The Fight for Constantinople Part 17

It was a miserable collection of hovels, situated in a narrow valley, yet it boasted of a small mosque with a slender minaret. There were no signs of any men, but, in the rough pasture close to the hamlet, veiled women were tending flocks of sheep and goats.

"We'll tackle the business openly," declared d.i.c.k. "If we tried to sneak up to the nearest hut and collar some grub there might be a rumpus. If, on the other hand, they think we are German officers they'll be only too glad to provide us with food in order to get rid of our presence."

Pulling themselves together the two pseudo-German officers swaggered boldly into the village. From barred lattices, yashmaked women peeped timorously. A few ragged children scampered off, crying loudly at the sight of the Franks. Half a dozen lean dogs quarrelling over a heap of garbage directed their attention with savage growls to the strangers, until d.i.c.k drove them off by planting a well-aimed stone in the leader's ribs.

Hearing the commotion, a dignified old man came from one of the larger of the houses close to the mosque. He was the imaum or priest. With a courteous salutation he invited the supposed German officers to enter, but before crossing the threshold he signified that they would have to remove their boots.

Nothing loath, d.i.c.k and the midshipman complied. A youth brought a basin of water, a towel, and two pairs of soft-leather slippers. The needful Eastern ceremony of washing the feet of distinguished travellers was fully appreciated by the tired wayfarers.

Entering the house, the officers were regaled with a repast of roasted goat's flesh and cakes made of flour and millet, with unsweetened coffee and curdled milk. The men attacked the meal ravenously, while the imaum, seated tailorwise on a low divan, watched them with studious gravity.

"Medjidieh?" asked d.i.c.k after they had satisfied their hunger.

The old man pointed in a westerly direction, and said something to the youth. The latter immediately picked up his sandals and made for the door.

Gravely saluting the hospitable Mahommedan priest, d.i.c.k and the midshipman took their departure. Peremptorily dismissing the lad who had been sent to act as a guide, the officers retraced their steps until a ridge of intervening ground hid them from the village.

"Decent old sort," commented Farnworth. "I wonder if he would have been so awfully keen in giving us grub if he knew who we really were?"

"Can't say," replied d.i.c.k. "One thing: hanged if I could bring myself to a display of Prussian arrogance, but by not doing so I might be giving the show away. Now we'll work our way round the village and resume our former direction. I made out we were on the way to Medjidieh. That ought to throw any possible pursuers off the track."

Skirting the village necessitated a wide detour, but before sunset the fugitives calculated that they had put twenty miles between them and their prison-fortress. It ought to be fairly safe to attempt a dash for the coast in the neighbourhood of k.u.m Kale.

The heat was now terrific in spite of the alt.i.tude, so d.i.c.k suggested that they should have "watch below" until the sun had sunk considerably in the heavens. A thicket afforded a complete shelter from the pitiless rays, and with a blissful disregard of the danger from scorpions and other reptiles the two officers crept into the shade and were soon sound asleep.

Suddenly they were awakened by the dull buzz of an aerial propeller.

Crawling from their place of repose, d.i.c.k and the midshipman saw a French monoplane flying barely two hundred feet above the ground.

"We'll try and attract that fellow's attention," exclaimed d.i.c.k. "I don't suppose he can give us a lift, but he may be able to----"

There was no time to complete the sentence. Dashing out in the open, the Sub waved his arms, shouting at the top of his voice:

"A nous, camarade. Nous sommes Anglais."

Overhead swept the aeroplane. The observer leant over the cha.s.sis and critically surveyed the two figures in German uniforms. He shouted something, but the words were unintelligible, although he could distinctly hear the Sub's call for aid.

"Nous sommes prisonniers Anglais--prisonniers echappes!" bawled d.i.c.k frantically.

The Frenchman again waved his hand. The monoplane calmly continued its course, then, majestically circling, it began to descend.

"Hurrah!" shouted the midshipman. "Who says the age of miracles has pa.s.sed?"

Even as he spoke an irregular volley burst from a slight depression in the ground about five hundred yards from where the officers stood.

Sharply banking, the aeroplane rose to a safe distance, dropping a bomb as she did so, then began to retrace its course.

"Look out!" exclaimed d.i.c.k warningly, as the monoplane pa.s.sed nearly overhead.

Almost at the first report of the rifles the fugitives withdrew from their exposed position. They were now in danger from another direction, as d.i.c.k had foreseen.

A small black object dropped from underneath the cha.s.sis of the aeroplane. Rapidly gathering speed it fell within twenty yards of the Sub and his companion. It was a bomb; but owing either to faulty mechanism or to the fact that it alighted on soft sand, it failed to explode, otherwise the officers would have been blown to pieces.

"What luck!" muttered Farnworth. "I suppose those fellows took us for a pair of treacherous German skunks. It wasn't their fault."

"Anyhow, I'm not going to wait till those chaps come up to investigate," added d.i.c.k, referring to the still invisible riflemen.

"So here's off! Keep to the dip in the ground and avoid the sand. We don't want to leave our tracks."

Breaking into a steady run the fugitives hurried away from the direction of the interrupters of their peace of mind. Already the monoplane was a mere speck in the distance.

"Take cover!" hissed d.i.c.k breathlessly. "They're on our track."

Once again the two comrades sought shelter in a thicket. They were not a minute too soon, for amid a cloud of dust about fifty Turkish irregulars galloped madly down the path. They were armed with Mauser and Mannlicher rifles and carbines, and in addition a regular armoury of revolvers and knives, while several wore long curved swords. Some of them had been wounded by the explosion of the bomb, and rode with the blood streaming down their faces. Yet each man urged his steed to its utmost capacity as if with a set purpose, and hardly looking to the right or left they pa.s.sed by, leaving only a cloud of suffocating dust that hung listlessly in the still, hot air.

"I thought they were after us," said d.i.c.k, after a safe interval had elapsed, "but I think I'm mistaken. They've some other little game on."

"Perhaps they didn't see us at all," suggested Farnworth.

"Pretty well certain they didn't, for by this time all the Turkish troops in the district must have heard of our escape and of our disguises. Well, let's carry on."

For several hours they plodded wearily along the steep mountain path, their senses keenly on the alert, since they now knew that cavalry were in the vicinity. It was somewhat disconcerting to know that a body of irregulars lay between them and the coast, but both d.i.c.k and the midshipman were curious to know why these hors.e.m.e.n had hurried in the direction of k.u.m Kale, since they were not sufficiently numerous to const.i.tute a danger to any considerable force.

Happening to look over his shoulder, the Sub saw that another body of men was overtaking them.

It was a mixed column of horse and foot, accompanied by wagons--in fact a small convoy.

"If we strike away to the right we'll miss them easily, sir," suggested the midshipman.

d.i.c.k shook his head.

"We'll only get 'bushed' at night, that is if the stars are hidden," he said. "Besides, we're pretty well done up; so we'll lie low and let these fellows pa.s.s. I'm rather anxious to see what they are up to."

The convoy was still a long way off, the advance-guard being quite three miles from where the officers stood. It was slowly making its way up the mountain side, the moving line resembling a huge snake as it wound along the intricate path.

"We're safe enough here," announced d.i.c.k, when they had taken up their position between two fantastically-shaped rocks about fifty yards from the road.

The overhanging ma.s.s afforded complete shelter from the sun, while the broken ground in the rear would afford excellent cover in case they had to put a greater distance between them and the approaching convoy.

"Bluejackets!" exclaimed Farnworth.

"You're right," agreed d.i.c.k quietly. "Some of them are, at all events.

This looks interesting."

It took more than an hour for the convoy to get abreast of the place where the fugitives lay concealed. The column was headed by a dozen Turkish irregular cavalry, similar in appearance to those who had pa.s.sed earlier in the day. Following them came a company of infantry, escorting a number of open wagons drawn by small, hardy-looking ponies.

The wagons were heavily laden with tins of petrol. Following them were about fifty bluejackets, not of the Ottoman navy, but in the rig of the Imperial German navy. They were accompanied by five or six German officers in white-duck uniforms, all of them mounted. At some distance in the rear came six trucks each containing four large torpedoes, while the convoy terminated in another troop of Turkish hors.e.m.e.n.

"Fishy, very fishy!" declared Crosthwaite after the column had pa.s.sed.

"Petrol and torpedoes."

"Suggestive of submarines, sir," remarked Farnworth.