Charge! Part 11

"Oh!" said the officer, staring. "Here, tell me, how were you summoned?"

I told him, and that the party was led by an Irishman named Moriarty.

"Ah! yes, I know him. Tall, handsome, das.h.i.+ng young Irish cavalier-isn't he?"

"No," I said; "a middle-aged, bullying, ruffianly sort of a fellow, with a red nose," I replied.

"Humph! Then where do you come from?"

"Cameldorn Farm."

"Eh? Hullo!" cried the young man who had captured me. "I say, take off your hat."

"What for?" I asked.

"Because I want to look at you. How's that scratch you got on the arm from the lioness?"

"What do you know about the scratch?" I said, leaning forward to look the speaker full in the eyes.

"Why, only that I shot her. What's your name? Of course, Val."

"Mr Denham!" I cried in astonishment.

"That's your humble servant, sir."

"But you've got a beard now," I cried, holding out my hand. "Oh, I say, I am glad to see you!"

"The same here, Val, my lad. I say, how you've grown! Here, Colonel, it's all right. I'll answer for this fellow. Why, Val, you were commandoed, and cutting away?"

"Yes," I cried excitedly. "Here, Joeboy, this is Boss Denham."

"Um!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the black, showing his teeth.

"I was running away from the Boers so as not to serve, Mr Denham," I said eagerly, for I wanted to wipe off the slurs of coward and spy.

"Well, quite right, my lad," said the Lieutenant. "But what were you going to do?"

"Get into Natal, sir, and join the Light Horse."

"Well done!" laughed the Colonel, clapping me on the back; "then you've regularly fallen upon your legs, my lad. That your horse?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good," he cried, looking me over, "and you ride him well. We're the Light Horse. I'm the Colonel, at your service, and I accept you at once as a recruit."

"You can go through the swearing-in business some other time, Val," said the Lieutenant. "Now then, are the Boers in force and coming down the pa.s.s?"

I told him all I knew, and the Colonel laughed.

"You've seen a sentry and heard a few shots fired, my lad," he said. "Why, you're not worth calling a spy."

"Am I one of the Light Horse now, sir?" I said eagerly.

"Certainly."

"Then send me back up to the Nek, and I'll try and prove myself a better one."

"I'll send you up, sir," said the Colonel stiffly, "with a vidette, to feel for the enemy and try to draw him out; but we don't call members of the Light Horse spies. If you go on such an adventure it will be a reconnaissance."

I felt humbled, and was silent.

"This is an old friend of yours, then, Denham?" continued the Colonel.

"Oh yes," replied the Lieutenant. "His father, Mr Moray, was a most kindly host to me during a long shooting expedition, and I am very glad to have his son with us. I hope, sir, you will place him in the same troop as I am."

"Certainly," said the Colonel, who then turned to me in a frank, bluff way, and held out his hand.

"Glad to have you with us, Mr Moray," he said; "and I beg your pardon for being so rough with you. Your appearance was a bit suspicious, though. But what about this black fellow?"

"He is my servant, sir," I replied.

"Humph! But we can't allow privates in this corps to bring their servants. It is not a picnic nor a shooting expedition."

Some one who heard these words cried "Oh!" loudly.

"I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said the Colonel, smiling; "it is. I should have said this is not a hunting expedition. We all have to rough it."

"I beg pardon, Colonel," said Lieutenant Denham, giving me a quick look. "Private Moray meant to say the black had been the servant at his home. I had forgotten the man. I remember him now. He was a good hunter and manager of the bullock-wagon we took up the country."

"Yes, sir," I said eagerly; "and most useful in all ways."

"Be able to forage a little for game-eh-if we run short of food?"

"Oh, yes, sir!" I cried.

"That will do, then; let him stay with us."

Joeboy was straining his ears to catch every word, and I saw his face light up as he caught my eye, and he gave his a.s.sagai a flourish.

"Yes," said the Colonel dryly, for he had had his eye upon the big athletic black; "but tell him that he must obey orders, and not be getting up any fighting upon his own account."

"He'll obey me, sir," I said, speaking so that Joeboy could hear; and he looked at me and nodded.

"That incident is over, then," said the Colonel sharply. "Now, Mr Denham, take a dozen men and continue the advance. We know now the meaning of last night's firing; but see what you can find out about the strength of the party holding the pa.s.s. Be careful of your party. We are good shots; but recollect they are better, and I want information, not to see you bring back half-a-dozen wounded men."

"I'll be careful, sir;" and ten minutes later, to my surprise and delight at the way in which my position had altered during the last half-hour, I was riding close behind Lieutenant Denham, while, proud of his position, Joeboy was on in front, his knowledge of the pa.s.s we had just descended being most valuable at such a time, the probabilities tending to point out that he might be able to get well up to right or left of the track and gain a pretty good idea of the strength of the Boers without drawing a shot, whereas the sight of the hors.e.m.e.n, we felt, would have been the signal for a shower of bullets.