Tales of Mysteries & Espionage - John Buchan Edition. Buchan John

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СКАЧАТЬ his spectacles. “I speak with all modesty, but was it not a blunder to let Olifa strike first? I should have thought that our best chance would have been to obstruct the railway—like—like my Dutch prototype in Dur South African war. Can an inferior safely surrender the offensive?” And he smiled pleasantly.

      Sandy shook his head. “It wouldn’t have done. We should have given old Lossberg a lot of trouble, but he would have smashed us in the long run.”

      “Won’t he smash us anyhow in the long run?” Castor moved closer and again studied the map. “God has been unkind to us in planting that wall of rock and snow in the east. It is most unfortunate that the southern wall of the Gran Seco runs clean up to the mountains without a convenient pass for honest guerrilleros to descend upon Olifa.”

      “Most unfortunate,” said Sandy, but there was no melancholy in his tone. “Well, that’s the layout. Now I will expound the meaning of our flags.”

      He enumerated in detail the strength and composition of the various detachments, and then explained the composition and marching order of the Olifero forces. Castor listened attentively and asked questions. “We are holding the city lightly, but the Mines strongly. Ah, I see. We have a big detachment on the railway. Who, by the way, commands in the city? Rosas? We have given my friend the post of honour—and danger.”

      Day by day the green flags crept northward till they were spilled in clusters beyond the Gran Seco frontier. Every evening Sandy gave his staff lecture. It was noticeable, now that the campaign had begun, that his spirits rose, and though he had scarcely time to feed or sleep he showed no trace of weariness. Yet there was tension in the air. The faces of the men would suddenly go blank as some problem swept them into preoccupation. Even the Gobernador was not exempt from these sudden silences. He alone had no routine work, but Janet, who had become his chief companion abroad, reported that he was becoming temperamental.

      “I think it is this place,” she told Sandy. “I don’t believe he has ever been much out-of-doors in his life before. He has always lived in cities and railway-carriages, and Nature is rather a surprise to him and puts him off his balance. He told me to-day that this living with sunsets and sunrises made him giddy… His education is progressing. I wish I knew what he was thinking when he has that blindish look in his eyes.”

      “He seems to be interested in the campaign,” said Sandy. “As an intellectual problem, I suppose. Something for his mind to work upon.”

      The girl hesitated.

      “Perhaps,” she said. “But I think there is something more in it than that. He has been adopted for the first time in his life into a community. We others are busy at a game. He is like a child. He can’t help hankering a little to play too.”

      Presently events began to crowd on each other. The green flags made a forest between the Gran Seco frontier and the city, and spread out till their right wing was very close to the Universum Mine.

      “That’s the cavalry,” Sandy explained. “They’re finding it a tougher job than they reckoned. Yesterday they tried a sort of Jeb Stuart ride round the city and came in for some rough handling from Peters. They’ve first-rate cavalry, but indifferent M.I.”

      Then came a halt and the green flags did not advance for a day or two.

      “We put up quite a good little show,” was Sandy’s comment. “You remember the fifth mile-post down the line where it runs through a horse-shoe valley. That’s our position, and it is pretty much like that of the Boers at Magersfontein. They can’t find our trenches to shell us out of them. Lossberg is getting nervous about a frontal attack and is considering an enveloping movement. See! He has two of his machine-gun battalions moving east of the Universum. He’s bringing up another infantry division, too. That makes three, besides oddments. A pretty good muster against our modest territorials!”

      Two days later the red flags had fallen back two miles along the railway. Sandy, with his eye on a smaller chart, elucidated the position on the big map. “Our forward zone has gone, and now we’re in our battle zone, though we don’t intend to have much of a battle. But we’ve got to stick it there for a couple of days… You see this bunch of red flags east of the Mines? That’s our counter-movement beginning.”

      “It looks as if we were shaping for a big field action,” said one of the young Americans.

      “Not a bit. We aren’t looking for any barren victories. This is all directed to Lossberg’s address. We know a good deal about him, and he’s a cautious warrior. He’s taking no risks, for he has the strength and he means to use it… I hope to Heaven Peters doesn’t dip in too deep.”

      To Janet and Barbara these days were as thrilling as the last act of a good play. Up in that quiet place, they seemed to watch the struggle like gods from the empyrean. The very map became like a crystal in which their fancy could see the hot mustard-coloured hills, the puffs of shrapnel on the ridges, the ant-like movements of little mortals. Even the Gobernador lost something of his calm, and the eyes under his level brows kindled. In these days the aircraft were never idle. Every hour of the day and night heard the drone of their going or returning.

      On the evening of July 17th Sandy had much to tell.

      “You will be glad to hear that Lossberg has got his reinforcements. This morning the last division of his Expeditionary Force crossed the frontier.”

      “You seem pleased?” asked the puzzled Janet.

      “I am. I don’t want unnecessary bloodshed, and these small holding battles take their toll. It’s only a matter of hours now till we acknowledge defeat and fling up the sponge. It hasn’t been a bad show, except that Peters went further than I intended. He pushed his counter-attack at the Universum a little too deep, and suffered accordingly. That’s the worst of the enthusiastic amateur… There will be a great Olifa triumph presently. It will be fun to see what the papers make of it.”

      Next day Sandy’s good-humour had increased. He appeared at luncheon silent but beaming, and when an excited company gathered in the mess-hut before dinner he arrived like a breathless boy.

      “I want a drink, for I’ve had a dusty afternoon… Thanks, Bobby, a whisky-and-soda… We needn’t wait. I can give you the news now. Early this morning we fell back from our last positions and all our troops have been withdrawn from the city. Lossberg’s cavalry patrols must be in it now… Also the Universum is in his hands, and the Alhuema and the San Tome whenever he likes to have ‘em. He will meet with no opposition. The first bout is past and we’ve been knocked over the ropes. It’s Lossberg’s round… You needn’t look anxious, Excellency. There hasn’t been ten pounds’ worth of damage done to the Company’s property.”

      “I wasn’t thinking of the Company,” said Castor, and his face had become very grave. “Has all this happened according to your plan?”

      “More or less… except for Peters’s venture. I didn’t want our casualties to go beyond two hundred, and they’re actually three hundred and seventeen. Still, your army has not suffered badly.”

      “For God’s sake don’t call it mine. I’m your prisoner and your enemy. What’s the next step? When is this infernal folly to cease?”

      Sandy grinned benignly. “Properly speaking, the infernal folly has just begun. The sparring is over and the real business is about to commence.”

      The other considered. “Your plan, I take it, was to put up just enough resistance to compel Olifa to send the whole of her Expeditionary СКАЧАТЬ