Charge! Part 18

"What-for a night-attack?"

"Yes."

"The beasts!" he cried, and he raised his rifle to fire and give the alarm.

"No, no," I said; "don't fire unless you see them. I'll go and give the alarm. Stand fast till reinforcements come.-Here, Joeboy, bring your load into camp."

I led the way straight to the Colonel, being challenged twice before I reached the side where he, in company with his officers, lay sleeping in their hors.e.m.e.n's heavy cloaks.

All sprang up at once, and each started to rouse his following, with the result that in a few minutes the whole force was under arms and divided in two bodies to join the line of sentries who paced up and down the pa.s.s.

It was only now I became aware of the Colonel's plan of strategy, which was to defend the position as long as seemed wise, and then for each line to fold back, making the pivot of the movements the ends of the lines by the niche in the hillside where the horses were sheltered. Then, on the performance of this evolution, there would be a double line facing outward for the defence of the horses, in a position enormously strong from the impossibility of there being any attack from flanks or rear.

So far we had no news of any attack threatening from the Boers who held the lower part of the pa.s.s; but scouts had been sent out in that direction to get in touch with the enemy, and their return was anxiously awaited where the men were in position; but the minutes glided by in the midst of a profound silence, and I began to feel a doubt about the correctness of Joeboy's announcement.

I was in the centre of the line which would receive the shock of the descending Boers, and Joeboy had stationed himself behind me as soon as he had bestowed his plunder in safety; and at last, as there was no sound to indicate that the enemy was on the move, I began to grow terribly impatient, feeling as I did that before long the Colonel and his officers would be reproaching me for giving a false alarm.

"Are you quite sure, Joeboy?" I whispered, turning to him where he squatted with a.s.sagai in hand and his s.h.i.+eld spread across his knees.

"Um?" he whispered. "Yes, quite sure. Come soon."

They did not come soon, and I grew more and more excited and angry; but I refrained from questioning the black any more, feeling as I did the uselessness of that course, and being unwilling to bring down upon myself the reproof of the officers for talking at a time when the order had been pa.s.sed for strict silence, so that the Boers might meet with a complete surprise.

It seemed to me that an hour had pa.s.sed, during which I stood behind the natural breastwork of a stone upon which my rifle rested, gazing straight away up the pa.s.s, and straining my sense of hearing to catch something to suggest that the enemy was in motion; but there was not a sound in the grim and desolate gap between the hills, and my beating heart sank lower and lower as I glanced back at Joeboy, who reached towards me.

"Doppy long time," he said, hardly above his breath.

"They won't come," I whispered back angrily. "You fancied it all."

"Um?"

"You fancied it all. They would not come on in the night."

"Boss Val wait a bit. Come soon."

"Ugh!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed; and a voice somewhere near whispered, "Silence in the ranks!" The command was needed, for a low murmur was beginning to make itself heard.

All was still again directly after, and the time glided slowly on again, till that which I expected came suddenly; for I heard the trampling of feet behind me in the darkness, and a voice whispered, "Where's that new recruit Moray?"

"I am here, sir," I said.

"Quick! the Colonel wants you."

I left my post, and another man stepped into my place, while I followed the sergeant who had summoned me.

"I say, young fellow," he said, "you're in for a bullying. The Colonel's horribly wild about your false alarm. Are you sure the Doppies were coming on?"

I told him what I had learned, and that I had felt obliged to report it.

"Humph! Yes, of course; but it's a great pity, when the men wanted rest."

The next minute I was facing the Colonel in the middle of the pa.s.s, where he stood with a group of the officers, about half-way between the two lines of men facing up and down, but lying so close that they were only visible here and there.

"Oh, here you are, young fellow!" were the words that saluted me, spoken in a low, angry whisper. "Now then, where are these two attacking parties of Boers?"

"I only reported that one was coming, sir-one descending the pa.s.s."

"Very well; you shall have credit for only one, then. Well, where is it?"

"I can't say, sir," I replied. "I was warned of it by my native servant."

"Then just go back and flog your native servant till you have given him a lesson against spreading false alarms to rob tired men of their rest. It is perfectly abominable-just when we want all our strength for the work in hand for us to-morrow."

"I'm very sorry, sir," I said.

"Sorry? What must I be, then? I can't fight unless I have plenty to eat and as much sleep as I can get. There, get back to your post. I wish to goodness you had stopped at home or joined the Boers, or done something else with yourself, instead of coming and giving this confounded false alarm. Be off.-Here, call in the men again, and- Yes, what now?"

"Enemy coming up the pa.s.s in great strength, sir," said one of the scouts, who had come breathlessly back.

"What!" said the Colonel in a hurried whisper. "Could you make them out?"

"Yes, sir; two or three hundred, I should say."

"You got near enough to see?"

"I couldn't see much, sir; but I could hear. They seemed to spread right across from the side I was on."

"Here, you, Moray," said the Colonel, turning to me, for at this announcement I had stood fast. "Get back to your post; and I beg your pardon.-Yes; who are you?"-for another scout came in to endorse the words of the first. He had scouted down the other side of the widening pa.s.s, and according to his report the enemy could not be a quarter of a mile away.

"Thank goodness!" said the Colonel fervently. "Mr Moray, I spoke in haste and disappointment. Now then, gentlemen, perfect silence, please. I believe we shall hear some signal from below, and that is what the party above are waiting for. Then they will attack simultaneously, to give us a surprise, and we're going to surprise them. Every one to his post, please; and then, at their first rush, let it be volleys and slow falling back, so as to keep them from breaking our too open formation."

The next minute every man was in his place, and the pa.s.s so dark and still that it was impossible to believe that a terrible conflict was so close at hand. As I stood waiting and listening for the enemy's order to attack, I could feel my heart go throb, throb, throb, throb, so hard that I seemed to be hearing it at the same time making a dull echo in my brain.

Still there was no sign; and at last I began to go over my brief interview with the Colonel, and to wonder whether he would turn now upon the two scouts and charge them with having deceived themselves, for according to their report the enemy ought to have been upon us long before. I had got to this point when all at once I felt an arm upon my shoulder, and could just make out at the side and front of my face a big hand pointing forward towards the stones a hundred feet away.

"Um!" whispered Joeboy, with his lips close to my ear. "See um now. Big lots."

"I can see nothing," I whispered.

"Joeboy can. Lie down ready. Boss Val going to shoot?"

"When I get the order," I said softly, and my heart beat more heavily than ever, for I felt now that the black must be right. I had had for years past proofs of the wonderful power of his sight, and had not a doubt that, though they were invisible to me, a large body of the enemy were cl.u.s.tering among the stones ready for the a.s.sault upon our position.

Then I heard from somewhere below a faint, rus.h.i.+ng, whistling sound, as of a firework, followed by a crack, and the white stars of a rocket lit up the sides of the pa.s.s and made the stones in front visible in a soft glare. The next instant from front and rear, almost simultaneously, there were flashes and a scattered roar, while the sides of the pa.s.s took up the reports, forming a deafening roll of thunder running down towards the plain.

Before this was half-over there was the rush of men before us, the stones and the s.p.a.ces between seeming to be alive with running and leaping Boers, shouting and cheering like mad as they came on, their purpose being to scare us and frighten the horses into a stampede, which, if it had followed, must have been equally fatal to their comrades attacking from the rear as it would have been to us; but, instead of the enemy being gratified by hearing the clattering of hundreds of hoofs, they were received by a series of sharp volleys proceeding from our two lines of men. These were so inadequately returned that the officers in the rear ran to and fro bidding us stand firm and keep up the fire, no attempt being made to fall back towards the gap where the horses were tethered.

Those were tremendously exciting minutes, and in the confusion, the crack of the rifles, and the reverberations, I hardly know what I did, except that I kept on firing without taking aim, for the simple reason that there was nothing visible in the smoke and darkness unless one had tried to aim at a spot from whence flashes came; and as the men attacking us were constantly on the move, that would have been useless.