Fix Bay'nets Part 50

"But no one shakes a hand with me," said Gedge sadly to himself; and then, "Well, I'm blessed!"

For Sergeant Gee was on one side of him to lay a hand upon his shoulder.

"Good-bye, Gedge," he said in his harsh, uncompromising way; "you'll stick to your officer like a brave lad, I know."

"Thank ye, Sergeant; and same to you," growled Gedge; and then the tears stood in his eyes, for Mrs Gee had hold of his unoccupied hand, to press it hard, with a grip, in fact, like a man's.

"Here," she said, taking a small, flat, black packet from her breast, and Gedge saw that it was envelope-shaped, but home-made in oil-skin, and instead of being adhesive; there was a neat b.u.t.ton and b.u.t.tonhole.

"Put that in your breast-pocket, my boy," she said, "and never part with it. Bandages, oiled silk, needles and thread, and a pair o' scissors.

And mind this: plug a bullet-hole directly; and whatever you do, clean water, and lots of it, for all wounds."

"Thank ye, missus."

"For you and Mr Bracy too. There, Bill Gedge, you're a brave lad, and I'll kiss you for your mother's sake, in case you don't come back; and if ever I return to England I'll write and tell the Queen how her brave boys are always ready to do or die, though I know she won't get my letter if I do."

The men nearly disobeyed orders when Mrs Gee took hold of Gedge by his woolly _poshtin_ and gave him a sounding kiss first on one cheek and then on the other, but they forbore; and the brave lad's eyes very nearly brimmed over the next moment, for, leaving Bracy, now on his way to the gate, the officers' ladies crowded round Gedge and shook hands, two dying to thrust upon him packages of what would have been luxuries to them in nights to come; but he was obliged to shake his head, for he was already laden to the fullest extent.

"Now, Gedge!" came from the gate, and the next minute it had been opened and closed after two bulky, stooping figures, who, with rifles at the trail, started off in Indian file along the track by the river-side, making for the upper portion of the valley, but without uttering a word.

Their ears were listening, though, to the sounds of firing in the distance, the reports of many pieces coming reverberating out of the chasm-like rift leading south. Their eyes, too, were as much upon the alert as those of some timid animal whose life depends upon its watchfulness from day to day, existing, as it does, in the midst of numberless enemies, who look upon it as their natural prey.

But though their rolling eyes scanned every spot familiar, from long experience, as the lurking-place; of an enemy, there was not a glimpse of a white coat nor the gleam of a polished weapon to be seen. At the same time, careful watch was kept upon the track they traversed every time it opened out sufficiently for a forward glance of any extent, and the heavy, matter-of-fact, hill-country-looking pair had nearly reached a spot from whence a good view of the fort could be obtained before a word was spoken.

Then the silence was broken by Bracy, who said abruptly:

"Don't look back, my lad."

"No, sir," came promptly from the front.

"Our lookout is forward from this hour till the time we bring back help to those we leave behind."

Gedge was silent, and kept on the watch, as, with rounded shoulders and camelled back, he planted his puttee-bandaged legs in the safest parts of the rugged track.

"Well, don't you want to know where we're going?"

"Yus, sir; 'orrid."

"Over the mountains to bring back a Ghoorka regiment, my lad."

"Right, sir."

"And by the hardest way we can find."

"Something like them ways over the snow, like you goes for the bears and sheep, sir?"

"Yes: and harder ways still, Gedge: for to meet any of the people may mean--"

Bracy paused, and Gedge waited for him to end his sentence. But he waited in vain, till he was tired, and then finished it to himself, and in the way he liked best.

"May mean," he said, and then paused--"having to put bullets through some o' these savage savages, for I'm blest if I'm going to let 'em have the first shot at us. Yes," he added, "savages; that's what's about their size. I never see such beasts. Yes, that's what they are--wild beasts. I don't call such things men. The best of it is, they thinks they're so precious religious, and sticks theirselves up to pray every morning and every night, I'm blest!--praying!--and often as not with their knives and swords! Ugh! and phew! My word! it's warm walking in these here coats. Wish I hadn't got mine."

Is thought electric, or magnetic, or telepathic, or scientific, some way or another, that so often it is communicated from one person to another free of cost, and without a form, or boy to leave it, and wait for an answer? Certainly it was in that, clear mountain air, which blew softly among the cedars in the valley, coming off the clear ice and dazzling snow from one side, getting warmed in hot sunshine, and then rising up the mighty slopes on the other side, to grow from pure transparency, in its vast distance and extent, to be of a wonderfully delicious amethystine blue.

Anyhow, Gedge had no sooner given himself his opinions about the heat engendered by walking in a thick, sheepskin coat than Bracy said:

"Find the _poshtin_ hot, Gedge?"

"'Ot ain't the word for it, sir," was the reply. "I ain't quite sure whether it's me, or whether they didn't sc.r.a.pe the fat off proper when they tanned the skin, sir; but something's running."

"Steady down, then. It is very warm here among the cedars; but they hide us from the enemy, my lad. As soon as we begin to climb we shall be getting out of summer into winter; and by the time it's dark, and we lie down to sleep, we shall think it would be pleasanter if we had two apiece."

"Shall us, sir? Well, you know, sir; but all this caps me. Here we are, as you say, in summer, and we've on'y got to climb up one o' them mountains and there we are in winter. They say it freezes there every night."

"Quite right, Gedge."

"But all the snow melts away some time in the year?"

"Never, my lad. Up there before you, where the sun shines on those glorious peaks, it is eternal winter, only that there is so much melting in the hottest parts of the day."

"To make the rivers, sir?"

"Of course!"

"And the rain helps when they're all in the clouds up there, I suppose, sir?"

"Rain!" said Bracy, laughing; "there is no rain there, my lad; when the clouds discharge their burden it is in the form of snow. But now, silence once more. The less we talk the better till we are among the snow, for at any moment we may be walking into a trap."

"Like we did, sir, when you three gentlemen come and whistled us from the side o' them falls?"

"Yes."

"Well, we don't want none o' that sort o' thing, sir, or we shall never be bringing that ridgement back."

"Right. Now you see the necessity for taking to the snow where the hill-men rarely climb."

"Yus, sir, going; but what about coming back?"

"The same, or a nearer way."

"But with a ridgement, sir?"

"Oh yes; the Ghoorkhas will go anywhere if they are told."

"So'll us," said Gedge to himself; and then, with a word or two at times from behind, he trudged on and on towards the mighty snowfields, but ever with his eyes on the lookout for the danger--keen knife, tulwar, matchlock, ball, or spear--invisible so far, but which at any moment might be so near.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.