Is honor out of fashion and the men she named
Fit only to be buried and defamed
Who dared hold service was true nobleness
And graced their service in a fitting dress?
Are manners out of date because the scullions scoff
At whosoever shuns the common trough
Liking dry bread better than the garbled stew
Nor praising greed because the style is new?
Let go the ancient orders if so be their ways
Are trespassing on decency these days.
So I go, rather than accept the trampled spoil
Or gamble for what great men earned by toil.
For rather than trade honor for a mob's foul praise
I'll keep full fealty to the ancient ways
And, hoistinq my forebear's banner in the face of hell,
Will die beneath it, knowing I die well!
Fifteen minutes after Gloria Vanderman left us I saw a banner go
jerkily mounting up the newly placed flag-pole on the keep. A man
blew a bugle hoarsely by way of a salute. I raised my hat. Monty
raised his. In a moment we were all standing bare-headed, and the
great square piece of cloth caught the wind that whistled between
two crags of Beirut Dagh.
Fred, our arch-iconoclast, stood uncovered longest.
"Who the devil made it for you?" he inquired.
Stitched on the banner in colored cloth were the two wheat-sheaves
and two ships of the Montdidiers, and a scroll stretched its length
across the bottom, with the motto doubtless, although in the wind
one could not read it.
"The women. Good of 'em, what? Miss Vanderman drew it on paper.
They cut it out, and sat up last night sewing it."
"I suppose you know that's filibustering, to fly your private banner
on foreign soil?"
"They may call it what they please," said Monty. "I can't well fly
the flag of England, and Armenia has none yet. Let's go below, Fred,
and see if there's any news."
"Yes, there is news," said Kagig, leading the way down. "I did not
say it before the lady. It is not good news."
"That's the only kind that won't keep. Spit it out!" said Will.
Kagig faced us on the stable roof, and his finger-joints cracked again.
"It is the worst! They have sent Mahmoud Bey, against us. I would
rather any six other Turks. Mahmoud Bey is not a fool. He is a
young successful man, who looks to this campaign to bolster his ambition.
He is a ruthless brute!"
"Which Turk isn't?" asked Will.
"This one is most ruthless. This Mahmoud is the one who in the
massacres of five years ago caused Armenian prisoners to have
horse-shoes nailed to their naked feet, in order, he said, that
they might march without hurt. He will waste no time about
preliminaries!"
Kagig was entirely right. Mahmoud Bey began the overture that very
instant with artillery fire directed at the hidden defenses flanking
the clay ramp. Next we caught the stuttering chorus of his machine
guns, and the intermittent answer of Kagig's riflemen.
"Now, effendim, one of you down to the defenses, please! There is
risk my men may use too many cartridges. Talk to them--restrain them.
They might listen to me, but--" His long fingers suggested unhappy
fragments of past history.
"You, Fred!" said Monty, and Fred hitched his concertina to a more
comfortable angle.
Fred was the obvious choice. His gift of tongues would enable him
better than any of us to persuade, and if need were, compel. We
had left our rifles leaning by the wall at the castle entrance, and
in his cartridge bag was my oil-can and rag-bag. I asked him for
them, and he threw them to me rather clumsily. Trying to catch
them I twisted for the second time the ankle I had hurt that morning.
Fred mounted and rode out through the echoing entrance without a
backward glance, and I sat down and pulled my boot off, for the agony
was almost unendurable.
"That settles your task for to-day," laughed Monty. "Help him back
to the top of the tower, Will. Keep me informed of everything you
see. Will--you go with Kagig after you've helped him up there."
"All right," said Will. "Where's Kagig bound for?"
"Round behind Beirut Dagh," Kagig announced grimly. "That's our
danger-point. If the Turks force their way round the mountain--"
He shrugged his expressive shoulders. Only he of all of us seemed
to view the situation seriously. I think we others felt a thrill
rather of sport than of danger.
I might have been inclined to resent the inactivity assigned to me,
only that it gave me a better chance than I had hoped for of watching
for signs of Maga Jhaere's promised treachery. Will helped me up
and made the perch comfortable; then he and Kagig rode away together.
Presently Monty, too, mounted a mule, and rode out under the arch,
and fifteen minutes later fifty men marched in by twos, laughing
and joking, and went to saddling the horses in the semicircular stable
below me. After that all the world seemed to grow still for a while,
except for the eagles, the distant rag-slitting rattle of rifle-fire,
and the occasional bursting of a shell. Most of the shells were
falling on the clay ramp, and seemed to be doing no harm whatever.
Away in the distance down the pass, out of range of the fire of our
men, but also incapable of harm themselves until they should advance
into the open jaws below the clay ramp, I could see the Turks massing
in that sort of dense formation that the Germans teach. Even through
the glasses it was not possible to guess their numbers, because the
angle of vision was narrow and cut off their flanks to right and
left; but I sent word down to Monty that a frontal attack in force
seemed to be already beginning.
For an hour after that, while the artillery fire increased but our
rifle-fire seemed to dwindle under Fred's persuasive tongue, I watched
Monty mustering reenforcements in the gorge below the town. He
overcame some of the women's prejudice, for it was a force made up
of men and women that he presently led away. I was rather surprised
to see Rustum Khan, after a talk with Monty, return to his squadron
and remain inactive under cover of the hill; that fire-eater was
the last man one would expect to remain willingly out of action.
However, twenty minutes later, Rustum Khan appeared beside me, breathing
rather hard. He begged the glasses of me, and spent five minutes
studying the firing-line minutely before returning them.
"The lord sahib has more faith in these undrilled folk than I have!"
he grumbled at last. "Observe: he goes with that bullet-food of
men and women mixed, to hide them in reserve behind the narrow gut
at the head of the ramp. The Turks are fools, as Kagig said, and
their general is also a fool, in spite of Kagig. They propose to
force that ramp. You see that by Frredd sahib's orders the firing
on our side has grown greatly less. That is to draw the Turks on.
See! It has drawn them! They are coming! The lord sahib will send
for Frredd sahib to take command of that reserve, to man the top
of the ramp in case the Turks succeed in climbing too far up it.
Then he himself will gallop back to take charge of my squadron below
there; and I take charge of his squadron up here. He and I are
interchangeable, I having drilled all the men in any case--such
drilling as they have had--such little, little drilling!"
The Turks began their advance into the jaws of that defile with a
confidence that made my heart turn cold. What did they know? What
were they depending on in addition to their weight of numbers?
Mahmoud Bey had evidently hurried up almost his whole division, and
was driving them forward into our trap as if he knew he could swallow
trap and all. Not even foolish generals act that way. It needs
a madman. Kagig had said nothing about Mahmoud being mad.
"Listen, Rustum Khan!" I said. "Go with a message to Lord Montdidier.
Tell him the whole Turkish force is in motion and coming on as if
their general knows something for certain that we don't know at all.
Tell him that I suspect treachery at our rear, and have good reason
for it!"
Rustum Khan eyed me for a minute as if he would read the very middle
of my heart.
"Can you ride?" he asked.
"Of course," I answered. "It's only walking that I can't do."
"Then leave those glasses with me, and go yourself!"
"Why won't you go?" I asked.
"Because here are fifty men who would lack a leader in that case."
The answer was honest enough, yet I had my qualms about leaving the
post Monty had assigned to me. The thought that finally decided
me was that I would have opportunity to gallop past the hospital,
two hundred yards over the bridge on the Zeitoon side, and make sure
that Gloria was safe.
"Have you seen Maga Jhaere anywhere?" I asked.
"No," said the Rajput, swearing under his breath at the mere mention
of her name.
"Then help me down from here. I'll go."
He muttered to himself, and I think he thought I was off to make
love to the woman; but I was past caring about any one's opinion
on that score. Five minutes later I was trotting a good horse slowly
down the upper, steeper portion of the track toward Zeitoon, swearing
to myself, and dreading the smoother going where I should feel compelled
to gallop whether my ankle hurt or not. As a matter of fact I began
to suspect a broken bone or ligament, for the agonizing pain increased
and made me sit awkwardly on the horse, thus causing him to change
his pace at odd intervals and give me more pain yet. However, gallop
I had to, and I reached the bridge going at top speed, only to be
forced to rein in, chattering with agony, by a man on foot who raced
to reach the bridge ahead of me, and made unmistakable signals of
having an important message to deliver.
He proved to be from Kagig, with orders to say that every man at
his disposal was engaged by a very strong body of Turks who had spent
the night creeping up close to their first objective, and had rushed
it with the bayonet shortly after dawn.
"Order the women to stand ready by the bridge!" were the last words
(the man had the whole by heart), and then there was a scribbled
note from Will by way of make-weight.
"This end of the action looks pretty serious to me. We're badly
outnumbered. The men are fighting gamely, but--tell Gloria for God's
sake to look out after herself!"
I could hear no firing from that direction, for the great bulk of
Beirut Dagh shut it off.
"How far away is the fighting?" I demanded.
"Oh, a long way yet."
I motioned to him to return to Kagig, and sent my horse across the
bridge, catching sight of Gloria outside the hospital directly after
I had crossed it. She waved her hand to me; so, seeing she was
safe for the present, I let the message to her wait and started
down the valley toward Monty as fast as the horse could go. I had
my work cut out to drive him into the din of firing, for it was
evidently his first experience of bursting shells, and even at
half-a-mile distance he reared and plunged, driving me nearly crazy
with pain. I found Monty shepherding the reserves he had brought
down, watching through glasses from over the top of the spur that
formed the left-hand wall of the gut of the pass.
"I left Rustum Khan in my place," I began, expecting to be damned
at once for absenting without leave.
"Glad you came," he said, without turning his head.
I gave him my message, he listening while he watched the pass and
the oncoming enemy.
"I tried to warn you of treachery this morning!" I said hotly. Pain
and memory did nothing toward keeping down choler. "Where's Peter
Measel? Seen him anywhere? Where's Maga Jhaere? Seen her, either?
Those Turks are coming on into what they must know is a trap, with
the confidence that proves their leaders have special information!
Look at them! They can see this pass is lined, with our riflemen,
yet on they come! They must suspect we've a surprise in store--yet
look at them!"
They were coming on line after line, although Fred had turned the
ammunition loose, and the rifle-fire of our well-hidden men was
playing havoc. Monty seemed to me to look more puzzled than afraid.
I went on telling him of the message Kagig had sent, and offered him
Will's note, but he did not even look at it.
"Ah!" he said suddenly. "Now I understand! Yes, it's treachery.
I beg your pardon for my thoughts this morning."
"Granted," said I, "but what next?"
"Look!" he said simply.
There were two sudden developments. What was left of the first
advancing company of Turks halted below the ramp, and with sublime
effrontery, born no doubt of knowledge that we had no artillery,
proceeded to dig themselves a shallow trench. The Zeitoonli were
making splendid shooting, but it was only a question of minutes until
the shelter would be high enough for crouching men.
The second disturbing factor was that in a long line extending up
the flank of the mountain, roughly parallel to the lower end of the
track that Monty had caused to be cut from the castle, the trees
were coming down as if struck by a cyclone! There must have been
more than a regiment armed with axes, cutting a swath through the
forest to take our secret road in flank!
That meant two things clearly. Some one had told Mahmoud of our
plan to charge down from the height and surprise him, thus robbing
us of all the benefit of unexpectedness; and, when the charge should
take place, our men would have to ride down four abreast through
ambush. And, if Mahmoud had merely intended placing a few men to
trap our horsemen, he would never have troubled to cut down the
forest. Plainly, he meant to destroy our mounted men at point-blank
range, and then march a large force up the horse-track, so turning
the tables on us. Considering the overwhelming numbers he had at
his disposal, the game to me looked almost over.
Not so, however, to Monty. He glanced over his shoulder once at
the men and women waiting for his orders, and I saw the women begin
inspiriting their men. Then he turned on me.
"Now damn your ankle," he said. "Try to forget it! Climb up there
and tell Fred to choose a hundred men and bring them down himself
to oppose the enemy in front if he comes over the top of that ditch.
Then you gallop back and get word to Rustum Khan to bring both squadrons
down here. Tell him to stay by Fred and hold his horses until the
last minute. Then you get all the women you can persuade to follow
you, and man the castle walls! Hurry, now--that's all!"
There was a man holding my horse. I tied the horse securely to a
tree instead, and told the man to help me climb, little suspecting
what a Samson I had happened on. He laughed, seized me in his arms,
and proceeded to carry me like a baby up the goat-track leading to
the hidden rifle-pits and trenches. I persuaded him to let me get
up on his shoulders, and in that way I had a view of most of what
was happening.
Monty led his men and women at a run across the top of the ramp
flanked by the full fire of the entrenched company below; and his
action was so unexpected that the Turks fired like beginners. There
were not many bodies lying quiet, nor writhing either when the last
woman had disappeared among the trees on the far side. Those that
did writhe were very swiftly caused to cease by volleys aimed at
them in obedience to officers' orders. It began to look as if Gloria's
hospital would not be over-worked.
The tables were now turned on the Turks, except in regard to numbers.
In the first place, as soon as Monty's command had penetrated downward
through the trees parallel with the side of the ramp, he had the
entrenched company in flank. It did not seem to me that he left
more than ten or fifteen men to make that trench untenable, but the
Turks were out of it within five minutes and in full retreat under
a hot fire from Fred's men.
Then Monty pushed on to the far side of the castle road and held
the remaining fringe of trees in such fashion that the Turks could
not guess his exact whereabouts nor what number he had with him.
Cutting down trees in a hurry is one thing, but cutting them down
in face of hidden rifle-fire is most decidedly another, especially
when the axmen have been promised there will be no reprisals.
The tree-felling suddenly ceased, and there began a close-quarters
battle in the woods, in which numbers had less effect than knowledge
of the ground and bravery. The Turk is a brave enough fighter, but
not to be compared with mountain-Armenians fighting for their home,
and it was easy to judge which held the upper hand.
I found Fred smoking his pipe and enjoying himself hugely, with half
a dozen runners ready to carry word to whichever section of the
defenses seemed to him to need counsel. He could see what Monty
had done, and was in great spirits in consequence.
"I've bagged two Turk officers to my own gun," he announced. "Murder
suits me to a T."