A DARK HOUR.
Much of the fight for possession of the gateway to the pass was out of
sight of the boys. For a time, they could see the figures of the
dismounted revolutionaries creeping over the rocky road, hugging the
walls, until they reached the barrier of fallen Janissaries and horses.
Across this barrier there flashed a continuous fire of weapons for some
time, with no advantage to either side, so far as was apparent to those
left in the plain.
Then a new element entered the situation with a distant sound of rifle
fire, as the party of revolutionaries who had been sent to the west came
into action at the rear of the Janissaries. These revolutionaries, the
boys later learned, had clambered like goats up the face of the cliff
and gained a position on the rocky western wall of the pass, from which
they were enabled to assail the Janissaries in the rear.
A sudden burst of cheering in the distance was followed by the swarming
of the revolutionaries in the pass across the wall of dead and wounded.
Man after man disappeared without opposition, passing across the fallen
and vanishing into the pass beyond the bend. Then for some time the
sound of firing continued, growing ever more distant, until it no longer
came back to those below.
Once more stillness descended in the hot desert and the narrow pass, now
lying in shadow as the sun wheeled to the west and the steep western
wall of rock cut off its rays. Only the horses, the Arabs on camel back
circling slowly about them, Captain Amanassar, Jepthah and Mr. Hampton,
three tiny figures afoot at the base of the pass, and the dead,
remained.
Eaten up with anxiety as to the fate of Bob, a prisoner in the midst of
the fighting so far as they knew, the boys no longer could contain their
impatience. They saw a revolutionary return down the pass, making his
way over the barrier of men and horses at the bend, picking a careful
passage over the rocks below, and moving to report to Captain Amanassar.
“Come on, Jack, let’s hear what he has to say,” begged Frank. “I know
your Dad told us to stay here, but the Arabs can look after the horses
and I’ll go crazy if I don’t do something.”
Jack felt pretty nearly as cut up over the failure to rescue Bob, as did
his comrade, and nodded in sympathy.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll go up and ask Dad what the messenger
reports. Hardly likely, though, that he has any word of Bob.”
When they reached Mr. Hampton’s side, the messenger already had made his
report. Jepthah, interpreting the reason for their approach, turned to
them with a grave face.
“There is no sign of your comrade,” he said. “I asked the messenger
particularly. He is not among either the prisoners or the fallen. Some
of the Janissaries escaped, and evidently they have borne him with them.
They will make their way to Athensi. We cannot stop them. They have
broken down a bridge which we recently rebuilt across a deep chasm and
for a time our advance is held up. Athensi lies many miles away,
however, and we shall be able to gain the interior before fresh forces
can be thrown against us. The Sacrificial Games still are more than a
month away, and in the meantime something can be done toward effecting a
rescue.”
With this, Jepthah returned to Captain Amanassar’s side, while Mr.
Hampton joined the boys.
He reported that Captain Amanassar was going forward to join the
revolutionaries, a portion of whom would be sent back to clear the pass
so that the horses could be taken into the mountains. Aware now that
betrayal of their plans by spies of the Oligarchy in their ranks had
been more general than supposed, Captain Amanassar found it necessary to
re-arrange his campaign.
Originally, he had intended entirely to abandon Korakum. Its peculiar
position, in an outer valley, leading only by the Great Road to the
desert and by the subterranean river to Athensi, made it a poor basis of
operations from which to conduct a revolution among the countrymen of
the many interior valleys and plateaus against the central authority of
the Oligarchy. All this he and Jepthah had explained to Mr. Hampton. By
placing a guard over the pass just captured, the revolutionaries would
be able to prevent any forces sent out from Athensi via the river and
Korakum from attacking them in the rear.
A chance suggestion made by Mr. Hampton had taken root. If the spies, as
now was apparent, had betrayed the revolutionists’ plans, then the
Oligarchs would not be looking for attack from Korakum along the
subterranean river. Therefore, Mr. Hampton had suggested the possibility
of making such an attack at a later date in conjunction with an attack
in force from the field.
“They expect,” he told the boys, “to be able to raise a considerable
army of ten thousand or more countrymen, for the country groans under
the misrule of the Oligarchs and is ripe for revolution. It awaits only
the coming of a leader supported by determined captains, and in Captain
Amanassar and his hundred men I feel certain such leaders have been
found.”
Accordingly, it had been decided not to abandon Korakum entirely, but to
place a guard over the subterranean river for the purpose of capturing
any Janissaries who might negotiate its passage from the interior, and
of retaining control of that underground water thoroughfare to Athensi.
Mr. Hampton, the boys and the Arabs were to form a portion of this
guard, as Jack’s father had assured Captain Amanassar he would
co-operate with the revolutionaries, at least as long as there was a
possibility of effecting Bob’s rescue.
“It is pretty certain,” he explained, “that Bob was captured to
participate in the Sacrificial Games. Such being the case, his life will
be jealously guarded until the time of the Games arrives. That gives us
a full month more. Certainly, some way of saving him will develop in
that time. Perhaps, the revolutionists will be successful and then, of
course, the men destined to participate in the Games will be set free.”
Jack and Frank could do nothing except acquiesce gloomingly.
“But think of Bob’s feelings all that time, as he sees the end draw
nearer with no word of hope from us,” said Frank.
“Maybe,” added Jack “when he is in prison he will be able to rig up his
radio set and we can send him a message of comfort, something to tell
him we are working to rescue him.”
“Maybe,” said Frank, sadly. “But we wouldn’t know whether he got our
message or not. Well, come on. If it’s back to Korakum, we’ll finish
putting the radio apparatus in shape.”
Side by side, silent, each immersed in sad thoughts, Jack and Frank led
the way on the return, followed by their companions.