Part 21

He at once took advantage of this fortunate diversion. Instead of retiring, he cried to the men to stand firm, and the desperate work at the rampart went on. For some time the Kalmucks there did not know or failed to appreciate what was happening behind them. They still pressed on and up, and but for the timely arrival of another dozen men despatched by Gur Buksh from the mine they might even now have carried the position. The reinforcement turned the scale. Bob called on his men for a final effort, and he and Lawrence flashed their revolvers in the very faces of the crowd. Fired by their example the men thrust and jabbed with redoubled energy, and in a few minutes hurled the last of the assailants back on to the track.

They found themselves in a terrifying quandary. The space between them and their baffled comrades was illuminated by the fatal band of light. The machine gun had ceased to play on the track when it was cleared of the enemy. Now there were forty or fifty men trapped in the dark wedge-like area between the beam of the searchlight and the breastwork. They knew that if any of them dared to attempt a rush back they would be the target for innumerable bullets. One or two did rashly hazard a retreat, but as soon as they encroached upon the luminous band the gun's rattle scarcely gave them warning of the shots that fell among them almost instantaneously. The rest cowered in the darkness, waiting for death.

Bob had to hold his men with a tight rein to prevent them from leaping the breastwork and massacring their despairing foes. He had thought of a better way. Fyz Ali could make himself understood by them. Through his lips Bob told them that if they laid down their arms they might retire, taking their wounded with them. They eagerly accepted the proffered mercy, but shrank from acting on it, until they were assured that a message had been sent to the havildar to refrain from firing at them. Then, utterly cowed, they handed their weapons over the breastwork, gathered up such of their comrades as were yet alive, and carried them in all haste across the illuminated space and out of sight.

This was an auspicious beginning for the fifth day. It was the greatest triumph that the garrison had as yet achieved, and the men were proportionably elated. The enemy on the other hand were dejected and despondent. For some hours they remained at a distance. In the afternoon, however, they resumed their skirmishing tactics, and under cover of a renewed bombardment crept nearer and nearer to the breastwork. When their field guns had to cease fire for fear of hitting the skirmishers, Bob decided to venture a charge, and led twenty of his best men in a sudden leap over the barricade. The enemy did not wait for the touch of the terrible bayonets. They fired a scattered volley and fled. A lucky shot from Ganda Singh's rifle brought down one of the rearmost, and he rolled down the rocks on to the track. Acting on the unconsidered impulse of the moment Bob sent two of the Sikhs to make him prisoner, and when Lawrence shortly afterwards returned to the compound for his afternoon sleep, he took the wounded man with him, and had his injuries attended to.

He proved to be an officer. Interrogating him through Shan Tai, Lawrence learnt that the general himself was on his way to the mine to make a personal inspection of the position. The Kalmuck, who seemed grateful for the attentions shown him, advised Lawrence to yield. His people's comparative inactivity that day was only preliminary to a crushing blow. "Without your flying machine," he said, "you would by this time have been destroyed. That gave you an advantage. Soon the advantage will be on our side."

"Will the presence of your general do so much for you?" asked Lawrence.

The man refused to say any more; but his manner, and the half-smile upon his face, gave Lawrence an uneasy feeling that the Mongol general must have a trump card to play. He was so much impressed by the officer's hint of a great stroke impending that instead of seeking his bed, he hurried back to inform Bob.

"What can he mean?" he asked.

"I can think of nothing but that the general is bringing up large reinforcements, and means to throw them upon us and carry the position by sheer weight of numbers. He won't care how many lives he chucks away, and everything depends on whether his men's discipline is good enough to stand the racket. I don't know how far these Kalmucks have a contempt for death like the Japanese."

"Don't you think I'd better fly a few miles down the track and see what is going on?"

"But you're tired out. You've been at it since midnight."

"That's all right. I shall sleep easier when I know what we've got to expect."

"Very well then. Don't go far, and keep high."

The appearance of the aeroplane over the track, with Lawrence and Fazl on board, was a signal for the enemy to scurry to cover. Not a shot was fired; their only thought was to escape the terrible bombs which they associated with the flying machine. But Lawrence did not intend to use his bombs. What he saw, or Fazl reported to him, proved that his stock of missiles was insufficient for any greater effect than to retard, for a few hours at the most, the inevitable crisis. Two field guns were in position at the enemy's advanced entrenchment. Near by, men had been engaged in constructing platforms for other guns, until the sight of the aeroplane sent them to cover. Farther down the track, at intervals, five or six similar weapons were being dragged up; to destroy them all, even if he were lucky enough in his aim to do so, would exhaust his stock of bombs, and he felt that he must hold some in reserve for the ultimate defence of the mine.

The track, as far as he could see it, was almost choked with men and animals. The men scattered as well as they could when they saw the aeroplane; some shots were fired at it, harmlessly. It was impossible for Lawrence to guess the magnitude of the reinforcement that was being pushed forward; but it seemed to him that several regiments must have been sent on from the main army. The bodies of mounted men were separated by long convoys of provisions and ammunition, carried on the backs of mules and camels. It almost appeared as if a regular advance of the whole force had begun. The Kalmuck general was clearly confident of his power to break the resistance of the little band that had hitherto withstood his passage.

Lawrence flew as far as the bridge; it seemed useless to go farther. He had seen what he had expected to see: a vast and overwhelming force. But he had obtained no definite clue to the meaning of the captive officer's vague hint of a master stroke. That the enemy had a crushing superiority in numbers he had known all along: there was nothing to indicate that they had anything more than the advantage of numbers still. The presence of their general might act as a stimulus; but the nature of the position precluded any marked change in their mode of operations. It was essentially a position that could be won only by dogged, unfaltering determination: the issue depended on the fighting man, not on the tactician.

Perhaps if Lawrence had continued his flight to the plain on which the main army was encamped, he or Fazl might have noticed one slight change since his former visit in Major Endicott's company. A field telegraph had been laid down, stretching away to the north. This might well have escaped his observation from the great altitude to which he must of necessity have risen. Even if he had seen it, probably it would have suggested nothing more than one of the ordinary accompaniments of an army in the field. Yet that single wire was the clue to the Kalmuck's cryptic warning.

On returning to the mine his report to Bob was necessarily disappointing. It was clear that everything still depended on blocking the enemy's advance. If they could once establish themselves on the southern side of the bend, and bring their guns to bear directly on the compounds, a few hours' bombardment would render the place untenable: it would be the beginning of the end. Against it the garrison were almost helpless. They had only ten rounds of ammunition for the captured field gun; and though the machine gun was in better case, not even the bravest of men--and Gur Buksh was that--could for long work his gun under the deadly fire of a whole park of artillery.

"Is there any possible way of strengthening our breastwork?" asked Lawrence, as with sinking hearts they discussed the situation.

"We can erect a second rampart in the night," suggested Bob. "It would take them a little longer to knock to pieces, and give us time. Every minute gained is valuable. You see, they can't bring their guns into direct line with the mine until they've driven us away, they can't do that without charging, and they can't charge without ceasing fire temporarily."

"Yes, I see that, but with four or five field guns at work they'll soon smash even a double breastwork, and then the way's clear for a charge. I wish I had bombed their guns now."

"You can do it to-morrow morning. I don't want to spend our last dynamite till absolutely the last moment. To-morrow's the seventh day. If the Chief has been able to keep his word we shall be reinforced some time during the day, and then----"

"You say 'if.' There's a doubt about it, isn't there? I've felt it all along."

"There is, of course. He may not have been able to spare the men. But hang it all! what's the good of looking on the dark side? We've held our own for a week, and even if we're smashed in the end I bet the delay is worth a good deal to India. The loss of time is a serious matter for the enemy. But for us the whole twenty thousand of them would be now on the flank of our army. I can't imagine any force of ours of the same size being checked in this way by a mere handful of men in a gorge. I dare say the reason is that the Kalmucks aren't used to hill fighting. They're best in a cavalry raid; here their horses are only a nuisance, and they're rather slow to adapt themselves to the conditions. But they've had a week to get used to them; and the worst of it is that our fellows, plucky as they are, are pretty nearly worn out."

"Do you think they'll jib if relief doesn't come?"

"What's the good? They'd only be massacred. They'll fight to the last gasp.... I say, I've got an idea. There's plenty of wire knocking about the mine: let's make a couple of wire entanglements and set them up in the night, just beyond the breastwork. If we take care the enemy won't hear us; they certainly won't see us."

"Wouldn't they notice them when they make their rush?"

"That's possible, of course; but I rather fancy they'll be so hot to get at us that they won't. The wire won't show up much against the background of rock. Anyhow, it's worth trying. Any check would give us the chance to pepper them from the breastwork, and judging by what we've seen already they'll be in a panic that they'll take some time to recover from. Now you must get a sleep, so go back to the mine and tell Gur Buksh to get all the wire he can and set all the men to work; it won't be the first time he's had such a job, you may be sure."

When Lawrence had arranged this with the havildar, and was proceeding to the house, he noticed Ditta Lal walking with an air of dejection about the compound. The Babu's hands were clasped behind his back; his eyes were bent on the ground, or rather on the intervening promontory of his person. He looked up as Lawrence drew near.

"Gigantic undertaking, sir," he said sorrowfully.

"Pretty stiff, certainly," replied Lawrence.

"Stronger word is requisite in this exigent, sir. Such task transcends the topmost rung of art. Without excessive reverence for dictum of bloated antiquity, I hold with him who sings 'born not made.'"

"Well, we can only do our best," said Lawrence, puzzled by the Babu's words.

"What shadows we are, what shadows we pursue!" sighed Ditta Lal. "After mountainous travail I produce splendiferous line; I rack my cranium for colleague or successor; but final word, whose function is to charm attentive ear, eludes, evades, crumps. To wit: 'And batters blackguards with his boisterous bomb!'--line perfect in harmony and melody and all that; but when I run through alphabet for rhyme--_com, dom, fom, gom, hom_, and so on till I come to blank wall at _zom_: not a word, sir, that fulfils mutual demand of sound and sense--not one word."

"What on earth are you gassing about, Babu?" asked Lawrence, who had not heard of his previous conversation with Bob.

"Of what, sir, but task entrusted to unworthy servant by honourable brother, to compose song of victory, ode, epic, or what not, in celebration of happy and glorious achievement about to be consummated! But I will not despair; nil desperandum; as you truly remark, we can but do our best; resources of civilisation as represented by B.A. degree of Calcutta University are not exhausted; something attempted, something done, shall earn my night's repose, of which I shall be jolly and unmistakably glad, for agony of expressing thoughts too deep for tears wrings honest brow, sir."

Lawrence feared that the stress of the situation was making the Babu mad; but he spoke a sympathetic word, and passed on.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SIXTH

THE DEATH TRAP

There was no alarm from beyond the bend during the night. But in the small hours the sentry at the bridge gave a loud shout, and fired southward up the track. When Lawrence rushed from the house to discover what had happened, he learnt that the sentry had seen a number of dim figures creeping towards the mine. They had now disappeared. Lawrence conjectured that Nurla Bai and his friends, who must now be nearly famished, had been attracted by the sound of guns, and stolen down in the hope of eluding the vigilance of the garrison, and gaining the path that led above their old quarters and descended on the track on the nearer side of the bend. Even if they had got thus far undetected, they could not but have fallen into the hands of the defenders of the breastwork. It was an attempt they were not likely to repeat. There was no chance of their rejoining the Kalmuck army until the defence was broken.

Before morning the doubled breastwork was defended by a strong wire entanglement. Soon after daybreak the enemy began a terrific bombardment from four guns, two of which had been mounted on platforms behind the two which Lawrence had already seen in position. The garrison could make no effective reply, but could only watch their breastwork crumbling away under the shells that pounded it without intermission. The two brothers held their men some distance in the rear, as much under cover as possible, ready to lead them on and occupy the ruin of the entrenchment as soon as the expected charge began.

About ten o'clock they saw Fazl running towards them from the bridge. He had been taking his turn of duty on guard at the aeroplane platform, and the fact that he had left his post seemed ominous. Rushing up to Lawrence, he exclaimed excitedly that he had heard the distant hum of an aeroplane. The boys were incredulous: they themselves were almost deafened by the roar of the guns and the crash of falling masonry. But immediately afterwards, in the interval between the shots, they caught the sound--the continuous throbbing drone, like a gigantic sewing-machine at work. They looked at each other aghast. For a moment or two they were mute: then Bob said:

"You must get aloft at once. It's our only chance. Get above the aeroplane, and bomb it. There's no time to lose."

Lawrence set off at a run, the Gurkha behind him. He raced across the bridge and on to the cantilever pathway, and had just turned the corner when he heard a tremendous explosion behind him. A few seconds later a large monoplane flashed by, and was soon lost to sight up the valley.

Long practice had given him facility in starting. The aeroplane was ready for flight. Lawrence and the Gurkha leapt to their places, and within two minutes the machine was in the air, flying after the enemy.

This, then, was the meaning of the Kalmuck officer's veiled warning. The enemy had taken a leaf out of the defenders' book. Their airmen, equipped no doubt with bombs much more destructive than Lawrence's home-made missiles, intended to strike at the very heart of the defence, and by rendering the mine premises untenable, clear the way for the advance of the army.

Lawrence was fortunately cool of head and a rapid thinker. After a moment of stupefaction he saw his course clearly. The danger from the air must be met in the air. This could only be done by rising above the enemy's monoplane, and hurling his bombs down upon it. The Kalmuck pilot would be as anxious as he to avoid an actual collision, which must prove disastrous to both the machines. It was wholly a question of manoeuvring for position.

The glimpse he had caught of the hostile aeroplane as it flashed by, suggested that it was a much larger and more powerful machine than his own. If this were indeed the case, he was probably quite outmatched in speed as in armament. But he saw in a moment that the possession of the smaller machine might tend to his own advantage, for he could wheel in narrow parts of the valley where the attempt would prove destructive to the enemy. Moreover, he knew the valley thoroughly; the others, though no doubt vastly superior to him in a military sense, lacked local experience and had everything to learn. Time was on his side.

As soon as he began his flight he knew that he had gained one point. If the enemy had turned at his customary wheeling-place, their aeroplane would already have been in sight. The next suitable spot was several miles farther up the valley, unless indeed they should rise to a much greater height than that at which they had passed. Such an ascension would consume time; it would further make it very difficult for them to drop their bombs with any degree of accuracy. Whether they rose or continued their flight at the same altitude until they reached the wider turning-place, they would not be back for four or five minutes. Lawrence resolved to utilise this breathing space.

He flew on until he reached his usual turning-place, then began to mount in a spiral course. While he was doing this, two considerations flashed through his mind. If, when he met the enemy, he should be still below them, he must fly on in the opposite direction, for the chance of being hit by a bomb, when the machines were passing at the rate of perhaps a hundred and fifty miles an hour, would be very slight. His only fear in that case was that they would fly straight back to the mine and work havoc there without a possibility of interference. If, on the other hand, he were above them, his best course would be to fly in the same direction, and try to drop his bombs on them. When two express trains are running the same way, it is possible, however great their speed, to cast an object from a carriage of one through an open window of the other.

He was still ascending when Fazl shouted that the enemy's aeroplane was in sight, at a greater height.

"Rifle!" said Lawrence instantly, as he headed up the valley.

The Gurkha fired, as the two machines rushed at terrific speed towards each other. There was no reply, but a few seconds afterwards an explosion in the valley below showed that the enemy had dropped a bomb. It would have been almost a miracle if it had hit the aeroplane in the fraction of a second of the passing. But a second explosion a little later was very perturbing. Unless he could check the enemy, they might sail over the mine again and again, and on the wider target which that presented take surer aim. Luckily they would have to fly several miles down the river before they could again turn, and the few minutes' grace might give him time to ascend still higher, and attain an altitude at which he would have the advantage.

As the machines passed, Lawrence had had time to confirm his impression that the other aeroplane was much larger than his own. He saw too that it was occupied by three men. But these elements of superiority would be to some extent neutralized by the greater handiness of his own machine in navigating the narrow gorges of the valley. The situation demanded a readiness to take risks. The gorge to which Lawrence had now come after passing the enemy was so constricted that in ordinary circumstances he would never have dreamed of attempting a turning movement. But he felt the supreme necessity of wheeling at once, in order to return to the "bay" which he had lately left. There he might do something to protect the mine, if only by diverting the enemy's attack upon himself. He might also have an opportunity of rising to a sufficient height for offensive purposes.

Choosing the widest part of the gorge, he banked his machine up, and clearing the cliff apparently by inches he swept round again to the north. When in half a minute he reached the turning place, the aeroplane was not in sight. But he heard sounds of a fierce struggle beyond. The bombardment had ceased, but the air was filled with the crack of rifles, the rattle of the machine gun, and the shouts of men. He could do nothing to help his brother. There was not even time to fly on and drop a bomb among the enemy: he must utilise every moment in preparing for the return of the aeroplane. He steered his machine in a series of short spirals, rising as rapidly as possible, watching the valley northward anxiously. As yet its windings concealed the enemy's aeroplane from view. It was an inexpressible relief to him that they had not attempted to turn at the spot where he now was. They had not thought it practicable, or not had the time; probably they had shot by before even the possibility had occurred to them.

He swept round and round in his corkscrew flight, rising gradually until he was more than two thousand feet above the river. His view was now greatly extended, and when the larger aeroplane came in sight from round a bend nearly a mile away, he saw with a flash of hope that it was now lower than his own machine, although somewhat higher than before. Evidently the airmen had foreseen that he might rise in order to avoid their bombs, and sought to forestall him; but his narrow spiral had carried him up to a greater height than their two long inclined planes.

The moment he saw them he started straight to meet them. Nothing could have been better calculated to assist his brother in the desperate struggle on the track. It was as when a charging bull is diverted from the object of his fury by the fluttering of a handkerchief or a newspaper within his range of vision. The Kalmuck airmen recognised that they had an opponent with whom they must seriously reckon; and though perhaps their general, looking on from below, would have bidden them to ignore the aeroplane, and pursue the more important duty of shattering the defences, they no doubt thought that a few minutes' or even hours' further delay would be less disastrous than the destruction of themselves and their machine. When the defenders' aeroplane was out of action, the rest would be easy.