On Land and Sea at the Dardanelles

T. C. (Thomas Charles) Bridges

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• Publié par: nofir
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles
by Thomas Charles Bridges
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Title: On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles
Author: Thomas Charles Bridges
Release Date: March 8, 2004 [EBook #11513]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON LAND AND SEA AT THE DARDANELLES ***
Produced by Dave Morgan, Leonard D Johnson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading TeamOur splendid Indian troops stood ready at Alexandria to
embark for the Dardanelles.
ON LAND AND SEA
AT THE
DARDANELLES
T.C. BRIDGES
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. THE OPEN PORT
II. THE LAST OF THE 'CARDIGAN CASTLE'
III. THE LANDINGIV. A RUSE OF WAR
V. PROMOTION
VI. GUNS!
VII. 'LIZZIE' LETS LOOSE
VIII. THE HUNTERS HUNTED
IX. THE BATTLE BY ROCKS
X. PRISONERS
XI. THE FIRING PARTY
XII. ABOVE THE NARROWS
XIII. THE SWEEPERS
XIV. G 2
XV. KEN MEETS AN OLD FRIEND
XVI. TACKLING THE TROOPER
XVII. THE BOARDING PARTY
XVIII. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
XIX. IN THE NICK OF TIME
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
INDIAN TROOPS AT ALEXANDRIA
A FRIENDLY SALUTE
LANDING PARTY AT SARI BAIR
LANDING ON THE BEACH
AN ADVANCE INLAND
No. 1 FORT AT CAPE HELLES
ASLEEP ON A BED OF LIVE SHELLS
BARBED WIRE FOR BOMBSTHE TRIUMPHANT SUBMARINE
BRINGING IN A TURKISH SNIPER
TURKISH ARTILLERY REINFORCEMENTS
SEA-BATHING
ALLIED HEROES IN PLAY-TIME
At the Dardanelles
CHAPTER I
THE OPEN PORT
'Fun!' said Ken Carrington, as he leaned over the rail of the transport,
'Cardigan Castle,' and watched the phosphorescent waters of the Aegean
foaming white through the darkness against her tall side. 'Fun!' he repeated
rather grimly. 'You won't think it so funny when you find yourself crawling
up a cliff with quick-firers barking at you from behind every rock, and a
strand of barbed wire to cut each five yards, to say nothing of snipers
socking lead at you the whole time. No, Dave, I'll lay, whatever you think,
you won't consider it funny.'
Dave Burney, the tall young Australian who was standing beside Ken
Carrington, turned his head slowly towards the other.
'You talk as if you'd seen fighting,' he remarked in his soft but pleasant
drawl.
Ken paused a moment before replying.
'I have,' he said quietly.
Burney straightened his long body with unusual suddenness.
'The mischief, you have! My word, Ken, you're a queer chap. Here you and
I have been training together these six months, and you've never said a word
of it to me or any of the rest of the crowd.''Come to that, I don't quite know why I have now,' answered Ken Carrington
dryly.
Burney wisely made no reply, and after a few moments the other spoke
again.
'You see, Dave, it wasn't anything to be proud of, so far as I'm concerned,
and it brings back the most rotten time I ever had. So it isn't much wonder I
don't talk about it.'
'Don't say anything now unless you want to,' said Burney, with the quiet
courtesy which was part of him.
'But I do want to. And I'd a jolly sight sooner tell you than any one else.
That is, if you don't mind listening.'
'I'd like to hear,' said Burney simply. 'It's always been a bit of a puzzle to me
how a chap like you came to be a Tommy in this outfit. With your
education, you ought to be an officer in some home regiment.'
'That's all rot,' returned Ken quickly. 'I'd a jolly sight sooner be in with this
crowd than any I know of. And as for a commission, that's a thing which it
seems to me a chap ought to win instead of getting it as a gift.
'But I'm gassing. I was going to tell you how it was that I'd seen fighting.
My father was in the British Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain, and then
had an offer from the Turkish Government of a place in the Naval Arsenal at
Constantinople.'
'From the Turks!' said Burney in evident surprise.
'Yes. Lots of our people were in Turkey in those days. It was a British
officer, Admiral Gamble, who managed all the Turkish naval affairs. That
was before the Germans got their claws into the wretched country.'
'I've heard of Admiral Gamble,' put in Burney. 'Well, what happened then?'
'My father took the job, and did jolly well until the Germans started their
games. Finally they got hold of everything, and five years ago Admiral
Gamble gave up. So did my father, but he had bought land in Turkey and
had a lot of friends there, so he did not go back to England.
'It was that same year, 1910, that he found coal on his land, and applied for
a concession to work it. The Turks liked him. They'd have given it him like
a shot. But the Germans got behind his back, and did him down. The end
was that they refused to let him work his coal.
'Of course he was awfully sick, but not half so sick as when a German
named Henkel came along and offered to buy him out at about half the price
he had originally paid for the place.
'Father had a pretty hot temper, there was a flaming row, and Henkel went
off, vowing vengeance.'He got it, too. A couple of years later, came the big row in the Balkans, and
the war had hardly started before dad was arrested as a spy.'
'Henkel did that?' put in Burney.
'Henkel did it;' young Carrington's voice was very grim. 'Pretty thoroughly
too, as I heard afterwards. They took him to Constantinople, and—and I've
never seen him since.'
There was silence for some moments while the big ship ploughed steadily
north-eastwards through the night.
'And you?' said Burney at last.
'I—I'd have shared the same fate if it hadn't been for old Othman Pasha. He
was a pal of ours, as white a man as you want to meet, and he got me away
and over the border into Greece. It was in Thrace that I saw fighting. I came
right through it, and got mixed up in two pretty stiff skirmishes.'
'My word, you've seen something!' said Burney. 'And—and, by Jove, I
suppose you understand the language.'
'Yes,' said Carrington quietly. 'I know the language and the people. And you
can take it from me that the Turks are not as black as they're painted. It's
Enver Bey and his crazy crowd who have rushed them into this business.
Three-quarters of 'em hate the war, and infinitely prefer the Britisher to the
Deutscher.'
'And how do you come to be in with us?' asked Burney.
'I joined up in Egypt,' Carrington answered. 'I went there two years ago and
got a job in the irrigation department. I've been there ever since.'
Again there was a pause.
'And what about Henkel?' asked Burney. 'Have you ever heard of him
since?'
'Not a word. But'—Ken's voice dropped a tone—'I mean to. If he's alive I'll
find him, and—'
He stopped abruptly, and suddenly gripped Burney's arm.
'There's some one listening,' he whispered. 'I heard some one behind that
boat. No, stay where you are. If we both move, he'll smell a rat.'
'Well, good-night, Dave,' he said aloud. 'I must be getting below.'
Turning, he walked away in the direction opposite to that of the boat, but as
soon as he thought he was out of sight in the darkness, he turned swiftly
across the deck and made a wide circle.
He heard a rustle, and was just in time to see a dark figure dart forward, the
feet evidently shod in rubber soles which moved soundlessly over the deck.
He dashed in pursuit, but it was too late. Being war time, the decks were ofcourse in darkness, and the man, whoever he was, disappeared—probably
down the forward hatch.
Ken came back to Burney.
'No good,' he said vexedly. 'The beggar was too quick for me.'
'Then there was some one there?'
'You bet. I saw him bolt.'
'Any notion who it was?'
Ken hesitated a moment.
'I'm not sure,' he answered in a low voice, 'but I've got my suspicions. I
think it was Kemp.'
'What—that steward?'
'Yes, the chap who looks after the baths.'
'My word, I wouldn't wonder,' said Burney thoughtfully. 'He's an ugly
looking varmint. But why should he be spying on you?'
'Haven't a notion. But I've spotted him watching me more than once since
we left Alexandria. I'm going to keep my eye on him pretty closely the rest
of the way.'
'Not much time left, old son. They say we'll be in Mudros Bay to-morrow
morning.'
'Yes, I heard that. Which reminds me. I'm going down to get a warm bath. It
may be the last chance for some time to come.'
This time Ken Carrington said good-night in earnest, and went below.
It was early for turning in, and nearly all of the troops aboard were still on
the mess deck. Ken got his things from his bag and went down the passage
to the bathroom. The 'Cardigan Castle' had been a swagger liner until she
was impounded by Government to act as troopship, and she was provided
with splendid bathrooms.
Carrington opened the door quietly, and was feeling for the switch of the
electric, when he noticed, to his great surprise, that a port hole opposite was
open.
Needless to say, this was absolutely forbidden. In war time a ship shows no
lights at all, and it is a fixed rule that everything below must be kept closed
and curtained.
Before he could recover from h