Carry On! A Story of the Fight for Bagdad

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER II

  THE GAPING JAWS

  Burnet ascended to the highest point of the _tell_, and, unstrapping apair of field glasses, made a careful survey of his surroundings. Thecountry between himself and the river consisted mainly of swamp andmarsh, dotted with islands of various sizes. There were no dwellingswithin view, but Burnet knew that the region was inhabited, thoughsparsely, and the flight of the aeroplane, its descent near the _tell_,its subsequent departure, must have been noticed by a certain number ofArabs. Curiosity, if no other motive, would impel any who were near tohasten to the spot; but he saw no movement on all the wide expansearound except among the birds of the marsh; and reflecting that thoseArabs who had witnessed the return flight of the aeroplane would notguess that it had left a passenger behind, he restored the glasses totheir case, and prepared to complete the errand that had brought him tothe spot.

  Descending to the foot of the _tell_, he made his way to a wady thatbordered it on one side. A sluggish current of muddy water flowedthrough the channel, whose banks were thickly overgrown with reeds. Anumber of these he cut with his pocket-knife, binding the stalks withtendrils of a trailing plant. With this faggot of reeds in one handand the bundle he had taken from the aeroplane in the other, hereturned to the ruins on the tell. There he stuck the former in thegrinning mouth of one of the grotesque animals at the porch; then hepassed inside, and once more descended into the underground room, thistime, however, letting the stone slab drop into its place above.

  A few seconds later the bundle of reeds hanging out of the monster'smouth disappeared. The animal, so far from being a solid block, as itappeared, was hollow, and Burnet had climbed into it by means ofnotches in the wall at one corner of the cellar. He withdrew thereeds: next moment they reappeared at a similar orifice on the otherside of the figure, which, like Janus, was double-faced, and with thisroughly extemporised broom he swept a quantity of sand over the slab,until it was hidden sufficiently to pass unnoticed except by a carefulobserver acquainted with its position. This done, he drew the broomback and took it down with him to the dark and airless chamber below.

  If any watching Arab had seen the young British officer disappear intothe earth, he would have been somewhat startled, some twenty minuteslater, when the slab was lifted again and an Arab lad cautiouslyemerged. His head was swathed in a strip of parti-coloured cloth heldin position by two thick rings of camel's hair; a dirty, shapeless,yellowish robe descended to his knees; his legs, remarkably brown, werebare; his feet were encased in leather-thonged sandals. He carried asmall bundle; across his shoulder was slung a British regulationwater-bottle--the only article by which he could have beendistinguished from the boatmen who might be seen any day on the Tigris.He lowered the slab, swept sand over it, obliterated the footprintsaround, and having thrust his reed-broom into the mouth of the stoneanimal, picked his way through the ruins to the north-west corner ofthe _tell_, where an uninterrupted view of the country could beobtained.

  He was just turning the corner of a rugged wall when, beneath him at adistance of barely twenty yards, he saw a young Arab rushing up theslope, stumbling, recovering himself, his eyes directed always to hisfeet. Burnet edged backwards round the corner, and was out of sightwhen the Arab gained the top. But there was now only a few yardsbetween them; in a second or two the Arab would himself turn thecorner, and Burnet saw that if he made a dash for the nearest cover inhis rear he must inevitably be observed by the stranger before he couldreach it. Whipping out a pistol as a precaution--for he knew notwhether the Arab was friend or foe--he stood back. The Arab dartedround the corner at racing speed, saw the pistol pointed at him, andswerving slightly grabbed at Burnet's wrist. The sudden wrench jerkedthe pistol out of his hands and at the same time caused both men tolose their balance. Burnet, the first to recover himself, freed hisarm with a dexterous twist, and the two men closed, stumbling andswaying over the broken surface of the _tell_.

  THE STRUGGLE ON THE TELL]

  As soon, however, as Burnet got a firm hold the issue was not long indoubt. The Arab wriggled like an eel, but he was no match for theEnglishman either in physical strength or in athletic skill. Moreoverhe was already winded by his impetuous rush over the heavy ground.Burnet freed himself without much difficulty from his opponent's grip:then, getting his hand behind the Arab's neck in the position known tothe wrestler as the "half-nelson," he forced him downwards and finallythrew him helpless into a pocket of sand. In a few seconds he hadsecured the man's weapons--a clumsy pistol and a crooked dagger called_shabriyeh_--and regained his own pistol. Then he stood above theArab, who now lay on his back, staring up at the supposed fellow-Arabwho had thrown him so easily and in a manner so unfamiliar.

  The stranger was no older than Burnet himself. He was an Arab of thebest type, with handsome features and intelligent and fearless eyes.

  "Rise, I pray you, brother," said Burnet in Arabic. "We have somewhatto say one to the other."

  The Arab got up quickly. Puzzled as he had been by the wrestlingtrick, he was still more puzzled by the friendly manner of the man whohad vanquished him, and especially by the slight smile that accompaniedhis words. He fixed his keen eyes on Burnet's face, but said nothing.

  "I am alone here, as you see," Burnet went on, "and in these times,when it is hard to know friends from foes, a man must needs take care.We are strangers, yet it may be that we are also friends."

  The Arab assented merely with a word, but did not relax his attitude ofwatchfulness. This man who spoke to him used good Arabic, but was moredirect and less given to expletives than the average Arab.

  "You are my captive," Burnet continued. "Tell me who you are, whenceyou come, and why you ran hither in such headlong haste."

  "My lips are dry; give me drink," said the Arab.

  "By the grace of Allah I have fresh water--not like the foul water ofthe swamp," said Burnet, unscrewing the stopper of his water-bottle."Drink, brother."

  The young man took a deep draught, returned the bottle with a word ofthanks, and said:

  "My tongue will speak true things, and Allah judge between us."

  Burnet threw a keen glance around the horizon, then sat down on abroken block of stone, inviting the Arab to sit opposite him. And thenthe young man began his story.

  His name was Rejeb, and he was the chief of a clan of the Anazeh whoseterritory lay on the far side of the Euphrates. His father, now someyears dead, had been a lifelong rebel against the Turkish rule, and inhis last year had suffered a disastrous defeat through the defectionand treachery of another chief who had been his ally. In this finalbattle he had lost his life; his people had escaped extermination onlyby fleeing into the desert. Since the outbreak of the Great War theyhad gradually reoccupied their old districts, the Turks having enoughto do without taking measures to suppress so unimportant an enemy. Itwas otherwise, however, with the treacherous tribe which had been hisfather's ruin. For some time its chief, Halil, had made no sign: hisfighting strength was greatly reduced through the fact that many of hismen were with the Turks. But after the British failure to relieve Kuthe had collected a considerable force, and taking advantage of Rejeb'sabsence at Kerbela he had first cut off the young man's tribe and thenattacked it. The tribe, after a stout resistance, had made good itsretreat across the Euphrates, to a fastness in the swamps. Rejeb, onhis way back from Kerbela, had been met by a messenger with news of thereverse, and, changing his route in order to rejoin his people, hadbeen chased by a party of Halil's horsemen. In eluding them he hadlost touch with the messenger who had hitherto accompanied him; hishorse had foundered, and the only course then open to him was to swimthe Euphrates on a skin. This he had done, and thought himself safe,when the reappearance of his pursuers revived his anxieties.Fortunately their horses were useless in the swamps, and on foot he hadreasonable hope of escaping them. An hour or so, however, before hisarrival at the _tell_, he had only just succeeded in giving their mainparty the slip. The direction of his flight
had been seen by three orfour of their number who had separated from the rest, and he did notdoubt that these three or four, if not the whole body, had tracked himand before long would reach the _tell_.

  Rejeb's story was told rapidly, and with an air of sincerity that wouldhave disarmed suspicion even in one far more sceptical by nature thanRoger Burnet. The news that men of a hostile tribe in Turkish pay werehastening to this spot was very disturbing. Burnet knew that he was infully as much danger from his captive's pursuers as the captivehimself. His disguise might pass muster; the story he had invented toaccount for the presence of a solitary boatman so far from the river,if he were challenged, was sufficiently plausible; but if he was foundin the company of the young chief whom Halil's men were hounding downhe would certainly be seized and carried to Halil for examination atleast. He had very little time in which to secure himself.

  The obvious course was to release Rejeb, who would no doubt continue inthe direction he had been going, and as soon as he was out of sight, totake refuge in the subterranean room until the chase was past. But theyoung chief was jaded, worn out by his hurried flight and thesubsequent struggle on the tell. It was almost certain that he wouldbe run down. Burnet had taken an instinctive liking to him; he couldnot give him up to his enemies, who were at the same time enemies ofthe British. After a few moments' reflection he turned suddenly to theArab and said:

  "If I save you from the hands of Halil, will you swear by the beard ofthe Prophet not to play me false?"

  Rejeb was apparently staggered by this strange offer from a man withwhom, a few minutes before, he had been locked in fierce struggle--aman, moreover, who had given no account of himself and about whom therewas something mysterious. He flashed a keen questioning glance atBurnet, as if fearful of a trap.

  "You are no boatman?" he said slowly.

  "And if I am not? What is that to you if I am a friend?"

  The Arab hesitated for a brief moment. Then perhaps it occurred to himthat his situation could scarcely be worse than it was; perhaps he wasmutually attracted to this young man of his own age. At any rate,after the slightest pause, he said, raising his hand:

  "By the beard of the Prophet I swear it."

  During this conversation the two men had remained behind the wall,Burnet every now and then peering through a gap in the masonry in thedirection from which the Arab had come. He now suggested that Rejebshould go to the corner and keep watch for the pursuers. Having lefthis field glasses with the rest of his equipment in the undergroundroom, he was less able than the keener-sighted Arab to view the distantcountry.

  Rejeb went to the corner and flattened himself against the wall withthe instinct for cover natural to a dweller in the wilds. In a fewmoments he beckoned to Burnet with one hand, the rest of his bodyremaining motionless. When Burnet joined him, he asked him to look ata large bed of rushes some distance to the north-west. Shading hiseyes with his hand, and careful not to expose himself, Burnet gazedtowards the spot indicated, and was soon able to make out five or sixfigures moving among the reeds and advancing straight towards the tell.Burnet led the Arab to the central ruins and through the porch to theentrance of the underground room. Raising the slab they descended;then Burnet mounted into the interior of the colossal animal in whichhe had left his broom, and swept sand over the slab and the nearestfootprints as before. He had hardly withdrawn the broom when he heardshuffling footsteps on the rough ground beyond the wall, and looked outthrough the wide mouth of the image. It was almost completely darkwithin, and in the unlikely event of any enquirer thinking to peer intothe jaws of the colossus he could escape discovery by stooping.

  In a few minutes a tall Arab appeared round the corner of the wall. Hewas followed at short intervals by four others. All were stalwartsinewy warriors of the desert, bristling with arms. They huntedthrough the ruins like a pack of dogs that have lost the scent. Hereone would point to the impressions of sandals, and the rest followedhim as he traced them along the wall and up to the portico. Burnetwatched them without much anxiety, for he had taken care that notell-tale footmarks remained around the slab; and knowing that thetracks that were visible led both towards and away from the ruins, heguessed that the Arabs would suppose that their quarry had come andreturned. Their actions justified him. They traced the marks back tothe wall, then back again to the portico, beneath which they stood toconsult together. From the few words that Burnet caught it was clearthat they had seen Rejeb mount the tell, and they supposed that he hadcrossed it and pursued his journey on the other side. Presently one ofthem climbed a pile of rubbish from which he could scan the surroundingcountry. The fugitive could not have gone any great distance, and hemust become visible on one or other of the open spaces between the bedsof rushes. The scout's four companions meanwhile threw themselves downin the shade of the portico to rest.

  Secure in his hiding-place, Burnet felt some amusement at thesituation. He went down to the chamber beneath, and, warning Rejebagainst making any sound, took him up to his peep-hole and showed himthe figure of his enemy looking for him. It was some time before theArab gave up his vain task and returned to his companions. They cameto the conclusion that the fugitive must be lying hidden among therushes near the _tell_, and separating, started to scour the vicinitythoroughly. They went methodically through clump after clump untilBurnet grew tired of watching them. Not until it was getting late inthe afternoon did their perseverance give out. Baffled, weary, andangry at their failure, they rested awhile on the _tell_ and ate someof the food they had brought with them; then they set off to return theway they had come.

  Burnet was glad enough to win release at last from his stuffy quarters.Emerging with Rejeb, he made all secure, and prepared to resume themission which the day's events had interrupted. In the undergroundchamber he had already returned the young Arab's arms, and discussedwith him his subsequent movements. Rejeb would continue his journey tohis people, who were a march away to the south-east. He was full ofgratitude to his rescuer, and begged to know how he might serve him.

  "Surely it is right that I should serve the saviour of my life," hesaid; "and my people also: they shall know that in serving him theyserve me."

  "We will not talk of service now," replied Burnet. "Who can tell thefuture?"

  "At least let me know the name of my preserver: how else can I speak ofhim rightly to my people, and bid them watch for opportunities ofserving him?"

  "Call me Yusuf the boatman," said Burnet, after a slight hesitation."By that name I am known to some in Bagdad and elsewhere. It may bethat some day we shall meet again."

  As soon as darkness made it safe to leave the _tell_ they parted.Rejeb took his way to the south-east; Burnet set off north-west throughthe swamps, in the direction followed by Rejeb's pursuers.