Blue Lights: Hot Work in the Soudan

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  IN ACTION AT LAST.

  No time was lost in sending the newly-arrived troops to their sphere ofduty.

  There was something appropriate in their landing on that day ofgunpowdery memories, the 5th of November. It was four o'clock when theydisembarked. By four-thirty they were drawn up and inspected by theGeneral, and immediately thereafter marched off in detachments to theirrespective stations--to Sphinx Redoubt, Fort Commodore, Bulimba, andother points of defence.

  The detachment in which Miles Milton found himself was led by CaptainLacey to Sphinx Redoubt, where he was greatly pleased to find that hisnew friend, private Stevenson of the marines, was also stationed withsome of his comrades.

  There are probably times in the experiences of most of us when we seemto awake out of a long dream and begin to appreciate fully that thecircumstances in which we are placed are stern realities after all.Such a time of awakening came to our hero when he and his comrades eachreceived fifty rounds of ball-cartridge, and stood ready to repelassault on the defences of Suakim.

  Hitherto drill and reviews had seemed to him a good deal like playing atsoldiers. Even when the distant sound of the big guns and the rattle ofsmall arms touched his ear, the slumber of unbelief was only broken--notquite dispelled. But now, weighted with the deadly missiles, with riflein hand, with ears alert to every sound, and eyes open to every objectthat might present itself on the sandy waste beyond the redoubt, and ageneral feeling of expectancy pervading his thoughts and feelings, hebecame clearly convinced that the recent past was no flight of theimagination--that he was in very truth a soldier, and that his fightingcareer had in reality begun!

  Now, it may not be out of place here to state that our hero was not bynature a combative man. We think it necessary to point this out,because the somewhat pugnacious introduction of Miles into our story mayhave misled the reader on this point. His desire for a soldier's lifewas founded on a notion that it would prove to be a roving, jovial,hilarious sort of life, with plenty of sport and adventure in foreignlands. Of course he knew that it implied fighting also, and he wasquite ready for that when it should be required of him; but it did notoccur to him to reflect very profoundly that soldiering also meant, insome instances, exposure to withering heat during the day and stiflingheat during the night; to thirst that seems unquenchable, and fatiguefrom prolonged duty that seems irreparable; to fits of sickness thatappear to eliminate from stalwart frames all the strength they had everpossessed; and fits of the "blues" that render the termination of life asubject of rather pleasant contemplation than otherwise. But all thesethings he found out at Suakim!

  Moreover, it had not occurred to him to think deeply on the fact thatfighting meant rushing at a fellow-man whose acquaintance he had notmade before; against whom he had not the slightest feeling of ill-will,and skewering him with a bayonet, or sending a bullet into him whichwould terminate his career in mid-life, and leave a wife and children--perhaps a mother also--disconsolate. But he also found that out atSuakim!

  We repeat that Miles had no desire to fight, though, of course, he hadno objection. When the officer in command sent him and his comrades totheir station--after the ball-cartridge supply just referred to--andtold them to keep a sharp look-out, for Osman Digna was giving them agreat deal of trouble at the time, and pointed out where they were to goif attacked, and warned them to be ready to turn out on the instant thatthe bugle should sound the alarm, Miles was as full of energy anddetermination to fight and die for his country as the best of hiscomrades, though he did not express so strong a wish for a "brush withthe enemy," as some of them did, or sympathise much with Corporal Flynnwhen he said--

  "It's wishin' I am that Osman an' his dirty naygurs would come down onus this night, for we're fresh an' hearty, just off the say, burnin' forfame an' glory, ivery mother's son of us, an' fit to cut the blackbastes up into mince-meat. Och! but it's thirsty I am!"

  "If ye spoke less an' thocht mair ye wadna be sae dry, maybe," remarkedSaunders, in a cynical tone.

  "Hoots, man, let the cratur alane," said Macleod, as he busied himselfpolishing up some dim parts of his rifle. "It's no muckle pleesurewe're like to hae in this het place. Let the puir thing enjoy hisboastin' while he may."

  "Sure an' we're not widout consolation anyhow," retorted the corporal;"for as long as we've got you, Mac, and your countryman, to cheer us widyour wise an' lively talk we'll niver die o' the blues."

  As he spoke a tremendous explosion not far off caused the redoubt totremble to its foundations. At the same moment the alarm sounded, themen sprang up, seized their arms, and stood ready for an attack; but totheir surprise no attack was made.

  "Surely it must have been one of the mines you were telling me about,"said Miles, in a low voice to Sergeant Gilroy, who stood near to him.

  "It was one of them unquestionably, for a corporal of the Berkshireregiment told me Lieutenant Young placed the mine there yesterday."

  While Gilroy was speaking, Lieutenant Young himself came along, engagedin earnest conversation with Captain Lacey, and stood still close besideMiles.

  "What puzzles me, is that they have not followed it up with a fewvolleys, according to their usual custom," said the former, in a lowvoice. "Luckily they seldom do any harm, for they are uncommonly badshots, but they generally try their best to do us mischief, and alwaysmake a good deal of noise about it."

  "Perhaps," suggested Captain Lacey, "your mine has done so muchexecution this time, and killed so many men, that they've got a frightand run away."

  "It may be so, but I think not. The Soudanese are not easilyfrightened, as we have some cause to know."

  "Have you many mines about?" asked the captain.

  "Yes, we have a good many. And they form a most important part of ourdefence, for we are not very well supplied with men, and the Egyptiantroops are not to be depended on unless backed up by ours. These minesrequire to be carefully handled, however, for our shepherds take thecattle out to graze every day, so that if I were to fail to disconnectany of them in the mornings, we should have some of our cattle blown up;and if I failed to connect them again at night, the enemy would attackus more vigorously. As it is, they are very nervous about the mines.They have pluck to face any foe that they can see, but the idea of anunseen foe, who lurks underground anywhere, and may suddenly send theminto the sky like rockets, daunts them a bit."

  "And little wonder!" returned the captain. "From what you say I judgethat you have the management of most of the mines."

  "Of all of them," answered the lieutenant, with a modest look.

  There was more than modesty in this young officer of Engineers; therewas heroism also. He might have added, (though he did not), that thisduty of connecting and disconnecting the mines each night and morningwas such a dangerous service that he declined to take men out with him,and invariably did the work personally and alone.

  The mystery of the explosion on the night we write of was explained nextmorning when a party sallied forth to see what damage had been done.They found, instead of dismembered men, the remnants of a poor littlehare which had strayed across the fatal line of danger and been blown toatoms. Thus do the lives of the innocent too often fall a sacrifice tothe misdeeds of the guilty!

  Next night, however, the defenders were roused by a real attack.

  The day had been one of the most trying that the new arrivals had yetexperienced. The seasoned men, who had been formed by Nature,apparently, of indestructible material, said it was awful. Thethermometer stood at above 110 degrees in the shade; there was not abreath of air moving; the men were panting, almost choking. Even thenegroes groaned, and, drawing brackish water from a well in the fort,poured it over their heads and bodies--but with little benefit, for thewater itself was between 95 and 100 degrees!

  "It'll try some o' the new-comers to-night, if I'm not mistaken,"remarked one of the indestructible men above referred to, as he rosefrom dinner and proceeded to fill his pipe.

&
nbsp; "Why d'you think so?" asked Sergeant Hardy, whose name was appropriate,for he continued for a long time to be one of the indestructibles.

  "'Cause it's always like this when we're goin' to have a horriblenight."

  "Do the nights vary much?" asked Armstrong, who was still busy with hisknife and fork.

  "Of course they do," returned the man. "Sometimes you have it quitechilly after a hot day. Other times you have it suffocatin'--like theBlack Hole of Calcutta--as it'll be to-night."

  "What sort o' hole was that?" asked Simkin, whose knowledge of historywas not extensive.

  "It was a small room or prison into which they stuffed a lot of our menonce, in India, in awful hot weather, an' kep' them there waitin' tillthe Great Mogul, or some chap o' that sort, should say what was to bedone wi' them. But his Majesty was asleep at the time, an' it was asmuch as their lives was worth to waken him. So they had to wait, an'afore he awakened out o' that sleep most o' the men was dead--suffocatedfor want o' fresh air."

  "I say, Mac, pass the water," said Moses Pyne. "It makes a feller feelquite gaspy to think of."

  The weather-prophet proved to be right. That night no one could sleep awink, except the big Scotsman Macleod. To make matters worse, theinsects of the place were unusually active. One of them especially, notmuch bigger than a pin-point, was irritating out of all proportion toits size, and it kept up, during the night, the warfare which theinnumerable flies had waged during the day.

  "It's no use trying to sleep, Willie," said Miles to Armstrong, who wasnext to him, as they lay on the flat roof of the redoubt, with theirrifles resting on the sandbags which formed a slight protection from theenemy's fire when one of the frequent attacks was made on the town.

  "So I find," returned his friend. "I have tried everything. Countingup to hundreds of thousands has made me rather more wakeful. I findthat thinking of Emmy does me most good, but even that won't producesleep."

  "Strange!" remarked Miles. "I have been trying the same sort of thing--without success. And I've had an unusually hard day of it, so that Iought to be ready for sleep. You were in luck, being on police-duty."

  "H'm! I don't think much of my luck. But let's hear what you have beenup to all day."

  "Well, first, I began by turning out at 5:30 a.m.," said Miles, rollingwith a sigh on his other side, for a uniform, cross-belts, boots,ammunition, etcetera, don't, after all, form an easy night-dress."After a cup of coffee I fell in with a lot of our fellows, and was toldoff for fatigue-duty. Worked away till 7:30. Then breakfast. Afterthat I had to clear up the mess; then got ready for inspection parade at9:30, after which I had to scrub belts, and clean up generally. Dinnerover, I was warned to go on night-guard; but, for some reason which wasnot stated to me, that was changed, and I'm not sorry for it, becausethe heat has taken a good deal out of me, and I prefer lying here besideyou, Willie, to standing sentry, blinking at the desert, and fancyingevery bush and stone to be a dusky skirmisher of Osman Digna. By theway, if that mountain range where the enemy lies is twelve or fourteenmiles distant from the town, they have a long way to come when they takea fancy to attack us--which is pretty often too. They say he has gottwo hundred thousand men with him. D'you think that can be true?"

  A gentle trumpet-note from his friend's nose told Miles that he hadbrought about what thoughts of Emmy had failed to accomplish!

  Thoughts of Marion had very nearly brought himself to a similarcondition, when a trumpet-blast, the reverse of gentle, roused the wholeline of defence, and, immediately after, sharp firing was heard in thedirection of the right Water fort, which was manned by marines with twoKrupp guns and a Gardner. A few rounds from the big guns drove theenemy back in that direction.

  Miles and those around him, however, had not to turn out. Owing totheir position on the roof of the Sphinx Redoubt, they had only to rollon their fronts, rest their rifles on the sandbags, and they were atonce ready for action.

  Round the various forts and redoubts deep and broad trenches had beendug, and they were rendered otherwise as strong as possible. The rightand left Water forts formed the first line of defence. The latter fort,being manned by Egyptian troops, was more frequently favoured with theattentions of Osman than the others, for the marines were splendid men,and the native chief was well aware of that. All the places around,which offered the slightest shelter to the enemy, had been carefullymeasured as to distance, so that the exact range could be fixed at amoment's notice. Then the war-vessels and one of the forts werefurnished with electric lights, so that, by bringing these to bear onthe foe, as well as the big and little guns--not to mention mines andrifles--the attacking host had always a warm reception when they paid avisit to the town, and never stayed long!

  The defenders required all these aids, however; for, besides a regimentof Egyptian infantry, a company of Royal Engineers, and about 500marines, there was only one small battalion of British troops and aregiment of Egyptian cavalry. These last were extremely useful. Everyday they went out scouting and clearing around Suakim, and had frequentskirmishes with the enemy, in all of which they were said to havebehaved very well indeed.

  Our party on the redoubt had not lain there long when a sheet of flameseemed to flash out of the darkness in front of them. It was followedby the rattle of small arms. Instantly the redoubt replied; bulletswhizzed overhead, and our hero received what has of late been called a"baptism of fire."

  But he was so busy plying his own weapon that he scarcely realised thefact that death was ever and anon within a few inches of him, until abullet ripped the sandbag on which his rifle rested and drove the sandinto his face. He became a wiser man from that hour, and soon acquiredthe art of performing his duty with the least possible exposure of hisperson, and that for the briefest possible space of time!

  Like a first-rate detective, the electric light sought out and exposedtheir foes; then withering volleys sent them scurrying across thecountry back to their native hills.

  "Sure it's wid wan eye open we've got to slape whin the murtherin'rascals come down on us like that," observed Corporal Flynn, when thefiring had slackened to a few dropping shots on both sides.

  "Av they'd only stand fornint us in the open, it's short work we'd makeo' them. There's no more pluck in them than in my smallest finger."

  It seemed as if righteous retribution were being meted out that night,for a spent ball entered the fort at that moment and, strange to say,hit the extreme tip of the corporal's little finger!

  A howl, as much of surprise as pain, apprised his comrades of the fact,and a hearty laugh followed when the trifling extent of the injury wasascertained.

  "Serves you right, Flynn, for boasting," said Armstrong, with a grimsmile, as he stretched himself out and rested his head on a sandbag."Moreover, you are unjust, for these black fellows are as brave a lot o'men as British troops have ever had to face. Good-night, boys, I'm offto the land of Nod!"