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Charge! - A Story of Briton and Boer, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 12. Into The Fire |
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_ CHAPTER TWELVE. INTO THE FIRE "What about breakfast? Have you had any?" said Denham. "No," I replied; "but I have some with me;" and taking out a portion of what was left over from the previous afternoon, I proceeded to make up for what was lacking, eating with the better appetite for seeing that Joeboy was busy over one of the big sandwiches provided for him by Aunt Jenny. This done, I seemed to forget my injuries, and rode on with the little troop, watching the agile way in which Joeboy made his way forward, well in advance and showing no sign of fear. Mounted men advancing up the rugged pass had very little chance of keeping themselves concealed. Here and there a bend in the narrow valley helped us; but there was always the knowledge that, if the enemy were in force up by the neck of the pass, they had plenty of niches among the mountains on either side to which they could climb and watch us till well within range of their rifles, when shot after shot and puff after puff of white smoke would appear, with very different effect, I felt, from those fired in the darkness of the past night's scare. All this was very suggestive of danger; but somehow I did not feel alarmed. There was too much excitement in the business, and I was flushed with a feeling of triumph at being so soon in a position to retaliate upon the people who had used me so ill. I rode on, then, for some distance behind my officer, as I now began to consider him, till the valley opened out, and he reined up a little to allow me to come alongside, so that he could question me about the track higher up. I told him all I could, and endeavoured to impress upon him that it would be a very bad position for his men if the Boers sighted them. "You would find the ground so bad and encumbered with rough stones," I said, "that it would be impossible to gallop back." "But we don't want to gallop back," he said, with a laugh. "That's all capital about the bad road, and sounds sensible as a warning; but you must not talk about galloping back. If the enemy does show we shall dismount and use our rifles, retiring slowly from cover to cover. But you'll soon know our ways in the Light Horse." "I hope so," I said; "but of course I am no soldier yet, and very ignorant." "Not of the use of your rifle, Val, my lad," he said. "I used to envy you." "Oh, nonsense!" I said. "Of course I could shoot a bit. My father began to teach me very early." "I don't believe I can shoot so well now as you did two years ago, when we went up the country. I don't know what you can do now. Why, Val, I expect you'll soon prove yourself to be a better soldier than any of us, for our drill is precious rough; but we are improving every day." "You have been farther up than this?" I said, to change the conversation, which was making me, a lad accustomed only to our solitary farm-life, feel awkward and uncomfortable, with a suspicion that my companion was bantering me. "No," he replied; "only about a hundred yards farther than where we met this morning." "Then you'll find the riding worse than you expect." "Well, it will be practice," he said. "But I say, how that nigger of yours scuffles along! He's leaving us quite behind." "He is sure-footed and accustomed to the rocks," I said as I watched Joeboy, who was getting higher and higher up the precipice to our left, as well as higher up the pass. "He wants to get up to where he can look over the Boers' position." "He had better mind," said Denham. "You ought to have taken away those bits of vanity before he went into action." "What bits of vanity?" I said. "Those white ostrich-feathers. They make him stand out so clear to a shooter. Ah! he's down." Just then Joeboy was seen to drop forward right out of sight. "No," I said; "that was one of his jumps;" and I spoke confidently, for I had often seen him make goat-like leaps when we had been out shooting among the hills. "You're wrong," said my companion confidently. "Poor fellow! let's get level with the place where he tumbled. I'm sure that was a fall." "Wait a few minutes," I said, "and you'll see him perhaps a hundred yards farther on." I proved to be quite right, for we soon saw Joeboy climbing steadily on just as I had said, and he kept on getting higher and higher till we were up to the spot where I had passed so unpleasant a night. "My word, you did have a bad time of it! Why, if you had gone over there it would have killed this beautiful little horse of yours." "Then I shouldn't have found the Light Horse," I said quietly; but I couldn't help feeling a bit of a shiver as I gazed at the depth below where we had stopped. After that, as we rode on, keeping a good lookout, I began to ask a few questions about the war which had so suddenly broken out and come like a surprise upon us at our quiet and retired home. "Oh," said my companion, "it is only what many people expected. The Boers have never been satisfied about being under England. Plenty of them are sensible enough, and think that the proper thing to do is to attend to their farms and grazing cattle; but there are a set of discontented idiots among them who have stirred them up with a lot of political matter, telling them they are slaves of England's tyrannical rule, and that it is time to strike for their freedom, till they have believed that they are ill-treated. So now they have risen, and say that they are going to drive all the Rooineks, as they call us English, into the sea, quite forgetting that if we had not helped them the savage tribes around them would have overrun their country and turned them out." "Will they drive us into the sea?" I asked. "What do you think?" said Denham, with a laugh. "Do you think we are the sort of people to let a party of rough farmers turn us out of Natal, just because they have been stirred up to fight by a gang of political adventurers? Is your father going to give up his farm that he has spent years of his life in making out of the wilderness?" "What?" I cried angrily. "No! I should think not." "Well, that's bringing it home to you, my lad. I said your father's farm. His is only one instance." "It isn't as if we wanted to turn the Boers out," I said. "Of course not. All we want is for them to behave like peaceable neighbours, and obey the laws. They want what they call freedom, which is as good as saying that English laws make people slaves. We don't feel much like slaves--do we?" "Is that the reason they are at war with us?" "Something of that kind," said the Lieutenant, "as far as I understand it. All politics, and they are the most quarrelsome things in the world. People are always fighting about them somewhere." "But--" I began. "Oh, don't ask me," said my companion; "that's as much as I understand about it. All I say is that it's a great pity people should be shooting at one another over what ought to be settled by a bit of talk. But, I say, look out. What does that mean? Halt!" The men drew rein on the instant, as I looked forward, expecting to see a puff of white smoke ahead, for Joeboy suddenly dropped down behind a block of stone high up in front, and from there began to make signals, just as if he were out in rough ground with me on the veldt and had sighted game. "He has seen the Boers," I said excitedly. "Look! He says there are hundreds of them." "No, he doesn't," said my companion gruffly; "he's only flourishing his arms about like a windmill gone mad." "But that's his way of signalling a big herd of game," I said, "and--" Before I could say more, _puff, puff, puff_ arose the tiny white clouds of smoke, followed by the cracking of the rifles, taken up by the echoes till there was a continuous roar; while _phit, phit, phit_, bullets began to drop about us, striking the stones, and others passed overhead with an angry buzz like so many big flies. "Retire!" shouted my companion. "It's of no use to waste ammunition. They're in strong force up yonder.--Here, you, Moray, what are you about?" "Nothing," I said sternly; "only looking for my man." "But didn't you hear my order?" shouted Denham; and before I could do anything to prevent him he caught Sandho's rein and put spurs to his horse. "Don't do that," I cried angrily. "I can't go and leave my poor fellow in the lurch. I'm afraid he's hit." "I can't stop here and have my little troop shot down on account of your black." "But--" "Come on, sir!" shouted Denham; "obey orders. Here, you're a pretty rough sort of a pup for me to lick into shape," he added, in a friendly way, as he trotted back amongst the stones. "Recollect you're a soldier now, without any will of your own. You hand everything over to your officer, and obey him, whether it's to ride forward into the enemy's fire or to retire." "But it's horrible to leave that poor fellow to his fate," I said. "More horrible to lose the lives of the party of men entrusted to me. Look here, my lad; it's an officer's duty never to throw away a man. If he is obliged to spend a few to carry some point, that's war and necessary; but to dash them bull-headed against double odds to gain nothing is folly." "But I can't go on. Let me stay back and try and help him," I said passionately. "Certainly not. Be sensible. Look here: you don't know that he's hit." "But he dropped from behind that stone." "Yes; but that may be his dodge. Perhaps he's gliding back under cover from stone to stone." "Perhaps," I said bitterly. "Look here: if this is your way of going to work I've had enough of soldiering." I rode on unwillingly, expecting to hear a furious tirade from my companion, who still held my rein; but he was silent for a few minutes, while the bullets kept on spattering and whizzing about us without hitting any one. "So you're tired of soldiering--are you?" said Denham at last. "Yes," I said hotly. "I never felt such a coward before." "Rubbish! Look here: you want me to expose my little detachment to the fire of that strongly-posted crowd of Boers, and get half of them shot down, so as to try and pick up your servant." "No, I don't," I replied sharply. "There's plenty of cover here. I should have got the men behind some of these blocks of stone and returned the fire, so as to keep the enemy in check while I sent two men dismounted to try and bring my man--our guide--in, alive or dead." "Humph!" said my companion shortly. "Why, I begin to think you are a better soldier than I am;" and, to my intense surprise, he halted the party behind a huge block which divided our way, dismounted half, and sent them out right and loft to seek cover from whence they could reply to the enemy's fire. Then he turned to me. "You must hold two horses," he said. "I'll send two fellows to steal up the gap from stone to stone to try and pick up your man." "No, no," I said excitedly. "I'll go alone." "Suppose you find him wounded, or--" "Dead?" I said, finishing his sentence. "Yes: you couldn't carry him in." "No," I said, with a sigh. "I'm lame still from the injury to my foot. It hurts me so badly at times that I can hardly ride." "Hurrah!" came from the right, and the cheer was taken up from the left, while _crack, crack, crack_, rifles were being brought well into play. "What does that mean?" said Denham. "Have they brought down one of the Dutchmen?" He pressed his horse's sides and rode out from behind the great stone, while I followed him, to learn directly what was the meaning of the cheering. It was plain enough, for there, about five hundred yards up the narrow pass, was Joeboy coming after us at a quick run, dodging round the great stones, and pretty well contriving to keep them between him and the enemy, whose rifles kept on spitting bullets fiercely after him. It was as Denham had suggested. Joeboy had leaped down from behind the stone as soon as he had drawn the enemy's fire, then started to follow us, running the gauntlet of their bullets, and reaching us in a very short time, flushed, triumphant, and very little out of breath. "Well," cried Denham, "see the Boers?" "Um!" replied Joeboy. "Were there a great many of them?" I said eagerly, as I sat hoping the poor fellow did not give me the credit of forsaking him in a cowardly way. For answer he held up both hands with fingers and thumbs outspread; dropped them, and raised them once more; and would have kept on for long enough if I had not checked him. "You see," I said to Denham, "they are in great force up there." "Yes, and no wonder," was the reply, "for it's a very strong position. Now then, all here, and forward once more." The men ran back into the rallying-place as quickly as so many rabbits, mounted, and once more we were in full retreat, with Joeboy trotting beside my horse holding on to the stirrup-iron, while Denham kept coming to me, to talk. "Just to give you a few lessons in the art of war," he said, with his eyes twinkling and a laugh beginning to show at their corners. "There, you see we have done exactly what the Colonel wanted us to do: made a regular reconnaissance and drawn the enemy's fire, proving that he is holding the pass. What the old man will do now remains to be seen. He won't go up here with us to try and dislodge them, but will try, I expect, to lure them down into the open somewhere, so as to give us a chance at them." "They'll be too cunning," I said. "They fight only from behind stones, and in holes." "Yes, they're cunning enough," said Denham; "but, like all over-clever people, they make mistakes, or find others quite as cunning. Look here: you'll have to propose some dodge to the Colonel to coax them out to give us a chance." "I propose a plan to the Colonel?" "Yes. Why not?" said Denham, laughing. "You've begun your soldiering by teaching me, and--Oh!" He uttered a sharp cry, and clapped his right hand round to his back. "What is it?" I said excitedly. "Not hit?" "Yes, I've got it," he muttered. "Just look. It hurts horribly. I say, though, that's a good sign--eh?" The men halted involuntarily behind the stones, and Denham bravely kept his seat till all were under cover, when, refusing to dismount, he slipped off his bandolier and began to unbutton his tunic. "You had better let us help you down," I suggested. "No; I don't feel bad enough," he said through his teeth, speaking viciously as if in great pain. "I don't think I'm much hurt. See any blood?" "No," I replied as he threw off his tunic and laid it across his horse's neck. "Here, look. That's it. All! there it lies." For I had made a snatch at a long-shaped bullet, missed it twice, and then sat pointing out where it had fallen. Joeboy snatched it up and handed it to me. "Humph!" said Denham; "then it hasn't gone through me, or it would have fallen from my back." "Instead of your chest," I said. "It must have been partly spent with the long distance it travelled." "I wish it had been quite spent," said Denham through his teeth, "Oh, what a fuss I'm making about such a trifle! Nothing worse than having a stone thrown at one." "It's gone right through the back of your jacket," said one of the men. "Look, there's quite a big hole." "It has not broken the skin," I said, examining his back. "No, of course not. Here, give me that jacket again, you. Let's get it on. This is all waste of time." He winced a good deal and looked very white; but he bravely mastered his feeling of faintness, and struggled once more into his tunic, suffering greatly, as I could see by the pallor breaking through his sun-browned skin. "Stings a bit," he said to me as he fastened the buttons; "but it might have been worse--eh, Val? I always was a thick-skinned fellow, and it turns out lucky now. How far is the nearest skirmisher?" "A good thousand yards, I should say," I replied. "Good, and no mistake, for the distance has saved me, Val, my lad. But what's that: over half a mile--eh? Not bad shooting, and shows they must have good rifles, bless 'em! Now then, hand me that cartridge-belt, and I should be glad if you'd pass it over my head, for I'm not very ready to move." "You will have to let the doctor see the place," I said as I extended the bandolier so as to pass it over his head. "Doctor? Faugh! What do I want with a doctor for this? I'm going to keep quiet, my lad, or the doctor and the Colonel between them will be wanting to invalid me." "Oh!" I exclaimed sharply. "Hullo!" he cried. "Don't say you've got it too, lad!" "No, no. Look here," I said, and I held out the cartridge-belt to show where a case was flattened--the brass exterior and the bullet within-- while the spring-like holder was broken, and the leather beneath sprayed with lead. "What's the matter?" said Denham, looking round, and wincing with pain as he changed his position. "It was no spent bullet that struck you," I said, dragging out the damaged cartridge. "You have the bullet in its brass case to thank for saving your life. Look how they're flattened." He took the bolt in his fingers, and then held them out, examining all carefully without a word. "Humph!" he ejaculated at last. "That was a narrow escape. I think I shall save that flattened bullet. Not the sort of thing a man would choose for a back-plate, but it did its work. Yes, I must save that flattened bit and the bullet the Boer shot. They'll be worth taking out of a drawer some day to show people, if we got safe through the war. There, I'm all right now. Attention! March!" The firing had ceased as he gave the orders, the first word in a sharp military way, the second with a catching gasp, and he fell over sidewise. Fortunately I was close upon his left and caught him in my arms, which were none too strong or ready for such a task; but I managed to hold him tightly clasped round the chest as his horse moved off and his legs sank to the ground. A couple of the men drew rein and dismounted directly to come to my help, they taking him from my arms to lay him upon the stony ground. "Fainted," I said, dismounting painfully. "Who has a water-bottle?" One was produced directly, and I was busily bathing the poor fellow's face and trying to trickle a little water between his lips, when we became painfully aware of the fact that we had moved out from cover, for _spat, spat, spat_, three bullets struck stones near us, making it evident that we were well in view, and that the Boers were making targets of the different members of the group. This was remedied directly; but in spite of the shaking he received in being moved to the rear of the biggest stone, Denham did not open his eyes, but lay there perfectly insensible; while, to add to our difficulties, one of our men, who had retaken their places in cover, to be ready to reply to the fire if a favourable opportunity presented itself, announced that the enemy was steadily advancing down the pass, and evidently with the intention of clearing it of the party of cavalry which had entered between its barren walls. _ |
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