"I renounce that dream utterly, and aspire to nothing higher than colonel. It must really be an awful bore to be commander-in-chief.
Fancy having to go down to your office every morning, and go into all sorts of questions, and settle all sorts of business. No, I think that, when I get to be a colonel, my aspirations will be satisfied."
"I don"t know that I should care even about being a colonel, Hallett. Long before I get to that rank, I am sure that I should have had quite enough of fighting to last for a lifetime, and would be quite content to settle down in some little place at home."
"And marry, of course. A fellow like you would be sure to be able to pick up a wife with money. My thoughts don"t incline that way. I look forward to the Rag as the conclusion of my career. There you meet fellows you know, lie against each other about past campaigns, eat capital dinners, and have your rub of whist, regularly, of an evening."
"But, my dear Hallett, think how you would fatten out under such a regime!"
"Oh, hang the fat, Bullen; it would not matter one way or another, when you haven"t got to do yourself up in uniform, and make tremendous marches, and so on. I should not want to walk, at all; I should have chambers somewhere close to the club, and could always charter a hansom, when I wanted to go anywhere. Besides, fat is eminently respectable, in an elderly man."
Lisle laughed merrily.
"My dear Hallett, it is useless to look forward so far into the future. Let us content ourselves with the evils of today. In spite of your grumbling, you know that you like the life and, if the bullets do but spare you, I have no doubt that you will be just as energetic a soldier as you have shown yourself in this campaign; although I must admit that you have sometimes taken it out in grumbling."
"Well, it is very difficult to be energetic in this country. I think I could be enthusiastic, in anything like a decent climate, but this takes all the spirit out of one.
"I think I could have struggled over the snow in the Tirah, as you did. I can conceive myself wearing the D.S.O. in European war. But how can a man keep his p.e.c.k.e.r up when he is wet through all day, continually fording rivers, and exposed all the time to a pelting rain and, worse than all, seeing his friends going down one after another with this beastly fever, and feeling sure that his own turn will come next?
"I should not mind so much if we always had a dry hut to sleep in, but as often as not we have to sleep on the drenched ground in the open and, consequently, get up in the morning more tired than when we lie down. I have no doubt that, after all this is over, I shall become a cripple from rheumatism, or be laid up with some other disorder."
"I don"t suppose you will do anything of the sort, Hallett. Of course this fever is very trying but, although men are being constantly sent down to the coast, the number who die from it is not great. Only some six or seven have succ.u.mbed. I expect myself that we shall both return to our regiments in the pink of condition, with our medals on our b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and proud of the fact that we have gone through one of the most perilous expeditions ever achieved by British troops; and the more wonderful that, except for a handful of English officers and non-commissioned officers, it has been carried through successfully by a purely native army.
"I don"t think we quite recognize, at present, what a big affair it has been. We have marched through almost impenetrable bush; we have suppressed a rebellion over a great extent of country, admirably adapted for the mode of warfare of our enemies; and we have smashed up an army of well-armed natives, in numbers ranging from six, to ten to one against us."
"Yes, yes, I know all that; and I don"t say that it has not been a well-managed business; and I dare say I shall look back on it with pleasure, some day, when I have forgotten all the miseries we have suffered. Besides, though I do grumble, I hope we are not going to stick here long. I could do with a week of eating and drinking--that would be the outside. It is wretched enough tramping through swamps, but I think I should prefer that to a prolonged stay in this hole."
"For once I agree with you thoroughly, Hallett. It is bad enough to march in West Africa, but it is worse to sit still. It is only when you try to do that, that you find how much you are pulled down; and the longer you sit still, the less disposed you are to get up; whereas, on the march, you are so full of the idea that you may be ambushed, at any moment, that you have no time to think of your fatigues."
"Yes, there is no doubt of that, Bullen; so I mean to spend all the time I have to spare here on my back; and sleep, if I can, continuously."
"Don"t flatter yourself that you will be allowed to do that. You may be sure that they will find ample work for lazy hands to do.
Now it is time to buckle on our swords, and go out and inspect our fellows. I can see that they are mustering already."
"I wish those white non-commissioned officers would not be so disgustingly punctual," Hallett grumbled. "They are splendid when it comes to fighting, but they never seem to know that there is a time for work and a time for play--or, at any rate, they never let others play."
"They are splendid fellows," Lisle said. "I really do not know what we should have done without them. There would be no talking of lying down and going to sleep, if they were not there to look after the men."
"I don"t think it would make any difference to you," Hallett said, "for it seems to me that you are always looking after your men."
"So are you, Hallett. You are just as keen about getting your company into order as I am, only you always try to look bored over it. It is a stupid plan, old man, for I don"t think that you get the kudos that you deserve."
"My dear Bullen, you may argue forever, but if you think that you can transform me into a bustling, hustling fellow like yourself, I can tell you that you are mistaken. I know that I do what I have to do, and perhaps may not do it badly, but I don"t go beyond that.
"When they say "Do this," I do it; when they don"t say so, I don"t do it; and I fancy it comes to about the same thing, in the end."
"I suppose it does," Lisle laughed, as they issued from their hut.
"These poor fellows look as if they wanted a rest more than we do, don"t they?"
"They look horribly thin," Hallett said.
"Yes, it is well that the blacks have such good spirits, and are always ready to chatter and laugh when the day"s work is over--that is, if it has not been an exceptionally hard one.
"Well, though I don"t care about staying long here, myself, I do hope they will give the poor fellows time to get into condition again, before starting. I fear, however, that there is very little chance of that."
This, indeed, turned out to be the case. Two days later, reinforcements arrived from the coast, to increase the total strength available for punitive expeditions. Two strong parties then started, under Colonel Haverstock and Colonel Wilkinson. They were to travel by different routes, and to join hands in the neighbourhood of the sacred fetish lake, where large numbers of Ashantis and Kokofu were reported to have a.s.sembled. The Hausa companies did not accompany them, the columns being largely composed of the newly-arrived troops--who were, of course, eager to take their share of the fighting.
Lisle and Hallett did a little grumbling, but they really felt that they required a longer period of rest, and they could not help congratulating themselves when the columns returned, ten days after, without having exchanged more than a shot or two with the enemy.
They found that the country round the lake was thickly inhabited.
Many of the villages had been burnt and, in all cases, the sacred trees had been cut down. It was quite clear that the spirit of the enemy was greatly broken, and that the end was approaching.
"We must certainly congratulate ourselves upon having a comfortable time of it, here," Lisle said, "instead of a ten days" tramp, without any great result. We can manage to keep ourselves dry in this hut, now that our men have covered it thickly with palm leaves; whereas they have had to sleep in the open, pretty nearly every night."
"It was good for them," Hallett said; "the fellows looked altogether too spick and span, when they marched in. It is just as well that they should get a little experience of the work we have been doing, for months. I saw them, as they marched in, look with astonishment at the state of our men"s garments--or rather, I may say, their rags. They would have grown haughty, if they had not had a sample of the work; and their uniforms looked very different, when they came back, from what they were when they marched away.
There is nothing like a fortnight"s roughing it in the bush to take a man, whether white or black, a peg or two down in his own estimation.
"I was amused, the first day they arrived, when I saw their faces at the sight of their rations. It was quite a picture. Thank goodness we have had nothing to grumble about, in that way, since we got our box from the coast. Chocolate for breakfast, brandy and water at dinner, preserved meat, are quite a different thing from the stuff they manage to give us--two or three ounces of meat, about once a week. Those boxes of biscuits, too, have been invaluable. The ration biscuits were for the most part wet through, and there wasn"t a wholesome crunch in a dozen of them. We have certainly improved a lot in appearance, during the last fortnight; and I believe that it is due to the feeding, more than the rest."
"It is due, no doubt, to both," Lisle said; "but certainly the feeding has had a good deal to do with it."
"Those tins of soup," said Hallett, "have been really splendid. I believe I have gained seven or eight pounds in weight, in spite of this sweltering heat."
"You have certainly filled out a bit. I was rather thinking of asking you to hand over all the soups to me, so that you should not gain weight so fast."
"That would have been a modest request, indeed, Bullen!"
"It was a case of true friendship," Lisle laughed. "I know how you have appreciated your loss of flesh."
"You be blowed!" Hallett said. "If they would run to half a dozen tins a day, I can tell you I would take them, whatever the consequences."
"Well, really, I do think, Hallett, those few cases have saved us from fever. I felt so utterly washed out, when we arrived here, that I began to think I was in for a bad attack."
"Same here, Bullen. I fought against the feeling because I dreaded that hospital tent and, still more, being carried down country."
"Yes; we certainly did a clever thing, when we bought up everything we could, that day we were in Cape Coast. Our servants, too, have turned out most satisfactory. Poor beggars! though the weather has been so bad, there has scarcely been a night when they have not managed to make a little fire, and boil water either to mix with our tot of rum, or to make a cup of tea."
"Yes, they have turned out uncommonly well. We must certainly make them a handsome present, when this is all over. It was awfully lucky we brought up a good supply of tea with us, and condensed milk. I am certain that the hot drink, at night, did wonders in the way of keeping off fevers."
"That is so, Lisle; there is nothing that will keep the wet out, or at least prevent it from doing harm, like a cup of hot tea with the allowance of rum in it. I am sure I don"t know what we should have done, without it. That tea and milk were all that we could bring, especially as our carriers were cut down to one man, each."
"That was your idea, Lisle, and I agree that it has been the saving of us. I was rather in favour of bringing spirits, myself; but I quite admit, now, that it would have been a great mistake. Besides, half a dozen pounds of tea does not weigh more than a couple of bottles of spirits; which would have been gone in four or five days, while the tea has held out for months. I never was much of a tea drinker before. It is all very well to take a cup at an afternoon tea fight, but that was about the extent of my indulgence in the beverage. In future I shall become what is called a votary, and shall cut down my spirits to the narrowest limit."
"That would be running to the opposite extreme, Hallett. Too much tea is just as bad as too much spirits."
"Ah! Well, I can breakfast with coffee or cocoa. The next time I go on the march, I shall take two or three pounds of cocoa in my box.
Many a time I have longed for a cup, when we have started at three o"clock in the morning, and have felt that it would be well worth a guinea a cup. Now I shall have the satisfaction of always starting with a good warm drink, which is as good for hunger as thirst. I have often wondered how I could have been fool enough not to bring a supply with me."