Chapter Thirteen"'Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib,obeyed my lord bahadur's orders."
"TO-MORROW WE DIE"
All that is cynical; all that refusesTrust in an altruist aim;Every specious plea that excusesGreed in necessity's name;Studied indifference; scorn that amuses;Cleverness, shifting the blame;Selfishness, pitying trust it abuses--Treason and these are the same.Finally, when the last lees ye shall turn from(E'en intellectuals flinch in the end!)Ashes of loneliness then ye shall learn from--All that's worth keeping's the faith of a friend.
Never to be forgotten is that journey to Zeitoon. We threaded towardthe heart of opal mountains along tracks that nothing on wheels--noteven a wheel-barrow--could have followed. Perpetually on our rightthere kept appearing brilliant green patches of young rice, morefull of livid light than flawless emeralds. And, as in all ricecountry, there were countless watercourses with frequently impracticablebanks along which fugitives felt their way miserably, too fearfulof pursuit to risk following the bridle track.
There is a delusion current that fugitives go fast. But it standsto reason they do not; least of all, unarmed people burdened withchildren and odds and ends of hastily snatched household goods.We found them hiding everywhere to sleep and rest lacerated feet,and there was not a mile of all that distance that did not add twentyor thirty stragglers to our column, risen at sight of us out of theirlurking places. We scared at least as many more into deeper hiding,without blame to them, for there was no reason why they should knowus at a distance from official murderers. Hamidieh regiments, themilitia of that land, wear uniforms of their own choosing, whichis mostly their ordinary clothes and weapons added.
With snow-crowned Beirut Dagh frowning down over us, and the trackgrowing every minute less convenient for horse or man, word camefrom the rear that the hamidieh were truly on our trail. Then wehad our first real taste of what Armenians could do against drilledTurks, and even before Fred and I could get in touch with Will andGloria we realized that whether or not we took part with them therewas going to be no stampede by the men-folk.
Nothing would persuade Gloria to go on to Zeitoon and announce ourcoming. Kagig came galloping back and found us four met togetherby a little horsetail waterfall. He ordered her peremptorily tohurry and find Monty, but she simply ignored him. In another momenthe was too bent on shepherding the ammunition cases to give her afurther thought.
Men began to gather around him, and he to issue orders. They hadeither to kill him or obey. He struck at them with a rawhide whip,and spurred his horse savagely at every little clump of men disposedto air their own views.
"You see," he laughed, "unanimity is lacking!" Then his manner changedback to irritation. "In the name of God, effendim, what manner ofsportmen are you? Will not each of you take a dozen men and go anddestroy those cursed Turks?" (They call every man a Turk in thatland who thinks and acts like one, be he Turk, Arab, Kurd or Circassian.)
It was all opposed to the consul's plan, and lawless by any reckoning.To attack the troops of a country with which our own governmentswere not at war was to put our heads in a noose in all likelihood.Perhaps if he had called us by any other name than "sportmen" wemight have seen it in that light, and have told him to protect usaccording to contract. But he used the right word and we jumpedat the idea, although Gloria, who had no notions about internationaldiplomacy, was easily first with her hat in the ring.
"I'll lead some men!" she shouted. "Who'll follow me?" Her voicerang clear with the virtue won on college playing fields.
"Nothing to it!" Will insisted promptly. "Here, you, Kagig--I'llmake a bargain with you!"
"Watch!" Fred whispered. "Will is now going to sell two comradesin the market for his first love! D'you blame him? But itwon't work!"
"Send Miss Vanderman to Zeitoon with an escort and we three--"
"What did I tell you?" Fred chuckled.
"--will fight for you all you like!"
But Gloria had a dozen men already swarming to her, with never asymptom of shame to be captained by a woman; and others were showingsigns of inclination. She turned her back on us, and I saw threemen hustle a fourth, who had both feet in bandages, until he gaveher his rifle and bandolier. She tossed him a laugh by way ofcompensation, and he seemed content, although he had parted withmore than the equivalent of a fortune.
"That girl," said Kagig, from the vantage point of his great horse,"is like the brave Zeitoonli wives! They fight! They can lead ina pinch! They are as good as men--better than men, for they thinkthey know less!"
Fred swiftly gathered himself a company of his own, the older menelecting to follow his lead. Gloria had the cream of the youngerones--men who in an earlier age would have gone into battle wearinga woman's glove or handkerchief--twenty or thirty youths blazingwith the fire of youth. Will went hot-foot after her with most ofthe English-speaking contingent from the mission schools. Kagighad the faithful few who had rallied to him from the first--the fightingmen of Zeitoon proper, including all the tough rear-guard who hadsent the warning and remained faithfully in touch with the enemyuntil their chief should come.
That left for me the men who knew no English, and Ephraim was enoughof a politician to see the advantage to himself of deserting Fred'sstandard for mine; for Fred could talk Armenian, and give his ownorders, but I needed an interpreter. I welcomed him at the firstexchange of compliments, but met him eye to eye a second later andbegan to doubt.
"I'm going to hold these men in reserve," I told him, "until I knowwhere they'll do most good. You know this country? Take high ground,then, where we can overlook what's going on and get into the fightto best advantage."
"But the others will get the credit," he began to object.
"I'll ask Kagig for another interpreter. Wait here."
At that he yielded the point and explained my orders to the men,who began to obey them willingly enough. But he went on talkingto them rapidly as we diverged from the path the others had takenand ascended a trail that wild goats would have reveled in, alongthe right flank of where fighting was likely to take place. I didnot doubt he was establishing notions of his own importance, andwith some success.
Firing commenced away in front and below us within ten minutes ofthe start, but it was an hour before I could command the scene withfield-glasses, and ten minutes after that before I could make outthe positions of our people, although the enemy were soon evident--along, irregular, ragged-looking line of cavalry thrusting lancesinto every hole that could possibly conceal an Armenian, and an almostequally irregular line of unmounted men in front of them, firingnot very cautiously nor accurately from under random cover.
It became pretty evident, after studying the positions for aboutfifteen minutes and sweeping every contour of the ground throughglasses, that the enemy had no chance whatever of breaking throughunless they could outflank Kagig's line. I held such impregnableadvantage of height and cover and clear view that the men I had withme were ample to prevent the turning of our right wing. Our leftflank rested on the brawling Jihun River that wound in and out betweenthe rice fields and the rocky foot-hills. There lay the weaknessof our position, and more than once I caught sight of Kagig spurringhis horse from cover to cover to place his men. Once I thought Irecognized Fred, too, over near the river-bank; but of Will or ofGloria I saw nothing.
It was obvious that if reserves were needed anywhere it would beover on that left flank by the fordable Jihun. Ephraim saw that,and proceeded to preach it like gospel to the men before consultingme. Then, arrogant in the consciousness of majority approval, hecame and advised me.
"Those--ah--hamidieh not coming this--ah--way. We cross overto--ah--other side. Then Kagig is being pleased with us. I giveorders--yes?"
He did not propose to wait for my consent, but I detained him witha hand on his shoulder. It would have taken us two hours to getinto position by the river-bank.
"Find out how many of the men can ride," I order
ed.
Taken by surprise he called out the inquiry without stopping to discovermy purpose first. It transpired there were seventeen men who hadbeen accustomed to horseback riding since their youth. That wouldleave nine men for another purpose. I separated sheep from goats,and made over the nine to Ephraim.
"You and these nine stay here," I ordered, "and hold this flank untilKagig makes a move." I did not doubt Kagig would fall back on Zeitoonas soon as he could do that with advantage. Neither did I doubtEphraim's ability to spoil my whole plan if he should see fit. YetI had to depend on his powers as interpreter.
There are two ways of relieving a weak wing, and the obvious oneof reenforcing it is not of necessity the best. I could see throughthe glasses a bowl of hollow grazing ground in which the dismountedKurds had left their horses; and I could count only five men guardingthem. Most of the horses seemed to be tied head to head by the reins,but some were hobbled and grazing close together.
"Tell these seventeen men I have chosen that I propose to creep upto the enemy's horses and steal or else stampede them," I ordered.
Ephraim hesitated. Glittering eyes betrayed fear to be left outof an adventure, disgust to see his own advice ignored, and yet thathe was alert to the advantage of being left with a lone command.
"But we should--ah--cross to the--ah--other side and--ah--help Kagig,"he objected. Perhaps he hoped to build political influence on thebasis of his own account to Kagig afterward of how he had arguedfor the saner course.
"Please explain what I have said--exactly!"
He continued to hesitate. I could see the Kurdish riflemen respondingto orders from their rear and beginning to concentrate in the directionof our left wing. Our center, where Gloria and Will were probablyconcealed by rocks and foliage, poured a galling fire on them, andthey had to reform, and detach a considerable company to deal withthat; but two-thirds of their number surged toward our left, andif my plan was to succeed almost the chief element was time.
"But Kagig will--"
One of the men had a hide rope, very likely looted from the villagewe had burned. I took it from him and tied a running noose in theend. Then I made the other end fast to the roots of a tree thathad been rain-washed until they projected naked over fifty feet ofsheer rock.
"Now," I said, "explain what I said, or I'll hang you in sight ofboth sides!"
I wondered whether he would not turn the tables and hang me. I knewI would not have been willing to lessen Kagig's chances by shootingany of them if they had decided to take Ephraim's part. But thepolitician in the man was uppermost and he did not force the issue.
"All right, effendi--oh, all right!" he answered, trying to laughthe matter off.
"Explain to them, then!"
I made him do it half a dozen times, for once we were on our wayalong the precipitous sides of the hills the only control I shouldhave would be force of example, aided to some extent by the sortof primitive signals that pass muster even in a kindergarten.If they should talk Turkish to me slowly I might understand a littlehere and there, but to speak it myself was quite another matter;and in common with most of their countrymen, though they understoodTurkish perfectly and all that went with it, they would rather eatdirt than foul their months with the language of the hated conqueror.
But, once explained, the plan was as obvious as the risk entailed,and they approved the one as swiftly as they despised the other.The Kurds below were not oblivious to the risk of reprisals fromthe hills, and we spent five minutes picking out the men posted tokeep watch, making careful note of their positions. At the pointwhere we decided to debouch on to the plain there were two sentriestaking matters fairly easy, and I told off four men to go on aheadand attend to those as silently as might be.
Then we started--not close together, for the Kurds would certainlybe looking out for an attack from the hills in force, and would notbe expecting individuals--but one at a time, two Armenians leading,and the rest of them following me at intervals of more than fifty yards.
At the moment of starting I gave Ephraim another order, and withintwo hours owed my life and that of most of my men to his disobedience.
"You stay here with your handful, and don't budge except as Kagigmoves his line! Few as you are, you can hold this flank safe ifyou stay firm."
He stayed firm until the last of my seventeen had disappeared aroundthe corner of the cliff; and five minutes later I caught sight ofhim through the glasses, leading his following at top speed downwardalong a spur toward the plain. The Kurds on the lookout saw himtoo and, concentrating their attention on him, did not notice uswhen we dodged at long intervals in full sunlight across the faceof a white rock.
There was little leading needed; rather, restraining, and no meansof doing it. Instead of keeping the formation in which we startedoff, those in the rear began to overtake the men in front and, ratherthan disobey the order to keep wide intervals, to extend down theface of the hill, so that within fifteen minutes we were in wide-spacedskirmishing order. Then, instead of keeping along the hills, asI had intended, until we were well to the rear of the Kurdish firing-line,they turned half-left too soon, and headed in diagonal bee line towardthe horses, those who had begun by leading being last now, and thelast men first. Being shorter-winded than the rest of them and moretired to begin with, that arrangement soon left me a long way inthe rear, dodging and crawling laboriously and stopping every nowand then to watch the development of the battle. There was littleto see but the flash of rifles; and they explained nothing morethan that the Kurds were forcing their way very close to our centerand left wing.
Not all the fighting had been done that day under organized leadership.I stumbled at one place and fell over the dead bodies of a Kurd andan Armenian, locked in a strangle-hold. That Kurd must have beenbold enough to go pillaging miles in advance of his friends, forthe two had been dead for hours. But the mutual hatred had not diedoff their faces, and they lay side by side clutching each other'sthroats as if passion had continued after death.
The sight of Ephraim and his party hurrying across their front towardKagig's weak left wing had evidently convinced the Kurds that nomore danger need be expected from their own left. There can havebeen no other possible reason why we were unobserved, for the recklessnessof my contingent grew as they advanced closer to the horses, andfrom the rear I saw them brain one outpost with a rock and rush inand knife another with as little regard for concealment as if thesetwo had been the only Kurds within eagle's view. Yet they were unseenby the enemy, and five minutes later we all gathered in the shelterof a semicircle of loose rocks, to regain wind for the final effort.
"Korkakma!" I panted, using about ten per cent. of my Turkish vocabulary,and they laughed so loud that I cursed them for a bunch of fools.But the man nearest me chose to illustrate his feeling for Turksfurther by taking the corner of his jacket between thumb and fingerand going through the motions of squeezing off an insect--the last,most expressive gesture of contempt.
The horses were within three hundred yards of us. On rising groundbetween us and the Kurdish firing-line was a little group of Turkishofficers, and to our right beyond the horses was miscellaneous baggageunder the guard of Kurds, of whom more than half were wounded. Icould see an obviously Greek doctor bandaging a man seated on anempty ammunition box.
But our chief danger was from the mounted scoundrels who were sobusy murdering women and children and wounded men half a mile awayto the rear. They had come along working the covert like huntersof vermin, driving lances into every possible lurking place and nodoubt skewering their own wounded on occasion, for which Armenianswould afterward be blamed. We could hear them chorusing with gleewhenever a lance found a victim, or when a dozen of them gave chaseto some panic-stricken woman in wild flight. Through the glassesI could see two Turkish officers with them, in addition to theirown nondescript "tin-plate men"; and if officers or men should getsight of us it was easy to imagine what our fate would be.
That thought, and k
nowledge that Gloria Vanderman and Will and Fredwere engaged in an almost equally desperate venture within a mileof me (evidenced by dozens of wild bullets screaming through theair) suggested the idea of taking a longer chance than any I hadthought of yet. A moment's consideration brought conviction thatthe effort would be worth the risk. Yet I had no way of communicatingwith my men!
I pointed to the Turkish officers clustered together watching theeffort of their firing-line. From where we lay to the horses wouldbe three hundred yards; from the horses to those officers wouldbe about two hundred and fifty yards farther at an angle of somethinglike forty degrees. Counting their orderlies and hangers-on weoutnumbered that party by two to one; and "the fish starts stinkingfrom the head" as the proverb says. With the head gone, the wholeKurdish firing-line would begin to be useless.
I tried my stammering Turkish, but the men were in no mood to bepatient with efforts in that loathly tongue. None of them knew aword in English. I tried French--Italian--smattering Arabic--butthey only shook their heads, and began to think nervousness was drivingme out of hand. One of them laid a soothing hand on my shoulder,and repeated what sounded like a prayer.
To lose the confidence of one's men under such circumstances at thatstage of the game was too much. I grew really rattled, and at random,as a desperate man will I stammered off what I wanted to say in theforeign tongue that I knew best, regardless of the fact that Armeniansare not black men, and that there is not even a trace of connectionbetween their language and anything current in Africa. Zanzibarand Armenia are as far apart as Australia and Japan, with about asmuch culture in common.
To my amazement a man answered in fluent Kiswahili! He had tradedfor skins in some barbarous district near the shore of Victoria Nyanza,and knew half a dozen Bantu languages. In a minute after that wehad the plan well understood and truly laid; and, what was better,they had ceased to believe me a victim of nerves--a fact that gaveme back the nerve that had been perilously close to vanishing.
We paid no more attention to the firing-line, nor to the mountedKurds who were drawing the coverts nearer and nearer to us. It wasunderstood that we were to sacrifice ourselves for our friends, anddo the utmost damage possible before being overwhelmed. We shookhands solemnly. Two or three men embraced each other. The fivewho by common consent were reckoned the best rifle shots lay downside by side with me among the rocks, and the remainder began crawlingout one by one on their stomachs toward the horses, with instructionsto take wide open order as quickly as possible, with the idea ofmaking the Kurds believe our numbers were greater than they really were.
When I judged they were half-way toward the horses we six openedfire on the Turkish officers. And every single one of us missed!At the sound of our volley the devoted horse-thieves rose to theirfeet and rushed on the horse-guards, forgetting to fire on them fromsheer excitement, and as a matter of fact one of them was shot deadby a horse-guard before the rest remembered they had deadly weaponsof their own.
I remedied the first outrageous error to a slight extent by killingthe Turkish colonel's orderly, missing the commander himself by almosta yard. My five men all missed with their second shots, and thenit was too late to pull off the complete coup we had dared to hopefor. The entire staff took cover, and started a veritable hail offire with their repeating pistols, all aimed at us, and aimed aswildly as our own shots had been.
Meanwhile the mounted Kurds at the rear had heard the firing andwere coming on full pelt, yelling like red Indians. I could see,in the moment I snatched for a hurried glance in that direction,that the purpose of cutting loose and stampeding the horses was beingaccomplished; but even that comparatively simple task required time,and as the Kurds galloped nearer, the horses grew as nervous as themen who sought to loose them.
But conjecture and all caution were useless to us six bent on attackingthe colonel and his staff. We crawled out of cover and advanced,stopping to fire one or two shots and then scrambling closer, givingaway our own paucity of numbers, but increasing the chance of doingdamage with each yard gained. And our recklessness had the additionaladvantage of making the staff reckless too. The colonel kept inclose hiding, but the rest of them began dodging from place to placein an effort to outflank us from both sides, and I saw four of thembowled over within a minute. Then the remainder lay low again, andwe resumed the offensive.
The next thing I remember was hearing a wild yell as our party seizeda horse apiece and galloped off in front of the oncoming Kurds--straighttoward Kagig's firing-line. That, and the yelling of the horsemenin pursuit drew the attention of the riflemen attacking Kagig tothe fact that most of their horses were running loose and that therewas imminent danger to their own rear. I only had time to get aglimpse of them breaking back, for the Turkish colonel got my rangeand sent a bullet ripping down the length of the back of my shootingjacket. That commenced a duel----he against me--each missing asdisgracefully as if we were both beginners at the game of life ordeath, and I at any rate too absorbed to be aware of anything butmy own plight and of oceans of unexplained noise to right and left.I knew there were galloping horses, and men yelling; but knowledgethat the Turkish military rifle I was using must be wrongly sighted,and that my enemy had no such disadvantage, excluded every otherthought.
I had used about half the cartridges in my bandolier when a Kurd'slance struck me a glancing blow on the back of the head. His horsecollapsed on top of me, as some thundering warrior I did not seegave the stupendous finishing stroke to rider and beast at once.
There followed a period of semi-consciousness filled with enormousclamor, and upheavings, and what might have been earthquakes forlack of any other reasonable explanation, for I felt myself beingdragged and shaken to and fro. Then, as the weight of the fallenhorse was rolled aside there surged a tide of blissful relief thatcarried me over the border of oblivion.
When I recovered my senses I was astride of Rustum Khan's mare, witha leather thong around my shoulders and the Rajput's to keep me fromfalling. We were proceeding at an easy walk in front of a squadronof ragged-looking irregulars whom I did not recognize, toward thecenter of the position Kagig had held. Kagig's men were no longerin hiding, but standing about in groups; and presently I caughtsight of Fred and Will and Kagig standing together, but not GloriaVanderman. A cough immediately behind us made me turn my head.The Turkish colonel, who had fought the ridiculously futile duelwith me, was coming along at the mare's tail with his hands tiedbehind him and a noose about his neck made fast to one of thesaddle-rings.
"Much obliged, Rustum Khan!" I said by way of letting him know Iwas alive. "How did you get here?"
"Ha, sahib! Not going to die, then? That is good! I came becauseColonel Lord Montdidier sahib sent me with a squadron of these mountainhorsemen--fine horsemen they are--fit by the breath of Allah to drawsteel at a Rajput's back!"
"He sent you to find me?"
"Ha, sahib. To rescue you alive if that were possible."
"How did he know where I was?"
"An Armenian by name of Ephraim came and said you had gone over tothe Turks. Certain men he had with him corroborated, but three ofhis party kept silence. My lord sahib answered 'I have hunted, andcamped, and fought beside that man--played and starved and feastedwith him. No more than I myself would he go over to Turks. He musthave seen an opportunity to make trouble behind the Turks' backs.Take your squadron and go find him, Rustum Khan!' And I, sahib, obeyedmy lord bahadur's orders."
"Where is Lord Montdidier now?"
"Who knows, sahib. Wherever the greatest need at the moment is."
"Tell me what has happened."
"You did well, sahib. The loosing of the horses and the shootingbehind their backs put fear into the Kurds. They ceased pressingon our left wing. And I--watching from behind cover on the rightwing--snatched that moment to outflank them, so that they ran pell-mell.Then I saw the mounted Kurds charging up from the rear, and guessedat once where you were, sahib. The Kurds were extended, and
my menin close order, so I charged and had all the best of it, arrivingby God's favor in the nick of time for you, sahib. Then I took thiscolonel prisoner. Only once in my life have I seen a greater pilethan his of empty cartridge cases beside one man. That was the pilebeside you, sahib! How many men did you kill, and he kill? Andwho buried them?"
"Where is Miss Vanderman?" I asked, turning the subject.
"God knows! What do I know of women? Only I know this: that thereis a gipsy woman bred by Satan out of sin itself, who will make thingshot for any second filly in this string! Woe and a woman are one!"
Not caring to listen to the Indian's opinions of the other sex anymore than he would have welcomed mine about the ladies of his ownland, I made out my injuries were worse than was the case, and groaneda little, and grew silent.
So we rode without further conversation up to where Fred and Willwere standing with Kagig, and as I tumbled off into Fred's arms Iwas greeted with a chorus of welcome that included Gloria's voice.
"That's what I call using your bean!" she laughed, in the slangyway she had whenever Will had the chance to corrupt her Boston manners.
"It feels baked," I said. "I used it to stop a Kurd's lance with.Hullo! What's the matter with you?"
"I stopped a bullet with my forearm!"
She was sitting in a sort of improvised chair between two dwarfedtree-trunks, and if ever I saw a proud young woman that was she.She wore the bloody bandage like a prize diploma.
"And I've seen your friend Monty, and he's better than the accountsof him!"
I glanced at Will, alert for a sign of jealousy.
"Monty is the one best bet!" he said. And his eyes were generousand level, as a man's who tells the whole truth.