About midday we descended on a wide plain full of the marks of rich cultivation. Villages became frequent, and the land was studded with olive groves and scarred with water furrows. From what I remembered of the map I judged that we were coming to that champagne country near Siwas, which is the granary of Turkey, and the home of the true Osmanli stock.
Then at the turning of the road we came to the caravanserai.
It was a dingy, battered place, with the pink plaster falling in patches from its walls. There was a courtyard ab.u.t.ting on the road, and a flat-topped house with a big hole in its side. It was a long way from any battle-ground, and I guessed that some explosion had wrought the damage. Behind it, a few hundred yards off, a detachment of cavalry were encamped beside a stream, with their horses tied up in long lines of pickets.
And by the roadside, quite alone and deserted, stood a large new motor-car.
In all the road before and behind there was no man to be seen except the troops by the stream. The owners, whoever they were, must be inside the caravanserai.
I have said I was in the mood for some desperate deed, and lo and behold providence had given me the chance! I coveted that car as I have never coveted anything on earth. At the moment all my plans had narrowed down to a feverish pa.s.sion to get to the battle-field. We had to find Greenmantle at Erzerum, and once there we should have Hilda von Einem"s protection. It was a time of war, and a front of bra.s.s was the surest safety. But, indeed, I could not figure out any plan worth speaking of. I saw only one thing-a fast car which might be ours.
I said a word to the others, and we dismounted and tethered our horses at the near end of the courtyard. I heard the low hum of voices from the cavalrymen by the stream, but they were three hundred yards off and could not see us. Peter was sent forward to scout in the courtyard. In the building itself there was but one window looking on the road, and that was in the upper floor.
Meantime I crawled along beside the wall to where the car stood, and had a look at it. It was a splendid six-cylinder affair, brand new, with the tyres little worn. There were seven tins of petrol stacked behind as well as spare tyres, and, looking in, I saw map-cases and field-gla.s.ses strewn on the seats as if the owners had only got out for a minute to stretch their legs.
Peter came back and reported that the courtyard was empty.
"There are men in the upper room," he said; "more than one, for I heard their voices. They are moving about restlessly, and may soon be coming out."
I reckoned that there was no time to be lost, so I told the others to slip down the road fifty yards beyond the caravanserai and be ready to climb in as I pa.s.sed. I had to start the infernal thing, and there might be shooting.
I waited by the car till I saw them reach the right distance. I could hear voices from the second floor of the house and footsteps moving up and down. I was in a fever of anxiety, for any moment a man might come to the window. Then I flung myself on the starting handle and worked like a demon.
The cold made the job difficult, and my heart was in my mouth, for the noise in that quiet place must have woke the dead. Then, by the mercy of Heaven, the engine started, and I sprang to the driving seat, released the clutch, and opened the throttle. The great car shot forward, and I seemed to hear behind me shrill voices. A pistol bullet bored through my hat, and another buried itself in a cushion beside me.
In a second I was clear of the place and the rest of the party were embarking. Blenkiron got on the step and rolled himself like a sack of coals into the tonneau. Peter nipped up beside me, and Hussin scrambled in from the back over the folds of the hood. We had our baggage in our pockets and had nothing to carry.
Bullets dropped round us, but did no harm. Then I heard a report at my ear, and out of a corner of my eye saw Peter lower his pistol. Presently we were out of range, and, looking back, I saw three men gesticulating in the middle of the road.
"May the devil fly away with this pistol," said Peter ruefully. "I never could make good shooting with a little gun. Had I had my rifle..."
"What did you shoot for?" I asked in amazement. "We"ve got the fellows" car, and we don"t want to do them any harm."
"It would have saved trouble had I had my rifle," said Peter, quietly. "The little man you call Rasta was there, and he knew you. I heard him cry your name. He is an angry little man, and I observe that on this road there is a telegraph."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Trouble by The Waters of Babylon
From that moment I date the beginning of my madness. Suddenly I forgot all cares and difficulties of the present and future and became foolishly light-hearted. We were rushing towards the great battle where men were busy at my proper trade. I realized how much I had loathed the lonely days in Germany, and still more the dawdling week in Constantinople. Now I was clear of it all, and bound for the clash of armies. It didn"t trouble me that we were on the wrong side of the battle line. I had a sort of instinct that the darker and wilder things grew the better chance for us.
"Seems to me," said Blenkiron, bending over me, "that this joy-ride is going to come to an untimely end pretty soon. Peter"s right. That young man will set the telegraph going, and we"ll be held up at the next township."
"He"s got to get to a telegraph office first," I answered. "That"s where we have the pull on him. He"s welcome to the screws we left behind, and if he finds an operator before the evening I"m the worst kind of a Dutchman. I"m going to break all the rules and bucket this car for what she"s worth. Don"t you see that the nearer we get to Erzerum the safer we are?"
"I don"t follow," he said slowly. "At Erzerum I reckon they"ll be waiting for us with the handcuffs. Why in thunder couldn"t those hairy ragam.u.f.fins keep the little cuss safe? Your record"s a bit too precipitous, Major, for the most innocent-minded military boss."
"Do you remember what you said about the Germans being open to bluff? Well, I"m going to put up the steepest sort of bluff. Of course they"ll stop us. Rasta will do his d.a.m.nedest. But remember that he and his friends are not very popular with the Germans, and Madame von Einem is. We"re her proteges, and the bigger the German swell I get before the safer I"ll feel. We"ve got our pa.s.sports and our orders, and he"ll be a bold man that will stop us once we get into the German zone. Therefore I"m going to hurry as fast as G.o.d will let me."
It was a ride that deserved to have an epic written about it. The car was good, and I handled her well, though I say it who shouldn"t. The road in that big central plain was fair, and often I knocked fifty miles an hour out of her. We pa.s.sed troops by a circuit over the veld, where we took some awful risks, and once we skidded by some transport with our off wheels almost over the lip of a ravine. We went through the narrow streets of Siwas like a fire-engine, while I shouted out in German that we carried despatches for headquarters. We shot out of drizzling rain into brief spells of winter sunshine, and then into a snow blizzard which all but whipped the skin from our faces. And always before us the long road unrolled, with somewhere at the end of it two armies clinched in a death-grapple.
That night we looked for no lodging. We ate a sort of meal in the car with the hood up, and felt our way on in the darkness, for the headlights were in perfect order. Then we turned off the road for four hours" sleep, and I had a go at the map. Before dawn we started again, and came over a pa.s.s into the vale of a big river. The winter dawn showed its gleaming stretches, ice-bound among the sprinkled meadows. I called to Blenkiron:
"I believe that river is the Euphrates," I said. "So," he said, acutely interested. "Then that"s the waters of Babylon. Great snakes, that I should have lived to see the fields where King Nebuchadnezzar grazed! Do you know the name of that big hill, Major?"
"Ararat, as like as not," I cried, and he believed me.
We were among the hills now, great, rocky, black slopes, and, seen through side glens, a hinterland of snowy peaks. I remember I kept looking for the castrol I had seen in my dream. The thing had never left off haunting me, and I was pretty clear now that it did not belong to my South African memories. I am not a superst.i.tious man, but the way that little kranz clung to my mind made me think it was a warning sent by Providence. I was pretty certain that when I clapped eyes on it I would be in for bad trouble.
All morning we travelled up that broad vale, and just before noon it spread out wider, the road dipped to the water"s edge, and I saw before me the white roofs of a town. The snow was deep now, and lay down to the riverside, but the sky had cleared, and against a s.p.a.ce of blue heaven some peaks to the south rose glittering like jewels. The arches of a bridge, spanning two forks of the stream, showed in front, and as I slowed down at the bend a sentry"s challenge rang out from a block-house. We had reached the fortress of Erzingjan, the headquarters of a Turkish corps and the gate of Armenia.
I showed the man our pa.s.sports, but he did not salute and let us move on. He called another fellow from the guardhouse, who motioned us to keep pace with him as he stumped down a side lane. At the other end was a big barracks with sentries outside. The man spoke to us in Turkish, which Hussin interpreted. There was somebody in that barracks who wanted badly to see us.
"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept," quoted Blenkiron softly. "I fear, Major, we"ll soon be remembering Zion."
I tried to persuade myself that this was merely the red tape of a frontier fortress, but I had an instinct that difficulties were in store for us. If Rasta had started wiring I was prepared to put up the brazenest bluff, for we were still eighty miles from Erzerum, and at all costs we were going to be landed there before night.
A fussy staff-officer met us at the door. At the sight of us he cried to a friend to come and look.
"Here are the birds safe. A fat man and two lean ones and a savage who looks like a Kurd. Call the guard and march them off. There"s no doubt about their ident.i.ty."
"Pardon me, Sir," I said, "but we have no time to spare and we"d like to be in Erzerum before the dark. I would beg you to get through any formalities as soon as possible. This man," and I pointed to the sentry, "has our pa.s.sports."
"Compose yourself," he said impudently; "you"re not going on just yet, and when you do it won"t be in a stolen car." He took the pa.s.sports and fingered them casually. Then something he saw there made him c.o.c.k his eyebrows.
"Where did you steal these?" he asked, but with less a.s.surance in his tone.
I spoke very gently. "You seem to be the victim of a mistake, sir. These are our papers. We are under orders to report ourselves at Erzerum without an hour"s delay. Whoever hinders us will have to answer to General von Liman. We will be obliged if you will conduct us at once to the Governor."
"You can"t see General Posselt," he said; "this is my business. I have a wire from Siwas that four men stole a car belonging to one of Enver Damad"s staff. It describes you all, and says that two of you are notorious spies wanted by the Imperial Government. What have you to say to that?"
"Only that it is rubbish. My good Sir, you have seen our pa.s.ses. Our errand is not to be cried on the housetops, but five minutes with General Posselt will make things clear. You will be exceedingly sorry for it if you delay another minute."
He was impressed in spite of himself, and after pulling his moustache turned on his heel and left us. Presently he came back and said very gruffly that the Governor would see us. We followed him along a corridor into a big room looking out on the river, where an oldish fellow sat in an arm-chair by a stove, writing letters with a fountain pen.
This was Posselt, who had been Governor of Erzerum till he fell sick and Ahmed Fevzi took his place. He had a peevish mouth and big blue pouches below his eyes. He was supposed to be a good engineer and to have made Erzerum impregnable, but the look on his face gave me the impression that his reputation at the moment was a bit unstable.
The staff-officer spoke to him in an undertone.
"Yes, yes, I know," he said testily. "Are these the men? They look a pretty lot of scoundrels. What"s that you say? They deny it. But they"ve got the car. They can"t deny that. Here, you," and he fixed on Blenkiron, "who the devil are you?"
Blenkiron smiled sleepily at him, not understanding one word, and I took up the parable.
"Our pa.s.sports, Sir, give our credentials," I said. He glanced through them, and his face lengthened.