Draw Swords! Part 26

"Look here, sir; you were sent here to me this morning by the captain?"

"He does not know I have come, Hanson."

"What! Look here, is that true?"

"Don't insult me by asking such a question, sir," said the lad, flus.h.i.+ng. "I had to beg for permission to come. I tell you it hurt me horribly when I knew you were sentenced."

"Yes, the brutes--the cowards!"

"No. They were your judges, and you had done things which deserved punishment. They said if it had not been that you were such a brave soldier, the court would have sentenced you to be drummed out of the regiment as a disgrace."

"Let them do it!" growled the man.

"I thought about it a great deal, and then I went to the general and begged him to let you off."

"Didn't he threaten to kick you out of his quarters for an insolent young puppy?" said the man mockingly.

d.i.c.k winced, but mastered his anger.

"No; he looked astonished at first, and then he behaved to me like a gentleman, as I want you to behave to me, Hanson. You can if you like."

"Yes, I can, my lad, and I--no, no; be off, and leave me. Let them flog me, and that will be the end of it. I'm too great a coward to shoot myself."

"No, you are not," said d.i.c.k quietly. "You've got pluck enough to do anything but be a coward. You haven't pluck enough for that."

"What! Is it to be a coward to make an end of one's self?"

"You know that as well as I do. Now, understand this once for all. I came here entirely through my own efforts. No one prompted me; no one helped me. I've tried to do my duty since I've been a soldier, and it seemed to be the right thing to go and ask the general to let you off that degrading punishment. So I went, and, as I told you, he was surprised, but he was not angry; and he finished by saying that if you would give your word as a soldier that you would turn over a new leaf, he'd look over the past, and give you another chance by cancelling the sentence of flogging."

The man's face grew hard and drawn, and it was as if the little weak good left in him was making a desperate struggle against the bad and being crushed, when d.i.c.k took a step forward.

"Promise me, Hanson," he said; "don't let's have our troop degraded before the people by one of ours being flogged."

"I can't promise, boy; I can't," groaned the prisoner desperately.

"I've gone too far."

"For the sake of the good old past, Hanson."

"Do you want to drive me mad, boy?" roared the man fiercely.

"No. You know that," cried d.i.c.k. "There, look here; fate has made me your officer, boy as I am, and you one of my men."

"Yes, that's it," said the man bitterly, and he sat lower, with his fingers clutching at the flesh of his bare breast through his open s.h.i.+rt.

"I ask you, then, as one gentleman might ask another--promise me Robert Hanson, that you'll make a brave effort to start afresh."

The man sprang from his sent and stood with every nerve quivering gazing from the hand d.i.c.k had held out to him to the lad's face and back.

Then, with a gasp that was almost a groan, he seized d.i.c.k's fingers and held them in a tremendous grip for a few moments.

"I promise," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "It's like one coming to s.n.a.t.c.h a man back when he was sinking for evermore."

The tramp, tramp of the sentry was heard outside, but there was a dead silence in the cell, as those two stood there with the bright light streaming in through the iron bars, till the prisoner let fall the hand he had grasped, and turned sharply round, to stand with his back to his officer.

"Go now, Mr Darrell, please," he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.

"Yes, I'll go now," said d.i.c.k softly, and he took a step forward to lay his hand upon the prisoner's shoulder. "All this is between us. No one will ever know from me what has been said here."

d.i.c.k turned and rapped at the door, which was opened at once, and he pa.s.sed through, hearing the clang and rattle of the lock and bolts as he strode away, making for the general's quarters, hurrying his steps as he saw a syce holding a horse at the foot of the steps.

He was none too soon, for before he was across the great parade-ground the general came out and mounted, fortunately for d.i.c.k, turning his horse and moving in the direction which brought them face to face.

"Ah, Mr Darrell!" he said, reining up; "want to see me?"

"Yes, Sir George. I've just come from the prisoner's cell."

"Well?"

"He promises, Sir George."

"Indeed? But will he keep his word?"

"Yes, Sir George; I'll answer for him."

"You are a foolish, sanguine boy," said the general, smiling; "but we'll see.--Come with me."

He turned the horse's head and walked him back to the door of his quarters, where he alighted and threw the reins to an orderly. Then, leading the way back to his room, he removed his glove and sat down at the writing-table, where his pen ran rapidly over a sheet of paper.

"There," he said when he had blotted and folded it; "I am not young and sanguine like you, Mr Darrell, but I am glad to have the opportunity of stopping the degrading exhibition we were about to have; and let me say, too, equally glad to oblige a young officer whose career I have been noticing ever since he joined."

d.i.c.k reddened, and faltered a few words.

"That will do," said the general, nodding pleasantly; "but recollect this--you have undertaken an onerous task. You promised me to be answerable for this man."

"I did, Sir George, and I honestly believe I can."

"Of course you do. Well, I shall watch the progress of your efforts-- mind that. There, I have work on hand. Take your letter to Captain Hulton. I have given your protege a clean slate, so that he may start free, and I shall expect you to turn him from the brute he has been into a credit to his troop."

"A clean slate, Sir George!" stammered the lad. "Will he have no punishment to undergo?"

"No, Mr Darrell; as a soldier I never do anything by halves."

He walked to the door, mounted, and rode away, leaving d.i.c.k half-suffocated, for he had succeeded beyond his wildest hopes.

"Oh," he cried to himself as he hurried off with his letter, "if Hanson will only mend!"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.