Captain Digby-Soames “scoured” earnestly with his glasses.
“Camel on the port-bow, at the foot of the hills,” he announced. “What may be a dak-bungalow several miles away … a white square dot, anyhow … Camel saddled up, kneeling … His, no doubt. Wonder where his shikarri is—”
As the aeroplane approached, the disappointed vultures departed, misliking the size, shape and sounds of the strange fowl. As it passed over him, and the Major shouted, Dam opened his eyes.
This must be pretty well the end—when he heard the voice of some one he knew well, and saw a flying-machine just above him. He would see blocks of ice and cascades of cold water in a moment, doubtless, and hear Lucille calling.
A flying-machine in Ghazistan! The voice of an old, old friend to whom he could not, for the moment, give a name … Why couldn’t the cowardly brutes of vultures begin their business, and end his? What was that familiar voice calling:—
“Hold on a bit, we’ll soon be with you! Don’t give up. We can’t land just here. If we drop anything can you crawl and get it?”
“He opened his eyes,” said Captain Digby-Soames, “but I doubt if he’s conscious. He must have come a frightful cropper. You can see there’s a compound fracture of the right femur from here, and one of his feet is fairly pointing backwards. Blood from the mouth, too. Anyhow he’s alive. Better shoot him if we can’t shift him——”
“We’ll get him all right. This is a Heaven-sent ‘problem’ and we’ll solve it—and I’ll quote it in my ‘manual’. Quite war-conditions. Very badly wounded man—inaccessible position—stretcher-parties all out of sight—aeroplane can’t land for any first-aid nor to pick up the casualty—excellent problem and demonstration. That oont[[28]] will simplify it, though. Look here—I’ll drop down and land you by it, and then come here again and hover. You bring the beast up—you’ll be able to ride most of the way if you zig-zag, and lead him most of the rest. Then you’ll have to carry the casualty to the oont and bring him down.”
[28] Camel.
The aeroplane swooped down and grounded gently within a hundred yards of the kneeling camel, who eyed it with the cold and supercilious disdain of his kind.