On Land and Sea at the Dardanelles Part 43

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE NICK OF TIME

Ken was right. That was why the firing had stopped. A destroyer, which must have been lying in some cove up the Straits, had been summoned by wireless to take revenge on the bold intruder. She was now dashing headlong in pursuit.

Roy stared at the dull white glare which came momentarily nearer.

'Rotten luck!' he observed disgustedly. 'None of the "conquering hero" in ours, I'm afraid, old man.'

'Afraid not,' Ken answered resignedly. 'The brute's got the legs of us, and it'll only take one o' those twelve-pounders to settle our hash.

Still, it's no use crying till we're hurt, and the Turks ain't the best gunners in the world.'

'Crash!' Another sh.e.l.l screamed out of the mist.

'Nearer!' said Roy grimly, as the ugly missile fell alongside, sending up a fountain of brine.

'Watch her, doing the outside edge!' he continued, as the launch curved swiftly to port. 'That'll throw 'em off their shooting. Ah, I told you so'--as the third sh.e.l.l went wide.

'We can't shoot back,' growled Dimmock. 'That's the worst of these rotten little bow guns.'

'No, it's simply a matter of running and dodging,' said Ken, and turning went back to where his father was standing.

'Poor luck, Ken,' said the latter with his usual calmness. 'The beggar's gaining hand over fist. She's at least five knots faster than we.'

'Well, we've hurt the Turks a jolly sight worse than they can hurt us, that's one comfort, dad,' Ken replied. 'They can't replace that ammunition.'

Before his father could answer, a sh.e.l.l from the destroyer pa.s.sed so close overhead that the wind of it flung them both down. There was a splintering crash, and the launch quivered all over.

'Hurt, father?' cried Ken, springing up.

'Not a bit, thanks. But I'm afraid the launch is.'

'She's still moving anyhow. No, it's only carried away a bit of the cabin top. We're all right still.'

The searchlight grew clearer every moment. Already the hull of the flying launch began to show up in the misty radiance. Her steersman sent her shooting in wide curves, and so succeeded in upsetting the aim of the Turkish gunners. But it was only putting off the inevitable end, and that was clear to every soul aboard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'The deck-house melted in a shower of splinters.']

'It's no use, dad,' said Ken, as another sh.e.l.l cut away the top of the stumpy funnel. We can't get away. Let's finish, fighting.'

'Turn and try to ram her?'

'Yes, and Dimmock might by luck get a sh.e.l.l into her. He's a pretty nippy shot in spite of being out of practice.'

'All right, Ken. I'd rather die fighting than running.'

He raised his voice.

'Mr Morgan, put her hard aport! Dimmock, here's your chance for a last shot.'

Round came the launch, turning on her keel like a racing yacht, and straight she sped for her big pursuer. The latter was evidently taken aback by this unexpected manoeuvre, and for a moment her searchlight lost the launch.

The moment the glare was gone the hull of the destroyer showed up dark against the mist.

'Now's your chance, Dimmock!' cried Ken, and almost instantly the little gun spoke, and the crash was followed by a flash which lit the destroyer's deck.

'Oh, good shot, Dimmock!' exclaimed the captain. 'That sh.e.l.l exploded right under her bridge.

For a moment the destroyer yawed right off her course, but she was under control again in a few seconds, and her forward gun spoke once more.

The flash was followed by a tremendous shock, and the launch, with her rudder and part of her stern carried away, spun round helplessly, and began to drift downstream.

'That's finished it,' groaned Roy.

Again the destroyer's gun roared, and the deckhouse melted in a shower of splinters. Ken, struck on the leg by one of them, toppled over helplessly.

His leg felt numb, he could not move. There was nothing for it now but to await the inevitable end.

Crash! Vaguely Ken realised that this was a heavier gun than the 12-pounders of the destroyer. He heard a sh.e.l.l roar overhead, then from the destroyer, now no more than a hundred yards away, rose a blinding flash.

'Hurrah!' he heard Roy shout, but the reason he could not imagine. He made a desperate effort to struggle up, felt the blood gush hot from his wound.

His head spun, he fell back and knew no more.

Coming back to consciousness after being knocked out is always a slow and painful business. The first thing that Ken's muddled brain took in was the surprising fact that he was lying in a real bed between beautifully clean sheets.

He had not been in such a bed for more than six months, and he could not understand it at all.

Slowly he opened his eyes, and looked up at a whitewashed ceiling. Through a window opposite the sun was shining and a warm breeze blowing.

'I suppose I'm dreaming,' he said at last, and was surprised to hear how weak and husky his voice seemed.

Some one rose quickly from a chair beside the bed.

'My dear lad,' came his father's voice.

Ken stared at him.

'Is it real?' he asked vaguely. 'Where am I?'

'Absolutely genuine, my boy,' answered Captain Carrington, smiling. 'You are in hospital in Lemnos, and here you've been for two days. We began to think you were never coming round again.'

'I'm sorry I frightened you,' said Ken, 'but I wish you'd tell me how I got here. I had a sort of impression that I ought to be at the bottom of the Dardanelles.'

'The marvel is that we were not all there,' answered his father gravely.

'It was the cruiser "Carnelian" that saved us at the very last moment by putting a six-inch sh.e.l.l into the Turkish destroyer.'

'But how on earth did she come to be there, right up the Straits?' Ken asked amazedly.