The Kopje Garrison Part 11

"But you grant it is beautiful down by the river?"

"Yes, where only man is vile-very vile indeed; does nothing all day but try to commit murder. But there, it's of no use for you to argue; I think South Africa is horrible. Look at the miles of wretched dusty desert and stony waste. I don't know what we English want with it."

"Room for our colonists, and to develop the mines. Look at the diamonds."

"Look at our sparkling sea at home."

"Look at the gold."

"I like looking at a good golden furzy common in Surrey. It's of no use, Drew, my lad; it's a dismal, burning, freezing place."

"Why don't you throw it up and go home, then?"

"What! before we've beaten the Boers into a state of decency? No!"

Bob d.i.c.kenson's "No!" was emphatic enough for anything, and brought the conversation between the two young men to an end; for it was close upon the time for the mess dinner, which, whatever its shortcomings, as Bob d.i.c.kenson said, was jolly punctual, even if there was no tablecloth.

So they descended from where they had perched themselves close up to the big gun, where their commanding position gave them the opportunity for making a wide sweep round over the karoo, taking in, too, the wooded course of the river and the open country beyond in the possession of the Boers.

But they had seen no sign of an enemy or grazing horse; though they well knew that if a company of their men set off in any direction, before they had gone a quarter of a mile they would be pelted with bullets by an unseen foe.

They had seen the walls and rifle-pits which guarded the great gun so often that they hardly took their attention. All the same, though, soldier-like, Drew Lennox could not help thinking how naturally strong the kopje was, how easy it would be for two or three companies of infantry to hold it against a force of ten times their number, and what tremendous advantages the Boers had possessed in the nature of their country. For they had only had to sit down behind the natural fortifications and set an enemy at defiance.

"It's our turn now," Lennox said to himself, "and we could laugh at them for months if only we had a supply of food."

"Let's try this way," said d.i.c.kenson, bearing off to his left.

"What for? It's five times as hard as the regular track, and precipitous."

"Not so bad but what we can do it. We can let one another down if we come to one of the wall-like bits too big to jump."

"But it's labour for nothing. Only make you more hungry," added Lennox, with a laugh.

"Never mind; I want to make sure that an enemy could not steal up in the dark and surprise the men in charge of the gun. I'm always thinking that the Boers will steal a march on us and take it some day."

"You might save yourself the trouble as far as the climbing up is concerned. This is the worst bit; but they could do it, I feel sure, if our sentries were lax. I don't think they'd get by them, though."

"Well, let's have a good look what it is like, now all the crags are lit up."

They were lit up in a most wonderful way by the sun, which was just about to dip below the horizon, and turned every lightning-s.h.i.+vered ma.s.s of tumbled-together rock into a glowing state, making it look as if it was red-hot, while the rifts and cracks which had been formed here and there were lit up so that their generally dark depths could be searched by the eye.

"Do you know what this place looks like?" said d.i.c.kenson.

"The roughest spot in the world," replied Drew as he lowered himself down a perpendicular, precipitous bit which necessitated his hanging by his hands, and then dropping four or five feet.

"No! It's just as if the giants of old had made a furnace at the top of the kopje, and had been pouring the red-hot clinkers down the side."

"Or as if it was the slope of a volcano, and those were the ma.s.ses of pumice which had fallen and rolled down."

"So that we look like a couple of flies walking amongst lumps of sugar. Well, yours is a good simile, but not so romantic as mine. That's a deep crack, Drew, old chap. Like to see how far in it goes?"

"No, thanks. I want my dinner," said Lennox.

"Dinner! Mealie cake and tough stewed horse."

"Wrong," said Lennox; "it's beef to-night, for I asked."

"Beef! Don't insult the muscle-giving food of a Briton by calling tough old draught-ox beef. I don't know but what I would rather have a bit of cheval-chevril, or whatever they call it-if it wasn't for that oily fat. But we might as well peep in that crack. Perhaps there's a cavern."

"Not to-day, Bob. It's close upon mess-time."

"Hark at him! Prefers food for the body to food for the mind. Very well. Go on; I'm at your heels."

They descended to the more level part of the granite-strewn eminence, acknowledged the salutes of the sentries they pa.s.sed, and soon after reached the mean-looking collection of tin houses that formed the village-though there was very little tin visible, the only portion being a barricade or two formed of biscuit-tins, which had been made bullet-proof in building up a wall by filling them with earth or sand. The tin houses, according to the popular term, were really the common grey corrugated iron so easily riveted or screwed together into a hut, and forming outer and part.i.tion walls, and fairly rain-proof roofing, but as ugly in appearance as hot beneath the torrid sun.

Groenfontein consisted of a group of this cla.s.s of house ranged about a wide market-square, while here and there outside were warehouses and sheds and a few farms.

Bob d.i.c.kenson said it was the ugliest and dirtiest place that ever called itself a town; and he was fairly right about the former. As to the latter, it might have been worse. Its greatest defect was the litter of old meat and other tins, while there were broken bottles enough to act as a defence when attacked by strangers.

The Boer inhabitants had for the most part fled; those who were left lived under the protection of the British force, which they preferred to being out on commando, using rifle, and risking their lives.

The empty houses left by the former inhabitants had at once been taken possession of for officers' and soldiers' quarters; the long warehouses and barns for stabling; and a big wool warehouse, happily containing many bales of wool, had been turned into mess and club room, the great bales making excellent couches, and others forming breastworks inside the windows and the big double doors.

Here the officers off duty lounged and rested, and here upon this particular night they were gathered round the social board to dine, each officer with his own servant; and it is worthy of remark that with officer and man, rifle, revolver, and sword were racked close at hand.

"Round the social board" is a most appropriate term, though not quite correct; for, while social in the highest degree, quite a brotherly spirit influencing the officers present, the board was really two, held together by a couple of cross-pieces and laid upon barrels, while the seats were of all kinds, from cartridge-boxes to up-ended flour-barrels, branded Na. and Pa. and Va., and various other contractions of long-sounding United States names, which indicated where the fine white flour they once contained had been grown and ground.

The mess cook had done the best he could, and provided some excellent bread, but it was rather short in quant.i.ty. As to the meat, it was hot; but there were no dish-covers, which Bob d.i.c.kenson said did not matter in the least, for during the past few weeks they had been careful to draw a veil over the food.

But of water, such as needed no filtering, there was ample, ready for quaffing out of tin mug, silver flask, cup, or horn.

"And the beauty of our tipple now is," said Bob, "that it never does a fellow the least harm."

It was a favourite remark of his, "an impromptu" that had been much admired. He made the remark again on this particular evening, but his tones sounded dismal.

"It's a great blessing, though," he added; "we might have none. Yes, capital water," he continued, draining his cup and setting it down with a rap on his part of the board. "Just think, Drew, old man, we might be forced to sit here drinking bad champagne."

"I don't want to drink bad or good champagne, old fellow," said Lennox; "but I do wish we had a barrel of good, honest, home-brewed British ale, with-"

"A brace of well-roasted pheasants between us two-eh?"

"No; I was going to say, a good crusty loaf and a cut off a fine old Stilton cheese."

"J-Ja!" sighed the next man.

"Never mind, gentlemen," said the colonel; "what we have will do to work upon. When we've done our work, and get back home, I'll be bound to say that John Bull will ask us to dinner oftener than will do us good. What do you say, doctor?"

"What do I say, Colonel Lindley?" cried the doctor, putting down his flask-cup. "I say this Spartan fare agrees with us all admirably. Look round the table, and see what splendid condition we are all in. A bit spare, but brown, wiry, and active as men can be. Never mind the food. You are all living a real life on the finest air I ever breathed. We are all pictures of health now; and where I have a wound to deal with it heals fast-a sure sign that the patient's flesh is in a perfect state."