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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles
+by Thomas Charles Bridges
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles
+
+Author: Thomas Charles Bridges
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2004 [EBook #11513]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON LAND AND SEA AT THE DARDANELLES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dave Morgan, Leonard D Johnson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Our splendid Indian troops stood ready at Alexandria to
+embark for the Dardanelles.]
+
+ON LAND AND SEA
+
+AT THE
+
+DARDANELLES
+
+T.C. BRIDGES
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAP.
+
+     I. THE OPEN PORT
+
+    II. THE LAST OF THE 'CARDIGAN CASTLE'
+
+   III. THE LANDING
+
+    IV. A RUSE OF WAR
+
+     V. PROMOTION
+
+    VI. GUNS!
+
+   VII. 'LIZZIE' LETS LOOSE
+
+  VIII. THE HUNTERS HUNTED
+
+    IX. THE BATTLE BY ROCKS
+
+     X. PRISONERS
+
+    XI. THE FIRING PARTY
+
+   XII. ABOVE THE NARROWS
+
+  XIII. THE SWEEPERS
+
+   XIV. G 2
+
+    XV. KEN MEETS AN OLD FRIEND
+
+   XVI. TACKLING THE TROOPER
+
+  XVII. THE BOARDING PARTY
+
+ XVIII. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
+
+  XIX. IN THE NICK OF TIME
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
+
+
+INDIAN TROOPS AT ALEXANDRIA
+
+A FRIENDLY SALUTE
+
+LANDING PARTY AT SARI BAIR
+
+LANDING ON THE BEACH
+
+AN ADVANCE INLAND
+
+No. 1 FORT AT CAPE HELLES
+
+ASLEEP ON A BED OF LIVE SHELLS
+
+BARBED WIRE FOR BOMBS
+
+THE TRIUMPHANT SUBMARINE
+
+BRINGING IN A TURKISH SNIPER
+
+TURKISH ARTILLERY REINFORCEMENTS
+
+SEA-BATHING
+
+ALLIED HEROES IN PLAY-TIME
+
+
+
+At the Dardanelles
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OPEN PORT
+
+
+'Fun!' said Ken Carrington, as he leaned over the rail of the transport,
+'Cardigan Castle,' and watched the phosphorescent waters of the Aegean
+foaming white through the darkness against her tall side. 'Fun!' he
+repeated rather grimly. 'You won't think it so funny when you find
+yourself crawling up a cliff with quick-firers barking at you from behind
+every rock, and a strand of barbed wire to cut each five yards, to say
+nothing of snipers socking lead at you the whole time. No, Dave, I'll lay,
+whatever you think, you won't consider it funny.'
+
+Dave Burney, the tall young Australian who was standing beside Ken
+Carrington, turned his head slowly towards the other.
+
+'You talk as if you'd seen fighting,' he remarked in his soft but pleasant
+drawl.
+
+Ken paused a moment before replying.
+
+'I have,' he said quietly.
+
+Burney straightened his long body with unusual suddenness.
+
+'The mischief, you have! My word, Ken, you're a queer chap. Here you and I
+have been training together these six months, and you've never said a word
+of it to me or any of the rest of the crowd.'
+
+'Come to that, I don't quite know why I have now,' answered Ken Carrington
+dryly.
+
+Burney wisely made no reply, and after a few moments the other spoke
+again.
+
+'You see, Dave, it wasn't anything to be proud of, so far as I'm
+concerned, and it brings back the most rotten time I ever had. So it isn't
+much wonder I don't talk about it.'
+
+'Don't say anything now unless you want to,' said Burney, with the quiet
+courtesy which was part of him.
+
+'But I do want to. And I'd a jolly sight sooner tell you than any one
+else. That is, if you don't mind listening.'
+
+'I'd like to hear,' said Burney simply. 'It's always been a bit of a
+puzzle to me how a chap like you came to be a Tommy in this outfit. With
+your education, you ought to be an officer in some home regiment.'
+
+'That's all rot,' returned Ken quickly. 'I'd a jolly sight sooner be in
+with this crowd than any I know of. And as for a commission, that's a
+thing which it seems to me a chap ought to win instead of getting it as a
+gift.
+
+'But I'm gassing. I was going to tell you how it was that I'd seen
+fighting. My father was in the British Navy. He rose to the rank of
+Captain, and then had an offer from the Turkish Government of a place in
+the Naval Arsenal at Constantinople.'
+
+'From the Turks!' said Burney in evident surprise.
+
+'Yes. Lots of our people were in Turkey in those days. It was a British
+officer, Admiral Gamble, who managed all the Turkish naval affairs. That
+was before the Germans got their claws into the wretched country.'
+
+'I've heard of Admiral Gamble,' put in Burney. 'Well, what happened then?'
+
+'My father took the job, and did jolly well until the Germans started
+their games. Finally they got hold of everything, and five years ago
+Admiral Gamble gave up. So did my father, but he had bought land in Turkey
+and had a lot of friends there, so he did not go back to England.
+
+'It was that same year, 1910, that he found coal on his land, and applied
+for a concession to work it. The Turks liked him. They'd have given it him
+like a shot. But the Germans got behind his back, and did him down. The
+end was that they refused to let him work his coal.
+
+'Of course he was awfully sick, but not half so sick as when a German
+named Henkel came along and offered to buy him out at about half the price
+he had originally paid for the place.
+
+'Father had a pretty hot temper, there was a flaming row, and Henkel went
+off, vowing vengeance.
+
+'He got it, too. A couple of years later, came the big row in the Balkans,
+and the war had hardly started before dad was arrested as a spy.'
+
+'Henkel did that?' put in Burney.
+
+'Henkel did it;' young Carrington's voice was very grim. 'Pretty
+thoroughly too, as I heard afterwards. They took him to Constantinople,
+and--and I've never seen him since.'
+
+There was silence for some moments while the big ship ploughed steadily
+north-eastwards through the night.
+
+'And you?' said Burney at last.
+
+'I--I'd have shared the same fate if it hadn't been for old Othman Pasha.
+He was a pal of ours, as white a man as you want to meet, and he got me
+away and over the border into Greece. It was in Thrace that I saw
+fighting. I came right through it, and got mixed up in two pretty stiff
+skirmishes.'
+
+'My word, you've seen something!' said Burney. 'And--and, by Jove, I
+suppose you understand the language.'
+
+'Yes,' said Carrington quietly. 'I know the language and the people. And
+you can take it from me that the Turks are not as black as they're
+painted. It's Enver Bey and his crazy crowd who have rushed them into this
+business. Three-quarters of 'em hate the war, and infinitely prefer the
+Britisher to the Deutscher.'
+
+'And how do you come to be in with us?' asked Burney.
+
+'I joined up in Egypt,' Carrington answered. 'I went there two years ago
+and got a job in the irrigation department. I've been there ever since.'
+
+Again there was a pause.
+
+'And what about Henkel?' asked Burney. 'Have you ever heard of him since?'
+
+'Not a word. But'--Ken's voice dropped a tone--'I mean to. If he's alive
+I'll find him, and--'
+
+He stopped abruptly, and suddenly gripped Burney's arm.
+
+'There's some one listening,' he whispered. 'I heard some one behind that
+boat. No, stay where you are. If we both move, he'll smell a rat.'
+
+'Well, good-night, Dave,' he said aloud. 'I must be getting below.'
+
+Turning, he walked away in the direction opposite to that of the boat, but
+as soon as he thought he was out of sight in the darkness, he turned
+swiftly across the deck and made a wide circle.
+
+He heard a rustle, and was just in time to see a dark figure dart forward,
+the feet evidently shod in rubber soles which moved soundlessly over the
+deck.
+
+He dashed in pursuit, but it was too late. Being war time, the decks were
+of course in darkness, and the man, whoever he was, disappeared--probably
+down the forward hatch.
+
+Ken came back to Burney.
+
+'No good,' he said vexedly. 'The beggar was too quick for me.'
+
+'Then there was some one there?'
+
+'You bet. I saw him bolt.'
+
+'Any notion who it was?'
+
+Ken hesitated a moment.
+
+'I'm not sure,' he answered in a low voice, 'but I've got my suspicions. I
+think it was Kemp.'
+
+'What--that steward?'
+
+'Yes, the chap who looks after the baths.'
+
+'My word, I wouldn't wonder,' said Burney thoughtfully. 'He's an ugly
+looking varmint. But why should he be spying on you?'
+
+'Haven't a notion. But I've spotted him watching me more than once since
+we left Alexandria. I'm going to keep my eye on him pretty closely the
+rest of the way.'
+
+'Not much time left, old son. They say we'll be in Mudros Bay to-morrow
+morning.'
+
+'Yes, I heard that. Which reminds me. I'm going down to get a warm bath.
+It may be the last chance for some time to come.'
+
+This time Ken Carrington said good-night in earnest, and went below.
+
+It was early for turning in, and nearly all of the troops aboard were
+still on the mess deck. Ken got his things from his bag and went down the
+passage to the bathroom. The 'Cardigan Castle' had been a swagger liner
+until she was impounded by Government to act as troopship, and she was
+provided with splendid bathrooms.
+
+Carrington opened the door quietly, and was feeling for the switch of the
+electric, when he noticed, to his great surprise, that a port hole
+opposite was open.
+
+Needless to say, this was absolutely forbidden. In war time a ship shows
+no lights at all, and it is a fixed rule that everything below must be
+kept closed and curtained.
+
+Before he could recover from his first surprise he got a second shock. A
+tiny pencil of light--just a single beam, no more than a few inches in
+diameter--struck through the darkness and formed a small luminous circle
+upon the white-painted wall above his head.
+
+It only lasted an instant, then a dark figure rose between him and the
+open port, and instantly the beam was intercepted, and all was dark as
+before.
+
+Through the gloom he vaguely saw the arm of the man who stood in front of
+the port raised to a level with his head, while his hand moved rapidly.
+
+Instantly he knew what was happening. This man was signalling. Carrington
+had heard of the German signalling lamp which, by means of ingeniously
+arranged lenses, throws one tiny ray which can be caught and flung back by
+a specially constructed mirror. That was what was happening before his
+very eyes. A glow of rage sent the blood boiling through his veins, and
+forgetting all about the switch he sprang forward.
+
+As ill luck had it, there was a wooden grating in the middle of the cement
+floor. In the darkness, he failed to see this, and catching his toe,
+stumbled and fell with a crash on hands and knees.
+
+He heard a terrified yelp, and the man made a dash past him for the door.
+
+But the door was closed. Carrington had shut it behind him. Before the
+fellow could get it open, Ken was on his feet again, and had flung himself
+on the signaller.
+
+With a snarl like that of a trapped cat, the man wrenched one arm free.
+
+'Take that!' he hissed, and next instant Ken felt the sting of steel
+grazing his left shoulder. The sharp pain maddened him, and his grip
+tightened so fiercely that he heard the breath whistle from his opponent's
+lungs.
+
+At the same time he flung all his weight forward, and the other, thrown
+off his balance, went over backwards and came with a hollow crash against
+the door.
+
+The two fell to the floor together, and rolled over, fighting like wild
+cats.
+
+Ken's adversary was smaller than he, but he seemed amazingly strong and
+active. He wriggled like an eel, all the time making frantic efforts to
+get his right hand free, and use his knife again.
+
+But Ken, aware of his danger, managed to get hold of the fellow's wrist
+with his own left hand, and held it in a grip which the other, struggle as
+he might, could not break. At the same time, Ken was doing all he knew to
+get his knee on his enemy's chest.
+
+It was the darkness that foiled him--this and the eel-like struggles of
+his adversary. At last, in desperation, he let go with his right hand, and
+drove his fist at the other's head. He missed his face, but hit him
+somewhere, for he heard his skull rap on the floor, while the knife flew
+out of his hand, and tinkled away across the cement floor.
+
+Ken felt a thrill of triumph as he heaved himself up, and getting his
+knees on his adversary's chest, seized him with both hands by the throat.
+
+Before he could tighten his grip came a tremendous shock, and he was flung
+off the other as if by a giant's hand. As he rolled across the floor,
+followed a crash as though the very heavens were falling. The whole ship
+seemed to lift beneath him, at the same time stopping short as though she
+had hit a cliff.
+
+[Illustration: 'Ken flung himself on the signaller.']
+
+For an instant there was dead silence. Then from the decks above came
+shouts and a pounding of feet. Half stunned, Ken struggled to his feet,
+and staggered towards the door. As he did so, he heard the click of the
+latch, and before he could reach it, it was banged in his face.
+
+Groping in the darkness, he found the handle. He turned it, but the door
+would not open. In a flash the truth blazed upon him. He was locked in.
+The spy had locked the door on the outside. He was a helpless prisoner in
+a torpedoed and probably sinking ship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LAST OF THE 'CARDIGAN CASTLE'
+
+
+Ken's head whirled. For the moment he was unable to collect his ideas. He
+stood, grasping the door handle, listening to the thunder of feet overhead
+and the shouted orders which came dimly to his ears.
+
+He heard distinctly the creaking of winches, and knew that the boats were
+being lowered. His worst suspicions were true; the ship was actually
+sinking.
+
+This lasted only a few seconds. Ken Carrington was not the sort to yield
+weakly to panic. He pulled himself together, and felt for the switch.
+
+It clicked over, but nothing happened. The shock of the explosion had
+evidently thrown the dynamo out of gear. Then he remembered the little
+electric torch which he always carried, and in an instant had it out of
+his pocket, and switched it on.
+
+He flashed the little beam across the floor, and its light fell upon the
+wooden grating over which he had stumbled in his first rush at the enemy
+signaller. This lay alongside the bath. It was about six feet long and
+made of four heavy slats nailed on a framework.
+
+It took Ken just about five seconds to lay down his lamp and heave up the
+grating.
+
+Short as the time had been since the first shock of the torpedo, the ship
+was already beginning to list heavily. The floor of the bathroom now
+sloped upwards steeply to the door.
+
+The grating was very heavy, but in his excitement Ken swung it up as
+though it had been no more than a feather. Balancing it, he charged
+straight at the door.
+
+The end of the grating struck the woodwork with a loud crash, but the
+result was not what Ken had hoped. Hinges and lock remained firm. One
+panel, however, was cracked and splintered.
+
+He retreated again to make another attempt. But the list was growing
+heavier every moment. It was all he could do to keep his feet. Ugly,
+sucking noises down below told him that the water was rushing in torrents
+into the hold of the doomed ship.
+
+There was no question of making a second charge. Balancing himself as best
+he could opposite the door, he pounded frantically at the cracked panel,
+and at the third blow it broke away, leaving a jagged hole.
+
+But this was not large enough for him to put his head through--let alone
+his body. His one chance was that the key might still be in the lock.
+
+Small blame to him that his heart was going like a trip-hammer as he
+dropped the useless grating and snatched up his lamp.
+
+The list was now so heavy that he had to cling to the door, as he thrust
+his arm through the gap.
+
+A gasp of relief escaped his lips as his fingers closed on the key. It
+turned, but even then the door would not open. It was wedged.
+
+Ken made a last desperate effort, and managed to force it open. As he
+clawed his way through into the passage, the sea water came bursting up
+through the floor of the bathroom behind him.
+
+Somehow he managed to scramble along the passage, and up the companion to
+the mess deck. There was not a soul in sight, and the ship now lay over at
+such an angle that every moment it seemed as though she must capsize.
+
+Up another ladder. He was forced to go on hands and feet, clinging like a
+squirrel. Then he was on the boat deck, in a glare of white light flung on
+the sinking ship by the searchlight of a British cruiser which had rushed
+up to the rescue.
+
+The sea seemed thick with boats pulling steadily away, and in every
+direction the searchlights of the escorting destroyers wheeled and
+flashed, as they rushed in circles, hunting for the submarine which had
+struck the blow.
+
+But the 'Cardigan Castle' was empty and deserted. With that marvellous
+speed which only perfect discipline ensures, every soul had already been
+got away into the boats. So far as he could see, Ken was left alone on the
+fast sinking ship.
+
+Even so, he was not ungrateful. If he had to perish, it was far better to
+drown in the open than to come to his end like a trapped rat down below.
+
+'Ken! Ken!'
+
+Some one came rushing up into the searchlight's glare.
+
+It was Dave Burney.
+
+'I've been hunting the ship out for you,' exclaimed Dave breathlessly.
+
+'I got locked in the bathroom,' Ken answered quickly. 'No time to explain
+now. Tell you afterwards. I say, old man, it was jolly good of you to wait
+for me, but I'm afraid you've overdone it. All the boats are away.'
+
+'Hang the boats! Here--put this on. Sharp, for she won't last more'n a
+couple of minutes.'
+
+As he spoke, he flung Ken one of the life-saving waistcoats which are now
+used instead of the old-fashioned lifebelts.
+
+'It's all right,' he added, as he saw Ken glance at him sharply. 'I've got
+one, too.'
+
+Ken did not waste a moment in slipping on the queer garment, and blowing
+it up.
+
+'This way,' said Dave, as he scrambled up the steep deck to the weather
+rail. Ken followed, and they had barely reached the rail when the big
+liner rolled slowly over on to her side.
+
+Dave sprang out on to her steel side which was now perfectly level.
+
+'Hurry!' he shouted. 'She'll pull us down if we're not clear before she
+sinks.'
+
+He sprang out into the water. Ken followed his example, and the two
+paddled vigorously away. Luckily for them, the ship did not sink at once.
+She lay upon her beam ends for four or five minutes, and gave them time to
+get to a safe distance. They were perhaps forty yards away when there came
+a loud, hissing, gurgling sound.
+
+'She's going!' cried Ken. Turning, he saw her stern tilt slowly upwards.
+Then, with hardly a sound, the fine ship slid slowly downwards, and a
+minute later there was no sign of her except a great eddy in which swung a
+tangled mass of timber, lifebelts, canvas chairs, and all sorts of
+floating objects from the decks.
+
+[Illustration: 'He sprang into the water.']
+
+'The brutes!' growled Dave. 'This means that the Turks have got
+submarines.'
+
+'I doubt it. That was probably the work of an Austrian or German craft.
+Well, thank goodness, they only got the ship and not the men.'
+
+'Ay, we'll get our own back for this before we're through,' growled Dave.
+'My word, but it's cold! Hope they're not going to be long picking us up.'
+
+'No. Here comes a boat,' Ken answered, as the searchlight showed a boat
+pulling hard towards them. A couple of minutes later they were hauled
+aboard, and in a very short time found themselves on the British destroyer
+'Teaser.'
+
+'Any more of you in the water?' asked her commander, Lieutenant Carey, a
+keen, hard-bitten young man of about twenty-eight.
+
+'No, sir, I think not,' Ken answered. 'I believe every one else got off in
+the boats.'
+
+'Yes, I don't think our German friends have much to boast of,' said the
+other with a smile. 'We can build fresh ships all right, and so far as I
+know they haven't got a single man. But you fellows look perished. Down
+with you to the engine-room. Coxswain, get out some lammies for them, and
+see they have cocoa.'
+
+'Ay, ay, sir,' answered the coxswain.
+
+But Ken paused.
+
+'I have a report to make before I go below, sir.'
+
+The commander looked a little surprised.
+
+'All right. But quick about it. You'll be a hospital case if you stick
+about in those wet togs much longer.'
+
+Ken wasted no time in telling what he had seen in the bathroom of the
+'Cardigan Castle,' just before she was sunk.
+
+Commander Carey listened with interest.
+
+'Who was this fellow?' he demanded.
+
+'I never saw his face, sir, but by his voice I am pretty sure he was Kemp,
+a steward.'
+
+'Hm, it was rotten bad management, allowing a fellow like that to be
+aboard a transport,' growled Carey. 'Very well, Carrington, I shall report
+the matter at once by wireless, and if he is aboard any of the other
+ships, you may be sure he'll be attended to. And I congratulate you on
+getting out alive. Now go below and get a warm and a change. I'll land you
+and your friend in Mudros Bay if I can, and if I have other orders I'll
+tranship you.'
+
+Feeling very shivery and tired, Ken was escorted below to the genial
+warmth of the engine-room, where he found Dave already changed, and
+engaged in putting away a great mugful of hot Navy cocoa.
+
+The coxswain, big Tom Tingle, fished him out a suit of lammies, the warm
+gray woollen garments which are the regular cold weather wear of the
+British Navy, and, as soon as he had got into them, put a mug of steaming
+cocoa into his hands.
+
+[Illustration: A friendly salute in passing.]
+
+[Illustration: The landing party at Sari Bair reached the beach covered by
+the fire of their own guns.]
+
+'Prime stuff, ain't it, Ken?' said Dave, and Ken, as he felt the grateful
+warmth creeping through his chilled frame, nodded. Then he and Dave were
+given a couple of blankets apiece, and with the beat of the powerful
+engines as a lullaby were soon sleeping soundly.
+
+When they awoke, the gray dawn light was stealing through the hatch
+overhead, and the smart little ship lay at anchor, rocking peacefully to
+the lift of a gentle swell.
+
+'Rouse out, you chaps,' came Tingle's voice. 'Rouse out, if you want some
+breakfast. The old man's going to put you aboard the 'Charnwood' to finish
+your voyage. You'll find some of your pals in her, I reckon.'
+
+'Did they get the submarine?' was Ken's first question.
+
+Tingle's honest face darkened.
+
+'No, by gosh. She slipped away in the dark, and never a one of us set eyes
+on her. What are ye to do with a thing like that? It's like trying to
+tackle a shark with a shot gun.'
+
+'Here's your khaki,' he continued, 'dry and warm. Shift as sharp as ye
+can. The old man, he don't wait for nobody.'
+
+Ken and Dave changed in quick order, and as soon as they had finished were
+conducted for'ard for breakfast. Biscuit, butter out of a tin, sardines,
+and cocoa. War fare, but all the best of its kind, and the boys did
+justice to it.
+
+The 'old man'--that is, Commander Carey--was on the bridge when they came
+on deck. He greeted them kindly, and Ken ventured to ask if anything had
+been heard of Kemp.
+
+'Not a word,' was the answer. 'He's not been picked up, so far as any one
+knows. Probably he's food for the fishes by this time. Well, good-bye to
+you. Wish you luck.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Ken and Dave together. Then they were over the side
+into the collapsible, and were pulled straight across to the wall-sided
+'Charnwood' which lay at anchor less than half a mile away.
+
+Mudros Bay, which is a great inlet in the south of the island of Lemnos,
+was alive with craft of all sorts. Warships and transports by the dozen,
+British and French, were lying at anchor in every direction, and in and
+out among them, across the brilliant, sunlit waters, dashed picket boats
+and all sorts of small craft.
+
+'My word, this looks like business!' said Dave, as he glanced round at the
+busy scene.
+
+'It does,' agreed Ken. 'Last time I was here, there were two tramps and an
+old Turkish gunboat. Not a darned thing else.'
+
+A couple of minutes later they were alongside the big 'Charnwood,' to be
+greeted with shouts of delight from a number of their Australian comrades
+who were leaning over the side.
+
+They said good-bye to the destroyer men who had ferried them across, and
+climbed the ladder to the deck, where they were immediately surrounded and
+smacked on the back, and generally congratulated. The two were very
+popular with the whole of their battalion, and their comrades were
+unfeignedly glad to find that they had not lost the number of their mess.
+
+Pushing through the throng, they went aft to report themselves to their
+commanding officer, Colonel Conway. He had, of course, already heard of
+Ken's adventure with the spy in the bathroom, but took him aside to get
+further particulars.
+
+'No, nothing has been heard of him,' he said. 'I do not think it possible
+that he can have been picked up.
+
+'And yet,' he added, 'that's odd, for he must have had plenty of time to
+get on deck, and, so far as we can learn, we have not lost a man.'
+
+'Do you think the submarine could have picked him up, sir?'
+
+'Not a chance of it. She went under the very moment she had fired her
+torpedo. If she had not, the destroyers would have got her.'
+
+'I ought to have got Kemp, sir,' said Ken, rather ruefully.
+
+'You did your best, Carrington,' the other answered kindly. 'And you are
+to be congratulated that Kemp did not get you.'
+
+Ken went back to join his friends forward, and answer a score of questions
+as to the struggle in the bathroom. By the remarks of his companions who
+had, one and all, lost everything they possessed, except what they stood
+up in, it was clear that Kemp, if still alive, would stand a pretty thin
+chance should any of these lusty Australians set eyes on him again.
+
+There was no shore leave. No orders were out yet, but the rumour was
+everywhere that they were to sail that very day.
+
+Presently a tug came alongside with fresh provisions. She also brought a
+quantity of rifles and ammunition to replace those lost in the sunken
+'Cardigan Castle.' Spare uniforms, overcoats, and other kit were also put
+aboard, and shared up among the shipwrecked troops.
+
+'The old country's waked up this time,' said Dave to Ken, as he tried the
+sights of a new rifle. 'There's stuff ashore here for an army corps, they
+tell me. It's no slouch of a job to fit us all out fresh in a few hours.
+They'd never have done it in the Boer War.'
+
+'My dear chap, the Boer War was child's play compared with this. Willy has
+set the whole world ablaze. All the same, I agree with you that England is
+getting her eyes open at last. But it's a pity the people at home didn't
+realise first off that forcing the Dardanelles was almost as important as
+keeping the Germans out of Calais. If they'd sent us here two months ago
+instead of fooling round trying to get warships through the Straits, the
+job would have been done by now. As it is, they've given the Turks a
+chance to fortify all the landing places, and I'll bet they've done it
+too.'
+
+'What sort of landing places are they?' asked Dave.
+
+'Just beaches--little bays with cliffs behind them. And the cliffs are
+covered with scrub, and so are the hills inland. Ideal ground for the
+defence, and rotten to attack.'
+
+'You talk as if you'd been there?'
+
+The speaker was a big, good-looking young New Zealander, with a face burnt
+almost saddle colour by wind and sun. His dark blue eyes gleamed with a
+merry, devil-may-care expression which took Ken's fancy at once.
+
+'Yes, I've been there,' Ken answered modestly, and was at once surrounded
+by a crowd all eager for any information he could give. Luckily for him,
+at that very minute some one shouted.
+
+'We're off, boys. There's the signal to weigh anchor.'
+
+Instantly all was excitement; the cable began to clank home, smoke poured
+from the funnels, and in a very short time the whole fleet of transports
+was moving in a long line out of the harbour, escorted by a bevy of busy,
+black destroyers.
+
+As the 'Charnwood' passed into her place, the men lined the sides and
+cheered for all they were worth.
+
+'What day is this?' said Ken to Dave, as the big transport passed out of
+the mouth of the bay.
+
+'Friday, the twenty-third,' was the answer.
+
+'Twenty-third of April,' said Ken. 'St. George's Day. Then I tell you
+what, Dave, this is going to be a Sunday job.'
+
+'You mean we'll be landed on Sunday?'
+
+Ken nodded.
+
+'That's about it,' he answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE LANDING
+
+
+'Hallo, what's up?' asked Dave Burney. 'We're off again.'
+
+It was the night of Saturday the 24th of April. For the greater part of
+the day the 'Charnwood' had been lying off Cape Helles, which is the
+southernmost point of the Gallipoli Peninsula, while the people listened
+to the thunder of guns, and watched the shrapnel bursting in white puffs
+over the scrub-clad heights of the land.
+
+Now, about midnight, she had got quietly under way, and was steaming
+steadily in a nor'-westerly direction.
+
+'What's up?' Dave repeated in a puzzled tone. 'This ain't the way to
+Constantinople.'
+
+'Don't you be too sure of that, sonny,' remarked Roy Horan, the big New
+Zealander who was standing with the two chums at the starboard rail. 'We
+ain't going home anyhow. I'll lay old man Hamilton's got something up his
+sleeve.'
+
+'That's what I'm asking,' said Dave. 'What's the general up to? So far as
+I can see, there are only three other transports going our way. The rest
+are staying right here. What's your notion, Ken?'
+
+'I don't know any more than you chaps,' Ken answered. 'But I'll give you
+my opinion for what it's worth. I think we're going to do a sort of flank
+attack. The main landing will probably be down here at the Point. Then
+when the Turks are busy, trying to hold 'em up, we shall be slipped in
+somewhere up the coast so as to create a sort of diversion.'
+
+'What--and miss all the fun!' exclaimed Dave in a tone of intense disgust.
+
+'You won't miss anything to signify,' Ken answered dryly. 'There are more
+than a hundred thousand Turks planted on the Peninsula, and you can bet
+anything you've got left from the wreck that there isn't one yard of beach
+that isn't trenched and guarded.'
+
+'Where do ye think we'll land?' asked Horan eagerly.
+
+Ken shrugged his shoulders. 'Haven't a notion,' he said. 'There are a lot
+of small bays up the west coast. Probably we shall nip into some little
+cove not very far up. There's a big ridge called Achi Baba which runs
+right across the Peninsula about four miles north. It'll be somewhere
+behind that, I expect. But mind you, this is all guess work. I don't know
+any more than you do.'
+
+'You know the country anyhow,' said Horan. 'And that's worth a bit. See
+here, Carrington, if we can manage it, let's all three stick together. We
+ought to see some fun--what?'
+
+Ken laughed. 'I'm sure I'm agreeable. But you see we're not in the same
+regiment. You're New Zealand, Dave and I are Australians. Still, I dare
+say we shall all be pretty much bunched when it comes to the fighting.'
+
+Dave, who had been peering out into the night, turned to the others at
+this moment.
+
+'Yes, there are only four transports altogether in our lot, and so far as
+I can make out three battleships and four destroyers taking care of us.'
+
+'Now, you men, come below and turn in,' broke in a voice.
+
+It was their sergeant, O'Brien, who had come up behind them.
+
+'Oh, I say, sergeant, can't we stay and look at the pretty scenery?' said
+Roy Horan plaintively.
+
+'No, ye can't,' was the gruff retort. 'Orders are that all the men are to
+turn in and take what rest they can. Faith, it's mighty little slape any
+of ye will get, once you're ashore. Go down now and ate your suppers and
+rest. I'm thinking ye'll be taking tay with the Turks before you're a dale
+older.'
+
+'Are we going to land, sergeant?' asked Horan eagerly.
+
+'Am I your general?' retorted O'Brien. 'Get along wid ye, and if ye want
+to know what it is we're going to do, faith ye'd best go and ask the
+colonel.'
+
+Orders were orders. The three obediently went below, and, although at
+first he was too excited to sleep, Ken soon dropped off, and never moved
+until he felt a hand shaking him by the shoulder.
+
+'Up wid ye, lad,' said O'Brien's voice in his ear, and like a shot Ken was
+out of his blanket and on his feet.
+
+The screw had ceased to revolve. The ship lay quiet, rocking ever so
+lightly in the small swell. There was not a light to be seen anywhere, yet
+all was bustle, and the very air seemed charged with a curious thrill of
+excitement.
+
+According to orders, Ken had lain down, fully dressed, with all his kit
+ready beside him. Within a very few moments he was equipped and ready.
+Then he and his companions were ordered down to the lower deck where the
+electrics were still burning, and there hot coffee and bread and butter
+were served out. Also each man received rations for twenty-four hours.
+
+Officers passed among the men, scrutinising their equipment with keen
+eyes, and presently Colonel Conway himself came along.
+
+He glanced round and his eyes kindled as they rested on the ranks of long,
+lean colonials.
+
+'Men,' he said, and though he hardly raised his voice it carried to the
+very ends of the big flat. 'You know as well as I do what you have been
+training for during the past six months. The day you have been waiting for
+has come. See that you make the most of it. Speed and silence--these are
+the qualities required of you to-night. The boats are waiting.'
+
+Ken repressed with difficulty a violent desire to cheer. Next moment came
+a low-voiced order from his company commander, and he found himself one of
+a long line hurrying up the companion to the deck.
+
+There was no moon, but the stars were bright, and it was not too dark to
+see the cliffs that seemed to rise abruptly out of the sea, about half a
+mile away to the eastward. They, like the ships, were dark and silent.
+
+Without one unnecessary word, the troops dropped quietly down the ladder
+into the waiting boats, and presently were being pulled rapidly inshore.
+Boat after boat came stealing out of the gloom, all loaded down to the
+gunwales with fighting men, yet all moving with a silence that was
+positively uncanny. The oars were carefully muffled and no one spoke
+aloud.
+
+Dave sat next to Ken, but Horan was not with them. He had been ordered
+into another boat with his company.
+
+Dave put his mouth close to Ken's ear.
+
+'Don't believe there's a Turk in the country,' he muttered. 'Looks to me
+as peaceful as a picnic'
+
+'Looks are precious deceitful sometimes,' Ken whispered back. 'For all you
+or I know, that brush is stiff with the enemy.'
+
+'Then why don't they fire at us?'
+
+'A fat lot of good that would be in this light. No, Dave, they know their
+job as well as we do, and perhaps better. I shall be pleasantly surprised
+if we're allowed to land without opposition.'
+
+But the boat neared the shore, and still there was no sign from those
+silent cliffs and thickets. As soon as her bow grated on the shingle, the
+men were out of her, wading knee deep to the shore. They were as eager as
+terriers. The only anxiety of their officers was lest they should get out
+of hand and start before the order to advance was given.
+
+Boat after boat glided up, and men by scores formed up at high tide mark.
+
+'Told you we'd fooled 'em,' whispered Dave. 'This is going to be one o'
+your bloodless victories.'
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth before there was a loud hissing
+sound, and right out of the centre of the precipitous slope facing them
+something like a gigantic rocket shot high into the air and burst into a
+brilliant white flame.
+
+It lit up the whole beach like day, throwing up the long lines of troops
+in brilliant relief. Next instant there was a crash of musketry, and
+rifles spat fire and lead from a long semicircle behind the spot from
+which the star shell had risen.
+
+The man next but one to Ken threw up his arms and dropped without a sound.
+A score of others fell.
+
+'Gee, but you were right, Ken!' muttered Dave. 'Fix bayonets!' Colonel
+Conway's voice rang like a trumpet above the crackle of the firing.
+
+Instantly came the clang of steel as the bayonets slipped into their
+sockets. Men were falling fast, but the rest stood straining forward like
+greyhounds on a leash.
+
+'Not a shot, mind you. Give 'em the steel. At the double. Advance!'
+
+Almost before the words were out of his mouth the whole line rushed
+forward. A second star shell hissed skywards, but before it broke the men
+had reached the base of the cliff. Its white glare showed the long-legged
+athletes from the sheep ranges and cattle runs sprinting up the steep
+hill-side.
+
+The enemy rifles rattled in one long, terrible roll. Men dropped by dozens
+and scores. Some fell where they lay, others rolled helplessly back down
+the steep slope to the beach. But those left never paused or hesitated.
+They scrambled desperately upwards through the pelting storm of lead,
+guided by the flashes from the muzzles of the Turkish rifles.
+
+Ken was conscious of nothing but a fierce desire to get to close quarters,
+and he and Dave Burney went up side by side at the very top of their
+speed.
+
+Before they knew it, a dark hollow loomed before them. A rifle snapped
+almost in Ken's face--so close that he felt the scorch of the powder.
+Without an instant's hesitation he drove his bayonet at a dark figure
+beneath him, at the same time springing down into the trench. The whole
+weight of his body was behind his thrust, and the Turk, spitted like a
+fowl, fell dead beneath him.
+
+[Illustration: 'He drove his bayonet at a dark figure.']
+
+With an effort he dragged the blade loose. Only just in time, for a burly
+man in a fez was swinging at his head with a rifle butt. Ken ducked under
+his arm, turned smartly and bayoneted him in the side.
+
+The whole trench was full of struggling men. The Turks fought well, but
+good men as they are, they were no match for the long, lean six footers
+who were upon them. Inside three minutes it was all over. Most of the
+Turks were dead, the few survivors were prisoners.
+
+'Lively while it lasted,' panted Dave's voice at Ken's elbow.
+
+'You, Dave. Are you all right?'
+
+'Lost my hat and my wind. Nothing else missing so far as I know. Are you
+chipped?'
+
+'Not a touch. But keep your head down. This is only the first act. There's
+another trench above this one.'
+
+During the struggle in the trench the firing had ceased entirely, but now
+that it was over a pestilence of bullets began to pour again from higher
+up the slope, and Ken's warning was useful--to say the least of it.
+
+'What comes next?' asked Dave, as the two crouched together against the
+rubbly wall of the trench.
+
+'Get our second wind and tackle the next trench,' said Ken briefly.
+
+His prophecy was correct. A couple of minutes later the order was passed
+down to advance again.
+
+In grim silence the men sprang out of their shelter and dashed forward.
+There were no more star shells, but from up above began the ugly knocking
+of a quick-firer. It sounded like a giant running a stick along an endless
+row of palings, and the bullets squirted like water from a hose through
+the thinning ranks of the Colonials.
+
+It was worse than the first charge, for not only was the slope steeper,
+but the face of the hill was covered with low, tough scrub, the tangled
+roots of which caught the men's feet as they ran, and brought many down.
+The result was that the line was no longer level. Some got far ahead of
+the others.
+
+Among the leaders were Ken and Dave, who struggled along, side by side,
+still untouched amid the pelting storm of lead.
+
+But although the ranks were sadly thinned, the attackers were not to be
+denied. In a living torrent, they poured into the second trench.
+
+There followed a grim five minutes. The Turks who were in considerable
+force, made a strong effort to hold their ground, shortening their
+bayonets and stabbing upwards at the attackers. It was useless. The
+Australians and New Zealanders, savage at the loss of so many of their
+comrades, fought like furies. Ken had a glimpse of a giant next him,
+literally pitchforking a Turk out of the trench, lifting him like a gaffed
+salmon on the end of his bayonet.
+
+It was soon over, but this time there were very few prisoners. Almost
+every man in the trench, with the exception of about a dozen who had
+bolted at the first onset, was killed.
+
+'That's settled it,' said Dave gleefully, as he plunged his bayonet into
+the earth to clean it from the ugly stains which darkened the steel.
+
+'That's begun it,' corrected Ken.
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'That we've got to hold what we've won. You don't suppose the Turks are
+going to leave us in peaceful possession, do you?'
+
+'I--I thought we'd finished this little lot,' said Dave rather ruefully.
+
+'My dear chap, I've told you already that Enver Bey has at least a hundred
+thousand men on the Peninsula. By this time the news of our landing has
+been telephoned all over the shop, and reinforcements are coming up full
+tilt. There'll be a couple of battalions or more on the top of the cliff
+in an hour or two's time.'
+
+'Then why don't we shove along and take up our position on the top?'
+
+'We're not strong enough yet. We must wait for reinforcements. If I'm not
+mistaken the next orders will be to dig ourselves in.'
+
+'But we are dug in. We hold the trench.'
+
+'Fat lot of use that is in its present condition. All the earthworks are
+on the seaward side. We have little or no protection on the land side.
+
+'Ah, I thought so,' he continued, as the voice of Sergeant O'Brien made
+itself heard.
+
+'Dig, lads! dig! Make yourselves some head cover. They'll be turning guns
+on us an' blowing blazes out of us as soon as the day dawns.'
+
+Blown and weary as they were, the men set to work at once with their
+entrenching spades. It was in Egypt they had learnt the art of
+trench-making, but they found this rocky clay very different stuff to
+shift from desert sand.
+
+The order came none too soon, for in a very few minutes snipers got to
+work again. There were scores of them. Every little patch of scrub held
+its sharpshooter, and although the darkness was still against accurate
+shooting there were many casualties.
+
+'They're enfilading us,' said Ken. 'They've got men posted up on the cliff
+to the left who can fire right down this trench. It's going to be awkward
+when daylight comes.'
+
+It was awkward enough already. The Red Cross men were kept busy,
+staggering away downhill with stretchers laden with the wounded. There was
+no possibility of returning the enemy's fire, and in the darkness the
+ships could not help. All the Colonials could do was to crouch as low as
+possible, flattening themselves against the landward wall of the trench.
+
+'Those snipers are the very deuce, sergeant.'
+
+The voice was that of Colonel Conway, who was making his way down the
+trench, to see how his men were faring.
+
+'They are that, sorr,' replied O'Brien. ''Tis them over on the bluff to
+the left as is doing the damage. I'm thinking they've got the ranges
+beforehand.
+
+As he spoke a man went down within five yards of where he stood. He was
+shot clean through the head.
+
+'It's Standish,' said Ken. And then, on the spur of the moment,--
+
+'Sergeant, couldn't some of us go and clear them out?'
+
+There was a moment's pause broken only by the intermittent crackle of
+firing from above.
+
+'Who was that spoke?' demanded Colonel Conway.
+
+'I, sir,' answered Ken, saluting. 'Carrington.'
+
+'Aren't you the man who knows this country?'
+
+'I have been in the Peninsula before, sir.'
+
+'Hm, and do you think you could find those snipers?'
+
+'I do, sir.' Ken spoke very quietly, but inwardly he was trembling with
+eagerness. Was it possible that his impulsive remark was going to be taken
+up in earnest?
+
+The colonel spoke in a whisper to O'Brien, and the sergeant answered. Then
+he turned to Ken.
+
+'You may pick three men and try it. You'll have to stalk them, of course.
+If you can't reach them come back. No one will think any the worse of you
+if you fail.'
+
+'Thank you, sir,' said Ken, his heart almost bursting with gratitude. His
+chance had come, and he meant to make the most of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A RUSE OF WAR
+
+
+'Dave, will you come?' said Ken.
+
+'Will a terrier hunt rats?' was Dave's answer.
+
+'And I want Roy Horan, sergeant, if he's alive. He's a New Zealander.'
+
+'Pass the word for Horan,' said the sergeant, and the whisper went rapidly
+down the long trench.
+
+'Who'll be the fourth?' Ken asked of Dave.
+
+'Take Dick Norton. He's a Queensland ex-trooper. He's been in with the
+black trackers, and moves like a dingo.'
+
+'The very man,' said Ken. 'Where is he?'
+
+Norton, as it happened, was only a few yards away. He came up eagerly, a
+slim, dark man with keen gray eyes and a nose like a hawk's beak.
+
+A moment later, and Roy Horan's giant form came slipping rapidly up to the
+little group, and Ken at once explained what was wanted.
+
+'Carrington, you're an angel in khaki,' said Horan rejoicingly. 'I'm your
+debtor for life.'
+
+'Which same will not be a long one if ye don't kape that big body o'yours
+under cover,' said O'Brien dryly, as a bullet, striking the parapet,
+spattered earth all over them.
+
+'Have ye revolvers?' he asked of Ken.
+
+None of them had, but these were at once provided, together with plenty of
+ammunition.
+
+'Ye'd best lave your rifles,' said O'Brien. ''Tis a creeping, crawling job
+before ye, and the lighter ye go, the better. At close quarters the
+pistols will do the job better than anything else ye can carry. Now get
+along wid ye. The sky's lightening over Asia yonder, and 'tis small chance
+ye'll have if the dawn catches ye.'
+
+'Lucky beggars!' growled a big Tasmanian, as they passed him on their way
+to the north end of the trench. All their comrades were consumed with
+envy, but like the good fellows they were, they only wished them luck.
+
+A few moments later they had all four crawled out of the trench, and
+bending double were making steadily uphill towards the spot from which the
+enfilading fire proceeded.
+
+'We'll go straight,' whispered Ken. 'Less risk, really, for they'll be
+shooting over our heads.'
+
+There was plenty of cover, for the whole of the steep hill-side was dotted
+with thick bunches of dense scrub. Barring a chance shot from up above,
+there was not much risk for the present. That would come later, when they
+reached the nest of snipers. For the present the great thing was to keep
+their heads down and escape observation.
+
+Nearer and nearer they came to the spot whence the flashes darted
+thickest, and all the time the bullets whirred over their heads. At last
+Ken was able to see through the gloom a low parapet of earth which was
+evidently the front of a regular rifle pit.
+
+He stopped and beckoned to the others to do the same.
+
+'There must be at least half a dozen of them,' he whispered, 'and very
+likely more. You chaps wait here under this bush while I go forward. No,
+you needn't grouse, Dave. I'm not going to do you out of your share. All I
+want is to make out which side it will be best to make our attack. I'll be
+back in a minute.'
+
+He crept forward, and as he did so there was a sudden lull in the firing.
+For a moment he feared that the men in the pit had spotted him or his
+companions, and he flattened himself breathlessly on the ground.
+
+Next moment he heard a voice. Some one in the rifle pit was speaking.
+
+'I would that they would hasten with that ammunition,' said the man
+speaking in the Anatolian dialect, which Ken could understand fairly well.
+'Allah, but these infidels take lead as though it were no more than
+water!'
+
+'They are brave men, Achmet,' answered another, 'but even so they will not
+stand when Mahmoud brings up the guns. Then, as the German says, we shall
+sweep them back into the sea from which they came.'
+
+'Guns!' muttered Ken. 'This is news.' He lay still and listened eagerly.
+
+'Does the German himself bring the guns?' asked the first speaker.
+
+'He does, brother. They are two of the best which were sent from
+Constantinople to Maidos. Most like, they are already in position on the
+heights above us, ready to rain their shrapnel upon the unbelievers.'
+
+Ken had heard enough. This was news which the colonel must learn at once.
+Snipers were bad enough, but if the two German 77-millimetre field-pieces
+were got into position, the trench would be untenable. He waited only long
+enough to get the lie of the land around the rifle pit, then crept quietly
+back to his companions.
+
+It took him just about thirty seconds to tell them what he had heard.
+
+'And one of you must go back and tell the colonel,' he added.
+
+There was silence. Not unnaturally no one volunteered.
+
+'It's up to you, Norton,' said Ken.
+
+'Why not rush the pit first?' suggested Norton, 'then we could all go back
+together.'
+
+'Or all stay here,' answered Ken. 'No, I'm frightfully sorry, Norton, but
+you're the best scout of the lot of us, and the most likely to get back
+safely. You must go and tell the colonel.'
+
+Norton was too good a soldier to argue. With a sigh he turned about and
+vanished in the gloom.
+
+'And now for the rifle pit,' said Ken. 'We must go up on the right-hand
+side, and take it from the rear. As I've told you, the fellows holding it
+are out of cartridges. If we can get in on 'em quietly, before they can
+use their bayonets, we ought not to have much trouble.'
+
+Ken's heart beat hard as he led the way to the rifle pit. The thought that
+his colonel had given him a job on his own filled him with pride, and
+though he was nothing but a private leading two other privates, he felt
+like a captain with a company behind him.
+
+The critical moment came as they reached the front of the pit, and had to
+swing off to the right. There was little or no cover, and it was necessary
+to crawl flat on their stomachs. To make matters worse, the ground was
+rough and stony, and every time a pebble rolled, Ken's heart was in his
+mouth.
+
+But the snipers were keeping no sort of watch. Of course none of them had
+the faintest notion that any enemy was nearer than the trench, quite a
+couple of hundred yards away. As they snaked along, the attacking party
+could hear them talking in the low, measured tones peculiar to the Turk.
+
+At last Ken gained his vantage point. He paused and drew his revolver. The
+others did the same.
+
+Ken sprang to his feet, and with two bounds was in the pit.
+
+There were five men there, and the attack took them utterly by surprise.
+Before they knew what was happening two were pistolled and one knocked
+silly by a blow from the butt of Horan's revolver. The two others fought
+gamely, but they were no match for the three Britishers. In less time than
+it takes to tell they were both laid out.
+
+[Illustration: Stores, horses, and munitions were being landed on V.
+beach.]
+
+[Illustration: Magnificent work was done by the landing parties in their
+advance inland.]
+
+'Hurrah!' cried Horan gleefully.
+
+'Shut up, you ass!' snapped Ken. 'Do you want to bring every Turk within
+half a mile down on us. Look out. There's one chap moving. Tie him up,
+and, Dave, gather their rifles. I must go through their pockets. There's
+always a chance of useful information.'
+
+'Lively now!' he added. 'They were expecting ammunition, and we shall have
+visitors in pretty short order.'
+
+'My word, here they are already,' muttered Dave Burney. 'Half a dozen of
+'em.'
+
+Ken looked up quickly. A number of figures were just visible, coming along
+the ridge to the right.
+
+'There are more than half a dozen,' he whispered sharply. 'More like
+double that number. And that looks like an officer with them.'
+
+'We'd best make ourselves scarce,' suggested Dave quietly.
+
+'Too late for that,' answered Ken. 'They're bound to see us. Besides, if
+they find the pit empty they'll only put fresh men here, and all the work
+will be to do again.'
+
+'Let's tackle 'em then,' said Roy Horan recklessly.
+
+'Odds are too long,' replied Ken. He paused a moment, and glanced round.
+
+'I've an idea,' he said swiftly. 'I believe we can fool them. Quick! Take
+the coats off the dead men, and put them on. Their fezzes, too. In this
+light they'll never know the difference.'
+
+'But if they talk to us?' objected Roy.
+
+'Then I'll talk back. I know the language.'
+
+As he spoke, Ken was swiftly stripping one of the dead Turks of his
+overcoat. The others did the same, and within an incredibly short time all
+three were wearing dead men's clothes. The coats sat oddly on their long
+frames, but fortunately there was as yet very little light, and in the
+gray gloom they presented a tolerable resemblance to the late tenants of
+the rifle pit.
+
+They had hardly completed the change when the officer who was leading the
+party reached the edge of the pit.
+
+'Why are you not firing?' he demanded, and by his harsh guttural voice Ken
+knew him at once for a German.
+
+'We are out of ammunition,' he answered readily.
+
+'Schweine Hund! Do you not know enough to say "Sir" to an officer when he
+addresses you?'
+
+'Your pardon, sir,' said Ken gruffly. 'The light is so bad, and my eyes
+sting with the powder smoke.'
+
+'They will sting worse if you do not mend your manners,' retorted the
+German brutally.
+
+Ken, boiling inwardly, had yet wisdom enough to hang his head and make no
+reply.
+
+'How many are there of you in the pit?' continued the officer.
+
+'Only three, sir,' Ken answered.
+
+'You will retire to higher ground and construct a new pit. This position
+is required for a mitrailleuse. You understand, blockhead?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+The officer turned to the men behind him.
+
+'Bring up the gun,' he ordered.
+
+'Come on,' said Ken to Dave in the lowest possible whisper. He climbed
+quietly out of the hollow as he spoke, and the two others followed.
+
+'Up the hill there--by those bushes,' said the German curtly. 'And be
+sharp. Ammunition will be brought you. Understand, your work is to command
+the beach and prevent supplies being brought to those dogs in the
+trenches.'
+
+'So that's the little game, is it?' said Roy, as the three gained the
+shelter of a patch of scrub out of sight of the German. 'A quick firer to
+enfilade the trench, and snipers for the beach. Say, Carrington, can't we
+do anything to put the hat on that Prussian Johnny's scheme?'
+
+'We've got to,' Ken answered quickly. 'Once they get that quick-firer
+posted, it's all up with our lads down below. They'll rake the trench from
+end to end.'
+
+'Let's wait till it's in place, and rush it,' suggested Horan recklessly.
+'We ought to be able to wipe out the gun crew before they nobble us.'
+
+'What's the use of that?' retorted Ken. 'It's the gun itself we want to
+wreck--not the crew. They can easily get a score of men to work the Q.-F.,
+but it would take some time to get another gun. Jove, if I only had just
+one stick of dynamite.'
+
+[Illustration: '"How many are there of you in the pit?"']
+
+'But they had no dynamite, and the outlook seemed extremely gloomy. Worst
+of all, it was rapidly getting light, and although a mist hung over the
+sea and the shore, this would no doubt melt away as soon as the sun was
+well up.
+
+Shots came from a patch of scrub behind and above them, whistling over
+their heads, and evidently directed at the boats which were bringing
+ammunition and reinforcements from the ships.
+
+Ken crouched lower, and as he did so some bulky object in the pocket of
+the Turkish overcoat which he was wearing made itself felt. He slipped his
+hand in and drew out a black metal globe, about the size of a cricket
+ball. It had a length of dark cord-like stuff projecting from a hole in
+it.
+
+It was all he could do to repress a yell of delight.
+
+'What luck!' he muttered. 'Oh, I say, what luck!'
+
+'What the mischief have you got there?' inquired Dave. 'What is it?'
+
+'A bomb. One of the German hand grenades. Quick! See if there are any in
+your pockets?'
+
+Hastily the others thrust their hands into their pockets and each hand
+came back with a similar bomb.
+
+'That settles it,' said Ken happily. 'Two for the men, and one for the
+gun. We've got 'em now--got 'em on toast.'
+
+As he spoke he crept out of the bush, and took a cautious peep in the
+direction of the rifle pit.
+
+'They're just setting the gun up,' he muttered. 'And the German beggar has
+gone back the way he came. So far as I can see, there are not more than
+four or five men with the gun.'
+
+'That's all right,' said Roy Horan in a tone of considerable satisfaction.
+'What do we do, Carrington--just wallop these grenades in on top of 'em?'
+
+'No, they're not percussion--worse luck! We've got to light the fuses
+before we chuck them. That's awkward for two reasons. They may see our
+matches, and then we've got to be pretty nippy about using them. If we're
+not, it's we who'll get the bust up--not the Turks.'
+
+'Sounds, interesting,' remarked Roy coolly. 'See here, Carrington, the
+best thing, so far as I can see, is for us to slip down to our old place,
+right under the parapet of the pit. That's our only chance of getting to
+close quarters.'
+
+'A frontal attack,' put in Dave. 'What price our heads if they start
+shooting off the gun?'
+
+'They probably won't start until they have light enough to see where
+they're shooting,' returned Ken. 'Horan's notion is all right. Come on.'
+
+'But mind you,' he whispered urgently, 'we must keep one bomb for the gun.
+You'd best throw yours first, Horan, and as soon as it's gone off, let 'em
+have it with your pistol. Then, if there are any of 'em left, you whack
+yours in, Dave.'
+
+He crept away, the others followed, and a few moments later they found
+themselves crouching close together under the low parapet of the rifle
+pit. There was light enough for them to see--just above their heads--the
+ugly gray muzzle of the mitrailleuse peeping out through an embrasure in
+the earthen bank.
+
+All of a sudden, without the slightest warning, a tongue of flame spat
+from the muzzle, and with a deafening rattle a hail of bullets sprayed out
+over their heads, directed at the trench a bare two hundreds yards away.
+
+'Quick!' cried Ken. 'We must stop that,' and with all speed he pulled out
+his match-box. The crackle of the firing drowned his words, but that did
+not matter. The others understood.
+
+Ken struck a match, and Roy held out the fuse of his bomb. Luckily there
+was no wind. The fuse caught and instantly began to hiss and splutter.
+
+With reckless disregard for danger, Roy sprang upon the parapet. Ken had
+one glimpse of the tall figure towering over him, one hand raised high
+overhead.
+
+Then the arm flashed forward as Roy dashed the grenade full into the
+centre of the pit.
+
+There followed a stunning report--a noise so loud that Ken felt as though
+his very ear-drums were cracked. At the same time Horan staggered back off
+the parapet, and the quick-firer ceased firing.
+
+'Now, yours, Dave,' said Ken, and without delay Dave lobbed his grenade,
+the fuse of which Ken had already lighted, into the pit.
+
+But by this time the survivors from the first explosion had pulled
+themselves together and collected their wits. Before the second grenade
+could explode, it was hurled back. It went right over Dave's head and
+rolling down the hill exploded with a deafening roar.
+
+On top of the grenade three burly Turks came leaping out of the pit and
+fell on Ken and Dave.
+
+Ken just managed to get out his pistol in time, and his first shot
+finished the leader of the three Turks. But a second man came at him with
+a clubbed musket, and Ken only saved his skull by a rapid duck.
+
+'Dog!' roared his assailant, as he made another savage swing.
+
+Ken leaped away, and the Turk overbalanced himself with the force of his
+blow. Before he could recover Ken's heavy revolver barrel crashed upon his
+skull and felled him like a log.
+
+Ken glanced across at Dave, and saw him kneeling on the chest of the third
+Turk, his long fingers gripping the man's throat. Just beyond, Roy,
+recovering slowly from the stunning effect of his own bomb, was scrambling
+dazedly to his feet.
+
+Farther off, he heard the sound of running feet. It was clear that the
+sound of the two explosions had aroused the suspicions of some supporting
+party. Reinforcements were coming up at the double.
+
+If the gun was to be put out of service this would have to be done
+quickly. Without a moment's delay he sprang over into the pit.
+
+The place was a regular shambles. Ken was amazed at the ruin wrought by
+the one small bomb. Three men lay dead in the bottom. One had his head
+almost blown off. Fortunately, perhaps, Ken had no time to dwell on such
+horrors. With all possible speed he got the remaining bomb out, and with a
+handkerchief tied it to the breech of the quick-firer.
+
+Then he lighted the fuse, and waiting only long enough to see that it was
+burning properly, made a wild leap out of the pit.
+
+'It's all right. I've fixed the gun. Come on, you chaps,' he said sharply
+to the others.
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth before a flash of flame rose from
+the pit and the loud report of the last bomb sent the echoes flying along
+the cliffs. Fragments of the broken gun shot high into the air, the pieces
+falling in every direction.
+
+'That's done the trick,' said Dave gleefully.
+
+'Don't talk. Come on. There's a big party of Turks coming up. Are you game
+to run, Horan?'
+
+'You bet. I'm all right now. But those bombs are oners. I never reckoned
+such a small thing would make such a dust up. Gosh, it nearly blinded me,
+and my head still rings like a bell.'
+
+Ken did not answer. All his energies were needed to steer a course through
+the scrub which covered the steep hill-side. The morning mist lay thick
+and clammy. It was impossible to see more than a few yards ahead, and it
+would be the easiest thing in the world to miss the way back to the
+trench, and either go over the steep edge to the beach or get in among the
+enemy snipers to the left.
+
+'Look out!' cried Roy Horan suddenly, and as he spoke four men rose up out
+of the thick scrub right in their path. And one of them was a German
+officer, the very same whom they had encountered twenty minutes earlier.
+
+'Stop!' he snarled. 'Stop, you fools. Where are you going?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+PROMOTION
+
+
+The officer was armed with a repeating pistol while his men all had
+rifles. For the moment Ken was filled with wonder as to why they had not
+at once used their weapons.
+
+Then he remembered. It was their Turkish greatcoats which had saved them.
+In the dim light the German still took them for Turkish soldiers.
+
+But discovery could only be a matter of a few seconds. Even as he watched,
+he saw suspicion dawn in the pig-like eyes of the Prussian.
+
+'At 'em!' roared Ken, and without an instant's hesitation flung himself
+upon the officer.
+
+The man tried to fire, but Ken caught his wrist in time, and closed. The
+two wrestled furiously together, the German breathing out savage threats
+in his own language.
+
+He was not tall, but a stocky, powerful man, and it was all Ken could do
+to hold his own. Vaguely he heard shouts and shots, and knew that Dave and
+Roy were hotly engaged with the three Turks. But he had no attention to
+spare for them. All his energies were needed to cope with his own
+opponent.
+
+Ken's first object was to deprive the other of his pistol, and he forced
+the man's right arm back with all his strength. Stamping and panting, the
+two worked gradually back down the slope until they had passed the clump
+of scrub from behind which the German had appeared.
+
+Ken, though breathing hard, was still cool and collected, while the
+German, on the other hand, had utterly lost his temper. His big heavy face
+was a rich plum colour, and the breath whistled through his teeth.
+
+At last Ken gained his first object. His fierce grip upon the German's
+wrist paralysed the muscles of the man's hand, and the pistol dropped from
+his nerveless fingers.
+
+Instantly Ken tightened his hold, and tried to back-heel his adversary.
+Before he could succeed in this manoeuvre, he felt the ground crumbling
+beneath his feet.
+
+It was too late to do anything to save himself. Next moment the earth gave
+way and he and the German, locked in one another's arms, went flying
+through the air.
+
+Followed a crash and a thud, and for some moments Ken lay stunned and
+breathless, though not actually insensible.
+
+In boxing there is nothing more painful than a blow on the 'mark.' It
+knocks all the breath out of the body, and for some time the lungs seem
+paralysed. This was practically what had happened to Ken. He had fallen
+full on his chest, and though his senses remained clear enough, he simply
+could not get his breath back.
+
+When at last he succeeded in doing so he felt as weak as a cat, and deadly
+sick into the bargain. It was some moments before he could even manage to
+roll off the body of the man beneath him.
+
+He struggled to his feet and found that he was at the bottom of a bluff
+about twenty feet high. To the right was a sheer drop to the sea. He
+shivered as he glanced over to the fog-shrouded waves, full eighty feet
+below. The ledge on which he had landed was only four or five yards wide.
+A very little more, and he and his enemy together must have gone clean
+over the cliff.
+
+He turned to the German. The latter lay still enough--so still that at
+first Ken thought he was dead. But presently he saw that the man was still
+breathing.
+
+'A hospital case,' muttered Ken in puzzled tones. 'What the mischief am I
+to do with him?'
+
+'Ken--Ken, where are you?'
+
+The anxious question came from overhead, and glancing up Ken saw Dave
+Burney's head appearing over the edge of the bluff.
+
+'I'm all right,' he answered. 'What about you?'
+
+'We've nobbled our little lot,' Dave answered with justifiable pride. 'My
+word, but I'm glad to see you. I thought you'd gone right over into the
+sea.'
+
+'I wasn't far off it,' said Ken. 'I say, is there any way up to the top
+again. This is nothing but a ledge?'
+
+'Can't you climb the bluff. It's not so steep a little way to your right?'
+
+'I could, but my German friend isn't exactly in climbing trim. He's rather
+badly bust up by the look of him.'
+
+Dave glanced round.
+
+[Illustration: '"My German friend isn't exactly in climbing trim."']
+
+'It looks to me as if the ledge you're on broadens a good bit to my left.
+You wait where you are, and Roy and I will come round and give you a
+hand.'
+
+Dave's head disappeared, and Ken sat down, with his back against the
+bluff. He had had a bad shake up, and was glad of a few moments' rest. He
+was quite safe where he was, for the bluff protected him from stray
+Turkish bullets.
+
+Down below, through the mist, boats were shooting landwards from the
+transports, bringing more men, stores of all kinds, ammunition, and
+materials for setting up a wireless installation. He saw that they were
+under constant fire from the snipers on the cliffs above, and though for
+the moment the haze protected them, the mist was fast rising. It was going
+to be precious awkward when the full light came.
+
+In a much shorter time than he had expected, his two companions appeared
+in sight around the curve of the ledge. In the dawn light he could see
+that their khaki was torn and covered with stains, while their faces were
+scratched and bleeding. But both were in splendid spirits.
+
+'My word!' exclaimed Roy. 'This is what you might call a night out with a
+vengeance.'
+
+'The night's all right,' returned Ken, 'but it's getting a jolly sight too
+near day to suit me. If we don't get back to our trench before this fog
+goes we shall be a target for half the Turkish army.'
+
+'It's not far,' said Dave consolingly.
+
+'Far enough, by the time we've carried in this Johnny,' replied Ken,
+pointing to the German.
+
+Dave looked doubtfully at the corpulent form of the Prussian.
+
+'He's not exactly a featherweight, by the look of him. However, here
+goes.' He stooped as he spoke and took the officer by the shoulders.
+
+'Catch hold of his legs, Roy,' he said to Horan. 'No, Ken,' as Carrington
+stepped forward, 'you've done your bit. Roy and I will tote your stout
+prisoner back.'
+
+'First, take off those Turkey carpets you're wearing,' said Ken quickly.
+'If you don't, it's our chaps will fill you with lead.'
+
+They all peeled off their Turkish overcoats, then carrying the German they
+started along the ledge. Rounding the curve, Ken found that the ledge
+widened and merged in the scrub-clad slope opposite the head of the little
+bay.
+
+He stopped and glanced round. The Turkish snipers were still busy, and the
+sharp crack of cordite echoed from scores of different hiding-places along
+the hills. He and his companions had about one hundred and fifty yards to
+go before reaching the trench held by their battalions, and the light was
+growing stronger every moment.
+
+In spite of his anxiety to bring in his prisoner, it seemed clear that the
+risk was too great. Their only chance of crossing the open in safety was
+to duck and crawl.
+
+'It's no use,' he said regretfully. 'We'll have to leave this chap behind.
+We'll all be shot as full of holes as a sieve if we try to carry him.'
+
+'Rats, Carrington!' retorted Roy Horan. 'Go home without our prisoner?
+Never! Besides, the Turks won't shoot their own officer. Come on, Dave,'
+he said, and before Ken could say another word the two were off as hard as
+they could go, carrying their heavy burden.
+
+Ken had many doubts as to the Turks refraining from shooting, for fear of
+hitting the German. In fact, knowing as he did the feeling which existed
+between the bullying Prussian and the placid Turk, he rather thought the
+case would be exactly the opposite.
+
+Whatever the reason, at any rate they had covered nearly half the distance
+before they began to draw fire. Then bullets began to ping ominously
+close, and little jets of dust to rise from the dry soil all around them.
+
+Suddenly Ken's hat flew from his head, and as he stooped quickly to
+recover it, the fat German gave a yell like a stuck pig, and kicked out so
+convulsively that his bearers incontinently dropped him.
+
+In an instant he was on his feet, and running like a rabbit, at the same
+time giving vent to a series of sharp yelps like a beaten puppy.
+
+'The blighter! He was shamming!' roared Roy, darting off in pursuit,
+regardless of the bullets.
+
+'It was a bullet woke him up anyhow,' exclaimed Dave, as he scurried
+after.
+
+The Prussian was beside himself with pain. He had been shot through one
+hand, and there is no more agonising injury. He ran blindly, and as it
+chanced almost in a straight line for the trench.
+
+A score of heads popped up to see what was happening, and when their
+owners realised the truth a roar of laughter burst out all down the
+trench.
+
+It was not until the German was on the very edge of the trench that he
+realised where he was. He spun round to bolt.
+
+But Roy was at his heels.
+
+'No, ye don't, fatty,' said the big New Zealander, and catching the man by
+the scruff of the neck, gave him a tremendous push which sent him flying
+over into the trench. Roy sprang down after him, and a moment later, Dave
+and Ken hurled themselves into cover.
+
+'Is it steeplechasing ye are, or what fool's game is it ye are playing?'
+demanded Sergeant O'Brien, while the rest shrieked with laughter.
+
+'He--he's my prisoner,' panted Ken. 'And--and, sergeant, did Norton get
+back?'
+
+'He did. Come along wid ye, and make your report to the colonel.'
+
+Colonel Conway, who had been on foot all night, was taking a few minutes'
+much needed rest in a rough dug-out. But at sight of Ken, he was on his
+feet again in a moment.
+
+'I am very glad to see you, Carrington,' he said cordially. 'I had begun
+to be afraid that you and your companions would not get back. And yet I
+knew you had succeeded in your enterprise, for the enfilading fire ceased
+very shortly after you left.'
+
+Standing at attention, Ken gave his report. He made much of the doings of
+Dave and Roy, but modestly suppressed his own. The colonel, however, was
+not deceived.
+
+'You have done very well indeed,' he said, with a warmth that brought the
+colour to Ken's cheeks. 'Your destruction of the machine gun was a
+particularly plucky and useful piece of work. I shall see that your
+conduct and that of all your companions is mentioned in the proper
+quarter. Meantime, you are promoted to corporal.'
+
+Ken's heart was very nearly bursting with pride.
+
+'Thank you, sir,' he said with a gulp, and saluting again turned away.
+
+The colonel stopped him.
+
+'You had better get some food,' he said. 'We shall be moving out of this
+very shortly.'
+
+'Faith, ye didn't do so badly after all, lad,' said O'Brien. 'Ate quickly
+now, for I'm thinking 'tis us for the top of the cliff before we're a dale
+older.'
+
+Bread, bully beef, and a drink of water out of their bottles. That was the
+simple bill of fare. But Ken's exertions during the night had put a sharp
+edge on his appetite, and he enjoyed the plain meal.
+
+The fog was fast disappearing under the rays of the newly risen sun, and
+the firing grew heavier every minute. The hills all round were alive with
+snipers, but their fire was directed not so much on the trench held by the
+Australians as on the boats which were landing reinforcements on the beach
+below.
+
+It was in the boats and on the beach that the casualties were heaviest.
+The troops that were landed had to run the gauntlet for fully fifty yards
+before reaching the cover of the scrub on the cliff, and matters were
+worse still for the bluejackets pulling the empty boats back to the ships.
+They were potted at without a chance of returning the enemy fire.
+
+But they stuck it out finely, and already all the wounded had been taken
+off, while reinforcements had reached the upper trench, sufficient in
+number to make up for the first losses.
+
+'What's the colonel waiting for?' asked Dave. 'Why don't we go on up and
+smoke out those blighted snipers?'
+
+'It's ammunition, I fancy. And there's a couple of maxims coming up. We
+shall need those if we have to dig ourselves in under fire.'
+
+'More digging--oh, Christmas!' growled Dave. 'I didn't come here to dig. I
+could do that in my old dad's garden at home.'
+
+Ken chuckled. 'You'll find the spade'll do as much to win this war as the
+guns and rifles. There's heaps of trenching in store for us, I can tell
+you.'
+
+There was some delay about the maxims, and time went on without any order
+to move. The men began to grumble. It was hard indeed to lie and watch
+their comrades below being picked off, one after another, by these
+abominable sharpshooters, without a chance of hitting back.
+
+'Look at that!' growled Roy Horan, pointing to a stalwart bluejacket who
+had just dropped at his oar as the boat pushed off the beach. 'It's
+murder! That's what it is. Sheer murder! Why the blazes can't the ships
+turn loose?'
+
+'Because they've got nothing to fire at. You can't chuck away 6-inch
+shells on the off chance of killing one sniper. You wait until the Turks
+appear in force. Then you'll see what naval guns can do.'
+
+'I don't believe the swine will ever appear in force,' said Roy, who had
+lost all his good humour and was looking absolutely savage. 'It breaks me
+all up to see our chaps shot down like rabbits without a chance of getting
+their own back.'
+
+There was worse to come. From somewhere high up among the scrub-clad
+heights came a dull heavy crash, and almost instantly the clear air above
+the beach was filled with puffs of gray white smoke which floated like
+balls of cotton wool.
+
+'The guns! The beggars have got those guns up,' ran a mutter along the
+trench.
+
+'About time for the ships to get to work,' growled Roy, his big handsome
+face knitted in a scowl.
+
+'Ay, if they only knew where the guns were,' replied Ken. 'But that's the
+deuce of it. They can't spot 'em without planes, and there are no planes
+here yet.'
+
+Crash! A second gun spoke, and another shell burst above the beach. From
+that time on the firing was continuous. The whole beach was scourged with
+shrapnel, and landing operations became perilous in the extreme.
+
+The men in the trenches fidgeted and swore beneath their breath. There is
+nothing more trying to troops than to see their comrades suffering and yet
+be unable to help them.
+
+'Can't we do something?' muttered Dave, as he saw a boat from one of the
+ships smashed to matchwood by a blast of shrapnel, and her crew and
+contents scattered into the sea. 'Can't we do something? It's enough to
+drive one loony to watch this sort of thing.'
+
+Almost as he spoke there was a sudden flutter of excitement, as an order
+was passed from man to man down the trench.
+
+They were to advance and take up a new position on the top of the slope.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GUNS!
+
+
+There was no bugle note, no cheer, but at a whistle the men swarmed out of
+their trench and went uphill as hard as every they could go.
+
+Their appearance was the signal for a tremendous outburst of firing on the
+part of the Turkish snipers, and a moment later the two 77-millimetre
+German guns which had been brought from Gaba Tepe changed the direction of
+their fire from the beach to the advancing troops.
+
+As the Australians went bursting through the scrub, snipers who had crept
+in close during the night and hidden in the bushes and behind rocks broke
+like rabbits out of gorse when the terriers are put in.
+
+They were hunted down remorselessly, and not one of them escaped. Those
+who were not killed outright were taken prisoners.
+
+It was very fine while it lasted, and the men would have given anything to
+go on. But Colonel Conway knew the risk too well, and as soon as they had
+gained the summit of the cliff whistle signals from the sergeants stopped
+them, and the order came to dig themselves in with all speed.
+
+It is one thing to occupy a trench already made, quite another to dig one
+under fire. There is no question of standing up and wielding the shovel as
+if one were digging a garden. Men must lie down and scratch and scrape
+until they get head cover, then gradually open up a narrow ditch into
+which they sink slowly.
+
+'I didn't enlist as a blooming navvy,' grunted Roy Horan, who had stuck by
+Ken and Dave. 'Phew, but it's hot as a North Island beach on Christmas
+Day!'
+
+As he spoke came an earth-shaking thud, and Ken, who was next to Roy,
+grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down flat on the ground.
+
+Just in time, too, for next instant the earth three yards away in front
+burst upwards in a fountain of stones and pieces of broken steel. Ken felt
+a blast of heat and stinging sand across the back of his neck, while the
+concussion made his head ring.
+
+'What the blazes?' muttered Roy, as he lifted his head and looked round
+dazedly.
+
+'It was blazes all right,' answered Ken dryly. 'A high explosive shell, my
+lad. Lucky that it went pretty deep before it burst.'
+
+'And lucky for me that you pulled my head down in time,' answered Roy
+soberly. 'Thanks, old man. I shan't forget that.'
+
+The next shell burst behind the line, and the third still farther back.
+Fortunately for the Australians, the German gunners had not got the exact
+range, or the losses would have been fearful. High explosive of the kind
+the Germans use will pulverise the parapet of a trench and kill every one
+within reach.
+
+The ground was hard, the sun hot, but the men dug like beavers, and within
+an hour had made themselves pretty safe. But there was no letting up.
+Colonel Conway insisted upon a regular trench of the latest pattern with
+proper traverses, and deep enough to give plenty of head room. The men
+grumbled, but some, like Ken, realised that the game was well worth the
+candle.
+
+'He's looking for an attack in force later on,' Ken told Dave and Roy
+Horan. 'You may be jolly sure that the Turks are bringing up
+reinforcements.'
+
+'There are quite enough of the beggars already,' said Dave. 'Just listen
+to the bullets coming over. That scrub in front of us fairly hums with
+snipers.'
+
+By the time that the trench was finished it was nearly midday. The men
+were given a rest, and dinner was served out. In spite of the enemy's fire
+the Army Service men had managed to bring their stores right up to the
+trench, and there was fresh bread, butter, cheese, and jam for the hungry
+fighters.
+
+Down below, engineers were at work, making a path up the cliff, while
+boats travelled up and down with a dogged and admirable persistence.
+
+The enemy fire in front of the new position grew steadily heavier. If a
+cap was put up on a cleaning rod over the parapet, it was sometimes struck
+by two or three bullets at once. It seemed clear that the Germans who led
+the Turks were concentrating their forces in front of the trench, but
+whether they were new men or not it was impossible to say. The broken
+nature of the ground and the heavy scrub hid all that was going on a very
+little way inland.
+
+'This is getting a bit thick,' said Roy Horan, as a fresh crackle of rifle
+fire burst from a wooded height about a quarter of a mile inland. A maxim
+carefully emplaced behind sandbags in the trench replied with a storm of
+bullets, but it was a poor job, firing at an enemy who were quite
+invisible, and a feeling of slight depression had begun to settle on the
+occupants of the trench.
+
+'The colonel's having a pow-wow with the other officers,' said Dave.
+'Something's going to happen before long.'
+
+Something did happen. Presently the whistles trilled, and a sigh of relief
+went up.
+
+'Cold steel, bhoys,' said Sergeant O'Brien. 'Don't any of ye wait to
+shoot. And open order, mind ye!'
+
+Eagerly the men scrambled out of their trench and plunged into the scrub.
+In a long yet level line they went charging through it.
+
+The snipers had not expected another advance. That was clear enough. By
+twos and threes and dozens, they sprang up out of their hiding-places, and
+bolted like rabbits. With exulting shouts the Colonials charged after
+them, ran them down and bayoneted them.
+
+The slaughter was fearful. As the khaki-clad line swept onwards they left
+the ground behind them thick with dead bodies. They themselves lost, of
+course, but only slightly. Their attack was such a complete surprise, and
+they moved so quickly, that for a time they had matters all their own way.
+The Turks had no relish for bayonet fighting, and the few who did turn to
+bay soon paid the penalty.
+
+For a quarter of a mile or more the Colonials continued their career,
+clearing the whole of the scrub of the plague of snipers. Then, just in
+the moment of victory, came such a blast of firing that the whole line
+reeled and swayed, and men fell by the dozen.
+
+'Down with you!' shouted Ken to Dave, who was on his left. 'Down with
+you!'
+
+As he spoke, he himself dropped behind a boulder which thrust its
+weather-stained head out of the thin grass. He glanced round and saw that
+his companions had followed his example.
+
+A bullet struck the stone just above his head and spattered off in a
+shower of shrieking fragments. The whole air was thick with lead. It was
+clear that they had run into a very strong enemy force, no doubt the
+reinforcements which had been brought up from the east.
+
+'Where are they?' sang out Dave, who was lying in a little hollow with Roy
+Horan, a few yards to their left.
+
+'There's a ravine ahead. That's where they are. Look out! Here they come!'
+
+The hill-side opposite seemed suddenly to vomit men. They came sweeping
+out in masses, hundreds strong.
+
+'Rapid fire!' sang out Ken to his squad.
+
+There was no need for his advice. Every man of the Colonials let loose at
+once, and few fired less than fifteen aimed rounds to the minute. The
+execution was awful. The attacking force reeled and writhed like a monster
+in agony.
+
+But the officers behind, in their ugly greenish-gray German uniforms,
+drove them forward, and though the leading files fell by scores the rest
+swept onwards. To his dismay, Ken saw more pouring out behind in support.
+The odds were at least ten to one. It was impossible to withstand such an
+attack in the open.
+
+Colonel Conway knew it too. Next moment the whistles shrilled again,
+giving the order to retire.
+
+Slowly the men began to fall back. Their steadiness was wonderful. Raw
+troops can be trusted to charge, but, as a rule, it takes veterans to
+retire successfully. These Australians, hardly one of whom had ever been
+under fire before the previous night, retreated in such magnificent order
+as made their officers' hearts thrill with admiration.
+
+Every bit of cover was made full use of, the men dropping and firing, then
+rising again, and gliding back to the next stone or bush. They lost, of
+course--lost heavily--but for each Australian who fell, four Turks went
+down.
+
+Ken, dodging and shooting with the best, still managed to keep an eye on
+his two friends, and saw with relief that neither was hit. Slowly they
+worked back until they were within fifty yards of their trench.
+
+Here was open ground with practically no cover at all.
+
+'Come on!' shouted Ken. 'A last sprint.'
+
+He saw Dave spring to his feet and make a dash. Then suddenly he stumbled,
+flung out his arms and fell flat on his face. At the same moment two
+Turks, big, black-bearded fellows, came leaping out of a patch of scrub,
+barely twenty yards behind Dave.
+
+Ken spun round, and taking quick aim at the nearest, pulled the trigger.
+There was no report. He had finished the last cartridge in his magazine.
+
+There was no time to reload. Dave, hurt but not killed, was trying to
+crawl away on hands and knees, but it was clear that in another moment he
+would be a prisoner.
+
+Without an instant's hesitation, Ken charged straight at the two Turks.
+
+They, intent on their prisoner, failed to see him until he was almost on
+them. Then one, uttering a hoarse cry, sprang forward, stabbing at him
+with his bayonet.
+
+Ken's blade clashed against the other's as he parried, then side-stepping
+like a flash, he drove his bayonet into the man's ribs, and with a choking
+sob he fell dead.
+
+Something whizzed past Ken's head, and a heavy blow on the left shoulder
+brought him to his knees. The second Turk had struck at him with his rifle
+butt, and missing his head, caught him on the shoulder. He saw a savage
+grin on the man's face as he raised his rifle again to finish the job and
+avenge his comrade. It looked all odds on Ken's brains being scattered the
+next instant.
+
+Before the rifle could descend a shadow flashed across, and something
+crashed upon the Turk's head with such fearful force as cracked his skull
+like an egg-shell. For a moment his body remained upright, then it swayed
+and fell sideways like a log to the ground.
+
+'Gosh, but I thought I was too late!' panted Roy Horan. 'And confound it
+all, I've cracked the stock of my rifle.'
+
+'You saved my head from being cracked anyhow,' answered Ken. 'But Dave's
+hit. Give us a hand back with him.'
+
+'I'll carry him,' said Roy quickly, and dropping his useless rifle, he
+quickly hoisted Burney on his broad back, and set off at a run for the
+trench. Ken, whose shoulder felt quite numb, followed, and a moment later
+all three tumbled safely back into the trench.
+
+Roy laid Dave down gently on the ground.
+
+'Afraid he's got it bad,' he whispered, as he pointed to an ugly stain on
+the back of Dave's tunic. 'We must get the doctor as soon as we can.'
+
+'Let's see if we can't stop that bleeding. The doctor's full up with
+work.' As Ken spoke, he bent down and began stripping off Dave's uniform,
+so as to get at the wound.
+
+Tunic and shirt were both sodden with blood. Ken's heart sank. It looked
+as if his chum must have been shot clean through the body.
+
+'He's bleeding like a pig,' muttered Roy, as he unwound a bandage.
+
+By this time Ken had bared Dave's back, and with a handkerchief mopped
+away the blood.
+
+'Well, I'm blessed!' he exclaimed. 'Look at that!'
+
+The two stared, for instead of the blue-edged puncture which a bullet
+makes as it enters, there was nothing but a shallow cut about three inches
+long.
+
+'I see,' said Ken suddenly. 'The bullet struck the leather of his braces,
+and glanced. I say, Dave, old chap, you may thank your stars for those
+bullock-hide braces of yours. They've saved you this time, and no mistake.
+It's only a flesh wound which a strip of plaster will put right in a day
+or two.'
+
+'Thanks be for that, anyhow,' said Dave earnestly. 'It would have broken
+me all up to lose the rest of the fun. But,' he added thoughtfully, 'I'm
+sorry my braces are gone up. I'll never get another pair like 'em.'
+
+Roy burst out laughing.
+
+'You ungrateful beggar. Here, I've got a bit of string, and we'll soon put
+'em to rights. Now Carrington, let's have a squint at your shoulder.'
+
+Ken's shoulder was badly bruised, but nothing worse, and he and Dave soon
+forgot their injuries in the excitement of a big frontal attack by the
+Turks. For ten minutes they loaded and fired until their rifle barrels
+were almost red hot; then the survivors of the attacking party took to
+their heels and ran.
+
+After that there was peace for a little except for shell fire. This,
+however, grew heavier. Fresh guns had been brought up, and at least three
+were devoting their whole attention to the trench. They had got the range,
+too, and the shrapnel was bursting right over the gallant Colonials.
+Casualties became very heavy, and the doctor and stretcher-bearers were
+kept busy the whole time.
+
+To make matters worse, another machine gun had been mounted on rising
+ground to the north and its fire was enfilading the trench. If it had not
+been for the traverses on which the colonel had insisted, the position
+would have become untenable.
+
+Ken, flattened against the clay face of the trench, began to feel very
+uneasy. They had no more reinforcements, and if the Turks got more guns,
+it began to look as though the whole business would end in failure.
+
+'About time we did another sally to look for that machine gun,' said big
+Roy Horan in his ear.
+
+'Not in the daylight,' answered Ken, shaking his head. 'We shouldn't have
+a dog's chance of reaching it.'
+
+'Well, something's got to happen pretty soon,' answered Roy, ducking, as a
+shell burst almost overhead. 'Something's got to happen, or there won't be
+enough of us left to hold this blessed dug-out.'
+
+'Things don't look healthy, and that's a fact,' allowed Ken. 'Our only
+chance is to get some guns to work. And that's just what we haven't got.'
+
+'And can't get, either, until that path up the cliff is finished.'
+
+At that moment a shell pitched full into the next traverse, blowing its
+two occupants to fragments, and scattering their torn remains far and
+wide.
+
+'That's poor old Carroll,' growled Roy. 'The swine! How I'd like to get
+back on 'em!'
+
+Ken did not reply. The horror of it had made him feel quite sick.
+
+At that moment the firing burst out more hotly than ever. It seemed as if
+every gun and rifle in the enemy's hands spoke at once.
+
+'What's up now?' muttered Roy.
+
+Ken gave a sharp exclamation, and pointed upwards. Looking up, Roy saw a
+big bi-plane soaring high overhead. It looked like a silver bird as it
+skimmed across the rich blue of the afternoon sky.
+
+'Hurrah, a plane at last!' said Ken joyfully. 'That means business. She's
+spotting for the ships,' he explained. 'You'll see something pretty soon,
+you chaps, or hear it anyhow.'
+
+All around the plane, the air was full of the white puffs of bursting
+shrapnel, but the dainty man-bird flirted through them unscathed. The
+eager Australians, all staring skywards, saw her bank steeply, and at the
+same time a long white streak shot downwards from her, like a ribbon
+unrolling in mid air. Then she had turned and was going seawards again at
+a terrific speed.
+
+'Now look out!' cried Ken, and almost as the words left his lips the
+battleships outside let loose.
+
+A score of 6-inch guns spoke out at once with a ringing clamour which
+absolutely drowned all other sounds, and their great 100-pound shells came
+hurtling inland with a series of long-drawn shrieks.
+
+'Look! Look!' cried Ken again, as great fountains of earth and gravel
+spurted from the side of a hill a mile and a half away to the left. That's
+plastering them. Now we're getting a little of our own back.'
+
+There was no doubt about it. The German guns shut up like a knife, but
+whether they were actually hit or merely silenced, it was, of course,
+impossible to say.
+
+For twenty solid minutes the grim battleships and cruisers poured forth
+their storm of shells, until the whole hill-side where the German guns had
+been posted gaped with brown craters. Then they ceased, and the saucy
+aeroplane came buzzing inland again to observe and report upon the damage
+done.
+
+What its extent was the Colonials could not, of course, know, but at any
+rate the enfilading guns remained silent and the worst danger was at an
+end.
+
+'That's saved our bacon,' said Ken, with a sigh of relief. 'We'll get a
+little rest now, perhaps.'
+
+'Maybe ye will, and maybe ye won't,' said Sergeant O'Brien, who came past
+at that moment and overheard Ken's words. 'But if ye want forty winks,
+bhoys, now's your time to snatch 'em. There'll be mighty little slape this
+night for any of us.'
+
+'Why so, sergeant?' asked Dave.
+
+[Illustration: '"Hurrah, a plane at last!" said Ken.']
+
+'Because so soon as ever it's dark we'll have the Turks buzzing round us
+like bees. And the ships can't help us then, remember,' he added
+significantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+'LIZZIE' LETS LOOSE
+
+
+Sergeant O'Brien was soon proved a true prophet. Darkness had hardly
+fallen before the scrub in front was alive with Turks, who came on with a
+rush, intent on driving the Colonials out of their position.
+
+'Steady, boys!' cried the sergeant. 'Don't fire till ye can see them. Let
+every cartridge tell.'
+
+Every officer and every non-com. down the long length of the trench was
+giving the same advice, and the Turks were allowed to approach until their
+squat forms loomed clear in the starlight.
+
+'Now let 'em have it. Pump it into 'em, lads!' came O'Brien's voice again.
+
+With one crash every rifle spoke at once, and at the same time the maxims
+turned loose their hose-pipe streams of lead. The Turks seemed to melt and
+vanish under the concentrated storm of fire. Not one reached the trench.
+
+'Socked 'em that time,' remarked Dave, with great satisfaction.
+
+'Sure, that was only the overture!' answered O'Brien. 'They were just
+thrying their luck, so to spake.'
+
+Again he was right. As soon as the survivors of the first attack had
+retreated the air became thick with the shriek and moan of shrapnel, and
+the vicious whizz of Mauser bullets. This went on for nearly an hour, then
+a second attack materialised.
+
+It was in heavier force than the first, and though the steady fire of the
+Colonials did tremendous execution, some of the Turks actually reached the
+trench and came plunging in, stabbing wildly with their short bayonets.
+
+Not one of them ever got out again, but they did a good deal of damage,
+and during the lull that followed the stretcher-bearers were busy. Five
+separate times during the hours of darkness did fresh masses of Turks
+sweep down upon the worn and weary Colonials, and twice parties of the
+latter counter-attacked and drove the survivors helter-skelter before
+them.
+
+'Jove, I never was gladder to see daylight,' said Ken hoarsely, as a pale
+yellow light began to dim the stars. His eyes stung with powder smoke, his
+mouth was sour with fatigue, and every muscle in his body ached.
+
+'Well, lad, we've made good, anyway,' said O'Brien with a smile on his
+blackened face. 'Just take a peep over, and see what ye can see.'
+
+Ken raised his head cautiously and peered through the embrasure in front.
+The sight that met his eyes was a terrible one. The scrub for nearly a
+hundred yards in front of the trench had almost vanished. It had been
+literally mown down by the storm of bullets which had raged across it all
+night long. And all the open space was paved with the bodies of dead and
+wounded men. There were hundreds of them, some on their faces, some on
+their backs, most of them still enough, a few trying to crawl away, and
+others moaning feebly.
+
+It was a horrible sight, and for the moment Ken felt almost sick.
+
+'They'll not thry it again just yet,' said O'Brien quietly. 'The next
+attack will be one in force, and for that they'll need more men than
+they've left here.'
+
+'And we'll be ready for them then, eh, sergeant?' said Roy Horan
+cheerfully. 'There's more than ourselves been busy during the night.'
+
+As he spoke he pointed over in the other direction, and Ken, with
+difficulty withdrawing his eyes from the scene of slaughter in front,
+looked back down the cliff.
+
+A cry of delight escaped him. A regular road had been made, curving all
+the way up the cliff, and two field guns had been brought up, and set in
+position. In spite of the enemies' fire, all sorts of stores had come
+ashore in the night, and the camp cooks were already busy preparing
+breakfast.
+
+It was the first hot meal that any of the men had had for thirty-six
+hours, and it did them all the good in the world. When it was over they
+were told to take what sleep they could.
+
+Ken and his two chums needed no second order. They simply pitched
+themselves down, and no one ever slept better on a spring mattress than
+Ken did in the muddy bottom of that trench.
+
+What woke him at last was a crash which made the solid hill-side quiver,
+and dwarfed to insignificance anything that he had previously heard.
+
+In a flash he was up and on his feet.
+
+'Go aisy, lad,' said O'Brien, who was standing up, with a pair of glasses
+to his eyes and a smile on his lips. Go aisy. 'Tis only Lizzie opening the
+ball.'
+
+'Lizzie?' muttered Ken, still half dazed with the prodigious explosion.
+
+Again came an enormous roar, followed by a sound like a train rushing
+through the sky. Then from a hill to the left and a mile or so inland a
+geyser of rocks and soil spouted, and was followed by the same
+earth-shaking crash which had wakened him.
+
+Ken looked out to sea. Some three miles off shore lay the biggest
+battleship he had ever set eyes on. Even at that distance her immense
+turrets, with their grinning gun muzzles, were clearly visible.
+
+'The "Queen Elizabeth!"' he gasped.
+
+'That's what,' said Roy Horan, who had got up and joined Ken. 'They've
+sent her along to lend us a hand. Oh, I tell you, she's no slouch. Watch
+her now! Gee, but she's giving Young Turkey something to chew on.'
+
+'Why, there's a regular fleet!' exclaimed Ken, rubbing the last of the
+sleep from his eyes. 'This is something like. Some of those sniping
+gentlemen are going to be sorry for themselves.'
+
+No fewer than seven warships were lying off the coast, every one of them
+smashing their broadsides into the Turkish positions. The noise was
+incredible, but every sound was dwarfed when the great super-Dreadnought
+fired her 15-inch guns. The shells, the length of a tall man and weighing
+very nearly a ton, were charged with shrapnel, carrying no fewer than
+twenty thousand bullets apiece. Exploding over the enemy's position, each
+deluged a couple of acres of ground with a torrent of lead.
+
+[Illustration: '"'Tis only Lizzie opening the ball."']
+
+It was a most amazing sight. The whole sky was full of the smoke of
+bursting shells--smoke so heavy that the light breeze could not break it,
+as it swam in masses that seemed quite solid until they struck against the
+higher ground far inland.
+
+Hour after hour the tremendous bombardment continued. At first the Turkish
+field pieces endeavoured to reply, but one by one they were silenced, and
+when at last, late in the afternoon, the thunder of the guns ceased, the
+silence was only broken by a faint crackle of musketry.
+
+'Now's our chance!' exclaimed O'Brien, who seemed to have an uncanny
+faculty for understanding beforehand exactly what was in the colonel's
+mind.
+
+'A charge, you mean?' said Ken eagerly.
+
+'That's it, sonny. Before they've got over the effects of that swate
+little pasting.'
+
+Sure enough, a minute later came the order for advance, and, refreshed by
+their long rest, the Australians and New Zealanders came pouring over
+their parapet, and with bayonets flashing in the evening sun, rushed
+forward through the scrub.
+
+For the first two hundred yards there was hardly a check, then all of a
+sudden the scattered fire thickened.
+
+'They're in the ravine, bhoys,' shouted O'Brien. 'Don't be waiting to
+shoot. Give thim the steel.'
+
+The firing grew heavier. Many of the gallant Colonials dropped, but the
+only effect upon the rest was to make them race forward at greater speed.
+
+Ken saw before him a dark line seamed with spits and flashes of flame. A
+bullet clipped past his ear so close that he felt the wind of it. He never
+paused. Next moment he was over the lip of the shallow ravine in which the
+Turks had entrenched themselves.
+
+On the two previous occasions when he and his comrades had attacked
+Turkish trenches, the enemy had defended themselves bravely. Now they
+seemed no longer to have any stomach for the fight. As the Colonials
+poured like an avalanche into the ravine the Turks turned, and scrambling
+wildly up the far side, bolted for their lives.
+
+But the Colonials, with the bitter memory in their minds of all they had
+suffered during the previous night and day, were not minded to let them
+escape so easily. With loud shouts they gave chase. The Turks, good
+marchers but poor runners, stood no earthly chance in this terrible race,
+and by scores and hundreds were bayoneted or seized and dragged back as
+prisoners.
+
+Filled with mad excitement, Ken raced onwards in the forefront of the
+line. His bayonet was dripping, a red mist clouded his eyes, for the
+moment he was fighting mad.
+
+He stumbled over a log and nearly fell. He realised that he was in a small
+wood of low-growing trees with wide spreading branches. To his right he
+heard shouts and shrieks and the sound of shots, but for the moment there
+was not another soul in sight.
+
+His throat was like a lime kiln. He stopped a moment to take a swallow of
+water from his felt-covered flask, then went forward again.
+
+He came to an open space, and as he reached its edge saw four men with a
+quick-firer hurrying frantically across the open to the trees on the far
+side.
+
+Three were Turks, but the fourth wore the gray-green of a German officer.
+The latter was short and--for a German--slight. Something about him seemed
+vaguely familiar.
+
+At that moment he turned and glanced round, and Ken saw his face. He could
+hardly believe his eyes. The man was Kemp, ex-steward of the 'Cardigan
+Castle.' There could be no doubt about it. That sallow complexion, the low
+forehead, and the thick black eyebrows which met above his nose were quite
+unmistakable.
+
+Without an instant's hesitation Ken flung up his rifle and fired straight
+at the man. But blown with long running, his hand shook. At any rate, he
+missed, and next instant the German, the Turks, and their gun vanished
+into the trees opposite.
+
+Footsteps came crashing through the dead leaves and dry sticks behind Ken.
+
+'We've got 'em on toast, Carrington,' came the deep voice of Roy Horan.
+The big fellow was splashed with blood and dripping with perspiration, but
+in his eyes was a gleam which told of his delight at the result of the
+charge.
+
+Ken gave a gasp of joy.
+
+'The very man, Horan! Kemp and three Turkish gunners have just gone into
+the trees opposite. They've got a quick-firer. Are you game to hunt 'em
+down?'
+
+'Kemp?' exclaimed Roy, who had of course heard the story of the treachery
+aboard the 'Cardigan Castle.' 'Kemp, that spy scoundrel--are you sure?'
+
+'Dead certain, though I can't imagine how he got here.'
+
+'More can I, but by the Lord Harry, we'll have his scalp all right. Which
+way did they go?'
+
+Ken pointed and began to run. Roy raced alongside.
+
+It was the maddest enterprise, and if either had stopped to think they
+would have realised this fact. Two against four, and the latter armed with
+a quick-firer! And by way of improving matters, the two had outrun all
+their companions and were far out in a country swarming with enemy troops.
+
+But Ken thought only of vengeance against the traitor Kemp, and as for
+Roy, he was the sort to fight till he dropped, and laugh at any odds.
+
+'Where's Dave?' asked Ken, as they tore along, side by side.
+
+'All right when I last saw him about half a mile back,' was the answer.
+'Which way have those blighters gone?'
+
+Ken, alone, might have been at a loss to follow, but this was where Roy
+came in. Brought up on a great cattle run, he could track a stray beast
+over miles of ranges. It was child's play to him to trace the heavy
+footmarks over the leaf-strewn floor of the wood.
+
+'Go as quietly as you can,' he whispered to Ken. 'Kemp's quite cute enough
+to ambush us if he thinks we're on his track.'
+
+It was wonderful how quietly the young giant could move, and Ken,
+naturally light-footed, followed his example easily. The tracks led
+uphill, and presently the trees began to thin, and the ground to become
+more stony.
+
+Then the trees gave out altogether, and they found themselves on the side
+of a great hill seamed with gullies and covered with low scrub and loose
+stones.
+
+[Illustration: Within No. 1 Fort at Cape Helles in the Dardanelles.]
+
+[Illustration: Tired out, the soldier was sleeping on a bed of live
+shells.]
+
+'There they are!' said Ken in a low voice, pointing to heads just visible
+over the edge of one of the shallow gullies. 'I tell you what they're
+after. They're going to emplace that gun somewhere up on the hill-side,
+and pepper our people on their way back.'
+
+Roy nodded.
+
+'That's about the size of it. Well, it's up to us to spoil their little
+game. We must work up along the next gully parallel with them and get a
+slap at 'em over the edge.'
+
+'That's the tip,' said Ken, 'but mind, we've got to bust up the gun itself
+as well as the men with it.'
+
+Bending double so as not to be seen, the two scurried up the parallel
+gully until they reckoned that they must be on a level with the gun and
+its crew.
+
+'It's going to be a stalk now,' whispered Roy, and dropping on hands and
+knees, crept cautiously over the side of the gully.
+
+On the ridge he stopped.
+
+'Hang the luck!' he muttered. 'They've gone a lot farther than I reckoned.
+They're a couple of hundred yards away, and still moving. What's worse,
+the two gullies bend away from one another, and there's no cover to speak
+of.'
+
+Ken crept up alongside, and took a look.
+
+'It's a bit awkward,' he admitted. 'But they're taking it easy. We ought
+to be able to make fair practice from here.'
+
+Roy nodded.
+
+'All right. You take the left-hand man. I'll try for the right.'
+
+A couple of seconds pause, then the two rifles spoke at once. Ken's man
+went down like a log, but Roy apparently missed his.
+
+Roy gave an angry exclamation and took a rapid second shot.
+
+'Hurrah--nailed him that time,' as he saw the man go over like a shot
+rabbit.
+
+The remaining Turk, seeing his companions down, turned and made a dead
+bolt. Kemp, with a cry of rage which came plainly to their ears, rushed
+after him, apparently with the idea of bringing him back.
+
+Ken and Roy both loosed off at once, but without success, and next instant
+their quarry was out of sight over the far ridge.
+
+'Rotten luck! It was Kemp we wanted,' growled Roy.
+
+'We want the gun worse,' Ken answered grimly.
+
+Springing up, he dropped into the far gully and began to run towards the
+gun.
+
+'Watch out for Kemp,' sang out Roy, as he followed. 'He may be laying for
+us just over the ridge.'
+
+'I thought of that,' answered Ken. 'I'll slip across and have a look.'
+
+Both crept together over the second ridge, but there was no sign of Kemp
+or of the third Turk. They might have sunk into the ground for all that
+could be seen of them.
+
+'Now for the gun,' said Ken, as he dropped back into the gully.
+
+They wasted no time at all in reaching it. Beside it lay the two Turks.
+They were both quite dead.
+
+'Pity we can't take the gun back with us,' said Ken regretfully.
+
+'Why shouldn't we? I'll sling it on my back. It don't weigh more than
+sixty pounds.'
+
+Ken shook his head.
+
+'It's too far, old chap. We're all of a mile from our own lines. No, I'll
+take the breech block off, and if you can find a good-sized stone we'll
+smash the rest of it enough to make it useless.'
+
+Roy at once hove up a rock the size of his head, and raising it high in
+air brought it down with a shattering crash on the gun. The stout steel
+barrel twisted under the tremendous shock, the water jacket burst.
+
+'That suit you?' he said.
+
+Ken glanced at the ruins, and smiled.
+
+'Take Krupps all their time to make that serviceable again,' he remarked,
+and the words were hardly out of his mouth before there came a sudden rush
+of feet, and Kemp, accompanied by no fewer than eight sturdy-looking
+Turks, came scrambling over the ridge from the right.
+
+'Don't kill them,' shouted Kemp in Turkish. 'Don't kill them. Take them
+alive. Ten marks apiece to you if you take them alive.'
+
+The men were on them instantly. There was no time to shoot. Stooping
+swiftly, Roy swung up the broken barrel of the quick-firer, and with a
+shout sprang at the Turks, whirling the weighty length of steel around his
+head.
+
+In his powerful hands it was a fearful weapon. The Turks went down like
+ninepins. Ken, who grasped his rifle by the barrel was in no way behind
+his chum. The Turks had not been prepared for such a resistance. Inside
+ten seconds five of them were down, and the three others had had all they
+wanted. They ran for their lives.
+
+Kemp had taken no part in the battle. He was standing a little aloof on
+the upper ground. Roy, having disposed of his assailant, whirled round and
+made for the man.
+
+Kemp whipped out a repeating pistol and levelled it at his head.
+
+'Drop that or I shoot,' he said viciously.
+
+'No, you don't,' cried Ken.
+
+Ken had seen the pistol in Kemp's hand, and had just had time to get his
+own rifle to his shoulder, the muzzle levelled full at Kemp's head.
+
+'Drop that pistol, or I'll blow your head off,' he said curtly.
+
+Kemp's lips parted in a snarl, showing his white teeth. For a moment it
+looked as though he would shoot Roy and take his chances.
+
+But his pluck was not quite equal to it, and the grim, determined look on
+Ken's face daunted him. With a muttered oath, he dropped the pistol.
+
+'And a very pretty toy, too!' said Roy, springing forward and picking it
+up. 'A nice new automatic, Roy. We'll keep that as spoils of war.'
+
+'Don't waste time over the pistol,' said Ken sharply. 'Collar the chap
+himself. He'll be better worth bringing back than a cart load of pistols.'
+
+In an instant Roy's great arms were round Kemp, and lifting him clean off
+his feet he popped him down in front of Ken.
+
+'Tie him,' said Ken.
+
+'I am an officer,' said Kemp haughtily. 'I will not be bound like a common
+criminal.'
+
+'You were an English ship's steward when I last saw you,' Ken retorted.
+'And engaged in the charming occupation of signalling out of the bathroom
+port to an enemy submarine.'
+
+It was evidently no news to Kemp that Kenneth Carrington was his adversary
+of the bathroom. Dark as it had been, he must somehow have recognised him.
+He glared back defiantly.
+
+'I was serving my country,' he answered with a lofty air.
+
+'And what do you think would have happened to a Britisher who had been
+caught on a German ship, engaged in an act of such abominable treachery?'
+returned Ken hotly.
+
+Kemp merely shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'Well, it's not for me to deal with you,' said Ken. 'We'll take him back,
+Roy, and he'll stand a proper court-martial. Still, as he calls himself an
+officer, I suppose I must take his parole.'
+
+'Do you give it?' he demanded of Kemp.
+
+Kemp's sallow face had gone white, but whether from fear or rage was
+doubtful. 'Yes,' he said in a low voice, 'I give my parole.'
+
+They turned, and with Kemp between them, set out at a sharp pace in the
+direction from which they had come.
+
+From the distance rifles still snapped, and a couple of miles away to the
+south-west field-guns were booming. But all around was strangely quiet.
+Ken began to feel a trifle uneasy. He realised that they had got a long
+way ahead of their comrades, and that the latter had already been
+recalled.
+
+'Quite nice and peaceful up here, eh, Ken?' said Roy with his cheerful
+grin.
+
+Before Ken could reply there came a shot from somewhere quite close at
+hand, and with a sharp cry Ken dropped his rifle.
+
+'Winged, old chap?' said Roy, turning quickly.
+
+As he did so Kemp made a dash, and hurled himself up the slope to the
+left.
+
+'Never mind me!' cried Ken. 'Catch Kemp. Shoot him. Stop him anyhow.'
+
+Roy flung up his rifle and took a snap shot.
+
+He missed, and before he could pull the trigger a second time, the
+ex-steward had dived like a weasel into a clump of scrub and was gone.
+
+Roy dashed up the bank in hot pursuit. The moment he showed himself a
+regular volley of rifle shots rang out, and spinning round he sprang back
+into the hollow.
+
+'There's about twenty Turks coming hard up the next gully,' he panted.
+'We've got to bunk like blazes if we want to save our skins.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HUNTERS HUNTED
+
+
+Ken was standing, looking half dazed. His rifle was on the ground, and he
+was holding his left arm with his right hand.
+
+'Are you hurt, Ken?' asked Roy, and there was real concern in his voice.
+The two had known one another less than a week, yet each had come to
+respect and like the other.
+
+'No. I'm not hit. The bullet struck the barrel of my rifle. It numbed my
+arm for the moment. I'm quite all right, but my rifle's done for, so far
+as firing goes. Rotten luck, losing Kemp.'
+
+'Never mind Kemp,' said Roy, serious for once. 'These Turkish Johnnies are
+between us and home. And they're after us. It'll take us all our time to
+get clear. Which way are we to go?'
+
+As he spoke a shout came from the next gully. It was Kemp's voice, and he
+was evidently calling his men up to pursue the two Britishers.
+
+Ken glanced round quickly. He saw at once that it was out of the question
+to make straight back for their own lines. They would be cut off for a
+dead certainty. The two other alternatives were to make off to the right
+or to go straight back up the gully.
+
+But going to the right meant that they would have to climb the right-hand
+wall of the gully, which was much steeper and higher than that to the
+left. The result would be that they would be exposed against the sky line
+to the enemy's fire.
+
+All this flashed through his mind in a couple of seconds, and he instantly
+took his decision.
+
+'We must go back up the gully, Roy,' he said sharply. 'It's absolutely our
+only chance.'
+
+'Any way, so long as we don't drop into the clutches of that swine Kemp,'
+said Roy. 'I fancy I see him giving us any parole.'
+
+He whipped round as he spoke, and the two set to running steadily up the
+gully. As they passed the scene of their late encounter where the bodies
+of the dead Turks lay by the broken machine gun, Ken stooped quickly and
+picked up one of their rifles, and helped himself also to a bandolier of
+cartridges.
+
+This caused only a few seconds delay, yet before they were under way
+again, there came a crackle of shots from below, and bullets whizzed
+uncomfortably close about their ears.
+
+Luckily for them, a few yards farther up was a bend in the course of the
+ravine, and once round that they were safe for the moment.
+
+Safe for the moment--yes--but the prospect before them was not exactly
+inviting, and Ken's lips tightened as he and Roy strained onwards up the
+hill-side, which grew steeper with every yard.
+
+They were going straight away from their own people, right into the heart
+of the enemy country, and rack his brains as he might, Ken could see no
+plan for getting back. There was nothing for it but to try to shake off
+their pursuers and trust to chance for the rest.
+
+Neither of them was very fresh, for they had been fighting and running for
+the better part of two hours. Even so, they managed to keep ahead of the
+Turks, and though every now and then a few shots came rattling up from
+below they had got far enough ahead to be out of easy range.
+
+They were now at a considerable height, but still a long way from the top
+of the hill. The scrub was thinning out and the ground becoming more and
+more stony. The worst of it was that the ravine up which they were
+travelling was getting steadily more shallow. A very little farther, and
+it ended altogether. Beyond, was nothing but bare hill-side, where they
+would--barring the scattered rocks--be in full view of the enemy.
+
+Ken dropped to a walk.
+
+'This won't do, Roy. Once we're out in the open, we shall be the very
+finest kind of targets.'
+
+Roy shrugged his great shoulders.
+
+'There's nothing else for it. We can't make a ravine. What price taking up
+a position here behind these rocks and trying to fight 'em off? We've got
+plenty of cartridges.'
+
+Ken shook his head.
+
+'No earthly use. They could get round above us. We shouldn't have a dog's
+chance.'
+
+'Then we'd best shift on topside,' replied Roy coolly. 'They can't get
+above us there unless they raise a balloon. Come on, old man, we can dodge
+in and out among these rocks.'
+
+Ken glanced back down the hill. Already the first of their pursuers were
+in sight round the curve of the ravine, barely three hundred yards away.
+They were jogging along quite steadily. It was clear that they felt
+absolutely sure of their men--so sure that there was no need to hurry.
+Kemp, conspicuous in his ugly German khaki, was shepherding them upwards.
+
+Ken bit his lip. Inwardly he vowed that he would never be taken alive by
+the ex-steward. He had a pretty shrewd idea of what his fate and Roy's
+would be if they fell into Kemp's clutches.
+
+'Come on, then,' he said desperately, and springing up over the shallow
+bank of the ravine made a rush for the spot where the rocks seemed to be
+thickest.
+
+A shout from below told them that their manoeuvre was observed.
+
+'They're spreading out,' said Roy, looking back over his shoulder.
+
+'They're not shooting, anyhow,' answered Ken, as, bent double, he ran hard
+alongside his companion.
+
+'I suppose they think they've got us anyhow,' said Roy. 'Ken, I'd give a
+lot to disappoint the dear Kemp.'
+
+Up and up they went, bearing a little to the right because it was on that
+side that the stones lay thickest. They were still both going strong, and
+were, if anything, increasing the distance between themselves and their
+pursuers. A little spark of hope began to dawn in Ken's breast. It seemed
+just possible that they might still outrun the slower-going Turks, and
+crossing the ridge, find shelter in the valley below. There was one point
+in their favour. The sun was dropping low in the west. It would be dark in
+little more than an hour.
+
+Roy seemed to guess his thoughts.
+
+'We'll do 'em down yet, Ken,' he said.
+
+Almost as he spoke he pulled up short, and flung out his arm just in time
+to stop Ken from plunging right over the sheer edge of a tremendous gorge
+that gashed the face of the mountain like a slice from a giant's knife.
+
+For an instant both stood breathing hard, staring down into the darksome
+depths below. Then Ken turned to Roy.
+
+'That's why they weren't hurrying,' he said bitterly.
+
+For once Roy seemed cooler than Ken. Throwing himself flat on his face, he
+wriggled forward till nearly half his body was over the edge.
+
+'Hold my legs,' he said, and Ken, horrified at the other's rashness,
+obeyed.
+
+A moment later he was on his feet again. There was a queer glimmer in his
+eyes.
+
+'There's a chance yet. I've spotted a ledge. Don't count on it. I don't
+know whether we can reach it. But it's worth trying. Come on.'
+
+He hurried back down the edge of the cliff for about thirty paces, then
+looked over again.
+
+'Here it is. It's a goodish way down. But I've tackled places as bad in
+the North Island mountains. Will you risk it?'
+
+'I'd risk anything rather than Kemp,' Ken answered curtly.
+
+'Then I'll go first. Lie down on your face, and give me your hands.
+Quickly. Those beggars mustn't see us.'
+
+Ken obeyed instantly. He knew nothing of mountaineering himself, but
+realised that Roy did. Without a moment's hesitation Roy turned round with
+his back to the ravine, and catching Ken's hands, let himself drop quietly
+till his long body dangled at full length against the face of the cliff.
+
+[Illustration: 'The strain on Ken's arms was awful.']
+
+The strain on Ken's arms was awful. The depths below made his head swim.
+But he set his teeth, dug his toes into the earth, and held on like grim
+death.
+
+'Let go,' said Roy briefly.
+
+To Ken it seemed as though he were dropping his friend into the awful
+abyss. But he obeyed without hesitation.
+
+There was a second of ghastly suspense. Then Roy was standing on the
+almost invisible ledge, balancing himself, spreadeagled against the face
+of the rock.
+
+His hands moved slowly, the fingers groping for a hold. He found it, and
+clutching tightly with his left, raised his right hand.
+
+'My bayonet,' he said quickly.
+
+Ken slipped it out of its socket and gave it him.
+
+Roy took it and carefully and deliberately drove it into a crevice in the
+rock on a level with his head.
+
+'Chuck the rifles over,' he said. 'You mustn't leave them.'
+
+Ken obeyed. A hollow crash came up from the black depths.
+
+'Now I'm ready for you,' said Roy. His voice was so cool and steady that
+it gave Ken some confidence. 'Get as good a grip as you can and let go
+when I tell you.'
+
+For a moment it seemed to Ken that he could not do what was asked. In any
+matter of fighting he was Roy's equal--indeed his superior, for he was
+better able to keep his head in the thick of it.
+
+But he had had no experience of heights, and the blood ran cold in his
+veins at the idea of dropping over this terrific precipice. It seemed to
+him the only possible result must be that he would knock Roy off his
+narrow perch, and that they would go crashing together into the yawning
+depths of the abyss.
+
+'You're not scared, are you?'
+
+The contempt in Roy's tones stung Ken to the quick. He hesitated no
+longer. Turning quickly, he clutched the rocky ledge and recklessly swung
+himself down.
+
+'Good man! I knew you could do it. Steady now! I've got you. Let go!'
+
+Once more Ken obeyed. He fully believed that he was going to his doom.
+Instead, to his intense surprise, he found himself balancing on the ledge
+beside Roy.
+
+Roy gave a low laugh.
+
+'Sorry I insulted you, old man. I just had to. I know the sort of funk
+that takes you the first time you try this kind of game. And I give you my
+word there are precious few chaps would have stuck it at all.'
+
+'Now I'll tell you something to console you,' he continued. 'The ledge
+widens to my right, and runs in under a big overhang. Once we're under
+that, we're as safe as rats in a granary. No one can see us from up above
+or from anywhere else, so far as that goes.'
+
+Ken hardly heard. It seemed as if every energy he possessed was needed
+just to cling where he was, flattened like a dead mole nailed on a
+keeper's gibbet.
+
+Roy went on talking in a low quiet voice, which gradually brought back
+Ken's confidence, and though his heart was thumping, and he felt as though
+it was impossible to draw a full breath, he presently managed to follow
+his companion along the ledge.
+
+As Roy had said, it gradually widened, and after going very carefully for
+a matter of twenty feet it grew broad enough to walk on with some degree
+of safety.
+
+A minute later, and they were in a deep hollow--almost a cave and
+absolutely hidden from all inquisitive eyes.
+
+Roy laughed softly as he dropped to a sitting position.
+
+'Gosh, I'd love to see Kemp's face this minute,' he remarked in a low
+voice. 'He'll be just about fit to tie.'
+
+Ken did not answer. He had dropped down and sat with his back against the
+river side of the cavity, breathing hard. His face was very white, and big
+drops of perspiration beaded his forehead.
+
+Roy glanced at him with some anxiety. Then he fumbled in the pocket of his
+tunic and brought out a small leather-covered flask.
+
+'I've carried this ever since I left home,' he said. 'I reckoned it would
+come in useful some time. Take a sip of it.'
+
+It was fine old Australian brandy, and although Ken took no more than a
+mouthful the effects were immediate. A tinge of colour came back to his
+cheeks, and his heart steadied at once.
+
+'Proper stuff, eh?' smiled Roy, as Ken handed back the flask.
+
+Ken held up his hand sharply. 'Listen!' he whispered.
+
+Above their heads they heard heavy footsteps. Then came Kemp's voice.
+
+'What's he saying?' whispered Roy.
+
+'He's telling 'em to hunt among the rocks,' answered Ken in an equally low
+voice. 'He seems to be annoyed. He's using all the bad language he knows,
+and chucking in German swears where he can't remember the Turkish ones.'
+
+'Must be a bit of a facer for him,' chuckled Roy.
+
+'There's one of the Turks answering him,' said Ken. 'Says we must have
+jumped over to escape them.'
+
+'Oh, that's Kemp again,' continued Ken. 'He's telling 'em to go down and
+see.'
+
+'And what's the Turk say?' Roy asked eagerly.
+
+'He says no one has ever been to the bottom, and couldn't get there if
+they wanted to. He calls it the ditch of Shaitan--in other words, the
+Devil's Dyke. By Jove, he's started Kemp cursing again. Wonderful flow of
+language the chap's got.'
+
+Presently the voices above died away.
+
+'So far as I can make out, they're going to have a try farther up the
+hill,' said Ken. 'It's lucky they didn't think of looking for our tracks.
+If they'd used their eyes they must have seen the place where we got over.
+I know I dug my toes in a good two inches when I was hanging on to you.'
+
+Roy grinned.
+
+'Thank goodness, tracking is about the last thing that would occur to a
+German. All the same, Kemp is quite cute enough to leave a guard posted
+here to watch for us.'
+
+Ken looked rather startled.
+
+'I hadn't thought of that, but it's very likely. Then it looks as if we
+should have to stay here all night.'
+
+'I'd made up my mind to that already,' Roy answered. 'But it might be
+worse. We've got shelter and we're absolutely safe. Also we have our
+emergency rations, so we shan't starve. We ought to get a decent sleep for
+once in a way.'
+
+'What--sleep on the edge of this precipice!'
+
+'Why not? I've slept in worse places before now.'
+
+'Supposing one rolled over in one's sleep?' said Ken with a slight shiver
+as he peered over into the awesome depths below.
+
+Roy laughed softly.
+
+'Don't worry. You shall sleep between me and the rock. It'll take you all
+your time to roll over me.'
+
+The sun was down, darkness was already shrouding the depths of space
+beneath them. The Turks seemed to have left. At any rate, Ken and Roy
+could hear no more of them. The evening silence was broken only by the
+mysterious whisper of the evening breeze as it stole down the canon, and
+by a faint and distant popping of rifle shots.
+
+Roy stretched his long legs and yawned.
+
+'I'm for supper,' he observed, as he took his iron ration out of his
+haversack. 'We'll share this to-night, Ken, and breakfast off yours in the
+morning. Luckily I've still got some water in my bottle.'
+
+The emergency or iron ration consists mainly of concentrated beef,
+biscuit, and chocolate. There is not much of it, so far as bulk goes, but
+it is very sustaining. Roy carefully divided his into two lots, and they
+ate slowly, and finished their slim repast with a drink of water.
+
+Then, after chatting a while, they stretched themselves out to sleep. Roy,
+according to his promise, made Ken take the inner side, and in spite of
+his nervousness, he slept like a log.
+
+Ken roused at earliest dawn. A thin mist floated beneath them, hiding the
+depths of the ravine. Musketry still crackled in the distance, but all
+around was very still.
+
+Ken shivered slightly, for the morning air bit chill. He sat up and shook
+Roy, who was still sleeping peacefully.
+
+'Daylight,' said Ken briefly. 'Time to get out of this.'
+
+Roy sat up and stretched his great frame.
+
+'What a life!' he said with a laugh. 'Yes, I suppose we'd best be
+shifting.'
+
+'Shall we breakfast now, or wait till we get up topside?' asked Ken.
+
+Roy gave him a quick look.
+
+'It might be as well to feed now,' he said quietly. 'You see, I haven't a
+notion how we're going to get out of this.'
+
+Ken stared. Such a point of view had never occurred to him. He had such
+implicit faith in Roy's mountaineering capacity that he had taken it
+absolutely for granted that Roy could find a way back to firm ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BATTLE BY ROCKS
+
+
+Roy saw Ken's dismay.
+
+'Sorry, old chap,' he said simply. 'I thought you understood.'
+
+Ken smiled back.
+
+'I'm afraid I took it for granted that you had it all pat. You see, I
+don't know the first thing about mountaineering myself. Can't we get back
+the same way we came?'
+
+Roy shook his head.
+
+'It's too big a reach. But don't worry. We'll find some way out. Stop here
+a minute and I'll go and have a squint round.'
+
+Ken looked at him.
+
+'You'll be careful, Roy? Hadn't I better come and give you a hand?'
+
+'I'll call you if I want you,' said Roy. 'I'm going to see where this
+ledge leads.'
+
+He strolled off as calmly as though walking along a twelve-inch ledge over
+a two hundred foot drop was as simple as a promenade down the sunny side
+of Piccadilly. Ken, feeling anything but happy, watched him until he was
+hidden behind a shoulder of rock.
+
+It was quite five minutes before he came back.
+
+'It's all right,' he said cheerfully. 'True, we can't get up, but I think
+we can get down. This ledge drops a long way, and there seems to be
+another below it. Let's have our grub and go along.'
+
+He ate his share of Ken's rations with evident appetite, and Ken did his
+best to follow his example. But it would be idle to say that Ken felt
+happy. Glancing down into the tremendous depths that yawned below, he felt
+that he would infinitely rather charge a score of Turks, single-handed,
+than try to make his way down the face of the gigantic wall of rock.
+
+Roy finished his food, brushed the crumbs from his tunic, and taking the
+bayonet which--with the automatic pistol captured from Kemp--were the only
+weapons they had, walked off along the ledge.
+
+Ken set his teeth and followed.
+
+'Look up, not down,' said Roy quietly, and Ken did his best to obey.
+
+The ledge, though narrow, did not really present any particular
+difficulties. As Roy said, 'If it wasn't for the big drop below, you
+wouldn't think twice about it.'
+
+Ken knew this was true, and tried hard to keep it in his mind.
+
+Presently, however, the ledge began to narrow again, and the only way to
+tackle it was to flatten themselves, limpet-like, against the cliff face,
+and claw their way onwards, gripping every possible little projection
+which gave any sort of hand hold.
+
+At last Roy pulled up.
+
+'Capital!' he said. 'You're doing first-rate, Ken. That's as far as we can
+go on this ledge. We've got to drop to the lower one now. Don't worry.
+It's not as bad as that first drop we had to do last night.'
+
+As he spoke, he stooped, gripped the edge of the ledge with his hands, and
+let himself down gently. There was a knob of rock about seven feet down.
+He got his feet on this, then reached up for the bayonet which Ken held.
+
+As before, he jammed this into a crevice so as to give himself something
+to hold by, then signalled Ken to follow.
+
+Ken's heart was in his mouth. The projection seemed hardly large enough
+for one pair of feet, let alone two. But when he reached it he found that
+Roy had left it all for him. He himself had stepped off, driving his toes
+into a mere crevice alongside.
+
+'Keep hold of the bayonet till I tell you to move,' came Roy's quiet
+voice. 'Afraid we'll have to leave it where it is. We can't shift it
+again. That's right.'
+
+'Now get your fingers into that crack to the right. I'm going to move your
+feet for you.'
+
+What Roy was doing Ken could not tell, and he dared not look. But a moment
+later he felt the big fellow's hands shifting his feet.
+
+There came a sharp rattle of falling stones, a quick gasp.
+
+A spasm of fright clutched him. For the moment he fully believed that Roy
+had fallen.
+
+'Roy! he cried sharply. 'Roy!'
+
+'All right, old man. It's quite all right. Just a chunk of rock broken
+out. The stuff's a bit rotten, but I've got good hand hold.'
+
+A pause. Then, 'Now you can move.'
+
+Again Roy's strong hands shifted his feet. Twice more this happened; then
+just as he began to feel that he could stand the strain no longer, he
+heard Roy's jolly laugh.
+
+'We've done it. One step more, and you're on the ledge.'
+
+A moment later, and they stood together on a ledge nearly a yard wide. It
+seemed like a turnpike road compared to the one above.
+
+[Illustration: Tins and barbed wire are cut up in the Dardanelles as
+'filling' for bombs.]
+
+[Illustration: Our gallant bluejackets cheered the return of the
+triumphant submarine after her wonderful achievement.]
+
+Roy drew a long breath.
+
+'That was a bad bit,' he said. 'As bad as anything I ever struck. Don't
+mind telling you now, Ken, that I was in a blue funk.'
+
+'You didn't show it,' Ken answered rather breathlessly. 'If you had, I
+believe I should have crocked.'
+
+'You didn't, anyhow. That's the main thing. And I wouldn't ask a better
+man to go climbing with. You kept your head, and did what you were told.
+Well, now I think the worst is over. This looks like a regular fault in
+the strata, and it ought to take us to the bottom.
+
+Roy's judgment was correct. There were still some nasty places, but
+nothing like what they had already tackled, and within another quarter of
+an hour they had reached the bottom of the gorge.
+
+A little stream ran down the centre, finding its way among piled masses of
+fallen rock. On each side the cliffs towered so high that only a mere slit
+of sky was visible. It was as wild and gloomy a spot as Ken had ever seen.
+
+'I've seen better walking,' observed Roy, as a flat stone slipped under
+his foot, and nearly pitched him over into the bed of the brook.
+
+'It's better than that abominable cliff, anyhow,' returned Ken. 'But I'd
+give something to know where we're going.'
+
+'I can tell you. The sea. If we follow the stream we're bound to reach
+salt water.'
+
+'But where?' said Ken--'where? I don't know that I've got the points of
+the compass very clear in my head, and there's no sun visible yet, but if
+I'm not mistaken, this brook runs east, not west.'
+
+Roy pulled up with a puzzled expression on his face.
+
+'Pon my Sam, I believe you're right. In that case, this is the head waters
+of some stream that runs out into the Straits.'
+
+'That's my notion, and consequently we're still going plumb in the wrong
+direction.'
+
+'We can't help it,' said Roy. 'It's no use trying to climb up the far side
+over the top of the hill.'
+
+'Not a bit. The first thing to do is to get out of this gorge. After that
+we must see if we can't skirt round the base of the hill, and get back
+somehow.'
+
+Roy nodded, and for some distance they continued on their uncomfortable
+way in silence.
+
+'Not much more of it,' said Roy at last. 'We're getting near the mouth
+now.'
+
+'And that's where our troubles are going to begin,' said Ken with a smile.
+'It looks to me as if we were the best part of three miles inland.'
+
+'Which means that we've got to get through the whole bunch of the Turks,'
+answered Roy. 'I say, don't you wish we'd got our whole crowd up here?
+We'd take the enemy in the rear and play old Harry with them.'
+
+'No use wishing that. But I'll tell you what, Roy. If we ever do get back
+we'll have some useful information for the colonel.'
+
+Roy nodded, as he scrambled on to the top of a big rock.
+
+'I can see out of the mouth of the gorge from here,' he said, as he stood
+on the summit, 'and by the look of the country you're about right as to
+the course of this brook. We're the other side of the water-shed
+altogether.'
+
+Ken clambered up beside him. A couple of hundred yards farther down the
+gorge ended, or rather turned into a shallow ravine, down which the stream
+found its way into a broad valley below. A rough track crossed this
+valley, and Ken pointed to figures looking no bigger than dolls in the
+distance, which moved along it.
+
+'Reinforcements coming up,' he said. 'They'll be from Kojadere. We must
+keep clear of that road. Seems to me the best thing we can do is to swing
+to the right and work round the shoulder of the hill.'
+
+'Yes, if we can find cover. Well, there's nothing to stop us from climbing
+up here. The bank don't amount to anything.'
+
+He was right, and turning at once they scrambled up the steep rocky slope.
+It was broken with projecting crags, and almost covered with brush, which
+gave them ample cover. Reaching the top, they got a sight of the sun, and
+found that they were facing almost due east. The guns were still
+thundering behind them, but their sound was deadened by the great mass of
+hill which lay between them and the sea.
+
+The hill-side was thick with scrub and there was no difficulty about
+getting forward. They went on steadily, and had travelled about half a
+mile when they entered a little wood. Passing through this, they were
+dismayed to find themselves on the edge of a steep bank about sixty feet
+high, with the track running at the bottom of it, and, beyond, a wide
+space of open valley rising again to a hill opposite.
+
+'This is no use,' said Roy. 'We're bound to be spotted if we try to cross
+that open.'
+
+'No, we must keep on this side for the present,' answered Ken, as he
+turned back into the trees.
+
+Presently they heard a tramping of feet, and peering through the leaves
+saw a body of Turkish troops, about a hundred strong, marching stolidly
+along beneath them.
+
+'My word, if we only had a maxim!' muttered Roy, as he stared at the
+closely-formed column. 'Couldn't we make hay of 'em?'
+
+Ken did not answer. He watched the men pass on until they were out of
+sight around a curve in the track. Then he and Roy moved on again.
+
+Round the next bend, they found themselves at the end of the friendly
+wood, and the ground beyond was a deal more open than seemed healthy.
+
+'We'll have to wait until those chaps are well out of the way,' said Ken,
+and calmly sat himself down on a big stone, one of many which lay among
+the tree trunks.
+
+'Hope they'll hurry,' said Roy rather viciously. 'I'm infernally hungry. I
+want to get back to my dinner.'
+
+While Ken rested Roy stood staring out through the tree trunks.
+
+Presently he turned to Ken. 'Tell you what, Ken, I believe there's a
+chance for us now. There's another patch of wood less than a quarter of a
+mile away, and if we watched our chance we might slip across without being
+spotted. Beyond it, the ground rises again, with a lot of rocks and scrub.
+Plenty of cover at any rate. What do you think?'
+
+Ken got up and took a long and careful survey.
+
+'It looks all right,' he said at last. 'I'm game to try it anyhow.'
+
+'Then the sooner the better. Those Turks have topped the rise.'
+
+They were on the point of starting when Ken heard a sound which made him
+seize Roy's arm.
+
+'Steady a minute! There's something else coming up the track.'
+
+They dropped flat and lay waiting. Sure enough, there was a low rumble of
+wheels, and after a few minutes a team of mules came into sight around the
+left-hand curve, dragging a field-piece, and accompanied by about a dozen
+Turkish gunners.
+
+'Just as well we waited,' whispered Roy. 'We shouldn't have stood much
+show if we'd dropped down under their noses, eh?'
+
+Ken did not answer. He was staring fixedly at the gun. His eyes were very
+bright.
+
+He turned to Roy.
+
+'That's going to be used to smash our chaps, Roy. Jove, if we could only
+stop it!'
+
+'Stop it?' repeated Roy in amazement. 'My dear chap, we haven't even got
+our rifles. They're lying smashed up at the bottom of the gorge. The only
+weapon we've got left is this automatic.'
+
+'We've got something better than bullets,' Ken answered very quietly. He
+laid his hand as he spoke upon one of the big loose boulders which lay in
+front of him.
+
+'See here,' he went on, 'they'll come right underneath us. If we could get
+this rock down on the team, it would probably stampede the mules. Then
+before the men have recovered from their confusion, we ought to be able to
+give them a couple more. If we could land one on top of the gun itself, it
+would damage it pretty badly, even if it doesn't smash the mountings and
+make it useless. What do you say?'
+
+'Say--why that it's the greatest scheme ever hatched, and I'm with you
+every time,' Roy answered, his face glowing with excitement. 'And, by
+Jingo,' he added, 'if we'd picked the spot for bringing it off, we
+couldn't have done better.'
+
+This was true enough. The spot where they were perched was fully sixty
+feet above the road, and the slope below was next door to perpendicular.
+For another thing, the supply of boulders was unlimited.
+
+The one to which Ken had pointed weighed perhaps a quarter of a ton and
+was shaped rather like a gigantic egg. He put his weight against it, and
+found that it rocked, but even so, he could not be quite certain that
+their combined efforts could start it over the edge.
+
+'Wait!' whispered Roy, and turning slipped away into the thick of the
+trees. He was back in a minute, carrying a heavy piece of dead timber.
+
+'This ought to do the trick,' he said softly. Ken nodded.
+
+Meantime the Turks below, all unsuspicious of what was brewing, came
+slowly and steadily along the road. Slowly, because not only is a
+77-millimetre gun with its caisson a heavy weight, but also because the
+road was merely an apology for one. It was nothing but a deeply rutted
+track thick with sand and loose stones.
+
+The men were in charge of a non-commissioned officer, a Turk like
+themselves, and consequently were taking it very easy, strolling along,
+smoking and chatting.
+
+Roy drove his stake deep under the big rock, and gave a slight heave.
+
+'She'll shift all right,' he whispered in a tone of quiet satisfaction.
+
+'All right. Wait till I give the word,' said Ken, with his eyes fixed upon
+the long gray gun which came jogging slowly onwards, its grim muzzle
+swaying and lurching as the wheels took the ruts in the road.
+
+It seemed a long time before it came opposite. Then at last Ken gave one
+word.
+
+'Now!'
+
+In an instant they were both on their feet, Roy tugging on the lever, Ken
+bracing all his weight on the big rock.
+
+It moved, it rolled slowly over, seemed to pause a moment on the edge of
+the bank, then suddenly shot forward. Ten feet below, it alighted on the
+slope, rebounded, and at the same time started half a dozen other stones.
+In a moment a rock avalanche was roaring down the steep. The great stone
+led the way. In a series of gigantic leaps, each longer than the last, it
+thundered downwards, at each jump starting fresh tons of the loose shale
+which covered the bank.
+
+A cloud of dust rose like smoke, and hid all below. Then from out the
+cloud came squeals and shrieks.
+
+In their excitement, Ken and Roy actually forgot to send fresh stones to
+follow the first. There was no need. When the dust cloud cleared, one mule
+which had broken loose was galloping madly across country, the rest were
+down and dead.
+
+The gun, dismounted, was half buried in a pile of shale which lay feet
+deep across the road. Of the men, not one remained. Most were not only
+dead, but buried. Two only lay clear, and to all appearance they were as
+dead as their companions.
+
+Roy looked at Ken.
+
+'What you might call a clean bit of work,' he said, but though he tried to
+smile, there was something like awe in his voice.
+
+'Yes. A ten-inch shell could hardly have done more,' Ken answered. 'Poor
+beggars! It's rather ghastly wiping 'em out like that, but one has got to
+remember that that gun would have probably finished ten times the number
+of our chaps if they'd got it into position.
+
+'We'd better go down,' he added. 'We may find a couple of rifles, and I'll
+lay we shall need them before we reach our own lines.'
+
+It was an awkward job to get down the bank, for the shale was so loose it
+kept breaking away under their feet. They had to go quickly, too, for
+there was every chance of fresh reinforcements or more guns coming up the
+road.
+
+Fortunately no one else appeared, and in a very few minutes they were busy
+hunting among the pile of rocks for rifles that had escaped injury. They
+found three, but only one was serviceable. The sights of the others were
+damaged. They also found food. It was bread, dark-looking and very stale,
+and goats' milk cheese.
+
+But they were far too hungry to be particular. They stuffed it into their
+pockets.
+
+At that moment came a deep groan from among the rocks.
+
+Ken swung round sharply.
+
+'There's one of 'em alive in there,' he said quickly, 'we can't leave the
+poor beggar to die by inches.'
+
+[Illustration: 'A rock avalanche was roaring down the steep.']
+
+He began rolling the stones aside, and guided by the groans he and Roy
+soon pulled out a youngish Turk and laid him on the side of the road.
+
+Ken examined him quickly.
+
+'He's got off cheaply,' he said. 'Nothing broken--nothing the matter, so
+far as I can see, except bruises and a cut on the head. Give him a drop of
+your brandy, Roy.'
+
+As Roy unscrewed the stopper, the Turk's eyes opened, and he stared up at
+his rescuers in blank amazement.
+
+'Englishmen!' he muttered.
+
+Roy put the flask to his lips, but he shook his head.
+
+'Water,' he said in Turkish.
+
+'It's against his religion to drink wine or spirits,' Ken explained to
+Roy, and put his own water-bottle to the man's lips.
+
+'I thank you,' said the Turk with grave courtesy. He sat up and looked
+round at the ruin on the road.
+
+'We did not know that your guns were near enough to drop shell upon us,'
+he said. 'Nor had we any notion that your troops had advanced so far
+inland.
+
+'Well, it is Allah's will,' he continued resignedly. 'And our fate for
+being driven into an unjust war. I am your prisoner.'
+
+'We don't want any prisoners,' Ken answered with a smile, and at his
+fluent Turkish the man's dark eyes opened in evident surprise. 'You are
+free.'
+
+The Turk stared.
+
+'Then you are separated from your own regiment,' he said keenly, and by
+his accent and language, Ken realised that he was a man of some education.
+
+Ken did not answer.
+
+'Your pardon, effendi,' said the Turk. 'I did not mean to ask idle
+questions. I thank you for your kindness, and I wish you happiness.'
+
+'Come on, Ken,' broke in Roy, who was scanning the country uneasily. 'We
+are right out in the open here. That chap will be all right. Let's get
+into that wood as sharp as we can.'
+
+'One moment,' said Roy, and turned to the Turk.
+
+'If you care to do us a good turn, tell us the nearest way back to Gaba
+Tepe.'
+
+The Turk pointed up the road.
+
+'That is the nearest way, but, I need not tell you, the most dangerous.
+Our lines lie between here and the British. You must wait for the darkness
+of the night or you will for a certainty be captured. My advice to you is
+to conceal yourselves among the trees in the wood, and wait until the sun
+shall have set.'
+
+'I thank you,' said Ken courteously. 'Is there anything else in which we
+can assist you?'
+
+'There is nothing, I thank you. I will rest a while, then move onwards. In
+the name of the Prophet, I wish you a safe journey.'
+
+'What tale was he pitching you?' said Roy impatiently, as he set off at a
+great rate for the wood opposite.
+
+'He advised us to lie up for the rest of the day, and try to slip through
+their lines at night.'
+
+Roy grunted. 'And I suppose he'll watch where we go and set his pals on us
+as soon as they come along.'
+
+'He will do nothing of the sort,' Ken answered rather hotly. 'For
+goodness' sake, don't go judging the Turk by the German, Roy. That fellow
+considers that we have done him a favour, and nothing would induce him to
+betray us.'
+
+'Sorry I spoke,' said Roy briefly, 'but you were so long I was getting
+into a horrid stew. Even now, one can't tell whether we've been spotted,
+and it isn't likely that the next German who comes along is going to be
+kind to us when he sees what we've done to his nice new gun.'
+
+No more was said until they reached the wood and flung themselves panting
+under the shade of a scrubby live oak.
+
+'Now we can take a bit of a breather,' said Roy. 'And a bit of lunch, too.
+Here, catch!' He flung a chunk of bread across to Ken.
+
+But Ken had sprung up. He was listening keenly.
+
+'Bunk!' he muttered. 'There's cavalry coming.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRISONERS
+
+
+Roy was on his feet like a flash, for he too had caught the thud of
+horses' hoofs and the jingle of stirrups. For a moment the two stood, side
+by side, behind the trunk of the live oak, peering out over the sunbaked
+plain. Across it a patrol of cavalry, smart in a gray-blue uniform, were
+cantering sharply.
+
+'They're making straight for the wood,' said Ken quickly. 'They must be
+after us. Come!'
+
+They both set off at a run, dodging and ducking under the low-growing
+trees. For a moment they thought they were unobserved, but next instant a
+shout rudely shattered that illusion. They scurried on as hard as they
+could go, but the wood was so open and the trees so far apart that it gave
+mighty little shelter. The patrol had broken into a gallop. The thud of
+the horses' hoofs grew nearer every moment.
+
+'That thicket over there,' panted Ken breathlessly. 'We'll dodge them yet
+if we can reach it.'
+
+But between them and it was a good hundred yards of almost open ground,
+and the leader of the patrol saw their manoeuvre, and shouted an order.
+His men split out fan-wise and before Ken and Roy were half way across the
+open, came a thunder of hoofs, and half a dozen of the troopers came
+galloping upon them from the left.
+
+Ken flung up his captured rifle, and fired slap at the first. The bullet
+caught the horse between the eyes and down he came with a crash, flinging
+his rider far over his head.
+
+But the next was too close to dodge. Ken caught the flash of sun on a
+lancehead bearing straight down upon him. He sprang aside, the lancehead
+missed him by inches, then the shoulder of the horse caught him with
+stunning force and hurled him to the ground.
+
+Before he could pick himself up, three of the troopers were off their
+horses, and had flung themselves upon him. He was hauled roughly to his
+feet, his rifle snatched from his hand, and his cartridge-pouch torn away.
+A few yards away, Roy, his face bleeding, was the centre of another group
+who were disarming him in spite of his struggles.
+
+Ken glanced at his captors. He saw that they were Turkish constabulary,
+and his heart sank. These men, trained by Germans, paid by them, and
+soaked in their brutal tenets, were among the small minority of Turks who
+had really come to share the German hatred of the British.
+
+They glared fiercely at their prisoners.
+
+'British swine!' growled one, and spat in contempt.
+
+'They are spies,' said another. 'We find them three miles behind our
+lines. Why do we waste time taking them prisoners? Let us hang them and be
+done with them.'
+
+'Why not let them run and ride them down?' suggested another. 'Sticking
+with a lance is a fit fate for hogs.'
+
+But the sergeant, a tall, swarthy faced man with a pair of fierce black
+eyes, pushed his way forward.
+
+'Fools, these are the men who escaped last night from Captain Hartmann. We
+have his orders to bring them before him. It will go hard with you if you
+disobey. Shackle them both, and send them to him under guard.'
+
+He flung down two pairs of handcuffs, and one of the men who was holding
+Ken picked them up, while another seized his wrists.
+
+It was on the tip of Ken's tongue to protest fiercely against this
+indignity, but he checked himself. It would be better, he remembered, that
+these men should not know that he spoke their language.
+
+Roy was fighting like a fury. Three of the troopers had their work cut out
+to hold him. As it was, he managed to get one hand loose, and before the
+others could seize it again one of their number lay insensible on the
+ground with his nose broken and flattened against his face.
+
+'Steady, Roy!' cried Ken. 'These swabs are no better than Germans. They'll
+only frog-march us or something equally beastly if we resist.'
+
+'But handcuffs!' roared Roy in a fury. 'D'ye think I'm going to be
+handcuffed like a common criminal?'
+
+'They think we're spies,' Ken answered. 'They're going to take us to
+headquarters. It's no use resisting. We must wait our chance.'
+
+Sullenly Roy ceased struggling, and the handcuffs were snapped on his
+wrists. The sergeant who seemed in a hurry, gave brief orders, and
+galloped on with most of his patrol, leaving a lower grade officer,
+probably a corporal, with half a dozen men.
+
+These mounted.
+
+'March!' ordered the corporal, an undersized, vicious-looking fellow,
+giving Ken a prick with his lance. 'And keep going, or, by Allah, it will
+be more than a prick you will get next time.'
+
+Side by side, Ken and Roy stumbled forward, while their captors cursed or
+jeered them in language which Roy fortunately could not understand,
+although to Ken every word of it was only too plain. From something the
+corporal let drop, he learnt that they were being taken, not to Kojadere,
+but to Eski Keni, which lies in the middle of the peninsula, about
+half-way between Gaba Tepe and Maidos.
+
+He told this to Roy, speaking in an undertone, as they tramped rapidly
+onwards under the threat of the lance-points behind them.
+
+'And the man they are taking us before seems to be Kemp,' said Ken. 'Only
+they call him Hartmann. It appears he was cute enough to suspect that we
+had hidden ourselves somewhere last night, and these fellows were sent out
+to look for us.'
+
+'And I wish we had both gone over the cliff before they found us,' Roy
+answered, gritting his teeth. The disgrace of the handcuffs was biting
+deep into his soul. Ken had never seen him in such a mood before.
+
+Ken himself was none too happy. It took all his pluck and philosophy to
+keep going at all. He was aching in every bone, his mouth and throat were
+parched, and his tongue like a dry stick in his mouth. The dust rose
+around them in choking clouds, flies bit and stung, yet he could not lift
+a hand to brush them from his face. What was hardest of all to bear were
+the jeers and insults flung at them by their captors.
+
+But they trudged on doggedly, refusing to pay the slightest attention to
+the taunts or blows showered upon them, and in spite of everything, Ken
+used his eyes to take in every feature of the country through which they
+travelled. Small hope as he had of ever seeing again his own lines, yet he
+missed nothing of importance, storing up each hill, valley, clump of
+trees, and track in his tenacious memory.
+
+At last they came within sight of a group of squalid hovels in a valley.
+
+'That's Keni,' Ken told Roy.
+
+The brutal corporal caught the word.
+
+'That's Keni,' he repeated in his own language, 'and, by the beard of the
+Prophet, you shall soon see how spies are dealt with.'
+
+The village swarmed with soldiers, many of them wounded, who stared at the
+two British prisoners with lack-lustre eyes. The narrow street of the
+place reeked with filth and foul odours, and swarmed with a pestilence of
+flies. The two youngsters were thrust roughly into a dirty hovel, and with
+a final jeer from their brutal jailer, the door was locked behind them.
+
+For a moment Roy stood straight, towering in the centre of the low-roofed
+room. There was a very ugly light in his eyes.
+
+'Wait, my friend, wait!' he said hoarsely. 'I'll be even with you before
+I've finished.'
+
+'Steady, old chap!' said Ken quietly. 'Steady! Take it easy while you can.
+Remember, we've got that little interview with Kemp before us.'
+
+Roy flung himself down with a gasp.
+
+'It's all right, Ken. I'll calm down after a bit. But heaven pity that
+black-moustached blighter if I ever get my hands on him.'
+
+Ken tried to answer, but suddenly dropped flat on the bare earthen floor.
+His eyes closed. Instantly he was sound asleep. Roy stared at him vaguely,
+yawned, and before he knew it had slipped down and followed his example.
+
+So they lay, happily oblivious of their troubles, all through the blazing
+afternoon. The sun was setting when the door was flung open and the
+sharp-faced corporal strode in.
+
+He roused them with a kick apiece.
+
+'Get up, British dogs,' he ordered. 'Captain Hartmann awaits you.'
+
+The sleep had refreshed them, and though stiff and sore they were both in
+condition so fit and hard that they were little the worse for their trying
+experiences of the night and morning.
+
+Under charge of a guard, they were marched rapidly up the street to where
+a few larger flat-topped houses stood on slightly higher ground. Through
+an open door they were driven along a passage and out into a courtyard
+open to the sky, with a fountain in the centre.
+
+At a table, under the shade of a grape arbour, sat two German officers,
+one of whom was a typical Prussian, fair, with hard blue eyes and close
+cropped hair, while the other was their old friend, the ex-steward Kemp,
+otherwise Hartmann.
+
+An ugly light shone in his deep-set, narrow eyes as they fell on the two
+prisoners.
+
+'Soh!' he said, with a evil smile, 'my young friends, the spies!
+Achmet'--this to the corporal--'you have done well. I will see that your
+conduct and that of your sergeant is recommended in the proper quarter.'
+
+He turned to his companion.
+
+'Ober-lieutenant von Steegman,' he said formally. 'The prisoners are those
+of whom I spoke last night to Colonel Henkel. Disguised in the overcoats
+of Turkish soldiers, they contrived to destroy one of our quick-firers,
+and to-day they were discovered hiding in a wood behind our lines. They
+had, it appears, been plundering our wounded, for food and a Turkish rifle
+were found in their possession.'
+
+Ken could not speak German, but he knew enough of the language to gather
+the meaning of the man's infamous accusations. 'Liar!' he burst in. 'We
+were never in Turkish uniform. As for the gun, we took it in fair fight,
+and as--'
+
+At a sign from Hartmann, Achmet, the corporal, struck Ken across the
+mouth.
+
+[Illustration: 'Roy brought them down on the man's head.']
+
+It was probably the last thing he ever did in his life, for Roy, raising
+his shackled hands, brought them down upon the man's head with such
+fearful force that he dropped like a log, the blood gushing from his mouth
+and ears.
+
+Instantly all was confusion. Hartmann sprang to his feet, shouting out
+furious orders. Two of the guard seized Roy and flung him to the ground,
+two more laid hands on Ken. Another drew his bayonet, and Ken saw it flash
+in the evening sunlight before his very eyes.
+
+It was Von Steegman who sprang forward and seized the man's arm just in
+time.
+
+'No. Leave him alone,' he cried harshly. 'The colonel has left express
+orders that he wishes to see these men before they are executed. Stand
+aside! It is only a short delay. They will both be shot at sundown.'
+
+Von Steegman, if a brute, had ten times the physical power and moral force
+of Hartmann. The man obeyed at once, and in a few moments order was
+restored. Two men carried away the insensible form of Achmet, Roy watching
+with a grim smile.
+
+Ken had hardly thought of his own danger. His lips were bleeding, and the
+foul blow had for the moment rendered him perfectly reckless.
+
+'Is this the way you treat prisoners? he thundered, his eyes blazing.
+'Small wonder a people who do such things are despised by every other
+nation on earth!'
+
+'Himmel, you dare to talk like that?' snarled back Hartmann. 'You, a
+private soldier, venture such insolence to an officer?'
+
+Ken was already ashamed of his outburst.
+
+'An officer!' he said with bitter contempt, 'or do you mean a bathroom
+steward?'
+
+Hartmann's sallow face went livid with excess of rage. He bit his lip till
+the blood showed upon it in a thin red line.
+
+'You will sing a different song when you stand before the muzzles of the
+firing party,' he said in a grating voice.
+
+Von Steegman, who seemed to be the only man among them to remain quite
+unmoved, raised his hand.
+
+'All this is highly irregular,' he said harshly. 'Captain Hartmann, it is
+our duty to interrogate these prisoners.'
+
+'What's the use of interrogating us if you have already made up your mind
+to shoot us?' retorted Ken.
+
+Von Steegman glared at him.
+
+'Because,' he answered in his harsh German English, 'it is bossible that,
+by giving us certain information, you may yed save der lives which you haf
+justly forfeited.'
+
+Ken stared back, and there was something in his face which made even the
+German's bold eyes drop.
+
+'I don't advise you to say any more,' he answered grimly. 'You'd better
+proceed at once with your firing party, you miserable German murderer.'
+
+Von Steegman's hand dropped to his sword hilt, his face went the colour of
+a ripe plum, for a moment Ken thought--hoped that he was going to have a
+fit.
+
+Before he could speak there came a stir behind, the door leading from the
+house to the yard opened sharply, and a stout, coarse-looking man in the
+uniform of a colonel in the Prussian Army, strode heavily in.
+
+Hartmann and Von Steegman rose like two ramrods, and saluted him. They
+stood at the salute while he came across to the table.
+
+'So these are the two prisoners,' he said in a thick guttural voice, as he
+seated himself, 'the two who were captured spying behind our lines.'
+
+He stared first at Roy, then at Ken. As his bloodshot eyes fell upon the
+latter he started ever so slightly. At the same moment Ken seemed to
+recognise him, for a look of disgust crossed his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE FIRING PARTY
+
+
+Hartmann spoke.
+
+'These are the spies, Herr Colonel,' he said with an air of deference.
+'They were captured more than two miles behind our lines. We have
+interrogated them, but they refuse information.'
+
+The colonel looked at Ken.
+
+'Have you nothing to say for yourselves?' he demanded.
+
+'Plenty, but not to you, Colonel Henkel,' replied Ken with a sarcasm he
+did not trouble to conceal.
+
+Henkel, however, did not lose his temper as Von Steegman had done. He
+turned to Hartmann and Von Steegman and spoke to them both in a low voice.
+
+'As you wish, Herr Colonel,' said Hartmann presently, but there was an air
+of distinct disappointment about him.
+
+'Corporal,' said Henkel to the non-com, who had taken the place of the
+brute whom Roy had finished, 'take the prisoners back and lock them up
+securely. Set a guard over them.'
+
+'Mind this--that you are responsible for them,' he added harshly.
+
+The man saluted, and Ken and Roy, who had hardly expected to leave the
+place alive, found themselves marched back down the evil-smelling street
+and shut up once more in the same hovel as before.
+
+Roy turned to Ken as the key clicked in the lock behind them.
+
+'This is a rum go,' he said in great astonishment. 'What's it mean? Who is
+the Johnny with the fat tummy and the bloodshot eyes? Why was he so quiet
+with you? What--?'
+
+'Steady, old man!' cut in Ken. 'One question at a time. Didn't you hear
+his name?'
+
+'What--Henkel? Yes.'
+
+He broke off with a gasp.
+
+'You don't mean to say he is the sweep that tried to swindle your father
+out of his coal mine?'
+
+'You've hit it, Roy--hit it in once. That's the very same chap, though I
+never knew before that he was a colonel. He recognised me as soon as I
+spotted him.'
+
+'But what's his game?' demanded Roy. 'I should have thought he would have
+been only too pleased to get you shot out of hand. If your father is dead,
+you're next heir to the coal.'
+
+'I'm not very clear what he is after,' Ken answered in a puzzled voice.
+'But it's something to do with our property, you may be sure of that. This
+much I do know--that Henkel was awfully in debt when I last saw him. And I
+know this, too--that our friend, old Othman Pacha, who is Bey in that part
+of the country, would refuse to let the property pass without proper title
+deeds.'
+
+'Then it's clear as mud,' said Roy quickly. 'Henkel wants to get the deeds
+out of you.'
+
+'That may be it. But anyhow I'm not of age. I couldn't sign anything.'
+
+'Don't, anyhow,' said Roy. 'He can't do worse than shoot us.'
+
+But Ken looked very grave. Inwardly, he was thinking that, if Henkel did
+actually mean to make terms, he had no right to sacrifice Roy's life as
+well as his own.
+
+At this moment the corporal came in with a platter of food and a pitcher
+of water. He planked them down without a word, and went out again.
+
+'No use starving ourselves,' said Roy with his usual cheeriness. 'It's a
+case of "let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die."'
+
+His pluck was wonderful, and they set to as well as their manacled hands
+permitted, on the coarse barley-meal bread and goats' milk cheese. They
+had had nothing since their 'emergency' breakfast and they finished the
+food to the last crumb.
+
+'That's better,' said Roy. 'Now I'm ready for anything.' As he spoke the
+key turned in the lock, the door opened, and in stumped Henkel. He closed
+the door behind him, and stood facing the two young fellows.
+
+'So we meet again, Kenneth Carrington,' he said. Like most German
+officers, he spoke excellent English, though with a thick, unpleasant
+accent.
+
+Ken did not answer. It did not seem worth while. He stood facing the
+other, watching him with a slightly contemptuous expression in his clear
+blue eyes.
+
+'We meet under different conditions from the last time,' continued Henkel.
+'There is now no Othman Pacha to protect you from your just fate.'
+
+Ken shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'Why talk that sort of rot? You know just as well as I do that the last
+thing we shall get is justice.'
+
+Henkel flushed slightly, but he kept his temper.
+
+'What! Do you not shoot spies in your own army?'
+
+'We are not spies. We went too far in the charge yesterday when we smashed
+up your people. We could not get back. We are prisoners of war and should
+be treated as such.'
+
+'That is your story,' replied Henkel. 'We have plenty of evidence to the
+contrary. Any commanding officer would be justified in shooting you out of
+hand.'
+
+'The evidence against us,' said Ken, 'is that of Kemp, late bathroom
+steward aboard the "Cardigan Castle," a man who has a personal grudge
+against me because I caught him signalling to an enemy submarine.'
+
+'Again your unsupported statement,' said Henkel.
+
+'It's the truth,' growled Roy from the background.
+
+'Your evidence in a case like this is valueless,' said Henkel shortly. He
+turned to Ken again.
+
+'Have you heard from your father since you last saw him?' he asked
+suddenly.
+
+The question took Ken unawares.
+
+'From my father?' he said, with sudden eagerness. 'No. Is he alive?'
+
+There was a gleam of triumph in Henkel's prominent eyes.
+
+'Yes,' he answered. 'He is alive and--under the circumstances--well.'
+
+'I--I thought' began Ken and stopped.
+
+'You thought that he had been shot,' said Henkel grimly. 'That would
+indeed have been his fate but for my interference. I used my influence to
+get his sentence altered to a term of imprisonment.'
+
+Ken changed colour. He found it desperately difficult to keep a cool head.
+The news that his father was alive had filled him with burning excitement.
+The two had always been the best of chums, more like an elder and younger
+brother than father and son.
+
+'Where is he?' he asked sharply.
+
+'At present in Constantinople,' replied Henkel, who was watching Ken
+keenly. 'But it is likely that he will presently be sent elsewhere.'
+
+'What--into Asia Minor?' said Ken in dismay. Constantinople was bad
+enough, but nothing to the horrors of the Turkish prisons in Asia.
+
+'Not so far as that. He is to be moved, with others of the British and
+French, to Gallipoli.'
+
+Ken's cheeks went white. His eyes were full of horror.
+
+'You are perhaps aware,' continued Henkel, 'that the Turkish Government
+has decided upon this step as a response to the bombardment of unfortified
+places by your fleet. If Turkish civilians are to be killed, it is only
+fair that enemy civilians should share their fate.'
+
+'Enver Bey seems to have learnt his German pretty thoroughly,' put in Roy
+sarcastically.
+
+Henkel's eyes glared as he turned upon him.
+
+'Be silent!' he ordered, with a fury he could hardly repress.
+
+Roy merely smiled, and Henkel turned again to Ken.
+
+'It lies with you whether your father goes to Gallipoli or not,' he said
+curtly. 'I have sufficient influence to prevent his being sent there.'
+
+'How do you mean?' Ken asked thickly.
+
+'I will tell you plainly. Your father still holds the title deeds of
+certain property near Ipsala. This property he has, of course, forfeited
+since his conviction. I wish to purchase this land from the Turkish
+Government, but owing to the absence of the deeds, which are, apparently,
+in a London bank, there are difficulties as to the transfer.
+
+'What I require is a letter from you to your father, asking him to
+authorise the return of these deeds. In return for this small service I
+will arrange for you and your companion to be treated as prisoners of war
+and sent to Constantinople, where you will remain until the end of the
+war, as will also your father.'
+
+He stopped, and stood watching Ken keenly.
+
+Ken was in an agony of indecision. So far as he himself was concerned, he
+would not have hesitated a moment in refusing the terms offered by Henkel.
+But there was his father to think of--and Roy.
+
+His voice was strained and harsh as he spoke again.
+
+'How do you know that my father would agree to any such letter, even if I
+was to write it?' he asked.
+
+'Because,' answered Henkel, 'your life will depend upon a favourable
+answer.'
+
+Ken paused again.
+
+'Don't do it, Ken,' broke in Roy. 'I don't know your father, but I'm
+mighty sure he wouldn't stick for this kind of blackmail.'
+
+Henkel swung round on him in a fury.
+
+'Potztausend! Keep silence, fool! Your own life as well as two others
+depends upon Carrington's answer.'
+
+'I wouldn't give sixpence for my life if I had to keep it on terms like
+those,' retorted Roy.
+
+'Nor would I,' said Ken sharply. 'And I know my father would say the same.
+Whatever happens, he would never consent to letting you blackmail him,
+Colonel Henkel.'
+
+'Blackmail, schelm! What are you talking about? Don't I tell you that by
+his sentence your father has forfeited all right to any landed property
+under the Turkish Government?'
+
+'Yes, but that country won't be Turkish any more after the war. And then
+my younger brother, who is at school at home, will inherit. No, we are not
+going to cut him out and leave him penniless. Do your worst, Henkel.'
+
+Henkel's great coarse face went livid. He burst into a storm of savage
+profanity.
+
+'Enough!' he cried at last. 'You have brought your fate upon yourselves.
+You have sealed your own death warrant. You shall be shot within an hour,
+and as for your father, he shall be taken to Gallipoli within the week,
+and if he survives the fire of your own warships, I shall find other
+means of dealing with him.'
+
+He rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
+
+'Got his monkey up pretty thoroughly,' said Roy with a laugh. Then seeing
+how grave Ken's face was.
+
+'Don't worry, dear chap. You couldn't possibly have done anything else.
+And as for a bullet in the heart, what is it? It don't take long and it
+don't hurt, and we can always feel we've played the game.'
+
+As he spoke he came closer and laid his shackled hands on Ken's shoulder.
+
+'Thank you, Roy,' said Ken in a very low voice. 'You--you've helped me a
+lot. It--it's father I'm thinking of.'
+
+'I know. But after all he isn't dead yet. And like as not this swab Henkel
+may get wiped out before he has the chance of doing him down.'
+
+Silence fell between them. They sat with their backs against the wall,
+their hearts too full to talk. Ken's thoughts were with his father and his
+younger brother Anthony; Roy's were back in New Zealand, picturing the
+sunny plains and wild ranges around his home, the brawling rivers and the
+white sheep grazing on the great grass lands.
+
+The last rays of the sun shone through the one small window of the hut,
+and presently came the tramp of men outside.
+
+The corporal opened the door, the boys walked out, and guarded on either
+side were marched once more up the foul, narrow street to the higher
+ground above.
+
+Beyond the house where their mock trial had taken place was a vineyard
+surrounded by a stone wall. Against this they were posted while the firing
+party was detailed.
+
+Henkel, his bloodshot eyes aflame with ill-suppressed rage, stalked up to
+them.
+
+'I give you a last chance,' he said harshly to Ken. 'I have told the
+others that you have certain information which I will take in exchange for
+your lives. Give me your word that you will write that letter, and all
+will be well.'
+
+'You have had my answer,' said Ken quietly. 'Now go and watch us being
+murdered.'
+
+Henkel bit his lip savagely.
+
+'Your blood is on your own heads,' he said hoarsely. 'I have given you
+every chance.'
+
+He stamped away, and as he did so took a handkerchief out of his pocket.
+
+'When I drop this, fire,' he said curtly to the eight Turks who composed
+the firing party.
+
+'Good-bye, old chap,' said Ken to Roy.
+
+'Oh, I don't know,' Roy answered. 'After all, we're going together.'
+
+Ken hardly heard. He was still tortured with the feeling that it was
+through him that Roy Horan and his father were to lose their lives. He
+knew he was right, and yet--'
+
+A sound like a maxim gun in the distance smote upon his ears. It grew
+louder every instant. All, even Henkel, glanced upwards.
+
+'Only an aeroplane, Ken,' said Roy in a whisper. 'By Jove, though, it's
+one of our chaps.'
+
+Across the rich blue of the evening sky a great Farman biplane came
+sailing like a gigantic bird. She was barely five hundred feet up, and
+heading straight for the village. What was more, she was actually coming
+lower every moment.
+
+Henkel, the other officer, the firing party, the bystanders--all stood
+with their eyes fixed upon the plane. The cool insolence of her pilot held
+them spellbound. For the moment Ken and Roy were absolutely forgotten.
+
+Henkel was the first to recover himself.
+
+'Shoot it down!' he bellowed. 'Shoot it down!' And the Turks, perhaps not
+altogether sorry to find some other use for their bullets than the
+slaughter of two helpless prisoners, raised their muzzles to the sky, and
+began blazing away furiously. Even Henkel, Hartmann, and Von Steegman
+hauled out their pistols from their belt holsters and fired for all they
+were worth.
+
+But a plane travelling at a mile a minute is not the easiest thing in the
+world to hit, especially when it seems to be coming right at you. Possibly
+some of the bullets pierced the widespread wings, but no harm was done to
+the observer or his pilot.
+
+Suddenly Ken seized Roy with his manacled hands.
+
+'Down!' he cried sharply. 'Down!'
+
+Roy understood and flung himself flat upon the ground, and Ken instantly
+followed his example.
+
+Only just in time. Next second a black streak darted from the plane and
+shot earthwards. Followed an earth-shaking roar, and a blinding flash of
+flame.
+
+[Illustration: 'All, even Henkel, glanced upwards.']
+
+Ken, flat on his face, felt the blast of it, and covered his head with his
+arms. Earth, small stones, debris of all kinds rained upon him, then
+followed silence, broken only by the rapidly diminishing roar of the
+engine exhaust.
+
+Ken ventured to roll over. This is what he saw.
+
+Between him and the spot where the firing party had stood, but nearer to
+the latter, was a great cavity in the ground, a hole ten feet across and
+perhaps a yard deep. Beyond, half buried in the mass of rubbish flung up
+by the explosion, were the broken remains of the firing party. All but one
+were dead, and most were blasted to fragments. The one survivor lay
+helpless and groaning.
+
+Farther away the three officers were prone and still upon the ground, but
+whether dead or merely damaged, Ken could not tell. He hoped the former.
+Farther still, half a dozen other Turkish soldiers lay, twisted in ugly
+fashion, covered with blood. They had been badly cut by the jagged
+fragments of stone flung up by the bursting bomb. The survivors, a score
+or so in number, were running in blind panic towards the village.
+
+'Roy, Roy! Quickly! We've a chance still,' cried Ken, his voice tense with
+excitement.
+
+He sprang up as he spoke, and Roy staggered dazedly to his feet.
+
+'This way!' said Ken, and in spite of the hampering handcuffs he managed
+to scramble over the low wall into the vineyard.
+
+Roy followed.
+
+'It's no use, Ken,' he said. 'We can't run with these beastly handcuffs,
+and they'll be after us in two twos.'
+
+'Not they! Look!'
+
+He pointed to the plane. It had circled wide over the town and was now
+coming back. The faint popping of rifles was followed by another terrific
+crash. A second bomb had dropped clean upon one of the larger houses, and
+exploding on the flat roof had scattered the whole building as a man's
+foot might scatter an ant's nest. With a roar half the house toppled
+outwards into the street, blocking it completely.
+
+'Fine! Oh, fine!' cried Roy. 'That chap knows his business. Gee, but I
+wish we were alongside him.'
+
+'Much use that would be! A plane can't carry four. But don't you see? He
+has spotted us. Those bombs are meant to give us our chance. It's up to us
+to take it. Hurry, Roy! If we can reach that wood yonder, we may be able
+to hide till dark.'
+
+To run at all with tied hands is no easy matter. To make any sort of pace
+over rough ground, in such condition, is well-nigh impossible. Yet Ken and
+Roy, knowing absolutely that their lives depended on reaching that wood
+before their disappearance was realised, did manage to run and to run
+pretty fast.
+
+Once more they heard the crashing explosion of a bomb, then suddenly the
+sound of the plane grew louder until the engine rattled almost overhead.
+
+Ken stopped and looked up. The plane was passing no more than two hundred
+feet above them.
+
+Over the edge of the fuselage a face appeared, a white dot framed in a
+khaki flying hood. An arm was thrust out, something dropped from it. There
+was a quick wave of a hand, then with the speed of a frightened wild duck,
+the plane shot away, came round in a finely banked curve, and disappeared
+in a south-easterly direction.
+
+'Roy!' gasped Ken, breathless. 'Did you see that?'
+
+'I saw him drop something--I saw it fall. There--there it is.'
+
+Hurrying on for about fifty yards, he stooped swiftly and picked up
+something small but heavy.
+
+'The daisy! Oh, the daisy!' panted Roy. 'I'll love that fellow to the end
+of my life.'
+
+He held up the object which the airman had flung down. It was a hammer and
+a cold chisel tied together, with a leaf from a notebook under the string.
+
+There was an ancient olive tree against the far wall of the vineyard.
+Cowering under its shelter, Roy tore the string off with his strong white
+teeth, then picked up the paper. These were the hurried words scrawled in
+pencil:-- 'Sorry! All we can do for you. Make east. Your only chance.'
+
+'East? That means the Straits. Why is that our only chance?' muttered Ken.
+
+'Never mind that now,' Roy answered hastily. 'We must get our hands free.
+Confound it! We can't use the chisel. But here's a stone with a sharp
+edge. Try what you can do with the hammer, Ken.'
+
+Ken took one quick glance in the direction of the village, but there was
+no one in sight. He caught hold of the hammer in both hands and brought it
+down with all his force on the link between Roy's handcuffs.
+
+More by chance than skill the blow fell absolutely true, and the steel,
+either flawed or over-tempered, snapped.
+
+Roy gave a cry of delight, and snatching the hammer from Ken took up the
+chisel and set to work on his bonds. His powerful hands made short work of
+the link, and within less than three minutes from the time the man in the
+plane had dropped the tools, they were both free.
+
+With a deep sigh of relief, Roy sprang to his feet. 'We're our own men
+again, Ken. Come on.' He leaped lightly over the wall and raced away
+towards the trees. Ken followed.
+
+They had no food, no weapons, they were miles from their own people, in
+the heart of the enemy country. Yet, for all that, there were not at that
+moment two lighter hearts in the whole of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ABOVE THE NARROWS
+
+
+An intermittent thunder of guns had been growing heavier for the past
+hour. Now, as the two fugitives crouched on the eastern side of a steeply
+sloping hill, they were so near that they could distinctly see the flashes
+from the muzzles through the darkness of the night.
+
+'That's either Fort Degetman or Kilid Bahr,' said Ken in a low voice. 'Ah,
+there are two. The right-hand one--the one to the south--is Kilid Bahr.'
+
+"Then we're opposite the Narrows," Roy answered breathlessly.
+
+"Just so," said Ken, but though he spoke quietly enough, he, too, felt a
+thrill. For five long hours they had been pushing east, or rather
+south-eastwards. They had crossed the main road leading to Great Maidos,
+they had had hairbreadth escapes sufficient to last most folk for a
+lifetime, and now at a little after one in the morning, they had crossed
+the whole peninsula, and were facing the famous Narrows, with their double
+cordon of forts on both sides of the Straits, the nut which for so many
+weeks all the Powers of the British and French combined had been engaged
+in trying to crack.
+
+[Illustration: "That's either Fort Degetman or Kalis Bahr."]
+
+Opposite, a few scattered lights showed where lay the town of Chanak on
+the Asiatic side of the Narrows. From forts along that coast also, there
+now and then darted a spit of flame, while half a minute or so later the
+dull roar of the report would reverberate through the night.
+
+"We've gone east," said Roy slowly. "We've done what that chap in the
+plane told us to do. But I'm hanged if I can see how we're to go any
+farther."
+
+'Unless,' he added thoughtfully, 'we are going to swim for it.'
+
+'A bit far for that,' said Ken. 'We are just thirteen miles from the mouth
+of the Straits, and though they say the current runs down at four miles an
+hour, I don't think either of us could stand three hours in the water.'
+
+'Not me!' replied Roy with a shiver. 'Too jolly cold!'
+
+'We must get hold of a boat,' said Ken with decision. 'That's our only
+chance.'
+
+'Lead on, sonny,' said Roy--'that is, if you know where to find one.'
+
+'I haven't much more notion than you, Roy. But there's just this in our
+favour--that I know there's a little cove south of Kilid Bahr. And as all
+the coast on either side is cliffs, the chances are that boats, if there
+are any, will be lying in that cove.'
+
+'So will half the Turkish Army, most probably,' said Roy recklessly. 'Not
+that I care. The only thing I mind is handcuffs. I'm going to slay the
+first chap who suggests them.'
+
+Ken was not listening. He was staring out towards the Straits, trying to
+get the lie of the land. The coast itself he knew well, for he had been up
+and down the Dardanelles a number of times. But of the land he was
+ignorant, and it is no joke to find one's way by night over such a country
+as the Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+'Come on, then,' he said presently, and turned due south down the
+hill-side.
+
+Not a yard of their journey had been without its risks, but now they had
+to be more careful than ever. The whole shore of the Straits was, they
+knew, a network of forts and hidden defences. There was no saying when
+they might blunder upon something of the kind.
+
+Half-way down the hill, Ken, who was leading, pulled up.
+
+'Look out!' he muttered. 'There's a pit of some sort just in front of us.
+Wait, I'll see what it is.'
+
+He dropped on hands and knees and crawled forward. He was away for only a
+few moments.
+
+'Nothing but a shell hole,' he explained, 'but it's a regular crater. Must
+have been done by one of our twelve-inch guns. Two dead Turks alongside
+it.'
+
+'Rum place for a shell to fall,' Roy answered, straining his eyes through
+the gloom.
+
+'It means there's a fort somewhere near,' said Ken. 'Our people don't
+waste shells on empty hill-sides, I can tell you.'
+
+'Wish it wasn't so infernally dark,' growled Roy.
+
+'I'm jolly glad it is,' answered Ken emphatically. 'Put it any way you
+like, it helps us more than the enemy.'
+
+They saw nothing of the fort, if there was one, and after crossing some
+very broken ground came down into a narrow valley, in the centre of which
+was the bed of a water-course, now dry.
+
+'That's better,' whispered Ken, as he dropped down into it. 'This ought to
+bring us out on the beach.'
+
+The bottom was sun-baked mud and dry stones which, together, formed about
+as unpleasant a combination for walking over as could well be imagined,
+especially since it was absolutely necessary to move without a sound. Both
+were deeply grateful when at last the torrent bed widened, and they heard
+the lap of ripples on a beach.
+
+'I feel like those old Greek Johnnies,' said Roy, 'the ones who'd been
+wandering for a year over there in Asia, and who chucked their helmets
+into the air and yelled when they saw the sea.'
+
+'Well, don't try any tricks of that sort here, old man,' Ken answered
+dryly. 'Wait a jiffy. I'm going forward to get a squint at the beach.'
+
+He crept away, bent double, and was gone for so long that Roy began to get
+uneasy. But at last he saw Ken stealing back.
+
+'What luck?' he whispered.
+
+'None,' Ken answered in a tone of bitter disappointment.
+
+'What--no boats?'
+
+'Plenty of boats, but there are men behind them. I don't know how many,
+but quite a lot. I don't even know whether they are troops. They are
+sitting about on the shingle, talking and smoking. Anyhow there are too
+many for us to tackle.'
+
+Roy grunted. 'That's bad. But, see here, Ken, we've got to have a boat
+some way or other.'
+
+'We're going to,' said Ken fiercely, 'but I'm afraid it means crawling all
+the way back up that beastly water-course.'
+
+'Up the water-course?' repeated Roy. 'Great Ghost, there are no boats up
+there.'
+
+'It's not boats I'm after in the first place, it's a disguise. See here.
+You know I told you there were two dead Turks alongside that shell hole.
+My notion is to take their uniforms or just their overcoats, and then walk
+boldly down to the beach, and tell the chaps there that we have a despatch
+to take across to Ghanak.'
+
+'Put up a bluff,' Roy answered. 'I see. But surely they have a cable
+across.'
+
+'They had, but the "Sapphire" cut it. And since it's gone, why I should
+fancy the only way of getting messages across is by boat.'
+
+'But what about the password?' suggested Roy.
+
+'We'll have to chance that. There are not likely to be any officers about
+on the beach at night. It isn't as if there was any danger of attack here.
+They are right under the forts of the Narrows.'
+
+'Well,' said Roy, rising with a sigh, 'it sounds a pretty good scheme. But
+I'd give more than sixpence to get out of crawling back up that abominable
+gully.
+
+'I'm afraid there's no help for it,' replied Ken, as he started.
+
+Both were tired with their long tramp across country, and they were sadly
+in need of food and rest. It was wretchedly disappointing, after they had
+at last made the sea, to have to turn back again inland. They were a very
+silent pair as they toiled back over the cracked clay and loose stones.
+
+There was worse to come. In the darkness they missed the exact spot where
+they had first entered the gully, and when they reached the hill-side
+found that they were lost. Neither of them had the least idea of the
+whereabouts of the shell hole with the bodies of the two dead Turks.
+
+[Illustration: Our boys bring in a Turkish sniper, who by the ample use of
+foliage has turned himself into a sort of Jack-in-the-Green.]
+
+[Illustration: Reinforcements of Turkish artillery and machine gun
+batteries to bar the passage of our boys in khaki.]
+
+A good half-hour they wasted in vain search, then Ken dropped behind the
+shelter of a small bush.
+
+'It's no use, Roy,' he said desperately. 'I can't find it. We're simply
+wasting time.'
+
+Instead of answering, Roy took hold of Ken's arm with a grip that was like
+that of a steel vice.
+
+'Hush!' he whispered, and pointed.
+
+Two figures had risen in front, apparently out of the very depths of the
+earth. They were not more than twenty paces away.
+
+The boys crouched, breathless. A moment later, two other figures loomed
+through the darkness, coming down the slope. They came straight up to the
+first two.
+
+'By Eblis, but thou hast not hurried thyself Ali!' said one of the latter,
+speaking in Turkish. 'Hassan and I were about to come and seek thee.'
+
+One of the others gave a laugh.
+
+'I am sorry, brother. We slept and no one awaked us. Is all well?'
+
+'All is well. What else should it be? Who but a dog of an unbelieving
+German would waste men's time in guarding such a place as this?'
+
+'Of a truth it is foolishness,' said the man named Ali. 'The British are
+far enough away, Allah knows.'
+
+'A good watch to thee,' said Hassan in rather a surly tone. Then he and
+his companion tramped away uphill, and Ali and the other sank down into
+what was evidently a trench.
+
+Hastily Ken translated what he had heard for Roy.
+
+'They are sentries,' he said, 'and I suppose there is some underground
+work here which they have been set to guard.'
+
+'And by the looks of it, they are the only men there,' Roy replied
+eagerly. 'Ken, I think I see those coats materialising.'
+
+'It might be done,' said Ken. 'As you say, they are probably the only men
+in the place, whatever it is. And clearly they take their job pretty
+easily. If we can catch them napping we ought to be able to polish them
+off.'
+
+'We will catch them napping, and we will polish them off,' Roy said
+grimly. 'Mind you, Ken, they mustn't shoot.'
+
+He began to creep forward on hands and knees. Ken kept abreast. A minute
+later, they found themselves at the sloping entrance of what was evidently
+a communication trench.
+
+'We'd best keep on top,' whispered Roy. 'You go one side, I'll take the
+other. When we get above them, we must both drop together. Jump right on
+them, and put 'em out before they know what's up.'
+
+There was no doubt about this being the best plan, and they started at
+once. Roy went off with his usual confidence, but Ken, more highly strung,
+felt his heart thumping as he crawled along the rough edge of the deep,
+dark ditch.
+
+It seemed to him that they went a very long way before he saw Roy stop and
+lift one hand. He himself peered over cautiously. The stars gave just
+enough light to see the two Turkish sentries.
+
+They were leaning carelessly against the wall of the trench. One was
+smoking, the other apparently rolling a cigarette. They were chatting in
+low voices, and so far as Ken could make out, neither held his rifle.
+
+Roy pointed to the one nearest Ken. Ken nodded, and rose very quietly to
+his feet.
+
+The Turk firmly believes that certain places, bare hill-sides especially,
+are haunted by unpleasant bogies which he calls Djinns and Afrits. If ever
+any Turk was fully convinced that a Djinn had him, it must have been the
+sentry that Ken jumped on.
+
+He landed absolutely straight on the man's shoulders, and down he went
+flat on his face, with Ken on top of him. His forehead struck the opposite
+wall of the trench, and though Ken wasted no time at all in getting hold
+of his throat, this was quite unnecessary. The wretched Turk was limp as a
+wet dish-rag and quite insensible.
+
+'Good business, Ken!' said Roy, and glancing round Ken saw his chum
+kneeling on the chest of the second man, one big hand compressing his
+wind-pipe. 'Good business! We've got them both, and no fuss about it.
+Confound it! These fellows don't run to handkerchiefs. Wait a jiffy. I
+must get his belt off.'
+
+Neither of the Turks was in condition to put up any resistance, and in a
+very few moments they were stripped of overcoats, shakos, and haversacks.
+They were then tied and carefully gagged.
+
+Roy pulled on the overcoat of the bigger man.
+
+'I've seen better fits,' he remarked. 'But it will do in this light. Now
+for that boat.'
+
+'One minute!' said Ken, 'let's just see what they were guarding.'
+
+He slipped along the trench, Roy after him, and a few yards farther on it
+sloped downwards, then widened into a deepish semicircular excavation. In
+the middle of this was a great lump of something which, as they came
+nearer, resolved itself into a gun of some sort. It was very thick, very
+short, it stood on a concrete platform, and its squat muzzle pointed
+almost straight up into the air.
+
+'It's a howitzer,' said Ken.
+
+'Rummiest looking howitzer I ever saw,' Roy answered. 'Looks as if it came
+out of the Ark.'
+
+'Came out of the Crimea, I expect. They used this kind of thing sixty
+years ago. It's a muzzle loader, you see.'
+
+'And shoots real cannon balls,' said Roy, pointing to a pyramid of huge
+iron globes, each about fourteen inches in diameter.
+
+'I wonder where the powder is,' said Ken with sudden eagerness.
+
+'What's up now?' demanded Roy.
+
+'I've got it,' said Ken quickly, as he began pulling a tarpaulin off a
+pile of canvas bags. 'A rare lot of it too!'
+
+'You're not thinking by any chance of lobbing shot into Maidos, are you?'
+asked Roy sarcastically.
+
+'Not that,' said Ken. 'Hardly that. But what about setting off this little
+lot? My notion is this. If we could put a slow match to the powder and
+then clear out and get down to the mouth of the water-course before it
+goes off, I believe those loafers down on the beach would all come running
+up here to see what had happened. That would give us our chance to collar
+a boat and clear.'
+
+Roy gave a low chuckle.
+
+'Not a bad notion, old son. Not half a bad idea. Yes, it certainly would
+wake some of 'em up. But what about the slow match? We've got no fuse.'
+
+Ken held out an old-fashioned candle lantern.
+
+'I bagged this from the sentry. There's just half an inch of candle in it.
+We've nothing to do but lay a train of loose powder up to it.'
+
+Roy chuckled again.
+
+'You're a bad 'un to beat, Ken. Yes, that ought to work. Let's get at it.'
+
+The powder was just as old-fashioned as the rest of the outfit. Common
+black stuff, large grained, coarser even than blasting powder. Once they
+got a bag open it did not take them long to lay the train to the lantern,
+which Ken placed in a little excavation kicked out right under the front
+wall of the earthwork.
+
+'Don't think any one will see it there,' he said, as he cut the candle
+down a trifle and lit it cautiously with a sputtering sulphur match, part
+of the spoil from the Turkish sentry.
+
+'I suppose those sentries are far enough off to be all right,' he added,
+as he rose hastily to his feet.
+
+'Bless you, yes. This stuff isn't like high explosive. It'll only go up
+with a bang and a fizz like a big firework. Skip. We've got to be at the
+beach by the time she goes off.'
+
+They knew their way by now, and in spite of the darkness, wasted very
+little time in reaching the ravine. All was very quiet. The Turkish guns,
+which had been firing probably at some mine-sweeper, were silent again.
+The only sounds of war were an occasional boom far to the south where the
+British and French faced the Turks entrenched on the heights of Achi Baba.
+
+Bent double, the two scurried across the waste of cracked clay and loose
+stones, and in less than half the time they had taken for their first
+journey, reached the point where it debouched upon the open beach.
+
+Ken dropped, panting slightly, and Roy slipping down beside him, caught a
+glint of dark water rippling under the starlight.
+
+From somewhere to the left came a murmur of voices, and the breeze brought
+to his nostrils a faint odour of tobacco smoke.
+
+Seconds dragged like minutes as they lay waiting. The suspense was very
+hard to bear.
+
+Roy put his mouth close to Ken's ear.
+
+'Afraid your contraption's gone wrong, old son. Don't seem to hear that
+bust up you promised.'
+
+'Unless the powder was damp--' began Ken. His sentence was cut short by a
+thunderous boom. The earth quivered beneath them, and sky, sea, even the
+tall cliffs opposite flared crimson.
+
+The great glow passed as swiftly as it had come, there followed a rattle
+of falling rubbish, then silence dropped. Silence, however, which lasted
+no longer than the flash. Almost instantly burst out a hubbub of excited
+voices, there was a rattle of sandalled feet on shingle and a sound of men
+running hard.
+
+Roy sprang to his feet, but Ken caught him by the arm.
+
+'Steady! Don't hurry, or you'll give the show away. It's not likely
+they're all gone.'
+
+'Every man Jack of 'em,' Roy answered, as he walked boldly out on to the
+beach.
+
+Ken glanced round sharply. It seemed as though Roy were right. So far as
+he could see, the whole population of the beach had departed for the scene
+of the explosion.
+
+'There are the boats,' said Roy. 'Three, four--yes, half a dozen of them.
+Now we shan't be long.' 'They're great clumsy brutes of things,' Ken
+answered. Hang it all! There isn't one we can manage between us.'
+
+'Wait. There's a smaller one beyond. That might do us.' muttered Roy,
+hurrying forward.
+
+Ken followed quickly. As Roy had said, this boat which lay by itself was
+decidedly smaller than the others. It had, however, been pulled clear of
+the water.
+
+'Good, she's got a pair of oars,' said Roy. 'Give us a hand to launch her,
+Ken.'
+
+She was a considerable weight, and the shingle was deep and soft. There is
+no tide in these waters, so the beaches are dry like those of a lake. In
+spite of their best efforts, it took them some little time to get her
+afloat.
+
+They had only just succeeded and Ken was scrambling aboard, when rapid
+steps came hurrying down the beach.
+
+'Halt!' came a sharp voice speaking in Turkish. 'Who goes there?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SWEEPERS
+
+
+'Hurry!' hissed Roy.
+
+'No use,' was the low-voiced answer. 'He'd get us both before we were out
+of range.' As he spoke, Ken turned and stepped swiftly back to the beach.
+
+'Friend,' he answered, speaking in the same language. 'Despatches for
+Chanak from Colonel Gratz.'
+
+The sentry, a burly Turk, armed with a Mauser rifle, pulled up opposite
+Ken.
+
+'Despatches,' he repeated suspiciously. 'Why are they being sent by boat?
+And who gave you leave to use this boat?'
+
+In a flash Roy saw that this was a man of more intelligence than the
+average run of Turkish soldiers, and that it would be useless to try and
+bluff him. The only chance was to put him out.
+
+'We had our orders,' he said. 'You can look at them if you wish.' He
+pretended to take something out of his pocket, at the same time stepping
+forward. Then, like a flash, he drove his fist with all his might into the
+Turk's face.
+
+The man reeled backwards, but did not fall. Next moment he uttered a shout
+that rang through the night.
+
+'We've done it now,' growled Roy, as he leaped past Ken, and caught the
+wretched sentry by the throat with a grip that effectually prevented any
+further sound.
+
+'Take his rifle, Ken,' he said sharply. 'It's all right. I'll gag him. You
+get into the boat.'
+
+How he did it Ken did not know, but within an incredibly short time Roy
+had sprung into the water, pushed the boat off, and scrambled aboard.
+
+'I'll take the oars,' he said unceremoniously, and Ken, though himself a
+useful man with sculls, made no objection. Roy's strength, he knew, was
+greater than his own.
+
+In a trice Roy had flung off his Turkish overcoat and British tunic. The
+blades bent as he sent the boat hissing through the water.
+
+There was no tiller, but Ken found a broken scull at the bottom of the
+boat with which he contrived to steer. He kept her head due south, but
+fairly close in shore, and what between Roy's powerful efforts, and the
+strong current which always flows out of the Sea of Marmora into the
+Aegean, they were soon going almost as fast as a man could run.
+
+'It'll be Heaven's own luck if no one heard that yell,' muttered Roy, as
+he bent all his giant strength to the oars.
+
+'I wish it had been your fist and not mine,' Ken replied with some
+bitterness.
+
+'But I couldn't have got near him,' Roy answered simply. 'You see, I don't
+speak the lingo.'
+
+The vicious crack of a rifle interrupted the conversation, and a bullet
+slapped the water just astern, and went skipping away in a series of ducks
+and drakes.
+
+'They're on to us,' muttered Ken between set teeth. Roy said nothing. He
+only pulled a little harder. By the way the oars bent, Ken almost feared
+they would snap.
+
+Another spit of white flame from the beach, another, and another. Still
+they were unhit, and every moment the distance was increasing. They had
+got beyond the low beach, and were under the cliffs to the southward.
+
+'We may do it yet,' muttered Ken. 'They can't see us in this light. And
+there are not more than two chaps firing.'
+
+There was a moment's pause in the firing. Ken's spirits rose. He
+thought--hoped that the Turks had given it up as a bad job. Then, just as
+it seemed as though they were really out of range, there rang out a
+regular volley, and all around them the water splashed in little jets of
+pale foam. There came a thud, the boat quivered slightly, and white
+splinters flew near Ken's feet, one cutting him slightly on the shin.
+
+'Hit?' panted Roy, as he saw Ken wince.
+
+'Nothing. It's the boat,' answered Ken briefly, as he bent to examine the
+damage.
+
+A few seconds later, and they had rounded the projecting point of rock on
+which stands the old lighthouse. The firing ceased.
+
+Roy slackened a little.
+
+'Much damage?' he asked curtly.
+
+'Holed her badly,' Ken answered. 'She's leaking like a sieve.'
+
+'Rotten luck!' growled Roy. 'And just as we'd dodged the blighters. Can
+you do anything with it?'
+
+'Ram a handkerchief in--that's all. Of course, I can bale.'
+
+'Well, keep her afloat as long as you can. It won't be exactly healthy if
+we have to land anywhere here. All forts, isn't it?'
+
+'Yes, down as far as Tekeh. Not that the forts will do us any harm, even
+if they're warned. We're too small and too close in for gun fire. But
+there's no place to land for nearly two miles--not until you get to what
+they call the Fountain.'
+
+Apparently the forts were not warned. As the 'Triumph' had been slamming
+12-inch shells into them only the previous night, the chances were that
+the telephone wires were cut. Roy kept going with long steady strokes,
+while Ken, working even harder, baled frantically the whole time.
+
+So they drove on without speaking for about a quarter of an hour.
+
+At last Ken straightened his aching back. 'It's no use, Roy. The water's
+gaining. I can't keep it down.'
+
+'You needn't tell me that. I've been over my ankles the last five minutes,
+and she's pulling like a sunk log.'
+
+'What are we going to do?' said Ken--'Try for the Fountain landing?'
+
+
+
+'Might as well, I suppose. Any chance of picking up another boat, d'ye
+think?'
+
+'Pretty slim, I fancy,' answered Ken. 'There are sure to be sentries
+there. You see, it's the sort of place where our people might attempt a
+landing.'
+
+[Illustration: '"She's leaking like a sieve."']
+
+'Could we try for the other side?' suggested Roy.
+
+'Out of the question,' said Ken. 'We're opposite Sari Siglar Bay. The
+Straits are nearly three miles wide here.'
+
+Roy gave a short laugh. 'Looks as if we should have to swim for it after
+all,' he said. 'Well, the only thing is to keep going until she sinks
+under us. Then we must scramble ashore and take our chances.'
+
+He pulled on again, and Ken betook himself to his everlasting task of
+baling. He was mortally tired and desperately sleepy. His eyes almost
+closed as he dipped and dipped in the salt water which, in spite of all
+his efforts, grew steadily deeper in the bottom of the boat. The lower she
+sank, the more quickly the water spurted in. Each minute that passed
+brought the inevitable end closer.
+
+Once he glanced up to see, if possible, where they were. To the right tall
+black cliffs towered against the night sky, to the left the stars twinkled
+in the ripples of the deep and wide Straits.
+
+Roy pulled like a machine, but the weight of water made his efforts almost
+useless. The boat sogged slowly forward like a dead thing.
+
+'She won't last another five minutes,' said Ken.
+
+'And there's no landing place, old chap. We're right up against it.'
+
+'Tell you what there is, though,' said Ken keenly. 'There's a craft of
+some sort out there. Don't you hear her engines?'
+
+Roy stopped pulling a moment. In the silence a faint chug, chug reached
+their ears.
+
+'What do you think she is--one of our warships?' he asked in a whisper.
+
+'Haven't a notion. But she's probably British or French. The Turks haven't
+got much in the way of craft--at least not this side of Gallipoli.'
+
+'Then I vote for trying to make her,' said Roy. 'Right you are,' Ken
+answered, and began baling harder than ever Roy, pulling on his left-hand
+oar, got the boat round, and made a last spurt in the direction of the
+sound.
+
+It seemed a very forlorn hope. They could not even see the craft--whatever
+she was--and their boat manifestly had but a short time to live. If she
+sank out in mid-straits there was no earthly chance of reaching the shore.
+Drowning was certain.
+
+Three minutes passed. The water in the boat was nearly knee deep. Pull as
+he might, Roy could hardly keep her moving. Ken raised his head and peered
+out through the gloom.
+
+'I see her,' he said with sudden eagerness. He pointed as he spoke to a
+dim shape not more than a couple of hundred yards away.
+
+Roy glanced back over his shoulder. 'She's very small,' he said, 'and
+she's working upstream. Hallo, there's another just beyond her--a pair of
+'em.'
+
+'Two, are there? Then I tell you what they are--trawlers.'
+
+'Trawlers!' echoed Roy. 'What--catching herrings for the Admiral's
+breakfast?'
+
+'No, you ass--mines. They're mine-sweepers of course.' Roy gave a low
+whistle.
+
+'I'd sooner catch herrings,' he said. 'But never mind. So long as they're
+British, that's all that matters.' And he set to pulling again with all
+the energy left him.
+
+The trawlers were creeping along at very slow speed, and without a light
+of any sort showing. There was not even the usual glow from the funnel
+top. Lucky it was for Roy and Ken that they were going so slowly, for they
+were still some little distance from the nearest trawler when the ripples
+began to wash over the gunwale of the water-logged boat.
+
+'Help!' shouted Roy hoarsely. 'Help!'
+
+'Pull on!' said Ken, as he still baled frantically. 'Pull on! They can't
+come round if they've got their sweeping cable out.'
+
+Roy made a last effort, and whether it was Roy's shout or the sound of the
+oars, some one aboard the trawler heard them.
+
+'Who are you?' came a gruff voice, half-muffled, as though afraid of being
+overheard on shore.
+
+'Friends--British,' answered Ken. 'Our boat's sinking.'
+
+There came a sharp order echoed from the farther ship. The trawlers both
+slackened speed.
+
+'Come alongside, if you can. We can't pull out to you,' called the same
+voice that Ken had heard previously.
+
+A few more strokes, then just as the boat was actually sinking under them,
+a rope came whizzing across. Roy caught it and a moment later, wet and
+draggled, they were standing on the deck of the trawler.
+
+'Well, I'll be everlastingly jiggered,' exclaimed a gruff voice. 'Where in
+all that's wonderful did you fellers spring from?' The speaker was a
+short, square man, but it was so dark that all they could see of his face
+was that it was round and clean-shaven.
+
+'Out of the Dardanelles last, and before that from Kilid Bahr,' Ken
+answered. 'We're escaped prisoners.'
+
+'Gosh, you've been in warm places, young fellers,' said the other, 'but I
+kind o' think it's a case of out of the frying pan into the fire.'
+
+'Fire's better than water, specially when it's as cold as the Straits,'
+said Roy with a shiver.
+
+'Well, maybe that's so,' replied the other. 'Get you gone below, the both
+o' you. You'll find a fire in the galley and the cook'll give ye some hot
+cocoa.'
+
+'Thanks awfully,' said Ken and Roy in one breath, and hurried off at once.
+
+The cook, a lean, solemn-faced man named Lemuel Gill, showed no surprise
+whatever at the sudden apparition of two half-drowned strangers. But if he
+asked no questions he was not stingy with the cocoa, and Roy and Ken put
+away a quart of it between them, and openly declared they had never tasted
+anything so good in all their lives.
+
+Their praise seemed to please Gill, for he proceeded to cut some gigantic
+sandwiches out of stale bread and excellent cold boiled pork, and to these
+also the hungry youngsters did justice.
+
+'What ship is this?' asked Ken, when the first pangs of hunger had been
+satisfied.
+
+'"Maid o' Sker." Mine--sweeper. Skipper, Seth Grimball,' was the brief
+answer. Then, after a pause, 'Where did you blokes come from?'
+
+Ken told him, or rather began to, for before he had finished, the steady
+beat of the engines suddenly slackened.
+
+'Cotched one, I reckon,' remarked Gill briefly, and hurried on deck
+followed by the two boys.
+
+The 'Maid of Sker' was the ordinary type of North Sea trawler, and so far
+as Ken and Roy could see, her fellow, whose name Gill told them was the
+'Swan of Avon,' was her double. They were moving exactly parallel, at a
+distance of about a cable (220 yards) apart. Between them towed a thin
+steel hawser set to a depth just sufficient to catch the mooring cables of
+the mines which were plentifully strewn in the channel.
+
+'Caught one, you say?' whispered Ken in Gill's ear. 'A mine, you mean?'
+
+'Ay. Look at the cable. She's foul of it all right.'
+
+Certainly the cable was sagging in a curious fashion.
+
+'What do you do with them?' asked Roy.
+
+But Gill had already run aft to assist. Low-voiced orders were heard, and
+the 'Maid of Sker' began to forge slowly ahead.
+
+'I think they're going to tow it out of the channel,' Ken said to Roy.
+'That's what I believe they do.'
+
+'But I thought the beastly things exploded when you touched 'em,' said
+Roy.
+
+'Some do. That's the sort with steel whiskers on them. The others are what
+they call tilting mines. They blow up when their balance is upset.'
+
+'And which is this?'
+
+'I don't know any more than you, and I don't suppose the skipper does,
+either. All these mines swim some way under the surface.'
+
+'What's the betting on her going off?' said the irrepressible Roy.
+
+'She won't,' said Ken confidently. 'These chaps know how to handle her.
+She--'
+
+He stopped short, and involuntarily flung up his hands before his eyes. A
+cone of blinding white light had sprouted suddenly from the Asiatic shore,
+and in its cold brilliance the outlines of the two trawlers, the people on
+their decks, the cable towing between them, and a wide patch of rippling
+water stood out as clearly as in the broadest daylight. It was a
+searchlight from Kephez Point at the southern angle of Sari Siglar Bay.
+
+'Haul up there. Haul on that cable. Sharp now!' bellowed Captain Grimball,
+and his men sprang to obey. He himself dashed into the little deckhouse
+and was out again in an instant with a rifle in his hand.
+
+In the dazzling glare a great bulbous mass of dark-coloured metal heaved
+slowly up out of the water midway between the two trawlers. It was hardly
+in sight before Grimball had flung his rifle to his shoulder and fired.
+
+Followed instantly an explosion so terrific that Ken distinctly felt the
+deck of the trawler lift under his feet. A cloud of thick black smoke shot
+high into the air, and as it rose a very waterspout descended upon the
+little ship.
+
+Roy and Ken staggered back, half deafened by the appalling concussion.
+
+'Got that one, anyway,' they heard Grimball exclaim, as he dashed back to
+the bridge and rang the engine bell for full steam. 'Got him all right.
+Next question is whether the blighters will get us.'
+
+Both trawlers seemed actuated by the same impulse. Both at the same time
+surged ahead, while the sweeping cable was either cut or cast loose.
+
+But the searchlight's brilliant beam followed relentlessly, and as the two
+smart little craft cleared from the area of the black smoke cloud, there
+came the ringing report of a 6-inch gun followed by the familiar whirr of
+a heavy shell.
+
+'Rotten shot!' snapped Grimball, as the shell, sailing well over the mast
+top, plunged into the sea two hundred yards or more beyond.
+
+'Hard aport!' he shouted, and the 'Maid' came spinning round almost as
+smartly as a sailing dinghy. Next minute she and her consort were legging
+it southwards at the very top of their speed.
+
+For a moment they were clear of the dazzling radiance of the searchlight,
+but only for a moment. Then the long pencil of glaring whiteness found
+them again, and now the guns began to bark in earnest.
+
+The 'Maid' seemed to know her peril. She squattered down into the water,
+and the foaming wake lengthened, trailing far behind her. Forgetful of
+their own danger, Roy and Ken watched breathless while the trawlers ran
+the gauntlet of the forts.
+
+A shell struck the water right under the bows of the 'Maid,' flinging up a
+fountain which rose as high as the mainmast, and deluging the decks for a
+second time.
+
+'Mighty wet job this,' said Roy, shaking himself like a great dog. 'Rotten
+luck we can't shoot back, eh, Ken?'
+
+'Can't even do much running,' said Ken. 'Twelve knots is about our top
+speed. 'Pon my soul, these chaps have got pluck.'
+
+'The "Swan's" drawing ahead,' said Roy.
+
+Almost as the words left his lips there came a shattering crash and a
+sheet of flame leapt up from the other trawler. A shell had pitched full
+upon her armoured wheel-house, and exploding had not only blown it away,
+with the steersman, but opened up the whole deck. The poor little trawler,
+with her steering gear smashed, swung round to starboard, and it was only
+by the smartest seamanship that the 'Maid' avoided running her down.
+
+'She's done,' said Roy, as he ran forward. 'She's sinking!'
+
+He was right. The big shell had knocked her all to pieces. Grimball saw
+this too, and in response to his rapid order, the 'Maid's' engines
+stopped, and four stalwart fellows ran to the dinghy which lay in chocks
+on her deck.
+
+In a trice they had flung her over the low rail into the sea; two sprang
+in and pulled hard for the rapidly sinking 'Swan.'
+
+All the time the guns ashore were rapping and roaring. The sea was thick
+with spouts of foam as shells big and little struck the surface.
+
+'This infernal searchlight!' growled Roy. 'They're rotten shots, but
+they're getting the range now.'
+
+They were. Just as the dinghy drew alongside the 'Swan,' another 6-inch
+plunged straight into her, amidships. It must have exploded in the
+engine-room. The 'Swan' and all in her vanished from the face of the
+waters, and when the smoke cloud lifted, the dinghy, upside down, with one
+man clinging to it, was all that was left.
+
+'A rope. Give us a rope!' shouted Roy. Some one ran forward, but even as
+they did so a smaller shell caught the funnel of the 'Maid' and carried
+two thirds of it away. With it went the man with the rope.
+
+At the same moment the survivor who was clinging to the dinghy let go his
+hold. Stunned by the concussion of the previous shell, he was sinking into
+the depths.
+
+'I can't stand that,' cried Roy, and with one spring was overboard and
+striking out hard for the drowning man.
+
+The racket and roar were appalling. Some field batteries behind Kephez had
+joined in, and the whole night echoed with the quick crashes of the guns,
+while the air was full of the train-like rattle of flying shells.
+
+But in all the confusion Ken kept his head. Catching sight of a coil of
+line on the deck close by the forward hatch, he sprang for it, made one
+end fast to a bollard, and with a shout flung the other towards Roy.
+
+It fell short, but Roy saw it and with a great effort reached it.
+
+'Hang on!' roared Ken at the top of his voice. 'I'll pull you in.'
+
+[Illustration: When the men return from the trenches, they find
+sea-bathing most pleasant.]
+
+[Illustration: French and British sailors are friends in play-time as in
+war-time.]
+
+He had hardly began to haul when the end came. A shell bigger than any yet
+took the 'Maid of Sker' amidships. There was a fearful explosion, Ken felt
+himself hurled forward, and next moment the chill waters of the
+Dardanelles closed over his head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+G 2
+
+
+Gasping with the sudden shock, Ken struck out and got his head above
+water. Only a few yards away, he saw Roy still clinging tightly to the
+survivor of the dinghy's crew. He swam hard towards him and managed to
+reach him.
+
+'You!' gasped Roy, who hardly seemed to have realised what had happened.
+
+'The trawler's gone,' panted Roy, as he lifted one hand and dashed the
+salt water from his eyes. 'Big shell got her. See, she's still afloat, but
+sinking fast.'
+
+Roy gave a groan. He seemed to be nearly at the end of his strength.
+
+'The brutes!' he muttered.
+
+'We must get hold of the dinghy again. It's our one chance,' said Ken.
+'Here, let me help you with that chap.'
+
+'Why, it's Gill,' he exclaimed, as he caught the man by the other arm, and
+started paddling hard towards the dinghy, which, caught in the current,
+was drifting steadily away southwards.
+
+It was at this moment that the searchlight switched suddenly off. Darkness
+shut down around them, leaving nothing in sight but the overturned boat, a
+dim bulk among the dull ripples.
+
+Roy was almost done as the result of the exertions he had made in holding
+up Gill, and Gill himself weighted them terribly. For two minutes or more
+Ken thought they would never reach the boat.
+
+At last they managed it, and then they had only just strength enough left
+to haul Gill up across it and, each with an arm across the keel, cling and
+let themselves drift where the current took them.
+
+'The skipper said it was out of the frying pan into the fire,' said Roy,
+with a weak attempt at a laugh. 'He wasn't far out, eh, Ken?'
+
+'He wasn't,' Ken agreed. 'I say, Roy, he had pluck, hadn't he? It took
+grit to stand by the "Swan" under a fire like that.'
+
+'It did,' said Roy. 'God rest his soul,' he added softly.
+
+Silence fell between them. Ken's spirits were sinking in spite of his best
+efforts to keep them up. The sea was deadly cold, and the boat so small
+that they were only just able to keep their heads above water. And they
+knew, both of them, that their chances of life were not one in a thousand.
+
+They were right out in mid-straits, they were still fully nine miles from
+the southern entrance, and even if a British warship should come up to see
+what had happened to the trawlers, the odds were enormous against her
+people spotting them.
+
+Ken strained his eyes through the gloom, but could neither see nor hear
+any other craft. The waters were bare and silent.
+
+'Roy,' he said at last, and it was all he could do to keep his teeth from
+chattering. 'Roy, can't we manage to right the dinghy?'
+
+'You and I might. But what about Gill?'
+
+The question was unanswerable. It would take all their united strength to
+turn the dinghy over. And who was to hold Gill meantime?
+
+No, the case was absolutely desperate. There was nothing for it but to
+hang on and continue hanging on until at last the deadly cold had done its
+work, and they dropped off and sank into the darksome depths beneath them.
+It was a miserable end, and Ken's whole soul rebelled against it.
+
+The guns had ceased firing, there were no lights anywhere to be seen, the
+only sound was the monotonous slap of the ripples against the hull of the
+overturned boat and--far in the distance--the dull mutter of the guns down
+by Sedd-el-Bahr.
+
+[Illustration: '"Hallo! Hallo! Who's that?"']
+
+Ken felt a dull stupor creeping over him, a curious sense of unreality.
+His thoughts began to wander. So much so that at first he hardly noticed
+the curious sucking splash which came from the water some little distance
+to the left.
+
+It was Roy who called his attention to it.
+
+'Ken, there's a thundering great fish out there. Do they keep sharks in
+these waters?'
+
+Before Ken could reply, the splash was followed by a slight grating sound,
+then a dull clank, like two metal plates being lightly struck together.
+
+Hope dawned suddenly in Ken's heart, sending a tingling shock through the
+whole of his perishing body.
+
+'That's no fish,' he muttered. 'That's no fish.' Then raising himself as
+high as he could out of the water he sent a sharp cry for help pealing
+through the darkness.
+
+'Hallo! Hallo! Who's that?'
+
+Never had Ken been happier to hear the sound of a human voice.
+
+'Three survivors from the "Maid of Sker,"' he answered. 'Our boat's
+upset.'
+
+'Hang on!' came the quick reply. 'We'll have you out in a jiffy.'
+
+There came low voiced orders, the low purr of an engine, and a low dark
+bulk topped by a curious square-looking turret came gliding towards them.
+
+'What is it?' muttered Roy in a dazed tone.
+
+'A submarine,' Ken answered gladly. 'That's her conning tower. Here she
+comes. Hang on to Gill, or the wash will take him off.'
+
+A moment later, and the long gray craft swam up right alongside of the
+dinghy. It was the most beautiful bit of steering imaginable. A hand
+reached out and pulled the dinghy close against the hull, and strong arms
+gripped and lifted the three aboard.
+
+Ken felt himself swung gently up the conning tower, then he was lowered
+with equal ease and skill through the open hatch. Within an incredibly
+short time he was flat on a mattress laid on the throbbing steel floor of
+the submarine.
+
+A keen-faced officer stood beside him.
+
+'Both the sweepers gone?' he asked gravely.
+
+'I'm afraid so, sir. The "Swan" was knocked all to bits, and we saw the
+"Maid" sink. I believe we are the only survivors.'
+
+'We heard the firing, but couldn't get here sooner. But you're in khaki.
+How's that?'
+
+'Horan and I are escaped prisoners, sir. We stole a boat up by Kilid Bahr,
+and were picked up by the "Maid." Gill is the only man left from the
+trawler. He was one of the crew of the "Maid's" dinghy that went to help
+the "Swan's" people.'
+
+'And you?'
+
+'Horan and I were trying to save him when the "Maid" was hit.'
+
+The other nodded approvingly.
+
+'Ah, you're Australians. Good men! But I see you're about all in. I shan't
+bother you with any more questions now. Williams, see these men have a
+change, and a tot of rum. And some of you give 'em a good rub down.
+They're stiff with cold.'
+
+He nodded again and went off.
+
+Williams, a burly torpedo coxswain, at once took charge of Ken. His big
+hands were as tender as a woman's as he stripped off the boy's soaking
+clothes and substituted for them a fresh suit of warm lammies. Before
+putting them on, he gave Ken such a rubbing with a rough towel as sent the
+stagnant blood tingling through every vein.
+
+'Thanks awfully,' said Ken gratefully. 'I say, how's Gill? He got knocked
+silly with the blast of the shell that sunk the "Swan." Is he hurt?'
+
+'He ain't hit, anyway,' said Williams. 'He's swallowed a bit more salt
+water than suits his innards, but he'll pull round all right, never you
+fear.
+
+'Here, drink this down,' he continued, handing Ken a thick mug full of
+some steaming mixture. Ken swallowed it obediently. It was thick Navy
+cocoa, laced with a dash of rum.
+
+It sent a grateful warmth through every inch of Ken's body, but its
+immediate effect was to make him so drowsy that his eyes began to close.
+
+'That's all right,' he heard Williams remark in a satisfied voice. 'Forty
+winks won't do you no manner of harm.' The last thing Ken remembered was
+being wrapped in a blanket. Then he dropped back on the mattress and
+almost before his head reached it was sound asleep.
+
+He woke to the purr of engines and a warm thick atmosphere smelling
+strongly of oil and illuminated by white electric lamps. For the moment he
+could not imagine where he was nor what had happened. It was not until he
+rolled over and saw Roy lying stretched on another mattress beside him,
+and Gill a little beyond, that any sort of recollection came back to him.
+
+He stretched himself. He was sore all over, but otherwise fit enough and
+very hungry. Then he sat up.
+
+A burly figure came towards him, walking with that curiously light-footed
+tread which becomes second habit in a submarine. It was Williams, the
+coxswain.
+
+'Well, young fellow me lad,' he remarked genially, 'how goes it?'
+
+'Top hole, thanks. A bit empty. That's all.'
+
+'If that's your only trouble, we'll soon fix it. Can you walk?'
+
+'You bet.'
+
+'Then come along forrard, and we'll see what cooky can do for you.'
+
+Cooky's efforts consisted in biscuit, butter, sardines, jam, and lashings
+of hot strong tea, to all of which Ken did the fullest justice.
+
+'And how d'ye like life under the ocean wave?' asked Williams, who was
+watching Ken's progress with the eye of a connoisseur.
+
+'First time I ever tried it,' said Ken, glancing round the long, narrow
+interior which seemed merely a packing case for a maze of intricate
+machinery. 'What is she? What class I mean?'
+
+'She's G 2, sonny, and don't you forget it. The last word in submarine
+gadgets. Twenty knots on the surface, and twelve submerged. Carries eight
+o' the biggest and best torpedoes, any one o' which is warranted to knock
+the stuffing out o' the "Goeben" or any other o' Weeping Willy's
+super-skulkers.'
+
+'Where are we now?' inquired Ken with interest.
+
+'Couldn't say precisely. But somewheres about ten fathom below the shinin'
+surface of the Dardanelles.'
+
+Ken felt a queer thrill. There was something uncanny in the thought that
+they were spinning along, sixty feet below the sea-level, cut off from all
+the living world.
+
+'Pass the word the commander wishes to see Carrington,' came a voice.
+
+'Lootenant Strang wants you,' said Williams. 'Go right aft. Sentry'll show
+you. And go careful, mind you. Submarines ain't the sort o' shops for foot
+races.'
+
+Ken went cautiously back past the amazing tangle of spinning, whirling
+machinery. Where the long interior narrowed to the stern hung a thick
+curtain. The sentry silently parted it, and Ken found himself in the
+officer's quarters of G2. They were as plain as the steerage on a liner.
+Just two bunks and in the middle a table at which Lieutenant Strang sat,
+busily writing.
+
+He glanced up as Ken entered, and, saluting, stood to attention. Ken
+noticed, with inward approval, the strength and intelligence in the
+clean-cut features of the commanding officer.
+
+'Feeling better, Carrington?'
+
+'Quite all right, sir, thank you.'
+
+'Had breakfast?'
+
+'Yes, sir.'
+
+'I want to hear what you've been doing. Let's have the whole yarn.'
+
+Ken told him. He put it as shortly as he could, but gave his story clearly
+and well. Lieutenant Strang listened with the deepest attention.
+
+''Pon my word, you and your chum have been going it some!' he remarked
+when Ken at last finished. 'So you're a son of Captain Carrington? How is
+it you did not take a commission?'
+
+'I didn't think I had any right to it, sir,' Ken answered simply. 'It
+seemed to me it was the sort of thing one ought to win.'
+
+'Just so. I dare say you are right. I hope you'll get one anyhow. But see
+here, I can't put you ashore. We're going north, not south.'
+
+'Going up through the Straits, sir?' exclaimed Ken. 'We've gone. We're
+opposite Bulair this minute, so far as I can judge.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+KEN MEETS AN OLD FRIEND
+
+
+'Then--then you're bound for Constantinople?' said Ken eagerly.
+
+Strang laughed.
+
+'Not necessarily. No, I am not particularly anxious to charge into the
+Golden Horn. It's a deal of risk, and not much to be got out of it. Our
+mission is to cruise in the Marmora and look out for Turkish transports
+and store ships.'
+
+'Why, what's the matter?' he broke off, noticing how Ken's face had
+fallen.
+
+'I beg your pardon, sir. It was my father I was thinking of. You see he is
+in Constantinople--at least, so that scoundrel Henkel told me. I thought I
+might have a chance of getting ashore and helping him.'
+
+'My good fellow, you must be crazy. Apart from the fact that I should have
+the greatest difficulty in putting you ashore, you would, of course, at
+once be arrested and shot as a spy.'
+
+'I don't think so, sir. You see I know the place well, and have friends
+there. And I talk the language as well as I do English. I know some
+Arabic, too.'
+
+'The deuce you do!' said the commander, staring at him keenly. 'Then it's
+possible that you may be uncommonly useful to me during our present trip.
+No, I shall tell you no more just now. And pray put out of your head any
+such mad idea as landing at Constantinople.'
+
+'Very well, sir,' Ken answered quietly. And saluting again, he left the
+cabin.
+
+Going forward again, he found Roy tucking into an enormous breakfast with
+every evidence of enjoyment. Williams was acting as host, and listening
+with interest to Roy's account of their wanderings across the peninsula.
+
+Ken asked for Gill, and heard that he was doing very well, but only fit to
+lie up for the present.
+
+Roy rose, brushed the crumbs from his lammies and stretched his tall
+frame.
+
+'Heigh ho, I wish we could get back to our chaps,' he remarked
+regretfully.
+
+'Well, of all the ungrateful beggars!' said Ken with a laugh. 'Talk of
+buying a ham and seeing life, you won't see as much in the trenches in a
+month as you'll see here in a day.'
+
+'Any one can have this steel box for me,' retorted Roy. 'I like to fight
+where I can see what's coming.'
+
+'Maybe you'll see more'n you want before you're finished with this trip,
+ye long grouser,' put in Williams. 'This ain't no pleasure picnic, let me
+tell you. Our old man's hot stuff, he is, and if I knows anything about
+it, it won't be long before he starts handing out surprise packets to them
+Turks.'
+
+'Hallo,' he broke off, 'we're for the surface.'
+
+As he spoke, G 2's bow began to rise and the whole long hull took a gentle
+slope.
+
+'Pretty quick!' exclaimed Ken. 'I thought you had to do a lot of pumping
+first.'
+
+'Bless you, no,' said Williams with a superior grin. 'Not with these 'ere
+modern craft. They works with horizontal rudders, sort o' fins along the
+side. Blime, G 2 can pop up and down mighty nigh as quick as a dab chick.'
+
+'There now,' he continued, as the vessel came back to an even keel. 'She's
+floating just submerged. I reckon her periscopes is just out o' the
+water.'
+
+'Could we have a look?' asked Ken eagerly.
+
+'Ay, I dare say. You wait a minute and I'll see.'
+
+He was back in a minute, and beckoned them to come.
+
+There were two periscopes. It was the forward one they were called to.
+They saw a circular table from which a tube ran up through the top of the
+submarine. A man in shirt-sleeves--he was the other coxswain--got up from
+a stool and motioned Ken to take his seat and look through what seemed
+like a pair of binoculars.
+
+Ken gave a cry of surprise. Instead of the hot, stuffy interior of the
+submarine with its pale electrics and maze of machinery, he was gazing at
+a wide circle of small-crested waves which shone gloriously blue under a
+brilliant sky. Now and then a white-winged gull swooped across the view,
+but apart from these, there was no sign of life or of land.
+
+'Here, let's have a squint,' said Roy eagerly, and Ken gave way.
+
+'Why, it's like a living picture show,' declared Roy. 'Gosh, I could sit
+and watch it all day. But I say, can't other craft spot the periscope in
+all this sunshine?'
+
+'Not with this bobble on. At least not very easy,' said the observer, as
+he took his place again.
+
+'Where are we?' asked Roy.
+
+'Somewheres in the Sea o' Marmora,' Williams answered. 'Just in the mouth
+o' it, so to speak. I expect the old man'll keep pushing along up the
+north coast, awaiting for them transports out o' the Bosphorus.'
+
+'And you talk about its being dull, Roy?' said Ken with a laugh.
+
+'Well, perhaps I spoke a bit hastily,' allowed Roy. 'I'll grant I'd like
+to see us get our own back on some of those Turkish blighters. I haven't
+forgotten last night yet, I can tell you.'
+
+'You wait till we get our eyes on one, that's all,' said Williams,' and
+you won't wait much longer.'
+
+But the wait lasted longer than Ken and Roy expected. All that day G2
+cruised slowly back and forth between the big island of Marmora, where the
+marble quarries are, and the high coast of the European mainland, yet
+nothing rewarded her vigilant watch.
+
+There was nothing to do but sit about and yarn, and more than once Roy
+told Ken that he wouldn't be a submarine sailor for any amount of 'hard
+lying' money.
+
+It was about four in the afternoon, and Ken had been taking a quiet nap,
+for he had a lot of arrears of sleep to make up, when he was roused by a
+sudden sharp order from Lieutenant Strang.
+
+In an instant the drowsy interior of G2 wakened into sudden life, and Ken,
+springing to his feet, moved forward to where Williams was standing near
+the forward periscope.
+
+'What's up?' he asked in a quick undertone.
+
+'Craft in sight. Can't tell what she is yet.'
+
+'A warship?'
+
+'Transport, most like, but can't say yet. Sit tight. I'll tell ye when I
+can see her a bit plainer.'
+
+By the deeper hum of the engines, Ken knew that they had quickened their
+speed. There was a sort of suppressed eagerness about all the twenty-five
+men who composed the crew of the submarine. Ken longed to have a peep
+through the camera of the periscope, but knew it was impossible.
+
+'She isn't much,' said Williams at last. 'Just a tramp of twelve or
+fourteen hundred tons. Still, she may ha' got troops aboard, and if she
+ain't, it's grub or munitions for them beggars in the peninsula.'
+
+'Are we going to torpedo her?' asked Ken.
+
+'Not likely. We ain't like Germans, as chucks away a thousand pound
+torpedo on a pore little fishing smack.'
+
+'But we shan't let her go, surely?'
+
+Williams chuckled. 'Bless your innocence, no! A couple o' shells from our
+little popper up topside will settle her hash all right.'
+
+Another order echoed from aft. Strang's voice had a curious hollow sound,
+like a shout in a tunnel. Ken felt the vessel rising beneath him.
+
+Men sprang up the steel ladder leading to the conning tower. A moment
+later the hatch flew open with a hollow clang, and the sea air gushed in,
+freshening delightfully the thick oily atmosphere below.
+
+At the same moment power was switched off the electric engines, and the
+petrol motor broke into life with an appalling racket. The long,
+cigar-like vessel trembled under the increased power.
+
+'Can't we go up on deck?' muttered Roy who had joined Ken.
+
+Ken shook his head. He knew that this was impossible, yet all the same it
+was intolerably irksome to remain below without being able to see or take
+a hand in what was going on.
+
+More orders, and presently the submarine came to rest, and lay, with
+hardly a movement, on the surface.
+
+Williams turned and beckoned to Ken, and next moment Ken had his eyes
+glued to the binoculars. In the circle of sea thrown on the mirror, the
+first thing he saw was an untidy looking tramp, her rusty plates showing
+as she rolled slowly to the slight sea.
+
+Aboard her all was wild excitement. Turkish sailors were hurriedly
+launching boats. Ken almost fancied he could hear the davits squeal as the
+boats were hastily lowered to the level of the sea. Evidently the men were
+in a desperate fright, for seldom had Ken seen the slack, leisurely Turks
+move with such speed.
+
+We ain't hurrying 'em,' said Williams in Ken's ear. 'We've give 'em twenty
+minutes.' Here, let your chum have a squint.'
+
+Ken made way for Roy, and as he did so there was a shout from aft.
+
+'Commander wants Carrington.'
+
+'You lucky beggar,' cried Roy, but Ken was gone like a flash.
+
+'Get along up on deck, soldier,' said a bluejacket. ''E's up there.'
+
+Ken was up the ladder almost before the man had finished speaking, and
+swinging out through the hatch dropped down on to the narrow deck beneath.
+
+There were four men on the deck, namely Lieutenant Strang, his second in
+command, Sub-Lieutenant Hotham, and two who stood by the gun, a 12-pounder
+which had been raised from its snug niche in the deck, and was pointed
+full on the steamer.
+
+The latter was nearer than Ken had thought, and by this time it seemed
+that her whole crew were in the boats, and the ship herself entirely
+deserted.
+
+'Ah, Carrington,' said the commander. 'You're the man who talks Turkish. I
+can't quite make out whether the skipper of this old tub thinks his boats
+can make the shore or whether he wants a tow. Ask him, will you?'
+
+The Turkish skipper, a greasy-looking ruffian, was in a boat close by. He
+was gesticulating wildly.
+
+Ken at once hailed him, and asked the necessary question. The man burst
+into violent speech.
+
+Ken listened, and there was a smile on his face as he turned to the
+commander.
+
+'He's only swearing at us, sir, and asking what right we have to sink his
+ship.'
+
+'Tell him he'd better inquire of Enver Bey,' was the grim reply, and Ken
+faithfully repeated the remark, only to hear a volley of curses called
+down on Enver's head as well as on his own.
+
+'He can't do anything but swear, sir,' said Ken.
+
+'Well, we've no time to waste,' said the officer impatiently. 'Tell him to
+clear out as quick as he can. I'm not going to waste shells on that thing.
+A charge of gun-cotton in her hold is all she's worth.'
+
+With much bad language, the Turkish skipper cleared off, and the three
+boats containing himself and his crew pulled away in the direction of the
+land, which was just visible on the almost before the words left the
+commander's lips, and pulling like fury for the steamer.
+
+'Make for the bows,' he heard Strang shout, and he did so.
+
+The distance was nothing--merely a couple of hundred yards. He glanced
+round over his shoulder, and saw the rusty bows towering above him--saw,
+too, to his intense relief, that the old man had realised that he was to
+be rescued and was moving forward.
+
+Ken shipped his sculls. The dinghy glided in under the tall side of the
+tramp. Ken stood up, and looked round for a rope. He could not see one.
+There seemed no way of climbing the perpendicular side of the vessel, yet
+it was quite clear that the old man could not get down unaided.
+
+Ken saw his face appear over the rail. A gasp of astonishment came from
+his lips.
+
+'Othman!' he exclaimed. 'It's Othman Pacha!'
+
+It was Othman Pacha, his old friend, the very man who had saved him when
+his father was arrested. How had he come here? How was it he had been left
+alone to perish by the crew of the steamer? What did it all mean? These
+and a dozen other thoughts darted through Ken's brain with the swiftness
+of a lightning flash. But above them all came the desperate resolve to
+save the old man at all costs.
+
+Othman could do nothing to help himself. That was clear on the face of it.
+Old and apparently ill, he seemed quite confused and helpless.
+
+Just above his head Ken saw an open port. Standing on the thwart he just
+managed to reach it. With a desperate effort he drew himself up, and
+succeeded in getting foothold on the lower rim. There was no way of
+securing the boat. He had to trust to luck that she would remain where he
+had left her.
+
+Quickly yet cautiously he raised himself again, and his clutching fingers
+met the stays of the foremast. Another big pull, and he was level with the
+rail.
+
+The old Turk stood staring at him, but did not seem to recognise him, and
+naturally Ken did not wait to explain. Every instant he expected to see
+the decks burst upwards, and the whole ship fly to pieces. He knew that it
+could be only a matter of seconds before the explosion took place.
+
+A rope--that was what he wanted most just at that moment, and luckily he
+had not far to go for one. An untidy coil of line lay close beside the
+forward hatch.
+
+He sprang for it, whipped it up, and in a trice had put a loop in it, and
+made a double bight around Othman's body.
+
+'Over you go, Pacha!' he said with a sharpness which at last reached the
+muddled brains of the poor old Turk.
+
+Somehow he bundled him over the rail, and lowered him quickly yet
+carefully into the boat which fortunately remained where he had left it
+alongside.
+
+'Cast off the rope, Pacha,' he shouted in an agony of impatience, and
+Othman fumblingly tried to obey. Ken saw that he would never do it in
+time, so rapidly made fast his own end to the rail, and giving one pull to
+tighten the knot, sprang over.
+
+Fifteen seconds more and he would have been safe. But hardly were his legs
+over the rail when the explosion came. There was a stunning shock, the
+whole ship seemed to melt beneath him. A blast of hot air struck him, and
+the next thing he knew was struggling in the water.
+
+For a second or two he felt half paralysed, and as if he could not use his
+muscles. He realised that he was sinking, and this gave him such a shock
+that somehow he managed to pull himself together and strike out.
+
+He came to the surface, dashed the water from his eyes, and the first
+thing he saw was the dinghy. By a miracle, she was floating unharmed among
+a mass of wreckage, but Othman was not in her.
+
+Ken looked round, and saw the old Pacha dangling in the water alongside
+the swaying steamer. He was tied to her by the rope of which one end was
+around his body, while the other was still fast to the ship's rail.
+
+It was a ghastly fix, for it was clear that the steamer was sinking fast.
+Another moment, and down she would go, dragging the unfortunate old man
+with her and Ken too. He knew well enough that, as she sank, she was bound
+to pull him also down into the vortex, and that from this great eddy he
+would never have the strength to rise. His one chance for life was to swim
+away as hard as he could go.
+
+[Illustration: 'Ken sprang over.']
+
+But Ken was not the sort to leave a job half-done. It was both or neither,
+and treading water he fumbled frantically in his pockets for his knife.
+
+With a sigh of relief, his fingers closed upon it; he whipped it out, and
+opening it with his teeth struck out with all his strength for Othman.
+
+It is no easy matter to cut a slack rope with a small clasp knife,
+especially when the blade is none too sharp. Ken felt as though he would
+never get it through.
+
+He heard shouts from the submarine, but could not distinguish words. The
+steamer was settling fast. Already her rail was almost level with the
+water.
+
+The last strand parted, and dropping the knife, Ken seized Othman, who by
+this time was quite insensible, and made for the dinghy with all his
+remaining strength.
+
+He reached it, and got one arm over the stern. But that was all he could
+do. It was out of the question for him to lift Othman into the boat. He
+could not even climb in himself. He was completely done, and could only
+hang on, panting so that every breath he drew was pain.
+
+From the steamer came the sound of a fresh explosion. The air, confined
+below, was forcing up her decks. Ken knew that now it was only a question
+of seconds before she sank, knew, too, that escape was out of the
+question. The dinghy was bound to be drawn down, and it was not as if the
+submarine had a second boat which she could send to the rescue.
+
+'All right, Ken. Hold tight. I've got you!'
+
+It was Roy's cheery voice, and Ken suddenly realised that he was there in
+the water alongside.
+
+'Look out!' Ken managed to gasp. 'You'll only be dragged down too.'
+
+'Not a bit of it,' Roy answered, as he raised himself and caught hold of
+the boat. 'Don't you worry, old man. I've a rope round me. I'll hold her.'
+
+'Ah, there she goes!' he exclaimed, and as he spoke there was a queer
+sucking sound, and Ken felt the boat whirl away in the direction of the
+sinking steamer.
+
+For some seconds it seemed as if he, Othman, and all would be ripped away
+from the boat by the tremendous suction. Great eddies boiled and swirled
+in every direction, and a thick scum of oil and coal dust rose and covered
+the surface of the sea.
+
+'Hold on!' he heard Roy shout again, and somehow he did, though his right
+arm felt as though it were being torn from its socket.
+
+At last the commotion ceased, the eddies disappeared, and the strain
+slackened.
+
+'Thank goodness, that's the last of her,' said Roy, with a sigh of relief.
+'Jove, but I couldn't have stuck it much longer. That rope round my waist
+has nearly cut me in two. How are you making it, old man?'
+
+'I'm all right,' Ken answered, but his voice was so weak it scared Roy.
+
+'Here, hand over his Nibs,' he said, as he moved round and took Othman
+from Ken. 'Now,' he said, 'just hang on a few minutes longer, and they'll
+pull us in.'
+
+He raised one arm as a signal, the rope tightened gently, and the dinghy
+and the three holding to it were towed quickly back to the submarine.
+
+Roy handed up Othman and scrambled out himself but they had to lift Ken
+out of the water. Once on deck, however, he insisted on scrambling to his
+feet.
+
+'Not damaged?' inquired Lieutenant Strang with a touch of anxiety in his
+voice.
+
+'Not a bit, sir,' Ken answered.
+
+'I congratulate you, Carrington. It was an uncommon good and plucky bit of
+work, and I shall see that it is reported to your own commanding officer.'
+
+Ken went below, tingling with a pleasure which made him forget his aching
+joints and muscles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TACKLING THE TROOPER
+
+
+'Yes, come in.'
+
+Lieutenant Strang, busy plotting out something on a chart, looked up as
+the sentry parted the curtains of his cabin.
+
+'Can Corporal Carrington see you, sir?' asked the man.
+
+'Certainly. Send him in.'
+
+Ken, looking more like himself in his khaki, which was now thoroughly
+dried, entered and saluted.
+
+'Well, Carrington, what is it?' The commander's tone was quick, almost
+curt, yet there was a smile on his keen face as his eyes fell on Ken's
+upright figure.
+
+'I've been talking to Othman Pacha, sir,' began Ken.
+
+'Othman Pacha--who the deuce is he?'
+
+'The Turk we rescued, sir. He's a friend of mine. I mentioned his name to
+you this morning. It was he who got me away into Greece when my father was
+arrested.'
+
+'Of course. I remember now. But this is a most extraordinary
+coincidence--to find him on that tramp.'
+
+'Not so much so as you might think, sir. You see he is known to be no
+friend to Enver Bey and the Young Turks. He was in danger of arrest, so he
+took the first opportunity of clearing out. He was going over to Adramyti
+on the Asiatic side, so as to get out of it all.'
+
+'I see. Well, did he tell you anything useful?'
+
+'He did, sir. You have heard that Enver Bey has informed our Chief Command
+that he intends to send French and British subjects to Gallipoli, so that
+they will be the first sufferers when we bombard the place.'
+
+'Yes, I've heard that,' Strang answered, staring keenly at Ken.
+
+'Well, sir, the Pacha says that the first lot is to leave Constantinople
+to-morrow. They are going with a batch of troops in a transport called the
+"Bergaz."'
+
+'And,' he added--'my father will be with them.'
+
+The commander of G2 pursed his lips in a soundless whistle.
+
+'By Jove,' he said slowly, 'this is worth hearing. This is most
+interesting.'
+
+He gave a low chuckle. 'Rather a smack in the eye for friend Enver if we
+can bring it off. Tell me, Carrington, did the Pacha say whether this
+trooper would have an escort?'
+
+'I asked him that, sir, but he did not know. And he said this--That he
+would not have told us at all except for the fact that he thinks it brutal
+of Enver to send civilians into the firing line, and that he hopes, in
+case you find it necessary to sink the trooper, that you will allow the
+men to escape with their lives.'
+
+Strang nodded thoughtfully.
+
+'Hm, yes, I suppose I shall have to do that. After all, they won't be much
+use without rifles or kit, and the chances are that most of 'em will
+desert as soon as they reach the shore.
+
+'But we mustn't count our chickens before they're hatched, eh, Carrington?
+We've got to find that transport before we can deal with her.'
+
+He asked a few more questions, then dismissed Ken.
+
+'You can tell the Pacha I shall respect his wishes,' he said, as Ken left
+his cabin.
+
+All that night G2 cruised on the surface, going only at half speed so as
+to economise petrol, and at the same time re-charge her dynamos. As for
+Ken, tired out with his exertions, he lay upon the throbbing steel floor,
+wrapped in a blanket, and slept as peacefully as he had ever slept in his
+life.
+
+It was broad day when he woke, feeling more refreshed than for days past,
+and quite ready for the plain though plentiful breakfast that was served
+out.
+
+A glance which Williams allowed him through the periscope showed an
+expanse of bright blue sea sparkling under a clear sky and a light breeze,
+but with no sail in sight, and shortly afterwards G2 was submerged until
+nothing but her periscope remained above the surface.
+
+By this time the rumour of the expected trooper was all through the little
+ship, and there was an air of subdued excitement on every face.
+
+'Where are we now?' asked Ken of Williams.
+
+'Somewhere between Marmora Island and Rodosto. Whatever comes out o' the
+Bosphorus for the Dardanelles is bound to run past us, and then--' A wink
+said more than words.
+
+The hours dragged by, and Roy began to growl again at the tediousness of
+life beneath the ocean wave. Dinner time passed and still there was no
+sign of the trooper.
+
+'Looks to me as if news had got abroad that we're a waiting for 'em,'
+growled Williams at last. 'Them chaps as got to land last night must ha'
+wired to headquarters.'
+
+The other coxswain who was at the periscope at the moment, looked up.
+
+'Then the wires must ha' been down, Joe. She's a coming right now.'
+
+'Let's have a look,' exclaimed Williams, springing across.
+
+'Ay, you're right, Bill. There she is. A big un, too!'
+
+'And, lumme,' he added with a growl, 'a blighted torpedo boat a escorting
+of her!'
+
+''Tis only one o' them tin Turkish rattle-traps,' said Bill with a pitying
+air. 'The old man'll slap a tin fish into her afore she knows what's hit
+her.'
+
+As he spoke, the engines were already quickening, and G2 had begun to
+glide away at the top speed of her powerful electrics. The deep hum of the
+dynamos filled the long interior, and on every face was a look of eager
+expectancy.
+
+As for Ken, his heart was throbbing like the dynamos themselves. The
+feeling that his father, whom he had hardly hoped ever to see again, was
+within a mile or so, had plunged him into such a state of tense excitement
+that it was all he could do to control it.
+
+He turned to speak to Williams, but the latter had gone forward, and was
+standing by the torpedo in the fore tube.
+
+The other coxswain, too, had gone to his place, and Sub-Lieutenant Hotham
+had taken his seat at the forward periscope.
+
+For four minutes, which seemed to Ken like four hours, the submarine drove
+onwards in silence. Then came a sharp order from the commander, and she
+began to rise.
+
+'What's she coming up for?' asked Roy of Ken in a low voice.
+
+'She's got to, so as to fire her torpedo. You can't fire so long as you're
+submerged.'
+
+'But if they see us, they'll let loose with their guns.'
+
+'They've only got the periscopes to shoot at. Take more than Turkish
+gunners to hit them.'
+
+'Stand by!' came the crisp order from Commander Strang. 'Three points to
+port--one more. Don't miss her, whatever you do, Williams. She's got the
+legs of us, and we shan't get a second shot.'
+
+'That's right. Steady now. Shut down! Let go!'
+
+Ken heard a sharp hiss as the compressed air drove the long gray Whitehead
+out of its tube, and sent it flashing away on its deadly errand. Young
+Hotham sat still as a statue, his eyes glued to the periscope. The rest of
+the crew seemed hardly to breathe. As for Ken, his mouth was dry. To him,
+more than to any one else aboard, the success or failure of the shot meant
+much.
+
+Five, ten, fifteen seconds--then Hotham gave a sharp cry.
+
+'Got her. Got her, by the living jingo! Oh, good shot, Williams!'
+
+As he spoke a dull shock made the whole hull of G2 quiver.
+
+'Hurrah!' shouted Ken, and the cheer was echoed by a score of voices.
+
+'Struck her just aft the engines,' exclaimed Hotham jubilantly. 'Settled
+her hash all right. Gad, they've got pluck. They're still shooting. Ah,
+did you hear that, Carrington?'--as the submarine quivered again slightly.
+'That was a shell. It struck the water not ten yards away.'
+
+'But that's the last,' he continued. 'She's cocking her bows up. Phew, the
+whole bottom's knocked out of her. There she goes. She's sinking. Poor
+beggars, they haven't time to get out a boat, and we'll never reach 'em in
+time to save any of them.'
+
+'Her stern's under. Bow's straight up in the air!' He paused a moment.
+
+'All over,' he added quietly. 'She's gone.' Commander Strang's voice rang
+out from farther aft. Ken felt the vessel rising, and a few moments later
+a slight swaying told that she was on the surface. Up went the hatch, and
+the terrible clatter of the petrol engines replaced the deep purr of the
+dynamos.
+
+'I'd give a finger to be on deck,' said Ken to Roy, and for once Roy did
+not jeer. He merely nodded, for he knew how desperately anxious Ken was
+about his father.
+
+Ken had not long to wait. A few minutes later, an order was passed for
+Carrington to go up, and Ken darted up the steel ladder like a
+lamplighter.
+
+Outside, he found the sun gone, the sky covered with clouds, and a threat
+of rain in the cool air. But it was not the weather he thought of. His
+eyes were at once fixed upon a large steamer about two miles off to the
+southward. Clouds of sooty smoke were pouring from her funnels, and a
+yeasty wake trailed away behind her. Taking warning by the fate of her
+escort, she was doing all she knew to escape.
+
+'Will she beat us? Will she get away?' Ken asked anxiously of one of the
+gun crew.
+
+'Will she spread her little wings an' turn into a waterplane?' replied the
+man with a grin. 'Bless you, soldier, she couldn't do more'n fourteen
+knots when she come out o' the builder's yard, and that's two more'n she's
+going now. You watch an' see how far she gets away.'
+
+A very few moments' watching was enough to convince Ken that G2 was
+overhauling her prey hand over fist. Within less than a quarter of an hour
+a mile of the steamer's lead had gone. Another five minutes and the
+distance between the two was barely twelve hundred yards.
+
+'Hallo, they're getting gay!' remarked the big bluejacket, as rifles began
+to spit and bullets to throw up little jets of spray around the rushing
+submarine.
+
+Presently one clanged against the conning tower itself. Commander Strang
+gave an order, and a little row of bunting ran up on the tiny mast of the
+submarine.
+
+'"Heave to, or I'll sink you," that means,' observed Ken's friend.
+
+The only response was a thicker hail of bullets. But the low deck of G2,
+flying onwards as she was at about twenty-two land miles an hour, made a
+poor target, and the Turks failed to do any damage beyond knocking a
+little paint off.
+
+'Confound 'em!' growled Strang. 'They haven't got sense enough to come in
+out of the rain. Give 'em a shell, Watson.'
+
+The long gray 12-pounder was ready. Her vicious-looking muzzle swung
+round. There was a ringing bang, and the shell, small but charged with
+deadly lyddite, spun away on its errand.
+
+[Illustration: 'A black-browed officer came to the rail.']
+
+Ken, watching eagerly, saw a bright flash light the side of the steamer,
+close under her stern, and as a cloud of smoke floated up, the crash of
+the explosion came back to his ears.
+
+The big steamer staggered and yawed right out of her course.
+
+'Capital!' said Strang with strong approval. 'That's hashed her steering.
+Signal 'em to heave to, or the next will be in their engine-room.'
+
+There were a few more scattering rifle shots, but the officers on the
+transport soon stopped that. The transport herself, with her rudder in
+rags, was out of all control. Her engines were stopped, and she lay
+sullenly waiting for her saucy little enemy.
+
+Strang gave a sigh of relief.
+
+'Glad they had the sense to shut up,' he said to Ken. 'If they'd gone on
+shooting I should have had to sock it into them, and I didn't want to
+break my promise to your old Pacha.'
+
+The submarine, smartly handled as usual, glided up close under the tall
+side of the transport, and Strang hailed her in French.
+
+A black-browed officer, with angry eyes, came to the rail, and answered in
+the same language.
+
+'You have British and French prisoners aboard,' said Strang sharply. 'You
+will be good enough to put them all into a boat and send them across.'
+
+'And if I refuse?' retorted the other.
+
+'I shall shell you until you think better of it,' was the calm reply.
+
+The other bit his lips. 'Very well,' he said sullenly. 'I have no choice.'
+
+'Look out for treachery, sir,' said Ken in a low voice. 'That man means
+mischief, I believe.'
+
+'He is an ugly looking beggar. But what can he do?'
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth before the black-browed officer
+flung up his arm, with a pistol gripped in his fist, and fired straight at
+Commander Strang's head.
+
+Quick as he was, Ken was quicker. As the man's arm came up, so did Ken's,
+and seizing Strang by the wrist, he jerked him back.
+
+Before the man could fire a second time, one of the bluejackets had raised
+his rifle and shot him through the body.
+
+'Thank you, Carrington,' said the commander, glancing at the gray splash
+of lead on the deck, just where he had been standing the previous moment,
+'You were right, and I was wrong.
+
+'Speak to them in their own language,' he continued coolly. 'Tell them
+I'll blow them out of the water if they try any more tricks of that sort.'
+
+Ken's announcement was followed by dead silence aboard the steamer. Then a
+second officer appeared at the rail. He had both hands up.
+
+'We surrender,' he said.
+
+''Bout time, too,' growled the big bluejacket.
+
+Strang repeated his former orders, and this time they were obeyed without
+hesitation. Ken's heart beat thickly as he watched the prisoners hurrying
+into the boat which had been lowered from her davits to a level with the
+deck.
+
+'Do you see your father yet?' Strang asked.
+
+'Not yet, sir,' Ken answered, with his eyes fixed on the fast-filling
+boat.
+
+'Sixteen--seventeen--eighteen,' he counted mechanically. Suddenly a slight
+cry escaped his lips, and he started forward.
+
+'Father!' he shouted loudly.
+
+An upright man with keen blue eyes, a man of about fifty, but whose hair
+and moustache were almost white, was in the act of getting to the boat. At
+Ken's cry, he started violently, stopped short and stared incredulously in
+the direction of the sound.
+
+'Father!' shouted Ken again.
+
+'You, Ken?' The tone was one of utter amazement.
+
+'It's me all right, dad,' Ken answered in a voice which shook a little in
+spite of himself.
+
+Before their eyes the other seemed to shake off ten years of age. He
+sprang into the boat as lightly as a boy. Three more followed, making
+twenty-two in all. Then the blocks creaked, and the boat was rapidly
+lowered to the water.
+
+Oars began to ply vigorously, and she shot across the intervening space,
+and a minute later was alongside the submarine.
+
+'You must wait there, please, gentlemen,' said Strang courteously. 'I have
+to deal with the troops at once. Keep well astern.'
+
+Ken was aching to greet his father, but there was plenty for him to do for
+the moment. He had to translate the commander's orders, which were that
+all those aboard the steamer should get away at once in the boats. He gave
+them twenty minutes for the operation.
+
+They were the longest twenty minutes Ken every knew, but they were over at
+last. The crowded boats pulled slowly away in a northerly direction, the
+big steamer floated empty and helpless.
+
+'Do we board her, sir?' asked young Hotham of Strang.
+
+'Yes, I'll save my torpedoes while I can. Put a good charge of gun-cotton
+in her hold. Quick as you can, Hotham. We may have a destroyer down on us
+any minute. You may be sure they had plenty of time to use their
+wireless.'
+
+He turned to the boatful of released prisoners. They were of every sort,
+young and old--French, English, with even one or two Russians and
+Belgians.
+
+'Gentlemen,' he said briefly, 'I can't ask you all aboard. The reason is
+obvious. In a submarine there is only room for a certain number, and I am
+already three beyond my proper complement. The question is, what I am to
+do with you for your safety, and I should be obliged if two of you would
+come aboard to discuss matters with me. One whom I will specially ask is
+Captain Carrington.'
+
+Ken's breath came quickly as he watched his father step across out of the
+boat on to the steel deck of G2, but like the trained soldier that he was,
+he did not move. Strang, however, had not forgotten him.
+
+'You shall have your father to yourself as soon as we have settled
+things,' he said, as he passed him.
+
+Mr Ramsay, who had been manager of a British bank at Constantinople, was
+the other delegate from the boat. He and Ken's father both shook hands
+with Strang.
+
+'We are most deeply indebted to you, Commander Strang,' said Captain
+Carrington.' We never hoped for such luck as to find a British vessel
+already in the Marmora.
+
+'Ours is unfortunately the only sort that can get through at present,
+sir,' said Strang with a smile.' And after all, I don't know that you have
+much cause for gratitude. I can't ferry you home through the Straits, for
+in the first place I can't carry you, and in the second I have my job to
+do up here. There is only one thing I can think of.' Here he lowered his
+voice, so that Ken could hear no more. But presently he saw the others
+nod, evidently agreeing to the proposal, whatever it was.
+
+[Illustration: 'Ken's hand gripped that of father.']
+
+Mr Ramsay went back to the boat, and she was at once taken in tow. The
+screws began to revolve again, and G2 swung round in a half circle, and
+headed due east, running on the surface.
+
+Next minute Ken's hand gripped that of his father.
+
+For a moment neither of them could speak. They had not seen one another
+for two long years, and both had so much to say that they did not know
+where to begin.
+
+Strang, with his usual kindly tact, touched Ken on the shoulder.
+
+'Take your father for'ard of the conning tower. You can talk there without
+interruption. We shall be on the surface for the present.'
+
+Ken thanked him gratefully, and they both went forward, and there, leaning
+against the gray steel of the little turret, with the small waves lapping
+over the turtle-back forward, Ken told his father how their strange
+meeting had come about.
+
+Then Captain Carrington gave his son a brief sketch of his two years'
+imprisonment. It had not been as bad as it might, for the kindly Othman
+Pacha had used what interest he possessed to get his friend shut up in a
+fortress instead of the usual horrible Turkish jail. Still it had been bad
+enough, and the worst of it, the deep anxiety he had felt for Ken.
+
+'Well, that's all over, dad, thank goodness,' said Ken. 'Everything will
+be all right now. It's only a matter of time before we force the
+Dardanelles, and--'
+
+'A matter of time,' broke in the other with the quizzical smile that Ken
+remembered so well. 'Just so, my boy, but I'm afraid you are forgetting
+something. What are we to do meanwhile? Here we are, in the heart of
+Turkish territory, and no way out. It's rather early to say that our
+troubles are all over, isn't it?'
+
+Ken's face fell. In his delight at meeting his father again, he had quite
+forgotten the difficulties still before them.
+
+'But--but I thought that Lieutenant Strang had a plan,' he stammered.
+'He's towing the boat somewhere.'
+
+His father nodded.
+
+'Yes, I suppose it need be no secret from you. He is taking us, or trying
+to take us, to a certain cave on the south shore of the sea. It is one of
+the hidden petrol bases which are supplied by friendly Armenians. But,
+even if we get there safely, there is always the risk of discovery by the
+enemy, as well as difficulties of provisioning so many of us. And we may
+not even get there. Supposing that an enemy ship appears in chase, and the
+submarine has to submerge, what then?'
+
+Ken gazed at his father blankly. Before he could speak again a sharp hail
+came from the look-out in the conning tower.
+
+'Ship in sight, sir!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE BOARDING PARTY
+
+
+Ken and his father were both on their feet in an instant. While they had
+been talking it had turned misty. It was only a haze, but it blurred the
+horizon so that at first they could not see the vessel.
+
+But presently Ken pointed.
+
+'There she is. Do you see, dad?'
+
+Captain Carrington nodded.
+
+'I see her, Ken, but my eyes are not what they were. I can't tell what she
+is.'
+
+At this moment Lieutenant Strang stepped up to them.
+
+'It's just as I was afraid, sir,' he said quietly. 'There appears to be
+something after us. It's so thick I can hardly make out what she is yet,
+but in any case it's precious awkward.'
+
+'Very awkward indeed,' admitted Captain Carrington. 'Alone, you would be
+all right, for you could submerge of course, but if so you leave us
+prisoners to be picked up again. Still, of course, there is no choice. You
+must not risk your ship.'
+
+Strang bit his lip. He knew that Captain Carrington was right. But it went
+bitterly against the grain to abandon the people whom he had rescued with
+so much trouble. As for Ken, the idea of losing his father again just
+after he had found him sent his spirits down to zero.
+
+After a moment's thought, Strang spoke again. 'I might leave the boat,
+sir, and tackle this fellow, whoever he is. It's on the cards I might sink
+him and come back again and pick you up.'
+
+'That might be worth trying,' answered Captain Carrington. And he spoke as
+calmly as if the upshot was of absolutely no consequence to him whatever.
+
+Ken, who had been staring hard at the approaching craft, turned quickly to
+the commander.
+
+'Couldn't you capture her, sir?' he said eagerly.
+
+Strang stared as if he thought that Ken had suddenly taken leave of his
+senses.
+
+'Capture her?' he repeated.
+
+'Yes, sir. Then you could put all the prisoners aboard her, and they could
+find their own way to the hiding place. And Horan and myself, too,
+perhaps.'
+
+Strang gave a low whistle.
+
+''Pon my soul, it's an idea. Especially as, being an enemy ship, she
+wouldn't be so likely to be searched.'
+
+'It would be very nice for us if it could be managed,' said Captain
+Carrington with a smile. 'But I suppose it is quite out of the question,
+Mr Strang?'
+
+'It all depends on what she is, sir,' replied Strang, as he put up his
+binoculars and focused them on the indistinct patch on the misty horizon.
+
+Presently he put them down.
+
+'She's nothing but a launch,' he said quickly. 'Armed, of course, but
+probably only a 6-pounder. I'm hanged if I don't try it.'
+
+'Very good,' said Captain Carrington, speaking as calmly as ever. 'I will
+go back into the boat, and tell my friends. By the bye, how would it do to
+use us as bait for the trap? If you were merely to submerge, and lie close
+by with only your periscopes showing, it seems to me that you might manage
+to take them unawares.'
+
+'I've got a better plan than that, sir,' broke in Ken quickly. 'Put Horan
+and myself in the boat. Give us some pistols. We'll sham shipwrecked. Most
+of us can hide in the bottom of the boat. The launch won't have much of a
+crew. With a rush we might overpower them.'
+
+The boldness of Ken's suggestion made both men gasp. Strang was the first
+to speak.
+
+'It's a big risk, but it might work. Are you willing, Captain Carrington?'
+
+A grim smile parted the lips of Ken's father.
+
+'Willing! It would make me young again.'
+
+Strang's decision was taken like a flash.
+
+'It goes, then. And I'll lend you a couple of my men as well. Williams and
+Johnston. Hefty chaps in a scrimmage, and both equal to engines of any
+kind. But we must be smart. This must be done before the Turks get any
+notion of what is up.'
+
+He dashed back to the conning tower, and orders flew like hail. The men
+were equally quick to obey. Williams and Johnston came tumbling up, and
+Roy hard at their heels.
+
+'What's up?' demanded Roy eagerly of Ken, and when Ken had quickly
+explained, the big New Zealander's face fairly glowed with delight.
+
+'Fine, oh fine!' he cried. 'I began to think we were never going to get
+another chance. 'It's the greatest scheme you ever thought of, Ken.'
+
+Two more bluejackets rushed up, with armfuls of cutlasses.
+
+'Commander says these are the jokers for a scrimmage,' one told Ken, as
+they hurriedly passed them across to the people in the boat.
+
+'He's right,' said Roy, 'but we shall want a pistol or two as well.'
+
+'Plenty here, Horan,' said Williams, the torpedo coxswain, holding up a
+couple of the big regulation Navy revolvers. 'It's all right. We've got
+all we want. Come along in, you two soldiers.'
+
+Ken and Roy tumbled aboard the boat, other three of the ex-prisoners, who
+were too old or infirm to be any use as fighters, were hastily transferred
+to the submarine.
+
+Inside of three minutes all was ready, the warp was cast off, and the
+steel hatch in the conning tower dropped with a clang. In a trice G2 began
+to sink, and within an incredibly short space of time she had dipped out
+of sight beneath the sea, and the boat lay alone on the surface, rocking
+slightly to the send of the small gray waves.
+
+For the first time Ken had leisure to glance round at his companions.
+Including Roy, himself, Williams, and Johnston, the full number was
+twenty-three, and of them all there was not one who did not look keen and
+eager for the fray. All had suffered at the hands of the enemy, some had
+lost all they had in the world. Every man was anxious to get a little of
+his own back. By the way they gripped the cutlasses that had been served
+out, by their grim faces, and eager eyes, Ken felt certain that there
+would be no hesitation when the critical moment arrived.
+
+'What is the craft?' asked Roy, who was crowding close beside him.
+
+'Nothing but a launch,' Ken answered.
+
+'She looks pretty big for a launch,' said Roy, staring at the vessel which
+was now near enough to see the shape of her.
+
+'Oh, I dare say she's a fifty-footer. And no doubt she carries a good few
+men. And a gun, too. It's not going to be any picnic, old chap. Our only
+chance is a surprise.'
+
+'And there won't be much surprise about it, if we let them see how many
+men we have aboard,' cut in Captain Carrington briskly. The years had
+dropped away from him, and he was again the naval officer.
+
+'Get down, Ken, and you too, Horan. Williams and Johnston, hide yourselves
+under that tarpaulin forward.'
+
+Very shortly all the younger men of the party were stowed away, some under
+the thwarts, others under a couple of tarpaulins which Strang had put in
+for the purpose. All weapons were carefully hidden, and the dozen older
+men, who were all that were left in sight, were directed to loll about, as
+though suffering from long exposure or fatigue.
+
+The haze was thickening, so there was little danger of the people aboard
+the launch noticing the manoeuvre.
+
+The launch had, however, sighted the boat. There was no doubt about that,
+for she had altered her course, and was coming straight towards them.
+
+'Beastly fuggy under here!' growled Roy in Ken's ear.
+
+'Take it easy, old chap. We shan't have long to wait.'
+
+Ken's father heard, and bent down.
+
+'She's within a mile. Mind you don't move till I give the word.'
+
+'All right, dad,' came the muffled response from under the tarpaulin. 'How
+big is she?'
+
+'A good size. She looks as if she carried a score of men. And there's a
+6-pounder in her bows.'
+
+Soon she was so near that Ken clearly heard the beat of her engine. His
+breath came quick and short. The critical moment was very near.
+
+The revolutions slackened, and a man hailed from the launch, speaking, to
+Ken's dismay, in harsh German.
+
+'Who are you? What are you doing there?' the speaker demanded
+suspiciously.
+
+'We are British and French from Constantinople,' answered Captain
+Carrington, using the same language. 'We were aboard the Turkish transport
+"Bergaz" which was sunk earlier in the day by a British submarine.'
+
+'Blitzen!' exclaimed the German angrily. 'Then the message was true after
+all. Those verdomde British have managed to pass the mine-fields.
+
+'And where is the submarine?' he demanded savagely.
+
+'She was forced to abandon us. One of your warships hove in sight.'
+
+The German paused a moment. His eyes scanned the surface in every
+direction. But there was no sign of G 2's periscopes. Either she had gone
+under altogether, or withdrawn to such a distance that her periscopes were
+invisible in the mist.
+
+'Train the gun on them,' growled the German officer. Then, raising his
+voice, 'If this is a trap, every one of you will pay for it with your
+lives.'
+
+'I have told you the literal truth,' said Captain Carrington coldly. 'You
+can take us or leave us as you wish.'
+
+Again the German hesitated.
+
+'The safest way will be to haul off and sink them,' he said to a Turk who
+stood beside him. He spoke in Turkish, but Ken, of course, understood, and
+knowing the brutality of the average German officer, felt anything but
+happy.
+
+Apparently the Turkish officer had different views, for after a short
+conversation the German gave an order, and the launch moved forward again.
+
+Ken, though he could not see what was happening, heard the beat of her
+screw, and every nerve in his body tingled. As for Captain Carrington and
+the rest, they sat in their places, not moving an inch, and doing their
+best to convey the idea that they were quite worn out, and cared not at
+all whether they were retaken or not.
+
+Yet, under his coat, or in his pocket, each man gripped his revolver,
+while his cutlass lay handy at his feet.
+
+The launch came on slowly, and her crew fortunately were hardly noticing
+the boat. Their eyes were busy, searching the misty surface for the
+periscope of their deadly enemy.
+
+Only the German seemed to have any suspicion concerning those in the boat.
+When the launch was within about half a dozen yards, he spoke again.
+
+'You there, Englishman, stand up!' he ordered sharply. 'You, I mean, the
+one who speaks German.'
+
+Captain Carrington rose leisurely to his feet.
+
+'You will be the first to pay for treachery,' said the German fiercely.
+'Put your hands up.'
+
+Ken quivered. To him it sounded as though his father's death warrant had
+been sounded. At the first sign of attack the German would shoot him. Yet
+he had his orders, and he dared not move.
+
+It seemed an age before he felt a slight jar. It was the launch touching
+the boat.
+
+'What's under that tarpaulin?' came the sharp question from the German.
+
+Crack! Crack! Two shots rang out simultaneously. There was a scream and
+the sound of a heavy splash.
+
+Ken waited no longer. Like a flash he flung aside the tarpaulin, and
+leaped to his feet. The German was gone, he was struggling in the water
+and one of their own men was lying writhing in the bottom of the boat.
+
+'Up and at 'em!' came a hurricane yell from Williams, and with one bound
+the big coxswain had leaped aboard the launch, and was laying about him
+with his cutlass.
+
+Ken waited just long enough to make sure that his father was not hurt,
+then followed.
+
+He heard the Turkish officer shout an order for full steam ahead. The
+launch darted forward, but it was too late. Johnston and another man
+detailed for the purpose had already flung grappling irons across. The
+launch drew the boat with her, close alongside.
+
+'Out, ye black-faced blighter!' roared Williams, as he cut down a great
+burly Turk who was swinging at him with a rifle butt.
+
+Inside ten seconds every mother's son in the boat had reached the deck of
+the launch, and a regular hand-to-hand battle raged.
+
+The launch was heavily manned, and after their first surprise the Turks
+pulled themselves together and fought desperately. Though the launch was a
+big one, yet there was not much room on her decks for nearly fifty
+fighting men, and Ken found himself literally wedged in the centre of a
+tight-packed mob, which swayed from side to side as the fighters struggled
+frantically for elbow room.
+
+In a way this told in favour of the Britishers. The short, heavy Navy
+cutlasses were much better adapted for a melee of this sort than the
+rifles and bayonets with which the Turks were armed.
+
+Ken found himself up against a tall, brown-faced fellow who looked like an
+Arab and was armed with a long sword. He made a fearful slash at Ken, and
+though Ken saved his head by a guard with his cutlass, he was beaten to
+his knees.
+
+Up went the Arab's sword again, Ken saw the glitter in his savage eyes,
+and thought it was all over when, in the very nick of time, a revolver
+spat and turned the fierce face into a blood-stained horror.
+
+Struggling up, he saw Roy leap past and fire a second time at a man who
+was swinging at him with a rifle butt. The latter, hit in the shoulder,
+staggered, caught his heels in the rail, and went backwards into the sea.
+
+On every side revolvers were cracking, there was a confused medley of
+blows, yells, and oaths. And all the time the launch, with no one at the
+tiller, and the boat fast alongside, charged wildly across the sea.
+
+Man for man, the Turks were better fighters than the boarders, most of
+whom were civilians and unaccustomed to the use of weapons. But the latter
+were fighting for their lives and were splendidly led by Captain
+Carrington, Ken, Roy, and the two big sailor men. It was really the latter
+five who carried the day. They were everywhere at once, slashing and
+shooting like demons, and by degrees the Turks fell back before them.
+
+Half a dozen or more were driven over the side into the sea, and left
+perforce to drown.
+
+At last the Turks broke and gave way. Some dropped their weapons and flung
+up their hands in token of surrender.
+
+'They've surrendered!' cried Captain Carrington. 'Give them quarter.'
+
+At that moment Ken saw a Turkish officer, his face covered with blood,
+spring out of the crowd aft and rush forward.
+
+'Look out there!' he shouted, and wrenching himself loose from the press,
+raced after the man.
+
+The officer, however, had a long start, and before Ken could catch him,
+had reached the gun and was swinging it round.
+
+'Look out!' yelled Ken again, as he realised what the man was after. He
+was desperate, and meant to turn the gun full upon the packed crowd,
+destroying friend and foe alike.
+
+He had got the gun round, his finger was almost on the button when Ken
+reached him, and going at him head down, like a Rugby tackier, flung both
+arms around his waist.
+
+[Illustration: 'On every side revolvers were cracking.']
+
+With a fierce exclamation, the man hit out with his fist, but the blow
+fell harmlessly on Ken's back. Then, twining both hands in Ken's collar,
+he made a frantic effort to break his grip and fling him aside.
+
+Ken held on like grim death. If he failed, it meant death for all his
+friends. The other was a powerful, wiry man in the prime of life, while
+Ken had not yet come to his full strength. For some seconds they struggled
+fiercely, the Turk exerting every effort to reach the gun, Ken straining
+frantically to hold him off.
+
+Ken's heel caught in a ring bolt. He felt himself falling, but managed to
+drag the other down with him. But his own head struck the deck with such
+force as to half stun him, and he felt his grip relaxing.
+
+'Dog, you shall die with the rest!' hissed the other, as at last he tore
+himself free, and sprang to the gun.
+
+But Ken was not done yet. He had fallen almost under the gun, and swiftly
+lifting one foot he kicked out desperately at the gray barrel above him.
+
+There was a crash which nearly deafened him, and for a moment he believed
+that the madman had succeeded in his awful purpose. Then a tall figure
+sprang across him, and with a shout Roy drove his fist into the Turk's
+face.
+
+Up went the man's arms, he staggered back and fell into the sea.
+
+'Well done, Ken!' cried Roy. 'That's finished it.'
+
+Ken scrambled to his feet and stared round in amazement.
+
+'W--Where did the shell go?' he stammered.
+
+'Somewhere in the direction of Constantinople,' was the reply. 'Your kick
+did it, Ken.'
+
+'It's all right,' he added jubilantly.' The rest of the chaps have given
+in. The launch is ours.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
+
+
+'It seemed shabby to leave you to do all the fighting, but if I had come
+into it I'm afraid you'd have been left without a ship.'
+
+The speaker was Lieutenant Strang, who stood on the deck of G2, which had
+risen again and was lying alongside the launch.
+
+'It was your fellows who won the battle for us,' answered Captain
+Carrington cheerfully. 'I wish to congratulate you on the possession of
+two such men as Williams and Johnston.' Williams stepped forward and
+touched his cap.
+
+'If you please, sir, the captain here and his son and Horan, they did as
+much as any. But all on 'em fought like good 'uns.'
+
+'What are your losses, sir?' asked the lieutenant of Captain Garrington.
+
+'Two killed, three rather badly wounded.'
+
+'You got off lightly. There don't seem to be many Turks left.'
+
+'Only nine alive, and of those four are wounded.'
+
+'Are the launch's engines all right?'
+
+'Nothing wrong with them,' answered the captain, 'so Williams tells me.'
+
+'Well, it's getting late and very thick. You had better follow me, and I
+will escort you to the place we spoke of. The Turks who are sound can take
+the boat and be towed until we are off one of the islands, when we can
+cast them off and they can land.'
+
+Ken stepped up to his father, and said something in a low voice. A
+slightly startled expression appeared on the captain's face.
+
+'You think it possible, Ken?' he said sharply.
+
+'I do. I believe we could get through.'
+
+'Then I will suggest it to Lieutenant Strang.
+
+'Lieutenant Strang,' he called. 'Before we start I have a suggestion to
+make. I will come across if you will permit me.'
+
+'Certainly, sir.'
+
+The launch lay so close to the submarine that it was easy for the Captain
+to spring across. Strang met him, and for some moments the two talked in
+whispers.
+
+At first the commander of the submarine seemed unwilling to agree to the
+captain's proposal, but presently Ken, who was watching breathlessly, saw
+him nod his head.
+
+Then the captain smiled, and turning leaped lightly back on to the launch.
+
+'It's all right, Ken,' he said. 'We are going to try it.'
+
+'Hurrah!' cried Ken in high delight.
+
+'Try what?' demanded Roy. 'Hang it all! Don't keep us in the dark. What's
+all the mystery about?' Ken glanced at his father.
+
+'All right,' said the latter. 'Every one must know and agree before we
+start.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' he said, addressing the anxious crowd who surrounded him, 'my
+son has suggested that we might do something better than go and lie up for
+an indefinite time in the hiding-place which would be our only possible
+refuge on these shores, and where we should be in constant danger from the
+enemy. His idea is that we might make a dash back down the Straits.'
+
+'Mais, it would be ze madness!' exclaimed an elderly Frenchman, with a
+gray imperial and a blood-stained bandage around his head. 'Zey would sink
+us.'
+
+'So they would under ordinary circumstances,' agreed the captain. 'But the
+night and--more than that--the fog are in our favour. Besides this launch
+is Turkish, and we have several people aboard who can speak the language.'
+
+'But ze mines!' objected the Frenchman.
+
+'There again we are fairly safe. The launch is of such shallow draught
+that she will easily pass over the mine-fields. Floating mines we must of
+course risk, but there are not likely to be many about, for the Turks only
+send them down when an attack is expected. One other point is in our
+favour. This launch is fast. With any luck, we shall be through the
+Straits and in safety long before daylight.'
+
+The Frenchman nodded.
+
+'Vair well, Monsieur le Capitaine. For me, I am satisfied.'
+
+'I think we all are,' said an elderly Englishman named Symons.
+
+The captain looked round, but no one offered any objection.
+
+'Then it is decided,' he said quietly, and proceeded to issue his orders
+as briskly as he had done, years before, on his own quarter-deck.
+
+The Turks were transferred to the empty boat, and taken in tow by the
+submarine. Johnston went back to G2, but Williams remained as engineer in
+charge of the launch. The dead Turks were put overboard, and the traces of
+the fight quickly removed.
+
+Then Strang bade them farewell and good luck, the engines began to move,
+the screw churned the water, and the prize, heading westwards, sped
+rapidly towards the mouth of the Straits.
+
+Williams, who was the sort of man who could tackle anything in the way of
+machinery, from a sewing machine to a Dreadnought's turbines, soon got the
+hang of the launch's engines.
+
+'They're a bit of all right,' he said to Ken and Roy, who had volunteered
+as stokers and oilers. 'Blowed if I thought them Turks had anything as
+good. But I reckon this here craft come from Germany.'
+
+'She certainly can leg it,' observed Ken, as he noticed how the whole
+fabric of the little craft quivered under the drive of the rapidly
+revolving screw.
+
+'Ay, and I reckon we'll need all she's got afore we're through,' replied
+Williams dryly, as he squirted oil into a bearing.
+
+'We ought to be all right if the fog holds,' said Ken.
+
+'Ay, if it does. I'll allow it's thick enough up here, but there ain't no
+saying what it'll be down in them straits. Fogs is uncertain things at
+best and you never can tell when you'll run out o' one into clear
+weather.'
+
+Williams's warning made Ken feel distinctly uneasy, and every few minutes
+he kept looking out to see what the weather was doing. But so far from
+clearing, the mist seemed to thicken, until it was as gray and wet as the
+Channel on a late autumn day. Night, too, was closing down, and soon it
+was so dark that one end of the vessel could not be seen from the other.
+
+The distance to the mouth of the Straits was about thirty miles, and the
+Straits themselves have a length of thirty-five. The launch was good for
+fifteen knots, and though it would not be possible to go at full speed
+through the Narrows, they hoped, barring accidents, to do the journey in
+about five hours.
+
+Having done two hours' work, Ken and Roy were relieved, and after a much
+needed wash, went into the cabin for a mouthful of food. Then Ken went
+forward, to find his father, wearing a rough black oilskin, combining the
+duties of look-out and skipper. At the wheel was a young Englishman named
+Morgan, an amateur yachtsman who knew the Straits like the palm of his
+hand.
+
+'Where are we now, dad?' asked Ken.
+
+'Opposite Bulair.'
+
+'What--in the Straits?'
+
+'At their mouth, Ken.'
+
+'We haven't wasted much time, then.'
+
+'Indeed we haven't. But I am afraid we shall have to slow a bit now. The
+fog is thicker than ever, there are no lights, and we don't want to come
+to an ignominious end by piling ourselves up on the cliffs.
+
+'Still the fog's our best friend,' he continued, 'and we have plenty of
+time before us. If we average no more than half-speed we should be clear
+before daylight.'
+
+For another twenty minutes they carried on at full speed through the
+choking smother, then Captain Carrington rang to reduce speed.
+
+'We're off Gallipoli now,' he said. 'That's where I should have been by
+this time, Ken, if G 2 had not popped up just at the proper moment.'
+
+'It isn't exactly a salubrious spot,' Ken answered with a smile. 'The
+"Lizzie" has been chucking her 15-inchers into the town whenever she
+hadn't anything else to do.'
+
+For the next two hours the launch nosed her way cautiously
+south-westwards, through the wet smother. Most of the time she kept fairly
+close under the Asiatic shore. There were fewer forts that side, and less
+danger therefore of attracting attention.
+
+During the whole of that time she never sighted so much as a rowing boat.
+The Straits were as empty as a country lane on a winter night.
+
+About eleven Ken, who had done another spell of stoking, went forward
+again to where his father kept his ceaseless watch.
+
+'Getting near the Narrows, aren't we?' he asked in a low voice.
+
+'We are, Ken. If my reckoning is right Nagara Point is almost on our port
+bow.'
+
+'There's a light of some sort just ahead, sir,' said Morgan from the
+wheel.
+
+'I see it too,' said Ken quickly. 'Can it be from the fort?'
+
+Quickly the captain rang to slow still more. With barely steerage way the
+launch moved noiselessly forward. There followed some moments of
+breathless silence, while the three stared at the dull mysterious glow
+which was now almost exactly ahead.
+
+'It's a craft of some sort,' said Ken in a sharp whisper. 'The light's
+moving.'
+
+'You're right. Starboard a trifle, Morgan.'
+
+Again a pause. Then Ken spoke again.
+
+'It's a tug, father. She's towing a string of barges. She's going across
+to Maidos.'
+
+'Then I know what they're doing,' said Morgan.' They're taking stores
+across from the Asiatic side. I heard they had started that game since our
+submarines began to worry them in the Marmora.'
+
+'I thought as much,' Captain Carrington answered quietly. 'Then it is up
+to us to stop it.'
+
+Ken glanced quickly at his father, but there was not light to see his
+face. It was Morgan who voiced his thought.
+
+'We shall bring the fire of all the batteries down on us,' he said.
+
+'Of course,' Captain Carrington's voice was calm as ever. 'Starboard
+another point, Morgan. Ken, call Dimmock. He's an ex-gunnery lieutenant,
+and can handle the 6-pounder.'
+
+'I'm here already, sir,' came a voice out of the gloom. I saw the light,
+and guessed what was up.'
+
+'I can help, father,' said Ken. 'Ah, and here's Roy.'
+
+All three sprang forward to the gun. It had already been loaded and a
+dozen spare shells were ready alongside.
+
+'This is luck,' said Roy in a gleeful whisper, as he ranged himself
+alongside the gun. He, like the rest, was perfectly well aware that the
+first shot they fired would bring down on them the concentrated fire of
+all the batteries on both shores, and that their chances of escape were
+hardly worth considering. But this did not weigh for a moment, if they
+were able to strike a blow for the Empire.
+
+The revolutions were increasing, the launch moved more rapidly down upon
+her quarry.
+
+'Three barges!' exclaimed Roy. 'Big 'uns, too! I say, there must be tons
+of stuff aboard. Jove, won't the Turks be sick?'
+
+'We must get the tug first,' said Dimmock, who, though a man of forty, was
+as keen as a boy. 'If we can slap it into her first, we can deal with the
+barges at our leisure.'
+
+As he spoke he was squinting along the barrel, his right hand busy with
+the sighting screw.
+
+'Hang this fog!' he muttered. 'I can hardly see what I'm shooting at.'
+
+The launch was now within little more than a hundred yards of the tug
+which was puffing noisily along, her string of barges tailing heavily down
+the current, and her crew utterly unaware of the hidden danger gliding
+down upon them through the fog.
+
+'I'm beastly rusty,' continued Dimmock. 'Still, I hardly think I can miss
+her at this range.'
+
+As he spoke his finger pressed the electric button, and the gun barked
+with that ear-splitting crack peculiar to the 6-pounder.
+
+The tug staggered and rang like an iron drum.
+
+'Not much miss about that!' cried Roy triumphantly. 'You must have got her
+slap in the boilers.'
+
+'No, it was too high,' said Dimmock in a discontented tone.' This gun
+jumps a bit. Sharp there, with that other shell.'
+
+Roy slipped it in as though it were a toy, the breech-block snicked to,
+and five seconds later a second report roused the echoes.
+
+'That's better,' said Dimmock, as a flash of flame rose from the midships
+section of the tug. 'Ah, there goes her funnel! She's a goner.'
+
+He was right. The tug swung round to the current, and, with engines
+stopped, drifted idly down the Straits.
+
+'What's the matter? They haven't begun to fire yet,' said Roy quickly, as
+he thrust a third shell into the open breech.
+
+[Illustration: 'Up shot a sheet of crimson flame.']
+
+'So much the better for us,' Ken answered. 'Mr Dimmock, this one ought to
+do for the nearest barge.'
+
+Hastily Dimmock sighted again at the blunt, low-lying object which loomed
+dimly ahead in the wet darkness.
+
+Once more the smart little gun spoke, but the crack of the report had
+hardly sounded before it was drowned by the most appalling crash. Up from
+the stricken barge shot a sheet of crimson flame, a blaze of fire which
+mounted a hundred feet into the murky air, and in spite of fog and mist
+flung its glare upon the iron cliffs on either side the narrow straits.
+
+The launch shuddered as though she had struck a reef, and the blast from
+the explosion flung every soul who was standing up flat upon her decks.
+
+Hard upon the roar came a wave, a wave which rose high over the bows of
+the long, slim craft, and swept across her in a torrent of cold, salt
+water.
+
+It washed Ken back against the rail, which he clutched at desperately, and
+so saved himself from going overboard.
+
+Dazed and confused, he struggled to his feet.
+
+'Roy!' he cried thickly, 'Roy!'
+
+'All right. We're all right,' came a hoarse reply, and Roy's tall figure
+rose from close under the opposite rail, and grasping Dimmock, lugged him
+to his feet.
+
+'Gad, that's done the trick!' he panted. 'The other barges are gone. So's
+the tug. We've bust the whole caboodle.'
+
+From aft came Captain Carrington's voice, shouting for 'Full speed ahead!'
+
+Time, too, for the gunners in the forts, recovering from their paralysed
+amazement, were already getting busy and the roar of great guns was
+followed by the rocket-like hiss of shells.
+
+Like a frightened hare the launch gathered speed and darted away
+downstream. Shells, each big enough to smash her to kindling, fell on
+every side, but the gunners on both sides were firing too high, and by a
+series of miracles the launch was not touched.
+
+Searchlights sprang out, their white fingers feeling through the murk. But
+no searchlight ever made will penetrate a thousand yards of fog, and the
+dull glares only served to warn the steersman of the launch of dangers to
+be avoided.
+
+'Jove, we'll do it yet, Ken,' cried Roy, shouting so as to be heard above
+the thunderous din of the guns.
+
+'It will be a miracle if we do,' Ken answered. 'Remember we have to run
+the gauntlet all the way down.'
+
+'It doesn't follow,' Roy said quickly. 'They haven't seen us, and they'll
+take it for granted that it must have been a submarine. Why, even the
+sweepers haven't ventured up here.'
+
+'I only hope you're right,' replied Ken fervently.
+
+'Ah!' he broke off, as a shell whizzed over so near they felt the wind of
+it. 'That was close.'
+
+By this they had passed Nagara, and turning due south were rushing past
+the big fort of Kosi Kale. For the moment the tempest of shell had died
+away behind them.
+
+'I told you so,' said Roy jubilantly. 'They've chucked it. If we don't
+whack into a beastly mine we shall get clear.'
+
+Indeed, it almost seemed as though he was right. The firing slackened,
+then stopped completely, and the launch, still untouched, sped through the
+gloom. Her crew, almost unable to credit such amazing luck, stood about
+the decks staring out into the darkness, occasionally exchanging a word or
+two in low voices.
+
+'We're in the Narrows,' said Ken. 'See that luminous patch over to the
+left. That's Chanak.'
+
+'Almost the same spot where the trawlers were scuppered,' answered Roy.
+
+'Just so. If Fort Hamidieh doesn't open out, we ought really to be all
+right. We shall be in broader waters.' He took out his watch and glanced
+at its luminous dial.
+
+'In three minutes we shall know one way or the other,' he added.
+
+For the next hundred and eighty seconds there was no sound but the steady
+swish of the bow wave and the beat of the powerful engines.
+
+Ken shut his watch with a snap.
+
+'All right. We're past.'
+
+The words were not out of his mouth before there came a ringing report,
+and a shell, screaming through the air, smacked into the water about a
+length astern.
+
+'A twelve-pounder!' said Ken sharply, as he turned. 'Ah!' as a blaze of
+light sprang out about half a mile aft, 'that's why they stopped firing.
+There's a destroyer after us.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+IN THE NICK OF TIME
+
+
+Ken was right. That was why the firing had stopped. A destroyer, which
+must have been lying in some cove up the Straits, had been summoned by
+wireless to take revenge on the bold intruder. She was now dashing
+headlong in pursuit.
+
+Roy stared at the dull white glare which came momentarily nearer.
+
+'Rotten luck!' he observed disgustedly. 'None of the "conquering hero" in
+ours, I'm afraid, old man.'
+
+'Afraid not,' Ken answered resignedly. 'The brute's got the legs of us,
+and it'll only take one o' those twelve-pounders to settle our hash.
+Still, it's no use crying till we're hurt, and the Turks ain't the best
+gunners in the world.'
+
+'Crash!' Another shell screamed out of the mist.
+
+'Nearer!' said Roy grimly, as the ugly missile fell alongside, sending up
+a fountain of brine.
+
+'Watch her, doing the outside edge!' he continued, as the launch curved
+swiftly to port. 'That'll throw 'em off their shooting. Ah, I told you
+so'--as the third shell went wide.
+
+'We can't shoot back,' growled Dimmock. 'That's the worst of these rotten
+little bow guns.'
+
+'No, it's simply a matter of running and dodging,' said Ken, and turning
+went back to where his father was standing.
+
+'Poor luck, Ken,' said the latter with his usual calmness. 'The beggar's
+gaining hand over fist. She's at least five knots faster than we.'
+
+'Well, we've hurt the Turks a jolly sight worse than they can hurt us,
+that's one comfort, dad,' Ken replied. 'They can't replace that
+ammunition.'
+
+Before his father could answer, a shell from the destroyer passed so close
+overhead that the wind of it flung them both down. There was a splintering
+crash, and the launch quivered all over.
+
+'Hurt, father?' cried Ken, springing up.
+
+'Not a bit, thanks. But I'm afraid the launch is.'
+
+'She's still moving anyhow. No, it's only carried away a bit of the cabin
+top. We're all right still.'
+
+The searchlight grew clearer every moment. Already the hull of the flying
+launch began to show up in the misty radiance. Her steersman sent her
+shooting in wide curves, and so succeeded in upsetting the aim of the
+Turkish gunners. But it was only putting off the inevitable end, and that
+was clear to every soul aboard.
+
+[Illustration: 'The deck-house melted in a shower of splinters.']
+
+'It's no use, dad,' said Ken, as another shell cut away the top of the
+stumpy funnel. We can't get away. Let's finish, fighting.'
+
+'Turn and try to ram her?'
+
+'Yes, and Dimmock might by luck get a shell into her. He's a pretty nippy
+shot in spite of being out of practice.'
+
+'All right, Ken. I'd rather die fighting than running.'
+
+He raised his voice.
+
+'Mr Morgan, put her hard aport! Dimmock, here's your chance for a last
+shot.'
+
+Round came the launch, turning on her keel like a racing yacht, and
+straight she sped for her big pursuer. The latter was evidently taken
+aback by this unexpected manoeuvre, and for a moment her searchlight lost
+the launch.
+
+The moment the glare was gone the hull of the destroyer showed up dark
+against the mist.
+
+'Now's your chance, Dimmock!' cried Ken, and almost instantly the little
+gun spoke, and the crash was followed by a flash which lit the destroyer's
+deck.
+
+'Oh, good shot, Dimmock!' exclaimed the captain. 'That shell exploded
+right under her bridge.
+
+For a moment the destroyer yawed right off her course, but she was under
+control again in a few seconds, and her forward gun spoke once more.
+
+The flash was followed by a tremendous shock, and the launch, with her
+rudder and part of her stern carried away, spun round helplessly, and
+began to drift downstream.
+
+'That's finished it,' groaned Roy.
+
+Again the destroyer's gun roared, and the deckhouse melted in a shower of
+splinters. Ken, struck on the leg by one of them, toppled over helplessly.
+His leg felt numb, he could not move. There was nothing for it now but to
+await the inevitable end.
+
+Crash! Vaguely Ken realised that this was a heavier gun than the
+12-pounders of the destroyer. He heard a shell roar overhead, then from
+the destroyer, now no more than a hundred yards away, rose a blinding
+flash.
+
+'Hurrah!' he heard Roy shout, but the reason he could not imagine. He made
+a desperate effort to struggle up, felt the blood gush hot from his wound.
+His head spun, he fell back and knew no more.
+
+Coming back to consciousness after being knocked out is always a slow and
+painful business. The first thing that Ken's muddled brain took in was the
+surprising fact that he was lying in a real bed between beautifully clean
+sheets.
+
+He had not been in such a bed for more than six months, and he could not
+understand it at all.
+
+Slowly he opened his eyes, and looked up at a whitewashed ceiling. Through
+a window opposite the sun was shining and a warm breeze blowing.
+
+'I suppose I'm dreaming,' he said at last, and was surprised to hear how
+weak and husky his voice seemed.
+
+Some one rose quickly from a chair beside the bed.
+
+'My dear lad,' came his father's voice.
+
+Ken stared at him.
+
+'Is it real?' he asked vaguely. 'Where am I?'
+
+'Absolutely genuine, my boy,' answered Captain Carrington, smiling. 'You
+are in hospital in Lemnos, and here you've been for two days. We began to
+think you were never coming round again.'
+
+'I'm sorry I frightened you,' said Ken, 'but I wish you'd tell me how I
+got here. I had a sort of impression that I ought to be at the bottom of
+the Dardanelles.'
+
+'The marvel is that we were not all there,' answered his father gravely.
+'It was the cruiser "Carnelian" that saved us at the very last moment by
+putting a six-inch shell into the Turkish destroyer.'
+
+'But how on earth did she come to be there, right up the Straits?' Ken
+asked amazedly.
+
+'That was Strang's doing. The good chap sent a wireless asking them to
+look out for us.'
+
+'Jove, that was smart of him,' Ken said smilingly. 'But Roy, dad? Is Roy
+all right?'
+
+'Quite right. He has rejoined his regiment.'
+
+Ken's face fell.
+
+'What about me, dad? Don't say I shan't be able to do the same.'
+
+'There is no need to say anything of the sort, my boy,' replied his father
+quickly. 'The only trouble with you is that you lost more blood than was
+good for you. The splinter cut a small artery. I have no doubt whatever
+that you will be able to rejoin in a month or so.'
+
+'A month! It may be all over by then.'
+
+'It won't,' said the other gravely. 'It will take more than a month to
+open the Dardanelles. You'll get your fill of fighting before this
+business is over. Those who know best say that it will take three months
+at least to beat the Turks.'
+
+'That's all right,' said Ken, with reckless disregard for the hopes of the
+British Empire. 'I want a chance of doing my bit in the trenches alongside
+Dave and Roy.'
+
+For a moment or two Captain Carrington watched his son in silence.
+
+'You'll be doing your bit under rather different conditions in future,' he
+said quietly.
+
+Ken stared. 'What do you mean, dad?'
+
+For answer his father picked up the khaki tunic which hung over the end of
+the bed, and showed Ken the sleeve.
+
+On it was the star indicating the rank of Second-Lieutenant in His
+Majesty's Army.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles
+by Thomas Charles Bridges
+
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