A Bid for Freedom
"By Jove, Farnworth, I little thought that I should have to undergo the
humiliation of wearing this shameful uniform!" exclaimed Dick, as,
attired in the tunic, greatcoat, trousers, and long boots of the German
Major, he disdainfully shook himself. Circumstances compelled him to
buckle on the sword, but the binoculars he, somewhat rashly, discarded
as an encumbrance. "Nearly ready? Farnworth, I'm not paying you a
compliment when I say you look a proper swaggering Prussian officer of
the von Forstner type with that insipid little moustache of yours.
It's my beard that worries me. Hello! Good business! Here's a pair
of pocket scissors in this rascal's tunic. You might clip off my
ragged whiskers as close as you possibly can--leave the moustache.
Hurry for all you're worth, for time's precious!"
The midshipman set to work with a will to remove the six weeks' growth
of beard from his superior officer's face, for during the period of
incarceration they had been unable to shave.
Farnworth stood back a pace and surveyed his handiwork in the
upslanting rays of the lamp set upon the floor.
"Oh, my maiden aunt, sir!" ejaculated Farnworth. "You look absolutely
'It'--von Kluck and von Hindenburg rolled into one."
The Sub smiled at the way in which the midshipman had "got his own
back".
"Let's hope so for the next few hours," he remarked. "Now, to prevent
mistakes, we'll gag and lash up these two minions of the Kaiser. Take
their handkerchiefs and tear them in halves. That's right; now set our
old friend Ahmed up, while I prop the fat subaltern against him. When
our resources are limited we must needs go to work methodically and
sparingly."
The two unconscious men were propped up back to back. The right arm of
the Major was lashed to the left arm of the subaltern just above the
elbows, and the former's left to the right arm of the junior officer.
The halves of the second handkerchief were used to gag the senseless
men.
"How about their legs, sir?" asked Farnworth.
"We'll pass a strip round them. That old belt which for the last six
weeks has been an inferior substitute for my braces will do. That's
done it."
The two Germans were now lying full length on the ground back to back.
To all appearances they were securely trussed up, but even then the
midshipman was not satisfied.
"I've my old belt," he announced. "Couldn't we trice their feet up and
make them to that window-bar? It would puzzle the world's champion
contortionist to wriggle free then, I fancy."
"Very good," assented Dick. "We'll heave together. My word, they are
a weight!"
The sill of the long, narrow window was within eighteen inches of the
ground, while the whole length of the aperture was furnished with three
vertical iron bars, additionally secured at mid-length by a short
cross-bar.
Passing the second belt between the turns round the ankles of the two
Germans, Farnworth tied the other end to the lowermost part of the
middle bar by means of a clove-hitch. It was thus impossible for the
bound and gagged men to regain their feet without assistance.
"Now we'll chance our luck," said Dick. "When we cross the courtyard
I'll jabber to you in German, and you'll reply 'Ja, ja!' to everything
I say. Ten to one the Turks won't twig my rotten rendering of this
tongue-twisting jargon, but that won't matter. If we spoke English
they might smell a rat, for a good many Turks have a smattering of it.
By the by, I'll take charge of that document which our old friend asked
us to sign. I'm curious to know what it all means."
Unlocking the door, Dick and the midshipman unhesitatingly stepped out
into the corridor. The passage was deserted. Relocking the door and
thrusting the key into the pocket of his greatcoat, the Sub,
accompanied by his companion, walked noisily along the corridor,
allowing his sword to clank loudly upon the stones. This style of
"sabre-rattling" he knew from observation to be one of the chief
characteristics of the German officer in the Ottoman service.
After traversing about twenty yards the two officers came to a broader
passage running at right angles to the former. The turning to the
right, Dick knew, led to the courtyard. It was dimly lighted. Nearly
a score of Turkish soldiers were squatting Oriental fashion on the
stones, some smoking, most of them engaged in mending clothes, and all
were talking rapidly.
Through the crush Crosthwaite and Farnworth made their way, the Turks
backing against the wall in obvious fear of their supposed taskmasters.
At the entrance stood a soldier on guard. Upon hearing the officers
approach, he drew himself up and saluted. Not for one moment did he
show any signs of suspicion, a circumstance that gave Dick additional
confidence. His one dread was that they might meet with some of the
German officers, and be held up by some trivial question in an attempt
at conversation.
Fortunately the square was practically deserted. Half a dozen
artillerymen bent double under loads of blankets and accoutrements were
proceeding in single file from one store to another, while on the flat
roof of one side of the barrack buildings stood a sentry in charge of
the pair of anti-aircraft guns, Away to the right a search-light was
slowly playing upon the waters of the Dardanelles, while the sky was
illuminated by the reflected glare of dozens of other search-lights
upon the sides of The Narrows.
Dick led the way to a large stone arch, which, he knew, communicated
with the open country, for through it the battery of field-artillery
had departed and returned. The wall on either side was protected by a
thick wall of sand-bags, evidently placed there as the result of bitter
experience, when the British and French 12-inch shells came falling
obliquely from the sky.
The archway was nearly twenty paces in length. About midway, and on
opposite sides, were small doors. They were open, and disclosed long
galleries lighted by lanterns of a similar type to those used in
magazines on board ship in pre-electricity days. Along the side
passage ran a pair of narrow-gauge rails, while just within one of the
doors stood a couple of trucks, each carrying a large locomotive
torpedo fitted with a war-head.
Dick came to an abrupt halt. Even in the midst of his bid for freedom
his professional instinct would not let the opportunity pass. These
sinister weapons, he knew, could not be for use on board a ship, since
there was no accommodation for vessels alongside the water-front of
Fort Medjidieh. Besides, warships taking torpedoes on board would most
certainly do so in places remote from the range of British guns--most
probably at Constantinople or Skutari.
They were powerful weapons, longer and of greater diameter than the
British Whiteheads, while from the German characters engraved on parts
of the mechanism the Sub concluded that they must be the formidable
Schwartz-Kopff torpedoes. Moreover, they were intended to be fired
from shore stations. Carefully screened from observation,
torpedo-tubes had been placed in position, so that a direct hit at any
hostile warship attempting to force The Narrows was almost a certainty.
The Sub would dearly have liked to follow the narrow-gauge line of
rails, but the risk was too great. No doubt he would be able to
discover the exact locality of the firing-station, but realizing it
would serve no useful purpose if he did so and was caught in the act,
he resumed his way through the main archway.
The doors were closed and barred by massive beams, but a wicket
attracted his attention. Somewhat dubious as to what would be awaiting
him on the other side, Dick cautiously shot the bolt and pushed open
the means of exit.
It was not perhaps in keeping with his role as a Prussian officer to
open a door cautiously, but well it was that he did so. Ten feet from
the door was a grey-painted sentry-box, in which stood a
ferocious-looking Bashi Bazouk, his shawl simply bristling with
weapons. Fortunately his face was turned away from the wicket-gate,
and the noise it made was not sufficient to attract his attention.
But it was not the Turkish irregular that caused Dick's heart to give a
violent thump in spite of his usually cast-iron nerves. A little
farther away a regiment of infantry was drawn up in quarter-column,
while in front, and almost at the angle nearest the British officers,
were seven or eight Germans, both of the line and of the artillery, all
engaged in studying by the aid of a lantern a map which had been spread
upon the ground.
"Where's von Eitelheimer?" demanded one in the uniform of a colonel.
"He ought to be here."
"He and Lieutenant Schwalbe went to see the two cursed Englishmen, Herr
Colonel," replied a German sergeant-major. "The Major said it was most
important to get the prisoners' signatures before the regiment marches."
"Quite right," assented the Colonel. "Nevertheless he ought to be here
before this. Hurry, Schneider, and tell Major von Eitelheimer that----"
Dick waited to hear no more. Softly closing the door, he gripped
Farnworth by the arm and hurried him back under the archway until they
reached the transverse passage.
"We've precious little time," he explained hurriedly, at the same time
lowering his voice to a whisper. "They're sending a fellow to look for
our pal Ahmed and the fat subaltern. We'll risk it and try this way."
The subsidiary passage ran parallel to the eastern face of the
fortress. At intervals there were large recesses converted into
armoured casemates, each containing a 9-inch Krupp gun of a pattern of
the early 'nineties. Since the ordnance on this side was intended
solely for defence against a land attack, the guns were not so
formidable as those enfilading the Dardanelles, yet the Sub realized
that Fort Medjidieh would be a hard nut to crack if invested by an
expeditionary force unprovided with the heaviest siege artillery.
At each casemate a line branched off from the main narrow-gauge track,
showing that the tramway was originally intended to supply the heavy
guns with ammunition. Making use of the rails for transporting
torpedoes was the result of recent considerations.
Save for a few Turkish artillerymen who were lolling about, and who
promptly made themselves scarce when they saw the German uniforms
approaching, the gallery was deserted. Without actually meeting
anyone, Dick and his companion reached the bend of the passage
immediately under the south-eastern angle of the fortress.
Overhead the sounds of bustle and activity could be faintly heard
through the massive steel armour-plate, additionally protected by a
thick bank of earth faced with sand-bags. The purr of electric dynamos
betokened the fact that the seaward search-lights were in full
operation. Here the tramway dipped abruptly, egress being prevented by
a heavy steel sliding-door.
"Rotten luck!" exclaimed Dick in a whisper. "Let's try that port-hole
and see how the land lies."
The two officers made their way between the sliding carriage of the
huge Krupp gun and the armoured wall of the casemate. There was just
room enough between the chase of the weapon and the side of the
embrasure for the Sub to wriggle. The walls here were not less than
fifteen feet in thickness, and since the gun was "run in" there was
enough space between the muzzle and the sill of the embrasure for both
officers to observe the scene that lay before them.
Away on their right front was exposed a broad sweep of the Dardanelles,
the swiftly-flowing water gleaming like burnished silver in the complex
rays of the search-light. Almost immediately opposite were the
outlines of Fort Kilid Bahr, backed by rugged hills towering to a
height of nearly seven hundred feet.
Southward Fort Chanak reared its grim pile, from which search-lights
innumerable swept sea, land, and sky, while fifteen or twenty miles to
the southwest the sky was agleam with the flashes of heavy guns,
showing that Sedd-ul-Bahr and Kum Kale were exchanging a vigorous
cannonade with the ships of the Allied fleets.
Here it was that Dick made an important discovery. Fort Medjidieh was
apparently not to be held in the event of a bombardment. It was to be
used as a decoy to attract the British and French fire, while at a
distance of not less than four hundred yards from the deep moat, rows
and rows of deep, narrow, and zigzagged trenches were completed or in
the act of being constructed.
Hundreds of Turks were busy, working by lantern-light, in digging
themselves in, while the whole system of earthworks literally bristled
with machine-guns. At the back of each trench, Dick noticed, were
light canvas screens stretched upon wooden frames, and painted a
similar colour to that of the surrounding soil. These screens were
ready to be drawn across the trenches on the approach of hostile
air-craft, In order that the observers would be unable to locate the
position of the defences.
At frequent intervals between the trenches, concrete emplacements for
heavy field-guns had been constructed, their fronts and sides being
well protected by sand-bags hidden by coarse grass and thorn-bushes.
Already a dozen huge guns were in position, while others were being
hauled up by traction-engines to within a few feet of the site, whence
they were dragged on to the platforms by dint of abundance of manual
labour.
These, apparently, were the reserve line of defence, for farther afield
a myriad of men were working like ants on a disturbed ant-heap; but the
darkness and the increased distance prevented Dick from coming to any
definite conclusion as to the nature of their toil. Dearly would he
have liked to have had his binoculars, and he regretted the hasty
decision that led to the discarding of those belonging to Major von
Eitelheimer.
Almost beneath the place where he crouched, and between the moat and
the sea-front, was a stretch of rocky ground averaging a hundred yards
in width. Here the narrow-gauge line reappeared. With methodical
craftiness the Turks had refrained from carrying the line across the
moat, where it would be exposed to shell-fire. Instead, they had gone
to the extreme pains of driving a tunnel underneath the deep ditch, so
that the means of transporting the torpedoes to their firing-station
were entirely concealed and protected.
Almost at the water's edge were two torpedo-tubes, around which a party
of officers and men in German naval uniforms were busily engaged in
making some adjustment to the intricate mechanism.
"Men from the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_, by Jove!" muttered Dick.
"Wouldn't I like to send a shot through the war-head of that 'tinfish'!
It would tickle those fellows a bit. I've half a mind to try."
"What's the move, sir?" whispered the midshipman, seeing his superior
officer place his hand on his revolver holster.
Fortunately the Sub's calmer councils prevailed. He realized upon
second thoughts that with a weapon to which he was not accustomed there
was a good chance of a miss. It would be of more service to the
British naval and military authorities to be informed of all the
preparations for defence that the officers had observed, rather than
attempting to destroy at long odds a couple of torpedo-tubes and the
torpedo gunners.
It was fairly safe to assume that these tubes had only recently been
placed in position. For one reason, the concrete platforms looked
fairly new; for another, Dick was certain that the torpedoes that had
been fired at the _Calder_ during her observation-dash up The Narrows
had not been discharged from that position. It showed that, however
gallant the dash had been, it was useless unless contingent measures
were immediately forthcoming before the Turks could erect new guns and
torpedo-firing stations.
All these observations Dick and his companion made with great rapidity.
A naval training teaches a man to observe and act promptly. Every
minute was precious, for by this time the German sergeant-major might
have made the discovery of his two unconscious officers.
As a matter of fact, the fellow had gone straight to the room in which
"the cursed Englishmen" were supposed to be detained, but finding the
door locked, he concluded that Major von Eitelheimer and
Second-lieutenant Schwalbe had finished their business with the
prisoners, and had gone to their quarters before proceeding on parade.
"We'll have to get clear of this, Farnworth," declared Dick. "Are you
game for a twenty-foot drop? It'll mean neck or nothing."
"Or perhaps a broken ankle, sir," added the midshipman. "I saw a pole
with a hook at one end a little way along the gallery. I'll get it."
Farnworth backed through the embrasure and hurried off. Without
arousing any suspicion, for the Turkish artillerymen still kept out of
sight of the supposed German officers, he removed the pole from its
slings. It was about fifteen or eighteen feet in length, and, as the
midshipman had stated, was provided with a large steel hook.
With very little difficulty he passed it, hook end inwards, to the Sub,
who recognized it as being part of the equipment of Turkish
fire-brigades. He had seen men using this device on a previous visit
to the Near East, when a disastrous fire broke out in the Galata
district of the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Whenever a fire showed
signs of getting beyond the control of the firemen with their primitive
appliances, these poles were employed to pull down adjacent houses and
thus limit the conflagration to a certain area.
"Spiffing!" declared Dick. "Now down you shin, while I keep the hook
from slipping."
Extreme caution was necessary, since, twenty feet above them, a pair of
search-lights were in full operation. These were a blessing in
disguise, for the contrast threw the outer face of the wall and the
bottom of the ditch, into deep shadow, although occasionally the
projectors were trained so low that the beams played upon the steep
slope of the opposite side of the moat.
Allowing Farnworth sufficient time to descend, the Sub agilely
followed, notwithstanding the fact that he was encumbered with the
heavy German overcoat.
"What shall we do with this, sir?" whispered the midshipman, giving the
pole a slight shake.
"We'll have to use it to get out of the moat," replied Dick. "Bear
away a little to the right. We stand a better chance of dodging that
infernal search-light. I fancy even our borrowed uniforms would not
allay suspicion if the Turks spotted us shinning up the wall. Steady!
'Ware barbed wire."
The two officers pulled up only just in time to escape the sharp points
of a triple row of entanglements, that in the darkness had escaped
their notice. Well it was that they had not attempted to leap from the
embrasure, otherwise the momentum would have carried them headlong into
the veritable trap.
By mutual aid the two comrades succeeded in crawling through the wire.
The presence of the entanglements was a warning, and they proceeded
with even greater caution.
A couple of yards beyond this barrier Dick's ankle came in contact with
another wire. It was barbless.
"What luck!" muttered the Sub. "If the current had been switched on it
would have been all up," for the copper tape was intended to conduct an
electric current of sufficient voltage to destroy any living thing that
came in contact with it.
Nevertheless they took precautions. It would never do to risk contact
with another wire in case it might be charged; so unbuckling his
scabbard, which being painted a dull grey did not reflect the light, he
wrapped around it several folds of a silk handkerchief which had
formerly belonged to Major von Eitelheimer. Holding the insulated
scabbard in front of him, Dick proceeded towards the remote face of the
ditch, Farnworth treading in his footsteps.
"Lie down," whispered the Sub hoarsely.
Both officers did so, as a giant beam swinging overhead gradually
descended till the lower arc struck half-way down the wall against
which the fugitives were lying. Had the fugitives attempted to climb a
minute earlier, they would have been "picked up" by the dazzling rays.
Suddenly the sharp rattle of musketry, punctuated by the deeper
bark-bark of quick-firers, came from the eastern part of Fort
Medjidieh. Up swung the troublesome beam until it pointed within ten
degrees of the vertical. Other search-lights were likewise trained
skywards.
A thousand feet or more in the air glided seven water-planes, looking
no bigger than swallows. Detected by the alert Turks, they were
subjected to a heavy fire. Shells seemed to burst perilously close,
yet serenely they pursued their course at regular intervals like a
flight of wood-pigeons.
An appalling crash, against which the noise of the fusillade paled into
insignificance, told that a bomb dropped from the leading sea-plane had
landed almost in the centre of the fort. Although, from where they
lay, the British officers could form no accurate idea of where it fell,
they knew that the powerful missile had pitched not far from the
quarters they had involuntarily occupied only a short while ago.
"Blest if I want to be sky-highed by our own sea-planes!" declared
Dick. "Let's make a bolt for it."
Profiting by the confusion caused by the fall of the bomb, and by the
fact that the attention of the Turkish search-light was directed
skywards, the two fugitives set the pole in position, engaging the hook
in the coping-stone of the wall.
Hand over hand Farnworth climbed to the top, where he threw himself on
the sandy soil until the Sub rejoined him. As he did so the second and
third bombs dropped almost simultaneously, exploded--one close to a
search-light in the wall, the other in the moat; the blast of the
detonation sending a shower of stones and dust over the two prostrate
figures.
The troops engaged in throwing up earthworks and digging trenches had
promptly vanished on hearing the explosion of the first bomb. A few
had delayed bolting to their burrows sufficiently long to draw the
canvas screens over the deep narrow trenches. Here and there a shot
rang out from the earthworks, but for the most part the Turks in that
locality were restrained from firing lest the flashes should indicate
the position of the trenches.
Dick led the way, purposely choosing a direction that would take the
fugitives towards the mountainous interior. He knew that on their
flight being discovered a strict search would be made along the shore;
while on the other hand the Turks would not be likely to look for them
in the interior. His idea was to make a circuitous detour, and regain
the Allies' position in the vicinity of the French troops operating
near Kum Kale. Already his eyes had marked a gap between the triple
rows of trenches where it seemed possible to pass through the hostile
lines.
Suddenly the ground gave way beneath the feet of the two officers.
With futile efforts they grasped at the earth to save themselves, then,
encompassed by a cloud of dust, they dropped headlong into a deep pit.