CHAPTER XX.STARTING ON A DANGEROUS TRIP.
The long day came to an end at last. None of those who had taken part in or even witnessed the glorious taking of the Turkish trenches would ever be likely to forget the experience.
All the wounded had been carried to the temporary hospital. If a vessel could be summoned by wireless they were to be removed to some other place, where they might be nursed, and brought back to health without constant danger of being under fire.
Many of the dead had also been buried. The work in this respect, proving too stupendous a task for one day, had to be dropped for another time. Besides, it was really of greater importance that the safety of the living be looked after than the disposal of those who were out of the fight for good.
The boys had done all they could to lend a helpinghand. On every side they received words of gratitude and praise. It heartened those valiant fellows from the antipodes to find American boys standing by them in this emergency. Small although the circumstance might seem to them, it meant much, for they chose to feel that they had the moral backing of the vast majority of Americans in their struggle against the military ideas formulated by the Teuton ruling families.
And now the sun was setting. It went down like a great glowing ball of fire, as though in keeping with the terrible work of the day. It somehow made Jack think of an interesting story he had read in a paper, concerning a famous battlefield where thousands had fallen, and telling how, in the following year, the ground was a mass of fire as innumerable red poppies bloomed. The superstitious peasants declared that the earth had refused to hold all the blood with which it had been drenched on that awful day.
Although both Jack and Amos felt somewhat tired after so strenuous an afternoon, at the same time this was not going to deter them from tryingto reach the camp of the New Zealand troops further up the shore by a mile and more.
The Colonel had given them his promise, and they believed he was one who always kept his word, no matter how much he might regret it. They had seen him at intervals during the rest of the afternoon, but never to talk to, for he was always hurrying this way and that, personally seeing that the newly acquired trenches were being put in a state of defense so that no matter how fiercely the Turks attacked they would be beaten back.
“I wonder,” ventured Amos, as they watched the big orb dip lower and lower until its rim was hidden beneath the watery horizon that lay in the far west, “I wonder now if I’ll be with Frank when the sun peeks up again tomorrow.”
“There seems to be a pretty good chance that way, I’m ready to admit,” Jack told him. “In fact, it strikes me we must by this time be pretty near the end of the long trail. First we missed connections with him in Belgium; then came that chase through the French war trenches; and atlast the trip to the Dardanelles. Believe me, you’re going to lay hands on Frank this time, anyway, Amos. You need something like that to put new heart in you.”
“Well, as a rule I’m not so easily discouraged, Jack, and you know it; but again and again I’ve been cheated out of even getting a glimpse of my brother, and it wears on a fellow, you see.”
“Change the subject, and you’ll feel better,” his chum advised. “For instance, do you think you could eat any supper? It looks to me as if we would soon be called to join the Colonel and two of his officers yonder.”
“Evidently he means to keep Headquarters down here yet a while,” speculated Amos.
“Well, as yet they’re not so sure they can hold the advanced line. They fully expect to be attacked between now and morning, when there’ll be some more terrible work going on; only this time it must be up to the Turks to do the attacking.”
“Then, you mark my words for it, they’ll suffer an awful loss, Jack.”
“I agree with you,” said the other quickly. “Like the Germans, they believe in massed formations when making assaults. In these modern days of quick-firers that is a risky thing to do. It may carry everything before it like a football rush does, but at a frightful cost.”
Presently the call to supper reached the boys in the shape of a message from the Colonel. He greeted both with a pleasant smile, and asked that they make themselves at home at the rude camp table where his meals were served.
The conversation for a while ran upon the stirring events of the day, and the listening boys learned how the plan of campaign had been rigidly adhered to from beginning to end. Evidently the Colonel fully believed victory would have been their portion even though the daring air pilot had refrained from attacking the enemy with his bombs, and creating the first decided feeling of apprehension among the enemy. At the same time he frankly acknowledged the material assistance his men had received from this work on the part of the aeroplane man.
“If he was your brother, Amos, give him my compliments when you meet him, and thank him heartily for my Territorial tigers. He helped us not a little by scattering the enemy at just that critical moment. His work was as dashing as anything I ever struck; and it’s plain to be seen such a birdman is a brother to be proud of.”
Those were pleasant words to Amos. They seemed to repay him for all he had gone through with on that awful day. Frank was his brother, and he would much sooner hear him praised than listen to any amount of commendation for himself.
It was not until after the two officers had left the table to hurry to their positions so as to be in the harness for the night that the Colonel referred in the least degree to the contemplated expedition of the two American lads.
“I suppose you have made all your arrangements with Arturus before now, boys,” the Colonel remarked presently.
Jack explained to him what they had done, andafter hearing all about it the Colonel shook his head.
“I’m more than half sorry now I promised to let you make the attempt,” he told them. “The dangers will be multiplied after the defeat the Turks have suffered today. They come down in places to the very shore, and you are apt to run upon some of them at any time. I’m afraid they will be feeling unusually ugly after the way my boys handled them.”
“But there seems to be no other way for me to get to the upper camp, Colonel,” remarked Amos eagerly.
“I’m sorry to say there isn’t at present, since we have no boat; and I understand just how anxious you must be to learn the truth. So I suppose I’ll have to salve my conscience by saying there’s no help for it. But I sincerely hope nothing may befall you on the road.”
The heartiness of his words, as well as his manner, convinced Jack that the Colonel felt more than a passing interest in their welfare. Perhaps the fact that Jack seemed to remind him ofhis own son, thousands of miles away from there, had more or less to do with that circumstance, though not everything.
They continued to chat as they sat there. When Jack began to see that the mind of their host was evidently turning toward his own affairs, of which he had enough to worry over, to be sure, he concluded that it might be well for himself and Amos to say good-bye.
“Here’s wishing you every good thing that your hearts long for,” said the Colonel, as he squeezed their hands at parting. “I hope you find your brother, Frank, and take him home with you to that old father who longs so to see him once more. I also deplore the necessity for his going, because he will be sorely missed here where every good man is needed.”
The boys would often think of the valiant Colonel. Should they return in safety to their native shores he had given them his home address where they could, if they chose, learn what his fate turned out to be. He spoke of the uncertain future with the grim look of a brave man, andsaid the chances were his life would have to be laid down, like countless others, for the cause they fought to win.
Jack had already glimpsed the young Greek, Arturus, who seemed to be hovering near by as though waiting for them to leave the hospitable board of the commanding officer. Presently they were joined by the intended guide. Jack, looking him over again, saw no reason to alter the former good opinion he had held of Arturus. He would prove loyal through everything, and they could place the utmost reliance on his honesty as well as his courage.
“It is yet too soon to start,” he told them; “much safer that we wait until another hour has passed. Then it may be we will stand a better chance of passing through without meeting any Turks who have come down near the water for some purpose.”
Accordingly they all sat down and talked. Jack was not sorry of a chance to pick up some information concerning the route the Greek expected to take them over. Besides, he believedthat, with a little encouragement, Arturus might tell them about some of the desperate undertakings in which, with Captain Zenos, he had been engaged in times past.
So the minutes glided on until finally the Greek announced it was time for them to be moving. The boys were soon ready, and the three of them glided out of the camp, no one offering the least objection, for the sentries had all been informed about their contemplated perilous trip to the upper camp.
Up to the time of their departure no sound from above proclaimed that the Turks in augmented numbers had come back to try and recover their lost trenches.