CHAPTER XIV

The Dash for the Gun

ON returning to the walls the correspondent found that Hugh and Gerald, alarmed by the detonation, had risen hastily from their beds, and were awaiting him at their post. Sir Jehan, with several of his knights, was also present, while the streets were filled with panic-stricken women and children.

"What is amiss, sir?" exclaimed Croixilia's ruler breathlessly.

"The Arabs are paying us back in our own coin, I'm afraid," replied Reeves. "They've brought up a fieldpiece, from goodness only knows where!"

As he spoke there was another dull report, and a second shell whizzed over the walls, bursting in the centre of the marketplace.

"That was considerably lower than the first shot," observed Reeves. "They are trying the range. It will be a bad job hen they begin to pound the walls; a few I I A houses won't matter so much, if the people clear out of them in time. The worst of it is, we are outranged and cannot reply."

"What are they firing with?" asked Hugh.

"I can't say for certain, until one of the shells fails to explode; then I may find a clue. But I should not be surprised if it were a Krupp gun."

"A Krupp!" exclaimed Hugh. "How could they get hold of a gun of that sort?"

"Unfortunately there are at least half a dozen derelict guns in the Sahara. When the Egyptian armies under Hicks Pasha and Baker Pasha in the 'eighties were wiped out, several of these weapons fell into the hands of the Arabs. Many were retaken in our subsequent campaigns, after they had been against us, worked by gun crews composed of captured Gippy artillerymen. No doubt this is one that was not recaptured."

"It's a pity it couldn't be recaptured now," said Gerald, as a third missile missed the parapet by less than a foot, swept an unfortunate archer from the wall, and fell in the middle of a deserted street without exploding.

"It must be, if we are to get out of this mess," replied Reeves resolutely; and, turning to some of the men who were standing by, he told them to fetch the shell, assuring them that if it were carefully handled no danger need be feared.

Presently the men returned, having accomplished their task. Reeves took the cylinder and examined it carefully. "As I thought--a seven-pounder Krupp," he remarked. "I wish we had earthworks instead of this mass of stonework. We shall find ourselves sliding down a mass of rubble before long I'm afraid."

"What is to be done?" asked Sir Jehan anxiously, as another shell, striking one of the flanking towers, knocked a hole in the masonry large enough to drive a camel through. "The walls will not stand the shock of these hell-designed missiles."

"We must endure it," replied Reeves calmly. "Even with a triple charge of powder our guns could not carry as far. We must endure it bravely," he repeated, "until the night."

"And then?"

"I hope to lead a body of men to capture the gun."

Having found the range, the Arab gunners proceeded to pound away at the same spot, their undoubted intention being to make a breach in the walls and gain an entrance into the city by means of the mass of rubble that threatened to bridge the wide moat completely. Seeing this, Reeves suggested to Sir Jehan that the soldiers should be removed from the immediate vicinity of the threatened wall, but at the same time be kept ready to defend the breach should the enemy attempt to carry it by assault.

The overlord of Croixilia, instantly acted upon this idea, and in utter helplessness the defenders heard and saw their vaunted walls being demolished by a persistent and well-directed shell fire.

Meanwhile Reeves set about finding volunteers for his hazardous enterprise, and when he had explained his plans there were plenty of brave men ready to bear their share in the sortie. Both Hugh and Gerald asked to be allowed to accompany him, but Reeves gave a blunt refusal. Finally he selected Garth and four others, all of whom had already proved themselves men of courage and resource during the first assault upon the walls.

The members of the forlorn hope were to ride as close to the Arab encampment as they could without much risk of discovery. Then they were to dismount, one man being left in charge of the horses, and make their way on foot up to the gun. Reeves explained carefully the mechanism of the breech block, in case he should be disabled. If possible, this all-important object was to be stealthily removed; if not, it was to be disabled by means of heavy blows with hammers.

The men were then to make their way back to the city as well as they were able, covered by a fire from the walls.

"I've spoken to Sir Jehan, lads," said Reeves, addressing his two charges. "If anything happens to me, he has promised by a solemn oath to do his best to send you into the protectorate of Nigeria, which, as far as I can make out, lies some seven hundred miles south-west of Croixilia. The river we crossed flows into that territory I feel certain."

"We hope nothing will happen to you," exclaimed both lads.

"So do I. If it does, it can't be helped. That gun must be silenced, or it will be all up with us within the next few days."

At sunset--the time of the Mohammedans' evening prayer--the firing ceased. The damage done was tremendous. Sixteen hours' incessant cannonading had made a breach thirty feet in width in the walls. Yet Reeves felt certain that the Arabs would not attempt an assault during the hours of darkness.

The Englishman had taken leave of his friends, and was about to join his comrades on their desperate errand, when one of the knights, Sir Oliver Fayne, stood in his path.

"I have a request to make, sir," he said. "Five hundred well-armed and mounted men are drawn up without. May we not bear you company and throw ourselves upon the infidels? In the mêlée that accursed gun might be carried off into the city."

Reeves did not reply. Here was a new plan, which promised well.

"What if five hundred men are slain, so the city be saved?" continued Sir Oliver anxiously. "The honour of the State and the welfare of our Creed demand the sacrifice. Deny me not, sir!"

"All right," replied Reeves. "But you've upset all my plans. I must make sure that everyone knows exactly what to do."

"Your plans need not be altered over-much," said the knight. "We shall ride on ahead and charge into the Moslem camp. You will then be free to harness horses to the gun and bring it back."

Hastily conferring with Garth, Reeves soon amended his original plan, and a team of eight powerful horses was requisitioned to accompany the original members of the desperate undertaking.

Shortly after midnight the drawbridge on the western side of the city was slowly and cautiously lowered, the chains having been wrapped in oiled rags to prevent them creaking. Across this Sir Oliver Fayne's five hundred horsemen passed, then at a walking pace made towards the distant camp, where the gleam of innumerable lights showed that many of the Arabs were feasting in their tents.

Without so much as a horse neighing, the Croixilian cavalry approached within two hundred yards of the Moslem camp, while Reeves and his comrades kept a short distance in the rear of the almost invisible mass of horsemen. The night was dark, and only the outlines of the tents served as a guide.

Suddenly a shot rang out from the enemy's lines, quickly followed by several more; but ere the echoes died away the ground shook under the hoofs of the charging cavalry, while the sound of the Arab volleys was drowned by the fierce Shouts of the Croixilian horsemen.

Like a whirlwind they sped over the intervening plain. Cold steel clashed upon gun barrel, and pointed lance met scimitar and ox-hide shield. Slashing and hewing right and left, the dauntless five hundred cut their way right through the centre of the Moslem camp, leaving the Krupp gun unattended save by the dead or sorely-wounded Egyptian gunners, who, under the fierce threats of their Arab masters, had been urged forward to man the formidable weapon.

Quickly Reeves and his men were upon the gun. The limber was found barely twenty yards to the rear, and the horses were harnessed to it and brought up to the captured fieldpiece. After fumbling a little, the correspondent succeeded in connecting the trail to the gun carriage, and in less than five minutes the little band was on its way back to the city.

No need for silence now. Amid the exultant cries of the garrison, who, armed with torches and lanterns, had flocked to the gate and to the summit of the battlements, the captured trophy rumbled over the drawbridge, and was unlimbered and trained through the still open gateway. To his intense satisfaction, Reeves found that there were at least fifty rounds in the caissons. A shell was inserted in the breech and the block cleared, and the weapon was ready to fire upon its late owners.

But what of the gallant five hundred? Away in the distance the roar of battle still continued, waxing louder every moment. Long and anxiously the watchers on the walls gazed towards the Moslem camp. Darkness now brooded over the town of tents, save for the quick flashes of musketry. The lamps had been extinguished, either by the Arabs as they rushed to defend themselves, or else by the overturning of the tents.

"Here they come! Here they come!" shouted a hundred voices. "Keep open the gates."

Into the glare of the torches rode a Croixilian horseman, leaning over the neck of his foam-flecked steed. Even as a dozen hands gripped at the bridle of the exhausted animal, its rider fell from the saddle, half-dead from the effects of five deep wounds. Then came another, and two more, all grievously hurt.

Nearer and nearer came the sound of conflict, till Croixilian horsemen began to stream in through the gateway. Others, still fighting, followed slowly, being hindered by the press at the gate. Several, gripping at the throats of their foes, tumbled over the drawbridge. At length all those of the devoted five hundred who yet remained alive--barely one hundred and twenty all told--gained the city, with a horde of fierce Moslems at their heels.

It was now too late to close the massive gates. Reeves sprang to the Krupp gun, but ere he could loose its contents into the press the ponderous portcullis was lowered with a run, pinning half a score of fanatical warriors beneath its formidable prongs.

Some thirty or forty Baggaras, armed with spears or double-handed swords, remained within the city. With shouts of "Allah it Allah!" they dashed upon the defenders--to slay or to be slain.

Short and fierce was the conflict inside the gate. Many a hauberk-clad man bit the dust under the almost irresistible sweep of those desert-forged weapons; but numbers prevailed, and ere long not one living Arab remained within the city.

Now the archers were free to pour their volleys of deadly arrows through the bars of the portcullis into the surging throng without. Few of the Arabs had brought their cumbersome flintlocks with them, and even these could not be reloaded and fired in the press. Except for a few spears, thrown with terrific force, the Mohammedan fanatics were unable to reply. Galled from the walls, scourged by the arrows from the gateway, they broke and fled.

A hoarse cheer broke from the Croixilian ranks; but the shout of triumph was suddenly stilled by a voice shouting: "To the breach --the Moslems are upon us!"