Tom Willoughby's Scouts: A Story of the War in German East Africa

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER IX--A DELAYING ACTION

  Damocles, at the sumptuous banquet of Dionysius of Syracuse, no doubtate with a very good appetite, for Dionysius was his friend, and thesword hanging over his head at the end of a single hair was merely aplayful illustration of the insecurity of princes, and no object offear. It may be supposed that the Greek, sitting within reach of theweapon held by a resolute hand, would have found the dishes offered himsavourless, or his throat perhaps too dry for degustation. CurtReinecke, however, was a German. He flashed one evil look at the tall,grim young man who sat, grasping a revolver, across the corner of atable opposite; then he bent his eyes upon his plate, and appliedhimself with customary ardour to the appeasement of nature's cravings.The servant went to and fro, silent, scared.

  "Get ready to come with me, Mirami--you and the rest," said Tom when theman had brought coffee. "Light all the lanterns you have."

  Reinecke had not spoken during the meal, complete _ab ovo usque admala_. Now, however, having gulped down his coffee, and the liqueurwhich the admirable Mirami served as usual, though with shaking hand, hecleared his throat and hesitatingly put a question.

  "Where are you--are we--going?"

  "That you will see."

  The German, primed to attempt a parley, sat back in his chair, and said,in the manner of one appealing to good sense:

  "The frontier is closed. It would be madness to attempt to cross theNeu Langenburg road."

  "You might be shot by your own countrymen, you mean?"

  "What I mean," rejoined Reinecke, generously ignoring the insinuation,"is that you are playing a fool's game. You have the whip hand now; youhave, I suppose, raised a mutiny among my people----"

  "Our people, they used to be: they are mine now."

  "Ach! what folly it is!" said Reinecke, with a gesture of impatience."You are in German country; within a few miles there are hundreds ofwell-trained troops; are you mad enough to think that these raw blacks,who hardly know one end of a rifle from the other, can reach Britishterritory? It is impossible--impossible."

  "Well?"

  "Then why attempt the impossible? Look at the matter reasonably,calmly."

  "I don't think I am agitated, Herr Reinecke. But go on."

  "The position--what is it? You British are outnumbered. You have noforces equal to ours, even as they are; and I tell you we shall have tentimes as many in a few months. Paris has fallen: your empire is brokenup: your navy is defeated----"

  "Come now, Herr Reinecke, don't draw the long bow."

  "I assure you the news has gone all over the world," said Reineckeemphatically. "What can you do? We shall shortly capture Abercorn:already we have taken Mombasa and Nairobi; there will soon be no moreBritish East Africa. It is certain. Well now, I make a proposition. Iwish to be fair. The plantation is of course confiscated; it will nowbe mine, solely. That is the fortune of war. But you are young,hot-headed. I would do something for the sake of my late partner.Abandon this folly, then, while there is time; and I give my word tosend you safe into British territory."

  "And you make that proposition to me!" cried Tom, enraged by the mentionof his father: "you, the man who has systematically robbed your partner,falsified the books, tried to murder me! I should be a fool indeed if Iplaced reliance on the word of a man like you. Save your breath, HerrReinecke.... Ah! it is time for us to go." Mwesa had just appeared inthe doorway. "Get up! don't try any tricks: I have given you fairwarning."

  Mwesa had come to report the return of the first contingent of Wahehe.They had established a camp some eight miles from the plantation.

  "Very well," said Tom. "Let them take up as many of the remaining loadsas they can carry. I shall soon be with you."

  He clapped his hands. Mirami entered.

  "Bring the lanterns, you and your fellows, and meet me at the frontdoor," said Tom.

  Then, urging Reinecke before him at the muzzle of his revolver (and theGerman seemed to be genuinely astonished at the rejection of his offer),Tom went out to his men. The askaris he ordered to join the ranks ofthe carriers, each man with a load. To the household servants weregiven light articles, such as candles, matches, paraffin, drugs. Amongthe supplies just brought from Bismarckburg were some cases ofammunition. These were entrusted to their original bearers. By the timethe party was ready to start, the plantation had been pretty wellransacked of all portable and useful stores.

  Darkness having now fallen, the column was headed by two men carryinglanterns. In turn came the porters, two more lantern bearers, the threeArab overseers under guard of riflemen, then Reinecke, followedimmediately by Tom and Mwesa, and finally two lantern bearers. Apartfrom their use in lighting the way, the lanterns gave confidence to thenatives, for whom a night march had nameless terrors.

  So strange a procession, at dead of night--the lights flickering on thetrees, the negroes chattering in loud tones to keep their courageup--must have startled the furred and feathered inhabitants of theforest. Birds clattered out of the foliage, insects swarmed around thelanterns; no four-footed beast came within sight.

  It was about midnight when they arrived at the camp, pitched on one ofthose wide bare spaces which break the continuity of the upland forest.Fires had been kindled at several points of the circuit. Within was ascene of great confusion--women, children, and bales of goods lyinghelter-skelter. Hopeless of evolving order at this hour, Tom contentedhimself with posting three sections of six men each as sentries on thesouthern border of the camp, where alone danger might be feared. Anattack seemed to him improbable. The plantation had been cleared ofmen; and even if the fugitive Germans and Arabs had succeeded inreaching a German post, there was little chance of an armed force comingup while night lasted. Nevertheless, the sense of responsibility andthe need of keeping a close watch on Reinecke, whom, out of respect forthe white man's dignity, he had left unbound, prevented Tom from gettingany sleep. Indeed, few of all those there encamped, except thechildren, closed their eyes. The negroes, for all their weariness,talked excitedly, hour after hour, of the wonderful change that them'sungu had wrought in their lives, and speculated on the fate in storefor their late master. Watching them, Tom could not help questioningwithin himself whether he had done right, whether they would be able todefend and maintain their new-won freedom; but with the hopefulness ofbuoyant youth he dismissed his doubts, resolving that, so far as lay inhim, nothing should be left undone to safeguard them. After all,British territory was only forty miles away.

  An hour before dawn the camp was astir. Everybody was fed: then, just aslight was stealing over the scene, the women and children were sent offunder escort, scouting parties dispatched southward; the unarmed mengathered their loads and departed. Mirambo and a score of the elder menwith rifles accompanied the latter, with orders not to allow the askaristo approach within half an hour's march of the nullah. They were todrop their loads at a convenient spot and return under guard for more.Tom remained at the camp, keeping the prisoners and the remainder of hisarmed men.

  It was about two hours after the departure of the women: the carriershad not yet come back: when Tom heard a faint sharp sound fromsouthward, which, unexpected as it was, he believed to be a rifle-shot.For some few minutes there was no repetition of the sound: then therecame half a dozen cracks in succession, a little nearer--unmistakablythe reports of rifles. Tom at once dispatched two men to follow in thetrack of the scouts and see what was happening. It seemed unlikely thata German force had already been dispatched in pursuit of him; but it wasclearly necessary to be prepared for any contingency.

  The shots had roused some excitement among the Wahehe; Reinecke and theArabs did not disguise the spring of hope. Tom recognised that his menwere ill-fitted to cope with trained troops, in the open or even in thebush. The nullah, on the other hand, about six miles away, offered manyfacilities for defence, and his plan had been to post his non-combatantsfar up towards the lake, and to employ the men to strengthen theposition below. He had re
ckoned on being unmolested for a whole day,and the shots gave him not a little uneasiness. The progress of theladen carriers would necessarily be slow: it was essential that theenemy, if enemy it was, should be delayed at least until the stores hadbeen safely conveyed to the nullah. He must fight and run.

  Hoping that it might turn out to be a false alarm, he nevertheless sentforward a runner to urge the carriers to their utmost speed; thenselected a score of the older men, who in their day had fought theGermans, and ordered all the rest to hurry on with as much as they couldcarry of the remaining stores. Mwesa he kept as interpreter.

  As soon as the camping-place was clear, he sent Reinecke and the Arabson, guarded by half a dozen men, and followed closely behind them withthe rest of his party, to discover a suitable position for making afirst stand if pursuers were really on his tracks. He had been marchingless than half an hour through the forest when some of his scoutsovertook him, and reported that a large force of askaris, under Germanofficers, was pushing on at great speed. Knowing the hopelessness ofgetting from the natives a sound estimate of the enemy's numbers, heasked no questions, but pressed forward as rapidly as possible foranother ten minutes. Then, on the further side of a comparatively clearspace, about two hundred yards long and twice as wide, he saw a densebelt of trees, fringed by low bushes, which seemed to offer advantagesfor a delaying action. There he decided to await the enemy's arrival.

  He looked at his watch. Allowing for the slow pace of the children andthe laden men over difficult country, he calculated that the head of thestraggling column had probably covered two-thirds of the distance to thenullah. It would be at least another hour before they reached itsentrance, and a second hour before the people and the stores were farenough up to be out of harm's way. The question was, then, could hecheck the pursuit for two hours?

  By the time he had posted his men just within the belt of trees, wherethey commanded the whole space in front, he had been rejoined by all hisscouts. The report of the last comers was even more alarming than thatof the first. According to them, a great throng of ferocious askaris,like a swarm of wild bees, was dashing on with the speed of antelopes.Though he was aware of their habit of exaggeration, Tom was conscious ofa consuming anxiety, but had self-command enough to present a calm andsmiling front to the natives, in whom the least sign of wavering on hispart would have started a panic. Through Mwesa he gave them the ordernot to fire until he whistled, resolving at the same time to cut himselfa wooden whistle at the first opportunity.

  The men had been posted barely twenty minutes when, through the thinnerwoodland on the opposite side of the clearing, Tom caught sight of a fewscattered negroes in uniform. "Scouts feeling their way forward," hethought. The askaris moved rapidly, but cautiously, flitting from treeto tree in a series of short rushes. Marking one of them, Tom fired.The man instantly slipped behind a trunk; his fellows had alldisappeared.

  Analysing later his frame of mind at the moment of firing, Tom had toadmit that his aim had been intentionally bad, and justified his actionwith the excuse that his object was merely to delay the enemy. Atbottom, however, he was really loth to kill his man--a feeling whichhas, no doubt, seized many a young officer in his first fight. In afterdays he often debated with himself and discussed with others how farhumanity is compatible with war, and the conclusion that he came to wasthat war must be abolished, or humanity would perish. If man must killman, whether the agent be bullet, shell, bomb, poison gas, or any otherabomination, logically there is nothing to choose between them: the vilething is war itself. But at this moment he had no time for reflection:he acted purely from a humane instinct, not realising what war meant,ignorant of the methods in which the enemy was prepared to wage it.

  His ill-aimed shot had not been without effect. The enemy had vanished,and Tom's men, in their simplicity, whooped with delight. Tom however,was under no delusion. One or more of the askaris had no doubt stolenback through the wood to report that they were in touch with thefugitives; the rest were still lurking among the trees.

  As the minutes passed without further movement, Tom's anxiety increasedin proportion with the natives' elation. What numbers had he to dealwith? Would his little force of untrained men be swept upon andoverwhelmed? He would have been spared a period of racking suspense ifhe could have divined the facts which he was not to know till muchlater. Sergeant Morgenstein and the Arabs, having escaped from theplantation, did not take the twenty-mile road to Bismarckburg, butstruck southward to the highway to Neu Langenburg, a distance only halfas great. On this road they met a half company of askaris marchingtowards Bismarckburg. The German officer in command, on learning whathad happened at the plantation, tapped the telegraph wire and asked forinstructions. Ordered to make a forced march and deal with themutiny--what resistance was to be expected from a mob of undisciplinedblacks?--he pushed on to the plantation, only to find it deserted.Darkness forbade instant pursuit; but at the earliest glimmer of dawn hestarted to follow up the very plain tracks of the absconded rebels.

  It was perhaps twenty minutes after the disappearance of the enemyscouts when Mwesa detected a movement deep in the thin woodlandopposite. Tom fixed his eyes intently on the spot the boy pointed out,and presently saw several forms moving forward amid the brushwood. Therewere signs that others were coming up behind them. They were scarcelydistinguishable in the shade of the trees, and darted so quickly fromcover to cover that even a crack shot could hardly have picked them off.

  Tom felt that an attempt to check the advance while the enemy were stillin the wood would be sheer waste of ammunition. The most of his men hadnot handled fire-arms for years; they had probably lost whatever skillthey might once have had; the younger men had only begun their musketrycourse. He must at least wait for the inevitable rush across the open;then, perhaps, the negroes, unskilled though they were, might be luckywith some of their shots. If the enemy were in no great strength, themere show of resistance might achieve his end--delay.

  The askaris, finding their advance unopposed, gained confidence, wereless careful in taking cover, and presently formed up in line justwithin the forest fringe. Suddenly a white helmet showed itself abovethem, a little in their rear; a word of command rang out, and theaskaris, twenty strong, charged with a wild yell in double line acrossthe open. Tom gave a shrill whistle, marked his man and fired. Hisshot was followed by a ragged volley from his men. This time his aimwas true; one or two askaris fell to the shots of the negroes; the restwavered, and at a second volley scurried back into the forest, losinganother on the way.

  Tom had not fired a second time, but had watched the forest. It wasplain from movements he observed there that the German had held part ofhis force in reserve. The slight losses suffered in feeling for theopposition had probably reassured him as to the character of theresistance he had to meet; the next attack would be made in strength.

  Ignorant of the numbers opposed to him, Tom thought it prudent not toawait a second attack, and gave his men the order to retire quietly.They marched on for about half a mile, and then came to a rocky ridgeflanking the track, which it commanded for a considerable distance.Here Tom determined to make a second stand.

  It was nearly half an hour after he had posted his men before there wasany sign from the enemy. Then he heard in the distance the sharp crackleof a volley, followed by shouts. He guessed that the askaris werecharging across the open space under cover of strong rifle fire.Abruptly the sounds ceased, and Tom could not help chuckling as he sawin his mind's eye the blank faces of the askaris when they found theirentrance into the forest unopposed.

  But he remembered that he had a German officer to deal with. A trainedsoldier would be put on the alert by the disappearance of his enemy. Hewould probably suspect that he was being lured into a trap, and Tomdesired nothing better. The German would feel his way forwardcautiously, slowly, fearing an ambush in every gloomy spot. He mighttake an hour to cover the distance of a few minutes' walk.

  Tom seized the opportun
ity of making good his retreat to the nullah.Putting on their best speed, the little party overtook the tail end ofthe column of carriers at the spot where the askaris had been ordered todrop their loads. Now that he was himself able to keep an eye on them,Tom made them mount their bales again, and march on towards the nullah.He left two good men to watch for the enemy, and followed with the rest.

  Tom with his rearguard of riflemen had come within half a mile of thenullah when Mushota came bounding along the column towards him, jostlingany carrier who was in his way. The lad spoke excitedly to Mwesa, whoturned a crestfallen face to his master and said--

  "He gone; all same run away."

  "Who?"

  "Old massa, sah."

  "Reinecke?"

  "Yes, sah. He grab rifle quick, fella no can do nuffin. He shoot oneman, den go bang into forest, no can catch him. He gone sure nuff."

  Tom's manner of receiving the news was a surprise to the negroes. Farfrom being agitated, storming, threatening punishment for the unwaryguards, he smiled. Reinecke's escape was in a certain degree a reliefto him. It had been necessary to remove the German from the plantation;but after the people had reached the nullah he would have been anincubus.

  "Good riddance," thought Tom. "I hope I have seen the last of him."