Part 11 (1/2)

The crew of their boat were delighted at hearing what the mids.h.i.+pmen had resolved to do, and pulled back to the sh.o.r.e with a will.

As they pa.s.sed Captain A--'s boat Adair sang out, ”There's an English flag left flying on the sh.o.r.e there, sir; those red-capped fellows will boast that they took it from us if we let it stay. May we go and get it?”

The commander of the expedition saw that if it was to be done, no time was to be lost, as the risk to be run would increase by delay, or the Egyptians might see the flag, and sally out and take it.

”A brave idea; go and prosper, my lads,” he answered promptly.

”Thank you, sir, thank you,” answered Murray and Adair in one breath, while their crew bent with all their might to their oars.

”Oh, Alick,” said Adair, ”I do so wish that Rogers was with us. This is just the thing of all others he would have liked.”

”I wish he was, indeed,” answered Murray. ”But I dare say something else will turn up before long in which he may be able to take a part.”

The boat very soon reached the sh.o.r.e. All the crew wanted to go on the expedition, but the mids.h.i.+pmen would only consent to take one. They had their cutla.s.ses by their sides, and pistols in their belts, but their arms were not likely to be of much use. The instant the boat's stem touched the beach, they sprang on sh.o.r.e; and, running along across the beach, scrambled over the first wall they encountered, and found themselves in the garden.

Scarcely were they there, when the sharp eyes of the enemy fell on them, and they were saluted with a hot fire of musketry.

”Skip about--dodge them--fly here--fly there; take care they don't hit you,” sang out Paddy, suiting the action to the word. ”The more we jump, the less chance we shall have of being hit.”

The mids.h.i.+pmen's movements, as they hurried on, were not unlike those of Wills-of-the-Wisp.

The enemy could not conceive what they had come for, and probably supposed that they were madmen who had escaped on sh.o.r.e, and were coming to join them. For a short time the firing ceased. As the smoke cleared off, those on board the s.h.i.+ps could see what was taking place, as well as could the enemy. Every gla.s.s was turned towards them. Jack among others recognised his friends, and saw what they were about. They were not wrong in supposing that he would long to be with them. He would have given a finger, or even a right arm, for the sake of being of their party.

On they went. They had another wall to get over. They climbed to the top of it. The enemy at last suspected what they were about, and came to the conclusion that if they were mad they had method in their madness, so they began once more furiously firing away at them. Eastern matchlocks are fortunately not like Enfield rifles; or their lives, if they had had nine, like cats, whom they so resembled in their activity, would not have been worth a moment's purchase. Murray and Adair raced on as merrily as if they had been playing a game of prisoner's base.

They clambered up a wall, at the top of which the flag-staff had been placed. They waved it about their heads; and, giving a loud cheer, down they leaped to the ground, where their companion was ready to receive them. Happily they did so, for the next moment a thick shower of musket-b.a.l.l.s came rattling across the spot they had left.

”Not hit, Alick?” asked Adair, as they scampered back as hard as their legs would carry them.

”No; I hope you are not,” said Murray.

”Can't say for a certainty,” answered Terence; ”I feel a funny stinging sensation in my side as if something or other was the matter.”

Whatever it was it did not impede his speed. At length it seemed to strike the Egyptians that though they could not manage to knock over the young giaours with their matchlocks they might with their scimitars; so a band of fierce-looking fellows with long moustachios, wonderfully wide breeches, and gleaming blades, sallied out of the fortress to endeavour to overtake them. The Egyptians ran very fast and felt very savage, but they might just as well have tried to catch three active tomcats. d.i.c.k Needham, their companion, was the first to perceive that the enemy was in pursuit of them.

”There's a lot on 'em a scampering after us, sir,” he observed coolly.

”All right,” answered Terence. ”Their friends inside the fort, then, will be less likely to keep firing at us; and I should like to see the followers of the prophet, whether Turk or Egyptian, who can catch us in a fair race like this.”

To do them justice, however, the enemy made good play over the ground.

The outside garden wall was reached and leaped, and now the three adventurers had a fair run for it along the beach towards their boat with the red-capped gentlemen, as Adair called them, in hot pursuit. A long straggling branch of a tree had been thrown upon the beach. Adair did not observe it, and suddenly he found himself toppled over on his head. He thought that he had broken his leg.

”Take the flag and run, Alick,” he exclaimed, throwing the flag-staff to Murray. ”Never mind me, I'm too much, hurt to move.”

”Not when I have a pair of legs to run off with you, sir,” cried d.i.c.k Needham, lifting Paddy upon his shoulders, running off with him as if he had been a baby. ”It was not for that, sir, that I comed here to look after you.”

Paddy felt that it was not a moment to stand on his dignity, so he was very much obliged to d.i.c.k for carrying him. Murray took the flag, but would not leave him till he had seen him hoisted upon d.i.c.k's shoulders.

Away they went then as before; but the Egyptians had gained considerably on them, and hallooed and shouted, and, worse than all, fired off their pistols with as good an aim as they could take, running as they were at full speed. Fortunately the bullets did not reach the fugitives; just then the latter caught sight of their boat, which they had left under shelter of a rock. The Egyptians did not see her, and so they ran on, which they otherwise would not have done. What was their surprise, then, to find themselves saluted with a round of grape-shot from a gun in her bows, and a volley of musketry, while a true British cheer reached their ears. d.i.c.k and Murray responded to it, and so did Paddy in a voice which showed that there was not much the matter with him, and all three very speedily tumbled into the boat, while the enemy turned tail and scampered back to the fort. The boat immediately shoved off to return to the frigate.