"However, I don"t suppose he will lose by it. The general is sure to send back a handsome present to him, for his conduct towards you.
"Have you seen Houghton yet?"
"Yes, sir; I have been with him for the past hour. He has been more than kind to me and, as he has no near relations, has been good enough to say that he will adopt me as his heir. So I have indeed been amply rewarded for the service I did him."
"I congratulate you most heartily," the colonel said; "you have well earned it, and I am sure that there is not a man in the army who will envy your good fortune. There is only one thing wanting to complete it, and that is the V.C.; which I have not the least doubt in the world will be awarded to you, and all my fellow officers will agree with me that never was it more n.o.bly earned. You courted what seemed certain death.
"The greater portion of the crosses have been earned by men for carrying in wounded comrades, under a heavy fire; but that is nothing to your case. Those actions were done on the spur of the moment, and there was every probability that the men would get back unhurt. Yours was the facing of a certain death. I can a.s.sure you that it will be the occasion of rejoicings, on the part of the whole regiment, when you appear for the first time with a cross on your breast."
He rang the bell and, when one of the mess waiters appeared, told him to bring half a dozen bottles of champagne. Lisle"s health was then drunk, with three hearty cheers. Lunch was on the table, and Lisle was heartily glad when the subject of his own deeds was dropped, and they started to discuss the meal.
"Now, Mr. Bullen," the colonel said, when the meal was finished, "I must carry you off to the ladies. They have all rejoined, and will be as anxious as we were to hear of your return."
"Must I go, Colonel?" Lisle asked shyly.
"Of course you must, Bullen. When a man performs brave deeds, he must be expected to be patted on the back--metaphorically, at any rate--by the ladies. So you have got to go through it all and, as I have sent word round that I shall bring you to my bungalow, you will be able to get it all over at once."
"Well, sir, I suppose I must do it, though I would much rather not.
Still, as you say, it were best to get it all over at once."
Six ladies were gathered at the bungalow, as Lisle entered with the colonel. All rose as they entered, and pressed round him, shaking his hand.
"I have come to tell you how pleased we all were," the colonel"s wife said, "to hear that you had returned, and how eager we have all been to learn how it has come about. We think it very unkind of you to stay so long in the mess room, when you must have known that we are all on thorns to hear about it. I can a.s.sure you that we have missed you terribly, since the regiment returned, and we are awfully glad to have you back again.
"Now, please tell us all about it. We know, of course, how you got Colonel Houghton off, and remained to die; and how proud all the regiment has been of your exploit; so you can start and tell us how it was that you escaped from being cut to mince-meat."
Lisle again went through the story.
"Why did you not return at once, when the chief who captured you said that you were his guest? Was there not some fair young Afridi, who held you in her chains?"
Lisle laughed.
"I can a.s.sure you that it was no feminine attractions that kept me.
There were some fifteen or twenty girls and, like everyone else, they were very kind to me but, so far as I was able to judge, not one of them was prettier, or I should rather say less ugly, than the rest; although several of them had very good features, and were doubtless considered lovely by the men. Certainly there was none whom an Englishman would look at twice.
"Poor things, most of the work of the village is left to them. They went out to cut gra.s.s, fed the cattle, gathered firewood, and ground the corn; and I have no doubt that they are now all occupied with the work of tilling the little patches of fertile ground beyond the village.
"Besides, ladies, you must remember that I have a vivid recollection of you all; which would, alone, have guarded me against falling in love with any dusky maiden."
"I rather doubt your word, Mr. Bullen," the colonel"s wife said; "you were always very ready to make yourself pleasant, and do our errands, and to make yourself generally useful and agreeable; but I do not remember that you ever ventured upon making a compliment before. You must have learnt the art somehow."
The lady laughed.
"I could hardly help comparing you with the women round me, but I really had a vivid remembrance of your kindness to me."
"In future, Mr. Bullen, we shall consider you as discharged from all duty. We have heard of other gallant deeds that you have done; and henceforth shall regard you, with a real respect, as an officer who has brought great credit upon the regiment. I am sure that, henceforth, you will lose your old nickname of "the boy," and be regarded as a hero."
"I hope not," Lisle said; "it has been very pleasant to be regarded as a boy, and therefore to act as a sort of general f.a.g to you. I hope you will continue to regard me as so. I have always considered it a privilege to be able to make myself useful to you, and I should be very sorry to lose it.
"I can a.s.sure you that I still feel as a boy. I know nothing of the world; have pa.s.sed my whole time, as far back as I can remember, in camp; and have thoroughly enjoyed my life. I suppose some day I shall lose the feeling that I am still a boy, but I shall certainly hold to it as long as I can."
"I suppose you had some difficulty in speaking with the natives?"
the doctor"s wife said.
"At first I had but, from continually talking with them, I got to know their language--I won"t say as well as Punjabi, but certainly very well--and I shall pa.s.s in it at the next examination."
"I wish all subalterns were like you," the colonel"s wife said.
"Most of those who come out from England are puffed up with a sense of their own importance, and I often wish that I could take them by the shoulders, and shake them well. And what are you going to do now?"
"I am going off to find the four men who came down with me, see if they are comfortable, and tell them that the general will give them the message to their chief, tomorrow."
"What will be the next thing, Mr. Bullen?"
"The next thing will be to go to the bazaar, and choose some presents for the chief and his family."
"What do you mean to get?"
"I think a brace of revolvers, and a good store of ammunition for the chief. As to the women I must, I suppose, get something in the way of dress. For the other men I shall get commoner things.
Everyone has been most kind to me, and I should certainly like them to have some remembrance of my stay.
"I suppose that there is five months" pay waiting for me in the paymaster"s chest."
"I should doubt it extremely," the colonel said. "You will get it in time, but you will have to wait. You have been struck off the regimental pay list, ever since you were put down as dead; and I expect the paymaster will have to get a special authorization, before you can draw your back pay."
"I was only joking, Colonel. My agent at Calcutta has my money in his hands, and I have only to draw on him."
"So much the better, Bullen. It is always a nuisance getting into debt, even when you are certain that funds will be forthcoming which will enable you to repay what you owe. But have you enough to carry you on till you hear from your agent?"
"Plenty, sir; I left all the money I did not care to carry about with me in the regimental till."
"Then I expect you will find it there still. I know that nothing has been done with it. A short time since, the paymaster was speaking to me about it, and asking me if I knew the address of any of your relations, or who was your agent at Calcutta. He said to me:
""I shall wait a bit longer. Mr. Bullen turned up quite unexpectedly, once before and, though I fear there is not a shadow of chance that he will do so again, I will hold the money for a time. It is just possible that he is held as a hostage, in which case we shall probably hear of him, when the pa.s.ses are open.""
Lisle went to the paymaster"s at once and, finding that he had not parted with the money, drew fifty pounds. He had no difficulty in buying the revolvers and cartridges; but was so completely at a loss as to the female garments, and the price he ought to pay, that he went back to the cantonment and asked two of the ladies to accompany him shopping. This they at once consented to do and, with their aid, he laid in a stock of female garments: silk for the chief"s wife; and simpler, but good and useful materials--for the most part of bright colour--for the other women. These were all parcelled up in various bundles, and a looking gla.s.s inserted in each parcel. For the men he bought bright waistbands and long knives; and gave, in addition, a present in money to the men who had come down with him.
It was evening before the work was finished, and he then returned to mess with the regiment.
"I suppose you don"t know yet whether you are coming back to us, Bullen?" the major said.
"No, sir, the general did not say; but for myself, I would very much rather join the regiment. Staff appointment sounds tempting, but I must say that I should greatly prefer regimental work; especially as I should be very much junior to the other officers of the staff, and should feel myself out of place among them."
"I have no doubt that you are right, in that respect; but staff appointments lead to promotion."
"I have no ambition for promotion, for the present, Major. I am already five or six up among the senior lieutenants, which is quite high enough for one of my age."
"Well, perhaps you are right. It is not a good thing for a young officer to be pushed on too fast, and another two or three years of regimental work will certainly do you no harm."
"I have not yet asked, Major, whether we are going up into the Tirah again, this spring?"