For Fortune and Glory Part 29

Marines and Highlanders fought back to back, and fought like bull-dogs.

So did the Arabs for that matter; they lay tumbled over in hundreds, but others came on over their bodies. Seventy English were killed in a few minutes. Fighting thus the Second Brigade, now no longer a square, was pushed back nearly half a mile.

But now the charging Arabs came under the fire of the First Brigade, the square on the right, up to which the enemy had not been able to penetrate. This was so well directed and murderous as to check the rear ma.s.ses of the Arabs, and the Second Brigade having only those in immediate contact to deal with, and relieved from the tremendous pressure, soon got on terms with their enemy again, shook them off, and recovered their lost formation.

The battle was restored; the retreat turned into an advance.

The Arabs, now driven back in turn, retired some distance and opened fire, which was not very effective. Indeed, in spite of it, the re- formed square, when it had recovered some hundred yards of its lost ground, was halted for a quarter of an hour for the purpose of serving out fresh ammunition, the men being exhorted not to waste it as they had done before. Desirous of retrieving their former error in this respect, they were as steady as veterans now, and advancing in line, firing deliberately and with careful aim, they cleared the ground in front, and fought back to the brink of the nullah where the enemy had broken their ranks, and re-captured the guns, the First Brigade moving up at the same time on their right. Savage with the idea that they had been forced to retire and leave their guns, though it was princ.i.p.ally the sheer weight of numbers that had done it, and burning with revenge, the men set their teeth and went down into the nullah, clearing all before them. The Arabs defended every bush, every rock, every boulder; but there was no wild firing now, at thirty, twenty, ten paces, and even closer; every bullet had its billet, and the valley was cleared of the living, though every point which afforded cover, and had been tenaciously held by Osman Digna's soldiers, had its groups of corpses behind it.

Officers were intoxicated with delight at the way their men behaved after their early discouragement.

"That's the way!"

"Let them have it!"

"Give it 'em hot, boys!"

"Good man, O'Grady; there's another for you!"

"That's your sort; never pull trigger till you can blow him to smithereens."

The advance of the line was not rapid, but it left nothing living behind it. Then the First Brigade under Redvers Buller went into and across the nullah, making for the second ridge held by the enemy some half mile off, still keeping the square formation. It was well that the distance to be traversed was so short, for it was now getting on for ten o'clock, and the power of the sun was intense. The ground, too, was covered with sharp rocks of red granite, and these had become so hot as to burn the feet. But what do brave men feel in the delirium of battle? When close to the foe a volley rang out, and then from every parched throat "Hurrah!" "Hurrah!" "Hurrah!" burst forth, as with levelled bayonets they rushed upon the broken ranks before them, and the ridge was carried.

There was a second beyond it, where the Arabs still lingered, and for that again they went. But the enemy, the fight at last taken out of them, made but a feeble stand, and it was carried at the first onset.

But what was that firing in their rear? Had a body of Soudanese lain concealed somewhere? Or had their dead come to life again? Neither.

One of the Gardner guns had been overturned into the limber containing its ammunition, and set fire to. This kept burning, hissing, and firing shots like a gigantic and malevolent cracker for a long time. But the Blue Jackets recovered the gun. When the victorious troops crowned the last ridge, the valley of Tamai lay below them, and there was spread the camp of Osman Digna, the object of their march, the prize for which they had been fighting. The enemy made no further attempt to defend it; they had proved to their cost that the Mahdi's a.s.surance that the infidel guns would "spit water" was a lie.

They were disheartened, beaten at all points, and hundreds of their best and bravest lay in heaps on the hills and in the valleys to feed the vultures and the jackals. It was no retreat such as they often made, stalking slowly and sullenly from the field where they had been foiled, but a disorderly flight, a rout.

The camp was left to the conquerors, with two standards, all their ammunition, tents, stores, and the spoils of former victories, and before noon the English, without fear of molestation, were slaking their thirst at the wells.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A SEARCH.

"May I go back to look for Strachan, sir, if you please?"

"Yes, Green," replied the colonel, "but take a file of men with you. I think there are none of these fellows left about, but some of the wounded may prove dangerous. Where did you last see him?"

"In the _melee_, sir, when the square was forced to retire. He was all right then."

"And did no one see him after that?"

"No one that I can hear of, sir."

"Ah, poor lad! Well, we must hope he will turn up alive. A good officer."

"Well, has the colonel given you leave to go?" asked Fitzgerald. "I knew he would, but Stacy did not care to take the responsibility, for fear anything should happen to you. You had better take a file of men of my company; they knew him best. I wish I could go, but I have too much to do. Of course, you will take a stretcher from the ambulance; it will be probably useful for some other fellow, if not for poor Tom."

Directly Green had turned from Fitzgerald, a sergeant brought a man up to him.

"James Gubbins wishes to speak to you, sir," he said, saluting.

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Gubbins when called upon to unfold his wishes, "but I heerd say as you was a-going back over them hills to look for Mr Strachan, sir."

"Yes, Gubbins, what then?" asked Green.

"Well, sir, might I ask to go too? He was very kind to me, and I was in his ker--ker--company, sir;" and the man's voice faltered.

"Yes, Gubbins," replied Green, who appreciated perhaps more than others the sentiment which animated the poor fellow, for he himself had been a bit of a b.u.t.t at first, and had been very grateful for Tom Strachan's friends.h.i.+p. "I am to take two men of Captain Fitzgerald's company, and you shall be one of them."

"Thank you kindly, sir."

"And pick another to go with him, will you, sergeant? A fellow with his wits about him, you know."

He did not add "to make up for poor Gubbins's deficiency in that respect," but that was what he meant, and so the sergeant understood him.

"Let me see," he said, on rejoining his company; "his servant would be the best man. Dodd! Has any one seen Dodd?"

"He was killed, sergeant, just when the gun was taken."

"Ah, yes, so he was. Who to send? No, Sims, my lad; it would not do to have both idiots."

"I saw Mr Strachan last, from all I can make out," said another man; "send me, sergeant."

"Ah, yes, Davis, you will do. Where was it though?"

"It was in the nullah, sergeant. One of the Johnnies got past my bayonet, and tried to wrestle, but I got my rifle at the port, and pushed it forward into his face, damaging the sights a little and knocking him down. And at that moment another of them jumped on my shoulders from a rock above, sending me sprawling on top of the chap I had just floored. I wriggled round and saw t'other with his spear up a couple of feet over my neck, when he tumbled over, and there was Mr Strachan, with his sword well into the Johnny's stomach. I jumped up, and had no time to thank him, or see where he went. We was too busy."

"All right, you go at once with Gubbins to Mr Green; he is speaking to the major, yonder. And hark! both of you. If you see an Arab lying like dead, with a weapon of any sort in his hand, run your bayonet through him first, and ask him if he is alive afterwards, for we have lost too many men as it is, and the duties will come heavy. Right-about turn; quick march!"

"Well, good luck go with you," Major Elmfoot was saying, as Green started. "But I fear that he must be dead, or the ambulance would have found him and brought him in."

"I wish they would not talk like that," thought Green, as he went off, followed by his two men. "Everybody speaks of poor Tom in the past tense, from the colonel to Gubbins. I won't believe that he is dead till I see it; as for the ambulance, they have had plenty of work, and might easily miss him, if he is senseless, and unable to call out."

He went round to the Field Hospital, where the surgeons were busy at work, and applied for a stretcher. But he was told it was unnecessary to take one, there were several about the fatal spot where the hard fighting had taken place, and two others which had just brought in their blood-stained burdens were going back presently.

So the three went on their way unenc.u.mbered.

It was perfectly calm and still; the sun was getting low in the west, but its rays, though not so scorching as at mid-day, were sickening, and productive of extreme la.s.situde. On the first low range of hills they crossed the bodies were not numerous, and down in the valley at the foot of them they only came upon one group. A knot of Arabs retreating to their last position had evidently been overtaken by a sh.e.l.l bursting in their midst, and their fearfully mangled bodies showed what modern science can effect when applied in earnest to the work of war. On the next ridge the Soudanese dead lay thicker; lying dotted about singly where the Martini-Henry bullets had stopped them, or strewed in rows like the corn sheaves where the reaping machine has pa.s.sed, as the Gatling guns, sweeping slowly from right to left, and pouring missiles with the regularity and continuous stream of a fire-engine, had mowed their ranks.

"I say, Gubbins," said Davis, "we fought fairly well to-day I reckon; but do you think we should have stood against such a fire as that?"

"Well, I don't know," replied Gubbins. "If there had been any cover near I, for one, should have felt uncommon inclined to make for it. I can't abide them sh.e.l.ls and machine-guns."

"No, it seems like fighting against lightning and thunderbolts, don't it?" said Davis.