_Military and Naval Manœuvres_
However nonchalant in demeanour, it was an eager and excited crowd of
officers that stood around the foot of the boat-deck ladder awaiting the
result of the conference held in the Captain’s cabin, to which
meeting-place its proprietor had taken Commander Finnis before requesting
the presence of Colonel Haldon, the First Officer, and the Ship’s
Adjutant, to learn the decision and orders of the powers-that-be
concerning all and sundry, from the ship’s Captain to the Sepoys’ cook.
Who would Colonel Haldon send forthwith to M’paga, where the scrap was
even then in progress (according to Lieutenant Greene, quoting Commander
Finnis)? What orders did the papers in the fateful little dispatch-case,
borne by the latter gentleman, contain for the various officers not
already instructed to join their respective corps? Who would be sent to
healthy, cheery Nairobi? Who to the vile desert at Voi? Who to
interesting, far-distant Uganda? Who to the ghastly mangrove-swamps down
the coast by the border of German East? Who to places where there was
real active service, fighting, wounds, distinction and honourable death?
Who to dreary holes where they would “sit down” and sit tight, rotting
with fever and dysentery, eating out their hearts, without seeing a
single German till the end of the war. . . .
Bertram thought of a certain “lucky-dip bran-tub,” that loomed large in
memories of childhood, whence, at a Christmas party, he had seen three or
four predecessors draw most attractive and delectable toys and he had
drawn a mysterious and much-tied parcel which had proved to contain a
selection of first-class coke. What was he about to draw from Fate’s
bran-tub to-day?
When the Ship’s Adjutant, bearing sheets of foolscap, eventually emerged
from the Captain’s cabin, ran sidling down the boat-deck ladder and
proceeded to the notice-board in the saloon-companion, followed by the
nonchalantly eager and excited crowd, as is the frog-capturing duck by
all the other ducks of the farm-yard, Bertram, with beating heart, read
down the list until he came to his own name—only to discover that Fate
had hedged.
The die was not yet cast, and Second-Lieutenant B. Greene would disembark
with detachments, Indian troops, and, at Mombasa, await further orders.
Captain Brandone and Lieutenant Stanner would proceed immediately to
M’paga, and with wild cries of “Yoicks! Tally Ho!” and “Gone away!”
those two officers fled to their respective cabins to collect their kit.
Dinner that night was a noisy meal, and talk turned largely upon the
merits or demerits of the places from Mombasa to Uganda to which the
speakers had been respectively posted.
“Where are you going, Brannigan?” asked Bertram of that cheery Hibernian,
as he seated himself beside him.
“Where am Oi goin’, is ut, me bhoy?” was the reply. “Faith, where the
loin-eating man—Oi mane the man-eating loins reside, bedad. Ye’ve heard
o’ the man-eaters of Tsavo? That’s where Oi’m goin’, me bucko—to the
man-eaters of Tsavo.”
Terence had evidently poured a libation of usquebagh before dining, for
he appeared wound up to talk.
“Begorra—if ut’s loin-eaters they are, it’s Terry Brannigan’ll gird up
_his_ loins an’ be found there missing entoirely. . . . Oi’d misloike to
be ’aten by a loin, Greene . . .” and he frowned over the idea and grew
momentarily despondent.
“’Tis not phwat I wint for a sojer for, at all, at all,” he complained,
and added a lament to the effect that he was not as tough as O’Toole’s
pig. But the mention of this animal appeared to have a cheering effect,
for he burst into song.
“Ye’ve heard of Larry O’Toole,
O’ the beautiful town o’ Drumgool?
Faith, he had but wan eye
To ogle ye by,
But, begorra, that wan was a jool. . . .”
After dinner, Bertram sought out Colonel Haldon for further orders,
information and advice.
“Everybody clears off to-morrow morning, my boy,” said he, “and in
twenty-four hours we shall be scattered over a country as big as Europe.
You’ll be in command, till further orders, of all native troops landed at
Mombasa. I don’t suppose you’ll be there long, though. You may get
orders to bung off with the Hundred and Ninety-Ninth draft of the Hundred
and Ninety-Eighth, or you may have to see them off under a Native Officer
and go in the opposite direction yourself. . . . Don’t worry, anyway.
You’ll be all right. . . .”
That night Bertram again slept but little, and had a bad relapse into the
old state of self-distrust, depression and anxiety. This sense of
inadequacy, inexperience and unworth was overwhelming. What did he know
about Sepoys that he should, for a time, be in sole command and charge of
a mixed force of Regular troops and Imperial Service troops which
comprised Gurkhas, Sikhs, Pathans, Punjabi Mahommedans, Deccani Marathas,
Rajputs, and representatives of almost every other fighting race in
India? It would be bad enough if he could thoroughly understand the
language of any one of them. As it was, he had a few words of cook-house
Hindustani, and a man whom he disliked and distrusted as his sole
representative and medium of intercourse with the men. Suppose the
fellow was rather his _mis_-representative? Suppose he fomented trouble,
as only a native can? What if there were a sudden row and quarrel
between some of the naturally inimical races—a sort of inter-tribal
shindy between the Sikhs and the Pathans, for example? Who was wretched
little “Blameless Bertram,” to think he could impose his authority upon
such people and quell the riot with a word? What if they defied him and
the Jemadar did not support him? What sort of powers and authority had
he? . . . He did not know. . . . Suppose there _were_ a row, and there
was real fighting and bloodshed? It would get into the papers, and his
name would be held up to the contempt of the whole British Empire. It
would get into the American papers too. Then an exaggerated account of
it would be published in the Press of the Central Powers and their
wretched allies, to show the rotten condition of the Indian Army. The
neutral papers would copy it. Soon there would not be a corner of the
civilised world where people had not heard the name of Greene, the name
of the wretched creature who could not maintain order and discipline
among a few native troops, but allowed some petty quarrel between two
soldiers to develop into an “incident.” Yes—that’s what would happen, a
“regrettable incident.” . . . And the weary old round of self-distrust,
depreciation and contempt went its sorry cycle once again. . . .
Going on deck in the morning, Bertram discovered that supplementary
orders had been published, and that all native troops would be
disembarked under his command at twelve noon, and that he would report,
upon landing, to the Military Landing Officer, from whom he would receive
further orders. . . . Troops would carry no ammunition, nor cooked
rations. All kits would go ashore with the men. . . .
Bertram at once proceeded to the companion leading down to the well-deck,
called a Sepoy of the Hundred and Ninety-Ninth, and “sent his salaams” to
the Jemadar of that regiment, to the Subedar of the Gurkhas, the Subedar
of the Sherepur Sikhs and the Jemadar of the Very Mixed Contingent.
To these officers he endeavoured to make it clear that every man of their
respective commands, and every article of those men’s kit, bedding, and
accoutrements, and all stores, rations and ammunition, must be ready for
disembarkation at midday.
The little Gurkha Subedar smiled brightly, saluted, and said he quite
understood—which was rather clever of him, as his Hindustani was almost
as limited as was Bertram’s. However, he had grasped, from Bertram’s
barbarous and laborious “_Sub admi_ . . . _sub saman_ . . . _sub chiz_
. . . _tyar_ . . . _bara badji_ . . . _ither se jainga_ . . .” that “all
men . . . all baggage . . . all things . . . at twelve o’clock . . . will
go from here”—and that was good enough for him.
“Any chance of fighting to-morrow, Sahib?” he asked, but Bertram,
unfortunately, did not understand him.
The tall, bearded Sikh Subedar saluted correctly, said nothing but
“_Bahut achcha_, _Sahib_,” {81} and stood with a cold sneer frozen upon
his hard and haughty countenance.
The burly Jemadar of the Very Mixed Contingent, or Mixed Pickles, smiled
cheerily, laughed merrily at nothing in particular, and appeared mildly
shocked at Bertram’s enquiry as to whether he understood. Of _course_,
he understood! Was not the Sahib a most fluent speaker of most faultless
Urdu, or Hindi, or Sindhi, or Tamil or something? Anyhow, he had clearly
caught the words “all men ready at twelve o’clock”—and who could require
more than a nice clear _hookum_ like that.
Jemadar Hassan Ali looked pained and doubtful. So far as his
considerable histrionic powers permitted, he gave his rendering of an
honest and intelligent man befogged by perfectly incomprehensible orders
and contradictory directions which he may not question and on which he
may not beg further enlightenment. His air and look of “_Faithful to the
last I will go forth and strive to obey orders which I cannot
understand_, _and to carry out instructions given so incomprehensibly and
in so strange a tongue that Allah alone knows what is required of me_”
annoyed Bertram exceedingly, and having smiled upon the cheery little
Subedar and the cheery big Jemadar, and looked coldly upon the unpleasant
Sikh and the difficult Hassan Ali, he informed the quartette that it had
his permission to depart.
As they saluted and turned to go, he caught a gleam of ferocious hatred
upon the face of the Gurkha officer whom the Sikh jostled, with every
appearance of intentional rudeness and the desire to insult. Bertram’s
sympathy was with the Gurkha and he wished that it was with him and his
sturdy little followers that he was to proceed to the front. He felt
that they would follow him to the last inch of the way and the last drop
of their blood, and would fight for sheer love of fighting, as soon as
they were shown an enemy.
After a somewhat depressing breakfast, at which he found himself almost
alone, Bertram arrayed himself in full war paint, packed his kit, said
farewell to the ship’s officers and then inspected the troops, drawn up
ready for disembarkation on the well-decks. He was struck by the
apparent cheerfulness of the Gurkhas and the clumsy heaviness of their
kit which included a great horse-collar roll of cape, overcoat or
ground-sheet strapped like a colossal cross-belt across one shoulder and
under the other arm; by the apparent depression of the men of the Very
Mixed Contingent and their slovenliness; by what seemed to him the
critical and unfriendly stare of the Sherepur Sikhs as he passed along
their ranks; and by the elderliness of the Hundred and Ninety-Ninth
draft. Had these latter been perceptibly aged by their sea-faring
experiences and were they feeling terribly _terra marique jactati_, or
was it that the impossibility of procuring henna or other dye had caused
the lapse of brown, orange, pink and red beards and moustaches to their
natural greyness? Anyhow, they looked distinctly old, and on the whole,
fitter for the ease and light duty of “employed pensioner” than for
active service under very difficult conditions against a ferocious foe
upon his native heath. His gentle nature and kindly heart led Bertram to
feel very sorry indeed for one bemedalled old gentleman who had evidently
had a very bad crossing, still had a very bad cough, and looked likely to
have another go of fever before very long.
As he watched the piling-up of square-sided boxes of rations, oblong
boxes of ammunition, sacks, tins, bags and jars, bundles of kit and
bedding, cooking paraphernalia, entrenching tools, mule harness, huge
zinc vessels for the transport of water, leather _chhagals_ and canvas
_pakhals_ or waterbags, and wished that his own tight-strapped
impedimenta were less uncomfortable and heavy, a cloud of choking smoke
from the top of the funnel of some boat just below him, apprised him of
the fact that his transport was ready. Looking over the side he saw a
large barge, long, broad, and very deep, with upper decks at stem and
stern, which a fussy little tug had just brought into position below an
open door in the middle of the port side of the _Elymas_. It was a long
way below it too, and he realised that unless a ladder were provided
every man would have to drop from the threshold of the door to the very
narrow edge of the barge about six feet below, make his way along it to
the stern deck, and down a plank on to the “floor” of the barge itself.
When his turn came he’d make an ass of himself—he’d fall—he knew he
would!
He tried to make Jemadar Hassan Ali understand that two Havildars were to
stand on the edge of the barge, one each side of the doorway and guide
the errant tentative feet of each man as he lowered himself and clung to
the bottom of the doorway. He also had the sacks thrown where anyone who
missed his footing and fell from the side of the barge to the bottom
would fall upon them and roll, instead of taking the eight feet drop and
hurting himself. When this did happen, the Sepoys roared with laughter
and appeared to be immensely diverted. It occurred several times, for it
is no easy matter to lower oneself some six feet, from one edge to
another, when heavily accoutred and carrying a rifle. When every man and
package was on board, Bertram cast one last look around the _Elymas_,
took a deep breath, crawled painfully out backwards through the port,
clung to the sharp iron edge, felt about wildly with his feet which were
apparently too sacred and superior for the Havildars to grab and guide,
felt his clutching fingers weaken and slip, and then with a pang of
miserable despair fell—and landed on the side of the barge a whole inch
below where his feet had been when he fell. A minute later he had made
his way to the prow, and, with a regal gesture, had signified to the
captain of the tug that he might carry on.
And then he sat him down upon the little piece of deck and gazed upon the
sea of upturned faces, black, brown, wheat-coloured, and yellow, that
spread out at his feet from end to end and side to side of the great
barge.
Of what were they thinking, these men from every corner of India and
Nepal, as they stood shoulder to shoulder, or squatted on the boxes and
bales that covered half the floor of the barge? What did they think of
him? Did they really despise and dislike him as he feared, or did they
admire and like and trust him—simply because he was a white man and a
Sahib? He had a suspicion that the Sikhs disliked him, the Mixed
Contingent took him on trust as an Englishman, the Hundred and
Ninety-Ninth kept an open mind, and the Gurkhas liked him—all reflecting
really the attitude of their respective Native Officers. . . .
In a few minutes the barge was run alongside the Kilindini quay, and
Bertram was, for the second time, climbing its stone stairs, in search of
the Military Landing Officer, the arbiter of his immediate destiny.
As he reached the top of the steps he was, as it were, engulfed and
embraced in a smile that he already knew—and he realised that it was with
a distinct sense of pleasure and a feeling of lessened loneliness and
unshared friendless responsibility that he beheld the beaming face of his
“since-long-time-to-come” faithful old retainer Ali Suleiman.
“God bless myself please, thank you, _Bwana_,” quoth that gentleman,
saluting repeatedly. “_Bwana_ will now wanting Military Embarkation
Officer by golly. I got him, sah,” and turning about added, “_Bwana_
come along me, sah, I got him all right,” as though he had, with much
skill and good luck, tracked down, ensnared, and encaged some wary and
wily animal. . . .
At the end of the little stone pier was a rough table or desk, by which
stood a burly officer clad in slacks, and a vast spine-pad of quilted
khaki. On the tables were writing-materials and a mass of papers.
“Mornin’,” remarked this gentleman, turning a crimson and perspiring face
to Bertram. “I’m the M.L.O. You’ll fall your men in here and they’ll
stack their kits with the rations and ammunition over there. Then you
must tell off working-parties to cart the lot up to the camp. I’ve only
got two trucks and your fatigue-parties’ll have to man-handle ’em.
You’ll have to ginger ’em up or you’ll be here all day. I don’t want you
to march off till all your stuff’s up to the camp. . . . Don’t bung off
yourself, y’know. . . . Right O. Carry on. . . .” Bertram saluted.
Another job which he must accomplish without hitch or error. The more
jobs he _could_ do, the better. What he dreaded was the job for the
successful tackling of which he had not the knowledge, ability or
experience.
“Very good, sir,” he replied. “Er—where _are_ the trolleys?” for there
was no sign of any vehicle about the quay.
“Oh, they’ll roll up by and by, I expect,” was the reply. Bertram again
saluted and returned to the barge. Calling to the Native Officers he
told them that the men would fall in on the bunder and await further
orders, each detachment furnishing a fatigue-party for the unloading of
the impedimenta. Before very long, the men were standing at ease in the
shade of a great shed, and their kits, rations and ammunition were piled
in a great mound at the wharf edge.
And thus, having nothing to do until the promised trucks arrived, Bertram
realised that it was terribly hot; suffocatingly, oppressively,
dangerously hot; and that he felt very giddy, shaky and faint.
The sun seemed to beat upward from the stone of the quay and sideways
from the iron of the sheds as fiercely and painfully as it did downward
from the sky. And there was absolutely nowhere to sit down. He couldn’t
very well squat down in the dirt. . . . No—but the men could—so he
approached the little knot of Native Officers and told them to allow the
men to pile arms, fall out, and sit against the wall of the shed—no man
to leave the line without permission.
Jemadar Hassan Ali did not forget to post a sentry over the arms on this
occasion. For an hour Bertram strolled up and down. It was less tiring
to do that than to stand still. His eyes ached most painfully by reason
of the blinding glare, his head ached from the pressure on his brows of
his thin, but hard and heavy, helmet (the regulation pattern, apparently
designed with an eye to the maximum of danger and discomfort) and his
body ached by reason of the weight and tightness of his accoutrements.
It was nearly two o’clock and he had breakfasted early. Suppose he got
sunstroke, or collapsed from heat, hunger, and weariness? What an
exhibition! When would the men get their next meal? Where were those
trolleys? It was two hours since the Military Landing Officer had said
they’d “roll up by and by.” He’d go and remind him.
The Military Landing Officer was just off to his lunch and well-earned
rest at the Club. He had been on the beastly bunder since six in the
morning—and anybody who wanted him now could come and find him, what?
“Excuse me, sir,” said Bertram as Captain Angus flung his portfolio of
papers to his orderly, “those trucks haven’t come yet.”
“_Wha’_ trucks?” snapped the Landing Officer. He had just told himself
he had _done_ for to-day—and he had had nothing since half-past five that
morning. People must be reasonable—he’d been hard at it for eight solid
hours damitall y’know.
“The trucks for my baggage and ammunition and stuff.”
“Well, _I_ haven’t got ’em, have I?” replied Captain Angus. “Be
reasonable about it. . . I can’t _make_ trucks. . . Anybody’d think I’d
stolen your trucks. . . . You must be _patient_, y’know, and _do_ be
reasonable. . . . _I_ haven’t got ’em. Search me.”
The Military Landing Officer had been on his job for months and had
unconsciously evolved two formulæ, which he used for his seniors and
juniors respectively, without variation of a word. Bertram had just
heard the form of prayer to be used with Captains and unfortunates of
lower rank, who showed yearnings for things unavoidable. To Majors and
those senior thereunto the crystallised ritual was:
“Can’t understand it, sir, at all. I issued the necessary orders all
right—but there’s a terrible shortage. One must make allowances in these
times of stress. It’ll turn up all right. _I_’ll see to it . . .” etc.,
and this applied equally well to missing trains, mules, regiments,
horses, trucks, orders, motor-cars or anything else belonging to the
large class of Things That Can Go Astray.
“You told me to wait, sir,” said Bertram.
“Then why the devil _don’t you_?” said Captain Angus.
“I am, sir,” replied Bertram.
“Then what’s all this infernal row about?” replied Captain Angus.
Bertram felt that he understood exactly how children feel when, unjustly
treated, they cannot refrain from tears. It was _too_ bad. He had stood
in this smiting sun for over two hours awaiting the promised trucks—and
now he was accused of making an infernal row because he had mentioned
that they had not turned up! If the man had told him where they were,
surely he and his three hundred men could have gone and got them long
ago.
“By the way,” continued Captain Angus, “I’d better give you your
route—for when you _do_ get away—and you mustn’t sit here all day like
this, y’know. You must ginger ’em up a bit” (more formula this) “or
you’ll all take root. Well, look here, you go up the hill and keep
straight on to where a railway-bridge crosses the road. Turn to the left
before you go under the bridge, and keep along the railway line till you
see some tents on the left again. Strike inland towards these, and
you’ll find your way all right. Take what empty tents you want, but
don’t spread yourself _too_ much—though there’s only some details there
now. You’ll be in command of that camp for the present. . . . Better
not bung off to the Club either—you may be wanted in a hurry. . . . I’ll
see if those trucks are on the way as I go up. Don’t hop off till you’ve
shifted all your stuff. . . So long! . . .” and the Military Landing
Officer bustled off to where at the Dock gates a motor-car awaited him. . . .
Before long, Bertram found that he must either sit down or fall down, so
terrific was the stifling heat, so heavy had his accoutrements become,
and so faint, empty and giddy did he feel.
Through the open door of a corrugated-iron shed he could see a huge,
burly, red-faced European, sitting at a little rough table in a big bare
room. In this barn-like place was nothing else but a telephone-box and a
chair. Could he go in and sit on it? That dark and shady interior
looked like a glimpse of heaven from this hell of crashing glare and
gasping heat. . . . Perhaps confidential military communications were
made through that telephone though, and the big man, arrayed in a singlet
and white trousers, was there for the very purpose of receiving them
secretly and of preventing the intrusion of any stranger? Anyhow—it
would be a minute’s blessed escape from the blinding inferno, merely to
go inside and ask the man if he could sit down while he awaited the
trucks. He could place the chair in a position from which he could see
his men. . . . He entered the hut, and the large man raised a
clean-shaven crimson face, ornamented with a pair of piercing blue eyes,
and stared hard at him as he folded a pinkish newspaper and said nothing
at all, rather disconcertingly.
“May I come in and sit down for a bit, please?” said Bertram. “I think
I’ve got a touch of the sun.”
“Put your wacant faice in that wacant chair,” was the prompt reply.
“Thanks—may I put it where I can see my men?” said Bertram.
“Putt it where you can cock yer feet on this ’ere table an’ lean back
agin that pertition, more sense,” replied the large red man, scratching
his large red head. “_You_ don’ want to see yore men, you don’t,” he
added. “They’re a ’orrid sight. . . . All natives is. . . . You putt
it where you kin get a good voo o’ _me_. . . . Shed a few paounds o’ the
hup’olstery and maike yerself atome. . . . Wisht I got somethink to
orfer yer—but I ain’t. . . . Can’t be ’osspitable on a basin o’ water
wot’s bin washed in—can yer?”
Bertram admitted the difficulty, and, with a sigh of intense relief,
removed his belt and cross-belts and all that unto them pertained. And,
as he sank into the chair with a grateful heart, entered Ali Suleiman,
whom he had not seen for an hour, bearing in one huge paw a great mug of
steaming tea, and in the other a thick plate of thicker biscuits.
Bertram could have wrung the hand that fed him. Never before in the
history of tea had a cup of tea been so welcome.
“Heaven reward you as I never can,” quoth Bertram, as he drank. “Where
on earth did you raise it?”
“Oh, sah!” beamed Ali. “Master not mentioning it. I am knowing
cook-fellow at R.E. Sergeants’ Mess, and saying my frien’ Sergeant Jones,
R.E., wanting cup of tea and biscuits at bunder P.D.Q.”
“P.D.Q.?” enquired Bertram.
“Yessah, all ’e same ‘pretty dam quick’—and bringing it to _Bwana_ by
mistake,” replied Ali, the son of Suleiman.
“But _isn’t_ there some mistake?” asked the puzzled youth. “I don’t want
to . . .”
“Lookere,” interrupted the large red man, “_you_ don’ wanter discover no
mistakes, not until you drunk that tea, you don’t. . . . You push that
daown yore neck and then give that nigger a cent an’ tell ’im to be less
careful nex’ time. You don’ wanter _dis_courage a good lad like that,
you don’t. Not ’arf, you do.”
“But—Sergeant Jones’s tea” began Bertram, looking unhappily at the
half-emptied cup.
“_Sergeant Jones’s tea_!” mimicked the rude red man, in a high falsetto.
“_If_ ole Shifter Jones drunk a cup o’ tea it’d be in all the paipers
nex’ mornin’, it would. Not arf it wouldn’t. Don’ believe ’e ever
tasted tea, I don’t, an’ if he _did_—”
But at this moment a white-clad naval officer of exalted rank strode into
the room, and the large red man sprang to his feet with every sign of
respect and regard. Picking up a Navy straw hat from the floor, the
latter gentleman stood at attention with it in his hand. Bertram decided
that he was a naval petty officer on some shore-job or other, perhaps
retired and now a coast-guard or Customs official of some kind.
Evidently he knew the exalted naval officer and held him, or his Office,
in high regard.
“Get my message, William Hankey?” he snapped.
“Yessir,” replied William Hankey.
“Did you telephone for the car at once?”
“Nossir,” admitted Hankey, with a fluttering glance of piteous appeal.
The naval officer’s face became a ferocious and menacing mask of wrath
and hate, lit up by a terrible glare. Up to that moment he had been
rather curiously like Hankey. Now he was even more like a very
infuriated lion. He took a step nearer the table, fixed his burning,
baleful eye upon the wilting William, and withered him with the most
extraordinary blast of scorching invective that Bertram had ever heard,
or was ever likely to hear, unless he met Captain Sir Thaddeus Bellingham
ffinch Beffroye again.
“You blundering bullock,” quoth he; “you whimpering weasel; you bleating
blup; you miserable dog-potter; you horny-eyed, bleary-nosed, bat-eared,
lop-sided, longshore loafer; you perishing shrimp-peddler; you Young
Helper; you Mother’s Little Pet; you dear Ministering Child; you
blistering bug-house body-snatcher; you bloated bumboat-woman; you
hopping hermaphrodite—what d’ye mean by it? Eh? . . . _What d’ye mean
by it_, you anæmic Aggie; you ape-faced anthropoid; you adenoid; you
blood-stained buzzard; you abject abortion; you abstainer; you sickly,
one-lunged, half-baked, under-fed alligator; you scrofulous scorbutic;
you peripatetic pimple; you perambulating pimp-faced poodle; what about
it? Eh? _What about it_?”
Mr. William Hankey stood silent and motionless, but in his face was the
expression of one who, with critical approval, listens and enjoys. Such
a look may be seen upon the face of a musician the while he listens to
the performance of a greater musician.
Having taken breath, the Captain continued: “What have you got to say for
yourself, you frig-faced farthing freak, you? Nothing! You purple
poultice-puncher; you hopeless, helpless, herring-gutted hound; you
dropsical drink-water; you drunken, drivelling dope-dodger; you mouldy,
mossy-toothed, mealy-mouthed maggot; you squinny-faced, squittering,
squint-eyed squab, you—what have you got to say for yourself? Eh? . . .
_Answer me_, you mole; you mump; you measle; you knob; you nit; you noun;
you part; you piece; you portion; you bald-headed, slab-sided,
jelly-bellied jumble; you mistake; you accident; you imperial stinker;
you poor, pale pudding; you populous, pork-faced parrot—why don’t you
speak, you doddering, dumb-eared, deaf-mouthed dust-hole; you jabbering,
jawing, jumping Jezebel, why don’t you answer me? Eh? _D’ye hear_ me,
you fighting gold-fish; you whistling water-rat; you Leaning Tower of
Pisa-pudding; you beer-belching ration-robber; you pink-eyed, perishing
pension-cheater; you flat-footed, frog-faced fragment; you trumpeting
tripe-hound? Hold your tongue and listen to me, you barge-bottom
barnacle; you nestling gin-lapper; you barmaid-biting bun-bolter; you
tuberculous tub; you mouldy manure-merchant; you moulting mop-chewer; you
kagging, corybantic cockroach; you lollipop-looting lighterman; you naval
know-all. _Why didn’t you telephone for the car_?”
“’Cos it were ’ere all the time, sir,” replied Mr. William Hankey,
perceiving that his superior officer had run down and required rest.
“_That’s_ all right, then,” replied Captain Sir Thaddeus Bellingham
ffinch Beffroye pleasantly, and strode to the door. There he turned, and
again addressed Mr. Hankey.
“Why couldn’t you say so, instead of chattering and jabbering and
mouthing and mopping and mowing and yapping and yiyiking for an hour, Mr.
Woozy, Woolly-witted, Wandering William Hankey?” he enquired.
The large red man looked penitent.
“Hankey,” the officer added, “you are a land-lubber. You are a pier-head
yachtsman. You are a beach pleasure-boat pilot. You are a canal
bargee.”
Mr. Hankey looked hurt, _touché_, broken.
“Oh, _sir_!” said he, stricken at last.
“William Hankey, you are a _volunteer_,” continued his remorseless judge.
Mr. Hankey fell heavily into his chair, and fetched a deep groan.
“William Hankey-Pankey—you are a _conscientious objector_,” said the
Captain in a quiet, cold and cruel voice.
A little gasping cry escaped Mr. Hankey. He closed his eyes, swayed a
moment, and then dropped fainting on the table, the which his large red
head smote with a dull and heavy thud, as the heartless officer strode
away.
A moment later Mr. Hankey revived, winked at the astonished Bertram, and
remarked:
“I’d swim in blood fer ’im, I would, any day. I’d swim in beer wi’ me
mouf shut, if ’e ast me, I would. . . . ’E’s the pleasant-manneredest,
kindest, nicest bloke I was ever shipmates wiv, ’e is. . .”
“His bark is worse than his bite, I suppose?” hazarded Bertram.
“Bark!” replied Mr. Hankey. “’E wouldn’ bark at a blind beggar’s deaf
dog, ’e wouldn’t. . . . The ship’s a ’Appy Ship wot’s got _’im_ fer Ole
Man. . . . Why—the matlows do’s liddle things jest to git brought up
before ’im to listen to ’is voice. . . . Yes. . . . Their Master’s
Voice. . . . Wouldn’ part brass-rags wiv ’im for a nogs’ead o’ rum. . . .”
Feeling a different man for the tea and biscuits, Bertram thanked Mr.
Hankey for his hospitality, and stepped out on to the quay, thinking, as
the heat-blast struck him, that one would experience very similar
sensations by putting his head into an oven and then stepping on to the
stove. In the shade of the sheds the Sepoys sprawled, even the cheery
Gurkhas seemed unhappy and uncomfortable in that fiery furnace.
Bertram’s heart smote him. Had it been the act of a good officer to go
and sit down in that shed, to drink tea and eat biscuits, while his men
. . . ? Yes, surely that was all right. He was far less acclimatised to
heat and glare than they, and it would be no service to them for him to
get heat-stroke and apoplexy or “a touch of the sun.” They had their
water-bottles and their grain-and-sugar ration and their cold
_chupattis_. They were under conditions far more closely approximating
to normal than he was. Of course it is boring to spend hours in the same
place with full equipment on, but, after all, it was much worse for a
European, whose thoughts run on a cool club luncheon-room; a bath and
change; and a long chair, a cold drink and a novel, under a punkah on the
club verandah thereafter. . . . Would those infernal trucks _never_
come? Suppose they never did? Was he to stay there all night? He had
certainly received definite orders from the “competent military
authority” to stay there until all his baggage had been sent off. Was
that to relieve the competent military authority of responsibility in the
event of any of it being stolen? . . . Probably the competent military
authority was now having his tea, miles away at the Club. What should he
do if no trucks had materialised by nightfall? How about consulting the
Native Officers? . . . Perish the thought! . . . They’d have to stick
it, the same as he would. The orders were quite clear, and all he had
got to do was to sit tight and await trucks—if he grew grey in the
process.
Some six hours from the time at which he had landed, a couple of small
four-wheeled trucks were pushed on to the wharf by a fatigue-party of
Sepoys from the camp; the Naik in charge of them saluted and fled, lest
he and his men be impounded for further service; and Bertram instructed
the Gurkha Subedar to get a fatigue-party of men to work at loading the
two trucks to their utmost capacity, with baggage, kit, and ration-boxes.
It was evident that the arrival of the trucks did not mean the early
departure of the force, for several journeys would he necessary for the
complete evacuation of the mound of material to be shifted. Having
loaded the trucks, the fatigue-party pushed off, and it was only as the
two unwieldy erections of baggage were being propelled through the gates
by the willing little men, that it occurred to Bertram to enquire whether
they had any idea as to where they were going.
Not the slightest, and they grinned cheerily. Another problem! Should
he now abandon the force and lead the fatigue-party in the light of the
Military Landing Officer’s description of the route, or should he
endeavour to give the Gurkha Subedar an idea of the way, and send him off
with the trucks? And suppose he lost his way and barged ahead straight
across the Island of Mombasa? That would mean that the rest of them
would have to sit on the wharf all night—if he obeyed the Military
Landing Officer’s orders. . . . Which he _must_ do, of course. . . .
Bertram was of a mild, inoffensive and quite unvindictive nature, but he
found himself wishing that the Military Landing Officer’s dinner might
thoroughly disagree with him. . . . His own did not appear likely to get
the opportunity. . . . He then and there determined that he would never
again be caught, while on Active Service, without food of some kind on
his person, if he could help it—chocolate, biscuits, something in a
tablet or a tin. . . . Should he go and leave the Native Officer in
command, or should he send forth the two precious trucks into the
gathering gloom and hope that, dove-like, they would return? . . .
And again the voice of Ali fell like balm of Gilead, as it boomed,
welcome, opportune and cheering.
“Sah, I will show the Chinamans the way to camp and bring them back
P.D.Q.,” quoth he.
“Oh! Good man!” said Bertram. “Right O! But they’re not Chinamen—they
are Gurkha soldiers. . . . Don’t you hit one, or chivvy them about. . . .”
“Sah, I am knowing all things,” was the modest reply, and the black giant
strode off, followed by the empiled wobbling waggons.
More weary waiting, but, as the day waned, the decrease of heat and
sultriness failed to keep pace with the increasing hunger, faintness and
sickness which made at least one of the prisoners of the quay wish that
either he or the Emperor of Germany had never been born. . . .
Journey after journey having been made, each by a fresh party of Gurkhas
(for Bertram, as is customary, used the willing horse, when he saw that
the little hill-men apparently liked work for its own sake, as much as
the other Sepoys disliked work for any sake), the moment at last arrived
when the ammunition-boxes could be loaded on to the trucks and the whole
force could be marched off as escort thereunto, leaving nothing behind
them upon the accursed stones of that oven, which had been their gaol for
ten weary hours.
Never was the order, “Fall in!” obeyed with more alacrity, and it was
with a swinging stride that the troops marched out through the gates in
the rear of their British officer, who strode along with high-held head
and soldierly bearing, as he thanked God there was a good moon in the
heavens, and prayed that there might soon be a good meal in his stomach.
Up the little hill and past the trolley “terminus” the party tramped, and
the hot, heavy night seemed comparatively cool after the terrible day on
the shut-in, stone and iron heat-trap of the quay. . . . As he glanced
at the diamond-studded velvet of the African sky, Bertram thought how
long ago seemed that morning when he had made his first march at the head
of his company. It seemed to have taken place, not only in another
continent, but in another age. Already he seemed an older, wiser, more
resourceful man. . . .
“_Bwana_ turning feet to left hands here,” said Ali Suleiman from where,
abreast of Bertram, he strode along at the edge of the road. “If _Bwana_
will following me in front, I am leading him behind”—with which clear and
comprehensible offer, he struck off to the left, his long, clean
night-shirt looming ahead in the darkness as a pillar of cloud by night.
. . .
Again Bertram blessed him, and thanked the lucky stars that had brought
him across his path. He had seen no railway-bridge nor railway-line; he
could see no tents, and he was exceedingly thankful that it was not his
duty to find, by night, the way which had seemed somewhat vaguely and
insufficiently indicated for one who sought to follow it by day. Half an
hour later he saw a huge black mass which, upon closer experience, proved
to be a great palm grove, in the shadow of which stood a number of tents.
* * * * *
In a remarkably short space of time, the Sepoys had occupied four rows of
the empty tents, lighted hurricane lamps, unpacked bedding and kit
bundles, removed turbans, belts and accoutrements, and, set about the
business of cooking, distributing, and devouring their rations.
The grove of palms that had looked so very inviolable and sacredly remote
as it stood untenanted and silent in the brilliant moonlight, now looked
and smelt (thanks to wood fires and burning ghee) like an Indian bazaar,
as Sikhs, Gurkhas, Rajputs, Punjabis, Marathas, Pathans and
“down-country” Carnatics swarmed in and out of tents, around
cooking-fires, at the taps of the big railway water-tank, or the
kit-and-ration dump—the men of each different race yet keeping themselves
separate from those of other races. . . .
As the unutterably weary Bertram stood and watched and wondered as to
what military and disciplinary conundrums his motley force would provide
for him on the morrow, his ancient and faithful family retainer came and
asked him for his keys. That worthy had already, in the name of his
_Bwana_, demanded the instant provision of a fatigue-party, and directed
the removal of a tent from the lines to a spot where there would be more
privacy and shade for its occupant, and had then unstrapped the bundles
containing his master’s bed, bedding and washhand-stand, and now desired
further to furnish forth the tent with the suitable contents of the sack.
. . .
And so Bertram “settled in,” as did his little force, save that he went
to bed supperless and they did not. Far from it—for a goat actually
strayed bleating into the line and met with an accident—getting its silly
neck in the way of a _kukri_ just as its owner was, so he said, fanning
himself with it (with the _kukri_, not the goat). So some fed full, and
others fuller.
Next day, Bertram ate what Ali, far-foraging, brought him; and rested
beneath the shade of the palms and let his men rest also, to recover from
their sea-voyage and generally to find themselves. . . . For one whole
day he would do nothing and order nothing to be done; receive no reports,
issue no instructions, harry nobody and be harried by none. Then, on the
morrow, he would arise, go on the warpath in the camp, and grapple
bravely with every problem that might arise, from shortage of turmeric to
excess of covert criticism of his knowledge and ability.
But the morrow never came in that camp, for the Base Commandant sent for
him in urgent haste at eventide, and bade him strain every nerve to get
his men and their baggage, lock, stock and barrel, on board the
_Barjordan_, just as quickly as it could be done (and a dam’ sight
quicker), for reinforcements were urgently needed at M’paga, down the
coast.
Followed a sleepless nightmare night, throughout which he worked by
moonlight in the camp, on the quay, and on the _Barjordan’s_ deck,
reversing the labours of the previous day, and re-embarking his men,
their kit, ammunition, rations and impedimenta—and in addition, two
barge-loads of commissariat and ordnance requisites for the M’paga
Brigade.
At dawn the last man, box, and bale was on board and Bertram endeavoured
to speak a word of praise, in halting Hindustani, to the Gurkha Subedar,
who, with his men, had shown an alacrity and gluttony for work, beyond
all praise. All the other Sepoys had worked properly in their different
shifts—but the Gurkhas had revelled in work, and when their second shift
came at midnight, the first shift remained and worked with them!
Having gratefully accepted coffee from Mr. Wigger, the First Officer,
Bertram, feeling “beat to the world,” went down to his cabin, turned in,
and slept till evening. When he awoke, a gazelle was gazing
affectionately into his face.
He shut his eyes and shivered. . . . Was this sunstroke, fever, or
madness? He felt horribly frightened, his nerves being in the state
natural to a person of his temperament and constitution when overworked,
underfed, affected by the sun, touched by fever, and overwrought to the
breaking-point by anxiety and worry.
He opened his eyes again, determined to be cool, wise and brave, in face
of this threatened breakdown, this hallucination of insanity.
The gazelle was still there—there in a carpeted, comfortable cabin, on
board a ship, in the Indian Ocean. . . .
He rubbed his eyes.
Then he put out his hand to pass it through the spectral Thing and
confirm his worst fears.
The gazelle licked his hand, and he sat up and said: “Oh, damn!” and
laughed weakly.
The animal left the cabin, and he heard its hoofs pattering on the
linoleum.
Later he found it to be a pet of the captain of the _Barjordan_, Captain
O’Connor.
Next morning the ship anchored a mile or so from a mangrove swamp, and
the business of disembarkation began again, this time into the ship’s
boats and some sailing dhows that had met the _Barjordan_ at this spot.
When all the Sepoys and stores were in the boats and dhows, he put on the
_puggri_ which Bludyer had given him, with the assistance of Ali Suleiman
and the Gurkha Subedar, looked at himself in the glass, and wished he
felt as fine and fierce a fellow as he looked. . . . He then said
“Farewell” to kindly Captain O’Connor and burly, energetic Mr.
Wigger—both of whom he liked exceedingly—received their hearty good
wishes and exhortations to slay and spare not, and went down on the
motor-launch that was to tow the laden boats to the low gloomy shore—if a
mangrove swamp can be called a shore. . . .
One more “beginning”—or one more stage on the road to War! Here was
_he_, Bertram Greene, armed to the teeth, with a turban on his head,
about to be landed—and left—on the shores of the mainland of this truly
Dark Continent. He was about to invade Africa! . . .
If only his father and Miranda could see him _now_!