CHAPTER XI
THE TRAP
A little more than two hours later, when Burnet, refreshed by his briefsleep, but acknowledging inwardly that he was still very weary, issuedfrom Rejeb's tower to the clear space outside, the light of a singleshaded torch fell on a brave array. If Rejeb was like Saladin of oldin his chivalrous determination to meet his foe on equal terms, he alsohad not a little of that famous warrior's practical good sense. Theyoung chief was content to lead forth no more than fifty men, but hehad taken care that those fifty were his best. All in the vigour ofearly manhood, lean, straight, stalwart, they had been selected byRejeb himself, not without pangs of jealousy and disappointment amongthe rest of the tribesmen. Ranged in line, they sat immovable onmagnificent horses, holding their rifles slantwise across their saddles.
There was a glow of conscious pride on Rejeb's handsome face as he ledBurnet towards the spot, a few feet in advance of the line, where theirhorses awaited them. They mounted.
"I would have your counsel, brother," said Rejeb courteously, but in atone that implied a sense of perfect equality. "The wady of which theTurks spoke bends north-westward to the river. At half a march'sdistance from the river the wady runs through ruins, neither sowidespread nor so well preserved as those here around us." (At thisBurnet felt slightly amused, for with the exception of the stump oftower the stronghold could not boast of four upright walls.) "Theseruins the Turks must pass on their way; shall we not then ride directlythither, and there lie in wait?"
"You flatter me by asking my counsel--you who know the country, whereasI am a stranger," said Burnet, adopting the chief's manner of formalcourtesy. "What is good in your eyes is good also in mine."
"What you say is the truth: I know the country. I know that the Turkshave an outpost on the river northward of the place where the wadyjoins it; southward they have none, their forces being encamped hereand there on the banks of the Tigris. If then we leave the _tell_ onour right, and ride straight as a bird flies to the ruins I spoke of,not only shall we avoid any meeting with the enemy, but we shall gainour post of ambush long before they arrive there, since it will be awork of no light labour to drag the aeroplane along the unevenembankment of the wady."
"Might they not construct a raft on which to convey it on the streamitself?"
"Where in the swamps would they find wood? There is no timber nearerthan the outpost of which I spoke, where kelaks laden with palmssometimes lie in the river. It is true, they may have sent men tobring one of these kelaks to the wady, but the kelakjis are too fearfulof shoals to come down the river by night, and we shall arrive at ourambush long before the dawn."
"It shall be done as seems good to you," said Burnet. "Who am I that Ishould offer counsel?"
He saw, in fact, that Rejeb had consulted him out of politeness merely,and felt great confidence in this plan that had evidently been wellthought out.
Thereupon Rejeb gave an order; the Arabs tightened their reins; andRejeb rode towards the head of the causeway, with Burnet immediatelybehind, the rest following in single file.
Keeping well to westward of the _tell_ the party rode at a steady trotover the plain. Long experiences in night forays enabled them to avoidthe difficulties and dangers of the swamps, even though they had nolight but the star-shine; and the man whom Rejeb sent to the front asguide when they had left the immediate neighbourhood of the strongholdcould not have led them more confidently in broad daylight. Burnetthought privately that a British commander would have detailed anadvance guard and flanking parties to give warning of possible enemies;but these precautions seemed unnecessary to Rejeb until three-fourthsof the journey was accomplished. Even then he contented himself withsending two men ahead and two more to the right; from the left heanticipated no danger. The party, indeed, arrived at the ruins, ofwhich Rejeb had spoken, without incident. Burnet's wrist watch hadstopped, no doubt through immersion in the swamp; but Rejeb withouthesitation, after a glance at the sky, declared that there were stilltwo hours till dawn, and ordered his men to off saddle, to hobble thehorses among the rampant vegetation bordering the ruins, and to postthemselves as best they could on the broken ground until daybreak.
Burnet, however, was not content to wait thus in complete ignorance ofthe enemy's position and movements. During the ten hours which hadpassed since he had last seen them, anything might have happened. Someof the troopers who had ridden away from the spot where the aeroplanelay might have been despatched to the Turkish outpost twenty or thirtymiles up the Euphrates, and an enterprising officer there might havetaken instant measures to retrieve so valuable a capture as anaeroplane. He put this point to Rejeb, who had so low an opinion ofthe Turk's initiative and intelligence that he scouted the suggestion.It was only when Burnet hinted that there might possibly be a German atthe outpost that the chief wavered, and ultimately agreed that Burnetwith two men should ride round the swamp southward of the wady to thespot where the aeroplane had come down, in order to follow its track atthe first glimmer of dawn, and ascertain beyond doubt what progress theenemy had made, what their present position was, and what were theirprobable intentions.
The two Arabs, having had the locality described to them, were able tolead Burnet by a much easier route than that which he had followed withso much toil and discomfort on the previous day. Approaching the openspace with great caution in the dawning light they found it vacant:only the wheel tracks of the aeroplane and footprints in the soft earthremained as evidence of yesterday's events. It was easy to follow thecourse of the aeroplane, and the three men rode cautiously forward,Burnet in the centre, an Arab at a little distance on either side.
They had ridden for nearly an hour at a slow walking pace before theyhad any sign of the enemy. Then one of the Arabs halted, snuffed theair for a moment, and riding up to Burnet, said:
"There is fire, Aga."
Dismounting, they left their horses concealed among the tall grass, andstole forward on foot a few yards south of the wheel tracks, takingadvantage of the cover provided by the rank vegetation. Burnet soondetected the acrid smell of smoke, and in about ten minutes caughtsight of the heads of horses just projecting above the swaying top of abelt of reeds. He heard also the dull murmur of voices.
"It is well that I go alone and spy out the land, Aga," said the manwho had first smelt the smoke. "I will go and come to you here again."
He disappeared through the reeds in a southerly direction. It wasnearly half an hour before he returned, with the news that the enemyhad bivouacked on dry ground near the bank of a small stream--not thewady, but probably a tributary of it. They had just finished theirmorning meal: he had seen them stamp out the embers of their camp fire,yoke two horses to the aeroplane, drag it across the shallow channel,and set off northwards. They were riding in loose formation, havingevidently no apprehension of meeting an enemy in this region, remotefrom the military operations on the Tigris some fifty miles to theeast, and destitute of settled inhabitants. There was no doubt thattheir intention was to convey the aeroplane to the wady, which had anembankment wide enough to allow the passage of the machine.
Burnet could only conclude that in default of any means of transportthey would follow the course of the wady until they reached the river.Their progress must necessarily be slow, and there was plenty of timeto ride back to Rejeb by a circuitous route and lay plans for asuccessful ambuscade.
The chief's eyes gleamed when Burnet, rejoining him an hour or twolater, told him the result of the reconnaissance. It seemed that theenemy must fall an easy prey. The position was admirably suited to anambush. The ruins extended some hundreds of yards on each bank of thewady. They were fringed on the south by a dense encircling belt ofreeds. In this belt, at its south-western corner, Rejeb posted thegreater part of his force, mounted, the reeds being tall enough toconceal them. The remainder he ordered to dismount and placethemselves under cover at the northern extremity of the ruins, atintervals of a few yards, so that they could command the south
ern bankof the wady with their fire. His plan was to throw the enemy intodisorder by rifle fire from the north, then to hurl himself upon themwith the mounted men from the south and complete their rout.
These dispositions had only just been made when a new element enteredinto the problem. Rejeb, sitting his horse beside Burnet in the beltof reeds, suddenly turned his head sharply to the left.
"What is that sound, brother?" he said. Burnet listened intently, butit was the space of a minute before his ears caught a faint throbbingmurmur in the direction towards which Rejeb had turned. He recognisedit instantly as the purring of a petrol-driven engine, and scanned thesky, half expecting to see a British aeroplane: perhaps a pilot hadcome to look for Ellingford, whose return had been expected in thelines below Kut on the previous evening. But the sky was one specklessblue, and though the sound of the engine grew louder moment by moment,there was nothing to be seen.
Presently Rejeb exclaimed:
"I hear horses!"
A few moments later Burnet also detected another sound mingling withthe drone--the unmistakable thud of hoofs. The explanation flashedupon him. The troopers who had ridden from the scene of the previousday's incident had been despatched to the Turkish outpost of whichRejeb had told him, and were now returning, accompanied by a motorlaunch on the wady, no doubt sent to transport the aeroplane by water.
He imparted his conclusion to Rejeb.
"Wallahi!" exclaimed the chief. "An evil spirit is striving againstus."
One thought had flashed upon the young men at the same moment. Theymight rout the Turks, but lose the aeroplane. The enemy would no doubtplace on the deck of the launch not only the machine, but theirprisoner, and the Arabs could not fire on the crew without the risk ofhitting the Englishman. It was possible, of course, to hold up thelaunch and prevent it from passing up the wady, but the sound of rifleshots could not fail to be heard by the Turks conveying the aeroplane,and the alarm would ruin the chances of a successful ambuscade.
While Rejeb and Burnet were discussing the matter in low tones, theypeered out through the reeds in the direction of the rapidlyapproaching sounds. Soon they caught sight of six horsemen riding incouples along the bank of the wady, and as they drew abreast, thelaunch became visible beneath their horses' bellies. One of thehorsemen was an officer, whom no doubt the news brought him at theoutpost had induced to ride back with the messengers and see forhimself the captured aeroplane.
Launch and horsemen passed out of sight. During the few moments' pausein the conversation while the enemy went by, an idea had occurred toBurnet. It was probable that the aeroplane had barely arrived at thebank of the wady, and, judging by the direction of its captors' march,at a point at least five or six miles from the ruins. The launch waskeeping pace with the horsemen on the bank; it might reach theaeroplane in something under an hour. Further time would be occupiedin explanation; no doubt the officer from the outpost would be curiousenough to examine the machine; then its safe bestowal on the deck ofthe launch would be a long job. Probably two or three hours wouldelapse before the return journey commenced, and Burnet had conceived aplan for utilising those hours.
He mentioned it to Rejeb, who received it with a torrent of joyousejaculations. There was no time to be lost. The chief told off a manto go on foot half a mile along the bank of the wady, to give warningof the enemy's approach. The course of the channel was almostperfectly straight, and horsemen riding along the embankment could beseen from a great distance. Then he selected twenty men, and placedthem at Burnet's orders. Burnet took them down to the brink of thewady, chose a spot favourable to his design about half-way through theruins, and instructed the men to build a dam with the material that layclose to their hands. The channel was shallow, and only about fortyfeet wide. The men formed two queues, and masses of brick and stonewere passed from hand to hand and dumped in the middle.
Working with interest and hearty good-will, within an hour the Arabshad raised that obstacle almost to the surface, and in the muddy waterit was scarcely visible, even from the bank. Much less was it likelyto be seen from the deck of the moving launch, the crew of which wouldnot suspect that the channel they had already navigated safely couldhold any danger for them.
Having completed the dam, the men returned to their former posts. Nochange in the general plan was necessitated: indeed, the suddenstoppage of the launch would tend to further it, for it would add onemore element to the confusion.
It was now only a question of waiting. The Arabs sat their horses instolid patience, scarcely moving or speaking. Burnet was morerestless. He would have liked to steal along the bank of the wady, andwatch the stages in the enemy's progress; but he contained himself, andtried to emulate the stillness of his friend the chief.
Three hours passed: it was almost midday when the Arab scout camerunning back with the news that the enemy were in sight. Soonafterwards the sound of the propeller was heard, and then, peepingthrough the reeds, the watchers saw the horsemen riding two by two at awalking pace along the embankment, and the aeroplane, its wingsextending over the banks on either side, as it were floating on thestream.
There was now some order in the troopers' march. Three couples rodeahead as an advance guard: after an interval came the two officersriding abreast, and behind them the remainder of the party. Burnetsuggested that the advance guard should be allowed to pass, fire beingreserved until the main body was half-way through the ruins and unableto escape without fighting. It was impossible now to send a messengerwith orders to the men on the north bank, but this gave Rejeb noconcern:
"My warriors will know what to do," he said, with a firm air ofconfidence.
The advance guard was some distance ahead of the launch, which had togo slowly because of the unwieldiness of its burden, and the risk ofstriking the overlapping wings of the aeroplane against someirregularity in the surface of the bank. There was thus no reason tofear that the conflict would start prematurely through the obstructionof the launch before the horsemen had arrived. The men were ridingeasily; the two officers were engaged in animated conversation; in thiswide no man's land between the rivers they had no cause forapprehension.
Burnet, holding his revolver, tingled as the enemy drew slowly nearer.It was not his first action, but a youth of twenty cannot know thecoolness and indifference of the veteran. His one anxiety was for thesafety of Captain Ellingford. Knowing that he was on board, the Arabswould not fire at the launch; but in the confusion and hurly-burly ofthe coming fight he might be struck by a chance shot; perhaps, indeed,he might be deliberately murdered by the Turks in charge of him."Thank Heaven they are not Germans," Burnet thought.
The advance guard came to the edge of the ruins, riding along theembankment, which was only a foot or two above the general level, witha gentle slope on the southern side. The troopers glanced to right andleft without particular care; and indeed it would have needed keenereyes than theirs to discover the men ambushed in snug positions a fewhundred yards on the north side of the stream, or the horsemen securelyhidden in the tall rushes at a rather greater distance to the south.
They passed by without suspicion. About a hundred yards behind themthe two officers came within the circle of the ruins, still chattingtogether. Their orderlies were a few paces in the rear; and the headof the short column of troopers, in line with the launch, rode at anequal interval behind them.
To Burnet, at least, their progress seemed painfully slow. The advanceguard had reached the western extremity of the ruins before theofficers came level with the dam. Burnet was just wondering whetherthe dam would escape their notice when there was a sudden crackle ofmusketry from the northern side. The officer nearest the wady fellfrom his horse; several saddles in the column behind were emptied; andthere ensued a scene of wild confusion. The horses curvetted, anddrove against one another; the men shouted and gazed about themirresolutely, seeking the unseen enemy and trying to control theirsteeds. Another volley struck down several more horses and men
; then,just as the launch, coming stern foremost, crashed into the obstacle,Rejeb and Burnet, at the head of a compact body of horsemen with swordsheld aloft, dashed from the shelter of the reeds and rode at a hotgallop straight for the centre of the column.
By this time some of the Turks had flung themselves from their saddles,and, bridle in hand, were running down the slope of the embankment togain shelter from the rifle fire. The sight of the horsemen bearingdown upon them like a desert whirlwind from the opposite quarter causedthem to mount again in haste. Some rallied about their officer, andprepared to meet the shock, others spurred their horses forward withthe idea of avoiding it, only to find themselves checked by their morestedfast comrades. Others again swung their horses round, and gallopedmadly in the direction from which they had come.
The officer's desperate efforts to dress his ranks at the foot of theslope were rendered abortive by the confusion into which his moreresolute men had been thrown by their comrades' attempt to escape.Rifle fire had ceased, and with a gallantry that won Burnet'sadmiration the Turk, supported by less than a dozen troopers, rodestraight at the charging mass. Burnet, whose matchless horse hadcarried him slightly in advance of Rejeb, made a sudden swerve to avoida sweeping stroke of the officer's sword, and as he passed, fired hisrevolver point blank at his opponent. The trooper behind made a cut athis head, and he discovered later that the peak of his helmet had beensliced off.
Having no more of the enemy in front of him, he wheeled round and rodeback into the fray. Several men and horses had fallen, and thesurvivors, hopelessly outnumbered, almost surrounded by the Arabs, werecrying for quarter.
Meanwhile the advance guard, brought to a halt by the sudden outburstof fire behind them, had stayed only long enough to see that theircomrades had no chance against such odds, and had then galloped off inheadlong flight towards the Euphrates. It was a matter of the mosturgent importance that none of them should escape to carry news of theambush to their outpost on the river, and Rejeb himself, with ten ofhis Arabs, rode along the embankment at breakneck pace to overtakethem. It was equally important that the fugitives who had ridden inthe other direction should not be allowed to work their way round tothe north, and Rejeb's lieutenant, with the rest of the mounted men,set off to ride them down. Some of the Arabs swam the wady on theirhorses in order to cut off their escape northward; the lieutenanthimself with another body galloped straight along the embankment; athird section struck off into the swampy ground to the south.
The moment the fight was over, Burnet turned to see what had happenedto the launch. When its course was checked by the dam, it appearedthat the crew had endeavoured to escape by driving it back along thewady, for Burnet saw that it was now a hundred yards or so to the east.But in their haste they had neglected the precautions necessitated bythe breadth of the aeroplane. Attempting to run at too high a speed inthe narrow channel, they had failed to keep a course exactly in themiddle, with the result that one of the wings had jammed in a tangle ofvegetation, and the launch was unable to move. Meanwhile the Arabsposted in the ruins had left their stations and run down to the bank,where they stood sentry over the vessel, rifle in hand.
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