Gil the Gunner Part 22

"I will gladly take your offer for my man," said Brace at last.

"And you yourselves?" said the rajah, eagerly.

Brace turned to us.

"What do you say?" he said.

"I shall follow my captain," replied Haynes.

"Doctor?"

"I am an Englishman," he said quietly.

Brace looked at me.

"Vincent!" he said, in a low hurried voice. "We have a painful tramp before us, and in all probability the buggies will not come to meet us.

You are young and not used to such work as we have before us. The doctor will give you a few instructions, so you shall stop and look after Denny."

I don't know how it was--I make no professions of being brave, but a strange feeling of exaltation came over me then, and I said quickly--

"Don't make me feel like a coward. I cannot stay; I must go with you."

He looked at me fixedly for a few moments, and then turned to the rajah.

"Give us bread and wine," he said.

The rajah pointed toward his house, but Brace refused to turn, and, in obedience to a command, a couple of men were sent in, and directly after three of the chiefs servants hurried out with refreshments and handed them to us.

We partook sparingly, and as we ate and drank Brace whispered--

"See, all of you, that you have plenty of ball cartridges."

The order was needless, for we were all well supplied; and, five minutes later, a brief and distant leave-taking followed, and, shouldering our pieces, we set off, through the hot afternoon suns.h.i.+ne, to try and follow the track to the road. This reached, it would be one steady descent to Rajgunge, but, as we afterwards owned, not one of us believed that we should reach it alive.

Note 1. Budmashes are outlaws, footpads.

Note 2. Hathees are elephants.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"Seems too bad to leave my patient," said the doctor. "Am I doing right?"

"You have dressed his wounds, and we are going to get help for him,"

replied Brace.

"I hope so," muttered the doctor. And then we toiled on and on, under the blazing sun, with our pieces growing so hot that they scorched our shoulders, but he man made a complaint, and two and two we tramped on, keeping a sharp look-out for the danger that might spring up at any moment.

"We must chance an ambuscade," said Brace, quietly. "If we are attacked, and there is cover to be had, follow me to it at once. We four, with these rifles, ought to keep a pretty good party at bay. By the way, always hold your left hand barrels in reserve. We may want them to stop a rush."

My recollection of that march is as that of some feverish dream; the sun came down with terrible power, and that which had been beautiful in the morning, from the howdah of an elephant, was now gloomy, painful, and apparently endless. Twice over we found that we had strayed from the track, and I had to turn and go watchfully back till we could see the great circular impressions of the elephants' feet, and at last we reached the spot from whence we had started in the morning. There was the litter left by the rajah's men when they had struck the shelter-tent, and followed us; there were the elephants' footprints, and the marks of the stakes. But there was no sign of that which I had fondly hoped, in my parched and footsore state, might be in waiting--a couple of vehicles, ready to take us back. All was silent save the cry of a hawk soaring round and round in the blue sky, and once there came the sharp shriek of a jay.

We had now reached the road along whose dusty side we steadily trudged on, till we came in sight of Rajgunge, far away below us, and now bathed in the warm, ruddy glow of the setting sun.

We involuntarily halted, and, after a sharp look round for danger, stood gazing at the beautiful city, so calm and peaceful, with the golden riband-like river curving round in the evening glow, that it was impossible to think that anything could be wrong.

In fear of such a catastrophe, we looked forward to seeing the smoke rising from a conflagration. But no; there was the faint haze caused by the dust trampled up by many thousand feet, and softening the outline of some of the dazzling white buildings. That was all.

"Can it be possible?" said the doctor at last, after he had gazed through the little field-gla.s.s handed to him by Brace. "One could fancy it was all a false alarm, and that poor Denny's injuries were the result of some troubles in the bazaar."

"Hist! quick!" I said sharply; and I pointed to a cloud of dust far away before us.

"Our men!"

But as the words were spoken, we caught sight of the glint of steel just above the dust cloud; and knowing, as we did, that they were lance-points, we obeyed a sign from Brace, and took refuge among the trees by the roadside.

We were none too soon, for the cloud swept nearer, and, headed by a splendidly mounted man in a yellow caftan, belted with a rich cashmere shawl, about a couple of dozen white-clothed troopers swept by, and disappeared as they had come, in a cloud of dust.

"What are they?" said the doctor, inquiringly.

"Soldiers of some irregular regiment," replied Brace, looking after the hors.e.m.e.n thoughtfully.

"Then there is no reason why they may not be friends," I said.

"Where is their regular officer, then?" said Brace, drily. "They would not be led by a man like the one we saw."

The opinion was unanswerable, and we tramped on along the dusty road, wearied out, but kept going by the excitement; till, coming upon a group of people, whose appearance suggested that they had journeyed from the city, Brace stopped them to question them about the state of the place.

For answer they rushed by us, and pursued their way, an action telling pretty plainly that some great change must have taken place, or these people would have been obsequious to a degree.

The sun went down, but the heat was as great as ever; and feeling at times as if I must drop, I kept on that weary tramp. Then darkness fell, the great stars came out, and feeling that our prospects would be better of getting unnoticed into the city, now not very distant, we took heart, and tramped forward in regular military time, the swing of the march seeming to help us forward.

Group after group of people were pa.s.sed, but none heeded us, and no further efforts were made to stay and question them.

"No," said Brace; "we will get our answer at head-quarters."

Then, calling a halt for ten minutes, we sank down by the roadside to rest before starting for the finis.h.i.+ng stage of our painful journey.

But we had no sooner thrown ourselves down, than from the darkness ahead came the murmur of voices and the tramp of feet, very low and distant, but peculiar enough to make Brace spring up, while my heart began to beat heavily.

"Draw farther back," he whispered; "they are not country people."

Just then there was a click familiar enough to us all, and then another.

"It must be some of our lads," whispered Brace; and the next minute, as a little body of men came by, in regular military step, I heard him mutter, "Must be;" and he cried, "Halt!"