The obstruction had not been there when the boats entered the land-locked estuary. It was a device planned under the supervision of German officers, and was simple in its design and operation. The balks had been bunched together close on shore. From the outermost one a flexible steel hawser crossed the entrance and was secured to a powerful capstan on the opposite bank. With no strain upon it the hawser lay on the bottom of the creek, and the navigable channel was clear. Directly the cutter and the whaler had passed over the hawser a strain was taken on it, with the result that the balks of timber were hauled into position, forming a "boom" too strong to be severed by the "way" of a rowing boat, too buoyant to be pushed under water to allow a craft to pass above, and with too great a strain on the connecting hawser to permit a boat to force her way underneath. It was like being in a bottle with the neck tightly corked.
"What do you make of it?" shouted Tom to the Sub in charge of the whaler.
"A tough job," replied Haynes. "D'you think that there's a live wire attached to that contraption?"
"I'll soon find out, old son," rejoined Webb. There was no time to be lost, for the Turks, realizing that the boats were temporarily sheltered, would almost certainly rush a couple of machine-guns to the summit of the cliff. At close range, for the boats were now within twenty yards of the shore, the British landing party would be at the mercy of the enemy.
Snatching up an india-rubber mat that lay in the stern-sheets Webb made his way for'ard, over the thwarts and the pack of wounded men. Then, clambering on the nearest balk of timber, he threw the insulated material over one of the wires and forced it against the next cable. Nothing resulted. That pair, at all events, did not convey any powerful and death-dealing current of electricity.
"A couple of hands for'ard," ordered the Sub. "Bring a hammer and chisel from the boat's bag and start cutting through this wire gear."
Volunteers were quickly forthcoming—two seamen who had been but slightly wounded. While they were tackling the task, knee-deep in water owing to the timber sinking under their weight, Webb tested the remaining wire ropes. To his intense satisfaction they were comparatively harmless; but the fact remained that there were six 2-inch flexible wires to be cut through before the boats could gain the open sea.
Desperately the two seamen attacked the stubborn wire with cold chisel and hammer. It was a slow business, for the steel was extremely tough, while the lack of anything in the nature of an anvil caused much of the force of the hammer to be wasted.
"One nearly through, sir," reported the seaman with the chisel. His hands were streaming with blood, owing to lacerations made by the severed strands, each of which was as tough and as sharp as a sailmaker's needle. "Wish we had a hacksaw," he added.
"No good wishing for something we haven't got," said Webb. "We'll do it all in good time. Let me give you a spell."