CHAPTER XXV.
"Who comes here?" cried the sentinel at the bottom of the steep roadwhich led up to the gate at the rear of the town of Sfetigrade.
The man thus challenged made no reply except to speak sharply to alarge hound he was leading, and which was struggling to break awayfrom him. In his engrossment with the brute he did not seem to haveheard the challenge. As he came nearer the sentinel eyed him with apuzzled, but half-comical look, as he soliloquized,--
"Ah, by the devil in the serpent's skin, I know him this time. He isthe Albanian Turk we were nigh to hamstringing. If I mistake that redhead again it will be when my own head has less brain in it than willbalance it on a pike-staff, where Colonel Kabilovitsch would put it ifI molested this fellow again. I'll give him the pass word, instead oftaking it from him; that will make up for past mistakes."
The sentinel saluted the new comer with a most profound courtesy, and,shouldering his spear, marched hastily past him, ogling him with asidelong knowing look.
"Tako mi Marie!"[60]
"Tako mi Marie!" responded the man, adding to himself, "but this isfortunate; the fellow must be crazy. I thought I should have had tobrain him at least."
As he passed by, the sentinel stood still, watching him, and muttered,
"How should I know but Castriot himself is in that dog's hide."
The dog turned and, attracted by the soldier's attitude, uttered a lowgrowl.
"Tako mi Marie! and all the other saints in heaven too, but I believeit is the general in disguise," said the sentinel.
"Tako mi Marie!" said the stranger saluting the various guards, whomhe passed without further challenge, through the town gates and up tothe main street.
The great well, from which the beleaguered inhabitants of Sfetigradedrew the only water now accessible, since the Turks had so closelyinvested the town, was not far from the citadel. It was very deep,having been cut through the great layers of rock upon which the uppertown stood. Above it was a great wheel, over the outer edge of whichran an endless band of leather; the lower end dipping into the waterthat gleamed faintly far below. Leathern sockets attached to this beltanswered for buckets, which, as the wheel was turned, lifted the waterto the top, whence it ran into a great stone trough. The well wasguarded by a curb of stones which had originally been laid compactlytogether; but many of them had been removed, and used to hurl downfrom the walls of the citadel upon the heads of the Turks when theytried to scale them.
The dog, panting with the heat, mounted one of the remaining stones,and stretched his long neck far down to sniff the cool water whichglistened a hundred feet below him. The man shouted angrily to thebeast, and so clumsily attempted to drag him away that both dog andstone were precipitated together into the well.
"A grapple! a rope!" shouted the man to a crowd who had seen theaccident from a distance. "Will no one bring one?" he cried withapparent anger at their slow movements--"Then I must get one myself."
The crowd rushed toward the well. The man disappeared in the oppositedirection.
It was several hours before the dead dog was taken from the pollutedwater. The Dibrian soldiers refused to drink from it. The superstitioncommunicated itself like an epidemic, to the other inhabitants. For aday or two bands sallied from Sfetigrade, and brought water from theplain: but it was paid for in blood, for the Turkish armies, aware ofthe incident almost as soon as it occurred, drew closer their lines,and stationed heavy detachments of Janizaries at the springs andstreams for miles around. The horrors of a water-famine were upon thegarrison. In vain did the officers rebuke the insane delusion. Thecommon soldiers, not only would not touch the water, but regarded theaccident as a direct admonition from heaven that the town must besurrendered. Appeals to heroism, patriotism, honor, were less potentthan a silly notion which had grown about the minds of an otherwisenoble people--as certain tropical vines grow so tough and in suchgradually lessening spirals about a stalwart tree that they choke theascending sap and kill it. They who would have drunk were preventedby the others who covered the well with heavy pieces of timber, andstood guard about it.
FOOTNOTE:
[60] Help me, Mary!
The Captain of the Janizaries Page 25
