"How did you manage?" I asked, for I could tell by his air that the errand had been successful.
"I lied to him."
"Of course. What did you say?"
"Said if the straggling got bad you and I might fall a long way behind and fire our pistols, so as to give the impression Kurds are in pursuit. That would tickle up the rear-end to a run!"
"And he believed that?" Will knew as well as I Fred"s not exactly subtle way of maneuvering to get the post of greatest danger for himself.
"He"d have believed anything! He"s head-, heart-and heels-over-end in love with the girl, and she"s as bad as he is. They"re talking political economy and international jurisprudence. When I reached "em they"d just arrived at the conclusion that the United States can save the world, maybe-maybe not, but nothing else can. I was decidedly de trop. They"re pretty to watch. No, he hasn"t kissed her yet-you could tell that even in the dark. It"s my belief he won"t for a long time; America"s way with women is beyond belief. They"re telling each other all they know, and like, and dislike, and believe, and hope. It "ud take a bullet to divide their destinies. I delivered my message, and they were so devilish polite you"d think I was the parson come to marry "em. They"d forgotten my very existence. When it dawned on "em who I was they were so keen to be rid of me they"d have agreed to anything at all. So it was easy."
"Good."
"No, it"s bad. Will"s a friend of mine. I hate to see him squandered on a woman. However, I did better than that."
"How so?"
As I spoke there loomed out of the darkness just ahead of us eight men surrounding something on the track, their rifles sticking up above their shoulders.
"I"ve found eight men with rifles all alike that fit the ammunition in the boxes. It"s stolen Turkish government ammunition, by the way. The rifles come from the same source. The point is that a man caught with a stolen government rifle and ammunition in his possession would be tortured. Incidentally the men seem game. Therefore, if we have to fight a rear-guard action we can reasonably count on them. Haide!" he called to the eight men, and they picked up the case of cartridges, and resumed the march just ahead of us.
Fred lit his pipe contentedly, as he always is contented when he can make satisfactory arrangements to sacrifice himself unselfishly and pretend to himself he is a cynic. Whether because the armed guard of their own people put new courage in them, or because rifles at their rear made them more afraid, the stragglers gave less trouble for the next few hours. Perhaps they were growing more used to the march, and some of them were numb with anxiety, while not so weary yet that feet would not carry them forward.
Somewhere in advance a man with a high tenor voice began to sing a wild folk-song, of the sort that is common to all countries whose heritage is hope unstrangled. He and others like him with love and music in their brave hearts sang the tortured column through its night of agony, keeping alive faint hope that h.e.l.l must have an end. Dawn broke sweet and calm. For it makes no matter if a nation writhes in agony, or man wreaks hate on man, the wind and the sky still whisper and smile; and the scent of wild flowers is not canceled by the stench of tired humanity.
Fred knocked his pipe out and rode to the top of shoulder of rock beside the track, beckoning to me to follow. We could see our column, astonishingly long drawn, winding like a line of ants in and out and over, following the leaders in a dream because there seemed nothing else to do or dream about. Once I thought I caught sight of Will on his horse, pa.s.sing between trees, but I was not sure. Fred turned his horse about and looked in the direction we had come from. Presently, he nudged me.
"That smoke might be the castle we were in last night. See-it"s red underneath. What"ll you bet me Kurds don"t show up in pursuit before the day"s an hour old?"
That was nothing to bet about, and that kind of dawn is not the hour for roseate optimism.
"If they come," said I, "I hope I don"t live to see what they"ll do to the women."
Fred met my eyes and laughed.
"That"s all right," he said. "You ride on. This rock commands the track. I"ll follow later when pursuit"s called off."
"Ride on yourself!" I answered, and he chuckled as he lighted his pipe again.
One of the men had a kerosene can filled with odds and ends of personal belongings. I turned them out in a hollow of the rock, and sent him to fill the can with drinking water at a spring. Then Fred and I chose stations, and Fred went to vast pains lecturing every one of us on how to keep cover. We had nothing to eat, and therefore no notion of putting up anything but a short fight. Our best point was the surprise that unexpected, organized resistance would be likely to produce on plundering Kurds.
It was pleasant enough where we lay, and reminded both of us of far less strenuous days. The little animals that are always curious to the point of their undoing came out and investigated our tracks as soon as the noise of the stragglers had ceased. The Armenians took no notice of the wild life; persecuted people seldom do, having their own hard case too much in mind; but Fred knew the name of nearly every bird and animal that showed itself, and even ceased smoking as his interest increased.
"Ever go fishing as a boy?" he asked.
"Didn"t I!"
"Get up before daylight and escape from the house by the back way-"
"Stealing bread and cheese from the pantry on the way out-"
"And stopping where the gra.s.s was long near the watering place to dig worms-"
"And unchain the dog with frantic efforts to keep him from barking-"
"Yes, but the rascal always would do it-bark and wake everybody!
Lucky if n.o.body saw you as you slipped through the gate into the fields!"
"Ah! But then what a time the dog had-it was almost as good fun as the fishing to watch him scamper. And how hungry he got-and he ate more than his share of the bread and cheese, so that you"d have had to go home early because of the aching void if it hadn"t been for the cottage where they gave a fellow milk out of a brown dish."
"Yumm! Didn"t that country milk taste good! Snff-snff-they were mornings just like this at home when I went fishing. Cool and sweet and full of scent. Snff-snff!"
We sat still behind the ledge and let the air and scenery revive kind memories. The only noise was what our horses made cropping the gra.s.s in a hollow behind us, for the Armenians were well content to ruminate. Most likely they would have fallen asleep if we had not been there to keep an eye on them, for prolonged subjection to too much fear is soporific, so that tortured poor wretches sleep on the tightened rack.
I was very nearly asleep myself, having had practically none of it for two nights in succession, and had taken to watching the horses to keep my mind busy, when the movement of my horse"s ears struck me as peculiar. Presently he ceased grazing and raised his head. I thought he was going to whinny, and turned to see Fred squinting down his rifle at something that was not in the range of my vision.
"Here they come!" he whispered.
As he spoke a Kurd stepped out from between the trees, and we could see that he had tied his horse to a branch in the gloom behind him. He had the long sleeves reaching nearly to the ground peculiar to his race, and the unmistakable sheeny nose and cruel lips. From the rifle that he carried cavalierly over his shoulder hung a woman"s undergarment, with a dark stain on it that looked suspiciously like blood. My horse whinnied then, and his beast answered. At that he brought his rifle to the "ready" and nearly jumped out of his skin.
"I"m judge, jury, witness, prosecutor and executioner!" Fred whispered.
"That man"s dose is death, and he dies unshriven!"
Then he fired, and Fred could not miss at that range if he tried. The Kurd clapped a hand to his throat and fell backward, and one of our Armenians ran before we could stop him to seize the tied horse, and any other plunder. One of the things he brought back with him, besides the horse and rifle and ammunition belt, was a woman"s finger with the ring not yet removed. He said he found it in the cartridge pouch.
In proof that organized defense was the last thing they reckoned on, nine more Kurds came galloping down the track pell-mell toward the place where they had heard the solitary rifle-shot, doubtless supposing their own man had come upon the quarry. We fired too fast, for the Armenians were not drilled men, but we dropped two horses and five Kurds, and the remaining four fled, with the riderless animals stampeding in their wake.
"What next?"" said I, as Fred wiped out his rifle-barrel.
"They"ll return in greater force. We"d better change ground. D"you notice how this rock is covered by that other one a quarter of a mile to the right? Higher ground, too, and the last place they"ll look-come on!"
The man with the water-can spilled it all, for the sake of his medley of possessions, and I had to send him all the way back for more. But we took up our new stand at last with the horses well hidden and enough to drink to last the day out, and then had to wait half an hour before any Kurds came back to the attack.
They came on the second time with infinite precaution, lurking among the trees on the outskirts of the clearing and firing several random shots at our old position in the hope of drawing our fire. Finally, they emerged from the forest thirty strong and rushed our supposed hiding-place at full gallop.
They were not even out of pistol range. Fred used the Mauser rifle taken from the dead Kurd, and then we both emptied our pistols at the fools, the Armenians meanwhile keeping up a savage independent fire so ragged and rapid that it might have been the battle of Waterloo.
The Kurds never knew whether or not we were another party or the first one. They never discovered whether our former post was deserted or not. We never knew how many of them we hit, for after about a dozen had tumbled out of the saddle the remainder galloped for their lives. For minutes afterward we heard them crashing and pounding away in the distance to find their friends.
Our loot consisted of two wounded prisoners and four good horses, in addition to rifles and cartridges. We let the dead lie where they were for a warning to other scoundrels, and we looked on while our Armenians searched the bodies for anything likely to be of slightest use. They found almost nothing originally Kurdish, but more Armenian trinkets than would have stocked a traveling merchant"s show-case, including necklaces and earrings.
Fred took the two prisoners aside and in Persian, which every Kurd can understand and speak after a fashion, offered them their choice between telling the whole truth or being handed over to Armenians. And as there isn"t a b.l.o.o.d.y rascal in the world but suspects his intended victims of worse hankerings than his own, they loosed their tongues and told more than the truth, adding whatever they thought likely to please Fred.
"They say there were only about fifty of them in this raiding party to begin with, and several came to trouble before they met us. Seems there are Armenians hidden here and there who are able to give an account of themselves. Ten or twelve elected to stay near the castle we were in last night. They"ve burned it, but they have some captured women and propose to enjoy themselves. Shall we ride back and break in on the party?"
He meant what he said, but it was out of the question. "The party we"ve just trounced will give the alarm," I objected. "We"d only ride into a trap. Besides, you"ve no proof these prisoners are not lying to you."
"They say their raiding party is the only one within thirty miles.
They rode ahead of the regiments to get first picking."
"We"re none of us fit for anything but food and sleep," said I, and Fred had to concede the point.
Fortunately the food problem was solved for the moment by the Kurds, who had a sort of cheese with them whose awful taste deprived one of further appet.i.te. We ate, and tied our two wounded prisoners on one horse; and as we had nothing to treat their wounds with except water they finished their trip in exquisite discomfort. Surprise that we should attend to their wounds at all, added to their despondency after they had time to consider what it meant. There was only one burden to their lamentation: