I could walk any distance to-day.”
“Well, be patient, old man,” said Roberts, laughing. “I dare say you’ll have a chance.”
“But what’s that you were saying about the enemy?”
“Why, every hill’s covered with them, and they evidently mean to attack.”
“Oh, very well,” said Bracy, beginning upon his breakfast; “then I suppose we must fight.”
There was a laugh behind him, a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and the young man looked up sharply, to see that the Colonel had come up silently over the thick carpet of cedar needles.
“Good-morning, sir.”
“Good-morning – all,” said the Colonel quietly. “All well?”
A chorus of assent ran round the group, and the Colonel continued:
“That’s the spirit to take it in, Bracy. Of course we must fight; and the sooner the scoundrels give us the chance the better – eh, Graham?”
“Yes; we’ve come to give them a lesson, and they’ll get it. We ought to reach the station by evening. The poor fellows there must be anxiously looking out for us.”
“Yes; I’ve sent three different messengers to say that we shall be there by night, and I hope one out of the three will get there with the news.”
“Then you mean to go on at once?”
“Of course. Did you think I meant to stay here?”
“I only thought it possible that, as this was a strong place, and we have plenty of provisions and good water, you might hold on and let them attack us.”
“Oh no,” replied the Colonel, taking his seat on the ground with the rest. “If we do that the enemy will take it for granted that we fear him. It must be forward, and plenty of dash.”
“Yes; but while our lads are raw they would be more steady behind such a breastwork, or zareba, as we could soon make round us.”
“I thought the boys were steady enough yesterday,” said the Colonel quietly; “and we shall be far better off in the open than drawn out in a line on that narrow shelf.”
“Oh, then we shall have a better road to-day?”
“Yes,” said the Colonel, going on calmly enough with his meal. “As far as I can gather from our guides, who all agree as to the character of the road, we have wide, open valleys, with forest till within a couple of miles of Ghittah; then the mountains close in again, and we have a narrow shelf to traverse high above the bottom of a gorge.”
“With plenty of places for stone-throwers?” said the Major.
“Plenty,” replied the Colonel; “so you know what you have to expect, gentlemen. But I hope and believe that unless they are too closely beleaguered the little garrison at the station will make a sally to meet us, and help to clear the way.”
“What a jolly old humbug Graham is!” whispered Roberts. “It’s all to belittle our lads. He knew that as well as the Colonel.”
“I suppose so,” replied Bracy. “Ah, here’s the Doctor.”
For that gentleman came bustling up, smiling and nodding to all in turn.
“Morning, Doctor,” said the Colonel. “What do you think of your patients this morning?”
“My patients? Seen them?”
“Yes,” said the Colonel quietly. “Bracy and I had a look at them as soon as it was light.”
“Getting on splendidly,” said the Doctor, rubbing his hands. “Narrow escape for that boy whose cheek is scratched; an inch or two more to the left, and – ”
“Ah! Bah! The old story, Doctor,” said the Major contemptuously.
“Yes, sir,” replied the Doctor tartly, as he fixed his eyes on the portly, middle-aged officer on the opposite side of the cloth. “You didn’t take those pills, then?”
“How do you know?”
“By the way you talk,” said the Doctor, chuckling, and screwing up one eye and glancing round at the rest.
“No, sir, I did not take the rubbish,” said the Major angrily, as he saw every one smiling. “Was it likely that I should take them at a time like this?”
“No, I suppose not,” said the Doctor coolly; “but I should. But, as I was going to say, Colonel, it’s wonderful what a deal the human skull can bear. Now, for instance, that boy Gedge: a great stone comes down many hundred feet, increasing in velocity with the earth’s attraction, strikes him on the head, and down he goes, insensible, with his skull crushed in, you would expect; but no: it is the old story of the strength of the arch and the difficulty in cracking an egg-shell from outside, though the beak of a tiny chicken can do it from within.”
“Then there’s no fracture?” said Bracy eagerly.
“Not so much as a faint crack, sir. Fellow was too thick-headed.”
The Colonel sprang to his feet the next minute, for one of the officers appeared to announce the appearance of three several bodies of men descending from the distant heights.
“How near?” asked the Colonel.
“The nearest about a mile and a half, sir.”
“Another live minutes for you to finish your breakfast, gentlemen, and then we march.”
The bugles were sounding directly after, and in less time than their leader had given out, the officers were with their companies, the native servants had replaced the camp equipage, and at the end of the quarter of an hour the march was resumed in the most orderly way, the baggage-train being strongly guarded, and the men well rested, flushed, and eager for the coming fray.
It was like a glorious late spring morning in England, and the wide valley the regiment was traversing presented a lovely series of landscapes, backed up in front and to right and left with mighty snow-capped mountains, whose peaks looked dazzling in the early morning sun. But though every breast breathed in the crisp air with a strange sense of exhilaration, no one had eyes for anything but the two bodies of white-robed men approaching them from right and left, the third being hidden by the forest patch where the troops had bivouacked, and for which the enemy had made as soon as it was evacuated, evidently to cover their movements prior to a rush upon the rear.
The Colonel, upon seeing this, made a slight alteration in his plans, halting Captain Roberts’s company with orders to close in and follow the rear of the column, thus bringing the impedimenta and servants more into the centre, the movement being performed without the slightest check to the advance, though the appearance of the bodies several hundred strong, to right and left, was very suggestive of an immediate attack.
This was delivered, evidently by an agreed-upon signal; for suddenly a tremendous burst of yelling arose, and the two unorganised crowds came rushing down upon the column, which halted, faced outward, and the next moment, while the enemy on either hand was about a couple of hundred yards off, there was a rolling volley nearly all along the line, and the white smoke began to rise, showing the two bodies of the enemy scattering
