In Greek Waters Part 30

"Your scheme is turning out trumps and no mistake," Martyn said as he returned to the room. "There is no fear, I hope, of that Turkish colonel bringing all his men down on us."

"I don't think so." And Horace then repeated what the pasha had said as to one of the officers in his hands being the colonel's brother.

"That is good, Horace. I don't think he would venture on it anyhow.

Evidently the pasha has no fear. If he had he would not have sent him, because he must have known that his treachery jeopardized his own safety and that of his family."

"How long do you think they will be before they are back?"

"Not much above half an hour, I should think. I don't think the Turkish soldiers do much in the way of undressing, and certainly our fellows won't. Now we will leave five men to look after the prisoners here, and we will put all the others in the offices you say look into the court-yard, so that if by any chance this fellow does bring troops down with him we can give them a hot reception."

"If he does, Horace, do you take the five men in the house, rush upstairs, let one man put a pistol to the pasha's head, and let the others s.n.a.t.c.h up any children they can find there and take them away over the wall--pasha and all--and march them straight down to the boat and get them on board s.h.i.+p. Let me know when you are off with them. We will defend the place as long as we can, and then make a bolt through the garden to the ladder and follow you."

The men loaded their muskets and took their places at the windows of the offices. Horace and Martyn stood at the door leading from the house into the court-yard. The interpreter stood with them. Presently they heard the tramp of feet approaching. Then they heard a word of command, followed by silence, and the interpreter said:

"He has ordered the soldiers to halt. The prisoners alone are to enter the court-yard. When the gates close behind them the soldiers are to march back to barracks."

The gates that had been left ajar by the officer as he went out opened, and in the moonlight they saw him enter, followed by Miller, Tarleton, and the sailors. The officer himself closed and barred the gate as the last entered. Then Martyn and Horace rushed forward and grasped the hands of their friends. These were for a time speechless with astonishment, but the men burst into exclamations and then began to cheer. Martyn checked them at once.

"Hush, lads! Come in silently and quietly. We will talk and cheer when we get away. Pa.s.s the word inside, Horace. Tell the men to file out at once. Form up in the garden. I will wait here till you have cleared the house."

The greetings were hearty indeed when the two parties met in the garden.

"March to the ladder, lads," Martyn said, "but don't begin to climb it till we join you. Now, Horace, we will say good-bye to the old pasha.

Bring the interpreter in with you."

The pasha had returned to his room again where he had been joined by the three officers, the colonel having already liberated the other two.

"Tell the pasha that Captain Martyn wishes to thank him for the promptness with which the arrangement has been carried out, and also to express to him his very great pleasure that this incident should have terminated without unpleasantness. Captain Martyn wishes also to say, that although, in order to rescue his officers and men, he was obliged to use threats, yet that, as far as the ladies of the pasha's family were concerned, they were threats only; for that, even had he refused, he should have respected the privacy of his apartments; and although he would have been obliged to carry off the pasha himself, his children, and these officers as hostages, he would have retaliated for the murder of the prisoners only upon the adults. No English officer would use disrespect to ladies, and no English officer would avenge the murder even of his dearest friends upon children."

When this was translated to the pasha, he replied: "The courtesy that the captain and his sailors have exhibited since they entered the house is in itself sufficient to show me that his words are true, and that the ladies of my household would have been respected. I feel myself humiliated by thus having my prisoners carried off from the midst of the town, but I have no reason to complain. It is the will of Allah, and I shall always remember these English officers as gallant gentlemen. There are not many who would risk their lives to save a few of their countrymen."

A few more words were exchanged, and then Martyn and his companions joined the sailors at the wall. Miller and Tarleton had by this time gathered from the men a short account of how their rescue had come about.

"Now," Martyn said briskly when he reached them, "the sooner we are off the better. Horace, do you lead the way with ten of the men who came with us; let the last two of that party help your interpreter over. Mr. Miller, you with your party will follow. I will bring up the rear with the other ten men."

In five minutes all were over the walls. The last party had pulled up the ladder from the garden after them, then removed and lowered down the gangway; and after Martyn, who came last, reached the ditch, the grapnel was shaken from its hold on the wall.

"It wouldn't do to leave these things here," he said to Horace. "There is no saying what yarn the pasha may set afloat. It is quite on the cards that if he gets an order from Smyrna to execute the prisoners, he will have it given out that they were marched to the court-yard of his house and there executed. At any rate our taking away the ladders will leave it open to him to give his own account of the matter. Now, my lads, you will all follow me. It is of no use forming up in order, as we are going through orchards; but keep close together, don't straggle and don't talk. You will have plenty of time to compare notes when you are once on board.

"Now, Miller," he said as he started, "we are fairly out of it. I am delighted, indeed, to see you and Tarleton again. I thought at one time it was all up with you."

"So did we," Miller said, "and I can hardly believe we are free even now."

"It is due to Horace and Zaimes, Miller, though it is to Horace entirely that the credit of hitting upon the plan by which we have got you out belongs. However we will talk all about that when we get on board. You will have to tell your yarn to the chief; besides, as I have told the men not to talk, I don't want to set a bad example."

Horace had greeted Marco warmly in the court-yard, and as soon as they started he fell behind with him, chatting with him in low tones.

"Zaimes couldn't come with us, Marco, for he and the doctor had to stay on board with my father to look after some prisoners there, but he was here with me this morning and made all the arrangements for the escape. We landed at the mouth of the bay and walked here last night, both disguised in peasants' dresses we got hold of. I know it was a great privation to him not to be able to come himself and aid in your rescue."

Here Martyn, catching the murmur of voices, pa.s.sed the word for silence, and nothing more was said until they reached the boats which they had drawn up on the sh.o.r.e. A few minutes later they were alongside the brigantine. Mr. Beveridge hailed them as they approached.

"Is that you, Martyn?"

"Yes, sir. Horace's plan has worked perfectly, and we have got them all out. The boats can only carry half. He is waiting with the rest on the beach."

"Thank G.o.d for that, Martyn! No one hurt at all?"

"No one, not even a Turk has been knocked down. The only scrimmage has been with one of the pasha's wives' maids, who fought like a wild-cat before two of our men could make her a prisoner."

Directly the rest of the party came off the anchor was weighed and sail made on the brigantine, and she was headed from the land. In half an hour a look-out in the bow called out: "I think I can make out the schooner away on our beam, sir."

"I think it is her," Martyn said after going forward to have a look.

"Light that red flare-up we brought with us, Horace."

As soon as the red flame broke out, a similar signal was shown by the craft in the distance. The brigantine was headed for her, and the two vessels rapidly approached each other. Presently a hail from Tom Burdett came across the water.

"Captain Martyn ahoy!"

"Ay, ay, Tom! We have got them all. Everyone is safe and well."

A cheer broke out from the schooner, which was answered by a louder one from the brigantine.

"Throw her up in the wind, Tom," Martyn shouted, "and we will bring this craft alongside."

In two or three minutes the vessels lay side by side. Before leaving the brigantine its crew were released. Mr. Beveridge, in his delight at the success of the plan, made them each a handsome present for the inconvenience they had suffered. The cobbler of Adalia had not come aboard with the boats, Horace having given him his reward of twenty-five pounds before embarking. As soon as the crew of the schooner were all on board the head-sails were filled, and she rapidly drew away from the brig. The boatswain was ordered to serve out a ration of grog all round, and the officers then a.s.sembled in the cabin, where the Greeks placed some cold meat and wine on the table, to which all, especially Miller and Tarleton, fell to with a good appet.i.te. When they had done, Martyn told the story of the steps that had been taken for their rescue.

"You see, Miller, it was entirely Horace's plan; he made the whole arrangements, and we had only to carry them out, which was the simplest thing in the world. Now let us have your account."

"We were not very lucky," Miller said. "We overhauled five or six craft, but for the most part they contained little of value. One or two of them had some silk and other goods on board, and these were transferred to the polacca. The weather kept fine, and thinking that our rig would not alarm the Turks we sailed in within three miles of Adalia. I was intending to go right into the roads and anchor there, when we saw the clouds banking up to the south. I had no barometer on board, but it looked so bad that we headed out again for the mouth of the gulf.

"We had not gone far when the gale struck us, blowing like fury right into the bay. We did everything we could, but the old tub drifted to leeward two feet for every one we worked out. The wind got higher and higher till it was blowing a hurricane. As soon as the water shallowed sufficiently to anchor, I let both anchors go; but the gear was all rotten, and the cables snapped like packthread. Finally we drove ash.o.r.e about half a mile to the east of the town.

"There was a mob there waiting us, and the pasha with a lot of troops.

We tied a line to a keg and it floated on sh.o.r.e. They hauled on it, and then we sent a hawser and swarmed along it. The Turks behaved very pluckily, joining hands and rus.h.i.+ng into the breakers to get us ash.o.r.e. As soon as they saw by our uniform who we were there was a regular hubbub, and I thought we should all have been killed then and there. However the pasha made the troops form up round us, and marched us into the town, and there we were stowed away in a room in that old castle. The prospect didn't look good, for as we went in we saw that the troops were in huts all round us, and that there was besides a high wall outside them. The window of the place we were shut up in was about eight feet from the ground and very strongly barred, and in addition they kept four soldiers always on guard in the room.

"Two or three fellows came to us and spoke in different lingoes, of which we could neither make head nor tail. Then a chap came who spoke Italian. I don't know much of it, but enough to make out what he meant when he spoke very slowly. The upshot of it was that they had sent to Smyrna for orders as to what was to be done, and that it would take five or six days for the messenger to go there and back. It did not seem to make much odds to us what the answer was. Knowing how they go on on both sides it was a moral certainty that we should be hung either here or at Smyrna, and it did not seem to us that there was much choice between the two places.

"Of course we often talked about you. We knew you would do everything you could, and that when you found we did not turn up at the rendezvous you would sail along the coast till you got news of us; but it did not seem likely that you could do anything to help us. We knew that you could not land more than twenty men, and with twenty men you could do nothing at all against about a thousand Turks with that strong wall in front of them. Besides, the old castle itself was capable of defence, and there were lots of them stationed in it.

Things looked about as black as they could be. We were not starved; the Turks gave us plenty of bread and a sort of thin broth.

"This evening we stretched ourselves out as usual about nine o'clock.

We were all asleep when the outer gates of the castle were opened, then there was a loud trampling of feet, then our door was unlocked.

When an officer came in, followed by a lot of soldiers, we thought that it was all up with us. The officer made signs that we were to go with him, and I made so certain that we were being taken out either to be shot or hung that I said a few words to the men, telling them that the end had evidently come, and that we must die as Christians and British sailors. We were led out, and about a hundred Turkish soldiers closed round us. We were surprised when they marched us out of the place, but as we went on through the streets of the town we supposed they were taking us to some quiet spot outside the walls. Then we turned in through that gateway, and then you know the rest, Martyn. I don't think that I am a coward, or that I felt afraid to die; but when you and Horace rushed out to speak to us, you could have knocked me over with a feather. It was not until I got out into the garden and found your party formed up there that I was quite sure it was not all a dream."

When they had talked over the rescue Mr. Beveridge said: "Well, we have had enough of cruising for the present; we will make for Athens at once, Captain Martyn; by this time probably something will be going on there."

It was late in February when anchor was dropped in the harbour of the Piraeus. Mr. Beveridge at once went on sh.o.r.e with Martyn, and returned the next morning.

"Any news of importance, father?" Horace asked as they came on board.