The Air Patrol: A Story of the North-west Frontier

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST

  THE FRONTIER HOUSE

  Some ninety miles southward of the tower in which Major Endicott hadbeen besieged, on the bare summit of a low hill, stood a solitarybuilding of stone, known to the British officers of the borderland as afrontier house. It had no pretentions to architectural excellence,consisting of a square tower, somewhat resembling a truncatedchimney-stack, crowned by a small turret on a platform, which lookedlike a square straight-brimmed Quaker hat. Adjoining the tower was asloping wall twenty feet high, that formed one side of an enclosure,within which were a number of rudely built huts, set up against theinward side of the wall. Neither tower nor wall had any windows, but inthe latter a doorway gave entrance to the interior.

  One day Dafadar Narrain Khan was squatting with a few of his sowars onthe wall of the enclosure, looking out over the country before him. Thebuilding commanded a prospect extending for many miles. Its immediatevicinity was barren, stony ground; one scraggy tree raised its wizenedbranches at the angle of the wall. A narrow track wound through thiswilderness from the doorway down the hill to the plain below, meanderingnorthward among boulders and patches of sparse vegetation until it waslost to sight amid the dark pine-trees that covered the lower slopes ofthe distant hills. Beyond, as far as the eye could reach, these hillsstretched, an endless series of scarps and eminences, cleft by tortuousravines and breaking away here and there into sheer precipices. In theremote distance, a jagged snow-clad ridge flashed with purple and goldin the rays of the sun. In the opposite direction, southward, thecountry was rugged but less hilly. A metalled road wound away into thedistance. At regular intervals on one side of it stood tall posts,carrying a telegraph wire that emerged from a hole in the tower wall.

  As the troopers sat there chatting, with their rifles in the hollow oftheir arms, there was a sudden cry from the sentinel posted alone on thetop of the tower.

  "Hai, dafadar! I see a speck moving in the sky far away," he shouted.

  "How far away, Coja?" called the dafadar.

  "Seven kos at least," was the reply.

  "The speck is in your own eye, my son," cried the dafadar, and the menabout him laughed: Coja was always seeing something!

  The sentinel shouted a word of expostulation, then was silent, and theothers resumed the conversation he had interrupted.

  Half an hour passed away. The time came for changing the guard. One ofthe men rose, sauntered along the wall, disappeared through a narrowopening in the tower, and presently emerged on the summit. Apparentlyhe had a brief altercation with the man he had relieved. In five minutesCoja came from the tower along the wall.

  "Wah! you may mock, dafadar," he said; "but I declare by the beard of myfather I saw a speck--a black speck moving."

  "You have chewed too much betel, Coja," said the dafadar with composure."I too have seen dancing specks when my stomach was out of order."

  "Yes, but do those motes in the eye grow larger? Do they swell from thesize of a pinpoint to the size of a little bird, and then to a greatone? I thought at first it was peradventure an eagle of the mountains,but, inshallah! no eagle could look so large such a great way off. Isthere a bird bigger than an eagle? Speak out of your great knowledge,dafadar."

  "There is none, foolish one--none that flies, though I have heard of agreat bird that runs upon the ground swifter than the iron horse thatruns on rails; the mem-sahibs wear its feathers in their hats."

  "Hai! what was this great thing, then? I saw it, and rubbed my eyes,and lo! when I looked again, it wheeled about, and soared away towardsthe Afghan country, and passed behind a crag yonder, and I saw it nomore."

  "Wonderful eyes you have, Coja, and a wonderful tongue! Do we not knowyour tales? What of the tiger with two heads you saw once in a tree? andthe elephant that caught you up and put you on his head? and that timewhen you swallowed a cherry-stone, and leaves began to sprout among yourhair? Wah! we know his stories, my children; we know how the lies flowout of his mouth like water from a spring."

  "Mashallah! Do I not speak truth?" cried the man indignantly. He was aby-word for romancing among his fellows, and, like all liars, resentedany imputation on his veracity. "There is no wisdom in you. Many agreat thing that I have told you you have believed: now when I tell youa little thing, you say 'Wah! he is a liar.'"

  "But it was a great thing you saw, Coja-ji--bigger than an eagle, saidyou, when we know there is nothing bigger than an eagle that flies. Wah!at least when you are on duty, you must resist these promptings of theEvil One, else it will end in Jehannum. And look you, Coja, when yourturn for watching comes again, keep your eyes on the ground, my friend;do not look for the stars in daylight."

  Highly offended, the man walked away, descended the steps within thewall, and retired to sulk, like Achilles, in his tent.

  About an hour later the dafadar and his men, who had scarcely changedtheir position, were again hailed from the roof.

  "A speck on the track, dafadar," cried the sentinel; "moving this way,like a fly crawling, very far off."

  "Hai! that is news," said the dafadar, slowly rising to his feet. "Aspeck on the ground is worth looking at; in the sky it proceeds fromovereating." Raising his voice, he called to the sentinel: "Hai, Selim,I come to see."

  Followed by several of the troopers, he mounted to the roof, and takingthe telescope from Selim's hand, examined the track, tracing it back formiles until he discerned the moving object. So remote was it that evenwith the telescope he could distinguish it only as a human being:whether shepherd, mendicant, or fakir he could not tell, and a singlepedestrian must, he thought, be one of these three.

  "Perhaps he is a dak runner from Ennicott Sahib," suggested one of themen. "The sahib went in that direction."

  "Wah! a dak runner would run, not crawl," said another. "Let us lookthrough the long glass, dafadar."

  The telescope was passed round. No one could as yet identify thefigure. They were all keenly interested. For several days they had notseen a solitary man outside the walls, though they had kept unremittingwatch, having been instructed to be on the alert to discover anymovements of men in that region. The figure approached slowly--tooslowly for their impatience. All eyes were riveted upon it, and whenSelim with the telescope reported that it was completely clad in khakiuniform and not in shepherd's choga, or the scanty tatters of amendicant, the troopers' excitement grew.

  "Hai! he stops!" cried Selim presently. "He waves a white cloth. It isa signal, dafadar."

  Narrain Khan took the telescope and gazed at the figure. He felt alittle perplexed as to what he ought to do. In time of peace he wouldnot have hesitated to send out a couple of men to discover who thestranger was; but there were rumours of war, and the Captain Sahib hadgiven orders that no man should be allowed to leave the post exceptunder the gravest circumstances. He wondered whether the present casecame within his licence. The man was clad in khaki: that was somethingin his favour. He was waving a white flag: that was reassuring. He hadseated himself on a knoll beside the track: perhaps he wanted help.

  The dafadar lowered the telescope and turned to his men.

  "Go, you two," he said, "ride out on your ponies and see who thestranger is, and what his business. Have a care, lest there arebadmashes lurking near. The stranger may be a decoy. Have a care, Isay, for when you have ridden down the slope we cannot protect you."

  The men descended through the tower, and were presently seen trottingdown the track. Every yard of their progress was followed intently bythe garrison. Their diminishing forms were lost to the watchers atintervals through the windings of the track and the inequalities of theground. Presently they were seen, little more than dots, moving side byside along the straight stretch at the farther end of which the solitarystranger could still be discerned.

  They approached him, came to a halt, and dismounted. After a minute ortwo the party separated. Two men proceeded northward along the tra
ck,one on horseback, the other on foot. The third man rode in the oppositedirection towards the house.

  The whole garrison of eighteen men were now mustered, some on the roof,some on the wall, silent, their eyes fixed on the slowly approachinghorseman. By and by it was seen that he was not either of the two whohad lately ridden down. Then the dafadar, who had the telescope at hiseyes, suddenly exclaimed:

  "Mashallah! It is Ennicott Sahib!"

  Amid a chorus of ejaculations he hurried down to the courtyard, mountedhis horse, and galloped down the track to meet the officer. Thestrangeness of that meeting formed the theme of a discourse to the menof the garrison later in the day.

  "When I came near enough to see the face of the huzur," said NarrainKhan, "I beheld that it was the face of a sick man. His left arm hungstraight at his side like the broken leg of a sheep. I was on the pointof invoking the mercy of Allah upon the huzur--is he not the light ofour eyes?--when his great voice sounded in my ears like the voice of atrumpet, and before even I could make my salaam he cried--what think youwere the words of the great one?"

  "'Water, for I am athirst,'" suggested one man.

  "Wah! does the huzur think of himself? You speak as a witless babe."

  "'Is all well?'" said another.

  "Wah!" cried the dafadar with scorn and indignation. "Could theheaven-born ask so foolish a question knowing that I, Narrain Khan, amin charge of this house? No: the words of the huzur--and they were verystrange--were these: 'Hai, dafadar! have you got any paraffin?'"

  "Inshallah! what is paraffin to the heaven-born? And what said you,dafadar?"

  "I was so astonished that I could but speak out the simple truth.'Truly, sahib!' said I, 'we have some few tins with which to replenishour lamps.' And then the huzur commanded me to send six men with onelarge tin, that one man might easily carry, along the track to the footof the hills yonder, and give it to a sahib they would find recliningthere."

  "Another sahib! Who is he?"

  "And for what purpose the paraffin, dafadar?"

  "That I know not. The huzur did not tell me that, but told me that hehad already sent to the sahib those two young men I had ordered to meethim. And you saw how, when the huzur dismounted at the gate, hestaggered, and caught me to prop him: and when I asked him to lie downand let us see to his hurt, he made that sound with the lips that thesahibs make when they are impatient, as if I had said some foolishthing, and bade me lead him straightway to the clicking-room, and therehe is now: you can hear the clicking-devil, like little hammers tapping.Truly I begin to think there are many strange things to tell the Sirkarfar away."

  "Hai! I did see a speck in the sky," said Coja solemnly.

  Major Endicott, though half fainting with pain and exhaustion, had gonestraight to the room in which the telegraph instruments were kept, andshut himself in. For nearly an hour he worked at the keys with arapidity acquired by much practice. Before he had finished, the secondinstrument at his side was mechanically recording the answers to hismessage. Having read these off, he staggered to the door and summonedthe dafadar.

  "Fenton Sahib will be here in three hours," he said. "There will bealso the sahib from the hills. Get some food and a bath ready for him,and tell Hosein to come and see to my arm."

  Some two hours later the Major was awakened from a profound sleep by ahubbub among the men on the wall. Going out to them, he found themexcitedly watching an aeroplane soaring rapidly towards them from thehills. Coja was loudly proclaiming that the flying object proved histruthfulness: no one could any longer deny that he had seen a speck inthe sky.

  A few minutes after it had been sighted the aeroplane sank to rest onthe open space in front of the tower. Loud cries of wonder broke fromthe men when there stepped out of it a young sahib, limping slightly,followed by one of the two sowars who had gone out to meet the major.The trooper greeted his comrades with an air of triumph, and swaggeredup to them with an ineffable look of importance. They surrounded him,and listened with admiring envy while he detailed his first impressionsof flight through the air.

  Meanwhile the Major took Lawrence into the officers' room, where hebathed, and ate the lunch Narrain Khan had provided. He had justfinished when there was the clatter of hoofs outside, and in a fewminutes entered Captain Fenton, who had ridden up with half a dozensowars from the fort fifteen miles to the south.

  "Hullo, major, you look pretty dicky!" said the newcomer, glancingcuriously from the major's bandaged arm to Lawrence.

  "Yes, I've had a knock. Let me introduce you. LawrenceAppleton--you've heard of Harry Appleton--Captain Fenton."

  "I see they've sent us an aeroplane, Endicott," said the captain,shaking hands with Lawrence. "An unexpected gift! I thought all theaeroplanes were scouting Kabul way--all there are; they've got a dozenor so, on paper, and a regiment of airmen, also on paper: most of usbelieved they weren't born yet! Which way did you come, Mr. Appleton?"

  "You'd better sit down and listen, Fenton," the major interposed."There's a lot to say, and not much time to say it in. We're in for thehottest time since the Mutiny--and if I'm not mistaken, hotter than theMutiny at its worst: I mean generally, for there won't be any Cawnporesor Lucknows, I hope. You know that the Afghans are up?"

  "Yes: we've mobilized along the frontier: they won't get across."

  The Major smiled grimly.

  "After I'd wired you to come in," he said, "I got into communicationwith the Chief at Peshawar and the Viceroy at Delhi. The Amir has justfled to Peshawar: Kabul's in the hands of the Mongols."

  "By Jove!"

  "The cat's out of the bag at last. That huge concentration aboutBokhara was not to be launched at Russia after all. I suppose we weretoo self-assured to twig it--just as in the Mutiny time. Plenty ofinformation, little imagination. But we have it now. There are prettynearly half a million of the fiercest ruffians in Central Asia marchingdown on us--almost all mounted, and they're fellows who live onhorseback, and are moving with amazing speed. They've cajoled or boughtover the best part of the Afghans--silly fools, for if the Mongols beatus they'd swallow Afghanistan for dessert. There are a hundred thousandin and about Kabul."

  "It's astonishing that they managed to keep things so quiet. They musthave been intriguing and negotiating for months."

  "Again, just as in the Mutiny. I've not heard of chapattis passinground, but they've had their secret signs, without doubt. The one goodthing about the present circumstances is that the Afghans are notactually on the march yet. They're probably waiting to see how the catjumps. Of course we've always relied on them more or less as a bufferagainst Russia, calculating that they'd hold up the invaders at Heratuntil we'd had time to line the frontier. Anyway, we can't expect anyhelp from them now, for if they're not actually hand in glove with theMongols they're neutral, for a time. You said we'd mobilized, didn'tyou? I've been away a fortnight."

  "Yes. With the most tremendous exertions we've got 100,000 men acrossthe frontier, and they're holding the passes. Only just in time,evidently. It ought to have been an easy job: and so it was--on paper.But it's years since the paper scheme was drawn up, and they've beenparing down in the usual British way--economizing, they call it. Theresult is that arrangements for transport and supplies are all at sixesand sevens. They've had to reduce the frontier garrisons to mereskeletons in order to make up the strength of the field army."

  "The Chief wired me just now that troops are being pushed up from allparts, but the railways are so horribly congested that it'll be weeksbefore they're on the spot. I fancy I made him jump with my news."

  "You've got something fresh then?"

  "There are twenty thousand Kalmucks marching up the Nogi valley."

  "The Nogi valley! But I've always understood it's impassable. Isn'tthat where poor old Harry Appleton has his mine? ... Beg pardon, I'msure," he added, turning to Lawrence. "I forgot he's a relative ofyours."

  "My uncle," said Lawrence.

  "I'm glad to think it is for the
moment impassable," said the major,"owing to the pluck and readiness of Appleton here and his brother. Butthe Kalmucks traded on our self-confidence. No one would have dreamedthat any considerable force would try to push its way up that difficulttrack; they _are_ trying it, and their object, without a doubt, is tocut the communications of the army operating in Afghanistan. If theypenetrate to fifty miles this side of the Appleton mine nothing but awhole division can check them. The Chief wired that he can't spare aman at the moment, and said the valley must be held at all costs for aweek."

  "But man alive, that's impossible! We haven't three hundred men alltold within a hundred miles of it. If we rushed them down for all wewere worth three hundred couldn't hold off twenty thousand."

  "Well no, and you'd never get there. But as it happens the Chief wasonly acting on something I had told him. It's a long story, and mustkeep. But the short of it is that Harry Appleton's two nephews--poorchap! he's gone himself--brought out an aeroplane--the one you sawoutside: you might be sure it wasn't a service machine! By the merestaccident they happened to see this Kalmuck force encamped, and aftersome pretty stirring passages which I'll tell you some other time, theyblocked up the track just below the mine; it will keep the enemy busyfor a while."

  "Congratulate you," said the captain to Lawrence. "Not in the service,are you?"

  "No."

  "He is in training, Fenton," said the major with a smile. "By the helpof his aeroplane he got me out of a very tight place, and I went down tothe mine to see for myself how the land lay. An accident to theaeroplane kept me there for a day. When it was repaired we made areconnaissance down the river. Near the mine there was a striking forceof about a thousand men--as many as could operate with any effect on sonarrow a track. Some thirty miles farther down we saw a couple of fieldguns being dragged up; and the main body of the enemy was still encampedat the mouth of the valley, waiting for the way to be cleared. It was amasterly notion to dynamite the rock; indeed, as far as I could see, BobAppleton had left nothing undone to secure his position. Of course it'san uncommonly tight place; very likely nine fellows out of ten--or we'llsay eight!--wouldn't have attempted to hold it: but you know theAppleton breed, Fenton: and if they can only stick it out for a week, asthe Chief wishes, by George! the Government of India will have reason tosay thank you."

  "Your arm's paining you, I see," said Captain Fenton, as the majorwinced.

  "Nothing to speak of. It was a bit of rank bad luck. Of course, seeingwhat the game was, I felt I must wire the Chief at once, and Lawrenceoffered to bring me here in his aeroplane. We came along swimminglyuntil we had got about half way: saw nothing of the enemy: and thenrather suddenly struck a rabble of about two thousand men marchingsouthward. We came down rather too low, to get a good look at them.They opened fire, and one of their shots tore my arm from shoulder toelbow. If we had made a straight course we shouldn't have met trouble:but naturally I wanted to pick up any information I could. Unluckily ingoing criss-cross we consumed a good deal of petrol, and when it becamenecessary to replenish the tank from the reserve cans, we found thatthey'd been bored with holes during our peppering; one was empty, in theother there were a few spoonfuls at the bottom below the level of thehole. This only lasted a few miles, and then we had to come down, inthe hills yonder."

  "Rough luck!" said Captain Fenton, turning sympathetically to Lawrence."You must have felt pretty mad. How did you bring the machine in?"

  "I happened to mention when we were talking things over that paraffinwould do at a pinch, and the major said he was pretty sure they wouldhave some here, and insisted on tramping over to get some sent up."

  "Well, you see, he's got a game foot," said the major. "Sprained hisankle two days ago. My legs are sound, at any rate. But I was prettydead beat before I got here, and was glad enough to borrow the mount ofone of the men Narrain sent to meet me. He and the other fellow went onto keep Appleton company, and as soon as the paraffin was sent up, theaeroplane came flying in with the sowar on board as a passenger. He wasbubbling with delight, and no doubt will be a hero among the men for therest of his days."

  "Mr. Appleton wants to get back to the mine, of course," said thecaptain.

  "Yes: there's enough paraffin for that. How are matters round the fort,Fenton?"

  "The tribes are pretty quiet at present. They've held several jirgahs todiscuss what line they shall take. That depends on who scores the firstpoint. If we can only convince them that we're not going to knuckleunder, I daresay they'll stick to us. But it wouldn't take much to turnthe scale on the other side. The crowd that fired at you are marchingthis way, you said?"

  "They'll be hereabouts some time to-morrow, and probably a lot more, forwe caught sight of other parties, not so large, threading the valleys tothe west. The whole country north-west of us is rising."

  "That's bad. I can't hope to keep the tribes about the fort quiet afterthese thousands come on the scene."

  "I must see what I can do."

  "You ought to be in hospital. If you had let me know you'd been hit I'dhave brought the medico with me."

  "Good thing you didn't. He'd have been so disappointed!"

  "No operation required, you mean," said Captain Fenton laughing. "Hedoes love his knife."

  "And fork!" added the major drily. "He shall have a look at my armto-morrow. I propose to return with you to the fort. We must blow thisplace up. You can hold your own there for some time against a goodnumber, and reinforcements will be hurried up as rapidly as possible.Then I must try the velvet glove with the tribesmen. There won't bemuch time to do anything with them before those men we saw get south;but if you discourage them with hot lead at the fort it will help....This is all very hard on you, Appleton."

  "That's all right," said Lawrence. "I was only wishing I had broughtmore of our bombs with me. I might have checked those hillmen and givenyou more time."

  "But that would have involved your remaining in this neighbourhood, andyou are wanted at the mine. A bomb or two dropped in flying over wouldhave scattered them for the moment, but they'd have collected again assoon as you were past. I don't know how much paraffin we've got to giveyou. No: there's better work for you. You'll convey the Chief'smessage to your brother: hold the gorge for a week at all costs. I'll domy best to get reinforcements through. It's vitally important to keepthose Kalmucks in check. The fate of India hangs in the balance."

  Preparations were made for the evacuation of the house on the followingmorning. Having taken on board more than enough paraffin to carry himback to the mine, together with a dozen rifles and several thousandrounds of ammunition, Lawrence bade the officers good-bye, and startedimmediately after breakfast. A few minutes after his departure a dullboom proclaimed that the tower had been blown up and the garrison was onthe march for the south.

  Major Endicott had advised him to fly high so as to avoid the risk offurther accident if he should encounter the enemy. Some ten miles fromthe tower he caught sight of them: they appeared like an army of antscrawling on the ground. A few shots were fired at him, but he was farout of effective range, and in a few minutes disappeared from theirview.

  A little uneasy at first as to the staying power of the paraffin, he wassoon reassured. In less than an hour he struck the western extremity ofthe valley, and he flew down it at full speed, maintaining a greataltitude in case Nurla Bai and his party should be still on the track orin the hills above.

  He had almost reached the mine when he heard sounds of rapid firing.The attack, then, had begun in earnest.