Charge! Part 62

"I don't know," I replied. "Yes, perhaps we'd better take some; and, I say, we must have bandages on our heads as well as the sticking-plaster."

"Of course. Then, I say, as soon as ever we've had breakfast we'll talk to Joeboy."

"Exactly," I replied. "He'll be half-mad to go, and when we've said all we want to him we'll come back and lie down again."

"Oh! What for?"

"So as to rest and sleep all we possibly can, for if all goes well we shan't have a wink to-night."

"Perhaps you're right," said Denham.

"There's one more thing to think about."

"What's that?"

"Our going off without leave," I said-"you an officer, I a private."

"Oh! I say, don't get raising up obstacles."

"I don't want to," I said; "but this is serious."

"Very, for us to run such risks; and of course it isn't according to rule. But it's an exception. Let's argue it out, for it does look ugly."

"Go on," I said, "for I want my conscience cleared."

"Look here, then; what are we going to do?"

"Try and get help, of course."

"Then I consider that sufficient excuse for anything-in a corps of irregulars. Old Briggs would say it was mutinous in the regular army. To go on: if we asked leave, the Colonel or Major would say we were mad, and that we are not fit. Then- Oh, look here, I'm not going to argue, Val. I confess it's all wrong, only there's one thing to be said: we're not going to desert our ranks, for we're both on the sick-list; and, come what may, I mean to go and bring help somehow. You're not s.h.i.+rking the job after sleeping on it?"

"No," I said emphatically. "Now for breakfast, and then we'll have a talk with Joeboy."

Chapter Forty.

Joeboy is Missing Again.

"What a breakfast!" groaned Denham half-an-hour later.

"Never mind," I said; "we'll get something better, perhaps, to-morrow."

"That we will, even if we commando it at the point of the sword, which is another way of saying we shall steal it. I say, though, the thought of all this is sending new life into me."

"I feel the same," I said; then we sat back waiting till the doctor visited us, examined our injuries, and expressed himself satisfied.

"Another week," he said, "and then I shall dismiss you both. Nature and care will do the rest."

The doctor then left us; and, watching for an opportunity, we called to one of the men pa.s.sing the hospital, and told him to find the black. However, ten minutes later we found that this might have been saved, for the Sergeant paid us a morning call, and on leaving promised to go round by the horses and send Joeboy to us.

"What news of the messengers?" we asked. The Sergeant shook his head sadly, and replied, "Don't ask me, gentlemen. It looks bad-very bad. The Boers ain't soldiers, but they're keeping their lines wonderfully tight."

"That's our fault," said Denham. "We gave them such lessons by our night attack and the capture of the six wagons and teams."

"I say," said the Sergeant, and he looked from one to the other.

"Well, what do you say?" cried Denham.

"Doctor been changing your physic?"

"Why?" I said.

"Because you both look fifty pounds better than you did yesterday."

"It's the hope that has come, Briggs," cried Denham, his face lighting up.

"Haven't got a bit to spare, have you, sir?" said the Sergeant; "because I should like to try how it would agree with my case, for I'm horribly down in the mouth at present. I don't like the look of things at all."

"What do you mean?" asked Denham.

"I had a look round at the horses, sir, last night."

"Not got the horse-sickness, Briggs?"

"No, sir, not so bad as that; but, speaking as an old cavalry man, I say that they mustn't be kept shut up much longer. But there, I shall be spoiling your looks and knocking your hope over. Good-morning, gentlemen-I mean, lieutenant and private. Glad to see you both look so well. I'll tell Joe Black you want him."

"Yes, he'd upset our hopefulness altogether, Val, if it wasn't for one thing-eh?" said Denham as the wagon-tilt swung to after the Sergeant. "But, I say, that fellow of yours ought to be here by now."

"Yes," I said. But we waited anxiously for quite an hour before the man we had sent came back.

"Can't find the black, sir," he said.

"Did you go to the horses?"

"Yes, sir, and everywhere else."

"You didn't go to the butcher's?" I asked.

"Yes, I did; but he hadn't been there."

"Perhaps he's gone out with the bullock drove."

"No," said the man; "the oxen are being kept in this morning because the Boers have come a hundred yards nearer during the night. They're well in opposite the gateway, and the Colonel's having our works there strengthened."

"The Sergeant didn't say a word about that," Denham said to me.