George Manville Fenn

“ What do you say, Dickenson?”
“I should like to see that black-haired brute tied up and flogged, sir.”
“Should you?” said the colonel, smiling. “Well, I dare say he deserves it; but it is not the punishment we can give a prisoner, so your opinion will stand alone.—Well, Lennox?”
“Oh, it’s all war, sir; and the fellows are half-savage peasants who hate us like poison. You can’t shoot them, sir, for fighting their best—their way.”
“No, Mr Lennox, I can’t shoot them; but it will be a horrible nuisance to have to keep them as prisoners. I wish they had died fighting like brave men. ”

“ Exact to the time, just an hour before midnight, and in profound darkness—for the moon had set but a short time before—the men, with shouldered rifles, set off with springy step, Dickenson and Lennox, to whom the country was well known from shooting and fishing excursions they had made, leading the party, not a word being uttered in the ranks, and the tramp, tramp of feet sounding light and elastic as the lads followed through the open, undulating plain, well clear of the bush, there being hardly a stone to pass till they were within a mile of the little kopje where the Boers’ laager lay. ”

“ The captain was silent for some little time, and then he half-dragged his companion to the rough ladder.
“Come up,” he said; “you know we can do no more by stopping thinking till one is almost wild with horror. Here, go up first.”
It was like a sharp order, but Dickenson felt that it came from his officer’s heart, and, with a shiver as much of horror as of cold from his drenched and clinging garments, he climbed to the next level and stood feeling half-stunned, and waiting while the sergeant climbed up and joined them with some rings of the rope upon his arm. ”

“ Drew Lennox said no more, but glanced up-stream and down-stream, after starting his bait once again upon its swim. Then, after watching the rings uncoil till the line was tight, he swept the edge of the opposite bank some fifty yards away, carefully searching the clumps of trees and bushes, partly in search of a lurking enemy or spying Kaffir, taught now by experience always to be on the alert, and partly in the faint hope of catching a glimpse of something in the shape of game such as would prove welcome in the famine that he and his comrades were experiencing. ”

“ The brisk walking over the veldt in the clear, bright air rapidly dissipated Dickenson’s unpleasant sensations, and when the main body was overtaken the young officer would have felt quite himself again if it had not been for the dull, heavy sense of misery which asserted itself: for constantly now came the ever-increasing belief that he must accept the worst about his comrade, something in his depressed state seeming to repeat to him the terrible truth—that poor Drew Lennox must be dead. ”

“ Rubbish! What is it to me, sir, how the man has been behaving? He’s all wrong, isn’t he?”
“Yes; terribly.”
“Very well, then, I’ve got to put him all right. If he has committed any breach of discipline you can court-martial him when I’ve done.”
“But, hang it all, doctor!” cried Dickenson fiercely, “you don’t believe he’s a coward?”
“Humph! Very evident you don’t, my lad,” said the doctor grimly.
“Of course not.”
“That’s right; then stick to it. I like to see a man back up his friend.”
“Who wouldn’t back him up?” cried Dickenson.
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s very evident that Roby won’t.” ”

“ Lennox had been standing outside his quarters for some time, enjoying the coolness, and shrinking from going in to where the hut was hot and stuffy and smelling strongly of the now extinguished paraffin-lamp, mingled with a dash of the burned tobacco in Dickenson’s pipe.
“I say,” said the latter, “hadn’t you better come in and perch? Nothing like making your hay when the sun shines, and getting your forty winks while you can.” ”

“ The sergeant reached up into the wagon-tilt to lift down the lantern from where he had hung it to one of the tilt-bows.
“No, no,” cried the Boer; “you needn’t do that, boss. They can see. There,” he cried, thrusting in both hands and scooping as much as he could grasp, and letting the glistening yellow grains fall trickling back in a rivulet again and again. “See that? Hard as shot. Smell it. Fresh. This year’s harvest. I know where there’s enough to feed four or five thousand men.”
“Yes, it looks good,” said Dickenson, helping himself to a handful, and putting a grain into his mouth. ”

“ There, I’ll go and see them before I lie down.”
“No, sir; please, don’t,” said the sergeant earnestly. “You’ve done quite enough for one day.”
“Confound it, man! don’t dictate to me,” cried Dickenson testily.
“Certainly not, sir. Beg your pardon, sir; but we’ve got a heavy job on to-night, and it’s my duty to warn you as an old soldier.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, sir, that I’ve had twenty years’ experience, and you’ve had two, sir. A man can only do so much; when he has done that and tries to do more, he shuts up all at once. I don’t want you to shut up, sir, to-night. ”

“ The Boer grunted, glanced back once more, and at last, as if he had thoroughly grasped his position, said a few words to his nearest companions and passed the word to trek, when, in answer to the crack of the huge whip, the bullocks sprang to their places along the trek-tows, the wagons creaked and groaned, and the little convoy was escorted into the market-place, where, as soon as he saw him, the field-cornet made for the colonel’s side and began like one with a grievance. ”

“ Down he went, to pitch head first, and a sound like a fierce snarling ran along the sheltered side of the stone wall; but as the men saw him spring to his feet again and begin to run they were silent for a few moments, as if in doubt as to what their young lieutenant meant; for Dickenson sprang on to the wall, trying hard to balance himself on the loose top where bullets kept on spattering, as he roared out, with his voice plainly heard above the rattle of the Boers’ rifles, “Look at the coward! Running away again! Volunteers, come on!” ”

“ Who’s he that he should have the monopoly of getting into a passion about nothing? I say, though, as we were up there this morning I don’t see what is the use of our going up again; there’ll be no shade at the top, and we shall be half-roasted.”
“Don’t come, then,” said Lennox quietly. “I’m going up to see if I can follow the scouts with a glass.”
“Don’t come?” cried Dickenson sharply. “Well, I like that! Here’s another one touched by the sun. Old Roby is not to have the monopoly of getting into a fantigue.”
“Nonsense! I’m not out of temper,” said Lennox. ”

“ You will come with me?”
“No,” said Lennox; “the colonel does not like his young officers to interfere. It would be better for you to go.”
“Your chief is right,” said the Boer firmly. “He thinks and acts for himself. I do the same. I do not let my men tell me what I should do.” He spoke meaningly, as if he were giving a side-blow at some one or other of his companions. “I think much and long, and when I have thought what is best I tell them what to do, and they do it. Yes, I will go to the colonel now and speak to him. Wait here.”
“No,” said Dickenson quietly. ”

“ Four more Boers kept the sheep and oxen in the rear of the wagons from straying away in search of a place to graze, for there was a tempting odour of fresh green herbage saluting their nostrils, along with the pleasant moisture rising from the trickling water hurrying away towards the gully where it found its way into the river.
“What do you say to telling Roby to set a man to probe the sacks with a fixed bayonet?”
“It would be wise,” whispered back Lennox.
“Tchah!” sneered Dickenson. “How could a fellow exist under one of those sacks of corn? ”

“ It was quick work, for there was less than a couple of hundred yards to cover to be through the Boer line and reach the shelter of the rough stone walls and huge boulders which formed on that side the first defences of the kopje.
In the wild excitement of those minutes Lennox was conscious of cheering his men on, as with bayonets at the ready they dashed on toward the main body, driving back the Boers who were trying to close in again after being beaten back by the first rushes. Men were trampled under foot in the half-darkness, friends and foes alike, for it was a horrible business ”

“ For, unmoved by the gallant actions going on in front, brave men setting death at defiance—as scores of others had done all through the war—in the noble endeavour to save a wounded man’s life, dozens of the Boers began firing at the rescue party, heedless of the fact that their bullets crossed the narrow way traversed by the little force in their dash from the village to the kopje, and now horribly dotted by the wounded and dying of both sides who had fallen in the desperate encounter. ”

“ He noted, too, that there was a tiny flash of light such as might have been thrown off a bright crystal of feldspar, and without pause now he held his rifle more firmly, laid the sight upon the flashing light, and the next moment he would have pulled the trigger. But ere he could tighten his finger upon the little curved piece of steel within the guard of his piece, there was a flash, a puff of smoke, and a sensation as if a wasp had whizzed by his ear. ”

“ The next minute he realised that what he saw was not darker, but the sky behind it lighter, and he sprang to his feet.
“You, sergeant?” he said.
“Yes, sir,” was whispered back. “Be careful; one never knows who may be near. The light’s coming fast.”
Coming so fast that at the end of a quarter of an hour Dickenson could dimly make out the steep kopje by Groenfontein away to his left, and the low, hill-like laager that they had destroyed twenty-four hours before low down on the opposite horizon. ”

“ Sergeant James smiled grimly, and drawing a roll of bandage from his wallet, tore off a bit and wiped the blood from the prisoner’s face.
“Hullo!” he cried.—“Hooray, Captain Roby, sir! This is our Boer friend who tried to blow us up.”
Lennox stopped forward eagerly, and signed for the lantern to be lowered.
“Yes,” he cried wonderingly; “that is the man.”
“And no mistake,” said Dickenson. “Come, I call this a good catch.”
The other officers looked down at the dark eyes scowling up at them.
“Yes,” he growled fiercely, “I am the man; and I’ll do it yet.” ”

“ Keep those horns quiet, you beast.”
“What is it?” cried Lennox excitedly.
“Roast-beef, sir—leastwise to-morrow, sir,” cried one of the men. “We’ve bay’neted a team of oxen.”
“Speak the truth, lad,” cried another from Lennox’s left. “We’ve been giving point in a gun-carriage.”
“Silence in the ranks!” cried Lennox sternly as he felt about in the darkness, joined now by his comrade, and found that their charge had been checked by a big gun, its limber, and the span—six or eight and twenty oxen—several of the poor beasts having received thrusts from the men’s bayonets. ”

“ There was a titter from the men near, and Captain Roby cried impatiently, “Why, there’s enough to have blown the top off the kopje and destroyed the big gun.”
“Thoroughly, I should say, wedged-in there as it was,” said Dickenson. “How much more is there, Lennox?”
“That’s all,” was the reply. “No, no. There’s a great rift here to the right, full too.”
“Hand it out, then, quickly,” said Captain Roby. “Be careful there with your rifles; if a man lets his off by accident we shall all be blown to atoms.”
“They’ll take care,” said Captain Edwards; “eh, my lads?”
“Rather, sir!” ”

“ Before the Boer could fire again Lennox had him by the throat, and in another minute he was held up against the cavern wall by three men with their bayonets, while the sergeant wrested the rifle from his hands and tore away the man’s well-filled bandolier.
“Ah!” he snarled; “cowards again. Always cowards, since the day when you ran away from us at Majuba.”
“Hold your tongue, sir, before you are hurt by some of the men who know that they have one of the bravo miscreants before them who lay powder-mines ready to destroy those they dare not fight in the open field.” ”

“ The young officer burst into a forced laugh.
“Why, sergeant,” he cried, “what do you take me for?”
“Soldier of the Queen, sir, ready to show the enemy that our march at the Jubilee wasn’t all meant for show.”
Dickenson was silent for a time.
“Ha!” he said at last, with a sigh. “I want to prove that; but there are times when holding out ceases to be justifiable—fighting becomes mere butchery.”
“Yes, sir, when forty or fifty men surround four and a wounded one, shoot down their mounts so as they can’t retreat, and then try and butcher them. ”

“ Whiz-z-z! crack! A puff of smoke and then a rush of hoofs, for the pony which had been grazing so calmly close by where Lennox lay went tearing over the veldt for about fifty yards, when, with two of its companions trotting after it as if to see what was the matter, it pitched suddenly upon its head, rolled over with its legs kicking as if it were galloping in the air, and then they fell and all was over, the two others turning and trotting back, to begin grazing once again.
“That’s bad,” said Dickenson sadly. “We couldn’t spare that pony. Why, sergeant, they can shoot! ”

“ It’s all on their side, sir, not ours; and the men think as I do.”
Dickenson was silent again, lying there with his teeth set and a peculiar hard look in his eyes, such as a man in the flower of his youth and strength might show when he knows the time is fast approaching for everything to end. Meanwhile the two fresh parties that had come on the scene were galloping hard to join the enclosing wings of the first comers, who stood fast, fully grasping what was to follow, and keeping the attention of their prey by firing a shot now and then, not one of which had the slightest effect. ”

“ No band; no uniform but this dirt-coloured khaki; no bed to sleep on; no cover but the tent; roasting by day, freezing by night: hardly a chance to wash one’s self, and nothing to eat; and no one to look at you but the Boers, and when they come to see what the soldiers of the Queen are like they send word they are there with bullets, bless ’em! Well, I suppose it’s all right. We must have soldiers, and I wanted to be one, and now I am one there does seem to be something more than the show in doing one’s duty bravely, as they call it. ”