The Air Patrol: A Story of the North-west Frontier

by Herbert Strang

It was obvious that there could be but one end to this fight. The Kalmucks were much the more numerous. While the Pathans might very probably repulse a direct attack if their ammunition lasted, they could have no defence against the men creeping round upon their flank. Within a short time they would be surrounded, unless, indeed, they perceived the flanking movement and beat a hasty retreat. Even then they would be in danger of annihilation, for the Kalmucks could rush the position they had evacuated, and from behind the rocks sweep the southward track with their fire. Unless a diversion were almost instantly made, the Pathans were doomed.

By the time that Bob had realized this necessity for intervention he was half a mile south of the position, in a wider stretch of the gorge. He wheeled round, flew back at full speed through the bottle-neck, then wheeled again at the northward end. It seemed to him that the crackling of rifle fire was now more continuous: the Pathans had in fact taken heart on seeing the machine soaring high above them, and were defending themselves with renewed vigour. The chota sahib was with them! They knew not what he could do for them, but his mere presence gave them hope and courage.

Bob saw that in order to carry out his plan successfully he must descend. He had had no practice in bomb dropping. No amount of theoretical knowledge of the velocity of falling bodies under the action of gravity, or of the curve made by a body moving under both horizontal and vertical forces, could avail him now. There was great risk of the aeroplane or its occupants being hit if the Kalmucks fired at them, but he felt that he must take his chance. Swooping down, and reducing speed at the same time, he steered so as to pass, at the height of a few hundred feet, as exactly as possible over the heads of the party skirmishing up the hill-side.

They were in loose order. At closer quarters Bob was now able to see that they were taking advantage of all the cover furnished by the crags and protuberances of the rocky slope. Steering with one hand, he called to Fazl to give him one of the tins, which he poised in his other hand. He still felt a shrinking from bloodshed, and instead of dropping the bomb in the midst of the Kalmucks, he waited until he had just passed the man nearest to the Pathans, then let it fall. In a few seconds it struck the ground. There was a sharp report, and Fazl, looking back, cried out that the Kalmucks were almost hidden by an immense cloud of dust. The sound of rifle fire ceased, and a strange quiet fell upon the gorge.

"Have they stopped?" asked Bob.

"Yes, sahib. One has gone back: they are talking among the rocks."

"They've got something to talk about," thought Bob.

He felt that this bolt from the blue, falling upon them at such a dramatic moment, must have startled the Kalmucks, and would almost certainly cause them to modify their plans. As miners they would realize the nature of the bomb dropped within a few yards of them, and the danger to which they were exposed when dynamite was rained upon them from the sky. The first bomb might be followed by others, and though it had done them no hurt, its successors might not so fortunately spare them. Bob had no doubt that he could count upon an interval of inaction while they were reckoning up the new situation, and determined to seize the opportunity of communicating with the Pathans. Accordingly he flew southward along the gorge until he reached a spot where the track widened sufficiently to afford a landing-place, and then sank to earth. It was out of sight from both Pathans and Kalmucks.

"Come along with me," he said to Fazl.

He took his revolver and rifle, and hastened back along the track, followed by Fazl with his kukuri. There was still no resumption of the firing. As he walked, he scanned the hill-side anxiously, but saw no sign of the Kalmucks. Slipping along close to the base of the rocky cliff he presently caught sight of the turbans of two or three of the Pathans, who were peering over the top of a rock two hundred yards away, evidently looking for the return of the aeroplane.