"Repate moi ructions," he mumbled at last.
"a.s.s!" snapped Kit. "Here!--stand so!--the lantern between your feet.
That"s right. Now don"t stir. Ready, Knapp?"
"On the boil, sir," bobbing and blowing on his fists.
"Then come on."
Kit drew the wheezing bolts, and flung back the door. A chill breeze entered.
Before the boy could stop him, the little rifleman was through the door and away down the drain.
"Come back!" ordered Kit in a fierce whisper.
The man, stooping in the drain, turned and grinned.
"In _my_ Service, sir, Borderers lead."
"In _my_ Service, officers do.... Come back!"
The boy had nothing but his dirk; but that he pointed resolutely; and the lantern-light glimmered in the darkness as on a steel-barrel.
Knapp crawled back, delighted.
"You"re the sort," he chuckled, patting the lad on the back. "Quite the little man o war."
"Get to heel," snarled Kit. "Hold your tongue. Keep your paws to yourself. And address me respectfully and properly."
The drain ran away before them, a long black tunnel, focussing in a remote jewel of light. It was like the Alley of Life, cramped and dark, and at the far end of it a little door opening on heaven. And across the door the boy seemed to see written the one word
_Nelson_.
He advanced into the breathing darkness, his eye on that guiding light. Half-way down the drain a dim patch brightened the black floor.
There was the man-hole; there was the danger-point.
He crept forward with groping hands. The bricks were cold and sweating, the atmosphere that of the grave. It seemed to smell of dead men. The boy felt as though a mountain was smothering him. He found himself breathing deep as though in difficulties.
Even Knapp, crawling at his heels, appeared affected.
The man was humming something in a dirge-like monotone. At first Kit thought it was some sort of a Litany; then he caught the words:
"Two little corpseses goes for a walk In a church-yard under the sea, Says the one to the other-- "I"ll squeak if you"ll squawk To keep me company.""
The humming ceased, and Kit missed it.
"Are you there, Knapp?"
"Yes, sir. Smotherified feelin, ain"t it?"
"Do you hear anything?"
"Only me own teeth chatter."
"Hush, then."
They were drawing near the man-hole.
The boy was sweating, shivering. He was living in death.
A very little, and he would have had one of his old screaming panics of the night-nursery. Then that tiny diamond of light, hanging in the blackness before him, the one word written across it, steadied him. It was a star, his star. It sang to him the Song of Faith.
Besides, how could he run away?--he, an officer, a gentleman, a sailor, run away before a private soldier? No. It is easier to lead somebody who believes you to be brave than to let him know you are a coward--especially if he"s a soldier. The thought tickled him, and his heart surged upward.
They were very near the man-hole now.
Kit turned and pointed.
Knapp put out his tongue in reply.
The patch of light on the floor was dim and chequered. The old bush then was in its place. The boy thanked heaven for it, and stopped dead.
Above the tumult of his heart he could hear a voice: so close too that had he prodded upwards through the thin crust of earth he would have stabbed the speaker.
And how well he knew that ghastly treble!
CHAPTER LI
VOICES OF THE LOST
_"Where"s Bandy?"
"Where we"ll all be afore we"re much older--in ell this alf our."
"What ye mean?"
"Ave a peep in the creek yonder. You"ll see sharp enough what I mean."_
Another voice, dark and brooding, joined in:
_"Who stuck him?"
"The Genelman."
"What for?"