Chapter Twenty One.

Chapter Twenty One.A Pause.The moment the court could be crossed, a rush was made for the hospital, where the fight was still going on; but the mingled company of excited men were checked twice over by wounded and shamming Ghazis springing up to foot or knee to deliver one final blow at their hated Christian conquerors, and several of the soldiers were badly wounded by the deadly razor-edged tulwars before the wielder was borne to the earth by bayonets, struggling fiercely still, though riddled with wounds.Then the entrance to the hospital was reached, and the wild cheer of a dozen men sent a reviving thrill of hope through the fast-falling defenders, and they held theirchevaux-de-friseof bayonets once more now, though with trembling, unnerved hands.A minute before it seemed to them that their last blow had been struck, and that there was nothing else to do but die with their face to the dead and living enemy. But that wild British cheer sent a thrill through them; the massacre of the wounded was after all to be stayed, and they stood firmly there in the brightly illumined room, witnesses of the bayoneting, till the last savage lay dying on the floor.Roberts had headed his party, and was the first to return to try and save his friend and comrade; and it was into his arms Bracy fell and was carried out, while the men crowded in now to bear out Mrs Gee, the Doctor, Gedge, and the rest, those outside cheering madly as first one and then another bloodstained, ghastly object was borne into the light; while, in the interval between two of the outbursts, poor Gedge, who was being cheered by his comrades, seemed drunk with excitement, as he contrived with failing arm to wave his rifle above his head and shout:“Three cheers for Mr Bracy; three cheers for the Doctor and old Mother Gee! Three cheers for us all!”There was a tremendous roar at this, heard loudly above the crackling fire kept up on the enemy still striving to force a way in from beyond the walls.“Three more,” cried Gedge. “Cripples, all on us, but we held our own, and hip—hip—hip—hoo—”Gedge did not finish his cheer, for half-way through the last word he fell forward, utterly exhausted, fainting dead away.It was just then that an officer with blackened face and sword in hand suddenly made his appearance high up in the golden light of the fire, and the moment he appeared a howl of execration was raised, which ran through the crowd of soldiery, while the officers scowled and turned away.The tall, thin figure stopped short in front of the burning building, to gaze down wonderingly.“Drummond—Scotch coward!” roared a voice, and a yell of execration burst forth.Just at that moment, from behind an angle of the building, four of the Ghazis, who had lain hidden there and escaped the deadly fire, rushed forth yelling and waving their swords as they made for the figure standing apparently beyond the reach of help.“Quick, some one—fire, fire!” shouted Roberts.The figure heard the cry, and turned just in time to face his enemies, two of whom reached him together, cutting at him with all their might. But, active as a cat, the tall, lithe youth avoided one of his foes by leaping aside, ran the other man through, and swinging round, with a tremendous cut severed the wrist of the wretch he had avoided, when coming at him for a second blow.The other two did not reach him, for half-a-dozen shots rang out, and the true firing of the boy-regiment was again proved, the two Ghazis leaping high in the air, and falling backward on to the bayonets of the men below. There was another cheer at this, but it was dominated directly after by a renewal of the howl of execration which had broken out before.The hearer looked for a moment or two puzzled, and hesitated to advance; but the next minute he turned half-face, doubled along the rampart to the steps, and descended to the court, passing coolly among the men where Colonel Graves was standing giving orders.“Mr Drummond,” he said, “I am told that you left your men in a way that disgraces a British officer.”“That I didn’t,” cried the young man indignantly. “I heard you say that if we only had light we could see to fire, or something of that sort.”“Yes, sir, I did,” said the Colonel sternly.“Well, sir, I ran along the ramp and climbed up three times before I could get to the store, and then set fire to the fodder; but it was ever so long before I could get it to burn, and then I couldn’t get out.”“You did that?” cried the Colonel.“To be sure I did, sir. Wasn’t it right? Oh, I see now; the men thought I went and hid to get out of the light.”“My dear boy,” cried the Colonel; “of course.”“Oh,” cried Drummond, “what jolly fools the lads can be! But I say, sir, who’s hurt? and was old Bracy safe?”A minute later the men cheered even louder than before, as they watched Drummond—a hero now in their midst—place a bag of powder to blow down the burning building and save the place from risk of the fire spreading.That was soon done. It was a risky task, but bravely set about; and, as the place went up in a rush of flames and sparks, the assault from outside ceased, the enemy drawing off under cover of the mist; and an hour later silence fell upon the horrible scene of carnage, not even a bleat arising from the sheep.But the fort was safe, the dim morning light showing the British flag, wet and clinging, but still hanging in its place upon the flagstaff; while by that time all save the doubled sentries upon the walls and the suffering wounded lay plunged in a heavy sleep wherever a place could be found roomy enough for the poor fellows’ aching limbs.

The moment the court could be crossed, a rush was made for the hospital, where the fight was still going on; but the mingled company of excited men were checked twice over by wounded and shamming Ghazis springing up to foot or knee to deliver one final blow at their hated Christian conquerors, and several of the soldiers were badly wounded by the deadly razor-edged tulwars before the wielder was borne to the earth by bayonets, struggling fiercely still, though riddled with wounds.

Then the entrance to the hospital was reached, and the wild cheer of a dozen men sent a reviving thrill of hope through the fast-falling defenders, and they held theirchevaux-de-friseof bayonets once more now, though with trembling, unnerved hands.

A minute before it seemed to them that their last blow had been struck, and that there was nothing else to do but die with their face to the dead and living enemy. But that wild British cheer sent a thrill through them; the massacre of the wounded was after all to be stayed, and they stood firmly there in the brightly illumined room, witnesses of the bayoneting, till the last savage lay dying on the floor.

Roberts had headed his party, and was the first to return to try and save his friend and comrade; and it was into his arms Bracy fell and was carried out, while the men crowded in now to bear out Mrs Gee, the Doctor, Gedge, and the rest, those outside cheering madly as first one and then another bloodstained, ghastly object was borne into the light; while, in the interval between two of the outbursts, poor Gedge, who was being cheered by his comrades, seemed drunk with excitement, as he contrived with failing arm to wave his rifle above his head and shout:

“Three cheers for Mr Bracy; three cheers for the Doctor and old Mother Gee! Three cheers for us all!”

There was a tremendous roar at this, heard loudly above the crackling fire kept up on the enemy still striving to force a way in from beyond the walls.

“Three more,” cried Gedge. “Cripples, all on us, but we held our own, and hip—hip—hip—hoo—”

Gedge did not finish his cheer, for half-way through the last word he fell forward, utterly exhausted, fainting dead away.

It was just then that an officer with blackened face and sword in hand suddenly made his appearance high up in the golden light of the fire, and the moment he appeared a howl of execration was raised, which ran through the crowd of soldiery, while the officers scowled and turned away.

The tall, thin figure stopped short in front of the burning building, to gaze down wonderingly.

“Drummond—Scotch coward!” roared a voice, and a yell of execration burst forth.

Just at that moment, from behind an angle of the building, four of the Ghazis, who had lain hidden there and escaped the deadly fire, rushed forth yelling and waving their swords as they made for the figure standing apparently beyond the reach of help.

“Quick, some one—fire, fire!” shouted Roberts.

The figure heard the cry, and turned just in time to face his enemies, two of whom reached him together, cutting at him with all their might. But, active as a cat, the tall, lithe youth avoided one of his foes by leaping aside, ran the other man through, and swinging round, with a tremendous cut severed the wrist of the wretch he had avoided, when coming at him for a second blow.

The other two did not reach him, for half-a-dozen shots rang out, and the true firing of the boy-regiment was again proved, the two Ghazis leaping high in the air, and falling backward on to the bayonets of the men below. There was another cheer at this, but it was dominated directly after by a renewal of the howl of execration which had broken out before.

The hearer looked for a moment or two puzzled, and hesitated to advance; but the next minute he turned half-face, doubled along the rampart to the steps, and descended to the court, passing coolly among the men where Colonel Graves was standing giving orders.

“Mr Drummond,” he said, “I am told that you left your men in a way that disgraces a British officer.”

“That I didn’t,” cried the young man indignantly. “I heard you say that if we only had light we could see to fire, or something of that sort.”

“Yes, sir, I did,” said the Colonel sternly.

“Well, sir, I ran along the ramp and climbed up three times before I could get to the store, and then set fire to the fodder; but it was ever so long before I could get it to burn, and then I couldn’t get out.”

“You did that?” cried the Colonel.

“To be sure I did, sir. Wasn’t it right? Oh, I see now; the men thought I went and hid to get out of the light.”

“My dear boy,” cried the Colonel; “of course.”

“Oh,” cried Drummond, “what jolly fools the lads can be! But I say, sir, who’s hurt? and was old Bracy safe?”

A minute later the men cheered even louder than before, as they watched Drummond—a hero now in their midst—place a bag of powder to blow down the burning building and save the place from risk of the fire spreading.

That was soon done. It was a risky task, but bravely set about; and, as the place went up in a rush of flames and sparks, the assault from outside ceased, the enemy drawing off under cover of the mist; and an hour later silence fell upon the horrible scene of carnage, not even a bleat arising from the sheep.

But the fort was safe, the dim morning light showing the British flag, wet and clinging, but still hanging in its place upon the flagstaff; while by that time all save the doubled sentries upon the walls and the suffering wounded lay plunged in a heavy sleep wherever a place could be found roomy enough for the poor fellows’ aching limbs.

Chapter Twenty Two.Bracy’s Nurse.“Bracy, my dear old man!”“My dear old chap!” These were the salutations of Drummond and Roberts later on in the morning, when they sought him out, to find him with Gedge in a portion of the soldiers’ quarters which had been temporarily turned into a hospital.“Ah, Roberts,” sighed Bracy drowsily as he raised himself on one arm. “Not hurt, I hope?”“Not a scratch. But you—you? Morton tells me you fought like a lion all through that horrible attack.”“Like a very weak lion,” said Bracy, smiling faintly.“But how are you?”“Oh, so much better,” said the young officer, with a sigh. “I feel so restful, and as if I could do nothing but sleep.”“Thank Heaven! But what a change in you!”“And you, Drummond? But your face—blackened. Were you in that explosion I heard?”“Yes; I helped to pop off the powder.”“Helped!” cried Roberts. “Why, you placed the powder-bag and fired the fuse.”“Well, what of that? Some one had to do it. I wasn’t hurt there, though, old man. It was in setting fire to the store and coaxing it into a blaze, for the blessed wood refused to burn. Spoiled my lovely looks a bit—eh? But I say—it’s harder work than you would think for to burn a— I say! Bracy, old chap!—Why, he’s asleep!”“Fast,” said Roberts, looking wonderingly at their friend, who had sunk back on his rough pillow, formed of a doubled-up greatcoat, and was breathing deeply, with his face looking peaceful and calm.“Here, I say, you, Bill Gedge,” cried Drummond; “this can’t be right. Go and fetch the Doctor.”“No, sir; it’s all right, sir. The Doctor was here half-an-hour ago. He was fast as a top then; but he heard the Doctor speaking to me, and roused up while he had his wounds looked at. What d’yer think o’ that, sir?”He drew a small, ragged scrap of something from his pocket, and held it out before the two officers.“Nothing,” said Roberts shortly; “but I don’t like Mr Bracy’s looks. This can’t be right.”“Doctor says it is, sir, and that it’s exhorschon. He’s to sleep as much as he can. You see, he had a horful night of it, sir, just when he wasn’t fit.”“But how in the world could he fight like the Doctor says he did?”“I dunno, sir,” replied Gedge, grinning. “Doctor says it was the excitement set him going, and then he couldn’t stop hisself. You know how he was a bit ago, gentlemen, when he hit out and kicked, and couldn’t help it.”Roberts nodded.“And he did fight wonderful, and never got a scratch. That’s what the Doctor said it was, and when he zamined his bandages he found this here under his back.”“That! What is it?” said Drummond, now taking the object and examining it curiously.“His complaint, sir, that kept him bad so long. The bit of iron the Doctor said he dursen’t try to get out. It worked out last night in the fight. He’s going to get well now.”It was Roberts’s turn now to examine the little ragged scrap of discoloured iron.“Seems wonderful,” he said, “that so trifling a thing as that should cause so much agony, and bring a man so low.”“Oh, I dunno, sir,” said Gedge respectfully. “I had a horful toe once as got bigger and bigger and sorer till I couldn’t get a boot on, only the sole; and when my leg got as big as a Dan’l Lambert’s, some un says, ‘Why don’t you go to the orspital?’ he says, sir; and so I did, and as soon as I got there I began to wish I hadn’t gone, for there was a lot o’ doctors looked at it, and they said my leg must come off half-way up my thigh, but they’d wait a day or two first, and they did; but only the next morning one of ’em has another good look, and he gets out something—just a teeny bit of a nail as had gone into my toe out of my boot.”“Humph!” said Roberts rather contemptuously.“Lor’ bless yer, gentlemen, I was ’nother sort o’ feller that night, and was just like Mr Bracy here; hadn’t had no proper sleep for weeks, and there I was at it like one o’clock, going to sleep as you may say all over the place. Shouldn’t ha’ been here if it hadn’t been for that there doctor. Wouldn’t have had a one-legged un in the ridgiment, sir—would yer?”“No,” said Roberts, who was leaning over and gazing at his sleeping comrade curiously. “Yes, he is sleeping as peacefully as a child. And what about you, Gedge?”“Me, sir? Oh, I’m all right, sir. Bit stiff in the arms with all that bay’net exercise, and got the skin off one elber with ketching it agen the wall. Yer see, we’d no room.”“We’ve been there this morning,” said Roberts, with a slight shudder. “The woodwork is chipped and cut into splinters, and the sight is horrible.”“Well, yus, I s’pose so, sir. It was horrible work, but we was obliged to do it; they’d have cut us all to pieces. Reg’lar butchers—that they are—and deserved it. Coming on like that at a lot o’ poor cripples and a woman, besides the nong-combytant. Savages they are to try and cut down a doctor who’s ready to ’tend to everybody, either side, and tie or sew them up.”“You’re right, Gedge, my lad; they are savages,” said Drummond, patting the speaker on the shoulder.“Hff! gently, please, sir,” said Gedge, flinching.“I beg your pardon. Are you hurt there?” cried Drummond hastily.“Oh, all right, sir,” said the lad, grinning; “but you said, ‘Hurt there.’ Why, it’s all over, sir. There aren’t a place as I’ve found yet where you could put a finger on without making me squirm. Doctor made me yell like a great calf. But there’s nothing broke or cracked, and no fresh holes nowhere.”“That’s a comfort,” said Drummond.“Yus; but it aren’t very comf’table yet, sir. He says I shall soon be better, though.”“Yes, Gedge, you must regularly lie up till the pain has gone.”“I mean to, sir, all the time that I can get from tending Mr Bracy here. I must tend him.”“You can stay with him; but someone else ought to be sent in.”“No, sir, please; I can manage. It wouldn’t be fair, sir, for some un else to come in now the gov’nor’s getting better. Doctor says I’ve saved his life so fur, and I wants to go on and save his life so further. See?”“Yes, of course,” said Roberts, smiling. “It would not be fair for you to be robbed of the credit of what you have done.”“Thank ye, sir. That does a chap good, sir. But I beg your pardon, Captain: you see, I’m noo to sojering and fighting. I thought we’d had it tidy ’ot in the coming up along o’ the stone-throwing. Then it was a bit warm when Mr Bracy was shot down and I got my bullet. But that was all like playing skretch-cradle to our set-to last night in the dark. Shall we have it much worse by-and-by?”“Worse? No,” cried the Captain sharply. “Nothing could be worse than last night’s work.”“Oh, come, I’m glad o’ that, sir; for arterward, when I begun to cool down, it seemed to me that if it could be much worse I should begin to think as sojering might get to be a little bit too strong.”It was just then that Doctor Morton came in, and for the moment he frowned; but the angry look passed off after a glance at Bracy.“I was afraid you would disturb him,” he said; “but there is no need to mind; he will sleep a great deal for days, till this state of exhaustion has passed off. My dear boys, what a night we had! I wonder that any of us are alive.”“There were some narrow escapes, Doctor,” said Roberts.“Awful, awful; and what a morning for me! I feel as if I could do as Bracy is doing—sleep for days; but here I am with a terrible load of fresh cases on my hands, and my chief nurse turned into a patient—Gee’s wife. What a woman! what a woman! She must have descended from the Amazons of old. But there, I must go; I only wanted to see that poor Bracy was all right.”“And you do think he is, Doctor?” said Roberts.“Sure of it, sir. He’ll be back with his company before long.”He nodded sharply, and after a word or two with Gedge, who looked ten years older for his night’s work, the room was left for sleep, and the young officers hurried off to their several duties. For there was ample work for every one of the defenders, whose loss had, however, been wonderfully small, the Ghazis having been comparatively helpless after their successful entry, their attacks being repulsed by the bayonet, and the soldiery for the most part having the advantage of the walls, while their fanatical foes were raging about the court, repulsed at every attempt to get on close quarters with the infidels they sought to destroy.As the morning wore on, and the horrible traces of the deadly fray were rapidly removed by the fatigue-parties set to work, a soft breeze from the mountains waited away the heavy clouds of mist, the sun came out, and with it the horrors of the night faded away so rapidly that, had it not been for the blackened ruins of the fodder-store, it would have been hard to realise the fact that such a night had been passed.Scouting parties went, out in different directions, and returned all with the same report—that the enemy had disappeared, not a trace of them being visible, not even one of the dead or wounded, though their losses must have been considerable. That evening a time of perfect rest seemed to have descended upon Ghittah, which, by the light of the sinking sun, looked, with its magnificent surroundings of dazzling snow-peak, verdant hill, forest, and falling water, orange, golden, and sparkling in the reflections from the glorified sky.“Yes, lovely, lovely,” said Colonel Graves sadly, “if one could only feel that we might lie down and sleep in peace.”“Well, can’t we?” said one of the younger officers. “Surely, sir, this has been such a lesson as the enemy will not forget.”“Quite right,” said the Colonel; “they will not forget it, nor rest till they have had revenge.”“But look at their losses last night,” said the Major.“I do,” replied the Colonel; “but men are plentiful up here in the hills, and they all belong to a fighting race. If they were not fighting with us they would be among themselves, and it is the education of their boys: being taught to fight.”“Then you think they’ll renew their attacks, sir?” said Roberts.“I feel sure of it, and they must find us more upon thequi vivenext time. I feel ashamed for allowing myself to be such an easy victim to their cunningruse.”“Never mind now,” said the Major; “it has furnished us with a fine supply of fresh meat.”“Yes,” said the Colonel sadly; “but at a heavy cost of wounded men.”

“Bracy, my dear old man!”

“My dear old chap!” These were the salutations of Drummond and Roberts later on in the morning, when they sought him out, to find him with Gedge in a portion of the soldiers’ quarters which had been temporarily turned into a hospital.

“Ah, Roberts,” sighed Bracy drowsily as he raised himself on one arm. “Not hurt, I hope?”

“Not a scratch. But you—you? Morton tells me you fought like a lion all through that horrible attack.”

“Like a very weak lion,” said Bracy, smiling faintly.

“But how are you?”

“Oh, so much better,” said the young officer, with a sigh. “I feel so restful, and as if I could do nothing but sleep.”

“Thank Heaven! But what a change in you!”

“And you, Drummond? But your face—blackened. Were you in that explosion I heard?”

“Yes; I helped to pop off the powder.”

“Helped!” cried Roberts. “Why, you placed the powder-bag and fired the fuse.”

“Well, what of that? Some one had to do it. I wasn’t hurt there, though, old man. It was in setting fire to the store and coaxing it into a blaze, for the blessed wood refused to burn. Spoiled my lovely looks a bit—eh? But I say—it’s harder work than you would think for to burn a— I say! Bracy, old chap!—Why, he’s asleep!”

“Fast,” said Roberts, looking wonderingly at their friend, who had sunk back on his rough pillow, formed of a doubled-up greatcoat, and was breathing deeply, with his face looking peaceful and calm.

“Here, I say, you, Bill Gedge,” cried Drummond; “this can’t be right. Go and fetch the Doctor.”

“No, sir; it’s all right, sir. The Doctor was here half-an-hour ago. He was fast as a top then; but he heard the Doctor speaking to me, and roused up while he had his wounds looked at. What d’yer think o’ that, sir?”

He drew a small, ragged scrap of something from his pocket, and held it out before the two officers.

“Nothing,” said Roberts shortly; “but I don’t like Mr Bracy’s looks. This can’t be right.”

“Doctor says it is, sir, and that it’s exhorschon. He’s to sleep as much as he can. You see, he had a horful night of it, sir, just when he wasn’t fit.”

“But how in the world could he fight like the Doctor says he did?”

“I dunno, sir,” replied Gedge, grinning. “Doctor says it was the excitement set him going, and then he couldn’t stop hisself. You know how he was a bit ago, gentlemen, when he hit out and kicked, and couldn’t help it.”

Roberts nodded.

“And he did fight wonderful, and never got a scratch. That’s what the Doctor said it was, and when he zamined his bandages he found this here under his back.”

“That! What is it?” said Drummond, now taking the object and examining it curiously.

“His complaint, sir, that kept him bad so long. The bit of iron the Doctor said he dursen’t try to get out. It worked out last night in the fight. He’s going to get well now.”

It was Roberts’s turn now to examine the little ragged scrap of discoloured iron.

“Seems wonderful,” he said, “that so trifling a thing as that should cause so much agony, and bring a man so low.”

“Oh, I dunno, sir,” said Gedge respectfully. “I had a horful toe once as got bigger and bigger and sorer till I couldn’t get a boot on, only the sole; and when my leg got as big as a Dan’l Lambert’s, some un says, ‘Why don’t you go to the orspital?’ he says, sir; and so I did, and as soon as I got there I began to wish I hadn’t gone, for there was a lot o’ doctors looked at it, and they said my leg must come off half-way up my thigh, but they’d wait a day or two first, and they did; but only the next morning one of ’em has another good look, and he gets out something—just a teeny bit of a nail as had gone into my toe out of my boot.”

“Humph!” said Roberts rather contemptuously.

“Lor’ bless yer, gentlemen, I was ’nother sort o’ feller that night, and was just like Mr Bracy here; hadn’t had no proper sleep for weeks, and there I was at it like one o’clock, going to sleep as you may say all over the place. Shouldn’t ha’ been here if it hadn’t been for that there doctor. Wouldn’t have had a one-legged un in the ridgiment, sir—would yer?”

“No,” said Roberts, who was leaning over and gazing at his sleeping comrade curiously. “Yes, he is sleeping as peacefully as a child. And what about you, Gedge?”

“Me, sir? Oh, I’m all right, sir. Bit stiff in the arms with all that bay’net exercise, and got the skin off one elber with ketching it agen the wall. Yer see, we’d no room.”

“We’ve been there this morning,” said Roberts, with a slight shudder. “The woodwork is chipped and cut into splinters, and the sight is horrible.”

“Well, yus, I s’pose so, sir. It was horrible work, but we was obliged to do it; they’d have cut us all to pieces. Reg’lar butchers—that they are—and deserved it. Coming on like that at a lot o’ poor cripples and a woman, besides the nong-combytant. Savages they are to try and cut down a doctor who’s ready to ’tend to everybody, either side, and tie or sew them up.”

“You’re right, Gedge, my lad; they are savages,” said Drummond, patting the speaker on the shoulder.

“Hff! gently, please, sir,” said Gedge, flinching.

“I beg your pardon. Are you hurt there?” cried Drummond hastily.

“Oh, all right, sir,” said the lad, grinning; “but you said, ‘Hurt there.’ Why, it’s all over, sir. There aren’t a place as I’ve found yet where you could put a finger on without making me squirm. Doctor made me yell like a great calf. But there’s nothing broke or cracked, and no fresh holes nowhere.”

“That’s a comfort,” said Drummond.

“Yus; but it aren’t very comf’table yet, sir. He says I shall soon be better, though.”

“Yes, Gedge, you must regularly lie up till the pain has gone.”

“I mean to, sir, all the time that I can get from tending Mr Bracy here. I must tend him.”

“You can stay with him; but someone else ought to be sent in.”

“No, sir, please; I can manage. It wouldn’t be fair, sir, for some un else to come in now the gov’nor’s getting better. Doctor says I’ve saved his life so fur, and I wants to go on and save his life so further. See?”

“Yes, of course,” said Roberts, smiling. “It would not be fair for you to be robbed of the credit of what you have done.”

“Thank ye, sir. That does a chap good, sir. But I beg your pardon, Captain: you see, I’m noo to sojering and fighting. I thought we’d had it tidy ’ot in the coming up along o’ the stone-throwing. Then it was a bit warm when Mr Bracy was shot down and I got my bullet. But that was all like playing skretch-cradle to our set-to last night in the dark. Shall we have it much worse by-and-by?”

“Worse? No,” cried the Captain sharply. “Nothing could be worse than last night’s work.”

“Oh, come, I’m glad o’ that, sir; for arterward, when I begun to cool down, it seemed to me that if it could be much worse I should begin to think as sojering might get to be a little bit too strong.”

It was just then that Doctor Morton came in, and for the moment he frowned; but the angry look passed off after a glance at Bracy.

“I was afraid you would disturb him,” he said; “but there is no need to mind; he will sleep a great deal for days, till this state of exhaustion has passed off. My dear boys, what a night we had! I wonder that any of us are alive.”

“There were some narrow escapes, Doctor,” said Roberts.

“Awful, awful; and what a morning for me! I feel as if I could do as Bracy is doing—sleep for days; but here I am with a terrible load of fresh cases on my hands, and my chief nurse turned into a patient—Gee’s wife. What a woman! what a woman! She must have descended from the Amazons of old. But there, I must go; I only wanted to see that poor Bracy was all right.”

“And you do think he is, Doctor?” said Roberts.

“Sure of it, sir. He’ll be back with his company before long.”

He nodded sharply, and after a word or two with Gedge, who looked ten years older for his night’s work, the room was left for sleep, and the young officers hurried off to their several duties. For there was ample work for every one of the defenders, whose loss had, however, been wonderfully small, the Ghazis having been comparatively helpless after their successful entry, their attacks being repulsed by the bayonet, and the soldiery for the most part having the advantage of the walls, while their fanatical foes were raging about the court, repulsed at every attempt to get on close quarters with the infidels they sought to destroy.

As the morning wore on, and the horrible traces of the deadly fray were rapidly removed by the fatigue-parties set to work, a soft breeze from the mountains waited away the heavy clouds of mist, the sun came out, and with it the horrors of the night faded away so rapidly that, had it not been for the blackened ruins of the fodder-store, it would have been hard to realise the fact that such a night had been passed.

Scouting parties went, out in different directions, and returned all with the same report—that the enemy had disappeared, not a trace of them being visible, not even one of the dead or wounded, though their losses must have been considerable. That evening a time of perfect rest seemed to have descended upon Ghittah, which, by the light of the sinking sun, looked, with its magnificent surroundings of dazzling snow-peak, verdant hill, forest, and falling water, orange, golden, and sparkling in the reflections from the glorified sky.

“Yes, lovely, lovely,” said Colonel Graves sadly, “if one could only feel that we might lie down and sleep in peace.”

“Well, can’t we?” said one of the younger officers. “Surely, sir, this has been such a lesson as the enemy will not forget.”

“Quite right,” said the Colonel; “they will not forget it, nor rest till they have had revenge.”

“But look at their losses last night,” said the Major.

“I do,” replied the Colonel; “but men are plentiful up here in the hills, and they all belong to a fighting race. If they were not fighting with us they would be among themselves, and it is the education of their boys: being taught to fight.”

“Then you think they’ll renew their attacks, sir?” said Roberts.

“I feel sure of it, and they must find us more upon thequi vivenext time. I feel ashamed for allowing myself to be such an easy victim to their cunningruse.”

“Never mind now,” said the Major; “it has furnished us with a fine supply of fresh meat.”

“Yes,” said the Colonel sadly; “but at a heavy cost of wounded men.”

Chapter Twenty Three.After a Rest.The Colonel was right; there were plenty of men in the hills, and they all belonged to fighting tribes-men who, whether Moslem or of the various sects which inhabited the vast tracts of mountainous countries, looked upon it as a religious duty to cut off every one who believed differently, as an infidel or a dog. Many days, then, had not elapsed before there was another gathering of the fierce tribes, whose object was to secure the fort, with its wealth of arms and ammunition. But during the week of respite Colonel Graves and his officers were busy enough. The country round was foraged for stores; and, partly in fear, but as much for the sake of cheating good customers and making everything possible out of the people whom they might be helping to slaughter the very next day, a couple of the tribes brought in grain, fodder, and other necessaries largely.So the loss incurred by the burning of the store was soon made up, and the fort was better provisioned than ever, even to being prepared to stand the stern winter when it should leave the hills and descend to the valleys and plains.No despatches had reached the fort for some time past; but the last, in answer to the Colonel’s report of his having relieved the fort, where all was well, and that he had no doubt of being able to hold it as long as was necessary, bade him go on holding it at any cost, and wait for further orders. But if he found reinforcements necessary to give the tribes a severe lesson, he was to communicate with the station in the Ghil Valley, whence a Ghoorkha regiment would be immediately despatched to his help.A little council of war was held, in which Colonel Wrayford managed to take part; and, after due consideration, it was decided that the help was not required, for the unanimous opinion was that the Ghittah force could hold its own, and that they did not need any regiment to come in and carry off part of the laurels they wished to keep for themselves.Doctor Morton had probably been the busiest man at the station; for, after the repulse of the night attack, every hospital-bed had been occupied, and an additional ward provided; but he had hardly a loss, and he went about, as Gedge said, “looking as proud as a two-tailed peacock in a ’logical garden.”Certainly he chuckled and rubbed his hands a great deal over his patients; and one evening at the mess dinner, when the topic had arisen of the number of men he had sent back to duty cured, and all were rejoicing in the fact, that Bracy—looking thin and careworn, but now wonderfully well—was back in his place, the Doctor, who was pleased and flattered, became exceedingly confidential, and talked more freely than was his wont.“There, dear boys,” he said: “I won’t be a sham. I’ve worked hard among my cripples, of course, and I’m proud of what I’ve done. If you want an example of the powers of surgery, there you are—look at Bracy. He’s a better man than ever now. Look at his condition—hard as a nail. Got rid of all that superfluous fat.”“Here, gently, Doctor,” cried Bracy, flushing. “What superfluous fat?”“All that you got rid of, sir.”“Why, I’ve always been thin.”“You leave me to judge best what you have always been, sir. I know. Come, you’ll own that you’re well as ever now?”“Certainly.”“Be satisfied, then. Well, as I was saying, my dear boys, I’ll be quite open with you all. I’ve been wonderfully successful with all my cases—have I not?”“Wonderfully,” came in a chorus.“And frightfully modest,” whispered Drummond.“Eh! what is that, Mr Drummond?” cried the Doctor. “I heard what you said. Don’t you offend me, for you may come under my care some day. Now, then, all of you—wonderfully successful. Yes, Mr Drummond, and modest too, as you’ll own if you’ll let me finish my remarks before you stick yourself up as a judge. For I’m going to let the cat out of the bag.”“Let’s have her, Doctor,” cried the younger men merrily.“Here she is, then,” said the Doctor. “My colleague. She has done ten times as much for the wounded as I have.”“He means Mrs Gee,” said Bracy quietly. “Well, she is a splendid nurse.”“Ha! what a woman!” said the Colonel. “She is quite well now, Doctor—is she not?”“Always is,” said the Doctor. “Absolutely perfect.”“I don’t understand you, Doctor. The poor woman suffered a great deal in her daring defence of her patients.”“Hah! we’re playing at cross purposes,” said the Doctor importantly. “You’re talking about Mrs Gee.”“Of course. Weren’t you?”“Pish! Poo! Bah! No. I meant my great help and patroness Dame Nature.”“Oh!” ran round the table, in disappointed tones.“Yes, gentlemen,” repeated the Doctor; “Dame Nature. She has set all my wounded right again, and put it to my credit. Why, if the poor fellows had been in stuffy barracks down in the hot plains they’d have died like flies. But up here, in this wonderfully pure mountain air, all I have to do is to see that the wounds are carefully bandaged, and cuts and bullet-holes grow up and together again in no time. As for the hill-men, their surgeon seems to be the next man, who operates with a bit of rag.”“And kills or cures at once,” said Roberts, smiling.“Exactly,” said the Doctor good-humouredly; “but really it’s wonderful how Nature does nearly all the work. Well, any news, Colonel?”“About the enemy?”“Yes; you’ve been doing nothing lately, and my last bed was vacated to-day.”“I am very sorry that you should be in so low a condition, Doctor,” said the Colonel coldly; “but you must understand that I shall do my best to keep you so.”“Why, of course,” cried the Doctor. “You don’t suppose I want to have the poor fellows cut or shot down to keep me busy—do you?”“You spoke as if you did?”“Then I spoke clumsily,” cried the Doctor. “But tell me—the Dwats are collecting again—are they not?”“Yes; they mean to give us no rest.”“So much the better for the men. Keep ’em active. You boys had any sport to-day?”“Yes; we got six mountain sheep,” said Roberts.“Safe into camp?” said the Doctor eagerly.“Oh yes. It was hard work, though; for three of them fell right down into one of the deepest gorges from the snow-slope on which we shot them—splendid shots Drummond made after our stalk, he killed with right and left barrels. My one dropped at the first shot, but sprang up and was going off again till my second barrel stopped him.”“Had an awful job to get them out of the gorge and home; but the hunters fetched them out, and we got all safe into quarters.”“Ha!” cried the Doctor; “I’m glad of that. Splendid gamy meat, that mountain mutton. Glorious stuff for convalescents. It gives me the heartache when I hear of you leaving lost ones to the wolves and vultures.”“I quite agree with the Doctor about the quality of the mutton,” said the Colonel gravely; “but I’m getting anxious about these shooting-trips, gentlemen. Your guides belong to one or other of the tribes.”“Yes, I suppose they do, sir,” said Roberts carelessly.“Well, what is to prevent them from leading you some day into a trap, and, instead of the news coming into mess of there being an extra supply for the larder, I hear that I am minus two or three of my best officers?”“I don’t know about best officers, sir,” said Roberts, laughing; “but I don’t think there is anything to fear. These hill-shikarees are very genuine fellows, and their intense love of the sport will keep them honest and true to us. You cannot think how proud they are of leading us to the quarry if we are successful.”“I grant all that,” said the Colonel, “knowing as I do what a freemasonry there is in sport, and how clever hunters have a feeling of fellowship for men of their own tastes, whatever their religion; but you must not forget that the hill-tribes are completely under the thumb of their Mullahs, and that the will of these priests is the law which they must obey. Supposing one of these Mullahs to give them orders in the interest of their tribe, they would lead you into an ambush for a certainty.”“Oh, Colonel Graves,” cried Drummond, “this is spoiling the only pleasure we have!”“I hope not,” said the Colonel, smiling gravely. “Set it down to interest in my officers’ welfare. I only ask you to be careful—well on your guard—and not to do anything rash.”“Just as if it was likely that we should do anything rash,” said Drummond pettishly later on. “I’m sure I’m always as careful as can be.”“Always!” said Roberts, laughing, and giving Bracy a peculiar look.“Here, I say—what does that mean? You two are chaffing me again.”“Oh dear, no,” said Bracy. “Our consciences are smiting us for being so reckless, and we’re making up our minds to be more careful in future.”“Yes, as the Colonel suggests,” chimed in Roberts, “and take friend Drummond o’ that ilk for our example.”“Here! Yes, you are chaffing me,” cried Drummond anxiously. “I say, old chaps, though—you don’t think I am rash, do you?”“Rather,” said Roberts.“Bosh with your rather! Chaff, because I’m so tall and thin. Bracy, you’re not half such a boy as the Captain. You don’t think I’m wild and harum-scarum, do you—regularly rash?”“Well, to speak frankly,”—began Bracy.“Of course I want you to be frank,” cried Drummond hastily. “That’s why I like you chaps.”“Well, then, my dear boy,” said Bracy, “I do think you are about the most rash fellow I ever met.”“Oh!” cried Drummond, with a look of distrust.“You do things that no thoughtful fellow would ever think of doing.”“I? Come now; when?”“Over those sheep, then, to-day. I felt quite sick to see you walk along that shelf of snow, when the slightest slip would have sent you down headlong a thousand feet on to the jagged rocks below.”“Yes, it was horrible,” said Roberts.Drummond exploded into a tremendous burst of laughter, and sat at last wiping his eyes.“Oh, I say, come. That is good. I like that. Dangerous—made one of you feel sick and the other think it was horrible!”“Well, it’s the truth,” said Bracy.“And you both came along it afterwards, and we got that magnificent sport.”“I came along it after you had set the example,” said Bracy quietly.“But you are a couple of years older than I am, and ought to know better.”“I was not going to show the white feather after what you had done.”“Same here,” said Roberts sharply.“Oh, that was it—eh? I was a boy to you, and you wouldn’t let me think you daren’t.”“Something of that kind,” said Bracy.“Humph!” said Drummond thoughtfully. “I suppose it was dangerous.”“Of course it was,” replied Bracy. “You saw that the guide wouldn’t venture.”“Yes; but that made me determined to do it. We can’t afford to let those chaps think we’re afraid to go anywhere. Come now—didn’t you two think something of that kind too?”“Probably,” said Bracy.“But it didn’t seem dangerous when I was doing it,” cried Drummond. “I never thought about toppling down, only about getting right across and after those moufflons.”“Same here,” said Roberts.“Well, I did look down once and think of what might happen,” said Bracy.“Ah, that’s where you were wrong. Never do that, lad. Keep perfectly cool, and you can get almost anywhere up yonder in the snow. I’ve got to be quite a climber since I’ve been here.”“Well, I gave myself the credit of being pretty good on ice and snow to-day,” said Bracy, smiling. “I mean pretty well for a cripple. I wish I had done as well over the shooting. That was a miserable show of mine. Thanks for not exposing me at the mess.”“Rubbish!” said Drummond. “Who’s going to tell tales out of school? I say, though, that ice-climbing in the mountains is splendid—isn’t it? The more one does the easier it seems. It feels quite cool and comfortable.”“Which one can’t help feeling on the ice,” said Bracy, laughing. “But seriously, we are getting pretty good at it up yonder in the snow.”“Regular climbers,” said Drummond; “and I vote that we do as much of it as we can while our shoes are good. There, don’t look at a fellow like that—your shoes, then, that you gave me. But I didn’t mean shoes literally. I mean before the old man puts a stop to our hunting and climbing.”“He soon will, you may depend upon that,” said Roberts. “He’s getting nervous about us all.”“Because we are such splendid officers,” put in Bracy merrily.“Well, we are what he has; and, judging from the way we are shut in and left by the authorities, he is not likely to get a fresh supply if he loses us.”“What about the messengers he has sent, Bracy? Think they get through with the despatches? I feel sure they do not. Either they are killed or so scared by the dangers they run that they destroy their despatches and dare not show their faces again.”“Well, I hope that’s not the case,” said Bracy. “I don’t want to give the poor fellows the credit of being treacherous.”“Like enough it is that, treacherous as we deem it; but they are so much accustomed to the tricks and cunning amongst which they have been brought up that they look upon such a thing as being very venial—a kind of cleverness by which we, their conquerors are bested.”“Here, I say, don’t get into a dissertation upon the moral character of the natives,” cried Drummond, “because there is no end to that. Here, I say—”“Say away,” said the others.“I’ve been thinking about what old Graves said as to the shikarees selling us to the enemy. They won’t.”“I hope not,” said Bracy, laying his hand upon his chest.“Hullo! What’s the matter? Wound hurt?”“Gives me a stab like that sometimes when the weather is going to change. We shall have rain, I think.”“Ha! and that means snow higher up. Hoo-roar! as the lads say. A nice light coating of fresh snow, and every bear footprint showing clearly. We mustn’t miss one. Bear ham is good, and then there are the skins. We shall want ’em in the winter for warm rugs.”“You mean to stay the winter, then?” said Bracy, laughing.“We shall have to; see if we don’t.”“We shall get no bearskins,” said Roberts. “The Colonel will stop our going on account of his uneasiness. I heard him say that we should be running upon some prowling body of the enemy one of these times, and never be heard of any more.”“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Just as if it were likely. They sneak along in the lowest valleys; they never go up among the snowfields. No one does but the hunters. It’s the same as it was in Switzerland; you never caught the people climbing the mountains till the English taught them, and bribed them to come as carriers. They’d never have made the ascent of any of their mountains. I tell you that in our shooting-trips up yonder we’re as safe as we are here. Safer, for the beggars keep away from there, while here they’re lying up in every hole and corner all around.”“He’s about right,” said Roberts thoughtfully; “and, now you’re strong enough again, I don’t like to lose our trips. We don’t get much pleasure up here. Let’s make our hay while the sun shines.”“Even if it is in the snow,” said Bracy. “Very well; I’m glad enough to go, for the mountain air seems to send fresh vigour through me every time I climb.”The result of this was that whenever the way up into the mountains was clear, and the Dwats who acted as guides to the different hills came in with news, the young officers had their excursions, and generally returned with their men pretty well laden, while the three friends became masters of the district among the heights in a way that suggested years of active residence in that silver land.There were plenty of alarms, plenty of little encounters with the parties who were always on the lookout to harass the occupants of the fort; but a little extra work for the Doctor and excitement for the men, to keep off the stagnation which threatened them, was all that ensued.In the interim the Colonel sent off five more messengers with despatches, in the hope that they would get through the enemy and bring back letters; but they were seen no more; and the Colonel’s face grew more serious day by day.“Thinks the tribes mean to starve us out,” said Roberts one evening when the Colonel went away from the table looking more depressed and anxious than usual.“And they won’t,” said Drummond. “Why, there are mountain sheep enough up yonder to keep us for years.”“They get more difficult to shoot, though,” said Bracy.“Pooh! not they. A few close by are a bit shy; but, look here, when we get right up on the shoulder of that left-hand peak and look north what do we see?”“Mountains,” replied Bracy.“And when we were right up on that farthest peak last week, and looked north, what did we see then?”“More mountains.”“That’s it; and you might go on and on for a month, and it would be the same—more mountains.”Bracy nodded and looked thoughtful.“Yes,” he said at last; “the world’s a long way from being played out yet. We can see hundreds of peaks, and the soft blue valleys between them, which I suppose have never been traversed by man.”“That’s right enough, and that’s where the wild sheep and goats are just as they always have been, perfectly undisturbed. Thousands—perhaps millions, without counting the goats and yaks, which look as if they were a vain brood of beast who try to grow tails like a horse.”“I suppose you’re correct, Drummond,” said Bracy.“Of course I am; and if we shoot down all the sheep near at hand one month, more will come down from the north next month.”“Just the same as when you catch a big trout out of a hole at home, another is sure to come within a day or two to take his empty house.”“Why, they do up here, and the little seer in the river too,” cried Drummond. “I say, I wish this was a bigger and deeper stream, so that it held the big forty and fifty pound fish.”“Quite deep and swift enough for us,” said Bracy merrily.“Ah, yes,” said Drummond slowly; “I haven’t forgotten our going for that nice long walk.”“No,” said Roberts; “that was a close shave for all of us. How many more times are we going to run the gauntlet and not get hit?”“Hundreds, I hope,” replied Drummond; and Bracy, who was very quiet, thought, by no means for the first time, of his escapes, and of how it would be at home if a letter reached them some day reporting that one of the lieutenants had been checked once for all in his career.

The Colonel was right; there were plenty of men in the hills, and they all belonged to fighting tribes-men who, whether Moslem or of the various sects which inhabited the vast tracts of mountainous countries, looked upon it as a religious duty to cut off every one who believed differently, as an infidel or a dog. Many days, then, had not elapsed before there was another gathering of the fierce tribes, whose object was to secure the fort, with its wealth of arms and ammunition. But during the week of respite Colonel Graves and his officers were busy enough. The country round was foraged for stores; and, partly in fear, but as much for the sake of cheating good customers and making everything possible out of the people whom they might be helping to slaughter the very next day, a couple of the tribes brought in grain, fodder, and other necessaries largely.

So the loss incurred by the burning of the store was soon made up, and the fort was better provisioned than ever, even to being prepared to stand the stern winter when it should leave the hills and descend to the valleys and plains.

No despatches had reached the fort for some time past; but the last, in answer to the Colonel’s report of his having relieved the fort, where all was well, and that he had no doubt of being able to hold it as long as was necessary, bade him go on holding it at any cost, and wait for further orders. But if he found reinforcements necessary to give the tribes a severe lesson, he was to communicate with the station in the Ghil Valley, whence a Ghoorkha regiment would be immediately despatched to his help.

A little council of war was held, in which Colonel Wrayford managed to take part; and, after due consideration, it was decided that the help was not required, for the unanimous opinion was that the Ghittah force could hold its own, and that they did not need any regiment to come in and carry off part of the laurels they wished to keep for themselves.

Doctor Morton had probably been the busiest man at the station; for, after the repulse of the night attack, every hospital-bed had been occupied, and an additional ward provided; but he had hardly a loss, and he went about, as Gedge said, “looking as proud as a two-tailed peacock in a ’logical garden.”

Certainly he chuckled and rubbed his hands a great deal over his patients; and one evening at the mess dinner, when the topic had arisen of the number of men he had sent back to duty cured, and all were rejoicing in the fact, that Bracy—looking thin and careworn, but now wonderfully well—was back in his place, the Doctor, who was pleased and flattered, became exceedingly confidential, and talked more freely than was his wont.

“There, dear boys,” he said: “I won’t be a sham. I’ve worked hard among my cripples, of course, and I’m proud of what I’ve done. If you want an example of the powers of surgery, there you are—look at Bracy. He’s a better man than ever now. Look at his condition—hard as a nail. Got rid of all that superfluous fat.”

“Here, gently, Doctor,” cried Bracy, flushing. “What superfluous fat?”

“All that you got rid of, sir.”

“Why, I’ve always been thin.”

“You leave me to judge best what you have always been, sir. I know. Come, you’ll own that you’re well as ever now?”

“Certainly.”

“Be satisfied, then. Well, as I was saying, my dear boys, I’ll be quite open with you all. I’ve been wonderfully successful with all my cases—have I not?”

“Wonderfully,” came in a chorus.

“And frightfully modest,” whispered Drummond.

“Eh! what is that, Mr Drummond?” cried the Doctor. “I heard what you said. Don’t you offend me, for you may come under my care some day. Now, then, all of you—wonderfully successful. Yes, Mr Drummond, and modest too, as you’ll own if you’ll let me finish my remarks before you stick yourself up as a judge. For I’m going to let the cat out of the bag.”

“Let’s have her, Doctor,” cried the younger men merrily.

“Here she is, then,” said the Doctor. “My colleague. She has done ten times as much for the wounded as I have.”

“He means Mrs Gee,” said Bracy quietly. “Well, she is a splendid nurse.”

“Ha! what a woman!” said the Colonel. “She is quite well now, Doctor—is she not?”

“Always is,” said the Doctor. “Absolutely perfect.”

“I don’t understand you, Doctor. The poor woman suffered a great deal in her daring defence of her patients.”

“Hah! we’re playing at cross purposes,” said the Doctor importantly. “You’re talking about Mrs Gee.”

“Of course. Weren’t you?”

“Pish! Poo! Bah! No. I meant my great help and patroness Dame Nature.”

“Oh!” ran round the table, in disappointed tones.

“Yes, gentlemen,” repeated the Doctor; “Dame Nature. She has set all my wounded right again, and put it to my credit. Why, if the poor fellows had been in stuffy barracks down in the hot plains they’d have died like flies. But up here, in this wonderfully pure mountain air, all I have to do is to see that the wounds are carefully bandaged, and cuts and bullet-holes grow up and together again in no time. As for the hill-men, their surgeon seems to be the next man, who operates with a bit of rag.”

“And kills or cures at once,” said Roberts, smiling.

“Exactly,” said the Doctor good-humouredly; “but really it’s wonderful how Nature does nearly all the work. Well, any news, Colonel?”

“About the enemy?”

“Yes; you’ve been doing nothing lately, and my last bed was vacated to-day.”

“I am very sorry that you should be in so low a condition, Doctor,” said the Colonel coldly; “but you must understand that I shall do my best to keep you so.”

“Why, of course,” cried the Doctor. “You don’t suppose I want to have the poor fellows cut or shot down to keep me busy—do you?”

“You spoke as if you did?”

“Then I spoke clumsily,” cried the Doctor. “But tell me—the Dwats are collecting again—are they not?”

“Yes; they mean to give us no rest.”

“So much the better for the men. Keep ’em active. You boys had any sport to-day?”

“Yes; we got six mountain sheep,” said Roberts.

“Safe into camp?” said the Doctor eagerly.

“Oh yes. It was hard work, though; for three of them fell right down into one of the deepest gorges from the snow-slope on which we shot them—splendid shots Drummond made after our stalk, he killed with right and left barrels. My one dropped at the first shot, but sprang up and was going off again till my second barrel stopped him.”

“Had an awful job to get them out of the gorge and home; but the hunters fetched them out, and we got all safe into quarters.”

“Ha!” cried the Doctor; “I’m glad of that. Splendid gamy meat, that mountain mutton. Glorious stuff for convalescents. It gives me the heartache when I hear of you leaving lost ones to the wolves and vultures.”

“I quite agree with the Doctor about the quality of the mutton,” said the Colonel gravely; “but I’m getting anxious about these shooting-trips, gentlemen. Your guides belong to one or other of the tribes.”

“Yes, I suppose they do, sir,” said Roberts carelessly.

“Well, what is to prevent them from leading you some day into a trap, and, instead of the news coming into mess of there being an extra supply for the larder, I hear that I am minus two or three of my best officers?”

“I don’t know about best officers, sir,” said Roberts, laughing; “but I don’t think there is anything to fear. These hill-shikarees are very genuine fellows, and their intense love of the sport will keep them honest and true to us. You cannot think how proud they are of leading us to the quarry if we are successful.”

“I grant all that,” said the Colonel, “knowing as I do what a freemasonry there is in sport, and how clever hunters have a feeling of fellowship for men of their own tastes, whatever their religion; but you must not forget that the hill-tribes are completely under the thumb of their Mullahs, and that the will of these priests is the law which they must obey. Supposing one of these Mullahs to give them orders in the interest of their tribe, they would lead you into an ambush for a certainty.”

“Oh, Colonel Graves,” cried Drummond, “this is spoiling the only pleasure we have!”

“I hope not,” said the Colonel, smiling gravely. “Set it down to interest in my officers’ welfare. I only ask you to be careful—well on your guard—and not to do anything rash.”

“Just as if it was likely that we should do anything rash,” said Drummond pettishly later on. “I’m sure I’m always as careful as can be.”

“Always!” said Roberts, laughing, and giving Bracy a peculiar look.

“Here, I say—what does that mean? You two are chaffing me again.”

“Oh dear, no,” said Bracy. “Our consciences are smiting us for being so reckless, and we’re making up our minds to be more careful in future.”

“Yes, as the Colonel suggests,” chimed in Roberts, “and take friend Drummond o’ that ilk for our example.”

“Here! Yes, you are chaffing me,” cried Drummond anxiously. “I say, old chaps, though—you don’t think I am rash, do you?”

“Rather,” said Roberts.

“Bosh with your rather! Chaff, because I’m so tall and thin. Bracy, you’re not half such a boy as the Captain. You don’t think I’m wild and harum-scarum, do you—regularly rash?”

“Well, to speak frankly,”—began Bracy.

“Of course I want you to be frank,” cried Drummond hastily. “That’s why I like you chaps.”

“Well, then, my dear boy,” said Bracy, “I do think you are about the most rash fellow I ever met.”

“Oh!” cried Drummond, with a look of distrust.

“You do things that no thoughtful fellow would ever think of doing.”

“I? Come now; when?”

“Over those sheep, then, to-day. I felt quite sick to see you walk along that shelf of snow, when the slightest slip would have sent you down headlong a thousand feet on to the jagged rocks below.”

“Yes, it was horrible,” said Roberts.

Drummond exploded into a tremendous burst of laughter, and sat at last wiping his eyes.

“Oh, I say, come. That is good. I like that. Dangerous—made one of you feel sick and the other think it was horrible!”

“Well, it’s the truth,” said Bracy.

“And you both came along it afterwards, and we got that magnificent sport.”

“I came along it after you had set the example,” said Bracy quietly.

“But you are a couple of years older than I am, and ought to know better.”

“I was not going to show the white feather after what you had done.”

“Same here,” said Roberts sharply.

“Oh, that was it—eh? I was a boy to you, and you wouldn’t let me think you daren’t.”

“Something of that kind,” said Bracy.

“Humph!” said Drummond thoughtfully. “I suppose it was dangerous.”

“Of course it was,” replied Bracy. “You saw that the guide wouldn’t venture.”

“Yes; but that made me determined to do it. We can’t afford to let those chaps think we’re afraid to go anywhere. Come now—didn’t you two think something of that kind too?”

“Probably,” said Bracy.

“But it didn’t seem dangerous when I was doing it,” cried Drummond. “I never thought about toppling down, only about getting right across and after those moufflons.”

“Same here,” said Roberts.

“Well, I did look down once and think of what might happen,” said Bracy.

“Ah, that’s where you were wrong. Never do that, lad. Keep perfectly cool, and you can get almost anywhere up yonder in the snow. I’ve got to be quite a climber since I’ve been here.”

“Well, I gave myself the credit of being pretty good on ice and snow to-day,” said Bracy, smiling. “I mean pretty well for a cripple. I wish I had done as well over the shooting. That was a miserable show of mine. Thanks for not exposing me at the mess.”

“Rubbish!” said Drummond. “Who’s going to tell tales out of school? I say, though, that ice-climbing in the mountains is splendid—isn’t it? The more one does the easier it seems. It feels quite cool and comfortable.”

“Which one can’t help feeling on the ice,” said Bracy, laughing. “But seriously, we are getting pretty good at it up yonder in the snow.”

“Regular climbers,” said Drummond; “and I vote that we do as much of it as we can while our shoes are good. There, don’t look at a fellow like that—your shoes, then, that you gave me. But I didn’t mean shoes literally. I mean before the old man puts a stop to our hunting and climbing.”

“He soon will, you may depend upon that,” said Roberts. “He’s getting nervous about us all.”

“Because we are such splendid officers,” put in Bracy merrily.

“Well, we are what he has; and, judging from the way we are shut in and left by the authorities, he is not likely to get a fresh supply if he loses us.”

“What about the messengers he has sent, Bracy? Think they get through with the despatches? I feel sure they do not. Either they are killed or so scared by the dangers they run that they destroy their despatches and dare not show their faces again.”

“Well, I hope that’s not the case,” said Bracy. “I don’t want to give the poor fellows the credit of being treacherous.”

“Like enough it is that, treacherous as we deem it; but they are so much accustomed to the tricks and cunning amongst which they have been brought up that they look upon such a thing as being very venial—a kind of cleverness by which we, their conquerors are bested.”

“Here, I say, don’t get into a dissertation upon the moral character of the natives,” cried Drummond, “because there is no end to that. Here, I say—”

“Say away,” said the others.

“I’ve been thinking about what old Graves said as to the shikarees selling us to the enemy. They won’t.”

“I hope not,” said Bracy, laying his hand upon his chest.

“Hullo! What’s the matter? Wound hurt?”

“Gives me a stab like that sometimes when the weather is going to change. We shall have rain, I think.”

“Ha! and that means snow higher up. Hoo-roar! as the lads say. A nice light coating of fresh snow, and every bear footprint showing clearly. We mustn’t miss one. Bear ham is good, and then there are the skins. We shall want ’em in the winter for warm rugs.”

“You mean to stay the winter, then?” said Bracy, laughing.

“We shall have to; see if we don’t.”

“We shall get no bearskins,” said Roberts. “The Colonel will stop our going on account of his uneasiness. I heard him say that we should be running upon some prowling body of the enemy one of these times, and never be heard of any more.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Just as if it were likely. They sneak along in the lowest valleys; they never go up among the snowfields. No one does but the hunters. It’s the same as it was in Switzerland; you never caught the people climbing the mountains till the English taught them, and bribed them to come as carriers. They’d never have made the ascent of any of their mountains. I tell you that in our shooting-trips up yonder we’re as safe as we are here. Safer, for the beggars keep away from there, while here they’re lying up in every hole and corner all around.”

“He’s about right,” said Roberts thoughtfully; “and, now you’re strong enough again, I don’t like to lose our trips. We don’t get much pleasure up here. Let’s make our hay while the sun shines.”

“Even if it is in the snow,” said Bracy. “Very well; I’m glad enough to go, for the mountain air seems to send fresh vigour through me every time I climb.”

The result of this was that whenever the way up into the mountains was clear, and the Dwats who acted as guides to the different hills came in with news, the young officers had their excursions, and generally returned with their men pretty well laden, while the three friends became masters of the district among the heights in a way that suggested years of active residence in that silver land.

There were plenty of alarms, plenty of little encounters with the parties who were always on the lookout to harass the occupants of the fort; but a little extra work for the Doctor and excitement for the men, to keep off the stagnation which threatened them, was all that ensued.

In the interim the Colonel sent off five more messengers with despatches, in the hope that they would get through the enemy and bring back letters; but they were seen no more; and the Colonel’s face grew more serious day by day.

“Thinks the tribes mean to starve us out,” said Roberts one evening when the Colonel went away from the table looking more depressed and anxious than usual.

“And they won’t,” said Drummond. “Why, there are mountain sheep enough up yonder to keep us for years.”

“They get more difficult to shoot, though,” said Bracy.

“Pooh! not they. A few close by are a bit shy; but, look here, when we get right up on the shoulder of that left-hand peak and look north what do we see?”

“Mountains,” replied Bracy.

“And when we were right up on that farthest peak last week, and looked north, what did we see then?”

“More mountains.”

“That’s it; and you might go on and on for a month, and it would be the same—more mountains.”

Bracy nodded and looked thoughtful.

“Yes,” he said at last; “the world’s a long way from being played out yet. We can see hundreds of peaks, and the soft blue valleys between them, which I suppose have never been traversed by man.”

“That’s right enough, and that’s where the wild sheep and goats are just as they always have been, perfectly undisturbed. Thousands—perhaps millions, without counting the goats and yaks, which look as if they were a vain brood of beast who try to grow tails like a horse.”

“I suppose you’re correct, Drummond,” said Bracy.

“Of course I am; and if we shoot down all the sheep near at hand one month, more will come down from the north next month.”

“Just the same as when you catch a big trout out of a hole at home, another is sure to come within a day or two to take his empty house.”

“Why, they do up here, and the little seer in the river too,” cried Drummond. “I say, I wish this was a bigger and deeper stream, so that it held the big forty and fifty pound fish.”

“Quite deep and swift enough for us,” said Bracy merrily.

“Ah, yes,” said Drummond slowly; “I haven’t forgotten our going for that nice long walk.”

“No,” said Roberts; “that was a close shave for all of us. How many more times are we going to run the gauntlet and not get hit?”

“Hundreds, I hope,” replied Drummond; and Bracy, who was very quiet, thought, by no means for the first time, of his escapes, and of how it would be at home if a letter reached them some day reporting that one of the lieutenants had been checked once for all in his career.

Chapter Twenty Four.Peril in a Poshtin.Another fortnight passed, during which the officers had a day’s shooting as often as they could be spared; and, though the Colonel’s face grew more and more serious he made no further objection to these excursions so long as they were sensibly carried out, for he had realised how thoroughly the enemy avoided the higher portions of the mountains, the snow-line being rarely crossed; and when they did break through their rule, it was only in crossing from one valley to another, and it was necessitated by the pass which linked the two being more than usually high.It was a bright, sunny morning, and glasses had been busy in the fort, for certain well-known signs suggested that the day would not pass without their hearing from the enemy, of whom glances were obtained, first in one well-known locality, then in another, which they seemed to affect as a matter of course, showing very little disposition to break out of their regular routine, while one tribe followed in the steps of another so closely that it was generally possible to prognosticate where the attack would be made, and make arrangements to foil it.The officers were chatting together; and in the group where Drummond stood with his friends he started a good grumbling discourse, something after this fashion:“It’s always the case. So sure as I overlook my tackle, and have a good clean up of the rifles ready for a long day amongst the muttons, some of these beggars come and plant themselves just in the way we mean to go.”“Mr Bracy,” said an orderly, coming up and saluting, “the Colonel wishes to see you.”“Ha, ha!” laughed Drummond; “it’s to tell you that we are not to attempt a shoot to-day. Tell him, Bracy, that we had given it up.”Bracy nodded, and went straight to the Colonel’s room, to find him busily writing.He just glanced up and nodded.“Sit down, Bracy,” he said, and he went on writing, his table being a couple of bullock-trunks, with a scarlet blanket by way of cover.“Enemy are out pretty strong this morning.”“Yes, sir.”“Ha! yes.”There was a pause, filled up by a good deal of scratching of the pen, before the stern-looking officer began again.“You are quite strong now, Bracy?” he said at last, without looking up.“Never felt better in my life, sir.”“I said strong, Bracy.”“Nor stronger, sir.”“That’s right,” said the Colonel, reading over his despatch and crossing i’s and dotting i’s here and there.“Wound trouble you much still?”“Gives me a sharp sting, sir, at times, back and front; but I always find that it is when we are going to have a change of weather.”The Colonel paid no heed, and Bracy added:“I dare say it will soon pass off, though.”“It will not,” said the Colonel quietly, and to the young man’s dismay. “You will feel it more or less all your life. Yes,” he added, looking up and smiling, “a twinge to remind you that you were once a brave officer of the Queen.”Bracy coughed, for he felt a little husky, and as if he were standing near a fire.“Now, Bracy, business. I cannot go on sending despatch after despatch, none of which reach their destination. Either going or coming, my messengers have come to a bad end or been unfaithful.”Bracy made no reply, for none was expected; and the Colonel now looked up, and, with his hands resting upon the table, gazed full in the young man’s eyes.“I want a messenger whom I can trust,” he said, “a man who will undertake the task of delivering my despatch as a duty to his country. There are plenty of good, trusty lads in the regiment. Whom would you select—the best you know?”Bracy was silent for a few moments before speaking.“I should be sorry to see him go upon so dangerous a mission, sir; but if I had to select a lad in whom I should have perfect confidence, I should choose Private Gedge.”“A very good selection, Bracy; but I want an officer.”The young man stalled, and drew his breath hard.“There is Andrews, or Elder, or Morrison,” continued the Colonel, “or Drummond, of Wrayford’s; but he is too volatile. Roberts would be a splendid fellow for the task, for, like Drummond, he is strong amongst ice and snow, and my messenger will have to take to the snow nearly all the way to save being stopped.”“A wise plan, sir,” said Bracy eagerly; “one that should succeed.”“I think it will; but my messenger will be face to face with death from the hour he starts, doubly facing it—from nature as well as man. But I cannot spare Roberts. Do you understand me?”“Yes, sir; you wish me to volunteer.”“Yes, Bracy,” said the Colonel, holding out his hand, which Bracy caught in both his. “God bless and protect you, my dear boy! I do.”“Yes, sir,” said the young man firmly. “I’ll go.”“Not alone. Take that man Gedge with you; he has had little to do amongst the snow, but—”“Yes, sir; he’ll learn anything. When am I to start?”“As soon as you can be ready. Then, I will clear the way for you by making a feint, so that you can make at once for the upper ground.”“Not by the mountains above the Gor Pass, sir?”“No; the other direction entirely. You are to make for the Ghil Valley, and bring back the Ghoorkas, Bracy. It is time that we took the offensive; the enemy must be driven back before the autumn closes in. No; you are going upon an extremely dangerous mission, Bracy; I tell you so frankly. I will be quite open with you. I am sending you upon this horribly risky journey; but it is as a soldier to risk your life to save ours.”“To save yours, sir?” said Bracy wonderingly.“Surely the fort is quite safe if you act on the defensive.”“It would be, my dear boy, if we had an ample supply of ammunition.”Bracy started, and gazed wide-eyed at his Colonel, who had leaned across the table and said these last words almost in a whisper.“I am speaking quite openly to you, Bracy—telling you what must be a secret between us two; and I tell you because it is just to one sent upon such a perilous enterprise that he should feel satisfied as to the urgency of the need.”Bracy made a gesture, but the Colonel checked him.“Yes; I know what you would say,” he continued: “that dangerous or no, you would do your duty. I know you would. I have perfect faith in my officers; but this is a matter of conscience on my side. Bracy, I find that our ammunition will not last a month. Once that is gone, we are no longer the superiors of the enemy. The bayonet is a splendid weapon; but these hill-tribes are magnificent swordsmen, and when, many times outnumbering us as they do, they come on to a hand-to-hand fight, adding their reckless religious fervour to their natural bravery, they must master us in the end; and that means taking the fort, and—you know what would follow.”Bracy bowed his head; he could not speak.“An indiscriminate massacres a horrible death to every man and woman in the place.”“Horrible, sir,” cried Bracy excitedly. “Oh, Colonel Graves, surely things are not so bad as you think!”The Colonel smiled.“You ought to know me by this time, Bracy,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I am a man likely to raise bugbears.”“No, no, sir! I beg your pardon.”“That will do,” said the Colonel quietly. “When you leave me, be prepared to start. You must not confide in your nearest friend; go about your work cheerfully, and as if only to bear a despatch, but conscious the while that our lives here depend upon your success. You understand?”“Yes,” said Bracy gravely, “I understand; and if I do not bring the help, sir, it is because—”“You have died trying to do your duty to your friends. I know. There, we need no more words, Bracy. Look here.”He took the despatch from the table and tore it up into bits.“Your appearance before the Ghoorka Colonel will be sufficient, and you will have no alarming announcement upon you if you are taken prisoner. Certainly it would be by people similar to those who are besieging us; but one never knows what soldiers of fortune may be among them, ready to be summoned by a chief to interpret the message.”“I understand, sir.”“Once you are well on the road you must make your companion fully understand the importance of the mission, so that if you go down there may still be the chance left to us of this man carrying on the news of our urgent need.”Bracy nodded shortly and drew a deep breath, waiting for the Colonel to speak again.“As to preparations,” said Colonel Graves at last, “go as you are; but you will each need aposhtin(long sheepskin coat) to cover your Kharkee uniforms, for concealment and warmth. You will be a great deal among the snow and rocks, and nothing can be less likely to attract attention. You will take sword, revolver, rifle, and bayonet. See that Gedge carries the same weapons. In addition, take as much simple provisions and ammunition as you can carry.”“And rob you all at such a time of need, sir?”“The amount you two can carry away in cartridges will not be missed if it comes to the worst, Bracy,” said the Colonel, smiling. “Once more, are you quite satisfied that you have selected the right lad?”“A man who will carry his wounded officer, with the enemy firing down at him from both sides of a rocky defile, cannot be bettered, sir,” said the young officer quietly.“Right, Bracy,” cried the Colonel. “He is the man. Ha! here comes Roberts to announce the advance of the enemy. I could hear the war-cries.—Yes, Roberts—the rascals worrying us again?”“Yes, sir; coming down the right gully in strong numbers. Will you come and look?”The Colonel picked up his glass and held out his hand.“I shall lead the men to-day, Bracy,” he said, “for a change. Major Graham will be in command here. I shall tell him of your mission. Within an hour I shall depend upon you making your start.”“Within an hour, sir,” said Bracy, as Roberts looked on in wonder.“I have been thinking that a mule would help your journey at the first. What do you think?”“I think not, sir,” said Bracy quietly. “We should be better free to climb anywhere. A baggage animal would tie us down to tracks.”“Quite right. Go as we arranged.—Roberts,” he continued, turning to the Captain, “Bracy is going to take a despatch for me. He starts directly.”“Directly, sir?” said Roberts, looking aghast.“Yes; he has his instructions. You can have half-an-hour with him before he starts; but you will ask no questions, only help him in any way you can to start without delay, while I am keeping the enemy well employed at this end of the valley.”“Yes, sir.”“After Bracy has started you can bring your company along the upper track to act as a reserve, and cover us if it is necessary when we retire. That will do.”The two officers left the Colonel’s quarters and hurried out.“My dear boy,” cried Roberts excitedly, “this is horribly sudden. Had you any idea of it before this morning?”“Not the slightest,” said Bracy gravely.“Glad of it, for I should have been hurt if you had not told me.”“But you will not be hurt now? You heard what Graves said.”“I was not to question you? Yes. Still, you have some confidences to make?”“Not one, old fellow.”“But surely—it is such a risky thing. Oh! it is preposterous; he ought not to have sent you. It is like sending a good man and true to his death.”“The Colonel thinks it best, and I agree with him. As to the risk—is it not risk enough to stay?”“But Bracy, old fellow, if—”“If,” said the young man calmly. “Soldiers should not talk to one another about the ‘if.’ Let that be.”“Tell me this, though: are you satisfied to go?”“Quite. Help me to get off—”“I will; but—”“By being silent, and then putting everything in one good grip of the hand.”“I see,” he said, accompanying Bracy to his quarters. “Now, what can I do?”“Send for Gedge.”“What for? Surely you have not chosen him for your companion?”“I have. The Colonel said he could not spare you.”“Ha! That’s better, old fellow. I was beginning to feel horribly set aside.”“I was to have one of the men for my companion. Can you suggest a better?”“No,” said Roberts, and he hurried out to seek the lad, who was standing in line with his fellows of the company, looking gloomy and discontented, for the sally-party to follow the Colonel, who was to lead them himself, did not include “Roberts’s lot,” as they were termed.“Fall out, Private Gedge,” said Roberts sharply.“Didn’t hear what I said, did he?” muttered the lad, with an anxious look, for he had been growling at what he called the favouritism served out to some of the companies in choosing them to go out and have the first chance of being shot; and this, he told himself, was mutinous.But he pulled himself together and stood as erect as a ramrod, waiting for the next order, which came directly:“Right face; march!”And he marched after his Captain, with heart beating heavily, and then sinking deeper and deeper, as he found himself led to the officers’ quarters.“It’s court-martial for a threep’ny-bit,” he muttered. “Next thing ’ll be ‘Disarm!’ and all because I wanted to go and fight. Oh! they are jolly ’ard on us chaps in the ranks.”“Come in, my lad,” said Roberts, stooping to enter the low door, and Gedge’s heart went down to its lowest point as he found himself face to face with Bracy.“Them two to drop on me!” he thought. “Wouldn’t ha’ keared if it had been the Major.”The next moment poor Gedge’s heavily plumping heart jumped, as he afterwards expressed it from his boots right up to his throat.“Gedge,” said Bracy coldly and quietly, “I am going on a very dangerous mission.”“Oh, sir, please don’t go without me!”“I have sent for you to say that I have selected you for my companion.”“Hoo—beg pardon, sir,” cried the lad, turning scarlet.“No cheering, no nonsense, no boy’s tricks, my lad. This is desperate men’s work. I have chosen you to go with me on a journey of many days, during which we shall suffer terrible hardships.”“That’s right, sir; used to it ever since I was—”“Silence, man!” said Bracy sternly. “We shall go with our lives in our hands, and probably never get to our journey’s end; but we shall have to try. Now then, if you feel the slightest qualm, speak out honestly, and I will choose some one else.”“Don’t do that, sir, please; but I will speak out honest. I must, when you axes me to.”“Ah!” cried Bracy.“I’m strong as a horse again, sir; but sometimes I do get a sorter dig in the back, just as if a red-hot iron rod were touching up my wound when the bit o’ iron—”“No, no, man,” cried Bracy, laughing. “I mean qualm of dread, or shrinking about running the risk.”“Oh, that, sir? Not me. Ain’t I just as likely to be shot if I stop quiet here? They’re allus trying to do it. I gets more sniping than any chap in the company.”“Then you will go with me?”“I just will, sir. Anywheres.”“Thank you, Gedge. I’ll say no more, for I know that you will stick to me like a man.”“Ha!” ejaculated Gedge, exhaling an enormous amount of pent-up emotion, and drawing his arm across his thickly perspiring brow, while a pleasant, contented smile lit up his plain features, as he drew himself up more stiffly to attention, waiting for orders.“Well done, Gedge!” said Roberts softly.—“You’ve picked the right lad, Bracy.”Gedge did not move a muscle, but stood as upright as the rifle at his side, and looking as inanimate, but quite as dangerous, while his two officers said a few words in a low tone. The next moment Roberts went out of the room, and Bracy turned to the lad.“We have to carry everything ourselves, and we must take all we can without overloading, my lad, for we shall have to climb a great deal amongst the snow. Now, mind this: we have just three-quarters of an hour for preparation. Then we must pass out of the gate.”Gedge did not move, but stood as if carved out of a block of hardened putty by the hand of an artistic drill-sergeant; listening, though, with his ears, which looked preternaturally large from the closeness of the regimental barber’s efforts, and seeming to gape. Then he left his rifle in a corner, and was off.The result was that, with five minutes to spare, officer and man, strangely transformed by their thick, woolly overcoats, stood ready in that room. Haversacks of provisions hung from their broad leather bands; revolvers balanced dagger-bay’nets from their belts; as much ammunition as they could carry was in their pockets, and necessary odds and ends were bestowed in satchels.“All ready?” said Roberts at last.“All ready. Nothing forgotten that I can think of.”“Then you will start at once. I have warned the men that you are to be allowed to slip out quietly, or they would have cheered you.”“Thanks,” said Bracy.—“You hear that, Gedge?”“Yes, sir.”“You will follow me without a word.”Gedge’s face now looked as if if had been carved in oil-stone, it was so hard, and he made no reply. But mentally he was discoursing vigorously in his wild state of excitement, for he could judge of his own appearance by that of his officer.“Just like a couple o’ second-hand Robinson Crusoes out of a pantymime, and bound for the North Pole. Talk about a lark. Oh, don’t I wish my poor old mother could see her bee-u-tiful boy!—Poor old chaps! Poor old pardners! Won’t they be waxy when they knows I’m gone! Here, blessed if I can get, at my clean pocket-’ankychy, and I wants to shed a purlin’ tear for poor old Sergeant Gee.”“Ready!” came to check the flow of Gedge’s thoughts, and, picking up his rifle, the fellow to that placed ready for Bracy, he stepped out into the court, to find all the men left in the fort gathered to see them start, for the news was every one’s property now; and as they marched towards the gates there was a low murmur, but no man stirred.It was different, though, with the women; though here, too, all was done in silence. Officers’ wives stepped forward to press Bracy’s hands, with the tears standing in their eyes, and many a “God-speed!” was murmured in the ears of both.“But no one shakes a hand with me,” said Gedge sadly to himself; and then, “Well, I’m blessed!”For Sergeant Gee was on one side of him to lay a hand upon his shoulder.“Good-bye, Gedge,” he said in his harsh, uncompromising way; “you’ll stick to your officer like a brave lad, I know.”“Thank ye, Sergeant; and same to you,” growled Gedge; and then the tears stood in his eyes, for Mrs Gee had hold of his unoccupied hand, to press it hard, with a grip, in fact, like a man’s.“Here,” she said, taking a small, flat, black packet from her breast, and Gedge saw that it was envelope-shaped, but home-made in oil-skin, and instead of being adhesive; there was a neat button and buttonhole. “Put that in your breast-pocket, my boy,” she said, “and never part with it. Bandages, oiled silk, needles and thread, and a pair o’ scissors. And mind this: plug a bullet-hole directly; and whatever you do, clean water, and lots of it, for all wounds.”“Thank ye, missus.”“For you and Mr Bracy too. There, Bill Gedge, you’re a brave lad, and I’ll kiss you for your mother’s sake, in case you don’t come back; and if ever I return to England I’ll write and tell the Queen how her brave boys are always ready to do or die, though I know she won’t get my letter if I do.”The men nearly disobeyed orders when Mrs Gee took hold of Gedge by his woollyposhtinand gave him a sounding kiss first on one cheek and then on the other, but they forbore; and the brave lad’s eyes very nearly brimmed over the next moment, for, leaving Bracy, now on his way to the gate, the officers’ ladies crowded round Gedge and shook hands, two dying to thrust upon him packages of what would have been luxuries to them in nights to come; but he was obliged to shake his head, for he was already laden to the fullest extent.“Now, Gedge!” came from the gate, and the next minute it had been opened and closed after two bulky, stooping figures, who, with rifles at the trail, started off in Indian file along the track by the river-side, making for the upper portion of the valley, but without uttering a word.Their ears were listening, though, to the sounds of firing in the distance, the reports of many pieces coming reverberating out of the chasm-like rift leading south. Their eyes, too, were as much upon the alert as those of some timid animal whose life depends upon its watchfulness from day to day, existing, as it does, in the midst of numberless enemies, who look upon it as their natural prey.But though their rolling eyes scanned every spot familiar, from long experience, as the lurking-place; of an enemy, there was not a glimpse of a white coat nor the gleam of a polished weapon to be seen. At the same time, careful watch was kept upon the track they traversed every time it opened out sufficiently for a forward glance of any extent, and the heavy, matter-of-fact, hill-country-looking pair had nearly reached a spot from whence a good view of the fort could be obtained before a word was spoken.Then the silence was broken by Bracy, who said abruptly:“Don’t look back, my lad.”“No, sir,” came promptly from the front.“Our lookout is forward from this hour till the time we bring back help to those we leave behind.”Gedge was silent, and kept on the watch, as, with rounded shoulders and camelled back, he planted his puttee-bandaged legs in the safest parts of the rugged track.“Well, don’t you want to know where we’re going?”“Yus, sir; ’orrid.”“Over the mountains to bring back a Ghoorka regiment, my lad.”“Right, sir.”“And by the hardest way we can find.”“Something like them ways over the snow, like you goes for the bears and sheep, sir?”“Yes: and harder ways still, Gedge: for to meet any of the people may mean—”Bracy paused, and Gedge waited for him to end his sentence. But he waited in vain, till he was tired, and then finished it to himself, and in the way he liked best.“May mean,” he said, and then paused—“having to put bullets through some o’ these savage savages, for I’m blest if I’m going to let ’em have the first shot at us. Yes,” he added, “savages; that’s what’s about their size. I never see such beasts. Yes, that’s what they are—wild beasts. I don’t call such things men. The best of it is, they thinks they’re so precious religious, and sticks theirselves up to pray every morning and every night, I’m blest!—praying!—and often as not with their knives and swords! Ugh! and phew! My word! it’s warm walking in these here coats. Wish I hadn’t got mine.”Is thought electric, or magnetic, or telepathic, or scientific, some way or another, that so often it is communicated from one person to another free of cost, and without a form, or boy to leave it, and wait for an answer? Certainly it was in that, clear mountain air, which blew softly among the cedars in the valley, coming off the clear ice and dazzling snow from one side, getting warmed in hot sunshine, and then rising up the mighty slopes on the other side, to grow from pure transparency, in its vast distance and extent, to be of a wonderfully delicious amethystine blue.Anyhow, Gedge had no sooner given himself his opinions about the heat engendered by walking in a thick, sheepskin coat than Bracy said:“Find theposhtinhot, Gedge?”“’Ot ain’t the word for it, sir,” was the reply. “I ain’t quite sure whether it’s me, or whether they didn’t scrape the fat off proper when they tanned the skin, sir; but something’s running.”“Steady down, then. It is very warm here among the cedars; but they hide us from the enemy, my lad. As soon as we begin to climb we shall be getting out of summer into winter; and by the time it’s dark, and we lie down to sleep, we shall think it would be pleasanter if we had two apiece.”“Shall us, sir? Well, you know, sir; but all this caps me. Here we are, as you say, in summer, and we’ve on’y got to climb up one o’ them mountains and there we are in winter. They say it freezes there every night.”“Quite right, Gedge.”“But all the snow melts away some time in the year?”“Never, my lad. Up there before you, where the sun shines on those glorious peaks, it is eternal winter, only that there is so much melting in the hottest parts of the day.”“To make the rivers, sir?”“Of course!”“And the rain helps when they’re all in the clouds up there, I suppose, sir?”“Rain!” said Bracy, laughing; “there is no rain there, my lad; when the clouds discharge their burden it is in the form of snow. But now, silence once more. The less we talk the better till we are among the snow, for at any moment we may be walking into a trap.”“Like we did, sir, when you three gentlemen come and whistled us from the side o’ them falls?”“Yes.”“Well, we don’t want none o’ that sort o’ thing, sir, or we shall never be bringing that ridgement back.”“Right. Now you see the necessity for taking to the snow where the hill-men rarely climb.”“Yus, sir, going; but what about coming back?”“The same, or a nearer way.”“But with a ridgement, sir?”“Oh yes; the Ghoorkhas will go anywhere if they are told.”“So’ll us,” said Gedge to himself; and then, with a word or two at times from behind, he trudged on and on towards the mighty snowfields, but ever with his eyes on the lookout for the danger—keen knife, tulwar, matchlock, ball, or spear—invisible so far, but which at any moment might be so near.

Another fortnight passed, during which the officers had a day’s shooting as often as they could be spared; and, though the Colonel’s face grew more and more serious he made no further objection to these excursions so long as they were sensibly carried out, for he had realised how thoroughly the enemy avoided the higher portions of the mountains, the snow-line being rarely crossed; and when they did break through their rule, it was only in crossing from one valley to another, and it was necessitated by the pass which linked the two being more than usually high.

It was a bright, sunny morning, and glasses had been busy in the fort, for certain well-known signs suggested that the day would not pass without their hearing from the enemy, of whom glances were obtained, first in one well-known locality, then in another, which they seemed to affect as a matter of course, showing very little disposition to break out of their regular routine, while one tribe followed in the steps of another so closely that it was generally possible to prognosticate where the attack would be made, and make arrangements to foil it.

The officers were chatting together; and in the group where Drummond stood with his friends he started a good grumbling discourse, something after this fashion:

“It’s always the case. So sure as I overlook my tackle, and have a good clean up of the rifles ready for a long day amongst the muttons, some of these beggars come and plant themselves just in the way we mean to go.”

“Mr Bracy,” said an orderly, coming up and saluting, “the Colonel wishes to see you.”

“Ha, ha!” laughed Drummond; “it’s to tell you that we are not to attempt a shoot to-day. Tell him, Bracy, that we had given it up.”

Bracy nodded, and went straight to the Colonel’s room, to find him busily writing.

He just glanced up and nodded.

“Sit down, Bracy,” he said, and he went on writing, his table being a couple of bullock-trunks, with a scarlet blanket by way of cover.

“Enemy are out pretty strong this morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ha! yes.”

There was a pause, filled up by a good deal of scratching of the pen, before the stern-looking officer began again.

“You are quite strong now, Bracy?” he said at last, without looking up.

“Never felt better in my life, sir.”

“I said strong, Bracy.”

“Nor stronger, sir.”

“That’s right,” said the Colonel, reading over his despatch and crossing i’s and dotting i’s here and there.

“Wound trouble you much still?”

“Gives me a sharp sting, sir, at times, back and front; but I always find that it is when we are going to have a change of weather.”

The Colonel paid no heed, and Bracy added:

“I dare say it will soon pass off, though.”

“It will not,” said the Colonel quietly, and to the young man’s dismay. “You will feel it more or less all your life. Yes,” he added, looking up and smiling, “a twinge to remind you that you were once a brave officer of the Queen.”

Bracy coughed, for he felt a little husky, and as if he were standing near a fire.

“Now, Bracy, business. I cannot go on sending despatch after despatch, none of which reach their destination. Either going or coming, my messengers have come to a bad end or been unfaithful.”

Bracy made no reply, for none was expected; and the Colonel now looked up, and, with his hands resting upon the table, gazed full in the young man’s eyes.

“I want a messenger whom I can trust,” he said, “a man who will undertake the task of delivering my despatch as a duty to his country. There are plenty of good, trusty lads in the regiment. Whom would you select—the best you know?”

Bracy was silent for a few moments before speaking.

“I should be sorry to see him go upon so dangerous a mission, sir; but if I had to select a lad in whom I should have perfect confidence, I should choose Private Gedge.”

“A very good selection, Bracy; but I want an officer.”

The young man stalled, and drew his breath hard.

“There is Andrews, or Elder, or Morrison,” continued the Colonel, “or Drummond, of Wrayford’s; but he is too volatile. Roberts would be a splendid fellow for the task, for, like Drummond, he is strong amongst ice and snow, and my messenger will have to take to the snow nearly all the way to save being stopped.”

“A wise plan, sir,” said Bracy eagerly; “one that should succeed.”

“I think it will; but my messenger will be face to face with death from the hour he starts, doubly facing it—from nature as well as man. But I cannot spare Roberts. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir; you wish me to volunteer.”

“Yes, Bracy,” said the Colonel, holding out his hand, which Bracy caught in both his. “God bless and protect you, my dear boy! I do.”

“Yes, sir,” said the young man firmly. “I’ll go.”

“Not alone. Take that man Gedge with you; he has had little to do amongst the snow, but—”

“Yes, sir; he’ll learn anything. When am I to start?”

“As soon as you can be ready. Then, I will clear the way for you by making a feint, so that you can make at once for the upper ground.”

“Not by the mountains above the Gor Pass, sir?”

“No; the other direction entirely. You are to make for the Ghil Valley, and bring back the Ghoorkas, Bracy. It is time that we took the offensive; the enemy must be driven back before the autumn closes in. No; you are going upon an extremely dangerous mission, Bracy; I tell you so frankly. I will be quite open with you. I am sending you upon this horribly risky journey; but it is as a soldier to risk your life to save ours.”

“To save yours, sir?” said Bracy wonderingly.

“Surely the fort is quite safe if you act on the defensive.”

“It would be, my dear boy, if we had an ample supply of ammunition.”

Bracy started, and gazed wide-eyed at his Colonel, who had leaned across the table and said these last words almost in a whisper.

“I am speaking quite openly to you, Bracy—telling you what must be a secret between us two; and I tell you because it is just to one sent upon such a perilous enterprise that he should feel satisfied as to the urgency of the need.”

Bracy made a gesture, but the Colonel checked him.

“Yes; I know what you would say,” he continued: “that dangerous or no, you would do your duty. I know you would. I have perfect faith in my officers; but this is a matter of conscience on my side. Bracy, I find that our ammunition will not last a month. Once that is gone, we are no longer the superiors of the enemy. The bayonet is a splendid weapon; but these hill-tribes are magnificent swordsmen, and when, many times outnumbering us as they do, they come on to a hand-to-hand fight, adding their reckless religious fervour to their natural bravery, they must master us in the end; and that means taking the fort, and—you know what would follow.”

Bracy bowed his head; he could not speak.

“An indiscriminate massacres a horrible death to every man and woman in the place.”

“Horrible, sir,” cried Bracy excitedly. “Oh, Colonel Graves, surely things are not so bad as you think!”

The Colonel smiled.

“You ought to know me by this time, Bracy,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I am a man likely to raise bugbears.”

“No, no, sir! I beg your pardon.”

“That will do,” said the Colonel quietly. “When you leave me, be prepared to start. You must not confide in your nearest friend; go about your work cheerfully, and as if only to bear a despatch, but conscious the while that our lives here depend upon your success. You understand?”

“Yes,” said Bracy gravely, “I understand; and if I do not bring the help, sir, it is because—”

“You have died trying to do your duty to your friends. I know. There, we need no more words, Bracy. Look here.”

He took the despatch from the table and tore it up into bits.

“Your appearance before the Ghoorka Colonel will be sufficient, and you will have no alarming announcement upon you if you are taken prisoner. Certainly it would be by people similar to those who are besieging us; but one never knows what soldiers of fortune may be among them, ready to be summoned by a chief to interpret the message.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Once you are well on the road you must make your companion fully understand the importance of the mission, so that if you go down there may still be the chance left to us of this man carrying on the news of our urgent need.”

Bracy nodded shortly and drew a deep breath, waiting for the Colonel to speak again.

“As to preparations,” said Colonel Graves at last, “go as you are; but you will each need aposhtin(long sheepskin coat) to cover your Kharkee uniforms, for concealment and warmth. You will be a great deal among the snow and rocks, and nothing can be less likely to attract attention. You will take sword, revolver, rifle, and bayonet. See that Gedge carries the same weapons. In addition, take as much simple provisions and ammunition as you can carry.”

“And rob you all at such a time of need, sir?”

“The amount you two can carry away in cartridges will not be missed if it comes to the worst, Bracy,” said the Colonel, smiling. “Once more, are you quite satisfied that you have selected the right lad?”

“A man who will carry his wounded officer, with the enemy firing down at him from both sides of a rocky defile, cannot be bettered, sir,” said the young officer quietly.

“Right, Bracy,” cried the Colonel. “He is the man. Ha! here comes Roberts to announce the advance of the enemy. I could hear the war-cries.—Yes, Roberts—the rascals worrying us again?”

“Yes, sir; coming down the right gully in strong numbers. Will you come and look?”

The Colonel picked up his glass and held out his hand.

“I shall lead the men to-day, Bracy,” he said, “for a change. Major Graham will be in command here. I shall tell him of your mission. Within an hour I shall depend upon you making your start.”

“Within an hour, sir,” said Bracy, as Roberts looked on in wonder.

“I have been thinking that a mule would help your journey at the first. What do you think?”

“I think not, sir,” said Bracy quietly. “We should be better free to climb anywhere. A baggage animal would tie us down to tracks.”

“Quite right. Go as we arranged.—Roberts,” he continued, turning to the Captain, “Bracy is going to take a despatch for me. He starts directly.”

“Directly, sir?” said Roberts, looking aghast.

“Yes; he has his instructions. You can have half-an-hour with him before he starts; but you will ask no questions, only help him in any way you can to start without delay, while I am keeping the enemy well employed at this end of the valley.”

“Yes, sir.”

“After Bracy has started you can bring your company along the upper track to act as a reserve, and cover us if it is necessary when we retire. That will do.”

The two officers left the Colonel’s quarters and hurried out.

“My dear boy,” cried Roberts excitedly, “this is horribly sudden. Had you any idea of it before this morning?”

“Not the slightest,” said Bracy gravely.

“Glad of it, for I should have been hurt if you had not told me.”

“But you will not be hurt now? You heard what Graves said.”

“I was not to question you? Yes. Still, you have some confidences to make?”

“Not one, old fellow.”

“But surely—it is such a risky thing. Oh! it is preposterous; he ought not to have sent you. It is like sending a good man and true to his death.”

“The Colonel thinks it best, and I agree with him. As to the risk—is it not risk enough to stay?”

“But Bracy, old fellow, if—”

“If,” said the young man calmly. “Soldiers should not talk to one another about the ‘if.’ Let that be.”

“Tell me this, though: are you satisfied to go?”

“Quite. Help me to get off—”

“I will; but—”

“By being silent, and then putting everything in one good grip of the hand.”

“I see,” he said, accompanying Bracy to his quarters. “Now, what can I do?”

“Send for Gedge.”

“What for? Surely you have not chosen him for your companion?”

“I have. The Colonel said he could not spare you.”

“Ha! That’s better, old fellow. I was beginning to feel horribly set aside.”

“I was to have one of the men for my companion. Can you suggest a better?”

“No,” said Roberts, and he hurried out to seek the lad, who was standing in line with his fellows of the company, looking gloomy and discontented, for the sally-party to follow the Colonel, who was to lead them himself, did not include “Roberts’s lot,” as they were termed.

“Fall out, Private Gedge,” said Roberts sharply.

“Didn’t hear what I said, did he?” muttered the lad, with an anxious look, for he had been growling at what he called the favouritism served out to some of the companies in choosing them to go out and have the first chance of being shot; and this, he told himself, was mutinous.

But he pulled himself together and stood as erect as a ramrod, waiting for the next order, which came directly:

“Right face; march!”

And he marched after his Captain, with heart beating heavily, and then sinking deeper and deeper, as he found himself led to the officers’ quarters.

“It’s court-martial for a threep’ny-bit,” he muttered. “Next thing ’ll be ‘Disarm!’ and all because I wanted to go and fight. Oh! they are jolly ’ard on us chaps in the ranks.”

“Come in, my lad,” said Roberts, stooping to enter the low door, and Gedge’s heart went down to its lowest point as he found himself face to face with Bracy.

“Them two to drop on me!” he thought. “Wouldn’t ha’ keared if it had been the Major.”

The next moment poor Gedge’s heavily plumping heart jumped, as he afterwards expressed it from his boots right up to his throat.

“Gedge,” said Bracy coldly and quietly, “I am going on a very dangerous mission.”

“Oh, sir, please don’t go without me!”

“I have sent for you to say that I have selected you for my companion.”

“Hoo—beg pardon, sir,” cried the lad, turning scarlet.

“No cheering, no nonsense, no boy’s tricks, my lad. This is desperate men’s work. I have chosen you to go with me on a journey of many days, during which we shall suffer terrible hardships.”

“That’s right, sir; used to it ever since I was—”

“Silence, man!” said Bracy sternly. “We shall go with our lives in our hands, and probably never get to our journey’s end; but we shall have to try. Now then, if you feel the slightest qualm, speak out honestly, and I will choose some one else.”

“Don’t do that, sir, please; but I will speak out honest. I must, when you axes me to.”

“Ah!” cried Bracy.

“I’m strong as a horse again, sir; but sometimes I do get a sorter dig in the back, just as if a red-hot iron rod were touching up my wound when the bit o’ iron—”

“No, no, man,” cried Bracy, laughing. “I mean qualm of dread, or shrinking about running the risk.”

“Oh, that, sir? Not me. Ain’t I just as likely to be shot if I stop quiet here? They’re allus trying to do it. I gets more sniping than any chap in the company.”

“Then you will go with me?”

“I just will, sir. Anywheres.”

“Thank you, Gedge. I’ll say no more, for I know that you will stick to me like a man.”

“Ha!” ejaculated Gedge, exhaling an enormous amount of pent-up emotion, and drawing his arm across his thickly perspiring brow, while a pleasant, contented smile lit up his plain features, as he drew himself up more stiffly to attention, waiting for orders.

“Well done, Gedge!” said Roberts softly.—“You’ve picked the right lad, Bracy.”

Gedge did not move a muscle, but stood as upright as the rifle at his side, and looking as inanimate, but quite as dangerous, while his two officers said a few words in a low tone. The next moment Roberts went out of the room, and Bracy turned to the lad.

“We have to carry everything ourselves, and we must take all we can without overloading, my lad, for we shall have to climb a great deal amongst the snow. Now, mind this: we have just three-quarters of an hour for preparation. Then we must pass out of the gate.”

Gedge did not move, but stood as if carved out of a block of hardened putty by the hand of an artistic drill-sergeant; listening, though, with his ears, which looked preternaturally large from the closeness of the regimental barber’s efforts, and seeming to gape. Then he left his rifle in a corner, and was off.

The result was that, with five minutes to spare, officer and man, strangely transformed by their thick, woolly overcoats, stood ready in that room. Haversacks of provisions hung from their broad leather bands; revolvers balanced dagger-bay’nets from their belts; as much ammunition as they could carry was in their pockets, and necessary odds and ends were bestowed in satchels.

“All ready?” said Roberts at last.

“All ready. Nothing forgotten that I can think of.”

“Then you will start at once. I have warned the men that you are to be allowed to slip out quietly, or they would have cheered you.”

“Thanks,” said Bracy.—“You hear that, Gedge?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You will follow me without a word.”

Gedge’s face now looked as if if had been carved in oil-stone, it was so hard, and he made no reply. But mentally he was discoursing vigorously in his wild state of excitement, for he could judge of his own appearance by that of his officer.

“Just like a couple o’ second-hand Robinson Crusoes out of a pantymime, and bound for the North Pole. Talk about a lark. Oh, don’t I wish my poor old mother could see her bee-u-tiful boy!—Poor old chaps! Poor old pardners! Won’t they be waxy when they knows I’m gone! Here, blessed if I can get, at my clean pocket-’ankychy, and I wants to shed a purlin’ tear for poor old Sergeant Gee.”

“Ready!” came to check the flow of Gedge’s thoughts, and, picking up his rifle, the fellow to that placed ready for Bracy, he stepped out into the court, to find all the men left in the fort gathered to see them start, for the news was every one’s property now; and as they marched towards the gates there was a low murmur, but no man stirred.

It was different, though, with the women; though here, too, all was done in silence. Officers’ wives stepped forward to press Bracy’s hands, with the tears standing in their eyes, and many a “God-speed!” was murmured in the ears of both.

“But no one shakes a hand with me,” said Gedge sadly to himself; and then, “Well, I’m blessed!”

For Sergeant Gee was on one side of him to lay a hand upon his shoulder.

“Good-bye, Gedge,” he said in his harsh, uncompromising way; “you’ll stick to your officer like a brave lad, I know.”

“Thank ye, Sergeant; and same to you,” growled Gedge; and then the tears stood in his eyes, for Mrs Gee had hold of his unoccupied hand, to press it hard, with a grip, in fact, like a man’s.

“Here,” she said, taking a small, flat, black packet from her breast, and Gedge saw that it was envelope-shaped, but home-made in oil-skin, and instead of being adhesive; there was a neat button and buttonhole. “Put that in your breast-pocket, my boy,” she said, “and never part with it. Bandages, oiled silk, needles and thread, and a pair o’ scissors. And mind this: plug a bullet-hole directly; and whatever you do, clean water, and lots of it, for all wounds.”

“Thank ye, missus.”

“For you and Mr Bracy too. There, Bill Gedge, you’re a brave lad, and I’ll kiss you for your mother’s sake, in case you don’t come back; and if ever I return to England I’ll write and tell the Queen how her brave boys are always ready to do or die, though I know she won’t get my letter if I do.”

The men nearly disobeyed orders when Mrs Gee took hold of Gedge by his woollyposhtinand gave him a sounding kiss first on one cheek and then on the other, but they forbore; and the brave lad’s eyes very nearly brimmed over the next moment, for, leaving Bracy, now on his way to the gate, the officers’ ladies crowded round Gedge and shook hands, two dying to thrust upon him packages of what would have been luxuries to them in nights to come; but he was obliged to shake his head, for he was already laden to the fullest extent.

“Now, Gedge!” came from the gate, and the next minute it had been opened and closed after two bulky, stooping figures, who, with rifles at the trail, started off in Indian file along the track by the river-side, making for the upper portion of the valley, but without uttering a word.

Their ears were listening, though, to the sounds of firing in the distance, the reports of many pieces coming reverberating out of the chasm-like rift leading south. Their eyes, too, were as much upon the alert as those of some timid animal whose life depends upon its watchfulness from day to day, existing, as it does, in the midst of numberless enemies, who look upon it as their natural prey.

But though their rolling eyes scanned every spot familiar, from long experience, as the lurking-place; of an enemy, there was not a glimpse of a white coat nor the gleam of a polished weapon to be seen. At the same time, careful watch was kept upon the track they traversed every time it opened out sufficiently for a forward glance of any extent, and the heavy, matter-of-fact, hill-country-looking pair had nearly reached a spot from whence a good view of the fort could be obtained before a word was spoken.

Then the silence was broken by Bracy, who said abruptly:

“Don’t look back, my lad.”

“No, sir,” came promptly from the front.

“Our lookout is forward from this hour till the time we bring back help to those we leave behind.”

Gedge was silent, and kept on the watch, as, with rounded shoulders and camelled back, he planted his puttee-bandaged legs in the safest parts of the rugged track.

“Well, don’t you want to know where we’re going?”

“Yus, sir; ’orrid.”

“Over the mountains to bring back a Ghoorka regiment, my lad.”

“Right, sir.”

“And by the hardest way we can find.”

“Something like them ways over the snow, like you goes for the bears and sheep, sir?”

“Yes: and harder ways still, Gedge: for to meet any of the people may mean—”

Bracy paused, and Gedge waited for him to end his sentence. But he waited in vain, till he was tired, and then finished it to himself, and in the way he liked best.

“May mean,” he said, and then paused—“having to put bullets through some o’ these savage savages, for I’m blest if I’m going to let ’em have the first shot at us. Yes,” he added, “savages; that’s what’s about their size. I never see such beasts. Yes, that’s what they are—wild beasts. I don’t call such things men. The best of it is, they thinks they’re so precious religious, and sticks theirselves up to pray every morning and every night, I’m blest!—praying!—and often as not with their knives and swords! Ugh! and phew! My word! it’s warm walking in these here coats. Wish I hadn’t got mine.”

Is thought electric, or magnetic, or telepathic, or scientific, some way or another, that so often it is communicated from one person to another free of cost, and without a form, or boy to leave it, and wait for an answer? Certainly it was in that, clear mountain air, which blew softly among the cedars in the valley, coming off the clear ice and dazzling snow from one side, getting warmed in hot sunshine, and then rising up the mighty slopes on the other side, to grow from pure transparency, in its vast distance and extent, to be of a wonderfully delicious amethystine blue.

Anyhow, Gedge had no sooner given himself his opinions about the heat engendered by walking in a thick, sheepskin coat than Bracy said:

“Find theposhtinhot, Gedge?”

“’Ot ain’t the word for it, sir,” was the reply. “I ain’t quite sure whether it’s me, or whether they didn’t scrape the fat off proper when they tanned the skin, sir; but something’s running.”

“Steady down, then. It is very warm here among the cedars; but they hide us from the enemy, my lad. As soon as we begin to climb we shall be getting out of summer into winter; and by the time it’s dark, and we lie down to sleep, we shall think it would be pleasanter if we had two apiece.”

“Shall us, sir? Well, you know, sir; but all this caps me. Here we are, as you say, in summer, and we’ve on’y got to climb up one o’ them mountains and there we are in winter. They say it freezes there every night.”

“Quite right, Gedge.”

“But all the snow melts away some time in the year?”

“Never, my lad. Up there before you, where the sun shines on those glorious peaks, it is eternal winter, only that there is so much melting in the hottest parts of the day.”

“To make the rivers, sir?”

“Of course!”

“And the rain helps when they’re all in the clouds up there, I suppose, sir?”

“Rain!” said Bracy, laughing; “there is no rain there, my lad; when the clouds discharge their burden it is in the form of snow. But now, silence once more. The less we talk the better till we are among the snow, for at any moment we may be walking into a trap.”

“Like we did, sir, when you three gentlemen come and whistled us from the side o’ them falls?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we don’t want none o’ that sort o’ thing, sir, or we shall never be bringing that ridgement back.”

“Right. Now you see the necessity for taking to the snow where the hill-men rarely climb.”

“Yus, sir, going; but what about coming back?”

“The same, or a nearer way.”

“But with a ridgement, sir?”

“Oh yes; the Ghoorkhas will go anywhere if they are told.”

“So’ll us,” said Gedge to himself; and then, with a word or two at times from behind, he trudged on and on towards the mighty snowfields, but ever with his eyes on the lookout for the danger—keen knife, tulwar, matchlock, ball, or spear—invisible so far, but which at any moment might be so near.

Back to IndexNext