"An" that"s all right," said Ortheris, withdrawing his head as he heard the hiccough of the Sniders in the distance. "S"elp me Gawd, tho", that man"s not fit to live--messin" with my beauty-sleep this way."
"Go out and shoot him in the morning, then," said the subaltern incautiously. "Silence in the tents now. Get your rest, men."
Ortheris lay down with a happy little sigh, and in two minutes there was no sound except the rain on the canvas and the all-embracing and elemental snoring of Learoyd.
The camp lay on a bare ridge of the Himalayas, and for a week had been waiting for a flying column to make connection. The nightly rounds of the deserter and his friends had become a nuisance.
In the morning the men dried themselves in hot sunshine and cleaned their grimy accoutrements. The native regiment was to take its turn of road-making that day while the Old Regiment loafed.
"I"m goin" to lay for a shot at that man," said Ortheris, when he had finished washing out his rifle, ""E comes up the watercourse every evenin"
about five o"clock. If we go and lie out on the north "ill a bit this afternoon we"ll get "im."
"You"re a bloodthirsty little mosquito," said Mulvaney, blowing blue clouds into the air. "But I suppose I will have to come wid you. Pwhere"s Jock?"
"Gone out with the Mixed Pickles, "cause "e thinks "isself a bloomin"
marksman," said Ortheris, with scorn,
The "Mixed Pickles" were a detachment of picked shots, generally employed in clearing spurs of hills when the enemy were too impertinent. This taught the young officers how to handle men, and did not do the enemy much harm. Mulvaney and Ortheris strolled out of camp, and pa.s.sed the Aurangabadis going to their road-making,
"You"ve got to sweat to-day," said Ortheris, genially. "We"re going to get your man. You didn"t knock "im out last night by any chance, any of you?"
"No. The pig went away mocking us. I had one shot at him," said a private, "He"s my cousin, and _I_ ought to have cleared our dishonor. But good luck to you."
They went cautiously to the north hill, Ortheris leading, because, as he explained, "this is a long-range show, an" I"ve got to do it." His was an almost pa.s.sionate devotion to his rifle, which, by barrack-room report, he was supposed to kiss every night before turning in. Charges and scuffles he held in contempt, and, when they were inevitable, slipped between Mulvaney and Learoyd, bidding them to fight for his skin as well as their own. They never failed him. He trotted along, questing like a hound on a broken trail, through the wood of the north hill. At last he was satisfied, and threw himself down on the soft pine-needle slope that commanded a clear view of the watercourse and a brown, bare hillside beyond it. The trees made a scented darkness in which an army corps could have hidden from the sun-glare without.
""Ere"s the tail o" the wood," said Ortheris. ""E"s got to come up the watercourse, "cause it gives "im cover. We"ll lay "ere. "Tain"t not arf so bloomin" dusty neither."
He buried his nose in a clump of scentless white violets. No one had come to tell the flowers that the season of their strength was long past, and they had bloomed merrily in the twilight of the pines.
"This is something like," he said, luxuriously. "Wot a "evinly clear drop for a bullet acrost! How much d"you make it, Mulvaney?"
"Seven hunder. Maybe a trifle less, bekaze the air"s so thin."
_Wop! Wop! Wop!_ went a volley of musketry on the rear face of the north hill.
"Curse them Mixed Pickles firin" at nothin"! They"ll scare arf the country."
"Thry a sightin" shot in the middle of the row," said Mulvaney, the man of many wiles. "There"s a red rock yonder he"ll be sure to pa.s.s. Quick!"
Ortheris ran his sight up to six hundred yards and fired. The bullet threw up a feather of dust by a clump of gentians at the base of the rock.
"Good enough!" said Ortheris, snapping the scale down. "You snick your sights to mine or a little lower. You"re always firin" high. But remember, first shot to me, O Lordy! but it"s a lovely afternoon."
The noise of the firing grew louder, and there was a tramping of men in the wood. The two lay very quiet, for they knew that the British soldier is desperately p.r.o.ne to fire at anything that moves or calls. Then Learoyd appeared, his tunic ripped across the breast by a bullet, looking ashamed of himself. He flung down on the pine-needles, breathing in snorts.
"One o" them d.a.m.ned gardeners o" th" Pickles," said he, fingering the rent. "Firin" to th" right flank, when he knowed I was there. If I knew who he was I"d "a" rippen the hide offan him. Look at ma tunic!"
"That"s the spishil trustability av a marksman. Train him to hit a fly wid a stiddy rest at seven hunder, an" he loose on anythin" he sees or hears up to th" mile. You"re well out av that fancy-firin" gang, Jock. Stay here."
"Bin firin" at the bloomin" wind in the bloomin" treetops," said Ortheris, with a chuckle. "I"ll show you some firin" later on."
They wallowed in the pine-needles, and the sun warmed them where they lay.
The Mixed Pickles ceased firing, and returned to camp, and left the wood to a few scared apes. The watercourse lifted up its voice in the silence, and talked foolishly to the rocks. Now and again the dull thump of a blasting charge three miles away told that the Aurangabadis were in difficulties with their road-making. The men smiled as they listened and lay still, soaking in the warm leisure. Presently Learoyd, between the whiffs of his pipe--
"Seems queer--about "im yonder--desertin" at all."
""E"ll be a bloomin" side queerer when I"ve done with "im," said Ortheris.
They were talking in whispers, for the stillness of the wood and the desire of slaughter lay heavy upon them.
"I make no doubt he had his reasons for desertin"; but, my faith! I make less doubt ivry man has good reason for killin" him," said Mulvaney.
"Happen there was a la.s.s tewed up wi"it. Men do more than more for th"
sake of a la.s.s."
"They make most av us "list. They"ve no manner av right to make us desert."
"Ah; they make us "list, or their fathers do," said Learoyd, softly, his helmet over his eyes.
Ortheris"s brows contracted savagely. He was watching the valley, "If it"s a girl I"ll shoot the beggar twice over, an" second time for bein" a fool.
You"re blasted sentimental all of a sudden, Thinkin" o" your last near shave?"
"Nay, lad; ah was but thinkin" o" what had happened,"
"An" fwhat has happened, ye lumberin" child av calamity, that you"re lowing like a cow-calf at the back av the pasture, an" suggestin"
invidious excuses for the man Stanley"s goin" to kill. Ye"ll have to wait another hour yet, little man. Spit it out, Jock, an" bellow melojus to the moon. It takes an earthquake or a bullet graze to fetch aught out av you.
Discourse, Don Juan! The a-moors av Lotharius Learoyd! Stanley, kape a rowlin" rig"mental eye on the valley."
"It"s along o" yon hill there," said Learoyd, watching the bare sub-Himalayan spur that reminded him of his Yorkshire moors. He was speaking more to himself than his fellows.
"Ay," said he, "Rumbolds Moor stands up ower Skipton town, an" Greenhow Hill stands up ower Pately Brig. I reckon you"ve never heeard tell o"
Greenhow Hill, but yon bit o" bare stuff if there was n.o.bbut a white road windin" is like ut; strangely like. Moors an" moors an" moors, wi" never a tree for shelter, an" grey houses wi" flagstone rooves, and pewits cryin", an" a windhover goin" to and fro just like these kites. And cold! A wind that cuts you like a knife. You could tell Greenhow Hill folk by the red-apple color o" their cheeks an" nose tips, and their blue eyes, driven into pin-points by the wind. Miners mostly, burrowin" for lead i" th"
hillsides, followin" the trail of th" ore vein same as a field-rat. It was the roughest minin" I ever seen. Yo"d come on a bit o" creakin" wood windla.s.s like a well-head, an" you was let down i" th" bight of a rope, fendin" yoursen off the side wi" one hand, carryin" a candle stuck in a lump o" clay with t"other, an" clickin" hold of a rope with t"other hand."
"An" that"s three of them," said Mulvaney. "Must be a good climate in those parts."
Learoyd took no heed.
"An" then yo" came to a level, where you crept on your hands and knees through a mile o" windin" drift, "an" you come out into a cave-place as big as Leeds Townhall, with a engine pumpin" water from workin"s "at went deeper still. It"s a queer country, let alone minin", for the hill is full of those natural caves, an" the rivers an" the becks drops into what they call pot-holes, an" come out again miles away."
"Wot was you doin" there?" said Ortheris.
"I was a young chap then, an" mostly went wi" "osses, leadin" coal and lead ore; but at th" time I"m tellin" on I was drivin" the waggon-team i"
th" big sumph. I didn"t belong to that countryside by rights. I went there because of a little difference at home, an" at fust I took up wi" a rough lot. One night we"d been drinkin", an" I must ha" hed more than I could stand, or happen th" ale was none so good. Though i" them days, By for G.o.d, I never seed bad ale." He flung his arms over his head, and gripped a vast handful of white violets. "Nah," said he, "I never seed the ale I could not drink, the bacca I could not smoke, nor the la.s.s I could not kiss. Well, we mun have a race home, the lot on us. I lost all th" others, an" when I was climbin" ower one of them walls built o" loose stones, I comes down into the ditch, stones and all, an" broke my arm. Not as I knawed much about it, for I fell on th" back of my head, an" was knocked stupid like. An" when I come to mysen it were mornin", an" I were lyin" on the settle i" Jesse Roantree"s house-place, an" "Liza Roantree was settin"
sewin". I ached all ower, and my mouth were like a limekiln. She gave me a drink out of a china mug wi" gold letters--"A Present from Leeds"--as I looked at many and many a time at after. "Yo"re to lie still while Dr.
Warbottom comes, because your arm"s broken, and father has sent a lad to fetch him. He found yo" when he was goin" to work, an" carried you here on his back," sez she. "Oa!" sez I; an" I shet my eyes, for I felt ashamed o"
mysen. "Father"s gone to his work these three hours, an" he said he" tell "em to get somebody to drive the tram." The clock ticked, an" a bee comed in the house, an" they rung i" my head like mill-wheels. An" she give me another drink an" settled the pillow. "Eh, but yo"re young to be getten drunk an" such like, but yo" won"t do it again, will yo"?"--"Noa," sez I, "I wouldn"t if she"d not but stop they mill-wheels clatterin".""
"Faith, it"s a good thing to be nursed by a woman when you"re sick!" said Mulvaney. "Dir" cheap at the price av twenty broken heads."