Charge! Part 13

"I can't stop here and have my little troop shot down on account of your black."

"But-"

"Come on, sir!" shouted Denham; "obey orders. Here, you're a pretty rough sort of a pup for me to lick into shape," he added, in a friendly way, as he trotted back amongst the stones. "Recollect you're a soldier now, without any will of your own. You hand everything over to your officer, and obey him, whether it's to ride forward into the enemy's fire or to retire."

"But it's horrible to leave that poor fellow to his fate," I said.

"More horrible to lose the lives of the party of men entrusted to me. Look here, my lad; it's an officer's duty never to throw away a man. If he is obliged to spend a few to carry some point, that's war and necessary; but to dash them bull-headed against double odds to gain nothing is folly."

"But I can't go on. Let me stay back and try and help him," I said pa.s.sionately.

"Certainly not. Be sensible. Look here: you don't know that he's. .h.i.t."

"But he dropped from behind that stone."

"Yes; but that may be his dodge. Perhaps he's gliding back under cover from stone to stone."

"Perhaps," I said bitterly. "Look here: if this is your way of going to work I've had enough of soldiering."

I rode on unwillingly, expecting to hear a furious tirade from my companion, who still held my rein; but he was silent for a few minutes, while the bullets kept on spattering and whizzing about us without hitting any one.

"So you're tired of soldiering-are you?" said Denham at last.

"Yes," I said hotly. "I never felt such a coward before."

"Rubbis.h.!.+ Look here: you want me to expose my little detachment to the fire of that strongly-posted crowd of Boers, and get half of them shot down, so as to try and pick up your servant."

"No, I don't," I replied sharply. "There's plenty of cover here. I should have got the men behind some of these blocks of stone and returned the fire, so as to keep the enemy in check while I sent two men dismounted to try and bring my man-our guide-in, alive or dead."

"Humph!" said my companion shortly. "Why, I begin to think you are a better soldier than I am;" and, to my intense surprise, he halted the party behind a huge block which divided our way, dismounted half, and sent them out right and loft to seek cover from whence they could reply to the enemy's fire. Then he turned to me.

"You must hold two horses," he said. "I'll send two fellows to steal up the gap from stone to stone to try and pick up your man."

"No, no," I said excitedly. "I'll go alone."

"Suppose you find him wounded, or-"

"Dead?" I said, finis.h.i.+ng his sentence.

"Yes: you couldn't carry him in."

"No," I said, with a sigh. "I'm lame still from the injury to my foot. It hurts me so badly at times that I can hardly ride."

"Hurrah!" came from the right, and the cheer was taken up from the left, while crack, crack, crack, rifles were being brought well into play.

"What does that mean?" said Denham. "Have they brought down one of the Dutchmen?"

He pressed his horse's sides and rode out from behind the great stone, while I followed him, to learn directly what was the meaning of the cheering. It was plain enough, for there, about five hundred yards up the narrow pa.s.s, was Joeboy coming after us at a quick run, dodging round the great stones, and pretty well contriving to keep them between him and the enemy, whose rifles kept on spitting bullets fiercely after him.

It was as Denham had suggested. Joeboy had leaped down from behind the stone as soon as he had drawn the enemy's fire, then started to follow us, running the gauntlet of their bullets, and reaching us in a very short time, flushed, triumphant, and very little out of breath.

"Well," cried Denham, "see the Boers?"

"Um!" replied Joeboy.

"Were there a great many of them?" I said eagerly, as I sat hoping the poor fellow did not give me the credit of forsaking him in a cowardly way.

For answer he held up both hands with fingers and thumbs outspread; dropped them, and raised them once more; and would have kept on for long enough if I had not checked him.

"You see," I said to Denham, "they are in great force up there."

"Yes, and no wonder," was the reply, "for it's a very strong position. Now then, all here, and forward once more."

The men ran back into the rallying-place as quickly as so many rabbits, mounted, and once more we were in full retreat, with Joeboy trotting beside my horse holding on to the stirrup-iron, while Denham kept coming to me, to talk.

"Just to give you a few lessons in the art of war," he said, with his eyes twinkling and a laugh beginning to show at their corners. "There, you see we have done exactly what the Colonel wanted us to do: made a regular reconnaissance and drawn the enemy's fire, proving that he is holding the pa.s.s. What the old man will do now remains to be seen. He won't go up here with us to try and dislodge them, but will try, I expect, to lure them down into the open somewhere, so as to give us a chance at them."

"They'll be too cunning," I said. "They fight only from behind stones, and in holes."

"Yes, they're cunning enough," said Denham; "but, like all over-clever people, they make mistakes, or find others quite as cunning. Look here: you'll have to propose some dodge to the Colonel to coax them out to give us a chance."

"I propose a plan to the Colonel?"

"Yes. Why not?" said Denham, laughing. "You've begun your soldiering by teaching me, and- Oh!"

He uttered a sharp cry, and clapped his right hand round to his back.

"What is it?" I said excitedly. "Not hit?"

"Yes, I've got it," he muttered. "Just look. It hurts horribly. I say, though, that's a good sign-eh?"

The men halted involuntarily behind the stones, and Denham bravely kept his seat till all were under cover, when, refusing to dismount, he slipped off his bandolier and began to unb.u.t.ton his tunic.

"You had better let us help you down," I suggested.

"No; I don't feel bad enough," he said through his teeth, speaking viciously as if in great pain. "I don't think I'm much hurt. See any blood?"

"No," I replied as he threw off his tunic and laid it across his horse's neck. "Here, look. That's it. All! there it lies." For I had made a s.n.a.t.c.h at a long-shaped bullet, missed it twice, and then sat pointing out where it had fallen. Joeboy s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and handed it to me.

"Humph!" said Denham; "then it hasn't gone through me, or it would have fallen from my back."

"Instead of your chest," I said. "It must have been partly spent with the long distance it travelled."

"I wish it had been quite spent," said Denham through his teeth, "Oh, what a fuss I'm making about such a trifle! Nothing worse than having a stone thrown at one."

"It's gone right through the back of your jacket," said one of the men. "Look, there's quite a big hole."

"It has not broken the skin," I said, examining his back.