The Kopje Garrison Part 44

"Certainly not," said the colonel emphatically. "You will take the lead."

"Ha!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the major.

"With Roby as second in command. I will talk with you after I have done a little scouting on my own account."

Two days elapsed, and Captain Roby had been talking a good deal in a rather injudicious way about its being just what he expected. The colonel had been out both nights with as many men as he could mount-just a small scouting party-seen all that he could as soon as it was daylight, and returned soon after sunrise each time after a brush with the enemy, who had discovered the approach to their lines and followed the retiring party up till they came within reach of the gun, when a few sh.e.l.ls sent them scampering back.

It was on the third night that Captain Roby sat talking to his greatest intimates, and he repeated his injudicious remarks so bitterly that Captain Edwards said severely, "I can't sit here and listen to this, Roby. You must be off your head a little, and if you don't mind you'll be getting into serious trouble."

"Trouble? What do you mean, sir?" cried Roby. "I feel it is my duty to speak."

"And I feel it is not; and if I were Colonel Lindley I would not stand it."

He had hardly spoken when there was the crack of a rifle, followed by another and another. The men turned out ready for anything, fully expecting that the Boers were making an attack; but d.i.c.kenson came hurrying to the colonel with the report of what had happened.

The two prisoners had been waiting their opportunity, and rising against the sentry who shared their corrugated iron prison, had s.n.a.t.c.hed his bayonet from his side and struck him down, with just enough life left in him afterwards to relate what had happened. Then slipping out, they had tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate the sentry on duty, but failed, for he was too much on the alert. He had fired at them, but they had both escaped into the darkness, under cover of which, and with their thorough knowledge of the country, they managed to get right away.

"Just like Lindley," said Roby contemptuous as soon as the alarm was over and the men had settled down again. "Any one but he would have made short work of those two fellows."

He had hardly spoken when an orderly came to the door of the hut where he, Captain Edwards, and two more were talking, and announced that the colonel desired to speak with Captain Roby directly. The latter sprang up and darted a fierce look at Captain Edwards.

"You have lost no time in telling tales," he said insolently.

"You are on the wrong track," said the gentleman addressed, angrily. "I have not seen the colonel to speak to since, and I have sent no message."

Roby turned on his heel wrathfully and went straight to the colonel's quarters, to face him and the major, who was with him.

To his intense astonishment and delight, the colonel made the announcement that the south-west laager was to be attempted by surprise that night by a hundred and fifty men with the bayonet alone, the major in command, Captain Roby second, and Captain Edwards and the two subalterns of Roby's company to complete the little force.

"When do we start, sir?" said Roby, with his heart beating fast.

"An hour before midnight," said the colonel; and the major added:

"Without any sound of preparation. The men will a.s.semble, and every precaution must be taken that not one of the blacks gets wind of the attempt so as to warn the enemy of our approach."

"I have no more to add, Robson," said the colonel. "You know where to make your advance. Take the place if you can without firing a shot, but of course, if fire should be necessary, use your own discretion."

The whole business was done with the greatest absence of excitement. The three officers were warned at once; Captain Edwards looked delighted, but d.i.c.kenson began to demur.

"You are not fit to go, Drew," he said.

"I never felt more fit," was the reply, "and if you make any opposition you are no friend of mine."

"Very well," said d.i.c.kenson quietly; "but I feel that we're going to have a sharp bit of business, and I can't think that you are strong enough."

"I've told you that I am," said Lennox firmly. "The orders are that I go with the company, and the colonel would not send me if he did not know from his own opinion and the doctor's report that I am fit to be with the ranks."

There was a little whisper or two between d.i.c.kenson and Sergeant James.

"Oh, I don't know, sir," said the latter; "he has pulled round wonderfully during the last fortnight, and it isn't as if we were going on a long exhausting march. Just about six or seven miles through level veldt, sir, and in the cool of the night."

"Well, there is that," said d.i.c.kenson thoughtfully.

"And a good rest afterwards, sir, so as to make the advance, so I hear, just at the Boers' sleepiest time. Bah! It'll be a mere nothing if we can only get through their lines quietly. They'll never stand the bayonet; and I wouldn't wish for a smarter officer to follow than Mr Lennox."

"Nor a braver, James," said d.i.c.kenson quietly.

"Nor a braver, sir."

"If he is up to the mark for strength."

"Let him alone for that, sir," said the sergeant, with a chuckle. "I don't say Mr Lennox will be first, but I do say he won't be last; and the men'll follow him anywhere, as you know, sir, well."

"Yes," said d.i.c.kenson, drawing a deep breath; "and it's what we shall want to-night-a regular rush, and the bayonet home."

"That's it, sir; but I must go. The lads are half-mad with joy, and if I'm not handy we shall have them setting up a shout."

But of course there was no shout, the men who, to their great disgust, were to stay and hold the camp bidding good-luck to their more fortunate comrades without a sound; while more than once, with the remembrance of the dastardly murder that had just taken place, men whispered to their comrades something about not to forget what the cowardly Boers had done.

Exact to the time, just an hour before midnight, and in profound darkness-for the moon had set but a short time before-the men, with shouldered rifles, set off with springy step, d.i.c.kenson and Lennox, to whom the country was well known from shooting and fis.h.i.+ng excursions they had made, leading the party, not a word being uttered in the ranks, and the tramp, tramp of feet sounding light and elastic as the lads followed through the open, undulating plain, well clear of the bush, there being hardly a stone to pa.s.s till they were within a mile of the little kopje where the Boers' laager lay.

There the broken country would begin, the land rising and being much enc.u.mbered with stones. But the place had been well surveyed by the major through his field-gla.s.s at daybreak two days before, and he had compared notes with Lennox, telling him what he had seen, and the young officer had drawn his attention to the presence of a patch of woodland that might be useful for a rallying-point should there be need. Captain Roby, too, had been well posted up; and after all that was necessary had been said, Lennox had joined his friend.

"Oh, we shall do it, Bob," he said. "What I wonder is, that it was not tried long enough ago."

"So do I," was the reply. "But, I say, speak out frankly: do you feel up to the work?"

"I feel as light and active as if I were going to a football match," was the reply.

"That's right," said d.i.c.kenson, with a sigh of relief.

"And you?"

"Just as if I were going to give the Boers a lesson and show them what a couple of light companies can do in a storming rush. There, save your breath for the use of your legs. Two hours' march, two hours' lie down, and then-"

"Yes, Bob;" said Lennox, drawing a deep breath, and feeling for the first time that they were going on a very serious mission; "and then?"

And then there was nothing heard but the light tramp-tramp-tramp-tramp of a hundred and fifty men and their leaders, not one of whom felt the slightest doubt as to his returning safe.

Chapter Twenty Two.

For a Night Attack.

It was a weird march in the silence and darkness, but the men were as elastic of spirits as if they had been on their way to some festivity. There may have been some exceptions, but extremely few; and d.i.c.kenson was not above suggesting one, not ill-naturedly, but in his anxiety for the success of the expedition, as he explained to Lennox in a whisper when they were talking over the merits of the different non-commissioned officers.