by the Furies. Bob left him, to consult the havildar. He was utterly
perplexed. It seemed as though there were electric communication
between the Kalmuck miners and their countrymen down-stream, for they
could not have heard already of what had happened forty miles away.
It was not merely perplexing, but a staggering blow. Bob had reckoned
on employing the Pathans to garrison the mine if resistance should be
considered possible, or at least on forming a compact body to accompany
his retreat if he should feel it necessary to abandon the place.
Apparently they were now hopelessly dispersed, and he could not help
thinking that such of them as escaped the guns of their pursuers would
hasten up the valley towards their homes. At that moment he almost made
up his mind that his only course was to follow them as quickly as he
could: the defence of the mine seemed utterly impossible.
Then another element of the situation forced itself upon his tired
brain. The Kalmucks, when they had driven the Pathans away, would
doubtless return. If they were allowed to get past the mine, Lawrence
and his party would be completely cut off. They could scarcely arrive
before nightfall; there was ample time for the Kalmucks to hurry back,
and force their way past, even though the rifles of the Sikhs might
account for some of them. The interception of Lawrence must be
prevented at all costs, and in the necessity of devising some means to
this end Bob had no leisure to acquaint Gur Buksh with his morning's
discovery.
"We must keep the Kalmucks off till Lawrence Sahib is back," he said.
"How can we do it?"
"Bring the machine gun to the south wall, sahib," replied the old Sikh.
"Yes; you'll have to make an embrasure. The gun will command the track
for half a mile along the straight, and they won't face it. There's
another thing, havildar. Send some men over to the other side to bring
in all the food they can collect, and any arms they may find. The
horses too: there are only three or four left, and we must make shift to
keep them on this side. Just set about it at once."
The havildar saluted and withdrew.
Bob lighted a cigarette, and paced up and down, thinking hard. If only
Major Endicott or some other experienced soldier were at hand to advise!
He felt weighed down by his responsibilities; yet beneath all his
anxieties, there was a large reserve of courage and resolution. He
watched the Sikhs dragging the machine gun across the compound.
Undoubtedly it would check the Kalmucks as they marched back towards the
mine. But he wondered whether it would be wise to use it. It would
cost many lives; the slaughter of the miners would infuriate their
fellow-countrymen, and destroy any chance there might be of making terms
with them. Yet there seemed no other means of assuring his brother's
safe return.
Following in imagination the pursuit along the river bank, he thought of
the Pathans and their fate. He listened for rifle-shots; but the sounds
had ceased. By this time, no doubt, the chase had gone beyond hearing.
Perhaps it had ceased; perhaps the Pathans were all slaughtered by their
more numerous foes; perhaps the Kalmucks were content to have driven
them away, and the survivors were trudging a weary march to the borders
of their own land. What would their fate be? They had no food: the
country was barren: they must surely fall a prey to fatigue, exposure
and famine, or to hostile tribes _en route_, long before they could hope
for hospitality. This dismal prospect made Bob very uncomfortable.
After all, these men were the most loyal and law-abiding of his uncle's
workers; it seemed cruel to let them go without lifting a hand to help
them. Yet what could he do? No doubt if he were to lead the Sikhs to
pursue the Kalmucks in their turn, with their military training, few as
they were, they might crush the undisciplined rabble. But he dared not
thus leave the mine ungarrisoned. It would be long, indeed, before the
Kalmucks could arrive from the north unless the unexpected happened; but
so many unexpected and inexplicable things had happened during the last
twenty-four hours that he could not take any action that would involve
risk either to Lawrence or to the non-combatants at the mine.
As he paced to and fro, watching the Sikhs going quickly about their
work, and the servants returning over the drawbridge, laden with what
they had gathered from the miners' quarters, it occurred to him suddenly
that if only the aeroplane were equipped for war some of his
difficulties would be solved. He had intended to qualify for the aerial
corps in the British army, but that dream was over: flying had been to
him merely a sport. Could he have foreseen the strange circumstances of
the last few days, he would have adapted his machine, not merely for
pleasure trips and observation, but for actual offence.
One idea leads to another, and next minute Bob was asking himself
whether even now he could not make an attempt to turn the aeroplane to
military uses. A few bombs dropped among or near the Kalmucks would put
an effective check upon their pursuit of the Pathans. He had no bombs;
could he improvise some? There was plenty of dynamite in the little
recess behind the house. And in another moment a plan flashed upon his
mind. Flinging away the end of his cigarette he hurried to Ditta Lal's
store shed.
"Babu, have you got any small empty tins?" he asked, bursting into the
room.
Ditta Lal jumped.
"My nerves are in terrible state, sir," he said. "Tins! Yes, to be
sure: coffee, preserved pears, condensed milk, sardines--or more
correctly, bristlings: tins of all sorts, quite an embarrassment."
"Get me a dozen or two tins with lids: there are several tobacco tins in
the house. Fill them nearly to the top with small stones, with a few
percussion caps among them: you'll get them from the havildar. Be as
quick as you can."
"Pardon me, sir, are you intending to lay a mine, floating or
otherwise?"
Bob had not waited for the conclusion of the question, but hurried to
the little private store behind the house, from which he returned
presently with a quantity of dynamite. The Babu was too slow for him.
He sent Chunda Beg and Shan Tai hunting for tins, and as they were
prepared according to his directions, he carefully filled them up with
dynamite and securely fastened the lids. When he had fifteen ready, he
put them into a basket, and carried them himself along the pathway to
the aeroplane. Fazl had meanwhile got everything ready for another
flight.
"You know what a bomb is, Fazl?" said Bob.
The Gurkha grinned.
"Well, these tins are bombs. Put them just below your seat: take care
not to drop one. We are going up the river: give me the tins one by one
as I ask for them."
They started. For the first mile or two Bob kept very low over the
river, seeing here and there, at long intervals, traces of the fight
waged between the Pathans and the Kalmucks--figures lying prone and
motionless, others sitting with their backs against the rocks, one or
two limping painfully along. Presently he heard the dull cracks of
rifles, though as yet he could not see the combatants. As the sounds
grew louder, he rose higher: with his explosive cargo on board it was
more than ever necessary that he should keep out of range. Experience
had already shown him that the aeroplane in full flight was a very
difficult object to hit with ordinary weapons; but nothing must be left
to chance now.
CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH
RALLYING THE PATHANS
Six or seven miles above the mine the gorge contracted, leaving a space
that barely exceeded twice the breadth of the aeroplane. In his first
flights along the river Bob had felt rather nervous in threading this
narrow passage. It was here that he found the two parties of miners.
He reduced the speed of the aeroplane as much as he could, and at the
altitude to which he had now ascended he was able to get a pretty good
general view of the position of affairs as he flew over. It was
impossible to distinguish details. The figures of the men were like dots
on a map. The track and the adjacent ground seemed absolutely flat and
level, though Bob knew that it was really much broken, and of constantly
varying height. But he made rapid inferences from what he saw, and by
the time he had passed over both the parties of combatants he was in no
doubt as to his course of action.
What he saw was, up-stream, a small group, stationary, in the narrowest
part of the valley: some little distance from them, down-stream, a
larger group, also stationary, and a number of scattered individuals,
moving southward, looking like flies crawling slowly over a dish, but
all in the same direction. The inference he drew from these
observations was that the Pathans, having been kept on the run to this
point, had taken advantage of the nature of the ground to turn at bay,
either in desperation, or to snatch a rest before continuing their
retreat: and that the Kalmucks had separated, one party holding the
track, the other scaling the hill-side above in order to turn the
Pathans' flank. At the moment of his passing over he heard a faint
crackle like the rustling of paper, and saw puffs of smoke among each
band of combatants. The men were firing briskly, no doubt from behind
the shelter of rocks.
It was obvious that there could be but one end to this fight. The
Kalmucks were much the more numerous. While the Pathans might very
probably repulse a direct attack if their ammunition lasted, they could
have no defence against the men creeping round upon their flank. Within
a short time they would be surrounded, unless, indeed, they perceived
the flanking movement and beat a hasty retreat. Even then they would be
in danger of annihilation, for the Kalmucks could rush the position they
had evacuated, and from behind the rocks sweep the southward track with
their fire. Unless a diversion were almost instantly made, the Pathans
were doomed.
By the time that Bob had realized this necessity for intervention he was
half a mile south of the position, in a wider stretch of the gorge. He
wheeled round, flew back at full speed through the bottle-neck, then
wheeled again at the northward end. It seemed to him that the crackling
of rifle fire was now more continuous: the Pathans had in fact taken
heart on seeing the machine soaring high above them, and were defending
themselves with renewed vigour. The chota sahib was with them! They
knew not what he could do for them, but his mere presence gave them hope
and courage.
Bob saw that in order to carry out his plan successfully he must
descend. He had had no practice in bomb dropping. No amount of
theoretical knowledge of the velocity of falling bodies under the action
of gravity, or of the curve made by a body moving under both horizontal
and vertical forces, could avail him now. There was great risk of the
aeroplane or its occupants being hit if the Kalmucks fired at them, but
he felt that he must take his chance. Swooping down, and reducing speed
at the same time, he steered so as to pass, at the height of a few
hundred feet, as exactly as possible over the heads of the party
skirmishing up the hill-side.
They were in loose order. At closer quarters Bob was now able to see
that they were taking advantage of all the cover furnished by the crags
and protuberances of the rocky slope. Steering with one hand, he called
to Fazl to give him one of the tins, which he poised in his other hand.
He still felt a shrinking from bloodshed, and instead of dropping the
bomb in the midst of the Kalmucks, he waited until he had just passed
the man nearest to the Pathans, then let it fall. In a few seconds it
struck the ground. There was a sharp report, and Fazl, looking back,
cried out that the Kalmucks were almost hidden by an immense cloud of
dust. The sound of rifle fire ceased, and a strange quiet fell upon the
gorge.
"Have they stopped?" asked Bob.
"Yes, sahib. One has gone back: they are talking among the rocks."
"They've got something to talk about," thought Bob.
He felt that this bolt from the blue, falling upon them at such a
dramatic moment, must have startled the Kalmucks, and would almost
certainly cause them to modify their plans. As miners they would realize
the nature of the bomb dropped within a few yards of them, and the
danger to which they were exposed when dynamite was rained upon them
from the sky. The first bomb might be followed by others, and though it
had done them no hurt, its successors might not so fortunately spare
them. Bob had no doubt that he could count upon an interval of inaction
while they were reckoning up the new situation, and determined to seize
the opportunity of communicating with the Pathans. Accordingly he flew
southward along the gorge until he reached a spot where the track
widened sufficiently to afford a landing-place, and then sank to earth.
It was out of sight from both Pathans and Kalmucks.
"Come along with me," he said to Fazl.
He took his revolver and rifle, and hastened back along the track,
followed by Fazl with his kukuri. There was still no resumption of the
firing. As he walked, he scanned the hill-side anxiously, but saw no
sign of the Kalmucks. Slipping along close to the base of the rocky
cliff he presently caught sight of the turbans of two or three of the
Pathans, who were peering over the top of a rock two hundred yards away,
evidently looking for the return of the aeroplane.
"Can you call to them without letting the Kalmucks hear?" he asked of
Fazl.
"I can, sahib."
"Then ask one of them to slip down and meet me."
The Gurkha made a slight clucking in his throat, at which the Pathans
lifted their heads and looked eagerly along the path. Then Fazl held up
one finger, and beckoned. The heads disappeared, and in a moment two of
the Pathans came round the corner of the rock.
"Only one," said Bob.
Fazl made them understand by gestures. One of the men returned, the
other came on.
"Allah is great, sahib!" he said in his own tongue as he met Bob. "But
why is the sahib on foot? A few more such thunderbolts would send the
dogs to Jehannum: have you no more in the wonderful machine?"
Bob wished that he had Lawrence's facility in picking up strange
languages. Fortunately Fazl could act as interpreter. He first asked
the man if he could explain the sudden outbreak of the Kalmucks. The
Pathan thought that no explanation was necessary: it was due to their
own vile passions and the presence of Nurla Bai.
"Nurla Bai!" exclaimed Bob. "Is he among them?"
"Of a truth he is, sahib, and his black monkey too."
To Bob this was incomprehensible. Nurla Bai and his man, when last he
heard of them, were forty miles and more down-stream. But he had no
leisure for guessing: the situation demanded all his thoughts.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"We are going to our homes, sahib," replied the man. "The dogs are too
many for us. We did but stop to take a little rest, and kill a few. We
cannot go back to the mine: the talk is that the huzur is gone; who will
pay us now? We go to our own country, and some day will come back and
deal with these children of Shaitan. Not a man of them shall be left
alive. But now we can do nothing; it is vain to kick against the goad.
If the sahib had more little boxes we might kill them all; but he has
none, or he would not be here."
Bob felt himself in a difficulty. He wanted to retain the Pathans; but
in their present temper they would not be likely to remain with him if
they knew that a huge army was advancing up-stream. On the other hand
it would not be fair to withhold that information from them, and bring
them back to the mine under false pretences. Reflecting rapidly for a
few moments he determined to make a clean breast of it, but to lead up
to the important point as diplomatically as he could.
"Have you any food?" he asked.
"Bismillah, sahib, we are empty as bladders. The dogs fell upon us even
as we were filling our pots for the morning meal. We have eaten
nothing."
"And what will you do for food on the way home? Is it a smiling
country? Does millet grow on the rocks? Will you find grapes on thorn
bushes?"
"True, sahib," said the man uneasily: "but there are ibex and other
clean animals for our guns."
"You have plenty of ammunition then?"
"Enough to shoot beasts for our food."
"And to shoot the Kalmucks too? If I cannot stop them, and they pursue
you, you will have no time to shoot ibex, and no bullets to waste. And
you may meet enemies in the hills. You may be caught between two fires,
and, outnumbered as you are already, you will be slaughtered like
sheep."
The Pathan looked more and more troubled.
"I will go and talk to my brothers," he said. "With many counsellors
there is wisdom."
"No, that won't do. You would waste a lot of time, and perhaps wrangle.
You must act as head man, and what you and I decide the others will do."
"What does the sahib order?"
"I order nothing. I want you to make up your own mind. Now listen. I
see a way to bring you out of your present awkward position, and take
you safely back to the mine. You do not know that Lawrence Sahib with
Fyz Ali and the rest is in danger."
"Mashallah, sahib, what is this you tell?"
"We were attacked yesterday at the bridge down-stream, and beat off the
enemy. Lawrence Sahib had to keep guard all night: he may have been
attacked again, but he is now marching back."
"And who was the enemy, sahib? Only Nurla Bai and his monkey left the
mine, and they are now among the dogs that have been barking at us
beyond."
"The enemy are a large force of Kalmucks, a great army, who are coming
up the valley, for what purpose I know not."
"Hai, sahib, but then there is the more need for us to go!"
"Yes, if you are willing to be cowards and faithless. Must I believe
that you will sneak off and leave your comrades to face danger alone?"
The man was silent, plucking his beard. Bob offered him a cigarette,
which the man accepted mechanically, lighting it at the match with which
Bob lit his own.
"Is it a great army, sahib?" he said at length.
"A very great one. Very likely we shall find it impossible to save the
mine. It is true that the huzur is gone: Nurla Bai shot him; he fell
from the machine into the river, and I have no hope that he is yet
alive. But his loss only leaves the more for us to do. We must first
save Lawrence Sahib and your friends. When we are all met again, we can
decide what is best. Perhaps we shall have to abandon the mine; but
then, you see, we shall form one large party, with plenty of provisions
and cartridges; and you will have a much better chance of reaching your
homes than if you go as you are, hungry, with no food, and little hope
of defending yourselves if attacked by enemies in the hills."
The Pathan puffed away gravely.
"There is truth in what the sahib says. He has a very big mind, and
sees very far. We Pathans are not cowards, as the sahib knows; Fyz Ali
is a good man, and the chota sahib will be a great man when his beard is
grown. But how can we go back? As the sahib says, we are but a handful
against the pack of dogs yonder, and the sahib has no more little
boxes."
"I didn't say so. As a matter of fact, I have several."
"Inshallah!" cried the man joyfully. "Why did not the sahib say so
before? If the sahib will go up in his machine, and drop the little
boxes upon the heads of the Kalmucks, we will charge home upon them with
great fury, and there shall not be left one man alive to tell the tale."
Bob knew that it would be useless to attempt to make the man understand
why he could not consent to this wholesale butchery. He merely pointed
out that, flying swiftly overhead, he could only drop one or perhaps two
bombs that would certainly hit the enemy. The survivors would be goaded
to desperation, and before the aeroplane could return and the manoeuvre
be repeated, there would be a terrible fight, in which the Pathans, even
if successful, would lose heavily.
"What I want to do is to gather all the loyal men safely at the mine,"
he said. "I do not want to lose one of you. I can do this, I believe,
if you obey my orders: otherwise who knows how many of you will be left
alive?"
"As the sahib commands," said the Pathan.
"This is what I command. You will remain here with your men while I
drive the Kalmucks away. You will not fire upon them unless you are
yourselves attacked. Impress that upon the men. When the Kalmucks are
out of sight, you may march up towards the mine, but halt if you come in
sight of them again."
"I will give the sahib's orders to the men," said the Pathan. "I hope
the sahib will drive the dogs away quickly, for we are very hungry."
He salaamed and returned to his companions, who had been keeping one eye
on the enemy, the other on the curious scene two hundred yards
up-stream. It was indeed a strange position: the two men calmly smoking
and discussing their plans, while at no great distance lurked a
ferocious band ready to leap to the attack at any moment. They too had
been consulting together, but their imagination was not active enough to
lead them to any satisfactory conclusion. The dynamite bomb had been
intended to check them: that was evident; and they decided that it would
be wise to wait patiently for developments. Nurla Bai was very much
annoyed. He had undergone great exertions and endured much fatigue to
achieve his object--the slaughter or dispersal of the Pathans; and it
was exasperating to find himself at a check just when he had them at his
mercy, through the ingenuity of an Englishman and the astounding
swiftness of his flying machine. He began to wish that, instead of
picking up bits of rock in the gallery on that dark night, he had made
his way to the platform and done some vital damage to the aeroplane.
Perhaps a lucky shot would bring it down when it again passed over the
position. But he hoped there would be no more dynamite bombs.
CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH
NURLA BAI SLIPS THE NOOSE
And now began the strangest game of chevy chase that was ever played.
In a few minutes Bob and the Gurkha were flying northward. As they
approached the area upon which the Kalmucks were assembled, Bob steered
to the right, so as to cross the position obliquely. Some of the men
were in the act of covering the aeroplane with their rifles, when the
sight of a bright red object descending from the sky struck them with a
sort of paralysis. The coffee tin fell almost midway between them and
the Pathans. Dust and splinters of rock flew in all directions, and the
Kalmucks, with one consent, scampered along the track towards the mine.
Bob listened for rifle-shots; he knew that the Pathans' obedience would
be put to a severe test when they saw their enemies in flight. Not a
shot was fired.
The Kalmucks did not yet perceive the real object which Bob had in view.
After running a short distance, they halted again, unable to decide
whether it was safer to advance or retreat. When they saw the aeroplane
soaring towards them from the northward, they broke apart, each man
striving to find some crevice or nook among the rocks where he might
shelter himself. All believed that the Englishman's purpose was
slaughter. But when another bomb was dropped on their southward side,
not near enough to do them harm, some of them, as they ran, began to
suspect the meaning of the device. For three or four miles they were
thus driven down the track. Wherever the gorge was wide enough, Bob
wheeled backwards and forwards across it in their rear, swooping down
whenever he saw them lagging, with the result that they did not wait for
another bomb, but hurried along like a flock of frightened sheep. Once
or twice they took shots at the aeroplane, but gave it up when it was
patent that their marksmanship was unequal to the feat of hitting the
flying target. And all the time the Pathans marched steadily behind
them, much amused at the sahib's method of shepherding, but a little
chagrined because they were not allowed to assist.