Fix Bay'nets: The Regiment in the Hills

Gedge started on the instant, talking to himself, as he felt that he ought still to maintain a soldierly silence.

“Quarter of a mile – eh? That’s a good half, or I’ve failed in judging distance, after all, and turned out a reg’lar duller. Cheeky, though, to think I know better than my orficer. Dunno, though; I’ve done twice as much of it as he have. – Wonder whether them beggars have begun stalking us again. Dessay they have. Sure to. My! how I should like to look back! That’s the worst o’ being a swaddy on dooty. Your soul even don’t seem to be your own. Never mind; orders is orders, and I’m straight for them rocks; but natur’s natur’, even if it’s in a savage nigger with a firework-spark gun and a long knife. If those chaps don’t come sneaking after us for a shot as soon as they’ve seen us on the move, I’m a Dutchman.”

Bill Gedge was not a Dutchman, but East London to the backbone, and quite right; for, before he and the officer were a hundred yards on their way to take up new ground, first one and then another white-clothed figure came cautiously into the wide field of view, quite a mile away, but plainly seen in that wonderfully clear air, and came on in a half-stooping way, suggesting hungry wolves slinking steadily and surely along after their prey.

Chapter Twenty Seven

A Question of Helmets

Bracy felt quite sure that they were being tracked, but he did not look round till they were well within the shelter of the rocks for which they aimed. Then, as soon as he could feel that he was certain of being unobserved, he raised his head above one of the blocks, and took his glass to read more fully their position. For, in a long line, at intervals of some ten yards or so, the enemy was coming on, without a sign of haste, but in the quiet, determined way of those who know that they are following an absolute certainty, and that it is only a matter of time before their prey drops down at their mercy.

The day was gloriously bright, and the vast landscape of rock, forest, and gleaming water to their left, and the dazzling stretch of peak, snowfield, and glacier, with its many gradations of silver and delicious blue, on their right, presented a scene which the mind might have revelled in for hours. But Bracy saw nothing of Nature’s beauties, for his attention was centred in the long line of tribes-men coming slowly on, their movements being so full of suggestion and offering themselves for easy reading.

Bracy closed his glass, and turned with wrinkled brow to Gedge, who took this as an invitation to give his opinion; and he went on at once, as if in answer to a few remarks from his officer.

“Yes, sir,” he said; “it is a nice game, and no mistake. The cowards! Look at ’em, sir. That’s what they mean to do – come sneaking along after us, waiting for a chance to rush in and take a stroke, and then slipping off again before we can get a shot at ’em. That’s what they think; but they’re making the biggest mistake they over made in their lives. They don’t know yet what one of our rifles can do.”

“You think they mean to follow us up, Gedge?”

“That’s it, sir. They’ll hang about for a chance. These niggers haven’t got anything to do; so, when they see a chance of doing a bit of a job so as to get something, they give theirselves up to it and go on, spending days and weeks to get hold of what they could have got honestly in half the time. But, look here, sir.”

“Yes,” said Bracy, nodding, as his companion tapped his rifle. “We could keep them off by good shooting, Gedge, while it is light; but what about the darkness?”

“Yes; that’s what bothers me, sir. They don’t try the shooting then, but sets their guns on one side, and lakes to those long, sharp knives.”

Bracy nodded again, and Gedge drew back, and began to make quick points with his rifle, acting as if the bayonet were fixed.

“That’ll be it after dark, sir. Bay’net’s more than a match for any knife in the dark.”

“Yes,” said Bracy; “but it means one of us to be always awake, and in such a journey as ours this will be distressing.”

“Never mind, sir. We’ll take double allowance of sleep first chance afterwards. Yes; I see, sir; that patch o’ stones, one of which lies over o’ one side – to the left.”

“Forward!” said Bracy; and the spot indicated was reached, the short halt made, and they went on again, after noting that the enemy was slowly following on their track.

That seemed a day of days to Bracy, and interminably long and wearisome. They kept along as near the edge of the snow as they could, and watched the two bodies of men to right and left till they were hidden by the inequalities of the ground; but they came into sight again and again. About midday the two parties were seen to meet, and then come to a halt, about a mile from where Bracy and his companion crouched, as usual, in among some loose rocks, in the unenviable position of being between two fires, the enemy in the rear halting too, and making no effort to come to close quarters after the lesson they had learned about the long, thin, pencil-like bullets sent whistling from Gedge’s rifle.

“Can you make out what they are doing, sir?” asked Gedge.

“Sitting together, and I think eating.”

“That’s what you said the others were doing, sir.”

“Yes.”

“Then wouldn’t it be a good time for us to be having a refresher, sir?”

“Very good time indeed, Gedge, if you can eat,” said Bracy meaningly.

“If I can eat, sir?” said Gedge, turning over his officer’s words. “Why, sir, I feel famished. Don’t you?”

“No,” said Bracy sadly. “I suppose the anxiety has taken away my appetite.”

“But you must eat, sir. Make your load lighter, too. There are times when I feel as if I should like to eat all I want, and then chuck all the rest away. One don’t seem to want anything but cartridges; but then, you see, sir, one does, or else the works won’t go. I’m wonderful like a watch, I am – I want winding up reg’lar, and then I go very tidy; but if I’m not wound up to time I runs down and turns faint and queer, and about the biggest coward as ever shouldered a rifle. I’m just no use at all, not even to run away, for I ain’t got no strength. Yes, sir, that’s how it is: I must be wound up as much as a Waterbury watch, and wittles is the key.”

“Go on, then,” said Bracy, smiling; “wind yourself up, Gedge, and I’ll do the same.”

“Thank ye, sir; that’s done me no end o’ good,” cried the lad, brightening up. “You’ve give me a reg’lar good appetite now.”

Gedge proceeded to prove this fact at once, and his words and the example set him had the effect of making his leader begin to eat a few mouthfuls, these leading to more; and at the end of a minute or two both were heartily enjoying their repast, although the prospect before them seemed to promise that this would be the last meal of which they would partake.

As they watched the enemy in front and rear they could only come to the conclusion that it was as impossible to continue their journey as it was to retreat. There was the open north to the left of their intended course, but as far as they could make out it was impassable. By stern endeavour they felt that they might in time wade through the deep snow and reach the mountains; but, as far as they could judge, farther progress in the way of striking through them, and then turning round to their right, was not possible without the aid of ice-axe and rope. And again, there was the less mountainous part of the country across the side valley they had traversed, and where they might climb the ridge and make a circuit to the left; but that course would probably lead them more amongst the encampments of the enemy besieging the fort; and they had hardly begun discussing this course when Gedge exclaimed:

“Take your spy-glass, sir. There’s game or something on the move over yonder to the south.”

“A strong body of men, Gedge,” said Bracy decisively. “The country’s alive with the wretches, and these are evidently going to join those in our valley.”

“Hard lines for the two Colonels and our poor lads, sir,” said Gedge, with his face puckering up. “If it wasn’t for orders I wouldn’t mind them beggars behind; we’d get through them somehow, for it would be far better to go at ’em sharp and have it out, so that it might end one way or t’other, than keep creeping on here, never knowing when they may make a rush.”

“I feel the same, Gedge,” said Bracy firmly; “but we have our orders, and that mountain we must reach by night.”

“Right, sir; I’m not grumbling; we’re a-going to do it; but don’t it seem rum? Only the other day the place was empty everywhere, and it was just as if the enemy had all been shot and buried theirselves, while when you gents went out shooting, and the Colonel sent out little parties to scout and cover you coming back, in case the niggers showed, we went about over and over again, and never see a soul. And now, just because you’ve got to take word to the Ghoorkha Colonel that we want help, all of ’em have turned out so as to send us back to our quarters.”

Bracy let his companion chatter on; but he was actively busy the while with his glass, which gave him a clear picture in miniature of every movement of their pursuers, at the same time convincing him that neither the enemy in front, nor those, perfectly plain now on the ridge across the little valley, were aware of their presence.

“We must be getting on, Gedge,” he said at last; “the enemy behind is on the move, and they are opening out to the left.”

“That means getting down to the hollow yonder, sir, to come upon our flank or cut us off. Oh! don’t I wish you could detach a party skirmishing, ready to counter upon them and send ’em back; but the force aren’t strong enough, sir. You see, you want me to form the reserve.”

Bracy smiled, and once more they stepped out, making for patch after patch of rocks, the more boldly now that they saw the enemy in front was crossing their intended track as if to get to the ridge on the other side of the valley, and form a junction with the men there.

“Double!” said Bracy suddenly; and they trotted now wherever the ground would allow of such a way of progressing, and in the hope of getting well forward; but, to their disgust, it was to find that their indefatigable pursuers imitated every movement, running when they ran, and settling down again to a walk as soon as they slowed.

And so the afternoon wore on, with the position in the rear unchanged, but the front clearing as the sun sank lower in the west.

“There’s a more hopeful lookout yonder, Gedge,” said Bracy, “but these scoundrels seem more determined than ever.”

“That’s right, sir; and the worst of it is they won’t come, within shot. They’re waiting for the dark. That’s their game. Couldn’t we steal a march on ’em somehow, sir? for this is getting a bit stupid.”

“We can steal the march as soon as it’s dark,” replied Bracy. “I have been thinking of that; but then there is the difficulty of getting along in this rough place, and we may be getting out of the frying-pan into the fire.”

“Well, I don’t know as if would be any hotter, sir. Don’t you think we’d better lie down behind some of the stones and pick a few of ’em off as they come up?”

“It might cheek them, if we could do it; but if you look through the glass you will see that they keep sending a couple of men up all the high places, who keep watch, and they’d signal to their companions that we were in ambush.”

“I was afraid so, sir,” said Gedge grimly; “that’s always the way with my plans. There’s always a hole in the bottom o’ the tub I make ’em in, and they run out like sand.”

“How would this do?” said Bracy. “Suppose we pick out a good place just as it is getting dark, and settle ourselves down to watch.”

“That sounds right, sir,” said Gedge encouragingly. “Then, as soon as they have got used to seeing us there looking over the stones, suppose we slip off our ’elmets, and leave them on the rocks, and creep away for some distance before we rise, and then go on as fast as we can so as the ’elmets may keep ’em off for a bit, sir.”

“Yes; I see what you mean, but the trick is too old. Remember how the men put their helmets or caps above the breastworks to tempt them to fire. Depend upon it they would suspect.”

“May be, sir, may be not; but we’re in a fix, and we must do something.”

“But the thing is what?”

“If we wanted to go back, sir – to retreat,” began Gedge.

“Which we do not,” said Bracy coldly.

“Of course not right away, sir; but to make a fresh start, that dodge would do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why, this, sir; suppose we put our ’elmets on the tops o’ two stones just as it’s getting dark.”

“Well, go on,” said Bracy impatiently.

“Then we keep our eyes upon our gentlemen to see whether they come in nigh enough first so as to give us a shot, and if they don’t we wait till it’s dark enough.”

“And then go on as fast as we can, and without our helmets, to be exposed to the sun by day, the cold wind and snow by night, if we were not overtaken and finished. Bah, my lad! that will not do.”

“No, sir; but that ain’t the way my story goes,” said Gedge, grinning.

“Let’s have your way, then,” said Bracy impatiently, as he scanned the enemy in the distance with his glass.

“I mean this, sir. We puts our ’elmets as ’fore-said on the rocks, watches till it’s quite dark, and then, instead o’ doubling off on our journey, we just creeps away to right or left, say a hundred yards, and then lies down.”

“Yes?”

“Bimeby, one by one, my gentlemen comes creeping up with their long knives, ready to cut us up in the dark, supposing that we’re there on the watch. Dessay dozen of ’em would come, front, right, left, and rear; and then, after they’ve surrounded our ’elmets, they goes right in for us, and slashes them instead of us. Next minute there’s a reg’lar hoo-roar, and most likely, if we’re lucky, they’ve chopped one; another awful. But whether they have or not, they’ve found out we’re not there, and that they’ve been done; and on they goes in a passion right away, hoping to catch up to us again in the morning to carry on the same game of following us and giving us no rest till we’re quite done, and the job to finish us is as easy as that.”

He kissed his hand by way of illustrating the simplicity of the business.

“Yes; we should get rid of their hideous, heart-wearing pursuit,” said Bracy thoughtfully, “and then be able to make a fresh start, of course. But what about covering for our heads?”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that, sir. I’m on’y a thin un, and there’s plenty o’ spare stuff in this skin coat to spare for a couple o’ woolly busbies as ’ll suit us for this journey far better than ’elmets. The niggers at a distance would take us for the real article then. Now the spikes on our heads says English to every one as sees ’em.”

“Yes,” said Bracy thoughtfully; “that might be done if we could make the wool hats.”

“Don’t you worry yourself about that, sir. It’s on’y like cutting two big long squares to measure, and doubling ’em over sidewise, and sewing two edges together. Then you sews the top edges, turns the thing inside out, and – ”

“Well, and what?” said Bracy, for the lad stopped short and grinned.

“Puts ’em on, sir. That’s all.”

“And we have scissors and needles and thread and thimbles, of course,” said Bracy mockingly.

“That’s right, sir. In my pocket. Didn’t Mother Gee give me ’em all ready for sewing up bandages and seeing to wounds? I’d a deal rather make caps with ’em; wouldn’t you?”

“Of course, of course, Gedge,” Bracy hastened to say. “Here, it’s time we began to put our plan in action.”

“Time to get on a bit farther first, sir. But do you really think that dodge would do?”

“I think enough of it to make me say that we’ll try it, Gedge; and, if it succeeds, I tell you what, hard as it may be, we’ll try the snow.”

“That’s the place to hide in, sir, when we creep away.”

“Of course. Capital!”

“Might roll ourselves over in it, and it would stick to our coats, and they’d never find us. But I don’t know about going on that way, sir.”

“We must; I see no other.”

“But what about footmarks afterwards, sir? It’s like putting down a lot o’ holes to show ’em the way we’ve gone.”

“Holes that the sun would soon till in, or fresh snow fall to hide. But we need not study that. The enemy would go on and never think of coming back to make a fresh start. Even if they did, they would never find the place again that they went to in the dark.”

“Not by the ’elmets, sir?”

“No; they’d make sure of them – carry them off as trophies. But I see a terrible difficulty.”

“Do yer, sir? I’m very sorry.”

“Suppose, while we’re lying in the snow, one or two of the ruffians come and stumble right over us?”

“I hope they won’t, sir,” said Gedge, with a grim look in his eyes, as he drew his dagger-like bayonet out and touched the point with his thumb. “That’s pretty sharp, sir, and we should be on the lookout, and holding ’em in our hands, as what Sergeant Gee calls a shiver-de-freexe. They might tumble on them.”

“Gedge, my lad, you’re full of resources,” said Bracy eagerly. “We’ll try your plan, exactly as you propose.”

“Thank ye, sir,” said the lad uneasily; “but I don’t want you to think I’m cocky and knowing, and like to be thought double cunning.”

“That will do,” said Bracy, smiling. “Let’s think of the task we have in hand. It is no time to discuss trifles. This is all part of fighting for our lives.”

Chapter Twenty Eight

In the Snow

In the tramp which followed, with the hill-men creeping on after them in the same slow, untiring way, Gedge had his eyes about him, and drew forth a sharp order from his officer when he began to deviate a little from the straight course towards a dwarf clump of pines, the highest of which was not above six feet.

“What are you going there for?”

“Want ’em, sir, for rifles,” was the reply. Bracy nodded; and upon reaching the clump, a few sharp strokes from the lad’s bayonet cut down and trimmed what formed a couple of longish walking-sticks, one of which he handed over to his officer, who used his in the latter capacity, Gedge soon following suit.

“That’s what I want them to think, sir,” said Gedge, digging his down at every second pace. “Now, sir, what do you say? Don’t you think we might edge in more towards the snow?”

“Soon,” said Bracy, pointing. “There’s just the spot we want;” and, raising his glass, he stopped to examine a group of blocks of stone some fifty yards from the edge of the snowfield, which here sent down a few sharp points, giving it the appearance at a distance of a huge, vandyked piece of white lace.

“Couldn’t find a better place if we tried, sir,” said Gedge; “but we ain’t left ourselves time enough. If we had thought of it sooner, I could have cut out and made the busbies.”

“We shall have plenty of time for that to-morrow,” said Bracy. “We must manage by tying on handkerchiefs for to-night, and pulling up the great collars as if they were hoods.”

A short time after, each with his handkerchief over his head, the pair crouched behind two stones, upon which their helmets had been placed; and beside them the two sticks were planted, so that at a short distance any one would have been deceived and made to believe that a couple of men were on the watch for danger.

Two men were on the watch for danger, but in a different way, both lying prone, Bracy, with his glass to his eyes, carefully sweeping the distance, and keeping it fixed upon the enemy, who looked strangely quiet, as they grouped together and seemed to be feasting.

“Looks as if they meant to settle there, then, for the night, sir,” said Gedge, as Bracy reported to him everything he noted.

“Yes; it looks so.”

“But we don’t trust ’em, bless yer, sir. That’s their artfulness; foxing – that’s what they’re doing. Won’t be able to see ’em much longer – will you, sir?”

“No; it’s getting dark very fast; but I can make them out, I dare say, till they begin to move.”

“Hope you will, sir,” said Gedge softly, and lying with his knees bent, kicking his feet about in the air, after the fashion of a boy in a field on a sunny day, and looking quite unconscious of the fact that this night might be one of the most terrible they had ever been called upon to pass.

Some minutes elapsed now in perfect silence, during which a fiery look on the topmost peak of one of the mountains died out slowly into cherry red, and finally became invisible, a few stars twinkling out as the red light died.

“Gedge,” said Bracy in a quick whisper, such as he might have uttered had the enemy been close upon them, and about to spring, instead of many hundred yards away.

“Sir?”

“They are on the move.”

“Can’t see ’em, sir.”

“No; and they cannot see us, but I can dimly make them out with the glass. They are separating from their centre, and coming on. Ha! gone. I can see no more.”

He put away the glass in the darkness, which now seemed to roll down upon them like a cloud from the mountains, giving the snowfield a ghastly look which made Bracy hesitate.

“I’m afraid it would be better to go off to the left among the stones.”

“Don’t, sir, pray,” said Gedge earnestly.

“But our dark bodies will show against the snow.”

“Not they, sir. We’ll roll in it, and it’ll be darker in half-an-hour. They’ll be all that before they get here – won’t they?”

“Quite. They are sure to come on very slowly, and allow time for part of them to get right into our rear.”

“Yes, sir; that’s right.”

“Now, then, are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

There was again silence, and, but for the ghostly glare of the snow, all was very dark.

“We seem to be going into the most dangerous place,” whispered Bracy, with his breath coming thickly.

“And that’s the very place they’ll never think we should hide in, sir, if they were likely to think we were going to hide. No, sir: their keen eyes ’ll just make out them two ’elmets, and they’ll think o’ nothing else but driving their long knives into them as wears ’em, from behind. I do hope we shall hear ’em blunting the points against, the stones.”

“Have you everything?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then, forward! Go fifty paces slowly over the snow. I shall follow close behind you in your steps.”

The snow yielded, so that they were knee-deep, but it was still loose and so sand-like in its grains that as each foot was withdrawn the icy particles flowed together again into each freshly-made hole.

Five minutes later the adventurous pair lay softly down, and rolled over and over a few times, before lying prone upon their chests, each with his head towards the invisible helmets, and near enough to whisper or touch one another with the hand. Their rifles lay by their sides, with the cartouche-boxes handy: and, in case of a close attack, their revolvers were in the right sides of their belts, half dragged round to the back, while each held his dagger-like bayonet in his band.

“Do you feel the cold, Gedge?” whispered Bracy.

“Cold, sir? Why, I’m as hot as hot. This work’s too warm for a fellow to feel the cold. Do you, sir?”

“No; my face burns as if with fever, and every nerve tingles with excitement. There, we must not even whisper again.”

“Right, sir.”

“The first moment you hear a sound of any one approaching, touch my left arm.”

“Right, sir; but hadn’t I better lie t’other side of you? They’ll come that way.”

“They’ll come from all round at once, my lad. There, don’t be afraid. If we are going to have trouble, I dare say you will get your full share. Now, silence; and when they come you must hardly breathe.”

Then silence ensued, and seemed to Bracy the most oppressive that he had ever encountered in facing danger. For the solemnity of the night in the great mountains was brooding over them, out of which at any moment death, in the shape of a keen knife, might descend. There was not a breath of air, but an icy chill dropped down from above, making the snow crystals turn sharp and crisp, crackling softly at the slightest movement. But the frosty air had no effect upon them, save to make their blood tingle in their veins and a peculiar, pricking sensation play about their nostrils as they drew their breath, tiny needles of ice twining as they respired, and making a hoar-frost upon Bracy’s moustache.

The time went on as if the movement of the earth had been checked by the frost; but, listen as they would, the silence was profound, and a full hour seemed to have passed, though it was not a fourth part of that time.