Sandy"s figure seemed to shrink and his voice grew shrill and wild. It was too much for Blenkiron. He indulged in a torrent of blasphemy such as I believe had never before pa.s.sed his lips.
"I"m blessed if I"ll listen to this G.o.d-darned stuff. It isn"t delicate. You get busy, Major, and pump some sense into your afflicted friend."
I was beginning to see what had happened. Sandy was a man of genius-as much as anybody I ever struck-but he had the defects of such high-strung, fanciful souls. He would take more than mortal risks, and you couldn"t scare him by any ordinary terror. But let his old conscience get cross-eyed, let him find himself in some situation which in his eyes involved his honour, and he might go stark crazy. The woman, who roused in me and Blenkiron only hatred, could catch his imagination and stir in him-for the moment only-an unwilling response. And then came bitter and morbid repentance, and the last desperation.
It was no time to mince matters. "Sandy, you old fool," I cried, "be thankful you have friends to keep you from playing the fool. You saved my life at Loos, and I"m jolly well going to get you through this show. I"m bossing the outfit now, and for all your confounded prophetic manners, you"ve got to take your orders from me. You aren"t going to reveal yourself to your people, and still less are you going to cut your throat. Greenmantle will avenge the murder of his ministers, and make that bedlamite woman sorry she was born. We"re going to get clear away, and inside of a week we"ll be having tea with the Grand Duke Nicholas."
I wasn"t bluffing. Puzzled as I was about ways and means I had still the blind belief that we should win out. And as I spoke two legs dangled through the trap and a dusty and blinking Peter descended in our midst.
I took the maps from him and spread them on the table.
"First, you must know that we"ve had an almighty piece of luck. Last night Hussin took us for a walk over the roofs of Erzerum, and by the blessing of Providence I got into Stumm"s room, and bagged his staff map ... Look there ... d"you see his notes? That"s the danger-point of the whole defence. Once the Russians get that fort, Kara Gubek, they"ve turned the main position. And it can be got; Stumm knows it can; for these two adjacent hills are not held ... It looks a mad enterprise on paper, but Stumm knows that it is possible enough. The question is: Will the Russians guess that? I say no, not unless someone tells them. Therefore, by hook or by crook, we"ve got to get that information through to them."
Sandy"s interest in ordinary things was beginning to flicker up again. He studied the map and began to measure distances.
"Peter"s going to have a try for it. He thinks there"s a sporting chance of his getting through the lines. If he does-if he gets this map to the Grand Duke"s staff-then Stumm"s goose is cooked. In three days the Cossacks will be in the streets of Erzerum."
"What are the chances?" Sandy asked.
I glanced at Peter. "We"re hard-bitten fellows and can face the truth. I think the chances against success are about five to one."
"Two to one," said Peter modestly. "Not worse than that. I don"t think you"re fair to me, d.i.c.k, my old friend."
I looked at that lean, tight figure and the gentle, resolute face, and I changed my mind. "I"m hanged if I think there are any odds," I said. "With anybody else it would want a miracle, but with Peter I believe the chances are level."
"Two to one," Peter persisted. "If it was evens I wouldn"t be interested."
"Let me go," Sandy cried. "I talk the lingo, and can pa.s.s as a Turk, and I"m a million times likelier to get through. For G.o.d"s sake, d.i.c.k, let me go."
"Not you. You"re wanted here. If you disappear the whole show"s busted too soon, and the three of us left behind will be strung up before morning ... No, my son. You"re going to escape, but it will be in company with Blenkiron and me. We"ve got to blow the whole Greenmantle business so high that the bits of it will never come to earth again ... First, tell me how many of your fellows will stick by you? I mean the Companions."
"The whole half-dozen. They are very worried already about what has happened. She made me sound them in her presence, and they were quite ready to accept me as Greenmantle"s successor. But they have their suspicions about what happened at the villa, and they"ve no love for the woman ... They"d follow me through h.e.l.l if I bade them, but they would rather it was my own show."
"That"s all right," I cried. "It is the one thing I"ve been doubtful about. Now observe this map. Erzerum isn"t invested by a long chalk. The Russians are round it in a broad half-moon. That means that all the west, south-west, and north-west is open and undefended by trench lines. There are flanks far away to the north and south in the hills which can be turned, and once we get round a flank there"s nothing between us and our friends ... I"ve figured out our road," and I traced it on the map. "If we can make that big circuit to the west and get over that pa.s.s un.o.bserved we"re bound to strike a Russian column the next day. It"ll be a rough road, but I fancy we"ve all ridden as bad in our time. But one thing we must have, and that"s horses. Can we and your six ruffians slip off in the darkness on the best beasts in this township? If you can manage that, we"ll do the trick."
Sandy sat down and pondered. Thank heaven, he was thinking now of action and not of his own conscience.
"It must be done," he said at last, "but it won"t be easy. Hussin"s a great fellow, but as you know well, d.i.c.k, horses right up at the battle-front are not easy to come by. Tomorrow I"ve got some kind of infernal fast to observe, and the next day that woman will be coaching me for my part. We"ll have to give Hussin time ... I wish to heaven it could be tonight." He was silent again for a bit, and then he said: "I believe the best time would be the third night, the eve of the Revelation. She"s bound to leave me alone that night."
"Right-o," I said. "It won"t be much fun sitting waiting in this cold sepulchre; but we must keep our heads and risk nothing by being in a hurry. Besides, if Peter wins through, the Turk will be a busy man by the day after tomorrow."
The key turned in the door and Hussin stole in like a shade. It was the signal for Sandy to leave.
"You fellows have given me a new lease of life," he said. "I"ve got a plan now, and I can set my teeth and stick it out."
He went up to Peter and gripped his hand. "Good luck. You"re the bravest man I"ve ever met, and I"ve seen a few." Then he turned abruptly and went out, followed by an exhortation from Blenkiron to "Get busy about the quadrupeds."
Then we set about equipping Peter for his crusade. It was a simple job, for we were not rich in properties. His get-up, with his thick fur-collared greatcoat, was not unlike the ordinary Turkish officer seen in a dim light. But Peter had no intention of pa.s.sing for a Turk, or indeed of giving anybody the chance of seeing him, and he was more concerned to fit in with the landscape. So he stripped off the greatcoat and pulled a grey sweater of mine over his jacket, and put on his head a woollen helmet of the same colour. He had no need of the map for he had long since got his route by heart, and what was once fixed in that mind stuck like wax; but I made him take Stumm"s plan and paper, hidden below his shirt. The big difficulty, I saw, would be getting to the Russians without getting shot, a.s.suming he pa.s.sed the Turkish trenches. He could only hope that he would strike someone with a smattering of English or German. Twice he ascended to the roof and came back cheerful, for there was promise of wild weather.
Hussin brought in our supper, and Peter made up a parcel of food. Blenkiron and I had both small flasks of brandy and I gave him mine.
Then he held out his hand quite simply, like a good child who is going off to bed. It was too much for Blenkiron. With large tears rolling down his face he announced that, if we all came through, he was going to fit him into the softest berth that money could buy. I don"t think he was understood, for old Peter"s eyes had now the faraway absorption of the hunter who has found game. He was thinking only of his job.
Two legs and a pair of very shabby boots vanished through the trap, and suddenly I felt utterly lonely and desperately sad. The guns were beginning to roar again in the east, and in the intervals came the whistle of the rising storm.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Peter Pienaar Goes to the Wars
This chapter is the tale that Peter told me-long after, sitting beside a stove in the hotel at Bergen, where we were waiting for our boat.
He climbed on the roof and shinned down the broken bricks of the outer wall. The outbuilding we were lodged in ab.u.t.ted on a road, and was outside the proper enceinte of the house. At ordinary times I have no doubt there were sentries, but Sandy and Hussin had probably managed to clear them off this end for a little. Anyhow he saw n.o.body as he crossed the road and dived into the snowy fields.
He knew very well that he must do the job in the twelve hours of darkness ahead of him. The immediate front of a battle is a bit too public for anyone to lie hidden in by day, especially when two or three feet of snow make everything kenspeckle. Now hurry in a job of this kind was abhorrent to Peter"s soul, for, like all Boers, his tastes were for slowness and sureness, though he could hustle fast enough when haste was needed. As he pushed through the winter fields he reckoned up the things in his favour, and found the only one the dirty weather. There was a high, gusty wind, blowing scuds of snow but never coming to any great fall. The frost had gone, and the lying snow was as soft as b.u.t.ter. That was all to the good, he thought, for a clear, hard night would have been the devil.
The first bit was through farmlands, which were seamed with little snow-filled water-furrows. Now and then would come a house and a patch of fruit trees, but there was n.o.body abroad. The roads were crowded enough, but Peter had no use for roads. I can picture him swinging along with his bent back, stopping every now and then to sniff and listen, alert for the foreknowledge of danger. When he chose he could cover country like an antelope.
Soon he struck a big road full of transport. It was the road from Erzerum to the Palantuken pa.s.s, and he waited his chance and crossed it. After that the ground grew rough with boulders and patches of thorn-trees, splendid cover where he could move fast without worrying. Then he was pulled up suddenly on the bank of a river. The map had warned him of it, but not that it would be so big.
It was a torrent swollen with melting snow and rains in the hills, and it was running fifty yards wide. Peter thought he could have swum it, but he was very averse to a drenching. "A wet man makes too much noise," he said, and besides, there was the off-chance that the current would be too much for him. So he moved up stream to look for a bridge.
In ten minutes he found one, a new-made thing of trestles, broad enough to take transport wagons. It was guarded, for he heard the tramp of a sentry, and as he pulled himself up the bank he observed a couple of long wooden huts, obviously some kind of billets. These were on the near side of the stream, about a dozen yards from the bridge. A door stood open and a light showed in it, and from within came the sound of voices.... Peter had a sense of hearing like a wild animal, and he could detect even from the confused gabble that the voices were German.
As he lay and listened someone came over the bridge. It was an officer, for the sentry saluted. The man disappeared in one of the huts. Peter had struck the billets and repairing shop of a squad of German sappers.
He was just going ruefully to retrace his steps and try to find a good place to swim the stream when it struck him that the officer who had pa.s.sed him wore clothes very like his own. He, too, had had a grey sweater and a Balaclava helmet, for even a German officer ceases to be dressy on a mid-winter"s night in Anatolia. The idea came to Peter to walk boldly across the bridge and trust to the sentry not seeing the difference.
He slipped round a corner of the hut and marched down the road. The sentry was now at the far end, which was lucky, for if the worst came to the worst he could throttle him. Peter, mimicking the stiff German walk, swung past him, his head down as if to protect him from the wind.
The man saluted. He did more, for he offered conversation. The officer must have been a genial soul.
"It"s a rough night, Captain," he said in German. "The wagons are late. Pray G.o.d, Michael hasn"t got a sh.e.l.l in his lot. They"ve begun putting over some big ones."
Peter grunted good night in German and strode on. He was just leaving the road when he heard a great halloo behind him.
The real officer must have appeared on his heels, and the sentry"s doubts had been stirred. A whistle was blown, and, looking back, Peter saw lanterns waving in the gale. They were coming out to look for the duplicate.
He stood still for a second, and noticed the lights spreading out south of the road. He was just about to dive off it on the north side when he was aware of a difficulty. On that side a steep bank fell to a ditch, and the bank beyond bounded a big flood. He could see the dull ruffle of the water under the wind.
On the road itself he would soon be caught; south of it the search was beginning; and the ditch itself was no place to hide, for he saw a lantern moving up it. Peter dropped into it all the same and made a plan. The side below the road was a little undercut and very steep. He resolved to plaster himself against it, for he would be hidden from the road, and a searcher in the ditch would not be likely to explore the unbroken sides. It was always a maxim of Peter"s that the best hiding-place was the worst, the least obvious to the minds of those who were looking for you.
He waited until the lights both in the road and the ditch came nearer, and then he gripped the edge with his left hand, where some stones gave him purchase, dug the toes of his boots into the wet soil and stuck like a limpet. It needed some strength to keep the position for long, but the muscles of his arms and legs were like whipcord.
The searcher in the ditch soon got tired, for the place was very wet, and joined his comrades on the road. They came along, running, flashing the lanterns into the trench, and exploring all the immediate countryside.