"How about Maga Jhaere's way, when she and Will and the Vanderman
meet?" he said at last, smiling grimly.
Chapter Thirteen
"'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib,
obeyed my lord bahadur's orders."
"TO-MORROW WE DIE"
All that is cynical; all that refuses
Trust in an altruist aim;
Every specious plea that excuses
Greed in necessity's name;
Studied indifference; scorn that amuses;
Cleverness, shifting the blame;
Selfishness, pitying trust it abuses--
Treason and these are the same.
Finally, when the last lees ye shall turn from
(E'en intellectuals flinch in the end!)
Ashes of loneliness then ye shall learn from--
All that's worth keeping's the faith of a friend.
Never to be forgotten is that journey to Zeitoon. We threaded toward
the heart of opal mountains along tracks that nothing on wheels--not
even a wheel-barrow--could have followed. Perpetually on our right
there kept appearing brilliant green patches of young rice, more
full of livid light than flawless emeralds. And, as in all rice
country, there were countless watercourses with frequently impracticable
banks along which fugitives felt their way miserably, too fearful
of pursuit to risk following the bridle track.
There is a delusion current that fugitives go fast. But it stands
to reason they do not; least of all, unarmed people burdened with
children and odds and ends of hastily snatched household goods.
We found them hiding everywhere to sleep and rest lacerated feet,
and there was not a mile of all that distance that did not add twenty
or thirty stragglers to our column, risen at sight of us out of their
lurking places. We scared at least as many more into deeper hiding,
without blame to them, for there was no reason why they should know
us at a distance from official murderers. Hamidieh regiments, the
militia of that land, wear uniforms of their own choosing, which
is mostly their ordinary clothes and weapons added.
With snow-crowned Beirut Dagh frowning down over us, and the track
growing every minute less convenient for horse or man, word came
from the rear that the hamidieh were truly on our trail. Then we
had our first real taste of what Armenians could do against drilled
Turks, and even before Fred and I could get in touch with Will and
Gloria we realized that whether or not we took part with them there
was going to be no stampede by the men-folk.
Nothing would persuade Gloria to go on to Zeitoon and announce our
coming. Kagig came galloping back and found us four met together
by a little horsetail waterfall. He ordered her peremptorily to
hurry and find Monty, but she simply ignored him. In another moment
he was too bent on shepherding the ammunition cases to give her a
further thought.
Men began to gather around him, and he to issue orders. They had
either to kill him or obey. He struck at them with a rawhide whip,
and spurred his horse savagely at every little clump of men disposed
to air their own views.
"You see," he laughed, "unanimity is lacking!" Then his manner changed
back to irritation. "In the name of God, effendim, what manner of
sportmen are you? Will not each of you take a dozen men and go and
destroy those cursed Turks?" (They call every man a Turk in that
land who thinks and acts like one, be he Turk, Arab, Kurd or Circassian.)
It was all opposed to the consul's plan, and lawless by any reckoning.
To attack the troops of a country with which our own governments
were not at war was to put our heads in a noose in all likelihood.
Perhaps if he had called us by any other name than "sportmen" we
might have seen it in that light, and have told him to protect us
according to contract. But he used the right word and we jumped
at the idea, although Gloria, who had no notions about international
diplomacy, was easily first with her hat in the ring.
"I'll lead some men!" she shouted. "Who'll follow me?" Her voice
rang clear with the virtue won on college playing fields.
"Nothing to it!" Will insisted promptly. "Here, you, Kagig--I'll
make a bargain with you!"
"Watch!" Fred whispered. "Will is now going to sell two comrades
in the market for his first love! D'you blame him? But it
won't work!"
"Send Miss Vanderman to Zeitoon with an escort and we three--"
"What did I tell you?" Fred chuckled.
"--will fight for you all you like!"
But Gloria had a dozen men already swarming to her, with never a
symptom of shame to be captained by a woman; and others were showing
signs of inclination. She turned her back on us, and I saw three
men hustle a fourth, who had both feet in bandages, until he gave
her his rifle and bandolier. She tossed him a laugh by way of
compensation, and he seemed content, although he had parted with
more than the equivalent of a fortune.
"That girl," said Kagig, from the vantage point of his great horse,
"is like the brave Zeitoonli wives! They fight! They can lead in
a pinch! They are as good as men--better than men, for they think
they know less!"
Fred swiftly gathered himself a company of his own, the older men
electing to follow his lead. Gloria had the cream of the younger
ones--men who in an earlier age would have gone into battle wearing
a woman's glove or handkerchief--twenty or thirty youths blazing
with the fire of youth. Will went hot-foot after her with most of
the English-speaking contingent from the mission schools. Kagig
had the faithful few who had rallied to him from the first--the fighting
men of Zeitoon proper, including all the tough rear-guard who had
sent the warning and remained faithfully in touch with the enemy
until their chief should come.
That left for me the men who knew no English, and Ephraim was enough
of a politician to see the advantage to himself of deserting Fred's
standard for mine; for Fred could talk Armenian, and give his own
orders, but I needed an interpreter. I welcomed him at the first
exchange of compliments, but met him eye to eye a second later and
began to doubt.
"I'm going to hold these men in reserve," I told him, "until I know
where they'll do most good. You know this country? Take high ground,
then, where we can overlook what's going on and get into the fight
to best advantage."
"But the others will get the credit," he began to object.
"I'll ask Kagig for another interpreter. Wait here."
At that he yielded the point and explained my orders to the men,
who began to obey them willingly enough. But he went on talking
to them rapidly as we diverged from the path the others had taken
and ascended a trail that wild goats would have reveled in, along
the right flank of where fighting was likely to take place. I did
not doubt he was establishing notions of his own importance, and
with some success.
Firing commenced away in front and below us within ten minutes of
the start, but it was an hour before I could command the scene with
field-glasses, and ten minutes after that before I could make out
the positions of our people, although the enemy were soon evident--a
long, irregular, ragged-looking line of cavalry thrusting lances
into every hole that could possibly conceal an Armenian, and an almost
equally irregular line of unmounted men in front of them, firing
not very cautiously nor accurately from under random cover.
It became pretty evident, after studying the positions for about
fifteen minutes and sweeping every contour of the ground through
glasses, that the enemy had no chance whatever of breaking through
unless they could outflank Kagig's line. I held such impregnable
advantage of height and cover and clear view that the men I had with
me were ample to prevent the turning of our right wing. Our left
flank rested on the brawling Jihun River that wound in and out between
the rice fields and the rocky foot-hills. There lay the weakness
of our position, and more than once I caught sight of Kagig spurring
his horse from cover to cover to place his men. Once I thought I
recognized Fred, too, over near the river-bank; but of Will or of
Gloria I saw nothing.
It was obvious that if reserves were needed anywhere it would be
over on that left flank by the fordable Jihun. Ephraim saw that,
and proceeded to preach it like gospel to the men before consulting
me. Then, arrogant in the consciousness of majority approval, he
came and advised me.
"Those--ah--hamidieh not coming this--ah--way. We cross over
to--ah--other side. Then Kagig is being pleased with us. I give
orders--yes?"
He did not propose to wait for my consent, but I detained him with
a hand on his shoulder. It would have taken us two hours to get
into position by the river-bank.
"Find out how many of the men can ride," I ordered.
Taken by surprise he called out the inquiry without stopping to discover
my purpose first. It transpired there were seventeen men who had
been accustomed to horseback riding since their youth. That would
leave nine men for another purpose. I separated sheep from goats,
and made over the nine to Ephraim.
"You and these nine stay here," I ordered, "and hold this flank until
Kagig makes a move." I did not doubt Kagig would fall back on Zeitoon
as soon as he could do that with advantage. Neither did I doubt
Ephraim's ability to spoil my whole plan if he should see fit. Yet
I had to depend on his powers as interpreter.
There are two ways of relieving a weak wing, and the obvious one
of reenforcing it is not of necessity the best. I could see through
the glasses a bowl of hollow grazing ground in which the dismounted
Kurds had left their horses; and I could count only five men guarding
them. Most of the horses seemed to be tied head to head by the reins,
but some were hobbled and grazing close together.
"Tell these seventeen men I have chosen that I propose to creep up
to the enemy's horses and steal or else stampede them," I ordered.
Ephraim hesitated. Glittering eyes betrayed fear to be left out
of an adventure, disgust to see his own advice ignored, and yet that
he was alert to the advantage of being left with a lone command.
"But we should--ah--cross to the--ah--other side and--ah--help Kagig,"
he objected. Perhaps he hoped to build political influence on the
basis of his own account to Kagig afterward of how he had argued
for the saner course.
"Please explain what I have said--exactly!"
He continued to hesitate. I could see the Kurdish riflemen responding
to orders from their rear and beginning to concentrate in the direction
of our left wing. Our center, where Gloria and Will were probably
concealed by rocks and foliage, poured a galling fire on them, and
they had to reform, and detach a considerable company to deal with
that; but two-thirds of their number surged toward our left, and
if my plan was to succeed almost the chief element was time.
"But Kagig will--"
One of the men had a hide rope, very likely looted from the village
we had burned. I took it from him and tied a running noose in the
end. Then I made the other end fast to the roots of a tree that
had been rain-washed until they projected naked over fifty feet of
sheer rock.
"Now," I said, "explain what I said, or I'll hang you in sight of
both sides!"
I wondered whether he would not turn the tables and hang me. I knew
I would not have been willing to lessen Kagig's chances by shooting
any of them if they had decided to take Ephraim's part. But the
politician in the man was uppermost and he did not force the issue.
"All right, effendi--oh, all right!" he answered, trying to laugh
the matter off.
"Explain to them, then!"
I made him do it half a dozen times, for once we were on our way
along the precipitous sides of the hills the only control I should
have would be force of example, aided to some extent by the sort
of primitive signals that pass muster even in a kindergarten.
If they should talk Turkish to me slowly I might understand a little
here and there, but to speak it myself was quite another matter;
and in common with most of their countrymen, though they understood
Turkish perfectly and all that went with it, they would rather eat
dirt than foul their months with the language of the hated conqueror.
But, once explained, the plan was as obvious as the risk entailed,
and they approved the one as swiftly as they despised the other.
The Kurds below were not oblivious to the risk of reprisals from
the hills, and we spent five minutes picking out the men posted to
keep watch, making careful note of their positions. At the point
where we decided to debouch on to the plain there were two sentries
taking matters fairly easy, and I told off four men to go on ahead
and attend to those as silently as might be.
Then we started--not close together, for the Kurds would certainly
be looking out for an attack from the hills in force, and would not
be expecting individuals--but one at a time, two Armenians leading,
and the rest of them following me at intervals of more than fifty yards.
At the moment of starting I gave Ephraim another order, and within
two hours owed my life and that of most of my men to his disobedience.
"You stay here with your handful, and don't budge except as Kagig
moves his line! Few as you are, you can hold this flank safe if
you stay firm."
He stayed firm until the last of my seventeen had disappeared around
the corner of the cliff; and five minutes later I caught sight of
him through the glasses, leading his following at top speed downward
along a spur toward the plain. The Kurds on the lookout saw him
too and, concentrating their attention on him, did not notice us
when we dodged at long intervals in full sunlight across the face
of a white rock.
There was little leading needed; rather, restraining, and no means
of doing it. Instead of keeping the formation in which we started
off, those in the rear began to overtake the men in front and, rather
than disobey the order to keep wide intervals, to extend down the
face of the hill, so that within fifteen minutes we were in wide-spaced
skirmishing order. Then, instead of keeping along the hills, as
I had intended, until we were well to the rear of the Kurdish firing-line,
they turned half-left too soon, and headed in diagonal bee line toward
the horses, those who had begun by leading being last now, and the
last men first. Being shorter-winded than the rest of them and more
tired to begin with, that arrangement soon left me a long way in
the rear, dodging and crawling laboriously and stopping every now
and then to watch the development of the battle. There was little
to see but the flash of rifles; and they explained nothing more
than that the Kurds were forcing their way very close to our center
and left wing.
Not all the fighting had been done that day under organized leadership.
I stumbled at one place and fell over the dead bodies of a Kurd and
an Armenian, locked in a strangle-hold. That Kurd must have been
bold enough to go pillaging miles in advance of his friends, for
the two had been dead for hours. But the mutual hatred had not died
off their faces, and they lay side by side clutching each other's
throats as if passion had continued after death.
The sight of Ephraim and his party hurrying across their front toward
Kagig's weak left wing had evidently convinced the Kurds that no
more danger need be expected from their own left. There can have
been no other possible reason why we were unobserved, for the recklessness
of my contingent grew as they advanced closer to the horses, and
from the rear I saw them brain one outpost with a rock and rush in
and knife another with as little regard for concealment as if these
two had been the only Kurds within eagle's view. Yet they were unseen
by the enemy, and five minutes later we all gathered in the shelter
of a semicircle of loose rocks, to regain wind for the final effort.
"Korkakma!" I panted, using about ten per cent. of my Turkish vocabulary,
and they laughed so loud that I cursed them for a bunch of fools.
But the man nearest me chose to illustrate his feeling for Turks
further by taking the corner of his jacket between thumb and finger
and going through the motions of squeezing off an insect--the last,
most expressive gesture of contempt.
The horses were within three hundred yards of us. On rising ground
between us and the Kurdish firing-line was a little group of Turkish
officers, and to our right beyond the horses was miscellaneous baggage
under the guard of Kurds, of whom more than half were wounded. I
could see an obviously Greek doctor bandaging a man seated on an
empty ammunition box.
But our chief danger was from the mounted scoundrels who were so
busy murdering women and children and wounded men half a mile away
to the rear. They had come along working the covert like hunters
of vermin, driving lances into every possible lurking place and no
doubt skewering their own wounded on occasion, for which Armenians
would afterward be blamed. We could hear them chorusing with glee
whenever a lance found a victim, or when a dozen of them gave chase
to some panic-stricken woman in wild flight. Through the glasses
I could see two Turkish officers with them, in addition to their
own nondescript "tin-plate men"; and if officers or men should get
sight of us it was easy to imagine what our fate would be.
That thought, and knowledge that Gloria Vanderman and Will and Fred
were engaged in an almost equally desperate venture within a mile
of me (evidenced by dozens of wild bullets screaming through the
air) suggested the idea of taking a longer chance than any I had
thought of yet. A moment's consideration brought conviction that
the effort would be worth the risk. Yet I had no way of communicating
with my men!
I pointed to the Turkish officers clustered together watching the
effort of their firing-line. From where we lay to the horses would
be three hundred yards; from the horses to those officers would
be about two hundred and fifty yards farther at an angle of something
like forty degrees. Counting their orderlies and hangers-on we
outnumbered that party by two to one; and "the fish starts stinking
from the head" as the proverb says. With the head gone, the whole
Kurdish firing-line would begin to be useless.
I tried my stammering Turkish, but the men were in no mood to be
patient with efforts in that loathly tongue. None of them knew a
word in English. I tried French--Italian--smattering Arabic--but
they only shook their heads, and began to think nervousness was driving
me out of hand. One of them laid a soothing hand on my shoulder,
and repeated what sounded like a prayer.
To lose the confidence of one's men under such circumstances at that
stage of the game was too much. I grew really rattled, and at random,
as a desperate man will I stammered off what I wanted to say in the
foreign tongue that I knew best, regardless of the fact that Armenians
are not black men, and that there is not even a trace of connection
between their language and anything current in Africa. Zanzibar
and Armenia are as far apart as Australia and Japan, with about as
much culture in common.
To my amazement a man answered in fluent Kiswahili! He had traded
for skins in some barbarous district near the shore of Victoria Nyanza,
and knew half a dozen Bantu languages. In a minute after that we
had the plan well understood and truly laid; and, what was better,
they had ceased to believe me a victim of nerves--a fact that gave
me back the nerve that had been perilously close to vanishing.
We paid no more attention to the firing-line, nor to the mounted
Kurds who were drawing the coverts nearer and nearer to us. It was
understood that we were to sacrifice ourselves for our friends, and
do the utmost damage possible before being overwhelmed. We shook
hands solemnly. Two or three men embraced each other. The five
who by common consent were reckoned the best rifle shots lay down
side by side with me among the rocks, and the remainder began crawling
out one by one on their stomachs toward the horses, with instructions
to take wide open order as quickly as possible, with the idea of
making the Kurds believe our numbers were greater than they really were.
When I judged they were half-way toward the horses we six opened
fire on the Turkish officers. And every single one of us missed!
At the sound of our volley the devoted horse-thieves rose to their
feet and rushed on the horse-guards, forgetting to fire on them from
sheer excitement, and as a matter of fact one of them was shot dead
by a horse-guard before the rest remembered they had deadly weapons
of their own.
I remedied the first outrageous error to a slight extent by killing
the Turkish colonel's orderly, missing the commander himself by almost
a yard. My five men all missed with their second shots, and then
it was too late to pull off the complete coup we had dared to hope
for. The entire staff took cover, and started a veritable hail of
fire with their repeating pistols, all aimed at us, and aimed as
wildly as our own shots had been.
Meanwhile the mounted Kurds at the rear had heard the firing and
were coming on full pelt, yelling like red Indians. I could see,
in the moment I snatched for a hurried glance in that direction,
that the purpose of cutting loose and stampeding the horses was being
accomplished; but even that comparatively simple task required time,
and as the Kurds galloped nearer, the horses grew as nervous as the
men who sought to loose them.
But conjecture and all caution were useless to us six bent on attacking
the colonel and his staff. We crawled out of cover and advanced,
stopping to fire one or two shots and then scrambling closer, giving
away our own paucity of numbers, but increasing the chance of doing
damage with each yard gained. And our recklessness had the additional
advantage of making the staff reckless too. The colonel kept in
close hiding, but the rest of them began dodging from place to place
in an effort to outflank us from both sides, and I saw four of them
bowled over within a minute. Then the remainder lay low again, and
we resumed the offensive.
The next thing I remember was hearing a wild yell as our party seized
a horse apiece and galloped off in front of the oncoming Kurds--straight
toward Kagig's firing-line. That, and the yelling of the horsemen
in pursuit drew the attention of the riflemen attacking Kagig to
the fact that most of their horses were running loose and that there
was imminent danger to their own rear. I only had time to get a
glimpse of them breaking back, for the Turkish colonel got my range
and sent a bullet ripping down the length of the back of my shooting
jacket. That commenced a duel----he against me--each missing as
disgracefully as if we were both beginners at the game of life or
death, and I at any rate too absorbed to be aware of anything but
my own plight and of oceans of unexplained noise to right and left.
I knew there were galloping horses, and men yelling; but knowledge
that the Turkish military rifle I was using must be wrongly sighted,
and that my enemy had no such disadvantage, excluded every other
thought.
I had used about half the cartridges in my bandolier when a Kurd's
lance struck me a glancing blow on the back of the head. His horse
collapsed on top of me, as some thundering warrior I did not see
gave the stupendous finishing stroke to rider and beast at once.
There followed a period of semi-consciousness filled with enormous
clamor, and upheavings, and what might have been earthquakes for
lack of any other reasonable explanation, for I felt myself being
dragged and shaken to and fro. Then, as the weight of the fallen
horse was rolled aside there surged a tide of blissful relief that
carried me over the border of oblivion.
When I recovered my senses I was astride of Rustum Khan's mare, with
a leather thong around my shoulders and the Rajput's to keep me from
falling. We were proceeding at an easy walk in front of a squadron
of ragged-looking irregulars whom I did not recognize, toward the
center of the position Kagig had held. Kagig's men were no longer
in hiding, but standing about in groups; and presently I caught
sight of Fred and Will and Kagig standing together, but not Gloria
Vanderman. A cough immediately behind us made me turn my head.
The Turkish colonel, who had fought the ridiculously futile duel
with me, was coming along at the mare's tail with his hands tied
behind him and a noose about his neck made fast to one of the
saddle-rings.
"Much obliged, Rustum Khan!" I said by way of letting him know I
was alive. "How did you get here?"
"Ha, sahib! Not going to die, then? That is good! I came because
Colonel Lord Montdidier sahib sent me with a squadron of these mountain
horsemen--fine horsemen they are--fit by the breath of Allah to draw
steel at a Rajput's back!"
"He sent you to find me?"
"Ha, sahib. To rescue you alive if that were possible."
"How did he know where I was?"
"An Armenian by name of Ephraim came and said you had gone over to
the Turks. Certain men he had with him corroborated, but three of
his party kept silence. My lord sahib answered 'I have hunted, and
camped, and fought beside that man--played and starved and feasted
with him. No more than I myself would he go over to Turks. He must
have seen an opportunity to make trouble behind the Turks' backs.
Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, obeyed
my lord bahadur's orders."
"Where is Lord Montdidier now?"
"Who knows, sahib. Wherever the greatest need at the moment is."
"Tell me what has happened."
"You did well, sahib. The loosing of the horses and the shooting
behind their backs put fear into the Kurds. They ceased pressing
on our left wing. And I--watching from behind cover on the right
wing--snatched that moment to outflank them, so that they ran pell-mell.
Then I saw the mounted Kurds charging up from the rear, and guessed
at once where you were, sahib. The Kurds were extended, and my men
in close order, so I charged and had all the best of it, arriving
by God's favor in the nick of time for you, sahib. Then I took this
colonel prisoner. Only once in my life have I seen a greater pile
than his of empty cartridge cases beside one man. That was the pile
beside you, sahib! How many men did you kill, and he kill? And
who buried them?"
"Where is Miss Vanderman?" I asked, turning the subject.
"God knows! What do I know of women? Only I know this: that there
is a gipsy woman bred by Satan out of sin itself, who will make things
hot for any second filly in this string! Woe and a woman are one!"
Not caring to listen to the Indian's opinions of the other sex any
more than he would have welcomed mine about the ladies of his own
land, I made out my injuries were worse than was the case, and groaned
a little, and grew silent.
So we rode without further conversation up to where Fred and Will
were standing with Kagig, and as I tumbled off into Fred's arms I
was greeted with a chorus of welcome that included Gloria's voice.
"That's what I call using your bean!" she laughed, in the slangy
way she had whenever Will had the chance to corrupt her Boston manners.
"It feels baked," I said. "I used it to stop a Kurd's lance with.
Hullo! What's the matter with you?"
"I stopped a bullet with my forearm!"
She was sitting in a sort of improvised chair between two dwarfed
tree-trunks, and if ever I saw a proud young woman that was she.
She wore the bloody bandage like a prize diploma.
"And I've seen your friend Monty, and he's better than the accounts
of him!"