Scurrying steps could be heard on the hard pavement,
while for the most part the men themselves were silent. A minute later,
however, while Dick and his friend were still ascending, a shout came
rolling up the narrow, curling stairway.
"This way, comrades," they heard. "This way! The sentry at the door
tells us that they rushed across to this tower and entered. Now,
friends, we have them safely. Let us consider our movements."
There came the confused sound of men discussing some matter volubly.
Occasionally one of the Turks would raise his voice above the others,
then there was silence.
"Wait! Don't move for a moment," said the Major. "Now, what's
happening?" He placed his ear to the central column which bore this
curling flight of steps and stood motionless for some few seconds.
"Coming up to us as quietly as they can," he said softly. "The time for
giving them that lesson or for going under is coming. Do we stay here,
or climb higher?"
"Higher, sir, I think. It's too dark to see easily here, but there's a
window up above us. If we get a little higher than that, we shall be in
the dusk and see these beggars nicely. I'll call to them when they come
in sight and warn 'em."
It was not a time for words nor for a discussion, and promptly the two
climbed higher, halting when they were some six feet above a small,
unglazed opening, which admitted light and air to the stairs. Here they
were joined a moment later by the Colonel.
"Came back to join in this little picnic," he whispered. "We left the
Commander on a wide balcony up there, from which one gets a really
magnificent view of this awful city, and even of the lines of the
besiegers and the Turkish forts and trenches surrounding the place. The
minaret runs up a great deal higher, and there is a stairway. But the
balcony is good enough for us, and if we are driven there we can hold
the entrance to it. Well, now, how does the matter go?"
He was as cheery and as cool as if he were at home in his own rooms in
London. That is, he was calm and by no means ruffled at the thought of
the danger with which the little party was confronted. But as to being
actually cool, one could hardly expect that after his recent exertions.
The perspiration was streaming from his forehead, though he mopped his
brow time and again, and still panted heavily.
"Hard work clambering two hundred steps with a heavy man on your back,"
he laughed. "And these naval johnnies are heavy, I can tell you. Well?
How do we stand?"
The Major lifted a warning finger to his lips. "Gently does it, Steven,"
he said. "They're coming. Dick here will call to them and give the
rascals a warning when the first gets in sight. But I don't fancy
that'll stop 'em. Let's be ready for a turn up."
"S-sh! There's the leader."
The Colonel hardly whispered the words. He was pointing down the curling
stairway, and there, some ten feet below the open window, coming into
the flood of light which poured in through that aperture, was a crafty,
crawling figure, a man clambering up the stairs on hands and knees, a
young man gripping a revolver in one of his hands and causing the barrel
of the weapon to clink on the stones each time he put that particular
hand down.
"Now," whispered the Major.
"Halt!" called Dick, sternly, in the Turkish tongue. "You who follow us,
halt now, or take the consequences, and listen well to these words. We
are not spies. We are Englishmen, friends of the Turkish nation."
For some few seconds there was silence, a deathly silence, broken,
however, by the deep breathing of the Colonel, and by the deeper gasps
for breath of many of the mob clambering upward. Then came the clink of
that revolver barrel, a hoarse oath from the Turkish officer bearing it,
for the young officer with whom Dick had collided still led this band of
ragamuffins, and later a swelling shout of rage from the stairway,
pouring from the throats of furious men perched at various elevations.
An instant later the officer stood upright, his weapon flashed, while a
bullet struck the curving wall just beside the Colonel, and went
ricochetting off it till it thudded and stopped against one of the
steps.
"Good! That at any rate tells us what to expect," said the Major grimly.
"Stand back, Colonel, and you too, Dick. No use all three of us chancing
a bullet. It's lucky, too, that this stairway curves always to the
right, for that lets one shoot without peering round. A right-handed man
coming up will be bothered. Yes, I thought so."
Peering round the curving central pillar which bore the steps he caught
sight of the officer's head, for he and Dick and the Colonel had started
backwards after that first shot. The man's body then came into full
view, and lastly his right arm, with his weapon pointed upward.
Instantly the Major's weapon cracked, while the Turk dropped his
revolver with a howl.
"Very nice shooting," reflected the Colonel. "Back of the hand, I think,
Major. It'll make him more cautious."
Or more furious. The latter seemed to be the case, for that howl of pain
was followed by a bellow and by a hoarse roar of anger and excitement
from below. A hundred feet then shuffled on the various steps, while the
officer, his eyes blazing with anger, launched himself upward. But the
revolver was no longer in his wounded hand, a fact which the Major
noticed with wonderful sharpness. Indeed, his own movements showed
within the minute that he was fully awake, and ready for an emergency.
They saw him step hastily downward and throw his shoulders backward. And
then out shot one of his fists, repeating the blow which Dick had
delivered to this pugnacious individual on the previous night. And now,
as before, it was equally effective, for the officer shot backward as if
struck by a hammer, and, cannoning into the man behind, upset him also.
In fact, half a dozen of the mob were thrown down by the Major's sudden
action, their cries and shouts deafening Dick and the others. The noise
which followed was positively terrifying, for fifty furious Turks
shouted and screamed their loudest, while not a few let off their
weapons careless of the consequences. As for the head of this attacking
force, relieved now of its leading spirit--for the officer lay stunned
upon the stairway, and would have rolled downward but for the press
about him--it showed wonderful dash and determination. Fanaticism and
hate had stirred these men to fury, and without a pause they rushed up
the stairs, some with bayonets thrusting forwards, others heralding
their approach with rifle bullets. It was clear, in fact, that they
would quickly smash their way through all obstacles, and though the
Major and Dick and the Colonel in turn brought down a man with their
weapons, thus delaying the others, and for some few minutes faced the
attackers, discretion bade them retire towards the gallery.
"There's a door there that we can shut and bolt and bar outside," cried
the Colonel. "It'll be the last stage in this business, but safer and
better than stairs fighting. Now, up you go."
"After you, sir," said Dick, touching his cap in nautical fashion.
"Eh? After me, why?" began the Colonel. Then he laughed and smacked the
midshipman gaily on the shoulder. "Sinking ship, eh?" he grinned.
"Never! But the skipper leaves last, that's it, my lad. Like your grit
immensely, that I do. Well, Major, do you or do I lead the retreat?"
A sharp crack came from that officer's weapon. He jerked his head
quickly, leaned forward, and again pulled his trigger. "You," he said at
length. "I'm busy; in a moment I'll follow. Dick, look out for these
beggars, and run up immediately after me."
"Right, sir! Certainly, sir!" came from the youthful Dicky.
"Then off we go." The Colonel left his friends guarding the stairs and
ran up three at a time. Then the Major followed, while Dick waited
coolly to convey to a charging Turkish fanatic the fact that there was
danger above, and then went scampering after the others.
"Here he is. In you come, my boy. Now, bang the door; that's got it!"
The Colonel threw the massive door at the top of the steps against its
supporting frame and leaned against it, while the Major slipped the
bolts into position. Then, gasping after their exertions, they turned to
observe Alec and the Commander. Imagine their amazement at seeing the
former stripped to his vest, and frantically waving his shirt over the
stone balustrade of the gallery. His face was purple with excitement,
his eyes were blazing, while he shouted as if he had suddenly gone
crazy. And then, while the two more sedate officers watched him in
amazement. Dick began of a sudden to copy his antics. He danced across
the gallery; he shouted and waved his hands and threw his cap upward.
"Mad! Gone suddenly crazy! What on earth has happened to them?" demanded
the Major anxiously.
Then Dick swung round upon him and the Colonel, subdued his own
excitement with a violent effort, and, drawing himself upright, saluted
briskly.
"Airship in sight, sir," he said. "Alec reports that he's called 'em up
with his signals, and--and they'll be here in a jiffy."