AN ALLY OF PROVIDENCE
The Colonel was away on business soon after sunrise, long before the
boys were awake. The Russians had had enough for the moment and gave
them a quiet night.
He came in while they were breakfasting, with a satisfied look on his
face.
"Well, Jack, how goes it? You were both sleeping like tops when I left
you."
"I feel like a jelly-fish on Carne beach, sir," said Jack. "I have a
very great disinclination to move."
"Cuts twingy?"
"When I think of them, sir. At present I can think of nothing but this
coffee. They give us ours green, you know, and nothing to roast or
grind it with."
"So I heard. I would like to see what would happen if they sent ours
like that; but, _mon Dieu!_ I wouldn't like to be in their shoes! The
good old fashion of hanging a commissary whenever anything went wrong
was certainly effective. Jim, my boy, I've got your matter arranged
all right. You are to get away to-morrow with a fortnight's leave.
That should pull you round."
"It's awfully good of you, sir. It's just what I'm needing."
"Talking of hanging commissaries," said the Colonel, with a whimsical
smile on his dark face, "it was all I could do to keep my hands off
one of your pig-heads down at Balaclava yonder." And he switched his
long mud-caked riding-boot with his whip as if it were the gentleman
in question.
"I called on Lord Raglan to ask his permission to my plan, and at
first he was a bit stiff and stand-offish. But he came round and spoke
very nicely of you, my boy. He wouldn't discuss that foolish charge of
yours, and I did not press It. He granted you leave at once, and gave
me a written order for your passage to and from Constantinople by
first ship that was leaving."
"But that's only the beginning of the story," he said, as Jim's mouth
opened with thanks again. "I thought I'd make sure of the whole
business, so I waded down to Balaclava. _Mon Dieu!_ what a travesty of
a road! My poor beast was up to his knees in the filth at times. And
the place itself when I got there! The harbour is a cesspool, an
inferno of evil smells and pestilence, And I think the evil vapours
have got into the heads of your people there, I never saw such
disorder and confusion in all my life. I found the harbour master at
last, and asked him for information as to sailings. But he was only
the Inner Harbour Master, it seems, and he referred me to the Head of
the Transport. The transport people referred me to the Naval
Authorities, and a naval officer, whom I caught on the wing, told me I
would have to apply to the Outer Harbour Master, who was somewhere
outside among the fleet. I was consigning them all to warmer quarters
than Balaclava, when I spied a man I knew--Captain Jolly of the
_Carnbrea_, who had brought some of our troops over to Kamiesch Bay.
He was bursting with complaints and nearly mad, said he'd like to tie
the heads of all the departments in one big bag and sink them in the
cesspool. He said he was sailing to-morrow with a load of sick and
wounded, and he'd been up trying to get a few stoves from the official
who had charge of them, as the sick men were dying of the cold. 'He'd
got hundreds of them lying there,' said old Jolly, almost black in the
face, 'and he wouldn't let me have one. Said I must get a requisition
and fill it up and get it signed at Head-quarters. I told him the men
were dying meanwhile. He could do nothing without a requisition
signed at Head-quarters. I asked him to lend me some stoves. He
couldn't. I asked him to sell me some. He wouldn't. I told him those
men's deaths would lie at his door. He said if I would get a
requisition, etc., etc. So then I--well, I told him what I thought of
him and all the rest, in good hot sailor-talk, and came away.'"
"I asked him if he could find room for one more on his ship, and told
him about you, and, like a good fellow, he said, 'Send 'em both along
and I'll make room for 'em.' So you're all right, Jim, and Jolly will
make you comfortable, I know."
"It's awfully good of you, sir," said Jim once more. "I'm sorry we're
such a bother to you."
"It's not every man can boast of two such young warriors, you see. On
the whole I'm inclined to think Providence served us well in making me
an ally, eh?"
"Your people are very much better off than ours, sir," said Jack. "Our
camp is like London on a foggy day."
"And ours is like Paris," laughed the Colonel. "You see we understand
the art of war better than you do, and, candidly, I think your
officers are much to blame for the little interest they take in their
men. Here we are all _bons camarades_, whereas your men are left
entirely to themselves."
"We mix in the trenches," said Jack in defence.
"Of necessity, I suppose, since the space is limited. But even there
you don't mix as we do."
"Your music alone is worth coming for," said Jim. "It did me as much
good as the doctor almost."
"Yes; I notice a lot of your men come across to hear it whenever they
get the chance. Great mistake shutting up your bands. The men always
like music, and expect it."
"You don't think I'll miss anything by going, sir?" asked Jim
anxiously.
"You'll gain a great deal more than you'll miss, my boy. I shouldn't
wonder if we have a fairly quiet time here now."
"And you'll see to my horse?"
"He shall have every attention, I promise you."