Home > Authors Index > George Manville Fenn > Fix Bay'nets: The Regiment in the Hills > This page
Fix Bay'nets: The Regiment in the Hills, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
||
Chapter 17. On The Balance |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. ON THE BALANCE The enemy had been very quiet for some days. The weather had been bad. Heavy rains had changed the rills and streams which ran along the gullies and ravines into fierce torrents, which leaped and bounded downward, foaming and tearing at the rocks which blocked their way, till with a tremendous plunge they joined the river in the valley, which kept up one deep, thunder-like boom, echoing from the mountains round. Before the rain came the sun had seemed to beat down with double force, and the valley had become intolerable during the day, the perpendicular rocks sending back the heat till the fort felt like an oven, and the poor fellows lying wounded under the doctor's care suffered terribly, panting in the great heat as they did, feeling the pangs of Tantalus, for there, always glittering before their eyes in the pure air, were the mountain-peaks draped in fold upon fold of the purest ice and snow. "We should lose 'em all, poor fellows!" the Doctor said, "if it were not for these glorious evenings and perfect nights. It wouldn't matter so much if we could get a few mule-loads of the ice from up yonder. Can't be done, I suppose?" "No," said Colonel Graves sadly. "Plenty of men would volunteer, but, much as every one is suffering--the ladies almost as bad as your wounded, Morton--I dare not send them, for they would never get back with their loads. Many of the brave fellows would straggle back, of course, but instead of bringing ice, Doctor, they would be bearing their wounded and dead comrades." "Yes, that's what I feel," sighed the Doctor, "and, Heaven knows, we don't want any more patients. Must be content with what coolness we get at night." "And that's glorious," said the Major, wiping his wet brow. "Delightful," added Captain Roberts. "It's the making of poor old Bracy. He seems to hang his head and droop more and more every day, till the sun goes down, and to begin to pick up again with the first breath that comes down from between the two big peaks there--what do they call them--Erpah and Brum?" "Ha! wish it was coming now," said the Doctor; "iced and pure air, to sweep right down the valley and clear away all the hot air, while it cools the sides of the precipices." "Why don't you let me go, Colonel!" said Drummond suddenly. "I want to get some ice badly for poor old Bracy. Six mules, six drivers, and a dozen of our boys. Oh, I could do it. Let me go, sir." The Colonel shook his head, and every day at the hottest time Drummond proposed the same thing; till on the last day, after gradually growing weaker in his determination, urged as he was on all sides by the sufferers in hospital, the wan looks of the ladies, and the longings of the men, the Colonel said: "Well, Mr Drummond, I'll sleep on it to-night, and if I come to a determination favourable to the proposition, you shall go; but not alone. One of my officers must go with you." "Glad to have him, sir," cried the subaltern eagerly. "Whom will you send, sir?" "I'll volunteer, sir," said Roberts quietly. "Good," said the Colonel; "so it will be as well for you and Drummond here to quietly select your men and the mules with their drivers, plus tools for cutting out the ice-like compressed snow. If I decide against it there will be no harm done." "Better make our plans, then, as to which way to go. Study it all by daylight with our glasses." "Needn't do that," said Drummond eagerly. "I know. We'll go straight up the steep gully that I followed when I went after the bears, it's awfully rough, but it's the best way, for the niggers never camp there; it's too wet for them." "Very well," said the Colonel; and the two young officers went straight through the scorching sunshine, which turned the great court of the fort into an oven, to where Bracy lay panting with the heat, with Gedge doing his best to make life bearable by applying freshly wrung-out towels to his aching brow. "News for you, old chap," said Drummond in a whisper. "But send that fellow of yours away." "There is no need," said Bracy faintly. "I can't spare him, and he's better worth trusting than I am." "Oh yes, we can trust Gedge," said Roberts in a low tone, while the lad was fetching a fresh bucket of water from the great well-like hole in the court, through which an underground duct from the river ran, always keeping it full of clear water fresh from the mountains, but in these days heated by the sun as it flamed down. The news was imparted by Drummond, and Bracy shook his head. "It would be glorious," he said; "but you ought not to go. Graves mustn't let a dozen men run such risks for the sake of us poor fellows. It would be madness. We must wait for the cool nights." "He will let us go," said Drummond; "and we can do it." "No," said Bracy, speaking with more energy, and he turned his head to Roberts. "I beg you will not think of such a thing, old lad," he said earnestly. "Well, we shall see." "Ready for another, sir?" said Gedge, coming in with the bucket. "Yes, yes, as soon as you can," said Bracy. "This one feels boiling hot." The fresh, cool, wet cloth was laid across his forehead; and, rousing up from the disappointment he felt at Bracy taking so decided a view against an expedition which the young subaltern had proposed to make almost solely in his friend's interest, and moved by the boyish spirit of mischief within him, Drummond suddenly exclaimed: "Look out, Gedge, or he'll bowl you over!--Oh, I beg your pardon, Bracy, old chap. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Knock me over, Roberts. I deserve it." For Bracy had winced sharply, and a look as of one suffering mental agony came into his eyes. "It does not matter," he said, smiling faintly and holding out his hand, which Drummond caught in his. "Ain't no fear, sir," said Gedge, who was soaking the hot cloth. "The guv'nor ain't had a touch now for a week." "Quiet!" whispered Roberts to the man. "He is quite right, Roberts, old fellow," sighed Bracy; "I am certainly better. But if I could only get rid of that constant pain!" "That must go soon," said Drummond cheerily. "I wish I could take your agony-duty for a few hours everyday. Honour bright, I would." "I know you would, old chap," said Bracy, smiling at him; "but I shall beg Graves not to let you go." "Nonsense! Don't say a word," cried Drummond. "If you do, hang me if ever I confide in you again!" Bracy laughed softly. "I am pretty free from scepticism," he said; "but I can't believe that. Now you fellows must go. The dragon will be here to start you if you stay any longer. Serve him right, though, Roberts, to let him go on this mad foray, for he'd get wounded, and be brought back and placed under Dame Gee's hands." "Oh, hang it! no; I couldn't stand that," cried the young officer; and a few minutes later they left the room, for Drummond to begin grumbling. "I don't care," he said. "If the Colonel gives us leave we must go. You won't back out, will you?" "No; for it would be the saving of some of the poor fellows. But we shall see." They did that very night, for, instead of the regular cool wind coming down the upper valley, a fierce hot gust roared from the other direction like a furnaces-blast from the plains; and at midnight down came the most furious storm the most travelled of the officers had ever encountered. The lightning flashed as if it were splintering the peaks which pierced the clouds, and the peals of thunder which followed sounded like the falling together of the shattered mountains, while amidst the intense darkness the sentries on the walls could hear the hiss and seething of the rain as it tore by on the rushing winds which swept through gorge and valley. The next morning the storm broke dark and gloomy, with the rain falling heavily and the river rolling along thick and turbulent, while one of the first things the sentries had to report was the fact that one of the hostile camps--the one nearest to the fort--was being struck. By night the tribe in another of the side valleys was withdrawn, and during the days which followed one by one the little camps of white-robed tribes-men melted away like the snow upon the lower hills, till not a man of the investing forces remained, and the long-harassed defenders looked in vain from the highest tower of the fort for their foes. The falling rain had effected in a few days that which the brave; defenders had been unable; to compass in as many weeks; while the alteration from the insufferable heat to the soft, cool, moist air had a wonderful effect upon the wounded, and made Doctor Morton chuckle and rub his hands as he rejoiced over the change. And still the rain went, on falling; the valley seemed surrounded by cascades, the streams rushed and thundered down, and the main river swept by the walls of the fort with a sullen roar; while, as if dejected and utterly out of heart, the British flag, which had flaunted out so bravely from the flagstaff, as if bidding defiance to the whole hill-country and all its swarthy tribes, hung down and clung and wrapped itself about the flagstaff, the halyard singing a dolefully weird strain in a minor key, while the wind whistled by it on its way down towards the plains. _ |
||