On the Road to Bagdad: A Story of Townshend's Gallant Advance on the Tigris

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Brereton Frederick Sadleir. On the Road to Bagdad: A Story of Townshend's Gallant Advance on the Tigris

CHAPTER I. A Frontier Station

CHAPTER II. Geoffrey Keith and Another

CHAPTER III. The Persian Gulf

CHAPTER IV. The First Encounter

CHAPTER V. News of the Enemy

CHAPTER VI. An Exploring-party

CHAPTER VII. Major Joseph Douglas

CHAPTER VIII. The Motor-boat in Action

CHAPTER IX. A Cutting-out Expedition

CHAPTER X. Geoff and Philip manœuvre

CHAPTER XI. A Soldiers' Battle

CHAPTER XII. Esbul, the Armenian

CHAPTER XIII. An Amphibious Expedition

CHAPTER XIV. Captured by the Enemy

CHAPTER XV. Von Hildemaller's Intervention

CHAPTER XVI. Breaking Out

CHAPTER XVII. The Road to Bagdad

CHAPTER XVIII. News of Douglas Pasha

CHAPTER XIX. Tracking the German

CHAPTER XX. Success at Last

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What a thing it is to be young and enthusiastic! The very news which, cabled far and wide, set the world almost trembling; which gave information of vast armies hurriedly mobilizing and rushing to meet one another in deadly combat; and which saw families divided, husbands and fathers and brothers torn from those they cared for, found Geoffrey Keith in the very highest of spirits.

Not, let us explain, that this young man did not, and could not, realize the gravity of the position – of the terrible conflict which, at that moment, was bursting forth in Europe. He was not such a dunce that he had not learned of the might of Germany, of the military spirit which, for forty years or more, had swept from end to end of that country, and of the dark Hohenzollern cloud which had hung over the fair lands of Europe for many years past. Nor had the gossip of brother officers in clubs and in messes failed to reach his ears. He knew well enough that the outbreak of war between Germany and Austria, and France and Russia, meant terrible fighting. He knew, better still, that if Great Britain came into the struggle that fighting would become even more strenuous still; for was not that the character of all Britons – slow to take up a quarrel, patient and forbearing, they had yet proved themselves in many a tussle to be stern and stanch fighters. They had shown indeed that pluck, that grit and determination, which long years since has won for our nation a wonderful reputation. Bulldogs we are known as, and bulldogs the British were to prove themselves in the course of this tremendous upheaval.

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Already Russia had brought a portion of Persia under her sway, while Great Britain had secured the other portion. No doubt, too, Russia had her eyes on the northern portion of Turkey in Asia, while Britain was not entirely ignorant of the riches lying undeveloped in Mesopotamia. What had once been, according to legend, the Garden of Eden, and, since the Turk had come upon the scene, had been utterly neglected, and had woefully depreciated till it had become hardly better than a barren desert, was capable of being coaxed back into its old condition. Riches, now hidden, might be won from the country by Western energy and resource, while the country, once firmly occupied by Germany or by any other nation, would open a way to the subjection of Persia and to an approach upon India by way of Afghanistan.

Let us say at once that Turkey had no adequate reason for joining in this vast struggle against Great Britain and her allies; but she was cajoled into that action. Perhaps her leaders were heavily bribed by the Germans, who themselves had reason enough in all conscience. The coming of Turkey into the conflict would of itself detain large forces both of Russia and of Great Britain; and then again, supposing France and Britain and Russia to have been defeated in Europe, Germany would have a clear field in the "middle East", with a prospect one day of even approaching India, and so of coming nearer to the consummation of that vastly ambitious scheme the Kaiser had set before him, of becoming the Ruler of the World.

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