Cupid in Africa Part 24

All his hearers relaxed their faces likewise, blew their whistles, cried "Dismiss!" in the direction of their respective Native Officers, and removed their belts and tunics almost as quickly as they had removed their Stand-to faces.

They then proceeded to the Bristol Bar.

CHAPTER XVI _The Bristol Bar_

"Come along to the Bristol Bar and have a drink, Greene," said Cecil Clarence, _alias_ Gussie Augustus Gus, emerging from his _banda_, into which he had cast his tunic and Sam Browne belt.

"Thanks," replied Bertram, wondering if there were a Jungle Hotel within easy reach of the _boma_, or whether the outpost had its own Place, "licensed for the sale of beer, wine, spirits, and tobacco, to be consumed on the premises. . . ."

In the High Street, next door to the Officers' Mess, were two green tents, outside one of which stood a rough camp-table of the "folding"

variety, a native string bed, and a circle of Roorkee chairs, boxes and stools. On an erection of sticks and withes, resembling an umbrella stand, stood an orderly array of fresh coco-nuts, the tops of which had been sliced off to display the white interior with its pint or so of sweet, limpid milk.

Emerging from the tent, an Arab "boy" in a blue turban, blue jacket b.u.t.toning up to the chin, blue petticoat and puttees, placed bottles of various kinds on the table, together with a "sparklet" apparatus and a pannikin of water. The Bristol Bar was open. . . . From the other tent emerged an officer in the blue uniform of the little fair men.

He eyed the muddy ground, the ugly grey _bandas_ of withered gra.s.s and leaves, the muddy, naked Kavirondo-piling their loads on the commissariat dump, and the general dreary, cheerless scene, with the cold eye of extreme distaste and disfavour.

"_Yah_!" said he. He eyed the bottles on the table.

"_Ah_!" said he, and seated himself behind the Bristol Bar.

"Start with a Ver-Gin, I think, as I've been such a good boy to-day," he murmured, and, pouring a measure of Italian vermuth into an enamelled mug, he added a smaller allowance of gin.

"Wish some fool'd roll up so that I can get a drink," he grumbled, holding the mug in his hand.

It did not occur to him to "_faire Suisse_," as the French say-to drink alone. He must at least say "Chin-chin" or "Here's how" to somebody else with a drink in his hand. Had it been cocoa, now, or something of that sort, one might drink gallons of it without a word to a soul. One could lie in bed and wallow and soak, lap it up like a cat or take it in through the pores-but this little drop of alcohol must not be drunk without a witness and a formula. So Lieutenant Forbes possessed his soul in impatience.

A minute later, from every _banda_ and tent, from the Officers' Mess and from all directions, came British officers, bearing each man in his hands something to drink or something from which to drink.

The Major bore The Gla.s.s, and, behind him, the Mess butler carried a square bottle of ration whisky. He was followed by a Swahili clasping to his bosom a huge jar of ration rum, newly arrived. "Leesey" Lindsay, of the Intelligence Department, brought a collapsible silver cup, which, as he said, only wanted knowing. It leaked and it collapsed at inappropriate moments, but, on the other hand, it _did_ collapse, and you could put it in your pocket-where it collected tobacco dust, crumbs, fluff, and grit. Vereker carried a fresh coco-nut and half a coco-nut sh.e.l.l. This latter he was going to carve and polish. He said that coco-nut sh.e.l.ls carved beautifully and took a wonderful polish. . . .

His uncle, an admiral, had one which he brought from the South Sea Islands. It was beautifully carved and had taken a high polish-from someone or other. A cannibal chief had drunk human blood from it for years. . . . Vereker was going to drink whisky from his for years, and keep it all his life-carving and polishing it between whiles. . . .

"Yes. I used that as a drinking-cup all through my first campaign. It nearly fell on my head in the first battle I ever fought. Cut off the tree by a bullet. Carved and polished it myself," he would be able to say, in years to come. Meanwhile it looked a very ordinary half-sh.e.l.l of the common coco-nut of commerce as known to those who upon Saints' Days and Festivals do roll, bowl, or pitch. . . .

Captain Macke brought a prepared siphon of "sparklet" water and his ration whisky. Gussie Augustus Gus walked delicately, bearing a br.i.m.m.i.n.g condensed milk tin, and singing softly-

"Dear, sweet Mother, Kind and true; She's a boozer, Through and through . . . .

But roll your tail, And roll it high, And you'll be an angel By and by. . . ."

Lieutenant Bupendranath Chatterji brought a harsh laugh and an uncultivated taste, but a strong liking, for a.s.sorted liquors, preferably sweet. The officer who had been in command of the side of the fort occupied by the men in blue entered the tent and, having removed his belt, seated himself beside Lieutenant Forbes, behind the bar.

"Good evening, Major," said he; "won't you come and have a drink? . . .

Do!"

Regarding The Gla.s.s with a look of surprise, and as though wondering how the devil it came to be there, the Major considered the invitation.

"Thanks!" said he. "Don't mind if I _do_ sit down for a moment." And he placed The Gla.s.s upon the table. Strangely enough, his own Roorkee chair was already in the centre of the circle facing the said table, as it had been any evening at this time for the last fifty nights. The Mess butler put the rum and whisky beneath his chair. "Let me introduce Lieutenant Greene, attached to Ours. Wavell . . ." said he. . . . "Captain Wavell of Wavell's Arabs, Greene," and Bertram shook hands with a remarkable and romantic soldier of fortune, explorer and adventurous knight-errant, whom he came to like, respect, and admire with the greatest warmth. The others drifted up and dropped in, accidentally and casually, as it were, until almost all were there, and the Bristol Bar was full; the hour of the evening star and the evening drink had arrived; _l'heure d'absinthe_, _l'heure verte_ had struck; the sun was below the yard-arm; now the day was over, night was drawing nigh, shadows of the evening stole across the sky; and, war or no war, hunger, mud, disease and misery, or no hunger, mud, disease and misery, the British officer was going to have his evening c.o.c.ktail, his evening cheroot, and his evening "buck" at the club bar-and to the devil with all Huns who'd interfere with his sacred rights and their sacred rites.

"Here's the best, Major," said Forbes, and drank his ver-gin with gusto and appreciation. His very fine long-lashed eyes beneath faultlessly curving eyebrows-eyes which many a woman had enviously and regretfully considered to be criminally wasted on a mere man-viewed the grey prospect with less disgust. The first drink of the day provided the best minute of the day to this exile from the cream of the joys of Europe; and he eyed the array of bottles with something approaching optimism as he considered the question of what should be his drink for the evening.

"Cheerioh!" responded the Major, and took a pull at the whisky and slightly-aerated water in The Gla.s.s. "Here's to Good Count Zeppelin-our finest recruiting agent, and Grandpa Tirpitz-who'll bring America in on our side. . . ."

"What'll you drink, Greene?" asked Wavell. "Vermuth? Whisky? Rum?

Gin? Try an absinthe? Or can I mix you a Risky-rum and whisky, you know-or a Whum-whisky and rum, of course?"

"They're both helpful and cheering," added Forbes.

"Let me make you a c.o.c.k-eye," put in Gussie Augustus Gus. "Thing of my own. Much better than a mere c.o.c.ktail. Thought of it in bed last night while I was sayin' my prayers. This is one," and he raised his condensed milk tin. "Cross between milk-punch, c.o.c.ktail, high-ball, gin-sling, rum-shrub, and a bitters. . . . Go down to posterity as a 'Gussie'-along with the John Collins and Elsie May. . . . Great thought. . . . Let us pause before it. . . ."

"What's in it?" asked Captain Macke.

"Condensed milk," replied Augustus, "ration lime-juice, ration rum, ration whisky, medical-comfort brandy, vermuth, coco-nut milk, angostura, absinthe, glycerine. . . ."

"And a d.a.m.n great flying caterpillar," added the Major as a hideous insect, with a fat, soft body, splashed into the pleasing compound.

"Dirty dog!" grumbled Augustus, fishing for the creature. "Here, don't play submarines in the mud, Eustace-be a sport and swim. . . . I can drink down to him, anyhow," he added, failing to secure the enterprising little animal with a finger and thumb that groped short of the bottom stratum of his concoction. "Got his head stuck in the toffee-milk at the bottom." Bertram declined a "Gussie," feeling unworthy, also unable.

"Have you tried rum and coco-nut milk?" asked Wavell. "It's a kind of local industry since we've been here. The Intelligence Department keeps a Friendly Tribe at work bringing in fresh coco-nuts, and our numerous different detachments provide fatigue-parties in rotation to open them. . . .

Many a worse drink than half a tumbler of ration rum poured into the coco-nut. . . ."

"Point of fact-I'm a teetotaller just at present," replied Bertram, sadly but firmly. "May I subst.i.tute lime-juice for rum? . . ."

Vereker screwed in his monocle and regarded him. Not with astonishment or interest, of course, for nothing astonished or interested him any more. He was too young and wise for those emotions. But he regarded him.

"What a dreadful habit to contract at your age, Greene," observed Augustus, slightly shocked. "Y'ought to pull yourself together, y'know.

. . . Give it up. . . . Bad. . . . Bad. . ." and he shook his head.

"What's it feel like?" asked Captain Macke.

"You've been getting into bad company, my lad," said Major Mallery.

"Oah! Maan, maan! You must not do thatt!" said Mr. Chatterji.

"I've got some ration lime-juice here," said Wavell, "but I really don't advise it as a drink in this country. It's useful stuff to have about when you can't get vegetables of any sort-but I believe it thins your blood, gives you boils, and upsets your tummy. . . . Drop of rum or whisky in the evening . . . do you more good."

Bertram's heart warmed to the kindly friendliness of his voice and manner-the more because he felt that, like himself, this famous traveller and explorer was of a shy and diffident nature.

"Thanks. I'll take your advice then," he said, and reflected that what was good enough for Wavell was good enough for him, in view of the former's unique experience of African and Asiatic travel. "I'll try the rum and coco-nut milk if I may," he added.

"Three loud cheers!" remarked Augustus. "Won't mother be pleased! . . .

I'm going to write a book about it, Greene, if you don't mind. . . .

'The Redemption of Lieutenant Greene' or somethin'. . . . _You_ know-how on the Eve of Battle, in a blinding flash of self-illuminating introspection, he saw his soul for the Thing it was, saw just where he stood-on the brink of an Abyss. . . . And repented in time. . . .

Poignant. . . . Repented and drank rum. . . . Searching."

"Probably Greene's pulling our legs the whole time, my good a.s.s," put in Vereker. "Dare say he's really a frightful drunkard. Riotous reveller and wallowing wa.s.sailer. . . . He's got rather a wild eye. . . ."

Bertram laughed with the rest. It was impossible to take offence, for there was nothing in the slightest degree offensive about these pleasant, friendly people.