The Air Patrol: A Story of the North-west Frontier

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE SECOND

  BEYOND THE PALE

  Of all the strange scenes which the Appletons had witnessed since theirarrival in India, none was more surprising than the immediate sequel ofthe ambuscade. The hill-men rode in high good-temper behind theirintended victims; and when they met the sowars, their leader exchangedlaughing greetings with the dafadar, and the two parties became one.For the rest of that day they marched together, and at fall of nightthey formed a common encampment, the troopers acting as hosts towardsthe hill-men, and exerting themselves to entertain them.

  To the Appletons it was all very mysterious. Lawrence had put a questionor two to Major Endicott as they marched; but finding him strangelyuncommunicative, deferred further enquiry to the hour after supper, whenhe was most often in the mood to talk. Even then the young fellows'curiosity was rather piqued than satisfied.

  "That man Nagdu, the leader of the hill-men, was a sergeant of yours,you say, sir?" said Lawrence.

  "Yes, years ago he was a dafadar in my troop."

  "But he was laying an ambush for you!"

  "He is paid by the government to guard the road."

  "Oh!"

  "Didn't know it was you, perhaps, until he saw you," suggested Bob.

  "He _was_ rather surprised to see me," said the Major, and a slow smilegathered upon his face, and passed.

  "My heart was in my mouth when I saw you go alone into the rest-house,"said Lawrence. "And I couldn't get a word out of your man."

  "Pretty close, isn't he?" said the Major. "But look here, my lads, Icalled you a couple of young fools a while ago. I take that back, forwithout you I shouldn't have had the opportunity of enjoying thesurprise of Nagdu and his crew. All the same, you _were_ fools, youknow," he added reflectively.

  While this conversation was proceeding beneath the extended flap of thetent, another, of quite a different tenor, was going on at the nearestcamp fire, fifty yards away. There Ganda Singh the dafadar and his oldcomrade Nagdu were seated, gazing into the glow, with their riflesacross their knees.

  "Hai! Ennicott Sahib is truly a very great man," said Nagdu. "We werethere in the little house, with our guns on the wall, looking up theroad, when there came a soft voice behind us. 'Twas like cold watertrickling down my back, O Ganda. And when I turned and saw the huzur'stwo eyes like little bits of blue steel, I felt my soul shrivel upinside me: that is true, old friend. 'You are keeping good watch uponthe road, Nagdu,' said he, and I shivered, and my voice was like awoman's when I said my salaam."

  "Keeping watch upon the road!" repeated the dafadar with a sly look atthe other. "Do you know, Nagdu, if any harm had come to the sahib-ji Iwould have put a bullet there, and there."

  He touched the man's neck and breast.

  "Hai! what harm could come to the huzur?" said Nagdu protestingly. "Heis heaven-born, and knows. 'Keeping good watch upon the road,' he said,and when I stammered out my 'Salaam, sahib,' he went on: 'It is well.There are rascals about. I go to hold a talk with your people on thatvery matter, and 'tis good luck I met you, for you can take me to yourvillage.' And I said the huzur's face was like the sun shining upon thehills, for by that time my soul was come to me again, and after a littletalk we came out. Hai! Truly is Ennicott Sahib a very great man."

  "Ay, he knows the heart of you hill-men. You have a little heart,Nagdu; the huzur's is a very great one. His word is a sword."

  "And his eyes are like fires that burn. Is there anything he does notknow? He did not see us go into the little house: we were quiet as micein the corn; yet he knew we were there----"

  "Keeping watch on the road," said Ganda Singh with a low chuckle. "Youare indeed a mouse, Nagdu; would you measure yourself against a lion?"

  Nagdu protested that he had no such thought, and then turned theconversation into an easier channel.

  Next day on the march Lawrence Appleton found an opportunity of having alittle private talk with Ganda Singh, who knew just enough English tomake himself understood. Lawrence asked point-blank whether thehill-men had been lying in wait for the party, intending to fire uponthem from their ambush. The dafadar neither denied nor affirmed, butcontented himself with retailing the substance of what Nagdu had toldhim. Putting two and two together, the Appletons arrived at a very fairestimate of what had actually taken place. They realised that thehill-men, who would have shot down the Major without ruth if they hadbeen unseen behind a wall, had been completely cowed when he appearedalone in their midst. Nagdu was a bold fellow, and had proved hismettle in many a border fray; but the habit of discipline and theimpression made upon him by the Englishman's dominant personality hadacted like a cold douche upon his purpose. It was the victory of astronger nature over a weaker; and the lads formed a new idea of theMajor's personal influence, and the unerring instinct with which he hadprobed the character of the natives.

  That day the caravan came to the parting of the ways. Major Endicott'sroad struck off westward among the hills; the Appletons had stillseveral days' northward march before them. The lads, if they hadconsulted their own tastes, would very willingly have gone with theMajor; but they knew it was out of the question. They thanked himwarmly for allowing them to accompany him so far.

  "That's all right," said he. "Look me up if you ever come south. Bythe way, I've told off three sowars to see you to the frontier: there Idare say your uncle will meet you."

  "But you can't spare them, sir," said Bob. "You've few enough all told."

  "We aren't a fighting force, my boy. If it comes to a scrap we shan'tstand the ghost of a chance, and the fewer there are of us the better.Keep to the track. My salaams to your uncle. Good-bye!"

  The Appletons watched the Major and his party until the sowars whobrought up the rear were out of sight: then they turned their faces oncemore to the north, feeling somewhat depressed. Their own portion of thecaravan consisted of only five or six mules, whose loads were for themost part goods for their uncle. For two days they climbed higher intothe rugged mountains that encompassed them on every side. In theday-time it was hot, though the heights were crowned with snow: but thenights were bitterly cold; icy blasts swept through the gorges, causingthe lads to desert even their camp fires for the snugger blankets. Theycould not help wondering, with a certain misgiving, what the winter inthese heights was like, if such wintry conditions could exist in thesummer.

  On the morning of the third day after leaving Major Endicott they weremet at the British frontier by two stalwart and well-mounted Sikhs, whohad been sent by their uncle to conduct them over the remaining stagesof their journey; and the Major's three sowars returned to overtaketheir master. That night they had only just got into camp when theyexperienced for the first time the full rigours of a mountain storm.Dense clouds rolled down from the heights, enveloping them in adrenching icy mist. A cutting wind sprang up, and soon a hurricane ofsleet and snow burst upon them, with lightning and thunder, and otherrumblings which, as they learnt from their guides, were caused byavalanches and landslips among the mountains. All next day they werestorm-bound, remaining rolled up in their blankets in the tent, andfeeling more low-spirited than ever. On the following morning, however,the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and they set off again through a narrowpass dangerous at any time, but doubly dangerous now that the track wasalmost obliterated by snow-drifts. They felt a pang of commiserationfor the scantily clad coolies who trudged along barefoot in snow andslush by their mules; but the men were cheerful, laughing and singing asthey marched, and the Appletons envied their hardiness and vigour.

  Leaving the Pamirs on their right, they threaded their way through themountains towards what had once been the Russo-Afghan frontier. Slowly,steadily they marched on for three days, the track leading graduallydownwards. Then one morning, soon after they had left camp, they saw inthe far distance two horsemen riding slowly towards them.

  "The huzur, sahib!" said one of the guides.

  The lads lift
ed their glasses, and were then able to discern that theone of the two riders who wore a grey suit and a solah helmet was theiruncle himself. They hastened on in front of their party, and in aquarter of an hour uncle and nephews met.

  "How do?" cried Harry Appleton, gripping them in turn by the hand."You've grown since I saw you last: I should hardly have known you."

  "You look the same as ever," said Bob.

  "Wait till you see me with my hat off. Hair doesn't grow on brains,they say. But I'm glad to see you, boys: you are looking uncommonly fittoo. Have you had a pleasant journey?"

  "Pretty good, bar a snowstorm. Major Endicott came with us best part ofthe way. He's gone to interview a troublesome tribe. He sent hissalaams to you, Uncle."

  "Much obliged to him. He thinks I'm mad, you know. Don't look it, doI?"

  The boys laughed. Their uncle was a sturdy man, rather under middleheight, hard and muscular, his brown face half covered with a thickmoustache and beard turning slightly grey. His blue eyes were brightand piercing, with an expression of alertness and humour. He certainlydid not look mad.

  "Your caravan is rather smaller than I expected to see," he went on, asthe mules came straggling up.

  "Their loads are mostly your stuff," said Lawrence. "We've only broughta couple of bags apiece."

  "Very sensible of you. I was afraid you might bring out a lot ofrubbish, and wished I'd sent you a caution. But I needn't have worried,evidently."

  "Well, there are one or two things coming after us," said Bob, with ashade of misgiving. "We sent them ahead by slow steamer, and as theyhadn't arrived when we reached Bombay, we thought we'd better come on."

  "Humph!" their uncle grunted. "It'll be a month before my nextconsignment comes up, so it's to be hoped you're not in a hurry for yourstuff. I suppose there's not much of it. What is it?"

  "There's my cricket-bag, and a couple of tennis rackets, and a set ofgolfing sticks," said Lawrence.

  "You didn't happen to bring turf too, I suppose?" said their uncle withtwinkling eyes. "The ground hereabout is all bunkers. Anything elseuseful?"

  "There's my aeroplane," said Bob.

  "Your what?"

  "A monoplane. I was going into the flying corps, you know, if--

  "Yes, yes," interrupted Mr. Appleton. "It must have been verydisappointing, my boy, but you must cheer up. But an aeroplane!"

  "It's very light and portable--perhaps a couple of mule loads at themost."

  "I wasn't thinking of the mules," replied his uncle dryly. "Anaeroplane in these hills will be just about as useful as a Dreadnoughtin a millpond. You didn't realise that the Hindu Kush is not exactlylike the South Downs. Well, it can't be helped now. Anything else?"

  "Nothing of any importance," said Bob, feeling a little dashed. He hadlooked forward to many hours of flying in his spare time, and it wasrather dispiriting to find that the expense of shipping his aeroplanewas to be wasted.

  "Well, we'll get on," said Mr. Appleton. "With good luck we shall reachthe mine before dark. You won't be sorry, I expect, to spend the nightunder a roof again."

  They rode on, the track running generally to the north-north-west.About an hour after they started, their uncle pointed to a narrow cleftin the hills on their left hand.

  "You see that path?" he said. "It runs into Afghan country. About sixmonths after I started operations the mine was raided by a horde ofruffians who came that way."

  "I say!" cried Bob. "What happened?"

  "Luckily I had been put on my guard against an attack from that quarterby one of my Pathan miners. I had twelve hours' grace, and when theraiders arrived they found they'd got a tougher nut to crack than theyexpected. They only made one serious rush. We beat 'em off, and theymoved some distance up the valley, sniped us for a day or two, and thencleared out. We've had no trouble of that sort since, though they'veplayed highwaymen once or twice with my caravans, and in one case got acertain amount of loot. Among other things they collared a boiler thatI was bringing up at huge expense from India. I don't suppose they knewwhat it was, but for the sake of the metal they tried to carry itthrough the difficult pass into their own valley. But it proved toocumbersome, as you might expect, and they had to leave it. I found itsome time afterwards when shooting in the pass, at the bottom of a deepnullah, where it had rolled from the track above. It took me nearly afortnight to recover it and bring it home, but I was glad to get it atthe price."

  "Things aren't all beer and skittles, then," said Bob.

  "Oh, there's a little excitement sometimes, but we are well placed, asyou will see, and I fancy nothing short of a regular train of artillerycould do us much damage."

  What the boys heard from Mr. Appleton during that march whetted theircuriosity to get their first view of his mine, but they weredisappointed, for twilight fell while they were still some distance fromit. In the gathering dusk they saw a number of distant lights, whichtheir uncle explained were the camp fires of the miners. The red glow,growing larger as they proceeded, lent a romantic touch to the night.The fires were somewhat below them; and, viewed from the high groundfrom which they were approaching, the settlement appeared to be situatedin a huge cleft between two steep mountain barriers. They could justsee, swirling along the bottom, a torrential stream, which their uncletold them was unusually high just now, being swollen in summer by themelted snow from the mountains. It was, he said, a tributary to one ofthe headwaters of the Oxus.

  They had just arrived at the outskirts of the settlement when thesilence of the evening was suddenly broken by a great hubbub, and theysaw a number of dark figures hurrying towards one of the camp fires. Ina moment the open space was filled with a shouting swaying crowd; butbefore the boys had time to realise what was happening, or even to ask aquestion, their uncle urged his tired horse towards the scene, anddashing into the midst of the crowd, scattered the men to right andleft. When the boys galloped up behind him, they found him sternlyquestioning one or two of the men in their own tongue. They returnedsullen answers, whereupon he addressed them in tones of rebuke,concluding with a sharp word of command at which they turned awaytowards a number of huts ranged in rows beyond the camp fires.

  "What is it all about, Uncle?" asked Lawrence.

  "We'll see in the morning. It's too late now. Slip off your horses;I'll call a fellow to take charge of them."

  A man came up in answer to his call, and led the horses towards thestables beyond the huts. Then Mr. Appleton gave a loud hail, and led hisnephews to the left.

  "Look after your feet," he said, taking a small electric lamp from hispocket.

  They now saw that they were at the edge of the ravine. Below them theyheard the gurgle and rush of the river. A few steps cut in the side ofthe chasm led down to a narrow platform, and upon this the three stoodwaiting. Mr. Appleton's call was answered from the opposite side, andimmediately afterwards the boys heard a creaking sound, as though amachine of some sort were being wound up. Then a dark mass appeared todetach itself from the wall of rock across the gap, and descend towardsthem.

  "My drawbridge," said their uncle.

  It sank slowly and with much groaning and squeaking until the nearer endrested on the edge of the platform where they stood. They stepped uponit, followed by the Sikhs who had acted as their guides, and in a fewstrides came to the other side.

  "Welcome to the Appleton mine," said Mr. Appleton. "And now for supper.Our menu isn't elaborate, but if you're as sharp set as I am you won'tbe dainty. Come along!"