NIGHT RIDERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3185, 8 September 1917, Page 8

NIGHT RIDERS

MOUNTED TROOPS AT WORK

CUTTING OFF A CONVOY

(By Will Lawson.)

It was a grey night, with- the moon making a patch of dim light in. a sky of sullen clouds. The < landscape lay indistinct and silent, with the hills behind Featherston looming black; and the clouds seemed to thin a little above the distant lake. Even an airman would have noticed very little movement on the loads and paddocks between these points, or away towards Grey town. Yet there .was movement there, very active niove- ' went, in places. A motor-car, swinging along a quiet road, suddenly encountered some of ittwo mounted :iien galloping. 1 hey swerved on to the grassy roadside to .pass the car. In the headlamps glare, .there was a glitter of stirrups and spurs and bit-bars, the white of a. horses eye. Then the thudding hoofs had passed and crowing fainter in tho distance. "They were foldiers, weren't they? ft .■girl's .voice asked. ~, ' ■' ' I "Yes, Mounteds, on night manoeuvres. That was a patrol or part of one, the • driver replied. "Looks as though they had found the enemy, .too, by the way 'they're riding." .. ■ He was right. It was half, a, patrol, and they had found the enemy, .the other half had stayed to keep him , under observation while these two had rode l>ack with the news, and the squad-■-'ions'that lad-been waiting for tins news -would presently pass at a hand-gallop in the wake of the flying car. The game began in the afternoon when ail A.S.C. wagon, with a squadron of ■" Mtu'nted Eifles as escort, left the main Featherston Camp and moved out to- ' wards Greytown. Several miles out from ■camp the convoy halted, and when it 'was dark the conyoy began the return journey to the camp. The 0.0. knew that throe or more squadrons of Mounteds were going \o do their best to intercept his return, so he went by round- - about wavs and with patrols thrown out jn front and on both flanks. From the hills to the lake, over a line about six j n-iles long, the line of tha home' lorces !■ extended." But there are many roads in. that distance, and the convoy had a. good sporting chance of getting through. That long line of watchfulness followed, more or less closely, the line of the "Tauherenikau River, and(it v;as divided 'into three sections with a squadron providing the patrol for each. Ino military dispositions were made in regulation filed service fashion, lor- the civilian it-is sufficient to know that directly ■a patrol located the approaching convoy the forces could be concentrated-lipon that point with rapidity and effective-.- ' ness. It was important, however, for tho patrols to be -ure that the appearance of enemy forces wns not a feint, to draw : off-a squadron, while the wagon ahpped tliroush by another way. Certainty, too, ■was necessary, that it nas not nn affair. of outposts, the sudden meeting of opposing patrols, the firing of blank and an excited trooper riding to headquarters ■ with newe of a strong enemy force. The two riders/who swerved to pass the motor-car had" really found the main convoy. Far down the Kohautara Roa<l ■there had been some ringing, rifle shots, for blank makes more noise than live . cartridge. This patrol, that listened in. the shadow of tall piues to the exchange of: shots, was a very wise and wary patrol—and fortune was favouring them, too. For in tho lull of the firing bc- ' tween the patrols that had clashed there came a faint, indeterminate sound, a sound o£ distant movement on the crossroad that joined the mam road where : the tall pines stood. The patrol leader ' moved his men round the corner made by the pine, and himself rode in the shadow, a little way/ along the side road. He heard horse-hoofs approach- " inr—an 'enemy patrol. ■ But'he heard more;' from 'behind the. approaching niatrol came , the muffled sound or- w_heele. That was enough. But this patrol leader ■was not "panicky," and he wanted to be quite sure that it was no farmers wagon •-■■■' that had misled him. So ho rode a little . nearer-and listened again., His ears ■were keen. . . . It was an army wagon. He-knew this because there was more • rattle.of chains than/on a farmers cart.. '■'- -Very quietly, his horses.hoofs deadened by the pine needles, he rode back to his petrol. There were some whispered words. Two. troopers paced away on the grass. Half a- mile away they urged their horses to a hand-gallop, a mile •-■ away they were riding hard, with the .news of the .night, the.greatest news , that mounted men can' ever .carry—thai the enemy had been found in force. And ■while they rode the patrol leader and ' the fourth man were giving way before the approaching convoy, keeping out or eijsht and keeping the enemy m view. • Round the corner the column • came, feeling fairly safe in. the belief that the feint made down the Kahautara Koad '■ lad drawn the neighbouring patrols .off. 1 Scattered shots still oame from that dirsction. Cleverly the two troopers cave-way and kept touch, milo alter inile, till,.like a, whisper, of wind under grev-skies, they heard the sound they were-listening-for—no man could have beard it if he had not been expecting it-the sound of a squadron galloping .on the grass. . , . Nearer it came; ■occasionally a hoof rang on macadam, but the sound, for the greater part, was a. deep, dull roll, - like a.train a'long way.off, or thunder -below:, the Horizon,. ; And, it grew.; ami - erew TMiUwas never -very loud till the '■■ squadron- rounded > bend and came into .-.- vW,K3naking'-;a3li«vier..'6hadow in the ■ -the patrol rode'to meet them. ' The enemy saw them, too. .There was '''rapid movement of ' horses, . ..•lieinouiit- ' ins of-men, and seeking of cover. ine ' home forces had the advantage of'posi-. ; tion There was a cutting on-one-side i of the road. It gave them a commanding . field of fire, and trio convoy was m that fie C d rack! crack! crackle-r-r-! the rides - spoke. Horses moved nervously, yet ' they were too well trained to plunge .Sdance. -They felt the exctement ot , the encounter as much as the men did. •-'-.. In the midst of the engagement another squadron thundered up. and another. AneUthe wagons didnt get through, not on that night.