Draw Swords! Part 36

"Thank you, my lad," he said gravely. "We must drop the boy now, d.i.c.k, and accept this big responsibility."

"We?" said d.i.c.k.

"Yes, _we_! I've got the burden of all this suddenly thrust upon my shoulders, and I feel that I must have help. Hulton will be fit for nothing this side of a month."

"Well, look at me with my responsibility. I never before felt so much like an impudent boy as I have done this last hour, playing surgeon with these wounded men."

"Not much play in it, d.i.c.k, lad," said Wyatt sadly. "Well, little un, we're in for it, and we've got it to do. I know you'll stand by me like a man."

"Yes, _like_ a man," said d.i.c.k, "but only as a boy."

"Never mind that. Now tell me--poor old Hulton will get better?"

"I think so; but he has a bad wound, and ought to have proper treatment."

"Don't worry about that, lad. You will be able to get bits of advice soon from Robson, and put them into practice. Then you've got nature to help you, and she's a grand nurse when her patients are healthy men, so don't let what you have to do worry you. Things will come right. Now I want to talk. I have seen the Rajah."

"Ah! what does he say?"

"All c.o.c.k-a-hoop. Ready to hug me. He says he never saw anything so grand as the way in which we pursued his enemies. It will be a lesson to the Rajah of Singh that he will never forget, he says."

"But we were beaten."

"Yes, he owns that; but, as he says justly, his enemies were four times as strong, and though he has lost some of his men, the enemy have done nothing. The city is safe, and strong enough to set Singh at defiance.

Hors.e.m.e.n are of no use against stone walls, and there is an abundance of stores and plenty of water, so that he has nothing to fear but treachery."

"Treachery?"

"Yes; he says he has so many people about him that he dare not trust.

Finally, he says he looks to us to keep him safe upon the throne."

"To us! The English--the Company?"

"No, to us--you and me."

d.i.c.k laughed.

"Ah, you may grin, my lad; but he means it. He told me he had taken a fancy to you."

"Means nothing," said d.i.c.k. "These Indians are all smiles and flattery."

"Some of them, but I don't think this Rajah is a humbug. He has seen a good deal of our people, and he is very downright. He told me he was sorry to hear that so brave an officer as Hulton was wounded, but that he did not take to him much, for he was too haughty and supercilious to him."

"Yes," said d.i.c.k thoughtfully, "Hulton was a bit stand-offish to him."

"Yes; that's his way, poor fellow. The Rajah said that though he was in trouble, and we belonged to the conquering race, he still felt that he was a king, and Hulton seemed to look down upon him."

"He said all that?"

"Every bit, in other words. And here's what I liked, d.i.c.k. He said all that he knew of me was from seeing me in the field with the men, but he felt that I was a brave English gentleman."

"Hear, hear! So you are."

"Don't be a fool, d.i.c.k," said Wyatt shortly; "this is serious."

"Well, I was never more serious in my life."

"Gammon! And he said that if I would stick to him--"

"That he didn't," said d.i.c.k. "Not an Eastern style of expression."

"Get out! You know what I mean--that if I'd stand by him well with the men, I should find him a very true friend."

"And what did you say?"

"Only that we were sent to do our duty, and that we'd stick to him like trumps."

"Did you explain to him what a trump was?" said d.i.c.k dryly.

"No, I didn't; but I shook hands as if I meant it; and he made a face, for I gave him a grip such as he isn't used to, for my paws are rather heavy, and he has a hand thin and soft as a girl's."

"Poor fellow!" said d.i.c.k. "I've felt that squeeze of yours. Regular walnut-crusher. Was that all?"

"No; I began to find fault with his majesty about what happened to-day, and pointed out what he ought to have done."

"How did he take it?"

"He smiled, and said I was quite right, but that out here they are not used to fighting like we do: that his men could tight like furies behind stone walls or in hand-to-hand lighting on horseback, but we had shown him to-day what might be done: and he ended by saying. 'Stand by me, and help me.'"

"And you?"

"Well, I said we would; but I don't like it, d.i.c.k."

"Why?"

"Because, as I've said before, we're out of place."

"We weren't this morning."

"No, not out on the plain, but towards the end; and if Mr Rajah Singer or Scorcher, or whatever his name is, had been a soldier, he'd have made a better dash at capturing our battery. Just now I feel ready to wish we were infantry officers, with five hundred bayonets at our backs.

What are we to do--use the guns from the walls?"

"No," said d.i.c.k with energy; "make sallies, and next time we go take rations for a day or two, so that we can hold out, and not be bound to retreat into the town."

"That isn't a boy talking, d.i.c.k," said Wyatt sharply as he clapped his companion on the shoulder. "You make me see daylight through the smoke.

I was quite disheartened at our being caged up here. Yes, we'll do something yet. Now then, have a look round at your patients, doctor, and then come with me."