Chapter Sixteen. The Battered Caravanserai

Greenmantle

by John Buchan

Two days later, in the evening, we came to Angora, the first
stage in our journey.

The passports had arrived next morning, as Frau von Einem had
promised, and with them a plan of our journey. More, one of the
Companions, who spoke a little English, was detailed to accompany us
- a wise precaution, for no one of us had a word of Turkish. These
were the sum of our instructions. I heard nothing more of Sandy or
Greenmantle or the lady. We were meant to travel in our own
party.

We had the railway to Angora, a very comfortable German
Schlafwagen, tacked to the end of a troop-train. There wasn't much
to be seen of the country, for after we left the Bosporus we ran into
scuds of snow, and except that we seemed to be climbing on to a big
plateau I had no notion of the landscape. It was a marvel that we
made such good time, for that line was congested beyond anything I
have ever seen. The place was crawling with the Gallipoli troops,
and every siding was packed with supply trucks. When we stopped -
which we did on an average about once an hour - you could see vast
camps on both sides of the line, and often we struck regiments on the
march along the railway track. They looked a fine, hardy lot of
ruffians, but many were deplorably ragged, and I didn't think much of
their boots. I wondered how they would do the five hundred miles of
road to Erzerum.

Blenkiron played Patience, and Peter and I took a hand at
picquet, but mostly we smoked and yarned. Getting away from that
infernal city had cheered us up wonderfully. Now we were out on the
open road, moving to the sound of the guns. At the worst, we should
not perish like rats in a sewer. We would be all together, too, and
that was a comfort. I think we felt the relief which a man who has
been on a lonely outpost feels when he is brought back to his
battalion. Besides, the thing had gone clean beyond our power to
direct. It was no good planning and scheming, for none of us had a
notion what the next step might be. We were fatalists now, believing
in Kismet, and that is a comfortable faith.

All but Blenkiron. The coming of Hilda von Einem into the
business had put a very ugly complexion on it for him. It was
curious to see how she affected the different members of our gang.
Peter did not care a rush: man, woman, and hippogriff were the same
to him; he met it all as calmly as if he were making plans to round
up an old lion in a patch of bush, taking the facts as they came and
working at them as if they were a sum in arithmetic. Sandy and I were
impressed - it's no good denying it: horribly impressed - but we were
too interested to be scared, and we weren't a bit fascinated. We
hated her too much for that. But she fairly struck Blenkiron dumb.
He said himself it was just like a rattlesnake and a bird.

I made him talk about her, for if he sat and brooded he would
get worse. It was a strange thing that this man, the most
imperturbable and, I think, about the most courageous I have ever
met, should be paralysed by a slim woman. There was no doubt about
it. The thought of her made the future to him as black as a thunder
cloud. It took the power out of his joints, and if she was going to
be much around, it looked as if Blenkiron might be counted out.

I suggested that he was in love with her, but this he vehemently
denied.

'No, Sir; I haven't got no sort of affection for the lady. My
trouble is that she puts me out of countenance, and I can't fit her
in as an antagonist. I guess we Americans haven't got the right
poise for dealing with that kind of female. We've exalted our
womenfolk into little tin gods, and at the same time left them out of
the real business of life. Consequently, when we strike one playing
the biggest kind of man's game we can't place her. We aren't used to
regarding them as anything except angels and children. I wish I had
had you boys' upbringing.'

Angora was like my notion of some place such as Amiens in the
retreat from Mons. It was one mass of troops and transport - the
neck of the bottle, for more arrived every hour, and the only outlet
was the single eastern road. The town was pandemonium into which
distracted German officers were trying to introduce some order. They
didn't worry much about us, for the heart of Anatolia wasn't a likely
hunting-ground for suspicious characters. We took our passport to
the commandant, who visaed them readily, and told us he'd do his best
to get us transport. We spent the night in a sort of hotel, where
all four crowded into one little bedroom, and next morning I had my
work cut out getting a motor-car. It took four hours, and the use of
every great name in the Turkish Empire, to raise a dingy sort of
Studebaker, and another two to get the petrol and spare tyres. As
for a chauffeur, love or money couldn't find him, and I was compelled
to drive the thing myself.

We left just after midday and swung out into bare bleak downs
patched with scrubby woodlands. There was no snow here, but a wind
was blowing from the east which searched the marrow. Presently we
climbed up into hills, and the road, though not badly engineered to
begin with, grew as rough as the channel of a stream. No wonder, for
the traffic was like what one saw on that awful stretch between
Cassel and Ypres, and there were no gangs of Belgian roadmakers to
mend it up. We found troops by the thousands striding along with
their impassive Turkish faces, ox convoys, mule convoys, wagons drawn
by sturdy little Anatolian horses, and, coming in the contrary
direction, many shabby Red Crescent cars and wagons of the wounded.
We had to crawl for hours on end, till we got past a block. just
before the darkening we seemed to outstrip the first press, and had a
clear run for about ten miles over a low pass in the hills. I began
to get anxious about the car, for it was a poor one at the best, and
the road was guaranteed sooner or later to knock even a Rolls-Royce
into scrap iron.

All the same it was glorious to be out in the open again.
Peter's face wore a new look, and he sniffed the bitter air like a
stag. There floated up from little wayside camps the odour of
wood-smoke and dung-fires. That, and the curious acrid winter smell
of great wind- blown spaces, will always come to my memory as I think
of that day. Every hour brought me peace of mind and resolution. I
felt as I had felt when the battalion first marched from Aire towards
the firing-line, a kind of keying-up and wild expectation. I'm not
used to cities, and lounging about Constantinople had slackened my
fibre. Now, as the sharp wind buffeted us, I felt braced to any kind
of risk. We were on the great road to the east and the border hills,
and soon we should stand upon the farthest battle-front of the war.
This was no commonplace intelligence job. That was all over, and we
were going into the firing-zone, going to take part in what might be
the downfall of our enemies. I didn't reflect that we were among
those enemies, and would probably share their downfall if we were not
shot earlier. The truth is, I had got out of the way of regarding
the thing as a struggle between armies and nations. I hardly
bothered to think where my sympathies lay. First and foremost it was
a contest between the four of us and a crazy woman, and this personal
antagonism made the strife of armies only a dimly-felt background.

We slept that night like logs on the floor of a dirty khan, and
started next morning in a powder of snow. We were getting very high
up now, and it was perishing cold. The Companion - his name sounded
like Hussin - had travelled the road before and told me what the
places were, but they conveyed nothing to me. All morning we
wriggled through a big lot of troops, a brigade at least, who swung
along at a great pace with a fine free stride that I don't think I
have ever seen bettered. I must say I took a fancy to the Turkish
fighting man: I remembered the testimonial our fellows gave him as a
clean fighter, and I felt very bitter that Germany should have lugged
him into this dirty business. They halted for a meal, and we
stopped, too, and lunched off some brown bread and dried figs and a
flask of very sour wine. I had a few words with one of the officers
who spoke a little German. He told me they were marching straight
for Russia, since there had been a great Turkish victory in the
Caucasus. 'We have beaten the French and the British, and now it is
Russia's turn,' he said stolidly, as if repeating a lesson. But he
added that he was mortally sick of war. In the afternoon we cleared
the column and had an open road for some hours. The land now had a
tilt eastward, as if we were moving towards the valley of a great
river. Soon we began to meet little parties of men coming from the
east with a new look in their faces. The first lots of wounded had
been the ordinary thing you see on every front, and there had been
some pretence at organization. But these new lots were very weary and
broken; they were often barefoot, and they seemed to have lost their
transport and to be starving. You would find a group stretched by
the roadside in the last stages of exhaustion. Then would come a
party limping along, so tired that they never turned their heads to
look at us. Almost all were wounded, some badly, and most were
horribly thin. I wondered how my Turkish friend behind would explain
the sight to his men, if he believed in a great victory. They had
not the air of the backwash of a conquering army. Even Blenkiron, who
was no soldier, noticed it.

'These boys look mighty bad,' he observed. 'We've got to
hustle, Major, if we're going to get seats for the last act.'

That was my own feeling. The sight made me mad to get on
faster, for I saw that big things were happening in the East. I had
reckoned that four days would take us from Angora to Erzerum, but
here was the second nearly over and we were not yet a third of the
way. I pressed on recklessly, and that hurry was our undoing.

I have said that the Studebaker was a rotten old car. Its
steering-gear was pretty dicky, and the bad surface and continual
hairpin bends of the road didn't improve it. Soon we came into snow
lying fairly deep, frozen hard and rutted by the big
transport-wagons. We bumped and bounced horribly, and were shaken
about like peas in a bladder. I began to be acutely anxious about
the old boneshaker, the more as we seemed a long way short of the
village I had proposed to spend the night in. Twilight was falling
and we were still in an unfeatured waste, crossing the shallow glen
of a stream. There was a bridge at the bottom of a slope - a bridge
of logs and earth which had apparently been freshly strengthened for
heavy traffic. As we approached it at a good pace the car ceased to
answer to the wheel.

I struggled desperately to keep it straight, but it swerved to
the left and we plunged over a bank into a marshy hollow. There was
a sickening bump as we struck the lower ground, and the whole party
were shot out into the frozen slush. I don't yet know how I escaped,
for the car turned over and by rights I should have had my back
broken. But no one was hurt. Peter was laughing, and Blenkiron,
after shaking the snow out of his hair, joined him. For myself I was
feverishly examining the machine. It was about as ugly as it could
be, for the front axle was broken.

Here was a piece of hopeless bad luck. We were stuck in the
middle of Asia Minor with no means of conveyance, for to get a new
axle there was as likely as to find snowballs on the Congo. It was
all but dark and there was no time to lose. I got out the petrol
tins and spare tyres and cached them among some rocks on the
hillside. Then we collected our scanty baggage from the derelict
Studebaker. Our only hope was Hussin. He had got to find us some
lodging for the night, and next day we would have a try for horses or
a lift in some passing wagon. I had no hope of another car. Every
automobile in Anatolia would now be at a premium.

It was so disgusting a mishap that we all took it quietly. It
was too bad to be helped by hard swearing. Hussin and Peter set off
on different sides of the road to prospect for a house, and Blenkiron
and I sheltered under the nearest rock and smoked savagely.

Hussin was the first to strike oil. He came back in twenty
minutes with news of some kind of dwelling a couple of miles up the
stream. He went off to collect Peter, and, humping our baggage,
Blenkiron and I plodded up the waterside. Darkness had fallen thick
by this time, and we took some bad tosses among the bogs. When Hussin
and Peter overtook us they found a better road, and presently we saw
a light twinkle in the hollow ahead.

It proved to be a wretched tumble-down farm in a grove of
poplars - a foul-smelling, muddy yard, a two-roomed hovel of a house,
and a barn which was tolerably dry and which we selected for our
sleeping-place. The owner was a broken old fellow whose sons were
all at the war, and he received us with the profound calm of one who
expects nothing but unpleasantness from life.

By this time we had recovered our tempers, and I was trying hard
to put my new Kismet philosophy into practice. I reckoned that if
risks were foreordained, so were difficulties, and both must be taken
as part of the day's work. With the remains of our provisions and
some curdled milk we satisfied our hunger and curled ourselves up
among the pease straw of the barn. Blenkiron announced with a happy
sigh that he had now been for two days quit of his dyspepsia.

That night, I remember, I had a queer dream. I seemed to be in
a wild place among mountains, and I was being hunted, though who was
after me I couldn't tell. I remember sweating with fright, for I
seemed to be quite alone and the terror that was pursuing me was more
than human. The place was horribly quiet and still, and there was
deep snow lying everywhere, so that each step I took was heavy as
lead. A very ordinary sort of nightmare, you will say. Yes, but
there was one strange feature in this one. The night was pitch dark,
but ahead of me in the throat of the pass there was one patch of
light, and it showed a rum little hill with a rocky top: what we call
in South Africa a castrol or saucepan. I had a notion that if I
could get to that castrol I should be safe, and I panted through the
drifts towards it with the avenger of blood at my heels. I woke,
gasping, to find the winter morning struggling through the cracked
rafters, and to hear Blenkiron say cheerily that his duodenum had
behaved all night like a gentleman. I lay still for a bit trying to
fix the dream, but it all dissolved into haze except the picture of
the little hill, which was quite clear in every detail. I told
myself it was a reminiscence of the veld, some spot down in the
Wakkerstroom country, though for the life of me I couldn't place
it.

I pass over the next three days, for they were one uninterrupted
series of heart-breaks. Hussin and Peter scoured the country for
horses, Blenkiron sat in the barn and played Patience, while I
haunted the roadside near the bridge in the hope of picking up some
kind of conveyance. My task was perfectly futile. The columns
passed, casting wondering eyes on the wrecked car among the frozen
rushes, but they could offer no help. My friend the Turkish officer
promised to wire to Angora from some place or other for a fresh car,
but, remembering the state of affairs at Angora, I had no hope from
that quarter. Cars passed, plenty of them, packed with
staff-officers, Turkish and German, but they were in far too big a
hurry even to stop and speak. The only conclusion I reached from my
roadside vigil was that things were getting very warm in the
neighbourhood of Erzerum. Everybody on that road seemed to be in mad
haste either to get there or to get away.

Hussin was the best chance, for, as I have said, the Companions
had a very special and peculiar graft throughout the Turkish Empire.
But the first day he came back empty-handed. All the horses had been
commandeered for the war, he said; and though he was certain that
some had been kept back and hidden away, he could not get on their
track. The second day he returned with two - miserable screws and
deplorably short in the wind from a diet of beans. There was no
decent corn or hay left in the countryside. The third day he picked
up a nice little Arab stallion: in poor condition, it is true, but
perfectly sound. For these beasts we paid good money, for Blenkiron
was well supplied and we had no time to spare for the interminable
Oriental bargaining.

Hussin said he had cleaned up the countryside, and I believed
him. I dared not delay another day, even though it meant leaving him
behind. But he had no notion of doing anything of the kind. He was a
good runner, he said, and could keep up with such horses as ours for
ever. If this was the manner of our progress, I reckoned we would be
weeks in getting to Erzerum.

We started at dawn on the morning of the fourth day, after the
old farmer had blessed us and sold us some stale rye-bread.
Blenkiron bestrode the Arab, being the heaviest, and Peter and I had
the screws. My worst forebodings were soon realized, and Hussin,
loping along at my side, had an easy job to keep up with us. We were
about as slow as an ox-wagon. The brutes were unshod, and with the
rough roads I saw that their feet would very soon go to pieces. We
jogged along like a tinker's caravan, about five miles to the hour,
as feckless a party as ever disgraced a highroad.

The weather was now a drizzle, which increased my depression.
Cars passed us and disappeared in the mist, going at thirty miles an
hour to mock our slowness. None of us spoke, for the futility of the
business clogged our spirits. I bit hard on my lip to curb my
restlessness, and I think I would have sold my soul there and then
for anything that could move fast. I don't know any sorer trial than
to be mad for speed and have to crawl at a snail's pace. I was
getting ripe for any kind of desperate venture.

About midday we descended on a wide plain full of the marks of
rich cultivation. Villages became frequent, and the land was studded
with olive groves and scarred with water furrows. From what I
remembered of the map I judged that we were coming to that champagne
country near Siwas, which is the granary of Turkey, and the home of
the true Osmanli stock.

Then at the turning of the road we came to the caravanserai.

It was a dingy, battered place, with the pink plaster falling in
patches from its walls. There was a courtyard abutting on the road,
and a flat-topped house with a big hole in its side. It was a long
way from any battle-ground, and I guessed that some explosion had
wrought the damage. Behind it, a few hundred yards off, a detachment
of cavalry were encamped beside a stream, with their horses tied up
in long lines of pickets.

And by the roadside, quite alone and deserted, stood a large new
motor-car.

In all the road before and behind there was no man to be seen
except the troops by the stream. The owners, whoever they were, must
be inside the caravanserai.

I have said I was in the mood for some desperate deed, and lo
and behold providence had given me the chance! I coveted that car as
I have never coveted anything on earth. At the moment all my plans
had narrowed down to a feverish passion to get to the battle- field.
We had to find Greenmantle at Erzerum, and once there we should have
Hilda von Einem's protection. It was a time of war, and a front of
brass was the surest safety. But, indeed, I could not figure out any
plan worth speaking of. I saw only one thing - a fast car which
might be ours.

I said a word to the others, and we dismounted and tethered our
horses at the near end of the courtyard. I heard the low hum of
voices from the cavalrymen by the stream, but they were three hundred
yards off and could not see us. Peter was sent forward to scout in
the courtyard. In the building itself there was but one window
looking on the road, and that was in the upper floor.

Meantime I crawled along beside the wall to where the car stood,
and had a look at it. It was a splendid six-cylinder affair, brand
new, with the tyres little worn. There were seven tins of petrol
stacked behind as well as spare tyres, and, looking in, I saw map-
cases and field-glasses strewn on the seats as if the owners had only
got out for a minute to stretch their legs.

Peter came back and reported that the courtyard was empty.

'There are men in the upper room,' he said; 'more than one, for
I heard their voices. They are moving about restlessly, and may soon
be coming out.'

I reckoned that there was no time to be lost, so I told the
others to slip down the road fifty yards beyond the caravanserai and
be ready to climb in as I passed. I had to start the infernal thing,
and there might be shooting.

I waited by the car till I saw them reach the right distance. I
could hear voices from the second floor of the house and footsteps
moving up and down. I was in a fever of anxiety, for any moment a
man might come to the window. Then I flung myself on the starting
handle and worked like a demon.

The cold made the job difficult, and my heart was in my mouth,
for the noise in that quiet place must have woke the dead. Then, by
the mercy of Heaven, the engine started, and I sprang to the driving
seat, released the clutch, and opened the throttle. The great car
shot forward, and I seemed to hear behind me shrill voices. A pistol
bullet bored through my hat, and another buried itself in a cushion
beside me.

In a second I was clear of the place and the rest of the party
were embarking. Blenkiron got on the step and rolled himself like a
sack of coals into the tonneau. Peter nipped up beside me, and
Hussin scrambled in from the back over the folds of the hood. We had
our baggage in our pockets and had nothing to carry.

Bullets dropped round us, but did no harm. Then I heard a
report at my ear, and out of a corner of my eye saw Peter lower his
pistol. Presently we were out of range, and, looking back, I saw
three men gesticulating in the middle of the road.

'May the devil fly away with this pistol,' said Peter ruefully.
'I never could make good shooting with a little gun. Had I had my
rifle ...'

'What did you shoot for?' I asked in amazement. 'We've got the
fellows' car, and we don't want to do them any harm.'

'It would have saved trouble had I had my rifle,' said Peter,
quietly. 'The little man you call Rasta was there, and he knew you.
I heard him cry your name. He is an angry little man, and I observe
that on this road there is a telegraph.'