|
but he'll try to make us
eat crow at the show-down. if there's no cache where
we're looking for it, they'll remind me i'm a united states american,
to whom a visa to visit india cannot be granted just at this time
for fear of the danger to my health and morals. |
they don't like us outsiders on the team. but if we
pull this off they'll give us carte blanche--almost. mcgowan ordered one flash from the searchlight then, to
show our whereabouts, and it was answered by a zig-zag movement
of the beam of light behind the troops. allison switched on the running lights. |
|
mcgowan's motorcycle cockney leaped out of a shadow and came
running toward us, exposing himself to the light for fear he
might be shot unless recognized. them that couldn't
crowd in dug a funk-'ole for emselves in the sand what come out
o' the tomb. they've killed mahdi aububah with the butt-end of
a rifle, maybe thinking it was 'im who brought the troops down
on 'em. they've got lots o' firearms, but l couldn't get near
enough to tell what kind. one man said in arabic that they'd
better die there than be hanged like dogs on a christian gallows.
mcgowan, allison, grim and jeff went into conference, as the
business bosses say at tea-time. they agreed to signal to the
general. up went a beam from the searchlight and mcgowan, with
grim agreeing word by word, dictated to allison, who wrote the
message down and then dictated to the sergeant-signaller, who
jerked a little gadget and made morse code flashes on the sky. reported held by more than fifty
riflemen. he doesn't believe in the thunderbolts. "you're likeliest to be able to talk
them into unconditional surrender. |
| all right; allison, you go with him. he was as keen as a terrier
hunting rats. he was one of those men whose passion it is to
pull out chestnuts from the fire for other people, well contented
if only his beneficiaries make the utmost use of what he finds.
a priceless man, impossible to bribe or frighten.
a handkerchief was too small, so we fastened a shirt to a stick
and took two flashlights to illuminate it. i followed, twenty paces to the rear. and the cockney led,
like the fellow who carries the drag for a crack pack, that is to
say not thoughtful for our comfort. he took an almost straight
line, and the going was so evil that we took a full eleven minutes
to negotiate that scant half-mile.
we arrived breathless in the bottom of a hollow like the trough
of a wave, caused by wind having whipped out the sand; and for
a minute we all lay there, breathing deep.
the entire conversation took place in egyptian arabic, and there
was not a great deal of it. he is so well known by that name
from end to end of the near east that it was hardly likely that
at least one of them would not know him by reputation. |
| i have come to advise you to surrender. probably only those who have committed murder will
be hanged. i advise those of you who have killed no one to compel
the others.
out went the flashlights and we all ducked below the sand-hill,
except young allison, who rolled over and over. i had to grope
for him in total darkness. a hail of bullets swept over our heads
and i estimated more like a hundred than fifty rifles.
jeff carried him, and as we crawled away over the rim of the hollow.
i saw the army's searchlights all come blazing into action. there
was a roar from the distant motors as the cordon closed in on the
cache, at high speed, flooding the sand in front of them with
flowing light. ahead of us we could see mcgowan's searchlight
racing forward, tossing its rays as the lorry wheels bucked over
ridges of sand. |
there was no guessing what would
happen, or what surprise those fanatics had in store; our cue
was to beat it as fast as we could. something not remotely unlike
panic lent us wings, and if had not had to allison and
we had not waited for jeff, we would probably have lowered the
world's sand-track record for quarter of mile. we lay down and i tried in dark
to feel where allison was hit. he died as laid my hands on --
as decent a officer as stopped a 's bullet.
then the thing happened that been so variously described,
since it was seen by thousand men and no two witnesses ever
see or anything exactly as happened. |
| . .. |