"This is contrary to rule. As commandant, I ought to stay in the fort;
but I've no one to give the leadership to; so I take it myself," said
Lieutenant Leigh. "And now, my lads, make ready--present! That's well.
Are all ready? At the word `Fire!' privates Bigley and Smith fire at
the two gunners. If they miss, I cry fire again, and privates Bantem
and Grainger try their skill; then, at the double, down on the guns.
Smith and I spike them, while Bantem and Grainger cut the cords. Mind
this: those guns must be spiked, and those two prisoners brought in; and
if the sortie is well managed, it is easy; for they will be taken by
surprise. Hush! Confound it, men, no cheering!"
He only spoke in time; for in the excitement the men were about to
hurray.
"Now, then, is that gate unbarred?"
"Yes, sir."
"Is the covering-party ready?"
"Yes, sir."
My hand trembled as he spoke; but the next instant it was of a piece
with my gunstock. There was the hot square, with the sun shining on the
two guns that must have been hot behind the poor prisoners; there, too,
stood the two gunners in white, with their smoking linstocks, leaning
against the wheels; for discipline was slack; and there, thirty or forty
yards behind, were the mutineers, lounging about, and smoking many of
them. For all firing had ceased; and judging that we should not risk
having the prisoners blown away from the guns, the mutineers came boldly
up within range, as if defying us; and it was pretty safe practice at
some of them now.
I saw all this at a glance, and while it seemed as if the order would
never come; but come it did at last.
"Fire!"
Bang! the two rifles going off like one; and the gunner behind Captain
Dyer leaped into the air; while the one I aimed at seemed to sink down
suddenly beside the wheel he had leaned upon. Then the gate flew open,
and with a rush and a cheer we, ten of us, raced down for the guns.
Double-quick time? I tell you it was a hard race; and being without my
gun now--only my bayonet stuck in my trousers waistband--I was there
first, and had driven my spike into the touch-hole before Lieutenant
Leigh reached his; but the next moment his was done, the cords were cut,
and the prisoners loose from the guns. But now we had to get back.
The first inkling I had of the difficulty of this was seeing Captain
Dyer and Harry Lant stagger and fall forward; but they were saved by the
men, and we saw directly that they must be carried.
No sooner thought of than done.
"Hoist Harry on my back," says Grainger; and he took him like a sack;
Bantem acting the same part by Captain Dyer; and those two ran off,
while we tried to cover them.
For don't you imagine that the mutineers were idle all this while; not a
bit of it. They were completely taken by surprise, though, at first,
and gave us time nearly to get to the guns before they could understand
what we meant; but the next moment some shouted and ran at us, and some
began firing; while by the time the prisoners were cast loose, they were
down upon us in a hand-to-hand fight.
You see in those fierce struggles there is such excitement, that, for my
part, I've but a very misty recollection of what took place; but I do
recollect seeing the prisoners well on the way back, hearing a cheer
from our men, and then, hammer in one hand, bayonet in the other,
fighting my way backward along with my comrades. Then all at once a
glittering flash came in the air, and I felt a dull cut on the face,
followed directly after by another strange numbing blow, which made me
drop my bayonet, as my arm fell uselessly to my side; and then with a
lurch and a stagger I fell, and was trampled upon twice, when, as I
rallied once, a black savage-looking sepoy raised his clubbed musket to
knock out my brains; but a voice I well knew cried, "Not this time, my
fine fellow. That's number three, that is, and well home;" and I saw
Measles drive his bayonet with a crash through the fellow's breast-bone,
so that he fell across my legs.
"Now, old chap, come along," he shouts, and an arm was passed under me.
"Run, Measles, run!" I said as well as I could. "It's all over with
me."
"No, 'taint," he said; "and don't be a fool. Let me do as I like, for
once in a way."
I don't know how he did it, nor how, feeling sick and faint as I did, I
managed to get on my legs; but old Measles stuck to me like a true
comrade, and brought me in. For one moment I was struggling to my feet;
and the next, after what seemed a deal of firing going over my head, I
was inside the breastwork, listening to our men cheering and firing
away, as the mutineers came howling and raging up almost to the very
gates.
"All in?" I heard Lieutenant Leigh ask.
"To a man, sir," says some one; "but private Bantem is hurt."
"Hold your tongue, will you!" says Joe Bantem. "I ain't killed, nor yet
half. How would you like your wife frightened if you had one?"
"How's private Lant?"
"Cut to pieces, sir," says some one softly.
"I'm thankful that you are not wounded, Captain, Dyer," then says
Lieutenant Leigh.
"God bless you, Leigh!" says the captain faintly. "It was a brave act.
I've only a scratch or two when I can get over the numbness of my
limbs."
I heard all this in a dim sort of fashion, just as if it was a dream in
the early morning; for I was leaning up against the wall, with my face
laid open and bleeding, and my left arm smashed by a bullet; and nobody
just then took any notice of me, because they were carrying in Captain
Dyer and Harry Lant; while the next minute the fire was going on hard
and fast; for the mutineers were furious; and I suppose they danced
round the guns in a way that showed how mad they were about the spiking.
As for me, I did not seem to be in a great deal of pain; but I got
turning over in my mind how well we had done it that morning; and I felt
proud of it all, and glad that Captain Dyer and Harry Lant were brought
in; but all the same, what I had heard lay like a load upon me; and
knowing, as I did, that poor Miss Ross had, as it were, sold herself to
save the captain's life, and that she had, in a way of speaking, been
cheated into doing so, I felt that, when the opportunity came, I must
tell the captain all I knew. When I had got so far as that with my
thoughts, the dull numbness began to leave me, and everything else was
driven out of my mind by the thought of my wound; and I got asking
myself whether it was going to be very bad; for I fancied it was; so
getting up a little, I began to crawl along in the shade towards the
ruined south end of the palace, nobody seeming to notice me.
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