The Air Patrol Part 28

"That's right," said Major Endicott, stepping from behind him. "How do you feel?"

"Rather groggy, Major," replied Lawrence. "Those fellows struck me, I think."

"A gash or two: nothing to speak of. What bowled you over was hunger and fatigue, I suspect. We've got a few sc.r.a.ps left, which will keep you going until we reach your mine."

"Is Fazl all right?"

"As jolly as a sandboy, though rather dilapidated. It's lucky I carry a case of sticking plaster with me; he's pretty considerably patched--much more than you are. You slept pretty soundly through my amateur surgery."

"And the Kalmucks?"

"Gone elsewhere--all that were left of them. That machine of yours played you false then?"

"Yes, the engine failed, and I had to come down. I was rather bothered with getting rid of my bombs and controlling the thing at the same time, and made a hash of it--sprained my ankle, too. I was waiting for you, and the beggars stalked me. I was a silly a.s.s to let them take me unawares."

"What were they going to do with you?"

"Offer me and the aeroplane in exchange for the mine--as if Bob would listen to any rot like that!

"Well, the aeroplane isn't worth much now, I suspect, but I fancy Bob might be disposed to think you good value for the mine. However, that's all off. The aeroplane's done for, of course?"

"Not a bit of it. We can put it to rights in a day."

"Warrant it?"

"Yes. Our bargain holds if you'll risk it. I'm more than sorry this happened, if it's going to dish your plan, Major."

"It shan't do that. Taking risks is part of my job--and yours too, as it happens."

"I'm jolly glad you came up when you did. In another minute you would have been too late."

"You've got to thank your Gurkha for that. We were marching up pretty briskly--had no trouble from the Afghans--and the Gurkha declared he heard the sound of your bombs far ahead. None of us had heard anything, but the little chap was so positive that I thought we'd be on the safe side and hurry up. Judging by the march we made, the sound must have travelled nearly ten miles--not impossible in this air, I suppose; I confess I was sceptical at first, and only began to feel anxious when you didn't return within the time stated.

"We came upon the tracks of the aeroplane some miles up; there was litter of all sorts about--sc.r.a.ps of food, broken branches and what not, and I feared you'd smashed yourself and your machine, only we couldn't find any pieces of it. But we found your rifle and field-gla.s.s in a little hollow, and the Gurkha guessed that you had tumbled among the Kalmucks. An hour after dark we caught sight of the camp-fire. The Gurkha volunteered to creep up and reconnoitre, so the rest of us halted, waiting for his report.

"He's a clever little chap, with a double dose of Gurkha courage. He came back very soon and told me he'd seen you tied up among them, and about the raft and so on. My sowars wanted to rush the place, but it struck me that that might be the end of you. The first instinct of such barbarians would be to knife their prisoner. It was a bit of a quandary--and the Gurkha came out strong again. It was his suggestion that he should creep into the camp and release you before we moved."

"Plucky little chap!" said Lawrence warmly.

"A treasure! The noise of the scuffle brought us up hot-foot, and the only thing I regret is that, as the Gurkha informed me, the ringleaders, those rascally miners of yours, got away.... Now the sooner we get to your mine the better. You had better sit my horse. As all our food is gone, we shall have a strong motive for hurry, so we ought to get home before night. Of course if you think you can't stand it we'll take our time."

"No: I'm fit enough. Your men will look after the raft?"

He explained the method by which the aeroplane had been taken safely past the gorges, and the Major went off to instruct his men.

Lawrence summoned Fazl, who was resting on a gra.s.sy knoll overlooking the river.

"I owe you my life; you're a brave fellow, and I thank you," he said.

Fazl's plastered face broadened in a grin.

"Wah! sahib, the Kalmucks are pigs, and their hearts melt like b.u.t.ter.

The sahib's servant is unworthy of praise. It is a small thing to do for the heaven-born."

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST

THE FRONTIER HOUSE

Some ninety miles southward of the tower in which Major Endicott had been besieged, on the bare summit of a low hill, stood a solitary building of stone, known to the British officers of the borderland as a frontier house. It had no pretentions to architectural excellence, consisting of a square tower, somewhat resembling a truncated chimney-stack, crowned by a small turret on a platform, which looked like a square straight-brimmed Quaker hat. Adjoining the tower was a sloping wall twenty feet high, that formed one side of an enclosure, within which were a number of rudely built huts, set up against the inward side of the wall. Neither tower nor wall had any windows, but in the latter a doorway gave entrance to the interior.

One day Dafadar Narrain Khan was squatting with a few of his sowars on the wall of the enclosure, looking out over the country before him. The building commanded a prospect extending for many miles. Its immediate vicinity was barren, stony ground; one scraggy tree raised its wizened branches at the angle of the wall. A narrow track wound through this wilderness from the doorway down the hill to the plain below, meandering northward among boulders and patches of spa.r.s.e vegetation until it was lost to sight amid the dark pine-trees that covered the lower slopes of the distant hills. Beyond, as far as the eye could reach, these hills stretched, an endless series of scarps and eminences, cleft by tortuous ravines and breaking away here and there into sheer precipices. In the remote distance, a jagged snow-clad ridge flashed with purple and gold in the rays of the sun. In the opposite direction, southward, the country was rugged but less hilly. A metalled road wound away into the distance. At regular intervals on one side of it stood tall posts, carrying a telegraph wire that emerged from a hole in the tower wall.

As the troopers sat there chatting, with their rifles in the hollow of their arms, there was a sudden cry from the sentinel posted alone on the top of the tower.

"Hai, dafadar! I see a speck moving in the sky far away," he shouted.

"How far away, Coja?" called the dafadar.

"Seven kos at least," was the reply.

"The speck is in your own eye, my son," cried the dafadar, and the men about him laughed: Coja was always seeing something!

The sentinel shouted a word of expostulation, then was silent, and the others resumed the conversation he had interrupted.

Half an hour pa.s.sed away. The time came for changing the guard. One of the men rose, sauntered along the wall, disappeared through a narrow opening in the tower, and presently emerged on the summit. Apparently he had a brief altercation with the man he had relieved. In five minutes Coja came from the tower along the wall.

"Wah! you may mock, dafadar," he said; "but I declare by the beard of my father I saw a speck--a black speck moving."

"You have chewed too much betel, Coja," said the dafadar with composure.

"I too have seen dancing specks when my stomach was out of order."

"Yes, but do those motes in the eye grow larger? Do they swell from the size of a pinpoint to the size of a little bird, and then to a great one? I thought at first it was peradventure an eagle of the mountains, but, inshallah! no eagle could look so large such a great way off. Is there a bird bigger than an eagle? Speak out of your great knowledge, dafadar."

"There is none, foolish one--none that flies, though I have heard of a great bird that runs upon the ground swifter than the iron horse that runs on rails; the mem-sahibs wear its feathers in their hats."

"Hai! what was this great thing, then? I saw it, and rubbed my eyes, and lo! when I looked again, it wheeled about, and soared away towards the Afghan country, and pa.s.sed behind a crag yonder, and I saw it no more."

"Wonderful eyes you have, Coja, and a wonderful tongue! Do we not know your tales? What of the tiger with two heads you saw once in a tree? and the elephant that caught you up and put you on his head? and that time when you swallowed a cherry-stone, and leaves began to sprout among your hair? Wah! we know his stories, my children; we know how the lies flow out of his mouth like water from a spring."

"Mashallah! Do I not speak truth?" cried the man indignantly. He was a by-word for romancing among his fellows, and, like all liars, resented any imputation on his veracity. "There is no wisdom in you. Many a great thing that I have told you you have believed: now when I tell you a little thing, you say 'Wah! he is a liar.'"

"But it was a great thing you saw, Coja-ji--bigger than an eagle, said you, when we know there is nothing bigger than an eagle that flies. Wah!

at least when you are on duty, you must resist these promptings of the Evil One, else it will end in Jehannum. And look you, Coja, when your turn for watching comes again, keep your eyes on the ground, my friend; do not look for the stars in daylight."