On the Road to Bagdad: A Story of Townshend's Gallant Advance on the Tigris Read online

  CHAPTER II

  Geoffrey Keith and Another

  What a thing it is to be young and enthusiastic! The very news which,cabled far and wide, set the world almost trembling; which gaveinformation of vast armies hurriedly mobilizing and rushing to meet oneanother in deadly combat; and which saw families divided, husbands andfathers and brothers torn from those they cared for, found GeoffreyKeith in the very highest of spirits.

  Not, let us explain, that this young man did not, and could not, realizethe gravity of the position--of the terrible conflict which, at thatmoment, was bursting forth in Europe. He was not such a dunce that hehad not learned of the might of Germany, of the military spirit which,for forty years or more, had swept from end to end of that country, andof the dark Hohenzollern cloud which had hung over the fair lands ofEurope for many years past. Nor had the gossip of brother officers inclubs and in messes failed to reach his ears. He knew well enough thatthe outbreak of war between Germany and Austria, and France and Russia,meant terrible fighting. He knew, better still, that if Great Britaincame into the struggle that fighting would become even more strenuousstill; for was not that the character of all Britons--slow to take up aquarrel, patient and forbearing, they had yet proved themselves in manya tussle to be stern and stanch fighters. They had shown indeed thatpluck, that grit and determination, which long years since has won forour nation a wonderful reputation. Bulldogs we are known as, andbulldogs the British were to prove themselves in the course of thistremendous upheaval.

  Yet, war meant excitement! It meant active service! It meant perhapsjourneying to another country; seeing strange sights and hearingunfamiliar sounds, and taking part, for all one knew, in deeds whichwould become historical.

  "Bad luck for some people, no doubt," said Geoffrey as he sat in thecorner of a railway carriage and panted, for the heat was great. "Justthink of it, Philip, my boy! You and I have only recently completed aspecial course in England and have not yet joined our regiment, and herewe are, only just arrived in India, and already under orders for activeservice. What will they do with us, do you think?"

  His companion, a tall, slightly built young fellow of some nineteenyears of age--a few months older than Geoffrey in fact--answered himwith energy. To be sure, he too was lolling listlessly in the oppositecorner of the carriage, and was fanning himself with _The Times_ ofIndia. It was desperately hot outside, and now that the train had cometo a halt at a wayside junction, what current of air there had beenpassing through the compartment was stilled entirely, so that theinterior was like an oven. Outside the sun poured down upon the broadplatform of the junction till one's eyes ached if one looked out throughthe gloom of the carriage at its bright reflection; and there, crowdedupon it, careless and unmindful of the sun, chattering and gesticulatingand shrieking at one another as only a native mob can do, were hundredsof natives, waiting for a train to take them in the opposite direction.

  "Where shall we go, eh?" answered Philip. "Where will the Mahrattas beordered to? Well now, Geoff, that's rather a large order. To begin with,you don't suppose, do you, that every regiment--native and British--nowin India will be taken out of the country?"

  "Why not?" ejaculated Geoff, peering hard at him through the gloom whichfilled the interior of the carriage.

  "Why not! Well, of course, there are reasons. For instance: supposingyou were to remove every soldier in the country and leave only civilianwhite people behind, those agitators--those native agitators, thatis--always to be found in such a huge population as we have in India,might stir up trouble, knowing that they had only the police to dealwith. That's a reason, and a very good reason, for keeping troops inIndia; and I have got another. Great Britain has already got anExpeditionary Force fully organized and planned for fighting with ourFrench ally. But she'll be hard put to it to get that force fullymobilized and equipped. Not until then will our country have time toturn round in other directions. So you can take it from me, my boy, weare likely to stay in our station for some time before we get marchingorders."

  As a matter of fact the declaration of war between Germany and GreatBritain produced a great deal more than excitement in far-off India.There was a great coming and going of trains, a great concentration ofcertain of the troops--both native and British--in parts of the Empire,and, when a few weeks had gone by, transports set out across the IndianOcean carrying those two native divisions to France which were to dosuch signal service. And, in the interval, those troops not yet underorders were being busily prepared for fighting. Indeed, Geoff and hisfriend Philip had hardly reached their station--within a few miles ofthat so recently quitted by Major Joe Douglas--when they foundthemselves hard at work training.

  "Of course, you young officers have only just joined us," their Coloneltold them a couple of days after their arrival. "But we are fortunate inone thing, you were both of you born in India--in cantonments--and maybe said to have been brought up in the Indian army. Then you have donework with the O.T.C. in England, and gone through a special coursebefore leaving that country. But you will have to nail in at your workas hard as possible, for it is more than likely--more than likely," herepeated with emphasis, "that the Mahrattas will be wanted very soon forforeign service."

  "Foreign service! Hurrah!" cried Geoff enthusiastically, when he and hischum were alone together. "That's what I've always thought and wishedfor. But where? France, eh?"

  "Hardly likely," came the answer. "Everyone knows that the Meerut andLahore Divisions are bound for that quarter. Isn't there any other spotwhere there's likely to be fighting?"

  Months later, had their question been answered, it would have caused theone questioned to smile ironically. For indeed this gigantic conflicthas spread across the globe, till there are few places in which fightinghas not occurred; but Mesopotamia! Who would have thought that theMahrattas were to undertake service in the neighbourhood of the PersianGulf. Why, Philip hardly knew of the existence of such a place, thoughGeoff was well acquainted with the country. Let us explain thecircumstances of this young fellow a little more fully before he becomesimmersed in the excitement and adventures of a campaign in the valley ofthe Tigris.

  Geoff Keith was the only son, the only child in fact, of Captain RobertKeith, once of the ---- Sikh Regiment, in which Major Joe Douglas was anofficer. Subalterns together, they had grown up side by side, and hadbecome inseparables. Often enough, when Joe Douglas happened to havebeen with his regiment--which was seldom in later years--these two hadspent their leave together, and many a hunting trip had they takentogether in the neighbourhood of the Himalayas. But circumstances in theend tended rather to separate these two old friends, for, as we haveexplained already, Joe Douglas became a "political"--a verywell-thought-of and frequently employed "political", we shouldadd--while Robert married, and therefore was seen less often in the messof his regiment. Yet the old friendship never died away, and whenRobert, who in the meanwhile had had the misfortune to lose his wife,went on an expedition to the frontier, and there sustained a wound fromwhich he died, it followed as a natural course that his old friend JoeDouglas was left as guardian of the boy.

  No one could say that this gallant officer had not carried out hisduties with every sympathy. Indeed, Geoffrey had become like a son tothe Major, and during the years that he was in India--for Geoff was sentto a school for English boys in the hills--the two saw a great deal ofone another. With an eye to the future, the Major went so far as to givelong and painstaking instruction to his charge; so that, when at length,at the age of sixteen only, Geoff accompanied his guardian on one ofthose expeditions of his into Mesopotamia, he found himself by no meansa stranger.

  "It will be your own fault, Geoff," said the Major, as they took a riverboat up the Tigris towards Bagdad--"it will be your own fault, my lad,if you don't, one of these days, follow in my footsteps as a'political'. I have taught you Turkish, and the Arabic the natives inand around Bagdad speak, and though I dare say at times you have foundit an awful bore, yet you've stuck to your work like a good 'un.
Nowyou'll see the advantage of that work. You'll be able to understand whatpeople are saying round you, and will be able to make your way amongstthe Turks and amongst the Arabs with comparative ease. The few months weare here during this trip will familiarize you with the country and thepeople, and one of these days this trip will prove of immense advantageto you."

  That sojourn in Mesopotamia had indeed been one long delight to GeoffKeith. The open-air life; their residence, often enough with some wildArab tribe; their tent dwellings; those long rides on horseback whichthey took across the desert, fascinated him, so that when the time camefor the Major to turn his face towards India, Geoff was by far the mostdisappointed of the couple. In the Persian Gulf they bade farewell toone another, Geoff trans-shipping on to a boat on its way to Suez. Fromthere he went to England, where he spent a couple of years at one of thefinest of our public schools. A short course at Aldershot followed; andthen, on the eve of this tremendous conflict which had just broken outbetween the Kaiser and his hosts, and the free nations of Europe, and inwhich Great Britain had just commenced to take her part, Geoff Keith hadtaken ship for India once more, where a commission already awaited himin the Indian army.

  To look at the young fellow you would not have imagined for a momentthat he was in any particular way accomplished. Moderately tall andstraight, he was as jolly as a sand-boy, and as careless as a boy offifteen. Yet there was a deep look about the eyes which, to those whotook the trouble to notice it, gave signs of something better, ofserious thought in fact, of accomplishments hidden by his joyous manner.To be precise, you would not for a moment have imagined that Geoff couldspeak Hindustani just as well as he could speak English; that he couldgabble Turkish in the markets of Bagdad with such ease and suchprecision that even a native would not have suspected him--that is,provided he were dressed as a subject of the Sultan. In addition, therewas his knowledge of those Arabic tongues, knowledge imparted at firstby his guardian, and since then improved and perfected by residence inthe country.

  "Great accomplishments!" you will say. And yet so easily and sogradually acquired--for youth makes light of such matters--that Geoffwas not conscious of his accomplishments. He was, in fact, just thecareless, happy-go-lucky fellow we have endeavoured to describe him. Notconceited in the least, but merely a very ordinary specimen of Britishyouthful humanity.

  "Mesopotamia!" he shouted, when the news of their proposed expeditionreached him. "George! That's splendid!"

  "Ripping!" echoed Philip, extracting a cigarette from his pocket andlighting it with a most elaborate show of unconcern, and yet withfingers which trembled as they held a lighted match to the end of it."Ripping! How awfully lucky for the whole lot of us that you've been tothat country! You have, haven't you? But--where on earth is it? I'llconfess at once that geography isn't a strong subject with me, and evennow I haven't done much more than conquer the bare outline of India. Ofcourse a fellow knows that Mesopotamia is somewhere adjacent to Persia,and Persia, if I remember rightly, isn't so frightfully far away fromTurkey and Afghanistan. How far'll we be away from our Russian alliesthere? And, I say! I suppose it'll be a 'walk-over'!"

  Geoff grinned back at his companion.

  "Don't you think it!" he told him, his face now serious. "The averagefellow seems to have got hold of the idea that the Turk is a lazy, idle,good-for-nothing, easy-going beggar, who'll hold up his hands and gounder immediately war is declared on him. Why, I was reading aparagraph in the paper last evening which told us that Turkey wascommitting suicide by joining forces with Germany, and that Russia andEngland between them would mop her up and sweep her out of Europe."

  Philip looked puzzled. When he said he had no great affection forgeography, and had no particularly good bump of locality, he told hischum only the bare truth. To be quite candid, and yet essentiallyfriendly with reference to Geoff's friend, we have to say that not evenGeoff could have described this young officer as brilliant. He was justa gay, light-hearted, and, when he liked, an energetic and usefulofficer. When he liked to apply himself to his profession, or indeed toany other work of not too exacting a character, Philip could do as wellas any other, though, to be sure, he did not shine as a rule. As asoldier, he was no better and no worse than his fellows, only hisgayness of heart and his natural dash and courage might easily, undercircumstances of exceptional stress, bring him to the fore and make himconspicuous. But, to speak bluntly, Philip was a bit of a dunce, and hadlived his short life so far without taking extraordinary notice of hisimmediate surroundings, and of the world in general.

  "Half a mo'!" he said, blowing a cloud of smoke in Geoff's direction."What's that? Turkey in Europe! But Mesopotamia's Asia, isn't it? Here'sa pencil, my boy, and here's a copy of to-day's 'orders'. Just yousketch out on the back of it the outline of Mesopotamia. I'm not such afool that I can't follow a sketch when it's made for me."

  A brother "sub" joined them at that moment, and as Geoff sketcheddiligently and drew in the outline of the Persian Gulf, of the Afghanfrontier, and of Persia, another and yet another subaltern strolled up,till, quite unknown to him, a little group of officers were looking onover his shoulder. Then he suddenly became aware of their presence, and,colouring furiously, for the young fellow was essentially modest, hecrumpled the paper up and threw it into a corner.

  "No you don't, my boy! No you don't!" said a well-known voice frombehind his shoulder. "We are all of us keen on knowing something moreabout the place we are bound for, and you are the only one amongst uswho has ever been there. Take it as an order, Geoff. I'll guarantee thatthere shall be no larking, and I'm sure that every one of your brotherofficers wishes you to give us just a short lecture on the countrycalled Mesopotamia."

  Under the circumstances it was not to be expected that a junior officer,so junior indeed as Geoff, could refuse the request--the order if youlike to call it, though it was given so pleasantly--of one of hisseniors. It was the senior captain, in fact, who was leaning over hisshoulder, and who patted his arm encouragingly.

  "Fire ahead, Geoff," he told him. "It's not showing off! There's noswank about it! I'd like awfully to know all about this Mesopotamia.I'll admit the fact, before you young officers, that I'm just about asignorant as I can be. Up to now I never imagined that there were anyTurks to speak of in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, so why onearth they should send an Expeditionary Force there from India is morethan I can guess at. The Colonel says it's so that we shall protect theoil-supply which comes down from Persian territory to somewhere near theGulf. Know it, Geoff?"

  "Yes, sir! And if you really won't think it's swank----"

  "Of course not. Now, here's a piece of paper, and get on with it."

  Sketch Map of Mesopotamia]

  To one who had visited the country, and, more than all, to one who hadaccompanied the studious Major Joseph Douglas, there was no difficultyin drawing a map which showed all the essential points in Mesopotamia.It was not exactly Geoff's fault that he knew a great deal about thecountry. Thanks to the tuition of his kindly guardian, and the longdiscussions which that officer had so frequently indulged in, Geoff hadcontrived to visit Mesopotamia and live there, not as an ordinarytourist might have done, but as an explorer. Brought into the closestcontact with the Turk, the Persian, the Armenian, and the Jew, it wasonly natural that, with his guardian's help, he should have learntsomething of the international situation as it concerned Turkey. A visitto Constantinople had shown him the more civilized side of the country,while the outbreak of the war between the Balkan Powers and Turkey, andthe dissertations of Major Joe Douglas, had familiarized him more orless with the situation of Turkey in Europe.

  "Of course, there is the 'pipe' line," he told his listeners, "and,going by what Major Douglas has always told me, it cannot fail to be ofgreat importance to Britain. You see, numbers of our battleships now useoil fuel almost exclusively."

  "Quite so! That's got it!" chimed in the senior officer. "You've hit thenail on the head, Geoff. Go ahead!"

  "So an expedition to t
he head of the Persian Gulf may very well be forthe sole purpose of protecting the oil-supply of the British Navy. As towhy the Expedition should come from India rather than from England, Ican say that anyone--any white man that is--who has been to Mesopotamiawill know that it's a beast of a climate. As hot as India in the plainsin the hot weather, and often enough, when the cold season comes along,bitterly cold and wet. But for the most part it is hot, and damp, andtrying, so that native troops are far more suitable. There's the 'pipe'line," he told his listeners, sketching in a line from the southernborder of Persia. "It strikes across the desert to the east of the RiverKarun, and joins up with the Shatt-el-Arab, close to a place calledMohammera. I ought to explain that the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates joinup somewhere in the region of Kurnah and Basra, and then flow on,picking up the River Karun and opening into the Persian Gulf some twentymiles farther down. As to Turks, of course the bulk of them are upcountry, particularly in the neighbourhood of Bagdad. But there arefortified posts along both rivers and right down to the mouth of theShatt-el-Arab. At Basra there are quite a considerable number ofEuropeans and Indians, and they tell me that an increasing trade is donefrom that port. If we land somewhere about there we are sure to beopposed, and if there weren't any Turks there are any number of Arabs,some of whom, at least, are likely to be unfriendly."

  "So that there'll be fighting, eh?" asked the senior officer.

  "Plenty of it, I imagine," Geoff told him. "Those Arabs are wily beggarsto deal with."

  "And where's Bagdad?" he was asked. "And how does it lie compared withConstantinople?"

  "And what about Persia, and Russia, and Turkestan, and Turkey inEurope?" demanded Philip, anxious to improve the occasion.

  Thus pressed, Geoff could not do other than sketch in the variouspositions, showing Persia to the east, and Russia where she abutted onTurkey in Asia, along the line of the Caucasus Mountains. Then, havingshaded in the Black Sea, thus showing the southern shore of Russia andthe Crimea, he sketched the Sea of Marmora and the Narrows, where, atthe Dardanelles, the British fleet was so soon to be hammering.

  A glance at the map will show better than any description the chieffeatures of the situation, and only a few words are needed to explainthe intrusion of Turkey into the gigantic war which had so recentlyarisen. If one looks for the cause of Turkey's joining with Germany andAustria against the Powers of the Entente, one is bound to confess thatno adequate reason can be discovered. Turkey had nothing to fear fromGreat Britain or from her allies; yet, for years Germany had beensecretly scheming to expand her sway over Turkey. It may be concededthat, whereas, exclusive of Russia, the whole of Europe was highlyindustrialized, and the greater part of the "middle East" that was easyto come at was already being busily developed by France or GreatBritain, or others of the European nations, there yet remained the wholeof Turkey in Asia and of Persia--a gigantic sweep of country--thenatural riches of which were, still, not even tapped, and which, thanksto the listless idleness of the Turk, were likely to remain untappeduntil some European Power, with need for extending her commerce, sweptupon the scene and took advantage of such golden opportunities.

  Already Russia had brought a portion of Persia under her sway, whileGreat Britain had secured the other portion. No doubt, too, Russia hadher eyes on the northern portion of Turkey in Asia, while Britain wasnot entirely ignorant of the riches lying undeveloped in Mesopotamia.What had once been, according to legend, the Garden of Eden, and, sincethe Turk had come upon the scene, had been utterly neglected, and hadwoefully depreciated till it had become hardly better than a barrendesert, was capable of being coaxed back into its old condition. Riches,now hidden, might be won from the country by Western energy andresource, while the country, once firmly occupied by Germany or by anyother nation, would open a way to the subjection of Persia and to anapproach upon India by way of Afghanistan.

  Let us say at once that Turkey had no adequate reason for joining inthis vast struggle against Great Britain and her allies; but she wascajoled into that action. Perhaps her leaders were heavily bribed by theGermans, who themselves had reason enough in all conscience. The comingof Turkey into the conflict would of itself detain large forces both ofRussia and of Great Britain; and then again, supposing France andBritain and Russia to have been defeated in Europe, Germany would have aclear field in the "middle East", with a prospect one day of evenapproaching India, and so of coming nearer to the consummation of thatvastly ambitious scheme the Kaiser had set before him, of becoming theRuler of the World.

  But Geoff and his brother officers cared not a rap for such thoughts.That little lesson in geography proved of vast assistance to them all,and the thought of fighting in the near future, of Turks and of Arabs,roused their excitement to the highest. A couple of weeks later theytook train down-country, where the bustle about the port, the presenceof other troops who were to take part in the expedition, and the sightof the transports they were to board brought their spirits to feverpitch. Two days later they set sail, and within a very short periodfound themselves steaming to the head of the Persian Gulf. Before thedusk fell that evening they were within sight of land, and had the hugefelicity of seeing the gunboat which escorted them exchange shots withthe Turkish forts at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab. It was the openingof their campaign. It was the first shot that many of them had hearddischarged in actual warfare.

  "Hurrah!" shouted Philip as he watched a shell bursting in the distance."To-morrow, my boy, we'll be in the thick of it."