The Kopje Garrison Part 42

"Then I'm off."

"Why?"

"Because you were getting better, and now you are trying to make yourself worse."

"Oh no, I'm not; and you are not going. Talking to you about it acts like a safety-valve, too. There, it's of no use for you to try and stop me, Bob, for if you go I shall think all the more. I've been wanting to tell you all about it for days."

"But the doctor said I was not to encourage you to talk about the horror."

"Well, you are not encouraging me; you are flopping on me like a wet blanket. I say, it was horrible, wasn't it?"

"No," said d.i.c.kenson angrily; "but this is."

Lennox was silent for a few minutes, and he lay so quiet that d.i.c.kenson leaned forward to gaze at him earnestly, "All right, Bob. I'm here, and getting awfully strong compared with what I was a week ago. I shall get up and come out to-morrow."

"You won't. You're too weak yet."

"Oh no, I'm not. I shall be on duty in two or three days, and as soon as I'm well enough I want you and the sergeant to come with me to have another exploration with lanterns and a rope."

"There, I knew it. You're going off your head again."

"Not a bit of it."

"Then why can't you leave the wretched cave alone?"

"Because it interests me. I mean to go down again at the end of the rope."

"Bah! You're mad as a hatter. I knew you'd bring it on."

"There, it's of no use. I want to tell you all about it."

"If you think I'm going to stop here and listen to a long rigmarole about that dreadful hole, you're mistaken; so hold your tongue."

"There's no long rigmarole, Bob. You know how the corporal yelled out and clutched at me."

"No; I only guessed at something of the kind," replied d.i.c.kenson unwillingly. "We could not see much."

"Well, in his horror at finding himself lifted he completely upset me. It was all in a moment: I felt myself gliding over the slimy stone, and then I was plunged into deep water and drawn right down."

"But you struck out and tried to rise?" said d.i.c.kenson, overcome now by his natural eagerness to know how his comrade escaped.

"Struck out-tried to rise!" cried Lennox, with a bitter laugh. "I have some recollection of struggling in black strangling darkness for what seemed an age, the water thundering the while in my ears, before all was blank."

"But you were horror-stricken, and felt that you must go on fighting for your life?"

"No," said Lennox quietly. "I felt nothing till the darkness suddenly turned to bright sunshine, and I have some recollection of being driven against stones and tossed here and there, till I dragged myself out of a shallow place among the rocks and up amongst the green growth. Then a curious drowsy feeling came over me, and all was blank again. That's all."

"But weren't you in agony-in horrible fear?"

"Yes, when I felt myself falling and tried to save myself."

"I mean afterwards, when you were being forced through, that horrible pa.s.sage."

"What horrible pa.s.sage?" said Lennox, with a faint smile.

"What horrible pa.s.sage, man? Why, the tunnel, or channel, or whatever it is-the subterranean way of the stream under the kopje, in the bowels of the earth."

"I told you I was horrified for a moment, and then I was choking in the water, till all seemed blank, and then I appeared to wake in the hot sunshine, where I was knocked about till I crawled out on to the bank."

"But didn't you suffer dreadfully?"

"No."

"Didn't you think about England and home, and all that?"

"No," said Lennox quietly.

"Weren't you in fearful agony as you fought for your life?"

"Not the slightest; and I don't think I struggled much."

"Well, upon my word!" cried d.i.c.kenson in a tone of disgust. "I like this!"

"Do you, Bob? I didn't."

"You didn't? Look here, Drew, I'm disgusted with you."

"Why?" said Lennox, opening his eyes wider.

"Because you're a miserable impostor-a regular humbug."

"What! don't you believe I went through all that?"

"Oh yes, I believe you went through all the-all the-all the hole; but there don't seem to have been anything else."

"Why, what else did you expect, old fellow?"

"What I've been asking you-pains and agonies and frightful sufferings and despairs, and that sort of thing; and there you were, pop down into the darkness, pop under the kopje, pop out into the sunshine, and pop-no, I mean, all over."

"Well, what would you have had me do? Stop underneath for a month?"

"No, of course not; but, hang it all! if it hadn't been that you got that cut on your forehead and a few scratches and chips, it was no worse than taking a dive."

"Not much," said Lennox, looking amused.

"Well, I really call it disgusting-a miserable imposition upon your friends."

"Why, Bob, you are talking in riddles, old fellow, or else my head's so weak still that I can't quite follow you."