The ammunition columns on either flank provide us with plenty of
amusement. They seem to live by stealing each other's mules. My
line-guards tell me that stealthy figures leading shadowy donkeys are
crossing to and fro all night long through my lines. The respective
C.O.'s, an Australian and an Irishman, drop in on us from time to
time and warn us against each other. I remain strictly neutral, and
so far they have respected my neutrality. I have taken steps toward
this end by surrounding my horses with barbed wire and spring guns,
tying bells on them and doubling the guard.
Monk, the Australian, dropped in on us two or three days ago. "That
darn Sinn Feiner is the limit," said he; "lifted my best moke off me
last night while I was up at the batteries. He'd pinch Balaam's
ass." We murmured condolences, but Monk waved them aside. "Oh, it's
quite all right. I wasn't born yesterday, or the day before for that
matter. I'll make that merry Fenian weep tears of blood before I've
finished. Just you watch."
O'Dwyer, the merry Fenian, called next day.
"Give us a dhrink, brother-officers," said he. "I'm wake wid
laughter."
We asked what had happened.
"Ye know that herrin'-gutted bushranger over yonder? He'd stale the
milk out of your tea, he would, be the same token. Well, last night
he got vicious and took a crack at my lines. I had rayson to suspect
he'd be afther tryin' somethin' on, so I laid for him. I planted a
certain mule where he could stale it an' guarded the rest four deep.
Begob, will ye believe me, but he fell into the thrap head first--the
poor simple divil."
"But he got your mule," said Albert Edward, perplexed.
"Shure an' he did, you bet he did--he got old Lyddite."
Albert Edward and I were still puzzled.
"Very high explosive--hence name," O'Dwyer explained.
"Dear hearrts," he went on, "he's got my stunt mule, my family
assassin! That long-ear has twenty-three casualties to his credit,
including a Brigadier. I have to twitch him to harness him,
side-line him to groom him, throw him to clip him, and dhrug him to
get him shod. Perceive the jest now? Esteemed comrade Monk is
afther pinchin' an infallible packet o' sudden death, an' he don't
know it--yet."
"What's the next move?" I inquired.
"I'm going to lave him there. Mind you I don't want to lose the old
moke altogether, because, to tell the truth, I'm a biteen fond of him
now that I know his thricks, but I figure Mr. Monk will be a severely
cured character inside a week, an' return the beastie himself with
tears an' apologies on vellum so long."
I met O'Dwyer again two days later on the mud track. He reined up
his cob and begged a cigarette.
"Been havin' the fun o' the worrld down at the dressin'-station
watchin' Monk's casualties rollin' in," said he. "Terrible
spectacle, 'nough to make a sthrong man weep. Mutual friend Monk
lookin' 'bout as genial as a wet hen. This is goin' to be a
wondherful lesson to him. See you later." He nudged his plump cob
and ambled off, whistling merrily.
But it was Monk we saw later. He wormed his long corpse into "Mon
Repos" and sat on Albert Edward's bed laughing like a tickled hyena.
"Funniest thing on earth," he spluttered. "A mule strayed into my
lines t'other night and refused to leave. It was a rotten beast, a
holy terror; it could kick a fly off its ears and bite a man in half.
I don't mind admitting it played battledore and what's-'is-name with
my organisation for a day or two, but out of respect for O'Dwyer,
blackguard though he is, I..."
"Oh, so it was O'Dwyer's mule?" Albert Edward cut in innocently.
Monk nodded hastily. "Yes, so it turned out. Well, out of respect
for O'Dwyer I looked after it as far as it would allow me, naturally
expecting he'd come over and claim it--but he didn't. On the fourth
day, after it had made a light breakfast off a bombardier's ear and
kicked a gap in a farrier, I got absolutely fed up, turned the damn
cannibal loose and gave it a cut with a whip for God-speed. It made
off due east, cavorting and snorting until it reached the tank track;
there it stopped and picked a bit of grass. Presently along comes a
tank, proceeding to the fray, and gives the mule a poke in the rear.
The mule lashes out, catching the tank in the chest, and then goes on
with his grazing without looking round, leaving the tank for dead, as
by all human standards it should have been, of course. But instead
of being dead the box of tricks ups and gives the donk another butt
and moves on. That roused the mule properly. He closed his eyes and
laid into the tank for dear life; you could hear it clanging a mile
away.
"After delivering two dozen of the best, the moke turned round to
sniff the cold corpse, but the corpse was still warm and smiling.
Then the mule went mad and set about the tank in earnest. He jabbed
it in the eye, upper-cut it on the point, hooked it behind the ear,
banged its slats, planted his left on the mark and his right on the
solar plexus, but still the tank sat up and took nourishment.
"Then the donkey let a roar out of him and closed with it; tried the
half Nelson, the back heel, the scissors, the roll, and the
flying-mare; tried Westmorland and Cumberland style, collar and
elbow, Cornish, Greece-Roman, scratch-as-scratch-can and Ju-jitsu.
Nothing doing. Then as a last despairing effort he tried to charge
it over on its back and rip the hide off it with his teeth.
"But the old tank gave a 'good-by-ee' cough of its exhaust and
rumbled off as if nothing had happened, nothing at all. I have never
seen such a look of surprise on any living creature's face as was on
that donk's. He sank down on his tail, gave a hissing gasp and
rolled over stone dead. Broken heart."
"Is that the end?" Albert Edward inquired.
"It is," said Monk; "and if you go outside and look half-right you'll
see the bereaved Mr. O'Dwyer, all got up in sackcloth, cinders and
_crêpe_ rosettes, mooning over the deceased like a dingo on an ash
heap."