THE TRAP
A little more than two hours later, when Burnet, refreshed by his brief
sleep, but acknowledging inwardly that he was still very weary, issued
from Rejeb's tower to the clear space outside, the light of a single
shaded torch fell on a brave array. If Rejeb was like Saladin of old
in his chivalrous determination to meet his foe on equal terms, he also
had not a little of that famous warrior's practical good sense. The
young chief was content to lead forth no more than fifty men, but he
had taken care that those fifty were his best. All in the vigour of
early manhood, lean, straight, stalwart, they had been selected by
Rejeb himself, not without pangs of jealousy and disappointment among
the rest of the tribesmen. Ranged in line, they sat immovable on
magnificent horses, holding their rifles slantwise across their saddles.
There was a glow of conscious pride on Rejeb's handsome face as he led
Burnet towards the spot, a few feet in advance of the line, where their
horses awaited them. They mounted.
"I would have your counsel, brother," said Rejeb courteously, but in a
tone that implied a sense of perfect equality. "The wady of which the
Turks spoke bends north-westward to the river. At half a march's
distance from the river the wady runs through ruins, neither so
widespread nor so well preserved as those here around us." (At this
Burnet felt slightly amused, for with the exception of the stump of
tower the stronghold could not boast of four upright walls.) "These
ruins the Turks must pass on their way; shall we not then ride directly
thither, and there lie in wait?"
"You flatter me by asking my counsel--you who know the country, whereas
I am a stranger," said Burnet, adopting the chief's manner of formal
courtesy. "What is good in your eyes is good also in mine."
"What you say is the truth: I know the country. I know that the Turks
have an outpost on the river northward of the place where the wady
joins it; southward they have none, their forces being encamped here
and there on the banks of the Tigris. If then we leave the _tell_ on
our right, and ride straight as a bird flies to the ruins I spoke of,
not only shall we avoid any meeting with the enemy, but we shall gain
our post of ambush long before they arrive there, since it will be a
work of no light labour to drag the aeroplane along the uneven
embankment of the wady."
"Might they not construct a raft on which to convey it on the stream
itself?"
"Where in the swamps would they find wood? There is no timber nearer
than the outpost of which I spoke, where kelaks laden with palms
sometimes lie in the river. It is true, they may have sent men to
bring one of these kelaks to the wady, but the kelakjis are too fearful
of shoals to come down the river by night, and we shall arrive at our
ambush long before the dawn."
"It shall be done as seems good to you," said Burnet. "Who am I that I
should offer counsel?"
He saw, in fact, that Rejeb had consulted him out of politeness merely,
and felt great confidence in this plan that had evidently been well
thought out.
Thereupon Rejeb gave an order; the Arabs tightened their reins; and
Rejeb rode towards the head of the causeway, with Burnet immediately
behind, the rest following in single file.
Keeping well to westward of the _tell_ the party rode at a steady trot
over the plain. Long experiences in night forays enabled them to avoid
the difficulties and dangers of the swamps, even though they had no
light but the star-shine; and the man whom Rejeb sent to the front as
guide when they had left the immediate neighbourhood of the stronghold
could not have led them more confidently in broad daylight. Burnet
thought privately that a British commander would have detailed an
advance guard and flanking parties to give warning of possible enemies;
but these precautions seemed unnecessary to Rejeb until three-fourths
of the journey was accomplished. Even then he contented himself with
sending two men ahead and two more to the right; from the left he
anticipated no danger. The party, indeed, arrived at the ruins, of
which Rejeb had spoken, without incident. Burnet's wrist watch had
stopped, no doubt through immersion in the swamp; but Rejeb without
hesitation, after a glance at the sky, declared that there were still
two hours till dawn, and ordered his men to off saddle, to hobble the
horses among the rampant vegetation bordering the ruins, and to post
themselves as best they could on the broken ground until daybreak.
Burnet, however, was not content to wait thus in complete ignorance of
the enemy's position and movements. During the ten hours which had
passed since he had last seen them, anything might have happened. Some
of the troopers who had ridden away from the spot where the aeroplane
lay might have been despatched to the Turkish outpost twenty or thirty
miles up the Euphrates, and an enterprising officer there might have
taken instant measures to retrieve so valuable a capture as an
aeroplane. He put this point to Rejeb, who had so low an opinion of
the Turk's initiative and intelligence that he scouted the suggestion.
It was only when Burnet hinted that there might possibly be a German at
the outpost that the chief wavered, and ultimately agreed that Burnet
with two men should ride round the swamp southward of the wady to the
spot where the aeroplane had come down, in order to follow its track at
the first glimmer of dawn, and ascertain beyond doubt what progress the
enemy had made, what their present position was, and what were their
probable intentions.
The two Arabs, having had the locality described to them, were able to
lead Burnet by a much easier route than that which he had followed with
so much toil and discomfort on the previous day. Approaching the open
space with great caution in the dawning light they found it vacant:
only the wheel tracks of the aeroplane and footprints in the soft earth
remained as evidence of yesterday's events. It was easy to follow the
course of the aeroplane, and the three men rode cautiously forward,
Burnet in the centre, an Arab at a little distance on either side.
They had ridden for nearly an hour at a slow walking pace before they
had any sign of the enemy. Then one of the Arabs halted, snuffed the
air for a moment, and riding up to Burnet, said:
"There is fire, Aga."
Dismounting, they left their horses concealed among the tall grass, and
stole forward on foot a few yards south of the wheel tracks, taking
advantage of the cover provided by the rank vegetation. Burnet soon
detected the acrid smell of smoke, and in about ten minutes caught
sight of the heads of horses just projecting above the swaying top of a
belt of reeds. He heard also the dull murmur of voices.
"It is well that I go alone and spy out the land, Aga," said the man
who had first smelt the smoke. "I will go and come to you here again."
He disappeared through the reeds in a southerly direction. It was
nearly half an hour before he returned, with the news that the enemy
had bivouacked on dry ground near the bank of a small stream--not the
wady, but probably a tributary of it. They had just finished their
morning meal: he had seen them stamp out the embers of their camp fire,
yoke two horses to the aeroplane, drag it across the shallow channel,
and set off northwards. They were riding in loose formation, having
evidently no apprehension of meeting an enemy in this region, remote
from the military operations on the Tigris some fifty miles to the
east, and destitute of settled inhabitants. There was no doubt that
their intention was to convey the aeroplane to the wady, which had an
embankment wide enough to allow the passage of the machine.
Burnet could only conclude that in default of any means of transport
they would follow the course of the wady until they reached the river.
Their progress must necessarily be slow, and there was plenty of time
to ride back to Rejeb by a circuitous route and lay plans for a
successful ambuscade.
The chief's eyes gleamed when Burnet, rejoining him an hour or two
later, told him the result of the reconnaissance. It seemed that the
enemy must fall an easy prey. The position was admirably suited to an
ambush. The ruins extended some hundreds of yards on each bank of the
wady. They were fringed on the south by a dense encircling belt of
reeds. In this belt, at its south-western corner, Rejeb posted the
greater part of his force, mounted, the reeds being tall enough to
conceal them. The remainder he ordered to dismount and place
themselves under cover at the northern extremity of the ruins, at
intervals of a few yards, so that they could command the southern bank
of the wady with their fire. His plan was to throw the enemy into
disorder by rifle fire from the north, then to hurl himself upon them
with the mounted men from the south and complete their rout.
These dispositions had only just been made when a new element entered
into the problem. Rejeb, sitting his horse beside Burnet in the belt
of reeds, suddenly turned his head sharply to the left.
"What is that sound, brother?" he said. Burnet listened intently, but
it was the space of a minute before his ears caught a faint throbbing
murmur in the direction towards which Rejeb had turned. He recognised
it instantly as the purring of a petrol-driven engine, and scanned the
sky, half expecting to see a British aeroplane: perhaps a pilot had
come to look for Ellingford, whose return had been expected in the
lines below Kut on the previous evening. But the sky was one speckless
blue, and though the sound of the engine grew louder moment by moment,
there was nothing to be seen.
Presently Rejeb exclaimed:
"I hear horses!"
A few moments later Burnet also detected another sound mingling with
the drone--the unmistakable thud of hoofs. The explanation flashed
upon him. The troopers who had ridden from the scene of the previous
day's incident had been despatched to the Turkish outpost of which
Rejeb had told him, and were now returning, accompanied by a motor
launch on the wady, no doubt sent to transport the aeroplane by water.
He imparted his conclusion to Rejeb.
"Wallahi!" exclaimed the chief. "An evil spirit is striving against
us."
One thought had flashed upon the young men at the same moment. They
might rout the Turks, but lose the aeroplane. The enemy would no doubt
place on the deck of the launch not only the machine, but their
prisoner, and the Arabs could not fire on the crew without the risk of
hitting the Englishman. It was possible, of course, to hold up the
launch and prevent it from passing up the wady, but the sound of rifle
shots could not fail to be heard by the Turks conveying the aeroplane,
and the alarm would ruin the chances of a successful ambuscade.
While Rejeb and Burnet were discussing the matter in low tones, they
peered out through the reeds in the direction of the rapidly
approaching sounds. Soon they caught sight of six horsemen riding in
couples along the bank of the wady, and as they drew abreast, the
launch became visible beneath their horses' bellies. One of the
horsemen was an officer, whom no doubt the news brought him at the
outpost had induced to ride back with the messengers and see for
himself the captured aeroplane.
Launch and horsemen passed out of sight. During the few moments' pause
in the conversation while the enemy went by, an idea had occurred to
Burnet. It was probable that the aeroplane had barely arrived at the
bank of the wady, and, judging by the direction of its captors' march,
at a point at least five or six miles from the ruins. The launch was
keeping pace with the horsemen on the bank; it might reach the
aeroplane in something under an hour. Further time would be occupied
in explanation; no doubt the officer from the outpost would be curious
enough to examine the machine; then its safe bestowal on the deck of
the launch would be a long job. Probably two or three hours would
elapse before the return journey commenced, and Burnet had conceived a
plan for utilising those hours.
He mentioned it to Rejeb, who received it with a torrent of joyous
ejaculations. There was no time to be lost. The chief told off a man
to go on foot half a mile along the bank of the wady, to give warning
of the enemy's approach. The course of the channel was almost
perfectly straight, and horsemen riding along the embankment could be
seen from a great distance. Then he selected twenty men, and placed
them at Burnet's orders. Burnet took them down to the brink of the
wady, chose a spot favourable to his design about half-way through the
ruins, and instructed the men to build a dam with the material that lay
close to their hands. The channel was shallow, and only about forty
feet wide. The men formed two queues, and masses of brick and stone
were passed from hand to hand and dumped in the middle.
Working with interest and hearty good-will, within an hour the Arabs
had raised that obstacle almost to the surface, and in the muddy water
it was scarcely visible, even from the bank. Much less was it likely
to be seen from the deck of the moving launch, the crew of which would
not suspect that the channel they had already navigated safely could
hold any danger for them.
Having completed the dam, the men returned to their former posts. No
change in the general plan was necessitated: indeed, the sudden
stoppage of the launch would tend to further it, for it would add one
more element to the confusion.
It was now only a question of waiting. The Arabs sat their horses in
stolid patience, scarcely moving or speaking. Burnet was more
restless. He would have liked to steal along the bank of the wady, and
watch the stages in the enemy's progress; but he contained himself, and
tried to emulate the stillness of his friend the chief.
Three hours passed: it was almost midday when the Arab scout came
running back with the news that the enemy were in sight. Soon
afterwards the sound of the propeller was heard, and then, peeping
through the reeds, the watchers saw the horsemen riding two by two at a
walking pace along the embankment, and the aeroplane, its wings
extending over the banks on either side, as it were floating on the
stream.
There was now some order in the troopers' march. Three couples rode
ahead as an advance guard: after an interval came the two officers
riding abreast, and behind them the remainder of the party. Burnet
suggested that the advance guard should be allowed to pass, fire being
reserved until the main body was half-way through the ruins and unable
to escape without fighting. It was impossible now to send a messenger
with orders to the men on the north bank, but this gave Rejeb no
concern:
"My warriors will know what to do," he said, with a firm air of
confidence.
The advance guard was some distance ahead of the launch, which had to
go slowly because of the unwieldiness of its burden, and the risk of
striking the overlapping wings of the aeroplane against some
irregularity in the surface of the bank. There was thus no reason to
fear that the conflict would start prematurely through the obstruction
of the launch before the horsemen had arrived. The men were riding
easily; the two officers were engaged in animated conversation; in this
wide no man's land between the rivers they had no cause for
apprehension.
Burnet, holding his revolver, tingled as the enemy drew slowly nearer.
It was not his first action, but a youth of twenty cannot know the
coolness and indifference of the veteran. His one anxiety was for the
safety of Captain Ellingford. Knowing that he was on board, the Arabs
would not fire at the launch; but in the confusion and hurly-burly of
the coming fight he might be struck by a chance shot; perhaps, indeed,
he might be deliberately murdered by the Turks in charge of him.
"Thank Heaven they are not Germans," Burnet thought.
The advance guard came to the edge of the ruins, riding along the
embankment, which was only a foot or two above the general level, with
a gentle slope on the southern side. The troopers glanced to right and
left without particular care; and indeed it would have needed keener
eyes than theirs to discover the men ambushed in snug positions a few
hundred yards on the north side of the stream, or the horsemen securely
hidden in the tall rushes at a rather greater distance to the south.
They passed by without suspicion. About a hundred yards behind them
the two officers came within the circle of the ruins, still chatting
together. Their orderlies were a few paces in the rear; and the head
of the short column of troopers, in line with the launch, rode at an
equal interval behind them.
To Burnet, at least, their progress seemed painfully slow. The advance
guard had reached the western extremity of the ruins before the
officers came level with the dam. Burnet was just wondering whether
the dam would escape their notice when there was a sudden crackle of
musketry from the northern side. The officer nearest the wady fell
from his horse; several saddles in the column behind were emptied; and
there ensued a scene of wild confusion. The horses curvetted, and
drove against one another; the men shouted and gazed about them
irresolutely, seeking the unseen enemy and trying to control their
steeds. Another volley struck down several more horses and men; then,
just as the launch, coming stern foremost, crashed into the obstacle,
Rejeb and Burnet, at the head of a compact body of horsemen with swords
held aloft, dashed from the shelter of the reeds and rode at a hot
gallop straight for the centre of the column.
By this time some of the Turks had flung themselves from their saddles,
and, bridle in hand, were running down the slope of the embankment to
gain shelter from the rifle fire. The sight of the horsemen bearing
down upon them like a desert whirlwind from the opposite quarter caused
them to mount again in haste. Some rallied about their officer, and
prepared to meet the shock, others spurred their horses forward with
the idea of avoiding it, only to find themselves checked by their more
stedfast comrades. Others again swung their horses round, and galloped
madly in the direction from which they had come.
The officer's desperate efforts to dress his ranks at the foot of the
slope were rendered abortive by the confusion into which his more
resolute men had been thrown by their comrades' attempt to escape.
Rifle fire had ceased, and with a gallantry that won Burnet's
admiration the Turk, supported by less than a dozen troopers, rode
straight at the charging mass. Burnet, whose matchless horse had
carried him slightly in advance of Rejeb, made a sudden swerve to avoid
a sweeping stroke of the officer's sword, and as he passed, fired his
revolver point blank at his opponent. The trooper behind made a cut at
his head, and he discovered later that the peak of his helmet had been
sliced off.
Having no more of the enemy in front of him, he wheeled round and rode
back into the fray. Several men and horses had fallen, and the
survivors, hopelessly outnumbered, almost surrounded by the Arabs, were
crying for quarter.
Meanwhile the advance guard, brought to a halt by the sudden outburst
of fire behind them, had stayed only long enough to see that their
comrades had no chance against such odds, and had then galloped off in
headlong flight towards the Euphrates. It was a matter of the most
urgent importance that none of them should escape to carry news of the
ambush to their outpost on the river, and Rejeb himself, with ten of
his Arabs, rode along the embankment at breakneck pace to overtake
them. It was equally important that the fugitives who had ridden in
the other direction should not be allowed to work their way round to
the north, and Rejeb's lieutenant, with the rest of the mounted men,
set off to ride them down. Some of the Arabs swam the wady on their
horses in order to cut off their escape northward; the lieutenant
himself with another body galloped straight along the embankment; a
third section struck off into the swampy ground to the south.
The moment the fight was over, Burnet turned to see what had happened
to the launch. When its course was checked by the dam, it appeared
that the crew had endeavoured to escape by driving it back along the
wady, for Burnet saw that it was now a hundred yards or so to the east.
But in their haste they had neglected the precautions necessitated by
the breadth of the aeroplane. Attempting to run at too high a speed in
the narrow channel, they had failed to keep a course exactly in the
middle, with the result that one of the wings had jammed in a tangle of
vegetation, and the launch was unable to move. Meanwhile the Arabs
posted in the ruins had left their stations and run down to the bank,
where they stood sentry over the vessel, rifle in hand.
[Illustration: STRANDED]