The Kopje Garrison Part 38

"Got him?" shouted Roby.

"No!" came up in a despairing groan. "I'm on a dripping ledge. Lower me a few feet more till I call to you to stop."

The sergeant obeyed, and the call came directly after. For there was a splash and the lights disappeared-not extinguished, but they seemed to glide under a black projection that stood out plainly as a rugged edge against the light, which made the water flash and sparkle as it could be seen gliding swiftly by.

"Well?" shouted Roby again.

"Hold on with the rope," came up. "The water's close up to the foot of the lanterns. If you let it any lower they will go out."

"Right, sir," roared Sergeant James.

"Now," shouted Roby; "see him?"

"No; the water goes down here in a whirlpool, round and round, and I can feel it sucking at me to drag me below."

"Yes, sir; I can feel it along the rope. Look at my arms," growled the sergeant.

There was a quick glance directed at the sergeant, and those who were nearest could see that, while his arms jerked and kept giving a little, the rope was playing and quivering in the light.

"Can't you see anything?" cried Roby wildly.

"Place like a big well ground in the rock," came up in hollow tones; "the water all comes here, and goes down a great sink-hole. Shall I cut myself free and dive?"

"No!" came simultaneously, in a hoa.r.s.e yell, from a dozen throats.

"Madness!" shouted Roby. "Look round again; he may be clinging to the rocks somewhere."

d.i.c.kenson uttered a strange, mocking laugh, so loud and thrilling that it made his hearers shudder.

"There's nothing but this hole, smoothed round by the water. I can see all round."

"Yah!" roared the sergeant. "Haul!" For suddenly his arms received a heavy jerk which bent him nearly double, and the light which glowed down by the water disappeared; while, but for the rush made to get a grip at the rope by Roby and a couple more men, the sergeant would have gone down.

As it was, the sudden s.n.a.t.c.h made dragged him back; and then, without further order, the men hauled quickly and excitedly at the rope till d.i.c.kenson's strangely distorted face appeared in the light.

"Hold on!" shouted the sergeant, and stooping down, he got his hands well under his young officer's armpits, made a heave with all his strength, and jerked him out of the horrible pit on to the hard rock.

Roby had helped by seizing the sergeant and dragging him back as soon as he had a good hold, and it was his captain's eyes that d.i.c.kenson's first met in a wild, despairing look, before, dripping with water from the chest downwards and the lights both extinguished, he sank upon his knees and dropped his face into his hands, no one stirring or speaking in the few brief moments which followed, but all noticing that the poor fellow's chest was heaving and that a spasmodic sob escaped his lips.

The silence was broken by the sergeant, who stood rubbing his wet hands down the sides of his trousers.

"Thought I was gone too," he said huskily.

His words reached d.i.c.kenson's understanding, but not their full extent. His hands dropped to his lap, and he looked up, gazing round in a strangely bewildered way, his lower lip quivering, and his voice sounding pathetically apologetic.

"Yes," he said feebly, "I thought I was gone. The water seemed to rise up round me suddenly to s.n.a.t.c.h me down. I did all I could-all I could, Roby, but it seemed to make me as weak as a child. Look at that-look at that!" he groaned, holding out one arm, which shook as if with the palsy. Then clasping his hands together he let them drop, and gazed away before him into the darkness through the arch, and said, as if to himself, "I did all I could, Drew, old lad-I did all I could."

"d.i.c.kenson," whispered Roby, bending over him. "Come, come, pull yourself together. Be a man."

The poor fellow turned his head sharply, and gazed wildly into the speaker's eyes.

"Yes, yes," he said, and drawing a deep breath, he eagerly s.n.a.t.c.hed at the hand held out to him and stood up. "Bit of a shock to a fellow's nerves. I never felt like that when we went at the Boers. Thank you, sergeant. Thank you, my lads. I never felt like that."

"No," said the captain quickly. "It would have unmanned any one."

"Did me, sir," said Sergeant James. "And I never felt like that."

"Ha!" sighed d.i.c.kenson, giving himself a shake, and beginning to unbuckle his belt to get rid of the dripping lanterns. "I'm better now. Ought I to go down again, sir?"

"Go down again, man?" cried Roby. "Good heavens, no! It would be madness to send any one into that horrible pit.-Here, I had forgotten Corporal May. Where is he?"

"We laid him down in yonder, sir," said one of the men, indicating the interior of the cavern with a nod.

"Not dead?"

"No, sir, I don't think so," was the reply as the captain pa.s.sed through the archway, followed by the sergeant, who s.n.a.t.c.hed up a lantern; while d.i.c.kenson turned to the great pit, steadied himself by the tree-trunk which led up, and gazed into the black place.

"Poor old Drew!" he groaned softly. "If it had only been together-in some advance!"

And then, soldier-like, he drew himself up as if standing to attention, turned, and went to his duty again, walking pretty steadily after Roby to join them where the sergeant was down on one knee with his hand thrust inside the corporal's jacket.

"Heart's beating off and on, sir," growled James. "I don't think he's hurt. Seems to me like what the doctor called shock."

"Yes. What did he say?"

"I dunno, sir. Sort of queer stuff: sounded like foolishness. I'm afraid he's off his head.-Here, May-me, May, my lad. Hold up. You're all right now."

The man opened his eyes, stared at him wildly, and his lips quivered.

"What say?" he whispered.

"I say, hold up now."

"Hurts," moaned the poor fellow, beginning to rub his chest. "Have I been asleep?"

"I hope so, my lad," said Roby, "for you have been saved a good deal if you have."

"Ugh!" groaned the man, with a shiver. "Mind that light don't go out. Here," he cried fiercely, "what did you go and leave me for?"

"Who went away and left you?"

"I recklect now. It was horrid. I dursen't try and climb that tree again with the water all cissing up to get at me."

"What!" cried Roby sharply.

"It was when the orders were given to retire, sir. I kept letting first one chap go and then another till I was last, and then I stood at the bottom trying to make up my mind to follow, till the lights up atop seemed to go out all at once. Then I turned cold and sick and all faint-like, holding on by the tree, till there was a horrid rush and a splash as if something was coming up to get at me, and I couldn't help it-I turned and ran back through that archway place in the big hole, feeling sure that the water was coming to sweep me away. 'Fore I'd gone far in the black darkness I ketched my foot on a stone, pitched forward on to my head, and then I don't remember any more for ever so long. It was just as if some one had hit me over the head with the b.u.t.t of a rifle."

"Where's the lump, then, or the cut?" said Sergeant James sourly.