by Talbot Mundy
Chapter Ten"When I fire this Pistol--"
THESE LITTLE ONES
If Life were what the liars sayAnd failure called the tuneMayhap the road to ruin thenWere cluttered deep wi' broken men;We'd all be seekers blindly ledTo weave wi' worms among the dead,If Life were what the liars sayAnd failure called the tune.
But Life is Father of us all(Dear Father, if we knew!)And underneath eternal armsUphold. We'll mock the false alarms,And trample on the neck of pain,And laugh the dead alive again,For Life is Father to us all,And thanks are overdue!
If Truth were what the learned sayAnd envy called the tuneMayhap 'twere trite what treason saithThat man is dust and ends in death;We'd slay with proof of printed lawWhatever was new that seers saw,If Truth were what the learned sayAnd envy called the tune.
But Truth is Brother of us all(Oh, Brother, if we knew!)Unspattered by the muddied liesThat pass for wisdom of the wise--Compassionate, alert, unbought,Of purity and presence wrought,--Big Brother that includes us allNor knows the name of Few!
If Love were what the harlots sayAnd hunger called the tuneMayhap we'd need conserve the joysWeighed grudgingly to girls and boys,And eat the angels trapped and soldBy shriven priests for stolen gold,If Love were what the harlots sayAnd hunger called the tune.
But Love is Mother of us all(Dear Mother, if we knew!)--So wise that not a sparrow falls,Nor friendless in the prison callsUncomforted or uncaressed.There's magic milk at Mercy's breast,And little ones shall lead us allWhen Trite Love calls the tune!
Naturally, being what we were, with our friend Monty held in duranceby a chief of outlaws, we were perfectly ready to kidnap Miss Vandermanand ride off with her in case she should be inclined to delayproceedings. It was also natural that we had not spoken of thatcontingency, nor even considered it.
"We never dreamed of your refusing to come with us," said Will.
"We still don't dream of it!" Fred asserted, and she turned her headvery swiftly to look at him with level brows. Next she met my eyes.If there was in her consciousness the slightest trace of doubt, orfear, or admission that her sex might be less responsible than ours,she did not show it. Rather in the blue eyes and the athletic poiseof chin, and neck, and shoulders there was a dignity beyond ours.
Will laughed.
"Don't let's be ridiculous," she said. "I shall do as I see fit."
Fred's neat beard has a trick of losing something of its trim whenhe proposes to assert himself, and I recognized the symptoms. Butat the moment of that impasse the Armenians below us had decidedthat self-assertion was their cue, and there came great noises asthey thundered with a short pole on the trap and made the stonesjump that held it down.
At that signal several women emerged from behind the hangingblankets--young and old women in various states of disarray--and stoodin attitudes suggestive of aggression. One did not get the idea thatArmenians, men or women, were sheeplike pacifists. They watchedMiss Vanderman with the evident purpose of attacking us the momentshe appealed to them.
"If you don't roll the stones away I think there'll be trouble,"she said, and came and stood between Will and me. Fred got behindme, and began to whisper. I heard something or other about the trap,and supposed he was asking me to open it, although I failed to seewhy the request should be kept secret; but the women forestalledme, and in a moment they had the stones shoved aside and the menwere emerging one by one through the opening.
Then at last I got Fred's meaning. There was a second of indecisionduring which the Armenians consulted their women-folk, in two mindsbetween snatching Miss Vanderman out of our reach or discoveringfirst what our purpose might be. I took advantage of it to slipdown the stone stairs behind them.
The opening in the castle wall was easy to find, for the star-litsky looked luminous through the hole. Once outside, however, thegloom of ancient trees and the castle's shadow seemed blacker thanthe dungeon had been. I groped about, and stumbled over loose stonesfallen from the castle wall, until at last one of our own Zeitoonlidiscovered me and, thinking I might be a trouble-maker, tripped meup. Cursing fervently from underneath his iron-hard carcass I madehim recognize me at last. Then he offered me tobacco, unquestionablystolen from our pack, and sat down beside me on a rock while I recoveredbreath.
It took longer to do that than he expected, for he had enjoyed theadvantage of surprise while hampered by no compunctions on the groundof moderation. When the agony of windlessness was gone and I couldquestion him he assured me that the horses were well enough, butthat he and his two companions were hungry. Furthermore, he added,the animals were very closely watched--so much so that the othertwo, Sombat and Noorian, were standing guard to watch the watchers.
"But I am sure they are fools," he added.
This man Arabaiji had been an excellent servant, but decidedlysupercilious toward the others from the time when he first came tous in the khan at Tarsus. Regarding himself as intelligent, whichhe was, he usually refused to concede that quality, or anythingresembling it, to his companions.
"That is why I was looking for you when you hit me in the dark withthat club of a fist of yours," I answered. "I wanted to speak withyou alone because I know you are not a fool."
He felt so flattered that he promptly let his pipe go out.
"While Sombat and Noorian are keeping an eye on the horses, I wantyou to watch for trouble up above here," I said. "In case the peopleof this place should seek to make us prisoner, then I want you togallop, if you can get your horse, and run otherwise, to the nearest--"
He checked me with a gesture and one word.
"Kagig!"
"What about him?" I demanded.
"If I were to bring Turks here, Kagig would never rest until my fingerswere pulled off one by one!"
"If you were to bring Turks here, or appeal to Turks," said I, "Kagigwould never get you."
"How not?"
"Unless he should find your dead carcass after my friends and I hadfinished with it!"
"What then?"
He lighted his pipe again by way of reestablishing himself in hisown esteem, and it glowed and crackled wetly in the dark beside mein response to the workings of his intelligence.
"In case of trouble up here, and our being held prisoner, go andfind other Armenians, and order them in Kagig's name to come andrescue us."
"Those who obey Kagig are with Kagig," he answered.
"Surely not all?"
"All that Kagig could gather to him after eleven years!"
"In that case go to Kagig, and tell him."
"Kagig would not come. He holds Zeitoon."
"Are you a fool?"
"Not I! The other two are fools."
"Then do you understand that in case these people should makeus prisoner--"
He nodded. "They might. They might propose to sell you to theTurks, perhaps against their own stolen women-folk."
"Then don't you see that if you were gone, and I told them you hadgone to bring Kagig, they would let us go rather than faceKagig's wrath?"
"But Kagig would not come."
"I know that. But how should they know it?"
I knew that he nodded again by the motion of the glowing tobaccoin his pipe. It glowed suddenly bright, as a new idea dawned onhim. He was an honest fellow, and did not conceal the thought.
"Kagig would not send me back to you," he said. "He is short ofmen at Zeitoon."
"Never mind," said I. "In case of trouble up above here, but nototherwise, will you do that?"
"Gladly. But give it me in writing, lest Kagig have me beaten forrunning from you without leave."
That was my turn to jump at a proposal. I tore a sheet from mymemorandum book, and scribbled in the dark, knowing he could notread what I had written.
"This writing says that you did not run away until you had made quitesure we were in difficulties. So, if you should run too soon, andwe should not be in difficulties after all, Kagig would learn thatsooner or later. What would Kagig do in that case?"
>
"He would throw me over the bridge at Zeitoon--if he could catchme! Nay! I play no tricks."
"Good. Then go and hide. Hide within call. Within an hour, orat most two hours we shall know how the land lies. If all shouldbe well I will change that writing for another one, and send youto Kagig in any case. No more words now--go and hide!"
He put his pipe out with his thumb, and took two strides into a shadow,and was gone. Then I went back through the gap in the dungeon wall,and stumbled to the stairs. Apparently not missing me yet, theyhad covered up the trap, and I had to hammer on it for admission.They were not pleased when my head appeared through the hole, andthey realized that I had probably held communication with our men.I suppose Fred saw by my face that I had accomplished what I wentfor, because he let out a laugh like a fox's bark that did nothingtoward lessening the tension.
On the other hand it was quite clear that during my absence MissVanderman had not been idle. Excepting the two men who had admittedme, every one was seated--she on the floor among the women, withher back to the wall, and the rest in a semicircle facing them.Two of the women had their arms about her, affectionately, but notwithout a hint of who controlled the situation.
"What have you been doing?" Fred demanded, and he laughed at GloriaVanderman with an air of triumph.
"Making preparations," I said, "to take Miss Vanderman to Tarsus."
I wish I could set down here a chart of the mixed emotions thenexpressed on that young lady's face. She did not look at Will,knowing perhaps that she already had him captive of her bow and spear.Neither did Will look at us, but sat tracing figures with a forefingerin the dust between his knees, wondering perhaps how to excuse orexplain, and getting no comfort.
If my guess was correct, Gloria Vanderman was about equally distractedbetween the alternative ignominy of submitting her free will to Armeniansor else to us. Compassion for the women in their predicament weighedone way--knowledge that our friend Monty was in durance vile contingenton her actions pulled heavily another Fred was frankly enjoying himself,which influenced her strongly toward the Armenian side, she beingyoung and, doubtless the idol of a hundred heart-sick Americans,contemptuous of forty-year-old bachelors.
"Of course we shall not let you go!" one of the Armenians assuredher in quite good English, and I began fumbling at the pistol inmy inner pocket, for if Arabaiji was to run to Zeitoon, then thesooner the better. But it needed only that imputation of helplessnessto tip the beam of Miss Gloria's judgment.
"You can attend to the sick ones. You can play music for us all.Doubtless these other two have qualifications."
I was too busy admiring Gloria to know what effect that announcementhad on Fred and Will. She shook herself free from the women, andstood up, splendid in the flickering yellow light. There was a sortof swift move by every one to be ready against contingencies, andI judged it the right moment to spring my own surprise.
"When I fire this pistol," I said, producing it, "a man will startat once for Zeitoon to warn Kagig. He has a note in his pocket writtento Kagig. Judge for yourselves how long it will take Kagig and hismen to reach this place!"
The nearest man made a very well-judged spring at me and pinned myelbows from behind. Another man knocked the pistol from my hand.The women seized Gloria again. But Fred was too quick--drew hisown pistol, and fired at the roof.
"Twice, Fred!" I shouted, and he fired again.
"There!" said I. "Do what you like. The messenger has gone!"
And then Gloria shook herself free a last time, and took command.
"Is that true?" she demanded.
I nodded. "The best of our three men was to start on his way theminute he heard the second shot."
Then I was sure she was Boadicea reincarnate, whether the old-timeBritish queen did or did not have blue eyes and brown hair.
"I will not have brave men brought back here on my account! Kagigmust be a patriot! He needs all his men! I don't blame him formaking a hostage of Lord Montdidier! I would do the same myself!"
Will had evidently given her a pretty complete synopsis of ouradventure while I was outside talking with Arabaiji. It is alwaysa mystery to the British that Americans should hold themselves arace apart and rally to each other as if the rest of the Anglo-Saxonrace were foreigners, but those two had obeyed the racial rule.They understood each other--swiftly--a bar and a half ahead ofthe tune.
"This old castle is no good!" she went on, not raising her voicevery high, but making it ring with the wholesomeness of youth, andyouth's intolerance of limits. "The Turks could come to this placeand burn it within a day if they chose!"
"The Turks won't trouble. They'll send their friends the Kurds instead,"Fred assured her.
"Ah-h-h-gh!" growled the Armenians, but she waved them back to silence.
"How much food have you? Almost none! How much ammunition?"
"Ah-h-h-h!" they chorused in a very different tone of voice.
"D'you mean you've got cartridges here?" Fred demanded.
"Fifty cases of cartridges for government Mauser rifles!" braggedthe man who was nearest to Will.
"Gee! Kagig 'ud give his eyes for them!" (Will devoted his eyesto the more poetic purpose of exchanging flashed encouragementwith Gloria.)
"Men, women and children--how many of you are there?"
"Who knows? Who has counted? They keep coming."
"No, they don't. You've set a guard to keep any more away for fearthe food won't last--I know you have! Well--what does it matterhow many you are? I say let us all go to Zeitoon and help Kagig!"
"Oh, bravo!" shouted Fred, but it was Will's praise that provedacceptable and made her smile.
"Second the motion!"
I added a word or two by way of make-weight, that did more as a matterof fact than her young ardor to convince those very skeptical menand women. No doubt she broke up their determination to sit still,but it was my words that set them on a course.
"Kagig will be angry when he comes. He's a ruthless man," said I,and the Armenians, men as well as women, sought one another's eyesand nodded.
"Kagig must be more of a ruthless bird than we guessed!" Will whispered.
Counting women, there was less than a score of refugees in the room,and if we had only had them to convince, our work was pretty nearlydone. There was the guard among the trees down-hill that we knewabout still to be converted, or perhaps coerced. But just at themoment when we felt we held the winning hand, there came a ladderthrust down through the hole in the corner of the roof, and a manwhom they all greeted as Ephraim began to climb down backward. Hewas so loaded with every imaginable kind of weapon that he made morenoise than a tinker's cart.
Nor was Ephraim the only new arrival. Man after man came down backwardafter him, each man cursed richly for treading on his predecessor'sfingers--a seeming endless chain of men that did not cease when theroom was already uncomfortably overcrowded. Some of these men woreclothes that suggested Russia, but the majority were in rags. Theladder swayed and creaked under them, and finally, at a word fromEphraim, the last-comers sat on the upper rungs, bending the frailthing with their weight into a complaining loop.
Several of the newcomers had torches, and their acrid smoke turnedthe twice-breathed air of the place into evil-tasting fog.
Three men put their faces close to Ephraim's and proceeded to enlightenhim as to what had passed. He seemed to be recognized as some sortof chieftain, and carried himself with a commanding air, but so manymen talked at once, and all in Armenian, that we could not pick outmore than a word or two here and there. Even Fred, with his giftof tongues, could hardly make head or tail of it.
We three pressed through the swarm and took our stand beside Gloria,not hesitating to thrust the other women aside. They dragged at theirmen-folk to call attention to us, but the argument was too hot tobe missed, and the women clawed and screamed in vain.
"I believe we could get out!" I shouted in Will's ear. But he shookhis head. At l
east six men were standing on the trap, and we couldnot have driven them off it because there was no other space on thefloor that they could occupy. So I turned to Fred.
"Couldn't we shake those ruffians off the ladder, and climb up itand escape?" I shouted. But Fred shook his head, and went on listening,trying to follow the course of the dispute.
At last somebody with louder lungs than any other man made Ephraimunderstand that it was I who sent the messenger to Zeitoon. Instantlythat solved the problem to his mind. I should be hanged, and thatwould be all about it. He gesticulated. The men swarmed down offthe ladder to the already overcrowded floor, and mistaking Will forme several men started to thrust him forward. A face appeared throughthe hole in the roof and its owner was sent running for a rope.I had not recovered my pistol, and my rifle was slung at my backwhere I could not possibly get at it for the crowd. But Fred hada Colt repeater handy in his hip-pocket and he promptly screwed themuzzle of it into Ephraim's ear. What he said to him I don't know,but Ephraim's convictions underwent a change of base and he beganto yell for silence. The men who had seized Will let go of him justas the rope with a disgusting noose in the end was lowered throughthe roof. And then Ossa was imposed on Pelion.
A new face appeared at the hole. Not that we could see the face.We could only see the form of a man who shook the bloody stump ofa forearm at us, and shrieked unintelligible things. After thirtyseconds even the men in the far corner were aware of him, and thenthere was stony silence while he had his say. He repeated his messagea dozen times, as if he had it by heart exactly, spitting foam outof his mouth and never ceasing to shake the butchered stump of anarm. At about the dozenth time he fainted and fell headlong downthe ladder bringing up on the shoulders of the men below.
"What does he say?" I bellowed in Fred's car. But Fred was forcinghis way closer to Gloria, to tell her.
"He says the Kurds are coming! He says two regiments of Kurdishcavalry have been turned loose by the Turks with orders to 'rescue'Armenians. They are on their way, riding by night for a wonder.They cut both his hands off, but he got away by shamming dead.
He says they are cutting off the feet of people and bidding themwalk to Tarsus. They are taking the women and girls for sale. Oldwomen and very little children they are making what they call sportwith. Have you heard of Kurds? Their ideas of sport are worse thanthe Red-man's ever were."
Every tongue in the room broke loose. In another second every manwas still. They looked toward Ephraim. He who could order a hangingso glibly should shoulder the new responsibility.
But Ephraim was not ready with a plan, and could not speak English.Wild-eyed, he seized the lapel of my coat in trembling fingers, andwith a throat grown suddenly parched, crackled a question at me inArmenian. I could have understood Volopuk easier.
"What does he say, Fred?"
"He wants to know how soon Kagig can be here."
"Kagig!" Ephraim echoed, clutching at my collar. "Yes, yes, yes!Kagig! Come--how soon?"
"We shall be all right," said another man in English over on thefar side of the room. His hoarse voice sounded like a bellow inthe silence. "Kagig will come presently. Kagig will butcher theKurds. Kagig will certainly save us."
"Kagig!" Ephraim insisted. "Come----how soon?"
But I knew Kagig would not come, that night or at any time, and Ephraimshook me in frenzied impatience for an answer.
