THE BASE
I have been too long describing the preliminaries that were necessary
before joining the Expedition, but there is some excuse for doing so.
For after all those preliminaries, with their suddenness and their hurry
and rush, were distinctly typical of the Indian Frontier Expedition.
When soldiers serving the Imperial Government are ordered on a campaign,
they generally have some warning. Foreign politics have generally been
simmering in the pot for some time before the pot overboils. But on the
Indian Frontier some irresponsible ruffians perpetrate some sudden
outrage, which, without any word of warning, involves the instant
despatch of troops to the scene of action. The result is a scramble, an
individual example of which I have tried above to describe.
In all books on wars a constant comparison will be found drawn between
the school-boy and the soldier on service. I dare say I shall find
myself working that comparison to death. It occurred to me first as I
reached Siliguri, and, jostling with other fellows, rushed to the Staff
Office there, to discover what was my next destination. We felt like
schoolboys, who, at the beginning of term, rush to inquire whether they
have given us our remove, or who anxiously await the publication of the
notice which will tell them whether they are to represent their house at
football. There was the same excitement before we learnt our fate. There
was that boyish jubilation on the part of those who were off to the
front, and vulgar schoolboy language from those who were to be detained
at the base or in Sikkim.
My orders were to go to Gnatong as a temporary measure. This was
dubious, and might mean being stuck there or in a similar place
indefinitely, or might mean being eventually sent forward. Those who
knew it told me that Gnatong was a horrible place, that it snowed there
daily from October 1 till May 31, and rained from June 1 to September
30, that it was always in the clouds, and that it was approached by a
stony road, as steep as the side of a house, which would knock one's
pony's feet to bits. The height of the place was twelve thousand odd
feet, and it was situated in Sikkim some ten miles on the near side of
the Tibetan frontier.
I had to wait some days at Siliguri till my pony and some of my kit,
which the railway authorities had not let travel as fast as I had,
should catch me up.
There were several detached officers also waiting here, and the units
forming the reinforcements were coming in daily. We turned half the
refreshment room into a sort of station mess, having our meals at one
long table. I suppose a contemplative person would have noted those
accidental details which differentiated us from the ordinary travellers
by the Darjiling-Calcutta mails, who had their meals at the other long
table. There we were, the brutal and licentious soldiery feasting and
drinking and gambling with shameless _abandon_, while those worthy men
of affairs from Calcutta and their excellent ladies took their meals
hastily and in sober earnest alongside of us. Some of us must have
presented a queer spectacle. I remember in particular one youthful
officer, whom I afterwards lost sight of, but who was the most ardent
young Napoleon I have met for a long time. He had apparently started
growing his beard the day he left his cantonment. He was of the Esau
type, and the growth was brisk. The colour was ginger, not the chastened
sort that is sprinkled over with sugar, but the crude dark ginger you
get in jars. He affected short khaki shorts, as suitable for the
soldier in hill warfare. He also affected a khaki cardigan jacket. He
had left his helmet behind him, and wore only a khaki pugree with a
khaki 'kula' in the centre of it. I used to see ladies, who came in for
a quiet cup of tea, glancing sidelong at him. Some were doubtless
impressed, and went away enthusiastic about that young warrior. But in
the eyes of others I fancy I saw a twinkle.
At last my pony with his syce and the missing kit arrived, and I was
enabled to start for Gnatong the next day.