Part 12 (2/2)
”If it were,” said I, ”we should have been blown to little pieces by the guns of both sides before now!” If I had been offered all the world for a reward I could not have guessed our whereabouts, nor ere likely to do next, but I was very sure we had not reached Gallipoli
Presently the Turkish sea the boats There were but four boats, and they made clumsy work of it, but at last all four boats were in the water; and then Ranjoor Singh began at last to give his orders, in a voice and with an air that brought reassurance No man could command, as he did who had the least little doubt in his heart of eventual success There is even more conviction in a true ht at a tiht
”Fall the the first flat place you find on shore, and wait there forrope whether my feet could ever find the boat But the sailors pulled the rope's lower end, and I found ed into a space into which not one more man could have been crowded
The waves broke over us, and there was a very evil surf, but the distance to the shore was short and the sailors proved skilful We landed safely on a gravelly beach, not so very s (for aded the last few yards), and I hunted at once for a piece of level ground Just thereabouts it was all nearly level, so I fell ht men in within twenty yards of the surf, and waited I felt tempted to throw out pickets yet afraid not to obey iiven no order about pickets
I judge it tookall the es ashore At last in three boats caineer, and nearly all the crew Then I grew suddenly afraid and hot sweat burst out all overfrouide the rowers I could see that the shi+p was ! The shi+p's captain had cli close to it I went up to hi's work is this?” said I ”Speak!” I said, shaking hiue that I knew-but I shook hi wrapped in that great shawl of his, there was little he could do to prevent me
As I live, sahib, on the word of a Sikh I swear that not even in that instant did I doubt Ranjoor Singh I believed that the Turkish captain ht have played so and receding, dancing with the motion of the shi+p, and they believed themselves deserted
”Quick! Fire on him!” shouted soe!”
I never knehich trooper it ho raised that cry, although I went to soh like a hyena; and I heard the click of cartridges being thrust intothey endhei
”Look!” he said to lish ”VOILA!” said he in French ”REGARDEZ! Look-see!”
I did look, and I saw enough to ht was nearer to the water-quite a lot nearer I flung myself on the nearest trooper, whose rifle was already raised, and taken by surprise he loosed his weapon With it I beat the next ten men's rifles down, and they clattered on the beach That made the others pause and look at me
”Theto nity, yet with none too great success But in the principal nue with me At that I refused to have speech with theain, as befitted soldiers Falling in took time, especially as they did it sulkily; and when the noise of shi+fting feet was finished I heard oars thurounded ah juuards The boat's crew leaped into the water and hauled the boat high and dry, and as they did that I saw the shi+p's lantern disappear altogether
Ranjoor Singh went straight to the Turkish captain ”Your lish slowly-I wonder, sahib, oh, I have wondered a thousand tie to all of the!-”Your money,” said he, ”is in the boat in which I cao!”
The captain and his crew said nothing, but got into the boats and pushed away One of the boats was overturned in the surf, and there they left it, the sailors scraht and sound in two ather fire-wood!” he ordered
”Where shall dry wood be in all this rain?” said I
”Search!” said he
”Sahib,” said I, ”a fire would only betray our whereabouts”
”Are you deaf?” said he
”Nay!” I said
”Then obey!” said he So I took twentyfor what none of us believed was anywhere Yet within fifteen minutes we found a hut whose roof was intact, and therefore whose floor and inner parts were dry enough It was a little hut, of the length of perhaps the height of four ht of three-a h from floor to roof-beam It was unoccupied, but there was straw at one end-dry straw, on which doubtless guards had slept I left the h
I found hientle manner As I drew nearer I heard him say the word ”Wassmuss” Then I heard a trooper ask him, ”Where are we?” And he answered, ”Ye stand on Asia!” That was the first intimation I received that ere in Asia, and I felt suddenly lonely, for Asia is wondrously big, sahib
Whatever Ranjoor Singh had been saying to the ; for when I told him of my discovery of the hut he called theht, and endheiuards and struggling now and then to loose the wet thongs that were beginning to cut into his wrists He had not been trussed over-tenderly, but I noticed that Ranjoor Singh had ordered the gag removed
The hut stood alone, clear on all four sides, and after he had looked at it, Ranjoor Singhthe door, with hiendheiendheim into the hut, and he bade me stand in the door to watch him