“Why do you say that, Amos?” demanded Jack, quickly.
“Oh! because our reinforcements have arrived,” replied the other,
exultantly. “Look further down the hill and you’ll see them leaping
forward like tigers. They act as if wild to get in the scrap; and
when they do it’s all over with Mr. Turk on this day. They have made
up their minds to take those trenches and they’ve just got to do it,
that’s all.”
Jack had felt all the thrills that such a picture is apt to bring in
its train when the heart beats in full sympathy for one or the other of
the combatants. He had tried his best to keep from taking sides, but
found it impossible, when he believed that the principles for which the
Allies were fighting were the same as those of the big republic across
the sea.
It was easily possible for him to see the new line of the Kangaroos
bounding impetuously up the side of the slope; binoculars were not
needed to disclose their furious rush. The sunlight gleaming on their
set bayonets caused them to glitter as though set with diamonds; but,
alas! they would not always remain so bright.
Jack watched with his heart beating much faster than its wont. He
wondered if, when those new men reached the fighting line, they would
carry all before them. The loud cries of Amos broke in upon his
figuring.
“I can see German officers up there, Jack, as sure as anything!” he
exclaimed. “Oh! I know them from their uniforms, and the way they act.
They are even beating some of the poor Turks to make them fight harder.
Oh! what d’ye think, one of them actually shot a fellow who may have
been running away. That shows the Germans are the masters here.”
Jack was glad he had not seen what his chum was describing so vividly.
There were enough terrible things to be discovered without that.
By now the newcomers had struck the line. Their rush was fully as
impetuous as any football squad had ever used to carry things before
it. Indeed, doubtless many of those fighters from the other side of the
world were used to the tactics of the gridiron, and could apply their
knowledge of formations to good advantage, even on the field of battle.
The influence of the supporting column was immediately felt. Where the
Kangaroos had begun to waver their line was stiffened. Men who had felt
themselves almost at the point of succumbing received a new stimulus,
and with fresh shouts once more threw themselves upon the staggering
foe.
The coming of the lone aeroplane had in a measure discounted the
addition to the ranks of the Turks. They evidently knew they could
expect no other reinforcements, and the fact gave them the sensation of
having to face defeat.
More furiously than ever did the Allies charge them. They would not be
denied the victory they could now see looming up close at hand.
“Jack, they’re giving way, I do believe!” shouted Amos.
“Do you mean the Turks?” asked the other.
“Sure I do. You don’t think for a minute I hope that those brave
Australians would fall back as long as one of them could stand. Yes,
there goes a bunch of the enemy. They bowled one of those German
officers off his feet when he tried to stop them. I hope he’s captured,
that’s what I do. And, Jack, all along the line there’s a sign of
giving way. Hurrah! I really believe the game is won!”
“Hold on, don’t shout too soon, Amos,” warned the more cautious Jack,
though for that matter he himself had hard work to hold in. “They may
counter-attack, you know. When you hear the Kangaroos yelling like mad
you may believe the victory is safe, but not yet, not yet.”
Nevertheless hardly a minute more passed than Jack himself was obliged
to admit that it looked as though others besides Amos believed the end
of the fierce engagement had come; for loud and victorious whoops
reached their ears from all along the line.
These were echoed back by those who, from one cause or another, had
been kept in camp, and not permitted to assist in cleaning out the
enemy trenches. Amos raised his strong young voice, and gave numerous
examples of what he could do in the way of adding to the din.
Outside of a football field after a close and exciting game Jack
believed he had never before heard such a racket. The brave fellows up
on the hill, who had thrown the Turks out of their trenches by bayonet
thrusts, and close in-and-out fighting, waved their hats, and let their
lungs have full play.
“Why, would you believe it, Jack!” cried Amos, when he finally stopped
his loud cheering and became rational again, “I can see many of the
wounded fellows on the ground trying to wave their hats, and I guess
they’re yelling too. But not all of the down-and-outs are doing it, I’m
sorry to say. Lots of them lie there as still as anything; and I’m
afraid the taking of the trenches has cost a stiff price.”
Jack sighed.
“That’s always the case, Amos,” he went on to say. “You must be willing
to pay the toll if you want anything worth while. And the better the
prize is the greater the price. When those chaps from Australia want
anything they will never stop till they get it, as long as there are
any of them left.”
It could now be seen that those above were not stopping to rejoice over
their victory. They knew the Turks were likely to come back as soon as
they could meet with reinforcements, and some other German officers
again took charge.
The rapid-fire guns that had been captured with the trenches were
immediately turned, and placed so as to pour a hail of missiles
on their late owners should the battle be renewed. Others of the
same species were to be seen being taken up the hill, having been
kept somewhere below in order to cover the retreat in case such a
catastrophe befell the Allies.
“It was all splendidly planned, Jack,” said Amos. “I give the Colonel
credit for having a long head. Still, the result might not have come
just as easily as it did were it not for Frank--well, whoever the brave
pilot of that aeroplane may turn out to be.”
“He certainly did help a whole lot,” admitted Jack. “Let’s hope he
proves to be your brother; also that he settles down on Gallipoli
tonight instead of flying across to that Greek island where the rest of
the pilots have their headquarters.”
“Oh! I guess he will stick here,” Amos hastened to say, as though the
wish were father to the thought. “Especially after he’s been able to do
such great stunts for the Kangaroos.”
“I suppose now they will be pushing their line further, if they can
only hold those trenches up on the hill,” Jack suggested.
“And so this is going to be the way the peninsula will be won in the
end, if it ever is won?” Amos questioned, as though he found it hard
work to believe all those massive battleships, capable of throwing
tons and tons of mighty shells, were unable to force a passage through
the Dardanelles.
“That has to be left to the future to decide,” Jack told him. “There’s
a big ‘if’ connected with everything undertaken these days. You can’t
tell what a week will bring on, with these Balkan States hanging in
the balance. If they could only settle their differences, and join the
Allies, it would mean the beginning of the end.”
“Someone is calling to us, Jack, and I believe they mean that lunch is
all ready to serve. Come to think of it, I’m really hungry! Suppose we
walk over and sit down. I wonder how those tired chaps up there will
get anything to eat.”
“I’m thinking of something else, Amos,” ventured the other, seriously.
“We must get through with our bite as soon as we can for it strikes me
two husky fellows like ourselves ought to make themselves useful as
well as ornamental in such a crisis as this.”
“Do you mean we can help carry some of the wounded down where they can
be looked after in the temporary field hospital?” asked Amos, showing
decided interest in the matter.
“That’s about the size of it,” Jack told him.
The guess Amos made concerning the meaning of the call turned out to be
correct. Evidently the Colonel had left strict instructions looking to
the comfort of his young guests while he was away, and the cook had not
forgotten them.
Both of the boys pitched in with avidity. The food was good, and they
had not lost their appetites in spite of all the sensations that had
come so near overwhelming them during the course of the last hour.
They wasted no time in useless conversation, for both boys realized
that with so much suffering on the slope above they ought to be doing
what they could to assist those who had been so kind.
No sooner was the hurried meal finished than they started off. No one
questioned or ventured to detain them; in fact every man seemed to be
as busy as the proverbial bee about that time. The boys met processions
coming down the hill bearing the wounded on stretchers, some of them
improvised since the force had managed to effect a landing on the
hostile shore.
Most of these poor fellows were bearing up bravely; they even tried
to wave a hand when they met any comrade, and through the blood marks
of their pale faces a wan, forced smile would appear, as though the
indomitable nature refused to cringe even when death was so very near.
Others, more desperately hurt, groaned dismally, though perhaps they
did not themselves know it.
Finding a stretcher that had not been taken, Jack and his chum pushed
resolutely on up the hill. There was danger that at any moment the
Turks, returning, might let loose a rain of fire from new positions;
but even this possibility failed to deter the two American boys when
they saw their duty before them.
When a short time later they arrived at the scene of the dreadful
carnage their hearts felt sick within them, for after all they were
only boys, and not accustomed to such dreadful surroundings.
Nevertheless, if their faces did seem white, their teeth were grimly
set, and it was evident they did not mean to allow any squeamishness to
prevent them from accomplishing the Samaritan work they had set out to
perform.
“Here’s a poor fellow waiting to be looked after,” said Amos, as they
glanced about them for some moving figure whom they could assist.
The soldier was badly hurt in the leg. He had managed to tie his red
bandana handkerchief tightly around the limb to prevent his bleeding to
death. Evidently he must have refused to let them carry him down to the
hospital when others were in greater need of surgical attendance than
he.
The boys heard him start to say something to that effect as they came
up. Jack, however, saw that the man was really growing weak, and was
carrying his splendid self denial to an extreme point that might bring
about his collapse.
“We’re going to carry you down, my friend, no matter what you say,” he
told the gallant Kangaroo.
Accordingly they placed him on the litter as easily as possible, and
after that started down the slope. On the way, whom should they meet
but the Colonel himself! He must have been in the thick of the battle
for he had one arm tied up, and his uniform showed several rents as
though made by vicious bayonet thrusts. At sight of the two American
boys and their burden the doughty officer smiled affably.
[Illustration: On the way, whom should they meet but the Colonel
himself!--_Page 233_]
“Good for you, my boys!” he exclaimed. “It is a pleasure to be
entertaining guests who believe in lending a helping hand. We need all
the assistance we can get, for we paid a terrible price to gain the
victory. But the trenches are ours, and all the Turks and Germans on
Gallipoli never can throw us out of them again. I will see you before
night comes; there is too much to be looked after just now to give a
thought to your affairs. Thank you again a thousand times, boys!”
He hurried away up the hill, evidently to look after the placing of his
men, as well as the quick-firers upon which they must depend to repel
any new assault on the part of the furious enemy.
When the boys reached the field hospital, which had been established
under the bluff where no Turkish guns could drop missiles upon the
wounded despite the Red Cross flag, they found it a busy place indeed.
Scores of injured had already been brought in, and the few surgeons
with their assistants were hurrying from one case to another. They
themselves would be ready to drop when the last patient had received
proper attention.
The boys did not linger, it may be taken for granted. They had no
desire to look upon the accumulated suffering to be found there under
the bluff on that warm day. No doubt as long as the sun remained above
the horizon plenty of work would be found for those who were not needed
to man the advanced line. Even after all the injured had been taken
care of the dead must be buried, both friend and foe alike, for the
protection of the living.
After wandering around for a short time above, and not seeming to find
a wounded Territorial, Jack ventured to make a proposition.
“Here’s a poor Turk who seems to be in a bad way,” he said. “I’m going
to give him a drink of cold water, and then we’ll get him on our
stretcher.”
Amos looked curiously at his chum, but almost immediately cried:
“You’re right there, Jack; they can feel their injuries just as much as
the rest. It was only proper that the boys should take care of their
own first; but depend on it they’ve got too big hearts to let any enemy
lie here in this hot sun and want for a drink of water. There, you can
see they are carrying a Turk down on that stretcher.”
Just then Jack gave vent to a cry that betokened some new thrill, and
Amos turned quickly to see if the enemy had come in sight again, bent
on a fresh attack.
“Do you see that dead man lying there on his face, Amos?” Jack
demanded, pointing as he spoke. “Look closer and you’ll see he is no
Turk but one of those arbitrary German officers we saw trying to force
the men to fight.”
“I see what you mean, Jack. He didn’t die from a Territorial’s blow.
There is a bayonet through his body, a Turkish sword bayonet, and it
came from behind him.”
“Yes,” said Jack with a shudder, “one of the Turks he may have struck
with the flat of his sword repaid the blow. But let us go on and get
this man down to the emergency hospital. Then we will come up again,
for there are many more Turkish wounded needing attention.”
So they worked diligently on, plodding back and forth, and during that
warm afternoon many a feverish Turk called down the blessings of Allah
upon the heads of the two friendly American boys who gave him cold
water to freshen his parched throat, and then bore him to where his
injuries might be attended to.