Fix Bay'nets Part 19

"Eh? Oh, yes; it's the effect of the warm suns.h.i.+ne on the fir-trees."

"'Tisn't," said Drummond, laughing. "It's bad, strong tobacco. There!"

he said as the loud scratch of a match on a piece of stone rose from just beneath their feet, as if to endorse his words, and the odour grew more p.r.o.nounced and the smoke visible, rising from a tuft of young seedling pines some twenty feet below.

"Here, wake up, pardners," cried a familiar voice. "You're both asleep."

"I wasn't," said a voice.

"Nor I," said another; "only thinking."

"Think with your eyes open, then. I say, any more of these n.i.g.g.e.rs coming in to make peace?"

"S'pose so. The Colonel's going to let a lot of 'em come in and help do duty in the place--isn't he?"

"Ho, yus! Certainly. Of course! and hope you may get it. When old Graves has any of these white-cotton-gowny-diers doing sentry-go in Ghittah, just you come and tell me. Wake me up, you know, for I shall have been asleep for about twenty years."

"He will. You see if he don't."

"Yah! Never-come-never," cried Gedge. "Can't yer see it's all a dodge to get in the fort. They can't do it fair fighting, so they're beginning to scheme. Let 'em in? Ho, yus! Didn't you see the Colonel put his tongue in his cheek and say, 'Likely'?"

"No," said one of Gedge's companions, "nor you neither."

"Can't say I did see; but he must have done."

The officers had softly drawn up their legs and moved away so as not to play eavesdropper, but they could not help hearing the men's conversation thus far; and as soon as they had climbed out of earshot so as to get on a level with the top of the fall, where they meant to try and cross the stream, descend on the other side, and work their way back, after recrossing it at its exit into the river, Bracy took up the conversation again.

"There," he said to Drummond, "you heard that?"

"Oh yes, I heard: but what do these fellows know about it?"

"They think," said Bracy, "and--I say," he whispered; "look!"

He pointed upward, and his companions caught sight of that which had taken his attention.

"What are those two fellows doing there?" whispered Roberts.

"Scouting, evidently," said Bracy. "I saw their arms."

"So did I," replied Roberts. "Let's get back at once, and pick up those lads as we go. One never knows what may come next. There may be mischief afloat instead of peace."

At that moment Drummond gave Bracy a sharp nudge, and jerked his head in another direction.

"More of them," said Bracy gravely; "yes, and more higher up. Well, this doesn't look friendly."

"No," said Roberts. "Look sharp; they haven't seen us. Let's get back and take in the news."

It was a difficult task for the three young Englishmen to compete with men trained as mountaineers from childhood; but the living game of chess had to be played on the Dwats' own ground; and for a short time the party of officers carefully stole from rock to rock and from patch of trees to patch of trees till Roberts stopped short.

"No good," he said softly. "I feel sure that the beggars are watching us."

"Yes," said Bracy; "they have the advantage of us from being on the high ground. Let's go on openly and as if in perfect ignorance of their being near."

By this time the young officers were on the farther side of the stream, below the falls, with it between them and the men they wished to turn back and take with them to the fort.

"What do you propose doing now?" asked Drummond.

"I'll show you," replied Roberts, and, parting the underwood, he threaded his way till he was close to the deep gully down which the water from the falls raced; and then selecting the most open spot he could, he placed his whistle to his lips and blew. The rallying whistle rose up the mountain-slope towards the falls, like the note of some wild bird startled from its lair among the moist depths of the gully.

To their great delight, the call had instant effect; for, unwittingly, they had made their way to where they halted just level with the party of their men who were not forty yards away. Consequently, before the note had died away the voice of Gedge was plainly heard.

"I say, boys," he cried, "that's a whistle."

"n.o.body said it was a bugle," was the laughing reply.

"But it means cease firing," said Gedge.

"That it don't, stoopid, for no one's shooting. Get out! Only some kind o' foreign bird."

"I don't care; it is," cried Gedge. "Way ho! Any one there?"

"Yes, my lads," cried Roberts; "make for the fort at once. Follow the stream down to the river, and join us there. Quick! Danger!"

There was a sharp rustling sound as of men forcing their way downward on each side of the gully, and the next minute, as the place grew lighter, consequent upon the trees being absent for a s.p.a.ce of about, a dozen yards, there was the sharp whiz as of some great beetle darting across, followed by the report of a gun, which was magnified by echoes which died away into the distance.

"Forward!" cried Roberts. "Steady! don't make a stampede of it. Keep to all the cover you can."

Necessary advice, for the whiz of a second roughly-made bullet, seeking but not finding its billet, was heard, followed by a smothered report.

"I say, this is nice," said Drummond: "and you two seem to be right. I don't like it at all."

"Well, it's not pleasant," said Roberts, smiling.

"Pleasant? No. These people may not mean war, but only sport. They're beating this part of the valley."

"And routing us up," said Drummond, "as if we were pheasants. I say; I wonder whether pheasants feel the same as I do when they're beginning to be driven to the end of a spinney?"

"Don't know," said Roberts shortly; "but I'm glad we came."

"Oh! are you?" said Drummond. "Well, I'm not. A little of this sniping goes a very long way with me."

"Ditto," said Roberts shortly. Then, aloud, "How are you getting on there, my lads?"

"Oh, fairly, sir, and--phew! that was close!"

For a bullet whizzed by the speaker's ear.

"Keep under cover. Steady!" said the Captain; and then the cautious descent of the steep slope--more of a pa.s.sage by hands as well as feet than a steady walk down--was kept up, and diversified in the most unpleasant way by shots, till the rocky shallow where the stream dashed into the main river was reached.