第二部 第五章　第二次冒險

PART TWO Chapter Five Second Adventure

The next time we were taken to the front was after the Rasseldar recovered from his slight wounds. On this occasion he took both Hira and me. I knew at once that the message we were to carry was so important that two had to be trusted with it so that at least one might succeed. It was very cold. I felt as if I were living in a kingdom of ice. It rained all the time. The ground was so foul that every time you stepped on it your feet got caught in mud like quicksand, and your feet felt so cold, as if you had stepped on a corpse.

Now we reached a strange place. It was not a trench, but a small village. Around it beat and burst the tides of burning destruction. It was, by the look on the men's faces, a very sacred and important place, for they did not want to give it up, though the red tongues of death licked almost every roof, wall and tree of this place. I was very glad to be in an open space. One could see the grey sky low, oh, so very low. And one could see the frost-whited patches of ground where no shell had yet fallen. Even there, in that very heart of pounding and shooting, where houses fell as birds' nests in tempests, rats ran from hole to hole, mice stole cheese, and spiders spun webs to catch flies. They went on with the business of their lives as if the slaughtering of men by their brothers were as negligible as the clouds that covered the sky. After a while the booming stopped. And it looked as if the village—that is, what was left of it—were safe from attack. It grew darker and darker. The sky lowered so far that I could put my beak into it. The dank cold seized every feather of my body and began to pull it out, as it were. I found it utterly impossible to sit still in our cage. Hira and I hugged each other tight in order to keep warm.

Again firing broke out. This time from every direction. Our little village was an island surrounded by the enemy. Apparently under cover of the fog that had enwrapped everything, the enemy had cut off our connection from the rear. Then they started shooting the sky-rockets. It was dark and clammy like a Himalayan night, though it was hardly past noon. I wondered how men knew it was anything but night. Men, after all, know less than birds. Hira and I were released to carry our respective messages. We flew up, but not very far, for in a short time we were devoured by a thick fog. Our eyes could see nothing. A cold clammy film pressed itself on them, but I had anticipated something like this. I did what I would do under such circumstances, whether on a field of battle or in India. I flew upwards. It seemed as if I could go no farther than a foot at a time. My wings were wet. My breathing was caught in a long process of sneezing. I thought I should drop dead in an instant. Thank the Gods of the pigeons I could see for a few yards now! So I flew higher. Now my eyes began to smart. Suddenly I realized I must draw down my film—my second eyelids that I use in flying through a dust-storm—if I were to save myself from blindness, for we were not in a fog—it was an evil-smelling, eye-destroying smoke let out by men. My eyes pained as if somebody had stuck pins into them. My films now covered my eyes, and, holding my breath, I struggled upwards. Hira, who was accompanying me, rose too. He was choking to death with that gas. But he was not going to give up his flight. At last we rose clear of the sheet of poison smoke. The air was pure here, and as I removed the film from my eyes I saw, far away against the grey sky, our line. We flew towards it.

Hardly had we flown half-way homeward when a terrible eagle with black crosses all over it flew nearer and spat fire at us—puck puff, puck puff, pop pa.…We ducked and did the best we could. We flew back to its rear. There the machine could not hit us. Imagine us flying over the tail of that machine-eagle. It could do nothing. It began to circle. So did we. It turned somersaults. So did we. It could do nothing without wriggling its tail; unlike that of a real eagle, its tail was as stiff as a dead fish. We knew that if we once came in front of it again, we would be killed instantaneously. Time was passing. I realized that we could not go on staying over the tail of that machine-eagle forever. The village covered with poison gas that we had left behind held the Rasseldar and our friends. We must get our message through for their safety and succour.

Just then the machine-eagle played a trick. It flew back towards its home. We did not wish to go into the enemy's line flying over its tail in order to be sniped by sharpshooters. Now that we were half-way to our own home and in sight of our line, we gave up being careful; we turned away from the machine-eagle and flew at our highest speed, rising higher every few wing-beats. No sooner had we done that than the miserable beast turned and followed. Fortunately, it took him a little time. There was no doubt now that we were flying over our own lines. Just the same that plane rose to our level and kept on pouring fire on us—puff puff pop pa! Now we were forced to duck and dive. I made Hira fly under me. That protected him. So we flew, but fate is fate. From nowhere came an eagle and fired at the enemy. We felt so safe now that Hira and I flew abreast of each other. Just then a bullet buzzed by me and broke his wings. Poor wounded Hira! He circled and fell through the air like a silver leaf, fortunately in our line. Seeing that he was dead, I flew at lightning speed; never turning back to see the duel of the two eagles. When I got home I was taken to the Commander-in-Chief. He patted my back. Then, for the first time, I realized what an important message I had brought, for as soon as the old man had read the piece of paper he touched some queer ticking things, and he lifted a piece of horn and growled into it. Now Ghond took me to my nest. There, as I perched, thinking of Hira, I felt the very earth shake under me. Machine-eagles flew in the air as thick as locusts. They howled, whirred and barked. Below, from the ground, boomed and groaned innumerable metal dogs. Then came the deep-toned howl of the big spitfires like a whole forest of tigers gone mad. Ghond patted my head and said, 'You have saved the day.' But there was no day in sight. It was a darkening grey sky under which death coiled and screamed like a dragon, and crushed all in its grip. How bad it was you may gauge from this: when I flew near our base for exercise next morning I found that hardly a mile from my nest the ground was ploughed up by shells. And even rats and field-mice did not manage to escape: dozens of them had been slaughtered and cut to pieces. Oh! It was terrible. I felt so melancholy. Now that Hira was dead I was alone, and so weary!"