Chapter VII General Zorilla Falls Back
Written by Sub-Lieutenant William Wilson, R.N.
You may bet that I was glad to see Gerald, and to know that, although he still kept it in a sling, his arm was practically well again. I had a long yarn with him in that boat alongside, and told him my suspicions about the so-called hydraulic machinery we had brought across from Princes’ Town. He knew that two 4.7’s on field-carriages, four field-guns, and two pompoms, with plenty of ammunition, had been waiting there for weeks, so I pretty well guessed that they weren’t very far away now, and implored him to send lighters off for them as quickly as he could, before any one else gave the show away. He had to wait for the Provisional Government, but could not have wasted a moment after he did land, for hardly had the Skipper and the Fleet Surgeon gone ashore than lighters came hurrying off, and I had the job of hoisting all those packing-cases into them, my heart in my mouth all the time lest anything should happen. Careful! Why, I lowered them down as if they were new-laid eggs or valuable china.
‘What the Moses d’you mean by taking such a confounded time?’ the Commander bellowed, and stood by my side yelling down orders to hurry. Thank goodness, O’Leary was in charge of the working party, and wouldn’t be hurried for any one, although the Commander kept on shouting that he was a disgrace to his uniform, and that he’d disrate him to ordinary seaman.
Didn’t I feel relieved when the last little lot had shoved off from the ship and was on its way ashore, the Santa Cruz cruiser taking no notice whatever. She didn’t seem to suspect anything, got up her anchor, and steamed down towards El Castellan.
When we received that wireless message from the Hercules, nobody had the slightest idea that La Buena Presidente had actually been collared by the insurgents, so you can imagine how happy I felt when the Skipper came off and told me. He was as pleased as I was. ‘Fine chap, your brother! The Provisional Government isn’t in the running with him. He’s the boss.’
He told me, too, that Gerald wanted me to ride out to the front with him that very night, gave me forty-eight hours’ leave, and, fearfully excited, I dashed below. Bigge, Montague, Perkins, the Forlorn Hope and the Shadow, Dr. Clegg—nearly every one, in fact—came along to have a word with me, whilst I tumbled into riding breeches, flannel shirt, and jacket—they would all have given anything to be going too. The Angel and Bob filled my ’baccy’ pouch, and I stuffed some sandwiches into a haversack; the Angel lent me his panama hat, and then I jumped into the skiff, and was just shoving off when O’Leary came running down the ladder.
‘The petty officers, sir, are going to ask leave to-morrow, sir. I’m thinking that that ’ere ‘ydraulic machinery kind of wants a little putting together, sir.’
‘What the dickens d’you mean by delaying my skiff? Shove off in that boat or you can swim ashore,’ the Commander bellowed at me, from the top of the ladder, as a parting shot.
I was so happy that I can hardly describe how I felt when I did get ashore. It was just getting dark, and the last of those packing-cases was being carried away by a crowd of men still chanting, ‘Viva los Inglesas! Viva La Buena Presidente!’ and the little messenger who had brought Gerald’s letter to Princes’ Town was waiting for me, with a broad smile on his face. He was dressed very smartly as a groom, with a clean white shirt and clean white duck riding breeches. He had one of Gerald’s old polo helmets on his head and a brilliant red sash twisted round his waist, but his feet and legs below the breeches were bare. He looked very proud of his finery, and guided me quickly to the Club, along dark narrow streets, and across the square, where hundreds of natives were lighting camp fires.
Gerald was there.
‘Come along, the horses will be round in a minute. You will do all right,’ he said, glancing at my rig-out. He introduced me to several Englishmen; they all shook hands; we toasted La Buena Presidente and Captain Pelayo, the Hector, ‘Old Tin Eye,’ and the King. My head was in a whirl; horses came round; I sprang on one, half-a-dozen chaps were round me making my stirrup-leathers comfortable; Gerald was helped into his saddle (his right arm was still in a sling); some one sang out from the dark Club verandah, ‘Three cheers for the two Wilsons,’ and off we cantered, the little groom, with his red sash, on ahead, and half-a-dozen natives clattering behind us on more horses.
My horse was one of Gerald’s own—Jim—a grand little stallion with a mouth as soft as anything, and he arched his neck, snorted, and danced about like a kitten. ‘I wish you’d given me an English saddle,’ I told Gerald presently, for this one was a huge native thing with a back to it and a big raised pommel in front. It was impossible to fall out of it, except sideways, and you could not do that very easily, because the stirrups were such a queer shape that your feet couldn’t slip out of them. But every other second either the back or the front part thumped against me.
‘Lean well back, Billums, you’ll find it all right then—you’ll be glad of it soon—we’ve got a twenty-mile ride in front of us.’
I did get used to it in time.
It was absolutely dark now; Jim had stopped cantering and had fallen into an amble; we got into some lanes under trees, and fireflies were darting from side to side ahead of us. It was simply grand, and I jolly well wished old Ginger was there with us; he would have enjoyed it immensely. I was so annoyed, and despised myself so much for having quarrelled with him, that it really made me miserable every time I thought of him. At the top of a ridge we stopped, Gerald wanted to speak to some native soldiers who silently stole past us in the darkness, and got me to fill his pipe for him. Off we went again, the soldiers cheering my brother and the big ship which was coming to knock the Santa Cruz Navy out of time; down a hill we clattered, splashed through a ford, trotted uphill, and then suddenly plunged into absolute darkness.
‘We’re in the forest, Billums,’ Gerald sang out; ‘old Zorilla’s in the middle of it. You’ll hear bullets before the sunrise.’
I didn’t feel quite so enthusiastic about bullets just then—it was too gloomy under those trees—and it was lucky that the horses could see where they were going, for we ourselves could not.
We kept on meeting long strings of pack mules on their way back from the front, and some of them were carrying wounded men. It was jolly disconcerting at first, because they came upon you so suddenly, and made so little noise—the men being barefooted and the mules unshod. On ahead we’d hear our little messenger-groom sing out something, and then we’d come right on the long string of dark shadows, the mules breathing heavily under their creaking packs as they shuffled past.
Gerald told me they were clearing the country of food, and were taking it all into San Fernando.
‘How did you learn all this war business?’ I asked him, after he had told me his plans.
‘Common sense, Billums, common sense!’
There was no need for me to ask him why he’d left his rubber plantation.
‘Getting enough excitement?’ I asked.
‘Not yet,’ he said, stopping for me to fill his pipe again.
‘Do you know,’ he said presently, ‘that, nearly three hundred years ago, twenty-two Spanish cavaliers rode along this road, as we are riding to-night, to capture Santa Cruz city. San Fernando was a fortified Spanish settlement then, and a native ruled in Santa Cruz. He’d collared the Governor’s daughter; she’d been shipwrecked somewhere up the coast whilst on her way to Spain, and the twenty-two in their armour—fancy armour in this climate—riding their big Spanish horses, with a couple of hundred native bowmen in their quilted cotton armour3 to help them, actually sacked the town. They stopped there, too, and built the fort of San Sebastian.’
‘Did they rescue the girl?’
‘Yes,’ Gerald told me. He was full of such stories—the good news about La Buena Presidente had made him quite talkative—and you can imagine how the glamour of the past chivalry excited me. I almost imagined to myself that I was in armour, and should presently have to put lance in rest and charge through crowded ranks of archers and swordsmen.
At about nine o’clock that night we crossed a small stream, and stopped at a Posada, or wayside inn—very cheerful it looked under the trees, with a blazing log-fire gleaming through the open windows. People came hurrying out to take our horses, and Gerald and I had a grand feed. They cooked a ripping omelette, and their home-made bread was grand.
‘Feeling better now?’ Gerald asked me, as I stretched myself and asked for another omelette.
Before we had finished, a lot of officers rode up and came in—all very courteous—and I looked at them curiously; for they had just come back from the firing line, and their white cotton or blue-striped uniforms were covered with mud. When they first came into the room they all stared at the two of us, not quite knowing, for a moment, which was which. One of them, who particularly attracted me, was very short and fat with bandy legs. He had a broad-brimmed, soft felt hat on his head, the front turned up, his face and neck almost hidden by great bushy black whiskers, and he was so stout that his sword-belt wouldn’t meet, and was fastened with cord. He had jolly, twinkling eyes, as black as night, and in the flickering shadows of the wood-fire looked like a gnome or goblin under that huge hat. He was very proudly handing round a large revolver for every one to look at, showing grand white teeth as he smiled, and shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands. Gerald handed it to me: ‘He captured a cavalry officer this morning, and bagged this.’
The little ‘Gnome’ drew his stool across and explained its action. It was a Webley-Foster automatic revolver, and as I had not seen one before, I was jolly interested. I liked the little chap very much, and could just imagine him tackling one of those beautifully dressed dandies of cavalry officers we had seen at Santa Cruz.
These officers had come to tell Gerald how everything was progressing at the front, and they seemed to be holding a council of war, or rather listening to what Gerald had to tell them; for my brother was laying down the law pretty considerably.
At last everything was satisfactorily settled, there was more bowing, and most of them rode off again into the forest.
‘Everything going on all right,’ Gerald told me. ‘Come along; hope you aren’t getting stiff.’
We left the cheerful fire; the innkeeper refused any money; my brother sang out, ‘José! José!’; the little groom with the red sash brought our horses round, and, with the ‘Gnome’ and three or four other officers, we were just going to mount when a dozen little machetos came up, leading some men. As they got into the light I saw that these were regular troops, and had yellow and green rosettes on their hats, tall, gaunt, hungry-looking chaps they were, and very much relieved when they saw my brother. He spoke to them and the excited little chaps guarding them, and then off we started.
‘Deserters,’ he told me. ‘They all have the same tale; not enough food.’
Although ‘deserter’ has a horrid sound to it, I felt sorry for them, they looked so miserable, and meeting them seemed to make Zorilla’s army, of which I had heard so much, much more real. I watched them being taken away to San Fernando, till they were lost in the darkness.
A full moon had risen whilst we were having our meal, and where the trees did not meet across the road there were patches of very comforting light. However, the moonlight on the road made the forest on either side of us look blacker and more forbidding than ever, and when two of the officers turned into it, by a path their horses seemed to know, I felt jolly glad I wasn’t going with them.
‘We had a bit of a scrap this afternoon, Billums,’ Gerald told me, ‘and lost a few people. Old Zorilla fought his way along to another clearing, but we captured some more of his cavalry, and he’s left a field-gun behind him. The horses and rifles will be very useful to us.’
‘How far off is he now?’ I asked excitedly.
‘About eight miles: Zorilla has halted for the night and our people are all round him again. He can’t move till daylight. He has only advanced four miles since yesterday; his men are so played out, and his horses too. I can’t understand him. It seems absolute folly to do what he is trying to do, especially as his chaps are deserting.’
My supper had made me rather sleepy, but presently, a long way in front of us, I heard the report of a rifle, and sat up so quickly that I bumped my back against that wretched saddle.
‘That was a rifle! That’s the first I’ve heard fired in war,’ I cried out, and I felt fearfully excited, wondering where the bullet had gone. You bet that my ears were tingling to hear more, but none came for some time, only the crackling and rustling of dead branches snapping in the darkness on either side of us. Then three or four went off, still a long way ahead, and as each one cracked I could not help thinking: ‘I wonder what that hit.’
Without meaning to do so, I dug my heels into Jim’s ribs and made him go faster, but my brother sang out, ‘No hurry, Billums,’ and I pulled him back. I believe the little stallion was getting as excited as I was.
Away to the left there were some more shots, and then suddenly, right in our faces, a red glare shone through the trees, coming and going so quickly that I’d only time to say ‘Oh!’ before it had disappeared, and almost immediately afterwards there was another brighter glare and a tearing bursting noise. It didn’t seem a hundred yards ahead of us, and the little stallion, Jim, began jumping about.
‘What was that?’ I sang out, though I knew perfectly well that it was a shell, but couldn’t help singing out, my nerves were so jumpy. A scraggy spluttering volley came back from the trees, and then all was still again.
‘Zorilla is firing a field-gun down the road,’ my brother said; ‘I wonder what good he thinks he is doing.’
I heard a crash and a noise of breaking branches. ‘What’s that, Gerald?’
‘My chaps are cutting down trees to haul across the road,’ he answered; ‘making a barricade.’
That glare—more distinct now, and right in front of us—showed up again, and a shell came tearing and crashing through the trees on one side of us, and we heard a soft ‘plump’ as it buried itself in the ground without bursting. There was the crash of another volley, and then nothing but darkness and silence.
‘Our chaps see them when they fire that gun, and let “rip” with their rifles,’ Gerald told me. His coolness irritated me, for my nerves were tingling all over with excitement and the funny feeling inside me of being under fire for the first time. I rather wondered whether Ginger would have felt as—well—nervous if he had been here. I’d never known him frightened at anything. A little further along a couple of wagons slowed up in a patch of moonlight at the side of the road, some ragged little natives hovering round them. Gerald stopped a moment to speak to a white-faced officer, and on we went again. ‘That’s our only doctor, Billums; we keep him pretty busy.’ If that was the doctor I knew that we must be close to the firing line, and my heart began thumping very rapidly. We could only go very slowly now, because the road was blocked with wagons and mules jumbled together.
‘Jump off, Billums; keep close to me!’ Gerald sang out cheerily.
I was jolly glad to be on my feet again, and followed him, José taking the horses. On each side of us I heard axes chipping, a tree fell with a crash quite close to me, and then we got up to the barricade which they were building across the road. Men were swarming here, some dragging more trees out of the forest, others cutting off small branches with their machetes.
‘The field-gun is right ahead,’ my brother said; ‘they’ll be firing again in a minute or two.’ He’d hardly spoken before I saw the glare of it, heard the dull bang, and a shell burst overhead. It lighted us for a second; I saw hundreds of the little brown chaps in their white shirts scurrying about among the trees, and then a regular hail of shrapnel bullets spattered on the road and against the tree-trunks, more rifles went off, and bullets sang past. Behind me a mule screamed, fell on the ground with a thud, and began kicking. I felt myself wriggling up against the barricade for shelter, but Gerald sang out for me, and I followed him round it to the road, in between it and the gun. I didn’t like being there, in the open, a little bit.
‘Must do it, Billums—we’re the only Englishmen here—must go to the outpost lines—they’re a hundred yards ahead of us—come on,’ and he began striding along the road, very conspicuous in his white clothes, and, as far as I knew, walking straight towards that field-gun.
I found myself trying to walk behind him, but pulled myself together and walked by his side. ‘We’re at the edge of the clearing now,’ he said; ‘bear off to the right,’ and you may guess how glad I was to step off the road. We wormed our way in among the trees, and Gerald had just whispered, ‘We’re right in the skirmishing line,’ when a rifle went off not two yards from me, and I jumped almost out of my skin. Rifle firing burst out to right and left—I could see the little spurts of flame among the trees—and then a very short way in front and below hundreds of rifles went off and bullets flew past, branches and leaves falling down behind me.
Gerald pulled me round some thick undergrowth and whispered, ‘Look down there.’ I peered through and could see nothing at first, but our people fired again, and immediately I saw hundreds of little spurts of fire—a whole line of them. Then that field-gun fired—the flash seemed almost in my face—and for a second I saw the glitter of the gun itself and the dark figures of the men fighting it.
‘The whole of Zorilla’s army is there,’ Gerald was saying, when we heard cheering running far into the woods on each side, down below, and then sweeping far away—it seemed to be running round a huge circle. I could hear ‘Viva La Buena Presidente! Viva La Buena Presidente!’
‘They’ve heard the good news; old Zorilla will pretty well guess what it means. Like a shot, Billums?’ and Gerald sang out to the native crouched down beside us. He gave me his rifle with a soft cooing ‘Buenos, Señor!’ and I leant it against a branch and tried to see something to shoot at, my fingers trembling with excitement. ‘Wait till you see the flashes of their next volley, and try and get your sights on,’ Gerald said, and I knew that he was smiling. I didn’t wait, I thought I saw something, and fired, the recoil bumping my shoulder because I hadn’t held the rifle closely enough. It seemed to start every one else firing, and the regulars began firing volleys; you could see the ring of rifle spurts below us, thousands of them, and bullets were flying overhead, pit-patting against the trees, and cutting off branches and leaves.
‘“Any one assisting the aforesaid Gerald Wilson will be——“' Gerald chuckled.
‘Shut up, you ass,’ I sang out. The native gave me another cartridge, and, the field-gun blazing again, I just had time to get my sights more or less ‘on’ and fire, which started all our chaps easing off too.
‘Can’t afford to keep you in the firing line,’ Gerald chuckled, and took me back. ‘You’ve made my people waste about two hundred rounds, and I can’t afford to waste one. Listen to Zorilla’s chaps. You’d imagine they had millions to blaze away.
‘Something’s wrong, Billums; I can’t make it out. He usually keeps quite quiet, he’s too clever at this game to throw away a single round. You’d imagine from that field-gun firing down the road, and from all those volleys he’s firing, that he means to advance this way.’
He was talking as coolly as a cucumber; I was sweating with excitement. ‘There’s a mule track through the forest from here to El Castellar, and I believe he means to break away there. That’s why I came out to-night—to make sure which way he’s going. We’ll know soon.’ We got back behind the barricade, and several hundred of the little brown, whited-coated men began gathering there, gliding noiselessly out from the trees. The moon was hidden now, and it was pitch dark, so that I couldn’t see them, except for a moment when the field-gun fired, but only hear them murmuring to each other all round me.
To know that there were four thousand regulars standing by to attack us, in the dark, was anything but comforting, and the bullets whipping past were not any too comforting either. All this while Gerald had been talking to some officers, the ‘Gnome’ among them, but now they went away, and he came to me.
‘This excitement enough?’
‘I should think it was,’ I told him—rather too much if I had told him the truth. I supposed I should get used to it, but suddenly to find myself in the middle of a fight, in a forest, in the dark, was just a little bit too trying, especially when not a soul, except Gerald, could understand a word I said.
Just then I heard a lot of firing much farther away on our front, and some messengers came dashing up, singing out, ‘Yuesencia!4 Don Geraldio!’
‘It’s just as I thought, Billums; that firing at us was all a bluff. Zorilla has broken through our chaps on the right and is marching along the track to El Castellan.’
Somebody brought a lantern, and he began scribbling orders, tearing the pages out of a note book and handing them to messengers, who ran off. He was doing it quite calmly, and was actually smiling. Some officers sitting on the ground, with their swords over their knees, looked absolutely played out, but they roused themselves when Gerald spoke to them, got on their feet, and took their natives into the forest again.
‘If these messengers do their work in time,’ he said, ‘Zorilla will never get through to El Castellan. I’ve turned on the machetos. We’ll go round there and see how things are going.’
I shuddered to think of these little chaps, with their awful-looking machetes, gliding among the trees all round them.
He had just sent for our horses, when another bare-footed messenger came panting into the light and was led up to him.
Something glittered in his hand; he held it out to Gerald, and what do you think it was? My cigarette case!
‘It’s mine,’ I sang out; ‘I changed cases with Navarro, Zorilla’s fat little A.D.C., when he was decent to me in San Sebastian.’
‘Well, he’s a prisoner now and badly wounded,’ Gerald said, after he’d spoken to the man. ‘He’s sent it to me hoping I shall recognise it and do something for him. He was in command of a foraging party we cut off this morning, and is lying with the rest of the wounded in some hut about two miles away—so this man says.’
Well, it was up to me to do something for him, and I told Gerald so.
‘Right you are,’ Gerald nodded. ‘This chap will show you the way. You’ll be as safe as a house with your yellow head of hair. Do what you like. He’s badly wounded, I fancy. Get back here by daylight, and if you don’t find me, make your way into San Fernando.’
I looked at my watch by the lantern light. It was ten minutes to one, and there would be another two hours and a half before daylight.
In five minutes I was on my horse, the man who’d brought my cigarette case was leading him, and we had plunged into the forest to the left of the road, Gerald going away to the right, after Zorilla. How the little chap found his way I don’t know, but he did somehow or other, cutting through the brushwood with his machete, and jabbering to me in Spanish all the time.
The bush and the fallen trees were so treacherous that, after Jim had stumbled badly once or twice, and was trembling with fright, I got off and helped to lead him too, and wished I’d left him behind.
Now I had a job of my own to do, I didn’t mind the beastly darkness, and gradually gave up jumping with funk whenever some natives glided past, speaking softly to my little chap, and then hurrying away to the right. I’d hear, ‘Yuesencia!’ ‘Hermano!’ ‘Don Geraldio!’ and they’d disappear.
The field-gun had stopped firing, but rifle firing was continuous, and seemed to be travelling away towards El Castellan.
Once we met quite a large party, with an officer, all hurrying after Zorilla, and he would not let us pass till he’d struck a match and seen my face. That was enough for him, and he passed on, full of apologies.
This made me think, more than ever, what a ‘boss’ old Gerald was, and what a ‘boss’ I was, too, simply because I had the same coloured hair.
Somehow or other, after barking my shins and elbows a dozen times, we got to a small clearing, where there was a kind of a hut and a jolly welcome light burning in it.
Some one shouted, ‘Quien Vive!’ my guide answered, ‘Paisano! La Buena Presidente!’ and a score of natives thronged round us, bowing, taking my horse, and saying, ‘Buenas,’5 Yuesencia!’ I went into the hut, and found about fifteen men lying on the ground or propped up against the wall—cavalry men all of them—and I spotted my little friend, although he’d grown a scraggy beard.
He was as white as a sheet, and seemed rather ‘off his head.’ ‘El Medico,’ he sang out, as I went in—all of them sang out, ‘El Medico,’ holding out their hands to make me notice them.
‘William Wilson,’ I said, and held out the cigarette case he’d sent me, but he only looked at it vacantly, muttered, ‘El Medico!’ again, and his chin dropped on his chest I thought he was dying, and was in a terrible stew. I couldn’t see any wound about him, and felt his arms; they were all right, and I felt his legs. Ugh! then I knew, for half-way above his left knee the bone was sticking through a rent in his breeches and they were sticky with blood. He groaned when I touched it, muttering, ‘El Medico’—‘San Fernando!’ ‘Ag-ua! Agua!’
One of the machetos brought him some water.
I scratched my head, I didn’t know what to do, and he went on rambling, ‘Zorilla,’ ‘El Castellar,’ ‘William Wilson,’ ‘Don Geraldio’—‘El Medico’—‘San Fernando.’
‘All right, old chap, I’ll get you to San Fernando if I can,’ I said to myself.
Well, I knew enough about ‘first aid’ to lash the two legs firmly together, and somehow managed to make the natives understand that I wanted a stretcher. They made a rough litter out of branches in next to no time. I found a blanket tied to the saddle of a dead horse outside the hut, and covered the litter with it, and then I told off four of the most sturdy of the machete men to carry him. They obeyed me like lambs.
I hated to have to leave these other wounded men there—they cried piteously when they saw me going—but there were not enough natives to carry them, so I could not help it. I would try and get Gerald to send for them.
Phew! it was bad enough for me, but poor little Navarro, in his stretcher, had a most awful time as we stumbled back through the forest—he was shrieking with agony,—and when we struck the old Spanish road again, after a most fearful time struggling among trees and brushwood, he was quite delirious. You can imagine how thankful I was to feel it under my feet, and, leaving him on his litter by the roadside, and tying my horse to a tree, I tramped down towards the barricade.
It was just getting light enough for me to see some empty deserted wagons standing at the roadside and the fallen tree-trunks dragged across it, but there was not a single living man there, only one or two dead men hanging across the barricade, with their machetes still in their hands.
I had not heard the field-gun firing for at least an hour, the rifle firing had died away almost as long ago, and it was quite plain that every one had followed Zorilla towards El Castellar.
I climbed round the barricade and walked rather nervously down towards where the field-gun had been, and stopped because the weirdest sounds were coming up from below.
Notes
3 In those days the natives wore thick quilted coats, stuffed with cotton fibre, as a defence against sword-cuts.
4 ‘Yuesencia’ is a contraction for ‘excellencia.’
5 Short for ‘buenas noches!’ = good-evening.