OUT OF LUCK
Hugh and Watkins unlashed two heavy oars from the cabin roof and
thrust them outboard through oarlocks rivetted to the cockpit
railing. Side by side, in unison, they pulled with a long,
deliberate stroke, while Betty steered. It was no easy task to move
that launch across the swift-flowing tide of the Bosphorus, and it
seemed an endless time before the blurred mass of the shoreline,
becoming visible to our unaided sight, furnished an index to the
progress we were making.
"Nikka and I can relieve them," I offered as the rowers began to pant.
"You haven't done it before," answered Betty shortly. "You might
splash."
Indeed, the oars made scarcely a ripple as they were lifted,
feathered and dipped, tedious as was the effort imposed both by their
weight and the size of the launch.
"Much farther?" Hugh gritted between clenched teeth.
"The jetty is right ahead," Betty reassured him. "You had better get
forward, Dad, and be ready to fend off the rocks."
Vernon King climbed up on the cabin roof and crawled into the bow.
Nikka and I strained our eyes endeavoring to identify the details of
the shore. To the right, and already a little astern of us, was a
huge round tower, one of the bulwarks of the ancient walls. Other
than this there was only a dim range of masonry, the city walls, for
the most part, crowned by houses. Not a light showed opposite to us.
Presently, letting our eyes drop lower, we descried immediately in
front a low breakwater, a jagged pile of rocks that ran out from the
shore in the form of a blunted hook. Betty, steering carefully,
brought the _Curlew_ inside the hook and bow-on to the shore, so that
the launch was protected from the current that flowed through the
Strait. King scrambled ashore and made fast a line around one of the
rocks, then felt his way back along the slippery footing of the
breakwater and stepped into the cockpit. Hugh and Watkins unshipped
the sweeps and laid them on the cabin roof.
All of us were staring at the blank darkness of the shoreline, tense
and watchful; but my uncle's interest was still largely of an
antiquarian nature.
"Do you appreciate how extraordinarily fortunate we are to have this
ruined jetty to moor to?" he whispered excitedly. "No galleys in the
old days were ever able to assail these seaward walls because of the
currents. Without protection, we, too, should be smashed to pieces
if we tried to lie under them. But this place evidently was one of
the walls of a harbor for the Imperial galleys. It was, of course,
fortified. This hook terminated in a strong tower. A second hook--"
"Daddy, Daddy," remonstrated Betty, "you aren't lecturing to-night.
We--we're reconnoitering the enemy's position."
Hugh had been studying the shore again through the night-glasses.
"Not a sign of life," he murmured. "Now, you chaps, show us the lay
of the land."
Nikka and I, with the help of the glasses, plotted for the others the
arrangement of Tokalji's establishment. There was the brick
extension of the bachelors' quarters, crowning a part of the
sea-wall. There was the gap between this structure and the House of
the Married, which was shut in only by the crenellated height of the
wall. And finally, there was the House of the Married, with the
Garden of the Cedars concealed within its heart, lifting its solid
bulk above all adjoining buildings. There were no windows on the
seaward face of Tokalji's house.
"The old wall between the two wings--between the bachelors' quarters
and warehouse and the House of the Married--ought to be easy to
climb," I concluded.
"The wall of the House of the Married is very irregular, too," added
Betty. "We have passed it close in a number of times by daylight,
and we all agreed an active man could climb it."
"That's a good idea," approved Nikka. "If you could enter by the
House of the Married you could seize the valuable part of the
position first. Sound military strategy."
"Yes," assented Hugh, "you could consolidate your position--how the
old lingo comes back, though!--and then occupy the rest of the place
as convenient. By Jove, if you didn't want to occupy it, you could--"
"Oh, you'd have to occupy it," I interrupted. "I say, do you know
that place looks deserted?"
"There's somebody there, never fear," rejoined Betty.
"According to Nikka's uncle, a good part of the garrison were
withdrawn to-day," returned Hugh.
"There is no use hurrying," cautioned my uncle. "We shall have
plenty of opportunities."
"There is good reason for striking when you are not expected,"
retorted Hugh.
Nobody answered him. We were all staring hungrily at the shadowy
shape of the House of the Married, towering above the seawall. It
hypnotized us. We were enthralled by the unfathomable mysteries it
suggested, by the knowledge of the mighty prize it contained.
"There's no time like the present," I said softly.
"Yes, they won't be looking for us so soon again," agreed Nikka.
"They will be figuring that we had enough of a fright last night."
"Perhaps you are right," surrendered Vernon King. "Audacity, we are
frequently told, is the favored bride of fortune. I must admit that
this place exerts a lure which arouses in me certain primitive
instincts I had supposed were finally cured or buried.'
"You mean, Dad," said Betty, "that you feel like being foolish with
the others."
"Oh, come, Bet," protested Hugh, "this is no time for squabbling.
What could be more unexpected than a raid from us to-night? They
probably think, as Nikka says, that we will go slow after last night,
and they don't even know we are out here."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," rejoined Betty.
"Besides," I said, "their force is so depleted that we couldn't have
a better opportunity."
"They may be reinforced."
"Nonsense," said Hugh. "Watty, bring out those tools. We shall want
the rope for climbing and a couple of crowbars. If we need anything
else we can send back for it."
Watkins, who had preserved a respectful silence throughout our
debate, cleared his throat apologetically.
"I beg your ludship's pardon, but--but--you'll not be going into that
den of thieves at this hour of the night, sir?"
"Certainly, Watty. It will be easier 'at this hour of the night'
than in broad daylight."
"But--but--your ludship! Mister Hugh, sir! It's flying in the face
of Providence, if I may say so--after what 'appened to Mister Jack
and Mister Nikka, sir--there's no knowing what those devils 'ave
waitin' for you."
I am ashamed to say that we all chuckled as loudly as we dared at
Watkins's fears.
"You can stay in the boat with Miss Betty, if you'd rather," said
Hugh.
Without a word, Watkins dropped down the cabin hatchway.
"Why do you single me out to be left behind?" demanded Betty
indignantly.
"Because, Betty, you can't climb that wall--and somebody has got to
be ready to start the engine and get us away in a hurry."
"I suppose you're right," she sighed. "Well, don't blame me if
anything goes wrong. Of all the hare-brained--"
"Rats!" I scoffed. "If they jump us, and there are too many of them,
we'll retreat. But maybe we can clean up this job to-night for good
and all. If we can, it's worth trying."
Watkins emerged from the cabin with the tools and the expression of a
martyr. Nikka insisted that he was the best climber in the party,
and took charge of the rope. Hugh and I carried the crowbars, which
we wrapped in sailcloth to prevent their clinking against the stones
of the wall. Then we stepped on to the slimy rocks of the jetty,
Nikka in the lead.
It was a perilous climb to the shore, and we negotiated it slowly,
helping one another and taking every precaution to avoid making any
noise. At last we found ourselves in the jumble of bowlders
constituting the breakwater at the foot of the sea-wall, which reared
its moss-grown battlements high overhead. We turned to the left
here, and crawled over and through the rocks on the beach to a point
under the overhanging wall of the House of the Married. From the
beach it looked unclimbable, but Nikka, after surveying its mounting
courses, shattered and riven by centuries of neglect, by earthquakes
and the ceaseless battering of the waves, removed his shoes and
started the ascent, an end of the grapnel-rope looped around his
waist.
We who watched him stood with knocking hearts for what seemed an
eternity. Spread-eagled against the wall, he appeared as
infinitesimal as a fly in the darkness. At first we could see him
when he slipped and caught himself or sprawled or clutched for
handholds. But soon he became an indistinct blotch on the masonry,
and we held our breath, helpless now to aid him. Our first knowledge
that he had succeeded came when he jerked up the grapnel lying on the
beach at our feet. He hoisted it slowly, lest it clash against the
wall, adjusted its prongs and tossed down the knotted length of rope.
Hugh followed him with ease, bracing his feet against the wall when
he was tired. Then I went up. Then my uncle. Watkins came last.
We stood, bending low, on the seaward verge of the roof over which
Nikka and I had fled the previous night. It was now well towards
midnight, and a haze was settling over the city. The _Curlew_ was
invisible even to us who knew precisely her location. The large
courtyard to our right was a mere blot; the Garden of the Cedars in
front of us was marked by the whispering tops of its two trees. The
silence was absolute. The water lapped on the beach below. That was
all.
Naturally and by right, Hugh took command. It was his expedition.
"Do we go down through the trapdoor Jack and Nikka used or do we use
the rope to drop directly into the Garden?" he asked.
"Best use the trapdoor," advised Nikka.
"Yes," I agreed. "Then the rope will always be handy in case you
want to escape."
"Right O!" endorsed Hugh cheerfully. "Jack, you and Nikka will come
with me. Professor King and Watty will be rearguard and second-line
for emergency use. Stay where you are, Professor, until you hear
from us."
"But do you consider it advisable, in full accord with military
strategy, to divide your forces?" objected my uncle. "Surely--"
"We can handle twice our number," replied Hugh. "If there are more
than that we'll call on you. But you and Watty aren't as used to
scrapping as we are, and it wouldn't be fair to mix you in it if it
can be avoided. Come on, lads."
We crossed the roof toward Sokaki Masyeri, the large courtyard on our
right, the Garden of the Cedars on our left. The trapdoor was shut,
but unfastened, and Hugh lifted it. The ladder was in place under
it. Hugh lowered himself gently, and creaked down to the floor. We
followed him. The room was in pitch-darkness, but we made certain by
touch that it was empty. The bed from which Nikka and I had cut the
cords lay exactly as we had left it, the clothes tumbled over the
foot. The door to the hall was off its hinges, but propped in place.
"I've picked up a chair-leg," Nikka whispered by the broken door.
"You fellows use your crowbars if--"
He paused significantly.
"Right," Hugh whispered back. "Can we lift this door aside?"
The hinges rattled slightly as we shifted it. The next moment we
peered through a yawning cavity, ears alert. Not a sound reached us,
and we stole forward with the utmost care. Midway of the hall were
the corkscrew stairs up which Kara had guided Nikka and me. I judged
we were close to them when a door jarred beside us. There was a
shout, and we were surrounded by a mob of half-seen figures. They
poured from the head of the stairs as well as from the rooms opening
off the hall in which they had lain concealed. They were all around
us, but in the darkness they got in each other's way, and I thought
we could beat them off.
A man seized me by the shoulder, and I drove my fist into his face.
Two others leaped on me. I cracked the skull of one with my crowbar,
and broke the arm of the second. Hugh in front of me was driving his
opponents down the stairs. I heard Nikka exclaim once, then a
gasp--and a light flashed, three lights flashed. Hugh had cleared a
space, but went down as I looked, throttled from behind. Nikka was
just rising from beside a man whose head was crushed in. Then the
rush began again.
I reached for my pistol, but did not have time to draw it. The
attackers surged in from all sides. I had a fleeting glimpse of
Hilmi Bey. Serge Yassilievich ran up the stair. I heard somewhere
the snarling voice of Toutou LaFitte.
"Jack, hold them for me!" cried Nikka. "Must warn--King!"
I swung my crowbar in a circle, and backed towards Nikka's voice. He
had shaken himself clear.
"In that door--opposite--reach window!" he gasped.
We charged and split a path toward the door of one of the rooms. As
we reached it, a pair of gorilla-like arms wound around my neck. I
tried to hit over my shoulder with the crowbar, but somebody caught
my wrist. As I fell I heard Nikka's cry:
"Run, Professor! Save Betty! We're--"
That was all. Toutou had me on the floor and was choking the life
out of me. I lost consciousness.
When I came to I was lying on a very damp, hard floor. Several
lights dazzled my aching eyes, and a number of people were talking in
French.
"Ha, Nash is with us again," said Hilyer's voice. "I was afraid you
might have done him in, Toutou."
"If you take my advice,"--I recognized Hilmi Bey's falsetto
tones--"you will have Toutou operate on all three of them. He has
ways to make silent men speak. Do you remember Rattner, the Swiss
broker, Toutou?"
Toutou's answer was an almost indistinguishable "guhr-rrrr-rrr-rr" of
rage.
Alive now to the position I was in, I opened my eyes wider and tried
to rise. But I was bound hand and foot, and could not move. I
could, however, see where I was. Not far away Hugh and Nikka were
propped against the stone wall of a chamber, which I suppose you
could call a dungeon. It had no window. The one door was open. The
floor sloped gradually toward the center, where there was a square
stone grating about two feet square.
But the most interesting aspect of my surroundings was the group in
the doorway. Toutou stood in front, his green eyes sparkling with
hate and lust. Hilmi Bey fawned at his elbow. Serge Yassilievich
and Hilyer were there. Tokalji frowned at us, hand on his
knife-hilt, Hélène de Cespedes and Sandra Vassilievna, in their
modish costumes, looked singularly out of place. They lent a touch
of unreality to what was otherwise a singularly brutish picture. As
I looked, Hélène stepped forward.
"Help Mr. Nash to sit up, Montey," she said.
He looked from her to Toutou.
"Oh, it won't prevent his answering questions," she snapped. "Please
do as I say."
He raised me not ungently to a sitting position. Hugh and Nikka
grinned at me.
"The question before the house," said Hugh, "is what route to Hades
we are to take, and the preliminary stages of discomfort we shall
undergo to satisfy the head devil over there and his assistants."
"You are in a serious fix," continued Hélène. "Joking won't help you
any. I've tried to make you boys understand that the Boches were
merciful enemies compared to us. We don't recognize civilization.
For us it doesn't exist. We have gone back to primal principles.
Now we've got you, and you've got to talk."
"Words, words," lamented Hilmi viciously. "Let Toutou take his knife
to them. That will do the trick."
Tokalji evidently understood the purport of this, for he rasped a
quick assent. Toutou flashed a long, stiletto-like blade, and
stepped toward us.
"I'll carve them," he purred. "They do not look now as they will
when I have finished with them. Ha, yes, Toutou's knife knows the
way to truth. Soon they will be asking to die."
But Hilyer jumped in front of him. The Englishman's thin face was
aflame with temper.
"I'll stand for a good deal," he said, "but I won't permit torture.
You are a fool, Toutou. You'd only kill them the way you did the old
lord. Here, you people, we must call him off. He'll spoil the whole
show."
Sandra backed him up, and compelled her brother somewhat sullenly to
join in the protest. But Hilmi Bey and Tokalji energetically took
the opposing side.
"They have killed three more of my men," howled the Gypsy. "Shall
they sow death through my tribe, and live unharmed?"'
"They shall," declared Hélène calmly.
She stepped beside Toutou, and placed her fingers on his wrist. Her
eyes sought his. He snarled in his cat-like fashion, and drew away
from her. But she fearlessly came closer to him, and slowly, under
the compulsion of her fingers, he returned the knife to its sheath.
"Hilmi Bey!" she rapped.
The Levantine bowed before her.
"If you spoil this play," she said coldly, "I will kill you with my
own hand. Keep out of what concerns your betters, pig!"
He cringed to her, and would have answered. But she silenced him
with a wave of the hand.
"There has been enough of this," she went on. "Mr. Nash, do you join
with your friends in refusing to give up your secret?"
I nodded.
"Very well," she answered, "we will leave you to think it over. If
you are wise, you will understand that having blundered into this
trap--as you must have blundered sooner or later--the best you can
hope for is life in exchange for what we want. I cannot continue to
save you from the cruelty of those of us who relish brutal measures.
There is a limit to my patience, too. I advise you to make
intelligent use of the next twenty-four hours. You cannot be saved.
Your friends cannot reach you. The authorities cannot intervene. If
they did, you would disappear. You have twenty-four hours more."
They took all the lanterns, except one, and went out, locking the
door after them.