"Well, Colonel," said Dr Morton as the officers sat enjoying their
lunch, breathing in the crisp mountain air and feasting their eyes at
the same time upon the grand mountain scenery, "I must confess to being
a bit lazy. You may be all athirst for glory, but after our ride this
morning pale ale's good enough for me. I'm not a fighting man, and I
hope when we get to the station we shall find that the what you may call
'em--Dwats--have dissolved into thin air like the cloud yonder fading
away on that snow-peak. If, however, it does come to a set-to, here I
am, my dear boys, at your service, and I'll do the best I can."
"Thank ye, Doctor," came in chorus from the officers; "but the less the
better."
"We shall have something to do, for certain," said the Colonel, a
keen-looking, deeply bronzed man of fifty, "for these hill-tribes will
never believe in England's strength till they have been well thrashed;
but a fight does not mean for certain that we shall want the doctor's
help afterwards."
"So much the better," said that gentleman, laughing. "But, as I said,
here I am if you want me, and I've got as well-arranged an ambulance
as--"
"Oh, I say, Doctor, don't talk shop," cried the young officer spoken of
as Captain Roberts, a handsome, carefully dressed young fellow of seven
or eight and twenty. "They're regular curs, are they not, sir--these
Dwats?" he added, turning to the Colonel.
"Certainly not," replied the latter gravely. "They are decidedly a
brave, bold, fighting race. Tall, dark, big-bearded, just such fellows
as hill-tribes are; restless, pugnacious fighting-men, always engaged in
petty warfare with the neighbouring chiefs, and making plundering
expeditions."
"I see, sir," said the Captain; "like our old Border chieftains used to
be at home."
"Exactly," said the Colonel; "and each chief thinks he is one of the
greatest monarchs under the sun. England is to them, in their
ignorance, only a similar nation to their own, and the Empress a
lady-chief."
"We shall have to teach them better," said the Major, a gentleman with
an eyeglass and a disposition to become stout. "We shall soon do it. A
good sharp lesson is all that's wanted. The only difficulty is that,
though they are as a rule always busy cutting one another's throats, as
soon as one of the tribes is attacked they all become friends and help
one another."
"Save us trouble."
"What's that, Bracy?" said the Colonel.
"Save us trouble, sir," said the young man, laughing; "we can thrash
half-a-dozen of the tribes together."
"With a regiment of raw boys?" said the Major, frowning so fiercely that
he shot his glass out of his eye and replaced it angrily.
"Look here, Graham, you and I are going to quarrel."
"What about, sir?"
"Your bad habit of depreciating our lads."
"Yes," said the Doctor, nodding his head sharply. "You do, Major, and
it isn't good form to cry bad fish."
"But it's true," said the Major sharply. "The War Office ought to be
ashamed of itself for sending such a regiment of boys upon so arduous a
task."
"The boys are right enough," said the Colonel. "What do you say,
Bracy?"
"I say of course they are, sir."
"Yes, because you're a boy yourself," said the Major in a tone which
made the young man flush.
"I wish I had some more boys like you, Bracy, my lad," said the Colonel
warmly. "Graham's a bit touched in the liver with the change from warm
weather to cold. He doesn't mean what he says--eh, Morton?"
"That's right, Colonel," said the Doctor. "I have my eye upon him.
He'll be asking for an interview with me to-morrow, _re_, as the lawyers
say, B.P. and B.D."
"Hang your B.P.s and B.D.s!" said the Major hotly. "I mean what I say,
Colonel. These boys ought to have had three or four years in England
before they were sent out here."
"But they are sent up into the hills here where the climate is glorious,
sir," cried the Doctor, "and I'll answer for it that in a year's time
they will have put on muscle in a wonderful way, while in a couple of
years you'll be proud of them."
"I'm proud of the lads now," said the Colonel quietly.
"I'm not," said the Major. "I feel like old Jack Falstaff sometimes,
ready to say, `If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I'm a soused gurnet.'
They're boys, and nothing else."
"Nonsense," said the Colonel good-humouredly. "I've seen some service,
and I never had men under me who marched better or more cheerfully than
these lads have to-day."
"And not one fell out or came to me with sore feet," said the Doctor
stoutly. "Boys? Well, hang it all! they're not such boys as there were
in the old 34th."
"What do you mean?" said the Major, shooting his eyeglass again.
"In the Peninsular War, sir," said the Doctor; "a regiment of boys,
whose ages were from fourteen to sixteen, and they behaved splendidly."
"That's right," said the Colonel, nodding his head.
"Oh yes," cried the Major superciliously; "but they had only the French
to fight against. Any English boy could thrash a Frenchman."
"Don't despise the French, Graham," said the Colonel quietly. "They are
a very brave and gallant nation; and as to our lads, I certainly agree
that they are very young; but when, as the Doctor says, they have been
out here a bit, and put on more muscle--"
"But, hang it all, sir!" cried the Major, "they didn't come out here to
put on muscle, but to fight. And as to your 34th, our fellows haven't
got to fight Frenchmen, but these big hill-tribes. The boys are right
enough in their place, and we shall make soldiers of them in time; but
suppose to-morrow or next day we come plump upon the enemy--what then?"
"Our boys will make them run, sir," cried Bracy, flushing up.
"You mean they'll make our lads run," growled the Major.
"No, I don't, sir. I'll answer for our company. What do you say,
Roberts?"
"Same as you do, old man. Go on; you can put it stronger than I can."
"No," said Bracy: "perhaps I've said too much, as the youngest officer
in the regiment."
"Not a bit, my lad," cried the Colonel warmly. "I endorse all you say.
They are terribly young-looking, but, take them all together, as bright
and plucky a set of fellows as any officer could wish to command."
"Yes," said the Major through his teeth; "but look at them to-day. Hang
me if they didn't at times seem like a pack of schoolboys out for a
holiday--larking and shouting at one another, so that I got out of
patience with them."
"Better like that than limping along, discontented and footsore," said
the Colonel gravely. "The boys are as smart over their drill as they
can be, and a note on the bugle would have brought every one into his
place. I don't want to see the life and buoyancy crushed out of lads by
discipline and the reins held too tightly at the wrong time. By the
way, Graham, you dropped the curb-rein on your horse's neck coming up
the rough pass, and thoroughly gave him his head."
"Yes," said the Major; "but we were talking about men, not horses."
"Bah! Don't listen to him," cried the Doctor, laughing. "He's a bit
yellow in the eyes, and he'll be singing quite a different song soon.
The boys are right enough, Colonel, and all the better for being young--
they'll mould more easily into your ways."
"Humph!" growled the Major, frowning at the Doctor, who responded by
raising his glass, nodding, and drinking to him.
It did not seem long before the bugle sounded, and the men fell in,
every lad drawing himself well up, trying to look his best and as proud
as a peacock, when the Colonel rode along the ranks, noting everything
and ready to give boy after boy a look of recognition and a word of
praise about something which had been improved; for Colonel Graves had
one of those memories which seem never to forget, and it had long been
borne in upon the lads in the ranks that their leader noted and
remembered everything, ready for blame or praise.
In this case he drew rein opposite one very thin-looking fellow, making
his sallow face turn red.
"Felt any more of that sprain, Smith?"
"No, sir; right as can be now. Ain't felt it a bit."
"That's right. Fall out, my lad, if it turns weak in the least, and get
a ride."
"Yes, sir; thanky, sir. I will, sir."
A little farther on there was another halt.
"Those boots right, Judkins?"
"Yes, sir; fit splendid, sir."
"Good. Take care for the future; you and all of you. A man can't march
well unless he has a comfortable boot, and a chafe once begun and
neglected has sent many a good soldier into hospital."
"These are fust-rate, sir," said the man quickly. "Easy as a glove."
And so on as the Colonel rode along the ranks, making every man feel
that his officer had a real interest in his welfare.
The inspection over, the advance-guard set off, then the order, "Band to
the front," was given, and the regiment filed off past the Colonel's
horse, making for a narrow opening between two hills which seemed to
overlap, and sent back the strains of the musical instruments in a
wonderful series of echoes which went rolling among the mountains, to
die away in the distance.
Half-an-hour later the only signs left of the occupation of the pass
were a few birds hovering about and stooping from time to time after
some fragment of food. But all at once the birds took flight, as if in
alarm, and the cause was not far to seek; for there was a flash in the
afternoon sunshine among the rugged masses of half-frozen rocks on one
side of the amphitheatre; then another flash, and a looker-on would have
seen that it came from the long barrel of a gun.
Directly after appeared a tall, swarthy man in white which looked dingy
by comparison with the beds of snow lying on the northern side of the
mountains.
The man stole cautiously from stone to stone, and after making sure that
the last soldier forming the baggage and rear-guard had disappeared, he
ran quickly back to one of the snow-filled ravines and made a signal by
holding his gun on high.
This he did three times, and then turned and ran steadily across the
meadow-like bottom of the halting-ground, till he was near the narrow
gap through which the regiment had passed, to recommence his furtive
movements, seeking the shelter of stone after stone till he disappeared
between the folding rocks, while in his track came in a straggling body
quite a hundred active-looking men of the same type--strongly built,
fierce-looking, bearded fellows, each carrying a long jezail,
powder-horn, and bullet-bag, while a particularly ugly curved knife was
thrust through the band which held his cotton robe tightly about his
waist.
By this time the last of the rear-guard was well on its way, and the
hill-men followed like so many shadows of evil that had been waiting
till the little English force had passed, and were now about to seek an
opportunity for mischief, whether to fall upon the rear or cut up
stragglers remained to be seen. Possibly they were but one of many
similar parties which would drop down from the rugged eminences and
valleys which overlooked the track, completely cutting off the retreat
of Colonel Graves's regiment of boys, of whose coming the tribes had
evidently been warned, and so were gathering to give them a warm
reception when the right time came.