CHAPTER XXII
TANK VERSUS LOCOMOTIVE
THE tactics of the landship that, according to their belief, was asgood as captured, puzzled the Germans considerably. They waited,expecting to be hailed by the Prussian captain, whom they knew wasinside the Tank.
The Huns were quickly undeceived. A withering fire from the Tank'smachine-guns catching them unawares played havoc with the soldierswho had rashly left their shelter trenches. At the same time, thelandship, heeling over until she appeared to be on the point ofcapsizing, lumbered bravely up the steeply shelving side of thevalley.
The ground, though rocky and irregular, afforded a good grip to thetractor-bands. Small and medium sized boulders she crushed into thesofter soil, the larger ones she pushed aside. Brushwood and saplingswere rent, the few stunted pine trees in her course were simplyuprooted.
"By Jove!" ejaculated Setley delightedly. "She's doing it. I wasrather doubtful whether she would tackle that gradient. Now, youbounders, how's that?"
The Tank was astride the first trench--a deep and narrow excavation,but, unlike those on flat ground, following the contour of thehillside in a fairly straight line. With her nose resting on theparados and her tractor-bands scooping up sand-bags like a dogscratching at the mouth of a rabbit-hole the landship remainedpractically stationary for nearly a minute, the maxims each lettingloose the best part of a belt of ammunition.
Fortunately there were no field-guns in this section. The Huns,recovering from their surprise, were, however, letting fly withmachine-guns, rifles and bombs, all of which had no appreciableeffect upon the armoured mastodon.
The Tank was nearly the cause of her own destruction by remainingastride the trench, for some of the maxim bullets striking a can ofdetonating powder that had been left over from the amount required tocharge the landmines went off with a roar that completely dominatedthe rattle of musketry.
In spite of her weight and bulk the landship reeled under theterrific blast. Huge rocks were hurled against her sides. When thesmoke had cleared away Ralph could form a hasty idea of the nature ofthe damage. Where the trench had been was a huge semi-crater nearlyfifty yards in length. A large portion of the hillside had been blownaway, forming an almost perpendicular semicircular cliff. Thecorresponding half of the circle of displaced earth had crashed intothe valley--a vast jumble of rocks, stones, earth and sand-bags,mingled with the corpses of a hundred Germans. And within her ownlength of the newly formed precipice the Tank rocked on the unstablesoil. It was touch-and-go whether she would slither, like aside-slipping motor-car, into the abyss.
Once more mechanical ingenuity triumphed over the forces of nature.Resisting the attraction of gravity and overcoming the tendency toslip on the crumbling, moving soil, the Tank drew steadily away fromthe danger zone, until gaining firm ground she resumed her upwardclimb and approached the second line of trenches.
Not a shot came from this part of the defences. The Huns, bewilderedand demoralized by the nerve-racking catastrophe and the sight oftheir comrades being hurled like stones from a catapult, had fled.Even their officers made no effort to keep them back. Not knowing thecause of the explosion they had formed the erroneous idea that theBritish landship possessed some terrific and hitherto unknown meansof destruction and had used it with annihilating results upon the menin the first trench.
"We're through," ejaculated Alderhame. "'Ware the summit, sir; thatskunk of a Hun evidently spoke the truth for once in his life when hesaid we would be shelled if we showed up on the skyline."
"I will," replied Ralph. "I had forgotten. Suppose it was in theexcitement of the minute. Any casualties?"
"Private Saunderson has got a gash over the left eye, sir," reportedthe sergeant. "A splinter of steel must have come in through thesighting aperture. It's not at all a serious wound."
Skirting the rounded top of the hill of Nôtre Dame Ralph brought hiscommand in sight of the undulating country beyond, an expanse offertile land dotted with numerous valleys, all of which were fated tobe destroyed by the retreating enemy within the next few days. Rightin the foreground was the railway line, the viaduct being less thanhalf a mile from the moving Tank. Detached parties of Germans andisolated individuals were hurrying away from the approaching Britishtroops, who were now at least three miles off.
In the distance a column of white vapour stood out clearly againstthe clouds of black and brown smoke and announced the fact that atrain was on the move, making in a north-westerly direction. It wasone of many bringing up the German reserves to launch theirformidable counter-attack upon the men who had broken Hindenburg'sline.
"Whack her up for all she's worth," ordered Ralph, addressing themotor mechanic. "Now, lads, it's a race. It's up to us to get to thatviaduct before the train can cross."
The bridge, although not marked on Ralph's military map, was in theposition indicated by the impersonator of Captain Cludderborough. Itcrossed a small stream at a point one hundred yards or thereabouts tothe north of the original structure that had been bombed anddemolished by British airmen. The temporary viaduct was made of hugebaulks of timber supporting a central span of only thirty feet. Thebanks of the stream that flowed underneath were low, the groundsloping gently on the near side but rising with considerableabruptness on the remote side.
With a succession of jolts and bumps the Tank plunged downhill at agreater rate than she had ever done before in her brief yetstrenuously exciting career; but notwithstanding the hot pace Setleywas forced to come to the conclusion that the troop train would bethe first to reach the bridge.
He thought hard. The time for decisive action, bordering onself-sacrifice, was at hand. Unable to destroy the bridge before thetrain rumbled across he decided to try conclusions with thelocomotive.
"Pass the word that any man who wishes may get out," he said toSergeant Alderhame. "I'm going to ram that engine."
Alderhame bellowed out his superior officer's permission. It would bea comparatively easy matter for the men to alight from the movingTank, but one and all elected to take their chances with theiryouthful officer.
Gripping the nearest object that formed a likely hold the men awaitedwith grim faces and tightly closed lips the impact with an equaltarget of metal moving at five or six times the rate of the landship.
The driver of the locomotive had spotted the Tank. To Ralph'ssatisfaction he saw that the German was applying his brakes andshutting off steam. Had he maintained his speed there was a chancethat he might have escaped a collision. By easing down he not onlyplayed into the hands of his enemy but mitigated the chance of theTank's destruction.
Had there been time Ralph would have merely steered his Tank acrossthe lines, in which case the weight of the landship would havetwisted the track and caused the train to leave the metals. But therewas not. To attempt to do so would result in the engine striking theTank fairly on her side.
Meeting at an aggregate rate of nearly thirty miles an hour theTank's nose struck the locomotive a glancing blow somewhere in theregion of the driver's cab. With a terrific rending of metal and thehiss of escaping steam the engine toppled over on its side, while thecarriages either telescoped or lurched over the slight embankment.
As for the Tank, she began to climb upon the wreckage of thevanquished; then turning began to describe a small circle.
It was some minutes before the bruised and shaken crew could realizewhat had occurred. The tractor-bands on the right-hand side had beenshattered by the impact, the left-hand one was intact and stillmoving. Like a bird wounded in one wing the landship was unable tokeep a straight course and could only crawl round and round almost onher own axis.
Although crippled the Tank still retained certain of her powers ofoffence. Her maxims were trained upon the swarm of dazed and shakenHuns who were emerging from the wrecked carriages. There was no needto open fire. The Germans had a wholesome dread of British landships,a fear based solely upon hearsay since none of these had previouslyseen a Tank. With upraised hands and cries of "Mercy, Kamerad!"
themajority now approached the now motionless landship. The remainingsurvivors of the collision were either hiding behind the overturnedcarriages or else scurrying across the fields, in order to put a safedistance between them and the frightful engine of warfare.
"What's to be done with this crush?" enquired Ralph. "We can't fireon the blighters, we can't take them prisoners."
"And if we let them go they'll soon tell their pals, sir," addedAlderhame. "The best thing, I take it, is to hold them under thecover of our guns and await events. Our cavalry patrols may be hereshortly."
Setley shook his head.
"Won't do," he objected. "More than likely the limits of to-day'sgains are already fixed, in which case we may have to wait until nextweek. I'll order the Boches to clear out. It will leave us free foranother task; after that we must take our chances."
The Huns obeyed Ralph's peremptory order with evident hesitation Someof them, perhaps, wanted to be taken prisoners. Fresh from theRussian front they dreaded the horrors of the Ypres salient and theregions of the Somme and Ancre. Others were under the impression thatthe order to clear out was merely a ruse on the part of the Tank andthat directly they were at a certain distance from the latter theywould be shot down by her machine-guns.
"Now," declared Ralph, as the handful of Britons were left alone withthe dead and dying victims of the deliberate collision. "A couple ofmen, with a charge of explosive and a two-minute fuse: we're going tosettle the bridge."