The enemy had been very quiet for some days. The weather had been bad.
Heavy rains had changed the rills and streams which ran along the
gullies and ravines into fierce torrents, which leaped and bounded
downward, foaming and tearing at the rocks which blocked their way, till
with a tremendous plunge they joined the river in the valley, which kept
up one deep, thunder-like boom, echoing from the mountains round.
Before the rain came the sun had seemed to beat down with double force,
and the valley had become intolerable during the day, the perpendicular
rocks sending back the heat till the fort felt like an oven, and the
poor fellows lying wounded under the doctor's care suffered terribly,
panting in the great heat as they did, feeling the pangs of Tantalus,
for there, always glittering before their eyes in the pure air, were the
mountain-peaks draped in fold upon fold of the purest ice and snow.
"We should lose 'em all, poor fellows!" the Doctor said, "if it were not
for these glorious evenings and perfect nights. It wouldn't matter so
much if we could get a few mule-loads of the ice from up yonder. Can't
be done, I suppose?"
"No," said Colonel Graves sadly. "Plenty of men would volunteer, but,
much as every one is suffering--the ladies almost as bad as your
wounded, Morton--I dare not send them, for they would never get back
with their loads. Many of the brave fellows would straggle back, of
course, but instead of bringing ice, Doctor, they would be bearing their
wounded and dead comrades."
"Yes, that's what I feel," sighed the Doctor, "and, Heaven knows, we
don't want any more patients. Must be content with what coolness we get
at night."
"And that's glorious," said the Major, wiping his wet brow.
"Delightful," added Captain Roberts. "It's the making of poor old
Bracy. He seems to hang his head and droop more and more every day,
till the sun goes down, and to begin to pick up again with the first
breath that comes down from between the two big peaks there--what do
they call them--Erpah and Brum?"
"Ha! wish it was coming now," said the Doctor; "iced and pure air, to
sweep right down the valley and clear away all the hot air, while it
cools the sides of the precipices."
"Why don't you let me go, Colonel!" said Drummond suddenly. "I want to
get some ice badly for poor old Bracy. Six mules, six drivers, and a
dozen of our boys. Oh, I could do it. Let me go, sir."
The Colonel shook his head, and every day at the hottest time Drummond
proposed the same thing; till on the last day, after gradually growing
weaker in his determination, urged as he was on all sides by the
sufferers in hospital, the wan looks of the ladies, and the longings of
the men, the Colonel said:
"Well, Mr Drummond, I'll sleep on it to-night, and if I come to a
determination favourable to the proposition, you shall go; but not
alone. One of my officers must go with you."
"Glad to have him, sir," cried the subaltern eagerly. "Whom will you
send, sir?"
"I'll volunteer, sir," said Roberts quietly.
"Good," said the Colonel; "so it will be as well for you and Drummond
here to quietly select your men and the mules with their drivers, plus
tools for cutting out the ice-like compressed snow. If I decide against
it there will be no harm done."
"Better make our plans, then, as to which way to go. Study it all by
daylight with our glasses."
"Needn't do that," said Drummond eagerly. "I know. We'll go straight
up the steep gully that I followed when I went after the bears, it's
awfully rough, but it's the best way, for the niggers never camp there;
it's too wet for them."
"Very well," said the Colonel; and the two young officers went straight
through the scorching sunshine, which turned the great court of the fort
into an oven, to where Bracy lay panting with the heat, with Gedge doing
his best to make life bearable by applying freshly wrung-out towels to
his aching brow.
"News for you, old chap," said Drummond in a whisper. "But send that
fellow of yours away."
"There is no need," said Bracy faintly. "I can't spare him, and he's
better worth trusting than I am."
"Oh yes, we can trust Gedge," said Roberts in a low tone, while the lad
was fetching a fresh bucket of water from the great well-like hole in
the court, through which an underground duct from the river ran, always
keeping it full of clear water fresh from the mountains, but in these
days heated by the sun as it flamed down.
The news was imparted by Drummond, and Bracy shook his head.
"It would be glorious," he said; "but you ought not to go. Graves
mustn't let a dozen men run such risks for the sake of us poor fellows.
It would be madness. We must wait for the cool nights."
"He will let us go," said Drummond; "and we can do it."
"No," said Bracy, speaking with more energy, and he turned his head to
Roberts. "I beg you will not think of such a thing, old lad," he said
earnestly.
"Well, we shall see."
"Ready for another, sir?" said Gedge, coming in with the bucket.
"Yes, yes, as soon as you can," said Bracy. "This one feels boiling
hot."
The fresh, cool, wet cloth was laid across his forehead; and, rousing up
from the disappointment he felt at Bracy taking so decided a view
against an expedition which the young subaltern had proposed to make
almost solely in his friend's interest, and moved by the boyish spirit
of mischief within him, Drummond suddenly exclaimed:
"Look out, Gedge, or he'll bowl you over!--Oh, I beg your pardon, Bracy,
old chap. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Knock me over, Roberts.
I deserve it."
For Bracy had winced sharply, and a look as of one suffering mental
agony came into his eyes.
"It does not matter," he said, smiling faintly and holding out his hand,
which Drummond caught in his.
"Ain't no fear, sir," said Gedge, who was soaking the hot cloth. "The
guv'nor ain't had a touch now for a week."
"Quiet!" whispered Roberts to the man.
"He is quite right, Roberts, old fellow," sighed Bracy; "I am certainly
better. But if I could only get rid of that constant pain!"
"That must go soon," said Drummond cheerily. "I wish I could take your
agony-duty for a few hours everyday. Honour bright, I would."
"I know you would, old chap," said Bracy, smiling at him; "but I shall
beg Graves not to let you go."
"Nonsense! Don't say a word," cried Drummond. "If you do, hang me if
ever I confide in you again!"
Bracy laughed softly.
"I am pretty free from scepticism," he said; "but I can't believe that.
Now you fellows must go. The dragon will be here to start you if you
stay any longer. Serve him right, though, Roberts, to let him go on
this mad foray, for he'd get wounded, and be brought back and placed
under Dame Gee's hands."
"Oh, hang it! no; I couldn't stand that," cried the young officer; and a
few minutes later they left the room, for Drummond to begin grumbling.
"I don't care," he said. "If the Colonel gives us leave we must go.
You won't back out, will you?"
"No; for it would be the saving of some of the poor fellows. But we
shall see."
They did that very night, for, instead of the regular cool wind coming
down the upper valley, a fierce hot gust roared from the other direction
like a furnaces-blast from the plains; and at midnight down came the
most furious storm the most travelled of the officers had ever
encountered. The lightning flashed as if it were splintering the peaks
which pierced the clouds, and the peals of thunder which followed
sounded like the falling together of the shattered mountains, while
amidst the intense darkness the sentries on the walls could hear the
hiss and seething of the rain as it tore by on the rushing winds which
swept through gorge and valley.
The next morning the storm broke dark and gloomy, with the rain falling
heavily and the river rolling along thick and turbulent, while one of
the first things the sentries had to report was the fact that one of the
hostile camps--the one nearest to the fort--was being struck.
By night the tribe in another of the side valleys was withdrawn, and
during the days which followed one by one the little camps of
white-robed tribes-men melted away like the snow upon the lower hills,
till not a man of the investing forces remained, and the long-harassed
defenders looked in vain from the highest tower of the fort for their
foes.
The falling rain had effected in a few days that which the brave;
defenders had been unable; to compass in as many weeks; while the
alteration from the insufferable heat to the soft, cool, moist air had a
wonderful effect upon the wounded, and made Doctor Morton chuckle and
rub his hands as he rejoiced over the change.
And still the rain went, on falling; the valley seemed surrounded by
cascades, the streams rushed and thundered down, and the main river
swept by the walls of the fort with a sullen roar; while, as if dejected
and utterly out of heart, the British flag, which had flaunted out so
bravely from the flagstaff, as if bidding defiance to the whole
hill-country and all its swarthy tribes, hung down and clung and wrapped
itself about the flagstaff, the halyard singing a dolefully weird strain
in a minor key, while the wind whistled by it on its way down towards
the plains.