Fix Bay'nets: The Regiment in the Hills. Fenn George Manville
and gazing through it intently.
“See a bear on one of the hills?” said Drummond sharply.
“No; I was watching that fir-wood right away there in the hollow. Are they patches of snow I can see in there among the trees?”
“Where – where?” cried Drummond excitedly.
“Come and look. The glass is set right, and you can see the exact spot without touching it.”
Bracy made way, and Roberts stepped to the other side of the tower and looked over the wide interval to where their visitors of the morning were forming a kind of camp, as if they meant to stay.
“Phee-ew!”
Drummond gave a long, low whistle.
“Snow?” said Bracy.
“No snow there; at this time of year. That’s where some of the enemy are, then – some of those who disappeared so suddenly yesterday. Those are their white gowns you can see, and there’s a tremendous nest of them.”
“Enemies of our visitors this morning?”
“They said so,” replied Drummond, with a mocking laugh; “but it seems rather rum for them to come and camp so near one another, and neither party to know. Doesn’t it to you?”
“Exactly,” cried Bracy. “They would be sure to be aware, of course.”
“Yes, of course. What idiots they must think us! I’d bet a penny that if we sent out scouts they’d find some more of the beauties creeping down the valleys. Well, it’s a great comfort to know that this lot on the slope here are friends.”
“Which you mean to be sarcastic?” said Bracy.
“Which I just do. I say, I’m glad I brought you up here, and that you spied out that party yonder. Come away down, and let’s tell the Colonel. He’ll alter his opinion then.”
“And send out a few scouts?” said Bracy.
Drummond shook his head.
“Doesn’t do to send out scouts here.”
“Why?”
“They don’t come back again.”
“Get picked off?”
“Yes – by the beggars who lie about among the stones. We have to make sallies in force when we go from behind these walls. But, I say, you two haven’t had much fighting, I suppose?”
“None, till the bit of a brush as we came here.”
“Like it?”
“Don’t know,” said Bracy. “It’s very exciting.”
“Oh, yes, it’s exciting enough. We’ve had it pretty warm here, I can tell you. I begin to like it now.”
“You do?”
“Yes; when I get warm. Not at first, because one’s always thinking about whether the next bullet will hit you – ’specially when the poor fellows get dropping about you; but you soon get warm. It makes you savage to see men you know going down without being able to get a shot in return. Then you’re all right. You like it then.”
“Humph!” ejaculated Bracy, and his brow wrinkled. “But had we not better go down and give the alarm?”
“Plenty of time. No need to hurry. They’re not going to attack; only lying up waiting to see if those beggars who came this morning can do anything by scheming. I fancy they’re getting a bit short of lead, for we’ve had all kinds of rubbish shot into the fort here – bits of iron, nails, stones, and broken bits of pot. We’ve seen them, too, hunting about among the rocks for our spent bullets. You’ll find them very nice sort of fellows, ready to shoot at you with something from a distance to give you a wound that won’t heal, and cut at you when they can come to close quarters with tulwars and knives that are sharp as razors. They will heal, for, as our doctor says, they are beautiful clean cuts that close well. Never saw the beauty of them, though. He’s almost as bad as your old chap for that.”
“But we had better go down and give the alarm,” said Bracy anxiously.
“None to give,” said Drummond coolly. “It’s only a bit of news, and that’s how it will be taken. Nothing to be done, but perhaps double the sentries in the weak places. Not that they’re very weak, or we shouldn’t have been hen; when you came.”
“Well, I shall feel more comfortable when my Colonel knows – eh, Roberts?”
“Yes,” said the latter, who had stood frowning and listening; “and I don’t think he will be for sitting down so quietly as your old man.”
“Not yet. Be for turning some of them out.”
“Of course.”
“Very spirited and nice; but it means losing men, and the beggars come back again. We used to do a lot of that sort of thing, but of late the policy has been to do nothing unless they attacked, and then to give them all we knew. Pays best.”
“I don’t know,” said Roberts as they were descending fast; “it can’t make any impression upon the enemy.”
“Shows them that the English have come to stay,” interposed Bracy.
“Yes, perhaps; but they may read it that we are afraid of them on seeing us keep behind walls.”
A minute or two later the news was borne to headquarters, where the two Colonels were in eager conference, and upon hearing it Colonel Graves leaped up and turned to his senior as if expecting immediate orders for action; but his colleague’s face wrinkled a little more, and he said quietly:
“Then that visit was a mere ruse to put us off our guard and give them an opportunity for meeting the fresh odds with which they have to contend.”
“Of course it was,” said Colonel Graves firmly.
“Well, there is nothing to be alarmed about; they will do nothing till they have waited to see whether we accept the offer of admitting as friends a couple of hundred Ghazees within the gates. – Thank you, gentlemen, for your information. There is no cause for alarm.”
The young officers left their two seniors together, and as soon as they were alone Drummond frowned.
“Poor old Colonel!” he said sadly; “he has been getting weaker for days past, and your coming has finished him up. Don’t you see?”
“No,” said Bracy sharply. “What do you mean?”
“He has Colonel Graves to lean on now, and trust to save the ladies and the place. I shouldn’t be surprised to see him give up altogether and put himself in the doctor’s hands. Well, you fellows will help us to do the work?”
“Yes,” said Bracy quickly, “come what may.”
“We’re going to learn the art of war in earnest now, old chap,” said Roberts as soon as they were alone again.
“Seems like it.”
“Yes. I wonder whether we shall take it as coolly as this young Drummond.”
“I wonder,” said Bracy; “he’s an odd fish.”
“But I think I like him,” said Roberts.
“Like him?” replied Bracy. “I’m sure I do.”
Chapter Nine
Warm Corners and Cold
It was a glorious day, with the air so bright, elastic, and inspiriting that the young officers of the garrison felt their position irksome in the extreme. For the Colonel’s orders were stringent. The limits allowed to officer or man outside the walls were very narrow, and all the time hill, mountain, forest, and valley were wooing them to come and investigate their depths.
It was afternoon when Roberts, Bracy, and Drummond, being off duty, had strolled for a short distance along the farther side of the main stream, and paused at last in a lovely spot where a side gorge came down from the hills,