G. B. Lancaster

“ It was no more than a minute before she followed; but already the uneasy stress of departure had merged into the rigid orderliness of a column under way, and the great mouse-grey and flea-bitten mules, with their sagging bundles or neatly-strapped machine-guns, were filing through the zareba gate. Three companies—stray units dropped by the last flotilla from India—swung steadily round the corner of the verandah, and a native, running out with Dolly's hamper, raised his arms and his voice in shrill expostulation. Harris, waiting for the call, fell out and doubled to the verandah. ”

“ Down the slope the intermittent crackle of rifle-fire went on. Back in the hospital a native was screaming in the high nasal note of terror and suffering. The boots of the orderlies grated on the stone verandah, and Rails was calling her. Again the whine of a shell passed overhead, and a muffled explosion came from the jungle. She had lately done and seen things which she thought no woman could have lived through. She had borne strain as one who has lost the power to feel or to tire. ”

“ After keen deliberation and two wakeful nights, Rags and Toby had decided on the only plan of action which had a chance. By machine-guns—two, sniping, and luck, the bald head of Old Man Kopje across the river must be kept inviolate as long as could be. Once the enemy succeeded in planting anything over a four-pounder there, the garrison must take to the casemates and dug-outs down the slope, which was sand-bagged and tunnelled into comparative safety. ”

“ Toby had spent the last four inactive hours as a man does not care to spend many and live. Scouts sent into the jungle had reported no sign of Rags's return. The end of this was certain. A tall Zulu near him doubled up, like the black, shiny ball at pool, and went under the water. These German devils had no fear of the bayonet, but how they yelled when our fellows drove them into the quicksand! Young Carruthers was laughing beside him. ”

“ Rags stretched his long, angular limbs in their stained and faded khaki, looked at Dolly out of his kind brown eyes for a fleeting instant, and strolled off to the window. "Did you tell him how to manage if we get served shells without eggs, or air without sheets, or ammunition without hampers? Carruthers, that eternal Blake will have his mule-pack top-side below for the fiftieth time inside of two ticks. Just go and show him how, will you?"
"Yes, sir," said the subaltern, departing, and Toby gathered up his lamp and its connecting wires with care.
"Harris is as clever as a woman. ”

“ When we get back to the earth! ...
"Toby, don't!" she cried suddenly, and he raised his head and looked at her with curious, morose fire in his eyes.
"It's easy enough for a man to die when he's done his possible," he said, "but he loathes having a woman in a mess like this—loathes it!"
The light was growing faint now. Against the glimmer of a cloth someone had hung to dry she could just see the dark, hard angle of his jaw.
"Mind your own business," she said lightly. "Rags has arranged for me." ”

“ If you think you could give me a hand——"
"My dear man," drawled Dolly, "what else do you imagine I came here for?" She smiled, but her half-closed eyes scintillated, and Rails followed in awed dismay.
"Good Heavens!" said his mind. "Good Heavens! She came to look after Lansing, of course, and he—— Well, thank the Powers, I'm not married!"
At the beginning Toby had made the garrison a little speech.
"Remember that every shot has got to count," he said. "To throw away ammunition is to throw away lives, and that's the plain English of it. ”

“ And the little half-company of sweating sun-blistered Engineers were, as Dolly asserted, no better. A few more or less sick Regulars, some veldt-scrapings of Basutos, Zulus, and other natives of sorts, filled up the garrison total, and surroundings gave them no aid. The earth was red powder and the grass tow, and rocks and stones burnt to the touch. Sapping was an impossibility valiantly overcome. Trench-making down the slope, among the fervid attentions of mosquitos, scorpions, and other small deer, almost banished speech when the puerility of it was admitted. ”

“ Step by step the British were forced back, fighting in that delirium which descends on men in desperate straits, taking their business through grimly, hand to hand, thrusting, hacking, beating down, rolling in mud and water and snatching wire, staggering to their feet again and hewing with arms that seemed to be steel. ”

“ Bice and Carruthers, with the machine-guns, enfiladed Old Man Kopje, until a stray shot smashed the breech of Bice's gun, and he and his men were picked off before they could take cover. Carruthers was ordered into the trenches after that, and when a six-pounder howitzer appeared from somewhere and took up position behind the chaos of an exploded mine on the further bank, the Heads of the Garrison knew that all was over bar shouting. The first three shots from the gun screamed into the jungle. ”

“ The ford was drying, and a howitzer on the Old Man Kopje could make a good bid at controlling the whole outfit. If the Germans happened to want to trek this way, Toby did not know anything short of earthquakes which could stop them. But "To the last man and the last round of ammunition, Toby!" Rags had said. And he had answered: "To the last benighted one, old man! And then we'll go to glory with the butts." Not a word of Dolly there. Neither could trust themselves that far. "Hip, hip, hip—let her rip, uncle! We'll show them what we are worth." ”

“ And after that the Deluge. "For the rest," said Toby, "a few fancy touches with barbed wire, one or two mines and some hand-made grenades, are about all we can do to give éclat to the proceedings."
Young Carruthers wiped his dripping face with a bloody hand. They were disposing the last fathom of wire in the scrub along the flanks of Old Man Kopje, and the sun, repeating a Biblical event, had indubitably stood overhead for an hour.
"If you'd only let me start a machine-gun stunt from the top," he said.
"Can't. They'd blow you straight to blazes. And guns are precious." ”

“ They were testing our strength, and—they know it now, my dear. They drew off—we didn't beat them. The last shot in the locker's gone, Dolly. They'll be all over us as soon as it's light enough to see the wire in the ford to-morrow morning. They have no fancy for being drowned in the dark. Besides, it isn't necessary."
She did not answer. He went on handling the rifle and whistling that old silly tune which brought flooding memories of light and laughter, of a music-hall stage, and Toby and Rags either side her in the stalls-
Let us be merry O! ”

“ And to throw away lives here is to mess up matters for the men who have gone inland, and who are probably already tackling a bigger proposition than we know. We've got to give them every chance we can by holding the ford as long as we can. ”