The prisoner did not understand what was said, but it was evident that the man in the tank recognized Topoff. Presently the latter said to his prisoner:
“Go in there, quick, or I’ll run this bayonet through you. Hurry up now; I won’t stand any fooling. My opportunity to escape and take you along has arrived. Get in quick.”
Phil obeyed and the ponderous boche followed into the ponderous machine. A moment or two later the tank was in motion again.
CHAPTER XXXIII
TANKS AND “WATER CURE”
Phil had never before seen the inside of a tank, and in spite of the uncomfortable situation in which he now found himself, his first impulse was to look about him and see what sort of affair a “land battleship” might be.
But he was not given much opportunity for an undisturbed inspection of the interior of the huge war engine at this time. Almost immediately after the metal door was closed, events began to take place with much greater volume and intensity than at any time during the machine guns and infantry battle amid the ruins of the town. Apparently, this tank had just arrived on the scene of the fight and, finding the battle going hopelessly against the boches, turned and fled. But the reason for the flight did not spring from any menace of infantry or machine guns. The big war engine might have cleaned up a whole army of such comparative pygmies and toys. It was the advance of half a dozen British tanks into the fight that caused the crew of the “land battleship” to see the unwisdom of tarrying on the field of the already lost battle and to turn about and seek safety in flight.
Phil was unable to see much outside. All the portholes were occupied by members of the crew who manned the guns or handled the driving and steering apparatus. Now and then he was able to get a narrow peek through one of these ports, but with little satisfaction. The evidence of the new turn of events since his capture came to his ears from without and to his eyes within the car.
The firing of what seemed to be a battery of heavy guns apprised him of the approach of a “fleet” of British tanks. The din of the firing of the guns of the huge war engine in which he was imprisoned and of the attacking tanks was terrific. It seemed as if some of the shells that struck the armor plate of the fleeing machine must surely pierce it through and explode inside the car.
Up and down over the heaps of debris went the big “land ship,” and after it came the pursuing “caterpillar batteries.” Phil watched the contest with every sense of perception on the alert. The inside of the boche tank was illuminated principally with electric bulbs, for little light came in through the portholes. Five men, a driver, a mechanician, and three gunners, constituted the crew. The driver sat on a low cushioned seat in the forward part of the car. About him, and within easy reach, were the controlling apparatus, directing lever, clutch and brake pedals, gear lever and steering clutch. Behind him was the starting crank, and behind this were the radiator, ventilator, fuel tank and motor.
Every member of the crew was desperately busy with his own duties in connection with the operation of the war engine and its battery. The driver looked straight ahead as if he hoped to pull the tank along at greater speed by fastening his gaze on a distant object; the gunners sat in their hammock-like seats that swung easily back and forth and from side to side to suit the will of the occupants as they loaded and fired; and the mechanician was busy most of the time with an oil can, the nozzle of which he poked into more holes and cups than a layman would have imagined to exist in a machine several times the size of this one.