"Did the scoundrels go up the valley toward the rajah's?"
"No, sahib; they brought the guns over the bridge, and some say they
have gone to Ramul."
"That is only a few miles away," said Brace, quickly, "and beyond the
hills. Forward, my lads. No speaking in the ranks."
We tramped on silently for a couple of hours with the night growing
darker as we went onward, the men literally reeling at times from
weariness and exhaustion after the terrible day.
All at once, one man fell out, and dropped upon the road side.
"Halt!" cried Brace, in a low voice.
"No, no, captain; keep on," said the man. "I'm dead beat. Never mind
me."
"We have no dhooly, my lad, to carry you, so we must wait till you can
walk, for we must hold together now to the last. Who is it?"
"Sergeant Craig, sir," said one of the men; and Brace hurried to his
side.
"Why, Craig, my poor fellow, this will not do."
As he spoke, the man who had thrown himself on the ground struggled to
his knees.
"Some one give me a drink of water," he cried hoarsely; and a canteen
having been handed to him, he drank deeply, and then tried to rise, but
failed.
"You'll have to go on, captain," he said hoarsely. "I've got a bit of a
hurt. I did not think it was so much as it is. Makes me a bit faint.
If some one took my arm perhaps I could struggle on."
"We are close to the jungle, sahib," whispered Dost.
"Two of you support the sergeant," cried the captain; and a couple of
men being detailed for the duty, the sergeant struggled on again for
about a couple of hundred yards, the last hundred being in the deep
shadows of the trees; and none too soon, for a few bird notes were heard
announcing the coming day. Ten minutes later sentries were posted, the
horses picketed, and the men were lying down to drop asleep directly,
while the doctor busily examined the sergeant's wound.
"A big and ugly one," he said, "but nothing to mind. Made you faint, of
course. There, it isn't your sword arm."
"'Tisn't your sword arm" rung in my ears again and again, mingled with
the whistling and singing of birds; and to me the bird song had
something to do with the dressing of the wound; and then all was blank,
and I was plunged in a deep sleep which after some time grew disturbed,
and I seemed to be back at the college, drilling, and studying under
General Crucie. Then I was getting into difficulties with my fellow
cadets and being sent to Coventry, as the most ill-humoured fellow they
knew; and then I was awake, gazing up at the trees whose boughs shaded
us from the sun, bathed in perspiration, and smelling tobacco smoke.
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Note 1. Dhoolies are light ambulances.
Note 2. Purdahs, curtains or hangings.