Afterwards Part 58

"I believe you are right." Turning impetuously to the window, which for a moment he had neglected, he found Ha.s.san, his eyeb.a.l.l.s rolling horribly in his dusky face, leaning out excitedly; and as he too craned into the lifting darkness Anstice saw that the moment of attack was at hand.

Without warning save that given by their exultant shouts the Bedouins were swarming over the wall, clambering over like great cats, dropping with sundry thuds on to the sandy ground beneath; and in another moment Anstice saw that they carried roughly fashioned scaling ladders, with which they evidently intended to force an entrance, should that be possible in the face of the defenders' fire.

"See here, Mrs. Cheniston." Anstice spoke almost curtly. "Will you go into the other room now? You are safer there, and out of harm's way for the time, at least."

"No, Dr. Anstice." She spoke determinedly. "I am going to stay here. You have spare revolvers, haven't you? Then I can load for you and for Ha.s.san, at any rate, even if I can't be of other use."

"You know how?" He was surprised.

"Yes. My father taught me long ago. And"--for a second her voice faltered--"I--I feel safer here. Please let me stay."

"Very well." He could not bear to send her away. "But you must promise to keep as far as possible out of range. We can't afford any casualties, you know."

"I promise," she said very quietly; and he knew she would obey his injunctions implicitly.

The next moment Garnett rushed into the room, his blue eyes alight with a most warrior-like flame.

"See what's up, Anstice? Good--I guessed you'd not be caught napping.

I'll get back now--there's going to be a gorgeous sc.r.a.p in a minute.

Mrs. Cheniston, are you all right there?"

"Quite, thanks." Her calm voice rea.s.sured him; and he dashed out of the room without further parley, while Anstice and Ha.s.san waited, tensely, their revolvers in readiness, for the moment to open their defence.

It was not yet day; and in the grey gloom it was difficult to distinguish the nature of any object which was not close at hand; but Anstice made out that the approaching Bedouins intended to scramble up to the windows by use of their scaling ladders; and his face wore an unusually grim expression as the flying moments pa.s.sed.

Ah! The first tribesman to reach the level of the window gave an exultant yell, as though he saw his foe already within his grasp; and on that shout of triumph his desert-born soul was sped to whatever haven awaited it. For Anstice's revolver had spoken; and the swarthy Bedouin fell headlong to the earth, shot, unerringly, through the heart.

Anstice heard Iris give a faint gasp at his side; but now his blood was up and he had no time to rea.s.sure even the one beloved woman. Something strange, unexpected, had happened to him. Suddenly he too was primitive man, even as these desert men were magnificently primitive. Gone was all the veneer of civilization, the humanity which bids a man respect a fellow-creature's life. He was no longer the educated, travelled man of the world, who earned his living in honourable and decorous ways. He was the cave-dweller, the man of another and more barbaric age, who defended his stronghold because it held his woman, the woman for whom he would fight to the very end, and count his life well spent if it were yielded up in her service. But he did not mean to die. He meant to live--and since that implied the death of these savages who clamoured without, then let red death stalk between them, and decide to whom he would award the blood-dripping sword of the victor.

Another fierce face at the window--a pair of hawk-like eyes flashing haughty challenge, a sinewy hand raising a revolver in deliberate aim--and Ha.s.san's shot rang out, so swiftly that this man too fell back, disabled, his face disappearing from the window as one runs a film off a reel of pictures.

But there were others--many others--to take his place. Up and up they came till there was a whole phalanx of enemy faces, eyes flashing, white teeth gleaming in horrid snarls ... shot after shot rang out, but by marvellous luck none touched the defenders, who on their side emptied their revolvers as fast as Iris' fingers could make them ready.

Suddenly a gigantic man half sprang over the sill and without attempting to fire seized Anstice by the wrist in a grip of iron, whose marks disfigured him for weeks to come. His intention was obvious--by holding Anstice a prisoner he hoped to make opportunity for others to force an entrance; and as Anstice had involuntarily dropped the revolver as the steel-like fingers crushed his wrist, the fate of the little garrison hung, for a second, in the balance.

"Iris--shoot--quick!" Quite unconscious of the name he used Anstice raised his voice in a desperate shout; and the girl heard and obeyed in the same breath.

Lifting the revolver she had just loaded she fired once, twice, with fingers which did not even tremble; and the next moment with a loud gurgle the Bedouin released his hold and fell back through the window, dislodging the men who were clambering up the ladder behind him, so that they fell together in a confused ma.s.s into the courtyard below.

For a second there was a breathing-s.p.a.ce; and Anstice turned to Iris with gleaming eyes.

"My G.o.d, you have a nerve!" His breath was coming in quick pants. "Mrs.

Cheniston, I can't thank you--I never dreamed that even you would be so plucky."

"It wasn't pluck--it was just--obedience," she said, and though her face was very pale she smiled bravely up at him. "Dr. Anstice, are there--many more to come? You have disabled a good many, haven't you?"

"Between us, yes." He was cool again now, and picked up his revolver as he spoke. "They seem to be hanging back a bit--and to judge by the row Garnett's making I should say he's doing pretty well too."

Bang! A bullet whizzed suddenly by Iris' head; and Anstice pulled her hastily into a safer place.

"Here they come back again!" His tone was almost boyishly gleeful.

"Well, we're ready for 'em--eh, Ha.s.san?"

The Arab, who was firing as steadily as though at a pigeon-shooting match, nodded, his white teeth flashing out in a merry grin; and as the Bedouins, taking heart, recommenced their attack, the two men, native and Englishman, turned back to their task with renewed vigour.

Neither Iris nor Anstice ever had a very clear recollection of the next ten minutes. It was an inferno, a babel, a confusion of shots and yells and angry clamour; but beyond a slight, flesh wound sustained by Ha.s.san neither of the defenders sustained any casualties; and had their ammunition been as plentiful as their courage was high there would have been no doubt as to the ultimate issue.

Suddenly Anstice turned to Iris with a question on his lips; and her face paled as she replied:

"Not much, now. I think--only enough for three more rounds." She spoke steadily.

"I see. And then----" He broke off, handing her the empty revolver he held.

"And then?" She breathed the question softly; but there was no fear in her face.

"And then--I am not quite clear what happens then." He looked at her more searchingly. "Mrs. Cheniston, what do you say--then? I'm ready, as you know, to die for you, but"--he paused, then resumed in a rather hoa.r.s.e tone--"if I die what will become of you? I suppose"--he faltered, and his lips were dry, but some inward impulse drove him on--"I suppose you would not wish me to--save--a last cartridge...."

"For me?" Her smile, as she faced him, was splendid. "No, Dr. Anstice, I'm not afraid to die, if I must, at the hands of our enemies. But I will not accept death--from _you_."

He knew--irrevocably--what she meant. She was determined at least to spare him a recurrence of the tragedy which had ruined so many of what should have been the best years of his life; and although he knew he could have faced even that risk courageously in her service, none the less did he rejoice that he was not called upon to do this thing a second time.

"Then--if the worst should happen--if we are not relieved in time----"

"We can all die--together," she said very simply; and in her face he read something which, told him that for all her youth this girl would know how to die.

But further speech was suddenly cut short The Bedouins, who had been hanging back for a moment's parley, had evidently rallied their forces for another effort; for with a yell destined to strike terror into the hearts of their foes they literally swarmed up the ladder until the whole window-s.p.a.ce was filled with a horrid nightmare of bearded, swarthy faces, of sinewy, grasping hands, of tossing spears and flourished fire-arms.

Suddenly, with an exclamation of pain, Ha.s.san dropped his revolver and clapped his hand to his side; and Anstice felt, with a wild thrill of dismay in all his veins, that the fight was practically over for them now. The odds were too great--one well-directed bullet and he too would be disabled, powerless to protect the girl for whose sake he longed so ardently to win the day.

"My G.o.d, Iris, we're beaten!" Even as he spoke he was firing into the midst of the ma.s.s of packed faces at the window; and he heard her words, spoken in a pa.s.sionate whisper as one hears strange, whispered sentences in a dream:

"No--no!" Iris had been listening to another sound--the sound of hope, of renewed life--and now, in the moment of his discouragement, she whispered the glorious truth. "Listen--they're here--the men have come in time--oh, don't you hear them shouting to us to hold on--for a minute----"

The next moment a wild cry from Ha.s.san rent the air; and as the crowd of fierce faces seemed, suddenly, to recede as a wave washes backwards on the sh.o.r.e, Anstice knew, with a great uplifting of his spirit, that help had indeed come--miraculously--in time to save the day....

Answering shouts from the desert, the drumming of horses' hoofs, the clamour of voices upraised in cries of encouragement--these were the sounds which Anstice, almost unbelieving, heard at last; and as the desert men began to retreat, tumbling over themselves and each other in their haste to flee before this new enemy was upon them, Anstice turned to Iris with a laugh of purest happiness.

"They have come--you're safe now, thank G.o.d!"

"We're all safe, thanks to you," she answered him with shining eyes; and as he threw his empty revolver aside she held out both her hands to him and he clasped them joyfully.

"They have come--and so soon! I never dared to hope they would be here before to-night at earliest!"

"Nor I--but they are here!" He released her hands and turned to greet the rest of the little garrison, who, having heard the clamour, had realized they were saved, and came pouring in to hear the story of the night's encounter.