In Greek Waters Part 29

Packed closely in the two boats of the Turkish craft the landing party rowed for the sh.o.r.e. As soon as they reached it the boats were drawn up on the strand, and in silence Martyn led his men across the road. Then he struck off into the orchard on the other side, so as to escape the notice of any of the people in the houses by the road. The cobbler and Horace went first, Martyn and the men followed a short distance behind. Half an hour's walking took them to the edge of the ditch, and after a short search they found a bough that Horace and Zaimes had cut off and thrown down by the side of the path, to mark the spot where they were to make the ascent.

Two sailors were posted on the path, at fifty yards above and below them, in case anyone should come along, although the risk of this was exceedingly small. There was no difficulty in scrambling down into the ditch. As soon as they did so the sailor who carried the grapnel advanced to the foot of the wall, and at the second attempt succeeded in getting it to hold on the parapet. Another, with one of the rope-ladders, went forward, fastened the rope to it, and the two of them hauled the ladder up to the block, and kept the rope taut while Martyn mounted. He found, as he had expected, that there was a platform behind the wall for men to stand on while firing. Taking his place on it he took hold of the ladder rope and told the men below to loosen their end. Holding it partly up he fastened it at the block.

Then two men joined him, hauled the wooden gangway up, and planted it against the top of the inner wall. The rest of the men followed, and Martyn led the way across. The others soon stood beside him, all stooping down on the platform as soon as they had crossed, so that their heads should not show above the skyline, should anyone happen to be looking out from the windows of the house.

Two sailors helped the cobbler across the gangway. Horace was the last to mount, with the exception of the two sentries, whom he summoned with a low whistle as soon as the others were up. When they reached the top they hauled the rope-ladder after them, and laid it ready for lowering again. By the time Horace crossed to the inner wall Martyn and most of the men had already descended to the garden by the second rope-ladder.

"That has all been managed well," Martyn said when Horace joined him below. "Now, you and I will go forward and reconnoitre a bit."

The house was seventy or eighty yards away. There were lights in several windows on the ground-floor, and at almost all the windows on the flat above it.

"We had better take off our shoes, Horace. It is no use running any risks. Shove them in your sash beside your pistols."

They stole noiselessly up to the house and looked in at the windows.

In one room were a group of servants sitting round a brazier, smoking; another room was empty; but in the third, which was much the largest, four Turkish officials were seated on a divan, and a Nubian slave was handing them coffee.

"That old chap is the pasha, no doubt," Martyn whispered. "He is evidently master of the house. You see he is giving some order or other to the slave. Here is the garden door into a hall; let us see if it is open. Yes; that is all right. Well, I think now we will bring up the men. Now, as soon as we are in, Horace, you take four men; go in first and post them at the doors leading out of the house. I will take six men and seize the pasha and his friends. Other four will pounce upon the servants. Your cobbler fellow had better go with them to tell the servants that if they make the least row they will have their throats cut. The other men will scatter about in the pa.s.sages and down stairs, and pounce upon anybody who may come along. As soon as you have posted your men, go to the room where the servants are, and bring the interpreter in to me. Tell the sailors to bind the fellows and lay them down, and put a couple of guards over them."

They returned to the men and told them off to their several duties.

All were ordered to take their shoes off, and put them in their belts.

"Now, you can draw your cutla.s.ses, lads," Martyn said. "Have you all loaded your pistols?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, mind they are not to be used; a pistol-shot might destroy all our plans. I hope to manage it so that there shall not be any noise whatever."

They made their way quietly up to the house. Horace opened the door and led the way in, followed by his four men. They pa.s.sed through the hall and a long pa.s.sage, from which several rooms opened; and he was sure, by the direction in which he was going, that this must lead to the offices. At the end was a strong door; only one bolt was shot, as doubtless the officers would be leaving by this way. He put up a heavy bar that was standing beside it, stationed two of the sailors there, and then retraced his steps with the others. Just as he reached the hall again a sailor came up to him.

"This is the way to the big door, your honour;" and turning down another pa.s.sage they arrived at a double door, which Horace had no doubt was the one that he had seen in the court-yard. Posting the men there he hurried back, and soon found the room where the servants had been sitting. The work had already been done. The sailors had all been provided with short lengths of rope, and the Turks were lying bound upon the floor. Telling the cobbler to accompany him, he went into the next room. Two sailors, with drawn cutla.s.ses, were standing by the side of the pasha. The three officers had been bound, and were lying on the divan, with a sailor standing over each, while the other sailor stood over the attendant, who cowered on the ground in an att.i.tude of abject terror. Martyn was standing facing the pasha.

"Now, Horace," he said, "tell your man what to say to the pasha."

This had been arranged between them, and Horace at once addressed the pasha.

"Do you speak Greek?"

The pasha shook his head.

"Tell him," Horace said in that language to the interpreter, "that we belong to the s.h.i.+p to which the officers and sailors he has in his prison also belong, and that we have come here to fetch them away. We are fighting under the flag of Greece; but we are Englishmen by blood, and we shall do no harm to him or his family. The prisoners, however, we will have; and unless he sends at once, with an order for their delivery from the prison, and hands them over to us, we shall be obliged to carry him, the three officers here, and the ladies of his family and his children, off on board our s.h.i.+p as hostages; and if a hair of the prisoners' heads is touched, we shall be forced to hang him and the whole of his family to the yard-arms of the s.h.i.+p."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAPTURE OF THE PASHA]

The interpreter translated his words sentence by sentence. The Turk had at first looked perfectly impa.s.sive; but at the threat to carry off his women and children his expression changed, the veins stood out of his forehead, and his face flushed with fury.

"Tell him," Horace went on, "that we should deeply regret to have to take such a step, and that we sincerely trust that he will see the necessity for his yielding to our demands. There is no possibility of a.s.sistance reaching him, we are a well-armed body of determined men, his servants have been secured, and all the doors are guarded, as also the windows outside--he is completely in our power. As we came in noiselessly and un.o.bserved, so we shall depart. If he refuses to comply with our demands we shall, of course, be compelled to bind and gag all our captives, and to carry the ladies and children."

When the last sentence had been translated, Horace said to Martyn, "I think, Captain Martyn, you had better get those officers carried into the next room, so that we can touch upon the money side of the question."

Martyn gave the order, and the officers and the attendant were removed.

"Now, pasha," Horace went on, "let us look at this thing reasonably.

On the one side is the certainty that you and the ladies of the household and your children will be carried away; and that unless the prisoners are given up to us in exchange for you, you will be all put to death. On the other hand, you have but to surrender prisoners whom you did not even capture in war, but who were wrecked on your sh.o.r.e.

We know that you have sent to Smyrna for directions concerning them.

Were it not for that you would have handed them over to us without difficulty; but as the pasha there, who is your superior, now knows of it, you think that he will be angry when he hears of their escape, and that you might fall into disgrace. But I don't think that the pasha of Anatolia, if he were placed in the same position as you are, would hesitate a moment in giving up a score of captives of no great importance one way or the other; and that if the matter were placed by you in the proper light before him, accompanied, perhaps, by a present, nothing more would be heard about it. In any case we are ready to pay you the sum of one thousand pounds as a ransom for them.

We have sent your officers out of the room that they should not hear this offer, which will be entirely between ourselves. It is not meant as a bribe to you, but as a ransom, which, if you choose to send it to Smyrna, will doubtless a.s.sist the pasha there to perceive that being, with your whole family, at our mercy, you had no resource but to comply with our commands. We will give you five minutes to make up your mind."

When this was translated, the pasha asked:

"How am I to know that, if the captives are restored to you, you will not still carry me and my family away?"

"You have simply the word of English gentlemen," Horace said when the question was translated to him. "You see we are acting as considerately as we can. Your ladies upstairs are still unaware that anything unusual is going on. Our men have touched nothing belonging to you. We are neither robbers nor kidnappers, but simply men who have come to save their comrades from a cruel death."

"I will write the order," the pasha said firmly. "Had I been in the house by myself I would have died rather than do so. Being as it is, I cannot resist."

"Who will you send with the order?" Horace asked.

"One of the officers you have taken away is the colonel of the regiment. He will take it and bring the prisoners here. He is the oldest of the three."

Horace went into the next room and ordered the officer to be unbound and brought in by two of the sailors.

"You have heard, Colonel Osman, the terms that these strangers have laid down, and that unless the prisoners are surrendered, you, the two bimbaches, myself, and the members of my family, will be carried off as hostages and hung if the prisoners are not delivered up."

"I heard that, pasha."

"What is your opinion, colonel?"

"My opinion is that you have no course but to give up the prisoners.

No one would expect you to sacrifice the lives of the ladies of your family and your children, to say nothing of your own and ours, merely for the sake of twenty s.h.i.+pwrecked sailors. It seems to me that it were madness to hesitate, pasha."

"That is also my opinion," the pasha said. "Therefore, colonel, I will now write you an order to fetch them from prison and bring them under an escort here. You will understand that it will be better that absolute silence should be observed about this affair. The less it is talked of the better. If the officer in special charge of them asks any questions you can intimate that, without knowing it, you believe that the messenger may have arrived from Smyrna with instructions as to their disposal. Dismiss the escort at the outer gate and bring the prisoners yourself here."

The pasha wrote the order, which he handed to the colonel, who at once hurried off with it.

"You are sure that he will faithfully obey the order, pasha?" Horace asked through the interpreter.

The pasha nodded.

"One of the bimbaches here is his own brother, and he would be sure that his life would be sacrificed were there any treachery."

At this moment there was a little shriek heard.

"I am afraid," Horace said, "that one of the ladies' attendants has come downstairs and has been seized. Perhaps you will like to go upstairs and a.s.sure them that there is no cause for alarm. In the meantime I will hand you this bag, which contains the amount of the ransom in gold."

"You Englishmen act n.o.bly," the pasha said as he took the bag. "You had us in your power, and need have paid nothing, and you treat me as a friend rather than as an enemy. It is a pity that you fight for the Greeks. When I was a young man I fought in Egypt by the side of your troops."

Horace escorted him through the sailors in the pa.s.sages to the foot of the stairs and there left him.