Charge! Part 15

"Yes, that's it," said the trooper; "bed's a grand thing for nearly everything. I never knew how grand it was till I came on this business and had to sleep out here on the stones. You haven't begun to find out what it is to be away from your bed at times."

"I've slept out on the veldt or up in a kopje scores of times," I replied, "and have grown used to it."

"Oh!" said my companion, glancing at me to see if I was telling the truth. Then, apparently satisfied, he continued: "I wish those who made this war had to do all the fighting. I'm sick of it."

"Already?" I said.

"Yes; I was sick of it before we began to hit out. What's the sense of it? Here am I, five-and-twenty, hale, hearty, and strong, trying to get shot. But of course one had to come. I mean to make some of them pay for it, though."

"But you volunteered."

"Of course. I say, though, I don't wonder at you making a run for it. Nice game to have to fight on the enemy's side! I should like that-oh yes, very much indeed! My rifle would have gone off by accident sometimes and hit the wrong man. I say, though, oughtn't the Colonel to hear all this firing, and come up to help us?"

"That's what I've been thinking," I replied. "I should be very glad if we saw him on ahead. But we must have a couple of miles to go yet to join them-mustn't we?"

"Yes, quite that; but, my word!" cried my companion, "they're going it now. They're firing shots enough to bring down every one of our rear-guard."

"Yes; and it will be our turn again directly, when they trot on."

"They ought to be here by now," continued my new comrade. "I don't believe they'll come."

"Why?" I said anxiously.

"They'll all be shot down."

"Nonsense," I said. "Listen; those are their rifles replying."

"I suppose so," was the reply, given thoughtfully. "But what a strange echo the hills give back here!"

"Yes," I said. "That's why it's called Echo Nek."

"I suppose so; but-but- Here, I say, those are not echoes we can hear now."

"Nonsense! What can they be, then?"

"Some one else firing. Can't you hear? It sounds from right in front."

"Well, that's how echoes do sound. The reports come down the pa.s.s and strike against the face of the rocks, and are reflected off."

"That's all very nicely put, comrade," said the young man, "and I dare say it's scientific and 'all according to c.o.c.ker,' as my father used to say; but you're not going to make me believe those are echoes we can hear right in front. Now, you listen."

I did as he suggested, and the rattling of the Boers' rifles came plainly enough, their many reverberations, as the reports seemed to strike from side to side, almost drowning the feeble replies of our own men. Then, after a perceptible pause, fresh reports were heard, and certainly these seemed to come from some distance away in front.

"There!" cried my companion triumphantly. "What do you say to that?"

"That the shots echo again from some high hills in front."

"Boss Val," cried Joeboy just then, and I touched Sandho with my heels, making him spring on to where the big black was straining his neck to look back, but trudging steadily on all the while.

"What is it, Joeboy?" I said anxiously. "Has he moved or spoken?"

"Um! Not said a word; but some one shooting over-over."

He nodded his head in the direction we were going, and now I grasped the fact that I had before doubted-namely, that firing was going on in our front.

I drew the sergeant's attention to it directly, and he nodded.

"That settles it at once," he said. "Here have I been telling myself it was all my fancy; but now you hear it I feel it must be fact."

"I hear it; so does my man, and the trooper who rides next to me."

"Yes; and we can all hear it now," said the Sergeant. "Well, it's plain enough. We're in a tight place, my lad, for there's only one answer to it, and it explains why the Colonel hasn't sent us some support, for he must have heard the firing."

"What do you make of it, then?"

"That the Doppers are better soldiers than we give them credit for being, and they've got round to the Colonel's rear somehow, and shut him in this giant hogs'-trough of a valley."

"Think so?" I said anxiously, as I thought of the Lieutenant.

"I'm sure of it. Now then; that's not our business. Halt! Right about! Take position behind those stones. Dismount and cover the retreat. Here they come."

The clatter of the horses of the other party came plainly to our ears as we took our places ready to reply to the Boers' fire. I had intended to have another look at the wounded man before this took place, and was therefore much disappointed; but there was no help for it, and I stood with Sandho fairly well sheltered behind a stone five feet high, upon which my rifle rested. Then the party we were to relieve cantered by, with two men wounded and supported on their horses; and as I watched the puffs of smoke and listened to the bullets spattering and splaying the rocks, with the buzz of the high shots now sounding so familiar, I wondered at being able to take it all so coolly.

"I suppose it's because I'm beginning to get used to it," I thought. Then I began to speculate as to what would happen now if the sergeant was right, and we were to be attacked front and rear; and what it would feel like if I were hit, as seemed very likely now that the enemy were getting so near. But I glanced right and left at my companions, just in time, to see the Sergeant start back, to stand shaking his right hand vigorously, and directly after I saw the blood beginning to drip from his finger-ends.

"Much hurt?" I asked, hurrying to his side, dragging out my handkerchief the while.

"No!" he roared; "only a scratch. Back to your place, sir! Who told you to leave? Here; stop! As you are here you may as well tie that rag round it."

He said these last words more gently, and smiled as I rapidly bound up his injury as well as I could.

"Thank ye, my lad," he said. "I must preserve discipline, and we're getting pressed. Taken off a bit of the middle finger-hasn't it?"

"Half of it, I'm afraid," I said.

"What have you got to be afraid of? Might have been worse. Suppose it had been the first finger; then I shouldn't have been able to draw trigger-eh? That'll do-won't it? I'm in a hurry."

"I haven't stopped the bleeding," I replied.

"Never mind. Mother Nature will soon do that. Now then, back you go. Show them how you young farmers can shoot."

I was on my way back to my place when the clattering of hoofs made me turn my head, and I saw a man in the Light Horse uniform come galloping up, utterly regardless of the danger he ran from obstructing stones.

"Back!" he shouted. "Retire on the main body as fast as you can go. Colonel's orders."

We were in full retreat at once, after emptying our rifles upon the steadily advancing enemy, who came on, running from stone to stone, cleverly taking advantage of every bit of cover. We soon came in sight of the men we had relieved, who were hurrying to the rear as fast as they could get their wounded men along; while, to my great satisfaction, there was Joeboy striding along at a tremendous rate: it was a walk, but such a walk as would have compelled me to trot to keep up with him. He could not have kept it up much longer, I could see, for the perspiration was streaming down his face and neck, and he was breathing hard; but at the end of another quarter of a mile, as the firing in front grew louder and louder, I saw about a couple of dozen of the troopers coming to our help, four of whom dismounted, giving up their horses to comrades, and quickly spreading a blanket upon the ground.

It struck me at once that Joeboy would refuse to give up his load; but I got up to him just in time, and at a word from me the young officer, still perfectly insensible, was lifted from the big black's shoulders, laid upon the blanket, and then the four men took the corners in a good grip and trotted off at the double. Joeboy, grinning with satisfaction, now took hold of my saddle-bow and ran by my side till we reached the strong position in a great notch in one side of the valley, where the Colonel was defending himself against a large body of the enemy coming on from the plains below.