'A CHIEL AMANG THEM'
Next morning he woke late. Climbing into the tree, he saw that the sun
was already many degrees up the sky. He looked around, up and down the
nullah. No one was in sight. He clambered to the ground and made his
way carefully to the hill-top, taking cover of the scrub. From this
post he had a view, on the one side, of the upper channel of the
Dardanelles, above the Narrows; on the other, of the waters of the
AEgean. Vessels were to-day, as on previous days, moving up and down
the former. One small craft, apparently a motor launch, which he had
noticed before, was again slipping across the channel towards Chanak,
the township which he could clearly see on the opposite shore. No doubt
it had started from Maidos, which was tucked away under the hills
beneath him: he had seen it many times from the deck of a steamer.
"Lucky beggars!" he thought, envying the occupants of the launch as he
watched it through his borrowed field-glasses, and recalling trips,
among the most enjoyable of his experiences, at home and in the Sea of
Marmora.
"Now to forage," he said to himself.
It was unlikely that the pursuers, after the excitement of yesterday,
had abandoned the hunt, and in descending the hill he used as much
caution as though they were still in sight. His destination was a small
farm which he had noticed standing by itself some little distance
westward of the village of Biyuk Anafarta: the village itself, of
course, he durst not venture into. His progress was slow, for in
flitting prudently from one patch of scrub to another, he had to make
considerable detours to avoid more or less open spaces. Every now and
again, too, he stopped to listen, placing his ear to the ground.
Coming after some hours' difficult wandering to the outskirts of the
plantations about the village, he was alarmed to see a herd of cattle in
the charge of several herdsmen moving along the rough track that led
past the farm, the direction in which he had himself intended to go. It
was unsafe to continue his journey at present. He took a drink from a
hill stream, and plunged into a thicket, resolving, in spite of his
hunger, to wait there until late in the afternoon, when movements along
the road were likely to have ceased.
It was about four o'clock when he ventured to leave his hiding-place.
There was no sign of movement in the hills. In the distance smoke was
rising from the village chimneys. Stealing his way as carefully as
before, he struck off in the direction of the farm. The husbandmen, as
he had hoped, were still at work in the fields. There would not be many
persons at the farm.
Taking advantage of every inequality of the ground he crept to the back
of the homestead--a small stone-built place with wooden byres and barns
attached. He was well aware that the methods which had formerly served
him could not be employed now. Without doubt his description had been
circulated throughout Gallipoli. Whether he offered to buy food, or
sought to extort it, he would run equal risk. Even if he escaped the
hands of the country people, eager to obtain the reward which had
probably been offered for his capture, he could not show himself without
their putting the troops on his track. With every man's hand against
him he could not afford to indulge the scruples that would be natural to
him in normal circumstances. He meant to obtain food as quickly and as
secretly as possible. But he was not going to steal. He would take what
he could find, but leave a fair price.
All was quiet around the farm. Gaining the outbuildings undetected, he
slipped along under cover of them until he had nearly reached what was
apparently the kitchen: a light smoke rose from the chimney above. More
than once during his excursions he had realised how greatly his
difficulties would have been increased if the dog were as popular in
Turkey as in England. He had not the watchful farmyard dog to fear. The
action which had cleared Constantinople of the curs that used to infest
its streets seemed to have its counterpart in other parts of the
country: at any rate, he had not hitherto been worried by dogs.
But he found now, with as much surprise as consternation, that he had
another kind of guardian to reckon with. He had almost reached what he
supposed to be the kitchen when a small flock of geese advanced towards
him in a mass with much hissing and cackling. There was no alternative
but to beat a prompt retreat. He slipped through the open doorway of
one of the outbuildings, closed the door behind him, and seeing another
door ajar at the further end he hastened towards it, took a cautious
peep outside and passed into the open. A glance round the corner of the
wall showed him a middle-aged woman--dressed in the rusty black which
the male Turk, himself inclined to bright colours, thinks appropriate to
his women folk--hurrying from the kitchen to ascertain why the watchful
geese were protesting so noisily.
Here was his chance. He darted across the open space between himself
and the kitchen, peeped in at the open door, and seeing that the room
was empty slipped inside. From the upper floor came the voices of
children. There was no time to waste. Frank knew nothing about the
room except that it was large, that a pot was on the fire, and that some
flat loaves of bread, recently baked, stood in a row upon a slab of
stone beside the oven. Without a moment's hesitation he began to cram
these into the capacious pockets of his military great-coat, and was on
the point of taking out some money to replace them on the slab when he
heard the woman returning, grumbling audibly at the geese for the
needless interruption of her cooking.
To escape by the door was impossible without being seen. The wooden
steps in the corner invited him to the upper floor, but the children's
voices repelled. There was no other door. He was caged. He was just
making up his mind to brazen it out and trust to his ready wit in
explaining his intrusion to the housewife when his eye fell on the long
wide board, set against one wall and raised a few inches from the floor,
which serves the humble Turk as a sleeping-place. On the impulse of the
moment he tiptoed across the room, dropped to the floor, and was just
able to wriggle under the board before the woman entered. For a moment
he was doubtful whether, quick as he had been, the woman had not caught
sight of the skirts of his coat, and he pressed himself against the wall
in a fever of anxiety. But she clumped across the floor straight to her
cooking pot, the sizzling of which mingled with her exclamations of
annoyance. She stirred the pot, made up the fire, called to the
children to go to sleep--and noticed that some of the loaves were gone.
"You limbs of Shaitan!" she called up the stairs. "Bring down those
loaves. Gluttons you are. Did I not give you a supper fit for princes?
Bring down the loaves, I say."
Shrill voices answered her. A boy came half-way down the steps and
protested that neither he nor his brothers or sisters had left their
room above.
"Wallahy! are there evil djinni abroad?" exclaimed the woman. "Get you
to bed. Allah preserve us! What will the man say when he returns?"
She went to the door and looked out for her husband; it was time for him
to come for his evening meal. Frank already regretted his hasty action.
If only the woman would go out! If only she had not believed her small
son, but had gone upstairs to prove him! Apparently he was a
truth-teller. Frank felt himself condemned to a long and wearisome
detention. The farmer would return; he would eat his supper; then rugs
would be spread on the board, and the good people would sleep there.
How in the world was he to get away without disturbing them? Meanwhile
he could at least eat some of the bread which the woman supposed had
been spirited away.
The woman came back to her cooking. Frank's nose was tantalised by the
savoury smell of the ragout simmering in the pot. It was growing dusk,
and the woman lighted a small oil-lamp, then sat down on the board,
muttering incantations against evil spirits. Presently footsteps and
voices were heard from outside. The woman rose hastily to her feet and
went to the door. A man's voice said a few words, which Frank could not
catch. The woman responded with exclamations of surprise and annoyance.
Then they came into the room, followed by several pairs of legs. Frank
started and shrank more closely against the wall. In the dim light on
the floor beyond his hiding-place he saw military boots. There were
still loud voices outside. He heard the farmer speaking.
"It is a humble place, effendim, but you are welcome."
"Ahi! That stew has a savoury smell. I have an appetite. Haste you,
woman, and set before us what you have in the pot."
Three pairs of legs moved towards the board. Three heavy forms dropped
upon it, with clanking of accoutrements. The wood groaned above Frank's
head. A chill perspiration broke out upon his skin. He was in the
midst of his pursuers.
So narrow was the space between the board and the floor that, lying
flat, he could not lift his head more than two or three inches without
striking it. To this grovelling posture he saw himself condemned for an
indefinite period. He groaned in spirit. What an ass he had been! He
breathed dust and smells; the air was stifling; how long could he endure
it? Suppose he sneezed!--the very thought made his blood run cold, and
he pinched his nose in anticipation.
Meanwhile the three officers above him were conversing until their meal
should be ready. Frank's attention was distracted from his woes to the
conversation rumbling on above his head.
"Mashallah! It is useless," he heard one say: he thought it was Abdi.
"But the shells do enormous damage when they hit," said the Anatolian
captain.
"True, but what do they hit? It is marvellous, I grant you, that they
hit anything at all--anything of value--when the guns are miles away and
the gunners can see no mark, and without their aeroplanes they would
have wrought less havoc even than they have done. But what then? They
cease bombarding, and our engineers repair the damage with exceeding
swiftness."
"Taught by the Germans," remarked the lieutenant.
"Ahi, the Germans! Your masters!"
"And yours."
"Not so, by the Beard! We Kurds will never own them as masters. They
are great men of war, truly, great devisers of machines; no soulless
man, such as you Anatolians and the English, can stand against them.
But if they think to crush the free spirits of us Kurds in their
machinery--wallahy! I hate them."
"Think you the English have no souls?" asked the captain. "That wily
fellow we are hunting has, methinks, a spirit free as yours."
"Allah choke him!" growled the Kurd. "It is a knife in my heart that I
may not stay to catch him. Yet to spit Armenians is fitter work for a
Kurd than to hunt an Englishman, and be sure that few of those dogs who
are fleeing to the mountains near Antioch will escape us."
"Did I dream, or did my ears hear from your lips the boast that you
yourself would flay this very Englishman?" asked the captain gently:
perhaps he could afford to be ironical now that Abdi was recalled for a
more congenial task.
"Mashallah! would you taunt me, you pale knock-kneed son of an Anatolian
cabbage?" shouted Abdi. "By the Beard, I will carve your carcase into
gobbets before----"
"Peace!" said the lieutenant soothingly. "Here is supper. Let us
comfort our souls in all peaceableness."
The storm blew over, and for a brief space Frank heard nothing but
gobbling above him. Then the Kurd shouted for more bread.
"Peace be with you, effendim," said the woman, "but there is no more."
"No more!" roared the truculent Kurd. "What are these few crumbs that
you have set before three illustrious officers, and me the most
illustrious, even me, Abdi the Kurd?"
[Illustration: MAP OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA.]
"Wallahy! noble effendim," the woman faltered, "I was but even now
telling my man of the ill that befell this pious house this very night.
Behold, there was a fair array of loaves fresh from the oven upon yonder
stone, and I went from the house but for one moment to learn the meaning
of a great outcry among my geese, and when I came in, lo! of all those
fair loaves only two were left, and those two you have even now
consumed, effendim. Surely an evil spirit has flown in, and stolen the
loaves, and departed again secretly."
"What is this tale, woman? You were absent but for a moment?"
"Even so, effendim; and we know the spirits move swifter than the wind."
"By the Beard, it is that Englishman again," cried the Kurd, thumping
the board. "Is it not his doing, like those other deeds that we have
heard of him? Of a truth when the woman's back was turned he crept into
the house like a dog and departed with our supper. Mashallah! to-morrow
I must go to Chanak, or I would surely catch him and flay him alive."
"We cannot seek him to-night in the darkness," said the captain. "Truly
he has more than a dog's cunning."
"Let us eat and drink," said the lieutenant. "The stew is good, even
without bread. To-morrow we will run the fox to earth."
They finished the meal, and lit cigarettes. The lieutenant went to the
barn where the men were quartered, and posted a guard. He remarked on
his return that it was a useless precaution, since there were no enemies
on land.
"Except one--the Englishman," remarked his captain with a rueful laugh.
"He will not return here unless we ourselves bring him in bonds,"
returned the other.
Piecing together the scraps of conversation he had already heard with
those he heard subsequently, Frank came to the conclusion that Abdi had
been recalled to take part in a battue of Armenians in Asia Minor, and
was to leave next morning by motor launch for Chanak in advance of his
men.
By and by the officers stamped about the room while the housewife
arranged rugs and cushions on the board for their night's repose. She
then followed her husband upstairs to the higher floor, and the
officers, after removing their boots and accoutrements, arranged
themselves on the simple bed. The lamp was left alight, and, door and
window being closed, the room was filled with a heavy, smoky air which
soon lulled the three men to sleep.
Frank was by this time suffering painfully from his cramped position and
the foul air. At first he had intended to remain in his hiding-place
until the officers departed in the morning, and then to seize the first
opportunity of slipping away. But as time went on he became convinced
that he could not endure his situation through the long night. Before
morning he would be asphyxiated, or so racked with pain as to have lost
the use of his limbs. If he did not escape during the hours of darkness
he would be unable to escape at all. And when the heavy breathing and
snores above him showed that slumber had sealed the senses of his
enemies, he determined to make an attempt to get away. To be caught
gamely at night was better than to be taken helpless in the morning.
It was fortunate that the farmer's primitive bed was a flat board, and
not a divan with mattresses bulging below. Otherwise he could hardly
have moved without causing some pressure beneath the sleepers that would
certainly have disturbed them. He lay for a time trying to visualise
the room. The board ran along the whole length of the wall opposite the
door. There was not space enough for him to creep out at either the
head or the foot: to reach the door he must cross the whole width of the
room. Dim though the light was, it was sufficient to reveal his form.
But there was no other way.
With infinite precaution he sidled his way from beneath the board, then
lay still to listen. The three men were snoring in three different
tones. He inferred from the sounds that two of the three had their
faces towards the door. To rise at once might cause them to open their
eyes; his best chance lay in crawling a little way over the floor.
Raising himself on hands and knees, he drew himself along inch by inch;
then, gaining courage from the uninterrupted regularity of the snores,
he rose to his feet and ventured to glance round. The three men were
curled up under their rugs; only the tops of their heads showed.
At the same glance he noticed their accoutrements lying on the stone
slab from which he had taken the loaves. Prompted by a dare-devil
impulse that had also an element of precaution, he stole on tiptoe to
the slab, and with slow careful movements, though his hands were
trembling a little, he lifted the flaps of the revolver cases over their
buttons and abstracted the revolvers one by one. If the men chanced to
wake before he was clear of the door, they should at least have no
weapons to fire at him. A slight click as he slipped the last revolver
into his pocket caused a momentary pause in the _moto continuo_ of one
of the men's recitative, and Frank clutched his own revolver, ready for
emergency; but the officer did not stir, and Frank, facing them, crept
backward towards the door.
He could not remember whether the door had been locked or bolted, and
felt an inward quaking at the thought of having to turn a possibly rusty
key or draw a creaking bolt. It was with immense relief that he
perceived that the door was fastened only by a wooden catch. Just,
however, as he was raising his hand to release it he heard a step
outside, approaching the door. With instant presence of mind he took
two quick silent paces to the shelf on which the lamp stood and pinched
out the flame.
There was a knock on the door. The snoring abruptly ceased, but no
answer was given; the sleepers had not been fully awakened. The knock
was repeated. A sleepy voice from the bed said "Enter." The door
opened, and Frank, being unluckily almost behind it, could not slip out.
There was a little diffused light from the moon below the horizon, just
sufficient to reveal Frank's form, in its long military great-coat, to
the newcomer.
"A runner with a despatch from headquarters, effendim," said the man,
taking Frank for one of his own officers.
At one and the same moment Frank silently held out his hand for the
despatch and a voice from the other side of the room murmured, "Bring it
here. Light the lamp first." Frank was conscious of surprise and
hesitancy in the attitude of the visitor. The critical moment had come.
Taking the despatch and thrusting it into his pocket, he bent suddenly,
sprang at the man's knees, lifted him from his feet and hurled him
across the room. A threefold shout followed him as he dashed into the
open. The sentry hurried towards him.
"Fire!" cried Frank. "Fetch water!"
"Fire! Fire!" repeated the man, turning about and running towards the
well in the yard.
Frank had already rushed in the opposite direction to the dark side of
the house. The clamour grew in volume; men were rushing hither and
thither with the panic of disturbed sleepers; shrill screams from the
startled housewife and her children mingled with the deeper shouts of
the soldiers. And Frank dashed away into the darkness. At first
heedless of his direction, he stopped when the sounds were faint in the
distance, and, panting, tried to take his bearings. Somewhat more than
an hour later he clambered down the hollow trunk to his sepulchral
refuge, and threw himself exhausted on its earthy floor.