a more sustained and vigorous attack, and as soon as the officer had
departed he set his men to complete the repairing of the breastwork
which Lawrence had begun in the night. Presently the Kalmucks opened
fire with rifles and field guns, and throughout the day the bombardment
and sniping from the rocks intermittently continued; but there was no
further attempt to rush the position. In the intervals Bob had fresh
stones brought up for the repair of the breastwork, which had been
considerably knocked about. The casualties among the garrison, however,
were slight, and at the end of the fourth day Bob felt that he could
reasonably congratulate himself on the success of his stand.
But he was still very anxious. Though the enemy had shown surprising
sluggishness, he did not flatter himself that they had any idea of
abandoning their task. More and more he wondered why they did not
attack during the night, when, so far as they knew, the advantage would
be wholly with them. For the first time since the commencement of the
struggle he failed to sleep well, waking frequently, then dozing off
again.
About four o'clock in the morning he was roused by the sound of two
rifle shots in quick succession. Springing fully clothed from his bed,
he rushed into the compound, called up the detachment whose turn it was
to take duty at the breastwork, and led them at the double across the
bridge and down the track. By the time he reached the position he found
a furious fight in progress. The two scouts whom Lawrence had thrown
out to give warning if the enemy moved had heard the tramp of men
advancing, fired their rifles as a signal, and run back to join their
own party. They were so closely followed by the Kalmucks, whose forms
could be dimly seen in the twilight, that Lawrence had been unable to
fire at once for fear of hitting the scouts, so that the enemy were
within a few yards of the breastwork before they met with any
resistance.
Reinforced by Bob's men, the party now opened fire with deadly effect,
but the attackers were so numerous that the rush was scarcely checked.
There was only time for a second volley before the head of the enemy's
column surged up against the breastwork. They had held their fire until
they were able to see the dark forms of their adversaries. Then their
shots, fired point-blank, laid low several of the Sikhs and Pathans.
Supported by the swarms in their rear they began to clamber up the
rampart, in the teeth of the bristling bayonets opposed to them. On
their side was the advantage of numbers: on the side of the defenders
that of position; but Bob recognised in a minute that his men, ply their
bayonets as they might, must soon be overwhelmed by sheer weight.
Suddenly a beam of light flashed over and past the scene of the
conflict, resting on the track immediately beyond the breastwork, which
was crowded with yelling Kalmucks pressing on to support their comrades.
Gur Buksh in the compound had switched on the searchlight. It was not
the blinding glare associated with the searchlights of forts and
battleships, but it had sufficient illuminating power to show up the
disorderly mass of the charging force.
For a moment it made no alteration in the conditions. Bob and his
brother, with barely a score of men left to them, were hard pushed to
hold the breastwork. Faster than they could hurl the enemy down at the
point of the bayonet, others swarmed up. Bob was on the point of
shouting an order to retire to his own original breastwork up the track
when, above the shouts and yells of the combatants, sounded the
characteristic rattle of the machine gun. Instantly he recognised how
this might operate in his favour. The gun could not be trained on the
men who were actually at grips with him, but in a few seconds it had
swept a huge gap in the column advancing in serried ranks along the
track, and deprived his immediate assailants of their support.
He at once took advantage of this fortunate diversion. Instead of
retiring, he cried to the men to stand firm, and the desperate work at
the rampart went on. For some time the Kalmucks there did not know or
failed to appreciate what was happening behind them. They still pressed
on and up, and but for the timely arrival of another dozen men
despatched by Gur Buksh from the mine they might even now have carried
the position. The reinforcement turned the scale. Bob called on his
men for a final effort, and he and Lawrence flashed their revolvers in
the very faces of the crowd. Fired by their example the men thrust and
jabbed with redoubled energy, and in a few minutes hurled the last of
the assailants back on to the track.
They found themselves in a terrifying quandary. The space between them
and their baffled comrades was illuminated by the fatal band of light.
The machine gun had ceased to play on the track when it was cleared of
the enemy. Now there were forty or fifty men trapped in the dark
wedge-like area between the beam of the searchlight and the breastwork.
They knew that if any of them dared to attempt a rush back they would be
the target for innumerable bullets. One or two did rashly hazard a
retreat, but as soon as they encroached upon the luminous band the gun's
rattle scarcely gave them warning of the shots that fell among them
almost instantaneously. The rest cowered in the darkness, waiting for
death.
Bob had to hold his men with a tight rein to prevent them from leaping
the breastwork and massacring their despairing foes. He had thought of
a better way. Fyz Ali could make himself understood by them. Through
his lips Bob told them that if they laid down their arms they might
retire, taking their wounded with them. They eagerly accepted the
proffered mercy, but shrank from acting on it, until they were assured
that a message had been sent to the havildar to refrain from firing at
them. Then, utterly cowed, they handed their weapons over the
breastwork, gathered up such of their comrades as were yet alive, and
carried them in all haste across the illuminated space and out of sight.
This was an auspicious beginning for the fifth day. It was the greatest
triumph that the garrison had as yet achieved, and the men were
proportionably elated. The enemy on the other hand were dejected and
despondent. For some hours they remained at a distance. In the
afternoon, however, they resumed their skirmishing tactics, and under
cover of a renewed bombardment crept nearer and nearer to the
breastwork. When their field guns had to cease fire for fear of hitting
the skirmishers, Bob decided to venture a charge, and led twenty of his
best men in a sudden leap over the barricade. The enemy did not wait
for the touch of the terrible bayonets. They fired a scattered volley
and fled. A lucky shot from Ganda Singh's rifle brought down one of the
rearmost, and he rolled down the rocks on to the track. Acting on the
unconsidered impulse of the moment Bob sent two of the Sikhs to make him
prisoner, and when Lawrence shortly afterwards returned to the compound
for his afternoon sleep, he took the wounded man with him, and had his
injuries attended to.
He proved to be an officer. Interrogating him through Shan Tai,
Lawrence learnt that the general himself was on his way to the mine to
make a personal inspection of the position. The Kalmuck, who seemed
grateful for the attentions shown him, advised Lawrence to yield. His
people's comparative inactivity that day was only preliminary to a
crushing blow. "Without your flying machine," he said, "you would by
this time have been destroyed. That gave you an advantage. Soon the
advantage will be on our side."
"Will the presence of your general do so much for you?" asked Lawrence.
The man refused to say any more; but his manner, and the half-smile upon
his face, gave Lawrence an uneasy feeling that the Mongol general must
have a trump card to play. He was so much impressed by the officer's
hint of a great stroke impending that instead of seeking his bed, he
hurried back to inform Bob.
"What can he mean?" he asked.
"I can think of nothing but that the general is bringing up large
reinforcements, and means to throw them upon us and carry the position
by sheer weight of numbers. He won't care how many lives he chucks
away, and everything depends on whether his men's discipline is good
enough to stand the racket. I don't know how far these Kalmucks have a
contempt for death like the Japanese."
"Don't you think I'd better fly a few miles down the track and see what
is going on?"
"But you're tired out. You've been at it since midnight."
"That's all right. I shall sleep easier when I know what we've got to
expect."
"Very well then. Don't go far, and keep high."
The appearance of the aeroplane over the track, with Lawrence and Fazl
on board, was a signal for the enemy to scurry to cover. Not a shot was
fired; their only thought was to escape the terrible bombs which they
associated with the flying machine. But Lawrence did not intend to use
his bombs. What he saw, or Fazl reported to him, proved that his stock
of missiles was insufficient for any greater effect than to retard, for
a few hours at the most, the inevitable crisis. Two field guns were in
position at the enemy's advanced entrenchment. Near by, men had been
engaged in constructing platforms for other guns, until the sight of the
aeroplane sent them to cover. Farther down the track, at intervals,
five or six similar weapons were being dragged up; to destroy them all,
even if he were lucky enough in his aim to do so, would exhaust his
stock of bombs, and he felt that he must hold some in reserve for the
ultimate defence of the mine.
The track, as far as he could see it, was almost choked with men and
animals. The men scattered as well as they could when they saw the
aeroplane; some shots were fired at it, harmlessly. It was impossible
for Lawrence to guess the magnitude of the reinforcement that was being
pushed forward; but it seemed to him that several regiments must have
been sent on from the main army. The bodies of mounted men were
separated by long convoys of provisions and ammunition, carried on the
backs of mules and camels. It almost appeared as if a regular advance
of the whole force had begun. The Kalmuck general was clearly confident
of his power to break the resistance of the little band that had
hitherto withstood his passage.
Lawrence flew as far as the bridge; it seemed useless to go farther. He
had seen what he had expected to see: a vast and overwhelming force. But
he had obtained no definite clue to the meaning of the captive officer's
vague hint of a master stroke. That the enemy had a crushing
superiority in numbers he had known all along: there was nothing to
indicate that they had anything more than the advantage of numbers
still. The presence of their general might act as a stimulus; but the
nature of the position precluded any marked change in their mode of
operations. It was essentially a position that could be won only by
dogged, unfaltering determination: the issue depended on the fighting
man, not on the tactician.
Perhaps if Lawrence had continued his flight to the plain on which the
main army was encamped, he or Fazl might have noticed one slight change
since his former visit in Major Endicott's company. A field telegraph
had been laid down, stretching away to the north. This might well have
escaped his observation from the great altitude to which he must of
necessity have risen. Even if he had seen it, probably it would have
suggested nothing more than one of the ordinary accompaniments of an
army in the field. Yet that single wire was the clue to the Kalmuck's
cryptic warning.
On returning to the mine his report to Bob was necessarily
disappointing. It was clear that everything still depended on blocking
the enemy's advance. If they could once establish themselves on the
southern side of the bend, and bring their guns to bear directly on the
compounds, a few hours' bombardment would render the place untenable: it
would be the beginning of the end. Against it the garrison were almost
helpless. They had only ten rounds of ammunition for the captured field
gun; and though the machine gun was in better case, not even the bravest
of men--and Gur Buksh was that--could for long work his gun under the
deadly fire of a whole park of artillery.
"Is there any possible way of strengthening our breastwork?" asked
Lawrence, as with sinking hearts they discussed the situation.
"We can erect a second rampart in the night," suggested Bob. "It would
take them a little longer to knock to pieces, and give us time. Every
minute gained is valuable. You see, they can't bring their guns into
direct line with the mine until they've driven us away, they can't do
that without charging, and they can't charge without ceasing fire
temporarily."
"Yes, I see that, but with four or five field guns at work they'll soon
smash even a double breastwork, and then the way's clear for a charge. I
wish I had bombed their guns now."
"You can do it to-morrow morning. I don't want to spend our last
dynamite till absolutely the last moment. To-morrow's the seventh day.
If the Chief has been able to keep his word we shall be reinforced some
time during the day, and then----"
"You say 'if.' There's a doubt about it, isn't there? I've felt it all
along."
"There is, of course. He may not have been able to spare the men. But
hang it all! what's the good of looking on the dark side? We've held
our own for a week, and even if we're smashed in the end I bet the delay
is worth a good deal to India. The loss of time is a serious matter for
the enemy. But for us the whole twenty thousand of them would be now on
the flank of our army. I can't imagine any force of ours of the same
size being checked in this way by a mere handful of men in a gorge. I
dare say the reason is that the Kalmucks aren't used to hill fighting.
They're best in a cavalry raid; here their horses are only a nuisance,
and they're rather slow to adapt themselves to the conditions. But
they've had a week to get used to them; and the worst of it is that our
fellows, plucky as they are, are pretty nearly worn out."
"Do you think they'll jib if relief doesn't come?"
"What's the good? They'd only be massacred. They'll fight to the last
gasp.... I say, I've got an idea. There's plenty of wire knocking
about the mine: let's make a couple of wire entanglements and set them
up in the night, just beyond the breastwork. If we take care the enemy
won't hear us; they certainly won't see us."
"Wouldn't they notice them when they make their rush?"
"That's possible, of course; but I rather fancy they'll be so hot to get
at us that they won't. The wire won't show up much against the
background of rock. Anyhow, it's worth trying. Any check would give us
the chance to pepper them from the breastwork, and judging by what we've
seen already they'll be in a panic that they'll take some time to
recover from. Now you must get a sleep, so go back to the mine and tell
Gur Buksh to get all the wire he can and set all the men to work; it
won't be the first time he's had such a job, you may be sure."
When Lawrence had arranged this with the havildar, and was proceeding to
the house, he noticed Ditta Lal walking with an air of dejection about
the compound. The Babu's hands were clasped behind his back; his eyes
were bent on the ground, or rather on the intervening promontory of his
person. He looked up as Lawrence drew near.
"Gigantic undertaking, sir," he said sorrowfully.
"Pretty stiff, certainly," replied Lawrence.
"Stronger word is requisite in this exigent, sir. Such task transcends
the topmost rung of art. Without excessive reverence for dictum of
bloated antiquity, I hold with him who sings 'born not made.'"
"Well, we can only do our best," said Lawrence, puzzled by the Babu's
words.
"What shadows we are, what shadows we pursue!" sighed Ditta Lal. "After
mountainous travail I produce splendiferous line; I rack my cranium for
colleague or successor; but final word, whose function is to charm
attentive ear, eludes, evades, crumps. To wit: 'And batters blackguards
with his boisterous bomb!'--line perfect in harmony and melody and all
that; but when I run through alphabet for rhyme--_com, dom, fom, gom,
hom_, and so on till I come to blank wall at _zom_: not a word, sir,
that fulfils mutual demand of sound and sense--not one word."
"What on earth are you gassing about, Babu?" asked Lawrence, who had not
heard of his previous conversation with Bob.
"Of what, sir, but task entrusted to unworthy servant by honourable
brother, to compose song of victory, ode, epic, or what not, in
celebration of happy and glorious achievement about to be consummated!
But I will not despair; nil desperandum; as you truly remark, we can but
do our best; resources of civilisation as represented by B.A. degree of
Calcutta University are not exhausted; something attempted, something
done, shall earn my night's repose, of which I shall be jolly and
unmistakably glad, for agony of expressing thoughts too deep for tears
wrings honest brow, sir."
Lawrence feared that the stress of the situation was making the Babu
mad; but he spoke a sympathetic word, and passed on.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SIXTH
THE DEATH TRAP
There was no alarm from beyond the bend during the night. But in the
small hours the sentry at the bridge gave a loud shout, and fired
southward up the track. When Lawrence rushed from the house to discover
what had happened, he learnt that the sentry had seen a number of dim
figures creeping towards the mine. They had now disappeared. Lawrence
conjectured that Nurla Bai and his friends, who must now be nearly
famished, had been attracted by the sound of guns, and stolen down in
the hope of eluding the vigilance of the garrison, and gaining the path
that led above their old quarters and descended on the track on the
nearer side of the bend. Even if they had got thus far undetected, they
could not but have fallen into the hands of the defenders of the
breastwork. It was an attempt they were not likely to repeat. There
was no chance of their rejoining the Kalmuck army until the defence was
broken.
Before morning the doubled breastwork was defended by a strong wire
entanglement. Soon after daybreak the enemy began a terrific
bombardment from four guns, two of which had been mounted on platforms
behind the two which Lawrence had already seen in position. The
garrison could make no effective reply, but could only watch their
breastwork crumbling away under the shells that pounded it without
intermission. The two brothers held their men some distance in the rear,
as much under cover as possible, ready to lead them on and occupy the
ruin of the entrenchment as soon as the expected charge began.
About ten o'clock they saw Fazl running towards them from the bridge.
He had been taking his turn of duty on guard at the aeroplane platform,
and the fact that he had left his post seemed ominous. Rushing up to
Lawrence, he exclaimed excitedly that he had heard the distant hum of an
aeroplane. The boys were incredulous: they themselves were almost
deafened by the roar of the guns and the crash of falling masonry. But
immediately afterwards, in the interval between the shots, they caught
the sound--the continuous throbbing drone, like a gigantic
sewing-machine at work. They looked at each other aghast. For a moment
or two they were mute: then Bob said:
"You must get aloft at once. It's our only chance. Get above the
aeroplane, and bomb it. There's no time to lose."
Lawrence set off at a run, the Gurkha behind him. He raced across the
bridge and on to the cantilever pathway, and had just turned the corner
when he heard a tremendous explosion behind him. A few seconds later a
large monoplane flashed by, and was soon lost to sight up the valley.
Long practice had given him facility in starting. The aeroplane was
ready for flight. Lawrence and the Gurkha leapt to their places, and
within two minutes the machine was in the air, flying after the enemy.
This, then, was the meaning of the Kalmuck officer's veiled warning.
The enemy had taken a leaf out of the defenders' book. Their airmen,
equipped no doubt with bombs much more destructive than Lawrence's
home-made missiles, intended to strike at the very heart of the defence,
and by rendering the mine premises untenable, clear the way for the
advance of the army.
Lawrence was fortunately cool of head and a rapid thinker. After a
moment of stupefaction he saw his course clearly. The danger from the
air must be met in the air. This could only be done by rising above the
enemy's monoplane, and hurling his bombs down upon it. The Kalmuck
pilot would be as anxious as he to avoid an actual collision, which must
prove disastrous to both the machines. It was wholly a question of
manoeuvring for position.
The glimpse he had caught of the hostile aeroplane as it flashed by,
suggested that it was a much larger and more powerful machine than his
own. If this were indeed the case, he was probably quite outmatched in
speed as in armament. But he saw in a moment that the possession of the
smaller machine might tend to his own advantage, for he could wheel in
narrow parts of the valley where the attempt would prove destructive to
the enemy. Moreover, he knew the valley thoroughly; the others, though
no doubt vastly superior to him in a military sense, lacked local
experience and had everything to learn. Time was on his side.
As soon as he began his flight he knew that he had gained one point. If
the enemy had turned at his customary wheeling-place, their aeroplane
would already have been in sight. The next suitable spot was several
miles farther up the valley, unless indeed they should rise to a much
greater height than that at which they had passed. Such an ascension
would consume time; it would further make it very difficult for them to
drop their bombs with any degree of accuracy. Whether they rose or
continued their flight at the same altitude until they reached the wider
turning-place, they would not be back for four or five minutes.
Lawrence resolved to utilise this breathing space.
He flew on until he reached his usual turning-place, then began to mount
in a spiral course. While he was doing this, two considerations flashed
through his mind. If, when he met the enemy, he should be still below
them, he must fly on in the opposite direction, for the chance of being
hit by a bomb, when the machines were passing at the rate of perhaps a
hundred and fifty miles an hour, would be very slight. His only fear in
that case was that they would fly straight back to the mine and work
havoc there without a possibility of interference. If, on the other
hand, he were above them, his best course would be to fly in the same
direction, and try to drop his bombs on them. When two express trains
are running the same way, it is possible, however great their speed, to
cast an object from a carriage of one through an open window of the
other.
He was still ascending when Fazl shouted that the enemy's aeroplane was
in sight, at a greater height.
"Rifle!" said Lawrence instantly, as he headed up the valley.
The Gurkha fired, as the two machines rushed at terrific speed towards
each other. There was no reply, but a few seconds afterwards an
explosion in the valley below showed that the enemy had dropped a bomb.
It would have been almost a miracle if it had hit the aeroplane in the
fraction of a second of the passing. But a second explosion a little
later was very perturbing. Unless he could check the enemy, they might
sail over the mine again and again, and on the wider target which that
presented take surer aim. Luckily they would have to fly several miles
down the river before they could again turn, and the few minutes' grace
might give him time to ascend still higher, and attain an altitude at
which he would have the advantage.