The Flag of the Adventurer

by Sydney C. Grier

“Choused—eh?” responded Richard. “Every man of ’em went to bed expecting to have the looting of the place in the morning, no doubt. To see seventy-five Europeans, when you expected only to have thirty dismounted sowars to deal with, must give you a bit of a shock.”

Brian nudged his elbow. “D’ye hear what Montgomery’s saying? We ain’t out of the wood yet.”

“You are well supplied with ammunition, I trust, Colonel?” the —th Captain was asking. “We came off in such a hurry that half-way here I found to my annoyance we have nothing but the ten rounds apiece in the men’s pouches.”

“Well, we could not stand a prolonged siege, certainly,” laughed Colonel Bayard, “but that will matter less, as I am convinced we shall not now have to fight at all.”

But Colonel Bayard was wrong. Whether the Arabits were really beyond their masters’ control, or whether the spies in the village just outside the Agency wall had gauged the extent of the reinforcement and adjudged it negligible, morning light showed that the place was surrounded, though the various bodies of horse and foot whose presence could be distinguished betrayed no indecent alacrity to come out into the open or approach too near. There was nothing in the nature of a surprise, for Captain Montgomery lacked Colonel Bayard’s pathetic faith in the Khans, and even a night attack would have found the garrison prepared. Unfortunately there was no time now to take the precautionary measures which should have been put in hand before. Save on the side of the river, assailants might find cover in every direction almost up to the walls, and at two points the compound was actually commanded from without—by the native village which had grown up as a sort of adjunct to the stables, and on the opposite side by a house forming a kind of outpost, where the doctor had formerly lived, and which was too much detached to be occupied effectively by so small a garrison. Reluctantly Montgomery dismissed the idea of blowing it up, since the powder could not be spared, and left it outside the line of the defences. The two strong points were the Residency itself and a range of office buildings, high and flat-roofed, which had fortunately been placed so as to command both the village and the all-important landing-stage. Montgomery observed caustically that it was quite impossible Colonel Bayard could have put it there deliberately, so that its defensive value was a happy accident. From it communication could be maintained with the steamers by means of flag signalling, and thus it was that Eveleen was able to keep in touch with the events of that long morning from the shelter contrived for her close under one of the paddle-boxes. The Asteroid was a most peaceful craft, since her builders had evidently considered bulwarks unnecessary for river work, and her flush deck afforded no protection whatever to any one upon it. She mounted a twelve-pounder gun, for which a breastwork had been built up forward of boxes and cases of all sorts, and a similar wall was erected about Eveleen and Ketty, outside which they were forbidden to stir. Since the paddle-box cut off all view of the shore, Eveleen insisted on having one look before she was built up in her cell; but there was not much to see, even from the top, since the lowness of the river left the Residency on a kind of mud cliff considerably above the vessel. But she could see little puffy clouds of smoke, rising and dissipating themselves slowly in the morning sky, and followed by reports—more or less loud as they came from the heavy matchlocks of the enemy, or the muskets which the —th were firing through the loopholes they had cut in the mud wall with their bayonets. On the right the reports sounded more distant, but almost continuous—a sort of perpetual popping; but on the left shot answered shot, as the enemy fired from cover among the village houses, and the European marksmen replied from the office roof. Captain Franks hurried her down, refusing to let her stay another moment, but she extracted from him that the attack on the right was what he feared most, owing to the expenditure of ammunition necessary to keep down the fire from the Doctor’s House. He did not tell her, but there was another danger at this point, in the shape of a nullah which formed a kind of covered way right up to the wall, and which could be enfiladed only from the Doctor’s House, so that a body of resolute men might assault with but little fear of loss. It was noticeable, however, that the enemy, in spite of their enormous superiority in numbers, betrayed no desire whatever to come to close quarters, seeming satisfied with obliging the besieged to expend their ammunition—largely wasted, of course, owing to the ample cover around. The firing had gone on for close upon three hours, and Eveleen, stifling in her nook among the boxes, had assured Captain Franks piteously several times that she would rather be shot than cooked, when a new sound, making itself heard in a momentary lull, caused the Captain to prick up his ears—a sound of rumbling and clanking.

“Guns, or I’m a Dutchman!” he said to himself, and noticed how the signalman—who but the moment before had been assuring him cheerfully that there were masses of the enemy in the village, but they durst not leave cover; that the orchard was full of them, but not one could even lift up his head to look over the wall; that the three men guarding the gate into the bazar from the stables had not even had to fire a shot—stiffened up suddenly and listened. Captain Franks listened too. Where would the guns get to work—from the bazar square, whence they could not merely knock the defences to pieces, but cut off the retreat of the besieged? But no, the enemy were taking no risks, and the old sailor was conscious of a kind of vicarious shame on their behalf as he realised that they would not face the fire from the office roof. The rumbling and clanking continued along the road that flanked the landward wall of the compound, and then seemed to drop. “The nullah!” said Captain Franks, and turned to decipher the signals which were appealing urgently for his attention.

“‘To fall back from the front of the compound on the Residency, and withdraw in an hour, when baggage has been evacuated.’ So we cut our stick!” said Captain Franks. “What now? ‘Captain Delany will proceed on board Nebula, and endeavour to rake nullah.’ Easier said than done, if you ask me!” But he passed on the signal to his subordinate, and presently Brian and his orderly ran down the path and across the sandbanks. Once they were on board, the Nebula dropped down a little way till she was level with the nullah, and her people passed a strenuous hour in trying to give their pop-gun sufficient elevation for its shots to clear the cliff and drop in upon the enemy guns. No very marked effect seemed to be produced—certainly there was no direct hit,—but that a certain moral suasion was exercised seemed clear from the fact that they did not open fire. Meanwhile, the baggage-parties were busy as ants upon the cliff path and the hard sands. Horses came down—to be put on board the flat-bottomed boat by which they had come,—wounded men, to be made as comfortable as possible on the shadeless deck, with the sun blazing down upon them, for the only alternative was the oven-like depths below. Then came the servants, to huddle together wherever they could find room, whitey-brown with fear, some chattering spasmodically, some awestruck into silence. As the baggage began to arrive—all sorts of things, of all shapes and sizes,—there was work to be done, and Captain Franks and his mate fell upon the servants with voice and threatening fist—feebly cheered by the delighted wounded—until they roused themselves sufficiently to help in piling packages to serve as a bulwark. Then came a slow-moving party bearing still burdens shoulder-high, and several rigid forms were laid reverently on the deck forward, and covered with a tarpaulin.

As if this was a signal, the sound of a bugle came from the Agency—a bugle which, though she had been warned to expect it, made Eveleen shrink and shiver in her shelter, for it sounded the Retreat. Like a reply to it came a burst of heavy firing, which was so alarming that she was thankful when Captain Franks shouted down to her, “Only covering the retreat on the office, ma’am!” Presently he added, “They’re marching down from the water-gate now. Soon have ’em all safe on board!” Almost as he spoke the noise of rumbling and clanking began again, and he was black in the face before he could make her hear. “They’ve found out how we’ve diddled ’em. S’pose they’ll bring the guns round this way now.”

Before he had finished, Eveleen had pushed down part of her barricade and climbed over the rest, and was running up the ladder to his side. In ordinary circumstances he would have felt bound to rebuke her, but he was too busy watching the last stages of the retreat—the troops arriving section by section at the water-gate and marching down the path, and last of all, the defenders of the office dropping from the back windows and covering the rear as skirmishers. Even now the enemy hesitated to press them closely, and one or two round shot from the Asteroid quite dispelled any thought of interfering with the march across the sandbanks; but the rumbling and clanking was coming closer again, and Captain Franks hailed Colonel Bayard with some anxiety.

“Get on board as quick as you can, sir, if you please! There ain’t no time for being solemn. We’ve got the flat to pick up yet, and those guns will have the range in a minute or two. Nebula, ahoy! Where do you think you’re coming to?” for the smaller steamer had left her now useless station opposite the nullah, and was forging up towards the Asteroid. Captain Warner indicated by a thumb Brian on the bridge beside him.