CHAPTER XIII.
AMONG FRIENDS.
THE astonishment of the two natives at seeing, as they supposed, threewomen standing with their boat, was no less than that of the boys atbeing thus suddenly surprised. Suspecting no harm, however, they at oncemoved forward, asking in Egyptian, "What are you doing here with ourboat?"
"Down with them, boys?" Jim Tucker exclaimed, and at once threw himselfupon one of the boatmen, while Jack and Arthur instantly sprang upon theother.
Wholly unprepared for the attack, the men were thrown down almostwithout resistance.
"Get some rope from the boat, Arthur!" Jim Tucker exclaimed.
Leaving Jack to hold the prostrate man, Arthur Hill jumped on board theboat, and in a minute returned with two pieces of rope. With these thearms and legs of the natives were soon firmly tied.
"Now, what are we going to do next?" Jim Tucker asked.
"It would not do to leave them here," Jack said. "If they managed tountie each other they would give the alarm, and if we had to come backwe should be caught. If they could not manage to untie each other theymight lie here and die. I think we had better take them with us."
"I suppose that will be the best plan," Jim agreed. "I do not know thatit will make much difference in the end, for they must be left tiedsomewhere; still, it would certainly make it safer for us."
Accordingly the men were lifted into the boat and laid down in thebottom. Then the boys threw off the female garments, and taking the longpoles punted the boat out into the lake. The water was so shallow, thatit was not until they had gone more than a mile from shore that theylaid in the poles and took to the clumsy oars. An hour's rowing, and theshore began to rise high in front of them. As they approached it theystopped rowing, and listened attentively.
"Now, before we go any nearer we had better gag these fellows," Jacksaid. "If they were to set-to to shout as soon as we had landed, ourchance of getting back again would be at an end."
They tore off two strips from the cloths, rolled them up, and put themin the prisoners' mouths, putting some lashings across so that theycould not get them out; then they put the men so far apart in the boatthat they could not touch each other, and lashed them in thesepositions. This done they again wrapped themselves in their women'sgarments, and quietly rowed to the shore. They had but little fear offinding anyone here. The natives, if no landing had been effected fromthe ships, would be all engaged in the work of plundering; while if theEnglish had taken possession of the town they would probably be keepingin their houses. No one was near when they landed, and fastening thehead-rope of the boat to a stone they pushed her gently off again.
"If anyone should come along," Jim said, "it is too dark for them to seethose fellows lying in the boat. Now, we must take our bearingsaccurately as we go along, so as to be able to find the boat again ifthings go wrong with us."
They had landed half a mile beyond the town, and now made their waytowards it. As they came to the houses a few people were about, but noone paid any attention to the three veiled figures. The glare of lightwas a sufficient indication to them of the direction they should follow,for they had agreed that if a landing had been made the sailors would becertain to be at work trying to put a stop to the spread of the flames.
Presently they came to the edge of the district swept by the fire. Thewalls for the most part were standing, although in many cases they hadfallen across the road. The heaps of rubbish inside still glowed, andnow and then little tongues of fire leapt up. On they went, making theirway very cautiously until they reached a wide open space surrounded byruins.
"This is the great square," Jack said. "Look, there is the fountainstill playing in the middle. There are some fires there too, and a lotof people round them."
"Let us wait a bit. If they are Egyptians we shall be in a nice mess."
They stood for some time, afraid to approach closer, then they heard aburst of laughter.
"That must be English," Jack said. "I don't believe Egyptians ever laughlike that."
"I don't think so either. Let us move a bit closer; but mind, we must beready for a bolt if we find we are wrong."
They went quietly forward, and again stood irresolute. Presently theyheard a voice call "Tom Jones!" and heard the reply "Aye, aye, sir!"
"It is all right!" Jim exclaimed joyfully, and they at once hurriedforward. They soon arrived at the fire, round which three or four navalofficers were sitting. The boys tore the veils from their faces andthrew back the cotton cloth from over their heads, and a generalexclamation of surprise broke from the officers as they saw the heads ofthree European boys.
"Hallo!" one of them exclaimed. "Who are you, and where do you springfrom?"
"We were wounded and carried off last month, on the day of the rising,"Jim said, "and have been kept prisoners ever since, sir. We got away thenight after the bombardment, and have just arrived. We belong to thebarque _Wild Wave_; we are midshipmen on board her."
"Well, I am glad you have got out of their hands," the officer said;"but I cannot do anything for you now. These rascals keep on setting thetown on fire in fresh places, and we are just starting to put one outthat began half an hour ago."
"What is this?" an officer asked, hurrying up to the spot.
"Three lads, Lord Charles, who have been kept prisoners by the Egyptiansfor the last month, and have just escaped. They belong to a merchantvessel, and were captured at the rising."
"Please to march off your men at once, sir; I will overtake you in aminute or two. Well, lads, what can I do for you?"
"Well, sir, you might give us something to eat, perhaps," Jim suggested."We have had next to nothing for the last three days."
"Come along with me," Lord Charles Beresford said, and he hurried withthem to another party of sailors at the further end of the square.
"Give those lads something to eat and drink," he said. "You had betterstop here until I come back, lads, then I will see what can be done foryou."
A kettle was boiling over a fire, and before many minutes the lads weresupplied with a basin each of cocoa and a lump of bread, and felt asthey ate their supper that their troubles were at an end. It required,however, more than one bowl of cocoa and a considerable quantity ofbread before their appetites were appeased.
While taking their supper the boys gave to the officers gathered roundthem a sketch of the adventures they had gone through.
"Now that you have done your supper," one of the officers said, "Isuppose the next thing you want is some clothes. The question is how toget them."
"Yes, sir; it is awful going about like this."
"Well, you are rather objects," the officer agreed with a laugh; "but Ido not see what is to be done for you at present. You see, all this partof the town is burned down, and the shops in the other parts are alllocked up and deserted, and most of them have already been broken intoand robbed. We have no time to see about that sort of thing at present;our time is entirely occupied in fighting the fire, and in preventingthese scoundrels from lighting fresh ones. There were seven or eightfresh outbreaks to-day. However, you must stop here for the present.Lord Charles Beresford will not be long before he is back, I daresay."
In another half hour the party of sailors returned, having pulled downtwo or three houses, and prevented the flames from spreading. Theircommander at once came up to the boys, followed by a sailor bringing alarge bundle.
"I have not forgotten you, youngsters. One of the houses we pulled downwas a clothier's, which had by some good luck or other escaped beinglooted, so I told the men to pick out half a dozen suits and as manycaps, and bring them on. They would only have been taken by the nativesdirectly our backs were turned. No doubt you will find something thereto fit you."
With great joy the boys seized the bundle, and going a little distanceoff examined its contents. After a good deal of trying on they eachfound things that fitted them fairly. Feeling vastly more comfortable intheir new attire, they rejoined the sailors.
"I expec
t your ship has left long ago," Lord Charles said. "Your bestplan will be to go round in the morning to the consul, Mr. Cookson. Hehas established himself in a temporary office just beyond the range ofthe fire. One of my men will show you the way. Most likely your captainwill have left some message with him in case you turned up again. Afteryou have seen him you can, if you like, come back here; I daresay Ishall be able to find something for you to do. Or if you like you can besent off to one of the steamers, where the refugees are on board."
"We would much rather stay here, sir, if we may," Jim Tucker said. "Wewill do anything that you like to set us to."
As they sat by the fire talking with the officers the boys learned whathad happened in the town. As soon as it became evident that the fire ofthe ships of war was mastering that of the forts the troops and thepopulace began the work of plunder. The European stores were all brokeninto; everything portable was carried away and the furniture broken andsmashed.
Fire was applied in scores of places. A considerable number of thepoorer classes of Europeans had remained in their houses, being afraidto desert their possessions, and many of these houses were broken intoby the mob and the inmates massacred.
It was calculated that upwards of five hundred were killed. The clerksat the Anglo-Egyptian Bank had determined to stay and defend it, and assoon as the work of plunder and massacre began a number of Europeansmade for this point, and the little garrison was swelled until itnumbered nearly a hundred men. The place had been attacked by the moband soldiers; but had held out gallantly and beaten off the assailants,who had before long scattered to points where plunder could be moreeasily obtained.
At night a steam-launch from the fleet entered the harbour. Two or threemen had landed, and making their way through the burning streetsreturned and reported the town was empty.
The next morning at daylight a force had landed and driven theplunderers from the European part of the town, while the ships hadbattered the forts that still held out. The following day a strong forceof marines came ashore and patrolled the streets. At the sight of theBritish uniforms many doors were opened, and the wretched inmates, whohad for forty-eight hours being trembling for their lives, made theirway down to the water-side and went off to the ships. In the evening, ashort time before the boys arrived, four hundred and fifty men had beenlanded from the British ships, and one hundred and twenty-five from anAmerican man-of-war, and these at once set about the work ofre-establishing order.
In the morning a sailor conducted the boys to the house where Mr.Cookson had established himself. As soon as they gave an account ofthemselves to him he shook them heartily by the hand.
"I am glad to see you back in safety, lads. Your captain was in a greatway about your loss, and hunted high and low for you. He traced you tothe spot where the riot began, but could learn nothing more; and as noneof your bodies could be found, we had hopes that you had not beenkilled. Of course he could not delay his vessel here, and went on toSmyrna. He was going to look in here again on his way back; but as hehas not done so, he probably got a freight and had to sail straighthome. He asked me if you did turn up to let you have any money yourequired, and to do all I could for you. I can let you have the money,but I cannot do much else beyond sending you on board one of the shipsoutside to wait there until there is a chance of sending you home."
"Thank you very much, sir," Jim said. "We shall be glad of some money,but we do not want to go on board ship. Lord Beresford said he wouldgive us something to do here."
"Oh, if Lord Charles said that, I need not trouble about you," theconsul said. "He will find you plenty of work. How much shall I give youeach?"
"I think two pounds apiece, sir, would be plenty," Jim said. "One doesnot like having no money; but I do not see how we are going to spendit."
The lads now went back to the square, and there waited for some hours,Lord Charles Beresford being away at work. He returned at mid-day, bywhich time the party in the square had cooked the dinners for theircomrades. There were now two thousand sailors and marines on shore,posted in various open places, the grand square serving ashead-quarters. Sailors and officers were alike blackened with ashes anddust, having been engaged in the work of pulling down houses andchecking the progress of the flames.
Lord Charles called the lads to him and made them sit down and join theofficers and himself at dinner, and while the meal was going on heobtained from them an account of their adventures. When they hadfinished he said to one of the marine officers: "Captain Archer, you areto take command of that gang of fellows over there," pointing to sometwo hundred natives who were gathered a short distance away, "I hope weshall have a thousand at work to-morrow morning. You can take theseyoung gentlemen with you; they will remain under your command for thepresent, and you will put them on rations. It will be a great thinggetting these gangs of natives at work. I shall have time now to put astop to the looting and incendiarism. Besides, they say the Egyptiantroops are approaching the town again. I only hope they will try to comein."
There was a murmur of agreement among the circle of officers. The momentthe meal was over the party rose, for there was no time to waste.Captain Archer, followed by the three boys and six marines, went over tothe group of natives, by whom one of the dragomans of the consulate wasstanding.
"These are all I could hire to-day, sir," the man said. "They are toomuch frightened to come out of their houses. To-morrow we shall getplenty of men. The consul told me to go with you as interpreter."
"Thank goodness for that," the captain said. "I was wondering how I wasgoing to get them to understand me. Tell them to fall-in two and two andfollow."
Through the streets, where the heat from the houses was so intense thatthey hurried through with their hands shading their faces, clamberingover masses of fallen stonework, broken furniture, and goods of allsorts scattered about, the party made their way to the edge of the fire.Here the flames were ascending, and the conflagration was stillspreading, although fortunately but slowly, for there was scarce anywind.
"Now, lads," the captain said, "set to work and get down four houses oneach side of the way."
The marines set the example by entering the houses, and, runningupstairs, soon managed to break their way through the tiles and emergeupon the roofs.
"Come on, darkies!" they shouted. "Don't be afraid of blacking yourhands!" They at once began to throw off the tiles, and were soon joinedby a score of the most active natives.
"That is right, down with them!" the captain shouted, and in a very fewminutes the last tiles had fallen. As soon as the shower had ceased thewhole of the contents of the houses were carried into the streets. Thenthe marines began with the axes and crowbars with which they wereprovided to tear up the floor-boards and break down the rafters andbeams. Then grapnels fastened to long ropes were fixed on the top of thebrickwork, a score of hands caught hold, and the lightly-built wallreadily yielded to the strain, coming down in great masses. As soon asthe walls had fallen the natives were set to work carrying away thebeams and woodwork, and in a little more than half an hour from the timethe operations commenced two heaps of brickwork and rubbish alone markedthe spot where the eight houses had stood.
As soon as the work was finished the party moved on into the nextstreet, there to repeat the operations. As parties of sailors were atwork at a score of other places the operations proceeded rapidly, and bynightfall the workers had the satisfaction of knowing that the fire wascompletely cut off, and that there was no chance of its spreadingfarther. Four other outbreaks had occurred in the course of the day. Intwo cases the sailors arrived upon the spot before the incendiaries hadmade their escape. One man was shot, and four taken before the Egyptianmagistrate who had been appointed to try cases, and they were, aftertheir guilt had been fully proved, sentenced to death and summarilyhanged.
The following evening, on their going round to the consulate as usual tohear if he had received any news of the _Wild Wave_, Mr. Cookson said,"I had a telegram an hour since, lads, saying that yo
ur ship arrived inthe Thames yesterday, and asking if I had any news of you. I have sentoff my answer, 'All here safe and well, making themselves useful andwaiting instructions.' I am sure to get an answer some time to-morrow."
The next day the answer came, "Delighted at news. Tell boys remainAlexandria. Ship coming out with cargo coal."