Adventure, December 1914 — page 92: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

gO could see, bit by bit, the whole puzzle piecing itself together into the shape he wanted. He could guess what move the Princess was likely to make next; and his laugh rang like a bell as he saw the smoke of a fair-sized gunboat lifting over the sea- ward sky-line. One thing he wished more than that Usbeg Ali might be there. He wanted his whole force there, to see how the forty-three were faring who had shot surrendered Cos- sacks. A yellow dog or a vulture, or a devil would have pitied them. The wounded had been taken off the horses, and the horses divided among officers and non-commis- sioned men. The wounded had been laid on stretchers, made from boughs and their own tunics, and Dick’s forty-three were carrying them —whipped, kicked, prodded along, sore- footed, thirsty, fly-pestered, suffering more than the men who lay above them, borne on their raw neck-muscles. “*Twould hae been mair mercifu’ tae shoot yon men!” said Andry shaking his head. “T don’t think so,” answered Dick. “But, they’re men, not mules, an’ even a mule couldna stan’ treatment such as yon! Mr. Dicky, sir—they’re men! See that ane! See yon Russian use a whup on him! Man, laddy, it’s tae much!” “It’s nearly enough,” said Dick. ‘‘They’ll make good missionaries.” “D’ye mean——?” But Andry did not finish the question and Dick did not try to answer him. True to her custom of thinking like lightning and of acting without further thought when once she had snatched a determination, the Princess set bugles and trumpets blowing that summoned every living Cossack into the open squares, and then brought them running to the gate by companies. She brooked no argument from officers, nor any advice as to what would be better done; she ordered every armed man to start out at once to take Dick Anthony in the rear and relieve the two regiments that must be beleaguered. They pointed to the barricade of wagons that had been the object of her spleen until now. “Tdiots!” she answered. ‘‘Have no men come with the gunboats? Are there not enough men on the shore to tackle that rabble over there? They were left there for a ruse! They are nothing!” Adventure The commanding officers refused to march out of Astrabad until the men from the gun- boats had marched in, and though she stormed at them and threatened them, they stuck to their point. So there was a long delay while a little force of sailors, marines, and nondescripts was got together on the shore, and the boats were stripped of all ex- cept their engineers. Then, when the new force marched in, the old and far more numerous force marched out, hot foot, in an attempt to reach the two regiments be- fore Dick Anthony could capture them or else utterly destroy them. As they marched, Dick watched them closely. He had seen the men brought from the gunboats by the shore. He saw the city-gates closed and the few defences manned by newcomers. Half-way, as he was, between the city .on his right front and the bay on his left, he saw everything and read between the lines. Later, he saw the new, big gunboat drop her anchor in the mud and almost her whole crew landed to be marched into the city. aw vancing! No thought of a retreat, — J or the need for covering one, en- tered the head of any one connected with the business. For more years than any- body could remember Persia had not been allowed to have a gunboat, or a boat of any kind on the Caspian, under the Persian flag; the Russian Caspian fleet was organ- ized to scatter pirates, and the pirates had all vanished long ago; the gunboats were without an enemy, and without any known danger other than the shoals.. It was small wonder that they kept no anchor-watch to speak of. They kept steam up, for the Cas- pian storms are fierce and sudden, and a lee shore means sure disaster unless a ship can up-anchor and steam to sea; but those who were not sent ashore to man the Astrabad defences either played cards or slept. RUSSIA was at her old game—ad- At night, with steam hissing gently through the safety-valves in proof of readi- ness for all contingencies and of oil-fuel’s superiority over coal, they all slept except for a man or two who watched the gages in the engine-rooms. Now and then a man would stretch himself and take a look at the riding lights of other boats, to make sure that the anchor did not drag, but then he, too, would fall asleep again and his snores would mingle with the rest. Commanders comicloool C@