CHAPTER X
THE WRECKED LANDSHIP
ONCE again the weary yet undaunted Wheatshires braced themselves foranother rush. The period of respite over, they had to make an advanceupon the third line of German trenches.
Already three of the Tanks, which had been temporarily sheltering ina large mine-crater, were labouring across the open stretch of groundseparating the second and third lines. The guns, never silent sincethe early morning, were now giving vent to a veritable crescendo ofhate.
Almost in the centre of the Wheatshires' objective a large brickbuilding stood out clearly against the sky. It was apparently theonly one that had escaped the searching attention of the Britishguns, and with the exception of the roof, the rafters of which wereinnocent of tiles, was practically intact. It was a two-storiedbuilding. The windows on the ground floor were strongly barricaded,while sand-bags had been piled up in front, forming an effectivedefence against all but the heavier guns.
While the eager infantry were being held in leash the Tanks saunteredonwards, two making for the wire entanglements, which already werebadly cut about, while the third floundered straight for thebuilding, although there were no signs that the place was being heldby the enemy.
When about twenty yards from the house the Tank seemed to hesitate.It evidently was pondering whether to go straight through theobstruction or waddle past it, until half a dozen machine-guns, thathad hitherto been silent, rattled a hail of bullets upon themonster's steel hide.
The Huns had withheld their fire, hoping to catch the Britishinfantry in the open; but the menace of the Tank was too great fortheir nerves. Without gaining the slightest military advantage theyopened out with their machine-guns, and thereby betrayed theirpresence.
With a rending crash the Tank charged the obstruction. Sand-bags flewright and left, like mud splashed from the wheel of a motor-car;bricks and rafters clattered pellmell as the mass of metal literallyate into the building.
The next instant a mine exploded almost under the Tank. Tons of earthwere hurled into the air, mingled with sand-bags and blocks ofconcrete. When the clouds of dust and smoke had drifted away the Tankwas lying on its side, with the upturned tractor bands stillrevolving like a derelict escalator.
With a loud yell, about fifty of the Wheatshires rushed forward toavenge the trapped mammoth. As they charged across the open bombs andmachine-guns took heavy toll. To Setley it seemed like rushingthrough a hailstorm, with lead, nickel, and fragments of iron inplace of frozen rain. Yet, carried away with the heat of combat, hewas hardly conscious of the danger until a bursting shell lifted himoff his feet and hurled him violently against a heap of displacedsand-bags.
For some seconds he lay still, hardly able to realize hissurroundings. Then cautiously he raised his head and took stock ofhis position.
He was not alone. Lying on the ground close to him were a dozen ormore of his comrades either dead or seriously wounded. Three or fourothers, seemingly unhurt, hugged the mud, in order to escape thetornado of machine-gun fire from the two intact windows of thebarricaded building. Amongst these were Alderhame and Anderson. Ofthe rest of the platoon none was visible, and since the positionstill remained in the hands of the Huns it was evident that the rushhad been swept away by hostile fire.
"What's to be done?" enquired Ralph.
"Dunno," replied Ginger. "You're senior man now, I guess, of what'sleft of us. Keep down, or they'll lob a bomb into the crowd of us."
"Crowd," thought Setley grimly. Five all told, capable of bearingarms. And he was in charge of the squad. The sense of his newresponsibility stiffened his fibre.
"It's no use going back," he soliloquized. "Nor does it seem at alldesirable to stick here, Let me see how the land lies."
Cautiously separating two sand-bags, Setley peered through thetwo-inch gap thus formed between them. Ten yards away and slightly tothe right front were the German machine-gunners, their wholeattention centred on the trench that had so lately been theirs.Between the wisps of smoke that drifted slowly from the still reekingcrater Ralph saw that the Huns had only two machine-guns left intact,and of these only the muzzle and a few inches of the water-jacketwere visible. The rest of the weapons were hidden by sand-bags.
"Can you throw a bomb fairly into that emplacement?" asked Ralph,addressing the redoubtable Ginger, who, despite a severe shaking,still retained half a dozen Mills bombs.
"You bet," replied Ginger. "Two afore they knows they're on the wayto Kingdom Come."
"All right," continued Setley. "Alderhame, McTurk and I will followup with the bayonet. We must wipe both crews out. Ready?"
Crouching ready to spring and hurl his deadly missiles the bomberremoved the safety-pin. To Setley it seemed an interminable timebefore he threw one bomb. Four seconds? It seemed like forty beforethe missile burst with a loud report right in the centre of theover-attentive Huns.
Up sprang the four men, Ginger with another bomb and the rest withrifle and bayonet. Over the sand-bags they leapt, landing upon thebodies of the bombed gunners, scrambled over the intervening debrisand made for the second machine-gun.
"Take that, you dirty skunks!" shouted Anderson, launching anotherbomb. The missile, missing its mark, exploded harmlessly beyond thesand-bag emplacement.
The Germans faced about, and with levelled revolvers defendedthemselves against the unexpected assailants.
With a rifle-shot Setley brought down one of the men--a big bloatedsergeant--and plunged his bayonet into the second. As he did so, hewas just conscious of a tingling sensation in his left shoulder. Arevolver bullet, fired at practically point-blank range, had searedhis flesh. McTurk accounted for the man who had fired that shot andthen went down with a ghastly wound in his throat.
As he fell the dying Tommy grasped Setley by the ankles, bringing thelad prostrate upon the ground. Before he could regain his feet Ralphfound himself at grips with a tall, slim, bearded Fritz, who in hisfrenzy attempted to batter in his antagonist's head with the butt ofhis revolver, notwithstanding that the weapon was still loaded infour chambers.
Guarding his head with his left hand, Setley recovered himselfsufficiently to plant a powerful blow with his fist upon the point ofthe Hun's chin. The man recoiled, dropped his revolver, and raisedhis hands above his head. As he did so a fragment of shrapnel caughthim and stretched him lifeless upon the floor.
Recovering his rifle and bayonet Ralph regained his feet, eager tothrow himself again into the fray. But the struggle, as far as themachine-guns' crews were concerned, was over. Ginger Anderson,smothered in mud, was greedily quaffing the contents of a Hun'swater-bottle, while Alderhame, leaning against the wall, wasmethodically wiping the point of his bayonet. Five Germans and theluckless McTurk lay across the captured weapon, while the sixth Hun,attempting to escape, had been shot down by Alderhame as he scrambledout of one of the windows facing the enemy lines.
"We've been an' gone and done it this time," declared Ginger, wipinghis mouth with the back of his hand. "An' our chaps 'ave startedshelling the place. Only shrapnel up to now; but if they startsthrowin' in high explosives up we go in a sort of fiery chariot thatain't at all to my likin'."
"Can't we signal and let them know?" asked Alderhame.
The rattle of shrapnel fragments against the tottering walls gave himhis answer. To attempt to show oneself for the purpose of semaphoringmeant certain death.
"Look here; we'll make for the crater where the Tank is lying," saidSetley. "We'll have to take our chances of getting strafed by theHuns. I'll lead the way!"
"One moment," exclaimed Alderhame, and still leaning against thebrickwork he raised his rifle and fired. Before the echoes of thereport had died away a heavy body crashed from the gaunt raftersoverhead--that of a German observation officer.
"My bird," drawled the ex-actor. "I spotted him about to descend.See, he had his revolver ready. Thought he'd caught us napping. Now,I'm ready."
With their rifles slung across their backs the three Tommiescautiously crawled roun
d the pile of sand-bags and gained the openair. A fragment of shrapnel glanced off Setley's steel helmet,another nicked a piece out of the heel of Alderhame's boot, butwithout further incident the trio dropped into the crater in whichthe Tank lay on its side.
The traction band was now motionless. There were no signs that lifeexisted within that massive steel shell. The tail-wheels, which hadbeen raised as the Tank approached the objective that she had failedto surmount, were buckled by the impact of a fragment of flyingmetal. The futurist colour-designs on her exposed side were scorchedand blistered, while the armour-plate was pitted with honourablescars. At an angle of roughly sixty degrees one of her guns projectedaimlessly.
"Which is the way in?" enquired Alderhame. "Suppose this is theentrance to the foyer and palm-court?"
He battered the metal door in the after end of the sponson with thebutt end of his rifle. It was a risky thing to do, since the crew, ifstill alive, might think that the Huns were attempting to force theirway in.
"Hear anything?" asked Setley.
"Excursions and alarums without," quoth the ex-actor. "Within thesilence of the tomb. By Jove! What a reek of petrol!"
A howitzer shell exploding a couple of hundred yards from the craterin which the Tank lay warned the three Wheatshires that the Huns werestill fumbling for their objective. With the crash of the detonationthe whole fabric of the Tank trembled in spite of its massive bulkand weight.
"She's almost balanced," declared Ralph. "I believe a little powerproperly applied would set her on her feet again. Let's try."
The three Tommies, using the trunk of a stout sapling as a lever,sought to force the landship into its normal position, but in vain.Their united efforts fell just short of the required power necessaryto overcome the difference in trim.
"See any signs of our boys?" enquired Setley.
George crawled up the incline until he could peer over the lip of thecrater. The Wheatshires still held the captured trench, but furtherprogress had been "held up" by hostile rifle and machine-gun fire.Overhead the shells from the distant British howitzers screamedincessantly as they pounded the position to which the Huns had fallenback.
A metallic clank made Setley turn his head The door of the Tankopened cautiously and the bronzed features of one of the crewappeared in view. There was a dazed look on the man's face, while hisforehead was streaked with caked blood.
"Cheer-o, mate!" sung out the irrepressible Anderson. "Apple-cartupset? We've come to lend a 'and!"
The man began to cough, and scrambling through the narrow doorwaycollapsed, pointing towards the interior of the stranded monsterbefore losing consciousness.
Resting their rifles against the side of the Tank, Setley and hiscompanions squeezed through the door. Sliding over the obliquelyinclined floor, Ralph found himself brought up by the angle formed byit and the curved wall. His steel helmet saved his head from a nastyblow, for the whole space seemed filled with machinery.
"It ain't 'arf dark," commented Ginger, "barging into" thebreech-block of a quickfirer. "'Ow about a light? I've got a box oflucifers on me somewhere."
"Do you think you're chief stoker of a crematorium?" asked Alderhame."The place reeks of petrol, man. A spark and there'll be a terrificexplosion."
"Lucky you spoke, mate," rejoined Anderson. "Matches seem to get ourfamily into trouble. My brother, down Enfield way, got a month for'aving a match on 'im when he went to the munition factory. Blimey,wot's this?"
He stooped; his hands came in contact with a human body, one of fivelying tightly packed in one corner of the confined space.
"Don't think they've snuffed it," he continued. "Wot's to be donewith 'em, sergeant?"
Ralph, not altogether pleased at having brevet by his comrade,pondered over the situation. If the crew were not dead they wouldstand a better chance of recovering consciousness in the open air. Onthe other hand, they would then be exposed to shell-fire, and it wasevident that the Germans were getting closer to their objective.
"We'll get them out," he decided. "They'll be fairly sheltered underthe lee of the Tank. It's a risk, but that cannot be helped."
With considerable difficulty the three Wheatshires contrived to lift,carry, and drag the unconscious men from the interior of thelandship, the task of getting them through the narrow doorway beingmagnified by the fact that the floor tilted to an enormous degree.
"Nip up and see what's doing," suggested Setley.
On all fours Anderson scaled the side of the crater. In a very shortspace of time he was back again with his eyes filled with dust thrownup by a howitzer-shell that exploded eighty yards away.
"There's another bloomin' Tank a-comin' this way," he announced.
Greeted by a direct but ineffectual fire from machine-guns andsmall-arms the oncoming Tank made straight for the mine-crater inwhich her consort had been trapped. Right upon the very lip of thecavity she stopped. Although her crew were not visible it was soonapparent that they were able to see what was going on, for a voicehailed:
"We'll try and tow you out. Can you take a wire rope?"
"They think we're the Tankers," said Alderhame. "Look here, I'll riskit."
Scrambling up the sloping side of the pit Alderhame, reckless of theshrapnel and rifle bullets, crawled to the rescuing Tank. As he didso two of the crew leapt down, carrying the end of a length offlexible steel wire fitted with a shackle.
"Carry on with t'other end, mate," said one, as he proceeded to fixthe shackled end to a massive eyebolt on the underside of the bluntbows. "Think she'll move?"
"You'll hike her up if you pull in that direction," replied theex-actor, indicating the place with his hand. "She's almost ready totilt back on her traction-bands."
Without a scratch, although a bullet nicked his shoulder-strap andsome fragments of shrapnel glinted off his helmet, Alderhame regainedthe temporary shelter of the crater, carrying with him the end of thewire rope.
This Setley and Alderhame succeeded in making fast to the overheadgirders, although while engaged upon the task Ralph's cheek was cutopen by the splay of a bullet that hit the metal-work within nineinches of his head.
"A bit warm up there," commented Ralph, as the two slid to theshelter of the hole.
With a wave of his arm Setley indicated that all was in readiness.Slowly the serviceable Tank went astern. The wire rope tautened, andwith hardly any appreciable effort the disabled landship flopped overinto her normal position.
"Where's your commanding officer?" shouted the lieutenant in chargeof the towing Tank. "Who's the senior man?"
"The officer is unconscious, sir," replied Ralph.
"All right. Shift the hawser aft. Motors intact?"
"I cannot say, sir," answered Setley.
"Then you jolly well ought to," grumbled the lieutenant, who wasstill under the impression that the three Wheatshires were part ofthe Tank's crew. "If you can't start 'em up, slip out both clutches.Hurry up we can't stop here to be strafed all day."
Working desperately the three men shifted the wire rope to therequired position, placed the crew of the Tank inside, and scrambledin to the interior of the immobile landship.
Setley had a good knowledge of motor-cars and motor-bikes, but thecomplicated machinery of the Tank was beyond him. Since he was notcertain of the way to throw out the clutches, he did the next bestthing: he opened the compression taps in the cylinders, so that thepistons were free to move up and down without having to push againsta buffer of compressed air.
He was rather sceptical concerning the ability of the towing Tank todrag the crippled consort up the sloping side of the crater, but, tohis delight, he found that he was mistaken. Choosing the easiestgradient, the Tank succeeded--not without considerable difficulty--inhauling her disabled sister out of the hole. The appearance of thelatter was greeted by a round of cheering from the British infantryand a redoubled dose of "hate" from the infuriated Huns. Not untilthey were a mile behind their own lines, and sheltered from directfire by a depression in the ground, di
d the two Tanks come to astandstill.
"Why, you are Wheatshires!" exclaimed the lieutenant, as Setley andhis comrades emerged from the armoured box. "What are you doinghere?"
"We got cut off, sir," replied Ralph, saluting. "We saw the Tank inthe mine-crater, and we thought we could find cover there."
"And you gave valuable assistance," rejoined the Tank officer,pulling out a notebook. "Give me your names and regimental numbers.It will be a pleasure to me to submit a report upon your gallantconduct in the work of rescue. No, I don't think you'd better try torejoin your regiment at present. It isn't healthy out in the open.Better wait till after dark."
"By Jove, Alderhame," exclaimed Ralph, after the officer had gone,"if ever I get a chance to serve in a Tank, I'm on!"
"And this bird, too," added Alderhame. "No more foot-slogginginfantry for me if there's a chance of riding in an armoured movingfort. Wonder how we could work it?"