"What an ass I am!" I jerked out, shaking off poor `Gyp,' and
proceeding to where the officer lay on the ground a little way from us,
stretched out face downwards. "I ought to have known it was him from
seeing the dog!"
"Aye, sure, it is him thrue enuff," said Mick, stooping down and raising
up the prostrate figure in his arms. "Them murdering thayves hev kilt
the poor cap'en entoirely!"
Mick's dead man, however, did a most extraordinary thing for one who was
supposed to have departed this life.
He first sneezed, and then opened his eyes.
Next he spoke.
"Where am I? Ah, yes, I recollect," he faltered out slowly, his wits
beginning to work, and his memory coming back to him; when, all of a
sudden, catching sight of my face as I loosened his collar and sprinkled
some water from my bottle over his head to bring him to, he uttered a
quick cry. "Ah, it's you, Tom Bowling--I remember you quite well. I
thought it was, my lad, before I lost my consciousness. It is you,
then, whom I have to thank for saving my life just now?"
"How--why," I stammered, not knowing well what to say--"what, sir?"
"Oh yes, Bowling; you can't get out of it," he said in a firmer voice,
and the old pleasant smile I recollect when he gave me that half-crown
in his cabin on board the old training-ship that I spoke of at the
beginning of my yarn. "I saw you quite plainly, my lad, as you rushed
up to my succour when those Arabs nearly settled me. There were two of
them attacking me at the same time, one before and one behind, and if
you had not come up I think they'd have settled me."
"I hope, sir," said I, as Mick and I raised him up between us into a
sitting posture--`Gyp' watching the operation with a most intense
interest and pleasure, his little black muzzle working, and his short
tail wagging all the time--"I do hope you are not seriously hurt, sir?"
Captain Sackville drew a deep breath and shook himself.
"No," he said--"no bones broken, I think; but, I have got a bullet
through one shoulder, I believe, for I can't lift my right hand--that's
how I came to drop my sword, which I see you have, Bowling."
"Yes, sir," said I quietly, glancing to where the Somali chief was
doubled up. "I paid off your score against that beggar over there with
it, sir."
"Indeed!" said Captain Sackville, trying to rise up on his legs, but
falling back with a groan. "O-o-oh! I think that fellow gave me a bad
thrust in the chest just before I dropped it; but, I declare I forgot
all about it!"
Mick and I at once tore open his tunic and shirt, when we found a deep
wound on his right side, from which the captain must have lost a good
deal of blood, his clothing being quite saturated; but the wound was not
bleeding much now and we bound it up with our two silk handkerchiefs,
winding them round his body, which relieved him so much that he was able
to stand up on his feet.
The battle between our forces and the foe was now pretty nigh over, and
the combatants had long since swept past us; pursuers and pursued having
alike disappeared in the bush surrounding the native town or lost to
sight amid the smoking ruins, where some little desultory skirmishing
was still going on.
Presently, however, a grand hurrah went up on the left, where the
Somalis had made their last stand.
It was a cheer such as British bluejackets alone can give; and then we
saw the Union Jack run up on the top of a big bungalow in the centre of
the town, the only hut or building that had escaped destruction in the
general conflagration.
"It's all over, my lads," said Captain Sackville on hearing and seeing
this. "I think we had better see about joining the main column, and
pick up any stragglers we may see in want of assistance by the way."
But we came across none in any need of help, save such offices as the
dead require, along our route to the front; for, wherever we noticed any
groups of bodies together, all alike, whether bluejacket or Arab, were
stone dead.
Bullet and knife and sword had each and all had a busy day of it!
After burying the dead with all the honours of war, the corpse of the
Arab chief I had killed with Captain Sackville's sword being identified
formally as that of the notorious Abdalah, as I had thought, our columns
returned to the coast in triumph with the proud consciousness of having
cleared the country of all the invading Somalis.
The bluejackets and marines belonging to the admiral's division then
rejoined their ships at Mombassa; while our contingent, led still by
`old Hankey Pankey,' who was none the worse for the fray, retraced their
steps through Teita and the `baboon valley'--where, I may add, I met no
second mishap--to Malindi.
We again went on board the _Mermaid_; and, to cut a long story short,
the captain, who was very pleased with what he had seen of me during the
campaign, besides my having a good word put in by Captain Sackville,
promoted me to `leading seaman' the very next day.
Naturally, I was very sorry to part company with Mick so soon after our
long separation; but, as I have said before, a sailor's life is made up
of partings.
Here besides, as things turned out, no great period elapsed ere we hove
in sight of each other again; aye, under circumstances, too, that have
caused us to become closer companions than ever, as indeed we are now.