Fix Bay'nets Part 37

"Naturally; and I never encountered such a case. It is all due to the irritation of the spinal nerves, and until we can get rid of the cause we cannot arrive at the cure."

"But, Doctor--"

"Patience, my dear boy--patience."

"Can you give me some?" said Bracy sadly.

"I hope so, for I am going to appeal to your manliness, your strength of mind. You must try to bear your sufferings, and I will help you by means of sedatives."

"Thanks, Doctor. If you could only get me to be strong enough to act in some way."

"Go out with the men and help them to shoot a few of the enemy--eh!"

"Yes," cried Bracy eagerly. "It would keep me from thinking so, and wearing myself out with dread of my helpless future."

"Well, listen to reason," said the Doctor cheerily. "Your helpless future, in which you see yourself a miserable cripple, old before your time, and utterly useless--"

"Yes, yes," cried Bracy eagerly; "it is all that which keeps me back."

"Of course; and what is all that but a kind of waking ill-dream, which you invent and build up for yourself? Come, you must own that."

"Yes," said Bracy, with a sigh; "but I am very bad, Doctor."

"Were."

"I am still; but I will and can fight harder--"

"No, no; not as you did this morning," said the Doctor, smiling.

"I say, I can fight harder if you tell me that I may recover from these terrible fits."

"I tell you, then, that you may and will. There, you've talked enough.

Shake hands, and I'll go."

He held out his hand, but there was no response, for Bracy's right arm lay motionless by his side, and a look of misery crossed the poor fellow's face.

"Never mind," said the Doctor quietly; and he took Bracy's hand in his, when the fingers contracted over his in a tremendous pressure, which he had hard work to hear without wincing. But he stood smiling down at his patient till the contraction of the muscles ceased, and Bracy did not know till afterwards the pain that his grip had caused.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

ON THE BALANCE.

The enemy had been very quiet for some days. The weather had been bad.

Heavy rains had changed the rills and streams which ran along the gullies and ravines into fierce torrents, which leaped and bounded downward, foaming and tearing at the rocks which blocked their way, till with a tremendous plunge they joined the river in the valley, which kept up one deep, thunder-like boom, echoing from the mountains round.

Before the rain came the sun had seemed to beat down with double force, and the valley had become intolerable during the day, the perpendicular rocks sending back the heat till the fort felt like an oven, and the poor fellows lying wounded under the doctor's care suffered terribly, panting in the great heat as they did, feeling the pangs of Tantalus, for there, always glittering before their eyes in the pure air, were the mountain-peaks draped in fold upon fold of the purest ice and snow.

"We should lose 'em all, poor fellows!" the Doctor said, "if it were not for these glorious evenings and perfect nights. It wouldn't matter so much if we could get a few mule-loads of the ice from up yonder. Can't be done, I suppose?"

"No," said Colonel Graves sadly. "Plenty of men would volunteer, but, much as every one is suffering--the ladies almost as bad as your wounded, Morton--I dare not send them, for they would never get back with their loads. Many of the brave fellows would straggle back, of course, but instead of bringing ice, Doctor, they would be bearing their wounded and dead comrades."

"Yes, that's what I feel," sighed the Doctor, "and, Heaven knows, we don't want any more patients. Must be content with what coolness we get at night."

"And that's glorious," said the Major, wiping his wet brow.

"Delightful," added Captain Roberts. "It's the making of poor old Bracy. He seems to hang his head and droop more and more every day, till the sun goes down, and to begin to pick up again with the first breath that comes down from between the two big peaks there--what do they call them--Erpah and Brum?"

"Ha! wish it was coming now," said the Doctor; "iced and pure air, to sweep right down the valley and clear away all the hot air, while it cools the sides of the precipices."

"Why don't you let me go, Colonel!" said Drummond suddenly. "I want to get some ice badly for poor old Bracy. Six mules, six drivers, and a dozen of our boys. Oh, I could do it. Let me go, sir."

The Colonel shook his head, and every day at the hottest time Drummond proposed the same thing; till on the last day, after gradually growing weaker in his determination, urged as he was on all sides by the sufferers in hospital, the wan looks of the ladies, and the longings of the men, the Colonel said:

"Well, Mr Drummond, I'll sleep on it to-night, and if I come to a determination favourable to the proposition, you shall go; but not alone. One of my officers must go with you."

"Glad to have him, sir," cried the subaltern eagerly. "Whom will you send, sir?"

"I'll volunteer, sir," said Roberts quietly.

"Good," said the Colonel; "so it will be as well for you and Drummond here to quietly select your men and the mules with their drivers, plus tools for cutting out the ice-like compressed snow. If I decide against it there will be no harm done."

"Better make our plans, then, as to which way to go. Study it all by daylight with our gla.s.ses."

"Needn't do that," said Drummond eagerly. "I know. We'll go straight up the steep gully that I followed when I went after the bears, it's awfully rough, but it's the best way, for the n.i.g.g.e.rs never camp there; it's too wet for them."

"Very well," said the Colonel; and the two young officers went straight through the scorching suns.h.i.+ne, which turned the great court of the fort into an oven, to where Bracy lay panting with the heat, with Gedge doing his best to make life bearable by applying freshly wrung-out towels to his aching brow.

"News for you, old chap," said Drummond in a whisper. "But send that fellow of yours away."

"There is no need," said Bracy faintly. "I can't spare him, and he's better worth trusting than I am."

"Oh yes, we can trust Gedge," said Roberts in a low tone, while the lad was fetching a fresh bucket of water from the great well-like hole in the court, through which an underground duct from the river ran, always keeping it full of clear water fresh from the mountains, but in these days heated by the sun as it flamed down.

The news was imparted by Drummond, and Bracy shook his head.

"It would be glorious," he said; "but you ought not to go. Graves mustn't let a dozen men run such risks for the sake of us poor fellows.

It would be madness. We must wait for the cool nights."

"He will let us go," said Drummond; "and we can do it."

"No," said Bracy, speaking with more energy, and he turned his head to Roberts. "I beg you will not think of such a thing, old lad," he said earnestly.

"Well, we shall see."

"Ready for another, sir?" said Gedge, coming in with the bucket.

"Yes, yes, as soon as you can," said Bracy. "This one feels boiling hot."