--INTO THE FIRE.
/Awakened/ at sunrise by the festive sound of a steam-whistle, the
fugitives from the Agency turned out to view the approach of a vessel
identified by Captain Franks as the _Galaxy_. European soldiers
clustered on her deck, and an officer waved greetings from the
paddle-box. As the steamers neared one another, Eveleen recognised him
as her old enemy Captain Crosse.
“Too late, I see!” he shouted lugubriously. “We start off _ek dum_ to
rescue you, and you’ve done the rescuing yourselves!”
“Why, what have you got on board?” asked Colonel Bayard.
“Fifty men and ten thousand rounds of ammunition, colonel--and
despatches. You were to hold on until the General came to relieve
you.”
“To relieve me? Sir Henry is close at hand, then?”
“Three hours’ steaming--certainly no more. We should have met you
sooner if we could have got on in the dark. Here’s the General’s
letter.” He held it out, and Brian, making a long arm from the
_Asteroid’s_ paddle-box, took it from him.
“Thanks. Come to breakfast, won’t you?” said Colonel Bayard shortly,
and withdrew a pace or two--there was no possible privacy in the
crowded ship--to read the despatch. Presently he beckoned to Richard.
“He is bent on fighting,” he said with a sigh. “Look here--this was
written after receiving mine sent after our return from the durbar,
when I said I feared we might be besieged, and asked for supplies. You
see he bids me point-blank break off negotiations, and make no further
efforts for peace.”
“Possibly he thought you had done all that could be done in that
line----” with great seriousness. “That was the letter in which you
urged him to send away the army and come to Qadirabad himself--eh?”
“Yes, I urged it most strongly. And what does he do? Destroys the last
hope of accommodation--orders me to leave the Agency at once and
rejoin him, or if that’s impossible, put up a good defence and wait
for him there.”
“But what else could he have done?” asked Richard curiously.
“Waited--shown some patience, some forbearance, instead of hurrying
things like this. The old man knows nothing of Oriental ways--that’s
the sole excuse for him.”
“I shall begin to think the General ain’t so far wrong in his estimate
of old Indians, when he says they have got more Oriental than the
Orientals themselves!” grumbled Richard to himself as Colonel Bayard
turned away from him abruptly to greet Captain Crosse as he came on
board.
“And I have a special message for Mrs Ambrose,” the visitor was
saying. “Sir Henry was highly displeased when he heard where she was,
and is sharpening his tongue to give her the scolding she deserves.”
“Sharpening his tongue, is it?” cried Eveleen in high scorn. “Sure
it’s hardening his heart he means--or trying to.”
“Have it your own way, ma’am,” said Captain Crosse pacifically. “No
doubt the General will argue it out with you, but I know better.”
That the General was quite ready to deal with every one as he or she
deserved was made plain when the steamers arrived level with his camp.
It lay some little distance from the river, but he had sent horses to
be ready for them, and as Colonel Bayard and his party rode on ahead
of the troops, an approaching cloud of dust showed that he was
welcoming them in person. In his usual breakneck style he dashed up
with his staff, and shook hands all round with his left hand, for his
right arm was in a sling.
“Ah, Mrs Ambrose! anywhere else I should have been proud to see you.
Glad you’re safe, Bayard. You have made a fine defence, sir--I shall
have much pleasure in reporting it in the proper quarter. A little bit
out of conceit with the Khans now--eh? Three times in one day you
wrote to me they hadn’t an armed man in Qadirabad save their own
servants, and two days later they were besieging you with seven or
eight thousand troops!”
“You are better informed than I, General.” Colonel Bayard spoke
somewhat stiffly. “How you have arrived at that exact figure----”
“Spies, man, spies! Not being glued to steamers, they came on while
you were all snoozing sweetly in the night, though they had to skirt
round to flank the _shikargahs_, which you must have passed in happy
innocence that a whole army was concealed there. I was taking their
lowest estimate. What do you make the numbers, then--eh?”
“Anything up to eighteen thousand men, General, from what we saw when
they tried to harass us from the bank.”
“H’m. My information suggests more than that. By the seven thousand I
meant those only who beset the Residency. And in a nasty resolute
temper--eh? You believe that now?”
“For the moment, nothing more. Believe me, their heart ain’t in it. If
you could have met their Highnesses face to face----”
“Heavens, man! if I had taken your advice, the army would still be
three days’ march away at least, and my reinforcement could never have
reached you in time.”
“A reinforcement without ammunition, General!”
“My orders were that they should have sixty rounds apiece, but they
were in such a hurry to be off they never took ’em.”
“Ah, with that sixty rounds we could have held out till you came. You,
General--not the army. Your presence would have removed all
difficulties.”
“Yes, and my head from my shoulders--as I said when I got your letter.
What! you won’t believe a word against your dear gentle Khans, even
now? D’ye know anything of an unfortunate white man--an American, so
they tell me--called Thomas, who commanded their artillery?”
“Why, yes, General. We owe him much gratitude----”
“Well, you’ll never have the chance of repaying him in this world.
Faced with the order to fire on persons of his own colour, he refused,
and they cut off his nose and ears, and killed him.”
“And ’twas his warning saved all our lives!” cried Eveleen wildly.
“Oh, poor Tom Carthew, poor poor Tom! And that was the man”--she faced
round suddenly on her husband--“you wanted to forbid me to speak to!”
“I suppose there’s no doubt, sir----?” asked Richard.
“None whatever, I fear. The spy hesitated to tell me--because, so
Munshi said, he didn’t like to bring such news about a sahib. I told
him to say the only thing it would make me angry to hear would be that
the Sahib had stooped to dishonour, and I gave the spy ten rupees when
he had revealed the sad yet glorious truth. Not much doubt there. A
word with you, Ambrose, if you please.”
For once Colonel Bayard had no defence to offer of the Khans’ action,
and he dropped behind with Eveleen, pretending, with his usual
kindness, not to notice the tears she was unable to conceal, while
Richard took his place beside Sir Harry. The old soldier was
perturbed.
“Is Bayard wilfully blind, or is he mad?” he demanded wrathfully as
they drew ahead. “I have been mistaken in the man. Nothing but
massacre will open his eyes.”
“I think he has been trying to force himself to retain confidence in
the Khans, sir; but surely his eyes must be opened now! Did you hear
that the attack on the Agency was directed by Khair Husain Khan, who
had offered the day before to bring his troops to protect us? I saw
him plainly with my telescope, leading his army industriously from the
rear.”
The General laughed--a short hard laugh. “Well, they have come to the
end of their tricks and evasions now! At nine to-morrow morning I lead
my gallant troops against ’em.”
“Have you stipulated with the Khans that they shall await your
onslaught, General?”
Sir Harry laughed again. “I think they will--I trust they will. Were
their numbers double the eighteen thousand Bayard gives ’em, I would
still advance, but they may well consider eighteen thousand fairly
matched against two. They are awaiting us at Mahighar. We march at
dawn, and they won’t find us backward in keeping the appointment.”
“Do you propose to attack ’em in front, sir?”
“I do. Look at this: I had the choice of two roads. By marching inland
I might have come on ’em from the rear and turned their right flank,
penning ’em up with their backs to the river. But if my plans
miscarried, I in my turn should run the risk of being dispersed and
cut off in detail, since I should have nothing behind me but the
desert. True, if successful, I might annihilate ’em, but I ain’t a
lover of bloodshed, though Bayard believes me one. Whereas, coming at
’em straight in front, if I am beat back I retreat on the river, where
are my steamers, and where I entrench myself while waiting for the
reinforcements I have ordered down from Sahar. Why don’t I wait for
’em? you’ll say. Because I have enough men to beat the Khans with, and
I won’t rob my troops of their glory by bringing in others to share
it.”
“’Pon my honour, General”--Richard spoke with unwonted enthusiasm--“I
believe you’ll find ’em answer your expectations.”
“I know I shall. There ain’t a regiment in Her Majesty’s Army I would
rather have with me than my dear uproarious Irish boys--as tumultuous
in peace as they are terrible in fight. But what I wished to ask you
was about Mrs Ambrose. Do you prefer her to return on board the
_Asteroid_ when we march, or to take the chances of the battle with
us?”
“That must be as you decide, General.”
“Nay, I beg of you to make the choice. In Spain no one would have felt
the least surprise at her remaining with you, but we do things
differently nowadays.”
“Honestly, sir, I should infinitely prefer to leave her in the charge
of Mr Franks, but I can’t flatter myself she would remain there unless
she chose.”
“Precisely. And to embark on adventures of her own selection in a
country swarming with enemies might entail consequences that would
load us with remorse for the rest of our days--and none more than
myself. She shall accompany you and the force, but I will give her a
little good advice first.”
“May I say, General, how deeply I deplore that Mrs Ambrose’s conduct
should require to engage your attention at such a moment?”
“Nonsense, my good fellow! I have often thought you don’t half
appreciate your good fortune in finding yourself linked to a lady
happily endowed with perennial youth. Now don’t look for a nasty
meaning when I intend a compliment of a sort, but do me the favour to
find out whether Bayard has any more maggots in his brain.”
This meant that Eveleen became Sir Henry’s companion. She did so with
a certain diffidence, for it had begun to dawn upon her that her
presence was not precisely welcome. Possibly Captain Crosse had aided
her to make the discovery by a muttered remark about charming ladies
who _would_ poke their noses in where they weren’t wanted. He had said
from the first that European women had no business in Khemistan, she
might remember? She did remember, but would not flatter him by
acknowledging it, nor take any notice now when he murmured what
sounded like “something like a wigging!” The news of Tom Carthew’s
death had subdued her a good deal, so that the severe glance Sir Harry
turned upon her did not, as it would generally have done, pique her to
fresh flightiness.
“And pray, ma’am, why did you force yourself into Colonel Bayard’s
mission to Qadirabad?” he asked her.
She scorned the quibble that the Colonel had said he would welcome her
presence. “Ah, now, Sir Harry, wouldn’t you have found Sahar dull if
you’d been me?”
“Was that your sole reason, pray?”
“Not a bit of it. Ambrose wouldn’t take me with him to Sultankot, so I
told him the next time I’d come without asking. And I did.”
“I see. That you might boast a cheap triumph over your husband, you
chose to double--or at least to add very largely to my anxieties at
this time?”
“Well now, to tell you the truth, I never thought of that!”
The confession was so naïve and unexpected that Sir Harry nearly
spoiled the effect of his lecture by laughing. But he managed to
preserve a proper severity of demeanour as he said, “Let me assure you
I have been a prey to the most serious apprehensions as to your
safety.”
“Indeed, then, I ought to be flattered that Sir Harry Lennox would
think of me at all at such a time.”
She must have scented the unreality of his last remark! “I fear,” he
said smoothly, “Mrs Ambrose would hardly be flattered did she realise
the nature of my thoughts. But if you have no consideration for me, is
there none due to my good friend your excellent husband?”
“And don’t I show my consideration by wanting to be with him wherever
he goes? Who could take better care of him, if he got hurt, than his
own wife?”
“Whom he would infinitely prefer to know in safety at Sahar! Have some
compassion on the poor fellow’s mind, ma’am--don’t keep it all for his
body. Believe me, you have no right to inflict these additional
anxieties on persons who have enough to think of already. You have had
a tolerable example, surely, in the fate of the unfortunate man
Thomas?”
“But sure it was for my sake he brought the warning, and saved all our
lives!” cried Eveleen indignantly.
“Possibly, though some inkling of what was in hand would probably have
reached Bayard in any case. But don’t it occur to you that the reason
the test was proposed to the unhappy man was that his errand had been
divined, and he was given the choice of proving his fidelity to his
employers or expiating what they would consider his treachery?”
“Do you tell me he lost his own life by saving ours?”
“In consequence of saving them, as far as I see. The honour of your
friendship, ma’am, ain’t without its penalties. Shocking rude old
fellow, ain’t I?” as she gazed at him incredulously. “Believe me, I
would withdraw that remark if I could, but what does your own
conscience say about it?”
“It’s cruel y’are!” wept Eveleen. “When you know I would die for my
friends!”
“Pardon me,” drily--“they die for you, you mean.”
“Ah, cruel, cruel! As if I’d ever, ever go where I wasn’t wanted
again!”
“Come! now I have hopes of you. Does that mean that if I can find a
safe place for you among the baggage to-morrow, you pledge your word
to stay where you are put and do what you are bid?”
“Oh, and I’ll see the battle?” joyfully.
“Impossible to say, but I should think it unlikely. Will you do
absolutely what you are told--whether you find yourself in a good
place for seeing or not?”
“I will, I will! and I’ll be grateful to y’all my days.”
“May they be many!” Sir Harry’s tone was still dry. “If you don’t keep
your word they won’t be--that’s all.”
“Ah, then, would y’have the heart to have me shot?”
“Quite unnecessary. The enemy will see to that if you go running about
the country--or our own camp-followers, who are the choicest mob of
rascals I ever saw. I know they’re capable of any enormity, because
they treat their dumb beasts so abominably. I owe this to one of
’em”--he indicated his bandaged right hand.
“Why, did y’interpose to prevent a blow and receive it yourself, Sir
Harry?” with interest.
“Not precisely. A scoundrel was knocking his poor camel about, and my
fist found its way to his forehead. The fellow had a head like a rock!
It was my hand that was smashed; he remained unhurt. Munshi tells me
that the rascals have a game of running at one another with their
heads down, butting like rams, and I believe it--save that the sport
must be too harmless to be profitable.”
“I’m glad ’twas for a camel you did it,” said Eveleen. “Anybody would
defend a horse, but y’are the only one that’s really fond of camels,
don’t you know?”
Sir Henry looked at her suspiciously, and took advantage of
circumstances to change the subject with finality. “Here we are, you
see. We have managed to find a tent for you, but furniture was beyond
us. I call it the one advantage of Indian travelling, that each
visitor brings his own four-poster along with him.”
He dismounted with amazing agility, and came to help Eveleen from her
saddle, but was interrupted by Colonel Bayard.
“Ambrose has been telling me your plans, General, and I can’t say how
glad I am to find you share my view that it ain’t bloodshed, but a
moral effect, that’s called for. May I be permitted to do my part?
Lend me a couple of hundred Europeans and the steamers, and give me
one more day, and we will fire the _shikargahs_ and drive the game
towards you. No Orientals can stand being taken in flank, and where
they would fight desperately if assailed in front, it would not
surprise me did they surrender without fighting at all.”
“H’m!” grunted Sir Harry. “Presently, presently! We don’t hold
councils of war in public, my good fellow. But Europeans? Certainly
not. I have but four hundred in my whole army, and each man is worth
his weight in diamonds to me. And no more delay--not an hour! You must
be back in time. Can’t put off the battle to suit you. Sorry to keep
you waiting, ma’am.”
The day wore itself away slowly enough. Eveleen was tired after the
excitements of the last forty-eight hours, but she found it difficult
to rest. It was the cold weather, but at midday the heat made a tent a
very inadequate shelter, and the many sounds of a camp suggested such
interesting things which might be happening that she was for ever
jumping up to look out. Richard and Brian were busy outside the
General’s little tent close by. It was pitched under a rather
inadequate tree, in the shade of which the office work was necessarily
done, since it could not possibly have been accomplished inside.
Messengers came and went, officers arrived with reports of various
kinds, deputations of men with representations to make, offenders to
receive admonition--and the General dealt with them in patriarchal
style. Late in the afternoon Colonel Bayard and his two hundred Native
Infantry left for the steamers, the officers not disguising their
dissatisfaction at the possibility of missing the battle. At sunset
there was a far more picturesque spectacle, when the Khemistan Horse
rode out to reconnoitre from the land side the hunting-forest in which
the enemy was supposed to be concealed, and thus distract their
attention from Colonel Bayard’s operations by water. The camp woke up
as the sun went down. Fires were lighted, and the men who had grumbled
at the heat in their tents all day came out gladly to enjoy the
warmth. Sitting round the fires, they watched their meal cooking, and
exulted in the thought of the morrow. The British Army groused in
those days as in these, but the _nil admirari_ pose had not yet become
fashionable--or if it had, it had passed by these Irish lads and left
them unscathed. The General had a wood fire in front of his tent like
the rest, and its smoke served as a much-needed deterrent from the
attentions of the mosquitoes. He and Eveleen and his staff sat on
small boxes round a large box for a table, and when the resources of
his two canteens were exhausted, shared tumblers and even plates. Sir
Henry was in a reminiscent mood. He talked about his parents--his
father a giant both in mind and body, who would have been the greatest
General of the age had a bat-like Government but taken advantage of
his powers; his mother at once the best and the most beautiful woman
of her time. Then he turned to his brothers, of whom there were
several, each remarkable in his particular sphere, but none to compare
with the two who were soldiers like himself, and like him, had fought
and bled in the Peninsula. They had attained a certain measure of
recognition, but nothing to what they should have received had they
been treated fairly: there was a cross-grained fate pursuing every
Lennox which robbed him of the due reward of his deeds. In all this he
called upon his nephew--son to one of the ill-used soldiers--for
confirmation, which was dutifully given. But when the General’s
attention was distracted for a moment by the arrival of a message,
Frederick Lennox spoke in a hollow whisper to Eveleen.
“It’s all quite true, and yet there ain’t a word of it true! What’s
wrong with us Lennoxes is that we are all of us such queer
cross-grained fellows that we make our own enemies.”
Eveleen was greatly interested, for the Lennox temperament seemed to
have an affinity with her own--as Richard had once hinted,--and she
would fain have pursued the subject, but the General’s eye was upon
them again. The message had apparently recalled him from the past to
the present.
“They tell me now that if the Khans bring up all their forces, they
will put sixty thousand Arabits into the field against us to-morrow,”
he said. “Well, be they sixty or a hundred thousand, I’ll fight ’em!
It shall be do or die. No Ethiopian muddle for me! I would never show
my face again. Well, Heaven grant me to be worthy of my wife and
girls, and not disgrace ’em!”
“Sure y’are the first ever mentioned disgrace in the same breath with
yourself, Sir Harry,” said Eveleen earnestly. He glowered at her.
“Young troops--never saw a fight before, and a leader with no
experience of high command! The Duke’s battles were ended when he was
ten years younger than I--Napoleon’s the same. Yet there’s a kind of
elation in the delightful anxiety of leading an army--and such an
army--against a force twenty times its number. How many proud Arabits
will have bit the dust by this hour to-morrow! But who am I, to dare
to rejoice in the prospect of taking life, instead of lamenting the
grievous necessity? At least I have done my utmost to avoid
bloodshed--even Bayard admits it.” He had been talking as if to
himself, but his tone changed suddenly. “Well, well; a bit more
writing and a visit to the outposts, then three hours’ sleep, for I
had none last night--some foolish report or other coming in all night
long. Get what rest you can, Mrs Ambrose, and you, gentlemen. We march
at four.”
The night felt very short to Eveleen, though she must have had at
least two hours’ more sleep than the General. It was in that most
uncomfortable hour before dawn that she was waked, and it seemed
impossible ever to get ready in the cold and the confined space and by
the light of a dimly burning lantern. But she was outside at last, in
a chill grey light in which figures moved like shadows at first, but
gradually became more distinct. Richard brought her a cup of coffee,
which was hot and sweet and strong--the very stimulant she
needed,--and Brian presented her with a chunk of meat balanced on a
biscuit, which required all her attention to get it conveyed safely to
her mouth. When it was disposed of, she had leisure to look about. The
camp was disappearing amid cracks and creaks; soldiers, servants,
camp-followers were running about like ants in a threatened ant-hill.
The General, in a sheepskin coat which combined with his spectacles to
give him the look of a philosopher turned bandit, was receiving a
report from a dark-faced officer with a bushy black beard--Captain
Keeling of the Khemistan Horse,--which seemed to make him very angry.
“No sign of the enemy in the _shikargahs_? Then where on earth have
they got to? If their hearts have failed ’em again, I’ll chase ’em to
the gate of Qadirabad and out at t’other end! Then Bayard’s expedition
will be no use, and I can’t get at him! I wish I had never let him
go--robbing me of two hundred of my best sepoys and three invaluable
officers. Well, many thanks for the information, Keeling. You are
advanced guard now, you know. I needn’t tell you to keep a sharp
look-out for the rascals, with all these woods and nullahs about.”
Captain Keeling saluted and rode away, and somehow or other, from a
mob falling aimlessly over each other’s feet, the army sorted itself
out and into column of route, and the march began. The cavalry ahead
and on the flanks may have been able to see where they were going, but
the dust they stirred up made a gritty fog in which the infantry
toiled along blindly. It was full daylight now, and the sun was
growing hot. The General had discarded his woolly coat and carried it
before him on the saddle, and Eveleen threw back the veil she had worn
to protect her face from the dust, that she might at least be able to
breathe. In a brief halt about seven o’clock, Sir Henry conferred with
Captain Keeling again, and the Khemistan Horse trotted off briskly on
another reconnaissance, their place in the van being taken by a Bengal
Cavalry regiment. The army had not long got into motion again before a
gun was heard in front, then a regular fusillade, which was repeated
at brief intervals.
“He’s found ’em this time!” chuckled Sir Henry, and presently a sowar,
his horse in a lather, galloped back and presented a note. The General
read it with visible pleasure.
“The Arabits have kept the appointment right enough, gentlemen,” he
said to his staff. “They are drawn up behind Mahighar--the very place
I fixed on,--a strong position, so Keeling says, with both flanks
protected by _shikargahs_ and the front by a deep dry watercourse. He
estimates them at twenty thousand at least, with fifteen guns. The
Khans are in camp behind a fortified village on their right. He
remains under fire to reconnoitre more closely, which will give us
time for our part of the business.”
A brief order sent Brian back with the sowar, to bring the latest
news, and orderlies were despatched down the column to hurry the
loiterers and prevent straggling. Stewart rode ahead with the Engineer
officers, who knew exactly what they had to do, and presently the
General and his companions arrived at a clump of scraggy trees, round
which the ground was being neatly marked out with flags.
“Headquarters,” said Sir Henry laconically. “Ambrose, I shan’t want
you at present. You had better find out a nice sheltered place for Mrs
Ambrose here on the right somewhere. You won’t be disturbed. That’s
where the hospital tents will be, and there are no invalids to-day--as
yet. Dare say he don’t want to do anything of the kind,” he added,
more audibly than he intended, to Brian; “but hang it! a man does owe
some duty to his wife.”
Absurdly embarrassed, and not a little angry, Richard obeyed, and
Eveleen, lifted from her saddle, led the way into the grateful shade
of the little wood. The air was full of the thunder of the guns, and
her husband had to shout when he warned her of a projecting root that
might have made her trip. They paused in sight of the tents in course
of erection, where the surgeons--with what looked like, but doubtless
was not, unholy joy--were setting out in order objects of gruesome
aspect, and Eveleen turned with a smile.
“How cross y’are, Ambrose! Y’ought be giving me all sorts of farewell
messages, don’t you know?”
“I don’t know that there’s much to tell you,” he said gruffly. “Stay
near your tent, and do what you are told. If--if things go wrong, old
Abdul Qaiyam will take care of you, and get you away if it can be
done. You promise to do exactly as he says?”
“I wouldn’t have thought you’d consider it dignified to take orders
from the bearer, but if it’ll ease your mind, I’ll do it by all
means.”
“And--if the worst comes to the worst, you know what to do? You have a
pistol?”
“I have that. Sure it’s a pleasure to find you think me capable of
doing the proper thing sometimes--if it’s only once in the world.”
“You appear to be in excellent spirits. I congratulate you.”
“Yes, and it _is_ appearance, and nothing else----” furiously. “D’
y’ask me why? Because if I didn’t I’d _howl_--there! and how would you
like that?”
Horribly ashamed, and even more embarrassed than before, Richard felt
the absolute necessity of making some acknowledgment, and forced a
“Thank you!” from his reluctant lips. Reading rather than hearing it,
Eveleen laughed with the tears in her eyes.
“Y’are so English, Ambrose! But don’t let us tease one another any
more at all. I’ll be quite happy making a garland to crown you with
when you come back victorious. And you’ll be happy knowing I’m quite
safe.”
“I don’t know,” he said dubiously. “This spot is shockingly
exposed--no defence of any kind---- Oh, look there! I might have known
Sir Henry would have some plan of his own. This is what they do at the
Cape in repelling Kaffir attacks--but there they have waggons for
their breastwork. D’ye see--between those two tents--the camels
kneeling with their heads outwards, and the baggage piled up between
’em, to make a barricade to fire over? A regular fortification! The
Arabits will think twice before they try to spread panic among our
camp-followers now--all herded inside, and a strong guard--though it
reduces our numbers----”
“Never mind! The fewer the greater honour,” said Eveleen, and after a
time they walked back towards the spot designated as headquarters,
where Sir Henry and the staff were just preparing to mount. A cloud of
dust to the right showed where the artillery was taking up its
position, while on the left the Bengal Cavalry were moving off to
support the Khemistan Horse. In front, drawn up in serried ranks, as
if on parade, was the infantry--the Queen’s --th in the post of honour
next to the guns.
“Hanged if I’d let my enemy take up his position as calmly as at a
review, if I was an Arabit commander,” said the General. “I wonder if
they have anything in the watercourse that Keeling did not see--any
sort of trap. We shall soon find out for ourselves.”
“A frontal attack, General?” asked Richard.
“Necessarily. Keeling sends word that he tried to ride round their
left, but the jungle is full of nullahs, all scarped, and matchlockmen
in the trees. I myself reconnoitred to the right just now with the
Bengalis, and it’s equally bad there--thick woods on either bank of
the watercourse, which is deep in wet mud. No matchlockmen showed
their noses, but that’s their cunning. They must be there, they would
be fools if they didn’t hold that _shikargah_, and worse fools if they
told me they were doing it. We caught sight of a smoke in the
distance, so Bayard has done his work, though miles away from the
enemy’s position. I wish I had that detachment back, but that’s crying
over spilt milk. Good-bye, Mrs Ambrose; give us your prayers.”
He bowed from his saddle to shake hands, and Eveleen looked up at him
with brimming eyes. “God bring you safe through, Sir Harry--and you,
my boy Brian and you----” she could not utter her husband’s name, but
gave her hand to each man as he bent towards her in passing. By the
cloud of dust that followed their movements she could see that Sir
Harry was taking up his position at the head of his array, and the
line moved off, rather to the right, while the firing continued on the
left. Had the baggage-guard occupied a hill of any sort, it might have
been possible to follow the fortunes of the fight; but the plain was
perfectly flat, and there was not even a house-roof to mount. Eveleen
wandered about with a white face, listening to the cannonade, and
wondering, whenever a momentary pause came, what terrible meaning it
might bear. The surgeons and their native assistants were fidgeting in
and out of the hospital tents, having few preparations to make
compared with their successors of to-day, and they also were
listening. At last the sound of the enemy’s fire was drowned by a
nearer roar--more sustained and regular.
“D’ye hear that, ma’am?” cried the nearest doctor, waving an unrolled
bandage about his head like a conjuror. “That’s blessed old Brown
Bess. We’ve got into touch with ’em! Now we shall soon have plenty to
do. There are our guns now!”
It was thrilling, but not enlightening. The rival roars continued, now
one predominating, now the other, then both uniting in a crash that
made the earth shake; but there was nothing to be seen but dust below
and distant smoke mounting into the blue sky above. Then curious
little forms appeared on the edge of the dust-cloud, looking like some
new kind of quadruped, and resolved themselves into doolies, each
carried by two brown men, running and panting as if in terror, but
bringing in their burdens faithfully through the gap left in the
barricade, and depositing them at the hospital tents.
“Better go round the other side of the _tope_, ma’am,” said the
surgeon, advancing with dreadful determination.
“Perhaps I could help?” suggested Eveleen half-heartedly.
“No, no. We don’t want ladies mixing themselves up in this sort of
work,” blissfully unconscious of the change a mere dozen of years was
to bring forth, and Eveleen retired to the shelter of her tent, and
stopped her ears from the sounds she thought she heard. Then the
surgeon hurried across to her.
“Fellow here, Mrs Ambrose--Kenton of the N.I.--pretty bad--if you
would sit by him and talk, or let him talk. We shall have to amputate
presently, but our hands are full just now, and he’s a nervous sort of
chap. If you can get him to talk to you, it’ll take his mind off it.”
Horribly scared, but ashamed to refuse, Eveleen went back with him, to
find the wounded man--boy rather, for he must have been younger than
Brian--laid in the shade of the trees. His face was white and drawn,
but over his body, at which Eveleen glanced fearfully, a covering had
been thrown. The doctor broke a branch from the nearest tree and put
it into her hand.
“That will keep the flies off, at any rate. And if he’s thirsty, you
can give him some water. Now please talk!”--in an urgent whisper, as
he went off.
It seemed horrible to disturb any one who was in such pain, but as
Eveleen sat down beside the boy she managed to say, “Don’t answer if
it hurts you too much, but just tell me--we are winning?”
“Of course!” The closed eyes opened with an effort, and met hers
indignantly. “With such a commander, and such men, how could we
possibly lose?”
“Sure y’are a boy after the General’s own heart!” said Eveleen
approvingly. Then, catching the doctor’s nod of encouragement as he
disappeared round a tent, she went on. “But tell me now, why did Sir
Harry turn to the right, when the poor Khemistan Horse had been under
fire so long on the left?”
“Because the matchlock-fire from the village was too heavy. Keeling’s
men were in skirmishing order, lying down behind their horses, and
couldn’t take much harm, but to lead a column of infantry into it
would have been destruction. But tell you what”--he spoke vivaciously,
though in a thin weak voice, and she had grown sufficiently accustomed
to the noise of the battle to be able to hear--“we very nearly caught
it just as hot on the right, and if the enemy commander knew his
business we should have done. That _shikargah_ there, which Sir Henry
reconnoitred with the Bengalis without seeing a soul, has a wall in
front of it, and in the wall was a gap--just broken by accident, as
you might say. But as we came near, there was a chap sitting astride
upon the wall, near the gap, who fired at the General, and missed.
Then another matchlock was handed up to him, and another, but he
missed every time, and one of our men toppled him off the wall with a
bullet. The General stood up in his stirrups and looked at the place
with his telescope, and then dismounted and went quite close. Then he
told Captain Crosse, of my regiment, to take his company just inside
the gap and hold it at all costs. And he is holding it, I tell you! We
heard the firing break out in the wood as we marched on. They had
prepared an ambush there to fall upon our flank, do you see? and if
they’d had the sense to cut loopholes, or throw up a banquette for
firing over the wall, they might have swept us all away--if they
hadn’t betrayed themselves by setting their sharpshooter to pick off
the General.”
“And then? if y’are not too tired,” said Eveleen quickly.
“Tired? It helps me to forget, you see. They were firing at us from
the opposite bank of the dry river as we got closer, but we held our
fire till we were not more than a hundred yards off. We marched on up
to the very bank, and then--give you my word, we did get a start!
Looking down into the bed of the stream was like looking into a sea of
turbaned heads, with rolling eyes and grinning teeth, and swords and
shields; and they all came at us with a frightful yell. They had been
crouching behind the bank to surprise us--and they did. We went at it
ding-dong, musket and matchlock and pistol, and bayonet and shield and
tulwar, they rushing up the bank in waves and rolling us back, and
then our men rallying and pouring in a volley that checked ’em a bit.
And the General riding up and down between, holloing us on! Didn’t you
hear ’em cheer him when he rallied the Queen’s --th? I should have
thought it could have been heard at Qadirabad! And then I went down,
and he sent an orderly to get a doolie, and Paddy the aide--oh, I beg
your pardon; that’s your brother, ain’t it?--helped to get me into it,
and that’s all I know. But tell me, what time is it?”
“It must be quite noon, I think,” said Eveleen.
“Noon? and we went into it at nine! Has the cavalry charged yet, do
you know?”
“The whole army might have charged, but we wouldn’t know. There is not
a thing to be seen for dust.”
“Believe me, you’d know if the Bengalis charged. The ground would
shake--quite a different feeling from the rumble the guns make. Oh,
why, why ain’t they charging the village? That was what the General
sent ’em to support the Khemistan Horse for--we all knew it--to make a
diversion if he was hard pressed. He can’t keep it up if they
don’t--there’s a hundred Arabits to every man of ours. We shall be cut
to pieces---- No, no--listen; what’s that?”
He tried to start up, but Eveleen held him down gently. “I hear, I
hear!” she cried, almost as excited as himself. “A different sound
entirely--like rolling thunder! I feel it more than I hear. Oh, will
it, will it be the charge?”
“It must be a charge, but is it their cavalry or ours? No, help me to
turn my head, please----” and with a great effort he got his ear near
the ground. “It _is_ ours--the noise is going away from us. This is
victory, then.”
For a few minutes the din of firing broke out with such force as to
drown all other sounds. Then it became broken and irregular, then
seemed to pass away altogether to the right. Neither Eveleen nor the
wounded boy could say a word. With parted lips and wildly beating
hearts they stared at one another, afraid to move lest they should
lose some pregnant sound as the minutes rolled on. Then they both
became aware that the sound of the firing had ceased. From far, far in
the distance came a thin flat cheer, then another, then a third.
“We’ve won!” said young Kenton. “I don’t mind now,” and fainted.