The Kopje Garrison Part 39

"Somewhere up atop there, sergeant. I dunno. Feel; I can't move my arms, they're so stiff."

The sergeant raised his lantern and pa.s.sed his hand over the man's head.

"Lump as big as half an egg there, sir," he said in a whisper.

"It's a bad cut, ain't it, sergeant?" said the corporal.

"No; big lump-bruise."

"Ah, I thought it was a cut; but I'd forgotten all about it when I come to again in the dark, and couldn't make it out. My head was all of a swim like, and I couldn't recklect anything about what had happened, nor make out where I was, only that I was in the dark. All I could understand was that my head was aching awful and swimming round and round, and I seemed to have been fast asleep for hours and hours, and that I had woke up. That was all."

"Well, go on," said the sergeant, in obedience to a hint from Roby.

"Yes, direckly," said the man. "I'm trying to think, but my head don't go right. It's just as if some sand had got into the works. Ah, it's coming now. It was like waking up and finding myself in the dark, and not knowing how I got there."

"Well, you said that before," said the sergeant gruffly.

"Did I, sergeant? Well, that's right; and I tried to get up, but I couldn't stand, my head swam so. Then I got on my hands and knees, and began to crawl to the ladder; and I went on and kept stopping on account of my head, till I knocked against my helmet and put it on, and began crawling again, thinking I must be where I'd lain down and gone to sleep. Then I went on again for ever so long till I could go no farther, for I was in a place where the rock came down over my head so that I could touch it; but it was all narrow-like, and I was so tired that I lay down, got out my pipe, lit up, and had a smoke."

"What next?" said the sergeant, exchanging glances with Roby and d.i.c.kenson, who were listening.

"That's all," said the man quietly. "So I'll just have a nap to set my head right. It's a touch of fever, I think."

"Stop a moment, my lad," said Roby. "Can't you recollect what came next?"

"No, sir," said the man drowsily. "Oh yes, I do. I know I began crawling again without my helmet after I'd smoked a pipe of tobacco-for the hard rim hurt my head-and went on and on for hours, till I thought I could hear water running; and then in a minute I was sure, and I made for it, for at that time I was so thirsty I'd have given anything for a drink to cool my hot, dry throat. Yes, it's all coming back now. I crept on till all at once the water falling sounded loud, and the next moment I was sinking down sidewise into a deep place where I was hanging across a stone to get at the water in the dark, and couldn't. It was just like a nightmare, sergeant, that it was, and I felt my head go down and my legs hanging till my back was ready to break, but I couldn't get away, and I lay and lay, till all at once I was s.n.a.t.c.hed up, and that hurt me so that I yelled for help, and then the nightmare seemed to be gone and I was lying all asleep like till I saw you and the captain; and here I am, somewhere, and that's all."

It was all, for the corporal swooned away, and had to be lifted and carried up.

"Poor fellow!" said Captain Roby; "he'll be better when we get him out into the open air. See to him, my lads. If he cannot walk you must carry him."

The men closed round the corporal, while the captain and d.i.c.kenson walked back to where a couple of the men, looking sallow and half-scared with their task, stood holding one of the lanterns at the month of the water-chasm.

"Heard anything?" said the captain, in a low tone of voice which sounded as if he dreaded to hear his own words.

"Nothing, sir," was the reply; "only the water rushing down."

"It seems to me,"-began the other, and then he paused.

"Yes: what? How does it seem to you?" asked the captain.

"Well, sir, as we stand listening here it sounds as if the hole down there gets choked every now and then with too much water, and then the place fills up more, and goes off again with a rush."

The captain made no reply, but stood with d.i.c.kenson gazing down into the chasm till there was a difference in the sound of its running out, when the latter caught at his companion, gripping his arm excitedly.

"Yes," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely; "that's how it went while I was down there. Oh Roby! can't we do anything more?"

The captain was silent for some little time, and then he half-dragged his companion to the rough ladder.

"Come up," he said; "you know we can do no more by stopping thinking till one is almost wild with horror. Here, go up first."

It was like a sharp order, but d.i.c.kenson felt that it came from his officer's heart, and, with a shiver as much of horror as of cold from his drenched and clinging garments, he climbed to the next level and stood feeling half-stunned, and waiting while the sergeant climbed up and joined them with some rings of the rope upon his arm.

"May's going to try and climb up by himself, sir," said the sergeant in a low voice, "but I've made the rope fast round him to hold on by in case he slips. We don't want another accident."

The sight of the rope, and the sergeant's words, stirred d.i.c.kenson into speaking again.

"James," he said huskily, "don't you think something more might be done by one of us going down to the water again?"

"No, sir," replied the sergeant solemnly; "nothing, or I'd have been begging the captain to let me have another try long enough ago."

"Yes, of course, of course," said d.i.c.kenson warmly. "How are we to tell the colonel what has happened?"

The young officer relapsed into a dull, heavy fit of thinking, in which he saw, as if he were in a dream, the corporal helped out of the pit by means of the rope, and then go feebly along the cavern, to break down about half-way, when four men in two pairs crossed their wrists and, keeping step, bore him, lying horizontally, to the next ladder, up which he was a.s.sisted, after which he was borne once again by four more of the men; and as Drew's comrade came last with the captain, the procession made him nearly break down with misery and despair.

For, what with the slow, regular pacing, the lights carried in front, and the appearance of the man being carried, there was a horrible suggestion in it all of a military funeral, and for the time being it seemed to him that they had recovered his comrade and were carrying him out to his grave.

Chapter Nineteen.

Not dead yet.

The entrance at last, with the glorious light of the sun shining in, man after man drawing a heavy sighing breath of relief; and as they gathered outside on the shelf where the sentries were awaiting their coming, it seemed to every one there that for a few moments the world had never looked so bright and beautiful. Then down came the mental cloud of thought upon all, and they formed up solemnly, ready to march down.

"Well, Corporal May," said the captain, "do you think you can walk?"

"Yes, sir," replied the man. "My head's thick and confused-like, but every mouthful of this air I swallow seems to be pulling me round. I can walk, sir, but I may have to fall out and come slowly."

"Yes, yes, of course," said the captain, with whom the corporal had always been a petted favourite. "Don't hurry, my lad.-Sergeant, you and another man fall out too, if it is more than he can manage."

Then turning to the rest of the party, the captain glanced along the rank at the saddened faces which showed how great a favourite the young lieutenant had been, and something like a feeling of jealousy flashed through him as he began to think how it would have been if he had been the missing man. But the ungenerous thought died out as quickly as it had arisen, and he marched on with the men slowly, so as to make it easier for the corporal, till half the slope of the kopje had been zigzagged down, when he called a halt.

"Sit or lie about in the sunshine for ten minutes, my lads," he said, and the men gladly obeyed, dropping on the hot stones and tufts of brush, to begin talking together in a low voice, as they let their eyes wander over the prospect around, now looking, by contrast with the black horror through which they had pa.s.sed, as if no more beautiful scene had ever met their eyes.

"How are you, d.i.c.kenson?" said the captain after they had sat together for a few minutes, drinking in the sunlight and air.

The young lieutenant started and looked at him strangely for a few moments before he spoke with a curious catch in his voice.

"Is it all true?" he said.

The captain's lips parted, but no words came; he only bowed his head slowly, and once more there was silence, till it was broken by d.i.c.kenson.

"Poor old Drew!" he said softly. "Well, I hope when my time comes I shall die in the same way."

"What!" cried the captain, with a look of horror which brought a grim smile to the subaltern's quivering lip.

"I did not mean that," he said sadly; "by a bullet, I hope, but doing what poor old Drew was doing-saving another man's life."