Charge! Part 63

I shook my head, and turned to the messenger.

"Is he asleep somewhere about the walls?" I asked.

"No; I looked there," was the reply. "He always snoozes up on the inner wall, just above the water-hole. There's a place where a big stone has fallen out and no bullets can get at him. I looked there twice."

"Hasn't fallen down one of the holes, has he?" said Denham.

"Not he, sir," replied the man, laughing. "He'd go about anywhere in the dark, looking like a bit o' nothing, only you couldn't see it in the darkness, and never knock against a thing. It's his feet, I think; they always seem to know where to put theirselves. He wouldn't tumble down any holes."

"Keep a sharp lookout for him, and when you see him send him to me directly."

"Yes, sir," replied the man. "I dessay he'll turn up in the course o' the morning. He's always hiding himself and coming again when you don't expect it."

"I say, Val," cried Denham as soon as we were alone, "we didn't reckon on this. Why, if he doesn't turn up our plan's done."

"Not at all," I said.

"Eh? What do you mean? We couldn't go without him."

"Indeed, but we could; and what's more, we will," I said firmly. "I would rather have had him with us; but we're going to-night-if we can."

Denham seized my hand and wrung it warmly.

"I like that," he said; "but you shouldn't have put in that 'if we can.'"

"Obliged to," I replied. "We may be stopped."

"Oh, but I shall give the pa.s.sword."

"We may find even that will not be enough. The orders are very strict now. Besides, if we did not come back the guard would report us missing, and then there'd be great excitement at once."

"What would you do, then?" he asked.

"Take a lesson out of that Irishman's book."

"Knock two or three sentries on the head with a stone?"

"No, no," I cried, laughing. "Get a couple of reins, tie them together, and then slide down from the wall."

"Good!" exclaimed Denham; and, after a pause: "Better! Yes, that will do. Start from the far corner?"

"No, from just up here where Joeboy arranged the stones. We can tie up to one of those big ones that you stand on to look over. You feel strong enough to slide down?-it isn't far."

"Oh yes."

"Then, once on the ground, we can crawl away. That's how I mean to go all along."

"What about the tethering-ropes?"

"We'll go and have a look at our horses towards evening, slip the coils over our shoulders, and bring them away. No one will interfere."

"Val," he cried, "you ought to be a commissioned officer."

"I don't want to be," I said, laughing. "I want the war to be over, and to be able to find my people, and settle down again in peace. This fighting goes against the grain with me."

"But you always seem to like it, and fight like a fury when we're in for it."

"I suppose it's my nature," I said; "but I don't like it any the better."

We said no more, but waited anxiously in the hope that Joeboy would return, and waited in vain, the time gliding by, some hours being pa.s.sed in sleep, till we were suddenly aroused by firing. There were two or three fits of excitement in the course of the afternoon, and a smart exchange of shots which at one time threatened to develop into a regular attempt to a.s.sault the fort; but it died out at last, direct attack of entrenchments not being in accord with the Boers' ideas of fighting. It is too dangerous for men who like to be safely in hiding and to bring down their enemies as if they were wild beasts of the veldt.

No Joeboy appeared, and in the dusk of evening we went across the yard, had a good look at our horses, stopped patting and caressing them for some time, then went back to the hospital unquestioned and, I believe, unseen, with the coils of raw-hide rope. From that time everything seemed to me so delightfully easy that it prognosticated certain success.

The doctor came at dusk and had a chat; then the Sergeant looked us up to tell us that he had seen nothing of Joeboy, but that the butcher told him he had missed some strips of beef hung up in the sun to make biltong, and that he believed the black had taken them.

"Why?" I asked sharply.

"Because he was so fond of eating; and he said the black would be found curled up amongst the stones somewhere in the kopje among the baboons, sleeping off his feed."

"It isn't true," I said warmly. "Joeboy wouldn't steal unless he knew we were starving, and then it would be to bring it to his master and his master's friend."

"That's what I like in you, Val," said Denham as soon as the Sergeant had left us. "You always stick up for a friend when any one attacks him behind his back."

"Of course," I replied angrily.

"Don't be cross, old man," he cried. "I didn't mean to insult you by calling a black fellow your friend."

"That wouldn't insult me. Joeboy is a humble friend, who would give his life to save mine."

"I wish he was with us, then, so as to make a present of it to somebody if we should be in very awkward quarters."

"I can't understand it," I said; "but we mustn't worry about that now. What about arms?"

"Revolvers under our jackets, out of sight, and a few cartridges in our pouches along with the cake and beef we saved."

"No rifle, bandolier, or sword?" I said thoughtfully.

"Neither one nor the other, my lad. We're going to get through the lines as sick men tired of it all, and whose fighting is done."

"Perhaps to be taken as spies," I said.

"Ugh! Don't talk about it," cried Denham. "We're invalids, and no one can doubt that who looks at your battered head."

"Or yours," I replied. "But look here, Denham; we must give up all idea of capturing wagons. What we have to do is to fetch help."

"Yes, I think so too-get through the Boer lines and find the General's quarters. The other idea was too mad."

We sat in silence for a while, till we felt that the time had come; then we pa.s.sed our coils of rope over our chests like bandoliers, and strolled out into the dark court, to saunter here and there for a few minutes, listening to the lowing of the oxen or the fidgety stamp of a horse annoyed by a fly. Here Denham exchanged a few words with some of the men. Finally, after a glance at the officers' quarters, from which a light gleamed dimly, Denham led the way to the rough ascent, and with beating heart I followed right up on to the wall. So intense was the darkness that we had to go carefully, not seeing the first sentry till he challenged us and brought us up.