Peroo brought out some pipeclay and pumice-stone from a crevice, and set to work cheerfully on the b.u.t.tons and belts, thinking as he worked that he had indeed made a good bargain. With a judicious smear of cinnabar here and there, the tunic would be almost as good as the master"s old one--_plus_ the good-conduct stripes, of course, which he could never have gained in the regiment.
But out of it? If, for instance, the Lord were really to repay Private George Afford for that good deed in defending a poor lame man?--a good deed which no bad one could alter for the worse! Peroo on this point would have been a match for a whole college of Jesuits in casuistry, as he laid on the pipeclay with lavish hand, and burnished the b.u.t.tons till they shone like gold.
It was grey dawn when George Afford woke, feeling a deferential touch on his shoulder.
"_Huzoor!_" came a familiar voice, "the first bugle has gone. The _Huzoor_ will find his uniform--a corporal"s, with three good-conduct stripes--is ready. The absence of a rifle is to be regretted; but that shall be amended if the _Huzoor_ will lend a gracious ear to the plan of his slave. In the meantime a gifting of the _Huzoor"s_ feet for the putting on of stockings might be ordered."
George Afford thrust out a foot mechanically, and sate on the edge of the string bed staring stupidly at the three good-conduct stripes on the tunic, which was neatly folded beside him.
"It is quite simple," went on the deferential voice. "The _Huzoor_ is going to march with the colours, but he will be twelve hours behind them; that is all. He will get the fighting, and by-and-by, when the killing comes and men are wanted, the Colonel-_sahib_ may give a place; but, in any case, there will always be the fighting. For the rest, I, the _Huzoor"s_ slave, will manage; and as there will, of necessity, be no canteen, there can be no tyranny. Besides, since there is not a cowrie in the master"s jacket, what else is he to do?"
The last argument was unanswerable. George Afford thrust out his other foot to be shod for this new path, and stared harder than ever at the good-conduct stripes.
That night, despite the fatigues of a first day in camp, Peroo trudged back along the hard white road to meet some one whom he expected; for this was the first step, and he had, perforce, been obliged to leave his charge to his own devices for twelve hours amid the distractions of the bazaar. Still, without a cowrie in his pocket--Peroo had carefully extracted the few annas he had found in one--a man was more or less helpless, even for evil.
Despite this fact, there was a lilt in the lagging step which, just as Peroo had begun to give up hope of playing Providence, came slowly down the road. It belonged to George Afford, in the gentlemanly stage of drink. He had had a chequered life, he said almost tearfully, but there were some things a man of honour could not do. He could not break his promise to an inferior--a superior was another matter. In that case he paid for it honestly. But he had promised Peroo--his inferior--to come. So here he was; and that was an end of it.
It seemed more than once during the next few hours as if the end had, indeed, come. But somehow Peroo"s deferential hand and voice extricated those tired uncertain feet, the weary sodden brain, from ditches and despair; still it was a very sorry figure which Peroo"s own hasty footsteps left behind, safely quartered for the day in a shady bit of jungle, while he ran on to overtake the rear-guard if he could. The start, however, had been too much for his lameness, and he was a full hour late at his work; which, of course, necessitated his putting in an excuse. He chose drunkenness, as being nearest the truth, was fined a day"s wages, and paid it cheerfully, thinking with more certainty of the sleeping figure he had left in the jungles.
The afternoon sun was slanting through the trees before it stirred, and George Afford woke from the sleep of fatigue superadded to his usual sedative. He felt strangely refreshed, and lay on his back staring at the little squirrels yawning after their midday snooze in the branches above him. And then he laughed suddenly, sate up and looked about him half confusedly. Not a trace of humanity was to be seen; nothing but the squirrels, a few green pigeons, and down in the mirror-like pool behind the trees--a pool edged by the percolating moisture from the water with faint spikes of sprouting gra.s.s--a couple of egrets were fishing lazily. Beyond lay a bare sandy plain, backed by faint blue hills--the hills where fighting was to be had. Close at hand were those three good-conduct stripes.
That night Peroo had not nearly so far to go back along the broad white road; yet the step which came echoing down it, if steadier, lagged more. Nor was Peroo"s task much easier, for George Afford--in the abject depression which comes to the tippler from total abstinence--sate down in the dust more than once, and swore he would not go another step without a dram. Still, about an hour after dawn, he was once more dozing in a shady retreat with a pot of water and some dough cakes beside him, while Peroo, in luck, was getting a lift to the third camping-ground.
But even at the second, where the sleeping figure remained, the country was wilder, almost touching the "skirts of the hills," and so, when George Afford roused himself--as the animals rouse themselves to meet the coming cool of evening--a ravine deer was standing within easy shot, looking at him with head thrown back and wide, startled nostrils, scenting the unknown.
The sight stirred something in the man which had slept the sleep of the dead for years; that keen delight of the natural man, not so much in the kill as in the chase; not so much in the mere chase itself as in its efforts--its freedom. He rose, stretching his long arms in what was half a yawn, half a vague inclination to shake himself free of some unseen burden.
But that night he swore at Peroo for leading him a fool"s dance; he threatened to go back. He was not so helpless as all that. He was not a slave; he would have his tot of rum like any other soldier as--
"_Huzoor_," interrupted Peroo, deferentially, "this slave is aware that many things necessary to the _Huzoor"s_ outfit as a soldier remain to be produced. But with patience all may be attained. Here, by G.o.d"s grace, is the rifle. One of us--Smith-_sahib_ of G Company, _Huzoor_--found freedom to-day. He was reconnoitring with Griffiths, Major-_sahib_, when one of these h.e.l.l-doomed _Sheeahs_--whom Heaven destroy--shot him from behind a rock--"
Private George Afford seemed to find his feet suddenly. "Smith of G Company?" he echoed in a different voice.
"_Huzoor!_--the _sahib_ whom the _Huzoor_ thrashed for thrashing this slave--"
"Poor chap!" went on George Afford, as if he had not heard. "So they"ve nicked him--but we"ll pay "em out--we--" His fingers closed mechanically on the rifle Peroo was holding out to him.
It was a fortnight after this, and the camp lay cl.u.s.tered closely in the mouth of a narrow defile down which rushed a torrent swollen from the snows above; a defile which meant decisive victory or defeat to the little force which had to push their way through it to the heights above. Yet, though death, maybe, lay close to each man, the whole camp was in an uproar because Major Griffiths" second pair of _putties_ had gone astray. The other officers had been content with one set of these woollen bandages which in hill-marching serve as gaiters, and help so much to lessen fatigue; but the Major, being methodical, had provided against emergencies. And now, when, with that possibility of death before him, his soul craved an extreme order in all things, his clean pair had disappeared. Now the Major, though silent, always managed to say what he meant. So it ran through the camp that they had been stolen, and men compared notes over the fact in the mess-tent and in the canteen.
In the former, the Adjutant with a frown admitted that of late there had been a series of inexplicable petty thefts in camp, which had begun with the disappearance of Private Smith"s rifle. That might perhaps be explained in an enemy"s country, but what the deuce anybody could want with a pair of bone shirt-studs--
"And a shirt," put in a mournful voice.
"_Item_ a cake of scented soap," said another.
"And a comb," began a third.
The Colonel, who had till then preserved a discreet silence, here broke in with great heat to the Adjutant.
"Upon my soul, sir, it"s a disgrace to the staff, and I must insist on a stringent inquiry the instant we"ve licked these hill-men. I--I didn"t mean to say anything about it--but I haven"t been able to find my tooth-brush for a week."
Whereupon there was a general exodus into the crisp, cold air outside, where the darkness would hide inconvenient smiles, for the Colonel was one of those men who have a different towel for their face and hands.
The stars were shining in the cleft between the tall, shadowy cliffs which rose up on either side, vague ma.s.ses of shadow on which--seen like stars upon a darker sky--the watchfires of the enemy sparkled here and there. The enemy powerful, vigilant; and yet beside the camp-fires close at hand the men had forgotten the danger of the morrow in the trivial loss of the moment, and were discussing the Major"s _putties_.
"It"s w"ot I say all along," reiterated the romancer of G Company. "It begun ever since Joey Smith was took from us at Number Two camp. It"s "is ghost--that"s w"ot it is. "Is ghost layin" in a _trew-so_. Jest you look "ere! They bury "im, didn"t they? as "e was--decent like in coat and pants--no more. Well! since then "e"s took "is rifle off us, an" a greatcoat off D Company, and a knapsack off A."
"Don"t be lavin" out thim blankets he tuk from the store, man,"
interrupted the tall Irishman. "Sure it"s a testhimony to the pore bhoy"s character annyhow that he shud be wantin" thim where he is."
"It is not laughing at all at such things I would be, whatever," put in another voice seriously, "for it is knowing of such things we are in the Highlands--"
"Hold your second sight, Mac," broke in a third; "we don"t want none o" your shivers tonight. You"re as bad as they blamed n.i.g.g.e.rs, and they swear they seen Joey more nor once in a red coat dodging about our rear."
"Well! they won"t see "im no more, then," remarked a fourth philosophically, "for "e change "is tailor. Leastways, "e got a service khakee off Sergeant Jones the night afore last; the Sergeant took his Bible oath to "ave it off Joey Smith"s ghost, w"en "e got time to tackle "im, if "e "ave ter go to "ell for it."
Major Griffiths meantime was having a similar say as he stood, eye-gla.s.s in eye, at the door of the mess-tent. "Whoever the thief is," he admitted, with the justice common to him, "he appears to have the instincts of a gentleman; but, by Gad, sir, if I find him he shall know what it is to take a field officer"s gaiters."
Whereupon he gave a dissatisfied look at his own legs, a more contented one at the glimmering stars of the enemy"s watchfires, and then turned in to get a few hours" rest before the dawn.
But some one a few miles farther down the valley looked both at his legs and at the stars with equal satisfaction. Some one, tall, square, straight, smoking a pipe--some one else"s pipe, no doubt--beside the hole in the ground where, on the preceding night, the camp flagstaff had stood. That fortnight had done more for George Afford than give his outward man a trousseau; it had clothed him with a certain righteousness, despite the inward conviction that Peroo must be a magnificent liar in protesting that the _Huzoor"s_ outfit had either been gifted to him or bought honestly.
In fact, as he stood looking down at his legs complacently, he murmured to himself, "I believe they"re the Major"s, poor chap; look like him somehow." Then he glanced at the Sergeant"s coatee he wore and walked up and down thoughtfully--up and down beside the hole in the ground where the flagstaff had stood.
So to him from the dim shadows came a limping figure.
"Well?" he called sharply.
"The orders are for dawn, _Huzoor_, and here are some more cartridges."
George Afford laughed; an odd, low little laugh of sheer satisfaction.
It was past dawn by an hour or two, but the heights were still unwon.
"Send some one--any one!" gasped the Colonel, breathlessly, as he pressed on with a forlorn hope of veterans to take a knoll of rocks whence a galling fire had been decimating every attack. "Griffiths!
for G.o.d"s sake, go or get some one ahead of those youngsters on the right or they"ll break--and then--"
Break! What more likely? A weak company, full of recruits, a company with its officers shot down, and before them a task for veterans--for that indifference to whizzing bullets which only custom brings. Major Griffiths, as he ran forward, saw all this, saw also the ominous waver. G.o.d! would he be in time to check it--to get ahead? that was what was wanted, some one ahead--no more than that--some one ahead!
There was some one. A tall figure ahead of the wavering boys.