"This is contrary to rule. As commandant, I ought to stay in the fort;
but I've no one to give the leadership to, so I take it myself," said
Lieutenant Leigh; "and now, my lads, make ready--present! That's well.
Are all ready? At the word `Fire!' Privates Bigley and Smith fire at
the two gunners. If they miss, I cry fire again, and Privates Bantem
and Grainger try their skill; then, at the double, down on the guns.
Smith and I spike them, while Bantem and Grainger cut the cords. Mind
this: those guns must be spiked, and those two prisoners brought in; and
if the sortie is well managed, it is easy, for they will be taken by
surprise. Hush! Confound it, men; no cheering."
He only spoke in time, for in the excitement the men were about to
hurray.
"Now, then, is that gate unbarred?"
"Yes, sir."
"Is the covering-party ready?"
"Yes, sir."
My hand trembled as he spoke; but the next instant it was of a piece
with my gun-stock. There was the dry square, with the sun shining on
the two guns that must have been hot behind the poor prisoners' backs;
there stood the two gunners in white, with their smoking linstocks,
leaning against the wheels, for discipline was slack; and there, thirty
or forty yards behind, were the mutineers, lounging about, and smoking
many of them. For all firing had ceased, and judging that we should not
risk having the prisoners blown away from the guns, the mutineers came
boldly up within range, as if defying us, and it was pretty safe
practice at some of them now.
I saw all this at a glance, and while it seemed as if the order would
never come; but come it did, at last.
"Fire!"
Bang! the two pieces going off like one; and the gunner behind Captain
Dyer leaped into the air, while the one I aimed at seemed to sink down
suddenly beside the wheel he had leaned upon. Then the gate flew open,
and with a rush and a cheer, we, ten of us, raced down for the guns.
Double-quick time! I tell you it was a hard race; and being without my
gun now--only my bayonet stack in my trousers' waist-band--I was there
first, and had driven my spike into the touch-hole before Lieutenant
Leigh reached his; but the next moment his was done, the cords were cut,
and the prisoners loose from the guns. But now we had to get back.
The first inkling I had of the difficulty of this was seeing Captain
Dyer and Harry Lant stagger, and fall forward; but they were saved by
the men, and we saw directly that they must be carried.
No sooner thought of than done.
"Hoist Harry on my back," says Grainger; and he took him like a sack;
Bantem acting the same part by Captain Dyer; and those two ran off,
while we tried to cover them.
For don't you imagine that the mutineers were idle all this while; not a
bit of it. They were completely taken by surprise, though, at first,
and gave us time nearly to get to the guns before they could understand
what we meant; but the next moment some shouted and ran at us, and some
began firing; while by the time the prisoners were cast loose, they were
down upon us in a hand-to-hand fight.
But in those fierce struggles there is such excitement, that I've now
but a very misty recollection of what took place; but I do recollect
seeing the prisoners well on the way back, hearing a cheer from our men,
and then, hammer in one hand, bayonet in the other, fighting my way
backward along with my comrades. Then all at once a glittering flash
came in the air, and I felt a dull cut on the face, followed directly
after by another strange, numbing blow, which made me drop my bayonet,
as my arm fell uselessly to my side; and then with a lurch and a
stagger, I fell, and was trampled upon twice, when as I rallied once, a
black savage-looking sepoy raised his clubbed musket to knock out my
brains, but a voice I well knew cried: "Not this time, my fine fellow.
That's number three, that is, and well home;" and I saw Measles drive
his bayonet with a crash through the fellow's breast-bone, so that he
fell across my legs.--"Now, old chap, come along," he shouts, and an arm
was passed under me.
"Run, Measles, run!" I said as well as I could. "It's all over with
me."
"No; 'taint," he said; "and don't be a fool. Let me do as I like, for
once in a way."
I don't know how he did it, nor how, feeling sick and faint as I did, I
managed to get on my legs; but old Measles stuck to me like a true
comrade, and brought me in. For one moment I was struggling to my feet;
and the next, after what seemed a deal of firing going over my head, I
was inside the breastwork, listening to our men cheering and firing
away, as the mutineers came howling and raging up almost to the very
gate.
"All in?" I heard Lieutenant Leigh ask.
"To a man, sir," says some one; "but Private Bantem is hurt."
"Hold your tongue, will you!" says Joe Bantem. "I ain't killed, nor yet
half. How would you like your wife frightened if you had one?"
"How's Private Lant?"
"Cut to pieces, sir," says some one softly.
"I'm thankful that you are not wounded, Captain Dyer," then says
Lieutenant Leigh.
"God bless you, Leigh!" says the captain faintly: "it was a brave act.
I've only a scratch or two when I can get over the numbness of my
limbs."
I heard all this in a dim sort of fashion, just as if it was a dream in
the early morning; for I was leaning up against the wall, with my face
laid open and bleeding, and my left arm smashed by a bullet, and nobody
just then took any notice of me, because they were carrying in Captain
Dyer and Harry Lant; while the next minute, the fire was going on hard
and fast; for the mutineers were furious, and I suppose they danced
round the guns in a way that shewed how mad they were about the spiking.
As for me, I did not seem to be in a great deal of pain; but I got
turning over in my mind how well we had done it that morning; and I felt
proud of it all, and glad that Captain Dyer and Harry Lant were brought
in; but all the same what I had heard lay like a load upon me; and
knowing, as I did, that poor Miss Ross had, as it were, sold herself to
save the captain's life, and that she had, in a way of speaking, been
cheated into doing so, I felt that when the opportunity came, I must
tell the captain all I knew. When I had got as far as that with my
thoughts, the dull numbness began to leave me, and everything else was
driven out of my mind by the thought of my wound; and I got asking
myself whether it was going to be very bad, for I thought it was, so
getting up a little, I began to crawl along in the shade towards the
ruined south end of the palace, nobody seeming to notice me.