OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN--
/After/ that exciting ride home, profound peace reigned about the
Residency for a whole day, as though the Khans wished to give time for
the impression to sink in. Then their Vakils arrived again, in a high
state of alarm, with which they were desperately anxious to infect the
British. The Khans were absolutely powerless to restrain the Arabits,
they said--as Colonel Bayard had had some slight proof already. Their
feelings were outraged by the signing of the treaty, and they would
only accept it on the condition that Gul Ali was at once acknowledged
again as holder of the Turban, and that Sir Henry’s troops, which had
advanced steadily down the river bank till they were now within a few
marches of the capital, should be instantly withdrawn. Otherwise, the
ambassador would do well to surrender the treaty and depart, for the
Khans could not protect him. To the mingled wrath and despair of his
officers, the threatened loss of the treaty--which had been so hard to
win--induced Colonel Bayard to write urging Sir Harry not merely to
come to Qadirabad and re-establish Gul Ali on the _masnad_, but to
withdraw his army into the desert--as far as the remote fortress of
Khangarh, near the British border,--that his peaceful intentions might
be made thoroughly clear. He told the Vakils what he had written,
pointing out that it would have no effect unless the Khans could keep
the Arabits under control, and they accepted the warning and withdrew
with all gravity, though their errand must have seemed to them
successful to the point of absurdity.
The next day Eveleen was in the garden--in the uncomfortable state
popularly described as finding herself at a loose end. She had tried
to nurse Richard, but Richard as an invalid was neither grateful nor
gracious. She wanted to fuss over him, and he ruthlessly declined to
be fussed over. He did not wish to be read to--perhaps this was not
surprising, since the only available reading consisted of back numbers
of various Bombay papers, singing the praises of Colonel Bayard and
patronising the General’s wisdom in perceiving in him the only man to
deal with the situation,--he did not wish to be talked to or otherwise
amused; all he asked was to be let alone and allowed to smoke in
peace. Thereupon Eveleen naturally went off in a huff--thereby, as she
realised presently with disgust, assuring him precisely the selfish
tranquillity he craved--and established herself in a shady spot, where
a masonry platform had been built under the shelter of two or three
large trees, to recover her equanimity. It was unfortunate for this
purpose that her position brought her in view of her old antagonist
the gardener, who had cheerfully ascribed the lack of garden produce
to the Beebee’s interference at the beginning of the cold weather.
Nevertheless, after the manner of his kind, he was able to supply
vegetables--at a price,--and Eveleen raged in vain when he exhibited
blandly his empty garden-beds. She was quite sure that he had sold
everything they contained, and was now suborning some other gardener
to do the same, though it was not quite clear who in Qadirabad would
be likely to have a taste for European vegetables. Perhaps it was Tom
Carthew, she thought, and wondered idly how he was getting on in his
uncomfortable, half-and-half, secretive life.
As so often happens, the thought was followed at no great distance by
the appearance of its object, though Eveleen did not perceive this at
first. What she saw from her point of vantage was an interested group
of women and children near the stables, gathered round a man who
seemed to be selling something. It was most probably sweets, she
thought, and remembering that she had not yet given the people in the
compound the treat which was their due after her long absence, she
told Ketty to fetch the man. It was altogether beneath Ketty’s dignity
to enter the domains of the syce-folk, but there was a servant close
at hand, specially detailed by Colonel Bayard to watch over the safety
of her Madam-sahib, and she despatched him on the errand. It was
rather a disappointment to find that the pedlar was not selling
sweets, but glass bangles--designed for what seemed impossibly slender
wrists--strung on rods according to size. Still, these would please
the women, at any rate, and she sent Ketty to the house for her purse
while she made her selection. To her astonishment, the moment the ayah
was out of hearing, the pedlar spoke in English--low and hastily.
“Don’t look at me, Miss Evie; I’m risking my life to be here, but it’s
to save yours. What was the Major thinkin’ of to bring you with him at
a time like this?”
“He didn’t bring me; I came,” returned Eveleen with dignity. “Now why
would you be risking your life, Tom Carthew?”
“Because they had it all ready to murder the Colonel and the gentlemen
two days ago, and though they were put off it then they mean to do it
now. You tell the Colonel, ma’am, not to trust Khair Husain Khan. I’ll
tell you how he’ll know what the rascal’s up to. He’ll come and offer
to post a guard of his servants to protect this place--and if you
accept, the guard will murder you all in your beds.”
“Now I wonder will the Colonel believe it?” mused Eveleen, her heart
beating a little faster than usual.
“He’d better. Why, ma’am, it was touch and go t’other day. The Khans
had made up their minds to cut up the Colonel into little pieces,
because he pretended to be their friend and was deceivin’ ’em. Then
when he made ’em send away the guards, they had the sherbet ready to
poison him--and they’d have done it too, but for what he let drop
about bringing the General here. They are fair set on gettin’ hold of
the General, and it won’t be cuttin’ into little bits for him. They’ve
sworn to put a cord through his nose and drag him round the city at
the tail of young Hafiz Ullah’s horse, for the people to see, and
after that--well, they call him Satan’s brother after his getting to
Sultankot as he did, never runnin’ across any of the bands that was
looking for him.”
“I wonder now, did they look very hard?” There must be no showing the
white feather, though Eveleen’s hands felt clammy, and her thoughtful
voice was a little shaky.
“They say they did, anyhow. Well, you can guess what they think is the
proper way to treat the devil. But will the General be coming, ma’am?”
“I’d say he would not.” Relentless cross-examining of Richard and
Brian had convinced Eveleen of this. “But sure the Khans will do
nothing till he has written to say so?”
“You might have said that yesterday, but something has happened this
morning to change their minds. There was a lot of Bharri chiefs on
their way here, and they came slap up against the General’s army.
Whether it was just brag, or they wanted to pick a quarrel, I don’t
know, but they made to ride straight through the camp of the Khemistan
Horse, and got taken prisoners. When the news came in, all the Khans
cried out at once that it was war now, and the General wouldn’t come.
That’s all I know.” His eyes were on the approaching form of Ketty,
and he began to rearrange his wares.
“No, but tell me quickly, what do they mean to do?” urged Eveleen.
“I’ve told you what they mean to do to the General. For his army, they
swear they have men enough to drive it into the river, without drawin’
a sword--just pushing. Then cut the throats of every English man,
woman, and child left in Khemistan. That’s what they mean to do.”
“But you can’t stay with them! Come here to us.”
“No, ma’am, I’ve made my bed and I must lie on it. Make the Beebee
understand that I am a poor man, and cannot possibly sell at the price
she offers,” he went on whiningly as Ketty came up. “Why must I be
ruined because I cannot afford a shop in the Bazar?”
The invitation to bargain roused Ketty’s keenest instincts.
Metaphorically she shouldered her mistress out of the fray, and fell
upon the unhappy bangle-seller tooth and nail. She brought him down
from annas to pice, and then pice by pice until he declared
truly--though she naturally thought it was falsely--that his wares had
cost him more to buy. Then she suddenly reflected that the
Madam-sahib’s wealth and importance would suffer in the estimation of
the servant people if she was known to drive too keen a bargain, and
with a royal air accepted on her behalf his last offer, informing him
unkindly that it was in consideration of his obvious wretchedness.
Eveleen, standing by and fuming, had to curb her impatience still
further and bid the pedlar follow her to a spot commanding a nearer
view of the stables, whence she watched him fitting the bangles to the
arms of the recipients, and received their grateful salams, and then
only was she free to return to the house, and burst in upon Richard
with her news. It was just as well he was not the serious invalid she
had wished to make him, for she could not possibly have kept her story
in any longer, and he had to remind her--as soon as he was able to
understand what she was driving at--that the source of the warning
must remain a secret. This had not occurred to her, and she was so
much shocked at her own carelessness that she consented--though sorely
against the grain--to postpone warning Colonel Bayard until he came of
his own accord to smoke a cigar with Richard. To send for him would
have aroused suspicion as readily as to go to speak to him in his
office and ask that the native clerks might be sent out of hearing,
and the delay had also the advantage of allowing Tom Carthew time to
get back to the city before suspicion could be aroused.
But it was very hard to wait, and when Colonel Bayard came at last,
his reception of the great news was disappointing in the extreme. At
first it seemed as if he would not believe it at all.
“There’s no likelihood whatever of Khair Husain’s offering to send
troops to protect the Agency,” he said. “It would be a gross insult,
and he wouldn’t dream of it.”
“But why should the Daroga suggest such a thing unless it had been
discussed?” asked Richard, for his wife was too much taken aback to
remonstrate.
“The man wants to safeguard his own neck, of course. He thinks, very
naturally, that Sir Henry is determined to destroy the Khans, and is
afraid he will suffer for being mixed up with them. So he tries to
establish a claim on our gratitude in advance by making up this tale.”
“But sure he was risking his life by coming to warn us!” cried
Eveleen, with flashing eyes. “Would you take no notice of what he
said?”
“Happily,” said Richard, in his coolest tones, “we shall be able to
test his truthfulness very shortly. If Khair Husain does offer to send
troops, the warning is confirmed.”
“But if Bayard has made up his mind not to take it?” Eveleen spoke
before Colonel Bayard could. He raised his hand in protest.
“Not made up my mind, ma’am--you’re mistaken there. I should hardly
feel justified in ignoring such a warning--yet to refuse the offer
would be a precious strong step to take. Khair Husain would naturally
feel himself ill-used.”
“But if you accepted it, we would _be_ ill-used,” said Eveleen
triumphantly. “Would you really like that better? And didn’t you
yourself just this minute say the offer would be an insult?”
“My dear Richard, there was a great casuist lost in Mrs Ambrose.”
Colonel Bayard managed to keep his indulgent air, though Eveleen felt,
and looked, as though she would like to box his ears. “And what,
ma’am”--kindly--“would be your idea of the proper procedure when the
offer had been refused?”
“Of course, I’d like greatly to be in a real fight,” said Eveleen
regretfully. “But”--summoning all the forces of duty and self-denial
to her aid--“I know you gentlemen will all cry out with one voice
that’s my bloodthirsty nonsense.” Deeply shocked, Colonel Bayard
negatived the suggestion with a deprecating hand. “Ah, don’t I know
it? So I’ll be moderate and sensible, and only say I suppose we ought
all get up the river again in the _Asteroid_.”
“And betray my trust here?” It was his turn to triumph. “No, ma’am, I
came to Qadirabad by the General’s orders”--he disregarded a sound as
of dissent from Richard,--“and here I stay until either I am turned
out or Sir Henry sends me orders to leave. But my first duty--Ambrose,
I know you will be with me in this--is to assure the safety of the
lady who has laboured so pluckily to save our lives, as she believes.
I will send word to Franks that Mrs Ambrose will sleep on board
to-night.”
“You think there’ll be a fight, and you won’t let me be in it?” Her
undisguised anguish and dismay brought back Colonel Bayard’s sunny
smile.
“Precisely!” he said, the last vestige of his ill-humour vanishing.
“Why, what curs you must think us, ma’am, to be willing to expose you
to a peril against which you have yourself warned us!”
Richard laughed--he could not help it--and Eveleen glared from one to
the other. “I’ll never speak a word to either of y’again--unless I
have to!” she declared wrathfully, and swept majestically from the
room. For the rest of the day she refused to be comforted or placated,
and made Richard very angry--because he felt she was making him
ridiculous--by declining to address him directly, and sending him
messages through Ketty, though they were on the same verandah.
Therefore he triumphed in his turn when, after being summoned to be
present when Colonel Bayard received a Vakil from Khair Husain Khan,
he was able to meet her again with a fine air of mystery.
“Something very queer about this----” shaking his head solemnly as he
sat down. “Giving warning is one thing, but playing the enemy’s
game----! Now why should she----?”
“Who are you talking about?” demanded Eveleen quickly. He ignored the
question.
“To offer precisely similar advice! Can she be in league with their
Highnesses? Yet how communicate with ’em? Something strange here----”
“Major Ambrose, are you talking about me?” Eveleen had flown to the
side of his chair, and was shaking him.
“My dear, I thought I was an invalid?” meekly. “May I not speak of
you, if it’s forbidden to speak to you?”
“Ah, then, don’t be such a tease! What’s it all about?”
“Does it flatter you to know that Khair Husain thinks precisely as you
do? The Vakil advised Bayard most earnestly to be off by water at once
if he would not accept the guard of troops, for the Khans can’t
restrain the Arabits any longer.”
“It’s flattered I am, indeed! But I won’t be if Bayard took his advice
when he wouldn’t take mine.”
“Don’t be afraid. He swore he wouldn’t budge an inch nor post an extra
sentry--told ’em to do their worst, in fact. So you are likely to
enjoy your wish and see a fight.”
“I never said I’d like to see one,” indignantly. “I said I wanted to
be in it!”
“Well, seeing it is the next best thing, surely?” But Eveleen did not
think so.
“If I’d known I would be punished for saving all our lives, I wouldn’t
have done it,” she said tragically to Brian as they walked down to the
river after dinner. It was thought better for her to make her
unwilling exit in the dark, lest hostile watchers, seeing it, should
interpret it as a sign of fear.
“Be aisy, then,” returned Brian. “You couldn’t have kept it in.”
“Couldn’t--eh? What are y’after now?”
“You had to give the warning, I tell you. You couldn’t have held your
tongue, if it was to save all our lives, and ’twas just the opposite
in this case.”
“D’ye tell me I couldn’t hold my tongue if ’twas necessary? A fine
brother y’are--to insult your own sister!”
“We’ll consult Ambrose, if you like. Will you say he wouldn’t agree
with me?”
“Of course he would. Gentlemen always agree with one another.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have him agree with you, when all his experience
went the other way, would you?”
“Wr-r-r-retch!” said Eveleen, with such a terrific rolling of her
_r_’s that Richard turned round and asked if she couldn’t get a few
more in. She disdained to reply, and happily at this moment they
reached the sandbank to which the _Asteroid_ was moored, and were met
at the foot of the gangway by Captain Franks in a high state of
pleasurable excitement.
“Welcome on board, ma’am! I have good news for you, sir----” to
Colonel Bayard. “There! d’ye hear that?”
“A steamer’s whistle?” in astonishment.
“Precisely, sir--the whistle of the _Nebula_, no less, with the Light
Company of Her Majesty’s --th on board, sent off post-haste by Sir
Henry, as soon as he saw things were getting risky here.”
“A welcome reinforcement, indeed!” said Colonel Bayard heartily. “We
must see that the news gets to the Khans at once. They will find it
easy enough to restrain the Arabits now. But how did you hear of this,
captain?”
“Why, sir, finding the river so low, Captain Warner was afraid of
running aground in the dark, so he sent his mate and two men in the
dinghy to find us and see where the channels were, and I sent my mate
back to pilot ’em in.”
“Well done. We must get ’em ashore at once--make a regular _tamasha_
of it, so that the spies in the bazar may take exaggerated reports to
the Fort. This is an enormous relief to my mind.”
“And incidentally to mine,” remarked Richard to Brian, as Colonel
Bayard handed Eveleen up the gangway to the deck, whither Captain
Franks preceded them to receive her properly. “Has it struck you that
we three become civilians from the moment Montgomery and his fellows
arrive?”
“D’ye tell me that? Ah, I see it! The Colonel is a mere Political, you
and I nothing but Staff--ornamental but powerless. Senior officer in
command of European troops takes charge. What a do!”
“Better restrain your joy a bit. We don’t want the notion to occur to
Bayard, or he’ll order the _Nebula_ to stand off till daylight, by
which time----”
“We’ll be smashed entirely,” supplied Brian. “I believe you, my boy!
Whereas if the Khans hear large reinforcements have arrived in the
night, they’ll wait till morning to attack, so as to get a good look
at ’em first.”
With much shrieking of whistles and a lavish display of lights, the
_Nebula_ was welcomed to her anchorage, and that the effect was not
wasted was clear from the array of villagers, roused from their beds
by the noise, who lined the bank above the Agency and watched the
landing with awed and not altogether pleasurable interest. Brian
pointed them out to Richard with a grin.
“Choused--eh?” responded Richard. “Every man of ’em went to bed
expecting to have the looting of the place in the morning, no doubt.
To see seventy-five Europeans, when you expected only to have thirty
dismounted sowars to deal with, must give you a bit of a shock.”
Brian nudged his elbow. “D’ye hear what Montgomery’s saying? We ain’t
out of the wood yet.”
“You are well supplied with ammunition, I trust, Colonel?” the --th
Captain was asking. “We came off in such a hurry that half-way here I
found to my annoyance we have nothing but the ten rounds apiece in the
men’s pouches.”
“Well, we could not stand a prolonged siege, certainly,” laughed
Colonel Bayard, “but that will matter less, as I am convinced we shall
not now have to fight at all.”
But Colonel Bayard was wrong. Whether the Arabits were really beyond
their masters’ control, or whether the spies in the village just
outside the Agency wall had gauged the extent of the reinforcement and
adjudged it negligible, morning light showed that the place was
surrounded, though the various bodies of horse and foot whose presence
could be distinguished betrayed no indecent alacrity to come out into
the open or approach too near. There was nothing in the nature of a
surprise, for Captain Montgomery lacked Colonel Bayard’s pathetic
faith in the Khans, and even a night attack would have found the
garrison prepared. Unfortunately there was no time now to take the
precautionary measures which should have been put in hand before. Save
on the side of the river, assailants might find cover in every
direction almost up to the walls, and at two points the compound was
actually commanded from without--by the native village which had grown
up as a sort of adjunct to the stables, and on the opposite side by a
house forming a kind of outpost, where the doctor had formerly lived,
and which was too much detached to be occupied effectively by so small
a garrison. Reluctantly Montgomery dismissed the idea of blowing it
up, since the powder could not be spared, and left it outside the line
of the defences. The two strong points were the Residency itself and a
range of office buildings, high and flat-roofed, which had fortunately
been placed so as to command both the village and the all-important
landing-stage. Montgomery observed caustically that it was quite
impossible Colonel Bayard could have put it there deliberately, so
that its defensive value was a happy accident. From it communication
could be maintained with the steamers by means of flag signalling, and
thus it was that Eveleen was able to keep in touch with the events of
that long morning from the shelter contrived for her close under one
of the paddle-boxes. The _Asteroid_ was a most peaceful craft, since
her builders had evidently considered bulwarks unnecessary for river
work, and her flush deck afforded no protection whatever to any one
upon it. She mounted a twelve-pounder gun, for which a breastwork had
been built up forward of boxes and cases of all sorts, and a similar
wall was erected about Eveleen and Ketty, outside which they were
forbidden to stir. Since the paddle-box cut off all view of the shore,
Eveleen insisted on having one look before she was built up in her
cell; but there was not much to see, even from the top, since the
lowness of the river left the Residency on a kind of mud cliff
considerably above the vessel. But she could see little puffy clouds
of smoke, rising and dissipating themselves slowly in the morning sky,
and followed by reports--more or less loud as they came from the heavy
matchlocks of the enemy, or the muskets which the --th were firing
through the loopholes they had cut in the mud wall with their
bayonets. On the right the reports sounded more distant, but almost
continuous--a sort of perpetual popping; but on the left shot answered
shot, as the enemy fired from cover among the village houses, and the
European marksmen replied from the office roof. Captain Franks hurried
her down, refusing to let her stay another moment, but she extracted
from him that the attack on the right was what he feared most, owing
to the expenditure of ammunition necessary to keep down the fire from
the Doctor’s House. He did not tell her, but there was another danger
at this point, in the shape of a nullah which formed a kind of covered
way right up to the wall, and which could be enfiladed only from the
Doctor’s House, so that a body of resolute men might assault with but
little fear of loss. It was noticeable, however, that the enemy, in
spite of their enormous superiority in numbers, betrayed no desire
whatever to come to close quarters, seeming satisfied with obliging
the besieged to expend their ammunition--largely wasted, of course,
owing to the ample cover around. The firing had gone on for close upon
three hours, and Eveleen, stifling in her nook among the boxes, had
assured Captain Franks piteously several times that she would rather
be shot than cooked, when a new sound, making itself heard in a
momentary lull, caused the Captain to prick up his ears--a sound of
rumbling and clanking.
“Guns, or I’m a Dutchman!” he said to himself, and noticed how the
signalman--who but the moment before had been assuring him cheerfully
that there were masses of the enemy in the village, but they durst not
leave cover; that the orchard was full of them, but not one could even
lift up his head to look over the wall; that the three men guarding
the gate into the bazar from the stables had not even had to fire a
shot--stiffened up suddenly and listened. Captain Franks listened too.
Where would the guns get to work--from the bazar square, whence they
could not merely knock the defences to pieces, but cut off the retreat
of the besieged? But no, the enemy were taking no risks, and the old
sailor was conscious of a kind of vicarious shame on their behalf as
he realised that they would not face the fire from the office roof.
The rumbling and clanking continued along the road that flanked the
landward wall of the compound, and then seemed to drop. “The nullah!”
said Captain Franks, and turned to decipher the signals which were
appealing urgently for his attention.
“‘To fall back from the front of the compound on the Residency, and
withdraw in an hour, when baggage has been evacuated.’ So we cut our
stick!” said Captain Franks. “What now? ‘Captain Delany will proceed
on board _Nebula_, and endeavour to rake nullah.’ Easier said than
done, if you ask me!” But he passed on the signal to his subordinate,
and presently Brian and his orderly ran down the path and across the
sandbanks. Once they were on board, the _Nebula_ dropped down a little
way till she was level with the nullah, and her people passed a
strenuous hour in trying to give their pop-gun sufficient elevation
for its shots to clear the cliff and drop in upon the enemy guns. No
very marked effect seemed to be produced--certainly there was no
direct hit,--but that a certain moral suasion was exercised seemed
clear from the fact that they did not open fire. Meanwhile, the
baggage-parties were busy as ants upon the cliff path and the hard
sands. Horses came down--to be put on board the flat-bottomed boat by
which they had come,--wounded men, to be made as comfortable as
possible on the shadeless deck, with the sun blazing down upon them,
for the only alternative was the oven-like depths below. Then came the
servants, to huddle together wherever they could find room,
whitey-brown with fear, some chattering spasmodically, some awestruck
into silence. As the baggage began to arrive--all sorts of things, of
all shapes and sizes,--there was work to be done, and Captain Franks
and his mate fell upon the servants with voice and threatening
fist--feebly cheered by the delighted wounded--until they roused
themselves sufficiently to help in piling packages to serve as a
bulwark. Then came a slow-moving party bearing still burdens
shoulder-high, and several rigid forms were laid reverently on the
deck forward, and covered with a tarpaulin.
As if this was a signal, the sound of a bugle came from the Agency--a
bugle which, though she had been warned to expect it, made Eveleen
shrink and shiver in her shelter, for it sounded the Retreat. Like a
reply to it came a burst of heavy firing, which was so alarming that
she was thankful when Captain Franks shouted down to her, “Only
covering the retreat on the office, ma’am!” Presently he added,
“They’re marching down from the water-gate now. Soon have ’em all safe
on board!” Almost as he spoke the noise of rumbling and clanking began
again, and he was black in the face before he could make her hear.
“They’ve found out how we’ve diddled ’em. S’pose they’ll bring the
guns round this way now.”
Before he had finished, Eveleen had pushed down part of her barricade
and climbed over the rest, and was running up the ladder to his side.
In ordinary circumstances he would have felt bound to rebuke her, but
he was too busy watching the last stages of the retreat--the troops
arriving section by section at the water-gate and marching down the
path, and last of all, the defenders of the office dropping from the
back windows and covering the rear as skirmishers. Even now the enemy
hesitated to press them closely, and one or two round shot from the
_Asteroid_ quite dispelled any thought of interfering with the march
across the sandbanks; but the rumbling and clanking was coming closer
again, and Captain Franks hailed Colonel Bayard with some anxiety.
“Get on board as quick as you can, sir, if you please! There ain’t no
time for being solemn. We’ve got the flat to pick up yet, and those
guns will have the range in a minute or two. _Nebula_, ahoy! Where do
you think you’re coming to?” for the smaller steamer had left her now
useless station opposite the nullah, and was forging up towards the
_Asteroid_. Captain Warner indicated by a thumb Brian on the bridge
beside him.
“Why, to help in the fight, of course!” shouted that young man
brightly. “We’ve got a gun too, have we not?”
“Yes, but you ain’t going to use it,” returned Captain Franks, losing
all sight of the fact that military authority was now paramount.
“Cap’en Warner”--they were now so close that he had not even to use
his speaking-trumpet--“you know that wood-pile you passed three miles
up? If the enemy think of that, we’re gone geese! Full steam ahead and
stand by to protect it. If there’s nobody there, you get on board
every stick you can carry--enough for us as well as yourselves.”
“Don’t go, captain,” said Brian encouragingly. “He’s trying to do you
out of the fight. Sure I’ll stand by you.”
“You’ll be coming on board here in irons as a mutineer in another two
minutes, young gentleman,” returned Captain Franks savagely. “Cap’en
Warner, who’s senior skipper of this flotilla? You have your orders.”
“Aye, aye, Cap’en Franks!” responded Captain Warner peaceably. “You
coming with us, sir?”
“Not a bit of it!” said Brian, and jumped from one ship to the other
as the _Nebula_ drew away. He landed neatly on the paddle-box, but his
orderly, following as in duty bound, fell into the water, and had to
be rescued with ropes by the Irish soldiers, who were enjoying
themselves hugely. Hauling him up on deck meant displacing the bulwark
of boxes, which brought Captain Franks down from the bridge in wrath
to insist upon its being put back instantly, in which he was backed by
Captain Montgomery as soon as he understood what had to be done next.
The flat-bottomed boat containing the horses drew considerably less
water than the steamer, and lay farther up the little creek in the
sand, so that the _Asteroid_ had to back towards her for the tow-rope
to be attached, and go ahead again to tow her out. While this
manœuvre was going on, the twelve-pounder was necessarily out of
action, and the enemy, waxing bold, made their appearance in the dry
bed of the river, as though resolved to emulate the unique feat of the
French in the Texel, and capture a vessel by means of cavalry. But the
European soldiers, lying down behind the boxes, fired through the
openings between them, and though the small remainder of precious
ammunition was woefully diminished, the enemy’s courage soon
evaporated.
The danger was not over yet, however. The steamer was laden almost to
the water’s edge, and the flat overcrowded and difficult to move.
Twice she ran aground, and once the tow-rope broke, while the
resourceful enemy added to the confusion by opening fire from the
three guns he had by this time mounted under the trees by the
water-gate. Musketry was of no avail at such a distance, and the
_Asteroid_ drew off again and brought her gun to bear, while the mate
led a party of volunteers to the rescue of the flat. Three times was
she brought a little way in triumph, and three times was the triumph
checked, but at last she was got out into the stream, while the
_Asteroid_ kept down the fire of the prudent gunners at the gate. The
course of the river took the steamer and her unwieldy consort nearer
the shore again as they moved off, and they were assailed not only by
the guns, but by musketry fire from matchlockmen posted in every patch
of cover. Every one had to lie flat on the deck save Captain Franks,
who seemed to bear a charmed life as he conned his ship through the
winding channel. So obvious were the dangers of the navigation that
the enemy on the bank kept up with the steamer for two miles, in the
earnest hope of seeing her run aground, when they could have poured
down on the sands and stormed her. But she failed to fulfil their
expectation, and drew up at length level with the _Nebula_, placidly
taking in logs from a colossal stack on the opposite bank till she
looked like a floating wood-pile. They anchored for the night side by
side.
“And we never had a fight at all, at all!” said Brian.
“A pretty fair imitation of one,” said Richard. “You might let your
sister please herself with the belief that she has seen a fight at
last.”
“_Seen_ it?” demanded Eveleen tragically. “Not the least taste of it
did I see--except puffs of smoke. Would you call it seeing to be at
the bottom of a well, and hear all sorts of things going on without
knowing what they were?”
“Never mind, Mrs Ambrose,” said Montgomery. “You can always say you
were present at a fight, anyhow. Not that the famous Arabits put up
much of a fight, though.”
“No, indeed,” said Colonel Bayard sadly. “Why should they? They had no
desire to fight. They were driven to it.”
“You wouldn’t say they’d not have been uncommon glad to kill us, if it
could have been done without fighting, Colonel?” put in Brian slily.
Colonel Bayard took him up sharply.
“Nothing of the kind. Why should they wish to kill us? It was a
horrible mistake, and I could have prevented it all if the General had
given me a free hand!”