Mathias Sandorf/Page 34
CHAPTER XXV.
ANTEKIRTTA.[edit]
Fifteen hours after leaving the coast of Tripoli the “Electric” was signaled by the lookout at Antekirtta, and in the afternoon she came into harbor.
We can easily imagine the reception given to the doctor and his companions.
Now that Sava was out of danger, it was decided to still keep secret her relationship to Dr. Antekirtt.
Count Mathias wished to remain unknown until the accomplishment of his work. But it was enough that Pierre, whom he had made his son, was the betrothed of Sava Sandorf for signs of rejoicing to be shown on all sides in the Stadthaus as well as in the town of Artenak.
We may judge what were Mme. Bathory's feelings when Sava was given back to her after so many trials! And Sava herself soon recovered her health—a few days of happiness were sufficient for its complete re-establishment.
That Point Pescade had risked his life there could be no doubt. But as he seemed to think it quite a natural thing to do, there was no possibility of rewarding him—except with a few simple words. Pierre Bathory had clasped him to his breast, and the doctor had given him such a look of gratitude that he would hear of no other recompense. According to his custom, he gave the whole credit of the adventure to Cape Matifou.
“He is the man that should be thanked,” he said. “He did it all! If old Cape had not been so clever with that pole I should never have been able to jump into Sidi Hazam's house, and Sava Sandorf would have been killed by her fall if Cape Matifou had not been below to receive her in his arms!”
“Look here! Look here!” answered Cape Matifou. “You are going too far, and the idea of—”
“Be quiet!” continued Pescade. “I am not strong enough to receive compliments of that caliber, while you—Come, let us look after the garden!”
And Cape Matifou held his peace, and returned to his pleasant villa, and finally accepted the felicitations that were thrust upon him “so as not to disoblige his little Pescade.”
It was arranged that the wedding of Pierre and Sava should took place on the 9th of December. When Pierre was Sava's husband he could claim his wife's rights in the inheritance of Count Sandorf. Mme. Toronthal's letter left no doubt as to the girl's birth, and if necessary they could obtain a formal statement from the banker. And this statement would be obtained in time, for Sava had not yet reached the age at which she would enter her rights. She would not be eighteen until six months later.
It should be added that in the fifteen years a political change had taken place favorable to the Hungarian question, and this had considerably ameliorated the situation—particularly with regard to the conspiracy of Trieste.
It was not intended to come to any decision as to the fate of Carpena and Toronthal until Sarcany had joined them m the casemates of Antekirtta. Then, and not till then, would the work of justice be completed.
But while the doctor was still scheming how to attain his object, it was absolutely necessary that he should provide for the safety of the colony. His agents in the Cyrenaic and Tripoli had informed him that the Senousist movement was attaining great importance, particularly in the vilayet of Ben Ghazi, which is the nearest to the island. Special messengers were continually on the move to the minor chiefs of the province from Jerboub, “the new pole of the Islamic world,” as Dr. Duveyrier calls it, the metropolitan Mecca, where lived Sidi Mohammed El-Mahdi, grand master of the order, and as the Senousists are the worthy descendants of the old Barbary pirates and bear a mortal hate to everything European, the doctor had to take steps to be very carefully on his guard.
In fact, is it not to the Senousists that we can attribute the massacres in African necrology during the last twenty years? The sanguinary brotherhood has put in practice the Senousistic doctrines against our explorers, and we have seen Beurman killed at Kanem in 1863; Vonder Decken and his companions on the Djouba River, in 1865; Mme. Alexine Tinne and her people in Wady Abedjouch, in 1865; Dournaux-Dupeire and Joubert, at the wells of In-Azhar, in 1874; Fathers Panlmier Bouchard and Menoret beyond the In-Calah, in 1876; Fathers Richard Morat and Poupiard, of the Ghadames mission, in the north of Adzjer; Colonel Flattore, Captains Masson and Dianous, Dr. Guiard, and Engineers Beringer and Roone on the road to Wargia, in 1881.
On this subject the doctor often talked with Pierre Bathory, Luigi Ferrato, the captains of the flotilla, the chiefs of the militia, and the principal notables of the island. Could Antekirtta resist an attack from the pirates? Yes, doubtless, although the fortifications were not complete, but on condition that the number of assailants was not too great. On the other hand, had the Senousists any interest in capturing it? Yes, for it commanded all the Gulf of Stora, which formed the coast of Tripoli and the Cyrenaic.
It will not have been forgotten that south-west of Antekirtta, at a distance of some two miles, there lay the islet of Kencraf. This islet, which there was no time to fortify, would constitute a serious danger if a hostile flotilla made it its base of operation, and so the doctor had taken the precaution to mine it extensively. And now a terrible explosive agent filled the fougasses amid its rocks. It would suffice for an electric spark to be sent through the cable from Antekirtta, and the island of Kencraf would be annihilated with everything that was on it.
With regard to the other defenses of the island this is what had been done. The flanking batteries had been completed, and only waited for the militia assigned to them to move to their stations. The fortress on the central cave was ready with its long-range pieces. Numerous torpedoes had been sunk in the channel and defended the entrance to the harbor. The “Ferrato” and three “Electrics” were ready for all eventualities, either in awaiting the attack or advancing on a hostile flotilla.
But in the south-west of the island there was a vulnerable spot. A landing might take place there in shelter from the guns of the fortress. There was the danger, and it might be too late to become sufficiently advanced with the works of defense.
After all, was it quite certain that the Senousists intended to attack Antekirtta? It was a big affair, a dangerous expedition which would require a good deal of material. Luigi still doubted, and he said so one day while the doctor and Pierre were inspecting the fortifications.
“That is not my opinion,” said the doctor. “Antekirtta is rich, it commands the Syrtic Sea; and these are sufficient reasons for the Senousists sooner or later to attack it.”
“Nothing can be more certain,” added Pierre, “and it is an eventuality against which we should be prepared.”
“But what makes me fear an immediate attack is that Sarcany is one of the brotherhood of these Khouans, and I know that he has always been in their service as an agent in foreign parts. Do you not remember that Point Pescade overheard in the moquaddem's house a conversation between him and Sidi Hazam? In that conversation the name of Antekirtta was mentioned several times, and Sarcany knows that this island belongs to the Doctor Antekirtt, the man he fears, the man whom he made Zirone attack on the slopes of Etna. As he did not succeed in Sicily there is little doubt he will try to succeed here under better circumstances.”
“Has he any personal hate against you?” asked Luigi. “And does he know you?”
“It is possible that he has seen me at Ragusa,” replied the doctor. “In any case he would not be ignorant that in that town I was in communication with the Bathory family. Besides, the existence of Pierre was revealed to him when Sava was carried off by Pescade from the house of Sidi Hazam. In his mind he would see the association, and would have no doubt that Pierre and Sava had taken refuge in Antekirtta. He will, therefore, urge on against us the whole Senousistic horde, and we shall get no quarter if he succeeds in getting possession of our island.”
The argument was quite plausible. That Sarcany did not know that the doctor was Count Sandorf was certain, but he knew enough to wish to get away from him the heiress of the Artenak estate; and there was nothing surprising in his attempt to excite the Caliph to undertake an expedition against the Antekirttian colony.
However, they had reached the 3d of December, and there had been no sign of an imminent attack.
Besides, the thought of the approaching marriage of Pierre Bathory and Sava Sandorf occupied everybody. And the colonists tried to persuade themselves that the evil days had passed and would not return.
Point Pescade and Cape Matifou of course shared in the general sense of security. They were so happy in the happiness of others that they lived in a state of perpetual enchantment with everything.
“I can hardly believe it!” repeated Point Pescade.
“What can you hardly believe?” asked Cape Matifou.
“That yon are to become a big, fat annuitant, my Cape! I must think of marrying you.”
“Marrying me?”
“Yes, to some nice little woman.”
“Why little?”
“That would be only just! A large, an enormous fine woman! Eh! Madame Cape Matifou, we should have to look for you among the Patagonians!”
But pending the marriage of Cape Matifou, which would end well if he could find a companion worthy of him, Point Pescade busied himself about the marriage of Pierre and Sava. With the doctor's permission, he was thinking of organizing a public festival, with foreign games, songs and dances, discharges of artillery, a grand banquet in the open-air, a serenade, and a torchlight procession and fire-works. That just suited him! He was in his element! It would be splendid! They would talk of it for long afterward! They would talk of it forever!
All this excitement was nipped in the bud.
During the night of the 3d and 4th of December—a calm night, but a very cloudy one—an electric-bell sounded in Dr. Antekirtt's room in the Stadthaus.
It was ten o'clock.
At the call, the doctor and Pierre left the saloon in which they had passed the evening with Mme. Bathory and Sava Sandorf. On entering the room they saw that the call was from the lookout on the central cone. Questions and answers immediately passed by means of the telephone.
The lookout signaled the approach of a flotilla to the south-west of the island, the vessels appearing very confusedly in the thick mist.
“We must summon the council,” said the doctor.
In less than ten minutes afterward the doctor, Pierre, Luigi, Captains Narsos and Kostrik, and the chiefs of the militia were at the Stadthaus, considering the information sent down from the cone. A quarter of an hour afterward they were down at the harbor, at the end of the main jetty, on which the bright light was burning.
From this point, which was very little above sea-level, it would be impossible to distinguish the flotilla that the lookouts on the central cone could clearly see. But in brightly illuminating the horizon, toward the south-west, it would doubtless be possible to make out the number of ships and their plan of attack.
Was it not unwise to thus disclose the position of the island? The doctor did not think so. If it was the enemy expected, that enemy was not coming as a blind man. He knew the position of Antekirtta, and nothing could keep him away from it.
The machinery was put in action, and with the aid of the two electric beams projected into the offing, the horizon was suddenly illuminated over a vast section.
The lookouts were not mistaken. Two hundred boats, at the least, were advancing in line, xebecs, polaccas, trabacolos, saccolevas, and others of less importance. There was no doubt that this was the flotilla of the Senousists, recruited by the pirates in every port along the coast. The wind failing, they had had recourse to their sweeps. The passage between Antekirtta and the Cyrenaic was not a long one. The calm might even help them, for it would allow of a landing taking place under favorable conditions.
At the moment the flotilla was about four or five miles off, in the south-west. It could not reach the coast before sunrise.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE BATTLE.[edit]
After the first reconnaissance the lights were extinguished. The only thing to do was to wait for day.
However, by the doctor's orders, the militia were mustered and sent to their stations.
It was necessary to be in a position to strike the first blow, on which, perhaps, the issue of the enterprise would depend.
It was now certain that the assailants could no longer hope to take the island by surprise, inasmuch as the projection of the light had allowed of their course and numbers being known.
A most careful watch was kept during the last hours of the night. Many times was the horizon illuminated so as to permit of the exact position of the flotilla being noted. That the as»sailants were numerous there could be no doubt. That they were sufficiently armed to have a chance against the Antekirtta batteries was doubtful. They were probably without artillery. But the number of men that the chief could land at once would make the Senousists really formidable.
Day at once began to break, and the first rays of the sun dissipated the mists on the horizon. Every eye was turned seaward toward the east and south. The flotilla was advancing in a long circle in which were over 200 vessels, some small boats and some of over forty tons. Altogether they could carry about 2000 men.
At five o'clock the flotilla was off Kencraf. Would the enemy stop there and take up their position before attacking the island? If they did so, it would indeed be fortunate. The mines laid by the doctor would seriously damage their attack, if they did not entirely settle it.
An anxious half hour elapsed. It seemed as though the vessels, as they reached the islet, were about to land—but they did nothing of the sort. Not one stopped, the line curved further off to the south, leaving it to the right and it became evident that Antekirtta would be directly attacked, or rather invaded, in an hour.
“The only thing now is to defend ourselves,” said the doctor to the chief of the militia.
The signal was given, and those in the island hastened into the town to take the posts that had been assigned them beforehand. By the doctor's orders Pierre Bathory took command of the fortifications to the south, Luigi of those to the east. The defenders—five hundred at the most—were posted so that they could face the enemy wherever he attempted to force the walls. The doctor held himself ready to go where his presence might be necessary. Mme. Bathory, Sava Sandorf, Maria Ferrato remained in the hall of the Stadthaus. The other women, should the town be carried, were ordered to take shelter with their children in the casemates where they would have nothing to fear even if the assailants possessed a few landing guns.
The question of Kencraf being settled—unfortunately to the doctor's disadvantage—there remained the question of the harbor. If the flotilla attempted to force an entry, the forts on the two jetties, with their cross-fires, the guns of the “Ferrato,” the torpedoes of the “Electrics,” and the torpedoes sunk in the channel would have something to say in the matter. It would, in short, be fortunate if the attack were made on that side.
But—as was only too evident—the chief of the Senousists was perfectly acquainted with Antekirtt's means of defense. To attempt a direct attack on the harbor would have been to run to complete and immediate annihilation. A landing in the southern part of the island, where the operation would be an easy one, was the plan he adopted. And so, baring passed by the harbor, as he had passed by Kencraf, he took his flotilla, still rowing, toward the weak point of Antekirtta.
As soon as he saw this the doctor took such measures as circumstances demanded. Captains Kostrik and Narsos each took command of a torpedo boat and slipped out of harbor.
A quarter of an hour afterward the two “Electrics” had rushed into the midst of the flotilla, broken the line, sunk five or six of the vessels, and stove in more than a dozen others. But the number of the enemy was so great that, to avoid being boarded, the “Electrics” had to retreat to the shelter of the jetties.
But the “Ferrato” had now come into position and begun firing on the flotilla. Her guns and those of the batteries that could be brought to bear were, however, insufficient to prevent the pirates landing. Although a great number had perished, although twenty of their vessels had been sunk, more than 1000 scrambled on to the rocks in the south, to which the calm sea rendered the approach so easy.
It was then found that the Senousists were not without artillery. The largest of the xebecs had several field-pieces on wheeled carriages, and these were landed on the shore, which was out of range of the guns either of the town or the central cone.
The doctor, from his position on the nearest salient, had seen all this, and with his much fewer men could not attempt to stop it. But as they were sheltered by the walls, the assailants, numerous as they were, would find their task a difficult one.
The Senousists, dragging their light guns with them, formed up into two columns, and came marching along with all the careless bravery of the Arab and the audacity of the fanatics, who glory in their contempt of death, their hope of pillage, and their hate of the European.
When they were well within range the batteries opened on them. More than 100 fell, but the others still kept on. Their field-pieces were bought into position, and they began to breach the wall in the angle of the unfinished curtain toward the south.
Their chief, calm amid those who were falling at his side, directed the operation. Sarcany, close by, was exciting him to deliver the assault and hurl several hundred men at the falling wall.
From the distance Dr. Antekirtt and Pierre had recognized him, and he had recognized them.
And now the mass of besiegers began their advance to the wall, which had been beaten in sufficiently to let them through. If they succeeded in clearing this breach, they would spread themselves over the town, and the besieged too weak to resist, would have to abandon it, and, with the sanguinary temperament of the pirates, the victory would be followed by a general massacre.
The hand-to-hand struggle at this point was terrible. Under the doctor's orders, who stood as impassable in the danger as he was invulnerable amid the bullets, Pierre and his companions performed prodigies of valor, Point Pescade and Cape Matifou lent their assistance and displayed the most brilliant audacity.
The Hercules, with a knife in one hand and an ax in the other, kept clear the space around him.
“Go it, Cape, go it! Down with them!” shouted Point Pescade, whose revolver, incessantly recharging and discharging, was going like a Gatling.
But the foe would not yield. After being many times driven out of the breach, they had again swarmed on to the attack and were slowly fighting their way through it They suddenly found themselves attacked in the rear.
The “Ferrato” had managed to get into a commanding position within three cable-lengths of the shore, and with her carronades all brought to the one side, her long chaser, her Hotchkiss cannons and her Gatling mitrailleuses she opened such a fire on the assailants that they were mowed down as the grass before the scythe. She attacked them in the rear and cannonaded them on the beach at the same time, so as to sink and destroy the boats which had been moored round the rocks.
The blow was a terrible one, and was quite unexpected by the Senousists. Not only were they taken in the rear, but all means of escape would be cut off if their vessels were knocked to pieces by the guns of the “Ferrato.” The assailants hesitated in the breach that the militia were defending so obstinately. Already more than 500 had met their deaths, while the besieged had lost but few.
The leader of the expedition saw that he must immediately retreat toward the sea, or expose his companions to certain and complete destruction. In vain Sarcany demanded that they might continue the attack on the town. The order was given to return to the shore; and the Senousists drew off as if they would be killed to the last man, were the orders given them to die.
But it was necessary to give these pirates a lesson they would never forget.
“Forward! my friends! forward!” shouted the doctor.
And, under the orders of Pierre and Luigi, a hundred of the militia threw themselves on to the fugitives as they retreated to the shore. Between the fire from the “Ferrato” and the fire from the batteries the Senousists had to give way. Their ranks broke in disorder and they ran in a crowd to the seven or eight vessels that still were left to them.
Pierre and Luigi amid the confusion endeavored above all things to take one man prisoner. That man was Sarcany. But they wished to have him alive, and it was only by a miracle that they escaped the revolver shots the scoundrel fired at them.
It seemed, however, that fate would again withdraw him from their hands.
Sarcany and the leader of the Senousists, followed by a dozen of their companions, had managed to regain a small polacca, which they had cast off and were preparing to get under way. The “Ferrato” was too far off for them to signal her to pursue, and it looked as though she would escape.
At the moment Cape Matifou saw a field-gun dismounted from its carriage and thrown on the beach.
To huri himself on the still loaded gun, to lift it, with superhuman force on to one of the rocks, to steady it by the trunnions, and in a voice of thunder to shout, “Come here, Pescade! Here!” was the work of a moment.
Pescade heard Matifou's shout and saw what he had done; instantly he understood, ran up, pointed the gun at the polacca, and fired.
The shot went clear through the hull. The recoil hardly shook the living gun-carriage. The leader of the Senousists and his companions were pitched into the water and for the most part drowned. Sarcany was struggling with the surf when Luigi threw himself into the sea.
A minute afterward Sarcany was safe in the huge hands of Cape Matifou.
The victory was complete. Of the two thousand assailants who had landed on the island only a few hundred escaped to the Cyrenaic to tell the story of the disaster.
Antekirtta would, it could be hoped, for many a year be free from another attack from pirates.