Chapter Twenty One.
“Have Heart and Hope, my Friend.”
Far away up the river Karoon, my children, lies the city of Akwaz, and it was for this place our three little gunboats, the Comet, the Planet, and the Assyria, now started.
But for the anxiety that I could not help noticing was depicted on my dear master’s face, this expedition would have been altogether as nice as a picnic.
We—my master, the priest, Jock and I—went in the Comet, with one hundred Highlanders.
Our whole force did not amount to much over three hundred men, and yet with this little mite of an army we were going to attack a town, the size and strength of which we were not even sure of.
I, however, felt no fear, because I heard master say that whatever men dare, they can do.
Well, in due time we reached the town, and we landed, attacked and captured it.
Persians are not cowards. They can fight well, and this army of about nine thousand men would, doubtless, soon have destroyed our bold little force, had it not been so arranged as to look like three invading armies.