by Lewis Hough
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
A SEARCH.
"May I go back to look for Strachan, sir, if you please?"
"Yes, Green," replied the colonel, "but take a file of men with you. Ithink there are none of these fellows left about, but some of thewounded may prove dangerous. Where did you last see him?"
"In the _melee_, sir, when the square was forced to retire. He was allright then."
"And did no one see him after that?"
"No one that I can hear of, sir."
"Ah, poor lad! Well, we must hope he will turn up alive. A goodofficer."
"Well, has the colonel given you leave to go?" asked Fitzgerald. "Iknew he would, but Stacy did not care to take the responsibility, forfear anything should happen to you. You had better take a file of menof my company; they knew him best. I wish I could go, but I have toomuch to do. Of course, you will take a stretcher from the ambulance; itwill be probably useful for some other fellow, if not for poor Tom."
Directly Green had turned from Fitzgerald, a sergeant brought a man upto him.
"James Gubbins wishes to speak to you, sir," he said, saluting.
"I beg your pardon, sir," said Gubbins when called upon to unfold hiswishes, "but I heerd say as you was a-going back over them hills to lookfor Mr Strachan, sir."
"Yes, Gubbins, what then?" asked Green.
"Well, sir, might I ask to go too? He was very kind to me, and I was inhis ker--ker--company, sir;" and the man's voice faltered.
"Yes, Gubbins," replied Green, who appreciated perhaps more than othersthe sentiment which animated the poor fellow, for he himself had been abit of a butt at first, and had been very grateful for Tom Strachan'sfriendship. "I am to take two men of Captain Fitzgerald's company, andyou shall be one of them."
"Thank you kindly, sir."
"And pick another to go with him, will you, sergeant? A fellow with hiswits about him, you know."
He did not add "to make up for poor Gubbins's deficiency in thatrespect," but that was what he meant, and so the sergeant understoodhim.
"Let me see," he said, on rejoining his company; "his servant would bethe best man. Dodd! Has any one seen Dodd?"
"He was killed, sergeant, just when the gun was taken."
"Ah, yes, so he was. Who to send? No, Sims, my lad; it would not do tohave both idiots."
"I saw Mr Strachan last, from all I can make out," said another man;"send me, sergeant."
"Ah, yes, Davis, you will do. Where was it though?"
"It was in the nullah, sergeant. One of the Johnnies got past mybayonet, and tried to wrestle, but I got my rifle at the port, andpushed it forward into his face, damaging the sights a little andknocking him down. And at that moment another of them jumped on myshoulders from a rock above, sending me sprawling on top of the chap Ihad just floored. I wriggled round and saw t'other with his spear up acouple of feet over my neck, when he tumbled over, and there was MrStrachan, with his sword well into the Johnny's stomach. I jumped up,and had no time to thank him, or see where he went. We was too busy."
"All right, you go at once with Gubbins to Mr Green; he is speaking tothe major, yonder. And hark! both of you. If you see an Arab lyinglike dead, with a weapon of any sort in his hand, run your bayonetthrough him first, and ask him if he is alive afterwards, for we havelost too many men as it is, and the duties will come heavy. Right-aboutturn; quick march!"
"Well, good luck go with you," Major Elmfoot was saying, as Greenstarted. "But I fear that he must be dead, or the ambulance would havefound him and brought him in."
"I wish they would not talk like that," thought Green, as he went off,followed by his two men. "Everybody speaks of poor Tom in the pasttense, from the colonel to Gubbins. I won't believe that he is deadtill I see it; as for the ambulance, they have had plenty of work, andmight easily miss him, if he is senseless, and unable to call out."
He went round to the Field Hospital, where the surgeons were busy atwork, and applied for a stretcher. But he was told it was unnecessaryto take one, there were several about the fatal spot where the hardfighting had taken place, and two others which had just brought in theirblood-stained burdens were going back presently.
So the three went on their way unencumbered.
It was perfectly calm and still; the sun was getting low in the west,but its rays, though not so scorching as at mid-day, were sickening, andproductive of extreme lassitude. On the first low range of hills theycrossed the bodies were not numerous, and down in the valley at the footof them they only came upon one group. A knot of Arabs retreating totheir last position had evidently been overtaken by a shell bursting intheir midst, and their fearfully mangled bodies showed what modernscience can effect when applied in earnest to the work of war. On thenext ridge the Soudanese dead lay thicker; lying dotted about singlywhere the Martini-Henry bullets had stopped them, or strewed in rowslike the corn sheaves where the reaping machine has passed, as theGatling guns, sweeping slowly from right to left, and pouring missileswith the regularity and continuous stream of a fire-engine, had mowedtheir ranks.
"I say, Gubbins," said Davis, "we fought fairly well to-day I reckon;but do you think we should have stood against such a fire as that?"
"Well, I don't know," replied Gubbins. "If there had been any covernear I, for one, should have felt uncommon inclined to make for it. Ican't abide them shells and machine-guns."
"No, it seems like fighting against lightning and thunderbolts, don'tit?" said Davis.
But as this was an idea which required some cogitation and digestingbefore it could become assimilated in the Gubbins' mind, it remainedwithout reply.
As they approached the edge of the nullah the harvest of Soudanese laythicker and thicker, and when they got down into the dry bed of thewatercourse, they had to pick their way in places to avoid treading onthe corpses.
And here, for the first time, English dead lay intermingled with theArab. There was peace between them now.
"Look carefully here," said Green, turning over a kharkee-clad bodywhich lay on its face as he spoke: it was not his friend.
"Ah, would yer!" cried Davis, presently; and there was a gasp and a cry,which might be rage or pain, as he thrust his bayonet into an Arab who,though his legs were shattered, made a cut at him with his sword as hepassed. And Davis was as tender-hearted a man as ever stepped; likedplaying with children; petted dogs, cats, and birds; and would risk hisown life to save that of another, though a perfect stranger. He hadproved it, and had the right to wear the medal of the Royal HumaneSociety on his right breast. But circumstances are too strong for allof us.
The search was long and ineffective.
"You are certain it was in the nullah that Mr Strachan killed the Arabwho was on the top of you?" Green asked Davis.
"Certain, sir; and that rock I showed you was the one the Johnny jumpedoff, I am pretty sure; though there's such a many of them, and they areso like, I wouldn't swear."
"And you had not leisure to look very particularly. But still, thoughyou saw him here, he may have gone back for some of his men, for indodging the enemy round stones and bushes they got scattered a bit. Wehad better go over the ground where we were so hard at it."
So they clambered up the further bank of the nullah, and stood again onthe ground over which they had advanced, been driven back, and advancedagain in the morning. Here the Soudanese lay in hundreds, piled up inplaces in heaps, three or even four deep, one on the top of another.And here too the English dead were terribly thick. But the ambulancehad been at work for some hours, and all who had life in them wereremoved, while many of the dead had been withdrawn from the mingledheaps, and laid decently side by side, and apart.
Green saw that this acre of the Aceldama had been, or was being,thoroughly explored, and he returned to the nullah, where the threecontinued their search, examining now the outlying crevices and bushes,where individual men, stricken to death, had crawled away; or thepursuing English, observing skulking foes, had
spread to clear them out,and prevent being fired upon from the rear after they had passed; andsearching in this manner they got separated.
Where could poor Tom Strachan have got to? The sun was sinking fast,there would not be much more daylight, and if he were not found soon hemight be left without help all night. For Green would not think of himas dead, and no more for that matter did Gubbins, though Davis had givenup all hope long ago. But he did not say so.
Walking up the nullah a bit to the right, Green came to the foot of ahuge mass of black rock about twelve feet high, and he thought that fromthe top of that he might get a more extended view of the bed of thenullah, and perhaps discern some hollow which had not yet been explored.The climbing was not difficult, and he soon sprang up. There weresmaller boulders on the little plateau, and a mimosa bush, and anEnglish officer lying on his back, with his arms extended, and his swordattached to his right wrist.
Green ran to his side; it was the object of his search--Tom Strachan.
"Dead!" he cried. "Poor old Tom; dead after all!"
He knelt down and took his left arm up in order to get nearer to hisbody, to feel if there was warmth in it.
The arm was limp, not stiff; the fingers had been cut by some sharpweapon, and when stirred, blood dropped from them. These signs gaveGreen fresh hope, and loosening the kharkee, he thrust his hand into hisbreast. Certainly there was warmth!
He raised the body a little, propping the shoulders against a stone, andtaking out a flask he had brought for the purpose, he poured a littlebrandy into the mouth. It was swallowed. He gave him more, andpresently he moved his lips and eyelids.
His first fear over, Green examined him more closely, and found that hisclothes were saturated with blood from a broad wound, no doubt a spear-thrust, in the right side. Surgeons were not far, and immediateassistance might be everything, so he rose and went to the edge of therock to call Davis or Gubbins, who must be within reach of his voice.
Shouting their names, he passed close to the mimosa bush, from the coverof which a man, with tangled locks and glaring eyes, and naked, but fora waist-cloth, sprang out upon him like a wild cat.
He had lost or broken his weapons, but he clasped the young officer inhis arms, and bore him to the ground, and then, searching for his throatwith his hands, sought to throttle him, while Green, keeping his chindown to his chest, and dragging at his hands, strove to prevent hisdesign.
The movement was so sudden that he never suspected the Arab's presencetill he was on him. The savage wrenched his left arm free; Green uponthis got his right-hand down, and managed to clutch his revolver; andjust as his enemy's fingers forced their way under his chin to histhroat, he put the muzzle to his head and pulled the trigger.
His helmet having fallen off in the struggle, his own hair was singed bythe explosion, but he was free; the Arab rolled away from him, his headshattered--a gruesome spectacle.
Just as Green got to his feet again, his two men appeared on the rock.They had heard him call, and the voice had guided them in thatdirection; and while they were hesitating the pistol-shot told themexactly where their officer was.
"He is up here, and alive," said Green. "Run, one of you--you, Davis--to the place where we saw the doctors and stretchers, and tell them.Take good note of this spot, that you may not miss it. But I don'tthink they are a thousand yards off."
"I shall know it, sir," said Davis, and he disappeared over the side ofthe rock.
Green was now once more by Strachan's side, and with Gubbins' help gothim into a more comfortable position. The spear-head which had woundedhim, with a couple of feet of the shaft, lay close by, as if he hadpulled it out before losing consciousness. The rest of the shaft alsolay near, half cut through, half broken, close to the edge of the rock,and underneath that spot, at the foot of the crag, was the body of anArab--head amongst the large stones, feet and legs uppermost--resting onthe steep side.
Probably it was the man who had speared Strachan, his weapon, previouslyhacked nearly through, breaking with the thrust. And one of thesoldiers storming the rock had shot him as he was making off. As forthe disarmed man who had attacked Green, he had probably taken refuge upthere after the tide of battle had swept past, intending to escape atnightfall, but the sight of a foe so close was too tempting for hisprudence.
All this, however, is only conjecture; the certain fact was that poorTom Strachan had a wide wound in the side, and that Green dared not movehim much, because it made the life-stream well out afresh. There wasnothing for it but to wait till medical aid arrived.
It is surprising what trivial ideas and memories, such as tags of oldsongs, or anecdotes more or less appropriate to the occasion, will runin our heads when we are anxious about anything, and are forced toremain in inactivity. All the time certain lines of Sir Walter Scottwould worry Green, as he knelt there by his friend:
"That spear wound has our master sped; And see the deep cut on his head. Good-night to Marmion."
Over and over and over again rang the lines, till Strachan himselfdissipated them by moving his hand and murmuring. It was evident thatwhat he wanted was water, and so Green put his gourd to his mouth, andafter a refreshing draught, consciousness returned to the wounded man'seyes.
Then Green gently disengaged the sword-knot from his wrist, and,unbuckling his belt, returned the weapon to its scabbard, not withouthaving to wipe it first.
Strachan made a movement of his hand again towards it, evidently knowingthat something was taken from him. But Green showed him the sword, andsaid, "It is all right, I am only wiping it for you;" and the other wasplacid again immediately, and closed his eyes.
It was not long before the surgeon came, and they got Strachan's kharkeejacket off, and bandaged him up.
"He has lost a lot of blood," said the surgeon, "and that is why hefainted, probably."
"Will it kill him?"
"Not necessarily at all. It is a nice clean wound, and all depends uponhow far it has penetrated. Of course, a man cannot have a sharpinstrument thrust into his body without some danger to the vital organs.The pressing matter, however, is how to lower him from this. I havegot a stretcher at the bottom all right, but the sides of this rock arepretty steep for a badly wounded man to get down."
"Yes," said Green.
"But I have examined carefully all round it, and this is the bestplace."
And he indicated a corner where there were ledges which formed steps;and here they carried Tom Strachan, and lowered him as gently andcarefully as might be.
They could not avoid a jolt or two, which elicited a moan; but it wasnot far to the bottom, and there was the stretcher. Just as they hadmanaged to get him settled the sun sank, and it was amidst the usualdisplay of orange, crimson, and purple fireworks that they picked theirway amongst the corpses which strewed the nullah. It was another job tocarry their burden up the steep sides of this, but they managed itbefore darkness settled down on the battle-field.
At the other side, however, they were soon forced to halt, and wait forthe rising of the moon. She was up, but had not appeared over the hillsyet, and the ground where they were was in such deep shadow that thebearers could not go a dozen yards without stumbling either over a deadbody or the inequalities of the surface. It was a weird thing to waitthere in the gloom in the midst of those who had been so full of lifeand vigour in the morning, and were now as motionless, senseless, as theboulders amongst which they were scattered.
While waiting thus, they fancied they saw several dark figures glidingby them, and Green held his revolver ready, thinking that live Arabswere still prowling around, or taking advantage of the darkness toescape from the nooks where they had lain concealed. Presently,however, the moon topped the higher ground, and he saw one of thesemoving forms more distinctly, and perceived that it was a four-footedanimal, not a biped. Probably they were beasts of prey stealing to thescene of carnage. It takes a good deal of the gilt off glory that thefoulest beasts and birds should fake heroes for
carrion. And yet, afterall, this is a superficial way of looking at it, for it is the qualitiesof the mind--courage, endurance, patriotism, loyalty, fidelity tocomrades--which make the hero, and the soul is beyond the reach ofvulture or jackal. As for the mere body without it, it is of no morevalue than an empty champagne bottle. When there was light enough theywent on again, and in due time reached the ambulance. And Green, havingseen his friend made as comfortable as was possible under thecircumstances, returned to the bivouac of the regiment, where everybodywas glad to hear that Tom Strachan was found alive, and that there was agood chance for him, for his good humour and high spirits had made him ageneral favourite.
"Do you know, Green, you have done a very fine thing?" said the colonel."If you had not found Strachan this evening he would have been dead inall probability before morning. And you found him very cleverly."
And Green felt as good all over at this praise as if he had beenmentioned in despatches.
The battle of Tamai was the end of the campaign. Some folk said thetroops should have taken advantage of the rout and dispersion of OsmanDigna's tribes to march across to Berber on the Nile, and then Khartoumwould have been relieved without any further fuss. Other people, whohad equally good means of judging, scorned this idea, and were certainthat had such a thing been attempted every man of the expedition wouldhave perished.
If the latter people were right, the authorities acted wisely; if theformer had reason on their side, they acted foolishly. But as to whichis which, it would be very rash for any one who does not know all theins and outs, and has not the evidence which influenced those who had todecide, before him, to give an opinion. Anyhow, the expedition returnedto Suakim, and the majority of the troops sailed away for differentplaces. And Osman Digna had time to gather fresh fanatics together, andthe Soudanese recovered from the shock to their superstition andconviction of invincibility which the hecatombs of slaughter had giventhem, and were soon ready to fight again.
And Tom Strachan was not so very badly hurt, but was soon able to betaken home to England to be nursed, and rejoined his regiment in sixmonths.
