THE EDGE OF THE STORM
They swung themselves across the river hand over hand on the rope. On returning to the aeroplane Bob opened a box of sardines and took out of a biscuit tin some of the flat bread-cakes baked by the Chinese cook.
But neither he nor Lawrence had any appet.i.te. After a few minutes Lawrence got up.
"It"s no good," he said. "I can"t eat, and I can"t rest. It would be different if we knew for certain that the old man was gone; it"s the uncertainty that"s so wearing. Do you see anything of the Pathans?"
Bob took his field-gla.s.s and went to the edge of the track, whence he had a scarcely interrupted view of a mile or more of the valley.
"No, they"re not in sight," he said after a minute or two. "Shall we go and meet them?"
"I"m more inclined to go down-stream, on the off-chance that we may find something."
"All right. Better take our rifles, perhaps."
"Why? Nurla has got clean away by this time, whether Uncle is with him or not. You may be sure he wouldn"t wait about."
"Well, we"ll take our revolvers; it"s just as well to have something handy. For all we know he may be resting behind some rock."
"With a rifle! Revolvers wouldn"t be much use against that."
"Nor would rifles, now you mention it. He"d pot us before we saw him if he wanted to. All the same, we"ll take our revolvers."
They swarmed across by the rope, gained the farther bank, and walked slowly down the track, scanning the rocky recesses as narrowly as before. They had scarcely any hope of finding their uncle"s body; but while it remained undiscovered they were ready to search again and again. It was now near midday, and the sun beat fiercely upon them.
For a time they were unconscious of the heat in the intentness of their occupation, and the foreboding anxiety that filled their minds; so that they had walked much farther than they supposed when they became alive to the fatigue induced by exertion in such a temperature. Then, wiping their perspiring brows, they sank down to rest on a flattish boulder overhanging the stream.
"We must give it up," said Bob wearily. "Unless Nurla has got him he"s either at the bottom of the river, or else washed down miles by this time."
"I don"t care about caving in altogether," said Lawrence. "It would be some satisfaction--a mournful one--to recover his body and give him decent burial."
"Poor old man! He wouldn"t care a bit about that. What"s more to the point is to hunt down the blackguards who killed him. That"s what I propose to do as soon as our men come up. Some of them are sure to know the country, and with them on horseback and ourselves in the aeroplane, I"d take long odds that we find Nurla in time."
As they talked, they kept their eyes on the river, more from the habit engendered during the previous few hours than with any strong hope of their search being rewarded. Presently Lawrence, following with his eyes the foaming ripples as they swirled down-stream, caught sight of something that caused him to spring to his feet with a sudden e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n and lift the field-gla.s.s to his eyes.
"What is it?" asked Bob, rising also.
Lawrence handed him the gla.s.s. Far away he saw, rounding a bend in the track, a party of hors.e.m.e.n marching slowly in single file towards them.
Their costume proclaimed them as Kalmucks, and though they were too far distant for their features to be distinguished, the shape of the foremost seemed to be that of the dwarf, Black Jack.
The watchers suddenly remembered the encampment over which they had flown earlier in the day. The same thought flashed simultaneously through their minds: the stealthy proceedings of Nurla in the mine and his subsequent disappearance had not, then, been prompted by an indefinite hope of gain; they had been deliberately planned, either in the knowledge of the proximity of a body of his fellow countrymen, or even in concert with them. There could hardly be a doubt that, as once before, an attempt was to be made to dispossess Mr. Appleton of his mine.
The boys stood watching only for a moment or two; then they dropped down, feeling instinctively that it behoved them to keep out of sight.
But brief though their gaze had been, it was long enough to a.s.sure them that the approaching party was a numerous one. They counted a dozen men; others were coming round the bend, and they were strung out along the track. Every man had a fire-arm of some sort, a carbine, or a rifle, or a long musket like the Afghan jazail.
For the moment even the fate of their uncle was obliterated from the boys" minds by this astonishing discovery. They realized that their own lives and the safety of the mine were in danger. Hitherto their anxious thoughts had been fixed on one object alone; now they saw themselves faced with a much more complicated problem.
"We must get back," said Bob, insensibly lowering his tone of voice.
"We can do nothing at present for Uncle. We must at least return to the aeroplane and wait to see what happens. I"m pretty sure I"m right: those fellows are being led by the dwarf--and Nurla too, I suspect--to the mine. Luckily we"ve plenty of time to fly back in the aeroplane and give warning."
"What then? If all those men we saw in the encampment are coming along, we haven"t half enough men to prevent anything they like to do."
"I don"t care about that. Uncle beat off an attack once, and if those fellows want the mine, by Jove! they shall have a fight for it."
"You"re talking through your hat," said Lawrence, whose tastes and temperament were quite unmilitary, and who did not know his brother, perhaps, as well as might have been expected.
"Well, we"ll get back, at any rate," rejoined Bob, ignoring the accusation. "And, if possible, without being seen."
They got up, and set off up-stream at a run, keeping as near as possible to the left-hand side of the track in order to escape observation. Only now did they discover how far they had come. The bridge was quite out of sight. They had not timed their walk, and had no means of knowing how many yards or even miles they had to cover before they should reach the aeroplane. The distance was in fact more than two miles, and the Kalmucks were only three-quarters of a mile behind them. The roughness of the track lessened the hors.e.m.e.n"s advantage in being mounted; but the boys feared that, if they had been seen, the Kalmucks, pressing on the small, hardy ponies, accustomed to rough country, might overtake them before they had time to make good their escape across the river.
They were not long left in doubt whether they had been seen and were being pursued. They had been bounding along a straight stretch of the track, perhaps half a mile in length. Before they gained the farther end of it they heard the shrill shouts of the Kalmucks rising above the droning ba.s.s of the river. As they turned the corner, and pa.s.sed out of sight, the sharp crack of rifles followed them; but the pursuers had not dismounted to take aim and had fired a thought too late. The only effect of the shots was to make the boys increase their speed, for they knew that the ponies must rapidly gain on them over the straight and fairly level portion of the track which they had just left. They pushed on gamely, hugging the cliffside as closely as possible, but being forced sometimes to diverge towards the river by the nature of the path.
They looked anxiously ahead for a sight of the ruined bridge, and felt the shock of dismay, when, catching a partial glimpse of it at last, they found that they had still at least a mile to go.
The pursuers began to close in upon them. A scattered volley proved that they had again been seen. The Kalmucks were firing and loading as they rode--a mere waste of ammunition, as it might have seemed, but for an instant proof that these warriors of the steppes were no mean marksmen, even in full career. Bob"s cap was struck from his head, and he discovered only by the blood trickling down his neck that he had been wounded. Lawrence, glancing over his shoulder, saw that it would be quite impossible to reach the bridge before the pursuers came up with them.
"We can"t do it!" he gasped.
Bob said nothing. His mouth hardened, and he looked intently ahead. At a few yards" distance a jutting rock encroached upon the track, rendering it only just wide enough for a horseman to pa.s.s. On rounding it he halted.
"Down on the ground!" he panted. "Out with your revolver! There"s nothing else for it."
They threw themselves down with their faces to the enemy, and covering themselves as well as they could with the corner of the rock, they held their revolvers ready to fire at the foremost of their pursuers.
"Wait till they are within a few yards of us," said Bob. "No good wasting shots at long range. They are bound to go slow."
They waited in breathless excitement. Lawrence the pacific was now as warlike as Bob himself. The enemy drew nearer. The narrowing of the track caused them to reduce their pace from a gallop to a trot, then to a walk. In the ardour of the chase their order had been changed; Black Jack was no longer in front.
The boys had just had time to pull themselves together when the first man came within range.
"Now!" said Bob, springing to his feet.
Showing themselves on the narrow path between the rock and the brink of the river they emptied four barrels rapidly, almost pointblank at the hors.e.m.e.n. The first two men dropped; the others, taken utterly aback, reined up, but were thrown into a huddled ma.s.s by the men pressing on behind. There was a moment"s pause--a pause emphasized by cries of pain and fear, and the shrill screams of horses. Then the confused throng began to wheel about.
"Hold your fire!" whispered Bob, at the same moment emptying his two remaining barrels into the medley. Another man fell. It was enough.
Reckless of everything but his own safety, each man urged his steed back along the track, and in a few moments all had pa.s.sed out of sight.
"We win the first trick," said Bob, glancing at his brother. "Why, you"re as pale as a ghost!"
"So are you," returned Lawrence.
"Well, it"s our first experience of war, so I"m not surprised. But we must cut it. For one thing, my revolver"s empty, and I"ve no more cartridges here. For another, those fellows will come back as soon as they"ve got over their surprise, and even if they funk a frontal attack, I dare say they can manage to clamber round somehow and turn our flank.
Our only chance is to make a break for the bridge and get over if we can before they"re fit to come on."
[Ill.u.s.tration: A CHECK IN THE PURSUIT]
They started at once, and ran up the track, taking much comfort from the knowledge that the projecting rock would for some distance conceal them from the enemy. But after a few hundred yards the track both ascended and wound slightly to the right, bringing them once more into full view.
They had no sooner reached this point than loud shouts behind them announced that the pursuit had been resumed. They glanced back, then ahead, measuring with their eyes the gaps that separated them from safety on the one hand, and capture on the other. A couple of bullets whistled over their heads, but the firing ceased, and they guessed that the enemy were confident of being able to overtake them. Such a.s.surance was misplaced. The track in this part of the ravine, the scene of the morning"s disaster, was particularly rugged, and gave no advantage to the mounted men. Moreover, there were at intervals isolated rocks behind which the boys could have posted themselves as they had already done, and the Kalmucks approached these heedfully, reining up until a.s.sured that they had no similar ambuscade to fear.
"Lucky they don"t know we"ve only two shots between us," said Bob as he sprinted along by his brother"s side. "A good spurt and we"re home."