CHAPTER XVI.
AN ENGAGEMENT.
Right, left, front and rear of where Stubbs and Chester stood the troopsbegan to move. In front they could make out the heavy guns being draggedforward, officers dashing about and gesticulating excitedly, but orderreigning in the midst of apparent confusion.
From the rear now dashed a squadron of cavalry, a handsome appearing bodyof men. A second squadron came into sight and disappeared ahead, to befollowed a moment later by a third. Other squadrons passed in rapidsuccession.
Chester and Stubbs kept their positions.
Half an hour passed and still the mounted horsemen swept by. Then camethe infantry. Column upon column came swinging along at a dog trot, theirofficers urging them on. They moved silently and swiftly, apparently allready for the terrible business in hand.
"A handsome body of men," said Stubbs. "I have never seen better."
"And the size of them," exclaimed Chester. "Must all be over six feet."
It did seem so. Great, big, husky-looking fellows they were, strong asgorillas--heavily bearded, most of them, and warmly and snugly dressed.
"They'll make these Austrians move around some, with an even break,"declared Chester.
And still the troops passed, seemingly without end.
"Must be an attack in some force," said Chester.
"Or reinforcements to check an enemy's advance," declared Stubbs.
"Well," said Chester, "if there is going to be a battle, we ought to tryand see something of it."
"They'll arrest us if we go fooling around here," declared Stubbs.
Chester thought quickly.
"I'll tell you," he said at length, "you saw the orderly stationedoutside our tent?"
Stubbs nodded.
"We'll go back and get him. Also we'll take Hal and Colonel Anderson.They wouldn't want to miss this."
"Don't forget my old friend Nikol," said Stubbs. "Remember he issomething of a fighter, too. He'll want to have a look."
They made their way back to the tent quickly and aroused the others. Theorderly placed at their disposal, once their wants were made known,volunteered to conduct them to the front.
"I'll get an automobile," he said, and departed.
Five minutes later he was back with a big car and all climbed aboard. Amoment later they were being driven rapidly toward the extreme front.There, just behind the first line troops, Hal and Chester made out thatthe movement was in reality a defensive one. Apparently the men rushedforward so early in the morning were reinforcements.
The troops had entrenched themselves hurriedly and were preparing toresist an attack, which, the orderly informed his charges, was expectedmomentarily. It appeared that the Austrians had made some slight gainsthe day before and the Montenegrin general staff had reason to believethe offensive would be continued to-day. Accordingly, steps had beentaken to resist the invader.
As the orderly explained the situation, the battle would probably befought along a twenty-five-mile front; and he announced that at thisparticular moment the party was somewhere between the center and the leftwing of the Montenegrin army.
"Well, we can't see much from here," said Chester.
He gazed across the hills. Then he pointed to his right, toward a not fardistant elevation, somewhat higher than the others nearby, and alsosomewhat closer to the Montenegrin center.
"Now, if we were up there," he said, "we might be able to see something."
The orderly seemed nonplussed.
"It is from that eminence that the king and the general staff willwitness the struggle," he said, "I do not know--"
"Oh, that will be all right," said Stubbs. "The king is a good friend ofours. Why, only last night he said that if we desired anything all we hadto do was to call on him. Now, taking the king at his word, what we woulddesire most is to be allowed to witness the battle from that eminence."
The Montenegrin officer hesitated; but only for a moment. Then he said:
"If those were the king's words, he no doubt will forgive me for leadingyou thither."
"Most certainly he will," declared Stubbs; "in fact, he will thank youfor bringing us to him."
The officer, without further words, proceeded as desired, and ten minuteslater, having left the big army automobile, they climbed the eminence andtook their positions not far from where the king and the general staffstood viewing the Austrian lines through their glasses.
Even as they settled themselves as comfortably as possible, the first biggun of the enemy boomed. Other big guns from the Montenegrin lines tookup the action and soon the artillery engagement became general. The airwas filled with terrible din and it was next to impossible to makeoneself heard above the roar of battle.
Hidden batteries in the Montenegrin lines were making their fire felt.Shielded from the enemy in front, they were also, in most cases, madeinvisible to the Austrian air craft that continually hovered overhead,sheltered as they were in dense clumps of trees and bushes.
From the Montenegrin lines now went a small fleet of aeroplanes, seekingout the hiding places of the enemy artillery and signaling back the rangeto the Montenegrin gunners.
For an hour the duel of big guns continued without other action of anykind. Now and then the spectators were able to make out the effect of anenemy shell as it struck within the Montenegrin line, but they wereunable to determine the result of the Montenegrin fire.
Came the sound of a bugle from the rear.
"Something up!" shouted Chester at the top of his voice.
Hal nodded but said nothing. He did not feel equal to making himselfheard above the terrible roar of battle.
From the Austrian line suddenly issued a squadron of cavalry, closelyfollowed by many other squadrons. It became apparent to the spectatorsthat the enemy had determined to silence the Montenegrin guns, or aportion of them, at any rate, by a charge.
On they came in the very face of a hail of lead that cut great gaps intheir ranks, mowing men and riders down like chaff before a storm. But asfast as the ranks were thinned, they filled up again as the Austrianscontinued their charge, while from their rear the great Austrian gunscontinued to hurl their messengers of death over their heads into theranks of the Montenegrins beyond.
Straight for a little woods in the center of the long battle line theAustrian cavalry dashed, their intention apparently being to seektemporary shelter there before charging some other part of theMontenegrin line.
Now they were almost to the trees and it seemed that they must findshelter there. This would mean that it would be a hard task for theMontenegrins to dislodge them. They were less than a hundred yards awaywhen there came a fresh, terrible rumble and roar.
A Montenegrin masked battery had opened with its rapid-firers. Mendropped in great heaps, but the others came on.
The Austrian officer in command, realizing that he was in a trap, tookthe one chance left him. With what men he had, cut off from his infantrysupport as he was, he must either capture that masked battery, die orsurrender. The only support he had now was from his own artillery, and amoment later that, too, became silent, for the masked Montenegrin batterycould not be shelled without imminent risk of shooting down Austrian aswell as Montenegrin.
On came the Austrians in a desperate and spectacular charge. Of thenumber that had sallied forth from the Austrian trench, less than halfremained when they came to the edge of the little woods. These few hurledthemselves forward with the utmost bravery and abandon, and for a momentit seemed that they might reach the guns, which Hal and Chester, from theeminence, could see.
But at that moment four squadrons of Montenegrin cavalry, fresh and eagerfor the fray, were hurled forward. They dashed out with a yell, and thetwo forces met just beyond the fringe of trees.
There was a terrific shock as they came together and in a moment allwas confusion. Men cursed, slashed, stabbed and discharged revolvers ateach other, while the horses of the opposing forces fought as well astheir riders.
The Montenegrin ba
ttery had now become silent, for to have fired wouldhave been to endanger the life of friend as well as foe. The horsemenstruggled desperately, hand-to-hand.
But the force of the Austrian charge had been spent. The few who remainedfought bravely, but they were no match for the fresher and more powerfulMontenegrin horsemen, among the best fighters in the whole world.
Slowly the Austrians were forced back. Then they gave ground faster andfaster, until finally those who were left turned their horses and fledback toward their own lines. For perhaps a hundred yards the Montenegrinspursued, then, at the call of a bugle, they halted and turned back.
A moment later the rapid-firers broke loose again, cutting great holes inthe ranks of the fleeing Austrians. The latter retreated even faster thanthey had charged, but by the time they reached the shelter of their ownlines their number had been thinned by fully three-fourths.
All the way across the field dead and wounded strewed the ground. Thesuccessful Montenegrins paused for a moment and cheered wildly; then theytook stock of their own dead and wounded, for they had not escapedscot-free. The hand-to-hand struggle, though brief, had been severe whileit lasted, and the Austrians fought hard and well. The Montenegrinlosses, though comparatively light, had been severe.
While the cavalry action was being fought, the artillery fire hadslackened perceptibly; but now the cavalry of each side--what was left ofit--had returned to its own lines.
The big guns took up the duel anew with even greater vigor than before.
Boy Allies in the Balkan Campaign; Or, the Struggle to Save a Nation Page 16