It surely was somewhere close by, for unless well within the lines he could never have come and gone with safety. A thousand thoughts were racing through the agitated mind of Amos Turner, though the main theme lay in his fervent hope that here at last he might meet the brother for whom he had been searching so long.
He believed he would know the best or the worst by the time day dawned once more. If Frank was there they must inevitably meet; the General had promised to do anything that lay in his power to help. If again doomed to disappointment the shock would prove most cruel.
Amos and Jack occasionally exchanged a few sentences, but for the most part they lay there on the ground, simply waiting to see what would happen.
An hour, perhaps two of them, had passed since the boys reached camp. Indeed, Amos had actually dozed several times, so that he was utterly unable to keep track of time. He scanned the heavens and believed it must be getting well on toward midnight. Would the Turks attack soon, or had they for some reason given up the plan? Amos even wondered whether the General might not believe they had been mistaken in their warning, and accordingly act less cordially toward the boys.
It was while he was ruefully contemplating some such dire possibility as this that the first shot was fired some little distance away. Instantly a transformation that was certainly wonderful took place. Several searchlights flashed into being, and criss-crossed in a hasty manner as the manipulators sought to show up the advancing enemy.
“They’ve got everything fixed, you see!” Jack exclaimed, as both of them jumped to their feet in their eagerness to see all they could.
Loud shouts were now heard. They evidently sprang from the advancing Turks, filled with fanatical zeal, and determined to sweep everything before them, as they had undoubtedly been assured by their German officers could be easily done.
Amos held his breath. He knew what was bound to follow, and the thought of the hail storm of missiles that would presently be hurled upon the attacking party filled him with dismay; for he had seen the terrible results of such work at close quarters before then, and would never forget it as long as he lived.
That first shot must have been fired by some advanced vidette, who, satisfied with having thus given the alarm, had hastily retreated along lines previously laid out for his guidance.
You have often heard the sudden, sharp crash of thunder immediately after a most brilliant flash of lightning—well, to Jack’s mind that was about what the sudden discharge of a gun close by sounded like, it came with such startling abruptness.