The Kopje Garrison Part 70

"Sneer away, my fine fellow; but though it's precious unpleasant, fasting does no man any harm. Now, look here, sir; if we were in barracks at home you fellows would be indulging in mess dinners and wines and cigars, and sodas and brandies, and some of you in liqueurs, and you wouldn't be half so well, not in half such good training, as you are now."

"The doctor hates a good cigar, Drew, and loathes wine," said d.i.c.kenson sarcastically.

"No, he doesn't, boys; the doctor's as weak as most men are when they have plenty of good things before them. But my theory's right. Now, look at the men. Poor fellows! they've had a hard time of it; but look at them when they are wounded. I tell you, sir, that I open my eyes widely and stare at the cures I make of awful wounds. I might think it was all due to my professional experience, but I'm not such an idiot. It's all due to the healthy state the men are in, and the glorious climate."

"And what about the fever, doctor?" said Lennox.

"Ah, that's another thing, my dear boy. When the poor fellows are shut up in a horribly crowded, unhealthy camp, and are forced to drink water that is nothing less than poisonous, they go down fast. So they would anywhere. But see how we've got on here-the camp kept clean, and an abundant supply of delicious water bubbling out of that kopje. Then-Bless my heart! I forbade talking, and here I am giving you fellows a lecture on hygiene.-Come along with me, d.i.c.kenson.-You, Lennox, go to sleep if you can. No more talking to-day."

The doctor literally drove d.i.c.kenson before him, and hooked him by the arm as soon as they were outside.

"I'm very glad we settled for that idea of mine to be private, d.i.c.kenson, my dear boy. But it did look horribly like it."

"Perhaps," said the young man. "But you give it up now?"

"Certainly," said the doctor.

"And you give up the idea too about his running away?"

"Of course."

"Then the sooner you give Roby something that will bring him to his senses the better."

"I wish I could; but the poor fellow seems to have got it stamped into his brain."

"Yes; and the worst of it is he doesn't talk like a man touched in the head."

"No, he does not; though he is, without doubt."

"Can't you talk quietly to the chief? There's he and the major and Edwards take it all as a matter of course. They don't give poor old Drew the credit for all that he has done since we were here, but believe all the evil. It's abominable."

"Esprit de corps, d.i.c.kenson, my lad."

"Yes, that's all right enough; but they turn silent and cold as soon as the poor fellow's name is mentioned; while that isn't the worst of it."

"What is, then?" said the doctor.

"The men sing the tune their officers have pitched, and that miserable sneak, Corporal May, sings chorus. Oh! it's bad, sir; bad. Fancy: there was the poor fellow knocked over when trying to save his captain's life, and the man he helped to save turns upon him like this."

"Yes, it is bad," said the doctor; "but, like many more bad things, it dies out."

"What! the credit of being a coward, doctor? No; it grows. Ur-r-r!" growled the speaker. "I should like to ram all that Corporal May has said down his throat. He'd find it nastier physic than any you ever gave him, doctor. I say, I'm not a vindictive fellow, but when I keep hearing these things about a man I like, it makes me boil. Do you think there's any chance of the corporal getting worse?"

"No," said the doctor sternly; "he hasn't much the matter with him, only a few bruises. But if he did die it would be worse still for poor Lennox."

"No! How?"

"Because he'd leave the poison behind him. There, I'll do all I can with the colonel; but all the officers believe Roby, and that Lennox was seized with a fit of panic. There's only one way for him to clear it away."

"Exchange? How can he?"

"Exchange? Nonsense! Get strong, return to his company, and show every one that he is not the coward they think."

"There's something in that, certainly," said d.i.c.kenson sadly; "but he'll want opportunities. Suppose he had the chance to save the major's life; how do we know that he too wouldn't set it about that Lennox was more cowardly still? Saving lives doesn't seem to pay."

"Nonsense, my lad! You're speaking bitterly now."

"Enough to make me, sir. It isn't only Roby; Lennox saved Corporal May as well."

"Never mind that. You tell Lennox to try again. Third time, they say, never fails."

"Humph!" said d.i.c.kenson. "Well, we shall see."

"Yes," said the doctor; "we shall see."

Chapter Thirty Four.

The Mud that Stuck.

"It's a bad business, Mr Lennox," said the colonel sternly, some weeks later, when matters looked very dreary again in the camp, for the supplies of provisions had once more begun to grow very short, and the constant strain of petty attacks had affected officers and men to a degree that made them morose and bitter in the extreme.

"But surely, sir, you don't believe this of me?" said Lennox, flushing.

"As a man, no, Mr Lennox; but as your commanding officer I am placed in a very awkward position. The captain of your company makes the most terrible charge against you that could be made against a young officer."

"But under what circ.u.mstances? He was suffering from a serious injury to the head; he was delirious at the time."

"But he is not delirious now, Mr Lennox, and that which he accused you of in a state of wild frenzy he maintains, now that he is recovering fast, in cold blood."

"Yes, sir; it seems cold-blooded enough after what I did for him."

"Unfortunately he maintains that this is all an invention on your part."

"And my being dragged away for some distance by one of the Boers, sir?"

"Yes; he declares that he was not insensible for some time after his hurt, and that had what you say occurred he must have seen it."

"Then it is his word against mine, sir?" said Lennox.

"Unfortunately it is not, Lennox," said the colonel gravely. "If it were only that I should feel very differently situated. Your conduct during the war has been so gallant that, without the slightest hesitation, I should side with you and set down all that Captain Roby has said to a hallucination caused by the injury to his head. But, you see, there is the testimony of Corporal May, who declares that he witnessed your conduct-conduct which I feel bound to say seems, when weighed by your previous actions, perfectly inexplicable."

"Then I am to consider, sir, on the testimony of this man, that I am unworthy of holding a commission in Her Majesty's service?" said Lennox bitterly.

"Stop," said the colonel. "Don't be rash, and say things of which you may repent, Lennox."

"An innocent man defending himself against such a charge, sir, cannot always weigh his words. Look at my position, sir. I am fit now to return to my duty, and I find a marked coldness on the part of my brother officers and a peculiarity in the looks of the men which shows me plainly enough that they believe it true."