The Kopje Garrison Part 43

"Then I'll try and make my meaning clear to your miserably weak comprehension, sir," cried d.i.c.kenson, with mock ferocity. "Here were you just taking a bit of a dive, and there were we, your friends, from the captain down to the latest-joined private, suffering-oh! I can't tell you what we suffered. I don't mean to say that Roby was breaking his heart because he thought there was an end of you; but poor old Sergeant James nearly went mad with despair, and the whole party was ready to plunge in after you so as to get drowned too."

"Did they take it like that, Bob?"

"Take it like that? Why, of course they did."

Lennox was silent for a few moments before he said softly, "And did poor old Bob d.i.c.kenson feel something like that?"

"Why, of course he did. Broke down and made a regular fool of himself, just like a great silly-looking girl-that is," he added hastily, "I mean, nearly-almost, you know."

"I'm very sorry, Bob," said Lennox gently, and his eyes looked large as he laid his hand upon his comrade's sleeve.

"Then you don't look it, sir. I say, don't you go and pitch such a lame tale as this into anybody else's ears. Here were we making a dead hero of you, and all the time-There, I've seen one of those little black and white Welsh birds-dippers, don't they call 'em?-do what you did, scores of times."

"In the dark, Bob?"

"Well-er-no-not in the dark, or of course I couldn't have seen it. There, that'll do. Talk about a set of fellows being sold by a lot of sentiment: we were that lot."

"The way of the world, Bob," said Lennox rather bitterly; "a fellow must die for people to find out that he's a bit of a hero. But please to recollect I did nothing; it was all accident."

"And an awfully bad accident too, old chap; only I don't see why the doctor need have prohibited your talking about the affair. We've all been thinking you went through untold horrors, when it was just nothing."

"Just nothing, Bob," said Lennox, looking at him with a wistful smile on his lip.

"Well, no; I won't say that, because of course it was as near as a toucher. For instance, the hole might have been too tight to let you through, and then-Ugh! Drew, old chap, don't let us talk about it any more. It's a hot day, and my face is wet with perspiration, but my spine feels as if it had turned to ice. Yes, it was as near as a toucher. I would rather drop into an ambush of the Boers a dozen times over than go through such a half-hour as that again."

Chapter Twenty One.

Preparations.

There was a splendid supply of corn in the great woven Kaffir baskets, and that and the captured flock of sheep did wonders; but there were many hungry mouths to feed, and the lookout was growing worse than ever. The Boers were fighting furiously all over the two states and keeping our men at bay, or else were flitting from place to place to be hunted down again, and keeping the British generals so busily at work that, though they tried hard, it was impossible to send help to the little detachment at Groenfontein, from which place they had received no news, neither were they able to get through a single despatch.

Many a long discussion took place amongst the soldiers about the state of affairs, in which Corporal May declared that it was a burning shame-that the generals only thought of saving their own skins, and didn't care a fig for the poor fellows on duty fighting for their lives.

Sergeant James was present, and he flushed up into a rage and bullied the corporal in the way that a sergeant can bully when he is put out. He told the corporal that he was a disgrace to the army; and he told the men that as long as a British officer could move to the help of his men who were in peril, he didn't care a snap of the fingers for his own life, but he moved.

Then it was the men's turn, and they spoke all together and as loudly as they could; but they only said one word, and that one word was "Hooray!" repeated a great many times over, with the result that Corporal May was fully of opinion that the men put more faith in the sergeant than they did in him, and, to use one of the men's expressions, "he sneaked off like a wet terrier with his tail between his legs."

Discussions took place also among the officers again and again after their miserable starvation mess, which was once more, in spite of all efforts to supplement it, reduced to a very low ebb. For the brave colonel was Spartan-like in his ways.

"I can't sit down to a better dinner than my brave lads are eating, gentlemen," he would say. "It's share and share alike with the Boers' hard knocks, so it's only fair that it should be the same with the good things of life."

"Yes, that's all very well, colonel," grumbled the major; "but where are those good things?"

"Ah, where are they?" said the colonel. "Never mind; we shall win yet. The Boers have done their worst to crack this hard nut, and we've kept them at bay, which is almost as good as a victory."

"But surely, sir," said Captain Roby impatiently, "help might have been sent to us before now. Has the general forgotten us?"

"No," said the colonel decisively. "I'm afraid that he has several detachments in the same condition as we are. That's why we do not get any help."

"Perhaps so, sir," said the captain bitterly; "but I'm getting very tired of this inaction."

"That sounds like a reproach to me, Roby," said the colonel gravely.

"Oh no, sir; I didn't mean that," said the captain.

"Your words expressed it sir. Come now, speak out. What would you do if you were in my place, with three strong commandos of the Boers forming a triangle with a kopje at each apex which they hold with guns?"

"I don't want to give an opinion, sir."

"But every one wishes that you should.-Eh, gentlemen?"

"Certainly," came in eager chorus.

"Well, if I must speak, I must, sir," said the captain, flushing.

"Yes, speak without fear or favour."

"Well, sir, all military history teaches us that generals with small armies, when surrounded by a greater force, have gained victories by attacking the enemy in detail."

"Yes, I see what you mean," said the colonel quietly. "You would have me attack and take first one kopje, then the second, and then the third?"

"Exactly, sir."

"Capital strategy, Mr Roby, if it could be done; but I cannot recall any case in which a general was situated as we are, with three very strong natural forts close at hand."

There was a murmur of a.s.sent, and d.i.c.kenson exchanged glances with Lennox, who was, with the exception of the scar on his forehead, none the worse for his terrible experience in the kopje cavern.

"You see, gentlemen," continued the colonel, who did not display the slightest resentment at Roby's remarks, "if the Boers were soldiers-men who could manoeuvre, attack, and carry entrenchments-they are so much stronger that they could have carried this place with ease. It would have meant severe loss, but in the end, if they had pushed matters to extremity, they must have won. As it is, they fight from cover-very easy work, when they have so many natural strongholds. I could take any of these; but while I was engaged with my men against one party, the other two would advance and take this place, with such stores as we have. Where should we be then?"

"Oh, but I'd leave half the men to defend the place, sir. Why, with a couple of companies, and a good time chosen for a surprise, I could take any of the enemy's laagers."

The colonel raised his eyebrows, and looked at the speaker curiously.

"You see, sir," continued Roby, speaking in a peculiarly excited way, "the men, as an Irishman would say, are spoiling for a fight, and we are getting weaker and weaker. In another fortnight we shall be quite helpless."

"I hope not, Mr Roby," said the colonel dryly. "Perhaps you would like to try some such experiment with a couple of companies?"

"I should, sir," cried the captain eagerly; and the other officers looked from one to the other wonderingly, and more wonderingly still when the colonel said calmly:

"Very well, Mr Roby. I will make my plans and observations as to which of the three laagers it would be more prudent to attack. If you do not succeed, you ought at least to be able to bring in some of the enemy's cattle."

That evening the colonel had a quiet council with the major, the latter being strongly opposed to the plan; but the colonel was firm.

"I do not expect much," he said, "but it will be reading the Boers a lesson, even if he fails, and do our men good, for all this inaction is telling upon them, as I have been noticing, to my sorrow, during the past three or four days. To be frank with you, Robson, I have been maturing something of the kind."

"But you will not give the command to Roby?" cried the major.