The Kopje Garrison Part 56

"Ah! you'll alter your tone when I've reported you."

"Look here, corp'ral; it strikes me that, with the row that's coming on about you and the captain charging the officers with being cowards, there's going to be such a shine and court-martial that you'll have your work cut out to take care of yourself. Here, put your arm over my shoulder, and up you come."

"Eh?" said the corporal in a much more natural tone.

"Eh-what?"

"About the court-martial?"

"Oh, I don't know. I only said what I thought," said the orderly, winking to himself. "Now then, up you come. Mind the water."

He supported the corporal gently enough, and helped him to raise the water to his lips, watching him as he drained it, and then lowered him gently down and knelt, still looking at him, till the corporal gazed back at him wonderingly.

"What are you staring at?" he said sharply.

"You, old man."

"Why?"

"I was thinking. Your knocks have made you quite off your head."

"That they haven't. I'm as clear over everything as you are."

"Oh no," said the orderly. "You're quite off your chump, and don't know what you're saying."

"You're a fool," said the corporal angrily.

"Tell me something I don't know, old chap. Fool? Why, of course I was, to 'list and come out for a holiday like this. Oh yes, plenty of us feels what fools we've been; but we're making the best of it-like men. D'yer hear-like men? I say, the captain's regularly raving, ain't he?"

"Well, er-yes-no."

"Oh, he is; and you'd better own up and be cracked too. You don't know what you've been saying about Mr Lennox."

The corporal hesitated, looking up in the orderly's eyes curiously, and seeming as if he was thinking deeply of the man's words and debating in himself about the position he was going to occupy if an inquiry did follow the captain's charges. He was not long in deciding, but he forgot to whine as he said, "Off my head? Delirious? Not a bit. I saw all the captain said, and I'm as clear as you are. I shall stick to it. There's nothing like the truth."

"Oh yes, there is," said the orderly, chuckling; "a thoroughly good thumping lie's wonderfully like it sometimes-so much like it that it puzzles people to tell t'other from which."

"Look here, orderly; do you mean to tell me I'm a liar?" said the corporal angrily.

"Not I. 'Tain't no business of mine; only it strikes me that there's going to be a regular row about this. People as go righting don't like to be called cowards. It hurts anybody, but when it comes to be said of a soldier it's like skinning him. There, I must go and wet the captain's lint."

Saying which, the orderly rose and went to captain Roby's side to moisten the hot bandages, so that their rapid evaporation might produce a feeling of coolness to his fevered head.

Chapter Twenty Eight.

A Find.

d.i.c.kenson walked frowning away from the hospital hut, thinking of the manner in which Roby had shifted the charge of cowardice from his shoulders to Lennox's, and a sigh of misery escaped from his breast as he made for the side of the bubbling stream.

"Poor fellow!" he said to himself. "I'm afraid that he's where being called coward or brave man won't affect him."

He reached the beautiful, clear stream, lay down and drank like some wild animal, and then began bathing his temples, the water setting him thinking of Lennox's adventures by its source, and clearing his head so much that when he rose at last and began to walk back to his quarters he felt wonderfully refreshed.

This state of feeling increased to such a degree that when he once more lay down after taking off his hot jacket, the heat from the roof, the buzzing of the flies, and the noises out in the village square mingled together into a whole that seemed slumber-inviting, and in less than ten minutes he was plunged in a deep, heavy, restful sleep, which seemed to him to have lasted about a quarter of a hour, when he was touched upon the shoulder by a firm hand, and sprang up to gaze at the light of a lantern and at nothing else.

"Close upon starting-time, sir," said the sergeant out of the darkness behind the lamp.

For a few moments d.i.c.kenson was silent, and the sergeant spoke again.

"Time to rouse up, sir."

"Yes, of course," said the young officer, getting slowly upon his feet, and having hard work to suppress a groan.

"Bit stiff, sir?"

"Yes; arm and back. I can hardly move. But it will soon go off."

"Oh yes, sir. It was that big stone nipping you after the blow-up."

"I expect so," said d.i.c.kenson, struggling into his jacket. "Ha! It's getting better already. Where are the ponies?"

"Round by the tethering-line, sir; but you've got to have a bit of supper first."

"Oh, I want no supper. I've no appet.i.te now."

"Armoured train won't work, sir, without filling up the furnace," said the sergeant sternly; "and the ponies are not quite ready."

"You promised to have them ready, sergeant."

"So I did, sir; but we want all we can out of them to-night. We may have to ride for our lives; so I managed to beg a feed of mealies apiece for them. There's a snack of hot meat ready in the mess hut, sir, and the colonel would like to see you before you start."

"Yes," said d.i.c.kenson, finishing buckling on his sword, and slipping the lanyard cord of his revolver about his neck.

He hurried then to the mess-room, where a piece of well-broiled steak, freshly cut from one of the oxen, was brought by the cook, emitting an aroma agreeable enough; but it did not tempt the young officer, whose one idea was to mount and ride away for the kopje. Certainly it was not only like fresh meat-very tough-but it possessed the toughness of years piled-up by an ox whose life had been pa.s.sed helping to drag a tow-rope on trek. So half of it was left, and the young man sought the colonel's quarters.

"Ha!" he said. "Ready to start, then?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I must leave all to your discretion, d.i.c.kenson," he said. "Recollect you promised me that if there was any sign of the kopje being still occupied you would stop at once and return."

"Yes; I have not forgotten, sir."

"That's enough, then. Keep your eyes well open for danger. I'd give anything to recover Lennox, but I cannot afford to give the lives of more of my men."

d.i.c.kenson frowned.