Fix Bay'nets Part 70

"And then go back, sir, and leave us where we are."

"Yes," said Bracy sadly.

Gedge was silent for a few minutes, during which they still watched the scene below. Then he broke out with:

"It's all downhill, sir."

"Yes, Gedge," said Bracy drearily; "it is all downhill now to the end."

"You ain't listening to me, sir," cried the lad. "Do put that gla.s.s away, sir, and we'll have a try."

"A try? What! to get down below? You try, my lad; but there is the terrible risk of being cut to pieces by the enemy if they see you."

"Don't begin that again, sir, please. You know I won't leave you, but let's have a try."

"I am helpless, my lad--as helpless as a figure half of lead."

"But I ain't, sir," cried Gedge. "The sight of our lads below there seems to ha' woke me up. I'm ready to die game; but I want to make one spurt for life first."

"Why, Gedge," cried Bracy excitedly as he lowered the gla.s.s from his eyes, "they're not our fellows after all."

"What, sir!"

"No; and there's a detachment down yonder coming from the east. I can almost see that they're doubling to get up in time."

"From the east, sir? Then the Colonel ain't retreating?"

"No.--Hurrah!"

"Hoorray!" roared Gedge, joining in.

"They're the Ghoorkhas, Gedge. They must be a thousand strong."

"Then one o' the messengers must ha' got to them after all."

"Yes; that must be it, Gedge; and they surprised the enemy's camp at dawn."

"That's it, sir!" yelled Gedge. "Hoorray! hoorray again! Then there is life in a mussel after all."

"They've scattered this force, Gedge, and the fort will be relieved, for the bravo little fellows will cut their way through all."

"Yes, sir. Now then, sir, you needn't hardly move. There's a bit o'

slaty stone yonder as'll do, and all I want of you, sir, is for yer to sit still upon it, and nuss the rifles while I steer you down to the truck."

"Right in among the enemy, my lad?"

"Right through 'em, sir. They're on the run, and won't dare to stop to go at us. I never heard of a n.i.g.g.e.r as'd stand a moment when a Ghoorkha was coming after him with his crooked knife."

"Let's try," said Bracy, setting his teeth. "Life is sweet, my lad."

"Even without sugar, sir. Why, bless your 'eart! there's a lot of it in us both yet, sir. This here's nothing to what we've been and done."

Wild with excitement now, Gedge fetched the heavy slab of stone, almost as much as he could lift, drew it close up behind Bracy, and placed his arms under the young officer's shoulders.

"Now, sir," he said, "you set your teeth just as if the doctor was going to use his knife."

"What are you going to do?"

"Draw you right back on to this stone, sir. I must hurt you a bit, but I can't help that."

"Go on," said Bracy; and the next moment he was drawn back upon the stone, with no worse suffering than a fit of faintness, for his leg was numb with the cold.

"Right, sir. Now your rifle and mine across your legs. Stop; my _poshtin_ first. May want it again. Got the cartridges handy?"

"Yes."

"Then I sits here between your legs, sir. Just room, and I can steer and put on the break with my heels. Ready, sir?"

"Yes."

"Then off."

The surface of the snow was like gla.s.s with the night's frost, and the stone began to glide at once, just as the first gleams of the rising sun lit up the spot where such terrible hours had been spent; and the next minute, with a strange, metallic, hissing sound, the pair were gliding down the slope at a steady rate, which Gedge felt it in his power to increase to a wild rush by raising his heels from the surface upon which they ran.

"All right, sir?"

"Yes, all right. Go on."

"Ain't it wonderful, sir? Why, we can get down to the track long before any of them can get up to it."

"Stop, then, to let them reach it and retreat."

"If you order me to, sir, I will; but they'll never try to stop us; they'll scatter to see us coming down like this. Why, in less than an hour, sir, we shall be all among the Ghoorkha lads, and then hoorray for the fort!"

"Go on, then. I trust to you."

"Right, sir," cried Gedge excitedly; and in spite of several risks of overturning, he steered the novel toboggan sledge down the gigantic slide, with the wild, metallic, hissing sound rising and falling on the keen wind that fanned their cheeks, and a glistening prismatic, icy dust rising behind them like a snaky cloud.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

THE IDEA TAMED.

Onward, swifter or slower, they moved as the undulations of the mighty snow-slope ruled with the rough track crossing at right-angles far below and gradually growing plainer, the white-coats of the fleeing enemy, the kharkee jackets of the advancing line of Ghoorkhas, and the pulls of smoke from each discharge coming nearer as if in a dream. The excitement of the wild rush seemed to madden Gedge, who, as he found out that he could easily control his rough chariot of stone, let it glide faster and faster, his eyes sparkling, and the various phases of the fight below sending a wild longing to be amongst it thrilling through his nerves.

"Oh," he shouted, "if there was only a hundred of us coming down like this to take the enemy front and rear! Are you all right, sir?"

"Yes, yes; but beware of the rocks down below there by the track."