The Scranton tribune. (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, October 08, 1896, Page 6, Image 6
6 THE 8GRANTON TBTBTTNE THITB8DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 8, 1896. V The Three S D Correspondents. S AN INCIDENT OF C BY. CONAX DOYLE. M A . . 1 THE 50UDAN CAMPAIGN, f O (Copyright, IMi by A. Conan Doylt.) " . SYNOPSIS. Three correspondents of London new, papers, Mortimer, of h Intelligencer: Scott, of the Courier, and Anerley, of the (Jazette, are riding with their servants from th terminus of the military rail way In Kgypt to the advance army of oc cupation. They camp in a palm prove near the Nile during tho heat of the day. Mor timer and Scott are veteran correspond ents. Anerley is a novice. The veterans have provided themselves with swift polo fionies. Anerley has an old hack, and his ark of experience is discussed by his companions who remind him that lie will he left behind in the raco for the tele graph station, if a battlo takes place. In cidentally Anerley learns that in a contest of thirty wiles or more the ewlft-KOintf camels of the dervishes always defeat a horse. Merryw-eather, the engineer la chief o:' the railway, rides by to the front i pressing business. Presently Anerley, while the others are asleep, sees him re turning In ihaste. M.nrry weather rides down into a little hollow, and does not euppear. A puff of smoke Indicates that he has been shot ly ambushed dervishes. Anerley awakens Mortimer and Scott. PART III. "And Reuter not here!" cried the two Veterans, exultantly clutching at their notebooks. "Merry weather shot! Where? When? How?" In a few words Anerley explained what he hail seen. "You heard nothing?" "Nothing." "Well, a shot loses Itsolf very easily among rocks. By lieorge, look at the buzzards!" Two large brown birds were soaring In the deep blue heaven. As Scott spoke they circled down and dropped Into the little khor. "That's good enough," said Mortimer with his nose between the leaves of his book. "Merryweather headed dervishes stop returned stop shot mutilated stop rata communications, now s tnair "You think he whs headed off?" "Why else should he return?" "In thftt. rase, If they were out In front of him and others cut him off, there must be several small raiding patties." "I should judge so." "How ubuut the 'mulllated?' " "I've fought ugainst Arabs before." "Where are you oft to?" "Karras." "I think I'll vace you In." said Scott. Anerley slured in astonishment at the absolutely impersonal way In which these men regarded the situation. In their zeal for news It had apparently never struck them that they, their camp and their servants, were ull In the lion's mouth. Hut even as they talked thpre ranie thjfi harsh importunate rat-tat-tnt of tin Irregular volley from among the rocks, and the high keening whistle of bullets over their heads. A 'palm spi'oy fluttered down amongst them. At the same Instant the six frightened servants came running wild ly In for protection. It was the cool-headed Mortimer who organized the defense, for Scott's Celtic soul was so aflame at all this "copy" In hand and more to come that he was . FALL If you are in need of a Suit or Overcoat do not fail to call and see our stock. your idea of a good suit, and just your price. We have a stock in perfect touch with DiacK cneviot, iaii-weignt uvercoats, $10, $12 and $10. Covert Overcoats, $12 and $15. Fine Worsted and Silk nixed Overcoats, $18 and $20. nice Plaid and Brown nixed Suits, single and double-breasted, $8.50. $;o, $12, $15 and $20. Best made and very stylish. Black Clay Worsted Suits, at all prices from $10 to $25. Children's Reefers, black and blue, at all prices, $2 to $7. GREAT The product of The Luzerne Knitting Mills." Ask to See It Dr. Wright's Hygienic Underwear, $4.00 a Suit Guaranteed a Preventive Against Colds and Rheumatism. OLL IN too exuberantly boisterous for a com tnander. The other with his spectacles and hist stern face soon had the ser vants in hand. "Tall henna! EgrI! What the devil are you frightened about? Put the camels between the palm trunks. That's right. Now get the knee-tethers on them. Quies! Did you never hear bul lets before? Now put the donkeys here. Not much you don't get my polo-pony to make a zareba with. Picket the ponies between the grove and the river out of danger's way. These fellows seem to fire even higher than they did In "83." "That's got home, anyhow," said Scott, as they heard a soft splashing thud like a stone in a mud-bank. "Who's hit then?" "The brown camel that's chewing the cud." . As he spoke the creature, its jaws still working, laid Its long neck along the ground and closed its dark eyes. "That shot cost me fifteen pounds," said Mortimer, ruefully. "How many of them do you make?" "Four, I think." "Only four Bezingers at any rate; there may be some spearsmen." "I think not: it Is a little raiding party of riflemen. By the way, Aner ley, you've never been under fire be fore, have you?" "Never," said the young pressman, who was conscious of a feeling of ner vous elation. "Love and poverty and war, they are all experiences necessary to make a complete life. Pass over the cartridges. Thin is a mild baptism that you are ry "SHALL I FIRE?"ASKED ANERLEY undergoing, for behind these camels you are as safe as if you were sitting in the back room of the Author's club." "As Bafe, but hardly as comfortable," said Scott. "A long glass of hock and seltzer would be exceedingly accept able. But. oh, Mortimer, what a chanre! Think of the general's feel ings when he hears that the first action 1 AND Hats and Furnishing Goods, For men and boys. We sell the celebrated "Hopkins' Hat" at $3.00; the best hat in the market for $3.00. SALE of the war has been fought .by the press column. Think of Reuter, who has been stewing at the front for a week! Think of the evening pennies just too late for the fun! By Oeorge, that slug brushed a mosquito off me!" "And one of the donkeys is hit." "This is sinful. It will end in our having to carry our own kits to Khartoum." "Never mind, my boy, it all goes to make copy. I can see the headlines 'Raid on Communications;' 'Murder of British Engineer;' 'Press Column At tacked.' Won't it be ripping?" "I wonder what the next line will be," said Anerley. "Our Special Wounded.' " cried Scott, rolling over on te his back. "No harm done," he added, gathering him self up again; "only a chip off my knee. This Is getting sultry. I confess that the Idea of that back room at the Au thor's club begins to grow upon me." "I have some diachylon." "Afterwards will do. We're having 'a 'appy day with Fussy on the rush.' I wish he would rush." "They're coming nearer." "This Is an excellent revolver of mine if it didn't throw so devilish high. I always aim at a man's toes if I wont to stimulate his digestion. O Lord, there's our kettle gone!" With a boom like a dinner gong a Remington bullet had passed through the kettle and a cloud of steam hiHsed up from the fire. A wild shout came from the rocks above. "The idiots think that they have blown us up. They'll rush us now as sure as fate then it will be our turn to lead. Got your revolver, Anerley?" "I have this double-barreled fowling-piece." "Sensible man! It's the best weap on in the world at this sort of rough-and-tumble work. What cartridges?" "Swan-Bhot." "That will do all right. I carry this big bore double barreled pistol loaded with slugs. You might as well try to stop one of these fellows with a pea shooter as with a service revolver." "There are ways and means," said Scott. "The Geneva convention does not hold south of the first cataract. It's easy to make a bullet mushroom by a little manipulation of the tip of it. When I was In the broken square at Tamal " "Wait a bit," cried Mortimer, adjust ing his glasses. "I think they are com ing now." "The time." said Scott, snapping up his watch, "being exactly seventeen minutes past four." Anerley had been lying behind a camel staring with an Interest which bordered upon fascination at the rocks opposite. Here was a little wooly puff of smoke, and there was another one, but never once had they caught a glimpse of the attackers. To him there wan something weird and awesome in these unseen persistent men who, min ute by minute, were drawing closer to them. He had heard them cry out when the kettle was broken, and once imme diately afterwards an enormously strong voice hud roared something which had set Seott shrugging his shoulders. They've got to take us first, said he. and Anerley thought his nerve might be better if he did not ask for a trans lation. The firing had begun at a distance of some hundred yards, which put it out of the question for them, with their light er weapons, to make any reply to it Had their antagonists continued ti keep that, range the defenders mtis either have made a hopeless sally oi tried to shelter themselves behind their zareba as best they might on the chatim that he sound might bring up help But, lucyily for them, the African had not taken kindly to the rifle, and his primitive instinct to close with his ene my Is always too strong for his sense of strategy. They were drawing In, there fore, and now for the first time Anerley caught sight of a face looking at them from over a rock. It was a huge, virile, strong-jawed head of a pure negro type, with silver trinkets gleaming in the ears. The man raised a great arm from ' OF UNDERWEAR 220 LACK behind the rock and shook his Reming ton at them. "Shall I fire?" asked Anerley. "No, no, it is too far; your shot would scatter all over the place." "It's a picturesque ruffian." said Scott "Couldn't you kodak him, Mortimer? There's another! " A fine-featured brown Arab, with a black pointed beard, was peeping from AGAIN HE STRAINED VXAVAIL INLY AT THE TRIGGER. behind another bowlder. He wore the green turban which proclaimed him hadji, and his face showed the keen nervous exaltation of the religious fan atic. "They seem a piebald crowd," said Scott. "That last Is one of the real fighting Baggara," remarked Mortimer. "He's a dangerous man." "He looks pretty vicious. There's an other negro!" "Two more! Dingas by the look of them. Just the same chaps we get our black battalions from. As long as they get a fight they don't mind who Its for. But If the Idiots had only sense enough to understand they would know that the Arab is their hereditary enemy and we their hereditary friends. Look at the silly jugglins gnashing his teeth at the very men who put down the slave trade!" Couldn't you explain?" "I'll explain with this pistol when he comes a little nearer. Now sit tight, Anerley. They're off!" They were, Indeed. It was the brown man with the green turban who head ed the rush. Close to his heels was the negro with silver earrings a giant of a man, and the other two were only a lit tle behind. As they sprang over the rocks one after the other it took Aner ley bark to the school sports when he held the tape for the hurdle race. It. was magnitir.ent, the wild spirit and abundott of it, the nutter of the chequ ered galobeeahs, the gleam of steel, the wave of black arms, the frenzied faces. the quick pitter-patter of the rushing feet. The law-abiding Briton is so im bued with the Idea of the sanctity of the human life that It was hard for the young pressman to realize that these men had every intention of killing him, and that he was at perfect liberty to do us much for them. He lay staring as if this were o show and he a spectator. "Now, Anerley, now! Take the Arab," oried somebody. He put up the gun and saw the brown lerre face at the other end of the barrel He tugged at he trigger, but the face Tt'ew larger and fiercer with every stride. Again and again he tugged. A revolver shot rang out at his elbow, then another one, and he saw a red spot spring out on the Arab's brown breast. But he was still coming on. "Shoot, you ass, shoot!" screamed Scott. Again he strained unavaillngly at the trigger. There were two more pistol shots, and the big negro had fallen and risen and fallen again, "Cock it, you fool!" shouted a furious voice, nnjl at he same instant, with a rush and flutter, the Arab bounded over - A WANNA WWTER the prostrate camel aud came down with his bare feet upon Anerley's chest. In a dream he seemed to be struggling frantically with some one upon the ground, then he was conscious of a tremendous explosion In his very face, and so ended for him the tlrst action of the war. PART IV. "Good-by, old chap. You'll be all right. Give yourself time." - It was Mortimer's voice, and Anerley became dimly conscious of a long spectacled face and of a heavy hand upon his shoulder. "Sorry to leave you. We'll be lucky now If we are in time for the morning editions." Scott was tightening his girth as he spoke. "We'll put In our wire that you have been hurt, so your people will know why they don't hear from you. If Reuter or the evening pennies come up don't give the thing away. Abbas will look nfter you, and we'll be back to morrow afternoon. Bye-bye!" Anerley heard it all, though he did not feel energy enough to answer. Then, as he watched two sleek brown ponies with their yellow-clad riders dwindling among t'' rocks, his mem ory cleared suddenly and he realized that this first great journalistic chance of his life was slipping away from him. It was a small tight, but it was the first of the war, and the great public at home was all athirst for news. They whouid have it In the Courier; they would have It In the Intelligence, and not a word In the Gazette. The thought brought him to his feet, though he had to throw his arm around the stem of a palm tree to steady his swimming head. There was the big black man lying where he had fallen, his huge chest pocked with bullet marks, every wound rosetted with Its circle of Hies. The Arab was stretched out within a few yards of him, with two hands clasped over the dreadful thing which had been his head. Across hlin was lying Aner ley's fowling piece, one barrel dis charged, the other at half cock. "Scott effendi shoot him your gun," said a voice. It was Abbas, his English-speaking body-servant. Anerley groaned at the disgrace of it. He had Inst his head so completely that he had forgotten to cock his gun; and yet he knew that it was not fear but interest which had so absorbed him. He put his hand up to his head and felt that a wet handkerchief was bound round his forehead. "Where are the two other der vishes?" "They ran away. One got shot in arm." "What happened to me?" "Effendi got cut on head. Kffendl catch bad man by arms and Scott eft'.'iult shoot him. Face burn very bad." Anerley became conscious suddenly that there wus a piingling about his skin und an overpowering smell of burned hair under his nostrils. He put his hand to his mustache. It was gone. His eyebrows, too? He could not find tlieni. His head no doubt wus very near to the dervish's when they were rolling upon the ground together, and tills was the effect of the explosion of his own gun. Well, he would have time to grow some more hair before he saw Fleet street again. But the cut perhaps was a more serious matter. Was it enough to prevent him from getting to the telegraph office at Sar ras? The only way was to try and see. But there was only that jxior littlte Syrian gray of his. There it stood in the evening sunshine with a sunk head and a bent knee, as if its morning's work was still heavy upon It. What hope was there of being able to do thirty-five miles of heavy going upon that? It would be a strain upon the splendid ponies of his companions and they were the swiftest and most enduring In the country. The most enduring? There was one creature more enduring, and that was a real trotting camel. If he had had one he might have got to the wires first after all, for Mortimer had said that over thirty miles they Your Suit is in the lot waiting for you. fashion's requirements. HA AVENUE. had the better of any horse. Yes, if he had only had a real trotting camel! And then, like a flash, came Morti mer's words: "It is the kind of beast that the dervishes ride when they make their lightning raids." The beasts the dervishes ride! What had these dead dervishes ridden? In an instant he was clambering up the rocks, with Abbas protesting at his heels. Had the two fugitives carried away all the camels, or had they been content to save themselves? The brass gleam from a litter of 'empty Reming ton cases caught his eye and showed where the enemy had been crouching. And then he could have shouted for joy, for there, in the hollow, some little distance off, rose the high graceful white neck and fhe elegant head of such a camel as he had never Bet eyes upon before a swan-like, beautiful creature, as far from the rough, clumsy haggles as the cart-horse is from the racer. The beast was kneeling under the shelter of the rocks with its waterskln and bags of doora slung over Its shoul ders, and Its forelegs tethered Arab fashion with a rope round the knees. Anerley threw his leg over the front pommel while Abbas slipped off the cord. Forward Hew Anerley towards the creature's neck, then violently backwards, clawing madly at anything which iniKht save him. and then with a jerk, which nearly snapped his Hons, he was thrown forwnrd again. But the camel was on his legs now, and the young pressman wassafely seated upon one of the flyers of the desert. It was as gentle as it was swift, and it stood oscillating Its long neck and gazing round with Its large brown eyes, whilst Anerley coiled his legs round the peg and grasped the curved camel-stick which Abbas had handed up to him. There were two bridle cords, one from the nostril and one from the neck, but he remembered that Scott had said that It was the servant's and not the house bell, which had to be pulled, so he kept his grasp upon the lower. Then he touched the long, vibrating neck with his stick, and in an instant Abbas' fare wells seemed to come from far behind him. and the black rocks and yellow sand were dancing past on either side. It was his first experience of a trot ting camel, and at first the motion, al though Irregular and abrupt, was not unpleasant. Having no stirrup or fixed point of any kind he could not rise to it, but he gripped as tightly as he could wllh his knee, and he tried to Bway backwards and forwards us he had seen the Arabs do. It was a large, very concave Makloofa saddle, and he was conscious that he was bouncing about on It with ns little power of adhesion us a billiard ball upon a tea tray. He gripped the two sides with his hands to fcflld himself steady. The creature had wot Into its long, swinging, stealthy trot. Its sponge-like feet making no sound upon the hard sand. Anerley leaned back with his two hands grip ping hard behind him, and he whooped the creature on. The sun had already sunk behind flip line of black volcanic peaks, which look like huge slag-hcnds at the mouth of a mine. The western sky hud taken that lovely light-green and pale-pink tint which makes evening beautiful upon the Nile, and the old brown river Itself, swirling down amongst the black rocks, caught some shimmer of the colors above. The glare, the heat and the piping of the insects had all ceased together. In spite of his aching head Anerley .could have cried out for pure physical joy as the swift creature be neath him flew along with him through that cool Invigorating air, with the virile north wind soothing his piing ling face. ' He had looked at his watch, and now he made a swift calculation of times and distances. It was past six when he had left the camp. Over broken ground it was impossible that he could hope to do more than seven miles an hour less on bad parts, more on the smooth. His lgtg n THIS IS recollection of the traok was that there. were few smooth and many bad. Be would be lucky then if ha reached 8ar ras anywhere from twelve to one. Then the messages took a good two hours to go through, for they bad to be tran scribed at Cairo. At the best he could only hope to have told his story in Fleet street at two or three In the morning. It was possible that he might manage it, but the chances seemed enrmeusly against him. About three the morning edition vould be made up, and his chances gone forever. The one thing clear was that only the first man at the wires would have any chance at all, and Anerley meant to be first If hard riding could do it. So he tapped away at the birdlike neck, and the creature's long, loose limbs went faster and faster at every tap. Where the rocky spurs ran down to the river, horses would have to go round, while camels might get across, so that Anerley felt that he was always gaining upon his companions. But there wus a price to be paid for the feeling. He had heard of men who had burst when on camel journeys.and he knew that the Arabs swathe their bodies tightly in broad cloth bandages when they prepare for a long march. It had seemed unnecessary and ridicu lous when he first began to speed over the level track, but now, when the got on the rocky paths, he understood what it meant. Never for an Instance was he at the same angle. Backwards, for wards he swung, with a tingling jar at the end of each sway, until he ached from his neck to his knee. It caught him across the shoulders. It caught him down the spine, it gripped him over the loins, it marked the lower line of his ribs with one heavy dull throb. He clutched here and there with his band to try and ease the strain upon bis muscles. He drew his knees, altered his seat and set his teeth with a grim determlnationu to go through with it should it kill htm. His head was split ting, his Hayed face smarting and every joint in his body aching as if it were dislocated. But he forgot all. that when, with the rising of the moon, h heard the clinking of horses' hoofs down upon the track by the river, and knew that, unseen by them, he had al ready got well abreast of his compan ions. But he was hardly half-way and the time already eleven. "What's the time?" he cried. In ft voice that appeared to be the only so ber thing about him. It was on the clerk's Hps to say that it was time that the questioner was in his bed, but It is not safe upon a cam. palgn to be Ironical at the expense o kharkl-clad men. He contented himself therefore with the bald statement that it was after two. "Two o'clock! I'm done after all!" said he. His head was tied up in bloody handkerchief, and his face was) crimson, and he stood with his legs crooked as if the pith had all gone out of his back. The clerk began to realise that something out of the ordinary was in the wind. "How long does It take to get a wire to London?" "About two hours." "And It's two now I could not got If there before four." "Before three." "But you said two hours." "Yes, but there's more than an hour's difference In longitude." "By heavens. I'll do it yet!" cried Anerley, and staggering to a packing case he began the dictation of his fa-' mous dispatch. And so it came about that the Ga zette had a long column, with head, lines like an epitaph, when the sheet of the Intelligence and the Courier were as blank as the fares of their editors. And so, too, it happened that when two weary men, upon two foundered horses, arrived about four In the morning at the Sarras pnstomce they looked at each other In silence and departed noiselessly with the conviction that there are some situations with which the English lnnguage is not oapable of dealing. THE END. It's your fit; just WEEK T T 9 1