"Stand by to scoot," continued d.i.c.k. "Gently now; we"ll get a little closer. It"s quite evident those chaps are Turks."
"Why?" asked Sefton.
"By a process of elimination. They"re not speaking English; they"re not French. The lingo is too soft for German, so only Turkish remains.
Got your revolver ready?"
"Yes," said the midshipman, his nerves a-tingle.
"Then don"t use it unless I give the word. Slip the safety-catch and be on the safe side. We don"t want an accidental discharge."
Softly the Sub groped his way, Sefton following at arm"s-length behind him. After traversing another fifty paces d.i.c.k stopped. Ahead he could see a mound of rubble reaching almost to the roof of the tunnel.
It was night: not a star was to be seen. A driving rain was falling, while across the murky patch formed by the partly obstructed mouth of the tunnel the search-lights of the British fleet travelled slowly to and fro as they aided the mine-sweepers in their long, arduous task.
Not a shot was being fired. The Turkish batteries silenced, at least temporarily, required no attention at present from the deadly British guns.
The sound of the voices still continued. The speakers were chattering volubly, yet there was no sign of them.
Gaining confidence, Crosthwaite advanced till farther progress was arrested by the barrier of rubble.
Feeling for a foothold, and cautiously making sure that the projecting stones would bear his weight, the Sub climbed to the summit of the barrier, then, lying at full length, peered over the edge.
A heavy sh.e.l.l had accounted for the damage done to this exit from the magazine, for a huge crater, twenty feet in diameter, yawned ten feet beneath him. Not only had the pit been torn up, but ma.s.ses of rock had been wrenched from the of the cliff, as well as from the top and sides of the tunnel.
On the irregular platform thus formed were nearly a score of Turkish troops--artillerymen in greatcoats and helmets somewhat similar to those worn by the British during the last Sudan campaign. With them were two officers in long grey cloaks and fezes. All seemed to be talking at the same time, irrespective of disparity in rank. Some of the men were piling sand-bags on the seaward front of the crater, others were looking upwards as if expecting something from above.
Presently the expected object appeared, lowered by a powerful tackle.
It was the carriage of a large field-piece.
"Those fellows show pluck, anyhow," thought d.i.c.k. "After the gruelling they"ve had, and seeing their forts knocked about their ears, they set about to place fresh guns in position. These field-pieces, well concealed, will take a lot of finding, unless we can stop the little game."
Meanwhile Sefton had climbed the barrier and lay by the side of his companion. Silently the two watched the development of the Turks"
operations. They had not long to watt.
A pair of wheels followed the carriage, and then after a brief interval the huge gun, "parbuckled" from the edge of the cliff, was lowered into position. In less than half an hour the piece was rea.s.sembled; ammunition was brought down, and finally brushwood placed in front on the sand-bags and over the gun; while to show how complete had been the Germanizing of Turkey, a field-telephone had been laid between the emplacement and those on either side, which, of course, was invisible to the two British officers.
For some time the Turkish officers kept the trawlers and attendant destroyers under observation with the field-gla.s.ses. The men were obviously impatient to open fire, yet for some inexplicable reason they were restrained. Possibly it was to lure the mine-sweepers into a sense of security, or else the Turks thought fit to ignore the small craft and await the chance of a surprise attack upon the covering British battleships and cruisers.
Being well within the mouth of the tunnel, d.i.c.k and the midshipman were not exposed to the driving rain. But on the other hand the Turkish artillerymen were without any means of protection from the downpour, and, since they could not show their zeal by opening fire, they did not hesitate to show their resentment at being kept out in the open.
At length one of the Turkish officers gave an order. The men formed up with a certain show of smartness, broke into a quick march, and disappeared beyond a projection of the cliff. Only one man was left as sentry, and he hastened to get to leeward of a friendly rock. From where the two Englishmen lay, the point of his bayonet could just be discerned above the top of the boulder.
Then d.i.c.k directed his attention seaward. He mentally gauging the distance between the sh.o.r.e and the nearest of the mine-sweepers. These vessels were steaming slowly ahead, with sufficient way to stem the ever-running current from the Sea of Marmora to the aegean. Certainly for the whole time d.i.c.k and his companion had been on the lookout there had been no explosion of a caught mine. Apparently the sweepers had almost completed their work up this particular area, and were making a final test to make certain that no hidden peril had escaped them.
The Sub nudged his companion, and the pair retraced their steps until they had put a safe distance between them and the sentry.
"Look here," said Crosthwaite. "We"ve two things to do. First, to warn our people of the formation of a new Turkish battery, and secondly, to rejoin our ship. The question is: how are we to set about it?"
"Flash a message with the torch," suggested Sefton.
"I thought of that, but dismissed it," remarked the Sub. "For one thing the light"s pretty feeble, and our people mayn"t spot it. If they did they might think it was a false message sent by the enemy.
And another thing: the Turks might notice the glare in the mouth of the tunnel."
"And we would get collared," added the midshipman.
"That"s hardly the point. Our liberty is a small matter, but being made prisoners we should have no chance of letting our trawlers know that there is a masked battery being placed in position. No; I think the best thing we can do is to swim for it."
"I"m game," declared Sefton.
"It"s quite possible that we"ll pull it off all right," continued d.i.c.k.
"You see there"s a steady current always setting down the Dardanelles.
That means that if we miss the nearest destroyer or trawler, we"ll get swept across the bows of one farther down. Take off your gaiters and see that your bootlaces are ready to be undone easily. We won"t discard any more of our gear till we"re ready to plunge into the water.
That"s right; now follow me."
Returning to the barrier at the entrance of the tunnel, the Sub wriggled cautiously over the obstruction until he could command a fairly extensive view of the gun emplacement and its surroundings. The rest of the artillerymen had not returned, while apparently the sentry, having been left to his own devices, had sought shelter from the rain and was enjoying a cigarette.
Softly d.i.c.k dropped down, alighting on a pile of cut brushwood. He waited till Sefton had rejoined him, and the pair crept slowly and deliberately towards a gap left between the rock and the end of the semicircular rampart of sand-bags.
Suddenly the Sub came to a dead stop almost within a handbreadth of the levelled bayonet of the Turkish sentry.
CHAPTER V
A Dash up The Narrows
The Turk challenged. In the dim light he was not able to discern the uniform of the young officer. Perhaps he took him for one of the German taskmasters. At all events he merely held his rifle at the ready and made no attempt to fire.
The slight delay gave d.i.c.k his chance. Dropping on one knee he gripped the sentry by his ankle, at the same time delivering a terrific left-hander that caught the fellow fairly in that portion of his body commonly known as "the wind".
The Turk fell like a log. His rifle dropped from his nerveless grasp, fortunately without exploding. The back of his head came in violent contact with a lump of rock and rendered him insensible.
"You"ve killed him," whispered Sefton.
"Not much," replied Crosthwaite coolly. "He"s got a skull as thick as a log of wood. At any rate we"ll be spared the trouble of having to gag and truss him up. You might remove the bolt from his rifle and throw it away. It may save us a lot of bother if the fellow does pull himself together than I expect."
It was hazardous work descending the almost sheer cliff, for the spot where the officers had emerged was midway between the fort and the beach, and, being in a totally different part to the place where they had landed, they were unfamiliar with the locality.
Once Sefton slipped, and rolled twenty feet through the brushwood, finally landing in a cavity caused by the explosion of a sh.e.l.l. On two occasions the Sub almost came to grief through the rock giving way beneath his feet, but by dint of hanging on like grim death he succeeded in regaining a firm foothold. The drizzling rain, too, made the ground slippery, and added to the difficulties; but after ten minutes" arduous exertions they found themselves on the stone-strewn beach.
"Now stop," ordered d.i.c.k. "Sling your revolver and ammunition into the sea. We want to travel light on the job. Ready? I"ll set the course if you"ll keep as close as you can. Thank goodness we"re not in the Tropics, and that there are no sharks about!"
He might have added that amongst those rocks cuttle-fish were frequently to be found; but fearing there might be a limit to his young companion"s pluck, he refrained from cautioning him on that point. It was a case of "ignorance is bliss" as far as Sefton was concerned.
The water was cold--much colder than that of the adjacent Mediterranean--yet it would be possible for the active swimmers to endure half an hour"s swimming without risk of exhaustion. Long before that, they fervently hoped they would be safe on board a British vessel.
"Breast stroke--and don"t splash," cautioned d.i.c.k, as the midshipman started off with powerful overhand stroke. Any suspicious movement in the water might bring a heavy rifle-fire upon the two swimmers from the numerous Turkish infantry who had reoccupied the position after the retirement of the demolition party. The Sub could hear them distinctly as they vigorously plied mattock and shovel in throwing up entrenchments on either side of the demolished fort.
Ahead, and less than half a mile from the sh.o.r.e, was a destroyer, moving slowly against the current and sweeping the sh.o.r.e with her search-lights. At first the Sub imagined she was stationary, but before the swimmers had covered fifty yards they were caught by the current, and swept southwards so rapidly that d.i.c.k realized that there was no chance of making for her. Their best plan was to swim at right angles to the sh.o.r.e, and let the drift help them to shape an oblique course that would bring them in the track of the mine-sweepers.