Home > Authors Index > George Manville Fenn > Kopje Garrison: A Story of the Boer War > This page
The Kopje Garrison: A Story of the Boer War, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
||
Chapter 16. The Lost Man |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER SIXTEEN. THE LOST MAN "Yes, sir, I'm very sorry, and feel that it's a great disgrace," said Colour-Sergeant James. "Sorry!" said Captain Roby contemptuously. "It's all I can be, sir," said the sergeant sadly. "I'm not going to defend myself." "But how could you miss him when the roll was called?" "I don't know, sir. I suppose it was all due to the excitement and being fagged out with what we'd gone through in that black hole." "Black hole!" cried Roby. "You deserve the Black Hole yourself, sergeant." "Yes, sir. I thought he answered, but the poor fellow must have lost his way somehow, and have got left behind." "It's horrible," cried Roby. "I don't know what's to be done." "Go in search of the poor fellow at once. It's enough to send a man out of his mind," broke in Lennox impatiently. "I did not ask you for your opinion, Mr Lennox," said the captain coldly.--"Here, James, come with me to the colonel at once." "Yes, sir," said the sergeant, and he followed his superior. "What nonsense!" cried Dickenson. "Here, Drew, old man, let's go on up to the hole at once with half-a-dozen men and lanterns." "That's what I wanted to do," said Lennox bitterly; "but I suppose it would be going against discipline." "Going against your grandmother! Hesitate, when the poor fellow may be dying of fright? He is rather a chicken-hearted sort of a customer." "So would you be if you lost yourself in that dismal hole." "True, oh king! I should sit down in a fit of the horrors, and howl for my mother till I cried myself to sleep." "No, you wouldn't, Bob. But old Roby does make me set up my bristles sometimes. I don't know what's come to him lately." "I know what I should like to see come to him." "What?" "A good licking." "Yes, to be followed by court-martial." "Not if a Boer did it," said Dickenson, chuckling. "What are you laughing at?" "Thoughts, dear boy. Only thinking of what a lark it would be if he began bullying one of our prisoners--say Blackbeard--and the savage old Boer slipped into him with his fists. I shouldn't hurry to help him more than I could help." "Don't humbug," said Lennox. "I tell you I shouldn't. Look here, Drew, old chap, you haven't found me out yet. I'm not half such a nice young angel as you think." "Hold your row; here's James." For the sergeant came hurrying in.--"Well?" "Search party of twenty directly, gentlemen. Colonel sends word that you two are to come with us." "Right," cried Lennox excitedly. "What did the colonel say?" "'Poor fellow!' sir; and then he turned on the captain, sir." "Yes," cried Dickenson eagerly, "What did he say to him?" "Why the something or another hadn't he gone to look for Corporal May at once?" "Bravo!" said Dickenson; and Lennox, who was buckling on his sword hurriedly, felt better. "But how about you, James? Are you going to be degraded for neglect?" said Dickenson as they hurried out to join the men already assembled. "No, sir," replied the sergeant, with a broad smile spreading over his manly countenance. "The colonel heard all I had to say in defence, and he just says, 'Bad job, sergeant--accident.'--You know his short way, sir?--Then, 'Be off and get your men together; find the poor fellow as soon as you can.'" Captain Roby was just hurrying to a group of men waiting to make the start, when Sergeant James came up, carrying all the lanterns he could muster in a bunch. "Come, gentlemen," he said sharply; "make haste, please. Have you plenty of matches, sergeant?" "Yes, sir." "Fall in, my lads. Here, stop. No rifles; only your bayonets." The firearms were returned to their quarters, and a couple of minutes later the search party were on their way to the kopje. "Beg pardon, sir," said the sergeant, suddenly breaking from his place to address the captain; "wouldn't it be better to take a long rope with us?" "What for?" said Roby angrily. "For the men to hold on by in case any one should be lost? Absurd!" The sergeant was returning to his place, and Lennox and Dickenson exchanging glances, when the captain altered his mind. "Yes," he said; "on second thoughts, we may as well take a coil. Hurry back and fetch one, sergeant." The latter handed his bunch of lanterns to one of the men, and went off back to quarters at the double, while the party marched on. "Fasting doesn't do old Cantankerous any good," said Dickenson in a half-whisper. "Quiet! Quiet! He'll be hearing you and getting worse," said Lennox. "Impossible!" grunted Dickenson. "He wants a week's good feeding or a fit of illness to do him good. He's going sour all over." The sergeant did not overtake the party till they were close upon the entrance to the cave, where a sentry was pacing up and down; and now a sudden thought struck Roby. "Here, sergeant," he cried angrily as the latter hurried up, rather breathless with his exertions. "How are we to get into the place? You haven't brought a crowbar to move the stone." "No, sir. Left it hidden close by last night." "Oh!" grunted Roby, halting the men; while the sergeant handed the coil of rope to one of them, who slipped it on over head and one shoulder, to wear it like a scarf; and James went on a few yards to a crack in the side of the rocky wall, thrust in his arm, drew out the bar, and trotted back to the opening, inserted the chisel, and raised the stone about an inch, when it turned upon its pivot directly. "Wonderfully well made," said Dickenson. "One might have passed it a hundred times." "Silence in the ranks!" cried Roby sternly; and the sergeant stepped into the dark hole at once, placed his hands one on either side of his lips, and gave a tremendous hail. All listened to the shout, which went echoing through the passages and chambers of the cavern; but there was no reply, nor yet to half-a-dozen more hails. "Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated Roby. "I expected to find him waiting close to the entrance. Lanterns." The men were already inside lighting them, eight being rapidly got ready; and once more the party began to traverse the weird place, but under far more favourable circumstances, the line of golden dots formed by the lanterns giving every one a far better opportunity of judging what the place was like. At every turn in the crooked way a halt was called, and a fresh series of hails went echoing on before them; but not so much as a whisper of an answer greeted their ears. "The poor fellow must have become tired out with waiting," said Captain Roby, "and dropped off to sleep." "He sleeps pretty soundly, then," whispered Dickenson, who was in front with Lennox, following the sergeant, who carried the first lantern. "Ought to have been woke up by that last shout, though," said Lennox. "What do you say, sergeant?" "I'm afraid we shall come upon him soon regularly off his head, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "He isn't the pluckiest chap in his company." "Don't talk like that, sergeant," said Lennox sharply. "It's enough to drive any poor fellow crazy to find himself shut up in a place like this and feel that he may never be found." "Well, yes," added Dickenson, "it is; without counting all the horrors he'd conjure up about bogies and things coming after him in the dark." "I dare say, sir," said the sergeant; "though I don't suppose there's anything worse here than bats." "Halt! Now, all together," cried the captain from behind, and another series of shouts were given. There was no response, and the party went spreading out and examining every nook as they passed through the echoing chambers, but found nothing. "Is it likely that he did come out with us?" said Lennox as they neared the second well-like opening over the rushing water. "Can't say, sir," said the sergeant. "The last I saw of him was when we were down in the lowest place, advancing to meet the second prisoner. I just had a squint of his face then by the lantern, and it looked like tallow." "Effect of the light," said Dickenson. "No, sir. It was the getting down that tree and hearing the water." "That's it, sergeant," said the nearest man behind. "I never thought of it till you said that." "Thought of what?" said the sergeant roughly. "'Bout what Corporal May said to me." "What was it?" "That it was enough to scare any one getting down such a ladder as that, and if he'd known, he'd have seen the service anywhere before he'd have come." "Yes, he looked regularly scared, gentlemen," said the sergeant; and then he stopped short, swinging his lantern over the hole before him and showing the top of the tree ladder, while the gurgling, echoing whisper of the running water seemed to fill the air with strange sounds. But these were drowned directly by a fresh burst of hails, which went echoing away. "Forward!" said the captain at last. "Steady in front, there. Be careful how you go down, men." "Don't be alarmed, dear Roby," whispered Dickenson. "Just as if we shouldn't be careful of our invaluable necks." There was plenty of light now, for Lennox carried a lantern on going down after the sergeant, who had gone first, and stood at the bottom holding up his own, while four more were held over the yawning pit from the top. The men, too, were in better trim for the descent, knowing as they did the worst of what they had to encounter, so that they went down pluckily enough, in spite of the tree quivering and threatening to turn round, till it was held more steadily at both ends. Then, as all crowded into the archway and hailed once more, their shouts seemed to return to them faintly from the arrow-shaped hollow, which from being broad at first went off nearly to a point, and more weirdly still from the continuation of the pit where the water ran. "I'm beginning to be afraid he is not here," said the captain. "Open out, my lads, and thoroughly search every hollow and corner." The men shouted again, with no result; and then they spread out like a fan and advanced, searching behind every stone, right on past the spot where the second Boer had been captured, and on once more till the cavern narrowed in and there was only room to creep. "Hold the light closer, sergeant," said Lennox. "See anything?" cried Roby from just behind him. "Can't tell yet, sir.--What's that, sergeant?" For answer the sergeant went down on his hands and knees and advanced, pushing his lantern before him. "There, you needn't do that," said Roby impatiently. "The man's not here. It's a false alarm. He wasn't left behind, and we shall find him somewhere, when we get back to quarters. Come out, sergeant. I'm sick of this." "But there's something here, sir." "Eh? What is it?" The sergeant thrust something behind him, and Lennox went down on hands and knees, reached into the narrow hole, which the sergeant nearly filled, and snatched the object from the man's hand. "His helmet!" cried Lennox excitedly, and he too passed it back to where Roby and Dickenson were, and they examined the recovered headpiece. "Oh, there's no doubt about it," said Dickenson. "Look here," he cried as Lennox and the sergeant came back; "what do you make of this?" "Oh! it's the poor fellow's helmet, gentlemen," said the sergeant. "Look at his number, sir." "Then where is he? Is there any opening in yonder?" "Not room for a rat, sir. Seems as if he must have been left behind and felt his way in there to sleep. Look here, sir; I found these too." The speaker held out a short black pipe with a little blackened, lately-smoked tobacco at the bottom, and a tin box containing plenty of matches. "Why, he had all these and never said a word when I was so hard pushed," cried Dickenson. "I expect he was in too much of a stoo to remember them, sir," said the sergeant. "He must have been precious queer, or he wouldn't have left these and his helmet behind." "He was nearly off his chump, sergeant, with having to come down," said the man with the short memory. "Then he has been here!" cried Captain Roby. "But where is he now?" As if moved by one impulse, every one present turned sharply round to look in the direction of the archway beyond which the sloping continuation of the entrance-pit went on down to the running water. No one spoke, but all thought horrors; and Lennox acted, for, snatching a lantern from the nearest bearer, he ran as fast as the rugged floor would let him, back to the archway, took hold of the tree-trunk, and leaned over the horrible hole, swinging the light downward, while those who watched him, looking weird and strange in the distance, heard him shout loudly, and listened to hear, very faintly rising from far below, a faintly uttered, hollow moan. _ |
||