With Haig on the Somme Part 33

There was no need for Bob Dashwood to give any command, for strong arms had already seized the gun, and, sluing it round, pointed it at the opening.

A sergeant sprang into the operator's seat, but before he could fire, a crowd of white-faced men, with hands raised above their heads, came running out of the secret pa.s.sage, crying: "Mercy, mercy!"

"Shall I let her go, sir?" said the sergeant, with a red gleam in his eye.

"Not unless they play any tricks," said Major Dashwood.

He stood there, revolver in hand, and as they filed past him, all the fight gone out of them now, he counted 580 prisoners, including 20 unwounded officers.

"I am the colonel commanding this battalion," said a black-moustached Prussian haughtily. "I shall, of course, be permitted to keep my sword."

"No; hand it over and fall in with the rest of your men," said the major coldly. "And be thankful you are permitted to keep the clothes you stand in."

Within half an hour, thanks to the magnificent energy of our Royal Engineers, a message had been 'phoned to the brigadier, and the answer came back: "Bravo, my boy! Send an officer to me who can explain the exact position verbally, and one who speaks German, who will be useful in interrogating your capture. Let me have Dennis if you can spare him."

That was why, very much against his own inclination, Dennis accompanied the long column of disarmed men that found its way under escort to brigade headquarters just as the dawn was breaking, pa.s.sing a joyous battalion sent up by the brigadier to consolidate the splendid gains of his beloved Reeds.h.i.+res.

Dennis woke at noon in his father's dug-out.

"I want you to stay here until I get an answer from the general, Dennis," said the brigadier. "If you've never seen the workings of a kite balloon, they're just sending one up over yonder. You'll probably be able to join Bob inside an hour."

Behind a little hollow, close to brigade headquarters, Dennis saw the section busy about the huge sausage-shaped observation balloon, which had been hurried up to direct some batteries already concealing themselves in the vicinity.

"This is the sort of job that would try the nerves of some of you foot sloggers," said a perky little officer, as the lieutenant approached.

"By Jove, we're a bit too close to be pleasant! Would you like to go up with me?"

There was something in the observer's tone that rather nettled his hearer, and Dennis replied promptly: "I should like it very much, if you mean it?" without giving a thought on the spur of the moment as to how long the balloon would remain in the air.

"Of course I mean it. Come on!" And as Dennis flung his leg over the edge of the basket the perky youngster gave the order to let her go.

The steel cable began to unwind as the men of the section loosed their hold, and Dennis soon enjoyed the novel experience of seeing the panorama unfold beneath him, and identifying the white-walled chateau they had captured the night before.

At an alt.i.tude of two thousand feet the observer 'phoned down to the men at the windla.s.s to stop. A stiff wind was blowing, but the "sausage"

behaved itself well until, as the observation officer turned to Dennis with a cheery laugh, something pa.s.sed screaming beneath them and burst!

Some fragments of shrapnel struck the bottom of the basket; but that was not all. The sh.e.l.l had hit the cable fair and square, the observation officer's laugh changed to a shout of consternation as it snapped, and with an upward jerk the freed balloon floated away towards the German lines!

CHAPTER XXV

From Kite Balloon to Saddle

The two occupants clung to the side of the padded basket, from which it was a marvel they had not been flung by the sudden upward rush of the huge sausage-shaped envelope above their heads.

The observer's face was very white, but he pulled himself together pluckily enough, and took the now useless receivers from his ears.

"I'm awfully sorry to have got you into this mess, old man," he said apologetically.

"It isn't a bit of use being sorry," snapped Dennis. "Get a move on you!

What's the best thing to be done?"

The sharp anger in his companion's voice acted like a tonic, and the observation officer pulled a cord.

"I don't think it's an atom of good, for all that," he volunteered doubtfully. "It's a thousand chances to one, with this breeze, that we shall drop on our side of the fence, and those blessed guns of theirs have got us set. Look at that!"

A shrapnel burst above them, and as its fleecy white cloud unrolled there were two more bursts, one immediately below, which carried away the parachute, the other about eighty yards to the left.

"Beggars who fire on the wounded are not likely to miss such a target as we make, although it must be perfectly clear to them that we're coming down," said the youngster between his teeth.

"And suppose they hit us?" questioned Dennis.

"Why, we'll burst, that's all, and descend in flames, with death at the end of the drop and no glory attached to it."

"I wish you'd been in Jerusalem before you asked me to come on this fool's errand!" exclaimed Dennis.

"I shouldn't mind being in Jerusalem just now," said his companion; and somehow they both laughed.

The valve at the nose of the sausage was releasing hydrogen, and the kite balloon dropped slowly as the envelope became deflated. But the wind increased, and already Dennis saw through his gla.s.ses the chateau and the wood pa.s.s under them.

"I'd half a hope," he said gloomily, "that we might have come to ground near that house. My battalion's there; we took the blooming place last night."

Luckily the wind buffeted them in an irregular course, and the shrapnel flew wide. Seven sh.e.l.ls in all were fired at them, and then, ammunition being precious to the enemy, word was evidently given to cease.

It was no use wasting any more on an object whose capture was certain in a few minutes; and lower and lower they dropped, until the observer slackened his pull on the valve cord.

"We may as well save our necks," he interjected over his shoulder. "I wonder if we shall clear that wood?"

Below them stretched a great irregular patch of trees, through which alleys had been torn by our own guns, although much of the wood was still standing, and already a hoa.r.s.e roar of voices came up to their ears as the enemy lining a trench cheered their misfortune.

"We're dropping right into the trees," said Dennis. "Can't we do anything? Are there no means of guiding this brute?"

"None at all," was the reply. "We're entirely at the mercy of the wind; and look out if our cable catches, that's all--unless you want to be jerked into eternity."

They were both peering down over the edge of the basket as he spoke, and the shouting Germans underneath loosed a volley at the derelict.

Dennis heard the envelope tear in fifty places, and their pace lessened perceptibly; and then it seemed to him that his companion threw himself on to the floor of the basket, and he looked at him.

A little red rivulet was flowing from a round hole in the centre of his forehead, and he realised that the lieutenant had been killed instantaneously!

It was a moment or two before he ventured to look down again, and, peeping cautiously over the edge of the car as the cheering became very distinct, he saw the enemy trench pa.s.s out of sight beneath him, and felt the basket tearing its way among the topmost branches of the wood.

Something had got to be done, he knew; and as the top of a tall tree rose above the level of his eyes, and the doomed balloon paused with a sickening jerk, he grasped at a branch, flung himself out, and dangled there.

Relieved of his weight, the balloon, almost on the point of collapsing, dragged itself free of the twigs that held it with a last effort, and floated away to drop on the other side of the wood.