Ortheris wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and swore sentimentally; Learoyd turned pink; and the two walked away together. The Yorkshireman lifted up his voice and gave in thunder the chorus of _The Sentry-Box_, while Ortheris piped at his side.
""Bin to a bloomin" sing-song, you two?" said the Artilleryman, who was taking his cartridge down to the Morning Gun, "You"re over merry for these dashed days."
"I bid ye take care o" the brat," said he, "For it comes of a n.o.ble race"
Learoyd bellowed. The voices died out in the swimming-bath.
"Oh, Terence!" I said, dropping into Mulvaney"s speech, when we were alone, "it"s you that have the Tongue!"
He looked at me wearily; his eyes were sunk in his head, and his face was drawn and white, "Eyah!" said he; "I"ve blandandhered thim through the night somehow, but can thim that helps others help thimselves? Answer me that, sorr!"
And over the bastions of Fort Amara broke the pitiless day.
WEE WILLIE WINKIE
"An officer and a gentleman."
His full name was Percival William Williams, but he picked up the other name in a nursery-book, and that was the end of the christened t.i.tles. His mother"s _ayah_ called him Willie-_Baba_, but as he never paid the faintest attention to anything that the _ayah_ said, her wisdom did not help matters.
His father was the Colonel of the 195th, and as soon as Wee Willie Winkie was old enough to understand what Military Discipline meant, Colonel Williams put him under it. There was no other way of managing the child.
When he was good for a week, he drew good-conduct pay; and when he was bad, he was deprived of his good-conduct stripe. Generally he was bad, for India offers so many chances to little six-year-olds of going wrong.
Children resent familiarity from strangers, and Wee Willie Winkie was a very particular child. Once he accepted an acquaintance, he was graciously pleased to thaw. He accepted Brandis, a subaltern of the 195th, on sight.
Brandis was having tea at the Colonel"s, and Wee Willie Winkie entered strong in the possession of a good-conduct badge won for not chasing the hens round the compound. He regarded Brandis with gravity for at least ten minutes, and then delivered himself of his opinion.
"I like you," said he, slowly, getting off his chair and coming over to Brandis. "I like you. I shall call you Coppy, because of your hair. Do you _mind_ being called Coppy? it is because of ve hair, you know."
Here was one of the most embarra.s.sing of Wee Willie Winkie"s peculiarities. He would look at a stranger for some time, and then, without warning or explanation, would give him a name. And the name stuck.
No regimental penalties could break Wee Willie Winkie of this habit. He lost his good-conduct badge for christening the Commissioner"s wife "Pobs"; but nothing that the Colonel could do made the Station forego the nickname, and Mrs. Collen remained Mrs. "Pobs" till the end of her stay.
So Brandis was christened "Coppy," and rose, therefore, in the estimation of the regiment.
If Wee Willie Winkie took an interest in any one, the fortunate man was envied alike by the mess and the rank and file. And in their envy lay no suspicion of self-interest. "The Colonel"s son" was idolized on his own merits entirely. Yet Wee Willie Winkie was not lovely. His face was permanently freckled, as his legs were permanently scratched, and in spite of his mother"s almost tearful remonstrances he had insisted upon having his long yellow locks cut short in the military fashion. "I want my hair like Sergeant Tummil"s," said Wee Willie Winkie, and, his father abetting, the sacrifice was accomplished.
Three weeks after the bestowal of his youthful affections on Lieutenant Brandis--henceforward to be called "Coppy" for the sake of brevity--Wee Willie Winkie was destined to behold strange things and far beyond his comprehension.
Coppy returned his liking with interest. Coppy had let him wear for five rapturous minutes his own big sword--just as tall as Wee Willie Winkie.
Coppy had promised him a terrier puppy; and Coppy had permitted him to witness the miraculous operation of shaving. Nay, more--Coppy had said that even he, Wee Willie Winkie, would rise in time to the ownership of a box of shiny knives, a silver soap-box and a silver-handled "sputter-brush," as Wee Willie Winkie called it. Decidedly, there was no one except his father, who could give or take away good-conduct badges at pleasure, half so wise, strong, and valiant as Coppy with the Afghan and Egyptian medals on his breast. Why, then, should Coppy be guilty of the unmanly weakness of kissing--vehemently kissing--a "big girl," Miss Allardyce to wit? In the course of a morning ride, Wee Willie Winkie had seen Coppy so doing, and, like the gentleman he was, had promptly wheeled round and cantered back to his groom, lest the groom should also see.
Under ordinary circ.u.mstances he would have spoken to his father, but he felt instinctively that this was a matter on which Coppy ought first to be consulted.
"Coppy," shouted Wee Willie Winkie, reining up outside that subaltern"s bungalow early one morning--"I want to see you, Coppy!"
"Come in, young "un," returned Coppy, who was at early breakfast in the midst of his dogs. "What mischief have you been getting into now?"
Wee Willie Winkie had done nothing notoriously bad for three days, and so stood on a pinnacle of virtue.
"I"ve been doing nothing bad," said he, curling himself into a long chair with a studious affectation of the Colonel"s languor after a hot parade.
He buried his freckled nose in a tea-cup and, with eyes staring roundly over the rim, asked:--"I say, Coppy, is it pwoper to kiss big girls?"
"By Jove! You"re beginning early. Who do you want to kiss?"
"No one. My muvver"s always kissing me if I don"t stop her. If it isn"t pwoper, how was you kissing Major Allardyce"s big girl last morning, by ve ca.n.a.l?"
Coppy"s brow wrinkled. He and Miss Allardyce had with great craft managed to keep their engagement secret for a fortnight. There were urgent and imperative reasons why Major Allardyce should not know how matters stood for at least another month, and this small marplot had discovered a great deal too much.
"I saw you," said Wee Willie Winkie, calmly. "But ve groom didn"t see. I said, "_Hut jao_.""
"Oh, you had that much sense, you young Rip," groaned poor Coppy, half amused and half angry. "And how many people may you have told about it?"
"Only me myself. You didn"t tell when I twied to wide ve buffalo ven my pony was lame; and I fought you wouldn"t like."
"Winkie," said Coppy, enthusiastically, shaking the small hand, "you"re the best of good fellows. Look here, you can"t understand all these things. One of these days--hang it, how can I make you see it!--I"m going to marry Miss Allardyce, and then she"ll be Mrs. Coppy, as you say. If your young mind is so scandalized at the idea of kissing big girls, go and tell your father."
"What will happen?" said Wee Willie Winkie, who firmly believed that his father was omnipotent.
"I shall get into trouble." said Coppy, playing his trump card with an appealing look at the holder of the ace.
"Ven I won"t," said Wee Willie Winkie, briefly. "But my faver says it"s un-man-ly to be always kissing, and I didn"t fink _you"d_ do vat, Coppy."
"I"m not always kissing, old chap. It"s only now and then, and when you"re bigger you"ll do it too. Your father meant it"s not good for little boys."
"Ah!" said Wee Willie Winkie, now fully enlightened. "It"s like ve sputter-brush?"
"Exactly," said Coppy, gravely.
"But I don"t fink I"ll ever want to kiss big girls, nor no one, "cept my muvver. And I _must_ vat, you know."
There was a long pause, broken by Wee Willie Winkie,
"Are you fond of vis big girl, Coppy?"
"Awfully!" said Coppy.
"Fonder van you are of Bell or ve Butcha--or me?"
"It"s in a different way," said Coppy. "You see, one of these days Miss Allardyce will belong to me, but you"ll grow up and command the Regiment and--all sorts of things. It"s quite different, you see."
"Very well," said Wee Willie Winkie, rising. "If you"re fond of ve big girl, I won"t tell any one. I must go now."
Coppy rose and escorted his small guest to the door, adding: "You"re the best of little fellows, Winkie. I tell you what. In thirty days from now you can tell if you like--tell any one you like."
Thus the secret of the Brandis-Allardyce engagement was dependent on a little child"s word. Coppy, who knew Wee Willie Winkie"s idea of truth, was at ease, for he felt that he would not break promises. Wee Willie Winkie betrayed a special and unusual interest in Miss Allardyce, and, slowly revolving round that embarra.s.sed young lady, was used to regard her gravely with unwinking eye. He was trying to discover why Coppy should have kissed her. She was not half so nice as his own mother. On the other hand, she was Coppy"s property, and would in time belong to him. Therefore it behooved him to treat her with as much respect as Coppy"s big sword or shiny pistol.
The idea that he shared a great secret in common with Coppy kept Wee Willie Winkie unusually virtuous for three weeks. Then the Old Adam broke out, and he made what he called a "camp-fire" at the bottom of the garden.
How could he have foreseen that the flying sparks would have lighted the Colonel"s little hayrick and consumed a week"s store for the horses?
Sudden and swift was the punishment--deprivation of the good-conduct badge and, most sorrowful of all, two days confinement to barracks--the house and veranda--coupled with the withdrawal of the light of his father"s countenance.