CHAPTER X
PRISONERS
Roy was on his feet like a flash, for he too had caught the thud of horses" hoofs and the jingle of stirrups. For a moment the two stood, side by side, behind the trunk of the live oak, peering out over the sunbaked plain. Across it a patrol of cavalry, smart in a gray-blue uniform, were cantering sharply.
"They"re making straight for the wood," said Ken quickly. "They must be after us. Come!"
They both set off at a run, dodging and ducking under the low-growing trees. For a moment they thought they were un.o.bserved, but next instant a shout rudely shattered that illusion. They scurried on as hard as they could go, but the wood was so open and the trees so far apart that it gave mighty little shelter. The patrol had broken into a gallop. The thud of the horses" hoofs grew nearer every moment.
"That thicket over there," panted Ken breathlessly. "We"ll dodge them yet if we can reach it."
But between them and it was a good hundred yards of almost open ground, and the leader of the patrol saw their manoeuvre, and shouted an order.
His men split out fan-wise and before Ken and Roy were half way across the open, came a thunder of hoofs, and half a dozen of the troopers came galloping upon them from the left.
Ken flung up his captured rifle, and fired slap at the first. The bullet caught the horse between the eyes and down he came with a crash, flinging his rider far over his head.
But the next was too close to dodge. Ken caught the flash of sun on a lancehead bearing straight down upon him. He sprang aside, the lancehead missed him by inches, then the shoulder of the horse caught him with stunning force and hurled him to the ground.
Before he could pick himself up, three of the troopers were off their horses, and had flung themselves upon him. He was hauled roughly to his feet, his rifle s.n.a.t.c.hed from his hand, and his cartridge-pouch torn away.
A few yards away, Roy, his face bleeding, was the centre of another group who were disarming him in spite of his struggles.
Ken glanced at his captors. He saw that they were Turkish constabulary, and his heart sank. These men, trained by Germans, paid by them, and soaked in their brutal tenets, were among the small minority of Turks who had really come to share the German hatred of the British.
They glared fiercely at their prisoners.
"British swine!" growled one, and spat in contempt.
"They are spies," said another. "We find them three miles behind our lines. Why do we waste time taking them prisoners? Let us hang them and be done with them."
"Why not let them run and ride them down?" suggested another. "Sticking with a lance is a fit fate for hogs."
But the sergeant, a tall, swarthy faced man with a pair of fierce black eyes, pushed his way forward.
"Fools, these are the men who escaped last night from Captain Hartmann. We have his orders to bring them before him. It will go hard with you if you disobey. Shackle them both, and send them to him under guard."
He flung down two pairs of handcuffs, and one of the men who was holding Ken picked them up, while another seized his wrists.
It was on the tip of Ken"s tongue to protest fiercely against this indignity, but he checked himself. It would be better, he remembered, that these men should not know that he spoke their language.
Roy was fighting like a fury. Three of the troopers had their work cut out to hold him. As it was, he managed to get one hand loose, and before the others could seize it again one of their number lay insensible on the ground with his nose broken and flattened against his face.
"Steady, Roy!" cried Ken. "These swabs are no better than Germans. They"ll only frog-march us or something equally beastly if we resist."
"But handcuffs!" roared Roy in a fury. "D"ye think I"m going to be handcuffed like a common criminal?"
"They think we"re spies," Ken answered. "They"re going to take us to headquarters. It"s no use resisting. We must wait our chance."
Sullenly Roy ceased struggling, and the handcuffs were snapped on his wrists. The sergeant who seemed in a hurry, gave brief orders, and galloped on with most of his patrol, leaving a lower grade officer, probably a corporal, with half a dozen men.
These mounted.
"March!" ordered the corporal, an undersized, vicious-looking fellow, giving Ken a p.r.i.c.k with his lance. "And keep going, or, by Allah, it will be more than a p.r.i.c.k you will get next time."
Side by side, Ken and Roy stumbled forward, while their captors cursed or jeered them in language which Roy fortunately could not understand, although to Ken every word of it was only too plain. From something the corporal let drop, he learnt that they were being taken, not to Kojadere, but to Eski Keni, which lies in the middle of the peninsula, about half-way between Gaba Tepe and Maidos.
He told this to Roy, speaking in an undertone, as they tramped rapidly onwards under the threat of the lance-points behind them.
"And the man they are taking us before seems to be Kemp," said Ken. "Only they call him Hartmann. It appears he was cute enough to suspect that we had hidden ourselves somewhere last night, and these fellows were sent out to look for us."
"And I wish we had both gone over the cliff before they found us," Roy answered, gritting his teeth. The disgrace of the handcuffs was biting deep into his soul. Ken had never seen him in such a mood before.
Ken himself was none too happy. It took all his pluck and philosophy to keep going at all. He was aching in every bone, his mouth and throat were parched, and his tongue like a dry stick in his mouth. The dust rose around them in choking clouds, flies bit and stung, yet he could not lift a hand to brush them from his face. What was hardest of all to bear were the jeers and insults flung at them by their captors.
But they trudged on doggedly, refusing to pay the slightest attention to the taunts or blows showered upon them, and in spite of everything, Ken used his eyes to take in every feature of the country through which they travelled. Small hope as he had of ever seeing again his own lines, yet he missed nothing of importance, storing up each hill, valley, clump of trees, and track in his tenacious memory.
At last they came within sight of a group of squalid hovels in a valley.
"That"s Keni," Ken told Roy.
The brutal corporal caught the word.
"That"s Keni," he repeated in his own language, "and, by the beard of the Prophet, you shall soon see how spies are dealt with."
The village swarmed with soldiers, many of them wounded, who stared at the two British prisoners with lack-l.u.s.tre eyes. The narrow street of the place reeked with filth and foul odours, and swarmed with a pestilence of flies. The two youngsters were thrust roughly into a dirty hovel, and with a final jeer from their brutal jailer, the door was locked behind them.
For a moment Roy stood straight, towering in the centre of the low-roofed room. There was a very ugly light in his eyes.
"Wait, my friend, wait!" he said hoa.r.s.ely. "I"ll be even with you before I"ve finished."
"Steady, old chap!" said Ken quietly. "Steady! Take it easy while you can.
Remember, we"ve got that little interview with Kemp before us."
Roy flung himself down with a gasp.
"It"s all right, Ken. I"ll calm down after a bit. But heaven pity that black-moustached blighter if I ever get my hands on him."
Ken tried to answer, but suddenly dropped flat on the bare earthen floor.
His eyes closed. Instantly he was sound asleep. Roy stared at him vaguely, yawned, and before he knew it had slipped down and followed his example.
So they lay, happily oblivious of their troubles, all through the blazing afternoon. The sun was setting when the door was flung open and the sharp-faced corporal strode in.
He roused them with a kick apiece.
"Get up, British dogs," he ordered. "Captain Hartmann awaits you."
The sleep had refreshed them, and though stiff and sore they were both in condition so fit and hard that they were little the worse for their trying experiences of the night and morning.