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

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE TWENTY-THIRD

  CAPTURING A GUN

  The aeroplane with Lawrence and the Gurkha on board was soon flying downthe river, at a much greater height than usual--a wise precaution onLawrence's part, as was proved in a few moments. Even before it cameabove the bend it was assailed with a volley, and as it passed Bob wasalarmed at the continuous crackle of rifles. It lasted only half aminute, but it was so loud as to smother altogether the hum of thepropeller, and he almost repented of having allowed his brother to gowhen he realised the danger to which he was exposed. He had lost sightof the aeroplane; the fusillade had ceased; and the only indication, andthat a negative one, that the machine and its occupants had not beenbrought to the ground was the absence of clamour beyond the bend. Ifthe enemy had been successful, he thought, surely they would have hailedtheir triumph with shouts of delight.

  Reassured by the comparative silence, he remained behind the parapet,and informed Gur Buksh of his intention to reoccupy the breastwork onthe farther bank.

  "It is well, sahib," said the veteran quietly.

  "Will the men follow me?" asked Bob anxiously.

  "To the jaws of the pit, sahib. Where the sahib leads they will follow:even the men who ran away are now eager to wipe out their disgrace."

  "Then I will go and form my party. We shall not move until the chotasahib gives a signal."

  He found that the havildar had spoken truly. There was no lack ofvolunteers. He soon arranged his little party of twenty, and postedthem in the shelter of the wall until the time should come for lettingdown the bridge and leading them across it.

  The minutes passed very slowly. Lawrence would not think it necessaryto push his reconnaissance as far as the enemy's encampment. He mightperhaps fly thirty miles, and then return. This would take somethingless than an hour. If he should discover the field guns within a shortdistance of the mine, the explosion of his bombs might be expected muchearlier.

  Half an hour passed. There had been no sound from up stream; no sign ofactivity among the enemy. Bob began to feel more hopeful. They hadapparently met with great obstacles to the passage of the guns. He wasmomentarily expecting to hear the hum of the returning aeroplane when,with a suddenness that took him all aback, there was a tremendous roar,followed in a second or two by a terrific crash just beyond the Pathancompound. Turning in consternation to discover the cause of it, he sawa great mass of the cliff falling amid a cloud of dust and smoke uponthe wooden pathway, and plunging into the river beneath. Suchdestruction could only be the effect of a shell. Beyond doubt one atleast of the field guns had been brought into position behind theenemy's breastwork at the bend.

  This fact filled him with as much dismay as amazement. It was notsurprising that the enemy had placed their gun without his knowledge.They would, of course, have been careful to mask it until they wereready to open fire. But why had Lawrence or the Gurkha not seen it?Could it be that the aeroplane had been damaged and brought down afterall?

  While he was in a painful state of anxiety, there was another roar, anda second shell burst on the cliff, just beyond the Pathan gallery. Heran to the northern wall and peered through one of the loopholes. Smokehung above the enemy's breastwork, but there was not a man to be seen,so that rifle fire was useless. He ordered Gur Buksh to fire themachine gun. The havildar's aim was good; chips of rock flew from thebreastwork; and Bob thought he saw the muzzle of a gun disappear. Hisattention was immediately drawn from it by the sight of the aeroplaneflying round the bend, and with the thrill of relief at his brother'ssafety came the expectation of hearing an explosion and seeing signs ofhavoc about the breastwork. But the aeroplane flew high over the scene,passed it, and disappeared up the river. There had been no explosion.Why had not Lawrence dropped a bomb?

  Hardly had he asked himself this question when a third shell burst fromthe breastwork. It was better aimed than the other two. Instead ofstriking the cliff, it hit the northern wall of the compound, carryingaway several yards of the metal parapet, scattering jagged fragments ofiron and stone in every direction, then flew over the heads of thegarrison and plunged into the earthwork at the southern boundary of thecompound, within a few yards of the spot where the sortie party weregathered. Bob was almost at his wits' end. No defences could withstanda bombardment at such close quarters. None of the garrison had as yetbeen wounded, but he could see by their cowering attitude and the terrorwritten upon their faces that their courage had been shocked out ofthem. Only Gur Buksh and the other Sikhs stood immovable at theirposts.

  A few minutes after the report of the gun, the aeroplane again cameflying down stream. Lawrence, then, had not landed. Bob was in a mazeof bewilderment. But he was suddenly aroused from his stupor by a sharpdetonation. It was not the report of a gun. Then there were loud criesand yells from the direction of the enemy, and looking through theloophole he saw a smother of dust above the breastwork. Lawrence haddropped a bomb at last, and again was out of sight.

  This was to have been the signal for the sortie; but after what hadhappened Bob felt that it would be sheer madness to lead his men along astretch of the track commanded by the field guns. He doubted, indeed,whether their courage would face the task. It was only common prudenceto wait for a second signal. He could not see what damage the bomb haddone; whether it had only temporarily frightened the enemy. ButLawrence would not hesitate to hurl another bomb among them; andbelieving that, guns or no guns, they must be demoralized if attacked asecond time from the air, Bob hastened across the compound, ordered thebridge to be lowered, and went to the twenty men huddling under cover ofthe wall.

  LAWRENCE DROPS A BOMB]

  He allowed no trace of mental perturbation to show itself in hisbearing.

  "The time has come!" he said quietly to the men. "Lawrence Sahib isdriving the enemy away. There are no more shots from their gun, yousee. We shall soon hear another explosion; then you will follow me, andin five minutes we shall be masters of our breastwork."

  Ganda Singh, who was among the party, translated his words to the men.The cessation of gun fire and Bob's confident manner somewhat restoredtheir courage. They formed up, grasping their weapons nervously, andwaited in panting eagerness, mingled with trepidation, for the expectedsignal.

  It seemed a long time in coming. Bob knew that Lawrence had had to flyseveral miles down stream before he could turn. It came at last. Againsounded the sharp crash; again the air was filled with cries, in whichthere was no note of triumph: and Bob, with a cheery "Now, my men!"dashed across the bridge with the swarthy mountaineers at his heels.Reaching the other side, they turned to the left and raced across theopen space formerly occupied by the miners' huts. Bob was only halfconscious that the aeroplane was flying in the opposite direction highabove his head. They were met neither by shells nor by bullets, andonly when they sank breathless behind the shelter of the breastwork dida few rifle shots patter around them. Then all was quiet again.

  Whatever the cause of the astonishing delay on Lawrence's part, hisintervention now had been effectual, at any rate for a time. How fareffectual? Bob wondered. He got up and looked over the parapet towardsthe enemy's breastwork a hundred yards away. They had apparentlydeserted it. Some, no doubt, had been slain by the explosions. Had thesurvivors fled in panic far away, or were they merely lying low beyondthe bend? Then his eye caught what had escaped his observation from thegreater distance of the compound wall. There were two embrasures a footor two below the top of the breastwork, contrived by removing some ofthe loose rocks. But he saw no sign of guns. Perhaps the enemy in theirretirement had dragged with them the one which had fired.

  He heard the hum of the aeroplane again. Lawrence had still not landed,but was returning, perhaps to observe the extent of his work, perhaps tocomplete it. He was flying much lower than before. A sudden ideaflashed into Bob's mind. The enemy's breastwork was only a hundredyards distant. Why not attempt to rush it under cover
of the aeroplane;and if in the hurry of their flight they had left their gun, capture itand bring it to the mine?

  His thought had hardly crystallized into a resolution when he heard twoexplosions in rapid succession, followed by yells and one or two rifleshots. The sound seemed to come from some distance beyond the bend.His mind was made up. He told Ganda Singh his intention, and couldscarcely wait while the havildar translated his orders. The menresponded with a "Hai! hai!" of delight. Like Bob himself they wereworked up to a high pitch of excitement. Their rush had beensuccessful. The risks were forgotten, or remembered only to be scorned.They were twenty against an unknown number, but none counted the odds."Hai! hai!" they shouted, as their leader leapt round the angle of theentrenchment. They followed close upon him as he dashed over theintervening hundred yards of broken ground. No one faltered. In lessthan half a minute they were in possession of the enemy's breastwork,and at that instant there was another explosion far down the track.

  Bob's glance fell first upon a score of prostrate forms scattered on theground in the neighbourhood. Then with a thrill of delight he saw twofield guns. One had been struck from its carriage, and lay near thebrink of the stream. The other had apparently been withdrawn from itsembrasure, but abandoned under the demoralizing shock of an explosion.Bob ran to the first. A moment's inspection showed him that it wasirretrievably ruined. Calling two of the men, with their aid he toppledit into the river. The other was still workable. Looking around, hespied near the breastwork a number of shells which had escapeddestruction by the bombs.

  "Can you fire a gun?" he asked Ganda Singh eagerly.

  "I am a gunner, sahib."

  "Then slew it round. We'll turn it on the enemy."

  He had remarked a number of the Kalmucks collected on the track somedistance away. As he spoke, bullets began to whistle around, and two ofhis men were hit. Quickly the gun was turned round. Ganda Singhdiscovered that it was already loaded, and in another few seconds ashell sang on its deadly flight towards the enemy. They fled, to bepursued by another shell as soon as Ganda Singh could reload; and withthis second shot the track was cleared for half a mile down stream. Andthen the aeroplane came whirring past overhead.

  As he watched it, Bob became aware that the afternoon was drawingtowards evening. In an hour the valley would be gloomy, in two hours itwould be shrouded in darkness. For the present, while daylight lasted,there was little fear of the enemy attacking. They would not face theirown gun backed by the machine gun of the garrison. But he felt thatwith the fall of night the circumstances would be changed. His feeblesearchlight scarcely illuminated the space between the bridge and thebend; beyond the bend it gave no light whatever. In the darkness theenemy might creep up to within a short distance of their capturedbreastwork and carry it with a determined rush, in spite of the gun. Itwas true that the narrowness of the track would allow the approach ofonly a few men abreast; but they could be supported by a constantsuccession of reinforcements, coming up like waves of the sea until thedefenders were worn out. It seemed to Bob the prudent course towithdraw his men and the gun to the mine, and place the latter inposition beside the machine gun. However, it was bad tactics to abandona defensive position before retirement was absolutely necessary, so hedecided to remain where he was for a little while longer, in the hopethat Lawrence would land and, joining him, explain the actual conditionof affairs down stream.

  About a quarter of an hour after the aeroplane had passed, Bob sawLawrence running down the track towards him.

  "That's what I hoped you would do," were Lawrence's first words as theymet. "Capture the guns, I mean."

  "Yes, we've got one: the other's ruined and in the river. But we've hada narrow escape from being battered to pieces. Why didn't you beginbombing before?"

  "I'll tell you. We were pretty well peppered, as you saw, when we flewpast here down stream. It may have been because that bothered us, andFazl was hit--I didn't know it at the time--that we didn't see the gunsthey had dragged up. Or perhaps it was because they are so like therocks in colour--and we didn't expect they'd be here already. Anyway,we didn't see them, and it makes me mad to think what a squeak you'vehad. I _ought_ to have seen them."

  "That's bosh! it's precious difficult to see anything at that speed.But go on."

  "We saw the men, of course, but we were soon out of range. The planesare simply riddled."

  "Fazl not much hurt, I hope?"

  "No: the bullet went through the fleshy part of his arm, and he didn'tsay a word about it till we landed just now. On our way down we sawseveral teams of ponies at different parts of the track, bringing grubup, no doubt; and several bodies of mounted troops on the march; butnever a sign of the guns. I flew on till we came to the place where theMajor and I saw them: then thinking I must have missed them, I turnedback. You may imagine how I felt when, about two miles away, I suppose,I heard the first shot. It's so different from the sound of the machinegun that I couldn't mistake it. I told Fazl to get ready to drop a bombas soon as we came up to the guns. He did so, but I didn't hear anexplosion. He yelled out that it had fallen into the river, but ofcourse we were past before there was time to shy another. I came backas quickly as I could, and my heart was in my mouth when I saw smoke inthe compound. Luckily Fazl's next shots were better, and jolly glad Iam that we managed to stampede the fellows and give you a chance."

  "You were just in time, old man. They did more damage to the cliff thanto us, though."

  "Yes: the path is simply heaped with rubbish. Coming back it was likescrambling over shingle. But a few hours' work will clear the lot away.Now what's the next thing?"

  "As it's getting dusk I propose to withdraw the gun to the mine. But wemust hold this breastwork as long as we can, and it occurs to me that ifwe alter its angle a little we can enfilade it from our own breastworkwhen it becomes necessary to fall back on that. It will still protectus from attack down stream, owing to the bend."

  "Isn't it worth while to block up the track again?"

  "It would use up too much dynamite. Our stock is getting appallinglylow. We may want it all for bombs. Besides, if we block up the trackfarther down we shan't see our enemy."

  "But I can always scout in the aeroplane."

  "You forget that our petrol isn't unlimited. I had a look in the shedthis morning, and there isn't much left. The paraffin you brought onlyreplaced what you lost from the leaky cans. We shall have to economizenow, and use the aeroplane only when we must."

  "Very well then. If you see about altering the breastwork I'll get thegun dragged in. And there are these poor wounded wretches. Their moansare horrible. What can we do for them?"

  "We mustn't take them into our compound. We haven't food enough tosupport prisoners. I have it! We'll send off the Kalmuck prisonerswe've got, and tell them that they can bring up a dozen of their friendsunder flag of truce to carry off their wounded. That'll relieve us ofall responsibility. And now let's get to business. We haven't too muchtime."

  These arrangements were duly carried out. While Lawrence escorted thegun to the mine, Bob set the men to pull down the breastwork, andre-construct it so that it stood almost perpendicular to his ownentrenchment a hundred yards up stream. In its new position it would beof very little use to the enemy should they re-capture it, for onwhichever side of it they happened to be, they would be swept by thefire of the men posted at the other.

  By the time the work was completed darkness had fallen. Then Lawrencedismissed the Kalmuck prisoners as he had suggested, and followed themto the breastwork to have a final consultation with his brother.

  "I'll hold on here until midnight," said Bob. "I had a good sleep duringthe day. Tell Ganda Singh to train the captured gun on the bend; ifthere's an attack he and Gur Buksh can play on the track and cover ourretirement."

  "I'm not sure whether it wouldn't be better to bring it out again andplace it behind our entrenchments."

  "No, that would never do. The searchlight isn't powe
rful enough to beof much good; and the position might be rushed before the gun could comeinto play. It's too valuable for us to risk that. It would be a verydifferent matter if we had enough men to hold the breastwork and reallydispute the advance of the enemy. We can't do that. If they seriouslypush their attack we shall have to evacuate the position and bolt forthe mine, and the gun would only be a hindrance. Now you get back.Send over some food for us, and then go to bed."

  "I shan't take my clothes off. Don't hold on too long, Bob, if they docome up."

  "Don't be nervous, young 'un. We've had uncommon good luck so far, andI'm inclined to think the enemy won't be in a hurry to tackle us. Thosebombs must have been a horrid surprise to them. We may congratulateourselves on a good day for the first, anyhow."