"Those shells of yours just did the trick," I went on, telling him how
Griffiths's rifle going off accidentally had nearly brought about a
catastrophe. "They were simply hideous in the darkness; the chasm looked
a perfect hell, and the half-crazed wretches fled through the gap from
them like a flock of sheep. How the dickens did you manage to train the
gun and aim it? That's what beat me."
He explained that before it was too dark to see the gap from the bottom
of the "coffee-cup" they had found a rock which gave, more or less, the
proper elevation when the muzzle of the gun rested on it, and when the
trail of the carriage was pushed up against another, the gun pointed
somewhere in the right direction. After every shot they had had to drag
it back, feel about for the rocks, and trust to luck. That was why the
shells were so erratic and the firing so slow.
"We were very nearly as frightened of them as the Arabs were," I
laughed, "and were mighty glad when you stopped your fireworks and bits
of ironmongery flying round us."
Recollecting those volleys we had fired when all was over, I asked my
chum whether they had seen them, and how they knew what we meant.
The Baron shook his head. "Too much smoke down there; we saw nothing.
We only stopped firing for the simple reason that we'd fired every
blessed shell we had. Why, my dear old chap, we thought you'd been
'deaders' long before. Even this morning we thought we should have to
fight our way here; it was a kind of a forlorn hope; the commander
didn't want me to come, and it was not until we were halfway up without
being fired on that we had a glimmer of an idea that the Arabs had
'hoofed' it during the night. And you and your fellows were so fast
asleep you never heard us cheering as we scrambled up the last fifty
yards.
"When we saw you six huddled here we thought it was a burial party
wanted--nothing else. Why, dear old ass, I was just turning you over to
see where you'd been killed, when you began muttering some outlandish
gibberish."
"Ma kattle kum!" I suggested, smiling.
"Something like that," he grinned. "Ugh! it was a bit of a shock," and
his cheeks flushed that curious violet colour.
"What was a shock?" I asked. "Finding me alive?"
"No, you fool! Thinking we'd have to bury the lot of you, and not an
inch of ground where we could stick a pickaxe, let alone a spade, for
miles."
The Baron lifted his helmet and wiped his forehead.
The sight of his yellow hair reminded me of Miss Borsen, and I told him
how I had managed to silence her tormenting little tongue. "Just picked
her up like a feather, carried her twenty yards before she could say
'knife', and never a word more did she say. I thought I'd got the best
of her for once, but she only thought me a horrid cad, and wouldn't even
let me apologize, wouldn't even let me see her again. So she came off
best after all."
"Women always do," the Baron grinned. "Irritating things, women."
We were both agreed on that point.
Then he told me his part of the yarn. It was just as I had thought.
Some skunk of an Arab with a grievance had come along to Muscat and
sneaked, given the whole show away, and the plan of taking all the
rifles and ammunition still remaining at Jeb to Kalat al Abeid (the
little village whose head-man had brought me up here to shoot leopards).
That was why the _Intrepid_ had hurried round. Even before Commander
Duckworth had heard from Mr. Scarlett that I was up in the mountains he
was preparing to land his men, and when he received my scribbled note it
had been a case of hurrying ashore in double-quick time, to try to take
possession of the mouth of the ravine leading to the "coffee-cup" before
the Arabs reached it.
As you know, they did not, in spite of the villagers clapping on to the
nine-pounder and Maxim and dragging them up those baking slopes. They
had been met with a very fierce fire, and it was not till the resistance
began to weaken (when many Arabs had been withdrawn to defend the camels
from us) that the _Intrepids_ could make any impression. But once an
Arab leaves his first position for one farther in the rear, his chief
anxiety is to keep his eye on a still safer place behind him; so, once
they had begun to retire, the job was comparatively easy.
Before they gained the mouth of the ravine the _Intrepids_ had lost two
men killed and five wounded. My chum told me that Nicholson, the staff
surgeon, did not expect one of those to pull through safely.
"It's jolly hard luck on them," the Baron said, his face falling.
We sat silent for some time, looking into the "coffee-cup" and watching
the very tedious and dangerous work of getting the remaining camels
safely down to the bottom.
Then a message was semaphored that the commander wanted to see me and my
party; so I gathered them together and left the Baron and his men to
keep watch at the gap in case the Arabs recovered from their fright and
came back. There was precious little chance of this.
The zigzag path was the most extraordinary sight, littered with rifles,
bandoliers, water-bags, turbans, and cloaks, showing how hurriedly the
poor wretches had tried to escape. It was dangerous work there, and
worse still when we reached the camels. Each poor brute thought we were
bringing him food, and was furious when he saw we were not, swaying his
neck and making an angry rumbling noise somewhere from halfway down his
neck, scraping his bundle of rifles or ammunition-boxes against the
rock. We had to squeeze past each one very carefully indeed, with an
eye on his head and neck and a hand gripping at his bundle. Lower down
we came to the villagers trying their best to shift the camels, make
them get on their feet if they were kneeling, or turn them round if they
were facing upwards. Poor devils, they were only fishermen, and were
evidently making a poor job of this. Among them was my old friend the
head-man, shouting orders by the dozen. He smiled affably, and gabbled
a lot of weird words as I squeezed past him. Jaffa explained that he
was comparing me "to the sun for strength and the jackal for cunning".
I smiled back, and as Jaffa followed he commenced another long
rigmarole, which I did not stay to listen to, but which Jaffa afterwards
told me was to the effect that the Bedouin would be very angry, and
would come back presently, when the _Bunder Abbas_ and _Intrepid_ had
gone away, and kill them all.
That was the worst of it. I knew enough about the temper of those
gun-running fellows--hadn't I seen what had happened at Bungi and
Sudab?--and the Arabs are no whit less ferocious and revengeful than the
Afghans. It seemed such hard luck to get those villagers to help us and
then leave them to certain vengeance. These especial people were so
simple, and had been so useful, that it would be a shame to leave them
unprotected. But what could we do? Neither the _Bunder Abbas_ nor the
_Intrepid_ could stay there for ever.
Lower down still, quite close to the bottom of the zigzag, I met the
commander, very pleased with himself and with me too.
"You should get promotion out of this," he said, as I saluted; "it's the
finest haul that's been made for years--three thousand rifles at least,
and more ammunition than we've destroyed in the last twelve months."
He made me tell him the whole yarn over again, and then ordered me to
take my men back to the _Bunder Abbas_. I did not want to go, but had
to.
At the bottom of the "coffee-cup" I saw the mangled remains of many of
the camels which had fallen down the precipice. Rifles from their burst
bundles were scattered round them, and some of the _Intrepids_ were
still moving about among the boulders, searching for dead or wounded
Arabs. Then at the very entrance to the gorge, round the corner where
the Arabs had taken up their first position, I found Nicholson busy with
the wounded, and showing some natives how to make litters.
The man who had been so desperately wounded was dead. "Nothing could
have saved him," Nicholson told me, as though I might think he had not
done enough for him. He brightened when he saw how little the scar on
my forehead showed.
"A good bit of work--that," he said, quite pleased, and wanted me to
take the other four wounded back to the village.
So off we started with them. Two could walk, and we took it in turns to
carry the others, for the villagers were much too excited and impatient
to realize the necessity for gentleness. They wanted to run along with
them as if they had been sacks of potatoes.
Fifty or sixty of the camels were already slowly tramping down the rocky
slope ahead of us, and when we reached the village we found them
kneeling under the shade of some trees, looking quite contented--that
is, if a camel can look contented. The youngsters who had brought them
down, and all the women and children in the village, were gathered round
in a state of wonderment. The women covered their faces when they saw
us; but the children came crowding round us, clapping their little brown
hands, and followed us down to the beach, dancing and jumping with glee.
I took the wounded men on board the _Intrepid_, and then went aboard the
_Bunder Abbas_, where I had a great reception. Even the dismal cook and
his still more dismal "mate" showed symptoms of pleasure, and Mr.
Scarlett's face--for once--was beaming. His claw-like hand shot out and
gripped mine like a vice. "I've had a terrible bad time of it for the
last twenty-four hours, sir. Never thought to see any of you alive
again. We all wanted to come along and lend a hand, but you know that
we dursn't leave the '_B.A._', sir, don't you?"
He was terrified lest I should think he had failed me. Of course he
hadn't.
I sent him, and as many men as could be spared, up to Commander
Duckworth, in case they should be needed. They went ashore like a lot
of boys, Mr. Scarlett one of the youngest, but had had enough of the sun
and hot rocks before they eventually returned. By dark every camel had,
somehow or other, been brought down to the village, and by midnight all
the rifles and ammunition were aboard the _Intrepid_.
As I looked shorewards to the grim dark mass of mountains towering into
the starlit sky, I was most thankful that I had not to spend another
night on top of them. We all had had enough excitement to last a long
time.
I went across to the _Intrepid_ to gloat over the rifles piled in her
battery, and had supper with the Baron. A most joyous and hilarious meal
it was. Afterwards Commander Duckworth sent for me to give me orders to
proceed to Muscat next morning.
This gave me the chance of putting in a good word for the villagers.
"It does seem precious hard," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "These
hundred and thirty or more camels are not the slightest use to them;
they dare not take them inland to sell, and those Arab chaps are certain
to wipe out every man of them. But what can I do? I can't stay here
for ever."