Trapped by Malays Part 48

Archie looked at him piteously; his eyes seemed to say, "Pray, pray don't keep talking!"

The look silenced his companion, and for half-an-hour at least not a word was spoken.

_Plosh, plosh, suck, suck_ of the elephants' feet went on in the same monotonous way. A gleam of suns.h.i.+ne now and then lightened the gloom of the tunnel-like path, but besides the dreary sound the silence was awful. By this time Archie seemed to be quite exhausted, and as Pete pa.s.sed an arm round him and lowered him back on to the pad before slipping a hand into his waistband to ensure his not slipping off, the poor fellow's eyes were half-closed, while those of his companion were fixed with the lids wide apart, and with a fierce, staring look gazed forward over the mahout's head in the wild hope of seeing something that he could recognise, something that would prove that they really were on the path that led to headquarters.

"I'm about beat out," said poor Peter to himself. "A chap wants to be made of iron to keep this up much longer, and I ain't iron, only flesh and blood and bones, and them not best quality--upper crust. Oh! if I could only--" He stopped short with his lips apart, face down, and one ear turned in the direction in which the mahout was staring.

"Oh!" he panted once again, "is it, or am I getting delirious? Ah!

there it goes again--or am I wrong? What's a bugle going for at this time in the afternoon? I'm a-dreaming of it. No, I ain't! Hooray!-- Look up, Mister Archie, sir! It's all right. Cheer up, sir!"

"What! What! Who spoke?" said the exhausted lad, making an effort, catching at Peter, and dragging himself up and sitting clinging tightly to his companion's arm.

"Close in, sir. We shall be at the campong in five minutes, and in less than another on the parade-ground. Hooroar, sir! There's no place like home, even if it's out in a savage jungle.--Here, what are you panting at, sir, like that? Don't do it! You ain't been running."

"You're saying this to keep me up, Peter."

"I ain't, sir; I ain't. Look! Look! You can see for yourself now.

There, them's the big trees where all the helephants sheltered at the review, and--brave old Rajah! He's making for it straight. There's a peep of the river too, and you can see the hut above the landing-place where I kept guard that night and listened to the crocs. Now then, what do you say to that? Am I right?"

Archie made no reply that was audible, but his lips parted as he muttered two words in fervent thanks; and the next minute Rajah had increased the rate at which he made his strides upon hard ground, and the open s.p.a.ce before them was becoming dotted with moving men in their familiar white jackets, in consequence of an order that had been pa.s.sed after a gla.s.s had been directed at the advancing elephant; while, as the great beast, as if quite accustomed to the place, strode in beneath the sheltering trees and stopped short, to stand with slowly swinging head on the very spot where Peter had first made his acquaintance, a burst of cheers rang out from officers and comrades, who came up at the double to welcome back those who had been given up for lost.

One of the first to reach the elephant's side was the Doctor.

"Archie, my lad!" he cried. "Minnie! My poor girl! Speak, lad-- speak!"

Archie's lips parted, and his old look of despair deepened as he tried to answer; but no word pa.s.sed his parched lips, cracking now with fever and exhaustion. He only looked wildly in the Doctor's imploring eyes and shook his head.

The Doctor uttered a groan, and then, as the elephant knelt in response to the mahout's order, the Doctor's despair died away to make room for duty.

"Now, my lads," he cried, "half-a-dozen of you help them down and carry them carefully into hospital.--Cheer up, boys! I'll soon put you right.--Ah, Sir Charles! You here? I can't go.--Hold up, man!--Go up to my place and speak to my wife. But after this--be a man, sir!-- there's hope for us still."

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

IN THE DOCTOR'S HANDS.

"Lie still. What have you got to fidget about? I have done all I can, and made a decent job of your head. It looks quite respectable now, after what I have done with the scissors. That hair ought to have been cut close off first thing, so as to afford a place for decent bandages, and I feel quite astounded to see how kindly Nature has treated you. It must have been an awful blow, my boy, and if you hadn't been of the stupid, thick-headed breed, you would have suffered from a comminuted fracture of the skull. Can't you lie still?"

"No, Doctor. I want to get up."

"And make yourself worse?"

"No; but after what you have done, I feel so much better and more comfortable that I want to be up and doing."

"Nonsense! You have been doing ten times too much, and I tell you seriously, sir, that another day or two of what you have gone through in making your escape, and you must have been dangerously ill with fever."

"But I feel so much better, Doctor."

"Of course you do. I was just able to catch you in the nick of time, and now I have done my part, and you must leave the rest to Nature."

"But I want to go out with one of the detachments."

"What for? To break down directly, and interfere with the good four or half-a-dozen of the lads would be doing, from their time being taken up in carrying you on a bamboo litter?"

"Oh Doctor, I shouldn't break down."

"Oh, wouldn't you? Nice piece of impudence! Here am I, who have devoted half my life to the tinkering up of damaged soldiers, and know to a t.i.ttle how much a man can bear, all wrong, of course! And you, a young jackanapes of a subaltern, a mere boy, tell me to my face that you know better than I do!"

"No, no, Doctor; I beg your pardon!" said Archie. "I don't mean that.

It is only because I want to be out with the fellows, trying to run that brutal scoundrel down."

"Yes, yes, my boy, I know. But wait. Everything possible is being done, and any hour the news may come in that my poor child has been found and some one has been shot down. Archie, my boy, nothing would afford me greater delight than to see that lurid-looking heathen brought in half-dead, and handed over to my tender mercies."

Archie burst out into a mocking laugh.

"What do you mean by that, sir?" said Dr Morley.

"I was thinking, Doctor, you would set to at once attending to his wounds, and making him well as soon as you possibly could."

"What! A treacherous, cunning savage! I'd--Well, I suppose you are right, boy. Habit's habit. But the British lawyers would tackle him afterwards, and he would get his deserts. They'd put a stop to him being Rajah of Dang any more. There, I've no time to stop gossiping with you."

"But when may I get up, Doctor? It seems so absurd for me to be lying here."

"That's what you think. Well, there, I won't be hard on you. If you keep quiet now, and are as much better to-morrow as I found you to-day, and you will promise to be very careful, I'll let you get up. Now I must go and see to that other ruffian."

"Peter Pegg? But you are not keeping him in bed?"

"Oh no. He didn't get it so badly as you."

"I say, Doctor, he's been hospital orderly before: send him to attend on me."

The Doctor frowned, and hesitated.

"Oh, very well. He might do that. He was as mad as you are two days ago, and wanted to go off with his company."

"Send him in at once, Doctor."

"For you two to talk too much? There, I'll see."

A couple of hours later Peter Pegg entered Archie's quarters, looking very hollow-cheeked and sallow, and displaying a head that had been operated upon by the regimental barber till there was nothing more left to cut off, and stood holding the door a little way open, and showing his teeth in a happy grin.

"Ah, Pete! I wanted you," cried Archie.

"Did you, sir? Here I am, then. Doctor says I am to do anything you want, only you are not to talk."

"All right, Pete. Then tell me, what's being done?"

"Three detachments is out, sir--one under Captain Down, one under Mr Durham, another under old Tipsy."