The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of a Trooper, by Clutha N. Mackenzie
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Tale of a Trooper
Author: Clutha N. Mackenzie
Release Date: September 6, 2008 [EBook #26548]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF A TROOPER ***
Produced by Al Haines
ON ACTIVE SERVICE SERIES
THE TALE OF A TROOPER
BY CLUTHA N. MACKENZIE
TROOPER, WELLINGTON MOUNTED RIFLES, N.Z.E.F.
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
MCMXXI
_Printed in Great Britain by Ebenezer Baylis & Son,_
_Trinity Works, Worcester._
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I MAC BECOMES A TROOPER
II MAC EMBARKS FOR OVERSEAS
III SORROWS AND JOYS IN A TROOPSHIP
IV LAZY SHIPBOARD LIFE
V ASHORE AGAIN
VI DAYS IN THE DESERT
VII MAC GOES TO CAIRO
VIII MAC TOURS IN COMFORT
IX MAC LUNCHES WITH THE SULTAN
X MAC DISAPPROVES OF BEING LEFT
XI MAC LEAVES FOR ACTIVE SERVICE
XII GALLIPOLI AT LAST
XIII MAC JOINS IN THE WAR
XIV A WEARY DAY
XV MAC IS SLEEPY
XVI VARIOUS MISFORTUNES
XVII AN OUTPOST AFFAIR
XVIII SUMMER DRAGS ON
XIX MAC TAKES A CHANGE
XX ANZAC AWAKES
XXI NO. 3, TABLE TOP AND SUVLA BAY
XXII THE NIGHT BATTLE ON CHANAK BAIR
XXIII MAC IS WOUNDED
XXIV THE END OF MAC'S CAMPAIGNING DAYS
XXV HOMEWARD
THE TALE OF A TROOPER
CHAPTER I
MAC BECOMES A TROOPER
A winter storm raged across the ridges and tore in violent gusts down
the gullies, carrying great squalls of fleecy snow. The wind swept the
flakes horizontally through the gap where the station track ran an
irregular course through the bush; and, though but a short hour had
passed since the ominous mass of black cloud had swept over the early
morning sky, the ground was already thickly powdered.
A ramshackle hut stood beside the track where it entered the bush, and
in a rough lean-to, where firewood, tools and saddlery were piled more
or less indiscriminately, two unkempt station ponies, saddled and
bridled, stood in somnolent attitudes. Huddled hens sheltered from the
searching blasts, which swept in eddies of snow, ruffling the feathers
of the hens and driving the tails of the horses between their legs.
Charley and Mac had come thus far on their way out to have a look at
the stock in the big paddocks higher in the hills, before the
thickening snow had made purposeless their going further. So they had
dropped in to see old George, the rouseabout, and have a yarn with him,
or, if there were no signs of the weather clearing, to consider the
question of work in the wool-shed.
"Hullo, boys!" mumbled George. "I reckon as thar' ain't no use us
gittin' art jist now. I thinks the fire's the best place ter day.
Squat yerself in that thar cheer, Mac, me boy. Jinny! get some tea,"
he roared hospitably through the wall towards the wee kitchen where his
hard-working little wife was making bread for her large family of
children who were away at school. "And I'll give yer a toon on the
grammephone."
Nothing averse, the two stockmen settled down before the big log fire
in George's den, aromatically smoky from firewood and tobacco, with its
walls papered from odd paperhangers' samples and prints from Victorian
journals, and with domestic odds and ends lying here and there. The
good lady speedily produced the tea and added cakes and scones, while
George brought into action his cheap American machine and its hoary old
records; vague, scratching echoes here in the depths of the bush of the
gay sparkling life of Piccadilly and Leicester Square by night,
laughing theatre crowds and wonderful women--a life worlds away from
George and his rough, but hospitable hearth. He laughed where
sometimes there were jokes, more frequently where there were not, and
the other two laughed good-naturedly in concert, for the machine
scratched so badly that they could not distinguish a word, though
George, remembering them in the freshness of their youth, was blind to
their growing infirmities. If the two laughed heartily, or expressed
in words the good qualities of a record, those, in addition to George's
particular cronies, were given a second or a third run.
They grew rather tired of this entertainment, and turned their
attention to the domestic bookshelf and the family treasures which
adorned the walls and the mantelpiece. In a glass frame was an army
biscuit of army hardness on which Mrs. George's brother had written a
letter on a distant Christmas Day in South Africa and had posted to
her. They deserted other relics for a large book of Boer War pictures,
whose leaves they turned together, while the old gramophone ran
unfalteringly onwards through its extensive repertoire.
"Those times must have been great," said Charley.
"Don't those chaps look as if they're enjoying themselves?"
"Not half. Cripes! I wish I had been there."
"Why in the devil didn't that bloomin' war come in our time?"
* * * * *
"Not our luck. You know, Mac, if we'd been the same age we're now,
we'd have been there."
Another month passed on that station, and the two stockmen, alone on
their beats, rode day after day across the wild ranges and down in the
ravines. Along the whole of the east ran a range of mountains, more
than a hundred miles of them, their lower slopes clothed in heavy bush,
and their serrated summits deep in winter snow. Standing in the north,
grand and solitary, was the massive blue-white shape of old Ruapehu,
his fires quenched these many years, and, near him, the active cone of
Ngaruahoe, whose angry, ominous smoke-clouds rained ashes sometimes on
the surrounding country, but more often his wisp of yellowy-white smoke
trailed lazily to leeward, or mounted heavenwards in cumulous shape.
Occasionally, on his rounds, Mac dismounted on the summit of a ridge,
threw the rein over a stump and settled down for a smoke, his back
against a log, his dogs at his feet, a wild ravine below him, then
ridge after ridge, bush-topped or strewn with charred trunks and
rotting stumps, and, away beyond, the two great snow volcanoes. They
were his friends, and, of all times, he loved most these moments spent
in contemplation of those grim reminders of the strength of Nature, of
the untamed fires which burnt beneath and of the smallness of man. He
revelled in the changing colour tones of the rugged ice cliffs, of the
mountain mists and of the rolling deliberate smoke-cloud. Grand, too,
was the space of it all, wonderful the air, and here, high on this
ridge, human selfishness scarce seemed to be of this world. Sometimes,
when he had been out here ready to start mustering at dawn, he had
watched the first glow of coming daylight on the summit of Ruapehu, and
again, at the end of a long summer day when the smoke of many
bush-fires was in the air, he had watched for an hour or more the
delicate lilacs, the greens and blues, reds and golds, the shadows
deepening beneath the buttresses, and the slow melting of the last warm
glow into the cold steely colour of night.
He knew of no happier life than this of his--dodging along most days on
his station pony with his dogs following; always on the alert to
discover anything amiss with an odd sheep or a cattle-beast; sometimes
working with the sheep in the yards, dipping, crutching and such like,
or going off on jaunts to neighbouring stations or distant townships.
It was a life where there was opportunity for the whole of a man's
skill and wit, and where monotony and loneliness were not. After the
day's work he and Charley took turns in cooking the dinner, while the
other went for the mail. The several-day-old paper lost nothing by its
age. The meal finished, they smoked and read the news, had a game of
cards, perhaps, with some one who had ridden over, and turned into bunk
for sleep that was never sounder.
Thus dawned the early days of August with Mac and Charley. There had
been Balkan rumblings, which, it hardly seemed possible, could echo in
these distant hills, but speedily the shadow on Europe darkened, and
they rode out to the cross-road to get the mail as soon as the coach
arrived. And then, through the long spun-out wire which connected many
scattered homesteads with the outer world, came the great news--War
with Germany.
Mac and Charley piled up the great logs that night and sat before the
glowing timber until five in the morning, talking over the
probabilities and the possibilities of the moment. Already the old
station life seemed behind them. What mattered it if the sheep got on
their backs or the cattle broke their silly necks? And of the future
they had a vague apprehension--a terrible sinking that there might not
be a military force required from New Zealand, and, if there was one
formed, it was scarcely likely to reach Europe before the war was over.
That the Dominion would wish to send a force, they never doubted, but
whether England would want it was another question.
They drew out their military kits from beneath their bunks, emptied
their contents on the floor and investigated them keenly with an
increased interest. They donned the tunics. Charley's body was
shortly garbed as that of a lieutenant of the West Coast Infantry
Regiment, but the rest of his figure was not in keeping with his wild
red hair, his bristly jowls awaiting the week-end shave, his open shirt
and his rough working trousers. Mac was in the Manawatu Mounted
Rifles, but had not risen above the humble, though estimable rank of
trooper, and his tunic fell far short of covering his lengthy arms.
Between bursts of laughter, they chatted away on these eccentricities,
and inspected the rest of the garments with a critical eye, commented
on their fitness for the field, and hung them finally on nails in the
wall. Regretfully they turned into bunk, and sank into sleep too deep
for dreaming.
The next day Mac came across George at work on a break in a fence.
"Good mornin', Mac, me boy. How's things? This 'ere slip do be a fair
devil."
"Oh, stock's all right. What d'you think of what's happening?"
"Aw, yer mean this 'ere row in Yourope? It's a bit of a business,
ain't it?" George was contemplatively filling his well-seasoned
cherry, and spoke of Europe as a sort of detached planet, and of its
concerns as far from likely to set going eddies in these wild hills.
"I reckon as they'll 'ave a bit of a go. Wot d'you think?"
"I'm off to it, George, by the first bloomin' boat that goes."
"Haw! Haw! Haw!" roared the old boy, throwing his head back, and
swaying with the fullness of his mirth. "What an 'ell of a joke."
Mac, too, chuckled as he sat in the saddle.
"True, dink, George, I'm going."
"Go on! Yer can't kid me that. Why the bloomin' thing's in Yourope,
an' it'll be all over in a couple o' shakes."
"Never mind. I'm off. And so's Charley."
But George was not to be persuaded, and Mac left him still enjoying the
joke.
That night a distant voice on the telephone said it was probable that
an overseas force would be despatched as soon as possible, and inquired
if they would willingly volunteer.
"You bet your boots!" Mac shouted down the line.
"Good," said the voice. "The whole Regiment has so far volunteered."
Three or four days passed wearily by, for all interest had gone out of
the old life and they were restless for the new. Disturbing rumours
came vaguely from without of an overseas force ready and about to sail,
and Charley and Mac unanimously decided that they were too far from the
centre of things, and that they must proceed closer to civilization
without delay. Finishing the day's work, they went through the
Saturday overhaul and made themselves presentable in public, saddled
the horses, and, in the refreshing spring evening, rode away down the
narrow winding road through glades of bush and lonely valleys to the
railway line. There they stayed at a neighbouring homestead, gathering
round a great, crackling log-fire to talk over the wonderful days ahead.
Early in the morning they were again on the road for a small country
town where lived Mac's Colonel. Pleasant indeed were those hours,
riding ever over the glorious hills and down in the valleys, and as
they rode along the world seemed a wonderful place.
The Colonel met Mac's anxious inquiries, as to whether there was any
chance of his getting away, with a cheery laugh.
"No doubt about it, my boy. You'll be all right."
But he was not able to relieve Charley's anxiety as to what was taking
place in infantry regiments. He told them of the Advance Guard which
lay at anchor in Port Nicholson awaiting orders to sail at any moment
for an unknown destination, but said it was no use trying to get away
with it, as it was composed only of infantry regiments from the cities.
It was well towards midnight when they returned, Mac in absolute peace
of mind, but Charley still unsettled. His headquarters were a hundred
miles away, and their sport of a host spent the following day running
them down in his car, so that Charley might have final satisfaction,
and that night, as the car spun homeward hour after hour through the
darkness, there was no marring thought in the minds of the two would-be
campaigners.
Mac seized two hours' sleep on a sofa, and then crept away into the
night to catch a mail train which, rumbling northwards through the
hills in the small hours, sometimes stopped near here to water. Late
the next afternoon he acquainted his relatives of his intentions, spent
a day or two with them, wished them a cheery farewell, and early the
next Sunday, ere the morning mists in the gullies had fled before the
first rays, he was again riding up the hill to the old homestead. He
slung his civilian clothes into his tin box, cast his eye rather
sorrowfully over his agricultural books as he stowed them away in a
kerosene case, and regarded his bare walls whimsically as he removed
from them his few precious photos and one or two quaint sketches. He
wondered vaguely while he donned his khaki breeches and puttees what
strange lands he might wander in, what queer beds might be his, and
what great adventures he might have ere he would again take that mufti
from the tin trunk. And would this fine old station life ever be his
again? In the evening he rode to neighbouring homesteads to bid
farewell to many whose homes had been his, and whose thoughts would go
with him on his unknown travels. Finally he parted with his dogs.
The next morning, no longer a stockman, but a soldier of the King, he
turned his back on the station, a home of pleasant memories, and
travelled slowly the long road to the camp. His mare had come straight
from a long spell of grass, and it was late in the afternoon of the
following day before he dismounted finally in his squadron lines. Here
already, in the middle days of August, were several thousand splendid
men--a battalion of infantry, a regiment of mounted rifles, a battery
of artillery, medical corps, engineers, signallers and service corps;
fine men all, accustomed to life in the open, strong of build, active
of movement and infinitely amused with everything around--splendid
comrades with whom to embark on a campaign.
Mac made his way to his tent, where he was straightway at home with
mates of previous camps and station days.
CHAPTER II
MAC EMBARKS FOR OVERSEAS
Six weeks dragged slowly by. A few days after they came into camp,
there were ten great transports ready to take overseas the
Expeditionary Force of 8,500 men, horses, guns, limbers and stores, and
always there had been orders to be ready for instant embarkation and
that the probable date of departure was a week ahead. Constantly that
day was put off, and again put off, delay followed delay, while the men
speculated on the cause, condemned the authorities and blasphemed
generally. The War would be over before they could get anywhere near
the front, and they chafed vainly. The troopships lay in the harbours,
the men were ready in camp, why not embark?
With the exception of this uneasiness of mind, nothing spoilt the full
enjoyment of the spring days. All day the sun shone bright and strong
from a blue sky, the warmth tempered by pleasant breezes from the sea
or the mountains, and at night the stars stood out brilliantly in the
great dome above. Used to many camps in the past, accustomed also to
cooking and to battling generally for themselves, they were as much at
home as ever they were in the lines of white tents, and for most of
them these were lazy holidays after the hard life of the bush and the
sheep-runs. The army was generous in its supply of food, and much good
butter, jam, meat and bread, which would have been luxuries indeed in
the months to come, went to waste in Awapuni incinerators. And day
after day came cars from towns and farms and stations within two
hundred miles, bringing tuck-box after tuck-box containing the choicest
products of the home larders.
The red sun, lifting above the eastern hills, found long irregular
lines of horses straggling across dewy fields to water at the rushing
streams of the Manawatu River. On one bare-backed horse of every four
sat a trooper, clad sketchily in shirt and breeches tugged on hastily,
as a sergeant had called the roll. They played the fool as they
passed, laughing and chattering, losing their horses in their madness,
all making thorough nuisances of themselves and all atune with the
fresh glory of the dawn. Usually, during the day, in independent
troops of thirty or forty men, they wandered about the district, among
the pleasant suburban homes of Palmerston, along shady country roads or
up into the hills. They walked or cantered for an hour or so, and
then, selecting a likely-looking homestead, they would unsaddle and
unbridle their mounts and leave them to graze the succulent grass at
the sides of the road, or roll if they wished, while a man was put at
both ends of that stretch of road to prevent their straying. Then the
others would lie in the shade or sun themselves on the bank opposite
the homestead, sleeping, smoking, reading or playing cards. Scarcely
ever did the oracle fail to work. The door of the house would open and
a fair maid appear, anon, a mother and a sister. The first would come
tripping down the path to the soldiers and inquire:
"Mother says would you like some tea?"
"Well," they would reply, "it wouldn't be a bad idea, would it? But, I
say, wouldn't it be a lot of trouble?"
"Oh, not at all."
And she would skip away back to the house to the innards of which,
mother and sister, regarding the preamble as a mere formality, had
disappeared to get things under way. A brief interval was followed by
the appearance of large trays of cups, the whole of the household
crockery from the drawing-room, breakfast-room and kitchen, with scones
and cakes, and all the luxuries of the storeroom, and, perhaps, apples
from the barn. The good family, as is only in keeping with proper
hospitality, would join in the feast; and the disappearance of two or
three cheery troopers into the house to assist in washing up would end
one of those irresponsible, warm-hearted little scenes which were so
many in those far-away days of August '14. Another hour or so on the
march in the middle afternoon, and they would return to camp, to
"stables" and evening. Palmerston normally was never anything else
than a quiet country town of sober habits and eminent respectability,
but now the echoing emptiness of her streets was gone, the lights shone
brilliantly across the Square, the air was full of the murmur of the
crowd, the tread of heavy boots, the tinkling of spurs and glasses and
the laughter of merry parties. Perspiring waiters and flustered
waitresses fed the hordes in the hotels, while the baths worked
overtime. The road to the camp lay like a searchlight beam across the
landscape--the cloud of never-resting dust lit by the strong headlights
of a thousand taxis which careered along the rough road, careless of
life or of their own future. Happy and weary, the men came streaming
back to camp, entering by the front if before "Lights Out," through the
pine plantations if after.
At length embarkation orders became concrete and remained so.
The camp buzzed with excitement, and, when night came, all were busy
getting the gear ready. No one slept, and, in the dark, silent hours
before the dawn, the camp was struck. The neat lines of tents became
merely small bundles and odd poles, while hundreds of figures passed
hither and thither amid blazing fires of straw. In the early light the
Regiment moved away from the pleasant camp of Awapuni, the first of
many such abodes. In the middle of the morning, struggling engines
creaked away with the long lines of horse-trucks and carriages of rowdy
troopers who cheered wildly as they set out at last upon their
adventures. They crawled along the low country of the Manawatu, then
along the rough cliffs above the sea, over the hills, and at length
down the rocky gorge to Wellington. The troops detrained, watered and
fed the horses, hung about for a while, and eventually led the horses
to the wharves. Four great grey transports lay alongside, and the sun
shone down hotly on a scene of seething activity, a crowd of troops
working with the energy of enthusiasm, long strings of horses filing up
huge gangways and disappearing into lines of horse-boxes around the
bulwarks, or swinging aloft singly by cranes to be lowered swiftly into
the black depths of holds.
Mac led his terrified mare up the steep gangway and down into a hold
where he left her with regret. Mac's squadron was to embark on another
ship, except some men who were to look after the horses. This
transport lay at Lyttleton. So Mac and his cobbers had a few hours'
leave pending the departure of the southward ferry steamer at eight
o'clock, and they, in the meantime, went up the town to have a good
time and to turn out old friends. They did not waste these few short
hours, the streets rang with their enthusiasm, and the departing
steamer took away from the pier a singing, rollicking crowd of happy
warriors. Mac slept soundly on a table, and awoke in the morning to
find the vessel was berthing at Lyttleton.
Disembarking, they filed round the wharves to where two troopships lay
opposite each other, and embarked again on H.M.N.Z.T. No. 4, the S.S.
_Tahiti_. Mac grabbed what looked about the best bunk in the murky
depths of the 'tween decks which was the Squadron's alloted space, and
wrote his name in several places on the boards. The lucky ones got
breakfast during the forenoon, those who were lazy dodged fatigues and
slept in out-of-the-way corners in the sun, and so Mac and his cobber
Bill might have been found comfortably dozing on a great pile of onions
on the aft boat deck. They found such seclusion most satisfactory on
these turbulent days of movement, except for occasional visits to see
that no blighted trooper was trying to beat a fellow for his "possie"
in the hold. Trains kept rumbling out of the tunnel beneath the great
hills, bringing more troops, horses and stores, and all the afternoon
the gangways were crowded with these coming on board. By four,
embarkation was complete and a throng of people who had massed behind a
barrier to see the last of the troops, flooded on to the wharf.
Secrecy had been strictly kept as to the time of departure, and so the
public were few to what there might have been. Pretty girls were
wildly enthusiastic and were not particular as to how many troopers
they fondly took farewell of, women smiled and laughed, though there
were often tears in their eyes, and the men were laboriously humorous.
A band played airs which the bandmaster considered suitable to the
occasion, the troops, swarming on the railings and the rigging, sang
lustily snatches of song; and finally, amidst the fortissimo strains of
the National Anthem, a wild holloing from every one, and a bellowing of
fog-horns, the ships drew slowly away from the wharf. They manoeuvred
awkwardly out through the moles, while the throng on shore became but
one black shape beneath a sea of fluttering handkerchiefs.
That night the two ships steamed slowly to the north. Mac landed
horse-picket, and for four hours he paced a length of the boat-deck up
and down past fifty horses' heads, while the wind howled mournfully in
the rigging and the ship swayed easily to the swell. Morning broke,
with a dull sky, a dull sea and many miserable troopers. Towards
midday they were joined by two vessels from the south with the Otago
troops, and in the middle of the afternoon the whole four hove to in
Cook Strait, awaiting the four transports from Wellington. But
contrary orders came, and so, entering Wellington Harbour, they dropped
anchor towards evening. A gale came down in gusts from the hills
around, bringing furious squalls of rain; and Mac, in heavy oilskins,
again paced the boat-deck. Dawn broke grey and drear, and the troops
were in the depths of depression. It was not the ill weather which
distressed them, but at the eleventh hour, in the middle of the night,
a picket boat had brought unwelcome despatches and now all hope was
gone, all faith lost. "Owing to unforeseen circumstances, the
transports will not at present sail, and orders for disembarkation will
be issued in due course." So ran the death sentence.
Most of the infantry remained on the transports, but the other branches
of the service mournfully disembarked and trekked to the few more or
less level places amid Wellington's hills, where they pitched camps.
The Wellington Mounteds found a home on Trentham racecourse, and passed
a fortnight there, riding along the valley roads and manoeuvring over
the steep hills. It was not so bad either, for day after day passed
with glorious sunshine and cooling breeze, and the city was in reach by
a weary train. There was a grand review which no one particularly
enjoyed, and Mac least of all, for he had an attack of influenza. All
the long day he rode with a dizzy, aching head; and one of Wellington's
very own tearing gales, which whirled upwards great clouds of yellow
dust, served not at all to cool his heated brow. And when, late at
night, he spread out his straw and lay down, the long day seemed to
have been a vague, bad dream. But the fever had gone when morning
came, which proves that there are more ways than one of curing
influenza.
He had cut short the career of the same disease at Awapuni Camp when
out on an extensive movement one night near Feilding. His officer had
given him a goodly nip of strong Scotch whisky and had advised him to
remain at the first bivouac, but Mac thought that influenza was as bad
at one place as at another. So he successfully guarded a road all
night, his horse picketed to a fence, and himself in a greatcoat
stretched asleep in the middle of the road.
Once again, the bright stars long before dawn looked down upon the
bustle of a breaking camp, looked down upon the flaring piles of
burning straw, the collapsing tents and the happy laughing throng of
busy troopers. Early in the dewy morning they clattered out of the
race-course gates and away down the winding road in the valley bottom.
Afternoon found them skirting the harbour beneath the great rocky
escarpments of Wellington's hills, and from here Mac espied a sight
which gladdened his soul and he lost no time in communicating his
discovery to Bill and the others. Across a distant neck of land at the
far side of the harbour, he had seen the tall tapering masts of two
men-of-war, moving rapidly, and two murky streaks of smoke. This
looked like business.
In an hour two great cruisers rounded the far point, and the boys
welcomed them warmly as a sort of guarantee that there would be no
humbug about this embarkation. Again came the animated scene as they
shipped their horses, again a last night to roam streets, which echoed
with mirth far into the night, and again the crowded piers aflutter
with handkerchiefs, drawing away in the distance. The _Tahiti_ passed
close astern of the two cruisers, the Japanese _Ibuki_ and the British
_Minotaur_, and cheered their crews lustily as they came abeam. The
whole fleet anchored in the stream. All night long the Morse lamps
winked at the mastheads, the ships' lights twinkled on the water in
long twisting lines, and the great glow of a million lamps of the city
lit with fire the waters of the harbour, and the huge hills stood out
black against the sky.
A day of squalls followed, and dragged slowly by. Why were the anchors
not weighed? Pessimists said they might never leave, and all eagerly
watched the warships for any signs of going to sea--an increasing
volume of smoke from the funnels, activity on the bridge or more than
an ordinary display of signal flags. But there was nothing to bring
lasting satisfaction and the grey day ended with a colourless sunset.
Towards midnight a tender bumped alongside, men shouted in the dark and
packages were dropped with thuds upon the deck above.
CHAPTER III
SORROWS AND JOYS IN A TROOPSHIP
Mac dragged himself regretfully out of his bunk when a mournful
"reveille" had finished echoing along the decks, and went above to see
what might be doing. They were off, or, at least, they soon would be.
Already the cruisers were coming steadily down the harbour, some
transports had weighed, and were awkwardly pulling their heads round to
seaward, others sent clouds of steam rumbling in a deafening roar from
their safety-valves. The cruisers passed, and each transport followed
in her appointed place.
Everyone neglected the work of the moment in that hour of putting to
sea, and Mac, perched high on the roof of the wireless cabin, watched
it with as much pride and rapture as might an emperor reviewing the
grandest of fleets. In single line-ahead, the fourteen great grey
ships, their smoke trailing away over the port quarter before a fresh
wind, passed down the wild rocky gap of the entrance. The grey seas
rolled in a long swell, grey, flying clouds hid the eastern mountain
tops. The passengers of an in-bound steamer had hurried on deck, clad
lightly against the chill wind, sent a faint cheer to each passing ship.
Hundreds of people waved vigorously from the western shore, having come
far to see the last of the adventurers, and the garrisons of the forts
looked like silhouetted maniacs above the fortress mounds. They, too,
faded in the distance, and at length the reefs with their white surge,
and Pencarrow Light high on the cliffs above the poor rusty remnants of
a wreck, were far astern. The leading vessels had lifted their bows
westward through the Strait, and each following ship was in turn
changing course. At sea at last, Mac left his perch, and departed
below to his work, a shower-bath and breakfast.
Later in the morning the weather cleared, the cliffs, the hills and the
snowy mountains were glorious in the sunshine, and the troops basked at
full length on deck while distant points took form far ahead, came on
the beam and passed astern. Once through the Strait, the fleet took up
its regular formation, the ten transports in two lines of five, with
the two large cruisers ahead and the two small ones astern. Late at
night, the Farewell Light passed into the blackness, and when dawn
broke again, grey, chill and wet, no land was visible behind the
reeling stern.
For five or six days--Mac lost count--the transports rolled and creaked
and swayed up the grey, lumpy swell, lurched over the crests and
plunged away down into the troughs. The spray lifted over the bows and
swept along the decks, the wind howled dismally through the rigging,
and the ship was wet and comfortless. All was grey--the ships, the
sky, the sea and the long trails of smoke fleeing away to leeward. Mac
had found a good job on board, together with Joe of the Canterbury
Squadron and Jock of his own squadron, in charge of the fodder. Both
were from the sheep country and real fine fellows, though Joe had had a
college education, while Jock claimed only to have been dragged up in
the bush. Three times a day, about an hour before their own meals,
they weighed out for the horses the rations of chaff, oats, hay,
linseed and so forth, and issued them to fatigues from the troops, the
service corps and the mounted machine-gunners, who came slipping and
sliding along the deck in heavy gum-boots.
The second-class dining saloon of peace days had descended to becoming
a fodder room for the horses, and outside its door gathered the boys
clamouring for their loads, laughing and swearing and generally
hindering Mac and his cobbers at their work. Everything had gone like
clockwork in port, but, for the first few days at sea, these practical
sons of the bush and the sheep-stations were for the moment put out of
their stride. Hefty men lay huddled helplessly on their bunks and
others moped about searching for the drier, warmer corners. But the
horses had to be fed, though many of them, too, hung their heads in the
deepest dejection. The men who were not seasick turned to with a will,
and many who were went to work with bold hearts, though feeling too
utterly miserable for description when down below on the stuffy,
reeling horse-decks.
Mac, in the foolishness of his abandonment, had flung himself at the
first spasm of seasickness on to the top of some of his bales of hay;
the sweet fragrance of the hay aggravated the evil effects of the
rolling, and three days passed like an interminable nightmare.
Sometimes the bales and bags slid about the place with the rolling of
the ship, occasionally he made weak though desperate attempts to help
Joe and Jock who struggled on nobly; but eventually Mac managed to drag
himself and two blankets to the top of the horse-boxes high on the
boat-deck. There lay rows of men like corpses in their blankets, with
pinched white faces peeping out, which smiled pathetically with the
bashfulness of returning spirits.
All were on their feet again by dawn of the sixth day, and in odd
moments between work peered over the side to catch a glimpse of the low
dim line of the Tasmanian coast. They kept along the land for a few
hours, and then, forming single line-ahead, steamed slowly up the
beautiful sunny waters of the Derwent, with white curving beaches and
bush-clad hills on either side. Five ships berthed at once for fresh
water. In the afternoon the troops were marched through the town, and
the people cheered heartily and hurried in great excitement to see
them, bringing cake and fruit and beer. Some of the boys, keen on
adventure, slipped quietly out of the ranks and down side streets, and
in the evening other hard cases garbed themselves as stokers, walked
boldly past the guard and spent the merriest of evenings in Hobart, to
return, perhaps, to a term of C.B. which the holiday was well worth.
The other five vessels watered in the morning, and by evening the fleet
was again at sea, steaming slowly southwards in a fog towards the
southern point of Tasmania. In Morse code each ship in turn mournfully
wailed her number, and endeavoured to keep station in the thick pall.
For day after day they swung over the long seas which always sweep
across the Australian Bight, but the troops ran about the ships as if
they had never been anywhere else, and the horses stamped and whinnied
unanimously when the boys stood ready to feed, and looked eagerly for
more than the martinet of a Vet would allow.
The Vet was a brusque man whose job was to look after the horses and
not to concern himself with the fine points of military lore,
distinctions of rank, or the airs of those officers who thought
themselves not made of ordinary clay. He was impatient with people who
were incompetent or who hindered him in his work. So on the occasions
when Captain O'Grady violated the sanctity of the fodder-room by
stowing there some of his infantry equipment, the Vet would angrily
demand:
"Mac! What's that blanky stuff doing there? Is that some more of
O'Grady's blanky rubbish?"
"Yes. He said you said he----"
"I don't care a blank what he said. Heave his blanky stuff out of
here. O'Grady and his blanky stuff can go to hell. Next time he tries
to bring his rubbish in here you tell him to get to blanky blazes with
it! See?"
"Righto! I'll do that."
Mac was not soaked in military etiquette, but he rather hesitated, when
the Captain-Quartermaster brought some gear to stow, to instruct him to
go to blanky hell with his blanky, etc., etc. However, as soon as
Captain O'Grady had disappeared he and Joe shoved his gear out on the
wet deck and the Quartermaster constantly finding it there decided to
seek other havens.
"I'll teach that blanky infantryman to stow his blanky stuff here,"
rumbled the Vet with satisfaction when there were no more signs of
alien goods lumbering the fodder-room.
The first burial of a member of the force took place one stormy day in
the Australian Bight. He had died the night before on the Ruapehu. In
the middle of the afternoon the whole fleet lay to for ten minutes, the
troops standing to attention on every ship. The vessels rolled heavily
to the rushing silent seas, the troops with grim faces swayed in their
long lines on the careening decks. There was no colour to the scene
but grey. The greyness, the vast space, the haunting notes of the
"Last Post" echoing along the troopdecks, the lonely body deserted on
the wide sea, left a deep impression on those light-hearted
adventurers. Death! And to be buried here in a lonely ocean grave!
Mac wondered how many of these 8,500 men would see New Zealand's shores
again, and how many would lie in foreign lands. But such speculations
did not trouble him for long. "Carry On" sounded briskly, and Mac
returned to his work in the fodder-room.
Like many others of that light-hearted crew, Mac had really not
embarked upon these adventures on account of the "ruthless violation of
the rights of small nations," with the desire "to crush once and for
all the Prussian military despotism," and so forth. Had he given the
question deep thought he might possibly have welcomed these reasons as
additional charms; though the fact was that he had never worried much
concerning why he had come. War, bloody war, romantic, glorious war
raging in the Old World, and he obeyed the irresistible desire to join
in it.
The whole atmosphere of the life appealed to him, the uncertainty of
the future, the unknown destination, the company of all the boys, and
the free, fresh life.
More than a week passed and then one morning against the pale blue of
the dawn sky showed low dim outlines of deeper blue, and towards midday
the fleet entered the wide waters of King George's Sound and cast
anchor with the _Tahiti_ nearest the sea. On the upper reaches of the
Sound lay a great fleet of thirty or forty large vessels--the
Australian fleet. Mac had not previously known that they were to fall
in with them here. For four days they lay at anchor swinging to the
tide, in the entrance, lonely and unvisited, while the eager,
bare-footed, bare-legged and bare-chested men gazed longingly at the
distant port and tried to persuade themselves that the vessel must go
up there for coal and water. Several times the life-boat crews lowered
the boats and raced clumsily with each other; and once the troops
polished and cleaned all the morning for an inspection by the G.O.C.
which never came off. Otherwise they drilled at odd times, groomed,
fed and exercised the horses and basked in the sun. Rumours were
unusually active, and the question of destination was fiercely
argued--South-West Africa, India for garrison duty, or France by the
Cape or Suez. The course the fleet set after leaving the Sound would
partly decide the question.
The first daylight of Sunday, November 1st--a dawn of rare perfection,
with the spacious Sound unruffled by any stray breeze, the wide blue
heaven unbroken by any cloud--saw that purposeful activity among the
ships which immediately precedes putting to sea. Smoke drifted upwards
from many funnels, some ships were busy clearing their anchors, while
others manoeuvred out of tight corners. First came the men-o'-war,
sweeping majestically past the _Tahiti_ and out to sea. Then, in
single-line-ahead, followed the transports in grand procession past the
_Tahiti's_ bows, whose troops stood on the topmost perches to miss
nothing of the glorious review. Everywhere to the upperworks of each
passing vessel clung the Australians. As each vessel came abreast,
wild, enraptured cheering broke out, and, with all the power of healthy
lungs, with enthusiasm unreserved, with cooees and hakas and scrappy
messages semaphored by the arms, the Australians and New Zealanders met
in a deep friendship which was to last through years of campaigning and
privation.
CHAPTER IV
LAZY SHIPBOARD LIFE
The _Tahiti_ fell in astern of the long line whose foremost ships were
almost hull down, and left the Sound empty and deserted. When all were
at sea, they took station, the thirty Australian ships in three lines
ahead, with the ten New Zealand transports in two lines astern, their
leading ships stationed between the three rearmost vessels of the
Australian line. The men-o'-war took up positions far ahead on the
horizon and on the flanks. Towards evening a nor'-west course was set,
which the troops generally accepted as sufficient evidence that Colombo
would be the next port of call.
For some days the fleet swung heavily to a considerable swell from the
west; and Mac watched, from the boat deck, the long line of careering
masts ahead, sliding about like so many drunken matches, spray flying
from the bows, and the foaming wake seething from the labouring screws
of the ship ahead. It amused him to cast his eyes aft along the boat
deck, the full length of which stretched two lines of horse-boxes
facing outwards.
With an even keel only the noses of the horses showed beyond the
stalls; but, when the vessel rolled heavily to a beam swell, their
heads swung in and out like the cuckoos of cuckoo clocks. One moment,
as the ship lay well over into a trough, Mac could see nothing but a
long line of posts; the next, as she lifted to a sea, out shot those
eighty heads. They trod backwards and forwards in regular step, and
were cursed constantly by the men whose bunks were immediately below
the trampling hoofs. The horses settled down to the life in a
wonderful fashion, and through the splendid attention of the troops
appeared not a whit the worse for the first three weeks at sea. With
the increasing heat and the lack of exercise some of them were growing
a little short-tempered; and men, passing along the front of a line of
boxes, had to be prepared for a horse occasionally making a grab at him.
Least of all to appreciate the presence of horses in the vessels were
the officers of the ships accustomed to Royal Mails and jolly
passengers. They now appeared in all the immaculate glory of white
ducks; and it almost gave Mac the impression that the horses had taken
a special dislike to them. Either they would frequently be bitten at,
or else when one of them was standing comfortably on deck smoking, a
horse would give a violent sneeze behind him, and he would disappear
into his cabin, muttering wrathfully as he changed into a clean suit.
And the Captain himself was no more pleased when he noticed the way in
which the constant trampling of the horses was wearing ugly tracks in
his best teak decks.
Every morning and afternoon, when the vessels were not rolling too
heavily, long strips of cocoa-nut matting were laid round the boat deck
and the length of the upper deck; and the horses were led round and
round for a little, though valuable, exercise. Men spread awnings from
the front of the boxes, and watered them steadily from above, so that
the horses might be as cool as possible. All of this was hard, hot
work, to which the men stuck splendidly. Mac, however, had none of it,
for, his turn in the fodder-room being over, he was sent to the bridge
as a signaller. He knew little about the work, but another signaller
was wanted, and he was sent to learn. It was the best of work, clean,
cool and interesting. He did his watches on the bridge, looking down
on everything from that exalted position, swept the fleet constantly
with his glasses, and did what was told him. He peered into the log
book, and closely examined the charts in spare moments when the officer
of the watch was not noticing. He examined everything that was to be
examined, instruments, code books and distant ships, and altogether
thoroughly approved of being a signaller. Often there was work to be
done, in daylight by semaphore arms, or international flag code; and at
night by morse lamps, carefully shaded. Mac fumbled about and fell
over himself at times before he mastered the mysteries of flag
signals--the knots, the halyards and the nautical language.
"AJP tackline J," the Skipper would roar; and two of the signallers
would fall over each other in a hurried attempt to get it all tied
together. And something usually went wrong--the tackline missed out,
two J's put on by mistake, or an M instead of a J. Once Mac failed to
make fast the two ends, and one hoist of flags went trailing out over
the beam. He let them down into the water, so that the weight might
swing them inboard, while the other signaller struggled manfully with a
hayrake to grapple them; and the Captain cursed and Mac flushed all
over, knowing that every ship in the fleet was grinning at them.
Two days out from King George's Sound the fleet was joined by two more
transports with Australian troops from Fremantle. A week later H.M.S.
_Minotaur_ passed down the lines between the ships, and soon after
disappeared over the eastern horizon. The fleet had been sailing with
carefully screened lights, and now precautions were to be doubled, no
dynamos to be run, and navigation lights to be further dulled by
several thicknesses of signal flags across the glass. Various small
happenings left the troops with a sort of impression that there might
be something in the wind. When, therefore, early one tropic morning
the three remaining men-o'-war moved nervously from their stations,
rolled great black-brown coils of smoke from their funnels, and nosed
suspiciously out towards the western horizon, like three dogs
seeking a scent, it was evident the day would not be without
interest. Within a few minutes H.M.A.S. _Sydney_ set a definite
course, and with a foaming wake and a trail of heavy smoke, went off at
full speed to the sou'-west. Mac went below for breakfast in the
steamy saloon. Word went round that the _Emden_ was at the bottom of
the business; and men gathered in groups, talking with animation, and
gazing occasionally towards the south-west. Later in the morning the
Japanese cruiser went off in that direction, leaving only H.M.A.S.
_Melbourne_ with the fleet.
At about eleven the great news came; and great enthusiasm welcomed it.
In the _Tahiti_ it leaked out before it was officially announced; and
the poor signallers were blamed in consequence. At any rate it was
true. About ten thirty the _Sydney_ had reported the _Emden_ beached
and blazing; and that she had gone off in pursuit of another vessel.
The _Maunganui_ had offered to take the _Sydney's_ wounded; but she
replied that there were only twelve casualties, sent her thanks, and
said there was no need. That was all the troops heard of the fight for
some days, though later the _Empress of Russia_ passed on her way to
pick up the many wounded from the wrecked _Emden_.
Then came the crossing of the Line; and in all ships Father Neptunes
were busy lathering, dosing and abusing unlucky troops who tried to
escape their gentle hands. Crowds of men splashed rowdily about in
great sails of water. But a medical officer unfortunately lost his
life over these proceedings, and a momentary sadness settled over the
fleet.
The New Zealand section went ahead of the main fleet a day or two
before reaching Colombo in order to proceed with coaling and watering.
Early on a Sunday morning the mist-covered hills of Ceylon took form on
the starboard bow; and, later on, a palm-grown shore and natives in
catamarans. Then the house-tops, the breakwater and the shipping of
Colombo emerged from the luxurious forest and curving shores. About
the middle of the forenoon the New Zealand vessels in two lines of five
were about to enter the harbour, when the _Sydney_ and the _Empress of
Russia_ were signalled coming up astern; and the New Zealand ships lay
to to give way to the men-o'-war. In deep, impressive silence, they
passed down between the lines, while the bluejackets and the troops
stood at rigid attention, salute after salute sounded from each ship in
turn, and ensigns dipped.
Two days at Colombo passed merrily enough with forty-five shipfuls of
light-hearted troops exploring that Oriental city for the first time;
and at the end of it the Cingalees were left in a dazed condition.
Bazaars, wineshops, native quarters and Gal Face all rang with the
delighted shouts of irresponsible troops making the best of a short
time; and rickshaws were raced against each other with great effect.
Before many hours had passed the Staff announced their disapproval of
such unmilitary conduct, and stopped leave; but the men were not
overawed by the thunder of the heads, and those who could swarmed
ashore from the ships, leave or no leave. At length the vessels went
to the outer anchorage, at a safe distance from Oriental seductions.
Next morning a tug brought from the shore a washed-out collection of
adventurers, and distributed them to their ships. Under way again, the
fleet steered a west-nor'-westerly course for Aden, and the men, none
the worse for a little joy in Colombo, settled again to ship routine.
Six German sailors from the _Emden_ had been placed on board the
_Tahiti_ at Colombo; and from them Mac heard something of the
battle--how the _Sydney_ had surprised them when they had some boats'
crews away destroying the wireless and cable stations at Cocos Islands;
how the _Emden_ had been beached and raked by the _Sydney's_ terrible
broadsides; and the sufferings of the wounded before they were taken
off. Mac was interested to notice through the dome of the officers'
dining saloon, which projected through the bridge deck, that a German
naval officer prisoner drank the King's health along with the rest of
the mess.
Several days dragged drowsily by in sweet procession.
Mac was doing the afternoon watch. Between noon and one o'clock the
signallers were usually fairly busy while latitudes and longitudes were
hoisted and the staff disposed of the last of the morning's work. Then
peace reigned for three hours, while the fleet dozed through the hot
afternoon, and Mac could see through his glasses lazy figures stretched
in deck-chairs beneath shady awnings. He leaned over the starboard
light, neglected his lookout, and gazed far down at the swishing water
which ran the ship's length at a lazy ten knots. The fathomless blue
of the midday sea, with the white marblings from the bow wave, never
ceased to draw Mac's gaze. Down in its depths the red jelly-fish went
sailing past, and from there, too, came the terrified flying-fish,
which went winging away out to the beam, glittering in the bright sun.
The rumbling of the ship's engines filled the air with a sleepy
monotone; and Mac was hard put to keep awake. From his cool perch he
looked down on snowy awnings stretching fore and aft, though here and
there through openings he caught glimpses of mens' bare bodies as they
lay sleeping on deck, and of horses' heads hanging low with half-closed
eyes. The other signaller on duty was buried behind the flag-locker,
probably intending that it should be thought that he was busy putting
away the flags used in the last hoists, though that might have been
finished a full hour ago. The officer of the watch took an occasional
turn the length of the bridge, and now and then rang down to the
engine-room for one more or one less revolution per minute; while the
quartermaster periodically put the wheel a few spokes this way or that
to keep the ship in station with the vessel ahead.
Mac had certainly drifted away to places other than the bridge of a
ship in the Indian Ocean, when he was speedily brought back to the
present by a vigorous poke in his ribs. He turned hurriedly; and the
officer of the watch with perfect clearness conveyed to him by a jerk
of his thumb, and a quizzical expression, that the flagship was making
a general signal. Mac shoved up the answering pennant, roused the
other drowsy signaller, and elicited the information that the New
Zealand ships would anchor 1 1/2 miles S.S.E. of Ras Marshag at 17.50.
Mac looked ahead and saw the jagged blue outline of land above the
horizon. Towards four o'clock the heads awoke from their siestas, and
the signallers were kept busy. The forms on the decks below also
commenced to stir, whistles sounded, and soon hoses and brooms were
busy cleaning the horse-boxes. Half-naked men were at work with
brushes and combs in the narrow spaces between the animals; and others
poured cooling streams of water about their legs. Feeding time came
with an excited whinnying, snorting and trampling, while the men stood
along the deck in front with a long line of feed boxes. Then there was
a whistle and a chorus of neighing. The men went forward and attached
the boxes. Comparative silence followed, while the horses in deep
content poked their muzzles down into the feed and blew showers of
chaff into the air. For a time the satisfied munching went on quietly;
but at length the horses which had finished first stamped their feet,
and tugged at their halter chains, in attempts to get at their
neighbours' feeds.
Mac finished his watch, and went below for a salt shower, and after
that the evening meal, which was never much to boast about. He went up
to the bridge again to investigate Aden from the best standpoint. The
evening lights were colouring splendidly the rocky heights of the range
above the port. The anchored fleet spread far across the bay, the
_Tahiti_ being close to the desert shore several miles from the port.
It was an evening of perfect calm. The last glow faded from the
topmost pinnacles, the stars came out with the brightness of the
desert, Morse signals winked from the mastheads, and the mooring lights
cast reflections on the calm water. For a time Mac joined a four for a
rubber or so in the cool night air, and then, collecting his blankets
from below, went away forward to sleep on top of the horse-boxes with
nothing but stars overhead.
In the early morning, before the fresh charm of the desert dawn had
fled before the tropic day, the fleet weighed anchor, and, with a great
deal of signalling and manoeuvring, took steaming station again. Soon
after midday Perim lay on the starboard, its desolate sands shimmering
in the noon sun, shortly to disappear astern, veiled by the trailing
smoke. It took the fleet five days to steam the length of the Red Sea;
good days too, with cooling northerly breezes to air the stuffy horse
decks, though the chill nights made the signallers shiver on watch.
But, the day before they were due at Suez, the whole peaceful running
of things was upset by wild rumours, and then by definite fact.
In late weeks it had been generally accepted by every one that England
would be the destination of the Expeditionary Force, and they had
settled comfortably to that point of view, and to the prospect of
having nothing to worry them for three or four more weeks. Turkey,
however, had declared war; and now, they heard, they were disembarking
immediately in Egypt. The troops were undecided whether or not to be
pleased. Most of them had hoped to see the Old Country and their
relatives there. Mac did not care a straw, for he saw no delights in
an English winter camp, and Egypt was said to be a fine interesting
country. Every one set about telling wild tales of Egypt; and
proceeded to walk more rapidly about the ship, collecting and putting
in order shore-going clothes--so that the quiet shipboard life was at
an end.
In the voyaging days of 1914 the New Zealand troops regarded their
chances of actually joining in the campaign as being regrettably small.
It was clear, they thought in their out-of-the-world way, that the
enemy would be speedily overrun; that the New Zealand troops were only
untrained, untried colonials; that they could therefore expect no more
than garrison duty; and that every available Imperial soldier would be
thrown into the field before the colonial troops were drawn upon.
Consequently there was an uneasy feeling abroad that, should they once
land in Egypt, they would be left there for the duration of the war.
The New Zealand transports, which had taken the lead, cast anchor in
Suez bay just as the sun was rising over the desert; and Mac gazed
appreciatively at the sweeping bay, the palms, the flat-topped houses,
and the open desert, clear cut in the early light. Suez was not
adapted for the disembarkation of large numbers of men and horses, and
Alexandria was the only harbour with sufficient accommodation. In the
early afternoon the _Tahiti_ entered the Canal; and there were no dull
moments for the next twelve hours. They were surprised to find, at
frequent intervals along the Canal bank, strongly wired entrenchments
occupied by Indian troops, with whom they exchanged cheers as they
passed. At night a moon lit the silent desert in greater beauty; and
Mac slept not a wink as the ship slid quietly past mile after mile of
the queer waterway. At three in the morning, with a clatter of chains
and a good deal of shouting, they moored in Port Said harbour.
Again there was a day full of interest--bartering with natives,
watching the coolies coaling, cheering Australian transports as they
entered the basin, and examining the mixture of shipping in the port.
CHAPTER V
ASHORE AGAIN
Late in the same afternoon the New Zealand ships put to sea, under
orders to steam individually at slow speed to meet off Alexandria at
dawn. There was not a great deal of settled sleep that night, for all
men were busy packing kit-bags and putting in order shore-going
clothes. The days of decks, bare feet and semi-nakedness were at an
end, and to-morrow would start again the life of boots and puttees,
saddles and tents. Men stood in small groups along the deck, shown
only by the embers of pipes and the occasional glow of a match. They
watched the low line of the Egyptian shore, deep black against a sky
which seemed vaster than usual and more brilliant with stars, and were
exhilarated by the knowledge that they would disembark to-morrow in
that queer old country. The mess room was filled for a while with a
cheery, laughing crowd to hear words of warning from an old soldier
concerning the joys and sorrows of Cairo and a few general instructions
on life in Egypt.
The ships stood in towards the entrance to the port just as the rising
sun gilded the houses and minarets of Alexandria. Soon the gangway was
dropped for a pilot to come abroad, and shortly with much chattering
that gentleman appeared on the bridge. The Captain gazed on the
apparition with horror, and the signallers, in security behind the flag
locket, were convulsed with mirth. A pale, underfed little Hebrew,
not, apparently, the cleanest specimen of its race, clad in something
like a dressing-gown and a pair of bath slippers, and topped off by a
red tarboosh tilted well back and continuing the contour of its nose,
it looked about as capable of piloting a ship as a waste-paper-basket.
It chattered away cheerfully to every one on the bridge in a strange
lingo, waved its hands alternately here, there and everywhere, and
faced in all directions in the attitudes of ancient mural figures. It
was serenely unheeding of the business in hand, of the fact that four
ships, occupying the narrow fairway ahead, were slowing down, and that
three others were coming rapidly up behind, promising trouble.
The skipper recovered from his astonishment.
"Which way?" he said, interrupting a friendly jabber to the third
officer.
The figure raised its eyebrows, bared its rabbit teeth and, wildly
waving its arms, poured a stream of unintelligible jargon in the
skipper's direction.
"Shall I stop her?" yelled the skipper.
A wide, inclusive sweep of the arms was the only reply and the
jabbering increased.
"To starboard--or port?" inquired the Captain, indicating each with his
arm.
To both queries the figure energetically nodded assent.
The Captain flushed with anger. The figure looked crest-fallen.
Meanwhile the bows were getting dangerously near the stern of the
vessel ahead, while the ship astern was overlapping the port quarter.
Moles threatened destruction on either beam, and quantities of small
Greek sailing vessels were in imminent danger.
The Captain seized the little fellow by the shoulder and shook him.
"Damn it, man!" he shouted. "What in hell----!"
The woebegone figure spread his hands in innocent protestation. Then
the light of a bright idea suffused his countenance. He went to one
side and craned over the rail, gazing first forward and then aft. He
did the same on the other side. He repeated the action on both sides.
Then a wild yell announced a discovery, and, following his gaze, Mac
saw a launch which had appeared from behind one of the vessels ahead.
Shrill shrieks from the figure at length drew its attention and a
fortissimo of jabbering and arm-waving welcomed its nearer approach. A
more business-like person came aboard, who took the vessel in charge,
the while its late pilot muttered unhappily in the background.
The rest of the manoeuvres went smoothly enough. The only particular
incident which amused Mac was watching a trio of Greek sailors
tormenting a terrified Egyptian by holding him by the legs upside down
over a ship's side, as if intending to drop him into the water.
It was not Mac's luck to disembark immediately on berthing, for his
squadron were detailed to clean up the ship after all the men and
horses had gone ashore. They stripped themselves of their shore kit,
and with hoses and brooms scrubbed decks for hour after hour. In the
afternoon Mac did a watch by himself on the bridge for any signals
which might be sent. Few came, and it was a sad and lonely bridge
deserted after what seemed years at sea. The evening brought unloading
of the holds and by the light of great arc lamps stores of all sorts
were piled high. It was past midnight before the winches were silent.
Before four in the morning the few remaining troops were again astir,
and by daybreak were all on the quay with their equipment. The ship on
which were the squadron's horses lay about two miles away, and they set
out for her. Mac was very sick, probably for unwisely sampling Turkish
delight sold him yesterday by an Egyptian at the ship's side.
Unaccustomed boots, a cobbled street and a heavy load did not add to
the pleasures of the march. They reached the other quay, and shivered
for two hours in the chilly Mediterranean breeze until they were sent
on board to unload stores. Hard work set Mac to rights, and the piles
of oats, chaff and hay grew steadily as the forenoon advanced. They
scratched up a meal in the depths of the ship, worked again, and then,
in the middle of the afternoon, unshipped the horses. One by one they
led them up the gangways from the holds, and then, sliding and slipping
on their weak legs, down a steep gangway to the low quay. Once on firm
ground, the horses threw up their heels, bucked and neighed in sheer
delight. But they overestimated their strength and came sprawling to
earth and soon, for lack of breath, quieted down. The squadron led its
horses to a piece of waste sandy ground, removed their covers, and let
them roll to their hearts' content. They were in excellent condition
after so long a voyage in warm seas, and Mac was grateful to the
fellows who had looked after them. His had been a pleasure voyage, but
they had had no such luck. From 5 a.m. till 9 p.m. it had been groom,
clean decks, feed, water and exercise; and then, more often than not,
it was horse-picket for part of the night. The temperature of the
horse-holes had for a long space never fallen below 110° F.; and five
horses had been each man's charge.
* * * * *
"Where are we going, d'you know, Bill?" asked Mac.
"Sure I don't know. Some fellers say it's Cairo. Others say it's a
place called Zeitoun, and God only knows where that is. Anyhow I hope
it's Cairo. Cobber of mine, who'd bin there, told me it was just a bit
of all right. Said it was a reg'lar hot shop."
"No such luck, Bill," chipped in Jock. "You don't find the heads
sending us anywhere decent like that. Afraid of givin' us too good a
time."
"Yes. And the dear old wowser boys at home in N.Z. would get up on
their hind legs an' say, 'Is it right that our dear boys should be let
go free in such a dreadful city, what with the awful drink, and
gamblin' and worse than that, dear brethren. No, we will petition the
Minister of Defence to stop the dwedful catastrophe, to put the pubs
outer bounds, an' ter never have any wet canteens in the camps. Oh,
our poor innocent boys!'"
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Mac. "Anyway, it'll be a bit of a change.
Wonder how long we'll be here?"
"Gawd only knows," answered Bill. "Mare looks well, Mac. Legs a bit
puffed, that's all."
They wandered off in due course to water and feed. They rugged the
horses, and at six o'clock entrained them, packing them tightly in the
trucks. The men had a bit of a meal then themselves, bought oranges
from the natives, and settled down in third-class carriages of a filthy
and uncomfortable kind. Each horse truck bore a chalked date of when
it had last been disinfected, but the carriages had no such reassuring
legend. As darkness fell, the train started with a series of crashes,
and clanked unpromisingly away into the gloom. It was a weary journey,
and bitterly cold. Mac could not sleep and watched, by the silver
light of the waning moon, a not displeasing vista of palm trees, crops,
houses and villages which went jogging steadily by. Twice they crossed
great rivers, and the whole carriage bestirred itself to see its first
of what might be the Nile. Then there were many railway junctions and
tall houses and a tram-car or two, and again country. At midnight the
train jolted finally to a halt. They led their horses out into a sandy
square surrounded by houses and palm-trees. Mac noticed that they were
wandering unaware over what apparently were Nile mud bricks set out to
dry in the sun. Some poor native, he thought, would curse the war next
day.
The column of tired horses and tired men wandered vaguely off to find
the camp, barracks or what-not which should prove to be their
destination. No one knew who it was, where it was or what it was, and
there was no guide. They took a turning to the right, passed a
convent, took other turnings and found nothing but shuttered houses
among trees peacefully asleep in the moonlight. There was no living
thing, and the hollow echo of their own clatter was the only sound.
They were all more or less asleep, and just wandered along, not caring
a hang whether they walked or halted, or stood on their heads. In due
course they passed the same old convent, which, in Mac's sleepy mind,
did not seem to be quite the right thing to be doing, though he did not
mind much. Eventually the column encountered a high iron railing
barring its path--a great iron railing stretching for miles and inside
it a camp. They found troughs and watered the horses, and picketed
them along the railings. There was some one in the camp, and the
squadron was told to stay by its horses till morning.
It was colder than Mac had ever felt it. A great stillness held
everything, and the moon lit the sleeping camp with a clear soft light.
But it was cold! After the warm tropic weeks, the keen Egyptian winter
night went right to the marrow. Mac tried to bury himself in the sand
by scooping a long hole, lying in it and shovelling the sand back over
him. It was not a success, and there was nothing to do but pace up and
down in a vain endeavour to get warm. Hours passed in a dreamy fashion
until at length Mac's attention was drawn by signs of activity in the
camp. He went there and found some cooks round their dixies and iron
rails in the open just starting a fire. He immediately made friends,
and speedily assisted the fire to become a respectable blaze. Others
came from the squadron and soon the cooks were hospitably handing out
mugs of tea and bread for toast. It was the camp of the Lancashire
Artillery, Mac learned, who had arrived from England a month since.
The sergeant-cook soon joined the great-coated circle round the fire.
"Yus," he said, with the confidence of a host to whom deference should
be paid, "Yus. Hi 'eard as 'ow them Noo Zealanders wus comin', an' I
says ter meself as 'ow it 'ud be another o' these 'ere lingos we'd 'av
ter try an' parley. An' I think's as 'ow that don't suit us chaps
zactly. But the fust of you fellers I sees this mornin' I says ter 'im
like, 'Goo' mornin,' maate!' An' 'e says ter me 'Goo' mornin,' maate,'
jest the same as meself! We thought as 'ow you'd talk some funny
lingo, I tell yer I did. But yuse jest speak same's us, an' I wus
glad."
Daylight revealed a scene as inspiring to an untravelled New Zealander
as America to Columbus. Close at hand stood an oriental city of
splendid architecture, the early light touching with romance its
minarets and pillared galleries. Spread before him, and stretching
away into the distance until lost in a soft blue mistiness, lay Cairo,
its forest of minarets, its domes and its square-topped houses.
Beyond, unmistakable in the blue distance, were the old familiar
outlines of the great pyramids. Behind him, the great yellow desert
spread away to the horizon and the rising sun, and was bordered on the
other hand by a forest of palm trees, almost hiding many fine houses
with shady courts and playing fountains.
The sun soon brought warmth into the troopers' frozen limbs, and they
went to work watering and feeding the horses. Later in the morning
they moved to the site of the camp to be, about a mile away. It was a
wind-smoothed stretch of untouched desert, but speedily horse-lines and
white tents broke its vastness. That night Mac, doing his turn of
horse-picket while the tired camp slept, walked out a little way into
the silver moonlit desert. In the utter stillness, with the cold pure
air, the sands unmarked by any footstep, and the impression of
unlimited space, the desert seemed a new world--a world far away from
the old one.
But busy days followed, and the desert soon lost its first charm in the
solid practical work of leading the horses across it on foot till they
should be strong enough to be ridden again. It was hot dusty work in
the midday sun, and Mac was thankful when the day came for him to hoist
his lazy bones into the saddle. The camp grew, and became a place of
importance with its great piles of stores, its roads and its rows of
mean speedily-erected shops of Greek, Armenian and Egyptian cheapjacks.
The troops quickly fell in with the life, and set out to make the most
of Egypt and its pleasures. They were there until the end of April,
and in those five months Mac saw most of the country one way or
another, though all his journeyings are not chronicled in the pages to
come. In the course of time he hated the place, and longed with the
rest of the mounted men to pass to new fields and fresh adventures.
But he looks back now on those Egyptian days as the jolliest days there
ever were, and breathes a sigh of sorrow that they can never come again.
CHAPTER VI
DAYS IN THE DESERT
Mac felt absolutely dejected, and looked it. His mare, too, appeared
neither happy nor spirited. Except for some nebulous figures,
indistinct in the yellow murk, little else was visible. Mac crouched
scowling in the lee of the mare, who stood with drooping head and
closed eyes, swaying occasionally to the violent buffetings of the
desert storm, and patiently waiting for some move on the part of her
master. The three squadrons and the transport had left camp
independently just after dawn with instructions to bivouac together, at
midday, at a certain spot known to the High Command by the enigmatical
formula "No. 3. Tower, 105°--Virgin's Breasts 45°."
Mac, who carried the compass, had taken various bearings before the
breaking of the storm, and had now halted where the Major and he
considered angles, bearings, and letters indicated. There was no sign
of the other units. Either they had sagaciously abandoned the
expedition earlier or else they had other opinions regarding the
trysting place. Anyhow, whether they were still wandering about the
infernal desert or not, Mac was firmly convinced that camp was the
place for him. Picking up his rein, he made in the direction of a blur
he knew to be the Major, and told him so. The Major had visions of
pleasant refuge in a Cairene hotel, a good dinner, and a cool bath,
instead of a night trek in the desert as originally intended. So he
agreed, and shrill whistling stirred to life more or less comatose
troopers and horses.
Steering, nor'-nor'-west, each following close upon the next ahead,
they rode in deep silence. They crossed wave after wave of sand-hills,
monotonous and bewildering. The khamsin blew in hot, sandy spurts, and
lulled; then came again in hotter, more shrivelling bursts "From Hell!"
thought the troopers, one and all. Sand trickled down their necks, and
filtered down to that place where it neither increased the comfort of
their riding nor diminished the ardour of their revilings against the
weather. With fiercer gusts, gravel rose and stung horse and rider,
while the former stumbled frequently over unseen boulders.
In the latter half of the afternoon they struck the old railway
embankment to Suez, lost it again, but soon found the edge of the
irrigated land and followed it to the camp. Parched, red-eyed,
headachy, and yellow with dust, they made for their lines, watered
their horses, and set about making themselves as comfortable as
circumstances allowed. The happiness of the trooper was not enhanced
when he failed to find a misty blur representing his tent. It had
chosen to give up the unequal contest and had departed down-wind. He
followed, and joined the rest of the tent's company in recovering the
tattered remnants, and towels, and personal property which had strayed
into the domain of the next regiment.
Camp was not a healthy spot in the khamsin days, Mac decided. Coins to
a piastreless cobber smoothed over a horse-picket difficulty, and he
passed out of the camp by back ways. So, in the village of Helmieh, he
spent the night. Gusts bellowed through the swaying date-palms
overhead, and roared round the courtyard, but his bed was comfortable,
and the house of his good French friends proof against the sand-laden
blasts of the spring storm. He was awakened sufficiently early to
allow of his appearance at roll-call next morning. It was not
according to his nature to rise early from so pleasant a bed, but it
was a matter of discretion.
Many days were passed in the desert, none worse and many better. Troop
days were all right; squadron days were not bad; regimental days were
tolerable at times; but brigade and divisional manoeuvres were
inventions of the devil. On these latter occasions elusive white
flags, the skeleton enemy, appeared and disappeared. Scouts reported
them here, then there. The mounted men advanced in open order, all
except the front line smothered in a fog of dust. Infantry toiled and
sweated after them. The maligned staff viewed from afar the battle
royal. Thankful men received wounds from galloping umpires, and lay
down peacefully to await rescue by the attentive ambulance.
Chastisements descended from great to lesser dignitaries. Why had not
Colonel Macpherson managed to move his flank-guard three miles in two
minutes? So a field day would pass, each rank being roundly condemned
to everlasting perdition by the rank immediately below it, until the
G.O.C., Egypt, and the British Empire, bore the brunt of the awful
damnings. Bad-tempered and dishevelled, the troops would set off on
their homeward march, the final straw being added to the annoyances of
the infantry by the passage to windward of the mounted rifles.
Shrouded in the dust, they levelled their final, terrible threats
against those who would be home two hours before them.
Times there were, too, good times, when the troopers would trek across
the Delta to the Barrage du Nil, a pleasant spot where the Nile divides
into its delta streams and canals. Here they would bivouac for the
night beneath shady plantations of lebbak trees in beautiful gardens.
In the daytime they swam their horses in the river. A jolly form of
amusement there was the blanket-tossing of intruding natives, who were
rather prone to contract those things which did not belong to them; and
no method of discouragement was so efficacious. The "Gyppies" were
fleet of foot, but so were the troopers, and to see a lanky southerner
pursuing a victim was good entertainment. Captured at length and
shrieking in abject terror, they would go flying skyward from the
tautened blanket. But, alas, the blankets were of Government
manufacture, and occasionally, upon the victim's meteoric return, would
split in two. Thus many blankets were rent in twain, and thus did many
dusky ones learn that the belongings of the troopers were sacred
property.
And so Egyptian days passed light-heartedly enough. That was before
the serious times, before they had been involved in the real fierce
thing. And now few of them ride together any longer. Many will ride
no more, and others are scattered over the earth.
CHAPTER VII
MAC GOES TO CAIRO
The camp lay listless in the glaring heat of high noon. Long rows of
tents gleamed dazzlingly in the sun. Saddlery, horse-rugs, nose-bags
and gear were untidily scattered about. Except for the sleepy figure
of the horse-picket, attempting vainly to keep his lanky person within
the shadow of the feed-trough, there was no one in sight. The horses
needed little attention. With heads low and legs crooked, they dozed
in every attitude of siesta. Within the open tents lay the human
element, more or less replete after the seldom varying meal of sandy
stew and bread. Most of the men slept, stretched full length upon rush
matting on the shady sides of the tents. Some wore trousers, some
shirts and some neither.
Stretched full length upon his back, his head supported upon his
neighbour's chest, and his eyes idly following the ceaseless procession
of flies round the tent pole, Mac smoked and pondered deeply: was it
worth the fag to go to Cairo? Knowing full well that his last three
weeks' shirts and socks awaited washing, he decidedly dutifully to
remain at home, though possibly he might take the air, and probably the
beer, of Heliopolis in the evening. However, his good intentions were
ruthlessly upset, for at that moment the interior of his desert
domicile was swiftly converted into a swirling tornado of dust and
dirt. Blankets, towels and hay departed upwards, and all was turmoil.
In five seconds the air was calm again, but not so the eight
inhabitants of the canvas home.
Emerging from repose and a fog of grimy dust, they condemned Egypt and
things Egyptian in no uncertain tones. They had washed and eaten, and
had settled down comfortably for the afternoon, and why had this
confounded blanky cyclone selected their blanky tent to blanky well
empty itself upon! Often during the midday heat, "weary Willies,"
swirling spiral columns of sand 1,000 feet high, wandered in slow
procession along the edge of the desert from the north-east, usually
missing the camp, but sometimes crossing it, leaving a narrow trail of
chaos and ill temper. Mac met the situation with admirable dignity and
philosophy. This disturbance decided the Cairo question--he would go.
Still muttering wrathfully, the tent's complement sought their
individual towels and gravitated independently and sorrowfully towards
the shower-baths.
Three-quarters of an hour later found Mac, suitably adorned, sitting on
a bench at Helmeih Station having his boots and bandolier polished by
four jabbering, disreputable "Gyppie" youngsters, who swore glibly the
while the most lurid English oaths. Incidentally, they often
terminated an exceptionally fluent flow with "Eh, Mistah Mickkenzie?"
the usual mode of native address to New Zealanders after the High
Commissioner's visit, which sometimes ruffled Mac's dignity, but more
often amused him. His toilet was cut short by the arrival of the
train, so, seizing bandolier and spurs and dropping a few coins, he
jumped into a second-class compartment with but one boot clean of
desert sand. Rattling through Palais de Koubbeh and Demerdache, he
considered what he might do with himself now he had quitted camp.
Money was not so plentiful as in those palmy days when they had set
foot in this Orient land with two months' pay behind them. "Special
prices," too, were quoted for these men from the south. However, it
was a lot of trouble to think on such an afternoon; he would decide it
later. At any rate a shave was felt to be the most overpowering
necessity, though, really, the desert did make one thirsty! A shave
would be the second item.
In a small inferior café near the Boulak Station, he discovered Jock,
an artilleryman he knew, and together they satisfied their thirst;
neither had formed any plan for the afternoon, so both welcomed the
idea of spending it in company. They adjourned to the barber's.
Shaving in Sahara sand appealed not to Mac's heart, and, failing visits
to Cairo, mornings found him in an evil mood with a painful task before
him.
Shaving over, and Mac's other boot cleaned, a little sight-seeing was
suggested as a modest and inexpensive way of passing the afternoon.
The Pyramids were stale, besides being a dickens of a distance off.
The gunner voted for the Citadel, and Mac didn't mind, though he had
been there once already. They made their way towards a gharry stand,
and, spurning clamouring drivers from their path, comfortably seated
themselves in the one which appeared to sport the best pair of Arab
horses. Their feet supported upon the opposite seat, blue wisps of the
best Egyptian tobacco smoke trailing over the hood behind, they set
off. Scanning the Oriental life surging round them, criticizing Arab
methods of dressing sheep, amused by the scribes and
money-changers--dirty though prosperous-looking sharpers--and so on and
so forth, they passed slowly down the long Sharia-Mahommed Ali, between
the frowning walls of two great Mosques, where the cannon balls of
Napoleon are still fast in the stone, and then up the sharp incline
into the Citadel itself.
Leaving the Arab driver in a paroxysm of tears because he had received
only one-third more than his lawful fare, Jock and Mac passed by the
sentries, through the cavernous mouth of the main gate into the inner
precincts of the Citadel. How powerful a fortress in days gone by it
must have been, they thought, but how short lived and unavailing it
would prove before modern artillery. They came to a halt before the
great Mosque of Mahommed Ali, and the fine, tapering minarets met with
their deepest approval. At the entrance they assumed the apologetic
sandals and were taken in hand by an obtrusive dragoman, who, besides
impressing them with his own importance, related with small
appreciation of truth fabulous facts concerning the edifice. They duly
noted his salient pronouncements, rewarded him with a few piastres and
"imshi yallah'ed" in duet when he demanded more. Then, in the late
afternoon sunlight, they stood on the edge of the cliff without. There
they talked of many things while looking out over that weird,
mysterious city, over its forests of graceful minarets, towards the
green delta beyond; across the Nile to the west where the Pyramids of
Gizeh stood silhouetted against the setting sun, and down into the
gloom in the valley to the east, where, silent and deserted, lay the
City of the Dead.
Stirred into activity once more by feelings of emptiness and thoughts
of their weekly square meal, they turned their backs upon the glory of
the Egyptian evening and wandered down to the depths again. They
jostled their way through the throng, human and animal, which made
progress difficult and the atmosphere strong. Spotting a couple of
donkeys in the charge of one Arab donkey boy, they schemed with each
other with a view to his undoing.
"Very gude, Noo Zealand," said the dusky one when approached. "Gib it
twenty piastres for stashion."
"All right, ole sport. You'll get it at t'other end, and make your
blanky bone-bags go. Savvy?"
They proceeded fairly satisfactorily at first, Ahmed only having to be
occasionally reprimanded for not producing sufficient speed on the part
of his donks. Then, while the Arab was in front of Mac, vainly
endeavouring to persuade Jock's mount to proceed less swiftly, Mac
quietly took a turning to the left. The Arab went twenty-five yards
farther before he missed him. In violent excitement he tore after him
and besought him to stop.
"All right, you black diamond," said Mac cheerfully, and remained
standing in the street.
The Arab, his fears at rest, chased the other soldier, but as soon as
the native had disappeared round the corner, Mac moved on again. The
same thing happened in the case of the gunner, who halted immediately
the Arab arrived. The latter wanted to lead the donkey in the
direction of the trooper, but the gunner was obstinate and insisted
that his was the correct way. In a frame of mind too horrible to
contemplate, the Arab disappeared once more in pursuit of the trooper,
only to find he had entirely evaporated. In the throes of the greatest
dilemma of his life he returned, to learn that the worst had come to
pass and the gunner and his donkey also were gone from his sight.
"Allah! Oh, Allah!" he wailed, and, burying his head in his long blue
skirts, he dissolved into tears.
By devious ways Mac and Jock journeyed onwards, until, happy and
laughing at having for once done a nigger in the eye, they rejoined at
the Obelisk Restaurant, where they turned their borrowed steeds adrift.
Coming weekly as it did, dinner in Cairo was an affair of some length,
and, between shandies and cigarettes, it was already late when it was
_mafeesh_. They strolled along the streets and were about to drop into
the Café Égyptien, when they espied a fellow-countryman struggling with
a donkey. They went to his assistance, to discover that the donk-man
was, quite unnecessarily, attempting to stop a bottle of beer being
poured down the donk's throat. This promised sport, so Jock quickly
procured four more bottles of cheap beer and they joined the third
soldier in his estimable effort. Abdul had secured an assistant
against this vile outrage to his animal, but he was temporarily put out
of action by having the reins made fast round his lower extremities.
The donk rapidly absorbed three bottles, while the distracted "Gyppies"
tugged and wailed, "No gude! No gude! Finish Noo Zealand!" to which
the only reply was "Imshi Yallah, you black devils." At this stage the
little beast, an animal of rather miserable dimensions, with a large,
rotund centrepiece, escaped and wobbled ridiculously down the street.
He was recaptured, drenched with two more bottles, and let loose to
wander wherever his tottery legs would carry him. The donk swayed and
stumbled, his ears cocked at all angles, and his expression happy and
foolish. The gathered soldiers laughed till their sides were sore, and
when tired of this fun they let the Arabs take away, as best they
could, their ill-used, though happy, ass.
The hour had grown late. To the station the trooper and the gunner
wended their way. A short sleep in the train, a tired walk campwards
in the clear coolness of the Egyptian night, and to bed on the open
sand beneath a starry vault. "Lights out" sounded clearly in their
camp, and echoed more beautifully and faintly from other camps along
the desert's edge.
CHAPTER VIII
MAC TOURS IN COMFORT
Mac sighed appreciatively. If Egypt was to be seen, this was
undoubtedly the way to see it. On the whole it had been an exceedingly
profitable little bit of diplomacy, coupled with good luck, that had
attached him to a party of distinguished people, whose privilege it was
to be shown Egypt as the Government chose to show it. He lay
comfortably in his bed smoking. Travelling in this manner appealed to
him. His first tastes of Egyptian railway travelling, in dirty,
clanking boxes, which required disinfecting, had not been pleasant.
Now, from the darkened cabin of a saloon car on the Cairo-Luxor express
de luxe, he watched the fleeting vista of moonlit palms, sleeping
villages, and silhouetted hills.
He had left New Zealand some six months before with the intention of
slaying Germans, not of touring in luxury in Egypt, but he was not
averse to these interim enjoyments. The war could wait, and anyhow at
that particular moment it was hardly showing any inclination of
stopping, and neither was Zeitoun Camp a place of unmixed blessings.
Arrived at this state of mental satisfaction, he threw the remnants of
his cigarette out of the window and went to sleep.
When he awoke, they were rattling over a Nile bridge, and the sun shone
full in upon him. The early morning scene of industrious blue-robed
fellaheen at work in the green fields, the graceful palms, desert
hills, and blue sky thrilled the one artistic fibre which had strayed
into his soul. He shaved at leisure, bathed luxuriously, dressed, and
met the other four members of the party in the saloon for breakfast.
Towards the end of the meal they steamed into Luxor, where once stood
the ancient and wonderful Theban capital.
Here many days were passed, investigating tombs and temples of all
shapes and sizes; great and wonderful hieroglyphics were explained,
though these left the trooper cold. They rode on donkeys deep into the
deserts, followed by Sudanese guards on fine Arab steeds.
From Luxor they duly departed in the direction of Assuan. The direct
distance was not over-long, but the day was blazing hot, the railway
was badly constructed, and the sand filtered steadily into the cars.
It was a comic-opera railway, this narrow-gauge line. The contract for
its construction was let at an exceedingly profitable rate per mile to
a French company. More miles meant more money, so naturally they spun
the thing out and consequently for no apparent reason, the line zigzags
across perfectly level stretches of desert.
Assuan at last. Great nabobs bowed; Mac saluted. The honoured guests
would take the State gharries to their hotel? No? Walk! Impossible!
Great people did not walk. It took much gentle persuasion to convey to
the Mahmoudieh--the Governor of the Province--that the guests wished to
take exercise, now that the cool of the evening was come. His
Excellency was a gentleman of portly proportions, who, at some other
period, may have walked. Despite his dimensions, he was agile and
graceful in his sweeping salaams; when he spoke he emphasized every
word with an appropriate sweep of the arm, and his eyebrows arched and
his eyes bulged in superlative, ecstatic moments. The tassel of his
tarboosh, a little red inverted flowerpot capping the summit, gyrated
violently in moments of excitement. Altogether he was a mighty person.
Perceiving this, the five great ones from the far south paid court to
him, addressed him "Your Excellency this" and "Your Excellency that";
and paid tribute to his lands, to his people, and his province, and
expressed a desire to see his wives. The Mahmoudieh visibly swelled
with pleasure.
Assuan was duly investigated. Much like Luxor, it consisted of a
terrace along the river-bank, of hotels, some clean and comfortable,
some Greek; foreign consulates and banks. Gardens, shaded by palms and
lebbak-trees, made this portion of the town quite habitable. Behind,
on the rising sand-dunes, lay the crowded, stifling mass of native
dwellings, to visit which one's heart must be strong. Bazaars might be
artistic and unique, but as their quaintness and picturesqueness
increased so also did the odours of garlic, the uncleanliness, and the
flies in their myriads.
Time passed pleasantly in Assuan, though at length Mac thought they had
about exhausted most of its possibilities. There were mosques, temples
and bazaars; there was a wild race of desert Bisharin, whose living was
precarious in those days of war, since they had existed by dancing
weird, wild dances for the enlightenment of tourists; there was a
museum, rather a mouldy place like their kind, where were relics of
ages untold, and, much to Mac's amusement, a mummified sheep. He
thought the New Zealand method of freezing much more practicable.
At length, one morning, ere the mist wraiths had vanished, they crawled
slowly southwards across the rich golden sand of the lower Sudanese
desert. It was pleasantly bracing and clear in the early desert
morning, and Mac felt light-hearted and happy, as he gazed across the
distant featureless dunes of sand. Successfully accomplishing a
non-stop run of twenty miles in an hour and a half, they arrived at
Shellal, a village of a few mud huts and a station, a jetty with a
steamer or two, which took travellers farther to the south, to Wadi
Haifa and Khartoum. About the place itself there was little of
interest; it was a one-horse show with a few Arabs, Bedouins and
Sudanese, many flea-bitten mongrels and clouds of flies. But this
island-studded expanse of water was the great Assuan Dam. The gates
had been closed at this season for about a month, and the rising tide
had just reached the floor of the beautiful Temple of Isis, which
stood, half a mile away, perfectly reflected in the calm waters. They
wheezed away over to it in a steam pinnace, got temporarily snagged on
the top of a stray pillar, and eventually disembarked from their
hissing, modern contraption at the very portals, where oft times
Cleopatra and her suite were wont to enter from their state barges.
Mac's rather hazy notions of that lady wrapped her in a halo of
romance, and now he walked the lovely aisles which she had trod. Was
it, he thought, worth while gradually to spoil this wonderful building
for the sake of lucre from twentieth century Egypt?
From the old they went to the new, landing at the eastern end of the
great granite wall that bars the Nile at the head of the foaming first
cataract. Natives pushed them in trollies along the top of the mile
wall. Water roared in great white jets through the sluices, tempering
the blistering heat of the midday hours. It was a wonderful work, this
dam, a great peaceful desert lake above and a turbulent flood below.
They descended by a flight of locks to the quieter water, and steamed
ten or fifteen miles down stream between many islands of red granite,
smoothly polished by the rushing waters of countless centuries. Back
again at Assuan, they embarked on a luxurious river steamer, the
_Sakkara_, and immediately cast off, for down river.
This method of seeing the country took a lot of beating, meditated Mac,
as he lounged back in a low chair on the cool deck, with his sleeves
rolled up, smoking a cigar. The life of the Nile river-bank was deeply
interesting, with a slightly varying background of green fields of
berseem, stately palms and rocky desert hills. How cool the palms
looked, but he knew from experience that the degree of shade ascribed
to them in romantic novels didn't exist in real life. Lulled by the
steady reverberations of the paddle-wheels, conscious internally of a
satisfying lunch and good wine, he fell asleep. When he awoke, they
were manoeuvring carefully up to the bank, and black sailors in Jack
Tar uniform quickly extemporized a landing out of planks.
Drawn up on top of the bank, brightly polished and perspiring, stood a
line of dusky soldiers, presenting arms. At the end of the gang-plank,
his portliness exceeded only by his stateliness, was the great
potentate His Excellency the Mahmoudieh of Assuan. With sweeping
obeisances, he greeted each one in a manner only befitting those who
held his provinces in such deep respect. His demeanour demanded rather
a setting of pillared palace and crimson velvet than a background of
castor-oil bushes and sugar-cane. But he did things properly, did the
Mahmoudieh, showed them Kom Ombo Temple, with all the dignity of the
proprietor, took them to his sugar-mills in his best donkey-drawn
tram-car, and offered them almost everything in his dominions.
Finally, when they re-embarked farther down stream, they warmly bade
farewell to the old boy, told him emphatically of the unapproachability
of his Province, and bowed and waved handkerchiefs until beyond a bend
in the river they lost sight of his memorable shape.
That night the steamer lay moored to the bank near the native town of
Edfu. The skipper was considerably concerned, as he explained with
violent gesticulations, at the possibility of being stranded on the
morrow, as the season of low Nile was at hand. To Mac a day or two in
the middle of the river was a matter of little moment. The quarters
were comfortable, and Zeitoun Camp was no place towards which to hurry.
So, unmoved by the skipper's anxieties, he retired to the lower deck,
and praised the engines to the Sudanese engineer until that gentleman
beamed with pride and his teeth glistened white in the dusk.
In the early hours soon after dawn, they went on donkeys to the Temple
of Edfu. The morning was mysterious and foreboding. Over the whole
country a weird silence reigned and wrapped the towering walls of the
ancient temple in eeriness; there were no clouds, but the sun was like
a great red moon, and all the landscape enveloped in an orange gloom.
They rode in silence, awed strangely by Nature's will. Animals were
restive and gloomy too. They returned to breakfast aboard when the
steamer cast off, and proceeded down river. Soon a hot breath of wind
came from the south, on which great columns of sand swept over the
desert. The gale increased, puffs blew as from a fiery furnace; the
sun became obscured altogether, and soon also the river banks. Bored
by the gloom of his fellow-voyagers and depressed, Mac betook himself
to his state-room, and went to sleep. He woke for lunch, went once
more to sleep, awoke again in the evening when Luxor was reached, and
hastened through the squalid streets to board the saloon car for Cairo.
Even in the gale and the fog of sand the skipper had not managed to
find a convenient mud-bank on which to ground his steamer, and Mac told
him he didn't think he was much of a sport.
He had enjoyed Upper Egypt, especially journeying in so comfortable a
manner, but, after all, it wouldn't be bad fun seeing the boys again,
even if they were at Zeitoun Camp.
CHAPTER IX
MAC LUNCHES WITH THE SULTAN
In the glaring heat of the Egyptian high-noon hours a car drew up
outside the large hotel in the Sharia Kamel and a more or less soiled
and weather-beaten trooper alighted. He made his way up the steps,
across the shady terrace and into the dim cool depths of the pillared
hall. He had been to an excessively sandy inspection that morning
somewhere in the Sahara, and now his mien betokened appreciative
anticipation of a refresher to his dusty throat. After that a wash
would go rather well, perhaps a cigarette, and then lunch. But, alas,
no such luck! Apparently something out of the ordinary was afoot.
Even the dignity of the heavy-weight, superior, self-satisfied, alleged
Swiss _maitre d'hotel_ was for the moment disturbed. Native s'fragis,
neglecting their work, were voluble, gesticulatory, but quite
unintelligible.
Finally, Mac was led to understand that His Serene Highness the Sultan,
learning of his presence at the hotel, had made known the Imperial wish
that he desired to honour the trooper by entertaining him to lunch.
However, there had been grave difficulties in putting the whole affair
in order. Mac had left early for the desert inspection, and several
envoys, calling in regular succession, had been unable to learn his
Christian name. Moreover, it had been deemed necessary to obtain the
assurance of the General Officer Commanding in Egypt that it would be
quite in order to invite a trooper to the palace of His Serene
Highness. But those small difficulties were duly overcome, and now,
twenty minutes before the appointed hour, an extremely gorgeous and
majestic person presented Mac with the Serene invitation.
Now, he had considered it an extravagance to arise sufficiently early
to permit of his being shaved before the parade. Also his garments,
which had wallowed in the mud of Takapau Camp many months ago, were
constructed for a person of smaller dimensions, and his generous
Government had not taken into consideration such occasions as Sultans'
luncheon parties, when designing the uniform. These were small matters
in his mind, and if the Sultan's Imperial wish was to be granted he
should have the trooper, beard, uniform and all. So, with the
immediate dust of the desert removed and with a borrowed but ancient
shako upon his head, he was salaamed down the steps again with unusual
pomp and flourish.
The Royal equipage conveyed him with much dignity down the long Sharia
Abdin and across the great open square to the palace entrance. As he
entered he acknowledged the salute of the gaudy guard in just that
off-hand manner befitting a bush-country shepherd. He was much bowed
into a great room where there was an epidemic of liveried darkies, a
grand chamberlain or so and a few Cabinet Ministers. In common with
the rest, he was subjected to a thorough spring-cleaning with feather
dusters. Before imperturbable and mighty chamberlains, up to his
ankles in crimson carpet and generally struck with the magnificence of
his surroundings, Mac for a moment lost his nerve, but speedily
recovering himself, informed a tarbooshed individual that it was a fine
day. Unfortunately this conversation did not prove fruitful, for,
besides the fact that the subject of the weather in Egypt is a quickly
exhausted topic, the gentleman to whom the remark had been addressed
soon made it evident that he failed to comprehend. However, the
trooper soon unearthed a magnificently emblazoned official from the
Sudan, who happened to be English, and struck up an acquaintance with
him.
A nervous plucking of garments on the part of some of the company
indicated that the prelude was near an end. Slowly the assembly was
ushered from the room, along a hall, up a wonderful staircase, and at
last into the august presence of His Serene Highness. Mac took note of
the contortions through which his predecessors passed, made his bow and
shook hands with becoming dignity, muttered once more that the day was
fine, and backed across the room. All stood round the chamber, and
talked about nothing to no one. Others entered and did their
gymnastics, until the room contained the whole Cabinet, all portly
persons in tarbooshes, the afore-mentioned Sudan gentleman, and a few
British people, one in khaki. Now came the real thing. All in order,
according to their great greatness or their lesser greatness, filed
from the room, Mac bringing up the rear. The dining-room was an
apartment of a gorgeousness, the like of which he had not seen before.
He was accorded the gentleman from the Sudan on one side, and a Cabinet
Minister with an unpronounceable name on the other. The table was oval
and loaded with a munificence of delicacies on dishes of gold and
silver and a riot of strange exotic flowers.
The epidemic of servants in post-impressionist attire had spread to the
dining-hall. Savoury dishes of rare and exceeding excellence appeared
and disappeared in rapid procession. Dusky men switched one dish
silently away before Mac had half tasted its delights and promptly
replaced it by another. Breakfast was some distance in the rear and
this food of kings was more to his palate than sand stew "_à la_
Zeitun," and the wine stood high in comparison to the watered beer of
Ind, Coope. So all went well. The gentleman from the Sudan talked of
many things, and Mac told him nearly all about God's own country. The
Cabinet Minister chipped in occasionally, but scarcely seemed to
comprehend the vastness of a sheep station with 200,000 sheep and only
a score of shepherds to tend them.
Coffee came, cigars followed, and the trooper made hay while the sun
shone.
Eventually a retreat was made to the ante-room. The haze of tobacco
smoke filled the place, and those who had a language in common spoke
cordially one to the other. At length a thrill ran instinctively, it
seemed, through the company, and all became severely courtly once more.
Chamberlains took up their accustomed places, people said formal things
to each other; obeisances were indulged in, hands shaken, courteous
remarks made, and thus the company gradually evaporated. Mac's turn
came. Before His Serene Highness he successfully accomplished his
sweeping earthward curves, thanked the Sultan for his kindness, but,
unaccustomed to the retrograde manner of leaving a room backwards, he
unfortunately found that the door was in the wrong place, and met the
wall with a resounding thwack. However, it was all in the game, even
though he did not think much of this method of quitting a room. So,
leaving by the normal mode, he was soon back in the old spring-cleaning
room, being salaamed, his hat and appurtenances being returned to him
with the usual Oriental ceremony.
Mac was not quite certain of the rest of the programme and was somewhat
surprised to find that the next act was the meeting at the station of
the New High Commissioner for Egypt. However, why not? It was all
very interesting and there was one of the Sultan's cars waiting. So,
waving a return salute to the Sudanese guard, as it presented arms, he
embarked upon this next little jaunt.
Away through the sun-baked Abdin Square again, back along the Sharia
and past the Ezbekieh, he was soon passing down the narrow lane between
throngs of garlic-scented humanity. At the great iron gates of the
Boulak Station, the car with the trooper, solitary and dignified
within, entered the avenue of Sphinx-like dragoons, well polished and
groomed. This led to a square lined with infantry. In the centre on
one side was the Royal door thrown wide, towards which stretched a
broad ribbon of crimson carpet. The car came to a standstill. Nothing
daunted, the trooper descended in solitary state. An unearthly silence
held the throng and to Mac the carpet seemed interminable, but at last
it ended, and, passing through the cavernous, gloomy opening, he was
soon swallowed up in a great crowd of mighty dignitaries. Acres of the
same crimson carpet covered the platform, its far limits bordered by
khaki soldiers. On it moved a kaleidoscopic gallery of tarbooshes, red
tabs and top hats. Never before had top hats been used officially in
Egypt, and, resurrected from long neglect, were mostly relics of a past
decade. Mac thought they were about as suitable for the climate as a
cellular shirt in the Antarctic. Most of the company looked rather
bored, and he could find no one to speak to, for all were apparently
inwardly dwelling too much upon costume and coming formalities. The
train was late. They grew still more bored. At last, hideously
decorated with flags and shrubbery, it rattled in, hissing and
steaming. From a saloon carriage stepped the new arrival, garbed in
court apparel. Taken in charge by some great officials, he was being
introduced to all and sundry. Mac rather wondered under what high
title, he, a mere private, might be introduced. Among all the mighty
men there, the only one he knew was his Army Corps Commander; so,
placing himself at that gentleman's back, he awaited events. Slowly
the lengthy procedure went on, and slowly the bobbing and bowing grew
closer. At length, clad in clothes of finest silk, the great man came
before the General and his staff, when in due course with a graceful
sweep of his feathered hat he acknowledged the introduction of Mac as
one of the general staff. In the course of time it was all over.
Out through the great porch again, out into the air the great people
passed and dispersed. Mac neglected His Serene Highness's Imperial
conveyance and sought a common taxi, went down the khaki lanes and back
to his hotel. There once more he gained a secluded corner, ordered a
drink and unbuttoned the collar of his tunic.
The Sultan did not forget his guest, Mac. Amidst all his busy life, he
heard, nine months later, that his trooper lay wounded and sick in a
hospital at Alexandria. He despatched an envoy to express his deepest
sympathy, his hopes for better health, and a desire to know the extent
of his wounds. Then, when Mac reached England, the Sultan sent further
messages and inquiries concerning the trooper whom he had honoured at
his table at the Abdin Palace.
CHAPTER X
MAC DISAPPROVES OF BEING LEFT
Mac felt fed up. The worst had come to pass. The infantry had gone
away and left them, the mounted men, to sweat and swear in the desert
till the war was over, and Heaven only knew when that would be. He had
been on fatigue to-day for not getting up until an hour after reveille,
and he was in no temper to be trifled with. A foolish non-com. had
taken the fatigue party to the wrong depot, where the O.C., opposed on
principle to a fine body of men wanting for work, saw that they were
not wasted.
After a morning's work, just as they were about to retire for lunch,
the peppery officer who had been foaming all the morning about his
missing men appeared and claimed them, and refused to dismiss them
before they had done his job as well. In the almost unbearable heat,
the party, rebellious and wrathful, had straggled off to the railway
station, where a heavy afternoon's work loomed before them. Saturday
afternoon too, and no dinner! Work! They didn't think! So they
retreated to a shady café, and, despite the expostulations of the
corporal, lunched upon the one satiating thing the place
contained--beer.
This did not fit them for an afternoon on a tropical day, so that, when
the zealous officer came at five to view the completed work, he found
only a collection of happy and sleepy warriors pleasantly reclining in
the shade of a tibbin stack. Awful threats fell unheeded upon them,
and the work remained undone. Further refreshed, they meandered
homewards, attempted vainly to maintain a comparatively straight line
while they were dismissed by an amused sergeant-major, and retired to
their lines to prepare for a Cairene evening.
Mac firmly resolved things had come to a pass when something dire had
to be done. He adjourned to the lines of another regiment, and
consulted, nay, intrigued, with his cobber. The result was that each
one's officer was approached by a trooper, who made clear the vital
necessity of his visiting the site of ancient Memphis and the Tombs of
Sakkara on the morrow. This was in the interests of his archaeological
researches, and he pleaded special leave. One officer only came up to
scratch, which was but a minor difficulty. Other means could be
resorted to for ensuring comparative safety. Military police and some
of the sergeants, especially if friends, were not averse to persuasion.
So it came to pass that eight o'clock the following morning found them
dodging military policemen and staff officers on a platform of the
Boulak station. They succeeded in ensconcing themselves in the
Alexandria express without much difficulty, the only incidents being
the upsetting of the equilibrium of a native railway official, a guard
or so, and a few porters. Alexandria at eleven. Their first act was
to satisfy their long-standing appetites. Then to the docks they went,
to fulfil, if possible, their mission, which was not archaeological
research, but to follow their infantry to the north. They searched
along the quays to see if any possibility offered of slipping aboard an
outbound transport. Alas, the only vessel there cast off while they,
barred by a hopeless line of sentries, gazed sadly on. They hired a
Greek sailing-boat, to investigate the vessels in harbour, but were
only marooned by him on an American warship. They would know better
next time than to trust a Greek and pay him first.
Relieved later in the afternoon from this predicament, the troopers
betook themselves once more to the French café, where, enamoured of the
mam'selle, time passed pleasantly. "Café, chocolate, and demoiselles
très bonne Oui." At any rate, if they had missed escaping from Egypt,
there were worse ways than this of spending the day.
Late at night, tired, piastreless, and with forebodings of the mat, but
happy and careless, they arrived back in Cairo. By devious ways they
reached their camp and their tents; and spread their blankets in the
open, under the stars. There was probably a large dose of fatigue in
store, and a few hours would see the rise of the sun over the
sand-hills to the east, the dawn of another day of heat, dust, flies,
and work. But they had given play to their spirits; and so, with the
philosophy of the average bush-whacker and stockman, they went
contentedly to sleep.
CHAPTER XI
MAC LEAVES FOR ACTIVE SERVICE
Egypt blistered in the early summer heat; flies increased in myriads;
clouds of locusts darkened the sky; and hot winds blew, scorching and
parching everything. The infantry had vanished to the north, to
perilous adventures in the unknown; and the mounted men were grieved to
the very depths of their souls to be left thus behind to stagnate on
this sun-baked Sahara. The days passed monotonously, with perpetual
grooming and exercising, and the noonday hours spent beneath the palms,
alleged to be shady.
Cairo was a past delight. Its romance had gone; the weird mystery of
the Oriental city had lost its fascination; and no incense-laden,
music-haunted, brightly-coloured corner remained unexplored. Cairo was
wonderful; but Cairo was filthy. The troopers had tasted of its
delights, and were satiated.
Grousing was rife in the camp and the troopers were nervy. The
proprietors of the camp picture theatre had offended the fellows, who
showed their displeasure by partially burning the building. One
evening, to break the monotony, some of the men surreptitiously
extracted a couple of casks of unwatered beer from the brigade canteen.
They rolled the barrels some distance across the sand, and proceeded to
enjoy themselves. The excited Greek barmen, early discovering the
loss, turned out the guard. Following the tracks in the sand, they
soon found the merrymakers, routed them, and recovered a little beer.
The guard took their toll, and returned the balance to the outraged
Greeks. A small Armenian general goods shop chose to over-charge, with
the result that the vainly-expostulating merchant found his lean-to
razed to the ground before his eyes.
Mac himself suffered from a severe overdose of C.B. So did his cobber
Smoky. They had had the awful misfortune to be detected at an early
hour one morning making their way to their lines. It had been sheer
bad luck that had done it. If Smoky had not insisted on appropriating
from the supply depot some "tinned cow" and a few small jars of beef
extract, all would have gone well. Creaking boards had started the
trouble, and a conscientious sentry had put the tin hat on it. Ten
days was the sentence--not that it mattered so much, for C.B. meant
little beyond having to go out without passes by back ways--rather a
nuisance if one were in a hurry for the train. But it was the
conscientious sentry which annoyed them. Why should the fool be so
bally unreasonable as to report? They, the trooper and Smoky, were not
so beastly particular when they did guard. In fact, such occasions
offered unique opportunities for replenishing the private larders of
their respective tents. New Zealand social theory held that one man
was as good as another, so why should not they, as well as the
officers, live upon the fat of the land, or such of it as could be got
at Zeitoun Camp. Those were the days before army discipline was fully
appreciated.
Other troubles were also theirs. C.B. was indeed a very minor ailment
compared with their piastreless condition. The trip to Alexandria had
absorbed all their available capital, earned and borrowed. Some coon,
also, had stolen the trooper's washing from the line between the tents,
and his wrathful mutterings against the miserable perpetrator of this
horrible crime was awful to hear; but, privately, the trooper was
keeping an eye open for some one else's washing. Both had aches in
their left arms from the M.O.'s latest injection, and altogether they
considered themselves much-abused, long-suffering soldiers.
Vague rumours floated round, some doubtless originating from that
indispensable apparatus of every camp, the backyard wireless station.
No great reliance could be placed upon such information, but
occasionally statements based on much more stable foundations
circulated. That a troop-train was standing in the siding at Palais de
Koubbeh, and that there were several transports moored in Alexandria,
was absolutely positive proof that the N.Z.M.R. were about to land in
Asia Minor or to be at Constantinople in a week or two. Other proofs
were not lacking--a super-abundance of staff officers in the vicinity,
or confidences from the orderly room clerk. Then came the definite
fact, and the wireless was temporarily idle.
It was a Wednesday night. The brigadier himself asked the brigade
whether they would volunteer to go to Gallipoli as infantry.
Well, it was not too good leaving the horses; they would have preferred
going into action with the "prads" but they didn't mind doing anything
to get out of this God-forsaken country and into the real thing. So
all was business; grouses were forgotten and a new day dawned. Each in
his own way set about squaring up his kit, his saddlery and his affairs
generally.
Mac overhauled his with much care and thoughtful consideration. Into
his base kit went those things which would come in handy in
Constantinople. He had heard it was a cold place in winter-time, so
therein went six complete suits of warm underclothing, and many
superfluous comforts from his thoughtful mother. He knew she had put
much work into many of these small knick-knacks, and valued them
accordingly, though they were of little material benefit in this
flaming spot. In another neat pile he had those articles which were
absolutely essential for Gallipoli; but he was soon faced with the
horrible reality that there was at least three times too much for his
equipment.
He culled several times, the final combing causing much mental strain
and strong will. Into a barley sack went his saddlery, with a reserve
of many straps, buckles and horse-brushes, all collected at odd
moments. Rifle, revolver, field-glasses, everything underwent a
thorough overhaul. Ammunition was clipped and forced into the leather
pouches of bandoliers, which equipment appeared neither to be meant for
nor accustomed to such practical use.
Forty-eight hours after the first warning, the last night came. A
subdued murmur arose from the camp. Some busied themselves with final
preparations; some glided silently away from the zone of flickering
candle-light, towards the horse-lines to give a parting pat to their
faithful horses, a sad farewell for many; some joined the cheery crowd
who were making the most of their last moments at the canteen; and
others, less careless and more sober-minded, sought a few moments of
sleep.
At eleven o'clock they fell in on their last parade in Egypt, though
few regretted that. Nevertheless, when it came to the pinch, it was a
little sad to leave the old camp, where, happily enough, they had
passed six months of sun and sandstorm. A rough crowd they looked,
these amateur infantrymen, overloaded with awkward, extemporized gear.
They stood silent, for thoughts ran deep now that they were at last on
the brink of the real thing, a moment towards which they had looked so
long. The roll was called. Mac mentioned that he had left something,
and slipped away to give the old mare a farewell stroke. Words of
command echoed through the stillness, and soon the whole brigade was
marching, as best it could, down the road towards the station. There
were lusty cheers as they passed the guard tent from those whose turn
had not yet come. The column turned to the left, and gradually the
reverberating tread of heavily-laden men grew fainter in the distance.
So went the mounted brigade; and as they went to the north, following
their infantry into the unknown, Mac and Smoky forgot their C.B.,
forgot their stiff arms and their piastreless condition--they thought
only of the future.
CHAPTER XII
GALLIPOLI AT LAST
The sun had just risen when the train, a clattering collection of
third-class cars, jangled laboriously over the low elevation on which
Alexandria stands. With a series of nerve-racking spasms, it came to a
halt on the water-front, where lay several large transports absorbing
men, horses and stores.
With some difficulty and many lurid epithets, the troopers slowly
disengaged themselves from the unhealthy boxes, and gathered in sleepy
groups to await developments, a thing they were in the habit of doing
for long periods at a time. Mac and Smoky availed themselves of the
first opportune moment, when all who mattered were engaged in
calculations and scraps of paper, to disappear in the direction of a
small buffet whence came a tempting rattle of crockery and an aroma of
tea.
Here, even at this early hour, the good English ladies of Alexandria
were dispensing refreshing tea and cakes to the soldiers.
Later they filed on board, and were taken, each unit to its own
mess-deck, to deposit their gear. Mac's own troop had just completed
the disintegration of themselves and their kit and the satisfactory
stowage of it, when it was discovered that they were in the wrong part
of the ship. Of course, that sort of thing was only to be expected,
but Smoky was particularly annoyed, as he had succeeded in procuring
the snuggest corner of the place. So, muttering and growling, they
gathered up their goods and chattels, and shoved and groused along
crowded alley-ways. Embarkations and disembarkations always were a
severe trial of the temper.
They eventually got settled again, and soon divested themselves of
unnecessary clothing and equipment. Then Mac and Smoky deemed it the
most tactful course to seek a secluded corner of the boat deck, not
infested by blustering non-coms, seeking fatigue parties. They
proceeded to go to sleep in the shady security of the lee side of a
life-boat; but, as ill luck would have it, their own sergeant soon
spotted them, and it was useless to pull his leg.
It was a loading fatigue, of course, and they were sent away along the
water-front to shove trucks about. They eventually selected one and
brought it down alongside their ship. Black, greasy, heavy cooking
apparatus it was, which had to be carried up the steep gangways and
transported to the bowels of the ship.
During the rest of the day, they mostly slept in quiet corners of the
ship.
Soon after dark they sailed. The vessel manoeuvred slowly through the
breakwaters, and passed out on the calm waters of the Mediterranean.
The low, blacker line of the Egyptian shore grew less distinct, and the
numerous lights of the port came closer and closer together, faded into
a dim halo and merged at length into the black sweep of the horizon.
So passed Egypt from the sight of many; with the gurgling monotone of
the propeller, they reeled off the knots of water which separated a
past of careless happy-go-lucky days from a future of unfathomable
depth.
There were no hammocks nor bunks on board the _Grantully Castle_.
Either it was not considered necessary that soldiers should sleep or
else, perhaps, that they were not at all particular. Anyhow there were
worse places than hard decks to sleep on. Mac and Smoky scorned the
fuggy atmosphere of the lower decks, and proceeded to select a breezy
spot on the after boat-deck. They loosened the canvas cover of a
lifeboat, levelled oars and other prominent obstacles, and disposed
their scanty bedding to the best possible advantage on this uneven
ground. The experiment was not altogether an unqualified success and
minor disadvantages made themselves apparent during the passage of the
night. The oars were rigid and uneven, and the breeze and the cold
penetrated from both above and below. Still they stuck it out, and for
the most part slept.
The following day fled by speedily and uneventfully. All gear was
overhauled and guards were mounted; spare time was passed in gambling.
Those who had money wanted to get rid of it. It was of no more value;
in the future it counted for nothing, so large stakes were won and
lost. Mac refrained from this indulgence, not that he was a
conscientious objector, but, alas, he had no piastres wherewith to
beguile the hours. His last two had been burst in one wild rapture on
indigestible cake at the ship's canteen.
That night Mac was detailed for ship's guard. His duty it was to stand
at the starboard quarter alongside a life-buoy, which he was to hurl at
any fool of a trooper who unwittingly fell overboard. He was to report
speedily of such affairs as submarines, fires and so forth.
During the long night watches, he forgot, more or less, all about his
duty, and meditatively regarded the whirling wave as it seethed away
into the darkness. All was silence, except for the mumble, mumble,
mumble of the propellers. They were in the AEgean Archipelago and
islands passed in an unbroken procession of indistinct shadows. Mac's
thoughts were far away, and he was thinking of just such a night off
Pelorus Sound, when a "Wake up, old sport! Time's up!" brought him
suddenly to the present. He found Smoky had made a comfortable
"possie" underneath two lifeboats and was sleeping soundly. He
muttered only a few protesting groans on being shoved into his own
share of the possie; and soon Mac had joined his cobber in the sound
undisturbed slumber of an ordinary trooper.
The next day passed in much the same manner; but, alas, the night--Mac
and Smoky were blusteringly ejected from their bivvie by an officious
sergeant, who said that the poop boat-deck was holy ground reserved for
machine-gunners and men on guard. So they retired to the upper deck,
and sought a spot whereon to lay their bones; but the ship was very
full, and space limited. In an ill-considered moment they settled down
partly under a seat, where passengers had sat in the palmy days of
peace, and partly in an open gangway. It proved an evil spot. Each
changing guard trod on them, and retreated with awful blasphemy echoing
in their ears. Then it chose to thunder, and rain fell in torrents.
Not only from the skies, but also from the deck above it came in
fountains, until the troopers were wretched in the extreme. There was
no refuge whence to flee. Leaving their oil sheets and blankets meant
only greater damp, so they stuck it out.
By daylight the rain had lessened, and the troopers, bedraggled and
sleepy, disentangled themselves from the sodden blankets, and set about
getting things in order. Smoky gathered up the wet clothes and
surreptitiously made his way to the engine-room, where he selected a
not too conspicuous steam main on which to hang them.
It was a damp grey morning. The vessel was steaming very slowly
towards where appeared dimly through the mist a host of vessels of all
descriptions, war-ships, transports, hospital ships and small craft.
Ahead loomed the land, not very high, and indistinct in the rain.
At last, Gallipoli! The trooper regarded it suspiciously. It looked
miserable, and he felt likewise. After the long, bright months in
Egypt, the damp penetrated his bones, and he hadn't had breakfast.
Anyhow, he supposed it wouldn't be so bad, and went off downstairs for
a wash.
When Mac and Smoky, having breakfasted, disentangled themselves from
the Bedlam of a troop-deck meal, and gained the upper air, they were in
better humour to regard their surroundings from a philosophical, if not
an appreciative, standpoint. The depressing drizzle had ceased, the
clouds were breaking, and the shore, except for the mist-filled nullahs
and the cloud-wrapped Asiatic hills, showed up more clearly in the
morning light.
The _Grantully_ had anchored about half a mile from the fort at Seddul
Bahr, which with the castle and the village was shattered and forlorn.
An untidy medley of tents, mules and stores of all description, covered
the seaward slope and the beach to the left. Small craft passed
rapidly to the shore from many French and British transports. Great
men-o'-war, grey and cold, lay without sign of life; destroyers cruised
slowly and meditatively, and pinnaces foamed along in energetic haste.
The two troopers watched the scene with interest. They were still very
hazy as to the actual degree of the success of the landing, or really
how far across the Peninsula the original force had progressed. The
papers said everything had been wonderfully successful, but Mac was
rather sceptical. At any rate, they were not wasting any time in
pushing the mounted men in as infantry. The future was obscure and
uncertain; but, with a feeling of eerie anticipation, he felt the
freshness of the dawn of a new mysterious life, when men met men in
mortal fight, when the false standards of civilization went to the
devil, and man was man. It was good to be alive; to be one of that
brigade of fine hefty fellows on the edge of the great adventure, when
they would join in the greatest sport on earth.
From across the misty uplands to the north-east, like the crushing of a
cart over a gravelly road, came the rattle of musketry fire. Then, as
the visibility increased, war-ships manoeuvred into position, and fired
slowly and deliberately at unknown inland targets. Occasionally the
troop-ship shook from the shattering crash of the _Queen Elizabeth's_
guns. Reflecting was not one of the trooper's habitual occupations;
but undoubtedly these first scenes and sounds of the real thing were
occasions for thought. A bugle-call for parade cut short further
philosophizing, and preparations for disembarkation found him faced
with questions far more worthy of mental effort than un-trooper-like
sentiments concerning what might or what might not occur in the future.
The leading difficulty was, of course, to get twice the permitted
amount of equipment into the kit, and some must be discarded. He had
two blankets, and decided to dispose of the lighter, then, changing
into a clean shirt, he threw away the old one. Everything was finally
reduced to the absolute minimum, and packed as neatly as possible in
the temporary kit.
* * * * *
Cape Helles was not the destination of the Mounted Rifle Brigade. In
mid-afternoon the _Grantully_, under slow steam, passed northwards
along the coast thirteen miles, and dropped anchor again in the middle
of another fleet of transports about two miles off Anzac. All traces
of the morning gloom had gone; and, to the troopers, accustomed so long
to the low, barren sand-dunes of Egypt, these high Gallipoli hills and
islands, bathed in the glory of an AEgean evening, brought memories of
other coast-lines, Cook Strait maybe, or the Great Barrier.
The fellows crowded along the landward rail, and, with or without
glasses, endeavoured to discover battle-signs and the positions of our
men. There were across the steep green hillsides several great scars,
where the scrub was withered and the bare earth showed; but surely our
main line was over that high ridge, for reports stated that the army
corps had penetrated several miles. The artillery was awakening to its
evening activity, field guns could be seen firing, and shells bursting
on high crests. Heavy shells, learned later to be those from the
_Goeben_ in the Dardanelles Channel, shrieked occasionally out of the
unknown, and sent up great geysers of water near a four-funnelled
cruiser to the right. A steady staccato of rifle fire floated faintly
from the heights.
The evening shadows deepened to darkness; the stars shone brightly, and
against them the land stood in a black, shapeless mass.
Many lights from the bivouacs on the seaward slope gleamed like a
miniature Wellington across the water. War seemed difficult to
reconcile with so serene and perfect a night.
Two destroyers came alongside, one on the port, the other on the
starboard. Struggling with their unwieldy equipment, the troopers
filed down the gangways on to them. Mac sat down by the engine-room
manhole and listened to great and wonderful stories from the leading
stoker of dashes up the Narrows, long patrols in winter storms, and
thrilling times during the landing.
They spun away shorewards. The hills loomed blacker overhead and the
dim staccato of rifle fire became a ceaseless rattle.
Spent bullets buzzed past and hit the water with a "plop." This was
interesting, and, with a thrill of pleasure, Mac felt at last he was
under hostile fire. For days--indeed, for months--he had been worried
internally by a great doubt. Would he be a funk? He was in a
frightful funk lest he should be one, and to him this was a matter of
great concern, though he mentioned it to no one, not even to Smoky. He
wondered whether his cobber was affected in the same way, but thought
not, as he was so keen to get to the front. So he had felt a little
ashamed. Well, anyhow, now he was entering the danger zone, he
experienced no abdominal sinking, such as one might expect under these
circumstances. His mind was relieved; and, with the full joy of life,
he turned with interest towards the steep hills.
Bells clanged below and the engines stopped and reversed, and, with a
seething of water, the destroyer lost way. Out of the darkness loomed
several unwieldy lighters, splendidly admiralled by a slip of a middy.
They came alongside and the men swarmed aboard. The lighters moved
lumberingly beachwards. From above, the firing grew loud, and a
falling bullet wounded a man--the first casualty. Men stood silent, or
spoke in subdued murmurs. The whole thing was weird, yet
beautiful--the still glory of the night, the eerie, echoing rattle from
above, and the flickering lights of the bivouacs.
They grounded at last alongside a stranded barge, crossed it, and,
filing down a plank to the shore, gathered in ragged line along the
beach to await orders. What was expected of them that night, none
knew. A few of the earlier arrivals, not too fully occupied with work
or sleep completely to ignore them, welcomed them warmly, and
immediately launched into long-winded accounts of previous fighting.
With an air of conscious superiority, they gave them hints and advice,
and told vividly of trials, troubles and dangers. All this the
new-comers accepted unchallenged and with deep respect.
The narrow beach, or those parts of it not occupied by great piles of
stores, or limbers and water-carts, was a seething mass of humanity and
mules. Few of the men spoke, beyond a welcoming "How do, cobber," or a
"Glad you've come, mate." They appeared out of the darkness and passed
into it again with an air of steady practical purpose. Ant-like, they
passed in continual streams from barges to stacks of boxes, whose size
rapidly increased.
At length the brigade filed off along the stony beach to the left,
halted frequently, while stray bullets passed with a low whirr overhead
and out to sea; and turned finally up a deep ravine to the right.
On the steep, scrub-covered sides they were ordered to bivouac for the
night. Things were not too comfortable, but that was no cause for
complaint. Mac and Smoky forced themselves under a holly bush,
enveloped themselves in their oil-sheets, and braced their feet against
stems of shrubs to prevent their sliding down the fifty degree slope.
There was no cessation of the firing, and, in this ravine each report
reverberated from one clay cliff to another in ringing, resonant notes.
There were no other signs or sounds of fighting--only this musical din
coming from the starry vault above.
The trooper thought a terrific battle must be raging, and pitied the
poor fellows in the trenches. He learned later it was just Abdul's
normal method of spending the night when he had the wind up. These
sounds were not disturbing, and soon the cobbers, for the first time,
were asleep under fire.
CHAPTER XIII
MAC JOINS IN THE WAR
Mac's first morning at Anzac was one of deep interest. He regarded his
surroundings rather more after the fashion of a Cook's tourist than of
a soldier; or, maybe, he more closely resembled a schoolboy at his
first circus. No time was wasted over a scratch breakfast--bully beef
and biscuits were consumed more as a duty than a pleasure. Then,
together with many others of equally inquiring frame of mind, he betook
himself to the crest of the ridge which shut in the ravine on the
north. The scene from there was indeed pleasing--a sapphire sea
meeting a widely sweeping beach, a green, tree-dotted flat, and some
scrub-covered hills, all sparkling with dew and bathed in the clear,
tempered sunshine of an early summer morning. Mac's first impressions
of Turkey left nothing to be desired, and there seemed promise of
excellent bathing.
He gathered up shrapnel pellets and bits of shell casing, and with the
true instinct of a globe-trotter, thought already of mementoes to take
home. His tourist tendencies, however, soon evaporated, for he was
sent round on a fatigue to the landing, whence he returned a sweating,
blowing trooper, with a handleless, uncovered, paraffin tin of water.
As he stumbled back along the stony beach an enemy battery opened fire
without, it appeared, the Turks having precise knowledge of their
target, or else their observation was inferior. To them, ignorance was
bliss, just as the consistency with which they dropped salvos of four
shells about two hundred yards out to sea, was bliss to Mac. Moreover,
the paint-brush-like splash of the flying fragments demonstrated
exactly what military instructions had been endeavouring to impress
upon him for months concerning the field covered by a bursting shrapnel
shell.
It had not been a great strain on the intellect of the enemy to deduce
that the appearance of so many interested sightseers on the skyline
indicated the presence of fresh troops in the donga below, and he
consequently set about shelling it. Mac's regiment departed for the
trenches at this juncture, and so missed the excitement. They kept
along the shore for a short distance, then turned to the right, and
started straight up the steep, narrow badly-graded paths towards the
more or less flat summit, where they were to relieve an infantry
battalion. The sun was hot, and the way was steep, not to mention the
weighty burden of equipment. The cool sea drew farther away as they
soared gradually skywards, panting and perspiring. They reached their
trenches at last, pushed themselves along ditches too narrow to take
simultaneously both them and their gear, cast loving epithets at
telephone wires which caught their rifles, and waited interminable
times for the man ahead to move on. Towards midday, after dodging
backwards and forwards, time and again, like a freight train in a
railway yard, they collapsed at last in their appointed positions.
By evening Mac was thoroughly settled in his new home, and no longer
did he regard his situation as being in the least unique. He reviewed
the field of fire, studied the landscape, rather an extensive and
interesting one; and had a few long-range shots at Turkish trenches.
There was really no call for this, but it was rather amusing to be
potting away, at last, at an enemy position.
His trench was not an exciting spot, separated, as it was, by a ravine
from the enemy, and being only the protective flank of their own
position.
The mounted men were soon accustomed to the new life, and in three days
they might have been at it for ever. The days passed in a not
unpleasant routine. The fresh, bright, beautiful dawns were slightly
chilly, the early mornings were far from unpleasant, though the noonday
hours were warm, and afflicted with flies and smells; but, beneath the
shade of outstretched blankets and oil-sheets, the troopers whiled away
the time, sleeping mostly, some writing and some playing cards. There
was no reading material in those days.
The afternoon hours dragged drowsily past, until, with the lowering
sun, they woke to prepare the evening meal, the largest of the day.
Culinary operations were strictly limited by the short supply of water,
so that meals were usually confined to bully-beef, biscuits, marmalade,
bacon, or Maconochie. Both Colonials and Turks having completed their
evening repast, the cool, clear evenings were spent by the former in
sniping and artillery practice, and by the latter in expending
wastefully large quantities of small arms ammunition against the
opposite parapets. Then, too, the troopers reassumed their clothing,
most of which had been discarded during the day. As the gloaming
deepened, the sniping ceased, but the Turks, ever mindful of the
possibility of an attack, seldom throughout the night slackened their
fire, which rose spasmodically to violent outbursts, probably in
consequence of optical delusions on the part of a nervy follower of
Mohammed, or, maybe, in response to horse-play on the part of the
invaders. A Maori haka was sometimes responsible for the discharge of
many cases of enemy ammunition.
During the hours of darkness many huddled forms lay in the bottom of
Mac's trench, overlapping and cramped, but, nevertheless, peacefully
sleeping. Here and there stood a sentry, his figure warmly cloaked and
his face periodically lit by the glow from his pipe. Occasionally
bullets hummed threateningly the length of the trench and these Mac
regarded with deep respect, and addressed in words of wrath. The
countless thousands which whistled crosswise over the trench, or else
with a spurt of flame struck the sandy parapet, left him unmoved. The
first half of his sentry-goes passed quickly enough, but the second
dragged a bit, his thoughts being exhausted, and those beastly whirling
enfilading bullets seeming to come more frequently.
At dawn all stood to, absorbed rum, of the liberally watered variety,
exchanged experiences of the night, and smoked. Then the routine of
the day began again, some dissolved once more into sleep, some remained
on guard, and others went on the long weary journey for water.
The first week on Walker's Ridge passed fairly uneventfully, and by the
end of it the garrison looked war-worn veterans. Water was very
scarce, and a shave, much less a wash, altogether out of the question.
In a moment of wild extravagance Mac had burst a couple of
tablespoonfuls on cleaning his teeth. Towards the end of this week,
being in support for twenty-four hours, they were able to go down to
the beach for a bathe. Never was bathing so much enjoyed, nor the
sun-bath after it--it was just like old Maoriland again. There was
always the pop-pop-popping on the hills above, the occasional thud of a
spent bullet in the scrub, and the more or less methodical bursting of
shrapnel shells somewhere along the shore; but all these circumstances
had become so much part of the scene that the troopers were seldom
perturbed. Sometimes a Turkish machine-gunner or sniper became a
little too accurate or shrapnel fell a trifle too thickly on the beach
to be comfortable, and were roundly cursed for their attentions.
On the night of their seventh day ashore, Smoky and Mac communed, and
agreed that campaigning so far had not been particularly trying; that
bully, biscuits, dirty water, and the same trenches were becoming
over-monotonous, and that the time had already come when something
ought to be done.
Their lust for more excitement was partly appeased that night. Old
Abdul supplied the initiative, and later must have regretted it sorely.
Shortly after midnight, the usual nocturnal battle-sounds rose in a
swift crescendo of bursting shells and rattling staccato of machine-gun
fire, which echoed in weird music from cliff to cliff and across the
ravines.
Mac--he was in a support trench--woke with a thrill to this grand din
of battle, speedily assumed his bandolier, water-bottle and revolver,
grasped his rifle, and trundled away up the sap after his disappearing
cobbers.
They bundled up into the support of the main position, which was being
attacked frontally by wave after wave of the enemy, who came on
bravely, but were being mowed down in hundreds by machine and rifle
fire. The defenders, in their eagerness, went out into the open to get
a better field of fire, and to meet Abdul with the bayonet. Mac had
rotten luck. His troop reinforced a flank position, where, no matter
how strongly they used their wills, no Turk would venture. He waited
and watched. In the gathering light of the dawn he could look more
deeply into the scrub that shrouded vision beyond twenty-five yards,
but nothing of interest revealed itself. He passed up ammunition and
absorbed eagerly all tidings brought from the front line by the
returning wounded. As the sun rose, and the firing, instead of coming
in the wild bursts, the lulls, and the wilder squalls of the earlier
morning, decreased to a steady interchange of shots, Mac realized that
the force of the attack was spent. With a deep sadness in his heart he
emptied the breach of his rifle--the rifle which he had tended with
great care and solicitude in anticipation of such an occasion as this.
He cursed gently and sadly as his troop filed sorrowfully back to their
support trench, where, spitefully shelled with shrapnel, he set about
the preparation of a belated breakfast for his section, two of whom had
retired to possies to sleep, and the other to the beach for water.
CHAPTER XIV
A WEARY DAY
Mac sat in the dust, his back against a bank, with his rifle leaning
slantwise across him, and his equipment hanging awkwardly. Beside him
sat Smoky, and both were melancholy. The sun beat strong in upon them,
and the dust clung thickly to their perspiring bodies. The shady side
of the wide communication trench was exposed to shrapnel, which the
Turks had kept up more or less continually since the failure of their
night attack. Against the opposite bank lay a body, half-covered by a
blanket, and the padre was quietly removing the dead man's
identification disc and the contents of his pockets. His two cobbers
had gone on to the top to dig him a grave, and had both been wounded by
shrapnel.
Mac and Smoky were sad. It was not the sorrow of grief, nor yet the
thoughts that a speedy end might any time be theirs; but rather they
were touched partly by the sight of the good old padre silently
removing the soiled, time-worn articles from his pockets, small things
which would be so greatly valued and revered by his people away in a
sunny Wairarapa homestead, and partly the vision of a fine strapping,
cheery fellow passing so rapidly from laughter to cold silence.
Thoughts such as these, deep and sincere as they were, cast but a
passing shadow over their careless, happy natures. Friends of
bush-whacking and shepherding days, camp mates of the past, and casual
cobbers in Cairene escapades day after day went West; and always there
came the momentary sadness, and, maybe, the remark, "Poor old Bill.
They hooked him this morning. He was a good old sport." That was his
requiem and, save for a few stray thoughts in the silent watches of the
night, old Bill went unremembered.
The Turkish dead lay thick between the lines; but there was no knowing
whether they had finally abandoned the attack. Their shelling
continued, and the rifle fire indicated a nervous temperament.
Consequently the squadron still remained in reserve as near as possible
to the firing line. Mac could see through a sap which ran to the edge
of the precipice the beach and the cool, wonderfully cool-looking
water. The few lucky beggars were splashing there, for practically
every man was up in the firing-line. There were no troops to spare in
those days--the line was but thinly held, and, if the Turks broke
through anywhere, the whole position must be involved in disaster.
The day dragged slowly on to early afternoon. Then their troop was
stirred into animation and excitement by the information that they and
two other troops were to make a counter-attack "Light as possible,
fifty rounds of ammunition only... First and second trenches ... some
machine guns and a few Turks... Clear them out and come back," were
the orders.
They filed silently and with set faces to their assembly positions.
They were in for something serious. They had all seen the waves of
advancing Turks in the early morning dissolve away. Mac thought he
didn't mind how soon peace was declared, and felt a bit tired of the
war, but, still, here was their first real, live chance. A heavy
covering fire had been opened all round the Anzac lines, and the enemy
replied with equal force. His troop slipped over the parapet, and lay,
awaiting the word, among the many dead, Turkish and Australasian, of
last night, and of three weeks earlier. Minutes passed slowly, five,
ten, twenty, thirty--what on earth did this mean? The sun blazed
fiercely on the flattened figures, the smell was awful, and the fire
slackened not a bit. Mac had examined his breech a dozen times,
adjusted and readjusted his ammunition to facilitate its easy handling,
and had made certain several times of the firmness of his bayonet. He
had thrown away his bayonet scabbard. It was long and might trip him
up. If he came back he could recover it; if he didn't--it wouldn't
matter. He had heard it said that waiting was the worst time of all,
and he longed to be off, even into that hail of bullets which whizzed
low over his head.
More minutes marched funereally by, and then he heard in the trench
behind the sound of voices, and an order passed along the line to
clamber back into the trench. Surely there was some mistake, thought
Mac, but no, it was repeated, and they wormed themselves back over the
parapet, gathered hazily that the attack had been deemed inadvisable,
and sauntered tiredly back to their old place in the communication sap.
Talking it over later. Smoky and the Trooper came to the conclusion
that the cancelling of the attack was the best thing that had ever
happened for them. Theirs would have been the fate of the enemy in
their shattered attacks of the previous night, though, having made up
their minds to it, and stood the forty-five minutes' strain of waiting,
it had seemed a bit tough not to be repaid with a whack at the Turks.
The long hot day drew at length to a close. The setting of the sun
amidst the islands was full of wild beauty. The airy pinnacles of
Samothrace and the wild hills of Imbros, scarred and parched, stood
silhouetted against a glorious background of wonderful colouring, high
tones and low tones, an idealized Turner canvas. Out to the sinking
sun stretched a golden path, while to the right and to the left lay
untroubled leagues of blue. The gloaming slowly enveloped the horizon
to the north and south, the shining path of light broadened and
burnished, as the sun rested a moment, then disappeared, while the
island grew darker against the riot of deep colouring.
Resting on a clay ledge on the edge of the cliff which rose
precipitously to a height of 600 feet a few hundred yards from the
shore, Mac and Smoky drank in the glory of these rare moments. Both
sides were tired, the Turks weary of the carnage and their failure, and
the invaders of the hot, waterless hours of waiting, but conscious of
their successful defence and increased security. They discussed the
events of the day, the prospect of a swim on the morrow, and, as
always, of the long shandies, the ham and eggs, and the apple pie which
they would have on that great occasion when they returned once more to
New Zealand. Yes, a bush whare was all that Smoky would want for the
rest of his life, a possie where he could eat and drink and sleep just
as much as he wished. He aspired also to brands of tobacco other than
those the Army thought suitable to his taste. These pleasant
anticipations of the future were abruptly cut short by the order,
"Stand to." From Mac's point of view this was quite an unnecessary
proceeding, involving much inconvenience and discomfort, and, in the
early morning hours, loss of valuable sleep. Still, these things had
to be put up with, and "stand to" could be profitably spent cleaning
rifles and other gear. The issue of rum, when not stopped by the
higher command or absorbed by the A.S.C. and quartermasters, was
occasionally a relieving and pleasant interlude about this time.
"Stand to" ended, they composed themselves to sleep where they were,
which was still in the same communication trench in reserve. The
trench was five feet in width--in favourable spots it may have been
six--and the bottom was deep in dust, which, to a certain extent,
moderated the sharpness of ammunition pouches in the middle of one's
back. From the heaps of piled-up spoil above came irregular avalanches
of dust and dirt, and due care had to be taken to prevent it getting in
one's ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Still, notwithstanding these minor
discomforts, Mac had managed to get about an hour's sleep before
matters became trying. The artillery were immediately responsible for
it all--the artillery, for which, in spare moments from the firing
line, they had dug this communication trench and gun-pits beyond, and
had even dragged the pieces up. Now, at this infernal hour, they chose
to bring their ammunition up. Trains of mules arrived, halted close
alongside where Mac lay huddled against the bank, moved at right angles
across the sap, were relieved of their burdens and departed again, led
by their shadowy Indian muleteers.
Mac was hardened to being walked on by men, but mules laden with
eighteen-pounder shell...... Badly pinched and deeply angered, he
stuck it for a while. There was nothing to be gained by swearing, for
the mules and the Indians were equally indifferent. More mules were
followed by still more mules, which, as they turned, trampled on him
severely. Heavy hoofs were placed squarely on his shrinking person,
and he had at length to give them best. There was nowhere else to go,
so, leaning against the wall, he awaited brighter moments. Often he
cursed wrathfully, occasionally he smoked. This ruthless violation of
his valuable hours of sleep was a crime he would not readily forgive
the artillery, and he wished their bally guns had been shoved somewhere
else. The mules came and went for hours, occasional suspensions of
their comings and goings only creating in his breast false hopes.
Towards dawn he slept once more, only to be aroused again for the
purpose of swinging up towards the front line for support. No attack
came, and now, the sun rising above the eastern hills, he and his troop
trailed wearily back to their own bivouacs. His section four discussed
breakfast, the contents and limited possibilities of the larder, the
disappearance of firewood, which had been carried off by some person
during their absence, and the absolute non-existence of water.
"Breakfast be blowed!" said Mac. He crawled into his niche in the side
of the trench, covered himself in his grey blankets, head included, for
protection from flies, left breakfast worries to the others, and passed
into the deep slumber of the utterly weary.
CHAPTER XV
MAC IS SLEEPY
Mac's luck was out. He had had practically no sleep the night
previous, or, for that matter, for the two nights before that again,
and he was not going to get any chance to make it up now. A distant
echo of his name from somewhere up the sap brought a swift awakening.
It was an evil omen, portending the worst fatigue. He decided to
follow the lazy course of action, namely, to avoid it if possible.
"Mac! Where in the devil are you? Mac! Mac!"
The exhorting voice of the corporal came nearer; but the trooper
decided he was a heavy sleeper and knew, moreover, that his whole form
was well shielded by his grey blanket. As usual though, all this was
futile, and no effort of will could persuade the corporal to pass
unmolested his shrouded form. The blanket was pulled from over his
face, and, with a slap on the thigh and "Come on, Mac!" shouted down to
him, he could hardly, with decency, pretend to be asleep any longer.
He carried the thing to rather too flourishing a finish, awakened
violently with a suspicious suddenness, and blinked rapidly at the
corporal, "Oh! Rations you're after. All right. I'll dodge away down
after them. You might give a feller a chance to sleep though." He
knew well it was about his turn to wander away down the hill for
rations, but a fellow was sorely tempted to put off the evil moment to
the last, when, utterly weary, he was enjoying some rare hours of
settled sleep.
Mac trudged wearily away down the ridge, at times almost letting his
legs run away with him on the steep paths. At the depot, he persuaded
the water-guard to let him fill his water-bottle, and then, while the
Quarters calculated together, he drowsed in the shade of a bank. For
some time the Quarters chewed the ends of their pencils, studied
note-books and tapped boxes. Then they retired in the direction of a
comfortable service corps dug-out, whence issued spirals of blue smoke
and odours of rum. By and by they emerged, and all struggled into
activity again. Some of the fatigue party had disappeared though, for
they were not often so close to the beach. Still, the Quarter was not
worried, for he knew all would return anon, each to lump his load up
the track. Mac had been too sleepy to wander off for a bathe, though,
as a matter of fact, he had been endeavouring for the last twenty
minutes before the Quarter's return to summon up sufficient energy to
follow his cobbers' example. Still, boxes of biscuits would be their
portion, while, getting in early, he would be able to secure easy
freight, flitches of bacon or the like.
He shouldered his load and set off homewards. He rested often for the
first half of the journey, but then, pulling himself together, plugged
steadily upwards. Towards the summit, where the track ran up a
razor-back, his progress was hastened by the Turkish artillery on the
"W" Hills. He deposited his bacon at the Quarter's bivvie, and
wandered down the sap to his ledge under the wall. Delving into a
battered biscuit tin, he produced some characterless dried flour tiles,
a tin of bully and a tin of apricot, the choicest of Deakin. His three
cobbers, who were the only other inhabitants of this section of the
sap, had breakfasted, and now lay, like three mummies, on their
respective ledges. This trench was merely the wing of a sector, and
was not directly opposed to an enemy trench. Here it was the privilege
of his section to make its headquarters every third day, when it was
their additional privilege to do the ration and water fatigues, to
furnish sapping and burying parties, sentries and guards, and such
other toilers as might be necessary; while occasionally, with great
luck and better management, an hour or two on the beach might be worked.
Here, with his back against a traverse, Mac set about his repast. He
devoured half a tin of bully. That was his limit, no matter how hungry
he was, for he was aware by experience of the effects of overmuch
bully. He shied the remainder over the parapet, and promptly set about
his second and last course. The flies were fonder than he of Deakin's
apricot, and he had to be circumspect to dodge them successfully. He
knew too well their other sources of food supply--and was not over keen
on swallowing any, nor of having them beating him for his jam, Deakin's
though it was. With some difficulty he broke the bullet-proof biscuits
into mouthful sizes, grasped the tin of jam between his knees with his
hand over it, and dipping each bit first into the jam, popped it into
his mouth. Mac had good teeth, but, all the same, it took many long
minutes of hard jaw work to get on the outside of a biscuit and a half.
This, he had calculated, was as much dry tack as his daily ration of
dirty water could comfortably counterbalance.
He then set about putting his domestic affairs in order--tidying up his
kit and his bivvie, overhauling the larder, shaking his dusty blankets
and the like. He surveyed his weather-beaten countenance in a broken
triangle of glass. "What-o, mother, that you should see me now!" and
he winked whimsically at himself. A fortnight's black beard formed a
dark halo round his features, plenty of dust from the heaps of earth
above stuck in his hair, and he was already a bit thinner than in
Egyptian days. At the present moment a pair of ragged shorts, hanging
insecurely about his middle, was his only garment. The rest of his
body was, like his face, tanned and dusty.
He now performed to the full such toilet as was possible in his present
quarters. He rubbed himself vigorously with a towel, cleaned his teeth
with about two dessert-spoonfuls of water, and brushed his hair. He
gave his rifle a few runs through and a dust, and restored round the
bolt a careful wrapping of cloth. This completed the setting of his
house in order.
A corporal sang out from up the sap that the troop was to be ready for
the front line at one o'clock, so Mac roughly, but good-naturedly,
tumbled his cobbers off their ledges and admonished them to turn to and
prepare.
The next half-hour was spent in getting ready, dressing, having some
lunch, which varied not from the earlier repast, and attaching gear.
They looked a shabby mob, with their equipment slung round them and
their clothing adapted to individual taste. As mounted men put in
suddenly to reinforce the foot, their equipment was not all it might
have been for trench warfare; but they had come to work and not to a
beauty show.
They filed away up the dusty, sun-scorched sap, through narrow
communication trenches, bringing forth disgusted curses from the
dwellers therein, whose cooking and living arrangements were suspended
during their passage; and settled finally in an advanced sap leading
out towards the enemy lines. It was deep and narrow and had no
conveniences either for comfort or fighting. The afternoon drowsed
slowly past, a spell of sapping at the sap-head occasionally breaking
the monotony.
With sundown, both sides revived for the evening activity, a meal, and
preparations for the night. The Turks, since their heavy but futile
attacks of two nights previous, had not returned into that placidity
which betokened cessation of evil intentions. There was an erratic
nervousness of fire; instructions were that an attack would eventuate
during the night, and that no one was to sleep.
Just about sunset, word floated up from behind that a white flag was
approaching, but it was some time before it and several attendant Turks
appeared through the scrub about a chain to the right. Too many
accompanied the flag, but nearer approach being severely discouraged
they retired speedily again into the scrub. A few minutes later, the
flag returned, this time direct towards the sap-head, and now the
Colonel, armed with German and Turkish vocabularies, was there to
welcome it. They halted about twenty yards away, and a rather
fruitless conversation followed. The Turks jabbered excitedly a
meaningless chorus, to which the Colonel, full of importance and
dignity, replied with deliberate and forceful phrases of alleged
Turkish and German, fluttering the while through the vocabularies and
prompted and admired on all sides by an audience of officers and men.
The Turks were unimpressed, and gabbled on. Now arrived the right man,
the interpreter--all would be well. But, alas, he was so nervous and
alarmed at being thrust on the parapet that the conversation profited
little by his presence! All that could be impressed upon the
flag-bearers was that they were to return home as speedily as possible,
which course they wisely adopted, and immediately a burst of firing
broke out along both lines. This calmed as rapidly as it had begun,
and the troopers, chuckling over the comical scene of the Colonel
airing his German and Turkish, drank their rum and settled down to the
long vigil.
A glorious night it was, still and starry, and sound travelled far.
But it was very weary, standing hour after hour waiting for the attack.
From the sap-head came the steady tapping of the picks and occasionally
the sound of muffled voices. Water was very scarce, but the drowsiness
which crept over the trooper was the worst of his troubles. Attack or
no attack, he could not keep awake. Every few seconds he fell asleep,
his knees kinked under him, and he was once more awake. This grew
monotonous, but there was no stopping it. His interest was caught at
times by the jabbering of assembling Turks in the hollow just over the
scrub-covered rise. Searchlight beams had been scouring the hills to
the north, and one was suddenly thrown on no man's land. Batteries
ashore and destroyers opened fire. Shells whirred up from below,
screamed overhead and burst beyond the rise. The jabbering rose into
an impassioned chanting to Allah. The searchlight switched off, the
shells fell less frequently, the Oriental obligato fell away in a
diminuendo of pathetic cries and a staccato of terrified jabbering.
Mac's knees again kinked frequently.
In his state of alternate consciousness, the minutes dragged wearily,
he lost all count of time, and the whole business merged into a vivid
distorted dream. The drama was repeated, the mutterings of the
assembling Turks, the long-searching beam coming up from the sea, the
sudden tearing and crashing of the artillery, and the agonized howlings
of the enemy. Then came another period of quiet and deep drowsiness.
There may have been a third enactment, though on this point Mac has
always been hazy. At any rate, in due course came the dawn. The sky
brightened behind the Turkish lines, the searchlights faded away, and
gradually the spasmodic rifle fire of the night fell to occasional
single shots along the line. "Stand to" laboured by on leaden wings.
A single sentry was posted at the sap-head; then, in awkward attitudes
and angles, like the corpses on the ground above, they fell asleep in
the bottom of their sap.
CHAPTER XVI
VARIOUS MISFORTUNES
Mac, minus most of his clothing, squatted on a heap of rubble, keenly
following through his glasses naval tactics on the sea below. One
favourable point about Anzac was that, if one was bored with everything
else, there was always plenty to look at, especially with a good pair
of glasses. This morning, coming out on to the little flat top behind
his position, he discovered all the shipping in a turmoil. The whole
fleet of twenty or more transports was going helter-skelter for Imbros
harbour, the winches of a few laggards still rattled as they laboured
with their anchors, cruisers patrolled uneasily up and down,
fleet-sweepers moved about nowhere in particular, while destroyers
dashed round in wide circles, leaving behind them trails of heavy black
smoke and foaming white water. Only a couple of white hospital-ships
remained undisturbed.
"Submarines--damn them!" thought Mac. This was a new and unpleasant
development and not to his liking at all. He descried through the haze
the anchorage at Cape Helles, and noted that the vessels there--among
them a huge four-funnelled Atlantic liner--were also making off.
Towards evening all transports had disappeared, and cruisers and
destroyers resumed a leisurely patrol.
That was Saturday. In the early light of next morning, while the
mist-wraiths still clung to the hills and filled the dongas, Mac was
disturbed in his breakfast preparations by the sound of a heavier
cannonade than usual to the south. Going to an observation post he saw
a battleship aground off Gaba Tepe Point. The morning mists had just
revealed her, and now she was emptying her broadsides in rapid
succession up the great valley below Kilid Bahr. Another battleship
was right alongside attempting, apparently, to push her off. White
smoke from many bursting Turkish shells mingled with the heavy black
pall from the discharging broadsides. The bombardment continued for
some time, and Mac at length returned to his neglected breakfast
preparations, his going hastened by the fact that, carelessly exposing
his head, he had attracted the attentions of a sniper. When he looked
later, both men-o'-war were some distance away steaming west.
He learned afterwards that the _Albion_, in taking up her position on
the southern flank, had grounded in the mist, and that the _Canopus_
had come to her assistance, attempting, without success, to get her
off. The _Albion_ lightened herself by emptying her magazines through
her broadsides, and was finally towed off.
* * * * *
Then came the armistice, a day of interest and amusement, and of grim,
unpleasant work.
For almost a month, in no man's land, attack after attack had dwindled
away to nothing and there, five days before, Turkish losses had been
especially heavy. The enemy took the initiative in the matter, and
white flag negotiations proceeded on several occasions. Later, a
gorgeously apparelled Turkish staff officer came across and was taken
blindfolded to Headquarters, where an armistice for internment purposes
was agreed upon. Very considerate it was of Abdul to put the
proposition, Mac thought, for the condition of the atmosphere in the
neighbourhood was not conducive to his peace of mind, nor did it
improve his inclination to eat to know that those flies which nothing
could keep out of his food, had come from ----. And his internals
would squirm at the thought.
A peculiar quietness had marked the passage of the night, and with the
vanishing of the mists a strange silence filled the air. Since the
landing nearly a month back, the continuous music of rifle fire, with
its echoes and re-echoes among the nullahs and cliffs, had scarcely
ever ceased. And now, from opposing parapets, cautious heads began to
appear, Red Cross and Red Crescent flags were brought into the open.
Large burying parties followed, and soon thousands of Cornstalks and
Mussulmans were burying each others' dead. Thousands lined the
parapets, scanning those acres of which they had had before but wily
glances, or had scurried over in the wave of an attack. No one was
going to miss the show. The Cove was deserted, and the Infantryman and
the Service Corps man stood boldly side by side on the parapet.
Of the work itself little can be said. Mac was on duty in the first
line, and was not allowed to leave it to investigate the secrets of no
man's land, but he knew well enough of the huddled figures lying in
clusters in that green scrub, which hid much. But in parts the scrub
had been worn from the earth by the constant ripping of the bullets.
There, partly shielded by withering branches lay withering bodies,
mostly in strange postures, sometimes one above the other with rusting
rifles, discarded equipment, and odd bits of wire. Often scraps of
torn cloth clung to the jagged stems of shattered shrubs, and all was a
scene of desolation unutterable.
So numerous were the dead that all day long the burying went on. Some
of the workers, resting from their labours, attempted conversation with
the Turkish parties, but ignorance of each others' language proved a
difficulty. Still they smiled and gesticulated and exchanged
cigarettes.
Towards the middle of the afternoon, parties finished their work and
returned, no man's land became gradually untenanted, the curious were
satisfied, and melted from the parapets, a sudden heat shower damping
their ardour, and gradually the old scene came back. About four the
white flags with their red emblems disappeared and every one retired
discreetly into his trench. Soon a stray shot rang out, and the
armistice was over. Snipers were at their old dodges, and later in the
evening Mac's section received for some time the attentions of an enemy
mountain gun, which was new to this part of the line.
The following day brought a tragedy which sank deep into Mac's heart.
Out on the left flank, near where the _Albion_ had been ashore a few
mornings back, a man-o'-war had always lain since the days of the
landing. There had been some anxiety certainly on account of the
submarine excitement the other day; but now, slow, lazy movements on
the part of the destroyers and the reoccupation of old anchorages by
the cruisers, indicated that naval peace of mind was once more
restored. H.M.S. _Triumph_ had anchored soon after daybreak on the
southern flank.
Now, at midday, came the shout, "_Triumph's_ been torpedoed." Mac
jumped on his fire-step, and, looking down the trench, saw beyond it
sure enough the poor old _Triumph_ with a heavy list towards him. Some
of the fellows had seen the torpedo strike her right amidships, and a
great column of water rise high in the air and fall on her decks.
From all directions destroyers, mine-sweepers and pinnaces were
concentrating on the doomed vessel. Two destroyers had run their bows
alongside her hull, and her crew was swarming off. Her decks grew
steeper, but some of the crew seemed to be sticking to their guns to
the last in the after turrets. Mac could not discover whether these
shots were directed against the submarine or whether they were but the
last farewell of the old battleship. Fifteen minutes from the moment
she was struck, her decks lay almost at right angles to the water, then
the movement quickening, she turned bottom upward, only her red keel,
propellers and rudder showing to the troubled troopers who sadly
watched the demise of the famous old ship. A quarter of an hour longer
she floated, sinking lower and lower, then, with an easy motion, she
slid away from sight. For a few minutes a maelstrom of white, surging
water foamed and spurted, then, sadly and slowly, the host of small
craft which had rushed to the rescue made again for their stations.
Destroyers manoeuvred in vain search of the submarine, while
battleships and cruisers in a haze of smoke disappeared beyond the
horizon. Only a few bright tins, some boards, and a patch of oil
marked the spot on the peaceful, azure sea, where, an hour before, a
fine old ship, and fifty of her crew, had gone to their doom.
The troopers ate their lunch in stony silence. It seemed they had lost
an old friend.
Still, in going about the afternoon's work, they soon forgot their
sadness. They had been a fortnight in these trenches, and now they
were to be relieved by the Light Horse. It was good getting out after
a fortnight there, but it was a darned nuisance moving. When Mac had
all his gear up, there was not much of himself left in view. Valise,
bandolier, rifle, revolver, glasses, water-bottle, extra ammunition,
cooking utensils, haversack, a stove, the day's rations, a bundle of
fire-wood, and half a dozen odds and ends had to find space about his
person; the Q.M.S., too, usually had something to add to this load. A
heavy summer shower did not improve matters, and made the descent of
the steep clay paths one of speed rather than elegance. Once started
with so heavy a load, it was impossible to pull up. So the descent of
his regiment that afternoon from the plateau above was a weird and
wonderful sight, and resembled nothing more than a mixed avalanche of
perspiring troopers, mud and gear.
They took up their new abode on a steep northerly slope above the sea.
Instructions were that all habitations were to be made shrapnel proof,
but this was a matter of difficulty on so steep a face. Nightfall
found Mac and his section with an awninged platform, six feet square
and three feet high and partially walled, but far from shrapnel proof
and never likely to be. They were not inclined to meet trouble
half-way, so each disposed his equipment in its rightful spot. The
four partook heartily of a most sociable evening meal, and then
wandered off for a good long bathe in the pleasantly cool water of the
AEgean.
* * * * *
The bivouac on the steep slope north of Anzac Cove was hardly the
safest, and domestic life there was not the most unruffled. Just when
five more seconds would have seen the bacon done to a T, the whistle of
the look-out up above would go. That meant that the Turkish battery on
the W Hills had delivered itself of a missile, which might, or might
not, be directed at this bivouac. Then Mac would find himself in a
dilemma. Would he trust to luck that the shell was not for him, and
save the bacon, or would he crouch for safety under the protection
wall? More often the bacon had the benefit of the decision for
meal-time was Abdul's favourite hour for action, and, if Mac took heed
of every warning, the section would never get through its meals. He
knew that the warning whistle gave him seventeen seconds before the
arrival of the shell, and, if he waited for the sound of the discharge,
he had about four seconds left. Still they didn't worry much until,
after a few opening rounds, Abdul's practice got too good and there was
no mistaking his malevolent attentions. Mac, if he were not near his
own bivouac, would dive into the nearest one, irrespective of owner,
and seek its leeward corners. A few seconds of quiet waiting while he
exchanged the time of day with his host; then the burst, the singing
whistle of the fragments, the whirr of the nose-cap, and the
fut--fut--fut as the pieces came to earth. Then, if another whistle
had not sounded, he would thank his host and proceed on his way.
Often would come the cry of "Stretcher-bearer," and the M.O. would
hurry up the steep slope to some one who had been hit.
Mac lost his sergeant, a real fine fellow, one morning, while he was
serving out rations. The whole regiment was grieved. For the rest of
the day his body, shrouded in his grey blanket, lay on a stretcher in
his bivouac with as much calm and holy dignity as any royal monarch
lying in state.
Soon after dusk, for the little cemetery was under direct machine-gun
fire during the day, the regiment gathered, bareheaded and silent, to
bury its comrade. Six of the dead soldier's friends lifted the bier,
and bore it tenderly down the steep slope and over the bridge across
the sap. The regiment followed and gathered round the open grave.
It was given to few on the Peninsula to be buried thus. Many still lie
where they fell on those Gallipoli hills; some are graced with shallow
graves, scratched hastily under fire, among the torn and tattered
scrub, while others, with fire-bars and blanket and with a few parting
words, have been plunged into the blue AEgean.
On the little sandy point on the north of Anzac Cove is one small
graveyard, where, when Mac knew it, were fifty or sixty graves. In the
daytime it was shell swept and subject to direct rifle fire, but at
night came shadowy figures which passed to and fro from the beach
bringing neat stones and round boulders for picturesque and permanent
adornment of a cobber's grave. Or maybe there would be some diggers at
work, or a burying-party.
To-night, in the peaceful calm of that summer evening, when not a
ripple lapped on the stony beach, when the only indication of war was
the music of the firing high above and the occasional whistle of a
spent bullet overhead, the good old padre, in clear, low tones, went
through the sergeant's burial service. The rites were finished, and
the silent troopers moved away into the darkness as quietly as they had
come, while the padre started the service anew among another group of
silent, waiting figures. And so the summer passed over that little
burial-ground. In the daytime, the scorching sun blazed over the crude
crosses and whitened stones, and the shells shrieked by, while in the
dark coolness of the night shadowy figures brought the day's toll
silently and reverently to its resting place.
CHAPTER XVII
AN OUTPOST AFFAIR
Fortunately for the regiment, most of the daylight hours during the
short stay in the present bivouac were spent away on working-parties or
in support to some section of the front line. They usually returned in
the evening to find fresh holes in their oil-sheets and shrapnel
pellets on their floors. Still, they often had a good night's sleep,
and always a fine bathe in the morning.
While lodged on this slope, Mac and his squadron became involved in an
engagement which kept them fully occupied for three days. One Friday
evening at dusk they moved northwards along the beach to the farthest
outpost. Inland from here about half a mile on a high ridge the Turks
had commenced the formation of an outpost. About nine o'clock this was
attacked and easily captured. Then the squadron commenced digging in,
and, by dawn, with small loss, had dug a fairly satisfactory
semicircular position, facing over ravines, beyond which were higher
hills.
The Turks were expected to counterattack, but contented themselves by
sniping from all sides, which considerably impeded the work of
consolidation. Mac and his section toiled and sweated all day, and, in
the late afternoon, connected their section of trench with those on the
right and left. Water had run dry, no communication could be had with
the rear, the sun blazed down, with withering heat, and altogether Mac
had known of pleasanter spots to spend a summer's day. In the
afternoon, too, the Turks added shrapnel to their missiles.
About ten o'clock at night another squadron appeared for their relief,
and Mac, with keen anticipations of a drink, a bathe and a sleep,
speedily stumbled off through the scrub after his cobbers. Their line
of march lay the length of a long ridge through enemy country, and on
this ridge one of the destroyers protecting the flank chose this
inopportune moment to cast her attention and her searchlight. Each
time it caught him in its brilliant glare on the sky-line, Mac crashed
down into the nearest shrub, prickly holly, arbutus or stunted oak, and
cursed lowly to himself till the beam lifted. Progressing
spasmodically when the beam was directed elsewhere, they reached the
outpost, then stumbled wearily back along the beach, ate and bathed and
turned in for a real long sleep.
They were to have no such luck. They had only just settled down when
word came back that the enemy had closed over the ridge along which
they had returned, and that the squadron in the new outpost was cut
off. The only remaining squadron was sent out at once to their relief,
but, the Turks being in too great strength, it could do nothing. So
Mac's squadron, tired as they were, dodged away out again to another
hard day's work in the blazing sun. It was now daylight, and certain
spots had to be crossed by each man singly at a run, while the close
attention of a Turkish machine-gun at long range lent wings to their
feet. With his head down and his teeth clenched, Mac would bolt
full-speed across these open spaces. Tut--tut--tut would echo from the
hills, then a whinging past his ears or a spurt of dust in too close
proximity, and he would redouble his pace. The shelter of the bank on
the farther side gained, he would turn to laugh at the expressions,
whimsical, serious as death, or thoroughly amused, of his cobbers as
they rapidly paced their hundred yards.
Arrived in a ravine which cut the ridge, they found the Turks in a
position too strong to be attacked in daylight by so small a force.
Eventually it was decided to await nightfall and strong reinforcements
before attempting to force a passage through the Turkish lines to the
beleaguered garrison of the outpost. They gathered in shady corners of
the dried water-course, and yarned and smoked the long hot hours away.
Shrapnel came screaming across the scrub in the afternoon, but spent
itself harmlessly in desert spots.
It was decided that the outpost was too isolated a position to hold,
and that, after nightfall, the enemy, who had entrenched, should be
forced back, the besieged with their wounded withdrawn, and a retreat
made to the old position. This was all successfully carried out. Mac
took his fortunes with a covering party on the right flank. He could
follow little of what was taking place up at the outpost itself. There
was a good deal of rifle-fire and bombing, and a certain amount of
shell-fire, whose great white flashes lit up the wild ravine in
fleeting visions of weird beauty.
At midnight the order for retreat found Mac almost asleep, for he was
very weary from long wakefulness. They passed silently down the
valley, being apparently the last to go. The Turks were following the
retirement, for they were chanting their weird invocations to Allah not
very far distant.
At the foot of the ravine, near the ruins of a solitary fisherman's
hut, he and half a dozen others were instructed to take up a position
and to stick to it till the last. He expected that, when the Turks
emerged from the dried-up watercourse, there would be some fun, but,
though their cries to Allah floated down the ravine, along with some
indiscriminate firing, they themselves did not choose to come. During
the long wait here, the padre, heedless of danger from spattering
bullets, which flicked fire when they struck the dust, and despite the
dysentery which racked his frame, and the long days and nights without
sleep, went right along the scattered exposed firing line, taking
cheese, biscuits and water to the weary, thirsty troopers. Wherever
they went in action there was their quiet old padre, always working
among the wounded, and, if these lacked, he would join in some other
good work, bringing up water and provisions, or the like.
The Turks had attacked heavily the summit of a ridge about one hundred
yards to Mac's right, and here he was sent now to bring in wounded, one
of whom three of them were instructed to carry round to Anzac Cove. It
was a long and weary journey, stumbling over scrubby hillocks and then
away along the stony beach. This bad going in the dark was pretty
rough on the wounded man, but, like most in his condition, he stuck it
splendidly, and was deeply grieved he was such a burden to his cobbers.
At length they reached the dressing-station at the Cove, and placed him
on a table in a room with sandbag walls. Several medical men examined
the wound and spoke technically thereon. The stretcher-party asked
anxiously after his condition, and sought tidings also of cobbers who
had been brought back earlier. Then they set off for the firing-line
once more.
The third dawn in this outpost affair was now lighting the eastern sky,
beyond the hills where the night's fighting had taken place. Half-way
back near the poppy-patch, one glorious riot of red summer flowers,
they met their regiment returning. They had done their work, the Turks
had ceased attacking and the weary regiment which had been kept busy
the long, hot days in this outpost skirmish had been relieved. The
tired troopers trailed homewards, carelessly tramping the dewy wild
poppy heads on their way. A bathe and a drink, and then a long, long
sleep.
The three days' skirmish had been an interesting little engagement.
Mac thought that the establishment of an outpost so far beyond the
Anzac territory had been undertaken rather too lightly. The cutting
off of the garrison thirty hours from the time of capture, the relief
of the besieged twenty-four hours later and the subsequent retreat were
actions which had brought many anxious moments, plenty of hard work in
the blazing sun, and the lives of some fine officers and men. The
Turks, too, had suffered many casualties. The only tactical result of
the operation was that the enemy chose to make the outpost of
contention a strong, almost impregnable position, which was captured
three months later only by a ruse and hard fighting.
Altogether it had been a pleasant scrap in the open, and Mac was not
dissatisfied that he had gone through the experience. Anyhow as,
profoundly and delightfully weary, he lay down on the hard clay floor
of his bivouac, he felt a satisfied contentment with life.
* * * * *
It was late that afternoon--Monday--when the troopers awoke and set
about preparing a meal as sumptuous as the limited larder permitted.
Since Friday only odd nibbles of bully and biscuit had passed into
their internals.
That evening they cursed the Turks in free bush fashion for committing
an act of a kind to which they usually rose superior. Facing the
bivouac on the steep cliff below the disputed outpost, lay two stark
white bodies. The enemy had apparently stripped the dead, of whom
there were nine left in the outpost, and had flung the bodies over the
cliff. The Regiment was infuriated with this treatment of its dead,
and vowed vengeance. Next morning a destroyer, with a few
well-directed shots, blew up the bodies, and gradually the deed was
forgotten.
Owing to the casualties from shell-fire on this slope, the following
day was spent in moving to a new situation, not so pleasant as the
last, and shut away in a ravine, but safer from shell-fire. Here all
toiled solidly for two days, terracing a steep clay slope and making
new homes.
And here for some days with the Regiment the normal routine life of the
Gallipoli summer campaign ran smoothly. The days were spent on
road-work or on big communication saps, and at night, more often than
not, there were sapping fatigues in the front firing line, squadron
supports, heavy pieces of artillery to haul to their emplacement, and
the like.
At most times there was work, but occasionally there were spare hours,
when Mac and Smoky, with their towels and tooth-brushes, would wander
down to the beach for a morning of sea and sun-bathing. They would
remove what few clothes they wore and take to the water. Only a
limited portion of this end of the beach was available for bathing, and
often, when he wasn't too sleepy, Abdul stirred things up too much for
comfort. Still, the practice of the snipers was not particularly good,
and Mac felt comfortably secure as long as he didn't venture out too
far. It was their habit to wash what clothes they were wearing, and to
bake in the sun while they dried. And so, bathing and splashing,
sunning and smoking, sleeping and talking, a morning on the beach
passed pleasantly enough.
Sometimes the pair wandered off to see a cobber in another part of the
lines, exchange experiences and rumours with him, partake of his
rations and water, and wander homeward through miles of dusty saps, not
forgetting on their way to replenish their water-bottles at the landing
and to acquire there any provisions which might, or might not look as
if they lacked an owner, or, at any rate, the supervision of a
policeman's eye.
Mails were now arriving occasionally, and never were letters more
warmly welcomed. There would be a buzz of excitement while a mail-bag
was being sorted, and then a strange quiet would hang over the terraces
while every one in his dug-outs eagerly explored his pages.
CHAPTER XVIII
SUMMER DRAGS ON
The Anzac troops were now entering on that long, wearisome summer wait,
without action, or even prospect of it, to relieve the monotony, until
such time as strong reinforcements would enable them to make a push for
the Narrows. The days grew hotter and the flies thicker, and disease
began to make itself felt to an undesirable extent. The same old
shelling and the same old rifle-fire went on week after week, varied
only by the constant flutterings at Quinn's, where sometimes Turk,
sometimes Anzac, got the better of the nightly bickerings. Rumours of
victories at Cape Helles came frequently, but confirmation seldom
followed. The fall of Achi Baba took place almost as often as the
assassination of Enver Pasha. And still the Turks remained unmoved on
the slopes of Sari Bair, and though the men of Anzac had the upper hand
in sniping and _moral_ there was not much prospect of getting the enemy
rooted out of those confoundedly fine trenches of his for some time to
come.
But these things did not greatly depress the fine fellows who clung so
tenaciously to that square mile of crags and cliffs. The great spirit
of cheery optimism, the light-hearted, careless good fellowship, and
the muscle and grit of the invaders looked lightly at all this.
Regiments might dwindle sadly from dysentery and shrapnel, the
water-supply might be short and brackish, the flies might be getting
more persistent; but reinforcements would come some day soon, the
British at Cape Helles would get Achi Baba, and soon all would be well.
And so, with hard work, dysentery and flies, shelling, sniping and
bombing, cheery philosophy, and castles in the air, sweat, heat and
dirt, the summer days passed slowly by.
After a fortnight's absence from the front line, officially termed
"resting," but which was spent, as has been described, in outpost
fighting, sapping, road-making and all manner of hard work, the
Regiment returned to Russell's Top. As his Squadron was relegated to a
very comfortable section of the line, where disquieting bombs, shells
and what-not, seldom disturbed him, and where, at times, one could
stretch at full length and sleep, Mac infinitely preferred these
conditions of life to those of the previous fortnight.
So two weeks here passed placidly enough. When he was in the front
line he smoked, read, wrote, and played cards, or, when particularly
bored, rose up with his rifle and potted at elusive periscopes,
swinging shovels, loop-holes or indiscreet Turks, of whom there were
very, very few, in the Turkish lines. As often as not his little game
would be cut short by the reply of one of their snipers.
Then the tangled mass of trench and ravine over which his position
looked, Quinn's, Courtenay's, Dead Man's Ridge, and so on, was always
an interesting study. They were for ever scrapping there, and at
nights never for a moment rested. This was the weakest point in the
Anzac lines, and both sides knew it; but lately persistent hard work,
many lives and a great deal of courage were giving the Anzac fellows
the upper hand. Beyond these trenches lay the wide valley bounded on
the farther side by the frowning escarpments of Kilid Bahr
Plateau--strongly entrenched heights which Mac rather hoped it would be
some other person's job to storm when the necessity arose. Across the
valley and up a steep zigzag path climbing the almost overhanging
farther side, he saw long trains of camels pass, and occasionally odd
horsemen. Sometimes machine-gun fire at extreme range disturbed their
placid way, but usually the gunners kept their ammunition for better
purposes.
Their fortnight expired, the Regiment, relieved by the Light Horse,
returned to its previous bivouacs in the hot and stuffy ravine, where,
in sections of four, they settled down to a domestic life, for the
comfort of which they brought into bearing all their ingenuity, the
possibilities of the Indians' larder and mule-feed, the lack of
alertness on the part of the policemen at the depot, and the usual
stock of knowledge acquired in the bush of how to look after oneself.
The bivouac of Mac's section consisted of a platform nearly seven feet
square cut out of a steep clay ridge. So a clay bank formed the back
wall, two clay walls reached about half-way to the awning on either
side, and the front was open, except in the afternoons when an
oil-sheet was hung there to keep out the fierce glare of the sun. The
clay cliff dropped precipitously in front, and facing them in the
opposite cliff were similar bivvies, with the inhabitants of whom Mac
and his cobbers were in the way of exchanging friendly conversation at
odd moments of the night or day.
Perched here on their ledge of clay, the four lived a supremely happy
life when at home. Each took his turn at the cooking, the
firewood-hunting, and the tidying-up. Each had his strong points, and
was permitted to develop them. Bill was hot stuff on curry _a la_
Anzac, whose foundation was the choicest bully, a little water, plenty
of Indian curry powder purchased from the Indians in consideration of
some mouldy Army cigarettes, and a little of everything else, from bran
to marmalade. He shone, too, with his Welsh rarebit and his biscuit
pudding, so that not even Smoky with his "Stew Supreme _a la_ Depôt"
could hope to look at him. Friday outran all others in his enthusiasm
for gathering firewood, a rare product of the land in those days, and
no one dared, nor felt inclined, to compete with him. Mac had no rival
when it came to frying, and the preparation of the sweets fell to him
on those few but glorious days when the section was issued with one
fig, two dates or half a dozen currants. The possibilities of the
larder were considerably spun out by barter with the Indians, who had
plenty and to spare of good food, by the use of one's wits and by
purchase at exorbitant prices of certain articles from sailors. Still,
despite this high living, the troops grew perceptibly thinner.
All offensive on Gallipoli was at this time confined to the Cape Helles
front, where the capture of Achi Baba was their immediate object. The
rôle of the Anzac troops was merely to keep the enemy always on the
alert and in fear of an offensive movement from Anzac, and to make
small demonstrations during heavy attacks on the big hill of Achi Baba.
On these occasions Mac would watch eagerly through his glasses the
bursting shells along its crests, and would seek indications of a
British advance, but always in vain.
Much as the Anzac troops yearned for some activity to break the
monotony, there was little prospect of success of any present push from
there. The regiments were thin; the Turks held strong superior
positions, and possessed more machine-guns than were to Mac's liking.
The enemy made several night attacks, which brought nothing but
casualties and regrets to the attackers. On one of these occasions
Mac's squadron was in reserve to the Light Horse on Russell's Top, and
were doing their best to sleep on the narrow clay terraces perched
along the cliffs behind it.
About nine o'clock, heavy, ominous thunder-clouds came rolling silently
in from the west. Lightning played in fitful dashes. Then followed
swirling wind gusts, which stirred up fantastic columns of whirling
dust, roared down the ravines, and raised a surf which grated furiously
on the shingle below. Thunder crashed and bellowed, and the whole
weird fantasy of crag, cliff and cyclonic dust columns was terribly and
wonderfully lit by the vivid and almost continual flashing of the
lightning.
Not content with the inferno of nature, the enemy chose this mad moment
to add his artillery to the cataclysm, and turned a merry whizz-bang
battery on to the Top. For an hour the racket lasted, and then fell in
gradual diminuendo; and Mac thought of sleep notwithstanding vermin,
dust and shrapnel. It was not to be. A fatigue party was wanted
immediately. A number were told off. Warmly and extensively
apostrophizing the originators of this nocturnal expedition, they
gathered up their rifles, bandoliers and water-bottles and wandered
protestingly off uphill.
Arrived in the front fire-trench, they were directed to set about
roofing bomb-proof dug-outs, in place of another party which was too
tired to continue. The new arrivals, who had been working hard for
three nights in succession, were righteously indignant, and also
considered themselves too tired to carry on. Only two or three
enthusiasts showed any inclination to work, and these were speedily
discouraged by a further increase of activity on the part of the enemy
artillery. Seventy-five m.m. whizz-bangs shrieked low over the
surface, or burst with shattering crashes which shook down avalanches
of earth on the heads of the troopers as they sat, half-asleep, against
the dug-out walls. Then the machine-guns joined in the din, and
rattled and roared in spiteful bursts, now rising into a furious storm,
now lulling slightly. The bullets whipped and whizzed past, or plopped
into the heaps of debris above. Now that there was sufficient military
reason for laziness on his part, Mac, recognizing, of course, that he
would have worked had it been at all possible, sank with an easy
conscience into somnolence.
When he awoke it was broad daylight, and the tornado of his last sleepy
moments of consciousness had diminished to the usual spasmodic rifle
reports. He stood up, ruefully rubbed the spots where ammunition
pouches had made dents in his person, stepped over his still sleeping
cobbers and crawled through the rabbit-hole entrance into the
fire-trench. There he blinked like a sleepy owl, more with surprise
than anything else. There were dead Turks all over the show, and in a
sap opposite were dozens of them. This was a sap which had kept Mac
occupied for many nights recently. It was a secret sap, or supposed to
be so as far as the enemy was concerned; and had been constructed with
every care and precaution to that end. Running parallel with the
Turkish front firing-line, thirty yards away, it connected a corner of
the Anzac firing-line with the edge of a cliff a couple of chains to
the left, and thus cut off a big bend in its front line.
With much satisfaction a Light Horseman gave Mac particulars of the
occurrence:
"My bloomin' oath, we got 'em fine. We sorter guessed from the blanky
rough-house they were making they was up ter something and got ready to
make 'em welcome. Then with a lot of their blooming Allahin' and
raising a hell of a howl generally, they come over like a blooming mob
of sheep. A big bunch got into that secret sap there. Then we landed
'em a dirty one, and bombed their blanky souls to hell. They didn't
half squeal. Not content with one dose, the silly blanks came on
again, and we had a bloomin' encore. Well, old man, I suppose the poor
devils 'll have sorrowing harems. 'Spose my poor old mater'd drop on
me if she knew I was rejoicin' over the fallen. Anyhow it's what we're
here for, and they oughter keep out of our way if they don't want to
get dinged, eh, cobber?"
"Anyhow, good luck to the blighters when they reach their bloomin'
heaven," answered Mac. "It's about kai-time. I'm off for some
brekker. Kia Ora, old man."
And, so saying, he awakened his sleeping cobbers, left them admiring
the night's catch, and trundled off homewards. Passing down the track
he stopped for a moment by a ledge, and gazed with respect and sadness
at half a dozen fine stalwart forms of Light Horsemen, wrapped each in
his grey blanket, who had taken the long trail in the night's encounter.
The Regiment was getting tired of continually sapping without any
excitement to break the monotony, other than the more or less frequent
arrival of shells in their vicinity, and the attentions of snipers on
the beach. Moreover, the flies increased in their countless millions,
the ground was getting very dirty, the stench in parts was almost
unendurable, and practically every one was more or less affected by
stomach trouble. The troops grew daily thinner, until, had he not
followed their increasing slimness, Mac could hardly have recognized
some of his old friends. With dark olive skins, cadaverous faces and
often a good growth of beard, they were a hard-looking lot.
CHAPTER XIX
MAC TAKES A CHANGE
The behaviour of Mac's stomach was not all that it might have been,
besides which rheumatism began to develop, so he contemplated a short
spell on the Island of Lemnos. It was a place truly to be desired.
There the distant reverberation of the Cape Helles artillery could only
just be heard, one might walk in the open and bathe without having to
worry about snipers or shrapnel, and, moreover, there were ships with
canteens and, perhaps, a good meal. So, one evening, ticketed and
labelled, and with the combined financial assets of his section in his
pocket, he waited for embarkation at the Cove. Many others were there,
about half wounded and the rest medical.
Night-time at the Cove was always beautiful. The starry brightness
above the blackness of the sea, the steep rising face of the hill, with
the twinkling lights and flickering fires of the bivouacs, the throng
of toilers among the great piles of stores, the mules and water-carts
crunching along the gravel, the wounded waiting embarkation--Mac saw
what might be called the throbbing heart of Anzac. It throbbed, for
the most part, in darkness; but, here and there, caught in the
half-light from lamps among tiered piles of boxes, he had odd glimpses
of the splendid fellows as they went about their work; and he was
thrilled by the grandeur and manhood of it all.
Hours passed. Then a musical call through a megaphone, "Walking-cases
this way," woke them to attention. They were all embarked on a
lighter, and were towed, first by a pinnace, and then by a minesweeper,
out into the bay, until high above them, aglow with green, red and
yellow lights, reared the steel sides of a hospital-ship. A steam
crane swung each giddily upward, and deposited him on the clean white
deck.
Mac didn't quite know where he was that night. He accepted a dose of
medicine and some kind words from a medical officer, absorbed a cup of
hot cocoa and a piece of bread and butter--almost forgotten luxuries
and found himself at length in a comfortable bunk with white sheets.
Very faintly from the heights across the water floated sounds of
strife; and Mac, with a sigh of supreme satisfaction, turned over and
went to sleep.
When he woke in the morning, a white girl--a sister--was standing
beside his bunk. He was shy--he felt so rough. It seemed ages since
he had seen a woman.
At ten o'clock, the light cases for Lemnos transferred to a
mine-sweeper, and thence to a fleet-sweeper. All the afternoon the
vessel steamed across sunlit seas and in the evening entered Mudros
Harbour, passing through the great fleet that lay there, transatlantic
liners, men-o'-war ancient and modern, hospital-ships, transports and
small craft of every description, to an anchorage on the east of the
harbour. The patients were landed in launches, and made their way, in
a long straggling line of decrepits, to the field hospitals.
Mac found a resting place in the 1st Australian Stationary Hospital,
and passed a week there. He was relegated to a large marquee, the
sides of which were always rolled up. In the centre stood two tables,
one occupied by medicines and the other by the dishes and food of the
establishment. Stretched on the ground was a large tarpaulin, whereon,
with a blanket apiece, eighty or more _hors de combat_ heroes had their
abode. Everything was as good as could be had in Mudros; but in those
days Mudros lacked almost everything that could be desired. The
water-supply was bad; food, in the Australian hospital was ample, and,
for fare under such conditions, excellent, but in other hospitals it
lacked lamentably. Inhabitants of the latter envied greatly those who,
by good fortune or intrigue, were lodged in the former.
In the day-time the sun blazed down with fierce heat upon the marquees,
the slightest breath of wind stirred into clouds the many inches of
fine dust which covered the ground, and flies of many breeds were there
in their pernicious millions. Vermin stalked by night; and odd moments
of the day might profitably be spent in reprisals on these bloodthirsty
beasts. Those were the sorry points of the place; but there were also
good.
Immediately alongside the hospital, though officially out of bounds,
was the village of Mudros East, a quaint place where there was always
some fun to be had. Low stone, tile-roofed houses, with narrow dusty
alleys--where congregated squalid children, mangy dogs, poultry and
evil smells--clustered round a low hill surmounted by a large maternal
Greek church. This latter was tawdry in the extreme, with wonderful
symbolic pictures, icons, candle grease and cheap furniture. Over all,
presided a dumpy, cheery little priest, who, with a beaming smile,
indicated his perpetual readiness to accept small donations. Still, it
had its air of sanctity, and it was pleasant to see there Greek women
praying with deep fervour. Occasionally, too, Mac noted British and
French soldiers upon their knees.
Near the landing-place stood a street of filthy, hastily erected,
wooden shanties, where the ever-trading Greek offered garden produce,
very, very doubtful eggs and more or less objectionable stuff of other
descriptions. The medium of exchange was varied in the extreme, and
ranged from British, French and Egyptian coins to tins of bully beef,
army jam, badges and the like.
There were some fine men in the hospital and next to Mac lay Mick. He
was a Light Horseman, and Mac made a cobber of him.
"Chest's me trouble--touch of t.b. the Doc says. I cough away some of
these nights like a sheep with lung-worm. I feel all right myself; but
ev'ry time I talks about getting a shift on like, ole Doc gets busy
with his water-diviner--'breathe in breathe out'--and then he says,
'Say "Ah-h-h."' Then he thumps away wid his fingers. I reckon I'm
about as chuberculer as a young gum-tree, but the ole Doc he just says
'Carry on for a while longer and then we'll see.'"
Mick looked as fit as a two-year-old. After his fine figure, the first
feature Mac noticed was a large but unfinished tattoo of the Royal Arms
across the aforementioned unsound chest. Tubercular or not, that chest
spent most of its hours in the fresh air, along with most of the rest
of Mick's body.
"How d'you come by that bit of landscape, Mick?"
"Oh!----!----!----!" murmured Mick feelingly. "Me ruddy chest's crook
outside as well as in. That's a ruddy souvenir of a night in Cairo,
that is. Got a bit inked I s'pose. Don't remember too much about it
meself. All I knows was I wakes up in the mornin' with a head like a
sandstorm, no piastres left, and me chest as sore as hell wid this
pretty picture on it--me, a bloomin' Aussie born and bred with the
'b---- 'art gorn Care-o chuum' badge on me manly chest--them wee lads
whose mummies didn't know they was out. I tell yer I wasn't sweet the
rest er that day. Bill, me cobber, 'e comes an' tells me 'e was in
Cairo wid me. I tells 'im 'e needn't tell me that. 'Anyhow, if yer
was,' I says, 'wy didn't yer stop 'em brandin' me? Nice feller you are
to call yerself me cobber?'
"'Oh,' he says, 'I did me best, but you wasn't havin' any. You
threatens to hit me over the 'ead if I don't go stop shovin' me
opinions in w'ere they wasn't wanted. 'Me skin's me skin,' you says,
'An' I'll do what I b---- well like with it!' Then I tries ter drag
you off, an' we had a bloomin' scuffle outside the show, an' you pushes
me down some steps. I wasn't none too good neither.'
"'Then we goes in again, an' you starts takin' off yer tunic. You
tells the Gyppie to show you some styles; and between tryin' 'em on so
ter speak, an' one thing and er nother, you gits all yer b---- clothes
off. The Gyppies come to light with some booze--filth it was, I
bet--an' we both has some, an' you pays 'em about twenty piastres fer
it. Then you hooks this Manchester badge and says "Quiis kitir." An'
they was tryin' ter push some rude indecent ones on ter yer, an'
wishin' ter save yer from the worst like I tells yer the Manchester one
was beautiful. An' I says it was what ev'ry patriotic Aussie should
wear. You starts skitin' about Australian loyalty and Australia will
be there an' that sorter thing, an' then says "yer 'll 'ave it."
"'They gets to work an' all goes well, and when they was just 'alf
finished, the bloomin' picket comes along an' pushes us out. I tries
to get yer dressed but you was thinkin' you knew more about it than I
did, an' you wasn't far wrong. I dunno meself how we got home.
Anyhow, cobber, we both had our pockets gone gently through, for me
feloose is gone as well as yours. I didn't have much, but wot I had's
now somebody else's.'
"'Yer a b---- fine cobber, you are,' I says, 'Not to have choked 'em
off.'
"'You've got ter thank me, anyway, fer not letting 'em put somethin' on
yer which yer wouldn't care to let the world or yer missis, when you
have one, gaze at.'
"An' that's how this lovely work in red and blue decorates me manly
chest. The Doc he always smiles and twinkles his eyes so merry like
when he sounds me chest. I'm thinkin' of havin' it turned inter a
risin' sun. Me troop thinks it is an 'ell of a good joke, an' I reckon
it would be too if it was on some one else's chest. Them b----
Manchesters!"
Mac and Mick wandered abroad together occasionally to investigate the
land--Mac more for the pleasure of getting away from the hot dusty
camp, and Mick for the prospects of raising more tolerable refreshment
than luke-warm rusty water from ships' tanks. They wandered to far
villages where the stolid Greek peasant life was not in the least
disturbed by the activity in the harbour nor the distant rumble of
Gallipoli guns--except that eggs and vegetables brought wonderful
money. These villages were out of bounds and they found them empty of
troops except for a solitary mounted policeman in each who could be
easily dodged in the narrow lanes and shady fig-trees.
At the end of the first week in the field hospital both Mac and Mick
were transferred to a new camp about three miles inland. It was less
afflicted with flies, but there was only sufficient water for drinking
purposes and enough food for about half the three hundred patients.
The only water for washing was to be had occasionally in the early
morning hours at the bottom of a well about a third of a mile away.
About ten minutes of angling with a canvas bucket on the end of a rope
brought Mac about two inches of very muddy water. But on their first
day's ramble Mac and Mick discovered about two miles from the camp a
fine pool of stagnant water. It lay in the bottom of a rocky gorge, a
shallow basin at the foot of what was a small waterfall during the
winter rains. It was swarming with insect life, but, unheeding such
minor details, Mac and Mick soon stripped off their clothes and made
the best of it. Next day they came armed with towels, soap and all the
permanganate of potash their kits could muster. At the worst this
browny-pink pool left them a good deal cleaner and cooler than before,
and the two troopers usually came that way once or twice daily.
They slept, too, on the open hill-side some distance from the camp, as
it was cooler, cleaner and quieter, and they put in only an occasional
appearance for medicine and a meal. The staff of the camp seemed
concerned with greater things than the presence or otherwise of a
couple of troopers, and Mac and Mick saw no particular obstacle to
their remaining a month or two. Mac had exhausted most of his and the
section's finance in excellent fashion. The harbour was out of bounds,
but in several surreptitious excursions out on to the harbour, with
Mick and one or two others, he had succeeded in getting from ships'
canteens and stores as big a stock of provisions as he could carry with
him on his return journey to Anzac.
On two men-o'-war they had been splendidly received by the crews, who,
fully appreciating the rottenness of life ashore, did all in their
power to make pleasant the few hours' stay of such odd soldiers as
found their way on board. The bluejackets crowded round the visitors,
all anxious to be their hosts. They took Mac and Mick to a bath-room,
and, while they had a good splash round, prepared a really attractive
meal with extra delicacies bought at the canteen. The wanderers would
make the most of it too. Then, after an hour or so's yarn on the cool,
clean awninged deck, they would take a regretful departure, and would
go over the ship's side laden with good things from the sailors, the
latest newspapers from home, smokable tobacco, and good canteen stores.
They were fine men, the sailors whom Mac came across at Gallipoli,
generous, hospitable fellows when they had the chance, and ready always
to back up their comrades ashore, and to share with them the dangers,
discomfort and disease of life ashore whenever they were called upon.
Thus, at the end of a fortnight on Lemnos, Mac had collected in the
care of a friend near the landing-place as much as he could carry back.
Mick, too, had followed his example and had collected a case of
provisions for his cobbers up at Anzac. Mick, moreover, was heartily
fed up, he said, of hanging about this mouldy island, and he knew that
he could bluff the M.O. at the new camp that he had had dysentery and
was now all right; and that, if there happened to be any official
papers in the camp, no one would trouble to find them, nor probably
could, if they wanted to. Mac was not so keen to hurry back, but the
fortnight's rest from the line and better food had set him to rights,
and he fell in eventually with Mick's suggestion. They approached an
old M.O., who pushed them through without ever getting suspicious about
Mick, and two hours later in the early afternoon they were bumping over
the open country in a Ford ambulance towards the landing-place.
The late afternoon was spent in the _Aragon_, down in the depths of a
well-deck, waiting for the fleet-sweeper to take them to Anzac. Mick
was furious because he was not allowed to buy stuff at the ship's
canteen, as it was reserved for those non-fighting staff soldiers who
lived in all the comfort and safety of this beautiful ship. Mick was
loud and exceedingly pointed in his remarks. However, he and Mac
succeeded in penetrating to the depths of the ship, where, with the few
odd coins still in their possession, they managed to bribe the cook to
let them have as much currant bread, buns and sausages as would fill up
all the spare corners in their kit. They ate as much on the spot as
they possibly could, and eventually went on board the sweeper very well
loaded.
Six hours' steam across the warm night waters brought them again within
earshot of the usual night musketry fire. At one in the morning they
were once more ashore at the Cove, with its tireless throng of men,
mules and limbers. Mac deposited his load in the bivouac of a friend,
and then parted for ever with his good cobber Mick, his casual
companion of a Lemnos fortnight, whose way lay in the opposite
direction.
CHAPTER XX
ANZAC AWAKES
Mac set off for his Regiment, which was holding the front trenches of
Russell's Top. Knowing it was a hopeless business poking about
trenches among sentries in the dark looking for his unit, he lay down
at the base of the Top, and slept there on the ground till daylight.
He found his Squadron in the most uncomfortable of trenches, and not
particularly enjoying itself. It was holding the portion of the Top
nearest the enemy, who were between twenty and thirty yards away and
well within range of hand grenades. But two could play at the same
game, and the Turks had a better supply of bombs.
Two halves of the Squadron took in turn the holding of the front saps
and the main line. The former were narrow, shallow twisting ditches
between piles of loose earth and rotting bodies. Parts were covered in
as bomb-proof shelters, and in places sloping shafts led steeply down
to mine galleries before the enemy's front line. Between those two
series of drab mounds of earth which marked the opposing lines, lay as
terrible an acre as ever was. The hasty burying during the armistice
three months ago had been inadequate, and the saps had cut through many
of the hastily-scratched graves. Since then many men had fallen, to
rot unburied in the sun and to be again and again torn by shells and
bombs and bullets.
A few shattered sticks were the forlorn remnants of the luxurious
scrub. Wire twined in untidy coils here and there, but there was
nothing to hide the blackened bodies. Sometimes at night low fires
licked among the corpses, apparently started by the Turks by throwing
over their parapet paraffin or petrol, and there would be spasmodic
explosions for an hour or more of the ammunition in the equipment round
the dead forms, sounding like the burning of a Guy Fawkes effigy.
Mac had never more than swiftly surveyed the scene direct--for there
was a deadly accuracy in the practice of the snipers at twenty yards
range--but viewed its details and the Turkish parapets through a
periscope. These, too, the snipers shattered with annoying frequency,
though the Turks themselves had no rest whatever in the matter of being
sniped at. And in these wretched saps amid a horror of desolation Mac
and his cobbers passed every second twenty-four hours. In the day-time
the sun beat into them with unrelieved violence, and many troopers
squeezed into the bomb-proof shelters and tunnel entrances to seek
shade. There was no where to cook food, and bully beef, biscuits and
water formed the fare. But they had small appetite for anything, as
the stench of the dead and the flies which swarmed left few men hungry.
At one corner hung a blanket. Some time a sapper in his work had come
to a body, and had turned the sap to the right to avoid it, and the
blanket had been tacked up as a screen to the body in the recess.
One hard case found this recess a shady spot and with more room for his
cramped legs, and declared that it was no worse alongside the several
months old corpse than anywhere else in the saps. In one place the
lower leg and boot of a dead Turk stuck out from the corner of a
trench, and at another a bony hand protruded. Grim humorists shook it
as they passed.
The warm nights dragged drowsily by. In these trenches the troops were
not supposed to sleep because of the bombs thrown so frequently by the
Turks. If one were awake, they could be easily dodged, but, if a bomb
caught a man asleep, there was little chance of escape. Every second
twenty-four hours were passed in the main firing line, a few yards
farther back than the saps, or close up in reserve. Sometimes, during
these second days, it was possible to get a bathe when on a journey for
rations or water, and a little cooking could be attempted on a ledge in
the side of a communication trench. But altogether everything was most
uncomfortable, and with the cramped life Mac's rheumatism was
returning. There was little sleep too, rarely exceeding two hours a
day as the fortnight passed. Strong enemy reinforcements had been
reported by aerial reconnaissance within easy march of Anzac, and an
attack was expected any night. The Regiments were very much under
strength from disease, and the burden of watching fell heavily on the
remaining men. Mac was disappointed too that, in their present limited
quarters, they could make no use of the provisions he had brought from
Lemnos.
Relief came at last, without the enemy having made an attack, and the
Mounted Rifles again handed Russell's Top over to the Australian Light
Horse. They thankfully trundled away down the hill with all their gear
to a pleasant bivouac near the sea, and proceeded without delay to make
themselves as clean and as comfortable as could be. Mac went off for
the provisions, and soon the section had a small awninged dug-out in
excellent domestic order. Here, terminated by a stone wall, the main
Anzac left flank met the sea. The trench line here was but thinly
held, as it did not directly oppose Turkish trenches. Beyond it, at
the seaward end of the sharp ridges which ran up to the main broken
mass of Sari Bair, Chanak Bair and Battleship Hill, were No. 1 and No.
2 Outposts, faced by the formidable Turkish outposts on the forbidding
crags above. So, separated by some distance from the enemy, the
regiment proceeded to enjoy itself.
It was the pleasantest possie Mac had ever found it his privilege to
occupy. The bivvies were roomy and comfortable, the ground was
comparatively clean, and was sufficiently gradual in its rise to
prevent constant avalanches of earth from above. The sea lay at their
door, and the freshwater tanks were near enough to make certain a
regular water supply. Mac and his mates made merry with the provisions
he had secured at Lemnos, and the products of their culinary art knew
no bounds, either in variety or perfection. With an abundance of
firewood and water, with the sea always near to be bathed in, awninged
bivvies and a well-stocked larder, they lived in undreamed-of luxury.
They had hoped for the usual fortnight there; but it was not to be.
As the long, hot, dusty July days came to a close, the pulse of Anzac
seemed to quicken. Men went about their work with increased energy,
the Cove was busier than ever, and life altogether in that
sun-scorched, sordid spot seemed less burdensome. Staff officers
walked about with unaccustomed briskness, and made unnaturally long
visits to observation points, gazing absorbedly at Turkish terrain.
Visible signs there were that the dormant days of Anzac were drawing to
an end, and that at last the summer lethargy would give place to times
of action. Rumours filled the air. Wild they were, but there was
definite evidence that something was in the wind, and everybody
rejoiced accordingly. There would be a real ding-dong go; and then,
probably, Constantinople.
It was now obvious that the scheme of operations involved a flank
attack to the north, which, it seemed, from the extensive preparations,
might be the main thrust. Anzac positions were faced immediately by
the frowning outposts of Destroyer Ridge, Table Top, Old No. 3,
Rhododendron and Baeuchop's [Transcriber's note: Beauchop's?] Ridge,
beyond which stretched that maze of broken ridges, which rose sharply
to the main peaks of Sari Bair, Chanak Bair and Kojatemen Tepe, which
commanded the whole width of the Peninsula and the Turkish positions
and lines of communication. Gain them, and Gallipoli would be won.
On the dark, moonless nights of the 3rd, 4th and 5th of August
transports stole silently to anchor off the Cove, and many battalions
of Kitchener's Army and batteries of Field Artillery came ashore. When
the sun again lifted above the eastern hills, the anchorage was
deserted and the new arrivals hidden from aerial observation beneath
prepared covering. Anzac grew tense in anticipation of a battle royal.
For the five days spent in this bivouac--the days of the awakening of
Anzac--to Mac and a dozen of his mates fell the duty of guarding the
exit from the main position to the outposts. The exit consisted of a
large barbed-wire gate across a great communication trench, close to
the stone wall on the beach. They did four-hour watches there night
and day, taking a tally of all who came and went, and watching keenly
for spies. During their daylight hours of duty, Mac and Bill sat on
sandbags under the shady wall of the sap. Their bayoneted rifles
leaned against the bank close at hand, while they, scantily clad in the
scorching hours, lazily noted in tattered note-books the particulars of
sweating, dust-covered wayfarers. When they were not busy, they sat
there automatically flicking away the flies, and watching through a gap
in the trench the horde of naked men on the beach. Passing mules often
left Mac and Bill grousing in a cloud of dust. Aussies, Maoris and New
Zealanders stopped now and then for a few minutes' rest beneath their
awning. They would yarn for a while, and the guards would accept from
their freshly-filled cans a drink of cool spring water. When the
relieving guard came, Mac and Bill just stripped off their shorts, and
ran across the stones for a splash in the sea.
At night they were more alert on guard. Sleepy as Anzac appeared in
the hot sunlight, dark hours shrouded a scene of energy and purpose.
As soon as the evening light had gone, long strings of heavily-laden
mules, with tall Indian muleteers struggling among them, came along the
sap and passed out through the gate. There were pauses, but soon more
mule trains followed, and the earlier ones passed back empty for
further loads. All the time the guard watched carefully lest there
should be strangers attempting to pass through hidden among the mules.
Great piles of bully beef, biscuits, sealed paraffin tins of water and
ammunition grew steadily bigger in hidden spots behind the outposts,
and the troops were light-hearted accordingly.
Platforms had been cut in hill-sides for the accommodation of troops
away from enemy observation, communication trenches had been widened,
some had been bridged and others had been created silently and swiftly
in a single night. Without orders from officers, the troops
energetically overhauled rifles, ammunition and gear; and private
possessions were looked into, diaries written and letters despatched.
Between the opposing lines warfare continued its accustomed way, and
the normal exchange of bombs, shells and bullets went on, though
Turkish artillery fire was increasing in strength.
On Thursday, August 5th, the Regiment sorrowfully packed up all
unnecessaries and piled them in the regimental dump. Mac grieved to
part with the unfinished half of the Lemnos provisions, for heaven only
knew when they might see them again, and probably some one else would
thrive on them.
That night the Regiment moved out through the wire gate, and crowded on
the platforms at the back of No. 1 Outpost, there to remain till the
following evening, when the battle was to open.
CHAPTER XXI
NO. 3, TABLE TOP AND SUVLA BAY
The Regiment, stretched in close lines on the terraces, slept soundly.
For many days ahead there would be little opportunity of resting, and
for many there would be but one more sleep. They did not rouse till
well after dawn, for there was nothing to do that day but fill in time.
Mac again overhauled all his equipment, paying particular attention to
his rifle, bayonet and ammunition, seeing that everything was
accessible and that all ran smoothly. Then the section rigged a
blanket between piled arms, and sat down in its shade for a game of
cards. That palled after a time, and Mac drew from his knapsack a
book, _The Cloister and the Hearth_, and was soon deep in its pages.
Then came lunch, and in the afternoon orders were read, with inspiring
messages from the Generals, and a few words from the C.O.
A few aeroplanes burred overhead, the exchange of firing followed its
normal daily course, quieting rather in the heat of midday; but to the
waiting troops the long hours dragged. That wonder of what the future
held, that ominous quiet before the storm, the preparations for
battle--all made the day long.
At last the sun sank behind the rugged islands in a glorious riot of
colour, the high eastern hill-tops which should be British by dawn
gradually grew black against the appearing stars. The Regiment,
water-bottles filled and in final trim, stood leaning on their rifles.
Occasionally some one gave a hitch to his gear, others talked in
subdued tones, or gazed solemnly out to sea where the black outlines of
Imbros and Samothrace stood against the last glow of departing day. At
this glorious hour there drifted up from the darkness in the ravine
below such a sound as went deep to Mac's heart. Rich in tone, perfect
in key, unmarred by a single jarring note, and to the accompaniment of
battle sounds above, came the music of the soul, and Mac was awed. It
was the chanting of five hundred Maoris and their prayer before this,
their first great trial in modern warfare. Upon the next few hours
depended the reputation of their race. Would they be worthy of the
glorious traditions of their old chiefs?
Then came the word to move, and the Regiment, in single line, filed
down the slope and into the main sap to the north. It was already full
of troops filing to the attack, but, after many halts and
side-trackings, they reached the exit which led to the ravine. Here,
at the parting of the ways, stood the fine old padre, and, with a "God
bless you, my boy," he shook each by the hand as they passed out to
battle.
The several troops of Mac's squadron divided for their various
objectives. To his section fell the duty of going up the ravine to cut
enemy communication trenches, leading across it to their strong outpost
on the ridge above on the left. Magazines were empty, and the orders
were that the night's work must be done with the bayonet. The forty
silent figures crept up the sharp stony bottom for a short distance,
and then halted to await the critical moment of the attack. Then,
while they waited, the long white beam from a man-o'-war at sea settled
along the ridge on the left and showed the strong wired entrenchments
of the outpost. Whir-r-r went a shell overhead, and the first shot of
the battle burst in an eruption of black smoke among the Turkish wire.
More followed in rapid succession; but the first shot had been the
signal for the troop in the defile below to set off at a jog-trot up
its murky, twisty depths. They trotted along for five minutes,
machine-gun bullets from high above sometimes hitting up small spurts
of sand as they doubled round corners. Then, as they suddenly rounded
a sharp ridge, a dozen or so rifles burst on them from fifteen paces
distant. Some men went down in front of Mac, a cloud of dust sprang up
and he stumbled over one of the prone forms. Instantly they were in
among them, the terrified Turks shrieked, a few odd shots rang out, Mac
killed two with his revolver, and then, with bloody bayonets, shadowy
figures emerged from the murky depths of the trench, and passed on to
explore the ground beyond. They pushed up through the thick scrub to
beneath the outpost where a battle now raged, for the purpose of
catching fugitives and preventing reinforcements. But none came, and
the troop sat quietly in the scrub awaiting developments. The sound of
musketry echoed beautifully across the ravines in the clear stillness
of the night.
The Turks were lighting fires in the stunted pine growth a short
distance ahead, which lit with a red flickering light the overhanging
clay cliffs of Table Top rising sharply at the farther side of the
defile. Then the cold white glare of a searchlight settled on its flat
top, and in a few minutes heavy howitzer, 18-pounder and naval shells,
shrieked overhead and burst, flashing and roaring, on the crest. The
overhanging crag, her summit rent by an inferno of shell fire, her
inaccessible escarpment lit by the lurid glow of scrub fires, and the
fantastic smoke clouds eerily revealed by the searchlight, made
altogether a wild night battle scene of weird glory.
The bombardment ceased suddenly, the searchlight switched off, and part
of the regiment, who had crawled through the scrub on the more
accessible flank during the shelling, successfully rushed the Top. Mac
and his mates returned to their first scene of action and continued to
guard the communication sap. One or two Turks, who had hidden in the
scrub during the mêlée, gave their presence away, yelled with terror
and fell dead at the first shot. Poor old Joe, who had been severely
wounded by the first fusillade, lay dying, and soon his moans ceased
altogether. Others were dead, and some wounded.
About three in the morning they went on again to join the rest of the
regiment on Table Top. Struggling up the trench-like bottom of the
ravine, through the inky blackness of the thick scrub, they found
themselves at length in a _cul-de-sac_, with clay cliffs on either
side. The officer went on to reconnoitre, and then, to the great
discomfiture of the forty fellows huddled together in the clay
watercourse, a hundred or so Turks put in an appearance on the brink of
the steep cliff on the left. Babbling excitedly they looked curiously
down on the silent crouching troopers. Trapped, and entirely at the
Turks' mercy, Mac momentarily expected annihilation, and wondered
vaguely why it did not come. Retreat was hopeless, and he counselled
scrambling up the steep bank and attacking them. A tense half hour
passed. Then came a guarded whistle from high up on the right, and he
heard the faint command from his officer, "Climb up to the right."
Quitting the troop, he scrambled up the soft yielding cliff, slid back
to the starting point several times, still puzzled why the Turks on the
opposite brink did not shoot, and at last found his officer near the
top, quite bewildered as to the whereabouts of his men. Mac, exhausted
with his exertions, was sent to report the night's events to the
Colonel, while his officer returned to guide the others up.
Table Top was a level, scrub-covered plateau, about four chains across,
flanked on the north, west and south by steep cliffs, and on the east
gently sloping up towards the higher hills. Mac found the Colonel on
the far side, answered his questions, heard from him that progress
everywhere had been splendid and that the brigade had disposed of all
its objectives, and then found a few spare moments to view the country
from this high point.
Dawn was breaking--just the same old beautiful dawn they had so often
watched silhouetting the trenches opposite and the hills beyond, but
now, with the exhilaration of victory thrilling through his body, Mac
stood there with the most glorious dawn of all his days, or of anyone
else's he thought, lighting the eastern sky.
From the heights of the Table Top, Mac surveyed the scene below him.
To his right as he faced the north, the Table Top was connected by a
series of ridges with the hill summits about a mile away, which the sun
was just topping. To his front the ground fell abruptly in a deep
ravine, beyond which lay ridge after ridge, and beyond again the high
range behind Anafarta, three miles away, all standing out clearly in
sun-topped ridges and shadow, in the refreshing air of early morning.
Out to sea were the two islands, rugged and beautiful as ever, which,
together with the whole glory of the morning, the hills and the sea,
were unconscious and unaffected by the battle of men developing on
those beaches and hills to decide the fate of nations.
The Anzac shore swept away to the north-west in a splendid curve to
Lala Baba, the point of Suvla Bay; and there, where no vessel floated
at sundown, lay now the strategy of the battle, a great fleet of
transports, warships, lighters, pinnaces and destroyers, encircled
already by a great torpedo-net. Farther out, every detail reflected in
the clear blue water, lay a dozen clean, sweet hospital ships. Already
round the little mound of Lala Baba were gathered small bodies of men,
horses and artillery, and occasionally Turkish shrapnel burst above
them. The warships were sending shells up the Anafarta valley and on
to the Turkish positions behind the great white patch of the Salt Lake.
Having thoroughly taken in the situation, Mac turned again to business.
Some of the fellows were digging trenches on the enemy side of the
plateau, the medicals were bandaging the wounded, Turkish and New
Zealand, in a sheltered spot in the scrub, and Mac was told off to
disarm and guard several hundred prisoners who were trooping up the
steep slope from the rear. This was the garrison of the old No. 3
Outpost who had found their retreat cut off by the capture of Table
Top, and were the same Turks who had, earlier in the morning, gazed
down on Mac as he had crouched in the ravine bottom fifteen feet below
them. He decided that they must have been demoralized then, or else he
and his comrades had been no more.
The prisoners threw down their arms and bandoliers in a pile, and
seemed to feel no regret. They beamed with happiness, offered
cigarettes, biscuits, money and mementoes to their guards, and
embarrassed them by crowding round in an effort to shake their hands.
Eventually they were despatched under escort to the beach, and Mac
seized a few spare moments to watch an attack, half a mile to the
south, which was being made by Light Horsemen from the main position on
Russell's Top.
Destroyers close in below sent high explosive shell whirring upwards to
burst in a pall of black smoke and dust on the narrow neck between the
Turkish and Australian lines. There was a tornado of machine-gun fire
which reached Mac's ears only as a high-pitched continuous note. The
shelling lasted about ten minutes only, a hopelessly inadequate
preparation, he knew, on such positions. The storm of machine-guns
rose to terrific violence, ripping and roaring. A grey fog of smoke
and dust partially screened the scarred hill-tops, and shielded the
mêlée from his vision, but, knowing those tiers of Turkish trenches as
he did, he was awed with the thought of what must be passing. For
fifteen minutes it lasted in all its fury, then lulled slightly, to
burst forth again for a few minutes only to diminish once more to a
steady burr, which left nothing decided in his mind. What had happened
he did not know, but when he turned his attention there later in the
morning he gathered, from the fact that the machine-guns still rattled
in the same locality as before, that ground had not been gained.
His Squadron were instructed to make perches in the seaward cliff of
the crag where they would be safe from shrapnel which was now bursting
occasionally in the vicinity. Mac endeavoured to do so, but so steep
was the cliff that he only managed to make a ledge sufficiently wide to
sit on, while his legs dangled over the abyss below, and the sun blazed
on him in undiluted fury. But the greatest discomfort was the steady
fall of a stream of powdered clay from the constructors of perches and
paths higher up. A veranda of Turkish bayonets with Turkish rifles
roofed crossways on them, failed to improve the situation greatly, so
he gave it up as a bad job, and moved to the shade of a fine arbutus
bush on the less steep enemy side of the Top. He preferred shade,
comfort, and clean arms and ammunition, with the risk of Turkish
shrapnel, of which he had no great fear, to the drawbacks of the cliff
face without the risk.
The Squadron lay in reserve all day, and Mac, from his shady altitude,
revelled in being just so situated with a great battle in progress,
with almost the whole battlefield in view, and him with nothing more to
do than sit there in comfort watching it. He surveyed it all through
his glasses, tracing the present limits of the advance. The high hills
seemed still to be Turkish, for different bodies of white-patched
troops made a rough line some distance below the summit, running down
laterally towards Suvla Bay. Distant ridges lined by the same
white-patched men showed that all the foothills had been taken; but Mac
watched eagerly, though in vain, for the appearance of British troops
on the higher ridges. Chocolate Hill and Osman Oblu Tepe at the inner
end of the Salt Lake, which were the main obstruction to the success of
what seemed to be the plan of attack. He saw only a few Turks on these
hills, and odd ones scurrying about near Anafarta, but never a body of
them, large or small.
There was a great mass of troops gathered round the small mound of Lala
Baba, on whose top was now a wireless station and a signal mast. There
were horses, artillery, limbers, mobs of men and increasing piles of
stores. From huge four-masted transatlantic liners came lines of seven
or eight crowded boats in tow of a pinnace, and already the same lines
were threading their way back to the hospital ships farther out. But
the troops on shore were scarcely moving. During the whole day only a
few small bodies advanced a short distance, with little opposition it
seemed, at any time. Why did they not make a general advance? Shells
fell occasionally on different sections of the general line, the
diminishing music of the machine-guns floated, almost unnoticed, across
the hot stillness of the midday hours, the freshness of the morning had
given way to the summer glare, softened rather by the blue haze from
fires which here and there crept through the scrub. Men-o'-war, close
inshore, were shrouded in a murky pall from their flashing broadsides,
while their shells tore holes in the village of Anafarta, or sent scrub
and earth flying as they searched enemy ridges or passed to unseen
billets beyond the summits.
Hospital ships weighed anchor and passed into distance, and destroyers
patrolled unceasingly to guard against submarine attack.
Up the narrow, twisting sultry bottoms of ravines swarmed confused
trails of sweating men and animals, mules laden with ammunition and
water, with their Punjab muleteers, Sikhs with their mountain pieces,
and fresh troops, British and Purkha, New Zealand, Australian, passing
up to the line. Trickling rearwards, moving when opportunities
offered, went limping the bandaged wounded, the stretcher-cases,
blood-stained and grey, but patient, splendidly patient, the unladen
mules, often waiting long periods for a clear passage, and all the odd
men, messengers, prisoner escorts and others who move up and down the
communications during a battle.
A few fellows of the Regiment were caught by snipers hidden still in
the scrub behind the advancing line. Otherwise the Table Top was
undisturbed, and the trenches grew deeper. Some went back to bury
those who had fallen in the night encounters. Mac, Bill and Charley
stuck to their shady spot most of the day. In a hollow at their feet
half a dozen dead Turks turned black in the sun. Midday came, and they
consumed the last of the Mudros luxuries; then they cleaned their gear,
slept awhile and awoke at five, expectant of great activity after the
lethargy of the day.
The Suvla Bay force had at last roused itself, and now steady extended
lines of men were advancing across the dazzling whiteness of the Salt
Lake towards Chocolate Hill and Osman. White puffs of bursting
shrapnel broke here and there above them; but only occasional men fell.
Naval artillery raked the hills in front of them, where no Turk could
be seen. The lines went forward slowly, too slowly, for there seemed
to be little opposition to the advance and no hand-to-hand fighting.
They did not even appear to have reached the base of Chocolate Hill
when deepening shadows made it no longer possible to follow their
progress.
CHAPTER XXII
THE NIGHT BATTLE ON CHANAK BAIR
Of the general progress of the battle through the night and indeed
until he was wounded, Mac knew little. He heard but vaguely what was
going on on other portions of the front and could see little, and
gathered only indefinite impressions of happenings elsewhere.
He passed the second night of the battle in alternately trenching and
resting, when he occasionally had a few moments of sleep. It was very
dark, warm and clear with a glorious showing of stars. The noise of
battle increased and seemed to fill the whole sky and earth as it had
not in the daytime. Star rockets shot skyward from the enemy lines and
burst into dazzling falling lights while the fellows crouched low in
the scrub to escape notice. The flash of the artillery and of the
bursting shells were here, there and everywhere, but mostly along the
ridge tops, and the musketry roared spasmodically in squalls along the
ridges, or drifted down from the high summits.
At length the stars slowly faded before the eastern glow, and the
hill-tops stood out darker than before. Did dawn find them gained?
Mac waited eagerly for more light; but, when it came, found little to
discover. The summits seemed to be won, but he could find no trace of
the British nearer Anafarta.
Sunday passed much in the same way as Saturday. The Suvla Bay force
was still hanging about the landing-place, and there was no indication
of a heavy engagement on their front. The New Zealanders had reached
the high ridges of Chanak Bair, but no one knew, if they had progressed
at all, how far they had gone over on the Dardanelles side. Nearly all
the hospital ships had vanished with full cargoes of wounded; but
otherwise the whole scene was little different from that of the
previous day. The hot hours passed slowly, the battle roared on, and
Mac and his mates wondered what might be their next move, for they were
not at present opposed to any direct enemy force.
In the middle of the afternoon they received orders to prepare to move,
with the exception of one Squadron which was to garrison the positions.
They moved off almost immediately, passing down the steep northern
slope of the plateau and forcing their way through the dense thicket
until they reached the bottom of the hollow. They turned to the right
and jostled their way up through the struggling traffic along the
narrow, suffocating bed of the ravine. There were places where many
fine fellows had been laid low by snipers, places where they hurried,
if possible. There were times when they were jammed between mules and
the banks, and others when they had to wait many minutes for
opportunities of pushing on. After an hour of this sort of thing, they
came practically to the head of the ravine, and pushed into the scrub
on one side to make temporary bivouacs.
Here all slacked and rested their weary bodies, stretched out full
length under the stunted bushes. Weak, most of them, with dysentery
when the battle started, they had now had two days of it, and with the
heat, the short commons of water, and little sleep, they felt a wee bit
tired, and they made the most of the short hours.
The cool of evening came again, and with it orders to prepare for
further movements, this time to the firing line in support of their own
men on the summit of the hills above. They made the best possible meal
from the dry rations, dry enough when there was unlimited water, but
quite impossible to more than nibble in these almost waterless days.
Mac did not feel very hungry; but he had room inside his thin frame for
a tankful of water. He had started on Friday evening with a liberally
rum-tinctured bottleful, which had since been restocked with water as
strongly tainted with petrol. For the purpose of the advance, sealed
petrol tins of water had been brought from Alexandria, but the fillers
of the tins seemed to have paid no particular attention as to whether
they had first been emptied of petrol. His bottle was almost
half-empty, and he did not care for the prospect of going up to those
struggling lines without a fresh supply; but, just in time, a mule
train came up with full fantassas, and he got a half-bottle.
When dusk had almost deepened to darkness they joined the surging
traffic of mules, men and stretchers on the dusty track, and filed
laboriously up the steep hill. The din of battle heightened with the
deepening night. Indian mountain batteries barked furiously behind
them, and the heavier artillery sent shells shrieking up from far
below, to burst somewhere up there where the crest stood silhouetted
against the stars. From above came the incessant roar of bursting
bombs and shells and rattle of musketry. At dawn the summit had been
gained, but just how good or bad our position was Mac had not the
vaguest idea. He had not heard of, nor had he seen any progress,
except the taking of this summit, since Saturday morning, and had no
idea as to whether the battle was progressing favourably or otherwise.
What was expected of them up there to-night none knew. Each carried a
pick or a shovel and two bombs.
They passed the dressing-stations, perched on either side on the steep
slope, where hundreds of wounded lay, then over a ridge where the track
stopped and out into the pitch black open. The bullets zipped past or
thudded into the ground. The troop lay down while they got their
bearings. A fellow close by Mac gave a yell and was dead. A few
wounded men, limping or crawling back, passed them. Then in extended
order they went forward again, guided by a telephone wire, keeping
touch with difficulty in the scrub and the darkness. Frequently there
would come from the blackness in front of their feet a warning "Keep
clear o' me, cobber, I'm wounded," or groans and the gleam of a white
bandage, and sometimes they stumbled over prone still forms. Slowly
they picked their way forward, making towards the centre of the firing,
which was in a semicircle round them, and the whistling bullets came
from both sides as well as from in front, and the din grew fiercer.
They reached at length a hollow full of wounded, then went slowly up a
slope littered with equipment and dead, and, at last, topping the rise,
they came upon a scene so weird and infernal that Mac instantly stopped
and stared with awe.
Lit fantastically by flickering flames which were licking slowly
through the scrub was a small ghastly, battle-rent piece of ground, not
one hundred yards in width and rising slightly. Beyond and close on
either side, it was bounded by the starry heavens, and seemed a
strange, detached dreamland where men had gone mad. The Turks lined
the far edge, their ghostly faces appearing and vanishing in the eerie
light, as they poured a point-blank fusillade at the shattered series
of shallow holes where the remnants of the New Zealanders were fighting
gallantly. Sweeping round to the left was the flashing semicircle of
the enemy line, bombs exploded with a lurid glare, their murky pall
drifting slowly back towards Mac. Shells came whirring up from the
black depths behind, and burst beyond the further lip. Above the
rending of the bombs, the rattle and burr of the rifles and
machine-guns and the crash of shells, sometimes sounded faintly men's
voices--the weird "Allah, Allah, Allah" of the enemy in a chanted
cadence, and the fierce half-humorous taunts of the attackers.
Everywhere lay dead and dying men--mostly the former, Turkish and
British. Equipment and rifles were strewn in the greatest confusion
over the torn earth, and all the time the creeping flames cast weird
lights upon the passing drama.
"Say, old boy," came a voice from his feet, "you'd better not stand
there too long--it's pretty thick."
Mac leaned down to the wounded man, and found him one of the Aucklands.
"It's been simply blanky hell up here all day and now I'm just waiting
for them to give me a hand out. You boys have come up none too soon.
Mind you give the devils hell!"
"You there with the pick," Mac found himself addressed, "get over to
those holes up front there and dig in for all you're blanky well worth."
"Good luck, matey, Kia Ora," came the parting blessing from the wounded
Aucklander in the scrub.
So brimming over with good fellowship were the tones, so short, yet so
deeply affectionate that Mac instinctively felt much more lighthearted
as he stumbled across the shattered battlefield to the thin line of
toiling, hard-pressed fighters, close to the rim where the cliff fell
away on the Dardanelles side. He found a line of shallow holes, some a
foot deep, some eighteen inches, aided a little by a few almost useless
sandbags. The cliff brink was six or eight yards away, and under it
lay the enemy--whose spectral figures, popping up and disappearing
rapidly, blazed point blank into the exposed line. A few yards on the
left the Turks poured across from the cliff to a small knob which
protruded into the attackers' line, and upon which they bore down
constantly and bombed furiously. From the ravine below the enemy, came
the constant "Allah, Allah, Allah," of many Turks encouraging
themselves for the attack, and occasional yells when shells or bombs
fell among them.
Mac knelt on the ground and endeavoured to deepen the hold by steady
picking, while two other men kept a steady fire on the agile heads of
the enemy. But try his best, he was now beginning to feel severely his
decreasing strength and could make but little impression on the trench
on this parched, sun-baked hill-top. Another trooper offered to take
his place, and he went to the less arduous work of carrying such
tattered sandbags as still contained earth from the second line about
fifteen feet back and piling them up in some sort of a parapet for the
front line. The second line was only half a dozen square holes whose
fine garrisons lay dead within them, except a few who raved in delirium
for water which was not to be had. They and their arms lay prostrate
across each other, many half-buried by flying earth from shells and
bombs.
He finished this work and then responded to an oft-repeated call from
farther along, "Reinforcements for the right. Reinforcements for the
right. Enemy getting round behind!" Here was a shallow bit of a hole
with three or four men, the right flank of this part of the line, while
the cliff edge was only four or five yards distant, and the enemy was
thought to be crawling back and gathering for a heavy assault. Mac set
about improving the trench and forming a small right angle to prevent
enfilade and to protect the flank. The sap had been deeper earlier in
the day, for the first foot he shovelled out consisted of a sticky
muddy mass of blood, soil, ammunition and gear of all sorts. He sifted
it carefully for good ammunition and bombs, and formed the rest into a
parapet with the assistance of sandbags. Sometimes when he was tired
he took a turn at keeping the enemy from becoming too venturesome on
the cliff brink. Queer shapes stood out against the stars, but whether
they were always Turks he could not tell, as from long sleeplessness
and strain his sight was inclined to play him tricks. Anyhow he ran no
risks. Somehow or other the troops farther on the left were constantly
shouting warnings concerning figures passing back to the right, but
these he could not see; while, curiously enough, he could plainly
follow Turkish figures flitting across the sky-line on the left from
the cliff to the small knob which could enfilade the trench from the
left. His rifle jammed from heat and dust. He took two from dead men
and kept them both on the parapet ready for instant action. The others
did much the same sort of thing, helping each other, sticking grimly to
the job and not worrying much, apparently, about their future.
The battle raged on through hour after hour with unabated fierceness;
and the din of it all, the whirring and crashing of the shells, the
furious rattle of musketry, the yells of men and the cries of the
wounded, became almost an unnoticed monotone in Mac's ears. The Turks
threw bombs steadily, but fortunately only in ones and twos. They were
fairly slow to explode, and, if they landed on the parapet, the troops
crouched in the bottom of the trench, or, if into the trench, they got
out until the explosion and the fumes had cleared away. The enemy was
almost safe from bombing, for grenades which were thrown at him found
no resting-place until far down into the ravine, where their explosion
sounded only as a dull unsatisfactory thud. Sometimes big shells
whirring up from the warships or the heavy land batteries burst short
and caught some of the already too sparse attackers, or brought the
sufferings of the wounded to an end. Mac's line lost men who went
bleeding to the rear. Sometimes their places were taken--more often
they were not.
He wondered vaguely what would happen, but all were too busy with
affairs of immediate importance, and somehow it did not seem to matter
in the least--the outlook was not bright. The Turkish mound on the
left could enfilade the trench at short range when daylight came, the
enemy was in great force in front and was creeping back to the
rear--already a fire-swept zone impossible to cross. Where was that
great force from Suvla Bay? They had landed three miles away at
midnight on Friday and it was now just before dawn on Monday.
The night came in time near to its end. He could not describe it as
having gone quickly, nor yet slowly--it had simply passed. Dawn
brought no particular pleasure, only the transition from the unearthly
phantasmagoria of bitter night fighting to the practical fierce
hand-to-hand struggling of day. The paling sky figured the sky-line
and the Turkish heads in definite silhouette, and many of the large
shrubs of the night where Turks might lurk revealed themselves as small
tufts of grass. Vigilance increased. If rifles did not sweep that
crest continually the old Turk would leave his head and shoulders above
the edge long enough to take aim, instead of blazing away rather at
random.
It was now definitely seen that the Turks had got well round the right
flank during the darkness, in spite of a machine-gun which had been
said to sweep this zone; but of it Mac saw no sign. Some Turks were
creeping through a hollow immediately to the right, and he being the
tallest man at this point directed his attention at the wriggling backs
with some success. One wounded Turk there signalled by waving his
rifle to some of the advanced party, but was soon after lifted by a
mate who ran with him to safety.
CHAPTER XXIII
MAC IS WOUNDED
That August dawn revealed a ghastly scene on this Gallipoli hill-top,
where the tired, outnumbered attackers fought desperately for the
summit of the Peninsula, possession of which would mean victory and the
command of the Straits. It seemed to Mac that decision must come soon,
for this desperate, more or less continual hand-to-hand encounter could
not last much longer. Bad as their position was, it could not be long
now before those many thousands of Imperial troops would be taking the
enemy in flank from the Suvla Bay direction, or at least would be
strongly reinforcing them from the rear.
And now, even before it was full daylight, the activity along the line,
though it had scarcely seemed possible, grew more violent, and Mac felt
that each side tensely watched the other, expecting every moment a
final, desperate coming to grips. The Turks appeared to be gathering
in great numbers, and were even now on the point of making a
whole-hearted attack. But the British artillery intervened. The
shelling had been increasing steadily, and at this moment several
men-o'-war close inshore opened their broadsides and were joined by all
the field artillery which could be brought to bear, and there broke
along the crest such a tornado of bursting shells as had never been
seen during the whole campaign.
The battleships were concealed by a thick pall of brown smoke through
which spurted the flashes of their batteries, field guns of all sizes
barked from ravines and ridges; the shells roared and shrieked up
towards the summit, and burst in a continual shattering crash on those
few hundred square yards of deadly battlefield, or passed aimlessly
beyond the ridge and exploded harmlessly far over enemy territory. The
Turks, being mostly under the farther lip of the small plateau,
suffered little from the bombardment except on the knob which protruded
into the line to Mac's left. It was torn constantly by high explosive,
and Turkish bodies were flung high in the air, in whole or in part.
Equipment, earth and sandbags mixed with the sickly, murky green smoke
which drifted in a choking cloud across Mac's line. Rapidly fresh
Turks filled the places of their dead, and they in turn were blasted by
the bombardment.
But many of the shells were falling short; or may be they were not
falling short, rather it was a position which should never have been
bombarded in this fashion. The artillery was directed upon a hill high
above it, lying between it and the breaking day. On its crest,
separated by only a few yards, were both the defenders and the
attackers. Few of the shells were likely to hit the enemy, for the
majority must either spend themselves in the air beyond the crest or
else fall among our own men on the crest itself; so they fell thickly
along Mac's line, and thus to the danger of an enemy on three sides was
added the tragedy of our own artillery on the fourth. Helpless they
were to shield themselves or to stop this mad destruction. They had
red and yellow flags to mark their positions, and these they waved
violently, but it could be of no avail in the dawn light, the dust and
the smoke.
What telephone communication there was with the rear, Mac did not know;
but, whether there was any or whether it had been cut by the enemy, no
sign came that the artillery knew where its shells were falling. One
after another those shells burst with a yellow glare and a fountain of
black smoke, sending men, some alive, and many dead, flying upwards;
and when Mac could see again there would be a space in the line where
one, two or more of his troop had taken the long trail. They rained
faster, bursting incessantly on that narrow strip between them and the
edge of the cliff, often falling behind and always odd ones and twos
dropping into the trench itself. Mac felt sick with the fumes and the
horror of it, and sometimes the blast of a shell sent him against the
side of the trench. The helplessness of the position appalled him.
There were fewer and fewer of them left, and there was a growing gap in
the line. Yet there was no means of stopping it; and he longed for the
bombardment to cease. He sniped away at the Turks along the cliffs,
and turned his attention at times to some who had been hunted from the
knob by the shelling. There were only three or four of them left in
this corner and yet there was no slackening of that mad artillery fire.
Then swiftly there was an awful lurid flash close in front of him, on
the level ground almost in his face, and it seemed he had been hit
across the head with a bar of wood, and he could not see. He pressed
his hand to his face and sank slowly to the ground.
"Old Mac's a goner," he heard the voice of one of his mates say in
those same affectionate, final tones which had followed the
disappearance of comrade after comrade on the left.
"Poor old fellow," said another.
"No," muttered Mac. "By God though, I'm blind for life!" He felt the
blood rushing down his face, and he knew it. He sat up, and no one
said anything. He thought for a second or two and decided on a course
of action. "Well, it's no longer any good staying here. I'm off." So
saying, he undid the buckles of his Webb equipment, and struggled out
of all his gear, keeping only the case of his glasses, for he thought
he might as well stick to them.
He remembered the way to the second line, and crawled along the
shattered trench to the left, feeling his way past the legs of the one
or two men who were left. They paid no attention to him, being too
busy with the enemy to be concerned with other matters. He felt his
way along on his hands and knees, down into holes, over dead bodies,
avoiding wounded, across the open ground, until he came to where he
thought the communication trench ought to be and turned to the left.
There seemed to be little of it remaining. It had never been much of a
thing, and was now blown about and full of wounded and dead. He was
finding himself in difficulties about getting past some wounded men,
when some one came out from the second line and led him in. There his
Captain took his hand and patted him on the back.
"I'm afraid I've lost my sight, sir," said Mac.
"I'm afraid so, old boy," replied he. "I'll send a chap back with you."
One of the boys took charge of him, and Mac stumbled off through the
little piece of trench into the open, across which, from both sides,
the bullets fled whistling and zipping. Jogging awkwardly short
distances over the rough ground, then lying in hollows for brief rests,
they covered at length that exposed slope of about one hundred and
fifty yards which separated the trench from the shallow head of a
ravine, wherein lay hundreds of wounded and dead. The trooper guided
Mac carefully over a space where bodies lay thick, and made him lie
down on a sloping clay bank, took his field dressing from his pocket
and bandaged his head.
Mac lay there through the whole of that long terrible day, a day of
strange unearthliness, when he seemed to float away into a weird
dreamland and at times into nightmare, and yet it was not a day of
unmixed suffering. The sun glared down pitilessly through the hot
hours, the tormenting flies swarmed in their millions, the dead lay
thick around, already blackening in the heat, the dying raved in
delirium for water which never came, and the battle raged on with
unceasing violence. Lying uncomfortably on a slope, propped against a
dead Turk, he scarcely seemed to feel the burning heat of the sun, the
irritation of the flies, the torturing thirst nor the pain of his
wound, for his spirit lay soothed in a strange restfulness, in the
satisfaction of peace, in a manner like the weary wishing for nothing
but sleep after a day of honest work. For Mac the fight was over; he
had done what had been asked of him, and his spirit, serenely happy in
this knowledge, seemed to rise above earthly discomfort and to concern
itself little with the shattered state of his body, nor yet with the
fact that he was far from out of the wood. Death was all around; and,
had it come to him, he would have had no terror of it, but simply the
resigned acceptance of a happy soul.
Early in the morning Mac had inquired whether he could not be taken on
to the dressing-station, but learned that it was impossible as the
enemy swept the country between with an impassable hail of bullets.
The lower end of the ravine was in Turkish hands, elsewhere there were
unscalable cliffs, and the only means of getting back was by crossing a
ridge close under the enemy rifles. There was nothing for it but to
await nightfall.
The ravine was full of wounded. The more lightly injured had drifted
towards the bottom, but those who had not been able to walk lay crowded
close in the shallow head near Mac. Most of them were already dead,
for many had been wounded two nights previously, and few so seriously
injured could stand a second day of such torment. Mac asked sometimes
if there was water, but there was none. Occasionally he inquired how
the battle was going, and if there were any men near to hear him, they
replied only with unassuming grunts. He sat up once for a change of
position and moved away a little from the dead Turk, but the flying
bullets sent him back. He may have been light-headed once or twice,
but this he himself could not tell. Queerly enough, he troubled not at
all about the form his wound had taken. Though he knew with absolute
certainty that he would never see again, he was not worried by the
horrors of a future world of darkness; and found himself in his vague
wanderings of mind deeply pitying those round him, and his heart was
full of grief at their sufferings.
Gradually a lessening of the heat told of coming evening. A little
water arrived and was distributed in small potions. Mac was conscious
that those who came periodically to the hollow to do for the wounded
all that lay in their power were performing fine actions of
self-sacrifice. It grew cool, and Mac stirred himself to expect aid
from the rear; word had come, too, that a large Imperial force would be
sent up at nightfall to relieve the tattered remnant of the garrison,
who had dwindled to a desperate handful from attack after attack by the
enemy through all the long day, and who were almost light-headed from
fatigue. The hours still dragged on without anything happening, and
Mac almost feared they had been forgotten. At last, shortly after he
had heard a voice say it was eleven o'clock, some one came into the
ravine, and inquired in the dark who were there. Few answered, for, it
seemed to Mac, most of them were too far gone. All those who could
look after themselves had long ago drifted farther down the ravine.
"Who are you?" sang out Mac.
"I'm an Auckland stretcher-bearer."
"Well, if you can show me the way, you can take me back. I can't see,
but I can walk all right."
"I dunno how I'm goin' to get you out of there. There are too many
wounded round you."
"Oh, if you show me where to tread I'll be all right. You might as
well take me back. I'm the only one here who can walk," said Mac
appealingly.
After a little more persuasion, he picked his way over the bodies, and,
Mac, swaying a little, stood up. He forgot to take the case of his
glasses which he had been using as a pillow, though he had remembered
afterwards that the glasses themselves were still on the parapet where
he had been wounded. He picked his steps carefully over the prostrate
forms, and then, grabbing the Ambulance man firmly by the belt,
stumbled after him up the slope. They toiled down the long ridge,
falling frequently into hidden holes in the thick scrub; and all the
time the rifles blazed along the ridges and the bullets zipped past
them in the darkness. They reached the dressing-station, where, from
the sounds which reached his ears, it seemed to him many men were
lying, and a crowd passed constantly to and fro. A medical officer
took Mac in hand, dressed his wound as well as might be--for there was
no water for such purposes--and gave him a drink. Though Mac protested
he could quite well walk, the M.O. insisted on putting him on a
stretcher, giving orders to the bearers to take him without delay to
the hospital life-boats. And so, swaying precariously, he was taken
away down the rough, steep slope, the bearers halting often to regain
their breath. Then, taking not the slightest heed of his mild
protests, they dumped him off the stretcher after they had gone about
half a mile, spread a blanket over him and departed. He lay there
peacefully for an hour or two, and then, becoming thoroughly fed up at
this lack of progress and seeing no point in such delays, called out to
some one he heard near him, to know what possibility there was of a
further move.
"None, old boy," came the discouraging reply. "Stretchers are just
about finish, and there 're dozens of stretcher-cases lying everywhere.
From the looks of things you might be here for a day or two yet."
Mac thought for a minute or two and decided to take matters into his
own hands. He heard some one passing along the path.
"Hullo you! Come over here," he called.
Some one approached.
"What's up, cobber?"
"If you're going to the rear you might as well take me along with you.
I can walk all right. I only want a helping hand. What about it?"
"Well, I'm a Fifth Reinforcements just landed, an' I dunno where all my
mates are gone."
"All right. You might as well come along with me." And so saying, Mac
stood up, shed his blanket, and went off with the man who had lost
himself.
It was broad daylight again, and the Artillery activity was steadily
increasing. They wandered down the dusty bottom of the ravine, Mac
directing the way as best he could. At the bottom of the ravine, near
a battery in furious action, they had to halt for some time owing to a
congestion in the traffic through the big communication saps. Mac
wanted to go along the top, but the other fellow refused flatly as
there were too many bullets flying, and so they had to progress when
opportunity offered through the hot dusty crowded saps. They were
close to the sea by No. 2 Outpost, but the hospital boats had ceased
taking wounded off from there, owing to the heavy rifle fire. Mac
decided to go on to Anzac without delay as, with weakness growing, he
wished to keep going until he reached a hospital-ship. Dragging one
foot after another, he plodded on through the interminable trenches,
though swiftly his strength was going and he had to rest every twenty
yards.
His companion, taking the wrong turning, led him over an unnecessary
hill, which nearly exhausted his walking powers, but about nine o'clock
they at length reached the Cove and the clearing station. Mac's head
was again dressed, he swallowed with the deepest joy many cups of tea,
bid farewell to his escort, and lay down on some bales of hay to await
the arrival of a hospital-ship, of which there were none at present off
the landing.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE END OF MAC'S CAMPAIGNING DAYS
About midday a hospital-ship anchored off the shore, and some one led
him along the pier to a barge, from which he was transferred to a
mine-sweeper, and at last was swung upwards by a crane on to the deck
of the ship. He was almost the first on board. Kind hands and
affectionate voices welcomed him, and tender hands led him along the
deck to a surgery. The fresh cooling sea air had revived him, and here
at last, with skilled hands and cool lotions easing his aching head, he
felt supremely happy.
The blood and grime removed from his face, and a neat white bandage
round his head, a sister took him in charge and guided him far down to
a ward low in the ship. She gave him a comfortable bunk, and swiftly
set about spring-cleaning him. She speedily unclothed him by running a
pair of scissors along the sleeves and legs of his blood-clotted
garments, giving him his precious bandages and identification disc
wrapped up in a handkerchief; then sponged him all over in deliciously
cool water, decked him in a shirt, and spread a sheet over him. Next
came a large bowl of hot soup, which Mac lost no time in putting within
his hungry frame, and finally a glass of port. The fine sister chatted
away the while with pleasant little laughs and entertaining
remembrances, as if she had not been working in those steamy holds for
days and nights with scarce a rest.
Many others were brought into the ward, and it was soon full of
seriously wounded men, Imperial, Australian and New Zealand. M.O.'s
and sisters worked incessantly at the heavy dressings.
The hours drifted slowly by, for though he had had no sleep for four
days and nights, and little for several nights before that, he did not
sleep, and the passage of time was marked only by the arrival of meals
and the pleasant relief of fresh dressings. He was always hungry from
long under-feeding, and relished everything which came his way. For
him there was no difference between night and day, and he often lost
count of time. There was only one sister in the ward, a splendid
Queensland girl, who toiled for almost all of the twenty-four hours in
the hot, steaming atmosphere, going steadily the round of the heavy
dressings, starting again at the beginning as soon as she came to the
last.
The ordinary routine work had to be left to the orderlies, and these
men angered Mac so at times that he wished they might be lined up in a
row and shot. Recruited, it seemed, from the lowest order of some
community, they made use of this opportunity, when all senior ranks
were too fully occupied with more immediate work of their own, to loaf,
to rob the wounded sometimes, and to ignore many simple duties which
for many men made all the difference between pain and comfort. Most of
the wounded suffered from dysentery in a more or less acute form, and
frequently seriously wounded men had to struggle out of bed to attend
to the wants of those incapable of moving. Some exceptions there were,
but the casual neglect in Mac's ward made him fume with anger.
But the sister and the padre were splendid people. The padre came to
the ward to assist the sister with her dressings, and came to Mac to
break gently the news that he would never see again. Mac had no
illusions on this point, and laughed at the padre and his serious,
funereal attitude till he resumed his normal cheery manner, when he and
Mac soon discovered that they had many great friends in common in New
Zealand, for the padre hailed from those parts too. The padre and
sister became great friends of Mac, and in odd moments they sat on his
bunk and yarned away with him, the padre about the Sounds' country
which he and Mac knew so well, about what work Mac might do in future,
and about all sorts of things, and with the sister he arranged some day
to stay on the far back Queensland station.
The evening of the day he came on board they left Anzac and for some
hours the engines rumbled away, when again there was silence. Mac was
told they were at Mudros alongside the _Aquitania_ putting all light
and medium cases on board that vessel. Then for an indefinite space of
time he again felt the vibration of the engines, and he thought they
must be bound for Alexandria. When the vessel stopped, without having
the vaguest notion how long she had been steaming, he took it for
granted they were at Alexandria, and was rejoicing inwardly. He was
deeply disappointed to hear they were again off Anzac.
During the day the Turks shelled the vessel, and turned machine-guns on
her. The shells, which Mac could hear bursting as he lay in his bunk,
did no damage, but the machine-gun fire caught one wounded man lying on
deck, made several chips in the deck and holes through the operating
theatre, narrowly missing a medical officer at work on a case and
rattled against the steel sides. The ship moved out to a safer
anchorage. Mac heard in later days that a destroyer had been
carelessly firing from under the lee of the hospital ship. They took
on board that day another thousand cases, again transferred the less
seriously wounded to the _Aquitania_, and returned once more to Anzac.
They left Anzac finally on Friday, called again at Mudros to discharge
the light cases, and set a course for Alexandria, much to Mac's relief.
One day he was taken on a stretcher to the operating theatre, where he
drifted strangely away from earthly things, and woke again in his bunk.
Once he had a glorious sleep, after an injection of morphia, but
usually he lay awake, tired and restless. There was no one to talk to,
except on those rare but pleasant moments when the good padre and the
ever-cheering sister found a few spare minutes. All those near him
were badly wounded and far too ill to speak. Some died, and, wrapped
in a blanket, disappeared from the ward to join the line of corpses on
an upper deck, waiting the dawning hour and the parting words of the
padre to plunge with firebars at their feet into the blue
Mediterranean. Of what had finally happened on those Gallipoli heights
no one could say definitely, and there were disappointing and
unsatisfactory rumours. About noon one day the vessel passed much
wreckage of shattered boats, oars, sun helmets, lifebelts and so on,
and cruised about for some time looking for survivors, but found none.
It was the scene of the foundering a few hours earlier of the _Royal
Edward_ with many hundred fine fellows. The padre brought what news he
could to Mac, and was seldom unaccompanied by something tempting in the
way of sweets or fruit.
On Monday about the middle of the morning the vessel tied up at
Alexandria. The heat was almost unbearable, for no breeze stirred in
the hot confines of the dock to send a cooling breath into the stuffy
depths of the ship. Mac had a wild longing to get off the ship, and he
must have become light-headed. He had been told he would be sent
ashore before evening, but it seemed to him hour after hour had passed
and he knew it must be ten o'clock at night. He gave up hope, and said
to the sister when she came near him that he supposed no one would be
sent ashore now until morning.
"But it's only midday. You'll all go ashore this afternoon."
"Midday on Monday or Tuesday?" Mac inquired.
"Monday, of course, you silly old boy."
Days seemed to pass before the stretcher-bearers commenced removing the
wounded from his ward, but it was only four in the afternoon when he
was put on a stretcher, taken up in a lift and carried down the gangway
across the pier to an ambulance. For those fifty yards through the
fierce sun, an English woman walked beside him holding a parasol over
his head, and he was deeply touched by so thoughtful a kindness. From
what he had seen of the English ladies of Egypt during the terrible
shortage of trained hospital workers, he knew that no words could
describe the magnificence of their actions. The ambulance rattled
away, and he heard again the many noises of an Egyptian street. It was
a dreary journey of nearly an hour, for the springs of the car had long
abandoned their functions, and the jolting over the cobbled roads was
agony to his wounded head.
He was taken to the 17th General Hospital at Ramleh, and was placed on
a low basket arrangement in a big marquee, with its sides rolled up so
that the least hot of any stray breeze might find its way in. The
floor was the desert sand. It was in these days that the shamefully
inadequate preparations for the wounded were most felt, yet the
sufferers themselves did not complain, and the hospital staffs and the
civilian population of Egypt went to work in that scorching heat to
make the best use of their strength and of the short supply of material
available. So the wounded, knowing that all there were doing their
best uncomplainingly accepted going without dressings when they would
have brought great relief; accepted bad food sometimes, the discomfort
of the wicket beds in the stifling heat of the marquees; and, armed
each with a fly whisk, they made the best of a bad job. The sisters
were magnificent, and, indeed, everybody was. The lightly wounded,
too, did all in their power for those who could not walk.
Several hours after Mac arrived, he was handed a bowl of rice mixed
with condensed milk, and though it had been made some time, and had
fermented, he was hungry and ate it eagerly. Then a sister dressed his
wound, and soon the marquee was left to itself for the night. For the
first time in several days, in spite of the fact that his head felt
very bad, he went to sleep, and his waking was full of strange,
unutterable horror. He found himself crawling with his hands and knees
on the sand. He was awake, but why was it he could not see? He
crawled round and round, but could find nothing but sand, sand
everywhere, nothing but sand. He felt terribly alone, and he could not
recall the reason of it all, or why he could not see. He called out in
his terror--again--and again--what, he did not know. Then an old
sister seized him. "You poor old boy. What have you crawled out of
the tent for?" And he remembered again where he was. She took him
back to his bed, soothed him as a mother would calm a terrified child.
Mac was trembling like a leaf.
Tuesday dragged wearily by. He was in low condition, and very, very
tired and his head ached violently. Between the flies, the heat and
the uncomfortable bed, it was not a happy home; but the kindness of the
sisters and the other wounded men who came to him occasionally, went
far towards making it all bearable. There were men worse than he in
that marquee, men in agony and near to death, with torn, septic wounds,
but sticking it out without a word.
Wednesday brought changes. The padre of the hospital ship had cabled
to his father in London that he was all right, and what hospital he was
going to; and now several people came to see him. Mac told them he
would like to go home as soon as he could be sent, as there could be no
more campaigning for him and the sooner he was home the better. The
M.O. said that a hospital-ship was leaving on the following day and
that he would be sent by it. Mac was put in a ward that afternoon. He
was brought some clothes for the morning, but, being fed up with bed,
unknown to the sister, he donned them straight away and went and sat by
the window. He felt very groggy, but getting up and about bucked him
up tremendously.
Next morning he took farewell of the sister, and, clad in a Tommy
uniform built for some one many sizes smaller, a pair of heavy boots of
huge calibre, and a Tommy cap perched on top of his bandages, he walked
downstairs with an orderly. But out in the open the sun was too much
for him and laid him low, when he was converted into a stretcher-case,
and swung away on an ambulance much more comfortable than the one which
brought him. Again he was carried across the sun-baked pier, sheltered
from the sun and protected from the flies by one of those splendid
Alexandrian women, and taken down into a comfortable bunk in the
hospital-ship _Dongola_. Mac found in the adjutant of the ship a
friend of bygone days, who placed him in a spare deck cabin, which he
found not at all an unpleasant home for the next ten days.
He speedily gained strength at sea, and began to enjoy life a bit more.
A fine Australian, who was but slightly wounded, took Mac under his
wing, and with ceaseless care and affection walked with him on deck,
and in a wonderfully unselfish way did many little things to make time
pass quickly for him. A cheery Scottish sister poked her head in
occasionally, and came in the evening to do his dressing. The orderly
who brought Mac's meals, was an earnest, hardworking man, who had
worked once with a missionary among the Eskimos, and who did the work
of several lazy orderlies as well as his own. Late in the evening, as
a special treat, he brought a gramophone up from below deck, stood it
on a chair in the middle of the small cabin, directed the trumpet
straight at Mac's head, and set in motion mournful hymn tunes. It was
tough going for his aching head; but the earnest orderly was so wrapped
up in giving to him what he thought was great pleasure that he had not
the heart to stop him. Mac would silence it for a time by encouraging
dissertations on Eskimo life, or the future of the Gospel in India. An
hour of the gramophone, and it would retire below to end its rasping
for the day.
Twelve hot hours were passed in the Grand Harbour of Malta, while
thousands of cackling fowls were lowered from the boat deck and sent
ashore for men in hospital. The two following days Mac was almost
entirely deserted, as a heavy sea sent most of the sisters, orderlies
and patients to their bunks. The first night no one came to dress his
head; but the second night a quaint rough stoker put in an appearance,
and, chatting cheerfully the while, made his head more or less
comfortable. No water came for washing, and on two rare occasions a
fleeting orderly left a plate of some sort of food or other. He spent
those two days in bed, and was thankful when they were over. From then
onward the voyage went well, snoozing on deck in a chair, or walking up
and down arm and arm with the Australian.
At length, in the keen air of an English autumn morning, Mac stood by
the ship's rail as she moved quietly up Southampton Water, to berth in
due course alongside a pier and a hospital train. Mac had dreamed that
it might be so, though he scarcely dared to hope that it would come
true; but the gangway was scarcely down before his father and his
sister were on the deck and had him in their arms. In the middle of
the afternoon the hospital train stopped at a Surrey station; and
before very long he was being undressed, bathed and put to bed.
Presently, the sister, the medical officer, his father and his sister
withdrew quietly from the bright little room, saying that he must go to
sleep after the excitements of the day. And to sleep Mac went, feeling
more comfortable and happy than he had been for many a long day.
CHAPTER XXV
HOMEWARD
The tents sway and flap vigorously as gusts of wind tear through the
camp, carrying clouds of sand across the island. Through the darkness
comes the sound of the lashing of the date palms and the tamarisks as
they swing to the gale. Within a straining, war-worn tent, lit by a
flickering candle, stuck in a grease-streaked bottle, sit several
mounted men of the old Brigade, their faces brown and weather-beaten
from long campaigning in the Sinai Desert and amid Palestine hills.
The gear and stuff scattered casually about the tent tell it is the
abode of an old hand of long service, who worries little about the
frills of base and peace-time armies. And there, too, sprawled
half-way across a camp bed is Mac. They yarn about old times,
Gallipoli days and after, laughing often, though sometimes in
affectionate, quieter tones they speak of a fallen comrade. It is
midnight, the ill-used candle has not many minutes of life to run, and
the desert wind bellows over the camp.
Three and a half years have passed since Mac found himself in the
comfortable security of an English hospital--far from unpleasant years,
during which the comradeship of his fellow-soldiers, and the kindness
of many friends have fully made good the sight Mac lost on the summit
of Chanak Bair. He has not lost touch with the men of the
Expeditionary Force during their long weary years in France and
Palestine, but has worked among them to the best of his limited powers.
And now this stormy night in March 1919 finds him again with his old
comrades of the Mounted Brigade, who, with a glorious campaign behind
them, are resting for a while on an island on Lake Timsah till a
transport at Suez is ready for them to embark. Mac has visited old
haunts and old friends in Egypt, and to-morrow he, too, goes on board
his ship at Suez, bound for home. Again there will be warm sleepy days
in the Red Sea, with delicate sunsets and cool nights, a few sunny
weeks in the tropics, some heavy weather, no doubt, south of Australia,
and then New Zealand.
Nearly five years of war, strange adventures and experiences of the
wider world have brought changes in the lives of those whose fate was
not to fall in the field, and have left them a little sadder and,
maybe, a little wiser. Mac's life must be vastly changed from the old
one, and for him there will be no more work with his dogs among the
sheep and cattle, and no more of many of the old things. But he has no
regrets. Least of all does he regret the day which first found him a
trooper of the Mounted Rifles. Others may forget the men who went
away, many never to return; but deep in the hearts of their comrades
will be fully valued those years of campaigning, when they knew the
unselfish sacrifices of comradeship, the careless courage, the humour,
and the affection of man.
Through these years Mac often thought of that wild winter day in the
bush when he and Charley, looking at the old Boer War pictures, had
resented the fact that they had been too young to join in it, and that
there was no, war for them to go to. Within a year Charley had been
killed, wounded three times in an attack at Cape Helles; and three
months later Mac himself had been incapacitated for life. Their
longing for war had been fulfilled with a vengeance. True, war had
brought them no good; but it had had many grand moments, power to
strengthen character and inspiration towards great thought, art and
unselfishness. Tragedy, crime and disease had also followed in its
train, though, for his part, Mac thought that some good must come of it
all.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of a Trooper, by Clutha N. Mackenzie
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF A TROOPER ***
***** This file should be named 26548-8.txt or 26548-8.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/4/26548/
Produced by Al Haines
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
https://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at https://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit https://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
https://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
