Young Tom Bowling Part 34

"Hurrah, boys!" cried Larry, as we came up at the double, firing away with our rifles right and left, and digging our sword-bayonets, till they were dyed red with blood, into the body of every Somali who barred our onward progress to the help of our comrade and the captain. "Give it to the bloomin' beggars hot!"

We did not need the advice, however, as the Arabs themselves could have borne testimony to, for with a wild rush, that carried everything and everybody before it, we drove our foe back into their stronghold, and recovered 'old Hankey Pankey,' who was at once hoisted triumphantly up by a couple of marines. These gallant fellows, I should add, to give all honour to the corps, stood stauncher even than we bluejackets did that day; for, not a man turned his back on the foe until the captain gave the word.

This 'old Hankey Pankey' was forced to do, much against the grain, a moment or two later on, Captain Oliver having been driven off from the right attack, thus leaving both our flanks now exposed as well as our front to the fire of the Somalis, who once more rushed out from the stockade upon us.

"We must retire, my lads," cried the captain in a hoa.r.s.e voice, the words coming out with almost a sob. "But no hurry! Fall back by sections, each wheeling and firing in turn. The company will now retire! Quick march! Halt! Front!--fire!"

He suited the action to the word himself as he said this, discharging both his revolvers point-blank at two of the Arabs, who were leading on the gang in hot pursuit of us, tumbling them over like ninepins.

We had retreated in this fashion for about a mile or so, changing front continually and facing the Somalis, who pressed us hard every inch of the way; until, coming to an open s.p.a.ce on the main road that had been cut in a sort of zigzag through the bush from Malindi up to Uganda, the captain determined to make a stand here and teach our pursuers a lesson, the more particularly as we now had with us all our little nine-pounder boat-guns.

These, with the exception of one, that only got up at the last moment when too late, we had been unable to drag along with us for the attack on the stockade, the path we had traversed through the bush in the first instance under the leadership of our treacherous guide having almost been impa.s.sable for ourselves, let alone guns.

Accordingly, with a rapid order to Mr Shrapnell, or 'Gunnery Jack,' who had accompanied the column from the ship, but had remained behind with his little battery of field-pieces on their becoming bogged in the bush, trying all he could to extricate them so as to get up with the column, he being anxious, of course, to take his part in the fighting, we formed square in the open.

The thirty odd marines we had with us were drawn up two deep in front, they being the oldest and most seasoned men of our force; while we bluejackets were quickly echeloned along the sides and rear of the square, at each corner of which was stationed one of the nine-pounders.

Our Maxim gun, which had become jammed at its first discharge when using it against the stockade but had now been made serviceable again, was placed right in the centre of our front line, so as to fire over the heads of the rank kneeling.

"Now, men," shouted out Captain Hankey, who had dismounted from the shoulders of the 'jollies' who had been carrying him in the place of Larrikins since the latter's tumble, and was now seated on the stump of an old tree in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by us all and commanding a view of every part of the square, "aim low, and don't waste a shot; but, wait till I give the word!"

The Arabs, who had checked their advance on seeing us halt, hesitating as if waiting to learn what we were up to, now began to press forward again, their ugly bronze faces, of a Jewish cut, peering at us out of the bush on either side; while a large number came out into the open with a rush, making for the front of the square and firing their queer long muskets, as well as hurling their jereeds, or short spears, right into our faces as they charged.

Every one of us, I can tell you, gripped his Martini rifle as if he would dig his nails into its steel barrel, sighting it for point-blank range and aiming low, as the captain had told us, to catch the beggars full in the bread-basket as they came up, yelling and waving their weapons about, thinking, no doubt, to frighten us.

But, though we might have faltered after our third repulse at the stockade, we were not frightened now; nor did a man of us wish to fall back, even if he had the chance.

We were only waiting for 'old Hankey Pankey' to give the word.

He did not delay this long.

"Steady, my lads!" he cried, in a warning voice, after a quick glance round the square to see that we had made all proper preparations to give our friends the Somalis a hospitable reception. "Are you ready, Mr Shrapnell?"

"Aye, aye, sir," replied 'Gunnery Jack' instanter, "all ready!"

"Then, we'll blaze away and let the beggars have it all together,"

yelled out 'old Hankey Pankey,' raising himself up in some wonderful sort of way on the top of the tree stump, for he could not stand on his legs; and, taking off his cap and waving it round his head thrice, he gave out the words, "One--two--three, Fire!"

Like a thunderclap, sharp, sudden, and rolling through the air with a concussion that shook the very ground under our feet, a murderous volley belched forth from our square, mowing down the Arabs as with the swath of a mower's scythe, the ma.s.s of on-rushing, howling, swarthy Somalis sinking down to the ground, overborne by the avalanche of shot and sh.e.l.l we hurled at them; for, the rifles of us men, the guns of Mr Shrapnell's battery, the revolvers of the officers, and the Maxim, all spoke at once and together.

Aye, so they did; and, though varied in tone, from the musical 'Ping!'

of our Martinis to the crackling grunt of the quick-firing weapon, whose irritable cough could be heard above the deep boom of the nine-pounders which echoed through the woods, all spoke the same word--Death!

We had no need to give them a second volley, the fearful effects of our first having so intimidated the few survivors we could see in the distance, that these incontinently fled back into the bush, leaving us now to pursue our retreat to the coast without any further molestation on their part.

But, albeit conquerors in this our last stand, the victory came too late to cheer us; and it was with greatly saddened hearts and drooping faces, thus offering a strongly marked contrast to the bright enthusiasm with which we all had started up country in the morning, we now slowly retraced our way to the sh.o.r.e, to the south of Malindi.

Out of the two hundred bluejackets and marines who had landed from the _Mermaid_ and _Merlin_ at break of day, but half that number returned on board their respective ships at nightfall, when the sun sank over the hills to the westward like a ball of fire, crimsoning the heavens to the hue of the blood that had been spilt!

On reaching the _Mermaid_ the surgeon had Captain Hankey carried down to his cabin at once, as he was now becoming faint with exhaustion; though, I believe, the mortification he felt at the Arabs having licked us gave him more pain than the damage done to his legs by the ball of the matchlock, which had taken him athwartship through the fleshy part of his understandings--breaking no bones, but crippling him all the same.

The surgeon, however, could not keep him quiet long below; for no sooner had his wounds been dressed than he insisted on being brought up on deck again, when he had the hands all mustered aft and spoke a few sympathising words to us anent the events of the day. He expressed his sorrow at the loss of so many good men and true, and added that, though defeated for the time, we would shortly have 'a go at the Arabs' again, and nail the Union Jack of old England yet on top of the Somali stronghold.

"Three cheers now, my lads!" he called out at the end of his harangue, which was interspersed with a lot of 'ahem'-ing and 'haw'-ing, 'old Hankey Pankey' not being much of a speaker--"three cheers for the old flag that has never been licked yet in the long-run!"

If you could have only heard the shout that went up from the l.u.s.ty throats of the chaps standing round me and Larrikins, you would not have thought we had just been beaten off by those black devils nor had to mourn so many jolly shipmates whom we would never see again in this life!

But, sailors can't afford to waste any time in 'crying over spilt milk'; it would be a poor lookout for them, aye, and for our country too, if they did!

'Old Hankey Pankey' was of a like opinion.

So no sooner had the echo of our ringing cheer died away amidst the hills beyond Malindi, now purpling with the shades of evening, ere, turning round as well as he could with his bandaged limbs, still sitting in the easy-chair in which he had been brought up from below, he hailed the signalman and told him to make the _Merlin's_ number, calling Mr Gresham at the same time to his side, the two of them confabulating together.

Presently, in response to another signal from us, Captain Oliver came on board, when he joined in the talk going on between 'old Hankey Pankey'

and Mr Gresham for a bit and then returned to his own ship; the _Merlin_ shortly afterwards slipping her moorings and making off at full speed to the southwards.

"I tell 'ee wot, Tom," said Larrikins to me on our going down to the lower deck just then, the 'disperse' having sounded, and it being our watch below, "she's gone h'off fur to tell the h'admiral o' the bloomin'

mess we've made on it!"

This we found was the case next morning when the captain's steward came forwards as usual; this worthy being better than a newspaper to all of us, for he used to tell us of things before they occurred, and truly enough too, instead of waiting for events to happen and then garbling them, as some prints I have seen do!

Two or three days later the _Merlin_, which reported having had a long chase after the senior officer, going almost as far as Zanzibar and back to Momba.s.sa before she picked him up, returned to Malindi, in company with the _Bullfinch_, another small cruiser attached to the East African squadron.

Captain Oliver also brought orders from our chief, that parties of bluejackets were to be landed to protect Malindi from any hostile attack of the Arabs, while he with the admiral and all the force on the station were busy preparing an expedition on a grand scale, to drive the Somalis altogether out of the British protectorate, and so prevent any further attempt on their part to invade the country for some time to come.

These instructions were acted on immediately by 'old Hankey Pankey' to the letter, parties of seamen and marines from each ship in turn landing and patrolling the outskirts of the settlement, in front of which our little fleet of three vessels was anch.o.r.ed; and so we 'marked time,' so to speak, for the next few months, waiting for the ships belonging to the West African squadron to come up with the admiral himself, as not until then would we be able to resume active operations against the foe, whose defeat of us before their stockade at Wooromoloo we were burning to avenge.

"Lor', Tom," said Larrikins to me, expressing the current feeling of all on board the _Mermaid_, "I'd die happy, s'help me, if I could only pot that there bloomin' Arab thief Abdalah, him we see'd shoot poor little Dabby. They told us, Tom, you reck'lect t'other day over in the n.i.g.g.e.r town there when we was on sentry go, him were the chief of the gang, and were boastin' o' killin' our h'officers and makin' all on us cut and run. Lor', I'd give a year's pay to settle that there beggar's hash!"

At last one morning, when we were pretty well tired of this forced inaction, a despatch boat came up from Momba.s.sa, bringing orders from the admiral, who had arrived there in his flagship, accompanied by several gunboats and other vessels, nearly all the crews of which had been landed.

The admiral informed our captain that he was about to proceed inland through the province of Teita with this formidable column; and that he, 'old Hankey Pankey,' was to a.s.semble as strong a force as he could muster from the ships under his command and with a second column thus formed he was to start from Malindi and work in a south-westerly direction, when the two bodies would meet, completely hemming in the Arabs.

'Old Hankey Pankey' got us all ash.o.r.e the same afternoon the admiral's orders came; and, early the next morning, nearly four hundred strong now, just double our former strength, we marched off up country towards the scene of our defeat at the hands of the Somali chieftain Abdalah, on the occasion of our previous trip inland.

When we got near his stockade, though, which, it need hardly be stated, we approached with considerable caution this time, the old bird had flown, having crossed the Sabaki River before our approach and gone to join the rest of the Somalis at Teita, whom the admiral was now busy encompa.s.sing.

Our way, therefore, so far, was clear; and, breasting the hills manfully, we proceeded along the route marked out for us, our hopes high and our spirits buoyant at the chance of now turning the tables on the old miscreant who had previously beguiled us.

The country a little way from the coast began to get beautifully wooded: while a series of undulating plateaus were planted by the natives with plantains and sugar-canes, besides various vegetables whose names none of us knew.

Farther up the mountains some of the trees were tall and spreading, unlike anything, I thought, that ever grew in Africa; for I recognised a mountain-ash and a sort of oak, while the juniper-tree perfumed the air with its aromatic smell.

I have good cause to remember these same junipers! On our way up the heights, Larrikins and I, who were scouting in advance, on either side of the front of the column, met a native, who told us in the b.a.s.t.a.r.d jargon of the coast called the Swahili language that some big animals, which he said were bigger than us and covered with long hair, were in a valley on our right; and that, if we valued our lives, so at least Larrikins told me, he having picked up some of the lingo from a negro woman at Malindi, we had better make a detour so as to avoid this place.

"Nonsense," said I. "The rascal, perhaps, is another spy like that chap who led us into the stockade trap! I ain't going out of the straight road the cap'en laid down for us to steer. He said the column was to go west sou'-west by compa.s.s, and west sou'-west, Larry, I'm going!"

So saying, off I bore in the direction I had indicated, keeping to the right of the main column, which was following the bank of the Sabaki River.