“He is as true as steel, you can count on it. That slippery customer of a Zenos is an exception to the rule. We look on the Greeks as our allies-to-be sooner or later, when the proper time comes. And while you are here today you will be given an opportunity to see something of the vigorous kind of fighting we have to engage in.”
“Then you mean to tackle the Turks again I take it, sir?” asked Amos, eagerly, for somehow he had become possessed of an ardent desire to see how these Australians fought, knowing as he did that their ways were radically different from those of the regular British troops; just as their habits of dress seemed to be.
“Yes, but I want you to promise me that you will keep far in the rear, and not run any unnecessary chances of getting hurt,” the Colonel proceeded. “While as a rule these Turks are poor marksmen, there are men among them, perhaps Germans it may be, who can hit the bullseye, and we have learned this to our sorrow.”
“We promise you, sir, not to expose ourselves, for you know we are neutral in this awful business,” Amos hastily remarked.
CHAPTER XVII.
TO SURPRISE THE TURKS.
“And now,” said the Colonel, “if you are through with your breakfast I will send first of all for the private who went to the upper camp with Arturus the Greek, and then, in turn, you can meet the guide.”
He was as good as his word. In a very few minutes a soldier came up and saluted, a fellow who had discarded the leggings with which he had come from the other side of the world, and turned up his trouser-legs so as to keep cool, for the weather was already feeling rather uncomfortably warm to one accustomed to a cooler climate.
Later on these men from the other side of the world stripped half their garments off, and fought in that “free-and-easy” fashion, as they termed it. Some of them must have had the blood of Scottish Highlanders in their veins.
“Lancing, these two young chaps are American boys who are looking for an aviator named Frank Turner,” the officer explained to him as he stood there at attention, as rigid as a stick. “They have some reason to believe he is ashore here. You told me when you made your report that you had spoken with an air pilot whose aeroplane was at the camp of the New Zealanders. Now show him the picture, Amos.”