'OH, FOR A HORSE WITH WINGS!'
Jerry lay long when we left him last in a state of
semi-unconsciousness, thoughts of his past life rather than of his
present most perilous and deplorable predicament hovering in his
mind. He sometimes imagined himself at the mess, and heard the
voices and saw the faces of Goring, Dalton, Frank Fleming, and
others; anon he was in the Long Valley at Aldershot skirmishing with
his company, or riding a hurdle-race by Twesildown Hill. Then came
dreams of the ball at Wilmothurst and of Bella Chevenix in all her
beauty, and his cold, pale, passionless mother. Again he was in the
playing-fields at Eton--again chosen stroke of the Oxford boat. All
these floated before him with an overwhelming sense of pain in his
head, as once again he struggled back to the world and a full sense
of the awful horror of his situation came upon him. Thankful we may
be that, as Pope has it,
'Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state.'
The prospect of Jerry's future made his heart seem to die within him.
The sun was shining brightly now, and save the loud hum of insect
life no sound was in the air or around him. A heavy odour of burnt
wood and of moist thatch came upon the passing wind from where the
fires of the past night were still smouldering in Coomassie, and once
more staggering up Jerry looked around him.
He was alone--left in the bush to perish; and his comrades, where
were they?
Miles on the happy homeward march to the coast, with the swollen
rivers all unbridged and impassable in their rear!
He saw it all--he felt it all, and knew that he was a lost man.
Feeble, defenceless, and single-handed he would fall a victim to the
first savage and infuriated Ashantee he met, and his skull would soon
be laid as an ornament--a royal trophy--at the foot of the king.
A heavy moan escaped poor Jerry; but the love of life, the instinct
of self-preservation is strong in human nature, and his first thought
was to endeavour to follow the army.
At a pool he bathed his head and face, washed away the plastered
blood that encrusted all the vicinity of the wound on his head, and
bound the latter up with his handkerchief. He luckily found his
light helmet in the hollow where he had lain unseen by his comrades,
and, after giving a glance to the chambers of his loaded revolver,
endeavoured to follow as closely as he could the track that led he
knew towards the army--the track the latter must have trodden.
But he frequently lost it, vast swamps and sheets of water were
formed now where none had been before, and he had to make harassing
detours; his powers and his steps were feeble, thus his progress was
slow and often doubtful, and ever and anon he had to pause and look
around him, fearing that in the dingles of the woody wilderness he
might see the dark and agile figure of a hostile savage.
Mid-day came when he was certain that he could have made but a very
few miles of progress, and gasping with heat, giddy and weary, he
crept under the shadow of a dense leafy bush to rest and conceal
himself.
Could he have been certain of the route, he knew that it would have
been safer to travel by night, but in the night he must fail to see
the traces of it, and now, with weariness and pain, a great horror of
the whole situation came upon him, and he could but mutter again and
again,
'Alone--alone in the bush--to die! God help me!'
Poor Jerry was a popular, light-hearted, prosperous, and happy young
fellow, whom every one liked and to whom pleasant things happened
every day. He was wont to own that he found every one kind and every
one nice, and in society, of course, he met many people. Wherever
Jerry had gone, at school, at college, or with the Rifles, he
converted strangers into acquaintances, and acquaintances soon became
his friends. Wherever he went invitations to dinners, balls, drums,
lawn-tennis, and other parties flowed upon him, for he was decidedly
a popular young fellow, with the girls especially.
All that seemed ended!
To Jerry, accustomed as he had been to the sunny side of life, and to
float without a thought upon its rippling and glittering current,
there was something worse than death in his present predicament. He
could understand being shot in action, and then being buried in a
hole or left unburied to the fowls of the air, but this struggle
against destruction--this living death--was utterly beyond all his
calculations!
He partook sparingly of the contents of his haversack, reflecting the
while on what must inevitably ensue when the last of that support for
exhausted nature was expended, for he could not escape a death by
starvation even if he escaped death by other means.
Without food, without comrades, without help or means to cross the
swollen rivers! The perspiration burst in beads upon his temples;
his pulsation caused the aching of his contused wound to become
agony; his muscles grew rigid, he set his teeth, and began to surmise
how long he would last--how long he could endure all that must be
before him now, while muttering again,
'Alone in the bush to die--God help me!'
He had in his haversack rations for three days; even if he could make
them last for seven, his resource would end then; and, even while
sheltered by the giant leaves which abounded there, the baleful night
dews might induce fever and ague, while the waters that barred his
progress were more likely to rise than to fall, as the rainy season,
which had made Sir Garnet Wolseley begin his sudden retreat, had now
commenced.
Tidings that he had perished would soon be telegraphed to England;
many there, he knew, would regret him; with something of a bitter
smile he remembered the farewell parting with his cold, aristocratic
mother, and then the thought of Bella perhaps becoming--for she was
known to be rich--the bride of the horsey Lord Twesildown.
The thought of that nerved him to exertion; the sun was verging
westward now, and once more, with feeble steps and slow he took to
the track again, half blinded at times by the crimson glare of light
that poured between the stems of the trees, for the track he had to
pursue was then straight in the wake of the setting sun.
He could form no idea of the distance he had gone, but the odour of
burned wood which reached him from time to time warned him that he
was still unpleasantly near Coomassie, and more than once sounds that
came upon the wind like a savage shout and the distant beating of a
war-drum, made him creep into the jungle for concealment, and thus
lose time, when, if he would hope to overtake the army, now many
miles on their homeward way, every moment was most precious.
At last, when night, with tropical swiftness, had descended he found
his progress hopelessly barred by that great sheet of water which we
have already referred to--a reach of five hundred yards in breadth
that rolled now at a place through which in advancing the army had
passed dry-shod.
'Out of the running!' exclaimed poor Jerry, using his home
phraseology; 'oh, heavens! how to bridge this sea that lies between
me and the troops? Oh, for a horse with wings!' he added,
unconsciously quoting the exclamation of Cymbeline.
When night fell no resource was left him but to remain there and gaze
with haggard eyes and a desponding heart at the cruel sheet of water
that lay between him and probable safety.
Brightly, as on the New Year's night that saw the troops landing on
that fatal shore, the moon was shining now--brighter even; never had
Jerry seen such brilliancy. In all the vast expanse of the firmament
overhead there was not a vestige of cloud. Millions of stars were
there, but their splendour was dimmed or obscured by the splendid
effulgence of the moon. The vast leaves of plants, whose names were
all unknown to the lost Jerry, were shining in dew as if diamonds had
rained from heaven; every giant cotton-tree and palm, every rock and
fissure were illuminated, and the birds flew to and fro as if a new
day had dawned, but a day of silver, icy-like splendour, and clear as
in a mirror were the shadows of the trees and graceful palms
reflected downward in the sheet of water that glittered in the sheen.
But that he was so weary and faint Jerry would have availed himself
of this wonderful moonlight and endeavoured to get round the flank of
the vast sheet of water that barred his progress, and which reflected
the radiance like a mighty sheet of crystal; but he was compelled to
wait till morning, and again sought shelter under some jungly bushes.
Near the place he saw several broken meat tins and empty bottles
scattered about, indicating where some of our troops had halted
before the final march was made into Coomassie; and he regarded with
interest and anxiety these vestiges which proved that he was in the
right track could he but cross the intervening flood.
With his very existence trembling in the balance with fate, what a
small matter now seemed the mortgages over Wilmothurst and every
consideration save the love of Bella Chevenix; and while he strove to
court sleep--oblivion in that savage wilderness, where no sound met
the ear save the plash of falling dew as some overcharged leaf bent
downward; his whole soul was full of her image--the image of her he
too probably should never, never see again.
With earliest dawn he was again afoot and seeking to get round the
reach of water, but it trended away through hollows far to the north
and south, yet with an aching heart he struggled manfully at his
task. On every hand towered up to the height of two hundred and
fifty feet or more, straight as stone columns, the cotton-trees, like
the giants of primeval vegetation, and round their bases flourished
the wondrous undergrowth of jungle, under which again grew white
lilies, pink flowers, and dog-roses; amid which could be heard sharp
trumpetings of enormous mosquitoes, with the monotonous too-too of
the wild doves, which alone broke the silence of the bush.
'This silence,' wrote one who served in the campaign, 'this
apparently never-ending forest, this monotony of rank vegetation,
this absence of a breath of wind to rustle a leaf, becomes
oppressive, and the feeling is not lessened by the dampness and
heaviness of the air, and by the malarious exhalation and odour of
decaying vegetation which rise from the swamps.'
The report of a musket at no great distance, followed by the noise
made by some wounded animal crashing through the forest. compelled
Jerry, with a heart that beat wildly with agitation and alarm, to
conceal himself instantly; and he had hardly done so, when four armed
Ashantees, with muscular mahogany-coloured forms, gleaming eyes, and
shining teeth, passed near him and continued to hover about, as if
scouting or in pursuit of game.
This compelled him to lie for hours _en perdu_, and evening began to
close again without his having got round the reach of water that lay
between him and the way to Prah, and even if he ever did reach the
banks of that stream how was he to cross it? for he was not a swimmer.
On this night there was no moon, for the clouds were densely massed
in the heavens; the rain fell in torrents, and though sheltered
therefrom in the hollow of a rock Jerry listened to the crashing
sound of the vast drops falling in a ceaseless shower, with a species
of dull despair, for higher than ever would the waters rise now; his
food was failing him, and he gave himself up for utterly lost.
With dawn the rain departed, and the sun exhaled a dense steamy mist
from the drenched forest; but Jerry dared not leave his lair, for
more than once in the distance he heard distinctly cries, strange
sounds, and the explosion of firearms, showing evidently that
scouting parties of Ashantees were hovering about, if it were not
their whole army following up ours, which must be, he knew, at a vast
distance then.
He had now come to his last biscuit, and finding all still when night
fell he again addressed himself to the task of attempting to ford the
water at a place where it seemed shallow. The sky was again cloudy,
veiling most of the stars, and the moon had not yet risen.
At that point the forest was open for a great space, and luxuriant
grass and reed-like rushes covered all the soil. Weak and weary,
stiff and sore, though he had lurked in concealment all day, he
staggered like a drunken man as he approached the water, but ere he
could enter it some uncertain sounds made him look behind. He saw
the gleam of arms, the flash of steel in the starlight; and then,
coming upon him at a rush, apparently were some twenty men, emerging
swiftly from the forest he had left; and though he drew his sword and
grasped his revolver, resolved to sell his life bitterly and dearly,
so enfeebled was his frame, and so great was the shock--the
horror--he experienced at the prospect of the terrible death which so
surely awaited him, after all he had endured and undergone, that he
fell prone on his face and scarcely remembered more, as they closed
in wild tumult around him.