The Great Airship Part 19

"Then on we go. When we reach the tower, let Alec help the Colonel carry our wounded friend to safety. You and I, d.i.c.k, 'll do our best to teach these rascals a lesson. Ah! That's a sentry."

Well, it was a sentry at the moment the Major was speaking, for a ragged Turk emerged from the entrance to the mosque and stared in amazement at the scene before him. It filled him with perplexity to observe a Turkish officer racing in his direction, followed by a strange quartet, one of whom was carried on the shoulders of a comrade, while in rear, and getting rapidly closer came a mob of his own fellows, led again by an officer whose head was swathed in soiled bandages. However, he was as sharp as others of his country and smelling a rat immediately swung his rifle up to his shoulder and covered the dashing d.i.c.k. But his finger never quite reached the sights. Indeed, as we have intimated, he was a sentry at the moment the Major called to our hero. The next he was merely a bundled-up and extremely astonished human object. For d.i.c.k planted a seaman's blow on the end of his prominent nose, a blow that brought a thousand stars to the eyes of this sluggish Turk, and toppled him backward in masterly fashion.

"One for his boko!" shouted the incorrigible d.i.c.k. "Number two does for his rifle. Ah! The pouch of cartridges might be useful. Here we are.

I've got 'em both. Now, we make for the tower--quite close and handy."

It was a little more than ten yards across the floor of the hall, and long before the followers had reached the door of the mosque the Colonel had entered the narrow door that led to the steep steps ascending to the summit of the tower. Alec followed instantly, and together the two bore the now almost unconscious Commander upward. d.i.c.k slung his borrowed rifle over his shoulder, strapped the cartridge belt about him and leaned against the wall mopping his forehead. As for the Major, he blew his nose loudly, brushed some dust from his boots with an impatient movement, and then turned smiling towards his companion.

"Congratulations once more," he said in the complimentary tones he would have used in a drawing-room. "And next, please?"

d.i.c.k flushed a rosy red, and then spoke out promptly.

"Still to lead, sir?" he asked.

"Of course, lad! Why not? Haven't you done well for us? Besides, this is entirely a naval expedition, while for the moment I am merely a civilian."

"Then, now that we've given Alec and the Colonel a little start we had better retire up the steps. Those fellows could rush us here. But higher up it wouldn't be so easy. That right, sir?"

"Certainly; up we go--ah! The steps curl round and round a central pillar. That's really excellent. You go ahead, d.i.c.k; I'll follow. The higher we can get the better, I think, for then we string these men out so that the front of the line is a good distance from those who follow.

Listen!"

They stood still for one brief moment, and listened to the mob of Turks enter the mosque. Scurrying steps could be heard on the hard pavement, while for the most part the men themselves were silent. A minute later, however, while d.i.c.k and his friend were still ascending, a shout came rolling up the narrow, curling stairway.

"This way, comrades," they heard. "This way! The sentry at the door tells us that they rushed across to this tower and entered. Now, friends, we have them safely. Let us consider our movements."

There came the confused sound of men discussing some matter volubly.

Occasionally one of the Turks would raise his voice above the others, then there was silence.

"Wait! Don't move for a moment," said the Major. "Now, what's happening?" He placed his ear to the central column which bore this curling flight of steps and stood motionless for some few seconds.

"Coming up to us as quietly as they can," he said softly. "The time for giving them that lesson or for going under is coming. Do we stay here, or climb higher?"

"Higher, sir, I think. It's too dark to see easily here, but there's a window up above us. If we get a little higher than that, we shall be in the dusk and see these beggars nicely. I'll call to them when they come in sight and warn 'em."

It was not a time for words nor for a discussion, and promptly the two climbed higher, halting when they were some six feet above a small, unglazed opening, which admitted light and air to the stairs. Here they were joined a moment later by the Colonel.

"Came back to join in this little picnic," he whispered. "We left the Commander on a wide balcony up there, from which one gets a really magnificent view of this awful city, and even of the lines of the besiegers and the Turkish forts and trenches surrounding the place. The minaret runs up a great deal higher, and there is a stairway. But the balcony is good enough for us, and if we are driven there we can hold the entrance to it. Well, now, how does the matter go?"

He was as cheery and as cool as if he were at home in his own rooms in London. That is, he was calm and by no means ruffled at the thought of the danger with which the little party was confronted. But as to being actually cool, one could hardly expect that after his recent exertions.

The perspiration was streaming from his forehead, though he mopped his brow time and again, and still panted heavily.

"Hard work clambering two hundred steps with a heavy man on your back,"

he laughed. "And these naval johnnies are heavy, I can tell you. Well?

How do we stand?"

The Major lifted a warning finger to his lips. "Gently does it, Steven,"

he said. "They're coming. d.i.c.k here will call to them and give the rascals a warning when the first gets in sight. But I don't fancy that'll stop 'em. Let's be ready for a turn up."

"S-sh! There's the leader."

The Colonel hardly whispered the words. He was pointing down the curling stairway, and there, some ten feet below the open window, coming into the flood of light which poured in through that aperture, was a crafty, crawling figure, a man clambering up the stairs on hands and knees, a young man gripping a revolver in one of his hands and causing the barrel of the weapon to clink on the stones each time he put that particular hand down.

"Now," whispered the Major.

"Halt!" called d.i.c.k, sternly, in the Turkish tongue. "You who follow us, halt now, or take the consequences, and listen well to these words. We are not spies. We are Englishmen, friends of the Turkish nation."

For some few seconds there was silence, a deathly silence, broken, however, by the deep breathing of the Colonel, and by the deeper gasps for breath of many of the mob clambering upward. Then came the clink of that revolver barrel, a hoa.r.s.e oath from the Turkish officer bearing it, for the young officer with whom d.i.c.k had collided still led this band of ragam.u.f.fins, and later a swelling shout of rage from the stairway, pouring from the throats of furious men perched at various elevations.

An instant later the officer stood upright, his weapon flashed, while a bullet struck the curving wall just beside the Colonel, and went ricochetting off it till it thudded and stopped against one of the steps.

"Good! That at any rate tells us what to expect," said the Major grimly.

"Stand back, Colonel, and you too, d.i.c.k. No use all three of us chancing a bullet. It's lucky, too, that this stairway curves always to the right, for that lets one shoot without peering round. A right-handed man coming up will be bothered. Yes, I thought so."

Peering round the curving central pillar which bore the steps he caught sight of the officer's head, for he and d.i.c.k and the Colonel had started backwards after that first shot. The man's body then came into full view, and lastly his right arm, with his weapon pointed upward.

Instantly the Major's weapon cracked, while the Turk dropped his revolver with a howl.

"Very nice shooting," reflected the Colonel. "Back of the hand, I think, Major. It'll make him more cautious."

Or more furious. The latter seemed to be the case, for that howl of pain was followed by a bellow and by a hoa.r.s.e roar of anger and excitement from below. A hundred feet then shuffled on the various steps, while the officer, his eyes blazing with anger, launched himself upward. But the revolver was no longer in his wounded hand, a fact which the Major noticed with wonderful sharpness. Indeed, his own movements showed within the minute that he was fully awake, and ready for an emergency.

They saw him step hastily downward and throw his shoulders backward. And then out shot one of his fists, repeating the blow which d.i.c.k had delivered to this pugnacious individual on the previous night. And now, as before, it was equally effective, for the officer shot backward as if struck by a hammer, and, cannoning into the man behind, upset him also.

In fact, half a dozen of the mob were thrown down by the Major's sudden action, their cries and shouts deafening d.i.c.k and the others. The noise which followed was positively terrifying, for fifty furious Turks shouted and screamed their loudest, while not a few let off their weapons careless of the consequences. As for the head of this attacking force, relieved now of its leading spirit--for the officer lay stunned upon the stairway, and would have rolled downward but for the press about him--it showed wonderful dash and determination. Fanaticism and hate had stirred these men to fury, and without a pause they rushed up the stairs, some with bayonets thrusting forwards, others heralding their approach with rifle bullets. It was clear, in fact, that they would quickly smash their way through all obstacles, and though the Major and d.i.c.k and the Colonel in turn brought down a man with their weapons, thus delaying the others, and for some few minutes faced the attackers, discretion bade them retire towards the gallery.

"There's a door there that we can shut and bolt and bar outside," cried the Colonel. "It'll be the last stage in this business, but safer and better than stairs fighting. Now, up you go."

"After you, sir," said d.i.c.k, touching his cap in nautical fashion.

"Eh? After me, why?" began the Colonel. Then he laughed and smacked the midshipman gaily on the shoulder. "Sinking ship, eh?" he grinned.

"Never! But the skipper leaves last, that's it, my lad. Like your grit immensely, that I do. Well, Major, do you or do I lead the retreat?"

A sharp crack came from that officer's weapon. He jerked his head quickly, leaned forward, and again pulled his trigger. "You," he said at length. "I'm busy; in a moment I'll follow. d.i.c.k, look out for these beggars, and run up immediately after me."

"Right, sir! Certainly, sir!" came from the youthful d.i.c.ky.

"Then off we go." The Colonel left his friends guarding the stairs and ran up three at a time. Then the Major followed, while d.i.c.k waited coolly to convey to a charging Turkish fanatic the fact that there was danger above, and then went scampering after the others.

"Here he is. In you come, my boy. Now, bang the door; that's got it!"

The Colonel threw the ma.s.sive door at the top of the steps against its supporting frame and leaned against it, while the Major slipped the bolts into position. Then, gasping after their exertions, they turned to observe Alec and the Commander. Imagine their amazement at seeing the former stripped to his vest, and frantically waving his shirt over the stone bal.u.s.trade of the gallery. His face was purple with excitement, his eyes were blazing, while he shouted as if he had suddenly gone crazy. And then, while the two more sedate officers watched him in amazement. d.i.c.k began of a sudden to copy his antics. He danced across the gallery; he shouted and waved his hands and threw his cap upward.

"Mad! Gone suddenly crazy! What on earth has happened to them?" demanded the Major anxiously.

Then d.i.c.k swung round upon him and the Colonel, subdued his own excitement with a violent effort, and, drawing himself upright, saluted briskly.

"Airship in sight, sir," he said. "Alec reports that he's called 'em up with his signals, and--and they'll be here in a jiffy."